by Clay Gilbert
The skycar touched downat Western Station with ajolt. Jude stood up and, as the doors slid open, made his way out. Western Residential was like any other of the residential sectors in the Black City: neatly paved, almost antiseptically-clean streets, the rows of identical housing blocks side-by-side. This place, to Jude, in any case, was different. This was where both of the newspeople had lived. The first, who’d disappeared so mysteriously, Jude realized now, was Angel. The second—the one who’d died—she’d lived here, too. Jude remembered the dayhe heard about her, the scorn with which he regarded her, how he thought that she deserved to die. She was a traitor, he thought back then, and those who were traitors deserved death.
Maybe I deserved to die, too. Somehow, I lived, and I’m going to make that mean something for everyone like me who won’t get the chance.
Jude stepped onto the elevator, directed it to the second level. As the door opened onto his floor, he stepped out, and walked to the door leading to what had been his family’s block of rooms. It was unlocked. The room was almost completely bare. The furniture was gone from every room. He wondered for a moment if there was a struggle when his parents were—detained. If there was, there was no sign.
I hope there was. On his way back toward the door, he spotted something he’d missed before just off the dining room, in the smaller room they always used as a den. It was a family portrait—a small photograph, framed, and small enough to fit in a pocket.
Of course they’d leave this. It wouldn’t mean a thing to them . He drew an uneasy breath, then picked up the picture and placed it in one of his pockets.
He didn’t waste anymore time in leaving, and as he emerged into the parking lot, as if a spell had been lifted from him, he remembered what he came for. His hovercycle was parked in the parking lot of the building, in his family’s space.
Guess this didn’t mean anything to them either, but it’s all I’ve got left. He climbed onto the cycle, eager to be away. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
“Good evening, Citizens!” “The Providers be praised, the City seems at last to be gaining ground in its war against the rebels. Thanks to information provided by faithful Citizens, dangerous agents of the insurrection have been identified and apprehended right outside our very City and prevented from doing any harm. There’s still no word on the location of the rebellion’s center of operations, though the search continues.”
The newsperson fell silent, and the glass wall in the council chamber did likewise. “No word,” Eternity said, shaking his head. “Liars. But at least we know they’re lying. What’d you find out, Jude?”
There were four of them in the council chamber. Jude had joined Angel, Brain, and Eternity in their customary place around the council room’s table.
“They don’t have control over everyone in the City anymore,” Jude said. “There’s a rebellion there, too. I found the second list, and I told their leader, Morgan, that we’d try to rescue the others.”
Eternity nodded. “And we will. A few at a time.” “I also found out how they traced us. Our power sources— even in the early days—were a gradual drain on their power. Not an obvious one, at least not at first, but their technology’s gotten better. So has ours. We drain more power now.”
“Then there’s only one thing to do,” Eternity said. “We cut it off. A blackout of all surface power in the Forgotten City. We need the Underground. They’ll have to go on auxiliary power. At least that way our own power sources can’t be used against us.”
“Then what?” Jude wanted to know. “Then, while they’re figuring out another way of tracing us, we start figuring out how to cut their power. The other rebels—did Morgan give you a way to communicate?”
Jude showed Eternity the voceiver. “Good. Contact him and tell him if they can find safe places for the people on the list, to do it, and we’ll start evacuating them as soon as we can.”
“All right.”
Eternity thought of the Prophet, and his vision of the fireghost, and the City in flames.
If there’s another way, we’ll find it. We have to change people’s hearts, or none of the rest of it matters.
* * * * “We’ve got to cut it off, Paladin,” Eternity was telling Brain’s father, down in the Underground. “All the power we’re getting from the City, except what you need down here. We’ll be safer then, and I want you guys to start working on finding power sources of our own. I’m going to call a meeting to let everyone know. Ithinkthis is how things have to be for now.”
The reaction to Eternity’s plan at the meeting was as he thought it’d be: most were apprehensive about the idea of living in darkness—or, at the least, by lantern-light—while the Undergrounders worked out a way to cut the City’s power.
