Collapse Series (Book 10): State of Hope

by Summer Lane

  Boom, boom, boom!

  I hear footsteps, and I know it will be mere moments before Omega guards flood this building once they find out the attacks outside were nothing more than a distraction.

  “We’ll take her with us,” I say.

  “You’re going to wish you were never born,” Veronica hisses. “You’re going to be begging for death by the time I’m done with you, and you and Commander Young can both rot in hell together, darling lovers and losers of this Great War.”

  A stab of rage courses through me. I cross the room and slap her face.

  “Don’t you dare talk about Commander Young,” I warn. “I will kill you.”

  Veronica says nothing, but she seems oddly satisfied with my response.

  “Andrew,” I say. “Take Abbi and Mary to the Phoenix pad outside and get them out first. We’ll get the Angels out and join you at the RV point.”

  “Commander, we can’t separate, we could-”

  “Andrew! If we can’t get the Angels, at least we will have got the women out of here alive.” I place my hand on his shoulder. “Please.”

  There are so many men, so many guns…having Veronica as our hostage may not help us, after all. Protecting the first family is a priority.

  Andrew frowns.

  “Dammit,” he says. “Fine. I’ll need Vera.”

  “Take her.”

  “But Commander – what about you?”

  “I have Uriah. That’s enough.” I grab Veronica’s arm and hoist her to her feet. “Take her. If Uriah and I can get the Angels out, we’ll have enough manpower to get out of here without a problem.”

  Vera zip-ties Veronica’s wrists together and shoves her forward.

  “You’d better be at the RV point,” Vera states. “Or I will come drag you back myself.”

  “I’m counting on it.”

  She sniffs, and then she and Andrew disappear with the first family and Veronica Klaus, following my orders. I turn to Uriah.

  He grins.

  “Let’s do this,” he says.

  I lock another mag into my rifle and we clear the hallways, getting out of the building while we can. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Andrew and the others racing toward the small tarmac where the Phoenix strike aircraft are sitting. One of them is already fired up, no doubt intending to patrol the foothills for signs of attacking militia.

  “Perfect,” I whisper.

  I know Andrew and Vera will take it. There is no doubt in my mind.

  Uriah and I move stealthily to the back of the compound. Sure enough, there is a POW holding center – I know what it is because I’ve seen them before. It’s an average building. The small slit windows are covered with bars, and the entrance is guarded by two men out front.

  Uriah and I take them out from a distance. We race to the entrance – a metal double door. We push inside. There are two more guards standing in front of another door, and I shoot them both. They fall like flies, and it awes me how fluid and effective Uriah and I are when we work together. We kick through the second door, finding ourselves in an empty cell block. There are no prisoners here – nothing but rows of concrete floors, concrete walls, and steel bars.

  “They’ve gotta be here!” I shout.

  We run down another corridor, passing more empty cells. If this place is empty, then why is Omega bothering to guard—

  Bark!

  I hear a dog, and there can be no mistaking whom the voice belongs to.

  “Bravo!” I shout.

  Uriah looks at me like I’m crazy, but I don’t care. I follow the sound of the frenzied barks until we come to a steel door with a small glass window. It’s sealed shut, and I pound on the glass.

  The Angels.

  Sure enough, there is a row of cells on the other side of the door, and I can clearly see Elle and Bravo, along with Manny and Em. They are on their feet, yelling. I can’t quite make out their words, but I can definitely hear the dog.

  “We’re coming!” I yell.

  There is a keypad on the right of the door, and Uriah says, “Stay here. I’m going to get a key.”

  I don’t question him. He disappears for a moment and then comes back with a key card in his hand, no doubt gleaned from one of the guards we killed. He slides it across the pad and the door clicks open.

  We hurry inside.

  “CASSIDY!” Elle screams. “THANK GOD!”

  “Everybody get ready to run!” Uriah warns.

  He slides the keycard across the panels beside each cell and the doors pop open. Manny stumbles into the hall. His wrinkled face is crusted with dried blood. I throw my arms around his neck, relieved to see him alive.

  “Thank God you’re okay!” I breathe.

