Sven was about to retreat when he halted and cocked an ear to the noise drifting along the corridor from around the turn in the passage a short distance ahead. Careful to avoid shining the light towards the noise to give away his presence, Sven stared at the turning. Whatever was making the noise, it didn’t seem to be moving. Curiosity, stupidity, and the chance of becoming a hero—the man who took down a savage cold-hearted killer—moved him towards the corner.
Halting at the end of the corridor, Sven stood tight against the wall and contemplated the squelching, sucking sounds that were now much louder. They reminded him of walking in boots sodden with water while trudging through thick, sloshy mud that sucked at your feet; both were discomforts he had experienced during his army training. Pushing away the imagined visions of possible horrors that might be creating the sounds, Sven steeled himself for what he was about to encounter and peered nervously around the corner.
Because darkness concealed whatever produced the unnerving sounds, Sven risked using his flashlight. He froze in fear at the terrible thing caught in the flashlight’s beam. The squelching sounds came from within a bulbous, black, pulsating cocoon suspended from the ceiling. As his frightened gaze took in the monstrosity he had difficulty comprehending, a tube sprouted from the base and bulged when something slithered through its length and dropped onto the floor with a squishy thud.
Rooted to the spot by his fear, Sven stared at the ejected, misshapen glossy black ball. After a few moments of inactivity, it slowly unfurled into a worm which then changed shape, shrinking to form a fatter mass. Four tendrils stretched out into legs with clawed feet. A tail, short and stubby grew out from its rear as a short neck pushed from the front and grew a head. After it had struggled onto its newly formed legs, it yawned its teeth-lined jaws and screeched a high-pitched squeal. Panic motivated Sven’s sprinting retreat for the exit.
As EV1L dropped from the ceiling, it changed into its previous bipedal creature form and stared after the retreating sounds of glass-crunching footsteps. It looked at its new born offspring and hissed a command. EV1L 2.0 sprang into action and bounded around the corner after the fleeing footsteps.
Panting from fear and panic, Sven careened around a corner and sprinted along the corridor. He aimed the flashlight behind when sounds of pursuit reached him. The small, monstrous…thing was chasing him. A new influx of adrenalin spurred him forwards. He punched the elevator button and heard the winch start up. He cursed the elevator that had returned to the upper level. He spun when crunching glass announced the creature’s approach. With the rifle on full auto, he sprayed the creature with bullets.
The creature screeched and stumbled when bullets tore through it and peppered the floor and walls behind. Sven released his finger from the trigger, his ears ringing from the gunfire echoing through the constricting corridors and stared at the creature full of holes lying still. He had killed it. He sobbed in dismay when the holes closed, and the creature unsteadily regained its footing.
Sven threw his flashlight at the creature and rushed into the elevator as soon as the doors were open wide enough. After frantically stabbing the upper level button, he aimed his weapon at the narrowing door gap and fired when the creature appeared. When the force of the bullets slammed it against the wall, the creature splattered into a dark stain. The doors closed. The elevator vibrated into motion. Trembling, Sven collapsed against the side. What in hell’s name was that thing?
Whatever it was, Sven was certain it wasn’t something Mother Nature had created. He believed either the scientists had created it in their laboratory or it came from another world. Sven was inclined to believe the latter. He had just battled with something from outer space, an alien.
Sven rushed from the building, slipped the strap of his weapon over his shoulder and leapt onto the motorbike. He kicked it into life and spinning a rooster tail of earth into the air behind him, he roared through the gates.
CHAPTER 14
Plea for Help
The Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSEC), now located in the architecturally spectacular new Ottawa headquarters, had cost Canadian taxpayers almost $1.2 billion. Linked to covert spying posts around the world that relayed information back to central command, the data it gathered variously was reviewed and filed away or disseminated to the relevant organization to be acted upon.
One of CSECs almost two thousand employees housed in the technologically advanced listening post sipped her lukewarm coffee as she listened to the boring chatter between two German politicians conversing on mobile phones in Berlin. As her eyes flicked to the silent flashing red alert on her screen, a finger automatically moved and tapped the icon to send the reason for the notification to her headphones. After listening to the live Russian conversation between a frantic soldier informing his superior of the event that had just taken place, which she found hard to believe, she copied the recorded message onto a secure thumb drive, switched her listening station to Unattended and headed for her supervisor’s office.
When the select few invited to the secret meeting in the White House’s Oval Office were ready, President Conner nodded to his Chief of Staff, Samuel Hopkins. Hopkins pressed play on the portable recorder on the President’s desk and stood back. All eyes focused on the player when a man, his voice tinged with obvious fear, began talking frantically in Russian. Interspersed into the conversation was the calmer, male voice of the person in authority the other man had contacted.
When the conversation ended, Hopkins pressed pause. “What follows is the less agitated English transcript of the call.” He restarted the player.
“This is comrade Sven Kulikov stationed at Checkpoint Siberia 5. There is an urgent situation here. Deaths have occurred. I need to speak to someone from command.”
(A woman’s voice.) “Hold the line, Comrade Kulikov.”
(Unknown voice of authority. Male.) “Comrade Kulikov, what is your situation?”
“Something’s happened at the Kamera, sir. My comrades have been killed. Slaughtered.”
“Explain how this happened and by whom.”
“Yes, sir. While my four comrades entered the facility, I remained at my post…”
“Why did they enter the facility?”
“Reason unknown, sir. When I hadn’t heard from them after three hours, I went to investigate. I entered the facility and found the bodies of a scientist and my comrades stripped of flesh. Only their bones remained. On hearing a noise along the corridor, I approached and came across a… I have no idea what it was.”
“Describe it, Comrade.”
“It was a large black bag, a cocoon I think, that hung from the ceiling. Something was moving inside, then a black worm dropped out.”
“A worm, Comrade? Have you been drinking?”
“No, sir. I’m one of the few Russians that don’t like vodka. It was definitely wormlike—as long as my arm and as thick as my wrist. But it didn’t remain a worm for long. It changed into a creature like I’ve never seen before. It was alien, sir. Not of this Earth.”
“Alien? Really, Comrade?”