The Lives of Tao

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

THE ASSAULT



After the turn of the twenty-first century, man has evolved to such a point where the Quasing can no longer treat man as errant children. The recent development of the Penetra scanner has raised new concerns for our safety. Now, for the first time, we can be detected by humans. It is a powerful weapon for either side in the war, but even more importantly, if it falls into the wrong hands, it has the risk of exposing us to those not involved with the Quasing. Now is the beginning of the end. Human and Quasing fates are converging. With the Penetra scanner, humans will soon learn that they are not alone. How will they react to us?



The door opened a sliver, just large enough for the scope to scan the outside room. The agent held his hand in the air in a closed fist pointing forward and waved it from side to side. Immediately, the door swung open and the others poured into the next room.

Morgan put a hand on Roen’s sleeve as he rushed forward and shook his head. “Commanders go last.”

There are different sets of rules for leading and following. As a leader, your safety comes first.

“I don’t want them to think I’m a coward.”

This is your first command. Your men will value your judgment more than your bravery.

Roen and Morgan were the last to walk out of the storeroom. They entered a deserted industrial-sized kitchen with food still cooking over the stove top. Two Prophus agents were stationed at the double door at the far end, and the rest were scattered throughout the room. Morgan walked up to one of the boiling pots and turned the fire off. “They’ll set fire to this place if they’re not careful,” he muttered.

Roen looked at the row of ovens cooking different varieties of meat and frowned. “That’s an awful lot of food to cook for a midnight snack.”

“Probably operating on American time,” Morgan said. “That’s where most of the major action is these days, and if you’re holed up in a cave, it doesn’t matter what time zone you’re in.”

Roen did a fast inventory of everything being cooked and looked back at Morgan. “There must be several hundred men here. That or they’re feeding a professional football team.”

Morgan nodded and turned to one of the agents. “Daniels, stay in the rear and establish communication with the other teams. We should be out of radio silence now. All right, gentlemen, our primary objectives are the control room and the security cells. Once we gain control of those facilities and free the delegates and the princesses, we’ll work our way forward and jump these bastards from the rear.”

Roen ordered the two men at the door to scope outside and signaled for the others to gather around. Morgan stood by and watched as he gave the proper signals. “You sure you never led a team before, sir?” he asked with a wry smile as Roen walked by.

“Just cover for me when I screw up,” Roen replied, lifting his gun and following the last of them out the door.

They filtered out to the main corridor with half the squad on one wall and half on the other. Roen took the right flank and stayed low as they moved in a double line down the hall. The walls were made of cement blocks, painted dull white. It reminded him of the hallways in his high school. There were even lockers lined up at the wall. The florescent lights added a touch of the surreal as the group of hunched-over men, dressed in black, skittered forward like oversized centipedes.

One of the agents pointed at a camera in the corner and another pulled out a pistol with a silencer. He took aim and destroyed it with one shot. In the back of his mind, Roen ran through all the things that could go wrong. Were they going to be late? What if his team was out of position? Those fears overrode his usual strong sense of self-preservation.

“We need to step it up!” he growled. “We have men depending on us.”

Easy there. We are on schedule.

“Are you sure? The noise of fighting has been going on for a long time now.”

You really have no internal clock, do you? It has only been three minutes. We will engage when ready.

Daniels, standing next to Morgan, spoke up. “Sir, group communication has been established; all except Delta team are in place. They are reporting heavy resistance at their entry point. They are unable to advance.”

Delta is Dylan’s team.

“Tao, Delta’s objectives are the main hallway and securing the scanner, right?”

I see you were not completely asleep during the briefing.

“I take my breaking and entering very seriously. Are we close to them?”

We are not too far away. It is on the west side one level down. His team’s objective is crucial.

“Echo has too many objectives already. If we don’t secure the control room, we stall the offensive. If we don’t rescue our people fast enough, they might be killed. If we don’t help Delta, the teams won’t be able to converge. What should I do, Tao?”

You do not have a choice. Split the team into squads and divide the objectives.

