Hasker knelt beside Kimmy. He had no idea how to console, how to be a father. Even with Kimmy, he never explored the idea. He tried to place his hand on Kimmy’s shoulder only to have it smacked away. Hasker, being a man of information, felt that every orphan deserved to know where they came from if they desired.
“Bea…” he said.
“Don’t say her name…”
“That’s what she told you her name was?” She looked at him, still filled with anger. “I let her leave…” Hasker mumbled to himself. He shook his head. “Kim… Bea wasn’t your guardian or your foster mother. She was your birth mother. My wife. Her name was Kim.” Kimmy looked at him and her eyes flooded, both with sorrow and anger. She hit him, followed by a slap.
“You killed her… You goddamn monster, you killed her!” she cried.
“No! She was my life, my world! I shouldn’t have let her go… It was her decision and I let her do it. She kept you from me… kept her pregnancy from me. She wanted to give you a life of choice, for you to be your own person, whether good or bad, but your choice alone. I now know why she didn’t tell you. She wanted you to have no affiliation with us. Your own life. Once I found out where she was, I tried to get her back. Away from those savages. I was young and arrogant back then. A stray bullet took her that day, Kim, I don’t know whose. So, I slaughtered every Broken Sun bastard in that camp! But to this day, it still cripples me to think it could have been my bullet that did it.”
She looked at him. She had never known she was named after her own mother. “And then I found you. I’ve never believed in any God or higher power, but if there was ever a miracle, it was me finding you. You said you don’t remember what she looked like. When I saw you in that camp, I saw her, in your eyes, your face. My Kim…” She shook her head, doubtful of the information tyrant’s words.
“How can I believe you?”
Hasker gently grabbed her face and looked into her eyes, the eyes of her mother. “We’re blood, Kim. I loved her.” Hasker said as his eye began to water, albeit very faint. “I should have never let her leave. There were other women after, even other children, my faults as a man, but she was my everything. My only link to being a normal man. I’m not a father, not a normal man. I wanted to give you the world, all of this, for you, for your mother. But only if you wanted it, like she would have wanted it, by your own choice. But I failed her when I tried to bring you back. I was selfish. Every time I looked at you I saw her. I couldn’t bear to lose her or you again. Since that day, I’ve vowed for control. I had to know everything.” Kimmy grabbed his arm gently and brought it lower, grasping his hand gently.
“My whole life I wanted to be someone, someone more than the mad and the ruthless…”
“You still can, Kimmy. This is your life. Whatever your decision, I won’t stop you again. Do what you couldn’t do down here and break the walls of this life down.” Kimmy stood up with Hasker as he held her. For years she had wanted him dead, for him to answer for his controlling nature. Now she knew that deep down they were all each other truly had, and from some other mysterious feeling, she couldn’t bring herself to revenge any longer.
She was wary of believing him, a man who prided on information and deception, but she saw something she had never known him capable of doing, weeping from loss. The tear down his cheek confirmed everything. He had once come from a normal life of order, then being transformed to the head of an illegal syndicate where ruthless tactics and mentality were the only ways to survive, but she knew a man was still inside.
“Go with the Marshal, Kimmy,” he said. “You have the heart of a dragon, noble and fierce, just like your mother. It wouldn’t be fitting for you to fight a battle alongside tyrants and madmen. You fight above them.” Kimmy put his hand down and began to walk out of the room. She looked back at him to see him content with his decision. “Wargame will come after my people first. If I don’t live, I want you to know that raising you, to see what you’ve become now, it wasn’t a wasted life.”
Kimmy looked to the floor as she turned to walk out of the room, walking past the guards. They gave her a simple nod, a sign of respect for the techmage. In the moment when she walked through the doors, she accepted the sins of her father.
17
A CLOUDED PATH
McKenna and his team exited the lift following their Wordkeeper escort. As they walked up the stairs, Veena continued her skeptical conversation.
“If you fail to capture The Commander, you may never find him again,” she said.
