Absolution

by Peter Smith

  “What the hell are you doing, get on the damn plane!”

  Williams shook his head and looked back at his boy, “We can’t both get off this island Sean and as long as I still have a choice it will be you who leaves.”

  “He’s on foot damn it, we can leave him in our dust.”

  He hooked his thumb over his shoulder, “That’s not all of him, Sean.”

  “Then I’m staying and we’re killing him once and for all.”

  Sean ran back down the ramp, stopping at the edge as Williams held up his hand. Patterson for his part had stopped a couple dozen meters away, enjoying the sight of Williams saying goodbye to his boy.

  Williams stepped closer, “Someone has to get home and protect the family Sean, family matters most.”

  Sean slung the IMP off of his back and began the charging sequence, “And that’s why I’m staying with you.”

  He placed his hand on Sean’s, gently pressing the barrel of the IMP downward, “The most important thing a father can do is to protect his children. You’re my son Sean and by God I won’t let anything harm you so long as I’m still breathing.”

  Sean nearly spoke, but Williams kept going, “And you’re a father now too. What I’m doing for you, you have to do for Alex.”

  His son’s words never came, at least not the ones he had planned on using. The ones that would have been defiant and brave. Instead, Williams heard Sean gasp and watched as his shoulder shook under the armor, “I can’t lose you too.” Were the words he finally squeezed out.

  Williams sputtered himself, placing his hands on his son’s chest. Sean placed his free hand over Williams’, “I’m always going to be here, you won’t ever be able to get rid of me.” He said, trying to force humor through restrained sobs.

  They stood there, his son elevated on the ramp and his own feet still on the soil of Kauai. Then he took a breath and pulled his hands free and stepped back, “Now go. This is the last thing I’m going to be able to do for you, Sean. Make it count. Protect my grandson and daughter-in-law.” He paused, “And tell Eva that my answer will always be yes.”

  Sean nodded, not understanding what he meant but not caring. Williams knew the message would be relayed, and that was all that mattered to him in that second, “I love you dad.”

  “I love you too, son.”

  Sean looked at him a moment longer and then turned, walking up the ramp, stepping over the growing hole that was being created by the nanites that had been left behind by the earlier strike. The transport lifted into the air as Sean’s RAI took control of the craft and forced it into the sky. Its rear ramp detached with several pops of explosive bolts, sending it crashing to the ground with a resounding thud.

  Williams turned to see Patterson standing where he had left him. The man was watching the transport rise skyward, dirt swirling around him but not affecting his open eyes, “You know he can’t escape right. That whole outpouring of love and affection was for nothing. I will bring that plane down a second after I kill you and then I’m going to dissolve his flesh while rebuilding it until he tells me everything I want to know. Then I’m going to keep doing it because it makes me happy.”

  Heavy. That’s how Williams felt in that moment, as he issued the last orders he ever would to the suit’s RAI. It immediately used a directed radio burst and connected with the nuclear warhead left in the bag. He looked at Patterson, the fear and anger from earlier melting away as he looked upon the man. For being an artificial construct, he didn’t appear to be as strong and powerful as Williams knew he was.

  His eyes were sunken, black bags beneath them, his skin ashen. His hand twitched at his side, and his eyes were constantly darting around. He hadn’t appeared this way before, when he had first arrived. That man had been healthy and robust. Even after Williams’ failed attempt at killing him, as he had walked from the fire, he had appeared confident and powerful. Now though, in the last few moments, he had melted into this husk before him.

  “What happened to you Patterson, you were a man of vision, of hope. How did you turn into this monster that would kill innocents in cold blood?”

  Shock crossed Patterson’s face, “Everything I have done has been to save humanity. You and your kind are the ones that killed the innocent and for what? National pride,” he waved his hand, “Naked tribalism at its best. I ended the generations that resulted from millennia of poisonous culture. Gone were the great minds of the enlightenment era. We had a brief resurgence after the Second World War, but then we morphed into something dark and self centered. No longer did we care about what happened after we died, about the legacy we left. Instead, we picked our favorite lies and clung to them, disregarding all evidence to the contrary. I could solve every problem that humanity created, but it just kept coming up with more. So yes, I ended the lives of billions, but to save trillions of future generations from the scourge of your culture, of our culture.”

  “So that’s why you ended Maria’s life too, used her as a tool to reach the ends you believed were necessary.”

  Patterson’s hand shot out toward Williams, his finger thankfully the only thing pointing at his chest, “I kept her safe, I did everything I could to create and perpetuate a world that would give her and all those that came after boundless opportunities.”

  “Then why did you decide for her Jacob, why didn’t you ever tell her the truth until after she had figured it all out. Why did you force her on this path, rather than ask her how she wanted to live her life? You gave her no choice, just like you gave the billions you murdered no choice. She’s as much a victim of your ambition and ego as anyone else.”

  A small window in the corner of Williams’ visor displayed the rapidly shrinking transport, and he hoped that he had bought Sean enough time to make it out of the blast zone.

