“Sir, something’s not right here,” Al said in Jarek’s ear. “I don’t think—”
“Not now,” Jarek mumbled under his breath as Mark gestured to him.
They moved through the narrow hallway at the back of the room and found two more marauders waiting for them in the next corridor—a man and woman, similarly armed. He ducked back behind the wall as a hail of buckshot and what Al identified as a .223 slug tore chunks out of the spot where his head had just been. Jarek gritted his teeth, his heart hammering up into his throat. At least he was using non-lethals…
Jarek fired one blind shot around the corner before popping out to send three more bean-bag rounds pelting from his semi-auto.
The first shot caught the woman in the left shoulder, the second went wide, and the third struck the man square in the abdomen. The guy went down. To her credit, the woman recovered enough to bring her shotgun up with her uninjured right arm as Jarek raced toward her. The shotgun roared, nearly kicking free of her awkward one-handed grip, but Jarek had already brushed the barrel aside as he moved in with his stun rod. The shot went wide, and her shotgun clattered to the floor as Jarek applied the stun rod to her side.
To Jarek’s left, Mark closed on the second marauder and delivered his own stun rod treatment.
“Sir,” Al said, more urgently than before, “these people—”
Jarek tensed as a wordless cry rang out from the room adjacent to Mark, and he turned in time to see a kid that must’ve been roughly his own age come barreling out of the room and smack Mark across the back of the head with a rusted shovel.
The fact that Mark was wearing a helmet very well might have saved his life. The blow drove him to the ground, where he lay in a slack-limbed stupor as the kid raised the shovel again to try to finish the job.
“Wait!” Al cried in his ear as Jarek caught the kid by an arm and shoved him roughly at the wall with one hand, ripping the shovel from his grasp with the other.
The kid hit the wall with a huffing cry that jolted through Jarek’s core.
“Jarek!” Al barked. “What the hell are you doing?”
Jarek looked slowly down at the shovel in his hands, his breath caught in his chest. He licked his lips and tossed the shovel aside as their two fellow Iron Eagles rounded the far corner.
He glanced to see that Mark was still breathing, and called, “We’re clear here. Someone check on Adams,” then Jarek turned to the teenage boy he’d just nearly killed.
The kid was slumped against the wall, gasping for air. He recoiled as Jarek approached, his pale blue eyes beaming pure hatred. Jarek let out a long breath and murmured, “Faceplate.”
Al slid Fela’s helmet open as Jarek knelt down next to the kid. “What are you doing here?”
“Who the hell are you to ask me that?” the kid said between gasping breaths. He spat on the floor in front of Jarek, and his saliva was tinged red with blood. Jarek swallowed.
“This is my home,” the kid said.
An icy hand clutched at the pit of Jarek’s stomach. The woman and the two men they’d just taken down… they’d barely been armed. Two shotguns and a hunting rifle? And why was there a kid here with them? His mind raced in furious circles, pulling tighter and tighter, threatening to collide into a terrible conclusion at any moment.
A baby cried out in the adjacent room, and realization struck home like a sack of lead bricks to the head.
“Bandit scum,” the man who’d taken a bean-bag round to the stomach said from the ground, barely possessing enough air in his lungs to make the words audible.
“No…” Jarek stood, looking around, waves of nausea rising in his chest.
What the hell had he just done?
Chapter 7
“Let me get this straight,” Conner said, pacing back and forth behind his polished wooden desk. “You not only disobeyed direct orders, but also abandoned your brothers during an active engagement, placing them in harm’s way and jeopardizing the mission.”
Jarek had about a million corrections to make to the statement, but he bit down and held his tongue until Conner ceased his pacing and faced him, leaning palms-down on his desk. “Am I understanding Stetson’s report correctly?”
Jarek shifted in his chair. “Mark needed medical attention. I had to get him back to the medic.”
“And after you’d done that?”
Jarek looked down. “It’s not like our men were in danger without me—those were civilians we were fighting.”
