by Shawn Keys
Beside him, Jennifer let out another gasp of surprise. Miles was leaning against the doorway heading back into his own office. His eyes shifted toward Andrew, growing a little wide. “What the fuck? What is he talking about, Chief?”
A cold sort of rage filled the senior Dawn agent. A thousand tiny movements. Literally years of careful planning, edging their yardsticks forward by inches to avoid any major disruptions. After a decade, they had reached a point where they could easily kill any person he wanted, bury it, and sell any cover story he wanted to the authorities. It was a power few had: he was nearly untouchable.
But he wasn’t. Not quite. ‘Nearly’ wasn’t good enough. As the saying went, close only counted in horseshoes and hand grenades.
This kid should have died. He should have died a hundred times over. How the hell was this kid doing all this? It was like he was surrounded by guardian angels assembled to do his bidding, shielding him from the Dawn’s wrath. He was drawing more and more supporters to his ranks, growing stronger rather than weaker. He should be pissing in his shorts, scared to walk out of his house. But instead, he was broadcasting on the television, unveiling closely guarded secrets.
Andrew wasn’t listening to the broadcast any longer. His face went totally, completely blank. Turning, he drew his pistol and fired it point-blank into Jennifer’s pretty face. Before the echo of the gunshot faded, he scanned right, then fired three more quick shots into Miles. The range was a little longer, so he grouped together a trio to make sure the job was done.
The others all grabbed for their ears, trying to stifle the deafening noise in the confined office. Andrew savored the pain like it was a balm to senses, blasting him out of his stuffy public persona and fully into his authoritarian true self.
He didn’t worry about the rest of the office complex. They were on the upper floor of a six-floor tower; the soundproofing they had put in the floor in addition to the concrete construction would keep even a pistol shot from escaping the interior.
George recovered first. “What the hell, Sir? It wasn’t just them who heard it!”
Andrew leveled a harsh glare at him. “Of course not, you idiot. But we need to act. Quickly. They were right here. They were going to bury me and Maria under questions for the next three hours. They’d report us. We don’t have time for that. We need to kill this broadcast now. What channel is this?”
“KWPQ. Based out of Olympia. That is not their studio, though.”
Andrew waved that off. “Send a team there anyway. Hutchings needs to be plugged into their infrastructure somehow. The police will be responding to end this as a pirate broadcast, no matter what they might think of the content. Tread lightly. Any presence we have can’t be too aggressive or we’ll play right into this. Tell our people to laugh this off as an incredible hoax, but acknowledge it might be a dangerous one if they manage to convince anyone. Cooperate. Let the police have the lead.”
“The FBI will be on this. The DOJ should be as well.”
“Deal with it, people. We can’t panic. Things are going to get hard for the next while. The faster we kill this, the better! We need to stop the spread. I’ll be getting in touch with the computer folks to shut down any site on the internet where they dump this information. I’ll need to find Dirk as well. We’ll quietly kill any expert who might be able to translate Aeolic with any degree of certainty. Delay. Cast doubt. That’s our game now.” He pointed at the screen, then let out a small snarl of anger. “But we need to shut them down!”
Maria spoke up, “If they aren’t at the studio, then they have to be mobile broadcasting. Which means someone either set up a remote studio, or someone stole one of their trucks.”
At her desk, Sylvia was already on that. “That station isn’t on our net of internal surveillance cameras tied into the system. But there is a strange anomaly that happened around two to three hours ago. Every implant just streams out of the building except these three. It’s like there was an alarm that sent them all running. Then, these two implant traces stay, while this one gets into one of the vans and drives off to the south.”
Andrew nodded. “That’s it. Follow that truck. If you lose the implant along the way, find the truck any way you can. Most of them have transponders on them. And if it’s broadcasting continuously, we should be able to geo-locate it like a cell tower. Get it done! Fast! We need to be on-site before any other authorities figure this out! The team needs to be Dawn agents only! The whole location needs to be totally sanitized before anyone else arrives. Kill anyone you find. Destroy any documents. Then burn the whole damned thing to the ground. Understand?”
