What Riley just said finally registered. The kid was Hassinger’s. No wonder he saw that woman in him the way he did. Maxton was trying to get the kid to look at him now, to listen to him, talking to him softly as if he really cared for him.
“Brandon. I have to tell you something that’s really going to hurt and I’d rather I could see you when I did. Please, just look at me.”
He did, finally.
“I think you are protecting someone you love, only you don’t have to do that anymore. She is gone, Brandon. She’s been, for weeks now. Please, just talk to him,” the man said quietly, and there was a tenderness in his voice that surprised him.
The kid glared at Riley as if he wanted to kill him. “You killed her, didn’t you, Zoriner? You bloody animals,” he spat, and put his head down again, not looking at anybody.
Brody walked over to him. “I killed her, Brandon. I had to. But it doesn’t really matter now who killed anybody because the dead are bloody dead.” He called Riley over to him then, making sure the kid’s eyes were on them. “Take your shirt off, Riley. I want this kid to learn something about his mother.”
“No. He had nothing to do with that, and she is gone. I am not doing it.”
Riley turned to walk away from him, but he was far too angry to let him, far too pissed off at him for not doing what he needed him to do all day. He grabbed him by the shirt and ripped it right down the middle, then gripped him by the arms not letting him move. “Your mother did this, Brandon. She ever do that to you? Whip you with a bloody razor?”
Riley broke away from him and ran out of the room. He knew he would. He was okay with it. He didn’t want him here in the first place.
Brandon wasn’t staring at him anymore, his eyes down. He almost wished the kid would lash out at him, defend that horrid woman but he sat still, ignoring him, and it unnerved him.
“Ellis, Riley told me as much as he could, I think. I am pretty sure we both already know what she had him do, only I don’t think Brandon had any idea what she would use the neuros for or what would happen. I don’t think he meant to kill anybody, and I know you know that. You got all the intel from him that you’re going to get. I’ll tell you about how these things work if you want me to. I know it better than he does anyway. Let him go. We don’t have external comms or implants. We don’t talk to anybody. We don’t get to call for backup when things go wrong. It would be suicide for him to say anything to anybody. Let him go.”
Maxton was right, he knew. Level S-5s didn’t get any protection; they just got nuked. That meant they could cook normal meals again and turn the damn lights on. Nobody was going to be looking for them. And he just found leverage over Maxton, it seemed. He could get Maxton to do anything he needed so long as he had this kid here and was willing to hurt him, and he was pretty sure he’d have no problem with that part.
“He stays until we are done with you, Maxton. I do have somebody to hold over you after all.”
Riley wasn’t in the big room when he got there. He told Trelix to keep an eye on the prisoners, and for the first time today, walked over to Laurel and wrapped her in a hug. When he looked up again, everybody was looking at him strangely. They must have heard the scream from the other room then, but they knew who these people were and what they did to this whole city. Yet they were looking at him as if he did something wrong.
“Where is he?” he asked.
Ams’ voice reached him from a distance after a long moment. “He went for a walk on a roof, Brody. I don’t think he wants to talk to you now.”
She was still lying on the couch, but her eyes were glaring at him, angry. He didn’t care, he smiled at her. “Welcome back, Ams. Welcome back.”
He told them they could have the lights and cook again and went to find his friend. Riley, he could at least explain this to.
He didn’t look down between the metal steps, going by touch with his feet. He was shaky when he got to the roof but better than the first time, and it only took him a few seconds to stop panting. Riley sat on the very edge of the roof, feet dangling into the darkness below. It made his heart drop into his stomach just seeing him there like this. Brody took a few shaky steps toward him and stopped, his legs refusing to carry him to the edge. Riley already knew he was afraid of heights so he wasn’t hiding anything anymore. He just needed to get closer to him than he was so he could talk to him. He got down on his hands and knees and crawled the rest of the way, closing his eyes when he got close enough to see the street down below.
