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The Freezer (Genesis Endeavor Book 1)

Page 36

by David Kersten


  Wendy thought about it for a moment. She lifted her PDP and punched a couple buttons. “Chuck, this is Wendy, any chance you have an extra laser transmitter on board?”

  * * *

  Jack was heading to the medical level to get some dinner. He figured the night would be busy, and there probably wouldn’t be time to get some food once the mission started. He also wanted a little alone time, and figured the medical level would be more or less unoccupied. As he walked off the elevator, his datapad beeped.

  Chin’s haggard looking face was on the screen. He had just reported in an hour before, which meant that this call was probably news about the search party. He hesitated, steeling himself for bad news before pressing the button to answer. “Hey Chin. The second rescue team get back yet?”

  “No, but they just called in.” He paused for a moment, creating a little tension, but before Jack could react he put a big smile on his face, which was kind of creepy given the big scar, deformed jaw, and bedraggled appearance from two days of sitting at the control center. “They found the salvage group. All four of them. Everyone is okay.”

  Suddenly there was no air in the hallway and his knees had turned to rubber. He tried to maintain his composure, but the news shattered the emotional barriers he had constructed in his mind when he realized there was a good possibility that Wendy was not coming back. He knew if he tried to speak, he would choke on his words, so instead he simply nodded and clicked off.

  The wall kept him from falling to the ground, and he hugged it as if he were on a narrow ledge of a cliff, afraid to fall off. He struggled to take a breath, but like his legs, he had no control over his lungs. A tear slid down his cheek, the first drop just before the dam broke. The last of his barriers broke and he slumped to the ground, convulsions wracking through his torso, a low moan escaping his throat.

  For the next several minutes, he released suppressed feelings that, until this moment, he had no idea were bottled up. Even at his wife and daughter’s funeral, he had held his emotions in check, shedding only a few tears that day. Now with the emotional barriers down, all the pain he had suffered in his life – from losing friends in Korea, to losing his family, to learning he had cancer, and finally from the events of the past few days – all came out at once. Never in his life had he let it out like this, and the tears and gasps coming out were like a cleansing.

  When the emotional waterfall finally began to subside, the first thing to return was control of his lungs. Several long breaths helped to regain control of his body. Dinner forgotten, he got to his feet and made his way back to his room, locked the door, and sat heavily in his chair.

  Of all the things that had happened to him or around him in the last week, this was perhaps the most confusing. He had never been one to get emotional, and never had he felt as if he was swallowing his emotions. He had not cried like that since he was a child, and even then he didn’t really remember a specific instance.

  He supposed it had to do with the same biological processes that caused his hormones to rage the first night. Whatever the cause, he actually felt really good. He had been under some stress the past few days, more from the revelation of a traitor in the community than from the operation he was running, or even from Wendy being in danger. This emotional break was like a cleansing, and he felt more relaxed than he had since waking up the first morning after his rebirth.

  There was more to it than that, however, but he didn’t really have time to ponder it in depth. It would be an hour before the rescue team was back, and he had a lot to do. With a clear head and a new resolve, he got out of the chair and went to get some food.

  Part Four

  Chapter 33

  The flight bay was bustling with activity when the huge doors opened and the transport eased in and gently landed on the yellow square painted on the concrete floor. The Saber Cusp team, including Thomas, Red, and Teague, was geared up and hovered over a table, studying a map of the old city. Two mechanics were sifting through the wreckage of the transport, which had been brought back this morning and was now sitting in the corner of the immense chamber that housed all their aircraft. Chin was sitting at the makeshift control center, still keeping an eye on the progress of the one salvage crew that was still out for the day.

  Jack walked over and stood next to Teague, waiting for the transport to land. Jack had been observing the team in their final preparations today, but Teague had not been with the team the whole time, instead spending time with Bruce, the new reborn. When he had been around, Jack hadn’t said much to him, still wary of who was in on the ambush of the salvaging team. Teague turned toward him and said, “Thank God they are all okay. Marcus would have lost a lot of favor with the other council members if we hadn’t found them alive.”

  The comment annoyed Jack, mostly because he didn’t give a single shit about Marcus’s reputation. A crew he had ordered into harm’s way had come back. Regrettably, one man had lost his life. Right now Jack had only a few things on his mind. The first was seeing these people safely home after what must have been a long and harrowing journey. The second had to do with the mission to S.C. which was about to commence. Obviously the third thing was Wendy.

  Before Jack could speak his mind, Teague continued, “Of course, it’s a good thing that they are all safe too.” Jack relaxed. Despite his differences with Teague, he had to give the man some slack, they had not lived the same lives. Life was indeed precious here, but with so few people and so few resources, everything, including politics, played an important role in their lives. He wondered if Teague knew they had a traitor in their midst, or worse, if he was involved in it.

  The transport touched down and Jack stopped thinking about traitors and politics. He hesitated to run over to the transport, fearing another attack of his renegade emotions, but when the door opened and he saw Wendy, he started sprinting before he realized it.

