Psion Delta (Psion series #3)

by Jacob Gowans

  “Sound the alarms! Get General Wu—”

  “Sir, my com line went dead again! Alarm systems are all offline.”

  Byron ran out the door and to the stairs. “Keep the bunker doors open until I get back!” Up and up he climbed until he reached the top. Three small cars were parked outside the bunker door. He jumped in the closest one and sped off. Though he did not know the exact time, it was still long before daylight. He pressed harder on the gas pedal, but it was already against the floor. The drive to the housing units was short. Byron honked his horn the entire way, driving across the lawns and sidewalks to shave off time.

  “WAKE UP!” he screamed. “WAKE UP! ATTACK!”

  The car hadn’t quite come to a stop when he jumped out at Al and Marie’s unit. He didn’t bother with the door; he banged on their bedroom window. “GET UP!” he bellowed into the glass. Al’s sleepy, confused face appeared in the curtains.

  “Hurry, Al! Get Marie! We have to go!”

  Al didn’t wait. Twenty agonizing seconds later, they emerged from the house. A few adjacent lights had turned on, and Byron saw a dozen other people looking out their windows or doors wearing confused expressions. “ATTACK!” he shouted to them. “Get to the War Offices now! GO! GO!”

  The Byrons raced to the car. Again he laid on his horn as he drove, screaming out the window. In the distance, he heard an explosion and the ground trembled slightly. Marie yelped.

  “Hurry, Dad!” Al shouted.

  A second BOOM! echoed behind them, and the ground shook a second time. Byron checked in his rearview mirror and saw clouds of smoke rising in the distance. Enemy battle cruisers flew onto the scene, approaching them quickly from behind.

  “Dad, look out!”

  Byron tore his eyes away from the mirror and saw three Alphas running across the grass, terrified of the car coming at them. He jerked the steering wheel hard to the left, barely missing them, and smashed into a tree.

  “Get out,” he told his children. “Run!”

  Shaken, but all right, the three Byrons sprinted across the lawn with several other Alphas toward the bunker. Byron could see it not too far ahead. Behind them, a third missile struck. The sound seemed to come from everywhere. It took all of his balance to not fall over as the ground bucked and trembled.

  The battle cruiser drew closer, its next target unknown. Commander Byron shouted to Al and Marie, urging them on. They sprinted just ahead of him. Panic had spread through the entire campus. Dozens upon dozens of people yelled and raced about like angry ants.

  Then Byron heard the whistle: the sound of a large air-to-ground projectile coming their direction. The bunker was barely too far away; they wouldn’t make it.

  Byron put his hands on the small of Al and Marie’s backs as if he were gently and lovingly encouraging them forward. He summoned everything that was inside of him and blasted them ahead. Several meters back, the missile struck the ground with incredible force and detonated. Byron hit the ground and covered himself. As the concussion and heat slammed into him, the world itself seemed to disappear.

  * * * * *

  Jeffie did not believe it at first. Kobe can’t die. Not him. Not the boy who read her poetry, made her laugh so easily, and spent hours thinking up romantic ideas for their dates. She knew him as well as she knew anyone. She held strong feelings for him. Not Kobe. Other people could die, but not him. He was special. Invincible. But all of her disbelief didn’t stop his blood from running out across the concrete floor as crudely as Antonio’s had less than an hour ago.

  A sound of primal rage came from the other end of the garage. Kaden, who had been running down to help with the rest of the team, stared at his fallen twin. He left the pack of Betas and sprinted alone toward the Thirteens, his hands in front of him to shield. The Thirteens turned at him and fired. Though Kaden blasted to protect himself, he seemed oblivious to the bullets, his eyes only on those enemies standing nearest to his brother’s body.

  Jeffie looked on, too stunned to do anything but observe and hold her defenses. Li reached her first with Brickert close behind. Kaden battled the Thirteens with a ferociousness Jeffie had never seen. He screamed at them, taunted them, cursed at them, and fought them with both his blasts and his bullets. His movement was fluid and exact. The Thirteens looked like children trying to tackle a professional athlete.

