by Morgan Bell
“If he’s alive, you mean,” Rosen pointed out.
“Baxter’s alive.”
“How do you know?”
“I just do.”
∞
“What happens if they blow out the hub?” Ganos asked.
“The hub station will be destroyed. The force of the summation wave is enough to breach the safety doors and vaporize an area of about a thirty meter radius,” Fenwick said, pulling up images of the other hubs that had been destroyed by KVB attacks.
“Okay, Drake, you hold the gate. Fenwick, you be ready,” Agent Ganos ordered.
“What are you doing?” Drake asked.
“I’m going to pull our guys out of there,” Ganos replied.
“But Baxter has to transmit the signal.”
“She’s right. There’s no time,” Fenwick said.
“I love hearing that I’m right,” Agent Ganos grinned, and then ran from the transport into the abandoned ball park.
Drake swore to himself and ran back to the gates. Both groups of KVBs were closing fast. “A little help out here!” Drake shouted.
“Coming up,” Fenwick said bringing the HDMP transport’s defense settings back on line.
∞
In the darkness, Agent Ganos moved through the stadium and up to the second level arches. She leapt over bodies and saw bloody footprints leading out into the main hall area. She trotted along the hall, scanning through her sights for any heat signatures. What she found were more bodies, heads blown open, heat signatures fading, strewn along the second floor. She sped up her pace and saw a bright red signature. It turned on her and a gun was pointing back at her.
“Blaise?” she asked.
“Rosen,” the figure replied, and lowered his gun. “What are you doing here?”
“We’ve got to get Baxter out, now. We’ve got a KVB surge and the hub is going to blow.”
“Blaise, Agent Ganos says they’ve got a KVB surge and that the hub is going to blow.”
“Baxter!” Blaise yelled. “How is it going in there?”
∞
The air was close and Jamie’s head wobbled as he watched the display continue to tell him that he needed to wait. Outside he heard voices, but he couldn’t hear what they were saying. He closed his eyes and tried to stop the spinning.
∞
Agent Drake stood at the gate firing. His arm was starting to fatigue and his ammunition was running out. He was picking his shots carefully, taking the leaders out so he could maintain a safe distance between the KVB and the gate. “Getting a little tired out here!” he yelled to Fenwick as he loaded a fresh clip.
“I know,” Fenwick answered. “Give me two more seconds.”
“No rush,” Drake grumbled. “I’ll just stand here popping holes in these while you read an instruction file.”
“Not a productive comment,” Fenwick snapped.
“Not meant to be,” Drake said, shooting three KVBs and swinging his gun around to the other side of the gate.
“Ok! I’ve got it!” Fenwick announced. “Give them a fast volley, then get in here.”
“Thanks for the advice. I’ve been all leisurely out here,” Drake said, firing rapidly. “But now that you say I can pick up the pace, well heck, I’m all kinds of motivated now.”
“Drake, you can be inside or outside the transport when I set this off. Choice is yours.”
“Fine.” Drake emptied his clip and then ran into the transport, closing the door behind him.
Fenwick launched the defense program. The transport lit up, there was a high pitched whine and then…nothing.
“This is some sort of special defense mechanism where they stop out of confusion?” Drake asked, grabbing a rifle from the transport’s weapon cache.
“It should be working!” Fenwick groaned, searching through the transport’s operating directories.
“Should, would, could, don’t mean a damn thing right now. We’ve got ten KVBs past the gate and more following,” Drake said, and jumped out of the transport, shutting the door behind him.
“Wait!” Fenwick yelled, too late.
Drake hit the ground shooting and cleared his way to the gate. The ten KVBs that got past the gate were racing into the stadium. Drake fired nine rounds, getting a head shot in each of the KVBs he targeted. The tenth one disappeared into the darkness and beyond the range of his rifle.
Drake considered following after it but instead turned to assess the situation at the gate. The KVBs were surging forward as a mass. Drake fired into the leading edge of the KVBs that were pressing themselves together at the gate. It was then that the HDMP transport defense system came online in a blinding and deafening eruption.
