Chapter 9: Lockdown

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Info, info, need info, thought Amanda as she scrolled through the various reports her monitoring programs fed to her screen. She only half paid attention to the argument going on behind her, throwing the occasional bit of information over her shoulder as she found it. That was, until Ben slammed open the door to the lair. Jackass.

“The fuck?” he shouted. No one responded. “What? Nothin’ to say?” he continued. “That was bullshit, right? I haven’t lost my fuckin’ mind, right?”

“There wasn’t anything we could do,” said Chris, his subdued voice much lower than Ben’s furious shouting.

“No shit. The whole Metahuman Unit descends from the fuckin’ heavens to kick our asses? The fuck was that?” He marched forward to the table where Chris sat and Rob slouched. Miya finally stopped pacing, instead crossing the shop to her curtained off room. Ben snapped out an arm, barring her way. Amanda shot out of her seat as the tension in the room spiked. “Where the fuck is ‘liv’?”

“If we’re just going to yell at each other and point fingers, I’m out,” said Miya, refusing to look anyone in the face. “I like you all, but there’s no way in hell I’m going on a suicide mission against the MHU, and I have business back home.”

Quicker than Amanda’s eye could follow, Ben’s other fist slammed into the table. “Coward. I will beat the shit outta you again an’ Olivia ain’t here to stop it,” he roared.

Again? Amanda took a surreptitious step back towards the side of her desk. Fuck, where is my baton? To Miya’s credit she didn’t flinch, instead locking eyes with Ben.

“Did you see her in there? She can’t be older than fifteen. The way I hear it, you’re the one who dragged her into all of this in the first place,” Miya shot back, voice filled to the brim with venom. Fifteen? Fifteen! At most? You dragged a fifteen-year-old girl into firefights? She’s just a kid. The rest of us are at least twenty!

“You’re the one who’s runnin’. Again.”

Amanda glanced towards Rob, who still slouched in his chair, though he had at least deigned to look up. This is your damn brother. How can you look bored right now? Baton, where are you? Her fingers scrambled along the hard wood surface of the desk behind her as she kept her attention on the conversation in front of her.

Chris’ chair skidded along the concrete floor as he stood up. “Ben, back off, now.”

Miya and Ben ignored him, laser focused on each other. Miya snarled, “You want your meat-shield back?”

“Quit tryin’ to cover your own ass.”

“Then why do you sound so guilty?”

“If I’m guilty then why was I the only one to watch her get carted off in a truck, lookin’ for a way to get her out? I get leavin’ me behind. But her?” Ben barked back. “Answer.”

“Do we have to do this?” asked Chris, placing himself between the two.

Ben’s knuckles whitened. “I’m just gonna repeat myself. Answer,” he spat at Chris. Both straightened their shoulders and glared at each other. Great, now they’re starting some kind of male dominance ritual.

“This isn’t helping,” said Chris with forced calmness.

“Boltin’ didn’t neither,” replied Ben.

Chris didn’t answer. Instead, he turned into a giant mass of light blue liquid and slammed into Ben. Amanda took the time to turn around and grab her stun baton, lying just an inch away from where her hand had trailed off from blindly searching.

When she turned back around, she found Ben teleported away from Chris’ initial hit. Hands still clenched into fists, he studied the room. The tension drained from his shoulders, and the fighting stance he was in relaxed. He seemed to come to the realization there wasn’t much he could do against a sentient, unfeeling blob, without wildly escalating lethality. The next hit from Chris, more to restrain than break, pinned Ben against a wall. And through it all, Rob just slouched in his chair. What, aren’t you an adrenaline junkie too?

Miya stomped up to Ben. “What?” she yelled at him. Chris retracted enough for Ben to hear what she had to say, and for him to breathe. Amanda kept one eye on Rob, another on Ben. “What, you thought we just ran off because fuck it, running is fun, may as well get our cardio in? You think we just abandoned her?”

“You lot were just sittin’ here when I came in,” he said through clenched teeth. “I’m kinda doubtin’ your resolve here.”

“Ben, quit bein’ a jackass,” called out Rob. “Hear ‘em out.” The little upwards curl at the corner of his mouth could have meant anything. Thanks for speaking up earlier. You’re a dumbass, and your brother’s a jackass. Great.

Ben sighed in defeat, utterly unbothered by his brother’s inaction. “Fine. What happened?”

“A dozen MHU officers nearly killed us,” answered Miya.

“They didn’t all go for Olivia?” asked Ben. “There must have been a dozen of ‘em dogpilin’ her.”

