Depraved by Trent Evans

Chapter 37

The command-and-control room of Gamma was set up with a two-level suite arrangement, the communications well, a lower level where all force communications, incoming messages, and intrabase announcements were made, and an upper level that ran in a concentric ring around the well, which was where the command staff resided, including the base commander, along with security and any other required personnel.

Norton had already shut off the perimeter sensor arrays, and instructed the tactical computer to call in any remaining patrols from the Fen.

Lieutenant Nichols and private Hughes, leading the remaining Awakening men from the bivouac were almost there, instructed to rally in the vehicle bay.

It had been Yulia’s idea, to have the announcement made. A rather clever gambit, actually, as it meant Nichols and Hughes could waltz in unmolested.

Seated in one of the comms chairs inside the well was Harling, rubbing his swollen jaw, his complexion rather paler than it had been before their arrival.

Beckett, glaring but silent, arms cuffed behind him, sat down in the well with him.

Norton was up on the second level at one of the science consoles.

Lyssa and Tom were still stationed near the two—now sealed off—entrances to the command suite.

Yulia kept close to Jon, which was exactly where he needed her to be.

Anson paced the upper ring as he waited. “Make the announcement, Harling. Tell yours to stand down. Do it, or we’re going to have a fucking fight on our hands inside this goddamned base in a few minutes. And you’ll be a dead man.”

Harling grimaced, but keyed the handset. “All base Gamma personnel, stand down immediately. Repeat—all personnel stand down immediately and assemble in the vehicle bay to await further orders.”

“The rest of it, goddamn it,” Anson growled, fingering his rifle. “Don’t leave my boys hanging out to dry.”

“Arriving forces are not to be intercepted or apprehended. Repeat, arriving forces are to be allowed to enter base Gamma unopposed. As ordered by me, Commander Harling Fuller.”

“Now, you’ve got us with our pants down,” Beckett muttered. “Stellar idea.”

Anson poked a finger down at Harling, but looked over at Tom. “Get this piece of shit back in the brig where he belongs.”

Tom stepped up, curling a finger toward Harling, holding up a pair of handcuffs. “Back up here, sweetheart. Got a nice comfy cage waiting for you.”

They watched the big soldier hustle Harling away, down the hallway toward the brig.

“Time to talk, Beckett.” Anson paced again, his rifle in one hand. “I want to know why you did it.”

“Why I did what?”

“Tell me why you killed Benton Wyndham. Was it really over… not shooting innocent civilians? Is that how far you’ve fallen?”

Beckett’s eyes narrowed as he peered up at the captain. “Why does that even matter? You’ve got me in custody. You’ve taken the base. For now.”

“It matters to me,” Yulia said, stepping to the railing ringing the upper part of the suite. “I deserve to know. The truth.”

Jon wanted to reach for her, to keep her close, but he knew she needed this, to be able to finally move beyond it. The pain would never go away for her, but at least she’d know what really happened. Why her father had been taken from her.

Beckett turned his head to look at her, his eyes betraying not an ounce of warmth. “You don’t deserve anything from me, little girl. You’re way out of your depth here. And you know it.”

She recoiled the slightest bit, but he was proud of her for mostly hiding it.

Even as he wanted to separate Beckett’s head from his neck.

Jon stepped closer, growling, anger instantly roiling within him.

Yulia put a hand on his chest. “No, Jon—it’s okay.” She gave him a tiny flash of a smile, nodding encouragingly as she murmured it. “I’ve got it.”

“I may be out of my league… but you’re out of options, Beckett. Even so, you still have a choice here. I don’t want anything other than to end this. For good.”

“End this?” Beckett chuckled. “Nothing’s ending this until one side destroys the other.”

“Or until one side stops fighting with itself.”

Beckett glared at her, then looked down. “Guess that means I’m going to the brig, because I’m done talking to you.”

“Listen to me!” she said, raising her voice, something Jon had never seen her do before.

But Beckett said nothing.

The snarl from Anson had Jon grabbing hold of Yulia, pulling her back against his chest, ready to drag her away, if things suddenly went kinetic.

Anson jumped down into the well, and struck Beckett clean across the face.

“You’re not done until I say you’re fucking done, you asshole!” He hit him again, and Beckett nearly fell out of his chair, sneering up at Anson, blood bright on his teeth.

“I’m not answering to you!” Beckett spit blood on Anson’s uniform. “Go fuck yourself, grunt.”

Anson pulled his arm back once more.

“Captain!” Yulia’s voice was clear and strong, and it seemed to shock everyone in the room.

It was just enough to leash Anson’s lethal anger, but his words still seethed with it.

