by C. S. Won
“Clay, are you sure you want to do this?” Jae asked.
“Not really, but like I said, I’m willing to do whatever it takes to save my son,” Clay said.
“When did you want to go, then?” Tobin asked.
“With it being nightfall, I prefer to go now.”
“Then give me five minutes to gather some things, and we’ll be on our way.” Tobin made his exit from the room.
Chapter Six
“Can’t sleep?”
Jae sat up, and saw Andrea hoisting herself up on the roof. The circle of the moon encompassed her like a giant halo, infusing her with a grey light. She had a dull, chalky glow about her, like a rough sketch come to life.
“Was I supposed to be?” Jae asked.
Andrea went over and sat next to him. “Might as well. Who knows when Clay and Tobin will be back?” She wore a pair of black joggers and a tank top. A long blanket, colored in an emerald hue, was wrapped around her like a shawl.
“It’s only been a couple of hours. It hasn’t been too long.”
“More than that. They left at when—11 p.m. or so? Now it’s . . .” She looked at her watch. “Almost two in the morning.”
Jae glanced over at her. “Then why aren’t you sleeping?”
“Was I supposed to be?” She smiled at him, mischievous. “Truth is, I’m having trouble sleeping, and I don’t know why. Maybe it’s because I’m nervous.”
“About what?”
“What happens if they don’t come back and we end up getting stuck here, all by ourselves?”
Jae thought it over for a moment. “Then I suppose we’ll stay here. We’ll settle in while we watch the world burn down around us.”
“You can’t be serious.”
“We can grow a little garden on that patchy dust of land right over there and live off of that. No time like the present to go vegan, am I right?”
“Well, I’ve always wanted to grow a garden.”
“And with our powers, we can easily fend off any murdering, mutant nomads in this new post-apocalyptic world we’re going to be living in.”
“You make it sound oh so dreamy.”
“Shall I tell you about the luxuries of being doused in nuclear radiation? Nothing exfoliates better than getting your skin melted off.”
Andrea rolled her eyes at him, chuckling. She pulled her blanket in tighter, looking to get comfortable. “Before he left, Tobin told me that he might be able to get us some phones soon. We’ll be able to make some calls, finally.”
“Good, because I think I left the stove on, and I need to tell someone.”
“Who are you planning to call once we get them?”
“Probably just a few friends back home.”
“What are you going to tell them?”
Jae pondered the question. “Everything, probably.”
“Like . . . everything, everything? Or . . . ?”
“I’m going to be honest, because I need someone to know what’s going on, even if I end up sounding like a raving lunatic.”
“Raving lunatic? You?” She dismissed the idea with a wave of her hand. “Who wouldn’t believe that ancient aliens imbued us with powers, and that Jesus was actually a neo-human? I don’t know about you, but all that sounds very sane to me.”
Jae chuckled. “Who are you going to call?”
“Maybe some coworkers, and my dog-sitter too. She’s probably wondering where the hell I am right now.”
“Are you going to tell them everything?”
Andrea chewed her lips. “Sure, why not? Might as well. Word needs to get out one way or another.”
“My sentiments exactly.”
Andrea stretched her arms over her head, aired out a long yawn, and leaned back onto her elbows into a resting position. She took one end of her blanket and began fidgeting with it. “If we really need to go to this facility to rescue your brother, do you think we’ll succeed?”
“I don’t know. I hope so.”
“You hope so?”
“If there’s anyone who can break into a secret government prison and walk out of it alive, it’s a neo-human, so I like our chances. But that also doesn’t mean that I’m blind to the fact that the odds are definitely stacked against us. What we’re doing is unprecedented, so it’s difficult to gauge how things are going to end up. Am I confident we’ll succeed in the end? Yes, but I’m also not stupid.”
“Are you scared?”
“I’ve never been more scared in my life. It’s taking everything I have to suppress the desire to run and hide. But Han and Marlowe aren’t leaving that place without our help, so I have no choice but to live and cope with that fear. I have to do this.”
She drew closer to him, so close that their feet almost touched. “I want to let you know how proud I am of what you did earlier. I know how tempting it was to hurt that man for information, but you made the right call. Nothing shows the mettle of a person better than when they persevere through difficult choices.”
Jae pressed his lips in and sighed through his nose. “Listen, Andrea . . . if Clay and Tobin are only able to obtain a layout of the facility, forcing us to go in as a group to rescue my brother and Marlowe, then I want you to stay behind.”
She pulled away, surprised. “What? Why?”
“You’ve already done enough. Just by being here you’ve been a boon. There’s no reason for you to endanger yourself any further, not for my sake. Tobin, Clay, and I can handle the rest.”
“But I want to go. I want to help.”
“I’m going to ask Tobin to take you back home.”
“Absolutely not. I’m helping you, end of story. You need me.”
“You have no reason to stick around. There’s nothing for you here.”
“Do I need a reason? I want to be here. That should be enough.”
“But why? There’s no point. You don’t have a dog in this fight. You have a life back home. Go back to it, forget about all this.”
“Maybe I want to expose Morgan Duffy just as much as you do. You ever think of that? You’re not the only person in this world who thinks he’s an asshole.”