“No,” said Amanda. “If it weren’t for Chris, we’d be in jail right now right alongside her. Where the hell were you?”

“Got off the roof once the five-o came so I wouldn’t go splat. Dodged cops an’ two-shots. Had no clue what was goin’ on, ‘til you guys left an’ they got Olivia in a truck with Marcus.”

“We’d have died if we stayed. Same as you,” said Miya.

“Fine, I fucked up an’ jumped to conclusions.” Ben glanced down at Chris. “Wanna let me down?” Nothing happened. “I’m done, ain’t gonna take a swing again,” added Ben.

Liquid Chris withdrew until Ben’s feet reached the ground, then Chris snapped back to normal. Wait, what if he’s lying? Why do you believe him? That whole not lying thing is just stupid chest beating. Ben stretched his neck to get out some kinks, then took a seat by the table. Amanda kept hold of her baton as she sat back down at her desk. Fine then.

Chris stood at the head of the table. “We have to get the fuck out of here. Marcus will absolutely come down on us for Olivia’s rampage, and we just spent the last ten minutes arguing.”

“Cuz a fuckin’ alien attacked us!” exclaimed Ben.

“You think he’ll give a shit?” asked Amanda.

At that, Miya headed back to her room, grabbing her backpack and stuffing clothes into it. Once again, she refused to meet everyone’s eyes. She’s still running off.

Chris took a deep breath. “Miya, I have a proposal. For all of us.” Is that so? This is the first I’m hearing of it.

“What?” she asked, still packing.

“You help us, we help you. Help Olivia and we’ll help you with whatever revenge rampage you need done back home in Phoenix. We’ll probably need to skip town after all of this anyways.” Chris scanned the whole room, looking each person in the eyes. “I’m not going to volunteer anyone but myself for this. Anyone have anything to say?”

Ben shrugged after only a split second of consideration. “Fuck it, I’m in.”

All eyes turned to Amanda. God damn it. There’s so few of us. I could just cut and run, too. I could probably get set up somewhere on the West Coast. That’s far from dad and Lock Corp. Just me. With another fake name. Again. I’ve been over this before. Not that it worked the last time. While Olivia rots in a cell or a lab, and Ben does whatever he wants. God damn it! I don’t care about whatever is in Phoenix. “Fine,” she said.

Chris turned to the last person in the shop. “Rob, you’ve been with us only a few days. If you want to find greener pastures, that would be totally understandable. But I won’t lie to you, we could use the extra pair of hands.”

Rob shrugged. “Fuck it, I’m in.”

Chris stopped mid sales pitch. “Oh?”

“Yeah. All of it. Why not? Never sprung someone from MHU lockup before.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah, I don’t lie. Only been here three days, met a nice feral an’ got jumped by an alien. I can’t fuckin’ wait to see what’s next. My money's on gettin’ drafted for a war. Those Canadians have been too cocky lately.”

Amanda snorted a laugh. That’s one way of looking at it, I suppose. Chris gave his full attention to Miya, frozen with half a bag packed. “Well?” he asked.

“Fine! I’ve got it,” burst Miya, with all eyes on her. “I’ve got it. I’ll help.”

“Alright,” said Chris, nodding slowly, turning to address the group at large. “Pack up whatever you think you’ll need in the next ten minutes in the back of Rob’s truck, if that’s alright with you? Don’t leave anything you don’t want the cops to see. They don’t know about Rob, so his license plates won’t set off any alerts.”

“Where are we going?” asked Miya. ‘We’ now, huh?

“Out of here. Maybe a motel at the edge of town?” said Chris.

“I got an idea!” replied Ben.

***

Ben, for all of his belligerence and stupidity, could at least read the situation well enough. With equipment loaded in the flatbed and trailer, they piled into Rob’s monster of a pickup truck and followed his brother’s directions to a warehouse twenty minutes into the city.

“Me an’ ‘liv’ hit this place a while back.,” Ben explained as they pulled up to the back door. “With Sanchez gone an’ the guns cleaned out, I don’t think anyone will care too much about it. MHU knows about it, though, won’t be able to stay for more than a few days.”

He pulled out an old keychain with a plethora of keys. Some brass, some steel, not a single one was of the same make as the others. He unlocked the door and waved them in. They spread out through a half looted old warehouse. Something heavy had dragged along the concrete floors, leaving dark skid marks on its surface. Shelves lay toppled, blocking off walkways. After confirming the lights and water still worked, they set up as best they could. The brothers unloaded and took stock of equipment, while Miya and Chris hauled out enough crap to give them a place to rest their heads for a night or two.

