Stealth still had her batons up. “Programmed?”
He nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”
The armored titan took a step back. “These are, what…domesticated exes?”
Freedom gave her a nod. “More or less, Doctor Morris.”
“Cerberus.”
“Sorry, ma’am.” The huge officer stepped forward, lifted a fallen ex by the scruff of it neck, and set it down on its feet. It made no attempt to grab him. It didn’t do anything.
“They are not moving their jaws,” said Stealth.
Smith nodded. “It’s one of the first behaviors Doctor Sorensen eliminated,” he said. “No more chattering teeth. Also helps us tell ours from the feral ones.”
The exes were dressed in Army uniforms. A few had tan t-shirts or tanks. On the ones with ACU jackets, the ranks were stripped off, leaving fuzzy patches of exposed velcro. Now that they weren’t moving, Cerberus could see they were standing in loose rows and columns. There were a hundred and fifty of them here, all standing immobile. They were shaved bald, no matter what their gender had been. A few had bristle across their scalps, and she remembered reading somewhere that hair and nails kept growing for a few days after death. She’d never considered if it applied to exes or not.
“You called this a Tomb,” she said.
Freedom nodded. “Where we keep all our unknown soldiers.”
Above the left ear, each of them had a green plastic housing the size of a box of cigarettes. There was dried blood where the screws went into the skull. A bundle of thin wires spread out from the housing to a handful of sockets across the bare scalp.
The crackling stun fields deactivated. The armored titan took a step forward and looked at the closest ex, the one Freedom had placed back on its feet. Stealth was already there. They could see its teeth through the gaping hole in its cheek.
The cloaked woman reached up and squeezed the edges of the green box. The front panel popped off in her hand, revealing an array of circuitry and LEDs.
“Careful,” said Shelly. “Damage that and you’ll have a killer on your hands.”
“Perhaps these components should not be in an unsealed housing,” said Stealth.
“Not much to it,” said Cerberus. The titan had dropped to one knee and bent close to the dead man. “A few flash memory cards, micro-transistors, batteries…” The thick metal finger traced wires for a few moments before the armored skull turned to Freedom. “This thing lets you control them?”
“Sir,” Smith said to the colonel, “perhaps I should see if Doctor Sorensen can spare some time away from his current work?”
“Please do, Mr. Smith. The captain and I will answer as best we can in the meantime.”
Smith adjusted his tie, gave a quick smile up at the Cerberus armor, and headed out the door. One of the sergeants followed him.
“Company,” called Freedom. “About face.”
There was a pause, and the undead shifted with a thump of boots.
“Five paces, march.”
The exes took five stumbling steps and stopped again.
“About face.”
Stealth stiffened. Even with the armor, Danielle’s reaction was apparent. The colonel glanced at them. “Something wrong?”
“Last time we saw a bunch of exes moving in sync,” said the titan, “it didn’t…it didn’t work out well for one of our friends.”
“You’ve seen them act like this before?”
“The same superhuman who damaged the Cerberus armor,” said Stealth, “also had an ability to control ex-humans.”
“Where’s this person now?” asked Shelly.
“What’s left of him’s at Melrose and Gower,” said Cerberus. “I burned all the big pieces.”
“Sir,” said Freedom to the colonel, “if you’ll pardon me I have a drill in ten.”
“Of course, captain. Dismissed.” The two men exchanged salutes, and Freedom bowed his head to Stealth and Cerberus.
“The immediate question,” said the cloaked woman, “is why?”
“Why?”
“Why have you developed a method of controlling the exes?”
“Why wouldn’t we?” countered the colonel. “If we can’t contain the ex-virus, we need a way to control it.”
“But why use them as soldiers?”
“We were short-staffed,” Shelly said. “At the start of the year we were down to nine hundred soldiers, and over six hundred of those were our barely-trained civilian recruits. They’ve come a long way since then, but it still left us with a lot less than a base like this needs. Doctor Sorensen’s work is going to be a huge benefit to the United States.”
“It would seem the risk of losing control would cancel any possible benefits.”
“There’s no risk,” he said. “Besides, at the moment we’re only using them for low-pressure jobs like sentry duty.”
“Of course,” said Stealth. “The large numbers at your perimeter.”
“That explains why Zzzap didn’t see anyone,” muttered the titan. She looked back at the rows of silent exes. “I’d love to get a better look at those control boxes.”
“Shouldn’t be a problem,” said Shelly. “I’m sure you’ll have plenty of time to go over all the specs with Doctor Sorensen once you’re set up. We could even move your lab into the main building near his.”
“It’s better if I stay out here so the suit has easy access,” she said.
The colonel gave her a look. “Well, that won’t be your concern, though, will it?”
“Sir?”
“Dr. Morris, you were never intended to be the pilot of the Cerberus suit,” said Shelly. “We both know that. If it hadn’t been such a time-intensive, crisis situation you never would’ve worn it into battle.” He shook his head. “Now we can get you back in the lab and working on improvements to the system. That’s what you want, too, isn’t it?”
“But…” the armored giant looked at Shelly, then over at Stealth. “It will take months to get anyone up to my level of proficiency. It’s better to have Cerberus out on the front lines, isn’t it?”
“Of course, and Lieutenant Gibbs has been studying the suit’s specs for some time. We even got him a working copy of the simulator you designed.”
The Air Force lieutenant stepped forward. “I’ve logged over fifteen hundred hours, ma’am,” he said. “You’ve built an amazing weapons system.”
“I didn’t think the simulator was ever built.”
The colonel smiled. “Some of our tech boys have had a lot of time on their hands. I think you’ll find Gibbs is qualified and ready to take over as the Cerberus pilot.”
“If,” said Stealth, “we decide to leave the armor with you.”
Shelly took in a breath to respond and bit his tongue. “Yes,” he said. “If that’s what we all decide.”
Her head tilted inside her hood. “It strikes me as suspicious this point has not come up before, colonel.”
“Is it, ma’am?” He looked up at the armor. “If I recall, Doctor Morris, the only reason you agreed to put on the suit and fight during the outbreak was because you were worried someone else might damage Cerberus, correct?”
“Well, yes, but I wanted to help—”
“You weren’t expecting to be the one using it when you built it, were you?”
“No, but I was the only one who knew how to use it to its full potential.”
“Before you were deployed in Washington, had you ever been in a fight?”
“I’ve had several fights over the requirements for—”
“Not arguments, doctor,” he interrupted. “Fights. Had you ever come to blows with someone? Did you ever once throw a punch?”
“I’d fired over ten thousand rounds through the suit’s M2s on the firing range.”
“At wooden targets,” he said. “Did you receive any training at all as to how deal with combat situations? Basic tactics? Target priority? Anything?”
A rasping hiss came from the armor. A sigh. “No.”
“So,” said Shelly, turning back to Stealth, “the most sophisticated weapons platform on the planet has spent the past two years in the hands of an untrained civilian who didn’t want to be using it in the first place, and you think it’s suspicious I want to put an experienced soldier behind the controls?”