Gears of War: Bloodlines E-Book

Jason M. Hough

• Herausgeber: Titan Books
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020

Seitenzahl: 439

Beschreibung

The new novel set within the action of the Xbox Game Studios video game Gears 5, by New York Times bestselling author Jason Hough.THE OFFICIAL TIE-IN TO THE EXCITING VIDEO GAMES GEARS 5 AND GEARS TACTICSIn the aftermath of Settlement 2's destruction, Kait Diaz reels from the near loss of a close friend amid utter defeat at the hands of the Swarm. To move forward, she must choose either to walk the Outsider path of her mother, or rise to her beckoning duty as a Gear, as her father did. As Kait grapples with her circumstance, an unexpected ally illuminates secrets from the past that offer a new perspective.Over four decades before, the two superpowers of Sera - the Coalition of Ordered Governments, and the Union of Independent Republics - wage a bitter, worldwide conflict known as the Pendulum Wars. For nearly a century, the two have fought to wrest control over Sera's most precious energy resource: Imulsion.On the 79th year of the Pendulum Wars, Gabriel Diaz is a decorated Lieutenant Colonel serving the Coalition, assigned to Vectes Naval Base - a fortress that's seen little action despite its close proximity to UIR territory. The island's relative quiet is disturbed when a COG special forces team known as Ghost Squad arrive with a mysterious mission to the nearby island of Knifespire: an unforgiving rock of seemingly no strategic value.When the Ghosts send out a distress call, it's up to Gabe to evacuate them - and what he discovers on Knifespire could change the very course of the Pendulum Wars. There, the Battle of Gatka Ridge will define Gabe's legacy, and shape the future of his daughter, Kait Diaz.

Leseprobe

CONTENTS

Cover

Gears of War novels from Titan Books

Title Page

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Copyright

Dedication

Act 1: Settlement 2–Jacinto Plateau

1: Roadblock

2: Prognosis

3: The Long Game

4: Stick to the Path

5: A Decorated Relic

6: A True Outsider

7: Waking Nightmare

8: One More Sunset

Act 2: Lesser Islands 79th Year of the Pendulum Wars

1: No Eighty

2: Calm Waters and Choppy Seas

3: Scabbard Cove

4: Debrief

5: Candle in the Dark

6: Cathedral Waltz

7: Waiting Game

8: With Dawn Comes the Devils

9: An Alternative to Thinking

10: First Impressions

11: New Information

12: Hostage Situation

13: Blood in the Water

14: Never-Ending Sunset

15: Meeting of the Minds

16: Reflection

Act 3: The Great Seran Rend

1: Dawn of a New Day

2: Long Road Home

3: Shortcut

4: Nothing More than a Blur

5: Trick of the Light

6: Feel for a Pulse

7: The C.I.B.

8: No Walk in the Park

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Gears of War novels from Titan Books:

Gears of War: Ascendance by Jason M. Hough

Gears of War: Bloodlines by Jason M. Hough

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GEARS OF WAR: BLOODLINES

Print edition ISBN: 9781789094787

E-book edition ISBN: 9781789095210

Published by Titan Books

A division of Titan Publishing Group Ltd

144 Southwark Street, London SE1 0UP

www.titanbooks.com

First edition: April 2020

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Editorial Consultants: Rod Fergusson, Bonnie Jean Mah

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents eitherare the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and anyresemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments,events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have anycontrol over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

© 2020 Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Microsoft, TheCoalition, the Crimson Omen logo, Gears of War, Marcus Fenix, Xbox,and the Xbox logo are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrievalsystem, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without prior writtenpermission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form ofbinding or cover other than that in which it is published and without asimilar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

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For Betty, and for Dez.

ACT 1

SETTLEMENT 2—JACINTO PLATEAU

1: ROADBLOCK

There was a hole in the clouds, where a beam of white-hot death punched through and tore the world to shreds.

For a time—how long, exactly, Kait couldn’t say—all she could see was that brilliant glowing spear emblazoned on the inside of her eyelid. A vertical brilliance that almost blotted out all else. Almost.

For at its base there was a silhouette. A shadow against that radiance, a darkness to provide some counterbalance.

A shadow that had been her friend.

A shadow that had been—

“JD!”

Del, shouting, running. Toward the carnage and fire. She heard his panicked cry only a second before he shouldered past her and rushed into the inferno. Kait followed instinctively, her brain still numbed by what she’d seen. What she’d learned.

Settlement 2 was a smoking ruin. Flames engulfed all the buildings around her. Even the fucking pavement was on fire, superheated to a magma-like state by the raw, astonishing power of the Hammer of Dawn.

“Marcus?” Kait shouted into the smoke and chaos. “Cole?” Neither man responded. They could be anywhere. They could have been vaporized.

Another beam lanced down from the sky, off to her right. Indiscriminate. Out of control.

“Baird,” Del barked into his comm. “Shut the damn thing off!”

“I can’t!”

“Figure out a way!”

Damon Baird replied, but his words were lost in an explosion some hundred yards away. Another building that popped like a balloon in the superheated air. Glass and rock rained down all around her. Had Marcus gone that way? Had he been in there?

She may have lost track of Marcus, but she knew where his son was. Or had been. That had to be her priority now.

JD had been next to a Minotaur truck, about ten yards away, and it was completely engulfed in flames. Kait caught up to Del and gripped his shoulder, pulling him back from the intense heat. Even at this distance she felt the skin on her cheeks beginning to sear.

In the flames she could just see the shape of Lizzie Carmine. What was left of her. Kait gritted her teeth and looked away, closed her eyes. The image refused to fade. She caught the smell of burning flesh, and it made her stomach heave.

