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  The guard fell over as that leg could no longer support his weight. However, as he collapsed he saw his intended targets through the table legs and fired.

  The plasma bolts narrowly missed Hawk and came close enough to Sinclair behind him that the General felt the heat from the blast as it singed the hair on his head.

  Hawk shot the guard in the centre of his chest stunning him for a few seconds as he was forced backwards. Hawk was amazed when he saw the guard was still conscious and shaking his head to diminish the effects of the stun-blast.

  “Stay where you are, sir, I’ll handle this,” said Hawk motioning for the General to stay down out of sight.

  The guard struggled to his feet and, grabbing hold of the desk in his right hand, heaved it over to land on top of Hawk and the General. Seeing what was about to happen, Hawk threw himself over the General once again to shield him from harm, using his own body to protect his commanding officer.

  The guard used the momentary respite to take out a hypo spray and inject himself in the leg to counteract the effects of the stun-blast. The medication took effect almost immediately and the guard found he could walk properly again. Getting to his feet he made a dash for the exit.

  Hawk threw off the desk just in time to see the guard try and rush past him out of the room. Reaching out he grabbed the running guard’s ankle, managing to grip it just hard enough to send him flying off balance and spinning to the floor once more.

  Hawk was up in a flash, moving over to the guard who lashed out with both his feet striking the advancing Hawk in the chest, sending him staggering backwards. He flipped himself back onto his feet ready to continue the fight.

  Forgetting he had a Sig P996 close at hand the guard lashed out at Hawk with a series of jabs and front kicks, which Hawk, himself adept at close quarter combat, easily dodged or blocked.

  Suddenly remembering the pistol, the guard lunged for it on the floor but Hawk reached his first and fired at the Sig sending it skittering across the floor. Before Hawk could fire again the guard was up off the floor and running at him, head down for a tackle. The two of them collided and collapsed onto the floor again with the guard on top this time. He quickly went on the offensive, pummelling Hawk with a series of punches to the kidneys and stomach, then quickly changed his attack by reaching for the Howell combat knife and tearing it free from the sheath on Hawk’s forearm.

  As soon as Hawk realised what had happened he knew he was in trouble and that the chances of him capturing this man alive had just plummeted. This had turned into a real death struggle where the only victor was the one left alive.

  The guard brought the knife round in an arc hoping to stab Hawk in the neck, but Hawk stopped the plunge by grabbing both his wrists. The point of the blade was mere inches from his neck and Hawk’s arms quivered with the strain of holding it there.

  It came down to a battle of who was the strongest, but the two of them quickly became aware that they were quite evenly matched and Hawk noticed a strange look in the guard’s eyes. It was a look of surprise, almost as if he couldn’t believe what was happening, like he expected to win this power struggle with no questions asked.

  Hawk had always been unusually strong. When he was growing up his father had always made him exercise with weights, but he had been unaware of the fact that the gravity in his environment had been a little heavier than that of Earth so that when he came to enlist in Col Sec Military for the Recon Delta he aced all the physical tests. General Sinclair noted this in his reports and, after two years, seconded him to the Intelligence Division.

  The guard began to get a little frustrated and started to growl in anger at not being able to force the point of the knife down into his victim. Hawk, on the other hand, remained as calm as he could, not allowing anger to invade his thoughts or his clear headedness would evaporate and he would lose whatever advantage he had in the struggle.

  Hawk brought up his right knee to strike the guard in the side, which threw him off balance just long enough for Hawk to gain the upper hand and roll the guard off him. As he rolled away and onto his knees the guard looked at Hawk with an expression that was purely feral in nature. With teeth bared, brow bunched and eyes that positively sparked with fury, he lunged at Hawk with the knife as he got to his feet.

  Hawk had to step back to evade the point of the knife as the guard swept it from side to side, then suddenly changing tactics he lunged forward hoping to plunge the tip into Hawk’s stomach. Seeing the attack, Hawk twisted sideways allowing the knife to travel past it’s intended target. He grabbed the wrist with both hands preventing the guard from bringing the knife back to repeat the move.

  Quickly assessing the new situation the guard punched Hawk in the ribs with his free hand. The blow made Hawk wince and he knew he had to stop that from happening again. He smashed the point of his right elbow into the unprotected face of the guard to intimidate him from any further punches.

  The guard reached beneath Hawk’s legs with his free hand and lifted him off the ground with ease. Hawk was surprised at the strength of the man and realised that he must have taken something to enhance his natural abilities.

  Before he could do anything to counter the move Hawk found himself hurtling towards the ground. The guard had reversed his move and was in the act of slamming his attacker to the ground in a move popular with pro wrestlers called the sidewalk slam.

  As his back struck the floor all the air was forced out of Hawk’s lungs and for a second he couldn’t get his breath. The guard took advantage of this and pulled his arm free. Still holding the knife he dived on top of Hawk this time hoping to plunge it into his chest.

  Hawk had little time to counter the attack and thought he was going to die from knife wounds. All he could think to do was to bring up his knees to try and prevent the knife from reaching him. The guard landed on top of the knees, his face colliding with Hawk’s kneecaps. It was a move born out of desperation but it seemed to have the desired effect, for when the guard’s face collided with Hawk’s knees his nose exploded on impact.

