Chains of Freedom (40 page)

David tensed a moment, then grinned and relaxed, shaking his head.

"That was a direct hit," he chuckled.

"Are you calming down now?" RJ asked.

"Yes," David answered, pushing her playfully. "Can we go now?"

"Are you calm yet?" RJ asked, still grinning.

"Yes," he said, hanging on to calm with grim determination.

"Then let's dance!" She raised the communicator to her lips.

"Now."

One word, spoken slowly and calmly, and the war began.

As soon as the first report came in, Jessica knew where RJ was going to get her army, and she felt a chill go up her spine at the simplistic genius of it.

Jessica was sitting in her office with Right when her secretary came running in with the report.

"Prison break in installation 7-G!"

The words had barely left his mouth when Jessica bolted out of her chair and started pacing the floor.

Right looked at her warily. Lately, Jessica had taken to drastic and irrational bouts of ill temper. Whatever she might be, he knew one thing—she was more than capable of killing him and probably half of Capitol before they could stop her.

"Quit cringing, Right," Jessica ordered angrily. She started out of the room. "Well, are you coming?"

Right followed reluctantly. There was a computer in her office; there was no need to go anywhere to get all the information that she would need.

"I should have known. Where else would a rabble-rouser find such ready followers?"

Right finally understood what was going on. "Among other malcontents." He added, "Among the prison population . . . But surely, one prison . . . ."

"Oh, I doubt very seriously that we are talking about one prison," Jessica answered.

As if to prove her right, another messenger met them in the hall before they could get to the war room.

"Senator, there's been another prison break. Installation 6-H."

Before they made it to their destination, they had been stopped a dozen times. Jessica got on the command link immediately.

"All units, this is Senator Kirk speaking. Move at once towards the correctional installation in your immediate area. Kill all non-military personnel. Repeat, all non-military personnel." After a few moments, she added. "You are also to kill anyone in Reliance military issue who does not immediately and satisfactorily identify themselves. Repeat, kill anyone who appears to be suspect."

"That should stop them," Right said, gleefully.

One of the men running one of the stations called his superior over. After a hurried consultation, he called Jessica over.

"Senator, there seems to be a problem."

Jessica walked over, looked at the screen and scowled. "What does that mean?" she asked with a hiss.

"Someone is scrambling our signal," he answered, unable to hide his cringing. "It's going to take us a while to descramble it."

"Then I suggest that you get on it, dunderhead!" Jessica thundered.

It took only fifteen minutes to clear the lines, and Jessica's message went out, but she knew it was too late. By the first rays of the morning sun, RJ would have her army.

There were two guards at the front gate. Neither one knew what hit him. RJ grabbed one and killed him instantly with a quick twist of his head. Simultaneously, David grabbed the other and drew a knife across his throat. As the blood gushed, strangling the man's death scream, David pulled him out of sight behind a bush, oblivious to the blood that covered his shirt, pants, and hands. It had been a long time since he had killed his first man. The guilt he'd felt then was a dim memory. The smell of fresh blood no longer sickened him. It was part of the game. He heard a voice in the back of his head saying,
How can you expect to win a war if you don't kill the enemy?

RJ had disposed of the other body. Poley joined them, and they opened the gates and hurried in.

Whitey, Levits, and Mickey came in on the west side of the complex, just moments before RJ, David and Poley. They cut a hole in the fence and stealthily made their way towards the guards' barracks. As they started placing the plastic explosives, Mickey saw a sleepy man stumble from the guardhouse. He flattened himself against the ground and drew his laser. If the guy took one more step, he was going to see Whitey. If he shot the guard, that might blow everything. He crossed his fingers and hoped the guard wasn't the only one who would hear him.

"Psst, Whitey!" he hissed in a loud whisper. He wiped the sweat from his forehead as he saw the guard turn away from Whitey's position. Problem was that now he was headed straight for Mickey. He held his breath. A few more steps and the guy would be standing on his head.
Where the hell is Whitey?
Maybe he hadn't heard him. Maybe this was where it all ended. His pitiful little life. He held his breath, buried his face in his arms, and tried to wish himself even smaller.

Then he heard that wonderful sound, the sound he'd learned to associate with Whitey's fist making violent contact with someone's skull. He looked up just in time to see the guy pitch onto the ground beside him. He looked up at Whitey's grinning face.

"What took you so long, you big asshole?"

Sandra and Alexi went over the wall. They moved towards the huddled group of prisoners sleeping on the ground in the open. As Sandra started to leave cover and move on, Alexi grabbed her arm. She looked back at him in irritation. He pointed to the guard tower—it still held two men. Sandra took a deep breath.

"Thanks."

"We'll have to wait our turn," Alexi said with a smile. "No matter what RJ says, I'm really not such a bad guy. Don't dislike me just because your girlfriend does."

Sandra smiled broadly.

"What's funny?" He was perturbed because he thought she was laughing at him.

"It's just that I never thought of RJ as a girlfriend. I mean a girlfriend is someone you share makeup and fashion tips and go shopping with. Not someone you plan the overthrow of the Reliance with. You know, someone you share clothes with, not sidearms."

Alexi nodded his understanding. "Get ready; there she goes."

Sandra looked at the guard tower. RJ was on the move.

