by K. C. Finn
Her voice snaps at the end and the hum of the speakers dies. Kendra is already charging from the scene and Cae quickly follows, looking back to find Julius chugging another bottleful of powder. A moment later the professor bolts after them, one foot landing like thunder every other pace as he re-masks and follows them towards the way out.
Redd Richmond is not with them when they reach the tunnel that leads back to the outside world, but Cae couldn’t care less where he is. The conman is sure to be making his own skilful escape, survival being his speciality. When Kendra emerges back into the smoggy night Cae is right behind her, grabbing her arm to stop her from bounding off down the mountainside before he and Julius can regain their breath.
“Ouch!” she yells, yanking her arm away.
It is the injured arm. Cae can only wave by way of apology, his breath short. But it’s then that Kendra’s calmness in the situation starts to make sense. Before she can stop him, Cae stumbles forward and grabs her arm again, this time at the wrist. With his other hand he forces up the thick sleeve she has been concealing the bloody wound with. Her eyes grow white with horror.
“Don’t” she demands, “Cae stop, you’re gonna-‘
The gash is deep but not as bloody as Cae would have expected. No major veins or arteries have been slashed where the sharp corner of the rock slab landed on Kendra’s arm. And that’s because those precious veins are encased in shining metal. Beneath a thick layer of skin, where Kendra’s bones ought to begin, shafts of what looks like steel run down her forearm. She snatches her arm back and covers it up again, her eyes shining in the moonlight with tears Cae has never before witnessed.
“It’s all right,” he promises, stepping closer to her, “I already know Kendra. I already know what you are.”
Her eyes narrow at him slightly.
“How long have you known?” she asks quietly.
“Since Howard came to Dartley,” Cae admits, hanging his head, “Since the bomb.”
“Good.”
Cae looks up, confused by her reply. Kendra shrugs a little.
“You’ve had some time to deal with it,” she says, a sob in her throat, “maybe you can let me know how you dealt with it…sometime.”
Julius bursts out of the tunnel, one hand over his heart as he throws the other one up through his sweat-soaked hair, relishing in the night air despite its poisonous contents.
“I thought you’d gone without me,” he sighs.
Cae ignores him, taking Kendra’s other hand.
“You don’t blame me?” he asks, “for knowing all this time and-‘
She shakes her head.
“You did right not to tell me,” she says, “I don’t blame you. I blame him.”
It takes the professor only a moment to realise what has transpired in his absence. He stands up fully as Kendra approaches him, his blue eyes deep with concern and apology. Julius starts to speak, but Kendra raises a finger that cuts him off.
“This is no longer your mission, professor,” she says sadly, “You stay away from both of us until this is over. You understand me?”
Julius looks to Cae, waiting for him to step in, to interject, to demand that his father be allowed to be part of the next events. But Cae only puts his hand on Kendra’s shoulder, remembering all the times that she has stood by him, all the things she’s done in the pursuit of what’s right and just. What has his father ever done for the side of good until tonight?
“Answer her,” Cae says.
His father lets out a heavy breath, looking older and helpless for the first time. He stares at Cae vacantly, his mind already starting to wander beyond the here and now.
“Have it your way,” he says bitterly.
30.
The moon is shining fully by the time Cae and Kendra reach the other mountain, their bodies heaving and soaked to the skin from exertion. Kendra slows her pace to keep Cae at her side, their hands locked all the way to ensure they don’t lose one another in the darkness. As they reach the mountainside where the lab entrance waits, their fingers break apart at the sight they are witness to.
A crowd of soldiers stand before the entrance to the tunnel clad in their best fatigues. Most are toting multiple weapons, though one or two look like they’re still in their sleepwear and have only had time to throw their boots on before joining the fray. The menacing crowd is mostly male; their eyes are wide and terrifying over their gasmasks as they huddle in the smoke, low murmurs echoing up the rock-face whilst they watch as one figure emerges amongst them. The first thing Cae spots is his cropped, bleached hair.
