by David Webb
“Come on, man. There’s a difference between fighting a kid and having to tell the Operative that one of the donors got out.”
“The Operative? You really think he’d get involved?”
“Oh yeah. After what happened with the girl, you can bet he’d want to know about this.”
“I guess all the more reason to tell them now instead of waiting to do it in person.”
“Fine, I’ll radio up.”
This was her only chance. Aniya darted out from between the pods and raced around the pillar, nearly falling off the edge in dizziness. She yanked at the string at her side and pulled her robe off in one motion.
Rounding the corner, she saw the officers, one of them with a radio and the note in his hands.
The two men looked up and froze in shock and confusion at the naked girl running toward them.
“What the—”
Aniya rushed the officer with the radio and wrapped her robe at his head, blinding him and choking him at the same time. Turning to the other man, who was drawing his weapon, she kicked as hard as she could, pushing the officer off the edge of the walkway and into dead space, where he hovered helplessly, his weapon drifting away from him.
The man under Aniya’s robe clutched at her hands weakly as he gasped for air.
Aniya held on tight, forcing the man to his knees, then letting him fall to the stone floor, unconscious. She grabbed his weapon and turned to face the officer who had been floating in the air, just now being launched back onto the walkway.
The man landed, and as his weapon flew back toward him, he grabbed it out of the air and pointed it at Aniya.
Without checking to see if the weapon was set to tranquilizing pellets or live ammunition, she fired at the man, who froze, then dropped to the ground.
Tossing the gun aside, Aniya grabbed her robe and clothed herself again, took the note and radio from the unconscious officer, and ran back to the entrance. She looked up, half expecting the screen to come alive, but the ceiling remained dark.
Aniya ran up to the main walkway, then to the mouth of the cavern, gaining strength as adrenaline again coursed through her veins. As her vision cleared, she ran harder, running through the cave and into the open elevator.
The doors closed behind her, and she turned to see a massive display of buttons on the wall. There were hundreds, maybe thousands of small buttons, laid out neatly in rows of twenty and spanning almost from floor to ceiling. Confused, she froze.
What now?
Before she could make any choice, the elevator began moving, taking off at an impressive rate, knocking her to the floor.
A minute later, the elevator finally stopped, and the doors opened smoothly and silently.
Aniya looked into a bright, empty hallway, completely identical to the rest of the building that she had seen so far.
How do people get around in this place?
She glanced at the note again to make sure she wouldn’t wind up in the wrong place. And in the Citadel, the wrong place would probably be a very undesirable location.
Fourth room on the right.
One, two, three . . .
Aniya reached for the handle but froze. Whoever left her the note also woke her up. She was completely helpless, and someone chose to bring her back. Whoever it was wanted to help her, right?
Nicholas said he had a friend inside, but he wound up dead anyway. If his friend couldn’t—or wouldn’t—stop the Adviser from killing him, would he really have her best interests in mind?
A noise behind her made her jump, but a quick look around revealed nothing. It was enough to force her into action, however.
Aniya took a deep breath and opened the door.
A man in a gray cloak stood inside, facing a large control panel and studying the digital display with a hand to his chin. At the sound of the door opening, he turned and faced her.
The Adviser to the Chancellor of the Web, the one who had sentenced Nicholas to death, stepped away from the screen and toward her, a smile on his face. “Good morning, Aniya. I hope your rest was pleasant.”
45
Aniya found herself unable to move. Half of her wanted to turn around and run while the other half wanted to punch this man as hard as she could. One thing was certain. She wished she hadn’t left the gun back in the chamber.
The Adviser bowed his head slightly. “My name is Kendall, and I’m glad to finally speak to you away from the facade of the Adviser.”
Kendall. Where had she heard that name before? She racked her brain, but it was still addled from her time in the tank.
He stepped away from the control panel and toward her, and Aniya instinctively stepped backward.
“I’m sure you have many questions. We don’t have a lot of time, but I’ll answer as many of them as I can.”
Finally, it clicked. Trust no one but Kendall, Roland’s last words to her. Is this Nicholas’s friend? How could he sentence him to death just like that? Or did he?
Slowly, Aniya asked, “Where is Nicholas?”
“He’s safe. He’s in position, waiting on my signal.”
Aniya’s heart soared, and she took a deep breath.
“To do what?”
“Free your brother.”
Aniya’s eyes widened. “William’s still alive too?”
He nodded.
“Can I see him?”
“That depends on how quickly we execute our plan.” Kendall gestured toward a chair. “Please, sit. You’ve been in the pod for a week. Your body needs to rest.”
“A week?” Aniya sat in the chair, and sure enough, her head felt like it was floating as she let herself relax. “What plan?”
Kendall walked back over to the control panel. “Everything has to happen at once. One of the reasons we failed when it was just me and your brother was that I was working under pressure, and we were interrupted. But now that so many pieces are in play, with plenty of disasters to distract the Silvers, we have a much better chance of succeeding.”
