The Suns of Liberty: Legion: A Superhero Novel (37 page)

     But it wasn’t working.

     He could not shake the memory of the massive Man-O-War
floating down State Street, capable of destroying anything in its path. What if
they sent an army of those, like Leslie said?  What if they were packing that
black lightning stuff the scientist at Trenton had?  Matter displacer, didn’t
he call it? 

     Ward’s head began to throb. The old wound. There was
no medical reason for it. What he told Rachel earlier was bullshit. His head
ought to be fine now. It was psychological, he knew. But he couldn’t stop it.
He could feel his whole body start to tremble. His fear was getting the best of
him.

The
jets approached, twelve in formation. They zoomed over the John Hancock Tower,
turbo engines cracking through the sky like thunder, on a trajectory for the
HQ.

     Moments later, Sophia saw them. She readied her
blasters.

    
“Still no missile lock,”
Lantern said over the
com.

     “C’mon, c’mon,” Sophia breathed. She wanted to take
them out. She was tired of this threat. Time to get it over with. Time for all
of them to face their demons and blow them to shit!

     The jets approached the HQ. She had them in her
sights. The bracelets charged with power. It was going to come down to her. The
jets were going to play chicken right up until the last minute.

     But she never could have guessed what was coming next.
The jets screamed toward the HQ—

     And flew right over it.

     Sophia watched them disappear over the horizon.

     They waited.

     And waited.

     And waited.

     Nothing else came.

     “Sir,” Lantern said finally over their coms, “there’s nothing
else on the scope. I think that was it.  I think it was just a surveillance
run.”

     Cheers roared up from the skeleton crew inside the HQ
as the word spread.

     Ward sighed, his eyes shut tight, and fell against the
wall at the entrance. The next thing he knew tearful workers were pounding his
shoulders.

     He needed a drink.

Tempers
were high at COR.

     The gentlewoman from Georgia was the first to speak.

     And speak she did.

     “We are under house arrest here because he led the
Suns of Liberty into a trap and they were all made to look like fools and terrorists
in the eyes of the world! In fact, I have to question this man’s ability to
lead our military at this point. He turned our ultimate weapon against us, he—”

     “I’ve told you, Fiona Fletcher is not a threat!”
Leslie said more forcefully than she intended.

     “Do not abuse the power of your office, madam. The
gentlewoman is speaking!” said the representative from Texas.

     Leslie blinked. “I apologize to the gentlewoman. I
rescind my comments.”

     The gentlewoman from Georgia nodded to the representative
from Texas and turned back toward Leslie, glaring at her. “And now that the
gentleman from Texas mentions it, I question not only the Revolution’s leadership,
but yours as well. You’ve led us to put our faith in a man whose name we don’t
know, whose face we wouldn’t even recognize. We don’t know his history. At this
point, with all these tragic missteps, I have to question if he is even on our
side!”

     Leslie rose to her feet. “You’re out of order,
Rosalie!  You’ll take that back! The Revolution has sacrificed more for this
cause than you’ll ever know! Certainly more than you have!”

     “Oh,” breathed the representative from Texas, “so you
do know something of his background, don’t you?”

     “No,” Leslie admitted. “But I know his heart. And I‘ve
seen on a daily basis the toll this fight has taken on him and continues to
take on all of them. What if it was you out there? Do you seriously think you
could do better? It’s so easy for you to criticize when you’re safe here in
these halls.”

     Just then, a great rumble rose up from under the
floor, followed by a loud crash.

     “What the hell was that?” someone asked.

     “Earthquake?” another suggested.

     Leslie shook her head. “I used to work at Berkeley. That was like no earthquake I’ve ever felt,” Leslie said.

     “Could it be the Aquifer?” Livingston Roosevelt asked,
eyeing the floor.

     The representative from Pennsylvania, who knew the
Hall of Chambers best, nodded.

     Leslie swallowed and tried not to look worried. The
Aquifer was an underground canal that ran under the building from the Delaware
River. It had been built as both a secret entrance into and an escape route out
of the Hall.

     COR had five mini-subs stored in the canal ready to be
used as escape pods. It had taken them years to build, under the cover of darkness—and
it hadn’t helped that this side of Philadelphia had been basically abandoned
for decades. Only the interstate provided much life. Even Penn Treaty Park had
been allowed to fall into disuse and left to grow over—until they’d bought the
old power station, established The Green Dragon Tavern, and cleaned up the park
for free—all as a front for COR.

