by P. T. Hylton
“Like I got shot in the arm.” In truth, the bullet had only grazed him. He had full movement and the pain was minimal. He hoped that as soon as Brian stopped fussing over the injury, he’d be able to forget about it altogether.
“So what’s next?” Jessica asked. “As much as I’d enjoy living down in these tunnels for the rest of my life with you two boys, they’re going to find us eventually. There’s only so much real estate on this ship.”
CB pulled his shirt back on, wincing as the cloth grazed his wound. “Now we figure out how to take back New Haven.”
He saw weariness in his friends’ eyes. He could relate. Even though he’d only been on the run for twelve hours, it felt like he hadn’t slept in days. But he also knew they couldn’t rest. Fleming certainly wouldn’t. The man had already started the campaign to publicly discredit CB with his citywide announcement, and he wouldn’t ease off until he found them and eliminated them.
“We’re fighting a two-front battle here,” CB said. “We need to take the city back from Fleming, but we also need to figure out how to combat the lies he’s spreading. It won’t do much good to take down Fleming if the people consider us traitors. We need a way to get the word out.”
Jessica thought about that a moment. “I know where the communication lines run underneath the agricultural sector.”
CB turned toward Brian. “Think you could find a way to splice us in? Hack our way to a citywide broadcast of our own?”
Brian scratched his chin. “It’s possible. Without access to my equipment in the lab, it’ll be tough. I might be able to pull it off.”
CB put a hand on his shoulder. “You’re in the GMT now, son. We don’t try; we get it done.” He turned to Jessica. “You two head to the agriculture section and see what kind of magic you can make happen.”
“What about you?” Jessica asked.
“While you two are fighting the information war, I’ll be working on the other one. I’m going to find the weapon that just might give us a chance.”
3
Firefly raced across the snow, aware of the cold air rushing past him, but not feeling its bite.
When he’d woken in Fort Stearns to his new life as a vampire, he’d been confused, disgusted, and terrified. Now, he felt something else: wonder.
He’d been sprinting for hours, yet he felt no fatigue. Despite the effort, he wasn’t sweating. There was a heavy deadness in his chest where his heart should have been pounding, yet a cold strength emanated from every muscle. He felt invincible.
It was nearly sunrise. He knew it even though the eastern sky was still dark. There was a smell in the air that almost burned if he sniffed too deeply, and it was growing more powerful by the moment.
What a strange new life, to be able to smell the approaching sunrise.
“Here!” Mark called. “Hold up.”
Firefly felt himself stop running before his brain had even processed the command. He looked around and realized they were nearly at Agartha. He’d been so deep in the experience and the new sensations that he hadn’t noticed.
The three hundred vampires around him halted, and Mark and Aaron conferred a moment. Though they were thirty yards away and speaking at almost a whisper, Firefly had no trouble hearing every word they spoke.
“We’d better hole up for the day,” Aaron said. “How do we approach this thing tomorrow night?”
Mark sighed, his eyes fixed on the distant entrance to the city. “It’s not going to be quick or easy. We have to be patient if we want to get this done.”
“Heh,” Aaron chuckled. “We waited one hundred fifty years in the snow. Patience I can do.”
Mark nodded absently. “We’ll need to take out the automated railguns first. That’ll make them nervous. If all of them go offline at once, hopefully they’ll think it’s a system malfunction of some kind. We’ll have snipers waiting outside every entrance to the city. Jaden will send a few of his idiot disciples out to check on the guns. When that happens, our snipers take them down.”
Aaron glanced at him. “You think that’ll work? They’re not going to send all one hundred vamps out one at a time for us to headshot like it’s a video game.”
Now Mark turned toward Aaron. “You played video games back in the day?”
Aaron grinned. “Call of Duty was my game. X-Box.”
Mark grimaced. “I was more of a Destiny guy. PlayStation.”
