by S. T. Moon
Victoria stopped and took another look at the underground, off-grid society. “There’s no way this place can remain a secret forever.”
Abel’s expression darkened. “It hasn’t always been a secret. One of the first Death Angels was made just for this place. They send one a couple of times a year, but the locals have ways of diverting it. I’m sure the evil masterminds of the DAP think they’ve scoured this place of rats.”
Victoria tensed. She wondered what the locals would do if they knew who she was and who she worked for. She doubted they would listen to her explanation that she didn’t support the Death Angel Project.
The Randall brothers finished greeting friends and family they hadn’t seen for years and returned to lead Victoria and Abel.
“We have time to see one more thing before heading topside,” Joseph said.
Victoria, sensing what was coming, couldn’t find words. She nodded.
Joseph and his brother studied her soberly for several moments, a contrast to their normal jovial nature. Suddenly, they seemed older and more seasoned. She understood now, this was the fallout of the DAP, and the price some were forced to pay became evident.
The brothers took Victoria and Abel into a narrow cavern branching from the main room. The walls were brick, and there wasn’t as much light. Further into the medical ward there was more need for light as doctors and surgeons worked on victims.
It shouldn’t have surprised Victoria that many victims of the Death Angel would seek treatment off the grid. This is where the experts were. They been dealing with DAP attacks for generations.
Victoria realized she was now under guard. Joseph and Uriah held their weapons ready, fingers off triggers. They were alert and ready.
“We trust you, Vic. But the security element here doesn’t know you. They need assurance that you’re not going to call in an attack or something,” Uriah said.
“I understand. Do what you have to do,” she said.
No one spoke much in this part of the off-grid settlement. Doctors and nurses cared for patients. Victoria and Abel weren’t allowed to go near the critical victims.
She realized the medical ward had three branches.
“What’s down that tunnel?” she asked.
Joseph answered. “Long-term rehabilitation.”
“Your people seem to know what they’re doing but they don’t have proper facilities. Some of these people need sterile environments and state-of-the-art surgical procedures. Computer-assisted interventions.”
“None of them will go topside for that. We have a room with the best of modern medical equipment. We could use ten more facilities but we have what we have,” Joseph said.
Victoria pushed her anger back. Some of the victims were children. She doubted they would make it without modern medical practices.
“These people made their own choice,” Abel said. “They’re not like me and most of your team. They’re not willing to move back and forth between the grid and the free world.”
“What choice did these children make?”
“Do children make their own choices on the grid?” Uriah asked.
“I suppose not,” Victoria said.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Commitment
Victoria’s phone vibrated the moment they emerged into the real world. She didn’t want to answer it. The alert pattern indicated it was a command message, something straight from Frank Oden. She left her team several meters away and sat down on a park bench.
“Mayer,” she said.
“Where the hell have you been? I know you’re not chasing your boyfriend, because I know where he is for once,” Oden said.
She didn’t bother to answer. Too tired to play his games, she wished he was here so she could just punch him in the face. It wasn’t that she blamed him or people like him for what she’d seen. She was tired and he annoyed her.
“Your team is recalled. Report to HQ soonest. Oden out.”
Sitting on the edge of fountain nearby, Abel looked up from his gear. “Bad news?”
“I’m probably about to be fired,” Victoria said.
“Think positive. Your boss has too much going on to worry about anything we’ve been doing,” Abel said. Then he remembered. “Oh, that sucks. He’s got a vendetta against you.”
“Something like that. Let’s head back.”
She didn’t talk to her team on the return trek. Abel, Joseph, and Uriah had become like family in their short time together. She spent most of the trip back trying to figure out the best way to spare them Oden’s wrath. They were already outsiders, held in contempt, rebels flying below the radar and flirting with disaster. Red-6, or whatever the corporation called itself tomorrow or next week or next year, would ferret them out and punish them. Of that she had no doubt. But she had to give them a chance if she could.
They reached headquarters and found semi-permanent structures crowding the plaza. Three squadrons of tanks were deployed to defend the perimeter and a nearby park had been converted into a helicopter landing zone.
“Seems like overkill,” Joseph said with a sarcastic laugh.
“Abel, gather up the rest of Red and Blue Teams, then put them to work someplace they won’t be harassed by management. I’m going to face the music.”
“Good luck, Victoria.”
She took one last look at the three staunch men and hoped they weren’t in for as much trouble as she was.
There was so much traffic in the corporate quasi-military camp that she went unnoticed until she entered Oden’s presence. He was moving tactical markers around a large table, barking orders. To her surprise, he wasn’t wearing a military uniform, but the most expensive suit permitted by Red-6. His rank was indicated by a small pin on his lapel. She was sure he was armed but the weapon was concealed.
When he saw her, he waved everyone else away and motioned her forward.
“This seems like a lot of firepower for three mechanical constructs,” she said.
“Where the hell have you been?” he asked.
“On patrol, as ordered, sir,” she said.
