Bretdon waited for the signal, scanning the camp in front of him. The security measures weren’t that sophisticated, and they would never withstand a Taucet attack. The aliens would have no trouble at all retrieving their slaves, the moment they decided to do so.
As he suspected, keeping the freed people in this kind of camp had nothing to do with protecting them from the aliens. It was clearly a means of control.
Controlling his anger, he continued with his scanning. He had already located the cyborgs stationed at the camp and made contact with them.
Their first question had been if they could get them out of there. Bretdon assured them that was part of the plan and asked them to either approach him or Kirkcal on the other side of the camp.
“We can’t help you,” one of them warned him, with frustration emphasized in each word.
“We know that, don’t worry. Just stay out of the way as much as possible, while you make your way to one of us,” Bretdon told them. “Once we’ve deactivated the main controls, you’ll be free to do whatever you want,” he assured them.
“That would be awesome.”
The first signal finally echoed on their earphones. The party was starting. Right after that, they heard the detonations on the other side of the camp, and the alarms sounding inside the camp.
The third group of men approached the wire fencing around the camp and started to cut the wires. Just a few moments later, they had cut away the fence were able to make a hole in the wall it had protected.
They were prepared to fight as well, in case the guards had split forces, but there were no guards as far as Bretdon could tell.
People in the nearest quarters started crying at the sound of the detonations, and the fourth group of warriors headed towards them to invite them to escape.
Bretdon didn’t stop. He had a mission, and nothing would take him out of his way. Behind him, a few men accompanied him, in case they encountered surprises on their way, but the few soldiers left in the camp were busy elsewhere.
It took them a couple of minutes to reach the quarters where they had been told Ophelia’s mother was living.
But when he opened the door and explained the situation to the hysterical women inside it, Marisa Stevenson wasn’t anywhere to be seen.
“Do any of you know where she is?” he asked, in a stern tone.
“No, she was taken out of here a couple of days ago, and though during the day she’s around, she’s taken elsewhere for the night,” one of the women explained, before she headed out the door, following the group willing to escape.
Growling his displeasure, Bretdon turned around, trying to think where they could be keeping her.
“Tyrcale, do you have any idea where I can find Marisa? I was told they take her away from her quarters for the night,” he asked one of the cyborgs.
“I have no idea who she is, we’re not allowed to make contact with the people here,” his friend replied. “But if they’re keeping her away, it must be in the special cells, near the main offices.”
“Can you take me there?” Bretdon asked, worried.
“Yes, of course. Follow me, I’ll guide you there.”
Bretdon signaled his men and started running across the camp, following the coordinates of Tyrcale’s position. In a couple of minutes, he was meeting the cyborg.
Without wasting any time, he pushed the other man’s arm up, and with his knife, he cut the skin, revealing the primary control system. It only took them a few seconds to deactivate the man’s controls.
“Man, I was starting to lose hope of ever seeing this day,” the cyborg said, excited.
Bretdon allowed a half-smile to crack his stern expression. “You can thank me later. Now, we need to find this woman.”
Tyrcale nodded. “The place must be guarded by at least two men. They have thick walls, impossible to scan, so be attentive,” he explained.
He took the guns one of Bretdon’s men was giving him before they ran the last few yards to the cells.
Like Tyrcale had suggested, there were two guards inside the building, but once they saw the heavily armed cyborgs, they surrendered without fighting. They knew they didn’t stand a chance against them.
Bretdon grabbed one. “Is Marisa Stevenson in here?” he asked, with an ice-cold, threatening tone.
“I don’t know any Marisa,” the man mumbled.
“Do you have any prisoners here?” he asked again, shaking the man just a little bit.
“There’s a woman in one of the cells, yes, but I have no idea what her name is,” the soldier admitted.
Shaking his head, Bretdon threw him inside the cell where Tyrcale had put the other one and locked it shut.
They split in the corridor, each one picking a side, as they searched the cells.
Bretdon found her in one of the last cells.
“Ma’am, are you Marisa Stevenson?” he asked, though he could see she was. She looked like Ophelia a lot.
“Who wants to know? And what the hell is happening outside?” the woman asked, without even moving from the bunker bed where she was sitting down.
“Ophelia sent us for you, ma’am. I’ll explain later, right now, we need to get you out of here,” he said, stretching his hand towards the woman.
“Where’s my daughter?” she asked, finally getting up.
“You’ll see her soon. She’s safe.”
“How do I know you’re telling me the truth?”
“You can’t, not right now, but you either come on your own, or I’ll carry you, ma’am. I promised your daughter I would get you out of here, and that’s exactly what’ll do.”
The woman chuckled but quickly left the cell.
Fortunately, they didn’t meet any soldiers on their way out, and soon they were at the hole in the wall. Apparently, only a few hundred people at the camp had decided to escape, and they were being evacuated, by the time they reached the wall.
Bretdon took Marisa to the vehicle he would be traveling in, determined to have the woman in sight all the time.
His vehicle was ready to leave, but he didn’t want to go without being sure everyone had gotten out of there. He knew the soldiers had sent the distress signal and reinforcements would arrive in no time, so he went to help the others.
A few minutes later all the people were inside the vehicles, and they were heading out.
They left the area as fast as possible, making sure they weren’t being followed by anyone or any surveillance devices.
He had no idea how the group was able to pass through the roads sensors, but he wasn’t very interested in it, at the moment. He just wanted to get back to the caves as soon as possible.
“So, how did you meet my daughter?” Marisa asked, at some point of the trip. They were in the vehicle’s cabin since Bretdon was at the wheel, and he had wanted her at his side.
“I kidnapped her,” he replied, with a self-deprecating scowl.
“So, you’re the reason I was taken to that dreadful camp?” the woman asked, so calm, that Bretdon turned to look at her.
“Yes, that’s right. They knew your daughter was with me and they wanted to get to her, to get to me,” he explained.
“I see, what’s your name and what are you, exactly?”
“My name is Bretdon, and I’m a cyborg, ma’am.”
“Please, call me Marisa, you’re making me feel older than I am,” she protested.
He chuckled. “I’m sorry, it wasn’t my intention.”
“And where’s Ophelia? I was hoping to find her waiting outside for me,” there was some disappointment in the woman’s voice.
“She wanted to come, but I wouldn’t allow her. I wanted her as far from danger as possible,” he explained.
“And she simply obeyed?” the woman asked, astounded.
He glanced at her with a half-smile. “Let’s say I persuaded her.”
“Hmm, that’s interesting. You’re the first person I know able to persuade Ophelia into doing something she didn’t want to. My daughter can be very stubborn,” she said, with an intrigued tone.
“Yes, I know. But she has been very worried about you. She went looking for you at your place,” he explained. “And your neighbor told her what had happened.”
“Oh, she shouldn’t have. They could have gotten her─”
“I was with her all the time. I wouldn’t allow that to happen.” There was so much certainty in his tone she didn’t dare to doubt his words.
“How come you’re not in the government’s side? I thought all cyborgs were controlled by them,” she asked, openly curious.
“I’m a fugitive, a renegade if you like. I used your daughter to escape,” he explained.
“Tell me all about it,” she asked. “I’m sure we have enough time.”
With a faint smile, he gave her a censored version of everything that had happened ever since he had met Ophelia.
“I always thought there had to be something wrong with the government’s propaganda about the cyborgs,” she said when he finished telling her the story. “If you guys were conceived like all humans, you couldn’t be simply upgraded androids.”
“Yes, but most people believe them and no one fights for us. So, we’ve decided to fight for ourselves and escape the government’s enslavement.”
“Good for you. They want to control everyone on the face of this planet, and this war has given them the perfect excuse,” she grumbled.
“Yes, I believe that as well. But more and more people are waking up, and they won’t be able to get what they want.”
