Sanctuary 1 (The Foliage Series Book 3)

by Aline Riva

  Jekel's eyes filled with tears as he turned to see Blake Riley walk down the stair case. He hadn't changed, he was till tall and stocky and spiked his blonde hair into sharp tips. He looked well,too – clearly, he had no clue how his trusted associate ran the nearby town...

  “Deactivate!” Jekel said, and he shimmered, and appeared solid in the middle of the marble floor.

  Riley stopped at the bottom of the stairs, his jaw dropped, his blue eyes filled with tears.

  “Ash?” he whispered.

  “Blake, we need help!” Jekel said tearfully, and as Blake rushed to his old friend, he hugged him as Jekel embraced too, giving a sob and then letting go again.

  “You look exhausted!” Blake exclaimed, “Come with me... you need to sit down. Tell me how you got here, tell me everything...”

  As Jekel wiped his eyes, he followed Blake through to another room, and Blake firmly closed and locked the door behind them. As he stood there on the marble floor of the wide, white palatial room that was decked out with grand furniture all in the white and gold theme that didn't once falter as gold drapes hung at windows and fine china stood on the shelf above the wide, grand fireplace gleaming bone pale against the golden swirls that decorated it, Blake Riley seemed to blend into the colour scheme as he rested his hand on the shelf and looked to the gilded mirror, then away from his reflection, as his blonde, spiked hair and flowing white shirt almost blended him into the décor.

  “I had to use stealth mode to find you,” Jekel said, “Byron Leather isn't the man you think he is. He's taken over the town and he's using the people like slaves to make his weaponry and help him start an army...wait...”

  He paused, for once paying attention as a message came through from Lynch's phone, “They've got General Lynch. He's locked up alone right now and he said he's been battered...and..oh shit they've taken Joy! This is bad, Riley – you can't trust Leather he's building an army! You should see what he's done to the town, it's a wreck and so are the people!”

  The news left Riley visibly shaken.

  “I was warned...” Riley said as he took in the news, “A few good men who serve me warned Leather isn't to be trusted, but he was my driver back in the days when I fled with my children...my wife had just died, he was there for all of us..I believed in him too much...Oh, how could I have let this happen? I'm sodding cursed!”

  Since learning the truth about the town and how Byron Leather had taken over, his face had paled so chalk white it almost matched the plaster that decorated the majestic room. As he looked into the mirror he had looked away again, as if he could not bear to meet the reflection the glass had caught in his pale blue eyes.

  “Before we resolve this, and we will - there's something you don't know and you need to know it Jekel,” he said quietly.

  Jekel walked over to him and looked into the eyes of his friend, the man he had met so long ago, who had formed a firm bond of friendship with him. He thought back to all the conversations they had ever shared – including the one about how Blake had told him it was easy to trust him, because he trusted in his magic – illusion was not real. He had said, it was real magic that shook him to the bone... He had always wondered what that meant and seeing the look in his eyes, such a haunted expression that ran soul deep, Jekel had the feeling he was about to find out exactly what that had been about...

  “I know you said once that you don't trust easily. But you trusted Leather you didn't know he lied to you because you had no reason to think -”

  “This is not about Leather, okay?” as he spoke he held up a shaking hand to silence him, and there was a wild look brewing in the eyes of the man the cyborgs called King Steel. He paused to run his fingers through his hair, then he took a breath, trying to calm the swirl of murderous rage that was building in side him as he plotted revenge:

  Now was not the time. Ash need to hear the truth first....

  “I found it,” Riley said in a low voice, “Or it found me. It called to me...and I walked and walked until I found the voice inside my head...”

  He had spoken the words of a haunted man. Jekel stared at him, never before seeing such a look that bordered on madness and despair in the eyes of his old friend.

  “What do you mean, you found it? What was it?”

  “The cause of everything,” Riley replied, as he placed his hand on the shelf above the fireplace, gripping it as his knuckles turned bloodless and he tried to steady his emotions as he finally made a confession that was long overdue. Jekel was still fixing him with wide eyes.

