by K. F. Breene
“We won’t be taking them. They’ll be meeting us—”
“Holy help me, Ryker, if you don’t stop talking nonsense, I am going to stick something sharp in your eye.”
His grin didn’t reach his eyes. “One of the kids, the oldest, knows of a tunnel that leads from the building they’re in to Toton’s building. We looked into it. It was a sort of thoroughfare from one building to the other. A smaller building sandwiched in between two larger buildings. The nearest we could figure, someone attempted to collapse it. It’s mostly still standing, though I don’t know how. So what the kid is saying, in essence, is that there’s a direct route through all that rubble to Toton’s lower level. We’d still be a handful of floors up, maybe more. The building they’re in was thirty floors high before someone blew it to hell. But if the kid’s correct, then we have a silent, hopefully unmonitored way into Toton’s building. Probably the only unmonitored way into the building.”
“That kid was way up in the upper-middle floors. How could he have known what went on way down there?”
“Danissa checked the records. The lab logged a death report on the oldest, who they said disappeared from the care room for a week. Later, someone attempted to delete the report, but he or she wasn’t competent. It was one of four death reports for that kid in the last year. The truancy issues were three times that for the two oldest. A younger boy had the lion’s share of reports, the last a blatant appeal to get rid of him. He’s violent, apparently.”
“These kids sound like a nightmare.”
“I was a nightmare. Look how I turned out.”
“Yes. Thank you for proving my point.” Millicent wiped her hand over her face. “How are we going to get there without raising any alarms?”
“Black out the city.”
Millicent stared at Ryker’s electric-blue eyes, waiting for more. He stared back, not offering an explanation.
She lifted her eyebrows.
He continued to stare.
If he wouldn’t easily dodge it, she would’ve punched him. “Do you not realize that my staring at you is a silent question of how?”
“I do. It is a judgy silent question, at that.” He shifted ever so slightly, meaning he felt a tiny inkling of doubt. That was a cause for concern, as the man standing in front of her rarely experienced that emotion. “I don’t know. That’s your job. The big dog plans. The peons figure shit out. Go get with Danissa and figure shit out.” This time his grin did reach his eyes. He took her hand gently, no longer joking. “I have no idea how to get there without them seeing or knowing. Trent suspects that they have cameras everywhere in the area—video, I would imagine. Obviously we can cut the feeds, but they’ll quickly put two and two together.”
“What we need . . .” Millicent bit her lip, her mind whirling. “Is to be invisible. The answer isn’t to cut out their feed, but to make it so their feed doesn’t see our crafts.”
“Can you do something?” Ryker asked, stroking his thumb along her skin.
“How much time?”
“Trent and the children have provisions for a while. It’s this place I’m concerned about. How’s the pirate network?”
“They backed off after that second surprise virus.” Millicent couldn’t help a smile. “I barricaded that one in. All the time and effort they spent getting to it, and oops. Their systems are limping along. We are so far up their butt, they probably aren’t sitting right. We’re copying everything we need, like how they’re taking over the food plants, their defense around Moxidone’s rocket, their intel on the conglomerates—everything.”
“How can we keep the information safe? Can’t they just hack in again?”
She huffed. “We’re putting it on external hard drives, obviously.”
“I need you to stop hanging out with your sister—you’re starting to get the idea that everyone is as smart as you. Fine. Physical drives. And where do we keep those so the enemy doesn’t recover them?”
“I’m just a peon, remember? I leave those tough decisions for the big dog.” She ran her finger through his messy black hair before planting a kiss on his full lips. “I’ll talk to Danissa about getting to that building incognito. Hopefully we can figure something out between the two of us.”
“Thanks, love.”
“Now you need to get some sleep. Otherwise you’ll be no good to us.”
He started to shake his head, but stopped as the tranquilizer needle slid into his arm. Dagger, who’d snuck up, had injected the fluid.
