Catalytic Agents: Slowpocalypse, #7

By James Litherland

Two worlds collide.

 

Kat and Tony's unconventional arrival at the Northwest FURC disrupts the delicate détente between Tekihara's administration and its opponents, causing the conflict to escalate into violence and setting off a struggle for the soul of the community—even as an unknown third party prepares to break into the compound…

• Language: English
• Publisher: Outpost Stories
• Release date: Dec 3, 2021
• ISBN: 9781393427797

James Litherland

James Litherland is a graduate of the University of South Florida who currently resides as a Virtual Hermit in the wilds of West Tennessee. He’s lived various places and done a number of jobs – he’s been an office worker and done hard manual labor, worked (briefly) in the retail and service sectors, and he’s been an instructor. But through all that, he’s always been a writer. And after over thirty years of studying and practicing his craft, he took the plunge and published independently. He is a Christian who tries to walk the walk (and not talk much.)

Book preview

The Slowpocalypse

Three and a half years after Director Jonathan Miles sealed the Florida FURC to keep the facilities out of the hands of the secessionist governor, events drove the community from the compound they had called home for so long. Now Security Chief Anthony Nelson and his wife Kat have traveled across the country to the Northwest facility, to see if it would make a feasible new home, and to investigate what’s been going on there*. Because in all that time, they have heard no word from their sibling community...

(*See Slowpocalypse Book 5, Political Homicide.)

Chapter 1

Flying Free

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9:35 p.m. Thursday, June 9th

The sky above the Northwest FURC

KAT LEANED AGAINST the side of the basket, touched her left ear, and whispered. Testing. Can you hear me, Tony? Over.

Her husband scowled as he checked the burner maintaining the balloon’s altitude. Of course I can hear you, I’m right here. Then he grinned. But if you’re asking if the earbuds are working, the answer is yes.

Sighing, half in frustration with him and half in relief, she nodded. Then their network is online at least. She and Tony had seen the lights down there first, proving the power was on, and as soon as they were in range their pads had automatically attempted to connect. And had successfully hacked into the system.

Ben had modified their pads at Director Belue’s request, as part of the preparation for this mission—confirming Verity had not only planned thoroughly but well in advance, though she’d only told Kat and Tony at the very last minute. Informed them of the true nature of their assignment, anyway. The woman had probably held back some of what she knew—much as Kat’s father would have, no doubt.

Her similarly secretive approach made it easy to accept his former deputy as his successor, as FURC director, but it didn’t help Kat deal with losing him. She wished they’d spent more time together the last few years, now that there wasn’t anything she could do about it. His sudden death had created a hole in her life.

And she had to keep distracting herself, to keep from dwelling on how much she missed him. Both the power and the net may still be on, but it doesn’t mean anyone’s alive down there. For all they knew the compound could be littered with corpses, everyone killed by the Gravity Bug. Either directly by the parasite or by the infected. Or the place could have been invaded and taken over by outside interests as had almost happened to the Florida FURC.

After three and a half years without a word from the people who were supposed to be running things down there, Kat could only imagine what she might find when she landed. And every scenario she could think of was bad.

Her husband tapped his pad where it lay on the floor of the gondola next to his knee. "I see current activity—people are using their pads to access data, communicate with each other in real time, and send messages. The volume’s very light, but it is night."

Or maybe there aren’t many of them left. But that still wouldn’t explain why no one had responded to any of the messages her father and Verity had sent.

Tony merely nodded without expression, unless that intense focus could be called such. Eighty-five seconds to jump.

Kat suppressed another sigh. For a while it had been amazing, romantic, but after a week and a half sharing this small basket with her husband, she was ready for a bit of a break from him. Perhaps he felt the same—he had been the first to suggest they separate for the first part of their mission—but even so she looked forward to working on her own for a few days. Though she would worry about him, being all alone in the wild, dealing with unknown dangers.

