Ex-Patriots (27 page)

Stealth gave him a look he could sense
through her mask. The one that meant she thought he was being
foolish. “Very well, George,” she said. “If you feel this is the
correct path, I shall defer to your judgment.”

Danielle finished her work on the circuit
board, blew on it, and removed it from the small clamps. She
lowered it into a box that resembled a small metal coffin and
reached in with a screwdriver to fasten the board in place. “In
happier news,” she said, “I realized something.”

“Please,” said St. George, “share the happier
news.”

The redhead glanced at Stealth. “You know
what I said yesterday about not wanting to do all these repairs and
upgrades because I thought it’d feel like giving up?”

The cloaked woman gave a single nod.

“Well, starting this last night didn’t feel
like giving up,” said Danielle. “It made me feel guilty.”

St. George tilted his head. “Guilty?”

“I should’ve been doing all this stuff months
ago. It’s easy work. I had enough of the parts.” She glanced up
from her work again. “And people were depending on me. That’s been
stuck in the back of my mind all morning.”

Danielle pulled the screwdriver away and
picked up a studded metal plate the size of a hardcover book. It
had a shaft on the back that slotted into something inside the
little coffin. There was a loud
clack
as it settled into
place.

“Shelly was right,” she said. “I wasn’t
supposed to be the one in the suit. But I volunteered for it. I
wanted to be Cerberus, and that’s who I am now. And I think I’m
needed at the Mount a lot more than here.”

“I am pleased to hear your decision,” said
Stealth.

St. George rapped a knuckle on the steel box.
“So what is this, anyway?”

The redhead gave a wicked grin. “It’s a new
weapons mount to replace the one Peasy tore off. I’ve been playing
with this thing in my head and on paper for almost two years. I
might be able to have another one built and both installed by
tomorrow.”

St. George smiled. “Just in time to go
home?”

“Yeah,” she said. “I think so.”

* * *

“Colonel Shelly got tied up with some
administrative things,” said Smith. Today’s suit was charcoal gray
with a crimson tie. “He asked if I could go over things with you in
his place.”

Stealth crossed her arms. “This meeting is
such a low priority he could neither attend himself nor send one of
his staff?”

“Is that a problem?”

Stealth glared at the young man for a moment.
Her head shifted in the hood as she glanced at St. George. He could
see the effort it took her to relax. “No,” she said. “It is
not.”

“Good,” said Smith. “Thank you.”

“We’ve got a couple questions, too,” said St.
George. “A few things we want to double-check with you.”

“Do you mind if we do these first?” Smith
held up a clipboard covered with scrawled phrases and sentences.
“I’ll answer anything you want afterwards. I’ve just got a lot of
this fresh in my mind and I don’t want to miss anything.”

A twist of gray smoke curled out of the
hero’s nose. “I suppose so.”

“Thanks.” Smith looked at his notes. “Now,
what’s going to happen over the next few weeks is an assessment,
just like I mentioned back at the Mount. The Army’s going to look
at your defenses and make sure they’re adequate for the threat
we’re facing. If they are, great. If not, they’ll help improve
them. Odds are they’ll just leave you to keep running things the
way you have. You’re doing fine, so why mess with something that’s
not broken, right?”

St. George gave Stealth a cautious glance.
“Okay,” he said.

“Can we depend on the Army for medical
supplies and ammunition?”

“Resources gets more complicated,” Smith told
her, “but medical supplies are a definite yes. That includes some
food and vitamin supplements, as well. The military will do an
inventory and see what you already have. They’re going to give you
supplies for the Mount, but they’re also going to need some things
in return, just so you know.”

Stealth shifted in her chair. “Such as?”

“Well, people for starters. They’re going to
have a recruitment drive, just like they had when they rescued
people from Yuma. The Army needs soldiers right now, and odds are
there are a few thousand eligible people in your Los Angeles
population.”

“Eligible,” repeated Stealth. “Are you
initiating a draft?”

“No,” said Smith. “Sorry. Poor word choice on
my part. It’s completely voluntary. But you figure even if ten
percent of your people decide they want to sign up, that’s over two
thousand people.”

“A generous estimate.”

