Redux

by S. A. Stephenson

  ‘Ready?’ She asked.

  ‘Let's go,’ Evie said.

  Together they followed Fitz up to the helipad on the roof of the building. The helicopter would take Kit, Evans and Cerkis to the airport where they would fly back to America. When they made it to the roof there were guards lining the path to the chopper door and Evans was waiting for them with Sinclair and Lawson. He hugged Evie tightly and she had to stop herself from breaking all over again.

  ‘I’ll watch out for her,’ he said. ‘And I’ll track down Jack and Canaan, we’ll be there waiting for you when you’re able to join us.’

  ‘Thank you,’ Evie said. ‘Jack’s going to be pissed.’

  ‘He has every right to be,’ Evans said. ‘But I can handle an angry soldier.’

  Evie gave him a weak smile and he headed towards the helicopter. Cerkis stood in front of her and Evie wasn’t sure how she should feel about her but tried to remain diplomatic. ‘I don’t know what you want at the end of this or if you’ll still have our support,’ Evie said.

  ‘I appreciate I’ve broken your trust,’ Cerkis said. ‘But my only hope is for restoring America to the country I know it can be.’

  ’That’s my hope as well’ Evie saw they weren’t too dissimilar after all and Cerkis gave her a polite nod as she went to follow Evans. There was a pause as Evie waited for Kit to leave but she didn’t move. ‘You need to go,’ Evie told her quietly.

  ‘I don’t know if I can,’ Kit said.

  ‘You don’t have a choice,’ Evie said. ‘Not this time. Go back to America, figure out what’s going on, and lead the fight that you’ve been preparing for your whole life.’

  Kit still looked reluctant. ‘I’ll find a way to keep in touch,’ she said. ‘And this isn’t the end, just an interlude…or something else that’s poetic.’

  Evie smiled. ‘Or something,’ she agreed. ‘Go, you know Evans doesn’t like to be kept waiting,’ she said.

  Kit gave her a quick kiss on the cheek and final hug before grabbing her bag and heading to the helicopter, looking back at Evie as she went.

  Lawson and Sinclair stepped next to Evie. ‘It’s not every day you see a love like that,’ Sinclair said.

  ‘It’s just sad that it had to happen now and not when there was a chance of a better outcome,’ Lawson added.

  Evie turned to him. ‘Are you underestimating me Prime Minister?’ She asked. ‘Because you're about to learn why you should never underestimate a Genic,’ she said and as the helicopter lifted up from the ground Evie felt like being alone in the new country gave her a new sense of strength that she didn’t know she needed. She didn’t know what was going to happen next or if she was even going to survive it. The only thing she did know, was that she was willing to try, and that’s all that mattered.

  Chapter Ten

  The night had drawn long when Hawk walked down the basement corridor. Exhaustion was tugging at her eyes and her body was heavy and she didn’t know when she would next be able to rest. They were on the brink of war and there was no time for personal emotion to get in the way of what needed to be done.

  She reached the end of the corridor and took a moment to compose herself before she opened the door. The room inside was dark and silent except for the beeping of machines. The guard on duty rose from his post and bowed before stepping out of the room without a word. Hawk walked over to the bed and stood over Galen.

  The woman looked frail, her face withered and ashen, her grey hair now turned white. The woman who had led the country through so much war and change and had been at the pinnacle of America’s revolution had been reduced to nothing, by a Genic no less. The machines beeped a little quicker and Hawk looked down at Galen who’s eyes fluttered and opened. Hawk watched as she took a moment to adjust to her surroundings and her expression relaxed when she looked at Hawk.

  ‘I heard you had woken up ma’am,’ Hawk said.

  ‘I’m glad to see you,’ Galen’s voice just above a whisper, it croaked against her throat as air rasped from her lips.

  ‘The world didn’t think they’d see you again,’ Hawk said.

  ‘The doctor told me what happened,’ Galen said. ‘Are we mounting a counterattack?’

