by K A Riley
“I’m assuming that’s us,” Brohn says.
Wisp claps him hard on the shoulder. “None other, big brother!” she sings out.
With her brow furrowed and her chin resting in her cupped hand, Rain studies the revolving schematic like a chess player contemplating her next move.
When she doesn’t say anything, Wisp leans forward, pressing her palms down onto the tabletop, and lays out her big-picture battle plan. “We’ll have multiple Infiltration Teams. We’ll need to be coordinated to the second, and we’re going to need to know everything about everyone in a lot of places, but especially in the Armory and the attached barracks. Every guard. Every change of shift. Every weapon, security protocol. Every room, nook, cranny, corridor, input panel, fire escape, window-washer’s rig, access corridor, janitor’s closet, service elevator…the works. If it’s in this building, living, dead, or totally inanimate, we need to know about it.”
Rain shakes her head. “I don’t see too many vulnerabilities in this thing. Plus, there’s not a ton of detail. I don’t suppose we can just walk up to it and have a look around?”
“Only if you’d like to get shot,” Granden warns. “These boys guarding the place are on a hair-trigger and are on high alert for spies, recon drones, or anyone else who might be snooping around.”
Rain turns to Olivia who is sitting quietly in a deep shadow among her consoles at the head of the table. “I know you’re gathering what you can. But for this plan to work, we’d need to have a better way of getting all the detail Wisp is asking for. Even if we manage to get it, do you really think we can identify the right targets, get in, and take them over without getting caught, shot, and definitely killed?”
Wisp leans back in her chair and swivels it around to face Rain. “We’re lucky in a lot of ways. We’re outmanned and outgunned, the Armory is a large facility, and it’s a variable with a lot of unknowns, and, as you point out, it’s pretty much impenetrable. Plus, of course, Krug has reinforcements arriving in six days to coordinate and solidify his Patriot Army’s grip on the city—”
“Forgive me for saying so,” Cardyn interrupts, “but you seem to have a slightly terrible definition of the word, ‘lucky.’”
Wisp pushes up the sleeves of her lime-green hoodie and laughs. “Okay. They have a lot. But they don’t have the five of you. We do. And I’ll take the five of you over an entire battalion of Krug’s army any day.”
Wisp stands and begins walking around the glistening black table, gazing at the image of the Armory like she’s seeing it for the first time. She runs her finger along the back of Olivia’s chair and some of the viz-screens before returning to our side of the table to stand next to Brohn. She kneels down and presses her cheek to his and, in a flash, she goes from powerful Major to doting little sister. “Sure, there are some obstacles we’ll need to overcome. But I still say we’re the lucky ones. We’re together. Against all odds and against an enemy who has already tried to kill us and failed, we’re still together. Never forget that.”
Just when I’m getting an optimistic, feel-good vibe about this whole situation, Rain brings us all back down to earth. “Listen, Wisp. I hate to be the voice of reason here,” she says, “but as great as luck is, it’s still not a plan. The five of us, you and Granden, a room full of immobilized Modifieds downstairs, and I don’t know how many untrained Insubordinates you have upstairs against what Granden himself admits is a violent, well-armed, and dangerous army…I just don’t see how we have any chance of carrying this off.”
Wisp nods her agreement, and I suddenly get the terrible feeling she’s going to heed Rain’s warnings, pull the plug on the whole operation, and lead us all out of the building with our hands up to surrender to the Patriot Army. Instead, she laughs. Standing between Brohn and Granden, who are nearly as tall sitting down as she is standing up, Wisp tells Rain she’s absolutely right. “We’re outnumbered. The odds are stacked against us. The cost of failure is death. Not just ours but the final nail in the coffin of our democracy. But there is more to all of this than meets the eye. More importantly, there’s more to all of you.”
3
We all stand up as I look from Brohn to Rain and over to Cardyn and Manthy. “More to all of us?”
Wisp reaches out to put one hand on Brohn’s shoulder and the other on Granden’s. “You’ve only gotten a small taste so far of what you’re able to do. While you’re helping us train the Insubordinates, we’ll be training you.”
