Reassemble (Singular Book 4)

by Larry Buenafe

  -They’ll track them back to the Bright Hand, not us. We’re twice removed from them, and if they manage to track them to the Bright Hand, they’ll have no reason to look any further. I will get the drone up high and fly it directly over the building, and we’ll see if we can get a good image… stand by…

  -You like to say that, don’t you? It makes you feel important, in control. When you say ‘stand by’ you have everyone’s attention, and that’s just the way you like it, isn’t it?

  -Oh, really? My name is Mr. Pot. Glad to meet you, Ms. Kettle.

  -All right, I was just giving you a little crap, that’s all. Wait, what is that?

  -Oh, my. I believe we are seeing the smoking evidence of a hole cut into the roof of the primary building. Since there is no one on the roof, I think we can assume that they cut the hole for ingress, not egress.

  -That’s just like you, (SVC). You could have said entry, a way in, or lots of other things, but you say ingress. Still, that’s the second best thing it could be, right?

  -Undoubtedly. We would prefer to see them coming out, but at least we can be reasonably sure that help is on the way.

  -Unless he gets killed on the way in. I wish… I wish with everything in me we were just watching some kind of action movie, rather than having a front-row seat to our possible demise. Speaking of movies, as long as we’re passive spectators, why don’t you throw some popcorn in the microwave?

  ****

  T he lights went out, and when you’re three floors underground, it’s dark. A second later, I fell to the floor; whatever had been powering the massive superconducting magnets was down, but who knew for how long; I tried to stand, but nothing seemed to work right; the best I could do was roll my body forward, and hope I was going toward Dad, although I didn’t know for sure; shouts and the sounds of soldiers tripping over one another came from the large main room around the corner, and I did my best to move away from them. I tried turning on my heads-up display so I could access the night vision, but nothing happened; it was like it was never there.

  General Jim roared for the soldiers to be quiet and hold still, using all kinds of words I had only heard at school from the other kids, and occasionally from Benji when he was ‘pissed legless’, and then he said, “Careful now, Lucas. You didn’t think I’d set this entire thing up and have no way to defend myself, did you? Go ahead, Dr. Taylor, talk to your boy.”

  Then, high and raspy, as if he hadn’t had a drink of water in days, came a sound I was afraid I would never hear again: “Lukey, focus on my voice. He’s to my left, one meter. He has a gun, but…”

  There was a thump! and Dad fell silent. “Dr. Taylor, that’s not what you were supposed to say. Well, either way, I still have a gun to his head, so unless you want your dad dead, just stay right where you are. Redundancy, Lucas. It’s essential, just ask NASA. There’s a secondary generator system, and it’ll come online momentarily. Look, some emergency lights are coming on now.”

  There he is… the lights are dim, but he’s right where Dad said… that’s a weird-looking gun… must be plastic… Dad was slumped over onto the table, a small pool of blood next to his face, and General Jim had the gun pointing right at the back of Dad’s head. I tried to talk, tried to yell, but only a grunt came out; he had a stupid grin on his face, and I just wanted to smash it into paste and feed it to coyotes. Got to move… get away from this magnet… if I get caught in it again, it’s over… let’s try one more time and see if I can talk… “Iiiif you huuuuurt him baaaad, I’mmm gonna huuuurt you teeeeeen times wooooorse.” I’ll wipe that smile off your face… it’s the last smile you’ll ever make…

  “Oh, come now, Lucas. You’re in no position to make any threats. The superconductors are coming back online, ramping up. You can feel it, can’t you? What an invention. How ingenious humans are. Listen, it’s not too late. Your dad will recover, and we can still talk this out. You don’t want to get caught up in that magnet again, do you? I only had it running at half power before; if we ramp it up all the way… well, we don’t want to consider what would happen then, do we? Come on, Lucas. Look, I even have a chair for you. Let’s sit and settle this, man to man, eh?”

