Proditor : Book 5 of the Heku Series (33 page)

Emily adjusted the settings on the cameras
and took a deep breath before giving the signal. She saw the slight
nod from the heku and watched carefully for any movement that might
give them away. At the two minute mark, she gave the clear signal
and set about extracting the two minutes of footage.

Emily turned back to the horse sales. She
hadn’t heard from Silas since she’d told him about Exavior four
weeks prior, and had been afraid to say anything to him. Now she
felt it was necessary. With shaking hands, she typed out a
message.

Silas,

Hoping to have a place for a stable as soon
as tomorrow. Cross your fingers,

Madison

She shut her eyes and pressed the send
button, hoping that Silas was still checking even though he hadn’t
sent her any messages. If her plan worked, tomorrow she would free
the heku and would have only spent 3 months on the compound.

***

Silas knocked on the door to Chevalier’s
office. He knew all of the Elders were in a meeting in there.

“
Enter,” Chevalier
said.

Silas came in and handed him the message.
Chevalier read it a few times and then handed it to Zohn.

“
How many heku are in the
woods around that compound?” Chevalier asked.

“
Last count was 56 Equites,
24 Encala and 83 Valle,” Silas replied.

“
I want the entire Cavalry
out there immediately. Call in Thukil and more from Powan, and get
them out there too. I don’t want Emily’s safety left to the Encala
or the Valle,” Chevalier told him.

“
Yes, Sir,” Silas said, and
blurred from the room. Within hours, helicopters from Powan and
Thukil arrived and their armies were headed out to the V.E.S.
compound.

***

“
Marry me,” Cody said,
dropping down to one knee.

Emily’s eyes grew wide. She wasn’t sure what
to do, so she nodded slightly, and then froze when he gently
slipped her essence ring off of her finger, and suddenly, Emily
found it hard to breathe. She took the ring from him and looked at
it as he slipped another ring on her finger. She couldn’t believe
the ring had come off, and her heart skipped a beat when she
realized that Chevalier must have died.

Emily felt the world start to swirl around
her, and shadows invaded her vision. Arms wrapped around her as she
succumbed to the darkness.

“
Maddie?” Cody asked
softly, and touched her face.

Emily opened her eyes, unsure if the removal
of her ring was a dream. She felt the new ring on her finger and
knew it hadn’t been.

“
Stay down,” Cody said as
he put a cold washcloth on her forehead.

“
The ring…” she whispered,
fighting to keep her eyes open.

“
I didn’t take it. I know
it means a lot to you,” Cody said. “It’s in your
pocket.”

Emily nodded and tried to sit up. She had to
be well enough to go to the prison today. She was going to put her
plan into motion, and it had to be today while the leaders were
gone.

Cody helped her to sit up, “You ok?”

“
Yes,” Emily said, and
stood up despite the dizzy headache she had.

“
Why don’t you take the day
off?” Cody said, taking her arm. “You can come with Larry and I.
We’re going to check on a new compound that’s being built in
Arkansas.”

“
No, I’m ok to work,” Emily
told him.

Cody smiled, “So dedicated to the
cause.”

Emily smiled slightly, “Always.”

Cody pulled her into a tight embrace and
pressed his lips against hers. She felt the weight of the foreign
ring on her finger, and began to tear up at the thought that
Chevalier was dead.

Cody pulled her tightly against his chest,
“Don’t cry, I’ll be back soon.”

Emily forced a smile, “Hurry back.”

“
I will. We’ll get married
as soon as I get back,” he said, and kissed her again before
leaving.

Emily felt her overall pockets to check
again for the plastic baggies, and then headed down to the prison.
She made sure and wore the painter’s overalls with lots of pockets,
and couldn’t wait to get back into clothes that fit. She was still
wearing the large overalls that had to be rolled up numerous times,
and threatened to slip off of her shoulders and slide to the floor
when she moved.

