by Kal Spriggs
Colonel Givens halted five steps away from General Chou. "Sir, Colonel Givens reporting as ordered, sir." She executed a parade-ground crisp salute. She wondered if he'd have her escort execute her after he debriefed her or if he planned do it himself. Given his reputation, he would probably take care of it himself.
He returned the crisp salute. "You are either the luckiest bitch in the world or the unluckiest, I have yet to determine."
Colonel Givens stared at him uncertainly, "Sir?"
The General smiled slightly. "Approximately thirty minutes after you initiated Operation Trojan, Chairman Hoi was assassinated by what we believe was a SIGIL strike team. Fifteen minutes later a number of suicide attackers hit ESPSec Headquarters in Beijing. There have since been fifteen attacks. Every ESPSec general officer besides myself has been killed." He frowned. "Several look to have been planned or executed out of opportunism to... remove obstacles to promotion."
"Our officers are assassinating each other?" Colonel Givens asked in disbelief. The ground seemed to tremble beneath her feet and she swayed with shock.
"If you had answered any other way, you'd be taking a bullet in the head right now." General Chou said. "I've overseen the execution of nine colonels and twelve majors who ‘learned’ all of that with far too much confidence." The stocky general turned his gaze to the line of bodies out in the grass. "Due to the situation here, you're in the unique position of having a perfect alibi. I know you weren't part of that treason because you were out of communication here."
He reached back and held up a thick stack of documents. "I've already reviewed the situation here, as well as your initial report. Given any other circumstances, you can be certain that not only would any other general officer have you executed for your failures, but Chairman Hoi would have demanded it."
"In this case, however, we have a shortage officers I can trust. Whatever your faults, you have been loyal... so far. You will take replace Major Wei in command of our upcoming operation in this sector, understood?"
Colonel Givens nodded, "Yes, sir. Will Major Wei brief me on his duties and assignment before he moves on to his next position?"
"I'm afraid Major Wei will be unavailable," General Chou said. "He's currently under interrogation for his involvement in an attempt on my life."
***
"Staff Sergeant King," Colonel Givens said. Her voice held remarkably little warmth for the man who had saved her life, but Tommy wasn't about to comment on that.
"Ma'am," Tommy said with a nod. They stood outside the buildings, on what had once been a parade ground for the old military school. The weak sunlight of spring felt oddly leached of color.
"I understand that the rogue psychics killed your entire squad," Colonel Givens said.
Not much of one for pleasantries, Tommy thought to himself. "That's correct, ma'am." He couldn't help but clench his jaws. In his mind, he began to go through their names. Sergeant Bailey, Private Santiago, Specialist Carter...
She interrupted his mental list, "It says here that you signed up for the military after your fiancé died in a SIGIL attack."
Tommy met her eyes, "Thanks for the reminder." I'm bad luck, he thought, I got her killed and now I got my squad killed.
"Did you know, Staff Sergeant, that ESPSec has been given the lead to attack SIGIL?" Colonel Givens asked.
Tommy shook his head, "No ma'am, that doesn't make any sense. Why would ESPSec go after a colonial terrorist organization?" The very idea was absurd, unless...
"Because SIGIL is a psychic terrorist organization," she replied. "A fact which we will soon release to the media. We will drive these terrorists out of the shadows from which they hide. We will exterminate them all like the vermin that they are."
Tommy shook his head, the radical changes had come too quickly, "What does this have to do with me?" He felt adrift. Almost certainly he would face some kind of military tribunal over the loss of his squad. As the senior surviving military member, responsibility would fall to him.
"You have excellent marks," Colonel Givens said. "In your time as a commando, you excelled at every mission, up until you butted heads with your last Commanding Officer." She paused a moment and Tommy gave her a slight shrug in reply. "What would you say if I offered you a job?"
"A job, ma'am?" He asked.
"Yes," she said, "a transfer to ESPSec. A commission. Working difficult jobs, dangerous assignments... working to eradicate SIGIL and those who support them."
He couldn't help but straighten at her words. A mission, a purpose... and a chance at revenge. He had signed on to fight Colonials. Now that he knew a bit more...
It was a psychic that killed my squad, he thought to himself, and the Colonel says it is psychics behind SIGIL. It was also a pair of psychics who had saved him down in the tunnels, a quiet internal voice reminded him, but he silenced that voice. This was a job, one with prospects... one where he could put his talents to use.
"Where do I sign up?" Tommy King asked.
***
Shaden stepped down out of Angel's big truck and saw that Primus, Moira, and his mother had gathered in the garage. From the crackle of gunfire in the distance and the sound of aircraft and sirens, it seemed pretty clear that the "distraction" had escalated.
That can wait, he thought to himself.
"Mother, everyone, this is Angel and Kandergain. They both helped me at the facility," Shaden said by way of introduction.
He didn't miss a flash of recognition between his mother and Angel, but he didn’t think that it would be wise to bring it up in front of everyone. "Angel, is it?" His mother asked. "Welcome." She looked at Kandergain, "This is the other survivor?"
