by Eyal Kless
“Bayne,” Vincha’s voice cut in through the Comm, “better get out of there. Cain is moving all its forces to your position.”
That was all we needed to hear.
I managed to redeem myself in the next battle, spotting the drones first and shooting down three of them before they spewed their chemicals. River threw two grenades that dropped two more, but the last remaining drone managed to manoeuvre just outside the blast zone. Jakov was the one to drop it, but not before it turned and fired a missile straight at our crew.
“Missile,” I heard several of the Trolls shout a warning over the Comm. As practiced in the simulations, I dove down to the ground while tapping the button on my belt to maximize the power armour protection. Immediately the sound of the battle dissipated to complete silence. The blast was somewhere behind me, but it was bright enough to momentarily blind me. Even with power armour in full capacity, I felt the unbearable heat of the blast flashing over me. I was on my feet a heartbeat later, moving with several other Trolls to close the gap in our position that the blast had made. Only when the battle was over did I realise that the missile had hit a Troll named Enja and vaporised her.
“Vincha,” Bayne said over the Comm, “we just lost Enja, and it is getting too dangerous to take positions. We need an alternative route to the lab and to keep on the move.”
Rafik’s voice answered. “Not advisable, Bayne, this is the safest route to your destination.”
“Does not feel safe from where we are standing.”
“You are not far. Do not change course,” Rafik answered resolutely.
I looked at the bloody mayhem around me and felt panic clench my gut.
“Easy, Twinkle Eyes.” Galinak put a reassuring arm on my shoulder. “You’re doing fine.”
River laid down a few decoys to draw the Lizards, and from there on it was all a blur. We were just constantly moving, hiding and shooting until we reached the laboratory.
The doors were locked, as anticipated. River went to work and Bayne directed us to set defensive positions.
There were two corridors leading to the labs, and Bayne chose to set mines in one corridor but keep the other free so we could make our escape back without delay. By the time the crew had laid the mines, River managed to override the locks. The doors slid open and we were inside.
I knew from the simulations what the Angel laboratory would look like, but the real thing took my breath away. The round hall was incredibly high and wide; its walls were divided into row after row of tear-shaped blocks, and each block was filled with a milky liquid. I zoomed my sight to the top rows, where the essences of the Angels were held. As the rows descended I could see the shapes growing within each tear, slowly becoming human in form, but midway down, the liquid became murky. With each descending row the liquid gradually changed colour from white to green and the human bodies deformed: claws instead of hands, a snout instead of a nose, fangs, and tough, scaly skin. The tear-shaped blocks in the lowest rows held fully grown Lizards. As we entered the lab three of them were just taking their first steps—which became their last. They died quickly, their green blood mixing with the same coloured liquid that drained into, or was somehow absorbed by, the laboratory’s floor.
At the center of the hall was a dome made mostly of transparent material. It had a door and a puzzle lock that we had no chance of solving. As planned, River, Galinak, and I proceeded straight into the only corridor that led farther into the Angel lab. I heard Bayne on the Comm ordering the destruction of the entire first and second rows while the others set up positions. Almost immediately the Comm was filled with short bursts of discharged weaponry. The three of us moved away from the main hall and into the corridor. We passed a few more puzzle locks but they were not our goal. When we reached the middle of the corridor we stopped, and River turned to me as he unpacked his gear.
“Find out where to do this,” he said, not bothering to even look at me.
In the meantime Galinak was making sure we were alone. “This is a bad place to stop,” he said to himself, but we could hear him through the Comm. “Two ways, no cover, no visibility.”
I tried to ignore him and concentrate on my task. My gaze penetrated the walls—a multitude of cables, metal tubes, and lightning rods filled my vision.
The Comm was suddenly filled with Vincha’s voice. “They’re coming,” she warned. “Oh rust . . . they’re all fucking coming.”
Bayne shouted more orders, and I found myself raising my head. River grabbed me by the neck, “Quit stalling, find the damn place.”
