The Break (The Aesir Saga Book 1) (14 page)

THIRTY ONE

              Williams was sitting in his makeshift office at their safe house, looking over everything they had from the kid. Williams thought he heard someone yelling, so he got up and started walking toward the sound. As he got closer it was definitely someone yelling, it was Kyle, and he was staring at his computer screen, trying to yell for Williams over his shoulder. 

"I'm here, what’s going on." Williams said as he approached Kyle's screen. On it was CCTV footage of two cars, driving down the highway. 

"You have to see this." was all Kyle said, continuing to watch as the stayed focused on the two cars. 

"Its two cars on the freeway, what’s so important about it?"

"It’s on every screen." Kyle waved his hand to all the monitors mounted in the room.

"Ok..."

"This isn’t me, someone has hacked our system to give us this feed. The video jumps from one CCTV to the next, following these two cars." 

              Williams became very interested now, sitting down to watch the cars speed along. "Where are they going?"

"I don’t know, but they have been headed north the whole time. They just passed Newberg a few minutes ago." 

Williams looked at the map they had tacked to the wall. "Someone is trying to tell us something without saying it up front. What’s north of Newberg?"

"Aren't you concerned about the fact someone hacked into our system?" Kyle said, finally turning away from the screen.

"No, I think I know who did this, and it might be his way of saying sorry." Williams traced his finger along the highway; following what he thought would be the path of the cars. "There it is. They're going to Saint Helens, to the facility there. Holy shit we might get the jump on them. Get Marcus in the air now, tell him the target and to meet me there. I'll make the rest of the calls on the road.

“Fuck yes!” Williams was running to his car. If he was right about the time, he might be able to get there before those cars did. And if it was what he thought it was, he might owe Mr. Thoth bigtime.  

              The car stopped as they parked on the side of the road. They were in a small town, the buildings actually having space between them and houses interspersed. Getting out the car, Gabriel stretched, getting the blood flowing back to his feet. Everyone gathered around their car, forming into smaller groups as they walked to their target. They moved between buildings, trying to stay out of sight of anyone from the main road. Street lights were turning on as they weaved through the town. Finally they reached their target. The building stood by itself, but the parking lot in front of it was flanked by two other larger buildings. It looked exactly as Caleb had described it, a warehouse with no special look to it.   

              Everyone grouped back up as they looked across the street at the building. “Stephen, do a quick lap and tell me if you see anything.” Gabriel could see that Caleb was in his leader mode, getting Brock up with him as they waited the short few seconds before Stephen finished his check. 

“It’s weird, there’s nobody here. No guards, no cameras, nothing. You would think for a place that has so much important shit, it would have better security.”

“I think they are going for the hiding in plain sight idea. If they don’t bring attention to it, no one will notice. Everybody ready?” Caleb looked at each person, moving on when they nodded their head. 

              They moved from their hiding spot and walked toward their target. The streets were empty from the curfew, and they walked quickly, trying to not draw attention as they made it to the parking lot. The emptiness of the area made Gabriel more tense than usual, and with only a few lights on between them and the building, they were able to move freely to the door. They were halfway across the parking lot when flood lights kicked on, blinding them for a moment. They could hear the movement of people and the mechanical sound of the warehouse door opening. 

“It’s a trap!” came a yell from someone, Gabriel turning to see who had said it, Kevin was splitting into multiple selves, each one running a different direction trying to get away. Every way he tried though, he was greeted by a wall of police in riot gear, pushing him back to the center of the parking lot, where he condensed into one Kevin again.  

              Gabriel looked up on the roof tops overlooking them, and there were police already there, rifles ready and pointed down at them. They were completely surrounded. 

              Out from the warehouse stepped Agent

Williams. “Well, I’m glad you all could make it here, I’ve been expecting you. This, on the other hand is probably not what you were expecting.” He waved his hand at the men on the roofs around them. 

“Sorry guys, I’m out.” Stephen whispered to everyone, before sprinting away from the group toward the way they had come in. Gabriel turned to see him speed away, but right as he reached the street, clear of the wall of police, Stephen’s body exploded into a pink mist as he was plowed through by the COSMOS that was coming down from above. Everyone just stared as it landed, the legs covered in blood, Stephens arm and leg visible sticking out from the boots. As the COSMOS moved toward them, the remains of the body dragged with it as it walked through the opening in the police wall. 

“Marcus! Be careful, you killed one of them. We need them alive.” Williams shouted to the pilot. The man inside didn’t respond, at least not in a way any of them could hear.

Still in shock from watching Stephen die, no one moved when the blood drenched monster raised its arm, firing two barbs at them, both embedding themselves into Olivia’s chest. She dropped to the ground jerking with the electricity that coursed through her body. In the two seconds it took for everyone to realize what was going on, Madison was also hit, joining Olivia in her spasms before both lay unmoving on the ground.  

