Jade smiled internally. “Come to think of it, I do remember that. But I also remember getting a bill in the mail for some cosmetic dentistry that I trashed. How many teeth did you end up losing, by the way?”
“Since you’re bein’ nosey, three in total, and they’re all porcelain veneers now, and they look marvelous. My smile is as beautiful as ever. How’s yours doing? Still covered in tobacco and coffee stains? Lookin’ all snaggletoothy? I imagine it’s a trifle tough keeping those chompers all pearly white as a bona fide member of society’s desecrates.”
“Hey, Trix. It’s been a real blast. I’m glad we finally caught up, but I’m done with the idle chitchat.”
“Cut me short, then. See if I care. The lead agent on the scene already knows what I want done with you, and your little friend too. Nothing to worry about, Connie. We’ll be seein’ each other before long. Bye.”
Then the line went dead.
Jade was exploding inside, every ounce of her being wanted nothing more than to kill the man closest to her and move on to the next, not stopping until every last one of them was a corpse. All agents had their guns lowered now, but she knew that would change in a matter of minutes. Beatrice would’ve ordered it so. If a move was to be made with any success to speak of, it would require creativity, proper timing, and a stroke of luck.
She casually set the handset down and exited the SUV with grace, presenting her best smile, though wholly counterfeit.
“Sounded like you two knew each other,” said the lead agent. “Not in a good way, though.”
“We haven’t exactly been the best of friends.”
“Yeah, I gathered. How long have you known her? A lot of the men have been posing questions, especially after seeing how quickly she moved up in the ranks.”
Jade grinned and shook her head in disgust. Same old Beatrice. “For far too long.”
The agent raised a brow. “I see.”
Jade studied every face in the crowd. She could feel the lead agent’s hand moving toward her holster in an effort to stealthily disarm her. “I can feel that, you know.”
“Oh, I know. The lady told me to watch you, said you were real good. And a real good actress.” He pointed to Ken and snapped his fingers. “Lock that one up!”
Ken jumped in place as three rifle muzzles leveled at him. “Whoa! Wait a second! What is this?”
“Just relax,” the lead agent said, his hand moving to grip tightly onto Jade’s wrist.
Her jaw clenched and she immediately tensed every muscle in her arm.
“I wouldn’t do that. If you resist, I’ll have a half dozen of these fine gentlemen subdue you. And you won’t like how they go about it, I assure you. All you have to do now is come quietly.”
“This is preposterous,” Jade exclaimed. “You have no right to do this. We’re federal agents! Not imposters!”
“I never said you were. But my instructions now are to take you both into custody and impound your transport, pending a full investigation.”
Rifle barrels in his face, Ken looked to Jade for what to do, but she had reached the end of her rope. Her self-control had vanished.
Other agents en route to restrain her, Jade aggressively went on the offensive. She withdrew and twisted the lead agent’s wrist, then dropped him with a rigid elbow to his chin. He hit the ground hard, losing control of her sidearm. She then spun and guided a flying knee into the waiting face of the next black uniform she saw. A third leveled his rifle at her, and she snatched the muzzle, pulled his body into hers and brought a knee to his groin, then smashed his nose with her forehead. After, she swung his rifle about, catching two other agents upside their heads, sending them each down in crumpling heaps.
Jade went unhinged from there, lashing out savagely at any man foolish enough to come within distance. She was fighting for her life now, doing so with everything she had, punching, scratching, tearing, and even biting her way through the fray. She turned the rifle around and snapped off the safety, but couldn’t get her finger to the trigger in time. The instant searing pain of two barbed Taser prongs tore into her back, followed by the throbbing, pulsating shock of fifty thousand volts ripping through her body. Jade dropped like dead weight, teeth chattering, tensing and trembling, to the icy snow.
The electrical current coursing its way through her nervous system was excruciating. It ceased only to begin again as angry, incensed voices shouted, “Hit her! Fry her! Hit that bitch again!” from above.
Only minutes later did it stop altogether as several agents hoisted Jade’s limp body upright.
