Heavenfall: Genviants Book 1 (2 page)

CHAPTER TWO

Harsh, artificial lights beat down upon the five foot high, cinder block wall surrounding the city proper. Ursula did a quick sweep of the people who crowded in front of it. Everything looked quiet, or as quiet as a thousand or so campers could be.  The wall was more of a boundary than a deterrent. The guard towers with their titanium alloy frames and sand-filled walls, placed one hundred yards apart along the fence line, were meant to discourage intruders.

Sometimes it worked.

Filled with hope or despair, displaced citizens continued to climb over the wall. Ursula recognized the look in their eyes, those who faced a bullet for the chance at a better life, and those who welcomed it with the resignation of the damned.

She'd seen too many deaths to care about the motives of those who breached the city's perimeter. Twelve hours a day spent in the box, as the border guards referred to their six foot-by-six foot space, had made her pretty much immune to anything other than her own survival.

Four days, three hours, and seventeen odd minutes, and she'd walk out of this hell hole forever. Laugh while she ended her two years of indentured servitude—the price tag for her trip over the wall. Hell, she might even let someone make it over. If the commander thought she gave a good damn about the wall, or Palisade, or even the wave, he was sadly mistaken.

Somewhere along the line, between the rifle she fired with regularity, the bulletproof vest she wore religiously, even when not in the tower, and the vicious headaches, she'd lost the ability to care. It bothered her at first, and she supposed it should have, the taking of lives at the wall, but the guilt hadn't lasted long.

Come to think of it, guards didn't usually last long either. Most of the morons, like the two idiots in the box with her now, whipping out their dicks and pissing on the crowds, didn't live through their two years. Some angry soul out there with a gun, or a knife who knew how to throw it, was going to take it personally one of these days. And while one of the guards took his finger off the trigger long enough to unzip his fly, he'd get a bullet between the balls or a blade in his throat.

It had happened more than a few times. Which is why she wore a chain mail necklace, all the rage when she was younger, and adult diapers. Damn uncomfortable, at first, but they kept her neck protected and her pants where they belonged. Her finger on the trigger.

The radio crackled and spit, but the senior officer's voice came through loud and clear. "Ursula, you're wanted in the house—immediately."

Great. A summons to the command center, and from the sound of the armored vehicle approaching, they didn't care to give her much warning. Could the day get any worse? "Looks like my ride's here, boys." With quick and efficient movements, she fitted the rifle over her shoulder and drew the handgun out of its holster.

Twiddle Dee snickered behind her.  "Looks like the commander's gonna get a ride, too. Wallflower's getting plucked."

"Must be desperate," Twiddle Dumbass added.

Really, she shouldn't take the time, but hey, she had so few fun moments in her life. Plus, they'd earned it just for calling her "wallflower." The demeaning name for female guards, like they weren't as good or as tough as the males, didn't usually bother her. But this time, she let her irritation fly. She whipped around, pulled the double serrated combat knife out of its sheath with her left hand, and had it against Twiddle Dumb's neck before he had a chance to wipe the stupid grin off his face. Her handgun pointed at his partner.

"Now, boys. You know if the commander wanted entertainment for the evening, he'd ask for you two. He's heard how much you want to suck his dick," she directed to the idiot at the end of her gun. "And how you dream of letting him screw your ass," she told the other.

Knowing the radio signal was still locked in made her smile. "Now, say it."

Twiddle
Dee cleared his throat, hesitated, until she cocked the pistol. "I want to suck the commander's dick."

"Good." She pressed the blade a little harder against Twiddle Dumb's neck. "Now it's your turn."

"I d-dream of letting the c-commander screw m-my ass."

The chief's voice boomed through the radio with a hint of amusement. "I'll relay those requests to the commander, men. Now, get the hell out of there, Ursula and report as ordered."

