“Ah…well then hell was a lucky guess wasn’t it?” mumbled Viekko. “What’re we doing here?”
Isra glanced back at Halifaco, “Trying to convince him that the Venganto are just people like them.”
Halifaco ranted in his own language, “You will not lead us away from the Kompanio. Our path is clear. Leave us.”
Before Isra could translate Viekko added, “Just going to take that as a ‘not too well’. Am I right?”
Isra nodded. “Perceptive. Any ideas?”
Viekko got to his feet with some effort. Althea helped steady him and kept him from falling. Even standing upright, he was still disoriented and bewildered. Then he patted himself, down feeling his jacket. “My guns, where are they?”
Isra motioned to the duffle bag she carried from the armory. Althea held him while he staggered toward it. He steadied himself on the edge, opened the bag, and searched until he produced two pistols and holstered them. “Okay…where is the door?”
Isra pointed the way and Viekko, still wobbling, staggered back out into the hallway. He wandered down the halls at Isra’s direction. To her barely concealed amusement, Halifaco and a group of his people followed with weapons in hand. It had to be out of sheer curiosity. Isra had to admit she admired that about Viekko. He had a certain audacity and a reckless spirit that drew people to him if only to see what might happen next.
They came to the door and Viekko leaned his head against the metal. It was quieter now although the occasional burst shook the room and caused rust to flake off the ceiling. Satisfied that there must be something still out there, he tried the door. He strained at the wheel that would draw the steel bolts back but he didn’t have the strength yet.
He took a step back, annoyed. “Little help here?”
Two Perfiduloi warriors went to the door and turned the wheel to unlock the thick steel door. Viekko pushed it to the side and peered out into the dark gloom. He unholstered his gun and waited.
“What is he doing?” hissed Halifaco in his own language and craning his neck to see better.
Isra smiled slightly, “Proving to you that they are just people.”
As Halifaco watched Viekko hanging out the door, his expression remained passive but the tension and the sweat forming on his face showed Isra that it was an act. The leader swallowed and spat at Viekko in English, “The Venganto are invincible. You will do nothing but make things worse for us.”
There was a burst by the door, so close that Isra could feel the heat, but Viekko stood still. “Aren't you already set to go out and die? I fail to see how this can possibly make the situation worse.”
For a moment, Halifaco looked like he was ready to bolt over to where Viekko stood and do something drastic to stop him, but he didn’t. Isra could feel the conflict in his mind. The intense belief she saw earlier collided head-on with everything he knew to be true and, until one or the other gave, it paralyzed him.
Viekko took a deep breath and held it for a few seconds. There was another burst by the door and Viekko fired a single shot. Everyone standing in the hallway held their breath until something hard clanged on the steel hull. Viekko holstered his gun and disappeared into the dark. He returned dragging a Venganto by the arms.
The anger that rose from the assembled Perfiduloi was matched only with the confusion as to what they were seeing. It was right there in front of them, an immortal being limp as a puppet without strings. Blood seeped through a wound in the chest and left a trail across the floor where Viekko dragged it.
He knelt down beside the creature, gripped the mask and pulled. Isra smiled at the collective gasp. It was a young man with the round face and short, curly hair reminiscent of the Urbanoi.
Word got around fast and more Perfiduloi came running in to see what he noise was about. Viekko stood up to watch the crowd’s reaction. “So…are we good? Put that to rest then?”
Isra took her seat in the great hall while Viekko hauled the dead Venganto in front of Halifaco and dumped the body on a table. Perfiduloi emerged from all directions to see the aberration laid bare in front of them. As they did, they all argued at once about what it could mean. There was too much crosstalk in native language for Isra to pick up any one argument over another, but Halifaco somehow took it all in. He sat motionless and resolute like the last beacon of law and order.
Althea and Cronus sat on one side of Isra. She could hear their fear in their silence and feel the tension in their nervous movements; Althea pulling her long red hair over her shoulders and Cronus fidgeting with the wiry metal glove wrapped around his arm.
“There used to be others,” said Viekko, sitting down on Isra’s other side.
Viekko referred to the empty chairs on either side of Halifaco. Isra sensed a power vacuum within the Perfiduloi society. It tugged on her mind in the same way it must tug on the minds of other ambitious members of this culture. The way Halifaco sat with his back straight, his shoulders back and his arms spread across the table with his hands resting on the adjacent space broadcast his intent to fill it himself without any help from potential upstarts in the room.
“How many people were there?” asked Isra. “And do you know what happened to them?”
“Five. And my guess is Halifaco went and made them obsolete. Possibly even biologically.”
“What’s happens now?” asked Althea.
“It's hard to say,” said Viekko, watching the crowd pressing around the table and the dead Venganto. “Don't believe there is a history of this. It's all up to Halifaco and he’s got murder in his eye. Ain't nothing gonna satisfy him until this whole planet burns down.”
The crowd around the Venganto continued to chatter until Halifaco had heard enough. He raised his right hand, a simple gesture that had everyone in the room heading for a seat at one of the tables spanning the room.
Viekko leaned over again. “Last time I was here, this room was packed. Now look at them, ain't hardly nobody left.”
