The Rebel

by Gerald Brandt

  “Where’s floor C3 and C5?” I asked.

  Cecil looked surprised I had said something. “Oh. Um, way down. Right near the bottom. It may be as low as you can go before everything turns into support infrastructure. Why?”

  “Bryson Searls is down there.”

  “So what do we do about it?”

  “Nothing, yet.” I went back to reading and the room got quiet again.

  Janice’s file wasn’t as big, but way more interesting. She’d been trained by Meridian well before I met her in ACE boot camp. No wonder she’d picked everything up so quickly. Jeremy had put her in the compound to keep an eye on me. When I reached the part where she had called in the attack, I almost threw the pad across the room. The bitch. I knew she was behind it somehow.

  The attack at the greenhouses against Pat and me had been planned by William. The report didn’t say why, but I figured I could piece it together pretty well.

  After her motorcycle accident and capture, SoCal had teamed Janice up with one of their top operatives to watch me. Ms. Peters had made a note in the margins: K.M. responsible for Meridian and ACE downfall? I had to stop and think about that for a second.

  In the end, I didn’t really believe it. Jeremy had been the reason Meridian had fallen, and William had helped him with ACE. I had been trying to find a way to stay alive and get Ian.

  The last note said that Janice had been brought to the city and sent to see a doctor. Apparently I had jumped her from behind and knocked her out, stealing her stun gun, and they wanted to see if her wounds were consistent with that. Janice was playing some sort of game with Ms. Peters, and I was being dragged into it.

  Now we were both up here. Fuck. The last thing I wanted to do was tangle with her again. It was a big city, so the chances of meeting her were slim to none.

  I put the pad down on the tiny desk and stared at the wall.

  “Find anything interesting?” Cecil asked.

  “Yeah. Some pieces of the puzzle finally fit. A lot more still don’t.” I paused. “Is there a way to get to Bryson?”

  “He’s on C Level? Not really. The maintenance corridors don’t go down that far. There’s no need for them there, all the mechanicals are in the regular hallways.”

  “So we’d have to walk in the open. Any security checkpoints?”

  “Not the last time I went. But last time, there wasn’t a lab either. There’s no reason to have a lab down there unless you’re trying to keep it a secret. Whatever they’re doing, SoCal doesn’t want anyone to know.”

  “We could use the same trick, get past any security.”

  “I doubt it would work again. The guys upstairs had to have been found by now. They’ll put two and two together pretty fast.”

  “Then how do I get down there?”

  “You sure you want to? Most of it is sewage disposal and water treatment. Holding cells are just above that. Usually, if you go down there, you’re in a bad place.”

  “Holding cells? What if you went back to being a guard and brought me down there?”

  He thought about it. “Maybe. I’d have to zip-tie your hands again, and fake some orders. They’re a lot tougher to do than maintenance ones.”

  “You think we’ll need them?”

  “Absolutely.”

  “How long will that take?” I asked.

  “I could have them in a couple of days, but that won’t work for you. Our window to get you back down to San Angeles closes when the last shuttle leaves tonight at 18:00 hours.”

  “Why?”

  “Crew rotation on the shuttles. We lose our crew and we lose the chance to sneak you on board.”

  “Doc Searls said I would have three days.”

  “Normally, that would be true. With the war, SoCal has accelerated the schedules.”

  I was so close. “So basically, we need to get Bryson and off this thing in five hours.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Then I’m going down now.” I was surprised at how fast I’d made the decision. “If I get caught, I’m fucked anyway. Ms. Peters already has me.”

  “Not now she doesn’t. And when we get you on the shuttle, you’re on your way home. Do you really want to throw that opportunity away?”

  “I have a mission to complete.”

  “Sometimes you have to know when to abort.”

  “Maybe, but not yet. Get me back into the maintenance tunnels and I’ll go down as far as I can. After that, I’ll play it by ear. Can you get me a uniform?”

  “Nothing that’ll fit. I’ll come with you.”

  I breathed a silent sigh of relief. Someone in a uniform would make things way easier.

  Cecil pushed himself off the bed and reached past me, opening the door. He took a sudden step back, a look of shock on his face. A soldier followed him in.

  “Cecil Howe. We have some questions about your whereabouts for the last—” The soldier looked my way, and I saw the realization hit him. It was all Cecil needed. He rushed forward, slamming the back of the soldier’s head into the doorframe. The body dropped like it had no bones.

  Cecil grabbed my hand.

  “Come on.”

  Two steps out the door, he fell, his hand letting me go. More soldiers ran down the hall. I stared at Cecil as his blood soaked into the carpeted floor, the handle of a knife embedded in his neck.

  “Miss Merrill!”

  Ms. Peters followed the men. One of them took a swing at me. I ducked, pulling the blade from Cecil’s body.

  “That’s enough. She’s not to be harmed. Not yet.”

  The soldier stepped away, the effort it required visible all over his body. Ms. Peters stepped over Cecil as two wires shot into my chest. My back arched and I fell.

  “Thinking of going somewhere?” She plucked the pad from my hand and kicked away the knife. “Maybe to kill some more people?”

