Twelve hours later, the Predator took a downward dive that had my gullet defying gravity. I gripped the armrests in terror.
Leon stared at me. “Is dis another ploy to get me to kiss you, big guy?”
The harness was too tight around my chest. I forced shallow breaths in and out. “Just tell me we’re landing soon.”
“See for yourself.” He pointed to the small window across from us.
Through the square of glass, I watched a speck of land approach at Mach speed. Darwin leveled out before we nosedived into the ground, circling several times around an airfield. Flight towers and hangars lined the runway, all bearing the CO symbol.
Fucking hell. Darwin’s landing us in a Corps-sanctioned airbase.
Our boosters powered down as we went vertical and then softly plopped horizontal on the ground.
Over the comms, Sebastian drawled, “This is your flight crew speakin’. Please wait until the passenger in front of you has disembarked. We hope you had a—”
Static fuzz filled the intercom and then Sebastian squawked, “Ow! I always wanted to say that.”
Darwin appeared from the hatch between the cockpit and the cargo area. “Keep your flight suits zipped over that ragamuffin commune attire you call clothing and keep those helmets on.” She walked up and down our rank and file like a sergeant at a drill line, ignoring at least two higher-ups in her presence. “This is the sorriest motley crew I’ve ever had to manage. Most of you couldn’t pass for bred-to-the-bone Territorians even if you were in uniform. Piercings”—she flicked Nathaniel’s ear—“tats, and unruly hair.” She paused in front of Leon, who skimmed the soft wavy locks off his face. “You look almost as freaky as the First People Freelanders we’re supposed to meet, which ain’t gonna happen unless we get off base undetected.”
I’d never seen Cannon’s eyebrows shoot so high. “Is there some reason you decided to put down in the middle of a Corps base?”
“Are you questioning my tactics, former Elite Tactical Commander Cannon?”
Cannon marched up to Darwin. “You bet I am.”
“You’ve got balls, sir. I approve.” Her fierce glare relaxed into her first grin. “I have transport lined up, and this was the quickest way in. It’s not like we can just touch down in a CO Predator in Omega undetected. Eyes and ears everywhere. So be sure to keep those balls on straight.” She looked him up and down, adding, “So to speak.”
Sebastian ducked out after Drill Sergeant Darwin, and she spun on him. “And Bassy boy, zip that flight suit back up. We can see your nipple piercings straight through your T-shirt.” With a stiff salute, she pivoted back. “Welcome to the hot zone, y’all.”
“Ah reckon she’s got the biggest balls of all. Ah like her.” Farrow settled her helmet back on her head.
“I think I found my long-lost twin.” Liz grinned, buckling her chin strap.
Linc rumbled, “Why am I not surprised?”
I hadn’t hurled yet, and I wasn’t about to start. Not walking down the gangplank and straight into enemy territory. We held formation, striding across the landing strip toward the base. Three officers approached as we got near the depot on the far side of the airfield.
“Shit,” I muttered.
“Stay frosty, people,” Darwin said. “Standard debriefing.”
She met the officers while we hung back. The sun was broiling, sending a trickle of sweat down my spine. I watched Darwin as she kept cool answering their questions.
“Care to explain the extra self-loading cargo?” A rough-looking soldier wearing an eye patch pointed at us.
My fingers flexed on impulse to reach for my weapons.
“Sir, you told me to recruit where I could. Found these troops in Alpha Territory and convinced them they were better off fighting over here than shoveling shit trying to rebuild over there.” She dropped her voice and leaned in. “Turns out I can be pretty convincing when I wanna be.”
The man clapped her on the shoulder with a laugh. “Damn good job, Darwin. Damn good. Put them through a full workup: health, background, ranks, and specialties. See that they report to me at seventeen hundred hours, and we’ll decide if these drifters make the cut—or get their throats cut.”
“Affirmative, sir.” She waited until the three departed before returning to us. “We gotta hustle. The hangar on the left. Move out, now.”
