“How long will these delays be?” Ward asked.
“For the Aztech, microseconds. My father could be delayed several seconds,” Scarlett replied.
“I thought you said we’d have an advantage?” Rachel asked wryly.
“It’s better than nothing,” Reynolds said.
Revolution waved them off. “We’ll need any advantage we can get. Once Spectral has destroyed the Aztech, Scarlett will keep her father at bay. At that point, Ward will disable him with the paralysis serum, and then we all work together to take out Von Cyprus. We have to move fast at each step. Our windows will be tight. Right now, the Guard is there holding the Capitol, waiting for the big play, whatever it is. So, the best thing we can do is crash the party early, take out the prelim team, and hold the building. Leslie and the members are going underground as we speak. We just need to make sure they stay in the bunker until we’ve won.”
“Where do we start?” Ward asked.
Revolution pointed at the map. “Here,” he said. “We’re going to fly in over the Potomac. Their main target is the Capitol Building, so Paul, Roderick, Spectral, you flyers will come in and circle around from the east, behind the Capitol. Paul, I want you leading the attack. We can expect the prelim troops to have light armor on. Should be plenty of soft spots to hit with darts. The fewer casualties in this early phase the better. We won’t have that luxury later on.” Revolution pointed to Spectral and Reynolds. “You two give him cover.”
Revolution eyed the map again. “Rachel will be the first out, and she will get inside the building to secure the VIPs. I will go in when we get up there. The rest of us will come in from the west and take out the forward watches. This first phase needs to move fast. If the Legion gets there before we take out the prelim team we’ll be fighting the Legion inside a shooting war. That’s the last thing we want.”
Reynolds twisted his torso, stretching, adjusting inside his armor. “We take on this bunch inside of a firefight, we’re dead.”
Ward smirked at the Capitol Building on the map and thought about Congress. “You sure we ought to be risking it all to try to save this gang? Do you remember their approval ratings back when they actually made decisions?”
“Actually, he has a good point. Most of them are joined at the Council’s hip anyway,” Reynolds pointed out. “And it ain’t like they were elected. Why not just rescue Dr. Gibbons and call it a day?”
Revolution shook his armored head. “It’s not about who they are, it’s about what they stand for.”
“There are greater stakes than that,” Scarlett said, eyeing Spectral. “If we let my father or the Aztech escape, we risk the entire human race, not just a few politicians.”
“She’s right,” Revolution said. “Our first priority is to rescue Leslie and the Congress, but we also need to stop the Council, once and for all. In their desperation they’ve turned to forces they can’t hope to control. This isn’t just about strategy anymore. This is about survival. Today we take them down, no matter the cost.”
Ward, Rachel, even Lantern turned glum. Revolution knew what they were thinking. There was no way they could win this fight. He hadn’t even mentioned the Photuris. That thing was still out there somewhere. But it had clearly been designed to fight Fiona. He hoped it would not be along for this attack. None of them had an answer for it.
“We don’t have to win the battle to win the war. We just need to inflict enough damage for the other guy to say uncle.”
“Do you really think someone like Tarleton will say uncle?” Rachel asked skeptically.
Revolution thought about all the foreign investors he was hoping to scare, the members of the United States military, and of course, the former member companies that had stepped down from the Freedom Council. “In the end, I hope it won’t be up to him.”
NATIONAL MALL
WASHINGTON, D.C.
04:15AM
Blake Lane tested the microphone and nodded to her interview subject, Councilwoman Caroline McKinney. The councilwoman had elected to stay in the city and join the mass of protestors. They had built a vigil that had only grown over night. Blake had driven her gas tank to near empty finding her in the mass of people. She’d searched all night. The sun was rising in less than an hour. But now she had her for an exclusive.
Blake peered out at the crowd. She glanced over at her cameraman. “Make sure that crowd’s in the shot. I want them to see that not everyone is running.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Suddenly…
The power all across the Mall went out.
Darkness.
Silence.
Thanks to the military’s latest version of CHAMP (Counter-electronics High-powered Microwave Advanced Missile Project), a thermo-guided EMP missile fired from the Caracara at forty thousand feet and ten miles away, shielded by Lantern.
Of course, all Council troops were outfitted with auto-reboosters, as were all the buildings on the Mall. Weapons, radios, phones, the lights, the entire electrical grid would come back online in a few seconds.
But before they could, the digital billboards in and around the Mall sprang back to life early. They carried on them a message that was broadcast around the nation.
The Revolution sitting before Old Glory. He spoke in the resolute voice Americans were so accustomed to.
On the Mall, everyone stayed dead silent and stared up at the screens.
“They have told you that I was dead. But they cannot kill what they cannot control. I am still with you. I am still fighting for our freedom, for our hopes, for our democracy. They cannot kill our spirit. The Suns of Liberty are stronger than ever. But we can’t do this without you. If government of the people, by the people, and for the people was ever meant to survive, now is the time for us to prove it. Join us in the struggle. Today we take back the Capitol. Today we take back the country. We are the Suns of Liberty, and the Republic will rise again!”
