Sniper Squad

by Meg Buchanan

  She nodded again.

  “Come,” he said, still gently and stood up. “We have to go out there and be a doctor with an Intern and somehow get down to the basement.” Nick pushed his arms into the professor’s coat and shrugged it over his shoulders. “We need to do this, so we’ll all be free.”

  Ela nodded again, stood up, then stood taller. Nick was right, she didn’t have time to process what he’d done.

  She took a deep breath. “Okay, let’s do this.” And followed him out of the office, her heart pounding in her ears. They had to get going and get down to the basement, wire up the shield and then get away.

  

  Just on one o’clock, Leach came into the waitroom. “Time to go,” he said. “The Viper’s on standby, the pilot’s doing the flight checks, you all need to be on the pad, ready to go. We’re the arrowhead. We get there and set up before the VTroopers arrive. We’ll have surprise on our side this time.”

  Ten minutes later they were in position outside the Humicrib building. It towered above them, then across the square Jack watched another smaller building implode in slow motion, like a special effect, deflating and leaving a puff of dust in its place, exactly like Leach said it would. Good Intel.

  But that wasn’t their target. Leach had said Vector would send a load of VTroopers over there to make it look good, but the squad and the rest of the Troopers would concentrate on Humicrib.

  Their unit were here ready this time, hidden in the next building. No light in the carpark, someone had cut the power.

  The StealthHovers waited overhead, still hazed.

  “Positions,” said the Captain.

  Sharpe, Hood, Levi and Dante moved like shadows in the gloom and took off east and west.

  Jack heard the whomp, whomp of the Hovers with the VTroopers as they landed. They unhazed in the huge empty square, lit up now, but the light still didn’t reach into the parking building.

  The Hover wings lifted to open the doors.

  VTroopers poured out. Like a stream of tar, they set up the perimeter.

  Leach signalled Jack to move.

  Jack gave the order. He took the squad past the perimeter edge to start the search. They formed up and stretched out across the entrance of the building, nearly invisible in the dark against the VTroopers line, moved, sliding through the dark from pillar to pillar, out wide, across the inside of the building, maybe thirty metres between them.

  Jack to the far left, Jeron to his right, the rest beyond them. They should be able to cover the whole building in one sweep.

  Keeping his laser upright but ready, he scanned the area. The line was holding, no deviation, no one should slip through.

  Not much cover anyway, tiles, heavy pillars lined up like statues, everything vaguely green through the visor. If anyone was in the building, they shouldn’t see the unit coming in the dark.

  He was about fifty meters in when he saw a small movement, just a flicker from behind the pillar to his left.

  He wasn’t sure if it was anything. He didn’t slow down, just became more aware. He held the laser at the ready and moved around the pillar in front of him. Saw Jeron look a question at him. Jack shook his head at him. No need to come over yet. He snaked his hand so Jeron would know something might be behind the next pillar.

  He slid closer, weapon at the ready.

  And saw Nick crouched behind the pillar, and to the left of him Ela.

  Fuck.

  He stood there staring at them, shocked, not moving.

  They wouldn’t have seen him yet because they were both watching the perimeter. They can’t have seen the squad moving closer either.

  He watched Ela move to stand.

  Saw Nick mouth, “No, wait.” Nick snaked his hand behind him at the shadowy pillars further underground.

  Maybe Nick thought the VTroopers wouldn’t come this far back. Maybe he thought they’d just keep watching the bombed building and then he and Ela would be safe to run.

  Jack watched Ela nod, then wait and study the boots, the long coats, the black helmets with the visors of the VTroopers as Vector established the boundary. She’d know that they always just stood there and guarded until they were given the order to move.

  And Nick would think that too. He’d think that it would give them a window and by the time the VTroopers started searching they could Haze long enough to give them time to get well away.

  He watched Ela waiting for the signal. Seconds had passed. Any moment now Jeron would begin to wonder why he’d paused.

  They were just twenty metres from him. Fifty from Jeron. If they moved now Jeron would see them and maybe Levi would too. He had to do something right now to save them.

  Jack watched Nick watch the VTroopers, hand ready to give the sign Ela was waiting for.

  Then he stepped out into Nick’s line of sight, hoping with the faint glow of City light behind him, Nick would be able to see him. There was no way Nick would recognise him. Even if it was light enough to see his face, his eyes were covered by the visor only chin and mouth visible, he’d just be a silhouette to him.

  Looking shocked Nick started to stand, his hand went to the holster at his hip, getting ready to fight to the death. Or commit suicide like the two the other day.

  Then he saw Ela see him too. Then she looked across the parking lot, she must just be able to see Jeron and Levi as shadows now. She started to stand like she was going to fight.

  They must know they didn’t have a chance. They must know they couldn’t let themselves be captured alive.

  Jack lifted his hand slightly, patted at the air, a barely perceptible movement, but he hoped they could see it and that the meaning was clear, get down, stay quiet, stay still. It was the signal he and Nick had always used when they were hunting together.

  Nick stared at him, open-mouthed, even more shocked now. He stilled, for a moment then nodded.

  Thank God. Jack watched Ela look over at Nick ready to go. Nick crouched again, one knee on the ground the other bent, a soldier, only the rifle missing.

