Helix: Episode 6 (Exclave)

Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Stingball grenades hit the floor around Sophia and detonated.

Windows blasted into pieces.

Sophia staggered, blind and unarmed, her vision white and ears ringing. By the time her senses returned, Nasira and Czarina were already reacting, their magnetoception and echolocation allowing them to move fast, closing on the attackers as they climbed the stairs. As they appeared on the second floor, Nasira crashed into one and together they rolled across the living-room floor in a tangle of limbs. Czarina disarmed another and used him and his next-gen vest as a shield from the gunfire.

Sophia found Aviary hiding behind the sofa, blank-eyed with shock. She seized the girl’s hand and pressed hard into her palm until it clicked.

‘Disarmed!’ Sophia yelled.

The living room was long and open, with no cover. The movement and coordination of the plain-clothed attackers was all too familiar.

Operatives.

They dropped their now useless firearms and reached for their knives, but Sophia’s group moved and fired, forcing them to disperse. DC’s sword cut through the air, glinting. His other hand gripped his pistol, and he fired and sliced, never stopped moving.

Three operatives had made it to the center of the living room. With knives in hand, they closed quickly and slashed or hit anyone in range. Damien was there, deflecting a knife attack. It cut into his forearm, then he caught a blow to his body that sent him crashing into a wall. Czarina was thrown above the fireplace. She crumpled, then staggered back to her feet.

A sharp pain lanced through Sophia’s jeans—a throwing knife, embedded in her flesh. She stumbled as another knife zipped past Felix. He collapsed in front of her, one hand pressing over the artery in his neck while the other waveringly aimed his pistol. He was finished. Sophia took his weapon. She moved and fired. Her leg almost gave way under her, burning from the blade, but she knew better than to remove it.

Jay slid across the dining table, scattering half-empty bottles.

An operative cut a path toward Aviary; he had short blond hair and eyes the color of ice. Sophia fired into his chest. He buckled from the shot … and smiled.

The slide on Sophia’s pistol locked to the rear. No rounds.

Czarina stepped between them, her pistol aimed and firing into the operative.

The operative faltered, then turned on Czarina. He twisted the pistol from her grasp and broke her wrist. She roared in pain, and he kneed her, hard. Czarina smashed into the ceiling and fell, taking the chandelier with her. She didn’t get up again.

The operative turned, knife in one hand, and focused on Sophia.

Then Ieva was there, snatching a poker from the fire. She rammed the searing hot iron into the operative’s calf. His aim slipped and he fired through Sophia’s shoulder, tearing bone and muscle.

‘Not so fast,’ Ieva said.

She swung the poker and the barbed tip tore open the operative’s leg. He stumbled, pried the weapon from her grasp and plunged it into her chest. Ieva collapsed on her knees, the iron run through her body. She gripped the handle with both hands, as if to remove it, and then with a strange acceptance she released her grip.

The operative ran his knife across her neck.

Blood poured down Ieva’s body. Her eyes went dark.

Sophia dropped her pistol and drew the throwing knife from her leg, regardless of the consequences. If she couldn’t kill this operative, she was going to make him bleed. Even if she bled too.

Around her, the fight was scattering across the mansion. Her group had spread out on purpose; it was smart, but as the operatives chased their prey, it left Sophia with only the dead, the broken and the ice-eyed operative who’d just killed Ieva.

Sophia didn’t wait for him to reach her. She closed the gap first. Knife in hand, she engaged, sliced his pistol arm. There was a scream, angry and seemingly inhuman. It was coming from her. She brought her knee up and broke his arm. The operative dropped his pistol and pivoted, drove his fist into her midsection. The impact sent her into the air…

…through the shattered window and out of the mansion.

Olesya drove through the gate and into an operative, who bounced over the windshield. She pulled up hard between a tree and the front of the mansion. It was difficult to see at night, but Marina’s infrared vision would help them.

‘Two in the front room. Can’t tell which level,’ Andrey said, using the fancy phone Aviary had given them.

