by Kai O'Connal
Leung zoomed back from the map to show more of the surrounding area. “As for the streets, the Human Brigade keeps them pretty clear—of course, it helps that this particular area is sparsely populated. Most of the buildings in this neighborhood are either ruined or abandoned. Pineapple and Cao should be able to find suitable cover while waiting for us.”
“What about Matrix security?” Elijah asked. “Similar to Rolling Meadows?”
“Probably, but unlike Rolling Meadows, I can’t get in remotely to make sure. There won’t be any reliable grid I can count on. I think they’re using a direct satellite connection, and while I’m pretty amazing, hacking a commsat will take a lot more time than we have. I’ll need to set up a local bypass when we get there.”
The more Leung talked, the more Kyrie realized that the plan was changing significantly. She held up a hand to interrupt him. “When you say ‘more time than we have,’ it sounds like we’re not just going there to do recon tonight. Are you suggesting we go in cold?”
Leung looked to Elijah for the answer.
“I think we have to,” the mage said. “Besides the fact that I don’t want to stay in Chicago any longer than necessary, if the map is hot enough that they moved it once, they might move it again at any moment. We know where it is right now—I don’t want to lose that advantage. If they move it again, who knows how long we’ll be here trying to track it down?”
“Screw that,” Pineapple growled. “I don’t mind roughing it, but if I go more’n three days without a cold beer and a shower, I get crabby.”
“We can do this,” Elijah said. “The gear we have will work, and we know where the target is. I wish we had more up-to-date intel on the physical site, but the advantages we do have should offset that.”
Kyrie kept mulling everything over. Although it looked like the original plan would work, something about it kept nagging at her. Finally, it clicked. “Here’s a minor detail—what about getting out? Triggering an evac of the site, like we’d planned for Rolling Meadows, isn’t going to work here. Even if we pull it off, the place is too small. They won’t have enough people for us to blend in with the crowd.”
“If you need a distraction, I can definitely handle that,” Pineapple offered, picking his teeth with one long, yellow fingernail.
“I don’t doubt that,” Elijah said. “But the security team Marick described isn’t going to get drawn off by a single trouble point. We need something bigger, more widespread. We need a distraction that pulls them in enough directions at once that we can slip out under the radar.”
“What we need,” Kyrie mused, “are about a hundred Pineapples.”
“You know,” Leung said. “That might be possible.”
Cao’s brow furrowed. “Is there some secret troll enclave hidden in Brigade territory I haven’t heard of? If not, I don’t see where you’ll get the manpower.”
“No, not trolls,” Leung replied. “But I know of a well-armed organization with a large membership that has no love for the Aleph Society. I’m pretty sure if we let them know about this place, they’d be more than happy to help.”
Kyrie saw where Leung was going. It’d be like playing with matches in a sandbox full of gunpowder, but it might be just the thing they needed.
“So you’re suggesting—” Kyrie began.
“—that we work with the Human Brigade,” Leung finished, beaming. “We tell them about the site and let them create our distraction. It’s the perfect solution!”
The van squealed to a halt. Elijah and Leung flew out of their seats while crates, boxes, and duffels slid toward the front of the vehicle.
“That’s it!” shouted Cao. “A run in Human Brigade territory is one thing, but working with those fuckers is something else!”
She slammed the van into park, climbed out of her seat, and threw open the side door. “Everybody get the hell out! Find yourself another driver!”
CHAPTER TEN
For a long moment, neither Elijah nor anyone else in the van moved or spoke. The only sound was the low rumble of the van’s idling diesel engine.
“Look, Cao,” Leung said at last. “It’s just a one-time thing.”
“You think I’m thrilled by the idea either?” Pineapple said. “But come on, sweetheart. A job’s a job. You do what you gotta do.”
Cao took another step toward them, her hood flying back, and glowered. Now Elijah clearly saw the horrors HMHVV had inflicted on the dwarf woman. Her head was smooth and hairless, with yellow-white skin pulled taut over the bones of her skull, and lips so thin and drawn that they were little more than a pinkish line over her pointed teeth.
“It’s not ‘just a job’ when you talk about working with the Human Brigade,” Cao said through gritted teeth. “They have camps, did you know that? They drive around in these big trucks, snatching any metas they see right off the street. They take them back and they—they—” Cao’s nostrils flared and her eyes grew wide. “They do things to them. No. It’s never ‘just a job’ when you talk about working with the Human Brigade.”
Elijah tried to find an argument to convince her otherwise, but hearing the pain in Cao’s voice, seeing the look in her eyes, everything he thought of came up short.
For a long moment no one spoke. At last, Elijah broke the silence. “That’s fine. We’ll find another way.”
“Hold up a sec,” Pineapple said from the back. The troll pushed his way past the others to the front of the van and knelt in front of Cao. Even then, he was more than a head taller than her.
“How many?” he asked.
“How many what?” she asked with a frown.
“How many of your friends went into that place with you?”
