Syndicate Wars: Fault Line (Seppukarian Book 3)

by Kyle Noe

  “We’re gonna do this,” Quinn said, softly to herself. “We’re gonna blow this joint.”

  “And here I was hoping for an open casket at my funeral,” Hayden said. “But fuck it.”

  Quinn shook her head and pointed at the deep trench carved by the fallen glider. “Everyone in there. Now!”

  Milo and Hayden and Mira helped the remaining fighters down into the ten foot channel as Quinn sat on her haunches before the Parallax engine. Her fingers moved faster than an orchestra conductor as she stripped and rejiggered a number of tangled wires. She worked to reroute the conduit for the engine’s low-energy photons, then popped the end of the Hafnium round off as white gas filled the air. Sucking in a breath, she twisted two wires together that produced a spark that appeared like a fuse. Then she fitted the explosive-round over the wires and ran for her life.

  The drones opened fire all at once, rounds slicing over Quinn’s head as she dropped into the trench and wormed her way into the hole in the ground with the other fighters. Milo could hear the breathing of the others and Mira mumbling to herself that this was a bad fucking idea, followed by something poetic.

  “What is that?” Milo asked.

  Mira looked over. “Sometimes I sing lullabies to calm my nerves. Rhymes I used to sing to my son before he was taken by the Syndicate.”

  An immense shadow appeared at the other end of the tunnel. A Reaper drone with a full armaments rack peered in, seeming to grin at the trapped Marines and resistance fighters.

  “Well, guys, this was fun while it lasted,” Renner whispered.

  The drone lowered its chain gun and aimed point-blank when—

  CRACKBOOM!

  The drone disappeared. Instantly vaporized by a blast that whited everything out and shifted the very ground that was below and all around the warriors.

  Milo watched as the ice dust glowed red and the sky, which was barely visible at the end of the trench, turned a purple color, a shockwave lifting everyone up several inches into the air before the blast subsided.

  “Ho. Lee. Shit,” Renner said. “Goddamn it we brought the hammer down!”

  Quinn scampered back out of the hole and looked around. There was nothing on the ground at all, the blast having incinerated everything in sight.

  Milo and the others filtered behind her, staring openmouthed in shock. They couldn’t believe it had worked.

  And then their eyes ratcheted up. They could see something up in the sky, slashing down through the air. It was the glider!

  The arc glider was buffeted by the blastwave from the explosion that Quinn had set off. The vessel rocked sideways, but Cody managed to get it under control while studying the readouts to make sure the glider hadn’t suffered any significant damage. He witnessed the after effects of the blast, saw that the ground below was glowing from the explosion. There’d been a sizable army of drones only seconds earlier, but now they were gone. For an instant, he was terrified that Quinn and the others had died in the blast, but then saw heat signatures on the ground and he smiled. Somehow, Quinn had found a way to take out an entire friggin’ Syndicate army.

  There was a pinging sound and Cody’s communications link spiked. He tapped a button and there were three seconds of silence, and then he heard Quinn’s voice. “So that just happened,” she said.

  He grinned. “Score one for the good guys.”

  “How many did we take out?” she asked.

  “Um, apparently all of them,” came Cody’s response. “You get a gold star for that.”

  “I’ll settle for riding shotgun on the way out of here.”

  Cody smiled. “Roger that.”

  He swiped at the touch screens and the glider continued its descent. The glider’s control panels started flashing red and a “proximity alert” appeared on screen. Cody swiped at the navigation controls to initiate a full stop, and the reverse thrusters kicked on, halting the glider in a hovering position, inches off the ground.

  Cody released the rear hatch and turned to weapons control. There were spikes on the monitors—figures moving out across the sand. The Syndicate was down, but not out. More drones were on the way. A thunk came from the back of the glider, signaling that the Marines and resistance fighters were boarding. How many, he didn’t know.

  “Quinn,” he called out urgently over comms. “I need your status. Is your team onboard?”

