Chapter Eight:

Finding the Truth

Gordon and Katie hopped the fence around the Turtle Cove EAGLE base and snuck up to the nearest wall, keeping to the shadows and hiding behind nearby crates.

"There should be an entrance right this way," Katie told him. Gordon followed her lead as she led him around the side and up to a door, carefully edging it open and peeking inside.

"What the hell?" Katie said.

"What is it?"

Gordon looked around her. Inside the base, he could see a mix of people walking about, some wearing the standard EAGLE uniform, while others wore the unmistakable uniform of the Black Cross.

"The Black Cross?" Gordon whispered. "What are they doing here?"

"I don't know," Katie said. "But I am going to find out."

She pulled Gordon back just as a pair of guards in Black Cross uniforms passed by. She watched them for a second before whispering, "Follow me. I have an idea."

She stealthily followed the soldiers around a corner, Gordon close behind. Once she was sure they were out of sight of anyone else, she grabbed one of the soldiers from behind, wrapping her arm around his neck and choking him out. Gordon followed her lead, grabbing the second soldier and doing the same. After a few seconds of struggle, he felt the soldier go limp in his arms and slump to the ground.

"Well, that was . . . violent," Gordon said, shaking his head and staring down at what he'd done.

"Hurry," Katie said. "Get their uniforms on."

She had already started stripping her soldier, revealing a young white guy with blonde hair. Gordon stripped his own, revealing a larger woman with a buzz cut and a tan. "Sorry about this," he whispered to her, pulling on her uniform. It was a little tight on him, but not too bad.

"Pull them out of the way," Katie said, strapping the soldier's gun around her shoulder and grabbing the guy by the arm, pulling him down a little way to a small alcove.

Gordon grabbed his own soldier's arm and collected her weapon, pulling her to the same alcove and feeling distinctly uncomfortable. Once they were stashed, Katie straightened up, adjusting her uniform, and said, "Let's go."

Gordon followed her back around the corner and in through the door. "Walk with purpose," Katie whispered as they entered the facility, passing EAGLE and Black Cross soldiers alike. Gordon did so, following Katie as she led him down a long hall and around a corner.

"The computer room should be about here," she said, turning toward an open door.

They were about to walk right in when Katie drew in a sharp breath and pulled back, grabbing Gordon and pulling him with her. Both peered in to find an older man in a general's uniform standing before a computer with some schematics on it, talking to an assistant.

"Is everything ready for tomorrow?" he asked. "I want to be sure before I catch my flight."

"Yes, General Hallstrom," the assistant said. "The machines are ready, and our virus is set."

"General Hallstrom," Katie whispered. "I knew it had to be someone with a lot of pull."

"Who's General Hallstrom?" Gordon asked.

"He's one of the top brass at EAGLE," Katie said. "One of the higher ups we're always talking about."

"He's working with the Black Cross?"

"He must be." Katie shook her head. "I need to get to that computer he's using. That one will be powerful enough to wipe out the virus and get me into the morpher's system."

Gordon squinted at it, then down at his Black Cross uniform.

"I have an idea," he said. "Stay back."

"What?"

"Stay back."

Gordon ran in place for a couple of seconds, getting himself breathing a little heavy. Then he clutched his gun and ran into the room. "General Hallstrom, sir!" he shouted.

The general looked up at him, a little surprised. "What is it, soldier?"

"Sir, we have reason to believe the rangers or their allies are inside the base."

"What?"

"We were on perimeter duty, sir, when we found a truck hidden in the tree line just outside of the west gate. It matches the description of a truck frequently seen on the Young property. We also found two sets of footprints leading from the truck to the gate."

The general looked at his assistant. He picked up a communicator and shouted into it, "I need two squads to my position immediately." He nodded to Gordon. "Take me there."

"Yes, sir," Gordon said.

He turned and led the general and his assistant from the room, passing Katie by on his way out. Katie acted like a surprised cadet, throwing herself at the wall to get out of their way.

"Good luck," Gordon whispered as he passed.

Katie smirked, watching them disappear around the corner. The new guy wasn't half bad. She slipped into the room and up to the computer, pulling out Josh's morpher and plugging it in. The first thing that happened upon her booting it up was the virus trying to attack its new connection. The computer's built-in security system met the virus at every turn, circumventing every attempt it made to affect the system. Katie set to work on her end, tackling the virus and killing it at its roots. The process took several minutes, which made her glad that the computer was facing the exit.

Finally, Katie deactivated the last bug she could find and the computer beeped loudly, a pop-up appearing letting her know that its security system did not detect any further viruses. "Yes!" she said, pumping her fist. She took a breath for a second and looked over her work proudly. "Now, what did Dayton download?"

She set to work again, this time pulling up the recent downloads, finding a single file sent from Dayton's morpher. "There we go." She clicked on it, and a document sprang to life.

