by Sean Platt
Coffey narrowed her eyes.
“They’ll never believe that.”
“I think they will. Think about it. This isn’t our fight. This is Benjamin Bannister’s grudge. I’m just some asshole who built an army in the outlands. Before Bannister stuck his face into our situation with the Astrals by sending Cameron, we were copacetic with ET. We helped in exchange for information. We got burned because of it, an eye for an eye.”
Nathan didn’t want to elaborate, but Coffey seemed to understand. He’d helped Cameron, but the Astrals had killed his wife and nearly killed his daughter. It wasn’t an even trade, but those who commanded the planet made the rules.
“So you’re turning on them. That’s what your message says.”
“‘Hey, you guys — there are some rebels out here, and they have what you want,’” Nathan said, quoting his message.
“You said it yourself. They still need Cameron to help find Thor’s Hammer.”
“Maybe there was more to the message. Detailing the location of Thor’s Hammer, somewhere under the Apex.”
Jeanine was still studying Nathan, trying to puzzle him out.
“You son of a bitch.”
Nathan put the binoculars back to his eyes, now seeing Piper and Cameron enter his view from the side. Walking straight at the front gate, which began to open obligingly.
“They’re dead anyway,” Nathan said.
CHAPTER 25
Terrence walked past the library before pausing then took a few steps back. He’d only seen who was inside from the corner of his eye, but it had been enough; the Titans were flashes of white inside their cloaks, and Meyer practically radiated a presence of his own.
Terrence peeked. His angle showed him Meyer but not the Titans. He stopped for a second, wondering if he should try to catch the viceroy’s eye. He finally decided to risk it, walking closer, waving a hand.
Meyer looked up. Their eyes met, and again some unspoken message passed between them. The same sort of unspoken message that Meyer had seemed to give Terrence earlier, up in the network center. A look that said, We should talk.
Terrence moved out of view, preparing a plausible excuse. He’d just been walking by. Raj had released him for a break, even suggested he head down to his office without guards to get sustenance for the long night ahead. If the Titans emerged first, he could keep walking. If they came out together, he had good reasons for having loitered before moving on. Maybe to pay his well-wishes to Meyer after his near-miss.
But the viceroy emerged alone. He snatched Terrence by the sleeve and dragged him forward. His eyes searched the hall, but the mansion, in the chaos, was busy.
“Raj’s office,” Terrence said.
They crossed the hall. Went down one corridor then entered the second room on the right. Meyer closed the door. He looked at Terrence, whom he’d practically thrown into the room. Then he just stared, as if made of wood. As if he was confused despite having started this.
“Raj thought he killed you,” Terrence said.
“He didn’t.”
“Do they know?”
Meyer looked around the room, possibly for someone else. “Who?”
“The Astrals.”
“Do they know what?”
“That you helped us. That you tried to get away.”
“I don’t know,” Meyer said, a strange look on his face. “Probably. Yes.”
Terrence didn’t know what to make of the answer. Upstairs, when Raj had been being his asshole self, gloating while Heather and Terrence were trussed and Lila grew angry, Meyer had what Terrence thought was a spontaneous change of heart. There should be more here. More information beyond a pat yes or no. Perhaps the seeds of a plan. An explanation of what had happened when he’d been picked up, for sure.
But Meyer simply stood there.
“I think I was confused,” he said.
“Confused about what?”
“Why did I shoot Raj? Why did I go with Heather?” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “It must have been a mistake. Do you know?”
“What are you talking about?”
“I hate Raj. I’ve always hated that kid. Heather does, too.”
“Yes, but — ”
“Have you made any progress on the network issue?”
“The network? You grabbed me.”
“I talked to Heather earlier. It made sense when I did. Did she tell you about it?”
“You mean earlier? Before you shot Raj?”
“No. Just recently. She didn’t believe me.”
Terrence felt like the room was spinning. “What … what didn’t she believe you about? Did you find a way to get her and the others out of here?”
