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Prelude to a Siege It was a few days after they had obtained the last of the Veiliij Artifacts. Vince was heading back to his room after lunch when he saw Mindy walking the halls. Vince knew she wasn't Tina, but he couldn't help it. They looked so alike. He found himself unable to leave her. Thus, as a result, Vince ended up following Mindy around again. "Following me again?" Mindy asked, again without turning around to look at him. Vince quickly apologized, "Sorry, it's just--" "I know," Mindy interrupted him. "I remind you of Tina." Vince was silent. "It's all right. I don't mind if you follow me around. As weird as it is, it's nice to know that a seventeen-year-old has a crush on me." "What? I don't have a crush on you!" Vince shouted back. Mindy laughed. "If you insist," she replied as if she hadn't taken him seriously. Vince followed her into a room he had never seen before. It was a gigantic room, filled with machines and vehicles--there were a lot of tanks. However, what surprised him the most was a row of enormous missiles, at least twenty of them. "What the hell are those things?" Vince asked, pointing at the missiles. "Those?" Mindy replied. "Those are Cobalt Bombs." "Cobalt Bombs?" Vince asked. "Yes. Cobalt Bombs are a kind of thermonuclear warhead with shells made of cobalt metal," Mindy explained. "When they blow up, they release tons of cobalt-60 as radioactive fallout. Since cobalt-60 takes so long to decay, it can irradiate an entire region and make it virtually uninhabitable." "But... why would anyone want to do that?" Vince asked. "Oh, we don't want to irradiate entire regions," Mindy answered. "We just want to threaten the US government with it. Once we get enough Cobalt Bombs, we can threaten the government, and if they don't give in to our demands, we'll obliterate major cities." "What the--?" Vince was shocked. "What's going on?" "Oh, no one ever told you?" Mindy said. "The goal of the Quantum Saviors is to bring peace to the world. But because the world is divided into separate nations, there can be no peace. As long as the world is made up of separate countries, there will be disagreements, which will lead to war. So you see, the only way for the world to see true peace is if a single government came and took over the entire world. Then, the world would be a single country, and there would be no more conflicts. That's what Quantum Saviors is trying to achieve, peace through world unity, peace through world conquest. "However, each nation in the world has its own army. We simply don't have enough manpower to take on each and every army in the world in a direct, head-on-head war. But if we trigger wars between nations, between factions, we can weaken the armies of the world and their governments, and when the nations of the world are too weak to defend themselves, we move in, take over, and rebuild. "Do you remember the last war, Vince? Thanks to our insiders, we were able to trigger a war between Alliatus and Shadow. A Shadow insider informed Bill that the Shadows at Rheasville were completely defenseless, and an Alliatus insider organized a raid. Then, another Shadow insider organized a counter-raid, and soon war broke out, thanks to our efforts. "Of course, we couldn't have done it without your help? Yes, your help, Vince. If you hadn't taken away the Shadow Disruptor from the Shadow Lodging at Rheasville, we would never have had the opportunity to trigger this war. Thank you, Vince." "No!" Vince shouted. "That's horrible. Think of all the people killed. Think of all the innocents who got caught in the middle, the people whose lives were destroyed. People were forced to give up their homes and fight with Mercenary Camps. People were forced to flee their homes and hide in the sewers." "The end justify the means, Vince," Mindy replied. "In the wars and battles that the Quantum Saviors creates, only a couple billion people will die. If we do nothing, the countries of the world will fight amongst themselves until the end of time, and trillions, maybe even trillions of trillions will die. Consider the numbers, Vince. A billion deaths by our actions, or a trillion deaths by our inactions, which is worse?" "No!" Vince shouted again. "You can't measure lives like that. People are people. Plus, the end never justifies the means." "Is that so, Vince?" Mindy asked. "Then, why were you and Stephanie so eager to kill people to make a living when you first moved into Omicron." "This is different," Vince yelled. "We're talking about entire populations here. This just isn't right. I don't want to be a part of this. I quit the Quantum Saviors." "But, Vince," Mindy said. "You can't quit. You already know about the Quantum Saviors. To let you leave would be a security breach." "I'm quitting," Vince insisted. "And there's nothing you can do to stop me." "Oh, really?" Mindy replied, pulling out her two pistols. However, before Mindy could attack, Vince grabbed her with his left arm and pinned her to his body. Now, she was much too close to