“Strix, I need answers,” She said.
“That is indeed our purpose,” said Strix as his electroluminescent feathers sparkled. “What sort of answers do you need from us?”
“Who the hell is Belasi LaCrone and why is he involved with my dad?”
“My current database lists Belasi LaCrone as owner of the Divinex Corporation.”
“What else?”
“This is indeed peculiar,” said Strix. “We have no data regarding the man’s birth, education or family. No information is available to account for Mr. LaCrone prior to the war.”
“What does that mean? Did he just suddenly appear and buy up everything in sight?”
“I’m sorry, Callista,” said Strix. “All other information for Mr. LaCrone is related to his financial stake in Divinex. I’m afraid we can’t be of any more help.”
“Where can I find him?”
“That may prove difficult, Callista.”
“Why?”
“The man doesn’t appear to have a residence.”
“What do you mean? Where does he live then?”
“Unknown.”
“Who would know where to find him?”
“Our creator, Blaise Lorrance.”
“I want to talk to him tonight and I won’t take no for an answer.”
“We see there is no reasoning with you, Callista. You can find Doctor Lorrance at the Museum of the Future this evening.”
“I thought that place closed down years ago.”
“You can find him there,” Strix went on. “Doctor Lorrance is well acquainted with Mr. LaCrone.”
…
Chapter 21
Museum of the Future
That night, Lucas and Morgan snuck out to meet Callista at the cable car station near her house.
When they got there, Morgan wrapped his arms around her shoulders and moved in to kiss her. She accepted the embrace but turned away from the kiss. There seemed to be more space between them than there should be, an invisible and unnavigable gulf built out of something neither understood.
She commented on the growing change in Lucas’s appearance. The newfound straightness of posture put him perhaps an inch taller than Morgan. The rosy rash on his face and neck was gone. The bags under his eyes had drained and given life to a healthy glimmer.
“What happened?” She asked. “You look so different, even since the last time I saw you.”
“I don’t know what’s happening to me,” said Lucas.
Morgan chimed in, saying, “Whatever it is, it looks good on you.”
They took the cable car all the way downtown. That area of the city usually emptied in the evening but, that night, the streets were bustling with the manic energy of Twentieth Century Mardi Gras. The bussed-in crowd had filled the valley by the Bastion and was now taking the hill. People had tents and lanterns set up, like a ramshackle village in the middle of the modern metropolis.
“They’re everywhere,” said Morgan.
They walked four blocks before they made it to Neptune Street, the oldest part of downtown, where the Museum of the Future stood nearly abandoned. The place should have been deserted but the lights were on inside and the front door was open next to a welcome sign.
“My Dad told me about this place,” said Callista. “He said it’s been practically forgotten.”
“People gave up on the future,” said Lucas. “Right around the time we all were born.”
The distinctive building that housed The Museum of the Future was shaped like a giant round eyeglass lens. Dusty and salt-stained mirrored glass made up the outside of the structure. A few of the glass panels had been broken over the years and never replaced. What was once a tourist destination and pride of the city had now fallen into total disrepair.
“This place looks like it’s going to fall over any minute,” said Morgan. “Is this really where we’re supposed to meet Dr. Lorrance?”
“I haven’t heard of any other Museums of the Future in town,” said Lucas.
Some lights were definitely burning inside. A faint white glow was coming out of the entrance and classical music played in the lobby. Then, a man’s voice echoed through the museum and out to the street. It sounded like some stage performance, loud, dramatic and booming.
“Help me, Strix!” said the voice. “Give me more strength to fight him! Help me, you master of life and death!”
“I’m thinking we don’t need to go in there,” said Morgan. “Whoever is in there, they sound pretty busy. We can always come back tomorrow.”
“What are you, scared?” Callista asked him with a smile.
Without a word, Lucas had already started for the door. He made it to the lobby of the museum before Callista and Morgan caught up. The boy seemed so fearless and determined in that moment. Lucas’s unflinching manner had come out of nowhere. Morgan and Callista could think of nothing other than to follow him.
“No, not now,” said the voice, which was sounding more and more like Blaise Lorrance. “Stay away, you bastard! You won’t get what you want!”
All of a sudden, another voice echoed through the museum hallway.
Louder, hissy and at the same time thunderous, the voice told Lorrance to, “be quiet, you small man. You’re lucky to have met me.”
Lucas, Callista and Morgan froze in the middle of their steps. They couldn’t see anyone but the voices were getting louder.
The second, more frightening voice, went on, “You’ve done this, Lorrance. You. This was your dream.”
“No. I didn’t… I don’t…” Then Lorrance screamed, “Who are you? Why are you doing this?”
“Oh, shut up, old fool. Why don’t you ask your friend, the owl, who I really am?”
“No…”
“Go ahead, ask Strix who I am.”
“No. I won’t.”
“Of course you won’t because you already know the answer. You know exactly who I am, Lorrance.”
Lucas, Callista and Morgan had their hands over their mouths in order to not make a sound. They were so still that they could nearly feel each other’s hearts beating.
“Mister LaCrone,” said Lorrance. “Please. I know there is another way. Just let me think. Just give me some time away from this terror to think. I’ll come up with a plan. We don’t have to do this. Please.”
