Psion Alpha (34 page)

“Hurry!”
he whispered.

The
door was in sight, but two Aegis stepped in front of it. Brickert shouted a curse
and sprinted down an aisle of crates stacked high on both sides. As he ran, he
took his earpiece out of his ear and swallowed it. Before they reached the end
of the aisle, more guards and Aegis cut them off. Brickert climbed the crates
to get away, but without being able to blast, he was slower and weaker than the
adults chasing him. One of the Aegis grabbed his legs and yanked him down while
another tackled Natalia from behind.

Brickert
struggled to get up, but the Aegis pinned back his arm.

“Keep
struggling, and I’ll rip this out of its joint.”

Brickert
looked at Natalia, her face pressed against the concrete floor. A trickle of
blood flowed from her nose, spraying tiny droplets each time she puffed air.
She squeezed her eyes shut. When the guards tore the black mask off Brickert’s
head, the cloth snagged the piercing in his nose, ripping through his skin. He
bit down on his lip to stop himself from screaming in pain.

“My
nose, man!” He spat blood while spouting off several obscenities he’d learned
at the skate park. “You tore my nose!”

A
foot slammed into his ribs, driving the air from his lungs. Brickert felt
something crack, a blossom of agony on his left side, and went silent.

One
of the Aegis spoke into a com. “We got them. What do you want us to do?”

Brickert
never heard the answer. After dragging him to his feet next to Natalia, the
Aegis marched the two Betas out of the warehouse and into the adjoining section
of the complex. Brickert didn’t know what to expect to find there: offices,
heavy equipment storage, perhaps an evil lair of doom. He wasn’t expecting a
shooting range, and an impressively extravagant out one, at that.

Only
one person occupied the range: a tall, thin man with brown hair. He wore a red
tunic that melted into black pants. On his chest was the jagged emblem of the
Thirteens. At the sound of Brickert and Natalia entering, he turned to greet
them. Brickert recoiled at what he saw, which forced the Aegis to push him
along. The brown-haired Thirteen had no nose, but two gaping holes in the
center of his face. He had no ears, either. His lips were gone, leaving his
face in a permanent grin showing off his perfectly positioned yellow teeth.
Identical scars ran from the outer corners of his eyes to the corners of his
mouth in a curving pattern which arced in the middle his cheeks.

“Nibble
nibble … ” he said, looking them over. “Little mouses. Why are little mouses
nibbling at my warehouse?”

Brickert
whimpered. “You ain’t gonna shoot us, right, man? You gonna call the po—”

“Put
them in front of my targets,” the Thirteen said, pointing the large rifle in
his hands out to the range. His lips couldn’t quite close the gap to make
complete
r
or
f
sounds.

The
Aegis jammed Brickert in the spine to get him walking. Beyond the firing line,
several human sized targets dotted the field at different distances. Holes
peppered the ones Brickert walked by. When he looked back, he saw that Natalia
had been placed about fifty meters away from the Thirteen. His captors led him
on, not stopping for at least eighty meters. Then the Thirteen’s voice came
over an intercom system.

“Secure
them well, please. I’m not in the mood for duck hunting tonight.”

The
Aegis tied Brickert’s hands and feet to the poles that supported the targets.

“I
wouldn’t move too much if I were you, girl,” the Thirteen warned Natalia. “In
fact, I’d hold very, very still.”

A
loud clap rang out as a bullet issued from the business end of the Thirteen’s
rifle. Natalia screamed, and Brickert’s gaze went in her direction. He sighed
when he saw that she was all right.

“Whatchoo
want, man?” he yelled. Remembering to use the local slang took considerable
mental effort. “Just tell us whatchoo want!”

“What
are you doing here?” the Thirteen said. A second bullet shot. Brickert heard it
zip past the side of his head.

“We
on a job! S’a job! We got hired!”

Another
bullet tore through the air as it passed Brickert. He couldn’t be sure, but it
sounded closer than the last. “Obviously. Get to the interesting stuff.”

“The
job was to GPS tag!” Natalia shouted back. “Don’t-a-shoot us! We cooperate!
Whateverchoo want! The list’s in my pocket!”

“Names.
Now.” A fourth shot rang out, this one back at Natalia. It must have been close
because she moaned in fear.

“Her
name Anna! S’all we know. She train us. Pay us. We meet her at the skate park,
and she pay us in money and—and—”

“And
in something a little harder for kids to come by? Maybe some
spray
?”

