A knock on his window startled him, and he saw Hansen’s ugly face leaning over him. Dex exited the car and was about to ask Hansen what he wanted, when he caught sight of the hovercar moving over the river.
“No time for a nap, Hunter. Time to get to business,” Hansen said, clapping Dex on the arm.
The hovercar neared them, the engines sputtering and cutting like a chainsaw in the otherwise silent night air. It landed along the street a half a block down, and a dozen armed soldiers climbed out. Dex followed Hansen and cringed as the Overseer clambered from the top of the hovercar, bounding over the edge and landing softly instead of using the ramp.
Dex had never seen one move like that, and it wasn’t a pretty sight. It looked like an apex predator rather than a disinterested animal. Another joined it, and Dex gaped at the hovercar, spotting two more inside.
“I thought this was our job?” Dex asked Hansen quietly.
Hansen turned to him, his voice low, his lisp not evident. “You want to tell them to sit this one out?”
Chapter 13
Cole
“Florida? There’s nothing in Florida, is there?” Cole asked.
“They’ve reached out to us,” he said. “They’ve been hiding. Tom’s final message had an effect on people…”
Cole knew it. From all over the country small pockets of survivors, be they Freeborn or Roamer, had been trickling in as though their species understood the only way to survive was to combine, to pool their resources, and fight in unison.
“Hiding where?” Cole asked. “I mean, I didn’t go all the way to the south, but I saw enough of the place to figure it was totaled. Hurricanes dropped damn near every building standing, and anything left was just a skeleton.”
Soares shrugged, which annoyed Cole.
“And we’re sure they aren’t on their side?”
Soares smiled, this time his eyes telling Cole that he definitely knew something the younger man didn’t.
“Underground,” Soares said, giving in. “They’ve been living underground.”
“Fine, whatever,” he said as he stood and walked away.
“Don’t go too far,” Soares warned. “We’re leaving at oh-four-hundred.”
Buddy rose with Cole, loyally marking his pace to lope a short distance behind. The coyote had been acting a little off since Lina had gone into the inky expanse of the pre-dawn Pacific Ocean.
Cole kept walking until he found some solitude, which was a rare thing given how many people were living in and around the facility, and sat on a rock to look out at the watery horizon to the west. Buddy moved beside him, going into a kind of biological version of the Tracker’s standby mode to conserve energy as he folded his legs underneath his body and rested his chin on his front paws. Only his eyebrows moved to betray the animal’s roving eyes.
“I know,” Cole said, reaching out a hand and rubbing his fingertips through the coarse hair at Buddy’s neck. “But you can't come with me either. Come on, let’s go find your friend.”
Cheyenne, her small physique and big, shining eyes framed by the jet-black hair that tumbled in an unruly mess, wasn’t hard to find. He walked into the area where the Freeborns were camped. They’d done a lot in a little amount of time.
Trees were cleared, contained fires were burning, and different scents tickled his nostrils as much as they did the coyote’s, and both of them walked along sniffing the air to locate the source. The animal shot away, body low to the ground, and before Cole could utter a command to halt it, he saw him roll onto his back in playful submission before Cheyenne reached him.
“I was hoping I’d find you,” Cole said to her. She ignored him entirely, talking in a language he didn’t know as if the coyote was a child.
“You’re leaving and you want me to take care of him,” she said in English. A statement, not a question.
“Yes.”
“You’re taking the metal dog, though,” she accused him. “The one without a soul.”
“I have to.” Cole felt uncomfortable talking about faith and souls. He preferred to keep his expectation of life limited to what he could see, hear, and touch.
“He’s fine with me,” Cheyenne said, Cole glad she dropped the subject of the Tracker drone he felt more attached to than most people he’d ever known. “You go. Buddy will be here when Lina returns.”
Cole thanked her, bending down to give the animal one last brush with his fingertips before he turned away and tried not to think of the implication lying heavy in her words. He walked, faster than he had before, toward his sparse room, where he planned to eat an early meal before trying to sleep. He feared that his overactive thoughts would plague him into insomnia.
Armed men and women, Zhao’s people, eyed him suspiciously as he passed, making him wish he was carrying a shotgun or a rifle, or anything but the pistol hidden under his clothing. They stared at him, their eyes daring to offer any kind of confrontation they could legitimately challenge, and their hands seemed restless on their weapons.
Better than a gun, Cole thought, I wish I had the Tracker with me. They’re scared of that, no matter what they say.
He wasn’t the direct cause of the tension, but it was clear in the way they watched his brother that Alec had upset everyone in the room.
Cole hadn’t viewed it as a bad thing, only that Zhao had withheld a few secrets to protect the people looking to him for safety. The compromise had been easily reached, and already there were the old, the young, and the sick being helped into those hidden shelters ready to survive any attempt to destroy or storm their temporary home.
Justified or not, some people didn’t subscribe to the belief that the mythical Mason brothers had returned from their long silence to lead humanity to victory.
Hell, he wasn’t sure if he believed it himself.
Cole found food, sitting alone and picking at it with a fork until he gave in and admitted to himself that his stomach was on strike. Dropping his tray in the stack by the exit, he went to his room and lay on his cot for all of five minutes before jumping up and heading for the door, too restless to stay still.
