“We’re doing something good,” Kail snapped at Merlion, “so there is no need to behave in a hostile manner toward a Hand. We must welcome him to our cause. We need him and his kind on our side! It would make everything so much easier.”
“It’s not going to happen,” Merlion replied. “He’s not going to sway. At least, not with you doing it. Only he can do it, so that it lasts.”
“Well, he is not here right now,” Kail snapped back at the other man, “so I have no other options.”
“There’s one very obvious other option,” Merlion pointed out, gesturing vaguely with his blast pistol. “And it would be preferable to revealing everything we’re doing to a Hand that we cannot turn to our side.”
“Quiet!” shouted the governor. “He must be told! He has to know—all of them do! If only the Hands—perhaps even the Machine itself—could see the truth of our great purpose, they would surely join us. And we would become utterly unstoppable.”
“Fantasy,” Merlion responded. “Sheerest fantasy. Only he can sway a Hand—and not easily. You’re only making this more difficult, Kail.”
The governor ignored him and returned his attentions to Hawk. “A Golden Age is about to dawn,” he said, his voice filled with dramatic force. “And I believe you are intelligent enough to know which side you should choose.”
Hawk blinked. That last sentence had gotten through to him and now his mind cleared a bit, the layers of mental fog the governor had seemingly projected parting for him.
“Oh, I definitely know which side I’m on,” he said to the governor. “And I know what to do with traitors—with those who supply classified defense and military data to alien powers. As for the rest of this—” He gestured at the room around them, and the rooms behind them, and at the entire palace, his motion taking in every bizarre thing he had encountered since landing here a half hour or so earlier, “—I’m going to have to leave that to those better suited to investigating it all. But you two,” he added, “well, you can go ahead and consider yourselves under arrest.”
“I told you there was no use in trying to sway him yourself,” Merlion growled at the governor. “You’re no good at it. You need him to provide the power.”
Hawk registered that word, “him,” and mentally filed it away. Then he leapt, diving toward his pistol where it lay on the hard stone floor.
Merlion fired. The powerful shot skimmed Hawk’s right shoulder and deflected off the surface of his ultra-thin armored uniform.
Hawk grasped his weapon and rolled up into a crouch, pistol clutched in both hands and aimed in the direction of the other two men.
A shot was fired. Hawk blinked, surprised. He hadn’t fired, and he hadn’t been fired upon.
The governor slumped to the floor.
Merlion stood over the body, frowning down at it. “You were an idiot, Kail. I should have done that to you months ago.”
Hawk felt anger boiling over. “Alright—that’s it,” he shouted at Merlion. “Drop your weapon and raise your hands. Now!”
Merlion’s brow was furrowed, from what Hawk could see in the dim lighting of the chamber, and he still hadn’t looked up from the body of the governor. When he finally did, his eyes widened as he looked just past Hawk’s shoulder at something. He quickly tossed his gun aside.
Hawk frowned at this. It struck him as some sort of trick. Even so, he wanted to know what could possibly be coming up behind him that could so unnerve a cold-blooded murderer and likely traitor like Merlion. An instant later, he had his answer without even looking.
“What’s going on here?” came the deep, rumbling voice that was all too familiar.
Now Hawk did turn around, and was surprised and somewhat relieved to see his commander, Eagle, striding into the darkened chamber. The big man in navy blue and red gazed about, taking the scene in quickly. His hands were empty but his golden sword hung in its scabbard at his side. He turned his penetrating gaze on Hawk. “Report.”
“I’ve found the governor and Merlion,” Hawk reported, “as you can see.”
Eagle bent over the governor, frowning, and checked his vital signs.
“Kail is dead,” the Hand commander announced. “Merlion did this?”
Hawk nodded.
Eagle pursed his lips, looking from Merlion to his subordinate Hand.
“And why was Merlion alive to be able to do this? Why did you not kill him—or at least restrain him—immediately?”