Anson grabbed him by the hair, Beckett wincing. “You shouldn’t talk to her just because she wants peace.” The captain bent down close, practically spitting the words into his ear. “It’s not me you have to convince, Beckett. Because if it were up to me, you’d be in a shallow grave outside the outer perimeter already.” Anson’s teeth grit with dark rage. “No, you see, you really do need to talk to her, because the only thing that’s kept you alive this long, is the will of the daughter whose father you murdered. My best friend.”

He let go of Beckett’s hair, pushing his head away as he rose to his full height, the pure and utter contempt and hatred in his gaze unlike anything Jon had ever seen in the man before.

Anson pointed at Yulia. “The only thing between you and hell… is her mercy. Because you’ll get none from me.”

“I’ll take my chances,” Beckett hissed, coughing.

“Oh, you will?” Anson reached into his ballistics vest, extracting a Ka-Bar, the blade honed to gleaming sharpness, the metal catching the light.

Beckett sat up straighter, his nostrils flaring as his gaze locked upon the knife.

“What if her mercy has… limits? What if… her mercy fades? And I just decide to start… slicing pieces off of you?” Anson swiped the blade through the air. “I could keep you alive a long time before you finally bled out. A long way past the point you wished you were dead. Now, fucking talk.”

“What do you want?” Beckett glanced at Yulia, but didn’t keep his eyes from the blade longer than a heartbeat.

“The truth. Did you have my father killed?”

A heartbeat of silence. “Yes.”

She seemed to stagger ever so slightly at that, as if she hadn’t really believed it until that very moment. “Why? It… why kill him over those people?”

“Because I had no choice.”

Anson kicked his chair. “Enough with the twenty questions bullshit. Tell us.”

Beckett flashed a gimlet eye at the captain, but kept close tabs on the still-brandished Ka-Bar. “The order for Wyndham to be killed… came from Kaman.”

Jon gritted his teeth, though he shouldn’t have been surprised.

“What? How…?” Yulia’s voice was soft, almost a lost murmur.

Anson shook his head, his mouth twisted in disgust. “Go on, asshole. Tell her the rest.”

“I wanted an HKU… and that had a price. Kaman never gives favors for free.”

Yulia glanced up at Jon, then back to Beckett, her lashes fluttering just the slightest bit. “Wait. But what does Jon have to do with this? Why did you…want a Ravager?”

Beckett shrugged. “Such weapons can be quite useful. I had… bigger plans for him though.”

“I still don’t understand. Why?”

“It was part of our deal. Kaman contacted me, and wanted to… come to an arrangement. In exchange for an HKU of my own… I had to have Wyndham terminated.”

Jon’s stomach dropped then, a wholly unknown sensation to him.

That he was a bargaining chip, the inducement—to kill Yulia’s father.

Even he was disgusted that such a bargain had been struck. “I… I’m… Yulia—”

But she touched his arm, squeezing it firmly.

It was enough—to know she wasn’t blaming him.

“But something went wrong,” she said. “He… didn’t work out the way you’d hoped. Right?”

Beckett nodded. “How’d you figure that out?”

“He’s standing here right next to me, isn’t he? Something tells me that wasn’t part of your plan, was it.”

Beckett shook his head, looking at the floor. “No… no, it wasn’t.”

“Then what happened?” Anson almost growled the words. “How did your great plan unravel itself?”

“When I made the deal, Kaman gave me the complete Protocol—the software—for controlling the HKUs.”

“Protocol?” Yulia made a tiny sound, as if thinking of what to say next. “This protocol… controls the Ravager?”

“More or less. It’s complicated.” Beckett twisted around in his chair, looking up at the heretofore silent Norton. “Tell them.”

“What does he have to do with this?” Anson pointed the Ka-Bar in the direction of the engineer. “I thought he was your little, tech officer, or something.”

“I… I programed the NAP,” Norton said. “Or… the reprogramming of it, anyway.”

“NAP?” Anson cursed under his breath. “No fucking jargon. Spit it out so even a grunt like me can understand it.”

“Sorry,” Norton said, flushing. “It’s a neural access protocol. It’s what the TSS uses to control the emotions, and to some extent, the thoughts of the HKUs. It even has some influence on their endocrine system, too. But it’s also how they get their orders—they call them Parameters.”

“Is it like—are they controlled then? Brainwashed?” Yulia flicked a glance at Jon he couldn’t read. “The Ravagers, I mean?”

“Not… really. Influenced is a better way to think of it. Suggestion, I guess. It’s… it would take too long to explain all of it without… jargon.” He nervously looked at Anson, who glowered back at him. “It’s—anyway—Beckett wanted to alter the Protocol, to change it so that Jon wouldn’t follow any orders Kaman may have given him before we got hold of him. I… thought it worked.”