Grabbing her duffel bag and slinging the straps over her head, she left it hanging across her chest to keep her hands free. The chute was on her back, attached to the light harness she’d stepped into earlier and couldn’t wait to get out of. Anything that restricted her movement chafed.

Dark gray and matte, the parachutes Verity had provided wouldn’t reflect light, so no one should see Kat sailing down. And she wouldn’t want to be mistaken for an invader when she would be so vulnerable. She’d look suspicious arriving like this, and the guards might shoot her before she was able to identify herself. If that were her only concern, however, she could’ve sent a message first. Or landed outside and walked up to the main gate. Or both. Whoever was down there though, might—as far as she knew—want to kill her because of who she was.

The need to enter the compound by stealth and scout things out before announcing herself was further proof something had gone grievously wrong at the Northwest FURC facility. And Verity’s preparations for their mission proved the woman had more idea what that might be than she’d shared.

Tony, find out what you need to know fast, and be careful. Contradictory advice, but he would understand what she meant. With an unknown situation awaiting them, what they needed most urgently was intel. And her husband thought there would be important information about what was going on inside the compound that could only be found outside its walls. Or at least that the possibility was enough to warrant checking it out.

Well, if he wanted to scout around, living rough in the ruins of civilization and the wilderness slowly reclaiming what man had abandoned, she hoped he enjoyed the task. Kat looked forward to the amenities she expected to find within the complex.

He nodded at her. Ten seconds.

Taking a deep breath, Kat sat up on the edge of the basket. Love you, Tony. See you soon. That is an order, by the way. And she rolled backward, off the gondola and into nothing but sky.

Black night surrounded her as she dropped like a rock, plummeting toward earth now less than ten-thousand feet below. All but invisible against a dark background, she unfolded her body to maximize resistance and extend this brief but exhilarating period of freefall. Though it didn’t feel like she was falling. More like flying.

Spread-eagled in the sky, she presented an easy target, but no one would be looking and even if they were, no one would see. And she was enjoying herself too much to worry. Soaring—she glanced at the altimeter on her wrist—about eight and a half thousand feet above the ground. Then less than eight.

However much surface area she was presenting to increase friction, the earth beneath her was rushing closer with incredible momentum, despite what her physical senses were telling her. And while she should be checking her height more often—so she’d know if her chute didn’t automatically deploy when it was supposed to and could pull the cord herself—she was having too much fun. This feeling of flight, liberating. The sense of speed, too thrilling.

Far better than a racing car and the wind blowing against her face, but it would end all too swiftly. Though she hadn’t skydived in ages—however much of a rush it always was, it didn’t last long enough to be worth the fuss—her body remembered well. And she knew her chute should pop soon, so she needed to be ready.

Bringing her arms and legs tight to her body so she became a plank, she then shifted her shoulders, brought her knees toward her chest to curl momentarily into a ball, then extended again to angle those feet toward the ground. Just in time.

The chute deployed with a snap, jerking her up, and back, or so it felt. The sudden deceleration did make her stomach flip a little, and she glanced up to confirm the lines hadn’t tangled and the canopy had spread properly. And she could feel everything was working right.

Grabbing the control handles, she peered down toward the ground and the approaching glow of the compound below. Close enough now to see patches of light and dark, where before it had been an amorphous blob. She examined the layout. Compared it with the map in her mind.

In the center and lit up was the Administration Building. Between the obstructions on the roof and the number of people sure to be around at any hour, she’d never considered landing there. Or anywhere near. To come down unobserved and avoid running into anybody until she was ready to initiate contact, she needed to aim for an area mostly—or better yet, completely—devoid of people. Two places met that criterion. The large park in the southwest corner of the complex and the warehouse sector in the northeast.

The problem with the park, of course, was those trees, bushes, and other obstacles which would make even a daytime landing hazardous. The warehouses, on the other hand, were large buildings with mostly clear, flat roofs. A good enough target in the light—and she certainly shouldn’t encounter anyone there—but even with her great natural night vision, there would be nothing but black once she got close to the surface. And she definitely didn’t want to slam into the side of a building. Planned not to.

