The Shadows Chapter 41
Hand of the Destroyer
By Keith Adams
Marle placed a hand over her mouth. The man, her bloodline, willing to destroy the world to kill a race? To destroy humankind, in order to destroy another people? It could not be true ....
"Considering that the King has apparently declared an ultimatum, I would say that it is true," noted R-007 mechanically.
Marle looked at the machine; was it possible she said what she was tihnking aloud. Marle ran her fingers through her golden hair; what were they to do next? They had to stop the launch. The missles were surely here, in Guardia, protected by top of the line security.
R-007 was one step ahead of her. He had jacked into a nearby console, bringing up a schematic of the dome and flashing by images of large, squarelike structures, giving a slight buzzing sound.
"I have calculated the most likely point for there to be a missle bunker," R-007 said coldly; no one spared so much as a glance in their direction. It's on sub-level 2, far out, away from the city. It has fast magnetic tubule racks - circular and of varying sizes - all over the place. Over fifty of them. It can launch several hundred tons of explosives in under a minute. I have erased the datalog of my access."
"We might as well go," said Marle "Get a feel for the place, then come back with the others."
"Wait a minute - incoming message from L-0101 - Lucca;" announced R-007.
'We'll all meet at the steps of the castle. None of the rest have got anything. From this point on, observe radio silence' hissed R-007 in Lucca's voice.
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"Perfect," said the High Shadow to Thiek "Well done, m'boy."
"Twas nothing. The old bait. Now, we've just got to convince them to come here - they'll need first hand knowledge before coming in, charging like the calvary. And then - they'll get what they deserve."
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Marle walked along the darkened corridors of sub level two, behind R-007 and his shining beam of light. They were crawling though a dark, dank, wretched place with all the charm of a sewer and none of the class.
"We are here," announced R-007 in a low, quiet voice. He extended a line into a socket, and part of the wall rose. R-007 walked into the roomm, followed by Marle.
Marle and R-007 were surrounded by boxes, on a raised platform. The ceiling was full of tubes going fairly near the ground. There was a slight opening between two of the stacks of boxes; Marle peered through. There were missles of all shapes and sizes, colored different colors, being worked on by black-painted robots and black robed figures. There was a flying, circular platform; on it were two men. One was clad in a black jacket, and was young, powerful, angry. The other was clad in a trenchcoat that reached to the floor of the platform, and a large, wide brimmed hat head his downcast face; both his hands were gloved, and busy clasping a black cane.
"Is everything in place?" the trenchcoated man asked of the other man - his voice sounded naggingly familair.
"Yes m'lord. We have replaced the standard nuclear missles with anti-matter warheads - one hundred are of that sort," the black jacketed man answered.
"And the other two hundred?" asked the trenchcoated man.
"Twenty standard fusion models - they are going to be aimed at the fusion generators - should toss up enough debris for our purposes. Thirty are atmospheric detonated agribio weapons. They will spew forth venom enough to make the world unfarmable for two hundred and fifty years at the least. There shall be fifty trackers, designed to knock out every major manufacturing area save the Great Factory and Geno Dome. There shall be twenty EMP missles scattered across the world - they ought to wipe out pretty much every non-optical computer system around. There are also thirty bombardment missles, designed to ravage the major domes; all are equipped to split up into twenty seperate warheads. There are also thrity five needlers, designed to bury themselves beneath the ocean floor and dump their waste. There are ten capacitor missles aimed at the nine major electrical plants."
"That's two hundred and ninety five. The other five?"
"Ah, those. They are the pride of our collection. Five dark matter missles. They shall instantly distenigrate, utterly and completely, anything they hit; there shall be no redemption for those hit. They shall we wiped, utterly, completely, and totally from existence."
"Very good, Thiek. And of our operations in the past?"
"The Guardian line has again been made pure; the pretender is doomed, and ironically, Frog, our enemy, will do the dirty deed for us. My predeccesors mistakes have been undone."
"And my new ship? I want it ready in case someone tries to dispatch with our launch."
"Tis ready, m'lord, but I fail to see why you feel it's neccesary to pilot it yourself."
"Then every is in order?"
"Yes, m'lord. The destruction of humanity is but thirty six hours away. Armageddon is, at long last, here."
"Good. Eliminate those spying on us."
Marle looked up. Huge black creatures with eight legs appeared out of nowhere and began flying straight at them. Robo shot lasers at them, quickly, sending them plummeting to the ground, but there must be a few dozen of them. It was hopeless. They were closing in.
"Let's go," shouted Marle.
"You may run and hide all you want, but when the Shadows finishd off the world, you are finished too," shouted the trenchcoated voice at them. The voice sounded all too familiar.
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