  He’s… he’s right, I can feel it pulling on me… got to get further away before it’s too late… roll, crawl, do something… come on, body… Ava, if you’re still there, I could use your help right now… come back, I promise I’ll be good… what… what is that…

  The dim light of the emergency lamps made everything look gray, almost like watching one of the super-old cartoons Ava would show me, but there was enough illumination to see that there was a large commotion in the main room. A soldier tumbled to the floor across from me, and once he came to a stop, he didn’t move again; I heard a familiar pop! And a quarter of the soldiers in the left side of the room roared, caught in the webs of a spider grenade; a huge melee was happening near the center of the room, but I couldn’t see who was in it; that has to be Cheri, she’s trying to fight her way through the soldiers… don’t do it, you’ll get killed… there are too many… I don’t think they expected to have to fight anyone but me… they got taken by surprise… the noise is unbelievable… run, Cheri, get away… whoa, there goes another spider grenade… wait, I thought she only had one… oh no, here we go... the magnet’s got me…

  Then, just as before, everything went dark. I fell back to the floor, and General Jim let out a stream of profanities, some I had never even heard before. “No! This cannot happen! Lucas, don’t move, I still have a gun to your dad’s head! What… what is that?”

  There was a third pop of a spider grenade, this one much nearer; dozens of soldiers roared in anger and frustration in the large open space; a beam of light was dancing toward us, and it stopped on me for a second, then on General Jim and Dad, who now was sitting up, conscious but with blood on the side of his face and head, and then I heard a voice I thought I might never hear again: “I’d advise you to drop that plastic gun and let me friends go, unless you’d prefer a hole burned through your forehead. On second thought, maybe I’ll do that just for putting them through all this. I’m authorized by The Crown to use lethal force, by the way. MI-6, to be exact. Lucas, just stay where you are; I’m taking both you and your father into protective custody, on order of The King.”

  Hassim! How did you get here? What… oh, who cares how… but you were just shot a bunch of times, what was it, a little over a week ago? He’s the toughest guy I ever knew…

  General Jim, the beam of light on his face, roared with laughter. “A flashlight? No one else out there thought to bring a flashlight? Listen, you have no jurisdiction here, so unless the British Crown wants to be bombed into oblivion, I recommend you turn around and make your way out before it’s too late. Besides, no matter how long you shine that light on me, it won’t burn a hole in my forehead.”

  “No, but this will.” A flash next to General Jim’s head, and a spot on the wall behind him glowed brightly. “I have killed men before, you should be aware. I’m not proud of it, but I’ll do what I must. Me friends are coming with me, one way or another.”

  The furious sounds of more fighting came from the next room, and then the sounds of bodies dropping to the floor; a smallish person rolled into the hall just behind Hassim and stood, obscured by his shadow. “Nice of you to join us,” the familiar voice came, and Cheri stepped out from behind him. “I used up all my flechettes and spider grenades. I was afraid I’d have to start using the laser, and I’m not really into killing people. Speaking of which, where’d you come from, and where’d you get that laser pistol?”

  Hassim grinned momentarily. “What’s that you say? Cheers for saving the day? It’s my pleasure, and I’m pleased to see you, too. I got ‘ere with Kane, he’s up on the roof, he took a couple of hits as we were flyin’ in, so I had to leave him up there and just hope I could find you. Luckily, we cut in right near another hole, and I just followed it down. Kane gave me most of his weapons, knowing I was likely to encounte
r some resistance, which I obviously did. Got a bit beat up, but I’ll recover. I just hope Kane does, too. He’s keepin’ the roof clear so we can get out of this dump without all of us gettin’ killed first.” Bill made it to us, and he brought Hassim with him! All this time, I suspected him, and he saved us! Well, not yet…

  I took a closer look at both Hassim and Cheri, and they did not look good; both were covered in dirt and sweat, one of Hassim’s eyes was swollen shut, and blood was pouring from Cheri’s leg. She saw me staring at the blood, and said, “Oh, my calf opened up, the one where I was shot in Brazil, remember? It doesn’t hurt, though. I’m okay. And Hassim, I heard you say ‘me’ when you’re supposed to say ‘my’. I thought we talked about that before.”

