The front of the building had two doors, but was otherwise as remarkable as the two other sides Isabella had seen. Each large door had a palm pad next to it; the closer one had a small sign that said "Building 22 Residential Block. Authorized Personnel Only."
Here goes nothing, Isabella thought. She pulled a card out of her vest pocket and swiped it across the pad; the pad beeped and the door unlocked with a *click*.
She pulled the door open and looked into the dark room, her DIMMER pointed and ready. Nothing moved inside. She stepped in, checking the walls, and spotted nothing waiting. Lights clicked on automatically, and she saw the room. In the center of the room, an elegant but bare dining table sat with six chairs around it. Beyond that, three large, plush couches surrounded a small platform. On the wall, a large television was mounted. At the end near her, three other doors led out. One was unmarked but had a palm pad next to it, one was marked 'Restroom', and the third was marked 'Quarters'.
Isabella stepped over to the unmarked door and swiped her card against the reader pad. As she did, she heard the sound of a DIMMER firing from nearby. Something hit her wrist, and she felt the world fade out as she slid to the floor. So it really does work on me was the last thought she had before the darkness hit.
Holly sat and poked listlessly at the computer terminal. It was restricted so that it had literally no access outside the building, instead giving her options of a couple dozen movies to watch. None of them held any interest for her at all.
A commotion in the hall drew her attention. She opened the door of her room, and saw Lieutenant Knox backing down the hallway, carrying something. Behind her, she saw General Archer carrying the other end of whatever it was. Across the hall, Erik peeked out from his own door.
"Any word when I get some help here, sir?" Knox asked.
"Oh, Lieutenant Rockwell will be coming along with Dutch. They're due in tomorrow afternoon," Archer said. As they passed by, Holly's blood went cold as she realized they were carrying a person, a young woman. She looked at her face and gasped as she recognized Isabella, wearing the same sort of knit outfit she was, with a slave collar locked around her neck again.
Archer looked up at her as Knox tapped the opening panel for an unoccupied bedroom door. "You'll probably appreciate this, actually, Holly. You know Dutch. Lieutenant Knox will be getting the Black Hole ready for his...interests. But he'll be more interested in bringing our latest resident in for a visit."
"How did you..." Holly began.
"Who else would they send to rescue the missing scientists? The Canadians are too chickenshit to send one of their own. It'd be an act of war, eh?" Archer laughed. "Suckered 'em right in."
They carried Isabella into the room, and the door closed behind them. Holly looked up at Erik, whose face was pale.
"What?" she asked.
"I recognized her."
Isabella woke up suddenly. She blinked as she sat up. She was in an unfamiliar room, on an unfamiliar bed. The room was mostly dark, dimly lit by a light coming through the crack under the door.
She sat up, and the room spun briefly before settling back into place. A light clicked on automatically, showing her the room. It was sparse - a small desk with a computer and a chair, a dresser, and the bed she was sitting on. The walls were austere white, and the room smelled faintly of dust and antiseptic. One door led out.
How did I get here? Last I remember, I was going into Building 22. I tried to open the door to the control room, and...
There was a DIMMER implanted in the pad. It was a trap all along.
She looked down, and realized her fatigues had been replaced with a soft knit outfit. Disturbingly, she had no underwear underneath it. A familiar but unwanted weight on her shoulders indicated that a collar had been placed around her neck again.
The computer screen flickered on, and an unfamiliar young woman with lieutenant bars on her collar stared out of the screen. "Echo Three," she said.
"My name is Isabella Garcia-Shapiro."
"Your name, Slave, is whatever we choose it to be," the woman said. "For now, I will call you Echo Three because it pleases me to do so."
Isabella stared at the woman silently.
"I am Lieutenant Knox. I am in charge of this facility. Your collar is not the standard model. We are aware of your enhancements, and the collar is designed to neutralize them. Any attempt to activate your implants will cause the collar to signal us, while causing you intense pain that the implants will not block. Do you understand me?"
"Yes," Isabella said grudgingly.
"Very good. You'll recognize some of your companions in Pen A." She looked down and did something below what the camera could see. "Your door is now unlocked. Go meet them." Lieutenant Knox looked up at her with a vicious grin. "Ask Erik what he did before the war." The screen flickered off.
Isabella stood and walked to the door, noticing the odd muted sounds of her footfalls. She pressed the pad next to the door, and it quietly slid aside. The hallway was white as well, with two doors across the hall, a door at the near end, and a door opposite it at the corner. She quietly walked into the hall, noting the black quarter-dome in the corner that indicated a camera. The door at the end had a label on the door: Bathroom. She walked the other way, toward the corner, and found an open door at the far end.
