“Yes, you were.” Was Colin still struggling in there? Could he hear everything she said? “You don’t have to do what Lilith wants.”
He turned to stare at her. “She sent me here. Without her I’d still be trapped back in New York.” The questing root wrapped itself loosely around Colin/Ollie’s leg.
“Still, you must be your own man.”
“Yeah. Yeah, I am.” He let down his guard just a little, the knife slipping away from Shandra’s throat by an inch.
Now.
Shandra elbowed him and ducked out of his grasp, lither than her sixty-four years would suggest.
As he reached for her, the root tightened its grip on his ankle, locking him in place.
Andy threw the knife, gritting her teeth as it embedded itself into his thigh. Sorry, Colin.
Colin/Ollie roared, pulling his arm back to throw his own knife at her.
The hounds tackled him, and his knife flew off across the floor with a clatter as they knocked him over, breaking the root that held him.
“Don’t hurt him!” Andy threw herself into the brawl. “Aine, call them off!”
The dogs suddenly stopped their attack, backing up reluctantly, growling and snapping at her as she knelt over Colin’s body.
“Oh, Colin.” He had bite marks on both his arms, and the knife wound looked serious, too, oozing blood around the edges.
She’d only meant to bring him down, but instead he was seriously injured.
She touched his cheek, intent on sending Ollie back where he’d come from. She reached, and as soon as she touched his mind, she realized her mistake, but it was too late.
“IT’S CRAZY.” Jackson paced back and forth in Glory’s small cabin.
Glory frowned. “You have to listen to him.”
He rounded on Dax. “What do you mean, everything dies?”
“Well, everything on Earth.” He’d gotten badly sidetracked and was struggling to pull the conversation back to the whole “we need your help” part.
“So all this—Earth, the station, the moon base, all of it—just goes away?”
Dax nodded miserably.
“How?”
“It was long before I was born. Wars, I think. Too many people. Too little food and water, maybe….”
Jackson grunted.
“But that’s not your future.”
“Because this place isn’t real.” Jackson threw the word back at him, gesturing around the station.
Dax sighed. “I shouldn’t have said that. Of course it’s real, for you. Look, you came from New York, where you worked for a biomind named Lilith, right?”
Jackson stopped his pacing and stared at Dax. “How could you possibly know that?”
“Because she still exists. In this world. That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you.”
Jackson sank back down on the couch next to Glory. “Okay, let’s go at this from another tack. Let’s say I believe you, and this is all some crazy virtual simulation we’re living in. Then why are you here?”
Dax bit his lip. “Because this world is dying too.”
Jackson threw his hands up in the air. “I don’t even know what to say to that.”
Dax, your world is going to cycle back to the start soon.
What? Destiny was in his head.
I can see the signs now. You have maybe an hour before it flips back to its beginning point. You have to get Jackson to come with you. Now.
He was running out of time. Can you bring him with me?
If he says yes.
His eyes refocused.
“What just happened? You have a loop?” Jackson stared at him.
“What’s a loop?”
“It’s… oh, never mind.” He shook his head. “Glory, this is ridiculous.”
“Please trust me. Just give me five minutes. I can show you.”
Jackson looked at Glory.
“What can it hurt? If he’s telling the truth, you’ll be a hero. If not… what’s five more minutes?”
He turned back to Dax. “You say I’m a ship engineer, in the future?”
Dax nodded. “You help create the world that saves humankind.” He didn’t mention Jackson’s legendary death in the process. This world, the inthworld, was a whole different place, as much as it resembled parts of Old Earth. Who knew how it might evolve, given the chance?
Jackson’s green eyes fixed on his. “Five minutes.”
“Deal.” He reached out and took Jackson’s hands.
Destiny?
He had just enough time to see the astonished look on Glory’s face as they transitioned from Frontier Station to somewhere else.
“YOU’RE NOT surprised?” Kiryn was still trying to wrap his head around how easy it had been to convince his Jackson.
“As I said, I know a lot more than most in this place.” He patted Kiryn on the back. “I’d be proud to have someone like you as my great-grandson.”
“Do you sign?”
“Sign? Sign language?”
Kiryn nodded. “Back home I’m deaf. Signing is easier for me.”
“Of course.” Jackson replied with his hands. His signing, though slightly different than the one Kiryn had learned, was crisp and clear.
“How did you learn that?”
Jackson laughed. “I didn’t. That knowledge is a part of this place. It’s something I can tap into if I try.”
Kiryn grinned. “That’s awesome.” He decided he really liked Jackson.
“It is, isn’t it?” Jackson seemed pleased with himself.
Kiryn laughed.
“Now what did you need me for?”
“There are four of you here. Four Jacksons. One in each of the worlds. We think you’re what holds the inthworld together, and if you came together as one, maybe you could help us heal it.”
Jackson rubbed his beard. “Interesting.”
The underbrush behind him rustled.
Kiryn spun around to confront the three people who had just stepped out from the trees. He fell into a defensive crouch.
“It’s okay.” Jackson helped him back up. “These are my friends. Ana, Lex, and Colin, meet Kiryn. My great-grandson.”