She took a ragged breath before answering. “Ten—Ten of us were picked up that night.”
Pineapple nodded. There was something in the troll’s eyes that made Elijah shiver. “And how many made it out?”
Cao set her jaw and blinked hard before answering. “Just—me.”
Pineapple looked at the rest of the team. “Step outside,” he said. “I need a minute alone with Cao.”
Too stunned to say no, Elijah left the van, followed by Leung and Kyrie. They were parked along the side of the road in the ruins of a neighborhood business district. Empty windows stared down at them, and in the distance he heard what sounded like the clatter of falling stone. They walked a few yards away from the van and stopped.
“Anyone think to grab a gun?” Leung asked, looking over his shoulder. Elijah patted his pistol in its shoulder holster.
“Let’s just hope he makes this quick,” Kyrie said.
Less than a minute later, Pineapple called them back. When they got in, they found Cao back in the driver’s seat, staring out the windshield. The troll was seated back on the equipment crate. He nodded to everyone. “We’re good. Let’s find those Brigade goons and get this job done.”
As they got moving again, Elijah opened a private line to Pineapple.
The street samurai just stared at him.
It was just a simple LAN message, but it caused Elijah to pause. He didn’t know much about Pineapple, but what he knew definitely left him doubting whether he did want to pursue this conversation much farther.
Elijah straightened in his seat and stared at the huge troll. There was no grin, no deep bass chuckle.
Elijah leaned on his knees and rubbed his forehead. The mission was back underway, and he should be happy about that. And the stories about the Human Brigade, backed up by what Cao had said, painted a picture of the darkest recesses of man’s depravity. They probably deserved whatever they got. But to shoot, what�
�eighteen people?
Elijah wasn’t without sin. He’d killed in self-defense more than once. But this was putting him where he wasn’t comfortable.
Kyrie leaned over and put her arm around Elijah’s shoulder. “You okay?”
“I hate Chicago,” he replied. And once he talked to Pineapple about what he had in mind to pull off their mission, it was only going to get worse.
Despite Cao’s protestations, Leung drove the van. They agreed that it wouldn’t do any good to stick her right out in front. No doubt the Brigade would discover Cao and Pineapple at some point, but there was no need to hurry the process.
They hit the first Human Brigade checkpoint near Hickory Hills. A massive iron-and-sheet-metal gate blocked the road, next to a thirty-foot-high tower. Eight heavily armed men in matching gray uniforms guarded the access point.
Leung brought the van to a stop just short of the gate. The headlights illuminated the words Humans Only Beyond This Point spray-painted in crooked red letters across it. The guards eyed the van with suspicion, and one of them broke off to approach the vehicle. Like at the toll booth, he came up and tapped on the driver side window. Leung rolled it halfway down.
“Good evening!” he said cheerfully. “Lovely night, isn’t it?”
“Gates are closed,” the guard growled. “Get the fuck out of here.”
“I understand,” Leung said. “Unfortunately our business is time sensitive. Coming back tomorrow really isn’t an option.”
“I said the gates are closed!” the man shouted. “Now turn this piece of shit around or I tell my men to open fire.”
“Fine.” Leung shrugged. “If you want to explain to General Rijkard that we came here with info about the Aleph Society performing operations within your borders even as we speak, but you turned us away, that’s fine by me.”
The guard squinted at Leung, as if he could squeeze the truth out by concentrating hard enough. “You got proof of this?”
“Will an audio recording from someone who’s been to the site do?” said Leung.
The man thought about it for a moment, then pointed at Leung. “Don’t move.”
He walked over to one of the other guards, who pulled a bright yellow walkie-talkie out of his jacket pocket.
“You’ve got to be kidding,” Leung said. “What are these guys? A twentieth-century re-enactment troop? Where’d he even find that thing?”
Elijah rose to a crouch and looked over Leung’s shoulder. “Any chance you can scan for that signal? Listen in on it?”
Leung frowned back at him like he was a five-year-old. “Sorry, I left my tin can and string at home.”
There was a burst of static from the back of the van, a squawk, and then a tinny voice that made everyone’s heads turn.
“Got it,” Cao sat in front of one of the many incomprehensible pieces of kit-bashed electronics mounted along the van’s walls, twiddling with a pair of dials.
“Well, damn,” said Pineapple. “You weren’t kiddin’ ‘bout this ride having a little bit of everything.”
“Like I said—upgrades,” Cao said, smiling at the troll’s praise.
“Shh,” Elijah demanded.
“…No, we don’t know who they are,” a voice crackled from the speaker. “But they claim to have proof that those Society freaks are operating inside our borders.”
A woman’s voice responded. “How many are there?”
“The van’s shielded,” the man replied. “We saw two people through the window, both humans, but we couldn’t see more. Should we search it?”
“Hold on,” the woman’s voice replied.
“Sensor counter-measures?” Pineapple grinned at Cao. “I knew there was something I liked about you. If you tell me you’ve got a rocket launcher mounted somewhere on this beast, I might be in love.”