“Actually, going off how the survivors from
Yuma reacted, it might be low. I also understand from one of your
security people, Sergeant Billie Carter, there are a number of
Marines living in the Mount and the surrounding complexes.”

“Yeah,” said St. George. “About a dozen of
them, counting her. Their platoon flew out to LA with Cerberus and
stayed with us because... well, they didn’t have anywhere else to
go. A few have died since then. We’ve also got seventeen National
Guardsmen, two Navy guys, and a retired Air Force general.”

“Didn’t know about those last ones,” muttered
Smith, checking over his list. He scribbled a note in the margin.
“Anyway, point is they’re all going to be called back to active
duty and returned to military command. It’s a stop-loss
situation.”

“The stop-loss provision applies only to
currently active personnel,” said Stealth, “and can only be enacted
by the President.”

He shook his head. “Special provisions. They
can pull back anyone who ever served if the situation calls for it.
When martial law was declared, it went into effect
automatically.”

“Unpleasant, but not surprising,” said
Stealth. “Continue.”

Smith tapped a finger on the edge of the
clipboard. “Okay, like I said, they don’t have any trouble leaving
you in charge, but they want to make sure everything’s on the
up-and-up.”

St. George sighed. “Is this about Christian
Nguyen?”

“Sort of. The Army’s lawyers are going to go
over how you’ve been running things, look at this government you’re
putting together, and make sure it doesn’t violate anyone’s
rights.”

“The Army has lawyers?”

“Oh, yeah. Tons of them. There’s three here
on Krypton. They’re also going to take custody of any prisoners you
have and give them a trial under the military justice system.”

“No.”

St. George looked at Stealth, and then his
own shoulders tensed. “Yeah,” he said, “there might be a problem
with that. Some of our prisoners are... special cases.”

“It’s not an optional thing,” said Smith.

“It is not,” agreed the cloaked woman.
“Prisoners shall be released on a case by case basis. This is not
up for debate.”

He reached up and gave his tie a small tweak.
“I’ll have to talk with Colonel Shelly about that.” Smith flipped
to another page of notes. “I think it’s also understandable that
they want the Cerberus system.”

“Yeah, about that,” said St. George. “Thing
is, we were just talking with Danielle and she—”

“She has decided to return to Los Angeles
with us,” said Stealth. “And with Cerberus.”

“Ahhh,” said Smith. “That’s... that’s
unfortunate.”

“Why?” Stealth shifted her hips and her
shoulders tensed.

He took the clipboard in both hands. “The
Cerberus Battle Armor System was developed under a DARPA contract,
paid for with military funds. It’s government property. It stays
here.”

Stealth took a step forward. Smith stepped
back, bumping against the conference table. St. George set a hand
on the cloaked woman’s shoulder.

“I’m sorry,” Smith said. “I know you won’t
believe me, but I didn’t want to play this card. I even went to bat
for you guys. But the colonel’s firm on this. He wants the suit
here and he wants her building more of them.”

“You might get the suit,” said St. George,
“but not her. Danielle wants to come back to the Mount. She’s a
private citizen. You can’t stop her.”

“Actually,” said Smith, “we can. She’s been a
government employee since 2006. She’s been stop-lossed, too.”

“The stop-loss act applies to military
personnel,” said Stealth,

“Thanks to a little clause in the Patriot
Act, it applies to any government employee above a certain security
level. The same badge that let her peek at all those other
exoskeleton projects while she was building Cerberus is keeping her
here and under Colonel Shelly’s command.”

“This is bullshit,” said St. George.

“It is also entrapment,” said Stealth. “We
were brought out here under false pretenses for the sole purpose of
seizing the Cerberus suit.” Her head tilted toward St. George. “As
I tried to tell you.”

“Look, guys,” said Smith. “Guy and gal. You
have to believe me, I didn’t think we’d ever need to talk about any
of this. I thought Danielle would want to stay here at Yuma. I
didn’t want to bring any of this up because I knew how you’d
react.”

“We’ll fight you on this,” said St.
George.

“You can’t. If you resist they’ll slap the
‘traitor’ label on you and have a court martial.”

