Chapter 5 – Quarry

LOWER MANHATTAN – NYC 04:46 / 2046

"What the fuck was that," James said, breaking the shocked silence that had settled over the group. "Was that...him? I mean it must of been, what the hell happened to him?"

"Chemm overdose?" Bull ventured, sounding unsure even as he finished the words. "Or some sort of black market augs?".

"Quiet!" Conrad hissed, silencing the group. "That thing can't have got far, it doesn't matter if it's our scientist, it's now our priority". Conrad paused to ensure he had their attention. "I want that thing alive. Yang, run that blood, see if anyone's seen anything like this before. We're going to have to restrain it if we get close. Use your grapple lines and hamstring it if you have to".

Pushing his uncertainties to the back of his mind Conrad leapt towards the breach. dodging the large pieces of rubble he bounded in to the newly exposed sewer section. The team followed swiftly in a line behind him. Slinging his shotgun behind his back, he picked up his pace to just short of a sprint. His feet slapping at the layer of sludgey residue that covered this section of the tunnel. Moonlight filtered through from the grates above, giving them enough light to operate with minimal visual enhancement but the tall narrow tunnel still made Conrad feel uncomfortably squeezed.. The masonry in this section appeared even older than where they had emerged from and he found himself nearly slipping on a few of stones worn smooth over time. He quietly thanked the small gyroscopic device that he'd had installed in his inner ear as a familiar warmth made itself known, signalling the machine was sending correction pulses and allowing him to retain his balance.

The team sped past two intersections without discussion as they followed the trail of blood through the winding sewer. Despite his enhancements, Conrad could feel the creeping burn of lactic acid begin to overwhelm the regulators in his legs. As if sensing his discomfort, Yang pulled Conrad to a stop with her hand on his shoulder. "Sir, the creature has entered a section of tunnel that leads to a topside exit". He could see she was also taking deep breaths and couldn't help but feel relieved he wasn't the only one struggling with the physicality of the pursuit.

"How fast is this thing" Bull said, voicing Conrad's own puzzlement. "We should of caught it five minutes ago at this pace".

"I've given up trying to make sense of it" James quipped as he moved past the trio to look further down the tunnel. "But if he's got to that exit ladder we've got a chance to get him while he's climbing"

Without consultation James he took off down the tunnel, forcing Conrad, Yang, and Bull to speed after him in support. The tunnel was paved overhead now, forcing them to rely on their enhanced vision to find their way through to the chamber Yang had picked out on her schematic. Barely a minute had past before the constant splashing of footfalls was interrupted by the muted thud of a silenced weapon.

Conrad, Yang, and Bull sprinted the remaining few metres to the chamber entrance and charged through at the same time. Conrad immediately noticed how much wider this room was than the previous junctions and open spaces they had encountered. Easily thirty metres wide, the curved walls rose far overhead to darkness, where he assumed the exit hatch would be. James was crouched in a firing position in the centre of the chamber with his barrel trained at the opposite side. "I said don't move!" he shouted, his voice empowered by the echo from the chamber.

Conrad moved in to the chamber far enough to see past James and was struck for the second time by the golem-like appearance of the creature standing at the base of the ladder. Facing away from the group, the slabs of shoulder mass bunched at the nape of its neck as it lifted its arm out to reach for the ladder.

"Reckon he speaks Chinese," James said to Yang as the group formed a line across the centre diametre of the room. "Doesn't seem to be paying me much mind".

Conrad reached out and eased the barrel of James' SMG towards the ground. "I said I wanted him alive" he chided.

Conrad looked back to the creature as it's arm reached towards the ladder, groping at the rungs without finding purchase. Bringing it's other arm up it finally caught hold, attempting to lift a leg to begin his ascent. Conrad studied the creature as it continued to ignore them. The leg that lifted out of the shallow muck on the floor of the tunnel was gnarled and grotesque. Ridged protrusions jutted out of it's overly muscled thighs and connected to an exposed shin, that appeared to have grown to cover the entire front half of it's lower leg. Holding on to the rung with one arm it swung it's leg towards the ladder to gain purchase, but pawed ineffectual at the lower rungs. It's feet apparently too knobbled and enlarged to accurately find space. The creature let out a deep yell as it's grip on the top ring faltered, causing him to slump to the ground seated with a splash.

With tentative steps Conrad inched closer to the creature sitting on the ground. It's bulging shoulders rose and fell with shortness of breath but it remained seated, long legs stretched out straight towards the ladder. Conrad circled to the left, retaining his distance and attempting to get a better view of the front. "Sir!" Yang said from the other side of the room, "the blood sample I scooped up just came back, he's human, Male".

"Was," Bull added, sensing their prey had run out of steam and moving closer to Conrad.

James' let his weapon fall in one hand to his side, "Looks like those last rounds didn't heal as well as the others". Conrad looked where he was pointing and could see two plumb size entry wounds in the recess of it's hip. One oozing a pulpy red substance that seemed too thick to be blood.

As Conrad inspected the wound from afar, the deformed man let out another animalistic yowl, turning his head towards him and Bull. Bull took a quick step back and brought his rifle back to ready, but Conrad knew that was more reflex than ill intent towards this person. He looked at the mans face, allowing the adrenaline from the chase to be purged from his system. His face was hideously deformed, but somehow appeared more human like now with the confirmation from Yang. His plated forehead had slumped down to narrow his eyes, giving him the appearance of being in pain, or perhaps afraid.

Slowly the man brought his left arm around behind him to help himself to his feet. Conrad winced as he saw one of the reasons for the man's difficulty climbing the ladder, his left hand was completely fused in a solid ball of bone and scarred flesh. The forearm leading up to the club-like appendage appeared slightly longer than his other arm and was as thick as Bull's calves. The man put the limb down to brace himself, but swayed as he began to put pressure to rise. Conrad could see consciousness slip quickly from the man's eyes, the dark sunken orbs lolling back in his skull. His torso slumping back to meet the floor of the room as his head to a stop, half submerged in the dank water that covered of the chamber floor.

Bull moved to inspect the man but Conrad motioned for him to stay. "Yang, sedate this man, I don't know if he even knows who he is anymore but i'm not taking any chances". Yang put her hand to her utility belt but hesitated, the question in her glare obvious to Conrad. "You know as well as I do this was fishy from the start, whatever happened to this man didn't happen in a psychiatric hospital and I don't like being taken for a ride".

"Might be for the best" said James, gesturing with his barrel. "Whatever happened must hurt like hell".

Conrad was surprised to hear compassion in James' voice but he steeled himself. You don't spend as long as he had as a senior SWAT and IronEcho member without building a healthy distrust of those in charge. He considered himself a company man with morals but whatever had been inflicted on this man, willing or not, was a travesty that needed explaining. He wasn't sure whether the boss knew the full picture, but that was irrelevant at the moment.

"Take down comms," he ordered, massaging both ear nodes simultaneously until he heard the static click that confirmed he was offline. "The signals been busted since we've been in this tunnel anyway so we can bullshit out of it if we have to". All three hesitated, before slowly following suit. The questions that were clear in their eyes temporarily overruled by their trust in Conrad.

Yang stepped up to him and presented the tranquilizer needle. The stubby tip glinted an angry red with reflected light from his chest beacon as he approached the now still figure. He searched for a site for the needle, knowing he'd never be able to navigate the layers of bony carapace that seemed to cover most of his body. Finally hovering the needle over one of the bullet wounds he looked away at the team, plunging the full needle in and quickly emptying it's narcotic contents.

Bull, waited a few more moments for man's breathing to become more shallow before stepping up beside him. "Well what the fuck do we do know?"