“Show me how it works,” Cole insisted. “Just humor me, okay?”
With a sigh, Soares shifted position again and pulled open the Velcro flap hiding the controls for the bomb to reveal a surprisingly small number of levers and buttons.
“Arm,” he said, lifting a red catch and flipping a switch before dropping the safety catch again. “Timer.” He pointed to a small readout with a twelve-button pad beneath it. “Override,” he said, showing Cole another safety catch and a simple switch. Cole may have been relatively new to the science, but from what he’d been told, he was sure there was no way to flip that particular switch and outrun the blast that would follow.
“Okay,” Cole said as he sat back, “so we get to Detroit, set a timer, move off, and wait for the boom on the other end. Easy as that.”
“With no guarantee we do anything other than blow up a ship full of rocks,” Soares told him with a shake of his head. “We have no idea how long the journey is on the other side—it may be another two days until this stuff reaches the nexus hub or whatever.”
Cole went quiet, lapsing into a long silence where both of them considered any possible way to do what they needed to do and make it out.
That silence lasted until they reached Detroit.
“I wish we could see outside,” Cole complained. “You sure it can't show us an external camera feed or anything?”
Soares tapped at the tablet, which was plugged into the Tracker to top off the charge, and watched as the thing unfolded and unplugged itself.
“Can you access an external visual?”
[ACCESSING EXTERNAL SENSOR FEEDS…]
[UNABLE TO COMPLY – SECURITY PROTOCOL IN PLACE]
“No,” Soares said.
Cole sat back, wishing he could watch the phenomenon of flying through a glowing portal.
Chapter 28
Alec
“I still don’t think this was necessary,” Izzy said, but Alec understood Jack’s paranoia. If the mole left, it was because they’d found a way to communicate the base’s location to the Occupation. Jack didn’t seem to mind, because he always had a backup plan. The man seemed so aloof half of the time, so cocksure the other half, but at the end of the day, Alec was more than happy to give him full control of their leadership.
Everyone had taken to the charismatic Barony leader, and it was clear he and his group were miles ahead of the rest of the world when it came to surviving the Occupation. Alec found it hard to believe there were enclaves of people like this on Earth. They’d lived free, or as free as they could, even under the terrible oppression of the Overseers. Meanwhile, Alec had been forced into captivity his entire life. It didn’t seem fair, but none of that mattered any longer.
“Honey, when they arrive, they aren’t going to send a little party over here this time. We fought and fended them off in Spain, and we can only assume that we hurt them in the US as well. Those cheeky buggers are coming at us with everything they can muster, and we’re going to be ready.” Jack turned, facing their new camp. It was tucked along the base of a mountain. Their people were already moving through the ridge here, heading inland, away from the northern shore.
“How can you be so sure?” Izzy asked.
“Because I’ve spent my entire adult life dreaming of this moment. When I’d stand against their attacks and kill the ugly bastards.” Jack’s arms crossed over his chest as he looked at the sky.
“Their journey isn’t going to be easy,” Izzy told their leader.
“Nothing ever is. We’ll pick them up in a couple days. All they need to do is stay warm; we chose this high elevation for the snow. Once they hit a few miles, the temperatures increase dramatically. There’s still time for you two. Maybe you want to leave with the others.” Jack glanced at each of them, and Alec didn’t like what the man was insinuating.
“We’re not going anywhere. Not until it’s over,” Alec told him, stepping closer.
“I wasn’t implying you didn’t have the balls for a fight, my friend. I see the fire in your eyes. But we’re going to need leaders once this is all done, and you two are going to be important,” Jack said, his swaggering attitude vanishing in an instant. “My Ava and Benji left with the first wave. I could use an extra set of eyes on them.” He stared at Izzy.
“I’m with Alec. We’re staying put. This is our fight too.”
Alec could see she assumed the worst for her father back home, but there was nothing they could do but speculate on what occurred.
