Exit Strategy by TransmuteJun
[Reviews - 10] - Table of Contents - [Report This]

Printer Chapter or Story
- Text Size +

Chapter 3

The fueling stop went well. Jason didn’t see any cameras, but Mark stayed in the trunk and Princess remained in the car with her head down, just in case. The petrol tank was filled quickly, and all three of them were just beginning to relax again when Jason pulled back onto the highway. A few minutes after they had begun moving, Mark pushed down the backseat and his head emerged out into the main passenger area of the car.

“All clear?” he asked.

Jason nodded in affirmation, but even as he did, he saw something out of the corner of his eye up the road.

“Get back in the trunk!” Jason barked at Mark, who had been in the process of climbing through the backseat and into the car.

“What is it?” the Commander asked, freezing in place.

“Snakeheads!” hissed Princess, motioning with her hands for Mark to retreat and hide himself. Once the Commander had returned to the trunk, she leaned into the rear of the car and snapped the backseat into place.

They were approaching a Snakehead roadblock. Already they had joined a long line of cars waiting to be inspected. Jason noted that many of the vehicles at the front of the line were being pulled over by the soldiers there.

“Damn it!” he banged the steering wheel with the heel of his palm. “What now?”

Jason seethed at the situation they found themselves in. He could not turn around on the highway, lest they arouse the suspicion of the soldiers ahead, and yet they were far enough back in line that it would take some time to get to the front.

They were in for a long, excruciatingly nerve-wracking wait. And in Mark’s case, it would be hot and uncomfortable as well, being confined inside the small hidey-hole Jason had built into Sweetheart’s trunk.

Princess shifted nervously in her seat, not saying a word, but clearly communicating her unease with her expressive emerald eyes as she regarded Jason with a mixture of apprehension and desperate hope.

“Just keep your head down, and let me do the talking.” Jason told her. “We’re just a young couple going to visit my Grandmother in Frankfurt.” Princess nodded nervously, clearly grateful that Jason was there to take charge.

It took them nearly two hours to reach the front of the line. The reason for the extended wait appeared to be that almost every car was being pulled aside, presumably to be searched. Jason only hoped that the delay was due to negotiation of bribes, rather than the Snakeheads’ diligence while inspecting the stopped vehicles. He, Mark, and Princess could fight their way out of there, if they had to, but getting to Ramstein intact was going to be a lot more difficult if the entire Spectran Army was on their tail.

“What’s your name and where are you going?” a Snakehead asked them as they finally reached the front of the line. The green-uniformed soldier leaned down to peer into the car. His eyes narrowed, casually assessing Jason and leering at Princess.

“I’m Greg Tyler.” Jason replied. “My wife and I are going to visit my grandmother in Frankfurt.”

“I see.” the Snakehead replied, his beady yellow eyes raking over Princess. “I think we’re going to need you to pull over here.”

Jason bit his lip, to keep himself from sighing in frustration. He had expected as much, but this was still stretching his patience to the limit. Carefully, he drove over to the spot indicated by the green-uniformed guard, then turned off the ignition. Almost immediately, Sweetheart was surrounded by soldiers.

“Step out of the vehicle.” a Snakehead ordered, shoving a rifle into Jason’s face through the open car window. Slowly, Jason complied.

“Her too.” the Snakehead grinned, now waving his gun at Princess. Three more soldiers appeared at her door, and she cautiously emerged from the vehicle, only to meet the business end of a trio of rifles.

“This way.” the Snakeheads ordered her, pushing Princess in the center of her back with the ends of their guns. Jason moved to follow, but the Snakehead in front of him jabbed him in the throat with his rifle.

“Not you.” he smirked. Then he called over to the other three who were departing with Princess.

“Come and relieve me when it’s my turn!” he shouted.

“Sure thing, Ranto!” they called, jeering at Princess and prodding her up a path and over a nearby hillside.

“Where are they taking her?” Jason asked.

