Dissident

by Lisa Beeson

  Val remembered Diana had said something about this place being her own little oubliette. Not that Val knew exactly what that was, but she could take a guess.

  “It comes from an old French word that means ‘to forget.’ It’s a place you put people to keep them out of the way and forget them,” Blake answered readily. “Diana always did have a flare for the dramatic.”

  Val glared at Blake with absolute hatred. The bastard was reading her thoughts again.

  “That’s not what this facility is, Val,” Gordon assured her.

  With some effort, Val forced her spiteful gaze away from Blake’s pale, condescending face, to glare at Gordon. “Then what kind of place is it?”

  “It is where we do biological and technological research, and in the case of Diana and her coconspirators, a rehab facility. We’ve made many advances that will benefit people all around the world. Like your eye, for example.”

  Val let out a huff of derision. “A ‘rehab’ and ‘research’ facility on a private island in the middle of the ocean…? Right. Can’t let those pesky regulations safeguarding against human rights violations get in the way of progress, can we? Please,” she scoffed. “I’ve witnessed your ‘rehab’ techniques firsthand,” she said, motioning to her shaved head and numerous new scars. “And you can keep the stupid eye, I never asked for it.”

  The thinning of his lips and a quick twitch of his jaw was the only indication of Gordon’s displeasure. She could tell that he was trying to keep his composure to win her over. According to Diana, they were desperate to get her to fight with them against whatever has them scared and scrambling. Never. Going. To. Happen.

  Blake must have read her thoughts again, because he pushed off the wall as if he was about to threaten her, but Gordon held up his hand to silence him before he even spoke.

  “I can’t apologize enough, for what Dr. Schweinhardt did to you.” Gordon said. “His methods of interrogation were barbaric, to say the least. That is not the standard of operation here, I assure you. He was released of his position as soon as we found out about what he had done.”

  Only because he didn’t get the results you wanted…

  “I can’t stand the thought that we almost lost you. Whether you believe it or not, we care about you, Val. Always have.”

  Val wanted to spit in his lying, scum-sucking face. “If you care so much about me, then why did you let me grow up in the system? And don’t try to sell me that BS that you didn’t know what was happening to me. Diana said that you had her spying on me.

  “I’m nothing but a weapon to you – a long investment that you hope to exploit for your own twisted purposes. Well, screw that! Screw you, and screw your damn Cause! You’re all monsters!”

  Blake chuckled, as he leaned back against the wall. “We’re all monsters to somebody, honey.”

  “I told you not to call me honey!” The rage was boiling up like hot lava in her veins and she could not contain it much longer, she was about to explode. Well, if they want a weapon, they’re going to get a weapon!

  “Don’t be stupid. You’re only going to hurt yourself,” Blake warned.

  The chip activated. As the electricity seared through her nerves, she tried to focus on the minute sensory feedback of the sheets crushed in her clenched fists. Her all-consuming rage was overcoming the pain and feeding her power. She was actually conscious of the ground beginning to rumble and the bed starting to shake. The looks of real fear on the men’s faces caused a sliver of satisfaction to make it through the pain a split second before she succumbed to the searing currents seizing up her muscles.

  Once the rumbling stopped, and Val was a drooling, twitching mess on the bed, Gordon stood up and placed the chair back by the door. “We’ll talk again when you stop acting like a petulant child.”

  As the two men walked out and locked the door behind them, Val couldn’t lift her hand, but she managed to slightly extend her middle finger.

  Faint echoes of sporadic gunfire rattled in the distance outside. It was interspersed with the thunderous roars of what could only be a giant beast.

  The sounds cut off as suddenly as they began, and Val chalked it up to a strange hallucination brought on by the trauma of the electric shock.

  At least, she desperately hoped that it was just a hallucination.

  Chapter 12

  Cam focused on the map projected on the wall in front of them. His mind locking away details, while Reid detailed their routes and explained the objectives of the different squads one last time.