“How does this work?” Alec asked. This camp was phony, a fake they were using to draw the attackers in. Fake structures sat erected, tarps billowing in the chilly wind.
“We spent years curating a collection of alien tech. We’d sabotage a hovercar, they’d abandon it, and we’d salvage the parts. Each of them is designed with an energy blaster, something that appears to be powered by a dense core of radium. We’ve managed to focus the cores of ten of these, and have created something the aliens will never expect,” Jack said proudly.
“Why didn’t you bring it to Spain?” Izzy asked him.
Jack waved for them to follow him, and they trudged through the deep snow wearing compact snowshoes. It had taken a while to get used to the larger feet, but Alec was soon glad he wore them. Traversing the land wasn’t an easy task.
He led them to the biggest of the five fake buildings, pulling the tarp aside. Alec gaped at the intricate metal structure inside. The thing looked like a giant cannon, a huge base sitting on the ground, the barrel facing up at a forty-five-degree angle. It was fifty feet high, stretching to the top of the building frame.
“Wow. This is something.” Alec had worked in manufacturing and saw the finesse this had been constructed with. It must have taken a long time…
“Ten years. We spent a decade on this. Kept it near my tower at home, but moved it here after we contacted you. I didn’t want to fight the last battle at the Barony. Too many memories. My son was born there…”
“How did you move it?” Izzy asked.
“With great care. We made it so we could deconstruct it into three main sections, allowing us to transport it here. Took another couple days to piece it back together, but she’s worth the effort, don’t you think?” Jack crossed the space, setting a hand on the cold metal of the gigantic weapon.
Alec was impressed but remained skeptical. “Does it work?”
“You bet your damned paycheck it works,” Jack said. “Come on. There’s more.”
They left the tarped-off building, heading for another a hundred yards to the side. Daniel was there, along with the French woman Alec had met in Spain. She’d been quite the sharpshooter, and he’d had a chance to speak with her a little, her companion able to translate a little.
Sylvie didn’t smile as they approached, but she nodded at them. They were squad mates in this war, and she appeared resolved to make her mark on the enemy. She’d mentioned she’d lost her love a few years prior, and so many of their people recently on the trip down to Spain. Her eyes spoke of a sadness so deep, he was surprised to see her moving around.
“Bonjour, Sylvie. Comment allez-vous?” Jack asked her.
“Aussi bon que possible.” She finally grinned at him and kept at her work. She and Maxime were cleaning weapons, dismantling and reconstructing the guns, before handing them out to the waiting soldiers. There was an assortment of Barony and French soldiers here, all of them in preparation for battle.
“What’s the plan?” Alec asked Jack. There were a half dozen hover cars inside this building, and more than two hundred soldiers, if his quick count did them justice. It was admirable, but Alec imagined a large enemy force was heading their direction.
“We’re going to draw them over to Big Ben with our ships, luring them into this vicinity, where we’ll tear their hulls to shrapnel. They’ll run, their vessels damaged, and they’ll have to drop and land, going to the ground. That’s when we unleash the Tracker army from inside the mountains. We have two batches of fifty or so
on either side of this plateau.” Jack pointed out the door and Alec followed his finger’s direction. “Then our troops are going to come from the other side, near our main camp, cornering them against the ridge here. The trees are thick, the snow deep, and it will make for a brutal assault.”
“What about a trap there?” Izzy asked. “A hole in the ground. Maybe one of these massive tarps, a few wooden stakes to prop it up, and some snow cover? Trap them inside.”
Jack nodded. “I like the cut of your jib. Daniel!”
His right-hand man jogged over, a pen and paper in his glove. “Jack?”
“Talk to Izzy here. She has an idea, and I like it. If they have a way of sabotaging Big Ben, I want to ensure we disable as many of the aliens as we can. And this might work. We have some excavation equipment in here. The ground’ll be hard, frozen, but they’ll operate just the same.” Jack turned from them, barking orders to another group of his men, and Alec smiled at Izzy.
