The Last City (The Ahlemon Saga Book 1)

by Casey McGinty

  Kane asked Mhara to join him at the back of the boat under the premise that they could better watch for Leevee’s approach. He really just wanted to make up for the coldness he’d shown earlier.

  “Need a little reassurance?” she said, coldly.

  He deserved that, and he accepted the silence that followed, despite the painful longing he felt to make it better with her. He focused on the task at hand and spent the next ten minutes watching and listening intently. He had a sixth sense for danger, and he was the first to notice the rhaji herd increase their speed and loosen their otherwise tight formation—Leevee was nearing.

  Without a second thought, Kane yelled, “Rhogan, we need the primary. Full speed. Now!”

  Rhogan was ready. The engine roared to life and the boat jumped forward, jerking them all back in their seats and almost throwing Super 3 off the boat. Within seconds, they heard the deep bass of Leevee’s groan from the darkness behind them. He looked back and saw a massive black shadow, darker than the night, heaving up and down over the water and growing larger every moment. Ahead of them was the dark silhouette of Alto Mair. The underwater shelf couldn’t be far off.

  Leevee lifted her head out of the water and gave a roar that rolled over them like peals of thunder. So much for the element of surprise, Kane thought. But he would rather take his chances with the Breakers than face certain death from Leevee.

  “Rhogan,” Kane yelled, “we need more or we’re not gonna make it!”

  “There’s nothing left,” Rhogan yelled back.

  Super 3 moved to the center of the boat and pulled up a hinged panel in the floor, exposing the boat’s primary engine. He went to his knees and reached down as if adjusting something; then his body cavity started to glow more brightly. A moment later, the boat jumped forward with a new burst of energy, as if someone had suddenly turned on a nitrous fuel mix in a modified street race car. While they didn’t pull away from Leevee, she stopped gaining on them.

  The boat rattled as they bounced over the water. Kane knew they had to be over the coastal shelf by now; he could see the outer wall of Alto Mair less than a mile ahead. Leevee gave another bone-rattling roar and Kane turned to watch as she launched herself into the air in a final effort to catch her prey. She was jumping onto the shelf, just like a killer whale attempting to reach a seal on an ice floe. Even in the darkness, her size and determination were enough to make anyone shudder. Kane caught his breath and Mhara screamed.

  Leevee grounded to an abrupt stop. With most of her body now exposed to the air, she thrashed in the shallow water. A fifty-foot ocean swell pushed ahead of her and, had Rhogan not surfed the wave, they would have capsized. Writhing like a sidewinder, she bellowed with rage, squirming forward on the shelf. Then, from out of nowhere, multiple laser beams struck her face. This stopped her forward movement. As the lasers continued, she roared and reversed her sidewinder motion. Pulling herself off the shelf, she slipped into the protection of the deeper water and disappeared.

  “Laser cannons,” Tygert said. “Coming from the roof of the city.”

  With Leevee’s retreat, Rhogan shut down the primary engine and started maneuvering them with the ultraquiet toward Alto Mair’s wharf.

  “Quickly, Rhogan. We’re sitting ducks out here,” Kane said. “We need to get inside the city. We might have a chance there.”

  As soon as they hit the wharf, they all jumped off the boat and gathered into a tight circle. Kane led the group toward the city wall while Tygert watched the rear. They had just started their forward progress when Kane pulled them to a sudden stop.

  “Now’s not the time for sightseeing,” Tygert said.

  Blending into the base of the city wall ahead, the dark outlines of several dozen Breakers were moving toward them. “No good this way,” Kane said. “Any chance with the boat?”

  “Not unless you want to bounce your way over a bunch of mini submarines.”

  19

  Day 4

  0500 hours

  Wharf, Alto Mair

  Surrounded by Breakers, the rescue team stood shoulder to shoulder, poised for a fight to the death. So, Kane was taken by surprise when a pleasant voice called out to one of them by name.

  “Is that you, Mhara?”

  “Yes.” She looked around to see where the voice had come from. A golden robot stepped through the Breaker line.