  The center jewel in a tiny archipelago, the lush tropical island was the remnants of a long dormant volcano. Its edges a nearly unbroken wall of sheer cliffs rising thirty stories out of ocean, surrounded by a labyrinth of deadly atolls, reefs, and sandbars – making it impossible for large ships to get too close. Much like the modified fishing ship they were using now as a cover. They were weaving their way around and hiding behind the outer islets of the chain, trying to be as inconspicuous as possible.

  They had only observed people getting on and off Anaximander’s island by helicopter or small boats that had to meander slowly through the sandbar labyrinth to the one and only lagoon on the northern side of the island. It was only accessible through a small keyhole in the cliffs, known as the Krakens’ mouth. And you could only access the jagged maw of the Kraken’s mouth during low tide. Both ways were highly visible and impractical for their purposes. That is where the Kael’s awesome black-ops toys came into play. The submersible crafts, which reminded Cam of a mix between a large bobsled and a torpedo, moved swiftly and silently through shallow water. Made of a lightweight and undetectable fiberglass compound, they would take the men to strategic places around the island. Under the cover of night, the squads would scale the cliffs then enter various openings into the island’s old lava tubes that would give them access to the warren of underground tunnels connecting all the buildings.

  Once they had access to the tunnel systems, they would take control of the lagoon, and then the transport hangar and landing pads that lay on the large plateau in the center of the island. Once those were under their control, the other squads would hit the staff barracks on the southwestern side of the island, and the Facility that took up most of the lower flat land on the eastern side. The expansive building stood in the shadow of the living quarters/headquarters of Anaximander’s elite, which clung to the side of the highest eastern peaks. They would leave the palatial monstrosity – ostentatiously called the Olympus Tower – for last. Knowing that at the first sign of trouble the elite would all hole up in there, leaving everything else open for them. Even the crumbling ancient ruins hidden within the thick jungle on the western side, which Wyatt had said was the reason the Reinholds had purchased the island in the first place. They believed that the ruins led to “the seat of the Progenies power.”

  Cam had noticed Kael’s uncharacteristic peak of interest when Wyatt had first mentioned it. But unfortunately, nothing became of it, at least not in earshot of him.

  Running everything through his mind, Cam made sure he had every detail down perfectly. This was The Facility – the big boss-fight at the end of the game. He needed to get this right. He needed to save Val and Soren and prove to Ari that he was worth having by her side.

  Reid ended the briefing, sending everyone off to prepare to leave by 22:00.

  Cam was just about to stand up to file out of the room with the rest of the team when he realized the Scotsman hadn’t officially assigned him to a squad for this mission yet. Most likely, it was just a minor oversight. Normally, he was with Tauber’s squad, acting as his spotter. Just to make things copacetic and official, Cam sauntered over to Reid and discreetly informed him of his mistake. “Hey, boss,” he said in a low tone. “You, uh, forgot to assign me to a squad.”

  “No I didn’t. You’ll be staying on the ship this time, lad.”

  “What,” Cam asked, his face an incredulous scowl. “But I’m Tauber’s spotter…” His eyes searched out Tauber.


  He glanced over at Cam as he left the briefing room with his usual equanimity, giving only a slight shrug in response to his questioning glare, which in Tauber-speak meant “not my call”.

  Cam turned back to Reid. “Can we speak about this privately?” he asked with as much dignity as he could muster without seeming pouty or childish.

  Reid arched one of his ginger brows, but nodded.

  They stood in tense, awkward silence as they waited for Wyatt, and the last of the mercs to leave the room out of earshot.

  Kael had hired the savage miscellany of mercenaries because he’d worked with them before and trusted them to get the job done. However, they were also the type to cut out your liver just to watch you bleed if you caught them in the right mood. They were not the kind of people you wanted to show weakness or vulnerability to if you wanted any kind of respect.

  Cam had worked hard to keep his mouth shut and eyes open, shrewdly observing and taking in all he could from the multinational band of badasses. In the time it took to reach the island, he had been able to pick up a few tricks of the trade and learned how to curse like a sailor in five different languages. He’d built up a decent enough reputation and he wasn’t going to ruin that for the sake of some obvious mistake on Reid’s part.

