Exile - Chapter 11: Recovery
Story by Knight Asher on SoFurry
With Cache and Mantissa missing, Fox and Wetzel go on the hunt for clues.
Augtober 7, 1106
It had been only a few hours flight over to the Deadlands. Even from the height of the small jet, Greg had no problems making out the ruins that were beneath. The piles of rubble were surrounded by rusted metal heaps and shallow craters. Trees and shrubs covered entire swaths of land, untouched out of fear of radiation, or the wild tribes that lived within.
It was midday when they finally touched down at the airport, which consisted of a simple dirt strip in the middle of a clearing. There was a building nearby, most likely for air traffic control. At the end of the runway, Greg could see a black car waiting.
“Looks like we’ve finally arrived. I’ve arranged for a private car to take us to the nearest safe-house, but after that, we’ll be completely on our own.” Fox said, as the plane glided to a stop.
“Can we at least get a location reading?” Greg asked. “Unfortunately, the last satellite that went down was looking over this region. We can get a rough idea of where they might have been, but even if you could put up another satellite, I can’t get a current signal from them at all, so we’ll have to rely on other methods.” Greg sighed. He’d picked up a few skills since he was hired by Fox, but he’d never been great at networks. He wondered to himself what they would do when the last satellite finally fell. Assuming of course, they would all get that far.
They got to the safe-house with no real problems. The safe-house itself was a small, single story building. It had been painted in standard camouflage, so that at first glance, the surrounding trees would make it easy to miss. There were no visible windows, or any characteristics that would make it stand out as any sort of habitat. Inside, however, was a completely different story. Cables ran everywhere, and there were several monitors scattered around, mounted on walls and the ceiling. In a corner was a gun locker, stocked full of various different rifles and ammunition. There was a single bed, bathroom, and stove. In another corner was what appeared to be a sort of command center, with several monitors and keyboards surrounding a chair.
Wetzel stood still for several seconds, taking in the sight before him. “This is… this…” “-Unfortunately a mess. I haven’t had time to clean it up, though hopefully it’ll be all we need, for the moment.” “-I was going to say amazing.” Greg finished. He moved to the center of the room, and looked at some of the monitors, which currently had the nearby area displayed in real time. “So, this is what you do in your spare time?” Fox made his way over to the computer station. “This is how I spend some of my time, yes. To do a job, which speaking of which-” He began typing various commands. Greg simply put their gear by the bed. “So, this is were the gals last were?” Fox continued to type, his focus being the screen in front of him. “Not quite. As I mentioned earlier, Mr. Wetzel, the satellite coverage here is quite lacking. They were around this area before their signals disappeared completely, but it’s not going to be a narrow search.” He hit a key, and a map of the area popped up on the monitors.
“So, we’re looking for a needle in a haystack.” Greg said. He sighed heavily, and sat on the bed. “Not quite.” Fox replied, and hit a few more keys. “The location data I managed to obtain puts Oppenheimer Electrics’ location about here.” A small circle appeared on the map, several kilometers from their position. “I had originally intended for them to research the area, but from the lack of communication, it’s possible they got into some sort of trouble.” “Knowing Cache, that’s probably what happened.” Greg lamented. He had only met her in person a few times, but she wasn’t the type of person to let sleeping dogs lie.
“So, where do we begin?” Greg asked. Fox looked at the various screens around him, making sure to go over everything they knew. “If they had been captured, then we would have received some sort of message by now. However, if they were simply having communication problems, they would have found a way to contact one of us.” Wetzel looked down at his data pad. “Could they have lost connection to the network?” Fox leaned back in his chair. “Although it’s possible, I made sure to include safeguards in the new data-pads. If that were to happen, we should have received an emergency beacon, regardless of where they were, which means either their very far underground, or-” “The data pads broke?”
