"I could have been a teacher." I said. "If none of this happened."
"A high school teacher. Instead of all this."
"That’s right."
"They hired on everyone from the original cast that was Amped up." Galilee says. "They added a few military types. We were doing pretty serious damage. Public opinion spiraled against Amps quickly. Then the courts weighed in. Activor stock plummeted, and Bachmann is a lock for the Republican nomination. I was playing the role of my life. I was Ho Chi Min or Che Guevera. People did what I asked them to do. Then something funny happened."
"What was that?"
"I’m going to get a sticky bun."
"That was what happened."
"No, but I've been talking for a while, and I'm hungry."
"I'll get one with you." I said.
"Stay here at the table."
"Why?"
"So the snipers can get a fix on your position."
"Really."
"No. So that bum in the parking lot doesn’t move in, and steal your bags." I saw the bum for the first time, an average looking crack head if there ever was one. He was glancing in our direction furtively.
Galilee walked in and emerged with two enormous sticky buns, covered liberally in glazed icing. I ate mine slowly. It was delicious, warm and sweet, tangled with cinnamon. "What happened to black coffee?" I asked him.
"It was something I used to drink because I thought it made me look tough." He said. "And then it became the only way I knew how to drink coffee. Pastries are different. In another life I was a fat kid."
"So."
"So what?"
"So, what happened."
"Right. I stopped taking their calls."
"Them who?"
"Them them. Them the multinational pharmaceutical conglomerate them. I stopped listening to what they wanted to do. And it was great. EAP became a real thing."
"Everyone went along with it."
"It was crazy." Galilee said. "But no one questioned me. The ones that had been hired on originally, they kept going. The new ones that came in, we made no mention of the initial farce."
Something occurred to me. "What about Glen?" I asked.
"That was tricky." He said. "To Glen, it was all a matter of principle."
"What was?"
"Everything. He knew we were originally actors. Most of us, anyway. But when EAP started, we came to recruit him, and he said yes. He was passionately for it. Not EAP the discrediting fraud, but an actual resistance movement. He was the instrumental member, that moved things from fake to real. He came up with the actual programming."
"Where is he now?"
"They have Brian." Galilee said. "I don’t know where Glen is."
We sat and said nothing for a minute. I was thinking about how ugly it was. The Starbucks franchise, the parking lot, the highway next to it. Everything built for function only. America was full of these places, endless chains of them, in every state and almost every town that was large enough to remain functional. We built this country based on what we consume.
And now, with the Amps, we built ourselves that way. I was a built to order version of Kara Pierce now, eyes sharp enough to see everything, the pistol tucked into the bums waistband, the shotgun underneath the barista's countertop. The shock troops waiting inside the Grocery Store, for the signal. And far off on the other side of the highway, behind a tree line and a small sign designated a wildflower sanctuary, I could see the tank Galilee warned we about, an M1 Abrams. My display looked much different than it did before. Pathways were visible to me now, branching out in different directions. In my brown recycled shopping bag from Hollister I was carrying an M416 Carbine with a holographic scope underneath a cute V- neck knit top. I wouldn’t need the scope. My Actuator showed me just how I needed to hold the weapon to hit the target, every time.
"I’ve heard you can do a new trick." Galilee said. I nodded.
"Something I learned while I was locked up." I told him.
"Can I see it?" He asked.
I picked up the coffee cup. Gently, I pushed at it with my Amp until it floated gently in the air, spinning around in a circle, and landed at the table.
"How does it work?" He asked.
"The Amp opened up something in my mind." I tell him, loud and clear, so the listening device he is wearing can pick it up. "Abilities that aren’t normally accessed. Telekinesis, for one. I'm beyond human, now."
"What are you going to do with it?" He asked me, not looking me in the eyes.
"Continue the work you started." I tell him. "I'm going to take EAP loud. The conflict between Amps and Norms is already here. Bachmann is only the tip."
"Sounds like fun." He said. "And also, you haven’t been listening."
"Come with me." I tell him. "Let’s get out of here. We can be part of something good."
He folds the newspaper over in a neat square, showing the big block letters of the ad I took out
GALILEE
COFFEE AT STARBUCKS
K.P.
"What did you think would happen." He said. "When you took this out?"
"I thought you would find me."
"I wasn’t the only one." He said. "This was incredibly stupid."
"You can’t stop me."
"It’s not me you need to worry about."
"I can’t be stopped."
****
When the tank fires, the depleted uranium round barrel enters the Starbucks exactly one foot over where my seat is. It hits the brick facade like cardboard.
Inside the Starbucks, two things happen. The round explodes, sending shrapnel in every direction, and the vacuum from its entry creates horrible force in every direction. Soft things, like human flesh or bone, are perforated. By perforated, I mean, the barista at the counter, the college kid putting the foam into the latte, the middle aged soccer mom, the recovering addict and his AA sponsor having a meeting, the aspiring author on his laptop, all these people are turned into a fine paste. Their realness and being, the flesh that makes them themselves- is there a spirit? Do you believe in that? I can’t find any evidence of it. The flesh, the them, is ended in a horrible, final way, a series of closed casket funerals that will offer little for the families that survive them.
