Age of Redemption, page 15
part #2 of Titan Code Series
This time they climbed up their ladders and onto the top of the train car. The wind whipped against Tessa’s body as she mounted the train car. It took a few seconds to adjust to the rocking motion and the air movement above the train. She used her goggles to block the wind from her eyes, and the night vision helped her see the targets in the pitch dark. She could tell the invaders wore eyewear, meaning they also had night vision.
Tessa tiptoed across the top of the train crouched low, hoping no one would notice her. Her targets moved away from her toward the train engine. They never suspected someone would join them atop a moving train, so they didn’t feel the need to look behind.
She approached their rearguard. He wasn’t doing a very good job of covering their backs, and she snuck up behind him with a firm lock around his head Tessa jerked his neck. There was a quiet pop as his neck broke, and she lowered his body to the rest on the top of the train car.
The two in front of him were close enough together; so Tessa could take out both. Still kneeling next to her recent kill, Tessa drew a knife and approached the next two. She slipped her knife around a neck and pulled it across, spilling blood, killing one. That alerted the partner, and he turned his gun on Tessa. She moved to grab his wrist and remove the pistol. With the weapon hand secured, she turned her back to the assailant; now, the gun pointed forward so she could avoid being a target. She almost had him disarmed, but he held on to the weapon long enough to squeeze the trigger.
The sound of gunfire caused the last two to turn and assess the noise. They found Tessa kicking their partner from the train and two dead bodies lying atop the train car. Tessa sheathed her knife and activated her holographic shield with her suit arm controls. A holographic projection of energy jumped from one of her arm bracers, and she held her forearm in front of her mid-section as the remain two assailants pulled their firearms and fired.
The bullets struck the shield, and Tessa felt the shock of their impact. Her shield held up for the first round of firing, but it wouldn’t take the punishment forever. The enemies ran out of ammo and reloaded. Tessa heard their mags dropping to hit the metal roof of the train car. That was her signal to move.
Tessa engaged hand to hand with the assailant closest to her. The other took off, running toward the front of the train. Tessa deployed Scout to track the runner while she subdued her present target. She pulled out her retractable batons, and a vicious melee ensued.
The man tried to use brute force against her locking up both her arms, but Tessa activated the electrical charges in her batons. The sudden jolt of electricity forced him to let her go. She struck right and left in rapid succession, but he blocked both attempts. While he was preoccupied with her hands, she struck with a low spin kick to knock his legs out from under him. While on the ground, she poked him in the stomach with the baton delivering a blast of electricity, causing him to cry out, but he didn’t stop.
He knocked her baton away and jumped back to his feet. His arms were up in a defensive position now. He underestimated his opponent and soon realized how much of a threat she was, so he took a protective stance. This time he attacked first, with a quick right-left jab cross and then a wild right hook. Tessa dodged the hook, but he landed a left uppercut to her jaw.
Tessa spit blood from her split lip, but she didn’t let it distract her. It was important to never let your guard down even for a millisecond. The pain made her focus more. She didn’t want him to land another blow. She still had one more fight coming after this one.
Scout alerted her that the other assailant stopped running and entered the locomotive. The drone sent a video feed through to her goggles so she could monitor the situation. This meant Tessa needed to finish this fight and help the locomotive engineers. She re-engaged with her target, determined to end the fight. After a few back and forth blows, Tessa found a lull in the fight to finish. She used her body for momentum as she swung around for a powerful roundhouse kick to the side of the man’s face. Her foot hit hard and fast, sending him slamming to the train car roof out cold.
Tessa ran full speed toward the front of the train and jumped over the space between cars, trying not to think about the ground roaring beneath her. She heard the sounds of gunfire as she approached the locomotive and refused to let the thieves overtake the train. She needed this train to make it to Los Alamos intact to follow the cargo to the arc and destroy it.
