WEBVTT - Chapter Twenty 0:00:02.200 --> 0:00:08.039 Chapter twenty Rowland, that looks like them, Sasha whispered into 0:00:08.039 --> 0:00:10.400 his ear. The three of them were stationed on the 0:00:10.440 --> 0:00:12.960 third floor of an old office building that overlooked the 0:00:13.000 --> 0:00:16.840 Kingdom's vehicle pool. Based on the posters and decorations inside, 0:00:16.840 --> 0:00:19.320 the people in this office had once helped coordinate for 0:00:19.360 --> 0:00:23.200 a string of restaurants supply stores. Roland suspected the coming 0:00:23.200 --> 0:00:24.759 of the war might have been a relief to the 0:00:24.800 --> 0:00:28.000 people who'd been stuck working here. He was positioned by 0:00:28.000 --> 0:00:30.319 the window, sitting down so only the edge of his 0:00:30.360 --> 0:00:32.479 face would have been visible to any one looking in 0:00:32.520 --> 0:00:35.600 from the outside. Manny had elected to take a nap 0:00:35.600 --> 0:00:38.440 out of view behind one of the desks. His ability 0:00:38.479 --> 0:00:41.319 to fall asleep any time anywhere marked him out as 0:00:41.320 --> 0:00:45.120 a true expert and war zone survival. Sasha had situated 0:00:45.159 --> 0:00:47.840 herself on the other side of the window frame. Roland 0:00:47.880 --> 0:00:49.440 had warned her to keep her head out of view 0:00:49.520 --> 0:00:52.560 until he saw new arrivals to the vehicle depot. He'd 0:00:52.560 --> 0:00:55.960 called for her eyes six times already and gotten six negatives. 0:00:56.360 --> 0:00:59.680 Now it seemed their target had arrived. Are you sure, 0:01:00.040 --> 0:01:03.680 he asked? Pretty sure, she said, and nodded. The driver 0:01:03.760 --> 0:01:05.840 walks with a limp. One of his legs is shorter 0:01:05.880 --> 0:01:08.040 than the other. I think it's a birth defect. He 0:01:08.120 --> 0:01:10.000 must have come from some part of the continent where 0:01:10.000 --> 0:01:14.440 those still happened. Good eye. Roland was genuinely impressed. The 0:01:14.480 --> 0:01:17.480 girl had potential. So what do we do now, she 0:01:17.600 --> 0:01:20.760 asked you, rouse manny, I'll keep an eye on things. 0:01:20.959 --> 0:01:23.680 When they depart, I'll carjack them into unconsciousness and bring 0:01:23.680 --> 0:01:27.600 back the uniforms. And that's more or less how it went. 0:01:28.120 --> 0:01:30.840 The garden driver departed in a jeep. Five minutes later. 0:01:31.120 --> 0:01:33.360 Roland bounded down from one of the rear windows and 0:01:33.440 --> 0:01:35.319 landed on the hood as they took a right hand 0:01:35.319 --> 0:01:38.319 turn out of view of the vehicle depot. The guard 0:01:38.400 --> 0:01:41.600 did not do his job title proud, Roland slammed his 0:01:41.640 --> 0:01:44.080 face into the dashboard and knocked him out. He also 0:01:44.200 --> 0:01:46.399 knocked out most of the man's teeth, but his hind 0:01:46.400 --> 0:01:48.440 brain told him the guy's odds of a fatal brain 0:01:48.480 --> 0:01:52.200 hemorrhage were only about six percent acceptable. He broke the 0:01:52.280 --> 0:01:54.680 driver's job with a right cross, took the wheel, and 0:01:54.760 --> 0:01:56.760 steered the vehicle to a stop. While he was still 0:01:56.800 --> 0:01:59.880 hanging outside it. Roland tossed both men in the back 0:02:00.080 --> 0:02:03.080 the jeep and pulled into the office buildings underground parking lot. 0:02:03.480 --> 0:02:05.680 He stripped them both and cursed when he realized that 0:02:05.720 --> 0:02:07.880 the guard's bleeding face had stained the neck of his 0:02:07.960 --> 0:02:11.000 uniform shirt. He found some bottled water in the trunk 0:02:11.040 --> 0:02:12.840 and managed to wash out the worst of it, but 0:02:12.880 --> 0:02:15.160 the stain would still be visible to anyone who really 0:02:15.200 --> 0:02:18.600 took the time to look. Still, it'd probably be enough 0:02:18.639 --> 0:02:20.600 to get them through the door of the jail. He 0:02:20.680 --> 0:02:23.440 stashed both men in a janitorial closet and dragged an 0:02:23.440 --> 0:02:25.280 old metal dumpster in front of it to wedge the 0:02:25.280 --> 0:02:28.720 door shut. Someone would probably find them