Sniper Squad

by Meg Buchanan

  She ate the sandwich slowly and thought about it. She didn’t want to finish up like Jake and Tom. She wanted to live. She wanted to spend time with Amon and Isabelle and study and become a doctor.

  Was this important enough to die for? Maybe she should tell Nick and Curly that she was the proof the effects of Genus6 could be reversed. Maybe she should tell them Jacob would be cross if they got her killed.

  No, there were thousands and thousands of little babies in Humicrib and millions of Locals who were only a little better than slaves, and none of it was necessary, there was another answer to Genus6 and the whole reason they were doing this was to get that information out to the world. Surely there were others like her Jacob could use as proof.

  She finished her sandwich, leaving the crusts on the plate. Yes, what they were doing was important. If they couldn’t escape after they’d fitted the shield that was just the way it was.

  Nick and Curly finished eating too. Curly picked up the plates and called Tig over. “Hey, Tig, put these in the dishwasher for us. We need to sort out an escape plan for our heroes here.”

  Ela watched Tig nod and put his own plate on top of the pile.

  “Good luck,” he said to Nick and Ela. “Remember to Haze. That seems to be the most important thing.”

  “Remember to Haze,” Ela muttered, as she followed Nick and Curly back to Nick’s office. That might be the best bit of advice she’d ever been given.

  In the office Curly waved his hand at the VidScreen. A 3D version of the blueprint for the Humicrib building spiralled onto the screen. Curly lifted his hand a few times to move the plan so they were looking at the basement area and the ramp to the carpark.

  “At the base of the building, this is the only exit. If Vector know you’re there, and from the last time we did this, we know that they probably will know and will be there, we need to work out a plan to get you both away safely.”

  “Can’t we just wire in the shield and go back the way we got in?” asked Ela. Once they found the control board, wiring the shield in should only take minutes. She’d imagined she’d just go back to the ward and pretend she hadn’t even been away.

  “That could work for you, but I’m not so sure about Nick here.”

  Nick sat down on a chair at the end of the table. “I think Ela’s right. She should go back. I’ll Haze and go with her. Basically, I’ll have fifteen minutes to get clear before my Com loses it charge and can’t support the HazeApp any longer. I should be somewhere safe by then.”

  Curly considered that then shook his head. “What if they lock down inside too? I can’t imagine that if there’s an alert Vector will arrive and surround the basement, and everything from the ground floor up will carry on as normal.”

  “What do you think?” Nick asked Ela.

  She leaned against the table and studied the Blueprint. “I think Curly’s right. We won’t be able to get back to the wards. Maybe we’re better to go to the carpark and come up the ramp. If we don’t Haze until the last moment that should be enough to get us past the perimeter.”

  “Risky,” said Curly.

  Nick rested his elbows on his knees and fiddled with his Com. “Not as bad as being trapped in a building and suddenly appearing. We know we have a window between when the Hovers appear, the perimeter is formed, and the snipers get in position. We’ll use that to get away.”

  “What if we set up a diversion?” suggested Curly.

  “Yeah.” Nick put the Com on the table. “How?”

  “An explosion,” said Curly. “Not too far from Humicrib, so they use the same Troopers. We don’t want them to send in a different lot to deal with it.”

  Nick nodded. “Could work.” He looked over at Ela.

  She nodded. She couldn’t think of any better idea. This was new to her.

  “I’ll set it up,” said Curly.

  When Ela got back to their apartment, she saw her mother turn off her Tablet and put it away as she came through the door.

  Her mother didn’t mention that she’d been away all weekend and didn’t ask what she’d been doing.

  “I’m ready for tomorrow’s meeting,” her mum said instead. “I think it’s my bedtime.”

  “What’s the meeting about?” Ela asked. She wouldn’t be able to settle to doing anything now she was home. If she tried to watch a Vid, she wouldn’t be able to concentrate.

  She studied the tall, beautiful, reserved woman who looked every inch like a perfect Elite, but eighteen years ago her mother had fallen in love with a Local, married him and had a baby.

