Project Destiny

by Justin Sloan

  There was only so much time before the guards outside came to check on her, to see why it was taking so long to simply escort civilians to a safe room. And for all she knew, escape would be impossible without her team.

  She placed the earpiece into her ear and turned it on.

  “Intrepid? Swinger?” She waited. “Yerbuna?”

  “Holy balls,” Swinger said, cutting in as if he’d run to answer. “We didn’t expect… how…?”

  “Swinger, listen to me. Do we have the team set up?”

  “Yes, but… You need to know something. Marick, he’s with us.”

  Alice stood there, dumbfounded. “How?”

  “It’s a long story. Well, not so long, but longer than we have time for right now. They’re coming your way, though, to get you out of there. He and Intrepid.”

  “They won’t be able to get in,” Alice warned. “But if you can get into the system, take the lockdown procedure offline, maybe deactivate a hand scanner, or all of them, while you’re at it? Then maybe we’d stand a chance.”

  “You’re insane.” He took a moment, then added, “I love it.”

  “I don’t,” Yerbuna’s voice came through. “What you’re asking, it’s above our ability. Well, we couldn’t without getting caught, anyway.”

  “But you think you could do it?”

  “With the eye you put in there, plus the most recent info we gathered,” Yerbuna replied, voice full of worry, “yes, it’s possible. It would give away our position—which, I might remind you, happens to be in the midst of a Titanian religious block. You do realize what you’re asking here, right?”

  Alice closed her eyes, racking her brain for any other options.

  “Can you send the information you got to your sister?” Yerbuna asked, voice hushed.

  “You saw that?”

  “Yes. Can you get it to her? Would she have access through her FBI contacts?”

  Alice considered this, imagining seeing her sister again after all this time. She had always been the type to fight for the underdog, to see that justice was had. If Shrina saw what the space stations were planning, there’s no way she would fail to expose it.

  “You help me get out of here,” Alice said, “I promise New Origins will fall.”

  “Do it,” Yerbuna said.

  “Oh yea-ahhh!” Swinger shouted, the clacking of keys already showing him at work. “Hang tight, the Mad Hatter is bringing tea time with cookies.”

  “Okay, I get the reference, but…” Alice racked her brain, “how does that make sense here? I don’t get it.”

  “You don’t have to,” Swinger replied. “Just sit back and enjoy the ride. Get ready, because this could get crazy.”

  Alice knew this could take a bit, so she stuck her head out to check the hallway. Seeing it clear, she returned to the room to see what else she could find. The good stuff had all been scavenged already, so she leaned back against the wall and decided to see what she could figure out about her acquisitions from upstairs.

  First she turned over the new addition to her left wrist computer, analyzing it. Lifting a black screen, she saw a mirror beneath and almost thought that’s all this might be—a compact mirror for doing her makeup. Not bad, actually, for one who uses disguises from time to time, but not exactly what she’d had in mind.

  Although… She leaned in closer, realizing there was a sensor between the screen and the mirror. She waved her hand, but nothing happened, so she tried pressing her thumb against it. Red lines shot out from the screen as if scanning her.

  She registered movement nearby and jumped back, lifting her other wrist and sending out more of the pellets from before. They shot through an image of herself, hitting the far wall and sparking before hitting the ground.

  The movement hadn’t been anyone other than this perfect replica of herself. The replica glanced around, then moved as if exploring the room. It wasn’t alive or anything like that, she knew, but this was amazing. It wasn’t following her movement, or copying her in any way.

  After a moment, the image simply vanished. Her bet was that the device created an image of the person that would then act according to the situation—maybe based on A.I., or according to the wearer’s sense of anxiety. A fun trick at birthday parties, maybe, but she wasn’t sure when exactly she would use this.

  “We have progress,” Swinger shouted. “Hang tight!”

  Alice glanced around, then back to the door. Any minute now she would be reunited with Scorpio and Norwal, then on to freedom. She hoped.

