Gears of War Read online

  “Grenade!”

  Fahz heaved on the steering wheel. The truck lurched to the left, onto the rugged shoulder. Before they could leave the road entirely Fahz corrected. A hard turn to the right, tilting sickeningly onto three wheels. Somehow he kept the truck from rolling over, but he couldn’t avoid the explosion. The grenade exploded as they passed over it, sending a shockwave against the exposed undercarriage of the Minotaur.

  It was, Kait had to admit, a brilliant piece of driving. Fahz, unable to avoid the grenade, had let the underside of the truck absorb the damage, while simultaneously going around the barricade blocking the left lane.

  Fahz straightened them out. The tires shrieked beneath them as they reconnected with the road. In that same instant, something heavy slammed into Del’s door.

  With them all distracted by the grenade, the Scion had leapt.

  Its hand flew in through the open gun slot, grasping at Del’s neck. Its muscled forearm bulged as the creature squeezed, shoving Del back into his seat. Kait tried to kick at the wrist, to no avail.

  The Scion started to laugh.

  Del, his face contorted as the Scion choked him, fumbled between his seat and the door for something.

  Kait heard the revving of the Lancer’s chainsaw an instant later, and then Del jerked the weapon upward with sudden ferocity. There was a sickening wet noise. Blood sprayed the wall of the cab, then the arm was free and the Scion, outside, was howling.

  Del wasted no time. He pulled the door lever and elbowed it open, hard, sending the creature falling off into the road. Kait could hear the thud as the Scion hit the ground and rolled.

  Fahz accelerated. As they drove away, Marcus opened fire from the canvas flaps in back.

  Turning herself, Kait brought the Tri-Shot around too, aiming backward. The Scion may be down, but there were still those Drones to worry about.

  But by the time she had eyes on the enemy again, they were thirty yards behind and fading fast. Their Scion leader lay in the road, unmoving.

  Kait scanned the hills to either side. All seemed quiet.

  “I think we’re out of the woods,” she called down.

  “You’re gonna jinx it, talking like that,” Fahz said.

  Kait shook her head, ignoring him, climbing down into the cab and jostling the two men aside until she had room to sit between them. It was a tight squeeze with all three of them in the cab, but somehow they made it work. Kait took some small pleasure in how uncomfortable Fahz looked sharing a ride with two people he enjoyed antagonizing at every opportunity.

  “JD’s not going to last the drive,” Del said suddenly. “Especially not if we keep getting blown up.”

  “Did we get blown up?” Fahz asked, checking his armor, his head, and the steering wheel. “Nope, all here. Thanks to me.”

  Del leaned to look past Kait, jabbing a finger at Fahz.

  “You know what, I’m getting really sick of your shit.”

  “What a coincidence,” Fahz replied. “I’m already sick of yours.”

  Kait, tired to the point of collapse, ignored their pointless arguing. She activated her comm, speaking in a lowered voice.

  “Marcus,” she said. “I don’t think JD can survive being jostled like that again.”

  “Already been on the comm to Baird,” Marcus replied. “They’re sending a bird. Rendezvous isn’t far. A mile, tops. Can we make it that far?”

  “Depends how many more grenades we run over,” Del said.

  “Zero, so far!” Fahz replied.

  “Just stay sharp,” Marcus said, raising his voice. “All of you. We’ll make it.”

  Ten minutes later he pulled off the road into a wide, grassy field, where a King Raven waited, its rotor still spinning.

  2: PROGNOSIS

  There were parallels, Kait thought, between JD’s condition and the city of New Ephyra. Both were trapped between life and death, a state that was reliant entirely on external forces. JD on the medical team that seemed to be waiting, waiting…

  While the city waited for the Swarm to come calling.

  Sitting on a chair in JD’s hospital room, she had her legs tucked up, arms folded across her knees, chin resting on her forearms. She could sit like this for hours, she found, and only occasionally doze. Even then the sleep was shallow and furtive. It was a position her father had taught her when she was… what, seven? She couldn’t remember exactly. Those days of exploring the wilderness around Fort Umson were long, long gone.

