Project Exodus (Biotech Wars Book 2)

by Justin Sloan

  “We see them,” Marick replied. “And we’re excited to kick them back to hell.”

  “That’s my man. Signing off.” With that, she shut off her earpiece and stowed it in the bag she’d picked up with the dress. As much as she wanted to know what was happening, it would be too much. She had to prepare herself for her part of the mission. Worrying about Marick wasn’t going to help.

  “He’ll be fine,” Shrina said, taking her sister’s hand and giving it a comforting squeeze.

  “I know.”

  Instead of continuing on the designated route, Kazuo redirected and then they were leaving the soon-to-be chaos behind, heading back through tall buildings and past ads in the sky toward an especially lit up part of the city, which Alicia guessed was the embassy.

  She smiled, breathed deeply, and put her game face on.

  23

  Marick: Italian Safe House

  The screens were full of incoming pods, making it unclear how many there actually were. As tough as Marick knew he was, as strong as he felt with the rage starting to boil up inside of him, somewhere in the back of his mind he was worried. It was entirely possible that this wouldn’t go down as he easily as he had planned.

  “Get ready,” Kumakura said, moving for the wall. He slid a hand along it and it opened, revealing what looked like a panic room full of controls. “I’ll be handling the defenses.”

  “You won’t be here with me?”

  “Only if you need me,” he replied with a nod, then stepped in and closed the wall.

  All Marick could think was that he had just been abandoned, but he knew better than that. He’d seen the guns earlier. It had to be this rage thing affecting his brain, causing strange emotions. He needed to push them out and focus because the screens in front of him were saying that the hunters were on the verge of infiltrating.

  The pods were emptying on nearby rooftops or above, ropes dropping and thrusters going off as they made their assault.

  “Shields!” Kumakura’s voice said through the earpiece, and then a grinding sounded and extra layers of security plating dropped down on the walls. “Yours too, Marick-san!”

  Marick nodded, setting up his device to shield mode and placing a few around the kitchen island. He took position on the other side of the island, with weapons from the weapon wall stashed next to him at the ready.

  “We attack when they enter,” Kumakura said. “Out there, too much could happen. In here, this is our den. We call the shots.”

  “Hear me roar,” Marick said with a laugh, going for the rifle with attached grenade-launcher. After a second, he reconsidered. A grenade in here was just as likely to take him out, too. He switched it out for the DD4, the same weapon he had used up on Horus. It was like a friend, or a part of him that had run off and now returned.

  With that little bit of comfort, he was able to steel his emotions, pull himself together, and brace for the moment of contact.

  KA-BOOM! The attackers’ first attempt didn’t breach the walls, but they kept trying and the sound thundered throughout the room. Finally, the explosion came through the walls as they fell and a gang of variously clad bounty hunters stormed in. Some wore dark clothes while others were dressed in more traditional military attire. Many boasted vests and similar jackets with shoulder injectors like the one Marick had captured in the earlier fight.

  They were shooting, but his shields were doing a good job of keeping up the defense as Marick returned fire from his cover—shoot, down, roll, shoot from the other side. He repeated the pattern and then heard a clatter of noise through his comms unit but was unable to decipher it over all the explosions and gunfire. He figured it out, though, when a moment later the gun latches opened and a barrage of gunfire tore through the first line of hunters, knocking some right back out through the openings they’d entered.

  “That’s how we do it!” Marick shouted, putting up another shield and unleashing more rounds into the enemy. Another pod pulled up and its doors opened, giving him an idea. He switched the rifle for the one with the grenade-launcher, smiled, aimed, and shot. It hit and the pod exploded, careening out of control and hitting two others on its way down.

  “Nice hit!” Kumakura said through the comms, and then he unleashed more waves of bullets as hunters attempted to enter.

  When the noise died down, none were left alive except one man who was barely a torso. He clawed at the floor as if trying to pull himself forward, not realizing his condition yet. His wild eyes found Marick and he gritted through blood, saying, “You fool. You’ve started a war.”