  Patterson’s expression shifted from shock and indignation to one of true rage. Williams pressed on, “You’re angry because it’s true. You know that you took her childhood from her, that you took her future. You have absolutely no problem deciding what’s best for everyone else. But that isn’t what real parents do. They let their children discover the path that’s right for them and they sure as hell don’t burden them with the deaths of billions.”

  Patterson was taking a step toward Williams when he stopped, his expression shifting to one of pain, “That wasn’t her doing.” He stammered.

  “She still feels it. She feels the weight of every single atrocity that you committed against humanity because she knows that you did it for her. To give her the world that she deserved. You made her responsible. She hates you for that, for the purgatory that you placed her into. That’s why she has worked every day to undo what you did, that’s why she decided to kill herself it it meant that she could take you with her.”

  Patterson stepped back, as if struck by what Williams had said. Slowly the man who had killed most of the human race lowered himself to the ground and placed his face in his hands. Williams allowed himself to hope, for a moment, that Patterson might have realized how he was behaving, that there might be an opportunity to convince the man to walk away from this path.

  Then his visor displayed a cascade of alerts for him to see and it became difficult to breathe. He looked down and saw a black tendril protruding from his right breast. His rear view feed came to life in his vision and displayed the object stretching from his back and up into the cloud above.

  Strangely, there was no pain. His mind wrestled with that discrepancy, that he could have something foreign move through his flesh, bones and lung in the blink of an eye and not feel anything. That had happened to him on several occasions in the past, but always upon seeing the wound his mind would catch up to the nerves endings. Not here though, not in this moment.

  His feet left the ground, and he dangled helplessly on the filament of nanites as it carried him toward Patterson. When he was within a few meters it slid from his chest and he dropped to the ground, his legs collapsing beneath him as he fell face first into the dirt. He ga
sped for air, trying to oxygenate his blood on a single lung.

  He pushed himself up onto his hands and knees, his RAI screaming at him to get immediate medical attention as his vitals crashed. Pushing himself upright, he watched as Patterson stood, his eyes red and tears streaking his cheeks. That perplexed Williams, that the facsimile of Patterson was so realistic that it could even simulate human bodily fluids. It seemed an unusual bit of detail to add.

  Patterson stopped, stooped down, one hand grabbing Williams under his armpit, the other going into the hole that was his right pectoral. He screamed in agony as fingertips dug into his exposed internal flesh. A body shaking cough speckled the inside of his visor with blood as Patterson lifted Williams to his feet and beyond.

  Tears streaming down Patterson’s face as he screamed at Williams, “She never would have suffered like that if you hadn’t stopped me!”

  He left his hand in Williams’ chest, his other hand freeing itself from the armpit. Williams screamed again as all his weight shifted to the hand buried in his chest. Patterson brought his free fist to bare against Williams’ helmet and he demonstrated yet again that he was no longer a mere human. His hand crashed against the helmet with such force that stars filled David’s vision, pain blossomed throughout his neck and the visor had a visible crack running along it.

  Patterson’s attention shifted inward as his hand left Williams’ chest. His fingernails clawing at the top of his own scalp. Williams crashed to the ground. The man stepped away, spinning in a circle, “She never would have experienced it if I had been successful. She would have seen how important the plan was and why she mattered. I could have explained it all to her.”

  Patterson spun on Williams, just as he was pushing himself back up off the ground. Patterson’s fist impacted into the back of the helmet and his face was buried in the soft Kauai soil. His RAI screamed a warning at him about the structural integrity of the suit and how the headgear was no longer viable as protective wear.

  His head was wrenched upward, and he was placed onto his knees. Patterson’s finger tips cracked the outer shell of the helmet as they dug into it, “I would have been there for her, I would have been the one to take on all the guilt and spared her any of it. She was to guide the rebirth of humanity and been the protective mother to the countless generations that came after, free to live their lives how they wanted without the tyranny of our diseased culture dictating the present and the future to them!”

  Spit landed on the outside of his visor. He brought his arms up, summoning the full might of the power armor to break the grip upon his head, but Patterson didn’t even notice the blows delivered to his arms. The RAI blared another warning at him, making it clear that cardiac arrest was imminent. His efforts to resist only increased the flow of blood from his gaping chest wound. The world was going dark as a crack of thunder assaulted his ears and fresh light washed into his eyes.

  The smell of the ocean greeted his senses first and then cool air on his face followed. He swayed, near death, “Even your perfect scenario” He coughed, more blood landing on his chin, “Still had her a slave to your ideals.”

  Patterson twitched. Not just his facial expression, but his entire body shifted out of focus unnaturally and then snapped back. Rage filled the man’s eyes, and he pulled his arm back and then plunged it through Williams’ heart.

  A gasp escaped him as his body shuddered at the killing blow. Patterson moved his face centimeters from his own and spoke, “I’ll fix it with her, I’ll make it right again. You sent your boy off to stop me, but what you don’t realize is, I’m already there.”

  The world went still.

  Patterson looking at him, a smirk on his face. His arm no longer emulating human flesh or the fabric of a business suit but a long black shaft that was situated in Williams' heart. He didn’t understand what was happening in that moment, why nothing appeared to be in motion, and then he heard it.