  JD just lay there, inert, as he had for two weeks. A machine hissed and clicked beside him, doing the work his lungs still refused to do. There was a thick tube in his mouth, and smaller ones in his nose. His right arm was completely covered in burn pads, and they’d shaved his head—the part where the hair hadn’t been singed off, that is—to better tend to his burns. Sometimes a team of nurses would come in to shift his body into different positions. “To prevent atrophy,” the doctor had said. Then they would wash him, feed him.

  Everything except wake him up, or let him go.

  “Just like this fucking city,” she said to herself, staring out the window.

  “What was that, Corporal Diaz?”

  Kait didn’t turn at the sound of Mina Jinn’s voice from the doorway. The woman liked to show up suddenly, not making a sound until she was already in the room.

  “You know,” Kait replied, “I really wish you’d stop calling me that.”

  “Forgive me.” Jinn stepped into the room. “A slip of the tongue. Or, perhaps, just wishful thinking.”

  Kait couldn’t quite hold in her laugh. The COG First Minister had started this little head game—just one of many the woman engaged in at any given time—only days after Kait had first arrived in New Ephyra.

  First the woman had met privately with JD and Del, forgiving their desertion and reinstating their ranks. A meeting, pointedly, that Kait had been left out of. After all, Jinn would have had a hard time convincing Kait to join up if her two best friends were in jail instead of in uniform. No doubt she didn’t want Kait there to argue for refusal, either.

  Once Jinn had secured their cooperation, though, she’d tried to use them to recruit Kait, confident she’d follow her friends into the waiting arms of the COG.

  But then Kait had learned of survivors in her village. Kids, in fact, left behind to fend for themselves against the growing threat of the Swarm. For Kait the decision had been an easy one, though it caught the rest of them off guard. She’d left. Snuck out of the city in the night, with a little help from Damon Baird and Marcus Fenix.

  Kait had saved the kids in the end, even reunited with her Uncle Oscar in the process. And in the final skirmish against the Swarm, everyone had helped, even JD and Del. The band was, as it were, back together.

  Jinn, it seemed, had taken every opportunity while Kait was off on her lone-wolf mission to “accidentally” call her Corporal Diaz. It was as if she thought saying it would somehow make it happen. Especially when she said it within earshot of others. The declaration of rank had indeed spread. Nurses called her by the title. Doctors, too. Even Baird had said it accidentally, once, not understanding what Jinn was up to. In the First Minister’s mind, it was a foregone conclusion that Kait would join the COG, the Coalition of Ordered Governments.

  In Kait’s mind, that was far from the truth.

  Especially now.

  “Did you know he fired the first shot?” she asked.

  Jinn took one of the chairs by the bed, her eyes on JD.

  “I’m sorry?”

  “You know what I’m talking about. Settlement 2.”

  Jinn shifted, uncomfortable. She placed her hands over her pregnant belly. “What happened there was regrettable—”

  “That’s not what I asked.”

  “The situation was complicated, Kait.”

  “Did. You. Know?”

  The First Minister reached out and brushed JD’s cheek with the back of her hand. A motherly gesture if ever there had been one. Kait waited, watch
ing, wondering if Jinn was really moved to have a tender moment with the wounded soldier, or just buying time to compose her answer.

  “Of course I knew,” Jinn replied, her voice even, steady. “I gave the order.”

  Kait hadn’t expected that. Her first instinct—one of rage—was quickly replaced by suspicion. She wouldn’t put it past Mina Jinn to lie, to say those words, if the woman thought it might mend the rift between JD and Kait. JD and everyone, really. Before she could decide what to say, a doctor entered. Someone probably interrupted his sleep as soon as the hospital registered Jinn’s presence.

  “First Minister,” he said. He looked at Kait, and if he said “Corporal,” Kait thought she might leave then and there. “Ms. Diaz.”

