Turncoat: Turncoat Trilogy Book 1

Chapter 7.1

My feet hit the roof of the train and the world went sideways. Air exploded from my chest and a hand clamped down on my wrist. I looked up to see either Addison knelt next to my hand with their hand clamped on mine. “God, you’re a klutz,” Addison’s voice came over my communicator.

“Sorry, next time I have to jump onto a train, I’ll practice first,” I said.

“Vicki said you had a sense of humor,” she shrugged and pulled me up.

By the time I had my feet underneath me, Nick was on the roof with Addison and myself and the hovercraft peeled away, moving further down the train. The wind grabbed me and nearly threw me from the room again. A line of text scroll across the bottom of my goggles, magnets activated. Magnets in the feet of the jumpsuit would hold us to the roof of the train, which made a lot of sense.

I tightened my grasp on the fore grip on my rifle. Beneath my gloves, my hands felt unnaturally moist. The carbine felt unnaturally heavy. This was real. Real people were going to die and I could be one of them if I wasn’t careful. Nick clapped me on the shoulder and gave me a thumbs up. I returned the gesture with a nod and tucked the rifle butt into my shoulder.

They brought up their rifles and started moving forward, leaning into the wind so they could stay upright. My foot refused to move for a moment until I twisted and pulled. The wind nearly blew me back and I threw my foot forward, barely making it ten inches. We worked our way forward, each step a struggle forward. Eventually, we reached the middle of the car and circled around an emergency exit hatch. Nick knelt down grabbed the handle.

Addison pulled a grenade off her belt and looked up at me. “Let us handle the engineers and the hacker, once it’s clear, you get control of the train,” she instructed.

I nodded and the she pulled the pin on the grenade as Nick ripped the hatch open. She released the spoon on the grenade and I heard a soft counting in my communicator. When she reached three, she dropped the grenade in and followed in.

Nick followed her with a quick: “Close the hatch behind you!”

I grabbed the interior handle and broke magnetic contact with the roof before dropping into the engine. My boots hit the floor and a high pitched squeal exploded from my communicator. I doubled over, my hand going to my ear as I struggled to get a grip on the ear piece. In my haste to rip the malfunctioning equipment out of my ear, I loosened my gas mask. Why were my eyes beginning to sting? God, that hurt. Tears blurred my vision.

Muted pops came from over my head and I looked up, squinting through the pain in my eyes, to see two men falling to the ground. Smoke poured from the grenade canister in the corner of the car, filling the air with white-ish yellow smoke. The pain flared up and I crushed the mask against my face. I fumbled around trying to tighten the straps once more. Soon, I felt the edge of the mask smug against my face. I finally dug the communicator out of my ear and lay on the ground, coughing and hacking as my throat and nose burned.

“On the ground!” Nick barked. “On the ground!”

I pried my eyes open long enough to see him approaching a cowering figure. Addison stood a few feet away from Nick, her rifle trained on the cornered soldier. I’m not sure what happened next, but I heard thud and a cry of pain suddenly cut off followed by wheezing.

 “Restrain her!” Nick barked.

“Tawny!” I heard Nick shout. It sounded warped and disfigured through his mask. A hand touched my shoulder and I lifted my head. “What the hell happened to the comms?”

“The hacker reflected our signal creating a feedback loop,” I rasped.

“Can you shut it off?” he asked.

I brought my wrist interface up and ran a quick sweep for the equipment required to run the reflection program. I got a ping and looked over to the wall. A monitor sat there with a tablet hooked into it. “Destroy the tablet,” I wheezed. I could feel the tears streaming down my cheeks as the burning in my throat intensified. I had to get this stuff out of my eyes.

A few muted pops sounded and I hooked my communicator back over my ear. The squealing had quieted, leaving an empty communications line.

“Tawny? You good?” Addison asked. “I saw you go down.”

“Yeah,” I said.

“Good, get to work, you need to stop the train,” she said. “The engineers locked us out.”

I got to my feet and walked over to the control panels as Addison dragged someone across the car by their collar. I looked over to see a woman with blood running from her mouth and nose being zip tied to a chair. Addison turned the woman’s head and let it hang limp from her shoulders.

“Fire team beta, this is fire team alpha, come in,” Nick said.

Only silence came over the radio.

“Fire team beta, come in,” Nick repeated.

Silence.

“Fire team beta!” Addison snapped.