The Enclave (The Verge)

by H. M. Clarke

  “Kath, we have to go.”

  Katherine felt Joshua’s arms tying to pull her away from Daniel and she resisted him. From the corridor came the sounds of running booted feet and familiar voices suddenly filled the room.

  “Commander.” Katherine recognized the voice of her security officer.

  “Steve, she won’t move. Help me.”

  “Is she hurt?” She felt a new hand on her shoulder.

  “She’s in shock.”

  “Kath!” Tom’s voice shattered Katherine’s concentration and she turned to look into the eyes of her best friend as he reached out to cup her face in his hands.

  “Kath, we’ve got to move.”

  “Tom. 56 is dead. He shot himself.”

  Katherine’s voice cracked as she felt the tugging at the back of her throat grew worse. Tears were trying to escape the dam of her eyes and she gave no thought to who saw them when they broke.

  “Kath, look at me.” Tom firmed his grip and caught her water-layered eyes with his own. Katherine shuddered as the tears finally escaped and trickled down her cheeks. But her eyes locked on to the confidence and understanding that Tom offered, always offered. “You have people here who depend on you, who need you to get us back to the William Light. We all need to get out of here so we can get revenge on these bastards.”

  Revenge.

  The word lodged in Katherine’s brain. Revenge is what has kept her going over the last three years. Revenge is what has consoled Katherine when she did not want to dwell on the fact that she would never see her son grow to adulthood. Would never see her husband grow bald and infirm.

  The tears abruptly stopped as her anger reared its ugly head and Katherine slammed down her emotional barriers so that her rage could be fed in peace. She will need it.

  Tom must have seen a change in her eyes as he smiled at her and moved his hand to her shoulders. He looked at Joshua who was still behind her and Katherine’s eyes slipped to the door behind the Barrier. Beyond that door were Barkley and Ross.

  Daniel’s pistol was in his lap, still held by the hand that killed him. She reached out and took the pistol from the lifeless grip and held it reverently in her hand. I’ll come back for you Daniel.’

  Katherine rose quickly to her feet, and slung her rifle over her shoulder and tucked Daniel’s pistol into her utility belt. Tom and Joshua scrambled to their feet along with her.

  “Let’s get moving.”

  “We can’t leave him here.” Joshua caught her arm as he rose stopping Katherine in her tracks.

  “I’m not. Daniel and Sam will come with us on the way out.”

  Joshua released her arm as if stung. “You’re still going after Barkley?”

  She nodded and Katherine tried to screen out Joshua’s pain. Nothing was to interfere with her thirst for vengeance. Barkley is going to pay for both of their pain.

  “Who is Barkley?” Steve’s voice cut across their conversation.

  “The man in charge here. The Chief Scientist. He’s the reason that none of the members of this enclave are still alive.” Katherine was pleased to see an answering spark in Steve’s eye. She had promised him that these people would pay for the atrocities he witnessed.

  Tightening his grip on the stock of his rifle Steve raised it up, ready to do business. “Let’s go hunting.”

  “Kath, we should leave now.”

  Katherine turned on Tom, allowing some of her anger to slip to the surface. “Tom, don’t fight me on this.”

  “The man needs to be captured and bought to a public trial. This is cold blooded murder.”

  “I call it self-defense.” Katherine could feel Tom’s emotional turmoil pushing against her. Logically, she knew he had a point, but emotionally she just could not accept it.

  “Are you going to accept my orders Lieutenant? If not I will send you back to the William Light.”

  Tom stared blankly at her a moment before reacting. “Yes. I will.” He did not sound enthusiastic but Katherine felt better knowing that he would be with her. She saw Tom’s eyes look at Joshua and visibly widen as he noted Joshua’s face for the first time.

  Joshua noticed and shrugged off the Lieutenant’s gaze. “Had a disagreement with your commander.”

  Tom looked shrewdly at Katherine but said nothing.

  Shaking his head Joshua slumped back against the wall and slid down to sit on the floor next to his brother. “I’m not going to be much use. I’ll stay with my brother.”

