Sniper Squad

by Meg Buchanan

  Jeron swung his leg over his bike and the laser over his shoulder. “No, it’s a good idea. You two know the place. We should be able to move around it without being seen. That’s what we’ve been trained to do.”

  Jack nodded, yeah, that’s what they’d been trained to do, with DroneCams and satellites it wasn’t going to be easy, but Jeron was right, they needed to know what they were dealing with and take the information back to Nick.

  Maybe something had survived in town, and they’d be able to contact Nick. It would only take them a few kilometres out of their way. He didn’t like operating in a vacuum.

  Jack gave his nose a rub. If the town hadn’t been destroyed that was where everything they needed would be. Maybe his mum’s ESD, or his LandRover, or something. A Hover would be great, but they didn’t tend to have those in town.

  Riding twenty-year-old farm bikes, dressed as VTroopers they stood out. Maybe they should have found some spare clothes left in the Vault and changes. The uniforms cloaked their heat signatures but in the Vector uniforms it was easy to feel they had targets on their backs.

  If any bloody Locals were around and spotted them, they’d try and pick them off, four VTroopers on their own, even armed, would just look like a target. And running into Vector wouldn’t be any better.

  “We need other transport. When we get close to town, we might have to ditch the bikes and walk.” But they’d still stand out if anyone was watching. If anyone was left alive.

  He pushed that thought away. This was retaliation by Vector. They would have left the infrastructure intact.

  He hoped he was right, and the town was still there.

  Then he realised he still had the HazeApp on his Com, and Ela might still have it on hers too. That could be the answer.

  “Have you still got that App on your phone?” he asked her.

  “Yeah.” Ela nodded at Jeron and Levi. “Do they have it?”

  “No. Do you want it?” Jack asked them.

  Levi looked around the charred, barren landscape. “If you’re talking about that App you used to disappear the other night, yeah, definitely. I wouldn’t mind being invisible right now.”

  “Give me your Coms.”

  Levi handed his over, and Jack transferred the App onto it. “As tempting as it is, we don’t disappear unless we need to.”

  “Disappear?” asked Jeron. He had his Com in his hand.

  “A personal cloaking device,” said Ela. “It comes in handy sometimes.”

  “I can imagine.” Jeron handed his Com over to Jack.

  Now they all had it and could disappear if things got too risky.

  “Now we’ll check out what we’re dealing with.” Jack started his bike and felt Ela’s arms tighten around his waist. For a moment, when he was holding her after they’d found Jacob, he’d remembered how much he loved her. This was getting easier.

  About a kilometre away from the town, they pulled up and stopped. A stand of trees now just shadows and charcoal skeletons gave them some cover as they tried to see what they’d be dealing with.

  “No StealthHovers unless they’re Hazed, or DroneCams,” said Levi.

  Jeron nodded. “Last time we arrived here the place was crawling with them.”

  “We’ll leave the bikes and walk. If there’s any trouble Haze and we’ll meet back here.”

  They walked down the middle of the main street, leaving pale footprints in the soot. Nothing had escaped here either. Just smoking rubble like Jacob’s place with the odd wall, or line of bricks, or tangle of corrugated iron still standing.

  They didn’t find any bodies. But Vector had rounded up everyone before this happened. He saw it happening. Maybe they’d taken everyone somewhere safe. He’d hold onto that.

  They walked past the old Post Office, the shops, the old cinema. Rubbish lay strewn on the footpath covered in soot. Some of it charred. The lamp posts that had once cast narrow pools of light in the street leaned at crazy angles. They walked to the dairy where he and Levi had been sent to cover the street, a tangle of burnt timber and iron now.

  Then they walked across the road to the old pub where he’d grown up.

  “The pub’s gone too.” Ela held onto his arm tighter.

  He nodded. Nothing to come home to anymore.

  They all went around to the back where the garages were. His land rover hadn’t survived the destruction. Or Patsy’s car. Or any of the junk in the shed.

  And Monsanto lay dead beside the ruins of his kennel. Shot like Jacob had been. He must have come back. So where were Patsy and Fitzgerald? He couldn’t bear to think of his mother lying dead somewhere.

