![\"YY\"](\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.benjamincheah.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/YY.png?resize=576%2C1024&ssl=1\")
<\/h1>\n<\/h1>\nThe team reconvened at their secondary rally point. Hartsock National Park, a thin strip of green that bifurcated Cape Rockaway, an arm of land that jutted out into Babylon Bay and gently curled back like a horn. Located in the shadow of Babylon International Airport, aircraft screeched overhead at regular intervals.<\/p>\n
From here, the team had many options. Strike north to the airport and catch a flight out of Nova Babylonia. Follow the coastline south to Riveria. Hop over to one of the many islands and sandbars dotting the bay. Fly across the waters and disappear into the urban sprawl of Babylon, or head in the opposite direction for Moreno Island. They could get back into the fight or disappear forever.<\/p>\n
But for now, they gathered by the beach and stared out into the waters.<\/p>\n
The Black Watch had come through more or less intact. Connor sported a torn sleeve, and a thin line of blood cut across Wood\u2019s left cheek, Fox had scraped a couple of patches of skin during her mad rushes, but otherwise they were well. Even so, they reeked of death and gunpowder, the odor cutting out the cold briny scent of the sea.<\/p>\n
Except Tan.<\/p>\n
\u201cThanks guys,\u201d Zen croaked. \u201cYou really pulled me out of the pits.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAll in a day\u2019s work,\u201d Connor said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAre you okay?\u201d Fox asked.<\/p>\n
He patted himself down. Face and neck, chest and belly, arms and legs.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, yeah. I\u2019m\u2026 I\u2019m good.\u201d<\/p>\n
He didn\u2019t look good. He sat hunched over on the sand, feet flat on the ground, his body tense, caught between wanting to curl up into a ball and remaining ready for action. His arms were crossed over his knees, his chin resting on his forearms. It was too dark to tell the expression on his face, but she knew it wasn\u2019t anything good.<\/p>\n
Fox sat next to him. The rest of the men backed away, giving them room.<\/p>\n
\u201cAre you sure<\/em> you\u2019re okay?\u201d she probed.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m\u2026 fuck. I\u2019m okay. They didn\u2019t\u2026 they didn\u2019t touch me. Not exactly.\u201d He shook his head. \u201cHow about you? The guys said you drew away a shitload of Seekers. I heard the shooting while we were running for cover.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey were lousy shots. They didn\u2019t even come close.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd you gave \u2018em hell, eh?\u201d<\/p>\n She heard the smile in his voice. Progress.<\/p>\n \u201cWe showed them what it\u2019s like to be on the wrong side of the sights.\u201d<\/p>\n He chuckled. And, just as suddenly, faded in a sullen silence.<\/p>\n The sea crashed into the beach. Insects chirped. A plane whooshed overhead, navigational lights blinking, descending for Babylon International. Fox waited until the air cleared.<\/p>\n \u201cDo you want to talk about what happened earlier?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2026\u201d He sighed. \u201cThey tracked me down to my safe house. I don\u2019t know how they did it. One minute I was working on my computer, the next, a tactical team blew through the windows.<\/p>\n \u201cThey identified themselves as SWAT. They had the uniforms and the weapons right. I\u2026 I hesitated. For a moment. Long enough for them to haul me away, pat me down, cuff me.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDid you do anything?\u201d<\/p>\n He shook his head vigorously. \u201cI know the drill. Shut up, comply, and once you\u2019re at the station, start making phone calls. No sense escalating a tense situation, right? Except that they didn\u2019t <\/em>take me to the station.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey took you to Fortune City.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYeah. They threw a detention hood over my head. Right there I realized that maybe they weren\u2019t SWAT after all. They marched me into their gravtruck and flew me away. About fifteen minutes later, they landed, pushed me out of the truck and handed me off to another group.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDid they use any names?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cJust one. The SWAT leader called his counterpart \u2018Mr. Yang\u2019. Yuri, I think you killed him when you made entry.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cShould I have left him alive?\u201d Yamamoto asked.<\/p>\n Tan shook his head. \u201cI\u2019d have shot him myself if you hadn’t.