Unwilling to Back Down (Survival of the Fittest Book 2)

by Shawn Keys

  “What did he get, specifically?”

  “We’re still assessing. Initial triage suggests that it is enough to cause a major disruption to Dawn operations. Potentially fatal to the cause if presented rationally and to the right audience. My immediate advice is to commit all resources to watch for media outbreaks. Act to shut them down immediately. Whatever you see, it will be the tip of the iceberg. His friend, the Simmons girl, has hacker connections. It is possible the information will spread via the dark web and non-mainstream podcasts prior to any official, well-known services broadcasting it. You need to see these efforts annihilated. I am requesting the reallocation of California and Southwestern sector resources to assist in this manhunt. We need to find him before he encourages or enables any of the activities I’ve talked about.”

  Rita nodded impatiently, as if she had already approved the requests. “Do we have an idea of how the incursion happened?”

  “There is no indication of any disruption along the perimeter. There were no irregularities in our processes. The Farm is working at de-constructing the events, but my immediate suspicion is toward inside help.”

  “A traitor? At the Farm?” Rita sounded aghast, and Andrew knew why. The Farms around the country might have the newly admitted students, but to compensate, the instructors were among the most loyal members of the Dawn.

  Andrew nodded. “Which means, it was almost certainly one of the students. I had Reigns put down. His successor will ask some hard questions of his people to make sure of that, but six students ran from the compound. One of them is guilty of letting Hutchings in, I’m sure of it.”

  Reggie pointed out, “Which means they had to be in league with him before they arrived at the Farm.”

  “Yes, Sir.”

  “But you insist there were no irregularities?”

  “From first view, it appears so. Obviously, that can’t be right. Hutchings must have connected with one of them. It will take time to ascertain what hole he exploited.” Andrew frowned. “There is time for that. We will need to completely retool the intake process prior to the Farm’s reopening.”

  Rita nodded, never happy without answers but seeming to understand. “Reigns had supporters, but I’ll smooth out any conflicts by indicating you executed him with my support. You’re right. An example had to be made. All the Farms need to re-evaluate their intake processes after this.”

  Reggie added, “I’ll engage with the national tech authorities to increase the observations on subversive media sites on unlisted websites as well as mainstream addresses. But you hit the nail on the head, Andrew. You need to find Hutchings. Soon. Now would be better.”

  The links ended without further debate.

  Andrew took a long breath. Still alive. That’s a win. He thought of Hutchings, and the corners of his mouth tugged into an ugly snarl. Where are you, you little twerp? I’m going to find you, drag you into a black site dungeon, and rip every little secret you know out of your piddly brain before I gut you personally. He had never met the young man, but Andrew hated him. He was threatened to tear apart what so many had worked to build. The idea that one fucking, uppity, non-baseline idiot could cause so much havoc was all the fuel he needed to stoke the fire of that hate.

  He summoned the file photo of Hutchings onto his wall screen, then glared up into the dull eyes captured on the license photo. Ignorant. Less than nothing. Mud to be scraped off his boot.

  I’m going to kill you, kid. I promise you that.

  Chapter 10

  A sharp crack split the air inside the ranch house as Kyle broke the glass on the back door. He didn’t figure there would be anyone around to hear. The stretch of land they were on was in the foothills not far to the northwest of the Mount St. Helens National Park, set well back from any main roads. The lonely ranch house was nestled beside a copse of trees that had nearly hidden it from sight.

  Despite the seclusion, Kyle took one last look around. They had looked in every window. Checked all the out-buildings, from the garage to the barns. No-one was there. If it wasn’t for the furniture inside, Kyle would have through the whole place was abandoned. Grass was growing up through the gravel driveway, and the fields were overgrown. There weren’t any animals to feed on the grass, which had grown long enough to go to seed by this point. The winter on this side of the mountains wasn’t cold enough to stop it.

  They had no idea what had happened to the owners, but it was the perfect place to squat for a while. They had noticed the police presence increasing on the road, and helicopters were becoming a common droning noise in the sky all the time. The Dawn-FDPC didn’t know the vehicle they were driving in, but it was only a matter of time before roadblocks went up. They could feel the swarm of law enforcement beginning to build, and none of them figured they would be able to make it through the mountains and back to the chalet. They had kicked the nest for sure, and the wasps were fast becoming a swarm. They needed a safe place to ride out the worst of it.

