“Any sign they’re weapons-hot?”
“No, sir. They appear to be in observation mode only.”
“Keep an eye on them,” Revolution said. “They may be part of a bigger plan that they know nothing about.” He spun back toward Arbor. “Let’s go!” He pointed to one of the shattered dome windows. “You first.”
They fell.
Cracking the marble in the Rotunda floor.
Leaping, running, blasting through locked doors, they snaked their way through the ornate building.
Lantern led the way with his digi-sphere. Arbor had his own guide uploaded from X-Ray.
“It’s this way.”
“Yeah, I got it.”
“Take a left.”
“Way ahead of you.”
“Watch it!”
“Give me some room!”
They jabbed and sparred the whole way.
The bunker was located deep underground at the bottom of a long stone tunnel. The secret entrance to the tunnel was located through the Speaker’s elegant office. Normally this was locked, sealed, and hidden.
But having been activated recently it was no longer sealed or hidden.
It was still locked, though.
But with everyone huddled in the bunker, there was no one there to stop them from blasting through.
In the tunnel itself, the air was cool and damp. Like it had its own natural air conditioning.
The tunnel ended as it opened up into a large stone cavern. On the far side of the cavern was a tall steel door built into the stone wall. It was fifteen feet high and had no discernible handle or opening mechanism of any kind.
“This was built to withstand an Aztech attack,” Revolution said.
“No shit, really? You think it can?”
Revolution sighed. “No. Like most things back then, it was made on the cheap. A squadron of missiles would take it out for sure.”
That sparked a change in the big man. Arbor’s head rolled to the side. Revolution felt him glaring at him.
“The depression,” Arbor said, acknowledging the time when an economy in crisis caused everything to be purchased for the lowest possible price. Even the personal security of the nation’s leaders.
“Your little rebellion is causing another Great Depression. You know that, right?” Anger was creeping into Arbor’s voice. “Do you know how long I have fought to stop that? What I’ve had to do? Had to put up with?” The big man’s voice was rising.
Revolution turned to face him. Silently, he activated his cylinder grenades. Of course, Arbor was right about the economy, but the last thing he needed right now was another showdown with Lithium. “Clay...”
“The Council’s collapse is taking down everything. You call yourself a patriot, and yet you’re more than willing to watch the whole fucking boat sink just to make sure you get to be captain before we all drown.”
Revolution took a menacing step toward him.
Arbor did the same.
A buzzing roared into Revolution’s earshot.
He froze in his tracks. “Here they come.”
Arbor froze too. He blinked, swallowed his anger, came back. He peered up the tunnel. “Can you tell how many he’s sending?”
“No, but it looks big.” On his scope he saw what he estimated as fifty. But he decided to keep that overwhelming number to himself.
“Bottleneck?” Arbor asked, pointing up at the tunnel.
Revolution nodded. And as the first drone zoomed through the hole in the Capitol Dome roof, the two warriors took off running.
The drones flew down in pairs. When they entered the tunnel and the duo saw them, they glanced at each other and grinned.
Perfect.
One for each.
They smashed together, heroes and drones, in an explosion of steel, sparks, and fire.
CHAPTER 59
The Revolution and Lithium. The two great titans, side by side. Roaring up the tunnel, pounding the drones up close with titanium fists, covering, assisting each other. The Revolution with cylinder grenades, Arbor with flame blasts. The odds had seemed impossible.
But the drones never stood a chance.
They blasted away at the UAVs from a distance, and when they got close, they smashed them with their titanium fists.
Arbor had the hardest time of it. His flame blasts disoriented the machines and threw them off their flight plans, but they couldn’t destroy them like the Revolution’s grenades.
So, Arbor used his weapons like a one-two-punch. The flame thrower would send them reeling, his fists would do the rest.
But the big man was tiring quickly.
Revolution noticed. “Get behind me!” he yelled as he slammed his fists down onto the head of a drone, ripping it out of its slender steel neck.