  She climbed out of the aircraft, looking a little haggard but not really injured. When she spotted him, her eyes lit up and she smiled. He practically tackled her back into the transport, grabbing her in a big hug, then gently setting her down, suddenly afraid that she might have injuries he didn’t notice. “Are you okay? Are you hurt? They said you were carried off by the other crew. What happened?” It all came out so fast that he had to stop himself and allow her to talk.

  “Slow down, Jack. I’m okay, just a little banged up. I took a nasty blow from that explosion and was knocked unconscious. I messed up my leg a little, but one of Teague’s magic potions healed me right up. My hand might take a couple days to mend, but I can already move my fingers.” She wiggled her fingers in his face.

  He smiled at her and said, “Look, we need to debrief you guys, and then we have another mission starting in a short while, but I really want to talk to you about the other night.” Before she could say anything, he continued, “Why don’t you have Teague get you checked out real quick and meet us down in the briefing room. Have you eaten anything recently?”

  Wendy blinked a couple times at all the questions. “I’m fine, Jack. I’ll have Teague give me a once over after the debriefing. I ate some food on the way back, so I’m not hungry. Chuck said something about you going after us yesterday? What was that all about?”

  Jack frowned. He wasn’t particularly proud of his actions the day before. It was impetuous to go out with the rescue team and put his life at risk like he did, and he knew it as much as anyone else. “I, uh – well, I just couldn’t sit here knowing that you were in trouble out there. I know it was stupid to leave everything hanging and go out there, but...” But what? He cared greatly for her, but surely he couldn’t say he loved her, could he? He took the idea of love very seriously. The whirlwind that they had been through the last week had been full of passion and emotions, but was this really like what he had with Jennifer? Could he devote the rest of his life to this woman? He wasn’t sure of that answer at this moment.

  Wendy kissed him on the lips, interrupting his train of thought. “It was s
weet that you charged out after me, and I appreciate it.” Jack felt warm and fuzzy inside when she said that. “It was pretty stupid though, all things considered. Like it or not, you have responsibilities here that are more important than me. Don’t do it again, Mad Dawg.” She punched him lightly on the arm, then kissed him again and gave him a hug. “I missed you. I was worried that I would never see you again.” Her voice cracked and she hung on to the hug a few moments longer.

  Jack feared he might start gushing again, so after returning the hug, he said, “We can continue this tonight, maybe.” He let go of her and looked at the other men, who were all out of the transport now. “Debriefing downstairs in ten minutes.” He turned to walk away but Chuck caught his eye, and he veered toward the man.

  “Chuck, thank you for finding them. I owe you one.”

  “Nonsense, it’s like you said the other day, I did what I had to do. Besides, I just flew an aircraft, it wasn’t like I put my life at serious risk to save them. I still owe you. Listen, we have to talk for a second.” Chuck looked around and motioned to an unoccupied corner. Jack followed him.

  Chuck looked around to make sure nobody was paying attention. In a low voice he said, “I talked to the survivors on the way back. Some stuff happened that they will tell you about in a few minutes. The big thing is, they learned that the ambush was set up, and that there is a traitor here in New Hope.”

  “Shit, how do you think we should handle this? If someone is listening in on the debriefing it will come out and we could lose our edge.” The traitor didn’t know that they knew yet, which gave them an advantage. It was pretty much the only advantage they had and Jack didn’t want to lose it.

  “We spoke about it before heading back here, and everyone is in agreement that we don’t want to bring it up where it can be overheard. We need to find a chance to talk about it with them, and with their source. Perhaps we can learn enough to figure out who it is.”

  “Who’s the source?”

  Chuck grinned. “You won’t believe it, Jack. You really won’t.”

  * * *

  Jack thanked each of the rescue team personally then turned to Chin, “You really went above and beyond here. I can’t tell you how much it means to me, both personally and professionally. Why don’t you go get some sleep?”

  Chin shook his head. “Are you kidding me, Jack? We’re launching your next operation in less than an hour. I’m not gonna miss this one for anything. I am, however, going to go clean up and get some food.” They took the rail car back and got on the elevator. At level two, the door opened, and Chin exited. “See you back at the flight deck in an hour.”

  Jack continued down to level four for the debriefing. When he walked into the room, Chuck, Wendy, and the other three men were there waiting. Wendy introduced the men.

  “Thanks for coming here first. I know you’re all looking forward to a hot shower and a change of clothes, but I want to know what all happened while it’s fresh in your minds.”

  Over the next thirty minutes he heard the whole story, starting with leaving New Hope and ending with Chuck picking them up. Living up to Chuck’s prediction, he was dumbfounded when they told him about Bartholomew.

  “Give me your honest opinion, can we trust him?” Jack was skeptical of the Mute, and not even a little bit sure of Wendy’s choice to leave him with a valuable laser transmitter and a datapad with an entire encyclopedia of information. His first impression was that this Mute had conned them into giving him something that would be of great value to him and his “former” clan. It might also be a real risk to the security of New Hope.

  Wendy was the first to speak. “I trust him, or I wouldn’t have offered him the equipment. He helped us, and might very well have saved our lives. He killed three of his own to help us.” Jack considered this and turned to Anton.