“The last thing I want is for you to get hurt on my behalf. I don’t want you to needlessly risk yourself. There are—”
“Damn it, I’m doing this because I care for you. Okay? Is that what you want to hear? You think I’m here just because I feel like it? Like this is some kind of vacation for me? No, I’m here because I can’t bear the thought of you getting hurt, either. You talk about how you don’t want me to get hurt, as if I can’t protect myself. Well, what about you? How do you think I feel? If something were to happen to you, something that I could have prevented, then I . . .” She stopped herself and pressed a hand against her brow. “God, look at what you’ve made me do. I swear—if only you could look inside my head right now.” She gave a tired, weary laugh. “You fought against Adam. My brother. My own flesh and blood. You beat him senseless, and I should hate you for that. But I don’t. In fact, it’s the complete opposite. The more time I spend with you, I can’t help but feel a . . . pull to you, and it’s something I’m having more and more difficulty denying.” She cursed under her breath. “It’s all so confusing to me. How can I feel this way about the man who beat my brother into a bloody pulp? It shouldn’t make any sense, right? And yet, I want nothing more than to be at your side, to fight your battles with you, to be there when you—”
Jae kissed her, drowning out her words. She quickly pulled back, staring wide-eyed at Jae, her expression contoured with bewilderment. Jae thought she was going to slap him—an outcome he half-expected, as the kiss was very much unprompted and sudden—but as they stared into the eyes of the other, their gazes fixed and unbroken, she leaned forward and kissed him back instead.
Jae wasn’t sure how long they stayed that way. Five seconds, thirty seconds, a minute, an hour—he didn’t know. The moment their lips met, time was thrown into disarray. All he knew was that there was no other place he wanted to be
, and he wished it could last forever.
She pulled her lips away from his, their breath intermingling. “You did that just to shut me up, didn’t you?”
Jae laughed. It felt like the first genuine laugh he’d had in a long time.
Andrea smiled, and slipped her hand over his. “Why don’t we go inside and—”
“Guys, you up there?
Jae went rigid and tried to place the voice. “Clay?”
“Yeah, we’re back.”
Jae went over to the edge of the roof and looked over. Clay was by himself, looking up at Jae. Han and Marlowe were not with him.
“We couldn’t get them,” Clay said, confirming the obvious. “But we did manage to get a layout of the facility.”
“What’s the verdict? Do we have a clear path?” Jae asked.
Clay had a grim look on his face. “Come inside and see for yourself.”
Chapter Seven
The compound, as it turned out, was only a shell—a mask that it wore to hide itself from eyes that prowled. Staffed mainly by administrative support and the occasional security personnel, the compound instead acted as a facade for the illegalities that operated in a secret prison facility built and hidden underneath the earth. It was an architectural marvel, a compound just as large as the one directly above it, linked by a winding series of tunnels and hallways, with two long, cylindered elevators connecting it to the structure on the surface. Morgan Duffy’s own men manned the bases, moonlighting as guards to protect the human treasures their employer had hoarded.
“How in the world are we supposed to navigate through this?” Andrea asked.
On a table, a crudely drawn layout was set before them. The lines were uneven, the angles uncertain, and many of the pathways were sketchy at best, but it was the best Tobin and Clay could do from memory. But a rough outline was the least of their worries. Designed like a maze and guarded by some of the hardest killers in the world, Jae knew he had his work cut out for him.
“We won’t need to,” Tobin said. He placed a finger on a pathway at the bottom facility that appeared to end in a dead-end. “This is where they’re housing Han and Marlowe.”
“Why is there nothing past this point? It looks like it leads to nowhere,” Jae asked.
“Because it’s barred by a giant metal gate. Unfortunately, I could not look past it, as it lacked any sort of glass partition or bars. It’s just a solid chunk of metal. We waited to see if anyone would open it, but no one ever came by.”
“Then how do you know it’s where they’re keeping Han and Marlowe?”
“It was the only gate of its kind, either in the compound above the surface, or the one below. You don’t build a gate like that unless you’re trying to keep something in.”
“If you can get me there, then I might be able to knock it down.”
“That’s the problem. The gate is under heavy surveillance. The moment that gate falls, the whole place will be flooded with guards. Even with Clay’s invisibility and my teleportation, it’s going to be hard to maneuver. Not to mention the fact that we don’t have a layout past this point. It might be a straight line to where they’re holding Han and Marlowe, or it might be another series of winding tunnels and corridors. If it’s the latter, then it’s only going to compound our difficulties. Furthermore, they have two security rooms, one for the compound upstairs, and one for the compound downstairs. They both keep an eye out on each other, so if we somehow screw this up, then both facilities are going to know. We can’t make a single mistake,” Tobin said.
“Did you visit either security room? They might show where Han and Marlowe could be.”
“We checked, but we couldn’t find anything. But if we had more time, then we might be able to look them up.”
“So what do we do?” Andrea asked.
They stood around the drawing of the layout in silence, the mood becoming low as reality settled in like an unwanted guest. It was to be expected, really. Jae imagined there weren’t many secret prison compounds around the world that were understaffed and poorly guarded. Breaking into one then breaking someone out was the very definition of difficult. It would have been naïve to think he could simply waltz right in and take his brother back home.
