by Adams, M. L.
“And the kids who died?” I asked. “The other Alphas.”
She shrugged. “It took CyberLife six tries to perfect it. Before they made you.”
“How do you know all this?” I asked.
“I was one of Merrick’s top executives. We had a . . . falling out. He got cold feet experimenting on kids. So I left and started Paragon.”
She paused, then added, “I don’t get cold feet.”
Sage raised her hand to cut off any further questions.
“We’ll have plenty of time for questions later, Ben,” she said. “We’re going to be spending a lot of time together. You, me, and Alex.”
My eyes shot to Sarah. Sage followed my gaze and frowned.
“Unfortunately, your friend can’t go where we’re going. And she knows too much.”
“Please,” I begged. “Just let her go. Or bring her with us.”
“I’m sorry,” Sage continued. “I promise we’ll make it quick. She won’t suffer.”
“No,” I said. “If you hurt her, I won’t help you. Ever.”
Sage shook her head. “You will. Just like Alex, you don’t have a choice. It’s sort of a quirk of your cybernetic programming that you may not know about just yet. It has a mind of its own. Only, thanks to Megan, we know how to control it.”
Sage waved her hand.
Two guards moved forward and grabbed Alex and me. Another two picked up Sarah by the arms and dragged her away.
Tears welled up in my eyes. After all we’d been through, I failed to protect her after all. Megan and Sofia were dead because of me.
Now Sarah, too.
As the guards pushed us toward the library door, a new message appeared on my HUD.
Upload received.
Infiltrator Mk VI upgrade package applied and verified.
External communications reactivated.
I stared at the message. Out of the corner of my eye I caught Alex’s gaze. Her eyes turned upward. A second later, another message:
MQ-9 Reaper infiltration successful.
Control system access enabled.
An aerial view of our school appeared on my HUD. I spotted a large black helicopter, its rotors slowly spinning, in one of the back parking lots of the school. I could also see flashing lights in the distance and the wreckage of several burning police cars on the street outside.
A plan formed in my mind.
I glanced around and caught sight of Sarah just as the two guards dragged her around the corner and down an aisle of books. If I didn’t hurry, she was dead. I looked back at the Reaper and thought what I wanted to do next.
“Ma’am, something is wrong,” the guard with the tablet said. “His comms are active again.”
Sage whirled around to face me. “Shut him down!”
“I’ve lost control of the Reaper!” the man added.
The two guards next to me stopped and raised their weapons.
“Get control back!” Sage screamed. “Now!”
The man shook his head while he stabbed his finger at the screen. “I–I–I . . . can’t.”
On my HUD, the glass ceiling of the school library grew larger and larger.
The sound of the drone’s engine and the screech of stressed metal reverberated through the library.
The commandos heard it, too.
The men flanking me let go and broke for cover. I momentarily hesitated as I watched the surreal experience unfold through my own eyes and the small display on my HUD.
An instant later, I turned and ran after Sarah. The first two aisles were empty, but down the last aisle I spotted her and the two guards. She was on her knees, head down.
The sound of shattering glass filled the room.
One of the guards raised his pistol.
“No!” I screamed.
48
An instant before the commando pulled the trigger, the 10,000-pound Reaper slammed into the library’s second floor landing.
I dropped to the ground and slid close to a metal support column. The explosion bloomed outward and leveled everything in its path. The library’s giant metal shelves blew over like dominos.
The guard pulled the trigger just as he was crushed by a shelf full of books.
Sarah collapsed to the ground.
“Sarah!”
Through the intense smoke and heat, I crawled through the triangle-shaped gap left between the shelf and where it lay propped against the wall. I reached Sarah and quickly pushed dozens of books off her body. I grabbed her head and turned it quickly, looking for the bullet hole.
“Sarah!”
The only wound I could find was from where the guard had hit her.
Her eyes popped open. “Ouch, Ben!” she said. “You’re going to break my neck.”
I pulled her close and squeezed.
The bodies of the two guards lay pinned between the shelf and the outside wall. I tried not to look or feel any real sympathy for the two men who tried to execute my friend. In an odd sense of irony, the fact that she had been on her knees saved her life.
“Sarah, you okay?” I said.
“Y–yeah, I think so,” she replied as I lifted the last of the books off her.
“My ears are ringing something fierce though,” she said.
Staying low, we crawled down the aisle until we reached the end. I stood and quickly scanned the room for Alex. I couldn’t see anything through the fire, smoke, and water pouring down from the sprinklers.
Sarah grabbed my arm and tugged. “Come on, Ben,” she yelled. “We have to go.”
I hesitated.
“Ben, we have to go. Now!”
I finally turned and followed. We ran along the back wall to the emergency exit. The door flew open and we darted outside.
Without hesitating, we tore across the lawn and into the trees. As we ran, I spotted the black helicopter I saw earlier on the drone’s camera. Running to it were Maya Sage along with two guards. They pushed a young blonde girl between them.
Alex!
I stopped and watched. Sarah noticed the group, too, and came up next to me. As they piled into the helicopter, its rotors spun faster and it slowly lifted off the ground.