The others scurried away, getting to their tasks.
Andrew glared up at the screen, then turned back on the volume.
Kyle was speaking again, “… now going to describe to you what they mean by ‘baseline’, and why this should totally terrify you. This is going to get a little complex, but don’t worry. A dedicated group of sympathetic computer experts are going to be delivering the entire package of these documents to every news agency, television station and government authority we think might be legitimate enough to take this seriously. Since we have no idea who these people are, we’re doing this broadband-style. For now, let me walk you through this…”
Andrew threw the remote control against the wall, shattering it into a million pieces.
Chapter 14
Laura goosed the throttle and got her snowmobile over a jagged rise. She turned sharply, hating the exposure of being at a high point in the landscape. The move ducked them behind a thick tree.
It was just in time. A crisp whack of punctured wood made them flinch. Chunks of bark were hacked into the air as the tree took the hit for them. A dozen other angry ziiiipp-cracks whipped by as supersonic rounds sizzled the air around them. A heartbeat later, the gunshots themselves rolled over them.
Laura screamed out to all of them. “Get down! Off the sleds!” She had looked beyond where they were driving. They had entered a small dip in the land, but it was bowl-shaped, quickly rising back up in pretty much every direction. No matter where they drove, it would put them back in the crosshairs of whoever was shooting at them.
Following her own advice, Laura barely got the snowmobile to a full stop before she was jumping clear of it and dragging Danielle with her, taking as much care as she could with her pregnant friend. It was either move quickly or end up riddled with holes.
Fortunately, the other four moved just as quickly. It helped that Megan and Yvette were not quite as far advanced in the pregnancy as Danielle. They were just that much nimbler. Lily and Claire got them down below the ridge and hidden among the tangle of tree roots and dirt.
Lily had managed to get them off their snowmobile without even stopping. The safety tag attached to her belt popped free, killing the engine. The momentum carried the machine a dozen feet further, sliding up the far embankment just a little too far. It instantly drew fire. Sparks flared in the encroaching gloom of the late afternoon. Hollow-sounding pings told the tale of bullets piercing the chassis and engine block. The motor sputtered and died even more rapidly than it should have. Laura was pretty sure it would never start again. Mercifully, it didn’t erupt in a fireball, either.
Crawling up to the ridge, Laura peeked out and saw the charging snowmobiles that had been hunting them through the forest for the last few hours. Tugging her rifle into position, she calmed her breathing and narrowed her focus on the nearest one. She couldn’t wait for the perfect shot. She needed to stop them before they could overwhelm them. Pulling the trigger, her .308 kicked against her shoulder in a familiar way. A small spray of red mist puffed away from the driver. He slumped over the handlebars, pitching the machine wildly to one side. It rolled, crushing the passenger’s legs underneath it.
Laura hissed at the others, “Fire back! Now, before they’re on top of us! Don’t worry about hitting anything!”
There was a moment of shock among them, not fully understanding.
Megan saw it. She recognized it. With a belligerent growl, she grabbed hold of the AR-15 she had been practicing with over the last few months. Not enough. She was a scholar more than a warrior. Kyle and Laura had told her to stay off full-automatic and concentrate on shooting one round at a time. That was her comfort zone. She even hit the target once in a while. But she was a strong woman, and not just physically. There was nothing but steel in her eyes as she steadied the rifle in the snow and fired a half-dozen rounds in rapid succession toward the approaching Dawn agents.
Her sudden action broke through the ice that had frozen the others in place. Danielle came first, remembering that she was also a force to be reckoned with. She had another of the AR-15s, and her rattling series of shots was far more accurate. She picked off another of the soldiers further along.
Yvette and Claire also had weapons, though theirs were single shot .22s. Neither had spent that much time learning marksmanship, but neither of them was willing to let the others take the risk without joining in.
