I’m sure they’re still trying to find answers, thought Bullseye, but it’s been months since we’ve heard anything. I kind of doubt the research is getting anywhere.
She tried not to show this disappointment in her expression.
Malice didn’t seem to notice. “Like I said, I didn’t know why Cruelthor was so worried. But yesterday an informant reported that double agents inside Free Labs used a stolen, reformatted password-lock device and gained access to files on the DRK treatment – files only Cruelthor should’ve been able to access. The rebels raided the information before it could be terminated.”
Bullseye forced herself not to look surprised.
Holy shit, she thought. Denito’s agents found something?
“So,” said Malice, “before you rebels can create the DRK treatment, Cruelthor’s releasing the virus. He’s willing to infect the empire if it means stopping you. But if you’re as close as he fears you are…” He shrugged. “Yeah, I have no trouble switching sides.”
Bullseye tried to stay focused. “Do you know anything else that can help us stop him?”
“Yeah,” he scoffed. “I know when he’s planning to attack the research facility.”
She swallowed. “He knows where it is?”
Malice nodded. “Even before the factor base was destroyed, he attacked three Underground bases in search of research labs. By torturing rebels, he finally learned their main facility’s location.” He squirmed in his seat. “Releasing the DRK virus is only the first step in his master plan. More is coming. You know how he is – he plans everything until he knows it’s the right time to strike.”
She understood. “All this with the virus being unleashed is meant to flush us out, but it’s also a distraction. He’s planning to strike the research facility and hopes we’ll be too busy defending ourselves elsewhere to stop him.”
Where is the lab? she thought. Why hasn’t Cagod told us they’ve actually found something? That son of a… Well, I have to work with Cagod. If we can use this intel from Malice, we might be able to stop my big brother from destroying the viral research. How close are they to discovering the treatment?
She took a breath. “So when’s he planning the attack?”
“I’ll tell you.” Malice grinned at her. “For a price.”
“You ass! You’ve already talked yourself into a deal for asylum. Now what do you want?”
He thought a minute. “I’d like my own island. Somewhere warm.”
“Damn it, Malice! If this is so urgent, out with it!” She forced herself not to attack him. “If you don’t help us stop Cruelthor, we’ll all be factors! There’d be no one left to give you an island even if we could get you one!”
Malice frowned. Then he sighed. “Fine. But I’m not giving you any more details until I see my pardon in writing.”
Bullseye slid off the table. “Fine. I’m turning you over to Commander Emmit. I’ll give my recommendation for asylum, but you’ll have to deal with him and Cagod. And good luck with that.”
She walked to the door, opened it partway, and dematerialized before he could argue. Using the space dimension, she invisibly pushed the door closed behind her. Once outside the cell, Bullseye saw the other Warriors standing near the room’s entrance. She flickered back into visible form and joined them.
Tigris must’ve sensed her excitement. “What is it?”
Quickly, Bullseye told her team what she’d learned from Malice.
Whitewolf whistled.
“This is…” Tigris looked amazed. “We haven’t heard anything about DRK research since Cagod shut us out. Do you really think the Underground could make the treatment with whatever they’ve found?”
“I hope so. And it sure sounds like Cruelthor thinks so.”
Rave let out a breath. “This could be everything we’ve worked for. Our Warrior mission to stop the virus… This could mean the fulfillment of the prophecies.”
It could be over soon, thought Bullseye. All of it could be over…
She called to the soldiers guarding the cells. “Take them into custody now. Make sure the guy in the first cell meets with Commander Emmit immediately.”
The soldiers turned and entered each cell to retrieve the prisoners.
Tigris looked at Bullseye. “The other operatives didn’t know much. They only said Cruelthor’s been gathering drones for a massive attack. I looked in their minds, and they honestly didn’t know where they’d be attacking. I guess Malice answered that – they’re going to attack the research facility. Wherever it is.”
Whitewolf nodded. “If Cruelthor himself is planning this attack, we rebels all need to defend the lab.”
