“Should we fire a warning?” said Rudy.
“No, wait until they get much closer. There will be no warnings. Have you looked in all directions?”
“Yes. Nothing east or north, but we’ll keep monitoring. Even before dawn the IR background will be too strong to see much in the east.”
“What’s the minimum range the cannon can be brought to bare?”
“Five hundred meters.”
“Then open fire if and when they cross the one kilometer mark. Burn every boat and keep burning, even if they run away.”
Rudy went to the crews to pass on the orders, and Jezrul settled himself at the optical scanner. The telescope itself sat at the very summit of the island and could see in all directions, while the IR unit had a twenty-degree shadow to the north. He set the telescope for continual rotation, and watched the screen as it went through one revolution, then another, and another. Each time the boats were closer, squeezing in on the island like a great claw.
At the two-kilometer mark they stopped.
Before Jezrul’s eyes sails were coming down, one man working them in each boat. Jezrul’s stomach crawled. One man in each boat? Not unusual, for when the islanders observed them it was usually two or three boats with a solitary man in each. But now it didn’t seem right, and his suspicion returned that people were hidden in the catch tanks of each vessel. One shot amidships would take them out in a ball of fire. He yelled to the crews, “When we open fire, aim for the decks just aft of the mast, and if they turn, go for the hull amidships at water level!”
But now the boats just sat there at two kilometers out, watching. Waiting for what? He turned to Rudy; saw him frowning at the IR screen. “See something?”
“I thought so, but it’s gone now, a flickering point far out. It was there for only a second.”
Again the crawling uneasiness in his stomach, and Jezrul rotated the telescope east and west, and saw nothing. The first glow of coming sunrise was just appearing in the east, though the water was still black out there. Darkness in the north, where the IR scanner was blind. He held there for a moment, swept west. The boats had not moved. “What are you waiting for?” he growled at the screen. He wanted to open fire, to incinerate them all on the spot, but some instinct from within him prevented it. The boats had stopped simultaneously, a pre-planned move; yet far enough out that even a sudden charge would not allow them to escape destruction. Surely they knew that? Could they be moving people underwater at this very moment? Did they have such technology? He turned again to Rudy. “Anything in or around the boats?”
“Just one man in each. I can see them clearly, now.”
Somehow this was part of a bigger plan, some pieces missing. “Turn the IR east and scan slowly, then the northern sector as much as you can.”
Rudy obeyed, searched the screen for long, agonizing moments. Jezrul squirmed in his chair, wanting to scream at the man for a response. Finally, Rudy shook his head. “Nothing and it’s getting difficult to see in the east. Sunrise is only an hour away and there’s some mist forming.”
Jezrul turned the telescope east, stared at the screen long and hard. Nothing. He sighed, flopped back in his chair and jabbed the controls with a finger. Something was missing, something the boats were waiting for, but where could it....
He jumped up from his chair as the telescope came around again, and he saw sails up, men stumbling to tillers, the prow waves of boats suddenly on the move, converging on him. “Stand ready!” he screamed, but the gun crews were alert, peering at the screens before them, bracketing their targets amidships as their weapons turned slowly to south and west. Suicide, he thought. These people are committing suicide. And for what reason?
The boats charged inwards, their pilots now standing at their tillers, alone. They moved fast, approaching the one and a half kilometer mark, and Jezrul could stand it no longer.
“Fire!” he screamed, “fire, FIRE!”
The huge guns fired simultaneously, dome lights dimming, a whine from below them. Three boats west and one to the south were neatly cut in half amidst a shower of wood shards, sinking like rocks, the heads of their pilots bobbing in the sea. Jezrul’s blood was boiling. “Keep firing! Leave nothing!”
The cannon moved with ponderous delay, finding new targets and firing again, accurately, more boats flashing in flame. Six left, coming inside of a kilometer, cannon following them down, down, nearing the limit of maneuverability. “Hurry!” screamed Jezrul, and two boats south, and two in the west erupted in balls of fire. Two had escaped, were inside five hundred meters, veering to skirt the island, heading east and he turned the telescope to follow them. Suddenly the plan was clear, the reason for human sacrifice so obvious, for closing in on them from the east was one of their own boats filled with troops, and not their own, for standing in the bow was one who carried not a laser rifle, but a projectile weapon. He turned in his seat, grabbed up his rifle.