  The sudden pain made the guard involuntarily fall away from Hawk and he rolled onto his side clutching at his damaged face giving Hawk the opportunity to regain his breath and get to his feet.

  Hawk knew that the fight would end in the next few seconds with one of them lying dead on the ground, there was no quarter here and only one outcome was possible.

  Looking at him through pain-filled eyes the guard realised that this man before him was no ordinary man and that it might be best to escape rather than fight. Glancing towards the door the guard realised he must make his move now or suffer the consequences.

  Hawk saw the glance and knew what his attacker was thinking. He thought that the guard must be mad to think he could escape from the HQ of Col Sec. With all the security lockdowns in place, the moment he stepped outside the confines of that room he would be surrounded by other guards.

  Unless, of course, this OMEGA had infiltrated Col Sec deeper than anyone realised and the guards waiting would be there to help instead of capture. In that case Hawk had but one option, to stop him leaving the room.

  The guard lunged at Hawk for he knew he had to kill him to escape from the room. The knife point narrowly missed gouging a deep rent in Hawk’s stomach, but he managed to evade the lunge by moving backwards just at the last second. Grabbing the wrist holding the knife, Hawk twisted outwards so that the arm was bent against the joint.

  The guard screamed from the pain that suddenly lanced up his arm and he let go of the knife, which Hawk immediately scooped up. The guard lashed out at Hawk with anything and everything he had, punches, kicks and even part of the table that had been smashed during the fight. Using part of a table leg he attempted to stab Hawk in the arm, but Hawk saw the move and blocked the guard’s arm above the wrist plunging the knife he was holding into the same arm rendering it useless for further combat.

  Blood sprayed out from the wound and the guard knew his freedom could be counted in sec
onds. He switched grips on the table leg from one hand to the other and came at Hawk again, more in desperation than with any realistic effort.

  Hawk blocked the blow once more and this time struck with the knife, burying the blade deep into the man’s neck. The guard screamed in pain as he realised he was about to die.

  He dropped the table leg and placed his hand over the wound in his neck. Blood pumped from the wound and trickled through his fingers as his attempts to stem the flow failed miserably.

  He sank to his knees then keeled over as his life’s blood leaked out from him at an alarming rate. As weakness overcame him, he fell onto his side and lay there like a rag doll. Within a few seconds he was dead from loss of blood.

  “Did you have to kill him?” asked General Sinclair getting to his feet. He came to stand by Hawk’s side as the latter looked down at the dead guard.

  “There was no way he was going to allow us to take him alive, sir. We can learn what we need from his NI, hopefully,” Hawk replied.

  “A post mortem interrogation like the one we performed on the Alliance agent a few days ago,” Sinclair said remembering the incident, but before Hawk could reply they heard a noise coming from where the dead guard lay. A strange popping sound came from the guard’s head and his entire skull seemed to expand slightly as if something inside his head had blown up.

  “What the fuck!!!” exclaimed Hawk and he stooped down to inspect the guard’s head. The tissue had gone soft to the touch, almost like the bones of the skull had dissolved. Blood began to seep through the eye sockets, ears and down his nostrils.

  “Whatever that was sir, it seems the post mortem interrogation will have to wait. I don’t think we’ll learn anything from him now,” Hawk said and got to his feet.

  “What’s that sound?” Sinclair asked and Hawk tensed as he heard it too. It was the unmistakable sound of a timer counting down. Hawk looked across to where the clone lay and saw a thin twist of smoke escaping from what remained of his head.

  Acting swiftly, Hawk grabbed the General and pushed him through the door and as he dived through himself he activated the locking mechanism to seal the room. He had acted just in time, for the instant the door closed and sealed the room off an explosion erupted from inside the chamber.

  The walls of the room seemed to pulse outwards with the released energy from the blast, but the seal held.

  Sinclair looked at Hawk and said, “What just happened?”

  “I’m not sure without having the Tec guys go over that room with a detailed scanner, but I’d say that somehow they smuggled a bomb into HQ inside that clone.”

  “Are you serious?” Sinclair asked, not sure if he’d heard right.

  “Yes, sir. Somehow they found a way to shield the charge from our scanners and sensors.”

  “Well, if that’s true then they planned this whole scene to kill me and whoever was with me at the time,” Sinclair said as the realisation hit him.

  “Yes, sir, this goes deeper than any of us ever thought possible,” Hawk said.

  “The implications of this are too huge to contemplate. I’ll have to inform the President. We may have to take special and unusual measures to combat this threat. You find out what you can from what’s left in there and report back to me personally when you have something,” Sinclair said with a sense of urgency in his voice.

  “What about you, sir, where will you be? You need to get yourself looked at by a medic,” Hawk said.

  “I’ll do that later. I’m going to see the President right away, he needs to know about this,” and with that Sinclair stormed off leaving Hawk alone outside the interrogation room.

  “If anyone can do it, you can, sir,” he said as he watched the commanding officer of the Intelligence Division disappear down the corridor.