Bullseye agreed. “Cagod has better ways to contact the other rebels than we do, so we have to work with him even if he’s not willing to tell us everything. If Cruelthor is gathering his forces, so should we.”
“This could be the turning point.” Rave was getting antsy, and he rubbed his facemask in thought. “We can’t go on much longer without getting ourselves killed. This might be it, right here.”
Yep, thought Bullseye. If the Dominion releases the virus, everything will get flushed beyond recovery. We have to move now or we’ll be dead within a few months… Not that the team needs to know my predictions.
The Underground soldiers reemerged with the prisoners, and Bullseye watched as they marched from the room. When Malice passed by, he gave her a final sneer.
Once again unsettled by Malice’s reentry into her life, she looked away. Then she saw her team looking at Malice’s freshly broken nose. They each made the same face at her.
Bullseye shrugged in explanation. “We’re old friends. Don’t worry. He’ll spill everything we want to know.”
“Are you okay?” asked Tigris.
She gave the Seer a quick nod and forced herself to start after the departing soldiers. “We have to find Emmit and call Undertown. As soon as Malice gets his deal and coughs up the date and time of attack, we’ll have to hurry. Cruelthor’s been planning this for a while. We’d better be ready.”
28
“This could mean the end”
The next morning was cool and crisp, which was atypical for that time of year but pleasant nonetheless. Whitewolf was finishing his daily run along a rural trail near the Warriors’ base. Suddenly, he felt the familiar eeriness that came whenever his sister entered his mind. He slowed to a walk.
“Hurry back,” Tigris called. “We’ve received a transmission.”
Now what? he thought.
Whitewolf picked up his pace and reached the steep hill that hid an access tunnel. Here stood a metal hatch, and he flipped open a panel and tapped in his code. The locks disengaged, and Whitewolf pulled open the hatch to enter the damp, dirty tunnel. Once the hatch closed, halogen lights activated so he could see a flight of stairs descending into the base.
He ran down these two-at-a-time. Had Tigris ever sent for him with such urgent excitement? He couldn’t recall a precedent.
Whitewolf arrived at the command center to find his three partners gathered before the transmitter screen. They wore citizen clothes, so nothing demanded that he suit up at once. Still, from the eager looks on their faces, he knew something big had happened. Bullseye and Tigris made room for him to stand in front of the screen with them, and he saw a video message frozen onscreen in pause.
It was a recorded video from Commander Cagod.
“You won’t believe this,” Rave told him. He signaled Eva, and the video flickered to play.
“First,” said Cagod’s message, “our classified DRK research facility is located on Solarus 5. So far the Dominion’s left the station alone, thinking it was only a communications station whose frequencies they can mostly intercept anyway. That was never the Underground’s main purpose for Solarus 5, however. It was always intended as a medical facility from which to study the virus.”
Holy crap, thought Whitewolf. This whole time…
“Commander Miller,” continue Cagod,
“sent the rescued un-factors from Pitt Prison to Solarus for examination. Later, through the use of a password-lock device, Commander Denito’s double agents broke into Free Labs’ Magi files. They contained the Dominion’s preliminary investigations on the Magi’s treatment, and the agents transmitted the files to Solarus for study. The files also revealed the location of a storage facility where un-factors’ medical files were held. An agent was recently able to steal one of those medical files’ blood samples, and we sent our leading scientists to Solarus with the sample. Soon the scientists on Solarus will have a way to synthesize and reproduce the DRK treatment found in the blood sample. We can then administer the treatment to the public.”
Rave interjected, “As if they would’ve saved the un-factors from Pitt without us. And we gave them the password-lock device!”
“Our DRK research on the station is invaluable,” said Cagod, “and the Dominion knows we’re close to replicating the treatment. Malice reports that Cruelthor tortured rebels into telling him our secret use for Solarus 5. Now, Cruelthor knows where and how to stop us.”
“That’s the bad news,” said Rave.
