Sniper Squad

by Meg Buchanan

  It took two minutes for her and Jack to get to the entrance of the Station. They had eight minutes left to get in and get everyone to safety.

  Ela keyed her code in and saw the Cam focus on her. She took her helmet off and looked up.

  “It’s me,” she said urgently. “You need to let me in.”

  The focus of the camera changed to Jack. She could just imagine Curly and Nick on the other side looking at the VidScreen and trying to decide what to do.

  Jack removed his helmet too. They waited a moment, and the door didn’t open.

  “Open up now, Curly,” she ordered. “We’ve only got minutes to figure out how to keep everyone alive.”

  There was another pause, then. “Put down your lasers and hands on your heads,” said Curly’s voice.

  She looked at Jack to see if that was what she had to do. He was already doing it, so she copied.

  Ela heard the lock release and saw the door ease open, then twenty rifles aimed at them.

  “Hey Mate,” said Curly to Jack, then ushered them in.

  Ela slipped inside, and Jack followed her.

  “Hey,” said Jack. “You’ve returned from the dead.”

  Curly rubbed his neck. He wasn’t holding a rifle, but the twenty kids with him kept theirs aimed steadily.

  Ela had caught sight of herself in a couple of windows after they left the Viper and even she couldn’t believe the reflection was her.

  “It’s just me, Ela,” she said to reassure the kids. “And this is Jack Fraser, he’s on our side. He’s been working with Jacob.” She looked over at Scott who seemed to be in charge. “Tell them Scott.”

  Scott ignored her and the rifles stayed aimed at them, Curly didn’t order the kids to stand down either.

  She turned abruptly and headed for the backroom. She was pretty sure that was where Nick would be. “We haven’t got time for this. We need to see Nick and figure out what to do fast.”

  Curly stopped her. “Why fast?”

  “We’ve got about five minutes before every Hover in the country Unhazes, and VTroopers surround this Station.”

  “Fuck, he’s in Com’s. Come on.” He looked at the kids with rifles. “Follow us and keep them covered.”

  So Curly wasn’t taking any risks.

  He walked ahead of them talking rapidly. “We’re not getting any feeds from any of the Drones, just one Satellite feed.” Curly looked at the VTrooper uniforms. “Maybe you should have got changed before coming here,” he said.

  “The uniforms are what got us here,” said Jack as they half walked, half jogged to keep up with Curly.

  Scott and the kids with the rifles followed, still looking hostile.

  “I thought you’d be pleased just to see we were alive,” said Ela. She wasn’t sure she’d feel safe going around any corners until she got out of the uniform.

  Curly glanced back at them. “Before the DroneCam went down we saw enough to work out you and two others might have survived.”

  There was a rustle of nervousness as they entered the Coms room. Jack had only had that glimpse of Nick in the carpark since he’d seen the Vid of him being killed. It was hard to believe he was there, real, still alive. He looked older, and the scar on his cheek was new, but he still looked like Nick.

  “What’s happening?” Nick asked Curly.

  “Vector knows about the Station.” Curly nodded at Jack and Ela. “They say we’re surrounded right now.”

  “The Hovers are just waiting for the squad to get in position,” Ela added.

  “How long do we have?”

  Jack looked at the feed on his Com. “Five, six minutes max.” It was strange to see Nick and Curly acting like they were in charge. There were twenty odd kids monitoring the screens in the Coms room, they’d passed heaps more on the way here, and Nick acted like he ran all this.

  Jack got Leach’s tablet out of pouch sewn into the front of his uniform and pulled up the NavMap of the City and the NavMap that showed the movement of the StealthHovers,

  While he was pulling it up Nick said. “You and Ela made it to the Vault and that’s why you survived?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Who were the other two with you? They looked like Vector.”

  So, Nick had seen the Vid. “They are, or they were. They’re with me now.”

  “How does that happen?” This explained why Nick was so reserved, it really sounded like he didn’t quite trust him.

