The Biomass Revolution (The Tisaian Chronicles) (33 page)

Several nights ago the TDU ambushed a squad of Knights in Rohania and captured an SGS worker who is allegedly the son of the founders of the TDU. We have yet to locate the perpetrators or the traitor.

Footsteps from the hallway distracted the Governor. He placed the memo back down on his desk and removed his thick glasses, rubbing his tired eyes gently.
Sonii never ceases to be on time,
he thought, rising from his desk to greet his loyal Chief of Staff.

Sonii
entered the private quarters with his head tucked into his collar. He had no idea the Governor had already arrived, and it wasn’t until the politician cleared his throat the pale Sonii looked up.

“Governor
…” he paused. “Uh, I did not realize you were here already.”

“I had some work to do,” he lied, concealing the fact he could not sleep.

“I see. Anything I can assist with?” Sonii asked, scratching the small beard lining his narrow jaw.

The
Governor handed him the memo, pleased to see Sonii was beginning to regain color in his face. “I’d like your opinion about this report by the time the sun comes up. And find out why I’m just hearing about this now.”

Sonii grabbed the memo from his
boss and slowly walked over to the mahogany conference table. His eyes scanned the document slowly, mindful not to miss a single word.

The letter confirmed his fears.
He was well aware Tisaia was still not completely safe from threats. In fact, he realized the threats Lunia faced were more real than ever before. Supreme Knight Augustus had tried to ensure him on many occasions the TDU was no more, destroyed and “eradicated” from Tisaian soil, but Sonii was no fool. He hadn’t risen to the second most powerful position in Tisaia by being stupid.

Perhaps
it’s time for the Council to choose a new commander.

Sonii turned back to the
Governor, who sat studying another document at his desk. “I’ll call a council meeting immediately,” he said, his words cutting through the silence as he rushed out of the office.

The Governor stood and w
alked over to one of the bulletproof windows, watching shadows dance in the darkness hovering over Lunia. He watched the yellow hint of sunlight on the horizon like a dormant beast rising from its slumber. If it wasn’t a metaphor for the threat the TDU still posed, then he didn’t know what was. He frowned, glancing quickly at his wrist watch. It was going to be a long day.

Time
: 7:00 a.m. February 28, 2071.

Location
: Tunnels. Tisaia

Obi sat in the cold, damp tunnel, trying to keep his feet out of the murky water below him. His orange goggles glowed brightly in the darkness. He felt safe, surrounded by his trusted team. Creo, Ajax, and Nathar had just returned with the explosives. His plan was now in its final stages. Ran and Nordica were waiting for them a few tunnels away.

“What of the four new recruits
?” Obi asked.

“Looks like they bailed
, boss. Ran and Nordica said they disappeared a few minutes ago,” Ajax replied.

“
What do you mean,
bailed
?”

Ajax took out his knife and began to sharpen the blade on the
bayonets attached to his rifle. “Abandoned ship, like a bunch of cowards,” he said softly. 

“
Shit. Maybe they were compromised and we’re walking into a trap,” Nathar whispered.

“No, they bailed.” Ajax replied, running his knife along the edge of his bayonet again.

“How do you know that? What if the Tin Cans got to them?” Nathar asked, his voice raised.

Ajax
slid his knife down the length of the bayonet one more time before pausing. “I know because I could see it in their eyes. They were just kids.  A waste of money if you ask me.”

Obi thought of the young man
to whom he had given the energy bar to earlier. “Maybe it’s for the best,” he said, knowing their lack of training could pose more danger to the mission.

Spurious watched the soldiers chat and stirred nervously. He wasn’t close enough to hear what they were discussing
, but he knew whatever it was, it wasn’t good.

“We proceed without them,” Obi whispered to his men. He hesitated, “We have to presume they deserted us. Besides, if they had been caught
, we would have heard at least one shot fired.”

The soldiers sat huddled on the concrete platform, Obi’s flashlight illuminating an old map on the cold floor. It was one of the only maps Spurious recognized back at the silo.

“Nathar and Creo, you’ll enter the CRK tunnel from a decommissioned air duct that runs above it. You’ll drop in and take out any guards,” Obi said, pointing at the different locations on the map.

“Nordica, Ran and I will drop in after all targets have been neutralized. Ajax, you and Spurious will follow us once
we’ve been given the all clear.”

“Where’s the card reader at?”
Creo asked

“I was just about to get to that,” Obi replied.

“The card reader is located on the eastern wall of this final tunnel,” he said, pointing. “Once Spurious gets us inside, Ajax and I will plant the charges. We suspect there will be light resistance, and hopefully they will never see us coming.”

“Should we expect any turrets or machine gun nests?” Nathar inquired.

“Spurious, you answer that one,” Obi ordered.

Spurious cleared his throat before he spoke. “This is the back way into the CRK headquarters. As far as I can tell from the blueprints I’ve looked at there won’t be any machine gun nests and guards will be at a minimum. The tunnel is directly under the eastern half of the headquarters so the explosives should bring the entire structure down. I don’t think they would see an attack coming from this direction,” Spurious
said, as reassuringly as possible.

“Good. Nathar
, have you reprogrammed his card?” Obi asked.

“I did when we took five a few hours ago. Should work like a charm,” he
said with a smile.

“
Men, you all know what to do. We’ve been waiting for this moment for years. Once we get into the secured CRK tunnel, we have to assume we’ll be facing some resistance. We just need to buy Spurious enough time to get to the card reader. He has assured me that once inside the final tunnel, we can place the bombs and escape with enough time to make it out before the entire CRK headquarters collapses,” Obi said, gritting his teeth.

