“I know, I was just—never mind,” he said. He had been in an odd mood ever since he left Lara back in the house. She had asked him not to say anything as final words—no goodbyes, no promises of his return, or anything else. Lara didn’t have much faith in ever seeing him again, and the tears she wiped when she left the room, not bothering to even look at anyone else, attested to the sincerity of her words.
“How long is the walk there?” she asked, switching her flashlight from one hand to the other. She was afraid of taking the wrong step on this narrow platform and falling to the tracks. The train was not coming, of course, but it was at least six feet down, and the currents that normally gave the train power would fry her alive if still functional. She doubted they were, but the fear was healthy nonetheless.
“About twenty more minutes,” said the rather unathletic Dr. Mustang, huffing and barely able to breathe. “We’re a little past halfway through the tunnel.”
“I wonder if Felix and Tessa are ready to go. I hope they’re gone when we get there,” said Jed, his boots pounding heavily on the steel platform, the beam of the flashlight trembling before them. “I don’t want another Covington situation.”
Vivian gritted her teeth.
“That was unavoidable. It was a rushed, poorly planned escape, but we couldn’t have foreseen Kat doing what she did. I worked closely with her; she masked her intentions in this terrifying way, everything she said, all her lies, were so authentic. It’s a good thing Tessa was there. Blanchard might have not made it out otherwise. This is a much simpler plan, at least for you. Making my way back alone will be the difficult part.”
“Aren’t you afraid of Heath finding out you were here, you helped us leave?” Vivian asked.
“I am, but I trust it won’t happen. If everything goes as planned, no one will even know I was in Zenith at all. The important part is getting you out of here. By then, it won’t matter what Heath does or doesn’t; it’ll be too late.”
“Why could he be so opposed to the Creux, I don’t get it. It’s like he wants Lys to win,” said Jed. “I’ve tried looking at this from every possible angle and I don’t understand.”
“Some of them are comfortable admitting defeat, I suppose,” Vivian said.
“But it’s not just defeat. It’s the end of everything we’ve done in this planet. How could they be so aloof about it? I don’t know—I just feel like there’s something we’re not seeing. Heath isn’t just a defeatist idiot. There’s something else going on. Kat was playing a part in it, and the only plans that involve murder are big ones.”
“Big plans? Like what?”
“I don’t know,” said Jed. “But if you stay behind, Dr. Mustang, please try to figure it out. You still have a part to play here.”
The rest of the way was silent, as if trying to be respectful of the situation.
After all, Zenith was waiting for them.
ф
When Erin decided that the first thing they should do was to support Jena’s plan and move everyone out of Clairvert, Ezra took a moment to visit Elena.
On his way out, two things caught his eye: first, Akiva was standing in the middle of the city square, looking up at the pillar as if studying it. In the short amount of time it took Ezra to cross the city towards the atrium, Akiva had moved around the structure, never taking his eyes from it. He remembered noticing Akiva’s interest in it before, and wondered if the Asili had begun to affect him like it had affected Erin and Garros.
Then, once outside, he noticed something else: Lazarus was gone. At some point between his last visit to Elena and this one, the giant Creux had stepped away from the others, all of which remained down on one knee. He’d talk to Erin about going out and trying to track him; they needed to know what Lazarus was doing, especially now that they knew that it had a mind of its own.
Ezra tried to focus; between the Alice monster held by Lys, Lazarus, and Malachi, his head had become a battlefield for terrifying and pessimistic thoughts. He needed a little light.
He found Elena, as he had before, curled up into a ball at the end of her cave. This time, Ezra had taken a blanket from Malachi’s home and wore it around his shoulders on the way out of the city. No one asked, but he had prepared an explanation in case anyone did: he needed it for his Creux. No one would ask questions.
She smiled when he put the blanket around her, and immediately wrapped it around her own shoulders, inviting Ezra to join her under its warmth. “Thank you very much. You look pale, are you all right?”