That was an exaggeration, thought Isra, but even a generous estimate would put this room at about half-full.
Halifaco gestured to the crowd of Perfiduloi in the room. “Many have died since your arrival and the arrival of the other Outsiders. This is our last, best chance to raise an attack. After this, there will not be enough of us.”
Isra stood to address Halifaco. “Please…if you will allow me to explain.”
“However,” Halifaco added holding his hand up, “You have brought us proof that the Houston and the Urbanoi have used our faith and love of the Kompanio to keep us subject to their will. And, for that, we will all hear what you propose.”
Isra dropped her head in a slight bow. “Thank you. If you will permit me, my associate here can better illustrate our plan.”
She motioned to Cronus who hopped out of his chair and sidled over to the table where the Venganto lay dead. He set one of his little black disks next to the body and performed a complex series of motions with the device wrapped around his arm. The disk activated and lights swirled around the room. Even though this wasn’t the first time these people had seen such a spectacle, the whole room still gasped in amazement.
The lights swirled around for a while until they condensed into an image of the land in-between the two Titanian seas.
Isra began, “This plan requires exquisite timing. Besides the Venganto who will make movement outside the city dangerous, there are soldiers inside the city that must be dealt with in order for us to accomplish our goal. We require the Perfiduloi’s help in two areas.
The map zoomed in to the center of the city focusing on the courtyard and the pyramid, “First we need to get inside the city without being noticed. From there, we will proceed to the center of the city and retake the pyramid. Cronus will have free reign of their computer system once again. With what he has learned, he will be able to use it to draw the Venganto away from this place. However, the soldiers in the city will still be a problem for us. We need you and your people to rally a force and create a distractio
n at the city walls.”
Halifaco sat and listened with mild interest. When Isra was done, he motioned to the map, “Do you intend for our people to run against the city walls again. We have not the numbers anymore nor any weapons.”
Viekko jumped up from the bench and yelled, “Don’t give me that. I know for a fact you folk are loaded to the gills with guns you took off the other Outsiders.”
Isra shot Viekko a glare. He adjusted his jacket and sat back down hard.
“It is not enough,” Halifaco added. “They have more guns and more people. It would be suicide.”
Isra had to admit this stumped her. How could she ask these people to attack the city again? Especially an attack that was only meant as a distraction. More would die but would they see any value in their sacrifice?
“How exactly were you going to destroy the pyramid?” asked Viekko. Then he looked at Isra with a smug look. “Sorry, did I speak out of turn again?”
Halifaco responded coolly, “We found a way.”
The cryptic and evasive nature of Halifaco’s answer was not like him. He was an audacious man. The type who assigned as much value to his mistakes as he did to his triumphs. For him to waver on this issue, it had to be something so bold and dangerous that even he was not sure of himself.
Isra fixed a look on him and said, “What did you find?”
Halifaco waved his hand in a dismissive gesture. “It is something we recovered after the first battle. We intended to keep it a secret until all the Outsiders left.”
“Show me,” said Isra.
The Perfiduloi leader paused again as if weighing the ramifications and then gestured to the crowd. A few soldiers hurried out while the rest waited in muted anticipation. Not for what would come through the door, Isra sensed, but for how the team and she in particular would react.
Two doors at the other end of the room opened and the last railgun was wheeled into the room.
Viekko jumped up, rattling the table as he did. “The rail gun? The khoyor mogoin khuked rail gun? You must be out of your mind if—”
“That is acceptable,” said Isra coldly.
“Isra, do you have any idea what that thing can do—”
“It is acceptable,” Isra repeated firmly. “If they are willing to put their people at risk again for us, they will need a show of power.”
Viekko growled, “Isra, if you let them keep that kharaasan gun, there ain't gonna be nothin’ left of this rock ‘cept a smoldering hole.”
Isra addressed Halifaco. “That is why, after this is over, we will insist that this gun be returned to us so it can be destroyed. Is that clear?”
Halifaco sat forward in his chair. “You will not tell us what to do with it. We recovered it—”
“And it’s only a matter of time before the Urbanoi recover it from you. That is, unless you intend to keep it locked up forever, but how much good will it do you then?”
Halifaco sat back, considering this. “How long will we be required to keep the Urbanoi occupied?”
“Ten minutes, max,” said Isra.
“What happens then?”
Isra let a small, sly smile break across her face. “If all goes well, you will be able to see a message from the Kompanio itself.”
Halifaco thought on this for a moment before he stood to address his people. With sweeping gestures and a grand speech in the native language, he filled the crowd in on the proceedings. When he reached the word ‘Kompanio’, the room erupted in gasps and yelling. Isra stood serenely as Halifaco raised his hand to command order again. This time it took more than a few seconds.
“What trick is this?” one of the Perfiduloi soldiers hissed in Titanian.
“No trick,” said Isra, responding in the same language. “The Kompanio has yearned to speak to its people for a long time; the Houston has managed to prevent it. If you can distract the City soldiers long enough, we can change that.”