  “No,” Marick replied, standing and aiming at the man with the DD4, “we’re finishing it.”

  The rifle rang out, and the man fell, dead.

  Kumakura engaged the surveillance function and this time it was projected into the air where the walls had been. More hunters were out there, but they were taking up positions around the building, using pods for cover, and some were moving together to discuss a plan of attack.

  “It’s not over yet, huh?” Marick asked.

  “Not only that, look at camera four,” Kumakura replied, stepping out from the back room. He motioned to show which one number four was, and Marick sucked in a quick breath. Two Taipans had just arrived, and they were communicating with the hunters.

  “Well, this ought to be fun,” Marick said, and then frowned as he saw them wave to the camera, point in the other direction, and then run off. “I don’t—”

  “They want you to follow,” Kumakura said. “Though why you would, I can’t imagine.”

  Marick had a good idea why. And as he stared at the display, he realized something—he was going to do it.

  “Check in with Alicia if you don’t hear from me,” Marick said, then took one of the remaining fuel canisters and replaced the nearly empty one from his suit.

  Kumakura stared at him, confused, and then shook his head. “You step one foot out there, you’re dead.”

  “Only, I don’t have to go walking out,” Marick said, tapping his exoskeleton and the device it held. “They know me, they know what I have. I think they want to talk.”

  “Or ambush you. Kill you.”

  “Maybe that,” he said with a smile. “We’ll find out soon enough.”

  With that, he grabbed the DD4 and turned, set his device to teleport, and scanned the far building where he’d seen them go. Two hunters appeared at the side of his view, the guns from above already starting to click as they aimed in, and then Marick was off, vanishing with the jolt of teleportation.

  He reappeared at the edge of the far building’s roof, hearing more gunshots going off behind him and the sounds of local law enforcement approaching from somewhere far off.

  “Get out of there while you can,” he said into his comms. No answer. “Kumakura?”

  Again, nothing.

  Dammit, he hoped the old man wasn’t hurt, but for now he had these two to deal with. A glance around the building showed no sign of them, but then he heard the clearing of someone’s throat. Marick stepped forward and looked down to see them one floor below him on the balcony of a penthouse suite, complete with pool and a blue glow from walls that looked to be made of a high-end stone. Neither had weapons aimed at him, but they could’ve rigged some sort of trap. He would take his chances.

  He stepped forward and over the edge, letting the exoskeleton support his landing. When he turned to face them, the two removed their helmets. One had a beard and the other looked surprisingly like his sister, Trish. It was the two Taipans who’d taken him on his first mission—Bloodhound and Pete.

  Pete was the first to speak. “Nightshade isn’t far behind, Stealth. Maybe there’s a way to come back from this.”

  “That’s not my name,” Marick replied. “And I won’t be associated with New Origins or Project Destiny ever again.”

  “I told you this was pointless,” Bloodhound said, fingers rapping on his helmet.

  “Give it a second,” Pete replied.

  “So yo
u can convince me?” Marick asked. “Pete, Bloodhound, or whoever the hell you are, doesn’t it bother you two? They took your memories, or most of them, and they’re preparing to do worse—killing innocents to advance their power. You can’t tell me you don’t have doubts.”

  “We signed the digital line, traitor,” Bloodhound growled.

  “You honestly think all of this was part of their fine print?” Marick scoffed. “Tell me, please tell me… have you felt something else since you’ve been down here?”

  Pete glanced at Bloodhound uneasily, and even the latter hesitated, his lip moving as if about to speak but deciding against it.

  “They’re not just making soldiers out of us. They’re turning us into guinea pigs. They’re experimenting on us to find ways to make us their perfect little soldiers with no minds of our own. A.I. failed them, so now they look for ways to control humans, and you’re okay with being part of that?”

  Neither spoke as Marick turned from one to the other, waiting for a response.