  ‘You need to be resting,’ Hawk said. ‘All this talk of war will not help you heal from your injuries.’

  ‘But the country needs me,’ Galen coughed violently and Hawk swallowed a frustrated sigh.

  She placed a hand on Galen’s shoulder to comfort her. ‘Rest,’ she said again as she looked at the dials on the machine, they were keeping her alive, Hawk was keeping her alive. ‘The country is in good hands,’ she said.

  ‘You’re a good deputy,’ Galen said. ‘When this is over you will be rewarded.’

  ‘As a footnote in history,’ Hawk muttered. ‘I think your time as our ruler is coming to an end,’ she told Galen. ‘Your body has been badly hurt and isn’t likely to recover. You need to give me the authority to rule,’ she said.

  Galen only wheezed in response and was silent. ‘As long as I am alive, I will run this country.’ Even in her dying moments, she was being stubborn and unreasonable.

  A surge of heat rose in Hawk, the hatred she had for this woman boiled to the surface and it was all she could do to control it from spilling over. ‘Your health ma’am needs to take priority,’ she said, trying to maintain an air of calm. ‘You are on the verge of death, ruling a country should be farthest from your mind.’

  Galen raised her hand and made a motion that shooed her away. ‘You need to be working,’ she said. ‘Not fussing over me.’

  ‘Without full rule, my powers are limited,’ Hawk told her. ‘I am trying to launch an army, and there’s talk that a plane has left our country for Europe and I cannot investigate why because you authorise all missions, and until I have-’

  ‘Fine,’ Galen interrupted. ‘Whatever you need to do you have authority to do,’ she said.

  It was a small consolation but it was all Hawk could accept. Galen would never give her rule of the country, she would have to take it as she had always planned. She reached up to the machine Galen was connected to and pushed a few buttons, the oxygen supply began to drop and Galen’s breath became staggered, and she gripped the side of the bed.

  ‘You’ve been a powerful leader for so long,’ Hawk said. ‘Yet here you are, because of a Genic, and your life is now in the hands of others. You shouldn’t believe that you are impervious to the will of others.’

  ‘What do you want?’ Galen asked, her face strained and etched in pain.

  ‘What I’ve always wanted,’ Hawk said.

  ‘Please,’ Galen tried. ‘Stop.’

  ‘Step down.’

  ‘I can’t,’

  The beeps on the machines got louder and there was a knock on the door. ‘Is everything alright ma’am?’ A female voice asked.

  ‘Fine,’ Hawk replied and turned the machine back to as it was and the beeping returned to normal. Galen’s breathing relaxed but she looked up at Hawk and had a look of fear in her eyes.

  ‘What happened to you?’ She asked. ‘You were always good at your job but you were never callous.’

  Hawk looked over to the door and saw the shadows of men waiting outside. ‘You’re right, I was good at my job and since you were attacked I’ve gotten better,’ she said. ‘And America is now on the dawn of a new revolution, one which you refused to start.’

  The door opened and the Council members stepped inside. Hawk watched with some satisfaction as Galen tried to straighten herself, not used to being one who appeared out of place in front of her superiors. ‘Gentlemen,’ she said softly. ‘I apologise that you have to see me like this.’

  Judd Polskin, one of Galen’s senior advisors, was the one who replied. ‘Under the circumstances it’s forgivable,’ he said. ‘Although embarrassing given that the news is now international.’

  Hawk remained as stoic as she could as Galen turned to her in surprise. ‘Is this true?’ She asked. ‘Have our borders
been broken?’

  Hawk paused for a moment. ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘We’re now operating on an international scale, which means we have to have a leader who’s…able-bodied enough to front this situation. Particularly now that we’re on the brink of the war we’ve been trying to avert for so long.’ Hawk watched the men, they were looking at Galen differently than they had once done like she was the one who had failed them, the one who was incompetent and unable to lead them to the victory that they would need. Hawk hid the smirk that tugged at the corner of her mouth, it had been so easy to get here, it had been so simple to show that the woman who had led them for so long was nothing more than a puppet being orchestrated in a play. Hawk knew she had limited time where she could step fully into this role and she had to move carefully.