∞
“What?” Jamie yelled from inside the hub chamber.
“Get out! Now!” Agent Ganos yelled.
Jamie could only hear the muffled sounds of voices, but he was certain someone was trying tell him something. He looked back at the hub panel. It was another minute before he could log in and upload the signal.
∞
The HDMP transport riot suppression system (RSS) was clearing a perimeter of over fifty meters around the vehicle. Fenwick was looking at the monitors and thought he saw Agent Drake dropping back into the abandoned park, just beyond the RSS, or at least that was what he hoped he was seeing. Most of what he could see was bodies being shredded by gun fire, and swaths of KVBs mowed down by the electrical arcs that radiated outward like a sweeping arm around the vehicle.
Fenwick looked at his ground level monitors and saw that the municipal junctions were being hit in a three block region around the Hub. It was only a matter of time before the summation wave was formed. Then he saw it. The red cluster. The summation wave was starting.
∞
“What are you saying?” Jamie yelled at the door.
There was a voice in the distance and then the hub chamber reverberated with the sound of gun fire. Someone was firing at the door.
“What are you doing?” Blaise asked.
“I’m going to get him out of there before he gets killed,” Agent Ganos said, shooting another round into the wall above the door to the hub.
“Fine. But why are you shooting above the hub?” Rosen asked.
“I want to make sure I have his attention before I run into that crowd of KVBs,” she said, then leapt forward, cleared the pile of bodies and started shooting a path through the mass of KVBs.
“What the hell does she think she’s doing?” Blaise asked, shooting ahead of her and to her left to clear the way.
“Saving Baxter,” Rosen answered. He was shooting to her right and ahead of her.
∞
Jamie went back to the access point and saw the hub pause in its link up notice. “What the -” he began.
There was a pounding at the door. “Open up!” he heard Agent Ganos yell.
“I’m getting ready to access the -”
“You are getting ready to die if you stay in there!” she snapped.
Jamie flashed the badge at the scanner on his side and the door opened. Agent Ganos grabbed him and tried to pull him bodily out of the room.
“I have to get the array!” he protested.
She released her hold on his collar. “Be quick about it,” she commanded, and shot at the KVBs who were now closing in on the entrance to the hub.
Jamie swept up the array and his materials and threw them in his pocket.
“Ten,” Agent Ganos announced loudly.
“What are you doing?” Jamie asked, running toward the door where agent Ganos stood.
“Nine. Counting how long before the hub blows,” she said, still shooting.
“Eight. We are coming out!” she yelled to Blaise and Rosen. “Follow me,” she instructed Jamie.
“Seven,” she muttered, and continued shooting. She reached for a clip and reloaded.
“Six,” she said, firing. She was getting ready to hurdle the mound of bodies when a KVB caught her in the temple with a fist.
Jamie stepped between her and the KVB that had struck her and shot it and several more. “Where are we at in the count?” he asked, as she got to her feet.
“Four,” she said, and jumped over the pile of bodies.
Jamie followed, clearing the pile, only to have one of the bodies reach out and catch hold of his leg.
“Three,” Agent Ganos said.
Jamie automatically drew his machete and hacked off the hand from the wrist of the body. The hand remained attached to his leg.
“Two,” Agent Ganos said, waving at Rosen and Blaise to let them know running would be an inspired choice at this moment.
∞
Fenwick saw the wave summation happen. Each of the terminals that were part of the red cluster fired simultaneously and the force went down the trunk to the hub. The time the wave took to cross the distance would be measured in 100ths of a second. Fenwick waited for the explosion.
∞
“Where’s the boom?” Rosen asked as he started to descend through the stadium. It had been a full four seconds since Agent Ganos had said zero.
“I don’t -” Agent Ganos began, only to be interrupted by a blast wave that threw her and the rest of her team off their feet.
