Xenofreak Nation, Book Three: XIA (20 page)

“I’ll tell you what.” Maddy walked up to Jason, turned her back to him and lifted her bound hands. “Cut me free and I won’t tell them who you really are.”

“Our cover was already blown today,” Scott said. “There are xenos out there who know we’re XIA.”

“Well, you’re with me now,” she said. “If anyone dares to ask, I’ll tell them you were my plant – just like Antonovich.”

Bryn remembered Antonovich well. Jason had killed him, unaware at the time that he’d been an FBI agent on Maddy’s payroll. Jason had shot him in the head, and Bryn shuddered at the memory as her gaze drifted to the spreading pool of blood under Malone’s seat.

“We can’t just let you go,” Jason said.

Maddy twisted her torso to look over her shoulder at him. “I’m not asking for my freedom, Dragila, I’m simply offering to make a deal.”

He bent and pulled his knife from his boot, but only examined the blade. “Deal’s not on the table anymore. Your father’s not going to talk to you now.”

“Not true. I’m sure he’s got a
lot
he wants to say to me.”

“The XIA isn’t interested in his opinion of you.”

“Right. Well, anyway, that’s not the deal I was referring to. You may have the guns, but that will only get you so far.”

Someone outside the bus slapped his hands against the door and growled, “Open up!”

Along with everyone else, Bryn had risen from the floor, but she hadn’t taken her seat because it was spattered with blood. Now she averted her eyes from Malone’s body and stepped over the dark puddle in the aisle. Everyone around her looked shell-shocked. As she made her way to Scott’s side, Fournier shuffled along behind her like a walking corpse.

“Maddy’s right,” Fournier said. “As soon as that door opens, every person on this bus will become a target in one way or another unless we all agree to cooperate. The Mad Eye want me; the XBestia want Maddy. If either of them find out you took us prisoner, you’ll only last as long as your ammunition. And we all know what they think of the National Guardsmen.
No one
is going to step off this bus with the upper hand.”

“Thank you, Nicolas, for so eloquently making my point for me.” Maddy turned away and lifted her hands again. “Dragila?”

The man who’d banged on the door raised his voice. “Open this door now!” and began banging again.

Jason looked at Scott, who gave him an almost imperceptible shrug. Jason pointed the knife at Maddy and then Fournier. “We’ve got a sniper in that vehicle out there and I’m in constant contact with him. You will be in his sights at all times. The first hint either of you is going back on your word…”

Maddy nodded. “Understood.”

“Agreed,” Fournier said.

Jason slit their zip ties.

“Don’t forget Padme.” Maddy rubbed her wrists. “And if this is going to work, you and Cougar here are going to have to obey us…or pretend to.”

Jason smiled thinly as he cut Padme’s zip tie. “Shouldn’t be a stretch.”

“Yes, I suppose you’ve had a lot of practice faking it. The rest of you,” she glanced around at the guardsmen, “should probably keep your mouths shut.”

“I’m not going out there,” Bastida said. “I’d rather take a bullet than get that disease.”

The other guardsmen chimed in with their agreement.

“I don’t blame you.” Jason looked over at Mia, and Bryn saw his head go back a little as he realized she would have to stay with the guardsmen. He shoved his knife back into its sheath and said, “You guys take care of the doc, okay?”

“No.” Mia made her way to the front of the bus. “I’m going with you.”

Jason shook his head. “Too big a risk. There are probably carriers out there. You said it yourself, your graft won’t protect you yet.”

Mia had somehow kept hold of her purse through everything that had happened. She reached inside and pulled out a blue paper face mask. “This will.”

Jason looked like he was going to argue with her, but Scott said, “It’s her choice. Let’s just get to the UAAV.”

He nodded to Bastida, who opened the door. Maddy smoothed her hair, pushed past Jason and descended the steps regally, Padme on her heels. Jason went next, gun drawn, but Bryn noticed he was careful to point it away from Maddy. Fournier took the steps slowly, leaning heavily on the rail. Scott followed, the submachine gun pointed at the ground. Bryn and Mia came last and stayed close behind him.

The bus door shut with a ‘
shush,
’ and the waiting xenos backed away to create a semicircle lit by torchlight. Bryn peered out at them from under her hood. It wasn’t a consolidated group. There was a clear, grumbling line of division between the people of Edgemere and the denizens of the Warehouse. Bryn didn’t recognize anyone from her short time at either place.

At the edge of the crowd, the men in riot gear had returned. One of them pushed his way through to the front and gingerly removed his helmet. White gauze had been wound around his forehead to hold the bandage on the back of his head in place.
Dundee
. Bryn curled her fingers under the bottom of Scott’s vest, glad she still had Jason’s backup gun in her pocket. Next to her, Mia reached up to the mask on her face, pushing down against the metal strip across her nose to secure it more tightly.

