Return to Duty by Dustin Williams

Author:Dustin Williams [Williams, Dustin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hypothesis Book House
Published: 2023-11-20T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 21

The Pentagon, Washington, D.C.

Brighton sprinted madly down the hall en route to the nuke launch room access point, ignoring the fact that his soggy socks were leaving a sweaty trail behind him. He was running, not only for his life but the life of mankind. He slipped and caught himself, then paused to listen. Footsteps. Heavy. Maazi is coming.

Brighton pressed his hand against a wall and pushed off to continue his sprint. Three doors down on the right, a discrete placard read, “Authorized Personnel Only.” Brighton pushed his hand into his left pocket. Phew. His access badge was still there. He pulled the badge out and slapped it against the scanner on the wall.

The scanner light was red. If access was granted, it would turn green.

Brighton watched the light intently. “Come on!” he said quietly.

The light stayed red.

“I knew it!” he said in frustration, referencing the decision that Pentagon officials recently had made to accept the lowest bidder for the installation of the new security access system. He had voted against the decision, saying they needed to go with the pricier, more reliable system. But government defaults were to always select the lowest bidder—a short-term demonstration of using taxpayer dollars wisely, but that invariably led to inferior performance and long-term problems that cost more money and safety concerns. And how about the unforeseen circumstance of needing to access this room in a timely manner when an extraterrestrial visitor is chasing you? Brighton wished he could throw this circumstance in the face of the committee who refused to listen to him.

He pulled the badge away, gave the scanner a second to reset, and slapped the badge against the scanner again.

Red light.

He looked up and down the hallway. Is there another way to access the launch room? There wasn’t.

Third time’s a charm! He pushed the badge against the scanner a third time.

Red light.

“No!”

Brighton looked down the hallway again. Heavy footsteps were getting closer. His heart began to despair. Maazi was no more than twenty seconds away. He would have to fight. But with what? Maazi was clearly impossible to kill in hand-to-hand combat.

Brighton closed his eyes and hit his head against the wall, shaking beads of sweat loose from his forehead. As the sweat splashed on his hand, several drops seeped into the security scanner’s circuitry.

Click!

The light turned green.

“Seriously?” Brighton shook his head and threw open the door.

The sound of suctioning air should have warned Brighton that something was off in the room, but his brain failed to process the warning; he was focused on the ominous being chasing him.

As Brighton stepped into the room, his feet failed to find any footing. A massive hole had been created in the floor of the nuke launch room from explosion after explosion that compromised the building’s moorings. The cavern reached four stories down.

Brighton fell forward and started to involuntarily dive into the hole. He thrust his massive forearms outward. One of a dozen rebar rods protruding from the cement floor poked his left arm, making him bleed, but his right hand gripped a second rod.

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