Fortitude, p.1
Fortitude, page 1
Contents
Title page
Copyright
Disclaimer
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Thank you
FORTITUDE
The Glitch Book 4
by
Phil Maxey
Copyright © 2021 by Philip Maxey
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
First Printing, 2021.
https://www.philmaxeyauthor.com
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales, is purely coincidental.
CHAPTER ONE
Day 10: Extermination.
Clangs and booms reverberated through the metal walls around Alexis, as she looked desperately at the eyes that did not want to meet hers. “Did the message get to the other ship? Were they saved?”
A hand shoved her forward. She only just managed to step over the ship’s door seal without tripping and emerged into the night, except it wasn’t dark. The dock the huge ship was moored against was a sea of light and activity. A roar of chopper blades made her look up, squinting in to a light falling rain, as a fleet of helicopters flew overhead, almost close enough to touch. She followed their trajectory towards the city of Anchorage, Alaska, which glowed on the horizon a few miles to the southeast, its population now five times as large.
“Keep walking,” said the soldier behind her. She stepped up on the gangway and that’s when she saw them below. A platoon of soldiers, all fully kitted out and aiming weapons at her. She could also tell they weren’t conventional rifles, but similar to the ones she had seen in the mountain base. Normal M4’s would tear her apart but leave what was inside her alive, and that’s not what the soldiers would want. Travis walked ahead of her, anxiously looking left and right at the technology which he knew could end him.
A soldier at the bottom of the slope looked up at her. She knew he hated her and she couldn’t blame him.
She walked faster, trying to use her bound hands on the handrail to stop from falling forward. “Captain Buckner? Cody? Did they get the—”
He briefly turned to her, his expression giving her the answer and her heart sank.
“I’m sorry…” said Travis. “I tried…”
She silently nodded to the apparition that only she could see, her head feeling heavy with sadness and guilt.
“Maybe our warning allowed some to be rescued?” he continued.
It was a hope that she hadn’t the energy to give life to. Instead she stepped off the gangway, as the soldiers parted ways, allowing her a view of the open door of a humvee, just one of three that were waiting.
Soon she was seated in the back, Cody to her left, another soldier to her right as the small convoy weaved between shipping containers and military hardware that was coming off the cavalcade of ships which filled the harbor.
As they left the port they joined a jam of trucks, large and small, some filled with soldiers, others tarpaulin covered, all heading towards a city that was ablaze with lights, some of it scouring the clouds above through powerful beams. They passed over a bridge. The silhouettes of peaks sat miles off to her left, the north, while the tall buildings of the downtown area beckoned to the east, the direction they were driving.
What do you think they will do with us… I mean me.
“With the infiltration of the Cheyenne mountain base,” replied Travis. “I’m…. We are their best chance of surviving the coming apocalypse.”
“Apocalypse?” The words blurted from her mind then mouth. The man to her right briefly looked to her, then looked away. Cody didn’t even do that. She shrank further into her seat then whispered the question again in her mind.
Apocalypse? Are we at that stage already?
“We were at that ‘stage’ the moment the Spirit Mind was born. This has always been about survival. The humans… I mean, the people and their governments are now realizing that.”
They drove into streets filled with vehicles and people, civilians and military alike. Most of the faces sliding by her window looked lost. Their world had ended and they were looking for salvation anywhere they could find it. She wondered if the far north of the continent would be it. The convoy drove past a brightly lit bar, filled to the brim with people, some were even smiling. She sighed. She couldn’t remember the last time she had seen a smile, and then she did. It was Mike’s, when he saw her come out of the bank building in Tucson.
Where are you Mike…
“There’s a ninety-eight percent chance my father is currently on route to this location.”
She smiled.
*****
Mike looked out at the last embers of a gray sun as it dissolved into the night. Aaron Kellor, the long haul truck driver that he had been seated next to for seven hours was not much on small talk and that suited Mike fine. He needed time to process. To try and understand how it came about that he was currently driving to Alaska, to find the woman... he loved. He had only known the FBI profiler for a matter of weeks, but as the world fell apart, their worlds came together and he rediscovered emotions long since buried. And then there was what was in her head. The memory of a son that actually believed it was his son. A machine that believed it was human, and for humanity to stand any chance against the monster it had created, needed to continue to think so.
He felt the flask in his inside pocket. He had managed to get it refilled at a truck stop. The end of the world wasn’t a time for sobriety. After waiting in a few miles of traffic at the border, they just managed to make it across before it closed to all non-essential transport. He lacked his passport, but luckily he had his driver’s license and the guards at the checkpoint were so busy they just waved them through with a cursory glance.