“I hope you’re right.” She let out a deep sigh. “I’m glad you were able to get me out of that dreadful place,” she said. “I was starting to think I would have to escape and I guess that’s why they started taking me to the cells at night,” she added, with a wicked grin.
“What do you mean?” he asked, curious.
“They found me a couple of times wandering near the walls of the camp in the middle of the night.”
Bretdon let out a loud laugh. Of course, they had. She looked so much like Ophelia there was no wonder those two couldn’t live together. They were so alike in their personalities they repelled like magnets.
“Good for you.”
She chuckled. “I guess I wouldn’t have gone too far on my own, but I couldn’t simply stay there and do nothing. Some people are so scared, they are happy living behind those walls, but I certainly am not one of them.”
“Of course not. Though the place I’m taking you to is a hideout, you’ll be able to leave if you want. They also have several places so you can choose where to live,” he informed her.
“Don’t worry sweetie, I’m well aware I’ll never be as free as I was, at least, not while this war continues, but like you said, I’ll choose what to do,” she replied, with a deep sigh.
“Yes, exactly.”
Though they would have liked to travel the whole day and night to get to the caves as soon as possible, they had to make a few detours, and now, they would have to make a new stop, to deactivate all the tracking devices they had been blocking ever since they left the camp.
“How many people joined us?” Bretdon asked James, while they were organizing people for the deactivation.
“Five hundred, more or less, mostly entire families,” the other man informed.
“Has it ever happened that you weren’t able to evacuate all the people willing to escape?” Bretdon asked.
They were traveling with six trucks, all of them full of people.
“No, never. When people want to escape, they’ll do all they have to, even travel in crowded vehicles,” James replied. “So far, we haven’t left anyone behind, but if it were impossible to take them all, a group of us would take the fit ones on foot. At least, for a while until they were picked up,” he added.
“That’s a good plan.”
After they quickly deactivated the tracking devices, they handed each person food and water, and after a two hours rest, they were back on their way to the caves.
Back in the caves, following all of the action, Ophelia was so anxious she thought she was going to throw up. Especially, when her mother wasn’t found where she was supposed to be. Seeing her through the cameras was a relief even though Ophelia could tell her was a bit haggard and had lost a few pounds.
The communication with those at the camp ended when the last truck left the camp. The engineers in charge of it explained to both women it would be too dangerous to continue transmitting a live stream.
“Anyone could find the transmission and hack our systems to get our location,” he explained. “They will be here soon enough.”
The girls nodded and returned to Ophelia’s room. The sun was about to come up in the skies, so they didn’t even try to go back to sleep.
“When do you think they’ll get here?” Ophelia asked Marian.
“I don’t know, but they never come straight home. It would be dangerous,” she explained. “But they usually get here a couple of days later.”
Ophelia nodded, not too happy with the news. She wanted to see her mother and to have Bretdon back. A few minutes later, they showered and went to work. Hopefully, time would go by a lot faster than the day before.
Fortunately, Jonathan wasn’t around, and she was able to focus on her job. Though they had made some advances understanding the alien technology, they weren’t anywhere near making it work.
On one side, that made her happy, because it delayed the moment she would have to say goodbye to Bretdon since she didn’t believe he would want to take her with him. But on the other side, it was very frustrating, not being able to crack the damn thing.
That night, she went to bed feeling really tired and praying the warriors would return as soon as possible.
In the middle of the night, she woke up startled, sure she had heard a strange noise in her room, and though she turned on the lights immediately, she wasn’t able to see anything out of place.
Still distressed, she turned off the lights again, wishing the people there had installed real doors to the caves instead of curtains. She hated feeling vulnerable that way.
It was impossible to get back to sleep. After a while rolling on the bed, she gave up and jumped out of bed. She needed fresh air, desperately.
Putting on some clothes, she left her cave and walked to the main entrance, in silence. It would be great to see the sun come up in the skies, behind the tall trees.
On her way to the main door, she would have to walk by the main communication room, where she had been with Marian, the night before, watching the attack at the freedom camp.
