Her cloak swirled around her as she strode out of the workshop.
Cerberus was holding a jeep in front of her at arm’s length. She set it down on the ground. “I’ve made a few adjustments, but at the last recorded test the suit could dead-lift nineteen-point-four tons. The armor can deflect sustained fifty caliber fire and can survive a direct RPG hit with minimal damage to the suit or the pilot.”
“Amazing,” said Colonel Shelly. He ran his eyes over the battlesuit’s armored plates. “Imagine if this suit had gone into production. Do you know what a company of these things could’ve done in Iraq or Afghanistan?”
“And this is still the Mark One system,” said the titan. “We’d planned out a few improvements for the Mark Two which we—”
“What is stored in that building?”
They all looked at Stealth. Her arm was pointing at the third structure in line after the workshop.
Smith’s smile appeared. “I’m not sure what you’re talking—”
“You have exchanged three glances with Colonel Shelly at times when Cerberus has turned toward that building. The first time you both looked at the building afterwards. At least one of you has looked at it each time since. What is stored there you are worried we will discover?”
“Ma’am, we’re less than an hour into this visit,” said Shelly. “You can’t expect us to be open—”
“Cerberus,” snapped Stealth.
Inside the suit Danielle shifted though her lenses. “It’s cooled to the point that I can’t make out any heat signatures inside,” said the titan. “I can hear some movement, though.”
“Open it,” ordered the cloaked woman.
The battlesuit took two steps forward and Freedom was in front of it. He set his huge hand against the armored chest. “Ma’am, I suggest you stand down.”
“Suggestion noted,” said Cerberus, brushing him away. Freedom tensed to fight but Shelly waved him down.
When the keypad didn’t respond to her codes the armored titan grabbed the edge of the door in her football-sized hands. The huge panels slid open with a groan of metal. Cold air washed out of the dark warehouse.
Over a hundred figures shuffled and turned towards the door. None of them blinked at the brilliant afternoon sun as it spilled over their dead eyes. They swayed for a brief moment and then the exes stumbled toward Cerberus.
Chapter 16 - Common Sense
THEN
Please consider this as an addendum to my original report, and I ask now for anyone reviewing this to excuse my informal language. I cite extenuating circumstances.
I think this mission was the one that finally made me wonder if Captain Freedom really was a death-magnet. I was aware of his record when he was recruited for the project and I became his First. It’s a bullcrap superstition. But with the way things turned out, you have to wonder.
Yuma was overrun. We’d gotten word of different groups of survivors holed up throughout the city. There was a big group down on the south side. Colonel Shelly had run the numbers and was sending us to get them. We’d expected to find a few dozen exes at a time. Maybe as many as two hundred. It would be a good mission for the Unbreakables, a chance to flex our collective muscles and burn off some restlessness.
We moved out of the Proving Grounds in one long convoy as planned. Three sections from the Unbreakables were in the front carriers, backed up by equal numbers of norms. Behind us were a dozen Humvees. Captain Freedom was in the lead with section Eleven. I was with him. He likes to be in the front, setting an example and sharing in the threat with his soldiers. More than a few people think he has a death wish.
To be clear, Freedom’s a good man for an officer. Like most people, brass tend to be fifty-fifty. Half of them think they’re superior to any enlisted man, no matter how many years of experience you’ve got over what they learned in a classroom. Freedom’s in the other half. He’s decisive and confident, but he’s not so chock-full of ego it makes him stupid. He listens to his intel. He listens to his First. He listens to his gut. And he makes great calls because of it. He’d seen Colonel Shelly’s warning order and heard the S2 directives culled from intel coming in from all over the country. No body shots. No grenades. No intimidation. Just head shots.