  Sometimes even though her mother said she wanted Ela to behave the way the Elite girls did, maybe she knew more about the Resistance than she let on. Maybe she should talk to her about Nick’s plans.

  She checked her messages. Most of them were, where are you? messages from Amon. She couldn’t tell him where she’d been. He had no sympathy for the Resistance.

  Her mother took out a glass out of the cupboard and filled it with water from the dispenser on the fridge. “The Preborns you assessed last week are to be allocated parents. We’ll discuss the matches and action them.”

  “When will the babies go to their new homes?” It didn’t sound like anyone had found out she’d lied about baby 20059.

  And she couldn’t tell her mother what she planned to do tomorrow. Her mother would be horrified.

  

  Back at the barracks, as Jack walked in through the door of the Rec Room, he heard Jeron say, “Fuck Levi, turn her off.”

  The whole squad was standing around the pool table, and on the table was the ImageMaker Levi had taken from the bar. Beside the ImageMaker the same naked girl danced.

  “You’ve got a dirty mind, man,” Dante said to Levi. “You’ll get us all a spell in The Room.” The three-strike thing again.

  Jack went over to the others. “Yeah, get rid of it, Levi. This is nuts.” Levi was already on two strikes for breaking the Respect and Protect Code, if he got caught with that Vid, he was a certainty for a spell at Re-Education.

  For the rest of them, it was less certain because the fear of what happened after the third strike kept them all in line so they didn’t collect strikes the way Levi did. Nobody else ran quite as close to the line.

  Levi grinned and shrugged, then leaned over the table to turn the thing off. He was just about to touch the disk, and bloody Leach walked in through the door. Jack moved quickly, and the image faded.

  But Leach had seen it. “Attention!”

  Suddenly they were all ramrod straight and looking at the walls.

  “Whose is it?” Leach asked.

  Jack saw Levi start to sweat. If Levi owned up, he got the third strike and he didn’t deserve that just for liking a bit of fun sometimes.

  Jack stared at the wall trying to decide. He only had one strike, and he hadn’t violated the ‘Respect and Protect’ part of the code ever, so maybe he still had a buffer and Leach might go easy on him because it was a first offence.

  Was that fool Levi worth taking the risk for? Was he worth saving?

  Yeah, he was, and it was him Leach would have seen turn the disk off so he might believe it was his.

  He stepped forward. “Mine, sir,” he said.

  Leach looked at him, all steel and irritation. Then turned on Levi, “Delete it,” he ordered. “Burn the thing.” He turned back to Jack. “My office now, Fraser.” Leach strode back out the door.

  Jack followed Leach and Levi said to him as he went past him. “Thanks Jack.”

  “You owe me,” said Jack.

  “Yeah, big time.”

  Jack followed Leach to the office and Leach left him standing at attention on the bit of carpet between his door and his desk for a good fifteen minutes like it was some sort of message he was meant to get without Leach having to bother telling him he was pissed.

  Leach sorted through stuff on his Tablet, then linked the Tablet with the display screens on his wall and his desk.

  Jack watched him
flick through NavMap after NavMap then he flicked to the feed from a DroneCam, then back to maps, then the Cam.

  Finally, he looked over, not pleased. “Strike two,” he said like he kept the inventory in his head.

  Jack blinked a bit; it was a first offence. That seemed a bit steep.

  “Sir?”

  “For the lie,” said Leach. “Not for the Image, I don’t believe you brought it in, you’re not that big an idiot, but a big enough an idiot to lie to me.”

  Jack didn’t say anything.

  “No response?” Leach asked.

  “No, Sir,” said Jack.

  Leach went back to shuffling through the NavMaps then moved the Tablet to the side of his desk and stood up, still examining the DeskScreen and DroneFeed.

  “At least this way,” Leach muttered after a while, “I don’t lose a man for two days and then have to wait a week before he’s any use again.” Then he looked up at Jack. “And from now on, Fraser, you keep your head down and your mouth shut, I don’t need to lose you for that much time either.”

