1
00:00:02,440 --> 00:00:07,720
Speaker 1: Chapter three, Sasha the drone gun rotated on its axis

2
00:00:07,760 --> 00:00:10,520
Speaker 1: and brought a new, slightly different chunk of city scape

3
00:00:10,560 --> 00:00:13,840
Speaker 1: into view. The world was a dull gray green color

4
00:00:13,880 --> 00:00:17,000
Speaker 1: through the lens of the weapon's camera. Once again, there

5
00:00:17,000 --> 00:00:19,799
Speaker 1: were no humans in sight. That was the norm, but

6
00:00:19,880 --> 00:00:23,200
Speaker 1: Sasha still logged in for her scheduled gun time every day.

7
00:00:23,600 --> 00:00:25,920
Speaker 1: Her parents would have been mortified if they'd known how

8
00:00:25,920 --> 00:00:28,800
Speaker 1: she was spending her few hours of free time, but

9
00:00:29,080 --> 00:00:31,440
Speaker 1: she had a good VPN, or at least it was

10
00:00:31,480 --> 00:00:33,760
Speaker 1: good enough to hide her activity from her non tech

11
00:00:33,800 --> 00:00:37,520
Speaker 1: savvy elders. She doubted they'd ever suspect her of something

12
00:00:37,560 --> 00:00:41,520
Speaker 1: like this. Sasha was a good student. Her grades guaranteed

13
00:00:41,520 --> 00:00:44,400
Speaker 1: her admission to the American University in d C. At

14
00:00:44,440 --> 00:00:46,240
Speaker 1: one point, she'd had a shot at being her high

15
00:00:46,240 --> 00:00:50,559
Speaker 1: school's valedictorian and maybe of gaining admission to Stanford, But

16
00:00:50,800 --> 00:00:54,240
Speaker 1: then she discovered the True Gospel and given herself to Christ.

17
00:00:54,800 --> 00:00:57,760
Speaker 1: Her grades were still good, but probably not good enough

18
00:00:57,800 --> 00:01:00,040
Speaker 1: to earn her an educational visa to the californ in

19
00:01:00,160 --> 00:01:03,400
Speaker 1: your Republic. The extra time the old heir had dedicated

20
00:01:03,400 --> 00:01:05,920
Speaker 1: to school was now spent glued to a gun camp

21
00:01:05,959 --> 00:01:09,440
Speaker 1: browsing live feeds from various Christian militias and reading everything

22
00:01:09,520 --> 00:01:12,040
Speaker 1: she could from the few pastors brave enough to preach

23
00:01:12,080 --> 00:01:14,560
Speaker 1: the word the New Herd. Didn't want to go to

24
00:01:14,600 --> 00:01:17,720
Speaker 1: school near San Francisco, capital of what Pastor Mike had

25
00:01:17,720 --> 00:01:21,640
Speaker 1: called the world's most sinful nation. Sasha didn't even really

26
00:01:21,680 --> 00:01:24,200
Speaker 1: want to go to college in d C. What was

27
00:01:24,240 --> 00:01:28,000
Speaker 1: the point, Sash her dad called from the kitchen, dinners

28
00:01:28,040 --> 00:01:31,640
Speaker 1: on cheese Enchilada's. There was still nothing in her line

29
00:01:31,640 --> 00:01:33,959
Speaker 1: of sight. For the eleventh month in a row. She

30
00:01:34,040 --> 00:01:37,160
Speaker 1: was spending sixty five am fed dollars for the privilege

31
00:01:37,160 --> 00:01:39,280
Speaker 1: of staring through a camera at nothing for a half

32
00:01:39,319 --> 00:01:42,039
Speaker 1: hour a day. Sasha had been warned about this when

33
00:01:42,080 --> 00:01:45,119
Speaker 1: she'd signed up to support the Woodlands Martyrs Brigade. Their

34
00:01:45,160 --> 00:01:47,960
Speaker 1: drone guns didn't see much action. The front had been

35
00:01:48,000 --> 00:01:50,760
Speaker 1: stable for the last year. Rumors said the number of

36
00:01:50,800 --> 00:01:53,320
Speaker 1: backers had even gotten to fire during their turn was

37
00:01:53,440 --> 00:01:56,600
Speaker 1: under a dozen. Sasha had hoped she'd be a special case.

38
00:01:57,120 --> 00:01:59,960
Speaker 1: Something moved. Just as she thought about killing the app

39
00:02:00,040 --> 00:02:03,480
Speaker 1: and going downstairs, something moved across her drones field of vision.

40
00:02:03,800 --> 00:02:06,800
Speaker 1: It happened again, and Sasha realized that the somethings were

41
00:02:06,920 --> 00:02:10,440
Speaker 1: armored soldiers sprinting past her weapon. She locked the drone

42
00:02:10,440 --> 00:02:13,120
Speaker 1: on one and for the first time ever, selected the

43
00:02:13,200 --> 00:02:17,200
Speaker 1: fire approval button. A second went by, then another, and

44
00:02:17,200 --> 00:02:21,080
Speaker 1: then a red box replaced her firing redicule. Target declined.

45
00:02:21,280 --> 00:02:25,400
Speaker 1: Friendly fire, Sasha, her mother called up in that grating

46
00:02:25,480 --> 00:02:28,160
Speaker 1: voice that miant. She was almost frustrated enough to start

47
00:02:28,240 --> 00:02:31,840
Speaker 1: yelling get down here. She stared at the box for

48
00:02:31,880 --> 00:02:35,720
Speaker 1: another long moment. Friendly fire. That made sense as she

49
00:02:35,760 --> 00:02:38,840
Speaker 1: belatedly realized the men had been rushing out of territory

50
00:02:38,919 --> 00:02:42,000
Speaker 1: occupied by the martyrs. Good thing they check up on

51
00:02:42,120 --> 00:02:44,840
Speaker 1: us before we pulled the trigger. Her heart pounded a

52
00:02:44,880 --> 00:02:47,560
Speaker 1: little at the thought of killing the wrong soldier, But

53
00:02:47,600 --> 00:02:50,639
Speaker 1: at the same time she noticed something odd. The men

54
00:02:50,680 --> 00:02:53,600
Speaker 1: were still coming. They rushed past the drone camera in

55
00:02:53,639 --> 00:02:57,720
Speaker 1: waves ten ft apart, ducking low and hefting heavy weapons.

56
00:02:57,720 --> 00:02:59,760
Speaker 1: She must have watched at least a hundred of them

57
00:03:00,000 --> 00:03:03,760
Speaker 1: ass before she realized what this meant. A new offensive.

58
00:03:03,960 --> 00:03:08,000
Speaker 1: Oh God, dial Alexander, she told her deck. A calm

59
00:03:08,000 --> 00:03:10,680
Speaker 1: window popped up about six inches in front of her hand,

60
00:03:10,960 --> 00:03:13,240
Speaker 1: to the left of the large drone control screen. That

61
00:03:13,280 --> 00:03:16,000
Speaker 1: hovered above her. Anyone without a deck would have just

62
00:03:16,080 --> 00:03:18,639
Speaker 1: seen a seventeen year old girl lying on her bed

63
00:03:18,720 --> 00:03:21,600
Speaker 1: and poking at the air. But Sasha saw the space

64
00:03:21,639 --> 00:03:24,280
Speaker 1: in front of her as a giant screen curved around

65
00:03:24,280 --> 00:03:27,240
Speaker 1: her body. She opened another window and flung it up

66
00:03:27,240 --> 00:03:30,040
Speaker 1: on her right side. It was populated with links to

67
00:03:30,040 --> 00:03:33,560
Speaker 1: the camera feeds of all the personality she followed. Most

68
00:03:33,600 --> 00:03:36,200
Speaker 1: of them were located somewhere in the Republic of Texas,

69
00:03:36,400 --> 00:03:38,880
Speaker 1: and more than half of the feeds were dark. It

70
00:03:38,920 --> 00:03:41,640
Speaker 1: was hard to tell just what was happening on the others.

71
00:03:42,120 --> 00:03:45,000
Speaker 1: Sasha decided she'd get a faster update on the situation

72
00:03:45,040 --> 00:03:48,320
Speaker 1: through her news aggregator. She reduced the other windows and

73
00:03:48,360 --> 00:03:51,040
Speaker 1: shifted them to her periphery. Then she opened a new

74
00:03:51,080 --> 00:03:53,800
Speaker 1: window and waited a half second for her curated news

75
00:03:53,880 --> 00:03:57,400
Speaker 1: feed to populate. Her deck kept ringing Alexander while she

76
00:03:57,440 --> 00:04:01,520
Speaker 1: scanned the headlines reports of expo oceans across the Dallas Front,

77
00:04:01,840 --> 00:04:07,040
Speaker 1: Texas extremist advance into SDF Republic territory. Reports from Dallas

78
00:04:07,040 --> 00:04:10,720
Speaker 1: suggest a new offensive by Heavenly Kingdom. A half dozen

79
00:04:10,800 --> 00:04:15,040
Speaker 1: rings later, Alexander picked up Sasha. He asked his voice

80
00:04:15,080 --> 00:04:17,800
Speaker 1: sounded distant. There was noise on the line. After a

81
00:04:17,839 --> 00:04:20,680
Speaker 1: second or so, Sasha heard a boom and then a strange,

82
00:04:20,720 --> 00:04:24,279
Speaker 1: crackling sound that had to be gunfire. It didn't sound

83
00:04:24,320 --> 00:04:26,200
Speaker 1: like it did in the movies, or even in the

84
00:04:26,200 --> 00:04:29,400
Speaker 1: few VR shooters she'd played. Sasha's heart had started to

85
00:04:29,440 --> 00:04:32,839
Speaker 1: pound by the time she responded, Yes, Alexander, I was

86
00:04:32,880 --> 00:04:35,120
Speaker 1: just on my drone and it looks like something's happening.

87
00:04:35,200 --> 00:04:38,520
Speaker 1: The media saying it's another offensive. They're right for once,

88
00:04:38,560 --> 00:04:41,440
Speaker 1: said Alexander, and they're still wrong at the same time.

89
00:04:41,800 --> 00:04:44,560
Speaker 1: This is something new, Sasha. I'm sorry I couldn't tell

90
00:04:44,600 --> 00:04:47,720
Speaker 1: you before, but it'll all be clear soon. Is this

91
00:04:47,839 --> 00:04:52,240
Speaker 1: just the Martyr's Brigade? He smiled, and Sasha's face went red. No, Sasha,

92
00:04:52,560 --> 00:04:55,080
Speaker 1: something wonderful is Are you near the front? Are you

93
00:04:55,120 --> 00:04:58,240
Speaker 1: part of the fighting? Sasha interrupted, She'd never have done

94
00:04:58,240 --> 00:05:00,880
Speaker 1: that normally, but she could hear what's funded like gunfire

95
00:05:00,960 --> 00:05:03,960
Speaker 1: over his line, and Sasha was scared. I'm with the

96
00:05:04,000 --> 00:05:06,960
Speaker 1: second wave, he said the tracks. I'm moving us into

97
00:05:07,000 --> 00:05:10,680
Speaker 1: position now. I'll probably have to Whatever else he'd been

98
00:05:10,680 --> 00:05:13,320
Speaker 1: about to say was cut short as all of Sasha's

99
00:05:13,360 --> 00:05:16,679
Speaker 1: deck apps closed at once. Her digital world was replaced

100
00:05:16,680 --> 00:05:20,239
Speaker 1: by a red box that read parental lockdown. Come to dinner,

101
00:05:20,320 --> 00:05:25,200
Speaker 1: Sasha mom. She screamed down the stairs as her eyes

102
00:05:25,240 --> 00:05:28,680
Speaker 1: welled up with tears at the unfairness of it all. Alexander,

103
00:05:28,920 --> 00:05:31,440
Speaker 1: the man she was pretty sure she loved, was going

104
00:05:31,480 --> 00:05:34,280
Speaker 1: into battle for the first time. He was fighting right

105
00:05:34,320 --> 00:05:37,040
Speaker 1: now to re establish the rule of God on earth.

106
00:05:37,600 --> 00:05:39,480
Speaker 1: I should have read him a poem, or said something

107
00:05:39,520 --> 00:05:42,000
Speaker 1: beautiful and stirring, something about how my love for him

108
00:05:42,040 --> 00:05:45,159
Speaker 1: was as everlasting as God's own love. It should have

109
00:05:45,200 --> 00:05:48,000
Speaker 1: been a powerful moment, but her heretic horror of a

110
00:05:48,040 --> 00:05:53,000
Speaker 1: mother had ruined it for Inchillada's Sasha stormed downstairs, ripe

111
00:05:53,040 --> 00:05:55,960
Speaker 1: with fury, but unable to vent it. Her parents couldn't

112
00:05:55,960 --> 00:05:58,720
Speaker 1: know she'd been giving money to a militant group. They

113
00:05:58,720 --> 00:06:01,000
Speaker 1: wouldn't have to drop in on her talking to Alexander

114
00:06:01,040 --> 00:06:03,760
Speaker 1: to know what she had planned. Six kids from her

115
00:06:03,800 --> 00:06:06,080
Speaker 1: high school had already left for the Republic of Texas

116
00:06:06,160 --> 00:06:08,560
Speaker 1: to fight in one militia or another. It was a

117
00:06:08,600 --> 00:06:12,440
Speaker 1: problem across the American Federation, but here in Virginia, parents

118
00:06:12,480 --> 00:06:16,080
Speaker 1: were particularly wary. The border of the United Christian States

119
00:06:16,120 --> 00:06:19,440
Speaker 1: was just an hour's drive from her front door. Ratlines

120
00:06:19,480 --> 00:06:22,680
Speaker 1: in the UCS brought thousands of young volunteers yearly from

121
00:06:22,680 --> 00:06:25,679
Speaker 1: the heart of corporate America to the various militia groups

122
00:06:25,720 --> 00:06:29,719
Speaker 1: that battled across Texas. Sasha Marian, what did we interrupt

123
00:06:29,720 --> 00:06:33,200
Speaker 1: that was so important? You had to yell? I was praying, mother.

124
00:06:33,839 --> 00:06:36,919
Speaker 1: It wasn't really a lie. Pastor Mike had said that

125
00:06:37,000 --> 00:06:39,520
Speaker 1: every deed done in support of the heavenly Kingdom was

126
00:06:39,600 --> 00:06:43,599
Speaker 1: an act of prayer. Gwendolen Marian frowned back at her daughter.

127
00:06:44,120 --> 00:06:46,880
Speaker 1: She was a stern woman with a broad Germanic face

128
00:06:46,920 --> 00:06:49,640
Speaker 1: and dirty blonde hair pulled back into a severe bun.

129
00:06:50,000 --> 00:06:52,680
Speaker 1: Faint crow's feet trickled out from her eyes, but those

130
00:06:52,680 --> 00:06:56,760
Speaker 1: were from choice rather than times formerly inevitable march. Gwendolen

131
00:06:56,880 --> 00:07:00,120
Speaker 1: was the chief of surgery at Annapolis General Hospital, had

132
00:07:00,160 --> 00:07:03,000
Speaker 1: been taking juven treatment since she was twenty. She had

133
00:07:03,040 --> 00:07:05,479
Speaker 1: only decided to let the crows feed through once Sasha

134
00:07:05,520 --> 00:07:09,560
Speaker 1: had turned seventeen. You can pray as much as you want, honey,

135
00:07:09,640 --> 00:07:12,400
Speaker 1: but right now it's dinner time, and this is something

136
00:07:12,440 --> 00:07:16,680
Speaker 1: we do as a family. Sasha thought juven was unnatural

137
00:07:17,000 --> 00:07:20,800
Speaker 1: heretical God had created each human to age a certain way.

138
00:07:21,160 --> 00:07:24,320
Speaker 1: Using science to disrupt that natural process was an act

139
00:07:24,360 --> 00:07:28,560
Speaker 1: of blasphemy. She yearned to say something cutting hurtful in response,

140
00:07:28,840 --> 00:07:31,440
Speaker 1: but she fought it down. You don't have to obey

141
00:07:31,480 --> 00:07:33,520
Speaker 1: your father and mother if they try to keep you

142
00:07:33,560 --> 00:07:35,800
Speaker 1: out of the Kingdom of Heaven, words from one of

143
00:07:35,840 --> 00:07:38,880
Speaker 1: Pastor Mike's weekly casts rang in her ears. But the

144
00:07:39,000 --> 00:07:42,160
Speaker 1: Lord God still calls on us to respect our parents,

145
00:07:42,800 --> 00:07:45,120
Speaker 1: He'd added that well behaved kids were the ones who

146
00:07:45,160 --> 00:07:47,560
Speaker 1: caused the least suspicion and had the best chance of

147
00:07:47,600 --> 00:07:51,400
Speaker 1: successful escape. Yes, ma'am, was all she said as the

148
00:07:51,440 --> 00:07:54,720
Speaker 1: families settled into their chairs. Her brother, Ian was just

149
00:07:54,880 --> 00:07:57,800
Speaker 1: five and unusually quiet for his age. He smiled at

150
00:07:57,840 --> 00:08:00,840
Speaker 1: her as their father told him out an enchilada sash.