At full speed, Tessa used Scout to locate her entrance and dove feet first swinging into an open window to the rear of the locomotive. Inside she saw the target laying suppressive fire at the engineers who huddled behind a piece of machinery. The target didn’t even notice she entered, Tessa pulled her handgun, and with a quick double-tap, he collapsed to the floor with two bullets to the head.
The engineers emerged from their hiding place, ready to thank Tessa for saving them, but now she worried about being recognized. She realized maybe she should have taken the rear of the train instead of Sam. Now Tessa was the hero of this train, thus drawing unwanted attention. She tried to bow out of the celebration and return to her post, but word spread on the small train. She kept her head down as H.I.V.E scientists applauded her on her trek back to her position. She needed to find Finn. They would have to adjust their plans.
23
Tessa voiced her concerns to Finn, “I made a mistake.”
“What happened?” Finn feared her answer.
“Sam should have moved forward instead of chasing the targets to the rear. I liberated the engineers, and now they are praising me the hero. I’ve called attention to myself. It’s only a matter of time before someone figures out who I am.” Tessa worried she spoiled their entire plan.
Finn contemplated an answer to their dilemma, “Meet me at your post.”
They traveled forward to the next car to involve Norine in the conversation. Finn needed more information about her power. “How strong are your suggestive powers?”
“It’s hard to say. What is it you need me to do?”
“I need you to make this whole train believe that someone other than Tessa saved the train from the attackers.” Norine took a few moments to crunch the possibility. “We have little time here.”
“If we could replace Tessa’s image with someone else’s that resembles her.”
Finn requested Melody forward. Tessa realized where he was going with his idea. Melody was taller than Tessa, but they were both female with long dark hair. When Melody arrived, Finn instructed her to pull her hair into a ponytail and put on the same hat as Tessa. H.I.V.E still wanted to capture Melody for being a rebel, but she was not as well known. They had a better chance of Melody sneaking past without recognition than Tessa.
The downside to the plan was that Tessa had to switch places with Melody, meaning Norine would now be paired with Melody to complete the ruse. Tessa now had to tolerate Stonewell, but more troublesome Norine would no longer be masking her identity. If someone recognized her, it would be up to Tessa to convince them otherwise. Finn promised that once they reached Los Alamos, he would accompany her, but for right now, she had to swap with Melody. Too many changes would arouse suspicions.
Tessa was at least satisfied that Finn would be with her once they reached base. He could scramble facial recognition cameras and change computer specs. It offered Tessa a bit of protection from being recognized. Better than nothing. She was a high-profile enemy of H.I.V.E, and they would watch for her.
Norine walked Melody up and down the train cars with passengers to work her mental magic. Melody acted the part of the heroine to complete the picture in their minds. Most of the people accepted the new reality with ease, but there were a few confused faces causing Norine to pause and work harder.
Tessa stayed in the back with Stonewell tucked away in the shadows, tasked with watching a cargo car, so there were few people for them to interact with.
Stonewell couldn’t stand being quiet, “You know, you and I are not so different.”
She snapped at him in a whisper with her lips pursed together so no one would see her talking, “We are nothing alike.”
“How do you figure that? We both have the same enemy.”
“My enemy might be the same, but I won’t use people to get what I want.”
“Isn’t that what you’re doing now. You’re using your aunt’s ability for your gain.”
Tessa turned to address him, “Wrong. We asked Norine if she would help us out, and she complied. I didn’t force her into submission. Everyone is here because this is what they believe in, and this is where they want to be.”
Stonewell was silent only for a moment to contemplate, “If it makes you feel any better, I didn’t want to inject you with the adrenaline. I couldn’t see another way in which my team survived.”
“You could have asked.” Tessa looked him in the eye, “If you had told me the team would die unless I did something, I would have accepted action. I would have saved the team, but I wanted to make that decision. It was my choice, not yours.”
