Leslie rose to her feet. “You’re out of order, Rosalie! You’ll take that back! The Revolution has sacrificed more for this cause than you’ll ever know! Certainly more than you have!”
“Oh,” breathed the representative from Texas, “so you do know something of his background, don’t you?”
“No,” Leslie admitted. “But I know his heart. And I‘ve seen on a daily basis the toll this fight has taken on him and continues to take on all of them. What if it was you out there? Do you seriously think you could do better? It’s so easy for you to criticize when you’re safe here in these halls.”
Just then, a great rumble rose up from under the floor, followed by a loud crash.
“What the hell was that?” someone asked.
“Earthquake?” another suggested.
Leslie shook her head. “I used to work at Berkeley. That was like no earthquake I’ve ever felt,” Leslie said.
“Could it be the Aquifer?” Livingston Roosevelt asked, eyeing the floor.
The representative from Pennsylvania, who knew the Hall of Chambers best, nodded.
Leslie swallowed and tried not to look worried. The Aquifer was an underground canal that ran under the building from the Delaware River. It had been built as both a secret entrance into and an escape route out of the Hall.
COR had five mini-subs stored in the canal ready to be used as escape pods. It had taken them years to build, under the cover of darkness—and it hadn’t helped that this side of Philadelphia had been basically abandoned for decades. Only the interstate provided much life. Even Penn Treaty Park had been allowed to fall into disuse and left to grow over—until they’d bought the old power station, established The Green Dragon Tavern, and cleaned up the park for free—all as a front for COR.
She nodded toward one of the aides that lined the edge of the room. “Check that out, would you? And report back.”
Why was Leslie not answering?
It took Revolution several moments to realize that his message to Leslie, telling her that the attack on Boston had been a false alarm, had not been replied to. Person after person came to say thanks to him and celebrate the fact that they wouldn’t be defending their lives today. He’d let himself get swept up in their emotions. But now, he became genuinely alarmed.
“Lantern, I can’t get through to COR,” he said.
“I’ll check,” Lantern replied.
But Lantern didn’t need to. Alone in the Situation Room, Revolution spun toward the main screen. He probed Lantern’s scans of the East Coast. He darted to the controls and focused in on Philly. On the Hall of Chambers.
Nothing. Not a thing out of place. He let out a deep breath of relief—that was short-lived.
His eyes narrowed.
There was no traffic moving on Beach Street, which ran right in front of the compound. In fact, cars were driving to within a block of the building—
And simply disappearing off the scan.
The Council was shielding it.
A cold sliver of ice ran down his spine.
CHAPTER 38
Leslie Gibbons could not get through to Boston. It was as if her direct connection to the HQ simply did not exist. She sighed in frustration. Then a sudden noise made her look up.
The doors across from her swung open. The aide she had sent to find out what was going on came bounding back into the chamber, followed by a dozen Minutemen, weapons drawn. He made a beeline for her. “Madame President!” he shouted as he crossed into the center of the room, “We are—”
He didn’t finish. He was suddenly wiped out of existence as the floor below him exploded in a fury of light and fire.
Launching up from the depths was a glowing figure.
The Minutemen were slammed to the ground. Those who weren’t were immediately vaporized by a single sweep of the figure’s hand.
It floated above the hole, both arms trained on the Minutemen.
Leslie realized that whatever this was it had the power of the Fire Fly.
“Stay down and you will not be harmed,” the figure said to those Minutemen still on the ground.
They did so.
There was little they could do anyway. To open fire inside the Hall would endanger the Congress members.
An explosion rocked the compound from outside, and many members screamed.
Climbing up out of the hole in the floor were the members of the Legion, followed by a dozen more heavily armed Council Guard and finally, to Leslie’s complete shock, Bannister Tarleton himself.
No other sitting member of the Council had ever gotten their hands dirty like this before.
Clay Arbor emerged from the hole with the biggest shit-eating grin Leslie had ever seen. “You’ve probably all heard of Mr. Tarleton.” Arbor gestured toward the CEO.
Tarleton glanced around at the members of COR, the shock still hanging on their faces. “You know me, but I don’t know you. So, we’re here to get to know each other a little bit better. No one’s leaving until we find out what we want to know.” He stalked in front of them, walking the circle, looking into the eyes of each terrified legislator. “You’re little rebellion? Consider it over.” He made a flippant motion with his hand. “And, oh yes. Those protectors of yours, the Suns of Liberty? For every hour they do not turn themselves in to Lithium here and his team, one of you will be executed. If they decide to attack, they’ll lose, and you all die.” He motioned to the doors behind the members. “As I understand, each of you has your own private chamber. I suggest you get in them. They’re now your prisons cells.”
Ten seconds after Tarleton made his speech to COR, a recorded video of it broadcast across the servers at the Boston HQ.
Surrender. There would be no surrender. Revolution hit the com for the entire HQ. When he spoke his voice echoed throughout the building. “Everyone, the Council’s attack was on the Hall of Chambers, not here. COR appears to have fallen. I want all Minutemen and Suns to meet in the Hangar in thirty minutes. We will leave for COR within the hour.”