  Hotels and motels wouldn’t do. Nothing that would leave a paper trail was safe. Soo-Yun didn’t know anyone outside the city, and they didn’t dare go to Lionsgate and reconnect with any of the people Kyle used to know. None of them wanted to be criminals, but they all agreed that the circumstances demanded a little ‘aggressive creativity’. This ranch house became a good compromise. They could lurk here, maybe leave a few dollars on the counter to offset whatever they used, and no-one would be the wiser.

  Kyle reached through the broken window, turned the lock, and eased open the door. He called out, “Hello? Anyone home?” He listened. Nothing. “Hey, if anyone’s in there, can we just talk?” Again, nothing.

  He turned and shrugged at the others, then decided to risk it. He was in too much pain to wait much longer. He strode in, clutching to his side as he shambled past the rustic kitchen and into the front family room. It was an older house, without a lot of room, but the living space was big enough to have three couches of decent size. Kyle collapsed onto one of them with an immense groan. The bandages hastily wound around his chest were soaked through with blood.

  Soo-Yun was right behind him, point at another couch. “Agent Moraker, I need you right there. Elevate your leg using this ottoman.” She shoved it into place, then propped a pillow on it to make sure that leg got high enough. Then, she shoved the coffee table out of the way with a no-nonsense attitude, tugged the fluffy rug into the center, and guided Dazz to lie down on it. “Keep pressure on that shoulder. You’re looking a little pale.”

  Kyle quipped, “She’s always that way. You just haven’t known her long enough, Doc.”

  “Bite me,” Dazz sniped back, then gritted her teeth as a flash of pain went through her.

  Chloe was right behind the injured crew. She was carrying a heavy load of two large medical packs they had stowed in the jeep. She had carted them in. “Where do you need these?”

  There wasn’t any sign of Soo-Yun’s meeker, deferential side. This was her element, and she ordered them about with a confidence anyone might envy and desire. “There, by the archway. Crack them all open and let me see what we have. You said Lily taught you a few things, Chloe. How about stitching?”

  Chloe nodded. “Nothing complex, but if it is open, I can clean it and get it closed.”

  Soo-Yun smiled, happy with that. “Excellent. Come take a look at Dazz. The bullet went right through. All you need to do is slice away the bad skin, sterilize it and get it closed.”

  Dazz hissed, “All of that sounds horrible. Don’t suppose we got any pain meds for any of that?”

  Soo-Yun smirked down at her. “Not for the days it’s going to hurt after. Best I got is a little high-dose ibuprofen for that. But I can numb the area we’re going to work on.” She unsheathed a needle, knelt down by Dazz’s side, and injected the numbing agent. “There. Won’t take the pain away completely, but at least you won’t pass out from what Chloe’s going to do next.”

  Dazz’s head thumped back onto the rug. “What if I want to pass out?�
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  Rebecca appeared at the archway seconds later. “Alright, I’ve hid the jeep inside the barn, in case anyone actually saw it and reported what we were driving in. What can I do?”

  Soo-Yun pointed at Jackie. “Help her keep that from bleeding too much. I’ll need to find the bullet and dig the shrapnel out, but I’m not seeing anything arterial. She’ll survive.”

  Moraker moaned. “Glad to hear it.” She shook her head, cursing her luck for catching the ricocheting bullet the way she had.

  Soo-Yun patted her on the shoulder. “If the pain gets worse, tell me. I’ll give you something. But I don’t want to give you too much before I cut it free. Can you stand it? I need to get the bullet out of Kyle.”

  Moraker managed a mocking laugh. “Sure. Help your boyfriend, first. Doesn’t sound like favoritism at all.”

  Soo-Yun couldn’t resist a small smile, whispering, “Technically, given the way things are going between us, I’d say he’s more my Master than my boyfriend –”

  Groaning, Jackie swatted at her like she didn’t want to hear it, pushing her away and toward Kyle.

  Soo-Yun’s grin lingered as she settled on the couch next to Kyle. “Alright. Let’s see how I did while we were bouncing around.”