  “Thank God you’re not Arlene,” Manny replies. “She’d never let me hear the end of it if she saw me like this.”

  But his smile is warm, and he squeezes me tight.

  “Where’s Cheng?” I ask, suddenly aware of his absence.

  Elle bounds out of her cell, Bravo next to her.

  “They took him into the back room for interrogation,” she says, eyes wide. “His mother wanted to talk to him.”

  “Show us.”

  Elle nods, and she gestures to another door on the end of the cell block. Uriah opens it, and we step into a short hallway with only one small door. Behind it, there is an interrogation chamber. I look through the glass, seeing a metal table, a large basin of water, and what looks like an electrode harness.

  Torture.

  “Cheng!” Elle screams.

  He’s inside. I see him as if through a cloud – a sliver of a figure, still and pale, lying half naked on the floor, blood everywhere.

  “Get the door open!” Elle yells.

  Uriah and I breach the door, kicking it open. Manny moves in beside us, and Elle pushes her way inside. She lifts her hands to her mouth, horrified. Cheng is lying face down on the ground, his back a bloody, pulpy mess of torn flesh. Elle scrambles to his side and touches his cheek. He groans, and she looks up at us.

  “We have to take him with us,” she says.

  I stare at Cheng, knowing that there is no possible way we could even try to move him without causing enough pain to kill him.

  “Elle,” I begin. “He’s not-”

  But Cheng cuts me off.

  “Go,” he murmurs, coughing up blood. Elle helps him roll onto his side, and he groans again. “I’m…dying…”

  His young, roguish, handsome face is pale white, his eyes bloodshot. He struggles to breathe, blood dribbling from the sides of his mouth.

  “Cheng…” Elle whispers. She is crying.

  “Be…careful…” Cheng heaves, looking at me. “Athena Strike…is not the real attack…look to the leadership….be on your…guard…Veronica is planning…they’ve always been planning…”

  Elle takes Cheng’s hand.

  “Hang in there,” she says. “We’re going to get you out of here.”

  Elle presses the palm of his hand against her cheek, and he smiles softly.

  “I love you, Elle,” he whispers.

  He coughs once more and his eyes glaze over. He’s dead.

  “CHENG!” Elle cries. “NO! DON’T DO THIS!”

  Bravo howls mournfully, mirroring Elle’s pain.

  Sorrow grips me, but I say, “Elle, we have to go – now!”

  She wipes her nose on the sleeve of her shirt, slowly rising to her feet.

  “I’m going to kill Veronica,” she whispers.

  Manny takes her hand, and then we are out of there, leaving Cheng’s lifeless body behind. The shock of his death courses through me as we run, giving me the energy to move faster, to get out, lest we all meet the same fate.

  As we move outside, we are spotted by several soldiers. A wave of guards is moving toward the POW building; it looks like they’ve finally figured out that everything we’ve done here has been little more than an elaborate distraction.

  “Uriah!” I say. “Cover me!”

 
He kneels to do so as I sprint across the open strip of road between me and the buildings bordering the southern edge of the fortress. We move in a line, tearing through the compound. Stealth is no longer important – everybody knows we’re here, and our only task now is to get out without being shot.

  We reach the same spot in the fence where we climbed in, and Uriah yells, “Just let me blow it! We’ll never climb it fast enough!”

  I hang back with the others as Uriah tosses a grenade at the base of the fence. It explodes, tearing the chain link enough for us to worm our bodies through the hole. I go first, followed by Em, then Elle, Bravo, Manny, and Uriah. We blindly run through the grass, away from the compound, gunfire slicing through the air around us, drones spotlighting us in the grass, sirens screaming and Omega trucks firing up.

  We run until our muscles are numbed and burning. I stumble at one point, rolling over myself, skinning my face up. Uriah hauls me to my feet, half-dragging me forward through the night.

  I hear the screech of Omega vehicles on the road, and no matter how many drones we shoot down, there always seems to be more. Desperation seizes me, and I know that we are not moving fast enough to outrun the patrols Compound C is sending out.

  “HERE!” Uriah says, breathless.

