Absolution

by Peter Smith

  A sigh escaped as some tension left her body. If he wasn’t in Germany, then there was a chance he wasn’t ready to start the next phase of this war. She might still have time to pull some strings and resolve this in a peaceful manner.

  She turned on the desk, staring out over the carpet of green forest and then the serene blue of the ocean. The darkness that was taking hold of the horizon before her and the gold of the setting sun behind her.

  She closed her eyes, “Why did you do this to me?” She said, speaking to the dead.

  12

  Fitz Warin

  Belin Spire

  Fitz pulled suddenly, flinging his little boy Erwin into the air and up into his arms. The line of military transports continued down the dark road, leaving the area of the rail yard. Their front LED headlights off, and their electric motors whisper quiet. It had been nearly impossible for Fitz to spot the vehicles as they raced down the road. If not for the light of the full moon and the drone of the tires over the surface of the road, Fitz wouldn’t have noticed they were there either.

  Erwin’s eyes were wide with fright as he looked into his father’s, “E, you have to pay attention to where you’re walking,” He snapped. He regretted doing so as the fear in his son’s eyes turned to hurt.

  “He shouldn’t have to worry about walking on our roads” Cassy snipped. Her comment wasn’t directed at him, at least not completely. She was till upset that his mother had agreed to ally with the remnants of the old world militaries and governments.

  Cassy hadn’t approved, after all her father and mother were from the Paris Spire. Her parents had spent much of their energy doing everything they could from being drawn into the conflict that was now engulfing the world. It made sense that she wouldn’t be happy with the alliance, after seeing it nearly run their son over, “I don’t understand why your mother turned off the local lighting grid.”

  “Old world war strategy, makes it harder for your enemy to track targets visually.” He said, remembering the number of history lessons he had enjoyed throughout his teenage years. Even to this day he loved watching documentaries on the various conflicts that had occurred before ‘The Fall.’

  She reached for Erwin, grabbing his trembling form from Fitz’s arms, “Oh that’s fantastic, we live in a giant target now.”

  The armored vehicles of the Marines, British and German armed forces continued to sail down the road, ghosts of long dead nations racing through the night. He couldn’t argue with his wife’s irritation and concern, he shared it.

  He had talked with his mother for a long time about if they should join the war. He had initially been against the idea, knowing that their opponents outnumbered them and honestly, were more prone to acts of open brutality. He wasn’t sure his mother or their allies could match the depravity that Trotsky would sink to.

  Their family also had a large civilian population that enjoyed the protection of their spire. A people that their family had sheltered from the savagery of most of the other spires.

  Ultimately Fitz knew that they were a weakness for his family, at least in matters of war. Trotsky would put them through great pain, using them to further his goals and pressure the German family out of this conflict. His alliance didn’t have free citizens, they had slaves. Kill the slaves and you merely gave Trotsky and his fellow Spire leaders an excuse to relax their two child restrictions and increase their populations to replace the loss.

  Not that targeting the innocents of Trotsky’s alliance would have a real effect on the war effort. But it illustrated the disparity in the two sides that Fitz was concerned about. He knew his mother would not allow strikes against non-military targets within the Trotsky alliance. The same could not be said for their enemy. They could move with the freedom of men not encumbered by a conscience, the German Spire, London Spire and their old world allies could not boast the same.

  His other concern was for how much trust he could give to their supposed allies. Fitz had met General Kellen once in person and had attended a variety of war council meetings with the man over video. He got the distinct impression that his family and Dawson’s were merely convenient and a means to an end to the military leader. Fitz was concerned that once the other hostile families had been eliminated or militarily castrated, that the sins his parents had committed almost twenty years ago would suddenly be the new focus for the remnants of the old world.

  That possibly bothered him the most as his young family walked down the road toward their Spire. The fear of losing was always in the back of his mind and Trotsky wasn’t the nicest man on the planet.

  Fitz suspected though, a loss to him would be like the battles that had been waged between the families prior to the all out war that had occurred five years ago. The one that had seen the Chen dynasty nearly eradicated and the end of Jacob Patterson. Territory would be lost, more favorable trade deals given to the victor, but ultimately the order would be maintained.

  Trotsky was brutal, but not dictatorial, and his interest never appeared to be global at any point in his history. He wanted to maintain the status quo that had made him powerful.

  The remains of the old world upset the new balance. They wanted to re-institute what they had lost, as if it were possible to resurrect long since dead nations and cultures. Fitz had thought hard about what the world would look like if they were to win. He felt that he understood what Trotsky victory would mean, but the old forces, that he wasn’t so sure about. What would happen when they realized that Humpty Dumpty couldn’t be put back together again or worst, when they realized that they didn’t need to?

  They had been trapped in hiding for so long, clinging to the dream that was the world of free humanity before ‘The Fall’ and the rise of the Spire families. What would they do when they realized that they could use their skill at war to dominate the rest of the Spires? Then use their status to shape global culture in ways that they likely would have, had there not been hundreds of competing nations keeping everyone in check?