Ryker gave her a small smile. “You hate not getting your way, don’t you, princess?”
Dagger stepped out from behind him and pulled the tranquilizer away. “Sorry, sir, but it’s my shift and you’re cramping my style. Calling me princess is going a bit too far, though . . .”
“You’re so tired you didn’t even notice him creeping up on you.” Millicent pulled Ryker’s arm. “Get some sleep. Let Dagger take over. Hopefully I’ll have a solution by the time you’re awake.”
“Love you.” Ryker said to Millicent and punched Dagger in the chest as he passed.
“Love you, too, sir.” Dagger said. “Night-night.” He wiped his chest, clearly trying to rub away the pain, judging by the grimace and tightness of his eyes. “Okay. Let’s get cracking.”
“This isn’t much of a solution,” Danissa said as she stared at the long flat device made of smooth, shiny metal. The spheres the humanoid cockroach had been carrying had been made of a similar metal. “This is the thing they use to mess with our minds?”
Danissa watched as Millicent smoothed her hair back and then glanced at her wrist, where a counter flashed 4:57. Gunner had been asleep for nearly five hours so far. With Millicent leading the charge, they had hidden booby traps all over Toton’s net, set a timing code to execute Millicent’s somewhat genius prison programs on the top staffers of both Moxidone and Gregon—in the hopes that everything else would go as planned—and fixed or enhanced the various weaponry Millicent had designed. With Danissa helping and Marie doing things Danissa hadn’t even known were possible, they were flying.
Problem was, it still might not be enough.
“Yes. It quickly and painfully debilitates humans,” Millicent said, finally answering her question. “I think that was the reason for their quick and easy victory in the beginning. Simple to work around, as you figured out.”
“One of the reasons for their victory, anyway.” Danissa ran her finger along the smooth metal. “You’re sure we don’t have anything like this in the metal plants? Making something from scratch would probably be easier than trying to alter this.”
“This metal doesn’t come from Earth. Paradise has it in large quantities, so I was able to experiment with its properties. That’ll help us here.”
“I’ve never been good at the hardware. Only software.”
“You’re smart and you can learn. Time to get good. Now, I’ve already altered the output of this thing. It isn’t geared to human brain waves anymore. Unfortunately, it isn’t geared to much of anything. I’m trying to get it to emit a sort of frequency that will confuse the video surveillance enough to where we can run—”
“Mommy! Mommy!” Marie fell off her stool and scrambled to her feet.
A distant explosion made the floor rumble and screens quiver.
“Already?” Millicent gasped, grabbing the device and standing. Her hip bumped the table and knocked a screen to the floor. It shattered as another explosion shook the room.
“What the hell is happening?” someone shrieked. Others screamed. People looked around, wide-eyed.
“Pull up our feeds!” Danissa yelled, already on her feet and taking charge of the situation. She’d been through this so many times, the commands were second nature. “Cover these walls with our exterior eyes and ears. We need to see what’s going on. And for the sake of Divinity, someone wake up Gunner!”
“Where we at, pretty lady?” Dagger said as he jogged over.
Danissa didn’t scoff at his c
hoice of name. She needed him thinking and acting with his dick right now, since it was directly tied to his testosterone. She was the brains—he had to be the brawn.
“They are blasting their way in. They have some heavy artillery.”
“So do we,” Millicent said, working at the console. “Marie, create hell in their systems. Don’t set off the viruses and Trojans, but scramble their communications and the uplinks from their crafts. Blind their headquarters.”
“Update me,” Gunner said, jogging in. He pulled his suit over one arm and stuffed his other hand through the armhole.
“Work faster, people!” Danissa yelled. To Gunner, she said, “We’ve got nothing to update you with so far. Stand by.”
Images popped up one by one. Black crafts idled just above the EMP areas, blasting holes in the building. It was clear they didn’t know the exact location of the EMPs, but it was equally clear they knew the EMPs existed—and at approximately the correct height.
