-1-

“I don't usually like black heels but, these ones are nice,” Minnie commented  to  Allison who was ignoring her, “I mean, I like them a lot . . . on you,”

Minnow picked the shoes from the floor and slipped the shoes over her feet and walked a few steps before taking them off.

Minnie had been at this for 2 days trying to get Allison to talk her but, Allison wasn’t having it. She simply ignored her but, that didn't stop Minnow,  it was her only source of pleasure it seemed.

Allison had spent the better part of the days in my bed and if she saw me she begged me to let her go home. I couldn’t deal with that so, I just left her in the room alone most of the time. Lucky for her Minnow took joy in attending to any needs Allison might had. She didn't understand how powerless I was in the situation and how I wanted more than anything to get her home.

 Sara was too  busy  making another bomb to even remember Allison. She was afraid the other—after the gasses had been left to sit out for 2 days--  wasn’t stable  anymore and not safe to detonate. She had  not come up with recreating another successful one yet.

I hadn’t talked to her about Allison in the 2 days so, I thought it was a good time to bring it up again. I walked outside to where Sara was  sitting alone having a glass of wine and came up behind her.

“Hi,Alan” she said

“Hey,” I responded,” So . . . about Allison,”

“What about Allison ?,”

“Look she is Kyto’s daughter and her family just lost her--,”

“Wait, What ? That girl is Henry Kyto’s daughter ?,” Sara asked

I nodded my head

“Does that change anything ?,” I ventured

“No,” she said,”It’s just . . . . Did you know even though Henry Kyto invented Kytoxcin, he never used it or anything made from it. That’s why he died from that heart attack. He knew what he was selling was built on blood money from the war.  I kind of respect that,”

“How do you even know that ?,”

“Rayne knows everything,” she explained

“Are you trying to tell me Kyto was mixed up in the cartel ?,”

“I’m not trying to tell you anything,” she reorted, “ You don’t have to be in the cartel for them to know things about you,”

“So, what the hell do you plan to do with Allison ?,” I asked

 “Well, I want to see how this bombing goes,” she sighed, “If the Militia and tech industry shits itself over this I will call it even for what they did to Derek. And if you can keep your shit together this time, I won’t have to kill you. Then you and then you and your girlfriend can do whatever the fuck you want. Your Rayne’s problem not mine.,”

“Allison is not my girlfriend,” I explained

Sara shrugged me off  and took a long drink.

***

When I went back into the bedroom Minnow put her arms around me and whispered in my ear

“I think you should talk to her,”

“I know,” I said”but, she is always crying when she sees me. I have nothing good to say to her,”

“Lie,” she suggested

I went and sat next to Allison. She didn't even acknowledge me.

“I know you are pissed," I said, "but,can I ask you a question. It’s really been bothering me,”

“Okay, Alan” she conceited

“I looked at some media streams and stuff a while ago and I never saw one thing about my disappearance.  . . Was anyone at home looking for me ?,”

“Yes,” she said, “ Your parents told mine, I mean—my mother in confidence. They said they didn’t want to cause any alert by making it public, what with the company changes. I was one of the last people to see you and I felt guilty so I asked about you everyday . It may not have been public knowledge but, anyone who mattered was looking for you," she said,"Oh but, your parents moved to the upper division living a few weeks ago and I haven't seen them since to talk about you,"

“Was my mother okay ?,” I asked, "I notice her online presence is gone,"

Allison let her eyes break away from mine. She looked around the room nervously, she seemed nervous.

"Please, don't keep secrets from me," I said

“Okay, you know how your mom is always so put together and stuff ? ,”

“Yes,” I said, it was no secret most of my dad’s friends went out of their way to be my mother’s friend.

“Well, at first she got really depressed or something as was basically a shut-in. She was always crying and after a while she wouldn’t even talk to my mom anymore. We’d knock on the door and she wouldn’t come out. She was getting really bad."

"When was the last time you saw her ?,"

" When they moved  out. Your dad said I shouldn't bother your Mom but, she seemed really happy and back to her old self,”

“Fuck him,”

“Alan,”

“Sorry,” I sighed

We were both facing one of the windows sitting side by side. She placed her arm over mine to comfort me. It was twisted because I should be the one comforting her.

“I think my mom isn’t like yours,” I said

“I always thought so,” she sighed

“What are you talking about ?,” Minnie asked quizzically.