before they starved 0:02:28.720 --> 0:02:30.720 to death. He felt a pang of guilt for how 0:02:30.800 --> 0:02:33.400 little he cared about what happened to those men. I 0:02:33.440 --> 0:02:36.520 should feel worse about this. Roland knew the battle drugs 0:02:36.560 --> 0:02:39.160 had suppressed his conscience. He knew that the longer they 0:02:39.200 --> 0:02:41.799 stayed in this dangerous place, and the more fighting he did, 0:02:41.919 --> 0:02:45.360 the more tempted he'd be to kill outright. Roland leaned 0:02:45.400 --> 0:02:47.760 against the dumpster and closed his eyes. He tried to 0:02:47.800 --> 0:02:50.519 force himself to take long, slow breaths and meditate on 0:02:50.560 --> 0:02:52.480 the flow of air in and out of his lungs. 0:02:52.880 --> 0:02:55.200 He helped taking a breather would prompt his system to 0:02:55.200 --> 0:02:58.519 reduce the drip. Instead, he found himself flashing back to 0:02:58.600 --> 0:03:02.239 more violence. Red siren lights screeched and blinked on walls 0:03:02.240 --> 0:03:04.840 of institutional White men and women in lab coats ran 0:03:04.919 --> 0:03:07.480 and screamed and died, died, died as he squeezed the 0:03:07.480 --> 0:03:10.360 trigger of his sig Sour Roland kicked at a loft 0:03:10.400 --> 0:03:12.880 door and the metal buckled inwards, revealing a room with 0:03:13.000 --> 0:03:16.640 giant glass organ filled vials. He shook his head and 0:03:16.680 --> 0:03:19.800 tried to banish the memories. He'd started flashing back to 0:03:19.840 --> 0:03:22.080 this place when they had rescued Manny. But the memories 0:03:22.120 --> 0:03:25.840 had kept coming even once the violence subsided. Please, Roland, 0:03:25.960 --> 0:03:28.600 the old woman begged through blood stained teeth. He looked 0:03:28.600 --> 0:03:30.480 down at the hole in her gut, the red blood 0:03:30.480 --> 0:03:32.840 on her white lab coat. She slid backwards on the 0:03:32.880 --> 0:03:35.200 tile floor until her shoulders hit one of the racks 0:03:35.240 --> 0:03:39.200 of that grown organs. Please don't do this, Roland shook 0:03:39.200 --> 0:03:41.840 his head. He didn't know why this was happening exactly. 0:03:42.160 --> 0:03:45.120 It was likely just a glitch, some unforeseen interaction between 0:03:45.160 --> 0:03:47.640 the wet wear of his hind brain, the procedural memory 0:03:47.720 --> 0:03:50.040 stored at his DNA, and the battle drugs that flowed 0:03:50.040 --> 0:03:53.560 through his system. He questioned again whether he really wanted 0:03:53.600 --> 0:03:57.119 his memories back. This wasn't the time to ponder that question, though. 0:03:57.520 --> 0:04:00.600 Roland headed back upstairs to grab Manny and saw. He 0:04:00.720 --> 0:04:02.800 led them down to the garage and handed Manny the 0:04:02.880 --> 0:04:07.360 unbloodied uniform. Dude, that's really obvious, Manny pointed to the 0:04:07.360 --> 0:04:10.600 bloodstains on Roland's own uniform. They're going to notice that, 0:04:11.480 --> 0:04:14.200 you think so. Roland was so used to normal humans 0:04:14.200 --> 0:04:17.480 not noticing much of anything, he sometimes underestimated their senses. 0:04:17.880 --> 0:04:21.320 I've got an idea, Sasha said, pop the hood. Roland 0:04:21.360 --> 0:04:23.839 and Manny were both a little surprised, but he popped 0:04:23.880 --> 0:04:26.400 it for her. The girl stared at the engine, reached 0:04:26.400 --> 0:04:28.520 for the dipstick and pulled it free from its slot. 0:04:28.880 --> 0:04:30.760 She rubbed her hand down the shaft and it came 0:04:30.800 --> 0:04:33.640 away covered in sticky black grease. She rubbed the grease 0:04:33.680 --> 0:04:36.560 onto Roland's collar, coated the dipstick again, and repeated the 0:04:36.560 --> 0:04:39.559 process two more times. When she was done, he looked 0:04:39.560 --> 0:04:41.680 like he'd been working on an engine rather than beating 0:04:41.680 --> 0:04:45.640 a man half to death. Fucking brilliant, Roland said. Manny 0:04:45.720 --> 0:04:49.120 nodded his agreement. Then he said, all right, let's go 0:04:49.200 --> 0:04:53.640 abducted doctor. The abduction itself was easy. Doctor Brandt lived 0:04:53.640 --> 0:04:56.880 in an undamaged mansion about two miles away from downtown. 