In less than five seconds my target fell to the ground, unconscious, just an instant after Tessa had managed to take out the remaining four. If she was going to incapacitate four soldiers to my one, the least she could do was take longer than me to do it, but apparently she hadn’t been worried about this simple courtesy.
We braced ourselves for the other team to come to the aid of their comrades, but they were too smart, staying put, guns at the ready, while barking our position across the general channel. This done, they ordered every team available to converge on us from all sides, slowly, carefully, inch by inch, in what was the mother of all pincer movements.
Tessa frowned deeply and shook her head. “Hand-to-hand combat isn’t going to get us out of this,” she whispered. “But our nanites make us perfect shots. I hate the idea of killing innocents, but we have no choice, especially since you tell me getting to one of their UAVs is so critically important. We still might not make it, but at least we’ll have a chance.”
“Hold on,” I whispered, fishing a cell phone from the pocket of one of the fallen soldiers. “Let me try something first. I’m pretty sure I can’t make our situation any worse,” I added, realizing that this wasn’t a particularly inspiring battlefield address.
I dialed up Nick’s number, the one he had given me in the woods of Australia. True to his word, he picked up instantly, with the call going through to his comm.
“Jason, what the hell is going on?” he demanded. “I’ve tried to get clarification from Kussmann, but he isn’t answering.”
“You’ve heard the call on the general channel to converge on our position, yes?” I whispered hastily.
“Yes.”
“You’re the second-in-command, can you call off the kill order?”
“No. It’s a Priority One-Alpha order, and can only be canceled by the commander.”
“Can you at least order the teams away from us?” I asked.
The captain hesitated.
“Come on, Nick!” I continued in in a whisper, speaking almost as rapidly as an auctioneer. “You told me you had no choice but to trust me. That if I screwed you over humanity was toast anyway. Well trust me now. Kussmann is no longer Kussmann. He’s been possessed by Michelle’s faction.”
This was a lie, of course, but I didn’t have time to convince him of the truth, and probably couldn’t manage to do so, anyway. Better to play into his preconceptions.
“You know these guys can enter minds,” I continued. “Well, it’s worse than you thought. This possession thing is a trick none of us knew about. But it explains why you can’t reach Kussmann. Because his puppet masters have no way to explain his kill order.
“I’m still on your side, Nick. Get me out of this and I can still carry out our plan. I’m your only hope, remember?”
The captain didn’t respond, but both Tessa and I immediately heard his voice through the comms of the broken and bleeding men spread out nearby, easily understandable to us with our nanite amplification.
“This is Captain Nick Nicola on the general channel,” he said. “All personnel now converging on Sector Lambda Fourteen, halt immediately and return to your former positions. I repeat, halt immediately and return to your former positions. This was a false alarm. Yes, a team was taken out in that sector, but by booby-traps, not by our targets, meaning we’ve all been played for fools. The targets wanted our teams to leave their posts to converge on a phantom sighting. So get your asses back to the sectors you’re responsible for and bring me back some dead bodies!” he finished, all but screaming this last.
“Thanks, Nick,” I whispered in relief after nine teams acknowledged his orders. “Well done. There is a team guarding the stairwell down to the military levels. I need you to order them to reposition. Tell them to guard the high explosives on subterranean level three.”
“Not so fast,” said the captain. “Word is that you’re running with Tessa Barrett. I’ve bought you time, but this still smells, and you need to explain. Has she gotten to you again?”
My nanite-boosted mind raced. Come on! I thought. You’re a storyteller. Time to tell a good story.
“You’ve got it all wrong, Nick,” I blurted out, deciding I’d have to create this narrative on the fly. “I’d never work with that betraying bitch, or believe anything she says.
“Here’s what happened. You convinced me that she had to die. I went to her cell to do it myself, but Michelle’s faction had already gotten to Kussmann elsewhere on the base. They controlled him, got him to order the AI to free her. I was able to get off a shot and injure her, but she’s no doubt healed by now and coming for me.”
“Why would Michelle’s faction want her free?”
“So she’d kill me!” I whispered as if he were an idiot. “In that goal, at least, she and Michelle are aligned. Remember? My death is their highest priority. I thought that keeping me alive was yours,” I added pointedly.
“Was I wrong about that?” I continued. “Because if you don’t help me further, she will kill me. Guaranteed. Again, I’ll remind you that if I don’t hack the Federation computer, it’s game over anyway, so if there’s even a one percent chance I’m telling you the truth—which I am—you have no choice but to help me.”
Once again we heard his voice through the comms of fallen soldiers, ordering the team at the stairwell to abandon their post to guard the high explosives. They all but demanded permission to check out the situation nearby, to confirm that the team just out of their sight had really been taken out by booby-traps rather than by us, but Nick would have none of it. In fact, he dressed them down so severely I thought their ears would bleed.
“Thanks, Nick,” I said when the team had left, now able to speak somewhat louder since they were no longer within earshot. “Given your high rank, can I assume the zip-craft in the hangar will follow your commands, no matter how strange?”
“Yes.”