Echo was chained to his chair and took the brunt of my tackle full on. His chair tipped over, tearing the IV out and the crown off his head as well.
“You didn’t have to do it!” I screamed at him. My hands found his neck. “Sam didn’t do it. You didn’t have to do it!”
Echo’s eyes bulged out of his skull. His latest injuries left a face looking at me half-scarred from the damage, half-white skull as tendons and ligaments healed over.
“Daniel!” Monica burst into the room. “Stop! You have to stop!”
Hands reached for my shoulders and arms, trying to pry me off.
“He can tell us more,” Commander Shaw said as he and other guards wrestled my arms free. “Daniel, we need him alive.”
I was past all reason. My hands trembled as I choked the life out of Echo. Echo couldn’t get a word out, since I was strangling him, but he didn’t try to break free. He looked me dead in my eyes and gave the slightest nod as if he were giving me permission to kill him.
“What did she die for, Daniel?” X asked softly in my head. Although her voice was the quietest compared to the shouting around me, it cut through my fog of rage like a steel wire through butter. “Echo has information that can help her cause. The future she saw.”
I wasn’t really counting, but I must have had three or four Phoenix guards trying to pry me off Echo’s throat at the moment.
I could have killed him there. Maybe I should have. Left to my own devices, I knew I would. X was right. Echo had a wealth of information we could access in his memory bank, all of which would help us not only free Monica’s father but unlock answers to my past and help us bring down Immortal Corp for good.
Reluctantly, I let go of Echo’s throat.
Echo gasped for air, choking on the lungful of oxygen coming back into his body.
“Kill me!” Echo coughed. “No, you have to kill me. What are you doing?”
I sat back on my heels. I gave the guards who still held me looks that spoke murder for them if they didn’t let me go. They got the hint. As one, they released me.
I stood up, looking down at Echo’s prone form.
The room quieted. Everyone waited to see what I would do next.
“I deserve to die,” Echo said as spittle flew from his mouth. He coughed again. “You saw what I did. I killed her. I deserve to die. Kill me!”
“No,” I said, turning for the door. “It’s not what she would have wanted. You may have killed her, but you didn’t kill her spirit or the future she saw. That lives on.”
I left the room, chased by the roars of madness coming out of Echo’s tortured soul.
Monica caught up with me outside the hall of the room.
“Daniel, wait,” Monica said, running in front of me to stop my forward progress. “We saw everything you did thanks to those monitors that tracked your progress. Thank you, thank you for finding out where my father is. I’m so—so sorry for what you had to see. I wish there was something I could do. Amber was an amazing woman with a wonderful heart and vision for the future.”
I nodded. I kind of felt numb at the moment. After the pain and fury left, I felt like I could eat a dropship and sleep for a week.
Memories of where Sam said she was going kept my physical needs at bay.
“I’m going to help you get your father back,” I told Monica. “That hasn’t changed. But I have to make a trip first.”
“We won’t be ready to go to Mars for another day or two,” Commander Shaw said, joining us in the hall. “I have to report all of this. We’ll need to get identities for you to get in and out of Mars. The Galactic Government has the planet buttoned up tight.”
“Every day we wait puts my father’s life in jeopardy,” Monica said, trying to restrain the stress in her tone. “We have to go as soon as possible.”
“And we will,” Commander Shaw reassured her. “But we’re not going to do your father any good if we can’t get onto the planet, or once there, you’re recognized and taken into custody. We can bet that Immortal Corp has labeled both of you as traitors and uploaded your information to the Galactic Government database. They’ll use the GG to bring you in then extract you from them.”
“Two days?” I asked.
“That’s a safe bet,” Commander Shaw said with a tight nod. He read something in my question. “Why?”
“How far away are the Badlands?” I asked, remembering Sam told Echo she was coming to Earth. That and the story of the red-haired woman I heard in the diner outside of New Vegas, it had to be her. “They’re to the north?”