0:04:57.120 --> 0:04:59.880 As one of the kingdom's few medical professionals, Doctor branded 0:04:59.920 --> 0:05:03.000 A apparently earned himself some luxury Sasha hid in the 0:05:03.000 --> 0:05:05.520 trunk so the doctor wouldn't notice anything was off until 0:05:05.560 --> 0:05:10.080 he entered the vehicle. Where's Jerry and Samuel, doctor Brandt asked, 0:05:10.080 --> 0:05:12.359 as he opened the door and sat down inside the jeep. 0:05:12.880 --> 0:05:15.560 Many gunned the engine and peeled away. Roland put a 0:05:15.600 --> 0:05:18.360 hand on doctor Brandt's thigh and squeezed just hard enough 0:05:18.360 --> 0:05:20.600 for the man to feel like his thigh bone might shatter. 0:05:21.240 --> 0:05:23.640 I stuffed him in a closet somewhere, he explained, with 0:05:23.640 --> 0:05:26.800 a smile. My name is Manny, the fixer said. The 0:05:26.839 --> 0:05:29.080 guy who's about to break your leg is named Roland. 0:05:29.320 --> 0:05:33.600 We're kidnapping you, ah, said doctor Brandt. Roland had to 0:05:33.600 --> 0:05:36.520 give credit where credit was due. The doctor endured the 0:05:36.520 --> 0:05:39.360 pain with a stony face and without any signs of panic. 0:05:39.839 --> 0:05:41.599 We need you to help us get into the jail. 0:05:41.720 --> 0:05:45.120 Manny continued, where those negotiators from Rolling Fuck are being held. 0:05:45.880 --> 0:05:48.800 Doctor Brandt grimaced, either from the obscenity or just due 0:05:48.839 --> 0:05:51.520 to the continued pain of Roland's iron grip. And what 0:05:51.680 --> 0:05:54.000 makes you think I'll give you any aid? There was 0:05:54.040 --> 0:05:55.919 a bit of strain in his voice now, but the 0:05:55.960 --> 0:05:59.440 doctor's features stayed decidedly neutral. I may be a doctor, 0:05:59.480 --> 0:06:01.600 but I'm no us prepared to die for my kingdom 0:06:01.600 --> 0:06:03.720 than anyone else here. You might as well just go 0:06:03.760 --> 0:06:07.520 ahead and kill me. Roland relaxed his grip. The doctor's 0:06:07.560 --> 0:06:10.679 sighed in relief. Yeah, we thought you might say something 0:06:10.720 --> 0:06:13.480 like that, said Manny. That's why Roland and I prepared 0:06:13.480 --> 0:06:17.320 an alternate proposal. Roland drew the guards stolen side arm 0:06:17.400 --> 0:06:19.840 from its holster. He gripped the pistol in one hand 0:06:19.880 --> 0:06:21.520 and then crushed it in his grip like he was 0:06:21.560 --> 0:06:24.560 bawling up a piece of paper. The doctor's eyes widened 0:06:24.560 --> 0:06:28.760 in shock and horror. So Manny said, my friends, just 0:06:29.080 --> 0:06:31.160 full of chrome, high grade stuff. He could walk right 0:06:31.160 --> 0:06:33.400 through a tank if he wanted. You're an educated man, 0:06:33.520 --> 0:06:36.240 you know what people like him can do. The doctor 0:06:36.279 --> 0:06:39.560 nodded but didn't say anything. Our offer is simple. You 0:06:39.640 --> 0:06:41.880 help us out and we'll leave with our people. You 0:06:42.000 --> 0:06:44.680 refuse to help, and we'll get our people anyway. Only 0:06:44.800 --> 0:06:47.080 Roland here will take a little detour to burn half 0:06:47.080 --> 0:06:51.000 the city to the ground. I see Roland could smell 0:06:51.040 --> 0:06:53.599 the fear wafting off doctor Brandt now, but the man's 0:06:53.600 --> 0:06:56.560 expression didn't change. You wouldn't be a doctor if you 0:06:56.560 --> 0:06:59.640 didn't see value in human lives. Manny's voice was soft, 0:07:00.120 --> 0:07:03.080 reasonable tone, wouldn't have been out of place in a boardroom. 