The eight lanes had been packed with station wagons, trucks and vans piled high with furniture and families arguing, while their pets barked and screeched. A nation fleeing north.
“You want the news on?” said Aaron.
“Sure.”
A twist of a knob on the pre-digital radio was soon met with an anxious sounding man. “News is filtering in to us here at CRX, that battles are taking place across a portion of the major cities in the southern states of the US. We can only speculate as to who the American military is fighting as they have placed an embargo on information regarding the conflict, but the eyewitness reports we have been seeing and hearing seem to indicate it is linked to the alien invasion, which the world thought was ended some days ago. In other connected news a large scale evacuation is taking place in cities close to the warzone, including from what we are hearing, Las Vegas, Denver and Dallas and a constant stream of ships have been seen leaving the western seaboard, but it is unclear as to where these vessels are heading…”
“I’ve heard enough,” said Mike. He looked back out to lights from a city they were entering the outskirts of.
My fault… I could have stopped it…
The temptation to pull the flask was almost impossible to resist, but he wanted to at least wait until the next stop.
“Looks like you got out just in time,” said the driver.
“Yeah…”
They crossed a bridge then Aaron took an exit which spiraled around, until they came to a junction. Opposite, behind a large parking lot, lights flashed and rotated on the front facade of a set of buildings.
“I’m taking a break. Been on the road all day,” said Aaron.
Mike looked at him. “At the casino?”
“Yeah, that a problem?”
It was. Mike needed to get north, not play the slots or waste time at the craps tables. But Aaron and his semi were his best chance of getting to Alexis. He lacked the money to do anything else. He smiled. “Sure. It will give me a chance to stretch my legs.”
The truck and trailer crossed the junction and eventually parked alongside a few cars in the almost deserted lot.
“I can’t leave the cab unlocked. So once you get out, you won’t be getting back in for two hours. The owners don’t like people milling around, so if you ain’t got money to spend—”
Mike looked at a hotel across the way, connected to the flashier building next to it. Would definitely have a bar. He looked back to Aaron. “I’ll wait in the lounge at that place.”
Aaron pushed open his door. A rush of cold air flooded in. “Right then. Be back here in two hours. I won’t wait long.”
Mike nodded and pushed open his own door, jumped down and closed it behind. They both parted ways and he breathed in a lungful of
“You alright, buddy?” said the middle-aged bartender. “Look like you’ve seen a ghost?”
Mike pulled out the few notes he had in his wallet, holding them up. “What will this get me?” A few minutes later he had a seat nearer the window, with a small bottle of clear alcohol and a good view of the parking lot. As sleep threatened to overcome his efforts to keep his eyelids open, he almost missed the two men that were pulling open the double doors at the back of Aaron’s truck. With what was happening south of the border it wasn’t a stretch to imagine that trucks would be looted.
For a moment he contemplated staying in his seat. The alcohol in his system would slow his reactions and thinking, not exactly the state you want to be in when trying to stop a crime. He also really needed not to get shot while trying to get to Alexis.
Do I still serve the law or not…
He stood, then as the blood rushed to his head almost fell back to his seat. Shaking his head to try and regain focus he quickly moved back to the lobby keeping what was happening at the truck in view, then emerged back out into the night. The chilling air helped somewhat, but the fog from what was inside the bottle still clung to his brain.
One of the guys was keeping watch, while another had disappeared into the shadows inside the trailer.
He had witnessed a few similar heists while sitting in his old sedan, in the years before, and then when the moment was right, with local law enforcement, swooped in. But this time he was on his own. Still he wasn’t about to let Aaron lose his shipment.
Quickening his pace he moved alongside the vehicles that were parked nearby, keeping to the shadows and moved forward, keeping crouched. He hoped the element of surprise would be enough to send the two would be felon’s scurrying. He arrived at the cab. Something heavy was being dragged around in the trailer.
What are these guys looking for?
He looked along the side of the trailer. The other guy had moved. Maybe climbed up inside? Had to be—
The slight crunch of gravel beneath a boot was not enough of a warning to stop the blow of the pistol butt and his world turning black.
CHAPTER TWO
A wave crashed over Mike. He was standing on a beach. One that he recognized from a few visits he had paid to the Florida Keys. The sun beamed bright above and the air was equally salty and warm. Another wave smashed into his face and upper body, pushing him back a few steps.
