by David Beers
Now, Rhett thought. If you’re going to kill him, you do it now, and he might not even notice.
The thought was there, but it died quickly.
The Disciple looked at him.
“That’s not a good idea, Rhett Scoble.”
“Do you know everything I think?” Rhett asked.
“I know what I need to.”
Rhett felt no sinking feeling in his stomach. No fear rose in him. His mentality was that of the prisoner who knew he would be executed. Perhaps when the moment of death came, he would feel fear, but for now, he’d accepted his fate.
He could only look for opportunities … and apparently not think about them for any length of time when they arrived.
Rhett looked back at the girl. “Still think you’ll get her to the One Path?”
“I have no choice,” the Disciple said.
“They’re coming, Dad.”
“Right now?”
Nicki was looking over her shoulder at the transport. “Well, one of them. I guess he’s the one in charge. He’s coming to get me.”
“What you did with the transport, can you do that now?” her father asked. “I don’t know if it’s the sight. I don’t know what it is, but can you do it now?”
Nicki shook her head as she watched the man step across the sand. His steps were agile, like a dancer’s … and Nicki saw something else about him—even from all this distance, laying eyes on him for practically the first time, she saw no hesitation in the man. Her earlier thought was right: he held no fear. He possessed none of the feelings running through her, as if she were a factory creating them—her fear on an assembly line and pumping it out each minute, on the minute.
“Nicki!”
She shook her head, coming out of whatever trance the stranger had created. She kept staring at him over the sand, but remembered her father’s question.
“No,” she said. “Whatever I used, it’s gone now.”
And it was. She didn’t know how it had come, what it was, or when it had left. She only knew that the charge she felt previously was absent. She could sit here and dig inside herself, but she wouldn’t find anything.
“It’s gone,” she said again.
Do you miss it? a part of her whispered.
“Nicki, look in the sky. Where’s the sun at?” her father asked.
Nicki glanced across the horizon. “It’s … I don’t know. It’s not far into the sky yet.”
“Okay. Listen, I don’t know how often I’ll be able to come back like this, but we’re on the way, okay, Nicki? I promise. We’re coming to get you. Just do what they tell you until we can get there.”
Nicki whipped back around so that she faced her father, forgetting what he said about not being able to see her. “No! You’re not coming for me. Do not come looking for me, Dad.” She didn’t tell him why, because she didn’t want to scare him—not any more than he already was. The man behind her though, the one walking to get her … Nicki had seen a psychopath days ago, felt his hands around her neck, but even that didn’t make her feel the way this man did.
He was death personified. Elegant, but determined. Swift, but combined with brutality in a way that the psychopath never could be. She didn’t want her father around this man. She didn’t want him to ever lay eyes on death.
“We’re coming, Nicki,” her dad said as if he hadn’t heard a word. “I love you.”
“You have to go. Now,” she said. The man was only 20 feet away, and Nicki didn’t want her father here in any form when the man arrived.
The connection between her and Daniel ended as the stranger reached her.
Daniel’s eyes hadn’t been closed when speaking with his daughter, but he hadn’t seen anything of the room he occupied. For a moment, he’d seen the transport ablaze, and then only blackness for a while. It wasn’t until she was outside that he’d been able to see her again.
He felt the connection cut between them, almost like a physical cable. Something simply snipping it.
And then he was back in the basement with its brick walls and ancient machines.
He was surrounded by people, all staring at him as if he was some foreign animal from another Ministry. Something undiscovered and not seen before.
“It worked,” Dr. Lane said.
Daniel’s eyes found the only person he knew, the Pope. The man stood slightly behind the small circle of people who now congregated around Daniel, his white collar distinctive amidst their clothes.
“I talked to her,” Daniel said.
“We know. We heard.”
“Could you hear what she said?” Daniel asked.
The Pope shook his head. “Only your side. Did she tell you where the sun was?”
Daniel nodded, Nicki’s words still clear in his mind. Perhaps even clearer than they might have been if she’d been standing physically in front of him. Perhaps the connection, the one using the sight and these machines, was stronger than real life.
“She made it sound like daybreak happened a little while ago.”
“What about where she was, did she say anything else about it?” the Pope asked.
“Desert. That’s all that was around her. Only sand.”
The Pope turned from him and everyone else in the room. He faced the opposite wall and started walking slowly toward it.
“Where is she?” Daniel called, his hands flying up to the helmet. “Get this off me. Get it off!”
He heard people moving behind him and then the helmet swung back up. The metal restraints over his legs opened and Daniel stood up, getting to his feet.
“Where is she?” he asked again.
“The High Priest has her,” the Pope said, though he spoke carefully as if considering each word. “The desert, though … Water separates the Old World from the True Faith. They call it Corinth’s Ocean, though of course it’s the Atlantic. They’re always trying to change the old ways, as if they can do that by simply saying it’s so.” The Pope shook his head for a second and looked at his feet. “Sorry. My mind is always wandering. The desert, though—if they were flying over that, it would mean they’re heading to the One Path. They’re over the Sahara Desert, and it sounds like they’re heading to the Indian Ocean. I just don’t know why.”