“Heh, of course you were. My friends and I would have kicked your ass so hard in COD. Then we would have put another bullet in your head two seconds after you respawned.”
“Can we focus on the task at hand?” He paused a moment. “You and your squad of twelve-year-olds wouldn’t have lasted five minutes in a Destiny run.”
Firefly listened to the odd conversation, wondering what they were talking about. He didn’t understand the context but it seemed trivial compared with the attack they’d just been discussing.
His stomach twisted at the thought of what was to come. He and the other Resettlers were going to be forced to attack Agartha, and there was nothing he could do to stop it. He’d be made to fight, forced to kill. He’d caused so many deaths already. How many more would he add to that toll tomorrow night?
Mark continued in his near-whisper. “Eventually it’s going to come to a straight-up fight. We already have Jaden’s vamps outnumbered three to one. Our goal with the snipers is to increase those odds even more. Then, when they send out the rest of the vamps, we stomp them. How’s that sound to you, Firefly?”
He said the words in the same quiet voice, his eyes still fixed on Aaron.
Firefly was so surprised that he stood there frozen, unable to answer.
“That’s right, I know you’re listening,” Mark said, turning to look at him. “Get over here. Now.”
To Firefly’s surprise, his body didn’t immediately obey as it had to other orders. He remained standing where he was.
Mark grimaced. “I gave you an order. Get over here!”
Still Firefly remained frozen.
A slow smile crept across Aaron’s face. “Ah, I see what’s happening. Firefly, get over here!”
This time, Firefly immediately obeyed, moving to Aaron’s side as quickly as his feet could get him there.
Aaron nudged Mark. “I turned him.”
Mark scratched his chin. “Hmm. I hadn’t thought of that. We need to remedy this situation. We can’t have half following you and half following me.” He raised his voice and addressed the former Resettlers. “Listen up. When Mark gives you an order, I want you to follow if as if it came from me.”
“Let’s see if it worked,” Aaron said. “Show me one of yours.”
Mark pointed to a tall, thin man who couldn’t have been more than twenty.
“You!” Aaron shouted to the thin man. “Shoot the guy next to you.”
The young man immediately drew his pistol, turned to the wide-eyed man standing next to him, and fired.
The man who’d been shot cried out in pain and clutched his stomach where the bullet had entered.
“What’d you do that for?” Mark said, the annoyance clear in his voice. “This is our army.”
“Relax, he shot him in the stomach. He’ll be fine.”
“Okay, we’ve proved we can assign master powers to each other. Your turn. Tell your people to obey me.”
Aaron just grinned. “I don’t know. Not sure I want to share my army with a loser who games on a PlayStation.”
Mark took a step toward him. “You want this army to have only one leader, we can decide that right now. I’ll kill you so fast you won’t even realize you’re dead till you’ve been in hell for five minutes.”
Aaron held up a hand. “Relax, I’m fucking with you.” Then, in a louder voice, “Same as what he said. Any order Mark gives is the same as if it came from me.” He turned to Mark. “Happy?”
“I’ll be happy when Jaden is captured, and we have a nice supply of human necks to feed on. For now, let’s get our peo
ple into place. Then we’ll have them burrow under the snow for the night.”
Firefly stood next to them, waiting for his orders, the knowledge of what he’d be forced to do tomorrow night eating away at his heart even as the growing hunger reverberated in his bones.
Alex managed four hours of sleep in the cramped room they’d provided her before she gave up and left her room. She spotted Ed leaning against the wall, looking bored.
“You couldn’t sleep either?” she asked.
He shook his head. “Everyone says me and my brother are so similar, but Patrick could sleep in a war zone. Me, not so much. I have a hard time turning off my brain.”
“I can relate,” Alex said. “I’m headed to the transport area to see how George’s preparations are coming. Want to come?”
Ed shrugged and fell into step alongside her.
When they reached the transport area, Alex was unsurprised to find Owl harassing George as he prepared vehicles for that night’s journey to Denver. They were standing on an eighteen-wheeled vehicle with a wide, flat area on the back of it.
