Chapter 57: The Final Attack Starts

Chapter 57: The Final Attack Starts


"That's why we don't take it to her, what she desires," Jake was quiet and flat, the reverse of hysterical desperation that encompassed them. "We strike at her, and strike her where she is weakest."

Mia, camouflage makeup shuffles on both sides of her cheeks, strapped with blades. "We come out through tunnels. They bring surprise. She won't be looking to come out from underneath."

Zane jammed his fingers onto an alleged tablet with a rage-inducing urgency, projecting Lisa's laboratory on as a hologram. "I've infiltrated a few of the sec cams. We're going to get a low-bandwidth feed on her cam system. Sub-optimal, at best, but it beats being without anything."

The revolutionists, battered and bruised survivors, former inmates, and all those who had lost everything to the tyranny of Lisa marched resolutely. Their faces set with fear and resolve, spoke of the task that was before them. They were conscious of being in the minority but with the fire of revenge, the smoldering embers of freedom.

"Remember," Jake told him, his voice resonating with authority, "we play by the script. Distractions, multiple hits, and most of all, we watch each other's backs. We're a team."

Fountain was insistent, his eyes burning with intensity in the darkness. "I'll be on Zane, online. Inside, we'll drill it into you. But time isn't our friend. The longer we're in, the more exposure we have."

The atmosphere was charged with unspoken acumen. They were going into the lion's den, but they were not victims anymore. They were hunters, and they were going to take back their lives, their city, their future. The shadows of the tunnels enveloped them, a threat in silence of the violence that would erupt. They would leave the combat in Lisa's hands.

"Then we wish she had," snarled Zane. His golden eyes blazed with fury barely contained.

Fountain moved forward. "I can drop some of her shields, but only for a few seconds. The instant we're through the outer walls, she'll open everything we've got on us. We do nothing, and we're dead."

Jake nodded. "We're not backing off. We get it done tonight."

The attack began at midnight. Revolutionaries advanced in column formation, avoiding perimeter patrols due to Fountain's processing power. Strobe lights flashed from surveillance cameras, laser grids clanged, and for a minute or two at best, they were in command.

Then the alarms sounded.

"Shit!" Mia swore as floodlights lit the battlefield. "She was waiting for us!"

Dozens of enforcers poured out of Lisa's fortress, their steps a practiced dance. Their eyes glowed with an unnatural hue—positive evidence that they were captives of Lisa's obedience drug.

"Draw a line!" Jake roared as the enforcers moved in.

The first attack was by Zane, a burst of color as he ran through lines of enforcers. Rico and Mia covered him, fire piled on momentary grips on the enforcers second by second. The rebels fought in earnest, but Lisa's troops were not so easily defeated.

Fountain pounded frantically on a console at the rear, fingers racing over the keyboard in desperation. "I can bring down the primary power grid, but I'll require additional time!"

"Time is something we don't possess!" Rico snarled, avoiding an enforcer's blade.

They only had one alternative, Jake concluded. "Zane, stay mobile. Fountain, blow it up!"

The battle raged hard as Jake and Zane battled on into Lisa's heart. There were explosions ringing out in the compound, and a column of smoke arose heavy with the acrid smell of blood and seared steel.

And the sound that gave Jake chills—the alarm siren, but not one of them normal ones.

"She's firing the last salvo!" Fountain yelled across the comms.

The far gates creaked open, and out surged Lisa's personal hell—a horde of hard, fast enforcers, harder, faster, and utterly mindless. They streamed out in ghostly apparitions, slicing the rebels down with cold calculation.

Fountain cursed. "They'll kill us all if I don't do something."

"No!" Jake whirled on him. "You must get away—"

Fountain's arm circled his shoulder. "I'm not going. Someone's got to pin them down while you do this."

Jake's ribcage burned. "There has to be another way. We don't leave our own."

Fountain's face contorted into a hangdog smile. "That's the only way to have it done. Lisa will be counting on you to carry on, not for one of us to slow up and destroy her men from the inside out. Let me do it."

Zane gritted his teeth. "You'd better not botch it."

Fountain smiled and his signature sarcasm started working its way into the conversation. "Don't worry about it, I always make every shot count."

And then he disappeared.

Jake trailed after Fountain as she sprinted towards the control center, weaving and dodging blaster shots from enforcers with aerial maneuverability no human would ever have. She flitted inside, disappearing into the thickness of combat. Blasts began raining within the compound two minutes later.

"He did it," Mia whispered, her breath almost inaudible over the boom of the fireworks.

At what cost, though.

Jake felt a queasy, hollow sensation growing in his chest. Fountain had granted them their opportunity, but he'd paid with his life to get it.

Zane yanked on Jake's sleeve. "We need to go. Lisa's waiting."

Jake gazed once more at the charred hulk and then nodded. "Let's just get it over with."