The Plea from the North
1593 Words
The woman's voice crackled through the speakers.
"Please. They have my children. Help us."
Steven traced the signal to a small town in Ontario. A place called Thunder Bay.
"Who is she?" James asked.
"Her name is Margaret Foster. Teacher. Single mother of two. No connection to the protocol that we can find."
"Then why is the Network holding her children?"
"Leverage. To draw us out."
James stared at the map on the screen. Thunder Bay was a day's drive. Across the border. Into Canada.
"It's a trap," David said.
"Of course it's a trap."
"You can't save everyone."
"Maybe not. But I can try."
---
The decision was made.
James would lead a small team to Canada. David would stay behind to protect the ranch.
"I'm going with you," Evelyn said.
"You're pregnant."
"I'm still a fighter."
James looked at her belly. The bump was small, but visible.
"If anything happens to you—"
"Nothing will happen. We'll be careful."
Harper volunteered. Steven would provide remote support.
The children would stay with Bill and the others.
Chloe hugged James before he left. "Come back, Daddy."
"I will, sweetheart."
---
They crossed the border at night, using fake passports Steven had prepared.
Thunder Bay was cold, gray, and quiet.
Margaret Foster lived in a small house on the edge of town. The windows were dark.
James knocked.
No answer.
He tried the door. Unlocked.
Inside, the house was a mess. Drawers pulled out. Furniture overturned. Signs of a struggle.
"Margaret?" James called out.
A sound from the basement.
They descended the stairs.
Margaret Foster sat in a corner, bruised and bleeding. Her eyes were wild.
"They took them. My girls. Sarah and Emily."
"When?"
"Last night. They said if I contacted the police, they'd kill them."
"Why did you contact us?"
"Because I heard about you. On the news. You fight the people who did this."
James knelt beside her. "Who took them?"
"Men in black suits. They drove a black SUV. I didn't see their faces."
"Did they say where they were taking them?"
"North. Into the woods. There's an old mining camp about fifty miles from here."
---
The mining camp had been abandoned for decades.
But someone had been there recently.
Tire tracks. Footprints. Fresh cigarette butts.
James, Evelyn, and Harper approached on foot.
The camp was a collection of dilapidated buildings, surrounded by chain-link fence.
Lights glowed in the main building.
"How many guards?" Evelyn whispered.
"Hard to say. At least six."
"Can we take them?"
"Quietly."
---
James scaled the fence first. Then Evelyn. Then Harper.
They moved through the shadows, past rusted equipment, toward the main building.
A guard stood by the door, smoking.
James took him down with a chokehold.
The guard slumped, unconscious.
They entered the building.
Inside, a large room. Desks. Computers. A holding cell.
And in the cell, two little girls.
Sarah and Emily.
"Stay here," James whispered to Evelyn.
He moved toward the cell.
An alarm blared.
Lights flashed.
Guards poured from a side door.
"Ambush," Harper shouted.
---
The firefight was intense.
James dove behind a desk, returned fire.
Evelyn took cover behind a pillar.
Harper threw a flashbang.
Guards stumbled, disoriented.
James ran for the cell.
The lock was electronic. He couldn't open it.
"Steven, we need the code."
"Working on it."
Bullets ricocheted around him.
"The code, Steven!"
"Four-seven-two-nine."
James typed.
The cell door opened.
"Girls, come with me. Quickly."
Sarah and Emily ran to him.
He herded them toward the exit.
---
Evelyn and Harper held off the guards.
"Go!" Evelyn shouted.
James ran with the girls.
Outside, the fence. He lifted Sarah over, then Emily.
Then he climbed.
A bullet grazed his leg.
He fell, rolled, kept moving.
The van was waiting.
He piled the girls inside, started the engine.
Evelyn and Harper burst from the building, running.
They dove into the van.
James floored the accelerator.
---
Behind them, the mining camp exploded.
"That wasn't us," Harper said.
"The Network. They rigged the place to blow."
"They wanted to kill us."
"They wanted to make sure no one talked."
James looked in the rearview mirror. The fire lit up the night sky.
"Margaret was a decoy. The children were bait."
"Then why are they still alive?"
"Because we got there first."
---
They returned Margaret's children to her.
She wept, hugging them, thanking James.
"Whoever you are, thank you."
"Don't thank me. Just get out of Thunder Bay. Go somewhere safe."
"Where?"
"Anywhere the Network isn't."
---
They drove back to the ranch.
The children were asleep. Bill was on watch.
James sat on the porch, his leg bandaged.
Evelyn joined him.
"We can't keep doing this."
"I know."
"Sooner or later, we have to end it."
"End what?"
"The Network. All of it."