The other voice chuckled, telling Blaise Lorrance, “WE have already set this in motion. WE both know it’s too late.”
With Callista and Morgan behind him, Lucas tiptoed forward until Lorrance and LaCrone were just around the corner in the Twenty First Century art room. They could see Lorrance’s willowy shadow cast on one of the dusty walls. Another shadow emerged in the reflected light. This one was perhaps a foot taller, with a strangely indeterminate form, turning from a bulky blob to a tall and terrifying collection of steep angles.
“I’m gonna confront them,” Lucas whispered.
“Are you crazy?” Morgan whispered.
“No. Don’t,” whispered Callista. “That man is dangerous.”
Lucas didn’t listen. He stood up and confidently walked around the corner. At first, Morgan and Callista stayed behind. Then eventually, something compelled them to follow.
“We need to talk, LaCrone!” barked Lucas as he turned the corner.
However, when he got there, only Blaise Lorrance was standing in the museum chamber. The old man became startled when he saw the three of them. It was as though he had just been woken from a dream and he was still sorting out the world.
“Children,” he said, “what are you doing here?” Something caught Lorrance’s attention and he cocked his head toward the ceiling.
However, nothing seemed to be there. The museum air was cold and empty aside from the four of them.
“We really need to talk to you, Doctor Lorrance,” said Callista. “It seems like something strange is going on.”
Lorrance stroked his left eyebrow. “Strange, indeed,” he said.
“We heard you talking to that
LaCrone guy,” said Lucas. “Where did he go?”
“Who is he?” Callista asked. “And what does he want with my father?”
“I’m afraid I don’t have all the answers,” Lorrance said. “Mister LaCrone is as much a mystery to me as he is to many others.”
“What does he want?” Asked Morgan.
Lorrance didn’t answer. Instead he became distracted again, following something moving overhead, something only he could see. He started to walk over to one of the dioramas along the wall, sending on the lights inside the glass.
“Look over here,” he said.
In the diorama, a swarm of miniature helicopters moved sections of titanium to form a part of the Bastion. The coordination of the build seemed insect-like in its precision.
“I remember that day,” said Lorrance. “We had to wait for a tranquil day at sea to start putting in the titanium frame. I remember being so nervous,” he went on. “Everyone thought it would fail and turn into a disaster. By that day, even I wasn’t sure what would happen.” He glanced up to the ceiling again, nodding to something that no one else could see.
“Is everything OK, Dr. Lorrance?” Lucas asked him. “You keep looking at something on the ceiling.”
“Oh,” said Lorrance as though he had been caught. “Forgive an old man. I’m afraid I’m sometimes prone to distractions.”
Staring at the diorama, Callista told Lorrance, “You called Strix your greatest invention. Do you really mean greater than the Bastion?”
“No question about it,” said Blaise Lorrance. “The Bastion is just a wall. Strix, my dear, is a window.”
“A window to what?” Morgan asked.
“The truth,” said Lorrance. “That we see only the shadow and barely any of the substance of the real world. It’s taken me my entire life to develop into the man that built Strix.”
Lucas asked him, “Why me? Why us?”
The muscles in Lorrance’s face went limp and he turned his glance to the ceiling. “To tell you the truth, my boy, I don’t entirely know. After all, it was Strix who chose you. I know enough not to question him.”
Callista was still waiting for answer regarding Belasi LaCrone and the man’s relationship with her father. She asked Lorrance, “How come you don’t want to tell us about Mr. LaCrone? What’s the man after?”
Lorrance considered the question carefully. “Revenge,” he said.
“Revenge for what?”
“I suppose revenge for the world not living up to what he wanted.”
“I know he was just here. Where can we find him?” asked Callista. “I need to talk to him. I want to find out what he has to do with my father.”
“You look out over Mr. LaCrone every night, Callista.”
“That’s who lives on top of the Bastion,” she said.
Lorrance nodded, telling her, “Not that you can get up there, my dear. It’s a fairly secure location. Also, I don’t know of many people who have snuck up there to share the tale.”
There had been stories circulating for years about curious teenagers, thrill seekers and the suicidal sneaking up there for a variety of reasons. Most were washed away. A few had survived being up there, but they were badly damaged by the experience. One had become deaf from the sound of a crashing wave. A few had gone mad just from the sight of the ocean.
“You built the Bastion,” said Callista. “You know how to get to the top.”
Lorrance smirked, saying, “Of course I do, my dear. It can be done safely, but the trip isn’t for the faint of heart.”
“It’s crazy,” said Morgan to her. “My dad works there and he’s only heard about people trying for the top. One guy he heard got drunk, went up there for all of about five seconds before he was deaf, speechless and drooling. Who knows how many people just got knocked into the drink?”
“I have to go up,” argued Callista. “Something is wrong with my dad and there is no other way to help him.”
“What do you expect to do?” Morgan argued back. “Give LaCrone a wedgie until he agrees to stop whatever his secret plan is? It’s too dangerous. I won’t let you go.”
The tension between Morgan and Callista in the matter made Blaise Lorrance smile. “You have to admire the protective instinct,” he told them. “Ahh, young love.”
