Exile

  Helix: Episode 2 (Exile)

  Nathan M Farrugia

  Anomaly Press

  Contents

  About Helix: Episode 2 (Exile)

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Special offers

  About Helix: Episode 3 (Interceptor)

  By Nathan M. Farrugia

  About Nathan M. Farrugia

  Credits

  About Helix: Episode 2 (Exile)

  Covert operatives are disappearing, and nobody knows why.

  * * *

  But Olesya will put everything on the line to find out. After narrowly escaping a subway explosion she was assigned to prevent, she is too late to stop unknown assailants kidnapping her best friend.

  * * *

  Forced away from her hunt by the Directorate, Olesya is exiled to the frozen borderlands of Kaliningrad, where she discovers a new and deadly threat that could destroy them all.

  * * *

  This is the second episode in the new USA Today bestselling series of cyberpunk thrillers by Australian ex-recon soldier Nathan M. Farrugia. Do you like conspiracies and genetically-enhanced operatives? You’ll love this action-packed cross between Jason Bourne and Altered Carbon. Find out why readers are calling it “the most addictive action series” they’ve read.

  Chapter One

  Six years ago

  Location: Classified

  The door to the control room hissed open, revealing three enemy soldiers in mid-rescue. Damien sighted his first target, a masked soldier. The soldier, standing in front of the captive they were attempting to rescue, turned quickly to shoot Damien.

  Damien was quicker. He shot him and kept moving. Jay was behind him, moving and firing in tandem. Jay dropped a second soldier and Damien dropped a third. A moment later, their squad leader entered the control room and lowered her pistol.

  ‘Three down,’ Sophia said.

  Her helmet concealed most of her dark brown hair, but her gray eyes were visible through her goggles. They sent shivers through some, but reminded Damien of marbles.

  Sophia ignored the soldiers lying on the floor. Her attention was on the captive soldier they’d attempted to rescue. She sat calmly in a chair, her hands bound behind her back.

  Sophia shot her in the chest.

  Damien’s eyes widened. ‘What was that for?’

  Sophia said nothing as the soldier slipped from her chair, her arms free and a pistol concealed in one hand. ‘The idea is you don’t get shot.’

  He stared at the pistol. ‘We almost fell for that.’

  Denton, the Project GATE director, was already standing in the doorway. Fluorescent light curved over his shaved head. ‘Reset and swap.’ He paused, then spoke into his handheld radio. ‘Give Helldiver some reinforcements.’ With that, he walked out.

  The Helldiver Squad soldiers climbed back to their feet, recovering slowly from the electro-rounds. Their leader, Nasira, removed her helmet with a growl.

  Jay whistled. ‘Guess that’s a failed rescue.’

  ‘You’ll be a failed rescue in a minute.’ Nasira shouldered him on the way out. ‘Let’s see how far your Firebird Squad gets this time.’

  After the Russian and Chinese recruits were withdrawn from Project GATE—rumors suggested they were disqualified for treason—Damien had noticed smaller squads everywhere. At that time, there were only four modestly sized squads in Special Operations Training, and his was one of them. The instructors still referred to them as recruits, which annoyed him.

  He still didn’t know what GATE stood for, but he knew his scholarship was part of it. He’d been told to expect military training, but he hadn’t expected anything like this. Everyone here had come from around the world; gifted children with special genes, who Denton had carefully tested and selected. Damien’s test results had come back with a green star and a gold star. The green star was for outstanding results. The gold star was for genetics.

  The gold star got you into Project GATE.

  As Damien’s squad approached the end of their Special Operations Training, Denton merged the four squads into two: Firebird and Helldiver. The rest of Project GATE’s squads were months behind schedule, still working through Combat Training; all the while newly minted squads channeled recruits through the Education Module. Denton’s plan to train recruits wasn’t a one-off project, it was just the beginning. That’s what he kept telling them at their monthly briefings.

