The port security personnel wave us through, and a few minutes later, Erik is steering us over the glittering Mediterranean Sea toward the north coast of the African continent.
On the console before me, the desolate terrain ahead is mapped in infrared gridlines demarking every rise and fall in elevation. Unlike the North American Sectors, there's not a single city ruin in sight. When the United World built the Ten Domes, they must have razed everything else as a way to keep their citizens from looking back. Always forward. So if we're headed to some type of secure location, it must be an underground bunker.
"Just like old times," I murmur.
"How's that?" Erik is hyper-focused on piloting. From what I can see, there isn't much for him to do but adjust the speed and trajectory. Our course is laid in, and the vehicle is taking us to our destination.
Maybe he's nervous about what we might find waiting for us.
"Any idea how we're getting inside?" I glance at his pockets full of EMP discs. "We shouldn't expect a warm welcome."
He pats the dashboard. "The security clones who came for Sera were flying this thing. As long as we keep the windows dark, they should let us in." He sounds confident. "You look a lot alike." He glances at me sidelong, then quickly averts his gaze. "You and Sera, I mean."
"All in the genes." I shrug.
"The way you carry yourselves. You don't take crap from anybody."
That almost makes me smile. "I look forward to meeting her."
"She's here." He nods, scanning the desert wasteland below as we leave the sea behind. "Somewhere."
"How long have you known each other?"
He gives me a roguish grin identical to Samson's. "We met last night. She chased me across the rooftops of a few domescrapers." He laughs at the memory. "She's relentless."
He brakes suddenly as the ground shifts below. Dust rises in clouds as dirt recedes from the top of a tower gradually erupting out of the earth.
"This must be the place." I draw my gun and lean forward.
"Yeah…" He focuses on landing the aerocar, hovering before he takes us into a jerky vertical drop. On the pad below, an identical security vehicle sits empty with its engines off. No one else is anywhere in sight.
I retrieve the communication device from my pocket and tell Luther we're preparing to land.
"Milton and Samson have managed to commandeer three of the aerocars. The other pilots decided to turn back, and we let them go," he says. "Entering the coordinates to your location now. Should be airborne shortly."
I advise him to use the same strategy Erik employed to get through port security as fast as possible.
"Smart fellow," Luther says. "I wonder where he gets it from."
I glance at Erik as we touch down gently, more or less, on the landing pad. His natural affinity for piloting vehicles may rival his biological father's. Samson never met anything he couldn't drive. "I have some idea."
The hanger roof closes over us like the petals of a massive plasteel flower, sealing us inside for a decontamination procedure that rocks our vehicle with blasts of pressurized air for well over a minute. At the same time, the tower itself recedes into the ground, rumbling with vibrations that travel through the floor to my seat.
With a violent shudder, our descent halts. An elevator door opens at the far end of the hanger, and two figures step out, followed by more than a dozen others. They stop and stare at us as we exit our vehicle.
"She's done it!" Erik takes off in bounding leaps to meet the people at the elevator. Despite being thirty years his senior, I have no trouble keeping up with him. "You two have a lot of catching up to do," he says, introducing me to a young woman in a white bodysuit.
She looks like the version of me who stepped out of that Sector 50 bunker three decades ago. Before I joined Mother Lairen, Rehana, Shechara, and all of my sisters in a rocky climb up into our cave-sweet-home.
"You must be Sera." I smile at her with instant affection I can't restrain. She strikes me as a very confident and capable young woman. I can't help but be honored that she shares my genes.
"We have the same eyes," she says, studying my face for a moment and seeming to like what she sees. "Some DNA too, I'll bet."
"We have little time," says the injured security clone next to her. Without its helmet, its exposed face is a young Dr. Solomon Wong's—covered in dried blood from a nasty head wound.
"Dunn's right," Sera says. "Get them into those vehicles."
The seventeen young men and women behind her wear matching bodysuits and lost looks on their faces. The clone gestures for them to follow, but instead, they glance at each other in confusion.