“Somewhere private.” Ranto leered. “Your wife needs a thorough ‘examination’.” He laughed in the manner of bullies who are confident that no one is capable of standing up to them. Jason seethed inwardly, itching to prove this Snakehead wrong; nearly bursting with the desire to slam the soldier’s rifle into the part of his body where it would hurt the most. Physically, he would have no problem doing so. But they were in plain sight of at least a hundred other soldiers, and any altercation would result in the entire outpost being instantly alerted.

Jason looked around, noting at least half a dozen other men being held at gunpoint next to their cars. Without exception, they were all staring plaintively at the same hillside over which Princess had disappeared.

The seconds ticked by, and Jason’s anger surged to the boiling point as he could only imagine what Princess was being forced to endure, in order to maintain their cover.

It wasn’t worth it.

But it was too late to make such a decision now.

Without warning, Ranto’s eyes rolled into the back of his head, and he collapsed to the ground as Jason watched in shock, revealing the form of a furious Princess behind him.

“Pig!” she hissed, looking around quickly. Amazingly, none of the other soldiers seemed to be looking in their direction.

“Let’s go, Jason, before anyone notices this guy lying down on the job.”

“What did you do?” Jason asked, as they got back into their car. It was a struggle to move in an unhurried manner, but he did his best to project a casual air, while surreptitiously kicking a few dried leaves over the body of the fallen Snakehead.

“These idiot Snakeheads took me into an isolated clump of bushes.” Princess smirked as the got into the car. “They never knew what hit them. Once we were out of sight of everyone else, I let them have it.”

“I’m glad.” Jason sighed with relief as he slowly pulled Sweetheart away.

“It’s good to know you care.” Princess smiled.

“Yeah, I care about my own hide.” Jason winked at her. “Mark would have killed me if I had let you get hurt.”

“Just for the record, you don’t ‘let’ me do anything.” Princess clarified. “I decide for myself.” She sighed regretfully.

“I just wish I could have said the same for the other women…”

Other women?” Jason asked, a surge of anger overtaking him. He recalled the men he had seen being held at gunpoint, as he had been.

“There were sounds…” Princess whispered, “of other women, behind that hill. Some were out in the open, others behind trees or bushes… I wanted to help them…” She buried her face in her hands, and when she looked up, silent tears were sliding down her cheeks.

“We can.” Jason replied grimly. “We have to.”

“But… if we do anything to help them, the Snakeheads will be after us.” Princess pointed out.

“Not necessarily. If we can cause enough confusion, then they won’t know what’s going on.” Jason replied. “We have to try.”

Princess looked gravely at Jason, and then nodded slowly.

“I take it back.” she said suddenly. “You’re letting me do this, Jason. Thank you.”

Instead of answering, Jason pulled Sweetheart around, carefully circling back behind the rise that hid the area where Princess had been taken. He moved slowly, so as not to arouse the suspicion of the soldiers there, doing his best to move with the traffic that was already in the area.

“Open up that panel.” he instructed her, pointing at a spot next to Princess’ feet. She looked at him curiously, but then bent down to do as he had asked. Jason heard the panel pop open, and then Princess’ delighted exclamation.

“You’re well prepared.” she noted gleefully, pulling two semi-automatic rifles from the secret compartment.

“Just call me ‘the boy scout’.” Jason grinned, pulling around the end of the rise.

Once they were behind the long hill, Jason saw them: groups of Snakeheads littering the area. Clumps of soldiers dotted the landscape: behind trees, in bushes, and even right out in the open. What they were doing to the dozen or so women with them was clearly something of which Jason did not approve.

The Condor decided that he was long overdue for some target practice. He pulled out his rifle, sticking it out of the driver’s side window and resting it on the car door. Carefully aiming, he squeezed the trigger with his left hand while driving with his right, firing again and again. Many of the Terran women were surrounded by Snakeheads, but Jason had no problem whatsoever, physically or morally, with sending bullets into the masked heads of the green-uniformed guards, while leaving the women uninjured. However, the victims of the Snakehead attacks did appear to be somewhat shell-shocked, freezing in fear and disbelief.

