BY JONTY
“I’m serious.” 494 looked
around them. “If you want me as leader, you have to follow my orders. We can’t
keep passing the leadership around. Grey spoke of something coming. We have to
be together for that, and it means definite leadership.”
The squad just nodded.
494 looked at Steve, and
598, asking for permission, kind of, but at the same time asking one of them to
step forward and take charge. They both simply stared back at him.
“5 seconds,” Biggs
muttered, slightly nervous now. If the other squad came for them when they were
like this, they would be in serious trouble.
494 nodded. “3 squads, 4
men each. Steve, Kat, 598, you’re in charge. Wing formation. Stay in contact.”
Each of them nodded,
fingering the headsets they had been given. They signalled to 3 others each,
and moved out. Steve moved to the left of the exercise area, 598 to the right.
Kat moved straight up the middle, but moved slower than the others. The three
squads formed a V shape as they moved forward. The aim was to locate the other
team, but also to draw them to attack Kat. If they did, Steve and 598 would
attack from either side.
Once they disappeared, 494
looked around.
“Tav, you’re radio bearer.
Biggs, map duty. Rest of you, form a perimeter.” They nodded, moving to follow
his instructions.
Tav moved closer to 494. As
radio bearer, he was effectively 2nd in command. He would be giving
the orders to the 3 squads in the field. He would also report to Biggs the
locations of the squads, narrowing down the possible locations of the other
team.
494 looked around, checking
the locations of his men. He set up a command post and waited. Tav joined him.
“I don’t trust that kid.
The one who just got back from psy ops. I want you to keep a close eye on him.
Make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid.”
“No problem.” Tav nodded.
>>>>>
2 hours later.
494 looked around his
gathered team. The three squads had returned, 598’s squad having found the
command centre of the other team. Apart from the 10 soldiers manning their
command post, they had seen no sign of the other team.
494 didn’t particularly
like that, but he could accept it. He had to focus on his team, not the other
one.
“We split in half,” he
commanded. “15 go for the command post, 15 guard our flag.”
There were a few strange
glances at that. That was not the way they had been taught to do stuff. Usually,
only a minimal amount were left to guard the flag.
“I’m not going to spend my
time explaining stuff to you.” 494 glared. “But, think. The other team has the
same training we have. They will expect only 3 or 4 guards. They may be
careless.”
He gestured to 14 soldiers.
“You’re with me. Biggs,
you’ll remain here, take charge of the defence. I can count on you?”
“Always.”
“Let’s do this.” 494
gestured for his squad to move out. He sent 598 and Steve up ahead, and hung around
near the back. Tav stayed near him, still watching the boy.
>>>>>
“It’s about 10 metres up
ahead,” 598 whispered to 494 as they stopped moving.
494 nodded, and signalled
to the others to stay down, to observe.
They needed to know what
the other squad was doing. He signalled that no-one was to make a move. And, he waited.
There were 5 of them
guarding the flag. Only 5. Exactly what Manticore had taught them to do. Always
attack, always assume that you can defeat your enemy before they can defeat
you.
494 had never really bought
into that.
A sound, to the left of
him.
494 spun in the direction,
but Tav had beaten him to it. “Damnit!” he muttered as he headed in the
direction.
The kid had a twig, and was
in the process of snapping it. 494 just had time to wonder what the kid was
doing, when the second twig snapped, catching the attention of the other team.
A girl spun in the
direction of the sound, raising her rifle and sighting where she thought the
sound came from. She was off by a few centimetres, but that didn’t matter. She
didn’t have time to fire a round before the boy raised his rifle and pulled the
trigger.
As he fired the shot,
several things happened.
The remaining 4 guards
realised what was going on and went to alert status, all of 494’s squad raised
their own rifles and took up targets. The boy moved his sights to another
guard, and the girl fell backwards.
494 blinked, and leaned
forward slightly.
Blanks were annoying, but
they didn’t usually send you flying backwards.
One of the guards fired a
random shot, and the kid fired again. Shit! What the hell was that little idiot
doing? 494 keyed his headset. “Fire,” he ordered, and the three he had assigned
as snipers took out their targets.
“Take him down,” 494 signalled
to one of his squad closest to the boy. She nodded, and moved closer towards
the boy.
That idiot had almost
ruined everything. 494 was not impressed. Firing like that, it was not what he
had planned. Shooting only one of the guards could have gotten some of his team
shot. It would have, if the other side had actually been concentrating.
He shook his head. He could
deal with that later. Right now, he had to get to the flag and end the game
before the reinforcements from the other squad came back. He stood, and moved
towards the flag.
Another shot was fired, and
he hit the ground, hard.
Had his squad missed
someone? There were only 5. He was sure of it.
He moved quickly to the
flag, keeping low. All he had to do was touch the flag, and the game was over.
There was a button on the flag pole, which would signal to HQ that he had
achieved his goal. He pressed it quickly, and a siren filled the air.
494 let a rare grin cross
his face. He turned back to look at his squad, proud that they had beaten the
enemy so easily.
Then, he stopped.
Most of his squad were not
looking at him. Their attention was focussed on a spot in the bush where the
boy had been.
Several of his soldiers
were on their feet, in order to get a better look.
“Report,” 494 spoke
quietly.
Biggs was by his side in an
instant. “The boy,” he spoke. “He fired on the girl you ordered to secure him.”
“He did what?”
“He shot her. And, well…”
Biggs went silent.
“What?”
Biggs shook his head.
494 froze. The girl, from the
other team. She had fallen back as if… he shoved his way forward, through his
squad.
“Fall in,” he barked to
them, and they followed his order, moving into formation.
The girl in his squad lay
on the ground, on her back. There was a hole in her chest where her, well,
chest used to be.
494 turned to look at Tav,
who had not joined the formation, but remained where he was, his weapon pointed
straight at the head of the boy.
494 knelt beside the girl,
pointlessly touching her neck to check for a pulse. He closed his eyes briefly.
This was all his fault. He had given her that order. When he opened his eyes
again, they were hard. He glared at the boy. “What did you do?” he asked.
The boy moved slightly, and
Tav fired. His rifle contained only blanks, but from such a close range, it
knocked the boy to the ground, stunned. Tav flicked his rifle upside down, and
smashed the butt of the rifle into the boy’s head. The boy twitched, and
collapsed onto the ground.
“What?” Tav asked
innocently. “There was a more than 5% chance that he was planning to shoot
you.”
494 shook his head. “In
formation, now,” he ordered.
He looked around quickly.
The 4 guards from the other team were just regaining their feet. The 5th
guard hadn’t moved, and 494 didn’t need to look at her to know that the bullet
that hit her hadn’t been a blank either.
The boy lay on the ground.
In the distance, was the
sound of people converging on the location.
He knelt again by the girl
from his squad. He touched her face lightly, then moved his hand over her face,
closing her eyes.
As the sounds grew closer,
he stood, turning back to take his position as the CO of his squad.
The guards moved quickly
through the woods and broke into the clearing.
The first thing they saw was around 25 soldiers, formed up in a squad,
and one kid out in front. To the side, 4 kids stood in a sort of circle, their
weapons loosely by their sides. They looked confused. The flag, which was the
entire purpose of the game, lay abandoned on the grass.
“Report.”
“
“Casualties?” the guard had
seen several figures lying on the ground.
494 took a deep breath.
“Three, sir. 2 dead, one unconscious, but otherwise, fine.”
“Two dead?” the guard’s
voice went higher than usual with surprise.
“Yes, sir.” 494 swallowed,
forcing himself not to throw up, or show any other outward sign of emotion.
“Some of the weapons were loaded with live ammo.”
The guard actually took a
step back. “Live ammo?” he stuttered, confused.
Another guard stepped
forward. “Fall in,” he told 494. “Back to the barracks.”
“Sir.”
>>>>>
The squad, including the
boy Tav had knocked out but who had since recovered, headed into the barracks.
The guard turned to look at 494.
“Sort this out,” he
commented.
“Sir?” 494 asked
“I suppose that kid knocked
himself out by accident?”
“He…” 494 paused. “He dived
for the ground when he saw that the ammo was live. He must have hit his head.”
“Sort it.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Carry on.”
494 saluted, then turned
towards the barracks. When he was out of sight of the guards, he stopped, and
took a deep breath. He didn’t know what to do. He couldn’t let this kid’s
actions slide, but could he really punish him?
The only way he knew to
punish people was the way Manticore had punished him. Could he really do that
to someone else?
He shook his head, and
entered the barrack room.
Tavis stood in front of the
kid, his fists raised in an offensive pose. The others stood in a loose circle,
not helping Tav, but not breaking it up, either.
He saw Steve glance his way
and move to break it up. He shoved the boy away, roughly, and glared at Tav.
494 took a step forward. It
wasn’t Tav’s fault. He just reacted to things. Felt things stronger than
everyone else, and acted on those feelings.
“Stand down,” he ordered
loudly. “By your racks. Right now.” They turned to follow his orders. “You two,
stay.” He gestured towards Tav and the boy.
Both glared at him, the
exact same expression on their faces. It would have been funny, if the
situation hadn’t been so terrible.
494 took a deep breath, and
turned to Tav. “Want to replace me?” he asked.
“What?” Tav asked, stunned.
“No, of course not.”
“You wanted me to be in
charge, you were one of the first to demand it of me. What did I tell you
then?”
Tav bit his lip. “That we
had to do exactly what you said, or else.”
“Did I tell you to attack
him?”
“No.” Tav looked down, then
met his gaze. “No, Sir.”
“Don’t challenge me again.”
“No, Sir. Never.” Tav
looked as serious as he ever did.
“Fine, dismissed.”
494 turned to the boy, who
stood glowering at him. “Is that the way you face a superior officer?” he
asked.
The boy ignored him.
494 heard muttering from
behind him. He didn’t think he could do what he needed to do, but he knew he
couldn’t leave things like this. The squad needed a leader, someone to be strong
for what was coming.
“Planning on challenging me
again?” he asked.
The kid glared back at him.
494 took another step
forward, and punched him, shattering his nose. Blood ran down the kid’s face,
and he leapt for 494, sending him flying to the ground. 494 struggled to stand
up, feeling someone grab the kid.
“Stand down,” he ordered.
It had to be his fight. He was the leader, he had to prove it. He shoved the
boy off him, and flipped up to his feet.
“This is my squad,” he told
him. “Understand?”
No response.
494 shoved him against a
wall, and moved to stand in front of him. “Last chance. Acknowledge my
leadership.”
“No chance.”
494 blinked. That was
possibly the first thing he had heard the boy say since he had returned from
psy ops. And, it would be his last. He
smashed his fist into the boy’s stomach, then raising the same arm, struck the
kid under the chin with his elbow. The boy fell to the ground. 494 kicked him
hard in the ribs, hearing about three break.
Even then, the boy tried to
move.
494 snapped another kick
into his leg, feeling something give that really shouldn’t bend in that
direction.
The boy stopped moving.
494 turned to look at the
rest of the squad. “I told you,” he spoke slowly. “I said, if I was in charge,
you follow me or else. You agreed to that. I’m not giving you the option now.
You put me in charge, deal with the consequences of that.”
He turned and left the
room, slamming the door behind him.
They looked at each other,
but said nothing.
Tav walked over to the boy.
He took a seat on the rack nearest to him, and waited. 494 had said not to
attack him, but he never said not to guard him.
598 looked at Steve, and
raised his eyebrows questioningly. Steve shrugged.
“Okay.” 598 headed for the
door.
494 sat in the corridor,
his arms on his knees, staring at the wall opposite him. “Back inside,” he ordered as he saw the door open out of the
corner of his eye.
“You okay?” 598 asked,
taking a seat opposite him.
494 said nothing. How could
he put it into words?
“Look.” 598 waited until
494 looked over to him. “Being in charge doesn’t mean that you can’t talk to
some of us. Most leaders have people they talk to, get advice from.”
“I never wanted to be in
charge.” 494 dropped his head to his knees.
“I did.” 494 looked up
again. “I loved being in charge. But, I never knew what being a leader really
was. I thought it just meant I could tell everyone what to do. I never realised
what leadership really was until you showed us.”
“What, beat up kids you
can’t control? Keep command by brute force?” 494 laughed humourlessly.
“Why not, if it’s the only
option available to you? That kid. He isn’t right. Hasn’t been since psy ops.
You did what you had to do, what we needed you to do. That kid is dangerous,
needs to be put in place.”
“Maybe,” 494 shrugged.
“We won the game, right? We
worked together, and got through it. Fastest time ever, apparently. You must be
a good enough leader to pull that off.”
494 looked at him,
seriously, for the first time. “And the rest of it?”
“You’re doing a good job.
The things you don’t know, you’ll learn. We’ll be here to help you.”
“When did you get so
smart?”
598 shrugged.
“I have to go back in there.”
494 stood up. “I hate this.”
“I’m right behind you.”
494 turned towards the
door, then looked back. “How is it that you don’t have a name? Everyone else
has one. Why not you?”
598 shrugged. “Nobody gave
me one.”
494 thought quickly.
“Todd,” he said quietly.
“That’s cool.” He smiled.
“Where did you hear that?”
“It’s Lt Grey’s first name.
You’re like him, intelligent, but you also understand stuff. Like him.”
598, Todd now, grinned. He
knew what 494 thought of Grey, he admired him more than anyone. To be given his
name was incredible.
“I learnt it from you,
then. But, thanks.”
494 put a hand on his
shoulder, then nodded towards the door. “With me?” he asked.
A week later…
494 grabbed his food from
the serving lady, and thanked her, as had become his habit. As he moved to sit
down, he noted that everyone behind him was doing the same thing. They were
learning.
He smiled slightly as he
sat down.
Steve moved to his right,
and Todd to his left. Biggs and Kat sat opposite him. Biggs looked at him,
nodding slightly to say that he had something to tell him. 494 nodded.
Tav didn’t join them, but
sat opposite the boy from psy ops. For the past week, he hadn’t been more than 5
metres away from the kid. He even swapped racks so that he was sleeping next to
him.
494 had to admire his
ability to stick to a task.
He also had to wonder why
the boy hadn’t reacted yet. Tav had basically spent the last 12 hours staring
at him. It was kind of interesting to watch when he had a spare moment.
The boy hadn’t seemed to
realise, which was the most interesting part.
494 allowed a quick smile
to cross his face as he remembered the night before. Tav had been talking to
the boy for about two hours, about basically nothing, when he had suddenly
stopped.
That had gotten 494’s
attention, and he had stopped talking to Todd and looked over.
“You need a name,” Tav had
commented, suddenly. “You’re part of this squad, unfortunately, so you need a
name. What can we call you?” He thought for a moment. “Idiotboy. Nah. I know!”
he spoke louder. “
The boy said nothing, as
usual.
“Good, settled then.”
“Sir!” Biggs whispered.
494 shook his head
mentally. “What?” he asked.
“Remember that drug I told
you about? Diazepam?”
“Yes.”
“I found out what it is.”
494 looked at him,
interested.
“It’s a sleeping pill. A
really strong one. Why do you think they’re going to send us all to sleep?”
494 shook his head. He
didn’t know. He looked down at his plate, thinking. The others picked up on it,
and left him alone.
Why would they want every X
series to sleep? Didn’t they sleep every night? There was something, he just
couldn’t think what it was. Something that maybe he should know.
But he didn’t.
>>>>>
Medical Lab…
Two nurses moved hurriedly
around the lab, getting things ready. On one exam bed lay a whole pile of
boxes. The blonde woman added another box to the pile, and consulted a clipboard.
“I think that’s enough.”
“Really? Some of those X2s
might take a bit more.”
“Um...” the blonde
interrupted. The other woman looked over at her. “The X2s aren’t going to be a
problem.”
“They aren’t?”
“No. They’re not going to
be given anything.”
“But they can’t just…”
“Shut up. They can do
whatever the hell they like.”
>>>>>
Something was different.
494 noticed it, heading back to the barrack block that night. He glanced at
Biggs, and saw him looking around the compound. So he had figured it out too.
494 walked faster, wanting
to get inside and talk about this. As soon as the door shut behind them, he
gestured to his little group to join him in one corner of the room. Several others
looked at them, then shrugged and continued on with what they needed to do.
They trusted 494 to take care of them.
“Okay,” 494 muttered.
“Diazepam. It’s a drug. Makes you sleep. Why would they give it to us? Any
suggestions?”
“Medical experiments?” Kat
asked.
“Never sent us to sleep
before,” Steve commented, moving closer to her.
She nodded. “Then what?”
she asked him.
“Okay, what happens when
you sleep?” 494 asked.
“Well, if you don’t wake
up, you die,” Tav commented sarcastically.
As if they were one, they
all stared at him.
494 looked over to Ron,
then back. “It’s possible,” he said slowly.
Tav looked down at the
sheet. He had been joking. He hadn’t meant it really. He didn’t want that to be
true. As much as he pretended otherwise, he didn’t want to die. He looked up at
494, needing reassurance. 494 nodded, and touched him on the shoulder.
