She reached the back door and swiped a hand over the silver panel next to it. She was surprised when it whooshed right open and she stepped inside the dark space.
The deep hum of someone speaking in a distant room drifted down the hall. She lightened her steps, pulling a laser pistol from her hip as she shifted from the back room of the studio to a dimly lit hallway.
The voice grew louder, and Selene recognized the same speech Jace Fenton had been giving for the last hour. She shook her head and worked her way to the main studio, careful to keep to the shadows as she turned into a wide-open room.
A screen occupied the wall behind the two news anchors. It flashed with the usual colors on repeat. A large desk wrapped around the front of it, enough space for ten anchors to sit behind. She shook her head and crouched next to the scaffolding at the back of the room.
Instead of what she assumed was the typical cameraman, a Dominion soldier held the controls to a massive piece of tech on a swivel system embedded in the floor. Long metal arms protruded from the base as if the camera used them to stay balanced while the cameraman shifted it around for different angles.
Beside the soldier stood another, and two more guarded either side of the room in case the anchors decided to run. Damn. It seemed the two hosts were being held against their will. No wonder Elrin looked so pale.
Slipping through the shadowed back of the studio, Selene came around the right side, just outside the beams of light from the pillars overhead. A plan quickly formed in her mind, sending her blood pumping and her mind racing. All she had to do was take out the man closest to her, and the one at the far side of the room. She’d kill them before the center two even knew what hit them, giving her time to remove the guard beside the camera operating one.
Selene took a deep breath. Her fingers were clammy around the grip of her pistol, but she didn’t have any more time to waste. Every second was precious when the world was ending.
Jace Fenton ended his speech with a half-hearted smile, waited a few seconds, and then opened his mouth to begin again.
Rising from the shadows, Selene aimed at the soldier closest to her and flicked off the safety of her gun. Jace’s voice nearly overpowered the whine of her pistol charging—nearly.
The guard stiffened only a second before she squeezed off a shot, creating a burnt hole directly through the side of his head.
Selene spun on her heel, aiming next at the guard across the room—only he must have seen her at some point as he raised his own pistol, fury lighting his large eyes.
Shit.
Selene dove to the side, rolling over her shoulder and back up onto her feet. She raised her pistol and let off a shot, only she hadn’t given herself enough time to aim and the laser sizzled on the wall beside the soldier’s head.
“Get down!” the soldier barked.
She heaved a sigh of annoyance. Of course they were going to make this difficult. Selene leapt behind the metal scaffolding at the back of the room and leaned around the edge, squeezing off a shot and catching the soldier in the forehead.
The third soldier swivelled to join the fray, but the last, the one manning the camera, didn’t budge. He motioned for Jace to continue, but the man was frozen, his eyes wide as he stared at the fight going on in front of him.
Selene snorted a laugh and shot again. She caught the soldier already injured in the leg, and he went down hard.
A blaze of warmth passed her ear, and Selene leaned back out of sight. She took a deep breath to calm herself. She’d almost gotten her head taken off. Now wasn’t the time to be reckless. She had to stop and think, not throw herself into danger.
With a quick assessment of her surroundings, Selene found a ladder attached to the scaffolding. She smiled and stood, leaping up to grab a few bars up before hauling herself up one handed. The metal structure went about fifteen feet high. It’d give her a height advantage and allow her some measure of surprise.
Reaching the top, she peeked over the edge. The third soldier, the last one with a gun trained on her, snuck through the shadows at the edge of the room. If she’d been on the ground, she’d never have seen him coming, but from this high up, it was hard to miss the six-foot man weaving through supply crates.
Bracing her feet on the metal bar of the ladder, Selene adjusted her grip and laid her elbows on top of the scaffolding. She took a deep breath and followed the soldier with the tip of her pistol. When he stepped out from behind a large crate, she shot. The red blaze destroyed his hiding spot and took out his brain. His body thumped to the ground, and Selene gave a victorious little fist pump.