“Sorry.” Cao shook her head. “I’m a peaceful woman by nature. Defensive systems only.”
“Aw, now see? You’ve gone and ruined it for me.”
“There’s a hatch on the roof. You can always climb out and stand on top with a gun.”
“That might be fun. I’ll keep it in mind.”
Another squawk and the woman’s voice returned saying, “Rijkard is sending an escort to bring them in.”
“You want us to search the van?”
“It’s already been handled. Just tell them to wait.”
Through the windshield, Elijah could see the two men shake their heads and shrug. “Yes, ma’am. If you say so.”
The guard returned to the window, and Leung rolled it partway down again. “They’re sending up an escort. You will follow the escort. If you deviate from the route the escort takes, severe measures will be taken. Understand?”
“Yes sir!” Leung said, giving a mock salute.
The guard glared at him, then returned to the other men.
Leung looked back over his shoulder and winked. “The old Leung charm comes through again!”
The escort was a pair of fully outfitted Ares Humvees, one in front and one in back. Both vehicles sported heavy machine guns and armor plates everywhere they could be fitted, held on with any fasteners the Brigade mechanics could find. They looked like robots designed by twelve-year-olds, but they also looked like they would be tough to completely blow apart.
“If we need to make a break for it, does your van have enough armor to make it past those guns?” Leung asked.
“If by ‘make it past’ you mean they’d cut us in half, then sure,” Cao said. “Otherwise, no. We’d all die.”
“I was afraid you’d say that,” said Leung.
The route the Humvees led them on twisted and turned through the streets. Barricades blocked off roads all through the neighborhoods. Most were camouflaged from above to make them difficult to spot from the air.
Kyrie kept staring out the thick window. “It’s going to be real tough to get out of here in a hurry without getting trapped.”
Soon they reached a neighborhood with a smattering of working streetlights. Here and there, the houses along the road had soft light shining out of the windows. Elijah spotted a tricycle lying on its side in one driveway, a UCAS flag flying on a pole in front of another house, and a covered barbecue grill in one of the house’s back yards.
“You could almost forget you’re in Chicago,” Leung said.
“Sure,” Cao replied. “Until you go inside and see the dwarf head mounted over the fireplace next to the shotgun.”
After a few more blocks, they arrived at an old-fashioned looking town square. Elijah recognized it as a product of the failed Building New Neighborhoods program. A couple decades before everything went to hell, the city government dreamed it up in an attempt to revitalize downtown living by recapturing the feel of a mythical “better time.” The stores around the square were closed, but looked occupied and well-tended. In the center stood a large brick courthouse. A well-lit UCAS flag, with a Human Brigade flag flying underneath, hung on the courthouse’s flagpole.
The Humvees pulled up in front of the courthouse and stopped, positioning Cao’s van directly in front of the sidewalk leading to the courthouse steps.
“Looks like we’re here,” Leung said.
More armed men in grey uniforms stepped out of the Humvees. One came over and banged on the van’s side door.
Elijah pulled the sliding door open and stepped out, followed by Kyrie and Leung. When Cao got out, the men all raised their weapons.
“Your dogs stay here,” the man growled.
The rigger glowered, but a nod and a wink from Pineapple kept her from saying anything.
A guard slipped behind Elijah and then pushed him with the butt of his rifle. “Move it.”
“Take it easy, asshole,” Kyrie snapped.
Elijah placed a hand on her arm. “It’s okay. Let’s
just get this done.”
They took one step toward the courthouse when the guards stopped Kyrie.
“Not her,” the guard said. “She just lost her privileges.”
Kyrie rolled her eyes, but apparently decided this wasn’t worth fighting.
Kyrie climbed back into the van and shut the door. The guards escorted Elijah and Leung into the courthouse. The place was clean, warm, and well lit. Classical music played quietly in the background, and the smell of fresh coffee—actual coffee!—floated in the air.
Leung glanced around, his expression incredulous. “This is nuts—ten klicks away people are fighting bug spirits and eating each other. How the hell do they pull this off?”
Elijah kept looking straight ahead. “I have a feeling they don’t have a lot of patience for anyone who disturbs the peace.”
The guards took them down a long hall and through a pair of six-paneled oak doors that led into a large, open room. Hanging on the walls between tall windows were pictures of the founding fathers, interspersed with ten-foot-long red banners bearing the crossed swords and helix symbol of the Brigade. Once Elijah and Leung were inside, the guards backed out of the room and closed the doors.
Standing at the front of the room with his back to them was a tall, well-built man. He wore a light-gray dress military uniform, clean and pressed, the pants tucked into a pair of brightly polished riding boots. His iron-grey hair was cropped short, and he stood with his hands clasped behind his back, looking up at a large portrait of Washington mounted on the wall.
“Did you know,” the man said in a powerful, bass voice that filled the room, “that some of the founding fathers wanted to close the borders of the United States after they declared independence? Stop all immigration. Ensure that the breeding stock of the nation remained clean. Pure.”
