Broken Worlds Super Boxset (79 page)

***

Three-dimensional DNA models rotated on computer screens as Sydney continued his reconstruction of Todd’s work. He’d completely submerged himself in the research, losing himself in the intricate data that Todd’s mind created with nothing more than a few pieces of equipment in a hole in the ground. But instead of a scientist, working on the latest research from one of the brightest minds of the century, he felt more akin to a burglar, rummaging through the drawers of a home he had no business being in. 

“How much longer is this going to take?” Jake asked.

Sydney’s previous hijinks had cost him any goodwill with Gordon, and as a result, Jake was now with him twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.

“I told you I can’t put a timeline on this,” Sydney answered.

“I can’t fucking wait to get out of this fucking lab,” Jake said, talking more to himself than Sydney.

The stress of the past two days seemed to be affecting Jake more than it was Sydney. The wolf behind him didn’t enjoy the cage as much as the lab rat. The truth was, Sydney wasn’t in any hurry to finish what Todd had started. He knew the moment he turned in the final reconstructed solution to Gordon, he was a dead man. With each new DNA sequence he completed, the tip of his shovel dug the pit of his own grave a little deeper.

A part of Sydney held out hope that his father would still be able to pull some strings, send in a unit to break him out, or have won the war with the Coalition before he was able to finish the reconstruction of Todd’s data. But Sydney knew that Gordon would keep him as a hostage in whatever last stand Gordon had in mind, which would most likely end with him dead.

The computer beeped, signaling another completed DNA sequence, and the needle on the gauge of Sydney’s emotions edged another inch closer toward angst. Sydney rolled his chair over to the second of three computers at his disposal, and when he maximized the window, he saw a notification in his email. The subject line was blank, along with the sender, and resembled the same embedded emails he used to communicate with his father and Alex during his time in Wyoming.

Sydney’s spine grew slightly stiffer as he carefully closed out of the email and continued on with his work. There was no way he’d be able to use the computer to check something like that with Jake constantly hovering over him. But he did remember the backup cell phone he kept in the bottom drawer of his desk. 

Sydney grabbed his clipboard, jotting down a few notes from the computer screen, when he started vigorously tapping the clipboard with his pen. “Dammit.”

“What?” Jake asked.

Sydney waved him off, walking over to his desk. “Nothing. Just out of ink.”

“What an emergency,” Jake drawled.

The desk was behind the equipment, and Sydney glanced back over his shoulder, where he could see the top of Jake’s head leisurely making its way around the computers. Sydney quickly opened the bottom drawer, shuffling through the random office supplies and lab notes until he found the cell phone. He hid it under the clipboard in his hand and started searching for the charger. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d used it and wasn’t even sure if it would turn on.

“Hey,” Jake said.

Sydney froze in his hunched over position, still moving items around and scraping against the sides of the drawer in a quiet panic.

“Hey!” Jake repeated.

Sydney finally looked up, and Jake was pinching a pen between his fingers. “I don’t have all day.”

“Right,” Sydney said, taking the pen and closing his desk drawer. “Thanks.” He could feel the beads of sweat rolling from his armpits and over the lumps that were his ribcage. Keeping the phone hidden underneath the clipboard, he rushed back over to the computer and continued jotting down notes.

Sydney waited another hour before he told Jake he needed to use the restroom, and by that time the phone was practically slick with sweat. Jake escorted him to the bathroom and, per their arrangement, waited just outside the stall.

“You have three minutes,” Jake said.

Sydney slid the stall’s lock into place, sat down, and pulled the phone from his pocket. He closed his eyes as his fingers hovered over the power button, reciting the softest prayer he’d ever let his mouth utter, which included both hopes of the phone turning on, and it making no noise once it did. He gently pressed the power button, held it, then released and let out the lightest of sighs as the phone’s screen lit up soundlessly.

Once the homepage loaded, he quickly selected his email and waited for it to update. Sydney’s eyes shifted from the phone’s screen to the door. He could feel the sweat collecting under his arms and on his forehead. He wasn’t sure how much time he had left, but Jake’s pounding on the stall door and a harsh “hurry it up” didn’t make him believe he had much time.

The inbox finally finished updating, and Sydney quickly tapped the screen to select the mystery email he saw on his computer in the lab. And just as he thought, when he selected the email, he was greeted with the black and white of an encrypted message from Alex:

Sydney,

I need you to locate the man and woman who were taken from the Wyoming community where I was stationed. If you can get me this, I’ll get you out from underneath Gordon’s thumb. If you don’t reply within the next hour, the deal is off the table.