“I’d say he’s got this under control,” Alec said, hoping his plan worked half as well as the Barony leader thought it was going to. A few minutes later, the pair of them were outside, learning how to operate the backhoe.
Sylvie
Jack watched from a distance as the Mason boy and Zhao’s daughter worked tirelessly to finish their trap. He appreciated the idea, even if he’d thought of it himself a long time ago and had decided it was unnecessary. Still, it kept the two of them busy instead of worrying about the attack. Jack was concerned too… more than that, petrified. This was the big one. The battle he’d prepared for his whole life but hoped would never occur.
He missed Ava and Benji, but they were nearby, maybe twenty miles away by now, near an old Norwegian village where the survivors were ordered to hide out until this final battle was over. If they won this, and the others did their jobs, the war would end. If they could ensure the gateways were forever dismantled, then they’d have won.
Jack was looking at this like a chess board. He’d played a solid opening, and even a decent middle game, but the end was coming, and sometimes you needed to make the King appear weak before springing the trap. Opponents were often blinded once they saw a chance at victory. Nothing but that last move stuck in their minds, and all other pieces ceased to exist in their periphery.
Jack wasn’t going to let that happen to him, but the aliens… they’d always been too confident, and now, with the thought in their heads that they could end the King, taking out an assortment of rebellious groups in one fell swoop… they were going to make mistakes. And Jack was there to make them pay.
He suspected their fleet would arrive sometime in the middle of the night or next morning, since they’d have to gather from around the world.
Someone cleared their throat behind him, and he spun to see Daniel. Trusty Danny boy, his sidekick, the best friend a man could ever ask for. “Big Ben is prepped. We won’t activate it until we know they’re coming.”
“Very well.” He waved Daniel to his side as he stepped outside. The air was warmer today, and he breathed deeply.
“This is going to work, right?” Jack’s friend was never much of a bullshitter.
“Really?”
“Really.”
“I haven’t the foggiest. It might. Lots of pieces need to fall into place, and we’re only estimating their fleet numbers. They might have sent something new through, something smaller? We have no idea how many reinforcements have come through the gates.”
Jack shook his head slowly. “I don’t think so. I bet they’re spread thin. And I say there are no more than ten of the beasts coming over here. Maybe some other tricks, but these guys have shown no initiative until this point.”
“But the Hunter told Mason there was a new regime change. That could pose a problem.” Daniel, the ever so pragmatic one.
“It’s a problem, all right. For them. They don’t know how resilient or cunning humans can be. Let’s hope they are fresh blood. Thank you.”
“For what?” Daniel stared at him, squinting against the sun’s glare off the pure white snow.
“For standing by me while I did all these crazy things Even Ava thought I’d gone overboard, but here we are.”
“I never felt safe, not one night. You understood we had to fight eventually,” Daniel said.
“I still rather hoped someone else would do it before we had to.” Jack laughed, clapping his buddy on the shoulder. “Tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow.” Daniel walked off, his pen moving over the pad of paper, and Jack returned to work.
Chapter 29
Sw-18
[CHARGE LEVEL: 100%]
[RUNNING DIAGNOSTICS… ALL SYSTEMS FUNCTIONAL]
[DIRECTIVE: PROTECT HUMANS – PRIORITY ORDER – DESIGNATION: COLE - PRIMARY]
[ASSESSING… BOTH HUMANS ENGAGED IN REST CYCLE]
[ATTEMPTING TO INTERFACE WITH SHIP SYSTEMS…]
[UNABLE TO COMPLY – SECURITY PROTOCOL IN PLACE]
[QUERY: SHIP PERSONNEL]
[UNABLE TO COMPLY – SECURITY PROTOCOL IN PLACE]
[QUERY: INTERNAL SENSORS]
[UNABLE TO COMPLY – SECURITY PROTOCOL IN PLACE]
[QUERY: SECURITY PROTOCOL]
[INTERFACE ONLY VIA COCKPIT – ALL OTHER ACCESS DENIED]
[OVERRIDE: FIRE CONTROL SYSTEM]
[STANDBY…]
[INTERNAL SENSORS ACTIVE… NO FIRE]
[OVERRIDE: LOCATE SHIP PERSONNEL – FIRE SAFETY]
[UNABLE TO COMPLY – SECURITY PROTOCOL IN PLACE]
[ACCESS DENIED – REMAIN IN PLACE FOR ASSESSMENT BY PRIMARY USER]
SW-18 had charged slowly because the outlet was generating roughly a quarter of the power usually gained from the deployable solar array, and it reviewed the last instructions to evaluate them, considering a work-around to access the system.
