False Idols - Published Version

Chapter 9

Sarah tried to dodge but her body was still immobile. It was no longer the woman warrior that was holding her down, but something else. She blinked and overcame her disorientation. She was strapped into the cooling chair in the ranch.

Willy was coming over. "Are you all right, Sarah?"

"Michael shot me!"

She turned her eyes to glare at Michael and saw him blinking awake. "What the hell, man?" she hissed.

Rad interjected. "Fenton, quiet. Kang, report."

Willy put a comforting hand on Sarah's shoulder as Michael spoke. "I disconnected us both, sir. I was being overpowered. They would have traced us back here."

"You shot me!"

"Sarah, I'm really sorry. It was the only way I could think of to—"

"You two can kiss and make up later. Once you got inside the Five Mile firewall, our ability to read your data feeds was impaired. So tell me, did you at least learn anything that would help you identify the enemy?"

Sarah closed her eyes and tried to recall what had happened. It was all a blur, all except for the moment when Michael had aimed a pistol at her face.

"She had red hair," said Michael. "And she called herself an Aeon."

Rad pursed his lips tightly and rubbed his hands together slowly as he turned to Willy. "Johnson, get the agents out of their chairs and then report to my office for debriefing."

"It's all right, Sarah. You did well," said Willy, as he bent down to undo her straps.

Sarah turned away angrily. She could have kicked herself. How had she not remembered anything? Michael was making her look bad, first by saving them both and then by being the only one able to make a coherent report to Rad.

***

Willy shifted uncomfortably and waved away the holographic data in front of him. "Sir, our response to the attack on Five Mile was a failure."

Across his stainless steel desk, Colonel Rad Jaeger flashed him an ironic grin. "Excellent assessment. Half a dozen pipeline junctions exploding under our agents' noses is a failure. Now tell me what the hell went wrong."

"It was their first time in the multinet, sir. They're still figuring out—"

"No, you're still figuring out how to train them." Jaeger's smile was now gone. "Show me what she did in that little scuffle in the canteen."

Without waiting for Willy to react, he reached into the holographic image that Willy had just waved away and quickly spun through a list of titles. He selected one entitled, "Ranch canteen surveillance feed." A three dimensional video began, taking up the entire space above the table.

The image showed Bob Eckers pushing Michael onto the ground while several of the other orphans snuck towards Sarah from behind. He was obviously trying to distract her from his compatriots' approach. And it had obviously worked, as Sarah stared right at him and betrayed no sign she noticed the others.

Then Olivia Freeman threw a bowl of food at Sarah and she inexplicably dodged it, apparently without ever seeing it. During the next several seconds, she managed to knock both Bob and Olivia on their backs with perfectly timed movements.

"That's pretty handy for a novice," observed Jaeger.

"She was obviously helped by her TacWave."

"I thought the TacWave would overheat if she kept it on for too long. Did she turn it on when Bob approached?"

"She's learned to constantly flash it on and off for a few microseconds at a time, so that it never overheats, yet can pick up small changes in her environment, sir. That's how she sensed the bowl flying at her head."