“No, not really, but I can’t talk about it right now,” he said, still trying to avoid thinking about the deadened version of Alice who spoke the devil’s words. “I got some news for you, though. I told you about my friend, our plan to move everyone out of Clairvert, to the islands in the wasteland. It’s happening, right now. Erin and—well, my friends, they’re planning it. You’ll be able to join the others. Isn’t that great?”
She smiled, and it still told him that she didn’t quite believe him, like she had lost all hope. At least, if not entirely sincere, the smile was warm. She took his hand under the blanket, and looked down at it. “This blanket. Where did you get it?”
“It’s Malachi’s,” he said, looking at her eyes to gauge her reaction to the name.
And her reaction was exactly the one he had expected—and hoped for. Her eyes went wide, then avoided Ezra’s altogether. It was at that exact moment that Ezra confirmed his suspicions.
“He misses you,” he said. “He thinks you’re dead. So does your dad.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she replied.
“Elena, please. He told me about you last night. About what happened, and about you and Farren—”
“Don’t.”
“What happened?”
“What do you think?”
“You were going to marry him, weren’t you? That’s what Malachi said. Was it . . . did you even want to do it?” Ezra asked, and she shook her head. It was obvious she didn’t want to talk about it at all, but he needed to know. “Elena, was it . . . Malachi told me that Farren was the one who covered for you when it began.”
“He said that?”
“But he didn’t, did he? Other than the things you know about us and the Creux, you seem to be perfectly fine. I heard the people in the Caduceus; I know what the Asili does, and you don’t have it. Farren made the whole thing up, didn’t he? You didn’t want to marry him, so he just found a way to punish you for it.”
“Don’t do anything stupid, Ezra,” she said after a long silence that doubled as a confirmation. Ezra clenched his jaw so hard he felt his teeth would crack. She tightened the grip of her cold hand on his, and kissed him. “Listen, if what you told me earlier is true, then we can move out of the city. I’ll join my brother and my father, and it won’t matter at all. Right?”
“But it does matter. He can’t get away with doing this to someone. Malachi has no idea. Your father—”
“Ezra, they can’t see me. If you tell them you found me here you’ll regret it, I promise. Please just let it be.”
He didn’t want to lie, so he said nothing. Of course he had every intention of exposing Farren for the selfish liar he was. How could she not want to bring her father and brother the comfort of knowing that she was still alive?
“Something has to be done,” he said, and walked out of the tunnel. “I can’t promise you anything.”
He walked between the folds of the atrium and into Clairvert, and as though it had been orchestrated by something much larger than him, Ezra immediately walked past Captain Farren.
“You keep going in and out of the city, it’s strange; people never leave and you do it so casually. What’s out there, other than your machines?” he asked with a voice that suddenly stank of venom. “You can tell me.”
“Nothing,” Ezra said, and continued walking.
But he didn’t get very far. Farren grabbed him by the arm, and this felt too aggressive. “Hold on.”<
br />
Ezra turned around, nose flaring, and put all of his weight into a heavy jab to Farren’s face. His fist caught the man in the nose, and both felt and heard it crack. Though he immediately recognized what he did as a mistake, he smiled when he saw the captain’s now-crooked nose begin to bleed. “Don’t you touch me again, you lying sack of crap.”
Farren smiled, wiping none of the blood on his face, and spat. Ezra’s pride turned sour, into fear.
“Come here,” he snarled.
Ezra took a step back and prepared for the attack, but Farren’s reach was greater and his hand much stronger than he anticipated. It was easy for the captain to grab ahold of Ezra’s robe, and with one precise and malicious movement, he pinched the nose ring, and pulled.
He screamed out as Farren tugged at the ring, and there was vicious cruelty in the action. He could almost hear the cartilage tearing. Tears began to form in his eyes as he grunted under the excruciating pain.
Then Farren was on the floor. The sound of his armor clanking rang across the atrium.