“Don’t worry about me, I’m good!” Arbor groaned back, sounding not good at all.
“Just do it!” Revolution screamed just as a drone zipped by the fatigued Arbor, heading for the bunker door behind them. They couldn’t let one get close enough to do a scan of the room behind the big door.
Revolution turned. “Cover me!” he yelled and shot a grenade right into the heart of the advancing drone, blowing it to bits.
That had been too close.
Arbor dropped back. He fired his flame throwers left and right while Revolution sprinted up next to him and pounded the closest drone to him.
Revolution stood his ground in front of Arbor. He fired his grenades ahead of him, destroying the oncoming drones in pairs. Arbor took care of any stragglers that made it past.
And then that was it.
As suddenly as the attack had started, it ended.
The tunnel was empty.
They waited for a second wave.
But there was none.
That couldn’t have been fifty drones, Revolution thought.
They jogged back through the building. It was empty.
They retraced their step right to the Rotunda.
“There should have been more of them than just this, right?” Arbor said.
“Something’s wrong,” Revolution said.
Suddenly, the dome to the Capitol exploded open.
Iron and glass rained down on top of Revolution and Arbor.
Zooming into the Rotunda was the silver HeliSphere—piloted by Bannister Tarleton himself.
He was decked out in green and gold armor. Before either man could react, Tarleton flew from the now open window of the HeliSphere’s cockpit. His palms were raised. They glowed bright greenish-yellow. He fired luminescent blasts at both of them, slamming them to the ground.
“Well, well, well, if it isn’t the colonel. How shocking!” Tarleton snickered. “Man, so much switching of sides, it’s hard to remember who is on whose team, isn’t it? But, you really shouldn’t have turned against me, Clay. I’m growing more powerful than either of you can imagine. Soon, I’ll make the Doctor and the Aztech seem like nothing!”
“Actually, all you got from my team is Drayger, a confused and guilt-ridden young man,” Revolution countered.
“Who’s safe from all your madness,” Arbor said.
“I have power. Let’s not forget that.”
Tarleton raised his arms, and Revolution and Arbor felt the tug of an ice-cold grip wash over them. Revolution recognized what was happening immediately. It was a weaker version of Scarlett’s neurotoxin effect.
Next, both men’s armor began to go haywire.
Somehow Tarleton was trying to shut them down, biologically and mechanically.
“Yes. I’m a Compatible. Soon I’ll be more powerful than both Rages combined.”
Tarleton let loose a barrage of laser blasts at both men.
With their armor fighting to stay online and their physical bodies under strain, each shot felt like a hammer to the head.
Through the flashes of red light, Revolution saw Tarleton grimace. The effort was taking a toll on him as well.
Revolution knew something about Compatibility. It
was a slow-growth process.
If Tarleton had injected himself with multiple abilities at once, even more so. And Tarleton was not a patient man. The odds were high he’d given himself everything he could in one monster dose.
The CEO paused his attack and lowered his arms. His breath was heavy and ragged. Sweat poured down his face, visible through the armor’s clear face shield. There could be no doubt, Tarleton had rushed the process.
Revolution needed to make a move now.
He glanced over at Arbor. The big man was still down, moaning in pain. It was going to be a while before he was useful.
Revolution charged, his servos at full power, and sprang toward Tarleton. He crashed into him like a linebacker with all his might, smashing him into the side of the floating HeliSphere, which cracked open and spun away like a top.
A ragged hole now decorated the side of the pod as the steel wall folded in on itself. Something inside the HeliSphere started beeping. They could hear it clearly.
Rev and Tarleton crashed to the ground. Revolution still had a hold of him, and he pulled them both to their feet as Tarleton struggled to get free. The green and gold armor was strong, but Tarleton’s response time was slow, as if he was still learning to control it.
