Psion Alpha (6 page)

“Queen
of—my team—down.… ” Her voice came in and out.

“Interference
cutting through the signal,” a tech announced. “This should fix it.”

“Whatever
was left of the houses is gone—leveled—I think … off proximity mines, Commander.
I’m still waiting for … to report in.”

“Mad
Hatter move in and report the damage taken by Red Team B.”

“Copy
that,” Albert said.

Byron
closed his eyes
.
A smoky haze filled the feed coming from the Blue
Leader, but Justice’s instructions came through loud and clear. He ordered his
men to press the attack even without the help of Red Team B.

“Something’s
wrong here, Commander,” Justice announced. “These Thirteens should be dead. I
can still see them inside the houses. They’re moving … fighting … returning
fire. The houses around them are burnt more than my mother’s cooking.”

“Take
them out, Cheshire Cat,” Byron urged. “We need the way cleared for objective
three.”

“Will
do,” Justice responded.

Everyone’s
attention was on the ash-covered section of the satellite feed. Byron focused
on the important questions. How many casualties had they suffered? How many
more traps had the CAG soldiers placed unknown to Byron and his teams’ outdated
equipment? Would they still be able to take the hangar? If so, at what cost?

President
Marnyo fidgeted with his wife’s hand. His lips shut tight, and he hardly moved
as he watched. Several of the technicians cleared their throats, but otherwise
the room was quiet and still. All eyes fixed on the screens. The right screen
showed the three enemy cruisers now taking off from the hangars.

“Sir—”
one of the technicians began, but Commander Byron gestured that he’d already
seen it.

“Three
gryphons leaving the nest, Queen of Hearts,” Byron said. “You copy?”

“Ready
and waiting, sir,” Anna replied. “Skeet shooting time, Red Team A. Gear up.
Still no word from Red Team B, Commander.”

“Sir,
we have a visual on the enemy in the housing units,” Justice reported. “It
appears that they’re using blasts.”

“Say
that again, Cheshire Cat.”

“Commander,
they’re using blasts. They—they—holy hell, they all look like Sammy.”

The
commander felt his chest tighten and his lungs seized up, but this had nothing
to do with his injuries. Emotion hit him in a way he hadn’t felt since watching
a madwoman hold a gun to his son’s head.
No, Victor, how could you? How
could you give them his DNA? Why would you do something so stupid?

He
thought back to the conversation he’d had with Psion Command and General Wu on
the day Sammy’s triple anomaly was discovered. As he was transporting his
newest pupil to Beta headquarters, General Wu had raised the concern of Sammy’s
DNA falling into the wrong hands. The rest of Psion Command had been more
worried about accepting someone into Beta who possessed Anomaly Thirteen,
especially when that same person had recently attacked several law enforcement
officers. Byron had argued his case vehemently and given multiple assurances
that Sammy would be under close watch.

“Commander?”
Justice asked. “What are your orders?”

“Kill
the clones. Mad Hatter, the enemy has blasting abilities. You will need to be
creative to take them down. Queen of Hearts, get your guns ready to shoot down
the gryphons.”

“Copy
that,” Anna said.

The
vice president coughed nervously. One of the technicians wrung his hands. Another
bit her nails and spat them out. The First Lady had her eyes closed most of the
time as she bounced on the balls of her feet. Byron, however, had his eyes
glued on his son’s feed as they moved in to flank these new clones with Anomaly
Fourteen. Justice led his team in a frontal assault to draw attention away from
Albert and his men driving to the battle scene.

“Gryphons
are headed toward Green Team,” the technician announced. “Missiles are armed.”

“Queen
of Hearts, get into firing position!” Byron shouted.

As
the cruisers flew to intercept Albert’s location, Albert’s Green Team split
into two groups. The smaller group broke off to look for survivors among Anna’s
Red Team B that had been caught in the detonation of the proximity mines, while
the larger group headed south to help Justice’s Blue Team.

On
the satellite feed and Anna’s live feed, he saw her group sprinting to get into
better position.

