Slave Line (The Young Ancients)

by Power, P. S.

  "Well, we're just here for information. Maybe there's some way to disable their nano's or something? Get them to all settle down maybe?" If so he'd vote for that one too. He may not have the fake guilt and punishment from his own mind coming for ordering their deaths, but he didn't want to kill people either.

  "Possibly, it will be tricky if it works at all, but I hope to place them all in a low energy use mode. If that can be triggered it will make them fairly docile and easy to manage. I should have insisted we rebuild the system before this new generation was created, but too late for that now. The hard part isn't making the correct nano's for it, it's the delivery. Chances are they won't just report for processing if there's a real problem."

  Tor kind of figured that they'd be attacked in the bay as they hovered over the water, waiting. It was a good place for one, especially if they didn't understand that this craft was the same one that tried to chase their Austran fast flyer before. It probably looked like it was floating in the water from a distance, so they might think it was a water vessel. Trice had hers doing the same thing not ten feet away.

  Instead, when the small patrol boat popped up, the men on board just waved after looking at them and gestured for them to follow along. It was almost too easy, but Denno seemed to think it was normal. When they all climbed out on the dock they were met by a man and a woman dressed in decorated jump suites. Both a plain tan but with shiny buttons and name tags on the left side of the chest. Tor thought they were anyway, but they both just had numbers and letters that didn't form a word he could read. Different for each though.

  Denno shook hands with each of them, so Tor stepped up and did the same, smiling as he did. The others all stood back, but the people seemed friendly enough. Denno introduced them all then indicated to the two meeting them with a subtle hand gesture.

  "These people are from the Internal Protective Service. They don't have names, just designations. Their training and devotion to keeping Austra safe is quite total. So, you understand, if you can help it don't do anything to threaten the nation while you're here. They'd do anything they had to in order to protect it."

  Tor looked at everyone and got the idea.

  These were the ones to send after the Larvals then. The representatives of these people at least if not these two personally. Basically they were like the Royal guard, only for Austra. Fanatics trained to only be their job. A powerful thing to have around, but kind of creepy to do to a child, wasn't it? They were basically slaves it sounded like. So were the King's protectors though. Babies that showed promise and had no parents were taken in and trained in almost monstrous ways. Tor wondered if it was the same for the Internal Protection Service? The only thing he knew for certain was that they protected Austra, not Brown.

  If they'd been protecting him there was no way Glost Serge could have kept him captive for a year. Even if they were horrible at their jobs. If that had been the case though, then these two would be dead, not standing there playing guide. No, they hadn't moved to help Denno, because it just wasn't what they did.

  They put the Carriages away and rode in a big electrically powered vehicle, similar to a wagon, but with tracks on the ground. They had the whole thing to themselves, but it was very exposed to attack with big windows that covered most of the sides. Everyone on the street could see them. Tor made a point of getting his weapon out, seeing that Orange already had. She was guarding the right side, looking out the window, so he moved to take the left, wondering if an attack would come any time soon.

  The inside would have made Red happy. Black too most likely, since it was covered in smooth surfaces in those colors. The seats red, the floor black. All of it slightly off to the touch. Slick and sticky feeling.

  People kept waving to them. At first Tor thought they wanted them to stop, since it was a public conveyance that the Internal Protective Service woman had co-opted without comment, just flashing a small tab at the driver. It wasn't that though, the people on the street were taking pictures and waving happily. Like their arrival had been planned almost. Like they knew who was on the ground transport.

  Tor wanted to hit Denno then. Hard.

  The man was a genius, but could also be a moron at times.

  "Is this going out over your information system Brown? The same one that every Larval can watch at any time? Please tell me no one in Austra is that dumb." Tor knew the answer, seeing that almost every single person on the street was holding up a small device to record their passing. So much for not alerting the assassins to their presence.

  Orange groaned, which was a disgusted sound, and for once so did Burks. Trice took out her own weapon, getting ready, shaking her head angrily.

  "Of all the stupid... Is this a set up Brown? Are you trying to get us all killed?" Alice half stood and started to point her multi-weapon at the man.

  He went wide eyed and spread his hands innocently, "I swear I don't know how they know that we're here. We aren't so visible word of our arrival should have been announced yet, unless someone in the... Ah."

  Tor scanned the horizon, his view stopped a short distance away be the walls of the canyon of buildings around them. They were tall things, the largest structures he'd ever seen in height. All made of ugly gray stone that didn't look real somehow. The Austrans made almost everything here out of something similar. They had a lot of clear glass windows though, which glinted nicely in the sun. It was a nice day at least, so one thing had gone well for them. For the people taking pictures of them too, no doubt.

  "That isn't very helpful Denno... "Ah" what? Who did what and do we need to run?" Tor felt a fine edge of panic bubbling up inside of his stomach, the situation feeling off enough to bring about real fear. They rode in silence for a few moments until the Brown Ancient asked if he could use one of the tan clad agents phones. Tor got that he meant a communication device, which apparently everyone here carried. Even some of the children on the street had them.

  It took a few minutes, but Denno had the new Premier on the line faster than Tor could have gotten the King of Noram, and an explanation came quickly, as soon as he turned the device off with a tiny chirp.