Ward couldn’t believe what he was hearing. In fact, he didn’t believe it. Serenity Serum was now swimming through his veins. It was hard to concentrate on the world around him. Hard to perceive it correctly. That was the whole point of the serum.
He’d entered his room only moments before, ready to seek out his brand new bottle of Jim Beam.
He’d found his Serenity Darts instead. Just a little jab and heaven awaited him. He’d been so focused on believing that the threat had abated, he’d not even considered that he needed to still be on high alert.
High alert! He snorted a laugh.
Foot falls passed by his door. People running in the hall.
Shit!
He shook his head, tried to focus.
No use.
And then the serum hit his brain full force and Ward decided shit was exactly right. He just couldn’t give a shit anymore.
He needed to. He wanted to.
But the serum wouldn’t let him. Everything just felt so damn good. His eyes turned glassy. And they closed.
He’d not even bothered to take the bug suit off completely. Only the helmet and gloves. He slid down the wall on his wings and plopped down on his well-armored butt. Which made him giggle. And the more he tried to stop, the more he giggled.
Oh, the General is not going to like this at all. Not one bit.
The thought of it...
...made him giggle even harder.
The members of COR had risen and were headed into their private chambers when the elderly representative from Pennsylvania halted. He glared right into Tarleton’s eyes. “You’re a disgrace to your country!” hissed the oldest member of COR.
Tarleton glared at the old man, but then smiled. “My, you are a brave one, aren’t you?”
Leslie locked eyes with the senior rep of COR. His grey weathered eyes glared back at her. She remembered his words that the Declaration she had authored would paint a target on their backs. She wanted to reach out to him, to
help him, but there was nothing she could do. But in his eyes she did not see anger. She saw determination, pride. And as she looked on, compassion.
“Krill, put a hole in his chest,” Tarleton said, pointing to the man. He was still locking eyes with Leslie, a look of utter defiance across his face, as the Krill’s helmet beam seared out and burned a three-inch opening right above the rep’s heart, through and through. His body locked up in agony and then he simply collapsed.
“Wonderful!” Tarleton shouted with a chuckle. “Who’s next?”
The members of COR stood in shocked silence.
In the next moment they retreated into their chambers in absolute, total terror.
Ray had found COR’s computer terminal in the main living area, just off the Chamber, and had gone there to retrieve as much data as he could. He reported back to Arbor. Who listened, nodding his head.
“Sir,” Arbor interjected, “Ray’s in their system. We’ve got confirmation. Both the mayor and the PPD have been protecting this place. What do you want to do?”
“Tell Ray good work. And let’s have the Krill pay the mayor and the commissioner a little visit. Time to clean house, don’t you think?”
Sophia shook her head. “It takes five hours to drive to Philly,” she said. “I can get there a hell of a lot faster, but I can only take on one passenger for that long a flight.”
“You and I may have to go ahead,” Revolution said as he glanced around the Sit Room’s large round table where they were all seated. All but one. “But we’ll need a battle strategy.”
Drayger nodded. “Attacking is a lot different than defending,” he warned.
“We need eyes in there,” Rachel said. “You should send me in first.”
Revolution shook his head. “That would be ideal, but we don’t have a way to get you there in time.”
“Sophia could fly me into the city. I can work my way over to the Hall and get in. Done it a million times.”
“Not in the middle of a firefight, you haven’t,” Sophia said.
“We need firepower there now,” Revolution said. “I want to hit them early and let you go in after. The main goal has to be making sure we can get our people out.”
“Where’s Ward?” Drayger asked.
“Good question.” Revolution glanced over at the Minuteman who was in charge of the room. And the young man sprinted out to go get him.
Suddenly the lights in the room flickered. Static clipped across the room’s video monitors.
“The fuck was that?” Rachel asked.
Lantern’s eyes went wide as he scanned through his RDSD. “Whoa,” he breathed. He craned his neck up to the video monitors, eyes wide as saucers. “Uh, General...”
On the screen...on all the screens, was John Bailey’s distinctive shaven head and rugged face.
Hello, friends. This virus was designed to reveal itself in the case of two simultaneous events. First, I’m dead. And I feel really bad about that. But, you know what they say, that was inevitable. I hope I bought it in a memorable way. Second, COR has fallen. Built into COR’s defenses is a special program that will work undetected as soon as you, the Suns of Liberty, arrive to rescue the members. I’m sorry I can’t give you any more details, but for reasons you will come to understand later, the secrecy is necessary. And what else would you expect from me? Lantern will receive updates from this program if anything changes. But you should know, defenses are in place that will begin to disable any and all non-Resistance weapons once you arrive. Good luck, and God bless you, my friends.
On screen, Bailey leaned forward and pressed a switch and the screen went black.
They sat in stunned silence. Rachel had large tears hanging just on the lips of her eyelids, ready to roll.
Sophia stared over at the Revolution and blinked. “What the hell?”
The concrete exploded. A starburst of masonry showered the air. The Krill stalked forward into the hallway.
Its eyes focused. A closed door at the end of the hall.
