Reckoning /ˈrɛk(ə)nɪŋ/
"Reckoning" is a sci-fi series that can be read by the blind. It tells the story of overview of the story
Reckoning is a comic book series that is readable by the visually impaired and blind. It features detailed information about the story and characters>
Click here to see the storyboard for the comicbook conversion of chapter 5 on Patreon
Tax Commissionaire Luigi Giordano arrived at Café Destin with a blaring headache. His time in Brussels had been excruciatingly hard on him.
He had a nagging conscience about what he had endured these last few years and what he had turned his blind eye on, Brussels was a cesspool of intrigue, corruption and bad Karma, but after today it would be over, a new chapter about to start. Selling out had never been a strong trait of his he thanked his saints that it was finally over.
“May I take your order Sir”, the waiter asked moments after Luigi had found a table to his liking.
“Espresso”
“Si Commissionaire”, the waiter responded, “Anything else ?”.
“No I'm good, thanks”. The waiter nodded and scurried off into the café to fetch the Commissionaire order.
The cup had barely arrived at the table and Luigi had all but sipped it when two impeccably clad gentlemen arrived.
Their stylish suits bore the traits of lobbyists but these were no ordinary lobbyists, the EUgenoCorp employees were more akin to mercenaries than lobbyists, they were fixers, what EUgenoCorp needed they made possible, bribe or murder, nothing was off the table for them and Commissionaire Giordano knew this.
The coffee and pleasantries routine was over in a brief moment, neither man touched the cup brought by the servile waiter who knew better than to hover around at the table quickly scurrying off to serve a young couple sitting in the corner giggling and ordering a romantic breakfast.
An envelope slid across the table, a small tablet inside was pulled out by a gloved hand.
“Proposal 20.666-B, as per your request”
The two EUgenoCorp types studied the contents briefly, the law proposal before them explicitly permitting substance E-3421.23 to be used as food additive in the entire Union and by proxy in the rest of the world as per Global Trans Atlantic and Trans Pacific trade pacts was exactly as they had requested.
“As you can see the proposal is ready for ratification”, Commissionaire Giordano said hiding the disgust in his voice and body language with great efforts, he had been over this moment in his head a million times so as not to give anything away, the surveillance bubble defense screen had been deactivated earlier around the table and the recording device across the street was logging every moment quickly dispatching a copy to a secure server known only to Luigi Giordano and his aide through encrypted onion routing.
The men did not say anything; the tablet was slid back into the envelope and back across the table.
A nod by one of the EUgenoCorp types told Luigi he had pulled it off and they left the table cups still untouched.
The Commissionaire kept sitting at table sipping his espresso when a bicycle messenger arrived at the café
“Luigi Giordani?”, the messenger asked standing at the Commissionaires table.
Luigi nodded, “Si”.
The Bicycle messenger handed him a bag, got a signature and left.
Moments later a sleek black car drove up wearing official Union insignia.
The Commissionaires personal aide, Jennifer Billings got out and walked up to his table.
She looked at Luigi who nodded, she drew a sigh of relief, sitting on a secret of such dimensions had not been easy. She took the bag the bicycle messenger had brought and headed for the car.
The Commissionaire quickly followed her to the car. Once in the backseat he opened the bag, Jennifer's eyes opened wide. The golden bouillons glistened in the sunlight coming through the windows.
Luigi handed one of the bouillons to his aide.
“I need you to go to Oscar's lab and have the origins of this bouillon verified. If we're lucky we can even get them on laundry as well.
Jennifer nodded silently and pocketed the bouillon.
“I will meet up with you as soon as they have done the verification, shouldn't take them too long”, Jennifer said and opened the door.
She got out, closed the door and started walking. The car set into motions so she was some distance away when the inside of the car exploded and the subsequent pressure wave threw her to the ground.
For a moment everything was completely silent, the sound of the explosion had torn through the cityscape and brought everything to a standstill, only the slight breeze moved a few leaves blown off the nearby trees by the blast.
As she was lying there on the ground Jennifer realized she was supposed to have been inside the car, the epiphany brought a sudden unreal clarity to her.
As the silence subsided people starting to gather by the car and the couple from the café were by her side.
She shook her head, her ears were ringing. Sirens in the distance started approaching.
