Plagued: Book 1

by Eden Crowne

  Sky heard the retort of one of their guns and a figure running halfway down the block fell sprawling.

  Two of the Catz sprinted by, easily overtaking the last person. There was a spark of light when the electric barbs shot out from their targeting systems.

  Raj jogged over, aiming his gun at the woman in Sky's headlock. Sky scrambled out from underneath, still twisting one arm sharply and pulled a zip tie off her belt, trying to ignore her agonized cries. Several Guards came around the corner and Raj waved them over. Sky turned her prisoner over to them. Walking by the dead runner to regroup with the others, she stopped. She knew who he was. The short rude guy who blocked her path on the trail. One of the Travelers. How was that possible? He'd been taken into custody along with the rest just a few days before.

  There were no more encounters with people. Around midnight, they got the call to return to base. The broodmare and 'bots were another squad's, so Sky and the team didn't have to wait for them to be loaded. Instead, they grabbed a ride in the back of a transport truck with another Junior squad.

  All the teams from the search were gathered in the mess at the Moffett Field base. Sky just wanted to get back to the hospital, but they had yet to be dismissed. Major Bromwell, dressed in full combat gear, stepped up to the podium and an officer called them to attention. A projector switched on with the picture of a woman sprawled on the ground, mouth slack and eyes vacant. Dead. She was dressed roughly in cargo pants, oversized sweatshirt, and a faded green army jacket.

  “This is Jane Cosgrove. A wanted felon and officer of the Victims Army. She has been identified as the mall shooter. Several of her companions have also been either captured or killed thanks to your work. Well done. There's a hot meal waiting for you and shuttles home.”

  He stepped off the podium and was quickly surrounded by a group of Home Guard officers.

  Sky was suddenly terribly, horribly tired. So tired she felt sick to her stomach. Daphne took her by the arm and steered her towards the food.

  “I know you don't want to eat, Sky. Please, you'll be in better shape to watch over Rickey with something in your stomach.”

  Sky nodded numbly, letting Daphne get her a bowl of soup and bread and a sports drink. Her squad sat together, eating in exhausted silence. Sky didn't tell them that the dead woman, the supposed sniper, was the same one she and Hugo had given a ride to from the hills. The one who talked wistfully about See's Candy. The one who had been taken very forcefully into Guard custody.

  They stumbled into the shuttle vans a little while later. Leaning her aching head against the window, Sky called her aunt as they sped along Highway 101.

  “Rickey is out of surgery and in intensive care on life support,” she told her. “The bullet tore through one lung and damaged his heart. The doctors have put him in a medically induced coma. Now it's up to him to pull through. Come home. Sleep. Tomorrow you can stay at the hospital all day if you want.”

  Despite her exhaustion, sleep was a long time coming that night. Images from the past few days kept circling around her mind's eye like sharks scenting blood. Rickey. The events at the multiplex. Stealth riders going back to Base. Sergeant McNeil's veiled threats to Rickey after forcing him to erase the data stream. The chance meeting on the trail with four travelers who later turn up at the mall and just happen to shoot Rickey along with the others. You didn't have to be Sherlock Holmes to connect the dots. They might be targeting her as well. McNeil knew she'd ordered the Catz deployment. There were too many coincidences.

  Sky had been handling weapons since she was thirteen. On Tactical HK's she hunted, fought and killed Hemogoblins. But she had never been afraid.

  Not really.

  Not until now.

  Chapter 18

  Blood Relations

  Her aunt needed to be at the Power Company for a few hours Sunday. Sky dropped her off at the large squat concrete building that looked more like a military bunker than anything else. Next to it was a baseball field sized generator plant. The entire area had a buffer zone including guard towers and anti-missile launchers at each corner. The Victims Army had targeted power and pumping stations in the past. How destroying water or power was supposed to help their Victims Army cause, Sky had never understood. It just made normal people hate them more.

  She had the car all day, Eloise saying she would catch a ride with a friend.

