Baldur’s Gate Heroes #005
Carnival, Part Two
After days at sea Imoen found herself longing for the luxuries of home. Like a room that stayed still. That would be nice. Another thing that would be nice would be if there was a place she could change her clothes without two men watching over her.
“Just how do you manage to get into that suit?” Yoshimo quipped when he saw her dressed from her neck to toe in a dark blue rubber cat suit.
“A few vodka and martinis’ usually does it,” the red head winked. “Are we there yet?”
“We have the island in sight,” he showed her the display. The island looked like just a large chunk of rock floating in the middle of the ocean. That at least seemed consistent with the first part of Yoshimo’s story. If this was a newly created island as he said then vegetation wouldn’t have yet had a chance to take hold. The rest she wasn’t so sure about.
She’d had a chance to read the documents she’d been provided about the facility and the Engineered Life Form. It wasn’t a particularly thrilling read but something struck her. She watched the documentary channels… hadn’t they only finished mapping the human genome a few years ago? This ELF was older than that. Imoen was no scientist, but it seemed wrong. They claimed to have ‘programmed’ every aspect of her DNA, creating a whole new species.
Inside Dynaheir the three of them had no time to themselves, so it was only yesterday while Yoshimo set up the radio to communicate with his employer that she finally had a chance to ask Minsc about it. Minsc didn’t understand a word she was saying, but eventually he spoke to Boo and the hamster agreed that it seemed unlikely.
Whoever Yoshimo had spoken to wanted their identity kept secret and had masked their voice. He only confirmed what Yoshimo had already told her. They were to grab the ELF, alive if possible, and return with her to the mainland. There then followed very detailed instructions on where to drop her off and receive payment of one million dollars… yeah, right.
At first, this had seemed to Imoen like a great opportunity to make a quick buck whilst rescuing someone. But, now that she’d a few days to think and wasn’t being so impulsive this whole thing sounded worse and worse. Project ELF, whoever they really were, wanted everything kept secret. The only way they could ensure that would be if none of the thieves lived long enough to tell anybody. They were just being used so that if they got caught beforehand they wouldn’t know enough to incriminate anyone besides themselves. She decided it was best not to tell Yoshimo about her suspicions… she wasn’t sure if he was in on it. If she kept playing along she might get answers.
There was another thing though…
“De’Arnise Industries?” Imoen had said out loud as soon as she’d read it shortly after they’d left land.
“You know about them?” Yoshimo yawned. While Minsc worked tirelessly keeping them on course there hadn’t been much for the other two to do.
“One of the richest families in the world,” Imoen looked at him bemusedly. When Mister De’Arnise’s wife died in a plane accident it had been all over the news, and surrounded by the usual conspiracy theories. Surely there wasn’t a person alive who hadn’t heard of them. “Dad’s a respectable businessman,” and we all knew about those. It was no surprise at all he was up to something illegal. “Daughter’s a real Paris Hilton type… daddy gets her absolutely anything she wants.”
“So?”
“So, they’re rich. Not just rich, super rich. If any of us are identified they could have every gun for hire in the world using us for target practice.”
“Then, we shall just have to be very careful that no one identifies us.”
And that had been the end of that conversation. It was too late for her to turn back now. The two of them could possibly infiltrate without being spotted. Minsc would have to stay on board Dynaheir unless there was a major emergency, as he was pretty unmistakable.
“Okay then, listen up,” back in the present, Imoen held up the map she held. “There are some caves on the south side. We should be able to remain submerged and get inside undetected. There’s a back door here that leads to a section of the facility that’s just used for storage. Hopefully there won’t be anyone in there.”
That was the plan. At least getting inside the door would probably be very easy. Finding the ELF and getting out again? Not so easy… the total staff wasn’t more than a hundred, so everyone inside probably knew everyone else who worked there, so they couldn’t just steal a couple of lab coats and walk around freely. And moving inside ventilation shafts? That was only possible in movies. You could get inside them at certain places but couldn’t go anywhere as the other end would become too narrow for anything larger than a rat.
“Minsc…” the big man approached Imoen, a big look of concern across his big face. “Minsc is not comfortable with Imoen facing bad men alone.”
“That’s the way it has to be Minsc,” Imoen assured him. “I’ll call you if I need you, but with any luck we’ll be able to get in and out with out a fight,” truth be known though, she considered it very unlikely they wouldn’t get into at least one firefight along the way. “There’s an odd saying you know… ‘Luck of the Irish’. Look at the history… they’ve never really been that lucky…” she stopped herself when she realized she was rambling. She did that when she was nervous.
“Ahh… you feel uneasy too,” Minsc knew her pretty well. “Minsc is eager to whip the cream of evil, but understands that at times it is better to stay quiet as a hamster. Come, Minsc has something to show Imoen,” the Russian went to the back of Dynaheir and pulled out a case. “We have kept them since that day, but we, Minsc and Boo, we feel that they belong to you.” He placed the case on the workbench, opened it almost reverently and turned it slowly to show Imoen the contents. The red heads eyes widened in both surprise and awe.
