Complex Three (The Savage Horde Series Book 3)

by Chris Bostic

  A sigh of relief caught in his throat when the guard added, “There’s twelve to be upgraded, but I only see five of you. Where’s the rest?”

  A beam of light punched into the mist.

  CHAPTER 28

  Joe couldn’t believe they’d actually expected the whole group to return at once. While cursing his bad luck, he flattened out—barely in time. The flashlight’s beam passed over where he’d been standing.

  He squinted through the fog, determined to pick out a target if things went wrong. So much for hesitating. The guards might have had families or no particular allegiance to the Republic, but his life was definitely in danger depending on how Odysseus answered.

  Fortunately, the cyborg subtly shifted to the side to block the beam. He offered up a quick answer before the flashlight could zero in on Joe and the others.

  “There are more right behind us. We were instructed to get back as quickly as we could.”

  “Fine,” the calmer guard replied. “I can’t see a thing in this cursed fog.”

  “Get in here,” the gruff man barked.

  A gate creaked on rusty hinges. The cyborgs’ feet shuffled.

  Joe tentatively rose back to a crouch. There should have been two gates, one for each line of fence. If they were wide enough, he got the idea he could maybe sneak inside without actually seeing the guards. He could literally get within a foot or two of them and not make out more than a shadow.

  Connie scurried on ahead with a wave to Joe and Leisa.

  Joe wiped the sweat off his brow, or more like the humidity, and followed closely behind. He held the coilgun out in front of himself as if it had a bayonet mounted.

  “Look out, you clumsy oaf,” barked the high-pitched guard at the cyborgs. “Don’t touch me.”

  Obviously, the guy seemed to be freaked out by the savage lookalikes. Joe wondered if the guard had spent any time on the frontlines. If so, a sliver of compassion crossed Joe’s mind at entirely the wrong time. He couldn’t allow himself to feel sympathy.

  Someone jostled in front of him. More creaking followed. Joe couldn’t tell if it was the second gate, or still the first one swinging. He squinted through the mist, but could make out nothing more than Connie’s outline.

  The big man rose to his feet and suddenly lunged forward. A groan followed. Then the thunk of a body falling to the ground.

  “What the-”

  High-pitch’s voice cut off with a whoosh of air.

  “Now!” Connie shouted, but Joe had no idea where to go or what to do.

  He heard the fence rattle and ran for the sound, right on Connie’s heels. He slipped through the gap and found himself face to back with one of Odysseus’ savages.

  The soft “brrr” sound of a coilgun opened up, and the stickman fell to the side. He crashed to the ground in a heap right in front of Joe’s face.

  Joe dodged to the left, Leisa on his heels. They rolled directly into a gray-coated guard. A wicked grin and smoking coilgun pointed toward the cyborgs.

  “Who-”

  Joe raised his weapon like a club and swung it. The guard fired bolts into the dirt as he staggered backward.

  Pouncing, Joe slammed a shoulder into the man to knock his weapon loose. Leisa lunged, and they pinned him.

  He thrashed and opened his mouth to scream for help. Joe brought the butt of his gun down on the man’s temple, instantly silencing him.

  He sagged back. He’d killed the guy.

  Leisa hopped up and called softly for Connie. Their sergeant answered a second later.

  “All secure.”

  “We are safely inside,” Odysseus announced calmly. “The alarm has not been triggered.”

  “I guess that’s his way of saying good job,” Leisa joked, but quickly erased any smile when she saw Joe’s face. “You hurt?”

  “No,” he said, shaking his head. He pointed his weapon toward the fallen guard. “Is he…”

  “Is he what?”

  “Dead.”

  “I don’t think so.” Leisa dropped to a knee and searched the man for a pulse. “He’s just knocked out.”

  Joe sighed. “Thank all that’s holy. But what about Odysseus’ guy?”

  “I am checking on him,” the cyborg replied. “It doesn’t look promising.”

  “Get your prisoner over here, slackers,” Connie interrupted. “We need to tie ‘em up.”

