by M. R. Forbes
Nearly four hours had passed since they had escaped from Jakarta. Mitchell had spent the bulk of them unconscious, sleeping off the adrenaline, exertion, and cuts, scrapes, and bruises that had nearly seen him killed. He had woken with a ringing headache and an awful taste in his mouth, riding in a Hornet gunship that was being shaken by violent turbulence.
For as bad as it was, he had been through worse.
A quick debriefing from Trevor and Katherine had followed. They had gotten out of the city and stayed low over the Indonesian countryside until they reached the ocean, avoiding sensor sweeps as best they could and trying not to draw attention from the local military. Fortunately, the Blackrock ships had air clearance, and even if Watson knew they had taken the craft, which he felt safe assuming the intelligence did, there was no way he could reverse course and ask them to take it out of the sky. It meant their escape was quick and relatively clean.
Now Mitchell was trying to raise Admiral Yousefi over the secure channel, to fill him in on what had happened, to ask about Kathy, Michael, and the rest of the Riggers, and to determine what they should do now. Their mission to Jakarta was, all in all, a failure. They hadn't discovered the components they were looking for or Watson's core, putting them back a few steps. They had also been forced to show their hand and reveal the Core. The upside was that they had eliminated one potential location where Watson might be hiding, and halted the AI's amoebic production.
They had taken a beating, but at least it wasn't a total loss.
"Riggers Actual, this is Alfa, do you copy?" Mitchell said again. He turned to Trevor. "Are you sure we have the range?"
Their systems worked flawlessly in Jakarta because they had been using a secret, heavily encrypted network link between Indonesia and their headquarters in Washington. With HQ no longer secure that link was gone, meaning they had to transmit the encoded signal directly over the thousands of kilometers to Edwards Air Force Base in Nevada. General Petrov had ordered Yousefi there not long after Antarctica, ostensibly to keep an eye on the commander of the Dove and the rogue Fifteenth.
Mitchell had no doubt that Watson knew about the encrypted communications and was working to break them, but the Core had been up to the task of stymying him so far. Both through the advanced encryption they were using, and by crafting the encoding using ancient, obscure methods; like morse code, but with an algorithmic variance in patterns that prevented the same series of dots and dashes from ever being repeated. Watson was highly capable of working forward to solve problems, but despite his nature as a time traveler, he struggled to look back.
"Hard to say, especially with the weather out there," Trevor replied. He had helped Mitchell rig the system to the Hornet's more powerful array. "We should be able to reach him once we're on the ground."
"I was hoping to get a line before we landed. I don't like the idea of bringing this thing down in civilian space, and I also don't like the idea of Watson having a welcome party waiting for us if we decide to drop onto UEA soil."
"We got out. It doesn't make sense for Watson to try to kill us in the open like that."
"No, it doesn't. But he hates me already. After this one, he might not give a shit about sense anymore." Mitchell paused for a moment, clenching his teeth in response to the throbbing in his arms. Four hours and they were still burning. "Riggers Actual, this is Alfa, do you copy?"
"Alfa... this is... actual... over."
Yousefi's voice was lilting as the system slowed to piece together the statement through the interference.
"Admiral," Mitchell said, relieved to get through to him. "Jakarta is a loss. It was a target, but not the target we were looking for."
"I'm aware, Colonel," Yousefi replied. His voice continued to come back slowly as the algorithms worked to complete the words. "I've had my hands working overtime, sending messages all over the world and trying to clean up the mess we've made. I also have one eye over my shoulder, waiting for General Petrov to walk in and carry me to the brig."
"It won't happen like that, sir. Watson needs you and the Dove. If he doesn't get us under control before then, it's his one last, clear shot to beat us."
"Somehow, I don't find that very comforting."
"I haven't found any of this comforting since I was framed for rape and saved by a clone of myself four hundred years from now."
"Point made, Colonel. What is your current status?"