“Don’t mock me, Mayer. I’m warning you.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it. Never a good idea to piss off a man with an army.”
He crossed his arms. “You look like you have something to say.”
She held her tongue.
“You and I need to resolve this problem you seem to have with my authority before it gets out of hand,” he said.
“I was your boss,” she said.
“And now I am your boss’s boss. Welcome to the corporate world. This is a meritocracy.”
Victoria laughed, drawing the attention of agents and officers loitering just out of earshot.
Oden leaned closer.
“What are you going to do, attack me?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said.
“Women talk. You have a reputation. Might be time for this army to have a new leader.”
“Don’t threaten me,” he said. “Submit your recorded report through channels… right after you turn in your weapons. I’ll have a new leader assigned to your team. It underperformed and should be decommissioned but they don’t deserve to suffer for your insolence.”
She walked away.
“You will salute your commanding officer!” he shouted.
She gave him the finger without looking back. “Not in the Army, sorry.”
She found the master at arms.
“What can I do for you, agent? Ammunition? Fix something?”
“Can I top off these magazines?” she asked calmly.
“Sure thing. I’ve got more than enough ammunition. Any updates on the DAP?”
She replied, “Shouldn’t be much longer. We have units on practically every corner.”
The man shook his head. “I love old war movies. Never thought I’d see anything like this in my lifetime.”
Abel and the Randall brothers came in with several other people from Red and Blue tea
ms. Victoria caught Abel’s eye and looked pointedly outside. He got his gear taken care of and followed her.
She spoke without looking at him, half turned away as if they weren’t talking. “I’m done. Oden has it in for me. Can you get a message to Breaker? Any channel I try to use is going to be a no-go.”
“I can try,” Abel said. “He’s not going to like that kind of news, especially coming from me.”
“I don’t want him to know what I’m doing until after it’s done,” she said.
Abel groaned. “Fuck.”
“Get the team, I want to talk to them someplace private. Nothing too elaborate, just off the beaten path a bit,” she said.
“Meet us at the soccer stadium. It’s a staging point for supplies.”
She waited at the soccer stadium for what seemed like a lifetime. Finally, the surviving members of Red and Blue teams were gathered around her. Without beating around the bush, she laid out what she wanted to do.
“First off, my problems are not your problems. But I’m playing a hunch here, guessing that some of you have your own issues with the corporations. Frank Oden has a stranglehold on my career. My time is running out and I don’t have any choices.”
“You should probably talk to Breaker,” Sergeant Bailey said. He moved stiffly, but had survived the first battle thanks to Victoria.
She was surprised. “You know Breaker?”
Bailey shook his head. “Heard of him. He contacted me and asked me to look after you.”
“Huh.” She scanned the rest of the team, looking for other people who may have been sent to babysit her. “I respect anybody’s decision to stay, but I’m done with Red-6 and there might be safety in numbers.”
She expected the entire unit to follow her enthusiastically. Abel nodded.
She looked at Joseph and Uriah Randall.
Joseph answered for both. “We already made our decision. I was just wondering what took you so long.”
Some of the others murmured but no one committed.
Sergeant Bailey stepped forward with a scathing look at the ranks. He said to Victoria, “I volunteered for this unit because of you. You seemed like you were open to new ideas. You’ve been off-grid a few times.”
There was a ripple of laughter.
“And you’re one of the first to face a Death Angel head on. I thought you’d be reinstated after this mission. Put back in charge of the Northwest Region. That’s a good place to do things and I’d be happy to serve you in that capacity,” Bailey said.
“How do you feel about working for a straight-up rebel?”
An awkward silence fell. People looked at their feet or checked their equipment.
“Do you think you can change anything with people like Frank Oden in charge?” she asked.
“He’s not as bad as Vail,” one of the women said.
“What you mean?”
The woman shifted uncomfortably, not happy about being the center of attention. Unable to escape, she squared her shoulders. “Oden is a bully. He hurts people—gets off on it—but Vail will kill you and all your friends if you don’t do what she says.”
Victoria couldn’t argue with that. The woman was a fixer.
She wished Breaker was here. But if she thought about Breaker and Irene together she wouldn’t be able to go forward.
Everyone had an opinion about that, and several arguments sprang up.
“I didn’t expect you to lay it all out like that,” Abel said. “Glad you did, I just didn’t expect it.”
Joseph and Uriah remained impassive, appearing disinterested in the outcome. The brothers seemed more real than the others, grounded and aware while the rest didn’t see what was all around them.
“Are you all right?” Abel asked Victoria.
“As good as can be expected. None of them are coming. A few will betray me.”
“I’m with you, and so are the Randalls. Bailey and his clique need a little time. I think we can count on him to keep the rest from reporting us at least,” Abel said. “We only need enough time to get out of the occupied territories.”
“That’s what Breaker’s people called the grid.”
His expression hardened.
