The Conduit: Chapter 3

Max finished his call to report on the mysterious yacht found adrift. The Starry Night was found on anything but, and he was concerned by the timing of its appearance. The security team was going over it with a microscope, looking for any reason to cast it back to the sea before the arrival of their first detainee. So far, they hadn’t found anything more than the craft being mysteriously empty.

There was a knock at the door as he transmitted his report to number one. Max closed the program and summoned his visitor to enter. It was the station doctor, Susan Reimers. From the quizzical look on her face, she was about to ask him for something.

“I hear you found a ghost ship,” she announced.

Max looked at her, putting his hands on the armrests of his chair as he leaned back. It wouldn’t stay a big secret that they’d towed in the Starry Night. But with it anchored a mile from the Oceanic it should have taken longer for the news to get around. Max questioned, ‘How does she know?’

“So, is it true?”

Susan seemed giddy with excitement. The idea of a ghost ship had her enthusiasm revved all the way and she was on the edge of her seat. Max became lost in his thoughts as he decided on how to respond. He nodded his head, letting her know the rumor was true. He betrayed his instincts, but Max blamed her flirtatious attempts at cajoling information from him. During the time they worked together, he had not seen Susan wear such a low-cut top or show off as much cleavage.

“How did you find out? Was it somebody in the control center?” asked Max.

Max’s query elicited a soft chuckle. The doctor knew that Captain Shepherd was notoriously paranoid and found it hard to take things at face value. She didn’t want to give away her little secret, but not admitting it to him would send him off on a full-blown investigation into the entire complement of staff. She decided to spare the rest of the Oceanic from such an intrusive investigation.

“Do you remember being in my office?” asked Susan.

“I remember being there a couple of times. Why?”

Susan shook her head. The normally observant station boss was missing the obvious. She wanted to lead him by the nose but expected neither to have time. Finally, she relented and reminded Max about the telescope in her office.

“You saw us towing the yacht to the outer marker,” he sighed.

“Sure did,” said Susan, smiling.

“Then you know the Starry Night was abandoned and adrift,” he admitted.

Susan wanted to get a look at the mysterious craft. She had a list of questions about the thirty-million-dollar craft. Most of them were outside of what Max was authorizing for dissemination. In particular, the origin of the craft. Jensen hadn’t reported back with the ship’s history. The two agreed to run the registry and find who owned the craft, its country of origin, and its itinerary, if it had one.

He knew some types bought such large luxury yachts, and some file itineraries with port authorities. The registries were a ruse, and most times, the yachts checked back to shell corporations. Narco-traffickers, cartel bosses, and criminal oligarchs loved the status of such luxury cruisers when they ported in California and places like New York. It afforded them the freedom to mingle with CEOs and investment moguls.

“Susan, you can’t see the ship,” Max announced. “I’ve got orders to keep it secured until the Navy can take custody of it and tow it to the mainland. Investigators will handle the forensics.”

“When will that be?”

“Sometime in the next couple of days,” admitted Max.

“Well, it doesn’t hurt to ask,” she sighed as an alarm sounded on Max’s desk.

Susan excused herself and exited the office, relenting to Max’s authority. She wasn’t one to completely give up on something if it was important. Max couldn’t help wondering if her interest was more than just curiosity. He felt certain that the subject would come up again, but now wasn’t the time to indulge the doctor’s adventurous side. Dealing with the whims of the doctor was sometimes more than he signed up for when he took the job.

As Shelly rushed into the office, a look of worry on her face, Max wondered to himself. ‘What fresh hell is this?’

“Sir, this just came in,” she informed Max as she thrust a printout in front of him.

The message was from the transport team. They were only thirty miles from the Oceanic. His jaw tightened as he looked at his watch. The Nautilus Class submarine would be docking with the station sooner than expected. As ready as he was to receive the new prisoner, Max still had to brief the team assigned to Level VI.

“Tell Jensen to meet me in the detention center,” he ordered Shelly.

