The War of Pawns (The Human Chronicles -- Book Three) (35 page)

After about five minutes, Adam noticed that no more men where leaving the buildings. But this wasn’t right; there were far fewer than 1,000 men. A quick head count put their numbers at closer to 90 or so.

Adam lifted the microphone. “I’m Captain Adam Cain, United States Navy. We have secured the compound and are here to free you from your captivity.”

He paused to let the significance of his statement filter throughout the ranks. As the seconds passed, there came a marked improvement in the moods and expressions on the faces of the men. A few of them even began to cheer. Then someone yelled out, “We’re going home, boys!”

Adam grimaced to himself. He knew they were in for a letdown. Then one of the older men stepped forward. He was tall and barrel-chested, with large dark eyes and a bald head. Every group of men had their leader, and the prisoners were no exception.

“I’m Derrick Vanholden,” the man said. Even though he spoke English, Adam could still detect a trace of accent, even through the interference of the translation bug. The device behind his ear tried to decipher which language the man was speaking, but with his next words, the device seemed to have worked it out. The words came through to Adam smooth and clear.

“We’ve been told that we are on an alien planet, hundreds of light years from Earth. And now the U.S. Navy is here to save us. Forgive me if I find that a little hard to believe. We have been manipulated by the 2G’s in the past.”

“I can assure you, Mr. Vanholden, that we are the real deal. We have just come from Earth, where major changes are taking place. But I was led to believe that there were around 1,000 of your men here. How many are in your ranks?”

“There are 86 of us left. The 2G’s came and took most of us away a couple of months ago, just after most of them left. They seem to be deserting the base. Are you here to take us home?”

Adam hesitated, and Vanholden picked up on it immediately, as did some of the men closest to Adam. “What’s wrong? Is this some kind of game you’re playing?”

“No, it’s no game. But I have to tell you what’s going on first.”

“No shit!” someone yelled from the crowd.

Adam had no choice but to jump right in. “As you know, the 2G’s and the Klin have been trying to get you to join their forces for a fight against the Juireans. Is this your understanding as well?”

“That’s right,” Vanholden confirmed.

“Well I’m to here to tell you that the war has begun, and that it’s a direct result of the Klin manipulating both the Earth and the Juireans into fighting each other. The Klin revealed the location of Earth to the Juireans and they sent a massive fleet against the planet a few months ago. The Klin then sat back as millions of people were killed in the initial attack. Then the 2G’s, in the Klin spaceships, destroyed the Juirean fleet. Now the Juireans believe Humans to be their enemy, and are going to be utilizing their entire empire to fight against us.”

“When can we go home?” someone asked from the crowd. Adam was getting the distinct impression that most of the men didn’t care about the politics of the situation. All they wanted to do was go home.

“That’s the problem,” Adam said. “The Klin have convinced the people back on Earth that they are the saviors of the Human race. They call the 2G’s, and the other men who have joined their ranks, Recruits, having joined them voluntarily. The last thing the Klin want is for people like you, along with the woman, to tell your stories, stories of abduction, torture, rape and imprisonment. The same thing happened to me and my friends when we first returned to Earth after having been abducted ourselves.”

“So what’s going to happen to us?” Vanholden asked. The men had begun to crowd closer to Adam’s cart, a move that made the SEALs nervous. They gripped their weapons a little tighter.

“You have options, Mr. Vanholden, and the rest of you. You can return to Earth; we’ll provide you with one of the Klin spaceships and help you to find your way. But then you’ll be taking your chances with the Klin. Or you could stay here, in control of the compound, and wait for either the forces from Earth or the Juireans to find you, and take your chances that way. Or you can join us.”

“What do you mean? Aren’t you a part of the Earth forces?” Adam could see the confusion on Vanholden’s face. Adam was realizing that the subject matter he was presenting was a lot of material to drop on them all at once.

“Not officially. We escaped from Earth just as the battles were winding down. We are not a part of the Earth-Klin forces. We are operating outside the control of the Klin and the 2G’s. And we are on a special mission.”

“What mission?” Vanholden’s tone spoke volumes. Adam was beginning to feel he’d lost them.

“We are to operate as a strike force behind the Juirean lines, disrupting their fighting capacity as best we can, and preparing for the Human invasion of Juirean territory.”

“You want us to fight with you, rather than go home? Are you fucking crazy?” Multiple voices began to protest in the crowd.

“Like I said, the choice will be yours. Just remember, if you decide to go back to Earth, you run the risk of being imprisoned, or worse. The 2G’s could eliminate you, rather than have you counter the lies the Klin have been spreading.”

Adam held up his hand, as many of the men began to talk among themselves. “Listen up. I’m not asking for an immediate decision. We will be staying here at the base for a few weeks as we prepare for our move into Juirean territory. During that time, you are free to go anywhere on the base you wish and to speak with any of my men. Ask your questions and satisfy yourselves. I have been where you are now. I was abducted, too. The last thing I want is for someone to join us who is not 100% committed. But for the time being, you’re free. You no longer need to fear the Klin or the 2G’s. That’s all for now.”

