The Champion

by Taran Matharu

  She pressed it into Cade’s hands, then pranced away, heading for the others. By now Grace had returned, and she was scowling at Cade from across the fire. It was a shame that she would never know what Cade was about to do.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, I do believe Cade and I have made a deal,” Abaddon’s avatar announced, clapping her dainty hands. “Cade and the Romans are staying, except for you of course, darling Quintus. That’s bought Earth one thousand years of safety. For every one of you who stays with him, that’s another five centuries on top. So, Grace and Trix are going home … who else?”

  When no one moved or spoke, she tapped a tiny foot, her arms crossed.

  “Hurry now,” she said. “I may be immortal but I’ve got better things to do.”

  Grace raised her hand, as if somehow Abaddon would forget she wanted to go home. Cade hardly blamed her. He might have made the same choice in her shoes.

  Scott was the next to raise his hand. He looked at Cade apologetically, mouthing sorry. Cade simply inclined his head and smiled. This was what he wanted.

  “Everyone is going, Abaddon,” Cade called out. “Just—”

  “Not one more word!” Abaddon snarled, turning the little girl’s face toward Cade in a rictus of rage. “Be silent, or there will be no deal at all.”

  Cade held up his hands in peace but raised his eyebrows at the others. He wanted to beg them to go. Because there was no need for them to stay. The moment they were gone, Cade was going to press the button … and end the pantheon for good.

  “Is that all, then?” Abaddon said, turning back to the others.

  “No!” Bea said, raising her hand. She grasped Trix’s too, lifting it above the girl’s head. Yoshi followed suit, avoiding Cade’s eyes.

  “Anyone else? Going, going…”

  “Amber, you have to—” Cade begged, but was suddenly cut short.

  His mouth had been seized by an invisible force, keeping it clamped closed.

  He was not the only one who went silent. Quintus and Amber said nothing. Only stared into the flames, ignoring Abaddon’s words.

  “Very well, then,” Abaddon giggled, clapping her hands. “I’ll leave you all in the locations I first took you from, shall I?”

  She didn’t give them time to answer. Because in that instant, they were gone. Like they had never been there at all. No goodbyes. No heartfelt words. Abaddon had stolen even that from them.

  Cade’s heart broke a second time that day. Of all his friends that could have stayed, Amber and Quintus were the ones he’d wanted to save the most. Now, they would live out their days on this planet if he succeeded. And face Abaddon’s wrath if he failed.

  Cade walked to the fire and sat down heavily. He laid his head on Amber’s shoulder and pulled Quintus close.

  “Thank you,” Cade said. “For everything.”

  They held him tight, and Cade allowed the tears to flow freely down his face. It was time.

  “How very sweet,” Abaddon said, leaning in close for a better view. “Such sentiment. But hey, look on the bright side. You bought Earth two thousand years of safety. And you get to stay here and play with me.”

  Cade cleared his throat and patted his friends to let him go. He looked down at the timer in one hand and the toy in the other.

  “I have one last thing to say to you, Abaddon,” Cade said, his voice shaking with anger.

  “Oh yes?” Abaddon asked. “What’s that?”

  Cade smiled through his tears and looked up into Abaddon’s avatar’s eyes.

  “This,” he said.

  And detonated the EMP.

  CHAPTER

  64

  The girl crackled, then disappeared, followed by the thud of the Codex falling directly into the fire. Cade left it there and jumped to his feet.

  “Listen to me very carefully,” he said forcefully. “We have to do a lot of things very quickly. Otherwise we are all going to die. Follow me. Now!”

  He ran toward the plane, his heart pounding near out of his chest. He was so used to a timer. Now, there was none. The pantheon could come online in an hour, or ten minutes. All he knew was he had to get that bomb to the alien ship. And get the alien ship out of the water for that matter.

  Marius, Amber, and Quintus had followed, but the other Romans were still milling about, having watched the disappearances in awe.

