Chapter 2

            Des stood crouched in a glade of bushes, though with the weather cooperating by bringing in thick, dark storm clouds to blot out the moon, she really didn’t have much need to hide.

            But she had dressed for all possibilities, covered in black from head to toe, night vision goggles covering her eyes.  Esme was similarly outfitted but waiting in the van where she could also monitor the situation through the small camera and mic that were attached to Des’s gear.

            “What’s your location, Big D?” Esme’s voice crackled through the headset that Des wore.

            Des smiled at the nickname, “I’m ten feet from the tracks near the first switching station, Little E.  Are you in position?”

            “I’m well hidden near the second switching station, awaiting your arrival.  ETA of your transport is four minutes and counting.”

            Des checked the watch on her wrist and set the timer.  “I’ll be going silent in three, back on as soon as I locate the cargo.  Should see you in thirty.”

            “Roger that, Big D.  Be careful out there.”

            Des gave a short laugh, “Ain’t nothing out here scarier than me right now, Little E.  But I’ll be careful.”

            Esme heard the hardness in her sister’s voice along with something that sounded like resignation.  The hardness she understood, but the resignation bothered here.  She’d have to have a talk with her sister when this was all over.

            Three minutes later, the absence of noise through her equipment told her that Des had gone silent.  Now all Esme could do was sit back and wait.

            Des moved closer to the tracks as she saw the transport rolling into the switching station.  The transports were unmanned and controlled by a centralized computer system.  Because of this, switching stations that would have normally been manually tripped to ensure transports stayed on the correct track or switched tracks when needed, were also controlled by the system.  A system that was so old and outdated that the transports had to slow to a stop while the signal was relayed from the main station. 

Des would have, at a minimum, five minutes to break into the cell where the weapon was being kept before the transport moved on.  She would then have a full thirty minutes to assess the weapon and determine whether she would need to destroy it.  Once she arrived at the second switching station she would need to get herself and possibly the weapon, out of the cell and into the waiting van driven by her sister.

Easy enough.  She snorted softly before settling lightly on her toes as she prepared to board the transport.  She wasn’t crazy enough to believe that anything about this job was going to be easy.  She could only hope that whatever awaited her on that transport was something she could handle.

The transport rolled loudly to a halt only a few feet from where Des crouched.  Though she knew the area was empty, her constant scanning and checking since her arrival had reassured her of that, she still hesitated before she stepped out of the shadows of her hiding spot.

There was something about this whole job that was setting off internal warning bells, but they weren’t the usual ones.  Whatever happened tonight, whatever the outcome of this job, Des knew that her life would be forever changed.  This weapon, whatever it was, was going to have a bigger impact on her life than she could even imagine.

Whether that impact was positive or negative was yet to be determined. 

Taking one last deep breath, Des moved quickly out of the bushes and reached the transport in two long strides.  Grabbing the back rail that surrounded the small outer deck she launched herself up and onto the back deck.  Remaining crouched, she pulled a small light from a pocket on her cargo pants and used it to locate the access panel along the back door. 

The keypad looked exactly as Arguletti’s directions had described and Des easily keyed in the ten-digit code that she had memorized.  With a small snick she heard the lock on the door click open.  Remaining small she pulled the door open and slid through as quickly as she could.  Arguletti had assured her that there were no guards traveling with the weapon, but Des thought it best to stay cautious.

The container was cold and dark, but not as quiet as Des had expected it to be.  She remained low, on one knee, listening intently to the sounds the container made. 

She heard a continuous mechanical hum that could be a cooling system or almost anything else.  She forced herself to control her breathing to eliminate her own internal noises from the myriad sounds assailing her.

Another long moment of silence and Des was able to determine the difference between the overhead cooling system controlling the temperature in the container, and the sound of the transport itself.  There was one additional hum that she now focused on, as Arguletti’s directions had informed her that the weapon was contained in a separate system that kept the weapon constantly charged.

After another minute of stillness to assure herself that there were no other sounds to indicate another presence or danger, Des allowed herself a full breath and arose to her full height in the dark room.

And that’s when she knew she had made a mistake.

            Esme sat in the van tinkering with the radio dial, though she knew it was futile.  She checked her watch for what felt like the hundredth time that night and sighed heavily when she realized that only five minutes had passed since Des had gone silent.

            Waiting was always the hardest part, though she knew that Des could handle herself.  And though worrying was about as futile as trying to get a station to come in on the limited range radio, Esme would still worry as she waited for word from her sister.