0:07:03.120 --> 0:07:05.040 If you refuse to help us, we won't hurt you, 0:07:05.120 --> 0:07:07.200 won't harm a hair on your head. But my friend 0:07:07.240 --> 0:07:09.640 here will break this city and a few thousand of 0:07:09.680 --> 0:07:11.960 the people in it. You'll be hail and healthy, so 0:07:12.040 --> 0:07:14.160 you can pick up the pieces, and you'll know that 0:07:14.240 --> 0:07:16.520 every ounce of that suffering could have been prevented if 0:07:16.560 --> 0:07:20.880 you just helped us out. It's true, Sir Sasha spoke 0:07:20.960 --> 0:07:24.040 up Doctor Brandt. Stiffened, she sat up from her hidden 0:07:24.080 --> 0:07:26.800 position in the back. The doctor was a smart man. 0:07:26.960 --> 0:07:29.000 He put together that she was not being held as 0:07:29.000 --> 0:07:33.679 a prisoner. His eyes narrowed in contempt Sasha. Doctor Brand's 0:07:33.720 --> 0:07:36.640 voice was cold. I'm sorry to see you in such 0:07:36.720 --> 0:07:41.200 poor company, sir, I'm really sorry, but but nothing, he snapped, 0:07:41.280 --> 0:07:43.480 and now the anger showed on his face. Have you 0:07:43.520 --> 0:07:45.720 been a traitor this whole time? Or did your will 0:07:45.840 --> 0:07:49.800 simply fail Sasha? Manny spoke up. We really don't have 0:07:49.920 --> 0:07:53.720 time for this, Roland disagreed. His hind brain estimated Sasha 0:07:53.760 --> 0:07:55.720 and the doctor could afford a solid eight minutes of 0:07:55.760 --> 0:07:58.240 emotional closure before they got too close to the jail. 0:07:59.000 --> 0:08:00.679 Is eight minutes a lot of time for you people. 0:08:01.360 --> 0:08:04.960 Everyone stared at him, their individual disagreements forgotten for a moment. 0:08:05.280 --> 0:08:09.080 Roland realized late that he had spoken out loud. Sorry, 0:08:09.200 --> 0:08:11.360 he said, I was just supposed to be in my head. 0:08:12.080 --> 0:08:15.320 They still stared. Well, now you only have like seven 0:08:15.320 --> 0:08:19.040 minutes and forty seconds, Ignore that, said Manny. He's a maniac. 0:08:19.160 --> 0:08:20.640 That's why you don't want us to let him loosen 0:08:20.680 --> 0:08:23.840 your city, doctor Brandt. Sasha added, I know you're a 0:08:23.840 --> 0:08:25.760 good man. The Lord put you on this earth to 0:08:25.800 --> 0:08:29.080 save lives. This is your chance to do that. The 0:08:29.160 --> 0:08:31.320 doctor needed the bridge of his nose with his hand, 0:08:31.640 --> 0:08:34.319 hated an admirable job of not giving too much away 0:08:34.360 --> 0:08:37.160 with his body language. But Roland could smell the truth. 0:08:37.559 --> 0:08:40.320 The scent of stress wafting off the doctor faded. It 0:08:40.440 --> 0:08:42.640 was a sign the man had made a decision. There 0:08:42.679 --> 0:08:46.520 was something about choosing that calmed the human soul. You 0:08:46.600 --> 0:08:49.360 are correct, of course, Sasha. I never approved of us 0:08:49.400 --> 0:08:51.840 holding those women in the first place. It was foolish 0:08:51.840 --> 0:08:55.760 to antagonize things like him. He nodded towards Roland. If 0:08:55.760 --> 0:08:58.640 I can avert a massacre, I will, But I sincerely 0:08:58.640 --> 0:09:01.319 hope you planned to escape with them, Sasha. I won't 0:09:01.400 --> 0:09:05.600 hide to protect a traitor. I'll leave, Sasha said. The 0:09:05.679 --> 0:09:08.360 doctor gave a somber nod. I won't be able to 0:09:08.400 --> 0:09:10.360 get you out of the jail with those prisoners, you know, 0:09:10.640 --> 0:09:12.840 he said to Rowland. I can get you inside, and 0:09:12.840 --> 0:09:14.760 I can probably get them to send the prisoners into 0:09:14.800 --> 0:09:17.520 an examination room, but the guards won't let them leave 0:09:17.559 --> 0:09:20.840 the building. I'll take care of that part, Rowland promised. 0:09:20.960 --> 0:09:30.760 I'm real good at making doors. Rowland was aware of 0:09:30.800 --> 0:09:33.959 the old saying no plan survives contact with the enemy. 0:09:34.280 --> 0:09:37.000 For some reason, his hind brain remembered the original version 0:09:37.000 --> 0:09:39.760 of the quote from an old Prussian general named moltkea 0:09:40.240 --> 0:09:43.280 no plan of operations extends with any certainty beyond first 0:09:43.320 --> 0:09:47.120 contact with the main hostile force. People who observed Roland 0:09:47.120 --> 0:09:49.000 and Battle tended to think he just sort of winged 0:09:49.000 --> 0:09:51.480 it and ballsed his way through on violent potential alone. 