Chapter Seventeen: Going Down

Chapter Seventeen: Going Down

Depot

            Cygni VII

            Price immediately left the room following his abrupt announcement, which was probably for the best. If he had not, it was likely at least one of Anders’ friends would have shot him then and there. Not fatally; no, the ICRF needed all the men it had at the moment, but in just the right place to express displeasure. The agents, leaders, and politicians talked among themselves in an excited buzz.

            “No,” one said. “We can’t do that. That’d be stooping to their level. We have to be better.”

            “Is it being like them? They kill whenever it suits their fancy, not when their security is at risk,” another countered. “It’s a good plan, albeit a bit extreme.”

            “But sacrificing one of our own?” a third put in. “We can’t reward the kind of loyalty that Anders has shown for us like that!”

            “But think of the risk,” a fourth protested. “There’s no choice if we can’t save her. Yes, give keeping her alive your best shot, but if you mess up, she has to go. I’m sorry, but Anders always had a taste for knowing more than was good for her, and you know. Come on, be men. No one’s saying we have to kill her; they’d just rather leave the option open.”

            “But that willingness is crossing a line in itself.” Dani felt the need to speak up here. The others turned to her, surprised that she had said anything at all. “If we’re going to be willing to do this to Anders, what would stop us from torching no-rankers we think might be potential risks? Further, what would stop us from giving our agents suicide orders, like the Ultra-humanists do with their infiltrators?”

            The first man nodded. ‘My point exactly. We pride ourselves on being ‘not them’, but now they’ve put is in a bind, we want to become just like them.”

            “Still, not being like them all the time is different from behaving like them once,” the second admonished. “If the situation calls for it, we have to be ready to do whatever it takes to survive. Evolution dictates that only the strong survive, and the strong would not hesitate to take such risks.”

            “That kind of attitude’s very dangerous,” Dani pointed out. “What makes you think that taking that king of action is a one-time thing? I guarantee you that if you kill once, you will kill again. If you do this once, you’ll do it again.”

            “But if Price gives the orders, aren’t moral considerations moot anyway?” Stefan queried. “In Anders’ absence, and without anything to show from Wellesley, we really don’t have a lot of options.”

            “He’s right,” the second man said. “Now’s not the time to be disputing chain of command.”

            “If now’s not the time, when would you?” Dani asked.

            “It doesn’t matter. If we can’t win this, we’re doomed. Therefore, whatever we have to do to win is justified.”

            “In that case,” she said, sighing, “I think we already lost.” At this point, Price came back into the room, accompanied by a man who was his equal in height and broadness of chest, but far surpassed him in his aura of command.

            “This is Wellesley, our supreme commander,” Price explained. “We’re honored that you came to see us, sir.” The other man nodded briefly.

            “I think it’s important that we all understand the crisis stage we find ourselves facing, ladies and gentlemen. One of our own has been captured, and it seems that the only viable option to keep our secrets out of the wrong hands it to kill her. I would like to discourage that if at all possible; Anders has faithfully served our organization for many years, and she was captured because she complied with the law. She cannot be punished for that. At the same time, the strike team we send in must necessarily be small. No more than twelve members, I fear. A much larger group would attract more attention than I think we can risk. Of course, Anders’ black ops team will accompany the force, as they’ve proven themselves in the field already. Based on your dossiers, I’ve chosen several other agents to accompany you on this assignment. As per our usual practice, command will monitor you from the center and do our best to disable any Linknet-related obstacles you might face.” Dani raised her hand.

            “Will our team train for this?” She asked. “I know what my men can do, but not what the others can. I don’t mean to offend in any way, but I want to make sure the team knows its strengths and weaknesses before we set out. Otherwise, this could turn out badly.”

            Price nodded. “Of course. I must warn you, the training will be rushed, as we can’t wait for disaster to strike.”

            Dani shrugged. “I don’t really care. Whatever time we have must suffice. Now, that list of names.”

            “Right here,” Price responded, flicking his wrist. An official-looking document appeared at each of the monitors. “Here they are. Kurt Weismann, Garth Henderson, Christina Graves, and Lisa Harkness. We only gave you ten teammates because twelve is more than they’re expecting in the latest convict shipment, and we need to use such a ruse if this is to work.”