“Run!” Princess shouted at the stunned women as Sweetheart tore through the area. “Get out of here!”

The Terran women, in various states of undress, began running back to the hillside, scrambling to leave the area. They climbed over the rise, fleeing toward their waiting vehicles and menfolk. Other Snakeheads, who had not yet been subjected to the Condor’s infallible accuracy with a firearm, began running and shouting. They were soon joined by new soldiers who were coming over the hillside with another round of female victims. Princess picked up her rifle, aiming at the groups of Snakeheads running by themselves.

Jason noticed Princess’ reluctance to shoot near the women, and concentrated his efforts instead on the men still surrounding their frightened victims. Forty seconds and three ammunition clips later, the area was littered with dead green-uniformed bodies, and the last of the women were clearing the top of the rise.

Jason pulled Sweetheart around, clumps of dirt and grass spraying up from underneath his spinning wheels, before taking off in the direction from which they had come. When they reached the other side of the long hill, Jason somehow managed to merge smoothly with the other fleeing civilian vehicles, breaking through the other end of the roadblock and fleeing with the other Terran travelers down the highway. At first, a few Snakehead patrol vehicles chased after the fleet of passenger cars, but Princess leaned out of her window, shooting out the tires of the Snakehead vehicles and preventing further pursuit.

“Nice work.” grinned Jason, as Princess pulled herself back inside of Sweetheart. He casually tossed his rifle into her lap. “Just in case you want to go both barrels.” he laughed.

“There were only three patrol vehicles following us.” Princess shrugged, but her eyes shone with her pleasure in the compliment. “And aiming a semi-automatic isn’t very difficult, particularly if you’re not too worried about collateral damage.” She winked at Jason.

“I wasn’t worried.” she grinned.

“Don’t sell yourself short.” Jason told her. “You did great back there. You helped those women escape, and took out a lot of those Snakehead bastards.”

“Thanks.” Princess blushed, looking down at her hands in her lap. “But you were incredible, Jason! The way you shot those Snakeheads with a single shot, left-handed, from a moving vehicle… you never cease to amaze me!”

“It helps when I’m the one driving the vehicle.” Jason grinned, more pleased than he let on with her praise. He had been working alone for so long that it felt good to finally be with someone who was appreciative of what he could do.

Suddenly, Jason realized that this was what he had been missing. He was envious of Mark and Princess’ closeness, not just because of their companionship, but because they were a team. He had been a part of that team too, a year ago… but since that time, he had been on his own.

Strange… his scattered recollections of his past suggested that he had been the ‘loner’ of G-Force. Perhaps he had had the freedom to be that way, because unconsciously he had known that when push came to shove, the others would be there for him.

Over the last twelve months, he truly had been a loner. There had been no one else upon whom to rely, and Jason had found that out the hard way early on, when someone he had thought he could trust had betrayed him.

Jason had been working for the Snakeheads. During these first few months after the Invasion, the Spectran Forces had not had enough support personnel. They had recruited willing… and not so willing… volunteers. Jason had seen the opportunity that had been presenting itself. He had made certain that he had been in the right place at the right time, and so he had been drafted into service. He had been assigned to vehicle repair and had purposely performed a barely adequate job, which had been enough to allow him to stick around.

It had only taken him two weeks to find his first chance to strike out against the invaders. The Snakeheads had been planning to quell an insurgency in Amsterdam, and Jason had been assigned to repair a number of tanks that would be used in the operation. Quietly and efficiently, he had weakened various cables, loosened crucial fastenings, and re-programmed important systems, ensuring that each vehicle would fail while out on this mission. He had specifically arranged things so that each tank would have a different problem, some mechanical, some computer-based, that could easily be attributed to operator error. Given the low average intelligence of the Snakehead soldiers, Jason felt reasonably confident that his sabotage would not be detected.

And he had been right.