Ark and Marina were out and firing their carbines—Marina went back to kill the operative they’d run over—and the crack of their gunfire echoed through the forest.

‘Stack on Marina,’ Olesya said.

With Marina in the lead and Andrey in the rear, they lined up on the front porch and filed into the front room, aiming at alternate angles.

‘Back room, body heat,’ Marina said, using her infrared vision. ‘They’re pulling back.’

Screams sounded from the living area upstairs. Olesya broke the stack and rushed up the steps, Ark two strides behind her. Together, they split the blood-splattered corridor and Olesya opened fire on another operative. But her target was too quick, skipping clear of the shots and into an adjacent room. Olesya shot through the wall, then heard Marina firing downstairs.

‘They’re running!’ Andrey shouted.

Too late for the bodies in the living room, Olesya thought.

Sophia hung from the windowsill with one hand, the glass biting into her palm.

When the silhouette appeared above her, backlit by the mansion lights, she was ready to grab him and pull him down with her. They could both die together, if that’s what it took.

Instead, someone grabbed her wrist and pulled her up.

‘I got you,’ Olesya said.

She dragged Sophia back inside, where Ark checked Aviary for injuries and Czarina waved Marina off, her other arm hanging limp. There was one operative dead on the floor, but it wasn’t the one with blond hair. He was gone.

Sophia couldn’t look at Ieva. She had to focus on something else.

Czarina reached down with her functioning arm to unstrap the operative’s vest, only to catch sight of Ieva, lying on her side in blood-stained carpet, eyes open. Czarina’s hand trembled and she left the vest.

Ark helped Aviary to her feet. She had her ruck on both shoulders and clutched her phone; blood smeared her cheek from a laceration below her eye. A fraction higher and Aviary would’ve been blinded, but she didn’t seem to notice.

‘Where are … where are the operatives?’ Sophia asked, barely able to whisper.

‘They withdrew as we entered,’ Olesya said.

An explosion rattled the mansion. Above them, fire was pouring through the hallway.

‘They rigged the house,’ Andrey called out from the corridor.

‘This way.’ Olesya led them down the stairs.

Behind Sophia, flames roared through the first floor and trickled down to the ground floor.

‘Where is—make sure they—’ Sophia said.

‘Everyone is out,’ Olesya said.

Two vehicles were parked on the grass in front of the mansion, a crumpled body beside them. Operative. Olesya guided Sophia to the nearest vehicle.

‘How the hell did you find us?’ Czarina asked.

Andrey waved the phone. ‘You left Olesya one of your phones. It started beeping like crazy long before we got here.’

‘Motion detectors,’ Aviary said under her breath. ‘We weren’t paying attention.’

‘I’m so stupid,’ Sophia said.

Olesya squeezed her arm. ‘If you were stupid, you would have been dead a long time ago.’

‘All operatives are clear,’ Andrey said, watching his phone.

‘They’re still out there, and they could have reinforcements.’ Marina opened the doors to one of their vehicles. ‘Get in, now.’

‘Sure about that?’ Jay asked.

‘You need to come with us,’ Olesya replied.

Damien and Jay helped Sophia into the back seat, then let Aviary climb in next to her. Marina took the wheel, and DC took the passenger seat beside her. He leaned over to bandage Sophia’s leg tightly, then said to Aviary, ‘Keep an eye on her, she might need oxygen.’

It was the last thing she needed.

Standing next to the vehicle, Olesya pointed down the road. ‘Go.’

Marina accelerated fast, whipping them out of the front yard, but Sophia was watching through her window. Jay wrapped Damien’s arm while Nasira and Ark both leaned against the other vehicle, coughing.

In the front of the car, DC and Marina were talking, but their voices sounded distant. All Sophia could think about was that operative driving the fire-iron through Ieva, then using his knife. She had seen programmed operatives do gruesome things—she’d even been one of them—but never before had she seen them enjoy it.

Behind them, through the rear window, the flames burned into the night.