Battle Road (22 page)

The flanking Homeland Security officer, seeing what was happening behind him, opened fire with his machine pistol in Tien's direction. She ducked for cover. The bullets hitting the car and ricocheting off the street. The other officer did the same. They both realized they were exposed to Tien's line of sight and tried to lay down enough automatic fire to get themselves behind cover. It was too late. Dylan jumped up, his Khymat in his arms, and fired a single grenade at the the flanking officer. The missile struck him right in the chest. His body armor offering no protection as the projectile exploded, tearing off most of his head. The remaining officer threw down his weapon and begged for mercy. At the same time, someone inside the mobile command truck reached out and swung the entrance door shut.

Tien dropped the M4 and rushed over to the baby carriage. She pulled out the Khymat, slinging it around her back.

Dylan sprinted over to the surviving officer. “Run as fast as you can and I might let you live.” He did. As Dylan watched the soldier run down the street, he saw the first hover drone coming in fast and low over the Commons. Another followed closely behind. “They're here,” he shouted. He looked at his watch, the thirty seconds was up.

Tien managed to get the carriage off the sidewalk and through the closely parked cars. She pushed the carriage across the street and shoved it under the center of the mobile command truck.

Dylan aimed his Khymat at the oncoming drone. Once it was in range, the green illuminated targeting system flashed the word “Locked” on the screen. Dylan pulled the trigger. A fraction of a second later the drone exploded mid-air. Two more drones flew in high from the Mass Ave side of the Commons.

Tien ran over to where Dylan stood. “I'll get those. You get that one. Get going,” she said, indicating which drones they should get. Dylan sprinted to where the motorcycle laid behind the shot up parked car. He took aim at his assigned drone. The drone suddenly began evasive maneuvers. Tien acquired target lock on her first drone and pulled the trigger. The explosion was loud. Dylan finally got a lock on his drone and blew the thing out of the sky. He tossed the Khymat on the ground and pulled the motorcycle upright.

Two more drones came in over the street, at about thirty feet altitude. Tien got a lock on her second drone shooting it down in a fireball. Dylan screeched the rear tire of the bike as he got it going.

“
Just two more of these fuckers,” Tien screamed. She aimed at one of them, it started it's dance to avoid ground based weaponry. Didn't matter, her targeting display read 'Locked'. She pulled the trigger, killing the aerial drone. The remaining drone fired it's targeting laser, marking a red dot on Dylan's chest. “Move it!” Tien yelled. He gunned the bike, screeching the rear tire once again.

The laser beam dropped of him as he got the bike past the end of the mobile command truck for cover. The drone moved it's position to pick up targeting lock again, flying directly above Tien. She was ready for it. She took careful aim, straight up, it was an easy target. The targeting display quickly reported 'Locked', she pulled the trigger. As it was hit, the hover drone spun around in a circular motion, then exploded. It fell straight for her. Tien dropped the Khymat and dove out of the way. Missing her, literally by inches.

Tien rolled over on her back and sat up. She looked at her hands. They were pretty badly scraped up and started bleeding where the tiny pebbled had embedded in her palms. “Are you alright, can you move,” Dylan called out. Tien looked about, then jumped to her feet, picked up the Khymat, and ran to him without saying a word.

Dylan had already taken the five inch wide nylon strap out as planned. He pulled it around Tien once she had jumped up on the bike, sitting backwards. Her back against his. She adjusted the strapping across her stomach with one hand, holding the Khymat with the other. Dylan snapped the buckle of the strapping together and tightened it around him.

More drones flew into sight from around the corner of the Command vehicle. Tien readied her Khymat. “Three more!” she called out. Before she could finish her sentence, two additional hover drones came in fast above Waterhouse Street. “Make that five,” she said.

Dylan engaged the clutch and gunned the throttle. The motorcycle skidded to the right, then a little to the left as he took off as fast as he dared. He turned right onto Garden Street and floored the bike once he was able. The hover drones followed in full pursuit, moving up and down, and side to side, avoiding the tree branches overhanging the street.

