by James Frey
“Understood, Master Ulapala.”
Jenny hums a low tune. Hilal watches the image of the room recede and fall out of focus and disappear, the surface turning placid and black once more.
“It’ll take a while to navigate through the Dreaming,” Jenny whispers.
“I will wait,” Hilal says excitedly. “With pleasure.”
MACCABEE ADLAI, LITTLE ALICE CHOPRA
34.36226, 108.640262, Huzhucun, China
Maccabee and Little Alice descend a narrow spiral staircase carved from a tube of slick black stone. The staircase is less than a meter wide, forcing Maccabee to angle sideways. Little Alice, who becomes more afraid and unsure the deeper they go, holds his hand. The cramped tube, along with Little Alice’s increasingly tentative steps, causes them to move slowly. Maccabee’s pistol is in his right hand. He has a blade on his hip and the poison ring on his pinkie. Earth Key sits securely in the zippered pocket of an ill-fitting windbreaker he bought at the Ahmedabad airport. Between his teeth he holds a cheap and weak-beamed flashlight, also bought at the airport. Its batteries are already failing.
These are the things he carries to the end.
These are the things he carries to win.
These are the things he carries to meet kepler 22b, and to see how this girl will die.
He squeezes Little Alice’s hand. She squeezes back.
“I’m scared, Uncle.”
“Don’t be, sweetie,” he lies, his brow covered in a cold sweat.
He feels awful. He feels sick. He feels elated. He feels nervous.
He feels.
After 21 minutes and three seconds of descent the ground levels and the tube opens into a room. The air is a few degrees below freezing. He zips his jacket to his neck.
The walls glow, and his breath visibly plays in the flashlight’s beam. He pinches his teeth and the light clicks off. Little Alice shivers.
“We’re here,” she says.
“We are.”
The room is high ceilinged, its hard-angled walls laid out in the shape of a six-pointed star. At the far end of the room, blunting one of the in-facing points, is a tall and slender alcove, its edge surrounded by glittering runes, a few of which he recognizes. The interior of the alcove is jet black and liquefied, a limitless pool set on end. In the floor in the middle of the room is a gilt, bowl-shaped depression.
Maccabee steps forward, but Little Alice clutches his leg and won’t budge. “I’m scared,” she repeats.
“It’s all right,” he says.
“I . . .”
“Yes?”
“I want my mama,” she says weakly.
For a moment he can’t move. He swallows hard. If he were her, he would want his mama too.
KEPLER 22B
Teletrans chamber on board Seedrak Sare’en, active geosynchronous orbit above the Martian North Pole
kepler 22b hears this conversation from his ship above the red planet. He sees the girl. Knows her fear. It is real and well-founded. He almost steps through to reveal himself in this moment, to speak, but he wants them to come closer. There can be no doubt that this Player will claim his prize.
None.
He wants them to come closer.
AN LIU, NORI KO, MACCABEE ADLAI, LITTLE ALICE CHOPRA
34.36226, 108.640262, Huzhucun, China
An Liu moves quickly but silently. Maccabee is close. The girl is too. He can smell both.
Don’t rush to the kepler, love. Have patience.
BLINK
Quiet!
SHIVER
They’ll hear you!
SHIVERSHIVERBLINKBLINKSHIVER.
Patience. Don’t hurt the girl.
They’ll hear you!
He bites the edge of his tongue so hard that the tips of his teeth meet and grate. His eyes water. He wants Chiyoko to shut up, to let him work.
To let him kill.
But she won’t.
Don’t hurt the girl, she insists again, not hearing An’s thoughts. You’ll need her if you want to kill the kepler! Don’t hurt her!
He moves, one foot grapevining after the other, one after the other, in the utter darkness. Nori Ko has fallen farther behind.
“Shush!” he hisses.
Spill Adlai’s blood, not hers!
“SHUSH!”
He stops. That was too loud. He waits for a response from below, hears nothing. Nori Ko comes to his shoulder. She nudges him with her knee.
They have been descending for nearly 10 minutes. He estimates that they’re more than 100 meters underground, the air getting colder and colder as they go.