  There was still the belt and harness to figure out, and maybe more to the wrist computer on her right arm. She figured she would try the belt first. It was a screen, so she tried waving her hand across it, then moving her fingers around the sides. No buttons, no way to turn it on, it seemed. Unless it wasn’t actually a screen at all.

  She pressed on it, and sure enough what she had thought was a screen was actually the button. A flash of light rose up around her, forming a bubble made up of interconnected hexagons. It shimmered, growing in size until two or three of her could fit inside, and then stopped. When she stepped forward, it moved as if one with her. The oddest part was how her arms moved without resistance inside, as if guided. She had never experienced anything like this. When she jumped, the bubble went with her, and seemed to have slowed her descent.

  “Whoa,” she said, pressing the button at her belt again so that it turned off. “I see why they didn’t want to give you up.”

  “Who’re you talking to?” Swinger asked.

  “Oh, myself.”

  “Well, get ready to talk to us, face to face, because we are… In!”

  With his last word, a screeching sounded, followed by doors unlocking and metal grinding. Alice couldn’t believe it—they’d gotten into the dome!

  “I hope you’re moving,” Yerbuna said. “You’d better get to it!”

  “Right, thank you!” Alice replied as she darted back to the Grandeur room as the door was opening. She didn’t even waste time explaining when Scorpio startled at the sight of her. Norwal was there too, and all three were hugging and laughing immediately.

  “Tell me you’ve killed everyone and this is our freedom,” Scorpio said. “Please, tell me this.”

  “Well, I haven’t killed anyone, and have no idea how we’re getting out of here.” Alice shrugged. “But the door is open, and there’s no time like the present.”

  “Oh, God,” he replied, then clenched his jaw and followed her out, Norwal taking up the rear.

  “Swinger, is he… okay?” Norwal asked.

  “Ask him yourself,” Alice said, tossing Norwal the other earpiece that had been in the boxes. “But… just a sec.”

  Pausing at the door with the guards on the other side, she glanced back at her companions. “You up for this?”

  They nodded, so she pushed through the now-unlocked door, prepared to lead them to freedom and heart thudding at the idea of seeing Marick again so soon.

  The guards were checking on another door that had opened nearby. And then, as the first guard dropped, Alice realized what was happening. Someone had managed to create a tunnel in! Stepping back, Alice watched two large men enter, followed by a half-burned woman. The Heel.

  Only, she looked to be healing even as Alice watched.

  “Figured I owed you one,” the Heel said, after stepping into the room and ensuring no other guards were nearby. “Set told me this upgrade is all thanks to you.”

  “Upgrade… you mean…?”

  “Yes, enhanced, and it’s still working its magic,” the Heel said. “We were ready to go, and the moment they found out a rescue might be possible, Yerbuna had me sent over, insisting Veles focus on it as a priority.”

  “Well, it’s good to have you on the team,” Alice replied. “We take the tunnel.”

  “Only one problem,” Norwal said. They all turned to see her, leaning over the closest guard. She had her hand to the man’s wrist computer, a series of lines moving out acro
ss a display screen. A signal, giving away their location no doubt.

  “That problem being you?” Alice asked.

  “Me. Secrets. Nightshade.”

  Scorpio stared at Norwal, eyes wide with confusion. “You broke?”

  “We were broken!” she seethed. “Everything we were doing, all it does is undermine humanity’s advancement. Don’t you see? New Origins is on the forefront of space exploration, exactly what we signed up for! What they’ve accomplished was beyond anyone’s comprehension fifty years ago.”

  “So they broke you,” he repeated.

  She turned to Alice in exasperation, but Alice shook her head.

  “They’ve found Marick,” Alice said. “We have him back, and you betray me now? Spouting all this bull, sounding like the damn recruiting videos.”

  “Doesn’t matter anyway,” Norwal said, her eyes full of unshed tears. “They’ll be here any minute. You have to understand, this is the only way they’d let me and Swinger go, let us be together. They left me here in case you showed… I had to.”