  “Any change?” Jinn asked, eyes never leaving the prone figure.

  “I’m afraid not,” he replied. “There’s still significant brain activity, which continues to give us hope he’ll pull through this, but the rest of him remains entirely on life support.”

  “And your prognosis, Doctor?”

  The man measured his words. “There’s just no way to know. He could wake up tomorrow, or a year from now, or… never.” Before Jinn could press, he added, “In my experience, and from the scope of his injuries, the fact that he hasn’t woken up by now means he’s not likely to do so.”

  Jinn said nothing. Her focus was entirely on JD.

  Kait realized she’d been holding her breath. She let it out, slowly.

  The doctor shifted uneasily. “First Minister, excuse me, but it may be wise to make a decision soon… To invest this amount of time and supplies in one man—”

  “You can go now,” Jinn snapped.

  The doctor nodded and, with a furtive glance at Kait, backed out of the room. Numb and exhausted, Kait kept quiet. A silence seeped into the room like a morning fog, absolute save for the wheeze and click of the life-support machine.

  “I envy you sometimes,” Jinn said suddenly.

  “Why is that?”

  The First Minister turned her head slightly, casting a sidelong glance.

  “Sorry, I was talking to JD,” she said. “The soldier’s life. Following orders instead of making decisions. I envy it, sometimes.”

  Kait glared at her. “He still made a decision. He could have chosen not to pull the trigger.”

  For a moment Jinn went tense, looking ready to debate the topic, but then her features softened. She turned back to the unconscious man, and stroked his cheek again.

  “I suppose you’re right,” she said after a time. “Besides, taking James off life support is not my decision to make. It should be Marcus who decides. It’s his right.”

  The unspoken accusation left Kait feeling even colder. Marcus had only visited his son once in the last few weeks, and even that had been brief. The worst part was, she understood why that had been. She’d felt the reluctance herself, and knew Del had, too. Jinn and Fahz had been the most diligent at keeping the vigil.

  “At the same time,” Jinn went on, “I somehow feel responsible for him. It was my program that helped his mother Anya become pregnant. I was even there when he was born. I—”

  That was it. Kait stood and left the room. At the hospital’s front entrance she ran into Del, who was coming up the steps.

  “Any change?” he asked.

  “No.”

  “He alone up there?”

  “Jinn’s with him.”

  “Ugh.” Del stared at the building’s facade. “Feels like every time I go up it’s either Fahz telling JD some war story, or Jinn leaning over him and whispering like she’s plying him with all her secrets.”

  Kait grimaced. “I know what you mean. I just wish he’d wake up, so I can knock him on his ass.”

  “Yeah, seriously.” He looked away from the building. “Maybe I’ll come back later, then.”

  “Wise decision,” she replied, and started walking again. Del fell in beside her, and remained with her all the way to Baird’s mansion, where she was staying. At the gate she paused, turned to her friend.

  “The doctor’s pushing to have him unplugged.”

  Del didn’t seem surprised. It was something they’d all contemplated since returning from Settlement 2.

  “What’d Jinn say?”

  “She told him to get lost.”

  At that her friend raised an eyebrow.

  “Then she said it was Marcus’s call,” Kait added. “But then she started going on about how she’s practically JD’s mom because of the whole thing with Anya and… I just had to get the fuck out of there. The two of them deserve each other.”

  “That’s kind of harsh.” At her withering gaze Del held up his hands. “I mean, I get where you’re coming from, but still…” He looked back toward the hospital. “Damn. Going to be interesting to see how Jinn’s kid turns out. She’d be an… interesting mom to have.”

  She tried, but failed, to stop another laugh that bubbled out of her. This time, the laughter wouldn’t stop, and soon Del was laughing, too. It felt good, but it flooded her with guilt, too. Despite everything, ultimately this was JD they were talking about.

  They lingered there on the sidewalk, the mood growing serious again as around them the citizens of New Ephyra went about their day. The place had changed in the last few months, now that the threat of the Swarm had become an undeniable thing, like a massive thunderhead on the horizon.

