With my gun at the ready, I hurried through the living room and darted through the open doorway into the small lounge room beyond. But before I could even take in the scene, Madison came barrelling backwards into me, knocking the gun from my hands and smashing me to the ground with her.
Madison rolled to the side, clutching her ribs and stomach, her face contorted in agony. "Save the chancellor, Jones!" she croaked between gasps for breath.
I extricated myself from her and sprang to my feet, and just in time too, for the Ranger colonel was suddenly in my face and trying to take me out with a knife-edge hand strike to the neck. I stepped back, blocked the strike, and snapped out a front kick. However, the Colonel hooked my kick aside and then stepped in to deliver a punch to my ribs.
I rode the blow, danced away from him and moved deeper into the room, and received something of a shock when I saw the chancellor himself lying on the floor near a wine and spirits cabinet, struggling to regain his feet.
I’d seen the chancellor a couple of times during the town’s Solidarity Festivals when he’d come to address the people, and although he was old, he’d always seemed so powerful, so larger than life. But lying on the floor now, in silk pyjamas and a long pyjama coat, and pawing at the cabinet in a feeble attempt to regain his feet, he just looked old and frail.
Colonel Yamada, on the other hand, was built like a tank and as strong as one too. Like the other Rangers, he too was wearing light amplification/thermal imaging goggles and was glaring at me as though I was an abomination.
"You can see in the dark, Jones, just like she can," he growled in Japanese as he indicated Madison’s writhing form with a flick of his head. "I always wondered about your uncanny ability to spot Skel ambushes and sneak up on anyone in the dark. You two have confirmed my fears that Newhome's geneticists were doing more than tinkering with the genetic makeup of plants and chickens."
I drew my pistol and aimed it at him. "It’s over, Colonel. Kneel on the floor and put your hands on your head."
"Don’t be daft, Jones. I’m not going to let you come between me and honour’s dictates. Now back off and let me finish what I came here to do – we’re on the same side, remember?"
"Same side? I don't think so. You’re a monster, Colonel – you're worse than the Skel, for you should know better than them," I spat back angrily. "Now kneel and put your hands on your head!"
I thought I had him covered, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. In a flash he was on me, snapping out a front kick at my wrist. I fired, but by then it was too late, for he’d already kicked my hand up and the bullet which should have ended his life hit the ceiling instead. A knife-hand strike to my right forearm sent the pistol flying from my grip and then I was fighting for my life against someone who was like a threshing machine in a field of hay. I did my best to block, redirect, duck and dodge the Colonel’s kicks and punches – and I was doing relatively well, since he was the one who'd trained me – but some blows were getting through and they were like being hit by pile drivers.
I managed to get a couple of punches and kicks through to his person, but they no more slowed him down than potato gun pellets would slow a tank.
The Colonel landed a roundhouse on my ribs that sent me reeling off to the side with my eyes smarting from the pain. I had to end this, and end it now; otherwise it’d be curtains for me, Madison, and the chancellor.
So I feinted with a right punch and then snapped my front foot into his chest, knocking him back a step. After that, I turned and made a dive for my pistol over near the door, grabbing it as I rolled. I came up from the roll onto my feet and spun around to bring the gun to bear on the Colonel, while also pulling the torch from my belt and shining it full in his face.
And just in time too, for while I was diving across the room to grab my pistol, the Colonel had used that lull to do the same, retrieved his own gun from the floor over near the wall. I guess Madison had disarmed him before I got here.
Blinded and in pain from the torch beam, which was so powerful it would've felt like a knife being driven through his eyes into his brain, the Colonel refused to be daunted and still fired his gun, and at the exact same moment that I did.
My bullet hit the Colonel square in the chest, causing him to collapse against the wall and slide to the floor, his mouth hanging open in disbelief as he died.
The Colonel's bullet had hit the wall where I had been standing, for as soon as the torch beam hit his face I had quietly dropped to the floor.