“Gryphons
will be in firing range in ten seconds,” the technician stated.

“Queen
of Hearts, take down those gryphons
NOW
!”

“Fire
at will!” Anna ordered her team.

All
at once, more than twenty tiny dots appeared on the satellite screen covering
Red Team A’s position as they launched ground-to-air anti-aircraft rockets.
Byron held his breath as he watched them fly toward the cruisers. Three thunderous
fireworks burst not far from Green Team’s position. Byron let out a shaky
breath while others in the room cheered.

“Good
work, Queen of Hearts. Search for any survivors, then move to your third
position at the hangars.”

Onscreen,
Albert’s team reached the smoking ruins of the housing complexes where Justice kept
his enemies occupied. As Albert’s team moved from the eastern flank, they
immediately caused considerable damage and casualties to the CAG soldiers.
Byron caught glimpses of the Thirteens and noted that Justice was right. They
did resemble Sammy. Watching Sammy’s face make the twisted, bloodthirsty
expressions common to the Thirteens gave Byron a knotted sensation in his gut.

It
took thirty minutes for Justice and Albert’s team to clear the smoky remains of
the housing complex of enemy soldiers. Most of the Thirteens and Aegis fell,
but nearly two dozen more fell back toward the hangar. This surprised Byron.
He’d expected it to take longer, but the Sammy clones did not fight nearly as
well as the Thirteens he’d seen during his years of active service. When
Justice gave the all clear, Byron ordered all teams to move to their third
positions for the attack on the hangars.

Ho
Chin’s White Team led the assault from the northwest, where they’d been in
position almost from the beginning. The remnants of Anna’s Red Team A and B came
from the southeast. Albert and Justice’s teams approached from the south. As
the latter two teams neared, another explosion erupted on the screens and over
the coms, this one on the right flank of the green and blue teams. Screams of
terror and agony came over the coms, dragging up harrowing memories from the
commander’s past. Byron sat straight up, and a sudden bout of vertigo hit him,
followed by terrible nausea.

“Cheshire
Cat report!” he ordered through a straining grimace. “Albert report!”

“More
proximity mines!” Justice answered. “I’ve got five—no, six men down!”

“Green
Team is okay,” Albert added. “We’re shaken up, and a couple of us are going to
need stitches, but otherwise fine.”

Byron
drew in an anxious breath as he felt his legs, a useless pulsing mass of flesh,
throb in rhythm with his heartbeat. He cleared those miserable thoughts from
his head. “Mad Hatter, Cheshire Cat, leave two Elite behind to take care of the
wounded. Everyone else head to the hangars and rendezvous with Red and White
Teams.”

The
Vice President turned to President Marnyo. “Are you and the First Lady ready?”

“Yes,
we are.”

The
First Lady’s tightly pursed lips were pale and quivering, but Byron saw
determination in her narrow eyes. She squeezed her husband’s hand with great
force. The Vice President spoke a few words into his com, and then several
Elite dressed as Alphas came into the room. President Marnyo went around and
shook everyone’s hand, including Byron’s, and wished them all well.

“God
bless you, Mr. President,” Byron said.

“And
you, too, Commander,” President Marnyo said with great weight in his voice.

The
Elite escorted the president and his wife out of the room as everyone’s
attention turned back to the holo-screens. Byron cleared his throat and gave
his next wave of instructions. “Tweedledee and Tweedledum are on the move. All
eyes need to be on the hangar. Mad Hatter, Cheshire Cat, Queen of Hearts, do
what you have to do to get the eyes of every last Thirteen and Aegis on you.
White Rabbit, be ready to move in and secure those cruisers at my word.”

The
satellite feed over the hangar showed all enemies mobilized, scurrying into
position like ants. Aegis and Thirteens took up positions and prepared three
more cruisers for takeoff. Byron’s pre-mission intel had not given him a good
idea of what weapons the CAG agents possessed, so he had prepared his teams for
the worst. Now he was glad he had.