But for every problem there was always a solution, and this was no different. Things may look impossible, but Jae knew there had to be an answer to this puzzle, a trick perhaps, and all he needed to do was to find out what that trick was. Easier said than done of course, but it had to be there. Take this one step at a time. Start from the beginning and go from there.
Jae looked over to the side of the layout and saw some of their kidnapped guard’s personal belongings scattered around: a wallet, watch, keys, two pens, and a laminated card. Jae reached over, picked up the card, and examined it. On one side, there was a photo ID of the guard, and on the other side, a barcode and serial number. Jae didn’t find anything useful about it, so he tossed the card back on the table. It landed on the layout, next to a room drawn in the middle of the upper compound. This was the security room, according to Tobin.
Suddenly, Jae was struck with an idea. “Wait a second.”
“What is it?” Tobin asked.
Jae tapped the room. “This is the security room for the compound on the surface, and this—” He pointed at a second room on the lower half of the layout. “—is the security room for the prison underground. You said they both keep an eye out on each other, right?”
“That’s correct,” Tobin said.
“If we take out only one of the security rooms, then it’ll probably alert the other, right?”
“Guards will start swarming like angry bees.”
“So why not blind them and take out both at the same time?”
Tobin squinted at him. “How?”
“You teleport all four of us into the security room up top. With Clay’s invisibility keeping us hidden, they won’t see us. Once we’re settled in, you and I will teleport to the security room down below, while we leave Clay and Andrea upstairs. Once we’re there, we’ll secure the room, while at the same exact time, Andrea secures hers.”
Tobin cupped his chin, contemplating the idea. “Hitting them simultaneously so that they can’t alert the other. That . . . just might work. They’ll definitely be disoriented, at least for a while, and it may give us the situational advantage that we’ll need.”
“So in this scenario, I stay with Andrea?” Clay asked.
“Correct. You keep her and yourself hidden while she takes out the security room up top. They literally won’t see it coming,” Jae said.
“Then once we’re done?” Andrea asked.
“Tobin will fetch you, and we’ll continue on our way deeper into the belly of the beast.”
They mulled it over, staring at the layout in silence, seeing if something more risk averse presented itself.
“Shit, it’s as good of a plan as any,” Clay said.
“I’m all for it,” Andrea said.
“It seems viable,” Tobin said.
They all exchanged glances, some shrugging, some nodding.
“Then we have our plan.” Jae jutted a thumb at a room on the other end of the quarters, where they were keeping their imprisoned guard. “Now we just need to find out when his next shift is, whether it’s in a few days or in a few hours.”
“On our way back, we took a detour back to his home, and we were able to find his schedule. His next rotation is in two days,” Clay said.
“Then we go tomorrow, an hour past midnight. That should give us some time to prepare.”
Clay exhaled. “Tomorrow,” he echoed.
“Believe me, I wish we had more time, but we can’t wait until the day after.”
“I know.”
“I’ll get some supplies for the mission,” Tobin said, and he disappeared.
Andrea placed a hand on Jae’s forearm. “Nice thinking with the security room.”
“It has to work first,” Jae said.
“Why
not just tear the entire place down? Level the whole damn thing. You certainly have the strength for it. Doing that will probably be faster than trying to finesse your way in,” Clay said.
“We might just have to if this fails.”
Laughter crept in from the far edges of the room.
“What was that?” Andrea asked.
They turned to the source of the sound, and Jae realized it was leaking out from the prisoner’s room. Jae went over and pushed the door open, its hinges creaking to reveal a room basked in darkness, but the moon’s light seeping in through a nearby window teased a glimpse of the guard bound to the same chair Tobin initially tied him to.
“Is that really the best plan you can come up with?” the guard asked. “Good god. I’ve heard of stupid ideas, but that one really takes the cake. You might as well save yourself the time and just jump off a cliff. You’ll achieve the same thing with both.”
Jae realized the guard had heard everything that had been said through the door.
“Shut up,” Andrea said.
“I don’t care if you’re all neo-humans. You still won’t get far. Do you actually think you can just break in there and do as you please? You’ll be dead before you can even take your first breath. You won’t know what hit you. You won’t even feel it. You’re going to fail. They’ll gut you, you trash,” the guard said.
“He knows everything. What if he tells someone?” Clay asked.
“He can’t. He’s cut off and isolated,” Jae said.
“Indeed he is.” Tobin appeared behind them. He stepped into the room, reached over to a nearby dresser, and picked up a roll of tape, ripping off a length of it. Upon hearing that tear, the guard began to voice his protestations, but the tape muffled him.
“Sorry about that.” Tobin led everyone out of the room and closed the door behind him.
“What if someone tries to contact him? Friends, family, or co-workers?” Clay asked.
“We have to hope that they don’t.”
“That’s a pretty big hope.”
“We have to risk it, because this is something that we can’t rush into. If we go in right now without being prepared for it, then it’s almost a certainty that it’s going to blow up in our faces. We only have one shot at this, so we have to make sure we do this right.”
