Fury: A Near Future Thriller (Forsaken Mercenary Book 3), page 16
“Let’s go.” I scooped Preacher up as gently as I could. He wasn’t a little man, but right now, he felt as fragile as a newborn. “Hang in there.”
We ran back to the dropship. My arms and legs burned by the time we got him inside. Thomas and Doctor Bishop set up a gurney for Preacher and went to work connecting needles and IV’s to him, monitors and holographic displays with readouts I didn’t understand.
I felt helpless as I stood by and watched. For all my unnatural ability and knowledge, I was useless when it came to helping now. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one who felt this way.
Angel slammed a fist into the side of the dropship so hard, it made an indentation. She stalked out of the rear hatch.
Jax caught my eye.
“She just needs some time,” Jax said, nodding with his chin over to Preacher’s prone form. “He’s like a dad to her. To a lot of us. I think that’s why Immortal Corp chose him. Six young pups and an older wolf to lead us.”
Cage walked back into the dropship, his face a mask of stern displeasure.
“We need to get going,” he said, looking at Jax and me. “Orders are to head back to base. We can get Preacher better help there, start dissecting these things, and reassemble. Jax, I need your muscles helping to get the last of these aliens inside the dropship. Wheels up in ten.”
“Angel,” Jax said, looking at me with a nod. “Go get her.”
“I’m not really one for talking nice to people and making them feel better,” I said, shying away from the responsibility. “Maybe I could help load the bodies and you get her.”
“No such luck,” Jax said, leaving with Cage. “You’re on deck.”
I watched the two men leave, not really sure what I would say to Angel to make her feel better.
X sensed my hesitancy.
“So are you going to go talk to her or what?” X asked. “She’s just a person hurting right now. One of your friends. Or at least someone who used to be a friend.”
“I don’t know what to say to make her feel better,” I answered. “What am I supposed to do? Promise her that everything will be okay when I have no idea if that’s even the truth?”
“Sometimes you don’t have to say anything,” X answered. “Sometimes just being there is enough.”
I scratched the back of my head, preferring to stare down a squad of Voy soldiers rather than try to have a talk that involved feelings and emotion.
I looked over at the other side of the dropship where Preacher lay sucking in oxygen with the help of a mask Doctor Bishop had placed over his mouth and nose.
There wasn’t anything I could do for him at the moment, but maybe there was something I could do for Angel.
I walked from the rear of the Immortal Corp dropship out onto the settlement grounds. The scientist team had done an amazing job in a short amount of time. The last Voy bodies were being loaded aboard the dropship. The only things that remained at all to speak of the fight that had taken place here were the scorch marks from blaster fire on the buildings themselves.
All the alien weaponry had also been confiscated.
I found Angel on the catwalk. She stared out into the distance. Her dark hair was pulled behind her, her muscular arms crossed over her chest. She looked pissed.
I decided to take X’s advice. I didn’t say a word. I just stood beside her and stared out into the Martian landscape. Red sand and rolling dunes stretched out as far as I could see in every direction.
The smell of death was still on the air.
“You think he’s going to make it?” Angel asked without looking at me. “Whatever they did to him stopped his ability to heal, that much seems obvious.”
“If the same spirit that lives inside of you and me lives inside Preacher, then, yeah, he’s going to make it,” I said, not looking at her either. “I know he will.”
“How can you be so sure?” Angel asked. “You got faith or something now? Enoch rub off on you?”
“No—I mean, maybe. I don’t know.” I said. “Preacher’s a fighter. He’ll pull through.”
“I’m going to tear those Voy apart with my hands and teeth,” Angel said, not trying to hide the hate in her voice. “Even if they have figured out a way to stop our abilities, that’s not going to save them.”
“I’m with you,” I told her.
Angel turned to look at me for the first time in the conversation.
“The vendetta you have against Immortal Corp? I mean, for what they did to Amber. What happens to that?” Angel asked.
“It’s still there,” I said. “I’ll never work for the company again. The two founders who gave the kill order are still targets, but I understand that needs to be put on hold for the time being. I can’t take my vengeance if they’re not here to take it out on.”
“I’m glad you’re back,” Angel said with a grim nod. “We’ll need you.”
Twenty-Six
The ride to the city of Athens on Mars was short. At least it seemed like it was. I slept most of the way.
Doctor Bishop informed us that Preacher was stabilized, but his healing ability had indeed been neutralized somehow. Whether this was temporary or permanent was yet to be seen.
Before the doctor could get us anything definite, she needed access to her equipment back at the company’s headquarters.
When we finally touched down in Athens, it was dark. I was roused by the shudder of the dropship as it landed. Preacher was rushed off with the doctor for immediate care.
Cage oversaw the scientists as they unloaded the alien corpses.
“Shower, rest more if you can, and eat,” Cage told us. “We’ll have a meeting with next steps soon.”
Despite having seen the aliens himself and knowing that they were only days from waging their war, Cage seemed as cool as a poker player with a winning hand.
“Does anything every rattle that guy?” I asked, following Jax and Angel as we prepared to leave the dropship.
