Chains of Freedom (52 page)

"Maybe it's the Rebels. Those things would have meaning for them."

"Not likely. Capitol is top clearance. To get into Jessy's office on top of that . . ."

"You're right. But then, who could have taken them?" Right was thoughtful.

"Face it, Jessica is not too well loved among her staff. Any one of them has access to her office, and they all know that those were her prizes. What better way to get back at her?"

"But if they were smart, they would incinerate them." Right was thoughtful, then he smiled. "But the chain wouldn't burn."

They made immediately for the incinerator. Nothing. Nor did a room-to-room search turn up the missing items.

Jessica took the news better than either of them had expected, but she became consumed with paranoia, and a forlorn look entered her eyes.

She felt like she was walking a tightrope without a net.

It took David even longer to get back to the island.

Mickey was the first to greet him. "So, I see you're back," he said dully, and looked behind him. "Did you bring the Reliance to finish us off?"

David ignored his hateful words. "So, where is the platinum blonde goddess this fine day?"

Mickey clearly resented David's cheerfulness.

"Walking the wall, looking at her burned city and praying for death," Mickey said hatefully back, and stomped off.

"Thanks, Mickey," David was off.

Levits stopped him at the door. "Leave her alone, David. Haven't you done enough?"

"I fucked up, all right, Levits? I fucked up, and nothing I can do is going to change that. But, in this bag, I have something that I think is going to pour the self-confidence back into RJ. Are you going to stop me from trying? Look at her, Levits, could anything I do really hurt her at this point? Give me a chance to redeem myself. Haven't you ever fucked up? Haven't you ever done something you regretted? I have to live with what I did, Levits . . ."

Levits stopped listening and stared at the ground by his feet. Yes, he had done something that he regretted. He'd fucked up, and he knew the hell of living with that kind of mistake. What David had done wasn't really all that different. He looked up, David was waiting for his answer.

"Good luck," he said, and offered his hand.

David took it, and Levits moved so that David could pass.

"It's going to work, Levits. You'll see. It's got to work."

David approached RJ. She didn't turn to face him.

"What do you want, David?"

"Forgiveness in whatever form you can give it. I bring a peace offering." He set his backpack gently at her feet.

"I want nothing from you, David . . ."

"They don't belong to me, RJ. They belong to you."

Curiosity got the better of her. She picked up the bag, and opened it carefully. Her shock was so great that she almost dropped the bag. "Oh, dear God!" she breathed. She looked at David and smiled through her tears.

David felt his heart lighten, and breathed again.

RJ gently took Poley's head in one hand, and grasping her chain in the other, stood, laughed, and let go with a whoop that echoed in every hall and vibrated in every stone. Holding her precious items high, she started to dance and sing so joyfully that the lack of a tune didn't bother David in the least.

Levits ran out to see what all the commotion was about. One look, and he broke into tears.

"Come on, Levits! Join me! Dance with me! Shout!"

He didn't dream of declining, even though he felt like an idiot doing it.

"Come on, David," she offered. "Join us."

"Delighted," David said.

Topaz ran out, closely followed by Mickey. "What in heaven's name . . ." Then he saw. "Well, I'll be damned."

"Come on, Topaz! Come on Mickey! Join us!"

Neither of them hesitated. They danced and shouted together until they danced much of the hate and hurt out of their systems. Finally, they fell silent, exchanging looks that acknowledged their re-acceptance of the challenge. Once again they were determined. Once again they were one. RJ handed Poley's head to Topaz.

"Put my brother back together."

"Consider it done," Topaz said with a smile.

RJ wrapped the chain around her waist and started for the door.

"All right! Let's go kick some Reliance ass!"

Satis lay sleeping. All eight hundred little Reliance soldiers all snug in their eight hundred little Reliance-issue beds. The bank was all closed up. Only six guards were on duty, and two of them were asleep. However, the two guards at the main gate were awake and alert.

But Rebels, especially those trained by sergeants who had been trained by RJ, didn't use gates.

Using insulated bolt cutters, they cut the fence in several different places, and each unit climbed through and headed for their separate objectives.

At each of the four bunkhouses charges were set even as the guards on duty at the bank were silenced.

As a troop stormed the front gate, they lobbed an explosive charge at the door of the bank. The barracks went up almost simultaneously.

The door of the vault wasn't much more of a challenge. Two charges and fifteen minutes later, part of the Rebel force drove off in stolen Reliance trucks loaded with all of Zone 2-A's hoarded precious metals.

Fifty minutes and eight hundred Reliance soldiers later, the rest of the Rebels were leaving the smoldering remains of Satis.

The Reliance was caught off guard. They thought they had killed the beast, and that had left them ripe for plucking.

Meanwhile, in another time zone, Jessica sat snugly in her office sipping a glass of expensive wine and wondering which man she should sleep with that tonight. They each had their qualities. "To Zark, or not to Zark, that is the question. Whether it is nobler to lay both men at once, or . . ." She let it die in laughter.

She had no idea where either man was right now, but all she had to do was snap her fingers, and they would come running.

God! She loved power.

There were rumors that she was being considered for a Sector Leader position, maybe even Jago's. She'd like that.

Raising her glass, she toasted, "To RJ, whose death has brought me great satisfaction." But, as she drank the wine, it had a bitter taste, and her eyes strayed involuntarily to the empty spot on her shelf.

