Absolute Knowledge Box Set (Books 1-3)

by Drew Cordell

  There were two people, a man and a woman, carrying bags of medical supplies and another three men who must have been the engineers with backpacks filled with various tools and electronic equipment. I couldn’t make out what the last two women did by what they were carrying, but their bags were bulging and as full as everyone else's. They both held smaller submachine guns and had sidearms at their waists.

  “Thank you for joining me,” Grez said, motioning for everyone to take their seats as he walked to the front of the room with Violet. He clapped his hands together and began. “Henry and his team did a wonderful job cracking the encryption on this map and because of them, we’re able to undertake this great voyage and make the Harvesters greater than ever before.” Grez nodded to one of the engineers next to me before continuing. “We stand to gain profit, protection, and a higher quality of life from this trip. I want to make one thing very clear from the start. Jake, Marwin, and Mary are our guests. They are valuable additions to our entourage, and I expect them to be treated as you treat our own. They are our allies and can be a great asset during this trip. Like us, they are survivors of the collapse of our society and bring a unique skill set to this operation which must be respected.”

  Violet walked forward and clicked the holoprojector on. “Now, we have almost four hundred miles to cover, most of which will be on a boat, but we have to make the voyage to River’s Port on the surface of New York which means we’ll need to expect heavy resistance on the surface with the ongoing HK threat. We’ll be bringing a full protection detail to get us to a Scavenger Guild checkpoint with access to one of the Greater Lifts. We will pull back the escorts on the last stretch of the journey so we don’t draw more suspicion than necessary. We’ll pay their fee, they’ll inspect our cargo, and we’ll be on our way.”

  “And if they won’t let us use the lift?” one of the soldiers asked.

  “Then they can eat lead,” another responded hotly.

  Violet raised her hand. “No one will be eating lead. We need access to River’s Port, and we’re sure as hell not fighting the whole city. We’ll be able to pass. My father and I have worked out the logistics, and you don’t need to worry about all the fine details. If all goes well, we won’t have to fire a single round this entire trip.”

  Grez zoomed in on the map, enlarging River’s Port. “Once we’re in River’s Port, we’ll look for a shipwright that can sell us enough boats to carry our cargo and crew to Vermont. If we can’t buy the boats ourselves, then we’ll contract our business to fisherman and river salvagers in the area. I’m told they’re plentiful, and we can make it worth their time. Most of this journey is on the underground river systems, but we will setup a temporary staging ground once we reach land before we proceed to the lab.”

  “So we won’t be bringing all our equipment to the weapons lab?” one of the doctors asked.

  Grez shook his head. “No. Our temporary stash camp will serve as a staging area while we mobilize our group to explore the weapons lab. The map file ends at the lab itself and doesn’t reveal any specifics of what to expect while we’re there, but we have a full set of clearance files to access the lab itself. What I can tell you is that the lab is over five square miles in area, and we’ll have a lot of ground to cover. As Violet said, I’d prefer not to have to fire a single round on this trip, but we’ll be well prepared to face a small army.”

  “You’re sure we’ll have enough food and water for the entire trip?” one of the engineers asked.

  Grez nodded, pointing to a small woman in front, one of the doctors. “Jennifer has planned all our rationing and has allotted 3,500 calories and two gallons of water per person per day for the duration of the trip. Obviously we’ll use less than that when we’re not travelling by foot. We’re expecting a week and half to get to the weapons lab from when we leave our base, and we’ll have the opportunity to resupply anything we unexpectedly deplete on our way from here to River’s Port.”

  Violet grinned. “And no, we won’t be walking to River’s Port. We have a few turbo trucks that will transport us there.”

  Turbo trucks like the kind the Scavengers used could be used to haul a lot of cargo and do it fairly quickly. In our case, we would be the cargo. We would also be a bigger target for any remaining HKs and any Champion squads out in the Slums. For the most part, the major roads in the regions of the Slums the Champions and Scavengers used were cleared of the majority of debris that had blocked them. If we could travel quickly, then we would only need to worry about running into Champions, especially with Leroy’s life and my father’s box at stake.