“Last night we lost all contact with Solarus 5, although the satellites are still operating our planet-wide communications. We now know that Cruelthor gave orders to terminate Solarus 5’s transmissions planet-side. We assumed this was a temporary glitch until Malice reported otherwise. The Dominion is preventing the station from calling for help once under attack. We wouldn’t have known of the danger until it was too late.”
“And now for the really bad news.”
“According to Malice, Cruelthor himself will lead an army to take over the station, kill the scientists, and destroy our research findings. The Dominion has only set this plan into effect over the past twelve hours, but our informants have confirmed Malice’s story. They report shipments of ammunition being gathered at the Capitol, and specifically selected operatives have been pulled from cities around the world to join Cruelthor’s army of drones. These movements were detected earlier, but we didn’t know why he was gathering forces. If not for Malice, we never would’ve learned the truth in time.”
Rave looked at Whitewolf. “That’s as close to a ‘thank you’ as we’ll get.”
“Rave, be quiet,” ordered Bullseye.
Cagod’s message continued. “Now, however, we have hope of turning this attack around on Cruelthor. It’s my belief that the Dominion has no knowledge of our gained intel – Malice and the other prisoners have not yet been reported missing. That means we’ll be able to coordinate a counterattack. Because of the massive army Cruelthor is taking to the station, all rebel forces need to be involved. The Underground, Warriors, Hood, and many other rebel forces are uniting. This must be handled swiftly and delicately – if we gather our forces too soon, the Dominion will be alerted of our activity. Therefore, we must wait until Cruelthor reaches Solarus 5. By the time he does, we must deploy our forces after him. We’ll trap his army on the station. His remaining forces on Earth won’t be able to stop us because the rest of our forces planet-side will attack Dominion airfields.”
Whitewolf exchanged an excited look with Rave.
Cagod looked at the camera with a narrowed brow. “Because we can’t communicate with Solarus, we can’t warn Commander Matsuri. Therefore, Matsuri and his men will in all likelihood follow the protocol established in the event of a Dominion army boarding the station. Protocol dictates that they first transmit their DRK research to Undertown, but with their signal cut off that won’t work. They next will activate the station’s self-destruct system originally installed to prevent an orbital free fall. Destroying the station would ensure that the Dominion can’t gain control of the station. And, they’d eliminate the worst soldiers of the Dominion, including Cruelthor. It’d be a noble sacrifice on the part of Commander Matsuri and his men, and it’s the protocol I believe they’ll follow.”
Whitewolf scowled. “But that’d mean the DRK research-”
“However,” said Cagod, “we won’t leave them to die. Our counterattack must act fast and retake the station before Commander Matsuri and his men destroy the station. Speed is of the utmost importance.” He nodded and said finally, “All rebels with access to spacecraft will launch simultaneously from around the globe. We’ll rendezvous at Solarus 5. Schedule to dock with the station at 1500 NCT.”
With that, the transmission ended.
Rave snorted. “He’s still trying to give us orders. We handed him all of this! Where’s the love?”
Whitewolf smiled. “This could mean the end of the Dominion.”
“Or it could be a trap.” Tigris was biting a fingernail. “Malice isn’t the most reliable informant. Maybe Cruelthor knows we’re onto him. He might be luring us to the station. I’m glad Cagod’s worried about the Dominion spotting us too early, but what if they already know we’re coming? What if Cruelthor has the rest of his forces set to come after us?”
For once, Bullseye agreed with Tigris’s fears. “Then we’d be pinned on the station, not Cruelthor. We need to be careful.”
Rave groaned. “What, Bulls? Having an ‘I Hate Life Day’ again? Even you have to admit this is exciting. The Underground is always thorough – self-righteous, sure, but they’re always thorough. Cagod said his informants in the Dominion backed this up.”
A silent moment passed as they contemplated their next move.
This is a terrible risk, thought Whitewolf, but we’d be stupid to sit back and wait things out. We can’t keep this up much longer. We stopped the spread of the DRK in Havanahell for now, but that means squat if it’s released elsewhere. If we have a shot, we have to take it.
