Extinction Read online

  EXTINCTION

  A Col Sec thriller

  By Jan Domagala

  Copyright © 2015 Jan Domagala

  All rights reserved.

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this ebook with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  Ebook formatting by www.ebooklaunch.com

  This is a work of fiction, any similarity to anyone living or dead or companies or institutes is purely coincidental.

  Other books by Jan Domagala

  in

  The Col Sec Series

  Ronin

  Omega

  Discovery

  Retribution

  As always, this one is for all those who have supported and inspired me through this process, couldn’t have done it without you guys.

  Table of Contents

  Foreword

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Epilogue

  Foreword.

  In the early twenty-first century the US Marine Corps definition of Red Teams was ‘to provide the Commander an independent capability that offers critical reviews and alternative perspectives that challenge prevailing notions, rigorously test current Tactics, Techniques and Procedures, and counter group think in order to enhance organisational effectiveness.’

  By the mid twenty-fifth century Recon Delta employed this notion but the Red Teams had evolved into a unit that was virtually autonomous and could act independently should the need arise.

  This is the story of one of them.

  Prologue

  Tarsus II, 2433CE

  Colonel James Lydecker stood overlooking the chamber through the Plexiglas wall. The chamber was huge with equipment lining the walls and spreading over the worktops. There was a group of men wandering around inside the chamber, seemingly unfocused, all dressed in the uniform of Recon Delta Marines. Lydecker was concerned that they could damage the delicate equipment and/or themselves and was just glad they were not armed.

  He was in the process of formulating a plan to deal with the present problem when another person entered the small room he inhabited.

  “Any changes?” asked the newcomer. He was a small man standing only five feet seven, which meant the colonel was a good head and shoulders above him. He had thinning hair the colour of windblown sand, and eyes that were so dark and troubled that the colonel was worried for the sanity of the man. It had been his program - the fallout - with which he had to deal at that moment.

  “None that I can make out, but then again I’m no expert in this sort of thing. I’m just here to clean this mess up,” Lydecker said a little angrily.

  “I’m still working on how to isolate them from the rest of the troops. If we can’t we could be looking at a disaster of epic proportions,” the lab-coated newcomer said once he’d gotten over the rebuke from the colonel. He knew all this was his fault and he was desperately trying to rectify it as fast as he could, but so far with no luck.

  “Don’t worry Doc, that’s why I’m here, I’ll handle this. You can go back to your research, just make sure you destroy all evidence of this program and I mean all of it. I don’t want this to resurface some years from now and I don’t want anyone stumbling across it in the future by accident. Is that clear?” Lydecker stared intently into the eyes of the smaller man.

  “It’s perfectly clear Colonel.”

  “Good, I don’t want any misunderstandings here. There has been a monumental fuck-up and I’m here to make sure it stops here and now and, more importantly, that it doesn’t happen again, ever.” Lydecker turned away from him to look down into the chamber once more.

  The only way to handle this as far as he could tell was to kill everyone in the chamber below. It was harsh; it was extreme; but he knew the doctor was not joking when he had said about the disaster being of epic proportions and so the measures he was about to take were necessary.

  “Doc, I hope there’s nothing in that lab you need, because they are wrecking everything in sight,” Lydecker turned to look at him as he reached for the control panel in front of him. It had a manual release circuit for the toxic gas he was about to use on the test subjects enclosed in the chamber. The circuit was operated by a big red button, which he pressed with the palm of his hand.

  From hidden nozzles inside the vents for the air conditioning units a clear gas escaped that quickly filled the room. The effect of the gas on those inside the chamber was clearly visible as they began to clutch at their throats finding it increasingly difficult to breath. Pretty soon they were all collapsing one by one, lifeless on the floor of the chamber.

  “I’ll give them a few more minutes then we go in,” Lydecker said with a grim finality.

  Doctor Henkel, the lab-coated newcomer, stood back from the window wall in shock. He had hoped to find some solution whereby they could resolve the mess they found themselves in. Looking at the cold, hard look in the colonel’s eyes told him they had gone far beyond the point of no return and now it was a case of damage control. It was imperative that what had just happened here must not be allowed to get out to anyone else.

  After what Lydecker deemed a requisite amount of time he summoned three of his men.

  “Sidearms only; shoot the head at the back where the Neural Interface is implanted. Make sure the head is totally destroyed. We go in, side by side in a skirmish line and we clear the room. Any questions?”

  When there was no response Lydecker said, “OK, let’s do this.”

  As they operated the control panel to the air-lock doorway of the chamber another figure entered the room. He just had time to see them enter the air-lock as he said, “Colonel Lydecker, I have some information you will need to see sir.”

  “It’ll have to wait Sinclair, we’re on a tight schedule here, this needs to be done now,” Lydecker replied before closing the door behind him and his three men.

