“Two of you take the wounded back to the bay,” ordered Michael, and they obeyed. The fewer villagers here, the better, he thought, and they pressed on.
Mootry looked at Osen. “Nice scar you’ll have there, boy,” he said, making no effort to hide his pride. “Now, let’s get the rest of them.”
A scream came from ahead of them, high and shrill, then another scream. A woman’s scream and a gurgling cry that was a different voice. Kari! “Go!” yelled Michael, and they charged down the center of the curving hall. A railing ahead to their left, two robed figures struggling there, a third sprawled on the floor in front of them.
One of the struggling figures was Jezrul.
The other was Kari.
The instant they came into view, Jezrul grabbed Kari by the hair and jerked her in front of him, his laser rifle coming up, and eyes crazy.
Trigger fingers relaxed for a split-second, Kari shielding her captor.
Jezrul fired a single burst that hit Floyd Mootry in the throat just above his armored vest. Mootry crashed to the floor on his back, blood gushing from his neck, eyes open.
Osen fired a long burst as another explosion rocked the hallway, but Jezrul had moved out of sight, Kari screamed again and again until cut off by the sound of a door clanging shut.
Michael stood frozen as Osen dropped to his knees at Mootry’s side. Floyd gurgled once, his hand reaching up towards Osen’s face, and then falling limply back to the floor. Osen sobbed, looked up at Michael.
“He’s gone. We’ve got to get after Jezrul,” said Michael, his heart aching.
“He was my father,” said the boy.
“I know. He told me all about it. Now load and lock! We find Jezrul; you have the first shot at him. Come on!” Michael hated his own words, the coldness of them, the way they denied his own grief. He turned to the people who huddled behind him and now stood staring at Mootry’s corpse. “Marines only from here on! Get the Colonel back to the bay and guard this corridor in case we’re forced back! Move!”
Michael and Osen moved cautiously but quickly to the robed figure on the floor. The hall ended there at solid rock, but there was a heavy metal door. Left of them, beyond railings, was a concrete-lined pit filled with water. Water was on the floor all around the body of a young man on his back, arms outstretched, and next to one hand was a laser pistol. A single hole was burned in the front of his robe and his eyes were open, his face looking surprised at what had happened to him. A trail of water went to the door and as Michael turned to it he saw Cainen Nimri standing there, looking down at the body. “I said marines only, counselor,” he growled, and the two marines who’d followed edged close to Nimri as if to take hold of him.
Nimri glared at all of them, pointed at the door. “He’s gone through there, and we’re wasting time. Jezrul has fled to Toth and I’m going with you. I won’t be denied this,” he said firmly.
Michael hesitated, then leaned over and picked up the laser pistol, handed it out to Nimri. “If you don’t take this you’re not going anywhere, and that’s an order.”
Nimri nodded and took the pistol. Osen had tried the door, but it was locked from inside. “Get around the corner,” he said, then took out a grenade and jammed it between the door handle and the door as they all fled.
The explosion was terrific, reverberating from the door like a gong, leaving the thing buckled inwards and hanging on grimly to one cracked hinge. Michael and Osen hit it together in a unified shoulder block and sprawled forward as the door fell over. Plastic sheet fluttered before them and beyond it was bright light.
They pushed the sheet aside and stared at what had once been a beautiful garden.
The ceiling had been dome-shaped, but had been blown away during the attack and sunlight now streamed in onto a jungle of trees, ferns and flowers, many now crushed by fallen rock chunks, one the size of a Gull. Michael and Osen darted for cover in thick ferns by a pond filled with colorful fish, a bridge across it cracked in half by a single fallen boulder of yellow rock. Nimri and the two marines moved left and crouched at the base of a moss-covered tree, startling a bird that soared straight up to the mammoth hole in the ceiling and disappeared. The air above their heads was filled with butterflies, swirling, and rising towards the sky in escape from their ruined habitat. On the other side of the cavern what had once been a waterfall now was a trickle leaking into a green pond. Nothing moved ahead of them.
