Overthrown II: The Resurrected (Overthrown Trilogy Book 2)

by Judd Vowell

  “Doctor here to see you,” the soldier said. “Says it’s important. You got five minutes. Sergeant’s orders.”

  Dr. Raj entered the room. One bed was made crisply, the other untucked and slept in. “No roommate?” he asked Archer.

  “Not at the moment. He’s working. What are you doing here, doc?” Archer was aware of the two soldiers listening, just as Dr. Raj was. He didn’t betray any recognition of why the doctor was there, even though he had his suspicions.

  “I have a report here, soldier, that I want you to review. And then you’ll need to come back to the hospital for further testing. As soon as possible.”

  “What’s this about, doc?”

  “It’s your head, Mr. Archer. We thought you may have had a concussion a few weeks ago, remember? Turns out we were wrong.” Dr. Raj gave him a slight nod, unnoticeable to the soldiers waiting at the door. He handed the file to Archer. “You get to the hospital to see me as soon as you can.”

  “Yessir, doc. Will do.”

  Dr. Raj left the room, and Archer closed the door behind him. He sat on his bed and touched the scar on his forehead. His conversation with the doctor after the battle at Camp Overlord had been brief, but he remembered it clearly. He opened the file that Dr. Raj had handed him. The message was short, but it told him all he needed to know:

  No concussion, Mr. Archer. Turns out you were right. There’s no good reason after all.

  21.

  W hen Archer arrived at the hospital an hour after the doctor’s visit to his barracks, Dr. Raj was waiting for him. He led the soldier into one of the examination rooms and closed the door behind them.

  “Thanks for coming so quickly,” Dr. Raj said. “I guess your presence means that you’re still feeling as you were when we first spoke?”

  “Yeah, doc, your guess is right. Problem is, I don’t see a way out.”

  “But what if there was, a way out, as you say?”

  “I’m all ears, doc.”

  “I think I can get you out of the grid, but there’s one catch.”

  “There always is. What are we talking about?”

  “You have to assist me with something,” Dr. Raj said. “There are two prisoners being held in the old courthouse’s jail.”

  “Yeah, I know. A woman and a young girl. They just moved the girl there yesterday.”

  “Very good. You know more than I thought you might.”

  “Let’s just say that I’ve got friends close to the situation.”

  “Even better,” the doctor said. “Because we’re going to need all the help we can get.”

  “To do what?” Archer asked.

  “Bust those ladies out, Mr. Archer.”

  ΔΔΔ

  Archer had three Omega XT friends who, like him, had begun to question the ANTI- movement. He had known them all before the Great Dark, when they had been in the Marines together. Two of the friends were guards at the jail. They were the ones close to the situation, as Archer had told Dr. Raj, and they had seen enough of Anna’s torture. When they came to Archer, he had listened closely to them and grew more disillusioned than he already was.

  Then there was Laz, Archer’s bunkmate and his oldest friend. They had talked in private moments, of misconceptions and being misled. They shared a new sentiment toward Salvador and his supposed revolution, one of disdain and disappointment.

  Eventually, the four soldiers had decided as a group to desert ANTI- and the Omega XT, but they didn’t know how. That’s why Archer was open-minded to the doctor’s idea, even if it meant a huge risk for him and his friends. And once he heard the doctor’s plan, he knew just how huge the risk would be.

  Dr. Raj described his idea, in which they would rescue Jessica and Anna under the guise of medical emergency. Jessica’s slow and uncertain recovery would be the ultimate sleight-of-hand. If someone could administer the young girl a dose of Propofol, she would by all appearances fall back into a coma, at which time necessary medical action would force her removal from the jail. Then they would control the removal, with himself and Archer’s fellow mutineers arriving by ambulance to rush her to the hospital. During the confusion that always accompanies an emergency of that sort, Anna would be taken out as well. With everyone in the ambulance, they would attempt to break through the grid’s border.

  “And how do you expect to get past the Omega XT border guards?” Archer asked.