“Training us?” I ask. “Training us in what?” I give what I hope isn’t too obvious of a dirty look at Granden who was one of our trainers back in the Processor. In the space of three months of intense mental and physical challenges, he and his partner Trench, under what turns out to have been the deceitful guidance of the now-dead Captain Grace Hiller, taught us how to work as a team, how to survive nearly any situation, and how to overcome nearly any obstacle. The two of them also ran us through all kinds of combat drills and taught us countless techniques to kill with a variety of weapons in a variety of ways. It turns out it was all just a failed attempt to turn us into super soldiers in a war against our own people. The whole experience cost Kella her sanity, and it cost Karmine and Terk their lives. I’m not going to feel guilty right now about being suspicious of Granden.
Granden catches me looking at him and turns his attention back to the polished black table where the image of the Armory continues its slow spin.
“I think we’ve had our fill of training for one lifetime,” Rain says, pretty much reading my mind.
“It’s not like that this time,” Wisp says. “We’ll train you how to access your abilities in order for you to become better versions of your true selves.”
Manthy is sitting next to Cardyn on the opposite side of the conference table near Olivia and her array of consoles, floating spheres, and holo-screens. Manthy scrunches up her shoulders and cringes at the word “abilities.” After she started developing this strange power to link her mind with certain types of digital technologies, my weird psychic connection to Render didn’t seem so impossible to believe anymore. I know the last thing Manthy ever wanted was to be in the spotlight for any reason. Now, here she is, one of the people Wisp claims is going to somehow magically win a war.
“And how exactly do you plan on training us?” Manthy glowers, her voice laced with distrust and dripping with doubt.
“I’ll show you shortly, I promise.” Wisp puts up a hand to stave off any more questions. “We need to get moving. The clock is ticking. As for the actual plan, here’s how it will work.” She presses her hands down on the table. “As you know, this room we’re in is the Intel Room. It’s where Olivia is stationed, and it will be strategy-central for the rest of us. Every plan and possibility will go through this room. Over the next few days, Kress and Manthy will work with Olivia on gathering as much information as they can about the Armory and our other key targets in and around the area and throughout San Francisco. That includes the guard posts, checkpoints, and security stations the Patriot Army has scattered around the city. As you can see, we’ve got a basic overview, but we’re a bit short on details. Between today and Wednesday, Thursday at the latest, Rain and I will sit across from you right here at the image-relay station and coordinate a battle plan using the information you provide. At the same time, Brohn, Cardyn, and Granden will head up armed and unarmed combat training for the Insubordinates upstairs on the fifth floor. Then, at the end of every day, it’s off to bed for an unfortunately very brief sleep, and the cycle repeats the next day. If we do this right, if we don’t cut corners, we can have our troops up and running and ready to fight in time for Krug’s arrival.”
“That’s not a lot of time to gather all the information you say you need and to train a bunch of kids,” I point out.
“I wish we had more,” Wisp says. “More time and more people. But we don’t. And once Krug gets his claws into this city, that’s it. The country is his and all of us along with it. If we had more time, I’d t
ake it. But, as it stands, all we have is the time we have.”
Wisp hops up to sit on the edge of the table and twists around to face us. The way she kicks her legs as she talks makes her look like a little girl sitting on a pier somewhere without a care or a responsibility in the world. “For the next few days, we’ll just be gathering intel. After that, we’ll start setting up smaller raids to pick away at the Patriots’ perimeter defenses. Friday night at twenty-three hundred is zero-hour. The point of no return. After that, Krug will be embedded, a backup contingent will arrive in the city shortly after midnight, and we won’t be able to do anything about anything. At exactly twenty-three hundred hours, we’ll have nearly a dozen smaller teams tackling some of the lower-priority targets in a coordinated, simultaneous attack. The only thing the five of you have to do is get yourselves, along with a few of the Infiltration Teams, into the Armory. After that, you just need to let the other teams get started on their takedown of the Munitions Depot and the Communications Center while you break in and assume control over Command Headquarters.”
