“This is going to be an absolute mess.” Dan’s voice was heavy as he turned to look at Jennifer and William. “It’s time for us to get the hell out of here before things get any worse.”
“Worse?” William stared at Dan in disbelief. “How in the seven hells could anything get worse? Our government is in shambles. Ibis knocked the entire thing over, elevating the most craven and corrupt collection of parasites that has ever sunk their fangs into public finances to positions of power. Then he goes and offs himself on national television. Every one of those assholes is going to be at each other’s throats. We are about to see absolute chaos.”
“Henry designed video games.” Dan turned to the older injured man. “He had some fancy technology, but he didn’t have the wherewithal to pull something this crazy off. He had backers. The kind of backers who could undermine the government and military on this level are scary people. Hell, I’m pretty scared of just Merella. It took an entire squad of us using magic to bring her down the first time. She’s probably worth at least a tank or two in close combat, and right now she isn’t in a jungle that you can bomb indiscriminately.”
“Backers?” William asked slowly, his mind visibly churning.
“Yes!” Dan threw his hands up in exasperation. “Ibis didn’t invent the nanites. He traded for them. I never saw those power suits at the Thoth Foundation. It doesn’t mean that they didn’t have them, but I wouldn’t be surprised if another group developed them. That means that there were multiple different groups working on technology that theoretically doesn’t exist.
“Daddy,” Jennifer intervened gently. “That kind of technology doesn’t happen without the government finding out about it, and given the reactions we saw to the attack on the Capitol, I can’t help but think that parts of the government knew about it and agreed to look the other way.”
“I was just shy of the joint chiefs.” William frowned, sending shadows skittering across his face in the light cast by the cellphone. “If something like this were happening, I would have caught wind of it.”
“You were loyal.” Dan shrugged, exasperation leaking into his voice. “Those who were conspiring knew better than to approach you. I wouldn’t be surprised if you thought of a couple incidents where an associate asked you an innocent question to test the water, see how you responded.”
“Well…” William winced in pain as he shifted slightly. “Everyone joked about how the system was corrupt. I mean, every time we would plan for a deployment, reading the parameters was always a joke. Some senator would insert a demand into an appropriations bill that we avoid damaging the estate of his ‘friend,’ a violent oligarch that caused half the problem we were intervening to try and fix in the first place. Pretty much everyone would joke about how much easier everything would be if we didn’t have to deal with that bullshit.”
“And did you encourage the discussion?” Dan asked, walking over to the older man and triggering gravitational easing. “If you didn’t, did one or more of your subordinates seem overly interested in the conversation? The rebel groups didn’t need everyone, just enough people in important positions to give out contradictory orders and freeze everything up with indecision.”
“Son.” William eyed Dan warily as he approached. “What do you think you’re doing? I told you I don’t need any help.”
“You were lying.” Jennifer put her hands on her hips while staring her father down. “I was going to let it slide because I thought we had time, but I agree with Dan. Now that Ibis is out of the picture, things are going to get worse before they get better.”
“Stop being so negative,” William barked at both of them, halfheartedly trying to fight Dan off as he picked the older man up. “With Ibis out of the way, the army is going to step in and reassert order any minute now. Hell, Bowman on his own can probably right this entire ship with that unit of his that just transferred up from Brazil.”
Dan glanced at Jennifer, worried. Bowman had been gunning for him for months. The officer was willing to bend the truth to get him in trouble, and with the fall of organized governance in America, who knew what the man was capable of.
“Where was Bowman while DC was under attack?” Dan asked rhetorically as he shifted William to a more comfortable position on his back. “If he was in the area and he had the entire military wing of the Starshield program with him, there must’ve been a reason why he didn’t move.”
Dan and Jennifer jogged in silence for about ten minutes before William spoke up again. “Maybe he didn’t know that we needed help?” His voice was reluctant as he asked the question, almost petulant.
“It was all over the news, Daddy,” Jennifer responded softly. “Everyone knew that DC was under siege. The question on everyone’s mind was whether the attackers or the defenders were legitimate. Bowman would have known you were there. If he didn’t help, it was a decision.”
“Fine,” William grumbled into Dan’s shoulder. “My reality is crumbling around me, and everyone I thought I could trust has already betrayed me. Now I’m being carried around like a child by my daughter’s shithead boyfriend. Great. What do we do now?”
“We’re not dating, Daddy,” Jennifer responded, struggling to keep her voice measured. “We’re just friends.”
“That’s even worse!” The general thundered, his hand slapping down on Dan’s shoulder. “You came all the way to DC to save me, and you aren’t getting anything out of it? Do you even have a spine, boy?”
“Jennifer saved my life more than once in the Amazon.” Dan’s voice hissed out through gritted teeth. “I owed her one, and she wanted to save you. I know she’d do the same for me.”
Jennifer nodded as she jogged alongside them.
“God.” Dan could feel the general shifting as the old man shook his head violently behind him. “This touchy-feely shit is what’s wrong with this country. At least have the balls to sleep with my daughter, so I can be rightfully pissed at you about that!”
Wisely, Dan kept his mouth shut while Jennifer stepped in to try and distract the irate old man.
“I say we go back to the Thoth Foundation and use the teleportation pad to ride things out in space,” Jennifer volunteered. “Once we have a better idea what’s going on, we can intervene. Until then, intervening is too risky. We could end up helping out the wrong side and getting ourselves killed way too easily.”
“Space?” William interjected from Dan’s back. “Since when is space on the table? Actually, both of you have been listed missing in action. Is that where you’ve been? Space?”
“At this point, I say we loot Thoth headquarters.” Dan shrugged, shifting William slightly. “If I’m listed as missing, I doubt that anyone has taken my biometrics out of their system. We should be able to just walk in and grab everything that isn’t nailed down.”