“Riley, can you please back up like a meter or two before I fall off? Because I think I might.”
“No.”
“Okay. Spit it out. What did I do now?”
“You reminded me of somebody I didn’t want to be reminded of, that’s all. I’m not angry at you for it. I just can’t be around you when you’re like that. Can’t take it.”
“Who, Riley? Hassinger?”
“No, you bloody idiot,” Riley said, and he turned his head to look at him for the first time, “my father… only back then you tried to save me from him. I never thought I’d see you do that to someone else.”
Brody felt heat on his face and stood up—made himself do it—hating himself for the fear he felt from just standing, but Riley wasn’t even looking at him anymore. He took the few steps to the edge and very slowly got down, forcing his legs to go over, his fingers digging into the concrete of the roof, and suddenly, he wasn’t sure he could move a centimeter in any direction without falling. Riley was staring at him, he felt it, but he didn’t trust himself to turn his head enough to make sure.
“I think I just did something remarkably stupid, and I’m not sure I can get myself out of it, but you’ll probably try something, and I’d rather you didn’t. I don’t trust myself not to grab on to you.” He felt sweat running down his face. He heard Riley move and knew he wasn’t sitting next to him anymore. He heard his voice, sounding far too calm, from somewhere behind him.
“I know you feel like you can’t move, so don’t. I am right behind you. All you have to do is exactly what you are doing now and don’t jump when I grab you, okay? It’s all I can do, Brody. I am grabbing you on three. One. Two. Three.”
His head hit the roof. He felt himself being dragged, and then Riley’s hands on him, shaking him, slapping his face.
“What the hell, Riley, stop….”
Riley pulled him up, looking at him like he was nuts.
He needed to get off this bloody roof. It’s all he could think of. He got his breathing back to as normal as he could, and hoped he could make it down those steps without embarrassing himself any more than he just did. Riley wanted him to go last, so he could try to catch him or something, but he couldn’t take any more humiliation from him today. He raced down the steps as fast as he could not looking down, going by touch, and it helped some; enough to where he made it without having to cling to the metal the way he did with Drake.
Riley smiled at him when he landed next to him after a beat. “You’re an idiot, Brody, you know that? That roof hates you. Stay off of it for a while or at least, be smart enough to tie a rope around yourself first… Now that we are both not dead,” he said quieter now, his face serious all of a sudden, “we need to talk, and you’re not going to like it one bit, but I figure since I just saved your life up there, you owe me.” He walked him into the hallway by the elevators, not pushing the button, and sat down against the wall.
Brody got down facing his friend, waiting.
“I think whatever Maxton knows about this neuro stuff, we could use that, could use knowing how it works. Maybe we could even use it against them somehow. I haven’t thought it all through yet… I want him to help us, Brody. I don’t think he would go back to that lab now if we let him go or any place Alliance for that matter, and I don’t want to kill him. He wants me to, so it’s not him asking. I don’t think he knew what any of the things they did in that lab were used for until now. I think Reston was the first time they saw these neuros us
ed like that, and he can’t live with himself because of it; I can see it on him. I need you to let me talk to him and maybe, we can have him come with us. We can use more soldiers anyway and you can’t get any more of your crew out without it raising alarms all over the place. Just let me talk to him.”
Of course. Riley didn’t know he had leverage now….“I can get Maxton to do whatever we need him to do for us without having to keep him alive or taking him with us. He cares about that kid. And as long as I have him, Maxton will make himself useful. So no, I won’t let him walk out of here, not with us, not in any manner. I can’t trust him.”
Riley shook his head at him. “You will, Brody. You will. I won’t let you use that kid against him like that. You should know what that feels like, Brody. You’ve done it before, with me, remember? I won’t let you do that to him,” he said, angry again, and he got up and pushed the button for the elevator, not looking at him anymore.
“He is Alliance through and through. He referred to you as bloody apes a few hours ago, never mind what he did to this whole city, and you’re fighting me over him? What am I missing?”
