Patriots & Tyrants (Rebels & Lies Trilogy Book 2)

by Cotton, Brian

  “You okay, Puerco?” X asked.

  “Doing just fine,” Sullivan replied, lowering his weapon.

  “We thought you were going to shoot us.” Statue said as he moved towards cover.

  “What do we do now?” Sullivan asked.

  “We’ve got to move in on that building, take out as many as we can, not get dead. Didn’t you pay attention at the briefing?” X demanded just before he moved up from cover and took down an Agent.

  “Of course I did,” Sullivan shouted above the gunfire. “It’s just a little bit different when we are actually here.”

  “What is?”

  “The plan!”

  .62

  “How’s it going on your end?” Sanders demanded through Harvey’s earpiece, the sound of gunfire in the background.

  “We’re almost there.” Harvey replied from the driver’s seat.

  “Get a move on it!”

  “On the way.”

  Harvey wished that he could turn off the damn earpiece but he knew that he couldn’t. It was, after all, Sanders’s plan for Harvey’s team to hold back and allow the distraction to run its course. With a shake of his head, he continued to drive. Off to the right, he could see the target building and the rapid flashes from automatic weapons. The look of the ensuing battle actually brought a smile to his face. He had grown tired of assaulting random USR complexes. This is what it was about: assembling a force to rain down justice on their enemies.

  His attention was returned to the road in front. The distraction seemed to be working well enough as there was no one on the road to block their path. He pressed down on the gas and the vehicle picked up speed. Once he took a hard right, the first sign of the enemy came into view. The masked rebel on top took aim with the .50. He fired at the two USR squad cars as the Agents panic fired back.

  The bullets from the automatic shredded the cars. The Agents outside of them quickly moved out of the way before they were crushed to nothing. With a loud smash, the vehicle took the squad cars out and continued in its pursuit of the Capitol. The circle created by the rebels left a large enough gap in it for Harvey to drive through. When he did, he could see some of his comrades cheering him on. He kept his focus on the building in front, however, and kept on driving. Upon approach, he swung the steering wheel to the left, and then pulled the armored vehicle to the back of the building. He killed the engine and then reached for the intercom system above his head.

  “Mission go!” he cried with enthusiasm.

  Kaspar heard the call and swung the Kriss to his chest. The others did the same, all except for Clarke, who just sat back and struggled to get his mask on over his long, nappy hair. Kaspar moved over to him and tapped him on the shoulder.

  “This is what you’ve been waiting for.” Kaspar said.

  “Maybe I was in a little over my head.” Clarke replied.

  “Just stick with me.”

  The doors swung open and the rebels in the back were the first ones out. As Kaspar moved forward behind Clarke, he could feel him dragging his feet. With a shove, he forced the computer nerd forward without much protest from the target.

  “You’ve got to move!” Kaspar shouted.

  By the time they made it out of the vehicle, what few USR Agents were guarding the backdoor were taken out in quick succession. Harvey moved to the door and ordered the largest of the rebels to it. The rebel took hold of his shotgun and fired. The slug tore through the handle and Harvey kicked it the rest of the way open. He held his Kriss forward and did a quick sweep before signaling the others to move in.

  The hallway which led to the back door was dimly lit, with the lights fading in and out. As they moved forward down the hall the sounds of the battle going on outside grew fainter. Two Agents moved in from an adjacent hallway. Harvey and the large rebel aimed and fired their weapons, taking the two enemies out. A third Agent reared his head and it was blown off with a three round burst from Harvey’s gun.

  Once they reached the end of the hallway there was a stairwell to their left. Harvey huddled everyone together in front of the stairs. Kaspar and his friend were the last to join the huddle. Kaspar noticed that the masked man with the shaking leg now had shaking hands. All the others were calm and collected along with Harvey. Next to him, Kaspar swore he could hear Clarke beside him hyperventilating.

  “Here’s the game plan…” Harvey started to say before Agents moved down the stairs.

  “Tangos!” one of the rebels shouted.