As his assistant departed, Max put his hand on a scanner and opened a drawer. He pulled his sidearm out and holstered it to his waist. Then, Max hurried to the lift station. He would brief the men that they were about to receive the first guest and inform them they were required to be at their best. For the group to use a special team from the military to retrieve the prisoner, meant they were dealing with a dangerous individual, and at the bottom of the ocean, they weren’t in any position for a serious fight.

As much as Max had been briefed, there were things he didn’t understand about the operation. The prisoner’s bio was heavily redacted, even from him. Some dates didn’t make sense to the Oceanic boss. Briefing security was going to be more about motivating the men to be on their guard rather than fully letting them know the specifics of what this person did or why it took special forces to transport her to the Oceanic.

Max met the head of security at the access point to the detention level. All of Jensen’s men were present. He gave them the details of what was coming, at least what he understood of them, and the men dispersed to their assigned areas. Max and Jensen double and triple-checked the detention unit before Max’s radio sounded. It was an alert that the submarine was making its docking approach. They were about to receive the team bringing them their first prisoner.

From the control center, Max and Jensen watched the massive Nautilus Class submarine approach the lowest docking point with the Oceanic. They used a docking point on Level IV. Max and Jensen hurried to the lift so they could meet the team when the airlocks were sealed.

Max, Jensen, and four of the Oceanic security team were standing by when the airlock opened on Level IV. An entire unit stepped aboard, and Max welcomed them to the Oceanic. Hanson Morrow was in the lead.

“Max,” commented Hanson. “We’re here with your houseguest. Do you want to lead the way?”

Max led the special unit with their prisoner. They walked to the lift, where two of them entered first, and then the slightly built person wearing a black hood was put aboard with two other men. Max, Jensen, and Chief Morrow entered last, and the lift whisked them to the bottom of the sea.

Jensen stood next to Max, whispering to him that they were putting a lot of effort into securing someone so small. The most dangerous prisoner they’d ever dreamt of was a mere five-foot-six and appeared to weigh about one-hundred-thirty pounds. He wanted to know what he was missing.

“Do not underestimate your guest,” the snide Morrow insisted. “If you’re new detention unit fails, you’ll all be in more danger than you can imagine.”

“Is that so?” laughed Jensen. “Maybe you and your boys are wound a little tight. What’s this little one going to do?”

The door to the lift opened before Morrow could answer. As they entered the level, two of Jensen’s men identified each member of the transport team. Every member had to be scanned in before they could move onto the detention center. It annoyed Morrow, but the redundancy in the security was good to see.

“Can we go now, or do you boys need a blood sample as well?”

“Hey, they’re doing their jobs,” Max insisted.

“Aye,” said Morrow. “I’ll feel a little more at ease once we get this one behind the barrier.”

A few minutes later, Morrow and his team were standing in the center of the detention unit. They were on a platform with a cot and a chair. There were supports at each corner at each corner. Morrow looked at Max, asking if he was sure about releasing the prisoner.

“Leave the restraints on, and then step off the platform,” Max instructed from the control room.

Doing as he was told; Chief Morrow told his men to step down and he went last. As the final man was off the platform, the chief followed suit. Once they were all outside of the platform perimeter, Max activated the detention cell. That was when he started to pray.

The barrier worked! Max smiled as Jensen shook his shoulder. The first transparent, energized barrier was a success. They could maintain a 360-degree view of the prisoner and would be able to pass food and drink when appropriate. They could even have the prisoner put an arm through to them, or both legs, to get the shackles off.

Max stepped out and told the men to give him room. He took a small device out of his pocket and opened a twelve-by-six hole in the barrier. Max told the prisoner to step to the sound of his voice. He let Hanson remove the cuffs. They did the same with the prisoner’s ankles, instructing each movement until they could remove the shackles.

“That’s quite the technological marvel you’ve constructed. But will it hold someone inside it?” Chief Morrow demanded to know.

Jackson walked to the edge of the room and had one of the men hand him a piece of paper. He wadded up the piece of paper and tossed it against the barrier, watching it ignite as it dropped toward the ground. Max looked at Chief Morrow, a smile on his face. He knew he’d proved the unit worked.

