by Chris Bostic
“How do you know that?”
Jade scooted over closer to Joe and Leisa. “Odysseus. He just told me he’s online.”
Joe jumped to his feet. “Is he crazy? That’s what happened last-”
Jade took his arm and pulled him back down with unexpected strength. “It’s fine. He’s built to be on their network. He’s basically a spy, remember? He’s not an outsider like me or Smig.”
“So he can hear them?”
“Apparently.” Jade quieted and pointed to the sky. Joe followed her finger to a black shadow growing in size. Soundlessly, it swooped across his field of view from right to left, not bothering to slow as it raced across the complex.
“That was lucky.” Joe nudged Jade with his shoulder. “Thanks for scaring us over nothing.”
“I’m very sorry,” she whispered.
“I’m just kidding.” He smiled. “I sure am glad you’re on our side.”
“You really mean that?”
“Of course. Just like you, I would never lie.”
“Okay, Joe,” Leisa told him. “Leave the poor girl alone. She feels bad enough about scaring us.”
Joe knew she did. For a manmade creation, Jade seemed to have plenty of emotions. That feat alone was enough to make Joe all the more curious about Frederick. Adding honest feelings on top of her looks made Jade seem all the more human.
Odysseus gathered up the others. Joe still couldn’t get over the way the brainless-looking savage clone was so well spoken. He could barely concentrate on the cyborg’s words, but eventually tuned back in when he locked eyes with the bug-eyed spokesman.
“With the hovercrafts all grounded and the defenses in a pitiful state, an order has finally come through for the IFP Hunter-Killers to beat back the enemy,” Odysseus said. “It’s an unexpected gift to have their air power concentrating at the front lines.”
As if to prove that point, explosions began anew in the distance. These seemed much closer than the ones Joe had heard earlier.
“We’re running out of time,” he said.
“Yes.” Odysseus stared toward the battle for a moment. “There is no more time for delays. We should go now.”
“That means us,” Joe told Leisa. He gripped his coilgun and stepped forward with her. “We’re ready.”
“The hell you are,” Connie said. “That ugly mug of yours will stick out like a beggar on Chosin Hill.”
Joe turned to see his grizzly sergeant pulling out a clump of grass. He watched as Connie smeared it all over his already dirty face and arms until he looked as dark as the ash-covered Faith and Barta.
“Beats playing in the fire,” he remarked and tossed the root wad to Joe. “Put on your war paint.”
“I thought you were staying behind,” Joe remarked as he began rubbing dirt on his cheeks.
“Like I’d miss this,” Connie bellowed. “Jade can stay with the others. You need a fighter.”
Joe couldn’t argue; however, Jade objected vociferously. While she debated with Connie, Joe handed the dirt over to Leisa.
“Time for your makeup.”
“You missed a spot,” she said, and smashed the clod on the side of his forehead. “That’s better.”
With dark clothes and blackened faces, they stood waiting for the signal from Odysseus to move out.
Joe stared toward the complex. Bright lights ringed the perimeter and throughout the endless blocks of similarly-shaped warehouses. Even from the high ground, Joe couldn’t see anything that looked like an outdoors training area. Everything had the same sterile, industrial look.
“Where are we headed?” Joe asked Odysseus once he motioned them over.
“Midway down the fence line there’s a drainage way. We’ll hurry down the slope here. It sounds like most eyes will be on the west watching the Hunter-Killer’s fireworks show. Once I trigger the transponder, the rest will know we are approaching.” Odysseus looked over at Connie and Jade who were still bickering. “You guys should stay to the back and do your best to keep out of sight.”
Joe nodded, though he wasn’t sure how well he could hide behind a row of stick figures with bulbous, alien heads. And it turned out that they had even less to hide behind than he had expected.
“I have to leave most of my guys here,” Odysseus explained once they were underway. “If we all come back at the same time, then they will know something has gone wrong.”
“So you’re just a small group reporting back on the enemy?” Joe asked.
