Drastic Times (Book 3): Fierce Freedom

by Rock, R. A.

  “We’re all tired,” Chad said. “We’ve all been working really hard to set up The Alliance. We understand.”

  Shiv stared at Chad with exhausted eyes.

  “But like I told Brett once before, when he messed with us, he made it our fight.”

  “How can you even consider letting Brett get his hands on Penny, Shiv?” I said, standing up and starting to pace. I knew what she would go through. I knew because I had been that little girl. “Please Shiv. Don’t turn your back on her.”

  I felt tears come to my eyes and I blinked them back, dropping my eyes and trying to get my emotions under control. Chad and Grace knew where I was coming from. Grace reached up a hand as I went by and I stopped and took it. She pulled me down next to her.

  Shiv lifted his eyes to mine.

  “Don’t turn my back on her like your father and mother turned their backs on you?”

  “Her mother didn’t have a choice,” Chad said, since he’d been there when I had discovered that memory in my subconscious. He knew what had happened when my mother had let the bad man take me away.

  “There’s always a choice, Chad,” Shiv said, interlacing his fingers on his lap and staring at his hands. Then he lifted his head again to look at me and there was pain in his eyes. “I guess I know what it’s like to be a child who’s been abandoned, Yumi.”

  I nodded, not trusting my voice to speak.

  His mother had put Shiv and his brother into foster care for two years and he had felt completely forsaken by her.

  “You’re right,” he said, into the heavy silence. “It is our fight. And we can’t give up on Penny. On all of them.”

  “So, we’re going to free them?” I said.

  “We’re going to free them,” Shiv said. “And we’re going to end this thing with Brett. Once and for all.”

  “OUR USUAL SORT of plan isn’t going to work. Look at these schematics. We’ll need to get across this bridge.” I stabbed my finger at the paper on Madeline’s lap, as we stood around her bed again the next morning holding a planning meeting. “We’ll need to deal with his guards. Once we’re in, there’s a large area that we’ll have to search to find the Sipwesk people. And then we’ll have to get them back out through his spider’s web that will be closing in on us by that point. It’s going to be tricky.”

  “And now he’s got Brett’s people to help fortify the place, too,” Shiv added.

  “Madeline,” Chad said, turning to her. “Can you tell us what you know?”

  “His stronghold, called Castle Bakersfield, is impenetrable. He built it out of the old Jenpeg hydroelectric dam. And it’s nearly impossible to get into.”

  “Why?” Shiv said, not being familiar with Jenpeg.

  “Because of the way it was built. The dam is long and skinny. There used to be a narrow road that ran over the top of the dam next to the building and the turbine housing. The building is what they’ve renovated to create the castle where the people actually live. There’s only two ways into the dam, basically giving him just two gates to guard.”

  “That is seriously brilliant,” I said, unable to not admire this guy’s intelligence in choosing the location for his stronghold.

  “Exactly,” she said. “The river is fast flowing and extremely dangerous because of the dam, so it’s suicide to approach by water. If you’re going in, you have to go in through one of the two gates.”

  “What about inside?” Chad said, starting to pace. I watched him run his fingers through his hair, envying his hand. Those curls drove me to distraction.

  “Inside there’s the great hall and what he likes to call the throne room.”

  This brought out smirks on everyone’s faces.

  “Oh yeah. This guy is a piece of work.” Madeline said, smiling too. “There’s another long narrow section of the building that has the residents’ quarters.”

  “How do you know all this?” Grace said.

  “You…” She glanced at us and changed what she was going to say. “The Resistance makes a point of keeping tabs on everything that’s going on as far afield as we can.”

  “Using 25th century technology,” Shiv said.

  “Yes, if necessary,” Madeline said. This morning she had on royal blue pyjamas and her hair was tied back in a low ponytail. “But we also use good old fashioned spying. We learned all this from a plant we had at Castle Bakersfield.”

  “We have someone inside?” Chad said. “Well, couldn’t they help us get in?”

