by Jim Roberts
The three men moved into the concourse. Here and there were strewn remnants of what was once a very affluent mall. Shreds of fabric from old banners, overturned plastic trees, and all manner of papers and glass covered the mall floor. The men had to take note where they stepped lest they make too much noise.
All three men jumped as another loud clanking sound resounded from a nearby shop. Ready for anything, they approached the source of the noise.
"We know someone's in there. Come out now!" Brick spoke as loudly as he dared.
Softly, a whimpering sound began to emanate from the shop. The two Peacemakers looked at each other curiously. They readied their weapons.
Out of the darkness stepped a dog.
Just a dog. Brick lowered his gun.
The animal looked like a cross between a German shepherd−with a large brown and black body common to the breed−and an unknown type of mastiff. It had big eyes rimmed with black fur that gave the dog a perpetually sad look.
Brick was wary of the animal, as dogs in warzones were known to be quite unpredictable. But Krieger didn't share that fear. He shouldered his M60E3 and began to move slowly towards the animal.
"Nice poochy, nice."
Brick turned to Jacob. "You'd better get your people ready to move. We can't stay here much longer."
Jacob nodded and moved off slowly, not wanting to spook the animal. Krieger slowly knelt down and put his hand out.
"What are you doing?" Brick asked, still keeping his eye on the dog. The animal sat down on his haunches and began to pant. "We need to move now!"
"In a minute." Krieger slowly reached out his hand, "You're hungry aren't you boy?"
The dog arched his neck curiously, not knowing what to make of the giant human trying to make friends. He just sat, panting patiently.
"What are you trying to do?" Brick asked, taking a few steps back. If the dog was going to attack, he much preferred the first bite went to the Russian.
"Used to have dog a few years back." Krieger reached behind him into a side pouch of his backpack. The dog made an inquisitive glowering noise from its throat. Krieger slowed his movements, not wanting to provoke the animal. He pulled forth a shiny packet; some pre-dried rations.
"I joke all the time that even dog wouldn't eat this. Maybe today will prove me wrong." Krieger tore open the bag and tossed a few pieces of dried beef steak onto the ground in front of the dog. Without a second's hesitation, the mutt swooped down and wolfed the snack up greedily.
Krieger smiled, "See, he is just hungry." He pulled the rest of the wrapper off the steak and held it out slowly. The dog licked his chops before taking the risk and grabbing the steak in his jaws. Krieger held on to the dried piece of meat, playfully making the dog work a bit for his food. After a brief tussle he relented and released the bar. The dog swallowed the meat in one quick slurp, barely chewing.
"Oh, yes yes." Krieger said in a chiding, childlike voice, "How long have you been here, big guy? No food. No hugs." He reached forward and gave the dog a few calm strokes along his fur.
Brick had to try not to laugh. He'd never seen this side of his Russian companion and couldn't decide whether he liked it or not.
"We're moving out in one minute, Krieger. Wrap it up." Brick turned and walked back to the group of rebels, trying to hide the smile on his face.
Krieger rubbed the dog's ears. The animal was obviously very hungry, but still looked like he was in good condition. The mutt−happy at having some food at last−began to pant in earnest, licking at Krieger's hands as he pet the animal.
"Yes, you're just a big furry dodo aren't you?" After giving the dog one final scratch behind the ears, Krieger stood up. "Okay, you stay here and be safe, alright?"
The dog looked inquisitively at the Russian, not comprehending.
"You−" Krieger said, pointing at the animal, "−stay here. Be safe, yah?"
He turned to walk back to the entranceway. The dog began to follow.
"No no! You stay, I go, dah?"
The dog continued to follow.
Krieger sighed, "Oh hell."
* * *
"How long now to Hatfield?" Brick asked as he huddled with the rebels at the front door of the mall.
"'Bout two hours if we are careful." Jacob replied, wiping his sweating brow with the back of his hand. It was abnormally hot for this time of year, "Should reach perimeter by morning. Miss Anders and my father will be waiting."