  Joe helped Leisa grab the man’s legs and started to drag him in the direction of Connie’s voice.

  “You got the other two?”

  “Yeah, and they got one of ours.”

  “Are they alive?”

  “Of course,” Connie replied. “You didn’t think I’d shoot to kill if I didn’t have to, didya?”

  “I…” Joe let the words fade away. He found the first guard crumpled in a ball at Connie’s feet while his sergeant worked on tying up another one with strips of cloth. “He looks dead.”

  “He’s choked out.” Connie gestured with his knife to the fallen man. “They’ll both be awake soon enough.”

  They went to work, cutting the guards’ uniforms into strips and binding and gagging them. When it was all done, Joe sat back and took a breath.

  “Now what?”

  “They’re not going anywhere.” Connie turned to the direction where they heard the cyborgs moving around. “How long will that fog last?”

  “At least another half hour,” Odysseus answered. “The sun will burn it off before the cartridge ceases working.”

  “Good. Then we can leave them here.”

  “That will be fine,” Odysseus replied. “If you have them secure, we can head into the facility. Bring their weapons.”

  Joe helped gather up the guards’ coilguns, and headed over to the cyborg. He felt around in the fog like they were walking through a house during a power outage. After a few steps of getting nowhere fast, Joe decided to get Odysseus talking so they could home in on his voice.

  “How’s your guy?” he asked.

  “Nonresponsive.” Unlike how Jade would have been, Odysseus showed no emotion.

  “Can Frederick fix him?”

  “Doubtful. The damage is severe and complete.”

  “I’m sorry,” Leisa said softly.

  “Not to worry.” Odysseus came into view. His unnaturally large eyes blinked. “We’re expendable.”

  “Then let’s go,” Connie said. “Here’s the weapons.”

  Odysseus gestured to the other cyborgs. “You may let them have them. I will be of more help unencumbered.”

  Joe’s forehead wrinkled at the suggestion. He had no particular reason to mistrust the other clones, but it felt wrong to him anyway. He hesitated, but shook off the doubt to hand a coilgun to the nearest one once he saw how Connie seemed to be unconcerned.

  The cyborg took the weapon from Joe without a word, of course. But it almost imperceptibly bobbed its head as a sort of thank you.

  Joe nodded back and quickly turned away.

  “Done,” Connie said. “Now show us the way.”

  Odysseus led the way over to the complex. They kept in a close single file line, walking across a flat, grassy area.

  Floodlights from the buildings ate their way into the cloud, causing the swirling gray fog to be almost blinding. It was a stunning contrast to the misty darkness out by the gate.

  “There should be no problem getting inside.” Odysseus stopped and paused for a moment as if getting his bearings. “We’re already at Complex Three. That’s the nice thing about coming in through the Training Grounds.”

  “Looks like grass to me,” Joe remarked.

  “Like a fancy lawn,” Leisa added. “I was expecting an obstacle course or something out of basic training.”

  “We have one of those too,” Odysseus noted. “One inside, and another on the roof.” He swung his arms out wide. “This is where we first learned to walk and march, and deal with sunlight and rain. Most conditions can be replicated in the lab, but nothing beats real world testing.”


  Connie snorted. “Walking on grass? Not much of a test.”

  “Indeed.” Odysseus pointed off to the side. “That’s why there is a ropes course, a rock wall, and other agility obstacles off that direction. More on that later. We’re ready to head inside.”

  A humbled Connie sat back on his haunches and gripped his coilgun. “Yeah, enough chit chat. What happens when we go in?”

  “I cannot predict that with reliability,” Odysseus said. “With a little good fortune, Frederick will be ready. I’ve sent him another pulse.”

  Connie waved his weapon toward the floodlights. “Then let’s go.”

  “Follow me.” Odysseus spun around and headed directly for the lights.

  The mist oozed by Joe’s face, thoroughly coating his forehead with cold moisture. He was thirsty enough that he was tempted to lick it off the back of his hands, but he was more concerned about what waited for them behind closed doors.

