by M. R. Forbes
“That’s what I forgot,” Nathan said, pointing at the camera. Chandra’s face was near it, obstructing it from a full view of the pod. She waved into it. “Let’s go.”
“Yes, sir.”
The driver got the pod moving forward again, accelerating quickly from the station. Nathan opened the cockpit door, stepping out into the passenger section with Chandra. He put his arms around her, lifting her and embracing her, holding her close to his face and blocking the camera with their forms.
“Is it working?” she whispered in his ear.
“So far,” he replied. “Kiss me.”
She hesitated for a moment before putting her lips to his. He felt weird kissing her, but it was all for show. They kept their lips moving against one another for nearly the entire two-minute ride. Nathan could imagine the driver watching them out of the corner of his eye, focused on the foreground and missing the third person hiding in the back.
The pod came to a stop, and the doors opened. Nathan ducked back into the cockpit.
“Sir?” the driver said.
“You didn’t see anything. Do you understand?”
The driver nodded. Nathan could see Chandra helping Hayden off the pod in the screen behind him. Once they were clear, he nodded curtly and exited the pod, a smile spreading across his face.
Too easy.
They walked back to the lift, taking it to the first floor. It was a quick walk back to the west wing of the hospital where the botters’ workshop was located.
Chandra opened the door ahead of them. “Sheriff, you know the drill. Shirt off, hop on the table.”
“I need a little help,” Hayden said, using his head to motion to his boots and the seals on the jumpsuit.
“Oh, right,” Chandra said, going over and removing his boots before releasing the seals.
The jumpsuit was one piece, and the whole thing fell away from him, leaving him naked again. Her face flushed at the sight of him, but Hayden seemed unfazed. He moved to the chair in the center of the room and sat down.
“I’ll get some fresh clothes,” Nathan said. “I need to check in with Doc and General Neill anyway. Sheriff, are you good here?”
“Pozz,” Hayden said. “I’ll be much better when I have arms and some underwear.”
Nathan smiled, glancing at Chandra. She had overcome her embarrassment and was in the process of organizing her tools, grabbing a rolling cart and moving to the shelves.
Nathan ducked out of the room and into the hallway, making his way back to the lobby to ask the clerk where he could find a fresh uniform. He adjusted his jaw to activate his comm.
“Doc, what’s your status?” he asked.
“Colonel, I should be asking you that,” Doc replied. “Did you find anything yet?”
“Not yet. It’s not as easy as I had thought. That’s why I’m checking in. What’s the latest?”
“We’ve got an entire platoon of Liberators scouring the spire for evidence of an intruder. They haven’t turned anything up so far, and the spire control center isn’t all that big. I think if our target was here, it didn’t stick around.”
Nathan almost said pozz in response. He stopped himself short. “Roger that. How does General Neill want to handle this?”
“We have no activity at the spire and no new incidents. He’s keeping things under tight control for the moment, and trying to get in touch with the Harpy to inform Tinker and James on the situation. As long as things stay that way, you’ve got some extra time to see what you can turn up.”
“That’s the best news I could have asked for. What about you? Are you coming back to the lab?”
“General Neill asked me to do an autopsy on one of the dead, to see if there was anything I could uncover that might help us understand what we’re dealing with. I’m actually in progress now. I’ll be tied up at the hospital for the next couple of hours.”
Nathan didn’t say it, but that was also the best news he could have asked for. As long as the Other cooperated, they had an easy two-hour window to get Hayden back in business.
“Roger that,” he said. Then he disconnected the link.
Compared to what was coming, finding Hayden some underwear was almost going to be fun.
Chapter 16
Hayden sat with his head straight and still, using his hearing to track Chandra around the room. The gel padding of the seat was cold on his bare back, and he wasn’t all that thrilled with sitting there naked, but at least nothing hurt. In fact, he felt pretty damn good, if insanely hungry.
“Remind me to ask Nathan for some food when he gets back,” he said.
“Pozz that, Sheriff,” Chandra said. She was silent for a moment before she added, “It’s good to have you back in one piece.”
“I’m sorry about Gus,” Hayden said. “Real sorry. He died to save my life.”
“It’s not your fault. He was always like that. He stepped up for me when I got in trouble more than once.” She was silent again as she grabbed something from behind him. “Sheriff, what the hell is really going on around here?”
Hayden smiled. “Damned if I know. I thought King was the worst Earth could offer up.”
“King?”
“He used to rule over a few of the cities out west. Sanisco, Lavega, Haven. He took my wife. I took her back.”
“I take it he’s dead then?”
“Very. I’m not a violent man, but I don’t abide anyone hurting my wife.”
“Pozz that. Nathan said Tinker’s gone out west. Do you think he’s going to hurt your wife?”
“She can take care of herself. And if he does, he’ll end up just like King. Just a lot more slowly.”
Chandra laughed, returning to his side with a cart filled with parts. “You’re in luck, Sheriff. The stuff Tinker has here is way better than anything I had at Crosston. I’ll fix you up better than new.”