0:09:52.040 --> 0:09:54.880 But Rowland was at his core a planner. Having a 0:09:54.920 --> 0:09:57.640 plan was essential to take maximum advantage of the way 0:09:57.679 --> 0:10:00.360 his hind brain worked. A plan was nothing more than 0:10:00.400 --> 0:10:03.319 a clear set of tactics meant to accomplish a concrete goal. 0:10:03.720 --> 0:10:06.240 In this case, the goal was free the prisoners and 0:10:06.280 --> 0:10:09.280 take his new friends to safety. The plan he constructed 0:10:09.280 --> 0:10:12.199 to achieve that goal was based mainly on Sasha's recollections 0:10:12.200 --> 0:10:14.599 and his own espionage on the jail. He knew it 0:10:14.600 --> 0:10:16.800 would change once the shooting started, but the fact that 0:10:16.840 --> 0:10:18.880 he had a rubric would give his hindbrain something to 0:10:18.920 --> 0:10:21.199 focus on while it zeroed in on the best tactics 0:10:21.200 --> 0:10:24.560 for the evolving situation. At any rate, the plan Manny 0:10:24.600 --> 0:10:27.520 and Sasha had cooked up actually did survive. First contact 0:10:27.520 --> 0:10:30.160 with the enemy, Rowland and Manny had posed as guards 0:10:30.160 --> 0:10:33.080 and followed doctor Brandton Sasha right through the door. The 0:10:33.120 --> 0:10:35.319 martyrs inside were all used to seeing the doctor and 0:10:35.400 --> 0:10:37.520 his assistant, and they didn't pay a different set of 0:10:37.600 --> 0:10:40.600 armed guards any mind. When doctor Brandt requested they send 0:10:40.640 --> 0:10:43.120 all the prisoners into the examination room, the officer in 0:10:43.200 --> 0:10:46.400 charge didn't even blink at the request. The only thing 0:10:46.440 --> 0:10:48.480 that had seemed off to Rowland was an odd scent 0:10:48.559 --> 0:10:51.120 of anxiety in the air. It wafted off the guards 0:10:51.120 --> 0:10:53.240 and hung in a thick cloud above the entrance room. 0:10:53.640 --> 0:10:56.640 The Odor reminded Rowland of countless hours spent sitting with 0:10:56.720 --> 0:10:58.800 nervous men in the cramped belly of an a PC 0:10:59.080 --> 0:11:01.960 or a drop aircraft. He assumed this had something to 0:11:01.960 --> 0:11:04.480 do with a giant explosion he'd caused earlier, or his 0:11:04.600 --> 0:11:07.160 escape from the training facility. Of course, these guys are 0:11:07.240 --> 0:11:10.199 unhigh alert, he thought. Some nut fuck monster man blew 0:11:10.280 --> 0:11:13.840 up a factory this morning. Doctor Brandt led them into 0:11:13.840 --> 0:11:16.360 a large waiting room and closed the door. He let 0:11:16.360 --> 0:11:20.840 out a long nervous sigh and slumped back against the wall. Okay, 0:11:21.080 --> 0:11:23.200 you'll have your prisoners soon enough, and no one else 0:11:23.200 --> 0:11:26.840 will need to die. Right, he looked straight at Roland. Right, 0:11:27.160 --> 0:11:30.559 Roland said, and then added, until you Fox invaded Dallas. 0:11:30.559 --> 0:11:33.200 I've gotten years without killing anyone I'm actually pretty good 0:11:33.200 --> 0:11:36.640 at it. The doctor did not seem comforted by this fact. 0:11:36.960 --> 0:11:39.360 Roland opened his mouth again, but Manny put a hand 0:11:39.360 --> 0:11:43.440 on his shoulder. No, he said, and Roland nodded. I 0:11:43.480 --> 0:11:46.720 could have avoided so many violent misunderstandings with this kid's help. 0:11:47.440 --> 0:11:49.680 Roland mold this over and wondered if Manny might be 0:11:49.720 --> 0:11:53.120 interested in an adjoining mountain top shack. Just then the 0:11:53.200 --> 0:11:56.200 door opened, a guard entered. He was followed by the 0:11:56.240 --> 0:11:59.880 three prisoners, and then two more guards. Rolling Fox negotiators 0:12:00.000 --> 0:12:02.800 are all handcuffed to each other. Roland had been shown 0:12:02.840 --> 0:12:05.360 pictures of all three captives before they departed the City 0:12:05.360 --> 0:12:08.400 of Wheels, so it wasn't hard to recognize Marigold, Tullie, 0:12:08.440 --> 0:12:11.920 and Rick. But they all looked different. Marigold's bright purple 0:12:12.000 --> 0:12:14.840 hair was limp and greasy. The sockets on her augmented 0:12:14.920 --> 0:12:17.400 arm had been filled in with some sort of resinous substance. 