  Galen sat back in her bed. ’The Others are returning,’ it was more of a statement than a question. ‘I thought we had a deal after we ended the war the last time, we let them experiment on our people, change them to become…Genics…so they could build their army and leave at the right time. Why have they changed the terms of that agreement?’

  ‘Because they’ve discovered that they can live on this planet,’ Polskin told her. ‘And they’re ready to claim it as they’re own.’

  Hawk didn’t realise it was possible, but Galen’s face turned whiter. ‘Are we launching a counterattack?’ She asked.

  There was an awkward silence. ‘We will fight the Genics, who will want to join them,’ Walker told her. ‘But it is time to let the Others win,’ he said.

  Hawk looked down at the side of Galen’s bed and saw the medicine pump and discreetly picked it up. ‘You can’t let them win,’ Galen said. ‘That is an order. I’ve not protected this country for as long as I have been so that you can just hand it over because the rules have changed.’

  Polskin smiled and Hawk watched as his eyes turned black and saw Galen finally understood who she was working with, who they were. ‘You’re…one of them,’ she whispered. They had been living in secret for so long, it was now finally time where they could use their true nature as a powerful force in this country.

  ‘We’ve been here all along,’ Polskin said. ‘And now that you’re in here, all bets are off.’

  Hawk pushed the medicine button, releasing strong painkillers into Galen’s system. ‘You’ll never…take this country,’ Galen said, her voice becoming weak as her eyes began to close. Hawk pushed the button again and Galen was knocked out, Hawk carefully eyed the dosage she was administering, she didn’t want to give her too much, to yet. She was still needed after all.

  Polskin looked up at Hawk. ‘We are setting our plans in motion,’ he said. ‘You are to make an international address, claiming the President has now died, Genics are responsible, any found to be living in the open or in hiding are to be handed over to authorities.’

  ‘But the President isn’t dead,’ Hawk said as Polskin was about to head out of the room.

  Polskin looked down at Galen then back at Hawk. ‘I’m sure you can take care of it,’ he said.

  Hawk took a sharp intake of breath, she had always wondered how the Presidential rule would end and had wondered if it would come at her hand and she smiled at herself for finally being given the opportunity.

  As the men left the room, she looked down at the woman who had been her leader, her mentor, at times even a mother figure and found herself falling into the depths of darkness as she decided how this era of America should end, and how the new should begin.

  Hawk walked out of Galen’s room and headed back to her quarters. It was quiet in Volt, training was underway as part of its normal routine, she could see the guards on patrol out in the courtyard and chuckled slightly to herself. They knew the story that so many American’s did, that foreign countries had attacked them so many years ago using alien technology, and they had to do everything they could to stop their country from falling into the abyss of history. They didn’t serve because they were loyal, they served because they were scared. Scared of what it would mean if another lifeform was on this planet and it was bigger and scarier than any human could imagine. None of them had a clue that they were living and walking amongst aliens every day, that the very people they were serving were alien in origin. Hawk had played her part so well she had them all convinced. Humans really were quite stupid, they were willing to believe anything as long as it gave them a sense of comfort, a sense of hope. They needed that to live, to carry on in a world which wouldn’t be theirs for much longer.

