Infinity Squad (36 page)

If we killed them but couldn't knock their bands off before they transferred, half of us were going to commit suicide by cocaine from the caves and pretend to be the people whose Key Phrases we had stolen, tell Red-Stripe's team to attack, and then free Three-Spot and kill the Immortals in the confusion. While the other half of us fire-bombed the cave.

If the imposters ran into Himenez during the rescue mission, they would blame the Benefactors and claim to hear voices. If they ran into Oakley they would blame the brain slugs and we would bring infected bodies back from the cave as evidence.

It was an audacious plan, but it solved all three problems at once. We had to, because we were watching with dread as the shuttle made run after run to the orbiting station and the four new resurrection rooms filled with tanks and clones. They would be fully operational in just a day or so, if they weren't already. After that we'd be fighting a whole new kind of war.

And Butcher got a report of two clones in unmarked uniforms seen abducting a third clone into a helicopter. The only helicopters flying now were those going to the brain slug cave. The body snatching was beginning.

Himenez was also getting closer. He started interviewing all of Zazlu’s old customers. One time he followed Ann-Marie around the base for hours. Just followed her, making notes. We also saw him whispering to Hughes as we passed in the hall. It gave me shivers to think what they could have been talking about together.

And Three-Spot was at death's door. If we stood outside his hallway and asked how he was doing, he couldn't even respond with words anymore. We just heard a weak moan in our heads and felt a snapshot of the burning pain twisting his stomach. It was the final stages of being poisoned. I hoped we could get him in time.

I wouldn't have trusted anyone but Infinity Squad to pull off this kind of plan. We were going to see if we really were 'lighter, smarter, faster', as Ridley had hoped.

At sunrise the next morning, an 'emergency' message into everyone's tactical implants woke us up. All Squad leaders and their Lieutenants were ordered to report to TacOps at once for mission briefings.

I walked in with Zazlu and Butcher at my back. Captain Flores was leaning his cloned body over one side of the Master Map pointing something out, with the cloned First Lieutenant Ching and Second Lieutenant Nyguen of Omega Squad standing next to him. On another side of the square table stood General Oakley, SMaj Hughes and Lieutenants Hector and Samson of the Immortals. Himenez was across the table from them, with the cloned Lieutenants Pappas and Okafor of Phoenix Squad. The last side of the table had First Lieutenant Grant and Second Lieutenant Clark from the Second Chancers, the only soldiers still in their original bodies. We entered and stood in the open spot next to the Second Chancers.

"Well, now that we're all here," Oakley sneered at me, "we can start."

Yes, we had taken a little longer. The other Lieutenants had prepared only themselves. We had gotten all of Infinity Squad up and ready. They were all dressed, fed, buffering bands on and sidearms loaded, and our tactical implants were live, so we had two-way comms between all of us.

Oakley reared up to his full height and began.

"Gentlemen. We are about to start a new phase of this war. A phase with different tactics and missions than before. A phase which some have guaranteed- " He glanced at Himenez. "-will lead us to victory. If we all work together. And so, god help me, I wanted to hear your advice."

He swept his hand towards one corner of the Master Map. It showed our base, with a symbol for each of the squads and numbers for how many soldiers they had,. Fifteen for the other four squads and ten for us. There was also a generic soldier symbol, with a '500' next to it.

"We have just completed construction of four new resurrection rooms," Oakley continued, "which gives us unprecedented throughput in clone capacity. Which is good, because our enemies are just as numerous." He indicated the rest of the map.

Next to the base was the huge swath of the Hell-Spider valley, still marked blue and cleared, with a white '0' in the middle of it. The Night Hunting Grounds were pink for light contact encountered, and had a white '5-10' next to a little black eight-legged spider symbol.

I snorted, wondering how 'military intelligence' had concluded 5-10 spiders lived on the mountain permanently, when hunting parties of 20-30 went there every night and the lightning snakes drove all of them off each day. The average was wrong both ways.

South of the valley were the grasslands of the southern clans, a big, wide, open space marked red on the map with '100-200' next to the spider symbol. That was about right, actually. West of that was the swamps where we had killed the river snake, marked black for unknown, except a tiny strip of land near its edge marked bright red, with '100-200' spiders. The brain slug caves.

Really, Hector? You reported 200 spiders possibly living in those caves? That wasn't even a believable lie. I wondered if he had impersonated Flores too, to get that change onto the Master Map.

But north was the real action. The mountains north of the spider valley were pink, but above that, the valley where the northern clan lived, everything was dark red. Blazing red. With '2,000-5,000' next to its spider symbol.

"And so we have a dilemma," Oakley told us. "Where to attack next? The new clone tanks will let us make a sustained, pressing, rolling attack on one area continuously until it is cleared, and that is what we are going to do. But do we first go west to the smaller infestation-" he pointed at the brain slug caves, "or north, to this massive colony? Or south, to the grasslands? Squad leaders, what are your thoughts? Around the table."

The Immortals were first, right next to him. "The caves first," Hector said. "With such a small zone we could clear it quickly. You'd get to report another sector cleared immediately and we'd get you many, many skulls in a short time."

He sounded completely normal and rational. The brain slugs were good. Really good.

The Omegas answered next. "Yes, the caves. It is a nice, contained area."

And the slugs were spreading. We had to stop them before they took over any other squads.

Pappas of Phoenix squad wavered. "I don't know. I've read Infinity's first report. There doesn't seem to be anything there. And even the Immortals haven't brought skulls back from there yet. I say go north. That's were the biggest kills were made recently- have you seen that video?"

I groaned internally. My own video was going to defeat my own master plan.

