The Extinction Switch: Book three of the Kato's War series (22 page)

“Do you think we could steal a car or a truck?” Taygete said.

“Maybe, if we knew where to look,” Blake said. “There are none parked anywhere about.”

“Or we could put him in a GDN capsule!” Kassandra said. Thaddeus looked at her, and narrowed his eyes. “I was just joking!” Kassandra said.

“I think that might be the answer,” Thaddeus said. “I’ve never heard of humans traveling through the GDN, but the capsules are big enough…”

“He might suffocate,” Taygete said. “I expect they’re airtight.”

Thaddeus sighed. “Possibly. He might break his neck, too, with the acceleration as the capsules are shot through the tubes. But, it might be our only hope.”

“Yeah. Where’s the nearest GDN access point?”

Thaddeus took out his display unit and opened a map of the city. “Overlay GDN,” he said. The yellow road network of the area around them was overlaid with red dots. “There’s one about two hundred meters further down this road. That’s closer to Silo 6, unfortunately, but there’s nothing we can do about it.”

“I’ve still got my lock pick on me,” Taygete said.

“Right. Get a bike, ride up there, and break in. Then we’ll take Blake and all our stuff and regroup in there.”

GDN terminal 441N looked just like the one Kassandra had seen only hours previously. The full capsules were on the right, and the empty ones were on the left. All were yellow. A gantry crane picked up full ones from the twin rails on which they sat after leaving the chute. It stood them on their end. An octopus-like fluid robot would then come over and unscrew the top, while moving it to a work area at the rear, where it would be unpacked. Kassandra, Thaddeus, Taygete, and Asterope looked on. Thaddeus walked over to a large touchscreen terminal at the left side of the facility. His brow furrowed, as he concentrated on it. “I think it’s pretty simple to operate,” he said. “Once a capsule is on its side on the rails, you just enter the destination terminal.”

“Good,” Taygete said. “But, what about once he gets there? We don’t want one of those things”—she pointed at a silver worker robot—”yanking him out of there. Humans will have to intercept him.”

“Then we’ll have to call ahead and tell them to be ready,” Thaddeus said.

“I’m not sure how they’ll react when we tell them we’re sending a wounded soldier home through the mail.”

“I’m not sure how they’ll react to all the other crap we’ve gotten up to either.”

“Good point. We’ll have to call after we’ve already sent him on his way. Better to seek forgiveness than permission in this instance. Kassandra, crack the door open and keep a lookout. Not that I’m really expecting them to come in here, but you never know.”

Kassandra, Thaddeus, Asterope and Taygete looked down at Blake’s limp body, stuffed into the one meter-wide yellow cylinder. It was still standing on its end. He was in a fetal position. Blake’s head lolled to the right. His eyes were closed.

“I just hope it doesn’t decelerate too hard,” Taygete said. “It’ll push him up to the top.” The others nodded.

“There’s a lot that could go wrong here,” Asterope said. “It could get misrouted or lost, the system could shut down while he’s in transit. You name it.” She shrugged. “But, it’s all we’ve got.”

“Yup. Okay. Screw the lid on and lay it down on the rails. Let’s check here… N33304 is our nearest terminal.”

“The one where this whole crapfest started,” Kassandra said gloomily. Thaddeus helped Kassandra and Taygete screw the lid on over Blake’s unmoving form. They then tipped the capsule onto its side. Thaddeus pressed a long sequence of buttons on the display, and a lift chain began to move between the rails. The cylinder moved horizontally for a few meters, before the rails took it up at forty-five degrees until it was out of sight.

Taygete closed her eyes. “Oh God, I hope we didn’t just kill him.”

Thaddeus nodded soberly. “It’s probably the lesser of two evils though. If we’d left him here until the battle is over, there’s a good chance he’d be dead anyway. Well, I guess I’d better call somebody to get him off the belt at the other end.” He walked a few meters away and, facing away from the others and put in a call to a perplexed JC to have a crew ready to intercept Blake at the GDN terminal.

“What in God’s name is going on?” JC asked. Thaddeus related their plan to draw the NPRF’s fire onto the Sixers. JC was silent for a few seconds. “That’s the stupidest thing I ever heard!” he said. “I’ve been looking all over here for Nishimura. She started this whole thing. I can’t find her anywhere.” Thaddeus spun around and looked at Kassandra. She had evidently overheard the exchange. She and Thaddeus locked eyes for a few seconds. “No idea where she is, sir.”