It had backfired, and now the assessed threat level of his protection detail being discovered was raised to imminent.
It scanned between the two humans, deciphering breathing rate and pattern to discern which of them was closest to consciousness, then nudged the larger of them with the articulating head of its chassis. It did it again, and on the second attempt, the human regained consciousness to stare at the Tracker.
To aid the understanding of the human, the drone intentionally pointed the entire chassis at the tablet used to interface with it.
[ACCESS TO SHIP SYSTEMS DETECTED – CHANCE OF PHYSICAL SEARCH OF THIS LOCATION 96%]
Cole
“Shit,” Soares cursed, slapping Cole’s boot and holding a finger to his lips.
“They’re coming to search here,” he whispered. “We need to move.” He turned to the drone and gave it orders.
“Unlock the door, go out and hide, but give me eyes on the corridor.”
The Tracker accessed the socket once more, unlocking the door and darting out with a soft clang, clang, clang, clang of metal feet on the deck.
The air outside the door was icy—much colder than before—and the darkness so complete that both men bumped into the walls as they moved. Soares stopped, making Cole thump into his back, pulled out the tablet, and turned it around to bathe the ground ahead in a weak glow. It gave them just enough light to see where they were going. Before they could make it to the end of the corridor, overhead lights behind them began to blink on in the far distance one by one, each bringing the light a step toward them in an unstoppable march.
“Kid,” Soares whispered, “come on.” Cole turned to see him gesturing desperately at another door with a manual handle. Slipping the bomb off his back, Soares went in first, leaving barely enough room for Cole to squeeze in behind him and gently close the door.
The air was thin and the tight room was impossibly claustrophobic for both of them.
“You have got to be shitting me,” Soares breathed.
“What?” Cole asked, fearful that something bad was still heading their way.
“We’re in a god damn alien outhouse!”
“A what? Oh…” Cole’
s words had escaped his mouth before his brain caught up and he stared down at the shape of the thing the bomb rested on. It was just like a human toilet, only narrower, so the weird legs had somewhere to go. A thought entered Cole’s mind and grew no matter how hard he tried to force it away until it burst out of his mouth.
“Where… where do they rest their elbows?” Soares gave him an annoyed, quizzical look in the barely lit gloom before movement on the screen of his tablet shifted his attention.
Cole watched too, both of them so close that their heads almost rested against one another so they could see.
The Tracker relayed the image to them; the dark silhouette of a wide, tall, hulking beast of an alien pacing their way as the light panels in the ceiling activated.
Soares tapped awkwardly at the screen with his arm mostly pinned against his body. Cole watched as the painfully slow delivery of the command appeared on screen one letter at a time.
“Stay hidden. Watch the alien.”
A second later, the response flashed up on the screen.
[CONFIRM COVERT MONITORING – Y/N?]
“Yes, dammit,” Soares hissed, inputting the single-letter response and watching as the thing stomped toward their view. He’d spent days watching others patrolling and standing guard at the mine, but this one was… different. It was larger, he thought, but it was hard to be certain because he was peering up at it from close range instead of on a tablet now.
He experienced an odd wave of emotion, feeling detached from that particular immediate danger, and it shocked him to realize he felt it on behalf of the Tracker and not just for himself and Soares.
Rise | Book 3 | Reclamation Page 18