Justice Keepers Saga--Books 10-12, page 76
When she peeked around the corner, she saw over a dozen people in black uniforms gathered outside the SlipGate Chamber. They all had their backs turned as they fired at something she couldn’t see. Harry and his team were in that direction.
Touching the side of her head, Keli shut her eyes and concentrated.
Despite appearances, taking direct control of another person’s mind was quite difficult. Oh, she could put them into a kind of stasis – they would remain perfectly still while her allies shot them – but holding them restrained for any length of time would be equally difficult. Better to do a single, surgical attack that broke them with minimal effort. She reached out with her thoughts, felt the fear and aggression emanating from the men and women in front of her.
One young lady in the back was particularly vulnerable. That one was worked up into a lather, eager for her chance to put down the enemy. Rage and hatred created a singular focus that Keli could exploit.
She put thoughts into the young woman’s head, images of Harry and his team overrunning her squad, images of defeat, of being taken captive, of Jack gloating over the pitiful, disorganized Leyrian military. How sad they were, how pathetic. Their enemies could stroll into a base any time they pleased.
The woman’s anger reached a crescendo.
All Keli had to do was conjure an illusion, a hallucination of Jack plowing through the soldiers who were trapped in this cramped hallway. The young woman didn’t even question what she saw. She just lifted her weapon and fired at an adversary who wasn’t there.
In reality, her bullets hit a young man from behind. At point-blank range, they pierced his armour and ripped through his body. He fell to the floor. The others turned around to see why one of their own had suddenly gone insane, but the young woman kept firing. Several others went down.
Cassi took advantage of the pandemonium, aiming around the corner and stunning those soldiers who hadn’t been hit. In seconds, she had several people flailing about as they toppled over. Keli could tell that Harry and his team were doing the same from the other end of the hallway. The poor soldiers were trapped between two sets of enemies, taking fire from both sides.
The chaos lasted for another thirty seconds or so. When it was over, at least a dozen black-clad bodies were piled up in front of the door to the SlipGate Chamber.
That door slid open, but the armoured men on the other side didn’t even try to come out. They stared in horror at the carnage all around them.
Brel Torvin took the momentary lull in combat as a sign that it was a good time to press his advantage. He ran screaming into the other hallway, trampling fallen bodies as he unloaded half a magazine.
His shots hit nothing but duroplastic, but the enemy soldiers retreated into the Gate Room, and the door slid shut behind them.
Keli noticed a force-field at the end of the corridor, a shimmering curtain that refracted the light and distorted the men behind it into blobs of gray and black. Ten seconds later, it vanished to reveal a very incensed Harry Carlson on the other side. “Somebody, calm him down!” he shouted.
“I will never be caged again!” Brel screamed.
“Enough!”
When Keli looked around, she found Jack coming toward her from the opposite direction. He had the barrel of his gun pressed against the cheek of a pale man in a dark-green uniform. “Everyone, stand down!”
Arin was there as well, moving slowly with his pistol at the ready, his eyes darting back and forth as if he expected enemies to come charging out of any door. That one was dangerous. Whatever Jack said about redemption, Keli knew that she would have to keep an eye on him.
Keli didn’t have to look to know that people were coming up behind her. She could feel the presence of their minds. The prisoners were filing out of the storage room, eager to escape.
“Signal your people,” Jack snapped at his captive. “Order them to discard their weapons and exit the Gate Room one at a time with their hands up. Corovin, Cassi, Arin, get those bodies out of the way!”
The three he had named immediately set to work, dragging fallen men and women off to the side to clear a path. Keli knew why Jack had chosen them specifically. They all had a strength advantage.
The uniformed man answered Jack’s demand with a sly smile. “Or what?” he said. “There must be fifty trained security officers on the other side of that door with more ready to come through as soon as they have the space to do so. You didn’t immobilize all of my teams on the upper levels. They’ll converge on this spot once they realize that you’re here. How do you plan to win this, Hunter?”
In response, Jack shoved the man past Keli and let him look upon the queue of recently-freed prisoners that emerged from the storage room. Over three hundred people had been left to rot in that cage, and every last one of them was angry. “You tell me.”
“I won’t capitulate,” the man said.
“Then maybe we all die here,” Jack replied. “You ever been trampled by an angry mob, Gus?”
“What?”
A momentary scowl passed over Jack’s face as he spoke into his captive’s ear. “You see, it got real simple for me when I realized that I would rather be dead than take orders from slime like Dusep.”
Keli could almost smell the fear radiating from this…Gus…but the man maintained his bravado. “You won’t kill me.”
“I’d rather not,” Jack admitted. “But I’ll do what I have to, and I’m willing to bet that every single one of these people will do the same. How many of you would die for your freedom?”
Hands shot up. More hands than Keli could count, her own included. There was no surprise in that. She knew exactly how Brel Torvin felt. No one would ever put her in a cage again.
“Few dozen guards,” Jack said. “Most of them unconscious. Maybe fifty more bottled up the Gate Room. Some cooks. Administrative staff who are probably hiding in their offices. That’s what you’re bringing to the table.
