by JM Guillen
“Yeah.” I cleared my throat and then spoke a little more forcibly. “Yeah. That’s my choice.”
“I’m going to trust you, Alpha. I’ve decided.” She gave me a quick nod. “You’ll never be a good leader if people always doubt you and snark at you. So, we have a clean slate here, you and I.”
“Yeah?” I grinned “Even though I do terribly stupid things?”
“Maybe you used to.” She raised one eyebrow. “But not anymore, right?”
“Well, the thing is, the Designates seem to kind of expect me to do crazy bullshit.” I shrugged. “I’m one of their best chances against the Vyriim, apparently.”
“Right.” She chuckled. “No, I think you’ll do fine. Better than fine.”
“Yeah?” It was my turn to chuckle. “And why, after years of scowling at me, have you decided that I am suddenly a wise and capable leader?”
For a moment, Rachel said nothing, just stared at the ground. Then, she took a breath and met my gaze. “Because I was in Dhire Lith too.”
“Right?” I didn’t see where this was going.
“I saw the way you watched him. I watched how you listened when Gideon spoke. I know who he was to you.”
Suddenly the entire world went still. I couldn’t breathe.
“Yeah?”
“I know you loved everything about that man. I know you’d have followed him straight into hell. Right?”
“Yeah.” I blinked. My eyes were wet.
“And I know you’d want to make him proud. You’d want to be the leader he was. You’d do everything in your power to be what that man wanted you to be.”
“I would.” I nodded. “You’re right.”
“So I’ll follow you. And I’ll trust my Alpha. You aren’t going to do stupid, cowboy things. You aren’t going to take ridiculous risks, because you know he wouldn’t. And more than anything, you’d want him to be proud of you.”
A memory, like a hammer of sorrow, struck me in the gut:
Got him, I linked Gideon.
Alive, he responded. I could feel how weary, how harried that link was. Take him alive, Bishop.
Understood.
Good. Make me proud.
“Yeah.” My voice sounded hoarse. Small.
“You want your Type Five mecha? You want the Magus? Yes, Alpha.” She gave a crisp nod. “That’s my answer. Your will is mine, until you prove me wrong.” With that, Rachel turned and left the bay.
Wow, Sofia linked. I turned around and saw her lean against the Corvus. She fiddled with her Crown augment and settled it into place against the back of her head.
It shone blue.
What?
She’s always struck me as a smart chick, that’s all. Sofia shook her head.
Very smart. She’s a genius.
Smart chicks don’t do what she did, gringo, Sofia explained.
And what did she just do?
Smart chicks, she raised one finger, don’t place the entire world on another person’s shoulders. Ever. It’s a bad move.
Is it?
It is. It sets up the second thing smart chicks don’t do.
Alright? I crossed my arms. I really don’t think that’s what she did, I shook my head. But I’ll bite.
The second thing. Sofia raised a second finger. Smart girls don’t ever set themselves up to be spectacularly let down.
“Wow.” I almost laughed in disbelief. “Are you serious right now?”
“Don’t get me wrong, Mike.” She let a lazy smile touch the edge of her lips. “After all, I’m a ‘fiery Latina.’” She made finger quotes. “You know I love crazy bullshit. I’m all about it.”
“Okay.” I folded my arms.
“But that Rachel chick does not. And expecting you to grow the fuck up just because Gideon’s gone…” She paused. “Life’s not a made-for-television movie. There isn’t some cosmic screenwriter who can make you see the light and change your stripes.”
“Maybe.” I frowned. “But I can try and do right by us.”
“You will try, I know.” She tilted her head. “But I think your friends, the people who know you, won’t expect you to change overnight. They won’t assume you’re suddenly a responsible adult because the Designates made a few changes.” She shrugged. “Just food for thought.” Without another word, Sofia Delacruz turned and walked into the Corvus.
Women. Wyatt came up behind me. You done getting your head messed with?
