Cameron swiveled his body back and forth, staring into the darkness for any signs of movement. He thought he saw a shadow on his left and opened fire, cracking one of the Chinook’s windows. Then, he thought he saw something else on his right and fired once more, again hitting nothing. She was toying with him.
“Such heavy equipment for one so young,” her voice almost hummed as she spoke. “Logically, you must be a vessel. Which one, I wonder? Only one way to find out.”
Though he was looking straight at her, Cameron didn’t notice her until she was almost on him. She leaped out of the darkness, one of the blades on her wrist extended. It was all he could do to block her attack with the flat of his rifle, so her blade bounced off the metal body. She twisted her arm and his rifle slipped his grasp. He was barely able to dodge two more swings from her before she grabbed his wrist. A kick to the midsection tumbled him to the ground.
“Tao!” she hissed.
Szin. This must be Azumi. She is a top lieutenant to Enzo. I wonder what she is doing here. Be careful. Many of Szin’s hosts have been ninjutsu practitioners.
“The Genjix were ninjas?”
The Genjix were everything.
Cameron scrambled to his feet, one hand clutching his stomach. The woman was studying him with a faint trace of a smile on her pale face. It was the only thing he could make out in the darkness.
“One of my brothers is very much looking forward to speaking with you at length, Tao,” she spoke with a mocking tone. “I believe I will present you to him alive, as a gift.”
She sheathed the two blades on her wrists and attacked. It was so dark outside, and her movements were so fast, that Cameron couldn’t see what she was doing. He blocked a swing and a kick, and then found his legs swept from underneath him. He crashed on the hard metal surface and rolled to his feet, swinging wildly with his fists.
Azumi stayed just out of his reach and then suddenly darted in. Cameron was blindsided by a downward smack that doubled him over, followed by something he didn’t even see that staggered him backward. He juked to the side and swung again, missing.
Before he knew what was happening or where she even was, he found himself caught in a chokehold. Immediately he felt himself losing consciousness. The first thing that crossed his mind was wondering how she had even gotten behind him. The second was how someone this small could be so strong.
Cameron clawed at her forearm and tried to pry her python grip loose. The best he could do was keep from passing out. Barely. The woman jumped on his back to get better leverage. She wrapped her legs around his waist in a body triangle and squeezed harder. Cameron felt himself blacking out. Desperate, he pulled out his pistol and tried to shoot behind him. She laughed and karate chopped it out of his hand, and somehow Cameron found himself not only getting choked, but also in an elbow lock. Now it was a race to see if this crazy tiny ninja was going to break his arm or choke him unconscious first.
Full charge backward, rotate right. Go!
Cameron moved without thinking; following Tao’s directions was second nature to him by now. He charged backward and slammed into the metal wall of one of the towers, causing a low hollow bonging sound to echo across the structure and earning him a grunt from Azumi. Then he tried to twist out of her grip. He made the mistake, however, of twisting left instead of right, and went straight through the blown elevator doors into the open shaft.
Oh crap. Your other…
The two of them tumbled head over feet into the darkness. Azumi held on to him as they plummeted down what felt like several stories. He could feel her trying to twist around and roll on top of him. He flailed, desperately trying grab onto something.
Find the calm!
Right away, Tao took control. He shot his arms out to block Azumi and elbowed her in the gut. He grabbed her arms, and the two grappled for control of the fall. Mid-air, without being able to plant their feet against something solid for leverage, the stronger person won out, which in this case was Tao. He prevented Azumi from rolling on top of him and swung her around until she was positioned below.
Then they struck a hard surface with a thunderous echo of metal, and everything went black.
43 Dark Times
Timestamp: 3475
In the end, I have to accept what I’ve done. Without my blundering, Jill and Cameron might have lived normal lives. Hell, I doubt I could’ve even landed Jill if it hadn’t been for Tao. I’d be one of those chubby cubicle worker bees who clocked in nine to five jobs and woke up one day, retired, wondering what happened to my life. You know, there was a guy named Pete who once warned me about that. I wonder how he’s doing now.
Anyway, if I had to choose all over again, I’m not sure if I would have done the same thing. I guess I’d have to, or Cameron would never have been born. See, screwed either way. Story of my life.
Roen’s worst fears were realized when he finally reached the platform. He burst through the stairwell opening and didn’t find a living soul. The guards should be up here. Something was wrong. There was no way Gwenda or the pilots would have abandoned their posts. Where could they have gone, anyway?
Roen peered inside one of the helicopter openings and then moved to the other side. Nothing. He crouched and hugged the outer body of the Chinooks as he swept the outer perimeter of the platform. Still nothing. Where was the team?
He reached the last bend of the third helicopter and nearly tripped over a body. He turned it over and recognized one of the pilots, dead from a cut throat. He looked past the body and saw several more lying in assorted positions on the ground and against one of the columns. He checked them as well. While Roen wasn’t a forensics expert, he had seen enough battle scenes to know what had happened.
A team of Genjix had assaulted the platform, taking out one or two of the guards. Gwenda’s team had moved in quickly and contained them. None of the Genjix seemed to have gotten more than two meters away from the doorway. Then, they must have been attacked from behind. Surprised by someone with a blade. Some of the squad had died from knife wounds, others from single gunshots. The blade wounds were interesting. Two of the bodies were shanked, as if stabbed by a very thin spear. The other two had their throats cut, but they were shallowly done. Whoever did this was precise. An Adonis Vessel. Fortunately, none of these bodies were his son.
“Cameron, where are you?” Roen bellowed, his voice barely perceptible over the howling wind, a hundred possibilities running through his head. Could he have gotten away? Was his body thrown over the side into the lake? Did he run downstairs? Panic set in as he looked over the edges of the platform. It’d be impossible to see a body in the darkness, especially with the Prophus’s black armor.
The thought of finding the body of his son crippled him. The thought of not ever knowing, even more so. Despair hit Roen like a truck. The rifle clattered onto the ground, and he dropped to his knees. All this pain; all this violence. And now, his son another victim of this stupid war. What was left out there if he didn’t have his boy? What did he have to live for? Vengeance? It felt hollow. Justice? There was no such thing.
Then Roen thought of Jill. She was still down there. Alive. He hadn’t lost her yet. She was all he had left in the world. He had to protect her. Roen slapped himself in the face. No, he wasn’t going to give up on Cameron either. He would never give up on his boy. Cameron was smart; he was able; he had Tao. Roen wasn’t going to give up until he saw the body. He was going to assume that Cameron was alive and had fled down to the base somewhere. And his son needed him.