by Eden Crowne
He led her behind the concessions back to the vendor's parking area they had patrolled. Raj slipped between two trucks parked close together.
“I didn't...” Sky started to protest as soon as he stopped.
Raj held up her finger in a shushing motion and pointed at Sky's comm link, making a pulling movement.
Sky tugged the wire out of the port connecting her earpiece/microphone and the radio unit inside her vest. Raj did the same.
“No time for explanations. I texted Melissa and Mary. They're waiting behind the drugstore across from the deli, by the garbage cans. Do not speak when you see them. Understand?”
“I didn't do this!”
“Of course you didn't. Like to know who did. Go!”
She ran. The drugstore was one block down from where she stood. A group of Tactical soldiers jogged across the street not ten yards in front of her, carrying saw horses to close off the street. There was an alley to her left. She could take that, or she could double back and maybe get through the sound system tents. That was probably full of Tactical people by now, trying to track the source of the video hack.
She decided to head for the alley only to see a shadow out of the corner of her eyes. It looked like a man. Or maybe a boy. The shadow stood in front of the alley and put up his arms out as though to keep her from entering. Sky shrank back against the wall, trying to see who the shadow was coming from. As she hesitated, three Home Guards in full uniform emerged from the alley. If she'd gone that way, they would have gotten her for sure. Looking around, she saw the shadow had vanished along with whoever it belonged to.
No time to analyze what just happened. She had no choice but to head to the sound system area. Running as though she had a purpose instead just panic, Sky sidled through the crowds around the tent.
She was nearly through when she bumped into several people, almost knocking one down. He looked at her face and then her uniform.
“Christensen!” he yelled, pointing at her name tag.
The chant was taken up. “Christensen! Here! She's here!”
Hands reached for her and she fired her weapon in the air. Probably sealing her fate as an escaping traitor, but there was no other way. Everyone screamed and dropped to the ground. Sky pulled open the back door to some shop and ran through.
Traditionally, all the stores and cafes on University Avenue had doors opening into the alleys crisscrossing the bigger streets for access by the garbage trucks. She ran through what she realized was the Mediterranean deli, past the proprietors who watched open mouthed. She burst onto University and crossed the street. The stores here were boarded up – no way through. She ran to the right and down, turning into the service alley from there.
The narrow lane twisted around in a half circle, coming back to the main street. Panting, her heart pounding in her throat, she peered across the street to see the drugstore only a few yards away. So close. Shouts of “Christensen!” meant her pursuers were almost upon her. She saw a swarm of flybots approaching and knew she had to make her move now.
There was a Tactical in front of the drugstore entrance. Looking up, he saw her as well. She couldn't turn around, she had to go forward.
The man ran straight at her and she braced for impact. Instead of knocking her down, he pulled her to the side, awkwardly grabbed two of the sawhorses they were using for crowd control and tossed one at her. She saw the cast on his arm. It was Chase.
He turned around and shoved her ahead of him boldly shouting, “Coming through, move aside, we need to block this off! Move it!”
There was no time to say 'thank you.' Dropping the sawhorses at the drugstore door, she ran in and down the aisles knocking over a clerk who fell into a boxed display of cereal. Then it was out the back.
Melissa and Mary were there waving frantically from an open door. They pulled her inside a foul smelling shed lined with garbage cans.
She was about to say something when she remembered Raj told her to be quiet.
Mary handed her a cell phone and Melissa held up a piece of paper with a message hastily scribbled. She made speaking motions with her hands. Melissa's comm was still on, the wire intact. They wanted her to read it. Grabbing the paper she held it to a sliver of light from the door.
“The hackers are using our cell receivers,” she read loudly. “Get rid of your vests, they are using us to relay signals.”
Mary handed her another hastily scribbled note.
“Drip them here.”
Mary waved her hands frantically.
Crap, damn that girl's handwriting. “Drop them here. And get to...”
