Jack Cabe

by Timothy Nguyen

  So I did what I had to do. I helped them arrange a hit on Cabe and Vulkov only for the people I was meant to kill showed up in the apartment I had been shoved into. I cracked and told them everything. They promised to help me as soon as they could.

  That night, Aerotec began torturing my family. Tearing their flesh from their bones with machines, raping them and forcing me to watch, and doing so many more unspeakable things. They sent me back out into the streets to try and gather some more information with the promise that if I didn’t do as they wanted, my family would die,” Alex began to cry.

  “I tried. I really tried. But a few days ago, Aerotec dragged me in and sat me down in front of my family once more. They were disheveled and bloodied. Aerotec slit their throats slowly while I was forced to watch. They shoved a tracking implant in my shoulder and gave me a suspected location for the resistance base. They promised the end of the resistance. I ran in the opposite direction, I ripped that transponder out, and I ran. Somehow or another, I found the Resistance base and they took me in, and here I stand before you. Please, stand up and fight for what is right. Don’t let Aerotec win. Please,” Alex collapsed in sobs as the broadcast faded to black.

  ...

  Val’s crew stormed into the tower, and within minutes were firing round after round into the dozens of Inquisitors who were stationed inside. Their only choice was to push up the flights and flights of stairs, and so began the battle for the Tower, and the battle of New Columbia.

  Chapter 33

  Val spearheaded a push into the stairwell with her rifle at the ready. Only 99 floors of homicidal robots to go through, no big deal…. They pushed forward, and Val fired a quick burst at any Inquisitor or robot that entered her sights. The hard synthetic soles of her boots clacked mercilessly against the cold concrete floor of the stairwell, and each shot fired rang out with a thunderous boom. She was hellbent on rescuing Jack, the man who had saved her from a life of whoring herself out on the streets, who she’d practically grown up with, who was her best friend in the entire world.

  ...

  Jack launched out of the electric chair with a vigor SI-75c had not expected, and he tackled the Inquisitor to the ground. Within another moment the two were upright and grappling, and within another moment SI-75c found himself in the electric chair. SI-75c launched out of the electric chair like an animal desperate to succeed for his master, a creature that once was human but was a man no longer. He pulled the gun from his utility belt, only for Jack to rush at him and force the gun upward.

  “Oh Cabe, you can’t possibly believe that you stand a chance against a machine. Not just me, but the entire Aerotec war machine…. You are naught but a speck of dust in the universe, while Aerotec is like a god.”

  “You wouldn’t understand the concept of religion if it hit you in the face,” Jack threw a savage uppercut, only to break his knuckles open on the hard steel of SI’s jaw.

  75c whirled and grabbed Jack in a stranglehold before placing the barrel of the gun directly against his temple, “Oh Cabe, you may be but one leader, but without you, they’ll be idol-less. Your friends may be strong, but I assure you, Aerotec is indomitable. The odds of you even surviving now are miniscule, impossible even. And the odds of your pathetic excuse for a resistance surviving are even lower, multiple leaders or not.” SI-75c stopped talking and began broadcasting to the facility-wide intercom.

  ...

  Val had made it to about the 34th floor when the intercom buzzed to life. The rebels continued their monotonous trek while the voice spoke, but suddenly they stopped.

  The voice on the intercom called out in a cocky but all too confident mechanical voice, “Attention all resistance forces. Your pitiful exercise in foolhardy assaults is over. I have Mr. Cabe in my hands right now with a gun to his head and no need to keep him alive.”

  Val began sprinting up the stairs as fast as she could, only for a single shot to ring out and the intercom go quiet. She fell to her knees.

  …

  Stan rushed at the advancing tank with his men. Strewn across the street were the desiccated wrecks of Inquisitors and their vehicles, the latest aftermath of the Resistance blitzkrieg.

  Stan yelled something in Russian before he jumped onto the back of the tank, lifted the hatch, and tossed a grenade inside. He jumped off and ran back to his men before a muffled crump came from the tank, followed by a massive explosion when the ammunition inside ignited, turning the tank into a massive fireball.

