We walked down a steep flight of steps that led to an underground level full of glass walls and workers. I couldn’t see what the scientists were creating, but they were busy.
Echo and Samantha ignored the level for the most part. They took a hard right down a long corridor that ended with another door. This door didn’t have a lock. They stepped inside a circular room with three screens mounted on the far wall.
As soon as we entered the room, the screens clicked to life, showing the shadow figures of three individuals sitting in high-backed chairs. The light was perfect, so we couldn’t see their faces at all, only their silhouettes. Two were men, one was a woman, at least as far as the outlines could tell me.
“You two have done well,” the woman in the center screen said, beginning the conversation. “I know we’re usually able to give you a bit more of a break between runs, but there’s a matter that needs immediate attention.”
The room quieted. Echo and Samantha remained still, not quite at attention but making sure it was clear they were respectful and all ears.
“The matter at hand is sensitive,” the man on the left screen said in a deep, rumbling voice. “You two were hand-selected for this task because we believe the two of you understand the core mission of Immortal Corp more so than any other operatives. You understand sacrifices will have to be made and hard orders carried out.”
“There’s no easy way to say this, so I’m just going to come out with it.” The woman reined in the conversation. “One of our own needs to be put down. She refuses to listen to orders, and she’s a liability not only to herself but to the entire company now. I think you know who it is.”
“Amber,” Echo breathed.
When I heard the name, I felt half sick, half angered. I came here thinking I was going to find out where Monica’s father was being held, not that my own answers would be part of the same memory.
My hands clenched into fists.
“I’m sure you two have sensed a change in her recently.” The man with the gravel voice was back. “She’s lost sight of our mission. She’s lost sight of who she is. If given enough time, we’re afraid she’ll turn against us and maybe even turn others against us as well.”
I moved to the side of the room where I could see Echo and Samantha’s facial expressions as well as the dark figures in the monitors. I wasn’t sure what I expected to see.
Echo and Samantha wore similar looks on their faces. Confusion and sadness rested in their eyes.
“What we do shapes the future and allows humanity to prepare for the coming threats we will face together. And make no mistake, the threats will come,” the woman said in a hard tone. “We cannot allow one of ours to be derailed. You two are to neutralize number three immediately.”
A silence fell over the room so palpable, I swear I felt a heaviness on my shoulders.
“Number four, number five, is there a problem with your orders?” the woman asked. “Speak now. We understand she’s a member of the Pack. Turning on one of your own isn’t what we do here, but the circumstance has become dire.”
“Perhaps she would see reason if I spoke to her?” Samantha asked hesitantly. “I understand what must be done, but maybe if there’s even a chance I could get through to her—”
“She’s made her choice,” the man with the deep voice boomed. “She’s tried to make contact with the Order.”
“Oh, Amber, no,” Samantha breathed.
“So that you understand there is no going back for her, I want to play a transmission we intercepted,” the woman said, reaching a four-fingered right hand to a recording device on the desk in front of her. “This is all the proof you’ll need.”
“The killing needs to stop on both our sides,” a young woman’s voice filled the room.
Tears sprang to my eyes as if on command. I recognized that voice. How could I have ever forgotten it? It was Amber.
“I’m done being a puppet for Immortal Corp. If even a small part of you feels the same way about the Order, we can build on that. If you are receiving this, you can trust me. There has to be a different way than assassination missions on the populace as a whole and one another,” Amber spoke with excitement as if she were giving an inspirational speech at some kind of celebration. “There are good people on both sides of this. I know one. I’m in love with one. He’ll come around. More people will come around. We just have to have the courage and take a stand to be the first.”
The transmission ended.
“You know who she’s talking about,” the woman said. “She’s going to try and turn Daniel against the rest of the pack and then she’ll manipulate you one by one. Amber, number three, needs to be silenced immediately.”
Chapter Six
For the second time, the room quieted.
“I don’t have to remind you what would happen to you if either of you were to make a lapse in judgment and say, let number three go or fail to take care of her,” the man with the booming voice said. “Are we clear on that point?”
“Yes,” Echo said, swallowing hard.
Samantha remained quiet.
“Samantha? Number four, do you understand what we’re saying to you?” the woman asked. “Are we clear?”
“Yes, ma’am, it’s clear,” Samantha said, standing straighter, if that were even possible. “I understand what I have to do.”
“Good. We’ll be operating outside of normal parameters on this one,” the woman said with finality in her voice. “There is no need to check in with Cage. He will be informed of what is going on at a later time. You both are to take care of number three immediately. You are to make contact once it is done.”
The woman’s screen clicked off, as did the man’s with the deep voice. The third and last screen remained on for a second longer. This man, at least I guessed it was a man by his outline, hadn’t spoken once.
Echo and Samantha looked at him as if he were going to say something.
I even thought he was going to speak. He leaned forward in his chair. As if rethinking his actions, he sat back and his screen also clicked off.
“I can’t believe—”
“I don’t want to talk about it,” Samantha said, storming out of the room and cutting off Echo. “I need a minute.”