“He surprised me and was able to disarm me for a few moments,” Hawk began, not particularly disturbed by Eagle’s questions; he was used to the incredibly high standards to which the commander held all of the Hands, including himself. “But—”
Eagle turned to face Hawk directly, his eyes piercing in their intensity. “Why is he still alive now?”
Hawk frowned. The commander wanted a summary execution? He hesitated a second, then, "There’s more going on here that we were aware, I think,” he replied carefully. “The governor was trying to tell me something—to explain some grand truth, as he saw it, and to sway me over to it—and Merlion was trying to cover it all up.”
Eagle seemed to be taking this in, considering it. He turned back to Merlion. The man was sweating now, even in the cold dank environment of the sub-basement they occupied. At that moment, a sort of electricity filled the room, accompanied by a low hum that emanated from the various bizarre machines that filled much of the space.
“That’s true?” Eagle demanded of the black-robed man, his voice deep and commanding. “Governor Kail was attempting to explain some sort of ‘grand truth’ to Hawk?”
Merlion nodded slowly. “Quite so. In fact, he was saying far too much for my taste.”
Eagle appeared to be considering this. He glanced back at Hawk and frowned. Then he faced Merlion again. He inhaled deeply, his massive chest swelling. “So. You have information—intelligence—then, on what has been happening here? On who has been receiving the defense data you’ve stolen?” He regarded the robed man with very obvious contempt. “Information that you doubtlessly wish to provide, as a service to us—to trade for your life?”
Merlion blinked. He glanced over at Hawk, then back at the big man looming over him. “What? What are you—?” He hesitated, looking at Hawk again.
Puzzled, Hawk watched the exchange in silence. He could only trust his commander to know and follow the best course of action, as he always had done.
“You are a liar,” Eagle announced suddenly. “A liar—and a madman. Governor Kail was the real traitor. He was behind the entire operation. You have nothing of interest to me. You know nothing.”
Merlion opened and closed his mouth, his icy cool shattered. He started to speak, but Eagle cut him off.
"Unfortunately, Merlion,” the commander stated, his voice hard as iron, “this is the only service we require of you."
It happened in one smooth motion. Eagle moved forward, his golden sword out of its sheath and curving around. The incredibly fine edge passed through Merlion’s neck without slowing. The man’s head dropped to the floor an instant before the rest of him did. Blood fountained.
Hawk recoiled in horror. Instinctively he started to bring his weapon up, then realized just who he would be aiming it at and lowered it once more. He gawked at his superior in shock and confusion and unabashed disgust.
“Yes?” Eagle asked, his gaze flicking from the bodies on the floor before him to his fellow Hand. “You have something to say, Hawk?”
Hawk swallowed, frowning. He was at a loss as to what to say.
A loud bang echoed throughout the room. Light flooded in, from somewhere.
Both men whirled about.
The rectangle of metal and wires and machinery standing near the center of the chamber had flared to life. A dull vibration emanated from it, seemingly shaking the very air around them. Lights flashed in various colors all along the superstructure. Strangest of all, the interior space of the rectangle was now filled with blinding light; it resembled nothing
so much as a doorway opening onto some other, incredibly brightly-lit room.
Hawk aimed his pistol at the center of the light. Eagle held his gleaming sword before him and waited, his expression oddly not one of puzzlement as much as of mild surprise.
A human shape formed within the light. It stepped through the doorway, over the threshold, and solidified before them, there in the room. The light itself receded but did not die away. Now a man stood before them—a human male, dark-haired and slender, roughly of the same height as Hawk. He wore immaculately clean and neat clothing of a somewhat loose fit, and all of black; slacks, long-sleeve shirt, and a sort of trim jacket. His eyes appeared to glow a soft white as he gazed first down at the dead men and then up at Hawk and Eagle. He smiled.
“Who are you?” Hawk demanded, his gun trained at the man’s chest. “Where did you come from?”
The smile on the man’s face widened.
