Psion Delta (45 page)

Kaden
tried to get up as he shot another Thirteen, killing the Thirteen almost
instantly. At the same time, a blast from another enemy knocked the twin down
to his knees. Kaden fired again, this time from his kneeling position. The
Thirteen shielded and fired back. Kaden tried to use hand blasts, but couldn’t
get them up in time. His arms flew out to the sides, spread wide and welcoming.
His gun dropped from his hand and fell to the ground, bouncing twice and then
silenced. Even from across the garage, Jeffie saw the red holes in his chest.
She tried to look away, but couldn’t. Kaden’s widened eyes turned to his
brother, his twin, his best friend through everything. He put his hands to the cement
and crawled the short distance to Kobe. Even from a distance—even through her
tears—Jeffie saw the shining red prints of his hands on the tarmac each time he
moved. When at last he reached his goal, Kaden put an arm around his brother’s
shoulders and lay next to him. Then, kissing Kobe tenderly on the back of his
head, he joined him in sleep.

Li’s
team moved as quickly as they could. With Kaden down, the few remaining
Thirteens ran after them. The team hustled up the final ramp to the top level.
Here, Jeffie saw the wreckage that Li’s second grenade had caused and the
mangled bodies of more Thirteens. Once they reached the top floor of the
garage, the street exit wasn’t far.

“Hurry!”
Natalia cried. “They’re gaining on us.”

Brickert
and Li moved as fast as they could, but Brickert’s breaths came in sharp gasps
and Li’s face was blotched with color. Jeffie had trouble focusing on anything
but what she had just witnessed. The deaths of the Reynolds twins . . . it had
to be some awful nightmare that she’d soon wake up from, but her heart was
broken and the pain was as tangible as the throbbing in her leg and side. Never
had any dream affected her like this. To think that someone so close to her was
gone forever was unimaginable. They still had years left together at Beta
headquarters. He would be there to tease her about her breakfasts, to call her
stupid nicknames, or to make fun of the new recruits.

The
Psions were halfway across the width of the garage when the Thirteens reached
the top of the ramp. They fired shots, but Kawai and Natalia protected the
group well. Once they reached the garage exit, the Thirteens stopped, unwilling
to continue the battle in a public forum. The enemy had lost, but as Jeffie
considered the three bodies still inside, she felt uncertain about that
conclusion.

A
crowd of people stood outside the garage, wondering what was going on. A few of
them recorded everything on their coms.

“Was
someone shooting?”

“We
heard an explosion and came running!”

“Look
at that girl!”

“Oh
my—”

“Someone
call this in!”

“Those
kids are armed!”

“Where
are you, Ludwig?” Li muttered as he searched the skies. “Come on, man.”

“My
com still isn’t working,” Brickert said. “Are you okay, Jeffie?”

Jeffie
finally realized that her face was wet with tears. She hadn’t noticed it until
the cool air hit them, chilling her skin. “I’m not okay,” she said blankly,
still remembering every detail of what she’d seen. “Please, let’s go home.
Please.”

“We
don’t know where Ludwig is,” Brickert explained.

“I
don’t care. I want to go home!” A tightness gripped her chest as blood drained
from her head. Woozy and nauseous, she rested her head on Brickert’s shoulder
and fought to stay conscious. She didn’t know where they were taking her or
what was going on anymore. All she knew was that every step Li and Brickert
took was agony in her hip.

“There!”
Natalia said. “Look up!”

Everyone
looked, even Jeffie. A bright light shone from the sky, heading straight for
the middle of the street.

“Get
those cars to stop!” Parley pointed Miguel down the street while he ran in the
opposite direction.

As
soon as the cruiser set down on the road, everyone hurried to get in. The crowd
of people looking on swelled in numbers. Sirens wailed from nearby blocks and
Jeffie saw the reflection of their flashing lights off the street-level
windows. Brickert and Li took her to the back where the medical supply was
kept. Brickert talked to her in a soothing voice, telling her over and over
again that she would be fine and everything would work out in the end. But
Jeffie had a feeling that Brickert was wrong.

