She left the cramped bathroom and went back into the hall. She recognized Aunt Hattie’s brothel then, but her memory didn’t clear until her back tightened with a brutal spasm that threatened to drop her to her knees.
She used the wall for support to return to her room. Beads of sweat popped out on her forehead, the result of a mix of both pain and exertion.
The window was open and both Oliver and Brody were gone.
Shit.
She hobbled to the window and startled when Oliver’s head appeared. He climbed through the window, and Brody leapt through after him.
“Where did you go?” Dani asked.
“We had to pee.”
“Oh. Right.”
“Your face is really pale.”
“Yeah. Muscle spasms are back.” She limped to the chair to sit but opted to stand and lean against it instead.
“Do you have any of that medicine left?”
Dani shook her head and closed her eyes, hoping the pain would leave soon. She did have more of Aunt Hattie’s elixir, but she didn’t want to drink it. Her mind was still fogged after two gulps of the liquid last night. The ongoing pain tempted her to drink the entire bottle, but she needed to keep her wits about her.
Oliver fixed three bowls of leftover stew and tore the remaining bread in thirds. Brody gobbled his bread and devoured his stew before Oliver sat on the edge of the bed to eat. Dani picked up her piece of bread and munched on it.
“How would you end the war?” Oliver asked.
“Huh?”
“Last night you said the MPs were only defending against the Wardens and not attacking. How would you end the war?”
God, this kid is a pest. So many questions. “Uh …” She picked up her bowl and ate a few bites of cold stew, stalling, and as she chewed her mind cleared a little more. “Brigands make up half of the total population on Earth. The Commonwealths are about 30 percent of the population with their troops, MPs, and such. The Wardens are around 20 percent, right? Wardens have the better tech, but if the Commonwealths and Brigands joined together, that would be 80 percent of the population—the war would have never lasted almost sixty years if that had happened. But the Wardens unleashed a shock attack, blasted the hell out of the major cities, and the governments folded. They panicked and unraveled. Panicking means death, Oliver. The CNA still unravels every time they have to fight the Wardens. Can’t win like that.”
“Why don’t you get the Brigands and CNA to join forces?”
“Me? No.”
“You said the MPs won’t change.”
Dani nodded.
“You’re no different than they are. You scavenge, you hide, you do your own thing. You’re angry that the MPs won’t attack the Wardens, but you aren’t willing to attack them either.”
Dani opened her mouth to argue but realized she had no comeback, so she snapped it closed and turned her attention back to her cold stew. Someone knocked lightly on the door, saving her from the conversation. She placed her bowl on the table and hobbled to the door. Upon opening it, she smiled.
Jace and Gavin entered, and Dani closed the door behind them.
“Glad the dog is still alive,” Jace said.
Dani sighed with disgust as her happiness to see her brother evaporated. She returned to the chair but didn’t sit. Another spasm tore through her back and she moaned.
“Dani?” Gavin asked.
“Muscle spasm. It’ll pass,” she said through a tightened jaw.
Jace stood before the boy and stared down at him. “Who is this?”
“I’m Oliver,” the boy said without hesitation. “I was with two families by the Standpipe when three Brigand men attacked. Dani got them away from us, but one of them beat the crap out of her when he came after her again.”
“Again?” Gavin asked Dani, but she didn’t answer.
“Jesus, Dani,” Jace said. “Bangor is in an uproar about a Brigand woman with a dog seen earlier yesterday at the Standpipe. The body of a Brigand man was found there last night. You’ve never stooped to murder before.”
Dani glared at her brother. “Check that accusatory tone, Jace. You weren’t there. The convenient witness that saw me was probably one of the other two men trying to kidnap the women and children.”
“He was going to kill her,” Oliver said.
Her back pain wouldn’t stop; she leaned her hands against the small table.
Gavin slipped his pack from his shoulder and began rummaging through it. He pulled a slender, clear slab, like a piece of glass, from his pack.
Dani gaped. “You have a MedPanel?”