  All of this was leading to something big, Damien could feel it. Sure, once he completed the training he could visit his family for the first time in years—and he missed them terribly, especially his mother and his dog, Primo—but then their career would begin, and with that came options. His skin prickled at the thought. What lay in store for him?

  Not much, if he failed to qualify.

  Now that the Russian recruits, Ark, Val and Olesya, were disqualified from Firebird, Jay had hoped for a promotion to squad leader. He wasn’t impressed when Denton promoted some recruit they’d never heard of: Sophia.

  Now he and Jay stood with Sophia in the loading zone. This time, they were the rescue party. Damien’s hand twitched over his holster. He couldn’t screw this up.

  There were no windows in the loading zone, just three scratched gray walls and a blast door fringed with yellow and black caution stripes. There was a flashing red light and a speaker on either side of the door. Damien ignored the red light. Above it were security cameras with wide lenses and a jeweled cluster of infrared sensors. Standing on a catwalk above them, Denton. He watched them, probably waiting for Damien to screw up. Damien’s fingers trembled, so he curled them into fists.

  Jay tapped Sophia on the shoulder. ‘What’s the go?’ he said through his mask. ‘You’re supposed to be our leader.’

  Sophia adjusted her protective goggles. The red lights flashed in silence, making her pale eyes dark and her brown hair darker.

  ‘How many are we up against?’ Damien asked.

  ‘We don’t know. I’ll go in the room alone,’ Sophia said, her voice muffled by her mask.

  Damien didn’t know whether to relax or freak out.

  Jay’s eyes looked ready to pop. ‘What?’

  ‘Otherwise they’ll seal us all inside,’ she said. ‘And then we lose.’

  The speakers made their customary boop sound. Damien’s pulse raced. On the third boop, he drew his compact pistol.

  The doors opened. Damien and Jay closed on Sophia’s shoulders. Damien checked again for the access card in his pocket. They’d need it to enter the room and rescue the detained Firebird recruit. He was breathing too fast, he had to slow it down.

  ‘If they seal me in the room,’ Sophia said, ‘count to ten and open the door again.’

  They didn’t have time to argue, Sophia was already moving down the corridor. Damien kept on her shoulder until she turned left into the next corridor. He stacked behind her, and Jay behind him. In single file, they moved for the control room.

  Damien took up position on one side of the door, Jay on the other. Sophia stood between and gave Damien a nod. He pressed the access card against the reader. It blinked green and the door slid upward.

  Sophia fired, sidestepped.

  ‘I’m counting at least four!’ she yelled over the pop of gunfire.

  Electro-rounds filled the air between them and snickered off the corridor wall.

  Jay returned fire. ‘Make that three.’
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  Damien expected the Helldivers to wait until they’d rescued their prisoner, but they played their hand early.

  Sophia was already adjusting to the situation. ‘Close the door. Now!’

  Damien gripped the access card, his hand damp with sweat. He pressed it against the reader. The door slid back down. Sophia knelt in the corridor and leaned forward, her helmet to the ground.

  ‘Jay, stay where you are. Shoot anything in your arc,’ she said.

  ‘With pleasure.’

  ‘Open the door,’ she said.

  ‘Are you sure?’ Damien asked.

  She glared at him. He opened the door.

  As it slid upward, Sophia was already firing from her low position.

  More Helldivers appeared at the end of the corridor.

  ‘Behind us!’ Damien yelled, opening fire.

  The Helldivers took positions on either corner, avoiding his shots.

  ‘On me!’ Sophia yelled.

  Jay was behind her, so Damien stacked behind them, his pistol trained at the end of the corridor. Quickly and aggressively, they moved inside. Rounds cracked behind Damien from the soldiers outside, narrowly missing him. Mid-step, he swapped hands to take aim inside the control room. By then, Sophia and Jay had taken out three more Helldiver soldiers with their electro-rounds. They shuddered on the floor around them.

  Damien closed the door with his access card. ‘How many are we supposed to be fighting here?’