  “I don't understand, what did you find, Blake?”

  Riley drew in a breath and let it out heavily.

  “I found Astral. This glowing orb, a being of energy... It was helpless and small and asking for my help. It made me promises. It told me wonderful things about the universe! And as it grew, it got more and more powerful...Can you understand what that did to me, this cascade of knowledge it put inside my head?”

  Jekel was still staring at him, seeing that haunted look in his eyes deepen to a madness and despair he could not measure and it made a chill crawl over his flesh.

  “A being?” he whispered.

  Riley's knuckles were still bloodless white as he kept a grip on that shelf as if needing an anchor to reality as he reached back to a past that carried tall shadows that threatened to consume him.

  “I've seen things you can't imagine, this is me being honest, Ash,” he said, “I wasn't born knowing how to build androids, I didn't dream up the program that saved your life just because I'm Blake Riley! I knew nothing until Astral spoke inside my head! He told me how to build androids and the androids built more androids. He told me to write their programs and everyone of the first batch was unique except for one thing they had in common – they were all programmed for war...”

  As Riley fell silent, his eyes were fixed on his close friend as Jekel saw reflected in his eyes something he now understood to be the look of one touched by madness. If he hadn't fallen in, he had certainly drank from the well of it through all Astral had done to him...

  “Astral promised peace on earth,” Riley continued bitterly, “An end to wars and chaos. I didn't know this end meant the end of life as we used to know it!” He blinked and tears ran from his glazed eyes as his voice choked with regret as the guilt reflected in his gaze seemed so heavy that perhaps to Riley, it felt like the weight of the whole of the ruined earth. As he spoke again, the words were dragged out broken by pain:

  “It came here to destroy us all. It needed one human, just one stupid, dumb trusting human being to give it a hand to get started...It was me, Ash. I'm to blame for everything!”

  Then Riley gave a sob and slid down the wall, sitting hard on the floor as he wept. Jekel knelt down beside him and placed a hand on his shoulder.

  “You can't blame yourself!” he exclaimed in disbelief, “If you want to blame yourself for trusting a powerful being who anyone else on this planet would have trusted, who else shall we blame? Where should we stop?”

  Riley's eyes were red and tearful as he met Jekel's gaze in confusion.

  “I don't see what you mean...”

  “A lot of good people joined the UNA,” Jekel reminded him, “In the beginning, when they believed it was a good thing...You're not the only one who trusted the wrong side with good intent! Look at Lynch...he was a General, he trusted Astral's side and ended up losing half his body fighting for liberty when the rebellion rose up! Lynch, who ended up half machine...Is he a bad guy? And what about Captain Murdock, the hero of the battle for Freedom City? He is ex UNA! The great Captain Murdock! Do you want me to go on, or do you realise you're actually in good company, Blake?”

  The look in Jekel's eyes was one of direct, clear honesty, but still Riley blinked away tears as he looked down at the marble floor of a palace that felt no more than a prison with gilded bars and then he wiped his eyes and looked back at Jekel once more.

  “I created my own cyborg program in the hope that the prototype
would be the start of an army that could have wiped out Astral's – but of course once I used it to save you, the funding was stopped...of course it was, they'd already got into the government, into the defence department...they were everywhere! But at least I saved you. I saved my best friend. Shame I had to fail the rest of the world...”

  Jekel's hand was still on Riley's shoulder and he could feel him trembling as the haunted look in his eyes seemed in that moment to encapsulate the whole of the loss of life, the collective pain endured as mother earth had screamed under alien assault. Jekel kept his gaze locked with Riley's tearful eyes as he thought silently on the alien technology buried in his body and sunk into his bones – a legacy of the creature that had given its best shot to destroying the whole of humanity – that was something he didn't want to think too closely about as he spoke again.

  “Blake, it's not your fault, mate,” he said softly, “Who wouldn't have trusted something so powerful?”

  As Jekel took his hand off his shoulder, Riley shook his head.

  “I'm still to blame,” he replied quietly.

