“And we’re not ready for much of anything. Only our goal is clear, and even that depends on you, and luck, and our tricks,” I said.
“Your trick will work. The question is only if we survive long enough to see it through,” Aristine said.
“We’ll find out. We leave tomorrow, then?” I asked.
“At topside dusk, we begin. Yulin will prep ahead, and let’s hope for a favorable wind,” Aristine said.
I toasted them with my glass. “To fair winds, and fine shooting.”
31
The sun set in a muted orange due to distant clouds, but the eager stars greeted us moments after we stepped out of the lift into the forest. A team had our gear topside, but left before we began to process for the mission because Aristine wanted little to no interference, and what we were about to do was quite different than her other campaigns.
“Shall we?” I asked.
Yulin smiled and lit the small, shielded engine that began pumping hot air into my idea made real. The balloon would be light-absorbing, silent, and big enough to land us right on top of Wetterick without any warning, which meant we would be in his bedroom before he had a chance to open his big, greedy mouth.
“I’ve wanted to depose this asshole since the day I learned of him,” Andi said.
“We feel the same. It’s time for him to go, and his team with him. We show them no mercy, correct, Jack?” Aristine asked. She needed to know we weren’t going to do anything stupid, like take prisoners.
“If they’re armed inside his walls, kill them. If they look like slaves or technical staff, hold fire. Any resistance by non-combatants, shoot to wound. If it happens twice, put them down. After we land on the roof, we go in, clear, and then make our statement at sunrise,” I said.
“Good,” Yulin said. Above us, the balloon filled quickly, rippling in the soft winds with a light snapping, but even that faded as it took shape. In an hour, the tall, elegant craft was filled, we were clipped onto the skeleton platform beneath it, and Yulin dropped the line, freeing us to rise in silent glory. The wind swept us away, close enough to our course that Aristine only touched the directional engine occasionally to alter our path. She had a handheld navigation tablet on her wrist with a blue arrow that adjusted like a weathervane. We made eight klicks per hour, then ten, and then twenty as the winds caught us, pushing us like a hard tide. The sky was brilliant, and no one spoke until I saw something in the distance.
A fire.
“The Outpost?” Andi asked.
“Watchfire. They keep one on the southern side, just outside their toy wall. We’ll avoid it completely,” Aristine said, deftly touching the engine controls via her tablet. I felt the balloon shift above, slow but steady. The Outpost became a huddled shape, and then a series of lamps and fires, but not nearly enough activity to blow our cover. As we approached, two of the fires went out, allowing even more of the darkness to creep in on Wetterick’s little kingdom.
“There’s Lasser’s place—see the lane? The shadow? That’s the approach,” I said.
“Got it,” Aristine said, touching the controls again. We began to slow, and the ground grew closer. “He’s added another story to the place since our scouting pass last year.”
“He’ll be on the top floor. He’s too arrogant to be streetside,” I said.
“Roof it is, then,” Aristine said, and we began to slice through the air, losing altitude and turning in shuddering movements as she made the final call on our course.
“One minute. Unclasp,” Aristine said.
“Weapons ready. Andi, on me. I take point. Yulin, cover our back,” I said. The metallic connectors free, I hung on the balloon frame without a care, watching the dark shape of Wetterick’s headquarters speed toward us. “Three. Two. Jump.”
I hit the roof light as a cat, but Andi bounced her ass with a grunt of pain before coming up on a knee, angry but holding her rifle. Aristine and Yulin landed like feathers, and the balloon sped away, over the wall and gaining altitude for the time being. With a casual flick of her thumb, Aristine keyed the landing mode. An anchor line shot from the balloon frame when it was a half klick away as the vents opened and the balloon began to flop over like a wilted flower. It would be waiting for collection and recycling after sunup, when we held The Outpost.
“On me,” I said. The roof was flat except for two observation posts, both manned with soldiers who looked drunk or bored or both. They stared at us in shock, and Yulin put a silent round through the left guard’s head before he could draw a breath. His head opened up like a ripe melon, body slumping against the rail of his tower before vanishing from sight.