"Hey, you're up!" Holly said from the couch as she walked in. An older man she vaguely recognized sat next to her.
"Holly? Why are you here?" Isabella asked. "Pissed off the mayor one time too many?"
Holly looked half-proud, half-embarrassed. "Sort of. Recorded him and General Archer talking about how they'd been involved in the Danville bombing at the start of the war. And how..." She looked at the man next to her, embarrassed.
"Oh, you leaked that? I heard about it just before I left Canada."
"I gave it to the Anti-Slavery Front. They weren't supposed to leak it, although I suppose they realized I'd been traced and figured there was nothing to lose."
"The recording is viral in Canada, but the media was suppressing it in America," Isabella said. "It was starting to leak through social networks, though."
"You heard the whole thing, then?" Holly asked.
"Yep. Archer and Abercrombie in Danville. And the guy who dragged me out of the rubble was apparently the fucker who set the bomb in the first place, Senator Erik..." She suddenly realized where she recognized the man from. "You. Bailey."
The man looked ashamed. "I am so sorry. I'd say it was my gravest sin, but...I've done so many horrible things that it's just another one." He stood, clasping his hands. "Whatever you wish to do to me, I can only say I deserve it."
"You killed my family," Isabella said, her eyes narrowing as her fists clenched. "You orphaned me."
"I did," he said. "And then I sponsored General Maybourne. Everything that has happened to you is, ultimately, my fault. I cannot apologize enough for what I've done. I can only say...I did the first out of foolishness, and the second in an attempt to fix what I'd done before. I knew I was sacrificing a few to try to keep everyone free. I'm sorry you were one of them."
"Why? Why did you do...everything?" She shook her head angrily.
"I fought to take over the country for slavery because I thought I deserved to be on top. And then I fought against it because I realized anyone who believed that, didn't deserve it at all."
A door in the wall slid open, and Lieutenant Knox came in. "Echo Three, stand down," she said, gesturing with a collar-control remote.
"Let her kill me, Kimmy," Erik said.
"No. I need your help, actually, Erik. You are going to help set up the Black Hole for me," the lieutenant said.
"Oh? What for this time?" He paused for a moment, then grimaced. "Oh, shit. Dutch, right? Ew."
"Mayor Abercrombie isn't aware yet that Echo Three is here, but his tastes are known, so we should probably get things ready for him."
Holly winced. "Shit."
Isabella shrugged and sat next to Holly as Erik followed Lieutenant Knox out the door. "I've been through worse. Whatever it is."
The armored truck pulled into the garage, next to the stealthed hovercar that Echo Three had piloted over. General Archer stood quietly, waiting, as Lieutenant Rockwell popped out of the driver's seat and saluted.
"Oh, quit that, Artie," Dutch said as he climbed out of the passenger seat. Behind them, the garage door automatically closed. "How's it going, Alex?"
"Not bad, Dutch," the general said. "Lieutenant Rockwell, once you unload, go assist Lieutenant Knox. You're in room 3, Mayor Abercrombie is in room 4."
"Yes, sir," the lieutenant said, heading back to get their luggage.
"How's the outside going? I assume things have gone south badly if they're sending you here to hide," Archer said.
"It's a fucking mess, Alex," Dutch said as they passed through the storage room and into the lounge area. "We've put a media blackout on the recording, of course, but it's leaked on the undernet. We haven't been able to get the content firewalls up on the occupied territories yet, especially the Southwest. So it went viral throughout the west coast, and we're getting massive protests. Riots, even, in Albuquerque and Portland. And now it's leaking through into the rest of the country, and we're starting to get inklings of protest everywhere. Five thousand people tried to march in Chicago, until the Army came out to meet them."
"Jesus," Archer whispered. "No wonder they want you hidden."
"Yep. You and me are persona non grata for a while. Keep your nose down so that nobody can ask you any questions." Dutch flopped down on a couch with a sigh. "I wish I knew why she did it."
"You can ask her, if you want," Archer said, taking a seat across from his friend. "Not that it'll get you anywhere. Stubborn little bitch."
"She always was. That was why she was such a great assistant. The new one's a spineless idiot who deserves a collar."
"I do have a present for you, though," Archer said with a smile.
"Oh?" Dutch said with a raised eyebrow. "Something that'll distract me from taking my frustrations out on Holly?"
"I believe so." He leaned in close. "We caught Echo Three. She's in Pit A now. Knox is getting the Black Hole ready for you right now."
Dutch sat back with a huge smile on his face. "Really? The little Latina bitch?"
"Collared and ready. Caught her last night. Just be careful with her. The collar should neutralize her implants, but she's still a trained fighter."
"I'm sure I can handle her," Dutch said, rubbing his hands together.