Natalia
nodded, sobbing.

“Untie
the druggies. Secure them somewhere until I figure out what to do. If they try
to escape, kill them.”

“No,
man, we sorry!” Brickert cried. “Let us go to police! Don’t kill us!”

The
Aegis stripped Brickert and Natalia of their gear and took them to a closet.
One Aegis cleared out the contents of the small storeroom while two others
pressed guns against the Betas’ heads. Then they shoved them inside the closet
and left them in the dark, hands still bound behind their backs. Once alone,
Brickert got on his knees and shuffled over to the far corner, away from the
door. He stuck his tongue out and strained his throat to gag himself, holding
his breath until his stomach began to clench and unclench. Eventually his gut
unloaded its contents: water, stomach acid, and a small earpiece that clattered
on the floor.

Brickert
heard this and spun around, trying to pick it up in the dark using his
restrained hands. After he grasped hold of it, he realized he could not get it
into his own ear.

“Help
me,” he whispered to Natalia. “Put it in my ear.”

Natalia,
who’d already managed to contort her body and get her bound hands back in front
of her, crawled over and took the earpiece from him. She slipped it back into
his ear with relative ease.

“Anna,
you there?” Brickert asked, keeping his voice as low as possible.

“I
hear you. What happenin’?” She employed a similar slang to what Brickert and
Natalia had picked up on the streets.

“Did-choo
get the GPS tags we send?”

“Got
‘em all. Good work. Now where-choo at?”

“They
caught us!” he hissed, panic lacing his voice. “They got us locked in a closet!”

“You
both all right?”

“Yeah.
We sorta fine. They didn’t jack us up bad or nothin’. Just scared us. Scared us
bad.” This wasn’t exactly true, however. Brickert’s nose still burned from
where the piercing had been ripped out. Warm blood trickled down his face. His
ribs ached every time he breathed where the Aegis had kicked him. And his body
trembled after being shot at several times.

“Hang
tight. I be in touch. I gonna fix this. Kay?”

“Thanks,
Anna.” Brickert heard her terminate the communication.
Everything is going according
to plan. I just hope you know what you’re doing.

CHAPTER
EIGHTEEN
- Night

Saturday, December 28, 2086

AFTER
escaping the den of invisible jaguars, Sammy wandered in the night for over an hour
before he found his pack and Sherwood’s radio. He took them both, knowing his
team needed every last supply they’d brought. Carrying two packs made his trek
through the darkness extraordinarily difficult. He hadn’t gotten any rest since
Jeffie had woken him for his night watch. Yet it took another hour to locate
the camp. Those two hours of walking felt like a week. Countless times, he glanced
over his shoulder, jumped at sounds, and stumbled or tripped over roots and
rocks. By the time he reached camp, his breaths came in sharp, ragged puffs.

His
teammates had gathered around a fire, weapons drawn, ready to shoot him down.

“Sammy!”
Jeffie screamed. She checked the safety on her weapon and holstered it as she
ran to him. When she reached him, she fell to her knees and hugged his legs,
sobbing into his filthy pants. “Where were you?”

As
she continued to shout, she shook his legs, nearly toppling him. Sammy didn’t
know what to say. He dropped his packs, put his hand on her head, and joined
her in the mud, hugging her tightly.

“
Don’t
do that to me again!
You can’t do that to me! I thought—we looked—I
thought—never again! Do you hear me?” Tears continued to fall from her eyes,
wetting his arms. Her voice dropped to a whisper. “Do you hear me?”

Sammy
could practically feel the weariness in her voice. Unable to respond, he looked
somberly to his team for help. That was when he noticed Levu Enova was missing.
His empty stomach roiled with hot sickness. A third of his team was dead. Sammy
saw their faces and heard their voices in his mind. Aaron Lewis, Levu Enova,
Sherwood Frieber, and Wesley Gibbons, all chosen by him to march to their
deaths in this hellish forest. All killed by the nightmarish inventions of the
fox.

Sammy
pulled Jeffie to her feet, where they kissed. Her face was wet, her breath hot
on his lips. She still held him so closely he wasn’t sure she’d let him go
without being pried off. When she finally did release him, Kawai hugged him
next. Dr. Rosmir approached him and asked in a shaky voice if he had been
injured. Sammy told him he was fine.

The
truth was, though, Sammy wasn’t fine. Jeffie wasn’t fine. No one was fine.
“Would anyone object to having a quick chat or whatever?” he asked.

