Maxton wasn’t staring at him anymore, his eyes closed, jaw clenched.
“You called my kind cowards before, but you are the one who can’t bear to look at what you did. Open your eyes and look at it. I promise you this is worse than what Brody was doing to you before, much worse.”
He did, and he could see the guilt in his face, and the struggle to hide it.
Brody and his boys were next to them now, Loren’s screen out recording all of it.
“I know how this works, so what I am about to tell you isn’t me asking you to spare me. But I will ask you not to take any action against my men. I was in charge of the lab. It was my call, my mission. My men followed my orders. They didn’t have any kind of choice about it, Ellis. You know that.”
He was looking at Brody when he said it and waited until Brody nodded his head to keep going.
“We didn’t know what the neuros were programmed for. We just had to get them into the population. That was our mission. We watched it on the screens, but there wasn’t anything we could do about it then, there wasn’t a thing anybody could do to stop it. You can’t kill the code in these things once it’s live, it just can’t be done…. Whatever you may think of me, I couldn’t do that. None of my men could. But you’re right, Zoriner. I did this,” he said, his voice shaky, eyes down. Maxton finally looked at him again, cleared his throat, said quietly, “It would make more sense for you to do it than them. It should be one of your kind.”
“We are not done with you yet, Maxton, but if we have to afterward, it’ll be one of us,” he whispered.
Brody grabbed his hand and took the stunner from him, glaring at him. “You do not get to make him any promises!”
Riley sighed, shook his head at his pissed-off friend. “It doesn’t really matter in the end who does it, Brody. And last I checked, you soldiers have this honor thing with last wishes or whatever you call that. You’ll have to—”
“Stop. It doesn’t matter,” Maxton said quietly, then took a few steps to Brody and nodded to him. “Do it.”
Brody bristled. “It’s like he said. Not done with you yet.”
“I’m afraid you are,” Maxton said, his voice tight, an edge to it. And there was a coldness in the way he was looking at Brody. “Do it!” the soldier said again, louder now.
Brody took a step back and stuck the screen in the man’s face. “Who was she talking to? Was it you?”
Maxton didn’t even look at it, staring at Brody.
“Answer me!”
“Yes,” the man said, still not looking at the screen.
Brody shook his head and signaled something to Trelix, and the boys grabbed Maxton by his arms and walked him back to the flier. He didn’t fight them or look at them, just did as he was told and got in.
Brody slumped into the seat across from him. “I need you to get whoever she was talking to to the tower we are in. Loren will set you up with a comm when we get there,” Brody snapped at the man.
Maxton closed his eyes and leaned back in his seat, looking bored or asleep, but whatever it was, Brody looked all the more pissed-off for it. He reached over and wrapped his hands around the man’s neck. “I will get it out of you, you son of a bitch, and you’ll wish you’d just bloody told me then,” he spat at him.
Maxton's face was red from all the not breathing, he guessed, but he still didn’t move. Didn’t even open his eyes, and Brody let go of him and walked away to where his boys were.
Drake and Ella made everybody cold sandwiches and somehow managed to heat up tea. The boys took Maxton back to the comm room, Brody going in behind them. Ams was still passed out on the couch, Ella looking at him sadly, shaking her head. Didn’t wake up yet, but the scan was clean, she told him quietly. She just needed more time. She’d watch her, and he knew she’d get him the moment her eyes opened. He grabbed food for Brody and the boys and took a plate for Maxton as well. Brody was still trying to talk the soldier into giving up whoever Hassinger was talking to in their lab, but Riley could tell it wasn’t working, wasn’t going to work. Loren was doing something on one of his screens, and then he whispered something to Brody, and took him out of the room, signaling to Trelix to join them.
“I brought you some food if you are hungry,” Riley said as soon as they were alone.
Maxton ignored him.