  “We’ve decided to leave today. You’ll have plenty of time to study the layouts and mission perimeters on the road, but you all know your jobs,” Grez said.

  “And those three? Who is going to babysit them?” one of the soldiers demanded.

  Grez turned to face him. “Violet will be watching over them. They are here to work alongside us and offer their expertise when you or I require it. Don’t hesitate to ask them for help if you think they could be useful to you. Remember what I said about treating them with respect.”

  The soldier nodded, apparently content with the answer. His anger fizzled away. “Yessir.”

  “As a clause in our agreement, I am permitting them full body armor and a sidearm. If they pull a weapon on you, put them down,” Grez said, his voice losing its friendliness before returning to normal. “Now, Violet and I will do all the talking in River’s Port, and I encourage you to take the opportunity to meet our newest guests. There is no better way to do that than break bread together. Christopher, I’d like to you to arm our guests with a sidearm of their choice as we discussed and have them fitted for armor. We’ll meet in thirty minutes for lunch in mess hall then leave right after.”

  The man named Christopher, one of the engineers wearing plate armor, mustered a weak smile and walked over to greet us while the rest of the group disbanded and went their separate ways. Christopher was tall and lanky and wore augmented glasses which fed information across the slightly tinted lenses. He placed his backpack on a chair, unhooking it from the latches on the armor plates on his shoulders.

  “Right, it’s nice to meet you. I’m Christopher. I’ll be responsible for repairs and identifying technology or structures for our use once we arrive at the weapons lab. I’ve been with the Harvesters since the collapse of the Slums and worked technical support before we lost our former lives. Wasn’t here for the older stuff they did and as such, I have no ill will toward you.”

  “Maintenance on Collectors or something?” Mary asked.

  “Something like that; helped run a Dreamnet. I tried to give some Exiles a second chance. Sucks that it didn’t matter in the end. We all had to get by somehow,” he said with a defeated smile. “Nevertheless, we’re all here now and we all have a job to do. If you’ll follow me, I’ll get you outfitted for the trip.”

  We followed Christopher through the main room toward a small shop. He produced a keycard from his pocket and unlocked the metal door, opening it then pushing a button on the inside to open the closed window attached at the end of the main counter.

  “I don’t suppose you have energy-based weapons?” Mary asked.

  Christopher grinned. “Technically every weapon is energy-based. But no, I have instructions to outfit you with some of our lesser sidearms. Old stuff, but it will do the job if you really need it, I suppose. Try not to need it.”

  “Huh,” Marwin said, not doing well to mask his disappointment.

  As much of a gun nut as she was, I knew Mary would be disappointed with our selection as well. She would have been perfectly happy with one of the assault rifles the soldiers in our party sported, but Grez clearly wasn’t taking any substantial risks with us.

  Christopher produced a few cases with our selections and even I was disappointed. The handguns we were to choose from were meager, old, and looked questionable at best. Mary ejected the magazine of one of the larger handguns and sighed as she examin
ed the ammunition. “Seriously?” she asked. “You think this is going to drop an HK?”

  “No, I don’t. Grez only wants to give you enough power to buy yourself a few seconds to get under cover. I suggest you don’t miss if you decide to shoot something at all,” Christopher said.

  All of the guns presented to us used small rimfire cartridges, and while the magazines had high ammo capacity, the weapons would be largely ineffective against anything we’d be likely to encounter on our trip. Consecutive headshots might to do the trick, but against center-mass, we’d be out of luck. Marwin and Mary were better shots than me, but even they’d struggle to pull off any fancy tricks with these pieces of garbage.

  “Can you give us some knives as well? They don’t have to be Nanoedged,” I asked, hoping to better our situation.

