The Suns of Liberty (Book 3): Republic
Page 38
The long-distance view of the Mall sickened Ward. Not a tree was left standing. Smoke, fire, and fallen bodies were everywhere. All the buildings lining the famous walkway were either on fire, smoldering, or cracked and broken.
Ward glanced back at the Clock Tower. “Let’s hope this works,” Ward said. Inside his HUD the firing pressure on his wrist turret ratcheted up to maximum thrust. He loaded one of his few blank darts into the canister and fired.
The little dart sang out of the wrist turret at hypersonic speed, impacting with the wind-resistant, reinforced windows with the concussive force of a bomb.
A small crack spider-webbed down the center of the window.
Ward grimaced. “Uh-oh.”
But then the crack expanded and the entire glass plate collapsed. Ward zoomed them inside, and they landed behind a startled Eric Von Cyprus.
Ward aimed his wrist turret toward Von Cyprus as Scarlett paired off against her father, who looked distinctly bored by it all.
Von Cyprus raised his arms in surrender, but a maniacal grin spread across his face. “Dr. Ward, I am quite surprised to see you again. This Lantern fellow you have working for you, he is quite good I must say. I thought we would be invisible up here.”
“Shut down the Aztech and we can all go home,” Ward said, stalking forward.
“I wouldn’t take another step, Dr. Ward. My friend here has an amazing habit of making people do things they’d never dream of doing on their own.”
The Doctor ignored Ward and Von Cyprus’s banter. He simply shook his head at his daughter. “You should not have come, child. These people are infidels. I cannot guarantee your welfare.”
“There’s nothing for it,” Scarlett snipped, the Irish accent slipping across her tongue. “As bad as they are, you’re far worse. And as for my welfare, you’ve never given a damn.”
Von Cyprus kept his eyes glued on Ward. “Take care of her, Doctor. This is no time to get sentimental.”
Ward took another step forward.
“Stay back, damn you!” Von Cyprus said, staring at Ward’s orange wrist canisters. “You can’t shoot me with one of those. You know what will happen to him”—Von Cyprus nodded toward the Doctor—“if you do.”
Ward glanced down at Von Cyprus’s metal sleeves. “And you can’t fire those things at me because you know that I’ll get at least one dart off,” Ward retorted. “I guess we are at a standoff.”
Von Cyprus arched an eyebrow. “It would appear so.”
Ward fired a dart.
It took Von Cyprus completely off guard. The small projectile stabbed into the scientist’s chest. The sting radiated across his breast bone.
“You fool!” the scientist shouted and spun his head to check the Doctor—leaving Ward unattended.
Just the opening Ward needed to fire two more darts, one each into both of Von Cyprus’s electrosleeves—which powered down.
The scientist spun back to Ward, his eyes wide in confusion. His heart had beaten. In fact, it was beating out of his chest. “What…why…?”
“Why aren’t you paralyzed right now, that the question? Why isn’t Doctor Doomsday boogying down with the apocalypse already?” Ward asked rhetorically.
Von Cyprus pulled the dart out of his chest and stared at it. His eyes saucered. “It’s a blank,” he breathed.
Ward nodded his head and arched his eyebrows at the two darts jutting out from the electrosleeves. “But those aren’t.”
Von Cyprus growled as he tried to fire the electrosleeves, but they did nothing.
The Doctor spun at Ward, his face a grimace. The hive mind screaming at him from the mental command Von Cyprus had just sent it. The elder Rage raised his arms. He would fly Ward into the stratosphere and dive him full speed into the concrete.
Nothing happened. The Doctor turned back toward his daughter.
“What’s the matter, Dad? Feeling impotent?”
“Let go of me, child. You don’t have the strength to fight me.”
“You sure about that? I’m not a little girl tied to a post this time.”
Her father snorted at her. “I toughened you up. Made you who you are.”