“I'm OK, nothing wrong”, Jennifer said staggering onto her feet, her best chance would be getting out of there before any law enforcement arrived, if she didn't then they would have her pinned down and likely eventually disappeared.
The couple seemingly satisfied with her response turned their attention towards the burning car - Jennifer calmly walked off the scene and after turning the nearest corner set herself into a run.
Later that night from a safe house she made a call and Operation Vermin was initiated.
…
The explosion threw piles of earth into the air, two of the three running soldiers were thrown into the air, the third was sent forwards into the ground by the pressure.
For a moment everything was dead silent, the soldier came back to his senses and tried to stagger back onto his feet, he turned around still wobbling.
“Sasha, Boris, what tha fuck ?”, he shouted only to be cut short by the tat tat tat from multiple automatic rifles sending projectiles whistling in his direction as the smoke started to clear.
He reached the two other soldiers lying mangled on the ground and threw himself down as the bullets came in closer.
He crawled first to the nearest man, but there was no hope, a large gashing opening in his chest.
The tat tat tat stopped for a moment, Vladimir tried to eek his way across the ground to his other wounded comrade Sasha was still alive but badly wounded, he was not going to make it. Fuck fuck fuck, they had been doing tours for 8 years now, had become known as the invincible three, mission after mission now everything was a complete and total goat fuck.
“Vlad”, Sasha stuttered “Get the samples to them, don't let those sons of swines and harlots get away with it”, he groped in his pocket and drew out 3 metallic holsters wearing bright yellow bio-hazard emblems, he coughed “I'm not going to make it… you need to go, I will delay them any way I can”.
Vladimir held back a tear and swallowed a lump; he knew exactly what that meant.
“Vlad the Invincible!”, Sasha said clutching Vladimir's arm and hand. For a moment neither of them said anything, then Sasha uttered his final command “Go Zhukov, like a crushing storm. That is a direct order, give them nor peace nor rest, be the storm and make them pay dearly”, Sasha coughed and released his grip on Vladimir. The theatrics of Sasha struck Vladimir as odd, he had never heard Alexander say anything remotely like this before.
Sasha smiled and blinked “Like movie huh?”, he did not get further as he was stopped by a cough. The son of a gun lay there and still making jokes, incredible Vladimir thought as Sasha spat out some blood and hinted with his head that it was time to go.
Another mortar struck down nearby and Vladimir sprinted away. The tat tat tat followed him to within an inch of his feet as bullets tore up the ground then there was a sudden blast.
“FUUUUUCK!……”, a voice tore the night, “WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT!?” another voice exclaimed.
“Did anyone see where the fuck that came from!!!?”, the confusion was total. Sasha's booby trap had gone off and taken several of the pursuers with him into the night sowing the seeds of confusion among the pursuers.
Vladimir had completely lost track of time, he was running on pure willpower now, each muscle in his body ached and his heart was pushed to its limits when he reached the extraction zone, there was nobody there.
“He grabbed a com unit, they had been completely dark in order to reach their objective and penetrate the defenses of the remote lab.
“WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU !?!?”, he yelled into the com.
His answer came but a second later as a craft; turbines whining came over the nearest hill spewing out deadly fire at the pursuers
There was an excess of TAT TAT TATs'…. as they fired into the air trying to defend themselves from the angry punisher.
There was a random row of exclamations ranging from “FFFUUUUUUUUCCCCKKK!”, “TAKE COVER!!!” and “GET DOWN” flying through the darkness, until there was nothing but the roaring of turbines in the air.
An Evac Transport hovered down close to Vladimir and ground support poured out of it as soon as it had touched down they quickly flanked Vladimir all while two Evac specialists ran towards and halfway pushed and pulled him onto the waiting craft.
The Punisher was still in the air and mowing down any resistance till everyone was safely back in the transport that then whooshed away with a roar.
The forward scout craft still buzzing the theater laid down a carpet of explosive fire before it too disappeared into the night.
…
Later that night an emergency meeting was in progress at TDF Western HQ.
“SARS and Zika of the past were only the beginning steps, small scale testing if you will”, Rear Admiral Rasmussen said and sighed.
