Deadman - Book 3 Chapter 37: Sibling Bonding

Nico, and I moved through the darkness with practiced ease as we approached the outpost. It was heavily guarded, with secure metal walls, gun emplacements, and men patrolling its perimeter. We took cover in nearby woods, and each drew out our binoculars. I’d finally had the presence of mind to buy my own. We started marking the personnel across the outpost as under arrest, highlighting them in our vision. I’d only just found that as my deputy, those she and I highlighted were visible to one another. I wasn’t sure of what other group benefits working together had, but I’d take any advantage I could.

Nico stopped her scan of the facility to focus on the large central warehouse, then looked at me. “That’s got to be where they have it stored.”

“Agreed.” I said, as I looked more closely at the building.

“Alright, we’ll move in quick and quiet, plant the charges, gather any valuable data, and blow the place. Stick. To. The. Plan.”

I nodded, managing to keep my bristling at her tone to a minimum. This was Nico’s show. Her research, her planning, and now her execution. I’d volunteered to be backup, and she’d made it perfectly clear that the condition for that was me doing things her way. I’d suggested simply storming the front gate, but she’d been wholly against it. She’d had good points in opposition, one that I was not quite back to full strength, two that even if I was attacking a well fortified position full of defenders and gun emplacements was very different from fighting one hundred religious lunatics in an open field, and third that it was a pointless waste of energy and would give them much more time to react, send for reinforcements, and get Nico, if not both of us, killed. These were all salient points, and I resented all of them at least slightly.

We watched the patrols for a short time longer, but they were well done. There were no real gaps in their defenses, the guards themselves were aware and focused, and while there were shift changes, they were seamless. That was all in spite of the majority of Remnant and STAR forces being concentrated at Medina, which spoke to the value of our target and the validity of Nico’s intel.

We settled on the portion of the perimeter furthest from the main gate, but closest to the warehouse in the center. We circled around to that position, and waited until the guards backs were turned for a moment as they walked to the edges of their patrol. We ran, as quickly as we could, to cross the no man’s land between our cover and the walls. The walls themselves were around ten feet if you included the chest high barrier for the guards to take cover behind. I leapt up and over the wall in a single leap, rolling and quickly taking cover behind some storage crates.

I watched Nico’s hands appear at the top of the railing then she lifted herself up using just her upper body, and threw herself over to the other side, diving into the same cover I was in. She’d taken a bit more time, but she’d made all of those motions in complete silence. She gestured to me, then to the wall of the warehouse.

I nodded.

She returned the acknowledgement, and started to climb up the side of the warehouse like a spider. Its walls were dark, and in her black clothes she blended in well. The guards’ attention was focused on the outside of the walls, and since we had not yet killed anyone, there was no evidence that we were within the walls, or there was any reason to be suspicious. I started to follow behind her. I was unable to find hand and footholds as easily as she seemed to, but with my heightened strength I was able to haul myself more easily with less traction, and so could keep up with her without much difficulty.

We reached near the top of the rounded rooftop, when she held for me to wait. She flexed the fingers in her gloves, placed one hand on the roof, and I saw a small flash of red light come from the fingertip of her other glove. She slowly drew that finger in a circle around the other hand, slicing through the roof. She lifted the hand she’d laid flat, and the entire foot diameter circle popped out, seemingly adhering to the flat of her gloved palm. I saw her flex her hands in each of the gloves, and the red light at her fingertip ceased, and the suction of the other glove did as well, allowing her to place down the flat piece of roof gently.

I looked at her with a raised eyebrow, I’d certainly not seen her use any tech like that before.

She met my gaze. “Do you think you’re the only one who ever finds useful tech out in the wastes?”

“Guess not.”

She nodded, satisfied by my answer, and looked through the hole.

I leaned over to do the same. It was exactly as we’d suspected. Three massive guns, each one roughly twice as long as I was tall, with barrels wide enough to fit one of the Khan’s motorcycles. Nico’s intel had been correct, this was one of the facilities in which the Remnants were developing the artillery meant to lock deadmen into their deadzones. The guns practically radiated destructive force. I began to look around them. I saw a row of computers, dozens of technicians, and a few guards all milling about.