  Marick nodded. “That’s what I thought. Well, how about this little tidbit—did you know they mean to attack the countries many of us once called home? They’re making moves to take over, big time. And then what? More soldiers, bigger armies, until they’re unstoppable. Maybe they figure out how to completely mind-control us, and then maybe they start using it on the populace, anyone who would speak out against them.” Marick took a deep breath. “I didn’t leave because I was pissed they had taken my memories, thought that’s part of it. I left because of what they are, the danger they pose to our world, and because there’s no doubt in my mind about where I stand on the matter. I won’t let it happen. Will you?”

  “Lies,” Bloodhound said. “This… feeling, or whatever it is, you don’t know it’s them. And what? Some terrorist freedom-fighting-hippy group tells you something about making a move against Earth and you believe it? Call me old fashioned, but I’d sooner follow my commanding officer and trust my friends in PD.”

  Pete’s eyes moved across them and then back to Marick. “He has a point.”

  “You’re talking about Alice, right? She was our mark up there, the one we were after. I don’t suppose either of you knows that she’s actually my wife and that she only founded the Looking Glass in her attempt to find answers about what had happened to me. There’s my response to your chain-of-command B.S. I’ll take my wife over that any day.”

  “Damn,” was all Pete could manage.

  “Damn is right. And while we’re on the topic, how do you know you don’t have wives? Children even. Is there a baby Pete or a Bloodhound Jr. out there, wondering what happened to his or her daddy? Some child will grow up never knowing her father, raised in a world that was conquered by some power-hungry corporation, and for what? Because you signed the digital line? Give me a break!”

  Marick was struggling to keep himself under control now, voice rising so that lights turned on in the windows across the way. Only then did he notice that the gunshots had stopped. It was quiet, except for them.

  “She won’t be long,” Bloodhound said, glaring. He slammed his helmet back on and his next words came from the speaker system. “Seems your choice has been made, though.”

  Pete stood there, helmet in one hand, rifle in the other, a look of confusion and doubt in his eyes. But he shook his head. “My sister’s up there with me. That’s all I need to know.”

  “And the rest of it?” Marick protested.

  “If it’s as you say, history will determine who had the right of it.”

  “Now kneel or die,” Bloodhound said, aiming his rifle at Marick’s head.

  Marick nodded, expecting that it would come to this with him. He’d held out hope for Pete, but it didn’t look like the man would be persuaded this day, not with his sister still up there. And yet, he didn’t want to kill Pete. The man had doubts, clearly. And Marick had sensed something similar in Trish. If they could rescue those two, they might not be beyond help.

  “I said down!” Bloodhound repeated.

  Marick sighed, quickly moved his hand up and to the side so that his machine threw up a shield, and then he ran. As shots rang out in the night, Marick crashed through the glass of the penthouse and continued to run. Despite telling Kumakura that Marines don’t retreat, this was different. This was to keep Pete alive and to avoid killing Bloodhound, if he could help it. Maybe the guy could still come around.

  An old man yelped and stepped out of his bathroom but then quickly retreated as shots came after Marick. The next door was open so Marick ran through it and along a corridor of gold, through the main door, and spotted the elevator to the rooftop.

  Instead, he made for the window at the far end of the hallway. It was the lavish sort, arched at the top and plenty large enough for him to fit through. Finding himself on a smaller balcony, one more for show, he was able to move out of eyesight and close the window before the others could pursue, but he paused in thought. He turned and eased the window back open, glad to see that the others hadn’t entered yet, and then switched his viewscreen on and hit levitate. Next, he selected the elevator, hoping his plan would work.

  He had it, and the bars hit full as the door he’d come through started to jiggle. He moved his head down and smiled as the elevator went with it, though it jolted at first, resisting. The door was open now, but Marick was out of eyesight, back to the task at hand.