"We're currently about a hundred klicks southwest of the Japanese mainland in a Hornet we took from the Blackrock platoon Watson sent in after us. We've got about two hours of fuel left in this thing, and we're looking for a place to land."
"Did you say Blackrock?" Yousefi asked.
"Affirmative. They've got deep ties to Nova Taurus. In all likelihood, he runs them both."
"Roger. Hmmm. I know someone in Osaka who can lend you some assistance. Ditch the Hornet in the foothills around Mt. Iwawaki. I trust Katherine knows where that is. I'll arrange for a pickup, and have a C-180 waiting on the tarmac to take you back to the States."
"Mt. Iwawaki," Mitchell said, loudly enough for Katherine to hear. She immediately began entering it into the Hornet's telemetry system. "Affirmative. How do we know that your contact can be trusted?"
"My contact has no traceable connection to me."
"Old girlfriend?" Mitchell asked.
"Not quite."
"But you trust them?"
"More than I trust any of the officers at the UEA base right now."
"What about the transport?"
"It'll be scheduled to take a few soldiers home for leave. I'll have to put those soldiers onto the flight to make it legit, and I can't promise they won't be Watson's. You'll also have to make it to the base before she leaves. That's the best I can do."
"Then we'll do our best with it, sir," Mitchell said.
He wasn't too worried about a few crewmen heading home. Even if Watson had managed to implant them, it didn't give them superhuman strength or make them better soldiers. The worst case was that Watson would know where they were going before they got there. It wasn't ideal, but there was a severe limit to how much they could move without drawing the AI's attention.
"Any word from Bravo or HQ?" Mitchell asked.
"Affirmative. Bravo bailed Kathy and Michael out of a mess up in the Olympics. It seems Watson has been developing humanoid robotic assault systems."
"Mechs?" Mitchell said. "Damn it. They made it out safe?"
"Yes. They're refueling the VTOL in Houston at the moment, en route to Miami."
Mitchell exhaled, feeling his body relax at the news the rest of the Riggers were alive and well. "Miami? Did they say why?"
"No. I arranged a refuel and didn't ask any questions. It's safer for everyone that way."
"Understood. I'll knock them as soon as we're able. Thank you, sir."
"My contact will rendezvous with you at the Takogi Temple. If you get there before them, just wait. I guarantee they'll show. And be sure you stash the Hornet close enough to make the hike."
"Takogi," Mitchell repeated for Katherine's sake. "Affirmative, sir. Alfa Squad out."
Mitchell switched off the comm, glanced at Trevor, and then moved to the front of the gunship. He couldn't see Katherine's face beneath the flight helmet, but he imagined she looked as tired as he did. More so, because she hadn't been given time to take a nap.
"Kathy made it out of Washington," he said.
Her head turned, and she nodded emphatically to make sure he saw it. "Thank God."
"You've got the coordinates in?"
"Yes. I've set a marker on my overlay. We're going to have a twenty-kilometer hike ahead of us. Are you up for it?"
He was sore, but it was nothing he hadn't dealt with before. "Affirmative. You?"
"I might ask Trevor for one of his stimulants."
Mitchell lowered his voice. "I think one ragehead is about all I can handle."
"I don't agree with it either, but he means well, and losing Jason has hit
him harder than I would ever have imagined."
"You two used to be together, right?"
"Yes. Back when we were both a little too high on ourselves, thinking we were the shit for surviving the war and getting chosen for the program. We both had some growing up to do."
"I know what you mean. I just hope his addiction to that shit doesn't get him or one of ours killed. I've dealt with addicts before. It never seems to end well."
"He's a professional. You keep giving orders; he'll follow them."
"I hope so. How long until we touch down?"
"I'm going to have to slow our approach and come in extra low to stay clear of sensors. This bird doesn't have clearance, and the Japanese military would be well within their rights to shoot us down. Probably about an hour. Why?"