Somewhere above, Rachel Dodge took it as her cue and leaped out of the Caracara.
She had two silver objects jutting from her hips, strapped around her waist by a thick metal belt. The objects had a cone shape with rings of concentric circles that progressively narrowed toward an opening at the very end—vortex engines. They’d used them a few months back to fly through a hurricane. Not something Rachel ever wanted to do again.
She fell through the night.
Invisible to radar and the naked eye, the vortex engines strapped to her waist soaked up her fall as she straightened her legs and knifed through the clouds, letting the strange cone-like devices build up kinetic energy.
In her wrap-around reflective visors, Lantern’s digisphere beamed to life, and she saw the countdown for when to activate the engines. The digital flight path to the Capitol Building stretched out before her in red as she plummeted though the wind. At the bottom right of her screen a running counter calculated the amount of thrust the engines were storing.
Once she reached the target altitude, she sent the mental command, and the vortex engines spun to life, using the built-up energy, righting her in the air. Another command and she was zooming off toward the Capitol Building. She watched as the gauge on the lower right of her visors counted down the thrust: one hundred percent, ninety-nine percent, ninety-eight percent...it was fading with every second. She stared out at the Capitol Building, glowing ghostly white below her on the horizon.
It still seemed a long way away. If the engines didn’t get her there, she would have to drop into the middle of the Council Guard with no way to protect herself.
CHAPTER 49
LAKE TAHOE, CALIFORNIA
The two lovers were a tangle of legs and arms. Their bodies were slick with sweat in the shadows of the dimly lit room. The open window permitted a soft mountain breeze while the moonlight danced along the walls. A fan whirred in the corner.
“I wish I could just sta
y here forever,” Fiona said.
“You can,” Becky breathed and kissed her on the lips.
When they came up for air, Fiona said, “You know what I mean.”
Fiona slid down Becky’s chest and nestled there, closing her eyes. “I can’t stop that thing, and it knows it.”
Becky stroked the girl’s long blonde hair. “They’ve known that before, and yet here you are, right where you’re supposed to be. Safe and sound.”
They lay there for a long time, until she felt Fiona’s breathing begin to deepen as she slipped off to sleep.
Becky nearly dozed twice. Eventually, she realized her thoughts were too stubborn. Slowly, she unraveled herself from the girl’s embrace, slid gently off the bed, slipped on her robe, and tiptoed into the kitchen. She poured herself a glass of water and stared up at the stars through the window above the sink.
They reminded her of Fiona. Well, pretty much any light source did. But there was something special about the stars tonight. They meant something, she was sure of it.
She wondered if she was feeling a little of what Fiona felt all the time. That sense of connectedness she was always talking about.
Becky strode into her small reading nook just off the living room. Her open robe flittered about her, sending chills crawling over her bare skin as she made her way across the cabin. It was a small space with a single recliner and walls lined with books.
There was one small window just above the chair to her left. The stars were shining through brightly. She thought about Fiona’s fears. The most powerful human on the planet was afraid. That usually portended something very bad. And Becky couldn’t shake the feeling that more than anything else, Fiona seemed to fear for Becky’s safety more than her own. She’d never lost one of her followers until this Photuris thing. It was going to take a lot of confidence-boosting on Becky’s part to restore Fiona’s courage to where it had been before the attack.
The thought made Becky very tired.
She must have fallen asleep, because hours later she awoke to Fiona kneeling before her, draping her head into Becky’s lap like she used to do when they’d first met. It sent Becky’s mind racing back to those early days.
Fiona lifted her head and kissed inside the robe. “I lost you. Couldn’t sleep?”
Becky smiled down at her. “Didn’t want to.”
“Whatcha thinking about?”
Becky huffed a soft laugh and yawned. “How you found me.”
“Pretty easy. This cabin isn’t that big.”
Becky grinned and felt her heart flutter. “No, I mean...originally. Why did you choose me? I’ve been asking myself that question a lot lately.”
Fiona sat up straight. “What brought this on at”—Fiona squinted at the grandfather clock in the living room and read it with her full-spectrum vision—“two in the morning? Besides, you found me, remember?”
Becky’s face flattened, and she shook her head. “I’ve not thought of it that way for a long time. Something drove us together. If it wasn’t you, then what was it?”
“Destiny,” Fiona said.
Becky thought about that for a moment. “Purpose,” she amended.
Fiona didn’t argue with the revision. She took a deep breath, and then her words just seemed to tumble out. “I don’t know what to do.”
Becky shot a teasing frown. “You always figure it out in the end.”
Fiona steeled her gaze. “Those girls died. On my watch.”
Of course that was true, but Fiona was always feeling she had to be responsible for everyone around her. “They knew the risk.”
Becky winced. She’d sounded harsher than she’d meant. “You gave them a reason to live, a family to belong to. Don’t underestimate what that meant to them.”
Fiona melted. “You always know what to say.” She curled back into Becky’s lap.
