Alex didn’t follow him. He stood in place, watching them lead his friend away. Tom looked back over his shoulder, his eyes wild with fear, and stumbled as he walked. Kristoff shoved him violently forward and he almost fell.
“Alex,” Yael said. “I’m with you, whatever you do.” He nodded, and picked up the radio.
“Awesome One to all call signs, roll call, repeat, roll call.”
“Dark Knight here,” Patrick said immediately. A few seconds later, Purple Power and Beach Bunny checked in.
“Doctor Who here,” Barbara’s voice crackled, surprising him. He hadn’t expected her to answer, but why not? She was a member of his team, and it was time to call her to duty.
“All call signs,” Alex said. “Proceed to the warehouse ASAP. From this point on, you are cleared to engage the enemy. I say again…you are cleared to engage the enemy.”
“Alex…” Yael said, but then stopped herself and nodded. She hefted her M4 and flicked the selector switch from safe to semi. She was adorable under her Kevlar helmet, and for a moment Alex was tempted to order her to go and hide somewhere where she would be safe.
“Awesome one, this is Dark Knight,” Patrick said through the radio. “Who exactly is the enemy?”
“Anyone who gets in your way,” Alex said.
Chapter 27
They came out of the jungle like a pack of predatory baboons, hunched over, moving quietly, quickly. The weight of body armor and weapons hardly slowed them, attesting to the effectiveness of the brief but intense training that Alex had subjected them to. Upon seeing them emerge from the trees, Alex signaled his group to advance from the other direction. Neither Max nor his people saw them until it was too late.
“On the ground!” Alex shouted as he charged them. “Get down on the fucking ground!” Max whirled, eyes wide. Kristoff looked up from where he had been securing Tom to the pole, frozen like a deer in headlights while Bob fumbled for his gun.
Pointing his carbine at the ground at Bob’s feet, Alex fired a short burst. Bob flinched from the piercing cracks and flying sand and dropped his weapon.
“On the ground!” Yael shouted as her party closed from the other side.
“Get down!” Patrick yelled behind her.
Reynard, who was standing next to Max, reached for his radio. Alex, now in range, jerked his carbine forward and struck Reynard in the temple with his weapon’s flash suppressor. The stooge crumpled like a severed puppet and lay on the ground, clutching his bleeding head and looking up in confusion.
“I said get down!” Alex shouted at Max, who was frozen, not moving. He kicked the governor in the back of the knee, and the man collapsed almost on top of Reynard. Every one of them was now face down in the sand.
“Secure the prisoners,” Alex ordered. “We have two more unaccounted for.”
“Just what do you think you’re doing?” Max demanded, clearly shaken as Patrick ziptied his hands behind his back.
“Taking over,” Alex said. “Something I should have done a long time ago.”
“You’ll never get away with this!” the governor shouted. “When they find out about this—”
“Shut the fuck up,” Alex barked. “Before I blow your fucking head off!” Max glared with pure hatred, but didn’t say anything else.
“Thanks a bunch, Chief,” Tom said, clearly relieved, as Sandi and Patrick went to each of the prisoners and zip tied their hands and feet, then collected their weapons.
“No problem,” Alex said, and smiled. “Remind me to kick your ass after we celebrate.”
“Will do.”
“Barbara, Ryan,” Alex said. “You guys cut Tom loose and guard these assholes. The rest of you, we have two stray dogs to bring in.”
They found Jonathan guarding Burger King, frantically yelling into the radio. As soon as the kid saw them coming, he turned and started to run. Another burst of rifle fire scared him enough to freeze him in his tracks, and Alex knocked him to the ground the same way he had the governor. Once he was secured and his weapon confiscated, Alex picked up the sycophant’s radio.
“Hello, Richard,” he said. “Where are you?”
“Who the fuck is this?” Rich’s whiny voice blared through the radio’s tiny speaker. “What’s going on?”
“Awesome One, this is Rip Ranger,” Tom said through Alex’s radio. “Richard was just here. He saw us and bolted towards Burger King.”
