Patriots & Tyrants (Rebels & Lies Trilogy Book 2) (16 page)

There was nothing but
the cold. That was all that Kaspar could think about as he forced his way up
trying to keep pace with everyone else. His attempts at guessing how many miles
they had gone to this point stopped long ago. Every time he thought they might
be close, there were more miles of snow covered ground. There was no feeling in
his toes any more. His face, despite being covered by the white Balaclava, felt
like someone was stabbing all areas of his cheeks with a sharp razor blade.

The afternoon sun
glistened off of the metallic silver lenses which covered his eyes. When he
looked up, he thought he saw something blink in the sky. With all the mental
and physical exhaustion, he felt that it must have been an illusion, so he just
ignored it. He pressed on and felt a temptation to fire the PSD, which was
slung across his chest, into the air so he could place his hands on the hot
barrel. All the others, they seemed to be pros at this, especially Sanders’s
crew. None of them seemed to struggle and, even if they were, they were skilled
at not showing any signs of it. He just didn’t know, with the way his body
ached, how he could even attempt to get into a firefight with the USR. Not when
he couldn’t feel his hands.

As he continued to
follow the others up the endless mountain his thoughts started to drift away
from him. Of course, the only person he was thinking about at this point was
Krys. Was she okay? Did she finally succumb to the poison inside of her and
die? There would be no way of knowing until they got back. Sanders was very
clear that he wanted radio silence from all members of the team and there would
be no exceptions. Sanders didn’t want this mission to go south, but then again,
nobody else did, either. What made Sanders so high and mighty?

The climb went on.
Somehow, even though he felt as if his entire body was numb, Kaspar could feel
the burn in his hamstrings and upper legs. So tired, he just needed to sit down
somewhere and build a fire, then continue on. But the others, they just kept at
it with their steady pace. When would it end?

Kaspar saw Krys in his
mind lying in a casket. They didn’t make it in time to cure her. All he wanted
right now was to see her smile again. Was that too much to ask? He imagined
them when they first got together. She made him feel like the best person on
the face of the earth, and Kaspar knew that he wasn’t, but she still loved him
all the same. There was never a time when Krys made him doubt their
relationship. Just like with everyone else, they had their spats every now and
then, but she always told him how much she loved him even when they fought. He
just didn’t know what he was going to do if he couldn’t save her.

More snow, more steps,
more sharp stabs to the face. Kaspar didn’t even know how he was still standing
at this point, when he couldn’t feel his feet. How had he managed to keep
pressing on? The more he tried to ignore the pain, the more intense it grew to
the point that it was all he thought about. There was another temptation in his
mind to run to the front and ask Sanders how close they were. He knew what the
response would have been, though, so he just kept moving.

Harvey was right next
to him. Just like Sanders, despite his age, he moved like he was thirty years
younger. Kaspar peered over at him and tried to catch a glimpse at even the
slightest bit of fatigue but there was none to be found. Harvey, who wasn’t
even wearing his mask, looked to Kaspar and nodded his head.

“Just got to keep
moving,” Harvey said through the sharp, howling wind. “We’ll be there soon.”

Kaspar couldn’t bring
himself to talk with his chattering teeth. He simply nodded his head back. How
soon was soon, though? Another hour of this shit? Maybe more? Kaspar’s thoughts
drifted from Krys to Mother now. If there was an afterlife, he wondered what she
was up to at this moment. Was she looking down at him, urging him on, even
though he couldn’t hear it? Instead of that, he pictured her sitting down on a
rocker, knitting away at her latest masterpiece. She was completely at peace,
which was what she deserved after all she went through on earth.

That anger over her
murder burned inside once again, even in these bitter conditions. With all
these missions they ran trying to stop the USR’s experiments in population
control, he almost forgot why he was in this in the first place. It was because
of her. To avenge her death. Even though he let one of them go, he knew that
with every success, he was in turn, succeeding in that revenge. He would take
down as much of the USR he could before he joined her, but then, what would
anything he had done to that point matter?

