Roman chuckled heartily as he moved forward with his hands outstretched, “Look what the cat dragged in. My man.”
The two men hugged tight, relieved to see one another.
“Good to see you.”
“Good to see you too, comrade,” Suttle said as he let go of his comrade and looked at Saad.
“Hey, man.”
“Why, you little criminal,” Saad chuckled.
The two men fist-bumped. A devastating sound of metal clanged through the material in their gloves.
“See they’ve still got you doing their dirty work?” Suttle joked.
Saad lifted his rifle and licked his lips, “Yeah, but someone’s gotta do it. Might as well be those that like it, eh?”
“True, very true.”
Suttle nodded at Sierra and Siyam, who smiled back at him, “These must be the intellectuals, huh?”
“Yeah,” Roman said. “This is Sierra, and Siyam.”
“Nice, very nice,” he said. “Hey.”
“Hey,” the pair said, wondering if they should approach him.
BEEP — BEEP.
Amelia hit the horn on the dashboard and raised her eyes at Suttle.
“Hey, Amelia,” Roman said. “Come out and join us. Bring your team with you.”
Amelia hit a button on the dashboard.
WHUMP.
The door opened and allowed the Misfits to exit the vehicle with their weapons.
“Okay, everyone out. Standby for instructions.”
Suttle was about to ask Roman something, when he remembered he had a special gift waiting in his van.
“Ah. Hang on. I have something for you.”
“Oh yes?”
Suttle snapped his fingers at his van, “Okay. You can come out, now.”
Everyone turned to the door of the van.
A young girl with a white Bobtail in her arms emerged from the bottom step.
Roman sure knew who it was. Someone he thought he’d never see again.
“Lydia.”
“Daddy.”
The pair ran towards each other. Roman dropped to his knees and took her in his arms.
“Lydia. My God.”
She’d forgotten she was holding Bobbie. The poor cat yelped as father and daughter hugged, squishing the cat between their chests.
“Miew.”
Lydia moved back and released Bobbie to the ground, “Oh, sorry girl.”
Roman couldn’t have cared less about the cat. He ran his gloved fingers over his daughter’s face, “Let me see you.”
“I’m okay, Daddy.”
“Okay.”
“They—they—” Lydia huffed and burst into tears, “They killed Mom.”
Roman squeezed his eyes shut and turned away, not wanting to show any emotion, “I know. I know they did.”
She stomped her feet on the ground and tried to expunge the pain in her heart, “They killed her. They killed them all—”
“—I know, sweetie,” Roman whispered.
Sierra felt a wave of anger dagger into her soul, “Ugh, this sucks. Those bastards, I swear.”
Siyam watched on, equally as distraught, “Don’t worry. They’ll pay. They’ll pay.”
Suttle licked his lips and thought twice about interrupting the solemn reunion occurring between the man and his child.
“Uh, guys?”
No response.
“Guys, seriously. We have a schedule to keep—”
“—Shut up,” Roman yelled in his colleague’s face.
Lydia cried harder and slumped to the floor.
“You wanna talk about schedules?” he continued and pointed at his crying daughter, “Try telling my child that her mother isn’t coming back. Ever.”
Suttle lowered his voice. He knew he was fighting a losing battle.
“Okay, okay. Relax.”
“Goddamn bastards,” Roman fumed and punched his fists together. “Lydia?”
“N-No,” she stammered.
“Lydia, look at me.”
She sniffed and tried to calm herself down. The forty-strong Misfits watched on as the young girl bravely lifted her tear-strewn eyes to her father.
“See that?” Amelia said to the Misfits. “See what USARIC have done? Are you seeing this?”
“Yes,” they responded in unison.
“Just two of hundreds of thousands of lives, if not millions, ruined—”
Roman took Lydia’s face in both hands and suppressed the urge to cry.
“We’re going to kill them, Lydia. Each and every one of them.”
“I hope they all go to hell,” she whispered.
“They will, sweetie. But I need you to be brave, okay?”