Conner straightened from his desk. “Whether or not that’s true, that was not your call to make.”
Jarek leaned forward to argue but paused when Conner held up a hand. “We’re looking into why there seem to have been civilian families on the homestead. It’s”—he scratched at his beard, his expression darkening—“possible that our client misled us. He had detailed knowledge of the compound. If he didn’t live there, he was the best damned liar I’ve ever seen. Could’ve been he had a falling out with his people and was hoping to have us take care of it.” Conner looked genuinely troubled by the thought. “I don’t know, but we’ll find out. What I do know is that I can’t have soldiers disobeying orders in the field.”
“Even if those orders are to round up innocent families?”
The words left Jarek’s mouth almost before he knew it. He swallowed, waiting for the reprimand.
Conner only let out a long sigh, running a hand through his well-groomed hair. “Look, Jarek… you’ve been a good kid since I’ve known you. You’re shaping up to be an even better man. Better than most of the men behind these walls.” He pursed his lips. “What you did today was probably the right thing, but as soon as one man is free to disobey the chain of command, even if they’re right, everyone else starts thinking they’re free to do the same.”
He pointed in the direction of the barracks. “Their hearts are not as pure as yours, Jarek. They need order to keep them from doing things like what Nathan and his brothers were trying to do to Rose back in that alley.”
By the time he finished speaking, there was an intensity in Conner’s eyes that Jarek hadn’t seen before.
Jarek held Conner’s gaze for several seconds before breaking and looking down at his feet. “I won’t hurt innocents.”
“And I won’t order innocents hurt,” Conner said, sitting down at his desk and leaning forward on his elbows. “Today was a SNAFU. There’s no getting around that, but we’ll sure as hell do our best to make sure it never happens again.”
Jarek shifted in his seat. SNAFU was putting it lightly. He’d almost accidentally killed a kid that had only been trying to protect his home.
Conner leaned back in his chair, staring off at something in a distant corner of his mind. Was he actually going to punish Jarek, or was this just a warning?
Jarek was about to ask if he was excused when Conner suddenly snapped out of his mental deliberation. “I think you and Mark should accompany the team I’m taking to Newark,” he said.
That was unexpected.
“Yes sir,” Jarek said by reflex. Conner might’ve used the words ‘I think you should’, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t an order. “What’s in Newark?”
“We’re meeting with a potential supplier,” he said, waving a hand as if the details weren’t important. “Nothing exciting, but I think it’ll be good for you and I to spend a little time together—make sure we’re on the same page about these kinds of things.” A hint of sympathy crept into Conner’s eyes. “I forget how young you are sometimes.”
“I’m not—”
Conner held up a hand. “I know. You’ve grown up well beyond your years already. You’ve had to. But that doesn’t mean there’s nothing left for you to learn. I just want to make sure you get the kind of support you might need when you’re faced with things like what happened today.”
“Uh, thanks…” Jarek said slowly. Conner’s words might’ve felt a little patronizing, but at least he cared.
Conner shrugged. “I was an orph
an once too, man.” He splayed his hands. “You’re with family now.”
Jarek ran a hand over the back of Fela’s helmet. “Right. I, uh… Thanks.” Jarek stood. “So when do we leave?”
“Meeting’s tomorrow night,” Conner said. “We’ll head out after morning drills.”
He nodded and turned to leave.
“Jarek.”
Jarek paused with his hand on the door and turned back to Conner.
“We might need you to stow the suit for the meeting. Guy we’re meeting is a bit of a gearhead from what I’ve heard. He might get… undesirably interested if he sets his eyes on that caliber of pre-Catastrophe tech.”
The alarm must have showed on his face, because Conner held up his hands and added, “We can talk about it tomorrow. Just wanted to give you a heads up.”
Jarek nodded slowly. “Right. Thank you, sir.”
