Metal and Ash (Apex Trilogy) (25 page)

“Including us,” Blue muttered, pretty sure they were more than just limping; they were sinking fast. “Abandon ship, people! Get your asses to safety! Rendezvous on the coast!”

Blue wasn’t sure where on the coast they’d all end up; the lifepods were for safety, not navigation. If the current was too strong half the Americans could end up hitting the Mexican Empire. And the mine field that protected that part of the ocean.

No one had heard from the Mexican Empire in over a century and Blue didn’t want to be the first to show up knocking on their door.

“Charlie!” Blue called over the com.

“Yeah?”

“Do what you can then meet us on the coast,” Blue ordered. “Got that?”

“Can we even hit the coast? What about the shield?”

“We’ll have the shallows,” Blue said. “But the tide will decide how comfortable we are.”

“Great.”

“Just wipe out as many of those fucks as possible and get your ass out of there!”

“Got it.”

***

The severed torso of a shock troop floated past Melissa, they heaviness of the BC taking the half-body into the deep. Melissa didn’t give it a second glance as she continued her attacks. Submarine after submarine after submarine was punctured beyond repair as she dove through hulls and fired at anything that moved.

She quickly figured out where the engine rooms were and made those her first points of attack. If she didn’t have a straight shot at that region then she’d punch through the hull and turn towards the stern or aft, whichever was furthest away, and shred the length of the submarine; ripping the guts out, and the crew, with her ever changing suit.

She had been more than lucky a couple times when she was forcibly ejected and hadn’t fully re-pressurized her shock suit. The feeling of being crushed had nearly sent her into a panic, but her Ghost training always kicked in and she made the adjustments needed to keep her body from imploding.

But the others weren’t so lucky and the screams over the com told her that their surprise advantage had quickly turned into a brute force competition. And the Three’s forces were winning.

“Charlie!” she yelled over the com.

“I know, I know!” he replied. “My dad already gave the order! Time to get the fuck out of here, folks! Hit the coast and hide! Find rocks, find caves, bury yourself in the surf! Go!”

None of the shock troops had to be told twice.

Thirty

The Three watched as much as they could on the holos in their conference room. The sea battle was intriguing and, for more than a few minutes, alarming, but they knew their forces would take the day. They just had too much firepower. And firepower was what had gotten them as far as they were.

“You almost feel sorry for them,” Mr. Plain said.

“Do we?” Mr. Continental laughed. “I’m not sure I agree.”

“Oh, have a heart, man,” Mr. Brown Eyes said. “They fight so hard and die so well. I have to agree it is kind of sad.”

They Three looked at each other and laughed to themselves; nothing too overt, as that would have been crass.

“Where are we with the Canadian mechs?” Mr. Plain asked.

“On schedule,” Mr. Brown Eyes stated. “They can be in Monterey if we need them to be. Norton can give them instructions on how to bring down the shield if Capreze doesn’t send someone. He will though. He always has to be the guy to save the day. Then we land.”

“Do we have to?” Mr. Plain asked. “I mean, must we step onto the wasteland?”

“Of course,” Mr. Brown Eyes said. “We didn’t come all this way to just sit on the command ship. We’ll make Mr. Gein put on the boots and get all dusty dirty, though.”

“And how is Mr. Gein?” Mr. Continental asked. “Has the man sobered up yet?”

“He has,” Mr. Brown Eyes said. “Although I have to say he showed his brilliance while acting the drunken fool. We may have to keep him on a bender just to get more productivity out of him.”

“Ms. Isely would disagree,” Mr. Plain said. “She insists he almost ruined the entire project.”

“But he didn’t ruin it, did he?” Mr. Brown Eyes said. “He made it work.”

“Don’t get ahead of yourself,” Mr. Continental warned. “We don’t know if it worked until the subject shows his ability to follow orders. This project has been a great risk from the start.”

“Ms. Isely has assured us that all programming is in place to make sure the subject complies with all demands placed on him,” Mr. Brown Eyes responded. “Not that I trust everything Ms. Isely says. Her attachment to Mr. Gein is always a risk.”

***

The gin bottle flew across the room and shattered against the wall.

“Water?” Mr. Gein snarled. “Did you think I wouldn’t notice?”

“I hoped you would,” Ms. Isely said as she stood before Mr. Gein, her arms across her chest. “It was meant as an overt hint that you are a drunken idiot.”

