“But if we touch them, we’ll-" the captain said in protest.
“No captain,” Hunter broke in. “You won’t get the disease by touching them. That’s an old myth.”
Truthfully, Hunter didn’t know what effect, if any, touching the Crazies would have on the Guardsmen, but he didn’t care.
He watched on the cameras as the Guardsmen moved out into the crowd toward the three. After Hunter electronically tagged them, the camera followed them flawlessly. As the Guardsmen moved through the crowd, however there was resistance.
“That’s very odd,” Hunter said under his breath. “These aren’t Crazies at all.”
The Guardsmen walked on, pausing now and then to swat at the occasional insect flying around their heads. When they reached the designated spot, they examined the face of each Crazy, but their targets were nowhere to be found.
Hunter saw the group he wanted on another monitor. “Captain,” he said. “They have moved to the northeast corner.”
He watched as the Guardsmen moved through the resistant crowd, continuing to swat the unseasonable insects. When they arrived to the spot, the three were once again gone.
Hunter then saw them further back in the crowd off the northeast corner, and he redirected his Guardsmen. This dance of hide and seek continued with Hunter for twelve minutes, which was all the time they needed.
***
Joniver and Jacob stole into the room, looking for a reference to give them orientation in the dim light. Joniver immediately noticed a muffled otherworldly sound. He didn’t know any other way to describe it, except it was otherworldly. The sound was not natural, like a real sound trapped in a box. What the sound was or where it came from, he didn’t know, but it wasn’t whole. The sound wasn’t exactly mechanical, but it wasn’t human, either.
Joniver and Jacob saw the huge array of donor tanks, rotating slowly.
“What are these?”
“These are donor tanks,” Jacob said. “I’ve never seen real ones, but I saw pictures during training. I never imagined seeing them like this.”
“What are they for? What do they do?”
“I don’t get it altogether, but they draw energy from a human body and convert it to electricity.”
“Human body? How?” Joniver was sick when he realized the muffled sounds were the combined screams of all the people trapped here. “We gotta stop this! Is Olinar in one of these?”
“That’s why we’re here, Dude!” Jacob said.
“How do we stop it? We need to get this stopped now!”
“Easy, easy, Dude,” Jacob said. “We will, but we can’t just start shooting them open. First we’d have a fire fight. Second, if we don’t take them offline synchronously, the person inside will die." Then under his breath, “They could die anyway.”
“I heard that!” Joniver shouted as much as he could with a whisper. “I’ll do whatever is needed. Just tell me.”
Jacob looked at his brother and no longer saw fear. He saw in Joniver’s eyes anger and defiance but more than anything else, he saw compassion. Jacob understood that seeing this donor tank farm was a form of torture to Joniver. The suffering was unbearable to witness, and he was determined to do something about it.
Jacob knew of donor tank farms, but he had never seen, much less operated one. He remembered something, however and looked around until he saw it.
“Here,” Jacob said, going to column mounted control station. “Let’s see if the old access entry works.”
“No way,” Joniver said. “They would’ve cut your entry sequence as soon as you went missing.”
“Mine, yes,” Jacob answered, “but not all the entries of all the men in my unit.”
“You stole them? And then memorized them?"
Jacob nodded, as he entered what looked like a random collection of characters. “Bingo!”
The sequence worked. A heads-up display was before them showing the synch rate for each orb.
“OK, good. How do we find Olinar?” Joniver asked.
“Well, he’s been in the tank a while, so his energy output will be dropping. Let’s look at the lowest performing orbs.”
Three jumped out when Jacob performed his search pattern. He looked at the location code, and turned around to orient himself.
“Joniver, go straight down this line to row four. He should be number twenty-three. Wave at me if he is, and I’ll take his tank offline. Don’t use the comm-pod”
Joniver shot down there in a flash. He stared into the orb and saw through the gel-like substance surrounding a human body. The person did not look like Olinar, he was so thin and gaunt. His face was covered with the breathing apparatus that made identifying him difficult.