No
one answered, but they sat down. Sammy took a couple of minutes to set up his
cot so he had a place to sit. Jeffie pulled her cot next to his. “What happened
to Levu?” he asked no one in particular.

“I
got there before anyone else,” Duncan said. “She was dead when I found her. Followed
the trails of blood for a ways until.… ”

“Somethin’
big got her,” Dave added. “No burns. Some of the prints I saw ‘round the area
looked like jaguars. Much bigger than normal, though. But I didn’t see none. Duncan
helped me carry—” Dave’s voice cracked, and he looked to his brother, who
clapped him on the shoulders. “—what was left. There wasn’t much, but we buried
her.”

“You
two are lucky to be alive,” Sammy said. “I saw them. I saw the creatures. They
can camouflage themselves like lizards. I don’t think they have fur. And they
hunt in packs, which isn’t normal for their species, apparently. They aren’t
nocturnal, either. My guess is that we camped close to their … den or whatever,
and they attacked us when we were in smaller numbers.” Sammy closed his eyes
and told them what had happened to Sherwood and Wesley. As he spoke, he relived
the memory.

“Not
uncommon for animals to pick off prey once their chances of success are
greater,” Dave said.

“Then
we need to stay together from now on,” Sammy concluded. “No more separating
into smaller groups.”

“I
think what you’re trying to say,” Lorenzo added, “is that it would be foolish
for anyone to try and turn back.”

“It
was foolish even before we were attacked.” Duncan hung his head as he spoke. “I
knew that. In fact, I think all of us knew it, but.… ”

“We
all do stupid things,” Sammy stated. “But we still have a mission to finish. Are
all of you willing to move on?”

“I
won’t be sleeping tonight,” Li said. “Might as well walk.”

“We
have plenty of torches,” Kawai added.

Sammy
looked up to the sky, which he could barely see through the thick canopy. The
moon was out tonight, that much he could tell. Likely myriad stars filled the
sky, too, but he’d never know, not unless he wanted to climb the trees and find
out. For a brief moment, he comprehended how puny he was in the rainforest,
surrounded by things both natural and otherwise. But even the rainforest was
merely a dot on the vast landscape of Earth—an entire planet—yet only a speck in
the solar system which mankind had only recently begun to spread into with the
moon colony established less than a year ago. And then the galaxy and the rest
of the universe.… He was less than nothing in the grand scheme of things, and
yet his struggles seemed so great and important. What meaning did
anything
really have?

It
has meaning to me. To these people around me. To Commander Byron. People gave
their lives for this cause. That gives it meaning.
He
clung to these thoughts to give him strength.

“Is
there anyone who can’t walk tonight?” Sammy waited for someone to raise a hand,
subduing his own urge to do so. If his team sensed the need to move on, he felt
obligated to do so. Exhausted though he was, he could walk.

Striking
camp didn’t take long. Once they’d lit torches, they set off. The Hudecs led
the group. It was the first night walk of the journey. The jungle was a
different place in the deep shadows of night. It was quieter, and each sound
seemed more pronounced. Not an hour into the walk, the rain started. Within
minutes, it progressed into a downpour. Fortunately, no amount of rain could
put out their torches.

Sammy’s
slow pace put him at the back of the group with Maad Rosmir. The doctor wasn’t
eager to speak, no matter how many attempts Sammy made at conversation. He
looked as exhausted as Sammy felt. Each noise brought his head jerking around
in its direction. Sammy also noticed that Rosmir had a gun ready at his hip.

“Are
you all right?” Sammy asked him.

Rosmir
glanced at Sammy and barely nodded. He pursed his lips into tight, thin lines.
“Best not to talk now.”

The
rain slowed their progress. The Hudecs hacked their way through the vines and
trees to the best of their ability in the black wetness. The light of the
torches’ flames bouncing off the low-hanging branches and foliage, in
combination with the wall of darkness at the edge of the fire’s glow, again gave
Sammy the impression that they were walking deeper and deeper into the mouth of
a giant, green beast.