Riley leaned on the far wall across from him and closed his eyes. He remembered that he still hadn’t really slept, and he felt in danger of passing out, so he shook his head, hard, and drank a few sips of cold coffee from the small thermos he left here earlier. It wasn’t helping, at least not yet.
“When did you sleep last, Zoriner?”
It caught him by surprise, the question. Didn’t make sense for him to ask. He needed hot coffee, but there was no way to make it now. He needed to do something, just to stay awake. Maybe he could get something else out of this man, get him to answer at least some of the questions he had in his head that nobody bothered to ask.
“Who ordered your mission?”
Maxton shook his head. “We never knew those things, Zoriner. The calls come in on an encrypted channel and we do what we are told. I don’t know who did this. I don’t know why they would either. I told you everything I could already. I told Ellis that just now, too, only I don’t think he believes me. The point I’m trying to make is you’ve tapped me out. You can end it now. I won’t hand over any of my men. That part Ellis believes. So you got everything you were going to get from me.”
He was sitting in that same chair against the wall, feet tied again. Riley could see his wound bleeding, but Maxton wasn’t paying any attention to it. He was looking at his face, asking him to pull the trigger. And he knew he’d probably have to do it in the end, but for now, he wanted to fix him up, stitch his wound. It felt right to do this for him.
He ran to Ella and grabbed a medkit, noting that Brody and his boys weren’t in the room, and raced back. Maxton’s eyes were closed when he got back, head leaning back. He looked asleep only he had a feeling he wasn’t.
“I am going to stitch you up, Maxton. Try not to move.”
“Waste of med supplies, Zoriner.”
He ignored him, poured antiseptic on a gauze pad, and wiped the blood away from the wound. He could see his breathing change, but he didn’t move when he stitched him up; didn’t say anything either.
Riley put a bandage over the wound when he was done and walked away from him, looking out the window. He didn’t want to kill this man, but he had a feeling Brody wouldn’t let him go. It was too much of a risk. The man was a soldier. He’d do what he had to do if they let him go and that would likely mean him telling the Alliance about them. And the girls. They couldn’t risk the girls. And no matter how pissed Brody was at the man, he would have to honor the man’s last words. He winced, picturing himself with a gun pointed at this man’s head, having to look him in the eye. He didn’t think he could bring himself to do it like that.
“It’s easier than you think, Zoriner. You can just think of all those dead kids in that field, the little charred bones, and pull the trigger. Or tie my hands in front of me and hand me a gun and I’ll do it for you if you can’t. Truth is, it’ll be a relief—”
He turned around and the man was watching him.
“Ellis can’t let me go. I wouldn’t either, if I were him, so don’t beat yourself up. I’ll make it as easy on you as I can. Just don’t make me kneel, or shoot me in the back if you can help it,” he said calmly, softly, without any anger, and closed his eyes again.
Riley slid down the wall across from him and put his head in his hands. He was no longer in danger of falling asleep at least. Somewhere in the still thinking parts of his brain, he knew that it wasn’t really Maxton who killed all those people, that he wasn’t lying about that. It seemed wrong to make him pay for it, and he didn’t think he could pull the trigger. He seemed decent. And he had a feeling his earlier outburst was deliberate; that he said all those things to get Brody pissed off enough to ju
st shoot him. He remembered the way his face looked on that field, the pain in it, and knew for sure the man meant what he said; that he wanted out.
He heard the door open and watched a very flushed Brody shove a young soldier inside, letting him stumble. His hands were tied behind him, and his face bore the marks of a few well-placed punches. Riley looked at Maxton, and the man was scowling. Somehow they got him then; that’s where they took off to like that. Brody dropped the kid into the chair he was using earlier, turning it so he was facing Maxton, and Loren tied the kid’s feet at the base. Maxton put his head down.