  She gasped. “Director?”

  “Not as you remember, Mhara. I am the leader of the free Mekens, and I am now known as Atticus. I am very pleased to see you. And I must say, you don’t look a day over two thousand.”

  Mhara didn’t respond.

  “Ahh,” Atticus said. “I have been experimenting at humor. My fellow Mekens have no sense of humor at all, and I have been looking forward to trying it out with humans. Is my timing off?”

  “It is terribly off, Director,” Thorin said.

  “Thorin, the people’s champion. Please, call me Atticus. Now, is this all the thanks I get for saving your lives?”

  “Thank you,” Thorin said drily.

  “You’re welcome. Although, to be truthful, I have not yet decided if I intervened out of concern for your lives or concern for the damage the leviathan might do to my city. I did enjoy watching your little façade with the rhaji, your attempt to trick the leviathan—and me—and your utter failure to do either. And I must thank you, all of you. With the arrival of the Earth humans and the waking of the colonists, I have learned more in these last three days than I have in two thousand years. In return, I have just given you a free lesson. I trust that you have learned not to underestimate me.”

  “Clearly, we have underestimated you, Atticus,” Thorin said. “And now, we are at your mercy.”

  Kane could hear the submissive tact in Thorin’s dialogue; he was playing it safe for the sake of protecting his team.

  “Yes, you are, aren’t you?” Atticus said, pleased. “Mercy. What an exhilarating power to hold in one’s hands.”

  To test Atticus’s motivations, Kane decided to take a calculated risk. “Since you just want to kill us, quit toying and be done with it.”

  “Mr. Kane, is that you?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I am disappointed. And Charly would be, too, if she heard you talk like this. She believes you are a great hero, and she is convinced that you will save her and the others. But now, here you are, giving up so quickly. What a shame. I had hoped to learn more from your magical strength. On the other hand, Charly’s feisty spirit has been a great enrichment for me. Since discovering her weakness, I have learned so much from her.”

  Kane flushed with anger. Thorin and Rhogan reached out to restrain him from leaping at Atticus. Through clenched teeth, Kane said, “If you have harmed her in any way, I will tear you apart.”

  “There it is,” Atticus said, stepping closer to Kane. “Yes, there is the strength I have heard so much about. And there also is your weakness.” Atticus looked at Mhara. “Do all humans suffer from empathy for their fellows? It leaves you so vulnerable.” He turned back to Kane. “Do not worry, Mr. Kane. Your dear Charly has not been harmed. In fact, I am growing quite fond of her.”

  Atticus began to walk around the rescue team. “It is clear that you have much to learn,” he said. “Not only have you underestimated me; you also misunderstand my intent—”

  A deep, grunting sound came from the dark ocean waters. It was startling enough to stop Atticus midsentence and cause both Breakers and humans to turn and look. Kane heard a whooshing above them as a large, dark shape flew over their heads. Whatever it was, it slammed into the city wall, shaking the wharf. Then it fell a hundred feet, crushing a dozen Breaker sentries at the base of the wall. It was a rhaji whale. Before anyone could recover, there was another grunt, followed by a second flying rhaji. It landed in the water, narrowly missing the rescue team boat, and sent a wave onto the wharf, knocking the Breakers and rescue team off their feet.

  “Roll out!” Kane yelled to his team, hoping they would tak
e advantage of this opportunity for an escape. Leevee was throwing rhajis at them, and the next one was likely to hit its intended target. On his feet, Kane ran in a crouch and leapt off the wharf and into the water. With all his gear, he sank like a rock. As he frantically stroked for the wall, a concussion of water slammed into his side and sent him tumbling head over heels. By the time he stopped rolling, he was totally disorientated. Kicking and stroking with all his might, he still continued to sink. He knew there was a shelf somewhere underneath him, but shallow water for Leevee could still be very deep for a human. With panic starting to set in, he forced himself to do the opposite of what he wanted; he relaxed his muscles to conserve the remaining oxygen in his body. Methodically shedding his gear, he dropped everything but his handgun, night goggles, and knife. Before dropping the spear that the Director had given him, he extended his arm and the spear out from his body as far as he could reach and spun himself around in an effort to locate the wall.