The offensive had failed miserably, and the Amsterdam Rebels had been able to escape the city without being exterminated. Jason had been gleeful, but there had been no one with whom to share his success. He had had to keep his mouth shut and wipe the smirk from his face, and somehow, having to exhibit that level of self-restraint had given his small victory a bitter taste.

But it hadn’t stopped him from continuing his subtle sabotage. He hadn’t hindered every mission, but he had thrown a monkey wrench into as many as he had been able, without arousing suspicion.

He had been living in a small apartment not far from the main Snakehead base outside of Rouen. One day he had stopped by the local café on his way home from work, and he had met Ryan. There had been something he had instinctively liked about the man, and he had found himself talking animatedly with his new acquaintance, before he had finally made his way home that night.

After that, Jason had gotten into the habit of dropping into the café each night, and had found himself looking forward to his conversations with Ryan. After a couple of weeks, Ryan had introduced Jason to his associate, Adam. Jason had accepted Adam, based solely on Ryan’s word.

It had been Adam who had first brought up the topic of Terran Rebels, and before Jason had been able to blink, he had found himself feeding inside Snakehead information to the local Resistance Group, allowing them to thwart the efforts of the Occupying Force to consolidate their hold over the city of Rouen. For twelve glorious days, Jason had been a part of a team, working with others and sharing in their successes.

Until Adam had turned them all in.

Apparently, the lure of Spectran currency had been too much for the one-time Terran Rebel to resist. He had turned informant and had set them all up, causing everyone in his former Resistance Group, including Jason, to be arrested. Jason had been sent to Penal Complex 624-Alpha, where he had been placed under lockdown. His new companion had been Frederic, a Terran Rebel from Paris who had been his cellmate. Wary after his experiences in Rouen, it had taken Jason over a month to feel that he could trust Frederic.

As it turned out, developing a friendship with Frederic had been a good thing, as Luc and Kristin had been sent to rescue Frederic, and Jason had been able to tag along for the ride. But once they had reached Paris again, Jason and Frederic had parted ways.

Against Frederic’s advice, Jason had returned to Rouen. Under cover of darkness, he had broken into Adam’s apartment, venting his rage through careful application of pain at the most sensitive spots on the man’s body. Somehow, Jason had known exactly where he could inflict the most damage without killing the man, and he had managed to prolong Adam’s life until the dawn.

That same morning, he had slipped out of Rouen and had made his way to Brussels, where he had run his underground repair shop, until a few days ago, when he had felt a sudden urge to travel to Geneva.

Jason had come to understand that the vicious nature of his revenge on Adam had stemmed from the incredible sense of betrayal he had felt when the man had turned informant. He and Adam had been working together, trusting each other, and Adam had broken that trust by literally selling his soul to the enemy for his proverbial thirty pieces of silver.

Now, Jason was uncovering further insights into those feelings of betrayal. In the back of his mind, he had been used to being on a team; to having companions whom he could trust implicitly with his life, just as they trusted him with the same degree of confidence, no matter the circumstances.

He had been used to being on the G-Force Team.

Jason had taken Adam’s betrayal as he would the betrayal of one of his former teammates.

But now, two of those former teammates had returned, and they were working together again, toward a common goal.

Damn, it felt good.

“Do you think it’s safe to let Mark out, now?” Princess asked him. “He’s probably pretty uncomfortable in there.”

“Yes. Let him out.” Jason nodded. For being so excited to be back with his teammates again, it was amazing how he had momentarily forgotten about his Commander.

Princess leaned into the rear of the car, releasing the hidden catch that allowed the backseat to flip over, giving access to the trunk. She took one of the rifles and tapped on the hidden compartment using Morse Code for ‘all clear’. As soon as she had done so, the secret panel opened, revealing a red-faced Commander.

“What the hell was going on?” he asked angrily. “You were turning and bouncing so fast that I’m going to have bruises for a week!” He scowled at Jason in the rear-view mirror.

“They’ll be healed in twenty-four hours, and you know it.” Jason reminded him with a cocky smile. He found that he enjoyed teasing his Commander.

