Forging Zero (49 page)

“Use
him as a what?” Joe barked.

“Compass,”
the kid squeaked.  “I think I can get us out if I had a compass.”

Joe
peered at him.  “What’s your name?”

“I’m
Carl, Zero.”

“My
name is Joe.  And if you think you can get us out of here, Scott will help you
out.”  He turned to glance at groundmate.  “Scott, help him out.”

Scott ignored
him, sniffing.  Joe kicked him.  “Be his compass.”

His
groundmate snorted and rolled his eyes.  Joe kicked him again, harder. 

Scott
lunged to his feet.  “Goddamn it, what the hell do you want me to do?  Hold his
hand?!”

Carl
twined his fingers and stared at the ground.  “Back on the game, “I always had
a compass in the corner of the screen.”

“So?”
Scott said, glaring.

“Just
do what he says, Scott,” Joe warned.

Carl
looked like he was about to have some sort of death-by-shyness.  He swallowed
and glanced at Joe, then finally found the courage to look at Scott.  “I can
navigate a maze no problem, as long as I have a compass.  I just have to be
able to see you all the time.”

“You
mean walk in front.”

“Yeah.” 
Carl blushed.

“I hate
walking in front.”

“He’ll
walk in front,” Joe and Libby said at the same time.

Scott
sighed deeply.  “That’s it?”

“No. 
I’m gonna need you to…to…”  Carl turned as red as a beet.  In the bluish light
of the guns, he looked purple. 

“Oh
spit it out,” Scott muttered.

Carl’s
next sentence came out all in one breath.  “I need you to hold out your arm and
point toward the entrance all the time.”

Scott
stared at him.  “You’re kidding.”  He glanced at Joe.  “He’s kidding, right?”

“Just
do it,” Joe said.

Sulking,
Scott lifted his hand and pointed at the wall.

Joe
nodded.  “Go ahead, Carl.”

“And
get us to the
flag
,” Libby added, still giving Joe that odd look.  “We
go back to the surface now, Tril will give us perceptual punishment.”

Joe bit
down the urge to contradict her and instead nodded.

Still
red as a beet, Carl said to Scott, “Okay, so start walking.  As soon as you
come to an intersection, stop.”

“Do I
have to hold my arm up the whole time?” Scott whined.

“Yes,”
Libby and Joe said as one.

“Oh
man
,”
Scott muttered.  “What if someone shoots me in the back?”

“Libby
will watch your back,” Joe said, gesturing at her.

Libby
obediently started down the tunnel, gun up.  When Scott just crossed his arms
and pouted, she frowned, stalked back, grabbed him by a hand, and tugged him
deeper into the darkness.  Though Scott technically weighed more than she did
and probably could have put up a fight, Libby was taller, and she had the
reputation of wiping grins off faces with her combat boot.  Everyone in the
battalion was terrified of her, some even more than they were of the legendary
‘Zero.’  Probably wisely, Scott went utterly meek in her grip, trudging along
and rolling his eyes, one arm held up in disgust. 

For
what seemed like an eternity, they walked, Libby and Scott leading the way,
Carl staring at his arm in rapt attention.  When they reached a four-way
intersection, immediately Carl told them to turn left.  Then Scott was walking
backwards, complaining even more loudly.

They
made six more turns over another hour, then Libby suddenly brought them up
short.  She released Scott’s hand abruptly and grabbed her rifle.  Scott, who
had been leaning on her as a form of noncompliance, fell onto his ass.  As soon
as he started to curse, Libby kicked his arm.  “Shhh.  Does anyone hear that?”

Voices? 
Joe held his breath, trying to pinpoint the source.

“Nice
going, asher,” Scott muttered, getting back to his feet.  “You led us to the
bad guys.”

“Shut
up, Scott,” Libby snapped.  “That’s what we told him to do.”

“It
only sounds like a couple,” Maggie whispered.

“Could
be a lot more and only two’s talking,” Libby said.