"Good job, Jones," Madison said as she used the doorframe to pull herself to her feet.
Madison didn't look too good – she'd turned a shade paler than white paper, was grimacing in pain, and held a hand over her ribs.
A massive sense of relief suddenly flooded through me when I realised the Ranger threat was finally over. Newhome, and our families, were safe.
That thought reminded me of the chancellor. I turned to look for him and saw him sitting on the floor beside the wines and spirits' cabinet.
Returning my pistol to its holster, I hurried over to him and carefully helped him to his feet. I wondered how old he was. I mean, his hair was jet black – dyed, presumably – and his muscles were firm, but his skin was wrinkled and covered with age spots. Seventy? Eighty? More?
"Are you okay, Sir? " I asked with respect, though I wasn't sure why – this guy was no doubt the one who'd passed the order for all the male echolocators to be euthanized. And for what? So that he could control who did and didn't have the genetically engineered ability?
But instead of answering me, the chancellor spoke to Madison in Korean.
"What did he say?" I asked her, but then froze, for she had retrieved my assault rifle from the floor and was aiming it at me.
"The chancellor has instructed me to place you under arrest on the charges of being a traitor, terrorist, and an illegally biologically modified male."
Chapter Thirty-Three
"Say what? But I just saved his life!"
"Take out your gun – slowly – and place it on the floor. And then put your combat knife and bow and arrows beside it," she said, her tone as cold as ice. Gone were all traces of the girl who'd called me 'Ethan' on the way here.
"But Madison..."
"Now!" she snapped impatiently, her finger tightening on the trigger.
"But on the way here you said..."
"I said whatever I needed to say to get you to come back with me," she said smugly.
I hated her then, and with a passion. She'd played me, and I fell for it. I considered trying to draw and shoot before she fired, but I abandoned the idea immediately, for her reflexes were as good as mine.
I slowly drew my gun and laid it on the floor. My combat knife, bow, and arrows joined it.
And then, desperate to save my life in any way possible, I tried another tack. "Were you lying about the breeding program offer too?"
She hesitated for a moment, and then spoke at length and deferentially to the chancellor, who had walked over to a single-seat recliner and seated himself down with a deep sigh.
The chancellor made a brief comment and waved his hand.
"The Chancellor has agreed to my suggestion that you be used in the geneticists' breeding program," Madison informed me. "Now, if you do not mind, make your way to the door, for he has instructed me to take you there immediately."
"What guarantees will you give..."
"Move!"
The trip down eight flights of stairs was a long one. Madison stayed several steps behind me so I couldn't try to jump her, and steadfastly refused all attempts at conversation, though she had to stop on numerous occasions to get her breath back, thanks to her fractured ribs.
I kept looking for an opportunity to attack her, but there were none.
We exited the stairwell on the ground floor, passed through the darkened marble floor foyer, and hurried outside. The Ranger I'd shot with my bow was still lying between the Corinthian columns and had stained the cobblestones with his blood
.
The early-morning air was crisp, and I noticed that the sounds of combat from over near the gates to Newhome proper were absent. I wondered who'd won, the Custodians trying to get into North End or the Rangers who were trying to keep them out.
I took another step, but then suddenly froze when I noticed Bhagya Singhe standing there beside one of the columns. She wore dark clothes, which, when combined with her jet-black hair and dark skin, made her very hard to see her except for when I echolocated.
I didn't want Madison to see Bhagya, so I made sure I stood directly between them and then turned around.
"What are you doing, Jones?" Madison sighed.
"You haven't met the Korean children echolocators have you," I asked her.
"No."
"They've been kept up there in the chancellery for their whole lives, yeah? Hidden away from the rest of the world."
"I do not have time for this, Jones. My chest hurts, I need painkillers – a lot of painkillers – and I need to rest. So shut up and get moving."
"It won't hurt you to answer the question."