            “Meaning we’re going to jail,” Dani surmised.

            “Put indelicately, yes. You’re going to jail.”

            District 12

            Halcyon Alpha

            Postwar Quarantine Zone

            The armored giant held the man over the abyss, his reptilian eyes narrowing. “You will tell me where I can find the silent witness, human. Which of your remaining 205 bones I have to break for you to divulge that information is your choice.” The man struggled in vain, his fists bouncing ineffectively off the behemoth’s reinforced suit.

            “I don’t know,” he gurgled through the chokehold. “I don’t even know who the silent witness is! Let me go! I can’t help you!”

            “You can,” the alien snarled. “And you will.” He flipped the man onto the ground and, bracing his arm over his knee, snapped the limb. “The net bone is going to be a femur, which could potentially be fatal. If, of course, it is left unattended for a sufficient amount time. If you don’t tell me, I’ll kill you slowly.”

            The man screamed and cursed for several minutes before finally collecting his wits. “Who’s the silent witness? You keep saying I know him, but you’re not telling me how.”

            “The silent witness was here,” the alien repeated. “He saw the battle, but never spoke of it to anyone. He was thrown in one of your prisons. Which. One. IS IT?!” And, with that, the alien picked him up again and suspended him over the chasm, though this time by his leg instead of his neck.

            “Imprisoned?” babbled the man. “Which…Iniktos. You can’t be serious, alien. Iniktos is in District Twelve Penitentiary, in the Maximum Security Area. It’s just a short jump away from here. I have a map,” he said, reaching into his jacket pocket. “I’ll show you.” The alien took the map, looked at it briefly, and nodded.

            “Good,” he said. He lowered the man to the ground, only to haul him to his feet again.

            “What are you doing?” The man stammered. “You said you’d let me live!”
            “No,” the alien replied, grabbing him by the chin. “I said I’d kill you slowly if you didn’t comply. Since you did…” He extended his wrist blades and drove both into the man’s chest. The human gave a little gasp of surprise, and then his eyes glazed. . “…I’ll make it quick. Painless, too.” He reached up and shoved the man off the blades, his mind processing what he had just heard. If Iniktos was in prison, the guards would have already interrogated him to ascertain what he knew. Getting any additional information would be difficult, as their torture methods had undoubtedly increased the evil priest’s pain tolerance. Still, the alien though, I must accomplish my mission. I have no choice. Getting justice for the fallen depends on it.

ICRF Depot

Five days later

            Dani watched the other agents battling against an army of holographic training modulations, her eyes narrowing in thought. Stefan was beside her, his padded metal prosthetic rubbing his chin.

            “I don’t like it,” she said finally. “They’re not cohesive.”

            “If course they’re not,” he told her. “They’ve been pulled from random teams all across the board. Most of them haven’t worked together before in their lives. The ones that have don’t know how to fit into a new dynamic.”

            She nodded. “Well put. By the way, what’s with Natalie?”

            “I’ve been running down leads on the assassination case, and she was helping me. She’s got tech chops I don’t, so I thought she might be able to make it go faster. So far, we haven’t even found one lead, so I guess it’s not going faster.” Dani nodded.

            “So…”

            “If you’re asking if I’m dating her, no,” Stefan answered. “No intention of that.” She breathed an internal sigh of relief. At least he wasn’t using the team for that.

            “We need to change up our methods,” she murmured. “Otherwise, they’ll never be ready.”

            “They better be ready now,” Brooks said, coming up behind her. “The execution’s been moved. A week early. That means we move out in two days. If they don’t push it, we’re dead.”

            “We’re dead, then,” Tyler said. “They’ve been working with the ICRF’s best for days, and the only thing they have to show for it is a clump of bruises in places they don’t even know they had.”

            “Should we jump in?” Stefan asked. “Might help.”

            “No,” Dani said. “Not now. It wouldn’t do any good. We should pick our armaments. We’ll need them soon.”

            “I agree,” The Russian muttered. “But I’m not sure weapons will do much good if we don’t have the right men to use them.”

