“… zere is no way. Zis is false information. I know Lucas, perhaps better zan anyone else. Mr. Kane could not fool him in zis way.”
“Well, then why would the security be blaring this obnoxious noise?”
“Yeah, there must be something to it, otherwise they wouldn’t be disturbing our work.”
“The bloody Americans are scary. If Kane’s workin’ for ‘em, he needs ta be caught, mate.”
Then, Tom’s voice again: “No, friends. Ve should all just go back into our labs, continue our vork. Ve are not rabble-rousers. Zis is a job for ze security, not us.”
“Yeah, maybe he’s right. Those big brutes make me nervous, anyway.”
Following a little more grumbling, the small group broke up and they headed back to their trailers. Oh, man, that guy is awesome… I’m going to tell him if I get a chance… there are still tons of people out here to worry about, though… I turned my attention back to Bill, Cheri, Ernie, and Zoey Perez, to see them sprinting toward me, Ernie carrying Zoey Perez this time, motioning as they ran for me to get down; I ducked to the side as Ernie and Zoey Perez slid in next to me, then Bill and Cheri tumbled over them, sprawling out and scrambling to a crouching position.
Bill gathered us together, his voice a low hiss. “We will have to make a run for it. All of us, aside from Zoey, are much faster than normal humans, so as long as we go low and fast into the West Hall we should make it. I’ll go first since I know the way, and the rest of you, do your best to keep up. Lucas, you have Zoey. Any questions?”
“Aww, I was having fun carrying her, but whatevers,” said Ernie, a little grin on his face.
“Right, keep your heads on a swivel, and if you see anything that looks like danger for us, yell, then run even faster. Got it? All right, here we go.”
I took a deep breath and turned so that Zoey Perez could climb onto my back, Bill gave the countdown, and we were off! We dashed past row seventeen; dozens of people out in the through-way, and a few of them saw us for sure; past sixteen, fifteen, the same thing; in the through-way between rows fifteen and fourteen, some people were standing directly in our path; Bill called for them to move, but they weren’t fast enough, and Bill pushed them aside as we flew past; thirteen- twelve- eleven, past ten, the five of us moving like a maglev train; past nine, eight, seven… in the through-way between six and five, several Bright Hand guards, fifty meters away, but their backs were to us, talking to a group in the typical grey scrubs; one of the group pointed in our direction, but I’m not sure the guards turned fast enough to see us; past five, four, fewer people out now, the piercing loudspeakers probably driving people back into their labs; in the through-way between three and two, a group of guards sprinting in our direction, forty meters away; a couple of them are firing flechettes at us, but their aim is bad; we give a last surge past the through-way encircling the interior of the great cavern and see electric carts coming from both directions; we race into the West Hall, and I notice Ernie and Cheri are breathing raggedly; we’re moving too fast for the electric carts to catch us, but we won’t be able to outrun bullets, and Ernie and Cheri won’t be able to keep going at this pace much longer.
We tear past several doors on each side as the electric carts maneuver into the West Hall; we’re ahead of them by fifty meters, but Cheri and Ernie are gasping for air. “Ahh, here we go. Just ahead, the door on the right,” said Bill, still not out of breath, and he and I slid to a stop while Cheri and Ernie stumbled, nearly falling. As he manipulated something beside a door that appeared to be made of solid steel, Bill said, “Lucas, do you think you could slow them down? I’ll need a moment to get us through.”
Wow, he’s perfectly calm… he said that as if we were just taking a walk in the park…
The guards were now forty meters away, and several were leaning out of the carts, firing flechettes at us. “Okay, sonny boy, we’re on. We’re going to spread ourselves out to give the rest of our group some cover, and then we’ll use the laser to take out their tires. Quickly, now.”
I felt my body spreading out on both sides, and in less than a second I was over two meters wide; I was being pelted with flechette needles, but they just bounced off my nano-machine outer layer; I turned my right hand and forearm toward the carts, thirty meters away now; one pulse and the lead cart spun sideways, spilling the guards out onto the floor of the West Hall; the second cart smashed into the first, and it rolled on top of the sprawled out guards as they screamed in pain; the men in the second cart climbed over the first, all the while continuing to shower me with flechette needles.