“There,” Del said, and he was off again, but sideways now. He ran ten steps and crouched beside a pile of debris. Kait blinked. It wasn’t debris. It was a person. It was him. JD Fenix. Lifeless, sprawled out. Ribbons of smoke curling up from his arm and chest. Face blackened. Eyes closed. Blood trailing from the corner of his mouth. Del had two fingers pressed against his neck.

He was crying, Kait realized.

“Is he alive?” she asked.

“I… I can’t tell. I can’t tell! Am I feeling his pulse, or my own?” He croaked out the words. Even from here she could see him trembling.

Gunfire erupted behind her. Fahz, shouting insults at an unseen enemy, trying to hold them off with a Tri-Shot rotary cannon he must have picked up from a fallen DR-1. Judging from his tone she knew it was a lost cause.

“We need to get out of here,” Kait said, aware of how distant and numb her voice sounded. Del didn’t respond. His world had shrunk down to one thing: his best friend. She glanced around. Only one Minotaur remained operational, so far spared the wrath of the Hammer of Dawn, but penned in by its two destroyed counterparts.

Kait hunkered down beside her friend. Her eyes met Del’s as he continued to feel JD’s neck for a pulse. The look lasted only a second, but she could see in his expression an echo of her own warring thoughts. Unfathomable sadness, and a profound disappointment in what JD had done all those months ago, right here in Settlement 2. A truth she had learned only minutes before. JD had fired first. Started that slaughter.

He had never told Del, or her. Hid it from them.

The roar of Fahz’s Tri-Shot grew closer. He was backing toward their position, firing at something obscured by smoke. Swarm, of course. Something nasty. Something that would kill them all—if the Hammer of Dawn didn’t do the job first. After seeing Lizzie, and now JD, Kait wasn’t sure which end she preferred.

Just a few feet away a figure emerged from the smoke. Kait barely had time to draw her pistol before she recognized Marcus Fenix.

“He alive?” he said. The bayonet on his Lancer dripped with the guts of a fallen enemy.

“I’m not sure,” Del admitted, sounding on the verge of panic. Whatever feelings that answer might have stirred, Marcus kept them bottled up.

“Get him into the truck, before Baird fries it, too.” He hiked a thumb toward the remaining Minotaur. Just beyond it, Kait saw the group of civilians JD had managed to get out of Carmine’s truck before it exploded. They were huddled under the awning of what had been a restaurant. Unable to retreat any farther as flames raged within.

Then she saw a familiar figure. Cole was with them, protecting them and keeping them calm all at once.

“Help me get him up, Kait,” Del said as he shifted JD into a sitting position. Slinging his weapon, he pulled one of the injured man’s arms over his shoulder. Kait moved to JD’s other side. She grabbed JD’s wrist and was about to lift it over her own shoulder when she paused.

“C’mon, hurry!” Del said, grunting.

Marcus jogged off toward the functioning truck.

“Cole, Fahz!” he shouted. “Get everyone in the truck! We’re leaving!”

“Del,” Kait said. “Look.”

Del followed her gaze, and a look of horror crossed his features before he battled it back. JD’s right arm was a ruin of burned tissue and shrapnel wounds. If he was alive, moving him might be the thing that pushed him beyond that threshold. Looking at the arm, she wondered if he might prefer not to survive.

Marcus bellowed for them to hurry up.

“His arm—” Kait called back.

“—isn’t going to matter if we all die out here! Pick him up!” Then he was in the cab of the truck, pulling a dead driver from the seat and climbing in behind the wheel. He gunned the engine.

She met Del’s eyes. He grimaced, then nodded.

When she lifted James Fenix’s mangled arm, he screamed.

* * *

A mile out of Settlement 2 the Hammer of Dawn finally faltered. Its beam transformed to short, erratic bursts, somehow more terrifying than the long, sustained blasts, as each split-second assault was so random, yet still incredibly destructive.

Finally it flickered one last time, and fell silent. The sky went dark again, save for the dim glow of the burning settlement that was now mostly hidden under a blanket of thick smoke.

JD lay on the floor between the two benches, covered in all the burn-pads they had been able to salvage. There were benches on either side of him, crowded with civilians. Most stared numbly ahead, or cowered against one another with their eyes shut. Anything but look at the wounded man who lay between them, or at the ruins of their homes rapidly receding into the hellish distance.

Unable herself to look at the groaning, burned form of her friend any longer, Kait moved to the back of the vehicle. Marcus sat at the end of one bench, arms folded over his chest. He stared blankly at the floor in front of him, lost in thought.

Taking the seat opposite him, Kait pulled its canvas cover aside and aimed her Lancer out the narrow opening, even though there wasn’t anything to shoot at, now. The Hammer of Dawn had seen to that.

“Anyone else feel like we just got a preview of what all of Sera’s gonna look like if we don’t end this soon?” Fahz asked over the comm. He was in the driver’s seat up front, with Del. No one replied. There was no need.

Kait finally gave up and pulled the canvas closed. She forced herself to check on JD. Despite the horrible injuries, his face looked calm. Peaceful even. They had given him as many painkillers as they dared. In the dim light, and covered in the medical blanket, he reminded Kait of her own father at the end of his life. The memory was one she’d long repressed. To think of it now made her shudder.

As if her nightmares weren’t bad enough.

“I said—” Fahz started.

“Enough, Fahz.” It was Del. “Just focus on the road, okay?”

“They didn’t follow us, mate. There aren’t any left after… that.”

“Maybe not behind us,” Del said. “It’s the road ahead I’m worried about. In fact, give me that Tri-Shot. I’ll take it up on the roof.”