The lead agent rose and rubbed his chin, then limped over and clutched Jade by her throat. “That was stupid! All you had to do was not resist! And what did you do?” He drew back and punched her squarely in the mouth, then hit her a second time as she wailed in pain.
“You fuck!” Ken screamed, now being held at bay by four uniformed men. “Battering women get you hard? Is that what gets you off? Come over here! I’ll play sissy for you! Come on and get some, you piece of shit!”
“Shut him up,” the lead agent ordered, reaching for Jade’s chin again as blood oozed from her lips and gums. “Looks like we have ourselves a change of plans. We won’t be taking you two into custody after all. This bullshit is going to end right here. Both of you are finished.”
“You’re going to execute us? On what grounds?” Jade moaned. “We haven’t committed a crime.”
“Multiple counts of assault on federal agents? That doesn’t sound like a crime to you?” he asked. “Sure as hell does to me.”
“When a federal agent assaults another, all bets are off,” Jade hissed.
“You mean like this?” He drew his sidearm, motioned for two agents to get clear, then shot Ken in the upper leg.
Jade cried out as Ken reached for his leg and tumbled to the snowy ground, writhing in pain. She tried in vain to go to his aid, but the agents tightened their grips on her.
The lead agent laughed and shook his head, then pointed his gun at Jade. “Who else you got in that transport of yours?”
Jade spit blood on the ground and gritted her teeth. “No one.”
“Bullshit. You’re hiding something, I know it. Tell me now and I’ll put a bullet in your friend’s head and kill him quick. Otherwise, he bleeds out. That gives him about four and a half minutes.”
Her face bloodied and body weakened after repeated blows from the Taser, Jade’s struggles only persisted. “If I get one hand free, you’re a dead man, I swear to God.”
The agent inched closer and set the muzzle of his pistol to Jade’s cheek with a sinister grin. “But you won’t. Care to decide which of you dies first?”
“Me!” Ken shouted. “Shoot me, pussy!”
“I believe I already did.”
“And you did a shit-stain job of it. When’s the last time you qualified with your sidearm? Stop picking on the girl…come over here and finish me!”
“Shut him up—for good this time!” he ordered, then pressed his pistol hard on Jade’s temple. “I assume you have some last words? You don’t strike me as the quiet type. Hurry up…my coffee’s waiting and it isn’t getting any warmer.”
Jade lowered her head and sent a hard stare to the Marauder’s windshield, knowing a diligent Alan would be watching for signals behind it. Then, careful to mouth each word so that her lips could be read, she said, “Death blossom.”
The agent’s brows drew inward. “What’s that? Heard something, but couldn’t make it out. Try again, please.”
Jade unfolded and repeated with more emphasis, “Death blossom.”
“Death blossom? The fuck is that? Your favorite flower? The perfume you’re wearing?” He leaned in and sniffed her neck. “That’s odd, all I smell on you is sweat and fear.”
Inside the Marauder, Alan worked at a feverish pace as his chest pounded away, his fingers pressing virtual buttons on the Samson Remote Weapon System’s touchscreen. “I hear you, Jade. I hear you…just hold on…hold on one mo
re second.” With shaky hands, he punched in the sequence as she’d shown him only days before, and seconds later, the Katlanit’s internal programming took over. “I hope to God you and Ken remembered your lifesavers.”
“Good morning, operator,” an electronic woman’s voice uttered.
Alan jumped. “What the?”
“Thank you for choosing death blossom, the ultimate, highly advanced automatic hunter-killer targeting mode ever brought into being. Please stand by. All hostiles within range will be vaporized momentarily. Have a pleasant day.”
“Heh. Nice touch, Butch.”
Alan heard the whirr of gears and the hiss of hydraulics as the motorized above-deck weapon mount went active. Seconds after, he plugged his ears with his fingers as every sound in the immediate world was drowned out by the reverberating, thundering concussions of rapid heavy machine-gun fire.
Empty boiling-hot bullet brass and metal links showered the Marauder’s armored chassis as the M2 Browning unleashed a hellfire of oblivion downrange at every enemy target it acquired. Armor-piercing incendiary rounds pummeled the DHS SUVs, transforming them into scrap sheet metal in seconds. Agents caught inside were ripped to shreds by direct hits and spalling near-misses. Cougar MRAPs suffered similar damage, their defenses unable to resist the armor-piercing rounds. Agents caught in the open were mowed down and reduced to nothing.