She sat down at the console, and was shaking
so badly, it was hard to type as she transferred the worm onto the
main computer. A virus that would wipe out every computer on the
network, resetting even the master boot record. She glanced up at
the heku in the shackles, and his face softened when he saw the
terror in her eyes. If this went badly, she had no doubt she would
be killed.

“
Is everyone ready?” Emily
asked, looking down at the monitor. She glanced up briefly and saw
the slight nod from the heku.

Emily reached over and executed the security
footage loop program and nodded for the heku to move. He shifted in
his cell, but the cameras showed him sitting still. She quickly
unlocked all of the cells and turned off voltage to the restraints,
then watched the heku break his shackles as every other heku turned
to ash.

“
Hurry, give me the bags,”
he said, and ran out to her. She handed him a few of the bags, and
he ran into the experimentation room to begin scooping ashes into
the bags, while Emily started on the heku in the main cell
block.

Emily looked up as the heku returned, and he
handed her the six bags as she wiped the blood that trickled down
her lip. She shoved them into her large pockets and stood up,
“Done… make this good. I need to bleed a lot, but don’t knock me
out if you can help it.”

The heku nodded and placed his hand on her
forehead. He swiftly smashed the back of her head into the stone
wall and caught her before she fell. A steady stream of blood began
to pour from the back of her head as she got unsteadily to her
feet.

“
Sorry,” he said, just
before turning to ash.

Emily scooped his ashes up quickly and
relocked all of the cell doors, then executed the worm program as
she laid down on the ground. She felt the warm blood pool around
her head and waited for help to arrive.

Alarms sounded throughout the compound and
Emily kept perfectly still as the prison flooded with armed
guards.

“
Get Madison, she’s hurt,”
a man yelled.

Emily was lifted and carried out of the
prison. She groaned softly, hoping someone would stop the bleeding
from her head before she passed out for real. The man laid her down
on her bed as Vicki came in and put pressure on the bleeding.

“
What happened?” Vicki
asked frantically.

“
We don’t know yet. The
prisoners all escaped, and the computers have gone down,” he told
her, and ran out of the room.

Emily wanted to look up and see who else was
in the room, but she desperately needed them to call an ambulance
or take her to the hospital, anywhere off of the compound.

“
Henry!” Vicki called
out.

“
What?” he asked
angrily.

“
We need to get her to a
hospital. She lost a lot of blood.”

“
No,” he barked. “No one
leaves the compound.”

“
Are you going to tell Cody
when she bleeds to death?” Vicki yelled.

“
No one leaves,” he yelled,
and slammed the door shut.

Emily thought quickly, trying hard to decide
what to do. She either had to find a way to get out of the
compound, or she needed to get word to the Equites that all of the
evidence had been erased. She came up with an idea that could
backfire easily, but it was the only thing she could think of.

“
Vicki,” Emily
mumbled.

“
I’m here, Maddie,” Vicki
said, and touched her arm softly.

“
The… baby…” Emily
whispered, and clutched her lower stomach, groaning
softly.

Vicki gasped, “Henry!”

“
What now?” he growled when
he opened the door.

“
Did you know Maddie’s
pregnant? Something’s wrong with the baby,” Vicki said
frantically.

“
Damnit Cody, couldn’t keep
it in his pants. Get her an ambulance, but no one else leaves this
compound,” he yelled, and then slammed the door.

Emily heard Vicki dial 9-1-1 and had an
ambulance on the way. A man came in and carried Emily out to the
front gate when it arrived. She was soon in the back of an
ambulance, and the doors were shut while the paramedics prepared to
leave. She was strapped onto the gurney, and opened her eyes when
she felt the ambulance moving.

“
Hi,” the paramedic said,
smiling warmly. “Where do you hurt?”

“
Nowhere,” Emily said, and
untied the straps.

“
Wait! You can’t get up,”
the paramedic said, his eyes were wide. Emily sized him up. He was
just a young boy, probably fresh out of paramedic school. She
shrugged and then punched him as hard as she could in the nose. She
felt the bones in her hand crush again, but ignored the pain and
opened the back door, then looked out into the trees and hoped
someone would be there.

