by Ann Bakshis
“Researchers, instructors, and medical staff kept logs on what had transpired every day. Every birth, death, experiment, and creation was documented and then transmitted from the Dormitories to my own set of servers at my estate. I never reviewed the files until the raid, and by then it was too late. Your mother had already done her damage, and all the Antaeans were thought to have been destroyed.”
I know he’s lying, so I decide to test the waters. “But not everything was ruined. Your Regulators came back.”
A surprised look crosses his face.
He doesn’t know that someone caught his men scavenging the ruins. Did I just tip my hand?
He quickly recovers, but doesn’t let my slip-up get past him. “Do you have friends that I don’t know about, Trea?”
I bite my lip.
“Who have you been traveling with?”
I don’t respond.
“Caderyn has told me about the men you’ve been journeying with. He even told me three of them are Antaeans, but the fool let them slip away.” Vladim’s face turns red with anger.
I can sense his outrage at Caderyn’s failure, but he calms down within a few moments.
“Which ones are they?” he asks.
“There are only two now,” I reply. “You can thank your Keons for killing one of them.”
His anger returns, this time he can’t control it. He knocks my bed over. I fall onto the floor, hitting my head, which dazes me. He bends down, grabs me by the collar of my jacket, and lifts me off my feet.
“Why do you know so much?” he screams at me. “You know all my secrets, don’t you? But that won’t last much longer.” He reaches into his pocket and removes a small remote, which turns on my monitor.
Grainne is in a disciplinary room, but not tied to a chair. She’s pounding on the door, screaming to be let out.
“How much do you value this girl’s life?”
I’m frozen with fear. My voice won’t come to me. I need to say something, but I can’t.
He pushes another button on his remote and Grainne’s room begins to rapidly fill with water. Her screams escalate to deafening levels.
“You know, Trea, you and this girl share the same secret,” Vladim says, loosening his grip on me. “Your mother was very determined that her children would be well protected.” He turns the monitor off just as the water is reaching the ceiling. “I think your sister will be a lot easier to control than you.”
CHAPTER 25
Braxton
“What do you mean Trea has a sibling?” Vier asks, shocked.
I sit down in one of the console seats before answering. “Eunice had two batches of embryos secured. Grainne is Eunice and Devlan’s child.”
“Do you think Vladim knows?” Neo asks.
“He might,” Artemis responds.
“How do you mean?” Caitrin asks. “All the servers lost power just after Holunder had copied the files. Unless there was a backup system somewhere else, he couldn’t possibly know.”
“He has a whole network of servers at his estate south of Tyre. I heard him telling a few of his Superiors that the staff at the Dormitories communicated with him daily on everything that was going on. He even mentioned that the files would automatically back up to his servers.”
“Braxton,” Vier begins, “what’s the matter?”
I feel my face go pale, my skin begin to sweat. “We’ll never be able to stop him,” I say, defeat already setting in.
“There’s something you’re not telling us,” Artemis says, moving to the edge of his seat.
“Trea has the ability to put up a protective shield around her and anyone she’s touching,” I begin, passing the tablet over to Neo as he steps to the back having been replaced by Lehen at the wheel. The file for the Final Stage open for him to see. “It was an enhancement that was only supposed to have been used on a newer generation of Antaeans. Eunice created it, gave it to Grainne and Trea, and then destroyed it.”
Neo reads the file out loud.
“When could Eunice have given this to Grainne? She wasn’t even born yet,” Caitrin says.
“While she was an embryo. Trea was injected with it at the age of one.”
“What else does the Sanar do, besides enhance the Quantum Stream?” Artemis asks.
I can sense the wheels spinning in his head, thinking about the possibilities this enhancement might include.
He’s just like Vladim. Thinking of only his gain, not what it’ll do to others. He’s a monster just like his father, and that makes him just as dangerous.
“They can’t get injured by a Levin gun or mortar. The energy is absorbed into their cells.”
“That can’t be right,” Caitrin says. “Grainne used to get injured all the time with Levin blasts when Ares took the kids out to train.”
“Maybe it works on her differently,” Vier says.
We all sit in silence for a while. My eyes grow heavy. I can’t remember the last time I slept. I start to doze off, fighting it until I lose.
The lack of motion is what wakes me up. I open my eyes to find the vehicle is empty, the hatch open. Outside, everyone is sitting in the night, huddled around a small fire for warmth. We’re at the foot of a vast mountain range I’ve never seen before.
How long have I been asleep?
Stepping out of the transport, I rub the stiff muscles in my neck. I sit next to Neo, and am handed a packet of dried meat, an apple, and a flask of water. I eat slowly since I’m not fully awake. Neo tells me I’ve been asleep for two days, and that we’re a day and a half away from the Barracks.
“Troops have been gathering ten miles from the border,” Neo says. “We’ve been watching them on the radar. They haven’t tried to cross the barrier yet. They seem to be waiting for something.”
“What kind of barrier separates Sirain from the north?” Caitrin asks, adding another log on the fire.
“It should be like the ones to the east,” I respond.