Selene climbed back down to the floor before heading for the last man standing. The alien’s eyes bugged and his forehead wrinkled with worry as he looked over his shoulder, inspecting the shadows. He wouldn’t see his comrades, not where she’d left them.
Coming around the side, Selene made quick work of the last one, dropping him into oblivion right next to the camera.
Jace and Elrin stared at her in shock, and for a minute, Selene stared back. Though she’d never actually met the news anchors before, in a way she felt like she knew them. She’d spent weeks forced to watch their newscasts, and even more time staking out one of their live events for Zelena Stein.
It occurred to her that that’s exactly who they thought she was—Zelena. But Zelena would never be caught murdering people in front of two of New Manhattan’s most well-known celebrities.
“Zelena?” Jace finally said. His forehead wrinkled and his eyes sparkled with confusion.
Elrin just continued to stare in shock until finally, her brain must have had enough and she fell right out of her chair, fainting on the studio floor. Jace looked between the two of them, seeming unsure whether he was allowed to move.
“Help her,” Selene said.
Spurred by her words, Jace leapt from his chair and scooped Elrin up off the floor, ushering her off camera and to the side of the room where he placed her on a couch.
“What the hell is going on?” Jace snapped. He moved to the camera, still with a red light showing it was broadcasting, but Selene grabbed his arm.
“Leave it on. I have a message to deliver,” she said.
Jace looked at her with a furrowed brow, but said nothing more.
“Man the camera would you?” Selene flashed a smile as she took her hair in hand and quickly tied it up in as sleek of a bun as she could manage without a brush, pinning it at the back of her head. Zelena had worn her hair in the same way every time she made an appearance. If Selene was going to play the long dead Interim President, she should at least look half the part.
“All right,” Jace said. He looked unsure of himself, but one look at her still warm pistol and he went over to the camera, steadying its direction. “We’re still live,” he whispered.
Selene nodded and slipped around the back of the enormous desk. Once she reached the center between where Jace and Elrin had been sitting, she braced her hands on the table and stared down at the polished surface.
Taking a deep breath, she thought over exactly what she wanted to say. Though she’d gone over it on her trip there, she hadn’t exactly had a lot of time to prepare, and there she was about to address the entire country.
Nerves crackled through her like embers, and her cheeks heated. She had to think of all the chaos that was coming, of all the people who were about to get hurt. That sobered her right up.
Selene looked up at the camera, flashed what she was sure was an unconvincing smile, and stood straight. “People of the United Americas, there is a lot your government isn’t telling you.” Sweat dripped down her back, a cold bit of ice working its way to the base of her spine. She repressed a shiver. “You know me as Zelena Stein, so believe me when I tell you that you’re all in danger. There is so much the Aldar Dominion isn’t telling you. It’s a long story to get into now, but just know this—the Dominion has put you all in harm’s way. The alien corporation has sold our planet to another alien species called the
Darri, and though you might think the Aldar are bad because of this, let me tell you… they’re like sweet little kittens compared to the shit storm that is the Darri.”
Jace snorted, but his eyes widened as he held onto her every word.
“For the last hour you might have been watching your usual hosts going on about how you need to stay indoors and wait for further instructions… well I’m here to tell you, you need to get the hell out. I don’t just mean out of your homes, out of your cities, out of your country… I mean get off this fucking planet. The Darri are here ahead of schedule and they’re pissed. They shot out part of the moon, and for those of you who are like me, and know shit all about science, that means the debris from the moon is raining down upon Earth. That debris will cause storms, and tsunamis, and a plethora of other crap you do not want to stick around for.” Selene paused to let her words sink in. “And that’s nothing compared to when the big pieces hit. The shockwave will kill us all. I don’t say this to scare you, but to warn you. Get. Out. Take whatever cruiser you can find and get into space before it’s too late. I know it’s a whole lot of unknown scary shit out there, but you aren’t safe on this planet, and you will die if you don’t leave.” She raised her eyebrows to emphasize her point.