He swiped on the tablet and activated the drone, seeing it unfold in much the opposite way Buddy had settled playfully earlier. It woke up fast, scanning the room before fixing its focus on Cole alone.
Walking the corridors underground until he felt tired, he returned to his room to attempt to finally fall asleep.
The alarm set for six in the morning was shut off the second it started to announce itself. Cole had been watching the time tick closer as he stared at the old wind-up clock for what felt like hours.
He threw off the sheets, pulled on his clothes, and picked up the bag he’d packed and re-packed three times just hours before. Another choice that forced him to ruminate over the dozens of pros and cons was which weapon to take, eventually deciding on the shotgun for the simplicity. He’d only ever seen Soares carry a rifle, so reasoned that his choice catered for another option should they need it. The deeper truth was that he was relaxed with a shotgun, whereas the rifle had too many working parts for him to feel fully comfortable with it.
The drone activated again, the UV heat lamp having topped up the last percent of battery to leave at least one of them fully charged, and followed him out of the room. Cole told himself that he wouldn’t return until this whole thing was over.
Or ever, he admitted privately. Whichever came first.
Soares wasn’t waiting for him, meaning the old man was starting to trust Cole to get himself packed without supervision or that he had a million and one other things to worry about. Cole suspected the latter.
He spotted the older man by the alien ship talking to Alec at the foot of the ramp that led up into the belly of the unnatural metal craft. A third man joined them, walking down the ramp with a swagger Cole appreciated. Thinking that he had some sort of telepathic link to the drone marking his heels, he saw it trot fast to take a slight lead and fix its head on the new arrival, giving the impres
sion it was ready to take action if required.
“And we’re sure they won't revert to their original programming?” Alec asked.
The man emerging from the ramp nodded. “Not a chance. The old software got wiped, and their signal receptors won't allow any operating procedure downloads.”
“Whatever that means,” Cole added with a little more snark than he intended.
“Oh, hey, brother,” Alec said. “You remember Tyrone? From Atlanta?”
Cole did, and shook the man’s hand. The feeling of mistrust remained just as strong as it had been before. Cole told himself it was because the man used to side with the enemy.
“It means that their code, their mission brief if you prefer, has been washed and they’re prevented from receiving another one,” Tyrone explained.
“And that works?” Cole asked. In answer, Tyrone pointed at the drone walking beside Cole.
“Worked on that. Same principle.”
“And they’ve all been tested?” Soares asked. Cole looked up the ramp to see the belly of the ship filled with neat racks of drones, Trackers and Seekers, folded in on themselves in standby mode. Even though he’d grown accustomed to having the one beside him, seeing so many others without scars on their chassis, implying they were a fresh batch, and witnessing the uniform ranks of them, and how damned cold and inhuman they were, made him suppress a shudder.
“Every last one,” Tyrone said. “Trust me.”
Cole did nothing of the sort. In fact, he barely trusted people he knew, let alone people who were on the wrong side of the war they’d started only a short time ago.
“How do you know about this?” he asked, aware the man wasn’t with them at Cripple Creek.
“Only what the others said,” Tyrone admitted, pulling a tablet out and attaching a wire. “Mind if I plug in an—”
“I wouldn’t do that,” Cole said with an edge to his voice that made the man’s hand freeze before it could reach out to the Tracker drone.
His Tracker drone.
“So anyway,” Tyrone said as he handed the tablet over to Alec. “All the subroutines are pre-programmed. You can mark a target for follow, attack, and whatnot. Instructions are on there, but it’s just tap the screen and pick the number and type of drone with the action you want them to perform.”
“That easy?” Alec asked, taking the tablet.
“Yeah,” Tyrone answered, still giving Cole an uneasy glance as if sensing the hostility.
“You’re not coming along?” Cole asked him. “After all, if something’s wrong with the drones, aren’t you the best guy to fix them?”
“Hey, I’m not cleared to go,” he started to say, backing up.
“Of course you’re not,” Cole said, turning to Soares. “We need to check all of these drones. How do we know we can trust this guy?” Soares said nothing, but his expression darkened under the harsh lights of the ship. He spun Cole on the spot and propelled him up the ramp as Alec was left to stretch the awkward silence out behind them.
“What the hell was that about?” Soares demanded as soon as they stepped inside the ship.
“I guess we’re in the habit of trusting everyone we meet, huh? He was one of them, dammit.”
“Now he’s one of us. A human. Not a Hunter who enjoys killing his own kind, and he sure as shit ain’t no damn alien. You wanna check?” he asked, snatching up another tablet and thrusting it into Cole’s chest. “Then check. Pick a drone at random and see if it tries to kill you.”
Cole stared him down for a few seconds before deflating and handing back the tablet, looking up in embarrassment as someone spoke.
“What’d I miss?” Becca asked from the cockpit ahead of them.
“Nothing,” Cole answered.
“Good,” came another voice, this one older and toothless and sounding as if he found just about everything amusing. “I was wonderin’ if I was gonna have to come and smack your heads together.”