He turned to leave, mind churning. After growing used to Fela, walking into a potentially dangerous situation with nothing but standard gear would probably feel to Jarek like walking into a war zone in nothing but boxers would feel to the rest of the Iron Eagles. And where would he even leave Fela? Here? He sure as hell didn’t want to just leave the exosuit sitting in the truck while they were in Newark. He’d have to talk to Mark.
Al waited until Jarek had made it outside and found a private corner of the dark yard to say, “I think this is a horrible idea, sir.”
“I don’t like it either, buddy, but…” Jarek shook his head. “I don’t know—I don’t wanna turn my nose up at Conner. He wants to help me.”
“Are you sure about that?”
Jarek frowned. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
Silence. Was Al hesitating? “What are you thinking in there?”
“Today doesn’t add up, sir. None of this does.”
“I might need something a little less vague, Al.”
“Why non-lethals?” Al said, almost immediately. “The Iron Eagles shoot to kill when it comes to marauders. Why hold back today? And where is this ‘client’ that Conner referred to? We still have no idea how these people are working behind the scenes, sir. We’re delivery boys. What if…”
“What if what, Al?” Jarek said, an uneasy feeling gnawing at his stomach.
“You won’t like it.”
“That’s never stopped you before.”
“Sir, what if the Iron Eagles aren’t who we think they are? What if today wasn’t an accident at all? What if Conner’s orchestrating this entire thing?”
“Al, you seriously think—”
“What I think, sir, is that food is the closest thing to universal currency that exists right now, and Conner has found a viable way to mine it.”
“That’s ridiculous, and you know it,” Jarek said, shaking his head. “Conner’s planning on putting on our first soup kitchen next week, for Christ sake.”
“Did you know that drug dealers often give free samples of their wares to hook new business? I believe it’s called a taste.”
Jarek almost laughed. “Sure, yeah. And what the hell are starving Bostonians gonna pay Conner with when they come around for seconds? It’s not like he has much use for money right now.”
“Few people do,” Al agreed. “Which is exactly why now is an opportune time to accrue it. And people have other ways of paying—goods, services.”
Jarek did laugh this time. “Al, just because you’re a robot doesn’t mean that everyone else has to be heartless logic machines. Conner’s got a vision. He wants to rebuild society, man.”
“Maybe so,” Al said, “In fact, I think you’re right. But remember, sir, our society was ruled by the rich. There’s a reason the phrase, ‘no such thing as a free lunch,’ stuck around for over a century.”
Jarek didn’t have anything to say to that, nor was he particularly in the mood to think about it, so he decided to go find comfort elsewhere.
Chapter 8
Jarek had continued seeing Rose since he’d joined the Iron Eagles (almost always late at night and without her father’s knowledge). As much as Jarek enjoyed his work, his midnight trysts with Rose were still easily the high points of his weeks.
The sight of her never failed to set his heart soaring, just as her touch never failed to set his head spinning.
She was his comfort. She was his emotional ground. And she was, much to his frustration, wholeheartedly in agreement with Al as he held her in his bare arms and recounted the day’s events.
He shouldn’t have been surprised.
Jarek had introduced Rose to Al around the time that he’d fallen for her (which hadn’t taken long). It had been a huge relief to share Al’s existence with someone else, but the two of them also had a rather frustrating tendency to come to mutual agreements against Jarek. Any time one of them thought he was off-kilter on something, it was a safe bet the other would agree.
At least Rose gave him kisses—sometimes more. All Al did was yap.
Tonight, though, as he finished his story, Jarek got the impression he wasn’t in store for anything good from either of them.
Rose sat up and turned to stroke his cheek, searching his face with concerned eyes. “You’re changing, Jarek,” she said softly. “Every time you come back to me, I feel like it’s a new person. And most of it’s good, but I…”
“You what?”
“I love that you want to use Fela to help people.” She placed a warm hand on his chest, just over his heart. “You’re an amazing person, Jarek…” Her gaze scanned across his face, her eyes moistening with unshed tears. “But you almost killed an innocent kid today.”