“It’s not,” Artemis chimes in. “The fences along the east were built by one of the High Rulers of Acheron. The border to the north was built by the rulers of Eretria, not Sirain.”
“Is there anything to the south of Sirain?” Lehen asks.
“No,” Artemis replies. “At least nothing that poses a threat to Sirain like its northern counterpart.”
“How do you know so much?” Vier asks.
“I’ve been to the barrier. They’re waiting because they’ll need the Antaeans in order to cross it.”
“Why?” I ask, looking quizzically at him.
“At the top of the wall sits Quantum and Dorongan cannons. The army would be obliterated before they were even a mile from the border.”
“I wonder how Eretria obtained our technology,” I say, glaring at Artemis.
He gives a half-smile before turning back to his food.
We pack up an hour later and continue our journey, Vier at the wheel. Neo and I sit at the control console, trying to determine our strategy for getting inside the Barracks. The area is well fortified, with perimeter fencing several miles from the buildings. The only way to get past the barrier is by air. The transportation road that juts out from the tunnel only travels fifty feet beyond the two helipads, and dead-ends.
The Barracks themselves are divided into three sections, each barricaded from the other. The section closest to the ground bridge has a number of three story buildings clustered together, divided by guard posts and small wooded areas. Just to the north of that is a thick stone wall with wire fencing running along the top and each side. According to the schematic read-out on the monitor, the fencing is high voltage. Beyond the wall are three paths, all protected by the same electrical fencing. An open stretch of land lies between the end of each path and three distinct buildings, lined in a row.
The structures act as a divider between the open area and a decimated land heavy with weapons, trenches, and rubble.
“Looks like a battlefield,” Neo says. “This has to be their tra
ining facility.”
“But how do we get in?” I ask, my frustration increasing.
On the west side of the Barracks there’s a lone building half dangling off a rock ledge over a vast lake. The circular building stands eight stories. Clear panels make up the walls, and three half-story wings hang off the structure, over the water. High voltage fencing lines the north and south perimeter, stretching right to the cliff edge.
“Looks to be a power plant,” Neo says.
“Can you rotate the image?” I ask.
He turns a dial and the image turns one hundred and eighty degrees. From this angle, we can see that the extensions each have a downspout, dumping thousands of gallons of water back into the lake. I have Neo zoom in closer to the rock wall above the lake. On either side of the building are two covered ladders leading from two small jetties at the bottom. They almost look like boat docks.
“There,” I say, pointing to the ladders. “If we can get to one of these, we can climb up into the structure and at least get into the range of the Barracks.”
“We still need to locate where Trea and Grainne are being held. We’re not going to be able to just waltz into the compound, even if we manage to get in via the power plant. There are probably other obstacles.”
Caitrin sits at the console next to me, and begins typing on a prompt screen she pulls up.
“What are you doing?” Artemis asks, sitting behind us.
“Trying to locate the plans for the Barracks. You say that Vladim had files automatically sent to him from the Dormitories, so there has to be a mainframe housing all of Tyre’s data. They didn’t just build this compound from nothing, they would’ve had to create detailed drawings.”
While she looks for schematics, Neo and I discuss our incursion and extraction options. It’s decided that we’ll enter the lake from the south ridge. There’s rope in the transport that we will use to repel down the rock. We’ll then swim over to the ladder, and once on the surface we’ll walk east to the forest that separates the power plant from the smaller buildings. Unfortunately, we can’t see what kind of traps might be hidden in the woods, at least at the moment. Once we’re within a few miles from the compound, the continuous-wave radar will be able to pick up any detonator or electrical frequencies that may not be viewable to the naked eye.
As for the extraction, we can’t decide on the exact location, so we’ll have to figure that out once we have a chance to reconnoiter.
Neo and I take a break after several hours. Our eyes are starting to blur from staring at the screens for too long. I relieve Vier from driving after breakfast. According to the radar, we should be on the outskirts of the lake by tomorrow afternoon if we don’t stop. I’d like to make the incursion during the night, in case there are any patrols wandering the grounds. Lehen scours the rig for anything we might be able to use. He locates two hand-held radar devices we can use instead of relying on radioing back and forth with whomever stays in the transport. He also finds four Ammits, six conflagration launchers, three detonators, and eight Levin guns. In a compartment at the back there’s portable communication equipment, army uniforms, and protective gear. The last will be too heavy to wear in the water as the material was designed to absorb Levin blasts and high velocity projectiles.
I ask Lehen to see if he can find some kind of satchel we can tow the weapons in. He finds two bags, large enough to hold both the protective gear and weapons. Just as we’re finishing dinner, Caitrin finally locates the plans for the Barracks. Neo takes over driving, so I can review them with her.
We start with the power plant, since that is our point of entry. The top seven floors contain a hydroelectric station, churning the water into power for the Barracks. The wings jutting out of the building act as an outflow for the water released back into the lake. A siphon descends below the waterline just at the point where the building comes off the ridge, drafting water up into the structure. She moves onto the next file containing the other two sections.
The tunnels are what catch my eye. One is located under a building marked “Hall”. There are three of these buildings, each in the proximity of housing units. The tunnels lead under the woods and the stone wall to the battlefield.