  “Detach the bomb,” Cade shouted, pointing at the weapon. “And carry it down the tunnel to the waterfall. Marius, call over your men, it’s going to take at least a dozen of them to lift this thing. And be careful with it!”

  “Cade, what the hell is happening?” Amber shouted.

  “The Grays,” Cade said. “I’m working with them. This bomb is going to destroy the pantheon. Please, we don’t have much time. The pantheon got knocked out by an electromagnetic pulse, but they could come online at any minute.”

  He grabbed Quintus and pulled him along.

  “Come on,” Cade said. “They’ll catch up.”

  He began to run, and shouted over his shoulder.

  “As fast as you can!”

  They sprinted down the tunnel, slipping and sliding over the gore left by the gun. It was dark there now, with no timer from the Codex, nor torches to light their way. But even in the dim darkness, he still tripped over pitted surfaces where the bullets had sprayed.

  They emerged into the moonlight. It was dark that night, the small white satellite moon almost entirely hidden behind the larger red one.

  Cade pressed the toy’s left eye twice and muttered a silent prayer. Quintus watched him silently.

  “What will happen if this does not work?” Quintus asked.

  Cade closed his eyes. “Then Abaddon will find out what I’ve been planning. He’ll torture me for information. Rip me apart atom by atom. Maybe he’ll kill you all in front of me as revenge.”

  Quintus grinned. “So we will … piss him off … right?” he asked.

  Cade chuckled at Quintus’s grin. “Yeah, I guess we will.”

  Quintus punched him on the shoulder. “Worth it.”

  They stared at the waterfall. Still, nothing happened.

  “Maybe we can dig for it,” Cade whispered.

  He hurried to the pool, praying that the ship would emerge. But still, nothing.

  He stared into the water’s inky depths. No movement. Not even a hint.

  “Useless…,” Cade whispered, lifting the toy and pressing the left eye twice again.

  Instantly, the water lit up. He could see the rocks upon the bottom, white light glowing between the cracks.

  “Oh … oh damn,” Cade said. “Get back!”

  They fell over themselves backing away as rocks and water exploded outward, and an enormous, sleek black machine exited the water.

  It was nothing like Cade had expected. A cigar-shaped craft, complete with what might have been a cockpit of dark glass at the front tip.

  The ship spun slowly, before floating closer and settling on the grass alongside the lake. And in the moment it stopped, the back end opened up, splitting in two and widening.

  Cade gaped at the sight, even as water poured out from the interior, nearly knocking Cade over. With it came an object. Once the deluge had stopped, Cade picked it up.

  It was a helmet. Similar to what an astronaut might wear, complete with sun visor and what looked like flashlights on either side.

  “You will fly in this?” Quintus asked as Cade stared at his reflection in the mirrored surface.

  He hardly recognized himself. He appeared so much older now. His eyes ringed with deep black, his skin waxy and bloodless. His hair was a rat’s nest, and his facial hair patchy. He might as well have been looking at a beggar.

  “Cade?”

  Cade glanced up and nodded. “I think so. Just gotta get the bomb in there now.”

  Even as he spoke, he could hear shouting coming from the tunnel. For a moment he was worried; then he saw the Romans emerge from the dark hole, yelling one anothe
r instructions on how to maneuver the bomb.

  It was so much larger than Cade had expected. The thing was going to take up most of the ship.

  “Go help them,” Cade said. “I need to suit up.”

  Quintus furrowed his brows, not sure what Cade meant, but went anyway. Cade leaped into the ship, which was floating two feet from the ground.

  The inside was as much a surprise as the outside. The walls were perfectly smooth and round, almost like that of the tunnel’s. And at the end of that smooth, rounded room was a protruding console beneath a dome of black glass. Again, it was entirely smooth but for the lights that danced along its surface.

  But most interesting of all was the single chair affixed to the floor. And its occupant. A humanoid figure, draped limply across it.

  Cade edged closer and found himself looking at a skeleton in a space suit. One with an enormous round skull and giant pits for eyes. A Gray.