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat did Yang do after the SWAT team handed you off?\u201d Fox asked.<\/p>\n He and his goons\u2014two of them, I think\u2014frog-marched me through Fortune City. I didn\u2019t know where we were at that time, only that they led me through a maze of corridors. I tried to fight back, but the goons were too strong. I tried stomping their feet and kneeing their legs, but they just laughed it off. One of them grabbed me and the other shot me up with something. Soon after that, everything went all blurry and fuzzy.<\/p>\n \u201cI was still conscious. I could still move. But I couldn\u2019t resist, and I was completely relaxed. I can\u2019t remember much after that.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSounds like they induced a twilight state with sedatives,\u201d Wood opined.<\/p>\n \u201cYeah.\u201d He shuddered. \u201cNext thing I remember, I was strapped to this\u2026 chair. Like a dental chair, but with cuffs for the wrists, ankles and neck. I was inside this tiny apartment. It was just me and Yang, and his two goons standing by the door.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I came to, Yang smiled at me and said, \u2018Good evening, Mr. Tan.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cI went, \u2018Who the hell are you, and what do you want?\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cYang said, \u2018We have many questions for you. All we want are answers. You will give them to us. And don\u2019t worry: you won\u2019t be able to resist.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI tried to fight my way loose, but the straps were too tight. The goons walked up to me and fitted some kind of metal helmet over my head. They wired up the helmet to a laptop. Yang sat by the computer and pressed a key.<\/p>\n \u201cI heard a loud whirring sound. Then I felt something like a hundred tiny needles drill through my skull.\u201d<\/p>\n He shivered and ran his hands through his hair. Looking closer, she realized his crown was wrapped in thick gauze.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat did they do to you?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n \u201cThey were neural probes. For machine interrogation.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMy God\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI wouldn\u2019t want to go through that again.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMe neither. What did they ask you?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey started with baseline questions. My name, age, address, that kind of thing. Then they moved on to the meat. Your current locations, contact protocols, whether there was anyone else supporting us. I tried to resist, but\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n She patted his shoulder. \u201cEasy.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2026 I tried to keep my mouth shut, you understand? I said nothing. But the probes can read your brain activity and pull the answers out of your head. When they asked a question, the answer automatically came to mind, and then they recorded it. There\u2019s no way to defend against it; your own brain is working against you.<\/p>\n \u201cI tried empty mind meditation. Blank out all thought, refuse to respond to all input. But every time I tried that, Yang\u2026 he\u2026 he stimulated the pain centers of my brain. Made me feel like my fingernails were being torn off, or my toes were being crushed, or there was a white-hot needle in my eye.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cJesus Christ,\u201d Yamamoto whispered.<\/p>\n \u201cThat sadistic son of a bitch,\u201d Fox said.<\/p>\n \u201cYeah. I kept telling myself it wasn\u2019t real, that they weren\u2019t doing anything to me, but\u2026\u201d he sighed. \u201cAnyway, that was just Yang being a sonofabitch. His goal was to distract me, to pull me out of meditation. Once I was out of it, he asked a question, my brain recalled the answer, and he moved on.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe didn\u2019t have to torture you to do that,\u201d Connor said.<\/p>\n \u201cYeah. He was one sick fuck.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat did you tell him?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cEverything I knew. Phone numbers. Secure email addresses. Passwords and user ID for the apps I use to communicate with you guys. Contact protocol, including the all-clear and the duress code.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDidn\u2019t you use the duress code when you called me?\u201d Fox asked.<\/p>\n \u201cYeah. They told me to.\u201d<\/p>\n Silence, for a heartbeat.<\/p>\n \u201cThey wanted to draw us out into an ambush,\u201d Yamamoto said.<\/p>\n \u201cExplains the firepower and manpower they brought to the party,\u201d Fox added.