Alex

The battery percentage on the phone flashed at less than ten percent. Even if he could manage to hack into the database from the phone, which he couldn’t, he wouldn’t have enough time or battery power to do it. Sydney bit his lower lip in a nervous fervor. Right now, he only had one card to play. He quickly hit reply and started typing.

Alex,

I don’t have that kind of access anymore. Gordon has me under lock and key, with a guard on me at all times. He has me working on replicating Todd’s work. The best I can do is stall, but whatever you have planned, make sure you do it quickly, because I don’t know how much longer I’m going to last.

Sydney

The moment he tapped send another series of blows landed on the door that rattled the entire grouping of stalls in the bathroom. Sydney pocketed the phone and flushed. When he opened the door, he was greeted by Jake’s sour face.

With Jake refusing to move, Sydney maneuvered around him, keeping his head down, and made his way to the door. The moment he touched the handle Jake called out to him.

“What are you doing?” Jake asked.

A frozen chill brought him to a motionless state, with the tip of his fingers glued to the door handle. All he could think about was the phone in his pocket.
Had Jake heard me? Had he seen the phone?
Sydney slowly turned around, his face a ghostly white. Jake kept his arms crossed over his chest and took a few quick steps in Sydney’s direction until he was directly in front of him.

“What are you, a fucking animal?” Jake asked.

“What?”

“Wash your hands.”

The icy hand of fear loosened its grip, and Sydney quickly moved to the sink, sighing a breath of relief as the water hit his hands.

***

Luis thought it appropriate that the man who had worked for the Coalition and betrayed his sister should be chained in the same building where his fellow coworkers used to live. And now with Nelson relaying the message from Sydney via the laptop Alex provided, Luis had all the reason he needed to end Alex’s pathetic existence, and this time there was nowhere for him to run and hide.

Luis had worked over every angle in his mind the ways he could make Alex hurt. But like most creatures that slithered in the shadows, this one was hard to pin down. Since his arrival, he’d been bombarded by community members begging for Alex’s release. Two individuals in particular were more adamant than the rest. One of which was a young boy who had also requested that he receive his laptop back after Nelson was done with it.

What added to Luis’s conundrum was the fact that almost everything from Alex’s story checked out. Nelson was able to confirm by hacking into the Coalition’s servers and finding the paper trail Gordon had left behind that corresponded with Alex’s indentured servitude.

“Luis,” Nelson said, “you have a call from the admiral.”

The fact that Nelson had the ability to hack into the Coalition’s servers and access information would give them a very powerful edge in the fight against Gordon, but the fact that Nelson hadn’t been able to locate Emma and Todd was cause for concern, and why Luis agreed to reach out to Sydney in the first place.

“Hello, Admiral,” Luis said, taking the satellite phone.

“What’s left of the Coalition seems to be making their last stands in Topeka and the coast of Texas at the refineries. What are the casualties so far on your end?” Frizen asked.

“Thirty dead, ninety wounded. Where are we at with the fisheries?”

“We’ve retaken most of the Louisiana and Mississippi coastlines, but Gordon isn’t giving up the refineries as easily as the fishing villages. He knows once we have the refineries back, it’s only a matter of time before we get to him in Topeka.”

“It’s hard to run a fascist state without any fuel.”

“That’s why I need you and your men there to help reinforce the efforts.”

It took Luis a few seconds for the admiral’s words to sink in. “Sir, we have the Coalition on the run. If they’re retreating back to Topeka, then that’s where my men should head,” Luis said.

“I understand that, Commander, but the sentries in Texas have sealed themselves in the refinery, and we can’t risk bombing any of the installations to bring them down. They’re too valuable for rebuilding efforts after the war. We need as many men down there as possible to begin infiltration.”

The only face and name running through Luis’s mind was his sister’s. All he could think about was breaking into Topeka, getting her out, and then killing Gordon with his bare hands. Each moment that wasn’t spent marching toward Topeka was another moment she was meant to suffer.

“Sir, my men and I are ready to handle Topeka. We can end this conflict within a few days, possibly sooner. If we just reallocate some of the men from Tex—”

“I know about your sister, Luis.”