“Okay,
get ready for a fight, guys,” Joe said, “I want my best shooters in front. 
Libby, Scott, Carl.  If it’s more than two, Sasha, you and your best groundmate
are gonna help us out.  If it’s more than four, everybody just start firing. 
Got it?”

Everyone
nodded.

“And
cover up the cartridges on your guns,” Joe added, shielding the blue glow with
his palm.  “I want to surprise them.”

The two
defenders who came wandering through their tunnel didn’t even have a chance. 
Joe wrestled one to the ground while Scott tore her rifle out of her hands, and
Libby and Carl took the other.  While Joe was working on holding the kid’s
mouth shut, however, he heard the wet thwap of gunfire.  Wincing, he turned,
thinking one of his own had been shot.

Libby
and Carl stood over a screaming body, the muzzle of Libby’s rifle still giving
off a blue glow.

“Shut
him up!” Joe said, furious that they had shot the boy without asking. 
“Hurry!”  He glanced back down the tunnels to make sure they hadn’t been heard.

Silently,
Libby placed her boot on the boy’s chest to hold him steady while Carl held a
hand over his mouth until his thrashing ceased.

“Why’d
you
shoot
him?” Joe demanded once it was over.  “We could’ve got him to
lead us out!”  Libby gave him a blank look. 

Taking
a deep breath, Joe said, “Never mind.  We’ve still got the girl.”

The
prisoner in question was wide-eyed and panicked, hyperventilating through Joe’s
fingers.  She, like everyone else in Lagrah’s battalion, was fully grown,
though Joe could tell she was Maggie’s age. 

“I
guess that answers our question,” Scott said, frowning confusedly down at the terrified
girl.  “The hunt’s still on.”

“Yeah,”
Joe said.  “And she’s gonna tell us exactly where to find that flag before we
kill her.”

The
girl’s eyes opened until the whites were visible all around and she shook her
head wildly, nostrils flaring.

Libby
squatted in front of the girl, casually leaning her rifle against a knee.  “You
tell us, we’ll make it quick.  You don’t tell us and maybe we won’t kill you. 
We’ll just leave you here for the Takki to find.  Alive.”

At
that, the girl stiffened, her entire body rigid. 

Libby
looked bored.  “So where is it?”

The
girl tried to say something through Joe’s fingers, but it came out as a garbled
mess.  Libby glanced at Joe and Joe scowled down at the girl.  “You do
anything
except tell us exactly where the flag is and I’ll beat you to a bloody pulp. 
You got me?”

“K-kkee,
Zero.”  The girl was crying softly, trying to keep her choking sobs silent, her
tears glistening blue in the muted glow of their guns.  Joe and Libby glanced
at each other. 
She knows who I am?
Joe mouthed to her.

Libby
didn’t miss a beat.  “You better tell us before Zero gets any more pissed than
he already is.”

The
girl couldn’t have looked more terrified if she had told her that they were
about to tear her apart and eat her flesh to stay alive.  She shivered and
nodded her head quickly.  Joe actually felt sorry for her.

“First
off,” Libby said, “Tell us how many defenders are still alive.”

“Most
of the battalion,” the girl blubbered.  “You guys fight like Takki.”

At Joe
and his groundteam’s scowls, however, she flushed and quickly looked away.

“Tell
us how to find the flag,” Libby ordered.  “Which tunnel did you come from?”

“Please,
Commander Lagrah will punish me if I tell you!”

“Lagrah
will punish you worse if he finds out you surrendered,” Libby said.

“Tell
us!” Joe barked, when the girl hesitated.

The
girl gulped, blue eyes fixed on him in horror.  “Down the way we came, there’s
a crossroads.  We marked the right path with a little X on the floor.”

“How
many tunnels until we reach the flag?” Joe pressed.

She
frowned at them in confusion.  “Just one.”

“How
many defenders on the flag?” Libby asked.

“You
mean you guys didn’t know where you—”

“Shut
up and answer the question!” Libby snapped.

“Five,”
the girl whimpered.  “A battlemaster and the rest of our groundteam.”

“Just
five?” Joe demanded.