  “We tell them we have a patient transport to another grid.”

  Archer laughed. “No way they let us through, doc. No way.”

  “Well then, we’ll just have to make a run for it, I suppose.”

  Archer thought for a moment. “For the record, doc, this is the craziest idea I’ve ever heard. But it’s also the only shot we’ve got, I guess. Let me get a humvee to escort the ambulance out of the grid. That’ll maybe look a little more legit. It’s still suicide, if you ask me.”

  “So you’re in!” Dr. Raj said excitedly. “Very good! Now we must act quickly. Salvador isn’t going to wait long before he starts using the girl against Anna. We need to get you inside the jail. We need a layout of the entire basement floor. When do your friends from the jail work again?”

  “Tomorrow, doc. They can get me in there tomorrow.”

  “Yes, very good. Tomorrow it is.”

  As Dr. Raj and Archer parted ways, neither one felt entirely confident in the plan that had been laid out. But neither one knew then that Jacob Marsh was going to help them. And Jacob would hold the key to their plan’s success.

  22.

  T he next morning, Archer and Laz went to the grid’s courthouse a half hour before the guards’ shift-change. Their two friends were at the entrance to the basement jail, manning a large desk with monitors showing different areas of the floor below. The four of them knew that the building was under surveillance, so they acted according to the plan they had discussed the night before.

  “Morning,” one of the guards said as Archer and Laz approached.

  “Morning,” Archer said. “Here for the security sweep.” It was regular procedure at the jail for soldiers to run a sweep of the basement. Archer had made sure that he and Laz were there when the normal sweep team wasn’t.

  “Of course,” the guard said. “Shift-change is in thirty minutes. Make sure you’re done by then.”

  “Shouldn’t take more than a few,” Archer said. Then he and Laz descended the stairs into the jail.

  When they reached the basement floor, they split up and walked each corridor, checking the empty cells. They made mental notes of the jail’s design, including the most direct path from Jessica’s cell to the staircase and how wide each hallway was. Before they left, Archer hid a small wireless microphone outside Anna and Jessica’s cells. He, like all the Omega XT soldiers, had been trained in every aspect of military warfare, including espionage. With this mindset, Archer thought it best to listen in on any conversations that might take place inside the jail. The almost invisible microphone would connect wirelessly to a cell phone that Archer would keep on him at all times leading up to the breakout. If someone had sniffed out their plan, he wanted to know it before it was too late.

  Archer and Laz met back at the bottom of the basement stairs. “Clear,” Archer said. Laz nodded. Then they climbed back up to the ground floor, their first assignment done.

  As they left the courthouse, they passed a man who looked familiar to Archer. He stopped after the man walked by, looking over his shoulder and watching him enter the building they had just left. “Hang on, Laz,” he said. “That was Jacob Marsh.”

  “Who?” Laz asked.

  “The guy who found Camp Overlord. Salvador’s right-hand man. He’s the one who’s been interrogating the woman – if you can call it that.”

  Laz could hear his friend’s voice trembling. “Hold on a second, Archer. Let’s not screw this up before it even begins. Let it go for now.”

  “I just wanna hear what he’s got to say to her, when no one else is listening.” He pulled ou
t the cell phone that was wirelessly connected to the microphone he had just hidden in the jail. “But I swear, if he does one thing to the girl...”

  “Don’t be stupid, Archer. We can’t do anything yet. Besides, what’s he gonna do to her?”

  Just then, the speaker on the cell phone came to life with Jacob’s voice. He was talking to the girl, with Anna interjecting occasionally in her defense. But the conversation was nothing like what Archer had expected. In fact, by the time it was over, he and Laz were both in a state of shock at what had been said.

  “Did we just hear what I think we heard?” Laz asked.

  “I’m pretty sure we just found ourselves a big ally,” Archer replied.

  “The biggest,” Laz said. He couldn’t see Archer’s face, but he knew he was smiling behind his mask when he spoke again.

