Chains of Freedom

by Selina Rosen

  RJ jumped on the trike, and ordered it to stop. She quickly slung the chain around herself as David boarded, and she was off before the rest of the patrol realized what had happened. They recovered quickly, however, and the chase was on.

  The trike wallowed like a pregnant cow. It had never been designed for more than one rider. Their pursuers were closing in, and the laser blasts they fired were getting closer and closer to their mark.

  "They're going to kill us!" David moaned, close to hysteria."They're going to kill us. You shouldn't have killed our hostage!"

  "They're not going to kill us," RJ stated flatly, gunning the machine for all it was worth. She knew there was only one place that this beast was going to be able to stay ahead of the patrol: off the road. The problem being that there was no place to get off the road right here. RJ took a quick shot at their pursuers. Surprisingly, it hit one of the motorcyclists square in the chest and sent him flying.

  Fortunately, RJ had driven these things before. On some of the outer planets, three-wheeled ATVs were the most popular mode of transportation. David had never been particularly happy with RJ's driving, and at this moment it seemed to him that if the patrol didn't kill them, RJ would.

  "They're going to kill us! They're going to kill us!" David's whine was beginning to sound like a chant.

  "They're not going to kill us!" RJ shouted over her shoulder, as she finally swung off the pavement and onto a dirt road. This gave her an edge. She still couldn't find a place to get into the woods. If she could find a small trail they wouldn't be able to follow. A laser blast clipped the trike's fender and showered David with sparks. RJ jerked the trike sideways and swung it down an even more primitive road.

  One of the bikes skidded out in the gravel. The rider was thrown into a tree, and the bike slid on down the road.

  RJ nearly lost it on a sharp corner, and the patrol gained precious ground.

  "They're going to kill us . . . they're going to kill us . . . they . . ."

  "They're not going to kill us!" RJ didn't need his pessimism. Just then, something tugged at her leg. She glanced down quickly. Nothing serious. Still, even a glancing shot from a laser hurt like hell. Now she was pissed.

  The last bike made a bad move, slipped just a bit, and the car hit it. RJ sighed with relief and satisfaction. The ATV could easily outrun the car on this terrain. No sooner had this happy thought flashed by than the engine started to cough. A glance at the fuel gauge showed why.

  "They're going to kill us . . . they're going to kill us . . . they're go . . ."

  "David." RJ's voice was dangerously calm. "If you don't shut up, you won't have to worry about them, because I'm going to kill you. I AM GOING TO KILL YOU!"

  The ATV uttered a final splutter and died. RJ jumped off the bike. "Someday you'll laugh about this." She gave his neck a quick, precise chop and caught him as he went limp. As she lay his unconscious form on the ground, the vehicle was almost on them.

  "That's right, come on." She fingered the chain and smiled smugly. "Come on, motherfuckers. Let's get this over with, once and for all."

  The soldiers stopped firing. One of the rebels was dead, and the other was obviously giving up. Live rebels were valuable. But suddenly, the woman wasn't standing still anymore.

  "What the hell . . . open fire!" the captain screamed.

  RJ ran at them full speed. Just as it seemed sure that she would make impact with the vehicle, she jumped and landed in the vehicle with them. The chain lashed out. In seconds, all five men were dead. RJ stopped the car and unceremoniously tossed the bodies out. Then she walked over to David.

  "David."

  No response.

  She slapped him lightly on the face."David. David, come on."

  He stirred. "Ugh, what happened?" He opened his eyes slowly. "Was I hit?" Then he remembered. He jerked into a sitting position. "I was hit. By you," he accused.

  "You were hysterical," RJ explained.

  "I most certainly was not!" David said indignantly.

  RJ raised her eyebrows.

  "OK, so I was a little on edge. Couldn't you just slap me?"

  "Not nearly as effective," RJ said with a crooked grin.

  David gave her a hard look.

  "I'm sorry, OK? I lost my cool. It was the first thing that popped into my head."

  "Knocking me out! That was the first thing that 'popped into your head?'" David screeched.

  RJ walked over and got into the car. "Are you coming?"

  He hesitated, so she started to leave without him. He ran to catch up.

  "Why are we going back this way?" he asked.

  "To pick up one of those bikes. They must have been on the road looking for us a long time, and this damn thing's almost out of fuel, too. We ought to be able to siphon out enough to get us a full tank on a bike."

  "Why did they just start shooting at us? I mean, they didn't even pull us over and question us!"

  "Well, like I said, they had been on patrol for awhile. They were probably hot to shoot at something, and when we couldn't be reached over the radio . . . when we weren't on their frequency . . ." she shrugged.

  "But what if our radio was broken, or . . ."

  "The Reliance deals in statistics, David, not people. Odds were that we were their target. They were right."

  "But what if they hadn't been?"