Roen nodded. He looked at Morgan and ordered, “Send one squad to the control room and one to the security cells. The rest will spring Delta team. The squad at the control room needs to coordinate with the rest of the squads once they obtain access to the base. The squad at the security cells stays put until the rest of us can rendezvous with them.”

Morgan replied, “Affirmative.”

Then Morgan split the teams off, and the rest of them hurried down toward Dylan’s location. The hallways were filled with smoke and broken lights as they made their way through, occasionally meeting light resistance. Roen was surprised that they had found so few guards so far. Stephen really had made sure he would be in as little danger as possible. The sound of heavy gunfire, however, increased as they reached the upper level of the main hallway. They arrived at a large set of wooden double doors and fanned out on both sides.

Morgan opened one door a crack and scoped out the other side. “Heavy enemy presence engaged with our people. Let’s crash the party. Will you do the honors, sir?”

Roen gave the signal and watched his men burst through the doors, spreading out as they moved down the stairs. They encountered resistance immediately as they proceeded toward the lower level. A group of Genjix soldiers had taken up position at the bottom of the stairs, setting up a barricade to fight what should be Dylan’s Delta team. Roen’s Echo team descended upon the Genjix furiously, catching them in a crossfire. Roen positioned himself behind one of the banisters and fired, carefully picking his shots as they presented themselves. He estimated the enemy strength to be about forty men at the base of the stairs. Out of the corner of his eye, Roen saw Delta team moving forward when they realized the Genjix soldiers had been outflanked.

A sudden shock knocked him onto his back. He gasped and began to tumble down the stairs. One of his men grabbed him by the collar and pulled him back up. Roen took shallow breaths as his eyes watered from the pain. Morgan moved next to him and checked him for wounds.

“Where were you shot?” he asked.

“It feels like someone just took a cattle prod to my shoulder,” Roen gasped.

Morgan moved his hand to his shoulder. Roen grimaced with pain. When Morgan pulled his hand back, there was blood on his hands.

“Shoulder wound, all right,” Morgan said. “Can you move your arm?”

Roen raised his left arm, winced, and then made a fist with his hand. “Well, it doesn’t seem like it struck bone. You should be fine,” Morgan said, helping Roen to his feet. “First time being shot?”

He nodded.

“Welcome to the club.” The man actually grinned. “Why don’t you hang back while we finish up here? We seem to have this under control anyway.”

Roen gritted his teeth. “No, I’m fine. Hand me my rifle.”

“Take five... sir.”

Roen saw the look on Morgan’s face, sat back down, and leaned against the wall.

“Really? Welcome to the club?”

Hey, it was bound to happen, might as well happen now. At least you were not shot in the stomach. Now that is painful.

“You guys are nuts.”

Several minutes later, the sound of the gunfire finally died down. A few minutes later, Dylan met him at the top of the stairs. The older man grinned as Roen picked himself up to shake his hand.

“I see you got your initiation,” Dylan said, gesturing at his shoulder.

“Am I supposed to be happy about that?” Roen replied.

“Nah, getting shot sucks. Anything broken?”

“Just a flesh wound, I think.”

“Good, we need to help Stephen secure the level, then we’ll make the push to the Penetra scanner housing unit. I’ll see you at the end of this, eh? Godspeed, Roen.” Dylan patted him on the non-injured shoulder and ran back downstairs.

“Sir.” Morgan ran up. “We have control of the security cells. The squad rescued six delegates. Two are dead. There are no sign of the princesses or the other two delegates. Retrieval team is pinned down and is requesting support. The squad at the control room is reporting a large concentration of enemy activity at the helipad. If the Genjix are trying to escape, they might have the princesses and the two delegates with them.”

Roen clenched his uninjured fist and looked at Morgan. If he didn’t reinforce the security cells now, there might not be a squad left by the time he got there. There were also the lives of the six remaining delegates to consider. However, if the Genjix at the helipad had the girls and they escaped, he might lose them forever. He could split his men again to tackle both objectives, but it was too risky; they were already stretched too thin. None of the options seemed acceptable.

“Tao?”

