Prisoner of the Mind

by Kal Spriggs

  Moira couldn't help but give a low whistle as she saw the gold bars. Those wouldn't be easy to lift. The other goon held up a biometric scanner and Moira gave him a nod as she moved forward to check the gold. It only took her a moment to scan the case before she stepped back and gave Bernard a nod. Twenty million in gold, the very idea made her shiver a bit.

  “We're good,” Moira said softly.

  She saw the goon show his scanner to the woman. Moira saw the woman’s eyes flit across the screen and then she looked up at Bernard. “You're playing a dangerous game, Mister Kaid.”

  Moira felt her stomach sink. She knew that Alex was who he said he was, so what was she talking about?

  “What do you mean?” Bernard asked with an easy smile.

  “You know exactly what I mean,” she said with an icy tone. “Having done business with me before, why would you knowingly attempt to betray me?”

  This is not good, Moira thought.

  ***

  Chapter 17

  Rebellions and revolutions rarely kick off as intended. Often, despite years of planning what brings down governments the fires sparked by random chance. But who knows what the difference is between chance and planning? Sometimes the best leaders are those who can ride the whirlwind of chaos

  --Memoirs of Shaden Mira

  Again and again it seems that my hard work is foiled by happenstance. Two of my most promising subjects had undiagnosed heart issues, hundreds of hours of work lost on each of them because of improper screening by the poorly trained medical technicians foisted upon me. Today I lost another when he managed to slip his restraints long enough to get his hands on a scalpel and open his artery. He exsanguinated before I could even arrive at the lab. Some days it seems as if my work is cursed, that I will never be able to produce perfection.

  --Dr. Jonathan Halving, Project Archon Notes.

  Shaden hurried along the alleyway and tried several doors before he finally found one with a broken lock. He paused there, and slowly cracked the door. It opened into what looked like an office section. He eased inside and waited in the dark for a moment until his eyes adjusted to the gloom.

  He froze as he noticed a pair of still figures.

  Shaden realized that both figures were at the office's windows, faced towards the interior of the warehouse. Shaden could make out their black uniforms and body armor, along with their helmeted heads and weapons aimed inward. They aren't here for me, he realized with relief.

  His first instinct was to turn and leave. Yet whoever they were here for, that person was in serious trouble.

  Shaden didn't want to further give away his position to ESPSec's psychics, so he slowly crept forward until he was behind the first man. He could make out the shape of a stunner slung at the man's hip. They had patches on their shoulders with a silver skull. InSec, he thought, Bureau of Internal Security... what the hell are they doing here?

  Both of the InSec commandos wore articulated battle armor with full helmets that enclosed their faces in visors. Integrated Battle Armor with Mark Three Tactical Combat Helmets, he thought. The battle armor would provide excellent protection from energy and projectile weapons, though somewhat less against shocks such as explosions or direct impact... with a few gaps. The helmets the two wore would have full thermal and light amplification, but they would cut down on their periphery vision and if the men were talking on internal communications, they wouldn't be able to hear him.

  Good thing too, Shaden thought, or else I'd probably be dead already.

  Both men held M12 carbines, aimed inwards. Over their shoulders, Shaden could see two vehicles and a small group of people meeting at the center of the warehouse.

  He could walk away, he knew. Neither of the two men knew he was here. He didn't owe the people they were about to ambush anything. The Bureau of Internal Security went after terrorists, the people out there probably deserved what they were about to receive.

  Even so, he hesitated to leave. My first thought is to let them kill their targets, he thought. Yet he already knew not to trust his thoughts. He thought of Amalgamated Worlds as the rightful government, yet they had tortured and experimented on him. ESPSec did it to me, he thought. He didn’t know if it was their mental programming or his own thoughts. He couldn’t trust his instincts.

  If ESPSec did such experimentation, who was to say that InSec wasn't every bit as dirty? Jonathan Halving had talked about training him for assassinations... what if InSec was doing something just as bad?