The second guard raised his gun, but I winged him with a wild snapshot, taking his arm off, most of his shoulder, his collarbone, his shirt, and just for good measure, part of his chest muscles. He tried to scream, but the noise was a strangled, hideous sound that died in a wet gurgle.
“You weren’t fucking around when you built these,” I said, looking at my rifle with newfound respect. It wasn’t a gun. It was a shoulder mounted planet killer, and I decided to give her a name at some point because I sensed that first shot was the start of a beautiful friendship.
“We don’t make mistakes. We make solutions,” Aristine said with a wicked smile.
I waved the women forward to the left guard station, seeing the open doorway in the floor. “Ladder. No good for surprises. I’ll jump in, clear, and you follow.”
“Understood,” Aristine said. The other women nodded, heads on a swivel as they watched for new targets. There were none, so I approached the opening, letting my eyes adjust to the faint outline below. Someone was awake, and that meant more shooting. Unless I used something even quieter.
“Knife,” I whispered.
Then I jumped, and all hell broke loose.
There were six of them pointing guns at me when I came to a rest, my feet slipping in blood. My killshot on the guard had alerted everyone when his blood streamed down the ladder, a dose of sheer bad luck. For good measure, his hand was next to my boot, one finger curled as if to wave me forward.
Everyone started yelling and shooting, and the only thing to do was go to the ground. The roar of gunfire was like the end of the world, with muzzle flashes and the stench of gunpowder filling my eyes and nose like my own private war. I was in a large, open room with Wetterick in the middle at a desk, and men all around. Some had guns, all had swords, and Wetterick himself held a shotgun, the barrel wavering as he tried to track me for a shot to end my life.
I spun into action beneath the gunfire, stabbing the nearest soldier in the thigh and twisting to rip his artery clean through. He howled in pain, fell, and shot the man across from him, turning that man’s stomach into an open hole. With my path clear, I went to work, my ‘bots firing like lightning in the blood as I darted forward to stab up and into another man’s balls. His high-pitched scream rattled my ears like I’d been punched, then he fell, clutching at me as someone to my left put a shotgun blast into my foot.
I felt my toes vaporize, biting hard on my tongue so that my mouth filled with blood. The shooter racked his gun, but I was already rolling to him with my knife arm extended and hate on my mind. I took him in the navel, feeling the blade punch clean through to his spine as a second shot tore the muscle from my arm. By the time I could turn, Wetterick was laughing, three men were down, and I was leaking blood at a rate that told me it was all but over.
A fat, sweaty guy in rough clothes lifted a crossbow and pointed it at my groin. “See how you like it, fucker.”
Aristine’s legs dropped over his shoulders like a python, and she cracked his neck as the crossbow fired, sending the bolt high and right. It hit the hand of a guy I hadn’t seen, pinning him to a pillar with a shriek of pain. Then Andi and Yulin landed and put two rounds in him, turning him into a cloud of thick, coppery mist. Yulin followed through by shooting two men with one round as Andi drew her knife and removed most of the fat guy’s throat for sheer spite. The room s
wam before me, but my ‘bots stopped the bleeding and convinced me that the pain was manageable.
Wetterick’s remaining men began to fire, but we all went low and turned their bodies into expanding gas with multiple railgun shots. The impacts vibrated the floor, and when the shooting ended, a sound like falling marbles began to clatter in my ears.
It was the sound of falling teeth hitting the wooden floor, ricocheting off the ceiling like a vintage pinball machine made by demons.
Silence reigned, and Wetterick made his move to run, but Andi took care of that with a shot in the floor less than a hand’s breadth in front of his foot. The splinters shredded his calf and Wetterick staggered, a mewling cry coming from his throat. Blood began to pool around his leg in a crimson sheet.
Wetterick had been a handsome, bearded man with light eyes and a cool demeanor, but now he looked desperate and scared.
“Get me up,” I said. Andi and Yulin obliged, and I hobbled to Wetterick with spots in my vision. “I’m going to black out in a minute. Let’s get this over with.”