“I’m sorry, Ben,” Sarah said quietly.
“She saved our lives back there. She upgraded my system. Allowed me to hack that drone.”
Sarah swallowed and turned to watch the helicopter as it banked right and disappeared over the trees. “We’ll get her back,” she said. “But for now, we have to go. Unless you want to explain to the police why you just blew up our school?”
Sirens filled the air and I didn’t need the drone’s camera to tell me every cop in town was on the way to us. I spun around and looked back at Endo Valley High. Flames danced behind what few glass windows remained. Smoke poured out of the roof.
Sarah tugged at my arm.
With one final look at the school, we sprinted into the trees and used a shallow part of the river to cross. Ten minutes later we emerged in the exact same spot as before. And just like the other night, it was dark and the streets were deserted.
“The ravine again,” I said.
As we crossed the intersection, a pair of headlights shot around the corner. A silver Acura TL sped up, then braked hard and screeched to a stop in the intersection.
Sarah grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the ravine, which was still thirty feet away. We’d never make it in time.
“I think we’ve run enough,” I said, resisting.
She stopped and stared at me through tired eyes. After a pause, she nodded and stepped closer, wrapping both her arms around my waist. Together we turned and faced the car.
A man stepped out of the passenger door.
It took me a second to associate a name with the face. Then I said, “Detective Frost?”
“Come on, Ben, hurry.”
Not exactly what I expected to hear.
Freeze! Put your hands up! You’re under arrest!
I was about to ask who the driver of
the car was, when the man opened the door and stepped out. “Ben, hurry,” he said.
Sarah and I exchanged a glance.
“Dr. Carter?” we said in unison.
“More time to explain later,” he said. “We need to go.”
We still hesitated. I couldn’t speak for Sarah, but I wasn’t in a terribly trusting mood. Especially as far as CyberLife and the police were concerned.
“Ben,” Carter said. “I know what you’re thinking. But we’re both here to help you. I can explain more if you’ll just get in the car. Every cop, sheriff, and FBI agent in the state is converging here now. If you don’t come, this whole process starts over.”
I looked down at Sarah.
She looked up at me and nodded.
“Okay,” I said.
We jogged to the TL and climbed in the back.
Carter threw it in drive and tore down the street.
“How’d you find us?” I asked the two men.
Carter answered first. “After you left yesterday, I started thinking a lot about Megan. I called the police station to see what I could do to help, and got Detective Frost on the line. We started talking and, well, your name came up.”
“My old fashioned brain had a hard time putting it all together, Ben,” said Frost. “But I am a detective after all. Between what Dr. Carter told me, and what you told me, not to mention that weird situation with the FBI, I knew something was up. I was in the process of interviewing Dr. Carter when all hell broke loose at your school. Had a gut feeling you were involved.”
I let out a deep breath and lay back in my seat. I wondered what the next surprise would be. Sarah reached out and wrapped her hand around mine.
Okay, that works, I thought.
I looked at her and said, “You okay?”
She closed her eyes and rested her head back on the seat. “Let’s see . . . I’ve been shot, punched in the head, and had a gun shoved into my face at least three times tonight. So yeah, I’m great.”
I grinned and turned to Frost. “Where are we going?”
“Somewhere safe,” he replied.
“Sarah’s been shot, she needs a doctor.”
Frost turned quickly. “Shot?”
She opened her eyes and looked at me. “Don’t forget punched.”
“Shoulder,” I said.
Frost stared at Sarah’s bloody shirt, then said, “Okay. I know someone we can trust.”
“How do we know we can trust you?” I asked.
“If I told you, Ben, you wouldn’t believe me,” Carter said. “You’ll have to see for yourself. But I promise you that it’s somewhere CyberLife can’t get to you.”
I laughed. “I’m not worried about CyberLife,” I said. “I’m worried about Paragon. They are the ones who took Alex.”
“Paragon?” Frost asked.
“Yeah, Maya Sage’s company. I think they just did a hostile takeover of CyberLife.”
Carter and Frost shared a glance.
“Did you say Alex?” Carter asked.
“Yeah, but I don’t know her last name,” I said. “She was another Alpha. Alpha Eight.”
As the car sped down the road, Carter kept one eye locked on me through the rear view mirror. “Did you say . . . Alpha Eight?”
“Yeah,” I replied. “She was with Merrick before Sage took her.”
“Alexandra Goddard? She’s alive?” he said.
Frost, Sarah, and I all stared at the man.
“I suppose Alex could be short for Alexandra,” I replied with a shrug. “If so, then yes, she’s alive. She saved our lives.”
Carter looked like he’d seen a ghost.
“Who is she?” I asked.
He hesitated, then replied, “She’s the daughter of the man we’re going to see.”
Fifteen minutes later we were on the highway headed south. Carter and Frost still hadn’t said where we were going. But for now, we weren’t being chased or shot at, so it was good enough for me.
Sarah’s eyes were half open and her hand loosely held mine. I bent down and kissed her on the top of the head.
“I’m sorry,” I said.
“Oh shut up,” she replied, a slight curl to her lips. “I’m done fighting with you.”
