Ground of oam oams cry, p.44
Ground of Oam (Oam's Cry), page 44
“I’m in the alley behind the house,” Isaac said through the com.
“I’m right out front,” Relphilik replied, from his position. Isaac looked around but didn’t see him.
“Where? I don’t see you,” Isaac said.
“I’m the one heading up to the front door right now,” the Rebirtha replied.
Isaac looked again and this time saw him. He had changed uniforms from a soldier to a postman. He wore a blue pair of pants with a blue, short-sleeve shirt. The blue cap that he wore matched with the postman uniform, and he carried a small brown box in his hands keeping his head low. The Rebirtha didn’t look dangerous, but Isaac knew that he had a gun on him.
Relphilik was most definitely playing a dangerous role. He was a Rebirtha and even though he was not covered in hideous scars, someone could still recognize him as not being human if they got a good look.
“Okay, I see you now,” Isaac said, before making his way into the backyard. His Bioskin’s muscles were tense, and he hoped that none of the family would get hurt.
“Play it carefully guys, we cannot afford to make a mistake here,” Shorkmeth said through the com.
“If you do make a mistake though,” William added, “and this plan falls apart, you can expect me to take over this mission and do it my way.”
Not paying any attention to William’s comment, Isaac made his way to the glass sliding doors behind the house. Peering in, he didn’t see anyone, but could hear commotion. Then the doorbell rang.
“I’ll get it,” a man’s voice called out from inside the house.
Isaac watched as John appeared out of one of the halls and headed for the front door. He disappeared behind another wall which gave Isaac his chance. Grabbing the locked door handle, Isaac wrenched the door violently, breaking the lock with ease. He quietly opened it and stepped in.
It was the dining room that Isaac found himself in. A square, brown table was in the center of the room with four chairs around it. Beyond this room was the living room which Isaac could only see half of. The rest of it disappeared behind a wall while the kitchen was to the right of the dining room, hidden from his view by another wall. Isaac could hear someone cooking in there.
Hoping that no one had heard him snap the lock on the door he got up against the wall in front of the kitchen to ensure that he wouldn’t be seen. He heard the front door open and a quick exchange of “hellos” before it went silent. Isaac could only imagine what was happening.
Then, taking Isaac by surprise, the wife walked out of the kitchen into the dining room. She had dark skin with black curly hair and she was wearing blue jeans with a red sweater. Isaac immediately pressed himself up against the wall, and luckily the wife took a sharp right turn to the living room not noticing him behind her.
John Mandy turned the corner around the living room wall in front of his wife looking like a stiff board. He was followed by Relphilik who held a gun up to his back which the wife caught sight of when they turned the corner. John gave another look of horror when he saw Isaac behind his wife, and before anything else was done John’s wife let out a shrill scream.
Reacting as fast as possible Isaac dashed forward putting his hand over her mouth muffling her scream. She tried to break free from his grasp but his Bioskin held like steel keeping her restrained.
“Get down and be quiet!” Relphilik demanded, pushing the husband down on the floor. “Restrain her.”
Isaac did as he was told and grabbed a chair putting it in front of him while still holding onto the wife. Relphilik tossed the box onto the table, and held his gun toward the husband.
“I said quiet,” the Rebirtha growled, as they whimpered out of fear.
Isaac quickly grabbed some duct tape from the box, and taped the wife’s hands together behind the chair. When she was restrained, Relphilik took off down one of the halls to find the daughter who was probably well aware that something bad was happening.
With him gone, Isaac pulled out his handgun from his holster and pointed it at John. He didn’t know if he would be able to use it on them, but the presence of it alone would keep them silent.
“There is no reason to be afraid,” Isaac spoke. “As long as you do as we say no one will get hurt.”
“What do you want?” John pleaded for an answer.
Before Isaac could answer, the muffled screams of the daughter were heard from another room. The looks of horror grew stronger when the child’s parents heard it.