  “Brickert,” Li said, “help me lift Jeffie.”

  They used their arms to create a seat for her. Li had given his weapon to Rosa. Miguel took Jeffie’s gun and reloaded it with one of Li’s ammo clips. Natalia and Kawai stood in front and used hand blasts to provide a solid defense. Jeffie craned her neck over Kawai’s shoulder to see Kaden still fighting with two of the remaining six Thirteens already dead.

  “Kaden, come on!” Li called. “We can hold them off.”

  But the Reynolds brother held his ground while the Thirteens tried to fend off attacks from him, Parley, Miguel, and Rosa.

  “Hurry, Kaden!” Miguel pled.

  Either he didn’t hear them or he didn’t care. He launched into a new attack, jumping and blasting at the Thirteens who weren’t sure if they should try to surround him or defend themselves from the shooters. Two of them fired at Kaden in the air, but Kaden blocked their bullets with perfect timing. Before he landed, he aimed another blast at a third Thirteen, knocking him to the ground.

  “Now, Kaden! Run!”

  It was his perfect chance, but he turned his back to them. That was when Jeffie understood.

  “That’s an order, Kaden! Fall back!”

  “He’s not coming,” she told Li and Brickert. “He won’t come.”

  Li ordered his team to move out.

  “But Kaden—” Miguel protested.

  “MOVE OUT!” was Li’s final order of the night.

  As the Betas hurried away, the Thirteens turned their attention to Kaden. From what Jeffie could see, this only emboldened the surviving twin. He fought on, beating the Thirteens back only to have them return and press him again. He tried to shield from all sides, using a spectacular array of moves and acrobatic blasts. Finally a Thirteen caught him in the foot while Kaden performed a move almost exactly like the one that had gotten Kobe killed. Kaden still landed, but his foot gave out on him. Jeffie saw all this as her friends carried her toward the ramp to the top level of the garage.

  Kaden tried to get up as he shot another Thirteen, killing the Thirteen almost instantly. At the same time, a blast from another enemy knocked the twin down to his knees. Kaden fired again, this time from his kneeling position. The Thirteen shielded and fired back. Kaden tried to use hand blasts, but couldn’t get them up in time. His arms flew out to the sides, spread wide and welcoming. His gun dropped from his hand and fell to the ground, bouncing twice and then silenced. Even from across the garage, Jeffie saw the red holes in his chest. She tried to look away, but couldn’t. Kaden’s widened eyes turned to his brother, his twin, his best friend through everything. He put his hands to the cement and crawled the short distance to Kobe. Even from a distance—even through her tears—Jeffie saw the shining red prints of his hands on the tarmac each time he moved. When at last he reached his goal, Kaden put an arm around his brother’s shoulders and lay next to him. Then, kissing Kobe tenderly on the back of his head, he joined him in sleep.

  Li’s team moved as quickly as they could. With Kaden down, the few remaining Thirteens ran after them. The team hustled up the final ramp to the top level. Here, Jeffie saw the wreckage that Li’s second grenade had caused and the mangled bodies of more Thirteens. Once they reached the top floor of the garage, the street exit wasn’t far.

  “Hurry!” Natalia cried. “They’re gaining on us.”

  Brickert and Li moved as fast as they could, but Brickert’s breaths came in sharp gasps and Li’s face was blotched with color. Jeffie had trouble focusing on anything but what she had just witnessed. The deaths of the Reynolds twins . . . it had to be some awful nightmare that she’d soon wake up from, but her heart w
as broken and the pain was as tangible as the throbbing in her leg and side. Never had any dream affected her like this. To think that someone so close to her was gone forever was unimaginable. They still had years left together at Beta headquarters. He would be there to tease her about her breakfasts, to call her stupid nicknames, or to make fun of the new recruits.

  The Psions were halfway across the width of the garage when the Thirteens reached the top of the ramp. They fired shots, but Kawai and Natalia protected the group well. Once they reached the garage exit, the Thirteens stopped, unwilling to continue the battle in a public forum. The enemy had lost, but as Jeffie considered the three bodies still inside, she felt uncertain about that conclusion.

