Enigma Glitch

Chapter 7: Test Pilot III

A black and white photo popped into the corner of each team member's headset where a group of ten Australian soldiers posed for a group portrait at a captured port city in Vietnam. Behind them, cranes loaded large cargo containers into boats. One curiosity was a flying scooter covered in tires and ropes like a tugboat. The scooter was only large enough for a single pilot, but itself hauled a shipping container many times its size and weight, all by pushing it from the bottom.

"And this detail," Emma typed.

A blurry corner of the background zoomed and sharpened to the point that it was a stark contrast of pure black and pure white blotches, but the shape of another tugboat-like air scooter parked on the ground was easy to make out. The pilot stood next to the craft and dealt with something on the side. The sharpening toggled until the shape of the container in the pilot's hand became almost clear enough to make out. It matched the metal canister from the Kurosawa's room.

"That dangerous liquid is fuel for some sort of foreign flying hauler?" Cooper hummed in thought through the radio. "This isn't anything fancy. Just dangerous foreign tech being used to attack political targets."

"And the fires provide an easy excuse for the derailments," Victoria said. The background of her audio contained sliding cargo bay doors, proof she and Cooper had reached their destination. "Murphy, you are right about lifting off the tracks. But you were wrong to think it was werewolves."

Murphy grinned and used eye tracking to type a message to the team, "We haven't proven werewolf ghosts aren't what the fuel's made of." He blinked and turned his attention to the car.

"Want to see something like stars?" Murphy smiled at Jordan and pointed northwest. "Out that way is the Golden Gate Barrier. It's a massive dam that holds back the Pacific Ocean from filling this valley. It has lights brighter than all of San Francisco."

Jordan smiled and hopped out of her seat to look out a west-facing window.

"Once we go around a hill and turn back toward Oakland, we'll have a perfect view," Murphy said.

"This is a problem," Cooper said. His visual was patched through to the team.

Cooper and Victoria crouched in the overcrowded maze of boxes, crates, and suitcases to reach a small clearing where three armored crates were gathered, all with identical design. Two were open and had enough space for a personal hovercraft. They worked together to open the third case to reveal a stowed hovercraft identical to the ones from the historical photo, minus the tires and rope. It was in pristine condition, with no hint of the appearance of a non-operational air scooter.

"It gets worse." Victoria pointed to two discarded canisters identical to the one which killed the Kurosawas and the attendant. She and Cooper both looked upward to rafters devoid of quicksilver. "They carried the fuel separate from the hovercraft, but already filled their tanks."

"They're airborne." Cooper turned off his camera. "We're the only ones who can stop whatever they're planning to do to this train."

We know their plans," Victoria said through the radio. "Lift the train and kill everyone on board, perfect so there are no witnesses. Which includes us."

"I see it!" Jordan hopped in her seat and pointed out the window, oblivious to the conversation going on amongst the team, including the friendly man and the holographic woman.

Brilliant lights flashed into view from behind San Francisco's towers then glowed like supernovas on the western horizon once the train moved further north toward Oakland. They shined brighter than anything else in the night sky, enough to make their immediate surroundings appear to be in daylight.

"I want to see stars brighter than this." Jordan hopped and stared out her window.

Murphy cast a worried look to Emma's hologram, who returned the expression. He paced away from Jordan and went through every idea he could think of in a frenzy.

A high-pitched, metallic whir preceded a small aircraft that flew by on the train's east side with the light blue glow of hover engines. The pilot had a helmet on, but their sneakers and baggy sweatpants and designer hooded jacket gave them away as one of the train's passengers. One who had intent to murder all the others. The hovercraft zipped by toward the rear of the train.

"I spotted one of them," Murphy said, aloud so Jordan turned to give him a strange look. "They're going to the rear."

"Then go back there and stop them," Cooper ordered through the radio.

"How do we stop a cargo hovercraft?" Murphy whispered into his mic, but his conspicuous behavior further worried Jordan.

"The same way you stop any unarmored vehicle," Victoria said. "Kill the exposed pilot."

"I don't have a gun," Murphy typed with eye tracking.

"Get creative," Cooper said. "Victoria and I are already at the front of the train. We'll find the other hovercraft."

"Jordan, I need to grab an air scooter," Murphy said.

The girl cast a wounded look at the bald man.

"Emma will take great care of you. I promise." Murphy took a long blink and waved goodbye to Jordan before he rushed out the dining car doorway.