The Children of the Sun (43 page)

Two had time to wonder if Theroen meant to kill this child or if he only planned on subduing her. She wasn’t sure it mattered; it would be only a matter of minutes, at most, before the girl was missed. Still, this would at least buy them a moment or two. It would—

The girl’s lips were moving, and after a moment more her eyes began to sharpen. Two tilted her head, listening, and realized that the girl was reciting some sort of mnemonic device, a set of rhyming couplets, and the effort of it was bringing her out of her swoon.

“… sister, hold her hand. Mister, my sister, she cannot stand. Mister, my sister, I cannot lie. Mister, my sister, I fear she’ll die …”

Before Theroen could reach her, the girl came fully to her senses and, drawing in a great breath, she began to scream. Two watched as she whirled on her heel and threw herself at the door, crashing out through it and into the gym. Her screams became words, alerting everyone therein to the danger she had just successfully avoided.

“Bats!” she cried. “Someone help me! There are bats in the locker room!”

Theroen glanced back at Two with an expression of helpless despair, and she could do no more than look back at him and draw her sword.

“We are so screwed,” she said, and as she spoke the words, the door to the locker room burst open, and the first wave of Children soldiers began to rush in.

Chapter 20
Intruders

It seemed to Vanessa that she had just lain down to sleep when someone, she thought it was Carrie, began shaking her awake. Grumbling profanities, she shoved the girl’s hands away and sat up in her bunk, raising an arm to shield her eyes from the burning glare of the desk lamp Carrie had lit. She had gone to sleep in nothing more than a pair of panties and knew this gesture was leaving her breasts exposed to anyone else who might be in the room, but she couldn’t be bothered to care.

“Whazz…whuthafuck?” she asked, running a hand over her face. “Carrie, what time is it?”

“It’s 11:30. Ness, you have to get up!”

Her fellow soldier seemed all abuzz about something. Vanessa, who had slept barely four hours in the last thirty-six, envied her. She didn’t think she was currently capable of producing that sort of energy.

“11:30 in the morning?” she asked.

“No, at night. You’ve only been asleep a couple hours.”

“Well Jesus fucking Christ,” Vanessa growled. “Did I not leave explicit instructions not to wake me up unless—”

“They caught two bats in the girls’ locker room,” Carrie said.

If Vanessa had thought herself incapable of Carrie’s level of excitement, the surge of adrenaline that went bursting through her body at the other woman’s words proved her wrong. She was out of the bed and moving toward her clothes, which lay stacked on a chair, even as she began asking questions.

“Two of them? Are they alive? What are they doing here?!”

“They’re alive. I don’t know, Ness, but they fought like hell. Wasn’t until the boys with the assault rifles showed up that they stood down. We lost six people.”

“Fuck. Fucking bats. Who’s in charge right now?” Vanessa was pulling on her pants. She realized too late that she had them on backwards, made a sound of aggravation, and started over.

“Colonel Miller,” Carrie said, and she held out Vanessa’s belt and holster as Vanessa began buttoning up her shirt.  When she was done, she grabbed the items and fastened them at her waist. Her gun was in her top drawer. She checked the chamber, pocketed an extra clip, and put the gun in its holster.

“Miller. OK. And they’re still alive?”

“Last I heard, yeah. He was going to speak with them personally.”

“They in cellblock?”

“Yeah, that’s where they took them. I don’t know what’s been going on since then. I had to wait until I could clock out to come tell you. Park’s still on shift for another couple hours.”

All of the Children’s soldiers worked on constantly shifting, staggered schedules. This was true for the greenest private all the way up through the most seasoned captain, and even the three colonels themselves. Vanessa had just enjoyed the exquisite pleasure of working back-to-back eight-hour shifts. She had spent another three hours writing reports before taking a shower and collapsing into her bed.

“Where’s Captain Perrault?” Vanessa asked, sitting on the lower bunk now, where Carrie usually slept, rapidly lacing up her boots.

