Never seen, only documented. In the eyes of the public Decker Parkes is a terrorist, part of the rebellious American armed militia the National Secessionist Forces, commonly known as the terrorist group the NSF. Although anyone who stumbled across his data cubes would realise his never ending struggle, a struggle which would force him across the face of America and over the ocean. Aiding the NSF was his job, trying to stay alive, well that was not a choice.

Constantly on the run. Nowhere to hide. Hunted by an endless pursuer. An outlaw. A fugitive. An enemy of the state. The international anti-terrorist agency formed by the United Nations, known as UNATCO, vigorously prowling the landscape, picking out the little, insignificant, irritating, rebels from the territory. More concerned in putting the past behind him, Decker has ended up, down a hole that is too deep and too steep to climb out of.

Chapter 1

The coffee filled mug sat silently on top of the scratched and dented table surface, it had gone cold, left there forgotten in the anxious waiting of its consumer, Decker Parkes. Decker was a Northern Secessionist Forces (NSF) member; he had been for years and now an ageing man, just pushing middle age. He was seen as a veteran by the newer NSF recruits who would look to him for inspiration since he had been around when the NSF was formed. He had even met one of the founding members, the NSF general Leon Woods; even now he could still recall the powerful speeches General Woods used to make. Decker paced back and forth in his bedroom, mind wondering, awaiting the precious call from his contact. He needed to get out, to escape the United States with his two close friends Wayne and Erin.

Decker sat quietly at his small desk by the window of his rented apartment on 53rd Street near the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, with a toothbrush crammed in to his cheek and mouth full of foam. He sat and stared impatiently at the flat computer monitor, the inbox to his e-mail account was empty. He looked to the side of the screen and stared outside through the thin dirty brown net curtains that covered the windows; the light from the outside street lamps illuminated the bedroom in a murky yellow glow. Decker always had the bedroom lights off so no one looking in knew he was home, after all he was a marked man, at any moment a team of UNATCO troopers and M.i.B.'s (Men In Black) could kick the door through and splatter the contents of his head up the walls. Anyway it felt safer in the shadows.

Decker picked up the small glass and lazily spat the frothy toothpaste in to the bottom, "Ahhshit" Decker cursed silently, he had spat into the clean glass which held the water he was going to use to swill his mouth with. Decker picked up the small facial towel and threw in over his shoulder as he carried the two glasses to the sink in the bathroom. He hated using glasses when brushing his teeth; it was a dirty habit he picked up from darting about all over the place with the NSF.

Decker watched the watery, saliva filled mixture get sucked down the plughole as he poured it into the sink. He turned on one of the water taps, it did not matter which one, hot or cold, for the water heater had broke down months ago and the landlord was too "economical" to fix it. Decker swilled out the glass and filled it with the cold water. He drank some sloshing the water into both cheeks with his tongue before gargling it and spitting the water into the bowl of the sink. He washed his hands and splashed his face then looked into the mirror of the bathroom cabinet.

His face looked washed out, his eyes had small dark rings underneath them and the crow's feet had spread up to his temples. Decker had not shaved for three days and his neck and chin felt prickly. Decker felt he was aging by the minute through the stress of evading the authorities for many years, his hair had gone thin and was turning grey. Recently he seemed to feel tired more than usual needing to take a nap now and then. He hated the thought of becoming old to him it was like returning to a state of infancy.

Decker stared into the mirror, his eyes lost focus as he started to daydream, he had been awake for at least 36 hours, and he needed sleep, desperately. Decker threw himself on his lumpy mattress rolled onto his side and lay there watching the computer monitor. He slipped one hand underneath his pillow and pushed it up slightly to his head. Decker's eyelids began to slip over his eyes. The last thing he did before his brain went into sleep mode was check that his gun was one his bedside table. Decker breathed out making a hum sound as he let his body relax and collapse into the mattress. Sleep… finally…

"ALL ABOARD!"

Decker ran down the gangplank and slipped onto one of the side seats. The other NSF activists scuttled on armed with the shortened assault rifles, sawn-off shotguns, and pistols. The last one onboard retrieved the rope that tied the boat to the jetty. The engine was ignited and the rotor blades span into action. The NSF onshore turned and made their way up the north dock, carrying cases of rockets and rocker launchers; one person was carrying a GEP gun over his shoulder. The boat pulled away and quickly headed towards the Manhattan skyline, towards their destination, Castle Clinton.

