Modified- The Complete Manipulated Series

by Harper North

  So far, the SNA has bombed the city of Ethos, taking out command centers and making it nearly impossible to travel in and out of the city. A ground invasion will mean more civilian casualties and allow them to sift through who’s loyal and who’s not.

  The radio crackles with Reinhart’s voice. “With two hundred soldiers guarding the complex, you will need to find a less-guarded way inside. Several underground shipping entrances exist. They’re a security measure installed decades ago and worked well until you rats opened the EHC to enemy control.”

  I sigh. Reinhart is a dirtbag.

  Elias leans forward, taking the comm from Talen. “Is the complex by the perimeter a power distribution center?”

  “Yes,” Reinhart says. “Much of the information about the power distribution system and energy sources was classified to all but Bellaton, but the North Complex distributes power to other EHC locations. The SNA will be trying to use that and other power distribution centers to its advantage. If they control the energy, they control the entire area. See if there’s a way you can disrupt them. If the ground army invades, it’s only a matter of time before they figure out how to open the rest of the perimeter. Then they can bring in more than a few hovers at a time.”

  “Got it. Over,” Elias says, reaching over Talen and hanging up the comm. He twists around to the EHC ops. “Do you know of any other ways inside the complex? Have any of you been inside?”

  The op who I wanted to punch this morning clears his throat and puffs out his chest. “Several underground entrances exist, and it’s possible the SNA hasn’t uncovered them yet. I haven’t explored them all, but shipments of expensive equipment occurred underground. A ramp and a door lead to a tunnel just a couple of miles from the complex. If we go that way, we may be able to slip into the facility undetected.”

  Elias looks at the guy as if he’s bluffing. “Our luck in that department hasn’t been good. I’m sure that place is crawling with SNA ops, rerouting power to their forces.”

  Lacy leans over and peers out her window. “Look.”

  Outside, the air ripples as the sun bakes the flat desert clay. The skeleton of a tree points to the sky. I follow it with my gaze.

  Three large hovercrafts, all green with silver stripes on the bottom, drift overhead and slow as they approach the perimeter breach of Ethos. The only good thing about the breach is its size, which is only large enough to let in a few ships at a time. But this is proof the SNA is sending in more and more forces, and proof we have to move before they cover the entirety of the former EHC territory.

  The three hovers vanish in the direction of the city, and I glimpse a silver symbol that looks like an upside-down sword on one of the hover’s flanks. The sword and handle point to a crescent moon on its back. The symbol of the SNA. A shudder races over me as I think of Ambassador Morris’s words about purifying the earth and leaving it for the loyal.

  “We need to take the chance,” I say. “Lacy and Talen, you two will have to lead the way down the underground tunnel. We need your abilities to take out any SNA ops we find. And you,” I add, facing the black-uniformed EHC op I still want to slug, “will lead us to the shipment tunnel entrance.”

  He grins back at me. “Sure thing, slag.”

  Clenching my free fist, I turn away before Sky can say anything. As if sensing my anger, he pats my arm. If he didn’t understand what the miners experienced under the EHC, I’d probably clock him right now.

  The op tells Talen to take off. Our hover rises and escapes the searing ground, leaving the dead landscape below. “To the west of the complex,” the op orders, enjoying his new, important position. “There’s a small building where the shipping ramp is. The EHC wanted to keep it away from the main complex in case of an attack.”

  “To protect their power sources,” I say.

  As we fly, Lacy remains silent. Since getting reprogrammed, she’s been acting like herself again: eager and impulsive. I haven’t asked her if she remembers the things the EHC forced her to do after becoming an Aura—including hurting Drape—but I’m pretty sure if I do, she’ll go into an outburst. I see the way her hands shake as she grips armrests, the way she always bites her lip whenever Reinhart steps into the room, and the way she hangs around Talen. I want to punch something when I think of how helpless I am to help her.

  Sky wraps his fingers around my upper arm and this time the touch is comforting. Sometimes I wonder if he can sense my thoughts.

  The hover slows as Talen lowers it. “There’s the shipping building.”