  My mouth moved but no sound came out.

  “Shut up, dear. It’s better that way.” She turned to the soldiers. “Throw her into the smallest cell we have.”

  The soldier who’d almost hit me smiled. “Yes, ma’am.”

  “And don’t harm her. If I see so much as a bruise . . .” She let the sentence trail off.

  The look of disappointment on the soldier was swift and brief. I gave him my sweetest smile.

  SOCAL SAT CITY 2—FRIDAY, JULY 7, 2141 1:35 P.M.

  Even though the soldiers were told not to hurt me, it didn’t make them gentle. They put zip ties on my wrists and looped three together for my feet, two tight around my ankles and a long one connecting them together. It let me move, but not much. My hands were tied in front this time, which gave me a fighting chance. Once Ms. Peters was gone, they tightened the ones on my wrists until I could feel them cutting into my skin. I was in pretty deep, and had no idea how to get out.

  We went down three different elevators to get to where we were going. The final one opened in a corridor painted flat gray and covered in the machines required to run the city. This was what Cecil had described. No maintenance corridors needed down here. The sound of machines pumping air and the hum of electrical circuits pushed to their maximum filled the tight space.

  I was led to a door with a single guard standing outside. She opened it and the three of us went through, entering a short hallway. Evenly spaced reinforced doors lined the walls. Holding cells. They were pushing me faster than my bound feet would allow, and I almost toppled forward before one of them caught me.

  “It wouldn’t do to get hurt, would it?” The soldier grinned viciously and ground his thumb into my armpit. Pain shot through my shoulder and down my arm until I gasped. When he let go, only numbness was left behind. “It wouldn’t do at all.” His partner laughed.

  They opened a door and he shoved me through it. I stumbled and fell on a bed in the corner. I was up before the door
closed, hopping back to it. The door locked before I got there. I banged on it.

  “Hey, aren’t you going to untie me?” I banged some more and yelled. No one answered. I stared at the door, filled with a sudden fatigue. How I wanted to be back in the compound with Ian and not a care in the world.

  I hobbled back to the bed and examined the zip ties. They were standard military and police issue, plastic with embedded strands of steel running through the length, giving the tie a tensile strength of over five hundred pounds.

  The locking tab was good as well, thick and buried deep into the grooves of the zip tie, hidden by a sheath that prevented someone releasing the tab with their fingernails. This wasn’t going to be easy.

  I reached down to untie my shoelace from my right shoe, and fed some of it out of the eyeholes. When I had about half of the shoelace out, I undid the other one. I fed the long end through the ties around my wrist and knotted it to the other lace. The zip ties around my feet limited my motion, only giving me ten or twelve centimeters on either side. It had to be enough.

  Lying on my back on the bed, I pumped my legs as though riding a bicycle, drawing the shoelace tightly against the plastic. I pulled on my hands, creating more pressure. It didn’t take long before the heat from the friction melted the plastic and tore through the thin metal strands. My hands popped free. I lay there and breathed for a while, rubbing my wrists. I was halfway there.

  I untied the knot and pulled the shoelace completely out, this time using my hands to move it and melt through the tie connecting my feet. I left the ones around my ankles. I didn’t want to destroy my shoelace and end up running around with a shoe that was falling off, or worse, in bare feet.

  The first thing I did after putting my shoelace back was explore the room they had put me in. It was a glorified prison, though it didn’t look like it was initially designed to be one. A single room with a bed firmly attached to one wall, and a toilet and sink attached to the other. Water flowed from the tap when I turned it on. I was hungry, but if I couldn’t eat, I could at least drink as much as I could hold.

  The walls were composite, the same stuff everything else was made of up here. Fibercrete wasn’t nearly strong or flexible enough for something this massive in orbit. There was no way I was going to break through the walls.

  I tested the door, just in case. Always check everything. You never know what your enemy might have forgotten. That was How to Escape 101. The door was definitely locked. I searched under the bed, then tried to follow the plumbing back into the wall. Even the door hinges were on the hallway side. Despite all that, this still wasn’t a prison. The keyhole went straight through the door. If I’d had a key, I could have just unlocked it and walked out. This was definitely a temporary place. I had to get out before they decided to move me somewhere more permanent.

  I reached into my hair and pulled out the bobby pins.

  The lock looked like it was an ASSA six-pin cylinder lock. They’d been making these for centuries, but the basics of a mechanical lock hadn’t changed. This would be difficult to do with a full pick set, never mind a couple of bobby pins. I bent the pins into shape and got to work. I lost the friction a couple of times before finally picking it open twenty minutes later.

  There was no one in the hall, just more closed doors like mine. I had no idea if anyone was in them, and I didn’t have time to find out.

  The lights in the hallway flickered and turned off. I stood in the dark for a full minute, groping for the walls before they came back on.

  I had to find Bryson and get him out. To do that, I had to go through the guard at the door and get to the elevator. I would check the living quarters first, and if he wasn’t there, I’d try to get down to the lab on C3.