“Stay put,” Kait said. “I’ll do it, just give me a second to climb up.” There was a tear in the thick canvas covering the flatbed, right behind the cab. Beneath the gash was a weapons locker, completely empty. Kait stood atop the box and pushed herself up through the opening. From there it was an easy climb over to the roof of the cab.

She rapped on the hatch with her fist.

“Hand me that Tri-Shot, Fahz.”

“Gladly,” he replied, opening the armored portal and pushing the weapon up through to her. Kait grunted with effort as she pulled the bulky weapon onto the roof. Then she slipped her legs inside and planted her feet on the back of the bench seat between Fahz’s and Del’s shoulders.

No one spoke for several minutes as the truck rumbled forward. It was Del who broke the silence.

“Swarm!” he shouted, suddenly. “Dead ahead!”

Kait had been looking off to the left. She snapped her gaze forward at Del’s warning and scanned the road, hoping against hope he was mistaken.

But no, he had it right. A Scion loomed at the side of the road, standing behind an old traffic barrier that came up to its waist. Beyond, in the darkness, several Drones rushed up to join it. How many more were out there, hidden by cover or shadow, was anyone’s guess.

More Swarm, Kait thought. There’ll always be more.

A sudden wave of fatigue washed over her. Maybe it was the memory of her father in his final days battling rustlung, the disease that had taken him where even the Locust War had not. For an instant she found herself thinking of him again.

The war he’d fought—

“Kait!”

She snapped out of her reverie.

“Look, I can handle this if you’re not up for it,” Del said, and he started to climb up.

“No, I’ve got it.” She gestured for him to sit back down.

The truck was old, and at some point someone had scrawled “Old Gal” on the roof. Kait patted the words with one hand, then rested the Tri-Shot beside them and took aim at the road ahead.

“Focus on the Scion,” Del said. “We don’t have to take them all on. We just need to get past them.”

Kait positioned herself as best she could. The Tri-Shot, meant to be used by the robotic DeeBees, had no sighting of any kind—but then it wasn’t exactly a weapon that required accuracy. She grabbed both grips and, as the enemy drew near, pulled on the big trigger that activated the rotary barrels.

The whole truck seemed to pulsate with the vibration of the cannon. Its three barrels spun more slowly than a typical chain gun, but this deficiency was more than made up for by the high caliber rounds it fired. Muzzle flashes strobed the landscape before her. Tracer rounds flew every so often, but they might as well have been left out. She could see where the shots landed by the carnage they created.

Kait coaxed the weapon toward the Scion. The drumbeat regularity of its firing suddenly stretched out as the barrels began to overheat, slowing the rate of fire. Shell casings pooled on the roof around her. Some rained down on Fahz, who howled as one burned his ear before bouncing away. He seemed about to complain, but perhaps the thought of JD’s condition made him hold his tongue for once. Kait ignored him anyway and kept firing.

She had a bead on the creature, but it had taken cover behind one of the old traffic barriers. As she watched it started to push the object into the road to block their path.

Fahz saw it, too. He accelerated. “Hold on to something,” he growled, swerving around a crater in the old, disused highway. It was all Kait could do to keep the Tri-Shot from sliding off the roof, much less pointed at her foe. Still, she fired, overheated weapon or not. The Scion started to stand, then thought better of it. Dust and debris flew into the air as the road barrier he crouched behind began to chip away under the onslaught. If Fahz would just stop, Kait thought, she could bore a hole through the concrete and then through her target.

That wasn’t the plan, though, so she kept the Scion pinned down.

Then her bullets ran out.

“Fahz!” she called. “Ammo!”

“Bit busy driving, here, in case you hadn’t noticed?” he shouted back, swerving again, back to the right.

Del had been readying to shoot through the gun slot on his door, but abandoned the effort now. He shoved his Lancer into the narrow space between his seat and the door, then fumbled around on the floor of the cab for the box of ammo. Grasping it, he lifted it toward her.

“Just pull the chain out and feed it up here!”

He did so.

Kait took the belt of bullets and fed it into the weapon, slapped the rack closed and grabbed the handles again. The barrels began to spin.

They were only fifty yards away now. Several Drones had reached the edge of the road, but Kait ignored them. The Scion had blocked the right lane completely now with the waist-high wall of concrete. He was at one end of it, at the center of the road, peering over the top of his cover and watching them approach. Waiting.

Fahz saw it, too, and maneuvered the Minotaur into the left lane. Which was, Kait realized, exactly what the enemy hoped.

“He’s gonna try to jump on,” she said. “Be ready on the gun slot, Del!” She had no idea if he heard her, but there was movement in the cab below.

Kait poured rounds into the barricade. The Tri-Shot, having cooled during the reload, thudded in her hands with its usual drumbeat pace. Dust filled the air. Sparks flew as rounds ricocheted off the slab of stone and the road all around it. Chunks of shrapnel flew and bounced away, smoking, and in all that, barely visible, she saw the Scion’s hand. It flashed out from behind the barrier, flinging a metallic object into their path.

“Grenade!”

Fahz heaved on the steering wheel. The truck lurched to the left, onto the rugged shoulder. Before they could leave the road entirely Fahz corrected. A hard turn to the right, tilting sickeningly onto three wheels. Somehow he kept the truck from rolling over, but he couldn’t avoid the explosion. The grenade exploded as they passed over it, sending a shockwave against the exposed undercarriage of the Minotaur.

It was, Kait had to admit, a brilliant piece of driving. Fahz, unable to avoid the grenade, had let the underside of the truck absorb the damage, while simultaneously going around the barricade blocking the left lane.