<\/p>\n \u201cYeah. I\u2019m\u2026 I\u2019m sorry guys,\u201d Tan said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re all safe, we fought our way out. That\u2019s all that matters,\u201d Yamamoto said.<\/p>\n \u201cI heard the miniguns, the MGs, the Hellions. How the hell did you survive that?\u201d Tan asked.<\/p>\n \u201cI drew their fire away, then I ran like hell,\u201d Fox said.<\/p>\n \u201cSmart.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHellion?\u201d Mustafa asked. \u201cWhat\u2019s that?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cA top-secret experimental organic weapon,\u201d Connor said. \u201cA living tank.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou fought one before?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cUnfortunately,\u201d Fox said.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cTwo years ago, before you joined us,\u201d Yamamoto said. \u201cIn response to a military tender for next-generation assault armor, EvoTech developed the Hellion Autonomous Heavy Assault System. Unlike all the competition, the Hellion wasn\u2019t just powered armor. It was armor grafted into a vat-grown monster.<\/p>\n \u201cEvoTech\u2019s key selling point was that the military could deploy Hellions in place of manned armor. They were fearless, powerful, ferocious, and completely expendable. After all, they weren\u2019t human. The military downselected EvoTech as one of the finalists. They were rumored to be the favorite of the brass.<\/p>\n \u201cThen disaster struck. A squad of eight experimental Hellions broke free from their lab at Santos Proving Ground. They were unarmed, but their teeth and claws and armor were weapons in their own right. EvoTech hit the killswitches, but they failed to fire. The Hellions went on a rampage, and attacked and occupied the town of Keystone.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI read about that,\u201d Mustafa said. \u201cIt was a massacre.\u201d<\/p>\n Yamamoto nodded grimly. \u201cThe local police called the PSB. The PSB called us. EvoTech realized they couldn\u2019t contain the disaster, so they had to cooperate with us. Fortunately for us, the Hellions chose to roam the town instead of breaking loose.<\/p>\n \u201cWe corralled them back into the town from the air, while we evacuated citizens on the ground. It was\u2026 difficult. The ground teams ran into the Hellions a few times. Rifle and machine gun fire would drive them off, but not kill them. When the Hellions learned that their armor was too thick for our rounds to penetrate, they became more aggressive. And nothing we had on hand could defeat them.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2014the Black Watch\u2014got lucky. We only met the Hellions once, and we broke contact before they closed in. Others\u2026 Red Ravens took fifty percent casualties. White Knights was wiped out evacuating the school. But we got the civilians out. The survivors, anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYa Allah<\/em>\u2026 What happened next?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI called down an air strike,\u201d Yamamoto said flatly. \u201cAn AC-252 Wraith. We hit the Hellions with the big guns. By the time we were through, there was nothing left of them.\u201d<\/p>\n The memory of that night still haunted Fox. There was nothing on Earth like an AC-252 strike. It had a 35mm autocannon, a 105mm howitzer, launch tubes with smart missiles, wing-mounted hardpoints for precision munitions. If it came for you, it was the end of your world.<\/p>\n In a sane world, it was overkill. But there was nothing sane about the New Gods.<\/p>\n And after that incident, overkill became the official doctrine of the STS.<\/p>\n \u201cSo that<\/em> was the full story, huh,\u201d Mustafa said. \u201cThe press just said it was a bunch of Class A Husks.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s always a story behind the story,\u201d Fox said. \u201cAnd until now, nobody knew how or why the Hellions escaped. EvoTech swore up and down that it was sabotage, but there was no concrete evidence.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cEvoTech is owned and operated by the Seekers of the Way,\u201d Wood said. \u201cIf any of the New Gods wanted the Seekers to look bad\u2014which, face it, is all of them\u2014this was a fine opportunity to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cLast I read, the Hellion project was suspended indefinitely,\u201d Yamamoto continued. \u201cLooks like EvoTech resurrected it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey brought out the big boys just for us,\u201d Connor said. \u201cI don\u2019t know if we should be honored or we\u2019re just plain unlucky.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBoth,\u201d Yamamoto said. \u201cDefinitely both.