“Teams on the ridge, hold position,” he ordered. “Teams on the ground-.”
The forest came to life as machine gun fire ripped from the thick trees. Panic ensued with Enzo’s ridge teams reporting an attack from the rear. Two of the tents exploded into plumes of fire and debris. The Genjix were suddenly being attacked from all sides.
It is a trap!
Enzo looked around wildly. How could he get his men out of this situation? Coming back the way they came in was out of the question. Pushing forward would force them deeper into the camp, which was laden with explosives. North was an even steeper climb than west. That left only south.
Leave them. Have the men lay suppression fire. Get all the vessels to safety.
“I’ll lose the battle then.”
The fight is already lost. Suppression fire to cover the south. Now!
Reluctantly, Enzo gave the orders, and six other vessels, with Palos and his personal guard at his side, began to make their way south as his troops were realigned to punch a hole through the enemy trap. They barely made it a hundred meters when the Prophus responded. Within the thick forest, the fight became up close and ugly. Soon, Enzo lost his guards among the foliage and found himself alone.
Suddenly, two Prophus agents attacked, the bursts of their rifles blinking like yellow stars. Enzo returned fire, strafing as he slid behind a tree for cover. Tree bark exploded into hundreds of small fragments. Enzo listened to the rhythm of guns. One was using an M model rifle with the loud hollow metal sound of the casing ejection. The other was using a G3 variant. He timed his attack perfectly, first pinpointing their positions, then attacking when the magazine expired.
The M reloaded first. Enzo stuck his arm to the right and then turned left, shooting with precision and taking the M gunman out with two hits. Then an image flashed in his head of where the G3 gunman was kneeling. Enzo fired blindly on faith and was rewarded with a kill shot to the chest.
He continued south alone, abandoning his men. Zoras’ life was more important than all of theirs anyway. It stung to have walked into this trap, though. This Prophus commander had a lot to answer for when Enzo got his hands on him. He continued through the thick forest and ran into Palos and two of the vessels pinned down by enemy fire.
He spoke into his comm. “Palos, I have eyes on you at your nine. You’re caught in the crossfire at eleven and three. Take out the three. I’ll take care of the eleven. Out.”
Before Palos could respond, Enzo charged behind the firing nest and took out three of the enemy before they could respond. He saw a shimmer in the air as a Quasing left one of the dead soldiers and floated away into the air. This vessel must be a person of rank. Enzo searched the body and found the vessel’s comm. It came alive.
“Jackson, this is Stephen, you got more incoming your way. Fall back. Jackson, report!”
Enzo picked up the comm. “Hello, Stephen.”
The only Stephen we have on file with Prophus Command is their Field Marshal. His standing is just below the Keeper’s.
“Who is this?” Stephen said.
“I’m the mouse that got away,” Enzo replied. “Your trap failed.”
Stephen laughed. “It’s messy, but I’d hardly call it a failure. Who am I speaking with?”
“The only person worth trapping,” Enzo snarled.
“Let me guess,” Stephen said. “You sound young. And pretty high on yourself. And you’re a little pissed off.” There was a pause. “Did Zoras’ new boy toy leave the hidey hole for our little party?”
“The name is Enzo,” he replied haughtily. “And Stephen, I thank you for letting me know who my enemy is. You have been a worthy opponent so far.”
“I’ve been kicking your ass is what I’ve been doing.”
“Maybe today, but not as of late. I’ve swept over a dozen of your camps the past few days.”
“Well, hell, let me outnumber you five to one, boy, and let’s see how you fare.”
Enzo bit his lip. “We’ll see, Stephen. You have failed to rescue your fellow betrayers. Rest assured they will all die well for the Holy Ones.”
“We’ll see about that. Oh, by the way, I just captured a whole bunch of your guys, including several hosts. I don’t have a nice camp to hold them in and can’t really follow the Geneva Convention right now. You wouldn’t be up for a trade, would you?”
Enzo threw the comm against a tree, shattering it into pieces.
THIRTY TWO
ADVANCE TRAINING
The history of the war is well documented. Both the Prophus and the Genjix suffered and gained equally in it, having lost much of our European networks and influence. There was a lull in our war after the Second World War. Both sides were weakened and we worked to reposition ourselves in the world.
The Genjix moved their influence to Russia while we stayed to rebuild Europe. Both fought for control of the vast lands in China and for the unblemished industrial might of the United States. The Genjix came out victorious in with their support of the Communists and fought us to a standstill in the United States.
Baji
Jill frowned at the row houses in the affluent part of the Georgetown neighborhood. She checked her watch and then took out the small piece of paper he had left in her mailbox. It was two in the morning and this was the right place. She looked down the block at all the attached homes, then back at the note.
“Says third floor. They’re all two stories.”
Marco is just being cute.
The transition to city training was not all Jill had hoped. Now that they no longer had to commute outside the city, they held two practice sessions a day. The new early-morning workouts were kicking her ass. And to make matters worse, Marco was always so chipper in the mornings. She just wanted to break those perfect white teeth of his. It should be illegal to smile that much before dawn.
She was also acquiring an impressive collection of bruises. When she wasn’t diving on the concrete or practicing changing directions like a stripper spinning on a pole, he made her hang off ledges and scamper up walls. She had a sneaking suspicion that he was making her jump through hoops for his amusement. And then when her arm muscles failed, he had her sprint intervals. Jill could jog practically forever, but interval training was pure torture.
“I think being in labor was less painful,” she had said.
Oh really? You should tell Roen that. Remember when he said he knew what being in labor was like when he had to hold his…
“He said that to my parents!”
Jill scanned the roofs. That guy had to be up there somewhere, waiting to spring one on her. Well, hated to disappoint him. It was too risky to scale the walls from the front. She walked around the back and trespassed through the backyards, easily scaling wooden fences. Training was starting to pay off. She still couldn’t melee worth a damn, but her agility had improved, literally, by leaps and bounds.
It is the house with the blue trim.
She reached the backyard of the address on the paper and looked up. Marco, leaning against a chimney, gave her a lazy wave and beckoned her to join him. Jill scanned the wall and noticed the neighbor’s gutter pipe. A moment later, she scampered up the two-story building and sat down next to him.
He was sipping a cup of steaming coffee in an open Styrofoam cup. “Nice of you to join me. Ready?”
Jill wondered how he had gotten that up here. She smirked at his cat burglar outfit, half-cap and all. Somehow, he still made it look stylish.
“Give me your best shot,” she said.
He stood up, dumped the contents of the cup and wiped his hands. “Right then, let’s give it a go,” he grinned. He touched her shoulder. “Tag, you’re it.”