“Give me my unit, two platoons from Delta Company, and the Armbands. I’ll launch a diversionary assault on the gates into North End to keep their attention off the attack on the lab. I’ll also stop the Koreans leaving via the western gatehouse. Smithson, you take Madison and the Specialist girls plus the other two Delta Company platoons and secure the lab.”
“How would Smithson’s unit get into North End with the gates under Gamma Company’s control?” Mal said.
“There’s a secret entrance in the wall close to the lab,” Madison said.
“Will it be defended?”
“That’s a good question. Not many know of its existence.”
“It will be defended,” I said.
“Don’t worry, we will be ready for that,” Smithson said. “Now, do we have a contingency plan in case the Koreans give up on the sub and decide to leave through North End’s eastern gatehouse?”
“Aika and the Javelin missile launcher,” I said.
“I thought we agreed not to–” Chelsea began.
“We will not overcome the chancellor’s forces with words, Chelsea Thomas,” Pat said.
She bristled, but didn’t reply.
“Don’t worry, Chelsea,” I said. Man, this girl was like a broken record! “Aika won’t fire until they’ve passed through the gates.”
Pat suddenly clapped his hands. “Right, let’s get this show on the road. It will be dawn before we know it. Every minute we delay is another minute the chancellor can prepare for our assault.”
“Right you are. Let’s move out!” Smithson said. He immediately bellowed a string of orders in preparation for the duel assault.
Giving Nanako’s arm a reassuring squeeze, I was about to tell my unit to fall in when someone grabbed my shoulder with a crushing grip. Turning around, I was surprised to see Chelsea in front of me. Her strawberry-blonde hair was in serious need of a wash, and although her plain face was smudged with dirt, it couldn’t hide the freckles that adorned her cheeks and nose.
“I need a word, Ethan.” She spoke so softly that I was the only one who could hear her.
“You still harping on about those missiles?” I whispered, becoming majorly annoyed.
“Be careful of the Patriot,” she said. “You can’t trust him.”
“We couldn’t have pulled off any of this without his help tonight.”
“He’s a borderline psychopath, Ethan. If he thinks you’re in his way he won’t hesitate to remove you.”
I glanced at Pat, talking passionately with Captain Smithson. “In his way?”
“When I got in his way, I was assaulted, kidnapped, and almost poisoned with cyanide by his Underground goons.”
“You sure it was him?”
“Positive.”
“Fine – warning received. I’ll keep my eyes open.”
“Please.”
“How’d you survive the cyanide attack, by the way?”
“They put it in my water bottle. The bitter almond taste gave it away.”
“Good to know. Right, we’d better move.”
Chelsea nodded.
After she left, I managed only a few steps when Pat hurried over to me.
“A word?” he asked.
“Sure. I need to talk to you, too.”
He led me over to a badly shot-up desk that was a short distance from the others.
“I heard that Specialist Anna Georgiou was the one who ratted you out tonight,” he said.
“Looks that way,” I replied.
The Patriot looked outside to the street where Madison, Chelsea, Ryan, and Bhagya were checking their weapons alongside Smithson and two platoons of Delta Company.
“Honestly, I’m not surprised, Jones. Be very careful of the Specialist girls – even Chelsea, Bhagya and Madison. They’re giving us the impression that they’re on our side, but they were all subjected to extensive brainwashing when they were taken into the lab. They could revert to pre-programmed behaviour or show their true colours at any moment.”
“I’ve worked with Madison for months, Pat. I trust her with my life.”
“Heed my words, Jones – you can’t trust them. Did you know they’ve all been genetically modified? And for reasons unknown. They’re more bat than human.”
“I heard something like that.” I didn’t tell him I was one of them – the last of the genetically modified males, in fact. More bat than human indeed!
“I’m sending Underground cells along with each attack group to provide support. However, if the Specialist girls make a move to betray us tonight, they’ll be ready to take them down.”
“Pat–”
“Do you know many people were injured or killed tonight because of Anna Georgiou?”