Pulling down on the right steering toggle caused the canopy to drag on that end, and she started spiraling down. Toward the vast expanse of shadowed earth she’d identified as the warehouse district.

She didn’t want to come down too near that perimeter wall, where an alert guard might happen to spot her, and too close to the Ag sector meant more chance of being seen by people there. The dormitories set aside for the FedU students, however...

Whatever had happened here had occurred before classes would’ve begun, before those university students should’ve taken up residence. Those living quarters now sat dark and apparently empty. While she could’ve checked on her pad whether the buildings were in use—and she planned to now, once she had landed—the lack of lights, or any other signs of life, was enough to choose a warehouse on that side. And that would be a convenient location in another way.

Having made that decision, she selected the one with the largest roof—the bigger the target area, the safer the landing.

With the spot she’d picked out becoming an increasingly indistinguishable blob of black against an almost completely dark background, she slipped her infrared goggles down over her eyes and focused on that huge flat roof. Now it glowed faintly white, because buildings lost their heat slower than the earth they sat on.

She released the right toggle as she approached her target, to straighten out her flight path and line up with the spot she’d chosen. Closer to, she pulled down on both toggles to level off and make sure she cleared the parapet. She sailed over that with room to spare, then glided just a few feet above the naked cement. Thrusting both arms down hard, she flared her chute and dropped softly onto the roof, running a few short steps to spend what forward momentum she had left. She stopped and took a deep breath as the canopy collapsed in front of her, then unhooked her harness.

I’m down, Tony. Safe and sound. The balloon should still be in range for the FURCSnet’s signal to reach him.

A noisy crackle was the response. Then a faint, Nice—know... and a land—the... before breaking up completely. But she’d recognized her husband’s voice, and at least he knew she had made it. If only she could get the same assurance after he’d landed. She’d just have to take it on faith he’d be safe.

Setting the duffel she’d carried down, she began folding up the canopy, took the time to make it into a tight bundle with the strings and harness. And as she worked, she thought—Tony would stay up here, safe, scouring through all the information he could find on the FURCSnet to put together as clear a picture as possible of the situation he had to deal with, then carefully formulate a plan of action. Before he did anything.

But that would take too long, and be boring besides. She wanted to look around and see things for herself to figure out what was happening here. And whatever could be pieced together from the data on the network would of course just scratch the surface and paint an incomplete picture. Not good enough, and not her style. Anyway, more than anything she wanted a shower, and this roof didn’t offer the facilities.

So she looked around until she found an out-of-the way crevice where she stuffed her chute. It was unlikely anyone came up here very often, but if and when someone did she didn’t want them to find her equipment and alert Security. She didn’t want anyone knowing she was here. Not until she was ready to reveal herself, which wouldn’t be until after she’d showered and changed clothes. For a start.

Scanning in every direction as she stalked back over to the parapet she’d sailed above, Kat saw none of the heat signatures that would signal another individual in the area and pushed the goggles up onto her forehead again. And looked down at the ground some thirty-odd feet below.

She had jumped that far just a couple weeks ago and knew she could do it, but it had left her bruised and hurting for days even with her accelerated healing. A miracle she hadn’t sprained or broken something. At the time, though, she hadn’t had the time to consider the possible consequences. But now she wasn’t in any particular rush and felt a slower, more careful descent was called for, even if that would be more work.

But first she dug her FURCS pad out of the duffel and synched the planned map of this place she’d been given with the current status from the net and confirmed none of the student dormitories were being used. All those buildings had been locked down and the power turned off. But that shouldn’t pose a problem for her.

With all the enhancements Ben had installed on her pad, she should be able to override any lock and without it registering on the network. Somehow the pad itself and its connection to the net would not be visible to anyone monitoring the activity. Hopefully she