“The thing you’ve got to remember is you’re dealing with a piece of precision machinery,” she said insistently. “Forgive me if I’m a little concerned about a bunch of super-strong vampires manhandling it onto…whatever the hell this is.”
George continued organizing supplies, not looking at her as he answered, “It’s a flatbed truck.”
“Okay, fine.” She took a step closer to him. “The point is, if one of those undead weirdos squeezes a little too hard and bends the hull, we’re talking major performance issues. I’ve already lost one ship in these mountains. If I lose another—”
George’s eyes brightened as he spotted Alex. “Captain Goddard!”
“How’s it going, George?”
“Excellent.” He glanced at Owl. “Owl has been a great help, but we’re pretty much done here, so if you need her for anything else…”
Alex chuckled. “Are you driving him crazy, Owl?”
George blushed. “I didn’t mean—”
“Of course you did,” Alex said with a smile. “Believe me, I can relate.”
Owl’s brow creased as she frowned. “I’ll gladly bother every engineer in this mountain if it means getting my ship back safely.”
Alex crossed her arms. Something about Jaden’s plan had been bothering her since she woke. “George, I’m having second thoughts.”
George looked at her warily. “About what?”
“Waiting.”
Now both George and Owl were staring at her in surprise.
“Look, we all know Fleming’s going to try to get that ship back,” she pointed out. “With the way he’s running low on resources, there’s no way he lets a whole ship just rot down here. He’s going to send a team down to get it.”
“Does he even have a team?” Owl asked.
Alex hadn’t considered that, but the answer came to her immediately. “Of course he does. He’d been planning to strand us on the surface for a while. It wasn’t a split-second decision. So of course he’s going to have people ready to replace us.”
“A shadow GMT?” Owl said softly. “Is that even possible? How would he recruit them without word getting back to CB?”
Alex shrugged. “This is Fleming we’re talking about. Even his shady plans have shady plans.” She turned to George. “We can’t risk losing that ship. It’s our only way back home. You get that, right? We have to get the ship ourselves. Now.”
For a moment, she thought he was going to give in to her demand. Then his face hardened. “You want me to list all the reasons that’s not going to happen? Or should I just mention the only one that matters?”
“Start with the one.”
“Jaden said they’re going tonight. So that’s what’s going to happen.”
Alex’s face flushed with annoyance. “You sound like some of the people back on New Haven. Instead of using logic, you just give in to whatever the great leader says. Is that the way it is here?”
“Of course not. But we don’t disregard his orders without discussing it with him, either.”
Alex took a deep breath, calming herself. This man had risked his life to save her and her team. “Look, I appreciate everything you’ve done for us. At the same time, if we want to get our ship, I don’t see why you’d stop us.”
“Or how,” Ed interjected.
George turned toward the Barton brother, the annoyance clear on his face. “I have Jaden and his undead warriors.”
Ed grinned. “At night you do. During the day all you have is a bunch of sleepy vampires. And sleepy vampires are sort of our specialty.”
Alex shot him a look. “That’s enough, Ed.” Her voice was firm, but she hoped he spotted the smile in her eyes. She liked that he always jumped in to defend her, even when her position was wrong-headed. “George, I’m not saying we disregard Jaden’s orders. Just give us the recharged batteries and the parts we need, let us use this vehicle, and we’ll head up to Denver. Jaden and his buddies are welcome to join us when they wake up. By then, Owl should have the ship fixed and we’ll be out of your hair.”
“Actually, I don’t think it’s going to be that easy,” Owl said sheepishly.
Alex raised an eyebrow. “Explain.”
“We don’t know what exactly is wrong with the ship,” Owl said. “It’s going to take time to diagnose the problem and fix it. I don’t want to get caught out after dark again.”
“So we just give Fleming the opportunity to take the ship?”
