The Weapon (The Hourglass Series Book 2) (12 page)

Travelling
for a while turned out to be three days. The Captain and Lieutenant spent most
of their time below decks, hunched over a map and muttering to each other about
their plan to find the Hourglass Group. The girl, whose name they found out was
Clara, guided them through a series of linked waterways with impressive skill,
especially considering that their way was often partially obstructed by other
grounded vessels and bits of building that had been discarded or had collapsed
into the river.  They arrived at their destination on the morning of the third
day. To Sarah’s surprised, they arrived at the gates of a bustling town. She
had expected them to be looking for some hidden facility out in the wilderness
somewhere. It was almost a let-down. The town’s walls extended over the river
by a set of hydraulic gates. Clara brought them to a halt just outside while
they waited for the guard in the watchtower to come down. Any thoughts Sarah
might have had regarding declaring that they had been kidnapped disappeared the
moment the guard left the tower. He was an Accord guard. Both the Captain and
Lieutenant had changed out of their uniforms and into civilian clothes a few days
ago. Sarah had guessed that they wanted to go unnoticed, but she didn’t think
they would succeed. Despite the fact that their clothes were missing any
military insignia, their clothes were still obviously military cut, and of the
kind of quality that you just didn’t see many ordinary citizens wearing.
Obviously the town guard thought so too, because as soon as the Captain and
Lieutenant appeared on deck he saluted them. The Captain waved a slightly
embarrassed hand in response.

“At
ease, soldier.”

The
soldier relaxed and jumped nimbly aboard their vessel. “Morning, Sirs,” he said
respectfully. “Papers please.”

The
Lieutenant pulled out a few slips of paper which the guard accepted. He flicked
through them quickly.

“If
you don’t mind?” asked the guard, pointing down the steps to below deck. The
Lieutenant waved him through impatiently. The guard disappeared for a few
seconds and then bounced back up the stairs.

“Just
a moment,” he said, jumping off the boat and going quickly back into the watch
tower. They waited for about a minute before the guard returned. He handed the
papers back to the Lieutenant.

“All
seems to be in order Sir,” said the guard. “I just need to record evidence of
your guests,” he nodded slightly to Sarah, Finn and Boulder, “and you can be on
your way.”

For
a moment Sarah thought the Captain was going to refuse. “Quickly, soldier. We
are busy people.”

“Yes,
Sir.” The guard hurried over to Sarah, Finn and Boulder. He pulled out a small,
pinprick device. “Your hand, please,” he asked Boulder. Boulder held out his
hand and the soldier pricked his finger, the machine sucking up the piece of
blood that appeared. The machine beeped. The guard looked down at the data it
displayed and frowned.

“They
are political prisoners,” said the Captain, pre-empting the guard’s questions.
“Hurry up and record their details so we can get moving.”

“Ah,
yes Sir,” said the guard, a tad more nervously. He moved on to Finn and Sarah
and repeated the procedure.

“Sir,
I will need to check with my senior about them,” said the guard. “They aren’t
part of the pass stipulated by your papers.”

“Soldier,”
said the Captain, taking a threatening step towards the man, “I am on a time
sensitive mission approved by General Pitcher himself. You will not obstruct me
any further. Open the gates.”

The
soldier only hesitated for a moment, and then his shoulders drooped and his
gaze shifted down to the floor. The Captain smirked. He knew he had won.

“Sorry
Sir, it’s just that we’ve had reports of a rebel group, independents, if you can
believe it. They’ve been sneaking into towns and causing all sorts of mischief.
We’ve had to be careful. You can go ahead.” He turned around and left the boat.

Sarah
glanced at Finn, who raised his eyebrows at her. Was it possible that they were
talking about Harmony and Marland’s group? Sarah hoped so. It sounded like they
were doing some good work. Marland would have been thrilled to have heard that
she was officially regarded as a rebel.

“Soldier!”
called out the Lieutenant unexpectedly. The guard stopped and half-turned
around, obviously not wanting to get any more involved.
“Sir?”

“I
want you to send those DNA details to me,” he ordered. “Lieutenant Wong,” he
supplied, almost as an afterthought. So the man has a name after all, thought
Sarah dryly. Somehow it made him seem more human, although not by far.

