rebel-heart by Rakhibul hasan (best contemporary novels txt) 📖

have much ammo.”

“Live a little, Elise,” Dan said with a smile. “This is what we call fun. Right, Brady?” “Right,” Brady agreed and started down the tunnel.

They walked for two hours without running into any tunnels branching off from the main one. “We’re about to walk under the next town,” Elise said with a glance at her micro.

“Is there an emerops facility here?” Brady asked. The tunnel widened, and his pace slowed as he saw another tunnel intersect it.

“No. Next town.”

“What is this?” Dan murmured.

Brady reached the intersection and saw the tunnel running perpendicular opened into a crowded underground city. Four-story buildings had been built to the ceiling, flanking a narrow pathway and canal of water, siphoned from the Mississippi. The buildings held lights and people, and the canal curved to the left, hiding the size of the city.

“We don’t have anything this elaborate where we are from,” Dan said. “This is a bunker city.”

Brady stepped into the bustling world. By the level of activity and sophistication, he judged this place had been used for longer than the past few weeks. He was more intrigued by the sight of soldiers in PMF grays as well as those in the regular military’s black uniforms. He slung his weapon over his shoulder as they walked deeper into the underground city. They received some curious looks from the inhabitants. None approached, until one of the PMF soldiers caught his eye.

Brady stopped and waited for the soldier to approach. The soldier looked over his subdued rank then at Dan and Elise.

“Welcome, sir,” he said. “May I escort you to our commander?” “Please,” Brady replied. “This place is incredible.”

The soldier flashed a smile as he started down the narrow pathway lining the canal. “Did I see regular army-types with PMF?” Dan asked.

“Yes, sir. We are all that’s holding the world together along the river. We combined our headquarters in Arkansas, too. The surge of refugees created a problem and we heard … well, we heard the rest of the country was destroyed,” the soldier answered.

“Not destroyed. Everything west of the river is fine. Everything east of here is a disaster,” Elise said. “No one who went west returned,” the soldier said with a curious look at her. “We assumed the

worst.”

Brady’s eyes took in the occupants of the underground world. The strain was visible in the faces of many, though those he saw were in good health and fed. The city seemed to be over capacity, with people seated outside the buildings and even more packed inside.

The soldier led them up a set of stairs winding around smaller buildings and into a building apart from the rest. He knocked on the door briskly and opened the door, motioning Brady in.

“Charlie,” Brady said as he took in the familiar commander seated at a table. The quarters were small, with nothing more than a table, a few trunks, and a cot.

“Brade!” the barrel-chested man replied, rising. “What a surprise to see you here! Shouldn’t you be back east, blowing up stuff?”

“Things went crazy,” Brady said and grunted as the large man squeezed him in a bear hug. “This is my team. You remember Dan. Elise is one of the fed’s special security types.”

Charlie greeted Dan and Elise then motioned for them to sit. Brady lifted his chin to the rest of their team, and they obediently left the commander’s small quarters.

“What brings you here?” Charlie asked, sitting on one of the trunks.

“We’re looking for someone,” Elise said and handed him her micro, which displayed Lana’s picture. “This little girl again,” Charlie said, studying it.

“What do you mean again?” Brady asked, exchanging a look with Dan.

“The feds and PMF headquarters both issued a priority one lookout for her. Neither said why. It’d be nice to know if she’s dangerous. There’s a hefty reward out for her, too.”

The way Charlie’s gaze glowed at the mention of the reward made Brady uneasy. He suspected General Greene had issued one lookout and Tim the other.

“We haven’t found her yet,” Charlie added. “But then again, there are so many refugees trickling into the cities along the river, it’s hard to say she’s not here. We’ve been rather cut off from the rest of the world. We formed our own networks along the river and joined forces with the Twelfth Army. They took up camp about a day south of here in Arkansas.”

“I heard they were headed back from Europe,” Elise said with a frown. “How did they end up here?”

“It wouldn’t surprise me if Tim re-routed them,” Brady said. “Greenie could’ve done a lot of damage with the Twelfth Army at his command.”

“We could’ve used some help.”

Brady glanced up at Elise’s hard tone, sensing she’d not yet absorbed the fact the government she served had splintered.

“What’s done is done,” he said. “We gotta move forward.”

“This is forward?” Charlie asked, tapping the screen of Elise’s micro before handing it back. “Seems an odd mission for someone of your rank, Brade, unless you lost that integrity of yours and are just after the money like I am.”

“I still got it and you still don’t. I think that’s why they stuck you in Arkansas,” Brady said. His gaze lingered on the picture of Lana. It was a recent picture, and she was smiling, her dark eyes dancing. “It’s an important mission.”

“Ah, I see,” Charlie said. “A little toy for you, I take it.”

Brady looked up. Charlie’s gaze was amused, though he said nothing of Brady’s long look at the picture. Brady began to recall why he never liked Charlie that much in the first place. It had nothing to do with Charlie illicitly selling PMF weapons overseas. It was Charlie’s seedy character that disturbed Brady. The thought of his Angel in Charlie’s reach infuriated Brady.