He watched his men, scanning their faces
to gauge their reactions. He wasn’t surprised to see their tense jaws tightly shut. The tunnel was relatively dark, but the men’s infrared goggles easily allowed them to pick up the skeptical looks on one another’s faces.

Obi picked up on this quickly, realizing it would take more than a pep talk to reassure
them he wasn’t leading them on a suicide mission. There was a reason the new recruits had left, and it wasn’t because they were cowards – they knew the chance of survival was low. There was no time for any more speeches though. Every moment they wasted was one second closer to their plan being discovered. And Obi knew he couldn’t count on any more lucky breaks.

Time
: 9:05 a.m. February 28, 2071.

Location
: Tunnels. Lunia, Tisaia

The vent was pitch black, making it difficult for Spurious to even make out the shape of his hands in front of him. For what seemed like an hour, he squirmed through the tight air duct. He knew in advance it was going to be tight, but he had no idea it would be this bad. Ajax barely managed to fit inside, and was forced to remove his chest armor before entering.

As Spurious crawled further he began to feel his heart racing inside his chest
. It was finally happening; he was going to have his chance at shaping the future of Tisaia.

His thoughts drifted to Lana, trying to forget
her betrayal. He had to stay strong now; avenging the deaths of Lana, Paulo and his parents was all that mattered. 

He pushed through the darkness, sweat dripping down his
bruised and wind burnt face, seeping into his pores. With every struggling move, he began to feel like his arms and legs were moving on their own accord. His heart continued to beat faster and faster. And just when he thought he was going to vomit, Ajax stopped in front of him. “We’re here,” he grumbled back at Spurious.

Spurious flattened his body against the smooth metal of the air duct, listening to Na
thar work on removing the barely visible cover to the tunnel below.

For minutes he lay there, listening to the faint sound of Nathar working in the distance. He strained his ears, listening to the sound of boots hitting a concrete floor below, the echo muffled by the metal ventilation.

They must be in
.

Gunshots immediately erupted below, rattling the metal duct.
His excitement quickly turned to horror. It was really happening. He was really going into battle against the CRK.

Spurious placed his hands over his ears, trying to shield them from the deafening noise that was amplified by the tight metal vent. The gunfire stopped as soon as it had started
and a nervous silence washed over the soldiers in the air duct.

“All
clear!” a voice finally shouted from below.

Spurious
sucked in a deep breath of stale air, attempting to get back in a crawling position. A wave of dizziness washed over him and he dropped back to his stomach. The ringing from the gunfire was pounding in his head.

“Let’s move,” Ajax growled in front of him.

Spurious forced himself onto his belly and squirmed through the final length of the air duct, trying to keep up with Ajax. He could make out the halogen light bleeding into the duct from the open hole in the center of the vent. He closed his eyes slowly and took a deep breath, just like he did before jumping into the pool as a kid, and dropped through the opening.

The brightness of the tunnel instantly washed over him. He blinked, trying to regain his vision and focus on the tunnel. Spurious felt naked, exposed in the open, not knowing exactly where he was. He
rubbed his eyes as his vision slowly returned to normal. 

At the end of the tunnel he could make out a large metal door and two Knights lying on the concrete ground
. There were warm red puddles of blood pooled around their corpses.

“Let’s go,” Ajax shouted at Spurious
, who stood staring.

Spurious snapped out of it, removing his key card from his damp pocket
and rushing over to the card reader. “Please let this work,” he muttered, stepping over the body of a dead Knight and swiping the small badge over a red key card built into the wall. He waited, but nothing happened.

“Shit!” h
e screamed, waving the small white identification card back and forth across the front of the reader. Finally, the red light turned green with a click, and the door unlocked. 

“Get him out of here,” Obi ordered Ran.

Spurious watched Ajax grab the large metal handle of the door and began to pry it open. Obi waited from behind, a bag of explosives in each hand. Nathar, Creo and Nordica all had taken to one knee, their weapons trained on the door, waiting to see what was on the other side.

Before Ajax could open the door
, Spurious felt Ran grab his arm. “You heard him, Spurious, let’s go. Your work is done. We need to get you out of here!” Ran shouted.

Spurious couldn’t move
, though; everything had slowed to a crawl, like it had the night Lana died. He stood there staring blankly at the door, Ran pulling on his arm, urging him to follow.

As Ajax opened the door
, Nordica and Creo rushed into the room, their weapons at the ready. The explosion of gunfire erupted immediately.

This time Spurious did
n’t bring his hands to his ears; he stood there, motionless, watching the red hot blasts of white lead streak from the ends of Creo’s and Nordica’s rifles. Spurious could barely make out the Knights in the distance. They fired from behind two metal crates positioned in the middle of the next hallway.

Ran loosened his grip on Spurious’ han
d just as two rounds tore through Nordica. He screamed helplessly and watched Nordica’s dreadlocks swirling in the air, her rifle firing wildly before her body slumped against the concrete wall speckled with blood.

Creo cocked his head to glance down at Nordica’s lifeless body before firing several bursts at the Knights’ positions. “Go to hell, you Tin Cans!” he screamed.

The rounds ricocheted harmlessly off the metal crates the Knights were hiding behind, prompting them to duck. This gave Nathar and Ajax an opportunity to rush into the room. Ajax dove, lobbing a grenade towards their position.  

The grenade hit the ground and rolled to the middle of the two metal crates. The Knights fumbled with their weapons, turning to run after seeing it at the last moment.