“Jezrul!” screamed Rudy. “Something white hot coming in from the west! It looks like a—”
The explosion was horrible, deafening, throwing the crews from their seats into a tangled pile on the metal deck and shattering the monitor screens of the scanners. They scrambled to their feet, heard a roar, and then the room was filled with a horrible heat and the light of a sun. Jezrul felt himself lifted from the floor and carried to a crash landing on the floor near the stairwell. He looked up dazed to see the dome hanging in shards, two laser cannon twisted ruins over the broken and bloody bodies of their crews. Four men scrambled to the remaining two cannon, tried vainly to maneuver them for a shot. “A ship!” one screamed, “It’s firing at us! It’s—”
A clattering of heavy bullets cut off his words, his body jerking and exploding in gore as the remaining lasers were cut to pieces. Shrapnel sprayed, and men screamed in agony. Rudy disappeared beneath the wreckage.
Jezrul thought only of death: his own, Rudy’s, Kari’s, the man who had brought this on them. Before he died, he would kill them all.
Jezrul ran. He stumbled into the stairwell and went up the stairs in a bound, holding his rifle in a numbed hand. No easy death for her, no pleasure before pain, he would start with her groin and work upwards. He ran to Kari’s room and destroyed the lock with a single burst, kicked the door open.
The room was empty! He screamed a curse, threw open the closet, the bathing stall, looked under the bed. She was gone! Rudy! He thought. If he’s not dead, he soon will be!
As he reached the door, another explosion slammed him against it and threw him on his face in the hall. Still another explosion, from below this time. No time. Where would she go? Where would Rudy have taken her? Was it the garden, with its trees and thick foliage, and the tunnel behind the waterfall? Or one of the rooms? No time. NO TIME! He sprinted to the stairwell, and held his breath against the swirling smoke and dust there. He plummeted down the stairs to sea level, collided with a frightened counselor blocking the exit, and knocked him to the floor.
Several troops were in the hall, backing towards him. Another explosion rocked them and he heard screams from the loading bay, quickly followed by the rattle of heavy gunfire. They had penetrated! Queal’s people were inside!
Jezrul’s mind whirled with singleness of purpose, a final objective. There was killing to be done. He left the few defenders where they were and sprinted to the door leading to Toth’s garden. As he grasped the door handle another explosion shook everything around him and the door flew open, slamming him back against a wall. He darted inside, blinded at first by a cloud of dust and falling rock. The great domed ceiling of the garden was gone, fragments still falling, crushing trees and flowers. The waterfall was a trickle and a cloud of hysterical birds circled the garden like a living tornado, lifting up into the early morning sky, thousands of butterflies moving with them. He ran around the path circling the garden, looking for a robed figure hiding or crushed under debris, finding nothing and returning to the door, rifle at the ready, hope fading.
He could
not believe his luck when he heard her crying, the sobs coming from the pit housing the transponder for the barrier.
He stepped up to the railing surrounding it, and there she was, just coming out of the tunnel, half-wading, half-swimming, and from outside came the sound of rock tumbling into the sea. There was a bloody gash on her forehead and she thrashed her way into the pit, moaning, not seeing him until he reached down to grab her by the hair and wrench her screaming from the water. Her scream drove him wild as he pulled her soaked body over the railing, bent her over it and put the muzzle of the rifle under her chin, but then heavy fire erupted in the hallway behind him and people were running. He jerked her head, slammed her against a wall and her eyes clouded. “I will find a private place for you to die,” he said, and then jumped at the sound of a voice behind him.
“Let her go, Jezrul, or I’ll kill you where you stand.”
Rudy stood two meters away from him, his head bloody, and aimed a laser pistol at him. “Our men are dying, and you run from the fighting. You are cursed, Jezrul.”