“Okay, you’ve made your point,” I said. It would only take one brainwashed Specialist with an assault rifle to completely ruin our plans.
“What did you want to ask me?” Pat said.
I looked at my watch and cussed – we were running out of time. “There’s something I need done before sunrise. Won’t be easy, it’s a big job.”
“What is it?”
I told him.
He lifted his bushy eyebrows in surprise, then nodded nonchalantly. “Now that there’s no Custodians patrolling the streets and enforcing the curfew, it won’t be a problem – I’ll get right on it.”
Chapter Seventeen
~ Chelsea Thomas ~
The longest night in living memory was drawing to an end – dawn was less than two hours away. Fatigue welled up from the depths of my being, threatening to pull me into unwanted sleep. Refusing to submit, I shook my head to clear it and gripped my assault rifle tightly.
Our unit of almost three dozen men and three women hurried down streets between rows of ten-storey apartment buildings. Light shone through a window here, a window there. The townsfolk must have heard the sounds of gunfire over at the HQ and were wondering what was happening.
Leaving the residential area behind, we jogged quickly through still, quiet streets lined with lifeless restaurants, pharmacies, hairdressers, grocery stores and refurbished appliance stores.
Madison was on point, singing almost constantly with echolocation, illuminating her immediate surroundings to check for hidden enemies.
Bhagya, Captain Smithson and two Custodians followed closely behind her, guns held at the ready as they hurried along. Next came Ryan and me, and behind us, two platoons from Delta Company and a cell of Undergrounders. The latter were armed with assault rifles and pistols from the stash we brought from Hamamachi, as well as homemade bombs. After all the fighting had ceased in Newhome Proper, Smithson sent a squad to retrieve our Bushmaster from the repair yard. We had placed all of the trailer’s weapons and supplies inside the passenger compartment before leaving it there. The trailer was just a red herring.
“How will we know which Bushmaster is yours?” Smithson had asked.
“The one without solar panels,” David had said, with a laugh.
We reached the commercial district and passed through streets lined with darkened shops. I had to admit to being impressed with Madison – not only had she matured immeasurably from her days with us, but she also possessed extensive knowledge of strategy and tactics. Before we left the HQ, she gave us all a quick mission briefing, explaining how we would assault the secret entrance into North End. I hoped her ideas would work; otherwise, most of us would be dead before the night was out, and the virus would be released. Glancing at Ryan as he jogged beside me, I willed him to be one of those to survive.
As though reading my mind, he spoke. “Look, Chelsea, if I don’t make it tonight, you have to promise me that–”
“Don’t you dare,” I hissed. Although I sang out briefly with flash sonar to see his face, I didn’t need to see the serious expression framed there to know what he was going to say.
“Let me finish!”
“Seriously, Ryan, if anything’s going to happen to either of us tonight, it’ll be me. I’m the one cursed
with an endless stream of bad luck. A mother who hates me, my father getting shot and framed for it, getting evicted from our apartment, the debt collectors beating me senseless and killing my brother, my sister–”
“Don’t jinx yourself, Chelsea!”
“Just saying it like it is.”
“I know you’ve had a hard life that has distorted your world view, but don’t get fatalistic on me tonight, okay? If you approach the coming combat expecting to die, you probably will. Trying having hope for a change and go forward tonight expecting to win, okay?”
“Hope? Huh, never had much use for that.”
“Without hope, Chelsea, we have nothing to drive us onward, surely you can see that?”
“Cut the chatter!” Madison hissed from the front.
We fell silent, but my mind continued to focus on the negative. Hope? Seriously, what place did it have in my life? Even if Ryan and I survived this night, there was a new obstacle standing between us now – his father’s declaration that he wouldn’t allow us to get together. I wondered how Ryan would react to that. Would he submit to his father, or would he defy him? And if the latter, would I want to be with him if his family was against it? I doubted it. What would be the point of getting married to someone if one of the families was opposed to it? I wondered if I should tell him, but this was neither the place nor the time.