“It does make sense,” 494
repeated. “Think about it. The escape. They try to figure out why those kids
ran off.”
“They sent you back,” Steve
commented. “So, there was nothing wrong with you.”
“Maybe there was,” 494
replied. “Maybe, what they found wrong? Maybe it was wrong in all of us.”
“So, instead of killing you
then, they decided to kill us all off?” Steve asked.
“It does make sense.” Todd
nodded, entering the conversation. “Get rid of all of us at once?”
Steve put his arm around
Kat. “It’s okay, though,” he told her. “Now that we know, now that 494 knows,
we can do something about it.” He looked at 494, trying to signal him to confirm
what he had just said.
“Yeah,” 494 nodded, not
sure at all that he could do anything. “We’ll figure something out.” He stood
up. “Lights out soon.”
Tav looked scared, but
headed towards his rack.
494 walked slowly around
the barrack, nodding to several kids, before returning to his own. He caught
sight of Tav lying on his rack, staring at the ceiling, and knelt beside him.
“Giving Ron a break
tonight?” he asked, forcing himself to smile. Tav just looked at him. “They
won’t do anything tonight.” He told the younger boy. “Pills, remember? We have
tonight to figure out a plan.”
Tav nodded, unconvinced.
“Listen, I need you to not
scare the others. They expect you to be the sarcastic one. It’ll worry them if
you suddenly act normal.”
“Thanks a lot,” Tav
replied, but he smiled slightly. Then, his smile broadened, and he stood up.
“Hey, Ron,” 494 heard him
comment as he moved across the room. “Miss me?”
494 smiled, and threw
himself down on his own rack. They had to be ready, if it happened tomorrow.
They would have to be careful. He hadn’t survived psy ops, kind of, just to be
killed by a sleeping pill.
That was assuming he had a
choice in the matter.
>>>>>
Tav took a mouthful of his
meal, and froze. He chewed it slowly, then swallowed, a grimace on his face.
“Hey,” he muttered, shoving some food around on his plate. “This taste funny to
anyone else?”
Steve rolled his eyes. “You
are so paranoid. Just because Biggs thinks there is something going on
involving sleeping pills, you think they’ve drugged us. Idiot.”
Tav glared at Steve, and
took another bite.
“If you’re so worried, why
keep eating?” Steve challenged.
“Too late now, I guess.”
Tav shrugged. “But I am noticing you haven’t eaten anything yet.”
“It does taste kind of funny,”
Kat commented, dropping her fork back onto her plate. “I don’t think I’m hungry
anymore.”
494 looked at them, shook
his head lightly, and continued eating.
This was Manticore. He didn’t know how many X series there were, but a
few hundred, easy, even without counting the X2s. Diazepam was an Ordinary’s
drug. Xs were better than Ordinaries, it took more drugs to knock them out. And
therefore, even more to kill them. Figure, a few thousand sleeping pills, that
someone had to grind up and put in food. And that was once they had gotten
them.
As a general rule,
Manticore didn’t like them enough to care whether they got a good nights sleep,
so they wouldn’t have that many on site.
They did, however, have an
awful lot of ammo. If they wanted all the Xs dead, much easier to just shoot
them all.
Besides, sleeping pills had
to be a better way to go than by firing squad.
>>>>>
“Uh, Sir?” Tav walked over
to 494, close enough to whisper. “Listen, don’t tell the others, but I really
don’t feel that good.”
494 laughed. He couldn’t
help it.
Tav looked at him, stunned.
“Sir!” he protested, then grinned.
494 tried to stop himself
smiling. “They won’t try to kill us.”
“Really?” Tav wanted
reassurance.
“No. They told me.”
“Really?” Tav asked again,
sure he was being set up.
494 just looked at him.
>>>>>
494 woke instantly, rolling
out of his rack, and onto the floor. He turned towards his dresser to grab a
shirt, and stopped. Wasn’t that a different shade of Manticore Grey? It seemed
different.
He shook his head. Tav had
him paranoid.
“Lights on!” he called.
Kat raised her hand as she
always did to slap the light panel. Her hand connected with wall.
“Hope no-one saw that,” she
muttered under her breath as she opened her eyes and turned the light on.
“Hurry up! Outside in
formation.”
>>>>>
Tav sprinted to the end of
the barrack block, skidding to a halt as he reached the door. They were not
allowed to run outside, unless ordered to. He walked slowly outside onto the
parade ground, taking his usual position.
Biggs quickly joined him.
Tav blinked. He looked
quickly around for the guards, to see where they were. Not within earshot. He
turned to Biggs. “Notice anything different?” he whispered.
“Like?”
“I can see,” Tav commented.
Biggs opened his mouth to
reply with some really stupid comment, then shut it again. Tav was correct.
Usually, when they formed up, the sun was just rising and was directly in their
line of sight. When they were really young, they had to concentrate on not
squinting or closing their eyes. Now, the sun was rising somewhere off to the
side of them.
“Eyes front, kids,” Steve
muttered as he and Todd joined them.
“Hey, Steve? Is it possible
that someone rotated the parade ground?”
Steve closed his eyes for a
second, then looked at Todd. “Help?” he asked, a long suffering tone in his
voice.
“Ignore them. I hear in a
couple of years, we get this thing called heat, when we’re allowed to kill
people and not get punished.”
“Oh. Good, then.” Steve
turned away from them, his eyes straight ahead, trying to pretend that he
hadn’t noticed that the parade ground was on an odd angle that morning.
>>>>>
494 glared at one of his
soldiers for what seemed like the hundredth time that day. It was Biggs that
time. When Biggs ignored him, he glanced at the instructor to see if he was
watching. He wasn’t. 494 leant forward and kicked Biggs hard.
He was well aware that the
door in the classroom, that had always squeaked, no longer did so. He did not
need Biggs to keep glancing at it to tell him that.
As soon as the class was
dismissed, he strode back to the barracks.
“Outside,” he ordered as
kids started to file into the room. “You guys stay,” he told Steve and Todd,
and nodded at the rest of his group.
When the door shut he
gestured them over to join him.
“Start acting like
soldiers,” he ordered. “Fine, this isn’t our facility. Everything’s different.
Very close, but still, things aren’t quite right. None of the others have
picked up on it, and I don’t want them to know. Stop pointing it out to them by
looking stupidly at things that aren’t right here.” He looked around at
them all. “Questions?”
“Why are we keeping this
secret?” Tav asked, almost challenged. “If something is going on here, they
should know about it, so when they do realise, they don’t do anything dumb.”
494 glanced at Biggs.
“Because,” Biggs spoke
slowly, “if Manticore wanted us to know, they would have told us. We act like
we know, they might decide to shut us up.”
“Re-indoctrination?”
“Or worse,” 494 commented.
“No more second looks, or comments. Jump on anyone else who makes a comment. I
want discipline at 100% for the next few weeks.”
“Yes, sir,” they responded,
jumping to attention.
“Let’s go then.” 494 walked past them and outside, heading to the mess hall for lunch.
>>>>>
“Report.” The Colonel
strode into his office and sat behind his desk. He was tempted to put his feet
up on the desk, but he was sure there was a regulation about it somewhere.
“We lost half of the X2
series. Their bodies just wouldn’t metabolise any of the tranquillisers we had.
We had to transfer them when they were awake. Some tried to escape. It
was…annoying to have to dispose of the bodies.”
“No doubt.” The Colonel
nodded. “And the rest?”
“The freaks have no clue.
One basement is the same as another. Some of the X4s seem to have realised, but
are saying nothing.”
“Any X5s?”
The soldier smiled. “Our
boy knows. And some others as well. He told them in no uncertain terms to shut
the fuck up.”
The Colonel smiled. “I’m so
proud. And his brother?”
494 looked around the room.
Steve and Todd sat on the floor, polishing their shoes. He walked over and
threw himself down on Steve’s rack, messing up the carefully folded sheets.
“Thanks,” Steve commented.
“No problem.” 494 shrugged.
“Listen.”
The two boys dropped their
shoes and looked at him, waiting.
“Have you noticed anything
different about this place?”
Steve laughed. “Are you
serious?”
“I meant, anything really
strange. Not just the random stuff, like the doors they oiled or forgot to oil.
I’m talking, real differences. Buildings in the wrong place, extra rooms,
things like that.”
The smile left Steve’s face
as he thought quickly. “No, but since you told me not to be obvious, I’ve been
trying not to look.”
“I have,” Todd commented,
shrugging. “I just wanted to know, okay? And, no. Everything looks the same. I
don’t think they wanted us to notice anything different.”
“Yeah,” 494 nodded. “That’s
what I thought. Start looking today. If we can’t find anything too different, I
want to try something tomorrow night.”
“What?” Todd leaned
forward.
“You’ll find out.” 494
rolled to his feet, and grinned, heading over to talk to Biggs.
>>>>>
Lt Grey looked around the
gathered squad, and nodded to himself. It was becoming more and more obvious by
the day that this squad was working together, and achieving results that even
the Colonel had to classify as acceptable.
That just made what was
about to happen even more strange.
He tried to catch 494’s
eye, wanting to indicate to the kid that he should stay behind, if he could.
The Colonel could do what he wanted, but that didn’t mean that he himself couldn’t
drop a few hints about what was coming.
494 nodded slightly, and as
Grey dismissed them, bent down to tie his shoe lace.
Grey wandered closer,
picking up a rifle and checking it. “Did you notice?” he asked quietly.
“Yes,” 494 replied.
“Well done. But there’s
more.”
“More?” 494 quickly looked
up at his instructor, then caught what he was doing, and dropped his gaze
again.
“You’re going to be getting
a few more squad members. 4, I think, and they’ll be transferring another 4
out.”
“Damn,” 494 muttered. They
were finally all working together well. Having to train 4 new kids would be a
pain, but worse would be losing 4 of his own guys. “Know who?” 494 stood up, not able to fake tying a
shoelace any longer.
“No, but if your brother
doesn’t learn to keep his mouth shut, he’ll be going, via psy ops.”
“Which one?” 494 asked.
Brother was a strange way to put it, he had never referred to his squad mates
as brother or sister. He knew the terms, and what they meant, but it had never
occurred to him to apply them to his friends. They weren’t brother and sister.
Grey just looked at him.
“Your brother. You only have one. Now, go, before someone gets suspicious.”
“Yes, Sir.” 494 saluted,
then turned away. He didn’t understand. He had a brother? Well, obviously, he
had one. The escapee twin. But Grey was talking about someone in his unit,
wasn’t he? Someone who would be transferred out?
He hated not understanding
things. He really hated it. There had to be a way to figure this out. He could
add it to his list of things to do.
>>>>>
“Hear you have a mission
for us tonight,” Tav asked enthusiastically, grinning at 494.
“Really, and where did you
hear that?” 494 asked him, frowning.
Tav refused to stop smiling.
“What do you want us to do?”
494 shook his head. “Me
only.” He told the younger boy, his tone signifying that the discussion was
over.
Tav opened his mouth to
protest, but caught a warning glare from Todd, and decided not to bother. He
could always just follow 494 when he left.
>>>>>
It was
He looked around briefly
again, and then opened the window. This barrack block was just like the one he
had seen in the visions they had shown him at psy ops. And if Ben, and the
others, had managed to climb to the roof from their barrack room, then so could
he.
>>>>>
Across the room, Tav opened
his eyes, watching.
494 climbed out the window,
using the guttering to climb up. He pulled himself up onto the roof, and looked
around.
Just like the vision, he
thought, except there was no weird altar thing there. He smiled as he imagined
the guards’ reactions to finding that thing on the roof. It would not be good, anyway.
He headed to the centre of
the roof, and sat down, leaning back to stare at the stars. A noise came from
the side of the building, and he leapt to his feet, muttering something as he
realised who it was climbing up.
“496!” he rebuked angrily,
choosing to use his designation rather than his name to indicate to the boy how
annoyed he was that his order to stay had not been obeyed.
“What are you doing?” Tav
asked, looking around. “This is nice. Why haven’t we been up here before?”
“You shouldn’t be up here
now,” 494 whispered angrily. “If you get
caught, you’ll be sent to Psy ops.”
“So will you,” Tav reminded
him. “What is so important?”
494 sighed. He could use
the help, a second opinion and all that, but at some stage he was going to have
to teach this kid to obey.
“Watching the stars,” he
said slowly.
“Why?” Tav asked. 494
stared at him, waiting for him to understand on his own. “To find out where we
are,” he answered himself finally. “By comparing the constellations we can see
to a star chart.”
“Yes,” 494 told him. “We
may have to leave this place at some stage. The Colonel is giving a lot of
orders at the moment that seem to make no sense.”
“Do they ever?”
“We moved facilities, he’s
going to be moving people around the squads. Grey is concerned enough about
what is going on to drop hints to me.”
Tav nodded. “So, when we have to escape, we need to know
where we are escaping from?”
494 nodded, his attention
returning to the constellations, memorising them. Tav did the same thing.
“We need to go, get back
inside before the guards think to check on us,” 494 commented, moving to the
side of the building.
“Yes, Sir.”
As he reached the side, 494
stopped and turned back. “Tavis, listen to me. The next few days, or weeks, you
have to be the perfect soldier. Okay? No sarcasm, nothing.”
“I’ll try,” Tav didn’t
sound convincing, even to himself.
“Tav.” 494 put his hand on
the boy’s shoulder. “I said they’d be moving people around. There is a
possibility that you will be one of them. Do you want to go to another squad?”
He refused to mention the psy ops possibility.
“No, sir.” Tavis looked
scared.
“Then do what you’re told.
Be the perfect soldier for now.” Tav nodded. “Okay, you first.” 494 nodded
towards the grate.
Was Tav the one that Greyad
mentioned? He was the only really sarcastic one in the squad, although another
couple of kids came close. And the brother thing? Was that Grey giving him a
clue? His number and Tav’s were close. But then, if Grey could tell him that
much, why did he not just give him Tav’s name? It made no sense.
He shrugged, and climbed
back down the drainpipe. He would figure it out.
>>>>>
“Find anything interesting
on the roof?” Biggs asked, sitting down beside 494 at breakfast.
494 glanced over at him.
“You were awake?” Damnit, he thought. That was two of them. He would have to be
more careful in the future.
“Yeah. I have done the same
training as you, you know,” Biggs commented, a grin on his face.
“Sorry.” 494 nodded. “Did
you see Tav follow me?”
Biggs nodded.
“You didn’t stop him?”
“I thought, maybe, he was
supposed to go with you. I mean, he followed you, and I watched out the window,
but I didn’t see him falling past it, so…”
494 grinned. “You really
think I would throw my own...” brother? “...squadmate off the roof?”
Biggs grinned back. “You
said if we disobeyed you…”
494 allowed his smile to
widen. He felt comfortable with Biggs. With the others, he had to worry about
being the leader, setting an example. They looked up to him, but they never
really joked with him like Biggs did. Well, Tav did, but that was different.
Tav was sarcastic to everyone, and it was going to get him in serious trouble
some time soon.
“Do something for me?” he
asked.
“Anything, you know that,”
Biggs replied immediately.
“Watch Tav for me? I heard
something. He might be headed for trouble.”
Biggs nodded. He wanted to
ask who 494 had heard it off, but there would be no point. He wouldn’t get an
answer. 494 had heard it, that was enough.
>>>>>
As the squad moved into the
barrack block to change after physical training and before lunch, several
things happened almost at the same time.
Tav turned the corner
first, and commented, “Hey, waiter service. Nice.”
Biggs and Steve looked at
each other, then shoved Tav into the wall. Both were taking very seriously the
instructions from 494 to keep him in line.
Todd stepped around them,
turned the corner, and stopped.
He looked back to 494, who
was talking with Kat about something, and gestured to him that something was
going on.
Two girls stood in the
corridor outside their barrack room. Despite everything that was going on, they
both stood perfectly to attention, their eyes locked ahead of them.
The squad stopped moving,
but parted slightly. 494 stepped through them, and marched up to the two girls.
They both snapped salutes.
“Report,” he demanded.
“Sir! X5-501 reporting,”
the girl on the left spoke in a very military-like tone. “Myself and X5-567
were ordered to report to this squad.”
494 looked back at her. So
Grey had been right about that. “For what purpose?” he asked.
“Sir, I was told that we
are to join this squad, effective immediately.”
494 looked at her, then
over to the other girl. Both seemed very disciplined. There was something about
the one on the right, however. She looked familiar, but he couldn’t figure out
from where.
“Inside the barrack room,”
he spoke to the girl who was talking. She moved instantly.
“You, wait here,” he
directed to the other.
Both nodded, in perfect
military style.
He turned to look at the
gathered squad, and signalled for Todd and Steve to join him, then strode into
the room.
“Why?” was the first
question he asked.
“Not sure, Sir,” she
responded. “The Colonel didn’t think I was important enough to share that
with.”
He looked at her. Was that
humour? He moved directly in front of her. “Trying to be funny?”
“No, Sir.”