Some said it didn’t make sense; that whatever small power drain the rebel community represented was negligible at best. In the end, though, they’d all decided it was a good precaution nonetheless. If their location wasn’t already known, whatever small shell-game of confusion they could manage would be worthwhile. It might buy more time. And in a war like this one, every day could make a difference.
“They’vegot acatch-22 on their hands,” he told them. “They can’t send anyone against us without revealing they know where we are, and if they give that away, people are gonna want to know why it’s been a secret—and then there’ll be a riot.”
There was silence in the auditorium. A cloak—that was the key. A cloak of darkness which would blind even the ‘gods.’ Seems like a good plan, Eternity thought. It’s the best we’ve got, anyway, but will it work?
* * * * “It’s beautiful,” Angel said, as she and Eternity sat at their bedroom window,lookingout on CrownAvenue, which was lit, not by neon, but with the soft fire of lanterns hung from every streetlight and in the windows of every shop and home, including their own. The occasional flash of fire from a hovercycle was the only artificial light in view. Eternity imagined things would be much quieter tonight than usual. Life would get back to something like normal in a few days, once people hadtime to adjust, but fornow, thedarkness was frightening.
The phones in the Leader’s Hall were cell-convertible. They would run, now that the power was gone, under the energy they’d accumulated from sunlight during the day. Solarization was an expensive process, and because of this, impractical—at least for now—and its implementation took time they didn’t have, with a war going on. For this reason, only certain small devices, like the phones, could be fitted for cells. Perhaps one day, when they had the time—
Eternity dialed in the digits of Jude’s number. He’d taken a place just outside the Crown Avenue district. “Jude?” “Hey, man, what’s up?”
“I want to talk to you about what’s next. Meet me at Cortex Vortex. I want to talk to Brain, too.”
“Want to take a walk?” he asked Angel.
* * * * Walking the lantern-lit Avenue with Angel at his side, Eternity found himself surprised at how easily Shadow’s name had slipped out.
“Sometimes it’s like he’s not even gone at all, like I expect him to come around the corner any minute. Stupid, huh?” “Not at all,” Angel said. “How long has it been?” “Only a couple of months, really.” Seems like years, sometimes, with all that’s happened. They stood by each other, he and Shadow, through everything. And then you died for me, man. We owe you, Shadow. I haven’t forgotten.
“He’s not really gone, you know,” Angel said, clutching his hand tight in hers. “None of them are. They’re just like those lanterns—or those stars,” she added, pointing up at the scattered sky-jewels they hardly ever saw. “Islands of light for us, when everything else gets dark.”
* * * * Cortex Vortex, thought Eternity, looked far different than it had. All of the games were silent, their screens and electronic voices silent, black and dumb. Yet just as many people were gathered here, huddled in the dim lantern light and here and there crouched around candles at the tables across the room, talking in tones that ranged from hushed whispers about what
was to come to a raucous roar of joy at this temporary setback for the Providers. Streetriders in denim, leather, or still stranger garb, of many races, with many ideas, came together in this place in peace.
Why is it so different here? Eternity wondered. What keeps us from setting ourselves above each other, from killing each other when we disagree?
Jude and Brain were sitting at a table near the front of the room, talking with some streetrider Eternitydidn’t know. He made his way past the front guards—whose task was ever more important now—and through the crowd, clasping hands and greeting people as he went. He and Angel found places at the table, across from Jude and Brain.
“Good to see you, man,” Brain said. “You too, Angel,” he added as she took her seat beside Eternity. “I guess you want to know what I’ve heard from the City,” Jude said. “Not much. Morgan says he knows some places that’d be safe enough—families that are friends of some of the refugees and don’t have—reputations. Know what I mean? But I don’t think we’ve got much time. We can’t let them die, Eternity.”
“I know that. Brain, how much room is there down in the Underground?”
“Much as you need, man,” Brain replied.