Castle Clinton was where they would unload the Ambrosia vaccine and take it to LaGuardia airport hangers. It would then be loaded and taken to Hong Kong, where a man of outstanding scientific knowledge named Tracer Tong could break down the elements of the vaccine for reproduction and correct redistribution.

The speedboat cut silently through the dark Manhattan waters. Decker sat listening to the babbling churn of the rotor blades in the water. In front of him under a blanket of tarpaulin were the precious Ambrosia canisters. Ambrosia was vaccine for the Grey Death, the super-plague that was tearing over the continents. UNATCO, the United Nations Anti-Terrorist Coalition was responsible for the Ambrosia vaccinations but it seemed that only the wealthier victims were getting the treatment. That was why the NSF were hijacking the shipment; to get it to the people who needed it most.

Decker watched Liberty Island get smaller; the moon was starting to rise high in the cold night air. Decker breathed a sigh of relief the Coast Guard was not pursuing. He sat back against the side of the boat, the other NSF rebels took off there visors exposing their reddened, adrenaline filled faces to the early night air.

Decker had just set up the quickest security system he had every performed. He arrived onshore with one of the New York NSF leader, Colonel Leo Gold of Special Operations, with his "bag of tricks" and was taken straight to the Statue. The rebels had gone in just as the sunset but bumped into a patrolling guard who notified UNATCO. A fire fight had broken out as they unloaded the Ambrosia shipment from the barge. The NSF managed to capture a UNATCO mechanically augmented agent, Gunther Hermann and held him hostage giving the NSF enough time to escape, and Decker enough time to set up a patchy security system.

"Hurry up Decker," whispered the anxious rebel. Decker could feel the pressure building up as they all stood over his shoulder, breathing down his neck constantly. Decker wiped the small bead of sweat from his itching eyebrow. He let out a huffed breath and stared into the blackened heart of the automated security gun turret. Decker turned the small cap heads of the two torches that were on the side of his magnifying glasses and held the small screwdriver in his shaky hand.

"Hey! Don't rush the man, Decker you take as long as you want, just as long as it isn't long enough for a UNATCO team to be up your ass before you finish." Leo Gold, the NSF leader, said pushing the NSF rebels away from Decker.

"I've…nearly finished sir." Decker replied making the final connections to the automated gun turret.

"All done and dusted." Decker exclaimed clapping his hands together "Now I've just got to check the connections are all working." Decker shut the small panel and swivelled on his chair around to his small laptop computer that was linked to the turret and hooked into the security system. Decker typed furiously on the small compact keyboard. He inputted various commands and the turret jerked and moved in reply causing the NSF members watching him to step back with caution. Colonel Leo Gold laughed heartily and walked over patting Decker on the back.

"Still got the magic touch," he whispered in his left ear. The colonel looked over his shoulder and grunted with disgust.

"You two!" Colonel Gold snapped at two NSF members sitting down on the floor relaxing, they shot up and stood straight, saluting the colonel.

"Take the turret upstairs and attached it to the ceiling" he ordered. Decker unplugged his laptop and folded it into his small satchel.

"YES SIR!" the two men replied simultaneously, they both ran over to the worktop Decker was using and picked the long turret off the table.

"Be careful" Decker said and placed a holder bag full of tools on top of the turret. Both men disappeared up the wide concrete stairs. Colonel Gold walked over to Decker who started to pack his equipment into two black leather sports bags.

"You have done a lot over the years for the cause, Decker. We could still use a man like you" Leo said standing behind him. Decker turned around and got up from his squatted position, his left kneecap popped as he straightened up.

"I've told you, after today I quit and disappear, sir." Decker stared meaningfully into the colonel eyes, who looked away sorrowfully.

"You will be missed Mr Parkes. You know who will miss you most, Decker. She will be sad to hear you're leaving," said the colonel.

"Well she cannot find out," Decker said looking away.