Jarek drew a sharp breath and moved to sit up, but Rose bowed down to press her forehead to his, stopping him halfway as she cradled the back of his neck with her hands.
“I’m not attacking you,” she whispered, tears spilling over to run down her cheeks. “I just don’t want to lose you.”
“You won’t,” Jarek said, his own voice close to a whisper.
The homestead business had been an accident. Why couldn’t she see that? It didn’t forgive them, or let him off the hook for hurting that kid—far from it. But accidents did happen, right?
“I’m yours, Rose,” he said, glancing over at Fela’s collapsed form in the corner and feeling, as he always did, a little self-conscious that Al could hear them. He pushed the thought aside and focused back on her. “You’ll never lose me. I love you.”
Her face scrunched up as fresh tears fought their way free. She met his eyes. “I love you too. I do…”
“Why do I feel like there’s a ‘but’ coming?” He said it with a light tone—even managed to force a half-believable smile—but in truth, he felt like an ice figurine perched underneath a heavy hammer.
“I don’t think I can do this,” Rose said, her tone suggesting that she’d just come to the conclusion that very moment. “I don’t think I can watch you fall into… whatever this is—this place where you can hurt innocent people and then brush it off like it was just an accident.”
“I’m not brushing anything off! And it was an accident.”
“Does that really matter?” she said. “So what if it was an accident? Where do you draw the line next time? When do the accidents become too much?”
“This is ridiculous. It was…” He shook his head. “You’ve never appreciated what we’re trying to do. The world is a shitty place, and we’re doing our best to make it better.”
“By attacking innocent homesteads?”
Jarek clenched his jaw and was surprised to hear his own knuckles cracking. “It’s not like we could walk in and go, ‘Hey, are you guys marauders? ‘Cause if so, we’re gonna take your base here!’ You don’t know what it’s like out there.”
“No,” she said, her jaw quivering beneath a dark look. “What would I know about the dangers of the world these days? I just live my sheltered perfect life here under my daddy’s protective blanket, right? It’s not like I almost became one of those victims you keep using to justify everything.”
“You did almost become one of those victims,” Jarek said, his voice rising. “And who saved you?”
She looked at him with bleary eyes, her nose wrinkling uncontrollably as a round of sobs threatened to take her. She took a semi-steady breath and said, “Not this person,” shaking her head. “Someone like him, maybe, but not you.”
Jarek stared at her with an open mouth, feeling as if she’d just reached through his abdominal wall and clamped down on his intestines with her bare hands.
He was silent for a long while, his mouth working wordlessly.
How could she say that? How could she… He was trying to do a good thing here. Couldn’t she see that? Didn’t that count for something when the shit hit the fan? There were countless people in the world these days who would do what he’d done that day and not bat an eye over it, but he wasn’t one of them. He might’ve messed up, but he was still one of the good guys…
Right?
“What do you want me say?” he finally asked, his voice barely a whisper.
She cupped his face in her hands, stroking at his cheeks with soft, thoughtful motions. Her face was marked with tear trails and her eyes were bleary, but she’d stopped crying for the moment.
“Say you’ll leave it behind,” she whispered after a long silence. “Say you’ll come be with me. We could go somewhere else—anywhere.” She made an airy sound somewhere between a sob and a chuckle. “We could move west and start our own homestead. Just say you’ll come away with me.”
Jarek searched her beautiful, green, tear-soaked eyes.
He could say yes—should say yes, even. Rose was the best thing he’d found since the Catastrophe. Nothing was more important than her and Al.
But…
His gaze flicked over to Fela’s form in the corner of the room.
But what about everyone else?
With Fela, Jarek had the power to stand up for what was right and win the fights that others couldn’t. He had the power to help people.
Could he really walk away from that to go seek out a life of peace and quiet with the girl that he loved? Could he be that selfish?
Soldier of Charity: A Prequel to the Harvesters Series Page 4