“Stay
sharp,” Anna warned, “they’ve got blitzers!”

Through
Anna’s video feed, Byron watched Aegis and Thirteens shoot superheated discs at
the incoming soldiers. Each red/orange-streaking shot reminded him of firing
phosphorous-tipped bullets as an Elite-in-training. The blitzers ripped through
the chain link fence surrounding the hangar and airfield like a razor blade
cutting tin foil. Between the blitzers, hand cannons, and grenade launchers,
the enemy unleashed hell on Byron’s teams. And the four teams sent it right
back at them.

Both
sides took casualties. Byron asked for regular reports from his leaders. The
firefight lasted for ten minutes before the next wave of cruisers launched.

“More
gryphons taking flight, team leaders. Take them down before they get a—” He
stopped short when two missiles launched from the first two cruisers and headed
straight for Ho Chin’s White Team. “White Rabbit, incoming bogeys!”

Ho
Chin’s video feed went dead.

Anna
Lukic’s Red Team was closest to Ho Chin. “Queen of Hearts, report!” Byron
demanded.

“White
Team used blasts to minimize damage, but has taken casualties. I think Ho Chin
is—yes, I have eyes on him. He’s okay.”

“Fire
at the cruisers!”

Red
Team released another volley of rockets at the enemy cruisers, hitting two of
the three. One of them dropped like a stone onto a building where several Aegis
and Thirteens had taken cover. The second damaged cruiser smoked like an
enormous chimney until it crashed a kilometer to the north.

“Move
in,” Byron ordered. “Take the hangars. No prisoners. The last thing we need is
some Aegis or Thirteen imploding while we try to lock them up.”

On
the right screen, he saw two parties of Elite: one led President Marnyo and the
First Lady westward on foot through the campus toward the hangars and the
battle. Meanwhile, at the same time, the second party of Elite helped President
Marnyo and his wife into an armored car on the east side of the main entrance
to the War Offices. The third cruiser that had survived the onslaught from the Red
Team veered toward the President’s armored transport. It only took about a
minute for the cruiser to cover the distance.

“Tweedledum,
incoming cruiser!” Byron warned.

The
armored car swerved every which way as the cruiser fired into its right side
with bullets, then shot a missile, barely missing but still upending the car. One
of the two Elite drivers escaped the wreckage. She wielded a large rocket
launcher on her shoulder. The cruiser banked sharply and released another
torrent of ammunition at the car. The Elite carrying the launcher took several
bullets to the chest, cutting her down just as she fired a rocket at the
cruiser. At the same instant, the cruiser released a second missile. The
Elite’s rocket and the cruiser’s missile passed each other in the air, then struck
their targets.

“Tweedledum
is down,” Byron said over his com. As the smoke cleared from the armored
vehicle, he saw the bodies of the two Elite, but the President and First Lady
were nowhere among the destruction. “Make sure Tweedledee catches the first
flight out of here.”

The
Vice President wiped his face with a handkerchief. “You were right. They want
the President dead. The decoy holograms worked perfectly.”

Despite
being outnumbered and taking notable casualties, Byron watched his superiorly trained
teams work effectively to surround and neutralize the CAG targets. Anna’s team
breached the hangars first, drawing the fire of most of the enemy. This gave Ho
Chin’s White Team an opportunity to break through from the north until the
hangars swarmed with NWG soldiers. All CAG agents were captured or killed. Byron
glanced at the clock. From start to finish the battle had lasted almost two
hours.

“Sites
are all clear,” Anna reported. “Operation Looking Glass is a success.”

“We’re
using sweepers to check for any tampering in the cruisers,” Albert reported.

Byron
touched his fingers to his forehead and thanked God that his son had been spared.

“Send
in the techs to reprogram the cruisers,” Justice said.

Byron
nodded to himself with satisfaction. “How many casualties?”

“Not
sure yet,” Anna said, “at least two dozen dead. Maybe more depending on what
kind of medical attention they can get and how soon.”