by Rick Royster
Cayden slammed the door on them, trapping them inside. He pressed with all his force to keep the door sealed. The prisoners were banging on the other side of the door, screams of panic ringing out. Then she heard a bomb go off, then several more in rapid succession, the force of which knocked the door off its hinges and Cayden off his feet.
Inside, all that was left was a fiery inferno.
Tressa struggled to catch her breath, unable to take her eyes away from the room of scorched scientists.
Christ! They failed. They failed to protect and save the scientists.
Her complaints about the freezing cold, the stress of the mission, everything, evaporated, and it took a moment to dawn on her that she was back outside on an airlock of some sort, seated on her rear end.
She gingerly got to her feet, gritting her teeth from the sharp pain throbbing in her shoulder.
"Did we just do that, Commander, murder all those innocent scientists?"
Cayden gave her a double-take glance before returning his gaze to the furnace he created.
"We didn't sign up for this," Tressa said, shaking her head. "I didn't sign up for this."
The air deck was littered with scattered debris, patches of fire here and there across the air deck.
Above the door and rising smoke, a large gun emerged from a giant human shadow.
She grabbed her holstered gun, but before she could aim it, Cayden grabbed her hand.
"It's ok. It's ok. It's Goliath," Cayden said.
Standing adjacent above them - on the roof of the sub overlooking the air deck - was Goliath, whose massive form seemed even more exaggerated by the full moon and purple sky. He strapped his rifle to his back and hopped down off the rooftop.
After landing, he raised himself up to full height, towering over both Cayden and Tressa.
Cayden showed her and Goliath the Cube. It was in the shape of a pyramid and glowing bright gold, its light reflecting off Goliath's face.
"What is it?" Tressa asked.
"No idea," Cayden said.
Goliath inspected the blaze behind them. "Any survivors?"
Cayden's jaw was tight, his face grim.
"Bloody hell," Goliath said, shaking his head and making a cross over his chest. "Let's get off this tin can and get back to the shuttle."
"We got what we came for." Cayden handed the Cube to Tressa.
Tressa watched as Goliath and Cayden stepped away from her and toward the edge of the platform; did the ends justify the means?
She looked down at the Cube but had no idea what could be inside that was worth so much death. But this Cube was the key to her daughter's freedom.
Maybe Cayden had no choice in the matter. He had actually saved her life. But was that enough? Those scientists and intelligence officers had been loyal to the Coalition and now were dead because of it. Somehow, she didn't feel she had done enough to try and save them. No way would she let her daughter die for an army that too many times didn't take care of its own.
Cayden walked to the end of the sub, glancing below at the frozen water beneath them. Goliath stood next to him.
"Commander, let's say I became bloody disenfranchised with this little getup and decided to leave," Goliath said, "Would you hunt me down, ol’ chap, like a dog or some type of big game?"
Cayden smiled. "You thinking of leaving all of this?" Cayden looked around at the cold naked sky, not even a cloud overhead.
Goliath chuckled, then the smile evaporated like an ice cube into boiling water. "I'm asking you, would you come for me? If they chose you?"
Cayden frowned. "I'd probably do my duty, no matter how much I was against it. But for you to do it, I'd take it really personal. That you left me in this dump by myself."
Cayden playfully slapped Goliath’s shoulder, then gave it a slight massage. "Thank goodness it'll never come to that."
"If I were to leave and if you did come for me, Commander, I don't care how skilled you are with that darn sword, I won't hesitate to fill the air with heat from Thelma and Louise here." Goliath spoke while patting the guns on his thigh holsters.
Cayden smiled. "I'm glad we can have these friendly, uplifting talks, you and I."
Goliath began to make his way down the stairs. They had a long ride back to the Scavenger; Cayden had a lot on his mind, tough decisions to make and not a lot of time to make them.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Iron sharpens iron as one man sharpens the other.