“Go ahead and try it, Whittaker,” Soares said warmly. “Mind you, don’t put your hip out on the way.” Wheezy laughter echoed back to them.
“You wanna sit on my lap and pretend to drive?” Whittaker answered, goading Soares as if the two men knew each other better than Cole realized.
“All the way to Spain?” Soares answered, clapping Alec on the shoulder as he climbed the ramp past him. “No thanks. He keeping his hands to himself?” Soares asked the young woman, wincing internally and hoping she let the mention of hands—plural—pass without comment.
“He will,” Becca responded, “or we’ll manage just fine with one pilot.”
Zhao stalked up into the belly of the vessel, a frown over his brow.
“What’s the problem?” Alec asked.
“Had word from our friends in Shanghai. A brief but important message. The shipment has been delayed,” Zhao said.
Alec sighed loudly. “We’re ready to depart.”
“Then you’ll just have to wait, won’t you?” Zhao asked, his face softening as he looked at his daughter.
“We don’t want to arrive early,” Izzy said. “That’ll screw everything up.”
“We need to time this right. Okay, everyone reconvene at four AM in the morning,” Soares said.
“I don’t like the delay.” Cole nodded to his pack by the ramp.
“Life doesn’t always give you what you want,” Soares told him, storming away from the ship.
Cole shrugged, deciding maybe he’d have time for one more walk in the forest with Buddy after all.
Chapter 14
Alec
Alec woke feeling well rested for the first time in days, weeks even. Considering they were leaving on their first major mission to reclaim the world from an alien oppressor since Tom had been killed, he’d slept like a baby. Izzy was beside him, and he smiled as he recalled the late night knock on his door. She’d told him they might not survive the next few days, and that there were things they were missing out on if that was the case.
He rose from bed, leaving her sleeping soundly, and softly closed the door to the room. Yesterday, Alec had been upset at the delay… today, after last night, he was all smiles.
The hall was already full of life as he walked past the residence of Zhao’s top people, and headed to the communal bathroom to freshen up. Alec’s hair had grown longer, and he felt the beginnings of his growing beard. It made him appear older, less like the skinny kid he’d been in Detroit. Already he was filling out from the better diet and the constant exercise he’d been doing around camp.
Alec thought he was beginning to look more and more like Cole, and as he considered this, his brother entered the bathroom, a towel around his neck.
“Why do you have that stupid grin on your face?” Cole asked him.
“What stupid grin?” Alec asked, turning his face from side to side to evaluate it in the mirror.
“Oh wait, my mistake. That’s just your normal expression.” Cole ran water from the sink, splashing it over his forehead.
“You were meant to be a brother, you know that? I can only assume you were born first, because it’s the older brother’s job to torment the younger,” Alec said, picking up on the example of a few sets of siblings around camp.
“Is that so? I assume the little brother’s job is to be a constant thorn in the other’s side?” Cole asked, lifting his eyebrows.
“Are you ready for today?” Alec’s expression grew serious. As much as he wanted to continue joking around with Cole, they had a lot to achieve in a short amount of time.
Cole only shrugged. He wasn’t one for overusing words. “You?”
“I guess so. I thought I was ready yesterday. I mean, we’re heading out in the spaceship for the first time since Detroit, and we really don’t know how much opposition we’re going to meet on the way.” Alec used a towel to dry his damp hair.
“Dex makes it sound pretty slim out there,” Cole said. “Most of their resources appear to be tied up in these mines.”
“They’re
going to bleed our resources dry and then what?” Alec asked. They’d been speculating over this for weeks now, but at the end of the day, it didn’t matter what the Overseers had planned; the Reclaimers were going to stop them before they accomplished it.
“I wonder what they’re going to find in Florida.” Cole leaned against the wall and nodded at one of Zhao’s men as he strode in, rushing for one of the stalls. Cole waved him into the corridor, and Alec followed, wondering if he should go wake Izzy. Zhao was at the end of the hall, hands on hips, and Alec grabbed Cole, dragging him the opposite direction.
“What is that all about?” his brother asked.
“Uhm…”
“You and Izzy?” Cole asked, surprise thick in his voice.
“Well… last night… first time… never mind. Soares says the group there is hiding, so they might be fine,” Alec told him, trying to avoid addressing the elephant in the room.
They stopped near the exit to the residence, and the door opened, letting in a fresh and chilly morning breeze. “Cole, your mission is just as difficult as mine. Be safe. Don’t let your ego get in your way, and listen to the captain. He knows what he’s doing,” Alec said.
“What do you mean, my ego?” Cole asked.
“Be safe. Whatever happens, I need to stop the shipment of misters, and you need to close the damned gateways.” Alec’s stomach clenched as the enormity of their task sank in.
“And Lina. Don’t forget about Lina.” Cole’s gaze adjusted in the direction of the ocean.
“You miss her,” Alec said.
Cole nodded slowly. “She’ll be okay. Better than with me.”
“Sure. Grab your stuff. We leave in an hour.” Alec almost didn’t recognize his own voice. It was deeper, more defined, authoritative, and he stood taller, happy with the changes. He hoped he could survive the coming war and find out what he was capable of. His brother too.
Rise | Book 3 | Reclamation Page 9