Maddy hooked an arm through Fournier’s uninjured one and beamed at everyone around her. “It’s so good to see you again. I’m sure you all have a lot of questions.”

The pupils of Dundee’s crocodile eyes glowed eerily as he stared her down. “Just one. Who the bloody hell do you think you’re fooling?”

Scott tensed and shifted to stand in front of Bryn. He didn’t know how Dundee had gotten here, whether he’d been stopped on the highway by the army and rounded up, or if he’d followed Maddy’s yacht with her outboard, but if things went south and Scott was forced to fire, that psycho would eat the first bullet.

“The truce is real.” Fournier’s quiet voice carried in the silence. “Maddy Singh and I have come to an agreement.”

“After she-”

“You will
not
speak of what happened earlier.”

“But Mad Eye scum killed Lupus!” Dundee’s accusation was followed by angry muttering from several XBestia standing near him.

“Leaving you as my new lieutenant,” Fournier snapped. “Congratulations on your promotion.”

“It’s true Lupus is gone,” Maddy’s words were ice cold, but calm. “And you returned the favor by killing Dillo. No one’s denying there’s plenty of bad blood between us, but we’re telling you now is not the time.”

She kept on speaking, something about dire circumstances and mutual trust winning out over vengeance, words that were probably wasted on most of her audience. Scott tuned her out and leaned closer to Alton.

“See Shasta anywhere?” he asked quietly. “She couldn’t miss that broadcast.”

“I was thinking the same thing,” Alton said, “but this place is a zoo. Maybe she’s holed up somewhere.”

Scott’s attention was drawn back to Dundee when the xeno pointed at him and demanded, “What about them?”

Fournier summoned the strength to stand taller. “There are factors involved that you are not aware of. For the time being, these men and women are protecting me, and in turn are under XBestia protection. Unless you’d like to continue questioning my orders?”

It was a testament to Fournier’s control that Dundee said quickly, “No, sir.”

“How about the rest of you?” Maddy asked, sweeping the crowd with her gaze. “I spy with my one mad eye…”

Several people in the crowd, including Alton, shouted, “
All the queen’s men
!”

Scott looked sidelong at Alton, who quirked the corner of his mouth. If Scott didn’t know better, he’d swear Alton secretly liked Maddy’s outlandish ways.

As they began walking towards the tunnel, Scott stopped to take the ammo off the fallen man. The crowd stayed a respectful distance away from Maddy, Fournier and the rest of their group. The Mad Eye led the way, with Dundee and the other XBestia lurking at the rear.

Maddy was still holding Fournier’s arm, giving him support as Padme shadowed her. She looked out beyond the edge of the ramp onto the field, eyes skimming over the sea of people and settling on the UAAV. Then she turned towards the water, where the top of her father’s yacht was just visible.

“You know, Dragila,” she said. “There may be a way to accomplish both our goals. The XIA wants my father, and I’d like to deliver him to you before he gets another chance to kill me.”

“I’m listening.”

Maddy lowered her voice. “Take the invisible vehicle for a little ride.”

“Out to his yacht? Remember that part where you said he had enough firepower to blow us out of the water, and then he
did
?”

“I’m not talking about launching a big offensive, just force him to come to us here on the pier.”

“How?”

“Sink it.”

Alton’s eyes narrowed as his interest intensified. Scott knew Alton had the same level of immunity he’d been given with Fournier. They were authorized to do almost anything necessary to complete their missions.

Alton didn’t have a chance to respond to her proposal, though, because they’d entered the tunnel and the noise from all the xenos camped out in front of the army’s blockade was deafening. Their group went left into a smaller passageway that eventually led onto the field. Once they emerged, a wave of xenos surrounded them, shouting questions none of them had answers to.

“There’s no water! No bathrooms! When are we getting out of here?”

“Where’s the food? How long will it take for the supplies?”

“We’re freezing out here!”

The fear radiating off the detainees was almost palpable. Had they been here all day without food or water? Technically, there was shelter, if the broken-down structure surrounding the pier were taken into account, but there was no electricity and no heat except from the bonfires. From the thousands of people milling about on the field, it was clear what shelter could be found wasn’t nearly enough. And what would happen when the combustibles they’d scrounged for the bonfires ran out?

The Mad Eye and XBestia were forced into forming a tight circle around their group as they inched their way to the UAAV. The commotion was overwhelming. Bryn stayed glued to Scott’s side and Alton hovered over Mia.

They finally reached the vehicle, but by then the crowd had lost control. Pressure from the outer edges forced those closest to the center to surge inward. The Mad Eye and XBestia were no longer able to hold them back, and everyone was suddenly crushed up against the sides of the UAAV. Scott saw several people stiffen and go down before Lo must have switched off the protective electric barrier.