  “They’re mates. Jeron’s a Natural like Ela so he had an extra reason to get out and Levi….” Jack trailed off. It was hard to explain why Levi had followed him when he did.

  “Jesus Jack, after Jacob protected the Vault for twenty years you took a couple of Vector Troopers there,” said Nick.

  Okay, Ela said Nick would react like this.

  “We can trust them.”

  Nick huffed out a breath. “You better bloody be right.”

  “Look at this.” An army was about to materialise, and Nick wanted to talk about who could be trusted? Now the arrows showing the position of the StealthHovers were stationary and virtually covered the City. “Outside you can see the normal City because they’re all in stealth mode, but they’re there. What’s the plan?”

  Nick slowly released a breath. “Same plan, we get Jacob’s message out. We were going to disable everything then. The shields are in place. We don’t need to wait and find out how Vector will react. They’ve already shown us. But if you’re right and every Hover Vector has is up there, they’ll fall out of the sky when we cut the power, and nothing will survive. Do we want to risk that?”

  “We can’t let them land and let out the VTroopers either. We’d be outnumbered thousands to one,” said Curly.

  “There’s an alternative,” said Jack.

  “We’re listening.” Curly changed the setting on the VidScreen so the NavMap of the City flicked up from the Tablet.

  “There’s a FailSafe built into the Hovers.”

  “And?” Must be something just the pilots knew.

  “If there’s a catastrophic power failure, the autopilot takes over and the Hovers go back to the Base.”

  Nick scratched his head. “Sounds bloody unlikely. And a bit too convenient for us.”

  “But if it’s true, it buys us time. What if we disable everything, then send out the message once we’re holding the City?”

  “What have we got to lose? If you’re right, the whole of Vector’s army will be stuck over the Harbour until they can figure out how to get back.”

  Jack nodded. “It gives you time to get the message out before Vector can attack.”

  Nick looked at Curly. “How long will it take to get ready.”

  Curly pulled a Tablet sitting under the Screen closer. “I’m ready, I can do it now.” He said it like in seconds he could disable Vector.

  Jack looked at his Com again. Still five minutes before the Mambas would land. He could hear orders going through in the chatter in his helmet.

  He needed to get the squad into the Station before everything kicked off. Because if Jeron was right, even getting doors open was going to be a problem afterwards, and he didn’t want the rest of the squad outside when they could be defending this place.

  “There is something I haven’t told you,” he said to Nick hesitantly. Nick had already given him a rocket about letting Jeron and Levi know about the Vault, he wasn’t going to accept another seven VTroopers too easily.

  But the longer they stayed out there, the riskier it would get for them. Pretty soon someone was going to start asking questions.

  And when Leach and that pilot did manage to get out of the cellar all hell would break loose as soon as Leach got to some form of communication.

  “What?” Nick asked abruptly.

  “It’s not just Levi and Jeron who came with me.”

  “How many others?”

  “All of them,” said Jack and waited for Nick to digest that.

  “The whole squad?”

  Jack nodd
ed. He needed to get them all here ASAP and to convince Nick to give them sanctuary.

  “And they’re going to work with us?”

  Jack nodded. “If you’re fighting off the whole world, you need a real army. I’m offering you ten of the most highly trained troops Vector have. You need us.”

  “Like a hole in the head,” said Nick. “You want me to trust a bunch of VTroopers after what’s happened? They’ll have to go against their parents, and most of them are Elite.”

  “You can trust these ones. They’ve got nowhere else to go. They’ll follow me. We know the enemy and we’re trained.” He waved his arm at the Com centre Nick had set up on what had been the Station’s platform. “You can’t say that about any of these kids.”

  Nick stared at him for a moment, then nodded. “If you’re sure.”

  “I’m sure,” said Jack. He spoke into his Com. “Leave your post. You’ve got two minutes to get here,” he said.

  “Copy that,” came from the others.

  Now let’s see just how much autonomy Leach had. He spoke to control. “All clear here. Taking the squad to search the tunnels. But the place looks deserted. No sign of life.” That covered why he’d called all the squad into the Station.

