Chapter 104 – Unknown Depths

  “Hey Cole, security team brought up a present for you,” said Howie. He held up what looked like an otherworld assault rifle, grinning ear to ear. “The lab got trashed, but at least those guys dropped loot. I don’t know what it does. But those things were tough as nails, so I bet it’s pretty good.”

  Back in the trace lab, Cole held out his hands and caught the rifle as Howie pitched it over. It was certainly the strangest-looking otherworld armament he’d seen. All black carapace and overlapping, segmented plates. A magazine well flared out from the left side, connected to some sort of rotating chamber mechanism. Rather than an ejection port, the right side had a series of vents that looked like… gills, maybe? The stock, instead of being solid, was a set of drooping tentacles. If he had to guess, it had come from the massive serpent that had chased him across the sublevel.

  Howie lifted one of the limp tentacles. “When a field is active I bet they come alive. I think they wrap around your shoulder for support.”

  “Gross,” said Cole. “Almost as gross as Roxy’s weeping shotgun.”

  Howie shrugged. “No one ever said otherworld guns wouldn’t be weird AF. You shoulda’ seen some of the freaks that tried to come through into the trace lab. Portal sliced apart this kraken thing with like a hundred tentacles when the field switched. Instant calamari.”

  “That’s great. Seen Doc Sukesh?”

  “Here, Mr. Colton,” called Sukesh, coming into the lab along with the QRF lieutenant. He was mopping off his brow with a cloth with one hand and extended the other. “Well done with the generators. George told me you took on great risk to give us the energy we needed to flush out the foreign Lewis Field.”

  Cole shook his hand. “Didn’t see as we had a choice, Doc. What’s the damage?”

  Sukesh bowed his head and closed his eyes for a moment. “Four killed, a dozen injured, I’m afraid. A steep cost that would have been higher yet were it not for yourself and Mr. Hoyle. I shudder to think what would have happened if we’d attempted to run those tests without a pair of Kickers in the facility."

  “Doc, I’m the one that brought that dagger here. From where I’m standing, this is on me,”

  “No!” said Sukesh, more forcefully than Cole would have thought the guy capable of. “This is not your fault, Mr. Colton. In the auxiliary control room Tony determined that it wasn’t the world of origin for the armament which overwhelmed the lab. It was a different LF signature altogether. Another world leapfrogged across our tenuous connection to the March, saturating us with its own native Lewis Field. It was not something I’d have ever thought possible, and this career has given me a very open mind, Mr. Colton.”

  “This other world, could that be what Ryan’s world is fighting off? Our contact said they were at war with monsters coming up from under the sea.”

  Dr. Sukesh considered for a moment. “I would say the odds of that are good. And now that we are aware of the threat, we can find a way to mitigate it and move forward. The business of otherworlds is inherently a dangerous one. We do what we can to mitigate the risk. But we can never fully eradicate the danger because we can never fully understand the depths that we need plunge ourselves into. Yet, we must take that dive all the same.” He straightened his glasses, which had slid down his nose from the sweat.

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  Dr. Sukesh looked around the lab. “But in the immediate, we have more pressing needs. I must see to the families of those hurt and contact Director Bricker. A casualty of this magnitude will require a compelling explanation to those that oversee the Director.”

  Cole nodded. “Anything we can help with, Doc?”

  Sukesh shook his head. “I’m afraid not. We’re in no position to continue testing, for the immediate future. It would be best for you to return to your own duties. But if we do further testing with this world, we will do so only with attuned security support. We’ve been remiss in believing the danger to this facility had passed. I would be grateful to have your presence again, when such a time comes.”

  “You got it, Doc,” said Cole. “I’ll call my squire and have our flights moved up.”

  Cole waved over Howie and gave him the details as they left the facility. A quick call to Sophia and their flights were moved up to the next day. Which seemed to arrive almost instantly when Cole’s head hit his hotel pillow. He awoke to his cell phone alarm buzzing on the pelican case that contained the otherworld assault rifle. Several missed texts and two calls showed that Roxy and Director Bricker had both reached out. He texted Roxy that he was fine and then called Bricker back directly.

  Bricker picked up almost instantly. “Cole, Doctor Sukesh briefed me on the high side. Don’t say anything classified on this line. You’re coming back today?”

  “Yes sir,” said Cole. “Sophie’s got us on the 1100 out of Knoxville. We’ll be back to the compound by 1400.”

  “Good. Come and see me pronto. I want to get your account of events as well.”

  Cole rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. “Done deal. Should I bring Howie with me? He understood what the eggheads were doing better than I did.”

  There was a pause. “If you think he’ll have valuable insight, then yes.”

  “Alright. We’ll see you in a few hours, sir.”

  “Safe flight. And good work. Dr. Sukesh told me there would have been a lot more carnage had the two of you not acted as quickly and effectively as you did.”

  Cole still had his misgivings about that. It wasn’t the first time he’d had people die on his watch. But it was the first time they’d been American civilians—the people he swore to protect. And in US territory. For most civilians, war was a foreign thing that happened in other countries. But the most distant war of all had almost established a beachhead in the middle of Eastern Tennessee.

  In the morning, after collecting Howie, Cole headed to the airport with a brief stopover at a Waffle House for breakfast and several cups of coffee.

  “Oh my god, the south has been holding out on us,” Howie said around his food.

  “You don’t have these in Philly?” asked Cole.

  “I thought they were an urban legend. You still exhausted?” asked Howie over the food. “I feel like I coulda’ slept another eighteen hours.”

  “Yeah,” said Cole. He sighed. “Wasn’t expecting otherworld combat. I’m always wiped when we leave the Lewis Field.”

  Howie nodded. “I think it’s the amount of energy we’re burning with our enhancements. It all stacks up and comes calling, you know?” he looked out the window. “Shame what happened. And that we gotta go back early. I wouldn’t have minded staying and helping out at the lab. Learn more about how all that stuff works from the guys who discovered it.”

  Cole finished off his second cup of coffee. “Is that something you want? Doc Sukesh said he’d ask for more attuned support. You could probably get assigned there full-time if you wanted.”

  Howie thought about it for a minute. Then shook his head. “Naw. Give up active missions to babysit nerds?”

  “Pot, meet kettle,” said Cole, grinning.

  Howie chuckled back. “Fair. But no. I want to keep exploring the multiverse. And I can’t have you, Roxy, and Besson outleveling me. I’d never hear the end of it.”

  “You’re right, you wouldn’t,” said Cole. He pulled a couple bills out of his wallet and dropped them on the table. “Let’s go.”

  Howie checked his watch. “Eager to sit at the gate for an hour and a half?” he asked.

  “Just worried the alien squid gun in the trunk might give us a hiccup going through security. Diplomatic passports and paperwork or no.”

  “Ah, yeah,” said Howie. “There’s that.”