Tarleton roared with rage and pain as he again raised his hands. Bolts of electricity danced out of Tarleton’s armor—but Revolution absorbed it. But just as quick, a second round sizzled into him. Revolution had no time to release the first, so the bolts stabbed into him. He howled in agony.
Still reeling, Revolution seized Tarleton by the throat and let loose the electrical charge. Tarleton’s eyes rolled back in his head, and he convulsed from the force of the shock. It was the opportunity the Revolution was looking for.
“It’s time for him to see the light!” Revolution shouted as he bear-hugged Tarleton and scooted him around so that he facing Arbor. Arbor grunted and propped himself up on one elbow, feebly lifted his other arm, and opened his palm.
The lobotomy beam hit Tarleton dead in the eyes as Revolution glanced away, not wanting to get hit for a second time himself. He felt the CEO go limp in his arms. He was all dead weight. Revolution let him crash to the ground. A dumb smile had spread across Tarleton’s face.
Arbor stood, holding his side. Revolution could see burnt and bloody flesh peeking through his armor in places as the big man approached.
“Asshole,” Arbor said as he peered down into Tarleton’s face.
The beeping from inside the HeliSphere was getting louder.
“What is that?” Arbor asked.
Tarleton’s lips moved. His face changed, eyes growing brighter. Slowly his mouth opened, his Compatibility fighting against the lobotomy beam’s ruthless effects. He said only one word.
“Bomb.”
CHAPTER 60
“Clay, this thing could take out half the city!” Revolution shouted from the control panel of the HeliSphere.
Revolution’s mind raced. He didn’t want to have to rely on Arbor, but Lithium was the only one around and the others already had their hands full.
Arbor yanked on his jaw like he was forcing it back into joint and peered up at the hole in the Capitol Dome. “Well, it’s an aircraft, right?”
“Blow it sky high,” Revolution said, understanding.
He snagged hold of Tarleton’s prone, unmoving body and dragged him through the fissure in the side of the pod, dumping him on the floor.
No way he was going to miss the chance to keep his promise to Tarleton.
To kill him.
That would just have to wait.
The controls inside the pod were fairly straightforward. They were mostly automated.
Revolution flew the HeliSphere straight up, ripping off a sliver of the ornate dome as he flew it back out of the hole Tarleton had made.
Then he switched it to autopilot. “I’m bringing up the pod. Air traffic stay clear. This thing is set to blow in one minute, and it’s gonna be big when it does,” he told everyone on the coms.
His message went nowhere. The coms were down.
Tracer fire erupted from everywhere.
It bounced off the pod, pinging off in every direction.
He couldn’t tell if it was Council Guard or Minutemen shooting at him.
It was probably both.
On the pod’s rounded wall was a video screen. It showed a live feed of Media Corp’s coverage of the day’s events.
Tarleton had been monitoring the coverage.
The constant barrage of bullets was making the pod hard to control. A vented titanium shield slid out over the bottom propeller system, reducing airflow and maneuverability.
And then something appeared on the scope. Revolution peered out the dash and saw a Viper 700 fighter jet, on fire, headed right for him. The Vipers were only observing, so this one had no doubt been struck by one of the multitude of stray projectiles filling the airspace around them.
It was a miracle more weren’t falling from the sky, Revolution thought.
He rammed the control lever to the right as hard as he could, and he saw the pilot slam his throttle as the jet veered left.
The two aircrafts skipped by each other with only inches to spare.
Revolution could only watch as the Viper dove toward the Mall, a long tendril of smoke trailing behind it.
Kiernan Rage grimaced as the Viper screamed past him. The aircraft was far too damaged for him to control. So despite Von Cyprus shouting at him to aim the jet into the heart of the Minutemen, he could do nothing.
“It’s flying shrapnel now,” he calmly told the other scientist.
“Damn those pilots! If they’re not going to assist, then we need to replace the Vipers!”
The Doctor gazed out at the rows and rows of abandoned vehicles lining the streets. So many denizens of the downtown D.C. had gotten out by bus, plane, boat, or train. A line of abandoned busses snaked down Twelfth Street. He grinned at Von Cyprus.
