by T. C. Edge
Ragan inspected her beautiful sapphire eyes, and knew her conviction was real. He drew a breath, reached to his ear, and pinched at his earlobe to activate the connection. At a time like this, with Chloe still thought to be at large and Ragan supposedly on her trail, Commander Wexley was sure to be going without sleep. Each time Ragan had called in with a false update - and that had been fairly regularly - he’d found his pseudo boss in the command room of the CID, refusing to take any rest.
So, with the hour late, the connection was swiftly activated. Ragan, so used to lying to Wexley, had already configured his story.
“Hunt, what’s the latest?” came the Commander’s rushing voice. “We’ve had no reports of sightings. Are you still on her trail?”
Ragan glanced at Chloe with a grin.
“More than that, sir. She’s sitting right beside me.”
“She’s what!”
“I caught up with her, sir, managed to take her down. She’s unconscious and shackled. I’m in the jet now and heading your way. Should be crossing into NDSA airspace soon enough from the neutral zones.”
Commander Wexley was unusually silent for a moment. Then he released a long-held breath, his words so cheerful that Ragan could almost see the smile on his face.
“Agent Hunt, you have redeemed yourself and more! Bravo, soldier. You’ll receive our highest national commendation for this from President Rashmore. He’s going to be over the moon!”
That won’t last long, thought Ragan.
“Thank you, sir. It’s been a long chase, but we’ve finally got her. I suggest you get the lab prepped for data extraction. We should arrive just after dawn.”
“I’ll get right on it,” said Wexley. “But tell me, Ragan…what’s she like? Have you had much of a chance to talk to her yet?”
Ragan looked again at Chloe, half listening to the conversation. He knew she could only hear his side of it, and knew nothing of what Wexley was saying. He smiled as he looked at her.
“She’s just what I expected, sir,” he said. “Just what I’d…hoped.”
“Well, I shall look forward to meeting her myself. Now hurry here as quickly as you can, and speak of this to no one else. This needs to be done as secretly as possible, just as the President always intended.”
“Of course, sir. My lips are always sealed. I’ll see you on the roof of HQ soon. Over and out, Commander.”
He reached to his ear and unclipped the comms device again, slipping it into his pocket.
“So…he bought it?” asked Chloe immediately, seeing that the coast was clear for her to speak.
“He was always going to,” nodded Ragan, navigating through a thick patch of fog. “Any suspicion would be cast away by news this big.”
“Right. And, we’re going straight for the HQ?”
“Right to the roof, yeah. Commander Wexley’s orders have always been to keep the circle small on this one, so the fewer people who see you, the better. It all comes from the top, really. President Rashmore has always been afraid of spies.”
Chloe’s lips curled at the name.
“And here you are,” she said. “A spy, right under his nose.”
The thought gave her some pleasure at least.
“Let’s keep it that way,” said Ragan, turning official. “It’ll work in our favour, actually. There won’t be many guards, and no one will see me coming. We just need to stick to the plan.”
“The plan, right,” said Chloe, nodding. “Not much for me to do, though…just get taken in.”
“Yep. I’ll have to put you out before we arrive, and will shackle your ankles and wrists. After that, you won’t know a thing until you wake up. By that point, I should have the data in hand. We’ll just need to reach the roof again and escape.”
“And the data? How is it stored?”
“It’ll be extracted into a single, glass-based data disk, most likely in code and heavily scrambled. If our technicians at the CID got hold of it, it would probably take them a while to put it back together and unravel all its secrets. But, none of that matters to us. We just need to destroy it.”
“So, they won’t load it into a cyber-system or anything?”
“No, not initially. As I say, President Rashmore is hugely untrusting, and is worried that hackers might get into the system and steal the data. It’ll be the only copy - straight out of your nanites, and onto the disc.”
“OK. Sounds…simple enough.”
“I’m hoping it is. The only issue will be in destroying it. It’s not like a regular data disc that can just be stamped on or broken. It’ll be encased in a metal alloy that is almost indestructible.”
“So, how do we do it?”
“Explosives should work. Exposure to extremely high temperatures will too. But…I was thinking that you could use your electrical discharge ability to do the job. I kinda think it’s only right that you’re the one to finish it,” he grinned.
“Too damn right,” grunted Chloe, nodding her head and pursing her lips. “I’ll be more than happy to oblige.”
“Great. Then we’ll take it with us, destroy it as soon as we’re free.”
“And your cover? How will you explain this one if you help me out of there?”
“I won’t,” said Ragan quickly. “Far as I see it, this is my last insider mission. After this, I’m out. I don’t care what Colonel Slattery says.”
“Then…you’ll be a fugitive just like me?” suggested Chloe, watching his alluring blue eyes shape with a resolve, a note of finality. “A man of no nation.”
He looked over at her, delaying for just a moment before he spoke.
“Well, maybe that won’t be so bad,” he smiled.
A quiet engulfed the interior of the small jet for a few long moments, as the fog began to clear outside, revealing an endless ocean of stars, spread across the dark night sky.