  The spear made contact. He dropped it and swam in the direction of impact—and promptly slammed his face into something unexpected: a human leg. Whoever it was grabbed him by his shirt at the shoulder and pulled him up and around until he struck the wall. He climbed like Spider-Man, using the barnacles as hand and footholds. With his lungs screaming, it took every ounce of his willpower to keep from inhaling water as he pulled himself toward the oxygen above.

  When his head finally broke the surface, nothing else mattered but getting air. He took several frantic gasps with no thought for drawing the Breakers’ attention. Again, someone grabbed his shirt and pulled him close to the wall.

  “They are above us,” a voice whispered next to his face. It was Mhara.

  Kane’s hands burned from their contact with the barnacles, and his chest hurt, but he calmed himself. The concussion that had sent him tumbling underwater had come from a rhaji hitting their boat; a broken section of the hull now bounced against the wall beside them.

  “Restrain them and bring them this way,” a voice called out from the wharf above. “And search for the others.” It was Atticus, yelling commands. Just then another rhaji landed and shook the wharf. “Quickly,” Atticus yelled, but his voice was farther away.

  “They have the others,” Mhara whispered.

  Kane did a quick evaluation: Leevee’s still attacking and the Breakers are scattered. They’ve got some of our team. Others may have escaped or are dead. The Breakers will come looking for us soon. “We need to get away and try to regroup at the second rendezvous point,” he said.

  Without another word, Mhara started pulling herself along the wall. Kane followed but gave a little yelp as he started moving. Mhara stopped and pulled one of his hands up to look at it. She winced when she saw the lacerations.

  “I’ve got gloves on. Hold on to my back.”

  Kane didn’t argue and grabbed her belt as she moved away. Half pulling, half swimming, Mhara quickly put a quarter mile of distance between them and ground zero. Kane put on his night goggles and peered over the wharf wall. Leevee had stopped throwing rhajis. At least half a dozen of them lay on the wharf, some still thrashing. There was no sign of Breakers in their immediate area and none that he could see on the roof. Pulling himself onto the wharf, he extended an arm to help Mhara up.

  Once she had donned her goggles, she and Kane ran to the base of the city wall. The wharf was water swept, and Kane thought it would be difficult for anyone to find their tracks. Huddling at the wall, he took out his knife, cut off a section of his sleeve, and started to wrap it around one of his bloodied hands. Mhara intervened to do it for him and then cut one of her own sleeves to wrap his other hand.

  “We’ve got to get inside,” he said.

  The large hangar doors were not an option, but there were small entry doors at regular intervals. They ran along the wall until they came to the first door. It was locked, or frozen shut from age and lack of use. They continued to move down the wall but quickly determined that they were not going to get into the city through a door.

  “There used to be exterior ladders to the roof,” Mhara said.

  It was another quarter mile before they found one. The bottom rung was too high to reach with a leap. Kane sighed. A basketball player could do it, but not them. Looking up, he considered the three-hundred-foot climb.

  “You up for this?” he asked.

  Hmph, Mhara responded, then, “Lift me up.”

  Once she was standing on his shoulders, she jumped. Pushing her feet with his hands, Kane gave her the extra boost she needed to reach the ladder.

  The retractable section did not slide down; it was frozen in place.

  With one foot on the bottom rung, and holding the ladder above her with two hands, Mhara lowered her other foot down as far as she could. She’s a tough cookie, Kane thought. He jumped up, grabbed her foot, and climbed up her leg until he reached the ladder.

  “Thanks,” he said as he pulled himself up beside her, her face right next to his.

  “Your hands. Will you be OK?”

  “Yeah,” he lied, feeling her breath on his face. But it wasn’t his hands that bothered him, really. An unexpected flush of attraction for Mhara ran through his system. God, what’s with me? Pull yourself together, buddy.

