by Melko, Paul
John was certain then that they didn’t know how to build devices.
“Where did you guys find all these machines?” John asked Luigiantia.
“Shut up,” she said.
“I thought you built them. I thought you controlled the technology,” he said. “But you’re just exploiters.”
“It’s our technology.”
“Can you build new iaciorators?”
She didn’t answer him.
The machine rumbled forward toward an airlock.
“And why all the airlocks?”
“Shut up!”
A soldier drew a pistol and pointed it at John. He looked at the barrel and shrugged.
The machine filled just a third of the airlock’s area. It paused between the doors, and then the outer doors opened and the machine surged forward. Facing forward, John could see their progress better than any of the soldiers.
The vehicle turned to the northeast. The mushroom cloud had dissipated, but the sky was still a dark ruddy color that seemed similar to clouds before a tornado. There was no road, but still the vehicle could make forty kilometers per hour over the grass.
John watched as a speck on the horizon slowly grew in size.
He almost laughed when he saw it was an M1 tank.
* * *
Prime drove the tank forward.
“Mark the transfer zone!” Grace Home said. A Henry had a can of spray paint that he used to mark the edge of the zone. He was halfway done when Grace yelled, “Ten seconds.” The Henry backed away. Grace threw a pad of paper a meter into the zone.
“What did you say?” Prime asked.
“That we were clear for now and to keep to the five-minute schedule,” she said.
The notebook disappeared. Prime checked his watch.
“Here they come,” someone said.
In the distance, a plume of dirt rose behind a black vehicle.
* * *
“That’s your iaciorator?” Luigiantia cried. “It’s U.S. technology! How was it fitted inside a tank?”
John shrugged. She knew the Wizards could build their own devices, but she didn’t understand they had transfer gates. How could he use that?
She shouted orders to the driver. The vehicle slowed and stopped about thirty meters from the tank. John saw that a dozen people stood on or near the tank. They were armed with assault weapons and were dressed in army fatigues that seemed to be covering body armor. John Prime was in the hatch of the tank. Grace Home was hanging from the tank, and the two seemed to be having heated words.
John didn’t reply.
“Did it come that way or did you fit it in there?”
John shrugged.
“A tank? How foolish!”
She didn’t seem to have any concept of a transfer device that fit on a person either. They hadn’t gotten his device.
Luigiantia barked a command at the orderly then exited the machine, taking two soldiers with her. Apparently John was staying in the vehicle.
She strode in long, forceful strides toward the tank, stopping ten meters away. She was wearing a microphone for the benefit of the soldiers left behind in the vehicle because her voice boomed inside when she began to speak.
“You have violated the sovereignty of the Order of the Vigilari,” she shouted. “As such your lives and property are forfeit. Disarm yourselves and hand over your iaciorator.”
John shook his head. “That’s not gonna work,” he muttered. “You guys are used to getting your way, aren’t you?”
Grace hopped down from the tank. She was dressed in desert camo, but carried no weapons. She walked forward until she was just a meter from Luigiantia.
Grace looked her square in the face.
“We are at war,” Grace said simply. “If you fail to deliver John Rayburn to us, we will nuke that structure into a glass-lined crater.”
Before Luigiantia could answer, Grace turned on her heel and walked away.
* * *
John Prime couldn’t believe how cool Grace was. He would have yelled and screamed at that amazon bitch with her attitude. Grace was handling it better than he would have, not that he’d admit that aloud.
Grace motioned at a Henry, and he wheeled the SADM they had brought with them forward.
“Arm it for four minutes,” she said. “But don’t start the timer.”
“Right.”
“The Order of the Vigilari do not negotiate with vermin,” Luigiantia shouted. “Your existence is a danger to the universe! You threaten the existence of every human in every universe.”
Grace didn’t even turn.
“You’re going to ignore her?” Prime asked.
“She doesn’t see us as on her level,” Grace said. “The longer she has to cater to us, the more angry she’ll be, the more likely she is to make a mistake.”
“You all right?” Prime asked. Sweat was beading on her forehead and she looked pale. “Henry, get her some water.”
A Henry handed her a bottle of water, from which she took a long drink.
“I’m all right,” she said. “Wheel the nuke after me.”
Grace turned and walked up to Luigiantia. She stood there and waited for Henry to push the nuclear device up.
“If you fail to deliver John Rayburn to us in four minutes, we will detonate this nuclear warhead,” she said. She pointed at the timer.
The two soldiers shared nervous glances.
“We do not negotiate with disease vectors,” Luigiantia said.
“Start the timer,” Grace said. Another Henry dashed forward and the two of them held the four switches down. The timer began.
Luigiantia inhaled. The two soldiers backed away.
“You’re bluffing.”
“No, I don’t bluff,” Grace said. “You’ve attacked us for no reason. You’ve destroyed hundreds of our people. We want nothing more than to live in peace.”
Luigiantia stared at the timer.