“We knew something like this was being developed and ever since the Guide Stones were raised, they have redoubled their efforts to find an efficient way to do away with the larger population centers as they are having trouble maintaining control. An ever growing educated population and communication technology spread unheard of that has enabled communication across countries and cultures in seconds is severely working to their disadvantage”.
“Guess there is nothing like enlightened people to put a cog in the machinery of control eh?”, Terrence Johnson of the Australian High Command said with a smirk.
“True they fear knowledge and independence so they sow fear and despair and this time it is no mere psyops I am sorry to say, this time the bastards have taken it up a notch, forget Spanish flu, forget the latest SARS epidemic, this will make everything we have previously seen look like a siblings quarrel about whose turn it is to take out the trash”.
The Rear Admiral flicked on a briefing screen, a woman was lying on a medical bed strapped in tightly.
She was screaming in agony, luckily the sound was muted; two doctors and a nurse wearing protective environmental suits were standing beside the bed.
“This is the patient after having been exposed both to the chimera additive and the subsequent trigger compound”, Rasmussen said.
One of the doctors on the screen shook his head and left the room, the other one and the nurse adjusted some dosage on the infusion bags and the woman fell calmed down and then finally fell into a medically induced sleep.
They then followed their colleague out through the decontamination unit.
Rear Admiral Rasmussen flicked a button skipping ahead, “Death occurred only hours later, I will spare you the excruciating graphics, I can just say it was not nice”.
“We have acquired this evidence as part of Operation Vermin a direct offspring of Tax Commissioner Luigi Giordino's corruption investigation into EUgenoCorp, an investigation that unfortunately cost him his life and it would have disappeared into thin air if not for Jennifer Billings, Luigi Giordino's personal aide that by great fortune escaped assassination at the behest of EUgenoCorp.
Commissioner Giordino had long suspected that additives companies were attempting to lobby so that sugar taxation and fat taxation actually intended to be funneled into public health research and direct health intervention projects would instead be funneled into the pockets of the additives business, primarily EUgenoCorp who are sitting on not only 98% of the global additives market but also on 76% of the prefabricated food marked through market penetration incentives. He had never fathomed that the heads of EUgenoCorp could be involved in genocidal operations as well, he had always looked at the issue from a pure greed perspective”.
“Mrs. Billings information and situation and subsequent findings leading to the revelations before you that show us we are indeed at a dire junction”.
“In just 3 days EUgenoCorp officials from each Global Regional HQ will be converging in Shanghai, we have every reason to believe that at least 3 of them are top members of a Death Cult called the Brethren of Apophis whose prominent members in the past have uttered insane wishes for the demise of mankind”.
“Cmdr. Áo Fei is already enroute to Shanghai with a small team and so is Xia Wen, they will be working to instate an operative at the Hotel eXelsior where we will be arranging a very special buffet for them”.
…
Shanghai was at its usual melting pot charm, the streets were bathed in sunlight and a quirky mix of expensive luxury automobiles blended with worn out minivans, pickups and lorries with a thrown in sprinkle of electric bikes and trikes.
Cmdr. Áo Fei was driving towards the Dicos where he had agreed to meet up with Zhāng Biming and Yi Fei, his nephew named very untraditionally after him, the meeting would ensure Zhāng Biming could take a permanent vacation from his job at the eXelsior as a consultant for a TDF subcontractor in the service sector, the guy was sharp and seemed like a good match for a future in the organization, given he could be fully vetted, so far everything had checked out and being in charge of security he likely was trustworthy and his financial situation having children and a wife to support and parents and in-laws on top of it that were on the verge of pension it was nearly a given that he would accept the job offer as Trainee Chief Security for WeCU2™ a company specializing in monitoring political officials and uncovering undue corporate influence to the political system.
The vehicles swerved among each other in a seemingly chaotic pattern and while certain rules were observed it was very clear it was far from every vehicle which was running on automation, there was still a long way to go before full automobile automation had occurred and in this city of towering glistening skyscrapers it was hard not to think about ants in a glossed over giant ant-farm all hustling and bustling with their preordained tasks.
Cmdr. Áo Fei had not been home to see his parents for a long time and felt strangely queasy being back in Shanghai not to see them, but actually to save potentially billions; he tried to shake the feeling. There was a job to do, it was reckoning time.
