Patriots & Tyrants (Rebels & Lies Trilogy Book 2) (10 page)

The light mist outside
sprinkled its way down and tapped at the top of the fatigue colored tent.
Harvey and his squad had braved the mist as they held their brief memorial
service for Steinner. The rebel leader felt somewhat bad about how short the
proceeding ended up being. In a perfect world, they could hold an entire day’s
worth of ceremonies for their fallen comrades. This wasn’t a perfect world,
though, especially with a fascist regime like the USR running things. That made
the resolve to pick themselves up and get moving to the next task that much
stronger. He knew Steinner would say the same thing.

They were all huddled
together in the main tent. The screen behind Harvey already had the American
flag emblem emblazed in the background. He allowed his team to talk amongst
themselves for a while. Harvey kept trying to hide it, but his interest in the
room right now was in Kaspar and Krys. He tried to read them to see if Kaspar
spilled the beans about the cure possibly being found. There was nothing
revealed in either of their facial expressions. Perhaps he had underestimated
his young soldier after all.

Kaspar just kept
rubbing on Krys’s shoulders. The poor woman looked out of it again. Inside his
head, Harvey wanted to cure her. But, just like with the debate he had with
Kaspar the night before, he knew that it wasn’t all about her. Harvey also knew
that Krys understood that.

The time for chit chat
was now over. Harvey cleared his throat to get his unit’s attention. They all
stopped talking at once and turned their attention to their leader. Harvey
looked around the room for a moment then with a nod of his head, the American
flag was erased from the screen, replaced by a real time, satellite image of a
USR compound in the mountains. He allowed the team to get a good look at the
image before proceeding.

“This is our next
target,” Harvey announced. He noticed in the back Kaspar stopped rubbing on
Krys and leaned forward with great interest. “It’s a compound somewhere in the
Rocky Mountains. We are still gathering data on it as we speak.”

“What’s up there?”
Dexter, who was seated all by himself to the left, asked.

“What I’m about to
tell you should be treated with the upmost,” Harvey paused and looked at
Kaspar, “secrecy.”

Kaspar said nothing in
return. He didn’t say anything to Krys last night about it, not wanting to
upset her, but he hadn’t revealed that to Harvey, yet. He simply remained in
his forward posture and waited for Harvey to continue.

“There might be
something of extreme value in this compound.” Harvey continued.

“Which is?” Buck,
seated alone front and center, wondered.

“The cure for what’s
been ailing the female population.”

There was a collective
gasp in the tent. Krys placed her hands over her mouth and couldn’t breathe for
a moment. She tried to grasp what the unit was just told. The look of shock on
her face surprised Kaspar. In his mind, he thought that she would be more
excited than this. If the information they gathered was accurate, and they got
there in time, she would be cured. The other part of her mission could be
completed, too. She could spread the word on the drug and, at the same time,
help those in need. Kaspar reasoned that maybe it was just her way of dealing
with the revelation.

Krys remained
speechless, which came as a shock to Harvey, too. He continued on with the
mission brief, waiting for the moment when Krys would interrupt him with
questions. But, as he continued, they never came. He was about to get to where
they would be meeting up with Sanders’s boys when the interruption finally
came.

“Are we sure that this
is for real?” Krys asked with hesitation in her voice.

“We can never be one
hundred percent sure,” Harvey declared. “However, we did rip the Intel straight
from that USR computer, so we are pretty sure this is legit.”

“There was no evidence
of tampering or anything?”

“No.”

“So, this is for
real…” Krys said as her voice began to trail off.

“As far as we know,
yes.” Harvey nodded at Krys with a half-smile. “Now, moving on, we will be
meeting up with another team for this Op. They will provide us with some extra
guns and support.”

