The Seraphim Sequence

Chapter 4-2

The flight to Australia was mostly uneventful. Nasira, Jay and Damien had booked separate tickets under their false identities using matching false credit cards. On the plane, Damien kept to himself and read a magazine he’d purchased at the airport. His only luggage was a carry-on messenger bag; it contained everything he needed, sans pistol. Airport security wasn’t a fan of those so he’d left it behind. Jay, carrying a daypack, had done the same. As far as Damien could tell, Nasira was also unarmed.

The Akhana base was located in Williamstown, southwest of Melbourne, embedded in what appeared to be a maritime shipping yard. Nasira led them past a row of forklifts and into a subterranean parking lot.

‘Your passes,’ a wafer-thin man said, handing Damien a laminated guest pass on a lanyard. ‘You can report to the weapons assembly area.’

It looked as though Nasira hadn’t heard him, but after a moment she nodded.

Damien dutifully hung his pass around his neck. Jay kept his in his hand.

‘Around your neck, please,’ the man said. ‘Where we can see it.’

‘I’m good,’ Jay said.

They followed Nasira to a freight elevator.

‘Put your pass around your neck,’ she said to Jay. ‘That’s the point of giving you a guest pass. So people can see you’re a guest.’

‘Invited or uninvited?’ Jay said.

The elevator arrived, a little less smoothly than Damien would’ve liked. Nasira wrenched the gate open and the trio stepped inside.

‘On the surface, we’re a defense contractor,’ she said. ‘Beneath, we maintain the Akhana’s concealed array of helicopters, submarines and a few other … gadgets.’ She closed the gate and hit a button. ‘The helos are painted police and military, which sometimes comes in handy.’

‘And the Fifth Column don’t know you’re here?’ Jay said.

‘Sometimes the best place to hide is in plain sight. This joint has been building battle class destroyers for nearly a century. Underneath used to be a classified naval submarine base. These days we use it to do some weapons research of our own.’

Damien already felt on edge and they hadn’t even reached the actual base yet. He wasn’t sure what to expect when they met Sophia.

‘If they find you, you’re toast,’ he said.

‘If they find us anywhere, we’re toast,’ Nasira said.

The elevator lurched to a halt. Nasira opened the gate to reveal a white-walled tunnel. At the end he could see a curved blast door, striped yellow and black. They approached the door and it parted in two. Damien could see each side of the door was as thick as his arm span from hand to hand.

He and Jay slipped into single file as they followed Nasira inside. The doors closed slowly behind them. An uneasy feeling settled inside Damien. He didn’t like being sealed in anywhere, even a Shadow Akhana base. On his right he could see what looked like an air conditioning or ventilation plant. They passed through another set of blast doors.

‘How many people here?’ Jay asked.

‘Hundred and fifty,’ Nasira said. ‘Not counting the forty-eight guards.’

‘That's a lot of guards,’ Damien said.

On his left he noticed a small blast-protected, dome-shaped room.

She must have caught him looking because she said, ‘It houses the charges. In case we need to blow this place.’

‘That’s reassuring,’ Jay said.

They passed through a third set of blast doors and found themselves at a crossroads. There were storage bays on the left, and a narrow-gauge tramway in the center with a turntable and a small flatbed truck on it. Sealed crates filled the truck.

‘Are they for me?’ Jay said.

Nasira walked past the truck. ‘Don’t touch.’

Damien followed her. On the right he spotted more personnel – civilian – down the tunnel.

‘What’s down there?’ he asked.

‘Hospital, mess hall, recreation, living quarters.’ Nasira’s voice bounced off the tunnel’s curved surface.

Caged bulbs lit the tunnel with pockets of warm light. They reached what must have been the weapons assembly area, although it lacked its most defining feature: weapons.

‘This was used to assemble nuclear warheads,’ Nasira said. ‘Now we use it for debriefs. And football.’

She scooped up an oddly shaped football, oval, and tossed it to Jay. He caught it in his stomach.

‘Your balls are shaped weird,’ Jay said, inspecting the football. ‘Wait, that came out wrong.’

Nasira pretended not to hear him and led them into an empty debriefing room. So far they’d walked past only two members of the Akhana and neither had even glanced at them. Which Damien actually preferred.

Inside the room stood a guy with a sword stuck to his back, arms folded over a broad chest. A vein ran the length of his coal-black neck. He didn’t look happy. Beside him, Benito. They were both on the other side of a round table, backs against the wall. Benito looked well, fit, but troubled.