She
nodded.  “Everybody else is on the surface.  We thought you were all dead.”

As
promised, Libby shot the girl in the chest.  As soon as she opened her mouth to
scream, Joe clamped his hand back down over her face.  When her body stopped
spasming, Joe stood up and examined his platoon.  Almost eighty in all. 

“You
guys hear that?” he demanded.  When everybody nodded, he said, “All right.  The
groundteam at the flag might be wondering where these two went, so let’s go in
there and get it.  She said there’s a battlemaster, so we’re gonna have to be
fast in case he decides to call for others.  Libby and I will be in front. 
Everyone behind us make sure you’re quiet.  It’s not gonna help us if half of
Second Battalion’s waiting for us at the flag because we made too much noise
getting in there.”

Once he
was sure they all understood, he and Libby covered their guns and moved down
the tunnel.

They
crept to the crossroads the girl had mentioned and crouched, listening.  After
a minute went by without hearing anything, Joe uncovered the cartridge long
enough to find the X that the defenders had scratched into the floor.  Then he
cut off the glow again and led them deeper.

The
light at the other end of the tunnel was the first sign that the girl had been
telling the truth.  Joe felt a rush of excitement and crept closer, until he
could clearly see the five defenders sitting around a black standard with eight
Congressional circles.  Two were playing rock, paper, scissors and another
looked like he was dozing.

“Now!” 
Joe jumped up and charged, followed by the rest of his platoon.  He hit the
biggest kid head-on and both of them went sprawling to the ground.  The others
followed his example and soon they had all five wrestled to the ground, helmets
off, their faces pressed into the dirt.  Libby went around and shot each one,
and once their convulsions had stopped, they had the room to themselves.  In
the center, the flag hung from the ceiling, motionless.

Scott
walked up and touched the flag, running his fingers along the smooth red and
black designs.  “So now what?” he asked, sounding almost in awe

Joe
wasn’t sure.  “They probably all heard the battlemaster screaming in his
headcom.  They’ll know something’s up.”  He glanced around.  The chamber had
four tunnels leading out of it, giving any attackers an advantage.  “We’ve
gotta get out of here.”

“I
thought the hunt ended if we got the flag,” Maggie said, walking over to stand
by Scott and frowning up at it.  “Don’t we have the flag?”

“Maybe
we need to take it with us,” Joe said.  “Back to the surface.  Mag, grab it.”

Maggie
was pulling the flag down when Sasha snatched it and yanked it from Maggie’s
grasp.  The ripping sound that followed made everyone in the room flinch. 

Unconcerned,
Sasha was stuffing the flag into her pack when Joe grabbed her arm and stopped
her.  “I told Maggie to carry it.”

“She’s
not big enough to defend it,” Sasha said, picking up her rifle.

“He
said give it back to her,” Monk said, eyes dangerous.

Slowly,
lip curled in disgust, Sasha pulled it from her pack and threw it at the ground
at Maggie’s feet.  “Fine.  Take it.  Didn’t want to carry the stupid thing
anyway.”  Maggie, sniffling, gingerly picked up the torn black cloth.

“Carl,
Scott, get us out of here,” Joe said.  “Everyone else, be ready for a fight.”

They
had been moving through the tunnels for another two hours, groping their way
through them at a crawl, afraid of letting the defenders seeing the glow of
their rifles, when Joe finally brought everyone to a halt. 

“I
think we’re far enough away to use a little light,” Joe said.  He pulled the
rag from over his gun and several recruits breathed a sigh of relief when the
blue glow filled the tunnel.  For Joe, however, the light reminded him of the
walls surrounding him.  He took a deep, irritated breath and fought down the
urge to yell.  “Carl, you don’t know where we’re going, do you?”

Carl
bit his trembling lower lip, on the verge of tears.  It was disconcerting,
coming from what was, to all appearances, a full-grown man. 

“Don’t
worry about it,” Joe said.  “We’ve got the flag.  We won.”

Libby
frowned at him in the gloom.  “Then why haven’t they come to get us?”