by Ken Lozito
“Wait a minute. We’re hunting General Gates! You sure we should even be doing this?” a soldier named Foster asked.
Corporal Stewart looked at him. “Gates abandoned the CDF. He hung all of us out to dry.”
Foster shook his head. “He saved us.”
“Shall I open a comlink to Maddox and tell him you have serious issues with pursuing Gates?” Stewart asked.
Connor watched the four soldiers from a second drone he had hidden away on a nearby rooftop.
“No, sir,” Foster muttered.
Connor sent the first drone a command and it looped around, gaining speed.
“Hey, what’s that drone doing?” Parker asked.
Connor edged closer to the alleyway entrance and heard the whine of the drone’s repulsor engines as it raced toward the soldiers.
“Doesn’t matter. Take it out,” Corporal Stewart ordered.
As the four soldiers fired their weapons at the drone, tearing it apart, Connor broke from cover and came to the edge of the street where he fired at Corporal Stewart. Connor took out another soldier before the rest of them dove for cover.
“They're dead!” Parker said and spun around. “The shot came from that alleyway.”
Connor backed down the alleyway and rounded the corner, then raised his hunting rifle, looked through the scope, and waited. One of the soldiers stuck his head into the alleyway and Connor fired another round, which ricocheted off his helmet. The soldier swore.
“We’re coming for you, Gates!” Parker shouted.
“What’s keeping you?” Connor shouted back but didn’t wait for an answer. Instead, he ran toward Ian. “Come on,” he said quietly.
The soldiers were still shouting as Connor and Ian ran toward the street, circling around behind them. It was too risky to fly his remaining drone overhead to get a view of exactly where the soldiers were, so he peeked around the corner and saw them on either side of the alleyway he’d last been in. They were forty meters away. The soldier closest to him was Foster, the least likely of the two to want to shoot on sight, but Connor couldn’t take that chance and raised his rifle. The movement caught Foster’s attention and he opened fire. Connor squeezed off a shot and Foster went down, screaming. Connor traded rifles with Ian.
“Where are you going?” Foster shouted at Parker.
“I’m going to get help,” Parker answered, his voice coming from a distance.
Connor peeked around the corner and watched as Parker ran away and ducked out of sight into another alleyway. Connor brought his rifle up and stepped out from where he was hiding, keeping his sights on Foster.
“Looks like he left you behind,” Connor said.
Ian was at his side and had Connor’s empty rifle pointed at Foster. The soldier’s leg was bleeding. Foster glanced at his AR-71 laying nearby, but Connor quickly closed in on him and retrieved the CDF assault rifle.
“You were empty,” Foster said, looking at Connor’s weapon and then wincing in pain.
Connor checked the AR-71, which was fully loaded. “Not anymore,” he said as he looked at Foster’s wounded leg. “The way I see it, I can either let you bleed out, or you can help us. Which is it going to be?”
Foster winced in pain and shook his head. “I didn’t want to be here . . .”
“Maybe we should—” Ian began, but Connor cut him off.
Connor squatted down and looked at the soldier. “What happened here?”
Foster let go of his leg and the blood began to pool on the street. The soldier had no other weapons and his face was becoming pale. Connor put his rifle down and pressed his hands on the wound, trying to staunch the bleeding.
“Stay with me. Tell me what happened,” Connor said.
Foster looked at him, his eyes becoming distant. “Maddox . . . Captain Fletcher died. Maddox blames the government.”
Foster’s eyes closed, but when Connor shook him, he opened his eyes again and spoke in a low, faltering voice. “He hates you . . . ever since we saw you . . . he’s been so angry.”
“What did he find here?” Connor asked.
Foster didn’t answer and Connor shook him again but got no further response.
“He’s dead,” Ian said.
Connor pulled his bloodied hands away from the wound. His shot had hit the major artery in Foster’s leg and he’d bled out. Connor snatched the soldier's helmet off and checked his pockets for anything useful.
“What are you doing?” Ian asked, not hiding the disgust in his voice.
Connor didn’t answer him and kept searching the dead soldier. When he finished that, he got up, went to Corporal Stewart’s body, and started searching it for anything they could use. Ian came up behind him and grabbed his shoulder, but Connor shot to his feet and shoved Ian away, glaring.
