Strikeforce

by Nick James

  The flames ripple around me, as if pushed by a vortex of wind. I spin, trying to get a good look at the entire perimeter, searching for a way out.

  The fire’s solid, so thick that I can’t see anything beyond it. For all I know, it might stretch on forever.

  “Cassius?” I shout his name, remembering what happened at the end of the last dream. “Are you there?”

  No response.

  Balling my fists, I take a step forward. The flames quiver but remain as a curved wall, blocking my way. Last time, I’d been able to touch the fire without anything happening. Maybe this time I can walk through it … see what’s on the other side.

  I continue forward, not the least bit nervous or apprehensive. The flames continue to dance, crackling with a heat I can’t feel.

  Suddenly, a voice stops me in my tracks.

  I turn to see Cassius, standing behind me, head bowed.

  I swallow. “What are you—?”

  He pushes his hand out in front of him, silencing me. His head rises, eyes lit by more fire.

  “Cassius?”

  He opens his mouth to speak, but instead of words coming out, a thick torrent of flames snakes from between his teeth, winding up in loops to meet with the rest.

  Then he begins to disappear again.

  “No.” I stumble forward, annoyed that he’s leaving me once more. Why was he in this dream at all if he’s just going to disappear every time?

  As the fire continues to leave his mouth, his body disintegrates until there’s little more than ashes left behind. I watch his face crumble, the last to disappear.

  I freeze in the center of the fire ring, breathing heavy. “What are you trying to tell me?”

  The flames quiver, as if in response. Before I can do or say anything, the ring begins to spin. It’s slow at first, but soon speeds to a rate so alarming that I can feel the gusts being thrown off.

  I stay completely still, watching in horror as the fire constricts. The ground disappears beneath it, eaten up. Soon, I’m left with hardly any room to stand. The flames push in at me from all angles. Suffocation.

  I open my mouth to scream. It’s a mistake.

  As soon as the opening’s there, the fire funnels into a thick tendril of orange—the same sort that I’d seen come from Cassius.

  Before I know it, the flames plunge down my esophagus, taking residence in my gut. My arms instinctively fling out to my sides. My head’s pushed back. I feel my eyes widen as I stare up at a bed of stars, finally revealed behind the extensive blaze. They’re the only comfort I have as the fire continues to snake its way into my body, more and more. Faster and faster.

  When it’s finally over, I collapse into the dirt, darkness all around me. The stars pulse above with an added brightness.

  I pull in my arms, clutching my stomach. It doesn’t feel hot, or particularly uncomfortable. But I feel full. Bursting.

  I sit on my knees for minutes, maybe longer. It’s hard to get a sense of time with nothing but the stars to guide me.

  But the stillness doesn’t last. Soon I feel it rising in my gut. A million stars bursting inside of me. I reach down and push on my skin, willing the pain to go away.

  Tears lash their way across my insides—fissures so deep that I have no hope of stopping them.

  I crane my neck, look up into space, and scream. There’s no one around to hear me. Nothing responds.

  The fire works its way up my throat, sizzling muscle and organs on its way. I close my eyes and try to go someplace new. Somewhere with no pain.

  It isn’t to be.

  Seconds later, I explode.

  Ashes. That’s all I am now.

  44

  Dawn.

  The sensations in the dream stick with me, even hours after I’ve woken. I feel the heat inside my body, as if it never left. I replay the visions in my head. The stars. Cassius. The ring of fire. Each time I think about it, I feel like I’m going to throw up.

  Better not to think about it, then.

  We stand in the Bridge at the very top of the Academy. The sunrise beams through the 360-degree view behind us.

  We’re all here: me, Cassius, Eva, Avery … even Alkine, along with dozens of Agents and pilots and technicians and who knows what else. The rest of the Academy waits on the lower levels. I wonder how much they know. I wonder if they’re aware that they could be mere hours away from total destruction.

  “Colorado,” someone calls from behind me. They’ve been doing this with each state we pass.

  Alkine stands beside me, arms behind his back, leg in a cast. “This good?”