  Madeline’s face shut down and she dropped her eyes.

  “We don’t have anyone inside anymore.”

  Everyone was silent. No one wanted to ask. But we needed to know.

  “What happened?”

  Madeline looked up and met my eyes.

  “She was killed. Bakersfield found out she was a spy and killed her. In the water chamber.”

  “The water chamber?” I said, not wanting to know. She had mentioned it before but hadn’t given any details.

  “He has a room that’s at river level. He rigged it up so that if he wants to, the room slowly fills up with water, until it’s completely full.”

  “And the person drowns?” Grace said, appalled.

  “Drowns and is also subject to mental torture because they know they will drown. The river is mostly what controls how high it rises but they say he can adjust the water levels somewhat. He’s like a cat with a mouse, playing with his prey.”

  “Sick,” Grace said, disgust on her face.

  “He is,” Madeline said. “He likes it because the person gets tortured and killed but he doesn’t have to do anything. Doesn’t have to get his hands dirty. Nathan Bakersfield likes to keep his hands perfectly clean.”

  “Good to know,” I said. “That probably means that if we get him separated from his guards, he won’t be able to defend himself.”

  “Sadly no. Sorry to disappoint but Nathan is trained in Karate, Judo, and Aikido. They say he practises with a handgun every day.” She made a face — probably at the thought of wasting all those precious bullets. “And he’s extremely good with a sword.

  Hm. He might be good with a sword, but I was pretty sure I was better.

  I thought about my goal to stop going off on my own and getting into trouble. Maybe the solution to that was the same solution that would work to storm this castle.

  “We need help,” I said and Chad gave me a surprised look. “We need to get as much help as we can for this mission. We can ask the First Nations, the Survivors, and whoever else we can think of. If we have numbers and a good plan, then we’ll be able to take down this guy’s castle, free Matt and Nessa’s people, and deal with Brett.”

  “Pooling our resources,” Shiv was thinking about the idea. “That could work.”

  “Overwhelm them with sheer numbers?” Grace said. “Just overrun the whole place. That’s a good idea, Yumi.”

  I smiled.

  “And the first place we should ask is…” I turned to Madeline. “The Sanctuary. Will you help us? Will you send some of your people to help take down Bakersfield Castle?”

  Madeline shook her head decisively.

  “No way,” she said. “We have a directive. And getting into minor skirmishes is not something we do.”

  IT WAS JUST after lunchtime and pale, cold winter sunshine washed over us as I surveyed the community of Cross Lake. The Sanctuary had graciously outfitted us with warm clothes, weapons, and supplies. I had a brand new sword, very similar to my favourite one, strapped to my back. Future Yumi had kindly left it for me.

  Madeline had provided recent pictures of Cross Lake to Grace so she could teleport us to the First Nations community, located about twenty kilometres north east of Castle Bakersfield. When I had asked Madeline to help us, I totally hadn’t expected her to say no. But then she had explained to us that if we wanted to complain to someone, we ought to complain to ourselves. Because it was us that had made the rule.

  The Sanctuary had a very precise directive, which was
to organize and carry out the Resistance’s work of undermining the secret cities and thwarting their plans to take over the world. Getting involved in small local problems did not fall under that directive. Even when it was a local problem that we were involved in.

  She had told us that she wasn’t about to change the rules, not even for the Sanctuary’s founders and we all agreed with that. If we had thought it was important to put that rule in place, we weren’t about to break it. Obviously our other selves had thought we could handle this without the Sanctuary’s help.

  I peered through the trees and wondered why the community didn’t have any walls — especially this close to Castle Bakersfield. The shabby government-built houses squatted haphazardly as if they didn’t plan on staying long. But the community was clean and tidy. I scowled at the innocuous looking place. I didn’t believe that we could just walk up with impunity. I wasn’t sure why I thought that but somehow it was just too simple.

  “Let’s go,” Shiv whispered. “What are we waiting for?”