Conventional wisdom is to take the security cells as planned. The six delegates’ lives have to be the priority. Pray that the Genjix at the helipad do not have Sonya and Jill.

Roen shook his head. It wasn’t a gamble he was willing to take. If he was wrong, he could never live with himself. “Commander Morgan,” he said. “I’m taking five men to the helipad. Take the rest and reinforce the security cells.”

That is not wise.

“I’m calling this, Tao.”

Morgan shook his head in protest. “We shouldn’t be splitting...”

“That’s an order!” Roen growled, giving him a look that left no room for argument.

The commander hesitated slightly before nodding. He waved at several of the agents. “Seven through eleven, assist the commander. Everyone else, let’s keep moving.”

He grabbed Roen’s arm as he passed by. “Stay low and keep safe. Watch your six, sir.”

Roen and his men broke off from the main group. Since they deviated from the planned route, he depended on Tao to help navigate through the complex to the helipad. When they reached the first corner, Roen held up his fist. The group stopped and leaned against the wall.

He took out a probe and looked around the side. There were four guards at an intersection on the far end of the hallway. Roen turned to the others and signaled, holding up four fingers, closing them into a fist, and then flicking his thumb out. He took out a grenade and pulled the pin. With a deep breath, he turned and rolled it toward the guards. The resulting explosion almost knocked him off his feet. Roen turned the corner and charged.

Commanders go last.

He stopped and pointed. “Go, go!”

The others, rifles up, moved forward into the thick smoke. Roen followed, staying low and moving in the rear. They reached the intersection and inspected the scattered bodies on the floor, taking position at the corner. Roen saw a group of guards approaching from the left hallway. He held up three fingers, counted to three, leaned around the corner, and opened fire. The Genjix soldiers scattered and returned fire.

Roen pulled back to reload and let two of his other men take his place. All his men were on one side of the intersection. They had to get on the other side to take advantage of the corridor space. He gritted his teeth as the two currently engaged pulled back around the corner to reload.

“I need suppressive fire,” he yelled over the din of the noise. He looked at the agent in the back and pointed at the corridor behind them. “Watch the rear!”

After the next round of enemy fire, he waited while his men laid down covering fire. Roen took a few steps back, ran forward, and dove across the intersection to the other side. He had become used to such acrobatic moves through his time training with Sonya and Lin. However, carrying out these maneuvers with heavy gear through gunfire made this dive feel like he was swimming through molasses.

Bullets zinged past his body. Time seemed to slow as he seemed to float in midair. The yellow explosions from the muzzles of their guns pulsed like dancing flames. Then Roen felt a heavy thud as he hit the floor and rolled onto his knees. It took him an instant to catch his breath as he scampered up to the corner and leaned against the wall.

What the hell are you doing?

“I’m fine. We needed more cover, so I came to this side.”

Next time, tell someone else to do it. You are the commander.

Roen watched his men on the other side lay down a fresh barrage. He joined them, spraying bullets at the Genjix soldiers. The exchange continued for several more seconds until the sound of enemy gunfire eventually died. One of his men crept forward to confirm the kills. When the agent finally signaled the all-clear, Roen’s men came out of their positions.

Check the men. Always put their safety first.

“Anyone hurt?” he asked as they checked the bodies.

“Two of us with minor wounds, sir,” the man next to him reported. “Carlberg suffered a head injury, but he’s fine. Perez might have a cracked rib.”

The thought of losing men never occurred to him. Roen turned and looked for his men. He counted only four as they reported in.

“We lost Hutchinson,” another man said.

That hit him like a mild shock. Roen stiffened and looked down at the floor. While he had expected that some of his people might die, it had never occurred to him that the burden of command would make their deaths his responsibility. Now, that statement weighed heavily on him: “We lost Hutchinson.”

Roen, do not dwell on it. We have a job to do.

“Sir?” his man said, waiting on his orders.

Think about the rest of your men. You still have their lives to worry about.

Roen nodded and looked at the agent. “Kwan, right?”

The agent nodded.

“Let’s go. We have a job to do.”