Fahz straightened them out. The tires shrieked beneath them as they reconnected with the road. In that same instant, something heavy slammed into Del’s door.

With them all distracted by the grenade, the Scion had leapt.

Its hand flew in through the open gun slot, grasping at Del’s neck. Its muscled forearm bulged as the creature squeezed, shoving Del back into his seat. Kait tried to kick at the wrist, to no avail.

The Scion started to laugh.

Del, his face contorted as the Scion choked him, fumbled between his seat and the door for something.

Kait heard the revving of the Lancer’s chainsaw an instant later, and then Del jerked the weapon upward with sudden ferocity. There was a sickening wet noise. Blood sprayed the wall of the cab, then the arm was free and the Scion, outside, was howling.

Del wasted no time. He pulled the door lever and elbowed it open, hard, sending the creature falling off into the road. Kait could hear the thud as the Scion hit the ground and rolled.

Fahz accelerated. As they drove away, Marcus opened fire from the canvas flaps in back.

Turning herself, Kait brought the Tri-Shot around too, aiming backward. The Scion may be down, but there were still those Drones to worry about.

But by the time she had eyes on the enemy again, they were thirty yards behind and fading fast. Their Scion leader lay in the road, unmoving.

Kait scanned the hills to either side. All seemed quiet.

“I think we’re out of the woods,” she called down.

“You’re gonna jinx it, talking like that,” Fahz said.

Kait shook her head, ignoring him, climbing down into the cab and jostling the two men aside until she had room to sit between them. It was a tight squeeze with all three of them in the cab, but somehow they made it work. Kait took some small pleasure in how uncomfortable Fahz looked sharing a ride with two people he enjoyed antagonizing at every opportunity.

“JD’s not going to last the drive,” Del said suddenly. “Especially not if we keep getting blown up.”

“Did we get blown up?” Fahz asked, checking his armor, his head, and the steering wheel. “Nope, all here. Thanks to me.”

Del leaned to look past Kait, jabbing a finger at Fahz.

“You know what, I’m getting really sick of your shit.”

“What a coincidence,” Fahz replied. “I’m already sick of yours.”

Kait, tired to the point of collapse, ignored their pointless arguing. She activated her comm, speaking in a lowered voice.

“Marcus,” she said. “I don’t think JD can survive being jostled like that again.”

“Already been on the comm to Baird,” Marcus replied. “They’re sending a bird. Rendezvous isn’t far. A mile, tops. Can we make it that far?”

“Depends how many more grenades we run over,” Del said.

“Zero, so far!” Fahz replied.

“Just stay sharp,” Marcus said, raising his voice. “All of you. We’ll make it.”

Ten minutes later he pulled off the road into a wide, grassy field, where a King Raven waited, its rotor still spinning.

2: PROGNOSIS

There were parallels, Kait thought, between JD’s condition and the city of New Ephyra. Both were trapped between life and death, a state that was reliant entirely on external forces. JD on the medical team that seemed to be waiting, waiting…

While the city waited for the Swarm to come calling.

Sitting on a chair in JD’s hospital room, she had her legs tucked up, arms folded across her knees, chin resting on her forearms. She could sit like this for hours, she found, and only occasionally doze. Even then the sleep was shallow and furtive. It was a position her father had taught her when she was… what, seven? She couldn’t remember exactly. Those days of exploring the wilderness around Fort Umson were long, long gone.

JD just lay there, inert, as he had for two weeks. A machine hissed and clicked beside him, doing the work his lungs still refused to do. There was a thick tube in his mouth, and smaller ones in his nose. His right arm was completely covered in burn pads, and they’d shaved his head—the part where the hair hadn’t been singed off, that is—to better tend to his burns. Sometimes a team of nurses would come in to shift his body into different positions. “To prevent atrophy,” the doctor had said. Then they would wash him, feed him.

Everything except wake him up, or let him go.

“Just like this fucking city,” she said to herself, staring out the window.

“What was that, Corporal Diaz?”

Kait didn’t turn at the sound of Mina Jinn’s voice from the doorway. The woman liked to show up suddenly, not making a sound until she was already in the room.

“You know,” Kait replied, “I really wish you’d stop calling me that.”

“Forgive me.” Jinn stepped into the room. “A slip of the tongue. Or, perhaps, just wishful thinking.”

Kait couldn’t quite hold in her laugh. The COG First Minister had started this little head game—just one of many the woman engaged in at any given time—only days after Kait had first arrived in New Ephyra.

First the woman had met privately with JD and Del, forgiving their desertion and reinstating their ranks. A meeting, pointedly, that Kait had been left out of. After all, Jinn would have had a hard time convincing Kait to join up if her two best friends were in jail instead of in uniform. No doubt she didn’t want Kait there to argue for refusal, either.

Once Jinn had secured their cooperation, though, she’d tried to use them to recruit Kait, confident she’d follow her friends into the waiting arms of the COG.

But then Kait had learned of survivors in her village. Kids, in fact, left behind to fend for themselves against the growing threat of the Swarm. For Kait the decision had been an easy one, though it caught the rest of them off guard. She’d left. Snuck out of the city in the night, with a little help from Damon Baird and Marcus Fenix.

Kait had saved the kids in the end, even reunited with her Uncle Oscar in the process. And in the final skirmish against the Swarm, everyone had helped, even JD and Del. The band was, as it were, back together.

Jinn, it seemed, had taken every opportunity while Kait was off on her lone-wolf mission to “accidentally” call her Corporal Diaz. It was as if she thought saying it would somehow make it happen. Especially when she said it within earshot of others. The declaration of rank had indeed spread. Nurses called her by the title. Doctors, too. Even Baird had said it accidentally, once, not understanding what Jinn was up to. In the First Minister’s mind, it was a foregone conclusion that Kait would join the COG, the Coalition of Ordered Governments.

