by T. R. Harris
The two armored Antaere took Zac and Angus by the arm and lifted them to standing positions. They guided them toward the elevator with the officer leading the way and all except two of the guards following behind. The other two were with Lundquist.
Just as he reached the door, Zac yelled out, “Now!”
Using their enhanced REV strength and quickness, Zac and Angus snatched the guns from the hands of the armored aliens and shoved them aside, fingering the selectors on the weapons from energy to ballistic rounds as they did. They turned toward the Antaere behind them.
It was a bloodbath, before Zac aimed down the corridor and fired a round at one of the guards covering Smitty and Ashley. His shot found its mark, just as General Smith laid a shoulder into the second Antaere. The alien stumbled back, before Ashley stepped up and performed a perfect spin kick to the guard’s chin. Out the corner of his eye, Zac caught the move. The spy did have skills, other than the obvious.
The Antaere officer was on the floor of the elevator, blood gushing from a stomach wound. All the Qwin were dead, except for the officer and pair of armored aliens in the elevator. Zac’s weapon was empty, but he still had his REV strength and a corridor of discarded weapons from the guards.
He turned to Angus. “You go with Smitty and Ashley. Find the Corollary. I’ll meet up with you after I finish with these two.”
Angus grimaced. “So, you get to have all the fun, Lieutenant Murphy? You do outrank me, so fine. Have fun…sir.”
He ran down the corridor. Smitty and Ashley had already appropriated the weapons from the two dead guards and were waiting for him.
“This way,” Angus called out. “The elevator at the end of the hall should lead under the building on the other side of the road. Follow me.”
“What about Zac?” Ashley asked.
“He’s going to teach the Qwin in the black armor how to dance. He’ll be along shortly.”
The trio ran for the second elevator.
44
Zac turned to the pair of Antaere, who were just now climbing to their feet. They had already demonstrated that their full-body armor was impervious to bullets and energy bolts. That would make Zac’s job a little harder, but not much, not at his current stage of cascading.
Suddenly, one of the Antaere jerked upright, as if he’d been hit by an electric shock. The other armored alien fell to the deck and laid still. A moment later…Zac heard it.
It was a god-awful scream, delivered with the customary qween sound of an injured Antaere. Zac knew immediately what it meant. So did the wounded officer and the other armored soldier.
The Antaere REV’s expression was hidden behind the tinted glass of his helmet faceplate, but Zac could sense the laser-like focus on the target in front of him. Zac was about to move when the Qwin jumped first. The impact was like being hit by a freight train and threw Zac against the metal wall on the other side of the twenty-foot-wide corridor. He was stunned, and before he could react, the alien was on him, pummeling the Human with savage, sledgehammer-like blows.
The Antaere super-soldier was stronger and with quicker reactions. Zac covered up, using his arms to protect his head, but it didn’t help. The alien swept his arms away and kept pounding on him.
Zac’s body was reacting to the situation, feeding natural NT-4 into his system at an alarming rate. He was cascading, which wasn’t always a good thing. If he went too far, he could cascade over the edge and never return.
He was surprised with the clarity of this thinking, even in light of the beating he was taking. At one point, he dropped his guard, allowing the alien a clear shot to his head. But that also allowed Zac to grab the Antaere’s black helmet and rip it from his head. Now with flesh to hit—instead of metal—Zac countered with a couple of hits of his own. He was growing stronger by the second and the hits were having an impact.
An activated Human REV had bloodshot eyes. The Antaere had eyes that literally glowed golden in the center with a circle of red filling in the white. Now they were blinking rapidly and momentarily went blank after Zac’s last hit. The Human lashed out with a knee, sending the alien sliding across the smooth metal floor.
Zac was on his feet a heartbeat later. He glanced at the open elevator car and saw the other two Antaere huddled against a side wall, looking at him, but out of sight of the alien REV. They weren’t stupid. They knew better than to show themselves. And if Zac defeated the first REV, then it would turn into a morbid alien tag-team, and the battle would start up again.
The first REV was on his feet, his glowing eyes focused on the target in front of him. He snarled, showing double rows of long teeth. Zac wondered if this was how he looked when activated. He didn’t think he did, but there was the video of him killing Manny Hernandez. The expressions were similar.
Zac stood perfectly still, which only confused his enemy. He was a chase animal, just like a Human REV. The strategy delayed the attack, but it didn’t stop it.
With his enhanced reactions, Zac was able to sidestep the charging alien. He also lashed out with his leg, placing a knee into the Antaere’s stomach. The alien barely reacted, so hyped up on the Antaere version of NT-4 that he felt no pain. Zac jumped on the alien’s back, wrapping a vice-like forearm around the REV’s throat and holding on for all he was worth. The Qwin smashed against a side wall in response.
That’s when Zac discovered an important truth. The alien REV was trying to kill him using whatever means possible. That was obvious, but the way he was going about it wasn’t. There was no strategy, no foresight in his actions. All he did was react. He didn’t plan.
Zac used this revelation to his advantage. He pressed harder on the alien’s throat. The Qwin was essentially ignoring his grip, instead reaching back trying to grab Zac and crush him with his hands. Zac continued to squeeze.