Jamie was thrown into the stadium seats below him when the wall of pressure, light and heat blew through the arches and down into the stadium. Blaise and Rosen landed near Agent Ganos on the stairs. Around all of them was a spray of tissue, blood and fluids from the KVBs who were near the arch when the blast occurred.
“You guys look like crap,” Agent Drake told them.
“Thanks,” Rosen said. “What are you doing in here?”
“Your pal Fenwick finally got the transport’s crowd suppression system online so it’s not exactly a good idea to be within fifty meters of it.”
“We’ve got to get to the library,” Jamie said, pulling himself up out of the seats. “I’ve got to transmit that signal to shut this all down.”
“Don’t know if that’s going to happen,” Drake said, stepping over to help Jamie up. “These jokers are seven steps ahead of us. Anything we do next they’ve probably already planned for.”
“Then why do any of this?” Rosen asked, pointing around at the debris field left by the partially vaporized remains of the KVBs.
“I don’t know what the agenda is,” Drake answered. “But there is one. Whether that is the sadistic pleasure of tormenting the prey before you kill them, or if there is another rationale behind this, I don’t know.”
“Do you really think that profiler stuff applies to this type of group?” Jamie inquired.
“Dr. Baxter, I think it applies to this type of group more than it does to individuals.”
“Agent Drake is right,” Agent Ganos agreed.
“I love hearing that.” Drake smiled.
“This group is more like the personality of a psychopath than a single person, because the features of it are broken up into individuals,” Agent Ganos said, stepping down the stairs.
The group followed her as she made her way back to the entrance of the park which they had come in by. Drake noticed it immediately. “There’s no noise,” he observed.
Peering around the corner they saw the transport, surrounded by piles of burning, torn and unidentifiable parts of KVB bodies. The transport was also showing no signs of life. Then they saw a KVB running down the street wielding a section of fence pole. Ten meters out from the transport, there was a crack as an arch of electricity danced through the air and split the KVB through the torso. The creature fell into two pieces where it was struck and its legs continued to kick. The hands and head continued to move, dragging the torn upper torso toward the transport with malevolent intent. This time there was an eruption of gun fire and a line of five shots went from the center mass up to the center of the KVB’s head. The hands continued to wave, but the head ceased to move and the torso made no further progress. There was another arc of electricity and the hands lay on the street, severed at the wrists.
“If you are done having fun in there, we’d really like to leave now!” Agent Drake yelled.
“Roger that,” Fenwick’s voice cracked over the transport system. “I will be ready for you to board in five -”
There was a noise behind them and Drake spun around to see the heat signatures in his sights.
“Hurry up, damn it!” Drake yelled, and opened fire.
The heat signatures were in the low red and clustered together. At the closing distance, he was able to get a head count of at least thirty.
“Clearing from eleven to one,” Rosen yelled.
Rosen was spacing his shots and dropping the leaders.
“I’ve got one to three!” Blaise yelled.
Blaise was moving shot to shot at a one count, and like Rosen he was dropping the leaders. Drake and Jamie were shooting the ones that were trying to flank them.
“Three. Two. One,” Fenwick announced, and the door to the transport flew open. “All aboard that are going aboard!”
“Let’s move out!” Agent Ganos yelled, running forward to secure a position near the gate so that the rest of the team could make it safely to the transport.
“Be with you in just a second,” Blaise said, now shooting faster.
Behind them they heard the sound of a single shot.
“Fenwick, I thought you had that thing turned off!” Rosen yelled.
“Agent Ganos!” Fenwick yelled.
Rosen turned to see Angie Ganos slumped over next to the gate just past the park entrance. He saw Fenwick running out to her. Then up on the roof top he saw the sniper.
“Get back in the transport!” he yelled at Fenwick.
Agent Drake turned and saw it now; Rosen was shooting at the roof top. Agent Angie Ganos was bleeding on the sidewalk. Drake looked up through his sight at the roof top. The color was a bright red; it was someone alive. He flipped off the thermal scan and the image resolved into a man in an HDMP uniform with a tripod. Then he saw the face.