  “Josh-”

  “Look Kath, with my body puffing up the way it is, I’d be next to useless in a fight, plus I’m having some trouble concentrating, I might pass out. I’ll stay here and you can get me on the way out.”

  She stared down at Val Myra, unsure on how to take this.

  “I have to do this.”

  “And I have to bring Dan home to our mother. I promised her and I’m not going to leave him now that I’ve found him.” Joshua looked up at her. “In my opinion we should all go back to the William Light right now and report this atrocity to Federation authorities. This enclave is Val Myran. My family is responsible for these people and we’ve failed them. The rest of the enclaves need to be told to get out if they haven’t already.”

  Katherine saw the earnestness in his eyes. He meant it. But did he not understand that if Barkley were dead, this would not happen again?

  “I have to do this. I’ll see you on the way back.” Her voice was harsh and her words edged in flint and as soon as the words left her mouth she regretted the tone. She felt a hand on her shoulder and looked back at Tom.

  “We’ll go after this Barkley Kath, stay here just in case they come back this way.”

  Before she could say a word in return Joshua’s hand shot out and grabbed Katherine by the wrist. “Stay here with me Kath, you can trust Steve Tran to bring them back to you.”

  Tom had not bothered to hear her reply and had already gathered what was left of the squad and trooped out of the room into the corridor to try and find a way around the room to the other exit.

  “Sit down Kath and get some rest.” Joshua pulled on her wrist for emphasis and Katherine gave in to his suggestion and slumped on the ground next to him.

  God she felt tired. And sore. The painkillers had definitely worn off. She closed her eyes and let her head fall back against the wall. Her body longed for sleep.

  A dull thud made Katherine loll her head to the side. Joshua’s head had hit the wall, he had finally passed out. Her eyes moved to the all too obvious red splatter next to Joshua and Katherine consciously avoided looking at Daniel’s slumped form.

  She jerked her eyes away from the wall and looked towards the door so she could be ready as soon as Tom returned with Barkley and Ross.

  A flash of blue caught her attention. Katherine turned in time to see a fist coming straight at her jaw. Dropping her shoulder, she rolled forward underneath the swinging arm and came to her feet behind her attacker. Katherine spun around and swung a backhanded fist to the side of the man’s head.

  The man had paused at her quick reaction and Katherine felt the satisfying vibration through her hand as her fist connected with his head. The force of the blow knocked the man forward and he stumbled past the door and fell to the floor. He scrambled around to face her and Katherine could not help the smile that came to her face.

  Chapter

  Thirty

  The barrier was down. And Katherine had Barkley exactly where she wanted him. Katherine reached for the pistol tucked in her belt.

  Something hard punched her in the back and Katherine fell forward onto her knees. Pain seared its way through her back and legs and she could not help the scream that escaped from her lips.

  “Ross. No.”

  Katherine heard the hated voice through her pain and her anger flooded up to answer its call. Her strength of mind, her will, shall not be meddled with.

  Sucking in a deep breath to help control the pain, Katherine drew the pistol from her belt. She kept her e
yes on Barkley as he rose to his feet with a stream of blood trickling down the side of his face from the scalp wound she had just given him. The pain in her back throbbed and it gave her anger something to focus with. Katherine could smell the reek of burnt flesh and knew that Ross had hit her with a pulse rifle loaded with splatter rounds designed to give a lot of surface damage but not enough force to kill.

  Katherine was going to make their reluctance to kill her their biggest mistake.

  “Ross, help me get her out of here before the rest of her people come back.”

  Katherine heard footsteps coming behind her. She looked between her legs and saw Ross coming straight up behind her. Katherine pointed the pistol between her legs and fired. Ross dropped to the ground screaming and clutching frantically at her leg.

  She can dish pain out but does not like to receive it.

  Sucking air through her clenched teeth, Katherine jerked her head up to look back at Barkley, her pistol aimed at his chest. He had not moved an inch and his eyes were trained on the gun in her hand.

