chAPTER 15

Brandon's buddies were knee-deep in their own crap by the time I could catch up with them. They apparently had had the misfortune of thinking that the truck would be an easy pick. Thing was, there was backup all too close for the former members of Humanity to handle. Which was why I was here.

I dropped down and hit the nearest DUP soldier with a punch blast, knocking him into his friend. As soon as the other soldiers saw me, they began focusing their fire on me, assuming that I would be the biggest threat. For once, I looked forward to proving them right. I dove right in, letting my fists do the talking while also keeping ranged attackers at bay with electricity bolts. A bullet whizzed by my head and I ducked instinctively. Then I remembered the bag on my back, and silently cursed myself. Running to a side alley, I dropped the bag in the dumpster before jumping back into the fray and continuing the brawl. A part of me wished I had the Amp, but I knew I'd be fine as long as I continued knocking heads like this.

The fight lasted a couple of minutes, since a radio man was able to call in more backup, but we were finally able to clear the DUP from the area. I returned to the dumpster where I had left the bag and brought it to one of the Truth's guys. "Put this in the truck," I ordered. "I don't want these uniforms shot all to hell before we get the chance to use them." The guy nodded and ran to the truck, and I turned to another one standing nearby. "You any good at driving?"

"Yeah, you could say that," he replied confidently.

"Okay, you're in the driver's seat. Don't stop for anything, got me?" he nodded and jogged over to the truck, and I jumped up onto the roof. After that fight, I didn't want to risk losing this thing to a DUP counterattack.

It turned out my instincts were right, as no sooner had we left the scene of the battle than had the DUP showed up again, guns blazing. I fired back as the truck sped up, praying to whatever God there might be that the guy up front knew what the hell he was doing. Luckily, he seemed to actually be a pretty good driver, and knew DC pretty well. He was able to use alleyways and shortcuts to lose the first group of vehicles.

Unfortunately, another group almost instantly took the first's place. A jeep led two trucks in a chase against us, making the evasive maneuvers of the driver more desperate, which in turn threw off my aim. One such lurch threw me off-balance, sending me toward the rear. I grabbed the hold bar at the back before I could be thrown completely off and managed to regain my balance, only to see two soldiers in the back of the jeep taking aim at me. I fired a rocket at them, but the DUP driver swerved and dodged it, giving the soldiers the time they needed to open fire. I threw myself around the side of the truck and took cover from the bulletstorm, waiting for my opportunity. When the firing stopped, I popped my head around from cover and let out a stream of bolts aimed at the pursuing jeep, hitting the grill and making the engine sputter and die. The driver of the jeep hit the brake and pulled to the right, but the guy behind him reacted too slowly, crashing into him and causing a slight DUP pileup.

With the momentary respite, I phoned Brandon. "Okay, we've got the truck. We're on our way now."

"No no no no no! Don't bring it here!"

"Why not?" I demanded.

"Look, the less of a target the station is, the better. Besides, I don't have the equipment to fix it up."

"So what the hell am I supposed to do with this thing?" I yelled as I started firing at yet another group of vehicles that came right for us.

"I don't know! Just don't bring it here!"

I ended the call in frustration and went back to firing at the trucks. If the Truth wouldn't take it, who would? Sighing, I called Mendoza. "MacGrath, what the hell is going on out there?" she demanded.

"Long story," I replied quickly. "Look, I've got a DUP truck I need to store somewhere. Does DARPA have any garages anywhere?"

"What? Uh, I guess."

"Okay. Well, I need to know where it is. Sometime in the next ten seconds."

"Okay, okay, okay. Um…. There's one on West Market and Sunset. Just don't bring the DUP."

"Got it. Thanks." I hung up and made my way to the front of the truck, knocking on the glass. The driver rolled down the window and I informed him of our destination. Suddenly, the corner of the building we were driving past exploded in a cloud of dust. I whipped my head to the source. Another tank. Letting go of the truck, I rolled on the ground to a stop, then turned to face the tank. It rolled forward menacingly, it's cannon aimed right for me. Then it stopped, the air in the street suddenly getting thick.

Nothing happened for a few moments. I breathed shallowly, pumping as much adrenaline into my body as I could. As soon as I heard the muffled "Fire!" from inside the tank, I put as much energy as I could into a blast, which resulted in a shockwave barreling toward the tank. The cannon fired immediately afterward, but the shot was caught up in the shockwave and missed me by a large margin. Not giving the tank time to reload, I ran forward, hoping to catch them off guard. A hatch toward the front of the tank opened and a soldier popped out and grabbed the mounted machine gun, immediately taking aim and firing at me. I put up a frost shield to block the bullets and fired a bolt at the soldier which hit him square in the head. He slumped back into the tank and I jumped to where he had been, hoping to test out something I had been working on recently. I formed a lightning grenade in my hand and dropped it into the tank, hoping that it would work. The grenade went off, frying the systems of the tank while immediately restraining the soldiers inside. I grinned, glad that it actually had worked.

I ran after the truck, hoping it was still in one piece, and found it at Market and Sunset being guided in by Heller. Mendoza was there, too, her arms crossed as she watched the scene. I jogged up to her and watched the truck being lifted on the stilts. "Your friend called us," she said. "Told us about his plan. It's risky, but if it works, we might actually get Nix out of there alive."

"He give you any details on it?" I asked.

"He wants us to outfit the truck with the same dampeners that are in our chopper. That way, you can ride in it safely. They're going to pretend they captured you and drive you right in the front gate." I groaned slightly. Guess it made sense that Brandon wouldn't tell me about this part of the plan. "Once inside, you'll have to break free and find Nix, then get the both of you out of there."

I sighed. It was as good of a plan as any. "We're going to need a distraction," I replied, knowing full well that trying to break out of there without one would be the same as charging in. "Maybe Alden can help with that. Or Blake."

Mendoza nodded. "Okay, well it's going to take several hours to get everything ready, so why don't you head back to the warehouse and get some sleep?"

Inwardly, I had reservations about trying to sleep, but I figured it was better than waiting in the city for my head to be blown off. Plus, I'd finally be able to get out of this damned jersey. Leaving the DARPA agents to do their work, I ran back to the warehouse, hoping that tomorrow I could save my friend.