            She nodded. “That’s why we’re going to need a very, very large amount of weapons.”

            Cygni VII

            Ruby stood in front of Gabriel, her hands on her hips. Beside her, Connor sat on a crate, his eyes scanning the crown. In the months since his escape from the Ministry, he had let his appearance slip. His dark hair had grown long and wild, though he somehow managed to keep most of it back. What was currently enraging his partner was the fact that Eli Gabriel had willfully concealed several key details about their endeavor, including the fact that they would be travelling with women and children.

            “Absolutely not,” she told Eli. “Look, I’m happy to be muscle for you, and I’m more than happy to knock anything with two legs and an attitude problem on its can. But this is another thing. I’m no security guard, and I can’t cover sixteen people at once. This was supposed to be eight people moving across the planet in days, not a trip taking weeks. What makes you think that this is safe?”

            Gabriel laughed. “What makes you think this is safe? Why do you think I hired guards in the first place?”

            “We’re not guards!” Ruby exploded.

            “I heard what you did and saw it, too,” the preacher replied. “You threw almost no offensive strokes whatever and managed to knock two men out in less than a minute. Your arsenal is military, and what parts of the service record tied to your ID indicate similar training. We need muscle we don’t have, and you two can provide that. Are you retracting your agreement to come with us?” At this point in the conversation, Connor got to his feet.

            “Ruby, can I talk to you privately for a moment?” He asked. She raised an eyebrow.

            “About?”

            “The topic isn’t important,” the clone replied. “I need to speak with you.” The girl shrugged.

            “Sure. Fine. What’s more wasted time?” She muttered. Once they were over in a corner, Connor spoke quietly but forcefully.

            “Ruby, they need our help. We should do this.”

            “They lied to us,” Ruby protested. “What makes you think you can trust them?”

            “They didn’t lie,” he explained. “He told me about this, and I tried to tell you. But you wouldn’t Listen. You kept changing the conversation topic. To be blunt, Ruby, you left before you had full knowledge. And even if he had lied, would you really turn down someone in this much need of help?”

            “So the mass murderer wants to babysit now?” She snapped. His eyes narrowed and his jaw clenched. The voice that responded was soft, but intense.

            “I told you, Ruby. I don’t do that anymore.” She raised an eyebrow.

            “And what’s going to stop you from doing it again?”

            He lowered his slitted eyes, and they opened to their normal width again. “I don’t know,” he whispered. “Maybe that’s why I want to help them. I want to find out.” She sighed and crossed her arms.

            “You’re not going to let this go, are you?” She asked. He snorted.

            “Does that sound like something I would do?” He retorted.

            “I suppose not.” She went over to Gabriel and assumed her formerly belligerent stance. The preacher looked back at her, unperturbed.

            “You made your decision?” He asked simply. 

            “We did,” she answered. “We’ll come with you, but I wouldn’t recommend lying to us like that in the future.”

            “I didn’t lie. Your partner just didn’t have time to tell you.” She shook her head.

            “Doesn’t matter. In the future, I want all our cards on the table.”

            “Sure thing,” Gabriel answered. “Just remember, that means your cards, too.”

            Four Days Later Later

            District Twelve Prison

            The latest convict shipment was not very impressive. Then again, anything not glitzy or capable of multiple homicides was lackluster in the estimation of the guards in the District Twelve Penitentiary. A few thieves, one murderer, and a couple others tossed into the pool for good measure. The guard at the door looked over the new security guard and his prisoner, a rather attractive blond woman in a blue prison jumpsuit. The man himself had a short-ish beard and short-cut hair of the same color as the girl’s. He looked down at his computer monitor. The record came up, and it was hardly anything notable. Several counts arson, two counts murder, and more counts of destruction of property than he could count.

            “Hmm…” the guard said. “Dani Watkins. Never heard of her. She all that bad?” The other guard shrugged.

            “She’s not so bad in a pair of binders,” he responded. “But be careful with her around anything explosive, all right?” The man’s voice was accented. Not strongly, but enough to let him know that he was not native to the area.

            “You’re new, I see,” the secretary-sentry remarked. “The record says solitary. The wing’s down there. Take the elevator, sixth floor. Can’t miss it, and you’ll know it by the screams.”