* * *
* *

The
fox turned on his holo-screen and switched over to a news station. At first,
all Sammy saw was fire, smoke, and wreckage. The fox turned up the volume so
Sammy could hear. A homely woman with blue and blonde hair stood in front of
the camera wearing a helmet and a bulletproof jacket. She checked over her
shoulder every few seconds.

“—live
from Reykjavik, on Capitol Island, for the first time in several years. You are
watching live footage from the battlegrounds of a top-secret strategic mission
that took place just hours ago. No word has been received yet as to why these
buildings were targeted, but unconfirmed rumors state that this was a
government complex. As you can see, all that’s left is a burning shell. I’m
also told that CAG forces attacked the Elite Training Facility in Siberia. As
we learn more about why these specific sites were targeted, we’ll bring that
information to you.

“CAG
forces mounted the surprise attack beginning in the earliest hours of the
morning and ending, as I said, an hour or so ago. The press has been explicitly
informed that no CAG citizens were involved in the strikes. As of right now, we
assume these strikes were conducted solely by drones.”

Sammy
finally recognized the burning building behind the reporter. Its square shape
would have been more apparent had it not been for the massive chunks blown away
by the bombings. It was Beta headquarters.

The
camera switched from the field reporter to a smarmy looking man and woman
sitting behind a large desk with several different scenes of disaster behind
them. “Reports are now coming in from anonymous sources within the CAG that the
targeted sites were training and housing facilities for NWG terrorists and
moles. Our analysts are predicting enemy casualties to be limited to two or
three thousand. President Newberry will address the country later this morning
to issue a call that the NWG cease all terrorist-sponsored attacks on CAG soil.
There have been at least four such attacks in the last five years. In an
announcement from the White House fifteen minutes ago, he expressed his hopes
that, like Hiroshima and Nagasaki, these attacks tonight would ultimately
reduce the loss of life by putting an end to the violence. We have not yet
received word from NWG officials.”

The
fox muted the holo-screen.

Sammy’s
mind was reeling. He grasped at any explanation he could think of. “This—this
is a hoax.
This is a hoax!
I’m done sitting here and letting you lie to
me!”

“You
know it isn’t a hoax.” The unnerving softness of the fox’s voice returned.
“It’s your move.” He glanced down to the chessboard.

“You
think I care about your stupid game?” Sammy moved his hand to swipe away all
the pieces, but the fox caught his hand, glaring at him with an expression so
menacing that Sammy’s fury was all but quelled.

“Don’t
you dare.”

Sammy
let the fox hold his wrist for several seconds while they stared each other
down.

“I
already explained everything to you,” the fox reminded him. “I told you from
the beginning that I would change the world. You doubted me, and now that I’ve
proven it, you’re angry?”

“You
killed my people. You say you killed my friends. You have taken from me
everything I—”

The
fox gave a low whistle while keeping his eyes on Sammy. Behind him, in the
shadows, something came forward. It looked like a bizarre, oversized dog with
stripes along its back and starting down its tail. Its snout was long like a
wolf or fox’s, though the jaw didn’t look quite right, either. It stopped next
to the fox’s chair and sat, waiting.

“You
know this creature?”

Sammy
shook his head, his eyes flickering to the window.

“This
is a thylacine.
Thylacinus
cynocephalus
. It went extinct about a
hundred and fifty years ago from human poaching and disease. I brought it back
to life through cloning . . . with a few modifications. I call this girl Lacy.”

At
mention of her name, Lacy turned toward the fox and nuzzled his hand.

“I
wanted you to see her so you know the kind of work I’ve done, and will yet do
to shape
our
species. The modifications I can make will save humanity.”

“I
understand your aims, but disagree with your methods.”