“I’ve got three people with symbionts, a deadly sharpshooter, a telepath, a guy in a bad-ass suit of armour and the man who literally commands the power of the Overseers. The seven of us gave you hell before we freed your three hundred prisoners. So, I’m just gonna ask you one last time, Gus. Do you wanna die here today?”
Gus tapped a button on his multi-tool and then spoke into the microphone. “This is Colonel Tomon Eberon,” he said. “All officers stand down.”
“Very, very good,” Jack said. “Now, come with me.”
The door to the Gate Room slid open, and four men waited on the other side, all pointing assault rifles into the hallway. Despite Colonel Eberon’s orders, they weren’t quite ready to stand down.
Jack held the colonel with a gun pressed to his cheek, forcing him through the door. “Everybody, back up!” he growled.
The four men did as they were told, backing away from the door but keeping their rifles trained on him. He could see the hateful glares behind those visors. The only thing keeping them from pulling those triggers was the certainty that they would kill their CO in the process.
It seemed that Tomon had been exaggerating when he said that Jack would find fifty trained security officers behind that door. In reality, it was just over half that. Thirty people at most, including a man in a green uniform who stood at the control console. The room was certainly big enough for fifty, but Jack suspected that some of those who had come through with the last batch were now lying unconscious or dead in the hallway.
Three metal triangles stood side by side, each one gleaming under the fluorescent bulbs. They were all inert, inactive. He noticed that the armoured security officers were all staying clear of them, trying to leave room for reinforcements to come through. It would be a tight squeeze in here if anyone tried.
“Lock the Gates,” Jack ordered.
The man at the console looked to his CO for confirmation.
“Do it!”
Despite his predicament, Tomon Eberon smiled. “They’re not going to accept any orders from me, Hunter,” he said. “They know I’ve been compromised.”
“Nothing is ever easy,” Jack muttered. “Keli.”
The telepath came through the door with all the attitude of a queen gliding across her throne room, pausing to take in the sight of men and women who shied away from her. No one tried to shoot her, thankfully.
She fixed her gaze on the Gate operator, and that poor guy whimpered, clapping his hands over his ears as if he heard a terrible ringing inside his skull. At least six people pointed weapons at her, but Keli stilled them all with a thought. Several of those people dropped their weapons and huddled up against the wall, shivering. Jack wasn’t sure what Keli had put into their brains, but he suspected that he didn’t want to know. Some horrors were best left unseen.
Twisting around, Jack looked over his shoulder. “Cass,” he said, jerking his head toward the console. “You’re up.”
Cassi stepped into the room, sparing a glance for the armoured men on either side of her, and then immediately went to the controls. Her fingers slid over the SmartGlass display screen as she studied the readouts with lips pursed. “All three Gates are locked.”
No sooner did she finish speaking than a voice came through the speaker. “Vondrai, this is Fort Entiar,” a woman said. “We’re reading that your SlipGates are closed. We can’t send reinforcements through. Please confirm.”
“The situation has been resolved, Lieutenant,” Colonel Eberon said. “No need for reinforcements. We’ll be sending your people back shortly.”
“Confirmed, Vondrai.”
There was a momentary burst of static before the line went dead.
Clenching his teeth with a hiss, Jack whispered in his ear. “Nice try,” he snarled. “I’m not stupid. They already have shuttles on the way.”
“Very good, Agent Hunter,” the colonel. “I give it ten minutes before you’re overrun.”
“I only need five,” Jack said. “Everybody, drop your weapons and move out into the hallway! Let’s go!”
Nobody moved.
“Keli…”
Even knowing what to expect, it startled him when one of the armoured men drew his sidearm and pressed the gun against the side of his helmet. His finger curled around the trigger, ready to blow a hole in his own head.
The sound of hushed voices told Jack that Keli’s little demonstration had had an effect. Of course, she couldn’t exert such control over thirty individual minds, but these people didn’t know that. “Let us leave peacefully,” Jack said, “or die here. Your choice, but I’m all out of patience.”
With that, the security officers abandoned their weapons and shuffled out into the corridor. They took their sweet time about it too. Jack had to hurry them along more than once. He had said that he only needed five minutes, but three of those were used up. He sent Tomon out with the others and ordered Harry to keep an eye on him.
When the room was finally clear, the first group of prisoners came through and took position in front of the left-most SlipGate. Twelve of them in total. That was as many as a Gate could send in a single trip.
Another twelve claimed the middle Gate, and twelve more took the one on the right. They were nervous. Jack could see it. With escape so close, they were terrified that those reinforcements would show up and ruin everything.
“You put in the scrambler code?” Jack muttered.
Cassi nodded. “They won’t be able to track us.”
Another gift from Isara. When executed, this program would bounce a traveler off a dozen randomized Gates before depositing them at their final destination. A different chain each time. Anna’s trick of cross-referencing departure and arrival data from different Gates across the network would be useless. Now, all they had to do was order this terminal not to record their exodus. He could see that Cassi was doing just that.
