A Haunt of Jackals by G.R. Carter

Author:G.R. Carter [Carter, G.R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-06-29T18:30:00+00:00

****

Sergeant Red Morton watched in horror as two-dimensional black-and-white figures opened fire on something outside the view of the screen. Like an old TV show from his youth, he was mesmerized by the action. He saw one man drop, finger on the trigger and still firing his weapon. The flash went from parallel to straight up until the man and the gun finally landed on the ground.

Suddenly the screen went blank in bright white, then black as the interior lights flickered, then flickered again and finally went black as the control room descended into darkness. Morton froze, unsure of what had happened and what to do next. A million thoughts flashed through his mind in the few seconds it took for the battery-operated emergency lights to kick on.

LED bulbs above the doorway and along the hall floor cast enough light for Morton to see the faces of his guards—terrified and confused. There was no training for this. A lack of electricity was simply an impossible scenario, yet here he was, face-to-face with it. He started to head for the warden’s office, to find Lewis and figure out the next steps.

He stopped suddenly…he was the man in charge. He had to make decisions now, every second counted.

“All officers: Code One, assemble in the control room!” he shouted. He grabbed the intercom to repeat the order. It was dead. He ran to the balcony overlooking the cafeteria. Between the moonlight, the solar storms and the faint glow of the emergency lights, he could see inmates milling around, some laughing, some just standing like zombies. The Syn should be kicking in by now, making most of them passive.

He gathered himself and calmed his voice. “Attention, everyone,” he shouted over the noise of six hundred startled people. “Just relax, it’s a temporary glitch. We’ll have the lights back on in a second,” he lied again. Deception was getting too easy. “In the meantime, I need all guards to come up here and give me a hand getting a couple of things done.” He was praying that would give the ten Eels downstairs the chance to extricate themselves from the crowd. The tactical suits would stay charged for a while and give them the advantage. Still, he had no idea what would happen if the whole cafeteria plunged into chaos.

His only relief was that most of the guards were in the armory, processing area, or storage level when the power was cut. His lockdown and suit up order arrived just in time to get most of them to relative safety before the generator failed. He watched the ten Eels form up and move to the exit door, manned on the other side by McCoy and three other fully-suited and charged guards. The door slid open, the ten hustled through, and the door slammed back shut in a blink.

Relieved an order had finally gone right, he scrambled halfway down the stairs and stopped. The guards were assembling in the large open loading area just below. “I need a head count.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.