Melissa wrote on the back of the first paper, “the AV center and assemble.”
Mary gave her a thumbs up.
“Okay, got you Sky. Any idea what's going on outside? Our incoming signals are fuzzed,” Melissa spoke with exaggerated clearness. Acting was perhaps not in her future.
Mary shook her head from side to side.
“No, “ said Sky, taking the cue. “None at all, but get going. I'll follow.”
They gave her a thumbs up and each of them kissed her. Mary handed one more paper. 'Hugo will call you,' was scrawled across. They dumped their vests and ran.
Sky shed her own and picked up Mary's with the name 'Mathews' on it. They'd bought her some time.
Mary's phone buzzed, it was Hugo's number.
“Meet me by the main post office,” he said speaking quickly. “The beat up white sedan from the other day.”
Peering cautiously out the door, Sky stepped into the sunlight. The post office was just at the end of the alley, on the other side of the drugstore parking lot, across the street. She ran to the end of the alley and out onto the sidewalk.
“Soldier!” shouted someone behind her. “You!”
Sky's first impulse was to run as fast as she could. The shadow surged out into her path. She stopped out of sheer surprise, turning to see who was casting it. No one was near enough to throw that shadow. A Tactical sergeant in gray camouflage fatigues stood nearby, his gun ready. If she had run, he probably would have used his electronic shock gun on her. Or worse. The shadow had saved her from making the wrong choice again.
Swallowing the fear, she jogged over to him.
“Sir,” she saluted.
“Why are you here,” he kept the weapon up as he looked at her name tag, squinting in the bright afternoon sun, “Mathews. You should be with your squad.”
“I'm looking for them, sir.” She gave him her best innocent face. “My comm is offline. I don't know where to report.” She pointed towards the dangling wire.
“Juniors!” the officer said in a disgusted tone of voice. “Plug it in, idiot!”
He fiddled with the wire, restoring her link to active. It buzzed to life with orders.
She pretended to listen the radio. “Got it, sir. Thank you, sir.” She saluted. “Post office is the assembly point, sir.”
“Do you know where that is?”
She played dumb since it was working so well, and shook her head.
He rolled his eyes. “Dumb ass. Look.” Pointing across the street, he grabbed her tactical vest and shoved her in that direction.
“Move it, Junior. Double time.”
“Yes, sir!”
She trotted away, not looking back, trying to act normal. Which was funny. She'd left normal behind a couple of days ago.
Crossing the street, she saw the battered white sedan just around the corner. She was only halfway through the door before Hugo gunned the engine and roared down the street. Sky had to scramble to keep from falling right back out and he almost lost her on the corner.
Pulling the plug on her comm once again, she threw Mary's cell phone out the window along with the helmet. Struggling out of the vest, she tossed that as well. They all had GPS location devices inside.
“Put these on!” He handed her the thigh and armbands she'd worn before. “They're closing off downtown. I've got a route from my mother.” She took his phone, tucking
it under her chin as she slid the signal dampers on. “Read it to me. We're on Churchill. Go from there. ”
The route from Hugo's mother eventually took them down a commercial driveway past a shuttered warehouse and onto a gravel service road. The road ran alongside the railroad tracks. The car twisted and turned trying to gain traction as Hugo sped far faster than he should on the loose stones.
They followed it for several miles, roaring across railroad crossings without regard for cross traffic.
Neither of them spoke. The reality of what had just happened, the realization she was now labeled a traitor to her country, was not lost on Sky.
She kept her eyes on the cell phone map. “Up ahead, turn to the left and stop, it says.”
Hugo pulled over next to a gray hatchback parked under an overpass. “This must be where we change cars.”
They dashed inside. The key was in the ignition.
Sky checked the phone. “Expressway to the 101. Take it south.”
In the distance, she could hear sirens and the whoop-whoop of Guard vehicles.
Hugo's phone buzzed and Sky dropped it in surprise.
