Visions

by Teyla Branton

  Blood began leaking from the edges of the band. As the agony increased, Dani fell to her knees, dragging the Controller with her. Blood splattered on the white carpet. She ripped at the band with her right hand, only to slice her fingers.

  By the CORE, she thought, the instinctive saying coming to her lips like a prayer. Pain painted black splotches across her vision.

  “I can stop it,” the Controller said. “Just let me go.”

  “How?”

  He snorted. “Let me go, and I’ll show you. The pain will only get worse. And next time I’ll put it around your neck.”

  The pain was too great. More than the bullets she’d taken, more than the bite of a beast from a desolation zone, more than running out of breath deep under the water. More than the fever that had almost taken her life.

  “Tauri,” Dani gasped, her voice rising slightly with the torture. Tauri stared at her, his once-handsome face changed with terror.

  “Still conscious?” Ramsey asked, mocking now. “You have serious endurance.”

  She couldn’t let him go. No matter what. He’d own her and Tauri and they’d betray Newcali and everyone who was fighting for freedom. She had to hold on until the hand was off, until the pain stopped. She’d kill him then. And she and Tauri would still escape. Somehow.

  “It’s okay,” she told Tauri. Sweat ran down her face, blocking what little she could see beyond the blackness.

  She gripped the Controller’s neck tighter and screamed.

  Chapter 23

  EAGLE HAD SET two charges, one in the bathroom and one he’d dropped casually behind a decorative pot near the entrance to the auditorium. Neither was strong enough to hurt anyone with the blast, but the resulting smoke would confuse things.

  “Let me know if you see any activity out there,” he told the twins through his T-link. “I have a couple of surprises I can set off.”

  “Reese and Jaxon are already in place,” Lyra told him. “They’ve activated their skin tags so their IDs can’t be traced and are less than thirty seconds from either of the entrances.”

  “Good. I’ll stay here in case I can do more. I’ll let you know if I see Dani.”

  Not wanting to attend the memorial, Eagle struck up a conversation with a knot of other enforcers chatting outside the auditorium doors. They had all known the deceased, but not well, and had used the invitation more for the opportunity to come to the CORE’s capital city than to mourn his passing.

  “How’d you know him?” One of the women asked.

  Eagle laughed. “Well, that’s kind of a long story.”

  “We’ve still got at least twenty minutes until this thing ends,” said a man. “And we already tried to raid the refreshment tables over there, but they gave us the evil eye, so we’re just passing time. Spill it.”

  Eagle fed them a slightly off-colored story about dating the same woman, who turned out to be using both of them to spread rumors about her ex, who also worked as an enforcer. “Since I was in weapons and not out in the field,” Eagle finished, “She thought she’d ruin his reputation at both ends.”

  His audience laughed, and one of the women tried to peer past his special glasses, but he ignored her curiosity. They looked different from iTeevs, but not so much that they couldn’t be a fancy upgrade. Even if she suspected they were to aid his sight, she wouldn’t be able to tell they had fringer T-link capabilities.

  The doors behind them opened and a group of Special Forces emerged, hurrying past them as if on a mission. “What’s with them?” someone in his group muttered.

  Another team of Special Forces spilled from the memorial. “Is it over?” Eagle asked.

  One of them shook his head. “Nothing you need to worry about.” But he lurched into a run.

  Eagle backed away from the others in his group, who had begun to speculate on what their Special Forces brothers were actually doing. “Something’s happening in here,” he told his crew through the T-link. “I’m going to see if I can find out what. It’s probably best if we all tap in to the comlink now, if you aren’t already. Leaving mine open so you can hear what’s happening.”

  “Be careful,” Lyssa said in his ear.

  Eagle followed the Special Forces until they disappeared into an elevator. He bet anything they would be going to the fourth floor.

  “What are you doing here!” barked someone behind him.