“But how much are we going to be able to teleport?” Jennifer questioned. “Maybe we grab some of the more valuable things, like samples of the nanites, but I seem to recall those teleportation pads having fairly strict weight requirements.”
“Screw the teleportation pad.” Dan snorted. “We don’t even know if the station is going to turn on their beacon for us. The headquarters will be in absolute chaos. I say we just steal the Viceroy’s Pride. No more of us getting trapped in space bullshit. Plus, the specs on the void ship list weapons. I’m not sure exactly what they are, but if the entire world is going to hell, I would prefer at least some heavy weapons on our side.”
“That certainly would let us take everything that isn’t nailed down,” Jennifer replied thoughtfully. “I’m game for at least trying.”
About a half hour later, they tracked down a car on the interstate that still had the keys in the ignition. Apparently the owners had just run for it when they were trapped in gridlock during the coup. It took some work in the form of breaking into other cars, shifting them to neutral, and pushing them out of the way before they were able to get the vehicle off-road and driving. Dan was pretty sure that the snowy gravel of the ditch was doing a number on the car, but he couldn’t really make himself care. That was someone else’s problem for another day.
Finally, they hit the open highway. A quick fill up at a nearby gas station later, and they were on their way back to upstate New York. The general’s phone kept them updated on the chaos. As expected, at least four industrial magnates declared themselves Henry’s inheritor and the new ruler of the CHT, even as the revolts were quickly smashed in the countries that hadn’t yet succumbed. None of the oligarchs acted openly, but most of the major media conglomerates quickly sided with one or the other.
Meanwhile, twitter users in Florida announced that military units were patrolling the streets and that martial law had been declared. Allegedly, the soldiers were handing out pamphlets announcing that they were part of the “true American” armed forces and that “the natural order” would be restored soon. Outside of those ominous statements, which quickly and worryingly disappeared from the platform, nothing further came out of Florida.
They took turns sleeping as they drove back to the Foundation. When they arrived, the area around the compound was an absolute mess. Dan could see where the Foundation and Government forces had clashed, leaving craters and burned swaths of the nearby forest. Jennifer parked the car in employee parking. There were still plenty of other vehicles there, but no indication how many actually belonged to employees still sheltering in the compound.
Dan walked to the door and thumbed the three of them in. William still wasn’t the most mobile, but at some point, his wound had stopped bleeding, meaning that he at least wasn’t at risk of passing out on them. The interior of the compound was like something out of a horror movie with flickering lights and heavy smoke. Whatever had happened during the struggle with the government, the Foundation had been hit hard.
He hurried his way through the employee dressing and preparation area toward the higher-security sections of the base. Signs of combat covered the hallway. Occasional blood smears obscured signs, and more than one fluorescent light hung askew. When they reached the security door, it took three tries before it would register Dan’s optic profile. With a tortured click, the lock disengaged, and he shouldered the heavy metal door aside.
In front of him was a familiar security checkpoint where guards would search and test all of Dan’s possessions at the beginning and end of each day. The arrangement was primarily to stop industrial espionage, but the actual edifice of the checkpoint itself was made of steel reinforced concrete, more than enough to hold off invaders long enough for support to arrive.
A shotgun slug slammed into Dan’s spellshield, knocking him back a step. Without thinking, he lobbed a Fireball at the shapes hiding behind the security checkpoint. The pressure wave from the blast, amplified by the narrow hallway, thudded into him, stealing the breath from his lungs.
He leaned into the rush of wind and plowed forward into the flash of flame and heat. By the time the explosion had dissipated, he was on the other side of the checkpoint, sword drawn. Four members of the security team lay on the ground. One was either dead or unconscious, but the other three were moving and groaning, their bodies covered in burns.
Dan frowned as he recognized LT Jefferson, a handgun and sword both within arm’s reach of him. He kicked the weapons away and crouched down next to the security officer.
“What the hell, LT?” he whispered to the injured man. “You had to have recognized me, why’d you take a shot at me?”
The officer coughed, eyeing Dan blearily. He pulled himself up against the wall, wincing as his burns brushed against the cool metal.
“I told Ibis you’d be back,” he responded, another wave of coughing wracking through him. “When they couldn’t find your body, I knew you’d survived. I told him that you were a survivor. You might not be able to win every fight straight up, but you sure as hell would find a way to get yourself out in one piece. Henry wouldn’t believe it.”
“Then why did you shoot me?” Dan questioned heatedly.
“The director insisted that we punish Dr. Weathers.” LT smiled helplessly. “He said that she betrayed him by releasing everyone from their nanite controls. I tried to make him hold off. Told him that you’d be coming back, and that going after Weathers would piss you off to the point that we’d be forced to fight you. The old fucker went batty near the end. That elf kept telling him that he could get magic the same way you did, by eating a crystal. Dr. Weathers disagreed, said it was too dangerous. I’m pretty sure he blamed her for that, too.”
“What the fuck did you do to Sam?” Icewater ran down Dan’s spine.
“I stopped the worst of it.” LT wasn’t smiling anymore. “But it was still pretty bad. Ibis made us activate her discipline protocols. A lot. A couple of the guys balked at the orders, and he used the discipline programs on them, too. Things got pretty bad around here, Dan.”
“The elf kept egging him on.” LT coughed, wincing as the spasms ran through his body. “She kept saying that it wasn’t enough. Ibis ordered me to have some of the men rough her up and starve her. I kept it from happening. We doctored reports, and that was good enough for the two of them. Still, I figured that you’d probably want to get even with me for the way things went down.”
“Apparently, a slug wasn’t enough to take you down.” The security officer shrugged helplessly. “Still, it was the biggest chunk of lead I had on hand.”