Bullseye shifted her stance. “Even if it’s a trap, we have to go. If the scientists on Solarus 5 really have a sample of the DRK treatment to replicate, we can’t let Cruelthor win. And we can’t leave it to the Underground to do the job. Once again, I think Cagod’s priorities are wrong – he seems focused on slaying Cruelthor and wiping out the operatives. He’d be perfectly happy going down as a martyr if it meant taking out Cruelthor in the process. But if Matsuri blows the station just for the sake of eliminating Cruelthor, our chances of destroying the Dominion’s key to power are flushed. Someone else would step up to take Cruelthor’s place, and they’d still have the DRK.”
“So what do we do?” asked Rave.
“We have to focus on getting the DRK research. Let the Underground focus on annihilating the Dominion army. Even if the Dominion takes Solarus 5 and destroys the rebel forces, it wouldn’t be as devastating as letting them erase the treatment research. And we have to get that treatment-holding blood sample.” Bullseye looked at each of them. “Do you understand me? No matter what happens up there to the rebels, put top priority on getting whatever the lab’s found back to Earth. Once we have it in hand, we leave. Everything else is secondary.”
It was a very sadistic thing she was proposing – sacrificing the rebel forces to get their research – but Whitewolf knew she was right.
This is like my mission to the sea colony that started all this, he thought. The most important thing is to protect what the Dominion wants to destroy in the first place. And we have to prioritize the DRK, same as always.
“We should prep the WARBIRD,” said Rave with an excited clap.
Tigris’s eyes widened. “Wait. Our plane flies in space?”
“Well, yeah. I’ve wanted to take that baby into space ever since I bought her.” Rave looked at Whitewolf. “How are you doing in the simulations?”
“Uh… After our last flight to the Mainland, I played around with the space simulator a little, but…”
Even in atmo, he thought, I’m not that great with the WARBIRD.
Whitewolf headed to the door. “I’ll practice a few hours before we go.”
Rave hopped to follow.
Tigris teleported to block their exit, arms crossed. “Rave, you’ve never flown the plane in space before? I assumed you had at least once before we m
et.”
Rave chuckled at her. “I may be from another planet, but I’ve never traveled in space. As for the WARBIRD, I’ve told you not to call her a ‘plane.’ She’s a one-of-a-kind aircraft prototype that the Dominion lost in shipment. I happened to find her-”
“No,” Bullseye corrected from where she stood by the transmitter, “you bought the ship from Blaze and put it together with Trok.”
Whitewolf smiled at Bullseye, who winked back at him with amusement over their respective siblings. Rarely did Tigris and Rave see eye to eye. Fortunately, Whitewolf knew Bullseye cared about Tigris. All Tigris needed was genuine encouragement. The ‘genuine’ part was still probably hard for the Dominion-trained operative, but she was getting the hang of not faking it, from what Whitewolf had observed.
And sis needs reassurance now, he thought. I don’t know how to give it – she can probably read my own nervousness through our mind link. Hopefully Bulls can make her feel better. Rave certainly isn’t helping.
Tigris looked from one Kandoya to the other. “We don’t use the WARBIRD much. And now you want my baby brother to fly that thing in space?”
Whitewolf resented this somewhat, but Bullseye and Rave both nodded.
“Space!” Tigris flopped her arms against her sides. “We’ve never done anything in space!”
“Few people do,” said Rave with a shrug. “But I saw the time in history when the World Space Program shot people into space all the time. And Solarus 5 was constructed right before the WSP was shut down by the Dominion. That’s why all these airfields and ships are still around. Granted, people have had other things to worry about over the centuries, but-”
“Not helping,” Bullseye cut him off. She looked at Tigris. “Space flight is safe, Tig. And we’re only going as far as the station. We’ll be okay.”
Tigris tucked a strand of blond behind her ear. “Sorry. I know I’m the one that always freaks out. But this… I’m going to cack.”
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