  “No,” I respond softly. “Wait until Kansas. Kansas will be better.”

  Cassius and my plan is twofold. The fact that we have a plan at all seems to impress everyone around me. It’s definitely not my normal way of functioning, but this isn’t a normal situation.

  One: If Matigo’s tracking us, I want to make it hard for him. Every moment we’re apart is a moment I’m building up my strength. I’m gonna need it all. Cassius too. I can feel it in my gut. The connection with Pearls around the world grows the more I concentrate on them. What I’ll need to attempt here, I’ve never attempted before.

  Two: I want to cast a wide arc—pull from every corner of the country. I can’t do that on the coast. I need a reach, a breadth of land big enough to compile an army. We’ll see how that works. Right now, it’s theory. The most Pearls I’ve ever broken at once was back in Portland. They were in one room. One huge room, yes, but one room all the same. This will be different. This, if necessary, will be nuclear in force. This I might not recover from.

  Cassius closes his eyes beside me, then begins to speak as if he’s channeling words from another universe. “Everything’s in place,” he says. “The Shifters are pulling Ridium from the ground. The first places to be hit will be the coasts, and it’ll make its way inward. And quickly.”

  “We’re broadcasting to anyone who can hear us,” Alkine says. “Telling everyone left behind in a Chosen City to find all functioning ships and get into the sky.”

  Eva cringes. “What about the Fringers?”

  “Out of luck,” I mutter. “As usual.”

  It’s not meant to be insensitive, but sadly it’s the truth. I picture entire towns covered in the thick black stuff. If what Cassius said is true, it will move too fast for them to run away. If they were to climb on top of buildings, arms and coils of Ridium would likely tear them down. Nobody will have seen anything like it.

  Cassius opens his eyes. “Warning the Chosens is a start, but they won’t all make it. The Shifters’ll stretch the Ridium into the air—grab hold of tailfins and wings and pull ships back down again.”

  “Oh man.”

  I turn, drawn by the familiar voice behind me.

  Skandar stands in the center of the room, arms crossed, shaking his head.

  I gawk at him, like I’m staring at a ghost. He’s dressed in an Academy suit, hair combed back and face clean from the Fringe dirt that covered it the last time I saw him. I notice a slight shine coming from where his left hand used to be. It takes me a moment to realize that the doctors onboard have replaced it with an artificial one. Strips of metal, yet to be covered with skin grafts, catch the reflection of the lights overhead.

  “Skandar!” Eva bolts toward him, catching him off guard with a tight embrace.

  He grins. “Relax. Everything’s all right.”

  Avery and I approach him, marveling at his new limb.

  “Pretty flaunt, huh?” He maneuvers the fingers, clenching them into a fist and then back out again. “It’s gonna take some getting used to, I think, but it’s a lot stronger than my old one.”

  “I’m so glad you’re all right,” I say.

  He smiles. “Wouldn’t be if it hadn’t been for you guys. Thanks for taking care of me out there. But I feel like I’ve been asleep for days. Some of the docs caught me up on what’s been happening.” He meets my eyes. “How are you holding up, mate?”
<
br />   I shrug. It’s not worth rehashing my feelings one more time. I have to be the strong one, like Cassius, and keep my focus.

  Skandar nods in understanding, then cranes his neck to look at Alkine behind us. “Permission to rejoin the team, Captain?”

  “It’s good to see you on your feet again, Harris.” Alkine gives a slight nod. “Permission granted, of course.”

  “Look Fisher,” Skandar starts, “those bastards took my hand. I’ve got a score to settle. Just point me in the right direction. We’re not going down without a fight.”

  “Kansas!” The call comes from behind us, loud and confident. I look over to Alkine. He mutters something under his breath—a prayer, perhaps—and meets my eyes, waiting for orders.

  Alkine, waiting for orders from me.

  I shake my head, looking at Avery. “What about you? Are you ready to fight?”

  She frowns. “Coming from you, that’s an unexpected question.”