"Yeah," Shaden said. "She's... been through a lot. Her mother was ESPSec."
Primus scowled, "I hope you killed the bitch."
"No," Kandergain said, "Shaden wouldn't let me. I think he's too soft." She cocked her head at Shaden's mother, "He's not like the man you knew, is he?"
His mother's expression became strained, "No. No he isn't... but he's still my son."
"Well," Primus said, "since you made it back, trotter, I need to get back to the fight."
He didn't stick around to explain, but Moira sighed, "Things, uh, got a little out of hand in the city. I gather a lot of the locals took up arms. InSec is out in force, but even some of the local police turned against them when they started gunning people down. If this keeps up it's going to become a full scale revolt."
"We should get to shelter," Janis said with a glance up at the sky as an aircraft screamed overhead. "Wouldn't want someone to think we were rebels and drop a bomb on us or something."
***
"I have something for you," Angel said.
Shaden looked up. He had only woken up a short time ago, but everyone else still seemed to be asleep. He'd spent the past few minutes staring at the locked box that Thomas Kaid had given him and thinking. "Oh?"
"A memory, one you gave me before ESPSec took you," Angel said as she came forward.
In the distance he heard a muffled explosion. It seemed that the fighting had only escalated since he had slept.
"Okay," Shaden said, "Hit me."
***
"Waking is always the hardest part," John said.
Shaden stared at this mirror image for a long moment. "Is this another of your memories?"
John Mira laughed. "That's the problem with waking. My conscious and my subconscious are both active, my brain can't tell what's real, what's dream, and what is memory." The man Shaden had once been stepped forward and cupped Shaden's head in his hands. "That's why I hated sleep, every time I awoke I felt that I'd lost a part of myself."
"So this is just a memory, a recording," Shaden grimaced, he couldn't tell whose perspective he shared.
"A memory, yes," John said. "A memory where I answer some questions, and don't answer even more."
"Somehow this isn't helping," Shaden said.
"I can't help you," John replied. "I can guide, I
can recommend, but I can't help, not right now." He released Shaden's head and turned away. "I could tell you seventeen ways to escape your predicament, and that would only make you my puppet. If you can't survive, if you can't win, on your own, then you'll never survive the real dangers."
"And what are those dangers?" Shaden asked. "The Balor? Amalgamated Worlds? What scared you so much that you wiped away your existence to end it?"
Shaden waited as John paced, to the window and back to the small table. "Threats, there are many. You might have pieced together some. This is... more difficult than I'd thought. I can see some possibilities where you've figured almost everything out, and others where you lacked even basic knowledge." John swept his gaze through the room. Shaden realized that the other couldn't perceive him, not fully, just the possibility that he'd be here to share this memory.
"Failure, death, the extinction of humanity, this is what I oppose." John said. He seemed to mull over each word. "And in the doing I damn billions to death and more to suffering. I see the loss, the torture of all that I love in the hope that the killing blow will hesitate."
"The time for you to strike will come then. When the enemy ceases to see us as a threat. I've set everything I can in motion so that when they come, they never strike that killing blow."
"But it's so difficult to see success. Even with flawless execution, a thousand possibilities erase us as a species. Even in success the Lords of Shadow might find victory without opposition. This is why a precog cannot be sane, because although one might know everything, sometimes you cannot change even the slightest thing."
John turned his head and looked to the side. For an instant, Shaden saw a ghost of a face, familiar and yet the details passed before he could identify her.
"I die tonight." John said the words and yet Shaden heard only relief in his voice. "And I think that my death is something that should be praised. No man has ever plotted so many deaths as I, no man has planned so much torment. Tonight everything I am will end, and everything I've worked towards will finally begin."
"We are defined by our actions and the consequences of those actions." John said. "And to your true question, what did I find worth giving my life for? Rather, I ask you the question, what do you find worth living for? Find that thing, that cause or that person and never let it go."
"If my plans and my plots are ever to be worth anything, then that worth will only come from human decency and human sacrifice. Billions will die, and when I burn for all eternity for it, I pray that billions more will live because of the good things humanity will fight for."
John faced towards the shadow presence, "I am ready."
The dream ended.
###
The End
The Project Archon Files will continue with Prisoner of Fate
If you liked Prisoner of the Mind, please leave a review!
About the Author
Kal Spriggs is a science fiction and fantasy author. He currently has five series in print: The Renegades space opera and space exploration series, the Shadow Space Chronicles military science fiction and space opera series, the Valor’s Child young adult military series, and the Eoriel Saga epic fantasy series.
Kal is a US Army veteran who has been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. He lives in Colorado, and is married to his wonderful wife (who deserves mention for her patience with his writing) and also shares his home with his newborn son, three feline overlords, and a rather put-upon dog. He likes hiking, skiing, and enjoying the outdoors, when he's not hunched over a keyboard writing his next novel.
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