"She should have gotten back to us by now," Phineas said as he paced the room. He hadn't slept at all, and it showed.
"Maybe..." Colin said, trailing off.
Phineas paused, sighing. "They caught her, didn't they?"
"Or..." Colin paused again.
"I know. I have to believe they caught her. And then...well, she can escape from them."
"She can try, certainly," Colin said.
Phineas sighed. "Still nothing on comms. Satellite pass in 5 minutes, maybe we'll get something out of it."
"Sure, let's go see," Phineas said. Colin followed him into the control room.
They sat and watched silently as the communication system remained silent. After a few minutes, the screen flashed as the satellite image came in.
"Hovercar's gone," Phineas said.
"So either the radio's out and she's on her way back," Colin said.
"...Or she's been captured and they moved it into the building," Phineas said.
"Zoom in there?" Colin said, gesturing toward the image.
Phineas spun some dials, focusing in on the ridge that Isabella had been planning to land behind. "Looks like a trail leading from there to the garage area," Phineas said. "Like..."
"Like they captured the hovercar too," Colin said.
"Fuck," Phineas said.
"I'm sorry, Ms. Doofenshmirtz. This comes directly from the Prime Minister herself," the Minister of National Defense said. "We cannot risk angering the Americans right now. They're already making noises about us 'kidnapping' their citizens, so if any Canadian soldiers were caught in American territory..."
Vanessa glared at the man. It wasn't his fault, she knew, he was just telling her what he'd been told, but that didn't make it any better.
"They kidnapped one of my scientists," she said bitterly.
"I know. And I've let the PM know that I think this war is coming sooner rather than later. Especially with this latest leak about the Council of Sanford."
Vanessa raised an eyebrow. "You knew about the Council?"
"Of course we did. But there wasn't a damn thing we could do about it. Now that it's been leaked in a way that's hard to dispute, though, they're going to start panicking. The American people are demanding an end to wartime restrictions as it is, and now this...the best way to shut it down is a war. We cannot give them an excuse. It's bad enough that the expat went back using Canadian resources."
"So we try to push back the war indefinitely?"
"We try to push it back until we're ready." The minister sat back, running his fingers through his greying black beard. "I feel a bit like Chamberlain some days."
"I wasn't about to comment on the resemblance," Vanessa said with a snide smile.
The minister acknowledged that with a chuckle. "The thing is - Chamberlain wasn't entirely wrong. He could have handled it better, and I think the PM is doing so. But Britain wasn't ready for a war then, and pushing too hard may have meant they lost it all. So we're trying not to provoke the Americans, while we prepare for the war everybody knows is coming. The Mexican alliance is still fragile but improving. The Europeans have offered support but they don't think it'll be necessary. We're caught between a rock and a hard place." He looked up at her with a sad smile. "I'm sorry, Ms. Doofenshmirtz. I know that your significant other and your employee are prisoners of the Americans right now. But I have the entire population of Canada to look out for, and right now, the best thing for all of us is to leave them there."
"Thank you for your candor, Minister," she said, standing up.
"We're going to need your help for this, Ms. Doofenshmirtz," he said as he stood as well. "All of Captain Desjardins's platoon has volunteered for Obelisk enhancement."
"Doofenshmirtz Biosciences will be ready to gear them up, Minister."
"You. Come with me," a young man with lieutenant's bars said, gesturing to Isabella.
With a sigh, she stood up. I wonder if they were telling the truth about the collar being able to detect my implants being activated, she wondered. With her implants live, she could certainly take this lieutenant down without a problem. Without them...she eyed him as she approached. It'd be a lot closer, certainly. And if he, or anyone watching through the ubiquitous cameras, could activate a shocker in her collar that would bypass the implants, then she wouldn't stand a chance.
Better to bide her time for now until a better opportunity presented itself.
They left the lounge, passed through the dining area, and entered through the door to what Holly had said were the labs. "Turn around," the young man said. She did, and felt the cold steel of handcuffs on her wrists as they were ratcheted closed, biting into her skin. He turned her around roughly and attached a leash to her collar.
The lab area lounge was large and unoccupied, but she didn't get much chance to look at it before he dragged her through another door into a hallway. He badged-and-palmprinted through a door at the end, then led her down another short hall to a door labelled "Black Hole". Instead of badging through, he pressed the annunciator button just above the palmpad.
The door slid open, revealing a darkened room beyond. "Send her in," Mayor Abercrombie's voice said. The lieutenant unclipped the leash, grabbed her arm, and gave her a shove through the door. It closed behind her, plunging the room into darkness.
"I've been waiting for this a long time," the mayor said from somewhere ahead of her. "In here...you're mine."