“Very well.”
He lifted his hands and closed his eyes.
Von Cyprus gawked as all those busses and every car, van, and truck in their line of sight suddenly started up and began to move like a flock of birds toward the Mall.
As they neared, they turned onto Madison and accelerated toward the Mall. Vehicles of transport became steel mechanisms of death at seventy miles per hour. They crashed through the churned-up dirt and debris, aiming for the Minutemen, but to get to them they had to first pass through the thick line of Guardsmen—which they did. Mowing them over with impunity. Finally they rammed, at speed, into the unsuspecting Minutemen.
Mowing them down like bowling pins.
The Doctor giggled like a child at a birthday party.
“Concentrate those busses on your daughter.”
Rachel Dodge, invisible as always, tracked the Spore as it zoomed by. She keyed the MagCharge for a three-second delay.
And fired.
The cylinder clanked onto the metallic sphere.
BOOM!
It exploded above the Mall, showering debris down like smoking confetti.
Rachel smiled and keyed her RDSD. “Lantern,” she said into the com, “I’ve triangulated X-Ray’s pings. He’s closer than we thought. Right in the middle of the action. Somewhere close to the Federal Trade Commission building. I’m sending you the coordinates...now!”
She waited for Lantern to receive them.
“Good work. Now get out of there. It’s getting crazy out here and you don’t have any armor on.”
She could hear genuine concern in Lantern’s voice. For all the shit they gave each other, the two of them had grown close in Norristown. Rachel swallowed back a bit of emotion. “Neither do you. And you don’t have an invisibility suit, either.”
“Boy, do I know,” he said.
Lantern raced toward the street and marveled at his luck: a Harley-Davidson Vision 5000. Just sitting there, pristine among the ruins.
He hopped on, waited for the Hollow to jump-st
art the engines, and gunned it down Pennsylvania Avenue.
The red trail of X-Ray’s location kept building in his HUD as he rode. The signal was getting stronger. He passed by all the massive wreckage of the buildings down the famous avenue. The battle had moved into the Mall itself now. There were few troops from either side on the street, so there was no fire to dodge as he sped down the avenue.
He was nearing his destination when something distracted him from the road. It was a whistling over the din of the battle. Or was it a—
ROAR!
He glanced up just in time to see a Viper 700 screaming out of the sky.
Smoke trailing out of its engines, canopy open, pilot ejecting.
Aiming right for him.
Lantern gunned the engines and zoomed under the jet, flipped the bike on its side, and skidded under the fuselage as it zoomed above him. The bike came to a grinding stop just as the jet made contact with the ground, plowing into trees and grass, showering dirt everywhere, digging an enormous crater in the soft ground before flipping, tail in the air, and smashing into the concrete and glass building just beyond the yard.
The impact of the plane on the side of the building sounded like a bomb exploding. The face of the building folded and collapsed. Glass windows shattered and erupted onto the doomed jet.
Lantern picked himself up and realized that his locator signal was going crazy. It was pointing toward the rubble. Kendrick Ray was somewhere under the pile!
“Shiiiiiiiit!” a voice called out.
Not under the pile. Above it.
Lantern glanced up and saw Kendrick Ray clinging—in midair—to a steel support girder jutting out of the smashed remnants of the floor he’d been standing on only seconds before.
And then—CRACK!—the floor gave way.
The girder broke loose and tumbled.
Ray fell, thudding into the large divot of dirt that the jet fighter had left behind.
“Ouuuuch! Shit!” Ray moaned as he tried to pick himself back up.
Expanding right next to Ray was a growing puddle of jet fuel leaking out the tail section of the Viper.
“Well, this is awkward!” Ray grunted through his pain. It looked to Lantern like he had broken his ankle, but he was doing his best to stand and scoot away from the spreading fuel.
The Suns of Liberty (Book 3): Republic Page 39