You could see the commander’s mind doing circles, between the pain and the information, he was overloading. He wasn’t used to feeling weak, unable to control his situation or his fate. He had always been the one in control and he thought he knew every threat to Lennox Corp, yet, here I was growing up right under the proverbial nose of Lennox Corp and him. It pained him greatly to speak, but you could tell he needed to know so he asked. “What do you mean you are Nano-tech?” It was my turn to laugh. I responded, “I’m starting to realize your information has limitations, Special Commander.” So I filled him in, observing his confusion and disbelief. “My mother was one of the original scientists that invented Nano-tech. When she learned how Lennox Corp was using it, she artificially inseminated herself with an embryo and Nano-tech cocktail hoping to create a future Savior for the people oppressed by Lennox Corp. Fast forward to now, here I am, standing in front of you, watching as you come to the realization that I am indestructible. I have a mental capacity far beyond your own no matter how many Nano-tech injections you get. I am everything Lennox Corp has been trying to create, I am one of a kind and you are on my list! So earlier, when you said I wasn’t anything special, you couldn’t have been more wrong. I am the walking, talking, indestructible vengeance of the people Lennox Corp has wronged and I will not stop until I deliver a penance that fits their crimes.” I saw the last bit of hope drift from his eyes, I had defeated him. His next words were the long awaited payoff, “I will tell you everything I know, just promise me a quick death. No more torture.” I agreed to his terms. I told him one last time, “I only need two things: the location of the barge and the codes to access it.”
The commander asked me if I was familiar with the coastline, and I produced my old world atlas. A little taken back by the map, he showed me a spot on the coast with a hidden cove. He said pointing at the map, “They anchor the barge there, just offshore. The area will be heavily guarded, and it will take an entire army of men to make it to the water let alone out to the Barge. On top of that, you will need at least 3 people on the barge to activate the chamber that holds the Nano-tech slaves. You must enter 3 separate codes at the same time to gain entry to the chamber. Once in the chamber, the final step to destroy the Nano-tech slave farm will be to inject their feeder tube with a virus that will work its way through the members, killing them within a few minutes.” It was unimaginable, thousands of lives lost in an instant. But, I couldn’t look at it that way. The Nano-tech people ceased to live when they were hooked up to the machine. I had to think of the countless lives we would save. By the time the Special Commander finished talking, I had not only the codes but more information than I had ever expected. It was obvious not only was he pain intolerant, he figured the more information he gave, the easier I’d go on him in the end. He delivered the supply routes to and from the barge along with extensive details about the size and capabilities of the force protecting the beaches around the cove. He even added information on how the other cities were controlling their slums. Lennox Corp’s newest tech was programmed to enslave and dull the senses instead of enhance them. They put it in the water supplies of the slums in S.C.1 and S.C.2. The independent water supply of the S.C.3 slums was the only thing that had saved them so far. So Lennox Corp had to work on a plan to take over in another way, most likely through force. That is why they were increasing their presence and cracking down on people opposing them. They were trying to start a conflict, just as my mother and I had feared, looking for any reason to lock us down and take over. If we had approached this with our original plan, we would have been playing right into the hands of Lennox Corp. Instead we had an abundance of valuable information and had taken one of Lennox Corp’s most valuable pieces off the board by removing the Special Commander.
I approached the Special Commander, looked him deep in his eyes and reminded him of the bunker he dropped on Cloud 9. As I did, I gripped his skull with both hands and began squeezing it. I felt my grip getting tighter and tighter and my fingers punctured the Special Commander’s skin. He looked up and begged, reminding me my promise of a quick death. Promises be damned, I thought to myself. As I felt the bone compress under the weight of my grip, the blood ran down the sides of his face. Ultimately, I heard a crack, and he died instantly as the splinters entered his brain. I pulled his body down off of the rack and took it outside to burn. I wasn’t taking any chances that the Nano-tech could put him back together. His time had come, and I spared him the level of punishment that he in fact deserved. I should have kept him alive for months and made him regret every move he ever made for Lennox Corp. But, the beast itself was in my sights and there was no more time to waste. With the information I now possessed, it was time to build an army of my own. We had to shut Lennox Corp down for good. I now realized that I had been preparing for this my entire life without even knowing it. Now that Claire and I were building an army of supporters, it was up to me to bring us all together.
CHAPTER 15
Blueprints
I cleaned up my bunker and immediately began packing a travel bag. I didn’t know when I was coming back. There were a few things I wanted to have with me this time. I had two modified Lennox Corp 40 caliber pistols, along with a .50 caliber sniper rifle with self ranging technology and bullet velocity modifications. I definitely wanted my custom made tomahawks. The blacksmith had made them for me in my early days combing the Wasteland. They were light mobile and never lost their edge. Using them would be another blow from the blacksmith. I gathered the explosives I had been stockpiling over the years. There was no telling what we would need to defeat the security force protecting the cove. One thing was certain, the forces would be Nano-tech enhanced and equipped with the best Lennox Corp weapons. I’m guessing they will have low recoil, high speed repeating rifles with bullet lock technology. Hopefully, once I meet up with Claire, we can put our minds together and develop a plan to destroy that barge. I knew the location and had a good idea of the size of the security force, but we would be blind once we got on the barge. We had no thumb drive and no blueprints. We still needed a way to disable the automated security guns and navigate the barge to find the Tech slaves.