get a good shot, her arms flailing around him. With his right arm, he wrested the pistols away from her--Mindy was strong for her size, though, so it took a while--and crushed them under his foot. "I could kill her and hide the body," Vince thought. "And nobody would know that I betrayed them. Mindy and I will just disappear." To his surprise, Vince found that he no longer held Mindy in his arms, but Tina. "No, I can't kill her," Vince thought. "I can't kill her, but I can't let her tell the others that I've turned my back on them. No, I'll have to take her with me. If only she'd stop screaming and squirming." Vince let go of her, and as she scrambled away, he shot out his right foot and kicked her right in the head. She fell to the floor. "Forgive me, Tina," Vince whispered to her unconscious body. Hastily, Vince picked her up and checked the door. The coast was clear. Carrying her, he snuck all the way back to his room, checking the halls to see if anyone was there, and if there was, he avoided them lest they see him carrying her unconscious body. Finally, he got to his room, where he took some twine and tied her up. Grabbing the keys to his hovercraft, he snuck back out again, still carrying her body. Carefully, yet hastily, he snuck all the way to the hangar, where he stuffed her in the backseat and flew away. "Where are we going?" Mindy regained consciousness a few hours later. Vince had set the hovercraft to autopilot as he reconfigured and rebuilt the machine's communications systems. He had hoped that if he disabled communication with the Quantum Saviors, they wouldn't be able to track him. "To Omicron," Vince replied to Mindy's question. "Why bother?" she asked. "All the Mercenary Camps are under the Quantum Saviors control now, and those that aren't were destroyed a long time ago." "I'm picking up my friends," Vince explained. "If Omicron works for the Quantum Saviors, then I don't want them working for Omicron." They landed outside Kiera, a short walk away from the Omicron's camp. "I'm not going to risk being seen in the daylight, so we'll have to wait until nightfall," Vince explained, "so we'll sit here and do nothing for the next few hours." "You seem really upset about something," Mindy said, a sinister smile crawling upon her face. "Do you want to talk about it?" Vince gave her a funny look. "No," he said simply. "You have something better to do?" she asked. "Well..." Vince said. "Actually, no." In the middle of the night, when everyone else in Omicron was sleeping, Stephanie was still awake, studying her huge piles of books. "Stephanie!" Vince called to her from the entrance of her tent. She didn't respond. "Stephanie! Hey, Stephanie!" It was as though she couldn't hear him. Frustrated, Vince walked up to her and tapped her shoulder. "Oh, hi, Vince," Stephanie said, looking up from her books. "I'm sorry, I didn't hear you come in." "I noticed," Vince replied. "So, what brings you here in the middle of the night?" Stephanie asked. "Listen, you know Omicron's biggest client, QS?" Vince said. "Their our only client now," Stephanie interjected. "Yeah, and you know how I was working for them?" Vince asked. "Yeah," Stephanie answered. "I found out that QS is actually a terrorist organization," Vince explained. "They've been collecting nukes, and they plan on threatening the government with them." "What?" Stephanie asked, utterly shocked. Vince told her about what he had heard about the Quantum Saviors. "Oh, my!" Stephanie said. " This is just horrible! I shouldn't work here anymore." "I know," Vince said. "We've got to tell Robert and Alice," Stephanie insisted. "They can't stay, either." "Yeah, I know," Vince said. Quickly, Vince and Stephanie ran over to Robert's tent and woke up him. Then, the three of them went to Alice's tent and woke her up. Once the four of them were up and awake, Vince repeated what he had learned about the Quantum Saviors. When he was done, Alice looked shocked, and Robert appeared to be in deep thought. "It's settled," Robert said. "We're leaving tonight, so that no one will ask us questions in the morning." "There's just one problem," Vince said. "The Quantum Saviors is a secret organization. If I quit, I become a security breach, and they'll track me down and eliminate me. Lucky for me, the only person who knows that I quit is sitting in the hovercraft, all tied up, but the hovercraft can only fit four people, and between the four of us and her, there's five, so I can't take you all at once." "It's all right," Robert said. "Alice and I will take a jeep, and we'll use the radio." "All right, that sounds like a plan," Vince said. They split up. Vince and Stephanie headed back to the hovercraft while Robert and Alice went for a jeep. On her way, Stephanie grabbed some of her books and brought them to the hovercraft. As she piled them in the backseat, she noticed Mindy. "Is this the person who you knows you quit QS?" Stephanie asked. "Yeah," Vince replied. "But she's so young," Stephanie said. "She's, like, ten years old." "Yeah," Vince replied. "But she's a