  “Roger that,” said a voice. Cody looked back to see Quinn removing her battle helmet. Her face was sweat-slicked and battle weary, but she was still a sight to behold. Cody smiled at her as she sat down on a seat next to him, clutching the temporal totem.

  “Let’s get the fuck out of here,” she said.

  Without hesitation, Cody swiped at the navigation controls as the glider ascended a few hundred feet, its nose pitching upward. Thrusters roared to life and the glider lurched and rocketed up into the sky.

  18

  Too Far Gone

  After introductions were made between Samantha, Luke, and the others, the group rode in silence for several minutes on the highway back to Shiloh. Samantha was in the back, seated next to Luke and Calee. Xan drive, while another resistance fighter rode shotgun. Xan cast a few nasty glances back at Samantha who wondered exactly how much she’d witnessed back at the grocery store and what she must think of her. She worked to steel herself for what was likely to come, to presumptively imagine an interrogation by Xan or some of the others back at Shiloh. There would undoubtedly be questions about the things she’d seen and she pondered on her responses, which did not come easily.

  She felt a warm current snake up and down both arms. Something had changed inside her, of that she was certain. Her eyes strayed to the loop of string Eli had given her. It was still intact, but singed, along with the flesh near her wrists which were redder than a fire hydrant. She hadn’t noticed it before, and there was absolutely no pain near the splotchings, but her skin looked as if it had been severely sunburned. Easing her head back, Samantha’s thoughts turned to Quinn. She hoped that her mother had succeeded in the mission and that she’d be waiting for them back at the base.

  Luke leaned over. “I’m gonna be the first to ask what you guys were doing nosing around there.”

  Samantha opened her mouth to respond, but Xan blurted out, “there was some suspicious activity on the outskirts of Greeley. We were worried it might be the scuds, so we decided to take a look and got ambushed.”

  “Bandits?” Luke asked.

  Xan nodded and Luke sighed. “If you pick up a starving god and make him prosperous he will not bite you. That’s the principal difference between a dog and man.”

  Samantha looked over. “What?”

  Luke smiled. “That’s an old quote from Mark Twain. I’m taking a few liberties with it, but basically it means people will turn on you in a heartbeat. That’s pretty damn cynical, but it’s true.”

  Samantha nodded and Luke pointed at the red marks on her arms. “We’re gonna need to get you a doctor when we get back. What the hell happened?”

  “Sunburn,” Xan said.

  Samantha looked back and up at Xan who iced her with a look. “That’s what it was right, Samantha? Sun was strong today. It was a bad case of sunburn, right?”Samantha slowly nodded, not wanting to cause a disturbance, pulling her shirt down over the red marks. “Yep. Sunburn. True that.”

  They arrived at Shiloh in the late-afternoon. Xan drove the vehicle up to the front of an outbuilding that was grouped around the warehouse where the glider was stored. They entered the warehouse and Samantha’s heart sank. The glider was nowhere in sight. With a creeping sense of disbelief, Samantha began pondering the unthinkable. Maybe they were never coming back. Maybe Quinn and the others had gotten stranded or killed up on the asteroid. As if sensing her fears, Luke smiled warmly as they exited the SUV. He placed a hand on her shoulder and told her everything was going to be fine. She wanted to believe this and nodded in response.

  After offloading their gear, they marched toward the hat
ch that led down into the silo. They were halfway there, when Samantha looked up to see Comerford trudging forward.

  “That you Luke?” Comerford asked.

  Luke nodded and smiled wearily, rubbing a smear of grime across his face. He was sweaty and filthy. “Yep, it’s me. GQ’s man of the year.”

  Comerford didn’t smile or laugh at this and that was Samantha’s first clue that something was wrong. Comerford’s eyes, normally wide and full of life, were flat and emotionless. He glanced around and Samantha followed his line of sight and that’s when she saw them. Saw the eight or ten resistance fighters appearing from the outbuildings where they’d been concealed. All of them had weapons out, trained on Samantha, Luke, and those he’d come with.

