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“Both supply officers?”

  “Yes, sir,” McCloud replied.

  “Smith, do you handle whatever it was he said, synergistic databases?”

  “No, sir. Conventional material handling.”

  “Right,” the voice said in a bored tone.

  “Nonessential. Send them to the shed,” the leader said. “Guard!”

  More rough hands were on McCloud, and he was moving again. The air grew colder. Behind him, Jack stumbled and bumbled and kept stammering something.

  Finally they were tossed onto the ground. McCloud landed on someone and there was a grunt.

  “Kneel,” a voice said.

  More rough hands squared McCloud up, and he felt someone on either side of him. Kneel? Are they breaking us? He’d read of the various positions they’d keep people in to break their spirits. He’d expected more of an interrogation.

  Heavy footsteps moved in front of him and stopped.

  Then there was a sound that chilled him.

  Four rifles all chambered a round. The heavy mechanical thunk echoed through the room. Someone whimpered down the line.

  McCloud turned his head from side to side. Black. Nothing. He tried to stand, but they’d lashed his shackles to those next to him. He couldn’t even try to run away.

  “Shoot for the chest this time,” a voice said. “None of this aiming for the head. The last group was a bloody mess.”

  “Why are you doing this!” someone cried out down the line. “We’re prisoners of war!”

  Footsteps walked past. “Because you brought your entire damned military here. We can’t very well let you learn from your mistakes. You’ve got an advantage in trained officers. We’re working to remedy that.”

  “Oh my God,” someone said. “This can’t be happening.”

  “Detail, take aim!”

  McCloud raised his chin and clenched his jaw. He thought of home. Of the beach near his house. Of the last girlfriend he’d had. A thousand thoughts went through his mind, all too fast to even think of. The time seemed to stand still. His heart beat impossibly fast.

  There was a click. Four gunshots rang out. Bodies fell to floor loudly. Someone started sobbing down the line.

  McCloud shivered with fear. What were they waiting for? God damn the bastards, was this real? Was it real? Light exploded on him. Someone tore the mask off his head. He cried out and waited to look until his eyes adjusted.

  A single Coalition soldier stood before him. In one hand he held a pistol with a trail of blue smoke still rising from the barrel. In the other was the black bag. His eyes were blue, his face set with a solid chin. The uniform he wore was similar to but not quite the same as the others.

  Behind him were four bodies: the Coalition execution detail.

  “Come with me if you want to live,” the man said to McCloud.

  McCloud looked to either side. Jack was on one side, all of the other officers on the other. “Who the hell are you?”

  The man holstered the pistol.

  “Your brother.”

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  The road passed in a stretch of endless greenery. Row after row of planted pines flickered by in alternating bands of green and brown. The day was beyond dreary. Dust from the orbital still hung high in the sky, and the rain fell and coagulated into mud.

  “What’s your name, boy?” Holly said across the cab of the truck. One hand was out the window, feeling the breeze.

  Cross gave the Coalition soldier a look and focused on the road.

  “David Motz. I—“

  “How much longer?” Cross said.

  “A few more kilometers.”

  “Stop before we’re in sight.”

  David Motz nodded quickly. His hands gripped the wheel tight, and he focused straight ahead.

  Sergeant Major Holly grinned. “David Motz, how the hell did you end up siding with the Qin?”

  “We…well, it’s just been that way since I was a kid. Things were nasty. I remember being hungry a lot, and then they signed the Coalition Covenant, and well, things got better.”

  “No one thought of us?” Holly said. “The Qin have been pasting us all over the place.”

  “We thought you left us for dead. What did you expect?”

  Cross saw something rising up through the trees just in the distance. A facility of some sort; it looked vaguely industrial. Then they came down off a ridge, and it was hidden again. “Was that it? What is it? Guards?”

  “It’s a factory. They process trees and stuff. I don’t know about guards.”

  “Uh-huh,” Holly said. His tone said he didn’t believe what he heard.

  “Stop here,” said Cross.

  The truck slowed gently. David Motz steered it onto the shoulder and then laid his hands on his lap. His eyes darted and looked at Cross.

