Chains of Freedom

by Selina Rosen

  "Put my brother back together."

  "Consider it done," Topaz said with a smile.

  RJ wrapped the chain around her waist and started for the door.

  "All right! Let's go kick some Reliance ass!"

  Chapter Twenty-four

  Satis lay sleeping. All eight hundred little Reliance soldiers all snug in their eight hundred little Reliance-issue beds. The bank was all closed up. Only six guards were on duty, and two of them were asleep. However, the two guards at the main gate were awake and alert.

  But Rebels, especially those trained by sergeants who had been trained by RJ, didn't use gates.

  Using insulated bolt cutters, they cut the fence in several different places, and each unit climbed through and headed for their separate objectives.

  At each of the four bunkhouses charges were set even as the guards on duty at the bank were silenced.

  As a troop stormed the front gate, they lobbed an explosive charge at the door of the bank. The barracks went up almost simultaneously.

  The door of the vault wasn't much more of a challenge. Two charges and fifteen minutes later, part of the Rebel force drove off in stolen Reliance trucks loaded with all of Zone 2-A's hoarded precious metals.

  Fifty minutes and eight hundred Reliance soldiers later, the rest of the Rebels were leaving the smoldering remains of Satis.

  The Reliance was caught off guard. They thought they had killed the beast, and that had left them ripe for plucking.

  Meanwhile, in another time zone, Jessica sat snugly in her office sipping a glass of expensive wine and wondering which man she should sleep with that tonight. They each had their qualities. "To Zark, or not to Zark, that is the question. Whether it is nobler to lay both men at once, or . . ." She let it die in laughter.

  She had no idea where either man was right now, but all she had to do was snap her fingers, and they would come running.

  God! She loved power.

  There were rumors that she was being considered for a Sector Leader position, maybe even Jago's. She'd like that.

  Raising her glass, she toasted, "To RJ, whose death has brought me great satisfaction." But, as she drank the wine, it had a bitter taste, and her eyes strayed involuntarily to the empty spot on her shelf.

  RJ paced back and forth in front of the group. They were a small group—only forty men. But they were the best Alsterase had, and they were hungry for vengeance and blood.

  They watched their undisputed leader and waited reverently for her to speak. It was thirty-five degrees, but that hadn't stopped RJ from wearing simple black pants and a tank top. As she paced before them, her Elite boots and her newly polished chain shining, they knew her for what she was, and they accepted her. Hell, they all but worshipped her.

  "I don't have any pretty words. You know what they did to us. Now is the time to make them pay. Let's go." She turned and stepped into a loaded troop carrier. Several members of the inner circle were riding in this vehicle, as it was to be the first in; RJ, Levits, David and . . .

  "Are you sure it's a good idea to drive right up to the front gates?"

  "Just drive, Poley." She smiled at him. Except for the fact that Topaz was unable to reproduce and replace the damaged synthetic epidermis, he was as good as new. It was obvious what Poley was now.

  "Whatever you say, but if you ask me . . ."

  "She didn't." Levits hung on the seat behind RJ. "He's awfully talkative since he got his head back. I think Topaz connected something wrong."

  "Ouch!" Poley grimaced and rubbed his neck. A look almost like pain filled his mechanical eyes.

  "Don't talk about it!" RJ said hotly. "You know how it distresses him."

  "Do you think . . ." David stopped himself.

  She smiled at him. "Mickey can handle it. The men listen to him."

  David nodded. If she said it, then it was so.

  "RJ, if this sister of your looks just like you . . ." Levits found himself cut off.

  "Differences between RJ and J-6 are numerous. RJ's right arm jerks, she now has a scar on her face . . ."

  "Which is almost gone," Levits reassured her.

  ". . . she is dressed grubbily and is wearing a chain. The chances of our people mistaking RJ for J-6 are one in a . . ."

  "We don't need numbers, Tin Pants," RJ said lovingly. She looked through the windshield. She saw Capitol looming before them—sixty stories of steel and glass, a blight on the planet. She smiled. "Soon, my brother, we shall avenge our father."

  "And everyone else." If it were possible, Poley looked just as maniacal as his sister.

  RJ glanced at her watch and looked up at Capitol just in time to see every light in the building-city go out. "Right on time. Thank you, Topaz," she said.

  "Thank you, Marge," Poley corrected.

  "Poley, speed up down the ramp and crash the gates," RJ ordered as she kicked off her door and sent it flying through the air.

  "RJ! What the hell?" Levits demanded.

  "We're going to lay waste to Capitol. Going to lay it low. This time, I want to go in with my guns blazing." She put a hole in the roof with her left fist. Using that arm for balance, she leaned out the door, rocket launcher in hand. "There will be a hot time in the old town tonight!"