  "I thought that was what the war was all about."

  "Lost them?" Jessica screamed. "Lost them?" Her eyes blazed fire. She checked the map. "They've taken one of the bikes, but they still can't have gotten far." She drew a circle on the map. "Concentrate the search here."

  "First thing in the morning, Senator," Perkins confirmed, saluting.

  "Now, fool. Bring in fresh troops. They're running, but they'll try to rest. They'll have to. Now is the time to find them, and we're not going to stop till we do."

  "As you wish, Senator." He bowed and left her office, happy to escape her presence.

  RJ threw David a carton of the K-rations she'd found on the bike.

  "I'm not eating. Not this crap, anyway." He set it on the ground beside him and lay back on his bed of leaves.

  "It's all we have and could be all we have for awhile," RJ said. She sat on a pile of leaves she'd raked up and started to eat. "They weren't planning to be out long. No camp gear, no extra ammo. They didn't pack much food, either."

  David sat up and watched RJ eat in disbelief.

  "You're eating a dead man's food," David said with a note of disgust in his voice.

  "Well, then he can't bitch, can he?" she asked with a smile.

  "If you hadn't killed that man, he'd be eating that food right now," David said in a faraway voice. A shiver went up his spine.

  "God, I hate it when you're morbid. It's just food. Peel off the foil top, pick up the fork on the left and eat," RJ said.

  "I can't." David lay back down.

  After a few minutes he sat up, picked up the tray, peeled off the top and started to eat.

  RJ smiled smugly, but said nothing.

  "I'm hungry," David growled defensively. "So, what's next? Satis?"

  "God no!" She tapped the pack with the case in it. "This should tell us our next move." She'd finished eating and tossed her tray aside. She took the case out and started to hammer out the code.

  "Careful, careful!" David said, flinching.

  RJ just grinned as she opened the case.

  "Damn it, RJ, why don't you write the combination down somewhere? One wrong number and you blow us both into tiny, bite-sized David and RJ pieces."

  RJ just continued smiling as her fingers flew across the keys. "You worry about the damnedest things." She looked away from the screen just long enough to see that David was not at all happy with her cavalier attitude. "David, do you know what 'total recall' means?"

  "I don't know, and I don't give a . . ."

  "It means that I remember everything I ever saw, everything I've ever heard." She went back to the keyboard. "I don't forget anything
. I'm certainly not likely to forget something as simple as the combination to this case."

  "That must be great!" David said, impressed in spite of himself. "Hell, I can't remember my name half the time."

  "Most of the time it's more a curse than a blessing." RJ's voice dragged. She didn't stop working with the computer, but she wasn't smiling any more. "There are some things that are better off forgotten. It can be real hell being able to remember in detail something you would just as soon forget." She smiled then. "A wise man once told me, 'Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.'"

  David finished eating. His curiosity aroused, he moved to sit behind RJ. He looked in awe at the print out screen. It was like the viewscreen in his village, except much smaller. Instead of pictures, there was a steady stream of letters and numbers. He understood that by hitting the keys, RJ was making the numbers and letters appear. Beyond that, he was lost.

  "What do all those letters and numbers mean? Are they important?" he asked.

  "Yes," RJ replied shortly.

  "Well, what do they mean?" he asked again.

  RJ sighed, then said in the most patient voice she could muster. "It's computer lingo. This computer is tied into Zone 2-A's military computer. All the data on military operations in the zone are stored there. With this portable model, I can access the main computer and extract any information I deem necessary. Because it is tied into the system, it won't show a break-in. It can tell us about any shipment of arms or anything else in detail. How many troops are in the convoy, how many vehicles, what sort of material they are transporting, et cetera., et cetera."

  David understood now why the box was so important, and why they had gone to so much trouble to get it.

  RJ stopped the scrolling on the screen. "Hum."

  "Hum, what?" David asked.

  "That's very interesting."

  "What is?" These letters and numbers didn't look any more interesting to David than the others had.

  "Most of the more important shipments are being accompanied by GSHs. Still, with this we ought to be able to avoid those. I wish I knew where we were. I could see if there are any troops close to us," she added thoughtfully.

  "You mean you don't know where we are?" David asked in disbelief.

  "Haven't the vaguest," RJ answered, obviously unconcerned.

  "I thought you said you had total recall," he said.

  "I do. I also have a lousy sense of direction. I can tell you this: we are somewhere north of the point where the patrol started chasing us." She shrugged. "There are no road markers on these pig trails we took. I know where we are in relation to where we were, but I can't put it into anything that I can use in the computer. I'm not too worried. They won't try anything till morning." Suddenly, she looked up and seemed to be listening. "Of course, I could be wrong." She packed the computer back into the pack, jumped up and ran for the bike.

  David had learned to trust RJ's instincts. He got on as she started the bike. "What is it?" he asked.