In Kait’s mind, that was far from the truth.

Especially now.

“Did you know he fired the first shot?” she asked.

Jinn took one of the chairs by the bed, her eyes on JD.

“I’m sorry?”

“You know what I’m talking about. Settlement 2.”

Jinn shifted, uncomfortable. She placed her hands over her pregnant belly. “What happened there was regrettable—”

“That’s not what I asked.”

“The situation was complicated, Kait.”

“Did. You. Know?”

The First Minister reached out and brushed JD’s cheek with the back of her hand. A motherly gesture if ever there had been one. Kait waited, watching, wondering if Jinn was really moved to have a tender moment with the wounded soldier, or just buying time to compose her answer.

“Of course I knew,” Jinn replied, her voice even, steady. “I gave the order.”

Kait hadn’t expected that. Her first instinct—one of rage—was quickly replaced by suspicion. She wouldn’t put it past Mina Jinn to lie, to say those words, if the woman thought it might mend the rift between JD and Kait. JD and everyone, really. Before she could decide what to say, a doctor entered. Someone probably interrupted his sleep as soon as the hospital registered Jinn’s presence.

“First Minister,” he said. He looked at Kait, and if he said “Corporal,” Kait thought she might leave then and there. “Ms. Diaz.”

“Any change?” Jinn asked, eyes never leaving the prone figure.

“I’m afraid not,” he replied. “There’s still significant brain activity, which continues to give us hope he’ll pull through this, but the rest of him remains entirely on life support.”

“And your prognosis, Doctor?”

The man measured his words. “There’s just no way to know. He could wake up tomorrow, or a year from now, or… never.” Before Jinn could press, he added, “In my experience, and from the scope of his injuries, the fact that he hasn’t woken up by now means he’s not likely to do so.”

Jinn said nothing. Her focus was entirely on JD.

Kait realized she’d been holding her breath. She let it out, slowly.

The doctor shifted uneasily. “First Minister, excuse me, but it may be wise to make a decision soon… To invest this amount of time and supplies in one man—”

“You can go now,” Jinn snapped.

The doctor nodded and, with a furtive glance at Kait, backed out of the room. Numb and exhausted, Kait kept quiet. A silence seeped into the room like a morning fog, absolute save for the wheeze and click of the life-support machine.

“I envy you sometimes,” Jinn said suddenly.

“Why is that?”

The First Minister turned her head slightly, casting a sidelong glance.

“Sorry, I was talking to JD,” she said. “The soldier’s life. Following orders instead of making decisions. I envy it, sometimes.”

Kait glared at her. “He still made a decision. He could have chosen not to pull the trigger.”

For a moment Jinn went tense, looking ready to debate the topic, but then her features softened. She turned back to the unconscious man, and stroked his cheek again.

“I suppose you’re right,” she said after a time. “Besides, taking James off life support is not my decision to make. It should be Marcus who decides. It’s his right.”

The unspoken accusation left Kait feeling even colder. Marcus had only visited his son once in the last few weeks, and even that had been brief. The worst part was, she understood why that had been. She’d felt the reluctance herself, and knew Del had, too. Jinn and Fahz had been the most diligent at keeping the vigil.

“At the same time,” Jinn went on, “I somehow feel responsible for him. It was my program that helped his mother Anya become pregnant. I was even there when he was born. I—”

That was it. Kait stood and left the room. At the hospital’s front entrance she ran into Del, who was coming up the steps.

“Any change?” he asked.

“No.”

“He alone up there?”

“Jinn’s with him.”

“Ugh.” Del stared at the building’s facade. “Feels like every time I go up it’s either Fahz telling JD some war story, or Jinn leaning over him and whispering like she’s plying him with all her secrets.”

Kait grimaced. “I know what you mean. I just wish he’d wake up, so I can knock him on his ass.”

“Yeah, seriously.” He looked away from the building. “Maybe I’ll come back later, then.”

“Wise decision,” she replied, and started walking again. Del fell in beside her, and remained with her all the way to Baird’s mansion, where she was staying. At the gate she paused, turned to her friend.

“The doctor’s pushing to have him unplugged.”

Del didn’t seem surprised. It was something they’d all contemplated since returning from Settlement 2.

“What’d Jinn say?”

“She told him to get lost.”

At that her friend raised an eyebrow.

“Then she said it was Marcus’s call,” Kait added. “But then she started going on about how she’s practically JD’s mom because of the whole thing with Anya and… I just had to get the fuck out of there. The two of them deserve each other.”

“That’s kind of harsh.” At her withering gaze Del held up his hands. “I mean, I get where you’re coming from, but still…” He looked back toward the hospital. “Damn. Going to be interesting to see how Jinn’s kid turns out. She’d be an… interesting mom to have.”

She tried, but failed, to stop another laugh that bubbled out of her. This time, the laughter wouldn’t stop, and soon Del was laughing, too. It felt good, but it flooded her with guilt, too. Despite everything, ultimately this was JD they were talking about.

They lingered there on the sidewalk, the mood growing serious again as around them the citizens of New Ephyra went about their day. The place had changed in the last few months, now that the threat of the Swarm had become an undeniable thing, like a massive thunderhead on the horizon.

“Jinn told me she gave JD the order to shoot,” Kait said. Del, watching a patrol of DeeBees march by, grunted.

“And what did you say?”

“I told her he still had a choice.”

“That’s not how the military works—”

“I know, I know. But… fuck that,” she growled. “Seriously. Fuck that.”