  He stroked the golden fur, still warm. He’d only just been shot. Shit, someone had just been here. Maybe the rest of the squad. Maybe they were still here. Maybe this was a trap.

  He swung round to the others. “Haze,” he said urgently. “Now.”

  But he was too late, just as he, Ela, Jeron and Levi started to move, Leach came around the corner, pistol raised, Rocco and Gregor flanking him, lasers ready to shoot.

  “Hands up,” said Leach. “I was pretty sure you’d know somewhere you could hide. Easier to wait for you than try and find you.”

  Jack slowly raised his hands, his laser still slung over his shoulder. He saw Jeron, Levi and Ela do the same.

  Fuck. He should have known Leach would be too smart to be floundering around on the mountain trying to work out where they’d hidden.

  He’d been too bloody predictable. Now they were in real shit. If Vector already knew Ela and Jeron were Natural’s they were history, and he could look forward to a few hours of Interrogation, and there was no way he’d keep the location of the Vault secret, he’d seen what they could do. And he had the copy of Jacob’s broadcast in his pocket, so they’d have that too.

  He watched Gregor and Rocco, covering him. He could make a dive for them. Would they shoot him? At least if he was dead, he wouldn’t talk.

  No, they would have been given the, shoot to maim, order. Anyway, Levi, Jeron and Ela all knew how to get into the Vault. So cooperate now and wait for a better chance.

  Leach lowered his pistol. He seemed confident Gregor and Rocco could keep the four of them under control.

  “Fraser.” Then he nodded at Jeron and Levi. “And your sidekicks. You did come to check out your old home.”

  Jack shrugged. Yeah, he was always going to come back here.

  Leach turned to Ela. “Miss Hennessey, I presume. Thanks to young Jack here, we now know how important you are. We weren’t sure until we questioned him. It was a stroke of luck he got the three strikes when he did. Turns out he is very talkative if you pump him full of enough drugs.”

  He’d talked. He hadn’t been there for Re-Education. They’d used some sort of truth drug on him. Maybe that was why the effects of the Abhor were wearing off so quickly. He hadn’t a full dose.

  Ela looked at him, shocked. It was Jack who’d betrayed Jacob and his mother. She never even suspected that, and Jack couldn’t have either. He must feel dreadful.

  She watched Leach standing between the two VTroopers. They must be in the same squad as Jack, Jeron and Levi. They looked young and slim not pumped up and full of testosterone the way Troopers usually looked, and they had no V on their uniforms.

  “What do you want?” she asked Leach.

  “You dead for one thing,” said Leach. “And those two as well.” He nodded at Levi and Jeron.

  He turned to Rocco and Gregor who still hadn’t moved. “Shoot the girl and the other two dead. If Fraser moves, shoot to maim. We need him alive. If they survived the firestorm, there must be a few things he hasn’t told us.”

  Rocco and Gregor hesitantly shifted their lasers, so they were covering Levi and Jeron.

  “Leach,” said Jack. “You don’t need to do this. There’s no reason for the Quarantine. Ela and Jeron are the proof of that.”

  Leach turned back to look at Jack and gave a derisive snort. “We know that. We stopped the old m
an getting his message out, and now we’re tidying up the loose ends. The last thing Eugenics Corp needs is for the world to know about Genus6. Everyone wins if that little gem stays a secret.”

  “Why?” asked Jack. “If we get rid of Genus6, you lot can all go home, and we can have our country back.”

  “And all the profits of Humicrib and Eugenics Corp go up in dust. Nobody can afford things going back the way they were.” He turned to Rocco and Gregor and ordered, “Shoot them, or I will.”

  Rocco and Gregor still hesitated, then a voice came from behind them.

  “Drop your lasers. No one is getting shot today.”

  Ela looked behind Leach and the other two and saw five more of the squad coming around the ruins of the pub, lasers ready, moving in that half sidestep she’d seen Jack, Jeron and Levi use when they were checking out the buildings. This time the lasers were pointed at Leach.

  . .