I also felt a weird itch along my left wrist. There was nothing there, but I rubbed it.

"Yes we've all seen that video," Oakley growled. "Forrest, I know you want to go north. Lieutenant Grant, what do you think?"

"Hey-" I started, but Grant was already talking.

"I don't see it," the blond soldier said, tattooed arms crossed and shaking his head. "Those caves are tight, dark and winding. The perfect place for getting ambushed. We can't get long range kills, can't use our technological advantage, and a few spiders could take out a whole squad. It feels like a quagmire we're going to pour a lot of lives into. I say we go north."

Grant was a sharp soldier with a good eye, and had it perfectly right. But I had to shut him down. Right now Oakley thought the vote was two squads caves, three squads north.

"North may sound like a good idea, but we can't turn that way and leave enemy behind us," I said. "It's tactically unsound. So as much as I hate it, I have to agree with the others. We deal with the caves first."

Grant looked up at me, confused. "By that logic we should hit the grasslands first, then the caves, then the north."

Also perfectly right. But also wrong.

"I could agree with that," Pappas said.

"No," I said quickly, rubbing my left wrist again. The itch had turned into a slight burning sensation. "We're better off hitting the caves first. Quick. Done. Then the others."

Now Grant was bewildered. "What is this? Just yesterday you warned me not to go in there at all!"

I just barely caught it. Hector's eyes flicked from me to Grant and back again, and I saw a sudden realization dawn. He, Samson and the Omegas suddenly stood up a bit taller at the same time.

Fuck.

"No I didn't. You're thinking of another clone. What I'm saying is-"

"Shut up Forrest," Oakley barked. "Captain Flores, what are your thoughts?"

"Now you know how I feel," Juan said from back in our barracks, while I watched Flores stand up a little taller as well. He started nodding, looking at the map.

"I think we can accommodate all parties. We send the most successful cavers, the Immortals, in first with the Second Chancers. Really show them what's at the bottom of those caves. Then we send the Omegas, in with Phoenix. All the way down. And then we send Infinity in last. With all of us right behind them." Flores looked from the map at me with a satisfied grin. And then he scratched the back of his neck.

Oh holy shit.

Flores couldn't have gotten infected- he never left the base! Unless he had been abducted.

I sensed Zazlu and Butcher tense next to me. Everything was going wrong.

And then Inspector General Himenez took off his wire-rimmed glasses and started deliberately cleaning them. "I have a few thoughts on this issue, if I may."

"Fine, fine," Oakley grumbled. "But keep it short."

Himenez put his glasses back on.

"I find it strange," he said, looking at me, "that the squad leader who just recently returned from a highly successful, lone-wolf hunt to the north now is trying to turn us away from going there as a single, combined army. A squad leader who now wants to go into those caves, even though his second in command recently recommended those same caves be marked clear of spider activity. A leader whose squad was
very
successful in contacting and killing Hell-Spiders. Right up until they were ordered to patrol with other squads."

I was starting to sweat- where was Himenez going this time? And why was my wrist on fire?

He turned to Flores.

"I also find it strange, that the Captain of Tactical Operations is agreeing with Lieutenant Forrest, especially since many others have reported bad blood between them for much of the past."

"Bad blood doesn't matter in uniform, Himenez," Oakley growled. "We're professionals here."

"So professional, that TacOps just seriously recommended that we ignore one of these-" he slapped down a printed satellite image of the northern spider city, obviously full of spiders, "in favor of going after one of
these
." He slapped down a printed satellite picture, of the empty, waiting brain slug cave mouth.

Flores sniffed. "We'll get to that city. In time. After we consolidate our strength around the caves first."

"An interesting change of heart from what you and I discussed just a few days ago, Captain."

"I've gotten more data since then," Flores said. "Those satellite images aren't the most recent."

Himenez smiled. "Indeed. The most recent satellite images look like
this
."

He slapped another picture down, of the northern spider city. It was in color, zoomed in to a mass of spiders gathered around two beings in the middle. A clone in fatigues. And a shiny, metal, Benefactor encounter bot.

"What the hell is that?" Oakley demanded as we all recoiled in shock. "What's going on there?"

Himenez smiled. "Why don't we have Lieutenant Forrest tell us?"

I looked at him. "What?
I
don't know!"

"Yes you do," Himenez said. "You tried to convince me that the Benefactors were pulling all the strings, behind the scenes. So I looked at your record. Infinity Squad was this base's worst, with zero recorded kills or contacts, until a visit from the Benefactors. And then you suddenly became it’s star spider hunters."

Oakley was looking at me suspiciously.

"I don't know what he's talking about!" I said.

"You tried to convince me that the Benefactors were feeding you information about how and where to kill Hell-Spiders," Himenez said. "But then why would they visit the site of your biggest kill just a day afterwards, and do
this
?"

Himenez tapped the still picture. The encounter bot was looking at the clone, who was frozen in the middle of a welcoming gesture, opening his arms wide and high.

"They are making peace," Himenez said. "Why would they do that after they told you how to massacre a hundred spiders?"

"I don't know!"

"Looking at the records, something else happened right before you started on your incredible streak of getting more skulls than anyone had ever seen, Lieutenant," Himenez said with a smile. "You captured our only Hell-Spider prisoner."

"No! That's not-"

"Who has been feeding you information this entire time."

"That's ridiculous! They can't even talk!"

The bureaucrat settled back and crossed his arms. "Not verbally. But what if they spoke to you mind to mind? Voices in your head. Like a sort of telepathy." He smiled. "And to test that theory, I ordered two scientists to saw off the prisoner's left claw during this meeting. Slowly."