Rafe pivoted away and hurried down the flight of stairs. He had to make up for at least a little of what he’d done. He’d barely walked ten steps from the stairs when Kast and her soldiers rushed around the corner, jogging with guns raised.
Rafe raised his hands. “Whoa! Careful!”
“Who’s on the platform?” Kast shouted, gun pointed right at Rafe’s face. “What did you do up there?”
Rafe realized then the True Sons must all be networked, monitoring each other’s life signs. The moment Bharat had killed those soldiers up by the nuke, Kast and her crew had been notified. How could he cover this up? “Um, I didn’t—”
The shriek of metal tearing was followed by a rumble that made Rafe instinctively dive forward. Behind him, he heard a sound like dozens of hammers falling, headfirst, on a pile of shattered glass. A cloud of dust overtook him.
He scrambled away, rolled onto his back, and opened his eyes. A pile of twisted stair rubble rested where two flights of stairs had once stood. He also saw Kast and her soldiers, all standing over him, all with guns pointed at his head.
“What did you do, Rafe?” Kast shouted.
Rafe kept his hands as high as he could. “Um ... Jan Sabato just seized your mini-nuke?”
Two of Kast’s soldiers violently pulled Rafe to his feet, and Rafe cried out as they twisted his arms behind his back. “Ow! All right, mate! Just show me where you need me to go!”
“Problem at the nest,” Kast said, probably into her radio. “Unidentified infiltrators just collapsed the stairs, with help from Rafael Garcia.” Kast paused, baring her teeth at him. “What are your orders, sir?”
Rafe waited in breathless anticipation. Kast nodded, then turned to Rafe and the soldiers holding him.
“Grappling hooks are five minutes out,” she said, not to Rafe. “Keep your eyes open and shoot any movement you see, even shadows. We will retake that platform.”
“What about you, Sarge?” a soldier holding Rafe asked.
“I’m taking our infiltrator to see the Commander.” Kast bared her teeth and slung her rifle over her shoulder, then stomped forward and grabbed Rafe’s arms. “Move, you little shit!” She forced him forward, and Rafe yelped and obeyed.
“Hey, so ... you know that’s a mini-nuke up there?” Rafe asked, as Kast forced him to walk at a rapid pace. “We can’t just nuke Star’s Landing. You get that, right?”
“Shut up,” Kast growled.
“Those are people up there. There’s kids up there!”
“I said shut up!” Something hard clocked Rafe on the back of the head. “You keep that traitorous hole shut, and maybe, just maybe, I won’t break your arms.”
“Sure, okay, fair.” Rafe winced at the new ringing in his ears. So Kast knew what they were doing, too. She was totally all right with it. How had he gotten everything so wrong?
Rafe weaved and ducked to avoid bonking his head on pipes as Kast drove him forward. Yes, he’d betrayed the True Sons of Ceto, but did Kast have to be so mean about it? She marched him into an open rectangle beyond the maze of pipes and machinery.
Crates filled with guns and ammunition remained stacked neatly beside glowing work lamps. The True Sons had laid down a row of waist-high biocrete barricades between this staging area and the large tunnel behind, where water currently flowed. More soldiers worked at those barricades, securing heavy machine guns on mounts overlooking the north tunnel. Ammunition belts snaked into each gun from brown crates.
The Commander stood at the center of the rectangle in what Rafe assumed was parade rest, boots pointed slightly apart and hands clasped behind his back. The work lights glinted on his narrow, wire-rimmed glasses. He looked disappointed, and Rafe’s heart sank at that look. He hated disappointing the Commander.
Kast shoved Rafe hard as they arrived. Rafe stumbled and fell, but caught himself in the center of the rectangle. He pushed up, bracing for a punch or kick.
No strike came. Commander Graham Esparza simply watched him, frowning, glasses glinting in the light. He was waiting for something. Was he waiting for Rafe to explain?
Sure. Okay. He could try that. Rafe cleared his throat and swallowed. “So, yeah. We hid a mini-nuke in that pump control room, yeah? And we’re gonna blow it up in a few hours, when the big Armistice Day parade is walking by overhead?”
Esparza said nothing.
“Isn’t that, like ... mass murder?”
Still, Esparza stood. The man was like a statue. A scowling, glasses-wearing, really fucking intimidating statue. Rafe couldn’t even tell if Esparza was breathing.