“BELYNN HAMMOND-CLARK. Are we related?” Jackson sat on the couch next to Belynn, handing her a glass of water.
She took it gratefully. She wasn’t sure if it was an aftereffect of the fight or being in the presence of her great-grandfather. “In a way, yes.” She took a sip of the water. It was cold but had a strange taste.
He put a hand on her shoulder. “Don’t be nervous. I don’t bite.” He gestured at Cast. “Mr. Drake here said you had a strange story to tell me.”
The front door burst open, and two redheaded boys rolled across the carpet. It looked like grass but left no stains on their clothes.
“Aaron, Jayson, this is not the time.” Jackson stared at them sternly, and the boys went quiet, standing up and looking at the ground.
“We have company. Can you two boys behave yourselves for five minutes?” A woman’s voice came from the kitchen, and Glory appeared at the doorway, shaking her head. “I’m so sorry. They’re little animals.” She rolled her eyes. “Take after their father.”
Belynn grinned. It was easy to forget this place existed inside a biomind. She stared at Aaron for a moment. It was so strange to see her grandpa as a little boy.
Destiny touched her mind. Time is short.
Got it. She sat up, took another sip of her water, and turned back to Jackson.
“Tell me, what’s the first thing you remember about your life?”
It took about ten minutes to convince him. I’m getting good at this. “We have to go.”
Jackson looked at Glory, who nodded. “Okay.”
Belynn took Cast’s hand. “Thank you so much for everything you did. I couldn’t have done this without you.”
He shook his head. “It’s so strange. To think you’re from outside, somewhere… like an angel.”
She laughed. “Hardly.”
/>
“Will I see you again?”
Belynn bit her lip. “Probably not.” She leaned forward and kissed his cheek. “I will always remember you.”
He laughed. “I doubt that. I’m just a boring guy.”
“Not at all.” She wondered what would happen to him. She squeezed his hand.
Then she took Jackson’s. “Let’s go.”
GORDY AND Zaimann stepped through the slash in the air, into darkness.
Gordy looked around, and as his eyes adjusted, he recognized the place. It was one of the storerooms in Lilith’s building, full of items collected from around the drowned city and cataloged for sale. In addition to the wetware black market, the Red Badge also trafficked in one-of-a-kind collectibles—old lamps, license plates, even furniture—junk that fetched top dollar from some of the wealthy collectors around the world, especially in the Cino-African Syndicate.
To Gordy, it was all just old crap.
Lilith often sent her kids into the waters that filled the city to retrieve things that had survived the floods, as the upper floors had long ago been picked clean of anything of value. More than once he’d found himself on the run from a shark who was nosing around someone’s old living room through the kelp and coral that had grown up over the years. “How did you know about this place?”
Zaimann gave him her vulpine grin. “I’ve got spies, just like Lilith. All the bands know each other’s business.”
“Got it.” It was sobering to know he’d probably been watched most of his childhood.
The world shimmered.
“We don’t have much time left.” The world would loop and everything would reset to the beginning. Gordy tried to remember the exact layout of the building. It had been years, but the place had been worn into his brain by hundreds of loops of time.
“There are alarms, yes?” Zaimann’s tail swished back and forth in deliberate strokes.
“Yeah. If I’m lucky, I can remember where they are.” He eased open the door, peering out into the long hallway. The building had once been a co-op, and the storage rooms were old apartments.
“Lilith’s home is below us, not too far above the water level.” He pulled back inside. “Looks clear.”
Gordy pushed open the door. It creaked loudly, and he froze, looking both ways down the darkened hallway. They slipped out of the storage room. He held up a finger to his lips, and Zaimann nodded.
He palmed the receptor by the door and prayed it would still recognize his print.
Access code? The voice was loud inside his head.
“Gordon-77655.”
Accepted. What can I do for you?
Sweat beaded on his brow. If Lilith was paying attention, she might realize he was here.
He wondered how the world had continued on without him. When it looped, had it just made another version of himself? That would be weird.
Or did he only exist as a ghost, with weird little remnants like his security code access the only proof he had once existed?
Did anyone miss him?
Deactivate security protocols.
Authorization code?
It had been a long time. Z… 01R…. X33F?
The response was slow. Gordy glanced nervously at Zaimann. She was gritting her teeth.
Request accepted. Security protocols deactivated.
He let out a sigh. “She’s blind to us now. Let’s go.”
They ran down the hallway toward the stairs that would take them to Lilith. And Jacky.
“Come on. It will be easier getting in from outside.” He led Zaimann down the hall and to one of the broken-out windows that led out onto the narrow ledge around the building.
They made their way along the ledge to Lilith’s room.
Gordy peered through the grimy window at the room inside. It was an old building, heavily reinforced against collapse by Lilith and the Red Badge. It was also nothing special, to avoid attracting attention, though Gordy supposed it was an open secret that it contained Lilith’s lair. Zaimann certainly knew.
The various bands had long since carved up New York’s drowned streets, each with their own specialty. They had formed a symbiotic if still somewhat incestuous and contentious relationship. Everyone knew everyone else’s business.