  Kyle gasped as he helped her pull away the hastily wrapped bandage. The first-aid Soo-Yun had administered in the jeep as they rushed out of the immediate battle area was rough at best, but it had staunched the worst of the bleeding. “Kept me alive, I’d say. Doesn’t mean it doesn’t sting like a bitch.” He clenched his jaw again as she probed at it carefully.

  Grimacing, Soo-Yun retrieved a small field pack filled with scalpels, clamps and tweezers. “It’ll only get worse if I don’t get rid of that piece of metal in there. I think it cracked a rib, and there’s not much I can do about that except stabilize your core with a little tape. Even then… well, I wish it wasn’t necessary, but I’m betting you won’t promise to just lie still and let it heal.”

  “Sort of running for our lives right now, Doc.” Kyle chuckled, then immediately regretted it as another splash of pain stabbed him.

  Soo-Yun frowned. “Well, lie there long enough for me to dig out what hit you. We’ll talk about the rest.” She found another needle, jabbed him with crisp professionalism, then got to work.

  While she worked, Jackie struggled to keep focused as Rebecca tore away the soiled bandages on her leg, then pressed in some more tightly. The DOJ agent let out a string of curses, “Damn that fucking hurts! Urrgh! Shit. Shit. Shit.” She clenched her hand, biting her nails into her palm. “Not sure if I’m going to make it without a few of those meds, Doc.”

  Soo-Yun nodded. “OK. Try to take your mind off it. If it’s still bad in five minutes, I’ll give you something stronger.”

  Jackie nodded, then clutched at her phone. “Fine. Might as well pass on the good news. That’ll be painful enough to distract me.” She dialed the number, making a couple mistakes along the way as her finger twitched.

  Rebecca gave her an apologetic look. “Sorry. My hands aren’t normally shaking this bad.”

  Jackie shook her head. “Don’t apologize for anything. I felt the shaking in the helo, Rebecca. I know you landed it with a failing control system. It was the auto-stabilization system that failed, wasn’t it?”

  Rebecca shrugged. “That much for sure. Might have been more.”

  “Well, whatever it was, you were steady as a rock when it counted. Your instructors at the fire rescue school and the flying jocks in the military would all have been proud. Don’t sweat a few shakes now that the adrenalin is wearing off.” She waved her phone. “I’ll put this on speaker so you can hear what he says, but try not to scream too loud, everyone.”

  Dazz gnashed her teeth as Chloe tugged on her skin in the wrong way. “No promises.” She brought a finger to her mouth and bit down hard.

  Jackie hit the ‘send’ button, followed by the speaker. She toggled the volume to full and waited as the electronic ringing sound cycled.

  The line clicked open. “Bruce Atimosa, DOJ.”

  “It’s Agent Moraker, Sir.”

  There was a scrambling sound, like the man on the other end had snapped his chair forward from a leaning posture. “Jackie! Where are you? How could you not have called me before now? I’ve watched the west coast explode twice since you left! Seattle was practically in lockdown to hunt Hutchings, and now the whole state of Washington is being carved into small little pieces for a huge manhunt. They’re saying he killed a whole score of FDPC agents. This is getting out of control!”

  Jackie didn’t mince words. “Lies, Sir.”

  “What? All of it?”

  Jackie’s mouth tightened into a thin line, pursed in thought. Then, she admitted, “No, not all of it.”

  “Please tell me it’s the killing part that they got wrong,” Bruce said sarcastically.

  “Afraid not, Sir. Not even the FDPC part is wrong.”

  They could all hear the strain in his voice. “Oh, shit.”

  “But they’re no-one you should be mourning, Sir. Traitors. Traitors of the worst kind.”

  A brief flash of hope resonated in Bruce’s voice, “You found something?” He caught himself, preventing that hope from growing too large too fast. “Whatever you got your hands on, Jackie, it better be fucking ironclad. I’m already getting pressure to unveil all my covert agents in the western part of the country. Funding records. Leads they are following. Every detail. I’m shielding them for now since it’s only angry demands from other departments, but if the DOJ Director General decides to give the FDPC what it wants, not much I’ll be able to do about it.”