We stood there together, Echo, X, and I watching Samantha go.
Echo hung his head. His immediate action was anger. He pounded the wall with a fist, breaking through the thin wood on the second punch. He slumped on the ground, blood oozing from the broken skin over his knuckles.
Echo sat there swallowing hard. He wasn’t crying, but I could see the level of rage that lived in his eyes.
“Why, why did you have to do this?” Echo asked to no one. “Why, why?”
X and I hadn’t spoken to each other since we entered the safe house.
“You have the information you need for the location of the safe house and what happened to Amber. I know you feel like you have to see it, but you don’t, Daniel. You don’t have to do this to yourself,” X said softly. “You don’t have to put yourself through this.”
“If I don’t, then maybe she died for nothing,” I said, trying to figure out exactly how I felt on the matter. “I’m not going to let that happen. Someone has to remember. Someone has to talk about it.”
Echo, think back to when you killed Amber, I thought to myself, concentrating on the order. Think of when you and Samantha killed her.
The room swirled and changed around us. It shifted to black with those cones of white light and a thousand voices talking at once.
The next thing I knew, we were standing on a rooftop overlooking some kind of manmade lake on Mars. On either side of us, rooftops sprawled out. In front of us, the still water lapped the sandy shore. It was midday and bright. There were a handful of locals walking and laughing while others drove by on their vehicles, listening to music or the latest entertainment show on their speakers.
X and I stood just behind Echo and Samantha. Both of them were dressed in
black from head to toe. They looked out over the water to a series of buildings on the other side of the lake.
“I’m not doing this,” Samantha said, not bothering to turn and look at Echo. “I’m not going to do this.”
“Sam, they’ll kill us if we don’t,” Echo said with a low, sad tone. “You know that as well as I do. Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow, but they’ll eventually find us and kill us.”
“If I do this, I’m already dead,” Sam said, turning to Echo. “At least the part of me that matters the most will be.”
When she turned, I got a better look at her profile. Her hair was tied back in a ponytail now. She wore dark glasses over her eyes. Although she wore a coat, I could tell a blaster rested on her left hip.
“You don’t think I want to do this?” Echo gritted his teeth, also turning to her. “The Pack is the only family any of us ever had. Whatever you think about Immortal Corp, they gave us purpose. They gave us a life and a family. If we don’t do this, all of that gets ripped apart.”
“We’re already being ripped apart,” Sam said, shaking her head. “And you’re right. We are a family. Amber is like a sister to me. I’m not going to kill my sister because she believes differently than I do.”
“She doesn’t just believe differently than we do.” Echo shook his head so violently, the dreadlocks on his head whipped from side to side. “She wants to start an insurrection. She was trying to communicate with the enemy.”
“I’m not doing it,” Sam said, taking a step back from Echo. Her hand traveled to the blaster at her hip. “I’m not. I’m not going to try to kill you any more than I’m going to try and kill Amber. But I can’t control your actions. If you want to try and stop me from leaving, you can try now.”
I didn’t know what to think. I was so sure that Amber had been betrayed by both Echo and Sam. The deep, hollow feeling in my gut brought on by anger and sadness was still there, but something lived along with it now. It felt like pride, a tiny light of hope shone amidst the maelstrom of heartache.
Echo took a step back, creating distance between himself and Samantha. He slowly let his right hand descend to his belt. Tears fell down his face.
“I have to kill her because that was what I was ordered to do,” Echo said, swallowing hard. “I wasn’t ordered to kill you. But I might be one day and I’ll have to. You’re turning your back on the Pack now, not just me.”
“Immortal Corp created us, but they don’t get to choose who we become,” Sam said, turning her back on Echo. She moved to the edge of the rooftop. “If you want to come after me one day, I’ll understand. I won’t be hard to find. I heard Earth’s nice this time of year.”
“Don’t.” Echo shook his head. “I don’t want to know where you’re going if I’m ever ordered to find you one day.”
“Good bye, Echo,” Sam said with one last look.
Echo dried his eyes. The muscle in his jaw twitched with anger as he mentally prepared himself for what came next.
Sam jumped off the building edge to a balcony below and made her way to the street. A minute later, she disappeared into the neighborhood.
I stood stunned. I still wasn’t sure what to think. I hated Echo and I think a part of me would always hate him. There was still something about seeing the frustration and tears in his own eyes. He had killed Amber and I was going to put him in his grave for that, but he had not been eager or willing to carry out the execution.
How did you kill her, Echo, I forced myself to think. How did you do it?
I fast forwarded through Echo’s memory. I knew I couldn’t watch it in real time. I had to see it to confirm her death, but I had no desire for it to play out second by agonizing second in front of me.
Echo positioned himself on a bridge over the lake. Amber drove by in a small vehicle made for one person. There was a fat tire in the front and another on the rear.
She was gorgeous, her honey-blonde hair, those kind yet fierce eyes. I was reminded of it all right before she died.