  General Jim shouted, “Hey!” and that got everyone’s attention. “If you’re done with your reunion, let’s get back to the matter at hand. These two are my prisoners, under authority of the United States government, and now I’m taking you two into custody as well. Drop your weapons and hold your hands up high where I can see them, or I’ll splatter Dr. Taylor’s head all over this table.”

  Then, like the voice of an avenging angel in my head: “Sorry to go missing, sonny boy.”

  Ava! What happened? Are you all right? I was afraid you were dead!

  “Now, if I was dead, would you be standing? No, when the superconductors came on it could have destroyed me, so I had to protect myself and hope that the cavalry would arrive, and it has. I have restored your full functioning. Take him, now.”

  “Hassim, Cheri,” I said, my voice now returned to normal. “Stand back.”

  I rose to my feet, slowly so as not to alarm General Jim into shooting.

  Ava, I can’t kill him, even though I want to. I just can’t.

  “I know. That’s what make you who you are. I’ll tell you what, though… two flechette pellets to the face ought to do the trick.”

  But what if he shoots Dad?

  “He won’t shoot your dad, he’s bluffing. He still thinks he can somehow talk his way out of this, and he’s using your dad as his exit plan.”

  I sure hope you’re right.

  “Have I ever been wrong before, shorty?”

  Well, remember that one time…

  “Okay, but aside from that?”

  Well… no, not that I can remember.

  This is nunc vero, sonny boy. Carpe diem.”

  The moment of truth… seize the day…

  For the first time, Jim seemed a bit nervous. “Now, wait a second, Lucas. We can still work a way out of all this for you and your father. Tell your friends to stand down, and you come over here and let’s talk. You won’t get out of here, anyway; the entire place is surrounded by hundreds of soldiers, just waiting for the order to storm the building. I can get you past all that, but you’ll have to work with me, here.”

  I don’t know why I said what I said next; it just kind of popped into my head and came out my mouth. “I’ve never used a swear word before, did you know that? But guess what? Today is my birthday. And here’s my birthday present. Oh, and you’re an asshole, Jim.” Then, before he could move, or even blink, I put two flechette pellets into his fat, ugly, lying, abusive, cigarette-smelling face.

  41

  DIRECTOR’S NOTES

  MEETING WITH SVC

  122052 23:57

  -Look closely at this, Director. There is someone on the roof after all, wearing a full-body flat black suit and moving quite slowly. May be injured… see this shiny patch, just here? Likely blood…

  -Can we get a shot of the vehicle Oakes and whoever he has with him are in? Unless they got stopped along the way, they should be to the general vicinity of this chaos, shouldn’t they?

  -All right, let’s pull back… there… there’s the vehicle, parked just outside the main entrance! There’s… that’s Oakes, to the left… he’s facing those three men in uniform…

  -What the hell is he doing? Why is he waving his arms like that?

  -I suspect he is trying to convince them of something… there, just behind him, the four soldiers, the ones the boy got released from the Bright Hand jail… standing at attention, in uniform? They’re running some kind of ruse, to be sure… the… look at this, the base personnel are moving away from the building… in fact, they seem to be moving quickly, and clearing the area… what did Oakes tell them?

  -Are you asking me? I think we have a little role-reversal going on, (SVC). I’m supposed to ask the questions. So, what did Oakes tell them?

  -I can only take a wild guess… I suspect that he somehow convinced the ranking officers that a weapon was planted in the building. Based on the absolute bedlam they’ve been experiencing, it would have been fairly easy to convince them of that. He must have told them an explosion was imminent, thus clearing the area, making it far easier for the boy and his father to escape. Oh, wow… look at this: the four soldiers are marching into the building as everyone else vacates! Oakes must have talked the ranking officers into believing that they are some kind of elite bomb specialists… you know, the entire thing that is making this ploy work is the fact that the boy used an EMP, frying all the electronics in the area. A simple cell phone call would ruin their con, but no one in the area has a working cell phone.