“We can’t do this,” Rafe continued, looking around at the soldiers behind Esparza, and the soldiers on the heavy machine guns. “Right? We’re not the Supremacy.”
When he finally spoke, Esparza’s voice was soft, kind, and free of judgment. “Who told you we planned to blow up the Armistice Day parade, Rafe?”
That wasn’t the type of response Rafe expected. Those words weren’t what he expected to hear.
“Uh ...” Rafe waited, hopefully, for help.
“Did you speak to someone who works with the Advanced?”
Rafe felt a little embarrassed Esparza had figured that out so easily. “Yeah.”
“And why, Rafe, would we blow up our own people?”
Rafe felt a sudden, surging, overwhelming wash of relief. “We aren’t doing that?”
Esparza simply shook his head.
“Oh. Well, shit, mate, my bad!” Rafe sat down in the center of the rectangle and grinned. “Then that means ... I have to warn you. There’s an Advanced guy in a mimetic suit at the security scanner. He just blew up the stairs!”
“Just one?” Esparza asked.
“Yeah, he’s alone up there, but there’s ...” Rafe trailed off before he gave up Jan and his friends. Something didn’t feel right about giving up Jan and his friends.
“There’s what, Rafe?” Esparza prompted kindly. “How many Advanced infiltrators are we dealing with today?”
Rafe frowned as he evaluated the calm scowls on the soldiers behind Esparza, and the ones at the heavy machine guns, and Kast. None of those soldiers looked surprised by what he’d just said about a mini-nuke. That only made sense if they all ... oh.
All the dread and guilt Rafe felt when Bharat first told him returned. “We’re going to nuke the parade, aren’t we?”
Esparza’s head tilted, as did the heads of the soldiers on the machine guns. Something on their radios? Then Esparza rushed behind a barrier and crouched low. “Contact in the north tunnel! Kast, secure him!”
Kast’s vise grip snapped Rafe’s arms and ripped him to his feet. She dragged him over and tossed him against the biocrete barrier between her and Esparza. All eyes fixed on the large tunnel beyond the barricades. Inside, lights grew.
Kast spoke up from Esparza’s side. “One armored APC on approach, bulldozer class, with at least thirty armed bodies behind it. It’s gotta be the CSD. We can punch through that armor if we keep at it, but it’s gonna take time.”
“No, the CSD doesn’t use bulldozers anymore,” Esparza said calmly. “They’re also still in Duskdale, hunting Sabato.”
A loud, magnified voice blasted out of the tunnel, female and almost sounding ... bored. “Attention, Truthers! I shouldn’t have to introduce myself, but I will, since you’re probably too stupid to realize how much trouble you’re in. My name is Elena Ryke, and you have someone who belongs to me.”
Kast glanced at Esparza. Esparza glanced at Kast. Both glanced at Rafe, who shook his head. “Don’t look at me, mate!”
“Turn Jan Sabato and the data disc in his possession over to me now,” Ryke’s magnified, incredibly intimidating voice commanded, “or my very capable soldiers will fill you full of holes. You have five minutes to bring Sabato to me.”
“We can take these scum,” Kast growled, but then she frowned. “And why does she think we have Sabato?”
“Commander!” a soldier said. “Contact in the east tunnel!”
“What?” Kast and Esparza demanded in unison, and then the sound of multiple engines flooded the underground room.
Rafe craned his neck to look at the tunnel leading east, which he could just barely see from this angle. More lights blazed inside the tunnel, and then two bright blue APCs rolled out at high speed and screeched to a stop. The turreted guns atop each swiveled automatically to face the barricades.
“This is Lieutenant Coffman with Ceto Security Division, speaking to disavowed rebel commander Graham Esparza!” The blinking red and blue lights on each APC strobed the underground. “We know you are sheltering wanted fugitive Jan Sabato! We demand you turn him over and surrender your arms at once!”
“The fuck,” Kast whispered.
A deafening explosion sent Rafe, Kast, and Esparza diving to the biocrete. The underground chamber rumbled so violently that Rafe was certain it was going to collapse, but it didn’t. When he could, he raised his head and peeked over the barricades.