In my case, however, I am already propelling myself back as the tank fires. The Actuator is telling me the minimum safe distance, with my abilities I am flying that way through the air. In my hand I have remembered to grab the assault rifle from the shopping bag. I roll as I land, like in the movies.
There is only one tactic that works in an ambush: push through. Fight through the defenders, get as many of them as you can, and make them give it up. I am sprinting through the parking lot, getting great traction on a pair of underarmour tactical boots. Mom would have been proud. As the first black clad member comes out of Kroger, I start taking my shot.
Modern ballistic protection leaves plenty of room exposed. The face, for one, and the limbs, for another. Shoot a man in his thigh, and if it hits his femoral artery he'll bleed out. Shoot a man in his arm, and he might drop his weapon. With my Actuator running with no limits, I take each shot, carefully, one after another. Every man that comes out falls down. Eventually the enemy retreats to within the grocery store.
The car next to me explodes, as a tank round hits it.
My ears are ringing. STANDBY is flashing on my display. I can see several of the enemy on the pavement, wounded by close proximity to the blast. It was a tactic I hadn’t counted on, the willingness to sacrifice their own men, to get to me. I had miscalculated. Moving fast, I start to sprint across the parking lot, away from the grocery store. six seconds to reload and fire an M1 Abrams. Six seconds until it can fire again. My Actuator is coming back online, I reach out with my new abilities, grasping, pulling. I'm down to four seconds now, three, two, one....
****
Glen Miller watched the entire battle from the safe house two blocks away from Kara's position and swore. The tank was pulling off a few surprises.
On a thumb drive by his computer, he had recorded audio and video feed of the entire conversation between Galilee and Kara. It backed up what she had told him herself, when they came into contact, after Kara's escape. EAP was connected to Bachmann, and the powers that wanted all Amps gone. It was based on a fraud.
His mistake, which he had come to accept, was letting his guilt overcome his higher reasoning. Because he had been employed by Activor he had felt responsible for every law that was set up against people with Actuators, as if they were his children. He had followed Galilee blindly, believing every word he was told. All that resulted in the raid on Haven, and the capture or kill of his adopted family. Glen himself, had managed to escape. There was an old mineshaft that ran directly underneath his trailer. With a little engineering know how, Glen had slipped in a panic room of sorts, a tunnel that ran from the trailer to the mineshaft. An early alarm system had sent him into motion. The reason the enemy had not found it during the raid was because the Second he was clear, explosive charges detonated the trailer, and sealed the small tunnel off. In the tunnel he had pre-staged a small pack with emergency supplies, including a laptop, flashlight, handgun, and GPS unit for finding his way. He hated himself for running like this, but reasoned it was the only way. His knowledge of EAP's inner workings was too valuable to be compromised.
It had taken four days for Kara to reach him. Four days of being holed up in one ratty hotel room after another, with no word except the misinformation spread on twenty four hour cable news networks, that a domestic terrorist cell had been found in Oklahoma and numerous members were being detained. He used that time to make a series of calls. Haven was the most important place EAP was located, but it was far and away not the only one. There were plenty of Amps all across the country, filled with anger and their new status as second class citizens, and ready to fight back. He spoke with leaders, and told them all the same thing, wait, wait. Revolutions didn’t happen in a day.
But when Kara showed up, with the fantastic story of her escape, he thought something just might happen that fast. With her new abilities, she promised to be twice the operative Galilee was. In the next few weeks the pair of them started raids at detention facilities where large numbers of Amps were imprisoned. The key here was twofold, free as many people as possible, but also go after those that the norms thought were the most dangerous, and win them over.
Now, with the new EAP at his disposal, Glen spoke into his headset. "Baker team." He said. "Go ahead and move up."
A series of mechs bounded across the parking lot, and started to engage the enemy inside Kroger. Galilee hadn’t shown up by himself, but neither had Kara. The mechs were the old industrial model used for lumber and construction, modified for combat in a way Galilee himself had suggested. "Kara." Glen said. "How’s it look for our target?"
That was the real reason for the meeting they had set up. In her conversation, Kara had been lying when she claimed not to know about Marcus Bachmann. The congresswoman was incensed. She had even put a special bill up in his name, stripping all people inside America with an Actuator of their US citizenship. It was being seriously debated, and even stood a real chance of passing. Glen didn’t care. This battle wouldn’t be won in a courthouse, but on the street, with men and guns.
"Kara." He tried again. "Do you hear me?"
There was a crackle, and finally, she came through. "I don’t believe it!"
"What’s going on?"
"She's in the tank!"
****
It was one of the most beautiful things I can ever remember seeing.
Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann had positioned herself out the top hatch of the M1 Abrams tank. In her hands was a M4 rifle, painted hot pink.
She was firing wildly, and with little accuracy, in the general direction of the battle of the parking lot. "JESUS!" She was screaming. "I trust in you JESUS! You are my rock and my salvation! I am your swift sword! I will strike for you JESUS! I love you LORD! You! Your work! I am nothing and you are everything! For you, I will! You! You!"
I was very close. And then I saw Galilee, stepping in front of the tank.
"It’s all over, Congresswoman." He said.
