One Good Soldier

I'm the only one here,' Ahmi said. 'So, you gonna pull that trigger or what, son?'

'We need to know the leaders of the cells, Elle,' Sehera said. Tears started to form in her eyes.

'So, this is it, then. I tell you what you need to know just like that, and then you take me out?'

'Yes, something like that,' Alexander told her.

Sir, her AIC is trying to hack me, Abigail warned him. He's hacking into all of us, sir.

Are you okay?

For now, sir! Allison is helping! But, sir, her AIC, is, is . . . 

Abby? Abby!

Alexander slapped Ahmi upside her head with the butt of his HVAR very hard.

'Stop trying to hack my AIC! Now!'

'Mother! Tell me what I need to know. You have to help me.' Sehera pushed the barrel of her rifle harder against her forehead. 'Please, Mother. I can end this today! We must end this today! But we will need your help. Damnit, Mother, if you ever loved me, if you are even still in there, help us.'

'Fuck this,' Nancy said. 'I owe this bitch.' She walked over and started to put a round into Ahmi before her AIC could hack theirs. Nancy had never believed there could be an AIC stronger than hers, or even close. But this AIC was attempting to hack a top-secret AIC, a very, very brilliant one in Abigail, and a top-of-the-line mecha jock's AIC all at the same time, and doing a pretty good job of it.

'No!' Sehera turned to her. Alexander stepped in Nancy's way.

'Not yet,' he said.

'Elle!' Sehera started to cry. 'Sienna Madira, are you in there? Help us. Help us!'

'Alexander,' Ahmi looked over at him. 'You . . . I—I'm sorry I tortured you, son.'

'Help us, then.'

'Sehera, I love you. Copernicus, stop it! Copernicus, no! I'm in control here!' Ahmi fell forward, holding her head and screaming. Blood started to trickle from her left ear, and then it poured. 'Stop it!' She rose up, lunging forward into Sehera and taking the railpistol from her daughter's side holster.

'Mother! Tell us who the Separatist cell leaders are!' Sehera pushed her away, not realizing her pistol had been taken.

'Show, unh, Dee who her grandfather was.' Elle stood, held the railpistol to the side of her head, and pulled the trigger.

'No!' Alexander shouted.

Sehera stood looking over mother's body. There should have been more blood and gray matter, she thought. She knelt beside the body of the one hundred eleventh president of the United States, of the most wanted mass-murdering terrorist in human history, of her daughter's grandmother. Sehera reached out and closed her dead mother's eyes.

'You two are the White House moles!' Nancy stepped forward and swept her weapon between Alexander and Sehera. Thomas instantly turned and raised his weapon on Nancy. DeathRay looked unsure of whom to point his weapon at.

'No, we're not,' Alexander said. 'Sehera is just one of many victims of her mother's schemes, and I'm the White House double-agent. Ms. Nancy Marie Bloomfeld, I would think a woman playing the role of somebody else for most of her life could understand the concept.'

'But you have been involved with her. Your wife is her daughter? How can we trust you?'

'Before you were even an itch in your daddy's pants, Ms. Bloomfeld, I fought this woman with every fiber of my being. I watched her slaughter, capture, torture, maim, and kill my men. She tortured me to near-death on several occasions. I swore then I'd stop her no matter what it took. And believe me, it has taken a lot.'

'Still, your wife is her daughter. How can we trust you?' Nancy repeated.

Sehera answered her. 'Put down your weapon, and I'll show you. Plus, I'll save your AICs.' Sehera wiped tears from her face. Then she rolled her mother's head over, revealing the exit wound. Sehera reached in and wrapped her fingers around something inside her mother's skull and pulled a gray and bloody deformed mass the size of an egg out. There were clear slimy tendrils extending into her head. Sehera continued to pull until she had extracted the thing from her. Her mother's neck twisted and popped a few times as she pulled. The plastic-coated device looked more like a jellyfish than it did anything else. She tossed it on the floor next to her husband.

'What the hell is that?' Jack asked, alarmed at the