Fury: A Near Future Thriller (Forsaken Mercenary Book 3), page 6
Nine
We breached the door.
Angel put the body down and went in first. I still had no real idea on how her ability worked. It seemed that the fabric she wore as well as her weapons were invisible, since I couldn’t see her clothes or the weapons she held. Perhaps they were coated in something that reacted to her body’s transformation.
Whatever the answer was, it would have to wait.
This didn’t seem like the right time to have a heart to heart about her genetics. She went in first, startling four Voy guards who stood in the middle of a room of holographic screens.
The bright display popped up from the ground. All around the room, there were images of the various spaces inside the mountain. I saw the chamber where the cages of slaves were held, the room where the Voy were grown, and finally, the cell where Preacher and Rose lay on the floor.
I took this in at a glance as all four Voy shouted and reached for their weapons.
Seeing Angel work was so strange. First one Voy fell with its skull crushed inward by one of the rounds of her silenced weapon and then the next.
These Voy assigned to desk duty apparently hadn’t seen a need to wear their helmets. That was a mistake they wouldn’t live to regret.
By the time the last two Voy reached their weapons and turned to fight, Angel was strangling her third target from behind while I slammed my blade in the throat of the fourth and tore sideways. Black blood mixed with tissue painted the floor and the wall beside us.
I bullied my target back, slamming a hand over its mouth as the Voy tried to gurgle a warning.
The alien slumped to the ground, quivering.
Angel ditched her camouflage then ran to the door to carry the initial body in and closed it behind her.
“What are the odds that we would have found the exact room where they monitored the rest of the mountain?” I asked Angel with a raised eyebrow. “How did you know?”
Angel grinned in my direction, tapping her right ear.
“Our eye in the sky has been scanning the mountain,” Angel divulged, going over to a control panel that looked like a circular podium with a bunch of buttons to press. “Spartan pointed out this room. He said there were strange power surges coming from it. I guessed it was some kind of tech or control room. I guessed right.”
I wiped my blade clean on the tunic of the Voy slumped at my feet. Next, I joined Angel at the control station. To do what, I really didn’t know. The control panel had alien symbols I didn’t understand along with a myriad of glowing lights that ranged from dark blues to bright greens and crimson reds.
“That’s where we need to go,” I told Angel, pointing to the prison cell where Preacher and Rose lay. I hoped they were just sleeping and weren’t seriously hurt. It was too hard to tell at the moment with the lighting in the cell and the positions they lay in.
“I’m not really well-versed in alien tech these days,” Angel said, swiping at a large half ball that rose up from the center console. When she motioned with her hand over the half orb, one of the images in the holographic screens to our right changed.
Instead of the view of the room where the Voy were grown, it showed an image of the exterior of the mountain. Angel swiped again and again, going through various images.
She pressed a button that went back and then another that went forward. Precious seconds ticked by. One thing was becoming clear; we had no idea what we were doing, and at any time, Angel could press a button on the console that would set off a warning. We were the blind leading the blind at the moment.
“Daniel, is that you?” X’s voice came out of the podium where we stood trying to figure out how to reach Preacher.
“X?” I asked with a sense of relief. “X, where are you?”
“I managed to connect to their central console,” X answered. “They don’t know yet, but they will soon. Daniel, you have to get out of here now.”
“Not without Preacher,” Angel said.
“Not without you,” I said right over her.
“Preacher’s two floors down,” X answered. “Grab one of the discs on the dead guards in the room. I can speak to you over that piece of alien tech. It looks like the one Talia used in the interrogation room. Daniel, I’m so sorry I couldn’t help you. I can’t imagine what they did to you.”
X’s voice sounded pained, like she was feeling some kind of physical agony just thinking what they did to me.
“I’m fine,” I told her. “I’m not going to look at centipedes the same way again, but I’ll be fine.”
“We have to go now,” Angel said. “Get your AI and let’s move. Same plan as before. I’ll go camo and you wear a cloak.”
I nodded, running over to one of the dead Voy and sifting through the heavy belt he wore. I found one of the metal discs and lifted it up for inspection.
“X, are you in here?” I asked.
The disc glowed a dull blue.
“I am,” X answered. Her voice sounded heavy, weary even. “I’m still getting a handle on their technology, but it seems they are able to control a large portion of their facility with wireless power. I figured out how to travel from physical object to physical object, but there’s still so much I don’t understand. Daniel, I have so much to tell you. So much we should be prepared for. We can’t beat—”
“We’ll figure it out,” I told X as I gently placed the pulsing disc in my pocket. “Let’s get Preacher and the prisoners out of here and we’ll figure out the rest later.”
Even though I couldn’t see her, I trusted Angel had done her invisibility act and was running right along with me. Navigating the maze of halls in the mountain now was simple.
X called out our route.
“At the end of this hall, you’ll see a ramp going down. Take that two floors and then enter the hall. Preacher and Rose are being held in a cell to the left of the hall,” X instructed. “There are no Voy between us and them at the moment.”
“How long do the Voy sleep?” Angel questioned from somewhere in front of me. “How long until the sun rises?”