  A crowd of people stood outside the garage, wondering what was going on. A few of them recorded everything on their coms.

  “Was someone shooting?”

  “We heard an explosion and came running!”

  “Look at that girl!”

  “Oh my—”

  “Someone call this in!”

  “Those kids are armed!”

  “Where are you, Ludwig?” Li muttered as he searched the skies. “Come on, man.”

  “My com still isn’t working,” Brickert said. “Are you okay, Jeffie?”

  Jeffie finally realized that her face was wet with tears. She hadn’t noticed it until the cool air hit them, chilling her skin. “I’m not okay,” she said blankly, still remembering every detail of what she’d seen. “Please, let’s go home. Please.”

  “We don’t know where Ludwig is,” Brickert explained.

  “I don’t care. I want to go home!” A tightness gripped her chest as blood drained from her head. Woozy and nauseous, she rested her head on Brickert’s shoulder and fought to stay conscious. She didn’t know where they were taking her or what was going on anymore. All she knew was that every step Li and Brickert took was agony in her hip.

  “There!” Natalia said. “Look up!”

  Everyone looked, even Jeffie. A bright light shone from the sky, heading straight for the middle of the street.

  “Get those cars to stop!” Parley pointed Miguel down the street while he ran in the opposite direction.

  As soon as the cruiser set down on the road, everyone hurried to get in. The crowd of people looking on swelled in numbers. Sirens wailed from nearby blocks and Jeffie saw the reflection of their flashing lights off the street-level windows. Brickert and Li took her to the back where the medical supply was kept. Brickert talked to her in a soothing voice, telling her over and over again that she would be fine and everything would work out in the end. But Jeffie had a feeling that Brickert was wrong.

  * * * * *

  The fox turned on his holo-screen and switched over to a news station. At first, all Sammy saw was fire, smoke, and wreckage. The fox turned up the volume so Sammy could hear. A homely woman with blue and blonde hair stood in front of the camera wearing a helmet and a bulletproof jacket. She checked over her shoulder every few seconds.

  “—live from Reykjavik, on Capitol Island, for the first time in several years. You are watching live footage from the battlegrounds of a top-secret strategic mission that took place just hours ago. No word has been received yet as to why these buildings were targeted, but unconfirmed rumors state that this was a government complex. As you can see, all that’s left is a burning shell. I’m also told that CAG forces attacked the Elite Training Facility in Siberia. As we learn more about why these specific sites were targeted, we’ll bring that information to you.

  “CAG forces mounted the surprise attack beginning in the earliest hours of the morning and ending, as I said, an hour or so ago. The press has been explicitly informed that no CAG citizens were involved in the strikes. As of right now, we assume these strikes were conducted solely by drones.”

  Sammy finally recognized the burning building behind the reporter. Its square shape would have been more apparent had it not been for the massive chunks blown away by the bombings. It was Beta headquarters.

  The camera switched from the field reporter to a smarmy looking man and woman sitting behind a large desk with several different scenes of disaster behind them. “Reports are now coming in from anonymous sources within the CAG that the targeted sites were training and housing facilities for NWG terrorists and moles. Our analysts are predicting enemy casualties to be limited to two or three thousand. President Newberry will address the country later this morning to issue a call that the NWG cease all terrorist-sponsored attacks on CAG soil. There have been at least four such attacks in the last five years. In an announcement from the White House fifteen minutes ago, he expressed his hopes that, like Hiroshima and Nagasaki, these attacks tonight would ultimately reduce the loss of life by putting an end to the violence. We have not yet received word from NWG officials.”

  The fox muted the holo-screen.

  Sammy’s mind was reeling. He grasped at any explanation he could think of. “This—this is a hoax. This is a hoax! I’m done sitting here and letting you lie to me!”

  “You know it isn’t a hoax.” The unnerving softness of the fox’s voice returned. “It’s your move.” He glanced down to the chessboard.

  “You think I care about your stupid game?” Sammy moved his hand to swipe away all the pieces, but the fox caught his hand, glaring at him with an expression so menacing that Sammy’s fury was all but quelled.