  “Daddy.”

  He straightened his back. That was a voice he hadn’t heard in a very long time, “Sharon?” He whispered.

  “It’s me daddy.”

  He turned his head, frantically looking for his long dead daughter, “Sharon, where are you, baby?”

  “I’m here dad.”

  “Why can’t I see you?”

  “Because you aren’t here yet.”

  “Is your mother with you?”

  “She is daddy, she’s looking forward to seeing you again.”

  He looked at Patterson, still frozen in place. He wondered if this was some mind game that the man’s nanites were allowing him to conduct. If he could create microscopic robots, what would keep him from designing them to interact with his nervous system. To send false signals to his brain and manipulate his thoughts.

  But what point would there be in brining his long dead daughter back to life?

  “What is this?” He asked.

  “It’s when we get to be a family again daddy, but you have to let go.”

  “Let go of what?”

  He couldn’t see her, but he knew she was giving him that knowing smile. The one she used when he finally made it home after a deployment. The one that melted his heart because he had seen and done things that he never wanted her to know about, experiences that affected his ability to reintegrate with the rest of society. The types of actions that made it hard for you to be a good father to your teenage daughter.

  And when it had gotten to be too much sometimes, and he had to call off events or wasn’t able to attend, she would give him the smile that let him know that she understood and that she didn’t hold any of it against him. She had been an amazing young woman, and he had missed her every single day they had been apart.

  “You have to let go of the guilt,” She said.

  He stayed silent for a moment, when he tried to speak it came out as a stammer until he could control his emotions enough, “I can’t, you’re dead because of me.”

  The smile was clear in her voice, “No daddy, we’re dead because of him and so many others are alive because of you.”

  He shook his head, “But if I had been there for you, I could have protected you and your mother. You wouldn’t have died, scared and alone in that arena, we could have remained a family!”

  “And then Sean would have died, alone and scared in the mud. You saved that little boy.”

  Tears stung his cheeks, and he turned and looked back into the sky at the receding dot that was Sean’s transport. His heart was torn in two separate directions, “I would do both.”

  “I know daddy and that’s why you need to let go of the guilt, your heart is pure.” Her hand pressed against his chest. Gone was Patterson and his arm, sticking out from his breast. Gone was the island and the cloud of death above.

  Gently, he gripped her hand and pulled it up to his face. His eyes closed as it caressed his cheek, “Am I dead, can I be with you both now?”

  There she was, her smiling face before his as she kneeled in front of him, “Nearly”.

  She pulled him in and whispered into his ear, “I love you daddy.”

  “I love you” He responded.

  His body was cold. The soil beneath was shifting under his knees and his breathing was nearly impossible. Patterson was back, his brow was furrowed in curiosity as he stared at Williams, “What did you say?”

  Williams coughed once, his eyes focused far behind Patterson, “She still… she still loves me.” Williams’ smiled, his eyes turned to Patterson and with his last act said, “I hope she can still love you.”

  He didn’t see the expression of loss that crossed over Patterson’s face. Nor did he hear the RAI chirp its last confirmation into his ear or feel the heat of a newly born sun just meters away from him. As the warhead in the backpack lost confirmation of his vitals, its trigger activated. Triggering the explosives within to detonate nearly simultaneously. Wrapped around a sphere of Plutonium they compressed the atoms of the material closer together and their natural decay lead to a chain reaction th
at converted much of the mass into pure energy.

  The flash of radiation that followed, both in the visible spectrum and the higher bands, instantly converted everything within a mile into vapor. Not even Patterson’s avatar or the cloud of nanoparticles could survive such a raw release of energy. As Williams disappeared, he did so with a smile across his face.

  20

  Tobor

  New York Spire

  Tobor stalked his quarry through the rooms of Eva and David William’s suite. It was near, and its attempts at evasion would not last. The atmospheric sensors along Toby’s body were detecting the target’s trail of invisible molecules, leading directly to where the capture would take place.

  Tobor’s footfalls came heavier than normal. Toby knew that if its prey were aware of its presence, they would give away their location because of a lack of control over their diaphragmatic movements. The trail of molecules led into the master bathroom. Tobor stepped through the doorway and titled its head to the side at the sound of an outburst that was quickly squelched. Toby walked around the door, the scent trail guiding its path as it came around the slab of wood.

  Alex was curled into a ball, balancing upon his feet as he faced where the door and the frame met. Tobor knelt down silently and gently touched the top of Alex’s head with the tip of its index finger, “Boop”.

  The little boy jumped upwards, “How did you find me?” He said. Toby noted the rise in octaves of the boy's voice and understood that this meant displeasure.

  “I followed the trail of your scent, which lead me to this location.”

  “You cheated!”

  “It is not my fault you failed to adhere to your grooming schedule.”

  Alex shook his head, “Before daddy left for Hawaii he told me to tell you not to cheat at hide and seek, he said that it wasn’t fair.”

  Tobor stood up straight, its shoulders sliding back, “Why would your father wish to provide you with an excuse for failure.”