It Was 2052 (13 page)

“Will do,” he said and hustled away to the fourth floor.

The Colonel was making sure that Luciano was secured and well guarded and that the weapons were gathered and put in the cache. Two soldiers would remain to guard. A couple of the men with medic training would need to assist the injured.   Assuming that the ground floor team and Rose had all survived, they would be at about fourteen. They needed to move with haste to get to the medical village.

***

Jackson tapped on the door of Anissa's rooms.  “Anissa, are you there?  It's Jackson.”

The door burst open and she grabbed him, kissing his blood speckled face. He returned the kiss, pushing tears off her face.  The big wondering eyes of Lee looked up at him. He squatted down and ruffled the boys hair, “Hey bud, how ya doing?”

“Hey mister,” said the small voice.

He looked at the frightened faces of Anissa's father and friend, Shelly.  “Everything is secure here. Luciano is under guard.  I want you to stay locked down until I return. Do you have your weapon, Anissa?”

“Yes.”

“I promise, I'll be back. We have to hurry over to support the team at the medical village. We have only eliminated three of the super soldiers. They are going to need all the help we can give,” said Jackson.

Anissa was accustomed to accepting. She moved calmly to him, took his hand, “Jackson, I...”

He leaned down, with his lips near her ear, “I love you too, Anissa.”

She locked the door behind him.

*** 

Rose and her team had met no strong opposition on the ground floor. The majority of the employees in the market and pizza cafe had no connections or involvement in the seedy operations on the second floor.  Jackson and Eric followed the Colonel downstairs where they picked up Rose, along with ten available alliance soldiers they moved out of the Luciano.  Just as they exited, they spotted John's team on the opposite side of the wide street. With all the gunfire and commotion, even most of the vehicles cleared off the street.  John's team crossed the street to join the Colonel's. 

She quickly surveyed the team, noting the injured or possibly dead soldier and Mamie's blood soaked camo.  She immediately stepped into the street in front of a cab that was racing along, “HALT!

Brakes screeched and a voice yelled out the window, “What're you trying to do, get run over?”

She ordered Mamie and the soldier to be put in the back of the cab, the man cursed and yelled at her the whole time. “Take these two to the Downtown Medical Village---shut up and do it now, Mister.” Sharon knew how to use her voice of authority.  “John, get in and go along. Get them to some aid. We'll be right behind you.”

John slid in beside Mamie, who looked very pale.
She's loosing a lot of blood.

Colonel Sharon slammed the door and kicked the side of the cab, “GO!”

She gave a whistle and started a fast jog, north to the Downtown Medical Village.  Minutes later, twenty three alliance members moved up the steps of clinic. There was a lot of activity going on in the medical facility.  Dallas Metro Villages had erupted into chaos and panic. The cab driver, with help from a couple of other men had carried the soldier inside. He was still alive but gravely injured.

John walked in carrying Mamie in his arms now. Using his own voice of authority, that being the pistol at his waist,  he made sure she was going to get looked at instantly.  He fell in with the alliance as they crossed the wide open waiting area and moved toward the stairwell.  They heard gunfire from the higher levels of the building.  By the time the re-inforcements reached the third floor, two more alliance soldiers lay dead.  While Bud, Driver and the ten soldiers on their team had battled against one of the super soldiers, Doctor Pendelton, a super soldier and his precious “son” soldier had escaped.  The lab was in shambles, one hulking body lay riddled with bullet holes.  Paper burned in a tall metal can, Bud was dumping water on it.

The Colonel looked to Driver.  He said, “The som-b—ch escaped. He's still got two super soldiers with him.  Evidently wanted to destroy as much of his files as he could.  We could only do so much to contain them here without excessive collateral damage down in the clinic. I've got a damn good idea where he is headed.”

Colonel, “How good?”

“Ninety nine percent.  I've heard them before, discussing plans and back-ups. They've headed for the farm. Any surviving followers and supporters of the Network will go there. They have more weapons, more personnel there.  They will hole up there or make a stand,” said Driver.

“Okay.  How many men you have left?”

“Ten, counting Bud and I.”

“John?”

“We're down two, that leaves us ten.”

“We've got fourteen, makes a total of thirty four. However, I'm going to have to leave another three to secure things here.” The leader looked over at one of the soldiers, “I want you, Jones and Price to go back to the Luciano.  You be damn sure that the weapons cache stays secure.  Also, tell the medics to transport any of the stabilized men to the clinic here.  Then I want two of you to take Luciano down to the jail and lock him up.  If the Sheriff is still alive, leave him be. If he's dead, throw him out in the street. Got it?”

“Yes mam,” three voices.

“We'll be in contact when we've finished this mission.  I'm counting on you to contain that man, we need the information he's got.” 

Jackson, John, Eric and Rose stood side by side, waiting.

The Colonel looked at Rose, “Rose, it would be good if you would stay here. You could follow up with Mamie.”

“No, mam.” The young woman stood tall and straight faced.

“Settled.  Let's move out.  We'll go back to the transports. Driver will give us an idea of the layout of the farm and we'll deploy from there.” She swung her rifle to her back and hustled down the stairs.

The alliance army, thirty strong, reached the transports. By the time they had loaded all the extra ammo and weapons and moved out toward the farm, the day was slipping away. Even though the summer days were long, the army had covered a lot of ground today.  The two big trucks pulled over into the shelter of trees just before the big headlights would've been necessary.  Not within site but Driver assured them that the farm was over the next rolling rise and bend of the road. 

“No fires,” ordered the Colonel.