― King Solomon
The ride back was quiet and without incident. Cayden gathered both Goliath and Tressa were still thinking about what happened on the sub. They made their way back through the city and out of it, along a dark path that led to almost nowhere. That nowhere was an isolated spot near the Dead Sea where the Scavenger awaited them.
Goliath stopped Cayden before he could get onto the shuttle’s ramp. The giant rubbed his goatee and ran one of his enormous hands across his bald head. He stared back in the direction of the city.
"Sir," Goliath spat with a bit of contempt, "This mission, the scientists and those mercenaries. Something is bloody off. Are we missing something?"
Cayden stopped walking, put his hands on his hips and looked down at the ramp before studying Goliath. His mind was on so many other things… disobeying a direct order, or killing all of the soldiers under his command, including the one talking to him. Cayden followed Goliath's gaze out into the direction of the city.
"Lieutenant?" Cayden said as he waited patiently to see what was on Goliath's mind.
"If this was a Federation double-cross, a lure for us to bring back soldiers or scientists infected with smart blood, the Global Union obviously wouldn't have killed them all."
Cayden nodded.
"What are we missing, Commander? Just doesn't add up," Goliath said.
"The mission is complete. We do our duty, no questions asked. Clear?"
For the first time, Cayden noticed Goliath had his hand on the gun handle of his laser rifle, the gun strap wrapped from shoulder to hip.
"Is it, Sir?" Goliath asked.
Was he referring to Cayden's assignment to kill them? Did Goliath somehow know? Cayden was taken aback by the question.
"How's that? Cayden responded.
"The mission, Sir? Is it over?"
Cayden studied him. Goliath's body wasn't tense, his eyes hadn't fully contracted, and
the hand on his weapon had slumped to his side. No signs of aggression, only a twinge
of anxiety typical in even the most experienced of soldiers.
"Lieutenant, we have the Cube. We couldn't rescue the scientists. Now, we go home."
"Bloody well, mission complete," Goliath agreed.
Cayden walked up the ramp, Goliath still behind him, staring out into the city.
CHAPTER EIGHT
The die is cast
― Julius Caesar
Goliath locked the hoverbikes into the side compartment. He pressed a button on the side of the shuttle that began to seal the doors, half of which sealed upward and the other downward, to close shut tight.
Tressa walked down the ramp.
She shoved a laser pistol in her thigh holster and adjusted her breastplate armor.
"If we do this, I want a shot at him," Goliath said.
She glanced at Goliath's weapons, Thelma and Louise, then his eyes. "Why? Revenge?"
Goliath looked over his shoulder; did he hear something?
Then he turned back to Tressa.
"I want to be the one who kills a Desani. Not many men can say that. Slayer of angels; they'll write a book about me."
Tressa smiled. "Or maybe your obituary?"
"All the same—"
Tressa crossed her arms and stared at the snow drifting softly to the ground.
"No decision has been made. We still have time."
Goliath nodded. "Of course, Captain."
Within a blink, the Scavenger was like a bat in the dark cave, the long dark sleek jet activating its m
irrors, rendering the Scavenger invisible.
In the cockpit of the ship, Cayden touched the button that would complete his mission.
The Scavenger had been loaded with an odorless, invisible, toxic gas before they left Air Station Alpha. They'd be dead before they knew what hit them. It was meant to be humane, but still produced a sickly feeling in Cayden.
Cayden knew for a team to function properly, everyone must do their jobs and soldiers must follow orders. He was the highest-ranking field commander in the Coalition and the number of people he took orders from could be counted on one hand.
Killing Tressa didn't seem right. It was an order that he finally admitted to himself he wasn't sure he'd execute. He understood his job better than most, but to kill a soldier, one he was once close to, unsettled his stomach.
General Chertoff was certain her team was compromised. If the intel was right, they'd pose a greater risk to the lives of potentially thousands of Coalition soldiers.
A large dark man with a bald head sat and strapped himself into a seat in the cabin room. The three other men who stayed behind with the shuttle sat in the seats next to him. Goliath nodded at him and went into an overhead compartment.