  ‘As many as Denton wants us to.’ Sophia marched to their own prisoner, Xiu.

  Xiu was tied to a chair, mouth covered with duct tape. Jay ripped it off her legs and then her face.

  ‘Ow.’ Xiu kicked him and almost knocked him over.

  ‘Guys, watch the door.’ Sophia moved behind Xiu and worked a flat piece of metal into her plasticuffs, then cut the duct tape from her wrists.

  The Helldivers on the floor could do nothing except remain there. Their pistols were disabled and as per the rules, they were to remain in position until the exercise finished. Damien checked each of them carefully, making sure their pistols all had red LEDs—disabled from combat.

  Damien heard the door click. The red light on the card reader started to blink.

  ‘I’m guessing that’s not a door malfunction,’ Jay said.

  ‘Locked remotely.’ Damien took a step toward it. ‘I could try my card again.’

  ‘No.’ Sophia removed her blue vest and reached for one of the Helldiver’s purple vests, pulling it over his helmet. In an instant, she was Helldiver.

  Jay went for the nearest Helldiver while Damien kept his pistol trained on the sealed door. Sophia tossed a purple vest in his direction. He caught it and, keeping a hand on his pistol at all times, pulled it on. Xiu was wearing a Helldiver vest too. With their faces still concealed by masks and goggles—no one was the wiser.

  Sophia nodded to Damien, so he tried his access card. The door flashed red.

  Denton was testing them.

  ‘Now what?’ he asked.

  ‘We play dead,’ she said.

  ‘They’re gonna talk, you know.’ Jay jabbed his thumb at the Helldivers sitting on the ground. ‘We should tape them up.’

  Sophia looked at him. ‘Good idea.’

  Jay grinned and retrieved the duct tape they’d taken from Xiu’s mouth and wrists. He sliced both pieces in half and used them to tape the Helldivers’ mouths shut, then put their masks back on. They could mumble, but they couldn’t talk very well.

  Just in time too; Damien heard an access card being swiped. Sophia gave a hand signal. All four of them dropped to the ground as though they’d been shot.

  The door slid upward.

  ‘What the hell?’ Nasira said.

  Before she could ask where Firebird were, Sophia pointed north, down the corridor.

  ‘They took eight of you down? So much for reinforcements.’ Nasira turned to the other Helldivers. ‘Go! Go!’

  Damien counted just three of them. They hurried back into the corridor, their boots taking them in the direction Sophia had pointed.

  Xiu was on her feet. ‘Nice trick, but you just sent them in the direction we need to escape.’

  ‘It’s the only direction they’ll believe. We’re not exactly swimming in options here.’

  Damien, Jay and Xiu followed Sophia out of the control room and in the direction of Nasira’s team. A corridor took them right and down into a stairwell. They stacked on Sophia and she took them to an underground parking lot. It was empty. The only exit was up a ramp and into open ground. It was a great place to get shot.

  Beyond that, a forest. And just inside the forest, a perimeter with two beacons. To complete the exercise they would need to make it through those beacons.

  ‘Their best strategy now is to wait for us in the forest,’ Xiu said.

  Damien nodded. ‘And hit us from there.’

  ‘We’ve taken out most of their team, they only have three left.’ Jay shrugged. ‘We could use Xiu as a shield and blast our way to the beacons.’ He turned to Xiu. ‘No offense.’

  ‘Xiu is our objective, that’s a dumb idea,’ Sophia said.

  ‘Fine, use me as a shield,’ Jay said.

  Sophia chewed her lip. ‘How about making a break for it? By yourself.’

  ‘I was joking.’ Jay sighed. ‘You’re going to get me shot, aren’t you?’

  ‘It’s what you wanted,’ Xiu said. ‘And since you’re going, can I use your pistol?’

  Jay gripped his weapon. ‘Not a chance. If I’m doing this, I’ll need it.’

  ‘He’s right,’ Sophia said. ‘If he’s going out there unarmed, Nasira will smell a rat. Then she’ll just dig in and wait us out.’