  Jekel stood up and held out his hand.

  “No you're not!” he said firmly, “Life is still out there – and we have to stop Leather from harming what's left of it. Come on Blake, get up! I can use my internal wire to call the troops from Bullet. Lynch just has to hold on a bit longer.”

  And Riley took his hand, thankful for his grasp as he rose to his feet feeling stronger as Jekel let go of his hand and gave him a supportive pat on the back.

  “Thanks for listening,” Riley told him, “You needed to know the truth about where your cybernetic design came from. I'm sorry.”As he met his gaze, he saw no regret in the eyes of his best friend.

  “Don't worry about me,” he told him, “I'm just glad I'm still around and I have you to thank for that..But I do hope you have a plan, because I'm just a former illusionist from Skegness who made it big using a military stealth mode I'm not supposed to have to vanish at will. I'm an entertainer, I'm not programmed for war. I think the plan for that, given your past work experience, is entirely your department, mate... but I'm with you all the way!”

  Lynch finished his message to Jekel with Tell Flynn to get help, and then he shoved the phone back into his pocket as he knelt on the bare concrete floor, his coat was off, his shirt was cast aside because it was torn, and his shoulders and ribs were marked with deep bruising from the battering the guards had given him on taking him down to the cellar. After dropping his gun back in the alley they had assumed he had no other weapons, and he was thankful the phone had remained intact, as the kicks to his lower body had soon stopped when the men realised their heavy boots could do no damage to his cyborg half.

  He sat up, cautiously feeling the place where he had felt a rib snap, then he leant against the cold wall, his chest rising and falling rapidly as he fought against the pain that was coming out from the beating.

  “Come on, Jekel...” he murmured, “Do something...”

  Then he looked to the closed door, where shadows moved beneath it as armed guards shifted about in boredom.

  He decided he would give himself ten minutes to pull himself together, then the pain would have to take a back seat because no one held General Felix Lynch captive and got away with it, even the android UNA had not managed to succeed despite their best efforts, and he was damned if he was going to let a bunch of human thugs get the better of him...

  The shock of the news of what had happened in Sanctuary Town was still apparent on the face of the man the cyborgs called King Steel, as Blake Riley began to think up a plan of action.

  “Send your message to Bullet,” said Riley, “I'll call in my men and get everyone on the upper tier that I control ready for war. I'll make it known I want Leather's head on a platter!”

  Jekel's eyes widened as Riley turned to a nearby wall and took down a Samurai sword.

  “I used to use this thing to work out,” he said, “Never thought I'd have to use it for battle. But mark my words,” and his eyes blazed with fury, “Live or die, I'll end this day drenched in the blood of the enemy! I've made too many mistakes...its time I put them right.”

  Then, sword in hand, he unlocked the door and went out the marble hallway.

  “Max, Melissa!” he called, “We have situation! You know the drill!”

  They both came running, stopping abruptly, still holding hands, and both looked to Jekel in surprise

  “What's going on, Dad?” Max asked Riley.

  Melissa smiled at Jekel.

  “It really is you!” she exclaimed, and she looked to Max, “This is Ash, the stage magician...he helped us, remember, when we were kids?”

  Max looked at him in surprise.

  “It's good to see you again!” he said, but then his father spoke up.

  “Get to the panic room and stay there until this is over. There's going to be trouble.”

  “I want to help you,” Max said to his father.

  “You're seventeen and you just got married three weeks back,” he said, “And you're my only son. Get to the panic room now!”

  Max reluctantly nodded, and took Melissa by the hand, leading her up the stairs to the hidden room where his father had long ago taught him to hide in case of trouble.

  Then Jekel paused to relay a message:

  Vehicle -1, fetch Dixon's men. This is war...

  Up in the tower above the house in Sanctuary Town, Joy Thorn kept her fists tight to tense the old manacles that held her as she gave a tug again.

  “Don't do that,” said the woman chained next to her, “I tried it a thousand times and all I did was cut my wrists to pieces...”