  Jackie didn’t flinch. “That’s why I didn’t tell you anything, Bruce. You don’t know it, so you can’t give it away. That’s why I’m still not going to tell you where I am. What I am going to give you is all the ammunition you need to tear the FDPC apart. I know what you said before, Sir. That their reputation is sterling. It isn’t deserved. It’s not just a rot inside. There’s an infestation we need to burn out.”

  “God damn it, Jackie. You better be coming to me with something a hell of lot more than circumstantial evidence and conspiracy theories. I can’t give you even a shred of latitude on this.”

  “Emails. Photographs. Document trails. Links to real people in real positions. Video evidence. We still need to untangle and translate a lot of it, but it’s all there.” Jackie gave him the list with fierce satisfaction, like each of them was a gunshot fired back at the one who had hit her.

  “Seriously?” For a second, it sounded like Bruce wished she wasn’t so certain. Taking a moment, Bruce gave a deep sigh, like a man about to take on the challenge of his life. “If you thought Homeland investigations were painful, we’re going to be praying we were so fortunate once this gets going.”

  “Visions of stringing these people up by their ears or locking them in dark holes for the next two hundred years will keep me motivated,” Jackie said.

  “I hear you. Do what needs to be done to sort out what you’ve found. Aim for a full briefing to the DOJ Director General by the end of the week. I’ll have assembled a task force by then we can put on this without any other distractions. Charges by the time Valentine’s Day rolls round, if what you’re saying is true.”

  The corner of Jackie’s mouth tugged up into a smirk. “Sweet music to my ears. I’ll tie this all up with a bow, Sir. I won’t leave any questions unanswered.”

  “Looking forward to it.” Bruce hung up.

  Jackie glanced over at Kyle. “He’s in. We have our higher support. You heard what he said. We’ve spooked them and they’re applying pressure, but they’re too late. Now that Bruce knows, he isn’t going to let this get buried.”

  Kyle wasn’t even close to being in the same mental spot as her. “Are you kidding me? End of the week for a report? Charges by mid-February? They are killing people right now! They’re going to sweep every ounce of evidence they have under the carpet!”

  Jackie
flared back, “We’re controlling part of that evidence, Kyle! They won’t be able to just brush this all away!”

  “Haven’t you seen what we’re dealing with, Jackie?” Kyle shook his head in disbelief. “They might not control everything, but look at the influence they have! If you wait for three months to bring this to the public, they’ll do everything they can to smear fake information all over the internet. We’ll show them the footage we stole, and they’ll trot out a dozen ‘deep fakes’ and conspiracy videos that will discredit everything we have.”

  Jackie tried to sit up, but pain lanced through her leg and made her gasp. Rebecca gestured for her to hold still, and the agent nodded grouchily. “All that doesn’t matter. Our investigation is in official hands, now. That’s what the judges are going to see.”

  Dazz blurted back, struggling against the pain of her own minor surgery. “You’re going to trust that the judges haven’t been bought?”

  Chloe held her down. “Dazz, come on. Give me a break here. I’m not a miracle worker!”

  Jackie cut in, “Enough, both of you. Did you really think this was going to be over the minute we ran off the base? With all the changes over the last years, the justice system is a lot faster, but it still takes time.”

  Kyle growled, “Those changes were made by the FDPC. Championed by the people we’re trying to stop. Do you think they’d have let that happen if they didn’t know all the loopholes? They let it all happen because they’re ready for it. They aren’t going to get dragged through the courts! Not if you give them time to reset. I trusted you, Jackie. You said the DOJ would act. You can’t let fucking bureaucratic red tape drag us all down while they re-write history around us. What do you think they’re doing right now? They’re making that camp disappear. They’re making bodies disappear. In 48 hours, it’s going to be our word against theirs that the place even existed! What are they going to do if you give them three damned months?”

  Jackie did her best to explain, “You can’t fast-track everything, Kyle! We’ve been taking some outrageous shortcuts to get this far. You say you want the system off your neck? You want to be cleared of all charges? You want the right people prosecuted? This is the way to do it! Be glad that you’ve disrupted their operations this much. But if we don’t nail them legally, they’ll just squirm out of any real consequences.” She suddenly gasped a little as her leg flashed with pain. She looked down at Rebecca with a bit of betrayal.