Slowly the orb turned, and Joniver glanced back at Jacob and then back into the orb. He wasn’t sure. He needed to see Olinar’s eyes.
Then the head in the orb turned and Joniver heard the muted anguish of the orb’s captive. The head in the orb stopped as if trying to orient, and Joniver looked through the mask and his eyes met Olinar’s.
I see him! I see him!
Joniver stuck an arm in the air to wave, jumping to get Jacob’s attention.
Jacob saw Joniver jumping and hit the de-synch button. As the orb slowed, Jacob headed toward Joniver. “Joniver, do you see the controller to the left? You get on the catwalk above and I’ll control the winch.”
Joniver looked, and next to Olinar’s orb was a small box with a few buttons and a small screen. He saw the overhead winch system for removing captives. The box and buttons were marked.
The orb spun slowly to a stop. Joniver climbed to the catwalk above Olinar, and as he arrived at the location, Jacob lowered the harness. The orb stopped and rolled back to align the doorway with the winch location.
Jacob hit a controller button, the lock on the orb door clicked and Joniver pulled the hatch door open. As he did so, his fingers came in contact with a residual amount of the gel. As soon as his flesh touched the gel, unbearable pain shot up his arm. He pulled his hand back and held it close to his chest. Jacob saw his reaction.
“That’s the stuff Olinar’s been in, and it’s why we’ve heard all the screams,” Jacob said. He threw a protective overall and gloves to Joniver.
The harness went through the doorway automatically, clamped Olinar’s emaciated body and pulled him out. When he reached the catwalk height, Joniver pulled the breathing apparatus from his face, and the winch system let go.
Protected by the coverall, Joniver caught Olinar in his arms and sat him down on the catwalk.
“Hey buddy,” Joniver said.
“Hey,” Olinar said in a thin, shaky voice. Joniver thought back to the market and laughing with Olinar, and Olinar telling him he had to be careful of Michaels. This voice was only a whisper of the one he remembered but the eyes, the eyes were Olinar’s. His face was drooping on one side. He was limp, and his right hand looked drawn up, as if it had shrunk or withered.
“You ok?” Joniver asked.
“Sure,” Olinar said. “Just taking this rig out for a spin.” He tried to smile, but passed out in Joniver’s arms.
“We’ve got to get the rest of them. We-" Joniver said.
“No!” Jacob cut him off. “Joniver, we will come back for them, but if we stop it now, we will be trapped. We gotta go.”
They wiped the gel from Olinar’s body, and Joniver lifted Olinar to his shoulders in a fireman’s carry.
“How long has he been in there?” Joniver asked. He heard Olinar’s labored breathing and spurts of coughing. Both sounded painful.
“I don’t know, but he was in there a long time,” Jacob answered. “And it looks like they tortured him first. I’d say he’s lucky to be alive.”
“I don’t think he will be if we don’t get him back to the compound soon."
“We still have a lot to do,” Jacob said. “We can give him to another Angriff to take back - or, maybe Huá.”
“I doubt we can convince her,” Joniver said, as he h
urried forward.
At least step one was complete, Joniver thought.
Chapter 33
Once outside, Joniver met two Angriff who took Olinar from him. One was a medic, who gave the thumbs up as they loaded Olinar in the truck. There was a danger with all this moving during the daylight hours, but a daylight attack was their biggest surprise. As the truck drove off with Olinar, Joniver worried that it might not arrive at the compound safely, but he had more than his share of worries just now. Jacob hit him on the arm and motioned for him to get back inside.
Jacob forced three short bursts on the comm-pod as the signal to form up. They met Dunston in the agreed hallway. Huá was with him followed by at least two dozen Angriff, all with knit hoods pulled down over their faces. Jacob, Joniver, Dunston and Huá pulled their masks down as well, although Joniver wondered what good it did. After all, it was daylight and this group obviously did not belong here. He would later learn the habits of soldiers are hard to break, but for now, he pulled his mask down without complaint.
“Gnats?” Jacob asked.