  Christopher nodded, producing three combat knives in composite sheaths that would attach to our belts. “Now, we’ll get you armored. You’ll have composite plate armor with chain mesh underneath. It’s second only to Nanotech at the weight, and quite frankly, we don’t have enough Nano to go around these days.”

  Christopher took our measurements and grabbed bundles of armor from the back. He helped us into them after having us put on light hoodies and explained how the armor worked. Surprisingly, the full suit weighed just under 30 pounds and felt quite flexible for its bulk. The chain underneath would protect us from raw impact while the composite plates were designed to absorb energy blasts and diffuse the heat from the burning gas. We’d still feel the full force of the hit spread out over a greater surface area, but the armor effectively pulled the kick and burn from energy rounds. I had no intention of finding out how the protective properties of the armor fared when defending against HK disruptor rifles.

  Christopher gave us heavier coats and running boots to wear for when we were out in the Slums, and we put those to the side while he gave us our backpacks and loaded them with enough personal rations and supplies to keep us alive if we were accidentally separated from the group. Due to the river system, River’s Port was hot year round, and we might not even need the coats again.

  I attached my sidearm and knife to my belt and the others did the same. We were as prepared as we could get, and I was thankful for the armor and weapons.

  Christopher led us out of the small armory, locking it back up before taking us to the mess hall where the others were waiting. Grez smiled when he saw us and invited us to take our seats at the table. This time, I was truly hungry and not eating wasn’t an option. Grez had changed into armor like the rest of the group, but his armor had Nanotech mods. Mary and I still had our own Nanotech in our prosthetics, but that wasn’t information Grez needed to know. He didn’t seem interested in taking our prosthetics from us, at least not yet. If I needed to, I could construct a blade on my hand and punch it through Grez’s face. The morbid thought gave me a surprising amount of comfort, but I dismissed it so I could focus on what mattered most right now: eating as much food as I could.

  Smiling, Grez passed a basket of bread rolls to us and we added some to our trays while the rest of the food was passed around. I piled my plate high with meat, the sponge-like fungus, and some other veggies.

  Grez introduced us to the group as we ate, and aside from Christopher and Violet, I was sure it would take me a while to learn their names. If all went well, I wouldn’t know any of them for more than a month or two.

  “I see you’re hungrier this time,” Grez observed, demolishing a buttered roll in a single bite.

  “The food is very good, thank you,” Mary commented.

  Marwin, having only minor problems eating after Anderson’s death, was having no problems now. It was easy to forget how much the man could eat. Mary and I always joked about the black hole in his stomach, but Grez’s eating abilities seemed to dwarf Marwin’s entirely.

  “Enjoy it while you can. Preserved rations are never as good as in-house cooking. We’ll make this trip as short as possible so we can return and feast,” Grez said.

  I was dead set on completing the mission and making it back to the Champions. Edgar and the other Council members must have suspected something went wrong in Olympus by now, and they were likely starting to formulate a new strategy without the knowledge that we were even still alive.

  After everyone finished eating, Grez stood. “We begin a new era for the Harvesters!” he shouted. “Let’s roll out.”

  As promised, Grez took us to see Leroy right before we left. To my surprise, Leroy was holding my father’s box.

  “Thank you for doing this,” Leroy said, nodding to us.

  “You’d do the same for us. We will be back in no time to get you out of here,” Marwin said.

  “Jake, stay safe out there, brother. I’ll hold onto your box while you’re gone. Grez thought you would be more comfortable with the arrangement this way.”

  I approached Leroy and gave him a hug, patting his back before moving out of the way. “Thank you, Leroy. We’ll be back for you soon.”

  “I don’t doubt it, buddy.” He turned to face Mary. “Watch out for Jake. We all know he needs someone watching his back, and he’s lucky it’s you.”

  Mary smiled and hugged Leroy. He kissed her on the cheek before she moved back to stand by me.

  “You too, Marwin. You’re not leaving without saying goodbye. I’m not going to kiss your cheek, but I’ll take a hug,” Leroy said, grinning.