  Joy smiled a sly smile.

  “Ah,” she said, “But you're chained to a solid part of the wall...it's damp just over here...and I've been working my way out of these things since they put me in them...” She gave a tug, her wrists bruised, and crumbling dust began to fall from the wall where the bonds were fixed.

  “I was chained up in a dungeon once,” Joy added, tugging again as more dust showered downwards, “I've been in a worse situation than this...and I can get out of this one, too.” And she tried again, and her wrists hurt as the metal bonds jarred against her flesh, but another flurry of dust appeared, this time enough to make her cough.

  Joy looked at Kait and smiled.

  “By the way,” she said, “Nice to meet you, Kait Flynn. Your old man's looking for you...he'll be on his way soon, just you wait and see...”

  She pulled again, and this time fragments of brick and sold cement crumbled away as the fixture loosened.

  “Almost there..”she said, “Let's keep going...a few more of these and I think I can get you out too...”

  “What if you can't?” Kait asked.

  Joy laughed darkly as the chains brought back memories of how she first met Captain Murdock, and that memory seemed to inject her with even more fight and determination as she tugged at the brickwork again and more old wall crumbed.

  “If I can't get out,” she said, “Don't worry about Leather coming back, it just means there's two of us to kick the prick in the balls from now on!”

  And she tugged again, and the chains came free from the wall as broken brick work crumbled and fell with it. Joy breathed a relieved sigh and flexed already tensed wrists, as one bond snapped, she grabbed the other and tugged it off her other wrist. Now free, she turned to Kait, who stared in astonishment.

  “It's all in the tension,” she told her, “I was ready for this from the moment they cuffed me...” then she looked about the room, “Now.. what can we use to get you out?” she wondered.

  Then she grabbed a large piece of broken brick.

  “Turn your face away,” she said, and as Kait turned away, as she slammed the brick against the fixture that held the chains to the wall. They separated with a crack as the less damp bit all the same, old side of the wall began to crumble, and then as the chains fell free she grabbed her hands, pulling the bonds to the flo
or.

  “We don't need to worry about noise,” she said as she slammed the brick against the bonds, “That arrogant prick thinks we don't need guarding because he's got us ladies up in his tower...he thought wrong!”

  And she slammed the brick down again, Kait gave a yelp of pain as the cuffs snapped apart, and then she too was free, rubbing her bruised wrists.

  “What do we do now?” she said as she got up from the floor.

  Joy looked to the heavy, locked door, and then to the barred window.

  “We find a way out of here,” she said, “Somehow we need to get that door open...and I'm no locksmith...”

  As the motor home had raced through the open gates to the town of Bullet, the sight that greeted Flynn astonished him: The formerly weak cyborgs, thanks to Lynch and his donation f the cybernetic fluid, were now ready for battle. The men were armed with guns and explosives and what amazed him the most was Dixon had gathered every working vehicle, too – a fleet of open trucks were readied to leave, armed men sat in the back of them – except for Dixon's vehicle, which carried three barrels of petrol.

  “I'll lead,” Dixon said as he got not his vehicle, “I'm aiming for the first main target and ramming it – don't worry, I'll jump clear in good time,” And he patted the gun at his side, “I'm ready for this.”

  “Where's Elise?” Flynn asked.

  “She's back at the Goose with Mandy One,” Dixon replied, “She's regained her strength but I told her she should stay put and look after the baby – Lynch wouldn't want either of them in danger.”

  Flynn nodded.

  “We should leave now... hit them before they get a chance to assemble their army.”

  “See you on the other side of this,” Dixon replied, and then Flynn ran over to the motor home, got inside and started up the engine.

  Down in the cellar, Lynch was ready. He had thrown on his leather coat and wore it open, minus his shirt as he waited behind the door, hearing heavy footfalls approaching. Every muscle in his slender, athletic body tensed as adrenaline flowed, blocking out all pain. If the bastards had come to give him another beating, they were in for a big surprise after leaving him on the floor, unbound as he feigned unconsciousness...