Excerpt from Going Rogue [click to head to Going Rogue’s Amazon Page]
“Right, listen, we’re keeping this under radar, down low. No Grandpa interference, no regents interference, okay?”
“I don’t think this is a good idea,” Ginger said, “but as nobody listens to me, we’ll let that go, won’t we? Of course we will.”
“You want to leave Raj in there?”
“He’ll get out,” Ginger replied. “The Justicar thing is over and done with. It was an honest mistake.”
“An honest mistake that almost destroyed us. We’re lucky he stayed off the TV cameras.”
They were on their way to the suborbital shuttle hangar. Once inside, they took a quick detour to the weapons and equipment lockers. The hangar itself was enormous, and Baek hadn’t ever been all the way to the far side. They kept all the lockers and storage up near the doors, closest to where the ramp up to the shuttles sat.
Over fifty of them started in on the weapons and equipment. Stone grabbed up several sashes containing his usual samples, though the plan didn’t really allow him to use any of it. He did clip on the digital mask, though.
The rest of the infantry and recon boys stocked up on the pulse grenades, along with the spear-shaped field generators, weapons, ammunition (the slightly irradiated type) and their normal assortment of tactical gear.
“Ahem,” an elderly voice said. “Is this thing on?” It was coming through the PA system.
“Grandpa,” Ginger hissed. Several other people swore in unison.
“Folks, there are no sanctioned missions scheduled presently,” Grandpa said.
“We’re done waiting for her to come to us,” Ginger said loudly. “We’ve got a plan.”
“No need to shout, missy. Your objections concerning the present state of affairs has been noted. Now, you were all given a two week furlough.”
“What happens if she wipes a city off the map before then?” Ginger asked.
“You’re all grounded. End of story. I’ve got my techs disabling the suborbital shuttle right now,” he said. “All systems are down, and the manual reset switches have been double locked. Give this up.”
Ginger swore again. “The hell we will. You got a plan then, Grandpa? Maybe that kid telepath you got in contact with?”
“He’s not available… and besides, I don’t want that woman getting her hands on telepathy. She’s already bad enough.”
“So tell me you’ve got a plan.”
“Listen up, all of you, and listen good!” Grandpa said. “You walk out that door right now, and you can kiss your careers with this organization goodbye. The regents and I are working on a plan, along with the person we plan to put in charge of the Alphas now that Meehan is gone.”
Stone looked vaguely ill, like he was sweating. Crap, he couldn’t naysay his own father. This plan was not even going to get off the ground, was it?
“Not good enough,” Ginger said.
“Young lady—”
“And you can stop patronizing us.”
“Worked so well in the past,” Grandpa muttered.
Lieutenant Goode shouted, “Gas!”
It was too late for everybody except Kravenz. He zipped up and into the shuttle, grabbed all the oxygen rebreathers in the crate, only four resting in the dark gray foam unfortunately, and strapped them onto all the faces he felt were most important to this plan. Like Sujin first, clearly, and after that Ginger, Soars With Eagles, Dakota didn’t need one in his bizarre armor, and Lieutenant Goode. Kravenz zipped back out, got another good gulp of clear air, and saw the men with automatic weapons coming on.
“Crap,” he said about seventy times in two seconds. “Crappity crappy crap.”