Dunston nodded and motioned to two Angriff. They dropped to their knees and opened their packs. In seconds they activated the miniature flying surveillance modules. They both nodded indicating both directions clear.
“We go for Hunter first,” Jacob said to Dunston, who nodded and gave thumbs up.
Intelligence reported Hunter was here at the Old Airport, but they did not have a specific location, and it was a big place. There was no exfiltration plan this time. If they succeeded, they would not need one, and if they failed, it wouldn’t matter.
***
Hunter jumped to his feet, slamming his palms on his desk in fury. These people think they can get the best of me, he thought. Where are they? I need more Guardsmen. The Crazies and their mob have pulled the forces to the Station, and they’ve trapped them.
While Hunter had his Guardsmen searching for the brothers in the crowd, across the street from each corner of the building sat a pair of Angriff. Each Angriff pair controlled eight GNAT’s. These were similar to the units Dunston used for Joniver’s rescue from the Old Airport. The difference was these had been built under Mganga’s direction before they left the Crazies compound.
The GNAT’s sat on top of the security cameras mounted at each corner of the Station. In network with the units flying over the crowd, they sent a digitized image to the building cameras. In this case, Hunter saw three people he identified as Joniver, Jacob and Huá Lōng. The three were initially in the crowd, but they were a distraction created by the Angriff.
While the Guardsmen searched, the brothers and Huá Lōng took a patrol truck and headed south. They met the rest of the Angriff at the Old Airport, which was their actual destination. The Angriff soldiers controlling the GNATs supplied false images to keep the Guardsmen - and Hunter - guessing.
Meanwhile, Guardsmen who were brave enough to walk out into the crowd around the Station were swallowed like guppies in an ocean. Those who stayed inside the Station were trapped by the sheer number of Crazies surrounding the building. There was no way out unless they opened fire on the Crazies and no Guardsmen wanted that.
But it was too late.
***
The Angriff divided into five groups with seven per group. Each group took one of the old terminal buildings at the Old Airport, and initiated a search. The plan was sound. When one group found Hunter, the others would rally to that location. With most of the Guardsmen deployed to handle the Crazies at the Station, the Old Airport was lightly defended, and movement was easy for the Angriff, even in the daylight. They would not have this window long, however. Finding Hunter and shutting down the company systems must be accomplished quickly.
The Angriff deployed the GNAT’s, and thanks to Mganga and his group, they had dozens of the little bug-like cameras. The GNAT’s flew preprogrammed routes, which Huá Lōng designed. They flew their routes until they were locked on a target by their Angriff controller. The plan was for one of the GNATs to lead them to Hunter.
The GNAT’s will find Hunter, but have we underestimated his preparation? Jacob asked himself.
The group of Angriff in Building 4 found Hunter in just under seven minutes, and they also found Guardsmen prepared to defend him.
“No wonder we could get around so easily, they’re all here!” Peters said.
“Alright everyone, move to Building 4 and remember the plan! If you have any trouble or suspect trouble, stop and call me. Clear?” Dunston asked. He received an “affirmative” from each group leader.
Hunter bunkered in an office on the lower levels of the building surrounded by Guardsmen. He did not know what his nephews and their friends had planned, but he suspected he was their target. He pulled all personnel to his defense as soon as he saw the Station mob was a ruse. He set them in groups of two or three down each end of the long hallway leading to his office.
The Angriff planned to attack each end at the same time, as well as from above. The first few fights were only skirmishes, with a few shots fired here and a few there. The Angriff did not want to kill any more of the Guardsmen than necessary, so they hoped to avoid grenades. Additionally the structural integrity of this area was poor so they wanted to limit damage to the building interior. They moved forward taking out Guardsmen as they could.
The first real blow of the fight came when the Guardsmen rolled flash-bang grenades and assaulted the Angriff positions. The flash-bangs were not a bad idea, but rushing Angriff positions was. As the Guardsmen moved forward, they were picked off by the Angriff, who despite their diminished faculties shot well enough at close range.