“Try that again and I’ll tear out your goddamn throat.” It was Garros; his face was red, his neck muscles and veins bulging like a furious bull. “I don’t care if he took the first swing. We’ll deal with him. Not you.”
Garros turned his infuriated eyes to Ezra.
“And we will.”
Malachi was suddenly there, helping the captain up to his feet, and looking at Ezra. Farren’s eyes were lost, not knowing where to look or if they could even remain open. “What happened here? Ezra?”
“Malachi, I need to talk to you, need to tell you something,” Ezra said, still angry and embarrassed, wiping the tears the pain had squeezed from his eyes. He shot a look at Farren, who remained discombobulated by Garros’ powerful strike. “In private. You’ll want to hear this.”
The distant crashing sounds of monsters punching the walls continued, but Ezra’s attention was fixed on one thing.
ф
At the end of the track, friendly soldiers opened a trapdoor above the tunnels that led straight to the facility’s backways. At first, everything went as expected in Vivian’s arrival back in Zenith.
But then, it didn’t.
Chapter 14
As Far As It Goes
The pain in his nose wouldn’t leave him for days—of that much he was sure. Farren had tugged at the ring hard enough to extend the piercing and now it hung more loosely from his nose; it was a miracle it didn’t tear through the skin. He wouldn’t care about any of that, however; the journey had left him bald, broken, burned, and scarred. Suddenly the vanity he had been fighting was gone, or at least hidden away to make room for a new and better trait: determination.
And right now, that determination led him to only want one thing: Farren to pay. His ego, selfishness, and pride, had caused Elena’s—and her family’s— suffering. It boiled his blood.
“I understand you need to talk to him,” Erin had said when they reached Malachi’s home to find her waiting at the entrance. “But when you’re done with this circus, you and I are going to have a talk. Garros just told me about what happened.”
Ezra didn’t speak again until Malachi closed the door and they had anything close to privacy. “What you did—you have no idea what you did, Ezra, what it could mean for your future in the city. Not only yours, your whole team’s.”
“What? He did worse,” said Ezra, wiping his nose with a cloth.
“He’s a high officer, and you struck him. If it happened to any other guard, he’d be the one to carry out a sentence. I know you’re not from here, and you don’t intend to stay—”
“I don’t care. He’s not going to do anything because, yeah, I’m not from here, and I don’t need the city’s protection. I don’t expect you to believe me right now, but you’ll stop defending him soon enough,” Ezra said, and licked his lips; they tasted of blood. “Maybe you should sit down.”
Malachi frowned and sat on one of the long benches made out of thick artificial wood and lined with a comfortable and feathery mat. “What . . . Ezra, what exactly did you see in the Asili? What happened?”
“No, it’s not about that,” he replied. “It’s about what you told me last night, at the wedding.”
“About Jena?”
“No, about your sister,” he said. “There’s something you should know about her.”
“Ah. I knew I shouldn’t have opened my mouth,” he replied, shaking his head, rubbing his temples with gloved hands. “It’s not something I ever talk about, and please don’t let my father hear you say her name.”
“She’s alive,” Ezra said.
Malachi looked up at him, frowned. “What?”
“She’s not gone. I saw her, she’s living in a cave right outside of Clairvert, hiding. I saw her first in Kerek, and then—”
“Is this a joke? Are you trying to hurt me?” Malachi got up and approached Ezra with every intention of finishing what his captain had started. “What is your problem with us—with the city? I thought you were here to help us.”
“Man, please calm down—I would never lie about something like this,” he said. “She’s been living out there. I’m not sure how she’s managed to survive and remain unseen, but she’s been able to sneak around Clairvert and the outside. I know it’s hard to believe, but she’s actually safe. I would never lie about something like this because I know how you feel—I have sisters myself.”
“Don’t you dare tell me you know how I feel unless you ever lost one,” Malachi said and looked away from him, at a cupboard next to the door. There was a stuffed bear sitting there between rows of old books. The man grabbed the bear, squeezed its round belly with both thumbs. “Ezra—she wasn’t just my sister; she was my best friend, she took care of me and my father when he came down with his . . . problem.”