            She fiddled some more and then sat back with a huff when she was greeted by more static and silence.

            She found her fingers fidgeting towards the dial again when Des’ voice came over the formerly silent ear piece.

“It’s a set up.” Des spoke into her mic as she stared at the solid barrier that had come down after she had accidentally triggered a secondary security system. 

“What?” Esme asked.

Des sighed heavily, “Arguletti set me up, Sis.  He made sure I could get through the so-called security system when it was just a smoke screen.  The real system kicked in the minute I stood up in the container.”

Esme was silent for a moment before her voice finally crackled over the ear piece.

“You trapped?”

Des touched the cool wall, feeling for any weakness or give.  It was a smooth material that seemed to be radiating some sort of energy, but it was not painful to the touch.

“Yeah, looks that way.”

“I’ll come get you.”

“No!”  Des knew her voice was too sharp, but she wouldn’t risk her sister getting caught as well.  She tried to soften her tone, “Not until I know what we’re dealing with.  Stay put until I figure out what I need to do to get out of here.”

Esme was silent which told Des that she had won.  Now she needed to concentrate on how to get out of the container in the thirty minutes she had left.

She abandoned the hi-tech barrier and decided to explore the rest of the space for possible ways out.  The weapon briefly flitted through her mind as a possible tool, but its unknown qualities made her abandon that thought quickly.  She was just as likely to kill herself with it as she was to be able to use it.  If there even was an “it.”

That thought brought her up short as she considered for the first time that there was no weapon and that whatever was in this transport container was indeed valuable but not in the way that she had been told.

“Shit.”

Esme jumped on that one word.  “What?  What is it?”

Des shook her head as if her sister could see her.  “Nothing Esme.  I was just realizing that there might not be a weapon here at all.”

Esme snorted in a way that said ‘I told you so,’ but Des ignored her.

“I’m going to check out the rest of the container to see if I can find another way out.  Keep the com open – I’ll check in as soon as I know something.”

“Five minutes, Sis.  Check in every five minutes so that I know that you are okay.”

Des sighed but understood her sister’s request.  “Every ten, and before you argue, remember that I don’t know how much air I have in here.”

Esme was silent so Des took her silence as assent and began walking around the container.  Despite her initial thought that no one else was in the space with her, Des sensed that she wasn’t alone and pulled the small light from her pants and switched it on.

The container was large but mostly empty.  Swinging the light around quickly, Des turned in a circle until the light flashed off of something in the far back corner.  Focusing in on it, Des moved slowly across the open space until she was able to make out what appeared to be a large metal box standing upright.

Using the light, Des guessed the box was at least seven feet high and five feet across.  She was still too far away to see how deep it was and the dark container did not allow her to see the difference between the depth of the box and the container’s back wall.

Still moving slowly, Des had just stepped within arms reach of the box when she picked up a low hum. She hesitated slightly but continued towards the box when the hum stayed steady and low. 

Placing her hands on the outside of the box, she could feel a steady vibration that seemed to mimic the humming noise she could hear.  She began to run her hands around the box, looking for a latch or a clasp in order to open it, but grunted in frustration when she couldn’t even find a seam.  Whoever had created this box had used stellar technology designed to keep most people out.  But Des wasn’t most people.

She knelt in front of the box and began checking for space near the base.  She spoke while she worked.

“Esme?”

Her sister replied right away.  “Here, Sis.  You got something?”

“Yeah, I may have found the weapon.”

Des could imagine her sister sitting up straighter in the seat of the van as if improving her posture would get her closer to the possible action.

“What is it?”

Des grunted again as she failed to find any openings or seams along the bottom of the box.  “Not sure yet.  The damn thing doesn’t have any seams in the front or along the sides or bottom.  I’m going to climb up on top to see if I can get to the back a little better.”

“Climb up on top?  Des, how big is this thing?”

Des caught the top of the box and tried to clamber up the front towards the top, but found the metal surface to be too slick for her to get a toe hold.  She jumped back to the floor before she responded to her sister.

“About seven feet tall, as far as I can tell.  But I can’t get a foothold and it’s too slick for me to gain any purchase.”

She stepped back further and squinted her eyes at the box before slowly moving around to the side.

            “It’s about six feet deep too.  Whatever is inside of it must be pretty massive.”

            “Too massive for you to move alone?”

          Des heard the eagerness in her sister’s voice and smiled.  “Stay put, Little E.  If I need you I’ll let you know.”