  Katherine slowly willed her legs and back muscles to pull her up onto her knees and then to her feet all the while not moving the aim of her gun. All over her body she could feel the constant pull of the countless injuries that her body had collected over the last few days. Whatever sort of super soldier Barkley thought he had created in her had started to reach its limits.

  Ross whimpered behind her and Katherine could hear her writhing around. She still did not move the aim of her pistol. Barkley had no weapon that she could see. All he had was what he was born with, his hands.

  “You’ve made one mistake to many Barkley.”

  Barkley smiled. “You are our property 72. Now that 56 is dead you will need to be researched so we can reproduce the Nemesis project in another pair of subjects.”

  “That’s not going to happen, Doctor. It’s a little hard to pervert the course of nature when you’re dead.”

  Katherine raised her pistol to head height and took a moment to savor the shocked look in Barkley’s eyes.

  Pain shot abruptly through her knees from behind and Katherine fell hard on her kneecaps. Her pistol jerked and released a pulse round causing the doorframe behind Barkley’s head to explode in a shower of stone chips and powder.

  Twisting herself quickly onto her back, Katherine kicked out with her heels catching Ross in the belly. The pulse wound on her back seared with agony but she still kicked her legs again to land a second hit to Ross’s injured leg as the doctor tried to crawl back out of Katherine’s reach.

  Hands wrapped around her wrist and Katherine immediately lost interest in Ross as she felt Barkley try to force her fingers from the grip on her pistol. Using her free hand she grabbed at Barkley’s closest wrist and using all the enhanced strength in her arms, yanked him forwards. Barkley released the grip on her arm as he was pulled over her to land heavily next to Ross.

  Ignoring the pain, Katherine rolled to her feet and once again aimed the pistol to a point just between the hated man’s eyes. Sweat trickled down her face and it was all she could do to control the spasmodic twitching of her muscles.

  “Commander, we’ve lost-”

  Tom’s voice was quickly followed by the sound of multiple assault rifles being raised and braced against body armor. Katherine did not look at them as Tom, Steve and Varden moved into the room and fanned out to cover Barkley and Ross.

  Barkley slowly stood up with his hands raised high above his head. Ross stayed on the ground clutching at her injured leg.

  “Where the hell did they come from?” Tom stopped next to her, his rifle trained on the nearest Doctor.

  Varden went to check Joshua but Katherine signaled her to stop as she answered Tom.

  “I don’t know. They just appeared out of nowhere.” As Katherine spoke she heard Steve Tran let loose an obscenity and then she saw him running towards the door on the far side of the room. It was then that Katherine noticed that Ross was no longer on the floor nursing her leg.

  “She’s disappeared!” Katherine kept her gun trained on Barkley but her eyes were now focused on her security officer. He slid in front of the door and jabbed out with the butt of his rifle. There was a grunt and the sound of something falling to the ground. As she stared, Ross’s unconscious form suddenly appeared out of nowhere. Steve nudged her with an armored boot, his rifle aimed squarely at her head. Katherine’s eyes slipped back to Barkley.

  “She’s an Ontolic?” Tom muttered in disbelief. “How did the Alliance allow a high level Ontolic into its service?”

  “Ross has a gold band on her head that acts like an Ontolic booster,” Katherine replied.

  Steve bent down and removed the band from Ross’ head. “This it?”

  “There’s a power control or pack for it on her belt.”

  Steve removed it from Ross’ belt and tucked both objects into his harness pocket. He then grabbed a set of restraints from Barkley’s desk and secured Ross’ hands. “She’s secured Commander.”

  “Thank you Lieutenant.”

  Barkley’s raised arms relaxed slightly and a smile appeared on his face. The bruises and cuts that Katherine had made to his face marred his appearance of smugness. “They won’t let you get out with me 72.”

  “Who said we were taking you out?” Katherine sighted down her extended arm and adjusted the aim of her pistol. The smile fell from Barkley’s face as it sunk in that she was serious.