“And she’s not lost. I swear I’m not making this up; I’d never do something like that. I was with her earlier today, we talked. She told me everything about you, and the Caduceus, and her exile, she told me about—” Ezra stopped talking when he saw Malachi wipe his tears away.
Maybe he didn’t need to know about what Farren did yet. Maybe he should hear it from Elena’s own lips.
“Malachi?”
“You’re not lying?”
“Of course not.”
“Is she here? Can I see her?” he asked, and when Ezra nodded, still holding the cloth to his bleeding nose, Malachi spoke again. “I want you to understand how important she was to me, and how hard it’s been without her for me and my father. I’m going to give you another chance to take back what you’re saying, if you think you should. Please don’t hurt me; it’s not something I’ll be able to recover from, and something I would never forgive.”
Ezra didn’t say anything, and Malachi’s eyes suddenly glimmered with what could have been hope—a feeling with which neither of them was very familiar.
“All right. If you’re serious, if you’re not lying, then please take me to her.”
ф
It was the silence that frightened her.
Not the desolation, or even the smell of death that still lingered, but the silence. Every footstep echoed across the empty halls and corridors, and every echo felt like possible danger, like it could be heard by someone hiding behind the corners—someone who wanted them to fail.
The soldiers had stayed in their post, which they would leave in less than an hour for their rotation; they only had that much time to make their way to the docking bay and board their Creuxen.
“We need to be quick,” said Dr. Mustang, whispering, sharing Vivian’s fear of some unexpected danger. “The capsules should be already in your Creuxen, but we need to boot them and program them through the consoles in the docking chambers; it won’t take long, but we need to get started.”
“I’ll go in first,” said Jed when they reached the compatibility labs. It was strange to hear their footsteps in this large room, as Vivian had always associated it with the loud rumble of
machinery and computers. It was alien to her; she recognized Zenith, but it was like a phantom version of Zenith, one stripped of everything she had once loved about it. “I’ll check on Rose Xibalba on the way.”
Hearing her name again was exciting. It had been too long since she had last communed with Rose.
“All right,” said Dr. Mustang and opened the door to the docking chambers—it had been left open, probably by Dr. Mizrahi herself; surely none of their ID cards would work now, even if they had them.
Jed opened an emergency door next to the elevator which they would normally take to the docking bay. It was a dark and narrow shaft with a solid-looking ladder that would lead him, and then her, down.
Before taking it, Jed grabbed Dr. Mustang by the shoulders and gave him a strong hug goodbye. “Dr. Mustang—Lance. Thank you for doing this. Whatever happens now, you’ve played your part like you wanted. You’re one of the good guys, no matter what anyone tells you. You’re not a monster. Got it, brother?”
“Of course,” Dr. Mustang said, stammering awkwardly. Vivian would have to ask Jed for an explanation; clearly there was something in Dr. Mustang’s story that was yet to be shared with her, and this was not a moment to pry.
“Please make it home safe, and please take care of Lara,” he said. “I might not come back.”
“I will, Townsend. I will, my friend. Just do what you have to do out there. We don’t have a lot of time here.”
Jed smiled and then looked at Vivian. He tipped her a wink before taking the ladder down with great confidence. Jed disappeared into the darkness, as though swallowed by it.
When Dr. Mustang opened the door to the docking chambers, it was as dark and desolate as she had left it. It was almost as though Tessa and Felix hadn’t gone through it at all, and they had just left no more than half an hour before.
On the way to Nebula 09’s chamber, found almost all the way down the hallway where everything had to be reconstructed after Absolute Omega’s explosion, she walked past the labeled doors; they were all open, exposing how empty they were, how the Creux’s eyes were not waiting at the other side of the glass. Quantum Ares. Jade Arjuna. Milos Ravana.
The Unfinished World (The Armor of God Book 2) Page 20