Callista didn’t appreciate Morgan’s chivalrous attitude. She told him, “If you’re scared to go, that’s fine but you won’t stop me. He’s my dad. I don’t have a choice.”
Lucas, who had been stoic and quiet, finally spoke up. He told them, “I’ve read about the design of the Bastion. I know how to get up there. There’s a small elevator leading to the inertial dampeners.”
“You’re both crazy!” said Morgan. “We could just wait to talk to him when he’s ON THE GROUND.”
“That may be difficult,” Lorrance interjected. “He doesn’t come down often but when he does, it’s often unpredictable in timing.”
“We can’t do it tonight,” Lucas went on as though forming the plan exclusively for himself. “The ocean’s too rough. Morgan’s right; we’ll get washed away. We’ll have to wait for a time when it’s calm. Then we go up.”
“It seems a plan has been formulated,” said Lorrance, clapping his palms together.
Morgan told Lucas, “I don’t know who this new guy is but he’s gonna get himself killed.”
“Indeed, Lucas,” said Lorrance. “I did notice a rather remarkable change come over you as of late. I must say it’s very becoming.”
…
When they left the museum, the streets were saturated with the aimless and destitute crowd. The shouting and lively commotion seemed somehow even more threatening than the silence of the empty street. No police were anywhere in sight to break up the loose assembly.
A sudden crash made all three flinch.
Down the street, a car had been driven through the plate glass front window of a jewelry store. A throng of people were clogged trying to get inside. “Whew hoo!” One shouted. “It’s our city now!” The looters flowed into the store but quickly became disappointed when they couldn’t find anything valuable inside. “There’s nothing!” one of the men shouted. “What the hell! They’re already cleaned out!”
On the neighboring block, a group of a dozen looters was in the middle of climbing though the broken front window of a fancy pastry shop. To their consternation, the rows in the front cabinet were completely empty. The group smashed every solid piece of glass in the store before giving up the search.
“We better get out of here,” said Lucas. “It’s not safe.”
“Where are the cops?” Morgan asked. “This is one of the richest blocks in the city. It’s just getting destroyed.”
“There doesn’t seem to be much left to destroy,” said Callista. “It seems like all that’s left is just the city’s skeleton.”
They noticed something move in the adjacent alley. Deep in the darkness, red strokes, like dim lightning, formed on the concrete wall. Eyes, two predatory spotlights, and a set of pointed ears hissed into shape. The strokes of spray paint pointed to a hand in the dark.
Nox Jaborosa stood naked in front of them, his face blank and hand moving in a slow wave. He had red paint and dirt all over him. The whites of his eyes were like tiny supernovas, beaming psychotic energy.
“It’s him!” Nox shouted, pointing to his spray painted drawing. “It’s our friend, Strix! I’ve been following you. Come and see!”
The three of them stood at the edge of the alley while Nox went back to his painting. Callista started to walk over to him but Morgan stopped her.
“Stay back,” he told her. “That kid is dangerous.”
“He knows something about what’s going on,” Callista argued. “We need to talk to him.”
Lucas took a step into the alley asking Nox, “How do you know so much about what’s happening, about Strix?”
Nox’s hand froze, clenching the can of spray paint. He smiled like a creepy marionette, saying, “He beamed i
t into me, Lucas Mucus. It should have killed me but it didn’t. My mind should have been destroyed.”
“Why is all this happening, Nox?” Lucas asked him. “Who is Belasi LaCrone?”
“The world stopped spinning when Lorrance built the Bastion. It needed to die but he saved it. He went against nature to save it. He thought he was doing the right thing.”
“Who is Belasi LaCrone?” Lucas asked.
“He’s nature,” said Nox blankly. “Strix is nature.”
“What does nature want?”
“To start over. To kill the parasite.”
“What,” Lucas started to ask, “do you mean by parasite. What parasite?”
“You’re not part of the parasite, Lucas Mucus,” said Nox. “None of us are. We’re special, you see. We’re part of the plan.”
“What plan?” Callista asked, taking a step into the alley. “What do any of us or my dad have to do with anything?”
Nox told Callista, “You’ve seen the plan. Don’t you remember?”
“I haven’t seen anything,” said Callista. “I don’t know about any plan.”
“In your father’s office,” said Nox. “It glows. You’ve seen it inside the dome. The plan glows. If you can see it.”
Callista remembered the electronic map in her father’s office. “I think I know what he’s talking about,” she told Lucas and Morgan. “My dad had something very strange in his office.” She asked Nox, “Nox, how do you know about the map or plan as you call it? Have you seen it too?”
Nox looked confused, rubbing his head with his paint-covered hands in an effort to think. “I can’t see the whole plan,” he said as though thinking about it was physically painful. “I try but Strix won’t show me. All I can hear is waves and wind.”
Strix had been powered down the entire trip but suddenly lit up the alley with his eyes. “Nox,” said the owl, “you know you aren’t supposed to bother these three. We believe we’ve made that clear.”
Nox’s face turned a shade of horror. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m sorry, Strix. I didn’t know. They came here and started talking to me. I didn’t know.”
Break the Bastion Page 20