Brody ripped the kid’s jacket off him, nothing slow or calm about it. He was looking at the kid with unguarded hatred, the kind he’d only ever seen him look at Hassinger with before. Brody took his knife out and put it under the kid’s chin, lifting his head up, and held the screen with the texts on it in front of his face. Trelix and Loren left the room without a word. Riley moved to the window, so he could see all of it, so he could stop it if it went too far. He had a feeling it would, Brody looking the way he did. The kid blanched when he saw what was on the screen but didn’t say anything. He looked about their age if not younger by a year or two.
“Here is what’s going to happen, Brandon. I need to know how you know this woman and I need to know what she had you do for her and how you did it. I get that out of you and I let you walk out of here with all your parts. Or I put lots and lots of holes in you with this until you tell me anyway, and you will, and you walk out of here or not with whatever parts you have left.”
Riley glanced at Maxton’s face. He was looking at the kid, eyes worried. “Ellis, this kid has only been with us for two months. I don’t think he’s done anything to anybody. The people in this city, that’s on me. I was in charge. I pushed the bloody button. You can do to me whatever you want for it, but please, don’t do this. He’s a kid, Ellis. He’s just a kid.”
Brody ignored the soldier, didn’t even look at him, keeping his eyes on the kid.
Brandon stared back at Brody, not talking.
Brody got the tape out, cut off a thin strip, and taped his mouth shut, the kid still looking at him, jaw clenched. And then Riley watched his best friend run the knife into this kid, over and over. He was still trying to swing at him when he had him by the arms until he finally wrestled the knife away from him. The kid was bleeding hard, his head on his chest.
Brody pinned him against the wall, reaching for the knife. “I told you to leave if you couldn’t take it. You need to leave. This is between me and this kid.” Brody’s arm dug into his neck, choking him but he couldn’t let go now, knew that he’d kill the kid, so he held on with everything he had, staring his best friend in the eyes and Brody finally let go of him and took a step back.
“Take a walk. He isn’t going anywhere, and by the looks of it, he can’t tell you what you want to know now,” Riley croaked at him, rubbing his neck, and walked him to the door, not handing him the knife back.
Brody’s hands were in fists and he looked furious, but he nodded and walked out, slamming the door behind him. Still smart enough to know that he lost control then. He’d have to deal with his anger at him later.
Riley peeled the tape from the kid’s face and a pair of steely gray eyes stared at him, something familiar in that look, too, only he couldn’t quite place it. He had six wounds in him, two that looked deep enough to need stitching, and he noticed for the first time that his chest was covered in scars, the same kind he carried on his back, thin white lines, and some round ones too, the kind he never saw on anyone before.
He moved him away from Maxton a bit and crouched in front of him with the medkit, not saying anything.
The kid flinched when he cleaned the wounds. He hoped he wouldn’t scream. “I don’t want to put that tape back on your face, but I’ll have to if you scream, okay?”
A small nod. The kid gasped and shut his eyes tightly when he did the first wound, but he didn’t scream, and the other one wasn’t as bad.
He cleaned up all the blood and bandaged him up as best he could. He wished Ella could do this part, but he didn’t want her to know what Brody did to this kid, couldn’t bring himself to tell her, or anybody.
“Thank you for this, Riley. For not letting Ellis kill him.” Maxton’s voice was strained. And then he was talking to Brandon, softly: “Son, unless you’re protecting someone you love, tell him what he wants to know. I don’t know what it is you did that he was talking about, but whatever it is, I think it’s personal for him, and that means he won’t stop. Just tell him.”
The kid shook his head. “I can’t, Maxton. I am sorry, but I can’t.” He was looking at him again, not Maxton, eyes still familiar, and between what Maxton just said about protecting someone and these steely eyes watching him with half curiosity, half hatred, he saw Hassinger in him, saw her eyes staring at him at the compound before she swung the whip at his back. And he knew who the kid was, only he didn’t know what to do with the knowing.
Maxton must have seen it in his face, that he figured it out. “We already know I am not leaving here, Riley. Tell me what you know, and maybe I can help you keep this kid alive. Something tells me you disapprove of your friend’s methods.”