  Chapter 26

  JACK LOOKED PAST Leach too. O’Hara, Dante, Sharpe and Phillipe had Leach, Rocco and Gregor in their sights. Rocco and Gregor lowered their lasers. Leach didn’t seem to know where to point his pistol, then returned it to his holster.

  O’Hara, without moving the laser away from Leach, said, “Jack, do you want to explain what you were talking about. What’s that about Genus6?”

  “It’s causing the infertility in the world,” Jack said carefully. He’d never been involved in a three-way standoff before, but for the moment it looked like no one was going to get shot if he could defuse the situation. “It can be reversed.” He nodded at Ela and Jeron. “They’re the proof. That’s why the Administration want them dead. They don’t want to world to know.”

  O’Hara nodded and turned his attention back to Leach. “Is that true?”

  Leach shrugged. “Stand down, soldier. You obey orders, and the order is to eliminate those three and take Fraser into custody.”

  “You never answered the question,” Dante said and aimed his laser at Leach. “Is what Jack’s saying true?”

  Jeron chimed in. “Yeah, it’s true. I’m a Natural, and so is Ela. We were both born to Elite mothers because they weren’t eating food with Genus6 in when we were conceived.”

  Leach turned to Rocco and Gregor again. “Do what you’ve been trained to do,” he ordered. “Shoot to kill.”

  “Like fuck.” Gregor lowered his laser and walked over to stand beside Jack. “I’ve had enough of this. Shooting old men and dogs for no good reason was bad enough, but I’m not shooting a girl or my mates. Especially if what Jack says is true. I’m with him.”

  “Me too,” said Rocco and moved away, leaving Leach on his own and still covered by Dante.

  The four troopers surrounding Dante lowered their weapons too.

  “We’re with you, Jack. The last few days have been hell,” said Phillipe. “I never signed up for this. Killing defenceless kids at the University, rounding up a whole town of people and throwing them into a camp. I don’t see how any of that can be justified.”

  “You really want to do this?” Jack asked.

  Every member of the squad nodded. Unbelievable. They’d all gone against Leach’s orders. Now he was responsible for them. But it looked like he had his own army now.

  Dante was the only one still covering Leach. “What do you want done with him? Should I shoot him?”

  Did he want any more bloodshed? It made no sense to leave an enemy as competent as Leach alive, but he didn’t want to kill him either.

  “Shoot to maim,” he said. His first order to the squad.

  “Where do you want it?” Dante asked Leach.

  Then Jack heard the crackle on Leach’s Com. Someone was trying to contact him. Leach raised his hand going to touch the side of his helmet and speak.

  Jack unslung his laser and aimed it at Leach. “Answer that, and you’re dead,” he said.

  Leach nodded and lowered his hand. “What are you going to do? If I don’t answer, someone is going to realise there’s a problem.”

  Jack scratched his head. Leach was right. The captain seemed to have plenty of autonomy, but he must have to report in occasionally.

  Then he realised the answer to most of his problems. The Viper the squad came in must be somewhere close.

  He was pretty sure O’Hara with his background would know how to operate it. That solved the transport problem.

  If they used that to get into the City Ela wouldn’t have to tell anyone where the entrance to the tunnel was.

  And if he wore Leach’s uniform and pretended to be him, he could probably bluff his way into the City to meet up with Nick and make a plan.

  “I’ll have your helmet,” he said to Leach.

  Leach tipped his head to one side and unclipped it, then handed the helmet over. Jack put it on and touched the Com pad on the side.

  “Leach,” he said, imitating what he’d seen the captain do a thousand times.

  It must have sounded right because a voice came through.

  “Anything to report?”

  “No, all clear here,” said Jack still keeping his voice as close to the way Leach spoke as he could. If he kept wearing Leach’s helmet, Leach’s service number would show on any Vid footage and identity checks, and then Ela could have his helmet and that would get her through too.

  “Return to Base ASAP. Your mission’s complete. Out.”

  “Will do,” said Jack. “Out.” Except to pass as a trooper Ela needed a whole uniform and there was no way his or Leach’s would fit her properly.

  “You know the penalty for impersonating an officer?” Leach asked.