“By air, you can be there in a few hours, but I can’t give you access to a dropship, Daniel,” Commander Shaw said. “I mean, as an outsider not affiliated with Phoenix, it would be impossible to get you clearance. Now if we could schedule a routine pass over the Badlands and you just happened to stow aboard and, say, drop out of the rear hatch, well, I don’t think we could stop you.”
I went from trying to figure out how I was going to get to the Badlands to grinning a second later. “Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me. I didn’t do anything.” Commander Shaw turned to walk back down the hall. “If there were going to be a dropship making that routine pass, it would be leaving within the hour.”
Monica watched as Commander Shaw left the hall.
“He’s a good man,” Monica said. “I get why you have to go. It sounds selfish if I only think about myself and my father. I understand if you can’t make it back in time when we leave for Mars.”
“Two days,” I told her. “I gave you my word. I’ll be back in two days. Wait for me. Commander Shaw said it would take that long to make arrangements anyway.”
Monica gave me a tight nod. Her eyes lit up a second later.
“I almost forgot. I have something for you.” Monica waved me into the viewing room adjacent to the one I had just been in.
When we walked inside, we were just in time to see four Phoenix guards walk out with a heavily chained Echo. Doctor Bartelbee and his assistant were still gathering their equipment.
“He’ll need more of the serum if his body is going to be able to maintain what was done to it,” Doctor Bartelbee was instructing his counterpart. “He’ll eventually need to go into the sleep again. I can’t imagine what he must feel like. I mean, to be asleep for so many years and then wake up only when there’s conflict. What a life.”
Monica and I looked at one another, confused. It was clear the two scientists had no idea we were in the opposite room and able to listen in. I wasn’t really a nosy person by default, but the topic they were speaking on was far too interesting not to.
“How old do you think he really is?” the assistant asked. He was much younger than Doctor Bartelbee with long slicked-back hair and a slight lisp. “I’ve heard stories that he was alive when the Earth fell. But they’re just stories.”
“I wouldn’t doubt them in the slightest. It might be better that we don’t know too much,” Doctor Bartelbee said, pushing the hover cart through the door. “Anyway, want to grab dinner soon? I’m in the mood for anything at the moment besides Mexican. I had that last night and let me tell you, my last visit to the bathroom looked like a murder scene.”
Monica and I looked to each other with first a grimace and then a chuckle.
“Who do you think they were talking about?” Monica asked, going over to the single table in the room where a dark grey case sat. It wasn’t there the first time I entered the chamber.
“I don’t know,” I said, shaking my head free of images of Doctor Bartelbee stuffing his face with Mexican food. “What’s in the case?”
“When we got here, I put in a rush request with our armor team,” Monica said, opening the case in front of me. “I told them to get it to me as soon as it was finished.”
I looked down at the open case, not sure what I was seeing. It looked like a clip for my MK II but ended in a small drum the size of my fist.
“I know you had to swap out which type of ammunition
to use by removing and putting different packs into the hand cannon,” Monica explained. “The drum holds all four types of rounds now: gas, explosive, knockout rounds, and normal. Instead of having to swap out charge packs, they’re all in one. The drum allows for you to be able to hold forty rounds all together.”
I picked up the drum, reaching to my lower back with my free hand to draw my weapon. I released the current charge pack and clipped in the drum. It fit perfectly. The end of the handle was a bit bulky now with the drum, but it wouldn’t inhibit my ability to draw the weapon. I might have to mount it on my hip now, but that would be worth the trade off if it did what Monica said.
“Thank you,” I said, testing the weight and feel over and over again.
“That’s not even the best part,” Monica said, practically beaming with pride. “There’s a pressure-sensitive smart reader mounted on the upper section of the pack. Now when your designated fingerprint applies pressure to different areas of the weapon it tells the drum which rounds to fire.”
I looked down at the MK II with newfound respect.