  “I still see a possibility for his actions being a ruse to get information and resources from us, but he struck me as too intelligent for anything he got out of us to be a tool for him to get back into the grace of the clan. I would think that if his intention was getting back into the clan, he would be best served to capture us and turn us in. If all he wanted was a datapad, he could have killed us and had three. I’m inclined to believe his story and trust him as far as we would trust any new member of New Hope.”

  Jack was impressed with Anton. The man had proven to be an excellent soldier, and showed signs of being quite intelligent. He made a mental note and continued on, next looking at Wayne.

  “After seeing what that big sonofabitch did to the Mutes that were following us, I think we can trust him. The fact that he didn’t kill us when he obviously could have goes a long way in my book.” Jack nodded. It wasn’t the most eloquent explanation, but it was reasonable.

  He turned to the last man, Gregory. “Greg, what about you? Do you think we can trust Bartholomew?”

  Gregory shrugged. “I honestly can’t say. I agree with what Wayne said, about him not killing us, but that dude scared the shit outta me. Not only is he a Mute, but he is the biggest and scariest Mute I have ever seen. I am not even ashamed to admit that I am going to be having nightmares about this for a while. I’m just thankful we didn’t bring him back here. I wouldn’t have been able to sleep at night thinking that a monster like that is roaming our halls.” Wendy and Anton shot him a look of annoyance, and he frowned. “Hey, the Capn’ was asking my opinion. You had your say, and I’m entitled to mine. I wasn’t privy to all your conversations, and I sure as hell wasn’t about to strike up a personal chat with him! I say he’s a Mute, and I wouldn’t trust him with anything that could compromise our security. If he turns out to be okay, I will be the first to admit I was wrong, but until then, I stand by my opinion.”

  The man was right, and even if nobody liked what he believed, he was still entitled to believe it. Although the other members of the crew had downplayed it, the fact was that Gregory had abandoned them when Bart showed himself. If something had scared Jack like that, he would have a hard time with trust all the same. Aside from running in the face of fear, Gregory had earned everyone’s respect through his actions over the past two days. Jack would not have a problem putting him in battle alongside anyone else.

  He dismissed everyone, after thanking them for their time. To his dismay, Wendy told him she would catch up with him later and left with the other three men. Chuck hung back to talk to Jack.

  “If we can trust him, Bart would be a great asset to New Hope. He can give us insight into the Mutes culture that could be valuable down the road. How do you feel about getting in touch with him and getting the location of those small communities he said were in the area?”

  Chuck needed something to do until the big operation took place, and this would be the perfect thing to keep him occupied. Plus it might give him an opportunity to meet with Bart and learn more about their little problem. “I can do that. I’ll get a crew together in the morning and go investigate. It would be good to find these people before Farnak’s people capture them. I’ll keep you informed on what I find.” The statement had a double meaning, and Jack understood perfectly.

  Chapter 34

  Jack stepped off the rail car once again, and as before the flight deck was a hive of activity. Thomas and Red had their teams together, and everyone was fully geared up and ready to go. The two fire teams were standing at attention when he approached, and both Thomas and Red gave him a quick salute. He returned the gesture and asked, “You boys ready to go?”

  Both men said in unison, “Yes, Sir!” Jack grinned. This wasn’t the military, but it was nice to have everyone thinking like it was. Things just ran better that way.

  Jack consulted the time on his datapad. It was close enough. He turned to the group of soldiers. “Men, thank you for doing this. This mission will determine the course of the future of New Hope. I have every confidence you will succeed, and I pray that you all come back to tell me how well it went. Just remember, our goal is to get some heavy machinery, not to destro
y the Mutes or take over the city. Stay sharp, stay focused, and don’t lose sight of the objective. Good luck and God speed.” He saluted the men and they saluted back. “Go kick some ass, gentlemen!”

  There were some shouts of excitement and bravado as they loaded up on the large transport. Jack watched them get on board, stopping Thomas to wish him good luck. He backed up as the transport wound up its four massive propellers. The aircraft was huge, easily fifty feet long and twenty feet wide. It was basically a giant box with a short wing on each corner, an eight foot diameter hole in each wing with a three bladed propeller centered in each hole. Unlike the small and medium flyers, this one had a cockpit up front that was separate from the cargo area, and looked like it was tacked on to the front as an afterthought. It was hardly a graceful looking machine, kind of looked like a giant square turtle, but it got the job done.

  The pilot lifted the aircraft off the ground and carefully maneuvered it out of the flight bay. Jack heard the props wind up to a very loud hum as the transport gained altitude and disappeared into the night sky.

  The flight would last about forty minutes, and he had a sudden overwhelming need to go spend it with Wendy. He grabbed his datapad and punched the icon to call her. He heard the datapad beep behind him and turned, half expecting her to be standing there. It took him a moment to realize the source of the sound was the small table where they had brought all the items found at the landing site the previous day. She had not retrieved her datapad yet. It was the perfect excuse to go see her. He grabbed it and headed to her apartment.

 

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