After a few seconds of thinking, Fox continued. “The most likely possibility. However, without knowing the full situation, it’s impossible to tell under what circumstance they could have broken.” Greg looked up suddenly, his heart suddenly racing. “You don’t think they could have gone rouge, do you?” Fox leaned forward, realizing the possible threat. “Unfortunately, Mr. Wetzel, that is a possibility. For all we know, they could have joined the enemy.” “So, what do we do then?” Fox clasped his hands together, and put his head down on them. “Well as far as I can tell, the only thing we can do in our current situation is to try and retrace their steps.” Greg looked at the locker, and tried to stay positive. “Well, at least we won’t be completely helpless.”
After a half hour drive, and a short walk, they arrived at the area that Fox had marked on the map. It was easy to make out the area in the daylight, particularly the structure in the middle.
“Looks like a warehouse.” Greg said, as he scanned the area with a pair of binoculars. In the mud, there were several long imprints, as if some sort of containers had been present. There was no surrounding equipment, although there were signs of some having been there. “As far as I can tell…” Greg said, “It seems to be all clear.” Fox frowned, and double checked his data pad. “According to these coordinates, the main headquarters should be right down there. Even if it weren’t abandoned, I seriously doubt that a facility that size would be the center of what we have seen.” “Guess we’ll just have to go check it out.”
Getting inside the building proved to not be any issue, though they were surprised at what they found inside.
“Why would anyone set up a base here?” Greg wondered aloud. “My best estimate was that this may have been a secret storage facility, although that doesn’t explain the dirt floor.” The football size facility was completely empty. Rubble covered the empty dirt floor. There were tire tracks, along with several imprints of boots.
“Maybe they moved?” Greg asked, looking around for any clues. “It is possible. Assuming Ms. Cache and Ms. Mantissa were successful in finding this location, they may have inadvertently triggered some sort of response. But without the right tools, we may never know-” Fox was interrupted by Greg’s held up hand. Greg leaned down, and picked up a small, shiny object. “Bullet casing, non-standard ammunition. Doesn’t look like it’s been here long.” Fox moved closer to get a better look at the casing. “That appears to match the rounds used by our enemy, but it hardly tells us anything.” Greg turned to face Fox. “Look around, at the dirt. Doesn’t anything look strange to you?” Fox hesitated, and scanned the muddy floor. “There’s… dirt, rocks, metal fragments, a few plants-” “Exactly. Kind of like it had been somewhere else, like if it was used to fill a hole.” “That would explain the lack of, well, anything. The question is, what was buried.” “Or covered up.” Greg turned the casing in his hand, thinking about what may have happened. “We should take a look outside, see if we can find any signs of our side too.” Fox nodded, and followed Greg out of the building.
After several hours of searching under the fall sun, they had finally found a few casings that were different from the one they had found. After Greg tracked the trail of the shooter, they eventually found a set of tire tracks.
“Well, someone was definitely here, and they clearly left in a hurry.” Fox stated, slightly out of breath. Greg agreed, though the walk had clearly impacted him more. “Yeah, and I think we know who. Now, we just have to follow- them. Can you just, give me second?” Greg leaned on a tree, and Fox waited as he caught his breath. After a few seconds, Fox chuckled to himself. “I thought you were supposed to be good at this.” Gregory also began to laugh, and had his own criticism. “And I thought you had been in the field before.” Fox was puzzled. “What do mean?” After he stopped laughing as much, Greg explained. “Well, you clearly know how to be invisible, but back there, at the warehouse? Any soldier would have noticed the dirt immediately.” Fox said nothing for a while, but eventually responded in a serious tone. “Well I never said I was a soldier. I’ll go get the car, and we’ll continue to follow the trail.” Greg wasn’t sure, but he felt as if he’d hit a nerve. Though as to what that would be, he had no idea.
They drove in silence, with Greg analyzing the intel they had, as well as trying to find out where Ingrid and Helena could have gone. Eventually, the dirt road gave way to an abandoned highway. Both sets of tire tracks appeared to lead in the same direction. From as far as either of them could tell, the duo were headed to the nearest District capitol, Seattle.