0:12:17.800 --> 0:12:20.440 Toulli bald in her pictures, now had a head full 0:12:20.440 --> 0:12:23.200 of peach fuzz. Her necklaces and amulets and rings were 0:12:23.240 --> 0:12:26.480 all gone. Of course, she looked pale and deflated. Roland 0:12:26.520 --> 0:12:28.840 could see the ghost of an old black eye likely 0:12:28.880 --> 0:12:31.800 earned during the initial capture. She walked with a limp, 0:12:32.080 --> 0:12:35.360 but otherwise looked healthy enough. And then there was Rick. 0:12:35.760 --> 0:12:39.000 His wounds were fresh and extensive. He was covered in bruises, 0:12:39.000 --> 0:12:41.040 and it looked like his guards had cut into him, 0:12:41.040 --> 0:12:44.560 writing over several of his scarified tattoos with a combat knife. 0:12:45.120 --> 0:12:47.840 His left eye was broken and looked dead. Roland could 0:12:47.840 --> 0:12:50.360 tell the man's orbital bone had been shattered, and with 0:12:50.400 --> 0:12:53.040 the slow, juttering way his good eye looked around the room, 0:12:53.120 --> 0:12:56.400 it was likely he'd suffered at least one concussion. Doctor 0:12:56.440 --> 0:12:58.800 Brandt sighed and went right to the injured young man. 0:12:59.400 --> 0:13:02.160 Have the other sit down, he told the guards. He 0:13:02.240 --> 0:13:05.520 started to examine Rick, his jaw clenched, his eyes narrowed. 0:13:05.640 --> 0:13:08.760 Roland felt the doctor's heart rate accelerate and anger. You've 0:13:08.760 --> 0:13:11.720 been at him again, haven't you, Doctor Brandt sounded angry. 0:13:11.840 --> 0:13:14.720 I told you all this had to stop. He's clearly concussed. 0:13:14.800 --> 0:13:17.280 You could have killed him. The lead guard shrugged and 0:13:17.440 --> 0:13:20.199 rolled his eyes. One of the other guards snickered. Roland 0:13:20.240 --> 0:13:22.120 could tell by the look of fury on the doctor's 0:13:22.120 --> 0:13:25.319 face that he was not used to being treated this way. Soldier, 0:13:25.520 --> 0:13:28.360 I am the senior medical doctor of this entire kingdom. 0:13:28.400 --> 0:13:30.520 I will bring your superior into this and I will, 0:13:30.720 --> 0:13:34.160 Roland heard, and then smelled six new men into the jail. 0:13:34.559 --> 0:13:38.120 His mind rocketed downstairs, away from the petty argument and 0:13:38.160 --> 0:13:41.440 started to analyze the new arrivals. There were soldiers, he 0:13:41.440 --> 0:13:43.480 could tell by the sound of their footfalls and the 0:13:43.559 --> 0:13:46.199 strong smell of gun oil and powder that wafted off 0:13:46.240 --> 0:13:49.240 of them. One of them smelled familiar. He'd been present 0:13:49.280 --> 0:13:52.560 when Manny had been abducted to the factory. Roland guessed 0:13:52.600 --> 0:13:54.800 this was the guy Sasha had told him about during 0:13:54.840 --> 0:13:59.480 their impromptu rescue mission. Huh, Roland said out loud. Manny 0:13:59.559 --> 0:14:02.840 was the only one who seemed to notice what Manny asked, 0:14:02.880 --> 0:14:04.800 in a voice low enough that the guards wouldn't hear 0:14:04.800 --> 0:14:06.920 it over the sound of doctor Brandt dressing them down. 0:14:07.559 --> 0:14:09.880 That guy, Alexander, he just entered the building with a 0:14:09.920 --> 0:14:13.960 squad of armed men. What does that mean? Uhh, Roland shrugged. 0:14:14.080 --> 0:14:17.040 Probably an ambush. Roland was a bit embarrassed that it 0:14:17.080 --> 0:14:19.720 had taken him this long to piece it together. That's 0:14:19.720 --> 0:14:22.240 why the guards had been so accommodating of doctor Brand's 0:14:22.280 --> 0:14:26.160 unusual request. It's why they'd smelled so nervous. Somehow the 0:14:26.200 --> 0:14:28.760 rescue attempt had been spotted before it had gone down. 0:14:29.080 --> 0:14:31.440 The soldiers of the Heavenly Kingdom must have assumed the 0:14:31.520 --> 0:14:35.600 doctor was a traitor too. Roland stood up. He knew 0:14:35.600 --> 0:14:37.640 that violence would need to happen here. There were too 0:14:37.640 --> 0:14:40.520 many decent people's lives at stake for anything else. The 0:14:40.560 --> 0:14:43.360 instant his forebrain made that decision. His hind brain started 0:14:43.360 --> 0:14:46.640 pouring adrenaline and battle drugs into his synapses. He felt 0:14:46.640 --> 0:14:49.200 the electric crackle of chemical glee start deep in the 0:14:49.240 --> 0:14:52.000 back of his neck. It spread out to his shoulders, 