Hayden looked over at the stuff on Chandra's cart. There were two matching replacement arms there. Neither was as advanced as the Centurion replacement he had lost, but they weren’t as primitive as the original either. “Where’s Gus’ prosthetic?” he asked.
“You don’t want that, Sheriff. It’s too big for you.”
“Look who’s talking. I do want it. Thing can take a real beating.”
“Pozz. Let me get it.”
She picked up one of the arms and headed to the wall on the side, swapping it with the oversized arm of the fallen mongrel. Hayden watched her, and then stood up and walked over to where she was standing. He stared up at the wall of appendages.
“Which are the left arms?” She pointed at a dozen replacements resting on the wall. He moved closer to them, examining each one before settling. “I want that one.”
She looked at it, and then at him. “Are you sure?”
“I had one like it once before. It did okay by me.”
“If you say so, Sheriff. That’s an old piece.”
“So am I.”
Chandra took it off the wall, and Hayden returned to the chair. Chandra brought the two arms over to the terminal, then retrieved two new control rings better sized for the equipment. Finally, she plugged the rings into the terminal, using the software to start programming them.
“The gas you hit me with,” Hayden said while he waited. “Can you tell me more about it?”
“Like what?” Chandra asked.
“Like how it’s going to affect me.”
“Oh. Sure, Sheriff. It should give you a ten to twenty percent boost to your fast twitch reflexes and increase your hand-eye coordination and reaction time by up to two hundred milliseconds. Which doesn’t sound like all that much, but when someone is about to punch you in the face, or a trife is going to nail you with its claws--”
“So it made me moderately quicker for a forty percent mortality rate?”
“Which is why the research was abandoned. It was the safest compound in the lab already loaded for delivery. I think the forty percent thing is overblown. Most of the subject who died we
re old men.”
“I am an old man.”
“I think you’ll be fine. And look how well you’ve healed. Don’t forget about that benefit. I think that’s more important than the reflexes.” She looked back at him. “They really beat the shit out of you. What did they want?”
“The location of a secret Space Force vault.” He smiled. “It sounds silly when I say it out loud. Have you ever seen any of the old superhero streams? They always had secret hideouts.”
“I think I’ve seen one or two. I can’t believe people used to like that stuff. Why do they think you know where it is?”
“Because I know where it is.”
“Oh. It must be somewhere important for you to keep it quiet with everything they did to you.”
“A lot of people are going to die if Tinker gets what he wants. I don’t think his way justifies the means, and the whole situation with this thing running around the city only makes me more sure I’m right.”
“No argument from me there. I told you, I just want to be safe.”
“Understood.”
It took Chandra a few minutes to finish with the arms. She returned them to the cart and picked up a mechanical eye, holding it next to his face to judge the size.
“Eyes are tricky,” she said. “There’s no software interface, so we won’t know if it works or how well it works until we put it in.” She paused and made a face. “Shit.”
“What is it?” he asked.
“Your increased healing rate is going to make keeping you under while we do this tricky too.”
“Don’t put me under.”
“Sheriff, the process is painful.”
“I know it. But I don’t need to die because you give me too much sedative, and if you don’t give me enough it’s going to hurt anyway.”
She bit her lip and nodded. “Pozz. You’re a tough hombre, Sheriff.”
“Only when I have to be.”
A soft knock at the door gave them a few seconds warning, and then Nathan returned to the room. He was carrying a new bundle of clothing, and he smiled as he tossed Hayden a pair of underwear.
“You just made my day, Stacker,” Hayden said, sliding them on.
“Keep the shirt off,” Chandra said.
“Pozz.” Nathan brought Hayden the rest of the clothes, and he dressed in the bottom half of the dark Space Force fatigues. “So much better.”
“Colonel, we decided we’re going to do the replacement without a sedative,” Chandra said. “Which means I’m going to need you to help me keep him still while I work.”
“Roger,” Nathan said.
“The control ring is the most painful part, especially because the skin’s already healed over the old connectors. The eye won’t hurt as much, but it takes a more delicate touch.”
“You can be delicate with that arm?” Nathan asked.
“Not this one,” she replied. “This one will help hold him down.”
“How are we on time?” Hayden asked.
“The intruder seems to have gone to ground again. As long as things stay quiet, we’re clear for a few hours.”
“Do you think you could scare up some food for me? I haven’t eaten in four days.”
Nathan’s expression changed. He looked guilty. “I’ll find something for you.”
“No eating until after the procedure,” Chandra said. “Especially if you’ve been without since you got here. You don’t want to be sick while I’m doing this.”
“Agreed,” Hayden said.
“Good.” Chandra approached the chair, reaching to the side of it. It began to recline, shifting and sliding back until Hayden was lying down, facing the ceiling. “Colonel, can you strap him in?”
Nathan worked on securing Hayden’s ankles, thighs, and chest, pinning him to the table.
“Nathan,” Hayden said as Chandra positioned herself at his side, the rolling cart next to her. She picked up a laser scalpel, checking the charge before bringing it close to the stump of Hayden’s right arm.
“Yes, Sheriff?” Nathan said.
“Thanks for getting me out of there. I believed from the first time I saw you that you’re one of the good ones.”