Jace met her gaze with buggy eyes. He couldn’t believe what she was saying, and she knew very well that everyone listening to her right now might think the same thing—that this wasn’t real, and couldn’t be happening. People would argue, people would be stubborn and stay to wait it out.
And those people would die.
Selene cleared her throat and straightened. “That’s all I have to say. Just… get out while you still can.”
Backing away from the desk, Selene walked around the enormous thing and out of the shot. Jace’s gaze continued to follow her until she reached an open side door and stepped through.
“That was a nice little speech.”
Selene jumped, rounding on the figure leaning against the wall beside the door. “Rikkard!” Her pounding heart slowed. “You scared the shit out of me.”
Rikkard swiped a hand over the panel beside the door to close it. “Sorry.”
Selene narrowed her eyes. He did not sound sorry. “What are you doing here?”
“I followed you… obviously.” Rikkard leaned away from the wall. He took her biceps in his hands and forced her to face him. “Stop running off.” His voice was cold and deep, filled with anger and something else.
Her cheeks heated, and she quickly lowered her gaze. “I had to warn everyone.”
He sighed, his warm breath brushing her cheeks. “I know.”
When he didn’t say anything else, she looked back up to find Rikkard staring at her hair, up in a tight bun—very unlike her. He scowled, and reached forward, pulling the pin from the bun and letting her wavy hair cascade around her face once more.
Selene smiled as he nodded his approval and stepped away.
“Come on. Let’s get back,” Rikkard said.
She agreed and they headed for the back entrance, the same way she’d come in. Her heart raced as the door slid into the wall and sound pushed in from outside.
Shouts filled the earlier silence of New Manhattan as people ran down the streets with buggy eyes, towing along whatever they could carry. Her eyes widened as she stepped over the threshold, her eyebrows furrowed.
It was chaos, very unlike what she’d come in on half an hour ago. She’d hoped her speech would make people stop and think, to act and figure out a plan of escape, but instead people were letting panic take over.
Rikkard took her hand and pulled her into the parking lot. They circled the building back to the front where Selene had parked her speeder. Beside it was a small one-man speeder she assumed Rikkard had taken. Instead of going for it, he went for hers and opened the top with a wave of his hand.
A woman raced across the street, pulling a child along behind her. She ran so fast her son could hardly keep up, his red cheeks stained with tears, and a teddy bear in his tiny grip.
“Hey!” Selene called out before she could stop herself. She jogged across the lot and caught the woman’s arm, yanking them to a stop. “Where are you going? You need to get off this planet.”
The woman looked at her with wide blue eyes. “W-what? What are you talking about? I just got my son from daycare and now we need to get inside! The Dominion has put Martial Law into place. Haven’t you been watching the news?”
Selene’s eyebrows furrowed. “Have you? You and your son need to go before it’s too late!” Panic wrapped around her heart and squeezed.
The woman shook her head. “You’re crazy. We need to trust the Dominion. Everything will be okay.”
Selene gasped. She couldn’t believe it. Was this how everyone felt? Even after she told them the truth, that Earth was about to be uninhabitable, still they’d stay because the Dominion said it was okay?
“We need to go,” the woman said gruffly, yanking her arm out of Selene’s grasp and pulling her son across the street with her.
Selene stood frozen, watching them go. So many people were going to die if they all thought like this woman. There were several million people in New Manhattan, and she knew a lot of them trusted the Dominion implicitly. To most of the public, the Dominion had never given them a reason not to trust them. They’d saved the world three hundred years ago and they’d do it again.
Slowly, she shook her head. They were all sheep. All being herded for the slaughter. They had no idea the danger they were in.
Warm fingers wrapped around her arm, and Rikkard turned her to face him. “You can’t make them listen to reason if they don’t want to hear it,” he said softly.
