Overture (Earth Song) (54 page)

“
It had to be done,” her husband said and put an arm around her. She hadn’t really heard what he said though; her attention was drawn to a heated argument.

As
the soldiers took charge and began finishing their organizing, Dr. Osgood moved over next to Leo and gestured at what he was doing. Leo attempted to dismiss the younger scientist with a wave of his hand but Osgood was not so easily dismissed. The obstinate scientist got up in Leo’s face and started yelling at him. Leo barked something back and moved along the wall of crates. Now Mindy could hear their words.

“
-agree with the decision to take her people out of this,” Osgood was saying, “but I don’t agree with just tossing aside all this equipment!”

“
I said it’s none of your concern. We might have an extra slot, shut your trap and it just might be you.”

“
I’ve worked with this damn thing since it got here, and Mindy has worked out solutions we never could have conceived of. Look at this stuff! Microbiology lab, cases of amino acid synthetic proteins, over there is a couple thousand ultra-light toothbrushes, and this case has NASA approved nutritional supplements. It was genius using those because of their ultra-compact state, there’s probably three times the bang for the weight over civilian brands. And you’ve marked it out to leave behind, are you fucking insane?”

“
I told you we have our own agenda.” As they were talking, a pair of men brought in a big olive drab case with military markings and the words 20mm recoilless rifle on the side.

“
Is that your idea of essential? A fucking gun in exchange for dietary supplements?” Leo’s face was bright red and he was glaring at Osgood, who smelled blood in the water. “What goes in the place of the toothbrushes, land mines?”

“
If you don’t shut up I’m going to shut you up.”

“
What are you going to do, Leo, you going to shoot me with that gun?”

“
You know I wouldn’t do that…” Leo said but at that instant there was a booming report in the confines of the dome. Osgood looked down in surprise as a red stain began to spread across his left breast. His knees buckled and the scientist sat down hard on the metal floor. Leo went white and turned to see who had shot his old friend. A man stood a short distance away, his assault rifle coming down from his shoulder.

“
Fucker just wouldn’t shut up,” the man said with a shrug, “he was boring the shit out of me.” That said, the man went back to supervising the staging of the new men and equipment. Mindy moved toward Osgood but an armed guard moved in her way.

“
Get out of my way,” she growled and shoved him away. The man made a face but went back to watching the others. Leo knelt next to Osgood and Mindy joined him. There was a rapidly spreading pool of blood around the wide-eyed scientist and bright red bubbles were coming from his nose. “He’s shot through a lung,” Mindy said and pulled a handkerchief from her pocket. As she was doing that she felt something in the pocket that made her heart race. She swallowed the feeling and took the kerchief to press it to Osgood’s wound. He moaned and coughed up more bright blood.

“
I’m sorry, Mindy,” he said as she wiped blood from his lips, “I should have told you how badly this was all going.” He was interrupted by a serious of gurgling coughs.

“
Don’t talk,” she said, trying to hide the look of loss on her face.

“
Wish I’d been a better friend.”

“
George, I’m sorry,” Leo said quietly. He looked confused by what was happening. “It wasn’t supposed to happen like this.”

“
You’ve got your wish, Leo, only the
right
people are going to Bellatrix.” He took one more rumbling breath and closed his eyes.

“
Leo, you bastard,” Mindy cried, “I thought I knew you.”

“
It wasn’t supposed to happen like this.”

“
Another good man has died for your crazy plan, how many more? Will five billion be enough, or does the whole species have to be lost?”

Leo
stood up and walked toward the feverishly working men. He resembled a sleepwalker wandering around his bedroom in the middle of the night. Mindy reached over for a discarded packing tarp and pulled it over the scientists still body. She hadn’t bothered to try and resuscitate, medical attention was out of the question at this late hour. The wound was far too severe anyway. With a last mournful look at the covered body she returned to her fellow prisoners.

“
I’m sorry,” Billy said into her ear.

“
He was a good man.”

“
I know. Let’s just stay alert for an opportunity to turn things around.” She nodded her head, then went into his strong arms.

The work was almost done; this much was obvious to the watchful prisoners. They'd observed the determined work of their captors since the takeover two hours ago. For her part, Mindy's assistants from the Portal Project had been watching carefully as crates of equipment chosen as essential were stacked to one side, out of the way and forgotten, as new crates were brought in to replace them. The time was consumed in the staging of new equipment to move through the Portal with the maximum cargo per person. She glanced at her watched and swallowed, dawn was only five hours away.

“
It’s time!” yelled the man who'd killed Osgood. All heads turned from their work to the tall dark-haired soldier where he stood on top of a discarded crate. “We’ve been through this in briefing. Team One is to stand by for crossing over while Team Two matches them to equipment crates. Team Three sees to moving equipment forward so that it's ready as needed. Once Team One has completed going through, all equipment is to be moved forward and then Team Two starts through supported by Team Three. Are there any questions?”

“
How does it feel to be murdering our chances on Bellatrix?” Mindy asked. The silence in the room was deafening. All the while as the men worked Leo just sat on a chair off to one side, staring at the blood-soaked tarp covering his old friend's cooling body. Every once in a while he would say something but no one paid him any mind. When Mindy spoke, his head jerked around to look at her, his face frozen in an unmistakable look of horror. Through it all, somehow he'd come to his senses at long last.

“
She’s right!” he said and leaped to his feet, “We need to move all their equipment back in and get rid of this shit we were going to take.” He moved to stand next to her.

“
Shut up, Skinner,” said the unnamed dark-haired murderer. He stood on the milky white Portal dais like Julius Caesar astride the Roman senate.