Brick nodded. "Good."
From the concourse, Krieger came walking back, a sheepish look on his face. Behind him came the dog, his mouth wide open as he panted happily.
"What the...I said leave the dog!" Brick scolded.
"I tried, tovarisch! He won't listen. I think he likes me." Krieger scratched the animal behind his left ear. The dog sat down, delighted at the attention.
Brick rolled his eyes. "Alright, but you have to keep him quiet."
"Don't worry. He is good boy."
The rebels exchanged amused glances with each other, snickering at the strange men they were now allied with. Brick guessed they had little time for amusement in a war such as this. Any chance for a bit of humor was welcome. Jacob hushed everyone with stern gesture.
"Alright, we must go. Stay close to the sides of the buildings. Don't enter the streets no matter what."
Everyone nodded, readying their weapons.
Brick gave a returning nod before opening the entranceway. He raised his FN FAL, sweeping the street ahead of him, making sure it was quiet.
Nothing was stirring.
Brick waved the group forward and they moved out into the darkness of the street beyond.
As Brick took point alongside Jacob, he had to fight to stifle a grin.
Trust Krieger to turn a bad situation upside down.
Chapter 12
Rocket to Russia
The Spirit Walker, German Air Space, November 24th
The relatively cramped interior of the Spirit Walker had made the flight over the Atlantic a bit of a slog. Danny had tried to get some sleep on the small roll-out cot, but wasn't able to relax. Not because the aircraft was noisy or bumpy; far from it. The inertial dampeners installed based on designs from Olympus made the aircraft feel as if it wasn't even in the air.
Danny was nervous.
It was a feeling he rarely had. It wasn't fear, he was certain. Rather it was anxiousness of the unknown. After his revelatory experience in the Canadian wilderness, Danny had thought everything would begin to snap into place.
So far, that hadn't happened.
There hadn't really been time for sleep anyway. He sat up and made his way through the cabin to see what Doctor Yune was working on at his cramped station towards the front of Spirit Walker.
Spirit Walker. There hadn't been time to ask the Colonel why he had chosen so odd a name for the aircraft. During the flight, Yune had told him the aircraft used a sonic-refracting technology similar to the Barbarian. Most stealth aircraft, such as the Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit and the Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk were only capable of reducing emissions of radar, infrared and visible light spectrums. With the Spirit Walker, the experimental technology the CIA wizards had invented was capable of rendering the aircraft completely invisible to most modern scanning equipment.
Doctor Yune had explained that the Barbarian was not entirely stealth capable. The sheer size and volume of the aircraft could never allow it to be completely invisible. The Spirit Warrior, on the other hand, used a cutting edge electromagnetic refracting technology on its hull that reversed incoming radio waves and projected them through the structure of the aircraft, as if it wasn't even there. Therefore, any radar installations searching the sky where the Spirit Walker flew, would only see a barely registering anomaly, the equivalent of a large bird. The aircraft used a hybrid fuel system; half simple jet propellant and the other half a experimental ionized fusion reactor. This allowed a much larger range for the aircraft to travel in between refuelings.
As Danny
crouched to move through this amazing piece of hardware, he could feel the haunting brown eyes of their new recruit on him. Orchid was sitting aft on a small crate, performing maintenance on her PSG-1. So far during their flight, the Japanese sniper had said little to nothing to Danny. He had given her space for the time being, but if they were going to be working together, Danny would have break through her chilly facade.
In the meantime, Doctor Yune had motioned him over to begin putting on the Whisper suit. The suit was currently stretched out in an apparatus Yune had built into the wall of the aircraft. A multitude of wires, fiberoptics and other unnameable gadgets were connected to the suit's many interface points.