At least fifty officers had barricaded themselves inside the main meeting room of the City Council, Michael’s onboard sensors informed him. He could know this and he could know that he was there to eliminate them. That was as far as Crustac’s conscious mind could intervene in the process.
The Krill lifted its arms and fired at the doorway. It exploded.
Crustac saw the room full of officers huddled inside, now all aiming their sidearms at him in a completely futile gesture to try to stop their inevitable deaths.
But Crustac’s immediate reaction was to see the officers as friendlies. A reaction quickly overridden by the exoskeleton’s programming. These men were simply targets that must be eliminated as quickly as possible.
Bullets pinged off his armor as he strode forward, but he did not feel a thing.
The Krill opened fire.
Somewhere deep inside the melding of circuitry and brainwaves, Commander Michael Crustac mourned for the lost lives of the men he was murdering. Beams of energy shot out of his hands and ripped straight through the men. They might as well have been ripe tomatoes. Foul geysers of blood erupted as the Krill used the beams to shred the men apart from the inside out. It was a shooting gallery.
Soon, the ornate room was bathed in blood. Staining the carpet, slashed on the marble pillars, caked over the tables and chairs.
It was over. They were dead.
The fog over his mind lifted slightly. He surveyed the room, the horror around him. Had he really done all this?
He knew he had. He wanted to mourn, but something in his mind, in his emotions, wouldn’t let him.
Suddenly a voice called to him. A woman’s voice. Saying his name. The voice was pleasant, soothing, yet urgent.
He spun to find her, no resistance from the machine. Moving on his own.
Other voices rang out. Very different. Shouting. They registered on some other level.
The machine responded, and he could feel himself turning back toward the door, but this time not under his own control.
The Krill spun to see another twenty cops were opening fire on him. Crustac was vaguely aware of the hyper-charged bullets clanging off the armor, but they did not hurt. He could have just as well been dreaming, watching someone else’s actions.
The Krill’s arm glowed with power, and with a sweep of its powerful hand a wave of bioluminescent energy caught a dozen cops at their midsections and ripped them in half.
The others dove for cover.
But the machine could read their movements. Their locations popped up on his visors and his programming took over. The Krill simply aimed at the hiding spot of each police officer...
And fired.
One behind a desk, one under the great meeting table of the City Council, one behind a great stone pillar. The beam of deadly light ripped through the pillar to take the head off of the officer. She fell, blood spurting out of the opening in her neck.
Again the room fell quiet.
And Crustac stared at the bodies. Some now piled on top of one another. The onboard CPU counted seventy-three corpses in the room. The mission was highly successful. Somewhere in the recesses of his mind—the part he had no control over—he felt like celebrating.
The other part wanted to die. What had he done?
He heard the woman’s voice again. Calling his name. He heard his voice try to answer, but he couldn’t tell if he’d formed a word or simply groaned. Where was she? He closed his eyes and tried to follow her.
He knew he shouldn’t, though. It was embedded deep into the Krill’s programming. Authorized teleports only. Not until the exoskeleton had more time to acclimate to his internal organs, to his central nervous system. It could kill you. A voice told him inside his head.
Willpower. The chartreuse energy began to encircle the exoskeleton. The entire chasse began to vibrate. There was no external order commanding him to leave. To teleport. This was his will, his decision.
He shut his eyes harder. Lines dug d
eep into the corners of his eyes. Tears streaked down his cheeks. His head ached. A single drop of red ran down his lip from his nose. And then more. He felt the warm liquid on his chin. Tasted it.
A blinding flash of light.
The Krill was gone.
CHAPTER 39
“Sir, I can’t confirm Bailey’s weapon. I just can’t find it.”
Revolution peered over at Lantern. “Well, you knew his methods better than any of us. What’s your feeling?” Revolution said.
“Sir, I can’t give you a reliable judgment on things I can’t see,” Lantern said.
Revolution smiled under the bold-blue grill-plate of his armor. Lantern was all about observation. He didn’t like to rely on instinct. He was a man of evidence and observation. “Then...from what you saw of Saratoga in the past, what conclusions would you draw about his reliability? We’re kind of flying blind here, like it or not.”
Lantern nodded. “John could rarely be honest with anyone. Nature of the job. When he could, he was as trustworthy as they come.”
“And if it’s not from John? If it’s a trap?” Rachel asked.
“That would make no sense,” Drayger chimed in. “Why announce a trap that you don’t give any details about? Why say anything at all? Makes more sense that this is just what the message says it is.”
Revolution had yet to turn away from Lantern. He’d never taken his eyes from him, reading his body language. You couldn’t read his face, hidden mostly behind the helmet’s golden reflective visor.
“So, we trust him,” Revolution said with finality. There was really no debate. He had no doubt the message from Bailey was genuine. But it was also vague. So real or not, it forced the Suns to develop their own plan anyway.
Actually, it made perfect sense. Bailey would never know what they were facing. Only that COR had been overrun. Whatever the secret weapon was, it would reveal itself at the proper moment. He had to make sure the rest of their plan was in place. Bailey knew he wouldn’t rely on such a generic promise from beyond the grave, so Bailey didn’t arrange it to work that way. Brilliant, if you thought about it.
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