by Andrew Gates
Tracey put the gun back into his jacket pocket and retreated into the bathroom. He closed the door behind him and sat on the toilet, trying as hard as he could to be quiet. He could hear Baltir moving in the other room.
“Sorry,” Baltir hollered, “I was videocomming with an old friend.”
He could hear the door open. She must be inside.
“Yuri, stay out here. Watch the door.” That was Parnel’s voice. Just hearing her again made Tracey shiver. The door closed.
“Sanja, what brings you in?” Baltir asked. Even from the next room, Tracey could tell he was nervous.
“Those fools have really done it this time!” The investigator sounded pissed.
“What? Who’s done it?” Baltir asked.
“The Defense Committee has defunded my operation, Baltir. That little testimony you gave didn’t work. And President Ortega is just letting them get away with it!”
“What? I didn’t tell them anything. You were there. I told them nothing about accessing the footage. I denied it.”
“I know, but I can’t believe they would do this. I thought the President had my back. Why is he standing idle?”
Tracey had no clue what they were talking about but he listened intently.
“What’s happened to the operation?” Baltir asked. “They can’t just stop it.”
“No, they’ve given it to someone else. Nancy Waldrup. Some fresh out of grad-school, protocol-abiding hack that won’t get anything done. All of my research has gone to her now.”
“And all your authority?” Baltir asked.
“Don’t test me,” the woman replied sternly. “I still have friends in high places, despite what the EOs try to do with me.”
“But you have no real authority anymore, right? I take it that’s why your work has already been undone. I saw Saljov’s name in the news.”
Tracey could hear some sort of movement and then a gasp. Something was happening, though he didn’t know what. He slowly leaned his body up from the toilet, trying to get closer to the noise.
“I still have this authority,” the woman explained. Tracey did not know what that meant.
“What is it you want?” Baltir asked. He sounded more nervous than he did a few seconds ago. Perhaps Parnel placed a gun to his head too.
“I wanted to check on your work. Although my operation has been handed to someone else, that doesn’t free you up from your prior obligations,” she answered. “Have I been added to the FCP?”
“Not yet,” Baltir answered.
“Why not?”
There was a pause.
“Because,” Baltir eventually replied, “I wanted to wait until the last possible moment to get it done. I’ve managed to get into the database. I can access the list, but I just haven’t added you yet.”
“Why would you do that?”
“So that I am still useful. Do you think you’re the only one who knows how to play this game, Sanja? I know you need my help. You can’t access the FCP list on your own. As long as you need me to do the job, you’ll see that I stay alive.”
“Fuck you, half-breed.”
“Sorry, you’re a little old for me,” he boldly joked.
Tracey had to admit, it was funny.
“You are going to add me. And Yuri. And Zoran. Right now.”
“Or what?” Baltir asked. “Or you’ll kill me?”
Bang!
Someone fired a gun. Tracey accidentally shrieked. He covered his mouth immediately and held still as best he could, hoping that his shriek went unheard. Shit, I guess I was right about the gun.
“I don’t have to kill you, Baltir, but I could make your life very unpleasant!”
Tracey could hear Baltir shouting in pain. As much as he feared for his friend, part of him was glad to know Baltir’s shouts most likely covered up his own.
“You bitch!” Baltir cried out.
“It’s just a leg wound. You’ll be fine. Now add me and my staff to the list now.”
“Alright! Alright! Just give me time to stand up and get to my computer,” Baltir replied. Tracey could practically feel his pain just listening to him. What a fucking monster, Tracey thought. He held his own gun tight and made sure it was loaded. Slowly, he started shuffling his way towards the bathroom door.
“You think I’m weak!” she shouted. “You all think I’m weak! You, Fielder, Ortega, you think of me as a fucking child! But you will not play this game with me, Baltir Yavenna. I’ve gotten enough of this shit from your friend, Saljov.”