  As he thought that, he found his hands reaching out. He unhooked the carabiner that held the commando's stunner and then lifted the weapon, angled down so that he had it aimed at the juncture between the back of the commando's helmet and the neck of his body armor.

  Shaden fired and then caught the commando's limp body as the man fell.

  He eased him down and then moved to the other man. The Tyvar Skorpion used two lasers to ionize the air to make conductive tracks for the twenty thousand volts of electricity to follow. The capacitor needed thirty seconds to recharge.

  Shaden counted those seconds off and it seemed to take forever.

  Finally, as the man straightened up and started to shift, as if to look over, Shaden hit him with the stunner.

  He caught the man's weight and eased him to the floor. Shaden pulled the man's helmet off and slid it on his own head and the world came to life. “...I say again, Two-one, what is Two-two's status, over?” The voice came through distorted, which meant that it was a frequency-hopping heavily encrypted channel. That, in turn, meant that whatever they were doing, they didn't want anyone else to know about it. Their radios would bounce the signal across a dozen different frequencies in encrypted short bursts. The good news about that, was the voice distortion should make it difficult to recognize someone's voice.

  Shaden pulled up the helmet's display and saw the man he'd downed was Two-one. “He's having communication issues,” Shaden said, “he's restarting his system.”

  “Roger,” the voice said. “All Trident elements, Fate Six will finish her meeting. At that point, you will take down the three targets. Primary target remains the prisoner.”

  Assassination, Shaden thought. It felt like he had a lead weight in his stomach. How many of the InSec commandos were in position? He couldn't stun all of them. Even if he did, would that be enough to save whoever they had marked for death?

  Maybe not stun all of them, he thought, but I can stop them. He felt a weight settle on his shoulders. These commandos wouldn't kill anyone if they were already dead.

  Shaden unclipped the M12 carbine from the downed commando and checked the magazine. His helmet display showed forty rounds of seven millimeter caseless ammunition. He brought up icons for the others from the commando's team and then took a moment to spot their locations.

  Could I do this? He thought about the lives he was about to take. He would be killing people who had families and lives. Men and women who had signed up to defend their nation.

  People who are about to murder three people in cold blood.

  He tucked the rifle into his shoulder. When it came down to it, he would just have to see.

  ***

  Moira looked over at Bernard, “What's she talking about?”

  He didn't meet her eyes, even as he waved at Cassie to push Alex forward. Moira didn't miss how Cassie backed towards their van. Shit, she thought, Bernard is up to something.

  Moira tensed and kept her eyes on the woman. “What are you talking about?”

  “Mister Kaid here has had dealings with me before,” she said, giving Bernard a nod. “And he seems to think that he can double his payment if he double-crosses me to the Bureau of Internal Security.”

  “What?” Moira looked over at Bernard in shock. Her brother's face had gone sickly green. She looked back at the woman, “Why would that matter?” Moira asked, “I mean, Helix is an engineering contractor, the worst that InSec would do would be hit you with a fine, right?”

  “Helix,” Bern
ard said quietly, “is a front for SIGIL.”

  Moira's eyes went wide. She turned to her brother and then froze as she saw he had his pistol out and aimed... at her. “Bernard, what are you doing?”

  “Sorry,” he said, “She's right. I did betray her to InSec. I don't know how she knows, but InSec wanted someone else to take down for the price I asked. I offered them you. InSec takes down some colonials in a deal with SIGIL? They could practically write their own budget for decades.”

  “Bernard...” Moira's hand started to shift towards her pistol, but she saw his finger settle onto his trigger.

  “I'm sorry, Moira, but this is the kind of deal you only get once in a life-time,” Bernard said. He shrugged a bit.

  “Should you maybe think about the fact that she's not upset?” Moira asked.

  Bernard's eyes flicked over to where the woman stood, a cold smile on her face.