“If anything does, we haven’t discovered it yet,” Jax answered.
The dropship had landed on a high rise building. Cold wind whipped around my head, sending a chill down my spine. The building we landed on had to be twenty, maybe thirty stories tall.
Armed guards waited for us, ushering us into a grand entrance with tall doors. The ground sloped down and I found myself in a hall with a series of lifts on the left and right.
“Bring back any memories?” Angel asked.
“No, not yet,” I said trying to will myself to remember more.
“Maybe once you see your old room,” Jax said, going over to a lift and pressing his hand in a square indentation in the wall. The pad went from red to green. The doors slid open from the middle, granting us access to the lift.
We entered the large square compartment.
Angel seemed to be doing better now that Preacher was stabilized. A cold fury still lived behind her eyes, but she kept it together.
The door slid closed and Jax pressed a button for the fifteenth floor.
“We kept your room just like you left it,” Jax said. “I’m down the hall on your left and Angel is on the right if you need anything.”
“Thanks,” I said.
The doors dinged open. We were led into another wide hall. A grey metal floor, walls, and ceiling greeted us. Bright lights clicked on down the hall, turning on in a domino kind of effect as sensors reacted to our presence.
The doors on either side of the hall were offset. Each doorway was a wide archway.
“Farther down the hall is the cafeteria if you get hungry,” Jax said as he and Angel stopped by a door. “This is you.”
I stood in front of the tall arched door for a moment.
For a long time, this is what you wanted, a home, answers, I thought to myself. Now that you have both, things aren’t simpler, just more complicated than ever.
“We’ll leave you to it,” Angel said as she and Jax left me in front of my door.
“Thanks,” I said absently.
A square indentation just like the one on the lift was set into the right side of my door. I lifted my hand to press it to the metal then pulled it back before I made contact.
I felt a sense of dread in the pit of my stomach.
What if I didn’t like who I was? What if this was a mistake?
“X, you there?” I asked, already knowing the answer. I just needed to buy more time before I stepped inside.
“Always,” X responded. “Are you okay?”
“There’s a long, complicated answer to that question,” I said. “Probably not is the short version.”
“Don’t I know it,” X teased me. “Are you going to go in?”
“I guess so,” I said. “Just taking my time. I have a feeling that whatever’s in the room is going to give me answers to my past I might not want to remember.”
“More painful memories,” X said for me. “We don’t have to. We can request a new room for you.”
“But I’d rather know,” I said. “At least, right now, I think I would rather know.”
“Things change, Daniel,” X said. “Your plan to kill the founders of Immortal Corp. Is that still a go?”
“The anger I hold for them is still there, just taken a back seat to the invasion on our hands,” I mused out loud. “But maybe it’s for the better. Maybe it’s good to come back. Lull them into a sense of security before chopping the head off the snake.”
“Perhaps,” X said. “Be careful, Daniel. You’re in a game now where all the players are still not known.”
“Oh, you know me,” I said.
“Yes, I do,” X agreed. “Hence the warning.”
I took a deep breath. My mouth was dry.
I placed my palm against the cool metal hand reader next to my door. It shone red then green. Something clicked inside the door and the doors slid open.
The wall lights blinked on in my room.
It smelled kind of musty, like no one had used it in a number of years. I took a tentative step inside. It was clean and simple. A bed on the left with a closet beside it. A chest on the floor by the bed and a desk with a chair on the opposite side of the room.
Windows looking out onto the city were placed in the wall next to the bed. Some kind of whiteboard was nailed to the wall just beside the desk. I took all of this in, in an instant.
My eyes were pulled to two pictures that sat in shallow shelves above my desk. In one, I was dressed up with Amber beside me. We looked happy. She looked amazing. Despite the image, I couldn’t remember why we were there. Was it a wedding? Some kind of celebration?
I didn’t know.
The next picture was just of her. That smile on her face as if it lived inside of her and the joy just pushed its way out. In that picture, she was in a field somewhere, with a bright blue sky behind her. Again, I didn’t remember where it had been taken.
I couldn’t tell if I was happy, sad, or angry. Her face brought a smile to my own. Sadness for not being able to hold her ever again and anger for her being murdered filled my heart.
Moving to the windows in the room, I looked out over the still sleeping city of Athens. Unlike Elysium, this city seemed far more business-oriented, at least this section of the city did.
Elysium was statues and fountains, wide streets, one- to two-story buildings, and a sense of leisure. Athens, with its tall business buildings and lack of any artistic flair I could see, felt colder.
“Daniel,” X said. “I know you’re dealing with a lot right now, but we have an incoming transmission.”
“The Order?” I asked, hopeful.
“Captain Valentine,” X answered.
I didn’t know I was so eager to hear back from the masked Cyber Hunter until that moment. I hoped my transmission to her had gone through. Something told me we would need the help of the Order before this was all over.
“Go ahead, I’m good,” I lied. “Put her through.”
“Daniel are you there?” Captain Valentine asked.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m here,” I answered.