“If you move your thumb up and press, it’s your normal steel rounds. Slightly down, you have your knockout rounds. Below that is gas and finally explosive rounds,” Monica explained. As she listed off the rounds in the barrel, she pointed to the section on the side of the MK II near my thumb. “Try it. You’ll feel a slight rotation as the barrel maneuvers your desired rounds in place.”
I moved my thumb as far down the grip as I could while still holding it with one hand and pressed. True to Monica’s words, I felt a slight movement within the drum on the weapon as the desired rounds were shifted into place. I did the same pressing the gas rounds and then the knockout rounds and finally my traditional steel bolts. Every time I pressed, the smart drum read my thumb pressure and maneuvered the rounds in place.
“This is great,” I said, looking up at Monica. “Thank you. I have a feeling I’m going to need this in the coming days.”
“Just be safe out there,” Monica said, taking a step closer. She leaned in and gave me a kiss on the cheek.
Her soft lips pressed against the hard stubble on the left side of my face.
How long has it been since you’ve been kissed by a woman? I asked myself with no answer. Was Amber the last?
I wasn’t sure if Monica wanted more or if it was a simple gesture for a hurting friend. I guess it didn’t really matter. I didn’t have more to give her at the moment.
“Thank you,” I said over my shoulder as I turned. “I’ll be back in two days. We’ll get your father. I promise.”
Chapter Eight
My stomach was practically eating itself by the time I reached the hangar bay. The events of the morning had been like trying to hold on to some runaway dropship. I didn’t know what time it was now, but I was pretty sure I had missed at least one meal, maybe two.
The energy my body used to heal me from the fight with the Cyber Hunter needed to be replenished and fast.
I saw the four dropships in line as maintenance crews went over checks. One of the ships on the end had its rear cargo bay door down. I jogged over to the ramp, stopping by a supply rack on my right to find an appropriate harness for my new weapon.
The MK II I usually placed on the small of my back wouldn’t fit there comfortably anymore thanks to the drum pack. I settled for a harness that would strap the weapon, not to my waist, but rather to the thigh on the outside of my right leg.
The MK II would be within perfect grabbing distance stationed right where my hand naturally hung from my arm.
I wasn’t one for armor, but I saw the value in wearing it now. I had no idea what I was in store for, traveling into the Badlands to the north.
I chose a lightweight armor suit that would protect me from everything except high caliber weapons. It almost felt silly placing the pieces of armor around my body. I’d heal from everything short of someone drowning me as far as I knew. Still it would be better not to have to deal with the pain of a blade or round if I didn’t have to.
“Yo, we going to pretend you’re not on this ship while I make my rounds or what?” a voice much too young to be in the Phoenix base at all called out. “I got a schedule to keep here.”
I looked up from clipping on my chest protection. A short man barely out of his teens stood on the open rear ramp of the dropship. He rested his hand on his waist, not trying to hide the idea that I was inconveniencing him.
He wore a one-piece jumpsuit that was dark tan. The fiery look in his bright eyes matched the Phoenix emblem on his right shoulder. Above the pocket on the left side of his chest was the designation “331TRS.”
“I’m coming,” I said, jogging across the hangar bay. My stomach rumbled so loud, I thought for sure it would cause an echo in the colossal room. “So I don’t have to sneak aboard or anything? You’ll just let me on?”
“I don’t know nothing, and I want to keep it that way,” the young man said, extending a hand. “Name’s Riner.”
“Good to meet you,” I said, taking his hand and following him onboard. “Thanks for the lift.”
“No idea what you’re talking about,” Riner said with a shrug.
We walked past the open cargo bay area in the rear of the dropship and made our way through the seating section that remained empty and to the pilot’s cabin.
A woman as old as Riner was young looked back at me with a raised eyebrow. A mischievous light twinkled in her eye.
“You him?” she asked in a thick accent I didn’t recognize. She wore the same uniform and insignia as Riner. “No offense, I thought you’d be taller. I mean, the way everyone is talking about how you took on a Cyber Hunter and such nonsense. I thought they was a myth and all. My lord, this day and age, who knows what’s fact or fiction anymore.”