            Esme sighed heavily enough to be heard over the com link but Des ignored her and continued to ponder the dilemma of how to get into the box.

            She used her light to check out the back edge of the box and smirked when she saw that there was at least three inches of space between the box and the wall of the container.

           She stood on tiptoe and ran her fingers down the back of the box slowly, feeling for a latch, a button, a seam.  Anything to indicate a way to open the unit.  Almost exactly halfway down, her gloved finger snagged on what felt like a hole.  She hesitated only briefly before she slipped her finger into the hole and gave a satisfied “hmmph” when her finger pressed a hidden button and she heard the tell-tale release of air as a compression lock released.

            Sliding back, she watch in surprise as the unit appeared to expand in size, with its depth increasing inch by inch.

            “E, I found the switch to open the box.”

            “What’s in it?  What did you find?”

            Des stood in silence for a long moment, simply watching the progression of the box as it slid open.  “Don’t know yet.  It’s still opening.”

            “Well, tell it to hurry up!”

            Des shook her head as if her sister could see her.  Ever the impatient one, Esme never wanted to wait for anything.  But Des had no control over the speed in which the box was opening, and the trepidation she had been feeling since stepping onto the transport container was still there.  She wasn’t sure she really wanted to see what was in the box at all.

            “Should be any minute now, so keep your panties on.”

            Esme snorted, “As if I have any other choice in this place.”

            Des’ smile widened at her sister’s cranky tone.  The lack of decent men in Four Crossings was a whole other issue all together and not one she should be thinking about right then.  It wasn’t as if the answer to that problem was going to be in the box.

            When the box was nearly double the depth it had started at Des sensed that most of the movement had stopped.  She stepped closer to see if there were any additional openings exposed by the movement and had to jump back quickly to avoid the sudden open swing of what was now a type of lid for the box.

            “Whoa!”

            Esme’s voice came over the com link, “What?!  What is it?  You alright?”

            Des took a deep breath before responding.  “Yeah, I’m good.  It just moved in an unexpected way.  But it’s open now.”

            “Well?  What is it then?”

            Des moved around to look into the box, swinging her light into the darkened space, “Patience, young one.  Good things come to those who…”

            She froze as her light flickered over what could only be human flesh.  She narrowed her eyes as she stepped closer to the opening, bracing herself for what she now suspected might be a dead body.

            Esme noticed how her sister had trailed off and went on red alert in the van.  “Des?  What’s going on?  And fuck patience, you’re too damn quiet for it to be something good.”

            Des frowned grimly.  Her sister knew her too well.

            “It’s a body.”

            Esme paused, then “A what?”

            Des took another step toward the opening and steadied her small light, so that it rested on what she could now see was a naked chest.  “A body, Esme.”

            “A dead body?”

            Des shook her head as if her sister could see her and then remembered to speak out loud.  “Not sure yet.  I don’t hear any breathing and I can’t tell if his chest is rising and falling.”

            “So it’s male?”

            Des allowed her light to drift lower over the exposed skin, looking for signs of life and froze over the man’s genitals.  Her eyes widened as her eyebrows rose and she cleared her throat meaningfully.  “Uh, yeah.  He’s definitely male.”

            Esme heard the strangled quality of her sister’s voice and wondered at it.  It took a lot to faze Desdemona Quinn, but something she was seeing was definitely impacting her.

            “Sis, you alright?  Is something wrong with the body?”

            “Not as far as I can see here.” She mumbled before forcing herself to move the light back upwards towards the man’s face.  She was supposed to be figuring out if he was alive, not ogling his package.  But damn!  What a fine package it was!

            Des shook her head as if to clear it and then stepped fully up to the body, using her light at this closer proximity to look for signs of life.  She panned up and over his equally wide and impressive chest, but still could not tell by sight if he was breathing.  Then her light glinted off of something that looked like a wire or a tube.

            She stepped even closer and followed the tube to where it appeared to disappear behind his neck.  She couldn’t tell for sure because she couldn’t get close enough to see if it was simply in the box with him or actually connected to him, but she was beginning to have a sinking suspicion about this man.

            Wanting a closer look, she stepped up and into the box, putting herself in as close proximity as she could without actually touching the body.   It was then that she noticed just how big he was.  She had assumed the box was making him seem so much taller, but even after she stepped into the box with her own six foot frame, she realized that the man in the box was nearly a foot taller than she was.