Fuck. I blinked. Yeah. I shook my head as if to clear it. You ready to fly this contraption?
I am. He gave me his rebel’s smile. Well, that or blow the thing up.
Awesome. I like my odds. I stepped into the Corvus.
You don’t know the odds. He chuckled. Too much math.
I know the pilot. I know what we’re up against. I paused for a moment to take in the incredible craft. I smiled as I turned back to Wyatt.
Let’s roll those dice.
7
Cadre must be secure before ignition may complete.
“Really?” Wyatt strapped himself in while his right hand fiddled with one of the crescent keyboards in front of him. “Because it’s Facility business whether a man has his seatbelt on or not?”
Safe operation of the vehicle is an intelligent precaution, Anya linked as she buckled herself in.
“’Course it is,” Wyatt muttered. “I just don’t appreciate the implication that I’m a poor driver.”
“The last time we let you drive we crashed into the Gulf of Mexico, if I remember right.” I snapped my restraint secure.
“Not the point,” Wyatt said haughtily.
“I’ve noticed our docking bay isn’t quite as long as the one the Rook used.” Rachel slid into her seat after handing me a handful of type V syringes. “Is that right? Do we need more space?”
“We don’t.” Wyatt reached over to his left and tapped three keys in succession. “The Tangler B has the capability to hold pre-configured alogos. That means I’m not havin’ to do so much math while we burst through space-time.” He glanced over his shoulder at her. “We should break through a lot faster.”
As he spoke, he hit an additional button. The entire ship rumbled, before settling into a high-pitched hum.
It’s rotating. Sophia gazed out the port window at the circular array that hovered around the stern of the craft.
As Wyatt configured his keys, it began to spin faster. Three separate arms stretched out from the array and aimed forward.
The turrets. I grinned, happy to know their location.
“Check it out,” Wyatt interjected. “Right in front.”
I turned and squinted my eyes against the brilliant mote of furious energy approximately three meters in front of the ship. It blazed with no obvious source or fuel.
Is that the aperture? I leaned up in my seat and tried to get a decent view. Or where the aperture will be?
“You think I know?” The large man chuffed. “I’m just along for the ride, same as you.”
That’s encouraging. Rachel sat back in her seat. I think I’m just going to close my eyes, if you don’t mind.
Wyatt hit another key and then grasped a lever over his head. As he eased it back, the realmship shuddered again, as if loosed from some invisible mooring.
Okay. Wyatt glanced at me, a sickly smile upon his face. We’re ready.
Let’s go, Artisan. I nodded at him, attempting to project confidence. You absolutely have this.
With that, we drifted forward.
Just as on our first journey within the Rook’s skiff, it didn’t feel as if we glided through space. Instead, the ship seemed to somehow grasp space around us, as if tethered to a rope that dragged us across the chamber faster and faster. After a matter of moments, brilliant, multicolored sparks burst at the edges of the ship and cascaded around us.
“This is okay.” Sofia nodded a little too quickly. “This is absolutely okay.”
“Oh God.” Wyatt’s quiet voice filled with the beginnings of panic as he typ
ed like a madman. “Come on. Come on.”
“You got this, Guthrie.” Instead of closing my eyes like a sane person, I stared forward, focused upon the brilliant fury of the light in front of us.
As if fired from a Facility slingshot, the Corvus exploded toward the far wall of the room, while the world became a fractured, singing, a blur of wild, cacophonous color.
“Do not like!” Sofia gripped the arms of her chair. “Very mu—!”
The realmship and everything we knew shattered into a painful symphony of color, light, and sound.
It burned around us, riotous.
As befit my new station, I did not scream like a six-year-old as existence itself burst around us.
No. My screams held dignity. Grace.
Space undulated around us as the surface of the realmship burst into furious, insane hues. The very matter of the ship fragmented and drifted apart, only to be followed by our own.
“No.” Sofia shook her head wildly and moaned, “No, no, no…”
Nanoseconds drifted into eternities. Light howled through us, carried us away.