  As he pondered the task before him he wondered what, if anything, could be done to combat a threat about which you knew nothing, but which seemed to know everything about you. He just hoped that the General would come up with something.

  3

  Hawk got to work on directing a crew to investigate the remains of the interrogation room almost immediately. As he stood around and watched the tecs set about the task with their various pieces of equipment, he realised that his skill sets were not suited to this job so he told them to inform him the moment they had anything and left them to it. He returned to his office to review the video data of the interrogation.

  He was becoming increasingly frustrated at learning so little. What was the purpose of OMEGA and why had they set this whole thing up? If they were so clandestine why push themselves to the forefront now? What could they possibly gain from their recent actions? Was this, like Sinclair said, an elaborate scheme to take out the leader of Col Sec’s Intelligence Division and so cripple that organisation? If so, apart from the obvious, what did they hope to gain and why at this particular moment? There was nothing of significance on the calendar that Hawk was aware of so the date of the incident seemed completely random unless there was something happening soon that he was not privy to. If that were the case then he needed to know all the facts if he was expected to combat this new threat.

  He felt like he had just stepped into the boxing ring with both hands tied behind his back. Not a good feeling.

  His NI tingled, alerting him to an incoming call.

  “Hawk, my office, ten minutes,” said Sinclair, his voice carrying through the channel as clear as if he was standing next to Hawk.

  “On my way, sir,” he replied and got to his feet and exited his office.

  MAXWELL EISENHOWER was seated behind his rather large, ornate desk working diligently on several reports when he was alerted to the presence of someone outside his door. In his early sixties he was a small man, standing only five feet seven tall. His greying hair was cut stylishly short, costing him more than the average worker in one of his many factories earned in a week. He was a mediocre man except for his opaline green eyes, the only remarkable feature about one of the richest men in the galaxy. The sensor that was fitted in the locking mechanism scanned everyone who approached the door and told the occupant of the room everything about them – what they were carrying and what they were wearing even down to the contents of their stomachs. The chances of anyone slipping anything dangerous past this sensor were remote in the extreme.

  Eisenhower had built his business from the ground up and as he sat behind his desk working away he was content to be the CEO of the largest mega corporation in at least ten sectors. His turnover was reputed to be in the trillions, his personal fortune was over one hundred and forty billion and growing.

  All these facts were well known as he had business enterprises on several planets both in the Colonial Confederation and the Elysium Alliance, but what was not so widely known was that his fortune was also boosted by his criminal activities as the head of OMEGA.

  Having grown bored with normal business practices he had gravitated to more unsavoury pursuits, which had turned out to be quite profitable. The best thing for him about his dual personality was that OMEGA was exceptionally clandestine. This secrecy ensured that no one had any idea that the mild mannered CEO of a huge mega corp. was also the leader of a group that dealt with death and destruction on a huge scale. That was until now. Somehow, Col Sec had captured one of his Rovers, a name he coined for the clones he’d created to be the public face of the leadership of OMEGA. Using a bioengineering division of one of his businesses, he’d made a series of clones to act as the face of OMEGA, each one indistinguishable from the next with all of them sharing the same DNA and memories.

  They were the leadership of OMEGA and only they dealt with the running of the clandestine operations OMEGA was concerned with. In that way no one could ever tie them in with him or his legitimate business operations.

  That was until now.

  Someone had taken it upon themselves to go up against Col Sec and bring OMEGA out from the shadows and into the light of day, not something he had ever wanted. But now it had ha
ppened he had to find out who and why and then stop them before they ruined everything.

  The person outside his door was the man tasked with finding out what he could about the recent Rover incident, his chief aide and confidante, Jonas Wilde.

  Wilde had been with Eisenhower for over ten years, working his way up the business ladder until, eight years ago, his efforts had come to the attention of the CEO. Wilde had been appointed his chief aide and allowed into his confidence about OMEGA and he had been in that privileged position ever since.

  Eisenhower operated the door lock remotely allowing Wilde to come into his office.

  “What have you learned?” Eisenhower asked without preamble.

  Wilde entered the spacious office and walked up to the desk. Around five feet eleven inches tall he was of average build yet trim and fit. He had nondescript features making him almost invisible in a crowd. Dark hair and dark eyes went unnoticed by most, along with an almost expressionless face. His expression today told Eisenhower what he needed to know without him even opening his mouth to speak.

  “Nothing, sir. So far my enquiries have drawn a blank. I’ve had to be careful not to arouse the suspicions of the authorities investigating the incident. Should they get wind of my enquiries then it could lead them straight back to this office and that’s the last thing I want, sir,” Wilde said apologetically.

  “Well, before they do that, I think it best we close off any avenue they might be chasing down by sending a team to where the Rover was apprehended to destroy any signs that it was there. Once their investigation hits a dead end we can find out who sent it there and why, but our priority at the moment has to be stopping Col Sec from finding anything that could lead them to us here,” Eisenhower said. He looked up at Wilde, his opaline green eyes almost sparking with a rage so intense Wilde could almost feel it. “We cannot allow Col Sec to tie the Rover in to us. Tell the team to do whatever is necessary to prevent any data falling into Col Sec’s hands, is that clear, anything?”