  “You catch all that, Swinger?” Alice asked, holding up her earpiece.

  There was a long silence, then Swinger’s voice came back, heavy. “I… I think it’s time we said farewell, Norwal. Cindy… Good-bye.”

  Norwal let out a heart-wrenching sob, then lunged for one of the guard’s guns. Alice had been ready, though, and before any of the others could shoot the woman, Alice had stunned her.

  They turned from the two unconscious guards and Norwal, or Cindy as her name really was, and made for the tunnel that the Heel had come through. As they left, one of the Heel’s men moved a large piece of sheet metal across the opening.

  “That’ll at least keep them confused for a few minutes,” the Heel said. At Alice’s curious look, she explained, “Knowing one’s way around helps when your people are the ones who built the place.”

  Alice smiled, knowing exactly what she meant.

  “Listen,” the Heel said, “when we get out there, they’re going to have people waiting. Veles has arranged for fighters to help, but from here on, we’ve essentially declared war on New Origins. Some of us are going with you, others staying here.”

  “Going with?”

  The Heel nodded. “We have a mining ship departing shortly. You and your team, along with some of ours who can rally the fighters on the other space stations. We might not win this, but we’re damn sure going to hold our own until you have a chance to reveal these bastards for what they are.”

  “Remember, the soldiers aren’t thinking clearly,” Alice said, ducking under more bars and then sliding along a narrow passage as she followed.

  “I know exactly what they’re going through,” the Heel said, glancing back. “There’s something off about the whole process. I felt it—like it was programmed to mess with my mind.”

  Alice nodded. “Keep it up, you might be just like them, without any memories of your past.”

  “And yet, Marick is back, you said.”

  “We can’t see the whole picture yet, and I don’t know how much ‘back’ he is, exactly.” Alice paused while the Heel jumped down a level, then lowered herself to follow. “But I’m happy with whatever I can get.”

  The other two were behind them, but more sounds started up, shouting echoing through the skeleton of the lower belly of this beast of a building.

  “Do it,” the Heel said to her men, who turned to set up mines.

  “We just went over this. If we go around attacking them—”

  “If we don’t, we won’t make it out of here. Earth’s governments won’t learn the truth, and New Origins will go on doing what they do. Your hands are clean?”

  Alice shook her head, knowing they weren’t.

  “Exactly. We can’t let this pattern continue to repeat itself. We can’t let families be torn apart like what happened to you.”

  That was enough to convince Alice, even though she hated it. In her time as lead of the Looking Glass, she had indeed taken down her fair share of PD soldiers. But she had never guessed that her husband could have been any one of them. She had always assumed he was either off on planet and they just wouldn’t tell her, or maybe he actually had died in some accident that New Origins had been covering up. But the idea that he was a super soldier who had his mind wiped, and couldn’t even remember her?

  Now that she knew the truth, allowing such violence against the soldiers—the same kind he had been—hurt.

  Still, the Heel was right. It was kill or be killed, and they had a duty to humanity to reveal what was happening here.

  As they went on, the explosions started. She did her best to block them out, to focus on the fact that her team and Marick had somehow united, and she was about to see him. To be able to talk to him and, she hoped, kiss him as she had dreamed of so many nights over the past year.

  That was, assuming he didn’t treat her like a total stranger when they met. Considering there was only one way to find out, she kept her mind focused on that moment, pushing on.

  29

  Stealth: Outside the Dome

  Marick and Intrepid ran toward the dome, working together again, just like the good old days. Already, soldiers were moving out in standard operating procedure, forming defensive ranks.

  “Veles is having his people strike as soon as the enemy moves against the two of you,” Swinger said through Marick’s earpiece. It was weird, fighting for what he’d considered to be the enemy for so long. He was still dealing with the idea that they had been responsible for Red’s death. Then again, it wasn’t exactly them—it was as much Captain Legorn’s fault for sending them in as bait. Maybe more so.