  When he was sure they were alone, Cam rounded back on Reid, looking down his nose at the burly Scotsman, while subtly flexing his ever-growing muscles. He had passed Reid in height by a couple inches, and was using all of his six feet and three inches to show that he was not a child anymore. He was a man who deserved respect. “Why does a noob like Wyatt get to go on this mission and not me? I’m way more qualified for this than he is, and you know it.”

  “Wyatt knows the people and how they think. We need you here to help out Myles and Paloma and keep the ship secure.”

  “By ‘keeping the ship secure’ do you mean ‘babysit Randall’,” Cam asked in disgust. “That’s bull crap! I’ve put in the time. I’ve proven my value to the team.”

  Despite Wyatt defecting to their side, Randall had doggedly refused to see reason. He was being kept prisoner in one of the ship’s cabins until Kael decided the time was right to use him for leverage. Since Kael wanted to keep the brothers separated, and having deemed Cam the lowest-man-on-the-totem pole, he was stuck with Randall duty more often than not. But he’d never been held back from a mission to do it.

  Reid gave him a hard, no-nonsense look. “This isn’t a game, lad. No matter how big you get, you’re still a seventeen-year-old kid, who hopefully has a long life still ahead of him. The stakes are high and people are going to get killed. I’d rather one of them not be you.” He gave Cam one of his powerful pats on the back to signal the end of the discussion. “Now go see to Randall like a good lad.”

  “This is bull,” Cam said, while Reid, none-to-gently, shoved him out the door. “Bull crappery at its finest!”

  “Take it up with the big boss,” Reid said as he walked in the opposite direction down the hallway.

  “Oh I will!” Cam shouted over his shoulder as he stalked off. “This shall not stand!”

  Ignoring the Scotsman’s chuckles receding down the hallway and his instructions to check on Randall, Cam headed straight for the chart room instead, where they had their own set up alongside of the ship’s system. It was where Myles, Kael, and Paloma – a Brazilian powerhouse of a woman comprised of equal parts muscle, wit, and sarcasm – spent most of their time lately. Paloma was fluent in eight different languages, had three degrees, and was Kael’s usual tech-support and analyst. She and Myles had become fast friends amongst Kael’s advanced array of super gadgets, able to talk to each other in their own techno babble language.

  Making his way through the ship, Cam pumped himself up with righteous indignation. Figuring out exactly what he was going to say to state his case and show Kael that he was up to the task with his succinct, bulletproof argument. He would be the very definition of competency and maturity. There was no way Kael could turn him down.

  There was also a secret weapon he had been keeping in his back pocket for just an occasion such as this. Lately, while training or on missions, whenever he let his instincts take over and got into what he called “the zone”, he was able to see strange luminescent auras around living things through walls and different obstacles. He couldn’t see clearly through the walls, it was just auras. Like the ones he had seen around people the last time Ari had amped up his ability.

  He figured that maybe when Ari amped people repeatedly, she left behind a little extra superpower residue. He was stoked to think that some of her awesomeness was permanently rubbing off on him. The thought of his ability getting stronger gave him hope that he could enhance his usefulness.

  He had not told anyone about it yet, because it only happened sporadically. And honestly, the only ones who would even have a clue what he was talking about, would be Ari or Kael, and neither of them were easily available – Ari was who-knows-where and Kael seemed to be purposely avoiding him. But he would finally have his chance to tell Kael about it now, and the man would have to be at least a little impressed.

  Admittedly, Kael was not quite as big of a selfish prig as Cam had originally thought. But he was still a condescending shmuck that treated Cam like a three-legged alley cat afflicted with mange. No matter what Cam did, it was never good enough to make up for not protecting Ari while he had been away systematically cutting the asshats’ legs out from under them.

