Psion Omega (Psion series Book 5) (47 page)

He was in control, but she couldn’t hurt anyone
again. So he hit her more. “You thought your Anomaly Thirteen would give you
freedom. Endless strength.”

And more. “But you followed a lie, Katie. And that
is why you lost.”

The Queen stopped moving. Her right eye was not
quite swollen shut. It fixed on his, and for a moment Sammy saw only a girl.
Her lips quivered. “I wish …” She spoke softly, and he had to lean to hear her.
“I wish …”

“What?” he asked.

The Queen’s eye widened enough that Sammy could see
her brown iris surrounded by so much blood that she looked like every other
Thirteen. Her hands shot out, wrapped around Sammy’s throat, and squeezed.
“That you would die with me.”

Her grip on Sammy’s throat was stronger than any
vise. Sammy gagged trying to breathe. He tugged at her hands but they were
locked. His eyes searched for Jeffie, for help.

Across the room, Jeffie pulled herself up to the
terminal. Her face had no color. She’d left all her color on the floor of the
white room. Their eyes met. Jeffie raised a finger, but Sammy’s mind had kept
count of the time. It was 1044. One minute. Even as his face reddened and the
vision in his good eye started to blur, he nodded to her to activate the code
at 1045. Then, step by step, he dragged the Queen toward the elevator, even as
she continued to choke the life out of him.

As the moment approached, Jeffie held up five
fingers and ticked them down.

Four.

Three.

Two.

One.

She pushed the ENTER button. Immediately two white
blast doors began to close, separating the white room from its antechamber in
front of the elevator. Sammy held the Queen in place until the twin doors
clamped down on her body, squeezing her to death.

“Blast to me!” Sammy gasped to Jeffie in his broken
voice.

She flew toward him. He grabbed her, wrapped his
arms around her for support, and said, “Again!”

She blasted them through the space between the
doors. As they flew through the air, Sammy let go of Jeffie as she flipped over
and blasted the Queen from behind with everything she had left in her. The
Queen flew inward and the blast doors slammed closed just as a tremendous
explosion roared through the white room. The last thing Sammy saw before
everything went white was the fire blossoming toward him like a brilliant red
rose.

* * * * *

As Commander Byron staggered back to Albert, he realized his son had
still not used the orange goo to close his leg wound. Albert’s face was
terribly pale, his eyes only half opened.

“I told you to use it!” Byron cried.

“No,” Albert said. “Dad, you. Please. It has to be
you. I don’t want to go back. I’ve messed things up. I’ve blown it.”

Commander Byron fumbled through the med pack until
he got out the last bit inside the tube. He hoped it was enough to save his
son.

“Dad, your stomach,” Albert said, pointing vaguely.
“You can raise her for me. You’ll do a better job than I ever will.”

Byron ignored Albert and prepped the tube. Albert
grabbed the commander’s hands, stopping him from using it.

“I don’t want you to die, Dad.”

The commander almost lost control. “And I will not
survive losing you. You wait and see when your girl gets a little older. You
will understand.”

Albert tried to scoot away. “No.”

The commander took him by the ankle, and pain shot
up his wounded arm. “Do you love Marie? Do you really love her, Albert?” He was
almost shouting now.

Albert’s face turned a pale pink, and his eyes
welled up. “Yeah.”

“Then you have hope. Make it count.”

Finally Albert relented. The commander put the orange
goo in his son’s leg, tore a strip from his pants, and tied it tightly near the
hip. His limbs grew weak the longer he worked. When he finished, Albert was
already so drowsy he could hardly move. The commander found a syringe of
epinephrine and injected it into his son’s leg. Then he ripped his own shirt
and bandaged up the wound in his stomach as best as he could. But he knew it
would not be enough.

With the last of his strength, he hobbled to the
computer and looked at the screen. The time read 0839. Byron winced.
I missed the 0830 launch time
. The
network was still inactive.
Come on,
Sammy
.

Commander Byron checked on Albert, shook him gently.
Albert’s eyes fluttered open. “What?” he mumbled.

“Everything is going to be okay,” he reassured his
son. “I am going to take care of everything.”

His bandage was soaked with blood. His right arm
wouldn’t move now, and his left ached so badly it made the commander want to
pass out.

Commander Byron leaned over and kissed Albert on the
cheek. “I love you, my boy. Emily and I will be waiting for you.”

Albert stirred. “… love you, Dad.”

When Byron tried to stand up straight, the pain
gnawed at his gut where the last slug had torn into his insides. Everything was
cold. Even his legs, which shouldn’t feel anything, were cold. He fell down
onto his hands and bionic knees.

“Hold on,” he groaned. “I just need five more
minutes.”

He crawled to the computer and watched the seconds
tick by, forcing his eyes to stay open and his heart to keep beating.

0841.

0842.

0843.

Byron’s eyes closed and his chin hit the table where
the computer sat. A green light brightened next to the standby button. A
buzzing sound jarred him awake. “Network connected and active.”

0844.

The seconds ticked. He said them aloud to give
himself something to hold on for.
Stay
alive, Walter
, he thought to himself as he counted.
Stay alive for your dad, your son, and your granddaughter.

At 0845, he pushed the button.

Kill code activated.

Byron sighed and fell to the floor. Just before he
closed his eyes again, he saw his son. He reached out for his face, but it was
too far. “Emily … Albert has to stay. Help him. Send someone.”

Byron scooted over the ground until his head rested
on his son’s lap. A soft, high-pitched sound came from across the room. Byron opened
an eye, all he could open, to find the source. It was a man rappelling down the
elevator shaft. His footsteps approached cautiously, probably trying to step
through all the mess. It wasn’t until the feet were centimeters away, that
Byron caught a glimpse of the leg, a bionic leg like his.

“Help …” he whimpered. “My son.”