  Outside, I spot the outskirts of Ethos again, it’s nothing but small, plain, gray buildings and radio antennas. A drab building in the distance has four green-uniformed guards standing at its double doors. The hover lowers behind another structure, a building with pipes coming out of every wall.

  “The shipping door has guards around it,” I say.

  “I’ll take care of them,” Lacy replies, flashing me a real smile.

  I grin back. She’s acting like the Lacy I know without Reinhart here to bring back horrible memories. Now she doesn’t even need a gun or blaster to do damage. Lacy’s deadly, and she knows it.

  “We’ll take care of them together,” Talen says.

  Lacy ignores him and pushes her door open, letting in the horrendous heat. The air ripples as it wraps around my skin.

  “What if there are more coming?” I ask no one in particular. “They’re likely to have plans to call for reinforcements.”

  “Likely,” Elias says quickly as he pushes his door open and climbs out.

  I glance at Sky and nod. Four guards are manageable. Sky and I follow along with the programmed Aura and the five EHC ops. Elias scoots around the side of the pipe building, which hums as it transports water or other fluids to wherever. He peeks around it and pauses for a moment before facing us.

  “The four guards haven’t seen us, but there’s a lot of open space to cover before we reach them. It’s a long way, even with the Aura ops on our side. We can edge closer by ducking behind this old warehouse, which should take care of the next hundred and fifty feet. Then the Auras do their thing and we move from that point.”

  “My ability to control their bioelectric fields won’t extend more than a hundred feet or so,” Talen says.

  Elias frowns. “Well, they’re over two hundred feet away.”

  “I can extend my ability beyond Talen’s,” Lacy says. “My nanos are a newer generation than his, so they’re more sensitive. I’ll take them out.”

  “The SNA wouldn’t guard something important with only four guys,” Sky says. “Either there’s nothing in there, or something’s wrong, and I don’t want to see anyone else die.” He softens his last sentence.

  I know what Emma would say, and it would be that war is war. Elias has been hardened too, but Sky’s different. He has something the conflicts haven’t destroyed. When he speaks, he brings me back to a special thing that I miss.

  “Even the SNA ops?” I ask him.

  “We don’t know how much fear and control the SNA leadership exerts on its citizens and soldiers,” Sky reasons. “It’s not likely, but if we don’t have to kill them, we shouldn’t. Those soldiers might have information for us.”

  “We can incapacitate them,” Talen says. “We don’t have to kill.” Pain and memories flash in his eyes.

  “They’re dangerous and can call for help,” Lacy argues. “We should use our full force.” She shifts from foot to foot, ready to go, while the other Aura op waits for orders like a perfect machine.

  “Lacy—” I start.

  Not waiting for an answer, Elias waves us forward and runs to the left behind a long building with rusty, open bay doors. I don’t move as sweat runs down my temples and collects on my eyelids. Lacy, Talen, and the other Aura op follow. Pistol out and ducking low, I go next, expecting gunshots, but none follow. Once I duck behind the warehouse and into merciful shade, Sky follows, and the EHC ops take up the rear, running in a group.

  My st
omach turns over and my palms tingle with nerves as we inch along the side of the building. The metal is cooler in the shade, providing a bit of relief from the blazing sun.

  Elias peeks around the edge of the building and waves to Lacy. He’s going for the kill. An interrogation won’t happen here—too much risk is involved.

  Swallowing, I watch as Lacy pushes around Elias. She pauses, and silence drags out. An image of the SNA ops collapsing and foaming at the mouth fills my mind and I struggle to separate the vision from Lacy. A minute drags out and at last, she nods back to us.

  “The guards are no longer a problem,” she says, gaze pausing on Talen for only a split second.

  “Don’t move yet,” Elias orders, holding up a hand. “Weapons out. I don’t see any other ops in the area, but we can’t be too careful.”

  “Waiting too long will increase the chance that other SNA ops will find the bodies,” my favorite EHC op says. “We should move.” His attitude shines through. He doesn’t like taking orders from rats like Elias who betray the EHC.

  Elias ignores him and waits another minute. “No alarms. Let’s go.”