“That’s the basic idea.” Odysseus nodded. “Frederick is being held deep inside the complex, without the proper access codes to make it to the exit by himself. Even if we allowed the guards to escort us to the debriefing area, we would still have to fight our way out.”
“So we may as well take them out first?” Joe asked tentatively. “And we’ll have to shoot our way to him?”
“Possibly. Almost certainly to get back outside, which is especially why we need your help…and the others. You’ll see.” Odysseus gestured to his fellow clones remaining behind. “The others will follow us once the guards are subdued, ready to back us up inside the complex.”
“I get that, but kinda wonder about coming back in the first place,” Lesia said. “Why wouldn’t you just communicate your message or intel or whatever electronically? Isn’t that suspicious?”
Joe cringed, realizing that was a great point. There seemed to be no reason for the spies to return to the base. Fortunately, Odysseus already had that worked out.
“We’re to make it seem like Frederick called us back.” He tapped the side of his head. “We need a software upgrade before heading back to the front. The others were farther away, and are trailing behind to come get their upgrade too.”
“That sounds believable,” Joe said.
“It better be,” Connie grumbled. He looked over his shoulder to where he had left Jade behind with her sisters. Joe thought he seemed hesitant to leave her, even though she didn’t have much to offer in a battle. Her skillsets seemed evenly matched if not surpassed by the cyborgs.
“She’ll be fine, Sarge,” Joe said.
“It’s not that,” he muttered. “I don’t worry about those things.”
“Yeah, right,” Leisa interjected. “Heart of stone in the big man, eh?”
Connie huffed and turned away from them. Joe settled in behind his sergeant with Leisa bringing up the rear. They stayed in a low crouch, trailing several yards behind Odysseus’ patrol. The clones stood tall and walked with purpose toward the gleaming double row of metal fencing in the distance.
Besides Odysseus, only four of the clones had come along. Joe second guessed the small group, wondered if they shouldn’t have brought along a couple more; however, seeing how they were all unarmed, he figured that didn’t add much to the initial attack force.
It was all on the humans to take out the guards at the gate, then the cyborgs could grab their weapons and join the fight.
Only they hoped the real fight wouldn’t come that soon. They much preferred to take out the guards quietly, and infiltrate the facility as far as they could before triggering any alarms.
“I’ll need to send a pulse to Frederick to be ready,” Odysseus said as they slowed at a shallow dip in the terrain. “It’s a risk, but a calculated one. If he can be ready to leave, then we’ll save any lost time looking for him.”
“It’s nighttime,” Joe said. “Isn’t he sleeping in his quarters or wherever?”
“It’s nearly daybreak,” Odysseus noted. “Not that time of day matters much to the scientists. Breakthroughs take place at all hours. If someone is close to a discovery, they aren’t allowed to sleep simply for the convenience of it.”
“No kidding. Sounds like being in the Regulators,” Joe quipped. “Sarge never let us sleep in either.”
“You maggots didn’t deserve sleep,” he replied. “There’s no time for pajama parties and mommy making you breakfast when you’re on the front lines.”
Ever since his m
other had gotten ill and his father had worked himself to the point of dropping, Joe hadn’t known those conditions. His life had been filled with early morning chores before heading off to the technical school. And then he had been forcibly inducted into the Regulators.
No, I’ve definitely not been coddled, he thought. But he could sure use some sleep.
With heavy eyelids, Joe plodded onward. Odysseus noted that he’d sent the pulse to Frederick to let him know they were close, but didn’t offer any other details.
“I need to activate the transponder so the guards know we are coming in,” he said, stopping once again. “Assuming Frederick received the pulse, he’ll be reminding them that we are returning for the upgrade.”
Joe settled to his knees. Keeping his head down to avoid letting the light catch his eyes, he watched Odysseus. The cyborg made no physical movement. He simply closed his eyes and lowered his head briefly.
Tired blood ran slow and cold in Joe’s veins. He felt as cold-blooded as the actual savages. The gentle breeze didn’t help. He pulled his shirt collar tight around his neck in a failed attempt at warding off the chill.