151
00:08:01,040 --> 00:08:04,480
Speaker 1: Who's Alexander? He asked, and Sasha felt the blood run

152
00:08:04,520 --> 00:08:08,040
Speaker 1: out of her face. Their father, Tony, smiled wrily at

153
00:08:08,040 --> 00:08:10,840
Speaker 1: the remark as he spooned a proportionately larger serving onto

154
00:08:10,840 --> 00:08:14,480
Speaker 1: his own plate. Alexander, Huh, maybe this means another boyfriend.

155
00:08:14,640 --> 00:08:18,520
Speaker 1: It's been what four years? Tony had opted for fewer

156
00:08:18,600 --> 00:08:22,640
Speaker 1: cosmetic juven treatments than his wife. Sasha loved her father's

157
00:08:22,640 --> 00:08:26,760
Speaker 1: receding hairline, his slight jowls, his graying hair. He was

158
00:08:27,080 --> 00:08:29,680
Speaker 1: still a heretic, but at least he wasn't a vain one.

159
00:08:30,440 --> 00:08:32,840
Speaker 1: He's not my boyfriend, Dad, just a boy I talk

160
00:08:32,880 --> 00:08:36,960
Speaker 1: with sometimes. We pray together. Gwendolen rolled her eyes a little.

161
00:08:37,440 --> 00:08:41,720
Speaker 1: Such an exciting adolescence you're having, she said. Sarcasm swelled

162
00:08:41,720 --> 00:08:44,960
Speaker 1: every word. Sasha didn't rise to the bait. Her self

163
00:08:45,000 --> 00:08:48,240
Speaker 1: control was iron now. She wouldn't give them any cause

164
00:08:48,280 --> 00:08:51,160
Speaker 1: to worry or call the authorities. It was better even

165
00:08:51,200 --> 00:08:53,800
Speaker 1: for them to think Alexander was some boy from school.

166
00:08:54,200 --> 00:08:56,800
Speaker 1: If they thought her principles were thawing, they'd be less

167
00:08:56,840 --> 00:09:00,120
Speaker 1: likely to suspect what he had planned. The Mary and

168
00:09:00,200 --> 00:09:04,120
Speaker 1: family ate companionably for several minutes. Tony talked about some

169
00:09:04,280 --> 00:09:06,840
Speaker 1: cock eyed nut who'd come into his office at Deutsche

170
00:09:06,840 --> 00:09:11,320
Speaker 1: Bank looking for a loan. He wanted three million to

171
00:09:11,679 --> 00:09:14,640
Speaker 1: get this build a blimp to take tourists from the

172
00:09:14,679 --> 00:09:18,960
Speaker 1: am Fed to Louisiana without crossing UCS territory. And I'm like,

173
00:09:19,360 --> 00:09:21,560
Speaker 1: first of all, I can name a hundred boat charters

174
00:09:21,559 --> 00:09:24,920
Speaker 1: to do the same thing, And second Sasha tuned most

175
00:09:24,960 --> 00:09:27,280
Speaker 1: of it out and tried to focus on eating, But

176
00:09:27,360 --> 00:09:30,160
Speaker 1: knowing Alexander was out there facing death for his faith

177
00:09:30,280 --> 00:09:33,360
Speaker 1: killed any appetite she otherwise might have had. She ate

178
00:09:33,400 --> 00:09:37,199
Speaker 1: mechanically without really tasting it until her plate was almost clean.

179
00:09:37,880 --> 00:09:40,480
Speaker 1: Sasha was planning her exit when her mother spoke up

180
00:09:41,480 --> 00:09:43,680
Speaker 1: by the way. The school called today and said, you

181
00:09:43,720 --> 00:09:46,560
Speaker 1: still haven't been by to get sized for your graduation robes.

182
00:09:46,760 --> 00:09:48,880
Speaker 1: They need at least forty eight hours to print them out.

183
00:09:49,000 --> 00:09:52,800
Speaker 1: You're running out of time. Sorry, mom, she said, I

184
00:09:52,840 --> 00:09:54,560
Speaker 1: know that's important. I've just had a lot on my

185
00:09:54,600 --> 00:09:57,079
Speaker 1: mind lately. The f s T s were last week.

186
00:09:57,760 --> 00:10:00,400
Speaker 1: Sasha had gotten very good at telling her parents what

187
00:10:00,440 --> 00:10:04,479
Speaker 1: they needed to hear without actually lying. The Federation Standardized

188
00:10:04,480 --> 00:10:07,240
Speaker 1: Test had been last week, and she'd certainly had a

189
00:10:07,320 --> 00:10:09,439
Speaker 1: lot on her mind lately, but the f s T

190
00:10:09,720 --> 00:10:12,160
Speaker 1: hadn't been keeping her up at night. It was little

191
00:10:12,200 --> 00:10:15,160
Speaker 1: more than a rubber stamp for a student like Sasha.

192
00:10:15,320 --> 00:10:18,560
Speaker 1: That's okay, sweetie, Gwendolen said, I know how important your

193
00:10:18,600 --> 00:10:20,200
Speaker 1: school work is to you. I just want you to

194
00:10:20,200 --> 00:10:24,040
Speaker 1: have a fun graduation experience. That's important. There's a war

195
00:10:24,160 --> 00:10:26,440
Speaker 1: going on a few hundred miles from your door, men

196
00:10:26,480 --> 00:10:28,960
Speaker 1: are dying for God's kingdom, and you think school matters

197
00:10:29,000 --> 00:10:31,880
Speaker 1: to me. But Sasha just smiled, told her mom she

198
00:10:31,920 --> 00:10:34,319
Speaker 1: loved her, and went back upstairs to her room. As

199
00:10:34,320 --> 00:10:37,640
Speaker 1: soon as it was politic to do so, she reactivated

200
00:10:37,640 --> 00:10:40,360
Speaker 1: her VPN and popped her deck into stealth mode, which

201
00:10:40,400 --> 00:10:43,280
Speaker 1: displayed a curated selection of websites and chat apps for

202
00:10:43,280 --> 00:10:45,920
Speaker 1: her mom and dad in case they came by. She

203
00:10:46,000 --> 00:10:48,320
Speaker 1: drew a new private window about two feet in front

204
00:10:48,360 --> 00:10:50,600
Speaker 1: of her face and split it in half between a

205
00:10:50,640 --> 00:10:53,120
Speaker 1: face calm with Alexander and a news feed full of

206
00:10:53,120 --> 00:10:57,319
Speaker 1: her favorite militia press offices. Her jaw dropped voice of

207
00:10:57,360 --> 00:11:00,560
Speaker 1: the Prophet's main headline was Republic of tex His forces

208
00:11:00,600 --> 00:11:03,960
Speaker 1: clashed with martyrs. Judgment day is here, she read in

209
00:11:03,960 --> 00:11:06,320
Speaker 1: a social media post from one of her favorite sources

210
00:11:06,320 --> 00:11:08,720
Speaker 1: in the area, a twenty something mechanic who lived on

211
00:11:08,760 --> 00:11:11,599
Speaker 1: the fringe of the Republic and supported the Heavenly Kingdom.

212
00:11:11,640 --> 00:11:14,520
Speaker 1: He'd posted a picture of the Governor's mansion in Plano.

213
00:11:14,559 --> 00:11:17,040
Speaker 1: It was burnt around several of the windows and riddled

214
00:11:17,080 --> 00:11:20,240
Speaker 1: with holes. Gone was the Republic's flag, replaced by a

215
00:11:20,280 --> 00:11:22,920
Speaker 1: white banner with a burning black cross in the center.

216
00:11:23,440 --> 00:11:26,679
Speaker 1: Sasha sent out another call request to Alexander and switched

217
00:11:26,679 --> 00:11:30,200
Speaker 1: over to Al Jazeera's feed to learn more. It galled

218
00:11:30,200 --> 00:11:32,640
Speaker 1: her to use a new source run by Muslims, but

219
00:11:32,720 --> 00:11:35,040
Speaker 1: she had learned from experience that Al Jazeera had the

220
00:11:35,040 --> 00:11:38,199
Speaker 1: best reporters on the ground in the Republic. They negotiated

221
00:11:38,240 --> 00:11:41,960
Speaker 1: coverage deals with several of the militia groups, including Alexander's.

222
00:11:42,000 --> 00:11:44,240
Speaker 1: The first thing she noticed was that their last article

223
00:11:44,320 --> 00:11:46,760
Speaker 1: had gone up over an hour ago, but the titles

224
00:11:46,760 --> 00:11:50,480
Speaker 1: of the foremost recent articles painted a vivid picture Republic

225
00:11:50,520 --> 00:11:55,040
Speaker 1: capital in Galveston, burning, military coup, Republic media feeds go dark,

226
00:11:55,400 --> 00:11:59,880
Speaker 1: SDF under attack. In Dallas. Pastor Mike Donnegan announces new

227
00:12:00,000 --> 00:12:03,480
Speaker 1: offensive for Heavenly Kingdom. How could there possibly be a

228
00:12:03,520 --> 00:12:06,960
Speaker 1: new offensive against the secular forces in Dallas? The Richardson

229
00:12:07,040 --> 00:12:09,480
Speaker 1: line had been locked in a stalemate for the last year.

230
00:12:09,840 --> 00:12:12,960
Speaker 1: Alexander had told her often, how outnumbered and outgunned the

231
00:12:12,960 --> 00:12:15,480
Speaker 1: martyrs of the Heavenly Kingdom were we hold in our

232
00:12:15,520 --> 00:12:17,800
Speaker 1: own But only by the grace of God, was his

233
00:12:17,880 --> 00:12:20,880
Speaker 1: usual refrain. The idea of them advancing again on the

234
00:12:21,000 --> 00:12:25,439
Speaker 1: stf seemed impossible. Nothing is impossible with God. She could

235
00:12:25,480 --> 00:12:28,960
Speaker 1: almost hear Alexander's voice echo in her mind's ear. She

236
00:12:29,040 --> 00:12:31,240
Speaker 1: glanced over at his chat screen, but it was still

237
00:12:31,280 --> 00:12:35,320
Speaker 1: just showed the standard dialing symbol. Frustrated, Sasha brought up

238
00:12:35,320 --> 00:12:37,760
Speaker 1: her militia news feed. This was one of her most

239
00:12:37,880 --> 00:12:40,800
Speaker 1: cherished possessions. It had taken months for her to sort

240
00:12:40,800 --> 00:12:43,880
Speaker 1: out the most influential Christian militias in the area, find

241
00:12:43,920 --> 00:12:46,880
Speaker 1: their official spokes feeds, and cross index them based on

242
00:12:47,000 --> 00:12:50,160
Speaker 1: which groups agreed with the strict neo Calvinist doctrine. She

243
00:12:50,559 --> 00:12:53,400
Speaker 1: Alexander and Pastor Mike all new to be the one

244
00:12:53,440 --> 00:12:56,480
Speaker 1: true Word of God, and for the first time since

245
00:12:56,520 --> 00:12:58,920
Speaker 1: she had started the feed, each and every militia she

246
00:12:59,040 --> 00:13:02,920
Speaker 1: followed had posted the exact same message, The first Battle

247
00:13:02,960 --> 00:13:07,120
Speaker 1: of Armageddon has begun. Sasha was confused for a minute.

248
00:13:07,320 --> 00:13:09,480
Speaker 1: She'd done her homework. She knew the final battle of

249
00:13:09,480 --> 00:13:11,880
Speaker 1: the en Times was supposed to occur at Mount Meghito

250
00:13:12,080 --> 00:13:15,080
Speaker 1: in Israel, but she thought back to Pastor Mike's sermons.

251
00:13:15,440 --> 00:13:18,400
Speaker 1: He had talked about the battles of Armageddon many times,

252
00:13:18,840 --> 00:13:20,880
Speaker 1: the coming end Times and the central place of the

253
00:13:20,920 --> 00:13:24,280
Speaker 1: heavenly Kingdom in the world's last battles were constant refrains

254
00:13:24,280 --> 00:13:27,320
Speaker 1: in his sermons. Sasha had always believed the battles of

255
00:13:27,360 --> 00:13:30,400
Speaker 1: Armageddon would come. She just thought they had more time.

256
00:13:31,240 --> 00:13:34,640
Speaker 1: Sasha was frustrated and a little hurt. Alexander must have

257
00:13:34,679 --> 00:13:36,800
Speaker 1: known this was in the offing and kept it from her,

258
00:13:37,200 --> 00:13:39,880
Speaker 1: She understood, of course, but she was furious at herself

259
00:13:39,920 --> 00:13:41,880
Speaker 1: for being so far away from the action that he

260
00:13:41,920 --> 00:13:44,240
Speaker 1: had been forced to hide this from her. The first

261
00:13:44,320 --> 00:13:47,319
Speaker 1: battle of Armageddon was beginning just a few hours south

262
00:13:47,360 --> 00:13:50,079
Speaker 1: of her bedroom. She could either stay here and rot

263
00:13:50,080 --> 00:13:53,320
Speaker 1: in the American Federation, or prove God with her devotion

264
00:13:53,400 --> 00:13:56,480
Speaker 1: and move there. It didn't even seem like a choice. Really.

265
00:13:56,880 --> 00:13:59,440
Speaker 1: If goodmen were fighting and dying to restore the Kingdom

266
00:13:59,440 --> 00:14:01,840
Speaker 1: of God on earth, it fell to her to travel

267
00:14:01,880 --> 00:14:05,440
Speaker 1: there and support those men. She thought of Alexander, his

268
00:14:05,520 --> 00:14:08,120
Speaker 1: liquid green eyes, his scraggly beard, the way his still

269
00:14:08,200 --> 00:14:11,160
Speaker 1: boyish voice broke in excitement when he lost himself in

270
00:14:11,200 --> 00:14:13,800
Speaker 1: the spirit of the Lord. Her beloved was out there

271
00:14:13,960 --> 00:14:16,880
Speaker 1: right now, fighting and maybe bleeding, to bring the truth

272
00:14:16,920 --> 00:14:19,640
Speaker 1: back to the world. The least she could do was

273
00:14:19,760 --> 00:14:23,720
Speaker 1: join him. Weeks ago, Alexander had given her the contact

274
00:14:23,760 --> 00:14:26,880
Speaker 1: information for a man named Brother Andrew. He called the

275
00:14:26,880 --> 00:14:29,840
Speaker 1: other man a deliverer. Sasha knew her parents and the

276
00:14:29,840 --> 00:14:33,600
Speaker 1: AMFID authorities would have described Brother Andrew as a people smuggler.

277
00:14:34,080 --> 00:14:37,080
Speaker 1: She hadn't reached out to Brother Andrew yet. In her fantasy,

278
00:14:37,160 --> 00:14:39,520
Speaker 1: she had always waited to graduate before escaping to the

279
00:14:39,560 --> 00:14:42,200
Speaker 1: Heavenly Kingdom. She was still a few weeks shy of

280
00:14:42,240 --> 00:14:44,360
Speaker 1: her eighteenth birthday and had hoped to at least spin

281
00:14:44,480 --> 00:14:47,320
Speaker 1: that with her parents before setting off. But right now,

282
00:14:47,400 --> 00:14:50,040
Speaker 1: as she scrolled through articles about the martyr's breakthrough and

283
00:14:50,080 --> 00:14:53,320
Speaker 1: immersed herself and snap bids of cheering soldiers raising cross

284
00:14:53,360 --> 00:14:57,800
Speaker 1: banners over newly captured neighborhoods, Sasha felt a powerful anxiety

285
00:14:57,880 --> 00:15:01,280
Speaker 1: overtake her. She needed to be there. There was no

286
00:15:01,360 --> 00:15:04,520
Speaker 1: other option. Sasha flicked open a window on the left

287
00:15:04,560 --> 00:15:07,480
Speaker 1: side of her viewspace, typed in the address she'd memorized

288
00:15:07,480 --> 00:15:10,440
Speaker 1: for Brother Andrew, and sent him a message, I am

289
00:15:10,440 --> 00:15:23,360
Speaker 1: ready to go. Chapter four. Manny Manny woke up needing

290
00:15:23,360 --> 00:15:26,200
Speaker 1: to piss, and also to the sound of explosions. You

291
00:15:26,240 --> 00:15:29,000
Speaker 1: couldn't quite tell which was more to blame for his sudden,

292
00:15:29,120 --> 00:15:33,080
Speaker 1: unwelcome consciousness. His lizard brain woke up and shouted, get

293
00:15:33,120 --> 00:15:35,680
Speaker 1: the funk out of their you asshole. A second later,

294
00:15:36,200 --> 00:15:38,760
Speaker 1: Manny got to his feet, grabbed his gear bag, and

295
00:15:38,840 --> 00:15:42,760
Speaker 1: looked around for the journalist. Reggie still seemed asleep, but

296
00:15:42,800 --> 00:15:45,360
Speaker 1: he stirred just as Manny started towards him, and another

297
00:15:45,400 --> 00:15:50,360
Speaker 1: thundering boom shook the world. Christ who's that, Reggie asked,

298
00:15:50,400 --> 00:15:54,160
Speaker 1: in a slurred voice heavy with sleep. Mortars, Manny explained,

299
00:15:54,240 --> 00:15:58,120
Speaker 1: I think I heard rockets too. Shit, the Britick sailed sharply.