Cardyn whacks his forehead with the palm of his hand. “Oh, is that all?”
Ignoring him, Wisp goes on. “While you’re having fun doing all that, the remaining teams of trained Insubordinates, coordinated by me and led by Granden, will take over the Patriot Army’s external garrison and commandeer their military vehicles. We’ll detain the personnel who offer the least resistance and literally drive the rest of the Patriot Army past their own checkpoints and right out of San Francisco. You’ve met Patriot Army Staff Sergeant Dennis Kammet. He’s one of our inside guys with full knowledge of and access to the army’s fleet.”
“What about local law enforcement?” Rain asks. “Will they stay neutral? Or will they help us? Or worse, will they help the Patriots?”
“Good questions, Rain. Granden?”
Granden slings his jacket over the back of his chair, undoes the top button of his shirt, and begins to roll up the cuffs of his sleeves with tidy, military precision. “Honestly, Rain, they’re a wild card. The mayor, the chief of police, and the chief’s captains and deputies don’t like the Insubordinates because we’re underground and off the grid. But they don’t exactly have a lot of love for the Patriot Army either. In addition to helping coordinate the training, I’ll also be doing what I can to draw local law enforcement over to our side. I do have to be careful, though. Being the president’s son has had certain advantages. Now that I’m gone and presumed dead, sticking my neck out now is a good way to get my head chopped off.”
Rain nods her understanding of the precarity of the situation, his and ours. “So we have a short timeline, a limited window, a strategic deficiency, limited and inexperienced personnel, and we don’t know what side the police are on…?” Rain mutters. I can see the gears churning in her head. She’s a riddle-lover, a dedicated mystery-solver, and she’s the best I’ve ever known when it comes to assembling variables, diagnosing a problem, and strategizing a solution. It’s why she always beat everyone at chess back in the Valta, and, honestly, it’s why we’re not all dead out in the desert wasteland so much of our world has become. She squints but doesn’t say anything else, which is a good sign. It means her brain is in overdrive, which means whatever problem or problems are standing in her way don’t have a chance.
Speaking more quickly now, Wisp asks Olivia to highlight the primary border posts, and two orange glowing points pop up alongside the schematic of the Armory. “After we secure the Armory, we’ll position defensive checkpoints here and here at the foot of the Golden Gate and Oakland-Bay Bridges to keep the city safe but supply lines open. With control over the comm-grid and with some cooperation from the harbor-master’s union, we can monitor and even control ships coming and going from the Pacific. As for the rest of the peninsula…Olivia, call up the wall.”
Olivia says, “Initiated,” and the city schematic scrolls sideways until an imposing, curved and white overland wall of synth-steel supported by a line of cable-stays and support posts comes into view. Looking like the bleached skin of a giant, flattened snake, the wall meanders all the way across the middle of the San Francisco Peninsula from what Wisp informs us is the Gulf of Fallarones in the west to San Francisco Bay in the east.
“Nearly a decade ago now—back in 2033—Krug had this ten-mile wall installed along East Market and the old Guadalupe Canal Parkway. As you’ve seen everywhere from the Valta to the Processor to Salt Lake City, Reno, and Oakland, Krug is all about walls. I know you’ve heard them mentioned many times on the viz-screens in his weekly national security reports. He calls them ‘Safety Partitions.’ Just his cute little euphemism for the walls of his city prisons. Until the rest of the troops arrive, this particular partition is under drone patrol. Getting control of the Communications Center in the Armory will allow us to access and commandeer the drones and reclaim the southern San Francisco border. There’s urgency to all of this,” Wisp says, and for the first time, she looks a little nervous. “All that’s at stake is everything. Every freedom we were promised, all the social equality our country is supposed to stand for, and all the justice on behalf of all those who’ve died or had their lives crushed in the name of greed. We’re not just fighting for freedom or even for our lives. If Krug gets his way, he’ll have control over life, itself.”
I don’t know if it’s the barely-discernible quiver in her voice or the extra breath she takes, but Brohn picks up on his little sister’s apprehension. “Wisp, why do I get the feeling there’s actually more to this than you’re saying? Control over life, itself? I mean, you and Granden filled us in yesterday about what it means for us to be Emergents or whatever. But I still don’t get it. Why us? Why now?”