Still they waited as Odysseus stood motionless. His four cyborg companions took a knee and watched like obedient dogs. It made Joe think of Bruno and Bruce.
Initially, the shepherds were supposed to have stayed behind with Jade, but they were eventually allowed to run around and keep watch over the attack force from a distance. With orders to bark if they ran across anything suspicious off to their flanks, Joe was at least relieved he hadn’t heard a peep from them yet.
Then a distinct howling rose as the wind whistled.
“Is that the dogs?” Leisa asked Joe.
He concentrated on the sound, and decided it was coming from the fence. “Wind in the wire.”
“That’s not ominous at all,” she said.
“No more than the thunder.”
Leisa nodded. She looked to the horizon as if almost wishing the sun would come up. Joe was ready to be done with nighttime, but not until they’d gotten inside the gate. Preferably after they’d finally gotten to Frederick and made their way back to the relative safety of the woods.
“We’re clear,” Odysseus announced, his eyelids popping open. “No more stops until the gate.”
Joe shielded his eyes from the glaring floodlights with a hand, and looked to the fence. He still hadn’t noticed anything that looked like a training grounds. Nothing but a wide expanse of grass stretched from the fence to the buildings.
The slope had leveled out to where they were nearly even with the valley floor. Odysseus continued onward. Joe’s heart pounded as he kept to a low crouch, practically crawling behind Odysseus’ crew.
Thankfully, they approached a section of fence absent of guard towers. Perhaps the complex felt secure enough with the double line of wire. More likely, Joe reasoned, there were video feeds watching their approach. If so, he didn’t anticipate the conversation at the gate going well.
A couple hundred yards remained to the wickedly gleaming steel fencing. It appeared to be chain-link much like the prison camp, complete with three menacing strands of barbed wire at the top of each row.
Joe couldn’t help but wonder if one or both of the fences were electrified. Although he had never know for certain if the prison camp had employed such a barrier, he had always assumed the worst. No one had been brave enough to touch it to find out.
He wouldn’t touch this one either. Nor would he see it.
Unannounced, Odysseus reached into his uniform and pulled out a tin can-shaped object. With a quick flick of the wrist, he tossed it ahead of them.
“What the heck!” Joe froze, thinking the guy truly was a savage tossing a grenade at the enemy. He’d been on the receiving end of several of those bursts, and reflexively crouched even lower.
No blast echoed back to him. Instead, a wisp of smoke trailed out of the tall grass. It quickly spread across the path in front of them. Eventually, the fence was fully obscured by a low-hanging cloud.
“Smoke grenade?” Joe uttered.
“Fog, thanks to another of Frederick’s inventions,” Odysseus answered. “It’s a harmless mist.”
The breeze stirred the cloud, pushing the cover over a good portion of the valley. Very quickly, and completely odorless. It seemed improbable that such a small canister could generate so much moisture, but seeing was believing.
“Keep moving,” Odysseus urged. “They will not suspect a thing. Fog is common in the valley, especially at daybreak.”
Joe shook his head at the ingenuity. Jade’s creator truly had seemed to have thought of everything. He looked forward to meeting the man, if only they could pull off the riskiest part.
It would prove that much riskier in the thickening cloud.
“We’re gonna have to stick closer to these guys,” Joe told Leisa. “No sniping from long distance in the fog.”
“Yeah.” Leisa waved her hand into the mist and shrugged. “Weird, huh?”
“Very.” He followed suit, feeling the tickle of moisture on his bare hand. “Everything he does is so lifelike. It’s creepy.”
“Quiet back there,” Connie chided. The hulking man was barely in front of Joe, but he could make out little more than a moving shadow.
They went back to single file, with Joe and Leisa keeping to the rear. No longer knowing how much farther they had to go, Joe unslung his weapon and took the opportunity to straighten up a little. His aching back could have sighed with relief.