Cold wrapped around her like a blanket of ice. “So many people are going to die.”
Rikkard’s lips pressed into a firm line. “Yeah. They are.”
Selene squeezed her eyes shut.
“We need to go now… so we don’t join them.”
When she opened her eyes, Rikkard was looking at her like she was a child that needed to be coddled into listening. She pulled from his grip and headed back to the speeder. “Fine. Let’s go.” Her boots slapped the pavement as she crossed the lot and slipped into the back seat of the speeder.
She’d done all she could. She’d tried to warn the people of Earth, but they weren’t listening. At least she could say she’d done all she could to save the human race.
The speeder landed outside the charred doors of the bunker with a soft thump, but Rikkard made no move to open the doors. Instead, he twisted in his seat to face her, looking cautiously over the back of his chair like she might lean forward and bite him at any moment.
“You okay?” he asked tentatively.
It had been a long quiet trip from New Manhattan to the base of the Rocky Mountains. They’d lost another hour or so in transit, and though time was ticking, Selene’s chest was still tight with despair for the people of Earth who were surely about to lose their lives.
She sighed and shook her head. “Yeah.”
She knew Rikkard was trying to comfort her, looking for some way to make her feel better, but there was nothing he could do or say to erase what the Dominion had instilled in the people of Earth over the last few hundred years.
Rikkard nodded and opened the speeder door, hopping out and offering his hand to help her down. She took it and stepped out, a cold breeze brushing the sweat along the back of her neck.
Selene shivered and crossed her arms. “Is everyone already here?”
“Probably.” Rikkard looked back at the bunker.
Two new cruisers were parked beside the entrance, sitting in the ash left behind from their last visit. The entire place seemed abandoned, and Selene wondered if Pate and his crew had actually killed everyone inside, or did the workers just leave when they saw the carnage?
Selene crossed the barren yard to the bunker doors as Darius stomped down the ramp of one of the cruisers.
“Hey!” he called. “You made i
t!”
Selene smiled ruefully. “Yep.”
“Flik and Rem are already trying to figure out what needs to be done to get this ship in running order,” Darius explained. He adjusted a large crate in hand, not seeming bothered by the weight, even though Selene spied dozens of metal rifles inside. “Some of the Icarus are helping, but the rest of us are bringing in supplies.” He nodded back towards the two cruisers she recognized from the pirate’s cargo bay.
“All right, I’ll check in with Rem and Flik to see if there’s anything I can do,” Selene said.
Darius nodded and together the three of them made their way down the catwalks and stairs to the base of the bunker where stacks upon stacks of crates sat beside the ramp to the inside.
She raised her eyebrows at them, but didn’t say anything as Darius set his down and went back for another.
Shaking her head, Selene climbed the ramp and stepped into the Saegon.
“Coming through!” a girl shouted as she flew down the hall.
Selene jerked back to avoid colliding with the small Icarus girl. She flashed an apologetic smile as she continued at breakneck pace around the next bend, disappearing with an arm full of gadgetry.
“Looks like our boys have put the Icarus to work,” Selene said dryly.
Rikkard nodded and led the way to the main control room, which looked remarkably similar to the control room on the cruiser they’d taken last time they’d arrived at the bunker.
“Hey!” Selene called to Rem who was hunkered over a curved dashboard on the second level of the bridge. Half a dozen screens hovered above the dark metal with an assortment of buttons she’d never be able to memorize. “How’s it going?” she asked.
Rem hardly glanced up before returning to his screens. “Can’t talk,” was all he said.
Selene arched an eyebrow, and parted her lips to snap at him about being rude, when Ivy appeared in the only other door of the room.
“Don’t worry,” she said quickly. “He won’t talk to anyone unless it’s to bark orders.” Ivy glared at Rem’s white head of hair, but Rem didn’t even register the jab.
The Darri Commission: A Sci-Fi Dystopian Adventure (Dominion Rising Book 3) Page 21