Amanda squeezed between the brothers and grabbed one of her boxes from the bed of the truck. Inside the hard plastic, foam lined case she withdrew a small satellite dish no larger than a laptop. After finding a good south facing window, she set it up on the windowsill, ignoring the dust and handful of dead bugs at its base. With a functional internet connection and no one screaming or arguing behind her, she could finally get to work.

The police had finally managed to block her off from most of the systems, but she still had a backdoor they hadn’t closed off yet. And this is why you don’t frame me, your entire IT department, for treason. Fuck you, Marcus. Oh, here’s something. She tuned out the conversation behind her as the others unpacked behind her for a couple minutes.

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“Hey, shut up. Got something,” Amanda called over shoulder.

She pressed play, and the audio clip started. The voice she recognized as the night MHU HQ dispatcher, an ordinary male voice somewhat distorted by static, began the recording with, “Jeremiah, quartermaster will have you good to go in less than a minute.”

Some scratching noises in the audio, then a different, deeper voice replied, “Roger that. We’ve got eighteen officers, plus drivers. Who are we up against?”

“I sent the full list to you. Short version: rampaging feral. She’s primary. Two minutes out, stop for nothing. There’s the chance her friends might be there. Nomad, so bring fire, Delta, keep yourself grounded, mage named Miya, and Skulker, teleporting vigilante. They’re secondary. Don’t worry. Quartermaster’s got you covered.”

More scratches over what sounded like a muffled conversation in the background. “Alright, moving out,” said Jeremiah at the end.

“Good luck,” replied the dispatcher. The audio cut out. No mention of Rob. We can probably keep using his truck to move around. He looks exactly like his brother, though. We don’t know what they know about Ben. I’ll need to check on that.

“They know us. They’ll probably be expecting us when they’re moving her,” said Chris.

“If they move her. Why not just kill her if she’s too much trouble?” asked Rob.

“Red tape is on our side,” said Amanda. Everyone looked at her for an explanation. Why am I the only one who does research? “At some point, they have to move a captured feral to ‘an environment suited to their wellbeing.’ I don’t think lawmakers ever really anticipated an intelligent feral like Olivia, and this was passed during the big environmentalist push decades ago, so they were just throwing hippies a bone anyway.”

“How do you know all this?” asked Chris.

“Remember when we were supposed to track her down a month ago? I read up on the laws and feral behavior then. You didn’t?”

“A little,” he hedged.

Amanda rolled her eyes. “So, yeah. They might be doing some wrangling and push back how long they keep her for security purposes, but at some point she’s got to come out of there. They pretty much have to take her to the institute in Houston, that’s the only place really equipped to deal with ferals.”

“When?”

“Don’t know off the top of my head.”

“Get her in transit?” suggested Ben. “Don’t got Cyrus to blow the place open this time.”

Chris nodded in agreement. Yeah, MHU isn’t a construction office, we would just go splat against the walls there. There’s a lot of hard security that they don’t bother to conceal. They don’t have to. “We’re going to need to know a lot if we want to pull this off without just getting killed or arrested. When, where, and how.”

“I’ve got ideas. But don’t expect a miracle. Someone, or several someones, is replacing a lot of what I’ve done. There used to be…” She trailed off with a sigh. These guys won’t understand, except maybe Rob. Why can’t everyone be an engineer? Life would be so much easier for everyone. “Never mind. What you need to know is that I could access records and other stuff like what you just heard for a little while longer. They also haven’t bothered to change the MHU frequency for the dispatchers, but our best bet is to just watch with our eyes.”

“Can you set up a radio so one of us can always be listening to dispatch?”

“Yeah, no problem.”

“Good, I want one of us keeping an ear out for any weird movements on their end.”

“OK. I’ll be staying up.” Monitoring cameras, that could work. Watch if anything comes in or out. Fuck, Olivia would make that easy, she could just fly to wherever we need eyes.

Chris broke her train of thought. “We all need some sleep. We’ll be better equipped to get Olivia back after, and she’s not going anywhere right now.”

“I’m staying up,” said Amanda. “There are things I can do. I can get some cameras set up tomorrow. I don’t have all of the materials on hand for them, but that shouldn’t be a big hurdle.”

She locked eyes with Chris. After a moment he sighed. “Alright, I trust your judgment. Just… know when to stop, OK?”

