Something Failed

  “Tac Com is online, everyone check in,” Melisa said over their headsets.

  “Blaster in position,” said De Beer.

  “Shadow in position,” said Devon.

  “All green across the board. Blaster, on your signal,”

            Ian, Devon and JR were hiding in the bushes just out of sight of the patrols. It was a new moon so they had good cover and soon De Beer would create a distraction and they could start moving.

            Something was bothering, Ian, though. He had a sense of dread about the mission, as if something he hadn’t considered was going to go wrong. But he quickly put the thought aside as the first bolt from Betsy came down and impaled a watchtower, causing it to crash to the ground.

            Soon gunfire and explosions filled the cool night air and the patrols close to Shadow team started running to the front to bolster the defenses. So far, so good.

            Ian and the others made their way to the back door where they were able to slip in unnoticed into the empty kitchen. From there, they made their way to the lobby and up the staircase. They knew the place well enough by now and they almost made to go right towards where they were told to sleep, but they caught themselves before and turned left instead.

            The guard usually stationed at the first checkpoint was missing, so they snuck through it with ease, the second checkpoint was unguarded as well but the gate was locked. Ian started bypassing the biometric lock while the other two covered him. They didn’t expect anyone to stop them, but they weren’t taking chances.

            A few minutes was all it took before they were through the first checkpoint and on to the last one, which was lightly guarded. Ian and Devon took care of the guards silently as JR hung back, then Ian set to unlocking the last gate.

            This time he managed it in seconds. They entered into a large laboratory with numerous tanks standing in small collections here and there, and computer terminals at each.

            The tanks were filled with what they could only guess was water and illuminated from the bottom by some light source. They each set out in search of information, trying to gain access to the computer terminals, going over notes and in general just looking for anything that explained what the Council was up to.

  “Guys, come look at this,” said JR from the far end on the room.

            He was standing in front of a solitary tank that was propped up against the wall. Unlike the others, the glass of the tank was foggy and cold mist radiated from it. Devon took a step closer to the tank and wiped some of the mist away. Inside was a person and Devon quickly took a step back.

  “What the fuck?” he asked.

  “Cryostasis?” asked Ian.

  “Possibly,” said JR as he examined the computer terminal nearby. “Looks like he’s still alive according to these,” he said pointing to the vital signs on the screen.

            There was a loud crash from outside and a light tremor that caused all the glass vials on the tables, of which there were few, to rattle.

  “That’s two,” noted Dev.

  “Yeah, this tech is years ahead of anything we had,” said Ian.

  “That was ten years ago, man,”

  “Still, not even China has this kind of tech yet. I mean, they can freeze people, but they can’t sustain them once frozen. Come on, let’s see what else we can find,”

            They searched for a few more minutes and came across five more frozen tanks, only their occupants were not as lucky as the first. Finally Ian stumbled upon a terminal that was connected to the mainframe and he started his search proper.

  “Find anything?” Devon asked him ten minutes later as he and JR completed their search of the lab.

  “A bunch of Cryostasis data, some references to a super soldier program, but nothing on Aaliyah,” said Ian frustrated.

  “Isn’t it Ed’s job to find her?” asked JR slightly annoyed, “wasn’t that why he went off to who knows where?”

  “It doesn’t hurt to help,” said Devon. “Besides, Ed has a tendency of falling for the ‘damsel in distress’ routine,”

  “We all do,” Ian admitted as he continued to sift through the info on the mainframe. “Or have you forgotten Melisa,”

            Neither Devon nor JR said anything to that. Both of them had feelings for her though it was Devon who had her heart, and quite a bit more than that now.

            The third bolt impaled itself outside and another tremor shock the lab. Something fell of a table near the entrance and shattered.

  “That’s three, De Beer’s gonna break the assault soon, we’ve got to bail,” said Devon.

  “Agreed,” said Ian and he removed a flash drive from the computer.

            They were at the second checkpoint when De Beer’s voice came through their headsets.

  “Okay, we’re falling back,”

  “Roger that, Blaster,” said Melisa, “Hey, Kylee, what the hell!”

  “What? What happened?” asked Devon.

  “Kylee just bailed on me,”

  “Maybe she couldn’t stomach the action,” commented JR.

  “Kylee is a seasoned agent, she’s been through a lot worse than this, unblooded,”

  “Oh, good, your back,” said Melisa, “No, wait, what the-”

            Two gunshots, a few seconds apart, resounded through their ears and then there was silence.

  “Melisa? Melisa!” said Devon.

  “De Beer, what the hell just happened?” asked Ian.

  “I don’t-“ but the rest of what he said was lost to static.