“They can’t court martial us. We’re
civilians.”

“Martial law,” said Smith. “What do you think
it means? The Army is the law right now. They’re judge, jury, and
executioner in any legal matters.”

“I’d like to see them try.”

“Look I know this seems like a bad thing at
first, but you don’t need Cerberus in Los Angeles if you’ve got a
platoon or three of soldiers stationed there. Heck, they could
rotate in a squad of Freedom’s men and they’d probably be even more
effective than the battlesuit.”

“Cerberus isn’t really the issue,” said St.
George. “Danielle’s our friend. We’re not going to abandon
her.”

“I’m sorry. I wish there was more I could do
to help, but the colonel’s not going to bend on these points. I
think you should—”

“What else is there?”

Smith glanced at her. “I don’t know
what—”

“Your body language indicates continued
reluctance. You have more to tell us.”

He sighed. “Yeah, there is. The other thing
they want, the big thing really, is...” Smith rolled his shoulders
and studied his shoes for a few moments.

“Yes?”

“Well... they want your power supply.”

There was a moment of silence. Then Smith
felt the floor drop away from under his feet and the wall whirled
around to slam into his back. The clipboard clattered away. His
clothes were painfully tight. St. George had wrapped shirt, tie,
and coat into his fist when he grabbed the smaller man.

“Where is he?”

“Hey, hey, hey!” Smith raised his arms as
best he could in the twisted coat. He waved his palms. “I can’t...
I’m not at liberty to say.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Ripples of
heat and smoke flowed out of St. George’s mouth.

“I’m under orders not to tell you.”

“We are giving you new orders,” said
Stealth.

“Look, it’s not that simple. I don’t like it
either, but you need to see the big picture. You’ve got to calm
down and listen if we’re going to work together, okay? You want to
work with me, right?”

St. George loosened his grip and Smith slid
down to the floor. “I’m listening.”

“Thank you.” He brushed the bigger wrinkles
out of his shirt, adjusted his tie, and picked up his notes. “I’d
like to help you. I would. But it pretty much amounts to treason
and treason can get you shot around here.”

“Are citizens being executed?” asked
Stealth.

“No, of course not. Hell, the stockade’s full
of people who probably should’ve been executed for the crap they’ve
done. But that’s bad for morale. That’s how you end up with a
rebellion. And none of that helps rebuild America.”

St. George cracked his knuckles. “Where is
Zzzap?”

Smith sighed. “The important thing is he’s
fine and he’s safe. No one’s going to hurt him. But he’s way too
valuable to the military. He’s a walking reactor, for Christ’s
sake, and if these people are going to rebuild America they need
power.”

Stealth crossed her arms. “Has he also been
stop-lossed?”

“No,” said Smith. “They’re detaining him as a
person of interest.”

“Oh, come on,” snapped St. George. “This is
ridiculous.”

“Colonel Shelly must realize if we decide to
free Zzzap, there is little his forces can do to stop us.”

“I wouldn’t be too sure of that,” Smith said
to her. “He’s got a full brigade of soldiers, plus Captain Freedom
and his company of super soldiers. Heck, there’s two tanks here
somewhere.”

“It would not be enough to stop us,” said
Stealth.

“Okay, think for a minute. Think about what
happens if you
did
get him and get away. Los Angeles gets
branded hostile territory. No food, no medical supplies, nothing.
And once they gather enough forces they’ll just come in and take
over anyway. Then we’re back to court martials.” Smith shook his
head. “You have to play ball.”

“Like you have?” asked Stealth.

“Yeah,” he said, “just like I have. You have
to understand. America’s in pieces and these guys are the glue.
They’re trying to save the country they swore to protect. It’s
nothing personal.” He sighed and tossed his clipboard on the table.
“Your best bet is just to go with it. Tomorrow the two of you will
go home to Los Angeles. Everyone there will still think you’re
heroes.”

* * *

St. George stalked along the fence line. A
halo of dark smoke surrounded his head as he clenched his fists. “I
should’ve let you beat it out of him,” he said. “If we knew where
they were holding Barry, we could just break in there and set him
free. The three of us could level this place. How could I be so
damned stupid?”