"Okay, fine. You are correct; the children have not yet ventured out of the chancellery – so what."
"Did you know they believe their ability to echolocate is the result of natural human evolution?"
The icy veneer fell from Madison's face. "What? Who told you that?"
“They did.”
“The children?”
“That’s right. That’s what they told me a few minutes ago when I rescued them from the Rangers. They heard me echolocating but then said I couldn’t possibly be able to because they were the first and only ones to have evolved with the ability. They sing when they echolocate, just like you do, by the way.”
Madison just stared at me.
"You know what that means, right?" I asked her.
I saw genuine fear in Madison's eyes, then, the first time I'd seen it there.
"It means they're gonna euthanize you girls – all of you, and quite soon," I said, spelling it out for her.
"You do not know that," Madison said, but her voice was pleading, almost begging me to be wrong.
"Yes, I do. Because they can't leave those kids locked up forever. Sooner or later they're going to have to let them out into the real world. And if they meet you lot, they're gonna realise they've been lied to and that they're not so special after all. The powers that be are also going to have to bump off the few top level custodians who know about you lot as well."
The assault rifle in Madison's hands dipped towards the ground.
"They have already ordered you to do that, haven’t they, Specialist Madison Taylor?" Bhagya asked softly as she stepped out so Madison could see her.
Madison jolted as though struck, since she didn't know Bhagya was there.
"Come on, tell us how many senior, non-Korean Custodians have you been asked to assassinate?" Bhagya pressed.
"How do you know about that – wait – what are you even doing out here?" Madison demanded gruffly.
"I came to see what all the shooting was about. As to why I know about your orders? I overhear things, that is all,” Bhagya replied.
"Three," Madison said, speaking as though from a great distance. "I have been ordered to arrange ‘accidents’ for three senior Custodians within the next eighteen months."
“Anyone else?”
“Four doctors.”
"The question is, Madison,” I asked, more gently now. I couldn't believe I’d finally managed to break through to her. “What are you gonna do about it now you know they’re gonna kill you soon?"
"I will leave Newhome tonight – right now, in fact, with you," Madison declared without hesitation.
"I can live with that. What about you, Bhagya, you gonna come too?"
"No, I will stay."
I stepped back so I could see both girls more clearly. "Why?"
"So I can continue in my work to undermine and destroy the government, the geneticists, and their abominable genetics program," Bhagya replied.
“You’ve only got eighteen months in which to achieve this,” I pointed out.
“I know.”
“If it looks like you can’t pull it off within that time, you gotta find a way to escape the town,” I stressed.
“I will bear that in mind,” Bhagya said.
I turned to Madison. "What about the other ten echolocator girls. Would they come with us if you explained to them that their lives are in danger?"
"They would not believe us, just like I would not have had I not spent the past month with you," she replied.
"Leave them to me, Jones. I will find a way to inform them of what you revealed of the Korean echolocators tonight, and I will keep working on them until I bring them around," Bhagya said.
"Eighteen months, Bhagya. Then get out," I said again.
"Where will you be at that time, should we wish to come looking for you?"
Honestly? Probably touring Australia after having divorced Nanako. But as that hadn't happened yet and I couldn’t let on, I gave her a slightly different answer. "Just come to Hamamachi. If we’re not there, we’ll probably be in Inverloch."
Any further attempts at conversation were destroyed when we heard many pairs of booted feet running our way – Custodians.
"We must leave, and quickly!" Madison said.
I turned back to Bhagya to suggest that she leave too, but she was already gone.
"Agreed," I said, and quickly rushed down the steps. But I stopped and turned to face the approaching Custodians.
"What are you doing? Come on!" Madison urged.
"It's Captain Smith and Delta Company," I said, refusing to move.
"But what if they arrest you?" she asked.
"They won't," I said as I hurried down the street towards them. I recognised Captain Smithson, Sergeant Xiao, and many other familiar faces.