Clearly, the former investigator had totally lost her shit. Tracey cocked his pistol as he moved ever closer to the door.
“There’s a fucking army coming this way! If only you knew the shit that’s about to hit, you wouldn’t be fucking around with me!” she screamed. It was as if she were high on power. “You won’t stop me. Not you, not the government, not Saljov!”
And with those timely words, Tracey bust through the door. He spotted the bitch right away, holding a pistol to Baltir’s back as he struggled to stand. She glanced up at him in shock. Before she could do anything, Tracey ran right for her at full speed. He saw her swing her arm around, moving the gun towards him, but by the time she had her weapon aimed, Tracey rammed his head into her body, knocking her onto the cold hard floor.
“Yuri! It’s Saljov!” she screamed while falling down on her backside.
Tracey pushed himself up and realized that he dropped his gun. He looked around and saw two pistols on the floor between Parnel and the front door. She dropped her gun too, he realized. But before he could reach either of the pistols, the door swung open and knocked them, sending them sliding across the room.
A tall man entered. He had a shaved head like Tracey’s and his large muscles pressed against the tight white fabric of his shirt. Whoever this man was, Tracey knew he could not beat him in a fight. He quickly raced towards where the guns had slid, but to his surprise, Baltir had already beaten him to it.
“Everybody stop right now!” Baltir ordered, holding both pistols in his hands. He balanced on his right knee. His left leg bent back behind his body and was bleeding heavily through his brown pants. He looked faint, but still in control.
“Baltir, what are you doing?” Tracey asked as the room froze around him. He felt blood sliding down his face. He wondered if it belonged to him or Parnel.
“All of you are out of your minds,” Baltir explained. “And close that fucking door!”
The big man did not say a word but moved towards the door and closed it. The room became incredibly quiet in an instant.
“Sanja, Tracey, you two have torn this station apart trying to beat each other in whatever stupid game you’re playing. Nobody is going to kill anybody today, you understand? We’re done with the violence and the plotting.”
Tracey immediately regretted threatening Baltir before. Interesting how it all feels so easy when you’re the one with the gun, he thought. He turned back towards the big man, wondering what part he had to play in all this. He guessed the man probably did not have a gun, or else he would have pulled it out by now.
Parnel’s pod started vibrating. To Tracey’s surprise, she reached into her blazer and pulled it out as if nobody had a gun to her head. Baltir pointed both pistols towards her.
“It’s my pod,” she explained.
“Give it to me,” Baltir replied. “This isn’t the time.”
That’s when Tracy noticed her expression. Her face showed signs of worry, more than just regular gun-to-your-head worry. This was serious.
“I can’t.”
“Yes you can. Slide it over!” he shouted.
She reluctantly complied, sliding the vibrating pod over towards the injured half-breed. It hit his good leg and lied on the floor in front of him.
“You don’t understand,” she said. “It’s Commander Grey.”
“So?” Baltir asked.
“So that last time he called unexpectedly like this-”
The station shook an
d the lights started flickering. Tracey knew what that meant. He needed only to feel the deep cold cutting into his back as if his spine were replaced with ice. The other three people in the room must have known too, because everyone shut the hell up and looked towards the ceiling.
The last time the station shook like this, Tracey was hiding in an air duct. The noise echoed through the small passage and screams erupted from the world beyond the enclosure. At the time, Tracey did not know the significance of what would come next. He saw it only as a distraction, a way to reach Iris’s residence while the world around him panicked. But now he knew what peril it brought.
“Shit,” Tracey said, breaking the silence.
“How many are coming this time?” Baltir asked, getting right to the point. “More than before?”
Parnel chuckled. Her laughter echoed through the dark, flickering room.
“More than before?” she repeated, grinning. “You could say that. You wanted to wait until the last minute, Baltir? Well this is it. I’ll grant you, this is sooner than I anticipated, but it looks like today is the day. If you have any brains, you’ll add yourself to that list now too.”