“Okay, D-Daddy,” she whimpered.
Roman’s heart sunk into the pit of his stomach as he absorbed the anguish in his daughter’s face.
“I n-need,” he struggled to get the words out, “I n-need you to—harness that anger inside you. Use it to h-help us make them pay.”
Lydia exhaled as she turned to Bobbie, who trundled her way to IRI-Two.
“Grrrr,” she whined and slapped her tail at the frightened guards trapped in the back of the vehicle.
“Jesus Christ, what’s that cat doing here?” Shane asked, blankly, as he followed the cat with his eyes.
Bobbie launched into the air and swiped at the window.
CLINK — CLATCH.
The six guards jumped back, startled.
“Jesus Christ—”
“—Hissssss,” Bobbie shuffled around, lifted her tail and showed them her ass.
Roman ignored the commotion by the van and gave his daughter his undivided attention.
“Can you do that for me, Lydia?”
“Yes, Daddy. If it means they die, I’ll do it.”
“Good.”
Roman took her head in both his hands and moved his mouth to her forehead.
“I love you.”
He planted his lips on her forehead and squeezed her tight in his arms. She returned the warmth and felt his armor in her hands.
Cold and steel-like, much like her father’s character.
“I love you too, Daddy.”
Perimeter Zee fell quiet.
No one dared make the first move as they witnessed the bereaved husband and father climb to his feet and brush his chest armor down.
“I know you’re all looking at us,” he said at the top of his voice. “But the time for talk is over.”
Roman paced forward a few steps and arrived at a freeway pillar which, unbeknown to him, had been daubed in graffiti reading “Misfit Scum.”
He swallowed hard and pointed at Sierra and Siyam, “Our allies in our fight. The Rebels Against Genetic Engineering.”
The Misfits smiled at the pair.
“My name is Sierra,” she announced as she clutched Remy’s shoulders. “This is Remy Gagarin, whom you may know.”
A Misfit shuffled forward from within the crowd.
“I know him. He’s the winner of the Star Cat Project.”
“They killed my cat,” Remy said. “She won, but Jelly killed her. She was the one who went to Saturn.”
“The runner-up went to Saturn?” another Misfit asked. “Is that where they went?”
Remy nodded, “Yes. And now it seems they may be back. I understand you all want USARIC to pay for what they did. Believe me, no one wants them to pay more than I do.”
Siyam cleared his throat and stepped forward, “As you can see, this whole situation is an utter catastrophe, if you’ll forgive the pun.”
A few of Roman’s team sniggered at the humor in his statement.
“The powers that be have separated our two nations. In its place, USARIC and the IRI have joined forces. We cannot allow that to happen. We find ourselves at an impasse. We fight fire with fire. We, the rebels of RAGE join with you, the Misf—”
“—Don’t,” Sierra hushed. “Don’t say the M word..”
A sliver of sincere apology crept acros
s Siyam’s face, “I’m sorry.”
Roman folded his arms and sneered, “It’s okay. You can call us “Misfits”. After all, we have no name. That’s the whole problem.”
Siyam hung his head, at odds with the idea of using the derogatory term at all, “If you’re sure?”
Roman held his head up with pride.
“Quite sure. They called us Misfits because we don’t belong. The name is absolutely on target. If it means living in a nation where everything has been privatized, and does what it pleases without scrutiny or regulation, then fine. We don’t want to live in a world where that happens. I guess you could call us Misfits in that regard. Am I right?”
“Ha,” Siyam smiled. “I guess so.”
“YEAH,” the rest of his team held their weapons up in the air and roared at the top of their lungs. “MISFITS, MISFITS—”
“—Whoa, whoa,” Sierra shouted and waved her arms for them to stop, “Lower your voices. We don’t want to draw attention to ourselves. Not just yet, anyway.”
Everyone watched as Sierra made her way to the back end of IRI-Two.
BANG — BANG — THUD.