300
00:15:58,520 --> 00:16:02,920
Speaker 1: Is this bad? Many shrugged. Those sound like small mortars,

301
00:16:03,160 --> 00:16:06,000
Speaker 1: very short range, but we're miles behind the line. So

302
00:16:07,160 --> 00:16:10,520
Speaker 1: a deafening explosion shook the world. It was loud enough

303
00:16:10,560 --> 00:16:13,560
Speaker 1: that Manny didn't even properly hear it. He felt it

304
00:16:13,800 --> 00:16:17,520
Speaker 1: hard and hot against his skin. The sheer, impossible noise

305
00:16:17,520 --> 00:16:19,400
Speaker 1: of it pulled the air from his lungs and the

306
00:16:19,400 --> 00:16:22,080
Speaker 1: thoughts from his head. The next instant, he was flat

307
00:16:22,080 --> 00:16:24,880
Speaker 1: on the ground. His eyes darted left and right for cover.

308
00:16:25,040 --> 00:16:28,400
Speaker 1: He spotted something, an artificial cave built into a corner

309
00:16:28,440 --> 00:16:31,120
Speaker 1: of the main room, perhaps a hundred feet away. It

310
00:16:31,200 --> 00:16:33,760
Speaker 1: looked like some sort of shrine or temple. Manny could

311
00:16:33,800 --> 00:16:36,720
Speaker 1: see the walls were thick with melted candles, colorful drawings

312
00:16:36,760 --> 00:16:39,600
Speaker 1: in a variety of brass cymbals. He grabbed Reggie by

313
00:16:39,640 --> 00:16:42,440
Speaker 1: the shoulder and shook hard. The other man jerked, locked

314
00:16:42,480 --> 00:16:45,960
Speaker 1: eyes with Manny and mouthed what the fixture pointed towards

315
00:16:46,000 --> 00:16:48,760
Speaker 1: the shrine, pulled himself up and sprinted towards it. The

316
00:16:48,840 --> 00:16:51,120
Speaker 1: journalists followed, and soon both men were huddled in the

317
00:16:51,120 --> 00:16:54,400
Speaker 1: little substructure, staring out at the devastation that had overtaken

318
00:16:54,440 --> 00:16:57,920
Speaker 1: the Richardson Autonomous Project. They could see two holes in

319
00:16:57,960 --> 00:17:00,640
Speaker 1: the roof. The huge circular kitchen bar looked like it

320
00:17:00,680 --> 00:17:04,080
Speaker 1: had taken a direct hit. Beer spurted from shattered taps,

321
00:17:04,280 --> 00:17:06,639
Speaker 1: and many could see what looked like blood staining the

322
00:17:06,680 --> 00:17:10,000
Speaker 1: white oak of the bar. Counter Flames licked somewhere off

323
00:17:10,000 --> 00:17:12,480
Speaker 1: in the distance on the other side of the vast structure.

324
00:17:12,840 --> 00:17:16,520
Speaker 1: The air smelled of smoke and burning grass. More blasts

325
00:17:16,560 --> 00:17:18,879
Speaker 1: sounded in the distance, including a few that were just

326
00:17:19,040 --> 00:17:21,840
Speaker 1: too loud to be mortar fire. Now that he focused,

327
00:17:21,920 --> 00:17:24,720
Speaker 1: Manny could also hear the chatter of machine guns. It

328
00:17:24,840 --> 00:17:27,359
Speaker 1: was distant, but not nearly as distant as it should

329
00:17:27,400 --> 00:17:30,439
Speaker 1: have been. Many dug into his pocket, found where the

330
00:17:30,480 --> 00:17:33,600
Speaker 1: deck was clipped inside, and thumbed the power button. Static

331
00:17:33,640 --> 00:17:35,680
Speaker 1: flashed at the edge of his vision as his implants

332
00:17:35,680 --> 00:17:38,960
Speaker 1: started up. He nearly always ran in minimalist mode, which

333
00:17:38,960 --> 00:17:41,639
Speaker 1: gave him access to his maps in his communications, sweet

334
00:17:41,720 --> 00:17:44,680
Speaker 1: and nothing else. He selected his address book and sub

335
00:17:44,760 --> 00:17:52,120
Speaker 1: vocalized his cousin's name, Alejandro. It dialed and dialed and dialed. Amen.

336
00:17:52,440 --> 00:17:55,280
Speaker 1: Reggie said, his voice oddly, calm, I think we might

337
00:17:55,280 --> 00:17:57,840
Speaker 1: need to get the funk out of here. Reggie looked

338
00:17:57,880 --> 00:18:00,119
Speaker 1: over at the brit and then towards the flames. They

339
00:18:00,119 --> 00:18:02,480
Speaker 1: were bigger now and closer. He could see a dozen

340
00:18:02,560 --> 00:18:04,600
Speaker 1: or so men and women fighting the fire with hoses

341
00:18:04,600 --> 00:18:08,240
Speaker 1: and extinguishers. They didn't seem to be winning. Elsewhere, he

342
00:18:08,240 --> 00:18:10,960
Speaker 1: saw small groups breaking cover to run for the exits.

343
00:18:11,240 --> 00:18:13,920
Speaker 1: The sound of alarm bells echoed across the big structure.

344
00:18:14,200 --> 00:18:17,760
Speaker 1: Alejandro hadn't responded, which meant he was fighting or dead.

345
00:18:18,320 --> 00:18:20,640
Speaker 1: Either way, Manny and Reggie would need to find their

346
00:18:20,680 --> 00:18:23,439
Speaker 1: own ride out of this mess. It had been a

347
00:18:23,440 --> 00:18:25,960
Speaker 1: while since the last mortar had landed on the complex,

348
00:18:26,040 --> 00:18:29,200
Speaker 1: and the small arms fire still sounded distant. This seemed

349
00:18:29,240 --> 00:18:30,800
Speaker 1: as good a time to make a break for it

350
00:18:30,800 --> 00:18:33,320
Speaker 1: as they were likely to get, so they ran until

351
00:18:33,359 --> 00:18:35,960
Speaker 1: they hit the nearest exit doors, shoved them open, and

352
00:18:36,040 --> 00:18:40,800
Speaker 1: staggered outside into the balmy Texas night. The asphalt parking

353
00:18:40,800 --> 00:18:44,000
Speaker 1: lot outside was filled with newly minted refugees, perhaps two

354
00:18:44,040 --> 00:18:46,600
Speaker 1: hundred of them, most carried at least to go bag.

355
00:18:46,760 --> 00:18:49,320
Speaker 1: A few had managed to drag out more. They were

356
00:18:49,400 --> 00:18:51,720
Speaker 1: ringed by a widening cordon of armed men and women,

357
00:18:51,960 --> 00:18:55,560
Speaker 1: fifty at the most. The militia clutched antique weapons, mostly

358
00:18:55,600 --> 00:18:58,400
Speaker 1: small arms, and stuck like glue to the Hescoe barriers

359
00:18:58,440 --> 00:19:01,240
Speaker 1: that ringed the old parking lot. Here and there, Manny

360
00:19:01,280 --> 00:19:03,359
Speaker 1: caught sight of a man with an RPG or a

361
00:19:03,440 --> 00:19:06,320
Speaker 1: light machine gun. It was a force mint for scaring

362
00:19:06,359 --> 00:19:09,640
Speaker 1: off bandits. The rockets still thudding in the distance told

363
00:19:09,640 --> 00:19:12,720
Speaker 1: Mannie these men and women faced considerably more than their match.

364
00:19:13,720 --> 00:19:16,639
Speaker 1: A green blink of light caught his attention. Reggie had

365
00:19:16,680 --> 00:19:19,240
Speaker 1: engaged his lapel camera. The brit fixed him with a

366
00:19:19,280 --> 00:19:21,919
Speaker 1: look that said, dude, what did you expect me to do?

367
00:19:22,480 --> 00:19:25,440
Speaker 1: Most of the survivors were probably recording to their decks too,

368
00:19:25,840 --> 00:19:29,120
Speaker 1: But Reggie's little camera could do considerably more. It scanned

369
00:19:29,119 --> 00:19:31,080
Speaker 1: the world around him in a three hundred and sixty

370
00:19:31,119 --> 00:19:34,679
Speaker 1: degree arc. It also recorded the journalist's own physical data,

371
00:19:35,000 --> 00:19:39,080
Speaker 1: his heart rate, his respiration, his adrenal levels. Everything he

372
00:19:39,119 --> 00:19:42,280
Speaker 1: saw and felt was being recorded for later consumption. The

373
00:19:42,359 --> 00:19:44,440
Speaker 1: brit was carving out a little slice of the war

374
00:19:44,600 --> 00:19:47,960
Speaker 1: for safer parts of the world to Binge Watch vehicle

375
00:19:48,040 --> 00:19:51,280
Speaker 1: started to arrive. The project's motor pool included three tracks

376
00:19:51,320 --> 00:19:54,000
Speaker 1: built to carry large groups of people in semi armored

377
00:19:54,040 --> 00:19:57,840
Speaker 1: semi safety. The commune's rapid reaction force set to work,

378
00:19:57,960 --> 00:20:00,879
Speaker 1: loading children and wounded up first. There was no panic,

379
00:20:01,119 --> 00:20:05,639
Speaker 1: no hysteria, just an exhausted efficiency that spoke of long practice.

380
00:20:06,240 --> 00:20:09,639
Speaker 1: Manny saw glassy eyes and clenched jaws, but very little

381
00:20:09,720 --> 00:20:13,440
Speaker 1: open rage. They're so very used to it, he realized.

382
00:20:13,920 --> 00:20:17,200
Speaker 1: Scattered throughout the crowd, Manny saw people whose bodies rattled

383
00:20:17,240 --> 00:20:19,840
Speaker 1: with the sort of palsied shock that artillery leaves in

384
00:20:19,880 --> 00:20:23,879
Speaker 1: its wake. Reggie just stared out at them, mouth slack.

385
00:20:24,200 --> 00:20:26,720
Speaker 1: His left knee twitched, the foot below it pumped against

386
00:20:26,760 --> 00:20:29,440
Speaker 1: the ground. Many guessed he was caught between the urge

387
00:20:29,480 --> 00:20:31,199
Speaker 1: to step out and talk to some of them and

388
00:20:31,240 --> 00:20:33,080
Speaker 1: the voice of sanity in the back of his head

389
00:20:33,119 --> 00:20:35,800
Speaker 1: that knew how tone deaf that would be. Manny put

390
00:20:35,800 --> 00:20:38,760
Speaker 1: a hand on the journalist's shoulder. We need to get

391
00:20:38,800 --> 00:20:41,000
Speaker 1: the funk out of here, and our ride is off calms,

392
00:20:41,119 --> 00:20:43,280
Speaker 1: he said. I'm going to suggest we hitch with the

393
00:20:43,400 --> 00:20:46,280
Speaker 1: R A P where their guests. They'll make room for us,

394
00:20:46,600 --> 00:20:48,400
Speaker 1: but if you'd rather drag ass I know a safe

395
00:20:48,400 --> 00:20:51,480
Speaker 1: neighborhood about six miles into the city. We could probably

396
00:20:51,520 --> 00:20:54,040
Speaker 1: hire a ride there. It looks like they're a bit

397
00:20:54,080 --> 00:20:56,800
Speaker 1: short of room, as is said the brit Those tracks

398
00:20:56,840 --> 00:21:00,520
Speaker 1: can't hold more than twenty or thirty people each, he smiled,

399
00:21:00,520 --> 00:21:03,320
Speaker 1: a little twenty four, but that's just if you're attached

400
00:21:03,359 --> 00:21:07,800
Speaker 1: to things like seats. Ten minutes later, Reggie and Manny

401
00:21:07,800 --> 00:21:09,720
Speaker 1: clung to the hood of the track as it barreled

402
00:21:09,720 --> 00:21:12,760
Speaker 1: down the broken streets of Ciadad de Muerta, bound for

403
00:21:12,800 --> 00:21:16,040
Speaker 1: a staging area in deep Ellument. The fighting sounded much

404
00:21:16,119 --> 00:21:18,880
Speaker 1: closer by the time they left. Manny guessed the small

405
00:21:18,960 --> 00:21:21,359
Speaker 1: arms fire couldn't be more than a couple of blocks away.

406
00:21:21,720 --> 00:21:24,000
Speaker 1: He and the journalist held on with white knuckles and

407
00:21:24,040 --> 00:21:26,280
Speaker 1: tried not to linger long on what would happen if

408
00:21:26,280 --> 00:21:29,280
Speaker 1: they lost their grip. The martyrs had passed the command

409
00:21:29,280 --> 00:21:32,919
Speaker 1: post the bridge, shouted in sudden realization, his voice strained

410
00:21:32,920 --> 00:21:35,440
Speaker 1: to be audible over the roar of the engines. Holy shit,

411
00:21:35,600 --> 00:21:38,679
Speaker 1: they have to be right. Many thought about the geography

412
00:21:38,680 --> 00:21:40,840
Speaker 1: for a moment. It was possible that the martyrs had

413
00:21:40,880 --> 00:21:42,960
Speaker 1: only broken through in a few chunks of the line,

414
00:21:43,320 --> 00:21:45,000
Speaker 1: but that would mean to Shaun and the others were

415
00:21:45,000 --> 00:21:49,480
Speaker 1: alive and surrounded or fleeing. Those were the best case scenarios.

416
00:21:50,520 --> 00:21:53,280
Speaker 1: I think we might be fucked, Manny said, stunned by

417
00:21:53,280 --> 00:21:56,320
Speaker 1: the realization. For the last year, Major Clark had been

418
00:21:56,359 --> 00:21:59,359
Speaker 1: his most reliable source in the SDF. That post had

419
00:21:59,400 --> 00:22:02,159
Speaker 1: seemed to move double impregnable for its significance in his

420
00:22:02,240 --> 00:22:05,800
Speaker 1: little chunk of the world. The tracks slowed to a stop.

421
00:22:05,840 --> 00:22:09,199
Speaker 1: Parked facing them were too smaller armored SDF tracks with

422
00:22:09,240 --> 00:22:13,040
Speaker 1: swiveling cannons on their roofs soldiers scurried around them. They

423
00:22:13,080 --> 00:22:16,640
Speaker 1: pulled sections of thin, frosted gray still glass barricades off

424
00:22:16,680 --> 00:22:18,800
Speaker 1: the vehicles and started setting them up to form a

425
00:22:18,840 --> 00:22:22,600
Speaker 1: new defensive line. Many watched two militia women wrestle with

426
00:22:22,640 --> 00:22:26,040
Speaker 1: a large olive green case covered in boxy cyrillic script.

427
00:22:26,400 --> 00:22:29,119
Speaker 1: They pried it open, and Manny saw a huge metal

428
00:22:29,160 --> 00:22:32,200
Speaker 1: tube and what looked like a lot of antique optical equipment.

429
00:22:32,560 --> 00:22:35,520
Speaker 1: It was probably an old wire guided missile launcher, something

430
00:22:35,520 --> 00:22:38,680
Speaker 1: that had been antique before the revolution. He'd never seen

431
00:22:38,720 --> 00:22:41,840
Speaker 1: the SDF use anything that old. They had drones half

432
00:22:41,840 --> 00:22:45,240
Speaker 1: this size that carried even more firepower, had them yesterday,

433
00:22:45,320 --> 00:22:48,640
Speaker 1: at least, he thought. The tracks slowed to a cautious

434
00:22:48,680 --> 00:22:51,760
Speaker 1: stop and hanked. Manny glanced back at the driver. She

435
00:22:51,880 --> 00:22:54,080
Speaker 1: had her hands in the air in a universal please

436
00:22:54,119 --> 00:22:57,239
Speaker 1: don't shoot us gesture. Two of the soldiers peeled off

437
00:22:57,280 --> 00:23:00,280
Speaker 1: from their efforts and approached weapons in hand, but noted.

438
00:23:00,600 --> 00:23:03,360
Speaker 1: The driver opened her door and shouted something down at them.

439
00:23:03,560 --> 00:23:07,639
Speaker 1: One of the men responded and gestured vaguely downtown. Manny

440
00:23:07,720 --> 00:23:10,159
Speaker 1: couldn't make out exactly what was being said, but the

441
00:23:10,240 --> 00:23:13,320
Speaker 1: driver's face contorted in a fury that was impossible to miss.