Ian’s eyes widened in shock.
“They have Lenora and the others,” Connor said through clenched teeth.
Ian was clearly conflicted but looked away as Connor finished searching the body. He accessed the soldier’s PDA and retrieved the comlink access codes.
“What are you going to do?” Ian asked.
Connor stood up with the AR-71 in his hands. “I’m going to get them back.”
“There have to be over twenty soldiers back there. Shouldn’t we go for help?”
Connor shook his head. “No time. Maddox is crazy enough to kill all his prisoners. I need to stop him.”
Ian's jaw tightened. “How?”
“I’m going to hunt him down, along with the rest of his squad,” Connor said. It’d been a long time since he’d felt rage like this and he greeted it like an old friend. He couldn’t let Maddox hurt Lenora or any of the others, and Maddox was just crazy enough to use Lenora against him. “Once he learns what happened here, he’s gonna hurt them. He’s gonna hurt her. If you don’t want to come, fine, but I’m going.”
Ian glanced at the dead soldiers for a moment. “I’m with you. Just tell me what you need me to do.”
Connor was about to reply when he picked up a comlink signal from Parker. Connor waved Ian over so he could listen.
“Sir, Stewart, Dixon, and Foster are down. I barely got away,” Parker said.
“How did he get you?” Maddox asked harshly.
“Sir, he surprised us. He used a drone and . . .” Parker said.
Connor heard someone speaking in the background.
“You idiot! You’re broadcasting,” Maddox said. “Only direct comlink from now on.”
The comlink went off. Connor had been hoping Maddox wouldn’t catch on so quickly, but no such luck. He was smart.
“Were you able to hear what they were saying in the background?” Ian asked.
“I think some of them have escaped, but I’m not sure who. Let’s head toward the encampment and see what else we can learn. Parker went that way,” Connor said, pointing.
Ian walked next to him and Connor could tell there was more he wanted to say. “Go on, say what you need to say,” Connor said.
“I’ve just never seen this side of you. I sometimes forget you were a soldier,” Ian said.
Throughout his career, Connor had noticed that people reacted differently to killing. Some people immediately despised it while others embraced it, but for Connor it was something to be endured. Ian would never kill another human. He just didn’t have it in him.
“I know we need to get the others back, but we should also try and call for help. Do you still have the secondary beacon in your pack?” Ian asked.
Connor handed his backpack to Ian. “Our best bet would be to climb to the highest point and activate it.”
“Or we could just attach it to the drone and send it up,” Ian said.
Connor frowned. He didn’t like losing his only remaining drone, but Ian was right; they needed to call for help. Working quickly, they recalled the drone and attached the secondary emergency beacon, then sent it off. Hopefully someone back home would be monitoring for it.
Chapter Thirty
&
nbsp; Maddox marched his prisoners directly to the NEIIS Command Center. He had no need to go back to the encampment and sent orders for his men who weren’t in the field to meet him at the center.
He glanced at the Field Ops captain, a man named Ramsey who had finally learned to keep his mouth shut. The man’s eye was swollen almost completely closed and his cheek was already turning purple. Dr. Bishop glared at him whenever he looked over at her, but she still served his purpose—for the moment.
He walked into the command center and saw that one of the prisoners was bleeding. Gibbs was at his side, treating the wound. Maddox sent Dr. Bishop and the others to join the original prisoners.
As Sergeant Riggs joined him, Maddox noticed that he had a long scratch on his cheek and his hands were black. Maddox glanced at the consoles and saw one was destroyed. Dash was missing.
“Sir,” Sergeant Riggs said. “They rigged the console to overload and tried to escape during the confusion. We ran them down, but one managed to get away.”
Maddox motioned for Specialist Stackhouse to join them. “Do you know the NEIIS interface enough to control the ryklars?”
“We’re getting there, sir, but the overload injured the other person who knows the NEIIS language better,” Specialist Stackhouse said.