“I never touched them. They were yours,” he said, his voice rough with pain.
“Touched who?” I asked.
“The Hannahs. They were independents. Not mine. It was my men who did—did things to them. I had nothing to—”
My knife carved his throat to the bone, and he didn’t even twitch.
I pulled myself up to stand, having gone to one knee to kill him. I wanted the fucker to see my face, and I didn’t have time for some bullshit speech.
“Shoot the first people you see with guns, then call them to the stairway and fall back. Ask for volunteers to help display the guards, and find me anyone who looks smart enough to be an officer,” I grunted, falling into my new chair. It was still warm from Wetterick’s ass, and I smiled despite my pain.
The women lifted their guns after a long look at me, then vanished down the hallway. I heard two shots, then a third, and then nothing. After a moment of silence, Andi’s voice called up to me from the floor below.
“Jack?”
“Yeah,” I managed.
“Come down here. Sending Yulin up to help,” she said.
“I—okay.” I there was a reason, but I was in such agony, I didn’t even think to say no.
Yulin appeared, smiling. “You’ll want to see this.”
“Okay. Let’s go.” I staggered along with Yulin, her arm under mine and lifting for all she was worth. I could see bits of blood in her hair. She’d shot someone at a very personal distance, and it showed.
We emerged at the bottom of the stairs into Wetterick’s ground floor, and I started to hear the murmur of a crowd. There were a few bodies scattered around, blown apart by railgun rounds, and the room wouldn’t be much good for hosting parties—at least not until someone cleaned it up. Aristine and Andi helped me along as Yulin went ahead, stepping out into the darkness and smoothly firing three rounds from her sidearm into the air. The shots hammered the night sky and whatever noise had been building fell off into an awkward silence.
“Listen up. Jack Bowman is wounded, and he doesn’t have time to fuck around and cull the herd of Wetterick loyalists. Here’s the deal. Push his people forward, and we’re going to put a round through their head. Or kill them where they stand. We don’t care. You have one minute,” Yulin said in a tone so menacing it made me nervous, and I was armed. And one of the good guys.
The reaction was instant. Four shots rang out, and knots of people began taking men and women down to the ground in an orgy of violence punctuated with shouts and curses. It was a raw minute of pent-up anger and revenge, and when it was over, dozens of people stood spattered with blood, chests heaving, and uncertain how they felt about being murderers.
Good. It was exactly what I wanted.
I took an ungainly step, leaning heavily on Andi. “I’m Jack Bowman, and I didn’t cut Wetterick’s throat to replace him. I did it to free everyone here, and to offer you something in return. If you’ll listen, I’ll speak and then hear your questions for as long as I can.”
A hum of agreement and concern rippled through the crowd when it sank in that there was more than just another sheriff in town, but an entirely new system.
“I’ll take that as a yes. This is Andi, Yulin, and General Aristine. We represent the old world and the new, and we’re doing away with the kind of bullshit that has gone on here. From this moment forward, everything we do is aimed at rebuilding, not destroying. And we will do it as free people. General Aristine and I are two different leaders with one goal. To bring civilization—the real kind, not this shitshow—back to The Empty. From there, we expand, one acre of land at a time. One life at a time.”
I inhaled deeply, trying to steady myself. My foot and arm were throbbing with hot pain, and I felt myself slipping. “We are going to rebuild, and if you accept the rules of our society, then you have a choice. The Free Oasis is yours as well, and points in between. We have a map and open arms. The decision is yours, and now, I leave you to it.”
The darkness opened up under me, and I fell in.
32
“Well that’s just gross,” I heard Mira say as my eyes opened.
“Glad to see you too,” I mumbled, feeling like I needed to shave my tongue.
“Your toes, not you. I missed you and I’m still pissed that you didn’t bring all of yourself back. Aristine says it will be a month before your toes grow back with their treatment,” she said.
I was in my own bed, at home in The Oasis, and the door opened to reveal Andi, Silk, and Aristine, all armed with more medical supplies, water, and a plate of food.