“Bardot,” Kendra whispers, pulling Cae low to the ground as they observe the gathering from their relative distance, “I guess they made him sergeant after I left.”
“You know these people?” Cae breathes back.
Kendra nods. “Oh yeah. They’re a regular bunch of psychopaths, even without finding this out.”
“Fabulous,” the detective answers, “So what do we do?”
His question fades as Bardot begins to address the assembled soldiers. He is tall with a chest as wide as a wardrobe, massive arms raised to gain the attention of his peers. The muscles of his face are strained as though he’s grimacing under his mask, his fingers curling and uncurling with rage. The gargantuan man seems to be in pain. The more Cae looks at the soldiers awaiting his words, the more pain he sees in their eyes. Even Kendra, though calmly crouched beside him, is gripping the soil beneath her fingers harder than she should.
“We need a co-ordinated strike,” Bardot growls over his horde, “we don’t know what kind of defences Fowler and Cadinsky could have set up in there.”
Cae makes a little scoffing sound under his breath.
“They’ll have a fit when they go in with their co-ordinated strike and find Howard asleep and tied to a chair,” he whispers.
Kendra doesn’t return his mirth. “Bardot’s a brute, Cae, he’ll give Howard a world of pain if he finds him defenceless.”
Cae feels his jaw tighten. “You don’t think he deserves it?”
“I,” Kendra starts, looking down at the dark ground, “No. Not at the hands of these guys.”
“Do you know how to stop them then?” Cae asks, tuning in again as Bardot starts to give orders to his men.
“I only know one thing.” Kendra rises from the dusty ground, cracking her knuckles together. “I’m the goddamn sergeant around here.”
She marches down the rocky path towards the gathering at the foot of the mountain, Cae trailing briskly to catch her up. The sound of her footfalls catches the attention of a few soldiers at the back of the crowd; one fierce woman even points in surprise, but Kendra just passes her by. Bardot stops talking just as Kendra shoves her way through to the front of the masses, Cae following along the path she has created between the soldiers.
“Stand down solider,” she says, hooking her thumb over her shoulder, “this isn’t your show, Bardot.”
“Sergeant Nai,” the man growls, cocking his head to one side. It’s hard to tell under his mask whether he’s grinning or not, “You don’t understand what’s going on here, ma’am.”
“Don’t tell me what I know and don’t call me ma’am.”
Kendra rips up her sleeve and thrusts her arm in front of the other soldier. Bardot pales visibly, his tanned skin blanching at the sight of the metal in her body. Some of the other soldiers lean in for a better look, but most tear their eyes away, angry and horrified to see what they suspect being proved real before them.
“So it is metal,” Bardot says slowly, “I heard a rumour yesterday at the hospital. Some guy with metal in his throat…” He trails off, his Adam’s apple bobbing hard in his wide neck.
“You think tearing in there and attacking those docs is the solution?” Kendra demands, “They weren’t working for themselves when they did this to us. You’re blaming the pawns, not the player.”
“And you know this how?” Bardot demands, his voice now shaking.
Kendra t
urns, her eyes fixed on Cae. She gives him a nod.
“I was dismissed for a reason,” she explains, “I didn’t know it at the time, but I was sent out there to uncover all of this. I’m sorry I didn’t get back here in time to tell you. You shouldn’t have had to find out this way. But this strike isn’t the answer. You’re hunting down the wrong people.”
Bardot considers her a moment, his eyes once again drawn to her split arm.
“Then tell me who I should be tracking,” he sighs.
Kendra is about to explain when a low rumbling catches everyone’s attention. Some of the soldiers shuffle backwards on the mountainside and Cae reaches blindly for something to hold onto as the ground beneath his feet begins to shake. A deep, booming echo forces his hands back up to his ears and he drops to the ground from the impact of an explosion he can hear but cannot see. Kendra kneels beside him, one hand on his back, her eyes darting around for the source of the sound.