  He leads, and the Aura ops follow directly behind him. Readying my pistol, I run around the side of the building. Four green-uniformed bodies with silver trim on their cuffs lie on the other side of the small structure. Elias approaches first, and Sky cuts in front of me as if trying to protect me from whatever’s to come.

  Elias leans over the first body, a burly man lying near the closed double doors. He pats the pockets of the corpse and knocks on the black helmet.

  “Dead,” he confirms. “One of them must have a key. Search, and quickly.”

  Sky thrusts his hand into the pocket of the nearest SNA op, diverting his gaze from the foam around the man’s mouth and his still-open eyes, now blank and rolled up into the guy’s head.

  Talen steps forward. “Something is different about these bodies,” he says. “I sense something electrical from within them.”

  I snap my gaze to him. His eyes lock with mine. “Electrical?” Of course, to survive on the surface, the SNA ops will need some adaptation, unless an entire organization has developed a natural resistance to the sun’s radiation.

  Talen grimaces. “It’s intensifying.” He backs away, rubbing his forehead. Lacy and the other Aura op do the same.

  Sky ignores him and digs through a pocket, drawing out a keycard. “Here,” he says, holding up a black piece of plastic.

  Panic flutters my heart. I grab his arm. “Get away from them!” I shout.

  A high-pitched whining fills the air as Elias first freezes, then rises. My Noble-class mind calculates possible outcomes and strategies the SNA might have employed. None of them have good results.

  Sky looks at me in confusion, but using my full strength to backpedal, I yank him away from the shipping doors as four explosions erupt, one after the other. I fly back and off my feet, losing my grip on Sky as the world fills with deafening roars, flying dust, and raging flames.

  CHAPTER 3

  I LET OUT a string of curses. Something runs into my eye and I wipe away thick fluid. After coughing, I inhale and smell a hint of metal in the air.

  Blood.

  Ringing fills my ears and dizziness overtakes me as I try to push myself off the hot, cracked ground. I drop back down again as a black curtain falls over everything, wavering and threatening to pull me into oblivion.

  The SNA ops got revenge in death.

  Booby-trapped bodies. We shouldn’t have been so stupid.

  Sucking in the cleaner air under my shirt, I chase away the darkness and struggle to ignore the whining in my brain. I piece together what happened. The SNA ops had something installed in their bodies set to explode when their hearts stopped beating, or when enemy fighters got anywhere close. Whoever leads the SNA has made sure its people don’t stop being useful even after they die.

  Panic tightens my chest. “Sky!”

  Shaking my head, I pull my legs under me and rise from the ground. The corpse of a black-uniformed EHC man lies against the side of the shipping building. A dark blood streak shows where he struck and slid down the wall. It’s already browning in the sun. Dust swirls, looking for a place to settle, and I tense, awaiting more explosions, but none follow.

  “Sky! If you’re dead, I swear I’ll kill you!”

  I whirl and find Sky lying with his leg underneath a chunk of dry soil. He’s face down in the dirt and clawing at the scorched ground. I rush over to him and kneel.

  “Good,” I say, grabbing his arm. “Up. Now.”

  He coughs and looks up. “Fin?”

  “Can you sit up?”

  “I think so.”

  I help him into a sitting position as he wipes dust away from his eyes, leaving dark streaks. “Are you okay?” Sky asks, focusing on my forehead. “You have a cut.”

  “It’ll heal,” I snap without meaning to.

  “Fin, I only wanted to make sure you’re not dying.” He wipes some of the dust off as he staggers to his feet, but it coats his blond hair and smears his face.

  “It’s not you. The SNA—” I start before coughing at the dust. “They’ve got an army who blow up after they die. Who needs Aura ops or Noble mods if you’ve got that?”

  I grab Sky’s hand, tightening my grasp until I’m sure I won’t lose him. I drag him with me and he follows without resistance

  “Lacy! You’d better be alive!” I hurl my rage across the ten-foot-deep crater that dips in front of the double doors. Losing people is getting old. Chunks of dried earth dot the surrounding flatness. The bodies of the SNA people are missing. I don’t want to study the rubble too closely, but we have no choice. My gaze lands on another black-uniformed body to my right, this one missing everything from the knees down.