Inside, he could just make out the vast tank where Lilith’s corporeal form swam in its sea of nutrients. “Where’s Jacky?”
Zaimann leaned over his shoulder and pointed. Her paw rested on his shoulder. “He’s over there.”
Gordy looked where she’d indicated. He didn’t see his friend at first, just a bank of machinery next to Lilith’s tank.
Then he saw it. Him.
Jacky was there, lying on something like a hospital gurney.
He’d never seen this before, not in any of the loops he remembered.
Something was connected to his head—a heavy cable that ran down the leg of the gurney and over to Lilith’s machinery. “Fucking Ariadne, what the hell is that?” It looked to be some kind of mental shunt.
One of Lilith’s guards crossed the room, and he dropped out of sight, his back against the wall.
Zaimann growled. “It’s how she connects to your world. Through him.”
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me. Is he… still alive?”
She stared at him. “That’s a funny question to ask, given all you know about this place.”
“It was never like this.” It came out more forcefully than he intended.
“Hey, you’ll get no arguments from me.” She licked her lips, her long tongue flicking from side to side.
What she could do with that tongue. He shivered at the thought. Of course she could also bite other things right off with those teeth. “You couldn’t—port?—us right into that room, why?”
“Lilith has herself protected from such things.” She grinned. “Besides, that would take all the fun out of it, wouldn’t it?”
“I guess so?” He wasn’t so sure “fun” was the right word. “Come on. We’ll take the guards out first, then go for Jackson, get him unplugged.”
“Sounds like a solid plan. Want one of these?” She pulled a shiny purple gun out of one of the holsters on her waist.
He took it and whistled softly. “Is this what I think it is?”
She grinned back. “Yeah. The Black Tiger band specializes in weapons trading.”
“Of course.”
“Just thumb the safety here.” She held her thumb down and then let go.
He did as he was told, and the barrel glowed briefly and then faded.
“It’s now keyed to you. Only you can use it.”
“Got it.” He’d never used a blocker before. Lilith preferred more lethal weapons for her crew.
But these were his friends, or they had been. He didn’t want to hurt them. “Come on. Let’s do some damage.”
Gordy broke the glass of the window closest to Jackson’s supine form. He leapt through the opening with Zaimann close behind him.
They landed in a crouch, firing at the two guards as they turned toward the intruders.
Crick, who’d been his boyhood friend, gaped at him as he was enveloped by the golden glow from the blocker. Then he fell to the ground without a sound.
Zaimann took down the other guard.
Gordy’s mouth dropped open as he saw the man’s face. It was a mirror image of his own.
The blocker acted on the nervous system, paralyzing all but essential physical processes for ten to fifteen minutes. It also frequently caused the recipients to lose control of their bodily functions.
A foul smell filled the room.
Gordy wrinkled his nose. “There’s another me.”
Zaimann nodded. “You’re reborn each time the world loops, so when you vanished, the world just made another.”
He shuddered. Which one of us is real? He shook his head. Time for such philosophical debates later. “Let’s get Jackson free.”
The boy was hooked up to a number of machines.
&nbs
p; One tube snaked through his mouth to his stomach, apparently feeding him. Two more evacuated his waste. His hair had been shaved off, leaving a smooth freckled dome. A crisp white sheet over his body did little to restore his stripped dignity.
Gordy reached for the cable that connected Jackson to Lilith’s bank of machinery.
Suddenly he was trapped in molasses. His body betrayed him, and he slumped to the ground, losing control of his bowels as he fell onto the hard surface.
Zaimann towered over him, her fox face twisted in her vulpine grin. “Sorry, Gordy, but this boy’s too valuable to let you or Lilith keep him.” She glanced nervously toward Lilith’s tank, but the creature seemed quiescent. “It’s too bad we didn’t have a chance to get to know each other better. I think I would have enjoyed it.”
She lifted the sheet, revealing Jacky’s shriveled white body. His boyhood friend, the one who had hunted and swam and worked beside him as they grew up together.
He would have gasped if he’d been able.
Then it hit him. This was the apparition he had seen in the green flames, the night he had ascended from the inthworld to Forever. Jacky’s tortured soul.
Zaimann unhooked the tubes connected to Jacky’s poor body, her tail twitching nervously back and forth.
This was not Jacky. This was a parody, a twisted, sickened version of that vibrant boy.
What did she do to you?
Gordy retched involuntarily, bile filling his mouth.
In that moment he hated both Lilith and Zaimann, but he was powerless to do a thing about it.
DESTINY WAITED in the mist, feeling helpless. The others were all off exploring the inthworld, while se was sitting here waiting for something to happen.
It really wasn’t fair.
Oh sure, there’d been the battle with Lilith, that nightmare thing that had exploded out of the mists. But that had been over for at least twenty minutes.
“Waiting for us?”
Destiny spun around to find Dax and Jackson standing before ser.
Dax threw his arms around ser. “You okay, kid?”
Se nodded. “I’m okay. Just bored.”
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