She eased back enough to place her foot on the top rung of the ladder, and satisfied they wouldn't try for her, hooked the heels of her shit kickers on the rails and slid to the bottom. It didn't bother her that the ladders had no protection, as moving targets were hard to hit.  The car door opened when she hit the ground, and she heard a faint, "You'll pay for that, bitch," from the tower.

"No, I won't," she whispered, knowing when the door closed, she'd never see the tower again. The commander only sent for her when a sensitive job needed her expertise. Probably a rogue controller scheduled for termination. Despite all of the electronic devices embedded in their bodies, controllers were hard to find when they went missing. She estimated it would take her...oh, about five days to find and eliminate him.

The thought made her smile as the vehicle trembled from contact with a pot hole in the pock-marked pavement. Road maintenance hit the bottom of the government's to-do list after the riots. The frenzied crowds had looted or destroyed everything in their path, including roadways, leaving little unblemished in their wake, and almost caused the end of the world they feared coming. It had taken a year or so, but people had calmed down. Most went back to their lives on the hope that Palisade's technology would save them. It didn't last long, four years or so, and people had starting flocking to Knoxville, thinking if the Sentinel energy web worked at all, it would be protecting its creator. Guilty as charged, she thought. The only reason she'd been recruited for the wall and citizenship was because she'd proved she could kill with speed and efficiency. And they'd lost one or two, or ten, guards to her skills.

The ride smoothed as they approached the
Security Center on the outskirts of Oak Ridge. The "Secret City." Once a massive conglomerate of laboratories and a nuclear powerhouse, it now housed Palisade. A memory, the kind made pleasant from the surprise of it surfacing, gave her a little laugh. An image of the president when she was a little girl who always mispronounced nuclear as nucular. It seemed a lifetime ago. Now, the president and most of the world's leaders were nothing more than puppets controlled by Hadrian, the founder of Palisade, Earth's savior.

Yeah. Right.

The vehicle stopped at the first of the guard posts along the old parkway, and the engine idled while soldiers scanned the interior. It only took a few seconds for the handhelds to skim the passengers and clear them through. She'd have to endure two more stops before being allowed out of the vehicle, and she had to tamp down the urge to scream. This feeling of claustrophobia was something new. The night air smelled stale, felt hot and thick against her skin. The stop and start movement to the checkpoints made her queasy. The total opposite of the feeling of freedom she had on her motorcycle.

They stopped at the entrance and a guard opened her car door. With a sigh of relief, she took in great gulps of fresh air and followed the man inside. They walked in silence through the maze of corridors to the commander's office. In contrast to the stark, utilitarian gray walls, concrete floors, and metal desks of the center, his office held the quiet opulence of power. Soft, thick rugs with strong reds and golds in the pattern beneath burgundy leather wing chairs. A dark cherry wood desk dominated the center of the room. Matching barrister bookshelves, with their spotless glass and books perfectly symmetrical like the buttons on a uniform, stood guard on each side of the window. The only window in the building.

He wasn't alone. "Commander," she acknowledged straight-backed and with the respect due his status. "Reporting as ordered."

The commander motioned for her to sit. "I believe you know our guest."

"Hello, Dex. What a surprise to see you here." She let the sarcasm drip from her voice and sat in the chair next to him. "Another sec mech gone rogue?" The members of Hadrian's elite mech security tended to develop a god complex, and when one short circuited and went rogue? Hellish.

"Not this time." His easy smile and the commander's clenched jaw indicated trouble in this little paradise. Not a standard termination.

"Ursula." The commander's tone brought her to attention. He held out a file, and she took it without asking any questions, preferring to evaluate the contents without outside opinion.

She scanned the information and closed the file. "You want me to terminate a drug dealer?"

"Yes." Dex shifted in his chair to look her in the eye. "He's one of the few who has access to A, and he's selling to sec mechs and controllers. He's costing Palisade time and a great deal of money. An irritant which must be removed."

"So, why not send Palisade mech security after him. This isn't covert." She dropped the file on the edge of the commander's desk.

