“Well, here it is,” John said, gesturing as Sherri and Tim emerged from the darkness. “A heavily fortified Kromagg military base with about…”
He checked his handlink. “Six thousand soldiers inside, top to bottom.”
Before them rose another tree, like the rest; except that it was swarming with guards and sentries, dotted with security cameras, and fenced off with razor wire.
Sherri looked at it, feeling her heart sink. “Dear god, how are we getting in there?”
Tim sidled up to her. “I thought you had a plan.”
Sherri winced. “John has the plan; I do the improv.”
John was busily tapping away at his touchscreen as Sherri led Tim to the cover of a bush. Together, they studied what they could see of the facility.
“I’m sure he’s figured something out,” she said, glaring at John. “Right?”
John glanced up for a second, before returning to his concentration. “Yeah, just hang on a sec,” he mumbled.
Sherri watched as he tapped, then looked up at the tree, then back down, tapped some more, and scratched his head.
“John, this isn’t instilling much confidence,” she called out.
Finally, he looked to her. “Patience, jeez. Don’t worry, I have it all figured out based on scans I took yesterday. Just… wait here, let me check something.”
He blinked away, leaving Sherri to huff with frustration.
“What is it?” asked Tim.
“We have to wait here, hopefully not for long.” She took a seat on a tree root, crossing her arms. Tim sat beside her.
“This guy we’re after is in there, huh?”
“Yeah,” she confirmed. “They’re treating him like a guest ’til they get what they want out of him. Then they’ll turn on him like they do every other human.”
Tim swallowed hard. “What do they want from him?”
Sherri’s hands clasped tightly. “These Kromaggs were exiled to this Earth from their own after they waged a war. They were sent here through a technology called ‘sliding’ – passing between parallel worlds through a wormhole.
“Quinn just so happens to have invented that technology, at least on his Earth. There are lots of Quinns who each managed to invent it independently. But this one… he’s willing to trade for it.
“Kromaggs want to get back to their home world and exact revenge on humanity. But they won’t be able to get there thanks to their defenses. So, they’ll start invading other worlds, and doing the same thing to humans they’ve done here.
“We want to nip it in the bud by stopping Quinn from handing over the equations.”
Tim frowned. “So… some other world dumped their trash on us? That’s why everyone I love is either dead or a slave?”
Sherri looked at his misty eyes and gave him a regretful nod.
“If it’s any consolation, I had nothing to do with it.”
Tim’s shoulders sagged. “How do you know all this?”
“I appreciate you wanting to know, but I truly can’t tell you any more than I already have, Tim,” she said, looking into his eyes intensely. “I’m sorry.”
Tim dropped his gaze, nodding. “I get it. Y’all think I might get caught and spill the beans, right?”
“Sorry.”
“Yeah, I wouldn’t trust me, neither.”
Sherri grasped his hand. “You’re really brave for coming with me, you know.”
Tim scuffed the dirt below with his foot. “Nah, not brave. Ain’t never done a brave thing, just stupid things. And this is just another one of them.”
Sherri was about to answer, but John appeared in front of her before she could open her mouth.
“Quick, follow me,” he said, and raced off towards the razor wire fence. Sherri jumped up.
“We gotta go,” she said, pulling Tim’s arm, who ambled behind.
John led her to a small tree, with a concrete area a little beyond. In a small clearing just past the razor wire was some kind of octagonal platform, bordered with green lights.
“That’s an antigrav platform,” John said. “I’ve seen some of ’em using these things to get up the trees from the outside.”
“I assume it’s not as simple as just jumping on and pressing a button,” Sherri said, still wondering how they would get over the razor wire.
John nodded. “Fortunately, your recon man has worked hard on figuring out how to get it working. You just need to get to it, and I’ll walk you through a simple rewiring.”
“Sure. Get to it. Over… razor wire?”
John grinned. “Over? Who said anything about over?”
He pointed to a large root that jutted up through the fence.
“Under this root, Higgins has detected a cavity – an air pocket – in the soil, large enough for each of you to move through. You just need a little digging in, and a little digging out.”