dangerous ten-year-old. You should have seen her with her guns a few days ago." "Why didn't you kill her?" Stephanie asked as she climbed into the passenger seat. "I couldn't," Vince replied as he started the engine. "She reminds me of Tina." "What do you mean?" Stephanie said. "She looks nothing like Tina." "Well, I think she does," Vince insisted. "I think he just likes me," Mindy interjected. "What? No!" Vince shouted. "Of course not! I'm not a pedophile." Mindy laughed joyfully. Then, there was silence. "So, Stephanie..." Vince said after a few minutes. There was no response. Stephanie already had her head buried in her books, so Vince didn't want to bother her. Instead, he turned on the radio and called up Robert. "Hey, Robert, this is Vince," Vince said. "Hey, Vince," came Robert's reply. "Listen, do you know where we're going?" "That's what I called about," Vince asked. "I really don't know." "How about we head on over Canada or something?" Robert suggested. "Then, Alice and I will take a boat to Europe and hopefully, QS won't affect us there and we can get jobs and get our lives back to normal." "No, we're not running away," Vince said. "What are you talking about?" Robert asked. "Are you thinking of fighting against QS? That's crazy! They've got Mercenary Camps under their control and nukes and, like you already told us, powerful sorcerers. And there are only four of us and only one of us has any decent fighting ability. It would be suicide." "Robert, did they teach you to fight you at Omicron?" Vince asked. "Well, yeah, but--" "So you guys can fight," Vince said. "Are you guys going to run away and hide and let your fighting skills go to waste while a terrorist organization kills off innocent people? That just isn't right. We're capable of doing something, so we have to do something. We can't just watch while people die at the hands of the Quantum Saviors." "Still, these guys are much too organized and much too big," Robert said. "They have Mercenary Camps, they have nukes, they even have all of Ragnarok's machines now. It's just impossible. Do you really want to throw away your life on a lost cause?" "Fine, if you want to run away, then run away," Vince shouted into the radio. "I'll go fight the Quantum Saviors all by myself, then." Robert was silent for a moment. Then, he finally said, "God damn it, Vince! I still think it's suicide, but I can't let you do this by yourself. If you're going to fight, I guess I'll have to watch your back." "Me, too," he heard Alice from the radio. "Thank you, Robert, Alice," Vince said. Stephanie still wasn't paying any attention. "So now what do we do?" Vince asked. Robert sighed over the radio. "Well, Vince, you said they were collecting what kind of nukes?" "Cobalt Bombs," Vince replied. "They said 'when we get enough' or something like that, so I think they're still collecting them." "I get it now," Robert said. "We go and intercept them." "And stop them from getting the nukes," Vince finished the thought. "Exactly right, except, if we don't know where the Cobalt Bombs are, we won't know where to go to intercept the Quantum Saviors." "Listen, Vince," Robert said. "All the nukes are controlled by the military, right? All we have to do is hack into the Pentagon database and find the information we need." "But none of us here know how to hack--" "I do," Robert said. "They taught me in Recon. I'm not that good, though. I won't be able to hack into the Pentagon from just any old computer. We'll need a computer with a high clearance level, and to get past most of the network security checkpoints." "Most?" Vince asked. "Sorry, but the Pentagon database has the highest clearance level," Robert explained. "No other computer has high enough clearance to access the Pentagon without a security password. So, as I was saying, we'll need a computer with a high clearance level. Off the top of my head, I can think of one that's close by. Can you guess it, Vince? I'll give you a hint: it's kept by the guys who've been hunting you the last few months." "Ragnarok," Vince answered. "You want me to sneak you into a Ragnarok facility so you can use their computer?" "Yeah," Robert said. "You've broken in and out of Ragnarok stuff before, so it shouldn't be that big a deal." "Well, that's true, I guess," Vince said. "Once I get to the computer, I'll have to hack into it--" "Wait, you still need to hack the Ragnarok computer?" Vince asked. "Wouldn't it be easier to use your own computer than having to hack into two computers?" "Well, hacking is easier if you're physically at the computer," Robert explained. "Since we both know we're not breaking into the Pentagon, we'll have to do the next best thing--break into Ragnarok." "All right, that sounds like a plan," Vince said. "I sneak you into a Ragnarok facility, and you hack into their computer and you use it to hack into the Pentagon, and we find out where all the Cobalt Bombs are. Let's go!" "Tomorrow," Robert interrupted him. "It's late, I'm tired, and I didn't get any proper sleep, since you guys decided to wake me up." |