Suddenly I felt something in my left hand; I looked down at the spider grenade Cheri had just placed there, and immediately tossed it at the guards, who were now just twenty meters away; they saw it coming and knew what it was, so they turned to run, but it was too late. The clever weapon exploded, covering them with impossibly sticky webbing. A huge, dark-skinned guard that I didn’t recognize stood as best he could and called to me. “Kane’s sold you out to the Americans, you know that, don’t you? It’s not too late. Just turn him over to us. We’ll get you and your friends out of this. Come on, don’t be a fool.”
I had returned to my normal shape by now, as the four guards from the second cart, although struggling and roaring with frustration, were all captured by the spider grenade’s contents. Bill edged me aside, and said, “Sebastian, I think you know that’s not true. How much did they offer you and the others to do this?”
Sebastian struggled against the gluey bonds for a moment, then slumped, casting his eyes toward the ground. “Mr. Kane, my daughter’s sick… she needs an operation… they said you were a spy, and I thought, ‘how would I know, maybe you are’… it’s a lot of money, Mr. Kane. I had to try.”
Bill turned to us and said, “The door will open in a moment. There are two guards inside, so have your flechettes at the ready. Lucas, you in front, take the guards down quickly, then wait for me by the entrance. Got it?”
Then Bill sprinted toward Sebastian while fumbling for something in his pocket, as we could hear the shouts and scuffle of boots on the floor of a dozen or more Bright Hand guards running in our direction from the entrance of the West Hall.
24
DIRECTOR’S NOTES
MEETING WITH SVC BG, LPJ
121952 17:02
-(LPJ) I agree. If he escapes he could expose us, and it could bring all we’ve worked for crashing down.
-(BG) Don’t you think we could send out some propaganda, discredit him, expose him as some kind of crank? If we get ahead of it, we might not have to worry about it.
-Suppose he leads them to the Bright Hand cavern? Then the jig will be up for sure. Any attempts at making him out to be a nutcase will be moot.
-(BG) Yeah, you’re right. I don’t think we have any choice. We’ll have to convince the kid that (WK) is an American spy, though, and I don’t know… how do you think he’ll take it?
-(SVC) We may not get the chance. Their whereabouts are… just a moment, I have a call coming in…
-(James Early) …yeah, Leena Achebe got to me, told me ta get outside, then she just disappeared. I reckon she was joinin’ the chase, goin’ after (WK). I got out of the cavern as fast as I could. All hell’s breakin’ loose inside. They set up a sound system, it’s blarin’ louder than a jumbo jet. The people are up in arms, they…
-(SVC) Early, we don’t need every detail. Have they captured (WK) yet?
-(James Early) They chased ‘em down the West Hall. I don’t know where they think they’re goin; there’s nothin’ down there but the reactor. They haven’t caught ‘em yet as far as I’m aware. We’re havin’ to rely on our pingers, and the amount of info you can pass through those is limited.
-(SVC) So, it seems that the guards have them cornered? (WK) must have had a reason for going down that hall. He’s not the kind of person to panic.
-(James Early) Yeah, I’ve never once seen him rattled. I suppose they could be tryin’ ta shut down the react
or. Wait… ya don’t reckon they would try ta blow it, do ya?
-(SVC) No, there’s no chance of that. I want you immediately to get some communication from guards on the scene. We need to know if they’ve captured them, cornered them, whatever. And Early, no live ammunition. We don’t want to take a chance of the boy being hurt.
-(James Early) Lucas? They’d have a hard time hurtin’ him. There're others with them, too. Chi Kim, one of our very best agents, and they’ve got an American prisoner with ‘em as well. Oh, and I heard that somehow Zoey Perez joined up with ‘em too. We know Lucas’ abilities, but it seems like the rest of ‘em have also been juiced up somehow. Had reports ‘a them runnin’ in a line, said they were goin’ so fast ya could barely see ‘em.
