The Neo-Spartans: Altered World (33 page)

Gabriel watched his sister in awe. She could die right now and she didn’t care. In a way, it brought back the defiance and courage that Grisner’s words had taken away from him. It took both of them a moment to realize that Grisner had gotten stuck on something Quinn had said earlier.

Quinn searched the cold, glassy eyes and realized she’d made a fatal mistake. He hadn’t known how Kilbert had advised Rose. Her insides gave way. What had she done?

              Grisner’s confident, sure-footed smile slipped from his face. “I have offered you the change that you wanted, an understanding of the philosophy that you espouse, but you have rejected it. You must feel pretty powerful knowing you’ve put me down. I hope you enjoy your power trip, because it is going to annihilate every Neo-Spartan you know.”

With each deadly, dark, threat Grisner had got nearer to Quinn until she had backed into a corner. They were face to face, his hot angry breath spilling across her as he continued.

“I’m going to take every single Neo-Spartan kid, and I’m going to pry every single pulsing organ out of him, and shove them in the bodies of those you hate most. I’m going to let your hero Kilbert know what he’s unleashed on the world. I do hope your conscience is clear, because it’s about to be unimaginably busy.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

Nico had recovered enough to be capable of standing and walking. Naturally this meant to him that he needed to storm the Citadel and find Quinn and Gabriel, laying out to Magda the steps of his plan, including Chris Auer’s map. Magda listened to his feverish rant and wondered if his brain had been dislodged during the beating.

              “Look, little brother, you can’t take the Citadel by yourself and it’s not like you’ve got a lot of
amigo
s in the Vaqueros.”

“What are you talking about?” he asked. “Did Grisner do something to them too?”

“That’s one way to put it. Tyra’s the new
jefe
. She set you up, and now has Julius’s support. You’re not exactly going to be welcomed there.”

“Well-played, Tyra. I can’t do it alone. I don’t even know how to get in the place.”

“Easy-peasy,” said Marisol to nobody in particular.

“You’re right. You’ve gotta give up on it. This is one battle you can’t win,” Magda hurried to say.

“What do you mean, easy-peasy?” Nico asked Marisol.

“She says stuff, she’s seven.”

“Easy-peasy,” said Marisol again.

“See what I mean?”

Nico pushed his bruised body to its feet and trundled over to where Marisol focused her attention on her work. He studied her drawing. It was a rough rendering of her subway-pantry entrance to the Citadel.

“What is this?” he asked.

“Don’t,” warned Magda.

“You teach me to be honest. What’s different now?” asked Marisol innocently.

“If he knows easy-peasy it could get him hurt.”

“More than he is now? Is that possible?”

Defeated, Magda sighed. “Go ahead, tell him.”

“This is how I get in and out of the Citadel,” explained Marisol.

“Get outta here,” said Nico.

“It leads to the pantry. How do you think we stay fed, Nico? It ain’t exactly your generosity,” said Magda.

Nico looked from one to the other, looking for the joke, but it wasn’t forthcoming. “Show me.”

A short time later, Nico followed Marisol as she strode through a sea of weeds. Magda had tagged along to “make sure nobody got into any trouble.” Nico hobbled along, but the effort was producing sweat, which dripped down his forehead.

“Listen, kid, as much as I’d love to believe you, we are in the middle of nowhere.”

“We’re just in the weeds. We’re almost there.”

“Almost where?”

“I told you–”

But Nico faltered and sat clumsily. It was more of a splat, and Marisol laughed. She joined him at ground level.

“It’s not much farther. Mom, tell him,” encouraged Marisol.

Nico just sat there, the impossibility of the mission ahead weighing him down.

“Don’t you want to find her?” asked Marisol.

“Her? What her?”

“Oh, Tio Nico, everybody knows you like this Neo-Spartan. I do too. She’s got to be in there.”

“Is there no trick you won’t resort to?” asked Nico.

“I’m just saying the truth.”