Only Lily hung back. Part of it was practical, since she was going to deal with anyone who got hurt. The other part was her honest and heart-felt belief in the Hippocratic oath. Putting a bullet in someone else would hurt her soul; the other five didn’t even think twice as she hung back, ready to save them all from dying in the snow, if it came to that.
It was enough. Their sporadic fire and two hits were enough to convince the chasing agents that they had walked into a firing gallery. The Dawn soldiers dove off their sleds, scrambling for their own cover behind nearby trees and rocks.
Megan smacked her hand into the snow. “So close! Just ten more minutes and we would have been on the road!”
Yvette agreed, “The risk is too great. Even if we could run, they’re too close. We’ll lead them right to the tank. They’ll know what to look for, even if we managed to escape. They’d find us on the road.”
A burst of rifle fire came from a half-dozen directions, making them duck down.
Laura hissed down the line of women. “Keep them pinned down as best you can!”
Danielle clutched her bag closer, making sure she could reach her spare ammo easily. “We can’t keep shooting forever, Laura!”
The fire in Laura’s hair didn’t come close to matching the burning resolve in her eyes. “That’s where I come in.” She waited for Megan to fire another bunch of suppressing fire, then made ready, taking the risk of being a little exposed. She saw an agent poke his head out to take his own shot. She put a new hole in his face with a fierce snarl on her face. Ducking behind cover, she narrowly avoided paying a bad price.
Danielle’s eyes were wide. “You need to stop doing that!”
Heaving deep, excited breaths, Laura said, “Not if we want to get out of this alive.” Her grin became set in uncompromising stone. “I said I was getting you all out of this. I promised Kyle. I’m not going to let him down.”
* * *
Dirk sank behind his rock, cursing as another peppering spray of bullets thunked along the bank just in front of him. Whoever was shooting over there, it was a wide range. He swore a couple of them were firing blindly in the gloom, while at least one of them was a next level sharpshooter.
He’d caught sight of three snowmobiles before they had vanished from sight. That meant they were chasing six or less. On his side, two were dead, and he had six remaining other than himself.
A fair fight? Only if he could catch that sharpshooter off-guard. If he could manage that, then the tide would turn.
He spoke softly into his mic. “Team 10. Split up and start flanking outward. We’ll keep their attention. Try to get better angles from the side into that depression they are in.”
It was a decent tactic, and he hoped it would make his prey desperate. He bided his time, lurking, waiting for the sniper to make a mistake.
Once he took care of that problem, the tide would turn. The rest wouldn’t last long without their ace. After that, it would only be a matter of time.
Chapter 15
Out of view of the camera, Dazz clenched her hand and banged it off her thigh in a show of victory. “At least four internet sites have the documents visible. Haven’t been taken down for the last ten minutes. I also have ‘read’ receipts from reporters at two of the major networks.” She got back in the game; her whole assignment was to keep spreading the data they had for as long as she was able.
Kyle was on camera, and on the phone. They had flashed up a number and was actually taking calls. He couldn’t screen them, so some of it was garbage, but he had decided to take those as they came. The public would see it all.
The current guy on the phone sounded fully hostile. “This is complete nonsense! If you had any self-respect, asshole, you’d get the fuck off the air and let the real professionals work!”
He might have continued ranting, but Kyle figured he had given the guy a fair say. He hit ‘mute’ and answered with the politeness he had always found irritated bullies and people trying to be deliberately rude to get a rise out of him. “It certainly will seem daunting at first. I encourage you to look at the documentation we are posting online. We aren’t posting the specific internet sites, as this would only aid the shadow organization that we are talking about in finding those sites and having them removed. Hopefully, the information will be easier and easier to find as the day goes on. It is my intent to have these documents fully translated soon. Unfortunately, my translator is currently running for her life. That’s right, folks. These people are… at this very minute… chasing people I care about near our home, actively trying to kill them. This isn’t theoretical. They are trying to assassinate a linguistics scholar because she might be able to help bring you all the truth. Think about that.”