“Thank you for the vote of confidence, Veena,” Dill said. “Honestly, Doctor, we should be grateful we have the tip we have. We can’t grab him in the Promised Land, but the fact that we know where he’ll poke his head out is tremendous.”
“Finding this man’s location is a fluke, as a human would say. This is a man who’s been able to avoid any detection from the Earth government and syndicate brokers for almost a decade, and after the most high-profile attack on High Science, he simply vanishes? I’m beginning to suspect this man has unseen connections to entities I cannot even fathom. I think you should treat this more than a simple Interpol stakeout.”
“Well, we are Interpol, Doctor, cut us some slack,” Dill said. Elliot Draeger had an ambitious plan, but he was still just a man. He received training techniques by normal flesh and blood Earth black ops instructors, all known by McKenna. He crossed his arms, thought back to Hasker’s words, and wondered if he still had what it took to apprehend men who took to shadows.
“He’s just a man, not a ghost,” McKenna said as he stared into the vacant space in front of him.
“We’ve got luck on our side, ma’am,” Dill chuckled. “They call him The Son of Fortuna.”
“Petty titles aside, I don’t see the relevance,” she said. Veena looked to McKenna who was concentrated on what she could only describe as other things. “But, Hasker states you’ve apprehended a Federation spy before?”
McKenna connected eyes with her for a moment and at first, didn’t say anything.
“It’s always amazing what Hasker knows,” Dill said as he stretched his arms in the air. “Or was he full of shit on that one, sir?”
They boarded the escalator to a slow trip to the surface. The Keepers escorted them on, alert and at the ready for anything now that the ceasefire had ended. McKenna looked to Veena and Dill, both looking at him now. They had confidence in him. After seeing him perform in the Games, they had proof enough, but both were curious. He shook his head and, reluctantly, regaled them.
“During the war, I led a small team to eliminate a Federation spy, a man who had been tipping Martian troop movements for months. Trained by the same people this Draeger was. His reputation earned him a name, even. Prizrak, or ghost. Command believed him to be almost nonexistent, similar to this Commander. Intelligence believed the Prizrak to be operating out of a few homesteads on Europa. Farmlands mainly. My team eventually tracked him to a small village, only around fifty inhabitants. Hyper-surgery made it impossible for him to have one face. He was hiding within the populace, among the people themselves.”
“A fox within the henhouse,” Dill shook his head. “Bastard.”
“They may have been FRE colonials, but the villagers were anything but helpful. But I was persistent. We stayed in the village until they decided to give him up. That night we were raided by Federation spec-ops units. I lost several troopers. Our location could only have been tipped off by Prizrak himself…” McKenna stopped himself before he went into more details. He looked at Veena, who was staring curiously at him, squinting her eyes, knowing he was hiding something. “We eventually found him, and troop locations ceased after we did. After such a long hunt, we finally had the right man. Draeger will slip eventually, and we’ll be there when he does.”
“A clarification to the story,” Humphries said. “No meatsack can hide from the master!”
Dill looked at McKenna and then to Veena, confused, but he concluded that McKenna was just as form
idable as The Commander if not more so. After everything the Golden Bough had thrown at him thus far, the odds were favorable to McKenna. “You should listen to our esteemed metal friend, Doctor, and have a little faith,” Dill smiled.
The team reached the top of the stairs to see the streets completely empty, with the exception of a few vagrants, a different sight than before, as the streets were flooded before The Games.
“Well, Marshal, your team certainly has confidence in you. Perhaps I should do the same,” Veena said.
Their Keeper escort moved further ahead, scanning every alley and street before motioning McKenna to come forward. They were on edge. At the end of every Red Sector Games, any gang could expect an attack and would not be called paranoid. With the lift of the truce between gangs, it was a return to attacks and the fight for dominance. But to the Keepers escorting McKenna, the streets were eerily quiet.
“Wargame must be planning his move, he has to be,” Dill said.
“It won’t be long, that’s for certain,” Veena said. “Wargame doesn’t need to wait for The Commander’s order to start clearing up down here.”
