Tom Brand Escapes

10-Escapes NJ

"You need to evacuate the building immediately," Brand said as he skidded into the room.

Only Kate reacted. She bolted straight up from her chair, "What's happened?" she asked.

"It's the orbs. At least six have made land and are seeking targets. One is forming a bomb right outside this building."

"Ensign, restrain this man and Ms. Peele while we check this out," the Lieutenant said.

"Listen to him," Kate pleaded. "One of the orbs destroyed my boat in minutes."

As the ensign turned toward him, Brand hauled off and punched her directly in the face. He grabbed her gun as she went down. The Lieutenant pulled out his gun and trained it on Brand. Brand pointed the seized gun at the Lieutenant. It was a Beretta 92A1.

"I told you I liked it," he said.

"Put the gun down right now or I'll shoot you," the Lieutenant said.

Suit Man edged toward the door and quickly opened it.

Brand took one step in the same direction.

"No way you're getting out of here," the Lieutenant warned.

"Go check," Brand said to Suit Man, not taking his eyes off the Lieutenant. "But do it fast because we don't have much time."

The door clicked shut as Suit Man slipped out. Brand and the Lieutenant continued to size each other up but neither made a move.

Then there was a faint buzzing sound and the lights flickered and then went out, throwing the room into pitch darkness. Brand dove to the side just as the Lieutenant began to fire. The flash provided just enough light for Brand to see his position. He smashed him against the wall and the Lieutenant crumpled to the ground. Dragging him by the collar, he yelled for Kate to join him at the door. When it opened again, the Suit was standing there, his hand still outstretched to grab the handle. Brand put the gun to his forehead.

"Get him outside," Brand said to Suit Man. He flung the Lieutenant's inert body at him. The man nodded and began to drag him down the hall.

"Go with them," he ordered Kate.

Brand went back inside, grabbed the ensign and threw her over his shoulder. He ran down the hall toward the exit. Outside, Petras had already led the group away from the building. A high pitched sound filled the air as the Base Commander drove up and screeched to a halt beside them.

"We're under attack," he said to Brand and Petras. "Is there anything else you can tell us about these things?"

"I think they are being launched from a boat or ship nearby," said Brand. "Do you have air support?"

"I was calling it in when we lost communications." The Commander scanned the sky. "They'll come, but they were out on exercises. I don't know if they'll make it before these things detonate. Are these the same orbs that you described?"

Brand nodded. 

"We abandoned ship within five minutes of its transformation. It was about another five minutes until it blew. We were just out of range." 

Brand looked at Leah. "I have an idea."

Brand grabbed Leah around her waist and lifted her up. He began to run back toward the building.

"What are you doing?" Kate screamed after him. "You'll be blown to bits."

Brand kept running. When he got to the orb, now a fully formed disk that was counting down, he stopped below it and pinned Leah to the wall with his arm. She struggled to get away.

"You're crazy. You're going to kill us!" She continued to fight and he stayed her knees with his legs.

Brand put his face close to hers. "I don't think so Leah, and neither do you. You knew the disk was counting down. You said so. And just when we were out of range, the ship blew. We were just out of harm's way. You sat in the back of the raft. I thought you were frightened but you didn't need to look. You knew exactly what was going to happen, didn't you?"

She would not meet his gaze. Brand grasped Leah's chin and turned her face to him. 

"Didn't you?"

"Okay, okay," she said. "There's no reason to scream in my face."

"How are they tracking you Leah?"

"There's nothing you can do about it."

Brand punched the wall next to her head. She flinched.

"How?" .

"It's an RFID."

Brand began to search her. 

"It's no use. I told you. It's....internal. It was implanted in my upper thigh when I was nineteen. They forced me. There's nothing to be done."

"It's not possible," Brand said, "The range on those aren't more than 1,000 feet."

Leah shook her head,  "It combines RFID and nano technology. The tag and the reader frequency synchronize in increments around a fixed frequency. The reader tracks the difference. It increases the range tenfold. They can locate my position over three kilometers."

Brand held her fast to the wall. "If you're valuable enough of an asset to chip, I'm betting they're not going to blow you up." 

"I don't know about that, Brand. They can only be pushed so far. They have ten other assets with skills as good as mine."

The disk emitted a short, sharp sound and the blue light dimmed. From his peripheral vision Brand could see Petras approaching cautiously. 

Leah squirmed, "You're hurting me."

"Stop resisting and you won't get hurt. I want to make sure they know exactly where you are."

"Petras," Brand called over his shoulder, "What do you think?"

"You may be onto something but we don't know all of the orb's capabilities. It's pretty risky."

Kate came running up and stopped next to Petras, both just a few yards short of them.

"They have a couple of walkies that are still working, Brand. One of the ships reported that the disk dimmed and turned green."

Brand looked up. The disk above their heads was now glowing a steady green.

"It looks like it's working," Petras said.

Suddenly, Kate doubled over. Petras reached for her. Leah went limp. Brand caught her up in his arms as she slid to the ground. Brand turned and looked out over the field. An ensign had collapsed as well and Suit Man was attending to her. 

A wave of nausea hit Brand and his vision began to blur. He sank to his knees. He watched the Commander, Suit Man, and the Coastie regulars who had gathered, topple over one by one. Petras' eyes rolled back in his head as he fell beside Kate. Brand placed Leah down just in time to avoid crushing her as he crashed to the ground.