"Where is our sister?" they murmur. "Erik, where is Arienna? We were expecting her, too. And where is Dr. Wong? Sera said—"
"We're going to the Revelation Banquet!" Erik says with a broad smile, reaching into his pockets and retrieving handfuls of EMP discs. "Here you go. Take one of these party favors, and make your way to either of the waiting aerocars. Don't delay. We have all sorts of fun activities planned for your entertainment!"
As he hands a disc to each of them mid-stride, they frown curiously and keep walking, following the injured security clone.
"Wait a minute—what happened?"
"Why am I offline?"
They murmur among themselves as the discs disable their neural implants.
"What's wrong with my augments?"
"All part of the fun," Erik calls after them. "Quickly now, everybody aboard!" He herds the last of them toward the vehicles and turns to Sera, keeping his voice low. "Dr. Wong?"
She nods, heading toward the aerocar that was already here. The security clone hands her an activated surveillance drone, and she gives it a pat as one might a pet. Then she tosses it high into the air.
"Wong's behind all of this. The facility, the plan to capture us and put us into cryo-sleep for centuries." She repeats the process with a second drone, and both units fly in separate directions, scanning the hangar for threats.
"Centuries?" Erik stares at her.
"Cryo-sleep..." I echo. "So he's planning something for the future."
"The end of the Ten Domes," Sera says, reaching into the back of her aerocar and pulling out a heavy plasteel apparatus. It slides to the floor with a clunk, and she climbs into the thing, folding it around herself like an exoskeleton. Once she's buckled in place, she tests it by hopping and throwing a few punches. The power-suit whines as it triples the impact of her movements. "He wants to restart civilization."
These government scientists never learn. "They tried the same thing with us, forty years ago. Now all that's left of our Sectors are ruins for your raiders to scavenge."
"Why would they need to scavenge anything at all?" Erik asks. "The Domes are self-sustaining, supplying us with everything we could ever need."
I wince at that. From what Captain Mutegi told us, Eurasia has never been as self-sufficient as it claims. For decades, it has relied on the goods and supplies pillaged by raiders sent all over the globe. Everything they've found has been stripped down, mulched, and repurposed as raw materials and foodstuffs for the citizens of Eurasia to enjoy.
"Another lie from your government." I pat him on the shoulder. "Something else that needs to change."
Sera nods. "Our people deserve to know the truth—about a whole lot of things."
The elevator door slides open, and without warning, countless Dr. Wongs pour out in flailing white lab coats, wielding the same Eurasian pistols Sera and I carry. They start firing immediately, hunching their shoulders and aiming high, knowing better than to hit any members of the Twenty.
I return fire, ducking around the side of Sera's aerocar where Erik joins me. The power of the weapon in my hands is impressive. A single shot blows a hole straight through the first clone I hit, sending it spiraling through the air from the impact. Crumpling against the floor, it lies still and bloody, staring frozen in surprise.
Sera turns to face the onslaught, and so does t
he armored security clone she referred to as Dunn. The two of them open fire on the Wong clones, downing half the duplicates that charged headlong out of the elevator. The two surveillance drones swoop through the air, converging on the elevator door and laying down a barrage of projectile rounds that cause the remaining Wongs to retreat and cower inside.
"Didn't know they could do that." Erik stares at the drones.
"Get ready to fly," I tell him. "As soon as this hangar opens, we need to be airborne."
"How exactly are we opening it?" Sera calls over her shoulder.
"We won't have to, once our people show up." Carrying Arienna, the last member of the Twenty. There must be a biometric scanner built into the hangar roof; it opened for Sera and then for Erik, no questions asked. "We just have to hold out until then."
Sera marches forward in her power-suit, and Dunn jogs after her. The drones hovering above rain fire on the elevator door as it slides shut, shielding the Wongs inside. A dozen of them litter the floor on our side, bleeding out. Dead or close to it. The hangar's blue light makes the blood look black, splattered across their starched white coats.