Riley faced him getting into the elevator.
“Trelix did too, in his own way. Darky, ape—it’s the same thing, Brody. I don’t care about that anymore, only with Maxton, I don’t think he ever meant any of it. I think he took one look around that room when he woke up and spat out things he thought would piss you off the most so you’d just shoot him. I think he played you at the lab, too, looking fearful enough to where if things went badly, you’d go after him and not any of his men. He is decent. Drake-decent. You can’t not see that. Let the damn kid go. You know he can’t go anywhere but the lab and they can’t call this in, no place for them to call it in to. Loren explained it to me earlier, the whole S-5 thing. These guys are on their own. They’re ghosts, and I know you know that.”
Maybe he was right about this Maxton. He was as good as they got as soldiers go, he knew that much by now. And they had enough manpower to guard him. The kid was useless to them. And he couldn’t stand looking at him. Too much of that woman in his face. At worst, he owed Riley a conversation.
Trelix met them at the door to the comm room. “Not a word, from either of them, not even to each other. I’ll bring you some coffee, Riley, now that we can make it hot again,” he said, and he was gone. Maxton had his eyes closed, and Brody couldn’t see the kid’s face from the door. He got his knife out, snipped the ties at the kid’s hands, and walked around him. The kid was staring at him with unguarded hatred, not even trying to hide it.
“I want to let you go, Brandon, but I need to make sure my crew is safe if I do, and I don’t know how to do that with you,” he said evenly.
“I am not interested in harming your crew, just you. Your crew will be safe, but I will find a way to kill you for what you did to her, I promise you that.”
He looked over at Maxton who was watching this intently now. Riley was still standing by the door, smiling.
“Hey Riley, I don’t trust this kid not to lunge for me. Please, cut the tie at his feet. I don’t think he’ll kick you,” he said and grinned at the kid.
Brandon stared at him with a confused look on his face as Riley snipped the tie and helped him up.
Brody put his hands behind his back, looking at the kid who was still standing there like a statue. “You are free to go, Brandon. Hallway, make a left, you’ll see the elevators.”
The boy didn’t move, still looking at him. “What’s going to happen to Maxton? It doesn’t make sense that you’d just let me go…. What will you do to him?”
Finally, a moment of decency. A first, less him protecting Hassinger. “We’re going to cut him up into tiny pieces and feed him to my girlfriend’s birds, Brandon. She collects crows or some other ugly things, and they like feasting on that sort of thing. Get the hell out of my sight before I change my mind, kid. You remind me too much of somebody who took someone from me. I don’t ever want to see your face again,” he said tiredly, and the kid was gone after that.
He walked over to Maxton and crouched in front of him.
“Riley here wants to talk to you before we decide what to do with you. I trust you won’t make him any promises you can’t keep because Riley…. He always keeps his.”
7
Allies
Maxton, May 31, 2236, Reston
Seventy-eight nights of the same dream. The code on his screen, urgent, timeframe for deployment twelve hours. That was it. Drop the code in and disperse to the population. He had to find a method of dispersing the neuros, and he did, after just a few minutes of running through all the options. Air vents at night. Everyone would be asleep. The heat would be on, given the cold outside. Code label said vaccine on it. He assumed it was. They weren’t supposed to ask questions and there wasn’t anyone to ask. This lab didn’t exist and he was in charge of making sure any urgent orders were handled. He had Dyrig program the neuro net with 2300 start time, and the rest of his men dropped the nodes into the four processors that pumped heat to the city.
He sent everyone to get some sleep and was going over some old files when he saw movement on the screens, people coming out of the houses. It didn’t make sense for them to be doing that now. He glanced at the timestamp: 23:15. Far too late for anyone to be going anywhere, but there they were, tumbling out of their homes, not even dressed for what it was like outside, kids and all, spilling onto the street that led out of the city. He froze, watching the slowly moving procession, knowing that it had something to do with the neuros they just released. He switched the view to show the side of the city they were walking to and he could see a trickle of smoke rising in the air, seemingly from the woods, but nobody made fires there in the middle of the night. What he was watching was definitely a fire though, an entire wall of it on the edge of the field.