Up front, Sanders held
his left fist straight up in the air. The hand signal ordered everyone to stop.
With a wave of his left arm up and down, that meant to get down. Kaspar obeyed
the order along with everyone else. Down on one knee, he shouldered his PSD and
aimed it forward, ready to gun down the poor Agent who showed his face.

The longer they
remained down, the more focus was lost. He tried with everything not to think
about the cold, but it clouded his mind to the point where he didn’t feel as if
he could pull the trigger in time if they were ambushed. After what seemed like
an eternity, Sanders finally gave the all clear. They were up and at it again.
Kaspar struggled to get back up. With the fatigue and the cold, his legs felt
like they weighed a thousand pounds each.

They kept pressing on
and they arrived at the top of a hill. When Kaspar reached the top, he looked
down and a wave of relief swept through him. They had made it. The compound sat
there, downhill a ways, and it still looked fairly small from here. It had a
hexagonal shape to it. Little bits of the black roof could be seen, but it was
mostly covered in white powder. Battle stations and watch towers were also set
up around the perimeter. Off in the distance, Kaspar could see several black
Humvees speeding away from the building. Where the hell were they going in such
a hurry?

“Huddle up, men.”
Sanders ordered.

The team moved in
towards Sanders and huddled around him as ordered. He gave each person a look
before he talked. When he got to Kaspar, he made a motion with his hands for
him to take off the mask. Kaspar did so, but with reluctance. When the
Balaclava left his face, the bitter cold wind stabbed at it with even more
fury. What the hell did it matter if he was wearing the thing, anyway?

Once Sanders was
satisfied, he continued. “Listen up, ladies, there’s our target right down
there. We’ve got to…”

Just then, off in the
distance, the loud sound of a set of jet engines echoed through the cold air.
They all looked up to see three fighter jets, flying low, to the point where
they could all see the USR insignia on the tails. They continued to fly in low
towards the compound. Kaspar watched in horror, unsure of what was about to
happen. He soon found out.

A wave of missiles
from the fighters headed straight for the compound.

The explosion was
deafening. Even from the distance at which the compound went up in flames,
Kaspar could feel the heat of the fires on his face. He cursed aloud and got to
his knees. The tears flowed free. As he stood, he caught a glimpse of an Agent
pointing his weapon at him. Before the Agent could fire, Sanders took him out
with an automatic burst.

“Goddamn it!” Sanders
cried out. “I thought I fucking heard something!”

Sanders ordered his
men to retreat. There was an assault vehicle full of Agents and they all came
pouring out of it, M4 Carbines drawn and firing. Bullets tore through the snow
covered ground all around Kaspar. He was in shock, staring down at the compound
which was gone, and along with it, the cure was gone. This was Krys’s last shot
and it was going up in flames.

The bullets continued
to fly in his direction. Harvey reached over and grabbed Kaspar by the
shoulders and forced him to the ground.

“The hell is the
matter with you?” Harvey demanded.

“The cure…Krys…”

“Forget about that
right now, we’ve got to get the hell out of here!”

Harvey shouldered his
PSD and fired away at the Agents who were making their way down the hill.
Kaspar gathered himself and started to run down. He ran so fast that he lost
his balance and went tumbling down the snow covered ground. When his momentum
finally stopped, he collected himself and turned. The other squad members were
moving their way down. A few would stop every so often to fire at the Agents in
pursuit.

This was all a setup,
Kaspar thought as he aided in the gunfire. His adrenaline was finally kicking
in and he no longer felt the pain or the cold. All that mattered now was
getting out of here. He couldn’t think about the cure right now, Harvey was
right about that. Dying on this mountain would do nobody any good. They would
have to try and find another way.

Kaspar tried to aim at
the Agents, who also wore white fatigues with nothing to give them away but the
muzzle flashes and that came from their black weapons. He prayed that he
wouldn’t hit any friendlies on accident, but he had to survive. He fired at the
white helmets as three of Sanders’s men went down. The ones that survived were
getting closer. The image of Sanders’s scar on the side of his face came into
view. Sanders lowered his body and slid the rest of the way to Kaspar’s
position.