“You fools. You can’t be allowed to move between universes. We take our duty seriously, to keep the universes safe, not for our own personal gain. Death follows irresponsible use of the iaciorator.”
“Death follows you,” Grace said. “You have—” She glanced at the timer. “—three minutes and ten seconds.”
“Where did you get these atomic devices?” she asked. “Do you represent a government? No. You are too young. Too many of you are just dups. Where did this come from?”
“We found them.”
“Where?”
“Why does it matter?” Grace asked.
“Because they are not easy to come by!” Luigiantia said.
John Prime hopped down from the tank and walked forward.
“We got them from an empty world,” he said. Grace turned on him and shot him a dark look. Still he continued. He couldn’t help but gloat at the woman. “A whole goddamn world of weapons that we can use on you and your bastard friends. How do you like them berries?”
Luigiantia took a step backward.
“A plague world? You have been to a plague world?”
* * *
“She’s pushing too hard,” John muttered. These were fanatics, as fanatical as the Alarians were.
There was a burst of words from the radio. The driver turned and said something to one of the soldiers left in the vehicle.
A worried look passed among the remaining forward soldiers.
“What’s going on?” John asked the orderly.
“We have company,” the orderly said. “The big—”
A soldier barked at him. The orderly shut up, but he started unlatching John’s wheelchair.
As he bent close, he whispered, “The big bitch may have finally bitten off more than she can chew.”
The orderly backed John down the ramp into the grass. The smell on the wind was acrid. The orderly pushed him toward Luigiantia. She and Grace watched him approach, though Grace’s smile did not match the dark grimace of disgust on Luigiantia.
John realized her eye
s were focused behind him.
He turned to look over his shoulder. Another ground vehicle was approaching.
“John, how are you? Why are you in that chair?” Grace asked.
“I’m fine. I was being interrogated by my hosts,” John said.
“Who are these people?”
“They’re the Vig who the Alarians were scared of,” John said. “They try to run the multiverse. Only they seem to be spread a little thin. They don’t own the technology.” This last part he said with a nod at Grace.
“Stop talking,” Luigiantia said, but her heart didn’t seem in the threat. Her eyes were still on the approaching vehicle. What had the orderly said? That Luigiantia may have pushed too hard? Maybe they did negotiate after all.
The second vehicle pulled up parallel to the first. It was smaller, not a troop transport, more of a personal vehicle. Two people exited the left side. They were dressed in black like Luigiantia, with one ominous addition. They wore masks.
The two walked forward, but didn’t join Luigiantia. They stopped a few meters away and Luigiantia saluted them with a dip of her head and her right fist in her left palm across her chest.
The four remaining soldiers with Luigiantia suddenly appeared. They were now suited in gas masks. One of them handed masks to Luigiantia and the two soldiers who had come out first. There was no mask for the orderly, though he looked about for one.
“Sorry, buddy.”
“Screw you, vermin,” he said. John was sure he would have run if there weren’t soldiers there with guns.
One of the new arrivals said something to Luigiantia.
She replied in tense words, but her senior replied sharply and curtly.
She nodded.
“Please disarm the atomic device,” she said in English. “We will negotiate.”
“We want John first,” Grace said.
Luigiantia motioned with her hand. John stood and walked forward shakily.
Grace hugged him. John saw that she was pale and sweaty. She looked weaker than he felt.
“You okay?” he mouthed.
She nodded.
“Disarm the SADM,” she said.
The Henrys flicked the activation switches again and the timer stopped.
Luigiantia’s senior spoke again for several seconds, and then she translated.
“You must turn over your iaciorator,” she said. “If you do so, we will settle you in the universe of your choice and leave you in peace.”
“No,” John said. “Those terms are not acceptable.”
“You fools,” Luigiantia said, and this was no translation. “You’ll die as it is. No one visits a plague world and lives.”
Her superior barked an order, and she nodded, translating what John had said.
“You cannot be allowed to travel between worlds,” Luigiantia said. “You must give up your iaciorator and we will provide you with goods of a value equal to the most wealthy human in your chosen universe. That is our final offer.”
“No,” John said.
Luigiantia stiffened, but the mask hid what must have been a look of utter hatred.
“No,” John said. “If you don’t leave us alone, we will release the plans to our iaciorator to every government in every universe we can visit.”
“What?” Luigiantia said.
“This isn’t our iaciorator,” John said, pointing to the tank. “We have as many iaciorators as we can build. We reverse engineered the one we found.”
Luigiantia just stared at them until her superior said something to her.
She turned and spoke, and then the two superiors spoke quickly and furiously between themselves.
“We regret the loss of your peoples’ lives,” she said. “But our duty is grim and required for all the universes’ safety.”
“You didn’t have to nuke us!” Grace shouted.
John put a hand on her arm. “Hold on, Grace.”
“You have committed foolish and reprehensible actions,” Luigiantia said. “But we are at an impasse. We will maintain a truce under the following conditions.”