  Everyone, with the exception of Clarke, aimed their weapons at the incoming enemies and fired away. The Agents managed to get a few shots in before they were taken down. The rounds from their shots tore holes through the concrete walls, but missed their intended targets.

  “Just move up to the fifth floor!” Harvey shouted.

  .63

  There was a young man, not much more than a boy, screaming with his mask off as he clutched at Sullivan’s feet. The former Agent tried to ignore it, but the louder the boy’s screams, the more it scorched at his soul. The boy’s armor was shredded and blood filled his mouth. Sullivan bent down to try and help him before a strong grip formed on his left shoulder.

  “We can’t do anything for him, Puerco!” X cried. “Let’s move!”

  Sullivan shook his head, yelled he was sorry, and moved on behind X. He kept his head down as the rounds from the enemy’s assault rifles flew above him. He joined up with X, Statue, Dopey, Pinkie, and Sugar who were all bent down behind a piece of rubble. They all checked up on each other’s status. Pinkie had a bullet graze his arm, Sugar’s migraines were kicking in, and X’s wounded leg was still holding up with little pain. Other than that, they were all fine, for now.

  “What now?” Sullivan wondered.

  “We stay alive,” X replied, “and we kill as many of those bastards as we can.”

  With that said they each moved up, found enemy targets, and fired away.

  ***

  Sanders looked away from his binoculars and back down to the radar system on his computer. He was holed up in his assault vehicle behind the driver’s seat. There was a feeling of guilt that he wasn’t out in the field of battle, but he knew that his place, for this mission at least, was here. Someone needed to observe the enemy’s movements to keep the others informed. He could tell from looking at his radar that the men out there would be overwhelmed soon if Harvey’s ass didn’t pick up the pace.

  “Eagle one,” Harvey said into his mouth piece, “what’s your status? Over.”

  “Eagle one reporting,” the leftover said with a heavy sound of gunfire in the background. “We’re getting over run here, sir. Over.”

  “Just keep fighting, over.” Sanders replied. He swore under his breath while he waited for a response.

  “What’s Eagle Five’s status? Over.”

  “You let me worry about that, over.”

  “Over and out.”

  ***

  Harvey used the small mirror to get a peek inside the fifth floor computer room. Agents were spread all over the place inside. It was obvious, from the moment the resistance’s presence was felt, that this room was a priority for them to defend. Harvey wouldn’t have been shocked if someone told him that every available Agent in the building was sent in to defend this room. Harvey’s fear was not that they were outnumbered. He trusted his men to take care of that. What scared him was how Clarke would react.

  Inside the computer lab sat a large computer with a 40” HD monitor with eight hard drives plugged into it. There were also desks around in three rows of five. The desks had computers of their own. The Agents inside, dressed in all black with black helmets, were armed with M4 Carbines and huddled together, waiting for the inevitable breach into the room. The LED lights illuminated the room from above and reflected off of their goggles.

  After he put away the mirror, he looked over to his left to see all the men under his command leaned up against the wall. He reached into his flak jacket for a flash bang and then held up all f
ive fingers. He dropped them one at a time and, when he reached the final finger, he pulled the pin and threw the grenade into the room. A few seconds later a bright flash filled the room as well as the deafening sound from the flash bang.

  The Agents inside immediately started to backpedal and aimed their assault rifles towards the opening. There were scattered shots as they moved back which hit the walls all around the room. A couple of Agents stumbled into the desks behind them as they moved back and they fired their guns into the floor as they hit.

  “MOVE IN!” Harvey cried.

  The rebels moved into the room and took advantage of their brief moment of surprise. Harvey was in first and took out an Agent who hit one of the desks. He then moved his gun to the right and took another one out who scrambled for cover. The others moved in behind him and took positions around the room. Kaspar was in the room next to last and he had to almost drag Clarke into the room. As the hearing in his ears started to come back he could hear Clarke’s protests.

  “Get in there!” Kaspar cried, ignoring them.