  Eagle turned to see a half dozen more Special Forces. One of them had a captain’s patch and was pointing his iTeev in Eagle’s direction, no doubt scanning his CivID and perusing his records. Not just any captain, but Captain Walsh of HED. Unlike most captains, he didn’t answer to a chief, but directly to the Controller himself. Thirty minutes ago when Eagle had poked his head into the auditorium, he’d been up on the stage with the grieving parents of the deceased enforcer.

  With Captain Walsh was a man Eagle recognized. Since the crew had begun looking for people from Colony 6, he’d grown accustomed to comparing every face he saw to those Brogan showed him or the faces from his childhood memories. This enforcer was from the latter. He was definitely someone Eagle had known in the Coop, though he couldn’t remember his name. He was maybe a few years older. His face was different after twenty years, wider, and his hair far shorter, but the underlying squarish facial structure was the same. More interesting was that he radiated brighter on the electromagnetic spectrum than everyone else around him.

  “Sorry Captain Walsh,” Eagle said, with a proper salute. “I’m just here for the memorial.”

  “Then why aren’t you inside?”

  “Bathroom break, sir. Must have taken a wrong turn. Haven’t been to HED in a long time.”

  “How is Amarillo City?”

  “Warm, sir.”

  The captain’s mouth twitched slightly. “Carry on.”

  Eagle nodded and walked away, glancing backward at the man from Colony 6. He hadn’t shared Eagle’s recognition, for which he was grateful, seeing as the last time enforcers had known he was from Colony 6 they’d tried to capture him.

  With a few eye movements, Eagle saved the 3D images of the enforcer to a T-link file—minus the spectrum glow—to share with the others later.

  If the captain had been called from the memorial, something was definitely happening. He hoped Dani was all right.

  PAIN WAS ALL she knew, sharp and lasting. Concentrated. Her stomach convulsed with nausea. She must hold on a little longer. Then it would be over. She’d get her revenge. But only if she clung to consciousness.

  The air around Dani seemed to pulse. She recognized the sensation and blinked to clear her eyes. She could barely see a portion of her brother as he stood by the food trolley, his face intense. Furious.

  The air around her thinned.

  The Controller began to gasp, clawing at her arm, though she hadn’t tightened her hold. “Not only will I take your hand for this,” he growled with a sneer. “But I’ll personally kill your brother.”

  In the next instant, there was no air. Nothing to breathe. So she stopped breathing. Though it was costing her to stay conscious through the pain, she had plenty of reserve. Or would have as long as Tauri maintained enough control so he didn’t suck the oxygen from her pores.

  She released the Controller. He tried to drag in a breath, then his eyes widened as he realized no oxygen seeped into his lungs. Did he think she was stealing his air, or would he realize it was Tauri?

  She tried to speak, but no sound reached her ears. The pain in her wrist had lessened now, and she wasn’t sure that was a good sign.

  She waved her right arm to get Tauri’s attention. Ask him . . . turn off, she signed.

  Tauri moved toward them, his eyes too bright. He kicked out at Ramsey. “Tell me how to stop the band. Or you will suffocate.”

  Ramsey’s body was heaving, searching for air. He’d die in a bit, and that would also mean the end of her hand.

  “Now!” Tauri thundered, sounding more like the brother she’d known and lost.


  Still convulsing as his body struggled for air, Ramsey reached into his pocket for his iTeev. He tapped in a code.

  Instantly, the pressure on her wrist ceased. The band loosened and dropped to the carpet, taking flesh with it. Blood still gushed from the cut circle of her wrist. Dani came to her feet, searching for something to stem the flow.

  She stepped on the Controller, who had passed out. Maybe he was already dead.

  Stop! she signed to Tauri. Stop!

  He didn’t look at her or appear to hear her. His face was a mask of pain and anger as he stared at the Controller. Dani crossed the few steps between them, ramming her shoulder into him and shaking her blood-drenched arm in his face.