442
00:23:14,040 --> 00:23:16,800
Speaker 1: Something's fucked. Manny said to the journalist, I think we're

443
00:23:16,800 --> 00:23:19,520
Speaker 1: about to lose our ride. Look. He pointed to the

444
00:23:19,560 --> 00:23:22,280
Speaker 1: makeshift barricade and the dozen or so soldiers who filtered

445
00:23:22,320 --> 00:23:25,159
Speaker 1: past it and towards the track. The driver yelled and

446
00:23:25,160 --> 00:23:27,560
Speaker 1: one of the other passengers near the front started to shout.

447
00:23:27,880 --> 00:23:30,560
Speaker 1: The soldier's face remained impassive, but he put a hand

448
00:23:30,560 --> 00:23:33,000
Speaker 1: on his side arm and repeated a command. Manny didn't

449
00:23:33,000 --> 00:23:35,920
Speaker 1: even need to hear. A few seconds later, a soldier

450
00:23:35,920 --> 00:23:38,720
Speaker 1: with a megaphone arrived and addressed Manny, Reggie and the

451
00:23:38,720 --> 00:23:43,119
Speaker 1: new refugees citizens, your vehicle has been requisitioned for medical

452
00:23:43,240 --> 00:23:46,760
Speaker 1: use by the SDF. Please dismount on an orderly fashion.

453
00:23:46,960 --> 00:23:51,440
Speaker 1: Injureduce pregnant individuals may stay aboard. The man repeated the order,

454
00:23:51,680 --> 00:23:55,280
Speaker 1: this time in Spanish. Reggie's jaw clinched man he could

455
00:23:55,280 --> 00:23:57,199
Speaker 1: see fear in his eyes, but the other man just

456
00:23:57,320 --> 00:24:00,280
Speaker 1: nodded and started to climb down off the track. Manny

457
00:24:00,320 --> 00:24:03,080
Speaker 1: did the same. Not all of the tracks passengers were

458
00:24:03,080 --> 00:24:05,560
Speaker 1: as compliant. There was a lot of shouting and even

459
00:24:05,600 --> 00:24:08,680
Speaker 1: a few shoving matches between the militiamen and the passengers,

460
00:24:08,720 --> 00:24:11,680
Speaker 1: but in the end the SDF got their way. Many

461
00:24:11,760 --> 00:24:14,440
Speaker 1: gathered fairly quickly that they planned to send the civilians

462
00:24:14,440 --> 00:24:16,879
Speaker 1: a mile or so back to a holding area behind

463
00:24:16,920 --> 00:24:20,040
Speaker 1: the new line. That was the last fucking place in

464
00:24:20,040 --> 00:24:22,159
Speaker 1: the world he wanted to be, so he approached the

465
00:24:22,200 --> 00:24:24,960
Speaker 1: officer who had been arguing with their driver. The man

466
00:24:25,000 --> 00:24:27,359
Speaker 1: had no rank in signiya on his uniform, but that

467
00:24:27,400 --> 00:24:30,320
Speaker 1: wasn't unusual for militia. His fatigues were old U S

468
00:24:30,400 --> 00:24:33,040
Speaker 1: Army issue. His arm band identified him as part of

469
00:24:33,040 --> 00:24:36,320
Speaker 1: the Citizens Front. Manny found that odd Most of the

470
00:24:36,359 --> 00:24:38,679
Speaker 1: militia at this barricade were with Raza Front or the

471
00:24:38,680 --> 00:24:42,119
Speaker 1: p p A. This much intermixing wasn't normal. It pointed

472
00:24:42,119 --> 00:24:45,719
Speaker 1: to a lot of casualties among the SDF discope. Signor

473
00:24:46,000 --> 00:24:49,919
Speaker 1: Manny started, Chico, no ramismo. I don't have time to debate,

474
00:24:50,119 --> 00:24:53,679
Speaker 1: no Signor. My cousin Alajandra was with Citizens Front, ninth Battalion.

475
00:24:53,960 --> 00:24:56,800
Speaker 1: He was our ride. We were taking this journalist. Manny

476
00:24:56,880 --> 00:24:59,200
Speaker 1: jerked his head towards Reggie, who stood a few feetback,

477
00:24:59,520 --> 00:25:02,359
Speaker 1: and we got caught up in the attack. The officer nodded,

478
00:25:02,440 --> 00:25:05,359
Speaker 1: then grunted. Manny studied his face for a moment. The

479
00:25:05,400 --> 00:25:07,560
Speaker 1: man was middle aged, with a weak chin and enough

480
00:25:07,600 --> 00:25:09,720
Speaker 1: extra meat on his bones to suggest this was his

481
00:25:09,800 --> 00:25:13,000
Speaker 1: first front line duty in a while. His eyes were bloodshot,

482
00:25:13,200 --> 00:25:16,880
Speaker 1: his hands clenched, his attitude softened a bit at Alejandro's name,

483
00:25:17,160 --> 00:25:22,520
Speaker 1: Alejandro Hernandez. Yeah, he's a good man, or was, the

484
00:25:22,600 --> 00:25:25,600
Speaker 1: officer said darkly. All our front line units were wiped

485
00:25:25,640 --> 00:25:28,320
Speaker 1: out or near enough. The whole STF has been pushed

486
00:25:28,359 --> 00:25:31,000
Speaker 1: all the way back to Sida de Muerta. If he's alive,

487
00:25:31,200 --> 00:25:34,479
Speaker 1: he's a prisoner. The man shook his head. Sorry, Chico,

488
00:25:34,680 --> 00:25:36,720
Speaker 1: there's not much I can do for you or your friend.

489
00:25:37,520 --> 00:25:39,399
Speaker 1: We need to get to Waco. I know there's a

490
00:25:39,440 --> 00:25:42,640
Speaker 1: hospital there that must be where you're sending the serious injuries. Right,

491
00:25:42,880 --> 00:25:45,560
Speaker 1: Dallas doesn't have anything left with a fully are the

492
00:25:45,600 --> 00:25:48,680
Speaker 1: officer nodded. These tracks are headed to the Field Hospital

493
00:25:48,680 --> 00:25:50,640
Speaker 1: in Oak Lawn, but we've got a couple of deuce

494
00:25:50,680 --> 00:25:53,199
Speaker 1: and a half sloading up at firebas Jiamenez. If you

495
00:25:53,240 --> 00:25:55,359
Speaker 1: can get there on your own, all radio ahead and

496
00:25:55,400 --> 00:25:58,399
Speaker 1: ask Major Peron if he's got space. I know Peron

497
00:25:58,760 --> 00:26:01,879
Speaker 1: Manny almost shouted, I went to school with his nephew, Hector.

498
00:26:02,200 --> 00:26:04,840
Speaker 1: He couldn't stop himself from wincing, as he said, if

499
00:26:04,880 --> 00:26:07,880
Speaker 1: you'd give him my name, that might help the other

500
00:26:07,920 --> 00:26:11,320
Speaker 1: man's eye cocked up in a really motherfucker. Look. But

501
00:26:11,359 --> 00:26:15,159
Speaker 1: then the soldier asked, and your name is Manny Sanchez.

502
00:26:15,600 --> 00:26:18,919
Speaker 1: He nodded, good luck. Then Manny, all radio ahead. You

503
00:26:18,960 --> 00:26:22,600
Speaker 1: and your friend get to the firebase. Rapido Combrende. Many

504
00:26:22,680 --> 00:26:25,520
Speaker 1: nodded and turned to Reggie. We've got a ride, but

505
00:26:25,560 --> 00:26:27,760
Speaker 1: it's going to be a bit of a hike. It

506
00:26:27,840 --> 00:26:29,960
Speaker 1: was less a hike and more of a panicked jog.

507
00:26:30,440 --> 00:26:32,639
Speaker 1: The streets around them were filled with dozens of people

508
00:26:32,720 --> 00:26:35,840
Speaker 1: carrying their possessions and bags and rusted old shopping carts.

509
00:26:36,359 --> 00:26:39,119
Speaker 1: Manny had never seen Dallas this crowded. Less than a

510
00:26:39,119 --> 00:26:42,040
Speaker 1: million people still lived in the old Metroplex, but most

511
00:26:42,080 --> 00:26:43,840
Speaker 1: of them seemed to be out in the streets to

512
00:26:43,920 --> 00:26:47,399
Speaker 1: watch the world end. Sirens sounded, courtesy of the city's

513
00:26:47,440 --> 00:26:50,399
Speaker 1: old civil defense system, mixed every few seconds with the

514
00:26:50,400 --> 00:26:53,080
Speaker 1: distorted voice of a woman reminding them that all motor

515
00:26:53,160 --> 00:26:56,560
Speaker 1: vehicle use was prohibited. Any civilian vehicles on the road

516
00:26:56,600 --> 00:27:00,320
Speaker 1: will be assumed hostile and targeted. The road traff was

517
00:27:00,400 --> 00:27:03,000
Speaker 1: all military. There was less of it than Manny would

518
00:27:03,000 --> 00:27:05,280
Speaker 1: have hoped to see. In the space of a few seconds,

519
00:27:05,280 --> 00:27:08,040
Speaker 1: he watched three pairs of cougar assault vehicles race up

520
00:27:08,080 --> 00:27:11,040
Speaker 1: towards the front, carrying squads of armored troopers in their

521
00:27:11,080 --> 00:27:14,560
Speaker 1: open beds. He also saw one convoy of five anti

522
00:27:14,600 --> 00:27:17,080
Speaker 1: tank drones. Each was the size of a four door

523
00:27:17,160 --> 00:27:19,639
Speaker 1: sedan with two linked chain guns on a turret that

524
00:27:19,720 --> 00:27:22,919
Speaker 1: scanned the sky in fast, jerky arcs. There was a

525
00:27:23,000 --> 00:27:25,280
Speaker 1: troubling amount of dead space on the road between the

526
00:27:25,359 --> 00:27:28,080
Speaker 1: two units. By the sound of it, the fighting had

527
00:27:28,119 --> 00:27:30,879
Speaker 1: only grown more intense throughout the morning. The crack of

528
00:27:30,960 --> 00:27:33,199
Speaker 1: small arms fire had been nearly drowned out by the

529
00:27:33,240 --> 00:27:35,760
Speaker 1: all consuming roar of close support drones in the sky

530
00:27:35,840 --> 00:27:39,000
Speaker 1: above them. The only noises to rise above that din

531
00:27:39,040 --> 00:27:41,520
Speaker 1: were the stipling bangs of mortar fire and the pop

532
00:27:41,560 --> 00:27:45,600
Speaker 1: pop popping of cluster bombs fire. Bass Jimenez was about

533
00:27:45,600 --> 00:27:48,280
Speaker 1: two miles back from the new front. It was mainly

534
00:27:48,320 --> 00:27:52,240
Speaker 1: a staging area for the STFs Autonomous Artillery Division. The

535
00:27:52,359 --> 00:27:54,399
Speaker 1: a a D was made up of men and mostly

536
00:27:54,480 --> 00:27:57,200
Speaker 1: drones from all the secular militia groups active in the

537
00:27:57,280 --> 00:28:01,400
Speaker 1: Dallas area. The firebase itself wasn't well fortified. The only

538
00:28:01,400 --> 00:28:03,840
Speaker 1: physical defense was a fence topped with razor wire to

539
00:28:03,920 --> 00:28:06,800
Speaker 1: keep civilians out that wouldn't be much of a barrier

540
00:28:06,840 --> 00:28:09,600
Speaker 1: for a determined assault until a couple of hours ago.

541
00:28:09,760 --> 00:28:11,760
Speaker 1: Yemenez had been far enough from the front that an

542
00:28:11,800 --> 00:28:15,720
Speaker 1: assault wasn't considered possible. After an hour of mixed jogging

543
00:28:15,720 --> 00:28:18,000
Speaker 1: and running, Manny and Reggie took a left onto park

544
00:28:18,080 --> 00:28:20,719
Speaker 1: Lane and the fire base came into view. It had

545
00:28:20,760 --> 00:28:23,119
Speaker 1: been built in the bones of an old apartment complex.

546
00:28:23,400 --> 00:28:26,200
Speaker 1: Several buildings had been converted into offices and the rest

547
00:28:26,320 --> 00:28:29,480
Speaker 1: left as barrack space. The apartments were situated across the

548
00:28:29,560 --> 00:28:32,359
Speaker 1: road from a tall, very thin, parenthesies shaped building that

549
00:28:32,440 --> 00:28:35,240
Speaker 1: looked out over a large field dotted with landing pads.

550
00:28:35,680 --> 00:28:38,840
Speaker 1: The name Top Golf driving Range was still visible on

551
00:28:38,880 --> 00:28:42,000
Speaker 1: the side of the building. Several hundred militiamen were hard

552
00:28:42,000 --> 00:28:44,840
Speaker 1: at work throwing up defenses. Still, glass sheets had been

553
00:28:44,840 --> 00:28:47,680
Speaker 1: set up to screen a dozen machine gun nests. Further back,

554
00:28:47,760 --> 00:28:51,240
Speaker 1: soldiers piled sandbags in front of two howitzers. Manny and

555
00:28:51,280 --> 00:28:54,400
Speaker 1: Reggie weren't the only civilians trying to gain entrance. Fifty

556
00:28:54,480 --> 00:28:56,600
Speaker 1: or so people clustered by a checkpoint in the middle

557
00:28:56,600 --> 00:28:59,280
Speaker 1: of the road, a hundred yards ahead of the construction efforts.

558
00:29:00,000 --> 00:29:02,960
Speaker 1: The checkpoint was new just a sandbag machine gun emplacement,

559
00:29:03,000 --> 00:29:06,160
Speaker 1: manned by six fighters empowered body armor. They were over

560
00:29:06,240 --> 00:29:09,280
Speaker 1: watched by a pair of ancient Abrams tanks positioned on

561
00:29:09,320 --> 00:29:11,920
Speaker 1: either side of the road. The soldiers in the middle

562
00:29:12,000 --> 00:29:15,040
Speaker 1: checked the documents and let the occasional civilian through. They

563
00:29:15,080 --> 00:29:17,840
Speaker 1: turned most people back. There were a lot of shouts

564
00:29:17,840 --> 00:29:20,640
Speaker 1: and violent gestures on the part of the civilians. While

565
00:29:20,680 --> 00:29:23,120
Speaker 1: Manny watched. One of the guards raised their rifle up

566
00:29:23,160 --> 00:29:25,240
Speaker 1: and fired it just to the left of a screaming

567
00:29:25,240 --> 00:29:28,920
Speaker 1: man's face. He recoiled in pain and fear, clutched his ears,

568
00:29:29,000 --> 00:29:32,480
Speaker 1: and staggered away from the checkpoint. The weight was only

569
00:29:32,520 --> 00:29:35,480
Speaker 1: about ten minutes, but with the thudding artillery at their back,

570
00:29:35,680 --> 00:29:38,200
Speaker 1: each of those minutes felt like an hour. But soon

571
00:29:38,240 --> 00:29:40,160
Speaker 1: they stood face to face with one of the armored

572
00:29:40,200 --> 00:29:43,600
Speaker 1: militia folks. Reggie went stiff at once, his pupils the

573
00:29:43,640 --> 00:29:46,200
Speaker 1: size of dinner plates. He had never seen powered armor

574
00:29:46,280 --> 00:29:49,920
Speaker 1: up close before. Manny couldn't blame the man for being unnerved.

575
00:29:50,120 --> 00:29:53,040
Speaker 1: The reflective bug eyed, ballistic glass of the helmets and

576
00:29:53,200 --> 00:29:56,280
Speaker 1: humanly broad shoulder armor made the wearers look like cronein

577
00:29:56,320 --> 00:30:00,560
Speaker 1: Bergie and guerrilla mantis hybrids. The shortest armored soldier was

578
00:30:00,560 --> 00:30:03,040
Speaker 1: well over seven feet tall and almost as broad as

579
00:30:03,080 --> 00:30:06,040
Speaker 1: two men. Their gender was impossible to discern, but a

580
00:30:06,120 --> 00:30:09,760
Speaker 1: feminine voice leapt from the speakers. State your business, she said,

581
00:30:09,960 --> 00:30:11,680
Speaker 1: If you're looking for shelter, you'll have to head to

582
00:30:11,720 --> 00:30:14,440
Speaker 1: North Park Center. We don't have room for you. Am

583
00:30:14,440 --> 00:30:17,320
Speaker 1: Emmanuel Sanchez Major Perune, should have my friend and I

584
00:30:17,400 --> 00:30:20,400
Speaker 1: on your list. The woman was silent for a little while.

585
00:30:20,400 --> 00:30:22,360
Speaker 1: As she called up the list, she clucked her tongue

586
00:30:22,400 --> 00:30:24,479
Speaker 1: between her teeth, and the high fidelity mike in her

587
00:30:24,520 --> 00:30:26,320
Speaker 1: suit made it sound like she'd done it next to

588
00:30:26,360 --> 00:30:29,840
Speaker 1: his ear. Well, hell, there you are. Her helmeted head

589
00:30:29,840 --> 00:30:32,680
Speaker 1: bobbed at them. All right, you're in, come through quick.