  "We've got to keep her from watching so many old movies," Levits said dryly as he put on his night-vision goggles. These goggles were standard-issue for this mission. Odds were that the occupants of Capitol would be blind in the blackout, since, according to Marge night vision-goggles were not standard-issue in Capitol. In fact, considering that it was a military post it was dangerously inadequately prepared.

  Jessica was halfway through the bottle when the lights went out. She tried the intercom, but there was no response. Ditto on the door. "Oh, great! Another total power failure! Heads will roll if it isn't restored at once."

  RJ fired the rocket, and the gates of Capitol exploded in flames. Poley drove through and skidded to a stop in the first floor of the motor pool, which comprised the first two underground floors of the building. RJ jumped from the vehicle into the middle of the room, as if daring someone to shoot her. In the dark, frightened men and women milled in confusion and fear, fleeing from the headlights.

  Most of Capitol was asleep. Without power there were no alarms or sirens, no way of warning the residents that they were under attack.

  RJ, David, Levits, and Poley left Mickey and the troops to mop up the motor pool. They had bigger fish to fry.

  Poley went straight to the elevator and covered the control panel with his palm. After a few moments of clicking and whirring, the panel activated. The others joined him in the elevator.

  "Top, Poley," RJ ordered. A few seconds later, the elevator slid to a stop at the roof. "Be careful," RJ kissed Levits on the cheek, slapped him on the back, and watched him walk out the door.

  "Just you be careful," he flung back at her.

  She nodded.

  "I expect to be airlifting you out of here in twenty minutes."

  "Wouldn't miss it," RJ promised.

  The doors of the elevator closed. "Fifty, Poley," she ordered. As the elevator started back down, she whispered, "I'm coming, Jessica."

  Jessica finished her glass of wine. The longer she sat in the dark, the madder she got. "Incompetent fools. There isn't that much that can go wrong." She considered breaking her door open, but thought better of it. She didn't want to have to explain how she got out that way. She needed to learn patience. Some said this was a virtue. Controlling her anger, she carefully poured another glass of wine. She'd have plenty of time to kill the person responsible for this after the lights came on.

  Levits was a subtle character. His job was to disable the choppers, just as Mickey's was to destroy the land transport. RJ didn't want there to be any chance of either escape or pursuit. Capitol was a military city. Everyone in it was over sixteen and in the army. There were no innocents here, so RJ wanted no survivors. Levits was inclined to agree. The problem was that there were more
guards here than expected. So, rather than trying to take them all out first, he was sneaking around, quietly disabling the choppers. He managed to fix ten of them before he was spotted.

  "What the hell are you doing there?" someone asked.

  Levits turned and fired then made a dash for one of the airworthy choppers. Shots rang out around him, but the guards' confusion was so great that he made it without a scratch. He piled into a chopper and took it up. Glancing down, he saw the men scrambling for the choppers, and he smiled. "Why not?" He aimed the laser cannon and fired. None of the few airworthy choppers made it into the air. As he started to pick off the guards and choppers, he became aware of discomfort.

  "Oh, my God!" He scrambled madly, feverishly unstrapping his belts, and dug a handful of timed charges out of his pocket. White and shaking, he threw them from the chopper onto the roof and broke out in a cold sweat. "Damn! Careless of me."

  As he strapped back in and resumed picking off the grounded choppers, he wondered briefly how many he'd thrown out. A check of his pockets assured him that they were all gone.

  Mickey and his troops ran through the lower levels of Capitol, seeding them with timed charges, and killing everything that moved. They were having a good time. In fact, they were having so much fun that Mickey had a great deal of trouble getting them to leave when it was time. Their job was done, and they hadn't lost a man. Mickey just hoped RJ was doing as well.

  David watched the time but remained silent. He said none of the things that were on his mind. Like, why didn't they just leave Jessica and her GSH to blow up with the rest of Capitol?

  "Where is that damned freak!" RJ cursed.

  "We could get Jessica . . ."

  "He's more of a threat than Jessica," RJ hissed at Poley. "You know that as well as I do. I don't want him coming up behind us while we're trying to kill her."

  Poley nodded. Then he cocked his head to listen. "I hear him. He's coming our way."

  Zark heard something. He wasn't sure what, but it was unusual, and seemed to be coming from the roof. He went to investigate. After all, little things like power-locked doors, stalled elevators and no lights weren't likely to stop him.

  He rounded a corner, and there stood Jessica. He laughed."What are you dressed up for?"

  She just grinned, and walked over to embrace him. He opened his arms to engulf her, and felt something against his chest. He looked into the eyes of the impossible as the titanium projectile ripped through his heart and exploded. His lifeless body fell to the floor with a thud.

  Poley ran out of hiding and started to cut off Zark's head with a laser knife. "Poley!" RJ protested.

  "Since our sister likes trophies, I thought I'd bring her one," Poley said with a savage grin.

  RJ took her chain from David and started to wrap it around herself.