‘You have a problem,’ the man said to Nasira. ‘Who are they—new recruits?’

Jay bounced his football. It sprang left and crashed onto a table, sending folders sprawling.

‘Old recruits,’ Jay said.

Damien decided to cover Jay’s first impression by stepping forward and offering his hand. ‘I’m Damien.’

The man looked at him curiously but said nothing.

Benito shook Damien’s hand. ‘Good to see you again. Would’ve preferred better circumstances though.’

Nasira had her hands on her hips. ‘What’s Sophia done this time? Oh yeah, DC, this is Damien and Jay. Damien, Jay, this is DC. Blah blah blah.’

DC unfolded his arms. ‘The Council have placed Sophia in solitary confinement.’

‘She didn’t kill anyone, did she?’ Nasira said.

DC shook his head. ‘Dolph pushed her though.’

‘He was doing it on purpose,’ Benito said.

‘Who’s Dolph?’ Damien asked.

‘The Shadow Akhana elder,’ Benito said. ‘He runs the show here.’

‘You have your own little dictator?’ Jay said. ‘That’s original.’

‘He can only make a decision with the Council’s approval,’ DC said.

Nasira raised an eyebrow. ‘And how the f**k did he manage that?’

Benito was looking at his feet. ‘Wasn’t hard. She was set up from the start.’

‘She’s been rubbing him the wrong way since we got here,’ DC said. ‘It was just a matter of time before he found a way to sideline her. And it didn’t help that I had to pull her from a personal vendetta in Tokyo the other day.’

Nasira was pacing now. Damien knew things had gone bad when Nasira paced.

‘Another of the Fifth Column’s new installations, right?’ she said. ‘So can you talk him out of this mess?’

DC shook his head. ‘Not this time.’

Nasira halted mid-step. ‘Why?’

DC looked over at the football on the floor. ‘You heard this from no one. He wants to turn her over.’

Damien felt his insides suddenly go cold. ‘To who?’

‘The Fifth Column.’

Nasira shut her mouth. Damien could see her jaws grinding under her skin. She breathed in sharply and her hands clenched into fists. He was ready for her to break a table in two, but she didn’t.

Benito cleared his throat. ‘We think he’s using her as a bargaining chip. For the release of twenty-two Akhana prisoners from a prison camp in America.’

He slid a paper across the table. Nasira pinned it with the palm of her hand and started reading.

‘Dolph’s wife is on here.’ She looked up at Benito and DC. ‘He’s using Sophia to get his f*****g wife back.’

‘Romantic,’ DC said.

‘Has he made any arrangements yet?’ she asked.

DC shook his head and pocketed the paper.

Nasira exhaled sharply. ‘Then we need to do something, now.’

‘We don’t do anything,’ DC said. ‘Unless you’d like to be a part of the exchange.’

‘I’m not going to sit—’ She stopped as someone new entered the room.

A woman, tall enough to overshadow Jay. She looked surprised to see Jay and Damien.

‘Excuse me,’ she said. ‘I have news. The Council have made an agreement with the Fifth Column. Sophia will be transferred to another Shadow Akhana base tomorrow at eight hundred.’

Nasira slumped on the edge of the table. She looked on the verge of tears.

‘Do you think maybe you left out a few details on this Shadow Akhana bunch?’ Jay said to Nasira. ‘You sold these dudes to us as the golden age of the resistance. If we could trust anyone, we could trust them. At this point it isn’t looking much better than getting worked over by Denton.’

The bearer of bad news slipped away, leaving them in silence.

Nasira closed on him in an instant. ‘Sophia’s about to be handed over to the Fifth Column and all you can think about is your own f*****g skin!’ She was breathing in his face. ‘That’s all you ever think about.’

DC moved to the doorway. ‘I’ve been reassigned. I’m sorry, it’s a direct order.’

Damien, anxiety welling up inside, watched him leave.

‘No one can override that order except Freeman,’ Nasira muttered. ‘And we have no idea where he is.’

Damien expected a quip from Jay, but he seemed too uncomfortable to speak. On the other side of the room Benito was busy staring at his feet. No one was saying anything. Damien tried to think this through clearly.

‘Can you reason with this Dolph guy?’ he asked Nasira.

She shook her head slowly. ‘No.’

More silence. The longer it grew, the more Damien wanted to fill the gap. But he couldn’t think of anything worth saying.

DC reappeared in the doorway. ‘The Council would like to see you.’