Tien pulled out of her jacket pocket the remote detonator. A simple black plastic box, with a  push button switch covered by a protective clear cover, and a single LED light. She flicked the cover up with her thumb. The LED turned red. She immediately pushed the button. A fraction of a second later the baby stroller bomb detonated. The explosion was deafening, even from as far away as they were.

“
Bye bye, Goodman you motherfucker!” Dylan yelled into the onrushing wind.

Tien was rocked side to side on the bike as she tried steadying her Khymat rifle. “Drive straight,” she yelled. A red dot landed on her chest from the lead drone. “I'm painted,” she called out.  Dylan began counting the seconds in his head,
One, two, three, four.
Tien
took careful aim, got target lock, and blew the lead drone to fiery pieces. The red dot no longer on her.
Seven, too late,
Dylan thought. He swerved the bike hard over to the left, at the very instant a two foot long anti-personnel missile came in fast from above. The missile exploded on the pavement a few feet back and to the side, a piece of shrapnel lodged into Tien's boot. Dylan didn't want to think what would have happened if Tien didn't get that shot off in time.

They also knew they didn't have to worry about Hellfire III missiles. They were useless in tree covered streets with tall buildings on either side. Not to mention with zero aerial visibility. The threat came from the anti-personnel missiles carried by the lower flying attack drones.

Dylan slowed the motorcycle down to take a left onto Huron Ave. Two drones got into targeting range. They fired their lasers, two red dots marked Tien's chest. Dylan started his count again. He didn't need to be told they were marked, he knew. He gunned the bike again, driving straight down the center of Huron Ave. Traffic passing on either side of them.
Three, four, five,
Dylan counted in his head. Tien took another shot, killing one of the drones.

Dylan managed to get the bike moving over fifty miles per hour, then close to sixty. The second drone with target lock fell back out of range. On the count of seven, he swerved the bike hard over to the left, narrowly missing an oncoming car. Two anti-personnel missiles came crashing down just feet away from the tail end of the bike. This time closer that the first strike.    

“Arghhh. Fuck. I'm hit,” Tien screamed in pain. Shrapnel hit her in the leg, the chest, and face. Her body armor protected her chest. But the shards of burning metal tore her flesh on her leg just below the knee and on her cheek. Blood started to flow from her face.

Dylan kept the bike close to sixty, the drones couldn't keep up. Sirens were blaring in the distance. “How bad are you hit?” he yelled. She pulled out the small piece of metal sticking out of her cheek. “I don't know. Got hit in my face and leg. Face isn't bad. I don't know about the leg.”

“Apply pressure, we'll take care of that once we're in the car,” he said. They had prepared for possible injuries, storing a first aid kit in the getaway car.

    
Dylan slowed down to turn right onto the Parkway. He floored the bike as fast as it could go. The Parkway had no trees or tall buildings, It was open to the sky. They were easy prey for Reapers if the fog cleared.

Once the drones were out of visual sight, he took a turn onto the first side street. Then the next right, then left. Getting into tree lined residential streets.

“OK, stop the bike already,” Tien said.

The plan was to dump the Khymat rifle and untie themselves as soon as possible. Allowing Tien sit on the back of the bike in the normal position, drawing less suspicion. Though, the adrenaline pumping through Dylan's vein's kept him driving like their lives depended on it.

“Alright, yeah. You're right.” Dylan pulled the motorcycle over to the side of the road. Sirens could be heard over on the Parkway.

Tien hopped up on the back of the bike, sitting forward. “Do you think we got him, Goodman?” she asked.

“I hope so. Anyone in that command truck is definitely toast.”

Tien applied pressure to her leg wound. “Let's get to that stolen getaway car. I'm having trouble stopping the flow of blood from my leg.”