  As Hawk entered Galen’s old office she stood at the back of the door for a moment and surveyed the room that was now hers. The mahogany bookcases that spanned to the ceiling, containing all the banned literature, all the files of what had once been a truth. She saw the large oak desk where executive orders had been signed that made America a prison. Galen had created a totalitarian regime and believed she had been carrying out what was necessary in order to survive, but it had been Hawk all along. She wanted America so isolated that when the time was right, her people could completely destroy it and use it as their way of taking over the rest of the world. Now Hawk was here, the one person in charge of this whole country, and it was hers to do whatever she liked with. She walked over to the mirror and saw the face of an ageing woman looking back at her. Humans were the least attractive species, the lines of age that bored itself through her skin showed signs of her human body working against her as time and stress took its toll on her. She knew this would happen, that if she chose human form there would be limited time for her plan to work. She had to get to Valletta, even though the woman had worked against them, she was going to be key in her plans for the future. Hawk knew what Kit was capable of, what she was able to do with the power that she had and after years of trials, experiments and tests, Hawk couldn’t let her plan fail now. America was about to step into its new future and Hawk was ready for the fight that would forever change the nation.

  Chapter Eleven

  Seeing Kit fly away caused Evie’s breath to catch in the pit of her stomach. It had barely been a year since she had first met Kit, but they had barely been apart during that time and as the plane disappeared into the clouds, Evie’s stomach tumbled as she realised just how much she needed Kit in her life. She had been in love before, but this was different, it was more intense and as Evie came to terms with her emotions she tried to remain as composed as she could. Memories of Jack flying away from her on the field in Fort Isa suddenly pierced through her conscious, causing her eyes to sting. She tried to keep her breath steady, she couldn’t let her emotions overwhelm her, not now. But Jack had always been the one who was by her side and now Evie had no idea where he was. If he was loyal to her and their family he wouldn’t just abandon her.

  She didn’t want Lawson or Sinclair to see her weak or vulnerable, she had that experience with Galen and wasn’t about to make the same mistake twice. Reluctantly she walked away and followed Sinclair and Lawson down a flight of stairs.

  ‘What happens now?’ She asked.

  ‘We’ll introduce you to the team, but we’re straight into planning,’ Sinclair told her. ‘We need your expertise on Hawk, what she’s like, what she’ll be thinking, everything.’

  ‘That sounds easy,’ Evie said as they stopped on one of the floors.

  ‘Maybe we should reiterate,’ Lawson said in a low voice. ‘What we’re asking you to do is no small feat, especially after everything you’ve already done. It will require an incredible amount of resilience and perseverance.’

  Evie nodded. ‘I know,’ she said. ‘I endured a lot as a child when they were conducting experiments on me, you develop a knack for holding your guard and pushing through.’

  For a moment, Lawson looked like he didn’t know what to say. ‘Very good,’ he fumbled, filling the silence. ‘Now the team you’ll be working with are tough but supportive,’ he said. ‘If you show you can stand your ground then they’ll respect you, but,’ he said and placed a hand over her wrist. ‘This is important, you�
��re about to enter the start of a war, one which will claim lives and force you to make decisions you could never imagine. It’s important you keep your heart, keep what makes you who you are because you have someone to build a life with after all of this and that’s worth fighting for if nothing else.’

  There was a brief pause. ‘Well, for an Englishman that was quite emotional,’ Sinclair said.

  Lawson cleared his throat. ‘I have my moments,’ he said. ‘Which shall not be shared with anyone else,’ he added sternly.

  Sinclair hid a smile as Lawson opened the door to the floor and Evie grinned. Their smiles quickly faded when the entered the bustle of the office floor. People were sat at workstations, having conversations, passing documents from one another, heading into meeting rooms and answering calls. It reminded Evie of the University. Her old job, her old life, at times it was as though they were much simpler somehow. Evie shook the feeling away, that wasn’t the life she was going to go back to, she couldn’t even if she wanted to.

  Activity in the office had quietened when people realised Lawson was amongst them and he walked up to a raised platform. ‘Good morning everyone,’ he said and the room fell quiet. As Evie watched him and looked at the people in the room, she saw the looks on the people’s faces. They were engaged, eager almost. Evie looked back to Lawson, who stood in a simple way as he spoke to the room. He was calm and collected, unafraid of what was about to happen. ‘Ladies and gentlemen, you are probably more than aware that we’ve had international visitors over the last couple of days. The first visitors from America in nearly a century.’