“Why?” he asked.
“I’m just helping you play the game. You want to be like me? You want to strategize, stay ahead, outmaneuver everyone else? I’m just giving you a little tip. You won’t live through the night without the FCP. I can guarantee you that.” Her tone of voice sounded so cold and calculating. Even in times of danger, she was always plotting her next course. Tracey had never seen someone so fucked up.
“What the hell are we talking about?” Tracey asked.
“An army is coming, Mr. Saljov. Or I suppose I should say, an army is here,” Parnel said, turning to face him. “The top ranking military knows this but the rest of the Navy has no idea. The whitecoat grunts will treat it like they did last time. They’ll try to stop the monsters, but what I know is that they can’t. Nothing can stop the UBEs now.” She turned towards Baltir again. “And if Mr. Yavenna here has any sense, he’ll add me to the FCP right now along with my staff. That way when he adds himself, he’ll have a friend in the afterlife, someone to stick up for him.”
Tracey still had no idea what was going on, but he understood enough. An army of UBEs is coming. That’s why the Navy has been building up defensive positions.
There was another loud boom and suddenly the lights went completely dark. Nothing could be seen. Tracey quickly took this opportunity to run towards the door. Before he could make it out, he felt the big man grab the back of his shirt. His grip was too strong. Tracey could not move. The lights flickered back on again.
“Alright, I’ll do it,” Baltir said to Parnel. “I’ll do what you ask. Just let Tracey go.”
“Yuri, let him run. He will die tonight anyway.”
The big man let go of his shirt.
“Tracey, remember what I told you about the palindrome?” Baltir asked.
Tracey stopped in his tracks and thought. It took him a few moments to remember what Baltir was talking about. This was not the best time to recollect old details. 010454010, he eventually remembered, that’s the palindrome he wanted me to remember. But what does it mean?
“I remember,” Tracey answered.
“Good,” Baltir replied. “Now get out of here. If what Parnel says is true, we’re all going to be in for a hell of a night.”
Hell, now that’s an interesting word. Tracey had been to hell already. It was cold, metallic and hardly large enough to stretch your legs. Tracey thought he had escaped hell, safe with his daughter and old friend from the past. But Tracey knew what the half-breed meant. He had seen a glimpse of a new kind of hell already, a hell with long legs, fingers like razors and armored onyx suits. This was the hell that awaited them now. I’ve escaped one hell to arrive in the next. Only this time, it’s a hell I cannot defeat.
A normal man would break under the pressure. A normal man would succumb to instinct and simply await the inevitable demise. But Tracey was no normal man. Despite the doom that undoubtedly awaited him, Tracey would not surrender to the looming hell as long as he had something to fight for. Ophelia still lived. For Tracey, that was enough reason to go on. As long as her heart continued to beat, Tracey would prolong their fate.
Tracey pushed open the door and ran into the halls as the city erupted into chaos around him. People formed a mob, shouting and pushing their way through the halls. Another loud boom shook the station, this one harder than all the others. Half of the hallway’s crowd fell down immediately. Another quarter tripped over the others. Tracey was one of the lucky few who remained standing. He pushed through the crowd of toppled people as quickly as he could.
He had to get to his daughter. He did not know if he could save her, but he would try. Perhaps the palindrome meant something. Perhaps it could help.
If Parnel’s right, there’s an army outside these walls, he reminded himself. And our Navy is powerless to stop it. They say the end always comes before you’re ready. I guess I was wrong. I wasn’t ready at all.
THE SALT WATER WAS UP TO Iris’s ankles by the time Trace returned. Iris had never seen him so pale, fearful or weak. He could hardly stand straight. He had gashes on his face. Pools of red colored the water where he stood. Yet he seemed composed, determined and in control.
“Iris, we have to get out of here,” he explained, almost out of breath.
“I know,” she replied. “The mantises are back. I know.”