Picking it up off the floor, she held the screen for Hugo to see. The video chat sign was blinking.
“Do it,” he said grim-faced.
She tapped the app on and was not surprised to see the smiling, handsome face of Quill.
“Enjoy the show?”
Sky felt so much rage and anguish she actually couldn't think of any words to express it. She wanted to hurt him, wipe that smile off his face and make him bleed.
Hugo had no such problems, he broke into a long tirade of swearing and name calling. When he was taking a breath to start on another round, Quill held up a hand.
“Enough, brother. You are displeased. Yet consider the alternative. I could have killed her. Would you have preferred that, brother of mine?”
“You're demented Quill” Hugo raged. “She's an innocent.”
“As was I and were you. ”
“Why?” Sky breathed the word. Still shocked by the course of the morning's events. “I did everything you wanted.”
“How better to punish parents than hurting their children? I was going to settle for killing you and making your mother watch. This, though, oh, this is so much better! Now I have destroyed you in front of her loving eyes. The little patriot exposed as a vile traitor. A blood thief! The worst crime of all. And what of her sister? The lovely and wanton Kara?”
Another picture came up on the screen, shaky and a bit fuzzy. The picture was clear enough to show Kara being marched out of Eloise's house in handcuffs, Home Guard officers on either side.
The phone snapped back to Quill. He cocked one eyebrow and adopted a look of mock concern. “Who will believe her innocent in all this profiteering? Carrying the illegitimate love child of her traitorous commanding office. Found only this morning, a suicide, complete with a damning note of his traitorous bombing of the armory for his Victims Army pals and his adulterous pleasures. His pregnant lover led away in handcuffs, her good name muddied by scandal and an evil sister. Even if Kara is acquitted, her child will always be tainted by the father. What a naughty girl Kara is. ”
“Let her mother go, Quill. Please,” Hugo spoke more quietly. Trying to keep his voice calm. “She's both served her purpose and been served up to it, just as you wanted. Emily Murphy has witnessed the ruination of her children's future. Isn't that enough?”
“What about my future, brother!” Quill snarled, his handsome face transformed.“My life was stolen and perverted because Emily Murphy released a formula that creates monsters.”
“She didn't know,” Sky protested.
“You think not? She did exactly what her masters ordered her to do. This little operation is not the first time they've dumped an experimental drug on us with her help. ”
“I don't believe you,” Sky nearly choked on the words. Her mouth was dry from the shock of the morning's events. “She was trying to save lives. She did save lives.”
“At what cost, Skylar?” he demanded.
On the screen, they saw him grab Sky's mother and give her a vicious shake.
“The sins of the fathers and the mothers shall be visited on their children. Witness your daughters' lives as they go down in flame. ” He shoved her back towards the bodyguard. “Revenge is sweet.”
Quill terminated the connection.
Hugo put his hand on her leg. “You have to come with us.”
“Where?” Sky said dully. Her brain was buzzing like a swarm of hornets. So loudly, she could hardly hear herself think. Maybe she was going into shock. She couldn't summon up enough energy to care.
“To England, of course. We have a jet at San Jose International. Our government will give you sanctuary. My father will see to that.”
“I don't want to go with you. I want to go home.”
“Look at me Sky, look.”
She turned her eyes to his.
He glanced away from the road. “Just for now. You know you can't stay here. They won't put you in prison. They'll execute you.”
“Eloise, my friends. Rickey,” she pleaded. “I want to be there when he wakes up. I don't even have a passport.”
Hugo turned off the 101 at the airport exit. “The Home Office will make the necessary arrangements by the time we arrive in London. Don't worry. I'll take care of you.”
He looked concerned, but at that moment all she wanted to do to that handsome face was hit it. “I don't want you to take care of me. I want to take care of myself. I'm going to be a diplomat, goddamn it!”
“Not now. Some day. What you did was for the greater good. Not for my nation. Not yours. For humanity. That, ultimately, has to be what people like us make sacrifices for.”