  “It’s our last stand,” I continue. “Right in the middle of the country, flattest state we’ve got.”

  Alkine nods. “I’ll see how many temp-regulator suits I can pull out of storage, get as many men ready to go as I can.”

  Eva grabs onto Skandar’s arm, dragging him forward. “What can we do?”

  I stare at them for a moment, not used to so many people looking to me for instructions. Giving Eva orders is so twisted that it almost makes me laugh. She’s been my protector for years, even when I didn’t know it. Grade A. Trained beyond her years. I can’t help but wonder how differently this all would have turned out if she’d been the one given my powers.

  But I can’t think like that. There’s no benefit in playing the what-if game, and certainly no advantage to getting down on myself. Instead, I have to take strength from people like Eva—follow her lead and hope that I can be half the soldier she is.

  “Go with Alkine,” I say. “Get suited up. And … and be safe, okay?”

  Skandar squeezes my shoulder. “Be safe, man.”

  “We’ll be down there looking out for you,” Eva adds.

  I offer a faint smile. “As always, right?”

  They leave, following Alkine toward the center of the Bridge. The space around me is a sea of motion—Agents running around, specialists slowing the Skyship to a halt over the barren Fringe landscape. For a moment, I’m not sure what to do with myself. Pause, I guess. Let my strength come all the way back.

  Cassius moves closer. His eyes shut for a moment before he speaks. “It’s happening now. I can feel it. All along the coastline … they’re pulling Ridium from the ground.”

  “How long—?”

  “Tidal waves,” he continues. “That’s what it’ll be. We better pray that there are enough ships … that people heard the warning and got into the air, high enough off the ground to be out of reach.”

  I nod. “When we’re down there … I’m going to try to target the energy—hit as many of the Shifters as I can. I don’t know if I’ll be able to do it from this far away, but I have to try.”

  Cassius clasps his hands in front of him. “Matigo falls, so does the Authority.”

  “That’s what we’ve gotta keep telling ourselves.”

  His eyes meet mine again. “Promise me one thing, Fisher.”

  “Yeah?”

  “We fight until the end. One of us goes down, the other keeps fighting. Until we’ve won, or we’re both dead.”

  I nod. “It’s the way our parents would have wanted it.”

  “It’s what they would have expected.” He turns to move away.

  “Cassius?”

  He stops. “Yeah?”

  “Whatever happens, I’m glad I ran into you on that Fringe rooftop.”

  His brows rise. “You know, I was trying to kill you, then.”

  “I know.” I shrug. “But I think under the circumstances, you’re forgiven.”

  A hint of a smile crosses his lips. He pats my arm. “You’re a good soldier, Fisher.”

  “Thanks. I’ve learned from the best.”

  He laughs. I can’t tell if it’s genuine or self-deprecating. “C’mon, they’re gonna want us down in the docking bay. You ready for this?”

  My teeth chatter. Shoulders shake. I’ll never be ready for this. But I know what good soldiers say. I know what Cassius would say. So I lie.

  “Yeah,” I reply. “Bring it on.”

  45

  Cassius kicked at the dirt, watching it fly away in a cloud. The Fringe heat didn’t bother him. He hardly noticed it, especially beyond the frenzy of challenging emotions battling within him.

  The Academy had ferried them down in shuttles—every last soul onboard that was willing and able to fight. Some had stayed on the ship itself, ready to use any extra firepower available to them, but there was little doubt that this would be primarily a ground war. It had been so up to this point. No reason for that to change now.

  Now that they were on the Surface, the Academy’s battalions formed a massive circle, several football fields in diameter each way. It functioned as a protective ring around Cassius and Fisher, thick with layers of Agents and troops. Fringers had come calling, too, from neighboring towns. The shadow of the Skyship, tempered with the fear of invasion, attracted them like a magnet. They were easily convinced to join the battle, once they knew what was at stake.

  But humans alone weren’t going to win this war. If Fisher did his job right, their small army would soon be joined by Drifters—the more, the better.

