Xenofreak Nation, Book Three: XIA

by Conway, Melissa

  Scott heard him explain what they’d seen to Shasta. She barked, “Agent Harding, I want you to bring Singh to me now!”

  “Yes, Ma’am.” Scott pointed the barrel of the submachine gun at Singh and told Maddy’s soldiers, “Carry him.”

  They glanced at her for confirmation before lifting the struggling man by his arms and legs. Just like the last time they’d entered the corridor, they began to collect a crowd of detainees in their wake.

  “What did he mean, ‘They’re going to blow up the pier?’” one of them shouted.

  Like a flash fire, the news spread. This time, before the detainees could mob him, Scott pointed the submachine gun to the ceiling and fired a quick burst. Those closest to him scattered, and it bought Scott and the others enough time to get out onto the field. Unfortunately, they were surrounded again within thirty seconds.

  “Lo? I could really use some of your magic right about now.”

  For the second time that night, Lo employed the short-range acoustic device, forcing the crowd back and allowing Scott and the others to get to the UAAV. Shasta grimly took custody of Philip Singh and slammed the door. The crowd lingered, but at a distance, grumbling.

  Scott stayed outside with Alton to guard those gathered around the bonfire, but his earbug allowed him to hear everything going on inside. He leaned against the door as a strange kind of detachment came over him. His mind sifted through the events of the last few days, gaze drifting from face to face.

  Fournier looked like hell, but he’d perked up some, probably because Nicola was with him. He’d said she needed a transplant, but she looked fine. He wondered if Nicola had the same kidney cancer that had killed his little sister. The doctors hadn’t discovered May’s cancer early enough to attempt a xeno transplant, but if Nicola had the same thing, why didn’t Fournier do so? He thought back over the conversation in the bus. Fournier had said, “It’s not a baby.” What else could it possibly be?

  He shifted his gaze to Maddy, seemingly in her element as she dealt with whatever issues her people brought her – and yet a veil of sorrow lay over her features. She’d not only lost Dillo, her best friend and protector, but her father had substantiated every bad thing she’d ever thought about him, and then some.

  Carla was standing next to a prisoner Scott had never seen, but who reminded him of the wooden sign outside of Bluto’s, the cut-out cartoon character with the full black beard that had greeted him the first time he’d gone there with Padme.

  Padme herself was sitting alone staring into the dying fire, and if he didn’t know better, he could swear she’d been crying.

  Bryn was standing with Mia and Carla, but she turned and caught his eye. He gestured her over, and she nodded. He’d wanted to speak with her alone, but Mia and Carla came with her, along with the big bearded man. Somewhat to his irritation, Maddy wandered over, too. When he saw Fournier getting to his feet with the help of Dundee and Nicola, he sighed.

  “Is it true?” Carla crossed her arms. “Is the army really going to blow up the pier?”

  Before Scott could reply, Maddy said, “My father certainly seems to think so.”

  “Why would they do that?” Mia asked.

  “To get rid of us once and for all,” Carla said.

  Mia shook her head. “That’s ridiculous. The government doesn’t just wipe people out because they’re inconvenient.”

  “Tell that to the native Americans.” Fournier spoke from several feet away, attracting the attention of the detainees lingering on the fringe.

  “This is hardly the same set of circumstances. There would be nothing to gain from it.”

  “On the contrary.” Fournier had joined them, but he didn’t lower his voice. “Do you think it’s a coincidence that Philip Singh just happened to know what the army planned to do?”

  “The army is not going to blow up the pier!” Mia was getting agitated.

  “Undoubtedly, the entire army is unaware of what a small faction is planning. If it were me, I’d go after the pylons supporting the structure. Everyone knows they’re unstable. It’ll be one of history’s biggest tragedies, a horrible accident, like the Hindenburg or Titanic.”

  Scott glanced at Alton. Fournier was putting into words exactly what they’d suspected. They needed to shut him up, though, because the last thing they wanted was for him to give the already unsettled crowd the provocation it needed to spiral into complete anarchy.