Maddox swung his gaze toward the prisoners and saw that Brad had multiple injuries, but he was conscious. Striding over to Brad, Maddox grabbed his hair and yanked him to his feet, dragging the injured man toward one of the working consoles and shoving him to the ground. The other prisoners looked on in horror but could do nothing because the soldiers were closely guarding them.
Maddox pulled out his sidearm and pointed the barrel at Brad’s head. “Feel like cooperating now?”
Brad’s eyes were wide with fear.
In order to drive home his point, Maddox moved the barrel of the gun away from Brad’s head and fired.
Brad jumped. “I’ll help. I’ll help,” he said quickly.
Maddox turned toward Specialist Stackhouse. “Get to work,” he said and looked at Sergeant Riggs. “If the prisoner so much as sneezes funny, shoot him.”
Maddox watched as Brad struggled to regain his footing. “Specialist, I just need to feed that console a special set of coordinates and then engage the signal.”
“Understood, Lieutenant,” Specialist Stackhouse said.
“Sir,” Sergeant Riggs said, “what about the prisoner that escaped?”
Maddox glanced at Dr. Bishop. “Shoot on sight. I’ll be sending out patrols.”
Dr. Bishop returned his gaze with wry amusement and then laughed. The sound of it made his lip curl and he stomped toward her. “Does any of this seem funny to you?”
Dr. Bishop smirked. “That’s your plan? This purge protocol?”
Maddox glanced at the other prisoners. “I see you’ve wasted no time being brought up to speed. Yes, this is my plan. Part of it anyway. Once Brad shows my specialist the precise commands we need, I’m going to send out a signal that will draw every ryklar across the entire damn continent and point them directly at Sierra.”
“The CDF will stop them,” Dr. Bishop said.
Maddox nodded. “Possibly, but not before several thousand of them break through their ranks and wreak havoc on the colony.”
Dr. Bishop’s eyes widened. “Why would you do this? Kill all those innocent people? Do you hate the colony that much?”
“The colony is weak. They’ve lost their way. They’ve already forgotten the sacrifice of my fellow soldiers.” He watched Dr. Bishop look at the other soldiers. “They agree with me.”
“Then they’re just as stupid as you are,” Dr. Bishop said.
Maddox stepped forward and backhanded the woman. Dr. Bishop went to the ground. He heard her spit and then laugh again as she pushed herself up.
“What’s the matter? Did I strike a nerve?” Dr. Bishop said and wiped a trickle of blood from her lip.
Maddox sneered and pointed his weapon toward the other prisoners.
“You don’t need to do this,” Dr. Bishop said quickly. “Leave them out of this.”
Maddox aimed his weapon at one of the Field Ops agents he’d chosen at random and pulled the trigger. The Field Ops agent dropped dead. Captain Ramsey screamed and lunged toward him, but his soldiers held him back. Maddox turned back to Dr. Bishop.
Dr. Bishop’s face clouded with fury as she took in the sight of the dead Field Ops agent. Then she turned back to him with fire in her eyes. She wasn’t lacking in spirit.
“You bastard,” Dr. Bishop hissed and lunged at him.
Maddox grabbed her wrist and twisted her around so her back was pressed against him. He smiled coldly. “And then some,” he whispered harshly into her ear, then shoved her away.
Corporal Lasky came over to him. “Excuse me, sir, but Spencer’s team is overdue.”
Maddox frowned. Chief Spencer had been on patrol. “Do we have their last known location, and are there any ryklars in the area?”
“We know where they were,” Corporal Lasky said, frowning. “You need to take a look at this, sir,” he said and held out his PDA.
Maddox took the PDA and peered at the image. Sergeant Spencer’s team was lined up, dead on the street. He heard Dr. Bishop gasp and then she smiled.
“It doesn’t look like ryklars killed those men. That makes five or six of your men Connor has already taken out,” Dr. Bishop said.
Maddox ignored her. “Men, we have some hunting to do. It appears that one Connor Gates believes he can get the better of us. We're going to prove him wrong.”
“You actually think you can hunt down Connor Gates?” Dr. Bishop said derisively and turned toward the other soldiers. “All of you think you stand a chance against Connor? Did you forget who he is? Do you remember what he’s done? None of you would be here if it weren’t for him. He created the Colonial Defense Force. Don’t any of you remember what he did before he came to the colony?”
