Sniper Squad

by Meg Buchanan

  “When?” asked Ela.

  “Tomorrow afternoon for MonoRail control. Humicrib after the weekend.”

  Chapter 6

  Nick waited for Jake and Tom get ready to head for the MonoRail system’s control tower. They didn’t seem as nervous as he thought they’d be. He still wondered if he should call this off and wait until they knew more about what Vector was up to, but they were running out of time.

  Curly gave Tom the pack with the shield and the tools they’d need. “Better not forget this,”

  Tom took it and grinned as he shrugged into it.

  Nick checked the two kids. They were both in sensible clothes. Dark so they wouldn’t stand out, close fitting so they wouldn’t catch on anything or show when they were hazed, soft soled sneakers so they could move without making any noise.

  “Got your Coms?” he asked. Tom and Jake nodded and held them up. “Remember if there’s any chance of you being seen, Haze whether you’ve got the job done or not, and get away. But you only have fifteen minutes to get clear.” Usually Com’s recharged constantly using solar and kinetic energy, but the HazeApp drained power in a big way and Coms couldn’t recharge fast enough to compensate, fifteen minutes seemed to be the limit.

  “Yeah, we know,” said Jake.

  Yeah, they knew. They’d gone over it often enough. “Ready?” asked Nick.

  “Ready,” said the two boys.

  Nick, Ela and Curly walked them to the eastern entrance. They’d come out at Takutai square. That would get them close to the MonoRail Terminal, and then it was just a short walk to the control tower.

  The plan was to send a surge of energy through all the Administration’s systems to kill off all the utilities and electronics. It was going to happen in the other two Cities, Wellington and Christchurch too, and the rest of the Cradles around world.

  The Administration would be helpless, and they wouldn’t be able eliminate all Locals as revenge or call in backup from the rest of the world. At least that was the way it was meant to work.

  But BlastSheilds were needed in strategic places so buildings that still needed energy would be shielded. The shields were going to stop essential things like power to homes and Humicrib being affected, and make sure the MonoRails still operated, so the carriages didn’t fall off the rails and kill everyone inside.

  “Head for the Commerce Street entrance when it’s done,” said Nick. That gave them four safe routes to get back. He wanted to be sure they’d remember. “And I’ll have someone waiting there to let you in.”

  Tom and Jake nodded again.

  Then just before Curly hit the code to open the entrance door, Nick took the pistol he’d been carrying and handed it to Jake. “You know how to use this?” He saw Jake swallow, then nod and take the pistol. Not much of a backup plan, but it was the best he could do.

  “Keep safe,” he said as the entrance doors opened. From now on Jake and Tom were on their own.

  

  Jack sat in the Hover opposite Jeron. They’d just landed and that familiar shudder as the Viper settled went through his body. Leach hadn’t had time to brief them. Halfway through dinner the call had gone out and they had to scramble and assemble at the HoverPad.

  He’d watched three StealthHovers load VTroopers and then the squad were loaded onto the Viper. It looked miniscule beside the Mambas, and this one had a female pilot. The smaller StealthHovers seemed to, maybe it was to save on weight.

  Leach stood in the aisle holding one of the straps above him for balance. Jack could see his lips move, and what he said came through the headset in his helmet.

  “Listen up,” said Leach’s voice in his ear. “When the Troopers are in place, we’ll find vantage points to cover all exits. Our information suggests two individuals are in the control building. It looks like they’re planning on sabotaging the MonoRail system.” This felt different. He was pretty sure this wasn’t a training exercise. Everything about it said urgency.

  Leach’s voice in his ear kept going. “We can’t let that happen. We’ll sweep for them, and then if we don’t catch them in the act, we’ll make sure we get them as they leave. We need them alive. We need to know what these attacks are about, so shoot to maim. Understood?”

  Jack watched the others nod. Shoot to maim? What did that mean? Take off a leg? Jesus.