The sound of distant gunfire suddenly disturbed the still night air, causing a chill to run down my back. Ethan’s group had begun their diversionary assault on North End’s gatehouse. We were running out of time.
The twelve-foot, razor-wire topped wall that separated North End from Newhome Proper soon came into sight. Spying the copse of evergreen trees that hid the secret entrance into North End, we approached with all caution, just in case Gamma Company Custodians had prepared an ambush.
Madison, Bhagya and I went in first. We used flash sonar as we weaved our way carefully through the trees towards the wall, assault rifles couched and fingers on triggers. My heart raced like runaway vehicle going downhill, but I swallowed and focused on what I was doing, aware that Ryan, Smithson and the Custodians followed our footsteps.
We were a stone’s throw from the wall when I spotted a body slumped against the base of a tree. It was a young woman dressed in a Custodian uniform. An uneasy feeling fled through me.
“Halt!” I called out softly. The Custodians and Undergrounders froze, futilely searching the dark shapes of the surrounding trees for signs of danger.
Continuing to sing with echolocation, I knelt beside the woman, but horror and dismay consumed me when I recognised her wavy hair and small frame. It was Lucia Marino, one of my biologically modified sisters. Her jacket was soaked through with blood and her breathing was slow and irregular. She had taken two bullets in the gut.
“Lucia?” Madison said, suddenly appearing beside me.
I touched her throat to check her pulse, and bit my tongue to stop myself gasping aloud when she turned her head slightly and looked at me from the corner of her eyes.
Smithson and Ryan joined us, straining to see in the poor moonlight and starlight.
“You know her?” the captain asked.
“She’s one of us,” I said.
Ryan carefully examined the bullet wounds in her stomach, which were leaking blood in a continuous trickle. He sought out my eyes in the poor light and shook his head.
Lucia reached out a blood-soaked hand and grabbed my collar. “They’re all dead.”
Taking her hand in mine, I tried to reply but my voice caught in my throat.
“Who’s all dead?” Madison spoke firmly, somehow managing to keep her emotions under control. What was she, a machine?
“Jess, Liz, Di, Xiaomao, Adhi…”
“What happened?” I asked, voice wavering.
“It was Anna,” she whispered. “She told us to kit up and be ready to move out, and then pulled out a gun and started shooting. We never had a chance. Shot me twice in the stomach and left me for dead. I escaped after she left – didn’t get far though.”
“Don’t waste your energy talking,” Madison said. “We’ll get you to hospital.”
“It’s too late.” She arched her back suddenly and cried out in pain.
“Shhh, don’t exert yourself,” I said.
She tightened her grip on my collar. “Be careful – Anna said Cho promised her that she could go with them tomorrow if she killed the rest of us.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. How could Anna hunt down and kill the friends and sisters she grew up with?
“What about Romy?” Bhagya asked, appearing beside us in the dark.
“Wasn’t there…” Lucia said, before she breathed one last, laboured breath. Her hand went slack and fell to the ground.
Holding my breath to hold back tears, I gently closed her eyelids. Images of my slain sisters played through my mind. I couldn’t believe they were gone. Jess – tall, intelligent, able to win arguments and influence the rest of us with her impeccable logic. Liz – with her dark brown hair and lily-white skin, easily excited yet prone to long bouts of brooding. Di – short, with thick, muscular limbs, easygoing and utterly dependable. Xiaomao – fresh faced and impressionable, eager to please. And Adhi – quiet like Bhagya, yet lacking the latter’s insatiable thirst for revenge.
“How could Anna do that to her own sisters?” I wailed softly as I stared at Lucia’s still form. “How could she remain loyal to Cho after what we showed her about the brainwashing? How can she think Cho will spare her?”
“The brainwashing must be exceptionally deep seated in her case,” Madison said.
“Actually, I suspect there’s more to her than meets the eye,” Bhagya said.
“Surely she’s doing this under compulsion? As a result of blackmail, bribery, or mind control?” I said.
