REHO: A Science Fiction Thriller (The Hegemon Wars) (24 page)

Ends glanced at Slater’s navigation band. It still displayed the last coordinates that Gibson had uploaded more than fifteen minutes ago. Either Mar had taken him offline or Gibson had lost connection with Phoenix. And if the connection with the satellite had been severed, then Reho’s mission had been a fail.

As if on cue, the alarm they’d been waiting for finally came.
Warning. Warning. Coolant system closed. Please reengage cooling with reactor. Nuclear meltdown in 28 minutes and 34 seconds
.

Reho!
Ends was relieved that he’d made it. The reactor would blow. Now the mission depended on them securing their objective. They had promised they would get Rainne out or die trying.

The lighted path stopped at an open door, but there was a bigger problem ahead—and it had just spotted them. Ends was unsure exactly what it was, but it was now obvious that their experiments were not limited to just humans. Ahead was a mammal, its body like a rhino he’d once seen in New Afrika. Its head was gone. Instead, a Hegemon helmet connected to the base of its neck, and tubes webbed across and around its body.

“Hold position. I’ll secure Rainne,” Ends said rushing into the room.

Inside, he found Rainne strapped to a bed in the corner. She was clothed with black material that reminded him of something from a samurai movie. All of the other beds were vacant.

“Rainne?” He knelt beside her and undid the restraints. “It’s Ends. Thursday and Slater are with me. Are there any other girls here with you?” She didn’t respond. “Reho will meet us at the yacht. We need to go.”

“Reho,” she mumbled, her words muffled as though being spoken through a filter.

Ends placed his hand under her chin and lifted her face. A permanent oxygen mask had been surgically embedded in her skin. He noticed a tube running from the right side of the mask and into a machine built into the wall.

Ends walked over and unplugged it from the machine.

Rainne looked up.

“It’s okay. I’m going to connect it here,” End
s said as he slid the tubing into a slot on the air tank built into his vest. He secured the connection and adjusted the valve. “You can breathe. Just stay close behind me.” Ends put his hands under her shoulders and helped her up. He had never felt someone so light before. Her body had been thin before, but now there was nothing left. She would make it, though. Reho had succeeded. And so would they.

Back in the hall, Slater had his rifle centered on the creature down the hall while Thursday guarded the way they had come.

“It hasn’t moved but its blocking our path,” Slater said. The path was illuminated again and ran past the helmeted creature ahead.

“Incoming!” Thursday said.

Ends dropped to a knee, rapid bursts issued from his assault rifle. Bullets flew as Thursday and Slater fired at three creatures that rushed in their direction, wires flying in their wake. Their bodies were flesh and went down quickly. One dropped not far from Thursday. Its eyes had been replaced with mechanical lenses resembling binoculars.

“Six o’clock!” Thursday said. The rhino-creature marched down the hall, its steps heavy, like a galloping tank. They emptied their clips, but the creature kept coming.

“Its helmet!” Rainne said.

“She’s right,” Ends said.

Thursday reloaded first and sent a burst of fire into its helmet. The crack sent oxygen shooting out, and it slammed against the walls as it ran. The final crash sent it through the wall and into another room.

“Go!” Slater said.

Ends felt Rainne’s hand clasped around his auxiliary belt.
We’re going to make it!

***

Sola felt every worry lift from her. The tiny tablet of Cold-Blu had dissolved under her tongue and she could feel that initial rush. The storm raged outside, but it couldn’t touch her. She was in charge and would get Ends back safely.

Gibson sat at the ship’s controls, constantly checking their location. The worst of the storm had pushed past them and was now at the coast.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

The monitor connected to Reho sounded as his blood pressure plummeted. Sola didn’t know what his body was enduring, but she knew he had to make it.

“His blood pressure is 65 over 45,” Sola said, looking at the monitor. “It’s dropping!”

