The Red Phoenix 12: Strength Comes in Numbers (53 page)

“It’s got to be some form of mutated desert rodent, perhaps,” Eight replied.

“Maybe a mouse or a rat of some kind?” suggested Nine.

“What do you guys have over there?” asked One in a loud voice, a short distance away, moving a vine out of his face.

“Hey, One? I think I found what you were hearing,” Nine stated, smiling. “Or smelling.”

“Very funny, what is it?” asked One, making his way toward them.

Eight, Ten and Nine grinned at each other.

Suddenly, a black twelve inch long rocket, stating
US ARMY
on the sides, zoomed down from above, hissing, sticking in the ground in front of them.

They looked up, seeing Braddock standing on a thick branch, holding a smoking weapon, with a legion of soldiers around him on other branches.

“Good morning, boys,” said Braddock in a cold voice, grinning.

The rocket sounded a fast beeping noise. Ten, Eight and Nine looked at each other like they just seen a ghost with no time to react.

BOOM! The rocket exploded, blowing the three clones’ burning bodies through the trees, breaking through the branches, snapping vines. They crash landed through patches of leafy plants a short distance away.

Nine lay on the ground from the waist up, his lower half burning in the trees a short distance from him. He crawled on the ground, gasping with bloodshot eyes and charcoaled arms, trailing blood as he struggled to get away.

“NO!” Kirk One screamed, firing his weapon at the soldiers, killing a few of them, dropping them off the twenty foot high branches like birds on a wire.

Kirk Six joined him, dropping as many of them as possible like a sharpshooter. A soldier was hit then another one, falling to the ground, hitting vines and branches on their way down.

“Bastard!” Kirk Three cried in a furious voice.

He fired his freeze gun, making a wave of misty ice blow up into a branch holding twenty soldiers then over another branch with another twenty soldiers, freezing them, turning them into solid ice statues with icicle-like spikes running off their heads, shoulders, chest and legs.

“Take cover!” Braddock shouted as he and the remainder of his men took cover behind the pillar-sized branches, waiting for One, Six and Three to run out of ammo. He glared at Three, watching him spray his unstoppable wave of ice at his men. He aimed his weapon but there was no clean shot.

“Lieutenant Dales?” Braddock called.

“Yes sir,” Dales answered.

“If you have a shot, take out
Mr. Ice Man
,” Braddock stated as a couple more bullets landed near them.

“Right away, sir,” Dales said, turning, aiming his rifle, looking through his scope.

Kirk One rushed through the branches, vines and six-foot-tall leaves, making his way to Three. Six fired his weapon then took cover to reload his magazine.

“Good job, Three,” One stated. “I bet you got at least forty of them.”

Three turned, hitting the side of the freeze gun.

“It’s starting to malfunct—”

Suddenly, Three was shot multiple times through his chest then on his neck, spraying blood onto One’s face and chest.

“Ahhh!” One screamed as Three collapsed into him, dead.

Just as One laid him down, another black rocket landed behind them, sticking in the ground, hissing, sounding a fast beeping sound. Kirk One turned, trying to run, but another BOOM sounded. The explosion’s clouds of fire blew Kirk One over a patch of leaves, plants, through some branches and vines, slicing his arms and legs until he landed on the ground, rolling near a stream that was an inch deep.

“One! No!” Six cried, running through the branches, making his way to him.

“Dammit!” One said in a loud voice, struggling to stand, holding his bleeding arm.

He limped his way through the jungle, trying to get away.

“One?” a voice called in a whispery tone.

One scanned, frantic, trying to find the source of the faint voice.

“One? Down here,” the soft voice called.

One saw Kirk Nine’s upper half, scuttling along, panting. He dropped to his knees, gripping Nine’s bloody hand.

“I am so sorry,” said Kirk One.

“Don’t be,” Nine replied, his voice fading. “This is what the humans would call a glorious death.”

One’s eyes watered.

“Don’t let them kill Father, Mother or the rest of our brothers,” Nine stated, coughing.

“On my life, I swear it,” One responded. “They will all die for this.”

Nine’s eyes closed. One clenched his teeth, grasping Nine’s uniform, whimpering.

“One! You’re okay!” Six said in the background, hurrying up the stream, making splashes as he ran towards him.

One stood, limping toward him, holding his arm. “We got to get back to—”

Suddenly, machine gun fire sounded from multiple directions, filling Six’s chest, back, arms and legs with bleeding bullet holes.

“No!” One screamed, watching Six stagger then collapse motionless in the stream.