  “It’s too easy,” I said and Chad glanced at me, his expression serious. I continued to study the small community. There was something I was missing. I moved quietly back and forth, assessing the terrain between us and the houses.

  That’s when I spotted it. I froze in my tracks. It was only visible on a certain angle. But there it was, as clear as day from where I was now standing.

  A trip wire.

  “Booby traps,” I breathed, freezing in place. “This whole place is probably full of booby traps.”

  The others gave me wide-eyed looks but Chad just nodded and moved forward one careful step at a time, trying to see where the traps were.

  “Shiv and Audrey, follow Chad. Grace, you’re behind me.”

  We crept forward, stepping over the trip wire. I scanned the forest floor for signs of other traps, stepping slowly, one foot at a time towards the houses. It wouldn’t do to hurry. Rushing would probably result in one of us getting injured, if not killed.

  I lifted my foot and was about to put it down when something caught my eye. A line in the leaves that shouldn’t be there. As if they had been placed just so… I picked up a nearby rock and tossed it where I had been about to step. The leaves fell through the hole they were covering and revealed the sharp pointed sticks below that would skewer anyone unlucky enough to step on them.

  I swallowed hard at the thought of what I had just avoided and immediately sent Chad an image of the trap.

  “These guys are playing for keeps,” he sent.

  “If you had Castle Bakersfield in your neighbourhood, you probably would, too.” I pointed out.

  We all continued our slow approach towards Cross Lake until I felt a surge of impatience from Audrey.

  “This is stupid,” she said out loud and stepped ahead of Chad, walking straight for the houses.

  “Audrey, please,” I sent but she ignored me, stepping blithely towards the community.

  “See?” she said. “It’s fine.”

  A half a second later, she gave a little shriek as her foot caught in a loop and she was dangling ten feet in the air by her ankle. She swung back and forth, hitting her head on a tree and letting out a groan. I wondered how she hadn’t been knocked unconscious, she had hit so hard.

  Frickin’ Audrey. God damn that woman. Couldn’t she just be patient for once?

  I shook my head, furious.

  “No point getting angry. It’s done now,” Chad sent, making his slow, careful way towards Audrey. “And by the way, you’re singeing by brain, Tanaka.”

  I immediately damped down my anger and took deep breaths to calm myself. He was right. What was done was done. Now we had to deal with the fall out from her stupid decision, which would make us later than anticipated and maybe make getting into the community unharmed even more difficult. Or more likely, they were now aware that we were approaching and would take some sort of action. I stopped thinking about it because I was only getting more pissed off.

  Chad climbed one of the trees near where she was hanging and cut the rope. She fell into the leaves and moss with a grunt. But I didn’t feel the least bit sorry for her. She had totally brought that one on herself.

  Audrey was limping from when she had fallen and she had a big bruise on her temple where she had smacked into the tree. But the rest of us were on our game as we approached. Surely they had noticed our arrival by now?

  But no one appeared. The only sound was the wind rattling the dead leaves on the poplar trees. It was like it was a ghost town. I wondered if maybe Brett or this Nathan person had already got these people, too. Then suspicion filled me. Or maybe it was only supposed to look abandoned.

  “I almost feel like we should turn back,” I sent to Chad.

  “Why?”

  “Because it feels like a trap.”

  “Son of a bitch,” he sent. “You’re right. We should turn around.”

  We wanted to talk to these people, not become their prisoners.

  I groaned internally thinking about having to turn around and go back the way we had just come. Somehow it didn’t seem so bad to have to be so damn patient and slow if we were actually getting somewhere. But to have to be so patient and then to have to turn around and go back just seemed like a complete waste of time, which of course it was.

  Still. We didn’t want to be caught as if we were common thieves or intruders. We wanted to approach as ambassadors or something like that. I forget what Chad had called us.

  “Go back?” I sent, knowing my mental voice sounded whiny. “Maybe we don’t have to go back.”