“What you did…” Scarlett felt the tears well and fought them. She was determined not to give him the satisfaction of seeing her cry. “You deserve to live in a cage for the rest of your life. I hope you die there! Until then...”
Scarlett sent the neurotoxin beam at her father. A wide, satisfied, maniacal grin spread across her face as it left her body. Ward saw it, and a chill ran through him. He remembered the cold swell of it running through his body in Norristown. As if it dried up every cell it passed through.
Kiernan Rage stiffened immediately. He fought it with all his considerable powers. Ward would have been flat on his face at that point, but the elder Rage seemed only immobilized.
That was good enough. Ward didn’t need an invitation. Von Cyprus was neutralized, and for the briefest of moments, so was the Doctor. Despite her gravitas, Ward knew Scarlett couldn’t go toe-to-toe with dear old dad for long.
He launched off his feet, zoomed through the archway, snatched up Scarlett in his arms, and rocketed back out of the tower. Scarlett protested, but she kept her focus firmly on her father. Which kept the Doctor from gaining control of Ward and ending them both.
“Man, Daddy’s gonna be pissed at you, girl.”
“That’s how I prefer it.”
“Would you really have killed him?”
“I’ve tried before.”
“Rev, Von Cyprus is neutralized.”
Scarlett peered up at Ward as they circled back toward the Capitol Building’s backside. “My father can reboot those sleeves. If you want to take out the Aztech we need to do it now.”
Lantern had sprinted up the stairs of the Capitol Building and slipped inside the Senate’s south door lobby. The pounding roar of the explosions, gunfire, and laser blasts were muffled inside there. Although ornate and beautiful, the centuries-old moldings above him rained dust from expanding cracks with every crashing boom. The battle was taking its toll on the skeleton of the structure.
Another casualty of the Council, Lantern thought.
In his HUD he scanned the entire downtown area through the digi-sphere. Kendrick Ray was out there, hiding nearby. X-Ray was good at hiding.
But Lantern could do what no one else could do. The lack of a signal could actually become a trail if he knew the right things to look for. For instance, the physical location of the thing X-Ray was trying to hide—like where Von Cyprus and Doctor Rage were hanging out.
And that was something he now knew. And Ray would know it soon as well. As soon as he reported Ward and Scarlett’s attack on his position. He knew he had to move fast.
Lantern ran an algorithm through his system accounting for the location of the two men and buildings taller than ten stories, then he adjusted for the fact that his own scans had not been able to see them and simulated what it would look like if he had been able to see them. From there, he searched for the presence of absence—the one three-dimensional gap in the digi-sphere that at first might seem invisible, but upon further examination would become glaringly real: the signal blocking out their location.
Once he had that it was just a matter of tracing back that signal to its origin. Of course, Ray wouldn’t have made that easy either. But as long as Ray didn’t change his position, Lantern would find him.
A small beep sounded in his HUD, and a red dash appeared on the aqua-blue 3D scan of the area surrounding the Old Post Office. It was the first bread crumb that would lead him to X-Ray’s location. Now to trace the signal.
“Stealth, I have a ping on X-Ray. Are you mobile?”
“I am, handsome. Promise a girl a night cap and I might even go find him for you.”
Lantern sighed. “Head down Pennsylvania Avenue. I’ll keep you posted.”
Ward swooped down, carrying Scarlett.
Drones attacked from everywhere. The hive mind had kicke
d in and was focused on retaliation. No doubt ordered so by Von Cyprus.
Ward felt their vicious laser blasts rivet across his armor. Each impact was like a gut punch. One slipped though his legs and caught Scarlett on an exposed calf, searing away the flesh.
She screamed.
“I need some help! We’re being droned to death over here!”
Spectral was there in an instant.
Flying inverted, glaring back up at the drones, firing away with the optical blasters and blocking incoming attacks with his expanded force field.
The laser blasts seemed to hit a glass wall and dissipate all around them, cocooned as they were inside Spectral’s protection.
“Yeah, that took care of it,” Ward said, amazed.