I struggled to sit up, earning a mild glare from everyone. “I’m hungry.”
“That’s good,” Silk said. “And before you ask, Aristine gave me your special package, and it’s been placed.”
“Oh—good. Did she— ” I began, but Silk’s frown was so pained, I stopped talking.
“Breslin is on the way. We want him to see it, too,” Silk said.
On cue, the big man poked his head though the door, then came in to stand awkwardly next to me. “Boss, you kind of look like shit, as the kids say.”
“I feel worse. Lighter, anyway, but that’s from the missing toes. And the other holes in me. Not my best performance,” I said, earning a bemused stare from Aristine.
“He did fine. Jack, did you need this?” Aristine asked, handing me a flexible tablet from the Chain. I felt my face go slack, then nodded. I had an ugly job to do, and the only way to handle it was quick and decisive.
I took the tablet without a word, and waved at Breslin to sit. The chair creaked under his bulk, and I handed him the tablet, which flared to life at his touch. It was a black screen, but there was sound.
“Where’s Jossi?” I asked him.
“Don’t know. Thought she was taking the kids gathering. Her pack is gone, but the kids are still running around. Why?” he asked.
“Listen to that tablet. It probably isn’t going to be easy to hear, but you need to know, okay?” I said.
“Okay,” he answered. Worry colored his voice as we settled in to listen to a conversation taking place a long way off. At the Chain, I’d asked Aristine to borrow some of her tiny listening devices she’d salted through the forest. I had her put two of them in Jossi’s travel pack, betting that our victory over Wetterick would close the door on her days as a frustrated spy.
Unfortunately, I was right.
A man’s voice came out of the tablet, and we all leaned closer to listen.
“How do I know you’re loyal to us? You left, when we needed you as an asset—”
“I didn’t leave. I was driven out, had my position in a favored family taken away. You threatened to marry me off to that wheezing gasbag from the west. I gave up everything, you prick. I made clothes like some commoner, my hands stained and bleeding from cheap dyes and dull needles, just to learn a trade. I ran away because you couldn’t guarantee my safety, not after you fucked up a simple pla
n that would have seen me installed on the council. Some fucking brother you are. I let that pig Breslin roll on top of me for years, spitting out brats in hopes that one day I would die in childbirth so I didn’t have to smell the stink of him and his simple life for one more second. And you think to question my loyalty, when you couldn’t even control Wetterick? How fast did The Outpost fall? An hour? Did you have time to dispatch your people, or were they drunk and whoring away the night as usual?” Jossi’s voice was shrill, filled with hate, and far different from the woman I had met. This was the real person at her core, and I watched Breslin’s hands begin to shake as he understood that his whole life had been a lie.
Andi put her arm around him, and then Silk did too. He lowered his head, and I saw fat tears spill down the planes of his face. His pain was a knife in the air, and I felt my stomach clench as I watched a good man reduced to ashes by the words of a liar.
In that moment, I made my decision, and the pain in my body began to lessen because I knew I was right. The city of Kassos would fall, and when it did, Jossi would die.
And Breslin would be rewarded when the time was right.
Epilogue
It was one month to the day since my return that I stood in front of the Chain’s main entrance, now open to visitors and marked by a clear path. My foot was functional, if not whole, the small new toes looking like awkward pink sausages as my ‘bots forced new growth at an unnatural rate. My arm healed faster, and I worked day and night to regain my body and endurance. So much was happening at The Oasis that sleep seemed like a distant memory.
With the fall of Wetterick, we gained The Outpost and more than a thousand people. Some people fled to Kassos, fearful of me and Aristine, and they would live with their choices. Work on The Outpost and Oasis leapt forward, as Breslin completed a simple road between them and new, robust crews began work on connecting the Chain with everyone else. We were reclaiming the land, and people could see results. It was a time of achievement, hard work, and joy.
Future Reshaped: A Post-Apocalyptic Harem (Future Reborn Book 3) Page 17