  The truck. We’ve reached the truck! I can’t believe it. Manny, Em, Elle, and Bravo pile into the pickup bed. Uriah slides into the driver’s seat and I am barely inside before he fires up the engine and floors it.

  We screech down the road, and I toss Manny and Em rifles through the window in the backseat. “Shoot anything that comes near us!” I instruct.

  They understand.

  We bump and scream around corners. The chassis of the truck creaks and groans, climbing over dirt, through fields and straight into the center of creek beds. We drive and drive until the sound of helicopters is nothing but background noise, and the drones search in a new direction, away from us.

  By the time we roll up to the farmhouse, I am trembling with exhaustion and aftershock. In the pickup bed, Elle’s face is streaked with tears. She buries her face in her knees and refuses to look at anyone. Bravo lays his head on her feet, silent and supportive.

  The far-off beat of Omega helicopters and drones makes me uneasy, but we pile out of the truck, anyway – everyone except for Elle.

  “Leave her alone,” I tell Em, who gently tries to encourage Elle to come inside. “She needs to be by herself.”

  I know from experience that sometimes the only way you can process overwhelming loss is to be alone with your sorrow.

  Elle won’t look at any of us, so we trek inside, and I look around the dark kitchen.

  Andrew and Vera are waiting, a single candle illuminating the living room. Abbi and Mary Banner are with them, huddled together on a couch, wrapped in a warm blanket.

  “Where’s the Phoenix?” I ask.

  “I landed it a few miles out,” Andrew says.

  And then, more importantly, Uriah demands, “Where is Veronica Klaus?”

  Andrew swallows.

  “She got away,” he tells us.

  Chapter Fifteen

  “How did she get away?!” I shout, angry.

  “Cassidy, we barely made it off the tarmac alive,” Andrew replies, holding his palms up. “She jumped out of the damn chopper as we were taking off. I’d be surprised if she survived.”

  “She jumped out?” Uriah repeats.

  “At least twenty feet,” Vera replies, and then she turns her cheek, revealing three red slashes in her face. “That bitch knows how to fight. I underestimated her. She just slipped away from me for a second, and she jumped. We couldn’t go back. I’m sorry.”

  I exhale.

  “Dammit,” I say.

  I throw my jacket against the floor, infuriated that Veronica got away.

  “Commander Hart,” Abbi Banner says, “please, let me thank you for what you’ve done. My daughter and I can never repay you.”

  I lift my chin, pulsing with disappointment and frustration.

  Yet I remind myself that we completed the mission: we rescued the first family. That’s why we came, right? Veronica Klaus was a bonus that would have been nice…and let’s face it, eliminating her would have been convenient for everybody on the West Coast.

  “Maybe you can explain some things,” I say, wearily taking a seat on the couch.

  The violent rumbling of a Phoenix patrol helicopter rattles the foundation of the house, and we all freeze. I pray under my breath that we’re safe here…and we seem to be. The chopper eventually passes, and we are left in silence again.

  This is going to be a long night.

  Manny sits beside me, his arm around my shoulders, and Em sinks to the floor, exhausted. “Pleased to make your acquaintance, First Lady,” Manny winks. “I’m Lieutenant Manny Costas, and my wife is a big fan of your hair. She’ll be tickled to meet you.”

  Abbi smiles.

  “Thank you, Lieutenant,” she replies.

  “This is Lieutenant Uriah True,” I say. “And Commander Em Davis from Yukon City, Lieutenants Vera Wright, and Andrew Decker…my K-9 unit is outside, Sergeant Elle Costas and Bravo.”

  “It’s a pleasure,” Abbi answers.

  “I have some questions for you,” I say. “First off, let’s start with this: how come you and your daughter were being kept with Veronica Klaus? I was expecting you to be locked away in a cell somewhere, not dressed in silk with your hair done. No offense, but you can see my point.”

  “Of course,” Abbi replies, nodding. “For a very long time, we were kept in a cellblock. We lost track of time. It could have been years. But roughly three months ago, Chancellor Klaus moved us onto the Athena flagship to be with her. I believe she saw us as some sort of pet project. She began to bring us everywhere. Several days ago, she moved us to this facility.”