  “Laz, my friend, this crazy-ass jailbreak may come together after all.”

  23.

  T he creak of the basement jail’s steel door opening woke Jessica in her cell. Her immediate thought upon waking was that her head was hurting. She blinked open her eyes, quickly remembering her previous paralysis. The room was different, not the hospital where she had been before. She took a deep breath before she tried to move. She somehow understood that the next few seconds would define how she might live the rest of her life. To move was to live, for her and everyone else in the Great Dark.

  Using her arms and stomach simultaneously, she pulled herself up into an inclined position. “Hey, it worked,” she thought, but the pain of it all dimmed her excitement. She held herself at that angle, trying to pinpoint her pain, but it seemed to be everywhere. She was about to relax and lie back down when a man appeared at her cell’s barred entry.

  Jacob, excited to see her, spoke quietly. “Good! You’re awake!”

  “Take it slow with her,” Anna said from across the corridor. Jessica recognized her voice, and she tried to say her name, but she couldn’t make a sound. She felt a little less uneasy about her situation, having her pseudo mother close. Even still, she felt afraid, not knowing where she was or how she had gotten there.

  Jacob slipped a key into the cell’s lock and slid the door open. He came in and sat at the end of Jessica’s bed. He tried to settle her, as he could see that she was scared.

  “Hello, Jessica. I’m Jacob. And I’m going to get you out of here.”

  Jessica kept her mouth closed, still analyzing her situation. She didn’t know the man in the room with her, and she had learned not to trust anyone at first.

  “I don’t have much time now,” Jacob said. “They’re watching us. But I want you to know that I’m here to help, no matter what takes place. It may seem that I’m not, but you have to know that I am. Talk to Anna. They can’t hear you as long as you’re in these holding cells. They can see, but they can’t hear. Understand?”

  Jessica nodded, not knowing what else to do.

  “I have to go,” Jacob said. “My job today was to see if you are healthy enough for what’s next. You’re not, by the way. I’ll hold them off for now.”

  “How about getting us out of here before ‘what’s next’?” Anna said softly. “She can’t handle this stuff, Jacob. You know that.”

  He stood and went back into the corridor between the two cells. He slid Jessica’s door shut and locked it. “I’m working on it. It’ll take a miracle to pull this off, but I promise you both that I’ll try.”

  “You’re going to need help, Jacob,” Anna said.

  “Oh yeah? And who do you think is gonna help me?”

  He turned from their cells and walked away from them. They could hear him climb the stairs and open the steel door, then close it behind him.

  Jessica fell back to her bed, exhausted from the few minutes of physical exertion. Her mind was haphazardly racing from the conversation she had just heard. She couldn’t fully comprehend what everything meant. She knew she was a prisoner, and she realized that her future was dismal if she couldn’t escape. But it sounded like escape was practically impossible.

  “Don’t worry,” she heard Anna say. “If Jacob can’t find a way out of this for us, I can. It’ll be a permanent solution, but it’ll be better than the alternative.”

  Suddenly Jessica wished that she had never woken up at all.

  24.

  J acob’s head was a mess as he left his meeting with Jessica at the jail. He had still not thought of a plan to break Anna and Jessica out and escape the grid, and he was starting to believe he never would. Every time he came up with an idea, he would find a hole in it. A hole that would lead to certain capture or probable death. He had spent his life coming up with ways to dupe people. But now, when the right hoax could be more important than anything he had done before, he was lost.

  He was walking from the jail to his hotel, deep in thoughts of impossible escape, when the military humvee pulled up next to him and stopped. The Omega XT soldier in the passenger seat opened his door and got out quickly. He stepped into Jacob’s path, where Jacob almost walked right into him before noticing he was there.

  “Jacob Marsh?” the soldier asked.

  “That’s right,” Jacob said.

  “Into the humvee, sir. Please.” He motioned toward the vehicle’s back door, held open by another Omega XT.

  “You wanna tell me what’s going on here?” Jacob asked.