Across the lands below, the flatter expanses to the east were largely dark too, only pocketed with the sparkling lights that signalled towns and broken cities. So much of these central zones were now deserted, so many cities falling into ruin. Slowly but surely, a disease was spreading from the middle of the continent, reaching out in all directions with its suffocating, murderous tendrils.
Even now, Chloe thought she could see the faint flashing of gunfire off in the distance. The saddest thing of all was that the combatants might not be soldiers. That the conflict raging across the lands wasn’t only between the WSA and NDSA, between the great powers of LA and New York.
In truth, other groups had formed, trying to snatch up some crumbs from the table. Paramilitary factions, hired mercenaries, bandits seeking to carve out their own little nest. Across vast swathes of land in the middle of the continent, a lawlessness had begun to take hold. It was a return to the wild west, a throwback to a bygone era. And in that world, living in the shadow of the great war between mighty nations, smaller groups were staking their claim.
Chloe watched in silence as the world passed by, trying to pick out places she’d been. She’d spent so much time out there among the dangers, just wandering the earth with Remus by her side. She’d faced great peril on too many occasions to count, and yet she always felt she had some control. She always felt that, with Remus protecting her, she’d be able to stay one step ahead of whatever came her way.
No longer.
Now, sitting in that jet as it shot silently through the night, she was willingly giving herself up. She was heading for the lion’s den, preparing to face her fate once and for all. And perhaps most surprising of all, she was handing the keys to her life over to the young man beside her. She was betraying her one rule to trust no one. She was putting all her faith in someone she barely knew.
And despite everything, it just felt right.
She looked at Ragan now, as Remus hovered from her pocket, summoned by her musings and recollections. The two were so linked, the girl and the drone, and yet held distinct personalities too. Remus was infused with her innocence, her joy, her moments
of levity. And, perhaps most important of all, he could sense good character too. He could alert Chloe to those she might trust, even if she had a hard time seeing that through.
And with Ragan, he was as relaxed as ever, often excited when he raised a smile and said, “Hey, little guy.” Remus was like a loyal pet sometimes, sniffing out a friend. And in Ragan he saw just that, proving to Chloe beyond any doubt that she, in fact, saw him as such too.
As they floated across the sky, Ragan noticed Remus hovering about. He looked across at the little drone, a smile drawn onto his face. White teeth emerged from a jaw peppered with several days’ stubble, and Chloe’s breath was momentarily locked inside her as his blue eyes twinkled, watching Remus flutter about so joyfully.
“You know,” he said, “It’s best if you leave him with me…”
His sudden words broke Chloe from a spell.
“Er…what?”
“Remus,” Ragan said, dipping his head at the drone. “They might find him in your pocket if he goes with you and take him away. They’ll want to analyse him, break him down and find out exactly how he works.”
Chloe hated the thought. Remus did too. He swiftly zipped away, flying back into the safety of Chloe’s pocket.
“Oh…sorry, Remus. I didn’t mean to frighten you,” said Ragan. He looked up at Chloe. “I can keep him safe for you, if he’ll be OK with that?”
Chloe looked down into the pocket.
“You hear that, buddy? You wanna go with uncle Ragan?”
The little drone peeked out again.
“I’ll take that as a ‘yes’,” smirked Ragan. “I’ll give him back straight after,” he assured Chloe. “They won’t search me, so he’ll be fine.”
Chloe reached down, scooped Remus out, and set him down onto her lap. He formed into a tiny dog, chasing its tail, drawing a laugh from both of the others.
“I guess that means he trusts you,” said Chloe, giggling.
Then she stopped laughing, turned her expression serious, and fixed her blue eyes on his.
“And I do too,” she said, almost nervously, taking a breath. “I…trust you, Ragan.”
It was a watershed moment for the girl, something so small, and yet momentous. And despite all the perils, all the dangers, a smile regrew on her face.
She sat back in her chair, enjoying the ride.
But enjoying the company more.
28
It was several hours later that the horizon burgeoned with a vast show of lights.
It began as a single glow at the furthest reaches of the world, a white and yellow blur that slowly stretched, left and right, upon the face of the globe ahead. Minute by minute, the blur separated into distinct lights and shapes, a million twinkling stars dominating the north-eastern corner of this mighty landmass.
Chloe watched in silence as the vast city of New York began to build within her view, a state of nerves swelling through her as she looked at the place she once called home. It was, like LA, the sprawling heart of the nation here in the east, growing ever more crowded as the years passed by, and the refugees from the war sought the safety of their capital.
The stretch of land once known as Long Island had now been fitted for that purpose. Tucked away at the back, it was almost entirely built up and urbanised, a haven for the citizens of the Northern Democratic States. And across the water, the great fortress island of Manhattan sat, the beating heart of the nation, protected on all sides by powerful guns and advanced defence systems that made invasion an almost impossible feat.
It was, perhaps, the most highly defended stretch of land across the entire continent. Though LA had natural protective barriers to the east, and chose to protect the sprawling urban mess within using a vast security net that covered hundreds of miles, New York was more clustered and collected into a tighter space. And the island of Manhattan itself was a knot of government buildings and military outposts, the throbbing centre of a nation that had suffered greatly in recent decades.