If we can get to the battlefield, we can use the tunnels. But we still need to find out where they’re keeping the girls.
Then I notice that the cluster of buildings near the stone wall has an extra building. “What’s that?”
Caitrin taps the image on the screen, pulling up the details. “It’s a detention center,” she says, pointing to the cells lining the bottom floor.
“That’s it. They have to be in there.”
“Can you be sure?” Vier asks.
“No, but it’s where I would keep them.”
We talk well into the following morning about strategy and contingency plans. Vier takes over driving, so Neo can get some rest. Caitrin and I take to the benches at the back to sleep since we’ll be making the journey into the Barracks. Neo, Lehen, Vier, and Artemis will stay with the vehicle.
A proximity alarm sounds just as I’m falling asleep. I get up and look at the radar. An aerial unit is approaching our location.
“Is it targeting us?” Neo asks, joining me.
“I can’t tell. It may just be scouting,” Vier responds.
“How far from the lake are we?” I ask
“At least three hours,” Vier says.
I watch nervously as the unit gets closer, almost holding my breath. “Lehen,” I begin, “grab what you can, I think we need to abandon the transport.”
“Why?” Artemis asks, his voice sounding alarmed. “We’re in a Tyrean army vehicle, surely they can tell.”
“Something just doesn’t seem right,” I say.
It’s more of a gut feeling than true knowledge, but I’ve survived more than once because of it.
Vier continues to drive while Lehen and Caitrin fill up both satchels, and Trea’s, with food, weapons and protective gear. We decide to leave the uniforms, as they would be too much added weight.
“Transport twelve, what is your destination?” a voice booms over the speakers above our heads.
“Shit,” Neo says. “We need to go.”
Vier picks up our speed, aiming for the beginning of a forest a few miles in front of us. If we can get that far, it’ll give us enough cover to escape the vehicle without being seen. A mortar explodes behind us, shaking the vehicle violently. I rummage through the weapons cache and find an empty shell, probably for a Deflagration cannon. We reach the tree line just as another mortar strikes. This time part of it penetrates the back, but it’s only external damage.
“Here,” I say to Vier, handing him the shell. “Wedge this between the seat and the pedal. We want to keep the vehicle moving as we jump.”
He takes it from me and tucks it between his knees, saying he’ll wait to use it until everyone is out. Neo opens the hatch. There isn’t a straight path, so Vier is swerving the transport back and forth around the trees. Caitrin and Lehen are the first out, followed by Artemis and Neo.
“Come on, Vier, let’s go,” I shout to him.
He rigs the pedal just as I reach for the journal still open on the console, and we both jump. I land hard as I try to roll away from the trees. The vehicle continues forward before slamming into a group of trees. A Quantum mortar finishes the job. We watch as the aerial unit makes a sweep over the wreckage before moving on. We regroup were Artemis and Neo landed. No one is seriously injured, but we’re all pretty banged up. I take one of the radar devices, turn it on, and expand the radius until I see the lake.
“Now it’s going to take us longer to get to the lake,” Neo says.
He grabs one of the satchels, flings it over his back while Lehen takes the other one and we start heading north. Our three hour drive has now turned into a six hour hike. I lead the way, Neo taking the rear.
We stop after two hours to grab something to eat and drink. I look over the items Lehen and Caitrin managed to
take. They were able to get all the weapons, most of the food, but only two pairs of the protective gear. We pack up and continue walking an hour later. Artemis is the only one complaining. I tell him he’s more than welcome to find his own way back to Tyre. He remains quiet the rest of the day.
The sun is beginning to set and we still have two hours to go, so I make the decision to eat dinner while we walk. I want to make sure we get there with enough time to get some rest in before we begin our repelling.
The stars begin to shine as we break through the forest and out onto the ridge above the lake. We’re about eight hundred meters from the tall wire fence. The power plant is brightly lit. Neo wants to move closer to the fence so we don’t have far to swim, but Vier says there are detonators two hundred feet from where we stand that extend right up to the fence line. Lehen rummages through his satchel, coming up with a pair of binoculars and hands them to me. I switch them over to night-vision so I can get a better layout of the land around the power plant.
I don’t see any guards, or patrols, so I switch the vision back to normal and scan the building.
Empty.
“It’s hard to believe they don’t have some kind of security other than the detonators around this place,” I say, passing the binoculars off to Neo.
“Let’s wait a couple of hours,” Neo says, giving the binoculars back to Lehen. “Maybe there’s a specific rotation.”
“We can’t afford to wait a full day to figure out their patrol schedule,” I say. “If Vladim finds out about Grainne, things are going to get bad for her and Trea very quickly. We need to get in there.”
Neo comes up to me, and places his hand on my shoulder. “It won’t do the girls any good if you get killed going in when we don’t know exactly what we’re dealing with. I know you care deeply for Trea, but you can’t forget your training either. We always get to know our enemy before we attack.”
I know he’s right. I’m acting more on feeling than instinct.
We make camp at the forest edge. Each of us take turns watching the power plant, checking for any patrol that may come by. I make my bed several feet away from the others. I don’t want to be around anyone.
