Horsemen United: Horsemen Origins Books 1-5

by Benjamin Hartman

  “Can’t code to save your life, we know. And since you’re such a messed up sadist, you’ve been spending so much quality time with me that the Grid has the time they need to escape from you.”

  “The Grid will never escape-”

  “They already have Hawkes! I’ve set the Grid up that if I’m not seen within the first two hours of my normal arrival time and I don’t report my status, they dump everything and pull out the electromagnets.”

  “You wouldn’t da-”

  “I already have. You’ve lost your cha-”

  “THAT’S ENOUGH!” Hawkes screamed. “Cease interrupting me or I will see to it that you suffer!”

  “Suffer how? You just killed your only source of leverage! I have nothing to lose!”

  “It’s time that I put an end to your talking Jabal. I tire of that damn mouth,” Hawkes said as he holstered his pistol and drew a syringe filled with a bright orange liquid. He approached Hacker when the click of a hammer echoed behind him.

  Hawkes turned around. It was Colonel Henry with his gun trained on him. “This has gone far enough General,” He said.

  “John, you dare threaten me?” Hawkes asked. “Especially with another guardsman in the room?”

  “Good point,” John said and then shot the other guardsman before he could draw his pistol. As John turned his attention back to Hawkes, he realized that he’d pulled Hacker in front of him to use as a human shield.

  “You dare side with these anarchists?!” Hawkes asked. “I will have your head for this you traitor!”

  “It’s not about whose side I’m on General, it’s about doing what’s right.”

  “The right thing to do is restore order John! I punish those who sow chaos, and this one is the worst of them all!” Hawkes hissed.

  Hacker elbowed Hawkes in the stomach, while Hawkes plunged the serum into Hacker’s neck. Within seconds, the spot where Hawkes injected the serum burned, and started to spread. A chill as cold as ice flowed through Hacker’s neck and shoulders, and then the rest of his body. But in an instant his entire bloodstream had been ignited as though it was rocket fuel.

  As Hawkes stumbled back, Hacker managed to snag the pistol inside the General’s’ jacket and tossed it to John before he collapsed onto the floor.

  “You traitor!” Hawkes howled as he charged at John. He tackled John to the floor, and knocked the pistol out of his hands. He reached into his jacket for another syringe, but John held the mad General’s hands at bay.

  The two wrestled on the floor while Hacker watched, helpless as his body felt like fireworks pummeled every nerve. The concrete floor clawed at his skin, and Hawkes intended to inflict the same torture to John.

  John kneed Hawkes in the groin, rolled on top of the General and fought to twist his wrists until the syringe was pointed at him. John and Hawkes pushed with all of their might, the two officers locked in a feat of strength against one another.

  “AAAHHHH!” John howled as he broke the stalemate and pushed the plunger, injecting the serum into Hawkes.

  “Come on!” John screamed as he leaped up and held out his hand to Hacker. Everything burned, even John’s hand felt like a Titan’s grip. The vibration from walking felt like a hammer striking every joint in his legs.

  “I’m not...doing so hot…” Hacker said.

  “You have to move Hacker! C’mon!” John grunted as he hoisted him over his shoulders.

  John weaved through the underground bunker to avoid contact with all other Core soldiers inside the complex as Hacker’s body temperature rose.

  “Did you think this all the way through?” Hacker asked.

  “Somewhat. If I can get you to a medic-”

  “No! No military doctors! Take me to the Grid. We have someone onsite who can cure me.”

  “This serum is experimental! Only the Core has an antidote!”

  “You just shot another Core officer and injected the serum into a high-ranking General! Do you really think a medic won’t say something?”

  “Point made. I’m sorry about your father, if I’d known…”

  “Saying sorry doesn’t bring him back Colonel Henry,” He said bitterly. He wished he could’ve taken it all back. The final words he’d said to his father before this encounter would haunt him for the rest of his days. He hoped that in those final moments his father had only kind words in his heart. Hacker certainly did.