Jack stepped forward to face the former prisoners with hands clasped behind his back. He forced a small smile. “We’re almost home,” he said. “Trust me. We’ll get you to safety. The trip through SlipSpace is going to feel a little longer than what you’re used to. You might feel lightheaded when you arrive. It’s important to immediately move out of the way and make room for the next group. Can you do that?”
Everyone nodded.
“Good.”
The Gates began to hum as Cassi powered them up. A bubble appeared around the group to his left and then another around the group to his right. The people in the middle were the last to be enveloped. One by one, those bubbles disappeared.
As soon as they were gone, the next batch of travelers came in, three dozen people taking position in front of the Gates. Jack gave a briefer version of the same speech, and then Cassi sent them on their way.
It went on like that for several minutes as they sent another batch of thirty-six every thirty seconds or so. At one point, Arin came in with a young boy in his arms and handed the kid to his mother. Jack realized that the poor boy had lost the use of his legs. His captors hadn’t even given him a wheelchair.
An old man had to be assisted as well. And a blind woman too. Keeping the line moving was imperative. Any delay could see them trapped here when the reinforcements arrived. And yet delays were inevitable. Jack felt every beat of his heart like a metronome counting down the seconds.
He had to suppress a moan when Cassi was only able to activate two of the three Gates. The third wouldn’t connect to its companion on the other side. Which meant that someone or something was in the way. Most likely someone who hadn’t moved aside quickly enough upon arrival. The problem resolved itself a few seconds later.
Despite his boast, they ended up needing a lot more than five minutes. Nearly ten had passed when Keli said, “Shuttles landing outside.” And that was on top of the three he had lost just getting the security team out of the room. “Hostiles approaching the base!”
They still had a hundred prisoners to send!
“Hurry, people!” Jack shouted. “Let’s go! Let’s go!”
The next cohort of thirty-six came through the door. It probably only took them ten seconds – maybe fifteen – to get into position, but to Jack, it felt like an eternity. Bubbles surrounded them as the Gates powered up. And then they vanished one by one.
When they were gone, another three dozen came in. An old woman fell over, and Jack rushed to her side. She stretched a trembling hand toward him. With deliberate gentleness, he helped her to her feet and ushered her toward the people who stood in front of the middle Gate. Bubbles had already formed around the other two groups.
“Hostiles have entered the base!” Keli said.
“Slow them down.”
She shuddered, one hand pressed against her temple as she focused her efforts on the newcomers. “I’ll do what I can.”
Twenty-six people entered the room. The last of the prisoners. Jack felt a surge of relief when he saw that the rest of his team was right behind them. Novol and Corovin joined the two women who waited in front of the middle Gate.
Harry paused for one last look into the hallway. “We stunned the colonel and his men,” he said. “They were unarmed, but I wouldn’t trust them not to cause trouble while we made our escape.”
“Hurry,” Jack growled.
Arin rushed through the door, carrying a little girl who wouldn’t stop crying in his arms. He assessed the situation in the blink of an eye and then took his place with the others.
Cassi input the final instructions to set their destination. Then she took Keli by the arm and practically dragged the telepath to the middle Gate. Grabbing a fistful of Harry’s sleeve, Jack did the same.
A bubble surrounded them, refracting the light, and when Jack looked around, he saw that two more had formed on his left and his right. He could only tell by the fact that the people within those bubbles were even blurrier than they should have been. Not just human-shaped figures but whirlpools of colour that made it impossible to pick out any specific individual.
Then he was racing through an endless, dark tunnel, hurtling toward a light that never came any closer. The other bubbles were nowhere to be seen. Whatever paths they took through SlipSpace diverged wildly from the one that Jack and his companions followed.
They should have arrived at their destination after only a few seconds, but instead, he felt a sensation that he could only describe as a lurch. As if the bubble had changed direction. It now seemed to Jack that he was flying sideways, to his left. Then up, then down. And at one point, he was pretty damn sure that they were going back the way they had come.
A full minute had passed, and still they were traversing the endless void. He could sense the fear from the two women who had joined them for this little sojourn. And the girl that Arin carried was still crying.
Jack tried to project confidence, but he already felt a tightness in his chest that had nothing to do with anxiety. A bubble the size of his living room, shared by ten people and set adrift in the endless expanse of SlipSpace. The air was growing thin. He knew on a rational level that Isara’s program was safe – or at least he hoped it was; you could never tell with that one – but a little voice in the back of his mind screamed that he never should have trusted her that she had betrayed-
They came to a stop in what appeared to be a huge cavern. He quickly scanned his surroundings and discovered that the other two groups had arrived. The little girl quieted down when she realized that they were no longer lost in the void.
But something was wrong!
He should have been facing away from the SlipGate, but instead, it was on his left. He saw it clearly in the corner of his eye, sinuous grooves blazing with the heat of the sun. What in god’s name…
The bubble popped.
Bent over with a hand on his chest, Jack drew in a gasping breath. “Okay then,” he whispered. “Let’s not do that again. What the…”
Another group had arrived at the next SlipGate over, and they were also facing the wrong way. In fact, they were facing him, standing there with confused expressions and waiting for him to say something. Spatial Awareness alerted him to the presence of a third group behind him, and they too were discombobulated.