Across the river to the west, large swathes of land remained mostly safe, urban settings for the regular folk of the NDSA. Yet they lived their lives in fear, worried that the war might creep towards them, escalate as it had before and spread its terrors to their shores.
It hadn’t, for a time, come this far, just as it hadn’t gotten close to LA. The war had been somewhat cold for a while, skirmishes in operation across the central lands, but no grand plans for invasion put into place. It was, people always feared, just the calm before the storm, ever worried that some new weapon was being developed that would turn the tide, one way or another.
And right now, the very key to that weapon was sitting in a jet, drifting across the skies…
Chloe looked down upon the grandness of it all and wondered how many of these regular people would wish for their nation to get hold of the secrets inside her. Would they be happy for their government to activate some army of synthetic super-soldiers? Would they consider this leap forward in the merging of man and machine acceptable if it meant winning the war, once and for all? If it meant they no longer had to live in fear?
People, Chloe knew full well, were inherently selfish. Their ability to empathise with others rarely extended beyond their circle of friends and loved ones, those they interacted with daily. If they could guarantee that their own lives, and those they cared for, were improved by some scientific breakthrough, would they accept it? Would they even consider the deeper implications? The devastating consequences this breakthrough could have on the future of humankind?
As Chloe pondered it all, trying to stave off her nerves, the central hub of the city began to throb. Across the dark stretch of water, Manhattan was as one giant light, tightly packed and fortified. As with LA, it was fitted with tall skyscrapers, and yet had began to dig into the earth too and develop the deep sub-towers that were considered more safe. Perhaps more than any other city, New York had been stung before by the vulnerabilities of these giant buildings.
Soon, Chloe wondered, all cities might be flat to the eye, their skylines inverted. Skyscrapers would become a thing of the past, and earthscrapers the grand buildings of the future.
Truly, it was a future that was already coming, and fast.
As the harsh artificial lights of the city flourished, however, a more pleasant one began to bloom too. It was vaster, stronger, a more powerful force. The light of dawn, tinted with a light pink hue, began to spread across the sky, lifting from the horizon as the world began to wake.
Ragan turned to Chloe, the jet bare miles from their destination, and began to slow to little more than a hover.
“Are you ready for this?” he asked.
The apprehension on her face must have been clear. She nodded before she spoke, as if the language of her body would force agreement from her tongue.
“I…I’m ready,” she said, her posture firming as she did. “It’s now or never, right?”
She looked across to Ragan. His expression suggested he was having his own doubts, yet he didn’t voice them.
“Yeah, now or never,” he said. “The CID is near the heart of Manhattan. I have to put you out now.”
He reached to his hip and pulled out his dart gun. The action was reluctant.
Chloe looked over the city again, one final time. She’d never expected to return here, never much wanted to. Only her capture was likely to bring her home.
I guess that’s what’s happened, she thought with a note of irony.
Reaching to her lap, she scooped up Remus, who was in his usual form - a bird. She lifted him up to her face, and gave him a little kiss.
“Be good for uncle Ragan now,” she said. “He’s going to take care of both of us.”
She handed him over, and Ragan opened up his palm. Remus hesitated.
“Go on,” said Chloe. “It’s OK.”
“Don’t you…control him?” queried Ragan curiously.
“It’s complicated,” remarked Chloe. “Sometimes he’s got a mind of his own. Now go
on, buddy, he won’t bite. I’ll see you soon, I promise.”
She smiled reassuringly, like you would to a small child, and with a final pause, Remus finally relented, hopping over onto Ragan’s palm, before reforming into an orb and shutting himself down.
“He likes being a bird,” Ragan said, gazing at the wondrous machine in his hand. “Or, is it you who controls what he changes into?”
He looked up at Chloe, and she shook her head.
“That’s all him,” she said, looking affectionately upon her only true friend. “He knows best what form to take, depending on the situation.”
“And…the bird?”
Chloe’s eyes fell.
“He likes it because…because it’s what my father used to call me,” she said. “My little bird. That’s what he used to say.”
Her eyes glazed over with memory, thoughts of her father filling her mind. She looked again at the city that killed him, and then turned her eyes down to Ragan’s gun.
“Do it,” she said. “Put me out.”
Then she reached up, took Ragan’s stubbly cheek in her palm, and looked him deep in his striking blue eyes. “Set me free, Ragan,” she said. “Set us both free.”
And then, as if to seal the bond, she did something even she didn’t expect, leaning suddenly in and kissing him hard on the lips. The connection sent a primal thrill through her, a sensation so long suppressed.
She pulled back again, her face in a guilty smile.
“Sorry…I just needed to…just in case I never wake up…”
“It’s…OK,” said Ragan, just as surprised, and just as delighted by the sudden gesture. “And you will wake up,” came his hardening words, more resolute, more committed than ever. “I promise you, Chloe. I promise I’ll set you free.”
And with that, Chloe looked again at the gun. She nodded, and before his resolve could weaken, before he gave into the urge to pull her to his lips again, his finger squeezed hard, and he pulled down on the trigger instead.
A dart shot straight for her thigh, and the world turned all to black.