A face appeared in view that the commander did not
recognize. But the eyes he did. He hadn’t seen them in many years. “You.”

The man did not smile. His eyes fixed on Byron’s
wounds. “You don’t have much time. Neither of you do, Walter.”

“Take Albert. Come back when he is safe.”

The man nodded. Strong arms—bionic
arms—lifted Albert from under his father. As the man cradled Byron’s son,
he turned back to the commander. He nodded to Byron with eyes filled with
respect. “You were always better than me. In every way, I think. Say hello to
Emerald for me.”

Commander Byron smiled, closed his eyes, and
exhaled.

* * * * *

At 0847 the CAG cruisers fell from the sky like giant meteors
crashing down from space. As far as Brickert could tell, not many were injured.
When the crowds saw them fall, they pressed forward. The Aegis, the Thirteens,
the Hybrids … all gone. Obliterated by the solution. Brickert didn’t really
believe it at first. His joy was quickly replaced by the knowledge that the
victory had cost him his best friend.

Even as they stormed the White House, Brickert
didn’t grasp what was happening. They were a sea of people, a giant wave
washing inside the halls and carrying out the filth on their backs. As many had
predicted, President Newberry was gone, hidden away somewhere safe. That didn’t
stop the crowds from removing the staff members inside who hadn’t been
evacuated. So far as Brickert could tell, no one was killed.

Thomas and Justice led the charge through the
buildings and communicated with the remaining team leaders to keep the masses
orderly. After the White House was cleared they directed the crowds to the
Capitol Building, where another sort of cleansing took place, along with more
arrests. News choppers and cruisers hovered over the scene while reporters on
foot followed the crowds inside with cameras. Local law enforcement and
government service agents set up new barricades, assisted with crowd control,
and arrested looters who descended on the nearby buildings. The crowd continued
to swell, but there was no way of getting any kind of count. Ambulatory
services arrived to care for the injured and cart away the dead. With all the
shouting and chanting, Brickert could hardly think. He carried Natalia to one
of the medics and explained what had happened to her. They loaded her into a
vehicle with four others, gave Brickert information on where to locate her, and
drove away.

In the early afternoon, a makeshift podium was set
up on the steps of the Capitol Building with two speakers. Thomas prepared to
give a speech. But before he could begin, a dozen trucks and vans pulled
through the crowd. Workers emerged from the vehicles and began assembling
proper conference armamentarium. The crews were directed by a man who Brickert
had never seen. Judging by Thomas’s face, he didn’t know the man either. They
spoke for a several minutes, the man and Thomas. When they shook hands,
Brickert noticed that the man’s hand was bionic.

When their conversation ended, Thomas took the
podium and addressed the crowd. He gave a long and passionate speech, similar
to the one he had given in Los Angeles. The crowd interrupted him at least a
dozen times with chanting and applause. When Thomas finished, the man with the
bionic hand came forward. Before speaking, he showed a film.

It was a cobbling of recordings and videos that
showed President Newberry and other government officials colluding with media
organizations and terrorist groups to sway public opinion. It showed a man
named Jeffrey Markorian giving testimony and evidence that he had worked with
the CEO of N Corporation to orchestrate several attacks on CAG soil and frame
the NWG for their actions. The video went on for almost two hours, playing to a
stunned, silent crowd as news cameras continued to gather at the perimeter.

When the video ended, the man continued to speak. He
introduced himself as Daniel Newsome. His speech lasted only ten or fifteen
minutes, but it was one of the greatest things Brickert had ever heard. It was
eloquent, simple, powerful, and memorable.

The speaking and cheering rang out past sundown.
Local grocers and restaurants brought food and water. People slept on the
ground, in the wreckage. All through the night people gave speeches. But none
of them stuck with Brickert as much as Daniel Newsome’s did.

The following week was chaos. Brickert, Justice,
Nikotai, and other members of the resistance were most often in hospitals and
morgues visiting the injured, identifying bodies, and meeting with civic
leaders.

President Newberry hastily announced from a secure,
classified location that the evidence presented against him and his
administration was fraudulent, but documents surfaced the same day that
implicated him, his Chief of Staff, and dozens of members of Congress. Seven
days after the Battle of Washington D.C., President Newberry resigned along
with over half of the CAG Senate and House of Representatives.

President Marnyo held a summit with several CAG
territorial governors appointed by the Supreme Court to act as a Wartime
Executive Council. Barbara Gillespie, Governor of the Northeastern American
Territory, was appointed Interim CAG President of the council. Regional
legislatures chose delegates from among territorial congresses to serve as
Wartime Legislative Officers until special elections could be held, first for
both houses of Congress, then for a new President of the Continental American
Government.

Special funeral services were held at the
Hallgrímskirkja in Reykjavik for Honorary NWG General Walter Tennyson Byron,
and several other resistance leaders including Lara Byron, Li Cheng Zheng,
Duncan and David Hudec, Samuel Harris Berhane, Jr., Gefjon Tvedt, and others.
Brickert attended with hundreds more. Thousands lined the streets of the city
for the procession. Among the distinguished guests were NWG President William
Marnyo, Interim CAG President Barbara Gillespie, and her interim Vice President
Daniel Newsome, a veteran of the Elite, multiple limb amputee, respected businessman,
and philanthropist.

Talks between the NWG and CAG lasted for almost a
month before Marnyo was promised the reparations he requested. As evidence
mounted against the CAG and its collaboration with N Corp, documents were
revealed regarding Project Orwell, the existence of secretly trained and
executed anomalies, and the Extraction/Implantation Program’s connection to the
Safety Laws. The more information leaked, the smoother the talks went. When all
was said and done, Texas, followed by several other territories, ceded
membership in the CAG and either declared independence or petitioned for
inclusion in the NWG.