“Let us out,” Shane yelled from behind the window, “Please, let us out. We won’t tell—”
Sierra kicked the side of the van. “Damn it, shut up. SHUT UP.”
“That’s right, Sierra. You tell ‘em,” Roman laughed with evil delight.
Shane stepped back from the window in terror. Sierra squinted and held up her middle finger at the men in the van.
“Bite this.”
“Whoa,” one Misfit turned to the other, “She’s got a hell of a temper on her.”
“Really.”
Sierra held her hands out at IRI-Two and took a bow.
“Citizens, for that is what you are. I give you the bad guys.”
The Misfits whooped and hollered in excitement and pushed their weapons into the air, much to the complete consternation of the men inside the vehicle.
Sierra crouched and pointed at a blinking red light on a black box attached to the end of the van.
“Okay, everyone. Can you see this?”
The crowd of Misfits shuffled forward, along with Suttle, Roman, Siyam, Remy, Saad, and Lydia.
“Suttle?” she said. “You wanna tell them all about it?”
“With pleasure,” he grunted. “When we extricated you, we attached this device to the back of their bus.”
“What is it?” one of the female Misfits asked.
Sierra smiled at her.
“I’m glad you asked that question, young lady. It’s a bomb. Operated by this button on my glove.”
“Whoaaaa,” the Misfits backed up, hoping he wouldn’t detonate it right there and then.
“Jesus Christ,” Shane screamed, having heard the revelation. “Get me off this bus—”
“—I said shut the hell up,” Sierra screamed at the window. “Now sit down and stay down or we’ll blast you to smithereens.”
“It’s okay, we’re not using it now,” Suttle said. “Think of it as a bartering chip.”
Sierra spat at the window. Her phlegm blasted across the glass in front of Shane’s terrified face.
“Shut up.”
Satisfied her action had perturbed the man, she turned to address the team.
“We’re going to make USARIC an offer it—” she stopped to consider the last half of her sentence, “—well, it probably can refuse, because it’s ridiculously unfair. But, nevertheless, it’s an offer.”
“We’d be very surprised if they turned it down, actually,” Siyam added.
“All you have to do is stay in your vans,” Sierra instructed the team. “Amelia will drive you all there in the gray one. You leave the rest to us. If it all goes south, that’s when we need you to spring into action. Do you understand what I’ve just said.”
“YEAH,” the Misfits roared in unison, causing a mini-earthquake around the stone pillars.
“Good. Get in the vans, now. We need to calibrate our attack back at Laguna Vista. Wait in the vans until either Suttle or Amelia give you instructions.”
The Misfits quickly dispersed and ran towards the empty vans.
Twenty in the first, and twenty more in the second.
Lydia held her hands out at Bobbie, “Come on, girl.”
“Meow.”
The little bundle of fluff hightailed it at speed and jumped into her arms.
“Lydia?” Roman said.
“Yes, Daddy?”
“Go and wait in the blue van with Suttle, please.”
“But, Daddy—”
“—No, Lydia. You can’t ride with us. It’s too dangerous. Please, just wait in that van.”
“I don’t want to lose you again. You will be safe, won’t you?”
Roman tilted the body of his rifle. A sliver of light from the headlamp of the truck reflected in her eye.
“Does this answer your questions?”
Lydia blinked and nodded, eagerly, “Yeah.”
“Good girl. Don’t worry. Now, get in the van, and take your little cat with you.”
“Bobbie.”
“Yes, Bobbie. Take her with you. You have to protect her.”
“Okay.”
Reassured, she moved off towards the second van.
Sierra thumped the side of the mack truck, “Rana?”
“Yeah, sweetie?”
“Open the back.”
“You got it.”
SWHUNT — CLUNK.
The two back doors unlocked and flew open. Sierra waved Suttle, Amelia, Roman, Saad, and Remy over and pointed inside it.
Two giant crates lined the left side of the truck. The electromagnetic pulse device blinked at it from the adjacent wall.
“See those boxes, there? Next to the EMP?”