“But not a whore,” Mr. Gein shook his head. “Not anymore.”

“What does that mean?” Ms. Isely asked as she took in the mess that was Mr. Gein’s quarters. “That I am?”

Mr. Gein shrugged.

“Brilliant,” Ms. Isely sneered. “Your plan is to be an overt asshole and get us both killed, is that it?”

Mr. Gein shrugged again. They stared at each other in silence for several minutes.

“Ms. Isely?” a tech asked over the com. “He’s awake.”

“Does he know who he is?” Ms. Isely asked. Mr. Gein’s eyebrows raised with curiosity at the conversation he wasn’t privy to.

“I...I don’t know, mum,” the tech answered. “He won’t speak.”

“His form is holding?”

“It is, mum.”

“Good,” Ms. Iselysmiled. “Then he doesn’t knowwhat he is, at least.”

***

The room was cold, Mr. Stone could tell that, but it didn’t bother him. Not the cold or the stark white of the walls or the crinkling of the plastic sheet underneath him. The plain grey jumpsuit he was dressed in didn’t even bother him.

What bothered him was he was fucking dead and he fucking well knew it.

“Mr. Stone?” a voice asked over the speaker set into the wall above the barely discernible door. “Can you hear me, Mr. Stone?”

That was a voice he knew and that voice bothered him also.

“Yes, Ms. Isely,” Mr. Stone replied, surprised by how smooth his voice was. He’d expected gravel, he’d expected weakness, a hoarseness perhaps. That’s what dead sounded like, right? “Please explain my situation. I’m not in the mood for your mind games.”

“It’s good to know you have a mood at all,” Ms. Isely said. “We weren’t sure if you were going to make it or not.”

“I didn’t,” Stone replied flatly.

The brief silence told him all he needed.

“Nonsense, Stone,” Ms. Isely replied, trying to laugh it off. “Of course you made it. How else could you be here?”

“Wouldn’t be the first time you body fucked me,” Stone said as he got up and started to inspect the room more closely. The last time he’d been under Ms. Isely’s ‘care’ he had been hyper-genetically altered. What had taken the Americans months to do in vitro she had done to him in just days. And shoved his LOMSD partner’s consciousness in his head to boot. She said it was to keep the efficiency of the partnership together. He thought it was for shits and giggles. “Assuming I am me.” He stopped and cocked his head, listening hard. “Where’s Reginald? I can’t hear him. Did you take him out of my head.”

“Yes, well you suffered some serious brain damage and have been in a coma for months,” Ms. Isely said. “We weren’t sure if Reginald’s personality would survive your recovery.”

Mr. Stone looked at his hands, flipping them back and forth. He unzipped his jumpsuit and inspected his legs, his belly, the parts of his back he could turn and see.

“A little more modesty, please, Mr. Stone,” Ms. Isely said. “You are being watched.”

“Modesty? But I’ve been in a coma for months. Surely you’ve had people wiping the shit from between my ass all that time. I highly doubt anyone is getting their panties bunched because I dropped my trousers.” He looked back at the speaker. “Unless, once again, I’m not me and this coma story is just more of your cock and bull.”

Mr. Stone walked to the outline of the door. He felt along the seam, searching for leverage to get it open.

“It’s sealed, Stone,” Ms. Isely said. “For your medical protection. Your immune system isn’t fully recovered. There could be microbes present that might make you ill.”

“Huh,” Mr. Stone said as he reared back and punched the door, putting a nice dent in the BC it was made from.

“Mr. Stone!” Ms. Isely cried and Stone could hear the fear in her voice.

“I’m thinking this door is for your protection, not mine,” Mr. Stone said. “Let me speak to Gein.”

“What makes you think Mr. Gein is here?” Ms. Isely asked. “Or even alive?”

“Because the fucker is a survivor,” Mr. Stone said. “And the only asshole to outsmart me. I’m willing to wager my life he’s somewhere around. I can do that, right?”

“I’m sorry, Mr. Stone, can you do what?”

“Wager my life. It is my life, right?” The quick silence again. “That’s what I thought.”

***

Counting the seconds, the minutes, then the hours, Mr. Stone figured he’d been in the room for half a day before they opened the door and Ms. Isely met him face to face.

“Come, Mr. Stone,” Ms. Isely smiled her viper smile as she was flanked by two guards on each side of her. “Let’s get you something to eat.”