  “But sir…” Sinclair said trying to get the colonel’s attention once more but it was too late, he had already opened the inner door to the chamber.

  Sinclair turned to the doctor, spearing him with a steely gaze. “Why did you do it Doctor Henkel?”

  Henkel spun around from the chamber’s huge window to look at the captain, staring deep into his eyes.

  “I… er… I don’t know what you mean,” he stammered tearing his eyes away from him unable to look into those deep brown eyes any longer.

  Sinclair pulled out his sidearm, a Sig P990 and aimed it at the side of the doctor’s head.

  “You will tell me what I want to know Doctor, right now, or I will blow a hole in your head large enough to fly a shuttle through. Do I make myself absolutely clear?” he said calmly and with an absolute certainty that he would do what he promised.

  Slowly Henkel turned his head to look into the muzzle of the weapon held to his head. He saw the certainty in the young captain’s eyes and also his own death for there was no way out of this for him. If he didn’t give Sinclair what he wanted then he was sure he would shoot him, but if he did then those he
served would definitely kill him too.

  “I’m running out of time Doctor, I need to know what it was you did and right now before they get any further into the chamber,” Sinclair said urgently.

  Henkel swallowed hard before speaking, “I did as I was told - use the NI to stimulate certain areas of the brain to increase testosterone production and endorphins that would mask pain and also help increase the healing process. It was the super soldier syndrome we’ve all searched for these past few centuries. I almost had it too,” he said.

  “What do you mean Doctor, ‘almost had it’, had what?” Sinclair enquired.

  “I almost had it; I succeeded in creating the right impulse that would target the correct areas of the brain but I was ordered to target another area too.”

  “I don’t understand Doctor, that doesn’t explain what you meant by ‘almost had it’, what exactly did you do?”

  “I had it; I had the process down pat. I could produce the super soldier but that wasn’t enough, oh no, they wanted the perfect killing machine too. So I was ordered to target another area simultaneously to increase aggression and that was what caused the results you see now. Unfortunately the test subjects became increasingly difficult to control. They are controlled by an inner rage that causes them to lash out at anyone near. What good is that if you can’t direct it at the enemy?”

  “Who did… who ordered you to do this?” Sinclair asked, but he had a sinking feeling that he already knew the answer. He had thought that the Alliance had somehow coerced Henkel into sabotaging his own program but after what he’d just heard he had a horrible feeling it was someone closer to home, much closer.

  “General Metcalf, your boss,” Henkel said.

  Sinclair’s mind raced trying to comprehend the consequences of this act but there was one detail that didn’t seem to fit.

  “That having been said, what can you do to stop it and why was the Colonel so determined to keep those test subjects isolated?”

  “Because in the initial program I wrote a certain code into it that would transfer the new data to other soldiers, like the Bluetooth from centuries ago but via neural impulses. I thought it would help the process along, make it go faster once we had succeeded. One super soldier could pass along the program to others via his or her NI, very much the same way they would access a comm. channel or a computer on board a shuttle or starship, except I made it almost self-seeking, it would search for other NIs and communicate independently. Unfortunately that code was locked into the program and when I altered it to include the new parameters General Metcalf wanted the code included. Now if any of those infected soldiers get out from there the code will seek out other NIs and transfer the program to the new recipient.”

  Sinclair’s head snapped around as he looked into the chamber again. He had been alerted to something not being quite right by the sound of a gunshot. He saw Lydecker aiming his weapon at one of the soldiers flanking him. He had fired and killed him and was about to do the same again at one of the other soldiers when his expression changed to one of abject fury.

  “Oh my God, now they are infected too,” he said as the reality of what Henkel had told him was being played out in front of his very eyes.

  “Yes, and if they get out, you, me and anyone else within range of their NIs will also be infected. You have to stop them, you have to seal off that chamber and destroy it,” Henkel urged him.

  Sinclair looked around at the control panel uncertain what to do.

  “Do not access any of the computer’s controls just in case the program has transferred to it. If any of them have used their NIs to access anything then that computer could be infected too,” the doctor explained.

  “What… you mean like a computer virus?”

  “Exactly like that. We have to destroy everything in this facility just to ensure it does not travel to the outside,” Henkel said, his voice getting more and more strident.

  “That is somewhat harsh, don’t you think Doctor?” Sinclair asked.

  “What other choice do we have? If one person leaves this facility with that program locked into their NI then the whole of the Confederation could become infected too.”

  “How many are infected at the moment, is it just those inside the chamber?” Sinclair asked, a plan quickly evolving inside his mind.

  “So far yes. I’ve managed to isolate the chamber from any access points. As far as technology is concerned, and apart from basic life support functions such as heat, air and lights, that chamber is back in the twentieth century.”