590
00:30:32,880 --> 00:30:35,400
Speaker 1: You stop being my fucking problem. As soon as you're inside.

591
00:30:36,400 --> 00:30:38,480
Speaker 1: They made their way towards the actual front gate of

592
00:30:38,480 --> 00:30:41,560
Speaker 1: the fire base, passing squads of militias struggling with hescoes

593
00:30:41,600 --> 00:30:44,680
Speaker 1: and setting up firing positions behind the still glass palisade.

594
00:30:45,440 --> 00:30:47,600
Speaker 1: Manny and Reggie walked past it all and to the

595
00:30:47,640 --> 00:30:50,800
Speaker 1: firebases front gate. They were let in without any fuss,

596
00:30:50,920 --> 00:30:53,240
Speaker 1: which surprised Manny a bit, but he wasn't about to

597
00:30:53,320 --> 00:30:55,680
Speaker 1: question it. On the other side of the gate, they

598
00:30:55,680 --> 00:30:59,840
Speaker 1: found themselves adrift, unescorted, and surrounded by pure chaos. There

599
00:31:00,000 --> 00:31:02,840
Speaker 1: were other civilians inside the walls, huddled in small groups

600
00:31:02,840 --> 00:31:06,080
Speaker 1: around piles of backpacks. They sat wide eyed and shaking,

601
00:31:06,120 --> 00:31:09,800
Speaker 1: and waited for whatever deliverance the STF could provide. Soldiers

602
00:31:09,880 --> 00:31:12,120
Speaker 1: rushed through the clots of humanity in groups of two

603
00:31:12,240 --> 00:31:15,320
Speaker 1: or three. Often their arms were filled with machinery or paper,

604
00:31:15,480 --> 00:31:18,720
Speaker 1: or even crates of munitions. Everyone's eyes were wide and

605
00:31:18,800 --> 00:31:22,040
Speaker 1: full of fear. For a while, Reggie and Manny milled

606
00:31:22,040 --> 00:31:24,520
Speaker 1: around with no real aim, unable to enter any of

607
00:31:24,520 --> 00:31:27,600
Speaker 1: the buildings. Manny found them an unclaimed place to sit

608
00:31:27,680 --> 00:31:29,600
Speaker 1: that looked like it would be easy for Mr. Perune

609
00:31:29,680 --> 00:31:32,760
Speaker 1: to find, and then they just sat there. At one point,

610
00:31:32,800 --> 00:31:35,880
Speaker 1: Reggie offered him a protein bar. Manny tried to eat it,

611
00:31:35,960 --> 00:31:38,680
Speaker 1: but three bites in he accepted that his appetite just

612
00:31:38,840 --> 00:31:41,760
Speaker 1: wasn't there. What do I do if Dallas falls? He

613
00:31:41,840 --> 00:31:44,760
Speaker 1: ran through his finances over and over again, mulling over

614
00:31:44,760 --> 00:31:47,360
Speaker 1: which European visas he could afford and how long he'd

615
00:31:47,360 --> 00:31:49,680
Speaker 1: be able to survive in each country. I could make

616
00:31:49,720 --> 00:31:52,479
Speaker 1: it a year maybe eighteen months in Croatia. He'd been

617
00:31:52,520 --> 00:31:55,240
Speaker 1: studying German for the last year, though I can learn

618
00:31:55,240 --> 00:31:58,760
Speaker 1: Croatian any year, he tried to convince himself. He also

619
00:31:58,800 --> 00:32:00,920
Speaker 1: tried to ignore what he'd been evening behind. If he

620
00:32:00,960 --> 00:32:03,680
Speaker 1: hopped the next flight from Austin to the EU. He

621
00:32:03,720 --> 00:32:06,120
Speaker 1: didn't want to think about Oscar's wife and child, how

622
00:32:06,160 --> 00:32:08,800
Speaker 1: they'd get by without their dad's income. He didn't want

623
00:32:08,800 --> 00:32:10,600
Speaker 1: to think about his own father or the rest of

624
00:32:10,680 --> 00:32:13,520
Speaker 1: his family and how they'd fare if Austin fell. You

625
00:32:13,560 --> 00:32:16,160
Speaker 1: can only afford to take care of you here, Manny.

626
00:32:17,080 --> 00:32:20,800
Speaker 1: It was two hours before Major Perne found them. The

627
00:32:20,840 --> 00:32:23,920
Speaker 1: older man's skin was a deep sunsharred brown that seemed

628
00:32:23,920 --> 00:32:26,640
Speaker 1: at odds with his narrow face and thin wire glasses.

629
00:32:27,000 --> 00:32:28,920
Speaker 1: He had the look of a high school history teacher

630
00:32:28,920 --> 00:32:31,680
Speaker 1: who had been transplanted into a war zone. There was

631
00:32:31,720 --> 00:32:34,360
Speaker 1: something drawn and strained in his expression that spoke of

632
00:32:34,440 --> 00:32:37,800
Speaker 1: deep exhaustion. His eyes were bloodshot, and his nose was

633
00:32:37,840 --> 00:32:41,640
Speaker 1: swollen slightly red. Manny could remember seeing that same face

634
00:32:41,880 --> 00:32:43,920
Speaker 1: a bit younger and wearing a T shirt rather than

635
00:32:43,960 --> 00:32:47,640
Speaker 1: digiKam at a hundred different slumber parties. Mister Perrone was

636
00:32:47,680 --> 00:32:50,280
Speaker 1: Hector's dad. Mr. Perrone made them kettle corn and let

637
00:32:50,280 --> 00:32:54,000
Speaker 1: them watch violent movies on the family projector Major Perone.

638
00:32:54,200 --> 00:32:58,120
Speaker 1: Manny had to remind himself he's Major Perone. The Major

639
00:32:58,200 --> 00:33:02,080
Speaker 1: favored Manny with a sad smile. Madre di dio, Simmanuel,

640
00:33:02,160 --> 00:33:04,440
Speaker 1: It's fucking good to see you. Have you seen your

641
00:33:04,480 --> 00:33:08,040
Speaker 1: cousin Alejandro? He was with us last night, Manny said,

642
00:33:08,240 --> 00:33:11,440
Speaker 1: before the attack. A pained look crossed the Major's face.

643
00:33:12,000 --> 00:33:14,760
Speaker 1: O kay, he nodded, and forced to smile back across

644
00:33:14,760 --> 00:33:18,520
Speaker 1: his lips. I hear you boys need a ride, yes,

645
00:33:18,600 --> 00:33:20,680
Speaker 1: Manny said, if you could get us back to Waco.

646
00:33:20,760 --> 00:33:22,720
Speaker 1: I have enough connections in the area to get him.

647
00:33:23,000 --> 00:33:26,720
Speaker 1: Manny nodded back to the journalist. Into Austin and what

648
00:33:26,960 --> 00:33:29,760
Speaker 1: is your name, sir? Major Perrone asked the journalist as

649
00:33:29,760 --> 00:33:33,520
Speaker 1: he extended his hand. Reggie the brit responded, thank you

650
00:33:33,640 --> 00:33:36,640
Speaker 1: so much for helping us. I'm afraid there's not much

651
00:33:36,680 --> 00:33:39,880
Speaker 1: I can do right now. The situation is still very fluid.

652
00:33:40,280 --> 00:33:42,640
Speaker 1: We've set a new defensive line running from the Lakewood

653
00:33:42,640 --> 00:33:45,440
Speaker 1: Crater to love Field. With any luck, the martyrs have

654
00:33:45,480 --> 00:33:47,720
Speaker 1: spent the bulk of their strength and will hold them there,

655
00:33:48,400 --> 00:33:52,160
Speaker 1: and if not, Reggie asked, mister Perrone laughed and scratched

656
00:33:52,200 --> 00:33:54,960
Speaker 1: his head. Well, if the line breaks, then i'd guess

657
00:33:55,000 --> 00:33:58,479
Speaker 1: our collective booch is screwed. We'll begin the evacuation if

658
00:33:58,520 --> 00:34:01,080
Speaker 1: it gets much worse. But now we're still waiting for

659
00:34:01,120 --> 00:34:03,720
Speaker 1: convoys of wounded to get back through the lines. He

660
00:34:03,880 --> 00:34:06,520
Speaker 1: gestured out at the considerable amount of fenced off open

661
00:34:06,560 --> 00:34:09,320
Speaker 1: space in the fire base. This whole place is about

662
00:34:09,320 --> 00:34:12,360
Speaker 1: to be a big, open air hospital. He gave Reggie

663
00:34:12,400 --> 00:34:15,160
Speaker 1: a severe look. I won't tell you not to record them,

664
00:34:15,160 --> 00:34:18,319
Speaker 1: because quite frankly, everyone here is too busy to police that.

665
00:34:18,760 --> 00:34:20,960
Speaker 1: But I will ask that you showed tact in respect

666
00:34:20,960 --> 00:34:25,400
Speaker 1: in your documentation, of course, said Reggie, with enough sincerity

667
00:34:25,400 --> 00:34:28,400
Speaker 1: that Manny believed him. All right. He clapped Manny on

668
00:34:28,400 --> 00:34:31,879
Speaker 1: the shoulder, and after a second's pause, embraced him. Hold

669
00:34:31,920 --> 00:34:33,719
Speaker 1: on out here for a while. I'll try to send

670
00:34:33,719 --> 00:34:36,440
Speaker 1: some food in a little bit. Manny and Reggie both

671
00:34:36,480 --> 00:34:38,719
Speaker 1: thanked Major Braun, and he trundled off into the old

672
00:34:38,800 --> 00:34:41,720
Speaker 1: top golf building to do his part in coordinating the defense.

673
00:34:42,880 --> 00:34:47,799
Speaker 1: So what now, Reggie asked, We wait, said Manny. Three

674
00:34:47,840 --> 00:34:51,360
Speaker 1: hours passed. More and more wounded men streamed into the base,

675
00:34:51,520 --> 00:34:54,640
Speaker 1: carried on stretchers and an ambulances, and in several cases

676
00:34:54,760 --> 00:34:58,359
Speaker 1: stacked like firewood on flatbed trucks. The wounded were set

677
00:34:58,440 --> 00:35:00,560
Speaker 1: up on cots and piles of blankets in the grass

678
00:35:00,600 --> 00:35:03,880
Speaker 1: and wherever possible, and paved sections of the driving ranger's

679
00:35:03,960 --> 00:35:07,680
Speaker 1: old parking lot. Medics, far too few medics hustled from

680
00:35:07,719 --> 00:35:11,839
Speaker 1: soldier to soldier at a frantic, manic, unsustainable pace. For

681
00:35:11,880 --> 00:35:13,920
Speaker 1: a while, there was nothing to do but follow Reggie

682
00:35:13,960 --> 00:35:16,239
Speaker 1: around while he interviewed the wounded men and women who

683
00:35:16,239 --> 00:35:19,319
Speaker 1: were stable enough to talk. They all reported shock at

684
00:35:19,320 --> 00:35:22,560
Speaker 1: the speed and ferocity of the attack. Their testimonies drove

685
00:35:22,560 --> 00:35:25,080
Speaker 1: home the fact that this was something new. Tendrils of

686
00:35:25,160 --> 00:35:27,640
Speaker 1: fear crept up Manny's spine. It was all he could

687
00:35:27,680 --> 00:35:31,319
Speaker 1: do to keep moving with his journalist Amen. Reggie said,

688
00:35:31,480 --> 00:35:33,920
Speaker 1: look at that fellow. He pointed to a soldier with

689
00:35:33,960 --> 00:35:36,640
Speaker 1: the top half of his head wrapped in blood soaked bandages.

690
00:35:37,280 --> 00:35:40,239
Speaker 1: Something about the man's broad and square chin looked familiar.

691
00:35:40,800 --> 00:35:43,480
Speaker 1: Isn't that one of the men we met yesterday? Reggie asked?

692
00:35:43,640 --> 00:35:47,120
Speaker 1: The major? Holy sh it, Reggie was right. That had

693
00:35:47,160 --> 00:35:49,960
Speaker 1: to be to Shaun Clark. Manny ran over to him.

694
00:35:50,000 --> 00:35:52,400
Speaker 1: As he drew closer, it became clear that Deshaun was

695
00:35:52,440 --> 00:35:54,520
Speaker 1: an even worse shape than he looked at a distance.

696
00:35:55,040 --> 00:35:57,840
Speaker 1: His shirt had been ripped open, exposing a muscular chest

697
00:35:57,960 --> 00:36:01,560
Speaker 1: drenched in blood. Three white lugs of harden Sealock's wound

698
00:36:01,600 --> 00:36:05,040
Speaker 1: spray were visible across his abdomen. He'd been shot repeatedly

699
00:36:05,200 --> 00:36:07,120
Speaker 1: and had what looked like a shrapnel wound on the

700
00:36:07,160 --> 00:36:09,920
Speaker 1: side of his head. At least he's breathing, Manny thought,

701
00:36:10,360 --> 00:36:13,600
Speaker 1: Major Clark, he said, and to manny surprise, the warrior

702
00:36:13,640 --> 00:36:18,720
Speaker 1: poet stirred. Manny, sweet Jesus, is that you, Deshaun asked

703
00:36:18,719 --> 00:36:22,200
Speaker 1: in a slured voice. Yes, Sir, Manny said, you know,

704
00:36:22,760 --> 00:36:25,319
Speaker 1: I was damn sure you'd been killed. Haven't had all

705
00:36:25,360 --> 00:36:27,080
Speaker 1: that much time to think about you in the last

706
00:36:27,080 --> 00:36:29,960
Speaker 1: few hours, of course, what with everyone dying and all.

707
00:36:30,480 --> 00:36:33,680
Speaker 1: I'm glad you're alive, Manny said, and he was. Major

708
00:36:33,719 --> 00:36:36,000
Speaker 1: Clark had always been good to him. Do you know

709
00:36:36,040 --> 00:36:38,960
Speaker 1: what happened to him? Eid and Colonel Milgram, Manny asked,

710
00:36:39,040 --> 00:36:42,520
Speaker 1: before the thought had fully crystallized in his mind. Major

711
00:36:42,560 --> 00:36:44,920
Speaker 1: Clark tried to lift his head and almost cried out

712
00:36:44,960 --> 00:36:47,640
Speaker 1: from the sheer agony of the movement. He didn't speak

713
00:36:47,680 --> 00:36:50,680
Speaker 1: for a few seconds. He just took deep, slow breaths,

714
00:36:51,040 --> 00:36:54,640
Speaker 1: but he started to whisper. The last sunbeam lightly falls

715
00:36:54,680 --> 00:36:57,520
Speaker 1: from the finished Sabbath on the pavement here and there

716
00:36:57,520 --> 00:37:00,319
Speaker 1: beyond it is looking down a new maid double rave.

717
00:37:01,120 --> 00:37:06,560
Speaker 1: What Manny asked, confused, Walt Actually, Major Clark laughed, winced,

718
00:37:06,600 --> 00:37:10,480
Speaker 1: and then explained, Walt, Whitman, That is sorry, imminent death

719
00:37:10,560 --> 00:37:13,200
Speaker 1: makes me go for the deep cuts. So they're dead.

720
00:37:13,239 --> 00:37:16,520
Speaker 1: Then Manny asked, Major Clark coughed, and again his lips

721
00:37:16,560 --> 00:37:20,480
Speaker 1: curled up in an agonized cringe. I think, so, he

722
00:37:20,560 --> 00:37:23,400
Speaker 1: managed to say. I think everyone from the command post

723
00:37:23,480 --> 00:37:25,799
Speaker 1: is dead. I was out grabbing a smoke when they

724
00:37:25,880 --> 00:37:28,720
Speaker 1: hit us. Came in a nowhere drone artillery, heavy stuff.

725
00:37:29,000 --> 00:37:32,880
Speaker 1: Whole place lit up like Christmas. Two booms sounded in

726
00:37:32,920 --> 00:37:36,640
Speaker 1: the distance. Major Clark tensed up. Reggie cringed to Manny

727
00:37:36,880 --> 00:37:39,960
Speaker 1: the whole situation seemed almost too unreal to justify a

728
00:37:40,000 --> 00:37:44,719
Speaker 1: reaction like that. Major Clark said, after I grabbed who

729
00:37:44,719 --> 00:37:46,440
Speaker 1: I could and tried to save as many men as

730
00:37:46,520 --> 00:37:49,520
Speaker 1: possible fighting retreat. You know, we linked up with as

731
00:37:49,560 --> 00:37:51,680
Speaker 1: many fighters as we could, but every time we'd set

732
00:37:51,680 --> 00:37:54,760
Speaker 1: a line, they'd break through. They had so many damn drones.

733
00:37:54,960 --> 00:37:58,200
Speaker 1: I've never seen martyrs use drones like that. What do

734
00:37:58,239 --> 00:38:01,480
Speaker 1: you mean, Reggie asked, Well, they've always had drones, but

735
00:38:01,560 --> 00:38:04,800
Speaker 1: usually just as defensive aids for when we'd make a push.