  “Don’t you dare.”

  Sammy let the fox hold his wrist for several seconds while they stared each other down.

  “I already explained everything to you,” the fox reminded him. “I told you from the beginning that I would change the world. You doubted me, and now that I’ve proven it, you’re angry?”

  “You killed my people. You say you killed my friends. You have taken from me everything I—”

  The fox gave a low whistle while keeping his eyes on Sammy. Behind him, in the shadows, something came forward. It looked like a bizarre, oversized dog with stripes along its back and starting down its tail. Its snout was long like a wolf or fox’s, though the jaw didn’t look quite right, either. It stopped next to the fox’s chair and sat, waiting.

  “You know this creature?”

  Sammy shook his head, his eyes flickering to the window.

  “This is a thylacine. Thylacinus cynocephalus. It went extinct about a hundred and fifty years ago from human poaching and disease. I brought it back to life through cloning . . . with a few modifications. I call this girl Lacy.”

  At mention of her name, Lacy turned toward the fox and nuzzled his hand.

  “I wanted you to see her so you know the kind of work I’ve done, and will yet do to shape our species. The modifications I can make will save humanity.”

  “I understand your aims, but disagree with your methods.”

  “They are for the betterment of mankind. For the greater good. For whatever you want to call it, if you have some primitive need to put a name to it. You are so blind! Your gift has been dampened, and that’s why I’ve brought you here now, before you regain your anomaly, so I can help you and show you what is real and what is a mirage. These things you’ve been taught by your parents and society are—are horribly wrong. Trust in me, Sammy. Trust my vision for a better world where people are truly free.”

  A dim light outside the window flashed in the periphery of Sammy’s vision and slowly dropped from view. Sammy lowered his eyes to the chessboard and moved his piece.

  “Check.” He clenched his teeth as his lips twisted into something animal-like. “Mate.”

  The fox stared at the chessboard with an expression of shock. “That isn’t checkmate.”

  “No, but in five moves, it will be.”

  The fox studied the board intently. “I can move—”

  “It won’t work.”

  “You shouldn’t have—can’t have beaten me.”

  “Yet, I did,” Sammy said quietly. “Maybe you aren’t as smart as you think you are.”

  “But your anomaly . . . the m
edical reports—”

  “They were accurate three and a half months ago, but I discovered something recently while I played chess with a friend—another Anomaly Eleven. The more I played, the better I could see. Maybe you already know this, but I discovered my anomaly during a chess match with my dad. I guess that somehow playing it again helped me recover my . . . gift, as you call it. And so I made sure I spent a lot of time playing chess over the last few weeks.”

  The fox reached across the table and put his hands on Sammy’s shoulders. “Stay here and let me show you the way I see. We can teach each other, and we can learn from each other.”

  “I’m leaving now.”

  “No, you’re not.”

  “I am.”

  Lacy snarled at Sammy as he stood up. “Hold, girl,” the fox told her with a pat on the head. “Sammy, you can’t leave. You have nothing to go back to over there. Beta and Alpha are gone. How are you going to get out of this apartment? How would you survive on the streets getting back to your cruiser while the police are hunting you? How would you survive in the air? Like I couldn’t shoot you down? Do you really think I’ll just let you leave?”

  Sammy grabbed the chessboard off the table and scattered the pieces to the floor. “I’ll start with this.”

  “Lacy, warn him.”

  The thylacine got up on all four paws and snarled again. When she bore her teeth, Sammy understood the modifications the fox had made. Ghastly fang-like teeth filled her jaw—teeth so impossibly long they looked like a nightmarish monster’s. A pale green-yellow color stained each of them from tip to root. The color of her eyes changed from brown to a reddish-orange. Her hair bristled up on her back.

  “Acid fangs, every single tooth in that mouth. It took us dozens of tries to get it right. That’s why her jaw is so abnormal. One bite and you’ll feel like you had a horrible accident in a chemistry lab. And she’s fast, too, faster than you, Sammy. So, please, sit down. Let’s put the chessboard back on the table, reset the pieces, and talk about this like adults.”