"Oh my God."
"You can trust no one, Sergeant. Understand?"
She nodded, tears glistening in her eyes. "But what about us? The mission?"
"The HSSC will be invading soon if they're not already inside. The mission has failed. We'll be evacuating as soon as you do one last thing. Something General Hamilton needed desperately. It was a secret that he only told me for security reasons. Understand?"
"I understand."
He leaned over, ignoring Chen when she instinctively pulled back. His fingers rapidly struck the keyboard, typing in a name.
"You need to find this person. It won't be easy. The location will be buried under numerous false leads, identities, and locations. Stricken from all public records. This is the only place with the ability to sift through the raw data. It has to be done here or not at all."
She stared at the name. "Merlin Woods? What's so important about him? Who is he?"
"Hamilton never told me. But he did say Merlin might be the key to everything. Find him, Sergeant. Or all of this will have been for nothing."
"I will, sir. What will you be doing?"
"Making sure you're safe. Killing anyone that gets in the way." He tapped the datcom in his ear. "Squadron leaders, this is Captain Kilgore. There's no easy to say this. We've been compromised by traitors in our midst. They have assassinated General Hamilton and are working to undermine the mission from within. Stick to your individual squadrons and do not interact with other units until the traitors have been identified. If threatened, do not hesitate to protect yourselves. I'll meet you at the rendezvous point. Kilgore out."
Chen looked up from the console. "If every squadron thinks the other one might be traitors, won't that cause a lot of confusion? One wrong step and everyone will be at each other's throats."
Kilgore flashed his teeth in a fierce grin. "I know."
The gunfire had already erupted by the time Kilgore made it to the Vault. He didn’t care about the fractured squadrons turning on each other. The chaos worked to his advantage. What he needed was close.
Row upon row of upright pods were arranged in a massive, dimly lit facility. In each one was the body of a synoid, all clothed with spotless white jumpsuits. Every possible race and nationality was present, perfect in their cloned flesh. So lifelike, lying as if asleep and a whisper would awaken them. Stored away until their inception date, when they would be shipped out to the purchasing Haven and activated to a life of servitude.
Kilgore walked to one of the pods and tapped a sequence of buttons. The door opened with a hissing sound, expelling clouds of vapor. Reaching in, he grabbed Jude Maximillian by the collar and hauled him out, dropping him on the floor.
Maximillian shivered, teeth chattering. He hugged himself for warmth and glared up at Kilgore. "You c-could have k-k-killed me!"
"You're alive, Jude. More than I can say for the man who captured your Haven."
"General Hamilton is d-d-dead?" Maximillian's eyes flicked back and forth. "Then w-why are you doing this? You should be leaving the c-city."
"Because we have unfinished business." Kilgore held out a hand. Electric-blue light crackled, and then a heavy jacket appeared. He tossed it to Maximillian. "The Sanctum. I know what you've been working on. You're going to take me to it. Or back into the pod you go. Only this time I won't be back to haul you out."
Maximillian's jaw jutted stubbornly forward for a second, but his eyes glanced nervously at the pod. Finally, his head dropped in defeat. "Fine. I'll show you."
His hand shot out, hitting a button underneath the pod.
The entire Vault exploded with hissing sounds as every pod door slid open at once. Hundreds of synoids poured out of their capsules, running toward Kilgore with clenched fists and fury etched on their perfectly contoured faces. They all shouted as if with one mouth.
"Intruder. Stop the intruder!"
Maximillian darted past the attacking mob, throwing frantic glances over his shoulder as he rushed to the exit doors. Kilgore went down under the sheer mass of attackers. Fists pummeled him, feet stomped. He couldn't see with all the bodies attacking with single-minded ferocity. The room echoed with the sounds of flesh being pounded as he took damage that would kill a normal man.
But he wasn't normal. He snarled, teeth clamped together, mind focused on what needed. His hands flickered. Something metallic and heavy dropped into them — a handheld drill used by miners on Mars to harvest blood shards. He pulled the trigger.
A cutting laser fired from the drill. It tore through bodies with ease, allowing Kilgore to stand up as severed limbs rained down, spurting glowing blue liquid. He fanned the drill back and forth, carving his relentless attackers. The laser cut through pods, computer equipment, and burned lines in the walls of the room.
Sparks erupted, activating the fire suppressant system. He summoned an aspiration mask, slipping it over his face while finishing off the rest of the synoids. In a few more seconds there was nothing moving in the room except twitching body parts. Cloned eyeballs stared at him from ruined faces, silently accusing. Kilgore ignored the automatons. The person he needed was flesh and blood.
But when he looked around the hazy room, there was no sign of Maximillian.
Chapter 13
The Battle-Cat slowed as they approached the end of the tunnel, where cargo transports unloaded caches of blood shards. The loading docks appeared surprisingly abandoned.
"I don't like it," Cash said. "Looks like a trap."
Deejay spoke from the dash monitor. "I've been jamming any surveillance in the tunnel, but yeah — something isn't right."
Happy leaned forward in the passenger seat, searching the gloomy surroundings. "Well, too late to turn back now."
"Yeah, maybe fighting the entire Haven might sound like a good idea to you, but I'm not trying to commit suicide."
"Then you're in the wrong occupation. Should've been a shuttle pilot." She clapped him on the shoulder. "Come on, cop."
"Stop calling me a cop." He looked back where Mateo and Agent Hessler were seated in cramped, battered seats behind them. "Okay, what's the plan?"
Mateo perked up. "Ooh, I know. Find General Hamilton."
"And…?"
"And try not to get killed."
Cash gave him a thumb's up. "Exactly. Simple plans are the best."
Hessler's pained expressions spoke volumes. "That's not a plan at all."
"Sure. Just one that allows for a lot of improvising."
Happy headed for the door. "Just make sure if we run into Kilgore that you leave him to me."
"Sure," Hessler muttered. "While he's killing you, we might be able to sneak past."
They exited the Battle-Cat, alert for traps and ambushes. Mateo knelt near one of the guardhouses, examining a body.
"Looks like someone killed the guards. Don't see any wounds, though."
Happy's bionic eye glowed, emanating a green light when she scanned the body. "That's because it's not human."
"No way."
"Yes way. It's a synoid." She gazed around, where other bodies littered the floor or toppled at their posts. "Someone shut them all down."
"Must have been Hamilton's plan," Hessler said. "Makes sense. There are way more synoids than humans in Los Nuevos. If you want to capture the Haven, you'd want to shut them down."
"Yeah, especially since that takes out most of the security," Cash said. "But wouldn't Hamilton have some of his men guarding the place for intruders like us?"
Happy peered into the guardhouse. "Looks like they did." She pointed to a rack where spare New Legion uniforms hung from.