Shadows of Ash (The Nameless Book 2)

by Adrian J. Smith

  “Fine. At least tell me where,” Lisa said.

  “An old paper factory.”

  Zanzi leant back into the cushioned seat. Lisa was right – they had to make a stand. They had to give themselves a better chance. With Josie back, they had the inside knowledge they needed to succeed. Maybe the faction would be willing to help.

  Thirty-Seven

  Portland, Oregon

  As far as abandoned factories went, McLoughlin Print was normal. It had faded and peeling paint, stains on the concrete, and dirt-encrusted windows that hadn’t been cleaned in years. Some walls had been tagged with graffiti, while others had holes from being kicked.

  They dumped the SUV, and Milo guided them through an auto wrecker and a garbage and recycling center. It was all an attempt to mislead the dogs. Tilly hobbled on her injured leg, leaning heavily on Zanzi as they walked through grease and oil, through putrid water leaking from the mounds of garbage.

  Zanzi remembered happier days when she had come here with her twin brother Liam to help make his short film for AV class. Liam had been obsessed with movies, especially horror. He had wanted to make his film about the vengeful spirit of a bullied worker who went berserk, killing off his tormentors. He had sold it to her as Portland’s answer to the Blair Witch Project. She’d helped him film the background shots of the recycling center with its machinery squishing piles of trash.

  Sadly, he’d never got to finish it, cut down by a coward and his bullets.

  Milo pulled back a section of a chain-link fence and urged them through into the old paper factory. They stopped outside a rusty door. He spoke German into his radio and the door buzzed open.

  They entered, and Zanzi craned her neck, scanning the space. A walkway ringed the upper floor. A smaller room with desks and typewriters lay opposite the main office up high. A clear view of the whole floor. Old, disused machinery was stacked against the pillars. Nowadays, it’d be deemed a fire hazard.

  Two men and a woman, dressed in jeans and sports tops, waited in the center of the room. The woman had a red bandana holding back her black hair.

  “Three. You only have three?” Lisa said.

  “In Portland, yes. More elsewhere,” Milo said.

  The three faction members shook Milo’s hand, and he conversed with them in hushed voices for a few moments, hands gesturing wildly, and pointing outside.

  “We have to keep moving. The choppers have been scanning the area with thermal imaging in a grid search,” Milo said. As if to emphasize his words, the roar of a helicopter rumbled out of the morning sky, along with the sound of V8 engines. The faction members snapped their heads around at the sound.

  “You led them here?” the woman with the red bandana said.

  “Not on purpose, Mendoza. I told them to search north,” Milo said.

  The trio cursed and darted from the room. “We’ll hold them off. Get out of here,” Mendoza said.

  Milo turned. “I can help you escape, but you’ll have to trust me. I can’t be seen with you.”

  “How many will be coming?” Zanzi said.

  “Hard to say. We have teams of three. Maybe four or five teams.”

  “So fifteen?”

  “Maybe. I’m sorry,” he said, before sprinting after the other faction members.

  The whole sequence of events had played out in a matter of minutes. So odd and choreographed, Zanzi thought it was a setup, an elaborate ruse to torment her.

  Lisa glared at her. “I thought you said we could trust him.”

  “He got us out.”

  “Doesn’t mean anything. It’s all a game to the likes of him. Right. We’re on our own. We stand here. No more running.”

  “No more,” Zanzi said.

  Lisa gave the orders. “Lahm, Jacqui, and Tilly. Hide in the office. Keep out of sight. Only fire on the commandos if they get up onto the gangway. Your handguns don’t have the accuracy for long distances. Understood? Leave the bulk of the fighting to us.”

  She nodded at Zanzi. “You and I at the north and south, behind those pillars. Here, take this.” Lisa handed the M4 to her. “You’re a much better shot than I am. Wait until they’re all in the factory. Choose your target carefully. Take out their leader first, then the next. Keep firing until they’re all dead. Stay to your zone.”

  It was the perfect ambush site, with clear views. Zanzi paused and listened hard. Nothing, except the windows rattling in the wind. That didn’t mean that Black Skulls weren’t out there. Maybe they were being cautious. She hugged Tilly. “Be careful. Like in the park, okay. Pretend they’re the Rabids, except these ones shoot back. Just stay out of sight. You’re the back up.”