“I think it’ll hold a person from getting out,” he said.

“Now I know why they chose this place to keep the little demon,” admitted Chief Morrow. “I guess I’ll leave the rest to you.”

Morrow and his men gathered their things and exited the detention unit. Max dimmed the lights in the unit, to give the prisoner’s eyes time to adjust. Being forced to wear a blackout hood for hours at a time meant the eyes would be sensitive to the bright fluorescence surrounding the main cell. This would help his houseguest to focus more on their first discussion than the discomfort they felt in their eyes.

“I’m Captain Max Shepherd. You’ve been brought aboard the Oceanic Station Detention Center. You are now several hundred feet beneath sea level,” he explained. “Do you understand?”

By the nodding movement of the houseguest, Max took it to mean his explanation was understood.

“Good,” he continued. “When you’re ready, you can remove the hood.”

Max and Jensen stood at the edge of the cell and watched the prisoner slowly move to remove the hood. They were both anxious to get a look at what all the hype was about. Max especially wanted to know why the group went to such great lengths to retrieve someone and bring them to the Oceanic. After two billion dollars and a couple of thousand man-hours, he was about to see why his design idea was so important to the powers that be.

As a small set of hands grasped the hem of the hood, slowly raising it, his heart started to pound in his chest. The tension in the detention unit was thick and filled the air. Slowly, their prisoner removed the mask and turned back to face them. Jensen was as shocked as Max.

“It’s a teenaged girl,” sighed Jensen. “A bloody kid,” he said, surprised.

Max was shocked, but not surprised. The dossier was true. The group spent the past four years hunting for a teenage female. He had heard number one call the prisoner the most dangerous threat humanity ever faced. What he was looking at appeared to be anything but the most dangerous person on the planet. He wondered, what the hell was going on?

Max backed Jensen away from the containment cell. The two men walked into the control center, Jensen’s mouth agape. As they caught up with Chief Morrow and his men, Max demanded a moment alone with the chief. The two walked into the outer corridor and Max stood, intently staring at the man they sent to retrieve such a monster.

“Is this some kind of a joke?” he demanded.

“I said, don’t underestimate your new guest,” Hanson reminded him. “She’s not what you think.”

“What is she?”

Hanson Morrow passed Max a file. Inside the file were pictures of where the girl was found. In one of the most remote areas on the planet, at over 20,000 feet, a teenage girl crawled out of a hole in the side of a mountain. She didn’t belong there, and by all accounts, should have died on the side of the mountain. Somehow, she climbed down and found a small village.

The second set of images was of the village in the Towai Province. Max turned his head as he tried to comprehend what he was seeing. There were bodies strewn around the village. Dozens of decapitated villagers were found there, along with a tiny teenage girl.

“Do you see how much of a mystery this is? That girl didn’t belong anywhere close to that village. Who is she? What in the hell happened there?” asked Chief Morrow. “I don’t know what she is, or why she’s here. I didn’t ask. But what we found out there told me why she was being captured.”

Morrow recounted their adventure to find the girl. They followed her trail from an archeological site in the mountains. It was something that lay hidden for hundreds, maybe thousands of years. If not for an earthquake powerful enough to raise the height of the peak, it might have remained hidden. But the earthquake that struck broke open the south face of the mountain and revealed a hidden structure carved into its side.

“You should have seen it,” Morrow assured Max, “It was an amazing find. We tracked the girl from the site. She was the only one to come out of there alive. What happened to the scientists and their security, that was unlike anything I’d ever seen. If not for the effect of the elements, I wonder what she’s capable of.”

“What’s that mean?” demanded Max, folding his arms as he listened.

Morrow looked at him, hesitant to share. His orders were, to deliver the girl and keep everything else classified. But the details were significant to keeping the girl secure and figuring out who and what she was. He told Max the truth.

“The entire team of scientists, the guides, and a detachment of troops were slaughtered, Captain. Whatever she may appear to be, that girl knows more than she’s told us,” he explained. “That’s why she’s important.”