David and Poley stood at the base of the tower and kept watch as RJ climbed. David occasionally turned to look at RJ. It never ceased to amaze him how she could move. She didn't take the stairs. She went up the framework as quickly and as quietly as if she did it every day. David saw her removing the chain as she moved. Not because it was necessary; she was going to use the chain because it was more personal, because she liked to use the chain. David cringed. Beautiful and deadly. A confusing combination. She moved with such grace, but she moved like that because she was going to kill someone. David saw her go over the rail and steeled himself for the sound he would hear as the chain met flesh. It was an awful sound. Like someone hitting a soaking-blanket-wrapped gong with a dead cat. A dull, hollow and yet ringing, splashing sound which defied a proper description, and put a lump in David's throat no matter how many times he heard it.

This time, he was spared having to hear it. Sandra saw RJ enter the tower and opened fire. Alexi followed suit, and they ran up on the five startled guards, screaming, automatic weapons blazing. Taking his cue, Whitey pushed a button, and the barracks went up.

One guard turned to face the intruder in the tower.

"Say goodbye," she said with a satanic smile. The chain snaked out and hit him in the head. Disappointingly, the sound of it was lost in the automatic weapon fire from below. The second guard fired his projectile rifle at RJ. The shot hit her in the chest, barely rocking her backwards. She looked up at him and smiled. His face crumbled into a mask of hopeless despair. He knew that the thing that confronted him wasn't human. He screamed in terror and froze. He saw the chain coming for him. The end of it closed on his head in nightmarish slow motion, and he couldn't move. There was no pain. He saw pieces of his skull and brain explode out of his head as he fell to the floor. His body bounced as if made of rubber, then lay still. He couldn't move. His one remaining eye stared up at his assassin. A woman. A beautiful woman, not much more than a girl. In what was left of his brain, he smiled. Better to be killed by a beautiful woman than an ugly man. His left leg jerked, then lay lifeless like the rest of his body. The body was dead, but the man remembered a warm spring day, a field covered with wild flowers, and a pretty dark-haired girl's touch. He smiled once more, then died.

RJ looked down at the lifeless husk as she wrapped the bloody chain around her waist. She had felt the man's parting emotions. He hadn't been a bad man; he'd just been on the wrong side. She walked over and closed his eye.

"I'm sorry. Better luck next life."

Below her the gunfire had stopped, and the only sounds were those made by the milling, confused prisoners. They were free, but didn't know what to do with their freedom.

RJ started down the tower stairs and saw that the inner circle was intact and uninjured. Unfortunately, that included Alexi. She stopped three steps from the bottom.

"You prisoners, gather round," she ordered.

The two-hundred-plus men and women were used to taking orders, and they gathered around as they were told.

"The guards are dead. We are the New Alliance. We are dedicated to fighting the Reliance and its oppressive rule. In return for your freedom, we ask that you join us in our struggle. If there is any man or woman here who does not wish to join us, step forward now."

A man stepped out of the crowd. RJ lifted the plasma blaster she was carrying and blasted the guy in the head. He flew back several feet and landed with a thud on the ground. She brought her hand with the weapon in it back to her side.

"Anyone else?"

There was some mumbling and shuffling, but no one stepped forward.

"Good," RJ said with her sweetest smile. "Then we may begin." As RJ moved forward, she nodded to Alexi and Sandra who went to get the buses.

"Was that really necessary?" David asked hotly as he approached RJ.

"These people are prisoners, David. Most of them are innocent victims of the Reliance, that's true. But not all of them are victims of the system like you and Sandra. Some of them are cold-blooded killers. We don't need an uncontrolled mob on our hands. The next few hours are vital. We will either pull this off or fail miserably, and it will all be determined by how fast we can move and whether or not they can take orders. Right now, if you were them, would you do anything to cross me?"

"No, but . . . RJ what if the poor slob was stepping forward to ask if he could use the rest room?"

"I guess I saved him the trip, then," RJ said with a smile.

David threw up his hands and walked away.

"Not so bad, Right!" Jessica yelled. She threw something—he had no idea what—and after it hit the wall, there wasn't enough left to tell. "Thirty prisons were emptied. Not one, not two, not ten,
thirty
! RJ's army is now 15,000-plus strong. Armed, and scattered across the entire zone."

"We did manage to stop two groups," Right said on a positive note.

"We stopped
one
group," Jessica hissed. "The second group was all prisoners. Somehow, RJ warned her people, and got them out of there before we arrived. All we did was slaughter unarmed prisoners. That's always a challenge. When our troops actually ran into hers, the rebels killed twelve men and wounded six others before being killed themselves. There were only five of them, Right! FIVE! We only heard from fourteen of the prisons. I shouldn't have to do the math for you, Right. At over half the installations every single guard was killed before they even had a chance to call for help. We don't have the manpower to scour the countryside looking for these rebels. Every aspect of Reliance life on Earth depends on the military to control it. I'll have to pull the troops in and put them back on their regular assignments, or everything will fall apart. RJ knows that! I'll have to go to Jago and ask for more men. Ask him to pull them from other zones."

Clearly, this thought did nothing to brighten her day. She slung some other unknown object against the wall with similar results.

"How the hell do I stop her?" She didn't expect an answer, and Right didn't offer her one. She was drained. She'd been up for eighty-four hours straight. "I don't think I can take much more of this." She pulled the pouch from her pocket and extracted a pill.

"No, Jessica, don't!" Right jumped up.

Jessica laughed cruelly. "Don't worry, Right." She swallowed the pill. "You were right about that much. I am a freak." She washed the pill down with a glass of water that hadn't yet found its way to the wall. "See, I'm quite all right."

Cocky damned bitch. She knew damn good and well that anyone he told would laugh at him or have him committed.