  This team had been fighting an evil corporation, and he and Red had been on the wrong side.

  “Marick, you with us?” Intrepid asked, pulling him down beside one of the stalls between them and the dome. “Now’s not the time to be lost, spacing out. Can I count on you?”

  Marick breathed deep, cleared his mind, and said, “Now, more than ever.”

  “We’ve got guns set to stun,” Intrepid promised, seemingly reading Marick’s thoughts. “If we can help it, we won’t kill them. But this is about rescuing our friends… your wife.”

  “Let’s get some,” Marick replied, hating the words as they came out of his mouth. How ingrained was this in his system? Did he just say words the soldiers had taught him, or was he his own man?”

  He was going to prove the latter. Nodding to Intrepid, he stood and led the charge to the next staging point. Halfway there, though, the PD soldiers called out, pointing at him, and gave a warning.

  Intrepid had barely reached cover when the first shots rang out.

  “They’re using DD4s,” Marick noted. “No stun options on them.”

  “We’ll just have to be careful then, won’t we?”

  “Now!”

  Marick threw himself to the upper ledge of a short building, using the partial roof for cover, and shot off an explosive at the dome. It was intended to hit the glass and cause a disturbance, and that’s exactly what happened. A massive crack went through the glass, alarms sounded, and the troops below fanned out to make a move on their location.

  “Veles!” Intrepid shouted into his earpiece. One of the hoverbikes was flying for the dome, straight at the soldiers. But instead of a man riding it, it carried a bunch of explosives. Lights blinked, and he saw how many lives that would take.

  Dammit, he thought as he ducked back, took aim at the back of the bike, and fired. The shot hit and sent the bike off path. It crashed into the side of the dome’s entrance, collapsing it down on top of another group of soldiers who were making their way out.

  A wave of Os Dragoes appeared then, moving from behind buildings, popping out of passages in the ground, and shooting from the tall buildings that resembled New York and Shibuya.

  PD soldiers started falling back for cover, and Intrepid was shouting with excitement when a new wave of bikes arrived, carrying soldiers in black and green. The
Taipans. Pete and the others were likely with them, if not already among the group out there now. That meant Nightshade wouldn’t be far off, a thought that worried him.

  Seeing an opening, he was just about to suggest making a move when he noticed several PD soldiers in a line heading toward him. They were moving quickly, others running up alongside the first, likely emboldened by the arrival of the Taipans. He aimed in, hating it but knowing it was necessary, and then noticed the soldier he had in his sights wasn’t firing, but looking past him and talking.

  “Flank!” he shouted, already turning and at the ready.

  Two soldiers appeared wearing the full headgear of the Taipans, though they didn’t have the black and green. One of them had a captain’s insignia, and he was the first to fall.

  Marick rolled to avoid the second one swinging in with a knife, then came up to slam the butt of his rifle into the man’s helmet, so hard with his enhanced strength that the helmet crushed inwards, collapsing the soldier’s skull and ending it. Damn, he hadn’t intended that to happen.

  The captain was up, leveling his rifle to fire, but Intrepid plowed into him. Gunshots were going off all around them as Os Dragoes fought PD soldiers, Intrepid and the captain locked in hand-to-hand combat.

  Another would-be ambusher leaped up onto the roof and Marick spun, catching him as he jumped down. The two of them slammed into the rooftop and then rolled until they fell right off. They crashed into the ground below, Marick on top, and three quick elbows broke the faceplate of the helmet.

  When the man pulled a stun baton, Marick yanked his arm into a lock, twisted, and brought the electrified tip down on the man himself, so that he shook and passed out.

  He took the baton, turning in time to see two soldiers round the building with weapons at the ready. A soldier’s body hit them, and then Intrepid appeared, shooting at the second. As the soldier dove, Marick went to meet him. This one didn’t have a full helmet, so when the baton hit him in the neck, he flailed about before falling unconscious.