Chapter 28
Blood Loss
Despite the fact she had no real I.D. and was still in her Tactical gear, airport security proved no obstacle to Hugo's highly illegal escape. A quick glance at some papers Hugo flashed and the guards waived the car through a private, secure entrance Sky didn't even know existed. Guards at the next two checkpoints gave only a cursory glance to the documents, waving them on as well.
They pulled up to a mid-size jet with a flag Sky didn't recognize painted on the side. Piling out of the car doors, Hugo said he'd be right back, running over to talk to several people in dark suits and sunglasses. They looked very much like the man he had shot in the blood vault that night of the stealth bikes.
The whine of the jets increased to a roar. Everything was happening too fast. She looked desperately at the rolling brown hills in the distance. She couldn't smell the dried grass and oak from here. All she could smell was diesel and the sweat of her own desperation.
“Thank you, my dear.”
Helena St. James appeared at her side and Sky jumped a foot.
“Those were desperate measures. You saved me from torture and death at great sacrifice to yourself. I can almost forgive your mother. Not quite but almost. You must understand, Hugo and all of us are working to make this a better world.”
She had to say something. “He didn't give me much choice.”
Helena raised an eyebrow and pulled back just a little.
Not quite how she meant to put it. “I mean. He's only got a few weeks and he wanted to spend them with you. Though I didn't expect to destroy myself in the process.”
Her eyebrows came together and she pursed her lips as though she didn't understand Sky. “What do you mean by only a few weeks?”
Oh my God, her hand flew to her mouth, maybe they hadn't told his mom “The transfusions,” Sky stammered. “They're not working. He said the virus is mutating.”
Helena seemed to consider what Sky said then gave her a brilliant smile. “Don't be ridiculous, Hugo is O-negative just like his father and me. He's fine.”
“But...but,” Sky stammered. “The bracelet. It's azure. And the blood transfusions at the hospital. He's AB positive. He said.”
She gave Sky
a superior smirk, almost laughing. “A ruse. Negatives draw far too much attention. Who's going to suspect a poor little AB? You of all people should of realized that. He sees ghosts. No one but Negatives see ghosts these days. Come on, let's get on board, I need a drink.” She turned and walked briskly up the loading stairs. It looked to Sky like she even jumped the last step into the plane.
Negative?
Hugo was a Negative?
She swayed, the world titled one way and refused to tilt back.
Was she nothing more than a puppet dancing as Hugo and his family pulled the strings? Her sacrifices for nothing?
She saw the shadow that had followed during her escape. The form shimmered into hazy clarity.
Her enhancement had leveled up. Just as the doctor predicted. She was seeing ghosts or whatever her brain interpreted those energy emanations from that unknown spectrum to be. The shadow approached. She didn't want to see it.
Not that one.
Please.
Not Rickey.
He walked towards her and she shrank back. It was so strange to see him out of his chair. Standing straight and tall. He looked good in his skinny jeans, navy v-neck sweater and Converse shoes. He kept coming, she put her hands out as if she could hold him. Or push him back. She wasn't sure which.
The shadow passed through and beyond her. No matter what the Guard psychiatrists thought, Sky knew this was Rickey's ghost. He was dead but, somehow, he'd been watching out for her today.
The shadow hovered near. She took a step and then another, following. Ducking under the fuselage of the jet, Sky saw several men in gray coveralls loading large metal crates into the luggage hold. A lot of crates. Each had a label on it reading, “Keep Contents Refrigerated” and she could hear the buzz of motors from the refrigeration units.
One of the men in a black suit, the ones who'd been talking to Hugo, walked to her, holding out a cell phone. Rickey's shadow shimmered away and was gone.
“He wants to speak to you,” the man said.
She didn't have to ask who.
He pushed the phone forward. “He still has your mother, Miss. I'd play nice.”
She tapped the button. It was a video call.