Luis moved his lips, forming soundless words. The moment he discovered his sister was taken, he’d been driving his men like hounds on a dogsled toward Topeka, toward Alex, toward revenge. He was mixing his mission mandate with his personal one.

“I know how difficult this is for you,” Admiral Frizen said. “But we need to focus on ending this conflict as quickly as possible to minimize the total loss of life. Once we retake the refineries, all efforts will be coordinated to attack Gordon in Topeka with everything we have.”

Under all the emotions of hate and revenge and murder that surfaced from the deepest depths of Luis’s being, he knew the Admiral was right. He knew the first mission was to win this war and restore peace.

“Yes, sir.”

“Thank you, Commander.”

“Admiral, there’s something you should know. Sydney Farnes is working on reconstructing Todd’s soil solution.”

“You’re telling me it hasn’t been completed yet?”

“Yes, sir, but I don’t know how much longer it’s going to stay that way.”

“Thank you for the information, Commander.”

When the call ended, his grip against the black plastic of the phone only whitened his knuckles. Flashes of his sister in the farm camp triggered spasms of pain to ripple throughout his body. He slowly handed Nelson the satellite phone back and looked over to Alex, which was the only pair of eyes in the room still watching him.

“I need the room,” Luis said.

The last soldier outside shut the bullet-riddled door behind him, leaving Luis and Alex alone. Sunlight from outside shone through the broken glass and bullet holes, casting the rays of light onto the floor in scattered patterns. 

The chains around Alex’s ankles and wrists scraped against the concrete as he shifted from the uncomfortable silence. Luis, however, hadn’t moved a muscle since he’d spoken. He stood there, like a statue made of solid granite, unwavering, unmovable, with no amount of force on earth that could break him.

“The members of your community will be transported to Wyoming to the safe zone until the conflict is over,” Luis said.

“Thank you.”

“But you will be staying with me. Despite the details and pleas of your community, you still acted in concert with a man who is now branded as a terrorist of the United States of America. You will be tried, and if there is any justice, you will be convicted.”

“I know you still want to kill me.”

Luis took his first few steps forward, his tree-trunk legs causing the very ground they conquered to quiver. He stopped at Alex’s feet and squatted to meet him at eye level. His voice sounded almost too soft for the giant frame it escaped from.

“I’ve wanted to kill you ever since I rode into Wyoming and found out my sister had been taken off to rot in some farm camp. There isn’t anything in this life that would bring me more pleasure than to rip you limb from limb right here, right now. But, unlike you, I have orders. And also, unlike you, I have to follow them, despite what I want to do. So you can sing whatever sad song you need to make yourself believe that what you did to my family was justified, but the reality is you did it to save yourself,” Luis said then rose and marched to the door. “We’ll be heading into some heavy combat zones. If you happen to die in one of our battles, then far be it from me to stop the hand of fate.”

Main Street was thick with a mixture of community members and Luis’s soldiers. He made his way through the crowd and found Ray and Nelson, still with the laptop, sitting in the shade of the tank parked by the community’s front entrance.

“How long will it take for you to find out where Emma and Todd are?” Luis asked.

“I don’t know,” Nelson answered. “If Gordon didn’t register them in the system under their real names, which I don’t think he did since I haven’t been able to locate them, it could be a while.”

“Shit.”

“You don’t like him.”

Ray smacked Nelson on the shoulder. “Of course he doesn’t like him. I don’t like him. You don’t like him. He’s a fucking coward.”

“I never said I didn’t like him,” Nelson said.

“You’re kidding, right?” Ray asked.

Nelson turned to Luis and closed the laptop. “What would you do for your sister?”

“Anything. And that goes for all of you. You know that.”

“Well, that’s how he felt about his community. The people here were his friends, his family. He wanted to protect them.”

“He wanted to protect himself,” Ray said.

“I’m not saying that you should be friends with him, I’m merely suggesting that you look at the situation from a different angle. That’s all,” Nelson said.

Luis had to look at a lot of things at a lot of different angles over the past few years. The ability to adapt to the situation at hand was important, but having the resolve to continue with your own values in the face of those adaptations was something Luis always believed to be even more important. He could never understand how an individual could forsake everything they believed in by the whim of someone they didn’t know or respect.

People lost the ability and belief that they held their own destiny in their hands. They’d forgotten they controlled what happened to them. They weren’t lost and drifting in some pointless chaos. All they had to do was act, but not everyone responded the way Luis did when someone put a gun to his head.