Flash Fiction Friday: Target Cox Junction Part III

Welcome to the final installment of Target: Cox Junction which I reluctantly ended. I enjoyed this story line so perhaps I will change a few things and eventually make this a longer short story. If you haven't already, be sure to read Part I, and Part II.

Target: Cox Junction 

Part III

By,
Jennifer E. Miller

Sockeye’s smartphone screen blinked, asking if he wanted to connect to the new network. He wasn’t sure what to do. There was no protocol on how to handle outside wifi; because an outside router wasn’t expected.

Where is the damn thing? he wondered.

It wasn’t easy to sneak into a dam. They were quite secure, even smaller ones like Cox Junction. Stashing a router, while placing rocks and dead birds at various places, couldn’t go unnoticed when monitors watched and recorded every inch of this place. Even an inside job was nearly impossible. Sockeye’s thoughts settled on that one little word: nearly.

The siren nearly made Sockeye nearly jump of out his skin. It was the emergency evacuation siren; part of Bordman’s duties. He let out a deep exhale, but his pulse didn’t slow. Gathering his wits, and his keycard he opened the exterior door with a beep and dashed inside.

The siren blared inside the corridor. Red and yellow lights flashed, spewing eerie reflective shadows on the walls. Alone, Sockeye ran down the hall which led to an open floor with the generators. He scanned the floor. The area was deserted, which meant personnel evacuated like they were supposed to.

At the far end of the generator floor was a door leading into the engineers’ offices. Sockeye burst through it. One of the engineers was on the telephone.

A rap on the window interrupted the telephone conversation and Sockeye burst into the room.

“Move it!”

He covered the phone’s mouthpiece. “I’ve done drills before. I know what to do.”

“Obviously, not. This isn’t a drill.”

The engineer dropped the receiver to the base. He tried reaching for his coat but Sockeye pushed him out the door, ordering him to run down the hall.

The two men ran down the hallway to the other end of the dam. He ordered the engineer outside and stay with the group. Then Sockeye ran to the security control room where he met Jay.

“Hey, sir,” Bordman said. “I’ve checked all the monitors and no other movement or keycards were detected.”

Sockeye set the rock down on the desk and realized he was sweating. Sweating with fear rather than exhaustion.

“What’s this?” Bordman asked as he picked up the rock and examined it. “Jesus! Is this for real?”

“It might be.”

“What does it mean?”

“It means we need to grab the computer back-up and get the hell out.”

Sockeye grabbed his keycard and waved it in front of a small door behind the monitor. Pushing a button, he swung open a door, and yanked out small metal box. Its wires dangled limp as he shoved it into Bordman’s arms. Next, he scooped up the painted rock and a grasped a laptop. Sockeye intended to hook it up to the backup and examine the monitor history himself. Together the two men raced for the nearest exit and up the interior stairwell.

As they climbed the flights, Sockeye’s phone dinged again, but he didn’t notice it over the sirens. If he had, he’d realize the icon had accidentally been touched, therefore, connecting his phone to the RavensDam1 wifi network.

The last two employees of Cox Junction Dam joined the others in the parking lot. They were huddled together, relieved when they saw the security personnel.

Bordman set down the computer back up to catch his breath.

“What the hell is going on?” someone demanded. It was Quinn, head engineer.

Sockeye answered through gasps, “Don’t know…for sure.”

He showed the Cox Junction employees the rock.

“You evacuated us because of that?” he asked, flabbergasted.

“No,” Sockeye said. He quickly ran through the rest of the details; the emails regarding the activists, the raven, the fence post, the wifi network. He was certain they were all connected somehow.

Hearing some of this information for the first time, Jay Bordman said, “Wifi network?”

Sockeye pulled out his phone to show him. His heart dropped. The screen indicated “connected to RavensDam1.”

Noticing Sockeye’s pallor, Bordman said, “Sir?”

There was no need to respond. A muffled explosion, like dynamite buried deep within a hard surface was heard, and the ground shook. The employees shrieked, demanding to know what it was. Sockeye waved his hand at them as he and Bordman ran to the edge of the parking lot. The water over the far gates wasn’t flowing; it was spewing sideways from a gaping hole.

There was a second blast from the next gate, and a third, and so forth. The Cox Junction team watched helplessly as the entire dam collapsed, sliding into the river. The rapids tumbled and foamed about the debris, shoving it to its final resting place. Over the empty hollowed-out space behind, the river reworked itself to its ancient flow route.

Speechless, the crowd could do nothing but stare on in horror. Quinn tried calling the dam downstream to warn them, but there was no cell service. Sockeye hoped the issuance of code 999 alerted headquarters in time to give ample warning to other locations. He took one last look at his phone. There was no trace of RavensDam1 wifi network.

The activists were serious, and now a threat to national security.

Bordman walked up to Sockeye. “What should we do now, sir?”

“I’m not sure. I guess we wait.”

 The End

Copyright 2017 Jennifer E. Miller