  “Jinn told me she gave JD the order to shoot,” Kait said. Del, watching a patrol of DeeBees march by, grunted.

  “And what did you say?”

  “I told her he still had a choice.”

  “That’s not how the military works—”

  “I know, I know. But… fuck that,” she growled. “Seriously. Fuck that.”

  Leaving him there in the street, she went off in search of Baird’s private gym, ready to take a few hundred swings at a punching bag until her body reached the verge of collapse. It was the only way she could get herself to sleep without the nightmares.

  Which was probably why the nightmares had started to bleed into her waking hours, too.

  3: THE LONG GAME

  “Strange place for a meeting,” Baird said, entering the gloom of JD’s hospital room.

  The lights were off, save the status indicators from the machines keeping James Dominic Fenix alive. Mina Jinn sat on the edge of JD’s bed, leaning over his prone form like a grieving mother. Her face was lit by the glowing screens on the machine beside him. Red, then white, then red, then white.

  The shutters on the wall-length window had been opened, giving a view out onto the nighttime city. Until recently it had been a glittering jewel in the evenings. One of Baird’s favorite sights in the world, that skyline. But with the power rationing of late, most of the streetlights had been turned off, and the citizens were thus far complying with the voluntary effort to turn out unneeded lights in the evening, and virtually all lights at night.

  All of which meant that, at this late hour, the only lights he could see out there were small pools of twisting, erratic beams, cast by the “eyes” of the robotic DeeBees that patrolled and maintained the curfew.

  After a moment or two Jinn finally seemed to notice his arrival. She stood with an effort, one hand going to the small of her back while the other supported her abdomen and the child within. Once standing, she gestured toward two chairs in the corner of the room. Baird took one. Jinn sat by the window, her profile just a shadow against the night sky beyond. The idea of conversing with her without being able to read her facial expressions was disconcerting, but he decided to follow her lead and leave the lights off.

  “The doctor says a normal routine can be important,” Jinn said, as if reading his thoughts, “hence the dark.”

  “Works for me,” Baird lied. A silence stretched, and guilt welled up inside him. He began to really hate not being able to see her face.

  “Look,” he said, “I can only apologize so many times. The situation out there, as reported… it was chaos. They were
trapped. We were going to lose some of our best people. Friends of mine. Family, really. Not to mention all the evacuees they’d picked up. It would have been a massacre, one for the history books. So I…

  “I made a choice, and I stand by it,” he continued. “At the time… it was the only call, Jinn. The only call, and I’d do it again. And… and I’m rambling, aren’t I?”

  Her silence went on, just long enough to be at the brink of unbearable. He couldn’t tell for sure, but he thought she was still looking at JD.

  “We’re well past apologies,” she said finally.

  Baird decided it was his turn to be silent. He’d come here expecting a massive fight. Jinn had avoided speaking with him since the event, partly because of what had happened to JD, and partly because he’d unleashed a weapon she’d expressly forbidden him to use. Baird had put her in a tough position, and was prepared to face the consequences, whatever Jinn might eventually decide. Perhaps even a pair of handcuffs and his own robots escorting him to prison, accused of war crimes.

  “In fact,” Jinn said, “I’m starting to fear we’re well past everything.”

  “Meaning?” Baird asked, though he thought he knew the answer already. He stared hard at her silhouette, trying to glean anything he could from her posture.

  “You said you made a choice,” she replied. “At Settlement 2. You made a choice to deploy the Hammer of Dawn. JD made a choice in asking for you to do it.”

  “I don’t think he had any other—”

  “We’re out of choices now, aren’t we, Damon.”

  It wasn’t really a question. He nodded, unsure if she could even see that.

  “We tried equipping the DeeBees, not just with knowledge, but weapons, too. The Swarm turned them into their own abominations. We tried the Hammer of Dawn, the result of which lies here in front of us.”

  Baird swallowed, a fresh wave of guilt crashing down on his shoulders.