736
00:38:05,200 --> 00:38:07,680
Speaker 1: We've got enough jammers that their hardware was no use

737
00:38:07,680 --> 00:38:10,600
Speaker 1: in our territory since none of their ship goes autonomous.

738
00:38:11,520 --> 00:38:13,840
Speaker 1: So what, the journalist asked, as he drew in a

739
00:38:13,880 --> 00:38:16,239
Speaker 1: bit closer. Do you think they've changed their minds on

740
00:38:16,280 --> 00:38:20,000
Speaker 1: autonomous drones? Or is this something else? Major Clark rolled

741
00:38:20,000 --> 00:38:21,680
Speaker 1: his head just a little. It seemed to be the

742
00:38:21,719 --> 00:38:25,560
Speaker 1: only gesture he could make without hurting himself. I dun'no, kid,

743
00:38:25,640 --> 00:38:29,480
Speaker 1: he said, whatever's happening, it's totally new, and it's totally

744
00:38:29,520 --> 00:38:32,600
Speaker 1: fucked us. Major Clark was taken by another coughing fit.

745
00:38:32,920 --> 00:38:35,719
Speaker 1: This one lasted a long time. Blood bubbled up and

746
00:38:35,760 --> 00:38:38,319
Speaker 1: out from the corners of his mouth. Mannie wanted to

747
00:38:38,320 --> 00:38:40,360
Speaker 1: call for a medic, but he couldn't see any of

748
00:38:40,400 --> 00:38:43,719
Speaker 1: them who weren't dealing with patients who were even worse off. Eventually,

749
00:38:43,840 --> 00:38:47,440
Speaker 1: the coughing subsided and Major Clark drifted off into unconsciousness.

750
00:38:48,160 --> 00:38:50,239
Speaker 1: They sat with him until the night fell and mister

751
00:38:50,360 --> 00:38:53,880
Speaker 1: Perrone finally came to get them. He looked exhausted and

752
00:38:53,960 --> 00:38:57,160
Speaker 1: somehow broken. His skin was sallow and so pale it

753
00:38:57,239 --> 00:39:00,640
Speaker 1: was almost yellow. His uniform was soaked with old sweat stains,

754
00:39:00,680 --> 00:39:02,719
Speaker 1: and he had two lit cigarettes in his mouth. When

755
00:39:02,719 --> 00:39:05,560
Speaker 1: he found Manny and Reggie. Manny wasn't sure he'd ever

756
00:39:05,600 --> 00:39:08,560
Speaker 1: seen the older man's smoke. Mr Perrone noted his surprise.

757
00:39:09,080 --> 00:39:11,720
Speaker 1: I've taken up smoking again, he said, with a hollow

758
00:39:11,760 --> 00:39:14,000
Speaker 1: laugh since her tone, expect to survive to the end

759
00:39:14,040 --> 00:39:18,760
Speaker 1: of the week. That bad Manny asked worse He shook

760
00:39:18,760 --> 00:39:21,200
Speaker 1: his head and then seemed to notice the Major Is

761
00:39:21,239 --> 00:39:25,480
Speaker 1: that d Shawn Clark? Yes, sir, Manny said, is he?

762
00:39:25,480 --> 00:39:28,279
Speaker 1: He's alive and he seems to be stable for now.

763
00:39:28,840 --> 00:39:32,560
Speaker 1: Major Perrone looked relieved. That's one spot a mercy. Then

764
00:39:32,719 --> 00:39:35,160
Speaker 1: hopefully we'll get him out in time. On that note,

765
00:39:35,280 --> 00:39:37,560
Speaker 1: I've confirmed that we've got a convoy of wounded heading

766
00:39:37,560 --> 00:39:40,399
Speaker 1: out tomorrow am. As soon as our scouts clear the root,

767
00:39:40,719 --> 00:39:43,399
Speaker 1: you'll both have a seat in that convoy. Thank you

768
00:39:43,520 --> 00:39:46,640
Speaker 1: so much, sir, Reggie started. Mr Perrone cut him off.

769
00:39:46,880 --> 00:39:49,640
Speaker 1: It's no problem, son, do your job and tell people

770
00:39:49,640 --> 00:39:52,440
Speaker 1: what's happened here. What are you going to do, Sir

771
00:39:52,880 --> 00:39:56,240
Speaker 1: Manny asked? Mr Perrone looked into his eyes. He'd always

772
00:39:56,280 --> 00:39:58,960
Speaker 1: had an intense stare. His edge had been evident, even

773
00:39:58,960 --> 00:40:01,040
Speaker 1: when he'd been driving the boy is to soccer practice

774
00:40:01,320 --> 00:40:04,120
Speaker 1: or taking them out for pizza. Now his eyes bored

775
00:40:04,120 --> 00:40:07,200
Speaker 1: into Manny's heart so deeply that the fixer finally understood

776
00:40:07,239 --> 00:40:10,480
Speaker 1: what that phrase meant. I'm going to die here, Emmanuel,

777
00:40:10,600 --> 00:40:12,880
Speaker 1: he said, I'm going to die here like your cousin

778
00:40:12,880 --> 00:40:15,440
Speaker 1: Alajandro died here, because it's the only thing I can

779
00:40:15,480 --> 00:40:19,040
Speaker 1: do that might protect our home. Manny felt an intense

780
00:40:19,160 --> 00:40:22,239
Speaker 1: urge to look away, to cast his eyes down, but

781
00:40:22,320 --> 00:40:25,480
Speaker 1: he didn't. He held mister Perrone's gaze and braced himself

782
00:40:25,480 --> 00:40:29,560
Speaker 1: for what came next. What about you, Mr Pearron asked,

783
00:40:29,880 --> 00:40:33,360
Speaker 1: what will you do if they reach Austin? Wait? Is

784
00:40:33,400 --> 00:40:37,040
Speaker 1: that on the bloody table? Reggie interrupted. Mr Perrone paused

785
00:40:37,040 --> 00:40:39,680
Speaker 1: for a moment and considered his words. I don't know,

786
00:40:39,920 --> 00:40:42,600
Speaker 1: he said, No one does. But the martyrs just broke

787
00:40:42,640 --> 00:40:45,520
Speaker 1: through it. Lakewood. We won't hold Dallas for another day.

788
00:40:46,360 --> 00:40:48,200
Speaker 1: He pulled Manny into a hug and kissed him on

789
00:40:48,239 --> 00:40:50,360
Speaker 1: the cheek. When he pulled back, he kept his hands

790
00:40:50,360 --> 00:40:53,400
Speaker 1: on many shoulders. I've always been proud of you, Emmanuel.

791
00:40:53,600 --> 00:40:55,520
Speaker 1: I think that what you do here, he nodded to

792
00:40:55,560 --> 00:40:58,960
Speaker 1: Reggie has value. But there are times when our homelands

793
00:40:59,000 --> 00:41:01,799
Speaker 1: require more of us. What are you prepared to give

794
00:41:01,880 --> 00:41:05,440
Speaker 1: for Austin? Manny clinched his jaw. I planned to be

795
00:41:05,480 --> 00:41:07,400
Speaker 1: on a plane out of here in the next twelve hours,

796
00:41:07,440 --> 00:41:11,280
Speaker 1: if possible, But I don't know, sir as all, he said.

797
00:41:11,880 --> 00:41:14,919
Speaker 1: It was hard to meet mister Perrone's eyes. When he did,

798
00:41:15,080 --> 00:41:18,240
Speaker 1: he was sure the older man saw the guilt in them.

799
00:41:18,440 --> 00:41:21,719
Speaker 1: Mister Perrone didn't say anything, though, He just led Manny

800
00:41:21,760 --> 00:41:24,360
Speaker 1: and Reggie over to where the convoy was assembling and

801
00:41:24,440 --> 00:41:26,200
Speaker 1: slipped them a pair of m R. E's in some

802
00:41:26,280 --> 00:41:29,720
Speaker 1: bottled water. The best I can do, he said, apologetically.

803
00:41:30,360 --> 00:41:33,680
Speaker 1: He left them at the disembarkation point. Manny's last clear

804
00:41:33,719 --> 00:41:35,719
Speaker 1: sight of the man who had helped raise him was

805
00:41:35,760 --> 00:41:38,920
Speaker 1: of his slumped, sweat stained shoulders trudging back to the

806
00:41:38,960 --> 00:41:43,440
Speaker 1: firebase's command center. They sat there for hours, neither of

807
00:41:43,480 --> 00:41:46,120
Speaker 1: them talked much. One by one, the wounded men were

808
00:41:46,120 --> 00:41:49,040
Speaker 1: loaded carefully into the assortment of old half tracks, buses,

809
00:41:49,080 --> 00:41:52,160
Speaker 1: and trailers that made up the convoy. Once they were seated,

810
00:41:52,200 --> 00:41:54,279
Speaker 1: there was another two hours of white time before the

811
00:41:54,320 --> 00:41:58,200
Speaker 1: convoy got moving. Both Reggie and Manny found time to nap,

812
00:41:58,320 --> 00:42:00,439
Speaker 1: but neither of them were really arrested, and the dawn

813
00:42:00,480 --> 00:42:03,560
Speaker 1: broke and the convoy set forward. By the time the

814
00:42:03,640 --> 00:42:06,759
Speaker 1: ramshackle assortment of trucks and broken soldiers started on its

815
00:42:06,760 --> 00:42:08,680
Speaker 1: way to wake O, the sound of mortar fire was

816
00:42:08,760 --> 00:42:12,200
Speaker 1: so constant it had almost become white noise. The small

817
00:42:12,320 --> 00:42:14,840
Speaker 1: arms fire wasn't as loud, but it was also clearly

818
00:42:14,920 --> 00:42:17,200
Speaker 1: much closer than it had been when they'd arrived at

819
00:42:17,200 --> 00:42:20,759
Speaker 1: firebas Umnez. As the convoy rolled out onto the old

820
00:42:20,800 --> 00:42:23,800
Speaker 1: access road that led eventually to Waco, a flight of

821
00:42:23,880 --> 00:42:26,600
Speaker 1: drones roared past them and towards the new front line.

822
00:42:27,200 --> 00:42:30,760
Speaker 1: Those aren't SDF drones, are they, Reggie asked, without actually

823
00:42:30,760 --> 00:42:33,359
Speaker 1: looking at Manny. His gaze was focused on the two

824
00:42:33,360 --> 00:42:35,120
Speaker 1: medics in the back of the truck. As they moved

825
00:42:35,120 --> 00:42:39,600
Speaker 1: from soldier to soldier. No, Manny confirmed those are Austin

826
00:42:39,680 --> 00:42:44,120
Speaker 1: Civil Defense forces. The brit whistled through his teeth. So

827
00:42:44,440 --> 00:42:47,000
Speaker 1: you think this means the SDF ran through their drones

828
00:42:47,680 --> 00:42:50,879
Speaker 1: could be as all, Manny said. The track and its

829
00:42:51,000 --> 00:42:54,880
Speaker 1: escort lumbered through the cracked remnants of the old highway system.

830
00:42:54,960 --> 00:42:58,920
Speaker 1: The accumulated hangers on civilian vehicles piled high with refugees

831
00:42:59,000 --> 00:43:02,080
Speaker 1: as they rolled along. The civilians stayed back, leary of

832
00:43:02,080 --> 00:43:05,000
Speaker 1: the convoy's guns but trusting in its presence for protection.

833
00:43:05,520 --> 00:43:08,200
Speaker 1: By the time the convoy finally left the Dallas Sprawl,

834
00:43:08,239 --> 00:43:12,000
Speaker 1: their tail stretched back to the horizon line. Manny had

835
00:43:12,040 --> 00:43:14,880
Speaker 1: seen similar sights before, when his parents had fled the

836
00:43:14,960 --> 00:43:18,440
Speaker 1: d f W area for Austin's relative safety. Here and

837
00:43:18,480 --> 00:43:21,040
Speaker 1: there on and in the cars behind them, he saw

838
00:43:21,080 --> 00:43:24,160
Speaker 1: small figures that had to be children, kids like he'd

839
00:43:24,160 --> 00:43:26,880
Speaker 1: been fleeing the same city he'd had to flee for

840
00:43:26,920 --> 00:43:30,360
Speaker 1: the same basic reason. Manny's stand out memory from that

841
00:43:30,440 --> 00:43:32,880
Speaker 1: time wasn't the terror of seeing a mortar land for

842
00:43:32,920 --> 00:43:35,759
Speaker 1: the first time, or anything about their flight out of

843
00:43:35,760 --> 00:43:38,279
Speaker 1: the city at all. It was from the next day

844
00:43:38,560 --> 00:43:41,359
Speaker 1: at their first refugee camp, when he saw his father

845
00:43:41,440 --> 00:43:44,760
Speaker 1: in line for their daily ration of food. A journalist

846
00:43:44,840 --> 00:43:47,800
Speaker 1: had passed by, taking the sort of pictures Reggie's lapel

847
00:43:47,840 --> 00:43:52,360
Speaker 1: camera now snapped mindlessly. Mannye's dad had been crying, ashamed

848
00:43:52,400 --> 00:43:55,080
Speaker 1: that he'd needed charity, and even more ashamed to have

849
00:43:55,120 --> 00:43:58,760
Speaker 1: fled the family home. More than anything about that time,

850
00:43:59,000 --> 00:44:01,680
Speaker 1: Manny remembered how his father had hidden his face from

851
00:44:01,680 --> 00:44:05,000
Speaker 1: the photographer. The gesture had told Manny more about their

852
00:44:05,040 --> 00:44:07,480
Speaker 1: new status in the world than anything an adult had

853
00:44:07,520 --> 00:44:11,120
Speaker 1: actually said. Behind him now were cars full of mothers

854
00:44:11,120 --> 00:44:13,399
Speaker 1: and fathers and children who were about to have their

855
00:44:13,400 --> 00:44:17,880
Speaker 1: own searing experiences. Manny hated how familiar this felt to him.

856
00:44:17,960 --> 00:44:20,680
Speaker 1: He hated that for Reggie had counted as the adventure

857
00:44:20,719 --> 00:44:23,960
Speaker 1: of a lifetime. Many looked at the journalist, at the

858
00:44:24,000 --> 00:44:26,799
Speaker 1: awe and innocent excitement in his eyes, and tried to

859
00:44:26,840 --> 00:44:30,840
Speaker 1: imagine Reggie's life back home. None of the individual pieces

860
00:44:30,880 --> 00:44:33,280
Speaker 1: of that life would be new to Manny. His world

861
00:44:33,320 --> 00:44:37,080
Speaker 1: also had bars and parties, and apartment leases and term papers.

862
00:44:37,680 --> 00:44:40,600
Speaker 1: The thing he couldn't imagine was the sense of security,

863
00:44:41,120 --> 00:44:45,120
Speaker 1: living life without the constant threat of war. He'd been

864
00:44:45,200 --> 00:44:48,160
Speaker 1: so close to securing that life for himself. If they

865
00:44:48,280 --> 00:44:52,040
Speaker 1: only waited six months. But they hadn't, and now Manny

866
00:44:52,080 --> 00:44:55,160
Speaker 1: had a choice to make stand and fight or run

867
00:44:55,239 --> 00:44:58,040
Speaker 1: with what he had and hoped for the best. Manny

868
00:44:58,160 --> 00:45:00,920
Speaker 1: leaned back as much as his care a seat allowed

869
00:45:01,200 --> 00:45:03,439
Speaker 1: and stared out at the burning city that had once

870
00:45:03,480 --> 00:45:07,879
Speaker 1: been Dallas. Goddamn, he muttered to himself, I gotta get

871
00:45:07,880 --> 00:45:21,239
Speaker 1: the funk out of Texas. Chapter five, Rowland. Twenty years ago,

872
00:45:21,400 --> 00:45:25,160
Speaker 1: Camelback Mountain had towered over a wealthy suburb of Phoenix, Arizona.

873
00:45:25,800 --> 00:45:28,720
Speaker 1: Then had come the Civil War. Power, food, and water

874
00:45:28,800 --> 00:45:32,240
Speaker 1: shortages made the cities hundred and thirty degrees summers insufferable

875
00:45:32,280 --> 00:45:35,840
Speaker 1: for all but the hardiest or most chromed. Millions fled

876
00:45:35,880 --> 00:45:39,640
Speaker 1: for less vicious climates or simply died from exposure and starvation.

877
00:45:40,280 --> 00:45:43,920
Speaker 1: Now Phoenix was a louted, crumbling ghost, but Camelback Mountain

878
00:45:44,040 --> 00:45:48,440
Speaker 1: still hosted a version of human civilization. Cameltoe was a

879
00:45:48,440 --> 00:45:51,680
Speaker 1: city of roughly five thousand. The name had started because

880
00:45:51,680 --> 00:45:55,279
Speaker 1: the settlements founders, homeless teens, thought it was funny. A

881
00:45:55,280 --> 00:45:57,920
Speaker 1: few hundred orphaned or abandoned kids had settled in the

882
00:45:58,000 --> 00:46:02,040
Speaker 1: McMansions clustered around the mountains. Western edge and foothills. They'd

883
00:46:02,080 --> 00:46:05,560
Speaker 1: scrounged grow lamps and engines and weaponry, and today the

884
00:46:05,600 --> 00:46:08,720
Speaker 1: denizens of the tow had the strongest city state between

885
00:46:08,760 --> 00:46:13,120
Speaker 1: California and the Kingdom of Albuquerque. Rowland was their guardian.