  “Come on! Secure these buildings, we aren’t letting go of our territory!” By now Stan had a large group of Resistance squads under him, and they had opened multiple salients across the perimeter of the Inner City. He ordered platoons into buildings and continued the march. We have to open a corridor for Val to get Jack out of there, and that means we have to push all of the way to the center of the damned city…

  He squared his shoulders and looked to the massive tower rising in the distance, solemnity and power looking out at an obelisk of misery. This is going to be a longer fight than we had hoped… Godspeed, Val. He pulled his gun up and aimed down the sight as he marched on, nailing every Inquisitor that dared peek its head around a corner. But no one saw the sniper in its nest.

  …

  With a tired smile on his face, Alex handed the pamphlet to the family of four, “Thank you for your consideration, we promise that your support will be much appreciated, Ms. Montgomery.”

  “The people need to know, I guess. I can’t imagine what I’d do if they did something to my nieces like they did to your family Mr. Culloch. They, I can’t believe I’m saying this, but they need to be stopped,” the young woman said as a tear crept down her ivory cheek.

  “That’s why we’re here Ms. Montgomery. That’s why we’re here,” Alex wrapped his arms around her in a big hug, “We’ll put an end to ‘em, but we can’t do it without the support of people like you and your neighbors. Thank you Ms. Montgomery.”

  He backed away and carried on with the job. Behind the resistance lines, numerous teams were doing the same thing: going door to door with propaganda and reassuring words. It wouldn’t be enough to assure a foothold in the city, but it would, at least, raise public opinion of the resistance and draw an easy dividing line: Aerotec used robots; the Resistance used flesh and blood.

  Alex continued pressing on, going door to door. He knocked on the next door, only to be welcomed by a gun pointed in his face. “Inside, now.”

  Alex recognized that voice, “Alvis? No no no…” He backed away, only to find his back pressed against a metal chestplate. A bag was pulled over his head, and he tapped the flesh-colored button on his wrist, a tool TC had given him in case his demons came back to haunt him. His world went the color of burlap.

  …

  Val sat stunned for a few moments. She had heard the announcement, and she had heard the gunshot. He’s… He’s… No, he can’t… Jack’s dead. Jack is dead. She walled off her emotions within moments and fatal determination filled her eyes. She would be strong for the people here, because she could never let them see the cracks in her armor. She wasn’t a prissy little schoolgirl anymore, and she wasn’t a vulnerable rat from the streets anymore. She was Valerie Ballew, and she was going to burn Aerotec down to the ground. But she wasn’t leaving without Jack’s body.

  She stood up and continued walking up the stairs, “Come along, people. We’re going to go get Jack, dead or alive."

  She held onto her stern face, but inside she was drowning and choking on the ghosts of sobs that were trying to rise in the back of her throat and behind her eyes. I… I have to be strong. For Jack. We can cry later. Despite their concerns, the team pressed onward.

  Chapter 34

  Alex was strapped to a chair in the apartment room and flanked by two Inquisitors. His former 'handler', Alvis, stood in front of him. No one knew his full name, or even if 'Alvis' was a part of his real name. Alex was deathly afraid. I escaped him once, and he nearly killed me when he captured me again. N
ow that Aerotec knows that I’m an enemy for sure… He has no reason to spare me this time around. Oh god…

  “Mr. Culloch… You’re a slippery bastard to catch, you know? Why I thought that after your family died in that tragic accident,” Alvis spoke calmly with a growing smirk on his face, “Well after that, I thought that you would come to Aerotec for help. But it turns out that you failed Aerotec just as much as you failed your miserable and pathetic excuse for a family.” Alvis slapped Alexander across the face hard enough to bust his lip.

  Alex growled, “Go ahead, kill me. I’m not telling you a damned thing,” he put aside the fear of death and set his will in stark antipathy and resistance. They won’t have me.

  “Oh, that’s quite alright Alex, really. You couldn’t possibly have anything we need anyway. But after your little stunt tonight, well, upper management has decided that we should do what we should have done a long time ago,” Alvis spoke like a snake or maybe a cat playing with its prey, “And with permission to do anything to you that I want, well, this is going to be fun.”

