�Uh-h, we-we-we believe th-that the escaping convicts u-used it for their g-getaway�� stuttered the guard, trembling in absolute horror. He was supposed to have been guarding the rooftop of the test facility, doubling as a lookout for anything the motion detectors couldn�t pick up. He�d been at a party last night though drinking through the morning hours� he�d been so very tired today. But why, he asked himself, did he have to fall asleep just before a full alert exercise?
�So�� began the lieutenant angrily, gritting his teeth. A vein not normally seen seemed to make its appearance near the man�s right temple. �The prisoners- three of them, if I recall correctly, completely unarmed and probably too fatigued to fight efficiently, managed to get past a guard armed with a CX12 carbine, a Tranq grenade, and even a radio for backup?� At this the guard was feeling hopeless. It was the kind of lack of hope a man gets when he�s been shoved out of a Jet Airliner at 30,000 feet; nothing to do but wait for the end. He collapsed into a corner and huddled himself, going into a state of emotional shock
�Oh for God�s sake�� began the lieutenant again, even more frustrated from the incompetence of the guard. �Fine. Guards? Take this �man� down to the lab� I�m sure those quacks have some new torture method they�re dying to try out.� The guards around him advanced upon the emotionally crippled man, and dragged him, wildly screaming, to the stairs that led below. Never again would he exit that building.
The Lieutenant stared off to the distant sunset. His cold heart found no beauty in this magnificent sight, and it actually seemed to anger him further. In a calm voice, he spoke to the newly assigned guard. �Go and order a search party for them. I want them five minutes sooner than humanly possible�. The guard nodded and trotted off. �Damn them. They cannot run forever.�
David�s crew was eating the fish that he had prepared, and although none of them favored raw fish, they ate it none the less. N�tn�see chewed his food in a deliberate slowness, thinking. He swallowed his food, and then spoke.
�Sir,� he began. �Forgive the intrusion, but I wish to know of your plan. I do not doubt you, sir, but I do wish to be prepared.� David considered this. While normally, from anyone else, he would have seen this as a sign of cowardice and hopelessness. But he knew what his old friend was poking at.
�Well� It seems, fortunately, that our informant�s beacon has switched the location it is transmitting from to a place not very far from here. I plan to get us to his location, which, thankfully, is in a much more secluded area now, and from there we shall determine how this mission is finished.�
The crew soon finished their breakfast and began scouting the area again. Hisheena took some of the extra fish that remained and wrapped it up in some of the large leaves she had found around their campsite. David approached her, carrying a box of motion detection equipment. She sat there, seeming like she was having a difficult time eating the raw meat.
�You all right?� he asked. The answer was obvious, from the way her eyes seemed about to water, and the way her cheeks were spasing like someone whom had been shown their intestines flipped inside out. She had to eat it though; there wasn�t any other choice. The only other things around were those highly acidic plants. She knew David was counting on her, so she had to be at her best.
�I will be, sir�, responded Hisheena. �This crap is slimy, stinky, and reminds me of some kind of over cooked asparagus.� David could sympathize with her; he hadn�t liked the stuff either. He noticed that during the last few days he had grown more attracted to her. He held these feelings back though; he had to be prepared to sacrifice her life and any other members of his crew, for the sake of the mission. Their lives were a second priority; their mission came first.
The sun was rising fast now, and David could feel the warmth from it washing over him. He had learned to really appreciate moments like this, knowing each time could be his last. He did not believe in a God; he simply knew that his job was to do as much good as he could do with the time he had. When he pulled the trigger of his rifle, he never thought of him killing who or what was in the path of that bullet. He was concerned with who or what that bullet was allowing to live on. He did not have fear, though he was constantly looking for some detail of his plan he might have overlooked.
Their time was running out though. They had already been here for at least a month, and he had absolutely no idea as to what was going on beyond the skies above him. He had a hunch, and it wasn�t good.
His PDA blinked. He stared at it, curiously. The little device was only supposed to do that when it received a signal from their informant. He tapped an icon that looked like a book being opened.
No image. A large, black screen materialized next to him there, with an IR keyboard that detected finger movements. A cursor blinked at the top left corner- a prompt.