“You helped him escape?”
“Twice, actually. I woke him up and sent him to be with Salvador, whom you know. The idea was to reconfigure his pod and set up a chain reaction that would use William to disable the reactor. That part worked. I did some calculations, and by the time William returned, we were able to partially execute the plan.”
“Salvador said he didn’t know who William’s partner was.”
Kendall shrugged. “I don’t know why he would keep that from you.”
“So he knew you were trying to stop the Lightbringers? Aren’t you the closest person to the Chancellor?”
“Making me perfect for the job. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough, and we only succeeded in shutting down the reactor temporarily. Due to his weakened state, he wasn’t capable of pushing enough energy in the final phases of our plan to shut it down permanently. I was able to get your brother out of here alive, barely, and I put him on a train to Holendast, but I couldn’t escort him any further. I needed to stay here and redo the calculations. Admittedly, I was taking a risk, since the power was out and the train had to run on diesel, making for a much slower journey.”
“You put him on one of your own trains? He could have been seen!”
“I marked the cargo as sensitive and forbid passenger admittance. He went to Holendast alone. In hindsight, I should have sent an armed guard with him. My only thought at the time was to get him as far away from the Hub as possible.”
“What now? Are you going to try again?”
“Yes.”
“You said that everything has to happen at once. What did you mean by that?”
He paused. “Your brother and Nicholas are going to break out of the Hub. That’s the first piece that will raise the alarm as well as secure their safety. The second is an explosion on the border of the Hub and the subsequent attack. That will further confuse the Silvers and draw them far away from the reactor.”
“Attack?”
“The third is you, t
he most crucial step. This is where it gets complicated. We need you to take your brother’s place in the pods. You may have noticed that once a host is placed in a pod, it becomes part of a hive mind, a collective body of energy. We need a conscious person inside the loop to break the cycle and start a chain reaction that will, in a sense, change the instructions that each host unconsciously follows. Their new directive will be to then pump three bursts of energy into the reactor. The first one is normal and expected. The second will be too much for the reactor to handle so soon after the last one, and it will trip a failsafe and send it into reserve. The third will disable the reactor.”
“Permanently?”
“That will require one final step. Let’s see if we even get that far, and then we can finish the job.”
Aniya paused. “So, your plan was to bring me here the whole time?”
Kendall nodded again. “We can’t use your brother again. His body is spent from years in the pod, and he doesn’t have the physical endurance to complete the process. He barely made it the first time. As soon as I knew you were on the run, the plan was hatched. I requested Nicholas be used to bring you in because that’s the only way I could ensure your survival. Of course, derailing the train was not part of the plan. That was a dangerous move we had to make before the Operative could harm you or Nicholas.”
“Why did he come after us? Couldn’t you tell him to bring us in alive?”
“I did. But the Operative was growing increasingly suspicious of my motives. He was never comfortable with my order to use Nicholas against you, and he got dangerously close to figuring out my secret. I didn’t have a choice. I told Nicholas to bring down the train to give you both a chance to escape. In the end, everyone ended up where they were supposed to be. We’re on track, so long as things go according to plan from here on out. But first, you should take a moment and rest. Waking up from that state is quite disorienting, and you need all the strength you can get.”
“I’m not sure we have as much time as you think.”
Kendall frowned. “Why not?”
Aniya pulled the radio from the pocket of her robe. “I ran into trouble on my way up here.”
“What happened to them?” Kendall grabbed the radio, his peaceful demeanor disappearing.
“I knocked one of them unconscious and shot the other one.”
“Dead?”
Aniya shrugged.
“Where was this?”
“Right next to where I woke up.”
Kendall spun around and started tapping away at the control panel. Seconds later, camera footage of the chamber appeared.
Aniya squinted and saw the two officers, one of them floating in mid-air and the other lying still on the ground next to her empty pod. The first officer suddenly flew back onto the ground, but he just rolled back off into the dead space after a few seconds, floating once again.
He appeared to be unconscious, stuck in some kind of loop.
“My apologies. I should have been, but I wasn’t watching when you woke up. I was preoccupied. But at least we can get rid of one of them.” Kendall grimaced and pressed a button.
On the screen, the floating officer suddenly dropped, vanishing into the dark.
“Did you just kill him?”
“We can’t take any chances. Timing is everything, and we need to make sure we get it right this time.” Kendall pressed the button again, then relaxed and turned toward Aniya. “Unfortunately, while I can turn the gravity shafts on and off, I can’t push the other officer into the pit from here. We’ll have to move sooner than I planned.”
Aniya didn’t respond. Instead, she stared over Kendall’s shoulder. She could have sworn she saw something move.
“You need to get back down to the chamber. Once you’re inside the pod, I’ll send the signal to Nicholas and order the attack. That should give us enough time to execute our plan.”
“What attack are you talking about?”
Kendall smiled. “I’ll show you.”
But no sooner did he say that than Aniya’s radio crackled to life in Kendall’s hand.
