Prophet of ConFree (The Prophet of ConFree) (35 page)

I had an increasingly bad feeling about what the Professor was saying.

"If you saw someone lying on the road bleeding, would you stop to help? Would you first ask who this person is, do you know him, do you care about him, do you have time to help him, should you help him? Or do you just help him?" It looked like the Professor was getting angry.

"Do I just hand over the money, snatch up my daughter, and go on my way, problem solved?" He looked us over. We were silent.

"And what about all those other shattered families, who have no idea where their daughters are? All those other mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters. Families who do not have the resources that I do? People who we do not know. Does that make it all right to walk away, if we do not know them? The latest count of victims is thirty-four. They’re in a very lightly guarded compound. Shall we walk away from them? And think about them every day for the rest of our lives? Or shall we do the right thing, and go in tonight, in cloaked armor, and kill all the guards, and liberate my daughter and everyone else, and take them all with us – to freedom, and a new life? Tell me, my friends. I will do whatever you say. I just want to let you know about the consequences. We have to consider the consequences. Not only in terms of what happens to all those other girls, but what happens to us, in the future, as we think about what we did, or did not do, in this situation."

We looked around at each other. Bees was dabbing at her eyes with a tissue. Smiley had one fist at his mouth, watching the Professor closely. Arie appeared fascinated.

"How can we transport them?" I asked. "Thirty-four can't fit in the Tri-Ark."

Prof picked up his comset. "Rob, Prof. Don't you have a cargo shuttle in the Voodoo Honey's shuttle dock?"

"Sure do."

"And how many people will it hold?"

"People? It's meant for bulky cargo."

"How many people will fit in there?"

"Oh I dunnno, maybe fifty, if you want to stuff them into the cargo hold. Why?"

"I'll tell you later." He put down the comset and I had never seen a more relaxed, peaceful smile.

"My wonderful, loving friends," he said. "I am forever in your debt. Please tell me what we are going to do."

Δ

That night we ditched the aircar in the forest and met Rob in his cloaked Tri-Ark at the rendezvous point a short trek away in a forest clearing. We armored up in the
Sweet Stuff,
which had everything we needed because we had always been prepared for a battle. When we were all ready we took our seats. Bees leaned over Rob, in his pilot's seat, and said, "Bless you." Then she came to each of us in turn and touched each on the faceplate and outlined the sign of a cross before our eyes. "God bless you. May God be with you," she said. I wasn't sure what God she was praying to, but I didn't care. I'd take all the help I could get.

We swooped down on the Household Industries compound under dark skies. The
Sweet Stuff
was cloaked – a black bat, completely invisible to all defensive fields, electromag or visual. Inside the cabin, we appeared to be bathed in blood from the red night-vision lights.

"Approaching compound. Disabling aircar deflectors. Disabling electric fencing," Rob said. I could see the compound out the simports. Honey highlighted two guards at the main gate and two guards meandering around on the rear side of the compound.

"Insertion," Rob said. "Good luck, Angels! If you need firepower, just call. I'll be right overhead." Our call sign was Angels for this operation. We landed right inside the compound, not far from the sprawling bloc of portable building modules. The assault doors snapped open and we leaped out. The backblast from the Tri-Ark's thrusters was tearing up the compound, blowing random debris everywhere, but the Tri-Ark was completely silent and invisible. And now it was gone.

Arie and I ran for the rear of the compound. We intercepted the two guards who were jogging towards us to investigate the sudden dust storm. They each carried an SG clone. We took them down with buzzing blasts of canister darts that tore them to shreds. That creepy buzzing always made the hair on the back of my neck rise up.

"Prophet and Nitro in position," I reported. We squatted, invisible, by the wall of one of the building mods. The guards’ quarters were not far away. We knew there were sixteen more guards in there, armed with SG's. We watched as the tacmap showed the Prof and Smiley taking out the two gate guards at the compound entrance. There was a brief burst of x. One of the sentries had gotten off a few rounds before falling in a hail of silent darts.

"Damn it," Prof said.