“Well, go ahead with your plan,” JC said. “It can’t be any worse than how things are going now. We’re losing ground, and Defenders, fast.”

----

Thaddeus looked at the girls, in the dim confines of the GDN station. “Well, let’s get this thing done. We ride until we find an NPRF patrol, and then fire rockets at it.
But
, make sure you hit it from the right direction, to make it look like it’s the Sixers. And when you flee, head towards Silo 6, to draw them in that direction, until you shake any pursuers. I think we should stick together, but we all know what to do and where to go if we get separated.”

“Right,” Asterope said. “I won’t be of any use, of course; I’ll have to use my only good arm to hang on with. I’m riding with you, Sis,” Asterope said to Taygete. “If you go, I want to go too.” The sisters hugged.

“You know,” Taygete said, “there’s a chance we’ll never see each other again, if some of us die or are taken captive.” Kassandra looked down sadly.

“I’d better give you this.” Thaddeus handed his display unit to Kassandra. “You need this more than I do, in case you get lost.”

“Thanks,” she said, pocketing the device. Thaddeus made the X sign with his forearms. Kassandra and the others did likewise. He walked over to the weapons pile and grabbed two pistols and a rocket launcher. Without another word, he mounted a bike and headed silently to the metal door. When the others were ready, all three motorcycles headed out of the door and turned right. Thaddeus led, followed by the sisters, and then Kassandra. They soon passed the sea of splayed bodies and crashed bikes that was their previous encounter with the Sixers. They had to pick their way through the obstacles. One Sixer at the right hand side of the road was beginning to stir, as the effects of an e-bomb wore off. Wasting no time, they headed north, to the intersection with Cours Lafayette, and turned left. This took them east. Thaddeus opened the throttle on the wide, well-lit road. Since it was completely straight, there were no blocks to visibility for kilometers in both directions. The overhead lights flashed past, as they topped 150 kilometers per hour. A minute later, Thaddeus braked suddenly. The others nearly ran into the back of him. A pack of Sixer bikes was crossing from left to right, some distance ahead. They slowed to a stop. The patrol had not seen them. Once they had crossed, the four fighters resumed their high-speed cruise.

Thaddeus braked once again. Before he had even come to a stop, he pointed ahead. “NPRF! Three of them this time!” Three black armored personnel carriers were crossing from right to left a hundred meters ahead.

“Right,” Kassandra said. “Now what?” The bikes had now come to a stop.

“They’re heading south, towards Silo 6. We’ve got to get in front and intercept them from the south.”

“Okay.”

“Circular Route 20 is less than half a kilometer ahead. We’ll turn left on it, pass them, and then come back across to meet them. Got it?”

“Yep.”

“Let’s go.” The bikes shot ahead, covering the half-kilometer in thirty seconds. They had to dodge several burned-out vehicles, as they turned left onto Circular Route 20. They accelerated again, this time to nearly 200 kilometers per hour. Factory shutter doors and smashed storefronts flashed past. After a kilometer, they had to slow down to pick their way through what had obviously been the scene of a shootout between the opposing army forces, as the parts of three wrecked tanks littered the road. Speeding up again, Thaddeus held up his left hand with two fingers raised, indicating they should turn left at the second intersection. On reaching that point, the three bikes did a wide, arcing turn to conserve speed, and charged ahead. After 400 meters, they slowed down, as they were approaching the route that the NPRF patrol had been traveling. Thaddeus rode cautiously up to the corner, and peeked around it to the left. This road curved gently to the right, limiting visibility to 300 meters. He could see the glow of the convoy’s headlights against the white wall. It grew brighter as it approached. Kassandra and Taygete pulled up on either side of him. “This is our chance,” he said. “Let’s all fire at once. We’ve got to make it quick.” He jumped off his bike and unstrapped the bulky rocket launcher from his shoulder. The girls did likewise. Crouching down, Thaddeus turned the unit until he could see its touchscreen. He pressed the red ARM button. It changed to say UNIT ARMED. “Now what?” he muttered.