  “Yes, sir.” Leach didn’t need to worry, two bloody strikes in a week. He’d be so low profile until they timed out the captain would barely see him. The month would go by. Hell, after a week or so, according to Jacob, everything would change anyway. But Levi really did owe him big time.

  The idiot.

  Leach came around the desk and stood there staring at him a while, then turned back. “Moving on,” he said and nodded for Jack to come and look at the Screen. “I was coming to find you anyway, Fraser, we’ve got information on something happening.”

  He flicked to some footage of the Humicrib building. “Intel says tomorrow Humicrib is the target. They’ve gone over what happened with the MonoRail system. Someone had been accessing blueprints for the building for a good week before and the security schedules for the day it happened. They’ve found the same pattern with Humicrib, so Intel is sure Humicrib is the target and this time we get there first. We’ll have an hour to set up surveillance before the StealthHovers arrive. We catch the insurgents off-guard; we find them and capture them. They’re targeting strategic buildings. It’s our job to make sure we know where else and why before any more strategic buildings are targeted. I want you to lead the ground search.”

  “Yes, sir,” said Jack. They were back to normal, examining blueprints, discussing tactics. Blueprints for another building close by had been accessed too.

  “If it was me planning an attack on Humicrib, that would be the diversion.” Leach stabbed at the blueprints.

  Chapter 12

  THE MORNING PASSED with excruciating slowness, but she had to behave normally. When Amon teased her, Ela had to laugh, and when Isabelle turned up in a new outfit, all pink and lacey she had to show some interest. No one noticed anything was wrong. It looked like she might have a future in acting. Finally, after a few hours she was free to head for Humicrib.

  Nick had sent her a quizzical Emoji, and she’d sent a smiley one back at him the way they’d arranged so now they both knew the plan was going ahead. Now she just had to find Nick and get him into the building.

  She stood on the platform and waited for the lift to take her up into Humicrib. She was surrounded by kids in blue capes, all Interns like she was and about to start their shift.

  How was she going to spot Nick? He’d stand out in this group with his scar and no blue cloak, but she was sure he’d find some way of fitting in.

  Then someone touched her arm, and she looked beside her. And there was Nick grinning at her. Just one side of his face showing, the rest, the side with the scar behind one of those half masks some kids wore just for the fun of it. He had a blue cloak on too. She wasn’t going to ask how he got that.

  “You’re just in time,” she said like he was just some other Intern.

  Nick lifted a Tablet like he’d been making notes on it. “Got caught up at a lecture.” He was faking an accent that could have been mid-European, so he didn’t even sound like himself, but none of the other kids around them reacted as if anything was wrong.

  They all piled onto the lift, and it slowly emptied out as it stopped at the different levels. All the other kids chattered and talked about what they’d be doing for the day.

  Ela worked at acting the way she always did, but surely someone would realise Nick shouldn’t be there. And what did he plan on doing when they got to the Pre-Born ward? There wouldn’t be any scrubs waiting for him. And once he was on the ward, he had to look like a doctor, an Intern or an assistant.

  Just before they reached where she got out, she looked up at him. “I’m with the Preborns today, I get off at the next floor. What about you?” she asked like they were just a couple of friends chatting.

  “Me too.” Nick grinned again, looking relaxed like he did this every day.

  He was good.

  The lift stopped and they stepped out with about a half dozen other Interns. Now was the tricky part.

  Annabelle smiled at Ela. “Darien is late. He’d better be on the next lift or Professor Bradford won’t be pleased with him.”

  “I’m sure he’ll be here soon.” Ela looked at Nick. She’d seen Darien in a mask like that once when she’d bumped into him in a shop. Nick shrugged and grinned again. They waited while Annabelle and the others moved on.

  “What happened to Darien?” she asked.

  “He’s a bit tied up at the moment,” said Nick.

  Poor Darien.

  “Come on,” she said. “We need to find somewhere for you to hide until I can get away.”