  Leach barely paused for breath. “Fraser and Donovan take the positions to the north. Levi and Sharpe to the west. To the east Gregor and O’Hara. The rest of you will come with me. Once the others are in place, we’ll comb the building inch by inch until we find them.” Leach put his hand to his helmet as if someone was communicating something to him. He looked back at the squad. “They’re ready for us to do our bit.”

  The squad unclipped from their seats and stood; lasers held ready. The doors of the Viper lifted, the ramp went down, and they followed the captain at a jog, out into the bright silver light.

  This time there was no damage anywhere and no suffocating noise. Apart from the thousand odd VTroopers forming the perimeter, watching the building, waiting for something to happen, it looked like a normal Friday afternoon in the City. Except there were no civilians around. As usual, if the StealthHovers turned up anyone with any sense faded away.

  Leach turned back to the squad and cut the air with his hand indicating the three points of the compass where they were supposed to take up position, dividing the area up into three segments.

  Jack held his laser in both hands and jog marched following Jeron to the building they were assigned. This time the foyer of the building was empty. Jeron led the way to the top. They took the stairs the way they’d been taught. Got to the roof. They had to kneel with the lasers resting on the parapet.

  He heard Jeron report back to Leach. “North position in place.”

  Jack swept his area through the scope. The streets were still deserted. Just the StealthHovers, but no cloaking devices activated. They sat there, dark and menacing in the silver light. The black perimeter of VTroopers that ringed the building was just as menacing. He saw the glint of a scope to the west where Levi and Sharpe were positioned. He could see the last four members of the squad waiting with Leach. Leach must have got confirmation from the others too. Jack saw him lower his visor and give the signal to enter the basement of the building.

  Then everything changed. Two males, about the same age as the squad members, appeared up through a ramp from underground. They can’t have known the troopers had arrived. They must be working on their own and had no surveillance on the outside. Or no communication with whoever they were working for.

  “Take them.” Jack heard the order from the commander of the VTroopers come through his headset loud and clear. The perimeter moved towards the target in a mass.

  The boys stood there stunned like they hadn’t expected this when they came out into the light.

  Then they looked around wildly, and just as they turned to go back into the building and make a run for it, a shot rang out. It could have been either from the north or the west.

  One of the boys slid down the wall and sunk to the ground holding his shoulder. A streak of blood left on the tiles. For a moment, Jack saw the other one pause, then fish inside his jacket and pull out a small, old fashioned handgun.

  How did the guy expect to fight a couple of thousand VTroopers with that? The kid backed up against his mate holding the gun steady. He aimed at the line of black slowly advancing towards him.

  When the VTroopers were close, the boy with the gun, turned suddenly and before any of the snipers could react, shot his mate in the head and then turned the gun on himself.

  It all happened so quickly nobody had time to stop it. The shots had been accurate. The heads of both boys were just pulp.

  “Bloody hell,” he heard Jeron say quietly through his headset. The rest of the squad were silent. The VTroopers had stopped moving and a couple of Medics ran to the bodies.

  Jack stood up away from the parapet, silent. He’d seen death befo
re but never self-inflicted. Whatever those boys had been doing underground, was worth dying for and important enough that they didn’t want to get caught and interrogated. They didn’t want to betray whoever they were working with. It was the bravest thing he’d ever seen. He didn’t know if he could have done it.

  But why didn’t Jacob pass on the message to stop all protests and sabotage?

  

  The silence in the old deserted Station was so thick you could hear it. Ela, her hand over her mouth, stared at the VidScreen up on the wall.

  They were dead. Tom and Jake were dead. Tom had been hit by one of the snipers, and then Jake had shot both of them. He hadn’t even hesitated. How could you do that? How could you be so calm and cool in the face of such overwhelming odds and even think to do that?

  She watched Nick fold his arms on the table and rest his head on them. Everyone else still stared at the paused screen. Curly had waved his arm at it as soon at the two boys had fallen to the ground and the Vector Medics had gone to them.