“Clear everyone away from the main entrance,” Gunner yelled. “We’re going to have heavy debris raining down.”
Light flared from the bottom of one of the crafts. Another explosion shook the building. Flames coughed out into the sky, distorting the camera for a moment.
“I have rockets trained on the first craft,” Millicent said in a calm, focused voice. This wasn’t her first time in combat, either. “Do I fire now, or wait until I get them all lined up?”
“Fire,” Gunner said, stalking over to an open console. “Do we have any crafts rigged with heavy artillery ready to go?”
“Yes, sir,” Dagger said, standing near the door. “We built them to Ms. Foster’s specifications. They are in bays four, five, and eight.”
“Pull up a map of the area,” Danissa said, pointing at a mousy woman on her right. The woman nodded and did as she was told. “Mark those bays and mark the locations of the known enemy crafts.”
“Danissa, take this on the move,” Gunner said in a voice full of command. “We’re going to use this distraction to get behind enemy lines. Let’s get to the crafts.”
Cold bled through her. Images of Puda’s slack white face filled her mind. Memories of explosions, of body parts, and of all her near-death experiences across the city rooted her feet to the spot. It felt like they were kicking her out of the safety of the fold—just like the conglomerate had. They were thrusting her into the waiting arms of the enemy, and this time, there wouldn’t be anyone to come to her aid.
“Hey.” Shivers coated her body as that strong, firm hand landed on her shoulder. “You’ve got the best of the best in your corner, Danissa,” Dagger said softly, for her ears alone. “We’ve got your back. I won’t let anything happen to you, got it? We’ll take out those killers, and then you can come back here and give your man a proper farewell. Stay strong for him.”
She placed her palm to her chest, where a heavy weight had settled.
“Take three deep breaths,” Dagger said calmly. “Three deep breaths, and then we spring into action. One . . .”
Danissa sank into his words and his confidence. Grounded by his dark, dynamic eyes, she took a deep breath, and let it fill her lungs.
“Breathe it out. And take another one. Good work. One more . . .”
She blew out the third breath and nodded.
“Let’s go!” Dagger yelled at her.
Startled out of the relaxing exercise, she snatched up two mobile screens and a hologram unit without thinking, and was running beside Millicent before she had registered what was happening.
“Their training is very effective,” Millicent said in a conversational tone.
“Aren’t you terrified?”
“I’m leaving my child behind in safety, so no.” She paused a moment, then said, “Don’t think about danger. It doesn’t help. Think of the outcome. Think of how to make that outcome happen.”
“What’s the outcome?”
They turned a corner as another explosion rocked the building.
“A better life. Green fields. Those waves you love so much, but in real life. Children’s laughter. People you care about. Or just peace and quiet with no superiors. There is a future for you, but you have to be tough enough to take it. It won’t be handed to you. You have to take it!”
“Take a right, ladies, and put some hop into that step,” Dagger said, easily catching up to them.
“Do you have the same genetic makeup as Ryker?” Millicent asked.
“I have no idea what you are talking about,” Dagger answered. “Just through here.”
“Trent has ruined me,” Millicent muttered.
“In you get.” Dagger palmed an archaic security pad and motioned them through. “You go first. Check for monsters in there, would ya? I don’t like monsters jumping out at me. They plague my closet and under my bed.”
“What is he talking about?” Danissa said as she followed Millicent into the craft. Seats lined the sides of the vessel and curved around toward the cockpit. There were storage bays along the back, next to a locker that hopefully contained extra suits and spare parts.
“They get amped up for battles.” Millicent took a station at the console by the craft door. She gestured toward the back. “There should be another console back there. Maybe two, if they did as I instructed.”
“We did indeed, bossy lady,” Dagger said, practically bobbing by the door. A rumble hinted at an explosion.
“We have three targets lined up,” Millicent said. “Danissa . . .”