The captain, a large, square-jawed Anglo-Saxon Aussie, saw me first and drew the company – what was left of it, anyway – to a halt with a quick gesture of his hand. He stared at me, hard, and then indicated Madison with a flick of his chin. I gave him a quick thumbs-up and a small nod.
He raised an eyebrow, doubting my vote of confidence that it was safe to talk in front of Madison.
"Oh for goodness sake, Captain Smithson," Madison interrupted impatiently, "I know all about you and Jones and the mission you gave him."
"But weren't you sent out to..." he continued, unconvinced.
"Yes, yes, but all that changed when Jones rescued me from the Skel. After that, I joined him and his group, and I guess you can say my eyes have been opened. You can trust me, Captain."
"Very well, report, Sergeant Jones!' the Captain said, as though we hadn't been out of touch for nigh on a month.
"The Rangers who attacked the chancellery are all dead, Sir, and the chancellor is safe. The families are holed up in the kitchen on the seventh floor. I regret to inform you, however, that many others, including some of the councillors, General Lee and Colonel Kim, have not been so fortunate. Also, a small party of Skel was trying to take several truckloads of our citizens off as slaves, but we dealt with them. And of utmost importance, one of North End’s gates has been blown off its hinges," I informed him.
The captain nodded and ordered two platoons to proceed into the chancellery to go to the aid of, and provide protection for, the chancellor and the families, just in case there were more Rangers. Then he called Custodian HQ on his radio and requested that tradesmen be sent to repair the gate pronto.
After that, he turned back to me. "Couldn't you have warned us the Rangers were coming? We got our backsides handed to us on a platter! It took us until now just to get past the Ranger squad who were barring our entrance to North End. I lost a lot of men."
"I'm sorry, Sir," I replied, genuinely apologetic. "My team, including Specialist Taylor here, exposed the Rangers' activities and they were in the process of being rounded up and arrested by the Hamamachi Militia, when a bunch of 'em esc
aped. As soon as we were informed of that, Madison and I came straight here."
"I – we – also dealt the Skel a crippling setback by destroying their munitions warehouse. Furthermore, Ethan killed their leader," Madison added.
"So that is the end of the Rangers, and the Skel should leave us alone for a while, then?"
"I expect so, Sir."
"Good," he grunted. "And thank you, Jones. You could have run off and abandoned us to our fate, but you didn’t. And for that we are eternally in your debt. Now skedaddle before they lock down the town tighter than a Scotsman and his money. I’ll send Lieutenant Xiao and his platoon to see you out."
So the sergeant had been promoted since I’d last seen him – good for him. I tipped my head to him in respect and he returned the gesture.
"There is one small thing I’d like to do before I leave, though, Captain, since I probably won’t be back," I said.
"Which is?"
"I want to say goodbye to my family."
"I'm sorry, Jones, as much as I'd like to grant that request, I must deny it. Major Harris is on his way with the reinforcements, and you must be out of town before he shuts the whole place down."
"But Sir..."
The captain gripped my shoulders. "Jones, for your own sake – go!"
Frustrated, but seeing the logic in his argument and the genuine concern in his eyes, I nodded. The captain and his command staff then rushed off into the chancellery while Madison and I hurried down the road towards the town gates with Lieutenant Xiao and his platoon, which numbered only seven rather than twelve, no doubt thanks to their frantic effects to get past the Rangers who'd been holding the gates leading from Newhome proper into North End.
The area before the town gates was like a ghost town. Four black 4WDs, the Skel trucks, and the lone Bushmaster sat motionless, like silent sentinels in the night. Xiao glanced about at the Skel who lay scattered around their trucks in ungainly heaps. "You two did this?" he asked.
I nodded.
“Impressive.”
"Sir," called out one of the Custodians, who was checking his comrades who lay near the gates and guard towers. "We've got some wounded here!"
Forager - the Complete Six Book Series (A Post Apocalyptic/Dystopian Series) Page 70