  Kaspar pushed Clarke in front of him with his left hand. His right hand gripped the handle of the Kriss with the index finger on the trigger. As they moved forward into the opening, Kaspar raised the submachine gun, found a target, and held his finger down on the trigger. The gun fired on full auto and took out Kaspar’s target.

  The depleted caps on the rounds arched into the air and a few landed on the back of Clarke’s neck. He winced in pain as Kaspar continued to guide him towards one of the desks for cover. He took another Agent out in the process. When they approached the desk, Kaspar gave the Wizard a hard shove to the back, which forced the leftover to go flying towards the cover spot. Kaspar, with his head still ducked low, sat down beside him.

  “You okay?” Kaspar cried over the gunfire in the room.

  “I…I’m fine. Just cover my…” Clarke started to say.

  An Agent moved towards their position. He was over the side of the desk with his gun drawn at Clarke. Out of pure instinct, Kaspar aimed and fired. The rounds tore through the Agent as he fell to the ground. Had Clarke’s eyes not been covered Kaspar would have been able to see the wide eyed look on his face.

  “Just stay down!” Kaspar ordered before he rose up to continue the fight.

  On the other side of the room, Harvey had just taken out another Agent and bent down behind cover to reload. The silent rebel who was so nervous before became a war machine in the heat of battle. He emptied the last of his mag into an Agent, his fourth kill, and moved back down beside his leader.

  Kaspar took aim at an Agent in front of him and fired. He had just enough time to see one of his comrades go down and then another. Kaspar aimed towards the direction of the second rebel’s killer and fired off several rounds on full auto. He then aimed left to take out another. A flurry of enemy rounds came flying in his direction from three Agents, so he moved back down to cover. He reloaded his Kriss and checked on the status of his friend. Clarke gave him a thumbs up.

  The Agents’s numbers were starting to dwindle. Harvey popped up and took another one out. He managed to get a quick count on how many were left. There were four, maybe five if one was hiding somewhere. As he went down he heard the sound of automatic gunfire and the cries of a comrade. The man fell to the ground and Harvey wondered if it was another volunteer. If so, the silent man next to him was the last of them. What the hell did those leftovers give him? Even Clarke lasted longer than the supposed hardened soldiers. Harvey felt guilt for thinking that way, but he couldn’t help it. The mission now seemed to be going very bad.

  Kaspar moved to the side of the desk. He placed his Kriss along the side of it and fired. The rounds chewed into the desk directly in front of him, causing the Agent using the desk for cover to expose himself. Before a flurry of rounds came Kaspar’s way he saw the Agents start to aim their weapons at the large computer hard drives. A moment of panic swept over him.

  “They’re going for the computers!” Kaspar cried.

  “You can’t let them…take them out!” Clarke added.

  Harvey turned to his new partner. With a nod of his head the man seemed to understand what he was saying. They both moved up from behind the desk and fired away at the Agents. The Agents turned their attention to them and fired their way. Harvey kept his head low and moved forward as he took out one of the Agents in front of him. The rebel beside took another one out. Kaspar provided cover fire from his position at the front of the room.

  A few stray rounds hit the computers but they remained intact. With his new silent partner beside him, Harvey scanned the room for targets. Kaspar kept his gun firing on full auto keeping the last three Agents in their hiding spots. Kaspar’s gun went dry and he moved back behind the desk to reload.

  “You ready for this?” Harvey asked.

  “You bet.” a familiar, albeit deeper, voice replied.

  Harvey didn’t take the time to process the voice he heard. Instead, he focused his full attention to the hiding spot where the last Agents were. As predicted, they moved up from their cover spots when the gunfire ceased. When they did, the two rebels started to fire away at them. They instantly moved in different directions.

  “Left!” Harvey cried.

  His partner turned his attention to the left while Harvey took out the Agent to his right. The last Agent started to back pedal and fired his gun towards the computers. Harvey and his partner quickly took him out.

  “Clear!” Harvey yelled.

