Preparing to die, it seemed.
“Let’s get there first,” said Zac, unsure exactly what finding either girl would involve. “First we get back to Earth.” It was beyond impulsive, he wasn’t too blind to see, but this was how they’d been operating. He told himself Jess would do the same. If ever there was an example of someone who just took the next step, and the next and the next until the “impossible” was achieved it was Jess. Just keep moving.
“I hope this will be enough,” Willet snugged another item into his belt. He had on a fresh set of commando gear and full kit, complete with weapons and items they might need for the task at hand. Zac was in a new set of Kazerai clothes; black, short-sleeved shirt, black pants, black boots and gloves. Willet had gone so far as to pull on a stocking cap. They were in an impromptu prep room where earlier Zac briefed Willet on the woods they would appear over when they used the Icon, behind Jessica’s house, along with, more or less, what he recalled of the neighborhood around it. Before, when they were last in orbit around Earth, the Bok had been watching Jessica’s house, the very spot over which they would materialize, but was that still the case? Zac felt like it couldn’t be, not with the invasion of the Kel, but they needed to be prepared. There was no telling what they would find.
Not long ago Bianca came to say farewell, wish them luck and give Zac her own insight as to the layout of the area. After all, she once lived there. She’d drawn him a map to her own house, tearfully, then described it and asked Zac to find her parents and tell them she was okay. He said he would. No one mentioned that it was possible none of that was still there. The city of Boise could be vastly changed or under lockdown. Even destroyed. No one mentioned it but Zac could tell it was on everyone’s mind. After Bianca left, Willet and Zac continued their preparations.
Willet looked up.
“We have to penetrate all the way to their core. We’ve got to get to her in the middle of the Kel war machine. Then we have to get her back out.”
“Actually we only have to get to her.” Zac reached and tapped the shining Icon, sitting on a table next to them. “Once we’ve got her this pops us all back here and we fall over the city of Osaka. Safe and sound.”
Willet eyed the Icon.
“So you just twist it?”
“First twist takes us there. Then, once we reach Satori, we twist it again and … mission accomplished.”
They’d discussed the sequence, of course, but the reality of it appeared to be dawning on Willet, really dawning, as he considered the possibilities.
Then: “What if … What if the Kel stop us and get the Icon?” he asked. Zac paused in what he was doing; looked into Willet’s eyes as they both considered the consequences of that.
It could never be allowed to happen. The mere exposure of it, even bringing the Icon to Earth at all, risked the entire world.
But there was no way it would be taken from Zac. Not intact.
“They won’t,” he said. “I’ll destroy it if I have to. They won’t find their way here.”
For a long moment Willet seemed stuck on that tragic possibility, then conceded that Zac would never let it come to pass. His focus changed and an expression of acceptance came over him, more of the Willet Zac knew.
Zac looked him over.
“Ready?”
Willet nodded. “Ready.”
Zac picked up the Icon. “Time to get this show on the road.”
**
“How many times do I have to tell you I wiped it out!” Satori thrashed weakly in her bonds, in absolute agony. “I don’t know anything you can use! Nothing!” She thought after all this time the pain would’ve faded. That the human body would be unable to maintain such a sharp sense of distress for so long. That it would’ve dulled.
It hadn’t.
She glowered around the small, dark room at her captors. These pale, exquisite Kel. Evil. Such malice wrapped in such a beautiful package. They’d told her next to nothing. But they, in turn, kept asking. As if she would break. She would never break. Still, part of her was glad there was nothing to tell. Glad she held no actual secrets. It was true she had nothing to tell them, and she was glad for it.
Because it was getting harder and harder not to give in.
She yelled at them. They didn’t flinch.
She suspected the drugs they kept pumping her with were enhancing the pain, keeping her alert and making it just as strong as ever. Like a fresh cut. Only they hadn’t actually cut her. Not yet. Nothing physical had been broken, though the ways they positioned her, the tugs and the pulls, made her wish something would break. Made her wish something would give, such that at least it might be done with.
But that probably wouldn’t last either.
Suddenly she began to cry. Just tears. She’d never been afraid to die. In fact, at times, during the lust of battle, she’d almost laughed at death. At least it felt that way. Rushing with a berserking glee straight into the teeth of superior odds, filled with an overwhelming conviction that victory would be hers, not caring if it wasn’t. Prepared for it all to end.
Prepared to die.
Never had she wanted to die though. Now she did. So badly.
Willet! She called to him in her thoughts. Why did he leave her? Had he been killed? All she knew was he never came back.
“Where am I!” she yelled, loud—amazed with the strength of her voice after all this.
Why didn’t Zac come for her? Surely he saw her go down after she blasted Kang to smithereens. Did he and Willet get away?
She noticed one of the Kel move across the room. The interrogator returned a moment later with a long, curved blade. Reflective, black metal. A utility knife, like for skinning animals.
It looked like the cuts were about to begin.