“Cameron Bannister and Piper are on their way back,” Meyer said. It came out fast, practically blurted.
“Okay. So how do we get to them?”
“You’re a prisoner. You have to fix the problem.”
This was exasperating. He’d understood when Meyer threw him to the wolves, sending him with the Titans and Reptars up to the mothership before being called back. When they’d been caught by Raj and stood before Mo Weir, the choices were for them all to be caught or for Terrence to take the bullet. It was a choice between bad and worse, so Terrence went willingly. But now there was no threat. The house guards — both human and Astral — were again deferring to the viceroy’s authority. If he’d been suspected, he was now in the clear. So why should Terrence fall back on the blade?
“Lila, Clara, and Heather are where they belong.”
“You said you were going to send them out with Cameron and Piper.”
“No.”
“Why not?”
Meyer blinked. He looked lost — the exact opposite of Meyer Dempsey’s usual look. “They’re going to be caught. They were double-crossed. They have something the Astrals want, and now something the aliens want to know.”
Terrence bolted up. “We have to help them!”
“They’re enemies of the state.”
“Piper is your wife!”
Meyer blinked. “Get back to work, Terrence.”
“You pulled me in here!”
“You waved.”
“Goddammit, Meyer!” Terrence wanted to grab the viceroy and shake him. “You helped before. What happened? Did they scare you? Turn you chickenshit, only thinking about your own neck?”
“I … I made some kind of a mistake.”
“When!” It wasn’t a question. It came out of Terrence as an exasperated shout. Meyer seemed to be attempting to explain his actions to himself, and the results weren’t gelling.
“Maybe with Heather. Something I said. But Piper … ” Again, he pinched his nose, looking for all the world like he might collapse in the grip of a migraine.
“The guards carry walkies,” Terrence said, realizing he’d need to take charge if anything was to happen. “They’re short-range radio and won’t be affected by Canned Heat. Call them. Tell them to let Piper and Cameron through. We can get down there. You can give them a pass. Let them into the house here, anything. The humans aren’t a problem. Keep them from the Astrals. That’s all.”
“They’re carrying something.”
“Then take it. Keep it. Hand it to the Astrals if they insist. But Piper and Cameron — ”
“Are dissidents,” Meyer announced suddenly, pulling himself upright. “There are plenty of guards deployed. That part is handled.”
“But — ”
“Fix the problem,” Meyer said.
Then he left, leaving Terrence feeling lost. He stormed between the Titans at the door.
The Titans beckoned.
And Terrence followed.
CHAPTER 26
Spots were bright overhead, pole mounted and solo, too harsh for ordinary lighting. A generator purred in the distance. Gates yawned to the left and right.
Piper was thinking of reaching for Cameron’s hand, beside the satchel and key. She flicked her fingers and decided not to take it. She’d leaned
on men too much, and there wasn’t a time so far it hadn’t landed her in trouble. Poor little Piper, capable of shooting a man but unable to keep her shit together without protection. Well, that girl was gone. Dead. She’d been murdered, many times now.
Instead, Cameron’s hand reached for hers. Shaking, he took it.
“You don’t think this is going to work.”
“I’ve done this before. It’s like you said. This was stupid.” Cameron looked over his shoulder. “We could run. We’re barely through. They’d chase us, but they might not shoot. Probably wouldn’t. If they hit me, they hit the key. And they need the key.”
Piper repeated Cameron’s words back to him. “It’s the only chance.”
“They opened the doors. They’ll be waiting.”
Reflexively, Piper’s eyes searched the gate area for the shadow creature, but she was too keyed up, too high on adrenaline. She couldn’t settle her eyes enough to see it. She was focus personified. Everything seemed interesting. Everything a threat.
“We’re handing them the key on a silver platter. We should have left it with Nathan. Maybe he’ll be able to sneak in once their eyes are on us; who knows.” Cameron’s teeth wanted to grind together. He touched the satchel. “I could smash it.”