The kid wasn’t going anywhere and he looked like he could use a break anyway. He pulled the jacket back on him and buttoned it, wanting to cover up the damage Brody did to him, and then helped Maxton from the chair. He untied his feet and walked him at gunpoint down the hall to the closet room Laurel hid in that one time.
“Are your men scanning this place?”
Maxton shook his head.
Riley flicked the lights on. There were no windows in this room, and unless they were running scans, it should be safe. He had Maxton sit on one of the small chairs by the wall and paced, trying to think of the fastest way to do this.
“Hassinger, the woman in those texts, I think Brandon is her son. The two replenisher girls in the other room ran away with me and the other Zoriner guy from the compound she was in charge of, along with the Zoriner girl, who happens to be my sister your people took from us when I was six. That would be Ella. The giant guy is Drake. They were both slaves at Hassinger’s compound. The one you call Ellis, his name is Brody, but you know that already. We grew up together in Waller, Zoriner territory. He had a girl there, Trina, he was in love with. Our people handed her over to your people and Brody spent years looking for her and ended up a soldier, mostly, hoping to get himself killed, I think. I’m skipping a bunch of stuff here but that’s the background. Brody had his crew with him that he trained for years. That’s who the other two soldiers are, part of that crew, listed as dead now, so nobody’s looking for them. Hassinger was hunting for these two replenishers and she didn’t want the Alliance to know she’d lost them, so she found Brody and Trina connection and reached out to him. He thought he could get Trina back using one of our girls as bait. We staged the whole thing in this clearing, and Brody had most of his crew there to make sure we didn’t lose anybody and got Trina back safely. We knew Hassinger could only bring a few guards at best….”
He needed a break, so he paced silently for a bit, not wanting to remember the rest of that day, but he knew he had to, and after a while, he told him what happened at the clearing. How Hassinger took control of Brody’s crew and what she did to Trina, not holding anything back, not hiding anything, even telling him how she laughed when she did it. This man needed to know how Brody would see this Brandon kid, this kid who helped his mother murder the girl he loved, and why it wouldn’t matter to him that he is young or if he knew what he was doing or not. And finally, he told him that Hassinger for Brody was the worst of the worst, and not just because she killed Trina, but because she enjoyed it and Brody never got a chance to put a bullet in her head.
Maxton’s head was down when he was done. “I don’t think Brandon knows she’s dead, Riley. That’s why he is protecting her. You should tell him, or I’ll tell him and try to get him to talk to you. But i
f he doesn’t, please just shoot him. Find a way to just shoot him,” he said finally, looking up at him, face full of lines.
Brody was in the room with the kid when they got back, looking mad as hell. “If I needed a bloody medic, I’d send for Ella. She is better at this. Or I’d stitch him up myself. Leave, Riley!” He faced him, staring at him.
“I know who the kid is. You need to let Maxton talk to him…. That is if you still want information and not just revenge. He is Hassinger’s son, Brody. And I’m not going anywhere. Not until this is over,” he said evenly, and then slid down the wall and closed his eyes.
6
The Roof
Brody, May 31, 2236, Reston
Brody knew he lost control with the kid, but he couldn’t help it. He knew he was the one who helped her do it and he couldn’t get the image of her laughing face out of his head when he looked at him. Riley was right to stop him, but he was angry at him too. Angry for the way he was with them, Maxton and the kid, old-Riley-like, stitching their wounds, talking to Maxton as if he liked the guy. He wondered if he’d be able to pull the trigger on him when he would need to. It would be right for Riley to do it—get his revenge for what they did to all the people here—and Maxton seemed to want him to be the one anyway, and as much as he hated the man, he was a soldier and he’d have to give him that much.
Alliance: The Complete Series (A Dystopian YA Box Set Books 1-5): Dystopian Sci Fi Thriller Page 38