“Understood,” Alex said, discarding Jonathan’s radio.
They saw Rich a few seconds later. As soon as he spotted them he froze.
“On the ground!” Alex shouted. Yael, Patrick and Sandi advanced towards him, rifles pointed at his head.
He looked from one to the other, then dropped to his knees. Yael walked up behind him, took his pistol and shoved him down onto his face. Within seconds they had the last of Max’s goons tied and helpless.
Alex lowered his weapon, smiled, and let out a long sigh.
“Wow,” he said. “We really should have done this a long time ago. Let’s get these guys locked up and get all the guns, especially the stuff they took from Tom.”
They gathered up the prisoners and Alex used the arms room terminal to lock them in their respective cabins, except for Max, whom he put in the empty one. The former governor had indeed been lying when he told Alex he had no way to lock someone in. It was one of the top level options in the security menu.
“Stew in here for a few days,” Alex said to Max. “I’m going to let you out eventually, but when I do, you’re just a regular colonist. You’re done as governor. I’ll get your shit and bring it to you here…this is your new home. If I see you near your old ‘office’ or if you cause any trouble, I’m going to kill you. Do you understand?”
Max nodded, still glaring.
As he and Yael made their way to Burger King, a lot of people were coming out of their cabins, confused by the gunfire.
“Change in administration,” Alex announced. “Nothing to worry about.”
“Captain Meyer?” someone asked, and recognizing the voice, he turned around. It was David, the long haired loudmouth.
“Yes?”
“Is it true?” he asked timidly. “That you killed Max?”
“No,” Alex said with a twinge of regret. “He’s alive, but he’s not the governor anymore.”
David nodded. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. Feel free to kick his ass a little bit when I let him out, but don’t hurt him too much.”
The loudmouth smiled, and Alex felt good. If this guy could come around to his side, he must be doing something right.
As word spread, people started to express shock and disbelief, though there were few actual protests. Some people demanded to know what right he had to take over by force, but those were a clear minority and he ignored them. The rapport he had built over the last week or so was paying off. Despite Max’s spin, most of them knew who their friends were.
By the time he got to Burger King, Ryan and Patrick were already standing guard outside, while Tom sat at the governor’s desk, clicking away at the keyboard while Yael, Barbara and Sandi hovered over his shoulder.
“Chief,” Tom said without looking up as soon as Alex walked through the door. “These security measures are a joke. It’s almost like they didn’t expect any hackers to survive.” He grinned.
“I wonder why. How long do you think it will take you?”
“Not long, maybe a couple of hours. The security may totally suck, but this connection is slow and cumbersome. You guys can go, I’ll radio when I’ve learned something.”
“Okay,” Alex said. “I’ll leave a guard outside, just in case.”
“In case what?” Barbara asked. “Didn’t you lock them up?”
“Yeah, the ones we know about. How many more fans does that snake oil salesman have? Or maybe some misguided morons could try to ‘do what’s right’ and free him, or attack us.”
“Just in case,” Barbara agreed. “This is why you’re the
captain.”
“You’re the Burger King now, Chief,” Tom said, without taking his eyes off the monitor.
“Right,” Alex said with obvious distaste. “We’ll have to talk about that later.”
“I can tell you something right now,” Tom said.
“What’s that?”
“Max’s talk about having you replaced…it was bullshit.”
“Really?” Alex turned back to the terminal and looked at the screen.
“Really,” Tom said. “See the communications log? It’s all one way. Outgoing communication isn’t even enabled.”
“Motherfucker!” Alex swore, shaking his head. “He had me going the whole time! What a manipulative, nasty bastard he is!”
“And apparently,” Yael said. “He was just clever enough to orchestrate his own undoing.”
Alex turned to her and smiled. “You turn me on when you use big words.”
She rolled her eyes. “You’re not as dumb as you look so stop fooling around.”
“Well I feel pretty dumb after the way he played me.”
“You shouldn’t.”
