Redemption Protocol (Contact) (77 page)

“I've been busy.”

“Does everywhere you visit get blown up?”

He looked thoughtful.

“I don't know. I haven't been everywhere yet.”

 207. 

Weaver flew the shuttle another two kilometers to where Havoc's drop pod lay adjacent to the Colosseum. Havoc explained Stephanie’s double cross as he dragged out four aerial platforms and spun them up.

“So that’s it. Steph was a United Systems agent the whole time I knew her.”

Weaver shook her head.

“I never liked your ex.”

Havoc carried a new suit out of the pod.

“Yeah well you're a better judge of character than I am.”

“She was too cold.”

“Not the last time I saw her.”

Weaver nodded, trying to be positive.

“Oh well, that’s good, I suppose.”

Havoc grunted his assent as he opened his patchwork suit and stepped out it, naked in the freezing cold.

Weaver felt a bit startled.

“Gosh.”

Havoc looked down, inspecting his arms and upper chest.

“My friends at the Morvent Academy gave me a little more than I asked for.”

She raised a playful eyebrow.

“Shame they couldn’t have done a little more.”

He looked wounded.

“It's minus ninety Celsius here.”

She laughed as she glanced again.

“Oh, Havoc. The cold doesn't seem to affect you too much though, does it?”

“Can I have a little privacy here?”

“Well sure, Mister strip naked right in front of me and
then
ask me not to look.”

He stepped into his replacement suit and it sealed around him.

She frowned.

“What about contamination?”

Havoc tested his suit systems.

“The suit will clear it.”

She watched him. He looked big and dangerous. Scary. She felt a sense of dread but she needed answers.

“Havoc?”

Filament blades slid in and out. The jet thrusters behind his shoulders raised and retracted.

“Uh huh?”

“My father?”

He stopped and looked at her. She had to know.

“That was him I saw with you?”

“Yeah.”

She felt desolate.

“You killed my father?”

Havoc stared through her. She grimaced in anticipation of his answer. He sighed.

“I let him down.”

She shook her head, feeling lost. She didn’t understand.

He stepped toward her. She watched him nervously. He extended his hand toward her.

“This is the extraction from an ORC TRB camp. He was in rough shape. I tried to get him out. Neither of us made it.”

She stared at his hand.

“Neither of you?”

“I was clinically dead for twenty six hours.”

She reached her hand tentatively forward. He moved his hand away a little.

“You have to be sure you want to see this. It's bad.”

She nodded.

“I want to see it.”

Havoc touched her hand. Data flew across. Weaver opened the file on receipt. It was from Havoc's sensory perspective.

Weaver threw her head back and cried out at the pain she was registering. She dialed it way down. The scene was picturesque and disturbing. Havoc lay in the water at the head of a lake. The view across the water was beautiful. Havoc’s leg reared up in front of him. He was badly injured and could only see out of one eye. He coughed up blood and pain tore through him. He turned his head. Weaver gasped.

Havoc was looking at her father.

She cried, and watched, and cried.

~    ~    ~

They flew in silence toward the rendezvous with Tyburn. Four of Havoc's platforms escorted their shuttle.

Weaver cleared her throat.

“I want to say thank you.”

“Thank you?”

“For trying to save my father. And for helping him, you know, at the end. With his pain. And his dignity.”

“I should have got him out. We'll get the people who did it.”

She swallowed. She was crying again, quietly, missing her dad.

“I don't care about that.”

“You don't care?”

“I just hope I can forgive them.”

“Why the hell would you want to forgive them?”

“I just––”

“They abducted and tortured your father.”

“I want to see justice done, Havoc. But I don't want to live with resentment. I've seen it. My mum and dad resented each other for the last fourteen years of their lives before he disappeared. They couldn't forgive each other. That resentment ruined their lives and my relationship with my dad. Fourteen years, wasted.”

“Some things can't be forgiven.”

“You think your wife would want your entire life to be destroyed by what happened to your family?”

“I don't pretend to know. I'm just doing what I have to do.”

Weaver gazed out the window. She shook her head.

“Resentment is like you drinking poison and then hoping for your enemy to die.”

Havoc glanced sideways at her.

“I'm not just
hoping
my enemy will die.”

Weaver sighed.

“Revenge just binds you to your enemy stronger. They're always inside you, corroding you from the inside. The resentment only damages you and not them. I won't fall into that trap.”

“You're talking about resentment; I'm talking about revenge.”

“Revenge is its own executioner, Havoc.”

“I see it as justice.”

“Two sides of the same coin, for you.”

“Maybe it's worth it.”

She turned to him.

“Then there’s no revenge so complete as forgiveness.”

Havoc stared straight ahead. He didn’t answer.

~    ~    ~

Weaver watched the ground speeding past as Havoc piloted the shuttle.

“What else did you do?”

“I stayed alive.”

“Staying alive isn’t a full time job.”