  Cade could only wonder what had killed them, if the suit was still intact. It seemed, on closer inspection, that the pilot had drowned. Their helmet must have been out of reach when the ship flooded, and Cade could see the scratches where they had attempted to rip off the seat belt and failed. It was jammed, and Cade had to fiddle with it before it came loose.

  “Terrible way to go,” Cade whispered as he began to undress.

  CHAPTER

  65

  He was almost fully dressed when the Romans arrived. They heaved the bomb onto the ship, its great, rusted frame so long that it almost reached the cockpit.

  “Amber?” Cade called.

  She wasn’t there. Only Marius, clambering into the ship and giving a low whistle.

  “So this is what the Tritons had at their disposal,” he said. “A wonder we beat them.”

  Cade ignored him. “Where’s Amber?” he demanded.

  “She took one look at this ship and went running back to the keep,” he said.

  Cade groaned and instinctively looked for the Codex, before cursing the habit. He had no idea how long it had been since he’d pressed the EMP. Ten minutes? Twenty?

  “Get off the ship,” Cade said. “I need to take off soon, and there’s only one of these suits.”

  He pulled on the final glove as he did so, flexing his fingers. One of them had to be tucked into his palm, for the Grays had one digit fewer than humans. But it was worth it if it kept him alive in space.

  He didn’t know how much oxygen the suit held, but he was sure it would last the hour. Now, it was time to leave. He hurried to the back of the ship and leaped down to join the others.

  “Quintus,” Cade said. “It’s been an honor, my friend. My brother. Look after yourself while I’m gone. And look after Amber.”

  “Cade!” Amber’s voice called. “Cade!”

  Cade turned, only to see Amber sprinting toward him. She was holding something bulky in her arms.

  She reached him, panting, and shoved something into his arms. He almost didn’t recognize it. It looked like a green backpack. Why was she giving him a backpack?

  “Put it on,” she said. “Seriously, put it on.”

  Cade didn’t have time to argue, and spun, allowing her to put his arms through it.

  “If you get shot down,” she said. “You use this, okay?”

  Cade stared at her, confused.

  “It’s a parachute. I took it from the pilot in the plane.”

  She smiled at him and kissed him deeply. “I know you’re short of time, but … I love you?”

  Cade felt his stomach twist as he looked down at her. Despite the battle, the exhaustion, the dirt, sweat, ichor, and blood, she had never looked more beautiful to him. He kissed her and time seemed to slow. He savored every second her soft lips were pressed against his before she pushed him away.

  “I lov—” Cade began.

  “Tell me when you get back,” Amber said, looking down. “Go on now. Go.”

  Cade took one last second to hug his two friends close. Then he was on the ship and running for the chair.

  He sat down and put on his helmet, swiveling it until he heard it lock into place. He grabbed the Gray figurine from the console and pressed the right eye three times. Then he closed his eyes as the ship’s back door sealed shut. The world seemed to throb … and he shot into the sky.

  * * *

  Cade woke up. His stomach lurched, and the bones of the Gray alien clattered around the room. As did everything else, including the backpack, Abaddon’s remote, and the figurine, having fallen from his awkwardly gloved hand as the g-force rammed back his head, arms, and legs.

  When Song had programmed the autopilot instructions, he must have not accounted for Cade’s humanity. Maybe Grays could withstand faster speeds. Or maybe he just wanted Cade to get there really fast. Either way, Cade had passed out.

  As it was, Cade could already see the blue of the sky turning into black as they pierced the atmosphere, and he wished he could take another look at the planet he had come from. Instead, as the seconds ticked by, a shape began to form, red in the moonlight.

  The pantheon’s ship.

  It was every bit as impressive as Cade had imagined. A giant, metal lump of machinery, all spires, antennae, and protrusions. It seemed to approach slowly, yet Cade knew it was simply the sheer size of the thing that made it seem that way.

  It expanded endlessly in his vision, virtually a small moon in its own right. Cade wondered what possible need there could be for something of such size when only twenty-one passengers—the entire pantheon—lived within.