"We need to deactivate that elevator." I approach Sera.
She nods, eyeing the control panel beside the polished plasteel door. To Dunn, she says, "Get the aerocar ready."
"I am not leaving you, Enforcer Chen," it says, both armored feet planted.
Sera punches the panel, and her powered fist smashes straight through, exposing a jumble of wires deep inside. Her fingers curl around them all and pull, disgorging the entire assembly.
"I'll be right behind you," she says to the clone. "Go."
As it stomps toward their vehicle—bursting at the seams with members of the Twenty—I lean toward Sera.
"It seems pretty attached to you."
She drops the tangle of wires to the floor. "Erik reprogrammed it that way. Assigned it a new directive. Something like that." She backs away from the elevator, out of range of the motion detector, and then steps toward it again. The door remains shut. "We'll see if that holds them."
I gaze up at the soaring dome of the hangar ceiling, lit with lines of electric-blue pearls. "Now we wait."
She nods, and we retreat, keeping our weapons trained on the elevator while we head toward our respective aerocars.
"How big is this place?"
"Ten levels, straight down," she says.
"That's a lot of space to freeze twenty people your size."
She glances at me. "Dr. Wong has a grand plan for the future, and every floor holds something special he intends to save. For when his clones figure out how to terraform the planet. He even has animal embryos in cold storage, can you believe it?"
All this time, the Eurasian government has had animals in their possession but refused to bring them to life? Probably worried about the depletion of resources. I can't wait to tell spirit-Rehana. The spirits of the earth have never mentioned the possibility of returning to their original state—as the millions of species that once thrived on this planet. How will they react to this development?
But as long as I'm trapped inside a human-made construction, the spirits won't speak to me. So I'll have to tell Milton—their preferred method of travel into the Domes—as soon as possible.
The elevator door begins to glow in the center: a wide golden ring, as if someone is attempting to burn their way through it with a laser welder. Sera gestures for me to step behind her, and she faces the door. Her power-suit braces itself against the floor and levels its shoulder-mounted Gatling guns on the oblong hole melting out of the door. Large enough now for a single person to climb through.
But instead of another batch of Wong clones spilling out, it's the original Dr. Wong, and he's waving his hands, calling out to us that he's unarmed.
"Exit the elevator," Sera tells him, "and keep your hands where I can see them."
He nods, crouching to squeeze through the opening without touching the edges that glow like molten metal.
"Daiyna, it's so good to see you again!" He smiles at me.
"We've never met."
"Of course we have. But it was a very long time ago. Do you remember all those tests you were required to take before we allowed you to enter the bunker?" He smiles broadly. "I administered them. Out of a hundred candidates that day, I chose you."
I don't feel honored. Disgusted is more like it.
"I see you changed your pants," Sera remarks.
His expression falters. "Please don't shoot me again."
"Next time, it'll be a lethal round," she replies.
I like her.
"Say your piece, then get out of my sight," she says. "We're leaving, and there's nothing you can do about it."
"Dr. Wong! It's Dr. Wong in the flesh!" Sera and Erik's siblings shout excitedly, streaming out of the aerocars.
"Return to the vehicles immediately," Dunn orders, aiming the shocker it carries in their general vicinity.
They halt mid-step, looking confused again—their default expression.
"You trust that rogue clone with your siblings, Sera?" Wong raises one eyebrow.
"As promised," Erik announces from the cockpit of our aerocar. "Dr. Wong himself!"
Wong gives them a gracious nod. "Hello, my children."
They stare, awestruck. A few wave tentatively.
"Everyone in this hangar is alive, thanks to one man," Erik continues. "Take a moment to ponder that. One man gave us life. And there he stands before you!"
Dr. Wong beams, enjoying the attention. But then he notices Sera's power-suit and studies it carefully. "I should add that to my collection..." he muses.
Sera stomps forward, the pistons in her leg apparatus driving the plasteel foot into the floor with a menacing thump. Startled, Wong retreats a step.