“That’s irrelevant.” Mark spat. “What was going on?”

Princess quickly explained everything that had been occurring since Mark had hidden himself away in the secret compartment of Jason’s car for the second time. The Commander’s eyes grew wide and he rounded on Jason.

“What were you doing, jeopardizing our mission like that?” he demanded. “The most important thing we have to do is get this data to Riga!”

“Don’t you even care about what they almost did to Princess, back there?” Jason shot back.

“Of course I care.” Mark replied in a hard voice. “But I would care even more if she were killed, or sent to one of those Snakehead Penal Complexes.”

“That’s enough, Mark!” Princess interrupted him. “We couldn’t leave those women behind. I agreed with Jason’s decision to go back.”

Princess’ retort deflated Mark somewhat, and his anger appeared to dissipate.

“I’m sorry, Jason.” he said quietly. “The way the Snakeheads treat Terran women makes me angry as well. I guess I can understand how you felt.”

“I appreciate that, Mark.” Jason replied.

“It’s amazing how brazen they are.” Princess noted. “They’ve always been disrespectful, but to see this on such a large scale… it makes you wonder…”

“What is it, Princess?” Mark asked.

“Well, there were so many Snakeheads involved, back there.” she recalled. “And no one was stopping them. It was almost… orderly. They were taking turns, and the Captains and Sergeants didn’t seem to be worried about the lack of efficiency of the vehicle search process, or the lines on the roads… it’s as if their superiors wanted them to be doing this.”

“It’s an interesting theory.” Mark replied. “It’s certainly a good way for them to degrade us, and keep us in fear of them as well.”

“I think there might be something more to it.” Princess told him.

“Yeah, Snakeheads are pigs.” Jason snorted. “They get their kicks this way.”

“Do you think they do this on every planet they conquer?” Princess asked thoughtfully.

“I don’t know.” Mark answered. “I suppose they probably do.”

“There’s got to be a reason…” Princess muttered to herself.

“I still vote for the ‘pigs’ theory.” Jason laughed harshly.

But Princess’ words bothered him. Suppose there was some deeper meaning behind these organized gang rapes? He couldn’t think of what it might be, but the mere idea frightened him, all the same.

“How much further to Ramstein?” Mark asked.

“It’s about four hours to Kaiserslautern, the town just outside of the base.” Jason replied. “We have to add another two hours to the trip, since we’re taking back roads now. I’ll stop off in an isolated area and change the identification plates as well.”

Mark nodded, and the subject of what had happened at the roadblock was not mentioned again for the remainder of their journey.

Jason purposely took a roundabout route to get to Kaiserslautern, in an attempt to avoid the Snakeheads. It seemed to have worked, as they arrived at the Snakehead base without further incident.

The three teammates stared at the Ramstein base from a lookout point on top of a nearby hill, assessing its strengths and weaknesses. The exterior was surrounded by a standard lethal voltage electric fence, while inside that boundary their sharp eyes spotted cleverly hidden force field generators. Beyond that barrier, numerous squadrons of Snakeheads patrolled the area.

Certainly security was significantly tighter at Ramstein than it had been at Penal Complex 624-Alpha.

How much more valuable were the items being safeguarded inside?

The Base itself was a complex consisting of several large buildings and a scattering of massive hangars. It was these hangars that were of the most interest to the three, as they were likely the locations where various spacecraft were housed.

“So what do you think is our best option?” Princess asked Mark and Jason.

“I’d hate to have to bust in there.” Jason remarked. “Sweetheart has a lot of tricks up her sleeve, but not that many. “

“We’ve had a lot of success with subterfuge in the past,” Mark pointed out, “ and we have all managed to acquire Snakehead uniforms. I think we should just head on in and scope it out.”

“Not a bad idea,” Princess agreed, “but are we just going to walk up to the main gates and say ‘Hello’? All of these soldiers are driving vehicles.”

“I think I can help out in that area.” offered Jason.

~ Table of Contents ~
[Report This]
You must login (register) to review.