"He's gone under." Dex's gaze never wavered, but she saw a flash of wicked anticipation in his eyes.

She had to stifle the laugh which threatened to escape. "In other words, you did send a Palisade security team after him, and they screwed it up? What's his name?" She picked up the file again, flipped through it. "Yeah, this Niko, caught their scent and rabbited. Figures, most of those testosterone infused mech cops couldn't find their dicks with both hands and a map."

A vein in the commander's temple throbbed. She'd probably just insulted his best retrieval team. "The damage is done, Ursula. Can you find the guy?"

"Sure. It'll take more time, but I can get him. However, we need to talk about compensation first."

Dex leaned back in his chair. "The usual—"

"This isn't a usual situation," she interrupted. "If you want me to go into the fringes, I'll need money. Lots of it. On top of my fee."

"That's understood," Dex answered.

"And Commander, I have four days left on the wall. I want my release papers signed today, and loaded into the mainframe. I'll need civilian ID with proper clearance to get through the city checkpoints with weapons."

"I've already started the paperwork. Your new credentials should be here any minute."

She nodded in acknowledgment. "And, I want a bottle of A now, plus I keep everything I take off the dealer."

Dex's faced showed a hint of amusement at the demand, but the commander's face turned red, and his eyes bulged. "You want it on a freaking silver platter? In case you missed the fine print, Ursula, we're sending you out there to kill this guy for dealing A. What the hell makes you think we have any here, or that we'd let you keep his stash?"

"Because I'm the best damn covert you've got, and the only one who has a chance of finding the guy. And, because you know I won't deal. Look, the headaches have eased off, some, but my head still hurts like a bitch. I need the pills. I know you have some, and you need me. Otherwise, I go back to the wall for a few more days."

Teeth clenched, the commander leaned forward. "I can make it so you stay on the wall a lot longer." His voice held the heat of his anger, but his eyes lacked conviction.

"You could, but I won't be so particular about who I shoot. I know those two idiots in the box with me will meet with an...unfortunate accident. As will others."

Dex stood. "She's right, Commander. I need her, and I've got no problem with her...unusual request for compensation."

As Hadrian's right-hand man, Dex outranked the commander, and his approval settled the matter. Out of bluster, the commander relaxed and leaned back in his chair. "Damn." He pointed a finger at her. "You get it from Dex. Make sure you keep it hidden, and if you're caught with the shit, I'll lock you up myself."

"And my release?" She pasted an innocent look on her face and coated the request in her sweetest voice.

He swiveled to face the computer beside him, connected a thin wire to the port in his neck, and in a few seconds her release spit out of the slot. Without bothering to remove the wire, he took a gold pen from its holder and signed the slip of paper. He scanned it into the mainframe, barked orders, and her new identification and pass slid out of the port.

"There." He shoved the card and documents across the desk. "Dex, get her the hell outta here, and the next time you come back, you'd better have the dealer's head on a pike."

Dex turned, and faster than she'd imagined he could move, pulled her to her feet and took hold of her elbow, not allowing her a chance to make any smartass remarks. "Thank you, Commander, for your time and assistance. Ursula." He picked up the file, ushered her to the door. "I'll give you the details on the ride into the city."

With the door closed behind them, Ursula pulled her arm free of his grasp. "What about my A?"

He kept walking. "Already in the car."

She waited until they were safely seated in Dex's vehicle and on their way before asking the important question. "So, why did you really pull me off the wall? I know a bogus file when I see one, even if the Commander doesn't."

"It's not completely false. He is a dealer, and not just A. If you want something, weapons, ammunition, drugs, any kind of contraband, Niko can get it for you. Charges out the ass for it, but he doesn't deliver knock-offs or low quality merchandise. Tonight is his last drug delivery because the supply of A is dwindling. He knows part of what's happening, though. Guy's got a brain like a frickin' computer."