"You can't keep making the same mistakes over and over again." She scowls down at him. "There has to come a point when you realize this is the future. This is reality. The only way it's going to get any better is if we do something about it here and now."
That's right. "No more hiding underground and waiting for things to improve." I gesture toward the Twenty. "These kids deserve better. Together, we're going to build a future greater than anything you or Chancellor Hawthorne or the Governors ever could have planned. If you want to be part of it, great. Otherwise, our descendants will see you in a few hundred years."
I turn away. There's nothing more to say to this man.
"Your descendants will not survive in the Domes," he calls after me. "Eurasia was never intended to be a permanent solution for humankind. That city of glass is already fractured. With the addition of you and your superhuman friends, tensions will reach a breaking point. No one in the Domes will be spared from the chaos to come." He pauses. "Futuro Tower has room for you, too, Daiyna. Join us in cryo-sleep. Awake in a few centuries to a beautiful world lush with vegetation and every known species of animal running wild. Earth as it was meant to be!"
I keep walking toward the aerocar. Sera's and Erik's siblings make way for me. They don't seem to know where to look.
"Your kind made the world the way it is," Sera tells Dr. Wong, holding her ground. "Accept it. Move on."
Wong beckons to the Twenty. "The Promised Land awaits!" he calls out.
They shake their heads and glance at each other with mild shrugs. "We're offline."
Then they start to murmur about getting back to their respective domes, about the work they left unfinished, about how they've lost track of time.
One blurts out, "Did they say cryo-sleep? No thanks!"
Dr. Wong blinks, unable to believe his eyes as the Twenty cram themselves back into the two waiting aerocars. "I don't understand…"
"You've lost your hold on them." Sera smiles, half-turning to watch her siblings. "You won't be able to brainwash them anymore."
He clenches his jaw. "You've turned my children against me, Sera."
Before I can pivot and raise my weapon, Wong has already drawn his from a coa
t pocket and pulled the trigger with a blinding flash of light. Reflexively, Sera activates her suit's guns, and they tear the doctor to shreds. But the damage to Sera is done. She slumps forward against the harness of her power-suit with a hole in her chest.
I lead the charge, followed by Erik and Dunn, rushing to her side. The Twenty follow, two of whom work in the medical field. We get Sera's limp body out of the exoskeleton and lay her flat on her back. There is no blood. Wong hit her with the laser welder he used to cut his way out of the elevator. It burned a hole straight through Sera—entering her chest and exiting between her shoulder blades. Obliterating all flesh and bone in between, and instantly cauterizing the wound.
Silence holds the moment.
"It missed her heart," says one of the Twenty with his ear to Sera's chest. "I won't know the extent of the damage until I can scan it—which I'd be able to do if I was still online." He scowls at Erik.
Erik keeps his hand on Sera's brow and holds her hand. "She's breathing. She has a pulse. She'll be okay," he says quietly.
"That remains to be seen," says another of their siblings "We need to get her to a hospital immediately and stabilize her. She's suffered massive trauma to her body."
The communication device in my pocket bleeps, and I quickly retrieve it. "Where are you?"
"Right outside," Luther says, and at the same moment, the hangar roof above us starts to slide open, releasing atmosphere in gusts through the cracks.
I nudge Dunn. "Get them into those vehicles. All of them—now!"
The clone nods, shepherding the Twenty back into the aerocars on the landing pad. Once we're all squeezed inside the two vehicles and the doors are sealed tight, oxygen starts flowing out of vents in the interior. I look up through the patched windscreen to find three identical aerocars hovering above us, gleaming white and blue against the ash-grey sky.
"We're headed back to Dome 10," I explain the situation to Luther. "We've got the kids. One wounded, eighteen others who can't breathe the air on the surface."
"Understood. We'll accompany you."
Spirits of the Earth: The Complete Series: (A Post-Apocalyptic Series Box Set: Books 1-3) Page 116