He didn’t know how long the alien REV would stay activated before he would Twilight—or even if he would. The Antaere were not known for their concern over the fallen. They may let the REV cascade until he exploded. And then the other one would take over.
But first things first.
Zac’s lock on the alien’s throat was having an effect. He was growing weaker, more disoriented. If there was one thing that all REVs needed—be they Human or Antaere—and that was air. The Antaere REV dropped to his knees, the attempt to pull Zac off his back becoming more feeble and ineffective. His arms fell to his side. Zac gave one last surge of strength and crushed the alien’s larynx. A two-handed grip of the big yellow head, followed by a quick twist, and the snap of breaking bone filled the hallway.
In this excited state, Zac was up and facing the second challenger a heartbeat later. What he saw made his near-boiling blood turn cold.
The other alien REV hadn’t activated. Instead he stood in the doorway of the elevator, holding a flash rifle in his hands, aimed at Zac’s head. The Human knew even a top-level bolt wouldn’t kill him. But it would knock him out for the few seconds it would take the alien to gain the advantage. Zac took a step forward, just as a balloon of white light filled his vision.
45
“Zac!” Ashley yelled, unnecessarily holding her hand to her ear as she called out. “Come in Zac? Where are you?”
The silence was telling.
“Maybe he just lost his comm bug,” said Angus, having difficulty keeping the worry out of his voice. “Don’t think too much about it. He can take care of himself.”
The trio had made their way down the next level. When they exited the elevator, they were in a much smaller corridor than before and with no other elevators embedded in the walls. This was the last floor.
A sloping stairway led down at a shallow angle. They could see a solid metal door at the end, looking suspiciously like a vault. They rushed down the stairs to the landing outside the door.
It was a vault, and a solid-looking one at that.
There was a keypad to the right of the door. Angus tried the eight-one-one combination that had activated the elevator doors at the
top level, but to no avail. There was a latch on the door and he tried that, using his REV strength to try to force it open.
“Be careful,” said Ashley. “You don’t want to break it off.”
He backed off, already feeling the metal begin to give. The lever could easily snap off in his hand.
Each of them began to exam the door frame, looking for any sign of a weakness. Angus slipped his backpack off and opened it, withdrawing a black, three-foot-long iron crowbar.
“What are you doing with that?” Smitty asked.
“We came here looking for papers hidden in an underground chamber or room. I figured we might have to pry open a few doors along the way. Seems I was right.”
“And there was a crowbar on the Zanzibar?”
“Surprisingly, yes. In the cargo hold, used to open crates or whatever. Hey, general, I wouldn’t be complaining.”
“I’m not complaining, just surprised.”
“Stand back,” Angus said. He stepped up to the door and began to work the claw end of the crowbar between the frame and the metal panel. It was a tight fit, but he managed to get a purchase of about an inch. He cautiously worked the bar, careful not to bend or break the tool. Even though it was made of thick iron, he was perfectly capable of damaging the instrument. The door didn’t spring open, but the metal did deform, giving him more space to insert the claw in farther. After a few more adjustments, there was a fairly decent opening which revealed a set of three-inch-thick metal bars extending from the wall and into slots in the vault door. There was no way to open it without first removing the bars.
“Stand back,” Angus repeated. He took a firm grip on the three-foot-long bar and then swung it with all his strength into the concrete wall next to the door. The claw end smashed into the material, sending chunks shooting into the room. Smitty and Ashley covered their eyes and moved back up the stairs, out of range of the fragments. Angus took another swipe, and then another. The concrete was crumbling, with fissures growing along the wall. Another few hits and Angus was able to use the crowbar to free up more the concrete around the securing metal rods.
They were emanating from a metal box, a mechanism for screwing them in and out of the vault door. Angus went to work, attempting to free it from its concrete prison. At one point, the REV inserted the crowbar in a space behind the box and pried it out. The container, along with its three protruding metal rods, fell noisily to the floor.
Ashley was at the door even before Angus, pulling on the latch. It opened without protest and they rushed inside the vault.
There was a bank of recessed lights in the ceiling illuminating the room, activated when the door opened. Although they’d brought flashlights, this helped. They scanned the fifty-by-fifty-foot room with a twenty-foot-high ceiling, finding an array of metal crates, all alike and all sealed. The Antaere never bothered to open the boxes once all the documents were packed and moved into the room. There was no need. They were to be stored here until the new temple was built, for which no ground had been broken, as the Antaere milked the destruction for all it was worth.
“I count around fifty crates,” said Gen. Smith. “Let’s get to work.”
Angus’s trusty crowbar came in handy again, this time prying off lids. He rushed through the room, making quick work of the job. Ashley and Smitty were already rifling through the open crates.
“Do you even know what you’re looking for?” Angus asked the other two Humans in the room.
“I read Antaere,” Ashley replied.
“I don’t,” said the general. “But I did see the Corollary you brought the first time. I assume it’s something like that.”
“We’re looking for thirteen sets of pages,” Angus reported, “all encased in glass protectors. Or at least that’s how they were displayed at the Temple. Pretty sure that was just for show. I would also assume they would all be in one case. No need to separate them.”