“We don’t know.”

Vanessa stopped what she was doing and looked up at Carrie. “What the fuck does that mean? Who is ‘we’ and why don’t they know?!”

“I guess ‘we’ is everyone I’ve talked to, and I have no idea, Ness. They had me doing repair work in the garage, fixing some trashed boards on the APC. She’s not in her room and she’s not answering calls.”

“Jesus fucking … incompetent motherf—you know, if Charles was still alive, he’d—”

“Be really pissed at the people in charge of watching her? I know, Ness. Colonel Miller threw them both into solitary and said maybe he’d let them out in a week.”

“Good.”

Vanessa finished lacing up her boots and stood up. She took a moment to try to smooth her clothes out, doing the best she could in the limited amount of time she was willing to allow herself. Then she hauled her long, black braids back into a ponytail and said to Carrie, “I’m going to the Command Center.”

“I figured you’d want to be there,” Carrie said.

“Well, I’d rather be down in cellblock interrogating the bats, but I think Colonel Miller would have me shot if I did that without permission.”

“Probably right.”

“This is a huge problem. Our location’s been compromised. We’re going to have to start evac within, I don’t know … two hours? Miller probably already has people arming the charges. I want to find out as much as we can before we have to execute the prisoners.”

Carrie nodded. “I know. I should probably be packing already, but I … can I do anything from here? Not a lot of room for sergeants in the CC.”

“Not too much room for captains, either, and there are only eight of us. Usually it’s just a colonel, a major, and their tech staff. I’m the only person my rank who’s actually seen the bats up close, though. I might know these two. I’m going.”

“I want to help,” Carrie said, and there was a plaintive note in her voice.

Vanessa thought about it for a moment and then said, “I haven’t had a ton of sleep, so maybe I’m missing something, but two vampires creeping around? That screams assassination to me. I’m sure the Emperor’s fine … but Captain Perrault? We need to find her right now.”

Carrie’s eyes widened. “You think she’s … oh
shit
, Ness!”

“Go look. Park’s useless unless he’s in front of a spreadsheet, so don’t worry about him, just go. Maybe Miller has already thought of this, but whoever he’s got, they won’t be as thorough as you. Scour the place from the roof all the way down to the gym and then back again if you still haven’t found her.”

Vanessa looked at the door, then back at her solider, and continued. “Check everything’s that’s big enough to hold a body, OK? Go fast but be thorough, and when you’re done, find me. If I’m not with the colonel, I’ll be in cellblock.”

“OK, Ness.”

“Good,” Vanessa said. For an odd moment, she didn’t want to leave; some part of her, small but insistent, said that she was never going to see Carrie Brennan alive again, that by sending her soldier away she was signing the woman’s death sentence. That seemed absurd, and ultimately Vanessa fought the feeling down.

“I’ll see you soon,” she said, and she started toward the door.

* * *

The Command Center was located on the second sublevel, along with the individual quarters for the three colonels, the four majors, and both of the Emperor’s Hands. In operation twenty-four hours a day, one of the three colonels was always present there, unless some pressing circumstance – the interrogation of two vampire prisoners, for example – took him elsewhere. The colonel on duty was assisted by a major and several technicians, and they spent the bulk of their time planning the comings and goings of the various Children units.

Vanessa didn’t imagine it was glamorous work, most of the time. Organizing the duties of 180 soldiers plus support staff and trainees was likely a tedious exercise in schedule manipulation, particularly when they weren’t conducting raids. Still, it had to be done in order to ensure that the machine continued running smoothly. None of the colonels was under forty, and she thought the oldest of the three – Miller – might be pushing sixty. There was no higher rank to be obtained, other than the special case of the Emperor’s Hands, and there were always only three. There would not be a new colonel named until one of the current three died or retired.