“We’ve got to
retreat!” Sanders cried as he turned his attention to the white hats.

“What the hell
happened?” Kaspar demanded over the gunfire.

“No idea! No time to
think about it right now!”

More of the rebels
made it down. Kaspar could almost see the whites of Dexter’s eyes before he was
gunned down by a barrage of bullets from behind. Harvey and Buck were the last
ones to make it. They all looked to Sanders. The Agents continued their descent
down. They stopped firing for a moment.

“Move!” Sanders
yelled.

The unit turned and
continued to run down. In front of them were several trees which they could use
for cover. The Agents resumed their firing as they got closer down. Kaspar made
a run for one of the trees. Another of Sanders’s men went down just as Kaspar
reached the tree. Chunks of bark from the evergreen went up in the air as he
pressed his back against it.

When there was a break
in the tree going up, Kaspar sidestepped and searched for a white hat to shoot
at. He found one and held down the trigger. The Agent never stood a chance and
went down. Kaspar had to be fast. Another Agent pointed his gun at him and
fired. He made it the safety of the tree trunk just in time. That Agent was
taken out by Buck. Kaspar never thought that Buck would save his ass.

“You okay?” Buck asked
from Kaspar’s right.

“I’m fine. Thanks.”

“Let’s move!” Sanders
cried once again.

Kaspar reluctantly
left the cover of the trunk and ran. The blasts of gunfire echoed through the
cold air. A couple of rebels stayed behind to provide cover. Once Kaspar and
the others made it down some more, they turned at Sanders’s order to provide cover
for those that stayed behind. Kaspar took out two more Agents before the rebels
made it.

“Move it!” Sanders
cried.

All but two turned to
run again. The two that stayed took out several more Agents before the enemies
managed to take cover behind the trees. One Agent reached for his flak jacket
and blind tossed a frag grenade in the air. It landed next to Kaspar.

“Grenade!” Kaspar
cried once it hit the ground next to him.

A new kind of
adrenaline rush entered Kaspar. He ran harder than he knew he could. After a
few steps, he dove forward and the grenade went off. Shrapnel flew through the
air and a piece of it slashed the side of his face. He cried out in pain, but
quickly got up with the help of Harvey.

“You all right?”
Harvey wondered.

“Let’s just get out
of…”

More gunfire. Kaspar
turned and fired on an Agent who slipped through. Five rounds hit him in the
chest before Harvey aimed for the head. Everything was going to hell again,
Kaspar thought as he and Harvey jolted forward. Why couldn’t anything they
planned just go according to that plan?

The gunfire continued.
All the rebels were now in a line, down low in the snow. Sanders ordered them
to hold the line. Kaspar emptied the mag in his PSD and grabbed a fresh one.
Fully reloaded, he awaited Sander’s orders to fire. The Agents were still
moving in their positions around the trees for cover. There were about eight of
them left, from what Kaspar could tell.

The rebels fired away
at the trees, but the Agents had a solid position now behind them. They would
have to make a bold move and try to ambush them there. Kaspar started to doubt
Sanders’s leadership. They were now without any cover; that was left behind
where their enemies were now. Sanders yelled for them to take their grenades
and throw them towards the trees. Kaspar grabbed a hold of one and yanked it
from his flak jacket. He pulled the pin and threw it. The explosives went off
and the Agents scattered from behind the trees.

Out in the open, the
Agents fired towards the rebels. The rebels in turn fired back. After a long
moment of straight gunfire, gun smoke filled the mountain air. When the smoke
cleared, all the Agents were either dead or bleeding to death on the snow. Some
were taken out by the explosions, but most by the gunfire. On the other side,
two more of Sanders’s men went down. All that remained were Sanders, three of
his men, Harvey, Buck and Kaspar. The threat seemed to be over for now.

They had a long hike
downhill to deliver Krys the bad news.