I looked to Nico. “How do you intend us to plant charges and collect data in there without raising alarms?”

She said nothing, but I could practically hear the gears turning in her mind. “You see anyone with any kind of thermal scope or goggles in there?” she asked.

I looked again. “No.”

“Okay then… I’m going to cut the power and retrieve data from one of those computers, you plant the charges. You read the instructions Mercy left on how to activate them, right?”

“I did.”

“Okay, the second it goes dark, we get to work, focus on the charges and don’t kill anyone unless you absolutely need to.”

“They’re going to get blown up anyway.”

“We’ve been over this. I want to be far away when that happens, not all of us can get riddled with shrapnel and just walk it off.”

I held up both of my hands. “It’s your operation. I’ll do what you ask.”

She nodded, and slowly slid down the angled roof until I lost sight of her.

I waited there, making sure I had all of the charges ready to go, and worrying. Not about myself, but about Nico. At this point she’d done more than enough that I shouldn’t be worried about her, but I did. I worried about her before I’d found out she was my sister, but finding out that she was blood had only made that worry worse. That was a major reason why I had volunteered to go on this mission with her. That, and I knew that a major loss like this was likely to give the Remnants pause regarding their strategy at Medina, and may encourage them to pull back.

The lights went out across the outpost, and I jumped down the hole into the darkness of the warehouse. There were gasps and cries of concern, which made my landing less audible. I watched as people milled about blindly in the pitch blackness.

“Everyone, stay calm. Seems to just be a power outage. One of the techs on the outside will probably be taking a look any second.”

That was from a guard at the far end of the room. The gasping and fearful muttering quieted down at his words as everyone settled themselves. I started to move through them, making my way to the artillery guns. I had to dodge a woman blindly feeling through the dark, and a man who tripped over a computer chord, but otherwise made it with no issue. I started to place the charges.

As I did that, I saw Nico slip through a window at the far end of the warehouse, slide through a dozen people in the dark, and reach the computers. Rather than attempt to insert a data disk to install data, she began to quickly and quietly unplug an entire computer. Then slowly slide it into her pack. Even with that extra bulk, she managed to slip back through everyone and back out the same window.

I finished placing the charges, and started making my way to the same window. Just before I reached it, someone turned on a flashlight. I ducked quickly out of its beam.

“Found some flashlights everyone. They were all stored outside. Come over here if you want one.”

Everyone started moving toward the light, some of them moving in the way of me reaching the window. Rather than bolt for it, I walked calmly that way, hoping the darkness would shield my features enough to by me a bit more time. After a few excuse me, and pardon me’s I made it to the window, and leapt out, just as a few more people flicked on their lights.

I let out a breath. There were far more flashlights outside, but they were more scattered and the light from them more diffuse than they would’ve been inside. I didn’t see Nico, so I focused on reaching our rally point. I found the nearest wall and climbed up it swiftly and silently. I found myself standing directly behind one of the wall guards. He had a flashlight focused on the darkness outside the walls. I reached out to snap his neck, but hesitated. I’d told Nico I wouldn’t kill unnecessarily.

I stayed stock still, and when he turned to walk further down the wall, he didn’t notice me. I leapt down, and bolted back across the no-man’s land into the treeline. From there I circled back around to the rally point where I found Nico sitting, and felt a flood of relief.

“Are the charges set?” she asked.

I nodded. I felt…disappointed. Not like I wanted things to go wrong, but this felt unsatisfying, like taking a bite of water.

Reading my expression, Nico spoke up, “I’m guessing you don’t feel the same satisfaction that I do from getting in and out with no issues, perfectly executing our plan?”

I shrugged. “Not really.”

She sighed, and reached into her pack, pulling out the short wave radio we had to send the detonation signal to the charges. “Would it help if you did the honors?” she asked, handing it to me.

I reached out and took the radio, placing my finger over the detonation button. “It would…thank you.” I pressed it.