“I wouldn’t go that far. I helped James catch you, which means I helped him do this to you.”
“But you did the right thing in the end. That’s what matters.”
“Colonel, grab his other side, and help keep his head still,” Chandra said.
Nathan leaned over Hayden, putting pressure on his left shoulder and forehead.
“Here we go, Sheriff,” Chandra said. “Just remember to breathe.”
Hayden closed his eyes. He was still familiar with that small place in his mind where he could hide from the reality of the world. He found it too easily, ducking inside as the first wave of burning energy traveled up his right side.
He blocked it out by thinking about Natalia and Hallia and getting back to them. He was coming, and if Tinker had dared touch even the shortest hair on her head, he would make sure his end was as slow and painful as he could make it.
Chapter 17
“General Stacker, sir,” Captain Fahri said, looking back at James. “We’ve almost reached the first drop point.”
“Thank you, Captain,” James said, looking up at the displays lining the front of the Harpy’s bridge. They were still a good ten klicks above the surface of the planet, out of range of ground-based sensors, and what’s more, they were out of range of any eyeballs that might be staring up at the sky at the moment. “Bring us into a holding pattern over the target and standby.”
“Yes sir,” Fahri said.
James stood up, moving from the captain’s station and approaching Captain Fahri from behind. He put his mechanical hand on the pilot’s shoulder. “No second thoughts, Captain?”
“Sir?” Fahri said.
“We are about to attack a Centurion military base. I want to be sure you don’t have a problem with that.”
“No problem at all, sir. I’m an Earther now.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yes sir!”
James squeezed the pilot’s shoulder, hard enough he was confident the man would understand the warning. Fahri didn’t know it, but Tinker could seize control of the ship’s operations from his war room if the pilot tried anything stupid.
It would be the last thing the man ever tried to do.
“Standby for further instructions,” James repeated, heading off the bridge before Fahri could respond.
He made his way down to the hold, activating the ship-wide comm when he got there.
“Midnight Platoon, we’ve nearly reached Tango Alpha. Suit up and get ready to fall.”
He turned off the comm and headed over to Tinker’s war module. The door was already open, and Tinker was watching the feeds from the Harpy’s external cameras. “Sir, I’m sure you know we’ve arrived.”
“Of course,” Tinker replied. “I’m dropping a drone now. You’ll jump in fifteen minutes.”
“Yes, sir.”
James went from the module to his powered armor, climbing up into the open portion. The machinery at his back hummed and vibrated as it assembled the metal shell around him, transforming him from human to an armored powerhouse.
The helmet lowered over his head, the visor already down. He stepped forward out of the assembly mechanism as the first of Midnight Platoon reached the hold. He didn’t know all of them by name, but he recognized Sergeant Bones immediately. She was impossible not to notice, her thin, muscular arms and legs tattooed to give her the appearance of a skeleton. He had heard the tattoo work continued beneath her clothes too, and that she kept her entire body shaved so as not to disturb the look.
“General Stacker, sir,” she said sharply on seeing him.
“Suit up and get in line, Sergeant.”
“Yes, sir.”
She diverted to the modules past the Mark Three assembly, opening one of them and finding her body armor and loadout. The rest of Midnight Pla
toon had joined her by the time she finished slipping on her helmet and connecting it to the combat network. James watched her strut over to the empty part of the area to find her place in the platoon’s ready line.
“General, do you copy?” Tinker said, his voice coming in through James’ comm.
“Loud and clear, sir,” James replied.
“I’m deploying Scout One. Switch your feed to channel twenty for visual.”
“Roger that.”
James used his facial muscles to manipulate the helmet’s menus, creating a small screen in the top left corner and turning it to channel twenty. He was immediately connected to the feed from the scout drone, currently diving rapidly toward the surface.
He looked away, slightly nauseated by the quick descent. He would look back when the drone leveled out.
He stomped to the front of the ready line, turning to face the Liberators who had already finished equipping. Four out of twenty-five, though he knew the rest would be in the line by the time Tinker called the egress.
Midnight Platoon was the best Liberator unit assigned to Edenrise, trained by the man who came to stand directly in front of James, Major Dark Efreet.
As Dark had said many times to many people, Dark Efreet was his real name, even though it sounded like something out of a fantasy stream or an old comic book. He was an older man, his bald head featuring a long scar that ran the length of it, gifted to him by a trife during his first mission with the Liberators. He was lean and muscular, grizzled and calloused and at least partly insane. There had been more than one occasion where Dark had snuck out of Edenrise to spend the night in the environs beyond the shields, hunting and being hunted by the trife.
“Ready to go, General,” he said. His voice was light and raspy, his vocal chords damaged by a trife not long after the wound to his scalp. The scar from that damage was hidden beneath his body armor.
James found the drone feed again. The vehicle had dipped beneath the clouds and was zooming in on the target below. Tinker had designated it Tango Alpha, the largest and most important Centurion Space Force base in what used to be North America. If the Spacers knew anything about the meaning behind John Wayne, they would have that data stored on the systems there.