  “Copy that,” said whoever he was speaking to. “Report any signs of Insurgents.”

  “Will do, out,” said Jack.

  . .

  Chapter 29

  JACK WATCHED THE KIDS with the rifles. The Station doors were open again, and the rest of the squad were coming in, lasers on the ground, hands on their heads. The fact they’d do that on his orders showed a lot of faith in him.

  A couple of kids went past the squad and collected up the lasers, Nick and Curly hadn’t given him or Ela their lasers back either. This was starting to look like an uneasy truce and not working together he like he’d thought it would be. Maybe once the surge of power had gone through the system and disabled the StealthHovers Nick and Curly would start to believe him.

  Curly was watching the squad too. “I didn’t realise Jacob had killed me off a year ago.”

  “You and Nick both.” He hoped Nick and Curly’s lot weren’t going to get trigger happy. He didn’t know how he’d deal with that. “I would have had Jacob on about it, but Vector got to him first.”

  Curly’s released a breath with a hiss. “He’s dead?” He secured the door behind the squad. “You lot, sit there.”

  He nodded at the foyer floor then turned to the kids holding the rifles. “Any of them move, shoot them.”

  Scott nodded and supervised stacking the lasers up in a corner.

  Jack was pretty sure the squad could have got to them and had those kids disarmed or dead before even one got a shot off if they wanted, but he didn’t bother to enlighten Curly. He’d told the squad to cooperate and so far, they had.

  “Yeah, Jacob’s dead. Now let’s get this show started.”

  They moved back to the Coms room fast.

  “I’m really sorry, Ela,” said Curly “We weren’t sure.”

  “I’m sorry too,” said Ela. “Now we’re going to make sure we finish what he started.” Ela sounded fierce.

  Nick was still at the main VidScreen watching the Cityscape “Any more of the enemy you want to bring in before we start?” he asked. Curly sat down beside him.

  Jack shook his head. “Everyone we’re going to need is here.” He looked around the Station, taking it all in. Ela had tried to tell him about how Curly and Nick had set their base up, but she didn’t convey how big it was or how many kids were hiding here. It was way more crowded than he’d expected.

  “You’ve got a good set up,” he said.

  “Yeah, all the comforts of home.” Curly was flicking through feeds on the screen in front of him. Scott joined them.

  “What about our guests?” asked Nick.

  “They’re under control,” said Scott and studied the screen. It still showed the City at work. A few Elite about, not many, the silver light was the same, occasionally MonoRail carriages flashed by.

  “Standby,” said Curly. “This better work.” He touched an Icon, and nothing happened.

  “How long should it take?” asked Jack. There was silence around the Coms room, everyone focused on the VidScreen. Then slowly the silver light in the sky turned black, as StealthHover after StealthHover Unhazed.

  “They’re going to land!” Ela sounded horrified. There were so many of them, if they landed, they’d crush half the City.

  Or maybe O’Hara was wrong, and instead of going back to Base the Hovers were about to fall out of the sky.

  Then slowly, like a wounded animal the closest Mamba turned 90 degrees to the east. All the others around it were doing the same.

  Jack picked up Leach’s Tablet and sure enough, the arrows on the NapMap had turned towards the Base.

  O’Hara was right. If the power failed, the StealthHovers were programmed to return to Base.

  “It’s working,” said Nick on an explosion of breath. “They’re leaving.” The sky on the VidScreen was still black, but the tide was moving away across the Harbour.

  They could see the flash from the MonoRail still. It was still working, and the lights from Humicrib and the University were still there, but most of the other buildings in the City were bathed in the darkness created by the blanket of StealthHovers lumbering home.

  “We’ve disabled the City. Vector’s going,” Curly breathed.

  “Looks like it,” said Jack.

  “How long do you think it will take them to regroup?” asked Nick.

  “No idea.” Jack straightened up and stretched a bit. Jeron seemed to know something about that. He’d ask him.