“Oh great, I love channelling my inner badger,” Sherri deadpanned, folding her arms. “But what about that?”
She pointed up at a security camera that overlooked the platform.
“In exactly… six minutes, the sun is gonna peek through the leaves just there,” John pointed off into the distance, towards a lower part of the canopy. “Directly into the camera lens, leaving it overexposed for about ninety seconds. So we gotta hurry.”
Sherri grinned at him. “Wow, you really do have it all figured out. Nice job!”
John grinned back for a moment, before his expression turned serious, and he gestured to the root. “Go, quickly. No time to waste.”
Sherri glanced at Tim. “Help me dig this out.”
She hurried to where John was now standing, and began scooping the loose earth away. Tim approached, joining in. Sure enough, the pair began to uncover what was an intimate, but empty, hole beneath the root.
Tim looked around. “Thank you John,” he said to the air.
A flattered John smiled back at him. “Don’t sweat it.”
Once the hole was dug out enough, Sherri shimmied into it, trying to pretend she wasn’t in the direct vicinity of probably hundreds of bugs and spiders, and crawled to the end of the opening. John’s hand protruded through the dirt, fingers wiggling, and she began clawing at the soil there.
After another minute, she was able to pull herself up through the hole on the inside of the fence. Tim followed her through, and the two of them crouched against the root, awaiting the next signal.
“Sun incoming in five, four… go, go now!”
John ushered Sherri towards the platform, which became bathed in sunlight as she reached it. John blinked himself to a control panel on the far side, and she hurried to it.
“Push down on these two latches here…”
She did as he instructed, and the control panel popped open like a door. She swung it all the way.
“Yank out that yellow cable,” he continued. She pulled it hard, and it detached from the circuit board. “Now touch the wire end just against this copper contact right here. Just for a split second.”
Sherri did so, and a loud spark emitted from the wire, followed by a puff of smoke under the circuit board and the smell of burnt plastic.
“Okay, great. That should have shorted out the security verification. Pop down the panel and choose level fifty-three. Quickly. You have twenty seconds.”
Sherri swung the panel down with one hand, and beckoned Tim with the other. Frantically, she used the touch screen to select what she hoped was the correct floor, before jumping on the platform with him.
The platform rose into the air, leaving John staring up at them, giving a thumbs up.
As the octagonal platform slowly rose into the air like some kind of video game, Sherri took the opportunity to breathe slowly, calming her racing heart.
“This is crazy,” Tim said, looking over the edge with childlike wonder.
John blinked onto the platform.
“This thing reminds me of that glass elevator that can go any direction,” he said. “What was that called again?”
Sherri shook her head, trying not to laugh.
Like you would forget.
“You mean the ‘Wonkavator?’” she asked in a tone that she unsuccessfully tried to make terse. She appreciated his levity, and he knew it.
John winked at her, before disappearing again.
As the platform reached a large branch, it slowed, and Sherri could see John awaiting them in a carved-out section of the branch as it came to a stop.
“Hold up,” he said. “Two ’maggs at your nine o’clock.”
Sherri nodded, gesturing for Tim to stay back, as she gripped her two guns, and stepped into the corridor, blasting both soldiers at once in the chest.
“Okay, they’ll both have valid keycards for this floor,” John said, wiping his moist brow.
As Sherri retrieved the keycards from the guards, she placed one in her pocket, aside the other two keycards she’d obtained earlier.
Two keycards…
As John stepped through the closed door to check what awaited her inside, Sherri met Tim’s eye.
“How did you find me before? In the corridor?” she asked slowly.
Tim shrugged. “Wasn’t hard to follow the trail of dead guys.”
“Yeah, but…”
“Coast is clear, get goin’!” John said as he emerged from inside.
Sherri scanned the keycard, and opened the door, giving Tim a serious look as she slipped inside.
I took the keycards. Both of them. How… how did he follow me?
Sherri felt her stomach drop.
Have I made a terrible mistake?