They’d discussed that, too. There were too many unknowns. If smashing the key was the solution to solving Earth’s Astral problems, the Templars would have smashed it long ago. But they hadn’t. They’d kept it protected and whole, as if it was important to humanity as well.
Instead of giving Cameron the answer he already knew, she squeezed his hand. She kept her feet moving, forcing his to move right beside her.
But Cameron was right. This had been done. Last time, she’d been inside the city walls, wanted and trapped. Cameron’s permitted entrance had heralded her exodus. Now she’d returned. There were no Astrals in sight, but she could feel them watching her nonetheless.
But he said what they needed was here, along with what they needed to do.
The gates fell to their rear. The air was still. Lights were bright, like spotlights on their progress. Both sides had their cards on the table. It wasn’t a matter of concealment. Or a question of trickery. It was a matter of who would be the first to flinch.
They entered the slow, upward-sloping entrance valley. Their chance to turn and run, if it had ever been a real thing, vanished by the step.
Piper’s eyes found the Apex. It was pulsing faster than normal, particularly visible now that most of the city’s lights had gone dark. Heaven’s Veil’s usual sounds were quiet beneath the generator, as if the city was holding its breath.
“Do we just walk right up to it?” she asked.
“I think something’s supposed to happen first.”
Piper’s head ticked toward Cameron. His earlier secrets seemed to rear back up, reminding Piper that he hadn’t quite told her the full truth. He was looking mostly forward, his eyes in the distance. Not just watching. But waiting as well.
She looked back. Toward the open pan, where Andreus and Coffey were hiding with Charlie and Andreus’s daughter, Grace. They kept trying to take the group’s lead. They were the soldiers. But Andreus had seemed to be holding something back as well. Officially, the Astrals wanted the key and knew Cameron had it. Leaving the less-sought-after members of their group behind was supposed to be insurance.
Maybe.
Maybe not.
Up the rise. Between the buildings at the city’s main thoroughfare, mostly dark. A few curious faces appeared at windows, watching the newcomers march into their midst.
Piper heard something at the rear. She turned to see the big gates closing. There was an indifferent air to the swinging doors, casual emotion somehow conveyed by the movement of metal and wood. Now you’re inside, it said. So let’s get comfy.
Piper heard the grating of grit and rock.
Two large white forms appeared between the buildings to their rear, on the right. Another two Titans emerged on the left.
“Piper.”
She turned back to see Cameron’s face then turned farther to follow his gaze. Titans were emerging there as well. Percolating between the dark buildings like water gurgling up through the cracks. Forming a long double row with a clear spot through the middle, like a gauntlet.
More Titans.
And more.
Piper’s heart slammed into her ribs. She looked around in a circle, seeing Titans lined behind them to the gate, then in front in the long, curving line of buildings ahead.
“What do we do?”
“Keep walking.”
The line of bald white heads turned placidly to watch them pass. Piper’s mind kept returning to Cottonwood, watching the Titan guards become the prowling black Reptars. Were all masks now off? Would these Titans hesitate to change, having already shown humanity that particular trick?
“Cam … ”
Cameron still seemed to be focused somewhere else, walking slowly, at least one trick still seemingly up his sleeve.
“Any time now,” he said.
CHAPTER 27
“Jesus.”
Christopher turned. Jons was staring straight ahead, past the station’s wall. Uniformed officers were streaming out like water, headed toward the city’s front.
The big man pushed past Christopher, grabbing a kid who looked about fifteen by the back of the shirt, stopping him sharp. The kid’s hand flinched toward his sidearm, but when his wild eyes saw it was Captain Jons who’d snatched him, they ratcheted down.
“Where are you going?” Jons demanded.
“Word on the walkies,” said the kid. “From the house.”
“What word?”
“From … ” The kid swallowed, eyes flicking to Christopher. “From the viceroy.”
