"Underground tunnels!" Neil replied. "These suckers are connected all across America. The Draco really wanted to make sure they had their assets protected."
"The plan was simple," Cindy said. "We would stay in our bases if Plan A was executed, in which case a series of catastrophic events would cripple the American infrastructure and we'd watch everyone tear themselves apart. But if for some reason Plan A failed, the second plan was to unleash a hellstorm of nuclear missiles across every populated place and body of water. The bunkers were designed to be a shelter for those of us who were to remain."
"And you were perfectly okay with that?" Sang asked.
Cindy sighed. "I don't know what to tell you."
"Man, oh, man, you are so lucky you're so valuable to us," Neil said. "Cause I guarantee you'd be the one they'd pin all of this on."
"You think I don't know that?" Cindy replied. "I just want to pay back my debt to society and go home."
"Well, this is how it starts," O'Hara replied. "You do one good deed after another and then maybe you won't feel so guilty about betraying humanity."
"Oh, burn!" Neil said.
Sang glanced over at Van and smiled at him. "I told you we could do it."
"You really did," Van said. "I didn't believe you… but you managed to put it all together."
A few more hours of driving passed before they reached a large boulder in the middle of the desert.
"That's it," Cindy said as the car rolled up to a stop, "that's the place."
Neil took out his pistol as he parked the car. "Alright, let's check it out. You kids stay in the back and try to keep quiet."
O'Hara nodded and drew out her revolver, and the two slipped out of the car and began to investigate the area, looking for any signs of trouble.
"This place is abandoned," Cindy said. "We got a signal from headquarters a moment before we lost all contact with the Draco. They told us that there was some kind of a compromise on their base and that we were to await further instructions, but nothing happened after that. There was nothing but pure silence for hours. Then a single message arrived. 'If you are reading this, the mothership has been compromised. It's all over.' And that was it. We called around to a few bases and we all got the same message. So everyone left. Well… not our division, of course; as we were getting ready to leave, the CIA busted the wall down and arrested half of us, and shot the ones who resisted."
"It's clear," Neil said as he walked back to the car. "Not a soul for miles around. So how do we get into this base?"
Cindy clambered out of the car and walked up to the boulder. She placed her hand against it and the side of the boulder began to light up with a foreign language. Van could recognize the Draco language at this point, although he still had no power to read it. She worked with the interface for a few moments until the boulder began to hiss loudly. It parted ways, revealing a large staircase leading to a bunker in the ground.
"Interesting stuff," Neil said as he, O'Hara, and Van hoisted the pod out of the vehicle. "So, is it clear down there or are you walking us into some kind of freaky hold-out ambush?"
"It's not an ambush," Cindy said as she crossed her arms. "They're all probably gone."
"Well, we'll see about that," O'Hara said. "I'm gonna scope out the inside. Neil, get rid of the vehicle."
Neil nodded and walked over to the car, and began to fiddle with it. "If I were you guys, I'd pull these suitcases full of cash out," he said as he leaned into the driver's seat and began to work on the gas pedal.
"What are you doing?" Van asked.
"We're gonna let this sucker keep on driving, throwing them off our trail," Neil said.
Sang was busy pulling the suitcases full of money out of the car, and much to Van's surprise, there was quite a lot of money. Somehow, he had been expecting the CIA to screw them over on the financial side of things, as well.
"It's clear," O'Hara said as she reemerged from the bunker. "Not a soul down there. One dead guy, though he looks like he shot himself."
"Weird," Sang said.
"Some of them were like that," Cindy said. "They really were messed up in the head, and Draco had some kind of control over them. Creepy stuff."
"Yet, you had no trouble taking a paycheck from them," Neil said as he finished his work on the car. "And there we go!" He turned the car on and it roared to life. As soon as it started, it began to roll forward, far away from them.
"You know, it might just crash into something a few miles away," Sang said. "I mean, it could literally get stuck five minutes from here."
"I know, so I rigged it to blow the hell up," Neil said.
"When did you have time to do that?" Van shouted.
"Oh, before we left," Neil replied.
"We were riding around in a car that was rigged to explode?" Van shouted. In the distance, they all heard a loud explosion.
"Yeah, we were fine as long as we didn't hit any hard bumps or make any sudden turns," Neil said.
"Let's just go inside," Van said as he let out another frustrated sigh. There was really no winning when it came to a conversation with Neil.
They grabbed their gear and hauled the pod down the stairs and into the underground bunker. The rock sealed up after them, leaving them in total darkness for a second. The lights slowly began to come on then, and Van could see tons of maps all over the walls. They were maps of the United States, and he could see the plans for movement and conquest.
"This is some messed up stuff," Neil whispered as they walked through the corridors. They were greeted by a very rank smell as they made their way into the central communications room. There was a large computer system with a huge monitor on the wall, as well as dozens of consoles. A solitary man was lying on the ground, dead.
"Ugh, he reeks," Sang said as she tried not to gag from the smell.
"Tell me about it," Neil said. "Come on, O'Hara, let's get this stiff some fresh air. Sang, you and the nerd twins set up the computer system."
Sang nodded at Van and Cindy. "Let's get to work."
There wasn't much difficulty in setting up the computer system. According to Cindy, these bunkers were powered by special reactors designed by Draco to stay running for a very long time, and the computers had no trouble interfacing with the pod. After about an hour of work, they were able to get the computers up and running, and the pod was connected.
Sang sat in the operator's chair and began to work on the computer. The holographic display showed various different statistics and schematics for the advanced Draco pod.
"Any luck?" Van asked as he hovered over her shoulder.
"I don't really know what I'm looking for," she replied. "There's a lot of data in here, and I wouldn't know what a living entity would even begin to look like."
"There!" Van said as he pointed to the main screen. The screen was starting to display the head of a brilliant white dragon.
"Yeah, that's definitely him," Sang said as she typed some more on the console. The speakers became engaged and they could hear a voice.
"Sang? Van? Is that you?" asked the voice.
"Jet!" Van shouted. "You're alive!"
"I suppose I am. I can hear you, but I cannot see you," Jet replied. "Fascinating. I believe you have accessed my consciousness directly. I have been looking forward to hearing your decision. Am I to believe you're going to aid my cause?"
"Yes," Van said as he stepped forward to look at the majestic dragon's face. "Sang and I will be moving in to rescue your people. And then after that, we want you to show us how to beam ourselves into other game systems, too."
"Are you going to be rescuing other races?"
"We're gonna undo everything that Draco has worked so hard for," Van replied. "Step by step and piece by piece, we're going to dismantle everything they have ever done."
"And that you shall, Van," Jet replied. "I have no doubt. And your government has chosen to aid you?"
"Not… uh, not entirely, but we're working on it," Sang said. "We might be able to figure out some way to persuade them later on, but for right now, they want to keep all of this hush hush. So we're doing it off the record."