Chapter 12
DAVE
“You shouldn’t tinker with that.” Dave sat up and removed his hands from the keyboard as Senior Technician Hasle entered. Hasle had gone easy on him for the last week since Dave returned from his stint out in the field. The old man probably knew. Probably been there once. Dave couldn’t remember all the details, only that there had been something frightening, something trying to kill them all. Monsters. They had gotten Greer. He vaguely remembered being told in debriefing, but everything else was shrouded in a haze. He had one image of Greer lying face down in a pool of blood. Another image of a senior Warden pushing him aside and shooting at something on the ground. Blurry images of firing his weapon, of a flicker inside his goggles disturbing his vision, of Greer shouting something.
What was he shouting? Dave gave up trying to remember. When he thought of it, he didn’t really want to remember. He’d had nightmares three nights in a row now. Nightmares of monsters trying to grab him, clawing at him, before they suddenly morphed into a familiar face. Greer, or Liz, or his mom. “Please,” they would say, and he’d wake up, sweating and shivering.
“I’m just trying to see if the firewall can hold against a Trojan hidden inside a secure file. You know, using the secure file to gain access, old style, but with better camouflage for the Trojan,” he said. Hasle just laughed.
“Come on, Wagner, you don’t think that hasn’t been thought of? There’s a reason they call it old style, you know.” Dave nodded. He’d been less creative lately. Probably the nightmares and lack of sleep. Or the drugs. He knew the vaccine had protected him, but why did it have to make him so groggy?
“I think I need a break,” he said. Hasle just smiled, and walked over to his own workstation.
“It gets better. Just give it time,” the old man said, and Dave suddenly felt enormous gratitude toward his mentor.
“Thanks,” Dave said, and walked out.
Outside, he squinted in the harsh sunlight. He walked over to his favorite spot and sat down. He closed his eyes, feeling the warm rays and the cool breeze, and listened to the chirping of little birds in the trees above. A fly buzzed by, and he raised a hand to swat at it.
He sat up, eyes wide open.
The buzzing.
The drone.
SUE
“Who is Buchanan,” Sue asked. It sounded like an English name, but that couldn’t be.
“Who, and what,” Renee said, and got up from her chair, closing her infopad and taking her empty cup with her.
“I’m sorry, Susan, but you will have to find out for yourself. There’s so much you should know, and we have so little time…” She checked her watch. It had a small screen, and a voice suddenly came out of it. Sue couldn’t hear the words, though. She strained her neck and recognized the face of Dr. Marsden. Renee closed the screen with a quick swipe, hiding the face of her twin brother.
“They are coming. Took them long enough…” she said, removing her sidearm from its holster. Sue looked at her quizzically.
“I would love to stay,” Renee said, “but I’m afraid our time is up, and I’m needed elsewhere.” She smiled briefly, extending her right arm.
“Ordered elsewhere, that is. It has been a pleasure to meet you, Susan Atlas. I hope we’ll meet again, someday.” Sue shook her hand, still too surprised to say anything, and Renee quickly walked out, closing the door behind her.
What was that? Sue thought. She looked over at poor Rory, who would never wake again, would never learn what she had learned. Who would soon be just one more victim of the lies. Lies that had formed their lives, and the lives of those before them. Centuries built upon lies.
She sat for a while, considering the implications. How her life had turned upside down in just a couple of hours. Renee should have been an enemy, but instead she had shown her that there was a world outside the Covenant, and that nothing was as it seemed. Nothing was as she had been taught. It was too much. What was it Renee had said? They are coming. What did she mean?
The realization came slowly to her, and a chill went down her spine.
“No,” she whispered, “I’m not ready. Oh please, not yet.”
The explosion shook the ground beneath her, and the door burst open.”
“Two located. One incapacitated, one possible recovery,” the Janissary said. Sue managed to get a good look at him as three others entered the room behind him. No, not Janissaries, although the suits looked similar. The weapons looked wrong. And the helmets were different, too.
“Sub Tacticus Susan Atlas?” the first one asked, and she nodded. He removed his helmet. There was no mistaking the features. Pure Moon blood.
“No,” she whispered again, although she didn’t think anyone heard, or cared.
“Ingolfson, Igorov, stand by for exfil. Olsen, you know what to do,” he said. The one named Olsen walked over to Rory and had a look. Then he shook his head.
“Terminate subject,” the leader said, and Olsen raised his gun. One shot to the head, and Rory was dead. Sue heard a scream grow louder and louder until she couldn’t remain standing and had to cover her ears with her hands.
“Let’s move her out,” the leader shouted above the scream. Olsen came over and grabbed something in his breast pocket. Sue never felt the syringe before the substance began to make her feel dizzy. Only then did she realize the scream had come from her.
Olsen leaned over.
“Ignorance is Bliss,” he whispered in her ear.
Rift Page 17