Wisp and Granden exchange a knowing look before Granden clears his throat. “Brohn, we’re at a pivotal point in this rebellion. Pivotal and potentially problematic. Like you, the people of San Francisco have been fed propaganda. A lot. As you know, Krug needs to keep attention focused on the Eastern Order, so the citizens don’t see his Patriot Army taking control of their lives right under their very own noses like they’ve been doing so effectively and ruthlessly everywhere else. Well, that attention has started to stray. Thanks to you, although you didn’t know it at the time, the Eastern Order has been called into question. Not just its motivations or ruthlessness anymore but its entire existence. Rumors are going around about a group of escaped super-powered teenagers who have discovered the truth and who hold the key to the future.”
“Superpowered? And you think that’s us?”
“No. I know that’s you. Krug controls most of the country’s communication networks. Most, but not all. There are resourceful people still out there, people who are finding ways to get to the truth and pass it on as best as possible. A lot of them are getting arrested or even killed for their efforts. But they’ve poked holes in Krug’s stories. People are starting to see the strings above his little puppet show. He knows this, and he’s preparing to go all the way to ensure those strings aren’t cut.”
I raise my hand. “By ‘all the way,’ you mean…?”
“He’s going to stop being slow and subtle about it, Kress. He’s been in power for a long time, but he’s starting to realize it can’t last forever. That he can’t last forever. His goal now is immortality. He’s not just coming here in one week for a stroll around town. He’s not even coming here to finalize his control over the West Coast of the country. He’s coming here for you. And he’s bringing reinforcements.”
“Wait,” Cardyn says, making a “time-out” motion with his hands. “Coming for us?”
“Honestly,” Granden says “I don’t know if you should be flattered or terrified. But yes, you’re on Krug’s radar and in his cross-hairs. Dead center, actually. All five of you. Kella, too.”
“But we had to leave Kella behind,” I remind him. “She’s back in the mountains with Adric and Celia.”
“And that may be exactly what saves her life.”
“Celia sa
id something about them possibly heading east,” Brohn says slowly.
Granden sighs and looks at the ceiling. “I didn’t know that. That’s…unfortunate.”
Brohn leans toward Granden and gives him a harsh look. “Why is that unfortunate?”
“I don’t think Krug’s soldiers would have ever found her in the mountains. But if she heads east…if she and the others make it as far as the Capitol…well, they’ll be walking right into the lion’s den. It’s right where Krug wants her. Where he wants all of you.”
Wisp holds up both hands and orders Granden to stop. “Speculation and scaring everyone aren’t going to get us anywhere,” she nearly snarls. “Let’s stay focused.”
Granden apologizes and hangs his head.
“It’s simple,” Wisp says, hopping back down from where she’s been sitting on the edge of the table. She turns toward the rest of us and starts to walk in a slow circle around the perimeter of the room, pausing for a second to glance through the partially-shuttered window down to the street below. She stops behind Manthy and puts her hands on the back of her chair. Manthy looks up at her and then back at me though the 3-D model of the city still hovering over the table. I give her a shrug and a reassuring smile as Wisp continues. “Let me see if I can distill this mind-numbing prospect down to slightly more manageable size.”
“That would be great,” Cardyn chimes in. “You know, for all us dummies in the room.”
Wisp gives Cardyn a wink and a thumbs up. “For the dummies, then. Look. Krug is way past wanting political and military power. He has that. He’s not looking for total and absolute wealth. He has that, too. He even has nearly complete control over the nation’s communications grid. What he doesn’t have is the key to what his geneticists have convinced him is the next and most important step in the history of human evolution. And I’m talking about since we learned to walk upright and use language and tools. There’ve been other Emergents identified, but you’re the first who’ve escaped from one of Krug’s Processors. You’re also the first and only Emergents who’ve been not just identified but also confirmed to have the altered DNA sequence Krug thinks will make him immortal or omnipotent.”