  “Damnit, the bitch cut our communication. Devon, wait!” Ian said as Devon rushed off ahead of them with no regard for stealth.

  “Are we going to follow?” asked JR.

  “Like we have a choice,”

  “Ian!” Ed shouted as he entered the house and flipped the light switch. The living room looked like no one had used it in weeks, which was more than possible. “Ian! JR! Where the hell are you guys!”

  “Ed?” asked Danny peering down from the second floor landing, “Your home!” she yelled and rushed down to hug him. “Did you find Aaliyah, is she with you?”

  “Danny, hi. No, but I don’t have time to explain, where’s Ian, I need to stop him from attacking the Cage,”

  “Oh,”

  “Oh?”

  “You’re too late, they attacked an hour ago,”

  “What? Where are they now?”

  “Stronghold Prime,”

  “And you’re here?”

  “I can look after myself,” Danny said and pulled one of Ian’s handguns out from behind her back.

  “I see,”

            He drove as if the devil himself was behind him. Elizabeth was asleep in the back of the car. They had had an exhausting day filled with disastrous delays. The VTOL at Stronghold Romulus was in such bad shape that it wouldn’t even spin up let alone take off, and their flight to O.R International was delayed for hours on end.

            The first thing they noticed as they entered the communications room was Melisa’s corps. She had been shot twice, once in the abdomen and once in the head. Devon rushed to her side and cradled her head in his lap.

            The second thing Ian noticed was Kylee’s corps at the feet of a robot with tank treads. The robot’s design was crude with most of the inner workings exposed and only some of it covered in white fiberglass moulded on human features. The face was blank, with no nose or mouth but it had red glowing eyes. Ian aimed his side arms at the robot and it threw its hand in the air.

  “Do not shoot,”

  “CNet?”

  “Yes, or well, an experimental platform. The traitor was not expecting this,”

  “And we weren’t expecting a traitor,” said De Beer as he entered.

            Ed found Ian a few minutes after he arrived. He had first found a room for Elizabeth to sleep in, then he went to check up on Devon but he wasn’t able to find him, so he asked CNet where he could find Ian.

            Ian was in the sparing room and by the amount of debris on the ground a number of wooden foes had fallen to his anger, with another to follow shortly. Ian was sticking the wooden target with blinding speed, each strike making a deep gash in the wood. He span twice, slicing the wooden target in half, then jumped up and came bearing down on the poor maimed target with such force it caused bits of the concrete floor to fly in every direction.

  “A dazzling display, but would you refrain from destroying my floors,”

  “Shut up, CNet,” breathed Ian.

  “Maybe you will have more luck, Commander Swardt,”

            At the mention of the name, Ian turned around. He forced a quick smile as he strode over to Ed and embraced him in a quick, manly hug.

  “It’s good to see you,” said Ian.

  “You to. Your fiancee has gotten quite the cat with claws,”

  “No, she’s just showing them to the rest of you now,” Ian said and winked.

  “I can’t believe I was too late to stop you,” said Ed.

  “Stop me?”

  “Yes, your attack on the Cage has put Elizabeth’s life in danger,”

  “What? I did this to help you, to find out where the hell they’re keeping Aaliyah, and you chastise me ‘coz it might endanger one of them?”

  “I never asked for your help in this. You didn’t even think to consult me,”

  “I tried! But you’re one to talk, you didn’t even think to mention to me you were leaving. You just up and left with your…whatever the hell she is to you, with not so much as a goodbye or a hint as to where you were. Just ‘don’t trust the Oracle’.

  “I killed Melisa today. I might not have pulled the trigger, but this operation was my idea. So pardon me if I don’t give a fuck about Elizabeth,”

            At that, Ed promptly punched Ian in the jaw. Ian dropped the swords he still had in his hands and rubbed at the spot where Ed had hit him. Ed stepped back and covered his face with his arms in anticipation for a retaliatory blow that never came.

  “You’re right,” Ian said still rubbing at his jaw and Ed lowered his arms.

  “I am?”

  “I shouldn’t have said anything about Elizabeth. You care for her, which makes her important,”

  “Thanks.” Said Ed and an uncomfortable silence followed. “Where is Dev?”

  “He left. They made a mistake,”

  “How so?”

  “A man with nothing left to lose, plays only by the rules of Death himself,”

  “You think Dev’s gonna go renegade on us?”

  “Probably,”

  “He can’t! It’ll put all of us in danger, you, me, Elizabeth, Danny, everyone,”

  “They won’t make the mistake again. If they do, no one will stop me from finding every last one of them and killing them. And I mean no one; in Heaven, Earth or Hell. So, what happened with Aaliyah, why wasn’t she in that list you just mentioned?”