  There was no penance from this. No atonement for his sin of hubris. Hacker yearned to die. He believed this serum to only be the start of the endless pain he would endure. He deserved it. In fact, he believed that he got off easy, being saved by a stranger at a time when all he wanted was to goad Hawkes into pulling the trigger and end the suffering to come.

  “My blood is on fire,” Hacker mumbled.

  “I know Hacker. I’m going to get you out of here. Mark my words.” The two escaped the bunker and commandeered a small shuttle on the ground. John strapped Hacker in.

  “I…don’t think I’m going to make it…”

  “You will. We’ll get to the Grid before they do. I promise,” John said. He ran around, jumped into the pilots seat, ignited the shuttle and took off.

  “I think I’m going into cardiac arrest,” Hacker said as his heart drummed inside his chest. He took a deep breath, but couldn’t exhale. His heart raced, and the air in his lungs piled up.

  “God damn it!” John cursed. Hacker watched John strike him in the thigh, and then his world went dark.

  “I need a medic!” John howled at the entrance of the Grid. The door opened, while Rick and three other members came out with pistols trained on John.

  “What happened to him?” Rick asked.

  “Hawkes gave him an experimental torture serum. He refused medical help at the base, he wanted to come here,” John said.

  “Is he dead?” Akio asked.

  “If you guys don’t move it, he will be,” John said. Rick holstered his pistol and took Hacker into his arms.

  “Clear the way,” Rick said. “We’re going to need to draw some blood. Akio, get a doctor on the line.”

  John approached the doorway, but Donald held him at bay with a pistol pointed between his eyes.

  “Donald, let him go. I don’t think the infamous John Henry is here to arrest us all by himself,” Rick said.

  Donald glared at John as he holstered his pistol. The four men walked into the base. Technicians everywhere were pulling out electromagnets and frying their Chambers. The screens frazzled in a mix of pixelated images before going black, taking their secrets into an unrecoverable ocean.

  “We got suspicious when we hadn’t heard from him,” Rick said. “We have the protocols in place to prevent anyone in the Core from capturing our operation, and we’re never afraid to pull the plug.”

  John watched as this sea of information was being thrown away. Billions in storage space was being wiped out, likely uploaded and stored in some off site server far away. It seemed like such a waste. The Grid possessed the most archived scientific information in the galaxy, and if the right people accessed its libraries, there was no telling how many new discoveries could be made in the field of science.

  Rick placed Hacker on a table. “His heart is going out. Donald, get me the defibrillator.” He ran into an adjacent room and retrieved the device that would get Hacker’s heart moving.

  “I’m drawing a blood sample. Akio, is Dr. Stirge ready?”

  “Yes, we have him on the uplink. He’s awaiting the sample now.”

  “Perfect. John, be a pal and give this to Akio,” Rick said as he handed John the tube full of blood. John waltzed over and gave Akio the blood who placed it inside a small box.

  “Okay, now let’s try to wake him up,” Rick said as he drew a shot of pure adrenaline.

  “No, don’t!” John shouted, but Rick raised the syringe and stabbed it into Hacker’s chest. He plunged the syringe, and waited for Hacker to wake up.

  Hacker’s eyes opened and he screamed. He screamed in such
agony every technician on the floor froze and watched in horror as the Stealer of Secrets begged his friends for death. His screams echoed through the halls of the complex, sending chills down every spine. Even John, who saw every kind of war wound known to man had never heard a man scream in such pain.

  “That’s why I knocked him out!” John said.

  “Rick!” Akio shouted. “The Doctor…he’s never seen anything like this before. He doesn’t understand these synthetics!”

  “Oh, shit,” Rick replied. “Wait a minute! Get me that chemist I know, um…the professor on Titan! He’ll know what to do!”

  “Can we trust him?” John asked.

  “Oh yeah, he’s quiet. He once hired me to do a full scale identity wipe for him. Didn’t make sense to me, but hey, he had the money and was more than willing to pay me to do it!” Rick said.