With a nod, Harvey
gave Clarke the signal to change the slide. After a few moments, Roy Sanders’s
mug shot appeared on the screen. The look of that red scar on Sanders’s
forehead caused Kaspar to wince. Just the thought of what caused such a nasty
mark on another human being made his own forehead hurt a little bit. Harvey
continued the brief with letting the team know who Sanders was and how his team
was going to help them.

For some reason, the
look on the guy caused mistrust within Kaspar. He knew that there was really no
reason for the distrust. It was more of a gut feeling. With the seriousness of
this upcoming mission, getting the cure for Krys, he wanted to make sure that
nothing would get messed up. He raised his hand and Harvey pointed at him.

“Have you met this
Sanders guy?” Kaspar asked.

“No, never in person,
but we’ve been in contact for several months.”

“How do you know we
can trust him, then?”

Harvey looked to
ground then back up. “I’ve been doing this stuff for a lot longer than you. I
know when I can trust a man or not. He bleeds red, white, and blue, I can tell
you that.”

“How many men does he
have?”

“Including Roy, we’ll
have eight more guns for this mission.”

That would have to be
good enough. Kaspar trusted Harvey, so if Harvey said Sanders was good, then he
would just assume that. There was another issue lingering in the back of his
head. He raised his hand again. This time, the rebel leader seemed annoyed by
yet another question from Kaspar.

“Yes, Ryan?”

“Did you or Clarke
find out anything else about this cure? Like, does it describe how long it
takes for the cure to take effect?”

Harvey shook his head.
“I was just about to get there. According to the documents we uncovered, the
cure takes about 24-48 hours to completely wipe out the toxins from the body.
The high potency of the drugs will induce a coma during that time frame as they
rid the body of them. There is an eighty percent chance of survival.”

“Eighty percent?” Krys
asked. “That’s it?”

“It’s better than
zero.”

Dexter cleared his
throat. “What are we going to do with this cure if we get it?”

“I haven’t thought
that far ahead, yet. Obviously, it will be something very valuable for us to
have. But, we’ll have to very careful once we get it. There aren’t many people
we can trust with it.”

“What do you mean?”

“What I mean is, this
will be probably the most potent political weapon out there right now. If in
the wrong hands, someone might try to sell it back to the USR for credits, or
even worse, give it back to them freely.” Harvey replied.

“And, you’re sure we
can trust this Sanders guy, right?” Kaspar demanded once more.

“Yes, I’m sure. But, I
haven’t met any of his men, yet. I trust each and every one of you here in this
room, with my life. I’m just saying that extra precaution will be needed once
we get in and get the cure out of there.”

Krys looked over at
Kaspar and, finally, a smile crept on her face. Kaspar smiled back, wanting
nothing more than to plant a big kiss on her, but held back not wanting to
break the professionalism of the briefing. That smile, he hadn’t seen it in its
genuine form in a long time. He just wished that they could somehow get over
there in a flash, get the cure, and then everything would be like it once was
with her. They could run together, continue to fight the USR, and do the other
things that…

“We move out in two
hours,” Harvey’s booming voice interrupted Kaspar’s thoughts. “Let’s get
everything packed up on the double. Move out!”

Kaspar began to help
Krys out of her seat when, suddenly, she couldn’t breathe any longer. Her chest
convulsed violently as she tried to draw a breath. She then went to her knees
on the grass and gasped for air.

The gasps only lasted
a few seconds before she blacked out completely.

Kaspar kept his gaze
on Krys as she still lay unconscious on the small cot. His fingers were gripped
on her hand, which lay limp along with her arm across his belly. Her hands felt
cold and Kaspar thought that this might be the end for her. On the other side,
Dexter worked on the IV, administering the same shit they’d been pumping into
her system for the past several months.