  "I hear bikes." She roared off into the woods, choosing not to return to the road. She also didn't bother to turn on the headlight. This was none too safe considering that it was now pitch black.

  "RJ, the lights," David reminded her, thinking that perhaps it had slipped her mind.

  "No!" was all she said.

  David didn't argue. Actually, considering the way RJ drove, he'd just as soon not be able to see.

  The Elite Captain got off his bike. The infrared scan showed where the bike had left the road. He got on his comlink. "Senator Kirk, this is Captain Sikes."

  "Here, Captain," she said, but made him look at the back of her head.

  "We've found where a cycle left the road."

  Now he had her attention. She turned to face him. "Then don't stand there, imbecile. Get after them! I want those rebels dead!" she almost screamed.

  "Yes, Senator."

  "And Captain . . ." she added.

  "Yes, Senator?"

  "If you fail, I will not feel very charitable towards you."

  Her tone made Sikes shiver."I won't fail, Senator." He cut the link. "Let's move out." He started out with his four men on the trail of the bike. He had to kill these rebels or face the wrath of Senator Kirk. For some reason he didn't feel confident. He shouldn't be feeling uneasy. He had the scan, and with that he couldn't lose them. Surely, four secondaries armed with projectile weapons and an Elite with a laser ought to be able to overpower two tired rebels who'd been on the run all afternoon with no food and no rest. If nothing else, their bike should be running low on fuel.

  They drove up on RJ and David's rough camp. Gone—damn it! Sikes saw an empty food tray and the piles of leaves. Damn! They'd eaten and probably rested—so much for that part of his fairy tale. He got off the bike, retrieved the food tray and looked around quickly. There was nothing to indicate that he was dealing with any more than two rebels. Good, he didn't need any more surprises. He stuck the tray in his pack and took off again, following the heat trail the rebels had left.

  The bike lugged up the hill. It hadn't been designed for the kind of abuse it had endured since RJ seized it. The patrol was closing in on them. She now not only heard them, but she could see their lights. The bike reached the top of the hill, sputtered and died. RJ's attempts to start it were futile. She quickly jerked the battery off the bike and stuck it in the pack.

  David just sat there.

  "Come on, get off and let's go."

  "What's the use, RJ?" David said. "Couldn't we just accept defeat gracefully?"

  "I am a six-foot-two-inch woman. I don't do anything gracefully." She took a timed charge from her pocket, set the timer and stuck it to the bike's fuel tank. "Coming?"

  David jumped off the bike and ran after her. They heard the explosion, and turned just in time to see one of the Reliance bikers thrown through the air. A split second, later the newly damaged bike exploded.

  "One," RJ said in a satisfied tone. She started to run again, and David followed, shaking his head. RJ's sense of timing never ceased to amaze him. Somehow, she had calculated to the second when the patrol would come even with their abandoned bike.

  Captain Sikes stopped just short of catching the blast. Now they were four. Sikes' illogical sense of doom mounted. He looked at the picture on his comlink—once again he was privileged to view the back of Senator Kirk's head.

  "Senator."

  She turned.

  "Senator, I . . ."

  "I take it that you do not have good news for me, Sikes," she said angrily.

  "I've lost a man," he said. "But the rebels are on foot now, and we should have them shortly."

  "How did the man die?" she asked curiously.

  "An explosive device was set up on the bike. I see no tripwires, so I assume that it was a timed charge. They must have estimated how long it would take us to arrive at this point."

  "She must know that you're tracking her with infrared," Jessica thought for a second. "OK. Stay to one side of their trail and be careful. She'll no doubt set more traps. You can't kill them if you're all dead. This RJ is no one's fool. From the data we have on her, it is more than likely that she used to be a high-ranking Elite. So, Sikes, help is on the way. All you have to do is keep a bead on them. In a few minutes, that whole area will be so full of troops that a fart couldn't get out. Just don't lose track of them."

  "I won't, Senator," Sikes said. Communication ended.

  He looked at his men. Two of them were busy with the body of their fallen comrade. "Leave him. If we don't catch RJ, what happened to him will seem like child's play."

  They started off, but without their former enthusiasm, and using much more caution.

  Sikes' lower lip trembled. His hands inside his gloves were unnaturally sweaty. He was an Elite. He'd seen combat before. Hell, the odds were in his favor, and more troops were on the way. The rebels were on foot now. The odds were all in his favor. Still . . .

  He wondered how well they were armed. Hell, they h
ad to be pretty well armed. They had killed the governor and his entire entourage, not to mention the patrol that had first spotted them. Another charge went off on the trail beside them. One of the men was startled and almost went down. This explosion wasn't as spectacular as the first, because it didn't have the added attraction of the alcohol tank exploding, but it still scared the shit out of them.