He cocks an ear to the darkness. No sound from Maccabee. The hole must be that much deeper.
ShivershiverBLINKshiverBLINKBLINKblink.
An releases his rifle’s hand guard and takes one of Chiyoko’s shriveled ears and slips it between his lips.
It tastes like paper.
SHIVERblink.
Like nothing.
blink.
But it works.
She is quiet.
He moves his feet, faster now.
Much faster.
“It’s all right,” Maccabee whispers. He kneels before Little Alice, holding her gently by the shoulders.
“I want my mama.”
Maccabee looks at her feet. He’s too ashamed to meet her gaze. “When we’re done here, I’ll take you to her,” he lies again. “We’ll find her and I’ll take you to her. I promise.”
“After you win?”
“Yes. After I win.”
“Promise?”
If she’s going to die, he doesn’t want her to be stressed. It should be peaceful. Painless.
Like the Maker promised it would be.
Maccabee raises his face and stares at her intently, tenderly. “I swear it.” The sincerity in his voice surprises even him.
You fucking monster, he thinks.
Little Alice blinks. “Okay.” She peeks into the middle of the room. “Okay.”
Maccabee runs the back of his hand over her cheek. “Do you know what to do over there?”
“Yes, Uncle.”
“Show me. The sooner we’re done, the sooner we can see your mama.”
“Okay.”
She walks to the bowl in the middle of the floor. He follows, unzipping the pocket that contains Earth Key. He wraps his fingers around the small stone ball, its surface unusually warm, and pulls it free.
I am going to win, he thinks, he rationalizes.
Little Alice stops at the edge of the depression, her toes hanging over it. She holds out her hand. Her small body shakes.
“Okay,” she says. “Give me your hand, Uncle. Give me Earth Key.”
KEPLER 22B
Teletrans chamber on board Seedrak Sare’en, active geosynchronous orbit above the Martian North Pole
kepler 22b steps to the edge of the transpot. He pulls his cloak of armor around his body. He slips the hood over the topknot perched on his head. The hood’s edges adhere to his cheeks and then grow and meet, covering his face.
Endgame is over, and he is glad for it.
He takes a breath. It is slightly tentative, shaky.
What is this odd feeling? The one he hasn’t had in such a long time?
Ah, yes.
Nervousness.
Slowly, he steps forward.
HILAL IBN ISA AL-SALT, SHARI CHOPRA, JENNY ULAPALA
-21.6268, 129.6625, Yuendumu Hinterland, Northern Territory, Australia
Hilal watches as Jenny and Shari work through the Dreaming.
He watches the portal.
After a while the black surface changes, as before. A line here, a line there, the faint light.
He starts to see another room.
And then Shari screams. Jenny throws both arms around her, half pinning her to the ground.
Hilal squints at the image in the portal.
The room pulls into focus.
This room is not empty like the other one. In the middle sta
nds Maccabee Adlai, and clinging to his leg is Little Alice Chopra! The Nabataean is seconds away from winning!
“Do you see kepler 22b?” Hilal asks desperately.
“No!” Jenny shouts. “But—”
“The Shang!” Hilal yelps, pointing past Maccabee. “There is the Shang!”
AN LIU, MACCABEE ADLAI, LITTLE ALICE CHOPRA
34.36226, 108.640262, Huzhucun, China
An reaches the bottom of the steps. He is as silent and cold as the air enveloping him. Nori Ko could not keep up with his pace, and she is at least a minute behind.
The Nabataean and Sky Key stand in the middle of the room. Adlai looks shorter than An remembers, but then An notices that Adlai is in a small hole in the ground. On the far side of the room is a dark doorway, its surface black and opaque. An calmly adjusts his aim for the back of Adlai’s neck, right below the skull. He puts the slightest pressure on the trigger. A couple more millimeters and the Nabataean’s spine will explode and his throat will collapse and his face will be torn away and flung into the star-shaped room and he will be instantaneously killed.
Sky Key says, “There, Uncle!” She points. An can’t help but look. A play of light on the far side of the room causes him to ease off the trigger. The blackness in the doorway stirs, like an invisible stick has swirled its surface, and near the floor An sees something foot-shaped begin to step out of it.