“All right. Jude, call Morgan. Tell him I’ve got a plan.” * * * * The plan was this: Eternity knew that They’d be on the lookout for anything out of the ordinary now, since the tracers had mysteriously failed, so it’d be unsafe for both his people and Morgan’s to run rescue missions from the Forgotten City on a constant basis. It’d be safer, Eternity suggested, for the refugees to be brought to the Western Sector, just inside the Wall, there to be picked up by Jude, Eternity, Angel, or someone else from the Forgotten City. Eternity decided, finally, that he’d come into the City himself, this first time. He and Jude agreed that they’d meet Morgan and his people just Cityside of the Wall, in the outer Western Sector. They met back inside Cortex Vortex the night the first refugees were scheduled to be brought from the City.
“We’ll need cycles,”Eternitytold them. “They’re faster than skycars and, for our purposes, they won’t draw as much attention.”
It wasn’t uncommon to seeCitizens traveling from one place to another on hovercycles within the City’s confines, and since the ‘cycles had no customary landing spots such as the stations serviced by the skycars, they weren’t as consistently scrutinized. No one would think it strange for the Citizens being transferred to be seen on cycles. However, Eternity thought that at least he would have looked dangerously out of place on the City-operated skycars.
“Angel and I have one. Jude, Brain?” “No problem, man,” Brain said. “Meet us Cityside at midnight. And Jude,” he turned to the young man, “you tell Morgan he’d better be there.”
* * * * “I wish you’d stay here,” Eternity was saying to Angel shortly after midnight, as they prepared for their journey. A short trip to Oldtimer Town yielded an extra cycle for Angel, which would mean they had room to transport more people. Nonetheless, he spent most of the last hour trying to convince her at least one of them ought to stay behind. “I’ve got to go. Its politics, but it’ll do them good if I show my face over there, even just this first time. I don’t want you putting yourself at risk if you don’t have to.”
“Are we going to go through this bullshit every time somethinglike this comes up?” she asked him. “I’ve told you before—if you can put yourself in danger, so can I. Besides,” she grabbed the backpack from his hands and made him look at her, “Do you think I’d forgive myself if something happened to you? I would always wonder if I could have made a difference.”
He kissed her. “You always make a difference. Okay. No more arguments about this from me. Where I go, you go, as long as you want to.”
“Do you think this’ll work?” she asked.
“It has to.”
“Are you afraid?”
“Sometimes it’s all right to be afraid,” he said.
* * * * The Western Sector was quiet, nearly abandoned, when Morgan and the others sawthe fourpoints of fire appear high in the sky over the Wall. Mounted on their cycles, Morgan, the two men, and the girl watched the points of fire grow larger until they could see them for what they were: four hovercycles and their riders—three young men and a girl, heading down toward where Morgan’s party waited for them, just on the border between the Black City and the Deserted Sector.
Morgan studied the face of the boy with the long, blond hair and strangely peaceful eyes. Everything about him was utterly foreign to the world Morgan knew—the world of the Black City. This was Eternity, the young rebel leader. The first rebels, he reminded himself. Without him, none of them would have had the courage to act.
Perhaps that’s not true, he thought, not entirely.
But Eternity had started the wheel turning. He called the boy’s name. Eternity brought his cycle down, and Jude, Brain, and Angel followed behind him. The young man with brown eyes and the honest, open face had an air of leadership about him. The other strangers stayed just behind him.
“Morgan?” Eternity asked.
Morgan nodded, and smiled. “Glad to meet you, Eternity. My people owe you a lot.”
Eternity said nothing, only motioning for them to get on the cycles they brought from the Forgotten City.
“Thanks again,” Morgan said, when everything was ready. “Anytime, man,” Eternitysaid. “We’ll be in touch. Anything I can do, let me know.” Morgan rode back to his home, alone but content. * * * *
The four cycles traveled the skies above the Black City, then beyond, until, finally, they descended on Crown Avenue, which, while its neon spectacle was dimmed with the recent cutoff of power, still inspired a sense of awe in its City-bred visitors.