     She nodded toward one of the aides that lined the edge
of the room. “Check that out, would you? And report back.”

 
Why
was Leslie not answering?

     It took Revolution several moments to realize that his
message to Leslie, telling her that the attack on Boston had been a false
alarm, had not been replied to. Person after person came to say thanks to him
and celebrate the fact that they wouldn’t be defending their lives today. He’d
let himself get swept up in their emotions. But now, he became genuinely
alarmed.

     “Lantern, I can’t get through to COR,” he said.

    
“I’ll check,”
Lantern replied.

     But Lantern didn’t need to. Alone in the Situation
Room, Revolution spun toward the main screen. He probed Lantern’s scans of the East
Coast. He darted to the controls and focused in on Philly. On the Hall of Chambers.

     Nothing. Not a thing out of place. He let out a deep
breath of relief—that was short-lived.

     His eyes narrowed.

     There was no traffic moving on Beach Street, which ran
right in front of the compound. In fact, cars were driving to within a block of
the building—

     And simply disappearing off the scan.

    
The Council was shielding it.

     A cold sliver of ice ran down his spine.

CHAPTER 38

L
eslie
Gibbons could not get through to Boston. It was as if her direct connection to
the HQ simply did not exist. She sighed in frustration. Then a sudden noise
made her look up.

     The doors across from her swung open. The aide she had
sent to find out what was going on came bounding back into the chamber, followed
by a dozen Minutemen, weapons drawn. He made a beeline for her. “Madame President!”
he shouted as he crossed into the center of the room, “We are—”

      He didn’t finish. He was suddenly wiped out of existence
as the floor below him exploded in a fury of light and fire.

     Launching up from the depths was a glowing figure.

     The Minutemen were slammed to the ground. Those who weren’t
were immediately
vaporized
by a single sweep of the figure’s hand.

     It floated above the hole, both arms trained on the
Minutemen.

     Leslie realized that whatever this was it had the
power of the Fire Fly.

     “Stay down and you will not be harmed,” the figure
said to those Minutemen still on the ground.

     They did so.

     There was little they could do anyway. To open fire
inside the Hall would endanger the Congress members.

     An explosion rocked the compound from outside, and
many members screamed.

     Climbing up out of the hole in the floor were the
members of the Legion, followed by a dozen more heavily armed Council Guard and
finally, to Leslie’s complete shock, Bannister Tarleton himself.

     No other sitting member of the Council had ever gotten
their hands dirty like this before.

     Clay Arbor emerged from the hole with the biggest
shit-eating grin Leslie had ever seen. “You’ve probably all heard of Mr. Tarleton.”
Arbor gestured toward the CEO.

     Tarleton glanced around at the members of COR, the
shock still hanging on their faces. “You know me, but I don’t know you. So,
we’re here to get to know each other a little bit better. No one’s leaving
until we find out what we want to know.” He stalked in front of them, walking
the circle, looking into the eyes of each terrified legislator. “You’re little
rebellion? Consider it over.” He made a flippant motion with his hand. “And, oh
yes. Those protectors of yours, the Suns of Liberty? For every hour they do not
turn themselves in to Lithium here and his team, one of you will be executed.
If they decide to attack, they’ll lose, and you
all
die.” He motioned to
the doors behind the members. “As I understand, each of you has your own
private chamber. I suggest you get in them. They’re now your prisons cells.”

Ten
seconds after Tarleton made his speech to COR, a recorded video of it broadcast
across the servers at the Boston HQ.

Surrender.
There would be no surrender.
Revolution hit the com for the entire HQ. When he spoke his voice echoed
throughout the building. “Everyone, the Council’s attack was on the Hall of
Chambers, not here. COR appears to have fallen. I want all Minutemen and Suns
to meet in the Hangar in thirty minutes. We will leave for COR within the
hour.”

Ward
couldn’t believe what he was hearing. In fact, he didn’t believe it. Serenity
Serum was now swimming through his veins. It was hard to concentrate on the
world around him. Hard to perceive it correctly. That was the whole point of
the serum.

     He’d entered his room only moments before, ready to
seek out his brand new bottle of Jim Beam.

     He’d found his Serenity Darts instead. Just a little
jab and heaven awaited him. He’d been so focused on believing that the threat
had abated, he’d not even considered that he needed to still be on high alert.

    
High alert!
He snorted a laugh.