  "How could you be so sure that he would think you were Jessica?" David asked, curiously.

  "Simple. He knew he'd killed me. It wouldn't have crossed his mind that I could be anyone but Jessica."

  Poley walked over to them carrying Zark's bloody head by the hair. "So, let's go kill J-6," he said, happily.

  "You're enjoying this too much, Tin Pants," RJ said.

  Jessica was just finishing her wine. Suddenly, the door crashed in, and a head came rolling across her desk into her lap. She thought at first that Zark had located the android's head. Breaking the door would be just his style. Then the sticky liquid soaked through her pants, and the stench hit her nostrils. She looked down, and Zark seemed to grin hideously back at her. She threw the head down and jumped up just as RJ entered the room followed by Poley and David.

  "So, we meet at last." Jessica failed horribly at sounding cool.

  "I am disappointed in you. You sound surprised. If I had sent someone to kill you, I wouldn't have been surprised to find that he had failed." RJ raised the same weapon she'd used on Zark, and pulled the trigger.

  Click.

  Reacting instantly, Jessica leapt over the desk and ran for the door. Poley tripped her, and she sprawled for an instant before regaining her feet and running. She wasn't ashamed to run. RJ had killed Zark, and now RJ would kill her if she didn't get away. Something struck Jessica in the back, and she spun around hitting the wall. Then she saw the chain coming. It hit her in the head, and she watched with one eye as the other was ripped from her skull. She didn't stop; she regained her footing and ran a little faster, ignoring the pain.

  RJ started after her, but Poley grabbed her arm. "No time, RJ. Come on." She struggled briefly, but Poley insisted, "There isn't time!"

  Jessica realized that they weren't chasing her, and she knew she only had a second to get that thing out of her back. The two inch, knife-shaped projectile was lodged in her shoulder. The charge hadn't gone off yet, but it could at any moment. Still running, she reached back, pulled it out and threw it down the hall. Before it hit the floor, it exploded, sealing off that end of the hallway. She knew she wasn't in the clear yet. There had to be a reason that RJ hadn't tracked her down. No way would she have relied on that projectile to do the job. They must have seeded the building with explosives. She knew she didn't have long to get out of Capitol, and that's why she was surprised when she found herself heading for Right's room.

  She found Right asleep with no idea of what was going on."Come on, Right! Get up! We're under attack!"

  "We're what?" Right asked sleepily. Then seeing the carnage wreaked on her face. "Oh my God, Jessy!"

  "RJ's alive, Right. She just tried to kill me, and she's planted a bomb somewhere here in Capitol."

  David, Poley and RJ checked their pockets for the tenth time, making sure that they had disposed of all their timed charges, and cursed the elevator for being so slow, but what could they expect, since it was basically working on "Poley Power?" Levits was waiting for them surrounded by the smoldering ash of burning choppers and charred bodies.

  "Been enjoying yourself?" RJ asked, getting in the chopper.

  "Hey, I had to have something to do! I was getting bored waiting for you guys." With a sigh of relief, he took off with his precious cargo. "I was beginning to get worried."

  "Soon, now," Poley said.

  "10, 9, 8 . . ." David started the count. He stopped, staring in horror at the object rolling around under RJ's seat. "What the hell . . . Oh, my God!" He ducked down, grabbed the charge and tossed it out the door on 3 . . . Less than three seconds later Capitol went up as a smaller explosion rocked the chopper. They looked back to see the bottom levels of Capitol blown to pieces, and the rest toppled to the ground, breaking up as it fell. Dust and rubble flew into the air as high as the building had been.

  Levits was fighting for control. "Sorry, guys. The explosion must have blown off part of the tail section. We're going to have to land."

  Levits landed the wounded chopper with little difficulty, and they all got out to look back at the dust cloud that had once been Capitol.

  RJ frowned. Vengeance had not quenched the bitterness in her soul. "Now it can never end."

  "What's that, RJ?" Levits asked, looking up from his assessment of the damage to the chopper.

  She didn't repeat herself. "The Reliance won't be able to dismiss us so easily now. They can't."

  "This thing isn't going to fly." Levits kicked the offending chopper."So what's our next move?"

  "We get help from the Reliance's other enemy."

  "You don't mean . . ." David started to laugh, then he saw the look on her face. "But how do we get them to help us?"

  "We are logical allies," Poley informed him as he took his own look at the chopper.

  "The hardest part will be getting there," RJ said thoughtfully.

  "Well, I have no idea what you're all talking about," Levits interjected, "but I was talking about getting home."

  "Shh," RJ ordered, "listen." A few seconds later, they all heard it.

  "You don't suppose . . ."

  A lone chopper raced overhead, drowning out the rest of his sentence.
r />   "Bet on it." RJ watched till it was out of sight.

  THE END

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  Chains of Freedom

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six