  Cassius looked over his shoulder. Fisher sat cross-legged, a hundred yards away. His back was turned to Cassius, his head bowed. It was hard to concentrate in the center of the circle, sitting in the Fringes waiting for an attack, but it had to be done. Concentration was key. Only then did Fisher have any chance of connecting with the Drifters around the country.

  Cassius had his own challenges. He turned back, scanning the horizon beyond the outer rim of soldiers. He’d heard that Kansas was the flattest state in the country. It sure looked like it. The landscape, brown and unremarkable, seemed to stretch on as far as he could see. In some ways, this was good. While it offered limited to no protection, it also guaranteed that the enemy wouldn’t be able to sneak up on them.

  Captain Alkine’s people had been warned about the Ridium underfoot—the way the Shifters could pull it up in blades or weapons. Never stay in one place for too long. That was the best advice he could offer. Beyond that, he needed to do what he could to preemptively clear the battlefield of the substance.

  Concentration, again.

  But before he could think about making it hard for the Authority, he needed his own protection.

  Closing his eyes, he focused on the ground. He couldn’t see the Ridium yet, but he could sense it, churning under the dirt like oil waiting to be dredged up. He brought his fists down to his sides, then spread his fingers apart, lifting them in the air like they had string tied to the ends and he was controlling a puppet. It was an altogether different strain on his body than conjuring fire had been. There was no heat—only the force of the ground working against him.

  When he opened his eyes, he watched several snakes of black begin to work their way out from the ground. They coiled around his ankles, melting into an ooze. The liquid climbed up his legs, covering every piece of him, then moved toward his chest. Once it had slipped down the entire length of his arms, he allowed it to trickle over his face.

  For a split second, he couldn’t see at all. But that was over with quickly, as the world came into focus once more. Though he didn’t have time to spare, he couldn’t help but marvel at the sights around him. It was like before. Everything seemed more detailed—fuller. He looked up at the sky and could see longer and better than he’d ever thought possible.

  Beyond that, he could feel.

  It was as if he stood in the middle of an enormous pool, waves approaching from every angle. They were far away now, but getting closer every moment. He could pinpoint every last Shifter … feel thei
r strain as they pulled massive amounts of Ridium from the ground and forced them onward. He wondered if this was how it felt to Fisher, being able to sense the Drifters.

  He remembered what one particular Drifter had once told him. Ridium seeks Ridium. It was as simple as that. That’s how he was able to sense Fisher being attacked by the stuff back at the Academy, and that’s how he could sense the beginning of the Flood now. He was plugged in, more than ever before. And he needed to use that.

  But as much as he could make out from this distance, one particular force stood out more strongly than any other. He couldn’t get a picture in his head, but it was larger and meaner than the rest.

  Matigo, of course.

  Having sparred with him directly, Cassius could locate Matigo with ease. As they’d all suspected, he was on his way. Moving fast.

  And when he arrived, every piece of Ridium would be a weapon to him.

  Cassius couldn’t stop Matigo from coming. He couldn’t keep him from gathering Ridium, but he could make it difficult for him.

  Crouching low, he grabbed hold of as many deposits as he could manage. With a great heave, he plucked them from the ground. Several dozen balls launched into the air, like they’d been propelled by underground cannons.

  He watched them soar in wide arcs away from the crowd, only to land several miles away. Satisfied with the effect, he pulled the same maneuver again. Several dozen more spheres of blackness shot away at dizzying speeds.

  He repeated.

  Repeated.

  Within minutes, he’d dredged up the entire area. The only Ridium left was the collection that made up his suit, and there was no way he was letting that go. He’d made the mistake last time. Matigo had been too strong.

  This time, he’d be ready.

  46

  I ignore the crowd around me—totally tune out every sound and movement beyond Pearls. Alkine could be barking commands my way and I wouldn’t even know.

  But that’s not likely. Before sitting down and closing my eyes, I took one last 360-degree view of the circle of troops. I’m not sure this many Shippers have been off of Skyship Academy since it was first launched. They stand waiting—a protective force for Cassius and me.