-(SVC) Okay, Early, no more chatter. Just do as I have directed you, have the all the labs locked down and everyone aside from security sheltering in place until further notice, and call me back right away. Do you understand?
-(James Early) Oh, yeah, I got it, chief. No worries, I’ll call ya soon as I get some more info.
-What’s with that guy, (SVC)?
-(SVC) He’s a talkative sort, but he’s highly capable. We’ll have more to go on soon.
-If you say so. What do you think, (BG), (LPJ)?
-(LPJ) If they have them cornered, maybe they should just lay back, wait them out. The boy wants to go to rescue his father, and time is running out, right? In other words, they probably won’t have to wait too long.
-Yeah, that’s not bad. (SVC), get Early back on the line. Have him find one person the boy trusts to convince them that (WK)’s a spy, and to come out and turn him over to the guards, and then have everyone else hang back. Are you guys hungry?
****
T he impressive door with a large ‘R’ in the center swung open, but the guards inside, who looked like musclebound clones, were ready. They were standing next to one another ten meters back from the door and had their weapons pointed directly at us; I slipped past the door and pushed it closed behind me to keep the others from being shot and leaped at the guards; one of them got off a shot, but it went wide, and I was on them. I kicked the gun out of the hands of the guard on the left as the guard on the right swung his weapon at me, hitting me on the back of the head; it rebounded viciously, hitting him in the mouth, and he went down in a bloody heap; I used a judo move to throw the guard on the left against the wall near the entrance, and he crumpled to the ground, out as well. “I bet you’re glad I showed you all those martial arts trainings now, eh, sonny boy? Quick, let the others in before they get hit by a flechette out there.”
I threw the door open and Cheri, Ernie, and Zoey Perez tumbled through; I peeked out and Bill was talking into the ear of Sebastian, one of the huge guards caught in the webs of the spider grenade; he put something in Sebastian’s hand, then turned and dashed back toward the reactor room. As he sprinted, more guards poured over and around the toppled cart, including Willard and Leena, whom I recognized from the times she guarded us while driving us around in the Bright Hand trucks; a couple of the fresh group of guards fell or rushed into the strands of the spider grenade, but five of them made it past, including Willard and Leena. Willard slowed and held out his arms, signaled them to stop as Bill dashed through the door, and said, “Hold on, you lot. We have them cornered. No need to take unnecessary risks now. I don’t think any of us wants ta go in there like a hoon and get ourselves irradiated, right?”
I had to know what happened, so I continued watching with the reactor room door cracked open the tiniest bit. Both Willard and Leena had maneuvered themselves so they were between the other three and the reactor room and had their arms out, urging the others to stop. They made an interesting pair, Willard huge and white as paper, the light shining off his bald head, and Leena, dark and muscular, hair woven into neat rows. “You lot wait here. Leena and I will go in and get Mr. Kane ta come out.”
The other three were not having it. “You just wanna collect the bounty for yourselves!”
“No, they want the glory of catching him, that’s all.”
“They’re suicidal if you ask me. That kid could kill us all and we wouldn’t have a chance.”
Leena stepped forward. “Then why are you in such a hurry to get in there, Jackie? Willard was Kane’s personal bodyguard for years. If anyone can get ‘im to give ‘imself up, it’s Wills. And me? I know the kid, drove ‘im around loads of times. He trusts me. Plus, don’t you remember? If we catch him, we all get paid. Doesn’t matter who. I’ll convince the kid that Kane’s a spy, and Wills will convince Kane to come out with us. Brawn won’t work this time, trust me.”
The other three considered for a second, and the one in the middle said, “Nah, you two are up to something. Either we all go in, or we all wait out here.”
Willard and Leena made eye contact, and over the shouts of the ten Bright Hand guards caught in the webs of the spider grenade, I heard Willard whisper, “Okay, we tried.” They both dropped to one knee, snatched the flechette guns they had stashed in the back of their belts, and the other three were taken by surprise; they didn’t have the time to react as Leena and Willard pumped flechette needles into them, and they dropped immediately, out cold. “Sorry about that, mates,” said Willard as he and Leena turned and sprinted toward the reactor room.
