Reapers: The Shadow Soldiers (19 page)

Overlords might!
Evelyn!
he thought to himself.
 

She was on that shuttle, and it looked like it had taken the majority of the hit.

Burns hobbled forward, dismissing the shots of pain, as he quickly approached the carcass of the shuttle. He hoped—desperately—that he could pull his best friend out of the rubble. That, somehow, she was as uninjured as himself.
 

Yet, as he climbed up the smoldering shards of the busted shuttle and began digging around, his hopes became desperations and soon those were degraded to denials.
 

She couldn’t be gone. This wasn’t the plan. She had to be alive. She had to have jumped out or found some sort of shield or something,
he reasoned. Yet, deep down, he knew she couldn’t have survived. The odds weren’t there. It didn’t seem like anyone had survived.
 

No one except him.
 

Burns collapsed onto a jagged piece of the shuttle and slid to the ground. He didn’t weep or scream. He just sat in the middle of the flaming city with a blank look on his face. He’d just lost the only person who’d ever cared for him.
 

He reached into his pocket and removed the picture that she’d given him. Her military portrait. His battered hands smeared blood around the edges and atop her beautiful face, but he didn’t care—he just needed to see her again.
 

A fire then burned bright inside his heart. This fire burned so hot, it rivaled the inferno that had consumed the city.
 

He was going to kill Jonathon Gambi. He promised himself that.
 

It was then that he heard someone shuffle behind him. He stood to see who had approached. Sure enough, standing stoically among the fires was a Dominion soldier. His gray fatigues dictated that much. As to what branch, Burns wasn’t sure. He didn’t look like he’d been around at the time of the bombing, and he didn’t look like a first responder. His rough face and slicked back, greasy hair painted him more in the light of a Special Forces man. A soldier on the ragged edge.
 

Indeed, from a holster strapped to his belt, the man removed a small revolver and held it out to Burns.

Without any words spoken, Burns knew what the man was offering. He was offering a chance to go after Gambi, to get that promised revenge. All Burns had to do was take the revolver and Gambi’s life was his.
 

He hesitated for a second, looking at the destruction one last time.
 

He remembered the life that was about to start, the life that was about to begin.
 

It was over.
 

Someone needed to make amends, and he seemed the best for the job.

Burns looked forward into the rough man’s soulless eyes as he definitively grabbed the revolver, binding his new allegiance.
 

“Good choice,” the rough man grumbled, a sickly smile coming over his face.
 

The two then disappeared into the dense jungles surrounding the city as the responders arrived on the scene.
 

He knew it would only be a few hours before they found his misplaced tags in the rubble and confirmed it—Ben Burns was dead. No one was coming to save him. Not this time.
 

PAYING THE PRICE

Rhett’s ceremony took place in a section of the mine where the miners had busted out of the shallow side of the mountain and left a gaping hole. Burns could relate to that. He’d come down to save lives, yet he may have let another one be sacrificed in the process. He’d come out of the shallow side of his own mountain.
 

The ceremony was small, with few people in attendance, but it was still quite nice. No one spoke; instead they stood silently and honored Rhett as a slow burning flame encompassed his body. Behind the pyre, the gleaming sun shined through the mountainous peaks of Silverset. The fresh air nipped at Burns’ face, and the wind blew his hair. It was a solemn moment, but it was the most beautiful he’d ever seen Silverset. It was more than they could have asked for. He just wished some of Rhett’s family could have been there. If he had any family, that is.

The others in the team seemed to be taking the loss in different strides.
 

Carmen was still difficult to read. Brosi, however, was an open book.

The man stood still, jaw clenched. He seemed intense. Brosi and Rhett had had their differences, but Burns knew that Brosi had trusted the man to the ends of the galaxy. Why else would he have followed him into the cannon and then defended the logic of the action later? Maybe—maybe Brosi even felt responsible for what had happened. Burns would say that was foolish, but it was pretty hard to judge when he shared the same feeling.
 