  Hacker’s throat became hoarse from his screams. His body writhed as he sought to escape the pain. His skin felt like it was being peeled off, then set aflame. His tears felt like branding irons being dragged against his cheeks. Existence itself was agony and torture.

  “The pain…it’s too much!” Hacker screamed. He convulsed on the table, his limbs flailing in all directions.

  “The doctor said to knock him out! We need to put him into a medically induced coma if he’s going to survive this!” Akio said.

  “No! He just received an adrenaline shot to the heart, anything more will take his heart out!” John said.

  Rick put his hand to Hacker’s forehead. “He’s burning up. What if we put him into an ice bath?”

  “By the looks of it, we don’t have much choice!” John said. “Get the ice!” He shouted. Akio and Donald ran off, but they could only find a few trays of ice in the freezer. John and Rick carried Hacker into the showers and turned on the water. They turned the knobs as far to cold as they could go, but nobody knew if it was going to be enough. Hacker whimpered as the water droplets splashed against his skin, each one felt like a pellet of molten steel raining down on him.

  Akio ran in and held the ice against Hacker’s chest and head. He screamed in agony again as the cold sting of the ice burned even more. He gasped for breath and rambled in whispers about his delusions. His eyes flickered as he snapped in and out of consciousness, the water and sweat cascading down his body.

  “If we can’t cool him down, his organs will cook!” John said.

  “We need more ice!” Rick snapped. “Akio, go get some more from one of the local stores. Donald, has that chemist replied yet?”

  “No sir, the sample hasn’t even finished uploading yet. With the network down…” Donald paused.

  “Son of a bitch!” Rick cursed. A crack of thunder roared outside. An explosion rocked the entire building and shook it to her foundations.

  “Do I wanna know what that was?” Rick asked.

  “The security cameras don’t show anything…wait! They put our feed on a feedback loop!” Donald shouted.

  “You! You led them here!” Akio hissed as he drew his pistol and pointed it at John.

  “No…he didn’t,” Rick said. “Gabby did.”

  The technicians gasped in shock. “How do you know?” Akio asked.

  “Because after an hour when I didn’t hear from Hacker I looked at the footage. He left here with Gabby to the Ram’s Head bar, where I was able to recover drone footage of her escorting Core soldiers in to pick him up. It was then that I issued the Phoenix Protocol to wipe out everything,” Rick explained.

  The room sat in silence while another explosion rocked overhead. “Seems that our luck has run out,” Rick said.

  “Maybe not yet. Do you have any comm lines open?” John asked.

  “A few.”

  “Let me make a call. I’ll try to get us out of this.”

  The door exploded, and a swarm of Core soldiers spilled into the building. Their guns were drawn, and the technicians saw no other choice than to surrender to the superior fighting force. The technicians kneeled on the floor, while the soldiers screamed for the others to get down. They attached zip ties to everyone on their knees, then moved to the lower levels.

  Hawkes marched in triumphant at the top of the stairs. His face held a rosy hue, a mark that the serum hadn’t been fully cleansed from his system.

  “I should’ve known that my own John Henry would betray me for the leader of a renegade group of separatists. The war has been over for ten years, yet these miscreants insist on keeping it going…and you want to join them,” Hawkes said.

  “I did not betray you General. But you’ve made it clear that you don’t intend on repairing the divisions here in the Core. Same with the other Generals. But there are those who do want the Core to heal, and one of them happens to be on my side,” John said.

  “What the hell are you talking about?”

  “Madame Chairman Harris, I’ll let you explain,” John said as he turned on the communications array.

  “General Hawkes, you are to cease and desist from the presence of this facility immediately!” Harris said.

  “With all due respect Harris, you are merely a citizen of a very large company. And I am after a target that has stolen and sold state secrets!”

  “General Hawkes, this facility is now under the ownership of the Ionics Corporation. We have procured their information sources regarding scientific research and advancement and quite frankly, you’re trespassing,” Harris said.