The more that he
rubbed at her limp arm, the more he could feel something in his hand, and he
looked down at it without wanting to. Another lesion could be seen developing
on it. He kept telling her in his mind to wake up. They would get the cure for
her and she would be all fine again. She just needed to hold on, to not give
up, to just…

A moan came from her
lips as she started to move her head back and forth. Krys looked like she was
trying to escape from a bad dream. Her eyes were slow to open until they finally
met Kaspar’s concerned gaze. With her bearings back, she gripped his arm with
both hands. She moved her head up towards his arm and rested it there. Kaspar
reached down and rubbed at her hair.

“I’ll give you two a
minute.” Dexter said as he headed towards the front of the tent.

“Thanks,” Kaspar
replied.

His attention turned
back to Krys. He never thought he would see her as weak as she was right now.
He got down to one knee and kissed at her forehead. Krys looked up from the
kiss and didn’t say a word. There was no smile on her face, either. Nothing but
dread and sadness could be found there. Tears started to roll down her cheeks.

“It’s going to be
okay,” Kaspar said as he wiped the tears away.

Krys winced before she
spoke. “How…can you say that? I’ve never been this bad before.”

“I just know it’s all
going to work out. We are going to get that cure and…”

“We’ve been saying this
for months now. What if there is no hope?”

Kaspar shook his head.
“I can’t believe that I’m hearing this from you right now. You’ve got to stay
strong.”

“How can I stay
strong?” Krys said as more tears flowed. “Look at me. My body is…wasting away
before my own eyes. I just want to rest.”

Kaspar snapped. “No!”

Krys was taken aback
by her lover’s sudden aggressiveness. She let go of her grip and laid her head
flat on the soft, white pillow. Kaspar let loose of her and stood. He rubbed
his stubbled chin and began pacing. Krys closed her eyes and remained silent.
There was a sudden regret in him that he snapped at her like that, but she was
being so weak right now. He couldn’t bring himself to understand the nature of
her condition. The only thing that he wanted was the old Krys back and he was
starting to doubt, once more, that the old Krys would ever come back.

After he was done
pacing, Kaspar walked back over to the pallet of blankets and got down on his
knees again. He then bent down and rested his tired head on her midsection. The
feeling of her hands running through his hair calmed him for the moment.

“I’m sorry I snapped.”
Kaspar said.

“It’s okay. I know how
you must feel to see me like this. But, I’m at the end of my rope. I don’t know
if I even want to go on this next mission or not.”

“Please, stay with me
out there. One last time, for me.”

Krys was silent for a
moment before she replied. “Just this one last time, Ryan. After this, I’m
done. I can’t go on like this.”

“It’ll be fine,”
Kaspar moved his head up and faced her. “We’re going to get that cure and we’re
going to save you. I promised that I would.”

Their moment was cut
short when Harvey entered the tent. The leader tried to sympathize with Krys,
but the team needed to move out, and right now. He moved in and looked down at
his soldier.

“How are you feeling?”
Harvey wondered knowing the answer.

“How do you think I’m
feeling?” was Krys’s response.

“I know. I hate to
rush you like this, but we need to move. Can you move?”

“Yeah, I can move.”

She started to get up
with Kaspar’s help. Harvey walked behind her and took the IV out of her arm
then quickly taped gauze to it. With Kaspar’s help, Krys was able to get back
to her feet. As they walked, her legs wobbled a little bit, but they managed to
make it out of the tent.

“Look,” Harvey said
once they were out, “you don’t have to go on this next run if you are not able
to.”

“I’ll be fine, Harv,
trust me. I just need to rest on the way there, that’s all.”

“We’ll get you another
IV and some room to lie down.” Harvey replied. “We’re meeting at the vehicles
in twenty minutes. We’ll take your tent down for you.”

With that, Kaspar led
Krys to the armored vehicle as Harvey, Dexter, and Clarke worked on the tent.
Inside, the others already made a pallet of blankets on one of the benches for
Krys to lie down on. Kaspar tried to help her get comfortable. Once settled, he
grabbed another blanket and wrapped her up in it.

“Thank you,” Krys said
with a smile.

“You don’t have to
thank me.” Kaspar replied.