  “Okay.” Tilly had dark bags under her red-rimmed eyes. They were all exhausted. They hadn’t had a full night of sleep since The Eyrie.

  Zanzi let her go and waited until she was hidden before making her way to her spot. She spent a few seconds getting settled. She needed spare magazines within easy reach but couldn’t decide whether to place them in or out of her combat vest. In the end she did a combination.

  Gunfire erupted from outside, short bursts. Silence, then more bursts. No shouts or screams, nothing. Then a single shot, quickly followed by two more.

  Silence gripped the printing factory.

  As Zanzi waited, she tried to figure out how long it would take Offenheim’s armed men to find them, if they bothered to pursue at all. She bet they would, going by what the commando had said.

  “The boss wants you alive.”

  The boss – Victor Offenheim. He didn’t accept failure. There was no way the commandos would go back to base empty handed. It was a lot to assume, but these men followed orders. Had they killed the faction? Would the Black Skulls sweep the buildings? Would the dogs follow their scent?

  One minute went by. Then two. Three. No sounds other than birdsong and creaking timber.

  Four minutes.

  We should have run. No. I’m tired of running.

  Tilly and Jacqui stood up and shrugged. Lisa waved them back down with a stare.

  Five minutes.

  Zanzi’s ears picked up the faint sound of a dog whimpering like it was being held back from some exciting smell.

  Eight minutes.

  She heard boots scuff on the dirty concrete below. It was a short sound, but sudden and clear.

  She glanced at Lisa who pointed at her eyes and held up three fingers, indicating three men had entered the factory.

  Three was an odd number. Why three? Maybe the rest were in another factory. The trio swept the room. One stayed at the beginning of the row of machinery while the other two checked every nook and cranny.

  Zanzi ducked down and looked through her scope. The commandos had no rank insignia, standard practice. No use telling the enemy who was in charge. She looked for body language, trying to determine who the others were looking to.

  She lined up the crosshairs on the commando standing at the head of the row and waited for Lisa’s signal.

  Lisa held up a fist, then three fingers. Another three Black Skulls. The first group waited for their teammates, then gestured to the second floor.

  Zanzi followed the commando on point and watched as he ascended the stairs. Her finger caressed the trigger guard. Doubts plagued her mind. Yet again, she was being asked to do something that went against her beliefs: she had been trained to kill in self-defense only. She swiveled the rifle, searching out the commando bringing up the rear. Yes, she had been trained in self-defense, but these pricks were going to kill them, sooner or later.

  The factory creaked with the rising sun. A fraction later, Lisa shot the commando on point.

  Crack!

  He dropped like a defeated boxer, crumpling on the stairs.

  Zanzi had run through her shots as she waited. Now she executed her plan. First, she took out tail-end Charlie, then the commando in her zone nearest the stairs.

  Lisa shot her second commando with a bullet to the head.

  The two remaining Black Skul
ls reacted with calm precision. They both ducked behind the heavy machinery while firing into the upper floor. Glass rained down, clinking off the concrete floor.

  While Zanzi pinned down her last commando, Lisa jammed in a fresh magazine. Silence returned.

  “Truce!” one of the commandos shouted. Like in the forest, his voice had a hint of a German accent. Faint, but there. “Hold up a minute,” he called out. “There is no need for anyone else to die.”

  Silence. Zanzi didn’t want to talk. Didn’t want to listen to these guys. A sudden thought hit her. Where were the dogs?

  “Am I right in assuming that those shooting at us are Zanzi Connors and Director Omstead? Am I also right in assuming that with you is Dr. Josie Lahm?”

  Still no words from either herself or Lisa.

  Zanzi was growing frustrated. How did they know who they were? She squinted through the gun sight, but the commando was just keeping his head out of view.

  “Don’t be afraid to speak. The boss wants to see you. He wants you all alive. He was very insistent on that order.”

  “If you want us alive, come up here and take us,” Lisa said, breaking her silence.