Fox pulled over, and looked at his data pad. It was hard to see in the late afternoon sun, but he could still make out the small map on the screen. Greg, who had been falling asleep, sat up at the sudden stop. “We find ‘em?” He asked, doing his best to wake up. Fox shook his head. “Not quite yet, Mr. Wetzel. However, they couldn’t have gone far. The last time I heard from them was when they saved someone in the city. If they headed back, they would be easily recognizable.” “So, we’ll either find out on the news, or, what?” Fox’s head hung low as he spoke. “Or we’re already too late. Even if they aren’t dead by now, we have no more leads. If they aren't in the city, then all we’ll be doing is wasting time.” Greg sighed. Fox was clearly concerned, no doubt due to the close call with Alex. He was also right.
“Are you sure there ain’t any signals from them, at all?” Fox double checked all the channels. “No, not since I gave them the orders.” Then, Greg had an idea. “Hold on, how many people know about the bunker?” Fox looked questioningly at Greg. “Besides the two of us? Not anyone that I know of. Why?” Greg looked out at the Wasteland. “Cache always said she knew how to take care of herself. I’m willing to bet either her or Mantissa have a statehouse of their own in the city. Or, at least nearby.” “And how do you know for sure?” “I don’t. But considering Ingrid is the local governor, and given this line of work, I think it’s a reasonable assumption.” Fox thought about the possibility, but still wasn’t sure. “Even if they had a safe house nearby, we have no idea where that would be.” Then Greg got another idea. “We might not, but I think I know someone who might.”
After driving into the city limits, it became very apparent that there was some sort of search going on. Black cars were everywhere, and various agents wearing black suits were everywhere. Most of the people in the streets didn’t seem to notice or care, as they kept going on as normal. Greg and Fox, however, noticed immediately.
“Well, I when I said they were probably looking for them, I didn’t realize there would be this many guys.” Greg said, as he continued to eye more and more agents. “Have they ever been like this?” “No, not that I know of.” He turned to look at Greg, who pulled out a small tranquilizer gun. Fox decided to interrupt before anything could happen. “Please, Mr. Wetzel, perhaps we should try and be a little more stealthy in our approach.” Before he could say anything else, a payphone a few feet back from where they parked rang. Greg began to move, but Fox cut him off. “Excuse me.” He said simply, and hurried to pick up the call. Greg just shrugged, and also left the car, but headed in the opposite direction.
When Fox returned, he found Greg sitting where he had been. “So, what was that about?” Greg asked. “Nothing we need to worry about right now. We should focus on finding an isolated agent, and try and figure out the best approach to interrogate them without arousing suspicion.” “Way ahead of you.” Greg said, and before Fox could ask what he meant, he noticed the figure in the backseat.
“What did you do?” Fox asked, taken aback by the sleeping agent. “What? You said we needed to find an agent, and I found one.” Fox shifted nervously, not sure how to react. “Ignoring your very forward methods, I urge you to take care around these agents, Mr. Wetzel. Lest you’ve already forgotten the trouble they gave us in the past?” “Seemed to me like they were no trouble for you.” Greg said mockingly. Fox gave him a stern look, and decided they should move on. “Regardless of how easy they were at the time, I sincerely doubt they’ll just surrender. We should get moving.”
They found a dark alley, and moved the agent there. They handcuffed him, and Greg made sure he had no weapons or means of escaping or calling for help. After a few minutes the agent woke up. He said nothing, and Greg decided to try roughing him up a bit.
“Were are they?” He said, as he shoved the agent against a wall. “Please, I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Greg chuckled, and hit the agent in the stomach. “Of course you do. We know about the warehouse, and the shootout. We also know you’re looking for the two women involved in the shootout. Just tell us what you know, and you can go.” The agent’s face changed from concerned to smug. “So, you must be the boss. Well that makes my job easier.” The agent kicked Greg back against the opposite wall. Jumping over his own hands, he rushed over to Greg, who was now on the floor, and got his weapon. Before he could fire, Greg kicked the agent’s leg, causing him to stumble and miss. Greg picked up a brick lying nearby, and hit the back of the agent’s head. The agent fell, but was still conscious. Greg pinned him to the ground, making sure that he couldn’t move at all. “I think I finally decoded the drive.” Fox said, coming into the alley, but he stopped when he saw what had happened. “Oh my, what happened here?” Greg turned his head to look at Fox, still struggling to keep the agent pinned. “Just a little disagreement.” He said, breathing heavily. “What did you find?” Fox lifted his eyebrows in disdain, and read what he had found. “According to this, all agents were given perimeter assignments. They also had to mark their findings. According to this data, a few still have yet to check back, all in the city outskirts.” “Let’s go for a little ride.” Greg said to the agent, and lifted him up.
Before they could do anything else, the agent convulsed, and fell to the floor. Greg stood stunned, not sure what had just happened. “I- I-” Fox rushed over. “What did you?” He looked down at the body, and noticed white foam at the agents mouth. “You didn’t poison him, did you?” Greg stammered. “No, I- he- It must have been a cyanide pill.” He finally said, slowly gathering his composure. “Why did he just- oh god.” He ran over to a dumpster nearby, and vomited. Several times. After he finished, he walked back to fox slowly. “Sorry, it’s just- I mean he just-” “It’s alright, Mr. Wetzel.” Fox reassured. “I know we’ve been doing this awhile, but we’ve never anything like that.” Fox, pulled Greg away from the alley. “I hate to ask this of you, Mr. Wetzel, but Ms. Cache and Ms. Mantissa still need our help.” Greg nodded, took a look back in the alley, and got in the car.
It took awhile, but eventually, they discovered an area outside the city surround by black cars. The agents were still setting up a perimeter, and had heavy weapons aimed at the building.
“Come out with the package, and we’ll let you live.” One of the agents shouted through a loudspeaker. The door opened, and an elderly man stepped outside. “We don’t know what package you want. We just want to know what-” Before the man could finish speaking, he was shot by another agent. “Now, unless the rest of you want to end up like him, we suggest you cooperate.”
Greg turned to fox, “They don’t plan on letting anyone live, do they.” “I can hear you.” Fox said. “Come on, this way.” He led Greg down the road to a sewer. “We can get in through here.” “You’re kidding me, right?” Fox lifted the cover off the manhole, “I assure you, Mr. Wetzel, that I am not. Now come on, we’d best not waste any more time.” Greg hesitated, but couldn’t see any other way than the sewer.
Fox took the lead, lighting the way with a flashlight. Greg followed close behind, weapon ready to deal with any potential agents. “It’s here.” Fox said, stopping abruptly. Greg couldn’t see anything special about the spot, all there was was the brick lining of the sewer, and a few utility lines. “Ms. Cache and Ms. Mantissa should be right on the other side of this wall.” Fox said, examining the lining for any weaknesses. “How are we supposed to get through that?” Greg asked. They hadn’t taken any explosives with them, only a few basic weapons and ammunition.
“There should be a few agents scouting the tunnels. If we can neutralize them, they should have what we need.” “I’m not even gonna ask how you know that.” They continued down the sewers a bit more, and eventually found two agents walking away from them.
“Let’s take ‘em out. You on the left, I'll go right.” Greg whispered. Fox nodded, and got in position. Greg held up his hand, and counted down: three, two, one- BLIP BLIP. The two agents fell to the ground, moaning in agony. “Sorry, just need to borrow a few things.” Greg said, as he gathered up the needed equipment. After they had everything they needed, they headed back down the way they had come.