I was about to open my mouth to respond when the woman continued.
“You look hungry,” she said with a motherly scowl. “Raised three boys of my own so I recognize that look well enough.”
She waved to a third seat behind the pilot’s and co-pilot’s chairs. A small compartment under the seat caught my attention.
“I store snacks and such for when the time calls,” she said, turning back to her control panel. “You’re welcome to them now.”
“Thank you,” I said, feeling a sense of relief that I would actually be able to eat. “I didn’t get your name.”
“Lori,” the older woman said, turning to her control panel. She fastened her seatbelt and went over the pre-flight check like the true professional she was.
“Mustang Lori,” Riner said in the seat next to her with a grin.
“Mustang?” I asked, taking my seat behind the two. I opened the compartment below my feet and reached inside. I was rewarded with a canteen of water, dried meat, some kind of cheese in a can, and crackers.
“Just a nickname I picked up over the years. Now my dropship goes by the same name,” Lori called back to me. “You best strap in tight, Immortal Man. We’re fixing to take off right about now.”
“Yes, ma’am,” I said around a mouthful of cheese. Her nickname for me brought a smile.
I secured the harness that came over my head in a V shape. It secured to a buckle that rose from the seat between my legs.
“This is Vault to Mustang,” a voice crackled over the radio. “Mustang, we’re opening the hangar bay doors now.”
“Roger, Vault,” Lori said into the headset she placed over her short haircut. “Initiating pre-flight check followed by thrusters.”
“Good to go,” Riner said in his co-pilot seat as he too placed a headset over his ears. “Thrusters in two, one, ignition.”
I felt the dropship rumble to life below me. I was as happy as a kid in a candy store at the moment. I shoved a handful of the crackers into my mouth that were more salt than anything else but tasted just fine to me. There wasn’t a large variety of the snack foods, but there was a lot of it.
I looked around Lori’s seat to see the gigantic hang
ar bay doors begin to slide open. The steel pieces had to be ten, maybe twelve stories tall. They moved slowly, letting in the warm afternoon sun. The rays touched my face like someone’s soothing fingers against my cold skin.
“Here we go,” Lori said over the sound of the engines. “Hold on to your snacks.”
The dropship kicked off the ground and shot forward with a holler and whoop from Riner. This was nothing like the other dropship ride I had taken from the moon to Earth.
The feeling of being sick touched my stomach. I had to close my eyes and steady myself before opening them again. The dropship raced through the sky. I was immediately impressed by the idea that the Vault was located in a mountain range. As such, the hangar bay doors opened on the side of the mountain. In front of us was more of the mountain range, to the left the dead sea, and the right, more desert.
I focused on chewing and filling the emptiness in my stomach rather than concentrating on how fast we must be traveling. On the up side, I didn’t experience the same feeling of sickness as my previous trip in a dropship. Maybe I was getting used to it.
You got it, keep it together, I told myself. You can go head to head with a Cyber Hunter, but you can’t go for a little joy ride?
“Traveling this fast, we’re going to be there in no time,” Lori shouted behind her. “Anywhere specific that we’d be headed in the Badlands?”
I racked my brain, trying to remember the name of the city the woman at the diner had mentioned. Although she hadn’t spoken English, she had recognized my tattoo and her translator spoke for her.
These thoughts led me to the guilt of both women’s death. I was reminded that her translator wasn’t just another person. It had been a relative to her, maybe a granddaughter or grandniece. I wasn’t sure if their blood was on my hands, but I felt that guilt sit in my belly like the dried meat I gorged myself with.
“X,” I asked under the sounds of the engines. “You remember the name of the city in the Badlands?”
“The name of the city they referenced was called Cecile. Daniel, we need to talk,” X said in a worried voice. “The trauma of the memories you witnessed, of Amber dying, can’t be bottled up and moved past this quickly. You need time to process and talk to someone about it. If not me, then someone else.”
Absolution: A Near Future Thriller (Forsaken Mercenary Book 2) Page 5