“Not the first all-nighter I’ve pulled, won’t be the last.” She glanced around.

Rob had already passed out on the table. Miya had resumed her pacing at some point, Amanda didn’t know when. Her lip is going to bleed if she bites it any harder. Chris and Ben watched her, until Chris got up.

“Come on. Let’s keep cool heads, OK,” he said to Ben.

Ben grinned at Amanda. “You got this,” he said. She sighed, tacitly accepting the olive branch. He followed after Chris, leaving her blessedly alone to work.

***

One day and a dozen tiny cameras manufactured later, Chris drove Amanda and Rob down Colfax Avenue, three blocks south of the MHU HQ. Amanda rubbed her sore fingertips against her jeans. Coaching Rob over the phone about what components he needed to grab may have worked better than she hoped, but without her practiced eyes on the actual pieces she’d had to jam several stubborn connectors together to actually get anything made on time.

Rob, in the back seat, kept looking out the window. He broke the silence with, “Ben told me a game to play called Colfax.” What?

“Never heard of it, and I’ve lived here for years,” said Amanda.

“Everyone grabs some McDonald’s job applications, same amount each, and pass ‘em out to every hooker you come across. First back at McDonald's wins.”

Chris’s shoulders shook with silent laughter. “That’s terrible,” said Amanda, indignant. She twisted around to fix Rob with a glare. Mind you, most of Colfax is shitty, but still, that’s… kind of funny. Rob just grinned.

Just as Amanda opened her mouth to continue to scold the two of them, Chris parked the giant pickup truck in a spot on the side of the road and said, “Here we are. I’ll keep the engine running. Amanda, walk him through any good spot to keep an eye on MHU headquarters.”

“Yessah,” replied Rob as he climbed out. Amanda nodded.

She kept herself from looking up at the distant specks of the surveillance drones overhead. For every one you see, there are two you don’t. Getting too close would just be asking for trouble, but the police couldn’t perfectly monitor the whole city. Anyone walking around MHU HQ at night during lockdown is just asking to get shot, so we’ve got to do this in broad daylight, which sucks in its own way.

She sank deeper into the astonishingly comfortable cushions of the truck’s interior as she pulled open her bulky laptop. Despite how sloppy his triplet’s cars wound up, Rob’s truck remained spotless. She found no trash squirreled away in the door pockets or center console, and the AC quietly kept the temperature at a pleasant 70 degrees despite the early summer heat. The sheer height of the cab and the tinted windows kept any nosy onlookers at bay, though Chris kept an eye out for any meter maids.

Her earpiece cracked to life. “Cops drivin’ by,” said Rob, by now around a corner and out of sight.

“Yeah, it’s their headquarters. There’s a regular police station across the street too. You’re fine.”

“You sure?”

“I checked,” she replied. “They still don't know what you or Ben look like. They know Miya, she’s apparently got a little rap sheet of her own. Don’t look guilty.”

“I ain’t done shit. Yet.”

“Yet.” Chris cast her a questioning look, only hearing one side of the conversation. “Look like you’re shopping. You’re about half a block away from a tech store and a hardware store I used to go to all the time.” You’re supposed to be a techie. If you can’t find something there you don’t deserve to call yourself one.

“Ooh!”

Twenty minutes of radio silence followed. Amanda kept an eye on the cameras on her laptop, even though none of them came up. Eventually, her phone rang as Rob sent her a picture of a CTC phone, an old model they only sold in Europe and Africa.

“Hey, there’s a weird lookin’ phone here,” said Rob. “You want?”

Ooh. I always need more chew toys, and that looks shitty enough. Can’t wait to see what that EMP gun I’m working on does to this poor bastard. Or I can see if that experimental battery melts the rest of the hardware. So many choices.

“Hell yeah.”

“Gotcha, will get out of here in a sec.”

Eventually, Rob came to the street leading into MHU, about two blocks due east, and began setting up cameras watching the streets. She steered him away from the more popular lunch areas that MHU cops enjoyed, Chris chiming in on occasion. Amanda cycled through the video feeds on her laptop as another came on. Looks good enough. It’ll catch anything major on the street. She cycled through the three other camera feeds. Everything is looking good so far.

This continued on for another hour. One camera had a terrible view of a lamppost and nothing else, but before they could come back and correct it a pair of regular cops pulled over for a smoke break nearby. Otherwise, the cameras had every major street to or from MHU covered.

“Out of gizmos. You happy?” asked Rob.