Yeah, right. He caught
something in her expression. Amusement, almost.
“Your feelings about this
transfer?” he asked. She didn’t reply. “Stand easy.”
She relaxed, and looked at
him. “One squad is much the same as any other, isn’t it?”
“Not exactly,” 494 replied,
thinking of Tav, and the whole ‘Ron’ thing. “This squad is better than the
others,” he amended, trying to maintain his discipline. He had been spending
way too much time with Tav, apparently. “Wait outside. Send the other one in in
two minutes.”
As she left, 494 turned to
Todd. “Get Biggs in here.”
He nodded, and opened the
door, gesturing to Biggs to enter.
“Sir?” Biggs asked.
“Did you catch their numbers?”
“No, Sir. Sorry.”
“Me neither.” 494 smiled
slightly. “This one, the one about to come in. I know her. When she reports,
see if you recognise her number as being the twin of one of the escapees. Maybe
I saw her in psy ops.”
The door opened, and the
second girl entered, saluting quickly. “X5-567 reporting, Sir.”
494 looked quickly at
Biggs, who shook his head. Not from Psy ops, then. “Where do I know you from?”
he asked. Direct questioning might have a chance of succeeding.
“The training exercise,
sir,” she replied.
He looked at her again, and
realised where he had seen her from. The capture the flag exercise, against the
other X5 unit. She had been one of the ones guarding the flag. He glanced
quickly at Steve, and saw a stunned reaction on his face.
“I’m sorry,” he told the
girl, turning back to her. “About your squadmate. I’m sorry.”
Her face dropped, and he
saw emotion on her face for the first time.
“The other girl, was she in
your previous squad also?”
“No, Sir. But her twin was.
Sir?” She looked at him.
“Yes.”
“Permission to ask a
question?”
“Yeah.”
“Why did he do that? I
mean, the first shot might have been an accident, but when he knew he had live
ammo, why did he shoot that other girl?”
“He’s a nomaly.” It was the
only explanation he had. He didn’t understand enough about psychology to give a
better description of the problems that Ron had.
“I have to tell you, Sir. I
hate him.”
494 nodded. She would fit
right in then. Everyone in this squad hated that idiot. If he wasn’t
transferred out, and soon, there would be an actual murder. Probably the first
in transgenic history.
“Don’t kill him,” he warned
her, smiling slightly.
She nodded. “I can hurt him
though?” she asked.
494 sighed. “Remind me to
introduce you to Tav.”
Family.
It was a word he knew,
intellectually, but he had never really thought about what it meant. It was
just another word that he had been taught, so that when the time came, and he
was sent out into that world, he could fit in. Or at least, understand the
concepts.
Now, the word suddenly had
meaning for him. He had family, maybe. A brother. Possibly.
One of the things he hated was
not knowing the answer to things. He wasn’t really sure what having a brother
would be like, but now that the thought was in his head, he couldn’t get it
out.
A brother.
It sounded
interesting. He just needed a way to
find out if it was true or not.
He dragged his attention
back to the scene in front of him.
Combat training. Usually
his favourite lesson, learning how to attack people so that if it ever came
down to it he could protect his own squad.
The instructor flipped Todd
over his shoulder and onto the ground. 494 watched with interest. If he had
shifted his weight slightly during that…
Interesting.
Todd stood slowly and moved
to the side of the ring.
“Next?” the instructor
asked. “Volunteer?”
“Sir!” 494 stood quickly.
“Very good,” the instructor
nodded. “We’ll try that again. Come at me, slowly, keep your weight forward.”
494 did what he was told,
but just as the instructor went to grab him and flip him over, he shifted his
weight to the side. He flew through the air and hit the ground hard. Something
snapped in his hand, and he forced himself not to cry out.
He stood slowly, holding
his arm loosely by his side.
The instructor looked at
him. “Broken?” he asked, watching closely to see the reaction.
“Yes, Sir.”
“Want to go to the hospital
wing?”
“I want to try that again,
sir. Get it right.”
“Good man.” The instructor
nodded. “Try it again, this time, weight forward.”
“Yes, sir.” 494 moved
forward, executing the move perfectly. He hit the mat, and rolled to his feet.
“Acceptable,” the
instructor commented. Then, he smiled. “Want to try throwing someone?”
It wasn’t a question, at
least not one that he could say no to. His hand hurt. He could feel it
throbbing, and he tried to clench his fist. It hurt, but he could do it. Just.
“Yes, sir.” He moved to
stand to attention.
“Volunteer?” the instructor
asked. Kat stepped forward immediately. “Fine.”
Kat stepped up to face 494.
“You alright?” she mouthed at him, her back to the instructor and the others.
494 grinned back at her.
“Ready,” he told her.
She stepped forward,
throwing a punch. 494 shifted his weight, blocked the punch, and threw her
expertly. He felt another flash of pain as something else in his hand snapped.
“Well done,” the instructor
commented. “Go get that hand checked out.”
“Sir.” 494 saluted- using
his other hand- and headed towards the hospital.
He took a deep breath as he
entered. He hated this place. The only time they ever went there was if they
had been seriously hurt, or when someone felt the urge to put them through an
experiment or two.
This was risky. He just had
to hope that they didn’t feel the urge to experiment on him today just because
he was there.
He reported to the duty doctor,
who directed him into the main room, but otherwise ignored him. 494 allowed
himself to smile slightly as he entered the room and closed the door behind
him.
He glanced up towards the
corner where they often had a camera, to film the various procedures.
Nothing. There was no sound from
outside, either.
He moved quickly to the
computer terminal. Manticore should not teach their soldiers to hack computers
if they didn’t want them to actually do it. His fingers flew across the screen,
gaining access to the files he wanted.
DNA records. That was what
he needed. He found the X5 data base, then his squad’s.
There was his file. He
opened it, skimming it quickly, one ear listening for the sound of anyone
approaching. Quickly, he memorised his DNA sequencing for no other reason than
it might come in useful. Panther DNA? That was quite cool. But not quite what
he was looking for. He kept reading, looking for the personal stuff.
What was that? He stopped
scrolling down the page. What was a surrogate? That wasn’t a word he knew. But
there was a female name beside it. There was no other name on the page that
could be the name of his ‘mother’.
It would be the right name.
It would have to be.
He exited out of his page,
and scanned the list of his squad members. He found Tav’s and clicked on that,
scrolling to the bottom. And there it was. Surrogate, same name as was listed
on his. He smiled slightly, then exited the screen, expertly covering his
tracks. Then, he heard it. The sound of someone moving down the hall towards
the room he was in.
He quickly finished what he
was typing and turned off the screen.
When the doctor entered, he
was sitting on the examination bed, waiting.
“What happened?” the doctor
asked.
“Training exercise,” 494
responded, making his voice sound bored.
The doctor took his hand,
and quickly moved it to one side.
494 gasped.
“Broken,” the doctor
commented. “Probably in a couple of places.”
494 suppressed the urge to roll
his eyes. Yes, he knew it was broken. You could look at it and see that. Where
did they get these ‘doctors’ from, anyway?
The doctor quickly splinted
the arm. “It’ll heal in a couple of days.” The doctor sounded as bored as 494
had before.
He really didn’t care.
These freaks healed so damn quick anyway, that if the hand wasn’t splinted
right, they could just rebreak it and set it properly.
“Thank you, sir,” 494
commented, standing up to leave.
>>>>>
494 entered the barrack
block and looked over at Tav. Should he tell him about them being brothers? He
watched Tav playfighting with Biggs, pushing him to the ground, and grinned.
It was best not to. Not
yet, anyway. Knowledge was power, but power wasn’t always a good thing. Tav was
so reckless anyway, always taking chances. If he knew that they were brothers,
he might become even more reckless, take even more chances. That would not be
good.
Besides, he liked the idea
that he knew something that the others didn’t. They weren’t allowed to be individuals
here, they were all taught the same things, expected to act the same way. One
of the appealing aspects about the names the others had given each other was
that they could have something different.
He hadn’t been given a
name, but knowing something that the others didn’t,
The room was completely
silent. 30 heads bent over textbooks, memorising pages of technological
information. How to build a bomb using every day materials. 494 reached the
bottom of the page, and glanced around the room, making sure that everyone was
doing what they were told.
It seemed that as they got
older, the instructors got tougher and tougher. Failures were now punished
severely. Not that many failures occurred now, they all knew what was expected
of them. In his squad, anyway. They heard stories about punishments in other
squads, even saw some of the unique ways that Manticore had of dealing with
those who didn’t make the grade.
All of his squad were doing
what they were told. His eyes paused on Tavis for a second, and as if he felt
it, Tav looked over at him and grinned. 494 frowned at him. Tav shrugged, and
looked down again. 494 returned to his book.
From the rack by the door, a
casual cough from Kat as she turned the page. The mood in the room changed
dramatically. Kids moved slightly, tightening muscles. Then, they all heard it.
The sound of a footstep in the hall. Kat’s warning had been accurate as always.
Someone was coming.
The door slammed open, and
they were all on their feet instantly, standing to attention.
The guard looked around,
and nodded. “X5-494.”
“Sir!” 494 took a step
forward and turned towards him.
“Colonel wants to see you.
1730 hours.”
“Sir.”
The guard turned and
marched towards the door. His movement seemed forced, unnatural, like he wasn’t
really used to drill yet. As he reached the door, he turned and looked back,
casting his gaze over the 30 12 year olds who remained motionless, perfectly to
attention, staring straight ahead of them. These kids were weird. If it wasn’t
for the money, he wouldn’t be here at all.
>>>>>
“What do you think is going
on?” Biggs asked him softly as they grabbed food and sat in the mess-hall.
“No idea. I guess I’ll find
out tonight.”
Biggs nodded, looking
nervous. It was never good when one of them was summoned to the Colonel. It
usually meant punishment.
“It’ll be fine,” 494 told
him, not convinced himself. “No big deal.”
“I guess.” Biggs ate
quickly, not speaking for the rest of the meal. He could still remember clearly
what it had been like, three years ago, when 494 had been taken to psy ops. The
unit had almost fallen apart. No-one knew who was in charge and there had been
so much infighting that the problem had almost been brought to the attention of
the guards. Then, finally, Steve had taken leadership, and order had been
restored. But still, he didn’t want to have to go through that again. The squad
was so much better now, and 494 had done that. He had brought them together,
made them something. He didn’t want to go back to how it was before.
494 said nothing either.
>>>>>
1600 hours.
Tav leaned back against a
tree and closed his eyes for a second. This exercise was reasonably fun, just a
simple map reading course. A really long map reading course. He’d been
following the long list of directions for three hours now, reaching certain
points, jotting down a number or letter that was found at each point, and
moving on to the next one.
It was weird being alone,
he had become so used to working as part of a squad. But this time, it was a
solitary exercise. Each of them had different directions to follow, and
although he frequently saw one or more of them moving through the woods, they
never did more than smile at each other. He only had one more hour to complete
the course, and another 15 points to get to.
He started moving again,
heading west.
Ahead of him he heard
voices, and moved faster to see who they were. If they were slacking off instead
of getting through the course, then 494 would not be happy.
“Hey,” he called out as he
came across a clearing, in which two boys stood talking. “What are you doing?
Get moving.”
They turned to face him,
and Tav fought the urge to step back. The boy on the right, he didn’t
recognise, but the one on the left, he knew all too well.
<You’re part of this
squad, unfortunately, so I think you need a name. What shall we call you?
Idiotboy? Nah, I know.
The boy grinned at him and
took a step forward.
This was not good.
“Well,” Ron spoke, shaking
his head. “If it isn’t 494’s little slave.” He turned to look at the other boy.
“He was part of my old squad. The squad leader’s little favourite.”
“He doesn’t look like much,”
the boy replied.
“None of them were.
Especially not the leader, he was completely incompetent.”
“Was not.” Tav stepped
forward. “494’s the best. He’s better than you’ll ever be.”
“He never beat me,” Ron
told him, smirking.
“No, he never fought you,”
Tav replied. “He never did. He just stopped us from doing it. The squad was
more important than you, and if we’d have killed you, the
Ron shrugged. “Worked out
great for me, too. Didn’t take me long to get command of my new squad.”
“I feel sorry for them.”
Even as Tav spoke, he was looking for a way to escape. He wasn’t a coward. He
would fight if necessary. But Ron, he wasn’t normal. He was a nomaly, and Tav
just wanted to stay as far away from him as possible. But, he wasn’t scared.
“I don’t. My squad is the
strongest around.”
Tav shook his head, turning
away.
“You’ll see,” Ron shouted
after him. “You think 494 is so great, but I’m going to kill him. Then you’ll
see how weak he is.”
Tav turned back. “No
chance.”
“I will. Tomorrow night. He
has an away mission, bet you didn’t know that. Summoned to see the Colonel
soon? Me too. And when we’re on the outside? He won’t be coming back.”
Tavis was stunned. How did
Ron know about that? He decided very quickly that he just didn’t care. He took
a step towards the two boys.
“You are such a Nomaly,” he
told him.
Ron looked at the other
boy, and took a step forward.
>>>>>
1655 hours.
At the end of the course,
494 stood nervously, looking around. His squad had less than 5 minutes to
complete the course, and he was waiting on three of them. The rest of his squad stood with him,
scanning the woods.
“Sir,” one commented,
pointing into the woods. 2 females ran quickly through the woods to reach the
finish line.
494 nodded at them, acknowledging
their success. Not fast enough for his liking, but he could work on that with
them later. Only Tavis was unaccounted for. That made no sense.
Two minutes left.
Tav walked slowly out of
the woods, limping slightly, shoving his hair into place as best he could.
Casually, as if he had planned it that way, he crossed the finish line with
about 45 seconds to spare.
“What happened?” 494 asked,
seeing the blood on his clothing, and his bruised face.
The guard who was timing
the exercise said nothing, but was clearly listening.
“I couldn’t find a mark,”
Tav improvised, “so I thought I’d climb a tree to have a better view of the
surrounding area. Then, I thought jumping down would be better than climbing.”
494 stared at him, and then
pulled him to one side. “Never talk to me that way again,” he told him, a
slight grin on his face to let Tav know he was just putting on a show for the
guard. “You almost failed. That, too, will never happen again.”
“I have to talk to you
before your meeting,” Tav whispered back.
Chapter 28
“Let’s hear it.” 494 leaned against the wall in the barrack block and stared at Tav.
“Your meeting with the
Colonel? You’re being given an away mission.”
494 grinned. This was a
great opportunity. Not that he loved the idea of being sent out to kill
someone, but the idea of being allowed out in the real world was too good to
pass up. If nothing else, it would mean that he had a chance to scope out
possible escape routes for if his squad needed to escape. “Sounds fun.”
“It won’t be.” Tav frowned.
“Here’s the thing. You aren’t going alone.”
494 watched
him, waiting for the punchline.
“Ron is going too.”
494 shrugged, trying to act
calm. This was not good. Out alone, without a guard? One of them was going to get
hurt. “No problem.”
He turned towards the door,
preparing himself for the meeting. Then, he turned back to the room. The whole
squad was watching him. Being summoned to the Colonel’s office could not be a
good thing.
“Steve.”
“Sir?” Steve jumped to attention.
“You’re in charge until I
get back.” 494 was not going to make that mistake again. If anything happened
to him, there would be a chain of command
in place.
>>>>>
494 took a deep breath, and
knocked on the door.
“Enter,” came a call from inside.
He opened the door and
moved inside. “Sir, X5-494 reporting.”
The colonel nodded and
stood up. He strolled around the desk and behind 494, looking him up and down.
“I’ve been hearing some good things about you,” the Colonel commented. “You
have proven yourself to be a competent soldier.”
“Thank you, Sir.” 494
stared straight ahead.
There was another knock at
the door, and after the Colonel ordered him to enter Ron came in, snapping to
attention.
“Sir.”
“At ease, both of you.” The
colonel moved back behind his desk. “What is the purpose of your training?” he
asked, looking at both of them.
“To enable us to kill,” Ron
replied.
The colonel looked sharply
at him, then glanced at 494.
“To enable us to carry out
any orders given to us, Sir,” 494 emphasised the last word, in case the Colonel
had missed the fact that Ron had not addressed his CO in the proper manner.
“I have a mission. Your
instructors tell me that you two are the best candidates to carry it out. This
will be a joint mission, a kidnap not a kill. Understand?”
“Sir,” both replied at the
same time.
The Colonel threw something
down on his desk.
“Timothy Marshall. 13 years
old, student at
494 had a lot of questions.
First, why would such a simple exercise involve them going undercover for three
days? Why not just grab the kid? Second, why would it take two of them? Third,
and this was just a vague wondering, who was this kid and why did Manticore
want him.
“No, Sir,” he replied.
“Good. You leave first
thing tomorrow morning.”
>>>>>
494 wanted to stare as the
van he was in left the Manticore compound. This was the real world, the world
he had been taught was overrun by worthless humans.
So far, it wasn’t looking
too bad. Then, it got worse.
