Page 48 of Red Zone Awakened

“Keiko, change the screens.You lived it.We don’t need to watch the rerun.”

His words made her realize that he was concerned about her reaction to the footage, not how it affected him.She was about to bring up the control screen and hit the command to switch from news to the building’s security feed when the scene in front of them changed.Her breath caught in her throat as an image of the terrace appeared.

“There’s Abigail,” she said on a gasp.

Her friend was kneeling on the stage, her hands secured behind her back and a black band around her head.Tear tracks ran down her cheeks, and it was obvious she was shaking.Her lips moved as though she was muttering something over and over.All the while, she kept her eyes scrunched tight against the carnage surrounding her.

A blade twisted in Keiko’s chest.“We need to get her out of there, Mace.”She looked up to find him standing, lips thinned, glaring at the screens.“You rescued me.You know how to do stuff like this.We can’t just leave her there.”

“Fuck,” he cursed before shooting an anxious look her way.“Change the feed, Keiko.Do it now.”

Something in his tone made her realize she was missing something.And that’s when the scene around Abigail came into focus for her.Rueben Granger was on his knees beside her, his mouth open in a pained grimace.She didn’t need the sound to know he was wailing.On his other side were more scientists from his team, all kneeling, all with their hands bound behind their backs, all wearing bands around their heads.

As a surge of realization hit her, she knew what the bands were—EMP devices.Attached to their heads.Her eyes flew back to the left of the image, and she spotted something she hadn’t noticed before because her attention was on Abigail.On the stage, beside her friend, just inside the camera’s frame, was someone’s outstretched hand.It lay there, limply, as though someone had reached for Abigail.Someone who was no longer moving.

“Mace?”Her hand curled into his arm.

“Turn it off,” he demanded.

But she barely heard him.There was no way she could tear her eyes away.Not now.A face appeared in front of the camera.It was the Freedom leader who’d called after them when Mace ran with her under his arm.With a thought, she commanded the volume on the newsfeed to increase, then remembered that she couldn’t communicate with anything remotely while all signals were being blocked.She reached out with a shaky hand and hit the panel, calling up the volume control.

“Damn it, Keiko, just turn the damn thing off.”He pulled her away from the control panel and stabbed at it randomly, achieving nothing.“Make it stop.”

She glanced at him, saw the agony in his eyes, and her breath hitched.He was trying to spare her, but she returned her attention to the screens.Abigail was there.Alone.Frightened.And Keiko couldn’t look away.

“Mace,” she whispered, reaching for his hand.

With a growl, he took her hand and held it tight.

“Another hour has passed, and CommTECH’s CEO has still not responded to our demands,” the woman said into the camera.

The camera zoomed out, and Keiko gasped.“No, no, no…”

On the stage, in a row beside Abigail, were three dead scientists.They had blood on their faces, and their bodies lay in awkward heaps as though they were nothing more than discarded garbage.But they weren’t garbage.They were people.Keiko had smiled at them.She’d said hello.She’d led them out onto the stage for a madwoman to murder in front of the world.

“Keiko, baby, please help me turn it off.”Mace brushed gentle fingertips across her cheek.“Nothing good’s gonna happen here.”

She couldn’t answer.Couldn’t move.All she could do was stare at the horror before her.

“How many more have to die before Miriam Shepherd admits that her reign has come to an end?”The woman motioned behind her.“This is why Freedom fights.CommTECH—or any big business—does not care about the people they rule.Our lives mean nothing to them.The lives of our loved ones mean nothing to them.I should know.My brother was one of CommTECH’svaluedscientists.”She scoffed.“He told them his research was dangerous and mustn’t be rushed, or the consequences would be deadly for CommTECH’s customers.But they wouldn’t listen.”

She pointed at the camera.“You didn’t listen, Miriam.Instead, he was told to speed up.They implanted him with a monitoring chip, against his will, for his superiors to see what was slowing his work down.They pushed and pushed and pushed—until he rushed the research just to get some peace.He wept when he told me how his research was compromised and begged me to get the word out.To tell people that CommTECH was taking shortcuts with his work.Shortcuts that would endanger people’s lives.But by the time I was able to get the word out, it was too late for my brother.”

The screen filled with footage of CommTECH personnel running from a burning building.

“Portland,” Keiko whispered.“There was an accident, an explosion in the research facility.Three people died.”

The woman’s face filled the screen once again.“This accident could have been avoided.But CommTECH was more interested in profit than people.Because of CommTECH, my brother is dead, and there’s no justice for him.Who’s going to take Miriam to court?Who could find a court she doesn’t own?”She motioned to the bound scientists behind her.“This is what you’ve driven us to.This is our only recourse.CommTECH’s rule must end, and we will do what we must to ensure that it does.”

She turned to the scientists, a small black box in her hand.“You have one more hour, Miriam.How many people have to die before you act?”She held the box out so the camera could see it and pressed her thumb down.

A flash of light snapped Keiko’s eyes to the stage.

The light came from the band around Abigail’s head.

An ear-piercing scream rent the air.

It could have been from her or her friend.Maybe both.She threw herself at the screens, as though she could somehow get to Abigail and stop the horror unfolding in front of her.Stop the needless violence.Stop her friend from being sacrificed to a cause that meant nothing to her.