0:14:52.160 --> 0:14:54.800 down his arms, to the tip of his fingers. Roland 0:14:54.840 --> 0:14:58.280 fought back against the building euphoria. While he analyzed the situation, 0:14:58.880 --> 0:15:01.400 the world slowed down around him. He had plenty of 0:15:01.440 --> 0:15:03.400 time to watch as the guards started to reach for 0:15:03.440 --> 0:15:06.200 their side arms. The word ambush had keyed them in, 0:15:06.560 --> 0:15:09.000 but it didn't matter. They still moved too slow to 0:15:09.040 --> 0:15:12.600 effect anything. His hind brain calculated that Manny and Sasha 0:15:12.600 --> 0:15:15.200 were relatively safe. No one had a gun on them 0:15:15.240 --> 0:15:18.680 just now. The prisoners were his priority. Then they were 0:15:18.760 --> 0:15:21.920 exposed both to the door that enemy reinforcements would soon 0:15:22.000 --> 0:15:24.520 rush through and to the guards already in the room. 0:15:25.120 --> 0:15:28.320 Doctor Brandt was a tertiary responsibility. He seemed like a 0:15:28.360 --> 0:15:31.360 decent enough guy in spite of it all. Alexander and 0:15:31.400 --> 0:15:33.560 his men are two point oh four seconds from the door, 0:15:33.840 --> 0:15:37.280 maybe faster if they dropped into a dead sprint. Roland 0:15:37.280 --> 0:15:40.080 stepped forward into the lead guard. He grabbed the man 0:15:40.160 --> 0:15:42.520 by the hair, lifted him into the air, and slammed 0:15:42.520 --> 0:15:45.880 his skull hard into the second guard's face. Bone cracked 0:15:46.080 --> 0:15:48.720 sixteen point three and twenty eight point seven percent chances 0:15:48.720 --> 0:15:52.320 of fatal hemorrhage, respectively. Roland dropped the first man and 0:15:52.320 --> 0:15:55.840 plunged his fingers into the third guard's eyes. He gouged deep, 0:15:56.120 --> 0:15:58.520 stopped just short of the man's brain, and then pulled 0:15:58.520 --> 0:16:01.560 his hand free. The man staggered back, opened his mouth 0:16:01.560 --> 0:16:04.120 and started to scream. A surge of battle drugs hit 0:16:04.240 --> 0:16:06.840 roland synapses at just that moment, and in a fit 0:16:06.920 --> 0:16:09.400 of gleeful piaque, he grabbed the man by the jaw 0:16:09.480 --> 0:16:12.040 and pulled. His intent had been to yank the man's 0:16:12.080 --> 0:16:14.200 head into his knee, but he pulled a little too 0:16:14.200 --> 0:16:17.120 hard and ripped the whole jaw free. The man fell back, 0:16:17.360 --> 0:16:21.160 gurgled bled. Huh my bad, Roland said to no one 0:16:21.160 --> 0:16:24.240 in particular. He shoved the jaw into his front pocket, 0:16:24.320 --> 0:16:26.760 figuring it might make a useful weapon when the reinforcement 0:16:26.800 --> 0:16:29.280 showed up. In the meantime, he set to work ripping 0:16:29.320 --> 0:16:32.440 the prisoner's manacle chains apart. It'd have taken too long 0:16:32.480 --> 0:16:34.760 to remove the manacles, but at least with the chains free, 0:16:34.800 --> 0:16:36.560 they'd all be able to move with what are you, 0:16:36.600 --> 0:16:41.080 Oh my god, Roland, What doctor Brandt, Manny, and Sasha 0:16:41.200 --> 0:16:44.640 finally reacted? Roland had to remind himself that their brains 0:16:44.680 --> 0:16:47.200 wouldn't have been able to properly process what he'd done 0:16:47.240 --> 0:16:50.600 while it was happening. The whole altercation had lasted barely 0:16:50.640 --> 0:16:53.680 a quarter second. To Manny, Sasha, and Doctor Brandt, the 0:16:53.760 --> 0:16:58.000 violence had been disorienting and almost unintelligible. The three negotiators 0:16:58.040 --> 0:17:01.200 from rolling Fuck we're not stock sapy in. They'd reacted 0:17:01.240 --> 0:17:03.440 faster and gone to ground almost as soon as he'd 0:17:03.480 --> 0:17:06.480 rushed the first man. At least the women had. The 0:17:06.520 --> 0:17:08.840 young man was too dazed and battered to react much 0:17:08.840 --> 0:17:11.120 at all, so his friends pulled him down and shielded 0:17:11.200 --> 0:17:14.000 him with their bodies of the other three. Manny was 0:17:14.040 --> 0:17:16.560 the first to react. He grabbed Sasha by the shoulder 0:17:16.560 --> 0:17:19.560 and shoved her down below the window line. Roland was proud. 0:17:19.680 --> 0:17:22.160 He would have said something about that, but everything went 0:17:22.240 --> 0:17:26.159 disastrously wrong a fraction of a second later. Roland had 0:17:26.200 --> 0:17:29.040 known Alexander and his men were rushing the door. He'd 0:17:29.119 --> 0:17:32.119 estimated a solid one point four seconds before they breached 0:17:32.119 --> 0:17:35.640 the entryway. That's why he'd occupied himself by checking on everyone. 0:17:35.960 --> 0:17:38.600 He'd trusted his senses and trusted that the Heavenly Kingdom 0:17:38.640 --> 0:17:42.040 didn't have any gear he hadn't already seen. That proved 0:17:42.040 --> 0:17:44.720 to be a mistake, because, unbeknownst to Roland, two men 0:17:44.760 --> 0:17:47.280 in powered armor hung off the outside wall of the building, 0:17:47.400 --> 0:17:51.119 directly underneath the window. Their suits were bleeding edge stealth 0:17:51.119 --> 0:17:54.919 technology utterly absent from Roland's pieda bites of memory. His 0:17:55.000 --> 0:17:58.679 passive sensors had missed them entirely. Roland first realized they 0:17:58.680 --> 0:18:01.239 were there and that he'd air it terribly when they 0:18:01.280 --> 0:18:11.760 opened fire. Close to a hundred thirty caliber slugs tore 0:18:11.840 --> 0:18:14.080 through the wall of the jail at roughly forty two 0:18:14.160 --> 0:18:17.000 hundred feet per second. They were fired at such close 0:18:17.080 --> 0:18:20.040 range and with such total surprise that Roland was unable 0:18:20.080 --> 0:18:23.800 to dodge or prep his subdermal armor for impact. Nineteen 0:18:23.880 --> 0:18:26.520 rounds hit him fifteen in his center of mass, one 0:18:26.560 --> 0:18:28.880 in his left thigh, and three in his right shoulder. 0:18:29.320 --> 0:18:31.680 Two hit Manny, ripping a hole through his left hand 0:18:31.680 --> 0:18:34.560 and another through his kidney. Doctor Brandt, who had only 0:18:34.640 --> 0:18:37.080 half turned to face Rowland at this point, was torn 0:18:37.119 --> 0:18:41.040 apart in a fusillade of steel. Rowland also registered hits 0:18:41.040 --> 0:18:44.120 on their not yet rescued captives, one in Tullie's left 0:18:44.160 --> 0:18:47.040 butt cheek, one that severed Rick's index finger, and another 0:18:47.080 --> 0:18:50.439 in the young man's shoulder. Roland staggered back from the 0:18:50.480 --> 0:18:53.439 impact of the rounds just as Alexander's point man burst 0:18:53.440 --> 0:18:56.960 through the door. The coordination between the two teams was impressive, 0:18:57.119 --> 0:18:59.199 as was the fact that the suited man hadn't hit 0:18:59.280 --> 0:19:01.679 their allies on the other side of the door. On 0:19:01.720 --> 0:19:04.040 a normal day, Roland would have ripped the shotgun out 0:19:04.080 --> 0:19:06.280 of the point man's hands and castrated him with it. 0:19:06.560 --> 0:19:09.200 But this was not a normal day, and Roland's brain 0:19:09.320 --> 0:19:12.080 was occupied with a damage to his body. The point 0:19:12.119 --> 0:19:15.200 man fired twice and sent one ounce tungsten slugs through 0:19:15.200 --> 0:19:19.000 both of Roland's knees. He dropped, rolled, moaned, and then 0:19:19.080 --> 0:19:21.280 the rest of the team was in the room. They 0:19:21.280 --> 0:19:24.119 moved well, not like vets, but like men who'd trained 0:19:24.119 --> 0:19:26.840 a lot for entries like this. They all wore heavy 0:19:26.840 --> 0:19:30.040 body armor. It wasn't powered, but it provided solid protection 0:19:30.080 --> 0:19:34.600 against small arms fire the mostly packed auto shotguns. Smart choice, 0:19:34.720 --> 0:19:38.040 Roland thought, when fighting post humans, go for tissue damage. 0:19:38.960 --> 0:19:41.199 He was hurt, nothing fatal yet, but the loss of 0:19:41.240 --> 0:19:44.320 momentum and control had cost him dearly. Now six men 0:19:44.359 --> 0:19:46.600 had a beat on him with weaponry powerful enough to 0:19:46.640 --> 0:19:49.320 do some real damage. Roland listened as one of the 0:19:49.359 --> 0:19:51.720 stealth suit smashed the remainder of the window in and 0:19:51.760 --> 0:19:55.280 crawled inside the room. This armor was much more subtle 0:19:55.280 --> 0:19:58.560