Jezrul whirled as an explosion shook the hall. He jerked Kari in front of him as his rifle came up to fire a single burst into Rudy’s chest. Kari screamed as the man flopped on his back, arms outstretched. Footsteps echoed in the hall, shadows on the walls as people approached, and he recognized Queal and Osen—and Nimri, a traitor who had joined them. He grabbed Kari by the hair again, fired wildly at Nimri with one hand, but the struggling woman spoiled his aim and he hit another man instead. He dragged her to the door, shut and locked it behind him as a fusillade of bullets tore up the walls around the pit. He half-carried her through the garden to the door leading to Toth’s sanctuary, where he intended to complete his last murdering tasks.
Moments later he was in the sanctuary, shutting the gate behind him and looking around the room.
The throne was empty.
Jezrul deposited Kari on the floor before the throne, and put the rifle muzzle against her nose. “If you move I’ll kill you slowly, starting with your feet.” She was dazed, and collapsed on the floor, sobbing. He went to the terminal, punched his entrance to the life-support system and stared in dismay at the readings. So Rudy wasn’t lying.
The throne lit up, and Toth was there, sitting tall and glowering at him.
“So, Rudy was correct. You tried to kill me, Jezrul; you, the one I would make leader of My People. And you’ve brought the woman with you. That’s just as well, for now both of you will die together. Guards, take them! Rudy!”
Jezrul stood with Kari at his feet, grinning in the light of the throne. “There are no guards to help you, and Rudy is dead! The fortress has been invaded and they will be here any minute, oh great and mighty lord, but not before I’ve killed you!” He brandished his rifle at the hologram.
Toth grinned a horrible grin. “Then feel my wrath, Traitor!”
The Pain struck him like laser heat, coursing up and down his body with intensity he’d never imagined, a delicious thing, warming him, pleasing him at a level he’d only dreamed of. He screamed; “More, more! I want MORE!” He reached down, grabbed Kari by the hair. “Come, now, and share my Pleasure!”
Kari screamed in hysterical agony.
The gate to the tunnel burst open, spilling Michael Queal and his followers into the room.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
The holographic image of an old man was perched on the throne. Michael saw a hooked nose on a withered face, and eyes that glowed like green coals. The throne was bathed in green light. A buzzing came from it and Jezrul was standing in the light, laughing, and holding Kari up against him as a shield. Jezrul’s body was shaking, one arm around her neck, the other trying to level a rifle at them as Kari writhed in his grasp, screaming. There was no clear shot without risk to Kari, and Michael raised the muzzle of his rifle towards the ceiling as the others tumbled in behind him. “Give it up, Jezrul. There are a hundred marines right behind us. Whatever you’re doing to her, stop it or we’ll kill you right now!”
“But she’s one of us, now!” screamed Jezrul. “She shares The Pain. Now watch her die! I have baptized her, Lord; see how she feels your wrath? My pleasure is her agony, but it isn’t enough! More! Give us more!”
The buzzing sound intensified. Kari cried out hysterically, and then slumped unconscious in his grasp. “No! Stay awake!” yelled Jezrul, shaking her.
“She will die with you,” growled the holographic man. “You are a fornicator, Jezrul, a devil, and I will be rid of you.”
Jezrul shook, eyes rolling crazily, but still he laughed. “See the impotence of Toth! With all his power he cannot harm me!”
“He has betrayed you, Lord!” shouted Nimri from the darkness. “He has murdered in Your Name and spread lies about our visitors!”
Jezrul snapped off a single shot at the accusing voice. Nimri howled and went down as Jezrul pressed Kari to him, preventing retaliation.
“Stay together, behind me!” said Michael. “Don’t give him another shot! Nimri?”
“My shoulder,” said the counselor now lying in darkness at his feet. “It burns.”
Michael aimed carefully. “If Kari is dying anyway I’ll shoot right through her, Jezrul. Stop the pain or I’ll fire right now!”
Jezrul believed him; Michael saw it in his eyes. He backed up two steps, and pointed his rifle at the throne base. “The Pain is our gift from Toth, from here, and here!” He fired twice at the base of the throne, shattering it in a double spray of stone fragments. The buzzing stopped.
“Jezrul!” screamed Toth, leaning forward.