“I understand that now.” It surprised Tessa to sense humility in Stonewell’s voice. Maybe he finally understood what Tessa stood for and why she was upset with him. She wanted humanity to rise against their oppressors. She didn’t want to become another tyrant, forcing people into war; instead, she wanted to spark a rebellion and give people hope. Humanity could come together and topple a dictatorship to retake their future.
Tessa observed Norine and Melody from the shadows, and it seemed like their plan was working. People believed that Melody saved the train from bandits. The train slowed as it approached the Los Alamos depot, and Tessa could see the bright lights illuminating the complex from afar. There were moments of doubt swirling through her head as they approached, but she pushed those thoughts deep down, trying to ignore them. Her gut told her this was a mistake, but it was the teams plan, so she honored their request.
Tessa almost held her breath as they pulled into the depot. She was delivered into the lion’s den but had to appear like one of the sheep. The train stopped at the station, and people disembarked. There were tales spun of their hero agent who saved them from bandits. Finn met with security leadership on base to give his statement on what happened. They seemed to congratulate Melody without recognizing her.
Tessa’s heart skipped a beat when security informed Finn and Melody they would debrief before continuing with base orders. They had to give an official statement on the attempted hijacking. That meant Melody would be vulnerable without Norine, but she had Finn, so everything would work out according to plan. Tessa re-approached Norine to protect herself from recognition while awaiting Finn’s return.
No one said anything to their small security team. H.I.V.E sent personnel to unload the cargo while they waited. Tessa instructed Sam to vocalize the core goes last. The core was supposed to be transported by an escort, meaning Finn and Tessa were to accompany the device to its delivery point. If they lost that cargo, then they might never find where H.I.V.E was hiding its most top-secret projects. Finn posed as a senior officer, so they had to wait for his orders.
The other team members branched off to complete their roles of the mission. Norine was now with Melody, leaving Stonewell with Arica and Sam solo. Tessa loitered around the train cargo hold for Finn to return. A team of logistics specialists showed up with equipment to move the cargo from the train to the laboratory complex, and Tessa stalled them. She insisted there were orders from her superior officer and requiring them both to escort the package. For fear of disobeying H.I.V.E protocol, the men awaited Finn’s return.
The logistics team tried to engage in friendly conversation with her as they waited, but Tessa tried to avoid conversation. She wanted to hide in a corner until Finn returned, but that would raise some red flag concerns. Instead, she just tried to stay quiet, hoping they would give up on a conversation, and eventually, they did.
Finn returned and presented the logistics team with their forged orders. They didn’t seem to suspect a thing, so the men started loading up the pallets of H.I.V.E tech onto several forklifts. Tessa and Finn each rode on a forklift toward the laboratory.
To ease her mind, Tessa turned on some tunes. Her taste in music evolved as her personality changed. The more enraged she became with H.I.V.E, the angrier her music became. She picked a heavier playlist and turned it on shuffle. The first song was Sweet Dreams by Marilyn Manson. A melodramatic ballad with periodic bouts of screaming. It matched Tessa’s mood. On the inside, she wanted to scream and destroy everything in sight with her Evo power, but Finn insisted on this covert mission.
Instead of a violent outburst, Tessa subdued her primal urge to exact revenge and escorted the logistics team. The caravan of forklifts halted in front of the laboratory bay doors, and H.I.V.E security reviewed Finn’s orders and the cargo manifest. The security guards swept the cargo to make sure they introduced no hazardous material into the laboratory. They were hunting explosives.
After their attack on Tessa’s base, they were expecting a retaliation. The heightened security concerned Tessa, but she remained confident Finn would carry out his ruse.
After a brief stall, security allowed them to proceed. The logistics team delivered the equipment to a large cargo elevator to transport into the laboratory’s top-secret sub-basements. Finn’s information confirmed the existence of secret sub-basements, but he didn’t know how many levels deep the complex went.
The forklifts took turns one at a time, meaning Tessa and Finn would split up for some time. Finn would travel ahead of Tessa to ensure a smooth transition. If there were questions regarding their paperwork, Finn could field those inquires before Tessa arrived. That would elevate the need for Tessa herself to engage in a risky conversation, which might lead to someone recognizing her.