They moved forward in a crouch along a curving path to the green pool. Beyond the pool, once hidden by the waterfall, was a door in rock. Nimri and the two marines reached it first, and waited for Michael and Osen. Michael reached to open it, but Nimri put a hand on his. “Please, this door might lead to Toth, and you said I could speak to him.”
“That depends on Toth, and on Jezrul. If they fire at us we’ll do everything we have to do to defend ourselves. I want you in the middle of us when we go in. The pistol is for your own defense and the only reason I trust you with it is because you’re Davos’s son. If you even look like you’re turning that pistol on one of us, I’ll shoot you down myself,” said Michael.
“I understand,” said Nimri. “All I ask is that you not be too quick to shoot. I’ve come to speak with Toth, not to fight him.”
“Fair enough. Now, stay together; here we go.” Michael opened the door, and saw a tunnel running straight ahead into darkness. “Lights,” he said. Osen and the two marines each produced small hand-lamps from their packs. They left the door open and entered the tunnel, Osen and a marine lighting the way, Michael and Nimri following, and the other marine brought up the rear with another lamp. The tunnel ran straight for ten meters, then curved right and ended at stone stairs snaking downwards steeply. The stairs had seen little use and were covered with fine dust, but a trail of water ran down them, water from the soaked garments of someone who had recently passed by.
The stairs were a descending helix and they tiptoed down them with warm air blowing in their faces. Gradually they began to hear voices from ahead, murmurs at first, then growing louder. The stairs ended and to their left a short tunnel led to a slat-gate through which green light streamed. Osen motioned to turn out the lamps. They crept forward towards the light, and one voice was suddenly familiar: Jezrul. He was arguing with someone, the other person’s voice deep and hoarse and suddenly there was a buzzing sound beyond the gate and Jezrul began to laugh. “Come now and share my pleasure!” he shouted, and then a woman screamed.
Michael and Osen hit the gate simultaneously and burst into a room filled with green light. The first thing they saw was a stone throne, and the bizarre apparition that was sitting there.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
The return of the gun crews to their stations near sunset was a welcome relief. Jezrul had spent hours staring at the monitor screen without really seeing it. His mind wandered again and again, returning to what Rudy had said. He had checked the life-support system. Everything seemed undisturbed and Lord Toth was resting peacefully. How? How could everything be as it should when the flow of Beta-Choline had been reduced to nothing? Jezrul went over the procedure in his mind again and again during that long watch: entry code, display access, the response of the readings, the command to store and lock, all done correctly. Could Rudy be lying? Had he discovered the sabotage, and made the necessary correction in time to save Toth’s life? Or was Toth dead at this very moment, Rudy fearing blame from everyone and keeping the secret to himself?
Rudy had made his statement with a calm, passive expression and Jezrul knew him to be an emotional man with an intense, zealous passion for Lord Toth built by years of close, intimate association. It was his emotions that made him vulnerable to manipulation, a fact Jezrul had always counted on to sway the man and keep him off balance. No, if Toth were dead, Rudy would be incapable of hiding his grief, for without His Lord there was no life for him. But how would he react upon uncovering an attempt to kill His Lord? Anger? Yes. Righteous indignation and confrontation of the perpetrator? Yes. So wh
ere were these signs of discovery? Not in anything Rudy had said or done.
A sudden thought chilled him. Rudy’s loyalty to Toth was absolute, his response to orders immediate and accurate. If he’d been ordered by Toth to cover up a murderous act, he would accomplish the task with perfection and if Toth knew Jezrul had committed the act, Rudy’s performance—
He would proceed cautiously, stay away from Toth for the moment, and resist all temptation to check the life support system again. His excuse was simple, all his attentions needed to run the defense against imminent attack. The men were his, all of them. Toth had only Rudy. He, Jezrul, would deal with both of them, one at a time.