Gavin nodded. “You’re not the only one that steals from the CNA.” He held the panel toward her back and tapped the side of the panel facing him. Dani couldn’t see the view Gavin had, and he adjusted the display’s sensitivity as he moved the panel parallel to her body.
“Spinal column is good,” he said. “No breaks. Deep-tissue bruising in the lower back muscles. Some small tears, and I can see the source of the spasm.” He turned the MedPanel off and put it back in his bag. He placed one hand on her shoulder and one at the base of her spine. “How did you hurt your back?”
“He almost folded me in half, except it was the wrong way to fold a body.”
“Sounds painful.” Gavin pressed his fingertips into her back, probing her muscles, until she flinched. He placed his palm over the most sensitive spot and pushed.
She groaned and shifted away from his touch, but he held her in place. “Be still, Dani. I can temporarily fix this.”
“You’re hurting me.”
“I’m sorry. Give me a second, and stop squirming.”
Dani tried to remain still, but her face was pinched into a grimace.
“Hattie said you sent a note to the MPs,” Jace said.
“To Oliver’s father, to retrieve him,” Dani said between groans. Sweat formed on her face again as the pain continued to worsen.
Jace’s voice boomed. “You invited the MPs to Hattie’s? Are you crazy?”
“We only invited the one,” Dani said. Her back still hurt, and her brother was annoying the shit out of her. Suddenly the knotted muscle in her back relaxed, and she sighed.
Gavin released her. “Better?”
“Yeah. Not as fast as Aunt Hattie’s medicine, but your way has no side effects on the brain.” Dani stretched her body, pleased to be able to stand straight again.
“What medicine?” he asked.
Dani found the bottle and handed it to him.
Gavin unscrewed the lid, took a sniff, and put the lid back on. “You drank this?”
Dani nodded.
He slipped the bottle into his pocket. “Killed a few brain cells with it, too.”
Jace lingered in the corner of the room, his arms folded across his chest.
“Oliver, feed the rest of the stew to Brody, please,” Dani said.
The boy’s face brightened with something to do other than watch the bickering. Gavin’s eyes remained fixed on her, and she tried to ignore the way he watched her. His face was softer than she’d seen it before.
“It’s not murder when you’re protecting yourself in self-defense,” he said.
Dani nodded. Still, she had killed a man. Is it still considered self-defense if I threw him out the window in anger? She didn’t know the answer to that question.
A knock on the door pulled her from her thoughts.
Gavin eased the door open a crack.
“I’m Miles Jackman,” the man on the other side of the door said. “I’m here for my son.”
“Daddy!” Oliver sprang toward the door.
“Fuck,” Jace said. His face paled and his arms dropped to his sides.
Dani had never seen her brother startled before. He had been angry about Brody, but he looked almost terrified now.
Gavin opened the door, and Dani watched as a man in his mid forties, dressed like a Brigand, entered the room. Oliver threw his arms around his father, and the man returned his s
on’s embrace.
Gavin leaned farther out into the hallway before coming back into the room and closing the door. “He’s alone.”
“Thank you so much for taking care of my son. He …” Miles’s voice failed when his eyes landed on the other two people in the room. He stared at Dani in a way that made her more uncomfortable than Gavin had earlier. A mix of emotions crossed his face as he tried to speak. His brow creased, and he shook his head. “I don’t … you were … um. How?” He looked at Jace and shook his head with disbelief before staring at her again.
A few more seconds ticked by in silence.
Miles took a step toward her. “Dani?”
CHAPTER
20
Rowan stood before an eight-foot-long glass window, one of three windows overlooking a medical lab below. He held his hands clasped behind his back and observed without emotion as a group of ten Echoes ranging in age from twelve to sixteen were marched into the room. A few wept and passively walked forward, but most fought back to try to escape the experiment. Warden soldiers wrestled them to the tables and strapped them down. The medical staff went to work next. They applied different-colored wires to various parts of the subjects’ bodies and inserted needles, one into each of the restrained arms of the Echoes. The colored wires led to a screen that registered a myriad of squiggled lines of both brain and heart function.