Danissa positioned herself by one of the consoles, and no sooner had she started it up than a map flashed in front of her, code scrolling along the side.
“I need help,” Millicent said. “I see three more crafts. Their shots are slow to come, which means they are either having trouble aiming, or they’re giving it a second after each shot to gauge the impact. Pinpoint them with this . . .” A tracking program loaded onto Danissa’s screen. “Then we can target them.”
“You do some things very well,” Danissa said, quickly deconstructing Millicent’s program and rebuilding it with passable code. “And some things you really suck at. Here. Use this in the future. It’ll save you time.”
She flicked the program to Millicent’s screen before implementing it on her end. “Find the rest with that, and I’ll create a heat-seeking program that can target them all at about the same time.”
“Oh great, two annoyingly smart women playing ‘my program is bigger than yours.’” Roe clicked on a heavy utility belt as he sauntered into the craft. “At least men have actual dicks to measure. It puts an end to the endless one-upmanship.”
“Don’t walk into a gunfight with a knife, bro-yo,” Dagger said from the doorway.
“I ain’t afraid of them.” Roe took a seat like it was a lovely and relaxing day.
“What do you want?” Dagger asked someone outside of the craft.
“Let them on,” Roe called. “They are the surliest of the former clones I picked up today. No implants, though, and they have no idea how to work a console.”
“Can they read?” Millicent asked as the building rumbled. The craft shook, the metal of the docking groaning.
“Yep. They can read, run, lift weights, swim, and fuck. We can send messages to their mobile screens.”
“Why you mentioned their sexual prowess, I do not know,” Millicent said dryly.
“They do five things really well, as far as I’ve seen. How callous would it have been for me to leave one of those things out? Then people would think they could only do four things.” Seven men and women of perfect proportions and muscle tone stepped into the craft. Their skin was horrible, but their eyes were bright and filled with rage. None of them said hello, just walked to the rear of the craft and stood there quietly.
“That you’ve seen?” Millicent scoffed. “Where’s Ryker?”
“He’s on the way,” Dagger called.
“True, I haven’t actually seen them swim, but I am assured they are all excellent at it. The older
ones have the skin lesions from the acidic water to prove it. Not talkers, though. They don’t say much. Seem mad a lot of the time. I figured that was a good thing.”
“I have all the crafts targeted . . . ,” Millicent said.
“Kill them all!” Dagger yelled.
“They are most likely robots,” Millicent replied. Danissa saw “Execute” flash. “So no one will actually die . . .” She paused. “Never mind.”
An echo of thunder permeated their space.
“Control room, what is the status of the enemy crafts?” Millicent asked.
Over the comm unit, a voice said, “Direct hit on all. Fire is consuming most, and those are already losing altitude. Two are wavering.”
Code flashed down the side of Danissa’s screen, the mirror of what Millicent was working on. “Execute” flashed. Another echo of thunder drifted in.
“Control room, give me eyes,” Millicent said.
“Why not just pull it up?” Danissa asked.
“I want them to maintain control with confidence. They’ll be in charge as soon as we’re out of here.”
“Direct hit,” the control room said. “They’re falling like stones. We’re preparing for impact. One will hit the landing strip hard.”
“That’s what it’s designed for,” Dagger said.
“What about the other crafts?” Millicent asked. “What will they hit?”
“Empty buildings. If those buildings topple, we’ll be fine. The empty ones were strategic.”
“Not so shit with defense after all, then.” Roe sniffed. “Not when it really counted, anyway.”
“Yeah, with us here,” Danissa murmured.
“Everybody’s a critic.” Roe adjusted his belt and crossed his ankle over his knee.
Gunner ran into the craft. “We’re good to go. I’ll be flying this bird. Princess, update me on what I’m working with.”
“Remember my old craft from when I was with the conglomerate?”
“We got five more getting into position,” the overhead comms said. “There are a dozen more hovering above those. They are trying to force their way in with sheer numbers.”