INCOMING TELNET INVITE, the window told him. He typed in some commands on his keyboard.
IDENTITY UNKNOWN. Damn. He wasn�t just about to let anyone enter his system. He set up several firewalls, hid his address. He then manually shut down all of his PDA�s other systems, leaving only communication. He let them in.
HELLO. He stared at the message. A trap? Maybe the enemy had found his signal, and was determining whether or not it was just random noise. But he was out of options. He typed back.
IDENTIFY.
YOU CANNOT KNOW. UNIMPORTANT. TIME IS SHORT. Just who did this person think he was? David was going to find out. So far no hostility, but David kept every security measure up short of shutting the damned thing off.
David typed his response: WHAT, THEN, DO YOU WISH TO TELL ME?
TIME IS SHORT. WE MUST MEET-PHYSICALLY. DO NOT COME ARMED. YOU WILL REGRET CONFLICT. Whoever this was, he seemed fearful of David. Had he heard of their lack of success? He also seemed concerned for him, worried in two different directions.
WHERE DO YOU WISH TO MEET? Asked David.
FOLLOW THE YELLOW BRICK ROAD. DO NOT COME ARMED. EXPECT EVERYTHING BUT PERIL.
The transmition cut. David probed across the airwaves � nothing. Their system was down. David typed some commands, jumped directories, looking for the location of that signal. The window flickered, then shattered into a pile of digital rubble on the ground. A metaphor for a system crash. David turned the PDA completely off, and pondered what he had just read. A yellow brick road? Was this person talking of some strange twist of that ancient fairy tale? Or something else?
He began to head back to the rest of the team, and spotted N�tn�see collecting water from the river. David kneeled next to him in the soft mud. He stared into the stream. It had what seemed like some sort of hypnotic quality, something drawing him in�
�N�tn�see, how much water have you collected?�
�Not enough� but we can only take what we can carry. There are many miles we must trek through those plains on the horizon. I do not have any way of guaranteeing there will be any water sources once we get out of this canyon.�
�N�tn�see, I recently received a transmission from our informant.� N�tn�see raised a curious eyebrow. �It seems that they are trying to meet us at an alternate location, but they are also apparently hiding. Their coordinates are a riddle; he said to follow a �yellow brick road�. Any ideas?� N�tn�see slowly shook his head, as if simultaneously pondering over this in deep thought. William approached, his boots leaving squishy impressions in the ground.
�Sir?� he began. �We�re ready to move out. I�ve sabotaged the helicopter�s engine, since it�s useless to us anyway.�
�What is our inventory?�
�Well, we have the sniper rifle, no ammo of course, some of the fish with some salt for preservation�� he counted off fingers, running through what seemed like garbage. The only things they had of use were a pistol and rifle per person, and the scope from the sniper rifle. Other than that, David�s little spy kit, but nothing for them to really be able to evade their enemy.
They each loaded up makeshift backpacks with as much as they could carry, and set off. They walked along the river up the gradual slope to where the canyon became level off in the distance. David still found the ground to be disturbing; it acted like mud, only it left to marks on his boots and reformed when he stepped off of it. Like some sort of sponge.
Their trek went for hours, but no one complained with the cool breeze and canyon shadow. They did not stop to eat or drink, but instead ate as they marched. David spotted a peculiar looking rock along the riverbank. It was roughly rectangular, and brightly yellow. He ignored it for now. But after no more than five minutes he saw another rock, very similar to the first. He raised a fist and halted, a signal for his team to do so as well.
He walked over to the rock. Could this have been what their informant was talking about? He set his pack down, and took out the scope from the sniper rifle. He set the digital glasses on the ground, and booted his PDA. He interfaced with the glasses, and bridged a secure connection between them and the scope. He scanned the rock with the glasses, and programmed it to highlight all matches to it within 50% accuracy. He picked up the scope. And there it was, sitting out as clear as a bridge of light in darkness, yellow rocks separated by fifty meters or so until they branched � into a cave. He showed N�tn�see.
�But sir,� whispered William, �should we trust him? What if it�s a trap?�
David turned to face him, and whispering as if the rocks might eavesdrop, he said, �We have to. It is the only option we have left.�
