RABAN (The Rabanian Book 2)

by Dan Haronian

  I stopped on the landing for the 200th floor to catch my breath then pushed open the door and stepped into the corridor. A sign in front of me read The Presidential Chamber with an arrow pointing to the right. Finally I stopped in front of a big wooden door inlaid with artistic images. There was a hand reader on the wall to the left but I didn't want to use it. I fired several shots into the locking mechanism and kicked open the door.

  I ran inside. I could hear the roar of a hovercraft’s engines outside and a sudden series of explosions shook the building. I moved away from the windows to my left as I ran into the chamber. I held the gun firmly with both hands. A woman sat behind a desk in the rear of the chamber. She stood up as soon as she saw me, and backed away from her desk toward the wall behind her.

  "The-The-Thesh," I said breathing fast. "Wh-Wh-Where?"

  She shook her head.

  I looked at the small sign on her desk with her name. "E-E-Essy," I said and when I looked back at her I noticed quick glance at the big doors far to her right.

  Just as Raban crossed the belt road, May-Thor was rounding the last corner between her and the Chemical Center of Mampas. On the road between the fuel reservoir and the industry center were a cluster of military vehicles and firefighting hovercrafts. She stopped her truck behind a dune and ran towards the lab. The air in the whole area was hot and filled with thick smoke.

  The industry center was deserted. When she came to the front of the building she saw a hovercraft parked in the clearing in front of the building. The symbol of the Mampas government was on the hovercraft’s body. For moment she thought it was deserted, but then she noticed two soldiers sheltering inside the open door from the heat of the burning fuel reservoir.

  She needed to find a way to fix things. Anyone accompanied by soldiers must have come on looking for the deadly compound. Hopefully they’d come to destroy it, but it made no difference. As long as this information existed anywhere in the world her people would be in danger. How could she fix things? She was on the edge despair. She could try to take this hovercraft as Sonny had. Not Sonny, she corrected her thoughts, Raban. Stupid Raban. Even if she succeeded and destroyed the whole building it would still not be enough. The information might already be hidden in countless places awaiting someone's command. How had he planned to destroy the information? If he was who he said he was, then maybe he’d had a plan. Or maybe he hadn’t.

  She clung to the building’s wall and slowly approached the big glass doors. It was hopeless. She could not fix things. She could only die trying to do something positive. Maybe through her sacrifice she could gain some time for the Desertians to think of something. The building looked deserted so she rushed through the doors and into the lobby.

  She’d made her decision. The deadly molecules would not leave the building no matter who was after it now. This was her only mission now. She would somehow stop them or die trying.

  There was a bank of elevators in the main hall, and beyond them two long and empty corridors stretched off in either direction. To the left of the entrance was a long wooden counter. She rushed around it and found a terminal with three screens. Surveillance videos from different parts of the building alternated on the screens. She sat down in front of the terminal and a few seconds later uploaded an array of feeds from all of the cameras in the building. It didn't take her long to spot movement in one of them. She expanded the view to fill one screen and saw a few soldiers standing in one of the corridors.

  She identified the location in the system map and ran towards the elevators gripping the gun tightly. They were armed and trained, but she had surprise on her side. She could only try.

  Long nerve-racking moments passed as she waited for the elevator. Her thoughts ran quickly. Would this be enough to redeem her? Finally the doors slid open and she entered the elevator. She pressed the button for the 8th floor, the door closed, and elevator jerked upward. Her grip on the gun became painful and she willed herself to relax. She took a deep breath and waited for the elevator to stop. Suddenly she realized that they would hear her. Their position in the hallway was not far from the elevator. She jabbed a finger at the button for the 7th floor. When the door opened she pressed the emergency stop and immediately went to the stairs.

  When she reached the eighth floor she opened the door to the stairs carefully and slid into the corridor. The elevators were off to her left, and the elevators would shield her from them. To her left were large windows faced the city.

  She pressed herself to the wall, padded past the elevators, and approached the corridor. She heard a whistling sound and glanced out the windows but couldn't see anything. She tightened her grip on the gun and peeked around the corner and down the corridor. There was no one there. Then she realized what she had heard. She ran to the window and looked down. The hovercraft was no longer there.

  I pushed Essy towards the doors. She opened one and I pushed her inside. Thesh sat in his chair behind his desk. His head was balanced on his palms. He looked up when we entered and when he saw me I could see his face go pale. He dragged a hand through his hair from front to back.

  "You are early," he said and a scared smile appeared on his face.

  I looked around.

  "I know who you are," he said. "I know."

  I pointed the gun at him and he waved his finger at me as if he was about to scold me. "I have the material that was manufactured in the Chemical Center and you, you had better behave."

  "You won't do anything s-s-stupid now that Se-Se-Seragon is here."

  He nodded. "Me? Stupid?! It was you who stole it and you who produced it."

  "You are giving me to-to-too much credit. And in any case that is not what Se-Se-Seragon thinks. They know it was you and your good friend Na-Na-Naan. The best thing for you to do now is to de-de-destroy it immediately. That might be the only way to prove you are as i-i-innocent as you claim."

  "I will leave that up to Seragon. I can prove to them that you are behind this madness."

  "Look at me. You have tried to ki-ki-kill me countless times. Look at my face, Listen to how I s-s-speak. I am just a poor Desertian on the run. Do you really think Se-Se-Seragon will believe your s-s-stories?

  A noise came from the service unit.

  "Maybe not my stories but they will believe his," said Thesh when the service unit door opened and Silor walked into the office.

  "Gu-Dos?!” I called out in surprise. "y-y-y-yooo?!"

  Gu-Dos nodded. "Why didn't I know about you the whole time? Where did you hide? Who gave you the shelter?"

  "You are a t-t-traitor," I said. I pointed the gun at him and motioned for him to move closer to Thesh.

  "We’ll know soon enough who is the traitor," said Gu-Dos. "After Seragon puts you in a cage where you belong and we can study your skills at our leisure. You will be our lab rat"

  May-Thor ran out of the building, the gun still in her hand. She was so focused on her objective she didn't even attempt to be cautious. She went back to her truck and roared out onto the belt road. She turned toward the city the first chance she had. She couldn’t get the idea out of her head that whoever was in the hovercraft had the deadly material from the lab. No doubt it was someone from the government. Suddenly she saw a Flyeye coming right at her as if it was blind. She yanked the wheel to the left a bit before it crashed into the window. The Flyeye turned and started to chase her. The city was deserted. Soon enough she merged onto one of the main roads that led straight to the center and surged forward. The truck was massive. If not for the open top she would've felt safe in it.

  Additional Flyeyes zoomed in from every street she crossed and joined the one behind her. It was as if she sucked them all along in her wake as she passed. On the window screen they looked like a growing black cloud. She knew it was only a matter of time until something bad happened. She was fast approaching the government campus. She knew that the building would be heavily guarded, and that she had to do something about the deadly swarm of Flyeyes behind her. She swerved o
nto the sidewalk thinking about the words of the wrinkled old man. The truck did indeed destroy everything in its way.

  She stopped outside the entrance to of a building and jumped out of the truck. As she ran to the glass door she noticed a terrifying reflection on the window. It was a Flyeye and gas was spewing from its belly. She held her breath, opened the door a bit, and slipped inside. The Flyeye tried to follow but its wings jammed against the doorframe. Dozens more Flyeyes arrived and started throwing themselves against the glass. The horrible crashes rang in her ears as she ran. When she felt she couldn't hold her breath anymore she stumbled to a stop and sucked in a gasping breath. Weakness tugged at her after the first breath. After the second, her legs became heavy and her head started spinning. She took another deep breath and held it. Suddenly she felt coolness on the back of her shirt. With the little sharpness that remained to her she realized what this meant and she started to take off her shirt. She could feel herself spiraling toward unconsciousness. She pulled her shirt to the side and tore it off, screaming and running back towards the glass door. She lost her balance and fell but she didn't try to get up. The feeling of suffocation began to fade. She breathed heavily, trying to clean the poison from her lungs.

  The sound of the Flyeyes at the window roused her from her reverie. The cacophony grew. Suddenly the sound of a car engine pushed to its limit roared past the building and the din of the Flyeyes began to fade. The warmth returned and her world once again went black.

  When she woke next, the coolness of the floor on her skin reminded her of where she was. Quickly she lifted her head and glanced toward the window. The Flyeyes were gone. She was shirtless and still weak, but her senses were slowly returning. She knew she wasn’t done. She must find the deadly material and destroy it. She rose slowly and walked to the door. Incredibly, beyond her truck, the street was empty.

  She held her breath and sprinted for the elevator. As she passed her shirt lying crumpled on the floor she held her breath, scooped it up and kept on running. She pushed the call button and waited several agonizing seconds for the car to arrive. Her lungs ached. When the elevator finally came she dove inside and pounded on the button that closed the door. Finally they slid closed and she exhaled explosively. She sucked in the sweet, clean air blowing in through the ceiling vents. When her breathing was stabilized, she punched the button for the roof. The elevator doors opened onto the rooftop landing pad. Pleasant breeze was blowing and she took several deep breaths. She felt better but was still a bit dizzy. Three hovercrafts sat along the north edge of the landing pad. She walked over to the largest and climbed into the pilot’s seat. She yanked out the wires leading to the communication unit and paused, staring at the government building towering above her. She took another deep breath, as if she were about to plunge into icy water, then started the engines and launched herself forward.

  She flew straight at the government building. When she was close she yanked back in the controls and climbed it like a spider racing up the trunk of a tree. When she burst into the space above the building she focused her attention on the hovercraft parked on the government roof. Three people stood beside it talking. She thought it was the hovercraft from the lab, but she wasn't sure. Suddenly it didn't matter. Two more hovercrafts appeared above her. She dove towards the roof. The two new hovercrafts started shooting at her. The men on the roof all started to run towards the relative safety of the canopy shading the entrance to the elevators. May-Thor slammed into the roof then gunned the engines a bit and shot forward, crushing everything in her way. A trail of fire rose behind her. She rammed into the other hovercraft and shoved it towards the canopy. May-Thor popped open the seat belt then jumped out of the cockpit and ducked under the wreckage. Gritting her teeth with resolve she sprinted towards the entrance to the building.