He got Dyrig up and had him go through all the code snippets, but he couldn’t read anything in any of them. Encrypted. Dyrig looked pale as he watched the screens. The people didn’t even seem to be talking to each other. They looked like drones.
“Please tell me there is a way to kill this bloody code or at least pause it.”
The man just shook his head.
He knew it. They all knew it. Once these things were live, they did what they were programmed to do, and that was that only what they were programmed to do now looked insane. Suddenly, Dyrig screamed next to him, pointing at one of the side views of the fire. People were walking right into it, women holding their kids, men holding women, walking right into the fire and staying there, and nobody was running in to save them; nobody was even trying to stop them.
“Turn it off, Dyrig. Just turn it off,” he screamed, and in the last few frames before the screen went black, he saw a man who didn’t look like a drone, pulling on the blue shirt of a little kid, moving him away from the flames, but the kid kept going right back in. The man picked him up then, but the kid squirmed out of his shirt and ran in.
He heard the door open and watched Riley and Ellis walk in, Ellis looking strange, embarrassed almost. Something must have happened between those two. He screwed up with Brandon; shouldn’t have tried to protect him like that. They might have just let him go if he hadn’t. He hoped they would eventually, once they got whatever else they wanted out of him; once they finally ended it with him. He watched, surprised, as Ellis cut the ties at Brandon’s wrists and told him they were letting him go. He thought for sure Ellis would change his mind when Brandon threatened to kill him but he seemed amused by it, and Riley was flat out smiling. Whatever happened between these two, he was pretty sure the Zoriner kid had something to do with it, with letting Brandon go. He owed him now.
He was still thinking through what Ellis just said to him when Riley crouched in front of him and snipped the tie at his feet and then freed his hands.
“You can get up, Maxton. Walk around a bit or something, get the blood moving.” The kid wasn’t pointing a gun at him, and he had to know that he could
get a hold of that knife in a flash if he wanted to. The kid was looking at his face. No fear in it, just concern.
He stood, Riley leaning on the edge of the table, watching him, knife back in his belt. “When did you eat last, Maxton?”
He couldn’t remember. He just knew he wasn’t hungry. It didn’t matter. The kid was up to something. “What do you want, Riley? Not to sound ungrateful, but I don’t do well with not knowing. I know you had something to do with making him let Brandon go so I owe you. Whatever it is, I’d rather you just tell me.”
The kid walked over to him, standing close enough to where he could strangle him if he wanted to or knock him out with one quick jab to the throat. His hands were behind his back, too. Not worried then. Stupid of him not to be worried. The kid needed a lesson. That much he could do for him, so without any warning or moving anything but his arm, he grabbed him by the neck, not squeezing, just holding him. The kid flinched but his eyes didn’t leave his.
“I don’t know who trained you, kid, but you’d be deader than dead in the real world. You don’t untie your prisoners like that, not ones that are a lot bigger and better trained than you. It was a stupid thing to have done. I can end you in under a minute, Zoriner.”
The kid didn’t move, hands still behind his back. “I know, Lancer, but I don’t think you want to kill me. I don’t think you want to kill anybody. I needed to be sure. For the others.”
He let go, feeling not a little impressed with him now.
Riley walked away and pulled up a chair, straddling it in that way he had. “I want you to help us but not in the way you think. Not in the way of getting you to tell us what you know and putting a bullet through your head when you’re done. Something tells me it’ll be easier for you if we just did that. I don’t think you’d know where to go if we let you walk out of here, and I can’t picture you going back to that lab. Tell me if I am wrong.” The kid was looking up at him.
Alliance: The Complete Series (A Dystopian YA Box Set Books 1-5): Dystopian Sci Fi Thriller Page 39