  “The truth,” the woman said, “is that there is an InSec commando team present. They have orders to take down three targets with lethal force and their report will say what your brother said: Moira Kaid, a Colonial citizen with known associations with Thomas Kaid the infamous Colonial Terrorist, was killed by InSec while resisting arrest after a business deal went bad with the terrorist organization known as SIGIL.”

  Moira shivered at those words. The woman's voice held not a trace of uncertainty.

  “The other deceased will include the scientist Alex Agathan and another Colonial, Cassie Halsey,” the woman said.

  “What?” Bernard asked as he looked sharply at the woman. “InSec didn't say anything about my wife...”

  “How do you know all this?” Moira asked.

  “Because I wrote those orders,” the woman said. “Just as I have command of the InSec commando team in position around this warehouse.” She glanced around, “Now, Bernard, since you haven't yet outlived a certain level of usefulness in our other business dealings, I'm offering you a choice. Execute the prisoner, your sister, and your wife, and my orders to the commandos here will stand. Fail to do so...” She gave a wintry smile, “Well, then I'll add a fourth target to the commando's parameters.”

  “Who the hell are you?” Moira asked.

  “I am SIGIL,” the woman said, “and SIGIL has control over InSec.” She cocked her head at Bernard, “What's it to be?”

  ***

  Staff Sergeant Shade's knees flexed and then folded as she rolled out of the way of the next member of her squad. The AH-74 had gone into a hover to allow them to rappel down to the street surface. The assault craft had a “quiet” mode where the engines shifted their pitch to a frequency that humans couldn't hear. What that left was the roar of wind and a sort of humming noise that she couldn't hear but that she felt in her bones.

  Shade moved over to the corner of the nearest building and took up a security position, which covered the section of road that led towards the target warehouse. She saw the icons for the InSec team inside the warehouse. Maybe I should check with them and see what I'm going into, she thought. Still, their command would tell them her squad was on the way. Better to beg forgiveness later, she decided.

  Shade had felt tempted to drop them on the roof of the target warehouse, but she didn't trust the VTOL's “quiet” mode that close. Also, that might be a little too blatant a disregard for InSec.

  Shade waited until the last of her squad had rappelled to the ground and then signaled the pilot to head out. If all went well, her squad would meet the pilot a kilometer out where the pilot had a landing point.

  “Squad, move out,” she said.

  As they drew near the building, she brought up the pilot's thermals as an overlay on her HUD. The target had entered a side door, and Shade bit her lip as her team moved forward in bounds. The thermals didn't penetrate the building well, but it looked like he had gone in a door near two of the InSec team's icons. Shade didn't have their team frequency, so she couldn't warn them.

  Damn it, she thought, I should give them some warning before I come in, guns blazing. She brought up the frequency for the InSec dispatcher who had contacted them before. “InSec, this is Archon Action Team Two, our target has entered the building with your personnel. I recommend that you withdraw your team or at least give them warning.”

  “Archon Action Team Two, this is Imperator Six,” a cold, dispassionate man's voice spoke. “Your operation is in violation of our authority over the Military District of New York. If your squad does not withdraw, you will be brought up on charges of insubordination.”

  “Fuck, that,” Shade snapped, “Your guys have a Threat Level Two psychic coming at them. We have a psychic to protect us and training on how to take him down. Pull your guys back!”

  She didn't think much of the thugs that InSec tended to attract, but still, the target had taken down an entire ESPSec platoon less than an hour ago. Just because they were thugs, it didn't mean she wanted their blood on her hands.

  The man spoke a moment later, “Archon Action Team Two: I say again, do not enter the target building.”

  Her squad had reached the doorway. Shade waved at two of them to move to one side to secure her flank while the others stacked up with her, ready to breach the door. She grabbed the psychic, David, by the shoulder and moved him into position next to her.

  “Look, asshole,” Shade said, “look up my authorization code. In case you're too lazy to look me up by team name: One Four Three Kilo Papa, over.” That would teach the bastard, she knew. She'd looked up her squad's authorization at one point and it basically gave her authority over anything short of the Command Council. If she told a military general that she was going in, he should bend over backwards to let her do it.