“Yes,” Roman said.
“Try not to touch them.”
“Why not?”
“They’re attached to casters. Each is rammed solid with C4. Hopefully we won’t need to use them.”
Siyam climbed into the back and offered Remy his hand, “We’re just waiting on the sit-rep at the facility. Rana’s talking to Noyin, now.”
The Misfits followed into the back of the truck after Remy.
Amelia and Suttle sprinted over to their respective gray and blue vans, “Good luck, everyone.”
“Keep your Viddy Media channels open, people,” Sierra said from inside the truck. “Good luck, everyone.”
WHUMP — WHUMP.
The back of the truck slammed shut, sealing Sierra, Saad, Roman, and Remy inside and shrouding them in near-darkness.
“Everyone?” Rana’s voice entered the back. “Cover your eyes. It might be a bit harsh.”
WVHOOM.
The interior bulbs sprang to life and illuminated the inside of the vehicle.
Rows and rows of weaponry lined the right-hand wall.
“Noyin, this is Sierra,” she said into her forearm. “Do you read me?”
CHAPTER NINE
R.A.G.E. Arena
— Laguna Vista —
“It’s incredible,” Jamie gasped.
He pressed his head further into the holoscope’s visor and gripped the edge of the desk.
Leesa jumped up and down on the spot, eager to have her turn.
“What can you see? Let me see.”
Jamie lifted his head out of the visor and allowed Leesa to peer inside, “Look. That tree thing in the middle of the water.”
She placed her face onto the console and widened her eyes, “Wow.”
The enlarged image revealed scores of cats swimming towards the structure. Five of them attempted to dig their paws in and climb up the slippery surface.
A sliver of pink light drifted down the side of the tree as the cats scrambled to reach the summit.
It proved to be an impossibility for them.
A cat with large, pointy ears climbed ahead of the others, but lost her grip on the surface and slid back down to the water.
&
nbsp; “What are they doing?”
Jamie turned to the lifeless android standing in the corner of the room. “What kind of name is Santara, anyway?” he muttered.
No response.
“Hey, Jamie,” Noyin called out from the control console.
“Huh?”
The boy double-took and looked at the man, whose grin revealed his shiny gold teeth, “What are you looking at, stud?”
“What do you mean?”
“I see you checking Santara out, you know,” Noyin chuckled, somewhat salaciously. “Stop staring at her. It’s weird.”
Jamie frowned, innocently, “Aren’t you supposed to be helping the others?”
“Yeah, and you’re supposed to be helping me.”
“We’re getting bored waiting for you. For them,” Jamie said. “Where are they?”
“They’re getting ready. Come and join me when you’ve decided you want to help,” Noyin sighed, returned his headset to his ears, and turned back to the console.
Jamie shook his head and snorted at Santara, “Weird bloody thing.”
He turned to Leesa to find her bottom poking up as she leaned into the visor.
“Oh, uh.”
“Jamie?”
“Yeah?” he said in a daze.
“Do you want to have a another look?”
“Whu—?” Jamie swallowed and blinked as Leesa straightened up and greeted him with a smile.
“You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
Jamie wiped his face and coughed, “No, I uh—”
“—You silly thing,” she giggled. “What’s with you today?”
“No, I just—” he tailed off without finishing his sentence. “I don’t know—”
Before he made a complete fool of himself, Leesa moved forward and kissed him on the lips.
A sustained and awkward peck.
Jamie’s startled face was a picture as they held their pose. He turned his eyeballs down to Leesa’s.
“Mwah,” Leesa chuckled and wiped her lips with her sleeve. “Got you. Haha.”
“Ugh, what did you do that for?”
Leesa’s attitude sullied in an instant, “Why? Didn’t you like it?”
“No, no,” Jamie scrambled for an answer, or anything that might appease her, despite her blatant actions, “I just, uh, no it was… nice.”
Star Cat Forever: A Science Fiction & Fantasy Adventure (The Star Cat Series - Book 6) Page 11