He tried to visualize how it would all go down. He assumed they would find a gate. A couple guards would step up to talk to Odysseus and let them inside. Once the gate was open, Joe had to take them out.
And then it sunk in.
He was supposed to kill the guards, and these weren’t necessarily prison guards like the brutes at Old Stony Lonesome. They probably didn’t torture prisoners for fun. They might not have even had any love for the Republic. They were just there because they had to. It was either do what you were told or face the consequences. Joe knew all about that. His cool, squishy feet suddenly became very, very cold.
“They want us to kill the guards,” Joe whispered to Leisa. “Like up close.”
She nodded.
“You knew that?”
“Well, duh.” She looked at him curiously. “It’s not like I’m happy about it.”
“Maybe with the fog we could get the drop on ‘em. Maybe just like wrestle ‘em and tie ‘em up.”
“And maybe we can get ourselves killed in the process,” she replied. “We get caught and this is all over.”
Joe’s shoulders sagged. “True.” He exhaled deeply. “Us or them?”
“Kinda. I don’t like it any more than you.”
There wasn’t any time to discuss his reservations further. Connie stopped abruptly. Joe nearly bumped into him.
“Pay attention,” Connie growled under his breath. “We’re here.”
Joe sank back to a fighting crouch and fiddled with his coilgun. “Where’s the guards?” Though afraid of drawing his sergeant’s wrath, he added, “I don’t want to shoot ‘em.”
“I figured as much. That’s why I’m here.”
“Maybe we could knock them out,” Joe said, though he knew his sergeant wouldn’t have any such qualms.
“Maybe I’ll knock you out,” Connie shot back, but added a wry grin. “Get ahold of yourself. This is war.”
War is hell, Joe thought.
Voices rose from in front of them—Odysseus’ first. Weapons clanked.
“Hold it, freak!” barked a high-pitched voice. “Don’t move!”
“We have orders,” Odysseus replied.
“I said no closer!”
“Hang on,” a calmer man said. “They speak. They’re with us…I mean, sort of, I guess.”
“Like hell they are.”
“It’s the, uhm, special project.” The man’s voice grew in volume as he apparently turned back toward Odysseus. “Let’s s
ee your authorization.”
Joe made a mental tally of the speakers, who both sounded so close that he could have practically touched them with the barrel of his gun. He knew better than that, since he couldn’t even see the fence. Regardless, they were much closer than he had originally anticipated.
“There’s no physical paperwork,” Odysseus said. Joe could imagine him pointing to his head. “Look it up on the system.”
“Don’t tell me what to do,” a gruff man grumbled. That made at least three guards.
While Joe shuddered, Connie crept forward. Rather than separate, Joe took a deep breath and snuck off behind him—but not until quickly checking to make sure Leisa was ready.
“We have been ordered to report immediately to Frederick,” Odysseus said. “Complex Three.”
A deep voice muttered something Joe couldn’t make out. That person was followed by the louder, gruff man.
“Makes sense. That’s where all the freaks are.”
Joe had a feeling they were about to open the gates. He kept pressing forward, all the while thanking the fog for concealment. Yet, at the same time, he cursed it for not letting him see farther than his hand in front of his face.
“These others talk?” the high-pitched man asked.
“Not as well as you three,” Odysseus replied.
Joe recognized it as a clue. Definitely three guards. Now if only Odysseus would tell me where they’re at.
“Would you gentlemen please let us inside?” Odysseus said. “Frederick will be wanting to start the upgrades as soon as possible. I was instructed that they are urgently needed.”
“Must not be too urgent,” the higher-pitched man replied with a sharp edge to his voice. “There’s nothing in the system.”
Joe gripped his coilgun so tightly his knuckles turned whiter than the fog. He tried to unclench his fingers, and shifted his weight anxiously from side to side. He needed his aching muscles limber, ready to move. Everything could fall apart in a split second. The waiting was killing him.
The gruff voice jumped in. “Hold on. Something just came through.” The pause ran on so long that Joe had to release the breath he was holding. “Here it is.”