“Yes,
Sir, Lieutenant Wong,” said the soldier, clearly relieved that they weren’t
asking him to do anything more illegal. He turned away again and rapidly
returned to the tower, signalling another person as he went to open the gates.

The
Captain raised an eyebrow at Lieutenant Wong as the boat started to trundle
forward.

“We
absorb most of our captured prisoners into our own army, right?” said Lieutenant
Wong, “we may as well make them Accord Privates, seeing as they’re technically
working for us, and it will stop this rubbish happening again.”

The
Captain gave him a tight smile and clapped him on the shoulder. “Good man.”

Sarah
blinked. So they just used the prisoners to fight for their side instead? So
much for the stories about sending them all to the mines.

“Do
you think that’s what they’ll do with Hutch?” she asked the two boys as soon as
Wong and the Captain moved out of earshot.

Boulder
snorted. “They might try, but Hutch would escape the first chance he got, get
back to the Covenant, reenlist and tell them everything he learnt.”

“Or
he’ll join the Accord, advance with Honours to the very top, and somehow manage
to feed information back to the Covenant the whole time,” added Finn. “And then
blow up some important general.”

“Either
way, the guy’s gonna make sure the Accord regret fixing him up,” said Boulder.

“He’s
probably already started a secret diary of enemy stats and statistics from his
hospital bed,” joked Finn.

“Probably
keeps it stuffed up his arse,” replied Boulder.

The
boys laughed.

Sarah
wrinkled her nose. “That’s gross,” she said, stifling a laugh of her own.

“Hey,”
said Boulder, “a man’s got to do what a man’s got to do.”

They
docked at what was obviously the only port in town. It was a small but bustling
town, and nearly all commerce seemed to be based around the river. There were a
huge number of warehouses lining the banks, most with people bustling in and
out and moving large crates on forklifts. Most of the crates were stamped with the
Accord military logo. Clara saw them looking. They hadn’t seen much of her
since their first meeting outside the tunnel, as she had spent all of her time
below, piloting the boat.

“This
town is a way-station for a lot of military supplies,” she informed them.

“What
kind of supplies?” asked Sarah, interested.

“Food,
weapons, medicines… everything.”

“Clara,”
warned Lieutenant Wong, obviously not happy with her giving away so much
information.

“What?”
asked Clara defensively. “Who exactly are they going to tell?”

“No
one,” assured Boulder, more for the sake of Lieutenant Wong than to support
Clara. “We’re not important enough for anyone to listen to anyway,” he added,
just to make sure Lieutenant Wong didn’t start viewing them as a potential
threat. As if to justify his presence he picked up a bunch of supplies they had
brought up to the deck. At the same time the Captain came up from below deck
and they stepped off the boat. Finn, Sarah and Clara picked up the remaining bags
and followed them. The rest of the town wasn’t at all like Sarah had pictured.
They had been told stories of how cities belonging to the Accord were brimming
with disease and filth. There had even been rumours that some of the zoonosis
infections that had wiped out so much of the world’s population in the past had
even been found in some people on the Accord side. Instead the place looked
like a smaller, possibly even cleaner version of Sarah’s home city. It was
almost a letdown.

“So,
this is what we’ve been fighting against?” muttered Finn, echoing her thoughts.

“Left
here, Sir,” said Lieutenant Wong, peering ahead. “We may as well stay on base,
since they know it’s us.”

“No,”
replied the Captain. “I won’t wait another day. We go to the facility now.”

Lieutenant
Wong gave a half shrug. “Ok, this way then.”

They
trudged forward until the Captain got frustrated and ordered some young
soldiers out of a passing car and commandeered it. As Lieutenant Wong drove
them through the streets the Captain turned around and faced them.

“How
much do you know about the Hourglass Group?” he asked Sarah.

“Not
much,” said Sarah warily. “I know that they created a lot of the weapons we
currently use, including the berserker drug. I know that they experiment on
people.” She felt Finn and Boulder’s gaze on her. “And I know that some time
ago a small faction split off from the main group, and that they’re meant to be
dangerous.”

