Susan Grays (book 1)/ The tale of trust

Chapter 18: A look inside

Thursday, 3 A.M, GSS temporary base, Olderdale, Norway

Only Susan and a few others who were guarding the warehouse were awake. The others had slept to recover their energy. Susan had sat on a desk, intently watching satellite pictures from the mount in search of anything, but she had found nothing. Anyone who had made that fortress knew well what to build.

"Ma'am!" called one someone and Susan raised her head. "What's Jack?" she asked. "The cargo just arrived from England." Said Jack.

"Good!" said Susan and stood and went out with Jack by her side. Outside a rolly had stopped. Its driver who was an agent of GSS saw Sus and walked to her. "Here is what you were waiting for." He said and handed her a little metal box.

Susan nodded. "store the weapons in the warehouse and do it quickly." She said and looked around suspiciously. "We can be under watchful eyes. Whoever is behind this is very sly." She said and then walked inside.

She went to a table where under a strong light and on top of a stand, GSS spy bird had been landed proudly. Its azure metals were shining under the light.

Susan tapped a few things on a laptop and a hidden lid went away and showed an empty space on top of it. Susan opened the metal box and pulled out a little robot, like a little silver spider. She put it in the hidden section and closed the lid again.

She then went sat behind her desk and called GSS. Some minutes later she saw Harris and Penelope on the screen who were obviously had just woken up. "John! Peni!" she called when she saw him. "Did you sleep?"

"If you call a 4 hour nap, sleeping." Said Harris and yawned loudly. "I don't know how you do it."

"Don't be such a kid." Said Susan. "The spy is here. I put it in the bird."

"Alright," said Harris. "We will be off soon."

Soon the bird left the warehouse and in less than 15 minutes it was in the cave again. Peni led the bird to the shadows under the wooden dock and hovered in the low height space between the dock and water. "I'm in the position. Will release the S-spider. Harris, rest is up to you." She said and then pressed a few keys on her remote control. "Great!" said Harris happily. "here we go."

Miles away in the cave the small spy spider, under Harris control, came out of the hidden box on top of the bird and moved. With one jump it attached itself under the dock surface and quickly went to the shore. It climbed the wall and soon reached the camera that was moving with low speed, watching around. Two metal arm came out of the spider body. Although they seemed so thin, they were stronger than steel. Harris opened the lid on top of the camera to access its circuit. Another arm with a USB port as its hand came out of spider and plug it into a USB port on the circuit.

"We're in. Sus, you have a remote control to my system. They have so many cameras." said Harris and Suddenly so many pictures appeared on Susan's laptop. She transferred the videos to a large screen and watched them intently.

Harris whistled. "It's a great fortress." He said. "Look at the technology they are using."

"It look like a hospital." Said Peni.

In fact, it was really a very modern fortress with the last technologies. Every part of it had white walls and white marble floors which were shining from cleanness. It was night, so most of the people of the fortress where sleep, but so many armed guards were walking in the aisles or watching the doors to different rooms twosome. What attracts Susan's attention more than anything was big labs. Susan slides the videos to see all of them. Suddenly, she gasped. She quickly went behind the laptop and swiftly typed a few commands. Her fingers were moving on the keyboard like a master pianist. After a few seconds, many of the camera screens were deleted and the rest become larger.

"Shit!" said Harris.

"Oh, my dear Lord." Expressed Peni in a low and hitched voice.

Susan turned to one of her men who was passing by with a box in his hand. "Victor!" Susan called him. The man turned to his boss quickly. There was an urge in her tone which made him panic. Whatever that had made Susan worried was not a good thing at all. "Wake up alpha captains. Quickly." Ordered Susan. Victor almost dropped the box and ran to do as he was ordered.

"This is what I feared." Whispered Susan and looked at the terrifying videos in front of her.

***

"This is madness." Said Angi. Her tanned skin had become pale. A group contains 10 GSS alpha captains plus Zaytsev had gathered there with others who were awake behind them, watching the videos with a mixture of fear, surprise, and disgust.

There on the large screen, small shots of at least twenty cameras could be seen. It was a big hall with small prison-rooms inside of it with a camera in each one. Inside each room, a man had been put. Some were so thin that you could count their ribs. They had been laid down on the bed or ground with eyes wide open staring to naught.

Some had been curled themselves like a ball in a corner. One of them had sat in a corner, hitting his head to the wall. But they were two which were frightening more than the others. They were muscular and tall but looked to be in great pain. Both were tied up to bed hardly. They were struggling hard to release themselves, shouting and screaming. Their eyes were all white the times they opened them.

"They are in anguish." Said Sarah uneasily and rubbed her arms. Lee who had stood beside her draped his arm around her and hugged her.

"You think that the one you fought with back in Manaus was one of these?" asked Bishop from Susan.

Susan nodded. "This must be part of their metamorphosis." She said disgustedly.

"We should put an end on this villainy." Said Nick, one of the captains, and beat his fist on his palm. His body was trembling from anger. "We must explode the mount's door and destroy this facility."

"We can't." said Zaytsev calmly. "They have too many guards and have the better position. can you see those doors? I bet they are harder than metal and can stand so many explosions. The time that will be enough for them to flee from other escape doors that I'm sure they have."

Susan sat on a chair, massaging her temples. "So what? We should sit and look?" asked Angi angrily and stepped toward Zaytsev dangerously. Her words were laced with venom. "I'm sorry, Mr. genius, but we can't sit idly while they are ...."

"Angi!" Bishop cut her off. "He is right. We can't attack them like that. We need a better plan." He then turned to Susan. "Sus?" he asked. Everyone turned to their boss who had her head in her hands. She had never failed them. Her great plans had always led them to victory with minimum casualties.

"They expect us." Said Susan and raised her head.

"What?" asked Nick.

"Just think." Said Susan and stood. "They have guards in every inch of their fortress. Why they do not guard their dock?"

"Maybe they don't expect anyone to attack them from a cave under a frozen lake. That's why they guard their front door so hard." Said one of her captains.

Susan shook her head. "anyone who wants to attack them would search for other ways than the front door and with high probability, they will find the cave." Explained Susan and stared at the screen. All of those poor innocent men were still in the same status. No feelings could be seen in Susan's face. That was part of her duty. She should control her feelings for she had many lives in her hands. Any decisions taken by emotions could lead her people and so many others to death.

"We will wait till morning." She said after a moment. "I want to know who's behind this. Harris, I want you and your technicians to take out every detail you can from the cameras." Ordered Susan.

"Yes, Ma'am." Said Harris.

Susan turned around and walked over to Bishop. "I'm going to run outside. I want to think. I will back with a plan." She said Calmly and then went outside.

Bishop stared at her until she went out of his side. He knew what turmoil she was in. Sometimes he thought she would break under this much burden. She was so alone.