James looked at the stars.
"Steven, find me the Network's headquarters."
"I've been trying. They're too well hidden."
"Then find me someone who knows where it is."
---
Three days later, Steven had a lead.
A former Network operative named Alexei Volkov—Viktor Volkov's younger brother.
"He's in hiding. Fearing for his life. He might talk."
"Where?"
"Prague. He has a safe house there."
"Then we go to Prague."
---
The flight to Prague was long and exhausting.
James, Evelyn, David, and Harper traveled under false names.
The safe house was in the old town, hidden behind a bookstore.
Alexei Volkov was a shadow of his brother. Thin. Nervous. Always looking over his shoulder.
"James Cole. I've heard of you."
"Then you know why I'm here."
"To find the Network's headquarters."
"Yes."
Alexei poured himself a drink. "It's in Switzerland. Not far from the original compound. Underground. Fortified."
"How do I get in?"
"You don't. No one gets in without an invitation."
"Then get me an invitation."
Alexei laughed bitterly. "I'm a traitor to the Network. They'll kill me on sight."
"Then we'll protect you."
"With what army?"
James looked at Evelyn. At David. At Harper.
"This one."
---
Alexei agreed to help.
The plan was simple. He would contact the Network, claim he had information about James's whereabouts. They would invite him to headquarters. James and his team would follow.
"If they suspect anything, we're dead."
"They won't suspect."
"Optimist."
"Survivor."
---
The Swiss headquarters was hidden beneath a mountain.
The entrance was a tunnel, disguised as a maintenance shaft for a hydroelectric plant.
Alexei drove through the tunnel, James hidden in the trunk.
The tunnel opened into a massive underground complex.
Guards checked Alexei's credentials. Waved him through.
He parked in a garage.
James climbed out of the trunk.
"Now what?"
"Now we find the command center."
---
The complex was a maze.
Corridors. Laboratories. Holding cells.
James moved silently, taking down guards as he went.
Evelyn and David followed.
Harper stayed with Alexei, providing overwatch.
"Command center is on level three," Steven said through the earpiece. "Turn left at the next corridor."
They turned.
A guard saw them. Raised his weapon.
David fired first.
The guard fell.
Alarms blared.
"Go! Go! Go!"
---
They ran.
Bullets chased them.
James reached the command center door. Locked.
"Steven, the code."
"I don't have it. You're on your own."
James stepped back, kicked the door.
It held.
David put a shaped charge on the lock.
"Fire in the hole."
The explosion echoed.
The door swung open.
Inside, a room full of screens. Maps. Data.
And a man.
Viktor Volkov.
"James. I was wondering when you'd arrive."
"You're supposed to be dead."
"I'm very hard to kill."
Volkov pressed a button. Screens showed the Network's facilities around the world.
"This is my empire. Thousands of clones. Hundreds of Subjects. And you can't stop it."
"Watch me."
James lunged.
Volkov was faster. He pulled a pistol.
Evelyn shot it from his hand.
Volkov stared at his bleeding fingers.
"You'll pay for that."
"No. You will."
---
They arrested Volkov and secured the command center.
Steven downloaded every file.
"I have the locations of every facility. Every Subject. Every clone."
"Then we shut them down. All of them."
---
The worldwide raids took six months.
Teams from a dozen countries struck simultaneously.
Facilities in Russia, China, Brazil, South Africa, Iran, and a dozen other countries were liberated.
Thousands of clones were awakened. Thousands of Subjects had their memories restored.
James watched from a distance as the world changed.
---
The Network was destroyed.
But the scars remained.
Families torn apart. Lives erased. Minds broken.
James returned to the ranch.
Evelyn was waiting.
"It's over."
"For now."
She took his hand.
"Come inside. The children want to see you."
---
Chloe ran to him. Then Lily. Then Emma. Then Grace.
"Daddy! You're home!"
"I'm home."
"Are the bad people gone?"
"Most of them."
"Can we stay here forever?"
James looked at the mountains. At the sky. At his family.
"Yes. We can."
---
That night, he sat on the porch with Evelyn.
The baby kicked.
"Have you thought about names?" she asked.
"For a boy or girl?"
"Both."
"Rebecca, if it's a girl. After my first wife."
"And if it's a boy?"
"Richard. After my father."
Evelyn smiled. "They would have liked that."
---
His phone buzzed.
A message from an unknown number.
The Network is gone. But the technology remains. Others will try to rebuild. Be ready.
James read the message. Then he deleted it.
He looked at the stars.
"Evelyn."
"Yes?"
"Let's go inside. It's getting cold."
They walked into the warm light of the ranch house.
The door closed behind them.
- Writer