“Wait a minute!” Alex said. “That’s why he ordered me to kill Wawa. Now it makes sense. He told me that he tried to have me replaced, and that they wouldn’t let him unless I disobeyed one of his orders. I wondered at the time why he would tell me something like that. Then he gave me an order that he knew would fuck my head up. He was going to have a man killed just to keep me believing that I was under his control. That piece of shit! I kinda wanna go shoot him now.”
“It’s what he does,” Tom said. “He’s a freakin’ lawyer. I should know, I used to play one. Now leave me to my business, you bunch of circling vultures. I need room to stretch my wings.”
“Right,” Alex said as he followed the others outside. “So you can crawl out of your cocoon and become a beautiful butterfly.”
“You got it, Chief.”
Once they were outside, Alex turned to the others. “I need two volunteers to stay on duty, guard Burger King while Tom does his business.”
Patrick and Sandy immediately stepped forward.
“Good. As for the rest of you, go relax, unwind. You did good work today, and with Max out of the picture our lives are going to get a lot easier. No more standing around in full kit…from now on we can get that stuff when we need it.”
Alex watched them disperse. They were weary but obviously very proud.
“I’m going to go shower,” Yael said. “Meet you at your place?”
“You could shower at my place,” he said suggestively.
“Yeah, but I actually want to get clean.”
He chuckled as she walked away, and started for his own cabin. He felt lighter, and despite the weight of his kit there was a slight bounce to his step, an expression of the childlike joy he felt. The sun was climbing over the mountains, warming the steady breeze that carried the tang of salt water. People were everywhere, talking, pointing. He had never seen such energy in this place. While not all of it was positive, he decided it was a good thing. People didn’t have to like freedom, they just had to have it.
“Live free or die,” he muttered, and it suddenly occurred to him that for the first time in his life, he was actually, totally free. Alex was a product of the public school system, and since childhood he’d been taught that America was a free country. The older he grew, however, the more he realized that American freedom was an idea more than it was an actuality. He had the right to bear arms, but only if the government let him. He had the right to protest, but only with a permit and in designated areas—even his freedom of speech was subject to the will of the courts. Small things like going camping, fishing or walking down the street with a beer were subject to constant government meddling. He wasn’t a right wing nutcase, he could entertain the notion that some restrictions were a necessary evil brought about by an increasingly complex society and a growing population, but that didn’t mean he liked it, or that he didn’t resent the lie.
“Regulate this,” he said, hefting his rifle.
He thought of all those that had died, the exact number of which he could only guess at, and felt somewhat ashamed for his joy. Whoever had unleashed this destruction upon the world had committed a crime beyond his ability to measure, and yet out of the ashes of that evil something good had emerged, at least for him. When he looked around, he didn’t just see the idyllic location or the beautiful greens and blues that painted his world in shades of natural splendor, he saw the faces of the best friends he’d ever had, and the face of the woman he loved. Would he give it all up to restore that which had been lost? He didn’t want to press himself for the answer, sure that he wouldn’t like it, regardless of what it was.
He turned a familiar corner and came within sight of his cabin. Max was standing there, right in front of his door.
Chapter 28
Alex stared at him, frozen, uncertain. What the hell was he doing there? He wanted to rub his eyes to emote his confusion, but instead he brought up his rifle and aligned his targeting dot with Max’s head.
“Hold on Alex,” Max said calmly. He turned and motioned. Bob came out from behind the cabin, his meaty arm around Yael’s throat, pinning her to him. In his other hand he held a pistol. The same pistol Alex had given her to protect herself.
“Put your weapons down,” Max said. “Or he’ll kill her.”
Yael clutched at Bob’s arm, her eyes glaring with hatred, though he could clearly see the fear within. His whole life, spent searching for her, to end like this…
“Shoot him!” she hissed, and in response Bob tightened his arm until her eyes bulged and she gasped for breath.
“Give him three seconds,” Max said. “Then kill her.” The corners of Max’s lips curled up ever so slightly as he looked at Alex. “If you surrender now, you have my word that she will not be harmed.”