"Erin will find out, sooner than later, Decker. You know you're like a father figure to her," Colonel Gold walked away and left Decker to finish gathering his belongings. The pounding sound of the air gun was heard faintly from upstairs as the two NSF members secured the turret to the ceiling. Decker ran through his tasks in his head, the entrance defence had been established, interior defences were up and running, most of the security surveillance cameras were working (minus a few that had some interference effecting the video transmission) and identifying the correct enemy, the security bot was patrolling the set perimeter. Most of the tasks were complete, now all Decker needed to do was to re-check that the whole system was still connected with no bugs. If something went wrong he would not be there to repair it. Oh yes, Decker remembered. He ran up the stairs and into the pedestal of the statue.

"Ray! Hey Ray!" Decker chased after the group of men patrolling the corridor. One stopped and turned around.

"You after me?" Ray asked puzzled.

"Here's the password for the security system, could you make sure the guy on surveillance duty with you, gets it too. Oh and keep an eye on the mech, don't want him escaping." Decker said in between breaths as he passed over the small datacube.

"Yeah, Ok bud. You off now?" Ray asked. Decker nodded. "I'll hopefully see ya later then."

Decker carried on down the corridor and watched the sun start to set in the burning orange sky. He could see the NSF unloading the Ambrosia from the captured delivery barge. There were three speedboats bobbing on the waves far in the distance, all guarded by armed men. Decker turned and walked back down to the lower lobby of the base of the statue. He walked across the bustling floor and located the colonel in the small room that the NSF were using to hold their prisoner.

Colonel Gold was standing in front of the window of the cell, his hands in his long coat pockets. He stood staring at the prisoner Gunther Hermann. Gunther was a mechanically augmented UNATCO agent. His body was his weapon, arms, legs and even his head had chrome plating protruding out of his skin. His eyes were augmented too; he had two ocular augmentations inserted into his eye sockets, which left him with two perfectly round red glowing domes protruding from his face. All these implants had left his skin looking an unhealthy grey colour and his face looking bitter and stern. Gunther stood firmly staring back through his head-light eyes, breathing in slowly through his barrel of a chest. The six foot seven agent said nothing and did nothing just simply awaited his rescue.

Decker approached the colonel and was about to spout off a lot of technical reports but Leo spoke first.

"Look at him, the UNATCO mech." Leo said "Addicted to improving himself…no mutilating his body so he is a better killing machine. All he is doing is killing himself inside." Decker stood behind the colonel as if to shield himself from the mechs stare.

"It's a shame what some humans are driven to, because of their insecurities." Leo looked at his small wristwatch. "It's time for the shipments to get on their way and time for you to go." Decker nodded, threw his satchel over his shoulder and patted Leo's shoulder.

"I'll see you around some time." Decker said then proceeded out of the holding room and to the entrance. Time to go Decker thought Time to go…

Battery Park was fast approaching on the horizon as the speedboat Decker rode in followed the other two boats in the convoy. "Three minutes." came a call from the front of the boat. The eight men in the boat checked and loaded their sawn-offs and stolen UNATCO standard issue assault rifles, then pulled down their masks and visors. Decker pulled out a small revolver, which he wore in his chest gun holster. One off the NSF members looked at Decker.

"Want something a bit more powerful, sir." he said laughing gently under his mask.

"This will be sufficient, private." Decker replied looking back at him coldly. The boat pulled up to the dock, the other two vessels were already being unloaded. The NSF disembarked quickly and fetched the small baggage trolleys that had probably stolen from an airport.

The Ambrosia canisters were wheeled down a small dark passageway to an old storage hut. The NSF waited outside in a large group, Decker stood near the back holding his precious satchel close to his heart.

"Shall I do the honours?" one of the rebels asked.

"Jus' hurry up you prick! Freezing my balls off standing out here!" shouted the other, which caused a few laughs and groans from the others. The one standing by the wall turned a key and unlocked what looked like a fuse box. Inside was a keypad 9…1…8…3… was punched in and the nearby soda machine slide open. One by one the men all disappeared down the newly opened passageway. Decker stood there momentarily staring deep into the black void where the voices were trailed in the distance. Then he entered and descended down the cold, dark staircase. From now on he was a fugitive, on the run from UNATCO.