  "I thought that might be the case. It seems that, since you Tor, are the Ambassador to Afrak and Burkes is the Noram Ancient, we're being accorded a place as dignitaries. Unfortunately that means that everyone within ten feet of a communications device that cares to know of our arrival has been tracking us for over an hour. Rather a bit of an event, since you two didn't stop to visit last time we were here. Oops. Rather not what I'd hoped for. I guess we should have taken Tor's plan into consideration after all." He had a strained look on his face then, nearly panicked.

  Grand.

  Tor shook his head, trying to deny the whole thing and then made himself stand and look at everyone in turn. No one seemed to know what to do particularly. That or they were waiting to see what the new kid could manage. If so they were being ridiculous. He wasn't some kind of spy or combat leader. What the heck was he supposed to do, bake them out of the problem? Use magic?

  They had that at least.

  "Fine, everyone use your disguise amulets. Um, Burks, Trice, help the others. Match the..." He waved at the agents, not knowing what to call them. Ips? "Get into tan outfits like theirs and produce wild looking hair, face markings, scars and that kind of thing. Make it unique. That's the thing here. Everyone shows they're the same by trying to look like they're different from everyone else. Looking plain will call attention." It took minutes for them all to make the changes and people could see them through the windows, but by the time they were done they all looked like a bunch of government workers acting as decoys. That's what the female IPS person said at least. Her hair was blue and green in stripes, but short, so as to not be easily pulled in a fight. It was a good plan.

  Tor went with facial tattoos in bright glowing orange. Three bold lines. It had to be hideous, but Denno nodded at it and turned into "Greg" the servant he'd pretended to be in Noram, only with pure white hair.
>
  Then they got out and walked, the vehicle they were in being driven off, the driver bribed not to let anyone on for at least half a mile. That gave them about three or four minutes to vanish, Tor guessed, heading into a shop suddenly, not waiting for anyone else to do anything or make a suggestion. Once inside he changed to a blue jump suit outfit and made his hair green with black tips and his face a bit more round. Everyone else caught the idea, except the Austran government people who didn't have any way to change their appearance like the others did. Not yet.

  They did this several more times, with Tor finally looking like a tall boy of about ten with fire red hair and ice blue eyes. His skin was dark brown and really, he knew, he had to look like Abby's younger brother or something. No one thought it was odd at all on the street, even going to far as to look away after a quick glance, avoiding eye contact.

  Perfect.

  It was a long walk, almost fifteen miles through the winding streets of the giant city, but they finally did exactly what Denno had suggested earlier and walked right in to the Parliament building, changing back into themselves to get past the security systems. They still had to wait for someone to come and let them in, once they were shown to not have any weapons or bombs. They did have weapons, but Tor didn't correct them. It wasn't his job to point out how dangerous they were, was it? These people trusted their scanners far too much though.

  No one else said anything either.

  The man that came for them was fat. Not just slightly plump, but truly heavy, wiggling a little as he walked over to meet them. He didn't look fit at all, but the man still held an air of menace about him, like he could kill a man and not lose sleep over the idea. He had no visible weapons, but Tor didn't doubt for a minute that they were all about to be hit by something if they didn't prove to be who they'd claimed.

  Then the man saw Brown and smiled, which even looked genuine. Since it was going from suspicious and dangerous to happy it looked wrong, like something had warped inside the man instead of his face just lighting up.

  "Denorian Brown! How good to see you sir. Are you back finally for good? Been nearly a year trying to hold all this together without you. New Premier is a power hungry ass no better than the last if you want my opinion. Best boot him out of office while we have the chance, find some nice young and tractable person to do the job. Definitely for the best." The man was so straight faced that Tor didn't get it until it was explained. Denno opened a palm toward the man.

  "Well you have the job for now Foley. I don't suppose you know where my boys have gotten to do you? Still at the base I trust, not deployed trying to kill people? We had a small incident the other day. Ten Thor missiles launched from an Alpha class plane hit the location we were all at. In a foreign land. A bit of an act of war, since it nearly destroyed representatives from nearly every continent. I don't supposed you'd know anything about that? You were in charge in my absence after all." The words were as close to hostile as Denno had ever been in Tor's presence. He nearly growled them even. It didn't fit the face though, which was young and pretty, smooth and ageless. It kind of took some of the power out of it as far as being threatening went.

  The man looked ready to soil himself anyway.

  "No sir! Honestly I have no knowledge of this."

  "Good. Then you won't mind if I check that out? Torrance Purple, will you use one of your verification devices on the Premier here. It will save time."

  He sounded like he knew the answer already, but after Tor slipped the amulet on its hemp string around the chubby mans neck, making him glow cheerily, he was cleared in about a minute.