FORTY THREE

Tien was laying on the couch in the the living room to their safe house in West Newton. Her legs were propped up with several pillows. Blood was beginning to ooze through the bandages.

The six o'clock news was being broadcast on the TV mounted to the wall. Dylan smiled as he carried a tray into the room. “I made some tea. All we had left was some peach tea. We're running low on everything,” he said, placing her cup on the coffee table that was pulled up close for her to reach.

“Thanks,” she said without taking her eyes off the TV. She didn't want to miss anything on the main news story of the day; the terrorist attack in Harvard Square.

Dylan took notice of the blood. “We have to change those bandages in a little while.”

“Shush, I wanna watch this,” she said, her eyes still fixed on the TV.

Dylan kicked back on the love seat next to the couch. “It's still too hot,” he said to himself, after taking a sip of the tea.

A minute later the news switched over to a story of a van crashing through a doughnut shop. Tien turned to Dylan. “Apparently the terrorists set off a gas explosion next to the Cambridge Commons. Destroying a supermarket food truck,” she said, filling him in on what he missed while making the tea.

Dylan laughed. “Those terrorists are a bunch of idiots. Modern day Three Stooges.” They broke out in laughter together.

“How's the leg?” Dylan asked. He had sutured her leg wound soon after getting home earlier that day. Using nylon fishing line to make the stitches.

“
It hurts like hell doctor.”

Tien turned the TV down and turned back towards Dylan. “Why I am the one that's always getting shot or blown up?” Tien lamented, half joking.

“Bad luck, shear bad luck.”

The wound to her face wasn't that bad. Really just a nasty cut. Butterfly bandages were all that were needed. A gauze pad covering the bandage to soak up the blood. 

“We're going to need to get you medical treatment. That fishing line is going to have to be removed. Better to have that done by a real doctor,” Dylan said.

“
I don't look forward to returning to headquarters. We're going to have our asses chewed out. They'll know that Cambridge was us. And we're going to have to tell them the truth,” Tien said while picking up her tablet computer. An icon appeared on the screen just as she turned the display on. “Speak of the devil, we have a coded message.”

Tien tapped on the icon, going through the security protocols, answering the challenge questions, providing the quantum encryption keys. Finally the message was displayed. She read the communication to herself.

“What's it say?” Dylan got up to try to look over her shoulder.

“
It says, we failed. Command knows we tried to kill Goodman. They're informing us that Goodman is alive and well. He was never in the mobile command center. He was at Homeland Security's headquarters all along.”

Dylan put his hands behind his head and walked over to the center of the room. “Sonofabitch!” his voice rising at the end of the curse. “Goodman must have smelled a trap all  the while he was setting one for us. That clever fucking bastard.”

“Oh my God, we have good news,” Tien said, trying to read as fast as she could from her computer screen. “Brooksie is alive and well. And he escaped from detention.”

Dylan spun to face her, then raced over to sit by her side.

Tien finished reading, then conveyed the message. “With all the commotion we caused today, and the destruction of their mobile command center, there was a lot of confusion going on at headquarters. Apparently, one of our agents embedded in DHS Headquarters helped Brooksie escape during the turmoil. He's at an undisclosed safe house right now. He's a little bruised and battered but doing OK.”

Dylan let out a sigh of relief. He put his arm gently around her shoulder. “I thought he was dead for sure. I felt so guilty.”

Tien put the tablet down. “I know. I saw how it was eating you up. None of this was easy. But at least now we know he's OK. This confirms those original reports of his death were intended all along to to bring you out in the open so they could kill you. And you should feel good knowing that it was our actions today that enabled his escape.”

Dylan, lost in thought for a moment, nodded his head. “Yeah,....... true.”

“Another thing,” Tien continued. “We've been assigned to assassinate a top Freedom Party official. Looks like they were impressed with our worked today. Guess we're not in the doghouse after all.”

“
They need people like us,” Dylan said, his attention refocused back to Tien, “people not afraid to take action, if we're ever going win this war."