“He’s bleeding out inside the Mainframe!” Gibson said. “Oh man!” He grabbed Reho’s legs and lifted them, trying to get more blood to his heart. “I don’t know what to do!”

Sola rubbed Reho’s arms; his left one was ice-cold to the touch.

“He’s going to die,” Gibson said.

“No, he isn’t,” Sola said. She rushed to the medic kit and pulled out a vial of saline and an empty syringe. She spilled out a handful of blue pills and crushed them with the vial. She scooped the powder into a coffee cup and poured the saline on top to dissolve it. She sucked the contents into the syringe and rushed to Reho.

Gibson grabbed her arm.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

“Saving our lives!”

She slipped the needle into Reho’s right arm.

“Come on, come on,” she said, eyes on the monitor.

“It’s working!” she shouted.

“Way to go!” Gibson said as he studied Sola’s face.

“What did you give him?”

***

The sulfur stung his eyes as he brought the flare closer to where his left arm had been. The pain turned his vision white and in his mind, the smell of sulfur mixed with the smell of the OldWorld shampoos Rainned used on the yacht. Their herbal fragrances reminded him of his mother’s garden from when he was a child. The bleeding had stopped, but his body was weak from losing too much blood. He glanced at his AIM and saw his blood pressure was dangerously low as the numbers flashed: 56/38.

His vision slipped in and out of focus as a dark figure flew toward him from the tower to the catwalk. Jimmy stood there, as he had in Reho’s dreams for so many years. He looked at Reho with a malevolent grin that said
I won.

Reho attempted to stand, but a wave of nausea and light-headedness wouldn’t allow it.
So this is how it will end
. It felt as though someone had drained him of his warm blood and replaced it with icy water. His body convulsed and his eyes closed, shutting out Jimmy’s blurry image. It was over. Dreams of a future with Rainne were all that remained. Now even those dreams were fading as he curled into a ball and let—

On its last pump, his heart rebounded hard against his chest, and his body jerked to life. Then he felt it, like electricity through his veins. A rush of energy and heat flooded his body. He was unsure of its origin, but it didn’t matter. It was a second chance. He wasn’t about to waste it.

Reho lifted himself out of the pool of blood and stood.

“Well, look at you,” Jimmy said. “You seem to be as difficult to kill as I am.” His maniacal laugh followed Reho as he sprinted across the floor.

***

Their guns never ceased firing as they forced their way along Mar’s lighted path. Rainne tripped, pulling the oxygen tube connected to Ends’ tank. Ends lifted her over his shoulder and reinserted the tube. “We’re almost there.”

Ahead, another altered beast waited in their path, its body like that of a wolf but its face mangled and sawed open, revealing mechanical blades where its teeth should have been. Thursday fired from behind, still protecting their rear as they moved through the hall. Slater emptied his assault rifle into the creature, dropped the weapon, and equipped both his pistols.

Ends had half a clip left in his rifle. They were still two minutes from the exit.

The lighted path suddenly changed directions. Ends’ abrupt stop sent Thursday crashing into him and Rainne.

“What?” Thursday asked.

“We need to continue to the exit,” Slater said.

Ends looked at the new path.
Why the sudden change?
They had a choice to make and no time to think it through. Slater hadn’t received any coordinates from Gibson and Sola since they’d relinquished control over to Mar. Either she would help them escape or lead them into a death trap. They’d expended almost all of their ammunition already. There wouldn’t be a last stand, only a slaughter.

“We’re going to follow it,” Ends said pushing past Slater. “Trust her!”

As Slater and Thursday pondered their options, a horde of Hegemon appeared in the distance, blocking their original path. They were armed and marching shoulder-to-shoulder in their direction.

“There’s our answer,” Thursday said.

He and Slater found Ends and Rainne at a dead end.

“It’s an airlock. We are on the wrong side of the facility, though,” Ends said.

With no time to spare, Slater went to work on the door.

“Mar!” Ends said. “We need this open.” Unsure if she could hear him, he yelled again anyway.