“Daybreak on Mars is still hours off, but there is a change in the guard in less than ten minutes’ time,” X answered. “We’ll probably be found out when that happens.”
I could hear Angel pick up the speed at which she ran in front of me. I did the same. With no need for silence, we pounded down the hall.
“There will be guards stationed at the opposite end of the hall, but they shouldn’t be able to hear you yet,” X informed us.
“The prisoners?” I gasped as I ran. “Where are they?”
“Three stories up from our current location,” X answered. “The cliff you fell off of when you escaped the first time is another four stories up from there. We can free the prisoners and lead them to that cave side cliff. If we have transportation off Mars, we can call in the ship to meet us there.”
“I’ll need directions to give our pilot,” Angel responded from somewhere in front of me. “It’ll be tight. I can’t imagine they’ll just let us hop on our dropship and make a run for it.”
I was going to ask X if she thought the prisoners in the cages would all be able to fit into the dropship when we reached Preacher and Rose.
They were behind the force field shield. The former opened his one good eye when we approached. The latter lay fast asleep. At least I hoped she was still asleep. I didn’t know what it was about the older woman. Something about her put me at ease, told me she was more like me than I would give her credit for at first glance.
“I can open it,” X volunteered as Angel appeared in front of a control panel on the right side of the cave wall. “Give me just a minute.”
“Spartan?” Preacher asked, standing up.
“Good to see you too,” Angel said with a silly grin. “He’s got a dropship ready for us.”
“It’s good to see both of you,” Preacher said.
Rose roused herself from sleep and rubbed her tired eyes. She gave me a goofy grin. “We finally getting out of here or what?”
“There we go,” X announced, lowering the shield that kept prisoners in place. “I’ve located an armor room above us as well. Your weapons are logged in there.”
“Let’s go,” Preacher said, accepting a knife from Angel.
I got a better look at him as he exited the cave. He had a slight hitch in his step. A section of his face looked like it had been burned.
“It’s all good,” Preacher assured, catching my eye. “I’ll heal, just not as quickly as you. Let’s make these aliens pay.”
“Six minutes until the guards change,” X interrupted us. “If you want to get to the armory and then free the prisoners before the alarms sound, it’s going to be tight.”
“About liberating these prisoners,” Angel began, looking at Preacher for some support. “We can come back for them. My mission was to free you and Daniel, then if I was able to secure some proof of the alien threat. Nothing about freeing prisoners.”
I looked at Preacher. I got this wasn’t some schoolroom debate. We were all going to do what we thought was best despite what anyone else said.
I wasn’t going to leave these people here to get tested on. I knew exactly what Dall was capable of and it left a bad taste in my mouth.
“Will the dropship fit them all inside?” Preacher asked.
“I don’t know,” I said, trying to remember how many people were trapped in the cells. “Maybe.”
“We’ll take as many as we can,” Preacher decided, heading off down the hall.
Angel looked like she was going to open her mouth to argue. She thought better of it and moved down the passage with us instead.
Our run took us through a wide curve in the hall where Preacher and Angel fell on a pair of Voy so fast, they had no chance. Angel made use of her silenced pistol while Preacher practically sawed the head off the alien he came in contact with.
Rose did her best to keep up, but as we ascended the ramps to the higher halls where our weapons were stashed, it was clear she wasn’t going to be able to match our pace.
“Go,” Rose wheezed. “I’m an old woman. I’m not meant to sprint like you three. Go, I’ll do what I can to hold them off. I’ll be fine.”
Angel shrugged and turned to go. Preacher at least looked regretful, but he also seemed to accept this for an answer.
“No, come on,” I told Rose, not waiting for permission before I grabbed her and put her on my back. “We’re not going to lose someone else. We’ve lost enough. We’ve all lost enough.”
“What happened to him?” I heard Angel ask Preacher, not that she was trying to mask her question at all.
Preacher didn’t answer. Instead, the three of us were off again.
We just made it to the closed door where our weapons were being held when the alarms went off.
Ten
It was less of an alarm than a high-pitched, brain-numbing sound that practically bore into my skull. This one was different from the one before. This sound was louder and seemed to come from the walls of the mountain themselves.
“Door’s open,” X called from my pocket. She was just loud enough to be heard over the siren. “They’ve found the bodies. They’ll realize I was able to gain access in minutes. Hurry.”
We ran into the room where not just our own but an assortment of weapons were held. Racks upon racks of alien weaponry stood in front of us as if we were about to go shopping on some other planet.
Our gear was on a table to the left. I let Rose slide down off my back.
“Well, it’s been quite a few years since I accepted a ride from a stranger, but thank you, Daniel,” Rose said. Her thin lips pressed hard against one another as if she wanted to say more but didn’t have the words.
“We’re getting out of here together,” I told her.
“No need for silence anymore,” Preacher said, placing his katana over his shoulder. “Grab some of their weapons. We take as many prisoners as we can and we’re out of here.”
Preacher looked at me as if he were asking for me to agree.
I nodded.