  In his ear, he heard Shasta tell Singh if he didn’t want to die with the rest of them he’d have to call off whoever it was that had ordered the destruction of the pier.

  Singh laughed bitterly. “If he knew I was here, he’d probably blow it up that much faster.”

  “That’s what happens when you blackmail people into doing your dirty work for you,” Unger said. “Who is it? Colonel Carter? Lo, get him on the com.”

  “Um…I can’t seem to get a signal anymore.”

  Singh’s voice was full of despair. “No witnesses. No survivors.”

  “What the hell does that mean?” Unger snapped.

  “It means,” Lo said, “that the cell towers are down. We can’t call for help. No one can.”

  Chapter Fifty-seven

  Bryn wanted to agree with Mia that the army wouldn’t do something so heinous, but Mia had a history of denying things that later turned out to be true. She also wanted to believe that the army was here to protect them and that even a ‘small faction’ wouldn’t be so corrupt as to follow such a horrendous order. It was terrifying to think that any minute the ground beneath her feet might crumble into the Hudson River.

  The crowd surrounding them had moved subtly closer. A fresh buzz of interest seemed to have sprouted up out of nowhere as more and more faces turned towards the group around the UAAV. Bryn caught a glimpse of the thin man walking among the detainees, which was puzzling, since he seemed so averse to making eye contact she’d assumed he was autistic or something.

  Fournier looked as if he was about to continue his rant, but Scott shifted the gun so it was pointed in his direction and said, “Shut it.”

  “What are you going to do? Shoot him?” Nicola cried. “Maybe he’s just saying what you won’t admit – that we’re screwed!”

  She burst out crying, and Fournier put his good arm around her. Then it seemed like everyone began talking at once.

  Bryn stood next to Scott in a bubble of silence. She snuck a hand into his damp back pocket, noticing for the first time that he’d put his own clothes back on. It seemed like this might be a good opportunity, if not her last opportunity, to tell him how she felt. She shifted her weight until their hips were touching and said, “I heard you last night.”

  He looked down at her, eyebrows raised. “You did?”

  She nodded.

  “Oh. Why didn’t you say anything?”

  She lifted a shoulder. “I just figured if you wanted me to hear it, you would have told me when I was awake.”

  He let out a little laugh. “It was kinda chickenshit, wasn’t it?”

  “Kinda.”

  “I meant it, though.”

  She smiled. “Good.”

  He put a hand to her cheek and bent his head. The instant their lips touched, her quills went flat to her head and she leaned in, desperate to make it last. When he pulled away, he murmured, “We’ll get out of this.”

  “I know we will,” she whispered.

  Behind him, the door to the UAAV opened. Shasta ducked out, but stood on the running board looking down at them. “We need ideas and we need them fast. Singh says we’ve got a little over an hour.”

  “I say we fight our way out,” Scott said. “Attack the barricade.”

  Several people raised their voices in support.

  “There’re only six of us,” Shasta replied.

  “Excuse me,” Maddy said, “but we number in the thousands.”

  Shasta glanced down at Scott’s submachine gun. “They’ve got all the firepower.”

  Scott pulled two g
uns out of the back of his jeans and handed one to Shasta. Then he deliberately turned to Maddy and gave her the second one. She accepted it with a dignified lift of her chin. “Thank you. For your trust.”

  Scott turned back to Shasta. “There’s more where that came from in the bus, and the UAAV’s stocked up, too.”

  “We’ve got the zook,” Jason said.

  “And they’ve got tear gas,” Shasta replied. “Couple of canisters and it’s game over.”

  “We’ve got four gas masks on board,” Lo said.

  Jason put a hand on Shasta’s shoulder. “All we need is to create a hole big enough for one of us to get out. Tell the world what’s going on here.”

  Shasta looked torn, but only briefly. “It really is the only way, isn’t it? And at least this way, the Army can’t keep ignoring us.”