  “Is he here?” Shade asked David.

  The psychic went still. She saw his helmeted head droop as he concentrated. They stood waiting for what seemed like an eternity. What if I'm wrong, Shade wondered, what if this isn't our target? She knew there was little love lost between ESPSec and InSec, but would that protect her if InSec came after her?

  Fuck them, she thought, I fought my own commander and won, I'll fight these bastards too when it comes down to it.

  David's head shot up suddenly, “He's here!”

  A second later, Shade heard a muffled shot from inside. Whatever had happened, things had just gone hot. “Rodriguez, hit it!” She called out on her team net.

  Rodriguez kicked open the door and his number two man, Vronkov pulled the pin and threw the frag grenade he held into the room. Normally they would use a flash-bang, but with the cinder block walls of the warehouse, they should be sheltered enough from the blast.

  The concussion blew the door back off the hinges and her helmet and body armor absorbed most of the rest of the blast. I love this stuff, she thought.

  “Squad,” Shade said, “Move in!”

  ***

  Shaden scanned the warehouse and picked out the locations of the of the InSec team. He had just picked out the last of them, when his eyes went back to the group. One of the men had just drawn a pistol and aimed it at a woman.

  “Stand by,” the InSec commander said. “The tertiary target may take the shot. If that's the case, we will not engage.”

  One of the women had gone back to the van. The second one stood frozen, hand on her hip, staring at the man who had a pistol aimed at her. The man, short and red-haired, had a strained look on his face. Shaden looked back at the tall, redhaired woman they met with. Her cold, haughty expression felt somehow familiar and he realized with a shock that it reminded him of Halving’s face, so confident and arrogant at once.

  Shaden brought up the carbine and set the sights on the man with the gun. What the hell is going on here? At this point, he realized that he had no choice, he reached out with his mind and felt for the group. In the first woman, Moira, he sensed, she was confused, angry, and betrayed. The man with the gun, on the other hand, was nervous. Bernard is his name, Shaden thought. He didn't want to kill Moira... his own sister apparently... but that didn't mea
n he wouldn't in order to survive.

  Feeling like he finally understood something of what was going on, Shaden redirected his focus towards the other woman: the one who seemed to be in charge.

  His mind reached out and then, suddenly, he felt her awareness. She raised the defenses of her mind and it felt as if he had run into a fortress of ice and glass.

  The woman turned to face him as she sensed his effort. Instead of surprise, he saw a look of intense calculation cross her face. She didn't know who he was, but what she had felt of his mind interested her very much. To her, he was an anomaly, one that she wanted to take apart to see how he worked and where he had come from.

  That expression, so much like Jonathan Halving's, was what decided Shaden. He swung the sights back to the man with the gun. Shaden gently squeezed the trigger and fired.

  That was when all hell broke loose.

  ***

  Chapter 18

  I find my faith in the small, everyday acts of good people. When all else fails, we seem wired to help out those in need.

  --Memoirs of Shaden Mira

  I do not understand why some of my subjects continue to fight me. I was forced to put one down today, because he violently attacked me when I went to retrieve another for further testing. I don’t know how he escaped his restraints, furthermore, I don’t know why he would suicidally attack when it wasn’t his life on the line, but that of another. What a waste.

  --Dr. Jonathan Halving, Project Archon Notes

  Moira watched her brother's finger tighten on the trigger. She flinched as she heard a muffled shot and then her eyes went wide as her brother fell.

  Moira drew her pistol as she dove to the ground. Her first target was the woman who had ordered her execution, but as she brought her pistol up, one of the bodyguards stepped in the way as he drew his own pistol. Moira didn't hesitate. She put two rounds through his head. As he fell, she saw that the other bodyguard had gotten the woman back to the truck. Guns began to shoot from all around the warehouse, but an unfortunate amount seemed to hit the pavement near her. Moira rolled over near Bernard's body and tried to ignore the meaty impacts of bullets as they struck her brother's corpse.