“They can’t—” Grace started to say.
“Stop, Grace, and we may get out of here alive,” John whispered. To Luigiantia, he said, “What are the conditions?”
“Leave this universe immediately. Do not return. Do not come to any universe below 7000. Ever. Do not share the plans for the iaciorator with anyone. Ever. If you violate these truce conditions, we will sterilize all the universes you or your dups inhabit.”
“We’ve got them by the balls,” Prime hissed. “We can’t back down.”
“We accept those terms,” John said. To Grace he whispered, “We have a cycler going?”
“Yeah, ninety seconds until the next one,” she said.
“Let’s take the nuke and go,” John said.
John turned back toward the Vigilari.
“We are going to leave. We’ll abide by these truce conditions if you stay out of our settled universes.”
Luigiantia sneered at him. “We would not go near your universes!”
“Good. Let’s go.”
Supported by Grace on one side and Prime on the other, he limped back toward the marked-off transfer zone.
“Sixty seconds,” a Henry said.
“What about the tank?” Prime said.
“Leave it,” he said. “We’re about to freak them the hell out.”
“Why?”
“They don’t think a transfer device can be anything other than a vehicle.”
“What?” Prime said.
“They have no idea how to make a transfer device,” John said.
“Thirty seconds.”
All dozen of them stood in the marked-off area.
Luigiantia was staring at them through her mask.
“Ten seconds.”
John turned his back on Luigiantia and waited.
The world disappeared.
CHAPTER 42
John looked around at the school gymnasium.
“John!” Henry Home said, looking up from the controls of the transfer gate. “We did it!”
He nodded.
John Prime whooped. “Oh, hell yes, we did it! We own the multiverse!”
John looked around the room at his friends, his brothers and sisters. He met the eyes of one Casey and looked away quickly. His Casey was gone.
He felt no desire to celebrate.
He glanced at Grace Home, who nodded slightly, as if she recognized his mood. She still looked flushed, as if the excitement of the last day was too much for her.
She squeezed his arm.
“It’ll be okay, John,” she said. “We can … rebuild.”
Even as she said it, John knew how weak the words were. He nodded anyway.
“Sure.”
“I know it looks grim now.…”
John was looking at Grace when she collapsed.
He jumped to her side, catching her head before it bounced off the gym floor. He laid her gently on the floor.
“Grace! Grace!”
He felt her forehead. She was burning up.
Her breathing was suddenly labored. Her lungs seemed congested.
John looked up at John Prime.
“What have you done?”
“What?” But Prime was backing away.
“You’ve been pillaging a plague world! What the hell were you thinking?”
“It never infected me!”
“Then it must have been all right? Is that what you thought? You goddamn narcissist. You’ve killed us all.”
“What do you mean? We’ll take her to the hospital. She’ll be all right.”
“The Vig aren’t there just to control transfer devices. They cauterize disease! They stop this from happening,” John shouted. “The only reason they let us leave was because they knew we’d kill ourselves in months, if not days.”
“How was I supposed to know?” Prime cried.
John advanced on him.
“You were sup
posed to think about someone other than yourself.”
Prime backed away. He looked at his own Casey, who would not meet his gaze.
“I did this for you. They wouldn’t have backed down without the nukes.”
“You did it for yourself!” John said. “It was just convenient for you to help the rest of us.”
Prime stopped backing up. He stood up straight.
“Screw you all, you ungrateful bastards.”
He reached into his shirt.
“You all are on your own.”
He disappeared.
CHAPTER 43
“We need to get her to a hospital,” Henry said. “She’s gonna die. Someone get a car. Get her in a car. Where’s the nearest hospital?” His arms fluttered up and down like a chicken’s wings.
“I have keys,” another Grace said. She started for the door of the gymnasium.
“Stop,” John said.
Grace looked at him blankly. “She’s sick!”
“This plague wiped out an entire world,” John said. “An entire world.”
“But—”
“Think! All of us may already be dead,” John said. “If we go to a hospital, if we interact with anyone else in this world, we may kill everyone in this entire world. Somehow, these weapons that Prime brought from his plague world have infected us.”
“But we have to do something!”
“I know!” John shouted. “I know we do!” He looked down at Grace Home. Her face was pale, her breathing shallow. Her lips were colorless. “We can’t take her to a hospital here.”
Henry Home stared at him. “It’s not one hundred percent fatal. Prime survived! And they may have an antidote here that they didn’t have in 9000. We have to try.”
John shook his head. “The risk is too great. We shouldn’t even be here now. We need to leave this universe.”
“And go where?”
“The Pleistocene universe. Universe 7535.”
“But there’s no supplies there! No medicine! She’ll die for sure there,” Henry Home cried.
“We have to keep this universe safe,” John said. “You and she have loved ones here! Everyone you know could die!”
“No! We’re taking her to the hospital!”
“Henry—” John began.