“What are you doing to her?” the woman exclaimed in fear.
Ignoring the question Isaac grabbed another chair and set it next to the woman’s just as Relphilik reappeared with the daughter in his arms, covering her mouth.
Grabbing some more tape, Isaac restrained her to the next chair taping her mouth shut to silence her. He didn’t feel good about what he was doing, but he went along with it.
“Okay, I am going to be very clear here,” Relphilik said, while removing the cap that he was wearing. “We have a certain job for you to do. As long as you do as we say, no one will get hurt.”
The parents went silent for a while when they got a better look at the Rebirtha.
“What are you?” the wife asked, with a hint of fear in her voice.
“He’s a Rebirtha,” Isaac answered for him.
Gasps of surprise and fear came from them when they heard it.
He continued, “So you know that this is serious. Do as we say, and everything will go well for you.”
The Mandys said nothing to this. Relphilik radioed to the others saying, “The family is secured.”
“Then, Isaac, you know what to do next,” Shorkmeth replied, from the other end. Isaac glanced up to Relphilik when he heard it.
“Mr. John Mandy,” the Rebirtha said. “My friend here has an errand to run, and after he is finished you will be getting a call from Tregger Woodshaw. He will tell you that Peter Scolles has been hospitalized.”
Isaac had learned of Peter on the day when they were debriefed. The Bionine facility there had their men in every vital organization belonging to Ambern including the military. They were the ones keeping the town alive, so everything was run by them in some indirect way. If not ran by them, then they had a great amount of influence.
Peter Scolles was the man that oversaw everything that went on in the military for Bionine. He was not directly in charge of them, but had a lot of sway there. Shorkmeth’s plan was to take him out of the picture and replace him with someone else. In this case it was William Swile.
“Tregger will then ask you to put someone else in his place temporarily, because the choice goes to you. You will then tell him that you are sending this man here to be the replacement for Peter.” Relphilik grabbed a file from under his light jacket that he was wearing, and showed it to John. There was a picture of William in it with an alias name and description. “You will convince him that this man has been working for you for a while, and that he is the man for the job. Do you understand?”
“I’ll do whatever you want, just don’t hurt my family.” John begged.
Looking up to Isaac, Relphilik nodded his head telling him to go. Reluctantly Isaac turned to the back door that he had come in through. He still dreaded the next part, but not nearly as bad as what he had just done. He was going to have to hospitalize Peter Scolles now. This didn’t bother him as much however because from what he had experienced in the past most Bionine employees were never what they seemed to be. Even John Mandy probably had things about him that would land him in prison if anyone knew about them, but it was his family that Isaac felt sorry for.
Making his way back to the alley, Isaac started toward Main Street. Once again, according to Shorkmeth, most people there in town had routines that they rarely broke. If all went well then Peter would be at one of the diners in town for lunch. It took about ten minutes before Isaac reached the busy street crowded with locals and merchants from other forts.
Pushing his way through the crowded sidewalks, past shouting merchants who wanted people to look at their products, Isaac made it to the diner. Turning right, he entered inside to see it crowded with people both sitting and standing. The aroma of freshly cooked foods filled the place; he heard loud voices from the conversations taking place inside the crowded diner.
Looking around the place, Isaac caught sight of the man he was looking for. He recognized his profile from the debriefing pictures. The man sat in a booth on the far wall by himself, and he was fully dressed in the green-camo military uniform. Peter was around his late thirties already with white hair that was buzzed short. He was in decent shape and would have been intimidating looking to anyone in that room except Isaac. After living for so long with the Bioskin it was hard to find any normal human being that could intimidate you, because there was rarely anything that could face you without being crippled in the process.
Moving over to the booth, Isaac quickly slid himself on the seat opposite the man while asking, “Is anyone sitting here?”
Peter looked up from the plate in front of him with a look of surprise and irritation. It was obvious that he wasn’t a people person. “It looks like you are now,” Peter replied suspiciously. “I don’t believe I have ever seen you before, what is your name, soldier?”