  .64

  “Shit, this is not good.” Clarke said as he pulled up a chair, his damp, gray hair dripping from the back of his Balaclava.

  “What the hell are you going to do?” Kaspar asked. He knew that something was off when Clarke used a swear word.

  “I’m going to try.”

  Harvey moved in behind them. “You going to be able to salvage anything?”

  “We’ll see.”

  “We’ve got to raise that flag, you two going to be okay by yourselves?”

  “You serious?” Kaspar asked. “Not if there’s another hit squad like that coming for us.”

  “I don’t think so. They’ve got enough problems outside. I’ve got to accomplish this mission.”

  Clarke cleared his throat as he feverishly got his tech gear out of his bag. “This is a part of the mission.”

  “I told you before, this is a secondary objective. Everything we’ve done so far will be in vain if that flag isn’t raised.” Harvey replied.

  “Just go,” Kaspar said. “I’ll watch his back here. Just hurry the hell up.”

  “Okay, if you get overrun, just call for us on the radio.” Harvey pointed to his partner. “You, come with me.”

  His partner simply nodded.

  ***

  Sullivan took out yet another enemy and then moved back down behind the safety of the broken white stone. It was just in time to see one of his new buddies get hit. The rebel was hit twice in the chest and his body flew back. His head slammed against the earth beneath. The rounds hadn’t killed the man, yet, but it certainly wasn’t looking good for him. The USR soldiers were starting to overwhelm their invaders. There really wasn’t time, but X moved over to his friend, pulled his mask off, and then looked into his eyes through tinted lenses.

  “Sugar, you okay?” X asked.

  “I can’t…feel anything.” Sugar replied.

  “It’s going to be okay, you hear me?”

  “You just…take…care of them…don’t let…”

  Sugar’s head moved over to the side and his breathing stopped. X let out a curse before he shot up from behind his cover spot and fired at any and all the enemies he could see. Sullivan could feel something in the pit of his stomach as he joined in with X. Statue took Pinkie with him to another block of ruble to the right of their current position.

  “We can’t hold out much longer!” Sullivan yelled in between firing his ZX-17.

  “We’ve got to!” X shouted back.

  ***
<
br />   “How are we doing?” Sanders demanded through Harvey’s earpiece.

  “Kaspar is on the fifth floor with the Wizard,” Harvey replied. “Another soldier and myself are heading up to the roof to raise the flag.”

  “Make sure you take out those snipers and fast. They are shredding our men on the ground.”

  “Consider it done. Out.”

  Harvey almost felt himself throwing up. Sanders talked all big and bad and he wasn’t even in the battle right now. That was okay, though, Harvey reasoned. They needed someone on the outside looking in. His new partner followed him close behind as they reached the stair case again. Harvey stopped in front of it and the other rebel moved to the other side of the door. The leftover held up his fingers and when he reached “zero” he swung the door open.

  The silent one went in first, Kriss drawn and ready to fire. There was an uncomfortable silence in the staircase. It was the kind of silence that didn’t belong. The calm before the storm. Harvey just hoped that Kaspar could fend for himself if it came down to it. He felt rotten for leaving the two down there by themselves, but it had to be done, the mission still needed to be accomplished. Even if all the men inside the Capitol died it wouldn’t matter as long as that flag was raised.

  They reached the end of the hall where the red door leading to roof stood. Harvey took a deep breath then reached for the silver handle. Once again, he raised his fingers for a countdown. His partner watched with intent. Once all his fingers were exhausted, Harvey pulled down soft on the handle.

  Surprising to him, nobody was watching the door. He aimed his Kriss at a sniper directly in front of him, at the edge of the roof, and fired. The round tore through the back of the enemy and he fell to the ground where he would bleed to death. The loud rumble from the submachine gun startled the other snipers on the roof. They each dropped their sniper rifles and pulled handguns from their thigh holsters and fired at the intruders. Harvey moved to his right while firing his gun at the same time. He took out another sniper before he stopped for cover behind a ventilation box. His partner was behind a second ventilation box, about ten yards from his position.