Alex aimed at Bob’s head but he shifted his position, still partially hidden behind the wall of the cabin, and he couldn’t get a clear shot.
“One,” Max said.
Bob was big, almost fat, and Alex could easily hit his leg or torso, but that would give him a chance to pull the trigger, a chance he wasn’t willing to take.
“Two,” Max said.
“I’ll waste this fucking kike whore,” Bob snarled. “Don’t think I haven’t wanted to since I met her.” The shock of those words undid him. Whatever strength he had, it flowed out of him like water out of a fractured barrel, replaced by fear, and hatred. He dropped his rifle, then unclipped it from the sling, letting it fall to the ground with a thud.
“Get his weapons,” Max ordered, and Kristoff came out from behind the cabin and grabbed Alex’s rifle, pointing it at his head.
“How did you get out?” Alex asked. It only mattered to his guilt, for he had failed to anticipate it, and now everything was falling apart.
“I told you that you were stupid, Alex,” Max said smugly. “My DNA opens any lock in the colony, even one you override. Except for the arms room, and your cabin, of course, though we’ll see what we can do about that. I’m the governor, Alex, you’re just a soldier. If you’d figured that out for yourself, we could have avoided all of this.”
“Your pistol,” Kristoff said, reaching out with his left hand. Alex reached for it, slowly, and handed it to him. He had never known such hatred, such seething, pulsating wrath. It was alive, a serpent coiled around his spine, squeezing, crushing him. He could say nothing, do nothing, so intense was his desire to kill, to rip these men apart with his bare hands and tear into their beating hearts with his teeth. Turning away from the objects of his rage, he looked at Yael, and she at him. She looked remorseful, conveying her regret through moist eyes obscured by unruly locks of auburn hair. He wasn’t sure what burned more, his failure or her adoption of the blame.
“Open your door,” Max commanded. “Then go inside and unlock your gun cabinet, the one under your bed.” As he spoke, the others—Rich, Jonathan and Reynard—came out f
rom behind his cabin to stand around their leader. They leered at Alex, their faces ripe with contempt.
He considered his options and realized he had none. The price of freedom was eternal vigilance, and he had let his guard down. Forcing his legs to respond, he shambled towards his door and put his thumb on the green pad. The familiar chime sounded, and he pulled it open. Someone shoved him inside, and he knelt before his bed and pressed his thumb to the DNA pad. He knew that by surrendering he doomed the others. He had sacrificed the many for the one, but there had never been any other choice. His friends were more important to him than his own life, but nothing mattered more than her.
They pulled him away, knocking him to the ground. He did not resist, only watched, helpless, as they pulled open the drawer and yanked out the three carbines. Reynard turned him over, wrenched his arms behind his back and secured them with zip ties. He bound his legs then dragged him against the wall, turning him over again as he shoved him into a sitting position, his back to the plexiglass divider.
Kristoff pushed Yael inside and forced her down by the foot of the bed.
“We should waste them both right now,” Bob said. “We shouldn’t make the same mistake they made with us.”
Max looked at him reproachfully. “Robert, did you not hear me give Alex my word?”
“Yeah, but—”
“The girl will be unharmed, as I have promised. As for young Captain Meyer, rest assured his life is forfeit. Killing him here, however, will only make our task more difficult.”
“Whatever you think is best,” Bob said, looking down at Yael with regret. How had normal men become so vile? Or were they always this way, under the surface, just waiting for the right moment to expose the malignancy within?
Once the weapons had been distributed, Max motioned to Reynard and Rich, who ran out the door and out of sight. He then walked over to Alex, reached down and took his radio.
“This is Max,” he said into the device. “We have your captain, and your lieutenant. Go to his cabin immediately and drop your weapons by the door. You have five minutes, or we’re going to kill them, starting with the girl.” Max turned to Alex. “A necessary bluff. I have no doubt that they will comply.” And Alex had no doubt that Max would break his word and kill Yael if they didn’t. Men like Max only played at honor and could justify anything to themselves, no matter how horrific.
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