But it’s Cae’s sharp gaze that finds it first in the darkness. The entrance to the tunnel up ahead is even blacker than it was a moment ago. As the sound of the boom dies away, huge billows of deep grey smoke come seeping out of the tunnel, joining their poisonous brown cousins in the night sky. A thick column of smoke streams from the rock and Cae immediately thinks of Howard trapped inside, how he had said that Angelica was interested in gathering explosives.
And that’s when the side of the mountain starts to cave in.
Blood Ties
31.
Disasters always look worse in the daytime than they did in the dark. The sight of the rock-pile and rubble illuminated by the morning sun gives Cae the sensation of insects crawling all over his skin. The explosion is military business and no amount of pleading on Cae or Kendra’s part could have prevented them from being ushered away from the scene last night, along with the three dozen vigilante soldiers who are now under suspicion for causing the blast. Cae knows who is really to blame, but he hasn’t decided on whether to tell the Lachrymosa forces yet or not.
After a few brief hours of broken sleep in the base’s civilian quarters, Cae and Kendra are permitted to return to the mountainside under the pretence of volunteering to help with the clean-up operation. A heavy digger has already been in and removed the top layer of rock that fell down the mountain when the cavern caved in on itself, leaving two thirds of the huge mound still standing with a gaping hole in its centre chock-full of debris.
Cae declines a pair of heavy duty gloves as he steps into the rubble, preferring his own for the task. Kendra is beside him, head to toe in thick fatigues borrowed from the base. She rubs her covered hands together slowly.
“They haven’t found any bodies yet,” she murmurs to Cae, “Where do you think Howard will be?”
Her tone is efficient but her rapid breaths give her true feelings away. Cae claps her on the shoulder, wishing he didn’t need her help so badly. She has enough of her own ordeal to work through without his maniacal enemy adding to her woes.
“We’re standing just about where the entrance tunnel was,” he says, “so Howard and the weapons were right opposite the entrance. I’d say we need to head as far that way as we can go.”
He’s barely started pointing when Kendra gives a curt nod and marches off ahead of him. Cae follows, stumbling over the jagged rocks past other volunteers and suited personnel that are filling plastic tubs with rocks and charred debris from within the secret lab. The detective’s gasmask is full of the scent of burning by the time they reach their destination.
“Let’s get clearing,” Kendra sighs.
It is an area as yet untouched by the rest of the volunteers and, as Cae and Kendra set about lugging huge chunks of rock out of their way, the young detective finds himself watching Kendra’s arms and their fluid, strength-fuelled motion. He quirks a brow at her.
“Did you get that gash treated last night?” he inquires.
Kendra shakes her head. “I did it myself.” She carries on lunging at the rocks, throwing them behind her with erratic determination. “There’s something more than just metal in my system. I still can’t feel pain right. And I’m healing too fast.”
Cae thinks for a moment of Julius and his powerful healing drugs, but decides that mentioning the professor’s name is unwise whilst Kendra has huge lumps of rock in her grip. Instead he goes back to digging, delighted to find shards of glass under his fingertips. Lab equipment, or what’s left of it anyway.
“We must be getting close,” he says.
Despite the possibility that he’s about to uncover the body of a man he was talking to just twelve hours ago, there’s an eagerness in Cae’s movements like a boy searching for buried treasure. If Angelica primed this place to blow, then she wanted Cae to get here for a reason. She’s left something behind for him, he’s sure of it.
“These look like bits of rifle,” Kendra says, holding up a few misshapen pieces of black metal.
Cae observes the shards, his eyes slowly moving beyond them to something else buried under the rock. His mouth runs dry.
“And that looks like bits of lab-coat,” he stammers.
“Damn,” Kendra says, shifting her weight over to the charred but hardwearing fabric.
As she tries to pull it loose from the debris the black and white cloth stays put. Cae comes to her aid, loosening rocks around the lab-coat until they have uncovered the figure’s entire torso, still whole and badly charred. Cae swallows hard, sharing a guilty look with Kendra. She glances around to ensure the other volunteers haven’t spotted the body.
“We should try to turn him over,” she adds grimly.