“Are you sure this going to work?” Greg asked Fox. “If I have everything correct, then we should be able to step right into the building.” “And if you don’t?” “Then we’ll find out. Now, if you please?” Fox motioned for Greg to head around the corner, and followed suit. He pulled along the detonation wire for the C4, and took cover. “Alright, moment of truth.” Fox shot Greg a look, and said “Are you ready, Mr. Wetzel?” “Hit it.” Fox took a deep breath. “Alright, hitting the detonator in three, two, one-” The entire tunnel shook, and their ears started ringing from the blast. They both looked around the corner, and saw a cloud of dust where the explosives had been. “Alright, let’s go save our people.”
Helena tossed over the shotgun. “Sounds like their shooting people. You good to go?” Ingrid nodded, and cocked the shotgun. “Let’s go. If these bastards want to start killing people, let’s even the playing field.” “Now you’re talking my language.” Helena said with an unnerving smile, to which Ingrid frowned. “You know, you can get really creepy sometimes.” Helena shrugged, and moved towards the door.
BOOM! The wall left of the door exploded in an array of smoke and dust. Water sprayed from broken water pipes, and the two of them could see there was a tunnel behind the hole. Without saying a word, they both raised their weapons and pointed at the hole. Helena took the lead, and they waited on either side for someone to come through.
“Hold it!” Helena put the tip of her LMG against the intruder’s head, while Ingrid disarmed him. “He doesn’t look like an agent. Freelancer?” Helena nudged forward. “Who are you?” The man remained still, but answered calmly. “Unfortunately for you, Ms. Ansi, I’m your boss.” Helena huffed, and responded with great annoyance. “Yeah, right. I don’t know how you found our names, but the boss wouldn't ever come out in the field, out of the blue.”
“Actually, in this case, he would.” Greg stepped through the hole, fanning away the lingering dust clouds. “Y’know, I heard holding your boss at gunpoint is a great way to get fired.” Ingrid stood stunned, while Helena refused to lower her weapon. “Greg? What the hell do you mean? Don’t tell me he’s actually-” “He is. And right now, you need to lower the weapons, and then we need to get out of here.” Ingrid motioned to Helena, who reluctantly lowered her gun.
“So, you’re the boss.” Helena said, with a laugh. “Thought you'd be… buffer.” “What’s going on, Wetzel? Why are both of you here?” Ingrid asked. “Long story, we can talk on the way.” Fox looked around the room. “Now that we have that sorted-” He motioned to the newly created entrance, “Perhaps we should make our escape.”
“Alright, just let us gather up a few things.” Ingrid said, as she went around the room gathering various pieces of equipment. “So,” Helena asked Fox, “What prompted you to go from text on a screen to an agent in the field?” Fox turned to her with a frown, “If you and Ms. Mantissa weren’t so reluctant to receive information, perhaps you would already know. But since you asked, it would seem that our previous tactics were… lacking.” “You mean the whole thing with Alex?” Ingrid said, as she continued to bag up items. “That was part of it, yes, although there were more pressing issues prior to his… adventure.”
They’d finished gathering everything, save for one last case. “Oh right, we’d better not forget these.” Ingrid gave Greg the case, taking particular care. “Be careful with that. Alright, let’s go.” “What about the people upstairs?” Helena asked. Greg looked at Fox, unsure himself. “That blast will have told them exactly where we are. They won’t have a reason to harm anyone else, all the reason we should get going.” Ingrid looked at Helena, and then at Greg and Fox. “Alright, let’s go.”
They managed to get out of the sewers without much incident, only the occasional whine from Helena about her fur. They managed to successfully sneak back to the car, which barely managed to fit all of them and the gear. Over several hours they made their way back to the safe house in the woods.
“Not very roomy.” Helena remarked, stepping into the small bunker. She put down the bags down in the already cramped space. Ingrid followed suit, but placed the case right over the keyboard of the computer station. “Ms. Mantissa, could you please-” “Just trust me, you’re going to want to see this.” She motioned everyone over. “We were going to try to get Greg or Jessica to take a look at these, but now that you’re here, maybe you’ll have better luck-” She opened the case, letting everyone see what was inside.