Leaving him there in the street, she went off in search of Baird’s private gym, ready to take a few hundred swings at a punching bag until her body reached the verge of collapse. It was the only way she could get herself to sleep without the nightmares.

Which was probably why the nightmares had started to bleed into her waking hours, too.

3: THE LONG GAME

“Strange place for a meeting,” Baird said, entering the gloom of JD’s hospital room.

The lights were off, save the status indicators from the machines keeping James Dominic Fenix alive. Mina Jinn sat on the edge of JD’s bed, leaning over his prone form like a grieving mother. Her face was lit by the glowing screens on the machine beside him. Red, then white, then red, then white.

The shutters on the wall-length window had been opened, giving a view out onto the nighttime city. Until recently it had been a glittering jewel in the evenings. One of Baird’s favorite sights in the world, that skyline. But with the power rationing of late, most of the streetlights had been turned off, and the citizens were thus far complying with the voluntary effort to turn out unneeded lights in the evening, and virtually all lights at night.

All of which meant that, at this late hour, the only lights he could see out there were small pools of twisting, erratic beams, cast by the “eyes” of the robotic DeeBees that patrolled and maintained the curfew.

After a moment or two Jinn finally seemed to notice his arrival. She stood with an effort, one hand going to the small of her back while the other supported her abdomen and the child within. Once standing, she gestured toward two chairs in the corner of the room. Baird took one. Jinn sat by the window, her profile just a shadow against the night sky beyond. The idea of conversing with her without being able to read her facial expressions was disconcerting, but he decided to follow her lead and leave the lights off.

“The doctor says a normal routine can be important,” Jinn said, as if reading his thoughts, “hence the dark.”

“Works for me,” Baird lied. A silence stretched, and guilt welled up inside him. He began to really hate not being able to see her face.

“Look,” he said, “I can only apologize so many times. The situation out there, as reported… it was chaos. They were trapped. We were going to lose some of our best people. Friends of mine. Family, really. Not to mention all the evacuees they’d picked up. It would have been a massacre, one for the history books. So I…

“I made a choice, and I stand by it,” he continued. “At the time… it was the only call, Jinn. The only call, and I’d do it again. And… and I’m rambling, aren’t I?”

Her silence went on, just long enough to be at the brink of unbearable. He couldn’t tell for sure, but he thought she was still looking at JD.

“We’re well past apologies,” she said finally.

Baird decided it was his turn to be silent. He’d come here expecting a massive fight. Jinn had avoided speaking with him since the event, partly because of what had happened to JD, and partly because he’d unleashed a weapon she’d expressly forbidden him to use. Baird had put her in a tough position, and was prepared to face the consequences, whatever Jinn might eventually decide. Perhaps even a pair of handcuffs and his own robots escorting him to prison, accused of war crimes.

“In fact,” Jinn said, “I’m starting to fear we’re well past everything.”

“Meaning?” Baird asked, though he thought he knew the answer already. He stared hard at her silhouette, trying to glean anything he could from her posture.

“You said you made a choice,” she replied. “At Settlement 2. You made a choice to deploy the Hammer of Dawn. JD made a choice in asking for you to do it.”

“I don’t think he had any other—”

“We’re out of choices now, aren’t we, Damon.”

It wasn’t really a question. He nodded, unsure if she could even see that.

“We tried equipping the DeeBees, not just with knowledge, but weapons, too. The Swarm turned them into their own abominations. We tried the Hammer of Dawn, the result of which lies here in front of us.”

Baird swallowed, a fresh wave of guilt crashing down on his shoulders.

“We’re running low on a lot of supplies,” she added, gesturing to the dormant lights, “but there’s one commodity I’m most terrified of running out of, and that’s choices.”

“Unfortunately my factories can’t manufacture options.” He sensed a shift at that, a split second where she appreciated the gallows humor. “Be a good trick, though. Maybe I should work on it.”

“I would appreciate it if you could be serious, Damon.”

“Yes, First Minister. Sorry.”

“You’re forgiven. Just for the joke, I mean. Not for destroying an entire settlement, and nearly killing a man who is like a son to me.”

Baird decided to hold his tongue there, too.

Jinn was right, after all.

She let out a breath, one that wavered slightly. There was fear in it, he thought, and that made him afraid, too. Afraid where Jinn was going with all this.

“Despite what happened out there,” she said, “I want you to know I still value your opinion. Which is why I called you here.”

“Happy to help.”

“You haven’t yet heard what I’m going to ask.”

“Good point. I retract my happiness.”

“Damon…”

“I know, I know. Serious face. It’s back on.”

She actually did laugh then, but it was the impatient sort of laugh. “As I see it, we have only two choices left to us.” She let that sink in for a second before continuing. “We either bring everyone we can here, to the city, or we scatter as far and wide as possible, in hopes the Swarm can’t track us all down.”

He’d spent a lot of time thinking about the same choices, and discussing them with Sam, Cole, and even Marcus to some extent. Baird leaned forward, organizing his thoughts with more care than he usually liked to use, before turning them into words.

“If we run,” he said, “we need places to go. You know more than I do how the rest of Sera is faring in this… outbreak.”

“Not well.”

“Some of us might survive, yes, but to what end?” he continued. “A few little hidden tribes in a world overrun with monsters? If that’s our future, then I say no thank you.”

She remained still, listening, so he went on.

“If we bring everyone here,” he said, “we’re setting up for a fight. Is it one we can win? I have no idea.”

“We can’t,” she said. “You and I both know that.”

“I was trying to be optimistic.”

“Just be honest. That’s what I need right now.”

Baird nodded, gravely.