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAre you able to exorcise a Hellion?\u201d Mustafa asked.<\/p>\n Yamamoto was the secret weapon of the Black Watch, and the STS. He could exorcise the Elect of the New Gods, neutralize paranormal powers, even challenge the New Gods face-to-face. No one knew how, only that he had. And the only explanation he offered was the power of faith. His<\/em> faith. Faith in a god no one had seen.<\/p>\n \u201cI need to get up close and personal to perform an exorcism,\u201d Yamamoto said. \u201cIt\u2019s too dangerous to do that to a Hellion in full kit. What I do\u2026 it can\u2019t neutralize a Hellion\u2019s guns or natural weapons. And that\u2019s even assuming a Hellion can be exorcised to begin with.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou haven\u2019t tried?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHell, no. Something like that, the only safe way to neutralize it is an air strike.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDo you think the Seekers sent the Hellions to neutralize your exorcism ability?\u201d Fox asked.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s likely,\u201d Yamamoto said. \u201cEveryone knows the STS has the capability to nullify the powers of the New Gods at close range, even if we\u2019ve kept quiet about the specifics. And since I couldn\u2019t exorcise any of the Hellions in that last fight, the Seekers will assume correctly that I can\u2019t touch them at long range. If they find us again, they\u2019ll send in the Hellions.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cGoddamn<\/em>. I wouldn\u2019t want to face a monster like that ever again,\u201d Tan said.<\/p>\n \u201cMe too,\u201d Fox said. \u201cWas that all the Seekers wanted from you?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNo. That\u2019s not all.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat else?\u201d<\/p>\n He slumped over.<\/p>\n \u201cThey knew we had dirt on the New Gods. They wanted it all. The cell phone I imaged, the one we took from the Court of Shadows, and the data we extracted from the Golden Mile. The info was stored on my computer. They\u2026 they made me tell them how to access it. Username and password. And I told them about my physical backup.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cFuck,\u201d Connor whispered.<\/p>\n Fox\u2019s blood turned to ice. By now the Seekers would surely have their hands on the dirt they\u2019d dug up. The same dirt they were counting on to use as leverage against the New Gods and the government.<\/p>\n The Black Watch had nothing left to defend themselves against their hunters.<\/p>\n \u201cDid they get everything?\u201d Yamamoto asked.<\/p>\n Ten\u2019s teeth flashed in the moonlight.<\/p>\n \u201cNot everything. Yang didn\u2019t get to ask about my second<\/em> backup.\u201d<\/p>\n Fox\u2019s heart leapt.<\/p>\n \u201cWhere is it?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s encrypted and sharded on the Ether Swarm blockchain. If I have a computer with Net access, I can recreate the data.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cLet\u2019s go then.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNot so fast. I hadn\u2019t made any headway with the data. Even if I download it from the swarm, we\u2019ll still be back at square one. The data needs to be decrypted before we can use it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat else can we do?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI have\u2026 a friend. A cracker. Not exactly an upstanding citizen, but he\u2019s at least as good as me. Maybe even better. And he has access to the kind of hardware we need to decrypt the data.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou didn\u2019t ask him for help with the data?\u201d Connor asked.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s a hard man to find. He operates under multiple aliases, and sometimes he goes off the grid for months at a time. I\u2019ve only ever met him in person a handful of times. He resurfaced in Babylon last week. I was about to contact him when the Seekers came.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cCan you set up a meet with him?\u201d Yamamoto asked. \u201cWe\u2019re going to need his help.\u201d<\/p>\n Tan smiled. \u201cI need a phone.\u201d<\/p>\n Babylon Blues is the climax of a five-part cyberpunk military horror saga. But it’s not the end. If you want to read all five stories in a single collection, plus a bonus story starring Yuri Yamamoto, check out the Kickstarter for BABYLON BLUES REMASTERED here<\/a>!<\/p>\n![\"Cheah](\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/www.benjamincheah.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Cheah-Kit-Sun-Red.png?resize=680%2C288&ssl=1\")
<\/p>\n