Fiona had made some bad decisions in the past, but how could anyone—let alone a teenager—deal with being given ultimate power? All told, she’d fared remarkably well. Becky knew her relationship with the girl was odd at best. But she also knew it existed for a reason.
A very important reason. Saving-the-world-type of stuff. She stroked the girl’s hair again. “Let’s go back to bed,” she said.
Fiona rose with a twinkle in her eye and led Becky into the pitch-black hallway heading to the bedroom.
Becky couldn’t see a thing when Fiona abruptly halted in the hallway.
She stood perfectly still.
“What is it?” Becky whispered. Why was she whispering, she wondered. Something seemed odd. Her stomach seemed to roll, and she felt dizzy.
Fiona’s hand let go of Becky’s.
A scream—Fiona’s scream—filled the air, and she transformed into the Fire Fly.
In the glow of her bioluminescence Becky saw it—
The Photuris, black as night, standing in front of Fiona, its arm molded into a spear, stabbed into Fiona’s midsection.
Fiona screamed again.
Becky scanned left, into a room where light was seeping through the window.
She darted left. Into her workout room.
In the half light, she ripped open the double doors to the closet and rummaged through a box of sports supplies.
She grasped it.
Turning on her heels, she whipped the voi forward and pressed the button. The voi’s elegant silk veil ignited into energy, whipping like an electric snake toward the Photuris. It disappeared inside the robot’s black skin. When Becky curled the weapon back toward her, the part that had disappeared inside the machine was simply gone.
Disintegrated.
Shit!
But the move had distracted the Photuris, and as it glared toward Becky, Fiona broke loose of its spear-shaped forearm.
The two women stared at each other in the half light. In Fiona’s eyes, Becky saw fear.
Fiona could do nothing but watch as the Photuris aimed both its arms to its right, sending a wide black beam of death toward Becky—
Who dove below it, dodging oblivion by centimeters.
The wall of the cabin burned away, and the roof above gave.
“Becky!” Fiona screamed.
Becky saw the roof closing in on her and rolled out of its way as fast as she could. It smashed down right behind her. Her second dodge of death in as many moments.
Fiona would not be able to protect her from this thing. She wasn’t even sure if she’d be able to protect herself. She had barely escaped last time and had endangered all of the Suns of Liberty and her old friends in Boston. As mixed as her feelings were about her upbringing in the Resistance, they did not deserve to be forced into the firing line of the Photuris.
Neither did Becky.
If she stayed and fought the Photuris on her home ground, both Becky and the Luma would try and help.
And they would die in the process.
The Suns could as well, if she went for their help again.
But those weren’t her only options.
Her eyes glowed brightly, and she felt her consciousness expand as a flow of energy zoomed across the continent. Linking to the microscopic elements of bioluminescence she had left behind. She sought out those elements that had tweaked her consciousness. Trying to tell her something.
Unable to describe exactly how she knew, she realized what was happening in Washington, D.C.
The Council had tried to kill her. Again. And last time they had made it clear that after they were done with her, they were going after her girls.
After Becky.
It was time to end this once and for all. Whatever it took to keep her girls safe.
Even if it meant choosing sides.
“Get the girls to D.C.! Help the Suns. This one is mine!” she barked at Becky.
And then she teleported.
One second later she was floating above the massive Mount McKinley. She had no more than taken a breath of the soothingly cool thin air than the Photuris plowed into her, teleporting right in front
of her and tackling Fiona with its ungodly power.
The first part of her hastily assembled plan had worked, then. She’d gotten the Photuris away from Becky.
Now she just had to figure out how to survive it.
They fell from the sky and tumbled down the great rocky, snow-covered peak with tremendous force and speed. Rock shattered; snow erupted in massive gouts.
Locked in its embrace, she could feel bits of her burning away into black oblivion.
They rode an avalanche of their own making down. The Photuris lunged at Fiona, sending her crashing through more rock and ice.
She closed her eyes, centered on a place she thought the robot might not know, and teleported.
The Photuris followed her instantaneously.
But this time she was ready. As soon as she saw the Photuris’s black form, she swung a roundhouse blow that connected with the monster’s head. But punching the black energy was like punching a wall full of sharpened knives. She could feel the blackness stab into her, and the two of them bounced and rolled across the ornate roof of the Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet.
Centuries-old architecture gave way to the Photuris’s otherworldly power. Fiona skidded down the long ornate roof and slipped off the edge, the Photuris hot on her heels—and Fiona blinked away again.
This time she teleported to the depths of the Mariana Trench.
Cold, dark, desolate.
The only light in the pitch black was Fiona’s. Even her full-spectrum vision could only see as far as her own light could travel.
At first, she saw nothing.
Then, emerging from the black, the monster came.
The Photuris was right at home. The water, the pressure, had no impact on the machine. Again they exchanged blows, and each time Fiona struck the robot she felt like she was taking more punishment than she was giving out.
She blasted the thing with her energy, and again it only seemed to absorb it, strengthen it. She had to keep trying, waiting for the moment when the Photuris’s energy would ebb and she could strike at the bare metal beneath it.
The Suns of Liberty (Book 3): Republic Page 32