“Okay, so it’s probably a last stand, but at least we go down fighting. Or, if I can sneak a bit of optimism in there, maybe it buys us enough time for a solution to present itself.”

“What kind of solution?”

He shrugged. “Maybe we come up with a virus that kills them off. Or a new tactic we haven’t thought of yet. Maybe we get the Hammer working properly—”

“You had me up until there,” Jinn said, “but I cannot believe you’re going to sit here and suggest that, after what happened.” The prone form of JD was all the punctuation that sentence needed. Baird nodded, almost ceding the point.

“Well, we’re not going to defend the walls with DeeBees,” he asserted. “If we’re going to stay and fight, and we can’t use the Hammer or the robots, then there’s only one choice left.” Jinn said nothing. He had, for the hundredth time it seemed, reached the line she refused to cross.

“Gears,” Baird said, pressing his luck.

Again with an effort Jinn stood, refusing the hand he offered her. She went to the window and looked out. It was perhaps the first time since he’d entered the room that she wasn’t looking at JD.

“If you’re going to double down on bringing everyone here,” Baird went on, “then you need to ask them as they come in the gate, ‘Can you shoot?’ If the answer is yes, you put a Lancer in their hands and send them up to the walls. That’s the only way we have a chance.”

“There is a part of me, Damon,” she replied, “that sees that as surrounding the seat of this government with armed Outsiders.”

“They aren’t the enemy, Jinn.”

“Not now, no.”

“Jinn… come on. This isn’t the time to be playing the long game, is it?”

She seemed about to reply, but went silent again instead.

“It’s like you said,” he added, “we’re running out of options. We need to take the ones we have left, before they’re gone, too.”

“They have no training, no discipline.”

He shrugged. “So we train them. The regimen Del and I created for the DeeBees can be adapted. It’s quick, too.” He left its ineffectiveness unsaid.

“We’re getting ahead of ourselves, though.” Jinn turned toward him. “First we have to convince them to come.”

“Kait seems the perfect ambassador to help with that.”

“Yes,” Jinn replied. “Well, I’d hoped JD would convince her, but now… and it doesn’t matter how many times I call her ‘Corporal,’ the honorary rank just slides right off her like a… like a bad smell.”

“Then what you need is some deodorant.” He held up a hand. “That didn’t come out right.” Jinn glared at him. Or, he thought she did. It was hard to tell in the dark. “Sorry,” he said again, “I promised not to joke around.”

“No,” Jinn replied. “No, you may have a point there.”

“I do?” When she didn’t answer, Baird felt his stomach tighten. “Why do I feel like I just gave you an idea that I’m going to regret?”

Jinn ignored that. Which was just as worrying.

“That will be all, Damon.”

4: STICK TO THE PATH

Another week passed with no change in JD’s status.

The Swarm continued to harass settlements, Outsider villages, and anyone else they could find. With each day, like some creeping vine, they were getting a little closer to New Ephyra. Kait could feel the tension in the city, and something else now, too. The respect and admiration she so often saw in the eyes of people she passed in the street. It was eroding. A look of hope turning to despair and even accusation.

It was a look that said, “Why are you here? You should be out there, fighting them!”

There was only one honest reply, but it wasn’t one even Kait could bring herself to give.

“It’s no use.”

And then, of course, anyone who did know her would have something else on their mind.

“How’s JD? Any change?”

Any change. Any fucking change. How sick she’d grown of that question. She’d shake her head. She’d move on.

Kait spent most of her time now in Baird’s compound, avoiding the questions or the looks of the people. Avoiding Jinn. Avoiding everything, really, except the one thing she couldn’t get away from. Her nightmares.

The only thing that worked was total exhaustion, so she’d spend her time exercising. Lifting weights, sparring with Del or Cole or Marcus, running endlessly along the paths through Baird’s “yard,” which was more like a small forest.

This had given Baird an idea.

Kait and Del waited as he made the final preparations. For Del’s part he looked bored, still half asleep. Kait had been up before dawn, though, and had an idea of what Baird was planning. She stretched as he talked, shaking the fatigue from her arms and legs. Rolling her neck as far as her armor would allow.

“Here’s what we’re going to do,” he said finally. Baird pointed to the landscape. Two ponds, a half-dozen copses of trees, hedges, grass, and off to one side his “shed” that was the size of a small warehouse. Among all this, new as of this morning, was a training course. Beams of wood to climb over, or under. Ropes on which to swing across muddy pits. The works.

“I’ve enabled sensors in your armor. Biometrics. You two are going to be the benchmark, so I need your best effort. Once the course is optimized, we’ll recreate it in several places around the city, so those who wish to help out can be evaluated.”

“By ‘help out,’” Del said, “you mean fight.”

Baird spread his hands, smiling. “Such a smart guy! Well done.” The smile vanished as quickly as it had appeared. “Yes, to fight. The DeeBees aren’t cutting it.”

“Understatement of the year,” Kait muttered.

“Jinn’s cool with this?” Del asked, pointing at the course. “Seems, I don’t know, contrary to her policies.”

“Let me worry about Jinn,” Baird replied. “Okay. Kait, you’ll be setting a time for women and men. Del, you’ll set the benchmark for children and the elderly.”

“Very funny.” Del wasn’t laughing.

Kait did, though. A little bit.

“GO!” Baird shouted.

Instantly she turned and launched into a sprint, then realized what she should have noticed five minutes ago. Del was only pretending to be tired. He already had a full stride on her as they reached the first obstacle: a single rope suspended over a mud puddle twenty feet across.

“It’s not a competition!” Del shouted over his shoulder, and she could hear the glee in his voice as he leapt for the only way across the thick muddy patch.

Del caught the rope and swung.