I blinked and the walls became solid again. Several explosions told us that the Lizards were charging through the mined corridor. “Make sure the door braces are locked,” I heard Bayne say. “That will buy us some time.”
“Rust, get ready!”
“Find the damn place!” River yelled at me again.
I did not need the Comm to hear the screeching of the Lizards trying to get through the locked laboratory doors. Unfortunately, a few heartbeats later several missiles blew it open.
I heard the screaming of the charging Lizards. Bayne had set the crew in a wide semicircle around the opening of the laboratory to create a killing zone. When I turned my head I saw the backs of Bayne and the others through the walls as they shot charging Lizards. Galinak grabbed me and shook me awake. “Twinkle Eyes,” he shouted, “time to work.”
I turned my head back to the corridor and scrutinized the walls and the floors all around me. It was easier to do in the simulation; here, I was distracted by the deadly fight that was raging only a short distance away.
“Rouch is down!” someone shouted and swore. There were shots and more shots and an explosion that rocked everything. “Drones! Watch from above, he’s waking all of them up!” Bayne shouted. This had never happened in the simulations. I felt my knees begin to shake and fought for air.
For a heartbeat, everything slowed. River and Galinak were shouting at me, pointing at the wall while people died in my ear Comm. I don’t know what made me finally turn my head to the wall and concentrate, but it became transparent in front of my eyes and finally I saw the rods, tubes, and cables forming a small, barely man-sized tunnel. “There,” I pointed at waist level.
“Are you sure?”
I nodded.
“You need to show me where the self-repair power points are in the wall.”
It took me several more precious seconds before I pointed again, “Here, here, and . . . here.”
“Okay,” River was already holding the Tarakan steel cutter. He handed the star-shaped discs to me and Galinak.
“Can you reach both points?”
I calculated. “Yes, if I spread my hands.”
“Good, place a star on each node. The wall will try to repel the discs, but hold tight and don’t let go, or the wall will begin to self-repair and it will take too long to cut. Now, turn your power armour on and face away.”
I turned up the power armour and hugged the wall, placing a disc above each repair power point. As before, once the power armour was at full capacity, the sounds of battle faded into blessed nothingness. I tried not to imagine the Lizards breaking through the line, running through the corridor and jumping on my back. My armour could withstand damage for a while, but soon they would get through it, and I would . . . I began to shake and almost dropped the discs.
A hand grabbed me away from the wall. I turned and saw River and Galinak talking to me, but I was too disoriented to understand what was going on. When they turned the dial on my belt the world came back to life. Over the Comm I heard Galinak and River being ordered to come help the crew, which was not the plan. It meant something had gone horribly wrong. I heard Vincha calling Bayne’s name, the tone of her voice growing with fear and pain. I heard the weapons discharge and the high-pitched screams of dying Lizards.
River turned me around, beads of sweat running down his face. How long did it take? I couldn’t tell. He pointed at the small hole he’d created. It looke
d too small.
“I can’t get in,” I said.
He pushed me down and through the hole, head first. The metal was already starting to regenerate as I lay between the cables and tubes. They were supposed to wait for me to finish and then help me get out, but instead, River tossed me the cutter and the star-shaped discs through the diminishing hole.
“Good luck,” he said.
Behind him, Galinak waved and grinned as he readied his power hammer. “Get it right, Twinkle Eyes, and I’ll come get you soon enough.” And they were off, running back towards the battle.
I turned my head and looked. The hole was already half its original size. Soon I would be alone inside a Tarakan steel wall. That thought alone drove me to action, and I began to crawl forward, towards the dome in the laboratory.