  He wrapped an arm around his wife’s waist. She tensed, but he ignored it. With the war heating up it wouldn’t be long until he found out if his assessment of Trotsky’s intentions were accurate or if he was justified in the fear he had of their newly resurgent allies. He could endure her temporary anger with him, if it meant that he made certain to experience as much time with her and their son as possible before he got an answer to his questions.

  The rest of their trip to the Spire was uneventful but he couldn’t help but be awed by the amount of military hardware that was streaming from the rail yards and on their way to the nearest stretch of freeway. From there to the remains of Frankfurt an Der Odor, where they would launch their strike into the Trotsky Alliance.

  What caught his attention the most were his family’s six legged battle drones. Their thick legs supporting a massive body that was placed horizontal to the roadway. Atop it were several interceptor devices, a turret with a heavy rail gun and mortar launchers. The unit had been designed as his family’s response to the Patterson Land Dominance Units and while he enjoyed seeing them in action; he wondered if his mother’s design would have been sufficient to take down the best that the Patterson army had to offer.

  The moment they had entered the Spire Cassy spoke again, her voice as cold as a winter, “You need to convince your mother to abandon this plan. She’s going to get us killed.”

  Fitz sighed and tightened his jaw, preparing to rehash the same argument that they had been going over at least a hundred times in the last several months, “You know she can’t, we’re committed.”

  Cassy glared at him, placed Erwin on the ground and then put her hands on his ears, “The hell she can’t. She is more than capable of telling both Dawson and Kellen to go fuck themselves. She doesn’t want to because she and that British fool are too wrapped up in guilt about what they did.”

  “And why shouldn’t they be, they helped to murder billions.” Fitz said, his heart aching slightly at the thought of what his mother
and late father had done.

  Cassy waved her hand dismissively, “Please, they killed themselves, all our parents did was give them the fuel to get going. They made their choice. Our parents made theirs. Now it’s our job to keep our family safe from all of their bad decisions. Your mother is endangering our family.”

  Her head dipped as she looked at Erwin. Their son’s shoulders sagged. He knew Mommy and Daddy were fighting again. Fitz hated the fact that she always seemed to start these arguments when Erwin was around. He understood that she did it so that his tongue would be held in the argument. While she didn’t have a problem fighting around their child, he did. It would appear that she and Trotsky shared the same deplorable attribute.

  “Can we please do this after we put him to bed.” He said through nearly clenched teeth.

  She stopped, her eyes fixed on him as they rode the elevator up to their suite. The blackened structures that were the remains of Berlin stretched before them, “If you don’t convince your mother to back away, I’m taking Erwin to my parents Spire in Versailles.”

  He staggered backward, as if he had been punched in the chest, “Why…” He stammered out, his brain trying to wrap itself around the implications of her statement.

  “Berlin is dangerous.”

  “We can vacation in Brussels or even The Hague.”

  She looked out over the city, only the lights from the inside of the elevator illuminating her face, “So long as your mother is in charge of Germany and she insists on being a part of this ludicrous alliance then nowhere in Germany is safe.”

  He put his face in his hands, dragging his smooth palms down until his fingers were tented over his lips. His arms compressed tightly over his chest. He didn’t understand why it was he did this when he was stressed, but it helped him to focus his thoughts, “I will speak to my mother again.”

  The lift came to a stop, and as the doors parted for their suit, Cassy’s hands left her son’s ears, “You better.”

  She held her hand out for Erwin to grasp. The little boy complied, and she nearly pulled him out of the elevator. His son looked over his shoulder, a small frown stretched over his mouth as the doors closed.

  Fitz sent the order to the elevator to head to his mother’s office. His middle and index fingers came up to his eye and wiped at some moisture that had escaped. He rested his head against the clear material of the elevator and stared out over Berlin, a city that had kept it’s lights on every single day since their family had asserted full control over it after ‘The Fall’. Now it was dark, expecting an attack that could come at any day or even minute. He wanted to argue with his wife, but looking out at his home, he couldn’t.

  “The answer is no.”

  “Mom, please listen to reason.” He said, exasperated, that yet another woman in his life was being irrational. It’s not that he thought all women were, to the contrary most of them were far more level-headed than their male counterparts, but the two in his life were inflexible beyond his ability to comprehend.

  Fitz’s mother shook her head, the complex braid of hair flinging wildly with the motion, “Damn it Fitz I thought we were done with this, I thought you understood?”

  She spun around and walked behind her desk, pretending like she was busying herself with files on her virtual display. He shook his head, his blood pressure rising. Maybe it was the fact that his wife had just threatened to take his son from him, maybe it was the months of stress finally coming to a head, but he refused to back down and let his mother avoid this conversation any further, “You’re going to get us killed, you know that.”

  Her eyes snapped to him and he could see the hurt masked by anger within them, “I know what I’m doing Fitz.”

  “How is that possible mom, how many times have you, Dawson and Kellen been surprised by Trotsky’s actions? If you knew what you were doing how could he have pulled off London or the attack on Maria?”