Scarlett whimpered beneath him. The leg wound was excruciating.
“I’ve got something for the leg when we get on the ground,” he assured her.
Scarlett glanced up at the android still flying inverted above them, and she saw the through-and-through hole left behind by Von Cyprus’s electrosleeves. “He’s hurt,” she said with so much tenderness in her voice Ward thought she might cry.
“I’m taking you down to Lantern. He’s in the building and seems safe for now. You think you can work on the Aztech from there?”
Scarlett nodded her head. Her expression seemed far less than confident.
Below, in the expansive driveway of the Capitol’s south entrance, a brilliant flash of light caused everyone near it to turn. The Luma along with Becky materialized, energy vois swirling immediately.
Some yelled out, “The Fionettes!”
Arcadia smiled at that and immediately led their attack. “Okay, girls. Let’s make the Fire Fly proud!”
And with that, she flung the voi out toward the Council Guard, who were taken completely by surprise.
The other girls followed, and soon eight glowing vois were stretching all across the Mall, grabbing five and six Guardsmen at a time, ripping them off the ground as the vois’ energized silk burned through their uniforms and flung them through open space.
The Guard never knew what hit them.
Becky saw immediately the weakness to this strategy.
The Guards turned, regained their bearings, and hosed the Luma with automatic fire.
Becky, thinking fast, whipped her vois out in front of all the girls and let the veil expand. The bullets zoomed into the field of rippling energy and were absorbed.
Arcadia grinned. “Nice thinking!”
Becky peered around at the utter chaos the National Mall had become. Fiona might have thought she was saving the girls by sending them here and away from the Photuris, but instead she had thrown them into the middle of a war. She looked all around her and could not see one widow that was intact on any of the famous buildings ringing the Mall. Thick black smoke billowed out of several of them, and the air was heavy with it as far as she could see.
Bodies lay everywhere.
This place was a nightmare.
These girls were tough, but they were not ready for this. A shot rang out that confirmed Becky’s ruminations as the head of the girl next to her exploded. Her name was Samantha. She was a quiet, gentle girl all of nineteen years old.
Gunfire erupted all around them.
“Make the circle!” Arcadia shouted at them, and the girls dropped into formation around Arcadia and Becky.
Each girl stood shoulder to shoulder with the girl next to her. Becky could see that the horror of it all was sinking in. Still, they did what they had trained to do, and as one, they flung the vois to form a great swirling energy shield.
Arcadia then Becky, safe in the middle, fired their vois out above the field, each in the opposite direction. The energized veils stretched incredibly, lashing the Guardsmen, sending them flying.
Sharpshooters from the surrounding rooftops began firing into the circle. Trying to time their shots for the split-second gaps in the numerous voi.
Around and around the girls danced.
It was visually arresting. A light show, inside a dance show, inside an arsenal of deadly weaponry.
But Becky could see the girls were tiring, the veils were beginning to falter. Could she and Arcadia take out the Guards before the girls ran out of steam?
Becky heard a scream and saw one of the girls fall, blood seeping from her chest.
The answer was no.
They were all going to be picked off, one at a time.
She hoped Fiona was faring better.
CHAPTER 58
CAPITOL BUILDING ROOF
WASHINGTON, D.C.
“Jesus Christ!” Arbor yelled, and he and Revolution ducked for cover from the exploding helicopter as best they could. The debris shot past both of them, and when they looked again they saw a pterodactyl drone hovering above the squadron of Apache X-1s.
The X-1s broke formation in a chaotic scramble that nearly caused several collisions.
Revolution scanned the drone, and his suit barked back data in his HUD. “Arbor, I’m detecting a flight plan for this building. More drones. I don’t think they’re targeting the helos or me. I think they’re targeting this building! What the hell is going on?”
Revolution stalked toward Arbor faster than the big man expected. He was on him in a second. “You tell me what they’re doing, or I’ll kill you right here.”