Maddox snorted. “He’s one man.”
“He’s the one man who created your training based on his experiences in the special forces of the NA Alliance military. You don’t stand a chance. If you give up this foolish plan, you might yet get to live,” Dr. Bishop said, her gaze taking in all of them.
Maddox raised his gun and pointed it at Dr. Bishop.
Dr. Bishop sneered. “You think killing me is going to stop Connor? All of you are going to die if you do this. You have no idea what he’s capable of.”
Maddox pressed the barrel the gun to Dr. Bishop’s forehead. “And you have no idea what I am capable of, doctor.”
Dr. Bishop would not be cowed and she stared back at him in defiance.
“Bind her hands. She’s coming with us,” Maddox said.
The other prisoners started to protest and Maddox swung his gaze toward them. “I don’t need any of you alive,” he said coldly.
The CDF soldiers aimed their weapons at the prisoners and they went silent.
Maddox gestured for Sergeant Riggs. “I’m going to leave you in charge. Once Stackhouse has what he needs, execute the prisoners.”
Sergeant Riggs looked over at the captives.
“Do you have a problem with your orders, Sergeant?” Maddox asked.
Sergeant Riggs looked at him. “No, sir.”
“Very well,” Maddox said.
He thought about returning to their camp first, believing Connor might be heading there, but he suspected Connor would anticipate that. They would be better off leaving from here. He felt a surge of excitement far beyond anything he’d felt when hunting ryklars.
Chapter Thirty-One
Dash ran down the street, staying close to the buildings in an effort to keep out of sight. He’d learned the hard way that the CDF soldiers had drones patrolling overhead looking for him, and he’d almost been spotted once. He was confident he’d managed to slip away from them, but he kept moving just to be sure. He didn’t know how many soldiers were following him, but Merissa had delayed them enough t
o give him a head start. He’d decided to stay within a few kilometers of the NEIIS Command Center, and he thought one of the monoliths would be an ideal place to call for help. The problem was he had no way to actually make that call. Someone else had been carrying the long-range communications equipment from the C-cat. He couldn’t remember who and it didn’t matter since he didn’t have it. He had to come up with a new plan.
Running around the corner of a building that looked to have collapsed long ago, he glanced down the street and saw that several dilapidated buildings seemed to have been struck from above. The area nearby was more of the same, but he couldn't take the time to wonder why this part of the city wasn't as pristine as the rest of what they'd seen. Dash stepped off the street and leaned against the wall, catching his breath. He needed a few moments to think. The others were depending on him to get help. And if that lunatic Maddox figured out what he actually had, there would be no stopping what he’d set into motion.
Dash glanced at the clear skies overhead. Connor and Dr. Bishop should have made it there by now, and he was starting to think that whatever had taken out the engines on the C-cat had done something to prevent the others from arriving.
A high-pitched whine from a drone’s repulsor engines became louder as it flew nearby and Dash held his breath. Connor had told him about CDF drone capabilities, which went well beyond what they were using at Sanctuary. CDF drones had better detection capabilities and could fly faster than the drones he normally used, but at least they weren’t armed.
He’d found a small niche to hide in that kept him off the main street. The NEIIS buildings outside the complex were much smaller and closer together, reminding him of residential apartments. If he hadn’t been running for his life, as well as the lives of his friends, he would have enjoyed his tour through the alien city. There was so much he wanted to explore further, especially as it appeared the NEIIS easily had achieved the technological equivalent of twenty-first century Earth.
The CDF drone was coming closer. It was flying slowly, and Dash clenched his teeth. The drone must have been able to detect him or at least somehow suspect that he was nearby. He tried to hold his breath and not make a sound. The drone hovered along, flying at a snail's pace less than ten meters away from him. Without warning, something chimed from his backpack and he quickly swung the pack off his shoulder, fumbling to silence whatever the hell had decided now would be a good time to go off. The drone flew right over him and stopped. Dash glared at it, knowing he’d just shown up on someone’s video feed. He stepped away from the wall and darted out into the street.