  Everything happened quickly after that. The XIA agents mobilized in a matter of minutes, deciding where to hit the barrier, and distributing the weapons and what protective gear they had among the Mad Eye and XBestia. Scott ran off with Maddy and a group of men to the bus. Instead of impeding their progress, the crowd parted to let them through, cheering them on. The field swelled with detainees as the ones who’d been hanging out near the barricade vacated the area.

  Jason came out of the UAAV with what looked like a portable rocket launcher slung across his back. He and the others were waiting for Scott to reach the bus, get the guns, and then give the signal from the ramp. Bryn stood with him and Mia, chewing nervously on a fingernail.

  “So, Doc,” he said casually. “You never did say what kind of graft you got.”

  “No, I didn’t,” Mia responded.

  The disappointment that crossed Jason’s face came and went so swiftly Bryn almost thought she imagined it. It occurred to her that he really liked Mia, who was as cool and distant as ever. Bryn didn’t really know her that well; maybe she had a boyfriend – but then again, she couldn’t imagine the germophobic doctor ever kissing Jason the way Bryn had just kissed Scott.

  With a flash of comprehension, she turned to her. “That’s why you got it!”

  Bryn couldn’t see Mia’s expression behind the mask, but her eyes widened. “I’d rather not discuss it.”

  “Oh, really?” Bryn said. “What if you die without ever knowing what it’s like?”

  “What what’s like?” Jason asked.

  Bryn knew it wasn’t her place to expose Mia’s secret, but she couldn’t let it go. “Tell him.”

  Mia closed her eyes. When she opened them again, she seemed resigned. “It’s a Gila monster.”

  “What?” Jason exclaimed. “Why would you do that? Don’t you know what it’ll do to you?”

  Mia’s head went back. “I was hoping it would…help me.”

  He frowned and started to respond, but then the confusion cleared from his face as understanding dawned. “Ohhh,” he breathed. “Yeah. Yeah, it’ll definitely help with the—the germ thing.”

  “I just want to enjoy being touched,” Mia’s thick voice gave away her emotional state, and Bryn suddenly wished she were anywhere but witnessing this.

  Someone shouted, “There they are!” and they all looked up at the ramp, where Scott and the others were holding the guns up in triumph.

  Jason started backing away, but he pointed at Mia, eyebrows raised. “We’ll discuss this later.” Then he flashed an unabashed grin and joined Shasta and the ragtag team of xenos as they headed across the field.

  Chapter Fifty-eight

  Scott had only been a Marine for a day, but basic training had pounded home several fundamental rules, the most obvious being ‘know your enemy.’ As he approached the barricade and the soldiers patrolling it, he had to reconcile himself to the fact that he was about to turn on his own. The soldiers were only following orders, but it was the orders that made them the enemy.

  The barricade was constructed mainly out of sand bags and barbed wire, built across the main entrance to the pier. Scott and the men and women with him on the ramp stopped just outside the tunnel entrance, while Jason and the others waited in the interior corridor. Shasta strode unarmed into the open and approached the nearest soldier.

  “Stay back!” he called.

  She stopped. “My name is Shasta Fox. I’m a senior agent with the XIA. Are you aware that this pier is going to be blown up in a little over an hour?”

  “We have orders not to talk to any of you. Please back away from the barricade.”

  “There are thousands of innocent people here. I have reason to believe your commanding officer has been compromised.”

  The soldier’s lips tightened. “Oh, yeah?”

  “Yeah,” Shasta said. “And I’d be happy to say that to his face.”

  The plan was for her to goad one of them into calling command, but Scott didn’t think it would work. The detainees had no doubt spent the entire day unsuccessfully appealing to these same soldiers.

  “Go on, get!” The soldier lifted his rifle and looked through his scope at her. It was meant to be a threat, but she didn’t even blink. Then a lone shot rang out. For a moment, Scott thought the soldier jerked back from recoil when he’d fired at Shasta, but then he saw one of the xenos with Jason standing with arm outstretched, holding a smoking gun. He’d fired the first shot, hitting the soldier in the shoulder.

  The other three soldiers raised their weapons as Shasta turned and ran, yelling, “Hold your fire! Hold your fire!”