The battle was raging on the other side of the wall and in my ear Comm. In the background of it all, I heard Vincha sobbing which could only mean Bayne was down. The memory of lost simulation battles gripped my heart. Fighting rising panic, I began crawling as fast as I could, losing my sense of time, then I found the opening to the tunnels underneath the floors and kept on crawling as men and Lizards fought and died above me. When I reached the floor underneath the dome, I stopped and checked for the self-repair power points. Rafik promised there would not be more than one, but if it was too far away I would not be able to hold the disc and manoeuvre the cutter at the same time. Luckily I found that if I pushed with my leg . . . there, I could cut right over here.
I turned my head, dampened my sight sensitivity, made sure my power armour was fully on, blessfully cutting myself off from the sound of slaughter, and began cutting through the dome’s floor just above my head. I did not imagine my arms and shoulders could ache so much. I stopped three times only to realise I had no choice, no way back, no way out. I just kept cutting and tried to ignore the pain.
I do not remember getting into the dome, but I do remember the power turning on and an entire array of alien devices coming to life. Transparent screens and other items I did not recognise appeared out of thin air and rose to chest level, but I didn’t pay attention to any of it. I looked through the glass walls of the dome and into the mayhem that was happening only several feet away. My heart sank in my chest as I stood watching, realizing there was simply no way I was getting out of this place alive. Of the entire crew, only several Trolls were still standing. Galinak was one of them, his power hammer creating a killing zone around him, but I couldn’t see River, or even Jakov. They were fighting tens, no, hundreds of Lizards, and more kept pouring through the laboratory’s doors. It would take little time for the rest to be overwhelmed. Several dozen Lizards were already charging at the dome, smashing themselves against it repeatedly.
Rafik was shouting my name over the Comm, saying something about Cain reducing the dome’s substructure to make it breakable, but I wasn’t listening.
I turned off my Comm and lowered my head. I even shut my eyes, not daring to see or hear what was happening outside the dome. How long did I stand like this? I do not know, but when I raised my head again, Lizards were climbing all over the dome, biting and banging their limbs against the transparent wall. I couldn’t see the crew anymore, but one of the Lizards was smashing Jakov’s metal arms against the dome. There were already hundreds of little cracks in the glass. Soon the Lizards would succeed in breaking in.
Without taking my eyes from the Lizards I switched on the Comm again. “Vincha,” I said, then repeated her name until I heard her reply.
“Yes.” Her voice was trembling, but at least she’d regained control.
“I’m in. I need instructions.”
“I’m patching you to Rafik.”
I heard Rafik’s voice. “Look at the panel to the left of the glowing half-moon, you need to—”
“Vincha,” I said, ignoring Rafik.
“Yes?”
“I need you to block all other channels, I can’t . . . I can’t hear this . . .”
And it was suddenly all quiet. The death that was happening outside was like a storm happening somewhere else.
“Vincha, I need music. Something to help me focus, that Beethoven, play it for me.”
“Now is not the time, you must . . .”
“Rust, do it, Vincha.” I slammed my hand down hard on the transparent desk in front of me.
A heartbeat later the most wonderful music filled my head. In front of my eyes Lizards beat their powerful limbs against the transparent walls that were protecting me, but I paid them no more attention. I slowly sat down on a seat that was hovering behind me and momentarily shut my eyes, listening to timeless music composed almost five hundred years before. It was a bittersweet moment.
Rafik broke the spell. “We must proceed. I need you to begin transferring the codes for the laboratory, now.”
It wasn’t complicated. That was the easiest part in all the training. I had to perform several simple actions to gain manual control over the machines. Then I executed everything the way I had rehearsed it in the simulations. The results were what I expected, and that calmed me even more. By the end of it my hands were not trembling anymore.
There was one more thing left to do, just one more button to touch . . . I looked up again. The Lizards were still around me. Would it hurt when they ripped me to shreds? Or would it be an instantaneous death? I smiled. Was Rafik watching me? Could Adam see all of this? My guess was that they could.
“Vincha, are there any survivors?” I asked. The music faded.