“Exactly. Nothing trickier than truth.” Nico pushed to his feet and followed Marisol as she led on. Nico, proud uncle, shot a look back at Magda who trailed. After ten minutes of Huck Finning their way through the brush, they at last came to what had to be a Citadel wall. Nico stared in awe.

“That’s it. We’ve gotta get low here. Cameras,” cautioned Marisol.

“You guys go, I’ll hold the fort,” said Magda.

“She’s afraid of the dark in the tunnel,” said Marisol. Magda shrugged.

“My big tough sister,” said Nico.

Marisol took Nico by the hand and made sure he stayed low as they rushed the wall. Marisol knew exactly which bush to push back to reveal the rusted maintenance panel. They slid it aside and entered the long dark tunnel. Nico couldn’t hide his amazement.

“You found this on your own?”

“A kitty knew about it. I just followed the kitty.”

“Very wise kitty,” said Nico.

“Hungry kitty,” Marisol corrected.

A minute or so later Marisol pushed aside the panel that opened into the pantry. There was no activity at the moment, but Nico was reluctant to simply break the threshold and set off an alarm or something.

“Don’t worry, you can always hear them coming down the hall,” said Marisol.

“And nobody guards this place?”

“They don’t know where the hungry kitty goes.”

Nico smirked and wriggled his way inside. Marisol appeared as if by magic at his side. She made the most of the trip by raiding the cabinets for food, while he did a cursory reconnaissance, poking his head out the door and taking in the hallway, the multiple levels, the chrome and glass everywhere. Nico had been around a block or two but he’d never seen anything as sleek and slick as this facility. It was mesmerizing. Beyond he could see armed Social Defense Force members milling. He patted the back pocket of his jeans, locating the folded schematic. He pulled it out and unfolded it. The maze of drawings, which meant nothing to him before, began to acquire certain clarity as Nico attached a visual of the hallways he had just observed to the blue lines marking the passages of the lower level Citadel. A crazy, daring idea pushed its way to the surface of his still fuzzy brain. He turned to Marisol whose jacket was overflowing with Oreos and bananas and debated a crucial decision for a moment. He knelt in front of her and put his hands on her shoulders.

“Hey kiddo, you wanna help me with a little prank?” Marisol’s eye flickered at the possibility of mischief, even though Nico’s intent stare told her he was quite serious about what he was planning to do.

* * *

Two sets of hands poured canola oil with abandon on the cement floor of the Citadel pantry. They belonged to an uncle and a niece who grinned at each other at the job well done. Nico motioned Marisol toward the exit, through which they had entered earlier, picked up a metal railing pried out of the food shelves, and assumed a ready position at the edge of the pantry wall. A quick peek informed him the SDF guards’ traffic had slowed down, except for one who was about a hundred yards away from their hiding spot. Nico signaled Marisol and she started singing. Her melodious kid voice echoed through the pantry and filled the hallway—faint but penetrating with its joyous sound.

              The guard didn’t acknowledge it at first; it was such an uncharacteristic presence, but gradually the sweet voice registered in his brain. He stopped, listened, tried to shake it off as a hallucination, realized it was there and started heading in its direction. His steps got closer and closer to the pantry while the voice, though seemingly coming from that direction, got fainter and fainter. The guard, not sure what to make of a little girl’s singing voice inside of the Citadel, of all places, approached the pantry with caution, his hand hovering over the nano-ray gun on his belt. He stopped at the entrance, not venturing any further as he got a clear view of the food storage facility—it was empty. Not a soul inside. From where he was standing, he couldn’t see Nico hiding behind the wall, but he could still hear the faint, disembodied voice. Where could this voice be coming from? The guard unholstered the ray gun and stepped though the entrance. His boots hit the slippery surface and sent him skidding, feet first, the rest of his body following. He got airborne for a few seconds and landed in the oily mess, and before he could realize what had just happened, Nico clobbered him with the metal railing. Nico quickly stripped his victim of his uniform, ID badge and gun and exchanged them for the Vaquero garb he was sporting. In no time, Nico has turned into an SDF enforcer and his Vaquero clad counterpart was stuffed and locked into one of the food closets.