  At the hospital, Sky pulled into a parking place. It was a big lot and there were a lot of empty spaces. She planned to run into the cafe on the ground floor and grab some coffee on her way up. Yesterday still sat heavily on her shoulders. Weighing her down.

  A shiny black sedan roared to a stop, nearly knocking her over before she had gone more than a few yards.

  “What the...” she yelled as the passenger door swung open.

  Hugo was leaning across the seat. “Get in!”

  “Hell!” she finished.

  “Just get in. Please, Sky. This about Rickey.”

  She should have walked away. Should have gone into the hospital and turned her back on this boy. His blue eyes stared into hers. Sincere, almost pleading. She should have left, but she didn't. She climbed in, barely getting the door closed in time before he sped out of the parking lot to the smell of burning rubber.

  Sky was not a quiet girl, nor was she the sort of person at a loss for conversation except with strangers. Sitting in the rich leather seat of this very expensive car with Hugo beside her, she found she didn't know what to say.

  Hugo drove silently; staring resolutely at the road. Sky could smell the same spicy scent of fear. His fear. So strong it was almost like chili powder, tickling the back of her throat with every breath. Sky wondered what her fear smelled like. She balled her hands into tight fists and thrust them between her knees to keep them from shaking.

  After only three or four minutes, they pulled into the far end of the old two-story parking garage at the shopping mall. The stores had not yet reopened on this side of the mall and the garage was almost empty.

  Hugo got out of the car and pointed at Sky. “Leave your cell phone here. If you've got two, leave them both and your tablet. They can track our position with them.”

  He shut the door and walked over to a different car parked in a slot behind them, an old battered white sedan with the rear bumper wired and duct taped on. Sky hesitated, unsure whether to do what he asked or not.

  Hugo paused, one hand on the door handle. He didn't meet her eyes. “I'm not going to harm you, Sky. Or let anyone else hurt you. Come with me.”

  Cursing against that inner voice in her head shouting, 'are you crazy?' she did as he said. Even if this was just a crush or infatuation or only chemicals reacting, she had feelings for him. A storm inside her heart blowing hot and cold. Staying near Hugo, despite the tension, felt like the only place she wanted to be. There was a tie between them, she felt it.

  Unfortunately, ties didn't just bind. They could also gag and throw you in a shallow grave.

  He opened the glove compartment inside the battered sedan and handed her two black elastic bands, one wider than the other. Both had a small square of plastic attached to one side. “These will block the signals from the subdermal trackers planted in your thigh and the inside of your arm.”

  She stared at him. “What trackers?”

  “Just put them on. Left leg, right arm.”

  Climbing into the car, she did as he said. They were tight and took some tugging. Hugo watched, waiting until both were in place before starting the engine and pulling out slowly.

  “What about your bracelet?” Sky pointed at the slim white band on his left wrist. As a foreign national, he'd received the digital Customs and Immigration device upon entering the U.S.

  “I've seen to that.”

  He kept under cover of the garage until they came to a small cross street separating this building from the newer one by the revitalized portion of the mall. This was where most people parked for CBC and the Farmer's Market. The coffee shop must be ope
n again despite yesterday's attack. Cars were pulling in and out and it was too early for the stores The realization the attack and Rickey's injury was barely twenty-four hours ago came like a slap. The hunt for the Victims Army sniper last night seemed like it went on for days, not hours.

  Hugo waited until four cars left ahead of him before heading out onto the quiet back street that skirted the mall and University grounds.

  From there, he took several back roads winding deeper and deeper into the foothills. After about fifteen minutes, he turned onto a rough gravel track and they bumped along, taking several more turns until they reached a thick stand of oak. He pulled all the way under one of the trees.

  “Stay here.” Hugo took a revolver from a carry bag in the back seat. A real, old-school, wild west revolver.

  Sky watched him walk away, since she didn't know exactly what they were doing anyway. Using the low hanging branches of the big black oaks as cover, he cautiously made his way to what must be a clearing on the other side. After that, he dropped out of sight. Time ticked by and still he didn't reappear. After ten minutes, Sky, too, cautiously got out of the car, creeping into the stand of trees. Enough with the waiting.