  Luke tensed. “Bit of a strange rolling out of the red carpet.”

  “I wish I knew another way to do this,” Comerford said.

  “Do what?”

  “Hey. What happened to my mother and the others?” Samantha blurted out.

  Nobody responded as Xan moved over next to Comerford. They caucused out of earshot and Samantha watched Xan hold up her satellite phone and then a cellphone. She supposed that Xan had done two things: she’d recorded footage of Samantha back at the grocery store on her cellphone and then communicated what she found with Comerford via the satellite phone. This was confirmed when Comerford stared at the cellphone screen for several seconds, then looked up at Samantha, his face ashen. God only knew what the images showed.

  “Can someone tell me what the hell this is all about?” Luke asked, some heat in his voice.

  “Her arms,” Comerford said. “I need to see the girl’s arms.”

  Samantha took a step back, pivoting to run, but there were another five resistance fighters blocking the way. They had rifles aimed at her. She swiveled and saw Xan aiming a handgun at Luke while Calee and those who’d come with Luke were having their hands zipcuffed behind their backs.

  “Hold them up please,” Comerford said, gesturing at Samantha’s arms. “I don’t want to make this harder than it has to be.”

  Samantha did and Comerford examined the red marks on her arm.

  “Jesus, what the fuck is going on?!” Luke shouted.

  “It’s me!” Samantha replied.

  “That’s right,” Xan replied. “It’s the girl. It’s Samantha.”

  “What about her?” Luke asked.

  “She’s not one of us!” Xan hissed. She kept her gun trained at Luke while jabbing her other finger at Samantha. “I saw her! I saw her back there with one of the goddamn aliens! She was whispering with him! Plotting against us! The whole thing was a fucking lie! Quinn and the others were against us the whole time!”

  All eyes hopped to Samantha who held everyone’s looks.

  “Please tell me none of that bullshit is true,” Luke said.

  “There is no truth,” Samantha replied, her gaze unwavering. “Only interpretations.”

  “Bind her,” Comerford said. Samantha felt the hands of the resistance fighters before they touched her. Her wrists were grabbed and pulled behind her back and zipcuffed. Then someone grabbed her legs and she was thrown over a man’s shoulders like a sack of trash. She was carried past Comerford who muttered, “We’re just gonna keep you confined until this is all sorted out.”

  Samantha wanted to believe that. She wanted to believe that her mother was readying to return to Earth after a successful mission and that she’d be able to explain everything that happened back at the grocery store. She’d do that and then everyone would nod and say they’d understood that Samantha wasn’t a turncoat at all. They’d cut her bindings and welcome her back and then they’d plot some new way to take on the aliens. But then she saw Xan’s face, her eyes black like a shark’s, and her mouth went dry. She had a sneaking suspicion that things were not going to end well for her.

  19

  Downward Spiral

  Back on the glider, Quinn and the others had slumped to the floor and slept for several hours as Cody manned the flight deck. Content that all was well, he moved through the belly of the ship. He stepped over Hayden who was passed out on the floor like an old basset hound. He shuffled past Mira and Milo and headed toward Quinn who was snoozing in a high-backed chair near the rear of the glider. Quinn reacted upon seeing Cody, who tapped her arm and motioned for her to join him in an alcove beyond the view of the others. She was drained, but nodded and followed him over. His eyes were bright and he touched his fingers to her face, and smiled. They didn’t speak. They’d already hugged and exchanged words upon her entering the glider. There was nothing more that needed to be said. They kissed. It was brief, but satisfying and all that Quinn could muster given the situation.

  Quinn savored the kiss and then leaned back against the wall. She looked back at Cody and there was a kindness in his eyes, an understanding. She knew he’d understand. “Something happened down on the asteroid.”

  A smiled stitched the corners of his mouth. “You kicked some ass and got what we came for.”

  “I don’t mean that, Cody.”

  “Then what?”

  She looked up. “There were bodies under the ice. Our bodies.”