I packed my supplies into an old pickup truck that I kept around for emergencies. It was a relic of the old world, with no tech! Luckily it seems to run fine on moonshine and I have cases of the stuff appropriated from Wasteland bandits. I was only a few miles outside of the slums. I normally hike in, but something was 4telling me to have my entire arsenal ready. I returned to the slums and to my surprise there was no Lennox Corp. security presence. I worried that the Special Commander coming up missing might cause a lockdown or at least increase the security. I took my truck with the supplies to Laura’s garage and stashed them there. I picked up Smith while I was there, too. I couldn’t believe it, but I had really missed him and you could tell he had missed me. Laura said some scrap rippers had tried to scale the wall one night, looking for an easy score. He wounded one severely. They found the second one dead in the alley a few hours later. He had done his job. He protected Laura and didn’t attack anybody innocent.
Smith and I made our way over to Tammy’s seeing if my mother was around. Tammy didn’t seem surprised to see me, but then again she never did. She immediately asked me, “What did you do?” “Lennox Corp pulled their entire security team from the slums and locked down the city.” I said, “Let’s just put it this way, the Special Commander has been removed from the equation permanently.” She told me she had never seen Lennox Corp act so vulnerable. My mother and I had executed the perfect plan. A strike from the inside had shook things up. We have our slums back, for now. Organizing an uprising of the people and forming a team to take out Lennox Corp will be much easier without the corporation breathing down our necks. My excitement was short lived, as Tammy still had more to tell me. While driving Lennox Corp out of the slums was a great unforeseen side effect of killing the Special Commander, I now had a new more personal problem to worry about. According to Tammy
, my mother was in the city trying to secure the blueprints to the barge from a contact she had inside the engineering branch of Lennox Corp. Claire was now trapped inside with the city locked down. There was no way I was getting back inside after recent events. I just had to trust that she knew what she was doing and could get herself out of there once she got her hands on those blueprints.
I headed over to Larry’s shop to have him put the word out that anyone who wants a chance to take down Lennox Corp could meet at Tammy’s tomorrow night. I knew being this bold would probably bring a few spies to the meeting, but I didn’t care. Let them tell Lennox Corp we are organizing. They don’t believe we are capable of a revolution let alone realize we know about the barge and intend to destroy it. In their overconfident mindset, they assumed we did not know of the barge. That is why getting back that thumb drive brought the Special Commander into play from the beginning. The barge is a place about which people tell stories, but nobody really believes it exists unless you can prove it to them. I had no intentions of mentioning the barge. This is a call to action to take advantage of the Lennox Corp security force falling back into the city. If the citizens of the slums could make it difficult for Lennox Corp security forces to re-enter the slums, it should buy us the time needed to put together a plan to attack the barge. It shocked Larry to see me. “I heard you were dead!” he said with a chuckle. “Thought the Special Commander dropped a bunker on your head. At least that was the rumor.” I replied to him with sarcasm in my voice, “Rumors have a way of proving themselves false more often than not.” He got a good laugh out of that one as I knew he would. Rumors are part of his line of work. I told him what I wanted to do, and he was quick to remind me he was neutral and didn’t want trouble. But, he would happily put the word out for the right price. Same old Larry, I had come prepared. I had off loaded the Special Commander’s credits during the interrogation process. It was only fair since he wiped me out back at the Cloud 9 bunker. I had to use them within 48 hours, before Lennox Corp suspended them. After the transfer, I let Larry know he could remain neutral, but that all information, about both sides, was to pass through me. After checking his new Credit balance he seemed more than happy to oblige.
I swung back by Tammy’s and let her know to prepare for a crowd tomorrow night. I was hoping for a solid turn out. We needed to build a 20 to 30 man unit to keep Lennox Corp from trying to re-enter the slums. The next step was setting up fortifications at all the entry points. I went to each of the three points and measured the entrance then headed over to see Laura. I began gathering up the scrap to fashion the fortifications. They didn’t have to be fancy just a deterrent, something to make it clear we were separating ourselves from them and making a stand. If nothing else, they would have to regroup and get approval for a forced entry, hostile takeover. With the Special Commander out of the picture, it could take the board weeks to decide on something of that magnitude. Now that I knew they were preparing to make a move on rival corporations, over extending their forces, this became the perfect time to hit the barge since they were fighting wars on every front.