  He flattened himself up against the side of the building. Hard white concrete reached way over his head to the lights, which he still couldn’t exactly see. A single metal door waited for them.

  “It’s unlocked?” Joe asked as the cyborgs spread out to each side like a tactical team ready to burst inside once the door was opened.

  Odysseus clutched the handle. “Negative. Most doors safely behind the fence are unlocked, but Complex Three is different. Not just anyone can get in here.”

  Joe watched as Odysseus turned his palm up and dropped his hand. A cable similar to Smig’s shot out from a wrist flap in his leathery, yellowed skin. With his spare hand, Odysseus took the cable and pulled it out several inches, and edged toward a small silver instrument panel beside the door.

  He paused for a second. “This is where we may tip them off.”

  CHAPTER 29

  “Great.” Connie set his feet, and lowered a shoulder to charge into the building.

  Joe’s heart hammered in his chest. A burst of adrenaline had him amped up, arguably too much. Rather than shrink back like he had before, he felt ready to run.

  Before he had time to really think about what might be in store for them, Odysseus announced, “We’re in.”

  The cyborg pulled the door open, and his three remaining companions piled inside.

  Joe clenched his weapon, ready to fire if necessary. Instead, when it was finally his turn to enter, he saw nothing but a long, sterile hallway. Light fixtures were evenly and closely spaced, each one a square in the middle of the perfectly white ceiling.

  The color scheme, or lack thereof, was blinding, despite Joe having been outside in the swirling gray mist under the floodlights.

  “There are security cameras,” Odysseus announced, though Joe hadn’t noticed anything that looked like a camera. But he knew they could be very small. “We cannot avoid them all. We can only hope that the operators are more concerned with monitoring the enemy’s approach.”

  “Can’t you override them?” Joe asked as they rushed in a line down slick tile that reflected like a mirror.

  “There is not sufficient time to attempt that.” Odysseus hurried through the first hall. “This way, please.”

  Before they made it more than thirty paces, another corridor headed off to the right. They paused at the turn off. Joe crouched behind the others, letting the cyborgs go first. Odd as it seemed, he figured they would raise less suspicion than him and his human companions.

  Both hallways were deathly quiet. Joe wondered if they should have taken the time to put on the guard’s uniforms. Then again, Odysseus seemed to be much more concerned with speed than stealth.

  He pushed them down the endless corridor at a fast pace, only stopping for a split second to peer around intersecting hallways before racing on again.

  “This place is deserted,” Joe remarked to Leisa once they’d sprinted past the third empty corridor.

  “Not even any doors along the hallway,” she said.

  That was equally curious. As they waited at the next corner, Joe leaned to the side to peer around Connie and confirmed it. Though the hallway continued to shoot off straight ahead, gradually narrowing up to a little dot like a tunnel, there was no sign of any doorways.

  Then Odysseus stopped abruptly.

  Built flush with the wall, Joe spotted the first door. A small, inset plaque beside a little crack had a one word label: Lab.

  Not very descriptive, Joe thought.

  “Once inside we fan out and head straight to Frederick’s station,” Odysseus told the others. “No sidetracking.”

  It seemed weird for him to mention that to the other cyborgs, seeing how they had acted like little more than robots with a one-track mind. He figured the comment must have been for the humans’ benefit, not that he had any idea what to expect to find behind the door.

  He would soon find out.

  The wire extended from the underside of Odysseus’ wrist, and plugged into the control panel. Seconds later, an audible click sounded.

  Sirens blared.

  “Go! Go! Go!” Connie shouted, leaping to his feet.

  He rushed into the room as Odysseus held the door wide. Joe tried to wedge his way in past the cyborgs to back up his sergeant, but the cyborgs moved quickly.

  Before Joe could even get a glimpse inside, he heard the breaking of glass and tearing of coilgun bolts through office furniture.

  This is it, he thought. Close quarters combat.

  Joe dove into the room. Across a wide, open area, he spotted a man in a guard’s uniform slumped over a desk. Floor-to-ceiling glass windows behind the fallen man were riddled with spider webs to where Joe could hardly see through them.