She stalled. “Galinak, River, Massau, and Terra barricaded themselves in one of the lab rooms. Terra is wounded but still functioning, but the corridor is swamped with Lizards. The power barricade that River erected is holding, but he lost his cutter so they are stuck there. You could try to crawl your way back to them and—”
“There’s no time for that!” Rafik interjected, his voice strained. “You need to complete the mission, then we can rescue you and your friends. Nothing is more important than this. You must disable the security with the codes you have and upload our program directly into the lab’s mainframe so we can take control of it. Otherwise the corrupted mind will keep producing Lizards.”
I leaned back, entwining my fingers behind my neck, watching the Lizards above me. The last notes of the music still rang in my mind, I even hummed the theme to myself. I might not be a warrior, a Combat Troll, or a fearless Salvationist, but I was very good at one thing.
“No, Rafik, I think now is exactly the right time,” I said calmly, as Lizards raged around and above me and the sweet music sang in my ears. “Now we negotiate.”
71
Death will not be swift or painless. I know this for a fact. It will be agony, because it’s going to happen under less than ideal circumstances.
Unfortunately, there is plenty of room for error. I may not remember all that occured or may not be myself when I wake up inside Adam. This is why I took the time to tell my story. Because others need to know. Because history is happening. And I would be a very bad Associate LoreMaster of the Guild of Historians if I let this kind of event be lost to humanity. As I told this story, Galinak, River, and Massau were uploaded through Vincha’s Comm system to the collective mind. I’m assuming the power barricade is down now and their bodies are in pieces. Rafik assured me the transfer was successful but that it would take time to reconstruct them inside Adam. We lost Terra on the way, as well as Bayne, Jakov, and the others. This is another reason why I took the time to tell this story: too many people died to make this happen, and I feel this needs to be acknowledged.
I have no idea whether the Tarkanians will keep their end of the bargain once I complete the final transmission, but I have always been an optimist at heart, or a fool—you be the judge. Besides, they seem to want to get on Vincha’s good side and convice her to bring her daughter to join Adam, so I may gain immortality even if I have no recollection of what the hell I did to deserve it.
I am no hero. If I’d known this would b
e the outcome I’d never have set foot in this place in a million years. But if my opinion holds any sway, I think humanity deserves saving, even if from itself.
I am feeling faint, and I am stalling. Yes, I know, it’s the air . . .
It’s funny . . . I am still not sure about Nakamura and his predictions.
Goodbye Vincha, and good luck. Let me just say that it’s an honour to have known you, I look forward to transferring myself through your body . . .
Yeah . . . I know it’s not funny . . .
Rust. Let’s do this.
Acknowledgements
So, you get inspired, write a novel, send it out, get published and live happily ever after? Yeah, right . . .
Sometimes it only takes one person who believes in you to make a difference. After a fair share of gut wrenching rejections, it was Rena Rossner of the Deborah Harris Agency, who contacted me with incredible enthusiasm for the manuscript. Without Rena’s help, support, editing super powers and a lot of patience, The Lost Puzzler would not have been published, simple as that. To think she had done all that while dealing with all of her other demanding authors, raising five kids, and publishing her own cookbook and a fantasy novel. My only explanation for this phenomenon is that Rena must be able to bend time . . .
David Pomerico and Jack Renninson of Harper Voyager US and UK, respectively, and their incredible team, Priyanka Krishnan, Caro Perny, Pam Jaffee, Angela Craft, Lex Maudlin and Dominic Forbes, took the manuscript of The Lost Puzzler to the next level. Working with them was a masterclass in writing, and I am sure (and hope) there are more lessons to come.
The people mentioned above are professional through and through. Finding authors and novels and making them better is their bread and butter, but there are those who had to suffer through the raw material years before I even dreamed about publishing The Lost Puzzler. They bravely crossed the literary thorn fields, bled from razor sharp corners of extreme plot twists, hacked their way through the forest of the never-ending descriptions, sustained the bombardment of the repeated phrases and . . . okay, you get it, these people deserve credit!