He
plodded on, focused only on putting one foot in front of the next. It was all
he could do to stay awake. Someone coughed, an odd-sounding, bark-like hack,
but he wasn’t sure whom. Jeffie looked over her shoulder to see if Sammy had
done it. He gave her his bravest smile, reached forward with both of his hands,
and massaged her shoulders for a few seconds. She responded by squeezing his
fingers. Another cough came, this one louder and definitely not from someone in
the group. Definitely not human, either. Sammy recalled a passage from his
research while in Glasgow:

... known to hunt nocturnally in packs, they
emitted a series of rapidly repeated guttural barks which those who observed it
described as cough-like. Experts suspect that this sound was probably used for
communication between the family pack members. Pack sizes ranged anywhere from
six to fifteen animals.

A
third cough broke up his thoughts. This time it came from the left side of the
group. A hiss-like noise followed. Everyone’s head turned in the direction of
the sound, realizing with profound certainty they were not alone in this patch
of the jungle.

“Psions,”
Sammy announced, trying to keep his tone even, “we’re under attack. Surround
the rest of the team. The Psions will protect the group with blast shields.
Everyone else get out a weapon and shoot on sight.”

“What
is it?” Li asked. “I don’t see anything.”

“Thylacines.”

“How
many?” one of the Hudecs asked.

“If
I had to guess … lots.”

A
high-pitched whine came from Rosmir’s gaping mouth.

“It’s
okay, Doctor. We’re going to be okay. Don’t panic.” Even as he spoke the words,
Sammy realized Rosmir was anything but okay. “Shield. That’s all you need to
do. If you shield, nothing can touch you.”

He
wasn’t sure Rosmir had heard him. The doctor held up his hands, but they
trembled like an animal cornered by a large predator. Between the terror
written on his face, the wet rain pouring down his skin, and his eyes as large
as a horse’s, Sammy feared the doctor might be on the verge of a panic attack.

“We
need you, Doctor. Please.”

Rosmir
dropped his pack to the ground and knelt beside it, fumbling with the straps
until he was able to get his medical kit ready.

“I
may—I may have to—to drop out if someone is—is—is injured. Be ready.”

A
growl came from the right, followed by a second from the left. Small points of
light appeared around them, the reflections of the flames off the thylacines’
eyes. Sammy turned around once, counting at least a dozen pairs.

“Here
they come!” he said as he jammed his torch into the earth.

His
announcement provoked the thylacines to attack. Five of them shot out of the
woods with surprising speed. Several more followed. Torches fell to the earth,
their flames extinguished in the muck. Gunshots came from multiple directions.
Sammy blasted one of the thylacines away, then a second. The animals resembled
bizarre, oversized dogs with stripes along their backs and tails. Their snouts
were long like a fox’s. Their oversized jaws bared the greenish-yellow teeth, which
glowed eerily in the night. Based on the descriptions he’d read about the
animals, he expected them to have an awkward gait, perhaps even be stiff on
their feet, but they were agile and limber. Both thylacines he blasted landed
on all fours and pounced again.

“Hold
still, you bastards!” Dave Hudec yelled.

The
thylacines attacked again en masse. At close range, Duncan and Dave could
hardly miss with their pistols. Duncan put two bullets into the first of the
thylacines, and it still didn’t die. One of them slipped past Rosmir, getting
behind Sammy. Sammy whirled around as another leapt at him. In his fatigued
state, the motion left him dizzy and off-balance. He blasted at the one behind
while shielding himself from the second. The first rolled three times and got
back up. The second bounced off his shield and went after Lorenzo.

Lorenzo
swung at it with his axe and missed. Sammy blasted at it again, but the
animal’s center of gravity was so low it made his blasts less effective. The
creature that Duncan had shot hissed furiously and gave a strange-sounding bark,
reminding Sammy of a baby crying. It tried to limp away, but two more bullets
from Duncan prevented that. As far as Sammy knew, this was the first one taken
down.

Another
wave of monsters collided with the team. Most were blasted back, but the
thylacine that snuck by both Lorenzo and Sammy attacked Li just as three more
came at him. Li’s attention turned to these, and the first thylacine took him
by surprise, biting the back of his leg through his pants. Li went down, and
the other three thylacines jumped over him into the center of the group.

Duncan
and Dave opened fire on those three that leapt over Li. Nikotai put two arrows
in the thylacine attached to Li’s leg. Sammy, Jeffie, and Kawai kept the rest
at bay with blasts. In the corner of Sammy’s vision, Li grabbed at his leg.
From his pants, smoke curled up like steam from a pot. He smacked at it with
his open palm.

“It’s
burning! Help!”

Rosmir
grabbed his pack and ran over to Li. “Cover me! Someone cover me!”