  She met him coming back, the two of them nearly bumping heads.

  “I thought I told you...” he started to say.

  Sky cut him off. “You're not the boss of me, St. James.”

  He took a step back, opening his mouth to speak, then shut it and shook his head. “You're right. I'm not the boss of you. I was the one who said we could not be friends.”

  “What you said, was that we were enemies.”

  “Not us.” He reached for her hand. “Our mothers.”

  She made no move to take it, keeping her hands at her sides.

  His brows drew together and he moved his hand a little closer. She clenched her hands back into fists and stared him in the eye as if daring him to touch her. Maybe, despite her feelings for him, her mother had been right. This boy was dangerous.

  Dropping his hand, he turned and walked back the way he came. “Come with me,” he said, not even looking over his shoulder. “Then you can decide for yourself what we are and what we are not.”

  He set off through the trees. Sky followed. How could she not? Very soon they came upon a small clearing, just as Sky guessed. Nestled inside was a little house painted the same color as the dry grass. He opened the door and went inside.

  Sky smelled death as the moment she stepped over the threshold.

  He'd led her into a trap. Isolated, with no GPS to find her.

  She threw herself on Hugo, punching and kicking. He must be working with the people who shot Rickey. She didn't waste her breath shouting or swearing. Attacking, she pulled him close, then thrust him away to get him off balance. Wrenching his arm back, she twisted around behind him, bearing down and forcing him to his knees. He kicked off the floor, thrust his hips up and high and tumbled them both into a forward somersault, landing on top of her. Instead of trying to stand, he forced them into a sideways roll, breaking her hold on his arm. Pushing himself up and over her head, elbowing her eye in the process, he maneuvered himself to stand above her.

  Scrambling to face him, she wasn't fast enough. Pulling her into an arm lock, he kept her from facing him. She pushed up and off her feet straining to smash him into a tall sideboard next to one wall. The move didn't break his hold. Arms still pinioned behind her, she tried to head butt him. He managed to turn away before she could connect. How could he be this fast? This strong?

  He threw her forward, forcing her on her stomach and knocking the wind out of her. Wrapping his arms around her, he shouted “Stop! Stop it! You're in no danger from me.”

  “I don't believe you!” She snarled, hooking one leg around his and turning them topsy-turvy. She forced them into another roll. They crashed against what must have been a side table and a tall brass lamp fell, hitting them both.

  Hugo let her go and sprang to his feet. Sky grabbed the base of the lamp and held it up like a club.

  He put both hands out in a placating gesture. “For Christ's sake, let me explain before you attempt to bash my brains out!”

  Still keeping the weapon high she shouted, “You're involved in this. Rickey. The Travelers. The mall shooting. You know they're saying that woman we gave a ride to was the sniper, even though we both know she was in custody.”

  “Would I have brought you here if I were guilty? Think. Why would I do that? Surely the monster you think I am would have killed you already.” He made a shooting motion with his thumb and forefinger. “Pow. A single bullet as we drove here in the car.” He lowered his hands. “Just stop and think.”

  Her body was trembling with anger; her chest so tight it was hard to breathe. “You're connected to this,” she gasped, her voice cracking. “From the first time I met you in the hospital. That was no coincidence. Everything started to spiral out of control from that night. I don't know if you're a Hemogoblin or Victims Army or just working for the blackmarket. I don't care. Unless you kill me first, I'm going to take you down.”

  “I saved your bloody life!” he roared.

  She lowered the lamp and stared at him.

  Blood from a cut over his eyebrow trickled down onto his cheek and he wiped at it impatiently with one hand. “Twice now.”

  The revelation was at once astounding and obvious. “It was you, that night in the eucalyptus grove with the goblins. You're the one who tackled the man with the knife.”