  “Well now. If you throw down your guns, we can.” He chuckled.

  Zanzi gripped the M4 tighter. She urged one of the commandos to slip up and expose his head.

  Barking dogs broke up the conversation. A few at first, followed by a whole chorus.

  “Are you coming down?” the Black Skull said.

  “No,” Lisa shouted back. She made a show of slamming in her magazine.

  “This is ridiculous. We have you surrounded. You have nowhere to go. Your little insurgency and sabotage of the cellular towers is over.”

  “Fuck off!” Lisa shouted. She fired, peppering the machinery around the Black Skulls.

  Zanzi glanced around. She saw no way out. They were surrounded – unless they went out the office windows? It was possible. Maybe.

  As she finished that thought, the office windows smashed. Dark objects bounced inside. Immediately, thick gray smoke ballooned out. Zanzi was choking in seconds. She fired her carbine a few times, hoping to hit one of the Black Skulls, but the tear gas took hold, stinging her eyes and mouth.

  She could do nothing but cough and gasp for air as Black Skulls, with gas masks hiding their features, ran up the stairs. Somewhere in her foggy brain, she remembered her own gas mask in her backpack. Struggling, she slipped it on. Now that she could breathe, and the gas had stopped stinging her eyes, she searched for a target.

  The Black Skulls went into the office and dragged out Jacqui, Tilly, and Josie. Lisa managed to shoot a couple of commandos before one slammed the butt of his rifle viciously into her head.

  Zanzi kicked her rifle away and lay flat on the floor. She wanted to keep on fighting but didn’t want any harm to befall her friends. The commandos yanked her to her feet, ripped off her mask and shoved her outside. Zanzi half expected to see Milo standing next to one of the vehicles, arms folded and grinning at them, but he was nowhere to be seen. The Black Skull in charge pushed her to her knees alongside Lisa, Tilly, Josie, and Jacqui. A few feet away, the bodies of the three faction members lay motionless on the concrete, the backs of their skulls blown out, exposing what was left of their brains.

  The commando in charge walked back and forth along the line. He would let out grunts and whistles every few seconds. “You’re all expecting a big speech where I gloat and tell you how hopeless your little rebellion was, aren’t you?”

  “So what’s this, then?” Lisa said. “I thought you said your boss wants us alive. President Ward is a close friend of mine. I don’t think he would be pleased with this treatment.” As Lisa spoke, taunting the Black Skull, her hand slipped in her pocket. For a split second, in and out.

  “Ward works for us, you fool. Just another puppet,” the Black Skull leader said. He placed his pistol against Josie’s temple and pushed. “You disappoint me, Doctor Lahm. First, you run off and get captured by a motorcycle gang. Now, I find you with these people?” He grimaced before striking her across the face, drawing blood from the corner of her mouth. He hauled her to her feet.

  “Put her in the car.”

  He walked along, placing his gun against the back of each woman’s head for a couple of moments. Tilly began to cry, her chest heaving with sobs. She looked at Zanzi, her eyes pleading. The leader stuck his pistol under Jacqui’s chin.

  “It’s a pity to kill you. All day I’m surrounded by pasty ivory skin. Sometimes I like chocolate, if you know what I mean.” He jammed a taser into her neck and kicked her to the ground as she twitched.

  Zanzi watched on in horror. She wanted to taunt him, to say something brave, but she had nothing. She was too spent, tired of it all.

  “What about you?” The leader stood behind Tilly.

  “Not her. Kill me instead,” Zanzi said, her voice quivering. “Me for her. Just let her go. Offenheim will reward you for killing me.”

  Tilly’s sobs grew louder. The commando grinned and tasered Tilly. Her body convulsed and slumped over.

  “No!” Zanzi screamed. She bolted upright and charged the Black Skull. With superhuman speed, he dodged and smashed the back of her head with the butt of his pistol.

  Pain seared in the corners of her mind as she rolled over and focused. The Black Skull stood over her, but his image kept jolting to and fro. Zanzi shook her head, trying to clear the pain and regain clear vision. She managed to get to her knees as an SUV pulled up. Milo stepped out and waved the commandos away.