  “Can’t be any worse than deserting, or being a traitor,” said Jack. He watched Dante aim his laser at Leach’s thigh then hesitate.

  “We still maiming him?” Dante asked.

  “No.” He liked Leach; he didn’t want to maim him. He turned to Phillipe. “You got something on you that will keep him unconscious for a few hours?”

  Phillipe nodded. “Yeah, in here.” He shrugged out of his backpack.

  Jack nodded at the rubble. “This was a pub and there are a couple of cellars under there. We’ll stick him in one of them and tell someone where he is in a few days.”

  Phillipe put the pack on the ground and pulled out an EpiPen. “This’ll knock him out.”

  Jack went through his memory of the cellars. He couldn’t see any way Leach would be able to get out if he was in there just in his underwear with no weapons. Because the heavy timber door with an even heavier bolt and padlock would keep him there. Barrels of beer, bottles of wine and spirits, stuff to eat. If Leach accepted the situation and relaxed into it, he could have quite a pleasant few days.

  He turned to Gregor and Rocco. “Hold him,” he ordered, then nodded at Dante. “Keep the captain covered. Shoot to maim if he tries anything.”

  “Bad idea, Fraser,” warned Leach as Gregor and Rocco grabbed his arms. Phillipe put the EpiPen against his neck and shot him up with whatever was in the pen. Then they carefully let the captain sink down to the ground.

  “What now?” Dante finally lowered his weapon.

  A plan of how to get into the City and get some Intel at the same time started to form. “Cut out his Locate and take his uniform and his Com.”

  He turned to Dante. “Where’s the Viper.”

  Dante nodded over the ruins of the Post Office. “Behind there.”

  “Right,” said Jack. “Looks like we’re headed back to the City.” He turned to O’Hara. “Can you fly the thing?”

  O’Hara nodded. “It might take me a couple of minutes to orientate myself. But from I saw it looked pretty standard. Anyway, there’s always the FailSafe if I fuck up.”

  “Don’t fuck up,” said Jack. “The last thing we need is for the Autopilot to take us back to the Base. I’m not going to pass for Leach there.”

  “What are we going to do with the pilot?” asked Dante.

  “They can both spend a couple of days in a cellar.” You and Hood go and get the pilot
and bring him here.

  “Her,” said O’Hara.

  That’s right, when they hijacked the Hover yesterday the pilot had been a female. “Bring her here then.” If she was the same one as yesterday, she was having a bad couple of days, but the problem of a uniform for Ela had solved itself. She could wear the pilot’s boots, coat and compression suit, and with his helmet, coat and Locate, she’d still read as Jack Fraser, but the uniform would fit her properly.

  “Jeron, Levi and Gregor, get Leach into the cellar and cover him until I get there. The rest of you go to the Hover, and O’Hara, you get it ready to take off.”

  Hood and Dante turned up with the pilot at gunpoint.

  Jack said to Ela and the pilot. “You two, swap clothes.” He took off his wrist shield and looked over at Phillipe. “And I need you to do a bit of surgery on me.” He held out his arm, wrist exposed. “Take out the Locate.” He figured if he taped Leach’s Locate over the wound and then taped his to Ela’s wrist the signal from both should still look right.

  Ela gathered her hair over her shoulder in a ponytail. She looked good in the compression suit. “Should I cut my hair?” she asked.

  He nodded. There was no way she’d pass for a member of the squad with all that hair.

  “Do you have scissors?” she asked.

  He shook his head. “This is the best I can do.” He pulled the knife out of the sheath in his boot.

  Ela nodded, and he took the handful of her mane and sawed it off. Then wasn’t too sure what to do with it. He didn’t want Ela’s DNA left here. She could be identified from it, and that could cause all sorts of problems.

  “Give it here,” she said impatiently. The roughly cut hair framed her face and made her look different. Tougher somehow. She took the lump of hair, rolled it around her hand and shoved it in her pocket.

  Levi poked his head around the door of the cellar, he had his helmet on.

  “Where did you get that?” Jack asked.

  “I found it in the Hover. Here’s yours. Must be the same one we hijacked yesterday.” Jack took the helmet and handed it to Ela.