RJ paced back and forth in front of the group. They were a small group—only forty men. But they were the best Alsterase had, and they were hungry for vengeance and blood.

They watched their undisputed leader and waited reverently for her to speak. It was thirty-five degrees, but that hadn't stopped RJ from wearing simple black pants and a tank top. As she paced before them, her Elite boots and her newly polished chain shining, they knew her for what she was, and they accepted her. Hell, they all but worshipped her.

"I don't have any pretty words. You know what they did to us. Now is the time to make them pay. Let's go." She turned and stepped into a loaded troop carrier. Several members of the inner circle were riding in this vehicle, as it was to be the first in; RJ, Levits, David and . . .

"Are you sure it's a good idea to drive right up to the front gates?"

"Just drive, Poley." She smiled at him. Except for the fact that Topaz was unable to reproduce and replace the damaged synthetic epidermis, he was as good as new. It was obvious what Poley was now.

"Whatever you say, but if you ask me . . ."

"She didn't." Levits hung on the seat behind RJ. "He's awfully talkative since he got his head back. I think Topaz connected something wrong."

"Ouch!" Poley grimaced and rubbed his neck. A look almost like pain filled his mechanical eyes.

"Don't talk about it!" RJ said hotly. "You know how it distresses him."

"Do you think . . ." David stopped himself.

She smiled at him. "Mickey can handle it. The men listen to him."

David nodded. If she said it, then it was so.

"RJ, if this sister of your looks just like you . . ." Levits found himself cut off.

"Differences between RJ and J-6 are numerous. RJ's right arm jerks, she now has a scar on her face . . ."

"Which is almost gone," Levits reassured her.

". . . she is dressed grubbily and is wearing a chain. The chances of our people mistaking RJ for J-6 are one in a . . ."

"We don't need numbers, Tin Pants," RJ said lovingly. She looked through the windshield. She saw Capitol looming before them—sixty stories of steel and glass, a blight on the planet. She smiled. "Soon, my brother, we shall avenge our father."

"And everyone else." If it were possible, Poley looked just as maniacal as his sister.

RJ glanced at her watch and looked up at Capitol just in time to see every light in the building-city go out. "Right on time. Thank you, Topaz," she said.

"Thank you,
Marge
," Poley corrected.

"Poley, speed up down the ramp and crash the gates," RJ ordered as she kicked off her door and sent it flying through the air.

"RJ! What the hell?" Levits demanded.

"We're going to lay waste to Capitol. Going to lay it low. This time, I want to go in with my guns blazing." She put a hole in the roof with her left fist. Using that arm for balance, she leaned out the door, rocket launcher in hand. "There will be a hot time in the old town tonight!"

"We've got to keep her from watching so many old movies," Levits said dryly as he put on his night-vision goggles. These goggles were standard-issue for this mission. Odds were that the occupants of Capitol would be blind in the blackout, since, according to Marge night vision-goggles were not standard-issue in Capitol. In fact, considering that it was a military post it was dangerously inadequately prepared.

Jessica was halfway through the bottle when the lights went out. She tried the intercom, but there was no response. Ditto on the door. "Oh, great! Another total power failure! Heads will roll if it isn't restored at once."

RJ fired the rocket, and the gates of Capitol exploded in flames. Poley drove through and skidded to a stop in the first floor of the motor pool, which comprised the first two underground floors of the building. RJ jumped from the vehicle into the middle of the room, as if daring someone to shoot her. In the dark, frightened men and women milled in confusion and fear, fleeing from the headlights.

Most of Capitol was asleep. Without power there were no alarms or sirens, no way of warning the residents that they were under attack.

RJ, David, Levits, and Poley left Mickey and the troops to mop up the motor pool. They had bigger fish to fry.

Poley went straight to the elevator and covered the control panel with his palm. After a few moments of clicking and whirring, the panel activated. The others joined him in the elevator.

"Top, Poley," RJ ordered. A few seconds later, the elevator slid to a stop at the roof. "Be careful," RJ kissed Levits on the cheek, slapped him on the back, and watched him walk out the door.

"Just
you
be careful," he flung back at her.

She nodded.

"I expect to be airlifting you out of here in twenty minutes."

"Wouldn't miss it," RJ promised.

The doors of the elevator closed. "Fifty, Poley," she ordered. As the elevator started back down, she whispered, "I'm coming, Jessica."

Jessica finished her glass of wine. The longer she sat in the dark, the madder she got. "Incompetent fools. There isn't that much that can go wrong." She considered breaking her door open, but thought better of it. She didn't want to have to explain how she got out that way. She needed to learn patience. Some said this was a virtue. Controlling her anger, she carefully poured another glass of wine. She'd have plenty of time to kill the person responsible for this after the lights came on.

Levits was a subtle character. His job was to disable the choppers, just as Mickey's was to destroy the land transport. RJ didn't want there to be any chance of either escape or pursuit. Capitol was a military city. Everyone in it was over sixteen and in the army. There were no innocents here, so RJ wanted no survivors. Levits was inclined to agree. The problem was that there were more guards here than expected. So, rather than trying to take them all out first, he was sneaking around, quietly disabling the choppers. He managed to fix ten of them before he was spotted.

"What the hell are you doing there?" someone asked.