“Rest assured we haven’t seen her. I’m assuming she’s a fed. She’s not going to know about the underground railroad. You came from Texarkana?” Charlie asked.

“We did,” Dan answered. “She can locate and open the federal emergency supply depots. We’re trying to figure out which path she took. We thought she would be in one of them or at least, would’ve left some sign she was.”

“The supply depots we found open this morning?” “That would be them.”

“These are the ones we searched.” Charlie pulled up a geospatial depiction on his micro and passed it to Brady. “None of these had been touched in years, from what we can tell. There was one in Randolph, according to our patrols, but the people discovered it a few weeks ago and have been using the supplies. North of Randolph, we have no idea.”

Brady studied the map. There were five within two days of the underground city. He passed it to Elise, who looked at the sites Tim had identified.

“You found all but two,” Dan said, looking over Elise’s shoulder. “So we have three to check in the box we identified, if we include the one in Randolph.”

“This definitely helps. Can you contact us if you find anything else?” Brady asked. “Of course. You all are welcome to stay here for the night.”

“We can’t stop,” Elise said.

“Then you’re welcome to supplies.” “We’re fine.”

Brady looked at her pointedly, and she crossed her arms.

“If you can spare someone to guide us to the first of the emerops facilities, we’d appreciate it,” Dan said. “Or send several and take whatever looters haven’t gotten to.”

“Deal,” Charlie said. “Good luck finding your girl, Brade.”

“Thanks, Charlie,” Brady said. He ignored the loaded words, rising instead. Charlie stood and opened the door, speaking to the soldier outside.

“What do you think?” Dan asked, gazing at the micro. “These two are about fifty kilometers apart in different directions.”

“We’ll have to split up,” Brady answered. “You and Elise take this one in the south. I’ll take the northern one. We can meet up tomorrow at Randolph, unless you can’t run that fast.”

“Damn right I can run that fast,” Dan said. “Elise won’t let me stop.” “Not until we find Lana,” Elise said.

“Tony here will take you out of the catacombs,” Charlie said, returning his attention to them. “Which direction do you want to go?”

“We’re splitting up. One north, one south,” Brady answered.

“Tony will go north. I’ll pull in someone to go south. Whoever is ready, go with Tony.” “Thanks, Charlie,” Brady said. “When we find her, we’ll be in touch again.”

“We’ll keep looking until then. A lot of money up for grabs, Brady.”

Brady signaled to the two team members going with him then looked to Tony. The soldier led them down to the canal. Brady couldn’t help the feeling that they were still shooting in the dark. There was no way to know where Lana was; he had to hope to stumble upon her. He followed Tony through the underground world and up to the town above. The sky was dark, the stars bright without competition from man-made lighting in the streets. He breathed deeply, not realizing how musty the underground world was until he breathed fresh air.

On instinct, Brady opened the channel to Lana’s net. After a brief hesitation, he spoke. “If you’re there, I’m coming for you. Just give me some sort of sign you’re out there.”

Chapter Fifteen

“SO WE’VE DETERMINED YOU have no physical coordination or skills. You don’t cook, either.” Lana flushed at the matter-of-fact tone Mike, Kelli’s husband, took. The towering, slender man was

looking over a list with a frown.

“We have a lot of things we need people to do, but you possess virtually no skills. If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were a fed.”

“She’s a student,” Kelli said. “Your family must’ve saved their whole lives to send you.” “I’m not sure where to put her,” her husband said with a frown.

“I was a technology major,” Lana offered, unaccustomed to feeling skills sought after by feds were inadequate everywhere else. “You said you have a generator you need help fixing, right?”

“You can’t do anything else.” Mike smiled to soften the words. “We have someone from Harvard here who can’t figure out the generator. But, if it’ll keep you busy …” His look was doubtful.

“She made it across Tennessee,” Kelli pointed out. “She’s got something in that head of hers.” “Give it a try.”

“Thank you,” Lana said awkwardly, recalling Elise’s words that she’d never make it on the outside. She wasn’t certain what kind of skills these people had that she didn’t.

“We’ll think of something,” Kelli said as they walked down the street. “I don’t think you can fix the generator, so don’t worry about it if you can’t. If you didn’t notice, we have no technology here outside the hospital. We even had to learn to start fire from scratch.”

“I never thought the world would come to this,” Lana said. “Or there were people like you.” “You probably got some of that brainwashing in college,” Kelli said. “You were probably the only

non-elite there.”

“I was,” Lana agreed. “It’s a different world.” “At least we have a chance to start over.”

Lana gazed at her, unable to shake her surprise that those in this small community were the opposite of what she expected.

“If everyone is reduced to the same level, it might help people remember we’re all the same,” Kelli added. “Do you think so?”

“I think the elite class will never understand that,” Lana said honestly. “There are good among them, but they just aren’t like … this.” She gazed around.

A handful of people were building an annex onto one of the buildings with their hands rather than with the technological tools she’d seen create structures. Some people dug trenches while others placed pipes in the trenches and covered them again with dirt. Men and women worked over large cauldrons of food in one building while young men and women focused on making blankets, clothes, and other textiles in another.

With their hands. Lana glanced at her own palms, which were soft and slender. She knew the manual