…
The lobby of the Hotel eXelsior was opulently flaunting that here no beggars were allowed, it was clearly the playground for the Ultra Rich and powerful elites of the world and here they were going to face off against one of the most evil cabal Yi Fei had ever heard of in his entire life, he looked out of place in his Jeans Jacket and Cowboy Jeans as he strolled in through the lobby, the doormen had been giving him baffling looks as he strode by as if he was some kind of famous rock star, or something like that, for no locals would dare to enter the hotel so nonchalantly.
His boyish features slightly red tinted hair and sneakers were so completely out of place that he was immediately noticed.
A concierge almost hovered over to him, may I help you sir he said eying the young man suspiciously, Yi Fei flicked out his newly acquired PLF Special Task Force Credentials and the concierge quickly waved the security guards that were silently sliding in from all sides.
“Mr. Yi accept my sincere apologies, please follow me so we can get you fitted with a suitable outfit, we were not expecting you this early, you must be exhausted from the trip”, the concierge in his most buttered up voice.
“Nah not too bad, the Musk Shanghai Peace and Prosperity Express only takes about 5 hrs. from Copenhagen to Shanghai and refreshments and comforts are aplenty aboard. Thanks, I'm good!”, Fei answered with an endearing smile, he was in.
…
“Mr. Yi may we have a word”, the EUgenoCorp security officer did not seem particularly pleased.
“Naturally”, Fei answered smiling; his stature was not especially small, but compared to the man in front of him, the EUgenoCorp officer still looked like a giant.
“We have noticed some shifting around of hotel personnel, could you please explain?”
Fei held it together; success depended upon him being able to keep a straight face.
“I found some bad apples, I checked up on their phone behavior as allowed per their employment contract, people won't believe what is kept even if they think they delete it from their phones nor do they suspect how powerful commercial profiling can be in conjunction with just a tiny amount of data, the intelligence services have never really realized how easily they could do their job with targeted work rather than the blanket bullshit they've been peddling for years”.
The EUgenoCorp security chief nodded with a smile he knew only too well, “May I peruse the records?”, he asked.
“Sure”, Fei said with a smile while adding, “As soon as it has been cleared by internal security and legal”
Fei knew the Security Officer would already be deploying his own team to investigate the claims through his neural implants. The big question would be if Kim's Cyber Security team had been able to insert proficiently convincing data, into the employee records, to satisfy the EUgenoCorp security researchers.
While the records would eventually be cleared for the false data Fei still felt bad about having to resort to manipulating search and contact histories of employees. A bad digital record could destroy someone's life entirely, but he trusted his uncle's reassurements that no life would be damaged, except those who were guilty of plotting the most heinous crime of human history.
An hour later the EUgenoCorp officer got a message from his researchers, the information looked valid.
He contacted Yi Fei, “We have decided to trust your judgement with regards to your little employee switcharoo, there is sufficient grounds for their dismissal as it is right now”.
“We will however be placing additional security in the lobby and in key locations we expect this to be honored as per our standard agreement with the hotel owner”, the officer added much to Fei's dismay.
Yi Fei could do nothing but agree, Commander Áo Fei's troops would be facing a very difficult task in containing the additional EUgenoCorp security detail, although knowing his uncle it would not to be an impossible task for him.
…
Yi Fei was escorting a group of executives along with EUgenoCorp security guards through the hotel to their designated meeting room.
He was listening only with half an ear to discussions about what stocks were worth watching and hearing how this or that stock was on a short term down trend forming bullish candlestick patterns indicating possible reversals coming. These people were a piece of work.
“Definitely, worth watching once it drops a little bit more”, one of the executives agreed.
“Haha”, another one laughed out loud “I do not recall this recommendation or suggestion from you before, you need a good filter before taking Richards advice on finding solid pharma companies to invest in, especially if you want to buy that Sprintster, and that is even though the brand has never really recovered from the great debacle of 05 or 15 if you ask me”
The two executives in front giggled and one of them added “Personally, given the choice of a company car, I would prefer a Madrigal. Better records of dependability a more durable vehicle. The Sprintster may perform well, but seriously… I mean in a Maddi, you can truly “feel” the road when you driving, I don't mean in a bad way. But speed… Nah never been selling point for me and seriously at your age, heh you're unlikely to drive a car faster than a 100 miles an hour unless it were some kind of emergency.