When she stepped up to the two privates manning the door to the CC, both snapped to attention and saluted her. Vanessa returned the gesture and said, “I want to speak with Colonel Miller.”

The two soldiers glanced sidelong at each other for a moment before looking back at her. One of them, a tall and gawky-looking kid, made a coughing noise, and she could see his face reddening. Finally he said, “When he got back from cellblock, Colonel Miller said he wasn’t to be disturbed, ma’am.”

“I think he’ll make an exception for me,” Vanessa said.

“I dunno, ma’am,” the other private said. He was older, also tall, and built like a tank. “He’s uh … pretty pissed off.”

“Why’s that?”

“Fucking bats won’t talk,” the first private said. “Uh … pardon my French, ma’am.”

“Sounded American to me,” Vanessa said. “Well, boys, here’s the situation … one of you is going in there and telling Colonel Miller that Captain Harper would like a moment of his time. Further, you can tell him that I made it expressly clear to you that if you did
not
relay my message to him, I was going to pick one of you at random and shoot him in the groin. I’ll give you fifteen seconds to realize I’m serious.”

Vanessa took a step back and pulled her weapon from its holster, chambering a round and holding the gun at her side.

“Ten seconds,” she said.

“Ma’am, I—” began the muscular one, and Vanessa swung the pistol around to point between his legs.

“Volunteering?” she asked. “Fantastic! Five seconds, Private.”

“Dude, I’d go,” the gawky private said, his eyes wide but his tone almost conversational, and Vanessa had to stifle a laugh. If the boys called her bluff, she was ready to put the fear of God into them with a shot, but she wasn’t about to emasculate either of them. Fortunately, the bigger private proved unwilling to test her.

“Be right back!” he said, and he made his way through the door. The scrawny one let out a sigh of relief.

“That would’ve sucked,” he said.

“More for him than for you,” Vanessa replied.

“Yes, ma’am.”

Vanessa made her weapon safe and returned it to the holster. She and the private waited in silence, and soon the soldier returned.

“He uh … says you can come in.”

“Excellent,” Vanessa said, and the two soldiers stepped out of her way. She moved past them. Behind her, she heard the bigger soldier ask the other if he thought she’d been serious. She allowed herself a small smile as she entered the Command Center.

“Are you enjoying tormenting my people, Harper?” Colonel Miller asked her from the far side of the room, and Vanessa forced the smile from her face.

“No, sir,” she said as she walked toward him. “I just didn’t want to waste a lot of time fighting with them, and I thought you might make an exception for me.”

“Right,” Miller said, and he looked up from his computer monitor as she approached the desk. He was a hard man with a lined face, short, grey hair, broad shoulders, and only the slightest hint of a belly. Of the three colonels, she thought he was the best.

“I just heard about the bats,” Vanessa told him, and Miller made a scoffing noise.

“And you thought, ‘what the colonel needs right now is my expert opinion,’ Captain?”

Vanessa wasn’t going to be intimidated. “That is exactly right, sir.”

Miller shook his head, glancing back at his monitor. “What advice can you offer, might I ask, that was so important it was worth threatening my men?”

“Not advice, Colonel. Knowledge. I’ve been in the field and seen these assholes up close. I might know them.”

“I don’t see why that matters,” Miller told her, and Vanessa found herself grasping for the words she needed to explain why she thought it did.

“I want to interrogate them,” she said at last.

“I already did that. They’re not talking, and you haven’t answered my question. What is it you think you can offer me, Captain Harper, that I can’t get for myself?

“I might be able to use my knowledge of the events that happened in the cathedral to get them to talk. What do they look like?”

“One of them is a tall, gangly white male with short, dark hair. The other one is a petite white female with short, blonde hair.”

“You see? I’ve fought those two. The woman … she’s the one who—”

“I’ve read your reports, Vanessa. I know who she is. She’s not talking. Normally we’d bring Captain Perrault in on this, since she’s so persuasive, but given her previous reaction to the girl …”