     Foot falls passed by his door. People running in the
hall.

    
Shit!

    
He shook his head, tried to focus.

     No use.

    
And then the serum hit his brain full force and Ward
decided
shit
was exactly right. He just couldn’t give a shit anymore.

     He needed to. He wanted to.

     But the serum wouldn’t let him. Everything just felt
so damn good. His eyes turned glassy. And they closed.

     He’d not even bothered to take the bug suit off
completely. Only the helmet and gloves. He slid down the wall on his wings and
plopped down on his well-armored butt. Which made him giggle. And the more he
tried to stop, the more he giggled.

    
Oh, the General is not going to like this at all.
Not one bit.

     The thought of it...

     ...made him giggle even harder.

The
members of COR had risen and were headed into their private chambers when the
elderly representative from Pennsylvania halted. He glared right into
Tarleton’s eyes. “You’re a disgrace to your country!” hissed the oldest member
of COR.

     Tarleton glared at the old man, but then smiled. “My,
you are a brave one, aren’t you?”

     Leslie locked eyes with the senior rep of COR. His
grey weathered eyes glared back at her. She remembered his words that the
Declaration she had authored would paint a target on their backs. She wanted to
reach out to him, to help him, but there was nothing she could do. But in his
eyes she did not see anger. She saw determination, pride. And as she looked on,
compassion.

     “Krill, put a hole in his chest,” Tarleton said,
pointing to the man. He was still locking eyes with Leslie, a look of utter
defiance across his face, as the Krill’s helmet beam seared out and burned a
three-inch opening right above the rep’s heart, through and through. His body
locked up in agony and then he simply collapsed.

     “Wonderful!” Tarleton shouted with a chuckle. “Who’s
next?”

     The members of COR stood in shocked silence.

     In the next moment they retreated into their chambers
in absolute, total terror.

     Ray had found COR’s computer terminal in the main
living area, just off the Chamber, and had gone there to retrieve as much data
as he could. He reported back to Arbor. Who listened, nodding his head. 

     “Sir,” Arbor interjected, “Ray’s in their system.
We’ve got confirmation. Both the mayor and the PPD have been protecting this
place. What do you want to do?”

     “Tell Ray good work. And let’s have the Krill pay the
mayor and the commissioner a little visit. Time to clean house, don’t you
think?”

Sophia
shook her head. “It takes five hours to drive to Philly,” she said. “I can get
there a hell of a lot faster, but I can only take on one passenger for that
long a flight.”

     “You and I may have to go ahead,” Revolution said as
he glanced around the Sit Room’s large round table where they were all seated. All
but one. “But we’ll need a battle strategy.”

     Drayger nodded. “Attacking is a lot different than
defending,” he warned.

     “We need eyes in there,” Rachel said. “You should send
me in first.”

     Revolution shook his head. “That would be ideal, but
we don’t have a way to get you there in time.”

     “Sophia could fly me into the city. I can work my way over
to the Hall and get in. Done it a million times.”

     “Not in the middle of a firefight, you haven’t,”
Sophia said.

     “We need firepower there
now
,” Revolution said.
“I want to hit them early and let you go in after. The main goal has to be
making sure we can get our people out.”

     “Where’s Ward?” Drayger asked.

     “Good question.” Revolution glanced over at the
Minuteman who was in charge of the room. And the young man sprinted out to go
get him.     

     Suddenly the lights in the room flickered. Static
clipped across the room’s video monitors.

     “The fuck was that?” Rachel asked.

     Lantern’s eyes went wide as he scanned through his
RDSD. “Whoa,” he breathed. He craned his neck up to the video monitors, eyes
wide as saucers. “Uh, General...”

     On the screen...on
all
the screens, was John
Bailey’s distinctive shaven head and rugged face.

    
Hello, friends. This virus was designed to reveal
itself in the case of two simultaneous events. First, I’m dead. And I feel
really bad about that. But, you know what they say, that was inevitable. I hope
I bought it in a memorable way.  Second, COR has fallen. Built into COR’s
defenses is a special program that will work undetected as soon as you, the
Suns of Liberty, arrive to rescue the members. I’m sorry I can’t give you any
more details, but for reasons you will come to understand later, the secrecy is
necessary. And what else would you expect from me? Lantern will receive updates
from this program if anything changes. But you should know, defenses are in
place that will begin to disable any and all non-Resistance weapons once you
arrive. Good luck, and God bless you, my friends.