  The fake elevator ride might trick his old companions, but only for a minute or two, so he needed to move. With only a short distance between him and the next building, he leaped and then began climbing and leaping until he was on the roof.

  There was no sign of them yet, but he could hear curses and a loud thud from the direction he’d come. He sprinted across the roof, seeing the opening the hunters had created in Kumakura’s building. If he didn’t get in there and find out what had happened, he’d never forgive himself. Kumakura had helped him out, and he couldn’t just leave him.

  With a mighty leap he felt the exoskeleton snap into effect and then he was flung across the gap, landing at the edge and pulling himself up. He rolled out of view in case others were watching or Pete and Bloodhound had made it to the roof of the adjacent building yet.

  “Kumakura-san,” he hissed, “are you here?”

  No answer.

  He quickly picked himself up and dashed toward the back room where the secret door was partially ajar. Nothing. After another glance around the place, he froze at the doorway, looking back into the kitchen where his bag had been. The green bag with their extra weapons and fuel for his device—it was gone.

  “Kumakura!” he shouted, not caring if anyone heard. “You better be here, or I swear to God...”

  He ran to the other room with the disguises, finding no sign of him there either. What he did find was a nice tux, a briefcase, and more weapons that he thought could be useful in the future—mostly small blades and concealable guns.

  There was only one option now, he thought, returning to find the tracer the hunter had placed on him and pausing to see that Kumakura, or someone, had placed a bullet in the man’s skull. He sighed and moved to the side of the wall, seeing Pete and Bloodhound walking among the scattered hunter corpses. Pushing himself up against the wall so they wouldn’t see him, he waited for a car to go by, and then another, ten feet below the level of the apartment. When the third came, he timed it just right and tossed the tracer, hoping it would stick when it hit the car. From there he moved out, taking the rear exit and moving to the next building over. He had the tuxedo and weapons in the briefcase, with room for the exoskeleton if he should need to take it off. But if he hoped to move around town without drawing attention to himself, he would have to take it off sooner or later.

  It still irked him that the old man had taken the green bag, and he’d be sure to teach the guy a lesson if they ever met again. But right now, he had to keep on with the mission, avoid surveillance if possible, and reunite with Alicia and her sister.

  A thought hit him
as he finally made it to ground level and ducked into an underground tunnel that led to the other side of the living complex. If Kumakura had taken the bag, that might have been part of the plan all along. And if so, it was entirely possible that Kazuo had her own nefarious plans.

  He couldn’t begin to fathom what those plans might be, but he had to hurry to the embassy and find a way in, pronto.

  24

  Alicia: Italian Embassy

  Arriving at the embassy and getting through security with their hacked access had been nerve-racking enough, but walking around among all these well-dressed sycophants was on a whole other level. Although Alicia had thought she was dressed up, one of the women who walked past her in a flowing gown of black and see-through white was dressed to exude power and importance as well. The sparkles on the dress evoked memories of space, as well as the stars overhead at that moment.

  They were in a garden that was half covered, but instead of live planets, the area was covered with crystals in the shape of various animals and wildlife. At places, the crystals jutted out at sharp angles, some looking like a wrong move could remove a limb. Lights shone around them in a way that glowed through the crystals and sent a magical light across the paths that led between the sculptures. Onyx lined the paths. Drones were hovering at chest level and moving around at a leisurely pace.

  “You get much of this in Quantico?” Alicia asked her sister.

  Shrina accepted a glass of white wine, took a sip, and closed her eyes. “Sorry, I couldn’t hear you above the sound of my own bliss.”

  “Keep it together, you. Are you even allowed to drink?”

  “Yes.”

  Alicia was just teasing but had forgotten what a motherly role she used to play with her sister and that at times that might come back to haunt her. Judging by the flash of irritation in her sister’s voice, asking simple questions like that could cause such a reaction. Noted.

  Kazuo walked past them with a couple, laughing, and gave them an ‘any day’ look before laughing at something the man said and continuing on.