They arrived at the meeting room. Yi Fei pointed to the door.
“Gentlemen if you please, someone will be there right away to take care of the refreshments”.
The last thing he heard before the door closed was a sick twisted joke about replacing a used up girlfriend for a new model
Yi Fei held his composure and exhaled heavily; he quickly instructed the arriving waiters and went about his way.
…
The meeting had been going on for the better part of an hour, many plans had been discussed and Inger Steinberger felt it was time to pound somewhat into the proverbial table.
“You know you really are a bunch of shits, how you got to where you are today; is a mystery”, she said.
“Well we all know how you got to where you are; nothing like good old digitalis to pave the way… they all laughed.
…
Topside a squad of PLF specialists was getting ready to deploy the Mylar shielding that would envelop the entire building in an electromagnetic blanket thus blocking any mobile signals from coming through.
A squaddie knelt down and armed the ejection mechanism.
“All clear”, he said and looked around at the men.
He got the all clear from the rest of the topside crew.
“Topside clear, below deck?”, he inquired.
“1 minute, nearly there”, a trooper replied while frantically picking a rack lock. Luckily it was not particularly advanced and the installation depended on perimeter security rather than an onion structure that would have meant security down to both egress and ingress points.
The lock came open; he wiped some sweat of his forehead, now to choose the correct 100G transceivers so as to not pull the entire hotel infrastructure offline.
“Okay, Bob is your uncle”, the Tech Specialist said as he found ports 3/47 and 3/48.
Topside the crew fired off the Mylar web, the fire complete signal beeped in his earpiece, he followed it with a 10 second countdown; after which he pressed the ejection levers and the switch LED's went from green to yellow, then the ports turned dark, blackout was in effect.
The Mylar web had passed by and was now well below the level of the meeting room, the spider like shimmering that could be seen from the outside was not visible to the people on the inside as light passed through nearly unhindered, but already signal loss was occurring; the plan was working perfectly.
On the street troops started surrounding the hotel, blocking traffic. A EUgenoCorp lookout outside the hotel was taken out before realizing what was going on, his life-signs monitor alarmed the rest of them to the fact that something might be going on.
The PLF Special forces entered the lobby running, the EUgenoCorp guards in the lobby were quickly neutralized as well placed insiders zapped them before they had a chance to attack the troops storming the hotel.
Outside the meeting room the EUgenoCorp goons took up strategic positions in the hallway, on the inside of the meeting room the execs antagonized by EUgenoCorp Security asking them to cut their meal short suddenly understood something serious was afoot.
“Don't you f…ing move”, a EUgenoCorp guard said and pointed a gun menacingly at Yi Fei, who was just coming out of the elevator by the dining room being used by the EUgenoCorp meeting.
“Woah there, Hotel Security”, he said catching their attention.
At the same moment a PLF trooper tossed in a grenade looking device across the floor from inside the elevator.
The guards looked at it anxiously expecting an explosion, instead of a giant explosion however the grenade splintered in a spray of tiny fragments, that when coming into contact with the guards by the door gave off an electrical charge neutralizing their weapons, the critterbots then proceeded to lock themselves around the guards rendering them completely immobile.
The PLF troopers were quick to follow and Yi Fei walked all the way up to the door, he knocked softly. A voice replied bidding him to enter.
…
The situation at the table was tense, the EUgenoCorp guards were clearly quite upset in response to the absence of communication with headquarters, Yi Fei had multiple targets painted to his chest.
“Please calm yourself gentlemen, the situation is under control, there has been a disruption to communications probably due to solar flare activity, did'nt you hear the news this morning, they were expecting a severity 6 storm”.
“Landlines too?”, the EUgenoCorp head security officer asked suspiciously.
Yi Fei, paused for a second but not long enough to arouse suspicion, Amazing coincidence, cable cut due to construction work almost at the exact time, if only the workers had gone to lunch instead of pressing on with their work, I suppose that is the price you pay for financial progress”, Yi Fei said and laughed.
The EUgenoCorp goons did not share his amusement, but lowered their guns enough to calm Yi Fei somewhat. The PLF Special Squad members were right outside; ready to burst in on his signal.