  “This is not an invitation, sir. Now get in the vehicle.”

  Jacob was smart enough to know that he had only one choice. He stepped onto the humvee’s sideboard and crawled into the backseat.

  ΔΔΔ

  The vehicle turned sharply into an underground parking garage after four blocks by Jacob’s count. The garage was nearly empty and darkened by a lack of natural light. The driver made two loops around and then stopped near a doorway. The other three soldiers got out of the vehicle and led Jacob to the door. The driver waited in the humvee while they went inside.

  The room they entered was small and lit by a single fluorescent fixture in the ceiling. It was a simple entrance area, with access points to the building inside. There was an elevator door on one side with a solitary button next to it. “Only way to go is up,” Jacob thought. On the other side of the room was a gray steel door. One of the Omega XT soldiers opened it.

  Jacob expected to see Salvador waiting. He was thinking that his former mentor had finally seen through his charade with Anna and was ready to confront him. But there was no one in the room. One table and one chair were all that Jacob could see. The three soldiers pushed him inside.

  “Sit,” one of them said. Jacob complied.

  He thought that maybe this was the warm-up group. Maybe these guys were getting ready to tune him up a little, get him ready to talk before Salvador arrived. He mentally prepared himself for the physical abuse he felt sure was about to commence. He had learned how Salvador operated when he wanted information. Jacob closed his eyes and clenched his teeth in anticipation of a beating.

  “What did you tell the girl?” the same soldier asked.

  “So there are going to be some questions before the torture begins,” Jacob thought. “Play dumb, Jacob. Always been the best way to play it.”

  “I didn’t tell her anything. I was instructed to find out if she was ready. That’s all I was doing.”

  “Bullshit!” the soldier yelled.

  “It’s the truth,” Jacob said. “You have to understand, I was sent there to see how her recovery is coming. I have to make sure she’s ready for questioning.”

  The Omega XT soldier who had been doing the talking removed his helmet and then his mask. It was something that Jacob had never seen one of them do. Their anonymity was paramount to their power, so the action confused Jacob. The soldier’s face was young and strong. He wore a thick brown beard that nearly concealed his mouth. There was a long scar across one side of his forehead, not fresh but barely healed. Jacob thought he looked like a mercenary, if such a thing had a defined look to it.

  “There’s something y
ou have to understand, Mr. Marsh,” the soldier said. “We could hear you in that jail today. We know exactly what you’re doing.”

  Jacob’s heart fell into his stomach and his throat went dry. It had been such a simple mistake, but one that just might cost him his life.

  25.

  J acob thought back to his conversation with Jessica before he said anything else to the Omega XT soldier who was questioning him. If he was caught, he wanted to make sure he didn’t reveal anything more than he already had. The conversation had been short, but he had definitely said he planned to get her out of the jail. He could spin that part, make Salvador think that he was encouraging her so that she would heal faster. That just might work. Before he could finish formulating a way out of his disastrous error, the soldier spoke again.

  “Mr. Marsh, if what we heard is correct, you’re planning on breaking those prisoners out.”

  “Now wait a second, soldier,” Jacob said. “You don’t know what you heard back there…”

  “It’s okay, Mr. Marsh. I don’t think you understand – we wanna help.”

  Jacob’s brain froze. “What did you say?”

  “We want in, sir. We wanna help you free the woman and the girl.”

  Something about the soldier’s eyes reassured Jacob that he was being honest, even though a trap of that sort would be clever. Nothing Salvador did would surprise him anymore. Jacob kept up his guard, and continued his denials.

  "I know what you're trying to do, soldier. But don't. I have my ways of getting information from people. That's all I was doing in that jail today. Setting those prisoners up."

  The unmasked Omega XT looked back at his companions, then shrugged his shoulders. "I don't buy it," he said. "I think you want out, just like us. Here's the thing – I'm sticking my neck out in the open right now. I need you to do the same. 'Cause this'll only work if we’ve got trust."