  “Is there a gate guard? A gate?” Cross said.

  David Motz looked out the side and nodded.

  “You’re going to drive us in. You just keep driving and don’t do anything unless I say. Am I being clear?”

  “And he means crystal fucking clear, David Motz,” Holly added.

  “Yah, it’s clear.”

  Cross pulled the pistol out and laid it on his hip. The barrel pointed right at David’s stomach. “You drive up, nice and easy, and then just move on in like nothing is going on. If I don’t like what you do, I’ll shoot you.”

  David Motz engaged the electric drive and the truck gained speed.

  “What’s the plan, hoss?” Holly said.

  Cross hadn’t thought much further than where they were. He leaned over to Holly. “Once we’re inside, just get in. We shoot anyone we see. Then get them into the truck and get out.”

  “Huh, I expected something a bit more elaborate from a ranger.”

  “Yah, well, I’m out of fancy ideas.”

  Three minutes later, the tree line suddenly stopped. An industrial facility with a high fence sat in the center of the clearing. On one side was a log yard, on the other a heap of steaming wood chips. Automated loaders processed the chipped wood into the facility. A single gatehouse sat at the entrance with a red pole for a gate.

  There was a click, another click, and then a third click.

  Cross sat upright. In the gray light, he saw the reflection of the truck’s headlights on the wet road. David Motz was trying to signal the gate.

  The pistol came up in a smooth motion and Cross fired a single round into David’s head. The driver slumped against the door, and the truck slowed quickly. Cross reached over the body, unlatched the door, and kicked him out. The body bounced off the battery ledge and sprawled out on the road.

  “Holy shit!” Holly said.

  Cross slid into the driver’s seat and hammered down on the throttle. The rear wheels hopped on the wet road.

  A single guard with a rifle exited the metal-clad shack. He looked unsure of what had just happened. After a moment, he rushed back into the guard shack.

  “We need to get that guard!” Holly said. He racked a fresh round into the Coalition rifle.

  Cross turned the wheel slightly. The headlights shined off the wet metal walls of the shack.

  “Oh shit,” Holly said.

  The truck plowed right through the center of the guard shack. Metal panels flew from side to side. The vehicle lurched into the air as it crushed the twisted metal beneath. One beam smashed the windshield while another wedged against the hood. The truck came to a halt with safety alarms blaring.

  “You’re a sniper? For Christ’s sake, I’ve seen boxers with more finesse.”

  Cross kicked open the door and jumped down into the debris. He didn’t have time for finesse.

  “Where to?” Holly said. He jumped down from the truck and scanned the area with his rifle.

  Cross gave a quick look. Maybe the guard didn’t get an alarm off? Maybe they really did get in without being noticed. Something didn’t feel right about the place. If it wasn’t a military installation, where was everyone?

&nb
sp; Two men ran out from the building, one with a rifle and the other with a fire extinguisher. Holly fired off a three-round burst and dropped them both.

  One of the men crawled back inside the door.

  “Shit,” Cross said. He sprinted across the wet pavement and hoped they could silence the other man.

  Then the rainy silence was shattered as alarms blared.

  “Here we go!” Holly said.

  ####

  “My brother is dead,” Gavin McCloud said. He stared up at the man and studied his face. Could it be?

  Brown hair, a scar on his chin, blue eyes with speckles of gray, and a set to his jaw. His build was slight, not skinny, but like a long-distance runner. Lean.

  The man pulled out a knife, kneeled behind Gavin, and sliced through the plastic shackles. He stood and handed the knife to Gavin. Then he started down the line, plucking the black bags from the officers’ heads. “Start cutting the shackles.”

  Gavin hadn’t seen Robert in nearly fifteen years. All he remembered was a quiet boy, painfully shy. If his brother was alive, what of their sister?

  “Robert?” Gavin said softly. A ghost had just come back into his life.

  “What the hell is happening?” Jack said. The bag was still on his head. The tone to his voice was frantic, and he struggled to rise up to his feet.