  “Good, get everyone out, get your staff onto the shuttles. I am ordering the evacuation of this facility. This place has to be put under quarantine until further notice,” Sinclair said.

  “What about them?” Henkel asked indicating Lydecker and the one remaining soldier who by this time were locked in mortal combat, trying to choke each other.

  “That should do it,” Sinclair said as he operated the toxic gas release control. The room soon filled with the clear gas killing those struggling to destroy each other inside the huge chamber.

  “Are all you Recon Delta types the same, cold-blooded killers?” Henkel asked clearly disturbed by the seeming ease with which both Lydecker and now Sinclair had assigned death to those in the chamber so calmly.

  “What would you have me do Doctor, leave them inside there to rip each other apart and then to slowly starve them of oxygen once we had departed? Believe me sir, what I did was far kinder than that,” Sinclair replied angrily. “And besides, you had the chance to stop the Colonel from entering that chamber but you chose not to. His death is on your conscience Doctor, not mine. I simply put him out of his misery,” he added.

  He then reached for the manual override controls to the locking mechanism on the air lock. He accessed the controls by inputting a random series of numbers into the control pad, thereby scrambling the code making it almost impossible to get the door open again by that method.

  “No one enters there now,” he said and turned to leave.

  Within a matter of minutes the alarm had been given, Henkel used the comm. systems manually and spoke into the system giving the evacuation order. All the science personnel were filing on board the waiting shuttles. Sinclair and the rest of Lydecker’s squad followed shortly once the young captain had explained the severity of the situation and the need to get clear. Once on board the shuttle they headed for Tarsus Prime, the ‘E’ Class planet that Tarsus II orbited the same as the others.

  Sinclair sat alone, his mind going over what he had done and what was to follow. General Metcalf was in charge of Col Sec Recon Delta operations and it was to him he must report his actions and those of Colonel Lydecker. He was unsure of the outcome of that meeting but one thing he was clear on was that no one must enter that facility ever again and he just hoped that he could persuade the General to see the truth of the matter. He hoped he would leave Tarsus II, a quarantined moon, and not pursue what Doctor Henkel had begun for fear of unleashing a horror that could engulf the entire Confederation, or even the whole galaxy.

  With that thought firmly implanted in his thoughts he sat back, closed his eyes and tried to get some sleep, well aware that horrific dreams would invade his nights from then on.

  1

  MaxCorp HQ Earth

  2454CE

  Jonas Wilde was sitting at his desk in the huge building that was the Headquarters of one of the most powerful mega corps in the Confederation, if not the galaxy.

  Around five feet eleven tall he was of average build yet still trim and fit, a testimony to his years in Recon Delta. His features were nondescript, and his dark hair and eyes made it easy for him to blend into a crowd. This was something he was also used to, as in his later years in Col Sec Intelligence Division it had become an asset to his work. He was ruthless and determined with a leaning towards sociopathic behaviour.

  He was working his way up the corporate ladder and by this time was the second in command to Maxwell Eisenhower, the owner of Ma
xCorp and secret leader of a criminal cartel called OMEGA. It was Wilde’s intention to wrest control of OMEGA from Eisenhower and turn the organisation into a terrorist group whose target would be the focus of his unbridled hatred of Col Sec. At the moment he was consolidating his power base and something had come to his attention; something that he could use as a final throw of the dice should this game of chance he was playing go against him.

  During his years in the Intelligence Division his security clearance gave him access to a number of sensitive files. One such file caught his attention and he made it his business to learn everything he could about the subject. It concerned an incident that took place on Tarsus II over twenty years ago. It was classified as extremely delicate and given the highest security rating possible, which made his interest even more intense. He managed to hack into the file without being detected and made a copy for his own use.

  The subject mentioned in the file was a Doctor Henkel and he learned where he had gone once he left Tarsus II. After what had happened there he resigned from Col Sec and worked in the private sector. When Wilde also left Col Sec and began working for Eisenhower he kept Henkel’s name in his memory. The moment Wilde was in a position of power he made it a priority that Henkel come and work for him. He offered him a package he could not refuse and once he was at MaxCorp Wilde made sure he would remain there.

  It was not long before Henkel was calling Wilde his ‘friend’ and their relationship blossomed. Wilde finally learned what he needed from him, all the details of the incident on Tarsus II that had been deleted from the security file for safety reasons. As soon as that happened he had no further use of him and the unfortunate scientist had a fatal accident.

  Now he had all the information he needed to implement the plan that would be his failsafe option should his campaign against Col Sec be unsuccessful. In a few years’ time he would be in a position to wrest control of not only MaxCorp but OMEGA too from Eisenhower’s ageing fingers.

  All he had to do was wait.