She didn’t expect to see anyone there at that hour of the night, but as she got closer, she was able to see a man sneaking into the room. His attitude was so suspicious she frowned, especially when she could identify the man as Jonathan.
What was he doing there, at this hour? Too curious, she followed him, as quietly as possible, intrigued with his behavior.
Sneaking through the curtain, she looked for him. He was inside the room, sitting at a computer, trying to access a messenger website. The system kept asking him for a password to access the system. He obviously didn’t have it, but he was trying to hack into the system.
Sure what he was doing was against the rules and suspecting his intentions were far from good, Ophelia stepped back in silence. When she was far enough, she started running towards the main entrance, where she was sure she would find a few guards.
And they were there.
“Miss, what are you doing here?” one of them asked, with a frown.
“I couldn’t sleep, so I decided to get some fresh air, but on my way here, I saw someone sneaking in at the communication room. He’s trying to hack into the system,” she explained, heaving.
“How do you know that? He must be one of the engineers that work there─” the man started saying, but Ophelia interrupted him.
“No, he’s not. And I’m a system engineer. I know when someone is trying to hack into a system. He is trying to send a message,” she explained.
That was enough for the man to move.
She tried to follow him, but one of the other guards stopped her. “You better stay here, just in case. Do you know the man you saw in the communication system?” he asked her.
“Yes, he’s one of the systems engineers. We have been working on the same project ever since I got here, a couple of weeks ago,” she replied, as her heart beat slowly returned to a normal pace.
“What’s his name?”
“It’s Jonathan.”
The man nodded with a frown on his forehead.
At that moment, they heard some loud noises coming from the inside of the caves and the guard with her ordered one of the other guards to go check what was going on.
“You should return to your room, but since you would have to walk by the communications’ room, I don’t think that’s a good idea,” the guard next to her said, clearly worried the events in development.
“I wanted to get some fresh air. If it’s alright, I would like to go out for a few minutes. I won’t go far, I promise.”
The man seemed to consider her petition, and a few moments later, he nodded.
“Just try to stay out of sight. The government has drones flying all over the country, looking for suspicious activity,” he warned her.
She nodded. “I’ll stay under the trees all the time,” she promised, a bit sad she wouldn’t be able to watch the sun come out, but she understood the man’s warning.
The last thing she wanted was to put the caves’ location in jeopardy.
She walked out and quickly reached the tall trees around the caves’ entrance. The dawn’s air was chilly but reviving, and she took a couple of deep breaths before she walked a little further into the woods.
She couldn’t stop thinking about Jonathan’s acts. Why would he be trying to send an unauthorized message? He had to know how dangerous that could be. She didn’t want to think of the implications of his actions. Sure, she didn’t like the guy much, but she would hate to know he was trying to harm the people in the caves.
She took a seat on a fallen tree and stayed there for a while, while the night gave way to the day. The skies weren’t cloudy that morning, and she was able to see the sun rays through the trees.
Though the caves were the perfect place to hide, it certainly wasn’t the best place to live in. it could be a bit suffocating after a while.
With a deep sigh, she got up and slowly returned to the caves. Soon, it would be breakfast time, and she didn’t want to be late for work.
With luck, Bretdon and the others would arrive sometime that day, and she couldn’t wait to see him and her mother.
She was about to reach her room when she saw Sandra, accompanied by a few other men, walking her way.
“Ophelia, I would like to have a word with you, if you don’t mind,” the woman said, with a stern tone.
Ophelia guessed she had been told what had happened earlier. “Sure,” she nodded.
The woman guided her to an area of the caves she hadn't been in before. Unlike the rest of the caves, in here the caves had locked doors, and she was taken inside one of them. It was some sort of conference room, and Sandra invited her to take a seat.
“I was told you were the one notifying the guards of Jonathan’s presence in the communication’s room this morning,” Sandra said, once they all had taken a seat at the table.