With three of them searching, it didn’t take long to hit the jackpot. It was Ashley who found the Corollaries.
“Here they are, the complete set!”
The men rushed to her crate. Angus leafed through the panels until he came to the last one. He pulled it from the box. It was a single sheet of paper under glass, with the familiar boldface type as the one they’d taken from the Temple the first time. He held it up for Ashley to see. “What does it say?”
She leaned in and silently read the text. “This is it, and it does speak of the Final Glory, which is not only the assent of all the Antaere to the promise universal order, but of the elimination of the alien followers to clear eternity for the pleasure of the Antaere. I guess there isn’t enough room in Heaven for everyone.”
Angus smiled broadly. “This is it! This will clear our names and turn the Grid against the Qwin.”
General Smith shook his head. “Not so fast, gunny. The Antaere will call this a forgery, a fake document we put together to counter all the animosity against us.”
“So how do we prove it’s real?” Ashley asked.
“We have to take all of them. There are people who can analyze the paper, the writing and the age of the documents. But we need something to compare it to.”
“Find, we’ll take the crate,” said Angus. He placed the Final Corollary back in the box and sealed the lid. There were hand-holds on the side. He lifted the crate with ease. “Now let’s go find Zac.”
The other two nodded, a cloud of concern covering their faces. From elation to worry in the blink of an eye.
They rushed up the stairs and to the elevator. At the next level, they emerged onto the floor where the fighting had taken place. Both Chancellor Lundquist and his assistant, Brian Jessup, were nowhere to be found. Farther down the corridor was the bloodbath left by Angus and Zac. They ran up to the horrific scene of ripped apart Antaere, looking for any sign of Zac within the carnage. He wasn’t there, however, there was a new body—that of one of the black-armored Qwin. His helmet was gone, and his still open eyes revealed glazed over evidence of subconjunctival hemorrhaging, the bloodshot condition signifying REV activation.
“So the Antaere have REVs,” General Smith stated.
“What?” Ashley asked, aghast.
“We knew they’ve been working on the program for several years, taking samples from fallen REVs and trying to duplicate the formula. I didn’t know they’d actually deployed any.”
“This one didn’t get past Zac,” Angus said with pride.
“But there were two of the armored Antaere,” Smith pointed out.
“So, where is he?” Angus asked. “If they’re like us, then he would have to been Twilighted and evacuated…or left to cascade to the end. It doesn’t look like a recovery team has been here. Otherwise they would have come for us.”
“Check the elevator.”
The door was shut and after pressing the recall button, they waited the few seconds for the car to return from the floor above. Obviously, someone had taken the ride up.
The door opened, to reveal a side wall and floor covered in blood, but no bodies inside.
“The Cadre officer isn’t among the dead in the corridor,” Gen. Smith noted.
“Yeah, because we shot him in the elevator. Obviously, he didn’t die,” said Angus. “He and the other Antaere REV must have Zac.”
46
With the crate firmly in his grip, Angus, Ashley and Gen. Smith took the ride up to the second level. There was a blood trail on the metal floor leading down the corridor to the next elevator. At ground level, Angus set the crate aside and joined Smitty and Ashley to help scan the room and the area outside for any signs of the Zac and his Antaere capturers. Two of the transports were missing, as evidenced by the lack of dust in the parking spaces. They were gone, and more than likely headed for the Antaere stronghold in Faloner.
“Lundquist also got away,” said Gen. Smith. “He’ll be waiting for us at the Enclave.”
“Amber,” Angus said. “Have you been monitoring things here?”
&nbs
p; “Yes, I have. There is quite a bit of activity around the spaceport. Chancellor Lundquist reported the incident at the weapons depot and there is a mobilization taking place, awaiting his return.”
“Can you get the Zanzibar out of the Enclave and come pick us up?”
“There are forces moving in around the ship. I can get away, yet it may cost Human lives.”
“And you’re programmed not to let that happen.”
“Within reason. If my inaction would cause you or other members of your team to die, then I have a duty to respond. In addition, my programming only includes Earth Humans. These are no longer Earth Humans, but those who have surrendered their ties to the base species. I will be along shortly.” There was an almost sinister tone to the AI’s voice.
“Good, find us along the main road, heading for the Enclave.”
Angus recovered the crate and the trio set off away from the weapons depot, hugging the hard-packed sand along the side of the main road. There was no traffic, and the night was darker than they remembered it being on the way to the facility. There was still starlight, but it was now subdued by a light cloud cover.
“General Smith, I have a report,” said Amber in their ear bugs.
“Go ahead.”
“I am airborne and heading your way. I disabled most of the aircraft at the spaceport, yet there is a flight of twelve spacecraft lifting off from Faloner. They will be able to follow us beyond the planet.”
“How long until you get here?”
“I am approaching now. You should be able to see my chemical jets.”
“Yes! I see you. Home in on our comms.”
The Zanzibar streaked up and did an abrupt vertical stop before leveling out. Without any Human passengers aboard, Amber was free to put the spacecraft through its paces without fear of hurting anyone. The ship plunked down for a landing, with the side entry hatch already open.