Rapid, panicked knocking came from the front door, but Martin could only manage a step before he collapsed to the floor, crying.
Chapter 7
Martin didn’t follow the protocol of paging the team if he managed to kill Sonya. Then again, he didn’t kill Sonya.
“Commander Briar!” Arielle’s voice cried from the other side of the door. She had remained hidden on the third floor, keeping the closest eye on Sonya’s apartment door, ready to pounce if she bolted out. “Commander, is everything okay?!”
Her voice, despite being muffled through the wooden door, sounded desperate and worried. Martin crawled toward the living room couch, leaning back against it as he entered a state of shock. Sonya’s sacrifice had not been on the list of possibilities, leaving Martin flustered with regard of what to do.
Go take care of business, he thought, reminiscing on her finals words. It was no accident. She had made a calculated decision to pull that trigger and set in motion the hunt for Chris. As much as he needed to hurry to ensure everything fell into place with their plans, Martin needed the moment to process what he had just witnessed.
“Commander, I’m breaking down this door!” Arielle cried.
The banging from outside fell momentarily silent, followed by a sharp bang! that saw the door swing open, Arielle standing on one leg while the other remained elevated from kicking.
Martin rolled his head to look at her, watching her eyes bounce from him to Sonya, then to the shotgun that lay on the floor at her feet.
“Commander?” Arielle asked, inching into the apartment with the caution of a burglar.
Martin felt the puffiness in his eyes, knowing they were surely red from the ten minutes he had just spent crying. “She shot herself,” he said, the words stiff out of his lips. “I didn’t even see it coming—I thought she was going to shoot me.” His lips quivered as he fought off another wave of tears, mind still catching up to the fact that his life had been spared. Martin had survived plenty of trauma throughout his life, but this encounter had been the most intense thanks to its rapid progression. Even the loss of Izzy had been a gradual process of acceptance as the days passed, creating a different kind of shock.
Arielle wasted no time in grabbing her radio and speaking into it. “Everyone stand down, stay in your positions. Lieutenant Commander, please come to Sonya’s apartment, it is now safe.”
Martin flailed for the couch to help him stand, eventually doing so with the struggle of a toddler just learning to pull themselves up. Once on his feet, Martin forced his legs to walk away from the scene in the kitchen and meet Arielle in the doorway. “Come inside and close the door—we can’t afford to have a neighbor wander this way.”
He knew this wasn’t necessarily a worry considering the year—suicides were quite commonplace during the Depression, plenty of reports eventually leaking that neighbors, and even family members, would hear gunshots from around the way, knowing what had happened but not bothering to confirm—but they still couldn’t afford the gamble of leaving the door wide open.
Arielle obliged, closing the door and pressing her back against it now that the latch didn’t work thanks to her well-placed kick. “Commander, I know this a lot for you right now, but once the lieutenant gets here, we need to move fast. Remember, we projected six to eight hours until Chris realizes he’s mortal again. At that point, we have no idea what exactly he will do.”
“I know. We can start.” Martin’s chest felt drained, void of all emotion. His brain understood exactly what needed to happen next, even insisted on it, but his heart wasn’t in it. Not yet. Gone was the anger that had driven him to this point, a hate sparked by the death of his mother, then elevated by learning that Sonya had killed Gerald outside of Chris’s Idaho home. All that remained, for the moment, were the raw emotions of losing a loved one. A future together was no longer an option, leaving Martin truly alone.
A knock came from the door and Arielle stepped aside to pull it open and let Alina enter. Her jaw dropped at the horrific scene. Martin gave the abbreviated story of what had happened, able to make it through this second telling with a bit more composure.
“It’s time, Commander,” Alina said. “Regardless of how this played out, this is what we came for. Chris Speidel is now a mortal human being, and we have to act before he tries to change that fact.”
Martin nodded. “Inform the appropriate teams. We can begin phase one, just make sure no one is around to relay the events to Chris.”
“Arielle, can you please hop into the future and make that call?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Arielle replied, promptly leaving the apartment to head outside where she’d jump forward in time to place a phone call to the team waiting to tail Chris.
Once they were alone, Alina moved toward Martin and placed an arm over his shoulder. “We all know this was going to be hard for you, Commander. But look at where we are now. This war will be done by tonight and we can start our road to recovery and peace.”
“I don’t feel so hopeful,” Martin said, giving into Alina’s embrace as his legs still weren’t quite ready to support the rest of him. Sonya had done a number on his mind by planting a seed of doubt regarding his role with the Road Runners. While it all seemed a stretch, nothing in her theory could be deemed as impossible. Could the Council have orchestrated this whole ordeal? Or another commander from a