Rowan glanced at the officer standing next to him for a moment before returning his attention to the medical lab. “Comm tower status?”
“Progressing, but it’s a slow process,” Curtis said. “We’ve had some delays getting the right equipment. Brigands are interrupting our supply lines.”
“They’re stealing tech?”
The lab workers rolled twenty metal poles, two for each subject, into the lab. The five-foot lengths of tubing hanging from the clear bags of fluid swayed as the poles were moved into position.
“No. They’re going after food, but they’re finding new ways to harass the supply lines.”
“Do more sweeps. Cover the whole fucking county if you must. Wipe the Brigands out and bring me more Echoes.”
Curtis nodded. “I’ll accompany the first sweep tonight.”
“Try not to die, Curtis.”
The man laughed. “I’ll do my best. I know it irritates you when I look younger than you do.”
Both men returned their full attention to the lab. Ten workers stood by their subjects and used a long syringe to deliver a dose of medication through one of the IVs. Four of the children suffered seizures immediately, and died seconds later. The remaining six breathed their last breath without any side effects. The erratically moving lines on each monitor screen stilled as their hearts stopped beating.
Minutes passed, then all ten bodies glowed. The blue hue filled the lab for several seconds before diminishing. The unmoving lines on the monitor screens ticked back to life, showing resumed cardiac and cerebral activity. The staff worked quickly to begin the larger infusions hanging from the poles. As soon as the first few drops flowed into the youngsters’ bodies, they screamed and writhed while still strapped to their stretchers.
The infusions from the poles finished after a few minutes, and the screaming ended. The subjects, still tied down, were wheeled out of the lab. A crew entered a moment later to re-tidy the room and bring in empty stretchers. That done, soldiers marched the next group of ten youngsters into the lab.
“We’ll know in a few hours if the dose of neurotransmitters successfully submits their minds,” Curtis said. “If it doesn’t work, they’ll go back into the lab for reconditioning tomorrow. I wish it was a faster process, but our scientists are still adjusting the infusion cocktail to try to maximize conversion and stability. The ones that seize almost always need to be repeated.”
Rowan moved away from the window and started down the bland white corridor. Curtis walked with him, and their booted feet sent echoes down the hall with each step.
“I can’t do anything with a twelve-year-old in the army,” Rowan said. “Eighteen to twenty is optimal. Any success on manipulating the regen age?”
“Some. We’ve had better luck getting a younger child who regens to ten to go up to twelve or thirteen. It’s harder to get the ones who regen to their mid-twenties to go back to a younger age.”
“I can work with mid-twenties. Have the labs focus on getting the younger ones to regen to an older age. Don’t bother with manipulating the older ones.”
“Yes, sir.”
Rowan glanced at his friend and grinned. “You like taking orders, old friend?”
“Not as much as you like giving them,” Curtis said with a smirk.
Rowan laughed.
The pitter-patter of rapid steps filled the hall. A child rounded the far corner and charged toward Rowan. “Daddy!”
Rowan increased his pace to meet his son and scooped the boy into his arms. A moment later, a pregnant woman turned the same corner, spotted them, and smiled. Rowan greeted her with a kiss.
“Beautiful as ever, Ana,” Curtis said.
She smiled and kissed Curtis on the cheek, then passed her hand over her protuberant belly. “Devon is all yours, Rowan. I need to rest.”
“Sure.” Rowan kissed her again. “I’ll see you later.”
Ana left, and Rowan bounced his son in his arms as he and Curtis resumed their walk.
“Where are we going, Daddy?”
“To the training fields, where our newest Echoes are learning to become Wardens.”
When they arrived on the grounds, training officers were barking orders at the recruits standing at attention while other groups practiced hand-to-hand combat or trained with weapons. A quake grenade disintegrated a wooden target six hundred yards away.