  Nick looked back at Ela, the scar on his cheek white, and gave a slight don’t move shake of his head, and made the patting stay down, keep still gesture with his palm too.

  She nodded.

  Jack walked past them and shouted an all clear to the squad.

  

  When Ela watched the lead VTrooper walk away and heard him yell the all clear she knew it had to be Jack. He’d taught her that stay still, stay low sign when they were just kids, and he’d know she and Nick would understand it.

  But what was Jack doing in Vector? Jacob had told her he’d gone to Australia to join his dad. That he was working with the Resistance there. She hadn’t managed to Connect with him because someone had erected a barrier of shields around Jack’s Com. He had to be doing something that needed to be kept secret. But she thought he was doing it in Australia. Instead he was here. He was a VTrooper and he’d just saved their lives.

  She looked over at Nick. He seemed as stunned as she was.

  She mouthed, “Jack?” at him, and he nodded imperceptibly then went back to watching the retreating soldiers. Moments ago, they were preparing to die, and now they had a chance to escape.

  Nick held his Com up at her, then snaked his other hand away from the direction Jack had taken.

  She nodded. Nick Hazed, just a shimmer and an outline where he’d been. She activated her HazeApp.

  They moved carefully to the outside edge of the carpark then followed the wall to the exit ramp. She couldn’t see Nick but could sense where he was from the disturbance in the air and kept close to him.

  A VTrooper stood solid and silent in the middle of the ramp. If they could get past him without him sensing their presence, they had a chance of getting away.

  She let Nick go first, saw the shimmer as he passed the guard and no reaction from the soldier.

  Her turn now. She crouched a little trying to make herself smaller. Crouching made no difference to whether she
’d be discovered or not, but it made her feel better.

  She got past the guard and realised she couldn’t sense where Nick was anymore. But they’d decided if they got separated, they’d head for the Station. She’d do that.

  She walked steadily along the street now, still Hazed. She had maybe two or three minutes left before she’d appear again. She needed to get to a corner before that happened.

  She slipped off her backpack and felt for her cloak. She pulled it out and slipped it on, paused at the next corner, deactivated the Haze and walked on. To anyone watching, the perfect Elite female out for a stroll, or shopping or going to meet up with friends. She messaged Nick to tell him she was headed for the Galway Street entrance to the Station.

  His reply came straight back. “See you there.”

  Chapter 13

  JACK TRIED TO PRETEND everything was normal and got back in the Viper.

  “Did you see anything?” Dante asked him.

  Jack shook his head. “Just cars and pillars,” he lied. He couldn’t believe it. Nick was alive. Jacob had not only lied to him to get him to join Vector, but he’d kept lying for a year.

  That meant Fitzgerald had lied about Nick too. And even when he called Fitzgerald out on it, he hadn’t said anything.

  And Ela was with Nick in that parking lot, not nice and safe at home with her mother, or at Medical School where she should be. Nick and Ela must be part of the City Cell. How could Jacob have authorised them to be there? How could he let his own granddaughter get involved in something this dangerous? She was meant to be the answer to all the world’s problems.

  He’d bet Jacob didn’t authorise any of it. He’d bet it was Ela’s idea. She always did have a problem with doing as she was told.

  And she nearly got caught. Ela and Nick knew they were about to die, they’d been starting to stand ready to die, not fight. They had no chance of getting away and no chance of Hazing fast enough once they’d been seen. That was why Nick had gone for the pistol.

  Horrific. He was sick to his stomach at the thought of Ela’s head disintegrating in a red mist. Unbelievable.

  

  Ela made it to the Station. “Is Nick here yet?” she asked Curly. It was harder for Nick to move around the City unnoticed than it was for her.

  He shook his head. “What happened?”

  “I don’t know. Vector was waiting for us. We got the shield planted but didn’t have enough time to get away.”

  “But you made it.”

  Ela nodded and pushed her hood back.

  Then Curly’s Com lit up again. “It’s him,” he said and released the door again. Nick came through it looking worried.

  “It was Jack, wasn’t it?” Ela said.

  Nick sat down on a stack of pallets and scrubbed at his hair with his hand. “It had to be.” The scar on his cheek stood out starkly against his skin. “Why would he be in Vector?”

  Ela shook her head. “Jacob said he was with his dad in Australia.”

  Nick nodded. “Yeah, he told me that too. But he’s a VTrooper. The Jack I knew would never join up.”

  “He has.” Ela sat beside him. “But VTroopers don’t do what he was doing. They don’t move quietly searching. They just march straight at things in mass like a big wall.”

  “Yeah,” said Nick.

  Ela nodded then looked at her Com. Now she knew Jack was in the City how could she contact him? She’d tried his Connect heaps of times, but shields had always come up and stopped her. She tried again. Another cluster of shields. “How did Vector know we were going to be there?” she asked Nick.

  He shrugged. “They were there well before we were ready to come out. This time they must have arrived before we did. Something tipped them off.” He watched what she was doing. “Are you trying to make a Connect with Jack?”

  “Yeah,” Ela sighed. “But there are still shields around his Com. What about you?”