“My mom is like Saint. She went through biological and mental refacing to marry my dad. She has the same marking where they put that device to reset those Life Solutions things on her wrist. She always said they were a birth mark. I never put it together until I saw that thing,”

"That's kind of a leap," Minnow said

"Not really," I told her," Tempus is always years ahead in getting technology-- it's just not public knowledge,My mom would always go in for what she said was gene therapy for some disease and I've never met her side of the family,"

“Well, that is kind of cool  ! Is that why your mom is French ?,” Minnow asked,” That is so hot. Hey, Alan if you could change me to however you wanted what would you do ? ,”

“I think my Dad reset her,” I said, ignoring Minnow.  I was talking more to myself at this point. “ To make her forget--forget I existed. What the hell ?,”

Minnow rested her head against my back, she was finally understanding this was serious.

 “Hey,” Minnow said kissing my face,”That means she cared enough about you to completely loose it,””

I saw her point but ignored it.

I had finally coaxed Allison into coming outside and seeing Arcadia, it was a nice place-- nothing like home. We had settled just a few feet from the back porch of the lodge and into the massive backyard.

“What happens after ?,” Jean asked picking at the grass,”I mean if this will our big event so,  what happens after ?,”

“I want to go where Alan goes,” Minnie said flipping through a Life Summit pamphlet.  I had failed in my promise to tell her everything that happened.

I was glad she couldn't see the small smile I got on my face from hearing her say that.

“What happened to never settling down ?,” Jean asked “Don’t be so stupid Minnow,”

“I’m not saying marriage but, even if I did you said marriage could bring our family back together,”

“I was high,” he sighed

“You are always high,” Minnow laughed crawling over to him and kissing him on the cheek. He put his arms around her pulling her into a hug.

“Now, why the fuck would you ever want to let someone else come between us ?,” he smiled kissing her.

They were interrupted by the sound of Sara’s footsteps, the ends of her hair were singed and she carried her arm in an unnatural position as she headed to the door.

“Are you going to explain ?,” I asked

She stopped at the door and turned around.

“I can’t do it,” she said, “I can’t fucking build another motherfucking bomb. It’s not fucking possible--,”

I was sure she was on the verge of tears—showing some real emotion but, she held back.

“Why did you build a bomb to  begin with ?,” Minnow asked running her hands through Jean's hair

“What the hell kind of stupid question is that ?,” Sara asked

“I mean according to this pamphlet thing HF Corp is showcasing a working prototype of  a  Nuclear Destroyer.”

Sara snatched the pamphlet from her and looked at it.

“This is perfect. I can hack into the schematics at HF’s headquarters, I can figure out how it works and then tell Alan what to do. This is perfect, they are practically giving it to us,” Sara smiled,” How come no one mentioned this to me earlier ?,”

“I think the real question is why didn’t you think of it earlier,” Jean said and Sara flicked him off.

“Well, hey you have to let me go,now” Minnie said,”I came up with the idea. I deserve to go with Alan. There is a gala tomorrow night I can be Alan's date, I love a good party,"

“No woman at that Summit is going to have purple hair,” Sara pointed out.

“I will rip it out if I have to. I'll make it work, just let me go I need to ease my nerves, please,” Minnow begged

“Okay,” Sara said, “Alan will go to engage the bomb.Minnow will go to make sure he doesn’t fuck up, Saint will protect them and Jean and I will be running the whole thing. If you have any objections I don’t care,”

She picked up the pamphlet and headed out the same direction she came.

-2-

This had all happened so fast but, I have no idea why I doubted it.

After Sara hacked into the schematics and pictures for the bomb it took her an hour to figure out how to set it off.  There were 2 nitrogen bullets in the black revolver at my waist. I had to get one in to the central system of the bomb to make it activate, the blast radius was small so as long as we were out the window before the first pulse we would be fine.

We had set up the same way we had been before.  Jean and Sara were in my ear watching everything that happened from one of the hotel rooms.  Sara had taken no chances with getting a room. They went to the top floor and to the room with the best view, she put the occupants in a drug induced coma and left them in the closet. They would wake up in the next 12 hours which afforded us a lot of time.

I was different tonight, I walked with a new confidence with Minnow by my side her arm hooked in mine. I doubted anyone would have believed she was just a teenager she looked years older.  She wore a form fitting red dress and heels—I did find it odd she claimed this was one of the outfits she randomly packed. Saint was walking a few paces behind us not making it obvious he was with us.

“Hey before we do this we should fuck somewhere,” she whispered in my ear

“We can hear you,” Sara reminded her from the earpiece.

“Sorry,” Minnow sighed,

“Just get in and get out,” Sara said, “It looks like they are doing security checks at the door tonight. They must have noticed that girl went missing. Saint see if  you can get them past,”

Saint walked quickly infront of us and exchanged words with the guards at the front door. He was easily larger than most men and I doubt they were listening to him but, looking at his size. Saint continued talking and then he just barely tipped his hat up revealing his mark to the man.The guard nodded eagerly  and Saint motioned for us to come though unchecked. As we walked past the guards did not make eye contact with us but, lowered their eyes.