When it was her turn, Tessa entered the elevator and descended along with the energy core she refused to let out of her sight. The elevator moved, and she sensed it moved fast, leaving butterflies in her stomach from the rapid decline. She got the sensation of falling. This cargo elevator must be an express elevator to the top-secret level.
The descent took a good deal of time despite the rate of speed, meaning they were rooted deep in the earth at this point. The elevator slowed and came to a halt with the doors opening to reveal a vast open chamber shelled in concrete and supported by skeletons of steel girders.
Lights dotted the ceiling and stretched out into oblivion as the room stretched for ages — cranes attached to scaffolding transported equipment and supplies from one end of the room to another. Along the sides of the massive cavern were glass viewpoints where laboratory scientists could gaze out onto their creation.
Tessa saw the new arc, which filled most of the room. H.I.V.E engineers were hard at work building their masterpiece. The room was abuzz with activity, and the energy core drew a crowd. There was an electric excitement in the air; everyone awaited the energy core.
The excitement confused Tessa. H.I.V.E had no way to charge the core. They needed her power to activate it. It worried Tessa they might have discovered another way to power the core, and that was terrible news.
As the crowd gathered, Finn approached her to move to the next phase of their mission. The crowd of people might work to their advantage. Finn and Tessa could disappear in the chaos. They would blend in as H.I.V.E security, and Finn led the way to the weapons vault. Since they entered the laboratory, Finn was hard at work breaching H.I.V.E computer servers. He had access to all the base schematics by this point. That was the bonus of having a technomancer in their group.
Finn could also make short work of the weapon’s vault digital lock. Once inside, they filled duffle bags with C-4 and detonators. Finn didn’t need any device timers because he would press the proverbial button in his mind. They exited the vault with their payload and began their tour of the arc with periodic stops to plant explosives.
As they were walking along the outskirts of the room around the arc, Finn cried out in surprise. When Tessa turned to look at him, she noticed he was clutching the right side of his neck. Tessa whirled around to find the Director of Science, Marlize, standing behind her with a contingent of H.I.V.E security. She dressed in a stark white lab coat with a red sheath dress and matching heels on underneath.
She spoke down to Tessa, “I figured out how you’re getting into our systems. A technomancer. How clever.”
Finn’s eyes opened wide in terror, “My power is gone.” He was digging at the skin on the side of his neck.
Tessa noticed a metal implant behind his ear that was likely blocking his mental ability. Tessa lifted her hands, “Let him go, and you can have me. I can charge your core.”
She cackled at Tessa, “You think we still need you.” She sauntered toward Tessa, “You, my dear, made a critical mistake the day you escaped Cheyenne Mountain. You left a piece of yourself behind.”
A figure moved in the background behind the security officers. Tessa’s heart skipped a beat in utter terror upon realizing her biggest mistake. Tessa gazed into a reflection of herself.
24
Director Marlize Sharron flaunted her creation, “Tessa, you should have known better. While you were with us, I took the liberty of making my own test tube Tessa from the DNA you left behind. Only I made a few modifications to make this version more compliant.”
Tessa trembled with anticipation, unsure how all this would play out. “Your slave lacks heart.” She wondered if this clone had full use of her power. It took her months to hone her skill. Could this abomination be her equl?
Marlize shrugged, “She doesn’t need a heart. She has orders, and that’s all she needs.”
The Director gave a command, and the fake Tessa unleashed a stream on concentrated energy at her and Finn. She responded by raising an energy shield, but it wasn’t very effective. She struggled to hold fake Tessa’s energy at bay. Their powers were an equal match.
Finn was helpless, with his powers negated. He tried to pull at the implant H.I.V.E embedded behind his ear. He looked at Tessa as she struggled to protect them with the shield. “Your power is matched. You won’t be able to beat her like this.”