Counting silently to three, Emily jumped
from the back of the ambulance and tried to roll when she landed.
She felt her elbow and shoulder slam into the road as she rolled,
then waited for the movement to stop, but soon realized she was
being blurred deeper into the woods. The ambulance had stopped and
she could barely see it backing up before distance took the sight
away.

Emily glanced down and saw the green shirt
of the Thukil Cavalry and smiled. She wrapped her arms around him
and whispered, “Thank you.”

The heku didn’t stop until they appeared in
a clearing full of uniformed heku. They all turned toward her as
the Thukil Lieutenant set her down onto her feet. Emily ran to Kyle
and threw her arms around him and started to cry.

“
How did he die?” Emily
asked through the sobs.

Kyle pulled away from her slightly and
looked into her eyes, “How did who die?”

“
Chev,” Emily asked, her
eyes full of pain.

Kyle shook his head, “Chevalier’s not
dead.”

Emily nodded, “Yes, he is.”

“
I just talked to him a few
minutes ago, Em, he’s fine.”

Emily frowned and looked around, confused.
She sat down against a tree and watched. She’d never before seen
Equites, Encala, and Valle all working together.

A General in the Valle Army knelt down
beside her, “Tell us everything you can.”

“
Give her a second to rest.
Can’t you tell she has a head injury?” Kyle growled.

“
It’s ok,” Emily said. “I
have all of the heku with me, and I destroyed all of the computers.
They didn’t back up any of their records. It’s all
gone.”

“
What about the guards?”
the General asked.

“
There are armed guards and
electrical fences along the top of the cement fence. The guards
pass by every 30 seconds. Everything in there is protected by
electricity,” Emily explained.

Kyle pulled his green cape off and wrapped
it around Emily’s shoulders, “I say let’s storm it. Get rid of
them, so they can’t do this again.”

The General nodded, “I agree.”

“
Wait,” Emily said. “You’re
going to just kill all of them?”

“
No, we won’t kill all of
them, but we need to kill their leaders,” the General told
her.

“
The two main leaders,
Larry and Cody, are in Arkansas until morning,” Emily
explained.

Kyle nodded, “Silas, Mark, and I will take
Emily to the airport. She can show us who they are.”

Kralen knelt down by Emily, “I’ll lead the
Equites.”

The Valle General nodded, “We’ll coordinate
into three faction based groups.”

“
Please,” Emily said, and
touched the General’s hand. “Don’t kill them if you don’t have to.
There are some nice people in there.”

An Encala General joined them, “Heard we’re
going in.”

Kralen smiled, “Don’t worry, Emily. We won’t
kill them if they aren’t leaders or security.”

Kyle helped Emily to her feet, and she
wrapped his cape around her, covering her arm as best as she could
to hide the fact that it was injured. She would deal with that
later. Mark came over and picked her up, then blurred suddenly, and
she saw Kyle and Silas running alongside him. She leaned her head
against his shoulder to try to stop the pounding from hitting her
head on the wall.

Within thirty minutes, they emerged onto a
dirt road where two of the red Lamborghini Reventon’s were parked
alongside a dozen black Suburbans. Emily got into the car with
Kyle, and buckled herself in, careful not to bump her arm.

Kyle slid into the driver’s seat and started
up the car, cranking the heater, and then turned to her, “Why did
you think Chevalier was dead?”

Emily dug in her pocket and held out the
ring, “I didn’t die, or cheat on him, or betray him.”

Kyle frowned, “It just came off?”

Emily nodded, “Yes, when Cody proposed, he
pulled it off to put his on.”

Emily held out her left hand and showed him
the new ring. Kyle laughed and spun out onto the dirt road and
floored it toward the airport.

“
What’s so funny?” Emily
asked, frowning.

“
You agreed to marry this
guy?”

“
Yes, I had to.”