Beckett grimaced. “It should have worked… but something went wrong. I still don’t know.”

“Do you?” Anson stabbed the knife in Norton’s direction.

Norton’s eyes went wide for a moment. “I… have an idea what went wrong. But I’d have to talk to Jon. To be sure.”

“So, these… parameters are. What? Transmitted right into their heads?” Anson rubbed the back of his neck. “How the hell are they doing that?”

“Yes, actually. There is a central controlling supernode—it’s called the Director—that is used to control all the HKUs—er, well, it’s used for their neural mapping.”

“More fucking jargon,” Anson snapped.

“Sorry,” Norton said, swallowing. “It’s the computer that issues the orders, that influences the HKUs to do what TSS wants them to do.”

“All of them?”

Norton nodded.

Beckett sighed, licking a spot of blood at his now swollen lower lip. “I… hadn’t planned on sending Jon after Yulia. But Harling’s incompetence forced my hand.”

“What were you planning then?” she asked, her voice soft.

Jon couldn’t tell if she was overwhelmed, or shocked. Or simply trying to process all that they’d just learned.

She slipped her hand inside Jon’s then, and he gripped it in turn, somehow needing her touch at that moment too, to know that this wasn’t destroying… whatever had developed between the two of them.

Beckett finally answered. “Kaman… I knew he would eventually try to double-cross me, especially once he’d successfully made a deal with me. It’s what I would have done, in his shoes.” Beckett sniffed. “So, I decided to double cross him first. I intended to use Norton’s remapping of the Protocol to get my brand-new HKU… to assassinate Kaman himself.”

The room was utterly silent then, even Anson seemingly rendered speechless, despite his rage.

It was Yulia who finally spoke. “Would you… would you have killed my father… if Kaman hadn’t ordered it?”

Beckett’s face took on an odd, pinched look then. “Wyndham was… a pain in my ass. And a threat to my control. But… no.” Beckett took a breath. “No, I wouldn’t have killed him otherwise.”

“Liar! You’re a fucking lying piece of shit!” Anson spat. “You’ll say anything to get your ass out of the sling it’s in right now.”

Beckett laughed bitterly. “I don’t have a reason to lie about it. Not about this. It doesn’t matter, anyway. I’m a dead man either way, right? We all are.”

“You should already be assuming room temperature, lying in a pool of your own fucking blood.”

“Captain,” Yulia said, her voice soft, but the command clear in the tone. She addressed Beckett once more. “I believe you. I… have to. Because I need to believe you deserve the chance I’m about to give you.”

Beckett raised his chin, watching her.

“I want to end this. For good. End the schism. Help me unite the rebellion. It’s our only hope of defeating the TSS. You know this.”

“What do you… propose?” Beckett’s voice lowered slightly.

She’d gotten his attention.

“I can’t save you from a tribunal. You know that. You must stand trial, eventually. But I promise you that your life will be spared… if you ally your forces with ours again.”

Beckett looked from her to Anson, then back again, his eyes glittering.

After a long moment, a deep scowl creasing his features, he nodded. “I agree to your terms. But it’s not going to matter.”

“You keep saying that, asshole,” Anson muttered. “The ‘none of this matters’ bullshit. What are you getting at?”

Beckett turned and lifted his chin toward Norton. “You’d better tell them.”

Norton’s mouth moved silently a moment, then he cleared his throat. “Before I agreed to meet Beckett out here. I’d accessed the top secret TSS command files, to make sure I hadn’t missed some sort of update or change to the Protocol architecture. I’ve got clearance, so it wouldn’t have raised any suspicions.”

“Get to the point, Norton,” Beckett said.

“Sorry, sir. Yes—I saw one that got my attention because it involved HKUs. I’m not a military man, so… I wasn’t sure what I was looking at. So, I brought it to Beckett.”

Beckett looked down at the floor. “There’s a mobilization. I should have known, the total lack of patrols from the TSS—not even any serious attempt at passive surveillance. Something big was happening, but I didn’t know what it was—and I didn’t piece it all together until I talked with Kaman one last time.”

“Traitor bastard,” Anson hissed.

Beckett ignored it. “Kaman proposed a new deal. That I stand down Carter Faction forces… so that Kaman could crush the Awakening for good. Afterward, he’d give me an autonomous territory to govern as I saw fit. Enough for all the Carter Faction forces. I agreed… but I knew it was a trap. It had to be—it was too clean, too perfect.”

“Other than confirming you’re a turncoat pile of shit working with Kaman, you still haven’t told us why you think none of this matters.” Anson’s jaw clenched. “Spit it out.”