Dan and Ophelia were huddled on the couch behind her, hugging each other for warmth. Primary power went out almost 10 minutes ago. The entire station was running on emergency backup power now. In that time, the temperature had dropped at an extraordinary rate. Fortunately the lights overhead no longer flickered. The station was now lit up by low-power flexible LED strips on the corners of each room that Iris did not even know existed. The lights may have been dim, but at least they worked correctly.
“No, you don’t understand,” Trace said, working his way into the room. He closed the door behind him as screams could be heard in the poorly lit hall. “It’s not two mantises this time. It’s an army. An entire army.”
Iris did not need to ask how Trace learned this information. The look on his face was enough for her to believe it was true. For a moment, she forgot how to breathe. It was as if her throat was blocked. She opened her mouth and forced out a breath as hard as she could. A wave of vomit shot out of her mouth and into the salt water beneath her. Her muscles lost their power. She felt herself tumble down, but Trace caught her and lifted her up.
An army, she thought, remembering how much damage only two mantises did to the entire station. That explained why the military had been building up forces, why the power went out so quickly and the water was rising so much faster than before. She had been so blind to assume it would all be over like it was before.
“Can you hear me?” Trace shouted to her.
Iris looked up at him. She must have missed something.
“What?” she asked.
“I said we have to go now. Can you hear me?” he repeated.
Iris nodded and found the strength. She could still taste the acid in her mouth, her stomach felt empty, her legs felt weak, but she was able to stand again. Recovering from her shock, the teacher turned around towards the others. Dan was standing up now and Ophelia remained seated on the couch, covering her face with her hands.
“We can’t go now. My brother is still out there!” Dan protested. His white shirt was now drenched in water.
“If you stay here, you’ll die!” Trace argued.
“Well where are we supposed to go? Huh? This station is all we have!”
Trace opened up his body so he faced both Dan and Iris.
“The lower public level,” he answered.
“What? You want to go down? Are you mad?”
“Dan, let him talk!” Iris shouted.
Iris had no idea what to do right now but this bickering between them was not helping
. Dan was right. This station was a box and they were walled in at all sides. If the mantises found the right pressure points, Iris guessed they could destroy the station in a matter of minutes. As much as she hated to admit it, there truly was nowhere to go. If Trace had a plan, she wanted to hear it.
“I think I know what to do. I’m not sure it will work, but I think I know what to do. If we can just get to the escape pods on the lower level-”
“The escape pods?” Dan questioned. “We don’t have access to those. They’re coded! That’s for the Navy, the politicians, the-”
“010454010,” Trace interrupted. Both Dan and Iris were quiet. They stood there, confused. Iris felt gas build up inside her throat. She burped and tasted the vomit from before. Trace turned to face her. “That’s the code,” he explained. “Trust me. I didn’t know what the code was for at first, but on my way over here, I had a thought. It’s got to be the escape pods. We can take the pods to the surface.”
The surface.
Trace’s plan was insane. Nobody had been to the surface. Nobody. The pods were built solely to reassure people that there was a way out, not to be used as an actual last minute contingency. They had never even been tested with live human passengers.
Still, it was the only plan they had.
“The surface,” Iris repeated. She looked to Dan, who simply glared at Trace. “I can’t believe it,” she said, looking back towards Trace again.
“Is that where we’re going?” Ophelia asked, still seated on the couch. She was much more composed now than she was only a few seconds ago. Somehow Iris had almost forgotten about her.
“Yes Ophelia, that’s where we’re going. Now are you guys coming with me or not?” Trace said.
Outside, the screams grew like a crescendo. Iris could even hear machine gun fire thrown into the mix of sounds. The mantises must be getting closer to this area, she thought, terrified.
“It’s a fucking crazy idea,” Dan said, “but… if you are all in-”
“I’m in,” Iris interrupted, knowing there was no sense wasting any more time. She could hardly believe she had just agreed to do this.