  In the space of a single heartbeat, the air seeped back around her. She reached for the elaborate cloth napkins on the trolley, folding one around her wrist. She tossed Tauri another one. “Tie it up. Hurry. Before I bleed to death.” That wasn’t likely now that the band was no longer cutting into her, but even her rapid healing couldn’t fix this. They needed to get out.

  Tauri took a deep, shaky breath, as if waking from a nightmare. He tied the napkin around her arm, followed by another one for good measure.

  She sprinted across the room to the nyckelira case. A few special taps brought the secret compartment open. A miniature nine mil fell to the table, along with the oversized temper Eagle had taken from the men at the gathering in Amarillo city. Two fake CivID cards and a small disk completed the package.

  Nice, she thought, reading the accompanying note: Take jammer disk with you and relock the case. We’re outside waiting. E.

  She shoved the tiny gun inside the top of her bodysuit, slipped the jammer into her wrist bandage, and grabbed the temper.

  Tauri stood up from the Controller. Dead, he signed.

  Good. That only saved her from having to do the job herself. Shutting the case, she went to check the guards, and they also had no pulse. The female was much too small for the uniform to be of any use to her, so Dani put down the temper laser and began removing the uniform of the male enforcer. Her wrist was throbbing now, but Tauri helped her change, and the tightness of the long-sleeved uniform helped some.

  “We’ll get you a uniform out there.” She thumbed toward the door.

  He nodded, staring down at the guards’ faces, for a moment looking as lost as he had three years ago.

  She glared at him, mouthing the words and signing at the same time. You saved me. You protected information. You did good.

  The haunted look receded a bit. She thought about giving him the pistol, but any hesitation could still mean failure, and she wasn’t sure he was all there. She pushed the temper laser at him instead, then pointed at one of the enforcer’s hands and motioned toward the door. He tucked the temper under his arm and leaned over, heaving the woman up and carrying her to the handprint reader.

  Dani tested her wounded arm. Not good, but the fingers still moved. Maybe it was strong enough for a hit or two, but she’d better not depend on it.

  How many enforcers outside, I don’t know, she signed. Stay back. I’ll distract them. You use temper laser.

  He nodded with determination, as he had on so many other operations before the accident. Maybe he’d be okay.

  When Tauri opened the door with the fallen guard’s hand, Dani jumped out, diving into a forward roll. A dozen Special Forces, all dressed in battle gear, began shooting. So much for hoping she hadn’t alerted anyone. They might not have known what happened after she opened the nyckelira case, but they’d obviously seen her attack the guards and the Controller and had been preparing to enter the room.

  She let off two bullets from the nine mil as she came to her feet, hitting one man in his helmet and another in the chest. They fell back at the blasts. She ducked behind a third man as bullets peppered her former location. Placing her good hand on the enforcer’s, she held him with her bad arm and forced him to fire his assault rifle on his companions, who dived out of the way, or were hit, their uniforms protecting them from immediate death but doing little for the force of impact. Bullets ricocheted around the room.

  In a few seconds, it was over. From the corner of her eye, she saw Tauri aiming the temper in slow, repeating sweeps. “Put down your weapons,” she yelled.

  All the enforcers except one lost interest in the battle, dropping their weapons. Dani sprinted toward the holdout—who was probably immune like Jaxon—yanked his rifle from him, and slammed it into his face. One-handed, the move didn’t put him out, but she followed it with a kick to his head. He’d stay down now.

  “Are there any more prisoners up here?” she barked at one of the enforcers who had previously been behind the desk.

  He shook his head. “Not anymore.”

  Dani’s gut wrenched, remembering the lolling head of the prisoner in the observation room. “Get around the desk now and bring up the feeds to all the cameras. Put them on the main screen.”

  The man obeyed, but casually, as if the temper laser had sapped his energy. She wanted him to hurry. How long before reinforcements arrived?

  Little squares finally began marching across the holo screen. “What about the cameras in here?” she asked to be sure.

  He frowned. “I can’t get them to work.”