  Raban was already at the stairs when May-Thor crashed the shuttle into the canopy. The sound of the crash and the smell of smoke forced him down the stairs to the floor below. His thoughts raced as he tried to figure out who had just attacked him. Could it be Seragon? When he saw the damage to the wooden door leading to the president’s chamber he stopped. He moved forward slowly. The chamber door was open and there were voices coming from deep inside the chamber.

  I saw the look on Essy’s face and I understood someone was at the door. I pulled her to me and immediately moved to the corner of the room when he came into the room. He looked around him and when our eyes met he gaped at me in stunned disbelief. He looked at Thesh and Gu-Dos and then at a bag he held in his hand.

  "W-W-Who are you?" I demanded.

  The man looked at me and tried to smile. "Who I am?"

  I looked at the bag he was holding. I had no doubts about what it contained. "Put that on the desk," I said and pointed the gun at him.

  He reached his other hand into the bag. "Why? Wasn't this what you wanted?" he asked.

  "Itgass put that away," said Thesh.

  "Why?" he asked in an innocent voice. "All I want to do is to help this Desertian. After all this is what he wants."

  "Stop it immediately," Gu-Dos yelled at him.

  Itgass looked at him with contempt. "You are still playing the game, but I don't buy it Silor. Or maybe we can use your real name now."

  Gu-Dos took one agitated step forward and stopped. "Stop this madness. I have nothing to do with this. None of the Desert people have anything to do with this." He looked at me. "I don't know this man. No one really knows who he is."

  He tried to step forward but Thesh took him by the elbow and stopped him. Itgass held the bag with both hands. He lifted it high as if he was about to slam it to the floor and looked at me smiling.

  "Stop," called Thesh.

  "Why?" replied Itgass.

  "Because we are missing something very basic. Because I think the whole thing is a trap. This thing may or may not kill the rebels, but it will surely frame us. Think about it. It's not the time to do something without fully understanding its consequences." Three shots rang out. All three bullets hit Itgass in the back. They passed through his body and one of them hit the bag that he was holding and knocked it from his hands. The blood-spattered bag fell to the floor. Itgass collapsed and I dove for the bag. The firing continued. One bullet hit my arm, two more smashed jagged holes in one of the windows. The window exploded outward and the high winds howled as they rushed in. I landed hard on the carpet and clutched at the bag.

  I heard someone running from behind. I raised my head to see the stunned face of May-Thor looking at me. We looked at each other in shock. She wore a sweaty and stained undershirt and her face was bruised and swollen.

  “The co-co-compound," I shouted.

  "You???" she said her voice trembling. She raised her head and looked at Gu-Dos. "Close the windows," she shouted, as if it was even possible.

  "Close the door," Thesh shouted at Essy, but she was so shocked and confused that his request didn't make any sense to her.

  "Close the door," he shouted again. This time she jumped at his words and ran to the door and closed it. The wind died immediately.

  "Move," said May-Thor.

  I rolled to the side exposing the bag. "Back away," I said.

  "It’s too late to worry about me," she said shifting her gaze from the bag to my bleeding arm.

  "You sh-sh-shot me," I said.

  She shook her head. "I shot a dead man."

  Essy was fully recovered now. Ignoring the gun in May-Thor’s hand she ran towards the service unit. She came back with a big plastic bag and dumped the bloodstained bag into it.

  Thesh got down on his knees and helped her scrape up the powder that scattered on the floor. He looked up at me. "I hope you will at least give me an explanation for this madness."

  "Take off your shirt," said Essy looking at me.

  I sighed and gingerly shrugged out of the shirt. Essy stuck it into the bag as well. She tied off the bag and carried it to the private bathroom. She came back with a bucket of water and sloshed it onto the carpe
t. When it was empty she upended the bucket on the spot where the bag had fallen.

  Naan landed on his home planet in the blackness of night. The news of all that had happened in Mampas had reached the little planet, but despite the reliability factor no one believed it, no one but Daio. He was at home in his study waiting patiently for Naan to wake up. He knew more about what had happened in Mampas than Naan himself knew. Around noon Daio heard his son heading down the stairs and hurried outside after him.

  "Naan," he called standing at the bottom of the stairs.

  Naan turned and looked at him with a tired face.

  "How are you?"

  Naan raised his eyebrows and shook his head as if he was trying to decide how to answer. "I guess you know what's going on," he said.

  "Yes I know," said Daio.

  "You know they think it's me?"

  "Yes, I know, I spoke to Thesh."

  Naan shook his head and laughed bitterly. "How can they think that? Don't they understand I'm the innocent victim of this rebel? He framed me." He counted off his points on his fingers, "The scrambling in Seragon, the stolen information, and the order to manufacture this wonderful cure that will eliminate the rebels. How can Thesh not understand?"

  "Still if this man is a Desertian he has no logical motive."

  Naan shook his head.