Someone had blown a massive hole in the previously solid wall. It was about ninety degrees west of the tunnel holding Elena Ryke’s bulldozer and kill squad. And as Rafe stared in disbelief, polished black Vindicator suits — powered armor used primarily by the Supremacy — leapt into the chamber alongside a towering mech that looked like a giant hunchback.
That giant hunchbacked mech, Rafe remembered, was called a Rhino, and it immediately took a knee and deployed wall barriers. Each Vindicator rifle slid into the barrier’s slits in unison, making a bulletproof wall of smart rifles that shot smart bullets. Those projectiles could curve around corners.
“The Supremacy,” Esparza growled, and the glare he directed at the armored soldiers was truly intimidating. “How?”
“Attention, terrorist elements working under wanted war criminal Graham Esparza!” a haughty, magnified voice boomed. “This is Captain Karus Varik with the First Phorcys Security Fleet. You are in possession of Phorcys government property, and you will surrender that property at once.”
“Excuse me!” Ryke’s magnified voice demanded.
“Excuse you?” Varik demanded back. “Who are you?”
“This is Lieutenant Coffman with Ceto Security Division!” Coffman yelled, before Ryke could answer. “Who authorized you to deploy your soldiers down here? Supremacy assets are not allowed on Ceto soil without explicit permission!”
“Can we kill him?” Ryke asked. “We can kill Advanced who violate the treaty, right?”
“We cleared this operation with Senator Gail Lozano!” Varik shouted back. “We have full clearance to proceed!”
“Not from President Mendoza you don’t!” Coffman shouted back.
“Gentlemen,” Ryke said, “we’re all here for the same purpose, aren’t we?” She cleared her throat. “Esparza! Surrender Jan Sabato to me!”
Kast blinked at Esparza. “Is Sabato here somewhere?”
With a shimmer, a dark-skinned man who had previously been entirely invisible appeared wearing a skintight blue flight suit. “Attention, ladies and gentlemen! Thank you for coming! I assure you, we’ll have this cleared up as quickly as possible!”
“There he is,” Esparza said dryly.
“First, however,” Jan continued, “I’d like to yield the floor to Commander Graham Esparza. He has something he wishes to share with all of you!”
Rafe stared in silent horror. Jan stood now beyond the barricades, in full sight of Elena Ryke’s bulldozer, Lieutenant Coffman’s APCs, Captain Varik’s Vindicator squad, and Captain Esparza’s True Sons of Ceto. He was surrounded, without cover. There was no way he was going to get out of this one!
“Commander?” Kast whispered.
Esparza frowned at the lone figure standing in the middle of four groups of gun-toting soldiers. “Get me my maghorn.”
A soldier, crouching low, complied. Esparza raised the maghorn to his mouth and spoke. “This is Commander Esparza of the True Sons of Ceto. We do not bow before any enemy, foreign or domestic, but if you remove your forces now, we will spare your lives. Sabato is yours. We have no ties to him.”
“Oh, c’mon!” Ryke said sarcastically. “You’ve been sheltering him in your underground desert base for days!”
“What underground base?” Varik asked.
“There are no underground bases on Ceto!” Coffman protested.
“Ladies, gentlemen, please, be reasonable!” Jan raised both arms as if to part a sea of high-powered weapons. “If you do not withdraw immediately, Commander Esparza will set off the mini-nuke he’s placed beneath the capitol building!”
“Mini-nuke?” Ryke demanded, almost in unison with Coffman. “Is this true, Esparza? Are you that insane?”
“We are not here about any bomb,” Varik cut in, annoyed. “You have stolen critically sensitive information owned by the government of Phorcys, an act of sedition tantamount to—”
“Shove it up your ass, Varik!” Ryke cut in. “No one’s bombing my city!”
“Esparza!” Coffman shouted. “What are your demands?”
Rafe waited in breathless silence, staring at Esparza. Demands were good. Demands meant Esparza might not nuke people.
“Commander,” Kast asked, “how are we getting out of here?”
Esparza glanced at Kast, then the rest of his crouching soldiers. He closed his eyes and lowered his head. “We aren’t,” he said, with quiet reverence. “We finish the mission.”
“Yes, sir,” Kast whispered.
“Wait!” Rafe struggled to free himself from Kast’s vise grip. “You can’t set off that bomb! Bharat already secured it! We can’t shoot our way out of here!”
“Jan Sabato!” Ryke demanded. “Bring me my disc right now! We have your precious Emiko!”