  He steeled himself and led the climb. Every rung stung his hands. To distract himself, he went into analysis mode. Thorin, Rhogan, Tygert, and Super 3 were unaccounted for. Atticus had referred to them, so he had captured at least two of the other team members. He had also called for a search, but he could be looking for Kane and Mhara alone. Some of his teammates could be dead. They had to proceed as if they were the only ones left to continue the mission.

  Kane reached the end of the ladder and scanned for Breakers. A searchlight appeared, far down the roof at their landing point. As Kane had hoped, they were using the lights to search the wharf and not the roof. He and Mhara were ahead of the Breakers for now, and he wanted to keep it that way.

  A hundred yards of sand and salt separated them from the rooftop jungle. Kane took his shirt off and, using it as a broom, swept their tracks as he and Mhara moved across the open space. Two minutes later they huddled, hidden behind bushes, just inside the jungle.

  They removed their boots and socks and squeezed out the water; then Mhara pulled her laminated maps out of her pants pocket. The map of the roof showed various domed skylights, several parks and pavilions, and numerous small structures—utilities or access portals in and out of the city. It also indicated the Breaker patrol routes they had monitored, which were now meaningless; the Breakers would be launching an all-out search of the entire city. The jungle growth would provide them a good cover to move about, but it would also make it challenging to find anything besides the tower. Alto Mair’s central tower stood like a sentinel over the jungle, rising several hundred feet above the roof. Kane estimated it to be around a mile away.

  They reviewed their rations and resources. Each of them had a few protein bars and water pouches in their trouser pockets. Experience had taught Kane not to keep all their vital stores in one place—like the backpacks they had just discarded in the ocean water. For weapons, all they had was their knives and handguns, both attached to belts at their waists. He hoped the handguns still worked after their soak in the salty water.

  With no radio communication in the Breaker territory, they had no way to reach out to their team members. Knowing this, the team had predefined several rendezvous points on the chance that they became separated. Each point corresponded to a stage of their mission. The first rendezvous was the rescue team boat, which no longer existed. Leevee had definitely changed the game for both sides. Kane had to trust that the Director and Jhemna would discover the loss of their boat and make alternate plans for their retreat. The current stage of the mission was to locate the hostages, which now included at least two of his team members. He and Mhara would make their way to the next designated rendezvous point, underneath the base of the central tower and near one of the suspected hostage
locations. Unless circumstances required immediate action, they would wait there for up to six hours before proceeding with any rescue attempt on their own.

  They pressed into the jungle, heading toward the central tower. The foliage was dense, and their progress was slow. Finally, Kane almost fell onto the skylight when the jungle ended abruptly. It was clear of sediment and vegetation, one of the few parts of the roof maintained by the Breakers. There was no way to enter the city from here. The base of the tower was well lit and patrolled by Breakers, not to mention that crossing the skylight would be a dead giveaway. While Kane had known this would likely be the case, he was hoping to discover an unexpected option. He didn’t see one. He turned to Mhara and found her looking around the area, searching.

  “What is it?”

  “There is—there was—a park on the roof to the east of the tower that I occasionally visited before we went into suspension. It had a playground, but there were no children. So you would think it would have been a place to avoid, a constant reminder of the extinction we faced. But I found it a hopeful place. I would sit on a bench and visualize the last children I saw playing in the park. I remembered their clothes, their faces, their laughter, and even their names. Ehvan and Jhaym. I can still hear their mother calling out to them. Every time I went to the park I imagined them, and new children, playing there again someday. It was thousands of years ago, but it seems like yesterday.”

  “Mhara, we don’t have time to—”

  “And I remember that the park had a roof entrance. It’s a part of the city I’m familiar with. And I believe it is . . .” She turned slowly, getting her bearings. “In that direction.” She took off, plowing into the jungle. Kane followed her as they moved diagonally to the right of the tower. The vegetation thickened, and they had to hack their way through some areas. He imagined the deep jungle that surrounded the city and was glad they had chosen to avoid it. Considering the Director’s warnings about jungle creatures, he became ultrasensitive to any sounds or movement around them.