886
00:46:13,600 --> 00:46:16,360
Speaker 1: Mind you, they'd never asked him to guard them. The

887
00:46:16,400 --> 00:46:18,600
Speaker 1: police had been doing quite well, thank you very much.

888
00:46:18,640 --> 00:46:20,440
Speaker 1: When he'd shown up and built his shack in the

889
00:46:20,440 --> 00:46:23,680
Speaker 1: middle of their only park. A delegation of armed Towins

890
00:46:23,719 --> 00:46:26,120
Speaker 1: had showed up to politely evict Rowland, and he'd been

891
00:46:26,160 --> 00:46:28,759
Speaker 1: forced to carve off their foreskins as a show of dominance.

892
00:46:29,160 --> 00:46:31,759
Speaker 1: They'd sent a single negotiator next and worked out a

893
00:46:31,840 --> 00:46:35,440
Speaker 1: thoroughly beneficial arrangement. Rowland would aid in the city's defense

894
00:46:35,480 --> 00:46:38,160
Speaker 1: in exchange for his now departed shack, and twice a

895
00:46:38,239 --> 00:46:41,240
Speaker 1: year all the narcotics he could carry home from their harvest.

896
00:46:42,160 --> 00:46:45,239
Speaker 1: It was an arrangement Rowland had enjoyed. He was frustrated

897
00:46:45,239 --> 00:46:47,800
Speaker 1: that Jim's men had forced him to destroy his beloved hovel,

898
00:46:48,360 --> 00:46:49,960
Speaker 1: but it was hard for him to be angry all

899
00:46:50,000 --> 00:46:52,480
Speaker 1: the same. The sun was out now, and it was

900
00:46:52,520 --> 00:46:54,719
Speaker 1: early enough that the day's heat had yet to set

901
00:46:54,760 --> 00:46:57,560
Speaker 1: in the great red desert and the carcass of Phoenix

902
00:46:57,600 --> 00:47:00,640
Speaker 1: stretched out around them, and to Rowland's eye, it was

903
00:47:00,680 --> 00:47:03,879
Speaker 1: all beautiful. Once Jim had called the fight, a pair

904
00:47:03,920 --> 00:47:07,160
Speaker 1: of boxy armored Hella transports had flown in another squad

905
00:47:07,160 --> 00:47:10,200
Speaker 1: of his men. The assembled a brunch spread, complete with

906
00:47:10,239 --> 00:47:13,520
Speaker 1: a table and two wicker chairs. Roland hoped his old

907
00:47:13,560 --> 00:47:15,920
Speaker 1: friend was doing this to show off and not planning

908
00:47:15,920 --> 00:47:19,680
Speaker 1: an actual meal. The acid twisted Roland's guts into knots

909
00:47:19,760 --> 00:47:22,960
Speaker 1: and effectively killed his appetite. He was still high enough

910
00:47:22,960 --> 00:47:25,560
Speaker 1: that the familiar boulders around his home seemed to flex

911
00:47:25,560 --> 00:47:29,560
Speaker 1: and wobble like great mounds of red jelly. Jim's face, however,

912
00:47:29,719 --> 00:47:32,640
Speaker 1: was rock solid. Roland focused on it while the rest

913
00:47:32,680 --> 00:47:35,360
Speaker 1: of the world blurred. A towel came into his hands,

914
00:47:35,400 --> 00:47:37,600
Speaker 1: and he realized a moment later that Jim had handed

915
00:47:37,640 --> 00:47:40,560
Speaker 1: it to him. Roland wiped the crusted gore from around

916
00:47:40,560 --> 00:47:42,759
Speaker 1: his shoulder, where the tiny robots in his blood had

917
00:47:42,760 --> 00:47:45,960
Speaker 1: finished reattaching his arm. It was a messy process that

918
00:47:46,000 --> 00:47:48,160
Speaker 1: involved a lot of shuffling bad blood out of the

919
00:47:48,200 --> 00:47:51,279
Speaker 1: skin and sludgy red globs. The gloves looked a bit

920
00:47:51,320 --> 00:47:54,480
Speaker 1: like the boulders. Now that he thought about it, Jim's

921
00:47:54,520 --> 00:47:56,920
Speaker 1: marks were over by one of the aircraft getting worked

922
00:47:56,920 --> 00:47:58,839
Speaker 1: over by a medical team that must have been waiting

923
00:47:58,880 --> 00:48:01,480
Speaker 1: in the wings this whole time him. The acrylic stink

924
00:48:01,520 --> 00:48:04,959
Speaker 1: of fear wafted off them from thirty feet away. Once

925
00:48:04,960 --> 00:48:07,200
Speaker 1: the table was up and the spread was set, Rolland

926
00:48:07,200 --> 00:48:09,440
Speaker 1: and Jim sat down to watch the last rays of

927
00:48:09,480 --> 00:48:13,359
Speaker 1: sunrise turned into boring old daylight. A lackey handed them

928
00:48:13,360 --> 00:48:16,640
Speaker 1: both steaming mugs of coffee. Rolland took his black and

929
00:48:16,680 --> 00:48:20,319
Speaker 1: Turkish so thick it was almost putting. Most humans made

930
00:48:20,320 --> 00:48:22,800
Speaker 1: it too weak for his taste, but this cup was perfect.

931
00:48:23,040 --> 00:48:26,200
Speaker 1: He sipped deeply, and the warbly acid lines straightened and

932
00:48:26,239 --> 00:48:28,680
Speaker 1: grew just a little bit thicker. Took for Eva to

933
00:48:28,680 --> 00:48:31,600
Speaker 1: teach him how to make it right, Jim said, having

934
00:48:31,680 --> 00:48:34,439
Speaker 1: human orderlies is a bit of a trial. I think

935
00:48:34,440 --> 00:48:37,319
Speaker 1: there's something about us that breaks their brains just a bit.

936
00:48:37,600 --> 00:48:40,640
Speaker 1: Jim sipped his coffee and added, I gotta theory about that.

937
00:48:40,800 --> 00:48:43,880
Speaker 1: By the way, Roland let out a harsh, flimmy exhalation

938
00:48:43,920 --> 00:48:46,960
Speaker 1: that meant I don't care. Jim continued all the same,

939
00:48:47,160 --> 00:48:50,360
Speaker 1: sipping his coffee, and then launching into a spiel. My

940
00:48:50,520 --> 00:48:53,880
Speaker 1: theory is that Homo sapiens just don't built to acknowledge

941
00:48:53,880 --> 00:48:56,680
Speaker 1: a higher form of life, not one that's flesh and

942
00:48:56,680 --> 00:48:59,759
Speaker 1: blood and staring him in the face demanded service. I

943
00:48:59,760 --> 00:49:02,240
Speaker 1: think deep in the human brain there's the race memory

944
00:49:02,280 --> 00:49:05,279
Speaker 1: of running up against neander Tolls. They were bigger and

945
00:49:05,400 --> 00:49:09,040
Speaker 1: stronger and faster than humans, but we they still wipe

946
00:49:09,080 --> 00:49:12,080
Speaker 1: the neander Tolls out. I think humans look at us

947
00:49:12,120 --> 00:49:15,160
Speaker 1: the same way the Ansestus looked at nean A Tolls.

948
00:49:15,239 --> 00:49:18,200
Speaker 1: Roland grunted because that was easier than talking, and because

949
00:49:18,200 --> 00:49:21,279
Speaker 1: he really wasn't listening. His eyes were focused on the

950
00:49:21,280 --> 00:49:24,680
Speaker 1: shimmering surface of the coffee. Sober his brain kept his

951
00:49:24,719 --> 00:49:27,040
Speaker 1: thermal vision on a different mental track from his color

952
00:49:27,080 --> 00:49:29,960
Speaker 1: and infrared vision. But while he was tripping, they all

953
00:49:30,000 --> 00:49:34,040
Speaker 1: just sort of blended together into one multi tone massive information.

954
00:49:34,560 --> 00:49:37,399
Speaker 1: So he stared and thralled as red heat bled off

955
00:49:37,440 --> 00:49:39,960
Speaker 1: into the white air around them. The math of it

956
00:49:40,000 --> 00:49:42,640
Speaker 1: all was rendered as a beautiful swatch of colors, some

957
00:49:42,760 --> 00:49:46,000
Speaker 1: of which weren't even visible to human eyes. Roland lost

958
00:49:46,120 --> 00:49:48,759
Speaker 1: himself for a moment. If you any other man, I'd

959
00:49:48,800 --> 00:49:51,560
Speaker 1: prick you with a sober stick right now, Jim said,

960
00:49:51,800 --> 00:49:55,200
Speaker 1: clearly irked. It's been a long time since someone's ignored me.

961
00:49:56,040 --> 00:49:59,120
Speaker 1: Not ignoring, Roland managed to say. The words came out

962
00:49:59,120 --> 00:50:01,960
Speaker 1: wet and mushy. He'd taken a round to the lung, apparently,

963
00:50:02,160 --> 00:50:04,960
Speaker 1: and the repair efforts played hell on his throat. His

964
00:50:05,000 --> 00:50:07,600
Speaker 1: eyes were still locked on the psychedelic sprawl of color

965
00:50:07,680 --> 00:50:10,480
Speaker 1: lifting off from his coffee. He had to force himself

966
00:50:10,520 --> 00:50:13,879
Speaker 1: to take another sip. The mild stimulant surge helped him

967
00:50:13,880 --> 00:50:16,800
Speaker 1: break off his perseveration, and he met Jim still weirdly

968
00:50:16,840 --> 00:50:21,000
Speaker 1: solid gaze. Sorry, this coffee is more interesting than your bullshit,

969
00:50:21,440 --> 00:50:26,040
Speaker 1: Roland explained. Blame the acid, Jim laughed. The snake tattoos

970
00:50:26,040 --> 00:50:30,120
Speaker 1: on his torso curled and corkscrewed and simulated excitement. You know,

971
00:50:30,360 --> 00:50:33,880
Speaker 1: he said. There's a new movement in the posthuman community

972
00:50:34,080 --> 00:50:37,480
Speaker 1: started up in Idaho, one of the Intentional communes. They

973
00:50:37,480 --> 00:50:41,800
Speaker 1: took a pretty strong anti narcotic policy. Apparently it distracts

974
00:50:41,840 --> 00:50:44,600
Speaker 1: us from the impoltant work we should be doing. Fuck that,

975
00:50:44,960 --> 00:50:48,560
Speaker 1: Roland said, and spat on the ground for emphasis. I

976
00:50:48,640 --> 00:50:52,080
Speaker 1: don't disagree. Jim nodded and produced an enormous and very

977
00:50:52,120 --> 00:50:55,439
Speaker 1: phallic blunt. He lit it, pulled deep, and passed it over.

978
00:50:56,000 --> 00:50:58,720
Speaker 1: Roland took a long drag and eased into a slump

979
00:50:58,760 --> 00:51:02,360
Speaker 1: as the t h C did it's slow work, So Jim,

980
00:51:02,680 --> 00:51:05,440
Speaker 1: Roland said, after a few more passes, once the acid

981
00:51:05,440 --> 00:51:07,360
Speaker 1: and weed had time to push his brain into a

982
00:51:07,360 --> 00:51:10,920
Speaker 1: hazy new equilibrium, why are you here? Jim gave an

983
00:51:10,920 --> 00:51:13,319
Speaker 1: eloquent shrug, popped the blunt out of his mouth, and

984
00:51:13,360 --> 00:51:16,640
Speaker 1: stared at the curling smoke. Roland stared too. In his

985
00:51:16,719 --> 00:51:19,439
Speaker 1: eyes was wreathed in a chartruse black halo of heat

986
00:51:19,480 --> 00:51:22,600
Speaker 1: that seemed to almost vibrate near the cherry tip. To

987
00:51:22,680 --> 00:51:27,640
Speaker 1: catch up, Jim said, and to offer you a job. Job,

988
00:51:27,880 --> 00:51:31,000
Speaker 1: Roland snorted, I need not your filthy lucre. Look at

989
00:51:31,000 --> 00:51:33,600
Speaker 1: this wealth that surrounds me, and made a broad gesture

990
00:51:33,600 --> 00:51:36,239
Speaker 1: that encompassed the remains of his hovel. What could you

991
00:51:36,320 --> 00:51:40,800
Speaker 1: possibly offer, well, Jim said, so startus. I can replace

992
00:51:40,880 --> 00:51:43,480
Speaker 1: your hot plate. I think Bigsby broke it with his body,

993
00:51:44,160 --> 00:51:46,520
Speaker 1: so I'll steal another one. Roland said, what do you

994
00:51:46,560 --> 00:51:49,799
Speaker 1: really have? I'm gonna guess a few million won't pique

995
00:51:49,840 --> 00:51:53,560
Speaker 1: your interest. Roland blew a fat, wet raspberry. I don't

996
00:51:53,560 --> 00:51:56,000
Speaker 1: even care what currency you're talking about. What good will

997
00:51:56,080 --> 00:52:00,160
Speaker 1: money do me? Not even Cascadian script, uh, Jim, with

998
00:52:00,200 --> 00:52:03,560
Speaker 1: a grin Cascadia. Roland had heard the name, of course.

999
00:52:03,960 --> 00:52:07,319
Speaker 1: Last he remembered, the Pacific Northwest's premier independence movement had

1000
00:52:07,320 --> 00:52:11,279
Speaker 1: been agitating to seceed from the coastal packed. Is is

1001
00:52:11,320 --> 00:52:14,840
Speaker 1: that a thing now as of six years ago? Jim said.

1002
00:52:15,000 --> 00:52:16,960
Speaker 1: He took a deep pull on the blunt, handed it

1003
00:52:16,960 --> 00:52:19,560
Speaker 1: back to Roland and exhaled a thick white cloud as

1004
00:52:19,560 --> 00:52:22,440
Speaker 1: he spoke. And they just finished their own civil war.

1005
00:52:22,640 --> 00:52:25,719
Speaker 1: So the value skyrocketing. You really don't get out much

1006
00:52:25,800 --> 00:52:29,040
Speaker 1: these days, do you. Roland's response was another deep gulp

1007
00:52:29,080 --> 00:52:33,120
Speaker 1: of his coffee. Anyway, Jim continued, I know you don't

1008
00:52:33,160 --> 00:52:35,239
Speaker 1: care for cash, but there is something I think you

1009
00:52:35,320 --> 00:52:37,359
Speaker 1: might want, and I can buy it back for you

1010
00:52:37,600 --> 00:52:41,719
Speaker 1: if you'll help me out. Wait, buy it back by

1011
00:52:41,760 --> 00:52:46,000
Speaker 1: what back? Roland recognized the snake man's smile on Jim's face.

1012
00:52:46,320 --> 00:52:48,480
Speaker 1: He had the vague sense that he'd seen it before

1013
00:52:48,960 --> 00:52:51,280
Speaker 1: enough that the sight of it set his hackles arise

1014
00:52:51,360 --> 00:52:54,080
Speaker 1: and sparked an itch in his left trigger finger. He

1015
00:52:54,120 --> 00:52:56,160
Speaker 1: took a deep hit from the blunt and handed it

1016
00:52:56,200 --> 00:52:58,680
Speaker 1: over to Jim. The other man took the blunt with

1017
00:52:58,719 --> 00:53:00,520
Speaker 1: his left hand and made a gun shape with the

1018
00:53:00,560 --> 00:53:03,200
Speaker 1: fingers of his right hand. He pantomimed a shot to

1019
00:53:03,239 --> 00:53:07,840
Speaker 1: the head. His lips made a barely audible pow memories.

1020
00:53:08,200 --> 00:53:11,040
Speaker 1: Jim said, I know he's only playing with half a deck.

1021
00:53:11,080 --> 00:53:13,920
Speaker 1: Maybe less surprised you remember my mug. To be honest,

1022
00:53:14,680 --> 00:53:16,920
Speaker 1: Jim took a final drag from the blunt, which was

1023
00:53:16,960 --> 00:53:19,200
Speaker 1: barely the length of a thumbnail now, and passed it

1024
00:53:19,239 --> 00:53:22,440
Speaker 1: off to Roland. But science sah, she's kept right on

1025
00:53:22,600 --> 00:53:25,399
Speaker 1: lurching forward the last ten years. There's a neurow team

1026
00:53:25,440 --> 00:53:27,120
Speaker 1: up at m I a t They reckoned. They've made

1027
00:53:27,120 --> 00:53:30,920
Speaker 1: a breakthrough al Zama's research initially, but they think they

1028
00:53:30,960 --> 00:53:33,640
Speaker 1: figured out how to straight up recover memories from damaged

1029
00:53:33,640 --> 00:53:36,680
Speaker 1: brain tissue. The attack has reversed a lot of injuries

1030
00:53:36,680 --> 00:53:40,200
Speaker 1: the old science said was permanent. Roland felt a painful,

1031
00:53:40,239 --> 00:53:42,960
Speaker 1: tugging sensation in his chest. He thought back to the

1032
00:53:43,000 --> 00:53:46,239
Speaker 1: woman from his dreams with a damascene teeth. He saw

1033
00:53:46,280 --> 00:53:49,640
Speaker 1: her every few weeks, trapped in some foggy memory or another.