HILAL IBN ISA AL-SALT, SHARI CHOPRA, JENNY ULAPALA
-21.6268, 129.6625, Yuendumu Hinterland, Northern Territory, Australia
“Gun!” Jenny orders. “Give Hilal his blades!”
Shari writhes and calls out for Little Alice, her eyes shut, her hands outstretched, her legs kicking.
Hilal sees Maccabee and Sky Key and An, but none of these people appear to see him. If he can make it to the star chamber on the other side of the portal he will have the element of surprise.
He skids to a stop in front the threshold. A Koori guard throws a pistol at him and Hilal snatches it from the air. He tucks it under his chin and holds out both hands as his machetes arrive, LOVE in his right hand and HATE in his left. He hastily slips one under his belt and takes the gun.
“Go!” Jenny yells. “Go and get her!”
AN LIU, MACCABEE ADLAI, LITTLE ALICE CHOPRA
34.36226, 108.640262, Huzhucun, China
The kepler! Chiyoko screams. Stop him, An! Adlai will win if you don’t. Stop him now!
An releases his Beretta. It falls to his chest, making a muffled sound. Maccabee hears this and he whips around. In a single motion An yanks a ball from the strand of explosives hung around his body and slings it through the room. It arcs over Maccabee, who stabs one of his massive hands into the air, missing it by a few centimeters. Maccabee drops to the ground, covering Little Alice with his arms, shielding her with his broad shoulders and back.
The tiny bomb lands in the middle of the archway on the far side of the room.
It is rigged to explode on impact.
And it does precisely that.
HILAL IBN ISA AL-SALT, SHARI CHOPRA, JENNY ULAPALA
-21.6268, 129.6625, Yuendumu Hinterland, Northern Territory, Australia
Just as Hilal steps through the portal, its surface crackles and shivers and the room on the other side shatters and snaps. The blackness returns and he almost slams headlong into it, but someone strong snatches his belt and twists him to the side and he whiplashes into the tree trunk, mashing his cheek on its rough bark.
The person holding him is Jenny Ulapala.
“It’s no good. There was a blast. You go through that now and you’ll end up in the void, Aksumite.” She winks. “Trust me.”
He does.
“Shari,” he says.
Shari lies on the ground, her eyes blinking, her stomach spasming in fits of sadness and pain.
“I pulled her out of the Dreaming,” Jenny says.
“I saw her!” Shari wails.
“You did,” Jenny says gently.
“Why couldn’t we save her?”
“You saw,” Jenny says.
“The Shang,” Hilal says quietly.
“Shut up, Hilal!” Shari spits through her tears. “I saw her. You saw her. I was so close I could smell her hair, her skin.”
Hilal casts his eyes to the ground.
“You couldn’t smell her, mum,” Jenny says, trying to calm her. “Those were your memories. They get tied up with what you experience in the Dreaming. She was there but you weren’t. Not really. Not in body.”
“I could smell her,” Shari insists, her tongue razor sharp.
A moment. The hiss and whorl of the wind. Crickets. A snapping branch.
“What happened?” Hilal asks.
“An Liu threw one of his bombs,” Shari whispers. “The Maker was coming. An stopped him.”
“Shari, that’s good,” Jenny says. “It means the game ain’t over. It means your daughter lives.”
“No it isn’t! I don’t have her!” She points at the blank portal in the tree trunk. “One of them has her! Or one of them is killing her! Or . . . or . . .”
“Easy, mum,” Jenny says. “The Maker doesn’t have her. That’s what counts.”
Another moment.
Jenny starts to speak again but Shari raises a hand. She gathers herself, sits and wipes her eyes with the back of her hand. “The explosion was concentrated,” she says quietly. “Adlai smothered her. They were alive when you pulled me out, Jenny. I saw. Adlai was rising to fight, and Alice . . . she was curled up. Like a little bug. Like a cat. Curled up and scared.”
“So she does live,” Hilal says, trying to sound encouraging. He moves toward Shari. “Until it is proved otherwise, that is what is true.”