My MK II was still in its holster. I strapped the hand cannon to my right leg and reached for my axe and knife next.
Angel put her silenced pistol away and went for the largest weapon in the room. It looked like a cannon with six smaller rotating barrels.
Preacher chose a rifle similar to the one used by the Voy who ambushed us.
“X, any idea what passes for an explosive around here?” I asked, sensing the urgency to go. “We need something that goes boom.”
“To your left,” X directed. “The weapon with the large drum on the bottom and the short barrel.”
“Let’s go,” Angel barked, heading for the door. “Time’s up.”
I ran over toward the weapons and grabbed one off the rack. It was lighter than it looked. The grip was large for my hands, and instead of a trigger, there was a button, but I got the general idea.
Rose joined me a minute later, hefting a duplicate weapon. She teetered for a moment until she adjusted to the weight.
“Oh my.” Rose smiled, feeling the promised power of the weapon in her hands. “I think I’m going to like shooting this.”
“Not to interrupt the love fest with your weapons, but aliens incoming,” Angel said by the door. She propped open the door for us with her foot. In her left hand, she carried her multi-barrel weapon pointing down. In her right, she held an explosive.
Rose and I made it out the door while Angel released the depressor on her round explosive and tossed it back into the room. She allowed the door to close behind us and we were off.
A thunderous explosion shattered the air a few seconds later, then a dozen more smaller pops and booms sounded as the weapons in the room were destroyed.
I hunched down so Rose could climb on my back again and we were off. The shadow of the woman weighed almost nothing. I had carried backpacks that felt heavier.
“Down the hall four floors up,” X yelled over the siren and the explosions behind us. “They know where we are. I’m locked out. I can’t help anymore.”
“It’s all right. You did enough,” I shouted. “You gave us a chance.”
“The prison guards will be waiting for us,” Preacher shouted behind his back as he and Angel took the lead. “Neutralize them as fast as possible. We free the prisoners and then make a run to the dropship.”
“Four floors up,” X reminded us.
“Four floors up,” Preacher agreed.
Preacher and Angel burst into the level holding the prisoners like chaos incarnate. Prior to this altercation, I had fought alongside Sam and separately Preacher. I had seen what two members of the Pack were capable of. With three of us assaulting the Voy together, they had no chance.
I set Rose down as soon as we entered the room. Angel advanced on the left side while Preacher made for the right. I cleaned up anything in the middle.
The fight was ferocious and short lived. We waded into the enemy fire with impunity. Even Rose, who to my knowledge didn’t have the ability of accelerated healing, roared along with us as we cleared the room.
Out of my peripheral vision, I saw her heft the explosive weapon. She pressed the button sending a round into the center mass of a Voy that caved his chest in. The recoil of her weapon sent Rose off her feet and tumbling backward.
I would have thought this was funny if I wasn’t so lost in my own blood rage. My right thumb tapped the button to fire the weapon as fast as I could track targets. A round from a Voy slammed into the left side of my chest. I ignored the pain and moved on.
In seconds, the room was cleared. Preacher’s weapon smoked.
Angel was securing the door behind us with a booby-trap of her own explosive she produced from the vest she wore.
A mixture of cheers and yells for help came from the humans inside the pens. They were filthy, emaciated, and maybe even diseased. Some of them looked at us in shock, others showed their gratefulness with tears in their eyes.
They were of all races and ethnicities, age and sex. The Voy had done their research, making sure to be thorough and kidnap a wide sampling of humans. There were two rows of cages stacked on top of each other. My heart sank when I did the math. There were going to be too many prisoners to fit inside a single dropship.
Maybe, maybe there was a chance we could pile on top of one another, but I couldn’t think about that now. I had to get these people free and we had to go.
As if to emphasize these words Angel’s booby-trap at the door went off. My ears rang from the sound of another explosion ripping through the air. The prisoners in their cells screamed.
I traded my heavier alien weapon for my MK II and started blasting the locks on the cells holding the prisoners. I could see Preacher slashing through the bars with his glowing red katana.
A stream of prisoners trampled each other to get out of the cell. A few of the braver ones picked up weapons from the fallen Voy. They looked so weak, it was a miracle they could lift the weapons at all.
The room was full of smoke and dirt.
I lifted myself up to the second round of cells and sent three rounds from my MK II into the locking mechanisms on the metal doors. The cells opened as the prisoners shouted their thanks.
“Get them out of here!” Preacher roared at me. “You know the way. Angel and I will follow.”
I didn’t argue with him. He was right. Now I just had to remember the path I had run before.
I looked for Rose in the crowded room. In the mass of people, I couldn’t see her. I choked on the smoke and dirt coming from the fight as much as from the stench of the prisoners.
Some of them had already taken off through the cell room toward the hall ahead. If there were more Voy on the upper floors, they were dooming themselves to be recaptured or more than likely killed.
I moved on the outskirts of the people in the room, shouting as I ran.
“I know you’re scared, but you have to focus!” I yelled. “Follow me. Help those who can’t move quickly, but you have to follow me. We have a ship four stories above us waiting. Come on!”