“Our great and mighty Lord who hides from us there and there!” Jezrul twisted, still shielded by Kari and fired twice behind him at the panels above a computer terminal in the corner of the room.
Toth shrieked, a holo-man now writhing and kicking his legs in sudden agony as they all watched in amazement.
“I give you my pleasure and pain, Great Lord!” Jezrul fired again, and flame erupted from the panel. To the right there was a loud clang, and voices. Michael saw a door there, the main entrance to the room.
“It’s locked!” yelled someone outside.
“Blow it!” Krisha’s voice.
“They’re here, Jezrul!” shouted Michael over the screams of Toth. “Let her go and you might live through this!”
“To live in your world? NEVER! Oh, Lord, do you feel it? Do you feel the loveliness of it? This is my gift to you!” Jezrul was backing up, dragging Kari towards the terminal. The door exploded inwards with a cloud of acrid smoke and marines poured into the room, Krisha in the middle of them, her visor up.
“Hold your fire, Krisha! She’s alive!”
The marines spread out around the back of the room, but Krisha stood near the door, rifle leveled at Jezrul, the taut muscles and veins in her arms standing out in high relief.
Twenty-five rifles were aimed at Jezrul as he backed towards the corner. Toth still screamed, his image flickering in and out. Kari was slumped against Jezrul, his arm around her chest. Michael saw her head move, her eyes opening, blinking rapidly as Jezrul dragged her towards the corner. And when he was there, still holding her tightly in front of him, he raised his rifle and brought the butt of it crashing down on the computer and controls there, smashing everything to junk and laughing insanely as he did it. Toth let out one final, agonized scream and his image disappeared, the room suddenly in gloom. Jezrul twisted around, fired two quick shots at a panel which fell away, bright light issuing forth to momentarily blind them, but in making his move his grip on Kari had loosened and she suddenly came back to life, dropping straight to the floor and out of his grasp, rolling away from him as twenty five assault rifles on full-automatic roared their approval. Jezrul’s body exploded, the impact of hundreds of bullets lifting him from the floor and smashing him into the panel opening where a figure danced grotesquely in a liquid-filled cylinder like an obscene puppet on strings, a living corpse connected to a thousand tubes and wires.
Shots miss
ing Jezrul shattered the cylinder, spraying liquid, shattering bones of a living skeleton without muscle or flesh, covered only with a layer of tissue-like skin, a lump that was a beating heart protruding from a shriveled chest. Skeleton arms flailed wildly as the bullets struck, and the mouth of a huge, cadaverous medusa head was open in a silent scream. The heart exploded in a shower of sparks; arms and legs shattered and fell away. The horrible head jerked again and again, then slumped forward to stare down at Jezrul’s ruined body as a sudden, terrible silence descended on the room. All stood in shock, magazines empty, staring at the cadaver that was Toth, wires and tubes stretching and relaxing in gentle rhythm, the connections to his world, the connections to his power now holding him in final death.
Kari sobbed and finally someone moved. Krisha rushed to her, swept her up in strong arms and carried her from the room as the others moved in to view the bodies.
“My God,” said a young marine, “what is it?”
“This is Toth,” said Michael, “Edward Tothman, a man who should have been dead a long time ago.” He turned and saw Nimri standing there, one arm limp, a marine holding him up. The man’s eyes were filled with tears.
“This is who you believed in, Counselor, this is who has been ruling your lives. Did you hear Jezrul? The things he did were by Toth’s orders, the orders of an ancient, failing mind that felt control slipping away. He was responsible, Counselor, and Jezrul was a tool, a tool that in the end turned against the master. It’s over, Nimri, they’re both gone. What will you now say to the people?”
“I don’t know,” croaked Nimri. Tears streaked his face. “Take him back to the bay and do what you can for his shoulder,” said Michael, and the marine holding Nimri half-carried him from the room.
There was a snap, then the sound of a rifle bolt slamming home. Osen stepped up to Michael’s side, aimed his loaded rifle at Jezrul and looked at Michael for a response. His expression was emotionless, a deadly expression Michael had seen once before on a darkened beach.
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