Cayden had a gnawing feeling of danger that he couldn't shake, but his mind was on the scientists. They deserved a better end, but there was nothing he could do to change it. He stepped into the cockpit area that Tressa and Goliath were in, and Hoss and Rabbit were walking up the landing ramp. They'd put the hoverbikes back in the storage area. Cayden stared at the controls on the console.
Gears saw his confusion. "Sir, what is it?"
"Scan the area for anything out of the ordinary, and search for GU activity in the area. Something isn't right."
Gears tapped a few controls, and several fighter jets showed up blue on her halo scans. "Just the normal probe and security jets, but they won't detect us," Gears said, eyes locked on the jet fighters. "We're going to fly right under them, a shadow in the night. I'll slow our speed and compress sound to make sure, but we'll be fine."
Cayden turned; Tressa stood in the doorway, staring.
"Is something wrong, Captain?" Cayden asked.
She shook her head, then walked back into the cabin area.
Cayden sat in the co-pilot’s chair, staring out into the darkness, but he couldn't discern where the sea ended and the sky began. He closed his eyes, trying to decipher the nature of the incoming threat, the hair lifting on the back of his neck. He strapped himself into his seat and began to meditate to clear his mind of all thoughts.
The Scavenger buckled, then rose casually up into the air and within moments, they were gliding over the Dead Sea.
Cayden’s eyes flashed open and he looked at the monitors, ran another security scan, then searched across the horizons for enemy fighters. They were in danger. He'd never been wrong before, but from where would the danger come?
Was he being overly paranoid?
Then.
Boom.
A shower of sparks and fire was spreading throughout the cockpit. Streams of black smoke and white gas rose swiftly. Cayden attempted to dive out of the seat as the control panel burst into flames. He was stuck, held in check by his seatbelt.
Goliath held Thelma and Louise, one in each hand, letting off round after round of laser blast. Tressa stood behind him, her gun in hand but not firing. Hoss and Rabbit were putting on jetpacks, the remaining crew stuck in their seats. He helplessly watched Goliath take aim at the bald man and shoot him twice in the chest, and he then put a laser bolt into the head of the man next to him, filling the last two crew members with multiple hot laser blasts.
Rabbit placed a bomb on the wall, and the timer clicked down. 10...9...
Cayden unclipped his safety-belt, rolled onto the floor.
Tressa had a blank look on her face and her hand on her gun. She had yet to fire it. A tear fell and she whispered, "I'm sorry."
Cayden grimaced and his eyes narrowed. Fire was spreading throughout the cockpit, the interior cabin an eruption of lasers and sheets of fire, and his two most trusted soldiers were trying to kill him. Gears lay motionless, eyes closed, but her chest indicated she was still breathing. The ship’s defense systems screamed warnings.
Scavenger was losing altitude; it was going down.
The shuttle’s doors slid open and Rabbit and Hoss leapt out into the night. Goliath threw on his jetpack, and looked at the bomb counting down; it showed just five seconds left. Tressa threw on her jetpack as well, not able to take her eyes off Cayden still in the cockpit.
"Come on,” Goliath screamed, snapping Tressa out of her trance.
They both turned and jumped out the door, the gold fire igniting from their jetpacks as soon as they hit air.
The night’s wind whipped through the Scavenger in a rush, air lashing the ship like a tornado, muting all sound. Then a gigantic boom sounded as the explosion ripped through the shuttle’s steel, fire running along the torn metal, ripping the ship in half and sending burning parts cascading from the sky.
Cayden reached an arm out for Gears; she was beyond his grasp and unconscious. The shuttle tumbled and they both spun through the air and bounced around the cockpit like beach balls, the cabin a spinning circle of death. The ship plunged and hit the water so hard it might as well have been concrete. Cayden's head snapped back and cracked against his chair.
After the initial impact, a fifteen-foot deluge of water reached for the sky, then the large shuttle was engulfed by the sea and began to sink faster than a seal being dragged to its death by a great white, plummeting them down to the depths of the abyss.