More debate and more yelling in Titanian. Isra felt an energy in the room like something powerful contained in a vessel too small. Halifaco stood resolute leaning slightly on the table in front of him, but the way his eyes darted back and forth and the way he clenched and unclenched his hands revealed a measure of anxiety. He was worried about being able to control the crowd if this did not go as planned.
“Very well,” said Halifaco eventually. “We will consent to those who want to go. We are trusting you for the last time. But know this, if I get the hint that things are not going as planned, I will order my people to breach the city walls and I will destroy the pyramid myself.”
Isra bowed again. “That is fair.”
Althea stood up. “But how? We cannot leave this place for all the Venganto waiting to attack. How will you even get there?”
Halifaco smiled and paced behind the table, “There are tunnels. They lead into the forest. They provide a way for our people to escape the Urbanoi and their slave chains. But the entrance to them is far away. It will be difficult to reach them from here without being spotted.”
“What the hell good does that do?” asked Viekko, leaning his chair back. “Gettin’ halfway don’t help none. How are we going to get to the city?”
Somewhere in the distance, a mammoth bellowed. Halifaco’s face spread into a mischievous grin. “We have ways.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
It is possible that Earth Civilization could have survived the Global Revolution. By this time, the great megacities were ruins and war, famine, disease, and a host of other atrocities left smaller cities all but abandoned.
But a second storm was brewing, one that would sweep away any remains of the greatest civilization humans had ever assembled.
-from The Fall: The Decline and Failure of 21st Century Civilization by Martin Raffe.
Viekko squatted in the mud and looked through the scope of the assault rifle. A few Venganto shot across the moonlit sky, but they didn’t stop or show any signs of interest in the people crawling out of the tunnel among the mammoths.
“I don’t believe it,” said Viekko, lowering his gun. “It’s like they can’t see us.”
Nearby, Cronus climbed a muddy embankment. “Of course they cannot see us,” he said with an angry, harsh tone. “Just because there is no light we can see, does not mean there is no light. They use the light from all living things to see. But many things live. Not just us but—”
Cronus was cut off when the ground underneath him gave way and he slid into a pile of something unspeakable. “Let me be clear, that does not mean I endorse this plan!”
Viekko turned his attention back to the sky. “What the hell is he babbling about?”
Althea ran her hands down the side of one of the mammoths. “Body heat,” she said. “The Venganto must have some means of using infrared radiation as night vision.” She stopped and shook her head. “These mammoths are sick. They are so thin and they seem to have some form of diarrhea.”
Viekko had noticed the ground around the mammoths was squishier than anywhere else on the moon and the powerful odor could be the other reason the Venganto were keeping their distance. Any breath too deep brought a tear to his eye.
It also didn’t take a lot of imagination to guess at why. The Titanian ecosystem was failing and, with the destruction of the refineries, was on a death spiral. Against the moonlight the leaves hung like wilted flower petals. The brush under his feet crackled with every step.
Halifaco surveyed the Perfiduloi army hiding between the mammoths. Behind him, ten soldiers pushed the railgun through the sludge.
“How close are we?” asked Viekko.
Halifaco walked up to him in slow, easy strides. “That should be the last of them.”
Viekko slung the rifle over his shoulder. “About damn time. So what happens now? Are we just here to wade through the mammoth baas or have we got a plan?”
“The horn from the city goes off at regular intervals,” said Halifaco. “Then the herd moves to a new location. It will stop near the river where my m
en can show you to a place where water from the city drains. My people will stay with the herd. They will travel close to the city next.”
Viekko adjusted his hat. “Oh thank the gods. And here I was worried that I wouldn’t get to stomp through more omkhii baas.”
Althea stepped beside Viekko. “That will be fine. Once we are in the tunnels we can find our way, right Cronus?”
Cronus extricated himself from the pile and looked down at his EROS suit. “My files contain a thorough explanation of the city systems. Much has changed in the many years, but it should be enough to get us close. Though I fear I may never smell the same again.”
Viekko shielded his nose. “I smelled you coming off the shuttle, Cronus. I can’t say this is appreciably worse.”
Althea shushed the both of them and cocked her head. Somewhere in the distance, the horn blew from the city. Just as a flock of birds moves as one, the mammoths all started walking together. The team kept close together in the dark to keep from falling beneath one of the gigantic feet. Above, the Venganto continued their patrol oblivious to the army moving beneath them.
Viekko waved goodbye to the Perfiduloi soldiers as they darted back into the forest for the safety of the mammoth herd a few meters away. The light from Saturn’s many moons provided enough to cast shadow, but the whole area was bathed in a dense fog rising from the running water.
Viekko shouldered his rifle and took a quick look at the sky. “We’re clear for now, but I don’t like the idea of bein’ out here in the open. Cronus, got a lock on that sewer entrance?”
Cronus pulled up his sleeve. “Just a few meters ahead. And I have found a path that should lead us to the pyramid.”
“Great,” said Viekko, sliding down an icy embankment. He hit the ground next to the river and stumbled, and the world spun around him.
Althea dropped beside him. “Are you okay, Viekko?”
Viekko coughed. “My stomach feels like it’s in free fall and I think I can feel my toe rattling around in my boot.”
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