But Arbor seemed shell shocked, his eyes wide, glancing at the drones in the distance and then back to Revolution.
“Arbor!” Revolution screamed, bringing the big man back to Earth.
Arbor stared into Revolution’s eyes. His face raged with anger. “He’s going to do it! There’s no telling how powerful he is by now!” Arbor babbled.
Revolution was losing his patience. “Lithium! What the hell are you talking about? Do what? Who?”
Arbor glanced to the side. “Look out!” he yelled and fired his flame thrower up and behind the Revolution—who saw the drone whiz past them, flame rolling across it. Tracer bullets from the X-1s blasted the dome roof inches from them. The drone had dodged the shots and was headed right for the Capitol dome.
Arbor glanced over at Revolution. “Shoot that thing with one of your ordinances!”
Revolution just stared at him.
“Do it, or it’s going to kill everyone inside. That’s why it’s here.”
“You better not be lying to me, Arbor. Or I will kill you.”
“Why do you think I was up here in the first place? I don’t want Tarleton destroying this place any more than you do. Now shoot it!” he screamed.
Another round of tracers zinged past their heads, aimed at the drone, and Revolution wondered who was a bigger threat to them, the drone or the X-1s?
Revolution took aim. And fired.
The cylinder grenade spun out with robotic precision and nailed the distracted drone mid-body.
It exploded. The debris rained down on them.
Revolution spun back toward Arbor. “What the hell is going on?”
Arbor pointed toward the horizon. “There’s a squadron of drones headed here. All with one purpose.”
“What?”
Arbor thought about the Congress members locked in the bunker below. “There’s a squadron of jets on its way here right now, too. If those drones reach the bunker and get inside, they’re programmed to send a signal to the jets. And they’ll fire every missile they’ve got on this building—automatically. No pilot needed. And they’ll level this place and kill every goddamn thing in it. That’s Tarleton’s big play.”
“That makes no sense. What the hell is he waiting for? Why doesn’t he just fire the missiles now?”
“Because your boy Lantern. The drones are here to confirm the presence of the VIPs. They’re as much a target as the building. Once they confirm the presence of the VIPs in the bunker, the jets fire the bunker busters and all this is h
istory. The hive mind takes care of it all.”
Revolution stared down through the windows of the blasted dome. Somewhere below him were 535 members of Congress, huddled and scared. And with them was Leslie Gibbons. “Then I have to stop them.”
“We have to stop them,” Arbor corrected. “There’s too many for one man. Even you.”
Revolution gave him a long look. “This doesn’t change anything, Arbor.”
Arbor shot him a grim smile.
Lantern’s voice broke into Revolution’s com. “Sir, that drone was just a scout. You’ve got a whole squad coming in, and they have an automated flight plan. I’m sending it to you now.”
Revolution saw it flash onto his HUD. “They’re going to enter here at the dome and blast their way down. One direct route.”
“Well, that means we’ll know where to find them.”
Revolution nodded. “We need to protect that bunker.”
Even through the helmet, Arbor could tell Revolution was eyeing him suspiciously. Still not trusting his motives.
“You go, I’ll stay up here. Not like I can get away,” Arbor said, pointing out at the hovering Apaches.
“No. We both go.” Revolution turned toward the X-1s. “You men take care of the others. Colonel Arbor is in my custody now. You don’t want to be around when what’s coming gets here.”
“Yes, sir!” came the reply of the Council Guard X-1 pilot. The entire squadron banked right and zoomed out across the Mall.
Revolution and Arbor just stared at each other. The bizarreness of the moment was lost on neither of them.
Lantern’s voice once again brought the Revolution back down to earth. “Sir, look up.”
Revolution peered into the sky.
“There are hundreds of Vipers entering the area.”
Revolution scoped in with his telescopic vision and saw them. High in the sky. Flying in formation. “They’re in a wide organized pattern of surveillance,” Revolution noted.
“Looks like it spans the entire District, and much of Maryland and Virginia airspace, as well.”