Nico’s progress down the empty hallway was initially unobstructed and he managed to get his racing heart under control. A closer inspection of the ID badge had revealed that the SDF enforcer was no foot soldier. He was a lieutenant and Nico, after covering his facial bruises with the glasses he had commandeered from the guard, was determined to exude the authority the clothes and the badge gave him. His steps gradually gained confidence, and Nico started making mental notes about what was where. The lower level of the Citadel contained mostly operational facilities. Cameras were everywhere, so Nico kept his head low and strategically turned his back every time he had to pass by one of them. He walked by a series of doors and hovered briefly to detect any sounds. Nothing indicated the presence of people behind them so he moved on. He straightened up and continued his confident walk when a larger door several feet ahead of him suddenly opened and another guard emerged. Nico stiffened but pressed on, and passed the guard as if he was not another human being but just an insignificant mosquito. The guard saluted him and marched down the hallway. Nico stopped and before the door could click closed he took a quick peek inside. The rows and rows of cameras told him this was the surveillance room. He waited for the guard to completely disappear, pulled out Eddie’s schematic and marked the room on it. Taking advantage of the sparsely populated environment Nico scouted the rest of the ground floor, locating two stairwells as points of entry and exit and an ID operated-only elevator. Near one of the stairwells was the electrical maintenance facility, just as Eddie’s schematic pointed out. With the first phase of reconnaissance done, Nico debated whether to take the elevator or the stairwell. His rank commanded an elevator ride, but he didn’t enjoy the idea of the elevator doors opening and a dozen of SDF members recognizing that it wasn’t Lieutenant Sharp staring at them. So the stairs it was, and he ascended them as quickly as his bruised body allowed him.

Nico used the ID card, which gave him access to another long hallway. He checked it out and discovered it to be much busier than the one below. Guards and some sort of medical personnel were milling about, forcing him to stay put and out of sight. He kept checking the human traffic and as soon as the coast cleared up a bit, Nico puffed out his chest with all the self-importance he could muster and marched down the cold metal sheen laminate. Nico’s impression that this floor was some kind of medical facility was confirmed by the hospital-sized labs and a large room outfitted for advanced surgery. Technicians were busy at the various lab machines, analyzing and observing. Despite his curiosity, Nico hurried past this section and headed further down the hallway, where a higher concentration of SDF guards suggested that something worth protecting was located. He walked toward it with the determined gait of a man with a purpose. The guards standing erect in front of a thick glassed infirmary directed their attention at him, but Nico’s fast and unfaltering walk sent a signal that nothing was out of the ordinary. His pace gave him enough time to throw a quick glance at the glass and see more than half a dozen Neo-Spartan boys who were not exactly the picture of perfect health. The visual didn’t add up, but at least he had located the boys. He hadn’t recognized Gabriel’s face among them so he kept walking, thinking on his feet at the same time. Several feet ahead, he spotted a door and an idea occurred.

Without using his ID card, Nico tried to force open the door. An alarm was activated and the steps of hurrying guards echoed throughout the hallway. Nico reversed his course, heading back toward the infirmary. The guards rushed by him without paying any attention and he used the distraction to force open another door that was on the way but still far enough away from the infirmary. More ear splitting noise. More guards rushing back and forth. He strode with confidence to the infirmary and stood in front of one of the guards who looked distracted by the sudden activity.

“What is going on here?” said Nico.

The guard noticed his rank, saluted and hurriedly blurted out, “We are not sure, sir, sounds like an unauthorized entry, which is impossible, sir.”

Nico motioned him to step aside and placed his ID card to the censor pad. “Impossible? With these fiends inside nothing is impossible.” The door hissed open and Nico strode inside the infirmary. The guards exchanged glances, not sure if they were in trouble somehow. They watched their higher-up walk like a drill sergeant past every single Neo-Spartan. He yelled something in their faces. Whatever he said, it definitely made the boys cower. So they turned their backs to the infirmary and resumed their former state of high alert.