Jade went berserk and fought her way free from the agents restraining her and dove for cover right in time for the Katlanit to acquire them as targets. The Ma Deuce pummeled them with rounds that liquefied their body armor and carved cavities through them. Before it could acquire and blow away the lead agent, she tackled him, pulled him to the ground with her, and walloped his face with ruthless elbow strikes until the pistol fell from his hand. She took hold of it, placed the barrel under his chin, and turned his brains into batter with one pull of the trigger.
Jade rolled away and crawled to Ken’s aid, fighting the agents from him, beating and bloodying them into submission, and as they backed away and rose to their feet, the Katlanit locked on to them and finished the job she’d started, splattering their bodies into lumps of bloody human tissue.
Once death blossom’s growth cycle drew to a close, Alan disembarked the Marauder and ran frantically to Jade and Ken through rising dust and smoke, odors of brimstone, burning metal and flesh. With his AR pistol pulled to his shoulder, he scanned the scene, finding the Katlanit had dispensed an apocalyptic hand of destruction to both man and machine. The hostile forces, whoever they were, DHS, FEMA or some federal entity gone rogue, as Valerie had referred to them, had all been reduced to dust and ash. Every sign of the enemy had been superseded by those of death and ruin.
Jade had taken off her jacket and removed her uniform shirt to employ it as an improvised tourniquet on Ken’s upper leg. “Good job,” she purred, ogling Alan’s approach. “Damn good job.” She looked upon him, her eyes watering, emotions weighing heavily on her.
Alan dropped to his knees. “How bad is he hurt? And how bad are you hurt?
“The round is through and through, but it grazed his artery, so it’s not good. Bleeding’s barely under control. And don’t worry about me.”
Ken winced under Jade’s strength and the searing pain beneath the tourniquet. “Of course it’s not good…but that doesn’t mean you two can start…talking around me…like I’m not here.”
Alan apologized and looked to Jade for what to do next. He was officially out of his element.
“We have to get help, but I’m afraid to move him like this.” She gestured to the uniformed men and fragments of same scattered about. “All of them were wearing kits. See if you can find an IFAK, a trauma kit. I need a real tourniquet and a dressing, something to pack the wound with.”
Alan rose and scuttled off to search through the tattered bodies of the deceased. The first man he came upon was missing a leg and half his arm, leaving his torso intact, save a large chasm in his abdomen. Alan rolled him over and discovered a blood-covered trauma kit irreparably damaged by a round that had drilled through his body armor. He moved on to the next, only to find comparable damage. Then, twenty feet away, he saw an undamaged black zippered bag with MOLLE webbing and a familiar red cross. Alan retrieved it, then sprinted back to Jade and Ken.
Jade ripped open the kit, dumped its contents on the snow, and went immediately to work. She instructed Alan to hold tightly on the shirtsleeve tourniquet while she used shears to slice through Ken’s pant leg. Locating a combat application tourniquet, she slipped it around Ken’s leg and slid it all the way to his crotch.
“Hey!” Ken cringed. “Getting a little frisky, aren’t you?”
“Keep it up and I’ll put it somewhere you really don’t want.” Jade tightened the tourniquet while Alan gradually relieved tension. The C-A-T took over and the bleeding began to subside. She then opened an Israeli bandage and tightly dressed the wound.
After, Jade fell backward onto the cold ground in exhaustion and took a moment to catch her breath. “Alan, get on the radio Butch put in the APC. Try calling for him; maybe he knows what to do or where we can take Ken. The longer we wait, the better the chances are of him losing that leg.”
Alan nodded.
“Don’t kid yourself,” Ken grumbled. “Take your time, Alan. I’m a combat Marine, and tourniquets are a lifesaving measure. The second they’re applied, the limb is a lost cause. I’ll deal with it.”