Alton got his boot up against the UAAV’s door and shoved backwards, forming a small pocket of space for Mia. Scott’s arms were trapped; he struggled to lift the submachine gun with the idea in mind that if he sent a burst upward, the crowd might stop crushing them.

Then Lo’s voice blasted out of the UAAV. “Back away from the vehicle. Back away from the vehicle.” Scott knew this was no ordinary PA system. Lo was deploying the vehicle’s short-range acoustic device, a sonic weapon that delivered a targeted, painful warning to anyone within twenty yards or so. She repeated the message several more times, rotating the device to get full coverage of the crowd, but avoiding the sector occupied by Scott and the others. Within a surprisingly short amount of time, the crush had eased.

The door opened to Boardman’s grinning face. “Come on in.”

The injured prisoners Lo had taken aboard earlier were gone, but the inside of the UAAV still wasn’t big enough to accommodate them all. Boardman grabbed his crutches and volunteered to stay outside with Bryn, Mia and Padme. Mia eyed the alligator graft on his knuckles and put a hand to the mask on her face.

“They checked me out,” he said. “I haven’t been exposed.”

“I’ll keep my distance all the same,” she replied.

Scott ushered Maddy and Fournier inside. Once the door shut behind them, Fournier sank into the passenger seat, leaned his head back and closed his eyes. Maddy looked around the interior admiringly. “I have
got
to get one of these.”

“Yeah, that’s gonna happen,” Lo said. She lifted an eyebrow at Scott. “What are you
wearing
?”

Scott sighed. “Can we focus, please?”

“Right. I heard something about sinking the old man’s yacht..?”

“Might be my only chance of getting to him,” Alton said.

“We can do it,” Lo said slowly, “but there’s lot that could go wrong.”

She activated the holoprojector on the dash. The glowing green lines of a building schematic appeared. “This is the structure surrounding Poppy’s Pier. Survey was conducted three months ago, so it should be accurate enough. See this area above the sunken portion? Side of the building’s collapsed and there’s a big hole. If there’s not too much debris, we should be able to drive the UAAV right though and into the water.”

“Stealth mode won’t hide us from their radar,” Alton said.

Lo pointed to something on the dash. “Jamming system will.”

“Once we sneak up on him, what’s the plan?” Scott asked.

“First and foremost, we don’t want to
kill
him.” Lo waved a hand and brought up another schematic. “This is Singh’s yacht – the basic model anyway – we can assume he’s had modifications done, but the engine room’ll be in the same location. We blow the hull here, the explosion shouldn’t reach the living areas.”

Scott pointed. “Landing pad. Once the hull is breached, what’s to stop him flying off in his helicopter?”

Alton shrugged. “I can go aboard beforehand. Take the copter out.”

“No,” Maddy said. “He’s even more security-conscious than I am. You wouldn’t get ten meters.”

“She’s right. Stealth will only get us so far.” Lo flipped a switch on the dash and pointed to the floor of the UAAV where a compartment had opened up. “We had to give up our guns for the army to agree to let us in.” It was an ironic statement given that stashed inside the compartment was an arsenal.

Alton’s eyes gleamed. “We got a zook? Sweet.”

“But not subtle,” Lo said. “And explosives make shrapnel.”

“We’ll have to take that chance.” Alton was getting worked up, which made Scott wary. Too much enthusiasm for any plan, much less a hastily cobbled together one, could get them all killed.

“That takes care of the copter and the hull, but he’s got at least one working outboard.” Scott turned to Maddy. “Does he have more than that?”

“No idea. I’ve never been invited.”

Lo shifted in her seat. “We’ll just have to lurk in stealth mode to make sure Singh is forced into the water.”

Scott shivered a little. “He’ll definitely head for the pier if he gets wet, but he won’t be alone and his men are armed.”

“Leave that to us.” Fournier spoke up without opening his eyes, so he didn’t see Maddy nod in agreement.

Lo eyed the two of them and then turned to Scott and Alton. “Who’s staying behind to monitor
that
?”

“Me.” Scott was the logical choice. Lo was the UAAV pilot. Singh was Alton’s op. Boardman was on crutches. Scott would stay behind to keep an eye on Maddy and make sure Singh was captured once he got ashore.

Before the UAAV left, Lo gave him another earbug. “Keep an eye out for Shasta, would you?”

“I’m not sure she’s even here.”

Lo looked thoughtful for a moment. “Me neither. But what about Nicola? She’s here, right? Why hasn’t she come for her father?”

Scott had thought the same thing. “Yeah, something’s wrong. Let’s hope whatever it is doesn’t bite us in the butt.”