  He gave her an odd look. “No. That wasn't me. I was in the forest, yes. We wanted to capture one of the men for information on who they were working with in the Guard. Unfortunately things went very wrong and we lost one of our operatives was injured.”

  “The Negative with no I.D.?”

  “Yes, her. That's also how I got hurt, cut my knee. You spotted the blood on my jeans. The first time I saw you up close that night really was in the waiting room. After my godmother Sydney stitched me up.”

  “If not you, then who was the man that saved me?”

  Shifting his feet, he winced as he straightened his back.“Skylar, you are a girl in need of much saving. I was talking about the blood vault.”

  Sky was right about the scent of his fear. In the back of her mind, she'd known all along. The rationalizations about men and AB blood nothing more than lies she wanted to tell herself. Unable and unwilling to believe this handsome, charismatic boy was a killer.

  She still didn't let go of the lamp. In fact, she raised it a little higher. “I thought he might be you. Not then. Later. I didn't want to believe I smelled you. Your fear. I can smell it now.”

  Shaking his head ruefully, he sighed. “That damn nose of yours will be the death of us both.”

  “That's one. What's the second time?”

  “With Rickey. I think the sniper had orders to hit you both. Please,” he gestured towards the lamp. “Put that down.”

  Taking a deep breath, she laid the lamp on the floor and looked at him expectantly. Hugo wasn't going to kill her, she decided. At least not yet. She wished she had her service revolver though, just in case. “So, tell.”

  He wiped again at the blood just before it dripped in his eye. “Rickey had the data from the night of the attack on Operation Cineplex. You asked him to put trackers on the bikes. Later, Rickey told you he lost the signal. That's not true. He tracked it back. Knew the bikes had gone right to your base.”

  Sky made an impatient gesture. “He told me that.”

  “At the coffee house yesterday?”

  She nodded.

  “Did he also tell you he made a copy of that data as backup, before he was ordered to delete the file?”

  Sky wasn't ready to share that bit of information yet. Instead, she said cautiously, “He backs up everything obsessively.”

  Hugo walked from the living room to the kitchen, motioning for her to follow. “I have to show you something.”

  “You're going to show me a body. So what? I smelled it when y
ou opened the front door. Probably a day old at least. Not much blood.”

  He gave her a look she couldn't read. Equal parts desperation and remorse maybe. Whatever, or whoever, he wanted to show her, he wasn't happy about it at least. “You need to see. Please, look.”

  She walked over as Hugo pulled off a dirty gray plastic tarp and threw it to one side. The corpse was in a black non-regulation tactical suit and full black-knit mask.

  “Pull the mask up, you'll see the sniper who took out Rickey before I could stop him. I was too late, but I took him out.” He gave the body a vicious kick.

  She took a deep breath. She wasn't afraid of a corpse. Pulling up the mask, she gasped. Tugging it all the way off, she suddenly felt weak, her legs turned to jelly and she fell more than sat on the kitchen floor.

  Sergeant McNeil stared back at her with his dead eyes.

  “Rickey is avenged. I wasn't in time to stop him, but I got the bastard. For you. For Rickey.”

  She shook her head. “This is a lie. A trick.

  “Not a lie. A terrible truth. Your sergeant and some of the officers are playing a deep game, Sky.”

  He tried again to touch her. Sky jerked her arm away.

  “You. You're the one who shot Rickey and then killed the sergeant. My sergeant. The one who taught me how to shoot and track and fight for my life since I was twelve.” She was breathing very fast, her heart pounding.

  He dropped the tarp back over the body and straightened up slowly as though his body ached.

  “What the hell is going on?” she demanded.

  He rubbed his eyes with the palms of his hands. “I'm not sure if you really want to know.”

  She jumped to her feet and slapped him across the face. “Wrong answer.”

  A bright red mark spread across the fine white skin of his cheek. He stood very straight. “If you would let me finish. I'm not sure if you want to know because what I tell you will change your life. Maybe forever. I brought you here to urge you to be careful and show you I avenged Rickey. I wanted you to know that at least.”