  Ela touched Nick’s shoulder. It was his plan to do this. He’d led it. He’d helped Curly train Tom and Jake in what to do, and it was him who’d given them their instructions. And she’d seen him check that the small pistol was loaded and hand it to Jake.

  Nick hadn’t said what the pistol was for, he’d asked, “Do you know what to do with this?”

  Jake had nodded. She’d thought, off course Jake would know how to use it. Local boys grew up handling old firearms. They went hunting. It was part of being a Local.

  But now she knew Jake had used it the way Nick intended him to. Vector wasn’t going to let a Cell of terrorists survive and they would keep interrogating them until Tom and Jake talked.

  They all knew no one could be caught alive. If they were caught and interrogated, everyone would die. But she hadn’t known they carried something that would kill them if they were on a Mission.

  Nick looked up at her, tears on his cheeks. They hadn’t had a casualty until now. Suddenly what they were doing seemed too real. They were taking on the world. It wasn’t just the Administration and Vector they were fighting. It was the whole world.

  Nick turned to Curly. “Get an emergency message to Jacob. Tell him what’s happened. And tell him to get Jake and Tom’s families out of sight.”

  “I’m on to it.” Then Ela saw Curly pause. “Jake has a sister at University.”

  Nick nodded. “Send her a CatchingFire and then send someone to pick her up. It won’t take long for Vector to go after her.”

  Curly nodded and half jogged out of the room.

  A CatchingFire, so Nick still used the old danger signal Jacob used.

  “Will she know what to do?” Ela asked Nick.

  Nick nodded. “There was always the chance things could go wrong so we have backdoor out of the University worked out. Everyone knows the rules, Haze as soon as you can after you get the danger signal. Make your way to the backdoor and someone will come and get you.”

  That made her feel a little better.

  “It wasn’t your fault,” she said quietly to Nick. “Tom and Jake knew what might happen and still wanted to do it. What we’re doing is important.”

  Nick nodded and roughly wiped the tears away. “If that was the last shield it would be easier to know what to do next, but we still have one more to go.”

  Ela nodded. Humicrib. They could just not do it. Humicrib wasn’t strategically important. But the death of thousands of babies would be on their heads if the shield wasn’t in place before the power surge.

  “Anyone want to see anymore?” Nick asked.

  All around the room kids shook their heads. It was a live feed from a DroneCam. They didn’t need to watch Tom and Jake’s bodies being loaded into the EvacHover. They didn’t need to see the VTroopers get back into the StealthHovers. They didn’t need to watch the cloaking devices shroud the Hovers as they lifted off the ground.

  There was still that silence like nobody could think of what to say. They were all friends here. They’d just lost two comrades, and worse they might lose more because someone was going to have to get that last shield fitted to the control box in the basement of Humicrib.

  Finally, Nick stood up and drew in a deep breath. He straightened his shoulders and looked around the room. A hundred pairs of eyes looked back at him.

  “They were heroes,” he said. “They gave their lives, so we have a chance of being free. Let’s make sure their sacrifice isn’t for nothing. Go back to your posts and tomorrow we’ll work out what we need to do to finish this.”

  Ela looked at Nick. He’d surprised her right from when he became their leader. He’d taken on the role reluctantly, but he seemed to have grown into it. And now he’d said exactly the right thing. He’d honoured the deaths and given everyone a chance to hope those lives weren’t going to be wasted.

  But it was naïve to think there’d be no retaliation if everyone knew what was really going on. None of them believed the rest of the world would just let them take over. Someone would spin it that they were in the wrong and there would be consequences.

  Chapter 7

  LEACH STOOD AT THE FRONT of the Debrief Room and watched the squad file in. When they’d settled, he didn’t turn on the VidScreen the way he usually would have, he just spoke to them.

  “We were too late this time, but now we know what to look for, next time we’ll be there. Any unexplained presence in a strategically important building will be investigated and dealt with.”

