Remembrance

Chapter 1 - Jack

"We call him Khan." 

Luke glances back at the club, and I see him make eye contact with the tough-looking man behind the bar. "We don't know much, but he's a new high-ranking Insec officer." Luke leans forward, his eyes quickly darting around. "He's apparently young—only a few years older than us, and some sort of tactical genius."

Kadir nonchalantly flips his hand in the air. "Those armbands are keeping everything really under wraps, though. We've tried, but no one even knows what he looks like." 

I lean back, idly fiddling with the smooth metal band resting on my finger. He might get carried away, but Luke was right about our messed-up brains: this ring is one of the many things I don't remember. I have no idea where it came from—not a clue—but I'd like to imagine it was somehow a gift from my parents. Better than anything else I can dream up. 

"Do you know anything about family? Training history? Where he came from?" I ask, leaning forward, trying to hear over the music. A small prick of pain runs through my shoulder at the move, but I try to ignore it. "If he's really that smart, he must've come up from one of the military academies, yeah? Andronicus, maybe."

"No," Kadir says, wiggling his eyebrows. "But give us some credit. We're sure he exists." 

Luke shakes his head, and the exhausted look starts to slowly creep back into his eyes. "Yeah. But we don't now anything else. He's really been pounding us into the ground. Did you hear about the raid in Denver, Jack? That was Khan. They got an entire group." He pauses. "Ray's already dead, apparently." 

I wince. Ray was one of the original Viztula members—I knew him back from the Orsus program—but neither Kadir nor I were as close to him as Luke. Still, he was a good kid. Always covered in freckles, I remember. 

"Halifax was talking about it all over the holoscreens," Luke continues. "We think he personally promoted Khan." 

I cross my arms at mention of that name. Serjev Halifax. Officially, he's the Undersecretary for Public Security, reporting directly to the enlightened Viceroy himself. Really, it means that he's in charge of keeping everyone in line. That way, things don't spiral out of control until we win the war—which sounds, according to his appearances on the massive holoscreens lining the streets, like it could happen any day now. Either way, he's holding the hatchet when it finally swings down on your neck. Military police? Insec? They're just the head of the axe. 

I wait for Luke to continue, and that's when I finally understand how bad things have become.

"It's over," he slowly says, as if he doesn't believe it himself. "Markus made the official announcement last week. We've lost, and we're pulling everyone out. Either to the outer planets or to Mars." 

I glance at Kadir, waiting for him to tell me that this is some big joke. Instead, he glances down at the  table, not meeting my gaze. 

I can't help but shake my head. I never joined Viztula—despite an annoying number of requests—but they always seemed to have some mysterious ability to survive. Anytime their name started to dwindle in the street chatter, or their insignia started to disappear from its place covertly spray-painted on buildings, they'd do something else. And then everyone would again be consumed with news about Viztula until their next big stunt. 

April also looks shocked by the information, and she's not even as close to them as me. I probably know at least a half of their members, including all the originals—all the guys from Orsus, like Luke and Kadir. 

"In two months, we'll be gone," Kadir nods, his voice unusually low. "Luke's right. Whoever he is, Khan's already won. Viztula's completely dried up."