  “That I can manage.” Marwin smiled and hugged Leroy. “See you soon, Leroy.”

  “Love you all. Stay safe and good luck,” Leroy said as he was wheeled back to his room.

  Grez stood waiting for us by the door of the small room, and I couldn’t shake the fear it would be the last time I would see Leroy. It was dangerous thinking, and I cleared my mind to focus on the task at hand. It was time to leave.

  8 RIVER’S PORT

  ∆∆∆

  I held Mary’s hand as our turbo truck rolled through the streets; we were sitting in the back with Violet. Two other soldiers were sitting in the cabin in the row of seats in front of us, having their own conversation while the driver and his navigator discussed road conditions with the faster scout transport leading the convoy. Grez had personally requested that Marwin ride with him to discuss things from the start. It hadn’t sat well with me despite the fact I had no reason to distrust Marwin. Mary hadn’t seemed too happy about it either, but it wasn’t something we wanted to discuss in front of Violet.

  The massive wheels of the truck did a great job of rolling over anything that was in their way, but the trucks were far from stealthy, even with the extensive modifications and painstaking work done to try to muffle the roar of the massive engine. Coupled with the fact that we had at least another 90 miles to go, I wasn’t too confident our trip would be as uneventful as we were hoping.

  Violet was staring out the window with boredom, her hand on the hilt of one of her knives. Out of everyone in the group, she was the only one who could pass as a civilian of the Slums with the way we were dressed.

  “How long have you two been together?” she asked, turning to face us and breaking the silence.

  Mary looked up at her. “Three years now.”

  “Interesting. And how long have you two been with the Champions?”

  “A little longer than that,” I said. “What about you and the Harvesters?”

  “My whole life I guess. I was kind of born into it,” she responded.

  “You never lived in Olympus?” Mary asked.

  Violet shook her head. “Never had the pleasure, but it seems that was for the best now. I prefer the security of the Undercity honestly, even if we have a bit of an HK problem in the Slums at the moment.”

  I wanted to know more about her and her role with the Harvesters. “And you were fine with what the Harvesters used to be?”

  Violet raised an eyebrow, but she was still calm. “You think I had any say in what my father built? I was born into this; there was no life for me on the surface.”


  I shrugged. “You seem to have a say in what he does now.”

  She smirked. “Fair enough. No. I’ve only been involved on our executive board for about three years, and that’s after I proved myself capable in a variety of skills needed to lead.”

  “I suppose that makes sense. Things probably aren’t as different between the Harvesters and the Champions as we’d like to believe, especially these days,” Mary considered.

  “I’m interested to see what you can do with those knives. They doesn’t seem to be a conventional way of fighting. I can appreciate a good blade myself, but to never carry a gun… well, that seems a bit strange,” I said.

  “You may want to reconsider that. You wouldn’t live through it,” Violet said, laughing.

  “I meant against an HK or something,” I corrected.

  “Not your best choice of words, Jake,” Mary laughed.

  “Anyway, with any luck, we won’t have to fight. I can hold my own quite well, but picking my own battles and seizing opportunity are some of my best traits. Believe it or not, I’d rather not draw my blades this whole trip,” Violet said.

  “I believe you. We’ve all been through way too much as it is,” Mary said. “But seriously, do you expect these to protect us?” Mary asked, pointing at the crappy handgun hooked on her belt.

  Violet smiled. “Absolutely not. My father seems to have given you the worst guns we had. Honestly, I’m surprised those weren’t melted down for slag yet. If we get in a battle, I’ll do my best to keep you safe. Just keep your heads down and try to stick to cover. I know you can fight, but you’re no good without proper equipment.”

  Just as she said it, a blast shot through the cabin of the truck, piercing through the armor next to Violet’s head and going out the other side. The shot had missed her by mere inches, yet she looked more angry than frightened. The convoy skidded to a stop as more blasts slammed into the trucks, shuddering through the heavy frames. Violet cursed, lowering her head to avoid another stray kinetic round.