Captain Smithson cleared his voice. “We have to keep going, Specialists. We don’t have much time.”
“Agreed – we’ll have come back for her body later,” Madison said. “Everyone, move out!”
Madison and Bhagya couched their guns against their shoulders and, using flash sonar, moved deeper into the trees.
I didn’t follow them, though – my eyes were fixed on Lucia’s lifeless face as my thoughts strayed back to when we met Ethan and Madison at the water purification plant.
“Will you join us in our fight against the chancellor now that your eyes have been opened?” I had asked her.
Slinging her rifle over her shoulder, her face had lit up with an inner light, her shoulders set in determination. “Absolutely,” she had said.
That should have been the pivotal moment of her life, when she was finally freed of the chancellor’s mind control. It should have been a new beginning where she was free to make her own choices. But now, sitting in the dark at the foot of a tree, gazing at her dead body, I couldn’t help but wonder what the point of it all was? We didn’t go to that effort to free Lucia, Jess, Liz, Di, Xiaomao and Adhi from brainwashing for them to die pointless deaths at Anna’s hands. The futility of our efforts left me feeling so hollow inside that it hurt.
Strong hands suddenly grabbed my shoulders and gave me a good shake. “Snap out of it, Chelsea. Fight now, grieve later.” Madison growled.
“She’s not a machine, Madison.” Ryan said. He removed her hands, pulled me to my feet, and handed me my gun.
I sucked in a deep breath and pushed down the grief and pain that was tearing me apart. I kept pushing until it faded away to being little more than background music gnawing away at the edge of my consciousness. I knew it would return later – no doubt as a tidal wave against which I would have no defence.
“Ready,” I said.
“Let’s go,” Madison snapped.
Couching my assault rifle and calling out with echolocation, I moved as quietly as possible through the trees and sparse undergrowth. My heart felt as though it had been rent in two with the loss of six of my precious sisters. Now there were only six of us lef
t – Madison, Chelsea, Anna, Romy, Claire, and me. Knowing that Anna was out there hunting us, I felt strangely vulnerable.
We reached the secret door set in the tall, outward curving concrete wall that separated North End from Newhome Proper. Everyone quickly took their places according to Madison’s orders. We Specialists stood before the door, ready to lead the attack. One platoon of Custodians was directly behind us, using trees for cover and ready to move in as soon as we were through. The second platoon stood behind them in reserve. Undergrounders stood on both sides of the door, ready to light their homemade pipe bombs and throw them over the wall.
“I can’t hear anything – you sure they’re defending this entrance?” I whispered to Madison after straining my ears to pick up even the slightest noise coming from the other side of the wall.
“Without question.”
I sang out a quick burst of flash sonar so I could see her expression. Her face was so pale from her injuries, and with the ugly gash on her forehead and traces of blood on one side of her face, she looked like a zombie.
“Sit this one out, Madison. You don’t look so good,” I said.
“And let you have all the fun? I don’t think so,” she said. Checking one more time to make sure everyone was in their positions, she gave a quick bird whistle, the signal to begin the attack.
In response, the Undergrounders lit the fuses on their pipe bombs. They burned slowly, glowing in the dark like fireworks sparklers. At the last moment, they heaved the bombs as far as they could over the wall.
Turned out there was an ambush waiting for us. Custodians waiting on the other side of the wall cried out with panicked voices, telling each other to run, get down, or take cover. It was too late, though. The bombs went off in quick succession in a series of painfully loud bangs, kicking up great clouds of dust, dirt, and smoke.
Ryan immediately passed the magnetic key over the near-invisible seam in the wall and gave the door a mighty push. It swung inwards on well-oiled hinges.
Madison was through the widening gap in an instant, with Bhagya and me on her heels. The swirling clouds of dust and smoke from the bombs obscured normal vision, but not echolocation – singing loudly allowed us to see right through it. As I sang, I saw that we were in a wide, grassy area set behind two multistorey office blocks, with a narrow alleyway between them.
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