“I come to you from far away,” he said, his voice low and smooth. “Very, very far away.”
Hawk nodded slowly. He was beginning to feel an odd tingling sensation flooding through his body, attacking his nerve endings. He tried to ignore it and maintain his full attention on the strange man in black who now stood before him.
“So,” the man said, gazing at the bodies of Merlion and Kail. “Both of the loudmouths are dead.” He shrugged slightly. “Their usefulness was at an end, in any event.” He bestowed a beatific smile upon Eagle. “You have done well, mighty Hand.”
Hawk frowned, confused for a moment. Then he glanced back at the commander, his friend.
“What is this man—if man he is—talking about, Agrippa?”
Eagle’s expression was blank and his body rigidly unmoving. His bright blue eyes were focused directly on the newcomer.
“What is going on here?” Hawk demanded, his voice rising. Again he attempted to access the Aether—to communicate with the fleet—and found that the strange, jamming effect persisted. Nothing but static filled his mental “ears.”
“I presume you have prepared steps to deal with any and all contingencies, yes?” the man in black asked, looking to Eagle.
The commander moved then, nodding once. Seeming to come to himself once more, he gestured with one hand and issued a mental command.
Something was wrong here, Hawk knew beyond any doubt now. Something was very, very wrong. Beyond the bizarre situation within the palace—the headless bodies, the heads in the glowing sphere, the governor and his aide in their cultish robes—something potentially far worse was afoot. Something that apparently involved the other Hands, including the commander himself. But how could that be? It clashed with everything Hawk knew, everything he had ever known as an agent of the Machine and a subordinate of Eagle.
This man who had come from the doorway—stepped out of the eerie light there—had some power over Eagle, he realized then. Some kind of control over him, in a similar fashion to what the governor had attempted to do to him earlier. Where Kail had failed, however, this strange man clearly had Eagle in thrall. It was the only explanation that made any sense.
A hint of fear and perhaps even panic touched Hawk. He knew he might have only seconds left to act—to spread the word of what was happening here to the others, up in orbit. Quickly he ordered a memory packet to form within his mind, carrying copies of everything he had seen and heard in the past hour.
Eagle was looking at him now. Not a trace of emotion showed from this big man who normally radiated charisma and confidence enough to buoy an entire army.
“We have to think of the greater good, Marcus,” the commander said in a peculiarly quiet voice.
“Right,” Hawk replied. “Of course.” Mentally, he was probing at the wall of static and distortion that utterly cut him off from the ship. Thus he was ready—and not even particularly surprised, at this point—when, a second later, Eagle raised one gloved hand and motioned, and the electronic distortion blanketing the palace vanished. A connection with the Talon engaged instantly.
As the interference dissolved away at last and his link to the Aether network returned, Hawk called up the memory capsule and compressed it. He fired it in a tight beam toward the flagship high in orbit.
Back in the present, the recording seemed to end there. But then, after a moment’s static and a jarring discontinuity, it started up again, more memories having been amended to it shortly afterward:
Eagle noticed what Hawk was doing and he motioned again. The data packet from Hawk bounced back, like a bullet hitting a thick steel plate, before it could even leave the room.
“I’m sorry, my friend, but I cannot allow you to do that,” Eagle said. Then he looked away, accessing the now-open Aether connection himself. “Falcon—do you read?”
“Ah! There you are,” came the deep, rumbling voice in response. “We were getting a little concerned about both of you.”
“You were right to be concerned,” the commander replied. “I’ve found the Governor and Merlion,” Eagle stated flatly. “Both are dead.” A pause, and his voice seemed to catch, as if deep emotion were flooding into it. “I’ve found Hawk as well. It appears they have… killed him.”
Falcon’s deep voice echoed back across the link immediately. “What? Hawk is dead?”
A heartbeat later, his reaction time severely impaired by the buzzing in his head and the numbness growing in his limbs, Hawk himself cried out: “What?!”