  “Sky, help me find the others!” Gagging on the swirling dust again, I let go of his arm and wipe another streak of blood off my eyebrows.

  No one landed in the crater. Sky runs into the brown and tan haze as I bolt in the opposite direction, jumping over chunks of rock, shreds of green uniforms, and clods of crumbly dirt. An EHC fighter groans and picks himself up off the ground, palms red from the heat of the surface.

  “Lacy!” I shout.

  “Over here,” she calls out. “I’m going to kill a lot more of these SNA people. And I don’t care if they do blow up.”

  Sucking in a breath, I bolt in the direction of her voice and find Lacy standing beside the dazed female Aura, wiping the dust off her pant legs. Looking up at me, she forces a smile.

  I slap her on the shoulder. “Kill them from a distance, okay?” Despite her Aura mod, I can’t shake the sense I need to watch out for her. Easier said than done. It’s not like I can steal her nanos if she gets out of hand.

  “Lacy,” Talen says from behind me. “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine,” Lacy replies, avoiding his gaze. Instead, she focuses on an army of dark spots in the dust. “That’s blood, isn’t it?”

  “Well, what else can we expect?” I ask, studying Talen. One side of his forehead has a rising blister, a result of the heat. It beats looking at the carnage. “Bodies exploded.”

  Sky emerges from the haze, pulling Elias by the arm. He coughs and wipes his face, grimacing, and I see why. His nose sits at a crooked angle. Broken. A blister from a second-degree burn covers the back of his hand.

  “You still have the key?” I ask Sky.

  “It’s in here,” he says, patting his pocket. “One of our ops is alive back there but recovering.”

  “We have a survivor over here,” Talen says as he points to the op.

  Elias wriggles out of Sky’s grasp. “Door. Open. We don’t approach any more bodies. None of us understand how the traps work. For all we know, they respond to Aura technology.”

  “The door could be rigged,” I warn. If the first one didn’t alert the other soldiers, another explosion might. None of us really knows how this works.

  Elias frowns. “Do you know of any
better ways in?”

  “No.” He’s right. We’ll have to risk another explosion.

  Most of the dust settles. Me, Sky, Lacy, Talen, Tessie, Elias, and two EHC ops have survived. Upon feeling the gash on my forehead and pulling my hand away, I realize the bleeding has slowed. I’m mending. Elias’s broken nose remains crooked. A red stream creeps out. Bones might take longer than flesh to fix themselves. He grimaces, pressing the cartilage back into place. Tears of pain form at the corners of his eyes.

  “I’m leading,” Lacy says, pushing ahead of us and striding around the new crater.

  I look to Talen and mouth, Watch her.

  Wordlessly, he nods.

  “Don’t approach your kills,” Elias orders. “Guns out. Shooting any SNA guards might not activate the bomb traps.”

  “Might.” I draw my pistol as we line up before the door. Elias ignores me. Sky holds the keycard, and Lacy thrusts her hand out, eager to do the honors.

  “Just hand it to her.” I sigh.

  He does, and Lacy slips the card into the lock hanging beside the door. It clicks, but no other noise comes from the storage doors. Lacy kicks them open. Darkness waits inside, a tunnel stretching into infinity.

  Stepping out of the sun offers some relief. My eyes adjust to the dimness inside and I see a row of hanging yellow lights leading the way. I pull the hair from the back of my neck. Grime coats it, dust and ash and things I don’t want to think about mixed with my sweat. If I survive, a shower will come first thing back at base.

  “In,” Elias orders the rest of us. “Talen, get in front with Lacy and—”

  He sidesteps around us, cutting Elias off.

  “We might need EHC clearance,” Elias says. “Forward and stay quiet.”

  I see his point. The SNA might not have had time to alter the power distribution center to their liking yet. EHC security could still work.

  We walk together, staying in a tight group. The tunnel’s wide enough to let six or seven people walk through side by side. Empty crates lay open, but none have labels.