“Oh my.” Fox said, leaning his side against the wall. “They just look like shiny metal pieces.” Greg said, unable to grasp the severity of the situation. Fox turned to Greg. “Mr. Wetzel, these are not just any metal fragments. These are antediluvian in origin.” “Wait, you mean like those old metal structures that are scattered around?” “Yes, only they appear to still be intact. Where did you get these?” He asked them, slightly out of breath due to the revelation.
“Grabbed them from an antediluvian structure at the co-ords that you gave us. Looked like it was being dug up.” Fox sat down in the chair. “Well, that would explain what we saw.” “What?” Helena asked. Greg took over for Fox. “We found a warehouse, looked like whatever had been inside was buried. Looked like it was left in a hurry.” Fox realized what their current situation was. “Then it would appear that you two found what they were searching for.” “And now they want it back.” Greg finished. “No wonder you guys have a whole army after you.” “Yeah, well, what do we do now?” Helena asked.
Fox studied one of the artifacts carefully, looking it over. “At the moment, we need to determine whether they know who you are, or where we’re located. After we are all secure, we can begin trying to determine the nature of these fragments. In the meantime, there’s another matter I must attend to.” “So you’re just leaving us?” Helena asked. “I won’t be long. Just- try not to get into any more trouble.” Fox stepped outside, leaving the other three inside.
“Never would have imagined that the boss would be like that.” Helena remarked, after the door had closed. “You’ll get used to it.” Greg responded. “He may know how to shoot, but I get the feeling he’s not exactly the fightin’ type, if y’know what I mean.” Ingrid frowned. “It would explain his insistence on letting everyone live. Not that I’m complaining. But what does he get out of all this?” “Maybe he finds it fun?” Helena asked. Greg looked at the various computer monitors. “Whatever the reason, I have a feeling he’s not going to share. We’d best keep our guard up for now.”
As the sun set, Jessica looked out the window. Alex joined her. “How are you holding up. Really?” She asked him. With the others gone, she had disabled the security on his cell. Alex looked out, a solemn look in his eyes. “Have you heard anything?” “No. And you didn’t answer the question.” Alex sighed, and put his head down. “Better. But I can still see them. Everyone. It was easier to block them out before, but now that I have something to care about…” He trailed off, looking down at his feet. Jessica put a hand on his arm. They weren’t exactly dating (going out for diner certainly wasn't an option), but they had been talking a lot more. Occasionally, Gabriel would pop in, though he was very careful around Alex.
“It doesn’t matter what happened in the past, what’s important is what you do-” She was interrupted by the living room phone. “Duty calls.” Jessica said, getting up off the railing. “Julia Aum, how can I help you?” “I see you took my advice on the false identity.” Jessica gave a short laugh. “So, Fox, you just checking up? Or- did you find them?” “As a matter of fact, we did, but that’s not why I'm calling. We have another number.” “You’re kidding.” Jessica said, somewhat aggressively. “I thought you were looking for the headquarters of those agent- guys?” “Yes well, it would appear someone else needs our help. Or, rather in this case, your help. I’ve sent the relevant information to your data pad. We should be done here pretty soon, as soon as we are, we shall return to assist you.” “Got it. Anything else?” “Just, one more thing. How goes your progress with Mr. Baud?” Jessica hesitated before answering. “Fine. Just… fine. He seems better now, if that’s what you’re asking.” There was a pause, “That’ll be all for now, Ms. Ansi. Take care.” The line went dead before Jessica could say anything else.
“What is it?” Alex asked. “Another number. Seems like we’re done relaxing.” “Are you going to need help?” “I don’t think so. Gabriel should be able to help if anything happens. Probably best for you to get a bit better before you come on missions again, don’t you think?” Alex said nothing, instead moving towards his cell. “I’ll see you in the morning.” “Yeah.” Jessica said. She went into her own room, and sat on the bed. She held her data pad, but left it off. She knew she was probably being paranoid, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that something big was on the horizon. What she didn’t know. All she knew was someone else needed their help. No matter what else was happening.