Son of Sedonia

41

Crucifixion


“NO! ABSOLUTELY NOT!” said Sato, standing behind his desk surrounded by open Neural windows. GloboMetro news feeds, scattered police reports, live satellite feeds, and several calls-waiting demanded his attention at once. And now, his assistants begged him to listen too.

“Sir, it’s protocol!” his interim chief of security pleaded. With everyone else dispatched to the Inner and Outer Rings, the best Sato could find for the job was little more than a rent-a-cop receptionist. Where the f*ck is Kabbard?!

“I’m not going down in that bunker, and that’s final!” Sato roared, “I won’t hide from something that isn’t a threat! If you want to be useful, go find my wife and bring her here!”

The kid actually saluted then scurried out of the penthouse office into the hall. Sato’s own lie rang in his ears. Not a threat? His subordinates needed to hear it. His strategists listening over the Neural channel needed to believe it. If they lost confidence in him, he was finished. And, as far as he could tell, the City would be too. Prescott’s promise of a timely intervention was nowhere in sight.

Liquid-hot panic started to boil in his brain. He did his best to contain it.

“Apologies for the interruption, Commander, please continue,” Sato said.

“Right, well...as you can see on the map, there are five passable breaches in the Border with a sixth only partially opened. We’re tracking ground movement with satellite, but data is limited given that most of the insurgents aren’t chipped with RFID. Estimates put their numbers at five thousand and growing, not including their Themis issue and Slum-built aircraft. We never saw ‘em coming,” said Commander Gorman. The graying man should have retired a decade ago, but had no savings to do so. Firing him would have caused...complications with the rank and file, so Commander he remained.

“Yes, yes, a surprise attack, I believe we’re all crystal clear on that part, Commander! What is the situation on the ground? What’s our status on a counter-attack?” Sato asked. His tongue was dry, but not for water. Several times, he put down the itch to dig the flask out of his jacket pocket. Right...it’s at home.

“The attack totally decimated our first response EXO and Border Patrol forces, but scattered units are holding fast at the edge of the Outer Ring for now. But the perimeter is so full of gaps that... sir, my men believe that the insurgents are waiting,” said Gorman.

“Are they? For what?” Sato asked.

“Don’t know, but we’re not sitting around to find out. We’re rallying all EXO forces and any Red Gate grad who knows how to shoot for a counter-offensive within the next hour.”

“SCPD on-board with this?”

“Yes, sir, we’ve coordinated with their HQ, and each of the precincts is arming up best they can,” said Gorman. Sato’s Neural called out hesitation in the Commander’s wrinkled stone face. Pained hesitation.

“But...?”

“But none of them have combat experience anything close to this. My vets do, but they can only do so much with an army of rookies against a hostile army of seasoned killers! We need Federal help, and we need it fast,” said the Commander. No kidding. Sato had been on the horn since the attack began, begging Congress to approve military support. After some posturing and grandstanding, the only real answer he got was ‘Soon.’ That meant that they would likely intervene, but the bureaucratic process would make it a trek through the mud. Off the record, his representative told him the subtext. Not many were strictly comfortable with ordering shock troops to crush an impoverished, domestic group of people. Rebels or not. The poor in their own cities might take it as a rallying cry. All the more reason to publicly put them down! Sato fumed. Prescott’s influence would have been valuable here, but she was conspicuously absent. ‘Unreachable’ according to her office. Sato guessed that her Group’s influence was already at work. And had been for some time.

“I’ve been given assurances, Commander, so that’s all I can give you for now. Make do with what we have, and keep them at bay in the Outer Ring. I’ll make it happen on my end,” said Sato. Gorman puffed, then swallowed whatever he really wanted to say.

“Understood, sir. Now if you’ll excuse me...”

“Good luck, Commander. We’re counting on you,” Sato said, hoping it would prod the man’s sense of duty. Gorman’s grim, straight mouth and hollow glare told Sato otherwise. The transmission ended.

“The rest of you, I expect strict rationing of food, water, and power in your zones. Whatever it takes,” Sato said. A chorus of complaining voices filled his cochlear implant until one overpowered them all. It was Tycho Kirnden’s idiot older brother, Jeffrey. The Chief Magistrate of Inner Ring Zone 5: Whitlatch.

“Rationing?!” the Magistrate’s elderly jowls quivered, “It’s not as if they control the entire Outer Ring! We’re on scant supply and fuel rations as it is, and you want us to cut deeper?! Nevermind the Border, we’ll have rioting in the streets!”

Sato flexed his fingers into claws beneath his desk, strangling the phantom of Jeffrey Kirnden’s bulging throat. Z5 was upper-middle class suburbia. Its grocery stores overflowed with imported food and supplies that could last for months. Their ‘scant’ rations were little more than shortages of fresh produce and meat due to rising shipping costs. Sato had his doubts that the desperate housewives and self-entitled yuppies would break windows or set fire to anything anytime soon.

“I understand your concern, Jeff, but I assure you it’s necessary. We don’t yet know the full impact of the attack, and—”

Sato stopped, finding himself alone in the dark with his Neural screens. They hovered in space before him, but all of the feeds had dropped, leaving question mark ‘Standby’ icons in their place. He tapped the holo-keys and tried to reconnect. Nothing. Just a triangular sign with an exclamation point and text below it reading: ‘Net Connection interrupted. Tower Signal lost.’ Sato dismissed the Neural display with a swipe of the hand, leaving him in the lavish, twilit office surrounded by dumbstruck assistants. They shuffled over to the windows. Sato followed.

The shining, day-glow brilliance of Sedonia City at dusk had been replaced by a dead landscape of shadowy monoliths. A few pairs of tiny headlights drifted silently through the structures like bioluminescent fish in the City Aquarium.

Boom. A plume of fire erupted near the Outer Ring, shining molten light on the nearby buildings. Boom—BOOM! Two more plumes burst through the dark...but these weren’t at ground level. The curling clouds of red-orange rose from places up high. Amongst the skyline. EXO headquarters? It was off in that direction, but Sato couldn’t be sure. A rock dropped in his stomach.

The whirring of turbines telegraphed the back-up generators’ start-up protocol. Emergency track-lighting flickered on, filling the room with a pale orange glow. A few floors of certain buildings outside the window came to life as well. Sad, pathetic echoes of the full nighttime City. Sato pulled up his Neural display and tried to connect. Yes! He had a signal. As various services and apps came online, a new message notification appeared for his private line. His heart stopped. Jada... He exhaled slowly, then pressed the notification.

‘Andreas: Kabbard has abandoned his post, leaving me in charge. We have secured the package. En route to deliver.’