              Brock turned, charging the COSMOS, yelling like a mad man. None of the police fired their weapons, seeming ok with the challenge to their metallic champion. As Brock closed the distance, he pulled his fist back, ready to unload his devastation punch into his target. As his arm traveled forward, the pilot side stepped easily, delivering a punch of its own into Brock’s ribs. This made him lean to his side, giving the pilot an easier target, bringing his armored knee into Brock’s chin, sending him stumbling backwards. As Brock went down to a knee, spitting blood on to the black parking lot, Caleb threw his hands up in the air, electricity climbing from his fingers to the rooftops, causing the men to duck. Swinging his arms around, the electricity connected with the flood lights, blowing out the lights and sending sparks falling to the ground below. 

“Gabriel, get Brock out of here.” Caleb yelled before arcing his power into the street lights, blacking out the parking lot they were in. As Gabriel ran to Brock’s side to help him help, the police began moving in, trying to contain their targets.  Caleb continued sending waves of electricity in different directions, forcing the police to seek cover. As he picked Brock up, another person came to Brock’s side, Gabriel quickly igniting his hand, ready to shoot a flame into their face. But as the light of his fire spread to the face of his target, he saw it was Kevin, putting Brock’s arm over his shoulder. 

“Follow me, I know a way out.”

              Without saying a word Gabriel extinguished his fire, following the direction Kevin led them. When they made it to the main street, Brock was able to run on his own, and the three of them sprinted to the end of the street, trying to make it back to their car. When they turned the corner, a police car was blocking the road. Seeing the officer getting out of the driver’s door, Gabriel snapped a fireball, his arm moving forward as the man drew his pistol. The fireball hit him in the chest right after the pistol fired, the man falling to the ground, the fire spreading across his body as the fireball exploded. Kevin fell back, blood already staining his shirt. As Gabriel turned to try and help him, Kevin raised his arm in protest, “just go!” Gabriel turned to run, Brock following behind him. 

              They reached the parked cars shortly after that. Gabriel had the car started and moving before Brock could even get his door closed. Neither of them said a thing as they sped through the town, anxious to get back to the farm. Gabriel went over everything that had happened. It was clear this was a set up. They went in with seven, and now they were headed back to the farm with two. When they get back, Ma’at would have to explain himself.  

              Williams ducked his head as the bolt of electricity shot over him. This wasn’t working out quite the way he thought it would. He hoped the overwhelming size of police and the Maiden would leave the Spartans with no option but to cooperate and be detained. But after the death of one of them, it had galvanized the others into fighting back. Williams had run to take cover behind a parking barrier that was in front of the warehouse, trying to maintain control of the situation. The police wanted to just end it by opening fire, but Williams had faith that Marcus would be able to handle everything. 

              The two females were lying on the ground, already subdued by the Taser, and the large fighter had been beaten back, his efforts proving useless. Then the lights went out, leaving them in total blackness. Williams’s radio earpiece burst to life with calls from the police support that they had no visual on the targets, and could only identify the one shoot lightning around.  “Marcus, tell me you have eyes on.”

              A short burst of static preceded the deep voice from inside the Maiden. “Oh I can see everybody with thermals, but there’s too many people to try and tell who’s who.”

“Shit”, he thought to himself. Well at least they had the two girls. “Marcus, don’t worry about getting them all. Just get this lightning guy under control.”

“Will do boss.”

              As other lights were turned on, Williams could hear a call over the radio of one of the outer cordons. He had visual on three suspects fleeing the target area. Williams called the officer, trying to get any more info, but he couldn’t get the officer to answer the radio. 

              Marcus didn't need the lights to see the lightning Spartan. The bolts of lightning coming from him registered on the heat vision, giving him a perfect picture of where he was. Marcus moved in closer to engage. Just for fun, Marcus launched a set of Taser cables, both embedding themselves into the chest of the target. Seeing as the cables did nothing, Marcus disengaged them, allowing them to drop onto the concrete.

The Aesir continued his torrent of energy, sending bolts at the heads of peeking officers. One bolt caught the Maiden across the chest, causing a spike in the Maiden's electrical systems, which engaged the grounding spikes in the armor’s boots. 

"Ha, sorry chief, your power can’t hurt the Maiden." Marcus fired a net, easily ensnaring Caleb. 

              Marcus grabbed hold of the net's tether, dragging his catch closer. When he had him within five feet, Marcus whipped the Maiden's arms around his head, pulling the net into the air. 

The comms inside the Maiden's helmet came on with Williams' voice. "Marcus, don't kill him now."

"Didn't plan on it boss. A little bit of spinning and he'll pass out."

              Marcus gave the net three more spins before slowing down enough to set it down. The Aesir inside didn't move, but Marcus could see from the heat vision that his heart still beat. 