"It didn't take long for the alarm to be raised. The door to the guards’ quarters popped open and several guards ran out, hauling SG's and struggling into A-vests. Arie and I were waiting for them. We fired canister darts and shredded the first few targets. The rest of them came out firing wildly, auto xmax, spraying the rounds around the compound while trying to spot us. We were invisible and we continued firing autodarts. They shrieked and fell, and several side doors snapped open at the guards’ quarters and x started to erupt all around us, riddling the building walls behind us. The Prof and Smiley joined in, and a tacstar exploded before the quards’ quarters like the crack of doom, ripping upwards in a mushroom cloud, flashing lightning bolts all around us.

"No more tacstars near the main housing bloc!" I ordered. "Finish 'em off! Bees, Prof, get in the rear door, Arie will support you, Smiley and I will handle the outside." I switched to xmax and fired auto xmax, spraying the fleeing guards. "Rob, try out that chainlink, get any hostiles that are moving outside."

Rob didn't even bother to answer. A bloodcurdling electronic shriek and a glittering, blinding cascade of tacstars fell from the sky and danced through the compound, multiple stars, disintegrating everything that was out there, shaking the compound, multiple mushroom clouds wreathed in fire, rising into the night.

Arie blew open the main rear door to the interlocked cube complex, followed by the Prof and Bees. Our ear-shattering announcement preceded them: "
ATTENTION ALL GIRLS! ATTENTION ALL DETAINEES! YOU ARE BEING LIBERATED BY MILITARY UNITS FROM THE CONFEDERATION OF FREE WORLDS! RUN IMMEDIATELY TO THE MAIN DOOR AND GATHER IN THE FOYER. KEEP YOUR HANDS IN THE AIR AS YOU RUN! DO NOT BRING ANY POSSESSIONS! WE ARE OFFERING FREEDOM AND LIBERATION FROM YOUR CAPTORS! THIS IS YOUR ONLY CHANCE! RUN IMMEDIATELY TO THE FOYER, NOW!
"

Arie and the Prof went first, right down the central corridor that led to all the detainee rooms, fully cloaked, pulling open doors and leaving them open, on the lookout for resistance. Bees was next, checking every room, cloaking off so she could direct the girls if necessary.

Outside, the surviving guard force appeared to have fled. I didn't blame them. My tacmap revealed Bees chasing a flock of girls down the main corridor before her, with Arie and the Prof ahead of them. The eyemotes and our tacmods were counting off the girls, each one labeled, to ensure we didn't miss any.

"Angels, Rob. We've got a couple of aircars headed this way from the vicinity of Star City. Looks like somebody has called for help."

"Take 'em out, Rob!" I ordered.

"Will do."

"Smiley, Prophet, we cover the front!" I said.

"Tenners." We sprinted there. Off in the distance, the night sky lit up and flickered and flaming debris appeared to be floating gently downwards.

"Two aircars down," Rob reported. "Crap, there's more on the way! They're splitting up!"

"Angels, Cloud. Are you ready for me?" Cloud was the cargo shuttle, unarmored and uncloaked.

"Negative, Cloud. Stay out of the way for now. We've got to clean up the site first. Watch out for enemy aircars."

An aircar shot over our heads at low level, gone.

"Rob, we're being buzzed. Get him, can you?"

"Yeah, gimme a mo." The nearby forest exploded, bursting into a raging inferno. "Two aircars landing in the forest. Inserting armored troopers. I'm going after them," Rob said.

"Smiley, let's make it hot for 'em," I said. "Nitro, we need more firepower up front." Auto xmax fire was suddenly hitting us hard, erupting all around the main entrance to the housing bloc, the walls exploding with the hits. I fell to prone, firing auto xmax, spraying the tree line past the tall wire fences. Smiley did the same. We had one big problem – we may have been cloaked and invisible, but there was no cover at all for us in front of the housing bloc. Smiley fired a tacstar, and a screeching, gibbering star blasted away a large patch of forest, spraying tree fragments and roaring up into the night sky. I spotted a couple of DefCorps A-suits, sprinting from the forest, firing auto xmax. I fired back. Man! These people must pay a lot of taxes, to be able to call on this much firepower on such short notice.