“It doesn’t matter why. As long as we know where they’re going, we can find them. Could they be doubling back, heading that way and then turning around to go back over the Atlantic?” Daniel asked.
“It’s possible.” The Pope looked up at the wall, stared for a second, then turned to his right and let his eyes fall to his feet. He started pacing slowly again. “It’s possible, but not likely. There isn’t time for those types of deception. No, I think they’re taking her to the One Path. The High Priest must be there, though I have no clue why he would be.”
“Then I’m going.”
The Pope shook his head though he didn’t stop walking. “No, you’re not. You’re staying here.”
“The hell I am,” Daniel said, his voice raising. “You can go fuck yourself if you think that even for a second.”
The room fell completely silent. Only the Pope’s footfalls made any noise as he reached the far wall, but he didn’t look up, only turned around and continued walking.
Daniel knew no one had spoken to this man like that, perhaps not in his whole life. No one in the room had any idea how to respond, most probably doubting Daniel would live past sundown.
He watched the Pope, his steps neither picking up speed nor losing it. Seconds passed and Daniel didn’t move, not sure what the Pope would do, but having meant every word.
“You’re not thinking clearly, Mr. Sesam, and that’s okay. If I was in your position, I wouldn’t be either. If you go get her, who is going to continue speaking with her? What if they do change directions? What if they decide to go somewhere else, but you’re out there in the One Path, flying around in those vast cities? What are you going to do then?”
The question hung in the air and Daniel understood his mist
ake. He was torn between feeling incredibly stupid, and yet unable to accept the fact that he couldn’t go after his daughter.
“Can’t we bring these machines?” he asked.
“No,” Lane said from behind him. “If you move them, they won’t work.”
The Pope nodded. “There isn’t any other way, and I wish there was … truly. I understand how much you love your daughter, but if you want her back, you’ll have to stay here.”
“Then who’s going?” Daniel asked.
“I will,” the Pope said.
“You? By yourself?”
The Pope stopped, turned, and looked at Daniel. He was smirking. “You don’t think I’m capable of bringing her back?”
“Frankly, no.”
The Pope laughed softly. “You’re right. No, I won’t go alone. I’ll bring forces with me, Mr. Sesam, but I still need you here. Because you’re able to contact her, and that’s going to be important if we’re to get her out alive.”
The Disciple stood a dozen feet from the woman.
She stood, looking at him with her arms crossed over her stomach.
The Disciple felt slight wonder at the sight of this weapon. He’d seen her power before, back at the motel room, though not as close as he had inside of the transport. She was the weapon, without doubt. Rhett Scoble may be trying to kill her, and there might have been another weapon in the world as well, but this woman carried the Black’s water … yet, something felt off about it. Rachel Veritros, that name of old, the Disciple didn’t think this woman resembled her at all. Standing before him now, she looked as if she had no idea of what was happening to her.
Not about what happened in the motel room.
Not about what happened in the transport.
She looked scared and lost.
“Who were you talking to?” he asked, unable to read any of her thoughts like he could Scoble’s. The connection between the Disciple and him was growing stronger as their nanotech spent more time around each other.
The Disciple had no such luxury with this woman.
“No one,” she said.
“You don’t want to lie to me,” he answered.
“I wasn’t talking to anyone. I was talking to myself.”
The Disciple didn’t believe her, but challenging her here wasn’t within his purview. The High Priest had given him a directive, and right now, they were wasting time.
“We’re continuing onward,” he said.
He watched her eyes flash over his shoulder to the wrecked transport. “I can’t fly it. You might think I can, but I can’t.”
Again, the Disciple thought she was lying, though her face was sincere. He sensed a fear inside her, and not just of him. He thought it might be of the transport … though that didn’t feel exactly right.
She’s scared of what she did, he thought. She’s scared of the gray.
“You don’t need to fly it. There’s another one coming, and we’re going to get in it.”
The Disciple had let her walk out into the desert because he’d needed time to arrange for the new transport. He started communicating immediately with the True Faith once they had landed, processing his coordinates and relaying the information. There had been some good news—the True Faith was sending reinforcements, and they’d meet him just as he arrived at the One Path.
The Disciple had also needed time to think about her, about this weapon.
“You’re not to use the Black any longer,” he said. “Do you understand?”
Her eyes widened and her mouth opened, her cheeks sinking in some.
“Do you understand?”
She nodded, though slowly.
He stared at her for a minute, neither of them speaking. She appeared shocked at his suggestion, and the Disciple didn’t understand why. Most likely, this was only a performance, meant to throw him off. Accomplishing this mission was perhaps the most critical thing the Disciple had ever attempted, and he knew that if she used the Black, he would have little chance. Physically, the Disciple could kill her easily, but the Black put all of that in question.