Curtis gave an approving nod. “That’s the new grenade launcher. We’ve increased its range and submitted the new designs for mass production last week.”
Rowan nodded. “Excellent. Devon, do you understand what’s happening here?”
“They’re learning to fight,” the boy said.
“Yes. Do you know why they need to learn to fight?”
The boy nodded. “To take Earth for the Echoes.”
“That’s right. We lost our home planet to civil war, but Earth will become the new Ekkoh. We’re united this time. The humans here are ignorant and weak. Ekkohrians would outlast the humans and own Earth in time, but the Wardens will take it. We don’t need to wait for the humans to go extinct when we can speed that process up.”
The boy smiled and hugged his father’s neck. “Can I go play?”
“Sure.” Rowan put Devon down, and the boy ran to climb on a cargo truck.
“He doesn’t quite understand,” Curtis said.
“Not yet, but he will.” Rowan watched his son. “How much longer until we can field test the new tanks?”
“It may be a while. We still can’t retrofit the plasma pistol tech into something that large. The prototypes either don’t have enough power for the size of the tank, or it overloads and blows everything. We lose a tank driver every time that happens. Even an Echo can’t come back from being blasted into a million pieces.”
Rowan frowned and shook his head. “We can’t lose our fighters to mistakes or substandard tech.”
“Agreed.”
“Keep me posted on progress.”
Curtis nodded. “I will.”
“Any news on my request to move north?”
Curtis shook his head. “HQ in Boston is content with our range as it stands.”
Rowan’s jaw tightened. “We need to crush the CNA and be done with this damn war. We have the weapons.”
“We don’t have the numbers, Rowan. We need both to destroy the CNA.”
“I want the rest of Maine.”
“Why? It’s nothing but fucking trees north of Portland.”
“There is a thriving Brigand community—well, thriving by Brigand standards—in Bangor. My resource there has been sending me intel on the MPs and Brigands. The
Commonwealth ground troops are all but gone. I could take that entire region with a dozen Wardens.”
“Who is the contact?”
Rowan smiled. “I can’t tell you all my secrets, Curtis. He’s already inside the MP base, and he’s close to infiltrating the Brigands.”
“Echo?”
Rowan laughed. “Of course not. Human. Expendable. He dies, no one cares, least of all, me.”
Curtis shook his head. “You have always been a genius, Rowan, but sometimes you scare me.”
“Good,” Rowan said.
“Any other reason for your interest in Bangor? Still searching for her?”
Rowan’s jaw tightened. His Brigand captures over the last several years had yielded him Danielles, Danielas, Dannikas, and the like, but none had been the woman he sought.
Curtis sighed. “Odds are she died a long time ago.”
Rowan stepped away from Curtis to keep a better watch on his son once he abandoned climbing on the truck for a stack of crates that had the artillery insignia on them.
“Devon!” he barked. “Come here.”
Devon ran to his father.
“Hungry?” Rowan asked him.
“Yes!”
Rowan extended his hand, and Devon’s small hand slipped inside it. Rowan turned to his friend. “I’ll meet you later.”
“Of course.” Curtis chucked the boy under the chin. “Bye, Devon.”
“Bye, Uncle Curtis,” Devon said with a wide smile.
CHAPTER
21
Dani didn’t know what to do about Miles, so she remained silent. He recognized her, knew her, but she had never seen him before. His face kept shifting between joy and something much more distressing, like pain. He stepped toward her, and she took a step back.
“I’m sorry. I just can’t believe it’s really you. The last time I saw you …” Miles shook his head. “You were dead. But you’re here, alive, and you look the exact same as I remember you. How can you stand there and not say anything to me?”
“I’ve never seen you before today,” Dani said. “I’m sorry.”
Miles pinched the bridge of his nose. “Making me believe you were dead for the last fifteen years hasn’t been enough torture? Now you pretend you don’t know me? How did you survive? You had a huge hole in your chest. I know! I put it there.”
Echoes of War Page 11