Chapter 121

Before the sun came up the next morning, there was a soft call to rise sounded by a lone trumpeter. Rain opened her eyes, momentarily forgetting where she was. As soon as she saw the other three women lying next to her on the ground and hardly recognized them, it came back to her. She was back in Michaelanburg. And she had a job to do.
She pulled herself up to sitting as the other girls did as well. It was early. No rays of sunshine filtered in through the thin fabric of the tent. They must be hoping for the element of surprise.
As they always did, the women had a few minutes to take care of their personal needs at the latrine, and then they were expected to fall into line by the time the trumpeter played a different song, one they were also all familiar with.
The notes of the lonely wake-up song sounded haunting in the morning air as Rain came back from taking care of her business. The trumpeter was playing softly so that the music didn’t carry into town and alert the Mothers that they were on their way. The soft reverberations were mournful beneath a sky streaked with various shades of blue as the sun fought to climb over the horizon. It sounded more like a funeral dirge than a wake-up call to Rain.
She gathered her pack and her rifle and fell into ranks along with the other three women from her tent. The other troops lined up as well so that they were all shoulder to shoulder in uniform lines with rows so far in front and behind her, Rain couldn’t count them all. She didn’t see any of her friends either, but she knew they were there. She could feel them.
It was Lt. Laurant who came to address them. He stood before them in the center, on a small stool that allowed him to be seen by the people in the back. He wasn’t directly in front of Rain but when he started speaking, she could hear him just fine.
“Soldiers of the Quebecian Army,” he began, looking over them all. “Today is the day you’ve been training for.” No one cheered, but she saw smiles form on the faces she could see. They were excited about this. While she was glad that these people wanted to be there, Rain wasn’t sure what it said about her that she was tempted to climb back in her tent and stay there. Wasn’t fear a natural reaction in these types of situations, or was she just a chicken?
She knew she’d do her part, though, even before Lt. Laurant gave the rest of his rousing speech. He inspired them with his words about setting others free, about making the world a better place, and chopping down tyrants. Rain was ready. She wanted this to all be over, for the Motherhood to be a nightmare from her past, to know that no one else would ever have to suffer at the hands of the Mothers.
“Soldiers of Quebec!” Lt. Laurant said loudly, rallying them all in front of him. “Today, you do not fight to defend your homeland of the great nation of Quebec. You fight to defend your homeland of the planet earth! You fight to give freedom to those who have never tasted it before! Now, I implore you, rise up! Rise up! And let none of you forget this day, that you are from the great nation of Quebec!”
At his final words, a cheer went up from the troops which immediately had to be squashed by the commanders for fear that the Mothers would hear and realize they were there. A hush fell over the squadron, and Rain took a deep breath, ready to move forward with the others.
Until Lt. Laurant said, “I need Rain Gretchintown, Mist Gretchintown, Adam Blue, and Walt Nisdey, please.”
Rain looked at Margo, who was standing next to her, and the other soldier gestured for her to step forward. She saw the other three making their way up to the front and wondered what this was about. Had the commanders decided they couldn’t be trusted? And when had Walt chosen a last name?
Once they all reached him, Lt. Laurant gestured for the group to step away from the others. They followed him to a small group of trees. The other commanders began to lead the rest of the troops away. Rain was torn between giving the officer in front of her her full attention and watching the others leave without them. Only a small detail wasn’t going anywhere. They were positioned over by another cluster of trees, and Rain couldn’t see any of their faces because of the way they were standing.
“The four of you will be given a very special assignment,” Lt. Laurant began as the noise from the others leaving began to die down. His expression was stern, possibly a little grave, with wrinkles in his forehead and the corners of his mouth turned down. “You will be part of the group that attacks the medical facility you have told us about, but I want you to move in after the building itself has been fairly cleared by the others. That elite squadron over there, commanded by Lt. Bissett, will be the main attack force, and the four of you will follow them inside, once she gives you the order.”
Rain’s eyes went back to the detail she’d noticed standing parallel to them a bit closer to Gretchintown. That’s when she noticed Josie standing among them. She would be their commander.