“Meyer Dempsey doesn’t call the shots here. I do.”
“Sir. Sorry. He said the gates are open and undefended. Some sort of mix-up. An oversight at the house because of problems with the grid.”
“Dempsey told you this.”
“Through Guard Commander, Sir. I’m sorry. Burmeister took the call. When he couldn’t find you, he sent everyone out. We’re to secure the gate.”
“Guard Commander,” Christopher said. “Raj.”
“They watch the fences, not us,” Jons told the kid, giving Christopher a nod of acknowledgement.
“Sorry sir. Burmeister said — ”
“Shit. Just go.” He released the young cop’s shirt, causing him to stumble. The kid looked back then seemed to take Jons’s mumbled assent as an order and shambled on, leaving the small plaza around the station with the others.
He turned to Christopher. “I guess this is news to you, too?”
Christopher nodded, confused.
“‘The gates are open.’ Why would the gates be open?”
“It’s Raj. There’s no way that came from Dempsey. It might mean nothing. Probably means nothing.”
“Unless Dempsey knows something. Knows your people are coming.”
There was motion overhead. Cameron looked up, saw a trio of shuttles cross the space between the buildings’ peaks and the mothership, headed toward the cops.
“Looks like they know, too.”
“Level with me, Chris. What the shit are they trying to pull? They’ve tried to hit the city repeatedly. Tried to crash a plane into the viceroy mansion. Bannister walked right the fuck into the city and was busted out by a goddamned tank from nowhere while the shuttles kept their asses docked and allowed it to happen. I know we’re just puppets, but it’s goddamn hard to do my job if I don’t know what I’m supposed to be protecting, and against what.”
“I have no idea. Terrence had no idea. The networks are down.”
“But you knew they were coming.”
“That’s harder to explain,” Christopher said, thinking of Clara.
Jons moved. Christopher followed, both men heading in the flow’s general direction at a light jog. Shuttles buzzed overhead. A stream of Reptar t
raffic packed parallel alleys, all attention moving toward the gates. But the Astrals must have suspected something more as well because Christopher could see another group of shuttles making slow laps of the perimeter, swarming the city’s other edges like water circling a drain.
“What do they want, Chris? Why would they just walk right the hell into the middle of the city? I’m on your side, you hear me? But I can’t help dumb motherfuckers who get themselves surrounded the second they step into enemy territory.”
“I don’t know.”
Christopher stopped when Jons practically clotheslined him with his big arm. In front of them, as they rounded a corner, was a line of cloaks: Titans, in their usual monklike uniforms.
Dozens of them, stone still. Thick in a circle, moving away from the curbs and into the open street ahead, surrounding something.
Jons whispered, “I want to help, but I can’t unless you tell me what the hell these dumb assholes think they’re doing!”
“I … I don’t know,” Christopher stammered.
Then many things happened, all at once.
CHAPTER 28
Clara would’t go to bed.
She was mad at Lila for not playing along earlier, when she’d wanted to watch the Apex for “something neat” that it was supposed to do. Lila’s nagging insistence on storming away from Grandma Heather’s place (or, really, Terrence’s place, where Grandma Heather was mired in a psychotic episode) had caused Clara to miss the neat thing she’d been hoping to see. That had immediately become a source of friction. She was pouting, excited, angry, manic. A bit psychotic, like Grandma.
Grandma, who kept screwing with Lila in such unfair ways.
When they’d reentered the mansion, Lila had nearly knocked Mo Weir flat. He’d been bustling across the rear hallway, hell bent on getting somewhere fast for something apparently important. Lila thought of stopping him, of asking sideways questions that would tell her just how batshit her own mother was. Seeing Meyer’s murder had shattered something inside her. Lila felt it broken inside herself as well, but she was dealing with the tragedy in a normal way. Without changing history. She wasn’t trying to take back her earlier assertions that certain people had left the planet — in, Lila thought with black amusement, the old meaning of the phrase rather than the new one.