  “You’re not going to take us back to New Holland?”

  “That is not part of the Commander’s plan,” Steve Tran said with no expression at all in his voice.

  Barkley’s confidence looked to waver as he realized that Steve was not joking, realized that he was not going to be walking out of this room. The smile was now completely gone from his face and his hands lowered slowly to his sides. The self-confidence was gone; to Katherine he looked wilted or deflated.

  “You’re going to kill me. The creation turns on the creator and the cycle continues.”

  Katherine kept her pistol trained on Barkley. As she stared at her tormentor, all of the pain, shame, helplessness and rage she had ever felt while in the presence of this man flooded through her. Her memories rushed up and nearly overwhelmed her mind.

  But Katherine’s memories did not match the person standing in front of her. Barkley no longer had the invincible aura; the illusion of power had been stripped away and was now placed solely in her hands. What she saw standing at the end of her pistol was no longer a tormentor but was now stripped back to an ordinary man.

  Katherine tried to tighten her finger on the trigger but some emotion deep down inside inhibited her. She tried again and felt her finger twitch against the trigger but again she could not bring herself to depress the trigger all the way.

  “Kath, you don’t need to do this.” Tom’s voice filtered through her seething emotions. “Kath, you’re about to prove how much like him you could become.”

  She considered Tom’s words, considered the strange reluctance she was suddenly feeling to kill this man. If he were at this moment trying to kill her, there would be no hesitation. But to kill a defenseless man in cold blood?

  Exhaling a held breath, Katherine lowered her pistol. “I can’t shoot him. I thought I had it in me but I can’t.” She handed the pistol into Tom’s waiting hands and wiped her sweating palms against her track pants.

  A frown crossed Barkley’s face and Tom let loose a bark of laughter. “Don’t tell me you’re upset she didn’t kill you?”

  “72 should have more of a killer instinct. She should show no compunction in killing a target.”

  “What?” Tom sounded as if he did not believe what he was hearing.

  “Her dose of Enzyme MKI987 must have been incorrect. Tests will need to be run to determine what went wrong.”

  Tom turned incredulous eyes to Katherine who only shook her head.

  “Now do you understand? Barkley will not stop until he has perfected his ‘super solider’ p
roject brief for the Alliance.” Katherine looked across the room at Steve Tran who looked more than a little pissed off at the situation. “Steve, grab another set of restrains and secure this man. Once that is done we’ll all make our way to the surface and to the William Light.

  “Yes Commander.” Steve’s reply was dripping in disappointment. He wanted this man dead as much as she did.

  “Varden. Help him.”

  Katherine glanced once more at the stripped form of Barkley and for the first time saw him as a normal man. He was a horrid, evil man, but a normal man none the less.

  “I need to sit down.”

  The pulse injury made her back throb and she did not know how much longer she would be able to stand on her own without help. Katherine did not want anyone to see her weak, not even Tom. She turned her back on Barkley and moved towards Joshua.

  A cry of frustration and then she was grabbed from behind. Katherine felt the sting of something slice across the skin of her throat.

  “72, you are to come with me,” Barkley whispered in her ear while around her Alpha team raised their weapons at the new threat.

  “Are you insane Barkley?” Katherine choked out, afraid to move too much in case the scalpel at her throat jabbed in more than it should.

  “I am just reclaiming Project Nemesis’ property. You need to be studied and duplicated.”

  From the corner of Katherine’s eye, she could see Tom with her pistol aimed at them. It seemed that no one had a clear shot. No one seemed willing to risk injuring her. Frowning, Katherine dredged up what little reserve of strength her body had left to give and used it.

  Barkley had told her she could move faster than the eye could see. She now used this to her advantage. The doctor stood directly behind her. Katherine threw back her head and felt the back of her skull crunch into Barkley’s nose.

  The doctor was no warrior and immediately loosened his hold on Katherine’s neck.

  “Shoot Damn you.” Katherine grabbed the hand holding the scalpel and twisted while at the same moment both Tom and Varden discharged their weapons.