“I hope your meal was pleasant?”, he said reaching in his pocket very slowly so as to not raise tension.
“What?”, one of the executives snapped, it was the one that had been joking about exchanging the old model.
“I said, I hope your meal was pleasant!”, Yi Fei snapped right back at him.
“What kind of question is that to ask in a situation like this”, Inger Steinberger burst in thoroughly angered.
Yi Fei turned towards her, “Do you recognize this?”, he said drawing a silvery canister from his pocket.
Inger was silent, she knew exactly what the Hotel Security officer was holding in is hand.
A couple of the other executives turned pale as the realization dawned upon them, the food… had they all been infected?
Yi Fei gauged the room and gave the PLF troops the signal, he threw himself to the ground as they burst in; stun guns blazing, sending the EUgenoCorp security detail to the ground; but not without first taking heavy fire.
The two PLF troops remaining standing held the stunned executives at gunpoint, while others pouring in quickly tended to their fallen comrades, luckily there were no fatal casualties yet, med kits were brought out and a trooper ran off to bring in medical personnel waiting while letting the troops in position; know that the situation was under control.
“You know, one of you is not going to die, she already made sure she was safe”, Yi Fei said looking at Inger Steinberger.
Inger turned pale as the other executives turned their gaze upon her.
“You filthy bitch”, one of the executives began launching towards Inger, he was stopped dead in his tracks by Yi Fei; who sent him to the ground using almost no force but turning the man's forward inertia upon the attacker himself.
“I had nothing to do with this”, she pleaded. The other executives were not particularly convinced by her words.
“You lying sack of shit, you know we'll be dead if we don't get the antidote within the next 72 hours if we are going to have a chance to survive. What kind of person are you… you turn upon you own ?”, another of the executives began.
“You knew the internal inoculation program is still in preparation, you knew some of the guinea pigs supposedly were the only ones inoculated… and you just set things off like that, what was your plan, total domination of EUgenoCorp resources, or more perhaps? What is enough for you Inger ?”
Inger was furious now, “Shut your mouths we'll be extracted you blistering idiots”.
Yi Fei smiled, “The hell you will, this place is in total lockdown. Feel free to attempt to contact your security forces with those smart implants of yours as if you have not already and trust me, ain't nobody going to send in any two bit rentacop outfits here to take you home, you are on your own”.
Inger suddenly went for a weapon, Yi Fei managed to lurch to the side, while pulling a stunner sending darts searing with electricity into the woman's body. She became rigid and fell to the ground paralyzed.
The remaining executives realized they were alone with no hope of extraction. It did not take long before Yi Fei got directions to where TDF forces could retrieve the only antidote.
… The facility was a few kilometers outside a small backwater town in the Arizona desert; it was the perfect place, lots of free energy for the production facility and sparsely populated, no neighbors within a reasonable distance.
The assault craft carrying the TDF team sped towards the plant at a downward angle that would have made any non-initiated think that the descent would not end well for those on board.
At the last possible moment the craft leveled out whirling dust and sand off the ground as it locked in and headed straight on in towards the facility grounds.
Vladimir itched. He had been checked out from medbay quickly and after the debriefing he'd gone straight back into combat training mode, keeping sharp was his way to combat the itch, and he itched, badly, this time he had been very fortunate indeed, straight into the thick of it and he was going to make those bastards pay dearly for what they had done to his comrades in arms.
The assault ship came to a halt in the middle of the facility, its ramp dropped and aboard members of the team wondered if their gear was tight and a million other things as Vladimir's voice cut through the air like a knife.
“The ramp's down, go go go”, sending the troops left and right.
All hell broke loose there was no whistling of bullets streaking by like in the movies, just the TAT TAT TAT followed by the immediate klank klank klank from bullets of a heavy automatic weapon slamming into the side of the craft; then tearing into the torso of one of the squaddies.
“Get your arses twitching you sorry sons of bitches”, Vladimir shouted throwing himself forward; heart racing and brain analyzing everything he could about the scenery, the position of the shooter and potential cover. Small drones whisked into the air to provide them with a situational overview.
As he sped towards the wounded man he made the position of the shooter, dove forwards and rolled into a sitting position, he pulled the trigger and his weapon spewed a deadly round of explosive tip bullets at the shooter who was standing behind the turret mounted machine gun of an APC.