  Nick nodded, and they headed along the passageway. There was a utility cupboard a bit further along. She’d seen one of the maintenance staff open it once and it looked like it had a couple of uniforms the orderlies wore hanging there. Nick could hide there for a while, and then they’d borrow those uniforms to get down to the basement.

  Professor Bradford came out of his office and spotted them. “You two, Miss Hennessey and ….” He paused, obviously not recognising Nick.

  He studied Nick a moment longer. “Who are you?” he asked and looked down at the clipboard he was holding.

  The corridor they were in had plenty of people going past both ways, they could just turn and try to blend in. But Bradford would hit an alarm.

  “He’s transferred from Fert,” said Ela. “He wanted to work with the Preborns.” She knew of someone who’d done that. And she could understand it. Fert was boring. Endless monitoring eggs and sperm and embryos. None of them smiled or pushed their little feet against your hand.

  Bradford frowned and looked down at his list again. It didn’t look like he believed her.

  Nick must have thought that too. He moved rapidly at the professor talking fast. “I’d heard about the work you were doing, sir,” he said calmly, while herding Bradford back into his office. “It will be an honour to work with you, sir.”

  Bradford was backing up fast and looking down at whatever Nick was holding. Ela followed them as they made it inside Bradford’s office, and when she shut the door behind them, she could see the pistol Nick had under Bradford’s chin.

  Bradford was looking from her to Nick and back again. If Bradford survived this, he wouldn’t have her back as an Intern. And with all the VidCams around the place, even if nobody picked up that something odd was happening just then, if they went back through the footage it would look strange.

  “Get undressed,” Nick said to Bradford. Then handed the pistol to Ela. “Make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid.” He looked at Bradford. “If you want to survive this, you’ll do as you’re told.”

  Ela took the pistol, shocked by how hard Nick sounded. If she was in Bradford’s shoes, she’d have believed Nick would kill her if she didn’t cooperate. She covered Bradford with pistol. This was the end of her doctor training. Jacob had better be right that everything was going to change.

  Nick hauled his Com out from under the cloak. Hit an icon on the screen. “Yeah?” she heard from the Com. Cur
ly’s voice.

  “Got some footage you need to clean up,” Nick said.

  “Already clean,” said Curly.

  Nick put the Com back in his pocket and turned to Bradford. The man had removed his white coat and dropped it on the floor.

  “You won’t get away with this. I’ll make sure of that.” He was standing there looking from Nick to Ela hatred painted on his face.

  Nick scooped up the white coat and handed it to Ela and then picked up a scalpel from Bradford’s desk and held it to the professor’s throat.

  “You can’t,” Ela gasped.

  Nick shrugged, and calmly slit Bradford’s throat. Blood squirted halfway across the room, lucky missing her. The professor slumped to the ground.

  Ela looked up at Nick horrified. “No.”

  Nick’s hand and wrist were dripping red. He calmly bent down and wiped his knife on the Professor’s shirt.

  Ela stood there frozen to the spot. She didn’t like the man, but Nick shouldn’t have killed him.

  Nick went to a basin in the corner of the room and washed his hands. He grabbed some paper towers from the dispenser and turned back to Ela.

  “If I’d let him live, he’d have identified you,”

  Ela sat down on the professor’s chair as her knees gave way. “You can’t just kill people, Nick.”

  Nick came over and knelt in front of her. He gently put his hands on her shoulders as if somehow the physical contact would calm her.

  “What do you think they’ll do to us if they catch us?”

  She looked at him, still horrified, and could feel tears starting. They were meant to be working together to save the world, then first thing Nick does is kill someone. How can that be right?

  “He was a bad man Ela, he deserved to die. You know what he does to those babies, and to the Locals to make the babies.”

  Ela nodded but could feel the trickle of a tear down her cheek.

  Nick wiped it away with the side of his hand. “Curly and I agreed we had to do everything we could to protect you if you helped with this and there was no way Bradford could live once he’d seen us together.”