Eagle had motioned with one gloved hand an instant before Hawk had spoken. The electronic interference blanketing the palace returned. No one in the fleet heard Hawk’s startled exclamation.
“I’m sorry, Marcus,” Eagle said to Hawk then, his eyes as emotionless as his voice. “I had hoped that you would encounter Merlion—and perhaps the governor, as well—before making it this far underneath the palace, and simply kill them. Then any talk of treason would have died along with them, and you and I could have walked out of here together.” He gave a half-shrug. “But, alas…”
Hawk stared back at his commander as the big man spoke those words. He didn’t understand at all.
“Why?” he asked. “Why, Agrippa?”
Eagle half-shrugged again.
“Forces much greater than either of us are at work now, and we can but bow to them.”
“Indeed,” said the man in black. He took a step forward.
Hawk reacted to the motion of the newcomer by attempting to raise his own pistol. He found his arm would not obey—it was growing numb and wouldn’t respond to his mental orders. His eyes flashed down to his own hand and then up to Eagle, and his expression changed from puzzlement to surprise.
The big man’s blade flashed out again. Hawk had no chance whatsoever to react. The straight golden metal jabbed at him, into him. Wide-eyed, stunned to his core, he stared down momentarily at the gleaming blade transfixing him. As Eagle withdrew the blade and watched impassively, Hawk dropped to the floor.
“Such a shame,” Eagle whispered with no trace of emotion whatsoever. “But perhaps of great value, yet.”
As the life drained quickly out of Hawk, he accessed the encapsulated copy of his memories again and frantically attempted to transmit it as a data burst to the Talon, far up in orbit above the planet. The interference was back in effect, however, and he still could not make contact. He cursed silently, knowing he had only seconds of life remaining. His vision was fading, his head lolling over to one side. As his eyes closed one last time, he spotted the computer banks filling part of the room. It was his only choice. With the last spark of life left to him, he accessed the palace’s local, internal network and inserted the memory capsule data into it.
And then he died.
But the recording did not stop.
Hawk’s ocular and auditory implants continued to function for a short time afterward, despite the death of his organic body, and here is what they recorded and added to the data packet in the local network:
As the man in black looked on, still smiling, Eagle touched a series of contr
ols on his sleeve. Then he tilted his head back slightly, as if attempting to actually see up through layers of stone and steel and concrete to the star-filled sky high above, and to the fleet orbiting overhead. He spoke.
“I’m transmitting a set of data I recovered here,” he told the listening officers aboard the Talon, even as he sent up the recording that ended with Hawk being erroneously greeted by the governor as the traitor. “It is quite…troubling. It appears there was indeed a traitor working with Governor Kail. I regret to say that it looks to have been Hawk himself.”
For a heartbeat, there was no reply. Then the communications link nearly exploded as dozens of voices erupted. Words of incredulity and denial intermingled with shock and outrage.
“There will be a full hearing when I have returned to the ship,” Eagle intoned. “Which I will do shortly. Stand by.” With that, he closed the link and gazed across the room at the man in black. “Satisfied?”
“Indeed,” the man said to him. “You elaborated upon my orders most creatively. I had not concerned myself with what your teammates would think of you following this meeting—though it makes sense that you would have. You, after all, believed you would be going back to them once our business here is concluded.”
Eagle’s placid features darkened for a moment. “What?”
The man in black kicked at Hawk’s body where it lay in a pool of blood on the stone floor. “A clever ruse you constructed. I ordered you to come here and meet with me, ostensibly to discuss our future plans, and you set your friend here up to take the blame should anything go wrong.”
“Yes, I—” Eagle’s voice trailed off. He stared down at his friend’s body and for an instant his expression changed to one of confusion. “Hawk?” he whispered. “What happened?”
The man in black interposed himself back into Eagle’s attention quickly.
“Your shuttle is nearby, yes?”
Eagle looked up. Still seeming somewhat puzzled, he nodded. “In the main courtyard of the palace.”
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