by P. T. Hylton
“Good. Make sure they know not to kill Jaden. He’s our ticket into Agartha.”
“They know.”
“Okay, then. Go when you’re ready.”
Firefly switched channels and addressed all the snipers. “All right. Everyone select your marks. Maggie, you shoot Jaden in the leg. The rest of you pick another target. Everyone confirm you’re ready.”
He waited a few moments as the confirmations rolled in. Looking down at the crash site, he knew they’d have to act fast. Jaden and his team already had the away ship loaded onto the flatbed.
If his team were more experienced, this fight would be over quickly, but with this inexperienced crew, Firefly couldn’t help but be concerned. But he also couldn’t disobey his masters.
“Okay all, fire on my mark. Three. Two.”
Suddenly, the vampires on the ground began to move. They were diving for the pavement.
One of the snipers fired, and far below, a fifty-caliber round slammed into a female vampire’s arm, severing it at the elbow.
“Damn it!” Firefly shouted. “Fire! Everyone fire!”
The snipers all began shooting, but they were rattled, and Firefly imagined that had to affect their accuracy. A quick look through his binoculars showed two dead vampires in the cab of the transport truck but no other injuries.
Jaden’s team was in motion now, moving so fast that Firefly’s eyes couldn't track them. Everything was happening so quickly, including Firefly’s thoughts. They were racing through his head, but he was new to this vampire thing and he didn’t know what to do with them.
All he knew was that they’d lost the element of surprise and Mark and Aaron were going to be pissed.
He saw movement out of the corner of his right eye and turned. Ferals were swarming up the building across the street.
“Shit!” He touched his radio and broadcast to the snipers. “The gunshots are attracting the Ferals. We need to get off these roofs.”
He kept his eyes fixed on the building to his right as he spoke. The Ferals had reached the roof and were scampering over. There were three soldiers waiting, two snipers and a spotter with an automatic weapon. The spotter sprayed a wild burst of ammunition at the Ferals, taking down a few of them, but his inexperience was outclassed by their numbers. The Ferals quickly overtook all three of them, who appeared to be too shocked to fight back.
A pang of sorrow flashed through Firefly as he watched three of his Resettlers meet their end. So much for the immortal life of a vampire. These poor bastards had only lasted a day.
“Get to street level,” he shouted into the radio. “Don’t bother trying to shoot them, just get out of there. Remember, you’re vampires and you're as fast as they are.”
A Feral hand reached over the rooftop and a body quickly followed. Firefly lifted his weapon, briefly considering ignoring his own orders and taking this creature down. But then he turned to the door and dashed into the building to join his army on the streets.
10
Alex gave up her futile attempt to sleep after three hours of trying.
She’d probably managed two hours of real sleep before waking up in a panic, wondering where she was. At that point, her mind had come fully awake and she’d known that getting back to sleep was a pointless endeavor.
Still, she’d given it her best effort. She’d lain in the uncomfortable cot for three hours while thoughts of New Haven and the hell CB and her friends still onboard must be going through swirled through her mind. On the rare occasions when she successfully managed to push thoughts of New Haven away, the void was quickly filled with anger and regret that Jaden and his vampires were currently working to recover the away ship while she lay in this dumb bed under a mountain.
When she finally gave up, she sat up with a sigh, left the small room Jaden had assigned her, and went for an aimless walk around the city, letting the corridors and her whim lead her.
She’d been walking for ten minutes when she heard a familiar sound that made her wandering mind snap to attention. It was a sound she’d recognize anywhere: the clashing of swords.
She stood stone-still for nearly a minute, listening to that sound. The rhythm of the clash—a few moments of frenzied clanging metal followed by a small break—made her realize it wasn’t the sound of a battle she heard. Someone was sparring.
Following the sounds, she eventually found herself outside a room she’d never seen before, but one in which she immediately felt comfortable. It was a training facility.
Two vampires, a male and a female, stood on the mat near the center of the large room, each holding a sword. The moment Alex entered the room, they disengaged their sparring and looked at her.
“Hello, I’m Alex Goddard.”
They stared at her dumbly for a moment. Then the female vampire said, “We know. Jaden keeps us up to date on such things. The question is, what are you doing here?”
Alex gave a shrug. “I heard you sparring. Thought I’d come check it out.”
The vampires exchanged a glance. The male cleared his throat. “This facility is designated for vampire use. That way we can cut loose without worrying about accidentally hurting a human.”
A slow smile crept across Alex’s face. “Ah. I see.”
“Good.” The male vampire waited, clearly expecting her to leave.
Which made Alex want to stay even more. “Thing is, I’m the captain of the Ground Mission Team. We’re sort of an elite fighting force. We can go out in the sun and everything. I thought I might like to see how you amateurs train."
The two vampires looked at her for a long moment, as if trying to figure out if she was joking or if she was an idiot.
Finally, the male shrugged. “You want to watch us work, fine. Just try not to distract us.”
Alex nodded. “That I can do. You won’t hear a peep.” She crossed her arms and leaned back against the wall.