“Jan Sabato!” Coffman shouted. “Turn yourself in! I guarantee we’ll treat you fairly!”
“Graham Esparza!” Varik shouted. “Return our stolen data disc at once!”
“Now, people,” Jan shouted from his place in the middle of the gathered armies, “let’s not start shooting each other!”
A deafening crack echoed through the underground chamber. The soldier three steps from Esparza, the one who’d been on the heavy machine gun, crumpled into a bloodied heap.
“Open fire!” Esparza roared.
To Rafe’s ears, it was as if the entire underground chamber blew itself apart. The gunfire came from all sides, endless and deafening, and Rafe threw himself down and covered his ears. When he looked up, Esparza was gone.
The safest thing was to stay down. The smartest thing was to stay down. The dumbest thing would be to go after Esparza, yet Rafe couldn’t stop thinking about the antenna he’d seen gleaming on top of the pump control room, by the funnel. An antenna that could receive signals.
An antenna that could pick up a remote detonator.
Sergeant Kast slammed to the ground next to him, clutching her side. Rafe scrambled out of reach. The pipe above his head exploded, but he crawled on hands and knees. Something hot bit his thigh, and he screamed in agony, but he limped off running.
He had to let Jan know Esparza had a remote detonator.
The cacophony of gunfire faded as Rafe ran, but not toward the tunnel exit. He limped, instead, toward the nuke platform, whining at the agony coursing through his leg. There was a good chance any detonator Esparza possessed had limited range, which meant Esparza must be heading this same way.
There. Esparza! Rafe almost went down when he took the corner, but caught himself on some pipes. He stumbled and stopped as Esparza spun his way, holding a pistol in one hand and a small cylinder in the other. He was waving the cylinder around like he was trying to get a signal.
“Hey!” Rafe shouted. “That’s a detonator!”
Esparza smiled. “Good eye, Rafe.” He kept his pistol pointed in Rafe’s direction. “One step closer and I shoot.”
If Esparza used that detonator, they’d both die anyway. “You can’t do this. Too many people will die up there!”
“Everyon
e dies, Rafe.” Esparza kept walking, waving his detonator around and watching the red light on its tip. “Not everyone gets to die for a good reas—”
Esparza’s fist jumped straight up as the detonator flew from his hand. Esparza’s glasses visibly collapsed upon his nose as Esparza was bowled backward by some invisible force. Esparza fell on his ass as his pistol landed and slid away, spinning.
The detonator landed with a plastic clunk and rolled beneath a pipe, out of reach. Above Esparza, standing over him, Jan pulled off his mimetic hood. “Hello, Commander.”
Rafe sighed in relief as Esparza rolled to his feet, wiped his mouth, and spit blood. He tossed his wire-rimmed glasses aside. “The Sabato out there was a holo-projection.”
Jan smirked. “Obviously.”
“You can’t escape,” Esparza said. “Even if you make it out of here, Ryke, the CSD, or someone else will hunt you down.”
“Perhaps,” Jan said. “You, however, will almost certainly be executed, after a magnificent trial. I imagine you and your senate financiers will be found guilty of treason. Let’s all hope they don’t hand you to the Advanced.”
Esparza crept forward. “I know my soldiers shot you yesterday. I’m surprised you can even walk.”
“You could beat me in a fair fight,” Jan agreed, as a stunner emerged from his mimetic suit. “Could.”
Esparza lunged. Jan fired his stunner. And a legendary former Patriot of Ceto, the man known to his loyal soldiers as the Commander, collapsed in a drooling heap.
Jan stepped over Esparza’s crumpled form and reached for the discarded detonator. Just behind Rafe, someone hissed in quiet pain. Rafe turned in time to see Sergeant Kast, wounded and bloody, raise her rifle and point it at Jan’s back.
Rafe howled and dived straight at her.
The bang took his breath away. Rafe sat, clutching the new hurt spreading across his chest. Kast had shot him directly in the chest. It sure hurt getting shot in the chest.
Yet as Kast raised her rifle once more, bloody teeth bared, a knife spun past Rafe’s face and thunked straight between Kast’s eyes. Her eyes crossed before she dropped, dead. Rafe only then remembered that Jan still had his throwing knives.
Supremacy's Outlaw: A Space Opera Thriller Series (Insurgency Saga Book 3) Page 25