White Lion Rising

Chapter 8

A massive explosion lit up the satellite image of Plaça de les Glòries. Xavi's eyes widened as he watched the second and third drone Hellfire missiles strike, explode, and destroy the battle droid, releasing a massive mushrooming cloud of fire and ash into the night sky. He collapsed into his padded, metallic command chair and stared at the center screen of the command center, dreading the thought that Lleó had been killed. All in the room were quiet as they watched the rockets from the droid's two mounted, multiple missile launchers ignite, discharge, or launch–sending red lines of fire in all directions around the plaza–and collide into and demolish the windows, balconies, floors, and roofs of several surrounding buildings.

Junichi looked over to Xavi, stood up from his workstation, approached him, and placed his hand on his shoulder to comfort him through losing his young friend. Moments passed. A thick, somber air consumed the command center. There were no whispers, no talk, and no thought of what to have made of this first but failed mission of Lleó Two-Six. Junichi inhaled deep into his lungs, let out the tight air within his chest, and watched as the rising smoke from the scene began to clear due to a sudden gust of wind from the sea. He listened to the radio, only hearing static, and saw the data of Lleó's vital signs on another screen frozen from the moment of the first Hellfire missile impact into the battle tank droid. All communication with the exoskeleton cycle's computer had been severed.

But a dark object moved there at the northeastern exit of Gran Via. "What? What is that?" he asked as he pointed to the moving object on the center screen.

Xavi straightened his back and looked to where Junichi was pointing. "What? I don't see anything."

Junichi took a few steps toward the screen and pointed directly at the moving object.

"Can we zoom in?" Xavi requested.

"Yes, sir," replied a voice from one of the command center's personnel.

The satellite image began to zoom in on the northeastern exit. And there, through the gusts of black smoke, they saw several large, burnt metallic sheets and plating covering a crater moved abruptly by something beneath. The satellite image magnified the hole surrounded by piles of bent and distorted iron beams that seemed to have been thrown about like matchsticks. A seared plate was thrust suddenly from the crater.

Xavi stood up and approached the large screen with squinting eyes, trying to determine what was causing the movement within that smoldering crater.

Another plate was lifted and fell back and away, revealing the cycle's rear wheel attached to the upper armored back of Lleó's powered exoskeleton.

"I can't believe it!" Xavi cried. "That's him! He's alive! That–that crazy bastard," he said, relieved as he watched the burnt and damaged exosuit begin to step up along the rocky slope of the crater and onto the street. He could see the lights of many apartments all along Gran Via beginning to turn on in the aftermath of the explosion.

"White Lion Two-Six, do you copy, over?" Xavi said into the static of his radio transmitter. "White Lion Two-Six, do you copy, over?" he repeated. "Switch to the satphone and see if we can establish a link," he commanded.

"Yes, sir," another voice called, confirming that he would initiate the request.

"White Lion Two-Six, do you copy, over? White Lion, we have visual, over. We have visual. What is your status? Damage assessment requested. We have lost the link to exo's COM, over."

"Repeat, over," a young voice called back.

As soon as Lleó's voice was heard, the command center erupted into a roar of shouts and applause.

"White Lion Two-Six," he smiled. "This is Red Cross One-Eight. We have lost the link to exo's COM. Damage assessment requested, over."

"The exoframe has sustained significant damage," the line then crackled, "but actuator cylinders and servomotors are in order. Primary cells–forty percent. COM reads that I can exit the station and cycle back, over."

"Exit and cycle to one-one-nine T, over," Xavi ordered.

"Will exit and cycle," Lleó complied. "White Lion Two-Six, over and out."

"Over and out," he said, looking at Junichi with a grin and shutting off his satphone link. Relieved, he looked down, relaxed his shoulders, shook his head, and muttered, "What he did was impossible."

"Not for a cybernetic," Junichi reminded him.

Xavi's brow furrowed as he thought of the day he would need to explain to Lleó the truth of what they had done to him. He walked to his command chair, sat down, took his old, blue mug from the stainless-steel counter, and leaned back into his seat. He took a sip, looked at the center screen, and watched the exoframe transform into a leaner, electrically powered stealth motorcycle. He saw a cloud of white vapor smoke up around the rear tire. The cycle's rear began to turn toward the center of the wrecked street as white smoke smoldered from the burnout, leaving an arced skid mark. The motorcycle then shot forward and sped instantly down a three-lane road partially enclosed by a decades-old three-kilometer reinforced concrete overhang.

Agitated, he scratched the mole beneath his eye and mumbled, "It has begun."