“It is for me.”

She made a face.

“Does
everybody
hate you?”

“Yeah. You get used to it.”

She frowned.

“I’m not sure I believe you.”

“No, trust me, everybody does.”

“That's not what I meant.”

“Oh.”

“Are you ok, Havoc? You look a little... worn out.”

He turned to her and raised an eyebrow.

“Many a good tune played on an old fiddle, Weaver.”

She smiled.

“Ah ha. It lives.”

He smiled a little. She felt a twang as his face turned serious again. He shook his head.

“More than three hundred thousand people, Weaver. Seventeen crew. And my family. My heart is so fucking heavy, it pulls me down.”

“If your heart is a desert, no flowers can grow there.”

“I know that. I haven't relaxed for eleven years. I can't breathe any more.”

“You just need a new road.”

“All the roads look the same to me.”

“That’s because all roads lead to the same end, Havoc. It's the journey, not the destination.”

He smiled at her.

“You going to save me, Weaver?”

She smiled back.

“Save one man, save the world.”

He looked at her.

“You’re very talkative.”

“Well I have a lot of things to tell you, now that I know you’re not a bad person.”

“I hate to argue with you, especially about the last bit, but––”

“Shush. Let me finish. Don’t you want me to talk?”

“Yeah, I like it.” He reddened. “I mean, you know...”

She beamed at him.

“I have found that if you love life, Havoc, then life will love you back.”

He brought the shuttle onto its final heading.

“Uh huh. Maybe it's not as simple as that for some people.”

“People set too many conditions for happiness. Love life without condition and feel grateful for what you have. It really works.”

He glanced sideways at her. She thought she might be getting through.

He shook his head.

“Loving life without condition needs trust, Weaver. I've tried that. It didn't work out. I mean, look what happened.”

“You mean with Stephanie?”

His mouth twisted as he nodded.

“Yeah. Forge. Steph.”

“It's natural to trust someone you're with. You can’t blame yourself for that.”

“I just can't believe I let her fool me for that long. No wonder she wanted me to go Flag.”

“She's a professional spy.”

“I'm such an idiot.”

“You can't blame yourself.”

“Maybe. I can't believe I slept with her.”

“What! You did what?”

“On the
Intrepid
.”

“You fucking moron! How could you not realize?”

“What? She's a professional spy, remember?”

Weaver impersonated a low voice.

“Oh no please don't sleep with me sexy secret agent Stephanie oh no.”

He laughed, despite himself.

She glared at him.

“Humph.”

“Look, when we get there, I want you to stay at the camp.”

“No.”

“It's going to be dangerous.”

She crossed her arms.

“I said no.”

He looked concerned.

“I'm just not sure that it's, you know, for you.”

“I'm going.”

“You're sure?”

She raised her chin defiantly.

“Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, except backward and in high heels.”

 208. 

Havoc landed the shuttle to one side of the ORC encampment, located twenty minutes flight time from the beam control building. He exited the shuttle with Weaver. They passed open containers of combat equipment on their way to a cluster of cabins.

Forge marched out to meet them with Ekker at his side and two ORC drop troopers behind him.

Forge stuck out his hand.

“Alright, Son, let save humanity. No hard feelings.”

Havoc couldn't handle it. Hatred boiled up in him like superheated gas. Shaking hands with this motherfucker was beyond what he was capable of. He turned to his right as his entire body tensed and his psyche screamed in protest. His face contorted as dark energy coursed through him, consuming him and threatening to tear him apart.

There was an ORC heavy combat suit in front of him. He roared and smashed off its helmet. He counter-rotated and his fist hammered into its upper thigh. The leg of the suit buckled and fractured. His fist rocketed out, bursting through the suit and into the atmo beyond.

He glowered as the broken suit toppled to the ground.

Ekker and the ORC troopers raised their weapons in alarm.

~    ~    ~

Tyburn held out his arms to restrain Ekker and the ORC troopers as he contemplated Havoc’s display.

“Alright, everyone. It’s fine. That suit was for you, Havoc. Guess you don't need it.”

Havoc stood sideways to him with his fists clenched, glaring outward.

Tyburn streamed data to him.

“Here's the plan. We'll approach from the south. You, me and Ekker will enter one entrance to the west of the ORC team. Frequencies, IFF codes, it's all there. I was going to talk you through it, but maybe we should leave it there if you can't handle it.”

“You bastard.”

Tyburn stepped forward and talked into the side of Havoc's helmet like a drill sergeant dressing down a cadet.

“Jing jing, Havoc. War is hell. You know it, you killed your fair share. I never wanted what happened to your family. You know what I’d do to those scum. But shit happens. Life isn't fair. You'll get your chance. I relish the prospect. But this is bigger than you and me, Son. I happen to think that humanity is worth saving from some alien virus. So are we going to do this or not?”

Tyburn stepped back.

Havoc turned to face Tyburn.