            The guard nodded. “Thanks.” He took the girl and roughly pushed her into the elevator, where he swiped his security card. The light above it flashed green, and the machine began its descent. Once they were out of earshot of the guards, Stefan started speaking.

            “Are you all right?” He asked. Dani nodded.

            “Been better, but I can’t complain. What about you?” He shrugged.

            “Tense. I’m not ready for this.”

            She raised an eyebrow. “What makes you think I am?”

            “I didn’t say you were,” he replied. “But that’s what makes you such a good leader, Dani. You know how to hide it.” She smiled tremulously.

            “Do you think we have a chance?” She asked. He shook his head.

            “If we don’t, who would?” He answered. “By the way, where are the others?”

            “Right now, in solitary,” she answered. “Here’s hoping they can get Anders out.”

            District 12 Prison

            Airlock

            The prison’s airlock was designed to be virtually impenetrable. After all, men desperate enough to commit the crimes that landed them in this prison generally were desperate enough to do dangerous things. The whirring blades of the triplicate fans would have sliced even the thickest armor plating to shreds, and a laser grate covered both the front and the back. That would pose little problem for the White Phantom, though. His newest armor sub-design allowed for exo-atmospheric combat and insertion, which he engaged in now. The alien was attached to the side of the floating station, and holding a strange device in his hands. Raising the metal disk, he put it against the rapidly opening and closing door. The device whirred and clicked, and then there was a blue flash. The door mechanism stopped moving at all, freezing half-open. Gritting his pointed teeth, the lizard-like warrior slipped through the crack. Next was the laser grate. Not a problem for him; a few slashes with his plasma-clad wrist blades did in the emitters, and he suddenly found himself pulled toward the fan blades. Arming his energy lance, he fired two electromagnetic pulses at a large apparatus on the wall that he assumed was its motor. The blades slowed, then slowed even more, and stopped altogether, as did the other two. He fell into the side of the airlock, hearing his armored body clang against the metal shaft. The Phantom muttered a curse and dug his wrist-blades into the surface. The blades shrieked against the steel, but the plasma surrounding them sliced through it like it were little more than green wood. He abruptly disengaged the fields, and then the hooked construction of the blades did its work. The acceleration suddenly stopped, and he remained on the wall for several minutes, contemplating his next course of action. Iniktos could be found in the maximum security area of solitary confinement, according to the government agent he had…persuaded to talk. While tortured might be a better term for it, he would not use such a word. After all, it had be done I nthe name of justice.

            Prison

            Solitary Confinement Area

            Tyler Kane could feel sweat breaking out on his brow. He had lied to more people more times than he could count, but never like this. Here he was, disguised as a security guard, overseeing the transfer of prisoners from cells D-236 to D-251, one of whom was Lacey Anders. On top of that, Brooks was overseeing the loading in Bay 10, onto a craft that theoretically would take them to the tribunal in District 3. However, it was in-flight where problems would arise. One of the cubicle cells would detach from the craft in such a manner as to look like a malfunction. Thanks to some creative hacking on the part of Miss Shepard, disabled security feeds within the ship would hide the fact that the cell had been sabotaged previously by an ICRF insider in the prison. Similarly, the cameras in the cell block would also blip whenever that same insider gave the new guards access to the cells they should not be allowed to enter, and then hide the fact that they did not conduct the usual security checks on the cell’s occupants.

            “Act naturally,” Shepard’s voice whispered in his ear. “The less nervous you appear, the better off you’ll be.”

            “You try that,” he hissed back. “Not great advice.”

            “Try to follow it anyway.” She sighed. “OK, the camera feeds are offline. Here’s our man now.” The guard kept moving toward Kane with the same measured gait, his eyes roving back and forth across the hallways. As he passed Kane, he reached out with his right arm and dropped something into his palm.

            “Careful with that,” he whispered. “You do not want to lose it. It cost me nearly a fortune in bribes.” And, having said his piece, the man causally strolled on, as though nothing had happened. Kane lowered his eyes and moved onto the block. He opened the first cell and saw Anders. She looked tired, her hair disheveled and her eyes ringed by dark circles. Still, though, he had to admit, she looked quite attractive in her scary, intense way. Her eyes met his and momentarily widened in surprise. In a moment, she was on her feet, her eyes wildly darting around the cell.