The truth was, neither of them had any bearing on Rhett’s survival. That was the cost of war: sometimes the good guys didn’t make it out.

“Gambi is going to pay for this,” Carmen growled suddenly, and Burns’ heart skipped a beat.
 

“Gambi?” he restated, trying to catch his breath.
 

“He’s the commander of ULC forces here on Silverset,” Brosi told him.

He began to see the fires of Mardius in Rhett’s pyre. He couldn’t believe that Jonathon Gambi was here. This mission wasn’t just about the cannon after all.
 

“Wait,” Brosi murmured, “how did you know Gambi was here, Carmen? That was privileged information,” he revealed, stepping up to her. She scoffed and responded, but Burns didn’t hear a word of it. He didn’t care.

Here he was, getting all sappy about everything, and Intelligence still had “privileged information” up their sleeves. This was a big one too. This surpassed all of their other lies. Everything Control had said about needing him, every example Index had showed him as to his importance—it was all a lie. He wasn’t important because he cared or because he was a good leader—no. He was important because, out of every man in this galaxy that had hunted Jonathon Gambi for his actions on Mardius, Ben Burns was the one who did it the best. All those years spent killing out of rage and anger. They had picked him because of that. They had picked him for simple revenge. They were snakes. His past—Evelyn’s
death—was not an asset to be played with. Burns’ fist crumpled up as he walked forward, pushing Carmen out of the way and grabbing Brosi.

“How could you keep this information from me?” he growled. Brosi put his hands in the air.

“Colonel, I didn’t know it was important!” Burns only scowled through the drapes of his dark hair.

“Of course it is!” he growled. “Anything that’s privileged is important!” Brosi shook his head.

“I’m really sorry, sir. I didn’t mean to—” He didn’t finish as Burns pushed him away. He needed to get out of here before he did something stupid. He turned around and meant to head back into the mine, intending to take Carmen with him, only she was nowhere to be found.

“Where did she go?” Burns yelled, turning back to Brosi. The man only shrugged his shoulders. Burns let out a sigh—maybe she
was
still hiding something. He really didn’t want to deal with her right now, but the last time his problems took precedence, soldiers ended up dead. He had to find her. He didn’t know what she was doing or where she was going, but he had to find her.
 

Briskly proceeding through the damp tunnel hallways, he was having a difficult time locating her. Not only was it dark but a number of refugees had also passed him. If she wanted to, she could have easily hid among their numbers.
 

He really couldn’t believe it had come to this, chasing one of his own down a section of tunnels.
 

Lieutenant Alvarez then approached, and Burns tried to side step him, but he insisted on talking.

“I tried to rally an army, but they aren’t listening,” he said. Burns kept walking while he turned toward the man.

“I’m sure you’ll figure out something, Alvarez,” he ensured.

“No, they’re exhausted. Done with war,” Alvarez told him. Burns stopped, letting out a large sigh. Yes, he wanted to find Carmen and figure this whole situation out—but if he didn’t get the support of the Survivors then it wouldn’t matter whether she was still on board or not.
 

“Don’t they want the planet back?” he asked the Lieutenant. Alvarez only shook his head.

“You don’t get it. Silverset was a cushy post—we aren’t used to fighting. Not like this!”

“Then how did you get this camp?” Burns asked. Alvarez stepped up a little.

“You mean a damp mine?” he asked stringently. “Poor planning and poorer luck.” Burns tried to think of something that would get the other soldiers on board with storming Fort Ledger, but nothing came to mind. It was a suicide mission—running full on toward a fortification of that magnitude. You had to be crazy and know for sure that people weren’t going to miss you at home. Burns shook his head; he could quite possibly be the only person on the planet who fit that criteria.
 

A comm notification then beeped inside his helmet, prompting him to put it on. He motioned to Alvarez, telling the man to hold his thoughts for a second. Entering the warmth and security of the helmet, Burns checked the message. It was Brosi—he was trying to make contact. Burns flicked his eye and opened communications.

“Brosi,” he started in. The man came online.