So when the gun crews were in their places again Jezrul was not surprised when Rudy said; “I’m going downstairs to see if Lord Toth is awake yet. He will want to know where we stand at the moment, and it’s best if he hears it from His First Counselor. Will you come with me?”
Jezrul smiled, and shook his head. “Rudy, of all times, this is surely the worst for me to leave here for any reason. I will trust you to inform Our Lord. We are prepared for the attack, and await first sign of our targets. That’s all there is to say, except to express my hope His strength is recovered. Please convey this to Him, and then hurry back. I must remain here.”
Rudy nodded, and then left the dome. The expression on his face had said nothing.
Jezrul walked among the gun crews, murmured into each ear, hand warm on a shoulder, whispering; “Your alertness and accuracy will bring us victory. I’m counting on you, and the blessings of Toth are with you. Good hunting.” A squeeze of his hand on each shoulder, then on to the next man.
Even as he did this, there was an awful hollow within him, a feeling of doom that had begun when the men failed to return from the mainland. The gun crewmembers numbered sixteen, his remaining troops and a handful of counselors only twenty-three, and in his mind he saw three aircraft and hundreds of fighters coming at them before dawn. He’d placed the bulk of his defense force in the docking bay, for it was the only real way inside. The laser batteries would be the primary targets, the entrance secondary, nearly all his force clustered at those two places. If the aircraft got through and hit those targets, it—well, it would be over, attackers swarming inside, hand-to-hand against the remaining few.
Jezrul sensed defeat, and was angered by it. He could die, and for what? A bunch of simple-minded people and a man who’d tricked him into believing He was invulnerable, a man who’d manipulated them all with ceremony, Pain and Pleasure, and then hid Himself from them. It was Toth who had conspired to throw out Diego Segur, yet Jezrul knew the people saw him as conspirator, not Toth. The murder of Lebyn had been by Toth’s order, yet He’d forbidden such things by His Own Laws. It is fitting, thought Jezrul that Toth Himself has, or will die by my own hand, for he has used me to subvert The Law and maintain His power. And if I must now die, everything will go with me: Rudy, the men, Toth and our society. Everything will be gone.
He suddenly remembered Kari. She would go too, and if possible her own people would witness her death. He thought of her waiting for his return, the sight of his staff, knowing now what to expect. Her reaction to The Pain had been exquisite, driving him into frenzy. He wanted to do it again, one more time, even if it was a last time. He wanted to do it to her now.
No, that would have to wait until after Rudy returned, perhaps with new lies to tell about Lord Toth’s health, a missive to boost the spirits of the men, something to remind them their leader was not yet Jezrul, but a specter that dwelled in the bowels of the island. Jezrul wiped sweaty palms on his robe and busied himself, but it was well after dark when the younger counselor finally returned.
Rudy’s face was haggard, as if he had spent an entire day in argument. Jezrul was looking over the shoulder of the man on the optical scanner when Rudy walked up to him. “You’re very late,” said Jezrul. “I have other matters to look after, you know.”
“One of them is Toth,” said Rudy, plopping into a chair. “He’s awake and wants to see you, so you’d better get right down there. I’ve just run up four flights of stairs to give you that message.”
“I cannot see Our Lord right now,” said Jezrul. “I expect to see boats any second, and our people in the docking bay are not yet under proper cover for an air attack. Tell Him that, Rudy.”
“He asked for you, First Counselor, and he is waiting.”
Was that a faint smile on Rudy’s face? Was Toth really alive and waiting for him? It was not time for the final confrontation, not before he’d dealt with Rudy and the woman, and not before the battle had been fought. His heart pounded.
“I will not see Toth now, and I have explained why. What are you up to, Rudy? You seem pleased about something. Good news to share?” He could no longer hide his contempt for the man, or the mounting concern and anger inside him, and it must have shown in his face for Rudy suddenly backed up a step, his smirk disappearing.
“Toth commands your presence. You’re refusing?”