“Yes, that’s right. I couldn’t sleep, so I decided to go for a walk, and perhaps get some fresh air,” she started explaining. “When I was about to reach the communications’ room I saw someone sneaking in, and the person’s attitude seemed suspicious to me, especially, when I realized it was Jonathan. I knew he had no business being there.”
Sandra nodded. “What else did you see?”
“I followed him, in case I was wrong and he was meeting someone there. But when I reached the entrance, he was sitting at a computer trying to hack into the system to get access to a messenger website,” she replied.
“Were you able to see what he was doing?” one of the men asked her.
“Yes, I was. He was sitting with his back to the entrance, and I was able to see the computer’s screen,” she explained. “That’s why I know he was trying to hack the system.”
Sandra looked at the men at the table. “Ophelia is also a system’s engineer. She would know if he was hacking,” she explained to them.
“Was he still there when the guard arrived?” she asked, with a frown.
Sandra let out a deep sigh. “Yes, he was. And the guard made the mistake of telling him you were the one that had seen him go in the room,” she added, in a stern tone.
“Well, that doesn’t make me very happy, but it’s just the truth,” Ophelia said, failing to see where the problem was.
“His version of the truth is a bit different from yours. He insists you were there with him from the beginning. That you were the one that wanted to send out the message and decided not to go through with it, at the last minute.”
Ophelia was so shocked that she was unable to speak for a few moments. “That’s a lie. Why would I do that? And with him, someone I wouldn’t trust to walk me to the next corner, most certainly I wouldn’t trust to do anything of the kind,” she was finally able to say.
“I know you wouldn’t do that. But I’m not the only person in charge here,” Sandra stated, with a concerned tone.
“What about the cameras? I thought you had this place covered with security cameras,” Ophelia pointed out.
“He erased all the footage showing him getting in the room,” one of the men answered her question.
Ophelia rubbed her face, trying to think straight, but the rage boiling inside her didn’t make it easy.
“Listen, Jonathan has been harassing me ever since I got here. He seemed to think I’m with Bretdon under coercion and he wanted to rescue me from him,” she started explaining. “A couple of nights ago, he tried to impose his presence in my room, and if it wasn’t for Marian, who showed up at that moment, he might have succeeded. I told him clearly I didn’t want anything to do with him and he didn’t look very pleased about it.”
“He insists that you seduced him into sending out the message and that you got scared at the last minute and decided to leave,” the third man insisted. “He stayed behind, and tried to send the message because he wanted you to be happy with him.”
“If you have no footage, I guess I have no way of proving I’m telling you the truth,” she replied, in a stern tone. She couldn’t believe she was being accused of working in such a plot with a worm like Jonathan.
“We checked all the caves footage of tonight, and we were able to see him going in your room and leaving about half an hour later,” the first man pointed out. “If you’re telling the truth, what was he doing in your room?”
“What?” she remembered the noise that had disturbed her sleep, and her whole body shuddered with dread at the idea of him lurking in her room. “How am I supposed to know? The curtains give people some privacy, but they sure don’t protect you from unwanted visits,” she pointed out, in an ice-cold tone. “Something disturbed my sleep tonight, but when I turned on the lights, I couldn’t see anyone or anything around. I tried to go back to sleep, and when that didn’t work, I decided to go for a walk. That was when I saw him.”
Sandra let out a deep sigh of sorrow. “This is a very serious matter, Ophelia. Jonathan was trying to send a message to the nearest military base, revealing our location.”
Ophelia pursed her lips, outraged. “I have no reasons to want such a thing. You’ve helped me free my mother from the government’s clutches. Why the hell would I want to help them in any way?”
“I know it doesn’t make any sense,” Sandra agreed, but the men didn’t seem convinced.
“We think you might have wanted to get rid of Bretdon. After all, he seems to have abducted you, when you were on your way to visit your mother.”
Ophelia shook her head, astounded. “Yes, he persuaded me to help him to get free. Yes, he took my car and made him go with him. But he was thinking more of protecting me from the soldiers than anything else,” she pointed out, almost ranting. “He could have left me on that road, all alone. He didn’t need me anymore.”