“
All of you - stop what you are doing before it is too late!” Leo cried.

Behind
Mindy's back she felt Leo's hand. She glanced at him curiously but he gave her a stern look and pushed something against her. She reached behind her own back and he handed her his gun, the one he'd used to hold them all at bay hours earlier. She looked at him, an unspoken question on her lips, but he just winked then stepped a few feet away.

“
You eggheads just don’t understand the rules,” the nameless man said and raised the barrel of his stubby little machine gun, “the rules have changed.” He took aim and reached for the trigger. A single shot rang out, but it didn't come from his gun. The man lowered his weapon with a surprised look on his face. He looked down to where blood was spurting from just below his breastbone.

“
Some rules haven’t changed,” Mindy said and shot him again with the small pistol Leo had given her a moment earlier. It bucked in her hand like a little beast trying to escape. The second shot punched a hole in the man’s forehead and sent him to the metal floor like a marionette with the strings cut.

The
dead man’s people stood for a moment in stunned silence as their leader fell to the floor before going for their own weapons. The police officers in Mindy’s group were one step ahead of them and the dome erupted in a hail of gunfire.

Mindy
felt herself jerked backwards by someone unseen. She hit the floor and rolled up on to her knees. Billy was by her side, a little holdout gun that the soldiers missed in his hand. She was stunned to see that every police officer had at least one gun and several had two. Their former captors obviously didn't know how to search a prisoner.

The
fight was short and brutal. In a few seconds, one officer was dead and five were injured while twenty on the other side had been quickly dealt with. The remainder withdrew outside under the withering fire of the police. Once they controlled the dome again there was no celebration. Instead, they all turned to Mindy for guidance.

“
We need to get through as fast as possible,” she instructed.

“
But they’ve messed up the order of the crates,” Billy pointed out. Mindy looked at her watch and cursed.

“
There isn’t time to be coordinated about this,” she said, “each person takes a crate and goes through. We’ll do it like the government did before and just toss crates after them until they bounce. When we get low on time and manpower we just run for it, each person carrying what they can.” The police and Mindy’s people all shrugged and nodded. The two big garage doors were lowered, creating cover from the sporadic gunfire outside.

“
Don’t waste your fire without clear shots!” Billy advised the four officers that took up positions by the two doors. “We need time to get the others through.”

“
We’ll hold the fort,” the most senior among them told Billy. “We don’t have any children; that’s why we volunteered.” He nodded his head to them and went to help Mindy.

“
Okay, let’s move,” Mindy said to all them. The first man hefted a crate and climbed the dais. The ghostly Portal sprang into life as he mounted the last step. He took a deep breath and stepped through to emerge on Bellatrix. Two men were right behind him and he had to dodge the crates they started throwing through.

“
Is there anything I can do?” Leo asked.

“
Stay out of the way,” she said to him and turned her back. He lowered his head and moved to the side, dropping into an office chair by an abandoned scientific control desk. No one paid him any attention after that.

They
weren't being efficient, several times the Portal closed before a crate bounced off. But they quickly fell into a rhythm and the men began moving through in quick order. Mindy ran back and forth directing which crates were to be taken, and which ones tossed aside. The men set to guard the entrances made use of the discarded ones to erect a heavy barricade. Several times there had been an attempt to rush the entrances, and each time the assault was thrown back with relative ease. The attackers knew the danger of using excessive force, and the few points of attack made it a tough target. Mindy watch yet another reunion on the other side of the Portal just before it closed. Time was running short.

“
Twenty to go,” Billy told her finally, “we’re having trouble moving equipment and getting people through at the same time.”

She
looked at her watch. A growing feeling of dread was making her heart race. “We’re almost out of time.” she reminded those who remained. “Take a quick break and let’s get organized for the last people.” Mindy felt like she hadn’t slept in a week, but she still threw in with the others to move crates on top of the dais. In a few minutes, there were so many that only a narrow path to the Portal remained. But at least every remaining crate was now ready to go.

Only
the problem of the last one through remained. They would have no one left to throw crates after them, forcing that person to carry everything. Not even these big tough cops could carry three hundred kilos. With that in mind she quickly designed an ingenious solution. Since she was the lightest left they stacked her matching weight in gear on top of a stack of discarded crates. A rope was tied to the top most piece of gear, and passed through the handles on the others. “With any luck,” she said between pants, “the rope will stay intact and we can just pull them all through behind me!” The plan relied on her incident with the webcam not being a freak accident, and that made her nervous. Still, it was the best she could do.

“
Something is going on out there,” said a cop by the door, “they’ve stopped taking pot shots at us.” Mindy and Billy joined them by the door, carefully staying out of view from the outside. Shapes could be seen moving in the evening gloom. Then suddenly there were shouts and more gunfire erupted. Everyone moved clear of the doorway. After a moment it was obvious the shots weren't aimed at them, and the rate of fire was increasing and punctuated with screams of pain.

“
It’s getting ugly out there,” a cop said with a whistle.

“
Let’s get the last people through!” Mindy yelled.

The
final exodus was not pretty, but it happened quickly. Mindy was walking the metal floor looking over the discarded crates to be sure nothing absolutely essential was being left behind when she saw a bright light shining through the only open doorway. The cops on guard were watching yet another of their brethren go through the Portal while also keeping an eye outside. A pitched battle was now raging around the dome. She walked over to the doorway and risked a glance outside. “Be careful,” one of the cops warned as a bullet winged off the doorframe. She took no notice of the close call; she was too busy looking up into the early dawn sky. The sun had just risen to cast its rays onto the smoke shrouded city. What made her come over was when she noticed the police officer was casting two shadows.