This was Diana’s gear. Her costume, belt and weapons. And there was another smaller box inside about the length of a man's forearm. Imoen removed that carefully and dared to look inside. She gasped… the last time she had seen this had been in a dream.
Diana’s Hell Pistol. Probably the most powerful and lethal handgun ever devised, although the hand it been made for had to have been at least as big as Minsc’s. The merculite bullets it fired were more akin to minute missiles and capable of punching through any known armor… a well aimed shot could take out a tank, easy. Obviously, this was something Diana had reserved for only the most dangerous foes. It had rarely been used, and hadn’t been drawn even when Diana had fought Sarevok.
“Why not, sis?” Imoen whispered to herself. ‘Why’d you have to let him kill you? Why’d you leave me here by myself?’
The red head held up the weapon and watched the light gleaming off the well polished metal. Somehow it seemed alive… like it had some sort of will of its own, and it wanted her to carry it.
“No,” she gasped and quickly placed it back. It had fault Diana and the others had died. She’d had a job to do and she failed. Diana had been a true hero. She had never failed to help anyone or do the right thing. Okay, she was annoyingly perfect in every way, but… Imoen just hasn’t the right to any of this. “Thanks for showing me this Minsc… but I won’t need any of that right now. I’ll… think about what to do with it all later.”
Minsc was somewhat befuddled. The poor guy had only been trying to help her.
“I’ll be fine fella’,” she forced a smile for him. “You just get us into those caves.” He nodded and went to the controls. “Deep breaths Immy, deep breaths,” she whispered. Once that was out of the way she was still worried that she was out of practice, but she told herself it would all come back.
It didn’t take long for Minsc to get them inside the cave. Imoen attached her weapon belt and pulled on her jacket that concealed all manner of technical wizardry she was going to need. It had been a while. She’d forgotten what it had been like to pull on the black boots that provided an extra layer of protection for her knees and shins. Somehow, doing so made her feel safe.
Yoshimo was dressed a little less hi-tech, with black combat vest and fatigues. But he was ready. They opened the hatch on the top of Dynaheir and climbed out to begin their mission.
As promised, they were in a cave and found the back door nearby. It was heavy and sealed tight. It needed a pass card to be opened. Imoen attached a palm top computer and set to work cracking the code.
“Well this is weird,” she said after a minute.
“What’s wrong?” Yoshimo looked worried, possibly wondering if he’d made the right choice by coming to her. “Can’t you open the door?”
“No prob. This system’s looser than Clinton… it’s just that, it looks like the base is on emergency power.”
“Why?” Yoshimo looked really worried now.
“I can’t find that out from here, but it looks main power has been out for at least a few days. You still wanna go in?” There was really no point in asking. They’d sailed out into the middle of no where, there was no way they were leaving without at least looking around.
He nodded and they each pulled down masks. Imoen just had to press a few buttons and the door unlocked.
“Ta-da!” Imoen chimed triumphantly. “I wrote this software a few years ago. Still haven’t found a door that could beat it. What? You don’t believe me? I guess I’m not as stupid as you thought.”
“I assure you,” Yoshimo answered. “It would be impossible for anyone to be as stupid as I thought you were.”
“You think I’m scared of you because you know karate? You wait till you see my moves… in fact you won’t, because I’ll be so fast. It may not even look like I land a single punch but in about forty or fifty years that person’s heart is just going to suddenly stop beating. So watch what you say to me.”
“Yes,” Yoshimo looked to the side, trying to figure out exactly what she’d said but realized it was a waste of his brains resources. “Can we go in?”
“Sure.”
They entered quickly and ducked behind some containers. As the door started to swing shut behind them they realized there was no light inside the facility. Fortunately Minsc has supplied them with some compact night vision goggles so they wouldn’t have to give themselves away by shining torches everywhere.
As expected, it was a storage area. Rows and rows of crates and boxes and an abandoned forklift. Nothing at all worth seeing.
“There should be an office just a couple of rooms ahead of us,” Imoen had memorized the entire layout of the facility. “If there’s a computer in there I may be able to hack into the system and set up remote access to all the surveillance cameras.” The plan was, first to use them to find what they were looking for, then disable and re-enable as they moved around. Have them loop the same bit of footage back over and over until they were through. Hopefully that would fool security long enough for them to get in and out.
Already they felt something was very wrong. When they arrived in the office unhindered and found the computer terminal still functioning that feeling exploded somewhat,
“It’s down,” Imoen hacked in to the network as promised. “Camera’s… motion sensors… all down. Only things working are the computers and the doors.”
“Has the base been abandoned?” Yoshimo asked. “Perhaps they found out their secret lab was no longer secret.”
“There’s nothing in the log about an evacuation. Besides, it would be pretty dumb of them to do all that but leave the computers behind.”
“Unless they plan for it all to self destruct. I told you, they were originally researching geothermal energy here. We’re sitting on top of a volcano.”
“Do you always expect the worst?”
“That way, I can’t be disappointed.”