  The undisciplined Mad Eye and XBestia gang members ignored her. The soldiers took cover behind the barricade as bullets flew. Scott swore. They only had a limited amount of ammunition, and at this rate, the fight would be over before it began. When Shasta rounded the corner into the shelter of the corridor, Jason stepped out and knelt down, the zook resting on his shoulder. Their only chance was to blow the barricade and overwhelm the soldiers with sheer numbers.

  “Fire in the hole!” Jason shouted.

  Chapter Fifty-nine

  Bryn stood by the UAAV with Mia, hands shoved deep in her pockets, fingers clenched so tightly her nails dug painfully into her palms. Word of the breakout attempt had spread. The detainees who’d camped out inside the structure abandoned their sites and wandered out onto the field. She’d never seen so many people in one place.

  A huge contingent of men in orange jumpsuits had gathered outside the corridor leading to the barricade. For some reason, the prisoners had nominated themselves as the second wave, behind the agents and armed xenos. She didn’t know why they were willing to risk their lives on what amounted to a rumor, but maybe their choice wasn’t about the possibility of the pier blowing up. Maybe they just saw this as an opportunity to really break out of jail instead of just being ‘free’ on the pier. Either way, she was grateful for them – their jumpsuits would make bright targets. As soon as the thought occurred to her, she was ashamed of herself, but in her desperation, she couldn’t help it; anything that might attract a bullet otherwise intended for Scott got her approval.

  She wasn’t able to see much of the action to begin with, but after the explosion sent a cloud of dust rolling out onto the field, all she could do was listen in fear and dread.

  Gunfire and screams.

  Somehow she knew those sounds would occupy her dreams for weeks – assuming she survived this.

  Mia was staring at her holophone, obsessively watching the clock tick down. The cloud of dust cleared, only to be replaced by another cloud, a greenish one. Just as Shasta predicted, the army used tear gas grenades that sent hundreds of xenos running away from the action. In no time at all it became obvious the agents’ gambit had failed. The question remained whether anyone had managed to escape.

  The injured began trickling back onto the field, and the detainees once again turned towards the UAAV looking for answers.

  Bryn noticed the thin man talking to Fournier moments before he approached her. He raised his eyes to her face briefly before looking back at the ground. “Tell them who you are.”

  �
��What?”

  She flinched away when he reached out, but all he did was push the hood of her coat off her quills. As if he’d flipped some kind of switch, people began murmuring and crowding even closer.

  “It is her!” Someone said.

  “Savvy was right! Bryn’s here!”

  Bryn knew that pretty much everyone had heard of her, but their reaction was odd, especially under the circumstances. What did it matter if she were here? On the pier, she was just another xeno. And Savvy? What did they mean when they said he was right? Then with a flash of insight, she realized who the thin man must be. She looked around, but he’d ducked his head inside the UAAV and was talking with Lo. Then, somewhat to Bryn’s surprise, Lo invited him inside.

  Bryn didn’t want to turn back around; she practically felt the crowd staring at the back of her head in expectation. But expectation of what?

  A few minutes later, Lo scrambled out of the UAAV, face tense with excitement. Above her, the holosphere had appeared like a huge blue bubble over the vehicle.

  “We’ve got a plan. See that building?” She pointed to a nearby skyscraper, one of the few in Lower Manhattan with lights shining out of some of its windows. “It’s obviously got a backup generator, right? Savvy located their wifi signal and rigged the UAAV’s antenna to piggyback on it. We can send a live stream!”

  “Will anyone see it?” Bryn asked.

  “Right now, Savvy’s jacking into a broadcast channel with millions of viewers.”

  Bryn and Mia exchanged a hopeful look. When Bryn turned back to Lo, the older woman was holding a holophone out. “Here. You’re on, kiddo.”

  “What? No! Have Savvy do it.”

  “We need to appeal for help, and he spent the last two days riling everyone up against xenos. They’re not going to listen to him if he does an about-face. Besides, he’s autistic, he can’t do it.”

  “But why me?”

  “Who else?” Lo said earnestly. “They know you. Talk to them, Bryn!”