  First of all, Cam thought at the imaginary Kael he liked to tell off, I am not Ari’s keeper. She is a strong independent woman with a flippin’ mind of her own. Second, it’s not like I haven’t already been punishing myself about how I failed her every moment since she left.

  Apparently, forgiveness and mercy were not qualities found in the Great and Powerful Kael’s wheelhouse.

  And it was disconcerting, and truthfully, disappointing, how much Kael and Myles got along with each other. Myles was supposed to be on Cam’s side and have his back.

  Reaching the door to the chart room, Cam took a moment to compose himself, shaking out all his angst-y energy, before calmly turning the handle.

  Myles was pointing to a monitor that was showing an infrared map of the island. “…see, right there.” He pointed to where there had been a small flash. “That was at 3:00am this morning. I haven’t seen anything like it before.”

  “They’ve been pretty tight lipped about it too,” said Paloma, “The only thing I’ve been able to pick up from the radio chatter is that there’s some kind of large beast on the loose.”

  “Do you think it’ll be a problem?” Kael asked, his face as inscrutable as always.

  “If anything, I think it will help us,” Myles said with a shrug as he brought up a topographical map with the swipe of his hand. “It seems to be messing with the guards around The Facility’s perimeter and the ones stationed around the ruins.”

  “Pulling them away from their posts and taking them out one by one,” Paloma continued seamlessly. “It’s depleting their forces slowly and randomly so it won’t cause a panic and a complete lock down. It’s almost as if it’s trying to make it easier for us to get through to our entry points. We need to act now if we want to utilize that advantage.”

  Kael narrowed his eyes in thought then gave a brief nod. “We can use any advantage we can get. Keep an eye on it though. Tell me the moment anything changes.”

  “Copy that,” Paloma said, while Myles nodded.

  Kael took out his phone and quickly typed something into it as he walked towards the door.

  Seizing his moment, Cam cleared his throat. “Speaking of using advantages,” he said, blocking Kael’s exit. “I’m an asset to the team. Why are you benching me from the mission?”

  Kael plastered him with one of his “I could crush you with my bare hands like the insignificant bug you are” stares, which Cam knew he was perfectly capable of doing. Ever since Ari was hurt in New York, there had been a feral savageness in Kael hiding
just under the surface, just waiting for an excuse to come out.

  Frozen under such lethal scrutiny, Cam immediately forgot everything he had planned to say. His mind was a blank. He could practically feel the tumbleweeds rolling around in the windblown ghost town inside of his skull. Scrambling, the only arguments he could come up with were such irrefutable gems as “it’s not fair” and “you suck”.

  With an impatient flick of his head, Kael said, “Take it up with your father. It was his call.”

  After an instant of dizzying movement, Cam found himself shifted to the left from where he had been standing and Kael was nowhere to be seen.

  When Cam’s mind finally caught up with what Kael had just said, he gasped and pointed an accusing finger at Myles. “Betrayer! It was you? You’re the one that benched me?”

  “Yep,” Myles said, leaning back in his chair and showing not a hint of remorse.

  Sensing the tense atmosphere, Paloma turned in her chair and started making her way towards the door. “Um, I’m just gonna go get some more coffee,” she mumbled, evading the family drama with a hasty exit.

  “This mission won’t be like the others,” Myles said stone-faced. “It’s not some easy in and out of a nearly empty building with a skeleton crew in the middle of the night. It’s a full-blown siege with a whole lot of people ready, and more than willing, to kill you.” He pointed back at the monitors. “And that ‘beast’ out there, it seems to be on our side now, but what if that’s only because it has only one source of victims at the moment. I didn’t say anything about the other missions, because I was trying to play it cool and Kael promised me that you’d be safe. But I’m drawing the line here.”

  “This is bull! You were absent my entire childhood. You have no right to pull the protective father card on me now!”

  “I have every right,” Myles shouted back, losing his ever-present composure. “Everything I’ve done since the moment Rory told me she was pregnant with you was to keep you safe. And I’m not gonna jeopardize that now because you want to go off and play GI Joe with the big boys.”