“What did you say ?,” I asked

“That you were the son of the Lieutenant General. Low-level security like them never mess with real military. Also, they are under the impression you are with the guest of honor so go along with that,"

"Who is the guest of honor ?,"

"I don't know, it would have looked odd me asking him. Just pretend like you know,"

The hallway was filled with men in tuxedos and a few women in bright dresses socializing with drinks in hand. Minnow and I quickly made our way past the crowd to the abandoned exhibition hall.

"The code is 342456," Sara said

Minnow entered the access code and we entered the empty room.

“Oh my god, it’s huge !,” Minnow said when we got inside.

The room looked expansive without any people in it. Like it went on for miles.

“Okay, listen,” Sara said,” The bomb is in section CE12 so, you need to find that then we can get started,”

Minnie turned to me with a devious smile on her face and she quickly slipped out her heels and broke in to a sprint to the other side of the room.

I went around to the other side past section H,G, F and E. We caught up to each other was we came to section D and jogged together to section C.

“Is that it ?,” she asked heading towards a giant silver structure that looked like a rocket.

“I don’t think so,” I said looking at the sign reading CE10

I looked beyond the big structure to a small case sitting above the sign CE12. It was a glass case holding what  looked like a miniature child's toy of a nuclear weapon.

“Sara, I think this is only a figurine,” Minnie said through clinched teeth.

“No,” Sara responded, “That’s it, now break into the case, find the core where the bullet will go and let’s get on with this,”

“This is one small WMD,” Minnow sighed as she carved a large circle in the glass with a laser cutter. She made two holes on either side of the glass box.

I looked around the sides of the bomb and saw a discolored patch the weak spot in the bomb, the area the bullet had to go into.  Minnow lined the soft spot with the holes she made in a glass.

“I can’t believe we’re doing this,” she laughed as we wheeled the display over to the window until it was 20 feet from the window

“I know,” I said

We tapped on the window and Saint was there to open the window for us. I took the revolver out and cocked it between the window and ledge, aiming straight for the missile.

“Okay, remember you guys have 30 seconds after you make the shot to get some distance from the building,” Sara reminded me

The shot was narrow but, my cybernetics gave me an instinct on the perfect angle. Mechanically, I lined up the gun to the core of the nuclear weapon a put the round in, and slid it into place when I heard shots behind me.

“Someone’s coming  Al--,”

Saint was caught off by the sound of bullets and he fell to the ground. Time began to speed up for me and I took the shot, I didn't even look to see if I hit the bomb because I could hear people coming after us. I turned around to face our attackers and time seemed to freeze, our attackers were in black uniforms and looked like a private army or special ops or even secret service. In my peripheral I saw Saint was staggering across the ground not bringing attention to himself, but more importantly I noticed there was a just a small fire in the building, I had missed.

"I missed,"  I said under my breath

Minnow was hiding in the artificial greenery in front of the building, they couldn't see her. They would just take me and she would get away.

“Give me the gun,” she whispered, “ And run, they wont catch you. When you have them distracted I’ll take the shot and run,”

“I will protect her,” I heard Saint say, he was fiending death

It was a 2  second decision but, I dropped the gun and with her and began to run. The gun men followed me, their bullets were going off in a pattern making it easy for me to sense the bullets and run between. There was a mess of voices coming from inside my head from Jean and Sara.

"What the hell is going on ?,"

"What happened ?,"

"Where are you ?,"

“Minnow did you take the shot ?,” Sara asked

I looked behind me to see all the gunmen following me, the coast was clear.

“Minnow, do it now and run the opposite direction I did," I said, "They are far away now, do it now,"

She took the shot , it was infinitely louder to me than the other bullets and I heard it from where I was.

"I'm running,  see you soon," Minnow said into the speaker

Suddenly the spray of bullets became erratic and  I felt one graze my shoulder.

Within seconds of a small tremor passed through the earth and  an invisible force pushed me a few yards and I landed hard on my back.  I watched a fire erupt from the Life Summit and seconds later a ball of fire engulfed the building sending another pulse through the ground.

The bomb had blown bigger and quicker than I thought

And it dessimated the entire building in ruin

And as we learned hours later taking  Minnow and Saint with it.

 

-3-

7

7

Fucking 7

That was how many bodies they pulled out of the wreackage.

All dead.

Men had been at the site for 2 days and we watched body after body being pulled out.

Jean and I sat on the edge of the destruction zone, acting as witnesses for what had happened, when really we were  looking or any sign of Minnow or Saint.