As soon as Hunter heard the first shots, he moved toward the door. When the flash-bangs exploded, he moved out of his office and across the hall then up another level. He would have made it undetected but for Joniver spotting a closing door with Hunter’s form moving through it. Soon the way was clear for him to follow Hunter up the stairs.
“Stay with me, Jacob,” Joniver said into his comm-pod.
“I got you,” Jacob replied. “Hurry! I see Hunter moving down the hallway. The GNAT tagged him.”
Joniver leaped up the stairs and burst through the doorway into the hall. He scanned right, then left, and he saw Hunter darting into a far room. He followed without hesitation, and rushed in with reckless abandon like a teenager with his first car. He swung the sword through the air in wild, wide arcs.
Control, control, Joniver told himself. Jacob taught him to think of the sword as his own arm, just lengthened. As such, he could punch with it and he could block with it.
Swinging wildly like it was a stick, was something akin to thrashing in the water when trying to swim. “You can draw a lot of attention, but it’s unlikely you’ll get anywhere,” Jacob would say. “When sword fighting, you want surprise on your side if possible, so you don’t want unnecessary attention.”
Joniver pulled the weapon down and close to his side, the tip up, and the blade parallel to the ground. He walked with knees bent in slow, careful steps.
I’m sure I saw Hunter go in this room, Joniver thought. Where was Jacob? He should be here by now.
Joniver saw movement in the shadows to his left. As he turned, Hunter barreled at him knocking him backward against an old wooden desk. His head hit the corner and for an instant, Joniver was dazed and off balance. He struggled to regain his bearings. In that instant, Hunter jumped on top of him and pinned his right arm against the desk’s edge.
Joniver’s right hand opened and the hilt of the sword rolled to his fingertips. Hunter snatched it, wrenching it away from Joniver before he could grab it again. Hunter jumped up and held the sword up and out in front of himself, as he backed away. The move shocked Joniver, and he paused, raising his hand as if begging.
Hunter held it straight, looking first at the weapon, and then at Joniver. He held it ceremonially as if to present the weapon. His face then turned to a sneer and his hands reversed on the sword from holding it palms up to
grabbing it in his down-turned fists. His knee came up and his arms went down.
Joniver yelled, “No! No!” He rushed Hunter, but it was too late.
Joniver saw everything move in slow motion; the blade broke in three pieces, with a stump attached to the hilt, and two shards of metal. Each fell, tapping alternately on their ends as they bounced against the carpeted floor. The sword Joniver had carried for so long was shattered in one motion.
Hunter laughed. His left hand dripped blood from the tight grip he had held on the sword’s blade, but he felt in control. Hunter swung the hilt of the sword with the attached shard as Joniver rushed him, gashing a cut across the younger brother’s upper left arm. Joniver jumped back in pain as the jagged metal cut him and left tiny fragments in his flesh. The stinging pain was fresh, and the blood flowed in thick streams down his arm.
“You ought to get that looked at, son,” Hunter said in his condescending tone. “Stop, now Joniver, or I’ll be forced to kill you! You were clever to send your Crazies to the Station, but it’s over now, and I’ve won.”
“I won’t stop until you are dead. You took my dad, you took Nana - your own mother, and you tried to take Jacob and Emily. I’m going to make sure you take no one else.”
Hunter backed up. “Joniver,” Hunter’s tone changed to something more serious. “I didn’t kill your father, or take Emily. I did take Jacob, but just to protect him. Emily was not kidnapped by my people, nor did I arrange it, and I did not take my own brother-in-law’s life, much less my own mother’s.”
“Right,” Joniver sneered, continuing his advance. “You’re just so, so innocent, aren’t you!”
“No,” Hunter said. “Oh, no, I’m not innocent. But I’m not guilty of those crimes - and they are crimes! I’m not guilty of those. You are looking in the wrong place! Let me help you!”
“Right,” Joniver said again. He moved with longer strides now, the adrenaline masking the pain in his shoulder.
Hunter jumped behind a stack of storage containers, his head still visible.
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