Now that she was here, she realized how lucky she was. She’d faced many vampires—well, Ferals, mostly—but it had always been when her life was on the line. Her perspective had been skewed by the rush of battle frenzy. Now she had the opportunity to observe two vampires sparring in a safe environment where she could calmly analyze their skills.
This was a goldmine.
The vampires stood stone-still, their swords raised, staring at each other from across the mat. Then, as if prompted to begin by some imperceptible signal, they both sprang into action.
Alex watched, struggling to follow their lightning-quick movements. She wanted to find a weakness, something that could give her an edge against a vampire or a Feral should she ever be in the unlucky position of facing one at night. After a few minutes, it became clear that finding a weakness was not going to be an easy proposition.
The vampires didn’t seem to tire. After an hour, Alex still hadn’t seen anything too useful. To defeat an enemy like these two, she would need to predict their actions, since they moved far too fast for her to just react. Their brutal strength could make any mistake a deadly one.
With sad resignation, she realized these two were fighting at a level she would never reach. Their technique was masterful, and both were incredible with their swords. Still, watching had made her think about how she might be able to survive a fight with a Feral. It would have the speed and strength of these two, but none of the skill. Feral attacks were fairly straightforward. If she could anticipate their moves, she could strike where they would be in a moment rather than where there were.
But these intelligent vampires? She didn't see any way to beat them.
She was just about to give up when she saw something that gave her pause. The female lunged forward a bit too far, and the male dropped to his back and kicked upward, sending the female sailing through the air. She came down hard on the mat and quickly popped back up, her sword ready to parry the strike she knew was coming.
It wasn’t the exchange itself that sparked Alex’s imagination. She would never be able to pull off those types of moves aga
inst such a fast opponent. Yet, it had given her an idea. A kernel of an opening she may be able to exploit at some point. She filed the idea away in that place in her mind reserved for things that needed to gestate.
She doubted there was much more she was going to learn from watching these vampires tonight, so she slipped away. The vampires were so engaged in their sparring session that they didn’t seem to notice.
This time she had a destination in mind. She didn’t know if the Agartha cafeteria served at this time of night, but she aimed to find out.
She found the place nearly empty. The exception was one table where the rest of the GMT sat.
Alex sauntered over, a knowing smile on her face. “Shouldn’t you be resting?”
Ed looked up at her and chucked. “Shouldn’t you?”
Alex slipped into the nearest empty chair. “Fair enough. I just spent an hour watching two vamps sparring. They are some incredibly deadly creatures.”
“Maybe,” Patrick replied, “but we are pretty deadly creatures too.”
No one objected to that.
“Speaking of being deadly,” Wesley said, “when do we get to go mess up Fleming and save the city?”
Alex looked at Owl. “That depends on how fast we can fix the ship once it gets back.”
Owl said, “The batteries are in good shape, and George and I are pretty sure we can make the new circuit board work. I'm hoping I can have the ship up and running a few hours after Jaden gets it here.”
“That should be any time now, right?” Chuck asked. “Dawn is getting close.”
Alex nodded. “I’ll go check in with George, but let’s start getting ready to move out. I want us ready to roll as soon as the ship is ready. New Haven needs us.”
CB, Brian, and Jessica moved quickly through the maintenance tunnels deep in the belly of New Haven. Brian held up a hand as they approached a tunnel opening that crossed paths with theirs. They stopped, and Brian held up his echolocation device and pointed it in the direction of the other tunnel.
After a moment, he said, “We’re good.”
The group started moving again, almost running now.
CB shook his head and chuckled as Brian held up the device and he caught a glimpse of the three-dimensional image of the tunnel around them on its screen. The stupid-looking thing had helped them avoid Fleming’s faceless GMT goons ever since the encounter with the group Jessica had electrocuted.
It was hard not to marvel at the possibilities that existed in Brian’s mind. He’d made the echolocation device as a side project in his spare time. For someone else, such a device might be the work of a lifetime.
Now here they were attempting to overthrow a leader who would most likely kill them all. It would be a damn shame if someone as brilliant as Brian met his end in these tunnels. CB hoped that their one-in-a-million chance would pay off, but he knew the reality would almost certainly be different. The thought of losing these great people for a cause that was already lost made him sick.
He tried to push the thoughts from his mind. There was no time to go down that path. He needed to focus and hope that his leadership and the brilliance of these two would be enough to pull this off.
Jessica stopped a bit further down the tunnel. “This is the place.”
“Thank the sun,” Brian muttered, a little short of breath. He sat down, resting his back against the tunnel wall. He looked pale, and a thin layer of sweat covered his face.
CB patted him on the arm. “Brian, you really need to get out of the lab more. A healthy body makes for a healthy mind.”
Brian raised an eyebrow. “Okay, Colonel. If I live through the next twenty-four hours, I promise to take up the CB fitness routine. For now, keep your guilt trips and let me rest a moment. I need to concentrate on hacking the system.” He looked at Jessica. “Are you sure the Hub security lines run through here? We’re under sanitation, right?”
Jessica was already working on removing an access panel from the tunnel ceiling. “Have a little faith. I’m more than just a pretty face. The security network room in the Hub is well protected, and the lines have a failsafe, so they would know if we tapped into them directly. But the backbone that they run on shares bandwidth with the agricultural systems. If we tap into the backbone here, we can access the Hub undetected.”