  Leach looked around the room assessing. They all knew this is what they’d been trained for and he was looking for weakness.

  “We need the target breathing. Now we know they prefer not to be taken alive we’ll be ready.”

  Nobody responded. Not even a nod. Jack wondered if everyone else was as shocked as he was. They were snipers. They were trained to kill. But those boys hadn’t been the cardboard cut-outs they’d trained with.

  “You all did well,” said Leach into the silence. “You’re all off duty until tomorrow. Go out and celebrate your first successful mission. You’ve been blooded.”

  Jack walked out of the debrief room with the others. He only got a glimpse of the two boys’ faces before their heads were blown off and he had no idea if he knew them, but it still hung there in the air. They had to be Locals and they were about his age, so he could have known them.

  He had some leave this weekend and he was going home. He’d go see Jacob and tell him this was the end. When those two boys appeared up the ramp, he should have shot them, or Jeron should have. They were just lucky Levi reacted quicker than they did. And he couldn’t have stood it if he’d been the one who’d done it.

  Levi looked back at him. “Leach said we’re to celebrate. Want to head for the Viaduct?”

  Did he want to spend a few hours at the Viaduct before he went home? Jack shrugged and looked at Jeron.

  Jeron nodded. “Yeah, why not?” he said.

  “Okay,” said Jack. Maybe a few hours of Bliss would make all this feel better. The Viaduct was where R&R happened for the Vector Troopers. There wasn’t anywhere else to let their hair down. Protectors of the Cradle of the World weren’t allowed to be seen Blissed out on the streets or grabbing at females. That only happened at the Viaduct where they were corralled and could do pretty much whatever they wanted.

  Then he could go home with a clear head and tell Jacob about his decision to quit Vector.

  An hour later, he stood with Jeron, Levi and the others, with a swarm of VTroopers, on the MonoRail platform under the dome that protected it. He felt a bit uncomfortable taking a MonoRail tonight. What if the saboteurs set some sort of explosive device with a time delay that would take out the power or the rails? He didn’t want to be in a carriage when the whole transport system imploded.

  No, Vector would have sent people down to wherever those guys had been and scoured to place until they’d worked out what they’d been doing. Surely, they had recorded footage they could revi
ew and track them? Surely whatever those guys were up to wasn’t still a mystery?

  They all waited for a train to arrive. Friday night, the VTroopers would all be heading for a night on the town too. Nobody with leave stuck around the Base. They crossed the harbour into the City.

  But not so far into the City to risk running into civilians, but they got away from Devonport and the barracks.

  Elite, and especially VTroopers, didn’t seem to be half as interested in sex as the Local males were but sometimes they went to the bars provided to posture and act all macho, and with a bit of Bliss and a lot of alcohol in them, they’d show some interest in the females provided.

  Jack cast an eye over the rest of the crowded platform. Most of the VTroopers looked older than the squad. Everyone wore black. Even off duty soldiers had to stay in uniform if they were in the City.

  He watched a group start to take an interest in him and his mates. The squad stood out. Everyone else had these huge silver V’s across their chests, but the squad just wore black. The regular troopers resented them and made that clear. It would have been better if their uniforms had the silver V everyone else’s did.

  He guessed Vector didn’t want their snipers easy to identify when they were perched on a building or concealed in a tree.

  It was all right for the VTroopers, they marched in huge numbers and the tide of black and silver moving towards the target looked formidable.

  A big bulked-up trooper noticed him and Gregor standing there.

  “What are you looking at?” The strange thing about the progesterone in all the food the Elite ate. It made the females curvy and feminine, Sweet and Elite, but in males it was a precursor to Testosterone, and they bulked up and got aggressive.

  The trooper nudged his mate. “Look at the pansies watching us.”

  The mate turned and looked belligerently at Jack, Gregor, and then the rest of the squad. “Yeah, they wish they were real men like us.” Then he focussed in on Gregor. “Did your daddy get you into that unit for pansies?” he asked.