A body floated through the Scavenger's core, the light evaporating to a shadow's glow in the dark waters.
Cayden's eyes burned from the water, his lungs filled with the salty sea. He couldn't move; he looked down and saw his right foot stuck in the computer console. Gears was pinned by her chair, trapped between it and the canopy's glass. Cayden fought for balance, pulled his leg out and freed himself. He swam over to Gears, trying to pry the chair from atop her. He slid over it and, bracing himself against the console, lifted the chair off her.
Gears’ body was limp, her eyes closed and limbs unresponsive. Cayden pinched her nose and began to give her mouth-to-mouth. He placed a hand underneath her chin and tried again, praying for a reaction.
Nothing.
His lungs were on fire, consciousness beginning to tremor in and out like a flickering lightbulb. He'd taken in too much water. He tried to breathe life into her once more, to no avail. She couldn't be gone. Pressure filled his brain and made his vision a wall of black spots.
He was sure his head was going to burst.
He searched her face for life, then saw the small wisp of blood leaking from the back of her head and neck. He placed his hand to the spot and felt the nasty gash and shrapnel. He looked at his friend for the last time, shook his head in disbelief, then kicked his legs and rocketed through the cabin, toward the surface.
A light shimmered in the distance, either the moon or the afterlife. Would he make it? His heart pounded, a balloon about to burst. He picked up momentum, kicking his legs in a desperate push for air.
He cracked the surface and blew out a jet of water, then a rush of air filled his lungs followed by a huge breath. Cohesive thoughts slowly streamed back to his consciousness, and he waited a few seconds before opening his eyes. The crescent glow reflected off the sea.
The water was littered with fragments of the Scavenger's furniture and other items; anything that could float was on fire, the night and sea soon to conceal the events that had just taken place, sweeping the crime scene of evidence.
Cayden searched across the dark sky; no trace of Tressa or Goliath. They were soldiers who'd dedicated their lives to the Coalition, so what could have turned them against him?
CHAPTER NINE
Do not regret what you have done.
― Miyamoto Mushashi
Hyperloop cars coasted through the upp
er levels of Zone Seven, and the city's transit system was connected like a rollercoaster ride, sprawling in all directions. Puddles formed on the rooftop of an apartment building. Red and blue rail lines illuminated the tracks that snaked through the massive skylines.
Beneath the rails were myriad foot traffic terminals and commercial establishments, an endless stream of skywalks, shops, and restaurants flowing with hosts of hurried humans, one of whom - normally stronger than all the rest - had slumped into a ball, wizened and raked with regret.
Tressa stood a short distance away from her team, one arm clutched around her stomach, the other wiping tears from her eyes. She felt a sharp pain in the back of her throat, unsure if she'd be able to speak and still unable to quite believe what she had done. She tried to convince herself she was just a witness and not a participant.
Cayden and half her crew - dead by her hand.
She’d had no other choice.
Whoever was behind this would pay.
She was dressed in civilian clothes – a frumpy blue dress, and black raincoat – and she had managed to cover up her sleek battle armor. Goliath stood at the ledge, looking out at the traffic above. Rabbit was nearby, attending to Hoss, who was injured when his jetpack failed while he was trying to land.
Tressa blinked and rubbed her eyes, the burn of the sweat and rain pulling her out of her trance. She now had the Cube, but didn't know who wanted it or why. She didn't even know what was on it. She had given up her daughter when she was just fifteen, before the Coalition found her and remade her into something greater.
Tressa remembered being poor and living in the slums of Region One. The man she was now headed to see had changed that. She was homeless, food was scarce, her parents had both died in the Great War, and she had no means of taking care of herself, much less a child. No active member of the Coalition was allowed to have children for this very reason.
She thought her daughter was her secret. She had never told anyone, not out of shame but a sense of duty. She was a decorated soldier, one of the best Rangers the Coalition had. She remembered and missed her child often, and it was almost like a death, so there was no way she'd sacrifice her daughter again.