              Marcus could see the police and Williams moving to surround the targets, and began the startup of the thrusters. The Maiden began rising into the air. Marcus had to track down the others that escaped, and he needed to move quickly. 

              As Gabriel parked the car outside the barn, the reality of how alone they were really set in. He had been stewing the entire time, thinking about the situation over and over. But now, as he and Brock walked into the house, he thought about how alone he was. There were no sounds, except the creaking of the stairs as Brock made his way up to his room. Through the entire drive he didn’t say a word, but neither had Gabriel.

Their attitudes couldn’t have been more different. Gabriel felt anger and rage for being set up the way they were, wanting nothing more than to fix it, anyway he could. Brock on the other hand seemed depressed, almost accepting that everyone was now dead or captured. His happy go lucky attitude had been washed away in one night.

              Gabriel walked into the kitchen, knowing he needed to eat something even though he didn’t feel hungry. Now that he thought about it, he didn’t feel much of anything. When he wasn’t angry, he just felt numb. Opening the fridge, he could see some leftovers from a dinner someone had made the previous day. Ignoring them, Gabriel grabbed a yogurt, and stood in the dark kitchen eating it as he tried to think of nothing. Once he was finished he went upstairs to try and get some sleep. As he walked down the corridor of rooms that once belonged to his friends, he could hear sobbing. Knowing that there was nothing he could do to help, Gabriel walked into his room, shut his door, and collapsed onto the bed. 

              The next morning, Gabriel woke up with a brief moment of not remembering if what had happened last night was real or a dream. But as he rolled over and brought himself to a sitting position, he saw the clothes from that night and knew it wasn’t a dream. He dropped his head into his hands, and just sat for a moment, not thinking about anything, just being. Finally he had to get up, both to eat and use the bathroom. Once he was downstairs, his body moved on autopilot, getting a bowl, pouring cereal, adding milk, and sitting down. Halfway through his cereal did he finally snap back into what was going on. 

              As he looked at the empty table around him he realized he had to think about the next step forward. Caleb always made the missions, so he was gone now. Not that Ma’at could be trusted now anyway with what had happened last night. As Gabriel sat there, trying to figure out what was the next course of action, he heard the sound of an electronic ding behind him. More for the distraction than for wanting to really know what that sound was, Gabriel got up from the table and headed in the direction he heard it from. He didn’t make it far before he found himself outside Caleb’s door, reaching for the knob. 

              Opening the door, he stood there, not wanting to invade on Caleb’s private space, but also knowing he wasn’t coming back to notice. Gabriel crossed the threshold, trying to find the origin of the sound. He looked near the bed and on the dresser, finding nothing that could have made such a sound. When he got to the computer desk he shook the mouse more out of a force of habit than anything else. As the screen came to life he saw the origin of the ding. There was a new e-mail, and it was from Ma’at.

              Suddenly, Gabriel’s numbness burned away. The return of his anger for Ma’at came crashing back. He clicked to open the e-mail, reading the short message inside. 

Sorry about last night, but it had to happen. I hope you understand.

              The callous way he dismissed the deaths of Stephen and Kevin fueled his anger as he sent a reply. “There is no way you will ever make me understand. Caleb was captured, along with Madison and Olivia. Your bullshit also got Stephen and Kevin killed. Understand this, fuck you, Ma’at.”

              Gabriel waited for the reply to come, which didn’t take long. 

I am sorry for your loss, but in the big picture it was for the greater good. With whom am I speaking with now?

“Gabriel”

Well hello Gabriel, if I remember correctly you have a fire based power. Are you my new contact for the farm?

              Gabriel couldn’t believe what he was reading. With only a few messages sent, Ma’at was looking to start another group, and expected Gabriel to trust him.

“After what happened last night, I don’t think so. We need to talk, face to face, now.”

              Gabriel was typing as controlled as he could, but he could feel his anger there, just needing a spark. Ma’at’s reply almost pushed him over the edge.

That’s not how this works. 

              It took everything he had not to torch the computer on the spot, walking away from everything.

“I don’t give a fuck about your little rules. Your bullshit Intel got almost everyone captured or killed.” 

When I first contacted you, I told you I was balance. This is the price you pay sometimes to maintain that balance. One side cannot become too powerful, or everything is lost.

“If I remember correctly you also told me you were truth. Well, how about we make you prove it, when I walk up to Williams and tell him about how you help us?”

              With the things you have done already, you think anyone is going to allow you to walk anywhere? More likely you will be shot on sight and die a pointless death.

It stung Gabriel to know how right that statement was. “Fuck you Ma’at, I’m out. Go find someone else to play your fucked up games with.” As he walked away from the computer he heard the ding of the e-mail.  As much as he wanted to walk away, he couldn’t let Ma’at have the last word. He moved back to the computer, opening the e-mail. 

That’s the spirit I’m looking for. A car will be arriving shortly. Try not to burn this one.