She didn’t scream as she thought she might. She almost tensed, but found herself too weak even to do that, and so instead her head lolled from its awkward position and the tears turned to weeping. That lasted she knew not how long but, at some length, after it seemed much too much time had passed, the knife-wielding Kel was winding his fingers into her hair and pulling her face up to his. He said something ominous in his own language, breath sweet right there in her nostrils—such perfect beauty, she thought. Such perfect evil—and she heard the computer translate in its mechanical voice:
“Let’s try something more permanent.”
Suddenly the tip of the blade was in her vision, blurred, far too close to focus on and gleaming sharply in her eye. She lurched; tried to wrench away, to pull back as far as she could in the restraints but there was nowhere to go. The metal tip came closer …
Now she did scream.
CHAPTER 34: THE NEW RULERS OF EARTH
People were screaming and shouting, though not in exuberance as might’ve been the case for any other such ceremony. These were cries of outrage, of hate, calls for the heads of everyone up at the giant podium, Kel and Bok alike. Hansel watched the throngs far below, spread out to the plaza and streets beyond, fists pumping the air, voices raised in defiance.
He was sure Lorenzo, despite the satisfaction he forcibly displayed, was not enjoying this.
If you were to look across the entirety of the spectacle with no sound it might look like the celebration it was intended, thought Hansel. Kind of like crying could appear, visually, like laughter. From a distance the fists in the air, the wide mouths, the waving and violent gesturing … if you only saw and did not hear, it could easily be mistaken for exuberance.
But it wasn’t.
Earlier the larger, more violent riots had been quelled, or crushed outright, the rest of the angry crowds who swarmed the venue allowed to congregate, the intention, Hansel was sure, to try and give this some semblance of legitimacy. The Kel had announced the ceremony to the world, placing the Bok officially in charge, named Hong Kong as the city where it would take place, then held on as the world went mad. There was no threat to Kel control, of course, but Hansel knew this was not the way they wanted things to go.
From overheard bits of conversation, things within earshot of translators that might not have been intended for human ears, he knew there was a rift in the upper echelons of their alien overlords. Their military leader, Voltan, who ran this ceremony—there at the podium now, seeming so superior to them all—Voltan had, near as Hansel could tell, intended the transfer of power to unfold quite differently. Apparently he wanted to name existing Earth leaders to these positions. To juggle the existing hierarchies. Which would no doubt have caused its own issues, but certainly not as bad as this.
No one wanted the Bok.
Until now no one even knew who the Bok were. Once they’d been named, however, it didn’t take long for rumors to spread, strings to be pulled, secrets to be leaked and, in no time, the world knew these Bok were an elitist group of pricks who’d been hiding in the shadows, plotting against them. Once there was a little bit to latch onto Hansel was utterly amazed at how quickly the covers had been ripped free. The Bok were exposed, and the people of Earth did not like what they saw.
The hated it.
From the wings he looked across the wide stage to Lorenzo, standing stiffly as the taller, broader, Voltan, with his eye patch, white hair and fur-wrapped shoulders made the official proclamations, surrounded by other Kel and the rest of the Bok. Lorenzo held a benign, satisfied smile all the while, doing his best to ignore the waves of loathing pouring up from below. Hansel was surprised nothing had been thrown. Of course that would’ve been futile. The Kel set things up in such a way that the stage was high enough, the area well guarded enough, removed far enough from higher points of view that no physical attack was possible. A small Kel army patrolled every upper edge in sight, dark figures atop every building, long rifles in hand. It was a gloomy, wet, overcast afternoon, clouds so low they obscured the taller buildings that climbed the surrounding hills, making it seem like the entire event took place within a giant, blanketed dome. Larger weapon emplacements dotted other building corners, Kel craft hovered quietly above the Hong Kong basin, looking down on it all, rippling the air with their low-frequency hums of contained power. There was nothing anyone could do but watch. And shout.
And hate.
**
Cee Ranok’s flagship flew over the surrounding countryside on approach to Madrid. The city was dead ahead, close now, and they came in from the west, low over the hills, electing to descend far enough outside the city center so as not to draw Kang’s immediate attention. Coming for him in the massive dreadnought at all was, in the end, antagonistic, though this approach seemed less so. Dropping directly from on high might convey the feel of a giant bird of prey, swooping in for attack.
“Five minutes, my queen,” her admiral reported.
Cee stood directly before the wide forward screen, watching the last of the scrub terrain scroll beneath their wide shadow. It was a bright, clear day, the outline of the giant Kel warship stark against the ground as it consumed the land. Their dark shadow had just begun rolling over streets and dwellings on the outskirts of town, passing suburbs and reaching now toward what might be considered the city proper. Taller and taller buildings rose in the distance. Seeing all this up close Cee found the marks of humanity …
Unpleasant.
The Fetok of Earth had engineered an amazing sprawl wherever they lived, she knew this, but to witness it firsthand brought a sense of just how insidious their development was. Left unchecked humans looked like a plague. These here, on Earth, had been going along on their own for quite some time, no outside interference, nothing to hold them back, and the results of that unchecked spread were all around. Seven billion of them. Cee shook her head, hands behind her back.