A glittering cascade of tacstars sliced through the sky, falling right into the tree line, erupting into a blinding terrifying holocaust, shredding everything within its fatal embrace. Rob was at work. A tacstar erupted seemingly right on top of me, deafening me, tossing me aside like a leaf. I lay there smoking, white-hot stars dancing around my vision. I struggled to get up. The main entrance had been blown away and was burning fiercely. It seemed the hostiles had tacstars, too.

"Prophet, attention, eleven hits on A-suit, all hits sealed. Recommend..."

"Main doors have been hit," I announced. "Get the girls out of the foyer! Arie, we…" Arie answered me with a burst of autofire. I saw an armored aircar falling from the sky, smoking – like a dream. A hostile trooper in a bronze-colored A-suit ran right up to me, firing his SG clone. I could see right into his faceplate – a young Outworlder – but he could not see me. I fired a brief burst and the xmax powered into his armor and upwards into his helmet and his head turned to a bloody mush, blood splattering over the inside of his faceplate. He fell right before me.

"Rob, where are your eyes, we've lost T01, we've lost T01, where is she, where did she go?" It was Prof.

"
ALL
GIRLS STAY DOWN! LIE ON THE FLOOR! DO NOT MOVE!
"

"Frontal attack," I said. "We attack! Smiley, Nitro, attack now! Finish 'em off!" I got up and the world spun around me, but I regained my balance with Honey's help and headed towards the tall wire fence firing full auto xmax. Several more A-suited hostiles emerged from the tree line, firing blindly. We had one big advantage – we could see them and they could not see us. I gunned down one trooper, targeting his chestplate until the xmax ripped a hole in it, then I switched to another target, drilling him with the laser. It screeched against his armor and he twitched and dropped. Two or three other armored hostiles fell as well, smoking with hits. Rob did another firing run with the chainlink, tearing up the tree line and ripping up the burning forest.

"Cease fire!" I said. "Get the girls out of the buildings and into the compound!"

"Angel, Cloud. Is now a good time?"

"Now, Cloud. Land in the compound where you see the red smoke." I threw a red smoker past some bodies and it spread a giant red cloud all over us.

"Count, count! Have we got all the girls?" It was Bees.

"T01 is missing," the Prof said.

"
ATTENTION ALL GIRLS! EXIT THE HOUSING BLOC AND GO OUTSIDE! THE BUILDINGS ARE ON FIRE! USE ALL EXITS AND PROCEED OUTSIDE FOR RESCUE!
"

"Go back," Bees replied. "We're going back, got to check all the rooms."

"Bees, the whole place is on fire, get those girls and get out!" I ordered. The fire was ripping through the entire housing bloc. The girls were running out any exit they could find. Female overseers were also running out. The pink-smocked girls were labeled in pink on our tacmaps; the female overseers were in blue and all the males were in red. We shot at anything red but tried to ignore the rest. T01, the Prof's daughter, was supposed to be in fluorescent gold but I didn't see her on the tacmap.

"Smiley, Nitro, guard the front, I'm going in," I announced as I charged into the front entrance. I deactivated my cloaking. I was worried about getting shot by one of the others in the confusion, but I was not worried about the fire. Our armor could handle that easily.

"Prof, deactivate your cloaking," I said. "Where are you?" The fire was interfering with our tacmaps. Bees appeared out of the smoke with a skinny girl that she was pulling by one hand.

"Have you found T01?" I asked.

"No, but this one has no idea what's happening," she said.

"Take her outside, we're evacing the girls. Don't have much time."

The corridor was filling with black smoke. Movement down one end. "Prof, Prof, is that you?"

The smoke slowly cleared and revealed a glowing A-suit, staggering down the hall. It was the Prof. He was carrying something. A girl in a dirty pink smock, thin arms flung around his armored neck. He was clutching her to his chest with one arm, the other wielding his E. T01, the fluorescent gold label read. I had never seen anything so beautiful in my entire life.

"Let's go, Prof! We've got to go!" I reached out for him. He fell to his knees but he did not release his daughter. I looked down. His armor was torn open at one side of his groin, smoking white-hot armor, black blood spurting forth and bubbling.

"Bees, Bees, Prof is hit! Get in here!"