  Alvis snapped his fingers and the Inquisitors began pummeling Alex.

  …

  The sniper lay in wait. Stan and his men continued pressing down the street at a modest pace with their guns at a low ready, but Stan could tell that something felt off. Something is not right. It is too quiet after the hell we went through to get here… No, not right at all. He began to speak to his men, “Be careful and keep your eyes ope-” He was cut off by the bang of a large rifle, and his body lurched back against his will.

  "Sniper! Get us to cover, someone fire on his position dammit!” Stan yelled, and he quietly realized that he'd been shot. One of his men grabbed him and pulled him into a nearby alley while the two guys from Scottstown opened up with their machine guns.

  “Ricky, Bart, get the hell out of there!” Stan yelled. He pressed his hand to his side and it came back slick with blood; he wasn’t feeling it yet, but he had a feeling that once the adrenaline drained away he was going to be in for a world of hurt.

  “We’re trying boss, but we gotta take this guy out! I mean we c-” Bart’s head exploded into red mist, and Ricky decided to make a break for the alleyway as nearly a hundred Inquisitors poured out of the alleys ahead of them.

  “Dammit… We were ambushed…” Stan's voice was weak and he felt light-headed, probably the result of the shoddy sniper shot. The bastard should have gone for the head.

  “Mr. Vulkov, you aren’t looking too good, let’s take care of that gunshot first,” The medic, Robertson, tried to start treating the wound, but he was shooed away by Stan.

  “Not now Andrew, we all need to barricade ourselves inside somewhere, make a deadly funnel or something, then you can worry about me. For now, get us out of here." They all made for the nearest door, and Stan promptly passed out as soon as they were within relative safety.

  …

  Val was surrounded by a horde. Her men were engaged with a crew of Inquisitors that had made their way down the stairs, and all seemed hopelessly lost, with Inquisitors both above and below.

  “Everyone, into that hall, we can’t stay here,” She heard the signature click of an Inquisitor’s pistol and aimed in the direction it came from, “Go, I’ll cover you all, but get out of this stairwell. She aimed for the Inquisitor.

  “Val, please for the love of all things don’t shoot. It’s just me, Jack,” the familiar voice spoke from around the corner of the stairs, “I know what it probably sounded like earlier, but I can explain.” He rounded the corner bloody but alive, with a nasty cut on his forehead, among other various nicks and bruises.

  Val rushed to him and buried her face in his shoulder, wrapping her arms around him while choking back jubilant tears, “I-I thought you were… How?”

  Jack waved his hand as if to dismiss the question, and he spoke with urgency, “Not now Val, I managed to buy us some time to escape, but I didn't manage to buy a lot of time. The security system figures that you’ll be too smart to take an elevator, so the elevator banks aren’t guarded, and after I killed my captor I managed to make the Inquisitors believe that you’re all holed up in various rooms on the floor directly below us. And as much as I’d love to enjoy the cliche kiss, we need to go, now.” He swept his hand down her back, and she pulled off of him.

  Val spoke confidently to her squad, “You heard the Angel, let’s get moving to the elevators boys. We don’t have much time.” Within minutes, they were in the elevators, and Jack began his tale.

  …

  “Why… Why are you doing this Alvis? What do you have to gain?” Alex sputtered out when the Inquisitors finally stopped punching him to hell and back.

  “Oh no reason in particular, Alex, besides you being a double-crossing traitor to the company that made you rich, besides you working directly against us, besides you generally being a piece of human garbage, yes, no reason indeed," Alvis threw a savage punch into Alex’s jaw, “You know what Alex? I enjoyed slitting your family’s throats. Especially that pitiful excuse for a waste of oxygen, Eva.”

  “I’ll fucking kill you, Alvis!” Alex struggled against his restraints, and rage boiled behind his eyes, “Don’t you dare speak of my daughter like that! You aren’t worthy to speak her name!”