  Leisa slid in at his side.

  “Clear!” Connie announced right when Joe had identified the same thing.

  “This way!” Odysseus sprinted across the room to the left side.

  Through the only undamaged section in a window, an area no bigger than a fist, Joe could barely make out what looked like a medical facility. He got a better look.

  Connie slammed the butt of his weapon into the window, showering Odysseus with glass. The cyborg didn’t seem to notice. He just stood to the side and waved the others forward, shouting, “Get ready!”

  As soon as Connie finished busting out enough glass to leap through, he took off down another sterile corridor.

  “Down the hall!” Odysseus shouted. “Follow him!”

  Joe and Leisa got in line, glass crunching under their boots. Once inside, they hurried on ahead past the other cyborgs.

  The sterile environment reminded Joe of the hospital where his critically ill mother had suffered for so long. Rooms with tall windows, all covered with heavy drapes from the inside, lined the corridor at closely spaced intervals.

  “On the right!” Odysseus’ voice washed over them from behind. “Three more down!”

  Connie skidded to a halt and tried the closest door. Of course, it was locked, so he raised his coilgun to batter the window. Swinging hard, he showered the floor with broken glass.

  “Next one!” Odysseus corrected, but Connie was already surging through the curtain. He yanked it aside, stopping Joe in his tracks.

  It was larger than the typical hospital exam room, but seemed to have much of the same equipment. On a table in the corner, a headless savage was laid out like a corpse.

  It sat up.

  With wires sticking out of its skinny neck, the creature lunged for them. Connie shoved it back with a flurry of coilgun bolts. The creature writhed in what appeared to be pain, and slumped to the floor in a flurry of sparks and melted flesh.

  Joe’s jaw dropped. He edged back into the hallway cursing under his breath.

  “Sorry,” Connie muttered as he stumbled back out of the room. Joe had never seen him lose control like that—definitely not in a combat situation where smart decisions were the difference between life and death.

  Connie paused a moment, straddling the windowpane before pulling the curtain shut. Joe swore he heard him say, “Hop
e they didn’t know that one.”

  Joe didn’t linger. Leisa pulled his arm to drag him down the hallway to the next room.

  “Over here!” an unfamiliar man yelled. “Hurry!”

  “Frederick!” Odysseus replied as he flew past Joe and Leisa. “We’re coming!”

  “I need help!”

  Joe assumed the man was somehow trapped in the room, but realized how wrong he was when he finally reached the window.

  In a room about the same size as the headless cyborg’s, a man in a long white coat stood over a long desk. A giant computer display hummed in front him, a dozen lights blinking in random fashion like the cockpit of an old-fashioned aircraft.

  “I need your help,” he said, still without turning around. He pointed over his shoulder with a thumb while hammering on a keyboard with his other hand. “Grab those files over there. I’ll be done in a second.”

  Joe noticed several boxes on the table and went with Leisa and a couple of the clones to grab them.

  “We need to hurry, sir,” Odysseus told Frederick.

  “I know.” He pulled some sort of portable electronic storage device out of the mainframe and put it in his pocket. Then another. “Got what I need. The system can wipe itself while we bolt.”

  Joe slung his weapon over his shoulder and went to pick up a box, assuming it would be filled with paper. Instead, he nearly dropped it to the ground. Metal clunked inside.

  “Spare parts?” he asked through gritted teeth, balancing it against his weight for support.

  “You could say that.” Frederick straightened up to his full, rather impressive height and spun around. There was nothing ugly about the man. Connie couldn’t have been farther from the truth when he had speculated that the inventor was a gnarled, unappealing cretin who couldn’t get a date.

  There were no nerdy glasses or stooped shoulders of an old man. Frederick sported sparkling blue eyes and an athletic build—all while appearing to be a very handsome younger man. Shockingly young. Early twenties, Joe guessed.

  He took a sidelong look at Leisa and was astonished to not see her staring in awe. She was certainly surprised, though the time for being awestruck would have to wait.