“Seems like you may not be so insane after all,” she said. “At least not about this one.”
“You got someone to listen?” I asked.
“That major who owed me a favor took a look at the images you sent. Things didn’t sound promising at first, but a supply craft with members of a Way settlement rolled into town with a story about being attacked by aliens,” Captain Valentine said, pausing here. “As luck would have it, the major has known this Way leader for a long time. It was enough to make him listen.”
Atta boy, Enoch, I said to myself.
“They’ll go check it out?” I asked. “I mean, not the Way settlement. That place has been picked dry by Immortal Corp. They need to head to the coordinates I sent you and tell them to stay out of sight. The place is cloaked. They’ll have to use heat signature vision pumped up at a hundred times the normal power to see them.”
“I said he’ll listen,” the captain corrected me. “Before the Galactic Government commits resources to this, they want harder evidence. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but if you—if you have that alien body with you, you should bring it in.”
“I will,” I answered. “Where? When?”
“The major is putting a request in to get me to Athens immediately,” Captain Valentine answered. “I’ll be there tomorrow. Meet me at the Hall of Power tomorrow night.”
“We need to hurry,” I said, remembering the timeline Dall put on the invasion. “We have seven days before they attack. Their message is to submit and be enslaved. If we refuse, they promise to wipe out three-quarters of the human population and then take the rest as prisoners.”
The line on the other end was silent.
“Zoe, are you there?” I asked.
“Yeah—yeah, I’m here,” Zoe said. “I just still can’t believe this. Part of me is still hoping that you’re nuts. You had too many concussions or something and that you belong in a mental institution. No offense.”
“None taken,” I answered. “I wish I was nuts as well. It would be an easier fix than going to war.”
“Tomorrow night, Hall of Power in Athens.” Captain Valentine repeated the location. “Eight o’clock, don’t be late.”
“I’ll see you then,” I answered.
The transmission ended.
“You think Immortal Corp is going to let you take one of the Voy specimens and walk right into the Hall of Power to hand it over to the GG?” X asked.
“I don’t know,” I said. “I guess we’ll find out soon. On second thought, I think they will. I hope they’re smart enough to understand what we’re up against here.”
“I hope you’re right,” X answered with a shudder in her voice. “I hope you’re right.”
Twenty-Seven
Despite being in a new environment, when my head hit the pillow, I was out like a light. Maybe it was something about being in a place I had called home for ten years. Maybe I was just that dog tired. But after a hot shower, I was out cold.
When most dreams hit, I knew somewhere in the back of my mind that what I was experiencing wasn’t real. Somewhere deep down, I knew this was taking place in the theater of the mind, but it felt so real.
I stood on a sharp mountain peak. All around me, dark night covered the sky like a blanket. Thousands of stars and planets filled the night like they had been sprinkled there, each one taking a very specific place in the dark sky.
The stars weren’t alone; planets dotted the landscape as well. I had a zoomed-in vision to the galaxy around me.
My hair stood on end when I realized I wasn’t alone. On the bleak mountain peak, a tall woman walked toward me. She was older and maybe I should have been afraid, but there was a wisdom in her eyes that told me everything was going to be okay.
She wore a long white dress, with jewels on her slender neck, wrists, and fingers.
I didn’t think I was in danger, but I had not been trained to think. I was conditioned to be prepared for anything. My hand dropped to my right thigh where my MK II should have been.
It was gone.
“You don’t need to fear me,” the woman said in a light, almost happy tone. “Not me, Daniel Hunt.”
“Who are you? How do you know my name?” I asked.
“Of all the questions you should be asking right now, those are not the two I would suggest,” the woman said, looking up into our enhanced view of the galaxy. “But I will humor you. You’ve been through a lot and still have the hardest part of your journey in front of you. I’m a friend. That’s all you need to know for now. I know your name because you alone stand at a crossroads that would see the human race defended or defeated.”
“Are you a Voy?” I asked. The woman looked human enough to me, but who knew what they could or couldn’t do. Maybe they could change form. “If not a Voy, then you’re an alien for sure.”
“I do not descend from the Voy species.” The woman gave me a motherly-looking gaze.
I withered underneath it. Suddenly, I was a little kid again, receiving a disapproving look from a teacher.
“Enough about who or what I am. I have come to help,” she said, motioning to the sky above us with an open hand. “Your species sent out a beacon when they cultivated the moon and Mars. Unbeknownst to them, the galaxy turned their attention to your kind when they realized you were beginning to claim moons and planets as your own. The Voy saw this as an opportunity to enslave such an industrious species. Other species sit and wait to see what will happen while still others are planning to infiltrate your Earth and set up new homes.”
“Other species.” I repeated the words with a sigh. “How many other species are we talking about?”
“How many stars are in the sky?” the woman said with a tired grin. “In your galaxy alone, there are hundreds. Across the universe, there could be thousands, maybe even more.”
“This isn’t my fight,” I said, shaking my head. “I have my hands full enough with the Voy and my own personal problems. I can’t police the Earth.”