When she’d been unconscious, he hadn’t needed to worry, but now that she was awake … It could be a problem.
All of his thinking, yet he truly only had one option. He would keep going. All the way to the High Priest or until the Black killed him.
“The transport will arrive in 12 hours. We’re to remain here until that happens. If you try to access the Black, I’ll kill you.”
The girl didn’t nod. A ploy or not, her acting was superb. She didn’t appear to notice her skin burning from the sun’s rays, but simply stared forward with tears in her eyes.
“Go back to the transport,” the Disciple said.
Her eyes flashed over the Disciple’s shoulder. She said nothing, just stepped around him and did as he told her.
The Disciple turned and watched her walk back to the ship.
None of this made much sense to him. Two weapons, that’s what appeared to be happening in the world. The Disciple had received word of the True Faith’s attack, and that one of his brothers died in it. He didn’t understand the philosophy underlying why there had only been one weapon each time before, but he wouldn’t concern himself with such things right now.
He knew he had one of those weapons under his watch, but yet she acted … Well, she acted as if she had no idea what she was. Like the world’s destruction wasn’t her destiny.
And then this other man, Rhett Scoble. He served the weapon, but yet he was here to kill this one. Unless, somehow, he’d been able to deceive the Disciple.
The Disciple hadn’t been trained for this. Deception and philosophy were the purview of Priests, not him. It wasn’t in his nature to contemplate, to strategize. It was in his nature to act.
The weapon continued walking across the sand, her arms still wrapped around her stomach.
The Disciple remembered his mission, forcing extraneous thoughts from his head.
Deliver her to the High Priest.
Nicki climbed into the transport, the Disciple’s words floating around in her head like ghosts. They carried complete terror … and a threat of eternal damnation.
You’re not to use the Black again.
How had she missed it? She’d sat out there in the sand for 10 minutes, maybe more, and hadn’t once thought about what any of it meant.
The dark man, his eyes ablaze.
The gray in the motel room.
The gray in the transport.
The movement across time and space, going to the dark man and him coming to her.
You’re not to use the Black again, the man had said.
Nicki sat down, practically collapsing into the transport’s chair. She stared forward, her eyes wide. Tears blurred her vision, though it didn’t matter because she didn’t care about seeing anything.
The Black. The creature no one spoke about, not from the time you first learned of It, until you died decades later. The world kept silent about the Black, knowing It existed, but acting like It didn’t.
The gray light. She’d known what it meant with the dark man, but then ignored the same thing when it came to her. Her whole life she’d been taught to ignore the past, and now that it had grown inside her, she refused to see it.
And what about all that black space you sat in? What do you think that was, Nicki? You’re out here in this desert, stumbling around, seeing damned visions, and not connecting anything. The sight. The gray. The dark man. The black space you were so happy to inhabit for God knows how long.
And now this strange man, the one who resembles death, tells you what you should have seen all along?
You’re the Black, girl. You’re the weapon you learned about all those years ago, yet were told never to speak of. It’s happening, right now, and to you.
You’re the end of the world.
Tears fell from Nicki’s eyes, she unable to hold them back anymore. A single thought rose in her mind, blocking out all else. It couldn’t be denied, not
now that she saw the truth plainly.
If Nicki was to bring about the end of the world—if she was the Black reborn—then only one option remained: suicide.
Rhett watched the girl walk past him and into the transport. He knew the Disciple could see him, and if he made a single movement toward her, the Disciple would wrench away control of his body.
Rhett couldn’t kill her here, so he only watched as she stepped inside. She paid him no attention; tears floated across her eyes like watery shields, ready to drown anyone that tried to look in at her soul.
David was coming. Rhett knew that now. During the last few minutes, he had time to process some of what happened in the transport.
He’d felt David, though he hadn’t known it at the time. There’d been too much turmoil, him yelling questions at the Disciple as the transport fell closer and closer to the ground. Looking back though, he realized what he’d missed: his blood had started itching, which meant David had been working—at the exact same time the transport was diving.
David had been watching them; that’s what Rhett thought. Checking in on this girl. He was coming for her, and with only one thing on his mind: killing her.
Rhett would still try if given the chance, saving David the trouble, but he felt comfortable—happy even—knowing that David was on the way. Those tears in her eyes, they showed the truth. She was weak, because whatever David was doing right now, he wasn’t crying. His path moved forward, bringing the Unformed with him, bringing death and its glorious gray light.
Rhett had been turned into a bystander in this war, just at the moment it began. Yet, he felt okay with that because he would be able to watch David’s magnificence—the Unformed’s magnificence—as it brought down this imposter. Brought her low. Helped her understand that there was only one Prophet, and he served that which would never be denied.