  “If you think it’s a trap, we definitely have to go back. What are you talking about, Yumi? Maybe there’s another way to make contact with the Chief of this community. It’s not a waste. We learned a lot.”

  “It just feels like a trap,” I told him. “Maybe it’s not. Maybe I’m wrong.”

  “In all the time I’ve known you, you’ve never been wrong. We’re going back.”

  “Fine.”

  Chad filled the others in and I carefully turned around, making my way past Grace and picking my way back. Returning seemed to take twice as long. When we reached the perimeter where the traps began, I sucked in a breath of cold air. We had made it.

  Then a twig snapped. I scanned the forest to figure out where it had come from and pulled my sword.

  “That won’t be necessary,” a man’s voice said, as a handgun came into view around a large nearby tree. It was aimed straight at me. “Put down your weapons.”

  I set my sword on the ground.

  A fucking trap. I’d been right.

  “You’re always right, Tanaka,” came Chad’s rueful mental voice.

  I WONDERED FOR a moment if getting into Cross Lake was worth it, if we were going to be taken prisoner again. Then the First Nations man holding the gun stepped out from behind the tree and my heart almost stopped. He was the hottest guy I had ever seen. Even more good looking than Shiv.

  He had short black hair and the darkest, most mesmerizing eyes I had ever seen. High cheekbones and a square jaw gave him a sexy, rugged look. The winter clothes he was wearing made it impossible to see his body but I guessed it was muscular. I experienced a visceral reaction to him and the way he was eyeing me up seemed to imply that he felt the same way.

  “The hottest guy you’ve ever seen?” Chad’s mental voice hissed down the soul bond.

  God damn it, I had been shielding that thought.

  It made me sort of uncomfortable to think anyone other than Chad was sexy but I couldn’t deny that a red hot attraction was pulling me to this man. It felt as though I was betraying Chad. But after all we were just friends.

  “Friends working towards getting back to being lovers someday,” the angry thought made it past my shields again, burning down the soul bond. I repressed a shiver at the thought of being Chad’s lover once again. Then I clamped down on my end of the soul bond, trying to block any more thoughts. I obviously couldn’t control my reaction t
o this guy and it wasn’t fair that Chad should have to experience it, too.

  “March,” the hot guy said and we followed him in a line that snaked safely through the booby traps until we entered the village in only about two minutes. They brought us into the town hall and lined us up along one wall, keeping guns trained on us the entire time.

  “What are you doing here?” the hot guy said. His voice was rough, like spruce bark and so deep it turned my insides liquid.

  I tried to get my thoughts in order, sizing up the room and the people in it and attempting to ignore how much he was affecting me. There were three other men with guns and a couple women in one corner, who didn’t seem to be paying any attention to us.

  Chad gave me a dark glance and then spoke up.

  “We’ve come to ask for your help. We need to speak to the Chief.”

  “You’re talking to him,” the hot guy said. He and his people removed their winter coats but didn’t ask us if we wanted to. “What do you need?”

  “I’m Chad Dvorski,” Chad said and then introduced the rest of us. The hot guy’s gaze lingered on me like a caress and I suppressed another shiver. Man, I must be getting pretty deprived if just one look from this man could get me so wound up. I shook myself out of my thoughts and tried to pay attention to what Chad was saying.

  “We have reason to believe that Brett Pittman has taken the entire Sipwesk community prisoner. And that he’s brought them to Castle Bakersfield. Sipwesk’s people are our friends and we want to help them. And we also want to stop Brett, who has been terrorizing the people in this area for far too long.”

  The hot guy was frowning, the scowl on his face giving him a brooding appearance that only made him more gorgeous. He folded his arms across his broad chest and the pose showed his biceps tightening the blue button down he was wearing.

  “Castle Bakersfield? That place is impossible to get in. And once you get in, it’s impossible to get out. There’s no way I’ll risk my people on such a dangerous mission. And for strangers.”

  He glanced at the women in the corner for a second and she gave a tiny nod. I frowned. What the hell?