“The name’s Isaac. I won’t bother telling you my last name, and the reason you haven’t ever seen me before is because this is my first time in town.” Isaac pulled his pistol from his side holster, pointing it at the man while keeping it hidden under the table. Cocking the gun, Isaac let Peter know that it was there. A look of surprise appeared on the man’s face when he heard it.
“What is this?” Peter asked. “Who are you?”
“You already know my name, but the truth is that the town has been infiltrated by Rebirtha soldiers. I’m here with them.”
Peter didn’t say anything back, unsure if this was some kind of sick joke or was for real. He slowly began to sit back in the booth, removing his hands from the top of the table.
“No, no, no,” Isaac said quickly.
Peter froze.
“Keep your hands on top of the table. I know about the gun you have on you.”
“What do you want?” Peter asked, knowing for sure that it was no joke.
Looking down at the small glass of water in front of the man, Isaac grabbed something from the pocket in his jacket. Bringing it up, Peter could see that it was a white pill of some kind. Shorkmeth had given it to Isaac for this moment in the plan.
Putting it into the glass of water that had not yet been drunken from, it began to dissolve. Peter looked down at it suspiciously and a hint of worry showed on his face.
Sliding the glass closer to the man Isaac explained what he wanted. “Drink all of it.”
“What is it?”
“It’s poison, but nothing that will kill you. It will only make you very sick, putting you in the hospital for a while. You probably won’t be able to communicate with anyone for a little while, but you will recover eventually.”
“I’m not drinking poison,” Peter said with a nervous laugh.
“The poison won’t kill you, only I can do that right now,” Isaac replied.
“You’re going to shoot me if I don’t? With all these people around?”
“Actually, I could kill you in a much quieter way, but even if I did shoot you, it’s your life we’re talking about here. You would be dead either way.” Isaac based his answer on the assumption that Peter cared only about himself. He could only hope that his assumption was correct. If not, then he would have to convince the man that he was something much more than a human or Rebirtha.
Staring hard into Isaac’s eyes, Peter gave in. He grabbed the glass and gulped it down. Putting it back on the table, Isaac holstered his gun. Now all he had to do was make sure the man would fall.
“The poison will take effect in a couple minutes,” Isaac said. “I will be watching until it does, so don’t do anything stupid.” With that Isaac got up from the booth and looked over to a table that was empty. In his glance, he caught the eye of a soldier in another booth on the other end of the room. The soldier looked at him suspiciously, but quickly looked away when he saw that Isaac saw him.
Ignoring it, Isaac moved to the empty table and took a seat keeping his eye on Peter who looked tense. The man glanced over to Isaac with a nervous expression. It was only a little over a minute before Peter put his hand up to his chest showing signs of pain. Isaac watched for another ten seconds before the man began to convulse as if he was having a seizure of some kind. Peter quickly tried to stand up, but fell over on the floor, convulsing even more violently. The people in the next table over stood up in surprise when they saw it.
“Get a doctor!” someone in the crowd shouted.
Looking away, Isaac spoke through his com, “Peter is down.”
“Good, make your way back to Relphilik,” came the reply from Shorkmeth.
“I guess I’ll start heading back to the military camp.” William said. “Kind of a nuisance considering we just came from that direction.”
“Let’s just make this flawless,” Shorkmeth replied. “Tregger should be calling the Mandys any moment now.”
Isaac stood up from the table as people hurried over to help Peter. He started to make his way to the exit through the confused crowd.
Stepping outside, Isaac heard a voice call out to him from behind, “Stop!” Ignoring it he moved on before the voice called out again.
“Hey you, stop right there,” the voice said, as a hand grabbed the back of Isaac’s shoulder. Isaac swung around and grabbed the man’s hand off of him. It was the soldier who had been watching him with Peter.