Keeping a purposeful pace, we made it to the building without any further interference. Inside was a commissioned vehicle built specifically for Omega’s desert terrain. It was sand colored with high, fat tires and small, heavily tinted windows.
“This thing bulletproof?” I asked, climbing inside after Leon.
“Depends on the artillery. It sure as hell isn’t RPG proof.” Darwin hit a button and the engine revved.
* * *
We made it through the two checkpoints, our cover holding solid. Past the danger zone of the gun towers, we let out whoops and hollers, speeding to Omega city proper. Across the flat horizon shimmering in the sun-soaked heat, the city of bazaars rose up like a glittering gold oasis.
“We’ve gotta be at the meet point in Sector Five in forty minutes. Think we can make it, Darwin?” Linc pulled up the coordinates on his D-P and held it in front of her face.
The last comms we’d had from Denver instructed us to locate one of his insiders in Omega, a man who could set us on the path for the cure.
“Does a bull have two balls, Commander?”
Farrow laughed and turned to Sebastian. “Well, ain’t our new sister a sweet talker?”
A glimmer appeared in Darwin’s eyes through the rearview mirror. The read I got from her was steady, unwavering, and mission-oriented. She earned my immediate respect.
“Lose the threads, folks.” She unzipped her suit with one hand, wriggling out of the dark blue jumpsuit while keeping a foot on the gas.
We dressed down to our normal garb as Omega filled our sights. At the first and second gates into the city, Darwin simply had to flash her badge to get us through. The Territory opened her walls for us. Up close the buildings jumbled together in an ad hoc fashion so unlike the gridded streets of Beta and Alpha. The old-looking structures were gold instead of our bland silver and steel. The color reflected, making Leon’s skin gleam more than ever.
Language was standardized in all the Territories, just like scrip. We could hear people haggling by the roadsides as we drove past. The discord in the area was evident from the graffiti on the sides of buildings and in the soldiers roaming the streets. The strong Corps presence stood out amid the flamboyant surrounds, injecting fear onto the faces of people hounded here and there at rifle point.
Poverty, affluence, and anarchy made the air electric.
I couldn’t tell the Freelanders from the regulation Territorian stock—both factions inhabited this city side by side with the CO’s consent. Yellow, black, tan-skinned, the citizens were a mishmash of heritage from different continents. I felt an aching kinship with these people, something unknown and unrecognized that pulled from deep inside me…until a bullet hit our tire, jarring me from my thoughts.
“We’ve got heat,” Darwin muttered.
There was another screaming whistle, and the second tire on our right side blew out. People who’d been hawking their wares alongside the road fell to the ground as if this was a drill common to their daily life.
Cannon drew his gun. “How the hell have we been made already?”
Darwin took a hard swerve to the left, clipping the corner of a building. “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe because I’ve got a vehicle filled with the Company’s most wanted?”
“The cameras can’t possibly see inside,” I said, pulling out my guns. In every Territory, indestructible cameras were mounted right next to the huge public D-Ps on each street.
“Ever heard of spyware and a little something called zoom?” Darwin sped down the alley.
Sparks flew off the sides of the Rover, which was too big for the narrow breach between two tall buildings. The brakes squealed.
“We’re ditching the vehicle!”
No shit, Darwin.
We raced on foot. I stayed beside Leon as we hurried away from the center of the city, worried he might be feeling the effects of the Plague injection. He kept pace with me, hurdling over the spreading squalor from a Territory under siege.
Omega was a maze, allowing us to lose our pursuers. Sectors One and Two fell away, and with them the harsh rebound of boots at our heels. We broke into S-5 at a full-out run. The area was blindingly bare, almost completely destroyed. Vacant bomb-riddled buildings had blank eyes instead of windows. The earth was charred to cinder.
“What happened here?” I asked.
“The CEO decided Omega citizens were getting too big for their britches. He blitzed the sector last week.” Darwin wiped her hand across her brow.
“What now?”
She grinned. “Now we find this guy Raine you’ve been told about.”