  "I seriously don't know anything about this. The last I checked, which was... about a week ago, I think, the Larval were all accounted for. Are you certain it was them? It would be hard to steal and return an aircraft like that, but they aren't the only group that could pull it off. IPS could do it, so could the Air force, if it came from the top. I could do it, of course, but didn't. Maybe even those commando's from Noram could pull it off? When they came in on Easter the bastards just did what they wanted and all our forces could do to stop them was surrender. They didn't even use lethal weapons for the most part, except on the tanks. They just walked right up to our lines and knocked everyone out. Except for Serge and his daughter. Those two they took out immediately. I think they wouldn't need to take one of our fighter jets though." The man was turning an unfortunate red color, not getting that everyone just believed what he was saying for some reason. Probably due to the fact that he didn't know they could tell if he was lying or not.

  "Clear." Tor said, letting the man off the hook. He turned to Denno, waiting for any more questions to come. There were some, but the man didn't fib until asked if he wanted to stay Premier. He said no, but the black flash told them all it was a lie.

  When that was pointed out to him the fat gentleman in front of them just shrugged.

  "I do like the credits. Half a million a year will keep me in comfort in my retirement, don't you think? I just need the job long enough to draw the long term pension. Two years of service and I'm set for life."

  It was true, and Denno laughed about it, but Tor didn't get what it all meant instantly. Cordes slowly dribbled information about pensions into his mind, putting it forward very carefully and making it really obvious where the information was coming from. Nice of him to be so considerate, Tor decided. If he kept that up they really could get along. It couldn't be easy for the Ancient in his mind to do it though. That kind of control being used all the time had to be brutal.

  They were taken to a boring looking room done in beige that had a table and chairs, but not much else, and got asked to wait while Denno and Foley went to make "calls". About both the Larvals and the disposition of the aircraft, Tor figured. They were left waiting for a long time, no one bothering to come back at all. After nearly two hours Tor was just about to go and look for Brown himself, even if it would cause problems, when the two men came back into the space at a fast walk.

  Denno looked around, eyes uncomfortable enough that Tor let his hand find the multi-weapon in his right hand shirt pocket, the one just above his waist. He didn't wait to pull it, aiming it under the table at Denno and the man next to him. Just the force lance setting, which would only knock them down, but it was a strong one. It wouldn't go through his own shields coming toward a person, so that covered the Ancient, but the other man would be hurting if he didn't have some kind of protection on his person. He made ready to activate it when Foley spoke, his voice sound confused, rather than dangerous.

  "Some Larvals, about fifty of them, they've taken a small rural town in the south-west. Queensland. They're demanding that the Ancient turn himself over to them, or they'll slaughter everyone there. It's thousands of people, three thousand four hundred and seventy-two." He seemed upset by the idea.

  Tor could sympathize, since Denno was saying that he'd have to go. After all, they were his responsibility. Brown also seemed to believe they could be reasoned with.

  "That would make sense as long as they don't have Cordes inside calling the shots. As far as I can tell that version hates you all. Can you get that nano shutdown thing ready quickly?" He looked at the man, not wanting to make a big deal out of it if he couldn't manage it.

  The simple fact was though they weren't turning Denno over to the killers. Even if he was their creator, they didn't just leave a target alive and wouldn't be going after the man using such tactics if they didn't think they had a reason. If they just wanted to chat with him, they'd use their communications devices... or arrange a lunch meeting.

  He looked at Burks and Orange, then nodded.

  "Green could help me with it? I think I can do the work in a few hours. How do we stall them until it's deployed? They're used to nano protocols, so anything too obvious will probably be thwarted. Unless we take them at the right moment, when they're distracted. Maybe have it carried in, but we'll need time to get enough powder ready to be effective. We can't use self-replicating nanit
es either. It's too dangerous. They'd kill themselves and everyone in the town to stop that from happening. For that matter if that ever happens we'd have to do that as well. It's why no one plays with those anymore. Each time they've been used they've eventually almost destroyed the planet. That means we'll have to use direct exposure. But..." He shook his head.

  "We don't want to get too complex. We'll spread it with gas grenades, or spray it on. It isn't perfect, but it should get most of the ones that are collected together. Do we have a location for the others?" This got put to Foley, who checked the small black pad in his hand.

  "The civilian net has a few sightings reported. Not enough to be definitive. The military channels have gone dark... All of them." He pounded on the flat pad in his hand several times.

  "That can't be a good sign. Should I activate an alert?"

  Denno gave a single clipped nod, speaking in a strange accent, a lot like Foley did.

  "Do it now. We can't afford to let them take more hostages. We... need to buy time." He looked at Orange then, who smiled darkly.

  "I'll try to leave your civilians alive. I can't promise that, but I'll do what I can. Can I borrow your Carriage Purple?" She turned to look at him earning a nod.

  "I'll drive. We can hold them off, perhaps distract them for a while. I don't know how, but we'll try to draw them away from the hostages. Promise them pie or something. Everyone loves pie. How long do we need to stall for?" If it took less time it would be better, but Tor really doubted they were going to stop for lunch or drinks at a pub.

  "Six hours if all goes well. Call it seven. Try not to let everyone be killed please? I'm counting on you. Austra is counting on you both." Brown seemed to mean the words, even if it was a little overdone.

  Austra though, could go soak its head. Tor was going to try and stop a slaughter. It didn't matter who the people were. A tendril of fear ran through him then, thinking about the situation.