Ripper looked ahead and began growling when suddenly the Keepers heard fast footsteps coming from the stairs. They quickly spun to train their weapons on the possible threat. McKenna put his hand on his weapon and turned to see a familiar face.
“Whoa! No need for alarm! Just a little Asian girl passing through!” Kimmy chuckled to the Keepers. They lowered their weapons. McKenna looked at her with a smile as he removed his hand from his weapon.
“Kim,” McKenna said. She walked up to the team with joy, happy to see her friends again. Ripper barked excitedly at Kimmy, happy to see her as well.
“So, you jokers were just going leave me behind, huh?” Kimmy said with her hands on her hips. “That’s cool!”
“Glad to have you back,” McKenna said with a smile. She could only smile back. Kimmy knelt to pet Ripper.
“And Hasker?” Dill asked.
“Well, he does have a war to fight down here,” Kimmy said as she scratched Ripper’s neck. “I decided to not let my past dictate my decision.” She looked up at McKenna and smiled again. “As a good friend once told me. I still have a place on the team?”
“Like you need to ask,” McKenna smiled. “Let’s get you to the station. I’m sure Swan-Johns are just missing you.” McKenna opened his OPIaA to check his messages that were not previously able to reach him from underground. Before he did, he saw something at a corner in the distance, just a glance. The Keepers must have as well as they trained their weapons at seemingly thin air. McKenna looked at several strange anomalies, hazy sight pictures in the open. Bent light. Humphries dashed in front of them.
“Get behind me!” Humphries yelled. Just as he did, blood and matter exploded out the back of one of the Keeper’s heads. Bullets began bouncing off the bot’s armor. A brief moment of concentration enveloped McKenna as he watched the Keeper tumble to the floor. It didn’t take McKenna long to realize who could be using optic camouflage. The silhouettes quickly shuffled to different positions. Humphries picked up a rifle and tossed it to McKenna. He was their mobile cover; they tried their best to stay behind him.
“Golden Bough, cover!” McKenna shouted.
Humphries threw his cloak over his shoulder and drew his pistols, returning fire back at the attackers. The team scattered while McKenna opened with a full auto burst from the rifle. Multiple muzzle flashes illuminated several corners as the commandos returned fire all at once. McKenna became very small as he hid behind the bot. Dill ran to his nearest piece of cover along with the other Wordkeeper while Veena and Kimmy ran to a mound of concrete and rebar. McKenna and Humphries took quick bursts at every muzzle flash. The gunfire kept them suppressed, throwing off their aim. The square was booming and thundering with hundreds of rounds going back and forth. Bullets were ricocheting and snapping past their heads.
“Yes, yes, yes!” Humphries shouted. “Stimulation to the circuits!” Humphries fired a burst, hitting a mercenary, dropping the silhouette to the ground while another mercenary quickly ran to drag him to cover. Bullets began to bounce off Humphries’ thick armor, making him laugh while McKenna made it behind a couple of the destroyed and burned out VTOLs. He looked to Kimmy and Veena to see them already doing the same. Ripper ran beside McKenna and growled at the mercenaries as he stayed close to his human friend. The other Wordkeeper popped from cover and fired on a muzzle flash. As he popped up again, a burst hit his throat and lower jaw, knocking off his breather. Dill quickly reached for his rifle and a couple of spare magazines while the Keeper was still screaming and moaning on the ground.
“God be with you, mate!” Dill said as he checked the rifle. He fired on the commandos and made his way closer to McKenna, dashing between old metal crates and mounds a debris. Neither Dill nor McKenna could get an accurate count of how many attackers there were by just sighting the strange shimmers of the optic camouflages.
“How many targets?!” Dill shouted.
“Quite a few!” McKenna shouted from across the street. “Just sight those muzzle flashes!” He popped out of cover and aimed as best as he could at the silhouettes; he fired another burst before running out of ammunition.
“Magazine!” Dill threw McKenna another magazine for his rifle. They were in no way equipped for a full-scale firefight. Humphries scanned all heat signatures with ease, their camo useless against him. The bot was the only thing keeping their defense formidable.