Jessica finished unscrewing the access panel and bent down to place it on the floor.
CB tried not to stare as she worked. He’d been attracted to her for a long time, but seeing her like this, fighting for her life, facing near-certain death with such poise and brilliance, the attraction had grown into an ache inside him. He wanted her badly, both for her mind and her body. Why hadn’t he done something about it before now?
If they made it through this, he vowed to correct that at the first opportunity.
“You are a lot more than just a pretty face,” he said. “How do you keep track of every system on this ship?”
Jessica stuck her head into the opening and looked up. “This ship has to be one of the most amazing engineering feats humanity has ever created. How could you not want to know about every working piece? Now give me a boost. I need to get up into the cable tray.”
CB linked her fingers, creating a step. Jessica’s foot slipped into it and he lifted, boosting her up into the ceiling.
She worked in silence for a few moments, then she re-emerged with a wire she hooked into a device attached to Brian’s tablet. “Okay, you should be tapped into the network.”
“Here we go,” Brian said. He worked silently on his tablet for ten minutes, his fingers moving quickly for a few moments, then pausing for a minute or two while he calculated his next step. Finally, he said, “Got it. We’re in the system.”
Jessica smiled widely. “Okay, that means you’re up, CB. You ready for your acting debut?”
CB felt an unexpected knot of worry in his stomach. Leading a team into battle he could do, but this? This was something else. It was a whole different type of subterfuge.
Brian pointed the camera at CB and manipulated the picture a moment. "Ready on this end. CB?”
The colonel took a deep breath and then nodded. It was show time.
The mood in Daniel Fleming’s office was tense. Sarah and Fleming were alone, but there were two guards outside the door. There was no way any unwanted visitors were getting in this room.
Sarah sat on her chair, not daring to relax for a moment as Fleming paced, muttering under his breath. She had to admit, if only to herself, that she was worried.
This was a crisis. Fleming’s plan had utterly failed. Times like this were tests for a leader, Sarah knew. Would they rise to the occasion, learn from their mistakes, and use the experience for the betterment of their people? Or would they double down on leading their people to destruction?
It wasn’t too late for Fleming to go the first direction, but so far he was leaning hard toward the second.
Maybe this was why Sarah was here. Why she’d gone through everything from being shot to helping him take out the council. Maybe it had all been leading to this moment.
She cleared her throat and leaned forward. “You need to sit down. Relax. Kurtz and his people are out there right now. They will find him. The whole city is after them. Three people can’t hide in New Haven for long.”
“Don’t you think I know that?” Fleming snapped. “The new GMT will get them. Colonel Brickman got lucky. That’s the only reason he’s alive. Luck runs out, and usually much sooner than you expect. It’s not him I’m worried about.”
“Then what is it?”
Fleming let out a high-pitched laugh. The strange, unhinged tenor of the laugh set Sarah’s teeth on edge.
“It’s a hundred things. I’m responsible for this entire city. That’s a job one man can’t do alone. And so far, everyone I trust is letting me down.”
Sarah tried to ignore the sting of those words. “What do you mean? Nearly the entire city’s on your side.”
“Sure, but what’s it ma
tter if those closest to me are so ineffective? Take Firefly. Who the hell knows what happened at Fort Stearns, but it’s clear he lost control of the situation. And then there’s Kurtz failing to take out Colonel Brickman at point-blank range.”
“And what about me?” she asked hesitantly.
“Well, Brian McElroy is currently hiding somewhere on this ship. He was critical to Resettlement, and it looks like we’ve likely lost him forever. There’s no way I could ever trust him again. That wasn’t how things were supposed to go with him.”
Sarah bit back the reply that almost sprang to her lips. She wanted to tell him to screw right off, but she knew he’d only take so much subordination, and that would probably be crossing the line. She’d accepted that Fleming expected her to sleep with Brian for the greater good, but the fact that she’d failed in her mission to do so was almost too much to bear.
Attempting to seduce Brian McElroy had been like trying to seduce a chair. She’d put out plenty of signals, many of them so ridiculously overt, but he’d ignored every one of them.
The more worrying thing about Fleming’s statement was that he was still talking about Resettlement in the present tense. Like it was still moving forward. He hadn’t accepted that it had failed. At some point, he was going to have to realize that the entire Resettlement colony was likely dead. Hell, even most of the GMT squad they’d sent down to assess the situation had died. That was a pretty spectacular failure.
“I think that this could work for the best,” she said. “CB is the perfect scapegoat for the Resettlement project. We can tell the people that it would have been a success, but CB sabotaged it. That’s what caused the failure. You can get the city running on track again and then we'll start over.”
Fleming raised his voice almost to the point of shouting. “Resettlement is not a failure! We may have had a setback, but once we get a full assessment of the situation, we will move forward. We just need to step up the defenses.” He took a deep breath and collapsed into the chair behind his desk. “CB did sabotage Resettlement, by the way. If he would have believed in the project and truly dedicated himself and his team to its success, things would have gone very differently on the first night on the surface.”