Her face wasn’t the only one she recognized among the troops, though. Seth was there, too. He wasn’t looking at her, but she had a feeling he knew she was looking at him, so she returned her gaze to Lt. Laurant.
“We need you to use your knowledge of the facility to help us gain access to all of the important information contained within that building,” he explained. “We believe there is important information that the Mothers are keeping from the world housed there. Medical information. Scientific and technological information. The Mothers are far advanced in some of these areas, and we need all of their secrets. Most importantly, we need to show the world proof that the Mothers are using fossil fuels and that they are killing individuals based solely on their gender and other discriminatory qualifications. While we have some proof of the fossil fuels, thanks to the footage we have gathered from their weaponry--their aircraft and tanks--it’s not enough. We need solid evidence.”
The commander paused to look each of them in the eyes to check for understanding. One by one, her colleagues nodded. When it was her turn, Rain did the same. She understood what he was saying and why it was important.
“Naturally, we intend to liberate anyone who’s being held in the building against their will, just as we have liberated any others that we’ve come across while fighting in other cities. The other towns we’ve been successful in taking have had similar facilities, but this one seems to be the one where the vital records are kept.”
Rain wondered why that would be and not the capital city, but then, Gretchintown was further away from the border than the capital, and the threat from the north had never been as high as the possibility of Spanish-America or Aricornia attacking. Perhaps that’s why the Mothers had used Gretchintown to store their most vital information.
If it was there, Rain was going to find it. She wanted to see the records, not just because she wanted to help Quebec show the world how horrible the Mothers were, but she had a personal reason for digging into those databases.
She wanted to find out who her parents were.
She also wanted to know the truth about The Bridge.
“We won’t fail you, Commander,” Adam was saying, snapping Rain’s head back around.
The commander patted Adam on the shoulder. “That’s what I wanted to hear. Now, get over there with Lt. Bissett, and make me proud.”
The four of them moved over to join the other group. As hard as it was for Rain to avoid the urge to reach over and take Adam’s hand, she was quite certain it was killing Mist and Walt not to do the same since they were almost always touching one another. Even now, their shoulders bumped together as they walked. Rain wanted to turn and look at Adam, to see if he noticed, to share a smile, but the situation was too serious for that.
When they reached Josie, she smiled at them. “I take it Lt. Laurant filled you four in?” she asked.
“Affirmative,” Mist replied for all of them in her most official voice. “We are at your command, Lt. Bissett.”
Josie gave a sharp nod, not even a trace of a smile at the formality appearing on her pretty face. “Well, then, fall into ranks with the others, and when we hear from the leading commander that the building has been infiltrated, we’ll know when we can go in.”
Rain fell into ranks as she was told with the other soldiers that Josie had assembled. Standing in rows of four, she could see that there were only twenty of them with Josie. She hoped that the leading attack group was successful in fighting off the Mothers before they arrived because she didn’t think the twenty of them, along with Josie, were going to make much of a dent in the military Mothers’ defenses, especially if Lt. Laurant was right, and they were housing their secrets in Gretchintown. They’d throw everything they had at the Quebecians before they’d release any of their private information to the world.
As they were walking, Josie told them, “Our detail is code named Daddy’s Girl,” she said, keeping her voice low. “There are a couple of reasons for that. First of all, I am obviously a daddy’s girl,” she said, turning and giving the group a smile over her shoulder. Since her father was the prime minister of Quebec, it made sense that she would be. “The other is the fact that the Mothers hate men, so they would clearly not like anyone who was a daddy’s girl.” Her smile became more devilish.
“The advanced forces should be hitting the city limits in just a few minutes. We will hold back, take up a position in the woods,” Josie said, “and wait. When we hear from the leaders that the Mothers forces are beginning to break, we’ll go in.”
Rain nodded along with the others, but deep down inside, she had a feeling it could never be that easy. They might think the Mothers had broken only to find out they hadn’t broken at all. Daddy’s Girl might just be walking into Mommy’s trap.