They would firm up their plan of attack and rest for the night.  It was agreed that moving into an unknown location and situation after dark was not a wise strategy.  Early morning, right at dawn was always a good time to catch an enemy off guard and have an advantage. 

***

Doctor Pendelton, his son and the other super soldier standing against the wall, sat across from the foreman of the farm and a few of the top guards. “I don't know how much is known about the location of the farm. We can't count on it being unknown.”

The large burly foreman spoke with a voice permanently hoarse from smoking and other vices, “Don't you worry none, Doc. We can handle any attack here. We're well armed and have plenty of men and ammunition. Several of the Network people have arrived, escaped the Luciano attack.”

“Look, listen to me.  This is not some rag tag opposition group.  This is the United States military.  They might have been greatly decimated over the years but make no mistake, they'll be a force to be reckoned with.  If they don't know our location, they will quickly,” said Pendelton.

The son soldier stepped forward, “Sir, if I may speak?”

Pendelton nodded affirmative. 

The massive chunk of man was no
big dummy.
He had the high intellect of his “father”.  With the ruthlessness of the old scientist and his genetically engineered personality traits, he also possessed a coldness that was pure sociopath.  Son knew that the man was his father but had no affection or caring what so ever for him, the same that he felt for any other human. He had one purpose, to do his job, the job he was literally built for. 

“When the attack went down at the lab one of the soldiers was the man that has obviously been a spy inside the Network.  I would suggest that he very probably does know about the farm and possibly the location. They
will
come. They are determined to stop the Network. Dallas is most likely the beginning of their assault.”

The foreman stood up and paced around, smoked a cigarette and crushed it on the floor beneath his boot.  The doctor covered his nose and coughed.  The foreman said, “You know we had this incident a few month's back. A guard was killed and dragged into the barn. We assumed it was inside, perhaps an escaping slave. However, we could never account for a missing one.  We keep a damn accurate record of our workers, too.”

Son said, “Could've been a spy, the military. Like I said, don't dare think they are uninformed. Best be on immediate alert.” He was as oblivious to the stink of the cigarette as he was to other things.

Pendelton rose, stuck the briefcase full of his precious files under his arm, “I'm exhausted, I'll see you in the morning.”

“Double up on the watch,” said the foreman to the guards in the room. He looked at the two super soldiers, “Each of you can take a shift,” he nodded at a guard, “I'll let Bill tell you where to go. It's after dark, the workers are in. Get to it.”

“Got it,” said Son soldier. “I'll take the first shift,” he looked at the other super soldier. He wasn't going to leave
her
unguarded.

***

As Pendelton and his super guard had made their escape from the Medical Village, Son soldier made his way to the Luciano Villages. It wasn't that difficult to reach the fourth floor undetected. The alliance had moved out and the soldiers remaining were busy attending to the injured.  One hard kick had left the door to Anissa's rooms still locked but busted open and the bullets that came from her gun whizzed past the hulk's head, a single shot just barely grazed his scalp. One threatening look at the boy let them all know they were helpless. Son soldier picked Anissa up and put her over his shoulder like a rag doll. “You make a sound and I'll snap the boy's neck,” he said.

As he made his way down the stairs, he could feel her soft form all mashed against his muscled shoulder. There were a lot more important uses for her than the brief thoughts that crossed his mind. He  followed her relentlessly for months. She was valuable to some of the alliance, only fear for her son kept her in the Network.  He passed his intel to the doctor and his father had ordered him to retrieve her. 
Might be time for pleasures later, he would let her scream then.  For now she was on her way to the farm.

***

The first pink light of dawn never lasted long these days, usually hazed over quickly before the sun ascended higher into the sky.  This morning there was just a hint of light as the alliance army moved away on foot from the hidden transports.  The Colonel, Bud and John, one eye still swollen shut would move in across the cornfield next to the main farm entrance road with half of the force.  Driver, with Jackson, Eric and Rose and the other half would move in a wide circle across the meadows where the livestock grazed and come in at the back of the farm buildings. 

In the thick summer green cornfield the Colonel's team split again. Bud and John with five soldiers darted across the entrance road into the adjoining field. A shrill whistle from Bud was the signal that his group had reached the edge of the field and a quick responding whistle from the Colonel was the signal to the forces coming in from the meadow that the attack was on.  Chaos instantly spread across the Network farmyard.  

The Colonel's objective was to locate the old scientist.  Just like she wanted the Network boss, Luciano for the information he could give them, she wanted Dr. Pendelton secured and his sinister projects put to a stop.  She and her team systematically begin to search every building in the farm complex. 

Driver, the three young alliance spies and their team fanned out from the rear of the living and dining quarters of the farm slaves.  He knew that somewhere in the building would be the pregnant women that he had seen enter on his previous recon visit. He wanted to be sure that they would not be injured.  They had seen many of the farm workers flee across the fields when the assault began. The soldier thought that the doctor would never allow the women and the valuable cargo they carried to be left unguarded.

He spoke to Eric, “No telling how many slaves will fight with the Network and how many are not even in any condition to resist.  I want to find the pregnant women and make sure they stay safe. Stay close, cover my ass and watch your own.”

The guards on horses charged around the farm yard, trodding down anyone in their path. Shouts, screams and gunfire rang out across the clouds of dust that choked the scene of dozens of struggles. One of the super soldiers came up behind an alliance fighter and snapped the man's neck like a twig. Three more of the alliance rushed at the super soldier.  Eric looked out from the long porch of the living quarters and spotted Rose running across the yard, a mounted guard right on her heels.  “ROSE!” he shouted.