“Hilal’s right,” Jenny says.
The sky is dark and featureless. The clouds cover the stars, the same that were so brilliant the night before.
“She lives!” Hilal insists. “And if I must die to deliver her safely into your arms, then I will.” He gets on his knees right next to her. He stretches his fingers for her arm but doesn’t touch. “Our plan will work. All we have to do is execute it again. She lives!” he repeats like a refrain, like a prayer. “You will see her alive again, Shari Chopra. This I swear.”
AN LIU, MACCABEE ADLAI, LITTLE ALICE CHOPRA, NORI KO
34.36226, 108.640262, Huzhucun, China
The portal is destroyed.
Little Alice cowers as Maccabee rushes An Liu. Maccabee’s gun rises. He pulls the trigger, aiming for An’s chest. The shot echoes harshly throughout the room. An is felled by the force of the first shot and twists into the entryway, disappearing for a moment.
Maccabee is there in a flash. An’s chest heaves, his hands clutch at his throat. The shot hit armor and he gasps for air. Maccabee reaches down and grabs An’s rifle strap. He yanks the gun awkwardly around An’s side where it’s impossible for him to reach it.
But An has other things.
Like a sword.
It flashes and cuts across the muzzle of Maccabee’s pistol, slamming it to the wall and crunching the Nabataean’s knuckles into the stone entryway. The pistol fires uncontrollably as it’s knocked free. The slug hits the stone and bounces around but doesn’t hit anyone. An draws a deep breath and holds it so he doesn’t have to fuss with his struggling lungs. He bounces to his feet. Maccabee, relieved of his pistol, backpedals as the tip of An’s sword zips past Maccabee’s face. Maccabee draws a tactical knife, double-edged with a hilt.
The Nabataean parries the sword with the knife, catching the edge with the hilt and pushing the sword away. The knife might be short next to the sword, but Maccabee’s superior strength more than makes up for it.
They parry and attack and counterattack for a few seconds as each sets his feet. An exhales and surges forward and Maccabee leans to his left to avoid An’s steel. He stabs for An’s exposed neck and is certain he’ll strike but then An steps into the bowl in the middle of the room and shrinks by a foot. The knife scratches the top of
An’s head, but it doesn’t draw much more than a few drops of blood.
Where is Sky Key? Maccabee thinks. She was in the bowl, terrified and curled up like an insect, but now she’s gone. Did the Maker get her? Is she safe?
Maccabee slices his knife down hard, cutting An’s rifle strap. He grips the side of the stock and pulls it free, but An zips a backhand at the weakest section of the gun, where the receiver meets the barrel. The rifle is actually cut in two. The top half twirls away and the bottom half falls to their feet as Maccabee folds himself backward like a circus acrobat, narrowly avoiding the rest of the blade. An sets his feet and grips the sword two-handed and is about to smash it into Maccabee’s leg when another shot rings in their ears, a bullet grazing the Shang’s ear and causing his strike to miss. Maccabee clambers to his feet. Both Players search desperately for the shooter, and both are shocked to see Little Alice Chopra clutching Maccabee’s pistol like a giant deadly toy.
An is between the girl and the Nabataean. She aims at An again and pulls the trigger, pulls it pulls it pulls it. She fires all the bullets left in the gun, and all miss badly, the recoil nearly knocking her over. The gun clicks. Empty. An runs toward her, Maccabee follows, yelling, “Leave her alone!”
Chiyoko yells, Don’t hurt her, love!
An can’t help himself. Not now. Sky Key is going to get hurt.
She’s going to die.
An reaches the girl—terrified and crying and shaking so badly she can barely hold the gun—in less than two seconds. Maccabee is right behind him but he’ll be too late. An is going to strike.
But before he can, An’s face lights in pain and the world goes silver and then black.
Maccabee skids to a stop. An’s knocked halfway across the room, hit hard in the head with the butt of a rifle. He splays across the floor, flat on his back. A woman steps from the entryway behind Little Alice, and also behind the rifle that knocked An Liu to the floor.