  Cody made a motion to respond and Quinn lifted her hand to silence him. “Just hear me out on this because I saw myself in that lake, Cody. I was dead and so were the others and then I saw you in a glider. This same friggin’ glider and you were dead too.”

  “The Syndicate has some pretty serious tech, Quinn. They probably have some way to plant those images. I mean if you can travel through time, you could certainly do that.”

  Quinn shook her head. “Haven’t you ever wondered how we’ve been able to get this far?”

  “We’re really, really good,” he said with a grin.

  “Is anybody that good? I sound like a broken record, but don’t you also get the feeling that we’ve been here before? That this is not the first time we’ve done these things?”

  “No,” Cody replied, shaking his head. “I understand what you’re saying, but I’ve never really thought that.”

  Quinn slumped against the wall and Cody moved to her. “Since we’re unburdening ourselves here, there’s something I wanted to tell you about too, but you have to promise you won’t hit me.”

  Quinn smiled. “You know that’s one promise I can never make.”

  Cody looked back to see if the others were listening, then leaned in close to her. “So, we may have a little problem with the totem.”

  Quinn sighed. “And here I was hoping our return home would be uneventful.”

  “I scanned it. The one you recovered on the asteroid.”

  Quinn pursed her lips. “And?’

  “And it reveals the coordinates to a time ship.”

  “Can you be more vague please.”

  “The Syndicate has a ship that they send back in time.”

  “How is that a bad thing?”

  “Are you at all familiar with the Hadron Collider?” Cody asked.

  “The hard rock band?”

  Cody’s face fell. “The Sunshine must’ve worn off. The Hadron Collider isn’t a band. It was a device built years ago. A particle accelerator. This ship is basically a floating accelerator – they use it to create a portal in space that they send other ships through.”

  Quinn’s face lit up. “This is likely the most insane thing I’ve ever said, but if we’ve got the coordinates for that ship, we can hit the thing and go back in time.”

  Processing this, she stood, thinking about the complexities, the possibilities.

  “For Crissakes, Cody, it’s just like thought. We could change everything!”

  Cody stood, his face serious and ultra tight. “Sure, yeah, in theory we could do that, but it’s not like we’d be going to a time travel airport and picking a destination and flight time and ending up exactly where we want to be. It would be more like we were throwing ourselves into a very dangerous phenomenon and hoping for the best.”

  “I don’t understand,” Qu
inn said.

  “From what I’ve seen, and this is only preliminary, the mechanism that sends you to the past is identical to a zero gravity vacuum in which mass is eliminated from your body so that gravity won’t hold you back as you propel through time.”

  Quinn registered this for a few seconds. “Okay, so I’m having a problem with some of that.”

  “Really? Which part?” Cody asked.

  “Oh, I don’t know, the part where your mass is eliminated, you idiot.”

  Cody stewed, biting his lip. “That’s not even the worst part. There’s only one way the mechanism could theoretically work. You’d need a machine, a big one, the size of a small moon. And then you’d put a person inside it, create a vacuum and eliminate gravitational effects on the person by smashing them with faster than light particle beams. Which could theoretically make the person move faster than light. But all the physics I know means that the person will essentially be removed from the material universe. Meaning, there’s a chance this thing just vaporizes you. And no one can really know for sure whether you’ve travelled through time or not. You could have just been erased from time.”

  “Wonderful,” Quinn replied, clapping her hands. “What other good news do you have for me?”

  “It’s something,” Cody said. “It may be a friggin’ doomsday device, but it might also be the only way to end this.”

  Quinn nodded, processing the ramifications.

  “What’s the good word, boss?” someone asked.

  Quinn glanced sideways to see Renner rousing awake.

  “Cody just told me that the temporal totem has the coordinates for a time machine that we probably have to go and hijack.”

  “Coolness,” Renner replied with a yawn. “It’s been what? Two hours since we almost last died? I was getting bored.”

  Milo, Hayden, and the others appeared behind Renner.