Braddock and his men leaped down from a branch from above as the rest of his battalion of forty came through the branches and leaves and six-foot-tall plants.

Kirk One turned, facing Braddock like he was going to rip his heart out.

“You just got your asses handed to you, boy,” Braddock stated, reloading another magazine.

“You’re still down fifty men,” One smirked.

Braddock grabbed One, pulling him close, then wedged his knife against his throat.

“You know the only reason I don’t slit your throat right now is that keeping you alive could save my men and I a lot of trouble,” Braddock said.

One glared at him.

“You’re going to take me to Michaels and Siddoway so I can finish this mission once and for all,” said Braddock.

“Siddoway is dead,” One replied.

“Good, that means that our job is half over,” Braddock responded.

“You might as well kill me now because I’m not taking you anywhere, Braddock,” One stated, spitting in his face.

Braddock struck One dead on the nose, causing him to fall back in the stream on his ass. One held himself up by his elbow as he lay on his side, getting wet.

“You forget something,” said Braddock, wiping his face, pacing around him.

“Yeah, what’s that?” asked One.

“I know what your weakness is,” Braddock answered. “You clones are bonded and clung together stronger than any family, aren’t you?”

Kirk One looked down, knowing he spoke the truth. He noticed streams of Kirk Six’s blood flow around his wrists and pant legs as it drifted downstream.

“It’s not easy watching your brother’s blood flow, is it?” asked Braddock, crouching next to him.

One didn’t answer.

“I’ll tell you what, you take me to Michaels and the others and I promise no harm will come to them,” Braddock stated. “Otherwise, I’ll find them on my own, then leave a reminder. Braddock’s reminder.”

“What do you mean a
reminder
?” asked One.

“Believe it or not, I wasn’t always a nice guy, clone,” Braddock replied.

“You’re kidding?” One said in a sarcastic tone.

“When I did jobs for the CIA in various countries, I located people who were deemed a threat to the US,” Braddock said.

“How fascinating,” said One in an uncaring tone.

“These were the kind of people that our courts had no interest in prosecuting but were too dangerous to keep alive, much like Chris Michaels and his family of
artificial
intelligences. Get the point?”

“And you’re telling me this why?” One asked.

“I made it a point that these
people
or targets were skinned from their necks to their ankles then hung upside down in their own houses as a
reminder
that those who come against the US will die ugly,” said Braddock.

“No one is against the U—”

“—You, Michaels and the others will be dealt with in similar fashion,” Braddock interrupted, giving the side of his goatee a gentle scratch with his knife.

One stared at him, disgusted.

“So, either you will be a good lad and cooperate, or I will make it a point to do the same to all those who you care about because, I assure you, I will find them regardless of your help,” said Braddock.

“And if I refuse?” asked One.

Braddock looked up, noticing a branch, twelve feet above the ground.

“Then we’ll start with you right now,” Braddock answered, standing, running a finger along his blade, glaring at him like a psychopath. “It’s a great day to hang around the jungle, don’t you think,
clone
?”

“You’re a monster, Braddock,” said One.

“I’ll take that as a
yes
,” Braddock replied with a grin.

One didn’t answer, struggling to stand.

“Lieutenant Dales?” Braddock called.

“Yes sir,” Dales answered.

“Cuff this kid up and put him front and center,” Braddock stated. “He’s our new jungle tour guide.”

***

An hour had passed. Kirk One led Braddock and his men through the jungle, handcuffed in the front. One’s face was down like he failed, leading a battalion of death to Chris and the others in the hopes that Braddock would uphold his promise and be lenient. Dales walked behind Braddock, moving overgrown leaves and vines out of his way. Sergeant Jones approached Dales from behind.

“Lieutenant?” asked Jones.

“What is it, Sergeant?”

“Is it true what they say about these soldiers?” asked Dales. “Are they really
clones
?”

“Affirmative, made in the top secret division of the Red Phoenix,” Dales answered.

“So, are they like real people or what?” asked Jones.

“They’re all well-trained, have an exceptional learning capacity and are anti-US government,” Dales replied.

“He’s that smart but doesn’t realize that we’re just going to wipe him and his entire posse out, once we get there?” asked Jones.

“Oh, trust me, this clone knows that,” Dales replied. “He agreed to the commander for one purpose only.”

“What’s that?” asked Jones.

“To buy himself some time,” Dales responded.

“What the hell can he do? He’s cuffed,” said Jones.

“Oh, I’m sure he’s devising a plan as we speak,” Dales stated, ducking under a hanging vine.