“I don’t want to hear any of that ‘pain is weakness leaving the body’ shit, Ken.” Jade cut her eyes at him. “No matter what, you need medical attention ten minutes ago.” She sent a subtle look of urgency Alan’s way.
Alan darted back to the Marauder, climbed the ladder and hopped inside. His fingers were wet from the snow and stiff from the bitterness of the air. His whole body was shaking from the effects of adrenaline, but he reached for the microphone anyway, recalling what Butch had told him the day before.
He squeezed the microphone’s button. “White Rock, this is mike-zero-one-actual, I repeat, White Rock, this is mike-zero-one-actual.” A pause. “Mayday, Mayday, Mayday. We have a medical emergency, I repeat, medical emergency. Mayday, Mayday, Mayday. Over.”
Alan made several more calls in the same fashion, but no response came from Butch. He began recalling what Valerie had said to him about line-of-sight transmissions, transmitting, and direction finding. What he was engaging in now, he was certain could be detected by receivers on or near the same frequency. And by continuing to transmit like he was, it created the potential for hostile forces to home in on him, Jade, and Ken. But Alan didn’t know what else to do, they had already done so, and a friend’s life was on the line.
He made another call followed by another and set the microphone down, then listened to the open squelch emanating from the speaker. Then motion caught his eye. Alan hopped down from the APC again upon seeing that Jade had hoisted Ken and was now carrying him to the Marauder’s rear door. “Jade, can I help?”
“I’ve got him, but you can get the door for me.”
Alan jogged to the Marauder’s rear door and pried it ajar. He then assisted getting Ken inside.
“Any luck with the radio?” Jade asked.
“None,” Alan lamented. “I’ve tried five or six times, and nothing.”
Her tension on display, Jade ran her fingers through her hair then made for the driver’s side.
“Are we leaving?”
“Yes.”
“Where are we going?”
“We can’t stay here—just get in.”
They reconvened in the passenger compartment. Jade shifted into drive and floored the accelerator, launching the APC across the field, over remnants of vehicles blown to bits and bodies mutilated beyond mend, the steering wheel aimed toward the interstate.
Alan’s hand returned to the radio mic and he made his call again. “White Rock, do you copy? This is mike-zero-one-actual, I say again mike-zero-one-actual. Mayday, Mayday, Mayday. We have a medical emergen
cy, a medical emergency. Over.” His fist tightened in frustration. “I don’t think anyone in the whole damn world can hear us.”
Jade sniffled and fretted with her busted lip. “Just keep trying. Remember what Butch said, it could be our location. We’re moving; it might create some magic with the radio.”
Alan nodded his head reluctantly.
“Just so you know, I’m putting distance between us and that place. We’re going north…back to Camp Hill. I’m sorry, Alan, I really am—I don’t know where else to go or what else to do. I’m going on record here that I’m out of answers.”
“Don’t apologize to me,” Alan said. “Ken’s life is more important and you know it.”
“Hey, guys? Remember what I said about talking around me as if I’m not fucking sitting here? I told you I’m fine. Just take me wherever.”
“That’s admirable, Ken. Very brave. Overruled.” Before reaching for the mic again, Alan went for the first aid kit in the Marauder’s glove box and took out an instant ice pack. He readied it and offered it to Jade.
She glanced at it, then at him. “How many times do I have to tell you not to worry about me?”
“I’m insisting this time.”
Half-heartedly, she took hold of the ice pack and placed it on her lips. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” Alan said, and grabbed the mic again. He made yet another call with far less exuberance than before, his faith in their ability to communicate dwindling.
Then, after a few seconds, a voice came back to them, but it didn’t belong to Butch.
“Mike-zero-one, this is foxtrot-alpha-nineteen returning your call. This station reads you. What is your emergency? Over.”
Jade’s eyes widened. “Who the hell was that?”
“I have no idea.”
The person calling back to them spoke hurriedly while articulating each word and syllable with precision. The voice was that of a young man, possibly in his mid-twenties. “Mike-zero-one, mike-zero-one, I say again, this is foxtrot-alpha-nineteen. I have full copy of your Mayday call and your emergency. Please advise status. Over.”
Indivisible Page 27