Everything in existence blended into a synesthesia where colors had sounds and tastes, where memory itself unfolded like molten ecstasy within my mind.
“—ot it!” Wyatt yelled and reached for some controls. “Hang on! Just hang” We were through. “—on!”
Cruising in a vast emptiness between two infinite planes of gloaming, mist-like darkness, occasional lances of scarlet lightning echoed in the vast, unforgiving distance.
The Maelstrom raged around us.
“[Mother of God!]” Sofia peered at the infinity of thundering darkness outside. I understood exactly how she felt. Even though I’d known exactly what to expect, I found it impossible to stare into that shadowed eternity without vertigo.
“Infinitely small.” Rachel also gazed out the window, her voice tiny. “It’s just as awful as I remember.”
The vastness of it all made my stomach lurch.
The Maelstrom echoed with an eternity of sundered matter and energy, all violently thrashing around us. In the center, an infinity of incomprehensible darkness burned.
I glanced down. As Anya stared out the window, her blue eyes wide, she had clutched my leg with her right hand.
Anya? I smiled at her. Everything okay?
What? She met my gaze, glanced down, and realized what she had done. The tiniest flush came into her cheeks.
She pulled her hand away.
“Don’t get too comfortable,” Wyatt drawled. “We’re headed right back through.”
“I don’t think I like the Corvus as much as I thought I would,” Sofia whispered.
“You get used to it.” I gave her a smile. “After a time or two, it isn’t so bad.”
“Hang on tight.” Rachel clenched at her handholds.
“Here we go.” With that, Wyatt swerved violently to port, and sparks of brilliant, unearthly hues ignited around the realmship again.
As we clung to our seats for dear life, Wyatt veered violently back through the constraints of space-time.
Regardless of what I’d said to Sofia, it remained exactly as terrible as my very first time.
The Necropolis
With an explosion of variant shades of insanity, reality whiplashed around us. The Corvus violently imploded into Rationality.
“—me sideways!” Wyatt yelled and wrenched the craft to starboard.
Each of us lurched forward as the realmship came to an abrupt halt.
“Ow!” Rachel blurted.
“What the hell?” I glared at Wyatt. “Did you have to stop the thing on a dime?”
“I just input the coordinates, Hoss.” He coughed and pulled the restraint back from his neck. “I suppose momentum doesn’t apply. You arrive at the coordinates and just… stop.”
It may be typical of the design. Anya sat up primly and began to unfasten her restraints. For all we know, this is exactly what happened last time; we simply stopped in the troposphere.
“And then fell.” I nodded. “Bravely.”
“Where are we?” Rachel peered out one of the turquoise-tinted windows. “Underground?”
I’ll know more shortly. Anya’s right hand twitched. The local network is syncing with my Crown.
“We’re approximately fifteen meters below the surface.” Sofia’s Crown augment pulsed as she retrieved the information.
“Why would we be underground?” I leaned forward and peered through the main window. Only darkness lay beyond, so I triggered my Crown’s optics.
Slowly, things came into view.
A tunnel, scarcely large enough to hold the Corvus, greeted me. Crumbling masonry made up the walls, and trickles of runoff water flowed from both sides. Light filtered in from above, although from here I couldn’t see its source. In the distance, shadows loomed.
“No idea, Hoss.” Wyatt over-enunciated and accentuated his accent as he continued, “If only one of us had a channel to the Designate-in-Charge, maybe we could find out.”
“Heh.” Sofia chortled.
“Crown links are significantly weaker around assholes.” I glared at him.
“I don’t know how you ever link with anyone then.” He chuckled.
In that moment I decided Alphas probably didn’t punch their best friends. “One moment, I’ll call her up.”
Designate? I accessed the proper channel and sent the query, leaning even further forward to peer out the window. We didn’t exactly discuss the dossier beyond showing up in Italy and beating up Amir Cadavas.
Designate systems currently unavailable. A click sounded, somewhere around my right ear. Rerouting to available locus.