The van entered what 494 assumed
was a city. A city that was basically falling apart. The place was horrible.
People staggered around aimlessly, dressed in clothes that really didn’t fit
them. For the first time ever, he wished he was back in his barrack block. The
Colonel was right. What they had was far better than what was here.
“That is the school,” one
of the X4s commented, pointing to a building that was slightly less destroyed
than the rest. One window even had a light shining from it.
“Nice,” 494 commented,
sarcasm clear in his voice.
“And your twin escaped to
live in this?” Ron sneered at him.
494 stared at him. “So did
yours.”
The X4 laughed, and turned
back to his window. “The park is two blocks that way.”
“Does it look like a park?”
494 had to ask.
The X4 smiled. “Of course.
There’s no grass, or trees, or swing set but apart from that it’s a park.”
“So, we’re looking for a
park sized bit of concrete?”
“Exactly,” the X4 nodded,
smiling slightly. The van stopped, and the door opened automatically. “Good
luck”
“Thank you, sir,” 494
commented.
Ron shook his head and
climbed out the van. 494 moved to follow him, and the X4 touched his arm. “That
kid, there’s something wrong with him.”
“I know, sir. Thank you.”
494 stepped out of the van and looked around. It actually wasn’t that bad, once
you got used to it. Sure, it was dirty, and every person there was probably
diseased in some way, but if he had to escape it was survivable.
Besides, all X series were
automatically immune to diseases.
“I told you when I left
that we would meet again.” Ron shoved him slightly.
“Did you?” 494 answered,
his voice bored as he looked around. “Don’t ever touch me.” His voice turned
harsh. “Colonel put me in charge. Deal with it. Let’s go.”
494 turned towards the school,
casting a final, disgusted look at the so-called park.
There was a girl standing
in the corner of the park. She was staring back at him. She looked familiar,
like someone he should know.
494 smoothed the hair down
on his neck, trying to make sure that his hair was long enough to cover the
barcode on his neck. It was weird having hair long enough to move into place.
It had only been a year or so since they had been allowed to grow their hair,
and he still wasn’t used to it. He caught
sight of his reflection in a broken shop window, and froze.
He didn’t like the
expression he saw on his face. He had hated Manticore, hated what it had done
to him. He had been scared of the guards, he had resented the older X series
soldiers for knowing so much more than he did. He had never, throughout all his
time in Manticore, been ashamed of who he was. Now, he was trying to hide his
barcode. Trying to hide what he was. It would have been fine if the reason he
was doing this was to avoid detection, help complete his mission, but it
wasn’t. The real reason was that he didn’t want anyone to know what he was.
He shook his head and kept
walking. The school was just up ahead. “Don’t screw this up,” he muttered to
Ron.
“Oh, I’ll complete the mission.”
Ron smiled evilly at him. “Then, we’ll talk.”
“Sounds like fun.”
>>>>>
494 walked casually into
the school office and smiled at the woman behind the counter.
She grinned back, taken in
by this young boy. “Can I help you?” she asked.
“My name is Andrew
Peterson, this is my brother Michael. We’re supposed to start here today? My
father would have come, but he’s busy with work. He just got a job, that’s why
we moved here,” 494 made his voice slightly higher than normal as he repeated
the background story that had been drilled into him.
The woman looked down at
some paperwork on her desk. “I’m sorry, I don’t see your name here, are you
sure your father enrolled you?”
494 blinked. He turned to look
at Ron. Ron rolled his eyes, but then shook his head slightly. They had both
been told that someone had enrolled them, that all they had to do was give the
correct names and all would be fine.
“Actually,” he improvised,
“my mother was the one that was supposed to do it.”
“Well, I’m sorry, but there
is no information here for you. You should get your parents to come in.”
That was not good. The
mission was supposed to be easy, but there was no way they could complete it if
they couldn’t get into the school.
Ron was looking out a
window, acting bored. He would be no help at all.
“Listen,” 494 asked, trying
to act innocent. Trying to figure out what innocent looked like, so he could
act that way. “If my father finds out that my mother forgot, he’ll be mad at
her. Couldn’t you just fill out the forms now?” He looked at her hopefully,
watching as she started to smile back at him, giving in.
“I shouldn’t…”
“Please? It’s Mom’s
birthday. I don’t want to ruin it for her.”
He had seen on her desk a
photograph of the woman with a young boy and girl. The woman had children of
her own.
“Okay.” She sighed,
grabbing some forms. “Give me your names again.”
>>>>>
A small video camera in the
corner of the room blinked with a red light. The light was partially concealed
by the leaves of a plant, but still noticeable if Ron bothered to search the
room the way he was trained. He didn’t, and it wasn’t.
>>>>>
At Manticore 5 men sat in a
room taking notes.
>>>>>
That night…
Steve lay in his rack staring
at the ceiling. The room was too quiet. Everyone was uncertain, hesitant.
He had already had to have
strong words with two of the squad for failing an exercise. He couldn’t really
blame them, 494 was the centre of their squad, and not having him around was
hard on all of them. But, he had promised 494 that he would have a squad to
come back to, and he meant it. So, he had berated them. Not severely, but
enough to get the message across.
He wanted his friend back.
>>>>>
Wednesday.
494 had easily identified
Timothy. The kid seemed nice enough and had even spoken to 494 during a break
in lessons.
These schools were strange.
The kids were undisciplined. They talked throughout the class, passing notes
and generally not paying attention. The first time a kid had laughed out loud,
494 had jerked into an attention position, waiting for the teacher to punish
the kid.
Nothing had happened.
And as for the stuff they
were teaching, it was so basic. It was stuff he had been taught when he was
about 5. At 13, these kids were struggling with it. Every time a teacher asked
him a question he had to remind himself that he was supposed to fit in. He had
to give the wrong answers.
Ron didn’t care. He
answered every question correctly. He was drawing attention to himself.
“Andy,” a voice hissed, and
he turned around. Timothy grinned at him. “Your brother is weird.”
Ron had just given the
teacher an answer that he should not have known. It was a science class and the
teacher had asked for some properties of the sun. Heat, and warmth were
acceptable answers as far as 494 was concerned. Ron had commented on how solar
energy could be used to create a bomb.
“We think he’s insane,” 494
replied truthfully. “He should probably be locked in the basement.” With the
rest of the nomalys. 494 thought the last part to himself.
Timothy grinned.
>>>>>
The 5 guys in the room
looked at each other. “What’s he saying?” one asked.
“Not sure, his face is away
from the camera and he’s talking too quietly for the audio to pick up.”
“We can work on the sound
if you want.” A third guy stood.
“Do that.” The third guy
left the room.
“The other one is becoming
a problem,” the first guy spoke again. “Explaining how to create a small
nuclear bomb in science class? Yeah that wasn’t intelligent.”
“The Colonel’s gonna be
pissed.”
“Yep.”
>>>>>
494 grabbed Ron and threw
him against a locker. He looked around, seeing if there was anyone else around.
There wasn’t. He punched Ron again.
“You fucking idiot,” he
hissed. “Stop messing around. If you screw this mission up we’re both dead.”
“Whatever,” Ron hissed
back, shoving 494 away.
In the corner, a red light
blinked.
Thursday…
494 woke with a start,
instantly awake. There was someone moving in the room. His hand went for his
knife, and he tensed, ready to jump to his feet.
The only thing that stopped
him was the fact that the figure raised his arm in a Manticore symbol. It was
just one of the X4s, returning from guard duty, or whatever. He nodded back, to
say that he saw the signal. The X4 pointed towards the door. Slowly, 494 moved
to his feet and followed him out the door.
The X4 lit a cigarette and
leaned against the wall. 494 stared at him. He had seen the guards smoking, but
never one of them. He had always thought it to be a strange habit but watching
this boy do it, it looked kind of interesting.
“You gonna finish the
mission?” the X4 asked him.
“The subject is beginning
to trust me,” 494 replied, watching him closely.
“And him?” The X4 gestured
back inside. “The subject trust him too?”
494 paused. The obvious
answer was, No. Ron was not doing what he should be doing. He wasn’t trying to
fit in like they had been taught. But, he couldn’t betray him. He never had
before. No matter what stupid things Ron had done when he was part of his
squad, he had never told any of the guards. He wasn’t about to start.
“Yeah, that’s what I
thought.” The X4 threw his cigarette away, and looked at 494. “Take some
advice. This mission goes to hell, you both get blamed. Understand what that
means?”
“Re-indoctrination.” 494
had a mental image of himself in that room. Of a doctor moving over him…
“I see you’ve experienced
that first hand.” The X4 nodded. “Good. It’ll make you strong. Want to go back
there?”
494 shook his head quickly.
No chance. No way.
“First time I went to
psy-ops? I promised myself I would never go back. No matter what. I would play
their games, do anything to stay on their good side.”
“Yeah.”494 understood, all
too well.
“Be careful, alright? We
have instructions. Anything goes wrong, we cut our losses.”
“And, I’m a loss.”
“No, maybe not, but I
follow orders, now.” The X4 stared at him hard.
494 understood. If the
mission went wrong the two X4s had orders to kill them. The X4 may not want to
kill them, but he would.
“I have no plans to fail,”
494 told him, meeting his gaze.
“Yeah, I heard that about
you. How long did it take you to figure out that we moved facilities, anyway?”
“About a minute,” 494
admitted. “Things seemed wrong.”
“Yeah, like the sun?” The
X4 grinned, and 494 smiled back. He remembered all too well how they had gotten
out onto the parade ground and realised that the sun was in a different
direction to the one they were used to.
“One of my squad wanted to
ask the guards if they had rotated the parade ground.”
The X4 laughed. “I did, you
know.”
“Huh?”
“I asked an instructor. He
told us we had to do the obstacle course in some really short time, and I asked
him if the course was shorter than at our last facility.”
494 wasn’t sure whether to
laugh, or be shocked. “I thought you followed orders, were the good soldier?”
“Sometimes. When it suits.
Be careful, alright?”
“Always.” 494 grinned.
>>>>>
It was getting easier to
fit into their world. 494 put his hand under the tap in the school bathroom,
and ran it through his hair, spiking it up slightly. At first, he had hated the
idea of being untidy, his hair out of place, his clothes dirty and untucked,
but now he kind of liked not having to worry about whether he looked perfect 24
hours a day.
He grinned at his
reflection in the mirror, then turned towards the door. It was
He ran his hand through his
hair again.
>>>>>
“Hey, Tim.” 494 smiled
slightly, copying the X4’s slightly sarcastic grin.
“Andy! How’s it going,
man?”
494 nodded at him. “Not
bad.”
“Listen, some of the guys
are coming over to my house after school. I got some new music tapes. You
should come.”
This was it. This was what
he needed. If the subject thought they were friends then he would be more
likely to agree to go to the park with him.
“Sure,” he replied. “Sounds
good.”
>>>>>
“Michael,” 494 called out,
jogging to catch up with Ron as he walked across the play ground.
“Enjoying the mission, are
we?” Ron asked sarcastically, looking 494 up and down with distaste.
“Just doing what I was
trained to do.”
“Doing it a little too
well, I think,” Ron sneered.
“What’s that supposed to
mean?” 494 took a step forward. They were both almost in a fighting stance.
“I think you enjoy being human.
Acting human, I mean. You know you’re not really human, right?”
“Don’t start this, Ron. Not
here.”
“Scared?” Ron laughed.
“No chance. We will do
this, count on that. But not here.”
“You don’t get to pick the
time.” Ron threw a punch, but 494 was expecting it. He moved to one side,
parrying it, and laughed.
“Still not good enough,
“What was that about?” Tim
asked as 494 caught up to him.
“What?” he tried to bluff.
“Your brother. Why were you
fighting?”
494 shrugged. He had no
answer. He had no idea why human brothers would fight. “Why not?” he settled
for.
Tim laughed. “You’re
alright, Andy. Your brother though…”
“Yeah. He’s missing a few
of the genes that make people sane.”
“You’re the normal one in
the family, huh?”
494 thought about his
‘family’. “I guess.”
“This is my house.” 494
looked up. He wasn’t sure what he had been expecting, but this wasn’t it. The
house was new, modern. It looked expensive.
“Come on.” Tim opened the
door and entered the house. “My room is upstairs.”
494 looked around, his eyes
wide. The place was messy, but nice. Pictures filled the walls, Tim, his
Father, and a woman who must be his mother. The three of them were happy, laughing.
It looked nice.
“Find a seat, if you can,”
Tim commented as they entered his room. He gestured towards the bed.
Tim turned to a stereo on
his desk, and hit a button. “Check this out. I’ll go get us something to drink.
Coke okay?”
“Yeah, fine,” 494 replied,
distracted. The tape had begun to play, and 494 was fascinated by the music. It
was amazing, like nothing he had ever heard before.
He wanted the tape.
Chapter 31
Friday…
It was time. 494 had been awake all night, staring at
the ceiling of the cheap motel room they had been staying at. In a few short
hours he would be going to school, where he would have to convince Timothy to
go to the park with him after school.
As long as Ron didn’t screw it up.
His gaze travelled around the room. The other three
were still asleep. Not for the first time he wondered exactly what the two X4s
were doing there. They seemed to have a mission of their own. They would leave
at strange times, and last night one of them had come home slightly bruised and
battered.
494 stood up, moving towards the door. He loved the
idea that he could just get up and go outside, without any guard to tell him to
get back inside or be shot.
It was one of the things he would truly miss. Tomorrow
he would be back at Manticore. As he left, he heard one of the others move.
>>>>>
"Planning to escape?"
494 spun around. The X4 had come outside without him
hearing. That was not good.
"Thinking," he replied.
"About what?" The X4 watched him closely.
"Everything." That sounded like the safest
response.
"Bought you a present."
494 froze. What the hell? That was a comment he never
thought he would hear. "Sir?" he asked.
"Here." He held out a handgun. Not quite
like he was about to use it to shoot 494, but it wouldn’t have taken much to
change that.
Within a fraction of a second 494 had assessed his
chances of survival down to 3 decimal places. 0.000 wasn’t that hard to
compute. He had made a mistake somewhere. Something had gone wrong.
"Uh, thanks?"
You had to have a sense of humour about this sort of
thing. The X4 laughed, and flipped the gun around in his palm. He offered it to
494.
"Has the mission changed?" 494 had to force
himself not to grab the gun with lightening speed.
"No," came the reply. "We still don’t
want the kid dead. This is for someone else." He glanced in the direction
of the motel room. "Call it life insurance. Yours."
"I’m not sure I understand."
"It is acceptable to the Colonel if he is taken
out if he jeopardises the mission. If you choose not to exercise this option
and the mission fails, both of you will be punished."
"So, I can take him out right now?"
"Your call. But, consider this. Is it a good plan
to take out one of your team? How will that look to everyone else?"
Suddenly, the gun felt very heavy. 494 looked down at
it. Ron was going to do something stupid. He didn’t doubt that, and it seemed
that the X4s didn’t, either. But if he shot Ron, then the consequences would be
huge.
His own squad would not blame him. Tavis, in
particular, would be utterly thrilled that he had managed to take care of that
particular problem.
It was everyone else that he was worried about. Ron’s
squad, in particular, might not be that thrilled. Then again, they might be. It
was Ron after all.
The X4 saw him staring at the gun, thoughts running
through his head, and took pity on him.
"Hey," he lowered his voice.
494 looked up at him.
"It’s only a tranquiliser gun. You have any idea
how much that idiot cost Manticore to develop? They aren’t just going to have
him killed." The X4 shut his mouth suddenly, as if he had been about to
say more, but had realised that that probably wasn’t a particularly good idea.
"If things go wrong, take him out, stash his body somewhere. We’ll recover
it later."
494 nodded.
"Good Luck."
>>>>>
Only 15 minutes until school finished. 494 was ready
to make his move. Tim trusted him, and would follow him to the park.
Ron had managed to keep his mouth shut. He hadn’t managed
to do anything else, like help out with the mission, but he hadn’t screwed it
up further and 494 should just be grateful for that.
10 minutes.
He glanced at Ron, nodding at the clock on the wall.
Ron shrugged, and went back to staring out the window.
Great.
5 minutes.
1 minute.
The bell rang, and the sound of 30 kids throwing
textbooks into their bags filled the air.
494 leant back in his chair and turned to Tim.
"What are you doing right now?"
"Nothing, why?" Tim looked interested.
494 grinned.
"I need you to help me do something."
"What?" Tim grinned back, fascinated.
494 looked over at Ron. "Teach my idiot brother a
lesson."
"Fun."
"Let’s go, then."
With a last glance at Ron he headed out the door.
>>>>>
Ron watched him leave. The fake grin on his face
vanished, to be replaced by a look of anger. He fingered a metallic object in
his pocket.
>>>>>
The camera in the room zoomed in on Ron, the built in
X-ray technology quickly identifying the object as a gun.
>>>>>
"So, what are we doing?" Tim asked again.
"Simple. Michael follows me everywhere, right?
I’m really sick of it. So, me and a couple of other kids, we have this plan.