“They
are for the betterment of mankind. For the greater good. For whatever you want
to call it, if you have some primitive need to put a name to it. You are so
blind! Your gift has been dampened, and that’s why I’ve brought you here now,
before you regain your anomaly, so I can help you and show you what is real and
what is a mirage. These things you’ve been taught by your parents and society
are—are horribly wrong. Trust in me, Sammy. Trust my vision for a better world
where people are truly free.”

A
dim light outside the window flashed in the periphery of Sammy’s vision and
slowly dropped from view. Sammy lowered his eyes to the chessboard and moved
his piece.

“Check.”
He clenched his teeth as his lips twisted into something animal-like. “Mate.”

The
fox stared at the chessboard with an expression of shock. “That isn’t
checkmate.”

“No,
but in five moves, it will be.”

The
fox studied the board intently. “I can move—”

“It
won’t work.”

“You
shouldn’t have—can’t have beaten me.”

“Yet,
I did,” Sammy said quietly. “Maybe you aren’t as smart as you think you are.”

“But
your anomaly . . . the medical reports—”

“They
were accurate three and a half months ago, but I discovered something recently
while I played chess with a friend—another Anomaly Eleven. The more I played,
the better I could
see
. Maybe you already know this, but I discovered my
anomaly during a chess match with my dad. I guess that somehow playing it again
helped me recover my . . . gift, as you call it. And so I made sure I spent a
lot of time playing chess over the last few weeks.”

The
fox reached across the table and put his hands on Sammy’s shoulders. “Stay here
and let me show you the way
I
see. We can teach each other, and we can
learn from each other.”

“I’m
leaving now.”

“No,
you’re not.”

“I
am.”

Lacy
snarled at Sammy as he stood up. “Hold, girl,” the fox told her with a pat on
the head. “Sammy, you can’t leave. You have nothing to go back to over there.
Beta and Alpha are gone. How are you going to get out of this apartment? How
would you survive on the streets getting back to your cruiser while the police
are hunting you? How would you survive in the air? Like I couldn’t shoot you down?
Do you really think I’ll just let you leave?”

Sammy
grabbed the chessboard off the table and scattered the pieces to the floor.
“I’ll start with this.”

“Lacy,
warn him.”

The
thylacine got up on all four paws and snarled again. When she bore her teeth, Sammy
understood the modifications the fox had made. Ghastly fang-like teeth filled
her jaw—teeth so impossibly long they looked like a nightmarish monster’s. A
pale green-yellow color stained each of them from tip to root. The color of her
eyes changed from brown to a reddish-orange. Her hair bristled up on her back.

“Acid
fangs, every single tooth in that mouth. It took us dozens of tries to get it
right. That’s why her jaw is so abnormal. One bite and you’ll feel like you had
a horrible accident in a chemistry lab. And she’s fast, too, faster than you,
Sammy. So, please, sit down. Let’s put the chessboard back on the table, reset
the pieces, and talk about this like adults.”

Sammy
took a step toward the window and threw the board as hard as he could with his
left hand. The glass shattered, allowing the wind to howl and swirl around the
room.

“What
are you doing?” the fox asked. “You won’t survive that jump. You know that.”

“Tell
Katie that the next time I see her, she will die.”

The
fox put up his hands as Sammy walked backward to the large window. “Don’t do
this, Sammy. Don’t go. You belong here with me bettering the world. Out there
you’ll be on the losing side. You’ll waste your life and all your gifts.”

“It’s
too late,” Sammy said. “I’d rather take my chances jumping than stay in this
room another minute. Be seeing you.”

He
jumped out the window as the fox shouted after him. He only fell about twenty
meters before a looming black shape greeted him. Using landing blasts, Sammy
came to a gentle stop atop the cruiser. The side door opened, and Sammy swung
himself inside. Ludwig was at the controls directing the cruiser out of the
city. Sammy took a seat in the co-pilots chair.