            “What are you doing here?” She whispered fiercely. “Who sent you?”

            “The ICRF,” he replied. She shook her head.

            “They can’t,” she murmured. “No, they can’t. This is beyond them. This fight isn’t in their league.”

            “What are you talking about?” He asked.

            “They found me, not the government. They’ve murdered us, hunted us, toyed with us, and now we’ve outlived our usefulness. They’ll kill us all, and there’s no escape.”

            “Who?” He asked. “What did they do to you?”

            “No name,” she murmured. “But they’re here. Tell whoever you’ve brought with you they’re watching me and to abort their mission. Otherwise…”

            “No one’s aborting this mission,” Kane snapped. “We’re getting you out of here if it kills us.”

            “That’s what I’m afraid of,” she whispered.

            Hangar

            Stefan and Dani stepped out of the elevator and immediately knew something was wrong. Though Brooks was at the helm of the designated escape craft, the bio-signature scan showed that he was the only one on board.

            “That’s not good,” Dani muttered. “Kane should be here right now.” She keyed her communicator.  “Kane, status.”

            “On our way,” he replied. There’s a problem, though. Riot in Cell Block 9, and all the security guards are being called to take care of it.”

            “That means…”

            “They want us in the block. If we leave, it’ll raise suspicion.”

            Dani rolled her eyes. “And you think transporting a Class 17 security risk outside the prison isn’t, for some reason?”

            Kane sighed. “All right, fine. I’ll get her. But this is on your head if it goes sideways.” Dani smiled despite herself.

            “The responsibility for the mission usually falls to me anyway. Just get her down here already.”

            “On it.”

            Coordinates undisclosed

            The Bishop stared at his screen. “Oh no. You won’t believe this.”

            The Premier stopped writing code and turned around to look. “Impossible.” He shook his head. “We made sure…”

            “Obviously not sure enough,” the religious leader snapped. “There he is.”

            “That can’t be. It must be-”

            “We already ruled out disguises, and his bone structure matches Thirteen.” The Premier lowered his eyes.

            “Are the traps we set for Twenty active in the prison?” He asked.

            “Yes,” the Bishop replied, running a quick diagnostic. “Oh, look. It seems he’s joined the ICRF, and they’re breaking Anders out.”

            The Premier’s eyes narrowed. “Stop them.”

            “Anders and one of the others are inside the west elevator,” he explained. “Should I detonate the charges underneath the floor?” The Premier shook his head.

            “Do the rails instead. Make it look like an accident.”

            Elevator

            Kane was pushing buttons frantically, trying in vain to get it to work.

            “It’s stalled,” he finally announced. Anders pressed her face against the bulletproof glass, her eyes narrowing.

            “The rails have been deactivated,” she whispered. “Remotely, too. That’s not good. They look like there’s a receiver above us. I might be able to disable it if I can get up there…”

            “How?” Kane asked.

            “Do you have a plasma knife on you?” She asked.

            He nodded, taking the weapon out of his belt. Then, he pressed it to the glass on the side. “Are you ready for this?” She nodded.

            “Cut it.” He activated the blade and began slicing through the surface. Slowly he carved, careful not to leave the blade in one area too long, as that would melt the glass together rather than cut it. After what seemed like an eternity, he succeeded in cutting away a piece large enough for her to squeeze through. Anders hesitated briefly, then slipped through the void and into the elevator shaft. Climbing out and around the elevator, she carefully crawled onto the top of the carriage, and was about to climb onto the rails when she felt the elevator suddenly shift.

            “Oh…” she began, but that was as far as she got before the elevator suddenly plummeted. There were several seconds of terror, followed by incendiary oblivion as the elevator exploded in a ball of fire. As she fell, Anders held onto one final thought.

            Maybe you got me, she thought, remembering her torturers. But I got you in the end. He knows now, or will know when the time comes. And you will burn. Just like me. The last thing she remembered was the sound rending metal, followed by blinding pain and darkness.