The bullets slammed into the vehicle and the lid behind the shooter sending a blast of heat and shrapnel in all directions tearing the shooter to shreds.
“WHY THE FUCK ARE ARE YOU SO FAR BACK!?!?”, Vladimir shouted to the medic who was rushing up to them.
“Jacobson”, the medic retorted mentioning the name only pointed to a figure on the ground further behind, Vladimir gave him a slight nod.
There was another TAT TAT TAT, this time however nobody was hurt, this shooter clearly had no formal training and overshot due to recoil.
“FUUUUCK!”, the medic shouted in terror, Vladimir however was already on the case and silenced the assailant very quickly and efficiently.
“HEY ASSHOLE, help Evans getting those fucking goats into the ship”. Vladimir was shouting at a squaddie encroached by a wall, the soldier immediately ran over to the Medic and they began pulling the wounded to the safety of the dropship.
Meanwhile Vladimir and the rest of the team were moving towards entrances, cutting down resistance as it emerged. It was obvious that there had never been any consideration of a raid on the facility or it would have been harder to take, in a way Vladimir felt unsatisfied it was too easy, like a shooting gallery.
Suddenly drones whirred out of the buildings and started firing, both at them and at their own aerial recon units that started falling out of the sky, now this is a pickle Vladimir though as he in turn began picking the armed defender drones out of the sky; one by one.
Half an hour later a very exhausted Vladimir was outside an office, he kicked in the door.
A heavy set, bald and very sweaty man, panickly raised his weapon in order to fire.
Vladimir's shot was planted firmly in his forehead and the bald man swiveled out of his chair and landed on the floor before his finger could even twitch.
“Everything secured?”, Vladimir said into his communicator.
“Everything secure”, a tired voice answered him back.
Vladimir, sat down in the now empty chair and picked up the phone.
A few seconds later a voice in the other end answered cheerfully, “Sheriff's Office, this is Deputy West speaking, may I help you?”
“Yes”, Vladimir said heavily and took a deep breath.
“Deputy West, who I am, is of no consequence, but if you listen very carefully to what I have to tell you! You will become a genuine all American hero, yes, how does that sound?”, before the deputy could answer he continued “Hell… You Deputy West, you will be the goddamn hero of the whole world, better no?”, Vladimir added and paused. Deputy West swallowed a lump, he was all ears.
…
On screen they could see multiple EUgenoCorp Executives being led into cells, the Morning Show was rolling across the screen and the news anchors; all too smug, all too picture perfect; were commenting the imagery.
“What an amazing morning, 7 EUgenoCorp top executives have been faced with tax evasion charges and more amazingly a conspiracy to decimate mankind to a fraction of it's size, however good old fashioned police work, thanks to an all American Hero, Deputy West who has uncovered a conspiracy tracing back to a little known Death Cult, Brethren of Apophis and ties to a multinational company have saved the day”.
“What do you say Frank, it seems the Tin Foil Hat Brigade at least got that one right?”, the news anchor said as the cameras swerved onto another well groomed face.
“That's right, next we'll probably learn that UFO's are actually spaceships and aliens are not only interacting with humanity, but actively trying to manipulate and control the world”.
The anchors all laughed “Yeah wouldn't that just be the one to top this one off”.
...
In the dimly lit meeting room Von Hesse pushed a button and the screens showing the broadcast faded to black.
He turned towards the camera feeding the meeting to the other participants with a serious grimace on his already furrowed face.
“Yes, this is a definite blow-back”, he said and stared at his screen with a thoughtful look on his face.
“But we will move past it, this is merely a setback of the inevitable”, a smile came upon his face as he recalled perusing the latest progress reports.
“We managed to cash out before the EUgenoCorp stock tanked, so financial losses are at a minimum”, his eyes scrolled down his screen, 7 out of the 10 remaining programs aimed directly towards lowering the overall IQ and health of the general population were still on track.
He took a deep breath, yes they would prevail and the eaters of the world would finally be under control again.
With a confident look upon his face he continued the meeting “For the next point of the agenda I would like you to peruse article 9…” To Be continued in Part Six - Plight of the Takyüddin