“When Kaman made the stand-down proposal, he said something interesting, but I didn’t realize the significance of it at the time. He essentially said it was incredibly slow work training and perfecting HKUs, that it took a lot of time, implying that because of that, their losses were too much to risk.”

“Which… would explain why we stopped seeing them in combat operations,” Anson murmured. “Go on.”

“Exactly right,” Beckett said, though he appeared to find it physically distasteful to agree with the Captain. “We’d never seen Ravagers in more than two- or three-man fireteams. They were absolutely nightmarish to fight, yes, but we learned how to handle them just the same. We assumed TSS had probably pulled them from the battlefield because they were an inefficient use of resources. But our assumption… was dead wrong.” Beckett shifted in his chair, shaking his head. “When I saw that encrypted command Norton found… it came together. It was an order to form an all-HKU unit. A big one.”

“How big?” Anson asked.

“I double-checked to make sure I correctly decoded the message,” Norton said. “Wanted to see if the numbers were right and—”

“How big,” Anson growled at the engineer.

Norton swallowed, hard. “Uh… four thousand HKUs.”

Anson’s mouth dropped open. “That’s an entire fucking brigade.”

Yulia seemed confused. “I don’t understand. How could they have… so many?”

“They just needed time,” Beckett said. “And we’d been giving it to them, with our fighting. Kaman just wanted to secure a little more from me by bribing me to stand down the Carter Faction.”

Yulia took a deep breath. “That many… do we know what they’re doing with them?”

Anson cursed under his breath. “Only one reason for such a unit. Our combined forces—Awakening and Carter Faction together—would be crushed by a unit half that size.”

Beckett nodded. “Kaman wasn’t just preparing to snuff out the Awakening… he was getting ready to wipe out the entire fucking rebellion.”

“We gave him the perfect opportunity,” Yulia said, as if to herself, her words almost hissed. “We were so stupid—splitting up, fighting. We never had a chance once the Schism happened.”

Beckett nodded, frowning. “And Kaman just had to wait until he was ready to mop us all up.”

Anson shook his head. “Which means we’re fucked.”

“That’s about the size of it,” Becket murmured.

The captain began to pace again, running a hand through his hair, mumbling something under his breath.

For a moment, Jon wondered if the stress might be starting to get to the man.

Then Anson froze, pointing over to Norton. “Did you say that the Director controls all of the HKUs?”

“Yeah, it does.”

“And you said your… altering of Jon’s neural map? It worked…at first?”

Norton’s face flushed, as if acknowledging his work hadn’t been impeccable was a painful admission. “We think it took… a few days before problems became apparent. I’d have to talk to Jon first, to be sure.”

“Then I’ll make sure you do that.” Anson tapped a finger against his lips. “What if we got a copy of your…remapped Protocol. Could we get the Director to transmit it?”

Norton’s eyes fluttered, and he licked his lips. “Theoretically… yes. But we can’t do it remotely—the entire room the Director is in is shielded.”

“So… we’d have to get someone in there to install it. Is that right?”

Norton nodded. “If you can do that…installation would be quick and simple. But that’s a big if.”

“And why is that?”

“It’s in the headquarters building, for one thing. That’s bad enough. Then the room itself, it’s…heavily-guarded.”

Anson winced. “Could you get me a schematic of the building, or at least that room?”

Norton nodded. “Yes—and I can tell you where the guards likely are too. I’ve actually been inside the room, once—though it was several months ago. I…don’t think it’s likely to have changed much since.”

“We hope,” Anson muttered.

Yulia pressed herself a little closer to Jon’s front, the feel of her round buttocks against his cock—even in that high tension situation—threatening to drive him to distraction.

Did she know what he was about to say?

Jon caressed Yulia’s arm, then spoke.

“I’ll do it.”

Anson’s brow arched. “You? A…Ravager?”

“Kaman still thinks I’m bringing her to him, doesn’t he? He’ll be expecting me. Which means he’s more likely to have his guard down. Might even make a mistake. Makes me the obvious choice, setting aside the fact I can outfight any TSS trooper I encounter.”

Yulia spun around, her hands on Jon’s chest, her eyes impossibly big, her pretty furrow across her forehead deep once more. “No…no, you can’t.”

Jon nodded slowly. “I’m the only one who can do this.”

He hated the look in her eyes, almost as much as he hated that when he left on this mission…it would be a one-way trip.

Jon met Anson’s gaze then, the captain giving him a subtle nod, and he could see in the man’s dark eyes the certainty there, too.

“Yulia,” Anson said. “I’ve got an idea. But you’re…not gonna like it.”