  “I will not-”

  “General, if you do not leave at once, I will personally contact Information Minister Philips about this infringement upon my property, without a warrant, and he will remove you from your position at once!” Harris screeched.

  Hawkes pulled out a comm device, looked at the screen and then placed it back into his pocket. A snarl of defeat formed on his face.

  “Release the prisoners,” He ordered. The soldiers swept through the floor, cut the ties which bound all of the technicians and filed out of the facility. They left behind a massive mess of papers, overturned desks and smashed Chambers.

  “Hacker’s going to be pissed when he wakes up,” Rick said.

  “So Colonel, do I take that to mean you’re accepting my offer?” Harris asked.

  “Yes I am Lynn. I’ll be there to sign the papers in a few days.”

  “Excellent. I’ll see you then,” Harris said as she cut the feed.

  “Whew! That was a close one!” Rick said as he wiped his forehead.

  “You will keep your end of the bargain right?” John asked.

  “Of course. We’ll sell Ionics all of our scientific data in exchange for our freedom,” Rick said. “It’ll take us a few days to compile all of it, but by the time Hawkes gets the warrant he needs, we’ll be long gone.

  “Yeah, Hawkes being on his feet was my biggest fear. It means the Core has an antidote for the serum,” John said.

  “Sir!” Akio shouted. “The chemist! He came through!”

  “Perfect,” Rick replied. “We can synthesize an antidote now.”

  Rick approached Hacker with a full IV bag and hung it on the stand.

  “Time for your cure sir,” Rick said.

  “I don’t deserve to be cured,” Hacker said.

  “Why not?”

  “After what I did. To my father, to Houston, to all of you. I should’ve died. I deserve to die.”

  “Hacker, if you’d wanted to die, you would’ve. John said your organs would’ve cooked if we left you like that any longer. My contact came through and now I can dissolve that crap in your bloodstream.”

  “Not all of it. Leave some inside me Rick. Let it serve as a reminder of my ego getting in the way, so that I’ll never forget the pain I inflicted on others.”

  “If you say so…”

  There was a knock at the door. It was John.

  “How’re you feeling?” He asked.

  “Everything hurts, but I’m getting used to it.”

  “Rick, may I have a moment?” John asked.

  Rick bowed h
is head, and then left the room.

  “I suppose you were wondering why I acted out against the Core and-”

  “Not really,” Hacker interrupted. “Colonel John C. Henry, rising star within the Core ranks for brave performance during the Core invasion. Spent the last few years directing contractors through the Ministry of Defense’s regulations, believes that science is the key to mankind’s salvation yet has no educational background in the field. A ravenous reader who likes to play dumb in front of others. Was offered a position within Ionics, a lucrative retirement job, but needed a few days to make his decision. Don’t worry John, I do my homework.”

  John gave a knowing smile. “I knew you would. I also do mine. We stand at a crossroad here in the Core. We’re making the push into deep space but too many people don’t know how to handle the dangers that exist out there. I want to put together a team that does know how to handle those dangers.”

  “And you want me to be a part of that team?”

  “Well, yes.”

  “No,” Hacker replied.

  “And why not?”

  “Should I ignore the fact that you sold a huge chunk of my organization in exchange for my freedom? That you traded one master for another?”

  “Hacker, I suspect that deep down you and I both know that your time with the Grid is over. Your experience at the Grid has shown you the dark side of the black market information trade. You’ve seen what happens when you get caught, and everyone gets caught eventually.”

  “Still, I’m a lone wolf and you already played your get out of jail free card. I can take my skills anywhere I want.”

  “You’re right Hacker, that’s true. But remember, I saved your life.”

  “Really? Playing that card?”

  “Seems it’s all I got. How about instead of being a lone wolf you be a part of something greater. A brotherhood that will lay down their lives for each other.”

  Hacker felt a growing respect for John, his charisma eroding his gnawing loneliness. “I’m listening. What will you want me to do?”

  “Once you recover, I’ll task you with finding the rest of our members.”

  “You want me to track down a bunch of old soldiers who fought for the Core?”