“Well… I haven’t found anything about a self-destruct yet. There was a massive power surge about five days ago, and that’s when all the log entries stopped. The base can run on emergency power for about a month…”
They heard something being knocked over outside and instantly took cover behind the desk. The door opened seconds later and a light started to search the room. Imoen strained her ears listening… she couldn’t make out any footsteps, but there was a very low humming. The light went dead, but the humming remained. By her estimation it was right above… she took out her pistol. Whatever was there, it seemed they would have to take it out.
She shot up and shined her flashlight directly at it, hoping to blind it. It being some kind of bronze bird or dragon. It rose in the air, stopping just short of the ceiling. Its head started twitching between her and Yoshimo. It seemed to be waiting for something.
Imoen held her fire, and the bronze bird slowly descended. It started looking at her, and its green eyes started to flash. She noticed Yoshimo was about to pull the trigger on his own gun.
“Wait!” She said as forcefully as she could. He turned to her, looking for an explanation. “Look at its eyes.”
“They’re flashing,” Yoshimo noted. “So?”
“Have you ever seen the film, Close Encounters?”
“Can’t say I have.”
“Well I don’t blame, it was pretty boring. I fell asleep, but when I woke up towards the end there was this spaceship and it played this tune and the people on the ground had to play it back to them.”
“What does that have to with this?”
“You see the eyes… there’s a pattern there, right? What I’m getting at, is maybe this is some sort of probe that’s supposed to go to other planets. It thinks we’re aliens, so it’s giving us a test to see how smart we are.”
“Even if it us, why would it be roaming free through the facility?”
“I don’t know… but something’s happened here and this thing might be able to help us.”
Imoen used her flashlight to repeat the same pattern back to the probe. Its eyes went dim, and then it rotated three hundred and sixty degrees and started to float away… Imoen had no idea what was keeping it in the air, but she was sure there was some perfectly reasonable scientific explanation for it. It stopped a few feet away. The red head took a step towards it, and it moved, again stopping after a few feet.
“It wants us to follow it,” Imoen said.
“What do we do now?” Yoshimo asked.
“Follow it,” she shrugged. Maybe she was being impulsive again, but it seemed the best thing to do.
It led them across the entire level of the facility. The grey corridors probably looked pretty lifeless even when there were people here. Now the place was just plain creepy. And, it didn’t take them long to find a body.
“Look,” Yoshimo nodded towards a hunched form, keeping his weapon at the ready. Imoen examined the corpse. A security guard by the looks of it, a man with a dark moustache. She was no doctor either, but he looked he’d been dead for days and it wasn’t difficult to ascertain the cause of death. “What happened?”
“He panicked,” Imoen explained. “He panicked and something got him. There’s some kind of claw marks all over him… he was cut to pieces.”
“How do you know he panicked?”
Imoen pointed to the gun in the man's hand. “Safety’s still on,” she made doubly sure that her weapon was ready to fire when she needed it to. “You think that girl could still be here?”
“We have to make sure.”
“Minsc?” Imoen activated her radio.
“Minsc is here and waiting!” The man boomed back at her.
“This place is deserted, so you can come on in. Brings lots of big guns, and… hurry.”
“At once! No Boo, there are no guns for hamsters. Your paws are too tiny to hold anything…” Minsc trailed off, leaving Imoen to face the silence.
They heard something again. It wasn’t the probe; that had stopped at the end of the corridor they were in. It could have been Imoen’s imagination, but Yoshimo heard it as well. It had come from a door behind them.
Imoen got to the door first, waited for Yoshimo to cover the other side and then went in. It looked like the cafeteria… the tables and chairs along with sandwiches that were a week old and cups of cold coffee were strewn all over the place. She couldn’t see anything else but continued advancing slowly. Halfway across, she became satisfied the room was empty and turned around. Then she saw it.
Man sized, but somehow attached to the ceiling. It fell, batting Yoshimo aside when it landed. It was no man… it looked like some sort of half-man half-beast thing, with more teeth than in a toothpaste commercial. This was exactly what she’d seen chasing her in her dreams.
Fortunately, unlike the guard whose ID badge had read ‘Buck’, Imoen wasn’t overcome by panic. Her weapon was at the ready and she started to fire. The damn thing was fast though… it was almost on top of her before she managed a hit.
It yelped like a wounded wolf and started to retreat back to the corridor. Imoen wasn’t letting it go… whatever it was, it wasn’t going to surprise her again. She pursued and found it hadn’t got too far by the time she arrived in the corridor as well. It seemed she’d hit it in the leg and that had slowed it down. She had the creature plainly in her sights and was ready to take a head shot
All she saw next was a flash of yellow and something tackled her to the floor. Okay, so maybe Imoen’s hand to hand skills weren’t so good. She had never been a violent person by nature, and preferred avoiding fights anyway. Luckily, it seemed her opponent wasn’t much better than her and got tired quickly, allowing Imoen to gain control and pin them to the floor. The red head shone her light in the persons face, so that she could see who it was and also to blind them so she could have a moment to breathe.
It seemed her assailant was a blonde woman, slightly smaller than her, with large blue eyes and pointed ears. The very Engineered Life Form they were looking for.
Maybe she was lucky after all.
