Fools of us All - Chapter 48

SPIN

In all of my life, I had had no experience with the military whatsoever. On occasion I would see army trucks drive by on the highway. Once I stood in line at a Tim Horton’s behind a guy in uniform. That was about it. And then I met Caz. Since then I had been attacked by some crazy army men in a hospital, flung across time and space only to be attacked by a whole lot of soldiers in a warehouse, impersonated a guard to rescue Caz, been on the run from the army, had a fight with the guards at the scrivener base (who were not strictly army, but that’s hardly the point) and now I was about to break into a highly guarded military base to see if aliens were indeed attacking the mining colonies out in space.

I gave Caz an appraising look. “Seems okay to me,” I said. There were some advantages to breaking into the military base as opposed to the scrivener hall. For one, women were allowed in the military, so she would not stand out quite so obviously. Second, most of the M.E.R.C. uniforms included helmets with face shields. Third, there were no tracking devices like the scriveners wore, so it was easier to get in. And fourth, Caz still knew some of the codes and passwords from her time with the organisation.

We had completed the first step: we were wearing M.E.R.C. uniforms. They were slightly rumpled, but they fit well enough. The helmets had some information on a display on the inside of them, but not too much. My guess was that the people in charge did not trust their foot soldiers with too much information, so unlike the movies I had seen, I could not look at Caz and know everything about her.

A few moments later we were hiding behind a small knoll near the base. The uniforms were surprisingly warm in the chilly night air. Our helmets were sitting on the ground beside us as we found them to be somewhat stifling. We were waiting for something, but I was not sure what. Caz had grown less communicative in the past hour, simply shushing me whenever I asked for the plan. I couldn’t imagine we would just walk through the front gate, even with our disguises.

A line of soldiers appeared, marching towards the front gate. “Right on time,” I heard Caz mutter. She grabbed her helmet and put it on. I followed suit. The soldiers passed uncomfortably near to where we were sitting, but none seemed to notice. As they passed, Caz moved silently until she was walking behind the last guy in line.

I hesitated for a moment and then shook my head before joining her. Maybe we would walk through the front gate after all.