“Well, what are you waiting for? Open the door and let them in!”
What about Leena? Can we trust her?
“Willard obviously does. If she ends up being a problem, do you think she would have any chance against any of you, aside from maybe Zoey? Come on, sonny boy, use your noggin.”
My what?
“Your… oh, for the love of… just let them in!”
I swung the door wide, and Willard and Leena dove through; I pulled it shut, there were a series of clicks, and Bill was at a panel just inside the door, tapping in some kind of sequence. When he finished, he said, “There we go. No one is getting through that door now.”
I finally got the chance to look around, and we were in a square room, about ten meters on a side. It looked basically like a waiting room; stark white walls, rows of chairs to the left and right, and another imposing steel door directly ahead. “We’ll need to put on hazmat suits in the next room. It’s just a precaution, but we want to get out of here safely. Willard, Leena, so glad you could join us.”
Then Leena did something weird; she stepped forward and hugged Bill and seemed almost ready to cry. “He called me, and I didn’t think I had a choice, so I got Little Jimmie and took him outside, because they wanted to give him directions. They made him acting head of the Bright Hand, just like that, and the little bugger went into your office. I didn’t want to do it, I stalled them as much as I could, but if I had waited any longer… I’m sorry, Mr. Kane…” and then she actually cried just a little.
Wow… Bill has more Bright Handers loyal to him than I thought…
Leena continued: “I had to send Maggie on a mission; if she knew I was coming to you, she would have tried to stop me…”
His arm around her shoulder, Bill said, “Don’t worry, she’s a survivor. She can definitely take care of herself. Are you good? Do you have any injuries?”
“Nothing that will slow me down. I’m so sorry I didn’t get to you sooner…”
Bill put his other arm out and pulled Willard near to him. “You have both made a choice that will change your lives. I need to ask you again: are you sure you want to do this? It’s not too late to turn around, and I would neither blame you nor have any ill feelings if you do. Things will be difficult from here on.”
“No, we’ve decided. We’re in, right, Wills?”
“All the way, mate. What’s next on the agenda, Mr. Kane?”
He clapped his hands and chuckled. “Let’s get down to business, eh, Willard? That’s my boy. We must get Lucas to the US. Nothing else matters at this point. Once we accomplish that we can consider what comes next, but we must take things a step at a time. Are we ready to move on?”<
br />
A titanic whump! against the door to our waiting room, and dust and gravel rained down from above. “Well, there’s our answer. On we go.”
As Bill worked on opening the next door, I couldn’t help myself, I just had to know. “Bill, I was watching, I saw you hand something to that big guard who was caught in the spider grenade. What was it?”
“Oh, that?” he said, as the door to the next room swung open. “It was nothing. I just gave him my credit chip so he could take care of his little girl. Everyone in, now, and get into the suits you see hanging up on the left.” Another massive boom! and the door behind us moved a bit. “Quickly, now. We have far to go. Lucas, would you mind using your laser arm to weld shut the edges of the entrance door? It should slow them down some. Hurry now, everyone. There are engineers and techs in the next room. They shouldn’t give us any trouble, but have your flechettes at the ready just in case.”
“Now you see why Billy was the head of the Bright Hand. Calm in the middle of the storm, quick and decisive, good to his people, willing to stick his neck out when necessary.”
Yeah, almost seems…
“Too good to be true? Keep your eyes open, shorty.”
Oh, boy.
25
DIRECTOR’S NOTES
MEETING WITH SVC BG, LPJ
121952 17:34
-What’s going on, (SVC)?
-(SVC) Before they got the message to hold back, a group of guards got a compact rail gun from the Bright Hand armory into the West Hall, and got off two shots at the reactor room door. Luckily that door is virtually indestructible, and luckily they weren’t far enough away from the door for the rail gun to ramp up to maximum velocity.
Reassemble (Singular Book 4) Page 15