“We have incoming,” Thursday said, then dashed into an open room near them. A few seconds later, he came out pushing a long metal table.

“Want some cover?” he said sarcastically as he flipped the table over in front of them and fired at the first two Hegemon that rounded the corner.

Ends chose his shots carefully. The Hegemon were vulnerable; only chest armor covered their reptilian bodies. Ends fired three shots. One made its home in an alien’s skull.

“I’m out!” Thursday said, switching to his side arm. Ends fired the last shot from his assault rifle. The bullet nailed its target. More Hegemon arrived and took position down the hall.

Incoming shots struck against the table but didn’t go through. They would be safe for a few more moments. Rainne crouched between Ends and Thursday as they returned fire.

“Last clip!” Thursday said. Six Hegemon remained halfway down the hall.

Ends slapped in his last clip as well and waited. He looked back and saw Slater’s device displaying thousands of symbols as it worked to bypass the control panel and open the door.

“Hurry!” Thursday said, looking back at Slater.

“Twenty sec—” Slater’s reply was cut short.

A bullet had torn through his helmet and lower jaw, his body jerked as a torrent of blood gushed onto the floor. Ends grabbed Slater’s leg and pulled him away from the door.

“He’s dead,” Ends said.

The bypass device, clinched in Slater’s hand, was still connected to the control panel. The sequence of numbers and symbols stopped and it flashed green. The control panel beeped twice as the door hissed open, revealing the air lock’s outer door.

“Move!” Ends said as he approached the control panel for the outer door and started the bypass program again.

Thursday slid the table to the air lock’s opening and fired his last shot. He reached back and grabbed Ends’ pistol from him.

“Make those six shots count!” Ends said.

“Just get the blasted thing open, or the last one goes in your ass before the Hegemon’s have a chance to probe it!” Thursday replied.

The device went through its normal cycle, then issued an error message.

“Jesus!” He ran the cycle again with the same negative result.

Ends punched the panel and looked back. There were four Hegemon still firing and inevitably more close behind.

The control panel flashed, and a single line of text appeared on its digital screen.

Ends read the message and knew it wasn’t meant for him. He motioned for Rainne, who skirted the wall to get a better view of the panel.

The display read:
Reho has done for you what I could never do. He has given you hope and a future.
The text disappeared and was replaced by just two words:
NOW RUN!

“It’s Mar! She’s alive!” Rainne said. The door jetted upward pulling in the storm that raged outside. The winds and rain sent the Hegemon retreating farther back. The atmosphere would flood the facility, killing any of the Hegemon that couldn’t get to their helmets.

“Let’s go!” Thursday said, lifting Rainne. He looked Ends in the eye and smiled. “After you, sir.”

Ends rested his palm on Slater’s cheek. He hated to leave him there, but he had no choice. Slater would not be forgotten. He and Mar had made this possible.

They pushed through the jungle on the west side of Omega. The storm surrounded them as they made their way to the water taxi. They had no way of knowing if Reho had been successful. The countdown had stopped long before they’d made it to the air lock, but something told Ends he was not dead. Mar was tied to Omega and the Mainframe, and the message she’d sent Rainne suggested that he was still fighting for them.

***

“It’s them!” Gibson said, peering into a monitor with live footage from the back of the ship. A light was moving in the darkness. It would go out then come back as waves rose between them.

Sola looked away from monitor displaying Reho’s vitals, which were now spiking as the Code-Blu worked its magic. On the live feed, she knew Ends was on that boat. They had lost connection with Slater’s navigation band twenty minutes earlier.

***

There would be no return. The small canister labeled
Drink Me
remained in Reho’s pocket as he rocketed himself across the reactor, unpinning the grenades from his vest as he flew. He crashed into Jimmy, sending both over the railing. Jimmy’s psychotic laughter morphed into the screams of a dying animal. The last grenade dropped as they descended to the bottom of the reactor.