Kind of like an ambush."
"What are you going to do?" Tim looked
suspicious, kind of like he didn’t want to go along with this.
"No, nothing like that." 494 grinned
reassuringly. "Water bombs, that kind of thing. There’s a park a few
blocks from here. He’ll follow us there, and we’ll just bomb him."
"Oh, okay then. I just thought…"
"What, that we were going to kill him?" 494
forced his voice to sound surprised.
"Nah, but he did say that your Father was in the
military."
"Really." Ron had been talking to him,
alone? This was not good. "What else did he say?"
"Just that the reason your family moved so much
was because you kept getting into trouble, and that I shouldn’t go anywhere
alone with you."
494 stopped walking. "And yet, you’re alone with
me right now."
Tim laughed. "I didn’t say I trusted him."
"Maybe you should." 494 stared at him.
"Maybe you should believe everything he says. Maybe I’m taking you to this
park to kill you. Maybe Michael’s the good guy, trying to stop anything bad
happening to you."
Tim laughed.
"So, you are going to kill me?"
494 sighed.
"Understood."
The X4
snapped his cell-phone shut and glanced over at his partner.
"You
give the psycho kid a gun?"
The
other X4 laughed. "You serious?"
"Yeah.
Observation Unit just called in a report to Command. The kid has a gun in his
pocket."
"What
do they want us to do?"
"Monitor
the situation, hope that 494 can complete the mission anyway."
"Which
mission?" the 2nd X4 rolled his eyes. "The dumb-assed
waste of time fake, or the highly, highly over-plotted murder?"
He got
a shrug in reply.
"Who
cares." The X4 pulled a gun out of his pocket and checked it over.
"Either way, someone dies."
>>>>>
"Andy?"
Tim shoved him lightly.
"Huh?"
494 shook his head quickly and turned to Tim. "What?"
"I
asked if you were planning on killing me. Your silence isn’t exactly
reassuring, you know.”
"Sorry."
494 looked away. He liked this kid. If only he knew what Manticore was planning
to do with him once he had him. If he knew that they didn’t have anything
serious planned it might be easier to…
That
was stupid. Of course Manticore had something serious planned. What did he
think they were going to do, give him a guided tour of the facility and send
him home with a t-shirt?
"So,
am I going to die?" Tim asked again, laughing.
"Everyone
dies," 494 commented.
He
walked faster, trying to get to the park sooner, or maybe just to leave Tim
behind. He didn’t know, he just wanted to finish whatever was going to happen.
"Andrew,
wait up," Ron called from behind them.
494
sighed, as Tim laughed.
"That
ruins that plan," he commented.
494
looked at him sharply.
"Which
plan?"
"The
park? Waterbombs? God, Andy, you’re acting really weird."
"Yeah,
sorry, I was just thinking. Ignore Michael. Just keep walking."
494
put his hand in his pocket, fingering the gun he had been given.
"ANDREW!"
The sound of feet running towards them. "What’s your problem, man?"
Ron glared at 494. "I said, wait."
"We’re
busy. Why don’t you go away." 494 made his voice go cold. His suggestion
sounded much more like an order than anything else.
Tim
looked from 494 to Ron and back again. He took a step back.
"Listen,
if you guys have family stuff to discuss…"
Family.
Yeah, right. 494 shook his head.
"Nah,
come on."
>>>>>
Manticore…
Tavis
finished the short sprint at the end of the obstacle course. He turned and
watched as first Kat, then Biggs crossed the line. Steve was somewhere behind
them all, making sure the less competent members of the squad got through the
course okay.
Kat
fell to the ground, gasping for breath. "This used to be fun."
The
instructors had decreased the time they had to complete the course by 10
seconds over the past few days. It was getting harder to reach the end in time.
"Lots
of things used to be fun," Tav commented, staring towards the finish line.
>>>>>
"Come
on," 494 commented, forcing himself to smile.
"You
can meet my other two brothers, Tim. They’re great. You’ll love them."
They
walked towards the park, 494 moving close to Ron.
"If
you screw this up, they will all know," he muttered.
"Don’t
care. I’m not going back."
"What?"
494 stared at him.
"I’m
leaving."
"No,
you’re not."
"Give
me one good reason." Ron raised his voice slightly and Tim heard. He
looked over to them.
"Dad
said, we are to come straight home. Do you remember the last time we were grounded?"
494 said pointedly. If Ron decided to escape, all his squad would be hauled
back into Psy-Ops. Not to mention he, himself. That was not going to happen.
Ron
laughed. "Not my problem."
494’s
eyes flashed. "Know what? There’s a gun in my pocket that is going to make
it your problem."
"You
don’t have the guts," Ron challenged.
Tim
was starting to look really suspicious. 494 put his arm around Ron’s shoulder,
in a kind of brotherly gesture, but it wouldn’t take too much for the arm to
move up around his neck in a chokehold.
"You’re
lucky you’re an only child, Tim," 494 commented, grinning at him.
"I
guess."
>>>>>
"Do
you think he’s okay?" Tavis asked as they waited for the last few squad
members to cross the line.
Biggs
and Steve glared at him. That was the question that none of them had yet asked.
There was no possibility that 494 was not okay. None.
But,
when someone mentioned it, all of a sudden it became a possibility.
"Shut
up," Biggs summed it up for all of them.
"Yeah."
Tav went back to staring at the finish line. He sighed.
>>>>>
A
block from the park, Ron made his move. He spun free of 494’s loose grip and
took several steps back.
"Tim,
he’s going to kill you."
494’s
face went cold. He forced himself to laugh.
"That’s
not funny anymore, Michael. Cut it out."
"Tim,
I’m serious. He’s not what he appears to be. He’s a soldier, he has orders to
kill you."
Tim
looked at 494. He took a step back.
"Do
you even know what the real world is?" 494 glared at Ron. "You live
in a fantasy world, you know that?"
His
message had two contexts. First, the message he was trying to give Tim. Ron was
insane, don’t trust him. But second, most important, was the message to Ron. Do
not double-cross Manticore. You are not good enough to survive it.
He
shoved Ron away.
"Leave
then, get lost."
But it
was too late. They had reached the park. 494 could see several people in the
park. The two X4’s had a baseball and were throwing it back and forth. About
three others were there, two men and a woman. They looked normal, nothing
special, but he could tell different.
The
two men had very short haircuts, military style, and the woman was too stiff,
as if waiting for something.
"Hello,
Andrew, how was school?" The X4 he had spent the most time with tossed the
baseball towards him.
494
caught it, and looked at it. It was interesting. He knew what a baseball was,
obviously, but it was a lot different to what he expected.
He
tossed it in the air, then threw it back.
"This
is my friend, Tim."
The
three other people in the park moved closer.
Ron
took a step back.
"Well
done, 494," one of the men spoke as he stepped towards them.
"Andrew,
what’s going on?" Tim sounded scared.
He
turned to look at 494, then Ron, and his eyes widened in realisation.
"Michael
was telling the truth, wasn’t he? You ARE going to kill me. He told me, he said
you were some government experiment gone wrong."
Three
of them reached for their guns at the same time, aiming for Ron. 494 just got
there first.
The
shot took Ron high in the shoulder, sending him spinning back several feet.
494
took a step towards him, re-aiming his weapon.
"Stand
down," one of the men ordered.
"Sir,"
494 acknowledged, lowering his gun. He stood at ease, the hand holding the gun
pointed down the side of his leg.
He
waited.
The
man waved the female forward, and she knelt beside Ron, examining him. He
screamed as she slammed her hand into his shoulder.
"Bullet’s
still in there," she reported in a bored voice.
The
man, clearly the leader, turned to stare at 494, then stopped.
"Where’s
the kid?"
Somehow,
in the possibly two minutes that had passed, Tim had vanished.
"Find
him," the man ordered. "Standard search pattern."
494
moved to join in.
They quickly
scanned the park, then out onto the street. There were three possible ways Tim
could have gone, but 494 knew which one he would have chosen. One of the routes
led directly to Tim’s house. The kid would run home.
He
indicated that he would take that particular road, and set off down it, hiding
his gun in the waistband of his trousers, and pulling his shirt down to cover
it. There were very few advantages to living amongst the humans, but being able
to dress sloppily was definitely one of them. Gun concealment was so much
easier when there was no dress inspection.
There
weren’t that many people around, and 494 filtered them out of his vision as he
went. They weren’t relevant, so he ignored them. There was only one young boy
that he could see, but it wasn’t Tim. The kid was dressed differently. If this
had been a Manticore training mission, 494 would have checked him out anyway,
assuming that the target had simply been smart, changed clothes to avoid
detection.
But,
it wasn’t, and he wasn’t. That boy was not Tim.
He
knew he was right. He knew that Tim had come this way, knew that the boy’s
first reaction would have been to run home.
His
training told him that it was not efficient to continue to search this street.
The boy was not here.
Everything
he knew about Tim told him otherwise. He was here somewhere.
494
looked closer around him. Ahead, there was an alley. That had to be it.
He
scanned the alley, his hand resting on the butt of his gun. There were about 15
rubbish bins, perfect for a young boy like Tim to hide behind. Or in.
>>>>>
Manticore…
The
time limit came and went. Biggs counted down slowly in his mind, exchanging
slightly nervous glances with Kat. Steve, and four others including Todd, were
still somewhere in the middle of the course.
The
guard strode up to the waiting squad.
"Report."
Biggs
stepped forward, for the moment assuming command of the squad.
"6
outstanding, sir."
"Is
that right?" The guard looked strangely excited.
>>>>>
Tim
was behind the third rubbish bin. He sat huddled on the floor, his legs pulled
up to his chest, his eyes wide with terror.
"Don’t
hurt me," he begged, his voice shaking.
494
stared down at him, for a second feeling disgust at the cowardly way Tim was
acting. Then, he realised. Tim could not be expected to act any differently. He
was a human, he hadn’t had the benefit of training that 494 had had.
"What
are you?" Tim asked.
494
shrugged. "What he said."
"Your
brother?"
"Yeah,
but he’s not my brother. He was a squadmate once."
"Squadmate?"
Tim thought for a second. "How many of you are there?"
"Enough,"
494 laughed.
"Let
me go." Tim stood up slowly, facing 494. "I won't tell anyone, I
swear."
494
stared at him, trying to think. Could he let him go? He could just pretend he
hadn’t seen him. It might work. He liked Tim. The kid was okay, for a human
that is.
An
image flashed into 494’s mind. The two of them at Tim’s house, listening to
music, laughing.
Tim
had been his friend, if such a thing was possible. He had liked him for who he
was, had accepted him. It had been a nice feeling.
Then,
another image. Tim’s father coming home. The easy banter between the two of
them, the quick hug they shared, the look of pride in the father’s eyes.
Something
494 wanted so badly it hurt. Something he had never even known he had wanted,
until that moment.
"No."
He shook his head. "Get up." He pointed the gun slowly at Tim.
"You know I’ll do it. I shot Michael, I’ll shoot you."
"Please…"
"Get
up."
>>>>>
494’s
arm was casually around Tim’s shoulder as he directed the boy back towards the
park.
"Andrew…"
"That’s
not my name," 494 spoke angrily. "I don’t even have a name. I don’t
need one."
"Then,
how…"
"I
have a number, a designation."
"Wow.
I’m sorry."
494
had no idea what he meant by that, but he knew that he didn’t want pity. He
shoved Tim into the park, and towards the guy in charge.
"Excellent
work, 494. The Colonel will be impressed."
494
nodded, inwardly thrilled by the praise.
He
didn’t need a name, or a father. This was enough.
He
ignored Tim as the boy was led away.
He had
completed his mission, and had got to shoot Ron. It had been a successful day.
Kind of.
"Sir?"
494 spoke quietly, unsure of whether it was safe to ask a question. The man had
seemed impressed with him, maybe he was impressed enough to allow a question.
"Yes."
The man turned to look at him.
"What
happened to the other X5?"
He had
been calling him Ron for so long, he had no clue what the kid’s designation
was.
"What
other X5?"
What?
"My partner on the mission."
The man
gestured for the others to join him.
"This
was a solo mission, 494. Are you referring to one of the X4s?"
"No,
sir. There was an X5 assigned to work with me. I shot him."
"You
shot someone?" The man took a step closer to 494. "Hand over your
gun, soldier."
494
did as he was told. The man took the gun and popped out the clip. He looked
inside, then shook his head.
"The
clip is full, 494. You couldn’t have fired a shot."
Chapter
34
Everything
inside 494 screamed at him to show no emotion, to stay completely calm. To stay
a soldier.
His
eyes gave him away. He glanced around, trying to figure out what was going on.
The
man shoved the clip back in the gun, and slid it into his belt. He stared at
494, waiting.
"But…"
494 shook his head. He had no idea what was going on, or what to do. Of course
Ron was there. Wasn’t he?
He
looked around, searching for the X4 that had been vaguely nice to him. The kid
stared back at him, not saying anything. A muscle is his jaw twitched, but
apart from that, nothing. 494 turned away.
The
only person in that park that showed any expression at all was Tim, who had
been struggling, and now just looked terrified.
For a
split second 494 considered asking Tim if he had seen Ron, then he realised how
stupid that was.
He
took a deep breath and fought for control.
He
turned back to face the man in charge and waited for instructions.
"Confused
about something, 494?"
"No,
sir. Not anymore." His face was a mask.
"Good."
He turned to the other man. "Get them back to base. Debrief at 2000
hours." He cast his eyes in disgust at 494. "And make sure they look
like soldiers again by then."
"Yes,
sir."
>>>>>
The
guard continued to smile as Steve and the last few squad members sprinted
towards the finish line.
"Seven
seconds late," he commented.
Steve’s
face dropped.
"Sir,"
he acknowledged, waiting for what was about to happen.
"So,
it is clear to me that we haven’t learnt our lessons, have we?"
Steve
waited. He didn’t think that the guard wanted a reply.
"We
need a stronger lesson then, don’t we? Who thinks they are in charge
here?"
"I
am squad leader, Sir." Steve stepped forward, his face blank.
"You’re
not good enough to be," the guard responded. He stepped forward, slamming the
butt of his rifle into Steve’s leg, sending him to the ground.
Steve
stood slowly, ignoring the sharp pain in his leg.
Fine,
he thought, so the guard had broken his leg. It didn’t matter. If that was the
only injury, then they were doing okay.
Tav
shifted his weight slightly, ready to attack if the opportunity should present
itself. As the guard stepped forward to attack Steve again, Biggs moved
slightly and kicked Tav, warning him to not get involved.
>>>>>
"What’s
your problem?" Tav shoved Biggs up against the wall of their barrack
block.
"What
were you going to do? Go after the guard?"
Biggs
glared back at him.
"Why
not? We could have taken him."
"You’re
a nomaly. Why don’t you think before you act?" Biggs took a step toward
him. The idiot had almost gotten them in a lot of trouble. If he had gone after
the guard, they would have all joined in, naturally. They would have killed the
guard.
But
then what? They could have run away, but the problem with that was that 494
wasn’t with them. If they had jumped the fence like the 09 kids, they would not
be able to find 494. And when he came back to Manticore, more psyops. He could
not let that happen.
"494
told you to keep your mouth shut, not to do anything stupid, remember?"
Tav
glared back at him.
"Stop
it, both of you," Steve called from his rack. He was sitting on the
mattress, his damaged leg out in front of him. Kat knelt on the ground beside
him, trying to do something to help him.
"We
screwed up. We didn’t run the obstacle course in time. So we paid the penalty.
No big deal."
Biggs
and Tav moved over to stand in front of him.
"But,
we didn’t screw up," Tav told him.
"Of
course we did. We didn’t get there in time." Biggs turned to him.
"That’s my definition of screwing up. What’s yours?"
"The
same. But the thing is, we did get there in time." Tav shrugged.
"Explain."
Steve swung his leg off the rack and stood up, grimacing slightly.
"We
were late finishing. 7 seconds. We all counted."
"Wrong,"
Tav shook his head.
"You
counted from the time he gave when we crossed the finish line. I counted from
the start. We actually had three seconds to spare when Steve and the others
crossed the line. He was wrong to punish us."
"It
doesn’t matter." Biggs sighed. "They’re in charge, it’s their reality
that counts, not ours. If you had attacked that guard, we all would have been
punished."
"He
was wrong," Tav repeated.
"Yeah."
Biggs nodded. "Like it matters."
>>>>>
494
sat in the van, staring straight ahead of him. The road had just left the
trees, and ahead of him he could see the high perimeter fence that was
Manticore. In less than a minute he would be back in that place.
He
fought the urge to panic as the van went through the gate, the guard nodding at
the driver.
>>>>>
The barrack
room was strangely quiet. He shouldn’t have expected anything else, it was just
before
He
opened the door soundlessly, and stood there for a few seconds, watching them.
All the beds that should have been filled, were. That was a good sign. He
couldn’t see if Tav was there, and that had been one of the things that had
worried him while he was away. The guard had told him that Tav might be removed
if he didn’t settle down, and 494 had had unpleasant thoughts of coming back to
Manticore to find his brother gone.