If Kait waited for the rope to swing back, this would be over before it even really started. So she launched herself forward and up, legs and arms stretched out in front of her. The mud exploded around her feet when she hit, sending a huge spray up into the air, her face, and under her armor.

Kait knew this yard well, though, and she knew how Baird and Sam cared for it. She doubted he’d dig too deep in creating a mud pit, and she was right. It was perhaps six inches to the bottom. Still a total bastard to get through, but not the waist-deep slog it was meant to look like.

By the time she came out the other side her boots were full of the muck, though, and weighing her down. Kait kicked them off and hopped as she pulled her socks away, too, tossing them aside. Free of the encumbrance she raced on, already ten steps behind Del. Barefoot, though, Kait Diaz could practically fly.

Especially on a well-maintained lawn.

The countless hours she’d spent jogging around this place were about to pay off, she hoped. Kait turned slightly and hurdled a low hedge, bypassing a tight curve in the trail. Del, who’d followed the path like a good sportsman, threw a glance over his shoulder when he realized she’d closed half the gap in only a few seconds.

“Already resorting to cheating?” he asked. “I should have known!”

Kait threw all her energy into the rise and fall of her legs, the placement of her steps, the rhythm of her arms.

“Baird… never said… to stick to the path…”

Del grunted.

They were neck-and-neck when they reached the climbing wall. At the top, though, Kait stopped. There were DeeBees coming in through the back gate, and several Gears in armor, too. Del didn’t see them, and kept on going. He jumped down, rolled, and was halfway to the next obstacle when he realized Kait had stopped.

“Giving up already?” he asked, panting, hands on his knees. Then he saw where she was looking and turned to face the group coming up the path. “That’s never good,” he said, just loud enough for Kait to hear.

She jumped down from the climbing wall and came to a stand at its base, waiting. One of the Gears marched up to her. He looked her up and down, then shrugged.

“Kait Diaz?”

“Uh-huh.”

“First Minister Jinn would like to see you.”

Kait eyed him, then matched his shrug. “Tell her I’ll be there in an hour. I need to get changed.”

“She said… uh… she said to escort you to Government House… right away.” A clump of mud fell from her armor just then, splashing onto the ground between them.

“Ah yes,” she said. “Government House. Marble floors. Nice carpets. Right, then, lead the way.”

The man hesitated, eyes on the splash of fresh mud on the grass at their feet. Caught in that space between following an order and following common sense, he did what she knew he would. Turned and gestured for her to come along.

* * *

If Jinn cared about her appearance, she kept it well hidden.

The First Minister did, however, ask her to come out onto the balcony. They stood side by side at the railing there, looking out over the city. It gleamed in the morning light, Kait thought. As if nothing was wrong. Sunlight danced off roof tiles. The trees along the main avenue swayed slightly in a warm breeze.

Jinn had her hands on her belly, a pose she took more and more often as her pregnancy progressed.

“I’m getting impatient,” the First Minister finally said, and Kait knew immediately what this was about. It wasn’t JD. That, she supposed, was good.

“I suppose,” Jinn went on, “I’ve finally come to realize that calling you Corporal isn’t going to make it be true.”

“Sheer force of will only goes so far,” Kait commented, stalling for time, still not ready for this.

“You need to decide, Kait.”

So much for stalling. Kait tried, though. She watched the city below. The silence became a tangible thing.

“Perhaps you’re wondering, why now?” Jinn added. “What’s changed?”

“I wasn’t, but now that you mention it… why now? What’s changed?” And then it hit her. “JD’s woken up. Or… no… is he… is he gone?”

Before she finished Jinn was already shaking her head, though, and she even put a reassuring hand on Kait’s arm.

“No, nothing like that. There’s been no news from the hospital.”

Kait nodded, easing herself back from the swell of emotion. A part of her, a small part, wondered if Jinn had done that on purpose. To see her reaction. To find out if she still cared. Kait found that she desperately wanted to change the subject.

“So, why then? What has changed?”

“Strategy,” Jinn replied. “I’ve been consulting with Baird, with Marcus. My advisors and staff, the leadership of the city itself.”

Kait hadn’t felt as if the city had any leadership other than Mina Jinn, but she let it go.

“It is time we start bringing people here, to New Ephyra.”

“You mean, whether they want to come or not.”

Jinn nodded. “Some have taken the invitation, some have been forced here by circumstances, but many more have held out. Refused, even.”

“That’s their right,” she said, an old anger flaring up inside her.

“Under any other circumstances I’d agree with you.” Jinn seemed to steel herself for what she wanted to say next, which to Kait was a rather remarkable achievement. She’d never met anyone as stern.

“I would still prefer, of course, that those still outside the walls—”

“—Outsiders—”

“Yes, the Outsiders specifically. I would still prefer that they choose to come, and if nothing yet has convinced them to make that choice, perhaps one of their own could do it.”

“Ah,” Kait said.

“Especially if that person was an example of what integration can look like.”

“A corporal, let’s say.”

“And yet also an Outsider. A path for them to follow.”

Kait said nothing.

Jinn turned to her. “After Settlement 2—”

“If you want my help,” Kait snapped, “I highly suggest you don’t bring that place up.” But Jinn, hardened steel that she was, did not flinch.

“After Settlement 2, I am convinced that the only real option left to us is to gather inside these walls. There is strength in numbers. Real strength.”

“The Outsiders will see it as a prison camp.”

The First Minister dipped her chin, an acknowledgement so quick and perfect that Kait realized this conversation had gone exactly how the woman intended. Kait folded her arms, immediately defensive and also immediately wondering if that, too, was what Jinn expected.

Two can play at that game.