She shook her head, and tittered illegibly. Galilee's arms were covered in blood. Emotion flooded through me. I had not seen him since the tank destroyed Starbucks, not known whether he was alive or dead. My feelings betrayed my judgment. I wanted him to live. I didn’t care anymore about his betrayal, or his lies, I was overcome with the force of him. The presence he had, standing up to the tank, and the crazed woman with her pink assault rifle.
"Hear that?" Galilee said. "That's sirens. The police are going to be all over this place. They’re going to find plenty of dead people, and then they’re going to find your men, all in black, with some heavy weaponry. This whole thing was a bad idea. You need plausible deniability, and that means leaving."
"I won’t deny who I am." Bachmann said. "I won’t deny the Lord."
"You can explain this." Galilee said, and he looked at me quickly, and then looked away. Just enough to acknowledge that I was there. Almost in range of capturing her. "If you get on top of this fast enough, you can justify it as some sort of joint forces operation. You can explain the explosions as a terrorist bomb. The media might get into you. But if people- police, EMS, they see you where you are? Like that? It’s going to create a train wreck that’s only going to end with you doing time in a federal prison. A lot of time. Maybe the rest of your life."
"They killed my Marcus." Bachmann's voice trembled. "They killed my Marky-poo. He was sick with the sodomites sickness, but he was getting better. The harlot took her away from me."
"You can’t bring him back this way." Galilee said. "Michelle. Look at me. Do you remember Aspen? Those were good times, weren’t they?"
A sudden surge of jealousy went through me.
Bachmann lowered the barrel of her rifle. "I was weak." She said, her voice cracked from the screaming. "You weakened me, with sin."
"It was a long time coming." Galilee said. "How long had it been, before that? Since he had even bothered to touch you? I gave you something you needed. Being human, that's not a weakness. I don’t think God sees it that way, either."
As I stepped forward, to the side of the tank, a twig snapped under my foot. At that moment, Bachmann spun around, to look at me.
"You!" She screamed. "JEBUS! I TRUST IN YOU!"
As she was screaming she turned the pink rifle back on Galilee, he made no movement, one way or another, and the bullets tore into him, each three round burst sending a new red balloon of blood mushrooming across his chest, arms, neck. He fell lifelessly. I had already bounded up the side of the tank, and, seizing the congresswoman by a combination hair and scruff of the neck, pulled her fully out. She was not a very large person, and when her legs kicked fervently they revealed impractical expensive shoes, with pantyhose underneath. "Ut." She was saying. "Ut. Ut. Ut."
My Actuator told me just how hard I would have to squeeze, to cause her to pass out, without killing her. And I did. After that, and dealing with the men driving the tank, I stood for a minute over Galilee's body. And the tears were coming.
I hated him. That was what I told myself before coming here. He used me, first for his missions, then my body, then simply all of me, for whatever Bachmann planned in the building. Most likely cutting the Actuator straight out of my head. I wanted to hate him, but I couldn’t. Instead all I could think of were his mannerisms. The impossibility of his movements. The grace when he fought. I had surpassed him. Maybe that was why he did what he did, why he wanted to die. He had made love to Bachmann, at some point, to use her as he used me. But over coffee he had bared all of himself to me, before the tank fired its shot. He wanted to be who he had become.
The sirens were blaring loudly. It was time to leave.
The YouTube Video
The upload is one of the most popular links on the internet. It is available in both censored and uncen
sored versions. It has been linked to by many news agencies, teenagers, Facebook, twitter. 53 million hits. It has been taken down and reposted. Soon it will be completely ubiquitous, and the power of the message it contains will be lost forever.
It opens with a stylized font in red lettering announcing this as a message from Earth's Amplified People. The camera opens up to a view of a concrete wall, with a harsh fluorescent light. Analyst for the FBI and the CIA have noticed many key details available from this frame that are not readily seen later. Such as:
1. A layer of thick industrial plastic is laying over the floor. This means that the group had anticipated a level of mess involved, and wanted to contain it. It also means that the body, when or if it is recovered, will be wrapped inside that same plastic.
2. Underneath the plastic the floor is carpeted. This means that the video was shot in a residential area, possibly a house somewhere remote where noise would not be an issue.
3. In the distant background, a sports game can be heard on a television. This sound bite only last for three seconds, and only consist of the words "Giants down by one." This turns out to be very helpful in narrowing the area for the search, since in the two week period when the video was shot the Giants trailed by one point only during an early afternoon, against the Arizona Cardinals. As this was an early afternoon game, it was not given national coverage, and was only aired in the markets of New York, New Jersey, and Arizona on CBS. The Green Bay Packers at the New Orleans Saints was on at the same time, on the same channel, at most of the other markets.
The view of the camera angles to the right. Two men dressed entirely in black with black balaclavas emerge carrying a metal chair. One of them is carrying a cordless drill. The one holds down the chair while the other drills it into the floor with metal bolts. When they leave the picture it is visible that restraints have been affixed to the chair at the ankle and wrist position. After this three people enter the view. Two are dressed in a similar uniforms as seen before, head to toe black. The other is Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann.
Amped Up Page 9