Danny placed a hand on the Doctor's shoulder. They would be reaching Chelyabinsk in the next few hours and it was time to go to work. Yune had been busy adjusting the Whisper suit since they'd left. Occasionally a spark from one of the gadgets he used to modify the suit would flare up and jolt everyone on board. The Doctor would give a sheepish grin, then refocus his efforts. Danny could only smile, watching Yune at work. Despite the doctor's priggish nature at times, Danny never doubted his dedication to the team, and to the ensuring the Whisper suit was always at its peak efficiency.
Which was the main subject of what Yune wanted to discuss with him.
"Since you suffered that power outage in Pakistan, I must say I'm very concerned with allowing you to use the suit again, at least without further testing."
Danny inspected the body suit. It looked rather different then the last time he had worn it, back in Darra Adam Khel. The armored portions of the suit were now more pronounced, resembling something akin to Japanese samurai mail. The helmet also looked as if it had been heavily modified. It still retained its beetle-shell design, but now had more intricacy in its technical makeup. The Accretion Device−the fusion energy cell that powered the armor−was disconnected and currently lying on the small maintenance table the doctor was using for his tests.
Danny reached forward and touched the armor, reverently. Exo armor would perhaps one day become a major factor in regular armies, but the idea of putting multitudes of soldiers into obscenely expensive suits was rather impractical. The Olympus Centurion armor had proven less then effective against armor piercing rounds, owing to the lucky fact that the PMC had to cut costs in arming its shock troopers. The Whisper armor was the Peacemaker's leveling factor. It put Danny on par with almost anything the PMC had, so far, thrown at him and give the Unit an edge it desperately needed. Danny would do anything he could to maintain that edge.
"Do you know why the suit powered down so quickly?" Danny asked lifting the right arm of the armor to inspect it.
"I'm not a hundred percent sure, but it has something to do with the suit's melding properties."
"What do you mean?" Danny asked.
"Well, the Accretion device requires the bonding of a human host to function. Remember when we first activated the suit back in Kazinistan?"
Danny shivered at the painful memory. "How could I forget, Doc."
"Right...well in order for the device to operate the suit at full capacity, it makes a one-time only connection with the endocrine system of the host, whereby the Accretion device syncs with the internal body chemistry of the user." Yune took the arm segment from Danny and inspected it closely. "In short, the physical prowess of the user is in direct comparison with the Accretion device. Hence, the healthier the user in body, the more powerful the Accretion device output."
"Why did you design it like that?"
"It was a necessary trade off. Powering the suit alone with other technologies would only allow an extremely limited time of use."
Danny hesitated before speaking again. He leaned against the bulkhead, not sure how to verbalise what he was thinking. He trusted Yune, but still didn't know if he should tell him the truth.
"Look Doc, I know what you're probably thinking: I'm not up to using the suit."
Yune stopped his work and gave his full attention to Danny. His naturally inquisitive face looked defensive. "That's not at all what I meant, Danny−"
"−No, it's true. Back in Pakistan, something was missing...my concentration was just haywire. When we were running from those drones, it felt like something was holding me back...like a part of me had fled and left a shell to wage a war."
"Danny, I don't understand−"
"Ever since...Agrippina died, I haven't felt right. The woman did something to me..."
Yune was completely confused. Out of the corner of Danny's eye, he saw Orchid look up from her work. He tried to lower his voice, but his damaged voice box didn't allow much change in volume.
"Her passion, her lust, something in the way she fought−it was like...cocaine to me. Her presence permeated me...do you understand?"
Yune shook his head, pushing his glasses up on his nose. Danny pretended to scratch an itch on his neck, to break the tension.
"I'm sorry Doc, I know it sounds silly. When she fell from the helicopter at Fortress Liberatio, I watched her eyes as she..." Suddenly it was difficult for Danny to speak. He cleared his throat. "I thought she had died that day. We all did."
"Danny, there is no way anyone could survive a fall like that." Yune said. "She is dead."