I smiled and sank into the seat next to her. She rested her head on my shoulder and after several moments of silence, said, “That was one hell of a first date, Ben Raine.”
I arched an eyebrow. “First date?”
She shook her head and gently punched me in the leg.
“You’re such a boy.”
Epilogue
Special Ops UAV Command
Location: Classified
Senior Airman Samantha Coes stared wide-eyed at the half-dozen computer screens in front of her. Her eyes were tired after spending a week, with little to no sleep, in the dark UAV control room. She was used to spending days at a time piloting Global Hawk unmanned surveillance drones on missions all over the world, but it had never been like this before. Following terrorists around various Middle Eastern countries was one thing. A couple of high school kids in the middle of Colorado? Something else entirely.
She turned and glanced nervously at the two men standing in the back of the control room. They wore dark suits and had perpetual frowns on their faces. Whatever the op was, and even after a week she still wasn’t sure, they were in charge. Coes didn’t know if they were NSA, CIA, or some other OGA. And to be honest, she didn’t want to know either.
“Airman, did that just happen?” asked Captain Woodyard, her commanding officer.
Coes nodded. “Yes, sir. One minute the Reaper was circling three thousand feet above the school. The next it was crashing through the roof.”
The captain swallowed hard and turned to face the men standing behind him. “The Reaper is down.”
“We know that, Captain,” said one of the two men. “We can see the screen just like you. Do you have a cause? Bingo fuel?”
Woodyard turned to Coes and lifted an eyebrow.
“Unknown, sir,” replied Coes, shaking her head. “But I doubt it ran out of fuel. It had been up for . . .” She paused and checked her log. “Six hours. Assuming it was full when it launched, it had enough fuel for another eight.”
The two men leaned into each other and whispered.
Coes still couldn’t believe what she had been watching over the last several days. For the most part, the two kids had been doing the same thing all week. Going to school, going to a coffee shop, that sort of thing. Typical teenager stuff. It wasn’t until Friday night, when they broke into their school, that things got interesting. It was then that her Global Hawk, flying at more than 40,000 feet in the air, first detected the General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper. Reapers were supposed to be reserved for military use only. But this one, as far as she knew, wasn’t part of the U.S. Air Force UAV fleet. The thought of a private entity owning Reapers and Hellfire missiles sent a chill down her spine.
“What about the ground contacts?” the second man asked.
“We are still tracking both with the Hawk,” Coes replied. She pointed at the screen that showed an aerial map of the city. On it were two red blinking dots.
“The girl?”
“She’s on the helo. Here.”
Coes pointed at the screen.
“And Raine?”
“His primary signal is still down. But we’re getting the intermittent backup ping every ten minutes. Last position was here.” Coes pointed at the large grove of trees behind the school.
The two operatives continued their private conversation.
Woodyard looked at Coes and scowled. Coes shrugged, not sure what else she could have said. She couldn’t force Ben Raine to send a signal.
Her screen beeped. She leaned forward and smiled. “Just got Raine’s signal again,” she announced. “Looks like he’s in a car. Tracking it now.”
“ID the car,” said one of the men.
“Yes, sir,” Coes replied. She zoomed in the camera until she could ma
ke out the license plate on the silver Acura TL. She snapped a photo with the Hawk’s high-resolution camera and sent it directly to the analytics team.
After several moments of silence, Captain Woodyard asked, “Airman, how much longer can we track both signals?”
“Not long, sir. The helo is heading west and will be out of range in five minutes. At that point, we’ll have to decide which one to follow with the Hawk.”
The two operatives looked at each other again and Coes waited for an answer.
“Follow the girl,” one said.
The captain narrowed his eyes in surprise. “Are you sure? We’ve been following the boy all week. Why stop now?”
“Because Raine has ties to the area,” the man said. “He’ll be back. We’ll put a Delta team on the ground to follow him when he does.”
The captain nodded.
“Besides, I want to know more about this second player. If they are the ones Agent Reynolds had been trying to infiltrate, this could be a major breakthrough.”
Again, the captain nodded.
Airman Coes frowned to herself as she turned the Global Hawk and set it to follow the fleeing helicopter. She recalled Agent Megan Reynolds’s picture from the briefing earlier in the week. Until her death the previous Monday, she had been an undercover agent for the Department of Defense. Which agency she had actually worked for, Coes didn’t know.
A loud alarm from her console pulled her away from her thoughts. The Global Hawk stopped responding to her commands. She typed quickly and ran a diagnostic test. A moment later, the Hawk’s flight screen flashed:
Connection terminated.
“What the hell,” she said.
Captain Woodyard put a hand on her shoulder. “What’s going on?”
“I’ve lost control of the Hawk.”
On cue, all six of the monitors went blank. Coes and Woodyard stared at each other, both knowing they were about to get reamed for losing the signal. Not that there was anything either of them could have done.
“Did it crash?” Woodyard asked.
“No way, sir,” she replied.
She pulled up the log from the diagnostic test, just as a bright light filled the control room. One of the two OGA guys opened the door and started to leave. The second turned to follow, shaking his head.