They were everywhere.
“This is where he’s taken up residence,” said her admiral. A building in the distance was highlighted, illuminated in green on the wide screen. Cee locked her eyes to it. She’d been fighting the dread of this encounter since deciding to come. Now, looking ahead to where they knew the beast to be she wondered, should I just annihilate it? Kang was right there. They had every confidence he was inside. The building had been monitored since he ceased his rampage. He had not left. Her dreadnought could ascend, right now, high into the sky, and wipe the entire city from the land. She had the firepower at her command; enough to destroy everything most decisively.
But what if it didn’t? If they struck and Kang lived …
They would never again have a chance to control him.
And so she must bring him back into the fold.
Bring him to her.
It was the only choice.
“Where should we put down, my queen?”
She saw they were closing quickly on the building, still illuminated in green, now directly before them. She peered into the windows as they pulled short to a hover, wondering where Kang was, becoming aware of the city around them even as she did. Surely their arrival had caused a sensation. By now the people of Earth were used to seeing the Kel craft in flight but not one this large, this close, far bigger than any of the buildings it now menaced. Cities around the world, the metropolitan areas, the places where people lived, had been spared the ravages of the brief war. Those conflicts took place away from population centers and so, while the world remained in shock following the “invasion”, it had not yet been directly threatened with harm.
Madrid, however, had just been raped.
The humans of Madrid had been in Kang’s sights at the end of his ruinous run, made to cower in hiding or flee as he made his way through the city. Though a small force he was more deadly than a nuclear bomb in proximity, and the mere idea that he was roaming unchecked and could go anywhere or do anything had set the city to panic. Now he’d stopped and was, for the moment, sitting in one spot in this building directly ahead, but the fear in the city could almost be sensed. As if people were peeking from corners everywhere, wondering when the hammer would fall.
And now Cee’s giant Kel dreadnought hung in the sky.
What would happen next? The city seemed to be waiting.
She surveyed the streets below as they hovered closer. Steady. Slowly. No traffic. Tried to find any evidence of life. There were people down there. None she could see but the Kel knew that much from scans and all else. To the naked eye, however, the city looked …
Dead.
“My queen?”
“Put down directly before it.”
There was a pause, and Cee knew her admiral was debating whether to ask about collateral damage. Voltan’s orders and philosophy when it came to the humans had, frustratingly, trickled throughout the entirety of the Kel command, including the warriors of her personal flagship. They all knew the razor’s edge they were on publicly with the Fetok and Cee wondered for a flash if she should just clean house; sweep away the officers around her who advised caution, restraint, those who quietly subscribed to Voltan’s way of thinking; replace them with a new wave of fresh, bold leaders.
“Set us down now.” It accelerated the moment. In a way she wanted to crush a few buildings, kill a few people. It was just the sort of statement Kang would value. She knew, of all things, the beast most appreciated the Kel single-mindedness for war. Violence was his core impulse and the Kel civilization was based on it. Strength, subjugation of others, domination. Where Kang was wonton and chaotic the Kel were orderly and strategic, but these were nevertheless the points where the Kel and Kang came together. She knew she had to focus on that to continue to control him. Casually dropping a giant warship—the biggest the Kel had—right outside his recently adopted palace, crushing several human structures and killing whomever was unlucky enough to be in them, clearly without so much as a second thought …
Overall an excellent approach.
Her admiral issued instructions and the helmsman slid them sideways, closer, over the area, a park with some surrounding buildings. Giant landing gear unfolded, rumbling deep in the bowels of the warship; massive struts and footpads that were themselves as large as a small building. They locked in wi
th solid thunks that reverberated through the bridge decking.
And the dreadnought descended. The final distance, catching a few structures at the edges, the sound of their impact less forceful than the unfolding of the landing gear. Faint pops, slight explosions of force, dirt and debris swirling high enough in those final seconds to be seen roiling from beneath the sinking warship, rising into view on the forward screen. Cee stood before the images, hands clasped behind her back, watching the gray-white whorls of concrete rising, filled with particulate of all sizes, sparkles of pulverized glass and other things. She caught sight of a few pieces of what had to be furniture, flying away, tiny at that scale; larger chunks shooting free under force, flipping and tumbling as they caught the wind in their rush outward.
Then the ship was down.
“I will proceed alone,” Cee informed the bridge. Now that they were here, now that the ship was touching ground and could be reached by the monster, she felt the tension among the crew. As if they realized all at once they were vulnerable.
Kang was out there.
She turned from the towering screen. Again she had the idea her admiral wanted to say something, wanted to caution her, but there was nothing further to say. It mattered little whether an army went with her or she went alone. She knew this as well as they did. Proceeding alone made no difference to her safety. Doing so, however, did convey the air of confidence she needed to project, that Kang might more readily accept her and return to his place within their ranks. If an army would’ve helped she most certainly would take one. This was madness either way, and so she chose to send the most powerful message she could:
Star Angel: Rising (Star Angel Book 4) Page 38