“All of this, beyond the Wall?” the girl riding behind Angel on her cycle asked. She looked about thirteen, with curly, red hair and pale, green eyes.
So much like me, when I was her age, Angel thought. “Yep,” she called back to the girl. “It’s no secret to them, though. They know we’re here, even if they pretend they don’t.”
The girl’s eyes grew wide. “They do? But the screencasts always say there’s been no word. Why don’t they tell us?” The girl sounded on the brink of tears.
“To keep you from asking questions,” Eternity said. “That’s enough, Wren,” one of the men, an older man, with a creased, worn brow and weathered face said. “My name’s Reece. You’ll have to excuse my daughter. Wren can be a little too curious for her own good sometimes.” He smiled as he said it, though, and his words carried a hint of pride.
“Nothing wrong with questions,” Eternity said. “Nothing at all.”
“Where we headed?” Reece asked. “The Underground,” Eternity answered. “Our science and tech people live and work there, and it’s where you’ll be staying.”
The cycles dove down, one after another with Eternity in the lead, in a sweeping, flowing arc, falling flame-trailed toward the portal that led to the elevator that would take them into the Underground.
“Take it slow from here,” Eternity warned the newcomers over his cycle’s comlink.
Reece, Wren and the other refugee from the Black City were all silent as the elevator descended.
Finally, the one who hadn’t spoken yet broke his silence. “You built all this?” he asked. Eternitylooked at him. He was younger than Reece. Eternity figured him to be about in his mid-thirties. He had a hard, stern face, which he kept nearly expressionless until now. His eyes were hazel, and his mouth was small, and tight. There was an angry aura about him, as if his hatred for the Providers was burned into him like a brand, until it seeped into his very core, like lava sucked back into the heart of a volcano, where it roiled and burned. It seemed to light his eyes like embers.
One like him could be trouble, Eternity thought, but if we give him a place to belong, maybe that’ll make the difference.
“Well,” Eternityreplied, “not me, personally.Ourold leader, Ace, built most of it.”
“He’s the one the
y killed. He looked like a good one. Didn’t take any shit off them.” Reese put his hand on the other man’s shoulder. “We’re here as guests, Malachi. Eternity’s going to help us.”
Malachi fell silent then, but his eyes still gleamed with illconcealed anger.
The elevator doors opened, and the six of them were cycleborne once more. They swept down through the tunneled expanse of the Underground. Eternity glanced at Reece, saw his eyes widen in wonder at the tunnels’ extent.
“Pretty amazing what people can do when they work together, isn’t it?” Eternity asked.
“It sure is.” At last, they reached a vast, hangar-like bay that Eternity discovered during one of his visits here with Brain. This was the Auxiliary Residential Level of the Underground, far beneath the Forgotten City. There were large, metal doors at the far south end of the chamber. They led into areas of the Underground even Paladin and Brain had never seen. Eternity spied Reece eyeing the small metal doors lining the sides of the chamber. “That’s where you’ll be staying,” he told him. “No one lives down here yet, but that’s what it was made for, and it’ll do well enough.”
Reece nodded. Malachi glowered, but did the same. When all of the refugees had been assigned rooms in the chamber and deposited the equipment and luggage they’d brought with them, Eternity met with them. Brain and Angel were waiting for Eternity when he led the refugees into the room set aside for the meeting.
“You should be safe now,” Eternity told the group. Reece nodded. “Thanks. Is there anything we can do?” “Yeah. My people down here are trying to find a way to cut the power in the City. If any of you can help them, it’d be appreciated.”
“We’ll do what we can,” Reece said with a smile. Malachi spoke up. “I still say we shouldn’t just cut the power. In fact, why do that at all, when we have the numbers for an attack?”
Eternity looked into Malachi’s hazel eyes with determination. He was conscious of the fact that Malachi was older.
Still, I’m the leader. I’m not a god, not a dictator. If he wants to complain, that’s his choice, but we’ve made this decision already.