            She still couldn’t see if he was connected to the tubing that she saw but she could now see the slight but steady thrum of his heartbeat in his neck.

            She spoke softly to her sister, “He’s alive.”

            Esme finished the thought, “But?”

            Des sighed heavily, “There’s something strange about him.  He may be hooked up to some sort of tubing in this box.”

            Back in the van Esme rolled her eyes.  “Des, he’s in a box on a transporter headed towards Four Crossing.  I think that would be strange enough.”

            Des agreed with her sister but there was something more.  “I don’t think he’s human, Esme.”

            There was a moment of silence and then her sister’s laughter came over the com link.

            Des ignored the sound and continued her visual perusal of the man, now taking in his features.  She noted the strong, wide jaw and the full lips.  The lighting was too low for her to know whether the shadows she saw on his face were a beard or his complexion.  She took in his nose, quirking a smile as she noticed a tell-tale crookedness and bump that likely indicated a previous break.  His eyes were closed but they were well-spaced and deep set.  His brows were thick and dark and Des expected him to have a matching shock of dark hair but was surprised to see a clean shaven head.

            Her eyes returned to the tubing that she could see behind his neck and she slowly reached towards it, wanting to find out if it was attached to him or not.  Her fingers made tentative contact and she flinched and pulled away at the shock of cold she felt even through her gloves.

            Changing tactics, she moved her hand to his neck and slid it around towards the spot where she expected the tubing to connect with the man if it was going to connect at all.  Her fingers made contact with what felt like a cold metal plate but she couldn’t tell if it was just touching the man’s neck or if it was a part of him.  The metal wasn’t as cold as the tubing had been and she continued exploring it with her fingers, pressing on the skin around the plate and noting that it appeared to be fused with the man’s skin.

            She pulled her hand back slowly and took a step away from the box.  The temperature of the box and the extremely slow heartbeat reminded her of the stories she had heard of people being placed in cryostasis.  No one had ever believed the stories, though, and actual reports had indicated that no subjects who had been placed in cryostasis had ever been successfully revived.

            Maybe this man was part of an experiment that had worked.  He clearly had a heartbeat and though shallow, she now realized he was breathing.  She placed her hand softly against his chest to confirm, and felt a soft rising and falling motion.  Despite the chill of the container and the tubing that she had touched earlier, the man himself was actually very warm, his skin feeling near feverish even through her gloves.

            She pulled her hand back slowly and then stood there trying to figure out her next move.  She didn’t know who or what this man was, but his presence in the container and the security system told her that he was important to the people waiting for him in Four Crossings.

            But was he the weapon she had been sent to deliver or destroy?  If he was, she had no clue as to how she could use him for her own purposes.  It was likely that Arguletti had information about him that she did not.  He was likely counting on it. 

But why would he say that it was okay for her to destroy the weapon if the weapon was human?  Des shook her head at her own musings.  The odds of this man being anything other than a man in a box were slim to none.

Des sighed heavily, loud enough for Esme to pick up on it.

“What are you thinking, Big D?”

Des sighed again.  “I’m thinking that I need to quit staring at this naked man and find a way out of this damn container!”

Esme picked up on one word. “Naked?”

Des actually laughed at her sister.  “You would key in on that word, wouldn’t you?”

“Well, you did say it, so you obviously noticed it.”

“Hard not to notice, trust me on that one.”

“No fair, Big D.  I want to see him now!”

Something about the thought of Esme seeing this man naked didn’t sit right with Des.  She couldn’t quite put her finger on the emotion that the thought caused, but it definitely wasn’t good.

“Yeah, well if I don’t get out of this container before we hit Four Crossings, something tells me you’ll see us both on the front page of the Gazette.”

Esme was quiet since she had no suggestions for her sister, other than trying to shoot her way out.  But firing a weapon inside of a metal container was the equivalent of committing suicide.

“I’m going to check out the container again.  See if I can find another way out.”

Not waiting for Esme’s reply, Des tucked her light into her pocket and moved to step down from her perch on the box, when her foot slipped and she fell forward into the hard flesh of the man in the box.  She caught herself with her hands, but her right hand slipped from the man’s tight abs to the box below, making contact with what felt like a series of raised buttons.

Before she could move to explore what she had touched, Des saw the container flood with bright light and felt a change in the body that she now lay flush against.  Lifting her head to look at the man’s face, she stilled as emerald eyes met icy silver.

The man in the box was very much alive and Des had just managed to wake him up.