“Marshall!” Drake yelled.
Marshall smiled, and Drake fired. His bullets struck inches below the tripod and Marshall ducked his head.
“Get in the transport!” Blaise yelled.
Rosen lifted up Agent Ganos and ran with her to the transport. Blaise and Jamie focused their fire on the roof top trying to pin down the sniper. Behind them, the KVBs were quickly closing the distance. In the middle of this, Drake stood still, holding his aim, waiting for Marshall to raise his head.
CHAPTER 22
AGENT DOWN
Everyone was in the transport when Drake fired. Marshall hadn’t lifted his head, but Drake could feel the KVBs at his back. He fired one more time and then bolted for the transport. He dove in and the door was closed behind him. The transport made a high pitched whine and sped away.
“Get us to the health campus!” Blaise was yelling.
“Pass me the micromesh,” Jamie said, and Rosen handed him a roll of gray material.
“Shit!” Angie burbled, blood running from her mouth.
Rosen reached over to try and loosen Agent Ganos’ body armor.
“Leave the body armor on!” Jamie ordered, after applying the micromesh to the entrance wound.
“We’re three minutes out,” Fenwick said.
“It’ll be alright,” Drake assured her, sitting down next to her.
Jamie rolled up Agent Ganos’ sleeve and placed a fluid pack with a feeder into her arm. “Angie, I’m starting you on some fluids. We are going to take you straight into the surgical ward and we will have you up and walking in twenty-four hours,” he said, looking her in the eyes.
“Y. .es,” she croaked. Then her eyes were fluttering.
“Stay with me, Angie.” Jamie urged, opening her eyes and looking at the pupils.
“Faster!” Drake yelled.
“Going as fast as I can,” Fenwick said. They were passing from the empty streets near the stadium where all he had to be concerned about was the KVBs who
were running at the transport to streets where there was actual traffic. As they neared the healthcare campus the traffic increased. Fenwick wove around the other vehicles and turned a sharp left that would put them three blocks from the healthcare campus. He hit the brakes. The traffic was snarled all the way up to the hospital.
“Why are you stopping?” Drake demanded.
“There is nowhere to go! The traffic is jammed up all the way to the urgent care entrance,” Fenwick said.
“Then drive on the damn sidewalks!” Rosen yelled.
“You think I couldn’t figure that one out? There are no sidewalks to drive on! There are HDMP transports, first responders’ trucks and urgent care transports on the damn sidewalks.”
“Screw this!” Drake snapped, and leapt from the transport with his weapon drawn and his badge in hand.
Then he saw it; hundreds and hundreds of vehicles jammed in and officers, dressed like him, with guns, waving badges and bodies; bodies of the people who’d been downtown when the rockets hit, bodies of children who were burned by fires. Not KVBs, not KVs, but living, breathing human beings who were going to die, right there in that stretch of chaos that Marshall and Cronus had created when they’d shut down the grid response systems and shot up the down town. Drake saw an abandoned ambulance. The stretcher was gone and he guessed that the driver and the attendants had abandoned the vehicle and run with their patient the last three blocks. Drake rifled through the open ambulance and found supplies. He grabbed handfuls of everything he thought Baxter would need and ran back to transport.
“Baxter, we are going to have to do this here, the street is a…” Drake trailed off. He saw Rosen shake his head.
Drake dropped the supplies on the street and climbed into the transport. The vehicle backed up and moved slowly back south away from the health campus.
CHAPTER 23
FRB ACADEMIC PLAZA AND FREE SPEECH ZONE
Baxter had secured Agent Angie Ganos’ body in one of the HDMP body bags and placed it in one of the transport unit’s honor chambers. Normally these were for “citizen resistors” which was the term for bodies that weren’t to go to health campus but were to be signed off on by one of HDMP’s own medics. Despite this, because they occasionally - during riots - served to transport fallen officers, they were called honor chambers, which looked better on the department budget reports.