Katie stumbled back upon reading it. There, in black and white, was the same exact document that the news had reported on a few hours before, detailing a plan by EAGLE to manufacture a new threat solely to keep the Power Rangers relevant. And there, plain as day, were the names Joshua Cage and Daniel Kuchar listed as spearheading the project.

Katie shook her head, tears welling in her eyes, a million thoughts running through her head. For just a moment, she even started to believe that the person she loved was actually capable of doing such a thing.

Then she stopped. She closed her eyes and cleared her head. She knew who Joshua was. She knew why he fought and why he'd become a ranger in the first place. She knew he could never do such a thing in a hundred years. There had to be some trick. Something she was missing. She stepped back up to the computer and started looking once again.

She checked every facet of the file that she could, checking for any irregularities. Finding nothing on the surface level, she typed in the command to pull up the file's code. And there it was, sticking out like a sore thumb. Programmed into the file's code was a command set to activate if the file was ever downloaded by a strange device, to first unleash a virus on the device's operating system, and second to overlay the file with a decoy file. It was a fairly cheap espionage tactic, one she'd seen before and one that any EAGLE technician worth their salt would have checked for immediately.

Unless they didn't want to find it.

Katie scowled at the door through which General Hallstrom left. She tapped on the computer, stripping away the fake file and restoring the true one, pulling it up to see what Dayton actually found.

And there it was. Katie searched through the file, finding blueprints for each and every machine they had faced so far, and even some they hadn't, all listed under codenames: KILLER, DRILL, MITE, GUN, WRESTLER, all the way down to the most recent, SCRAP. She also found a series of correspondences between General Hallstrom and Ivan Callahan going back over a year, detailing a plan to discredit the Power Rangers, creating a false threat and framing them for it, only for the Black Cross to swoop in and save the day, becoming the new heroes in the eyes of the people. Everything fell into place in Katie's head: the meeting with Callahan, his tip, the base, and the file. It had all been bait, and the team had fallen for it.

She glanced up at the door again. She needed to find Gordon. They had to get out of here. She made to unplug the morpher, but stopped, thinking better of it. She quickly made a copy of the file, sans virus, but with evidence of the decoy file still in the code. She then sent that copy off to an e-mail she knew she could trust with it. She then unplugged the morpher and stashed it in her pocket, just as the door flew open and an armed soldier ran into the room.

"Stay back!" she said, jumping back from the monitor and leveling her gun at the newcomer.

The soldier stopped and raised his hands. "Don't shoot," he said. He carefully raised his mask to reveal Gordon's face underneath. "It's me."

Katie lowered her gun. "Gordon?"

"Yeah. We have about two minutes to get out of here. I gave them a bit of a runaround."

"Good," Katie said. "I'm finished here. I know what's going on."

"You do."

"Yeah. But we'll talk about it later. First, let's go."

Before the pair could take a single step, the lights went out in the base, plunging them into darkness. Gordon and Katie froze, looking around as the four screens inside the room kicked on one by one. Each one displayed the same image, Ivan Callahan sitting on one side, surrounded by his troops, while the other side showed the inside of the Young family kitchen, Katie's mother, father, and little brother bound tightly and surrounded by four machines, the big one with the claw, which she remembered had the codename KILLER, holding its sharp edge to Taran's throat.

Katie swallowed. "No," she whispered.

"This message is for Gordon Cherry and Katie Young," Callahan said from four different directions. "We gather from your absence here that you are now somewhere inside the Turtle Cove EAGLE base, looking for answers. We do not wish to fight you, and we do not wish to do this family any harm. Please, give yourselves up and hand yourselves over to General Hallstrom within the next five minutes, or else, things might get messy."

As he spoke, the robot named KILLER tightened its grip, Taran struggling against it, a tiny drip of blood leaking from his throat. Gordon felt Katie's body tense up beside him.

"Better hurry," Callahan said.

Gordon and Katie looked at each other. Katie shook her head and said, "I can't, Gordon."

Gordon nodded. "I understand."

He raised his hand and pulled the mask up off of his face. Katie did the same. She gave him a grateful smile, and Gordon nodded in return. They both heard the sounds of soldiers hurrying down the hallway outside and turned as one, raising their hands in surrender.

A squad of soldiers burst into the room, led by General Hallstrom. The general stopped short, surprised to see them there. Then, after the momentary shock had subsided, a cruel smirk crossed his face. He raised a small communication device and switched it on. "Sir, we have them."

"Prompt," Callahan said on the screen. "A wise choice." He nodded to the camera, and the robots on the other screen lowered their weapons, releasing Katie's family and stepping back. The family quickly huddled together, her mom doing her best to examine Taran's cut.

"General Hallstrom," Callahan continued. "If you'd please take our guests into custody."

"Yes, sir," the general said. He gestured to his soldiers, who moved forward and surrounded the pair, pulling their arms behind their backs and cuffing them.

"I'm a big fan, Mr. Cherry," Hallstrom said. "I had a couple of bets out on you. I hope you'll forgive me for this."

Gordon looked at him in confusion for a second before feeling a sharp rap on the back of his head, knocking him out cold.