"I know, she may be. But...back in Canada, I had a vision: a waking dream, that I saw her spirit still part of this earth. I thought it was cursing me, forcing me to make mistakes. But now I know that can't be true. She must be alive. Her spirit is tied to my own, it's...something my people believe in very strongly. A life bond between two souls."
Yune let out a long breath, trying to logically piece together what he'd just been told. "Look Danny, I am a scientist, it's really all I've ever known. From the many tests I've run on the suit, I can only tell you that the reason it hasn't been functioning properly is due to human error. It's a physical problem, do you understand my meaning?"
Danny nodded. "I do, Doc. But I have it under control now. Trust me."
A thought occurred to Yune. "The murders! All of the murders were committed with some sort of knife."
Danny nodded, having considered the possibility, "I know...Agrippina."
"You think she may be the one killing these scientists?"
"I don't know. The killings were all so...sloppy, messy. The rampant nature of them−it just doesn't fit with her character."
Yune wasn't quite sure. "Come on Danny, how well did you really know her? The stories I had heard of Agrippina while captive amongst Olympus...if they were even half true, they would make you−"
Before he could continue, Orchid approached the two men. She held her own personal OpTab, assigned to her before they had left Andrews.
"Excuse me gentlemen, I have been following the news reports to ascertain any useful details about the killings, when I saw this." She handed the tablet to Danny. It was open to a blog post with several photographs showing a heavy police presence outside of a large mansion in Vladivostok. The headlines made for troubled reading:
Russian ex-scientist and Oligarch found brutally murdered, along with entire security force. Twelve men slaughtered with edged weapons. Police suspect possible Russian mafia connection.
Danny scowled. Four down, two to go. He handed the tablet to Yune, and sat down in one of the fold down chairs built into the aircraft bulkhead. Yune quickly read the article, his brilliant mind breaking it down for anything useful.
"Police say they suspect only one or two people were involved. The killer entered through the roof and killed several members of the security force known as Alfa Tsentr, a Russian Private Contractor."
After sitting for only a moment, Danny leapt up and moved towards the cockpit. Through the glass, the cloudy night sky blazed by as the aircraft headed on towards Russia.
"Packrat, right?" Danny asked, not having formally met the veteran pilot of the aircraft.
"That's me Corporal. Problem?" Danny was able to detect a slight Louisiana accent in the pilot's voice; friendly but professional.
"What's our ETA to Russian airspace?"
"By current speeds, a little over an hour."
"Can you push it faster, Chief?" Danny asked, hopefully.
"This baby's only in the test phase, Corporal. I don't think we should be pushing her too hard."
"If we don't push it, our reason for being here will be completely moot. Give it all she can take, chief."
Packrat half turned, and seemed about to protest. But a few seconds of looking into the dark bionic sunglasses of his new mission commander, made him think twice.
"Alright, Corporal, I'll do what I can."
Danny nodded and joined the others once more.
"We'd better get you suited up." Yune said, prepping the armor. "I've made some small modifications to the suit, so you'll have to pay attention while I work."
Orchid stepped back, watching with interest at the unusual procedure about to commence. Danny quickly undressed down to his boxers. There was little time for modesty on this mission. Orchid took the break to make some more inquiries on her OpTab.
"Okay, first things first," Yune said, as he helped Danny into the leg sections, "The entire suit has been restructured, hence the different color."
"Color?" Danny asked. The bionic sunglasses he wore were unable to detect colors in anything other than monochrome.
"Oh yes, I forgot. The suit has been recolored with a more gunmetal grey scheme−it helps to make it look a little more military-esque, if you follow me."
Once the leg sections were fitted, he hefted the very heavy torso segment over Danny's head. "The armored plates are still ablative titanium, but I have weaved in osmium sheeting at certain key areas. A tank shell might be able to penetrate it."
Danny grimaced, not wanting to know what that would feel like.
"The inner layer has been enhanced as well. The interior is now layered with a 'smart' high impact gelatine. You could get hit by a car at one-hundred kilometers an hour and the layer would cushion your internal organs perfectly."