“I don’t eat,” Stone replied without even thinking. He didn’t doubt the truth of his statement one bit. “But you know that.”

“Don’t be silly,” Ms. Isely scowled. “Of course you eat. Everyone has to eat.”

“Not me,” Stone said. He calculated the distance between himself, the guards, Isely, and the way out. They didn’t stand a chance. “I’m not hungry.”

But he restrained himself. He needed more intel before he bolted. He had no idea where he was. Hell, he didn’t know what part of the fucking world he was in. He decided he’d play Isely’s game. Not because he had to, but because he wanted to. And when that want was gone then he’d show them what he was really hungry for.

Four more guards came into the room and surrounded him.

“All this force for a coma patient?” Stone laughed. “That must have been some coma.”

“Your outburst earlier wasn’t acceptable, Mr. Stone,” Ms. Isely said. “The trauma you’ve suffered means you aren’t quite yourself, I’m afraid.”

“You’re right there,” Stone said. “These fools would be dead already if I was myself. Maybe I should eat and get my strength up more?”

The fear he wanted to see flashed across Ms. Isely’s eyes.

“Gentlemen,” Ms. Isely said and the guards escorted Mr. Stone from the room.

He went from a white room to a grey corridor. Mr. Stone knew the color of that grey.

“A ship?” he asked. “Yes, a ship. Now I can feel the stabilizers. Good tech considering the size of the vessel. You’d never know you were at sea.”

Ms. Isely didn’t respond as they walked down the corridor, taking random turns. Mr. Stone knew they were random; he’d used the same tactic many times to disorient prisoners. And Mr. Stone had no illusions that he was anything other than a prisoner.

“Really working up an appetite,” Stone said after the twelfth turn. “You sure know how to make a coma patient feel welcome and rested.”

They came to a door and something about the way Ms. Isely paused to compose herself told Stone that what was on the other side of the door held her tits in a vise. He was to be shown and approved of or Ms. Isely would be facing quite a scolding.

Stone hoped that scolding meant a bullet to the back of the fucking bitch’s head.

The door opened from the inside and Ms. Isely walked in, followed by Mr. Stone and the guards. Not that the guards were needed since the entire conference room was lined with muscle and guns.

“Mr. Stone!” Mr. Continental said. “So nice to see you again.”

“You three,” Stone sighed. “I didn’t expect to see you again.”

“We defy expectation,” Mr. Plain said. “Please, have a seat.”

“You may go, Ms. Isely,” Mr. Brown Eyes instructed. “Thank you for escorting our guest.”

“But I thought-.” Ms. Isely began.

“Which was a mistake,” Mr. Plain interrupted. “We’ll let you know when we need you to think again.”

Ms. Isely didn’t protest, just nodded and left.

“A seat, if you please, Mr. Stone,” Mr. Plain insisted. “That way we can have a nice, civilized conversation.”

Stone grinned and took the seat held out by one of the guards.

“I have to apologize,” Stone smiled.

“What for, Mr. Stone?” Mr. Continental asked.

“For scaring the holy shit out of you lot,” Stone said as he waved about at the guards. “I’m not sure any of this is needed.”

“Probably not,” Mr. Brown Eyes said.

“After all,” Stone continued. “I am just one man.”

“Yes, of course you are,” Mr. Plain said. “Of course you are, Mr. Stone.”

“Right. Of course I am,” Stone parroted. He clapped his hands together and half the guards aimed their rifles at his chest. Stone grinned. The first true, honest grin since he’d awakened.

“At ease,” Mr. Brown Eyes instructed. “He’s playing with you.”

“Which brings us to why you are here,” Mr. Continental said. “We need your skills again, Mr. Stone. We need you to play that game you play so well.”

“And what game is that?” Stone asked, leaning back in his chair.

“Hide and seek, of course,” Mr. Brown Eyes answered.

“Or, as we like to call it,” Mr. Plain added. “Hunt and kill.”

***

“What?!” Mr. Gein shouted as his door chimed. “Can’t you fucking read? It says do not disturb!”

The door chimed once more and Mr. Gein pushed off his bed and stomped to the door. He slammed his hand against the release and the door slid open.

Stone and Mr. Gein stood there and studied each other.

“They did a right good job patching you up,” Mr. Gein said finally.

Stone rolled his eyes and stepped past Mr. Gein into the room. Four guards tried to follow, but Mr. Gein blocked their way.