He punched the button to end the last call, then accepted the first one that rang.
“I don’t know who you are, but how dare you bring my daughter into this?” a woman scolded him.
Kyle was alone on the screen at that point. Only Rebecca had been on with him, and not since she had left to help orchestrate their little ‘surprise’. Which, if this woman was telling the truth, she could only be one person. “Mrs. Bruice?”
“Why would you do that? What did you do to her to make her say those things?”
Shaking his head, Kyle answered, “Nothing, Mrs. Bruice. If you want to know the truth, I think you’re going to have to talk to your husband.”
“Don’t tell me what I should do! Let her go!”
Kyle sighed, then let his sincerity show as he looked into the camera. He found it weird that he could show the callers his body language and facial expressions while he couldn’t see them. He wondered how television personalities did this all day long. It felt so awkward, like he was acting even though his emotions were real. “She isn’t a captive, Mrs. Bruice. She could walk away at any time.” His face went grim, muting the call so he wouldn’t be interrupted. “I’m glad she hasn’t, because if she drove away, I have no doubt she would be stopped by the first FDPC roadblock she came across. They’d drag her into a private room somewhere, torture her for anything she knows, and then probably kill her for having disobeyed ‘The Dawn’. That’s the kind of people they are. That’s the kind of person your husband is, Mrs. Bruice. He fed her to them. He groomed her and then turned her over to be brainwashed. I’d say if you have issue with anyone, it’s him.”
Once again, he hung up. She had had her say. Anything after that wasn’t going to be useful. He didn’t know if he hoped she would confront Rebecca’s father or not. Would he kill her for doing it? Or would even that bastard have a flicker of real love in his heart? He pushed that away. He couldn’t think about that sort of thing right now.
He tapped open another line.
A howling man yelled at him, “Goddamn bastard motherfu –”
Kyle cut off the line, and one of his eyebrows rose. “Well. Let’s leave that sort of sparkling conversation for another time.” Alright, he was being a bit of a smartass, but he figured he
had the right when trolls went on a rampage. “Like I said, folks, I’ll do my best to answer your questions, but let’s keep it clean, shall we? Considering I could die any second, seems like it isn’t a lot to ask.” He punched another button.
A woman said, “Am I on? Oh, I am! Look, all this is insane! Why aren’t you talking to the police? The FBI? I mean, this is ridiculous. You need to give up right now before someone else gets hurt.”
Kyle smiled. “Thanks for the concern. We tried. Last time we called someone to bring in help, that person was nearly assassinated by the FDPC. Well, not them, but the agents loyal to Andrew Lark. I mentioned their names earlier. Not sure if they were their real names, but they introduced themselves to the scientist they tried to murder. I’m using their names here because I’m not going to let them hide under a rock.”
“What if someone hurts them? They might have families!”
Kyle nodded, but didn’t back down. “I don’t want anyone taking matters into their own hands anymore than you do. What I want is all the people in the FDPC, FBI, DOJ, or the police who aren’t corrupted by these Dawn people to wake up and take action. If there are enough people, maybe they can figure this all out. If not, and if the Dawn owns these organizations outright… well, then it’s too late, and we’re all screwed anyway.”
“What do you want then?”
Kyle smiled, glad for the question. “Stop trusting anyone in the FDPC until they can prove they are clean. I’ve shown you what they’re trying to do. They’re trying to change us. Mutate us so we are more like whatever they want us to be. Persterim isn’t random. Stop believing them. They cost almost all of you the ability to have kids! They are the enemy. Demand a halt to all their activities and demand they account for themselves before we let them jab a needle into even one more…”
He faded off as he noticed the cell phone lose all bars between one second and the next. He grimaced. “Just lost the phone. They might have killed the tower.”