Echo hid behind a light pole until the last minute. Just as her small vehicle passed Echo pivoted from behind the light pole, tossing a circular metal explosive onto the side of Amber’s transportation. The explosive stuck on to the metal beeped a moment later and exploded.
Amber had a second to realize what was going on but no time to react.
I stood on the sidewalk, shaking half in rage half in grief.
There’s nothing you can do, I had to remind myself over and over again. This all already happened. There’s nothing you can do.
X stood with me, her hand on my shoulder.
Amber’s vehicle blew apart into a dozen different sections. She was thrown ten meters to the opposite side of the bridge. Civilians screamed and turned their own vehicles in the opposite direction.
Echo walked over to where a bloody Amber lay in the sidewalk. Despite the damage her body took, she was already struggling to her feet. Crimson red pooled around her. Her left arm looked useless, a mess of bone and flesh.
She screamed in pain then reached for something at her waist.
Echo laid into her with a short-barrel heavy blaster.
I wiped the tears from my eyes as I saw her take round after round from his weapon. The warrior spirit in her couldn’t quit, and for that, a smile cracked my lips despite a lump the size of my fist in my throat.
Amber was a fighter until the end. She had reached to her hip to grab a knife. Echo stalked toward her, emptying his clip into her battered body. As soon as he was close enough, Amber struck at him with a roar on her bloody lips. She sank the blade deep into the left side of his neck.
Echo screamed in pain. He reached for a syringe in his own pocket, taking it out and ramming it in Amber’s neck. He pressed down on the plunger.
There were sirens in the distance now. Praetorians in their heavy armored trucks were making their way onto the opposite side of the bridge. It didn’t seem like the GG messed around on Mars. The attack couldn’t have taken more than a few minutes and already first responders were on the scene.
Amber’s eyes rolled into the back of her head as Echo pulled the needle free. She slumped in his arms.
Echo ripped her blade free from his neck with a grunt.
“Don’t—don’t hurt him,” Amber said, trying to recover from the drugs in her system. “He doesn’t know. He wasn’t—a part of this.”
“I know,” Echo said, reaching into his opposite jacket pocket for a long wire. He attached one end to her leg and the other he secured around the rail of the bridge that was made from some kind of white stone.
Echo reloaded his weapon then blasted a section of the rock next to the anchored end Amber wore around her leg. He fired his weapon a second time at the section of the bridge railing on the other side of Amber’s anchor. All the decimated rock railing would need now was a hard shove to fall over the edge of the bridge.
“You don’t have to be who they created you to be,” Amber said, struggling to get up, still half out of her mind with the drugs introduced into her system. “You don’t have to let your past define who you are today.”
Echo picked her up gently as if he were carrying some child he genuinely cared about.
“I’m sorry,” Echo said to her. “This is what I am.”
I couldn’t help it. I was losing my hold on the moment. I knew it was a memory that I had no control over. Still, everything in my being demanded I act.
“No!” I screamed, racing forward and trying to grasp at Amber’s body as she was dropped into the lake below.
My hand reached for hers, only going through it instead of being able to actually hold it. The strangest thing was Amber’s face looked content. Not an expression of fear as I would imagine in someone’s last minute when they realized they were about to be drowned. She looked as if she were at peace with her end.
Amber’s body hit the water, ripping the rock piece off the bridge after her with the aid of another blast from Echo’s weapon.
T
he rock slammed into the river after her. Echo raced off as the GG praetorians arrived on the scene.
I didn’t really care about seeing Echo escape or about following the actions of the GG praetorians around me. I fell to my knees, staring at the rippling water that marked Amber’s grave.
I felt sick to my stomach, and my head hurt once again like someone was driving a pickaxe through the back of my skull. An impossible desperation overtook me that maybe, just maybe Amber was going to somehow rise to the surface.
Maybe she had managed to get away by some miracle. I shook so hard I couldn’t stop myself. Tears came and fell down my face unabated.
X knelt next to me. I could see her out of my peripheral vision, but I wasn’t really in the mood to have a conversation.
Neither was X. She placed her hand on top of mine and gave me a squeeze, not saying anything.
The maelstrom of emotion built inside of me. Grief turned to anger. I lifted my head to the sky. A scream ripped from my throat that started as anguish but somewhere halfway through ended in rage.
Wake up! I screamed at Echo in my head. Wake up! I’m going to kill you.
Chapter Seven
I came out of my drugged state in pure adrenaline mode. One second I was in Echo’s memory of Amber’s death. The next I was sitting across from him surrounded by Phoenix guards and lab-coated scientists.
My eyes blinked open at the same time Echo’s did. I had no idea if he realized I was in his head or not. I didn’t care. I was going to kill him.
Commander Shaw saw the look in my eyes even before I ripped the IV out of my arm and leapt over the table.
“Daniel, don’t,” Commander Shaw said, reaching for my arm.
He was too slow. The metal crown I wore that connected me to Echo’s dream state was jerked off my head as I vaulted over the table, slamming into Echo.
Absolution: A Near Future Thriller (Forsaken Mercenary Book 2) Page 4