1034
00:53:49,960 --> 00:53:51,799
Speaker 1: Her name felt like it was always on the tip

1035
00:53:51,800 --> 00:53:54,279
Speaker 1: of his tongue. He didn't know what she'd meant to him,

1036
00:53:54,520 --> 00:53:57,080
Speaker 1: but the thought of her twisted his heart into knots.

1037
00:53:57,520 --> 00:54:00,279
Speaker 1: It was maddening, not even knowing what she'd been him

1038
00:54:00,480 --> 00:54:03,680
Speaker 1: or he to her. Roland frowned, turned his head and

1039
00:54:03,760 --> 00:54:06,799
Speaker 1: locked eyes with Jim, you think a bunch of fed

1040
00:54:06,840 --> 00:54:09,800
Speaker 1: funded school scientists are gonna help me? Rolland asked, I

1041
00:54:09,880 --> 00:54:11,840
Speaker 1: get a strong feeling none of the governments on this

1042
00:54:11,920 --> 00:54:15,080
Speaker 1: continent or fans of me. Jim waved a careless hand

1043
00:54:15,440 --> 00:54:19,600
Speaker 1: less the issue, he said, those am fed motherfucker's at pragmatists.

1044
00:54:19,640 --> 00:54:21,360
Speaker 1: I've been in and out of the Northeast half a

1045
00:54:21,400 --> 00:54:24,280
Speaker 1: dozen times just this year. You do work they value

1046
00:54:24,360 --> 00:54:28,319
Speaker 1: and they ignore a little terrorism memories, hazy Roland said,

1047
00:54:28,600 --> 00:54:31,000
Speaker 1: but I know little is inaccurate. I think we killed

1048
00:54:31,000 --> 00:54:34,800
Speaker 1: a skyscraper. Ha, you don't remember that the Diamond building

1049
00:54:34,880 --> 00:54:37,480
Speaker 1: and photo one A hundred and twenty flows a rich

1050
00:54:37,560 --> 00:54:40,600
Speaker 1: pigs wallowing in ship. We slipped a bomb, and during

1051
00:54:40,640 --> 00:54:43,120
Speaker 1: an all Steretius summit led by the CEOs of the

1052
00:54:43,160 --> 00:54:45,600
Speaker 1: Big Fall, bugged the conference room so we could hear

1053
00:54:45,680 --> 00:54:48,440
Speaker 1: him scream when that first blast cut the support beams.

1054
00:54:48,880 --> 00:54:52,319
Speaker 1: It was better than sex. There was a peculiar joy

1055
00:54:52,360 --> 00:54:56,000
Speaker 1: in Jim's eyes. His chest snakes writhed in orgiastic glee.

1056
00:54:56,440 --> 00:55:00,760
Speaker 1: Roland felt queasy. Rowland, Jim added, the sons of bitches

1057
00:55:00,800 --> 00:55:04,400
Speaker 1: had it coming, maybe, Roland said, but I know we

1058
00:55:04,440 --> 00:55:09,520
Speaker 1: didn't just kill CEOs. I remember other times. Kids not kids,

1059
00:55:09,840 --> 00:55:13,800
Speaker 1: Jim insisted, as young enough to take full advantage of

1060
00:55:13,920 --> 00:55:17,920
Speaker 1: juven the future undying lords of capital, they had to go.

1061
00:55:18,960 --> 00:55:22,239
Speaker 1: Roland shivered. Even if they did, I'm sort of glad

1062
00:55:22,280 --> 00:55:25,919
Speaker 1: I don't remember it. Jim shrugged, swirled his coffee cup

1063
00:55:25,960 --> 00:55:28,200
Speaker 1: and stared into it for a minute. If he'd been

1064
00:55:28,280 --> 00:55:30,560
Speaker 1: anyone else, Roland would have been able to read his

1065
00:55:30,600 --> 00:55:32,799
Speaker 1: emotions by the sense coming off of him and the

1066
00:55:32,840 --> 00:55:36,400
Speaker 1: micro expressions on his face. Most post humans were just

1067
00:55:36,480 --> 00:55:39,040
Speaker 1: as easy to read as regular humans. It took a

1068
00:55:39,080 --> 00:55:41,560
Speaker 1: mix of very specific surgeries and a hell of a

1069
00:55:41,560 --> 00:55:44,440
Speaker 1: lot of time spent in practice to hide anything from Roland.

1070
00:55:44,920 --> 00:55:47,240
Speaker 1: It said a lot that Jim had considered the expense

1071
00:55:47,280 --> 00:55:52,120
Speaker 1: worthwhile violence is the coin that buys the future, Jim said,

1072
00:55:52,560 --> 00:55:54,520
Speaker 1: there was a time when you explained that to me.

1073
00:55:55,280 --> 00:55:58,520
Speaker 1: I don't remember that conversation, Roland said, but it's been

1074
00:55:58,600 --> 00:56:00,680
Speaker 1: years since I've taken a life. Yeah, a couple of

1075
00:56:00,680 --> 00:56:03,920
Speaker 1: four skins one guy's hand. Sure, sometimes a point needs making.

1076
00:56:04,280 --> 00:56:07,160
Speaker 1: I haven't killed anyone in a long time, though, That's

1077
00:56:07,160 --> 00:56:08,879
Speaker 1: why all the folks you sent to my door are

1078
00:56:08,880 --> 00:56:11,480
Speaker 1: still alive. And I mean to stay on the wagon.

1079
00:56:12,400 --> 00:56:15,560
Speaker 1: Killing's not wanted on this mission, Jim assured him, just

1080
00:56:15,840 --> 00:56:18,879
Speaker 1: property destruction. I need two or three days of your

1081
00:56:18,960 --> 00:56:23,760
Speaker 1: unrivaled ship up fucking expertise. Roland flicked a suspicious eyebrow

1082
00:56:23,800 --> 00:56:28,319
Speaker 1: at his old friend property. He asked. Jim nodded. A

1083
00:56:28,360 --> 00:56:30,719
Speaker 1: couple of guys might need crippling along the way, but

1084
00:56:30,840 --> 00:56:34,560
Speaker 1: no killing. So what's this gig? Roland was interested now,

1085
00:56:34,680 --> 00:56:39,200
Speaker 1: in spite of himself sabotage, Jim's lips curled up in

1086
00:56:39,239 --> 00:56:42,320
Speaker 1: a feral grin. Over the last few months, we've noticed

1087
00:56:42,360 --> 00:56:45,239
Speaker 1: a substantial build up among the radical Christian militias in

1088
00:56:45,280 --> 00:56:50,319
Speaker 1: North and central Texas. We Roland asked, my own organization,

1089
00:56:50,480 --> 00:56:54,560
Speaker 1: and the AM fed the Central Intelligence Agency. Roland couldn't

1090
00:56:54,560 --> 00:56:57,000
Speaker 1: help but laugh. I remember enough of the old days

1091
00:56:57,200 --> 00:56:59,960
Speaker 1: to appreciate the irony of you working with the sea

1092
00:57:00,040 --> 00:57:03,239
Speaker 1: i A. Jim's head cocked just a little to the left.

1093
00:57:03,520 --> 00:57:06,200
Speaker 1: He grimaced. Roland wasn't sure, but he thought his friend

1094
00:57:06,280 --> 00:57:09,759
Speaker 1: might be a little embarrassed and defensive. Anyone who lives

1095
00:57:09,760 --> 00:57:12,320
Speaker 1: long enough becomes a hypocrite, Jim said with a shrug.

1096
00:57:12,560 --> 00:57:15,200
Speaker 1: I'd hope to hold out longer, but their satellite coverage

1097
00:57:15,239 --> 00:57:18,400
Speaker 1: is fucking phenomenal. I'll send you the intel. He made

1098
00:57:18,400 --> 00:57:21,240
Speaker 1: a flicking gesture towards Rowland with his right index finger,

1099
00:57:21,360 --> 00:57:24,160
Speaker 1: and then frowned in annoyance. You might be the last

1100
00:57:24,240 --> 00:57:27,560
Speaker 1: dark brain on this continent, you know that. Roland wasn't

1101
00:57:27,600 --> 00:57:30,480
Speaker 1: sure why he'd disconnected himself from the Internet. It seemed

1102
00:57:30,520 --> 00:57:33,040
Speaker 1: to annoy other people, but he rather enjoyed it. His

1103
00:57:33,120 --> 00:57:35,720
Speaker 1: hind brain had absorbed peda bites of data before he'd

1104
00:57:35,720 --> 00:57:38,160
Speaker 1: severed the link, so he never found himself needing to

1105
00:57:38,160 --> 00:57:40,960
Speaker 1: consult a Wicki to remember the equations behind the Coriolis

1106
00:57:40,960 --> 00:57:44,160
Speaker 1: effect or a bullet's trajectory. You could have walked from

1107
00:57:44,200 --> 00:57:47,240
Speaker 1: Canada to Venezuela without encountering a plant or animal, his

1108
00:57:47,280 --> 00:57:51,280
Speaker 1: distributed mechanical brain couldn't name. The only downside to his

1109
00:57:51,320 --> 00:57:53,880
Speaker 1: situation was that He couldn't keep up with politics or

1110
00:57:53,920 --> 00:57:57,520
Speaker 1: bleeding edge military technology. He only gleaned that sort of

1111
00:57:57,560 --> 00:58:02,000
Speaker 1: information by experience or conversation, and being a creepy godlike

1112
00:58:02,080 --> 00:58:07,000
Speaker 1: being who sometimes circumcised trespassers, Roland didn't have many conversations.

1113
00:58:07,720 --> 00:58:10,040
Speaker 1: One of Jim's aids ran up and handed Roland a

1114
00:58:10,040 --> 00:58:13,200
Speaker 1: paper thin tablet. Jim directed him through a dozen satellite

1115
00:58:13,200 --> 00:58:16,800
Speaker 1: images of what looked like vehicle and ammunition depots. Roland's

1116
00:58:16,840 --> 00:58:20,600
Speaker 1: hindbrain recognized the Dallas road systems immediately. A surge of

1117
00:58:20,640 --> 00:58:23,760
Speaker 1: since memory hit him. Fire so much fire, the smell

1118
00:58:23,760 --> 00:58:25,640
Speaker 1: of it only drowned out by the intense stink of

1119
00:58:25,680 --> 00:58:29,160
Speaker 1: thirty thousand people panicking. At the same time, Roland felt

1120
00:58:29,160 --> 00:58:31,640
Speaker 1: bullets dig into his flesh. He saw hate in the

1121
00:58:31,680 --> 00:58:34,080
Speaker 1: eyes of the advancing cops, and he felt a corresponding

1122
00:58:34,120 --> 00:58:36,600
Speaker 1: surge of glee. As his brain started to pump out

1123
00:58:36,600 --> 00:58:39,919
Speaker 1: battle drugs. He squeezed his trigger. Roland shook his head,

1124
00:58:40,160 --> 00:58:43,520
Speaker 1: pulled his mind back into the present moment. Jim frowned

1125
00:58:43,600 --> 00:58:46,400
Speaker 1: but didn't say anything. He just pointed back at the tablet.

1126
00:58:46,880 --> 00:58:50,000
Speaker 1: Roland focused again. It appeared to be a satellite image

1127
00:58:50,040 --> 00:58:52,760
Speaker 1: of a defensive line in Dallas. He noted a large

1128
00:58:52,840 --> 00:58:56,840
Speaker 1: number of military vehicles piled into several parking garages. What's

1129
00:58:56,880 --> 00:59:00,880
Speaker 1: going on here, he asked. Suit carriers said, a couple

1130
00:59:00,880 --> 00:59:04,080
Speaker 1: of dozen of them. Roland shook his head. Impossible that'd

1131
00:59:04,080 --> 00:59:07,000
Speaker 1: be enough to support what six D power armored fighters.

1132
00:59:07,200 --> 00:59:10,200
Speaker 1: Those are nation state numbers and other Republic of Texas

1133
00:59:10,280 --> 00:59:12,000
Speaker 1: as a ship show. But there's no way they'd let

1134
00:59:12,000 --> 00:59:13,960
Speaker 1: someone surge and militia build an army like that in

1135
00:59:14,000 --> 00:59:18,600
Speaker 1: their borders. Maybe not, Jim said, maybe so. Truth told,

1136
00:59:18,680 --> 00:59:21,200
Speaker 1: I don't care what's parked in those garages. You blow

1137
00:59:21,240 --> 00:59:24,600
Speaker 1: them up. I get paid and you get your fancy surgery.

1138
00:59:25,160 --> 00:59:28,920
Speaker 1: Roland felt uneasy. The job itself seemed too simple. That

1139
00:59:29,040 --> 00:59:31,560
Speaker 1: killed team Jim had sent to wake Roland up, probably

1140
00:59:31,600 --> 00:59:34,320
Speaker 1: could have done this job with a few reinforcements. It

1141
00:59:34,400 --> 00:59:37,400
Speaker 1: seemed weird that some nutbar extremists could get their hands

1142
00:59:37,400 --> 00:59:42,800
Speaker 1: on that many suits. Roland just didn't trust the whole situation. Jim,

1143
00:59:42,880 --> 00:59:46,360
Speaker 1: he asked, can you promise me this memory thing will work? Fuck? No,

1144
00:59:47,120 --> 00:59:50,200
Speaker 1: Jim scoffed, I can't even promise you'll survive. This is

1145
00:59:50,200 --> 00:59:53,600
Speaker 1: a bleeding edge mad science operation. The infant is willing

1146
00:59:53,600 --> 00:59:55,480
Speaker 1: to break in a national law to work on a

1147
00:59:55,520 --> 00:59:58,360
Speaker 1: wanted terrorist. I'm half sure they just want to see

1148
00:59:58,400 --> 01:00:00,880
Speaker 1: what happens when they stopped poking around a skull. You

1149
01:00:00,960 --> 01:00:03,080
Speaker 1: might be making the worst mistake of your life here,

1150
01:00:03,400 --> 01:00:05,640
Speaker 1: but at least you'll die after blowing up a bunch

1151
01:00:05,640 --> 01:00:09,600
Speaker 1: of gear owned by crystal fascist assholes. Roland considered for

1152
01:00:09,600 --> 01:00:13,080
Speaker 1: a long moment, then nod at his assent. All right,

1153
01:00:13,120 --> 01:00:15,960
Speaker 1: then you've convinced me. I'm in as long as this

1154
01:00:16,000 --> 01:00:21,000
Speaker 1: stay is a sabotage mission. No killing, no killing. Jim agreed.

1155
01:00:21,840 --> 01:00:24,400
Speaker 1: They both stared out at the vacant desert for some time.

1156
01:00:24,960 --> 01:00:27,680
Speaker 1: Roland found himself humming along to a song he couldn't

1157
01:00:27,800 --> 01:00:31,680
Speaker 1: name or even remember hearing. Jim hummed along with him.

1158
01:00:31,720 --> 01:00:34,720
Speaker 1: He put a hand on Roland's shoulder. That felt good.

1159
01:00:35,040 --> 01:00:37,320
Speaker 1: There was something about human contact that none of the

1160
01:00:37,320 --> 01:00:40,320
Speaker 1: machines in his head could replicate. They sat for a

1161
01:00:40,360 --> 01:00:45,360
Speaker 1: while longer, then Jim squeezed Roland's shoulder and stood come

1162
01:00:45,440 --> 01:00:53,760
Speaker 1: for another peaceful wall. Then, hey, everybody, Robert Evans here.

1163
01:00:53,760 --> 01:00:55,760
Speaker 1: I hope you just enjoyed the chapter you listen to.

1164
01:00:55,880 --> 01:00:58,120
Speaker 1: I hope you enjoyed the chapters to come. If you

1165
01:00:58,120 --> 01:01:00,360
Speaker 1: would like to read the text, vers and of this

1166
01:01:00,400 --> 01:01:03,040
Speaker 1: book either on the web or on your e reader

1167
01:01:03,080 --> 01:01:05,160
Speaker 1: as an e pub, you can find those on the

1168
01:01:05,160 --> 01:01:09,240
Speaker 1: website a t r book dot com. So again, the

1169
01:01:09,320 --> 01:01:12,400
Speaker 1: free ad free e pub and the text of every

1170
01:01:12,480 --> 01:01:15,280
Speaker 1: chapter will be on a t r book dot com.

1171
01:01:15,320 --> 01:01:15,680
Speaker 1: Thanks