  Jay frowned. ‘If I get shot, it’s your fault.’

  ‘I’m comfortable with that.’

  He holstered his pistol. ‘Tell me what to do.’

  Jay hit the ramp at full speed, pistol in hand. He shunted all his energy into both legs and made for the forest. He wanted to get close enough so he could at least get a shot. Even if he could take one of them down, he’d be satisfied.

  He sprinted across the open ground. Ahead of him, the gray sky bled color from the forest. The beacons were deep inside the trees. He watched the brush and tree trunks for movement, deciding where he would place his own three soldiers if he were setting the ambush.

  He lined his pistol on a patch of foliage and slowed his pace, giving him finer control over his aim. There: a purple vest. But he was still too far away for an accurate shot. Instead, he swapped hands and checked the other side. The other two Helldivers. He recognized Nasira and another Helldiver trying to hide in the undergrowth. They saw him too.

  Jay dived and hit the ground on his side. Before they could fix their aim, he fired his pistol through the undergrowth at the other Helldiver. Then he shifted his aim to Nasira—

  An electric current jolted through him.

  He fell onto his back, his muscles contracting. Gray sky and treetops. The current stopped and his limbs relaxed.

  ‘That went well,’ Jay said.

  He heard another Helldiver, Loren, curse to herself. At least he’d taken her out with him.

  Tilting his head back, he met Nasira’s gaze. She was behind him, lying on her stomach. She wasn’t wearing her vest at all, she’d placed it to one side as a decoy.

  With a wry grin, she tapped the end of her barrel on his helmet. It made an annoying clonking sound.

  Jay groaned. ‘Why are you doing that?’

  ‘This is my applause. My tiny applause for your tiny performance.’

  The other Helldiver, Tetsuya, was still operational. He crouched near a tree and waited.

  ‘And this is why you should wear your vest,’ Jay said.

  He arched his back, drew Damien’s pistol from where it was tucked into his waistband, and fired into Nasira’s armpit. She roared in pain. Jay arched some more, aimed at Tetsuya and fired again. Tetsuya rolled clear. Jay’s electro-round struck a nearby tree.
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  Nasira elbowed his arm, knocking his aim off.

  ‘You’re not playing by the rules.’ She leapt on top of him and pinned his arms to the ground. Tetsuya grabbed his wrist and wrestled the pistol from him.

  ‘Yeah, well you know me and rules.’ Jay grinned.

  ‘Here’s a rule for you.’ She stood over him and fired Damien’s pistol into his vest.

  The electric shock rippled through him. He slobbered inside his mask and Nasira laughed. She sat back down on him again, her knees in his armpits. Her russet skin was shiny with sweat, and a single ringlet of hair brushed against her visor.

  ‘Nice try, though,’ she said.

  The forest around them cracked with electro-rounds. Tetsuya returned fire, but was hit. He spasmed to the forest floor. Nasira lurched forward on top of Jay. An electric current surged through her, courtesy of Sophia’s pistol. But then it surged through him, too. He lay under her, his body rigid as the current numbed his fingertips. Their goggles clinked and finally the current stopped.

  Jay drew breath again. ‘I don’t care. That was still worth it.’

  Nasira exhaled, fogging her goggles. ‘I hate you.’

  Sophia sprinted past them, through the beacons. Xiu and Damien were a few steps behind. They made it.

  Nasira winced, lifting herself off him.

  ‘Was it good for you too?’ Jay asked.

  She ignored him and walked off.

  ‘How did Firebird Squad survive that last exercise?’ Denton asked.

  He walked the floor of the dimly lit debriefing room at a crisp pace. The room, temperature controlled to keep everyone cold and awake, smelt of stale carpet. All of the Firebird and Helldiver recruits sat in the front row, holding standard-issue pens and notebooks. Sophia didn’t really know how to explain their survival. She did what she had to for Firebird Squad, it was as simple as that. But that wasn’t really an answer. Not one Denton would accept.