  Nick shook his head. “Never been able to get through them. Figured Jacob erected them so messages to him couldn’t be intercepted. I figured Jack had to be doing something for Jacob in Australia like we are here.”

  Ela nodded. “What if we use Status? Jacob never bothers with Status. Only kids use that.”

  Nick nodded. “Could work. Give it a shot.”

  She slid to Status. Usually, she just put up posts about school and shopping, so it looked like she had a social life, this time she needed something different.

  “What should I say?”

  “Post the Rave tomorrow night. If Jack sees the post, he’ll find some way to turn up.”

  “Do you think so?” But he would always have known she’d be in the City. If he’d been here all the time, why hadn’t he contacted her?

  Curly waited for her to put the post on Status. When she’d finished, he said. “Now you need to go home. I’ve changed all surveillance records to show you went home sick and were nowhere near Humicrib today.

  “But Annabelle spoke to me,” she said.

  Curly thought about that for a moment then shook his head. “That won’t matter. If she mentions it, they’ll just think she’s mistaken.”

  “You’re not going to kill her too, are you?” she asked Nick. When Jack saw them, Nick already had the pistol out. And she didn’t think he was planning on using it on the Troopers. Nick was ruthless.

  She still couldn’t believe he’d just slit the professor’s throat. And he’d been ready to kill two guards who challenged them on their way down to the basement.

  Luckily the maintenance uniforms and the pass-cards they’d stolen meant they were let through. After they’d wired in the shields, they’d changed back into their own clothes, so they’d look right once they were outside.

  Nick shook his head. “Curly’s right, she’s no risk.”

  “And is Darien alive?”

  This time Nick nodded. “He’s probably at home now, licking his wounds.”

  She watched him to see if she believed him. She wasn’t sure. It was Darien’s clothes Nick had arrived in.

  Somehow everything had changed in the last few hours, and it all seemed more dangerous and serious now.

  

  Jack went back to the Barracks with the others and tried to figure out what to do. He got to his room in a daze and sat on his bed too shocked to even pretend. Jeron puttered around talking about the mission the way he usually did, and Jack just hoped he was making the right responses.

  What if anyone else had seen them? What if Nick and Ela had got caught alive? Nick didn’t have time to use the pistol he was carrying like the other guys had. Especially now they were expecting it.

  He sat, elbows on knees, Com in his hands and stared at the blank screen wanting to scream or hit something. Hit Jacob, hit Fitzgerald. Throw the bloody thing at the wall.

  Jeron took off to the showers and Jack lay back on his bed still stunned. If he’d been doing his job, he should have shot them. Whichever boss he was obeying.

  Acceptable collateral damage, merciful even, said Jacob whenever he questioned that order.

  Yeah right.

  And if he’d been obeying Leach, he should have maimed them. A shudder ran through him. Horrific.

  And if anyone else had been leading that squad tonight, tomorrow morning he’d have been watching another InterrogationVid. And this time the Vid would have starred Ela and Nick.

  Eventually they would have talked. They would have died in agony, and then everyone else would have too. All for this single bit of protest whatever it was.

  Jeron came back and leaned on the doorframe. “Coming to the Mess?”

  “No, I’ll give it a miss,” Jack said. He was still too twisted up about seeing Ela and Nick to do anything except try to figure out what to do next.

  Jeron took off to get food.

  Ela and Nick blowing up Humicrib?

  Who authorised that?

  He guessed Nick and Ela were both capable of doing stuff without authorisation. He knew that.


  Hell, when he was with Ela and Nick everything the three of them did was without authorisation, and it all turned to shit. When he killed Vincent, Jacob and Fitzgerald had to mobilise the whole Cell for three days to cover it up.

  And Nick?

  Alive?

  That was an even bigger shock.

  He saw the Vid. Nick got caught and Interrogated. He saw him die. Jacob told him it was his fault.

  Jack stood and moved slowly to his locker. He needed to start acting normal before anyone suspected anything. He needed to have a shower, get changed and join Jeron and the others in the Mess.

  And he needed to find out what Nick and Ela were up to and find a way to warn them off doing anything else.

  After the shower, back in his room he tried Nick’s Connect and hit a roadblock. Bloody Jacob must have erected that. At least that proved Nick really was still alive and had a Com. He hadn’t dreamed it. Why hadn’t Nick tried to Connect with him?

  Jacob and his shields again.

  And Curly?

  Was he alive too?

  Another attempt at a Connect.

  Another roadblock.

  He sat on his bed again and hot, red anger at Jacob clawed at him. His mum was right, Jacob was ruthless. He’d sent him to Vector and lied to get him here and then isolated him. And not just from Ela.

  Jack stared at the ComScreen, the Txts he sent Ela nudged at the shields. He needed to talk to her. He needed to convince her to stop the dangerous subversive resistance stuff. She was too important to risk getting herself captured or killed.

  Besides, he loved her, and if he’d done his job this afternoon, he should have killed her and Nick.

  He knew where her mother lived. He could just turn up there. She had to still be living at home. But he’d bet Ela’s mum didn’t know she was involved in bombing buildings so talking to Ela there could be difficult.