"I'm going to try to get a little more shuteye. My head is killing me, and this ride isn't helping. I guess you haven't learned to use the repulsors to stabilize, or invented inertial dampeners yet?"
Katherine's head turned back toward the front. There wasn't much visibility beyond the clear carbonate windscreen as the Hornet dropped through the storm that was bouncing them around.
"The Dove has inertial dampeners. The tech hasn't trickled down." She paused a moment, hesitating. "Are you are relieved about Kathy as I am?"
Mitchell put his hand on her shoulder. He hated that she was so worried. "Yeah. I am."
Katherine didn't respond, and he removed his hand and left her to fly the Hornet, returning to his seat in the rear and buckling himself back in.
"One hour," he said to Trevor as he did.
The soldier was in his seat, head back and eyes staring at the ceiling.
"Yes sir," Trevor replied.
Mitchell closed his eyes and took control of his breathing to calm the pounding in his head and the burning in his arms. The pain was optional.
Slow.
Steady.
27
Katherine slipped the Hornet around a final hilltop, dropping lower as the slope of the mountains eased down toward more developed civilization.
The landscape brought back memories. During the Xeno war, before she had been assigned to patrol the Antarctic and protect the XENO-1, she had been on a few combat missions over the Japanese mainland. She had seen these mountains before from a different perspective. One where everything was always dark, no matter how much sun was filtering in or what time of day it was. Where smoke clouded the air almost constantly. Where fighters were trying to shoot one another from the sky, where every move could mean your life, and every bogey you missed was one that had the potential to kill innocent people.
And a lot of innocent people died on the islands. Japan had sided with the United States during the war, and like Indonesia, its relative proximity to China and the Middle East had made it a target of attrition. For the second time in a few hundred years, Japanese cities had been bombed, and while the warheads hadn't been nuclear, they were plenty powerful enough to obliterate skyscrapers and kill thousands.
Like Jakarta, the cleanup was ongoing. Crews from around the world - including China - were presently putting in a global effort to rebuild what was lost. It was a sour thought. They could clean up the rubble and put up new and better buildings. They couldn't restore the lives that were broken. The families shattered. They could never make things just like they were before.
"Katherine, you okay?" Mitchell asked.
She snapped back to the present, adjusting the Hornet's flight path to put them between two smaller slopes. How had he known to ask? He wouldn't be able to see her eyes or expression beneath the flight helmet. She nodded.
"Just some old memories," she replied. She wasn't going to say anything more until she remembered he was a soldier, too. One who had seen his own share of violence and bloodshed and casualties. "I fought over this region during the war. It hurts to be here again, knowing what happened here."
"You don't have to talk about it."
"I know you've been through worse. An entire planet? I can't even begin to imagine."
"I try not to think about it. When I do, I try to let it motivate me. That planet is still out there in this recursion. It doesn't have to be destroyed. We can stop it."
"But we can't stop what happened here. Not in this recursion or any other. This war happened because of that one, and it always has to happen." She made a few adjustments to the flight path, slowing the Hornet. They were almost at their landing point. "If we stop Watson and the Tetron in this recursion, every future will be the same as this one. We'll go through this same thing over and over for eternity."
"But we won't know it. As far as we know, this is already the hundredth time we've done this. Or the ten-thousandth. Trillions and trillions of years. Years beyond measure or count. It still hurts my head to think about it."
"We know it today. I think that's all that counts."
He paused before responding. "Maybe. I'll take these people dying in exchange for the entire human race. It sounds cold, but I would."
"Me too."
The Hornet slowed to a hover over a small open patch between a larger growth of trees. Katherine began to lower it slowly, keeping her eyes on the sensors. There was barely enough space for the ship to squeeze between the vegetation, and one wrong move might destabilize them and send them careening to the ground instead.
"Any sign that the locals have noticed us?" Mitchell asked.
"We didn't pick up any hits from ground to air. I kept us pretty low."
"I noticed. Nice flying."