“Twenty bodies, Master!” Humphries shouted. The amount of gunfire seemed to only be increasing. Bullets pelting off metal, concrete, and Humphries, all whistling, cracking, and hissing.
“Kim, can you work on their camo?!” McKenna shouted as he reloaded the rifle. Kimmy was already typing several commands into her OPIaA.
“On it!” she shouted while she leaned out of cover and sent her virus flying through cyberspace, attacking all the Golden Bough mercenaries’ tools, but the attack wasn’t to plan. The camouflage began to flicker but did not disable it completely.
“They must have OPIaA shielding!” Kimmy shouted. “My tricks aren’t going to work too well!” McKenna popped out of cover and quickly lined the rifle up with a glitching commando.
“Good enough…” McKenna fired one round at a commando, dropping him with a clean shot to the head. With them partially visible, Dill counted more combatants than he would have liked.
“We’re not going to be able to fight our way through them, Alan!” Dill shouted. McKenna ducked as several bullets struck near his head.
“Get Rose down here, now! Tell him we’ve got a hot LZ!” McKenna shouted. “I’ll keep them pinned!” Dill nodded and opened his OPIaA to make the call.
“Rose, Roberts: I4525, track my position!” he barked into his earpiece. “We need hot extraction, Red Sector, grid three in the square. Repeat, hot extraction! Marking our position!” Dill threw a small beacon, no bigger than a coin, which would strobe on Rose’s navigation panel in the VTOL.
“Copy! Arriving shortly!” Rose said into the headset. McKenna saw a bullet pierce through the wreckage of the VTOL just above his head. They were safe until multiple rounds began piercing their cover. Not just his but the rest of the team. He looked to Humphries who was still shooting out in the open, moving slowly to cover.
“Humphries, AP rounds, get back here!” McKenna shouted to the bot. Humphries took one of the bullets to his right arm, causing it to spark and spasm. He immediately deployed a small shield from his left forearm. He crouched low as the bullets pelted the shield.
“That was my favorite armature, meatsacks!” The bot moved backward to McKenna’s position and moved into cover beside him. He looked at Humphries’ arm and saw a couple of sparks shoot out every couple of seconds.
“How bad is it?!” McKenna said as he switched to his handgun. He could barely hear himself over the thunderous warzone.
“Just enough to infuriate my emotion engine, Master!” Humphries
collapsed his shield to reload his pistols and began shooting again, striking a few more mercenaries, dropping them to the ground. Although McKenna’s team was holding, the mercenaries were too many and began to push closer to their positions. He peeked again but immediately ducked as a projectile whistled straight over him, exploding just on the other side of the vehicle, the blast kicking up debris and dirt.
“Heavy weapon in the open, get a shot on him!” McKenna yelled. Dill immediately took aim at the mercenary holding a launcher and opened fire on the shooter, killing him, but another rocket fired as he dropped, whistling and exploding a few meters in front of Dill.
“How much longer can we keep this up?!” Dill groaned as dirt and fragmented rocks fell on top of him. McKenna heard a thud on the vehicle and then felt something drop in his lap. He quickly picked up the frag grenade and threw it back at the attackers and heard a loud boom. Every second felt like an hour as the team was under intense suppression.
“Kim, how’s the doctor?!”
“She’s fine. How are you doing today?!” McKenna then saw a small blue glowing grenade land in the middle of them, pulsing. It was too far away for him to pick up and toss back without exposing himself.
“CREP grenade, down, down, down!” The grenade exploded and instantly McKenna's hearing cut, the blast slamming him against the wreckage, his head hitting the same area as the concussion from the alley attack on his first night on Earth. He fell to the ground, looking up to see Dill slowly picking himself up, dazed. He saw a mercenary walk up to him pointing his rifle, ready to deal a killing blow to his partner. McKenna quickly raised his pistol and shot the merc in the head, his pistol shot muffled from his sudden acute hearing. Ripper began barking and gnawing on McKenna’s hand lightly in an effort to get him up quicker before Humphries quickly picked up McKenna.
The Bloodlust: (Volume Three of the Virion Series) Page 23