“I have info on Carmen’s whereabouts,” he exclaimed. Burns’ eyes opened wide.

“Where is she?” he asked.

“Mine entrance. A few guards saw her walk out.” Burns shook his head—she was going AWOL.
 

“Thanks, Brosi,” he told him, closing comms and returning to the conversation with Alvarez.

“I’ll get back you,” he said, turning and beginning to head to the center of the crosscut. Alvarez spoke behind him.

“They call you a colonel,” he stated. “You know, a lot of men work hard for that title, and they just gave it to you.” Burns turned around again.

“Your point?”

“Prove that you deserve it,” Alvarez told him, turning and leaving Burns to his own concerns. The comment did take Burns back a little bit, but he wasn’t quite sure he knew what the man meant. He had other problems right now; he’d figure out rhymes and riddles later. Turning, he headed for the lift at the end of the crosscut and took the lift up to the top.
 

Arriving, he feared that he was already too late to catch Carmen, so he began to run. He ran past the motor pool and up the original slant that led into the mine. She could have been long gone by now, but he had to catch her.
 

Sprinting as fast as he could, he soon approached the exit. Entering the wide-open expanse of the mountains once again, his eyes had to adjust to the sudden sunlight, which didn’t make his search for Carmen any easier. He stopped running and began to look as far and as wide as he could. He was at a high spot, so he could see for miles. Only, she wasn’t that far away.
 

He soon spotted her, walking alone down the rocky path they’d arrived on.
 

“Carmen!” he yelled after her. She turned around and looked visibly troubled.
 

“Go away,” she growled, continuing to walk down the hill.
 

“What’s going on?” he asked, running after her again. She didn’t respond as she kept walking. “Carmen?” he asked again. This time she stopped and looked at him from over her shoulder.

“You once said I didn’t look like a bad guy. Did you mean it?” she asked.
 

This stopped him in his tracks. He looked down and realized that he was gripping his submachine gun as tightly as ever and the safety was off. He looked back up at her, frustrated with how he’d acted.
 

He didn’t know what her allegiance was, but she’d treated him with kindness this entire mission. Even if she was ULC, she didn’t deserve to be chased down with guns ready to fire. He dropped both of his weapons and then removed his helmet, throwing that on the ground alongside them.
 

“So what’s going on?” he asked as he approached her. She stayed in place this time and allowed him to get close. Though she still appeared to be ready to run at any moment.
 

“Colonel, I need to tell you something,” she started, looking back down the hill toward the beautiful snowy range below.

“What?” he asked, afraid of the answer. He was beginning to wish he hadn’t taken off his helmet.
 

She looked back up at him, into his eyes. He looked right back, trying to get a reading. He could see that she was worried but also that she was quickly coming to a conclusion. Just then, she lunged forward a bit, closing the gap between them. At first, Burns was stunned. He couldn’t believe she’d attacked him, but then he realized she hadn’t. They were kissing, or she was at least.
 

It worked though. Instantly, any apprehension he’d had about her being a part of the ULC was gone. In his experience, terrorists didn’t kiss the enemy. Not like this. This wasn’t a diversion. He could tell that she only wanted comfort. He began to really regret the yelling and chasing. She slightly backed up and looked at the ground.

“I’m sorry,” she mumbled, regretting the violation of personal space.

“It’s alright,” he assured her. “If anyone should be sorry, it’s me. I shouldn’t have come barreling out, ready to fire.” She didn’t seem to want to take this apology.

“No,” she said, “I gave you little choice—I deserve it. I should have been more honest.”

“Well, I’m here now,” he told her. “If you want to get it off your chest, go ahead. I won’t do anything,” he ensured. She nodded back to him and then swallowed hard.
 

“I—I knew that Gambi was here—” she paused, trying to collect her thoughts. She looked back down the hill, contemplating her options. She then sighed once more and looked back up at Burns. “I knew he was here because I’m not who I say I am...fully,” she said this quickly, trying to get it out as fast as possible in order to lessen the damage. This only confused Burns.