No. That isn’t what I want. I sighed. Please connect me to my Designate. I am Michael Bishop, 108.
Greetings, Michael Bishop. The system sounded almost friendly in my mind.
“That’s right,” I muttered to myself in satisfaction.
Designate systems currently unavailable. One more click sounded, again around my right ear. Rerouting to available locus.
“Problem, Hoss?”
I think I’m on hold, I linked to my cadre.
“Super,” Sofia groaned.
I’ll have access to the network in less than four minutes, Anya reported. We should gain quite a bit more information at that point.
Reroute complete. My Crown whirred. Then it clicked twice, and I felt my system mesh with another.
But not the Designate.
This link felt unlike most other links I’d been part of. Recently I’d learned why. Ninety-eight percent of the time when my Crown linked with a Facility system, I linked with one of three things: another Asset, a Designate, or one of the Facility interfaces.
Yet linking with a Facility Liaison felt entirely different. I just didn’t trust something about the link, even though as far as I knew, the man on the other end had never once dealt me wrong.
Good afternoon, 108. Are you well? The link felt smooth in my mind, confident. I couldn’t help my sigh, just a bit, as the words drifted through my mind.
Damnit.
Afternoon, Stone. I’m attempting to reach my Designate-in-Charge.
Hmm, he linked. Designate channels seem to be unavailable. I just received an automated message that you’d been routed to me.
That struck me as strange. I wondered if Stone knew why it had happened.
I have no idea why it happened, he continued.
I assumed the system didn’t recognize me, I snarked. Gianni Stallone isn’t an Asset-in-Play.
Oh, Michael. Stone’s chuckle felt like smooth jazz in my mind. Are you still using that same alias?
I—I don’t get to choose… I trailed off with the realization that it was impossible to strangle someone over the link.
I’m afraid I don’t have time to create another alias just now, Stone apologized.
Why would you be on-link? I queried. Even if the Designates can’t be reached, why would I link up with you?
Wel
l, I’m not currently me, he explained. I’ve been placed as one Cardinal Giovanni De Luca. I’m overseeing recon teams as they place resonator relays throughout the Vatican.
You’re here? But undercover?
We needed a church official to get the resonator relays in place.
Oh. That actually made sense.
I assume the Designate told you all about the Citadel project. He paused. I’m your onsite Liaison, Alpha.
So I try and connect with the Designate, and I’m re-routed to you? I didn’t like to consider that Stone might be above me in this particular pecking order. If I wasn’t truly the Alpha, I needed to know it.
I assume we’ve been put in contact to coordinate. You’ve received a dossier, yes?
No. There’s no dossier as far as we know. We were put into play rather quickly.
That is… I felt his confusion. Unusual.
We’re here because Amir Cadavas is here—Irrational 3302. We couldn’t receive a patched dossier because our systems were receiving the Citadel updates.
I see. As soon as Anya sets up her relay and synchs into the network, she’ll be able to pull up the Huntsman mecha and see his exact locale. Stone paused. He’s somewhere beneath the Vatican just now, in the tunnels.
We might be as well. I waved one arm, and Wyatt stared at me as if I’d lost it. Our incursion has placed us beneath the Vatican, I think. We’re in some tunnels, either way.
You were to be positioned within the old passageways beneath the necropolis, as far as I know. The idea was to catch Amir before he left the city.
That’s exactly what I needed to know. I couldn’t help but smile. It wasn’t often we actually received clear direction.
I’ll keep trying to reach the Designate. He paused, and I felt his genuine concern. If I reach them I’ll let you know. I don’t like the idea of you being without a dossier.
That… I felt a touch taken aback. That would be a legitimate help.
I’m here if you need me, Michael. Until then, I’ll keep the recon teams busy.
Understood, Stone. I paused. Thanks.
2
Data incoming now. Anya stopped calibrating her telemetric packet and linked, It seems as if we have most of the city online.