The
kid in Tav’s rack had the blankets pulled up over his head. 494 would have to wait
until morning to find out if Tav was still with them.
He
sighed.
Instantly,
the light flicked on. Kat sat up in bed, staring at him.
"You’re
back!" She scrambled out of her rack and moved towards him, instinctively
wanting to hug him to make sure he was really there, but pulling back at the
last moment.
Her
face coloured slightly, and she looked down. "Uh, how’d it go?" she
asked quietly.
"The
mission was successful," 494 responded, watching her curiously. What was
going on?
Within
seconds the rest of the squad had gathered around him, standing to attention.
Then,
Biggs grinned and stepped forward.
"Welcome
back." He offered his hand to 494.
494
nodded to him, shaking his hand. "Everything go okay here?" His eyes
sought Steve, whom he had placed in command, but he couldn’t find him.
Several
of the kids stepped aside, allowing 494 to see Steve sitting up in bed.
He
walked towards him slowly.
"Tell
me."
"We
didn’t complete the obstacle course quickly enough. The guard broke my
leg." Steve looked down, ashamed. "I’m sorry."
"We
did, actually," Tav put in angrily. "But the guard was using a
different method of counting time than the one we were taught."
"Shut
up."
494
turned to stare at Biggs, who had spoken those last words.
Then,
he turned to look at Kat, who could usually be counted on to explain things.
"The
guards have been decreasing the time. 10 seconds a day. We usually just make
it. Today, Tav says they cheated to make sure we failed. Steve bore the brunt
of it because he didn’t make it in time."
494
turned back to look at Steve.
"You
didn’t finish in time." He meant it as a statement, but it sounded to
Steve like a criticism.
Steve
closed his eyes briefly, then met 494’s gaze.
"I
did the best I could, but I made sure I was last to finish."
494
nodded.
He
just didn’t care. Tomorrow, he would, but he was just too tired, too confused.
He needed time to think.
He
turned towards his rack, and the others moved to allow him through.
"Turn
the light off. It’s after lights out." 494 threw himself onto his rack.
The
others moved quickly back to their racks, Kat flicking the light off.
Steve
pounded his mattress in frustration.
Chapter
35
He
couldn’t sleep. He lay staring at the ceiling all night. It was too quiet. In
the few days he had been away, he had gotten used to the noise of living in a
city. In a crappy motel, where people came and went all night, and people cried
out, only it didn’t sound like pain.
He
had gotten used to getting up in the morning and going to a school. Now, he
would have to get up and wear a uniform again.
When
he lived in the city for real, he was never going to wear clothes like that
again.
Where
did that come from? ‘When’ he lived in the city? What world was he living in?
He was becoming as crazy as Ron. He was never going to live in the city again,
never going to see that life again. It didn’t belong to him.
Before
he knew it, it was time to get up. He had always been able to wake up a few
minutes before reveille, and today was no exception. He lay there waiting for
the order to get up, but it never came. Time ticked past, 10 seconds, then 20,
then a full minute past the usual time.
“Uh,
good morning?” Tav commented from his rack.
Someone
else laughed slightly, but everyone else simply waited to be told to get up.
494
sighed, rolled out of his rack and dressed quickly in the dark. No-one else
moved.
“Christ,”
he commented, walking over to the door and slapping the light on.
He
walked slowly back to his rack and sat on it, slipping his shoes on.
Tav
rolled over and stared at him.
Although
he knew that it was possible for a shirt to be untucked, the only time he had
ever seen it like that was when someone had been thrown in a fighting class. He
had never seen anyone purposely leave a shirt like that. It did look kind of
relaxed, though. Kind of different.
“Get
up, slacker,” 494 commented.
Tav
stared at him and quickly got out of his rack and started to dress.
“I
have a question,” He spoke to the other boy as they both left the barracks.
“What?”
“You
going to say anything today that I’m actually going to understand?”
494
just looked at him.
>>>>>
“Well,
good morning.” One of the guards stopped in front of 494. “Heard you went on a
fishing trip?”
“Sir?”
494 answered, staring straight ahead like the perfect little soldier.
The
guard shook his head and kept walking.
“10
kilometre run this morning, kids. You don’t want to be the last one back. Move
it out.”
Biggs
concealed a smile as he started the run. The best thing about these long runs
was the lack of guards to patrol the entire course. There was always long
stretches available where they could talk. And he really wanted to talk to 494,
find out what had happened.
494
noticed straight away that something was different. Normally on runs his
initial group, Kat, Steve, Biggs, Tav and Todd would spread themselves out
along the course, make sure that everyone was keeping up. Today, they all hung
together, obviously wanting to talk to him.
He
just didn’t want to talk to them just yet.
He
set a fast pace, wanting to demonstrate to them that he wasn’t in the mood to
talk.
Kat
and Steve looked at each other and shrugged. If that was what he wanted, they
would give him some time. For now.
494
ran fast, his feet pounding a rhythm on the ground. As he ran, the sound his
feet were making became a beat and the music he had heard at Tim’s came to
mind. A rap song, with lyrics he didn’t understand, but had nevertheless
memorised automatically. The song ran through his head over and over, in time
with the pounding of his feet.
He
sped up, forcing his feet to go faster and faster, trying to destroy the rhythm
and the song in his head.
>>>>>
Two
guards stood at the end of the course, casually smoking, knowing that they had
several minutes before they even needed to look out for any of the kids
approaching. They stood at 90 degrees to the end of the course, for the sole
reason that it meant they could also keep an eye on the entrance to the main
buildings of the facility, and any officers coming their way from within in.
“We’re
back up to 30,” one of them said idly, dropping his cigarette butt and crushing
it before putting the remains in his pocket and lighting another one. It would
not be a good plan for the cleaning crew, or anyone, to find something like
that on the ground. It might suggest something that could lead to a very severe
punishment.
“Great.
The other one got psy-ops, huh? Great. These freaks are bad enough. But when
they come out of the loony bin, they’re like a hundred times worse. Stare at
you like they could kill you without blinking.”
“Well,
we can.”
Both
guards spun around.
494
stood behind them, barely breathing hard. He had seen them standing there, not
really focussed on the end of the run, and had altered course slightly so that
he could approach them completely from behind them.
“Shit,”
the first one commented, quickly trying to hide his cigarette.
“Yeah,
I think you just got caught.” 494 nodded slowly. “That means you’re in a lot of
trouble, huh?” He looked at the ground, then looked back up. “Do you guys get
fired, or do they just take you out back and shoot you?”
The
guard paled, and looked at his friend. “The officers don’t care what we do.”
“Oh,
yeah, right.” 494 allowed himself to grin. “They allow you to smoke. That’s why
you both look completely terrified right now.” He stared at them until they
both dropped their gaze. “For your information, I wasn’t in psy-ops. I was on a
solo mission. Know what that means? It means they sent me out into the world to
kill someone.”
He
kept his voice as calm as possible, trying to act like the perfect X5.
“If
I tell the officers, you will be shot.”
The
two guards looked at each other, then at this young kid in front of them. “-if-
you tell them?” one of them repeated.
“Maybe
we can come to some kind of arrangement.”
“What
kind of arrangement?” The guard looked worried, but at least he was breathing
again.
“Well,
for now, some cigarettes would come in useful. Say, a packet?”
“You
smoke?”
494
just stared at him. “You have about 8 seconds before the next one of my squad
gets here. Soon as they do, the offer is off the table.”
3
seconds ticked by.
“Fine.”
The guard looked around quickly, then reached into his pocket and pulled out a
pack.
“Here.”
“Thank
you.” 494 smiled slightly as he shoved the pack into his pocket. “Time.” He
turned around and looked towards the end of the run.
Two
X5s appeared out of the tree-line.
“Shit,”
commented the other guard.
“Not
bad, huh?”
494
moved to stand in formation as the other two approached.
Kat
glanced at him quickly, taking advantage of the fact that the guards were
turned away from them.
“Eyes
front,” 494 hissed.
>>>>>
They
headed into the barracks after the final period of training that night.
Although all of them had finished the run in time, more or less, three of them
had failed a test in Ordinance, and the whole squad had been penalised for it.
494
moved to his rack and threw himself face first onto it.
“Hey,”
Steve walked over and sat on the rack next to 494’s. “You going to tell us what
happened?”
“No,”
came the muffled response.
“Okay.”
494
may have had his head in the pillow, but he could still hear what was going on.
He heard several footsteps come towards him, and stop.
He
took a deep breath, then sat up. Time to be the leader again. “Two things.”
They looked at him expectantly. “First. Ron.”
The
others looked blankly at him, and he felt a surge of panic run through him. He
couldn’t have dreamed all of it could he? Ron was real, not a psy-ops thing.
Wasn’t he? Were the officers right when they said there had been no other X5 on
the mission with him?
“What
about him?” Tav asked eagerly, leaning forward. “Did he unfortunately die?”
494
allowed himself to grin, a small outward expression of the relief that coursed
through him.
“I
don’t know what happened to him. But I want to find out. Any opportunity to
observe him, I want to know about it. What he does, any signs of injury.”
They
nodded.
“Did
you injure him at all?” Biggs had to ask. “Just so, you know, we’re not giving
you unnecessary reports.”
“Well,
I shot him in the shoulder.” 494 shrugged. “I want to know about Manticore-type
injuries.”
“So,
what’s second?” Steve asked.
“Right.
Cover the door for a minute.”
Steve
shrugged and stood up. He gestured to two kids by the door, who nodded and
disappeared out the door, taking up a guard position in the hall. Biggs moved
to stand by the door, opening the door slightly.
494
nodded in approval. They were getting better at this.
He
moved over to one of the windows, and looked out, checking for any sign of
movement below him. Nothing.
With
a quick glance at Tav, he climbed out the window and climbed the pipe to the
roof.
He
knew where the hiding place was. The roof was the same as the one the psy-ops
techs had so kindly showed him in the visions. He uncovered it and pulled the
packet of cigarettes out of his pocket. Stashing them in the hole, he grinned.
Things around here were going to change.
Chapter 36
“Do you think he’s
alright?” Kat whispered as they sat in the dark, waiting for 494 to come back.
“Yes. Of course,” Tav
shrugged. “Why wouldn’t he be?”
“He’s been weird ever since
he came back. That run yesterday? What was he doing?”
“Showing how talented he
was?” Tav rolled his eyes.
“Could you be serious for a
second? Could you just stop acting like Him for 5 seconds?” Kat hissed, even as
she looked around, worriedly.
“He’s fine. He has a plan, that’s
all. He’ll tell us when it’s necessary.”
“Yeah, I just hope this
plan helps us in some way.”
>>>>>
494 nodded to them as he
climbed back in the window. He walked over to join Kat and Tav, signalling for
the rest of them to join him. “So, tell me about the obstacle course.” He
looked over at Biggs.
“I think they’re trying to
prove to us that we can’t do it.”
“You did do it.” 494 shook
his head. “Well, apart from you, of course.” He glanced at Steve.
“I was making sure everyone
else got through it.” Steve replied, his feelings hurt, but trying not to show
it.
“Didn’t do too good a job
then, did you?” 494 gazed steadily at him. Steve’s face dropped. He looked down
at the ground, trying not to show his devastation at his leader’s comment.
Tav closed his eyes for a
second, trying to memorise what 494 had said. Kat and Biggs let the slightest
hint of anger cover their faces.
“Okay. Tell me about Ron.” 494 changed track,
noticing their expressions, but not particularly concerned. Steve had failed,
and the fact that he had tried his best didn’t really change that.
And as for the others,
well, he really didn’t want them looking up to him that much. He had seen their
faces when they had seen he had returned. He didn’t want people relying on him
like that. The way they had expected him to just come back and solve their
problems? He couldn’t even prevent a young human boy being killed.
He didn’t think he could
handle seeing that expression on anyone’s face again. The expression Tim had
when he realised that 494 had betrayed him. It had hurt 494 badly, and the kid
was someone he had only known for a few days. Imagine what it would feel like
if one of these guys ever looked at him like that.
“Sir?” Kat asked, reaching
a hand towards him, her expression concerned. Gone was any hint of the anger
she had shown before.
“What?” 494 mentally shook
himself. He had to stay alert.
“He hasn’t been returned to
his squad yet. We saw his squad on the run this morning, and he wasn’t there.
Didn’t he come back with you?”
“No,” 494 said shortly. He
was probably dead. He should be dead, the way he had betrayed them all to Tim.
The mission could have failed.
Biggs watched as their
leader’s face changed. It went completely blank, no emotion whatsoever. He didn’t
like it.
494 caught Biggs glancing
at Tav, and cleared his mind. Had he changed so much in a few days? Oh well,
fear was better than worship.
“Wait,” he said, knowing
instinctively that there was something he should have picked up on, but hadn’t.
“Repeat what you just said.”
“We saw his squad on the
run this morning.”
“Why didn’t I see them?”
Surely he would have noticed a bunch of other X5s running around.
“Well, they took a
different route to us, and started like 10 minutes after us. And by that time,
you had already finished, so…”
494 smiled at Tav. “This is
new, right?”
“Last three days,” Steve
confirmed, eager to get into 494’s good books. “Always the same squad. Also, we
see some X4s in the forest at the same time, training exercises or something.”
“Okay.” 494 nodded, a plan
forming in his head. “Tomorrow, you run with me, show me where you’ve seen the
X4s.”
“Yes, sir.” Steve nodded
quickly, understanding the comment for what it was meant to be. 494 trusted
him.
>>>>>
“Through there.” Steve
nodded, several minutes into the run.
“Okay. You stand guard,
pretend to tie your shoelace or something. Anyone comes, cough, then get out of
here. Understand?”
“Sir.”
“Great.” 494 glanced around,
then ducked into the woods. He could hear noises up ahead of him, two people by
the sound of it. Also, several to his right.
He glanced at the ground
for a stick, and when he found one that looked sufficiently dry, he stood on
it. It snapped loudly.
The sound of the twig was
soon echoed by the sound of a weapon being cocked.
“Stop.”
Yeah, like he didn’t know
they were there.
“Get lost, did we?” Another
couple appeared.
“Actually, no.” He allowed
himself a sarcastic response, but made sure he was still standing perfectly to
attention.
“Explain.”
“I was looking for
someone.”
Someone laughed, and
stepped out from behind a tree. “Mission reunion, huh?”
494 nodded at him. “Got a
minute?”
The X4 stepped forward,
then looked around at the others. “Clear out,” he told them. The X4 holding the
gun shrugged, and moved away.
When the rest of his squad
were out of earshot, he laughed. “Shouldn’t you be learning how to aim a gun or
something?”
“Why’d you lie about the
other X5?” 494 meant his voice to sound calm, but he really didn’t succeed.
“I didn’t.” X4 shrugged.
“Look. They play games. They always do. It’s all a test. Learn this off by
heart: ‘I must have been mistaken, Sir.’ It’s a good motto to live by.”
494 nodded.
“So, you really came here
simply to ask me why I didn’t stand up for you?”
“Not completely.” For the
first time, 494 felt nervous. He now knew what the others felt like when they
looked at him, seeking approval.
“First from your squad to
go on a mission?” X4 grinned at him.
494 nodded slowly.
“I remember. No-one to talk
to about what it’s like out there, the people you met, the things you saw…”
“Heard,” 494 whispered.
“Heard?” X4 stared at him,
slightly confused.
“When I was trying to get
close to Tim, uh, I mean, the target…”
“Hmm, the target. His name
was Tim, wasn’t it?” X4 laughed at him. “And…”
“Well, I went to his house,
and in his room, he played this music…” 494’s voice drifted off, and he waited
for X4 to laugh at him.
“The music, huh?” X4
shrugged. “Never did like it myself. Now, movies. They’re cool. There’s this
one I saw once with this guy, and he just did whatever he wanted. They stole
cars and raced them off a cliff, then he hung out with this girl, smoking…
that’s the life.”
“You like smoking, huh?” He
could clearly remember X4 outside the motel, smoking a cigarette, looking over
his shoulder for guards.
“Best thing about being on
the outside is access to smokes.”
“Maybe you could find a source
around here.” 494 grinned at him.
That got his attention.
“Really. In exchange for what?” X4 nodded to himself. This kid was learning.
“Information. Advice.” A Friend. A cough came from the edge of the
woods. “Someone’s coming,” 494 whispered, turning to leave.
“Friday, here,” X4 hissed,
turning away himself.
494 was grinning as he
headed back to Steve. The two boys quickly started running hard, trying to make
up the 5 minutes they had lost.
“Gonna tell me what that
was about?” Steve muttered as they neared the end of the course.
“Well, let’s just say we
now have a way of finding out what to expect in the future.”
Steve stopped running, and
looked at him. How did he do that?
Friday…
Kat sprinted hard as she
turned into the last stretch of the run. The two guards that usually marked the
end of the run stood at attention, waiting. That was interesting. Normally
they looked pretty relaxed as they
waited. It must have been the fact that 494 had surprised them the other day that
had made them suddenly more military-like.