“Not dreaming… you’re unconscious… Shortly you won’t be…”
Travis? Where are you?
More water enveloped him, this time filling his mouth, making him cough and splutter.
“We haven’t got long. You have to come to Anchorage!”
That might be a problem. I screwed up. How is—
He was under the turbulent sea, sinking into the depths…
He awoke to the sound of slot machines. Bells and synthetic beeps and clicks filled the air. He looked up, trying to blink away the water which was dripping from his face. An unshaven man, wearing a black suit stood a few inches from his nose, partially blocking some others standing further back.
“You in there?” The man stepped away, revealing Aaron and two others. A tall woman and a shorter man. Mike instantly knew the type, and knew he was in trouble.
“I think Dale clocked him too hard,” said the first man. “Maybe he’s damaged.”
Mike looked at the person he had been in the truck seat next to, for most of the day. “Aaron? What’s…” He spat out more water. “Happening?”
The truck driver looked away, back to the two next to him, especially the smaller man, who looked like an accountant. Glasses, well groomed, slicked back hair. Mike didn’t need to see his rap sheet to know he was looking at the head of some organized crime gang. But it was the woman, Aaron then spoke to. “I thought he was just some guy, Casey! He wanted taking north. I didn’t know he was a Fed! You have to believe me!”
Casey looked at the bespeckled man, who was a foot shorter. “He alone?”
He nodded while a smile crept across his face. “All alone and very much out of his jurisdiction. And from what I found, he’s not even an FBI agent anymore. Got suspended. Something to do with all the mess down south.”
The first man lunged, grabbing Mike by the shoulders and lifted him up, off the seat. “Why don’t Dale and I take him out back. No one’s going to miss this guy. They got aliens and shit to take care of.”
Casey lifted her hand. The guy dropped Mike back onto the seat with disappointment. The early fifties woman who looked like a soccer-mom, wearing a puffy green winter jacket walked closer to Mike, who by now had adjusted who he thought was in charge. “You got anything to add to this discussion of whether I let Conway do what he wants with you?”
“I don’t care what you got going on here. I just want to get north. To Alaska.” Mike knew they weren’t going to let him live. He had obviously stumbled into a smuggling operation, maybe drugs. The kind of network that ran lines across the border. Exactly what he had spent the last few years trying to find and stop. Unless he found a way to escape, his days would end in some ditch just inside Canada. He scanned the wall of brightly colored machines and blackjack tables around him, trying to locate either something he could use as a weapon or an exit. Preferably both.
The woman pulled back then looked at Conway with a sigh. “Can’t have a Fed know about us.” She looked at her henchmen. “Yeah, tell—”
Bells, whistles, an orchestrated display of jingles and flashing lights came from the other side of the room. Aaron jumped a little, his eyes now scanning for an exit as well.
Conway frowned. “That dumb fruit celebrity machine keeps malfunctioning. Third time this week it’s suddenly produced a jackpot with no one playing it.” The cacophony of noise continued.
Casey shook her head. “Go turn it off. I can’t think with it making a racket.”
He walked across the patterned carpeted floor, disappearing around a wall of digital slot machines. Mike knew this was his chance. His hands were bound behind his back, but his legs weren’t. Their mistake.
Charge into the small guy, then the woman, keep running, should be—
An explosion of sound and light came from every screen, with pixelated drums spinning, while distorted music poured from every speaker. The small guy was crouching, covering his ears, Aaron was nowhere to be seen. Trying to ignore the overwhelming noise Mike sprang up and started to run forward when the woman threw her hand out in his direction. Within its grip was a Glock. He froze just as the machines did the same. The only noise anyone could hear was from their beating hearts.
“What the hell did you do over there!” shouted Casey, her head pivoting slightly to the side, while trying to keep her eyes fixed on the special agent. Only silence replied. “Conway!”
Mike edged forward.
“What the hell…” said the guy with glasses.
Mike looked at him then followed his gaze to the bank of slot machines to his left. A series of strawberries, cherries and bananas, perfectly aligned had formed the start of a sentence. ‘You will not make—’ Mike looked across to the bank on his right, reading the rest, ‘— it to her agent Richter.’ He staggered back almost falling over the chair.
Casey’s head flicked between Mike and the displays, her gun hand wavering. “What is this? You playing a game, Fed?”
The digital barrels spun again, this time settling on another message displayed across the room. ‘There will be no… ascension for her” They spun once more. “Only oblivion…’