“Hit ‘sight’,” Kassandra said. He did so, and a ten centimeter-wide screen flipped out of the left side of the launcher, much like the preview screen on an old video camera. It showed whatever the unit was pointed at, with red rectangles helpfully displayed around anything that could be considered a target.

“The button on the other side fires it,” Taygete said. He felt along the right side of the tube, and found a large rectangular button three-quarters of the way down.

“Looks pretty easy to use,” Thaddeus said.

“Yeah.”

“Let’s go.” Thaddeus, followed by the girls, stepped out into the path of the oncoming army vehicles. They were 150 meters away, and closing fast. They raised the rocket launchers to their right shoulders, waited until the oncoming vehicles were highlighted in their sighting screens, and pressed FIRE. Three projectiles roared away down the tunnel. Two seconds later, the lead armored personnel carrier erupted in a sheet of flame. Panels, axles, and other parts exploded outwards, hitting both the roof and walls of the tunnel. “Woohoo!” Thaddeus cheered. Kassandra looked terrified. “Let’s hit ‘em again,” Thaddeus said. Large caliber machine gun fire rattled from the truck behind the one they had hit, pitting the asphalt and cracking the wall tiles around them. Thaddeus stood his ground and fired again. The rocket streaked away and blasted the front of the second vehicle to pieces. It skidded to its left, crossed the median of the road, and crashed into the wall of the tunnel. It flipped onto its side. A third APC emerged from the smoke and flames. It accelerated at the Defenders, guns blazing. “Oh crap!” Thaddeus said. He dived back around the corner, grabbing Kassandra. They both fell to the ground. Their rocket launchers fell off their shoulders. The weapons and the ground where they had been standing were torn to pieces by heavy machine gun fire. “Go! Go! Go!” Thaddeus yelled, scrambling to his feet. “Follow my lead!” They mounted their motorcycles and sped off as fast as the machines would go, ahead of the APC. Two hundred meters later, they braked hard and took a right. Fiercely gunning the throttles, they had put 200 meters between them and the corner when the hostile vehicle made it around. Its front gun blazed again, ripping up asphalt and splintering concrete around them. Thaddeus swerved left, and then right. The girls followed him in single file. The bikes’ auto-stability system kicked once they exceeded 150 kilometers per hour. They kept accelerating, and the bullets kept coming. Thaddeus indicated left with his arm, and braked hard. They came up fast on an intersection: Circular Route 21. They turned left, taking a wide track around the corner. The four riders accelerated again, topping out at 200 kilometers per hour. They were heading south, further from home, and closer to Silo 6. The gradual left curve nearly put them out of sight of the corner when their pursuer rounded it. Bullets flew once again. The girls instinctively sped up, but Thaddeus did not. Once they were 100 meters ahead of him, they looked at each other quizzically, and glanced back at Thaddeus. They maintained their speed, so as not to increase the distance between him and them. The chase continued like this for two minutes. Thaddeus then indicated left wildly. Kassandra, who was riding to Taygete’s right, saw it and relayed it to the other girl. She nodded. They soon came upon another corner, and made the turn. Another straight arterial road. They sped up. Thaddeus followed them around the corner. This time, he gunned the throttle, and streaked past the girls. They followed suit, struggling to catch up to him. Once again, the APC lumbered around the corner in pursuit. Its guns blazed again. The bikes, though traveling at 300 kilometers per hours, were no match for bullets. These streaked past the riders, missing them by centimeters. Then, a cluster of motorbikes turned into their path a few hundred meters ahead, and moved towards them at speed. Sixers! There must have been a dozen of them. Thaddeus, Kassandra and Taygete streaked towards them, at a combined closing speed of over 500 kilometers per hour, all the while being chased by the NPRF. Squeezing to the right hand side of the road, the other bikes passed by in a blur. The hell-fire of the APC’s large gun started again—this time aimed at the other cluster of Sixer riders, who were heading towards it at speed. They were cut to pieces before they could fire back. Thaddeus indicated left once again. They braked hard and made the turn. Thaddeus, still in the lead, pointed at the featureless gray concrete wall they were passing. He didn’t accelerate again. The girls looked at him, and then at each other. “What does he mean?” Kassandra mouthed. Taygete shrugged.