“I am, and you may tell him that. I am in charge here, in charge of fending off an attack that can destroy us all. I have no time for quibbling, and neither do you.” Jezrul spoke loudly, and all the men could hear him. They now looked stony-faced, not at him, but at Rudy. “You will stay here and keep watch while I see to the men in the loading bay. You will not leave here until I return!”
Rudy’s mouth opened in protest, but he said nothing as Jezrul stalked past him in a huff of righteous indignation to flee from the dome, leaving the man there under the glaring eyes of the gun crews.
Jezrul did go to the docking bay and there he said words of encouragement to the handful of troops, placed them in sheltered positions around the bay before leaving. He walked the halls, rounded up the guards of Toth’s sanctuary and Diego’s room, peeking inside to see the former first counselor sitting on his bed, staring catatonically at a wall. He found two counselors “meditating”—hiding was more like it—in Toth’s garden. He placed them along the hall and in two rooms near the loading bay, and then raced up the stairs to his own room, head pounding, and his palms sweating in anticipation. He took his staff from the closet, raced around the curve of the hall to Kari’s room.
A guard was standing there, visor down, right in front of her door.
Jezrul could barely contain his fury. He stomped up to the guard and struck the floor hard with the base of his staff. “What are you doing here?” he asked sharply.
The guard’s face was hidden behind his visor as he snapped to attention. “Guarding the prisoner as ordered, First Counselor.”
“Guarding her from what? She’s locked in her room. Who ordered this?”
“Counselor Hoffman, an hour ago. I’m to keep anyone from entering her room.” The man was shaking.
“And does anyone include your First Counselor?” Jezrul’s nose was nearly touching the man’s visor.
The guard’s voice was a squeak; “He did mention your name, First Counselor. He said he didn’t want you listening to her lies or being otherwise distracted by her before the attack. He said...”
“Hoffman does not give the orders here! I do! And by listening to him, you’ve abandoned a defense post! Would you like a taste of my staff, or would you prefer to be shot for dereliction of duties?” Jezrul’s spittle fell on the guard’s visor.
“I—I received no orders for a defensive position, First Counselor.”
There was a shout from the stairwell, someone calling his name. Jezrul stepped back in mock surprise. “Really? Well, that’s a different matter, an oversight on my part. I can’t have you standing here guarding a locked door, so get downstairs and place yourself in the hall by the door to the docking bay. Do it now!”
“Yes, First Counselor!” The guard fled to the stairwell and collided with a gun crewmember descending the stairs.
“First Counselor! Jezrul! You’re needed upstairs immediately!”
“He’s in there,” said the guard.
Jezru
l had his hand on the door handle. “First Counselor, come quickly! There’s something on the scanners, boats heading towards us from west and south! Counselor Hoffman says the attack is coming! Please, I have to get back to my post!”
Jezrul wanted to scream his rage and frustration, but held it back. “I’m coming,” he said, and followed the man back up the stairs to the laser batteries.
The room was cherry red in the lights used for night operations and the dome rumbled as it opened and rotated towards the west. Gun crews were scrambling to their seats high up in the dome and Jezrul heard the barely audible whistle of gigavolt capacitors charging in the power bay a few meters beneath his feet. The four huge laser cannon ascended on pedestals to maximum height in the room, their metal and glass snouts turning south and west, then downward slightly towards the sea.
Rudy stood at the IR scanner, frantically beckoning to him. He pointed to the screen as Jezrul arrived, his finger flitting from one faint dot to another on a field of blackness, specks of green in an arc around the southwest quadrant near the island. “Sails,” he said, “coming in from west and south and moving steadily. They must have been sitting out there for hours with their sails down, but now they’re coming in.”
“How far out?” asked Jezrul, stepping over to the optical scanner.
“Three, maybe four kilometers, about where we usually see the islanders’ boats.”
Under high magnification they seemed to be the usual fishing craft, single-sail, no motors, spread out in an arc from west to south, and definitely converging on the island. “Too dark to see what they’re carrying,” said Jezrul, “but even if they appear empty there could be people in the holding tanks below deck.”
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