  “Rob, if you’d please,” Rob McCloud said. He kept moving down the line and helping the other officers stand. Behind him, four bodies were sprawled out: the Coalition executioners.

  Gavin plucked the bag off Jack and then cut the bindings. He worked down the line and cut each of the officers free. He couldn’t keep his eyes off the man who claimed to be his brother. All these years, all the anger, all the hate for the Qin, all the time expecting his siblings to be dead…

  Only when he turned did he see what would have become his fate. On the far side of the room was a giant machine designed to chip logs and turn them into sawdust. The entry wheels, large knobby steel things, were stained red. Discarded jackets and helmets were piled in front of it.

  “Oh my God,” a colonel said.

  “What?” Jack said. He turned and saw the machine. His legs wobbled, and he steadied himself on Gavin.

  “All of you need to get out of here and into the woods,” Rob said to the officers. He pointed to a door in the rear. “Head through the wood yard and keep going east. Eventually you’ll hit TU lines.”

  The tech general stood before Rob and shook his hand. “Thank you, thank you.”

  Rob smiled weakly. He turned his head and looked away. It was in that moment that Gavin knew. It was a gesture, a nervous thing his brother did, and the memories flowed back in.

  Then came the guilt—for not being home to protect his brother. He was in a junior ROTC program that summer, far away when the Qin raids started. It happened everywhere, across all of human space. The Qin landed stealth teams who assassinated officers, scientists, engineers, and leaders, and abducted their children, for what purpose no one knew. For the most part, the missions failed in assassinating the leaders, but the kidnappings had proved to be a devious plan.

  “You are my brother,” Gavin said, and he had no doubt.

  “We need to get out of here before the alarm sounds. We don’t have much time,” Rob said. He pointed to the doorway. “There are only a few troops here, but we need to hurry.”

  The other officers streamed outside into the rain.

  Rob, Gavin, and Jack ran to the doorway. Gavin stooped down and snatched up a stubby rifle from one of the dead Coalition soldiers.

  Alarms blared in the factory. They echoed, a steady womp-womp-womp.

  “What?” Rob said. He spun around, surprised. “They can’t possibly know.”

  “What kind of jailbreak is this? Your brother? Is this shit for real?” Jack yelled.

  Rob leaned his head out the door and then beckoned for the others to follow. “Just stay close and be quiet.”

  The three set out down the hall and moved past rows of gargantuan machines. The space smelled of glue, and at the far side were heaps of pressed wood and fiber struts.

  “Where are we going?” Jack said in a low voice.

  Rob turned and, just as he opened his mouth to speak, a length of cord whipped out of the shadows and tightened on his neck. He threw his hands up and tried to grab at the tightening rope.

  Cross pushed him forward and cinched tight on the garrote.

  “No!” Gavin yelled. He pushed Cross back and ripped the cord off Rob’s neck.

  Cross gave a curious look at Gavin and then Jack.

  “It’s his brother,” Jack said, as if it explained everything.

  Rob hacked and coughed while massaging his throat.

  Heavy footsteps echoed through the cavernous space. A deep voice bellowed out, “We got company!”

  Sergeant Major Holly raced around the corner. He stopped and stared wide-eyed at the four men before him. “We’ve got a pair of Coalition dropships coming in fast.”

  Rob stumbled to his feet and ran as quickly as he could. “Any more surprises?” he said, his voice raspy.

  Gavin glared at Cross. Cross simply shrugged back.

  The group halted on the edge of a cargo lift. The shaft dropped down into the floor. Rob pulled out a handheld comm unit. A split second later, a tiny drone, barely the size of a softball, swooped down from the ceiling and hovered just over Rob’s shoulder.

  He looked at it. “Check the maglev. Get one open. Confirm.”

  “Confirmed,” the drone chirped. It buzzed for a moment and then dropped into the shaft.

  Jack gawked at the little drone as it zoomed away. “Woah.”

  “Whistle, this is Rob. Yah, I know you can’t get in. Get with Ace, I need maglev.” Rob looked down the shaft.