She crossed the line and
stood to attention. The taller guard looked over at her, a vaguely surprised
look on his face, as if surprised to see that she had finished first.
Actually, so was she. 494
had hung back for some reason. It really shouldn’t bother her that he obviously
had something going on. It was just that she was used to being in the loop. She
liked the feeling that being one of 494 lieutenants gave her. Then again, she
wasn’t the only one. Biggs and Tav, who were the closest to 494, had no idea
what was going on either.
For the second time that
week, 494 crossed the finish line with less than 30 seconds to spare, in last
place. He stepped forward to face the guards.
“All present, sir,” he reported.
“Good,” the tall guard
responded.
The two of them stared at
each other for a few seconds, then Kat saw the guard nod slightly.
494 saluted, and turned to
face his squad.
“Fall in,” he commanded.
The order was unnecessary, the squad was already in perfect formation.
When they got back to the
barracks, they split off to the showers before breakfast.
“10 minutes,” 494 reminded
them, talking softly to Steve as the rest of the squad grabbed towels.
8 minutes later, 494 was
standing outside the barracks, waiting for the rest of his squad.
It hadn’t taken that long
for him to get used to being in full uniform again. No longer was he
comfortable with his hair uncombed and his trousers unpressed. The one thing he
still preferred, though, was leaving his shirt untucked. He justified that to
the others on the basis that it was good military tactics, enabling him to hide
a gun easily in his waistband. He justified it to himself on the basis that he
just liked it.
“Sir, three missing,” Kat
whispered.
“Still time,” he muttered,
refusing even to look at the door. If they weren’t there on time, they would be
punished. So would he. Why worry about it?
The door opened, and his
three missing soldiers moved quickly onto the parade ground, approaching him
for permission to join the squad.
“From now on, you’re out
here with three minutes to go, every day, every formation. Understood?” He
glared at them until they dropped their gazes, even though they were standing
to attention. “Fall in.”
>>>>>
Kat took her usual seat in
the mess hall, and leant forward slightly to talk to Todd.
“You have any idea what’s
going on?”
Todd shrugged, and looked
at the other two at the table. Biggs shook his head. Tav just stared at the door
where 494 and Steve were standing at the back of the line, talking softly.
“What is it with people
being late this week?” he muttered. “I mean, Sir being last in the run, twice,
these guys before? Is it like a contest that we don’t know about? How human can
we be without getting in trouble? Because, you know, sir told me about this
thing called a food fight, and I’m willing to…” He stopped talking as 494
turned towards them, tray in hand.
494 nodded to his
lieutenants as he approached their table, but kept walking. Meal times were
some of the only times the squad had to itself all day, and he wanted the
opportunity to check out a few things. He approached one table, where 6 kids
sat. One of them was one of the late three from earlier.
494 looked around the
table, and raised his eyebrows. The other 5 stood quickly, collecting their
trays and moving to another table. 494 took a seat opposite the girl, and
looked at her.
“You okay?” he asked
softly.
“Yes, sir,” she replied
quickly.
“Listen.” 494 leant forward
slightly. “If you are sick or injured, there’s no shame in that. It happens. We
can cover for you. What there is shame in, is not saying anything, and having
something bad happen as a result.” He looked at her steadily, smiling slightly.
“I think I just did the run
too fast. Trying to make sure that I got back with several minutes to spare in
case they played games again,” she spoke slowly, staring into her plate,
refusing to look at him.
“So, what happened?”
“When the water hit me, in
the shower, I just felt a bit sick for a minute. I’m fine now, honestly.”
“Okay.” 494 ran through
some basic field med training in his mind. “Probably just dehydration then.
Make sure you drink a lot of fluids.”
“Yes sir.” She looked
relieved as she finally met his eyes.
“Good.” 494 stood up,
picking up his tray, and headed back to his usual seat. As he sat down, the
five soldiers moved back to reclaim their seats.
“Everything alright?” Kat
asked, since no-one else was going to say anything.
“Yes.” 494 shrugged,
starting to eat. “Keep an eye on that soldier today though, okay? She may be
sick.”
“Great,” Tav commented.
“Just what we need when we have to run the obstacle course today. What are we
supposed to do, carry her over the course?”
“If necessary.” 494 looked
up at him. “She is one of us, after all.”
“Hey, no problem. I could,
like, steal that white hat that the Colonel’s driver wears…”
“And you could shut up,”
494 continued, taking a bite of whatever the hell it was they were feeding them
these days. He needed to think. There was something going on here.
Biggs and Todd looked at
each other. “You worried that there’s another group forming?” Biggs asked
slowly.
“What?” 494 looked up.
“Well, the first time
someone got a group to work together, they took command of the squad. Now, one
girl is supposedly sick, but three of them are almost late for formation?”
“Christ,” Tav commented. He
had known the word for several days, and had been dying to try it out. It was
nice to have an opportunity to do that, even if it meant a potential coup.
494 looked at him. Biggs
had good instincts, it was usually safe to rely on them. Also, he had had the
feeling that something was wrong. This would definitely be classified as
‘something’.
“What do you think?” He
looked at Steve and Todd.
“Things do feel weird
around here,” Todd commented.
“I don’t think it’s that,
though,” Kat commented. She had been staring at the girl, and now turned back
around to face the others. “She doesn’t look like the type to plot a rebellion.
I mean, her hands are shaking, I can see it from here.”
“I can’t.” Tav looked
around with interest.
“Well, I’m part cat, okay?
I have better eyesight than you. Her hand is shaking, just a little, but it’s
noticeable.”
Todd nodded. “And I’m part
dog, and I can smell something about her. It’s fear, I think.”
“You think?” Tav smirked.
“Guess you’re not in touch with your canine side, huh?”
494’s hand darted out,
grabbing Tav around the throat. “Shut up, or die,” he said coldly, exerting
pressure.
Tav nodded frantically,
unable to speak.
494 shrugged, released his
grip, and turned back to Todd.
“Yeah. It is fear,” he
laughed softly, then grinned at Tav. “I am in touch with my canine side just
fine, thank you. It’s just, fear is not a thing I smell too often around here.”
“Glad I could be of
assistance.” Tav frowned, then laughed. “So, no rebellion?” He just wanted to
make sure. “You know, we could just ask them.”
“I don’t think it’s a
rebellion,” 494 spoke slowly. “And I am not going to punish three soldiers
because they have finally started to act like a real team.”
“But you want to know what
is going on, don’t you?” Kat asked.
“Of course. We’ll keep an
eye on the three of them. Also, look for anything else weird going on.”
5 days later…
494 woke to the sound of
someone walking past him. It was about
Kat was rostered on guard
duty tonight. Actually, she probably wasn’t, but she was acting as guard, as
she did most nights. As well as the cat DNA, she had been given something else,
something that meant she required little sleep. Most other squads rotated
around the members, as was fair, but 494 didn’t really see the point of several
squad members being up all night, particularly if one of them actually needed
sleep. Kat didn’t care, so she volunteered. Once or twice a week, when she
required a lot more sleep, meaning 4 or 5 hours, one of the others took a turn.
The guard’s job was simple.
Any problems in the barracks, they had to report it. If, by chance, the CO
didn’t hear it, of course. Also, they had to keep track of anyone going to the
latrines. Soldiers were allowed to leave the barracks for this reason, but they
had 5 minutes maximum to get there and back.
The girl and Kat spoke
softly, then the girl left. 494 closed his eyes again. He was tired. It had
been a hard day’s training the day before, and it was going to be another tough
one today. He could do with another hour’s rest.
A few minutes later, he
heard footsteps. It took him a second to realise that he hadn’t heard the
barracks door open.
“Sir?” Kat whispered
softly.
“She not back?” 494 turned
to face her, completely alert now.
Kat just stared at him. Any
reply was not necessary.
“Okay, go check it out.”
She nodded and moved away
silently. 494 sighed and sat up. Gone was his chance of getting any more sleep
that night.
“Problem?” Biggs whispered
from the bed opposite as he heard 494 stand up.
“Nah.” 494 shook his head.
“You’re on duty till we get back.”
Biggs nodded, following 494
to the door and then taking a seat on Kat’s bed.
494 made it two steps
outside the barrack block before he saw Kat coming back towards him.
“Don’t tell me, she locked
herself in there?” he whispered, smiling, then the expression vanished as he
saw Kat’s face. She was white, her eyes huge, and she was shaking slightly.
“Kat?” he asked. If that
girl had taken off or something…
“Uh, she’s… I think…” Kat
shook her head quickly, then looked up at him. “I think you need to see this.”
She led him to the
latrines, but stood beside the door, not wanting to go inside.
494 glanced at her, then entered
the latrine, his senses on high alert, ready for anything.
Or so he thought.
The soldier, a girl, lay on
the floor. She looked like she was in shock or something.
494 had seen shock before,
an X4, shot in the shoulder during a live fire exercise. The guards had stared
at him for a while, then one had demonstrated crude field med training.
494 and his squad had seen
because they were running the obstacle course, and the guard that was
supervising them had gone to look and talk with the other guards. He hadn’t
objected to the X5s watching, so they had stayed.
Anyway, the X4 had been
shivering hard, as if he was really, really cold.
This girl was doing that,
although it wasn’t like she was shivering, more like jerking up and down.
He glanced at Kat, who had
just managed to step inside the room. “Get a blanket, and tell Biggs to come.”
Biggs was good at field
med. He might know what to do.
“Hey,” he muttered,
kneeling down beside the girl and touching her shoulder. “It’s okay, you’re
just cold.”
But she wasn’t. She was
hot. Really hot.
She turned to look at him,
her eyes wide. “Sir?” she whispered.
“Yeah, I’m here. It’s
okay,” he repeated stupidly. Did she believe that? Would he, in her position?
Probably not, but it was better than telling her he had no idea what was going
on.
“I’m scared,” she
whispered, reaching a hand towards him.
He grasped her hand in his,
forcing himself to look her straight in the eyes.
“Don’t worry,” he pretended
to misunderstand her. “The guards won’t know. You’re just sick, still, that’s
all. Rest for a few minutes and you’ll be fine.”
The door opened, and 494
spun towards it. Biggs came into the room, carrying a couple of blankets. Kat
nodded to 494, but remained outside, guarding the door.
“What’s wrong with her?”
Biggs asked, passing a blanket to 494.
“Not sure.” He gently laid
the blanket over her, smiling down at her before turning back to Biggs. “She
was shaking really badly before. Like shock. She’s better now.” The jerking had
lessened until it was just shaking, more resembling shock.
“All they told us in field
med was to keep them warm and get them to a hospital. I guess we’re not doing
that, huh?”
Take her to a hospital?
Yeah, that would be easy to explain. He shook his head, smiling at the girl.
“No, she doesn’t look sick
enough to me to send her to the hospital.” No-one, in his mind, would ever be
sick enough for him to send them to that place. He touched the girl’s shoulder
lightly, and she managed a smile.
“I think I’m okay now,” she
spoke weakly, trying to sit up. 494 let her, but kept one arm around her to
help support her. He looked at Biggs, asking his opinion. Biggs shrugged. He
had no idea what to suggest.
“Uh, sir?” Kat poked her
head in the door. “Half an hour until lights-on.”
“Yeah.”
“I’m okay,” the girl told
him, sounding stronger. “We should get back to the barracks. If the guards see
us here…”
He didn’t know what to do.
Damn them, why couldn’t they train them better than this. They got field med
training, but no basics. Great, so he could amputate a leg in less than a
minute, but he had no idea what to do when one of his squad got sick. But, he
had to decide, and fast.
He had two choices. Report
it, and she went to the hospital wing. Probably permanently. No doubt being
sick was seen as a sign of weakness. Or, do nothing. If she got sick in front
of the guards, she would be sent to the hospital wing. But, she might not.
An image of another girl in
the med wing, in psy-ops, her face all bloody, jumped into his mind... No. He
wasn’t going to send anyone there.
“Barracks,” he made his
decision.
Biggs nodded, and moved to
the door. 494 helped her stand up, keeping one arm around her waist to help support
her. They slowly began to move towards the door.
After three paces, she
stopped, and turned to face 494. “Sir, I…”
494 felt her fall, and
caught her before she hit the ground. She was shaking hard, so hard that he,
kneeling on the ground now, could almost not hold her.
Biggs turned around and
moved quickly to help his leader.
494 held her off the
ground, her upper body resting against him, his arms wrapped around her, trying
to stop her shaking. Biggs held her head in place, knowing that it helped for
spinal injuries, and figuring that it couldn’t hurt with the way she was
jerking around.
His eyes met 494’s. “What
do we do?” he asked 494, his voice high with fear.
494 just shook his head,
looking down at the girl, who was still convulsing. He barely had the strength
to hold her, but he pulled his arms tighter around her. He didn’t know what to
do but she seemed comforted by his being there.
From the doorway, Kat
coughed. “Sir, 5 minutes.” Her voice was scared, but it was not clear whether
she was scared for the girl, or for the rest of them, if they were not outside
in time.
“Get back to the barracks.
Get them ready and outside,” 494 ordered, before turning his attention back to
the girl.
“Yes, sir.” Footsteps, as
she moved away.
“You should go too,” he
told Biggs. There was no reason for three of them to be in trouble.
“I’m staying,” Biggs
replied, reaching for the blanket with one arm and pulling it over the girl.
The girl had stopped
shivering. That was something good. 494 looked down at her. She had closed her
eyes, and she was looking a lot more relaxed. He breathed a sign of relief.
“What do we do?” Biggs
asked, in a whisper.
“Give her a minute or so,
then we’ll have to move.”
After the allotted time, he
nudged her gently. She didn’t respond.
“Hey,” 494 whispered,
shaking her shoulder. She continued to lie still. He slowly looked up at Biggs,
the hand on his shoulder reaching up to her neck to check for a pulse.
“But, no.” Biggs shook his
head, reaching towards the girl. “She’s not hurt, she hasn’t been shot.” His
eyes ran down her body, looking for blood or any other sign of injury.
“No, but maybe there are
other ways you can die,” 494 spoke slowly, still holding the girl in his arms.
“Oh, man,” Biggs muttered,
looking down at the girl.
“Yeah,” 494 nodded. He stroked the hair back off her forehead, trying to figure out what was going on. People didn’t just die, did they? They couldn’t just drop dead, could they? Surely, if that was the case, Manticore would have cut that particular gene out of their soldiers’ DNA.
He took a deep breath. “Get
back to the barracks. Make sure everyone gets outside on time. Tell them they
react to nothing, today. Tell them it’s a test. Tell Kat to get back here.”
His orders came out in
short bursts. He realised that they weren’t too coherent, or even in a logical
order, but Biggs would understand. He had to.
“Do I come back?”
494 thought quickly. “No,
you’re in command on the parade ground.”
“But, Steve…”
“Doesn’t know what’s going
on,” 494 spoke a lot more sharply than he intended. “You do.” He softened his
voice. “If they react in any way, you need to jump on them. Steve won’t
realise.”
“And where are you? If they
ask?”
“In the barracks. They’ll
assume a discipline problem. Now, go.”
“Yes, sir,” Biggs snapped
something that was a vague salute, then ran for the door.
494 waited a few seconds,
then slowly picked up the girl. He stood, cradling her gently in his arms, and moved
to stand against the wall beside the door so he couldn’t be seen if someone
walked past and looked inside. He could hear the footsteps of his squad in the
hall, moving outside.
30 seconds later, the door
opened, and someone came in. He tensed up for a second, then recognised Kat.
“Shut the door,” he hissed,
and Kat stepped quickly through the door, shutting it behind her.
494 took a step closer to
the door, looking through the glass window in the centre. “How many more still
inside?”
“Four, when I left. Biggs
told Tav to be the last one out, and to cough as he went.” She looked at the
girl. “Is she okay?” She knew that it was a dumb question. The girl did not
look okay.
494 had a split second to
make a choice. He chose truth. “She’s dead. I’ll explain later. When Tav
leaves, we have to get her back to the barracks, into her rack.”
“But, she’s dead.” Kat was
confused on so many levels, but she did understand death, if not how the girl
came to be in that state, and she didn’t see how putting her into her rack was
going to do any good.
“It won’t do any good.”
494’s eyes stared into
hers, and she jumped slightly. Had he read her mind?
“The guards have to think
she died in her sleep. None of us can be involved.”
“We can’t just leave her
here? It would be easier.”
“And whoever was on guard
duty gets in trouble for not reporting her late return. I get in trouble for
not knowing. The rest of the squad gets in trouble because…”
“We exist,” Kat finished
for him. “Okay.”
They heard footsteps in the
hall, and the sound of a cough.
“You first.” 494 nodded
towards the door.
Kat opened the door
slightly, and slipped outside. She moved quickly towards the barracks room
door, looked inside, then gestured to 494 to come. He moved as quickly as he could,
trying not to bump the girl against anything.