  “I’ll take over from here. Leave us.”

  It was déjà vu all over again for Zanzi.

  All, apart from the leader, saluted, hopped into vehicles, and drove away. Milo let out a loud sigh, turned, and raised his eyebrows.

  “Is this violence and torture really necessary?”

  “I’m just having a little fun,” the commando said.

  “These are important prisoners, to be treated with respect.”

  “Of course, sir.”

  “Go back to base and get on with preparations. Wave two is being reset. We have ten days. Make sure every citizen gets food, water, and medicine. I’ll deal with them.” He pointed to the women.

  The Black Skull saluted and drove off, with Josie in the back of the SUV.

  Zanzi cursed. Josie was their best chance at unraveling the nanites mystery. Zanzi moved over to Tilly and checked her pulse. Slow, but steady. She cradled the young woman’s head in her lap.

  “You guys did well. Sorry I took so long. I had to make it look legit. I’ll drive you to wherever you need to go.”

  They moved Tilly and the unconscious Jacqui into the second SUV and sped away.

  The sun had risen above Mount Hood. Mixed with the gathering rain clouds, it painted the landscape in dappled grays, oranges, and pinks.

  “Where to, Director?” Milo said.

  “Head west. I’ll tell you when to stop,” said Lisa.

  Zanzi pulled Tilly into an embrace. She let her eyes wander over the forested mountain in the distance. She wished none of this had happened. She wished that her whole family, Liam included, were walking the trails, sharing laughter around the fire at night. Not any of this. This nightmare.

  “It will be okay.”

  “It will be okay,” she said again.

  She repeated herself over and over in her head as she looked at the empty streets.

  “It will be okay.”

  Thirty-Eight

  Makushin Bay, Aleutian Islands

  “There has to be another way,” Booth said. “Why would they build all this, and add the lockdown switch, if they didn’t have an alternative?”

  “You’re asking a lot of the government,” Cal said. She shone the flashlight into the shaft. Hunks of concrete choked the space and tangled the mechanism. Ryan looked down at her. He had tried to climb out, but his way had become impassable after only a few meters.

  “It’s blocked. The building’s collapsed o
ver the shaft,” he said. He clambered down and wiped the dust off his gray fatigues.

  “Say what you want, but we always build contingencies.” Booth began to pace in a circle. He stopped at cupboards and opened them, knocking on the back panels and listening.

  “I hardly think another exit would be hidden,” Cal said.

  “Well, at least I’m trying. What’re you doing?” Booth said.

  “Guys, c’mon. Look, I know we’re all tired…” Ryan paused as a hollow sound rang out.

  Booth grinned and knocked again, getting the same hollow ring. Excited, he pulled out boxes of spare computer parts. He felt along the edges, pushing. The back panel popped open, revealing a narrow tunnel with a metal ladder.

  “What did I tell you? You guys never listen.” He kissed Allie and grinned at Ryan and Cal.

  Ryan let him have his win. They all needed it. He glanced up the escape tunnel. It was clear of debris and dust. At the top was a metal hatch, a glowing keypad next to it.

  Seeing a clear way out gave Ryan renewed hope. Normally they planned everything, had alternatives upon alternatives, back ups, anything they could think of. They never went in blind.

  He turned to Sofia; she was still on the phone to Keiko. She smiled when she saw him looking and hung up.

  “They’re safe. The USS Nimitz is anchored in the harbor. For now, they’re keeping out of sight. Ebony moved them to a cargo hangar. The Black Skulls shot up the jet and all the other planes on the runway.” She glanced at her computer monitor. “Still no word from Avondale. What’s the status of the Skulls’ ships?”

  “Keeping in international waters at present, two hundred nautical miles out,” Allie said.

  “Bearing?”

  “Southwest. They’re circling.”

  The presence of the Black Skulls’ ships concerned Ryan. One thing he was certain of, the US would not allow them to enter American waters without reprisals if they showed aggression. They had to contact USS Nimitz.

  Sofia let out a whoop which sounded celebratory, with a hint of relief. She reached out, clicking on the loudspeakers. “Avondale.”

  “Hi guys. We did it!”