Rebel Heart

A few days ago, the day Arnie had locked himself in the hub. It was one of many messages her micro had decoded. There were messages from Mr. Tim mixed in with messages from General Greene.

She glanced up at the screen, feeling uneasy about reading messages the dead man had sent.

General Greene is leading the Western insurgency. More attack imminent. Send help. The words took her breath away. It had been addressed to the Peace Command Center-the site where peace had been declared and the new government created after the East-West Civil War-in Colorado. She punched the message closed and forwarded it to her micro before deleting it. Her gaze went to the general, who held tears in his eyes. The meds in her system, the weakness from her injury, the night itself was too much for her to digest fully. She discreetly began to dig through the other messages. With some dread, she hunched her shoulders to keep anyone from looking at her micro and opened those from Mr. Tim. Most were short phrases that looked like orders.

Attack imminent. Prepare, read the earliest one, sent the night he called to warn her. Peace CC is safest, read another. To her relief, nothing appeared too off with his messages, except the encryption. General Greene's messages, however, made her sick to her stomach.

Lana read through one detailing the intent to attack using a secret weapon. It didn't take much for her to realize he'd used one of the Horsemen. She stared for a long moment at the net code indicating that the receiver of the general's messages was located in the West Control Center. Elise had said the PMF soldiers were fighting alongside hers, and that they'd seen soldiers in Western uniforms. It wasn't just the injury and meds that made Lana's head spin.

General Greene spoke finally, his voice jarring her out of her thoughts. Lana locked her micro.

"Elise, I need a team to go down and test the air. I want to know what this is, where it came from," the general ordered. "Intel!"

"Sir!"

"Check your systems for threats, anything in the last twenty-four hours that seems out of place."

"Lana."

"Sir?"

"Stay here. Check all the systems and find that damn battalion we were expecting today!"

"Yes, sir."

"Everyone out."

Those in the room obeyed, too stunned to speak on their way out. Lana looked up at the scenes on the screens then at the general. He was peering closely at the people on the screen, as if trying to assess if there were any survivors.