  Outside, the sound of swooping jet engines rumbled through the building. Voices called out somewhere outside; a few gunshots rang out, then silence.

  They took cover behind a single pallet of pressed lumber.

  Gavin checked the action on the rifle; it took him a few tries to figure out how to seat the round. The stubby round was most definitely not a rifle round; it looked more like a shotgun shell. He squatted down next to Rob and left his weapon at the ready.

  Rob spoke again, faster. “I don’t fucking care, I need a route now! I’ve got—“

  A single shell pinged off the railing. The crack of the rifle sang out a second later. Then an entirely new sound sang out. It was like a thunderclap detonated inside of a plastic tube. A white-hot round of plasma burned into a pallet of lumber.

  Gavin punched three rounds down the length of the hall. The sound of the weapon was deep and satisfying. He couldn’t see anyone, and he barely had any cover except for the wood pallet. Every professional instinct told him to get to better cover and now. But his brother, his only brother, had told him to stay close.

  “Fine, we’ll take that route. Just keep it clear until we’re loaded!”

  A hydraulic whine roared out, and a cargo elevator climbed to the top of the shaft.

  A line of weapons fire rang out, and slugs slammed into the pallet. Another plasma slug plowed into the floor and scorched a gouge into the concrete.

  Weapons fire poured into the pallet. Shreds of wood and splinters rocketed into the air. It fell like confetti and smelled of burnt glue. With every round the rounds bored deeper into their only cover. One of the plasma rounds shattered through the wood. Burnt fibers exploded out in a gust.

  “Jump, jump!” Rob said. He scooted to the side and hopped down into the shaft. A split second later, he landed with a thud.

  “Go,” Holly said. He fired off a long burst.

  Gavin pushed Jack and then leaped himself. The platform was just a meter below. Cross and Holly came last.

  “Hold on!” Rob said. He yelled in the commset: “Now!”

  Gavin never had a chance to hold on. The hydraulic lift groaned and seemed to hover for just a second, and then it fell like a stone.

/>   Darkness and service lights whipped by. Jack screamed like a girl and floated up off the lift for a second. The fall continued. The air roared by.

  Gavin looked over at Rob. His brother was still talking into his comm set, not yelling into it. One arm was hooked onto a chipped cargo hook. But he didn’t look worried, and that was all Gavin needed to know.

  Gravity suddenly slammed back into them. The platform decelerated rapidly but smoothly and finally came to a halt.

  Sergeant Major Holly leaped to his feet and grinned, wide-eyed. “Sweet fucking Jesus.”

  Rob ran off the platform. “Hurry up! We have to go before more troops arrive!”

  They exited the platform and entered a cavernous space. Rough-hewn stone and shored-up walls stretched into the distance. Monorails ran along the floor. Stacks of finished pallets lay in orderly rows. Robotic loaders plodded along and loaded the rail cars. Beneath each was a donut-shaped guide with the track suspended in the center. Magnetic levitation.

  “From where?” Jack said. He ran after Gavin and stopped to take in the view.

  “From anywhere,” Rob said. He stopped at the edge of a smaller-diameter track. “The maglev connects every base, every city, every stockpile. The only thing we use the surface roads for is the last fifty kilometers or so.”

  A rumble sounded from down the track, followed by a rush of air. A bullet-shaped capsule emerged from the darkness and coasted slowly toward them.

  The mobility offered by such a system shocked Gavin. To be able to cross continents, to go beneath mountains, rivers, and obstacles, and engage the enemy with an entirely fresh force… He raised up his weapon and pointed it at the capsule; the others did the same.

  Except Rob. He just watched.

  “Why are you helping us?” Jack said. “You’re Coalition, right?”

  The capsule stopped and the door slid open. The little drone whizzed out and hovered next to the door like a chauffeur.

  “Get in,” Rob beckoned.

  Gavin led the way with the shotgun pointed inside. Even if Rob was his brother, he didn’t take any chances. Not yet. Cross swept in on the other side with a Coalition pistol.

  “It’s clear,” Rob said in a defensive tone. “Hurry!”