Sergeant Bailey acted as speaker for the team. “We don’t like the timing. It’s a tough decision and we respect you enough not to argue. We’ve all agreed not to interfere with you,” he said.
Instead of disappointment she felt relief. Not quite as good as an outpouring of team spirit, but workable.
“Understood. Continue the meeting for as long as you can or as long as you’re willing. We’ll be on our way out—discreetly,” Victoria said.
Uriah Randall led the way. Victoria and Abel went next. Joseph brought up the rear, his long rifle ready as he alternated walking forward and walking backward to watch all danger zones.
Slipping away from the burgeoning military machine was easy. So easy it didn’t seem real.
“There are even more tanks and helicopters than I imagined there’d be,” Abel said.
“You expected this?”
“Had to happen eventually.”
An hour later they were beyond the perimeter of the Red-6 operation. Victoria saw a few citizens attempting normal life, men and women headed to work or sweeping the steps of their apartments. Some waved politely. Most pretended not to see them.
“Where are you taking us, Uriah?” Victoria asked.
“He won’t use the same approach to the underground. I’m not sure if we’ll even go to the same community,” Abel replied. “There’re three cells in the D.C. Metro area.”
Victoria nodded and paid close attention to her surroundings, trying to remember everything. “Did you know Breaker before you joined 6Corps/Red-6?”
“It’ll take a while to get used to Red-6. Did I join 6Corps or did I join Red-6? Interesting question. As for Breaker, I didn’t know him well. Knew who he was of course, and his reputation.”
“Interesting. Please continue.”
“If I’d grown up there, or managed to stay longer than a couple of years, I think we would’ve been friends—or rivals. Maybe both. He was pretty wild,” Abel said.
“In what way?”
“You heard the story about his horseback riding adventure?”
“When he broke his arm and was told to stay away from the pony, but went back the next day to try again and broke his other arm?”
Able laughed. “Everyone tells that story. I figured you’d heard it. He never got in as many fights as I did but probably more than most boys in the village. Girls liked him a lot. They all complained he only liked blondes. Sorry.”
“Well I’m glad he figured that out. Maybe I converted him,” she laughed. “What happens when he joins us?”
“I’ll be perfectly honest. I don’t trust him.”
“But you trust me.”
“I cultivate a healthy distrust of everyone, even family and friends. Especially family and friends,” he said. “You’re a bit higher on my trust scale because we’ve fought together. I respect the decision you just made and appreciate the gravity of it.”
“What will it take for you to trust him?”
“You’re assuming he’ll join us. Where is he right now? Fighting for his life with the queen of the fixers? I doubt she lets him go. There are two likely scenarios: she makes him her right hand man—turns him into what she is—or she kills him. We’ll probably never know either way.”
“What do you mean turns him into what she is?”
“She’s built this reputation for being detached, not part of all the drama and political intrigue.”
“I’ve no doubt she has her own agenda,” Victoria said.
“No one knows what she does half the time, not even her “superiors” in whatever corporation she’s working for at the moment. I’ve been watching her for a while. When she does take action, it’s astonishingly direct.”
Victoria thought about Trevor Niles massacring entire villages of the grid and said,
“Stop beating around the bush.”
“She has a lot of blood on her hands,” he said.
Victoria had assumed as much. The woman scared her.
“Breaker went straight back to her after your argument,” he told her.
“How could you know that?”
He didn’t answer right away, but he did answer.
“Where else would he go?”
PART TWO
CHAPTER EIGHT
Bridge
A squad of unconventional urban warriors emerged from the shadows just after the sun went down. They wore jumpsuits like they were going to manufacturing jobs, or maybe just leaving the night shift with lunch boxes in hand. On closer inspection, Victoria realized the lunch boxes concealed compact weapons that could be unfolded quickly. Construction helmets helped conceal what the devices actually were.
Their leader noticed Victoria’s interest and said, “Just regular safety helmets. They keep my jolly band of misfits from bumping heads. Won’t stop a bullet. Call me Renee.”
“Are you on mission?” Abel asked.
“Yep. Short on time and short on manpower. Are you good to go?” Renee asked.
“We could stand a meal and some downtime. It’s been a busy day,” Abel said.
Victoria leaned close to Abel. “I’m not excited about being invited on a mission two seconds after we meet this crew.”
“I know Renee. That’s the way she is. Flies by the seat of her pants,” Abel said.
Victoria got toe to toe with Renee. “We can’t commit to helping without more information.”
Renee looked her over, making no effort to appear polite. “This one’s pretty simple. At least two of the Death Angels are about to be pushed into a residential neighborhood. Our new corporate overlords don’t seem to care. The only way we can stop it is by blowing a bridge.”
Victoria flinched. Destruction of grid infrastructure was a high crime. “You don’t think a Death Angel can get across if a bridge is down?”
“We don’t have to stop it, we just have to stop the people herding it,” Renee said.
“Blow the bridge, the Red-6 forces can’t follow it,” Abel said. “You have your own explosive experts and materials?”