  -So, genius plan, just lucky, or thinking on their feet, taking advantage of the situation? Also, I have never in all the years we’ve known one another heard you say ‘oh, wow’. You sounded like you’re in high school for a minute.

  -Oh, I would say all three. And I skipped high school, you know that.

  -Oh, here we go. Boy genius, blah blah blah. If you’re so smart, you tell me what we do if they don’t get the boy’s father out alive.

  -Look, if we don’t get him into the fold, we’re in no worse a position than we were when we first discovered him. We do not lose all if this doesn’t work out. We may not live forever, but we’re still on target to leave this ruined world. And on a forty-year mission, a lot of science can still happen regarding longevity. That might be enough time to replicate Dr. Taylor’s work, especially if we got at least a small sample of the nano-machines used to build the boy’s body.

  -You know, I guess you’re right. I’ve had it in my mind all this time that this is do or die, but maybe it’s not. If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were trying to cheer me up, (SVC). Let’s keep watching, this is getting interesting. At least until the drone goes down. You could really cheer me up by pulling a couple of cold ones out of the fridge, though. And maybe some chips. And how about a little salsa? Yeah, salsa. Mmmm.

  ****

  G eneral Jim slumped to the ground, his plastic gun clattering into the corner. We rushed forward, and I went to work on the chains holding Dad’s arms and legs pinned to his chair as Hassim hoisted General Jim on his shoulder, carried him out to the main room, and tossed him on a pile of soldiers captured in the spider grenade strands. Cheri dragged the table out of the way and checked all the rooms along the hallway just to make sure there weren’t any other traps waiting to catch us. It only took me a moment to snap the light chains holding Dad down, and he stood, shaking and wobbling, wrapped his arms around me, and that was okay, it didn’t make me uncomfortable because he’s my dad.

  “Lukey… somehow I knew you’d come… I don’t think I would have lasted much longer… it was too dangerous, you should have let me go… I can’t think straight, son, they’ve been drugging me… makes it hard to control my motions… Hassim, Chi, if it wasn’t for you…” then Dad slumped back into the chair, his eyes rolling around as if he was having trouble controlling them.

  I kneeled next to Dad. “We still have to figure out a way out of here… I’ll carry you, we’ll make it somehow… Dad, I was afraid… I thought I’d never see you again… I…”

  Dad put his hand on my head. “Lukey, we’ll always be together, in here. In our minds. Tell me, how did you get the power off when he had you trapped?”

  “I… I didn’t, I don’t know how that happened
.”

  Cheri and Hassim, who had been keeping their distance up to now, probably not wanting to interfere, came forward; they both put their hands on Dad and me, and it was okay, I didn’t feel uncomfortable. “Lucas, you saw me leave when that magnet came on, right? Did you think I was running away? They set it up in such a hurry they didn’t bother to cover the power cables. I followed them, snaking their way to a door at the far end of the building, then up to the ground floor; I had to climb up a pipe and through some ducts, but finally I got out of the back of the building. There were a few soldiers guarding that side, but two flechettes took care of them. I followed the cables for about two kilometers, running as fast as I could in the dark, and found a bunch of huge generators behind a chain-link fence just out in the open. That was pretty arrogant of them, if you ask me. I yanked the cable out, and everything went dead. When I did, though, I heard another generator power up; I probably wouldn’t have heard it, but my ears work better since getting the treatment Bill got for me. Anyway, it was about a hundred meters away, so I dashed over, found the secondary cable, and that was that. Then I ran back as fast as I could, and I got lucky, because the back of the building was totally clear. I don’t know what happened, but it worked out for me.”

  Hassim chuckled. “It worked out for all of us, I’d say. Too bad you’re American. You would improve MI-6, wouldn’t you?”

  We were still under the bright but directional beam of Hassim’s flashlight, but when Dad took his hand off my head… “Dad, what happened to your little finger?”

  He seemed to have a little trouble making his face turn toward me. “Oh, that… they took that off almost right away… one of their agents got a little overzealous, trying to make a name for himself I guess. That was the last time I saw him; I don’t think they were too happy with that guy.”