  Nick turned back to the screen and studied the Cam he had up. Now, just the City. It looked duller. Just the few buildings they’d protected with shields were still shining.

  “Jacob made you join the enemy; how did he manage that?” Nick asked.

  “He didn’t give me any choice.”

  “Jacob was good at that. Ela said he told you we were dead.”

  Jack nodded. “Yeah, he said Vincent killed you.”

  “Bloody nearly did,” Nick touched the scar on his cheek and looked grim. “Last night, Curly couldn’t get though the shields, the message kept bouncing back and then suddenly Jacob wasn’t there anymore. Do you know what happened?”

  Jack nodded. “Vector bombed his house. This morning we found his body.”

  Nick looked down at his desk. When he looked up there were tears in his eye. “Fuck,” he said. “And he was still in the house when they bombed it?”

  Jack shook his head. “No, he’d been shot.” He still couldn’t believe Jacob was gone. He’d known him all his life. He watched the screen. Now most of the arrows were over the Harbour. “After Jacob’s house went up, I saw the Hovers pass overhead in stealth mode. I thought we’d been invaded.”

  “But it wasn’t an invasion?”

  “No,” said Jack. “I think it was an extermination.”

  Nick leaned his elbows on the desktop. “And what’s left?” he asked.

  “Outside the City, everything has gone.” Everything they knew when they were growing up had been destroyed. That was hard to accept too.

  “What do you mean gone?” asked Curly.

  “It’s scorched earth. Nothing from the mountain to here has survived. We headed back in a Viper and saw nothing until we hit the Barrier and entered the City.”

  Nick nodded. “And the town?”

  “Gone. And every town we could see. It’s all gone.”

  Nick stood up and went over to another screen and stared at it silently. It showed an old feed of the Hinterland, green and rich, the way it had been.

  Jack let out a slow breath. “Do you know where the people are?” he asked. It wasn’t just his mother and Fitzgerald he was asking about. Thousands and thousands of people in the area had just disappeared. They’d only found Jacob’s body, nobody else’s.

  Curly waved at the main S
creen and then keyed in the time of the raid on the town. Jack could see all the townspeople lined up the way they had been. Then Curly skipped forward through the Vid, and the people were marched like a long snake along the road, all the way to the OutPost. He watched the Barrier lift and the mass of people snaked into the carpark. The feed cut out then.

  “That is the last we’ve seen of them,” said Curly. “We hope they’re being held there if it survived. But they could be anywhere. It would only a dozen or so troop carriers to take them somewhere else.”

  Jack nodded. “What about Mum and Fitzgerald?” Curly’s mum and dad were dead, and Nick’s must be part of the snake of people who’d disappeared into the OutPost.

  Curly waved at the Screen to stop the feed, and the Array he’d been looking at flashed up again. “Sorry Jack. We don’t know. For all we know, the only Locals alive are the ones in the City.”

  “Kids?”

  Nick nodded. “The ones that are here and the ones locked up in the University. That’s why we installed a shield there. But there don’t seem to be any Local adults anywhere. They’ve disappeared.”

  The Locals had been culled, and just the viable breeding stock were left. He’d seen all the younger kids that still lived with their parents being separated out and loaded onto a Hover. He’d bet the Administration had them locked up somewhere. They wouldn’t want to damage future breeding stock. But the adults had passed their use by date and would only be trouble. The kids here in the Station were probably the oldest Locals alive. There was no way Mon would have left his mum and Fitzgerald if they were still living.

  “Where else did you put shields?” He figured that’s why Ela and Nick were at Humicrib. And now he knew the University had protection too, so what else did?

  “Water treatment plant, sewerage system, Hospital, anything we thought we’d still need when we took over. We couldn’t decide about the Com’s, so we fixed it so our system would work, and the Administrations wouldn’t,” said Curly.

  “Yeah,” said Nick. “Vector’s not the only lot with enough sense to plan for catastrophic failure.” He turned back to the screen. “Now we need to get ready to get Jacob’s message out. We got a copy?”