“Why would he be in a rush?” Owl said. “Even if he is, they won’t be expecting the batteries to be missing. I think the chances of his team successfully flying it home today are slim.”
Alex had to admit Owl had a point. Risking her team again by driving all that way was reckless. If they so much as popped a tire, they’d be in the same situation they’d been in the previous night. Besides, the team did still need rest.
Her instincts made her want to be proactive, to always be in motion. At least this time, she’d have to find a way to silence that voice.
Maybe it was time to truly start trusting Jaden.
“Okay, we’ll follow Jaden’s plan,” Alex said. “In the meantime, is there a gym in this mountain? I feel the sudden need to punch something.”
4
“You told them, right?” Fleming asked Kurtz.
The colonel nodded. “They were ordered let us know as soon as they made contact.”
Sarah sank further into her seat, hoping Fleming would forget she was there. They’d been trying to contact Fort Stearns for over an hour. New Haven was circling the area above the settlement, and they were well within the radio's range. With each passing moment, the horrible feeling in Sarah’s stomach grew stronger.
No one was answering. No one.
That meant either Fleming’s theory that there was something wrong with the communication system was correct or…
No. She wouldn’t think about the alternative. Not until she absolutely had to.
Fleming sat down on his seat for what had to be the fifteenth time in the last hour. He’d sit for a few minutes, grow antsy, start pacing, and then stand back up. “I have a dark theory we need to discuss.”
Sarah looked up sharply, surprised. She never imagined he’d admit defeat so quickly.
“I hate to say it,” he continued, “but we have to consider the possibility that CB is behind this problem.”
Sarah was so surprised that she couldn’t keep herself from responding. “I’m sorry. Did you say CB?”
He laughed, running a hand through his unkempt hair. “Well. it makes sense, doesn’t it? He’s on the run, and he’s got two geniuses with him. They figured out some way to disrupt the radio signal.”
Kurtz and Sarah exchanged a nervous glance. He looked as skeptical about that possibility as she felt.
“I suppose it’s possible,” Kurtz said after a moment.
Fleming stared at him, not blinking. “
Possible? It’s a lot more than possible. See, this is why CB got the jump on you before you could shoot him. You underestimate his cunning.”
Kurtz cleared his throat. “It’s not that, sir. It’s just I don’t see what motivation CB would have to disrupt our communication.”
Fleming’s eyes widened. “His motivation? What has been his motivation all along? To make sure Resettlement fails. He doesn’t care how many people die in the process.”
Sarah wasn’t sure that was true. As much as she considered him a fool, she had to admit he was an ideological fool. He wouldn’t want people hurt unnecessarily.
The radio on Fleming’s desk chirped and the tension that had been hanging in the air suddenly disappeared. A relieved smile crossed Fleming’s lips. “Finally.”
He punched a button on the radio. “Captain Eldred! Is that you?”
There was a long pause, and then a female voice answered, “Uh, no, sir. You asked me to let you know when the GMT was ready for departure.”
Fleming’s smile fell. “All right. Send them out. It’s time for the faceless GMT’s first mission.”
Sarah looked up sharply. “You’re sending them to Fort Stearns, sir? If something happened to the Resettlers… I’m not saying it did, but if it did, do we really want to send our new GMT to the same place?”
“Relax, Sarah. It’s the middle of the day. They’ll be fine.”
Jessica and Brian sat amidst a vast network of pipes. They were in the underbelly of New Haven, directly beneath the agricultural sector. Brian tapped furiously at his touchpad as Jessica watched in silence.
It hadn’t taken long for her to splice into the fiber-optic network. The tricky part was hacking into the communications system. Brian had been working on that for twenty minutes, occasionally muttering about how this really wasn’t his area of expertise as he dug deeper and deeper into the code.
For someone who wasn’t an expert in this area, he certainly was making a lot of progress.
“So how’d you learn to do this?” Jessica asked softly as he worked.