“Only, 7 brother ?,” Jean asked the technician, who was surveying the area, “You sure there isn’t anyone trapped in the rubble ?,”

“Well, there was a lot of nuclear power so, pretty much everything has been incinerated,” the technician explained

"Are you sure ?," he asked

The technician nodded and moved on.

I put my hand on Jean’s back and lead him back to the hotel. The hotel itself was a frenzy of officials, media and investigators but, my flimsy lie about being an intern for A&G held up still so, we had a room to stay in on the A&G floor.

The occupants were most likely dead.

“My baby sister,” Jean said  when we got  inside.

He turned around to me let his fist connect with my face, his rings scratching my cheeks.

I accepted blow and stumbled a few inches back and then  I threw a punch at him because I knew it was what he wanted, he blocked the punch with his right hand and hit me again.

“I have protected her my entire life,” he said shoving me into a mirror,”She was my love, my best friend all I had in this world and now I have no one. I literally lived and breathed for her. This is not how it  is going to end,”

Jean pulled out the diamond edged knife but, I grabbed the handle and pulled it away from. He could beat me up if that’s what he needed but, I wasn’t going to let him kill me.

I had lied to her.

I did love her.

Like a sister I would never had, possibly more. Not seeing her suddenly made this world seem a lot less hopeful.

Jean pulled out another knife so, I twisted his arm until the knife fell to the ground.

Pushing me to the ground, we fell onto each other in a worthless fight.

I could not feel much but, I felt his pain.

-4-

 

Sara waited for us she was standing outside the van, a holoscreen lighting her face over the dark sky. 

After the bomb went off Jean had come outside immedieatelty to find Minnow. We waited together in front of the hotel for hours but, hear no word from her. The GPS on her earpiece said she had never gotten more than 10 feet from the building and the blast radius had been 30 feet.

Sick of waiting, Sara went back to Arcadia that  to get her things and children and move on. We had to go back and show Rayne what we had done first before we could officially separate so, she had promised to come by and get us.  It was tense, Jean and Sara had not seen each other since Minnows fate was finalized.

  When she saw us coming towards her and she made a start towards Jean. He grabbed her neck with his hand and pulling our a knife he cut her throat.She touched the blood to her neck, almost passively.

“Happy ?,” she asked him wiping away the blood from the piece of skin he tore.

He ignored her

“How can you not be upset ?,” he demanded  "You cared for Saint and he is gone too,”

“I did not even know his real name,” she said

“Liar!,” He screamed, “I will  never work--,”

“You don’t have to,” she said

Sara turned the holoscreen to us.

“That guest of honor tonight was Jeremy Hawk--,”

“The president ?,” I shouted, “Are you telling me we-“

“Yes, we fucking assassinated the president of the Eastern United State, the most powerful man in the world,” she finished,” You know what that means,”

I didn’t know what that meant but, the words on the screen told me enough.

 War

"It's only been 2 days how--,"

"People are pissed and mourning and want revenge," Sara said grimly," The State is blaming the West and now they want to control us. The Western Militia is not to happy about this and declared the war."

“What are we going to do ?,” Jean said

“About the war ? Nothing we can do,” she said ,” But, with the Life Summits gone, there is standstill in both economies and  pretty soon they won’t even be able to function. All of their best men and weapons and machines are gone.  Tech can’t save them. I have finally achieved what I wanted,"

We stood in silence for a while. I think Sara and I both knew Jean wasn't ready to leave just yet.

"Is Allison in the van ?," asked

Sara nodded.

I went into the back and saw Allison sitting her eyes glued to the holoscreen displaying messages about the war. I wondered if she understood now, if she understood I saved her life--or attempted to.

But, I wasn't here for her.

I walked to the corner of the van. I could feel Luce's eyes on me but, I didn't shake it off because I knew it wasn't just a feeling it was a connection. I walked up to him and took his arm looking it over.

"Alan!," Allison shrieked, "What are you doing ?," 

I looked up his other arm and studies his face. He slowly let his head drop and folded his ear forward to reveal the small diamond pattern engrained into his head.

"Is that--," Allison began

"Sara thinks no piece of tech has touched her son but, there is something in there," I said,"What is he hiding ?,"

***

The country—East and West-- as I knew it was over, there was war among us.  My heart remains in shambles, I have grown up more in these months than I have my whole life. I was going back across the desert back to the LOLA waiting for the last brick to drop

In truth, I had no real heart but, it was breaking and bleeding for Minnow

In truth, there is knowledge I will  never have the privilege of knowing.

In truth, I should be ready to fight , not going back

In War, truth is the first casualty.

 

 

The End . . . .

Of Part 1