I began moving the scrap into piles near the entry points. Help would be needed to build the barriers, but I fully expected to have an entire team behind me come this time tomorrow. After setting up build sites at all the entry points I returned to Laura‘s. She had been working all day welding materials together to reinforce their strength at the entry sites. Once again she was proving herself to be a worthy replacement for the blacksmith. As I was finishing up my day and getting ready to return to Tammy’s for the evening Smith ran off towards the South entry point to the city. He had yet to run off in our time together. I feared for the safety of anybody he might come across on his way to wherever he was going. I followed behind him trying to keep up as he cut down alleyways at a furious pace. Once he reached the south entry point, he sat down at the entrance and peered through to the other side of the Lennox Corp gate. He was not growling or acting protective just watching. And then, out of the shadows a figure appeared; it was my mother. She had been hiding out near the gate for days waiting for someone to come and help her over. I would have to override the gate and shut down the electric razor wire. I had a jammer back at Tammy’s. Even with the jammer, you had less than a minute before the power restored, and it fried you. Let’s not forget, the razor wire was still razor wire, electrified or not. I headed straight for Tammy’s and got the jammer. It occurred to me that I had seen a large metal shelving structure that might prop up against the fence like a ladder. I had to get to the top and cut out a small section of wire. I returned to the gate and propped the shelf up against it. We had 45 seconds, give or take, depending on how quick the reboot kicked in at the gate. She had fashioned a very clever rope ladder for her side. She had not wasted her time while waiting for someone to discover her. I’ve been so busy I may never have found her if it weren’t for Smith. He must have smelled her and knew she needed our help. I climbed up slowly and made sure not to touch the razor wire once I reached the top. I didn’t need to get knocked on my ass like the Special Commander. I hit the jammer and cut the wire then Claire threw me her rope ladder. She climbed and I pulled; every second was valuable. As she reached the top, I could feel the internal clock in my head telling me it was close. Just as I pulled her through the opening in the wire, the power came back on. The razor wire surged once again. I smiled at her as we made our way down to the ground on our side of the gate. “Tell me all that was worth it,” I said to her in a very concerned tone. Then from under her coat she presented me with a file containing real paper blueprints of the barge. Not some altered digital fakes, these were the original blueprints. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I had never seen blueprints for something that indeed existed. I had only found vintage blueprints from the old world. This was painting a picture of how long these corporations had truly been around. I now knew Lennox Corp had been lying about the world beyond the Wasteland. What troubled me is what else they were lying about. How could we believe anything they had taught us? Everything we knew came from Lennox Corp; the year, the rules, the stories about the fall. Everything was now up for speculation, and after this was all over I would cross the ends of the Earth to find the answers. But for now it was time to devise a plan. The blueprints have sealed the deal.
CHAPTER 16
Growing Numbers
My excitement to have my mother back in the slums and the acquisition of the blueprints made it impossible for me to sleep, so I stayed up all night studying the documents. It was likely they had made changes to the barge since the original design. Finding a weak point to the barge should still be possible with the structural integrity all laid out in the blueprints. You could change cosmetic features and add security, but altering a vessel like that structurally was impossible if you still wanted it to float.
The only city that really mattered now was S.C. 1. That was where the board members lived and where they had located the headquarters for Lennox Corp. After destroying the barge we needed to act quickly and take the city securing all labs and destroying all traces of Nano-tech. I was hoping for a big turnout from the information I had Larry put out there, but we would still need the cooperation of Captain Chip in the slums of S.C. 1. If I could get him to mobilize his people, and be ready to move on the city as soon as he hears from me, that would give us immediate boots on the ground after the destruction of the barge. I went out to the lounge and asked Tammy to get a message to Captain Chip. All I could do now was wait and hope for a fast response. I headed out to get a feel for the mood of the slums, and to my surprise over 20 people were already at Tammy’s waiting for me. I gathered them up and showed them the fortifications we must build. “When we finish, we will meet back at Tammy’s and I will explain everything,” I said.
I started the people fortifying the entrances from the inside and preparing for Lennox Corp’s efforts to re-enter the slums. As the day continued more and more people kept showing up. Each group seemed more eager than the l
ast to join the cause. I was now seeing how oppressed the people felt by Lennox Corp. Each one of them is ready to take back their lives from the overbearing corporation. I guess I had spent so much time in the Wasteland only thinking about myself, I couldn’t see the pot primed for a boil-over. The more people that showed up, the more inspired I felt. I could now understand my mother’s belief in my purpose. This wasn’t about destroying Lennox Corp; this was about freeing people from tyranny. We worked hard on the defenses and I let my mind work on the blueprints, still hoping to find a weakness. Claire had isolated herself after returning with the blueprints. I didn’t know why, but I also did not know what she had to do to get them. Re-entering the city for the first time in a long time must have brought about its own demon’s, too. I felt she was withholding large portions of the truth, and I was fine with that for now. I had much more important things on my plate.
Lennox Corporation: Book 1 in the Savior Series Page 8