  “Do you know why she moved you?” I ask.

  “No,” Abbi answers, shrugging. “She just kept saying she wanted us to witness what was about to happen. She was insistent that history was about to be made.”

  I don’t like the sound of that.

  Abbi wraps the blanket around Mary’s shoulders. The child’s eyes are wide, and her lips are pressed into a thin line. She buries her face in her mother’s chest, refusing to face the rest of the room.

  “How did this happen?” I ask. “I want to know everything.”

  “Of course. But please, tell me: is my husband…” her voice breaks, and then she straightens up. “Is Saul Banner still alive?”

  “Yes,” I assure her. “He’s alive, and he’s in Camp Cambria.”

  At this, Abbi claps a hand on her mouth and begins to cry, turning away.

  “I see,” she says quietly, teary-eyed. “I knew it.”

  “Everybody, get cleaned up,” I instruct. “Eat, rest. Then we’ll talk. Tomorrow, we go back to Cambria.”

  “Mission accomplished,” Vera says, and she is smiling slightly. “Didn’t think we’d make it out of that one alive.”

  I frown, and then I say, “Vera, Cheng didn’t make it.”

  She stares at me.

  “No,” she responds. “You’re joking, right?”

  I say nothing.

  She hangs her head in her hands.

  “God, why?” She stands up. “He was a good kid.”

  “I know.”

  “Elle is going to be-”

  “She is. She’s outside.”

  “Is she going to be okay?”

  “Are any of us?” I shake my head. “Manny will look after Elle. Let’s just get some clean clothes on and get ready to move. I’m not sure we’re out of the woods yet.”

  Vera agrees, and she and Andrew head upstairs to clean up and dress the gashes on her face. I turn to face the First Lady of the United States and her daughter, realizing that, unlike President Banner, she looks exactly as she did through the eyes of a television screen. Elegant, poised, beautiful, calm. I can easily see why a man like Saul Banner would be attracted to h
er. She is the perfect comrade in grace, she looks good on TV, and despite everything she has been through, she seems serene and controlled.

  “I’ve heard a lot about you, Commander Hart,” Abbi remarks.

  “Good things, I hope,” I reply.

  “The Freedom Fighters are very infamous among Omega leaders,” she says. “Your name – among others – seemed to pop up frequently during our time as hostages to the chancellor.”

  “Why didn’t just she kill you?”

  “Too valuable, I suppose. Political chess pieces.”

  “Then she should have held the president hostage.”

  “She got the next best thing: the two people she knew he would do anything to get to, even at the cost of submerging the country in destruction.” She stands up, shaking her head. “Don’t look so surprised, Commander. You’ve met my husband. I can see it in your face. You know that he is brash and bold. That’s part of why I love him, but his devotion to myself and Mary…it’s powerful. Veronica knew this, and she intended to use it at some point if she needed to.”

  “Well,” I reply. “You’re safe now.”

  “We have you to thank for that. We’re eternally grateful.”

  “Don’t be. Just live and be happy. That’s it.”

  Abbi tilts her head, giving me a strange look.

  “Very well,” she answers.

  I head upstairs to the bathroom for a few moments of privacy, mulling the events of the night over and over again in my head. I see the smoke, hear the sirens, see the flash of Veronica’s leering smile, smell the blood and agony rolling off Cheng in the interrogation chamber…

  I hang my head over the sink and fight tears.

  Another death, another loss.

  Another day in paradise.

  ***

  We survive the night. The patrols don’t find us. Even the drones come up short, thanks to the total overgrowth hiding the farmhouse, hiding our thermal signatures and our vehicle.

  In the morning, I watch Abbi and Mary rise and follow us into the kitchen. We eat a morning meal in silence. Elle only drinks water, then returns to her lookout post with Bravo on the edge of the property. Cheng’s absence weighs heavy on all of us.

  “Is she going to be okay?” I ask Manny.

  “In time, yes,” Manny replies, grave. “She loved that boy. They had a bond that only hard times and shared experiences can forge. When you’ve got something like that, you don’t recover…you just move on.”