  The back of the guard’s head blocked my view through the small window in the hallway door. She was leaning against it, relaxing while no one was around. I had no way of knowing if there were more of them out there, or if it was just the one. My best guess was just the one, since that’s how many were there when I was brought in.

  Bracing the door closed with my foot so it wouldn’t open, I turned the knob slowly, hoping it wouldn’t make any noise. I thought I heard a small click, and the door moved when the catch released. The guard jerked forward. It was now or never. I pulled my foot away and yanked the door open.

  I was faster than the guard and she toppled backward, falling flat on her back. I didn’t give her a chance to react. Before she could move, I stomped on her chest, forcing all the air out of her lungs. Straddling her, I pressed on her windpipe until she blacked out. She barely had the chance to fight.

  I dragged her back to my room, locking her in. The thought had been to steal her uniform and pass myself off as a guard, but there was no way it would work. She was too big for me to fit into anything she wore. Instead, I grabbed her stun gun, leaving the shock stick behind.

  The elevators were clearly marked. I was on C1, the lowest you could get, by this elevator at least. The way the hallways curved, I could believe it. I pressed C5, where Bryson’s living quarters were, and waited for the door to open. The stun gun went into my pocket.

  The doors opened to a hallway that looked like the one I had left, maybe a little wider and less curved, but the same cables and junction boxes on the wall.

  There was only one way to go from here. I turned left and hugged the inner wall, hearing voices before I saw anyone. Two of them, a man and a woman. I peered around the curved wall. Two guards stood in front of a set of doors. It was the only way forward. I put on my best game face and strode ahead.

  Fake it till you make it.

  The guards stood at attention immediately, staring down the hall as I approached. They made me stop three meters away.

  “What’s your business here?” the woman asked.

  “I’m here to see Bryson Searls. Ms. Peters said he would be down here.” I didn’t know if it was going to work, but at the mention of Ms. Peters’ name, both guards stood a bit straighter.

  “Do you have your access document?” one of them asked.

  “Yes.” I took a step forward, reaching into my pocket. The male guard popped the restraint on his taser. I would have to take him out first. Before he could make another move, I lunged, driving the stun gun into his chest and kicking out at the other guard. I got lucky, surprise was on my side.

  My foot caught the woman below her knee, kicking her leg out from under her. I left the man and drove my heel into the back of her neck, feeling it snap as I was tackled from behind.

  Ground fighting had never been my strongest area. I was too small to have a lot of strength. If the guard managed to get me down, this was over. I leaned into the wall to keep myself upright and spun around. The guard pressed forward, a shoulder aiming for my head. I didn’t have time to duck. I jabbed the stun gun forward, catching him in the armpit, and pulled the trigger.

  He dropped as he lost control of his legs. His shoulder grazed my cheek. I followed him to the ground, pressing my advantage as long as I could. When the stun gun ran out of power, he didn’t get up. I could see he was still breathing.

  I wasn’t sure what to do. I couldn’t leave him behind, and I had nothing to tie him up with. He was just doing his job, and he would do it again if I left him here. I unclipped the knife from his belt and hovered it above his carotid artery. I hesitated, but I knew I couldn’t leave a guard at my back. I plunged the knife in and pulled it out again, just like I’d been trained to do. Blood pumped from the wound.

  It was different in real life.

  Behind the double doors, it looked like an apartment complex. Each door had a lock similar to what I’d seen when I was drafted, the lights glowing red. Beside each keypad was a card swipe.

  I searched the guard’s bodies, careful not to look in their faces or step in the pool of blood. The woman had a card in her vest. I pulled it out and went to the first room, swipi
ng it.

  The door popped open, startling an older man leaning on a cane in the middle of his room. I held my fingers to my lips and left his door open a crack. I swiped the card in the next door, pushing it open to two people sitting on the bed. They were holding hands and not paying attention to anything. I recognized one of them.

  “Bryson.” He turned to look at the door, surprise on his face. The girl let out a small squeak. “Shh.” I stepped in and leaned the door closed, making sure the latch didn’t engage. All I needed was to lock myself in here with them.

  “Who—”

  Bryson jumped up and pulled me into a hug. The girl didn’t look impressed. “It’s so good to see you. Did my dad send you? When do we get out?”

  I pushed him away and looked out the door again. “Quiet. How long have you been here?”

  “About two weeks. Since I left—”

  The girl stood up and approached us.

  “This is Kris, the one I told you about that rescued me from Kadokawa.”

  The girl looked me up and down, as though surprised I could have done anything of the sort.

  “Kris, this is Ailsa. We . . . we’ve been working in the lab together.”

  I nodded at her before turning back to Bryson. “We’ve been working with your dad ever since you left the restaurant.”

  “So how do we get out?”

  “I don’t know. There’s a shuttle leaving this evening that was supposed to take me, but I have no idea who they are. The guy I was with knew. He’s dead.” I was surprised at how calm I felt about it. Maybe because I didn’t know him that well. “Do you know a way to the shuttle port?”

  “I’ve been there once. I could figure it out. But we’re not going to get past the outer door. They leave a guard on duty all the time.”

  “Two, now. I already took care of them.”

  fourteen