The
Captain chuckled dryly. “Yes, I suppose dangerous is the word for it, but
probably not in the way you’re thinking.” The Captain paused for a moment,
gathering his thoughts. “The Hourglass Group was established shortly after the
first mutated zoonoses infections started decimating the population. Its aim,
like many new scientific endeavours back then, was to find a way to cure the
disease and stop the spread. They were given billions in funding, allowed to
set up labs all over the country, spend whatever they liked. Then the war broke
out and, as you can probably imagine, the military pays good money for products
to advance their cause. The objective of the group slowly began to shift
towards military purposes.”

“Didn’t
any of the scientists object?” asked Sarah, who had trouble picturing a
pharmacologist dedicated to eradicating disease suddenly jumping on the
bandwagon to infect others with something just as bad.

The
Captain shrugged. “It was a slow shift, and the money the military from both
sides paid them was simply stupendous, allowing them to finance and continue
their medical research with resources they could never have afforded before.
There wasn’t as much outrage as you might have thought.”

“But
what’s the point of paying someone who is also giving away your weapons to the
other side?” asked Finn, also wrapped up in the story. “That way no one gets
ahead.”

“Catch22,”
replied the Captain. He appeared to be in an unusually chatty mood. “The
Hourglass Group makes the best, the most advanced weapons. You either pay them
and stay in the game, or you don’t and the other side get all the advances, and
you lose.”

“And
the money keeps on coming,” added in Boulder.

The
Captain nodded.  “But this is all academic,” he waved a dismissive hand. “What
matters is that seven years ago a small group of Hourglass Group scientists
were said to have started work on something that could end the war. Of course,
this wasn’t the first time that such a thing had been promised, but only an
idiot would ignore the claim. Both the Accord and the Covenant sent out
emissaries to investigate the claim, but by the time they had arrived the
research team and all their equipment had vanished. They had erased any
evidence of their work before they left.” There was a pause as they all thought
about what could be so huge as to end the war. “Nothing was heard from them for
about five years, and then one of them resurfaced.”
“What did they say?” asked Sarah, mesmerised.

“Nothing,
she was dead,” replied the Captain bluntly.

“Oh.
How did she die?”

“She
was shot. Her body was left in an abandoned lab, but there was evidence that it
had been inhabited recently.”

“They
murdered her?” asked Sarah, mortified.

The
Captain waved a dismissive hand. “There was some suggestion that someone tried
to save her, but that’s not really the point, is it?”

Isn’t
it?
thought Sarah. She rather thought that life was the point.

“The
point,” continued the Captain, when she didn’t reply, “is that the group was
still active. They were still working on the weapon.” He paused to let it sink
in. “I was on the team that was originally sent out to confirm the original
rumour. I’ve been after that weapon for seven years. And now,” he gave Sarah a
hungry look, “we’re going to find it.”

Sarah
stared at him. She had never been more frustrated. Did he think she worked as
some sort of spiritual GPS because someone burnt her with the Hourglass symbol?
She wanted to slap him in the face. Unfortunately he was bat shit insane and
had a gun, so that was out of the question. Instead she settled for taking a
large, calming breath and asking a question.

“What,
exactly,” asked Sarah, “are you expecting me to do once we get there? I’ve
already told you everything I know.”

“You
remembered more under pressure. I’m sure that in a familiar environment from
the past you will remember even more. Ideally, you will remember a word, or a
phrase, or maybe even an image that will give you a better idea of where they
have gone.”

“What
if nothing is familiar?”

“It
will be,” said the Captain, no doubt at all in his voice.

“What
if they didn’t talk about their plans in front of me?”

“People
let things slip without even knowing it,” he assured her. There will be
something that can help us.”

“And
if there’s not?” continued Sarah doggedly, who thought that it was far more
likely that there would be no such memory stashed inside her head somewhere.

“I’ll
get it from you one way or the other.” He gave her a cold smile.

“I
don’t think memory works that way,” said Finn. “You can’t force someone to
remember something that they were never exposed to.”

“Speak
again and I’ll cut out your tongue,” snarled the Captain.

Finn
blinked. That escalated quickly. He shut up. Nobody spoke for the rest of the
trip.