Argonaut - The Kinetic (Part I)

Chapter 8 - Groom Lake

Chapter Eight – Groom Lake

21st Dec 10:12 AM

Ashcroft paced the bunker, irritated. The Archaeans were being more active than usual; that couldn’t be a good thing. Just yesterday one of them had shown up in one of the western cities, apparently with no concern about being spotted. It was astronomically lucky that they’re agents had found it before it had caused any damage. As if that wasn’t enough the same individual had been spotted three more times in the same area, first by the same agents that had encountered it before and then by a unit of Automatons. Thankfully the agents had survived; the Automatons weren’t so lucky. The third time it had taken down an advance team in an apartment block.

It didn’t make sense, why were they being so careless? It was completely out their kind’s profile to behave like this. It was almost like they wanted to be found. Marching over to a monitor he replayed the footage that had been taken of the individual, some was a recording from the Automatons it had destroyed, other pieces were filmed by onlookers. It was already all over the internet; Ashcroft hated YouTube.

The large screen showed him hovering in mid-air in front of a near destroyed Automaton, muttering something furiously. The best he could make out was that it wanted revenge for the plane the Automatons had just destroyed. He turned up the volume as the Archaean continued speaking, its eyes narrowed the speaker relayed its words.

“-I’m coming for you now-” it said coldly, “-I will find you.-”

Destroying the plane was a hard decision, but necessary. Of course the loss of human life was regrettable, but the situation demanded it. There was too much at stake to not take action. The recording from the Automaton cut to hash as the video changed over, replaying amateur footage shot by civilians of the same Archaean flying low over the city, a small section even showed it leaping over the tops of buildings.

Their organisation had been researching the two other species for decades; it had been established for it. And while this was not the first time he had seem one Ashcroft was unsettled, war could well result if the Archaeans didn’t start being discreet again. Not that it really mattered though; by destroying the airliner the B.N.R.D had practically declared war itself.

Here at the heart of the bureau’s influence the organisation was at its strongest, and now they had one of the Archaean’s aircraft. As soon as they got inside the mechanics would dismantle it and learn the other species’ technology. It was safe here with him; deep below the earth in Area 51.  

One of the twins gripped my shoulder tightly; his other hand gripped Nathaniel’s. The Argos had come to a sharp halt and now hovered, invisible, with three other planes in the airspace high above Groom Lake. The mighty roars of the engines had subsided to gentle hums.

“Ready?” asked Sebastian, I could feel a reassuring squeeze through the plating on my shoulder.

“No” I answered honestly, “Let’s go.”

With a small nod Sebastian lurched forward, the scenery around us changed. The teleporter disappeared, leaving Nathaniel and I crouching on the roof of a large hangar. In perfect sync we tapped the screens of our forearms, first shimmering and them vanishing completely. Somewhere on the other side of the facility I could picture Serena and Elena doing the same, followed closely by the twins. I used my ability to lift both of us off the metal roof, gliding quickly towards the wide entrance to the complex.

I brought us down a few meters away from the thick steel door that covered the entire wall; time was ticking, we had to get someplace safe before our time expired. A truck rumbled along the road, Nathaniel and I sidestepped it quickly.