Titan Six by Christopher Forrest Read Free Book Online

portals into the decontamination room, but Shooter was ready with her Calico M960.  She got off four clean shots in succession.  The soldiers spun around, blood pooling on the front of their shirts — precise shots through the hearts of each.
    “I’ve got the liquid sample,” Hawkeye said.  “We’re going back into the ID room.”
    “Proceed to the original corridor where you entered the cube,” Touchdown said.  “A portal has appeared at its end.  You’ll find yourself in a round chamber that splits into six additional corridors.  I’m showing human and Sent activity in five of them.  Take the second one from the left.”
    “Where does it lead?” asked Hawkeye.
    Touchdown pivoted in his chair and consulted the holographic display.  “To a room that seems to have a wall resembling a beehive.”
    “A beehive?” said Hawkeye.
    “Correct,” said Touchdown.  “Right now, it’s the road less traveled.”
    “Roger that, Ops.  Let’s hope we don’t encounter giant bees.”
    “You need to regroup, Mr. Hawke,” Caine said.  “Report as soon as you know anything further.”
    The ID room was beginning to glow a bright red.
    “Let’s get the hell out of here,” Hawkeye said, still recalling the skeletons of Durangue and Wallace.
    The team retraced its steps and entered the corridor Touchdown had described.
    Two minutes later, Titan Six stood in a new room, metallic and silver like the others they’d encountered.
    “You nailed it, Touchdown,” Hawkeye said.  “One wall is a metallic hive.  Connected hexagonal chambers reach up to the ceiling.  Typical honeycomb structure.  Must be thirty feet high.”
    “What’s inside them?” asked Quiz.
    “Hawkeye moved closer to the lower hexagons, aiming a Maglite inside several chambers.
    “Good God!” he cried.  “They’re — ”
     

Ops Center
Beneath Mount Whitney
     
    “Communications have been disrupted,” Touchdown said.
    DJ tapped the keyboard at her station, examined her flatscreen, and turned to Caine.  “The interference from the cube isn’t being caused by any form of normal radiation.”
    “Every living organism gives off an electromagnetic signature,” Ambergris said.  “If my theory that the cube is alive is correct, then it can be expected to emit a certain electromagnetic signature.”
    “Can you analyze that signature?” asked Caine.
    Ambergris turned back to his station.  “I’m working on it, Catherine.  I’m breaking down the varying wavelengths coming from the area near 872, but there’s a lot of rock between the Ops Center and the cube.”
    Caine paced thoughtfully around the Ops Center.  “Deploy Titan Four, Touchdown.  We’re obviously dealing with advanced technology that we’re trying to figure out on the fly.  Have T4 take a maglev to Station 872 and await further orders.”
    “Yes, ma’am.”
     

Central Intelligence Agency
Langley, Virginia
     
    Gwen sat at the desk in her office, troubled.  McManus had clearly tried to hide something.  He’d made sure that he turned the Senex folder face-down when he placed it back on the lunch table.
    She Googled “senex” and learned that it was the Latin word for “senate.”
    But the C on his cufflinks — did it really stand for Charles?
    Maybe, or it might represent the Roman numeral for 100.
    That would make perfect sense.  The United States Senate was composed of exactly one hundred members, the most powerful and exclusive governing body in the world, and Admiral McManus testified on a regular basis before various Senate subcommittees on Intelligence and Defense.
    This still didn’t explain why the word “senex” was on a file tab, however, one that McManus had not intended Gwen to see.
    Another thought crossed Gwen’s mind: McManus had recently talked about his vacation to Hawaii.  During this time, however, he’d sent Gwen an email — complete with a smiley face at the end; how dreadfully saccharine — but Gwen, out of curiosity,