  Alvis laughed, “Oh boohoo, I can’t speak her name? Eva, Eva, Eva, little Eva can burn in hell for alI I care," Alvis smiled with terrible and devious mania, "But she wasn’t nearly as fun as your bitch of a wife, Allie.”

  Alex put all of his energy into pushing against his restraints, practically foaming at the mouth with rage, “Alvis! You monster! I’ll kill you! All of you!”

  “And what do you think you’re going to do Alexander? Get up out of your chair and hit me?" Alvis' tone was mocking, and it slowly toned to hateful degradation, "You’re weak, emaciated, you couldn’t fight off a street rat child. My Inquisitors can kill you in the blink of an eye if you try anything. And besides, killing me won’t bring Eva back, and it certainly won’t stop us from using her like a little prostitute, just like we did your whore of a wife…” Alvis turned around with a wicked smile on his face and walked into another room without another word.

  He had just sat down on the bedside when a guttural roar came from the other room alongside a resounding crash, “I’ll kill you Alvis!” with every last drop of strength he had, Alex managed to rip the restraints from the chair and overtake the Inquisitors in a blind rage, pulling a gun from one of their belts and killing them both before marching into the bedroom.

  …

  Stan lay on the once pristine white tile of some restaurant’s bathroom which was now smeared with his own blood and the blood of others. The ambush had taken a severe toll on them, and they were down from a platoon to about 20 men. They had barricaded the doors as best they could, and Ricky had set up his machine gun behind the restaurant's main counter.

  A medic began patching up Stan's wound, and luckily he was still alive. They just had to survive the night. That means that we need to contact one of the other groups for an evac or something… The medic ran to the official second in command, Allen Locke. He spoke with his typical eagerness, “Allen, we need to-”

  Locke cut the medic off, “Already on it Robertson, just make sure General Vulkov stays alive.”

  “Oh, right, yes sir,” Robertson, embarrassed, walked back to Stan’s side, but it would be some time before Stan’s crew saw the light of day again.

  …

  Alex charged into the bedroom that Alvis was in, and he had the Inquisitor’s gun in one hand and the ropes from his bindings in the other. He growled with primitive rage, “I said I’d kill you, and here I am.”

  Alvis made a move for the gun on his hip, but Alex shot him in the foot, sending him down to the ground in pain. He spoke again, calmly. Almost too calmly, “But first, Alvis, I’m going to have some fun with you."

  “Fuck. You. Culloch.” Alvis spat, disgust flowing through his veins.

  “Oh you’ll wish you c
ould fuck anything after I’m done with you,” Alex tied him down on the bed and grabbed the utility knife off of Alvis’s belt, “You know, after all that you’ve done to me, after all that you’ve put me through, I oughta slice every last molecule of testosterone out of your body. After what you did to my little girl and my precious wife, I oughta chop up your precious little nuts and serve ‘em to you raw. But I’m not like you. I’m not a monster.” Alex plunged the blade into Alvis’ hand, pinning it to the bed frame. Alvis screamed in pain and mumbled out some sailor-worthy epithets.

  Alexander made sure that Alvis was tied down and wouldn’t be able to escape except by a miracle of strength, then went to reclaim his stuff from the trash bag they had stashed it in. He called for assistance as soon as he had his communicator again. Within moments his team was gathered in the apartment.

  …

  Jack and Val, along with the rest of the strike team, made it down to the lobby and were able to sneak out into the streets. Jack laughed at the emptiness of the lobby and surrounding streets, amazed by the fact that Aerotec's Center was nothing more than an undefended town square. The group made it into an alleyway.

  “Wow, you guys must have really pulled a number on Aerotec to keep them so severely occupied that we can just waltz right on out of here. I assume this means the resistance has grown?” Jack asked, still a little woozy from the torture and everything else he had just gone through.

  “Well, that’s one way of saying it. At least 150 teams of ten, spread all throughout the Inner City, and all of them raising as much hell as possible without getting themselves killed. Other provinces have even rebelled since we rose up," Val spoke softly, but not without any small amount of pride.