“We’ve got a problem down here with the—”
Kendall’s hands flew across the keys under the control panel, and the radio went silent. He and Aniya looked up at the screen to see the second officer, now awake, speaking into his own radio.
“Did you turn off his radio from here?”
Kendall shook his head and turned to her with a grim look. “I can’t do that. I had to shut down all radio channels. Unfortunately, they’ve already heard part of the message, and they’ll get the channels back up and running shortly. We need to move now.” He pressed a button on the control panel, and the screen changed again to show a white hallway that bobbed up and down with the camera’s movement. “Are you in position?”
“Almost there.” Nicholas’s voice came over the screen, and Aniya’s heart leapt. “Did you hear the radio transmission just now?”
“Sadly, yes. Our schedule just got a little tighter. Go get William.”
“What if he doesn’t go with it?”
“Just get him out of here. Aniya’s already agreed to it anyway.”
“To how much of it?”
“Get William and get out.” Kendall pressed the same button, and the screen disappeared.
Suddenly, the white room turned to red as a loud alarm sounded. Kendall typed at the panel again, and the screen showed the reactor chamber, now flooded with dozens of officers.
“Great. Change of plans.” He pulled a gun from his holster and shot Aniya in the chest.
46
Adrenaline coursed through Aniya’s body, and she opened her eyes to find herself back in the pod, suspended naked in the green liquid. She floated gently, the tube strapped to her head and supplying her with a steady flow of oxygen.
“Aniya, can you hear me? I can’t see you from up here, but nod if you can hear me.”
Kendall’s muffled voice barely penetrated the tank, but she nodded.
“Good. I’m picking up movement in your pod. Sorry for shooting you, even if it was just a tranquilizer. I had to make it look like I found you wandering the halls and caught you. You’re now alone in the chamber because the entire Hub is now looking for your brother and Nicholas.”
Aniya peered through the murky green liquid, up at the cavern wall, and saw Kendall’s face stretched across the giant screen.
“As soon as I start this process, it won’t take long for the Hub to be put on full alert, so it’s time to distract them. I thought you might want to see this.”
Kendall’s face disappeared, and the screen showed a wide view of the cliffside of the Hub. The image seemed static, but after a few seconds, a large explosion shook the earth, rock flying away from the cliffs, followed by a steady, large stream of smoke. From the smoke appeared dozens of moles with riders, followed by hundreds of running men and women with guns and spears.
One of the riders looked directly at the screen, and Aniya’s heart soared as she recognized Salvador. She saw him launch a spear toward the camera source, and then the screen went dark.
“That should keep the Silvers busy enough. In the meantime, let’s get started.”
An incredible heat surged through Aniya’s body, and she cried out into the tube in pain.
“I imagine that hurt a little. That was the link being broken between you and the other pods. Your body was mostly awake, but still working in tandem with the rest of them. I had to shock it, if you will, to finish waking it up and break the chain. Now I have to change your pod’s programming, which will then re-sync you and update every single other pod. To do this to each pod at the same time would be impossible.”
Aniya simply floated in the liquid while Kendall typed away. Her mind was beginning to wake up again, and she could hear the individual keys over the screen.
“You’ll now feel three ebbing and flowing waves of energy. I have to warn you that this is not going to be pleasant.”
Without giving
her time to think, every part of her body suddenly went cold as the wires protruding from her skin glowed red. Then, just as quickly, her body heated up immensely. Her mind and body disoriented, she vomited into the tube what little food was in her stomach. Instead of letting her breathe it back in, however, the tube sucked up the vomit and the air in her lungs. The bile disappeared, and she hyperventilated as new oxygen came back down the tube.
“That was the first wave. You and your brother are the only ones who have been conscious during one of those. I don’t envy you. Get ready for the second one.”
Aniya groaned as her mind spun.
The cold feeling returned, this one seeming to last longer. Aniya curled up her fists and tensed her body, feeling energy suck out of every pore. Then the heat came, and her gut wrenched. She didn’t vomit, but only because there was nothing left to spit up. The tube did not seem to sense that, however, and it sucked away the air from her lungs.
“Very good. Just one more.”
Aniya’s vision began to go dark again.
She tried to speak but only had strength to think. Wait. Please, just wait a second.
There was no delay, however, and all energy that Aniya had managed to muster back up vanished once again. She screamed into the tube in agony as her body trembled. Within this wave, however, there were several mini-pulses that sucked her dry over and over and over, keeping her in a perpetual state of cold and pain for several seconds.
Finally, the heat came again, and Aniya went limp. Her vision was now completely black. Her extremities, though warm again, were numb.
“Aniya, can you hear me?”
Kendall’s voice came to her as nothing more than a whisper.
She heard, she understood, but she could not muster the strength to even nod.
“Aniya?”
She had nothing. She couldn’t even feel the liquid receding around her, her body collapsing to the ground, or the taste of fresh air as the tank door descended into the floor. Now that she wasn’t submerged, she could hear a bit better, though.