  “Would have done us a damn favor if they had killed that girl.” She spat out.

  “Mom!” He shouted, shocked that she would wish such a thing against another person.

  “Just because you two were dating doesn’t mean she gets a pass on how she’s handled the global situation. The reason we have to ally with the old world forces is because of her inability to step up and do what needed to be done.” Her hand swiped the virtual screen away, and her eyes bore into him.

  “So since she didn’t want to become a global dictator and force her will on us, we should hate her? I say we should give her a damn medal.” He turned from his mother and looked out her window.

  Her footsteps came around the corner of the desk, cracking violently against the tile. He couldn’t see the motion, but he knew from past quarrels that her arm was raised, her index finger jutting out at him. He had seen her use the same physicality when bulling his father whenever they had gotten into an argument. The few times dad had worked up enough courage to call her to account for her choices.

  A fresh ache rippled through him at the thought of his father, but it would have to wait. Mother was working her way into a rare frenzy, “We don’t always get to choose our responsibilities. I know you don’t understand that since I’ve babied you your entire life but people like us have to do things we don’t want to for the greater good.”

  He turned on her, before she could finish her march and shouted back at her, “You mean for us, not for the greater good, I’m sure billions of people would disagree with that.”

  Mom stopped directly in front of him. The disparity in their height apparent as he looked down on her. He didn’t know why, but he always felt as if it were flipped. Maybe it was the little boy in him still looking up at mommy or possibly just the forcefulness of her personality.

  “Not for us,” she hissed, “for you!”

  His brow creased, “So all of this is for me then?”

  She let out a laugh and pointed out the window, “Tell me, do you honestly think I wanted to kill billions of people. Why do you think I protected all those families below for so long?”

  “Guilt” he said.

  She sneered at him; he had hit a nerve. She swallowed, “Of course I feel guilty, I helped to kill their families, but the reason I took part is that if I hadn’t, there would have been no one to slow down men like Patterson or even worst, Chen.” She looked away, out the window, unable to meet his gaze, “and they would have killed us, killed you, to keep the secret. The moment they included me I was locked in because I couldn’t risk what those two psychopaths would do to this family.”

  He started to laugh and confusion spread across her face, it was not the reaction she had been expecting, “Oh you were so worried about them right mom.” He said, his tone sarcastic. “Then explain why it is you were sleeping with the chief psycho for years.”

  Shock spread over his mother’s face and she blinked rapidly several times. He scoffed at her surprise and his repressed irritation came bursting forth. She had cheated on his father for years and thought her son too stupid to figure it out.

  “Oh,” he feigned surprise, “You didn’t know that I knew, well that’s strange because everyone else was aware you two were having sex with one another, it wasn’t just dad that had to suffer through your bad choices. I was the butt of everyone else jokes and so was he. That’s why dad killed himself you know, you broke his heart.”

  Tears welled up in her eyes as she fought to control her conflicting emotion, “Why” she began, but her throat seized up, “That’s not fair to put on me.” She finally managed.

  “No, it's absolutely fair. What’s not fair is that you ruined our family and now you’re about to ruin mine because you’re too stubborn to see reason.”

  “I’m doing this to protect your family.”

  He laughed again, throwing his hands into the air and sending his arm sweeping out toward the darkened city, “How does turning our home into a target protect them?”

  “Trotsky will come, eventually, whether I allied us with Kellen or not.”
/>
  Fitz waved dismissively at his mother and turned from her, “He’s never once showed imperialistic ambitions.”

  She stepped up next to him, her voice dropping in its intensity, “Trotsky was only ever held in place by the fear of what Patterson or Chen would do to him if he stepped out of line. Without them here, he’s already trying to assert his domain over his alliance members. It would be only a matter of time before he tried to do that with us, his geographic neighbors.”

  “Maria would stop him.” He said, only half believing it. He knew his former flame well enough to know that she didn’t want the world to fall into war again, but after everything that had happened lately he too was wondering if she would follow that philosophy to a fault. Did she truly believe in peace at all costs?

  “She’s allowed for him to get away with two major strikes as is, to lie to her face about wanting to negotiate a peace settlement. Her actions and motivations aren’t reliable enough to base our future upon.”

  She paused, thinking about what she would say next, “Besides, I’m trying to protect you and Erwin, not just from Trotsky, but Kellen too.”

  Now it was his turn to be surprised. Had she been contemplating the same scenarios he had? “He’s our ally, why are you worried he would hurt us?”

  “He’s our ally because he needed access to global resources to rebuild his arsenal, to shelter survivors from the fall and grow his ranks. Maria wasn’t willing to join with him militarily or to supply him. The most she’s done is created a haven for their people in the Americas, with the strict understanding that he can’t launch military operations from those continents. We were convenient, but that doesn’t mean he’s forgotten what Dawson and I did and he hasn’t forgiven.”

  “Then why are you working with him?” Fitz asked, exhausted.

  “Because he will win.” She said, her answer so simple that Fitz was left both frustrated at its lack of detail and upset that he hadn’t seen her full logic from the beginning.