  Was it the machines that powered their teleportation technology? A factory for Codexes? Or perhaps, a massive, complex system of life support, keeping the immortal beings alive forever.

  Regardless, he soon found the pressure lift from him and experienced a strange feeling of weightlessness. They had left the atmosphere, air hissing out from the hole in the Gray ship’s windscreen.

  Still they flew, closer and closer to the enormous ship. Soon, it was all Cade could see. The seconds ticked by, and Cade only knew that the pantheon’s power was still down by the fact he was still alive. There was no way of knowing how long he had.

  The Gray ship was closing now, so fast that Cade threw up his arms, thinking they would collide. Instead, the ship stopped abruptly.

  There was a hiss, and Cade turned to see the back of his ship opening. There was no sound at all, for sound did not travel in a vacuum. All he heard was the hoarse sounds of his breathing.

  He took a few more gulps of air. All good. The suit was working fine.

  Cade stood, only to find himself floating up to the ceiling. He pushed himself back down and dry heaved, fighting a bout of nausea. He hadn’t got his sea legs yet. Or his space legs.

  Wary of the time, he gathered the Gray figurine and the remote, shoving them into his backpack and slinging it front ways across his chest for easy access. It wouldn’t do to lose the figurine in space—let it float off into the night.

  Still, it had only one instruction left. The bomb.

  He decided to look at the pantheon’s ship itself. He edged by the bomb, which was gently twisting a few inches in the air, and looked down, to see he was directly beneath a hatch.

  A hatch that was open.

  “Okay, Cade,” he said. “Time to kill a god.”

  CHAPTER

  66

  Cade had not considered how he would carry the bomb into the ship, so trusting had he been of Song’s plan. Now he realized it would be a piece of cake. Without gravity, the enormous thing was weightless.

  All he had to do was maneuver it into position above the hole … and pull it in with him.

  The hatch was wide as a semitruck and had no lid—perhaps it was an exhaust or served some other futuristic function. Whatever its purpose, it was so deep and dark Cade could hardly see.

  The inside of the hatch was a long, circular corridor, one that seemed to stretch for miles, straight down into the ship. He might have been blind entirely when he got in were it
not for the lights that had come on automatically on either side of his helmet.

  Now it was time to figure out how to get the bomb down with him.

  It was a brute of a thing to maneuver, and once it moved it was hard to stop. Only after a lot of wrangling—and a few heart-stopping collisions with the Gray ship’s back end—did he manage to get it floating in roughly the right position.

  Cade wrapped two hands around the tip of the nuclear missile, nestling it in the soft outside of his backpack on his chest. Then, he placed two feet upon either side of the hatch, where a convenient rim was, and pushed off with all his might.

  He flew. Grazing along walls, bumping them. He was lucky they were so smooth, a virtual borehole into the ship, almost as if some bullet or missile was supposed to be traveling out of it.

  His vision soon became an endless blur, staring into the dark pupil of the tunnel, with the gray wall the iris surrounding it.

  It was like that for almost two minutes, and Cade craned his neck, straining to see what was ahead. But all he saw was the endless tunnel, taking him ever deeper into the ship.

  And then … he saw it. Lights, coming up fast. Cade extended his legs, scraping them against the smooth walls, trying to slow himself down.

  It was in the nick of time, as he smashed into a dead end, knocking the wind out of him. The bomb near broke his ribs, such was its momentum.

  He choked, and threw up into his suit. But no time to heave more, no time to blink away the tears from his watering eyes.

  This had to be it.

  With trembling hands, Cade tugged open his backpack. Pulled out the Gray figurine.

  And screamed in horror.

  The toy was crushed.

  Its head had come clean off, broken by the impact of the missile against his chest.

  He cursed, and cursed again. Screamed into the silent oblivion. How could he have been so stupid?

  His vision blurred as he cried bitter tears and looked around for something, anything to use to blow up the missile. He should have let it crash into the wall—perhaps that would have blown it up.