Isaac had been noticed and he didn’t have time to stick around. With a tight squeeze of the hand Isaac crushed the soldier’s hand slightly, breaking a few bones. The man’s eye’s filled with pain as he yelled before Isaac swung him to the ground. A cloud of dust was aroused from the dusty sidewalk when the soldier hit the ground, grasping his hand in pain. Isaac then turned to get away from there, but nearly stumbled into someone as he was getting ready to move. The man looked young, and stared at Isaac not sure what to think.
“Excuse me,” Isaac said, as he quickly stepped past him. He couldn’t afford to beat up everyone who slowed him down. He may have already made a mistake by crushing the one soldier’s hand.
Isaac felt better the farther he got from the diner and out of sight. He made sure that no one was following as he headed back to the Mandy residence. It was only another ten minutes before he reached it; he went through the back gate into the yard and headed toward the glass door. The gray curtains had been pulled closed behind it.
The phone rang just as he was about to enter. If it was Tregger Woodshaw on the other end then Isaac would be surprised that word had reached him so soon. Stepping in he found the mother and daughter still restrained where he had left them. Relphilik gave a quick glance at him when he came in, but turned his attention back to the father while holding a gun to his back.
“Answer it,” the Rebirtha ordered. John looked nervous, but went to the phone on the kitchen counter.
Picking it up, he said “hello” in an uneasy tone. There was a short moment of silence as whoever was on the other end spoke. “Oh, hey Tregger, yeah, I’m all right.” John looked toward Isaac as he spoke. “No, I’m perfectly fine. I just got done running, so that might be why I sound strange.” Tregger spoke some more on the other end. Isaac couldn’t hear what he was saying. “Yeah, I just started running today. I figured that it would be good if I got some exercise.” More silence. “It did feel good actually.”
Isaac nearly let out a sigh hearing it. He just wanted the thing to be over with, but it sounded as if Tregger was just making small talk instead of getting to the point. Relphilik had a look of agitation on his face as well.
“Oh yes, I just heard about Peter,” John said. “I don’t know what happened exactly, but the doctors should have it figured out soon. I’ve already sent someone to replace him.” Silence filled the room again. “Was it fast? Well, I guess word spreads fast in a small town, but yeah, someone’s already on the way.” Another pause. “His name is Kaiden Thorn.” It was the name of William’s alias. “He does a lot of work for me out of town, but I’m sure you have seen him before. Oh really, what for? Well, okay, I guess you’ll probably see him down there then. Okay, yes, Tregger. You have a good day as well, goodbye.”
John hung the phone up. “Tregger has a meeting with the generals at camp. He’s going to make an effort to meet the man you had me tell him about.”
“What is the meeting for?” Relphilik demanded.
“He said he didn’t know what it was about,” John replied, glancing nervously between Isaac and the Rebirtha.
Relphilik quickly spoke through the com. “Shorkmeth, we just got news that Tregger Woodshaw is heading to the camp.”
“Okay, everything will be fine, as long as William maintains a good cover,” Shorkmeth replied.
“You don’t have to worry about me,” William said through the com. “I can take care of myself.”
“I’m sure you can,” Shorkmeth replied.
Normally, Isaac would have made a cutting remark to William, but he wasn’t in the position to do so. There was a time and a place for everything, and this wasn’t it.
The rest of the day seemed tense, as well as dull. Nothing really happened while all their players had been set in place. The strike would take place early the next morning which would be a long wait for them. Isaac felt uncomfortable with the plan. It was complex and many things could go wrong.
They had John Mandy in their control, and the idea was to send him into work early the next day. He would head down to the facility’s ventilation room where he would release a gaseous poison that they would give him. No one would die from it as long as they got quick medical attention, but it would knock a lot of the people out, and cause the computer system to lock the place down as soon as the sensors picked it up. It would be then that a rescue operation would have to be initiated, and because all the hazmat suits and supplies were at the military base camp, William Swile would be directing the operation.
