by M. R. Forbes
For a moment, he wondered if losing half of the remaining platoon might be worth it to break the stalemate.
He surveyed the mess again. He would have loved to chase after Mrs. Duke instead of staying down here — she was after all the real prize here — but if he left his people were going to die. His firepower was the only thing keeping the damned defense robot pinned behind the barriers instead of charging out and killing them all.
It had been a mistake to come here with so few soldiers. They should have taken the time to judge the opposition’s strength and possibly going back to Edenrise for reinforcements before rushing headlong into a brawl with these people. But the win at the Centurion base had gotten Tinker too fucking excited and too fucking impatient. He had been clear in his orders. This was destiny as far as he was concerned. It didn’t matter what the odds were. They were going to win.
Of course, he had tried to contact Edenrise for an update and had gotten nothing back in response. It wasn’t completely unsurprising. The satellites weren’t always reliable, and they were trying to call back across the entire landmass of the northern hemisphere. Still, there was something about the failure that wasn’t sitting well with him either. He had a bad feeling something was happening there he didn’t like. The whole episode with Nathan and the hallucinations had been bothering him since he left, and maybe for good reason.
There was nothing he could do about that now. He was a soldier, and he followed Tinker’s orders. He didn’t have much choice in the matter. His free will only went so far. He heard a grunt to his left and saw another Midnight fall. He returned fire, his plasma nearly making it through the barrier before the shooter ducked back behind it.
“Dark, take this,” James said, handing the plasma rifle to him. “Cover me.”
Major Efreet’s eyebrows went up. “You’re going in?”
“I have to do something. We’re dying here.”
“Yes, sir.”
The weapon was massive in his grip, so much so it was on the verge of being unusable by a mere human. Dark managed to get it positioned, resting it on the top side of a table that was already chipped to hell with bullet holes. He switched the dial to burst and then squeezed the trigger.
Bolt after bolt launched from the rifle. In tandem with the outgoing rounds, James vaulted the table and rushed the barrier. The plasma attack stopped when he neared it, the enemy reacting exactly like he expected. The panels of the shield were drawn aside, the defense robot moving through it to meet him.
James was ready for it. He slid to a stop ahead of the machine, pivoting on his left foot and turning to the side. The robot tried to follow the movement, but it wasn’t as nimble, and it stumbled slightly, finding itself off-balance beside him. He threw a hard punch into its side, denting the metal and keeping it from getting its footing. Then he circled behind it, grabbing it and wrapping his arm around one of its arms. He pulled up, the force tearing the limb off.
The defense robot shifted its balance, trying to find a means to get away. It had been designed to fight trife, not people, and certainly not people in power armor. James kicked its legs out from under it, shouting as he grabbed it and lifted it up. The robot was still struggling in his hands, its single arm harmless against him. He turned and threw it into the barrier, the weight of it knocking the plate inward and flattening the enemy soldier holding it in place.
The break in the wall was the opening his Liberators needed. It was a hole in the enemy armor that offered them the advantage they needed. Dark wasted no time firing plasma through it, hitting the soldier controlling the plate on the opposite side and killing him instantly. He had opened a hole on the other side of the barrier as well.
James turned to go for the next plate, reaching out to snatch it away from the soldier holding it.
Gunfire erupted behind him, his Liberators rising and going on the attack.
He noticed two of the green circles went red at the top of his visor. Then a third. Only Dark and one other soldier remained alive behind him. What the fuck was going on?
The fourth soldier fell as he spun around. It took him a second to find the cause. A soldier dressed in Space Force combat armor was firing at his troops from behind.
Natalia fucking Duke. He couldn’t believe it. He roared inside his helmet, charging toward her.
Seeing him coming she turned the rifle on him, firing round after round that pinged against his armor until the weapon was empty. She stood in place, crouched in front of him, reaching for a pistol at her side as if that could hurt him after the much higher caliber rifle had failed to do the job.
He lunged for her, his fury burying his reason.
Of course, she slipped under his lunge, her smaller size making it easier for her to evade his grab.
Of course, he couldn’t stop himself. He flew past her, straight into the lift, shaft, falling five floors to the bottom and hitting hard enough to make his armor groan and pop. Parts of it dented inward and his visor showed a pair of warning messages and malfunctions. He stared up the shaft to the light from the ground floor, his body wracked with pain.
Was he going to lose to another Duke?
He reached up, grabbing for something to get himself back to his feet. He could see the ladder on the side of the shaft.
“General,” Dark said. “Are you okay? I’ve got her, sir.”
James sank back, easing his efforts to get back into the fight. He checked the feed from his helmet. It wasn’t showing Natalia Duke at all. She had done something to take it out of the ATCS. Smart. But it didn’t matter. Dark said he had her, and the rest of the enemy soldiers were marked as dead on the overlay.
They had won, and they had gotten what they came for. All it had cost him was a lot of his soldiers and a little bit of his pride.
Maybe Tinker was right about his destiny bullshit after all...
Chapter 39
Natalia kept her hands up. The soldier had his rifle pressed into her back, and she was sure he wouldn’t hesitate to use it if she resisted.