  “Good. Show me the exits.” She was stunned to see what looked like hundreds of enforcers in the front lobby. “Why are so many enforcers here?” she asked. Were they all here to stop her? But no one was running or had their weapons out.

  “For the memorial,” the man answered.

  She studied the feed a few more seconds. “You,” she said to the other man who’d been manning the desk earlier. “Help Tauri escort the enforcers to a cell. Remove their iTeevs and helmets first. Carry anyone who can’t make it on their own. Then go into the cell yourself when you’re finished.”

  The enforcer obeyed her orders. To be sure everyone remained compliant, Tauri kept hitting them periodically with the temper, except for the man behind the desk. She wondered if repeated use of the powerful temper might be causing permanent damage, but they really had no choice. This was the enemy, even if these men themselves were unwitting pawns.

  Two dead, Tauri signed to her when he’d finished. Dani acknowledged the count. This close, it was to be expected despite the battle gear.

  She made the enforcer behind the desk remove his uniform and give it to Tauri. Now in his underwear, the enforcer stared at her with anger, a sure sign his faculties were returning, which was what she needed.

  “Now I want you to call in an alarm,” Dani told him. “Tell whoever you’re supposed to report to that the fringers are heading out the back entrance. To send all forces there.” She held the gun against his temple. “Please sound convincing. And know that all of your friend’s lives are at risk. I will shoot every one of them if you try anything.”

  The enforcer glared at her and pulled up a new holo screen over the desk. “No,” Dani said. “Tell me what to push. Give me your authorization code.” She couldn’t have him setting off a different kind of alarm.

  He hesitated, and she jerked the pistol downward, firing. He screamed and doubled over in agony as blood spattered down his leg. “Now,” she said. “Or I can put a bullet in the other leg.”

  To Tauri, she added, “Get one of the others. We’ll make an example of him.”

  Tauri nodded and was almost to the door when the enforcer capitulated. “Five, nine, zero, four, alpha, delta, ten,” he said. “You put it in here.”

  Dani could feel her brother’s sense of relief as she followed the enforcer’s direction and gestured for him to speak.

  “The prisoners are escaping,” he yelled. “They’re heading to the rear entrance. All forces move to stop them!”

  “What happened?” barked a return voice. “Why are the cameras disabled? We detected weapons fire.”

  The enforcer hesitated, and Dani jabbed him with the gun. There weren’t any bullets left, but he couldn’t know that. “Prisoners somehow obtain
ed weapons,” he said with a gasp. “Must have control of the camera. I can’t get it to work.”

  “Is everyone okay? We’re getting no images from the helmet cameras either.”

  Say you’re fine, Dani mouthed.

  “We’re fine. No casualties. Please get them!”

  “But we don’t have images of them leaving the fringer unit,” came the voice.

  Dani closed the connection. She had to hope that whoever the enforcer was talking to would be more interested in making sure she wasn’t escaping out the back than in what the hallway cameras told him. The sooner she disrupted the cameras outside this room—any camera—the better.

  “Thank you,” she said to the enforcer. Then she punched him hard with her right fist. “You’ll thank me later,” she told him as he crumbled. “They can’t blame you this way.”

  She looked to see Tauri watching her. “We should have killed them all,” he said.

  She nodded. “I know, but it’s really not their fault, and I know how you feel about it.” She hadn’t wanted to risk him withdrawing into himself, not after killing the three in the observation room.

  Thank you, he signed.

  They pulled on two of the discarded helmets to hide the white of their hair that would stand out even more than their black skin. “Turn off the cameras on the helmets,” she said to Tauri. The cameras wouldn’t broadcast as long as she held the jammer, but those watching the cameras would soon understand that they had only to follow the disrupted feeds to find her. She’d have to ditch the jammer at the first opportunity, and once she did, she didn’t want the helmet cameras active.

  She activated both the CivID cards Eagle had placed inside the case and gave one to her brother. She would have preferred skin tags, but these would be more useful inside HED if he’d given them IDs of actual enforcers. She’d have to trust that he knew what he was doing.