“Good enough. Check on that bad camera on your way back. No worries if you can’t fix it, we should be good.”

“Yeah, gonna stop by that tech shop again. See you in fifteen.”

True to his word Rob sauntered up to the truck fifteen minutes later, carrying a very large box and a plastic bag dangling from a couple gripping fingers. “No problems?” asked Chris as the back door opened. “And what is that?”

“No problems. Actually got this cool 3D printer type thing. Kinda small, but the tolerance on these things are insane.”

“How much did that cost?” asked Amanda as she twisted around in her seat to get a better look. Just act normal. Nothing suspicious. And that does sound very cool.

“Too much! Can’t wait to pull the thing apart and see how it works,” he said with an enthusiastic grin as he pushed the box in the other back seat.

“Got my chew toy?”

“Chew toys?” He raised an eyebrow with a bemused grin, even as he passed her the old phone.

“Gotta break stuff to know its limits. And studying damage of stuff is good for future prevention of things I actually do care about.” Got a big box at home of old stuff I need to recycle at some point.

“I hear that. Couldn’t just get crappy old ones online?”

“I could but… you saw it. Figured may as well.”

Before Chris put the car in drive, he looked at both of them and said, “You two are the most techie techies to ever techie.”

***

“How are the cameras looking?” Chris asked Amanda back at the warehouse.

“Good. No MHU trucks, no vans, nothing that they’d use to transport her so far. Miya should be listening to the dispatcher right now.” They both looked over to Miya, who wore a large set of noise canceling headphones over her ears. She noticed their attention and removed one earpiece.

“Yeah?” she said.

“Anything?” asked Chris.

“Nothing unusual. No code, just plain, ‘go here, do this’ kind of stuff. Dispatcher’s actually a friendly guy.”

“He is,” agreed Amanda.

“Ben should give you a break in about five minutes,” said Chris.

Miya nodded in confirmation. “Cool.”

Amanda helped Rob unpack the printer as Chris watched the videos. We’ll deal with the printer later. She had systems also monitoring the videos and normal police band, but human eyes and ears still worked better for picking out anomalies.

“Amanda!” shouted Chris.

“What?” she yelled back, running over.

“Helicopter on the roof.”

“What?”

“Helicopter on the roof,” he repeated. “Big military one.” Fuck, fuck, fuck. That never happens.

“Military? She’s a military grade threat?” asked Miya.

“Apparently,” barked Amanda. I’ve got access to three different cell phones. No messages at all. The cameras are only catching the helicopter. Why are they moving her now? Amanda checked her computer, seeing if it had flagged anything as important. Nothing.

“In the cars, move,” commanded Chris.

They grabbed as much as they could in thirty seconds, then piled into Rob’s truck. Amanda lowered her helmet on in the shotgun seat as Rob revved the engine.

“How the hell did we not catch this?” she asked as Rob pulled out of the parking lot. Ben’s rifle slid against the rear seats as he took the turn way too fast. That better not go off and shoot me in the back of the head somehow. No one offered no response. Amanda played the police band in her helmet, projecting it so Ben could hear as well. I’m not going insane, right? This is something they’d at least mention, right? “Hey guys, we’re moving this giant angry feral. Don’t stand in the way.”

Other than the dispatcher warning the MHU officers patrolling about an accident on southbound I-25, the audio didn’t say anything.

“Wait, play back the last twenty seconds,” said Ben. Why? I didn’t catch anything

She did so anyways. I’m obviously missing something. After several seconds of static, the dispatcher said, “Bratva shooting reported, East Parker. All nearby officers please respond.”

“Little further back,” asked Ben.

“Damn, won’t get home in time to catch the kickoff,” said an officer. That was the only audio.

“You hear?” asked Ben

“What?”

“Kickoff. Football. It’s June right now. There’s no football on TV anyone cares about.”

“It’s a recording,” said Amanda as her heart plummeted.

“Yep,” replied Ben. “An’ that helicopter’s flyin’ faster than we can drive. Where’s it headin’?”

“Northeast…”

“WIA.”

The airport. Fuck. We have zero air capacity with Olivia gone.

***

They parked at the outskirts of the airport. The helicopter they recognized from the cameras had been powered down completely by the time they’d arrived. No planes were in the vicinity. Already gone.

Amanda rested her head against the dashboard. I’m sorry, Olivia. I’m so, so sorry. She couldn’t bring herself to look at Ben, or the others in Rob’s truck, parked beside them.

Ben sighed. “Looks like we’re heading to Houston.”