She had come so close to turning the tide of the battle. She had taken out three of the five soldiers at the rear with the hope of breaking the crossfire and allowing the deputies to focus on the front of the building.
She had seen the one soldier make a lone attempt to break their portable shields – lightweight but strong blocks of the Centurion’s latest starship armor – and she had thought the enemy was getting desperate. One soldier against a dozen deputies?
Then she had seen General Stacker.
She saw how his powered armor broke through the shields and collapsed the defenses on both sides, giving the enemy the upper hand. She had never seen armor like that or a gun like the large plasma rifle the man behind her was now holding against her back. Still, when the general charged her and she managed to trick him into falling down the shaft, she thought maybe it would be enough.
It wasn’t.
The fight was over. They had lost. Yes, they had more deputies and defenses spread across Sanisco, and even more out in the Eastern Expansion Zone. But there hadn’t been time to call them in, and any effort to attack the enemy now would only mean casualties for the men and women gathered in the tower’s lobby, Sheriff Kin, six deputies, and her. It was clear these people weren’t an invading army. They weren’t looking to take control of Sanisco. There were nowhere near enough of them, even with the starship.
Besides, General Stacker had said as much. They were looking for something. In part, they were looking for her.
And now they had her, damn it. But if it spared the rest of the people, if it kept them from even wondering about Hallia or any of the others who might have headed to the safe area, then she would accept that.
“Over there, with the others,” the soldier behind her said.
Natalia put her hands behind her head, walking to the center of the lobby where the rest of the deputies and Sheriff Kin had been gathered.
“Turn around.”
She turned aro
und, facing the man. He was hard and chiseled, an experienced soldier. Who were these people and where had they come from? Hayden had said Bennett tracked the fugitive’s ship to the east coast. The other side of what had once been the United States of America. Anything could be happening on the other side of the country, or on other parts of the planet and they would never know.
General Stacker climbed out of the lift shaft. His armor was dented in a few places from the impact of the five-story fall, but otherwise he appeared unharmed. He took a couple of steps toward the group of Saniscans before tapping his helmet. He had to do it a second time before the visor of the helmet slid away, revealing his face. He had a cut on his forehead and a bruise on his cheek. Natalia felt a grim sense of satisfaction at the minor injuries.
“Natalia Duke,” General Stacker said, his eyes landing on her. She noticed one of them was mechanical. A replacement. “It’s a pleasure to meet you in person.” She didn’t respond to him. He didn’t care. “My name is General James Stacker,” he announced for the rest of the prisoners. “I’m from a city on the east coast known as Edenrise. It’s the last and only safe haven against the coming storm. It’s the only city that will survive the Cleansing, chosen through the will of the Others.”
Natalia thought the general looked strained as he said the last few lines like he had been told to tell them, but he didn’t quite believe it. Maybe that was something she could use later? If there was a later.
“I don’t care about any of you,” General Stacker continued. “I don’t care about your city. I don’t care about your families. At least, not yet. The best thing any of you can do is make sure I don’t have to care, and the best way you can do that is by answering my question honestly and accurately. Notice, I said question. I only have one. It’s the only thing I came here for. It’s the question that will change the world.”
“What is it?” Sheriff Kin asked. He looked too young to be a sheriff. Brown hair, blue eyes, a long, narrow face, and frame. His right arm was bloody.
General Stacker stepped over to him, towering over the sheriff despite his height. “I said my name is General Stacker. You’re wearing a uniform. You’re carrying a gun. That makes you a soldier. How does a soldier address a general?”
Kin started shaking. “What’s the question, sir?” he repeated softly.
Stacker backed away, glancing at Natalia. “How have you managed to survive out here with soldiers like this?” He shook his head. “Pathetic.”
“Does it make you feel powerful to bully them, General?” Natalia asked. “Would you be so bold if you weren’t wearing that tin can?”
She could see how General Stacker’s face locked, his jaw clenching in anger. The expression vanished a moment later. “Dark, kill that one.” He pointed to the deputy at the end of the group.”
“Yes, sir,” the man with the rifle replied, swinging it toward the deputy and pulling the trigger. A powerful plasma bolt zipped from it and into the man, killing him instantly.
Natalia’s body tensed, her heart pulsing. Tears sprang to her eyes. She had caused him to do that. Damn it.
“Respect, Natalia,” General Stacker said. “All I’m asking for is respect. My platoon won this fight fairly, as much as you might dislike it, and as much as you might hate me. I don’t care if you hate me. Like I said, I only have one question.” He paused as if the question was so important it deserved the added drama. “I’m looking for something the USSF left behind when they abandoned all of us to be killed by the trife. The people in the USSF in charge of it used a code name to refer to it because they were afraid it might otherwise fall into the wrong hands. The code name is John Wayne. Do you know what or where John Wayne is?”
Natalia did her best not to react. John Wayne? Of all things? It couldn’t be. They had been in the caverns. There was nothing else down there.
Or had they just not looked hard enough?