“How long until time is
up?” he asked as he passed her.
“65 seconds.” Kat always
knew the time.
“Go, get outside.” His tone
left no room for argument. She nodded, and ran for the exit.
>>>>>
“Permission to fall in,”
Kat reported to Biggs on the parade ground.
“45 seconds. What’s he
doing?” Biggs hissed.
“Died in her sleep,” she
whispered as she saluted and moved into her position in the squad. Biggs would
understand from that.
>>>>>
494 dropped her onto her
mattress, pulling the covers up over her, then moving her arms and one of her
legs, trying to make her look more natural.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered
to her.
45 seconds to go. He
sprinted for his rack, grabbing his clothes and throwing them on.
20 seconds. He forced his
feet into his boots and tied the laces, then ran for the door, shoving the tail
of his shirt into the waistband of his trousers.
He reached the door to the parade
ground, and stopped, took a deep breath, fixed the expression on his face into
soldier-casual, and stepped outside.
With 5 seconds to go he
reported to Biggs.
Biggs snapped a salute, and
moved to take his normal place in the squad. 494 stepped forward, taking his
command position, and stood to attention.
The guard stepped forward.
“Thank you for joining us,” he commented. “Report.”
“One unaccounted for, sir.”
494 forced his face to remain blank.
“Where is it?”
It. The body. For a second,
494 thought that they had been found out. Then, he relaxed. They didn’t know.
They just didn’t see any of the soldiers as really human, and therefore
deserving of a personal pronoun.
“X5-306 is in the barracks,
Sir. She did not wake when ordered, and I was unable to get a response out of
her.”
The guard looked at him.
“Show me.”
“Yes, Sir.” He saluted,
then spun 180 degrees.
“X5-511, report.”
Biggs snapped to attention
and marched out of the squad, saluting when he reached 494.
“Take command.”
“Yes, sir.”
494 turned back to face the
guard.
“Lead on.”
494 marched towards the
barracks. At the door, he stopped, and the guard entered ahead of him. The
guard looked around as he crossed the room. He had never seen the inside of a barrack
room before, and he looked around in amazement at the perfectly made beds and
the shining floor.
All except one bed. He
moved towards it, and looked down at the girl lying there. He reached out and
touched her shoulder, then shook her hard.
“Fuck, she really is dead,”
the guard spoke to himself. “You.” He turned to 494.
“Yes, sir.” 494 took a step
forward.
“Report to the medical
wing. Tell the doctor on duty ‘code black’. Got that?”
“Yes, sir.” 494 turned and
left.
>>>>>
He entered the med wing
slowly. He truly hated this place. Too many memories of time spent in the
psy-ops ward.
“What do you want?” one of
the doctors sneered at him. “If you can walk, you’re fine to continue
training.”
494 had a quick mental
image involving leaping across the room and killing the doctor. The 6 months of
punishment in psy-ops would be worth it.
“X5-494 reporting, sir. A
guard ordered me to report a code black.”
“What, someone died falling
out of bed?” the doctor asked sarcastically, looking at his watch.
That could happen? What
else could they die of?
“Unknown, sir.”
“Fine. Where?”
“2 squad barracks, sir.”
“Right. Get back to your
squad.”
“Yes, sir.”
>>>>>
His squad were in their classroom
by this time, part way through a lesson. He knocked at the door, and entered
quietly, reporting to the instructor.
“Take your seat, 494.”
“Yes, sir.”
The instructor continued
talking. It was business as usual at Manticore.
494 could feel eyes on him.
All through the lesson, his squad kept looking at him, trying to figure out
what was going on. Those of them with high-powered hearing had heard Kat
whisper that the girl had died in her sleep, and had passed this on to the
others. They understood death, and they knew what sleep was, but they couldn’t
put the two of them together in any way that made sense.
494 stared straight ahead.
He needed time to figure this out.
>>>>>
They came during Tactics
class. 4 guards, heavily armed, strolled casually into the classroom and handed
a note to the instructor, who nodded slightly then took a seat.
The guards moved quickly
through the aisles, and stopped beside 4 kids, seemingly at random.
“Stand up,” came the order.
The four in question stood
slowly, clearly scared, but fighting hard not to show it.
“Follow.” The guards turned
and left the room. Without hesitation, they followed.
As he reached the door, Tav
looked quickly back at 494, almost as if he was asking what he should do. 494
had to force himself not to look at his brother. He stared straight ahead,
hoping that Tav would be smart enough to keep his mouth shut.
>>>>>
It was noticeable how empty
the barracks block was that evening. The night before, there had been 19 of
them. Now, with one dead and four somewhere in the realms of psy-ops, the
barracks looked surprisingly empty.
Particularly when five of
the remaining soldiers were crowded around one of the bunks at one end of the
room.
494 looked at his
lieutenants, with the exception of Tav, and sighed.
“Sir, what’s going on?” Kat
asked quietly, trying to make sure she wasn’t overheard by the other kids, who
were gathered together at the other end of the room. She wanted them to think
she knew what was going on.
“I have absolutely no
idea.” 494 shrugged, not knowing what was going on, and sick of trying to act
like he did.
“Why take those four?”
Biggs asked quietly. “Do they think they’re likely to die in the same way?”
Steve, Todd and Kat looked
quickly at each other. That was the first time that particular thought had run
through their minds. It wasn’t a particularly nice thought.
“I don’t know,” 494
muttered
They turned to look at him.
494 was sitting on the bunk, his back against the wall, and staring at
something, lost in thought.
Without having to discuss
it, they stopped talking and waited for him to formulate a plan and tell them
what to do.
5 minutes later, and 494 still
hadn’t spoken. Todd glanced at Kat, not sure what to do. Kat looked worried.
494 sat with his head leant back against the wall, completely motionless except
for his eyes, which were darting from side to side.
“Sir?” she asked quietly.
“Go away,” he muttered
after a few seconds.
As if it was an order, the
other 4 nodded, and moved away from him.
Another half an hour
passed. Steve and Todd had taken over the running of the squad, and were making
sure the remaining soldiers were completing their usual duties, and those of
their missing friends. About once a minute, someone would look towards 494, to
see what he was doing.
He was doing the same thing
he had been doing for the last 40 minutes. Staring into space.
It was not the most
reassuring sight.
“That boot could be shined
better.” Steve nodded at a blonde haired boy’s footwear, lined up inside his
locker. “Fix it up.”
“Yes, sir.” The boy reached
for the offending boot.
494 coughed.
The boy froze, and looked
up at Steve. Slowly, the two of them, along with everyone else in the room,
turned to look at 494.
494 smiled slightly, and
stood up.
“Get back to work,” he
spoke quietly. “There’s an inspection as usual tomorrow, and three tests. Pick
one and study for it.”
As if to set an example, he
reached for a textbook and opened it, stretching out on his bunk to read it.
“You heard him,” Steve
spoke up. He looked around the room until all of the remaining soldiers were
studying something.
494 turned a page in his book,
and coughed again. Again, everyone in the room looked up. 494 ignored them and
continued to read.
>>>>>
He was still there the
following morning. 494 sat up, and looked around. It was definitely their
barracks. So, either there were no cameras in the room, or those guards
watching them didn’t care that he was coughing.
That was interesting. The
girl had gotten sick and died. If it was contagious, then the doctors would be
closely monitoring the room, and his coughing a few times should have been
enough to have the guards in there hauling him away for observation.
But, if it wasn’t
contagious, then why had the guards taken the other four?
It made no sense. Even
after several hours of trying to figure out what was going on, he had
absolutely no idea.
As long as they weren’t
being watched too closely, though, he had one option available to him.
>>>>>
The small squad started on
their usual morning run. 494 hung towards the back, and when the path met up
with the tree line, he flashed a grin at Steve, and disappeared.
The X4 unit was in the
bush, as usual. He moved towards one of the males he had gotten to know by
sight.
“Is He around?” 494 asked
quietly.
“Yeah, wait here.” He moved
off into the trees, and returned a few seconds later with X4 and a couple of
others.
“Where’s the rest of your
squad?” X4 asked, starting to smile. “Surely they didn’t send that many on
missions?”
The others just looked at
494, waiting for him to answer.
It was not usual for a squad
to lose more than one or two of its members at any given time, and the X4 unit
had noticed at least 4 or 5 X5s missing when they had formed up.
“One died,” 494 said
quietly.
X4 stopped smiling. “Tell
me,” he requested.
“She, uh, got sick or something,”
494 said hesitantly, worried that what she had died of was in fact contagious,
and the X4s would know that, and be unhappy that he had possibly contaminated
them.
“Was she shaking?” one of
the other males asked slowly.
“Yeah,” 494 looked at him
hopefully. Maybe he did know what was going on. “We thought she was in shock,
or something. But it just got worse, and then…”
X4 nodded. “I know. I’ve
seen a few die of it. One of the guys in my squad, he had this theory. He
thinks that it’s a side effect of the gene manipulation. That cat DNA wasn’t
meant to be spliced into humans.”
“So, anyone with cat DNA
will die?” That would be bad, considering the panther DNA he had been given.
“Nah, it happens randomly,
from what I can tell, and to different degrees. Sometimes you just get sick for
a while. Other times, you die.”
“So, is there anything we
can do? If it happens again?”
X4 looked down. “No. Just
make sure the guards don’t find out.”
“Okay. Also, they took four
others to psy-ops. Why would they do that?”
X4 looked at his squad
mates, then back to 494. “Probably just tests. Or, to mess with your heads. The
usual.”
Yeah. That made sense.
“Thanks.”
“Yeah, no problem.” X4 nodded
to him. “Listen, can you get us more cigarettes? Say, two packets?”
“I’ll see what I can do.”
He probably could. His guards were pretty generous.
494 sprinted to catch up
with the rest of his squad. That was interesting. It was definitely information
he could use. He would have to keep a close watch on the rest of his squad. If
X4 had seen this several times, then the odds were that this was going to
happen again in his squad, and he wanted to be ready.
As they showered after the
run, he started to plot a mission. If they could get into the medical wing,
there had to be some information on this shaking, and maybe how to prevent it
happening.
Chapter 41
2 days later, the four that
had been taken from the squad returned. They walked into the squad barracks,
and headed straight to their bunks, saying nothing. The rest of the squad
looked to 494, waiting for him to do something.
494 had seen Tav’s face as
he walked past him. His brother had looked blankly in front of him, not seeming
to be aware of what was going on around him. 494 had this sudden mental image
of the room in psy-ops, the girl screaming, her head hitting the wall over and
over…
“Sir?” Kat whispered
“Huh?” 494 shook his head,
trying to clear it. “Oh, right.”
He walked slowly towards
Tav, and took a seat on his bunk, beside him. Slowly, he touched Tav’s arm
gently. He remembered how much the touch of someone had first scared him, then
reassured him after his visit to psy-ops.
Tav looked over to him, his
eyes scared.
“I know,” 494 said, not
wanting to talk about his own experience, but wanting him to know that he was
not alone.
Tav bit his lip. “I think
they did something to me.” He clenched his fist, hard, trying to remain calm.
“It’ll be okay,” 494
muttered softly, keeping his hand on Tav’s arm. “It may not seem like it, but
it will be.”
“It was weird.” Tav sat up.
Kat and a few others stepped forward a few paces so they could hear him. “They
didn’t hurt me. I thought they would, after…”
494 nodded. He couldn’t remember
his first few days back after his visit, but he could remember enough to
imagine what he must have been like.
“They mostly left me
alone,” Tav continued. “But every few hours, they came in and injected me with
something. Then, they watched. Like it was supposed to do something, or not do
something. But nothing happened. Then, they went away.” He shook his head.
“What do you think they were doing to me? Do you think that whatever it was…”
his voice trailed off.
“Probably just those random
medical tests they seem to like so much.” 494 forced himself to smile slightly.
He got a slight smile in return.
“You think?” Tav looked
hopefully up at his leader.
“Yeah, unless they were
trying some mind manipulation or something.” 494 shrugged. “If you suddenly
feel the urge to kill anyone, me in particular, let us know, okay?”
Tav looked at him, scared
for a few seconds, then realised that 494 was joking, and smiled weakly.
“Get some rest,” 494 told
him, standing up. “You’ll be fine in the morning.”
“Yes, sir.” Tav obediently
lay down, and 494 noticed his lack of sarcastic response.
He walked away.
“Mind manipulation?” Biggs
whispered, out of earshot of the others. “You really believe that?”
“No,” 494 replied. “I’ve
felt their mind control drugs, and believe me, you know what they’re doing. You
just don’t care. But at least he now thinks that was what they did to him.”
“And that helps how? Now
he’s going to be second guessing himself all the time.”
“Yeah, but that’s better
than thinking that they injected him with something that will make him sick
like that girl.”
Biggs nodded. “Okay, so
what now?”
“Talk to the other three. I
want their stories, see if they had the same experience.”
“And the rest of your plan?”
Biggs smiled slightly. He knew that his boss had more in mind than that.
“You’ll find out when, and
if, you need to know.”
“Understood, sir.”
Biggs moved away.
494 lay down on his bunk
and closed his eyes, thinking.
It couldn’t have been
random medical testing. The timing was just too weird. It was all related to
the dead girl. But how? Were the four chosen randomly? Or were they the four
most likely to have the same thing happen to them? And if so, was Manticore
trying to find a cure, or just identify those likely to get sick and kill them
now?
He slammed his fist down
onto the mattress in frustration.
He didn’t know. He had no idea how they thought.
His plan of getting the
medical records seemed to be the only chance of finding out what was going on.
Although now, the plan needed to be extended to include the records of the four
others. That was going to be complicated.
>>>>>
An hour later, Biggs had
finished talking to the other three. They all had the same story as Tav. They had
been largely ignored, apart from injections, and they felt fine. Just, worried
about what had happened to them. Biggs had repeated 494’s comment about mind
manipulation, and it had seemed to make them feel better. He didn’t see why.
Personally, he was way more scared of those doctors having access to his brain
that making him feel sick. He didn’t want to have to wonder about whether the
things he was doing were his choice, or whether he was merely doing what he had
been programmed to do.
He mentioned this to Steve,
who looked at him and laughed.
“They’re scared because
they don’t want to just die like that. All we’ve been told about death is that
there is nothing more honourable than dying in battle, following orders. Then,
they see death up close, and all of a sudden, it’s not glamorous or honourable.
It’s something to be scared of.”
“Oh.” Biggs couldn’t argue
with that. “Makes sense.”
“Yeah, well, I’ve been
doing a lot of thinking over the past few days.” Steve shrugged. “Oh, and one more
thing? What do you think they’ve been doing to us all these years? That’s mind
manipulation. Do you really think if we lived out there, in the real world,
we’d get up every morning and think about killing people?”
Biggs felt everything he
knew come crashing down around him.
He looked slowly around
him, and for the first time, saw the barracks for what it really was. He shook
his head.
“Is 494 asleep?” He saw him
lying down, eyes closed.
“Don’t think so.” Steve
looked over at him. “Planning something, I think. We’ll find out soon enough.”
>>>>>
Three hours later, 494 opened his eyes and smiled into the
darkness. He had a plan.
And it was just bizarre
enough to work. All he had to do was convince the others to help out.
>>>>>
“No chance,” came the
immediate response.
“Why?” 494 looked at X4
challengingly. “Scared?”
“Hell, yes.” X4 took a step
forward. “You don’t mess with Manticore like that.”
“You’ve never broken into
something, or gone outside after lights out?” 494 began to re-evaluate his
opinion of X4.
“Gone outside, sure. How
else could I smoke? But, deliberately broken into something? I’m not in the
mood to spend more time in psy-ops.”
“Unless there’s something
in it for you.”
“Now you’re talking.” X4 nodded,
looking interested. “What do I get in return for helping you out?”
“The same information I
get. If there’s a cure for this sickness, don’t you want to know it?”
“Not really. I’m not sick.”
494 looked at him for
several seconds. “Neither was She. Not until she died, anyway.”
X4 looked down at the
ground. He nodded slowly. “You don’t understand.” His voice was almost a
whisper.
“Try me.”
“If we do this, if we help
you out, don’t you see what kind of message that’s sending?”
“That we help out our squad
mates?” 494 suggested.
‘That it’s real,” X4 almost
yelled at him. He ran a hand through his hair, and turned away.
494 waited, watching him as
he stared into the bush for almost a minute.
“Listen.” He turned back to
face 494. “It’s okay if the odd one of us gets the shakes. In every group,
there are nomalies right? But if there are medical records? If it turns out
that Manticore is actually trying to figure out how to stop the shaking?” he
looked questioningly at 494.
“It means that it’s not
just a nomaly thing.” 494 nodded. “I don’t care. And, you were the one that
said it happened randomly.”
“Yeah, but…” X4 shook his
head. “You’re really annoying, you know that?”
494 smiled. “I try. So,
you’ll help?”
“Yeah, okay. But as far as
my squad knows, you’re trying to find genetic information to explain why you
glow in the dark, okay?”
“No problem.”