Cae just nods. The body is surprisingly easy to flip considering Howard’s weight; when it’s laid out on its back Cae immediately realises why. The body isn’t Howard. It isn’t even human.
“A dummy?” Kendra whispers, “We did all this for a freaking dummy?”
But Cae can see beyond the childish trick.
“A flame retardant dummy,” he corrects, “one that deliberately survived her explosion. Help me search it for clues.”
32.
Ward 16.
A single note found in the dummy’s inside pocket. Kendra acquires a buggy to speed them both back to the hospital where they dropped off the garrotted soldier just a few days ago. They ask at the front desk for directions to the ward in the message. Having only been to Dartley General in the past, Cae isn’t sure how he feels about the sterility of the military hospital that now surrounds him as he walks through its halls. There’s no faux scent of fresh flowers in the air, for one thing.
“Let me know if you recognise anyone,” he says to Kendra as they push open the double doors of the ward in question.
Inside the wide, white space there are countless beds filled with ailing figures. No-one has any visitors, the base being so isolated, so every pair of pain-filled eyes turns on the detective and the ex-sergeant as they walk down the central path amongst the beds. There’s only one person in the space that Cae knows by sight.
“You’re that detective guy,” the man says in his augmented voice, waving Cae over, “Did you have any luck with the professor?”
It is the man with the torn-open throat, though a bandage now covers the whole area where his horrific injury had been. The young soldier looks extremely tired, his voice lazy and still humming like a bad phone-line when he speaks.
“In a manner of speaking,” Cae replies, “I never did get your name.”
He holds out his hand for the young man to shake, which he dutifully does. His grip is strong like Kendra’s. The ex-sergeant herself is keeping her distance from the patient’s bed, an unpleasant look on her face.
“It’s Kyle,” the soldier replies, holding his throat with a sudden wariness, “They tell me I’ve got implants in my system: that someone tampered with us when we went under for our medicals.” He bites his lip, looking up at Cae sharply. “You happen to hear anything about that?”
“We’re not here to answer your questio
ns, solider,” Kendra bites back, “Tell me, have you had any visitors other than us?”
Kyle’s eyes narrow. “Visitors?” he chokes, “Only the others from my squad.”
“You’re sure about that?” Cae demands.
The soldier leans forward, focusing in on Cae’s face with a thoughtful look.
“You know, you look a little like the professor,” he muses with a squint, “I guess if you know what he’s been up to, you might not be inclined to talk if you’re on his side…”
Kendra steps up angrily, but another voice halts her motions.
“Leave the poor boy alone,” rasps the man in the next bed, “He’s not who you’re here to see.”
“And you’d know that because?” Kendra asks.
But Cae has already turned to look at the other figure, his rotund form instantly recognisable despite the fact that his whole face is bandaged. Even his eyes are covered over with patches. Leaving the young solider, Cae transfers to perch on the edge of the other man’s bed, looking at his quivering hands and the way he folds them nervously over one another.
“Hello Howard,” Cae begins.
“I wasn’t sure it was you until Kendra started ranting,” the doctor says with a hoarse chuckle, “That girl…”
“What the hell did she do to you?” Kendra asks, visibly shocked by the coverings all over the man’s head.
“I suppose you could say she did me a favour,” Howard replies, a sadness creeping into his words, “At least the soldiers won’t recognise me now if they feel like taking vengeance for BiAndro.”
Cae can’t imagine what the doctor must look like beneath the bandages so he takes Kendra’s arm gently, giving her a look that pleads silently for her not to pry any further.
“I have a message I’m supposed to give you,” Howards says.
“Go ahead,” Cae replies.
“The lab wasn’t the only place primed to explode,” the doctor begins, “Every minute you’ve been here, Angelica’s been giving you the run around so she had time to set things up. There’s a chain reaction ready to blow this whole base to oblivion.”
“That crazy bitch,” Kendra says. It comes out all too loudly, attracting the attention of everyone in the ward. Some of the nurses give her looks, but she just carries on talking. “Why would she do that? Surely it’s gonna destroy all her father’s work?”