“Anybody?” General Stacker said, his eyes passing over the deputies and meeting Natalia’s.
She refused to show any emotion. Any expression. She wasn’t going to let slip that she knew what he wanted. She damned well wasn’t going to give it to him. She also knew that Kin and a couple of the other deputies might know the answer. Would they give it up out of fear?
General Stacker went back to Kin. “Do you know what it is, soldier?”
Natalia glanced at the sheriff. He was still shaking. The whole fight had left him rattled. The good news was that his old fear was covering up any signs of new fear or understanding.
“Nnnn..No...sir,” Kin said.
Stacker stared at him a moment. “Let me remind all of you that I don’t care about anyone else in this city as long as I get what I want from one of you. I’ll let the rest of you go.” His eyes flicked back to Natalia. “Except you.”
Natalia stared back at him defiantly. She didn’t know what he wanted her for, but she would make him regret the decision regardless.
Stacker looked back at Kin. “Are you sure?”
Kin nodded. “Y...y...yes...sir.”
“Okay,” Stacker said. He started to take a step away from the sheriff. Then his hand shot out, grabbing Kin by the throat and lifting him off the ground. “If you don’t know, then I don’t need you.”
Kin’s body shook as he choked. The other deputies reacted but stopped themselves as half a dozen rifles went up around them.
Natalia watched too. He was going to kill them all if nobody said anything, and then he would start attacking the other residents, and there weren’t many of them outside of the tower who knew what he wanted to know. How many would die before he got what he wanted? How long would it take him before he found Hallia? Would he kill an infant too?
She had the horrifying feeling he would.
“Stop!” Natalia said. “Let him go.”
Stacker dropped Kin immediately, leaving him on his knees rubbing his throat and gasping. “Do you have something to tell me, Mrs. Duke?”
Stacker was going to take her anyway. It was better for her to protect them. To protect Hallia.
“I know what you’re looking for,” she said.
“I know you do,” he replied. “You have a fantastic poker face. I’m surprised I didn’t have to kill anyone to get you to admit it.”
“How did you know I knew?”
“Because your husband knew. He admitted as much. He just wouldn’t say what it meant. I left him a bloody mess, and he still wouldn’t say. But he thought you could stop me before I got this far. He thought you would put up more of a fight. I think he’d be disappointed in his soldiers.”
Natalia fought to keep herself from shaking. A bloody mess? Poor Hayden. He had bet on them to stop this maniac, and he had lost.
She had tried and failed. She wished she could tell him how sorry she was.
“So tell me, Natalia,” Stacker said. “What is John Wayne?”
“It’s not a thing. It’s a place. Leave these people alone, leave the rest of the city alone, and I’ll take you to it.”
“I can see it in your eyes. You’re still holding out hope that your beloved Sheriff Duke will save you. I admire that. Your husband was a strong man, and he earned my respect with his silence.” He reached out, grabbing Natalia’s arm and pulling lightly. She cried out in pain, surprising him. “You’re injured?”
“Shot in the arm,” she said.
He seemed like he couldn’t believe it. She had killed so many of his soldiers and had wounded him with a bullet wound in her arm. “Well, my respect to you too, Natalia. But you did kill five of mine. I already killed that one. Choose four more.”
“What?” Natalia said. “I said I'd give you what you want if you leave them alone.”
“I’m going to leave most of them alone. You owe me four soldiers. Pick them.”
“It was a fair fight. You said so yourself. We lost, you won. Why can’t you leave it at that?”
“Dark, that one,” General Stacker said. “Save my cell charge though, will yo
u?”
Dark lowered the rifle and drew his sidearm.
“No!” Natalia cried as he swung it toward the deputy Stacker selected and shot him.
“Three more,” General Stacker said. “Do you want to choose them or should I?”
Natalia slumped, the fight fading from her. She couldn’t pick who would live and who would die. She stayed silent, turning her head away and closing her eyes. She had always accepted that everything she had on this Earth was tenuous and could be taken from her in any way and at any time.
She never expected this.
“Okay, I’ll pick. That one, that one, and that one. Let’s go.”
General Stacker took her other arm, lifting her to her feet and pulling her toward the lift. She heard the gunshots behind her, and she refused to look back to see who was dead.
“You know how to override this thing,” General Stacker said. “I want to go back up to the Harpy.”
“You have to let me go.”
“Use your other hand.”
He knew it would hurt her to do it. He didn’t care. She raised her bad arm as high as she could, typing on the lift control panel, entering her admin code and calling the lift back down.
“It won’t support the weight of your armor and all your men,” she said.
“You’ll show Major Efreet how to use it then,” he replied. “Or we’ll kill more of your people.”
She didn’t respond. The lift arrived, and James stepped into the cab with her. The one he called both Dark and Major Efreet joined them with two other soldiers. The rest of them kept Sheriff Kin and the remaining deputies corralled. The doors slid closed, and the lift began to rise.
Natalia closed her eyes. Hayden was still alive. She knew him well enough to know he would never give up on anything until he wasn’t.
Would he find a way to save her?
Would he find a way to save any of them?
Chapter 40