Adam wanted to get out of the prison area as soon as possible, so he and the SEAL’s loaded into three of the carts and headed further into the base to hook up with the other Teams. Tobias and Rutledge would be coming in now, and they would need to establish a headquarters on the base.

Adam knew he would be replaying the speech he just gave over and over in his head, thinking of all the different ways he could have presented the information. He had been winging it, and the more he spoke, the more complicated – and bizarre – the presentation became. Nearly a hundred men had been shaken from their slumber, and then presented with a set of facts that defied belief.

As the cart hummed through the deserted streets of the base, Adam was hoping that the recent experiences of the men would have conditioned them for the strange and seemingly impossible reality they now found themselves in. Adam, himself, would have been skeptical. But luckily he had a few weeks in order to convince the men of the truth. He had the President’s speech they could watch. He had Riyad and Sherri they could speak with, along with the other non-converts in Chris’s group. And they had their own experiences at the hands of the Klin and the 2G’s.

He began to feel a little better. If all went well, he would have his small army, smaller than he had anticipated, unfortunately, but an army none the less.

What he would do with it remained to be seen.

Chapter Fifty

Admiral Nate Allen had become very proficient at spotting 2G’s. He had even begun to reference them, at least to himself, for what they were, and that was a bunch of barely-Human men, who had been born and raised off-planet by a race of backstabbing and heartless aliens. In no way were they the
Saviors
of the Human race.

But it was their pedigree that had also provided their greatest weakness. Having never spent too much time around real Humans, the 2G’s were gullible to a fault. If any of them had any money, Allen would have been able to strip them clean in a game of Texas-Hold-Em.

As Allen set about establishing his clandestine operation out in Nevada, he had found that all he needed to do to gain the full cooperation of the 2g’s was to compliment them. They had no concept of sarcasm, and believed everything Allen told them. When he said he was in absolute awe of their knowledge of Klin ship operations, they had been more than willing to show off their expertise to Allen’s secret recording devices. Then taking those recordings, Allen’s SEALs had been able to master the controls and technology of the ships in very short order, even before the trainees under Admiral Keller’s command.

As it turned out, none of the technology was magical; it was just more advanced. And Allen’s cadre of scientists he’d recruited needed just a little more knowledge before the concepts became clear – at least to them.

The Admiral had made the mistake a few weeks back of asking some of the scientists how it was that they could communicate almost simultaneously over interstellar distances. He had left the room feeling as though his head was about to explode, with terms like quantum entanglement pairs and wormholes boggling his mind. He decided that he didn’t need to understand, just as long as the technology worked.

And indeed it had – even if a message took four hours one-way – and now Allen was in touch with his advance force in The Fringe.

He had relayed to Tobias and Cain the information regarding the aftermath of the Juirean attack. They had been mortified, just as he had, at the number one-billion dead. Yet they saved most of their scorn for the fact that the 2G’s were now passing themselves off as Earth’s
Saviors
. This information had set off Adam Cain to an even higher degree. But he had calmed down somewhat when Allen related the conversation he’d had with President Ryan concerning him and the charge of treason. Allen had expressed the hope that one day Cain’s name could be cleared of this horrid lie. Allen’s belief in Cain’s innocence had gone a long way to improving the mood of the young SEAL.

But even though the 2G’s had become easy to spot and to manipulate, it was the true turn-coats –
the converts
– who were providing Allen with most of his current headaches.

These men were much harder to spot, since they were native-born and well-versed in real life on the planet. One convert in particular had nearly blown Allen’s entire operation a few weeks ago. And wouldn’t you know it – he had been a nerdy bean-counter before his conversion…

Being a man of action, Admiral Nate Allen always hated the Pentagon accountants and their obsession with every bullet, grenade and laptop computer used during a direct action, or DA.

Yet ST6 operated at a different level than most military units, with their own budget and supply protocol. If it hadn’t been for this fact, then Allen may not have been able to spot the spy when he joined the Complex staff about a month after the attacks.

Darin Jacobs was his name, and he was a thin, wiry man, with pre-mature male baldness and a serious case of chronic halitosis. Allen often wondered why Jacobs had ever been abducted in the first place; he was not a very strong representative of the Human race. But he had, and Allen reasoned it was the nerdy man’s quest for power over other Humans that had convinced him to join the 2G’s.

For several weeks now, Allen and Admiral Keller had been working nearly around the clock in the Complex setting up Allen’s secret base. They had also begun to notice more and more obvious 2G’s being assigned to Keller’s support staff. Allen had been able to divert most them from his operations, and Keller, himself, had put his foot down at times as the inexperienced 2G’s attempted to influence his operations.