"Thank you, Colonel."
She eased the Hornet down, cutting the engines and going on repulsor only to drop it the last few meters. As soon as it touched down, she opened the side hatch and set the onboard wipe. It would draw too much attention to self-destruct the craft, so the next best thing was to electronically disarm the remaining bombs and missiles and delete everything in the onboard systems. If someone happened to come across the ordnance they could get it useful again, but not without some serious resources.
She pulled off the helmet and looked over at Mitchell. He was smiling. He did that a lot, especially at her. She didn't know how he could always be so positive when things could seem to bleak sometimes. It was yet another endearing quality that she knew she should find attractive, but for some reason didn't. Maybe she was trying too hard?
"Trevor's got the gear ready in the hold," Mitchell said. "We've got twenty kilometers to hump as fast as we can manage."
"Are you worried about Watson tracking us?" she asked.
"I'm always worried about Watson tracking us. He has the identification keys for this bird, which means he was probably monitoring it from the moment we left Jakarta."
"So he knows we're here?"
"He knows we're in Japan, somewhere. I'm hoping the low flight deck confused the systems a little, but I don't know if the lack of a welcoming committee is a good sign or a bad one. Even after we meet with the Admiral's contact, we need to be extra cautious. He may try to ambush us, or he might sit back and try to lull us into dropping our guard. I'm sure he's already explored the possibilities and done the calculations, but he also might ignore them. He's learned to be counterintuitive as we've butted heads." He paused, the smile vanishing. "Of course, I also don't think we're the most important concern for him right now."
"You mean Kathy?"
"Yes. He doesn't need to kill me if he has the engine and the Core. He'd just like to."
It was another sour thought.
They moved to the rear of the Hornet, where Trevor was already waiting by the hatch. He was holding an NX-600 rifle, and had a pack strapped to his back. He pointed to their gear.
"I threw every last magazine in the armory in there," he said. "And as many of the weapons as I could. I don't like the idea of some kids wandering by and grabbing a bunch of military gear."
"Me neither," Katherine said. "The hatch will seal when we close it. Only a plasma torch will get it open again. Mitchell, how are your arms
?"
He rubbed them lightly beneath the Blackrock fatigues he had changed into and shrugged. "As good as they ever get. I'm a little beat up, but I'll be fine."
"What's our vector, sir?" Trevor asked.
"Make the hike down to the temple, find the contact, head to the base. We'll improvise from there, depending on whether or not we make it unmolested."
"Improvise?" Katherine asked.
"Yes. That's all I'm going to say for now. Extra cautious, remember?"
"Yes, sir."
"Good. Grab your pack, and let's move."
28
The sun was almost up by the time Mitchell, Katherine, and Trevor reached the road that led east to the Takogi Temple. They had been marching for nearly four hours, at a good pace that put them ahead of Mitchell's estimates.
They had made the journey mostly in businesslike silence, with Trevor taking the lead and often ranging ahead of them, scanning the forward position for targets and reporting back. They had passed a few farms on the way, avoiding the workers in the fields and staying as far out of sight as they could, but otherwise hadn't encountered any resistance.There was no sign of local military or law enforcement, and thankfully no sign of Blackrock mercenaries or Watson's drones. They were close to reaching the temple unchallenged, and Mitchell wished he knew if it was because Watson didn't know where they were or because he had something more sinister planned for them.
He had no choice but to assume it was the second, and so he had been working on ideas as they had walked. He needed to try to outthink Watson, which was a difficult thing to do. He was only human after all.
"There it is," Katherine said as the top of the first pagoda came into view. It was in bad shape, chipped and worn.
"It doesn't look like anyone lives there," Trevor said, moving back to them. "Looks like they got hit by a stray missile or something."
"That's a shame," Katherine said. Mitchell noticed her expression change. Was she wondering if one of her missiles had hit it? "Those buildings were hundreds of years old. An important piece of history."