I said, “He’s one of the Ultras then.”
She nodded. “He’s not wearing a mask.”
“I noticed.”
“And he’s alive?” Forno asked.
“He moved a little,” Dorie confirmed.
An Ultra, here at the vault. An Ultra like Landry. I swore to myself, because I didn’t know what to do next. Seven others surrounding Joseph, all armed. This wasn’t going to go down like it had with Landry on Heron Station, even if we did have an extra weapon this time. Now I wished we had Jennifer down here with us and not wounded and stuck up on the station.
“There’s too many of them,” Dorie said.
Forno took his own look around the corner, then frowned. “Plenko’s ass. They’re just waiting there.” He paused, glancing at Dorie. “And we know what they’re waiting for.”
Dorie clutched the key tightly to her chest.
I hadn’t thought about it until this moment, but if they were waiting there, they weren’t waiting for us, they were waiting for Plenko, who might have told them he had procured the key. They might not know we had made it here ourselves. They might not know Plenko had the key. They may not know yet what the key even looked like.
Could this play to our advantage, them not knowing for sure?
Better yet—
I looked at Forno. At Dorie.
“You’re getting an idea,” Forno said.
“I get them sometimes.” I had the extra blaster in my jacket, and I pulled it and held it out to Forno. “Take the extra weapon.”
“Because?”
“We’re going to just walk in there.”
Forno scowled. “Not funny.”
“Forno, you’re a big scary Hulk. They might not know all the copies.”
Forno’s jaw tensed, but I saw a glimmer of understanding in his eyes. I held out the blaster, and he took it.
I turned to Dorie. “They know you. Married to Terl Plenko, and you were copied. The key was given to your copy at your place in Tempest Tower, Jennifer Lisle went undercover, the NIO investigation started, and because your copydied, she couldn’t tell anyone about the key, and Brindos and I became involved in the whole thing.”
She blinked at me. “How does that help us? They know you too, don’t they?”
“They do.” I slipped my blaster in my right jacket pocket. Holding my hands out, palms up, I said, “I’m the bad guy. You’ll escort me.”
Forno shook his head and said, “Plenko could’ve sent a message to them. The Landry copy could have alerted them somehow. They could know we’re coming.”
I shrugged. “Maybe.”
“They probably know Brindos and I escaped from the Helk district,” Dorie said.
Through clenched teeth I said, “Brindos is dead. They don’t know how or why and what it might have to do with you.”
She nodded. “Okay. It’s just that—”
I stopped her. “We have to get in there.”
“But seriously,” Forno said. “How are we going to take out that vault?”
“I’m still working on that part.”
“Then tell me the plan that leads up to that part.”
The truth was, I didn’t even have that bit of the plan completely mapped out. I only had a way to get close to them without getting shot on sight. They outnumbered us seven weapons to our four. Eight weapons on their side if you counted this Joseph, if he could do the same glowing-fingers trick that Landry had used on me.
I told them the plan. My hands would be empty, Forno behind me with his stunner in one hand, blaster in the other, herding me to them, Dorie another escort, walking on the right side, away from the left side where the First Clan Helks were. There were more hostiles waiting on the right, but my blaster was in my right pocket, and when I got the chance to reach for it, I’d aim right, to help Dorie, while Forno went for the Helks.
“What if that glass partition door is locked?” Forno asked.
“They’ll unlock it for us.”
“If they don’t?”
“We’ll unlock it by force. If so, we’ll come in shooting, so we won’t have much of an advantage. But if at least one of us is standing at the end, we have a chance.”
“What about the sculpture?” Forno said.
“Dorie keeps it hidden,” I said, watching as she put the sphere inside her rain jacket. “Leverage if we need it.”
“It’s not leverage if—”
“Our last resort,” I interrupted. “If Plenko didn’t know what it was, none of these at the vault know.”
“Unless he got that message to them.”
“We’ll hope not.”
We lined up, me at the front, Forno behind with two weapons nudged into my back. Dorie on my right, weapon in her left hand, pointed at my head.
“We get the chance,” I said, “we take it. No hesitation. Remember what’s at stake. What’s already happened to our worlds.”
Dorie looked behind her, gazing down the passage we’d come down, back toward the kiosk entrance. Back there was a ruined planet, where thousands had died. When she turned back, I caught the glaze in her eyes I’d seen earlier when she realized she would lose Brindos and the last link to her husband.
“Okay then,” Forno said. “Let’s go.”
“Be rough,” I said to him, and we walked around the corner.
I figured at least a couple of the Helks would rush up to the glass door as we appeared, but they only straightened a little and held their weapons a bit higher in front of them.
The Ultra, the not-Joseph who had been doing the freaky swaying thing earlier, stopped moving completely, but his eyes tracked us as we approached the door.
The glass door was unlocked. Forno grabbed me by the head, his hand covering it completely, and pushed me through. He kept close behind me.
“Move,” Forno growled.
No one around the vault came toward us. I kept my eyes on Joseph.
The Ultra now turned his head up, taking us in as we approached. I saw no emotion on his face, and I was reminded of Landry’s cold, alien presence during the two times I’d been close to her. He was alien, made to look human by the Ultras’ technology. To blend in, Plenko had said. To learn from us.
Finally, weapons around us hummed to life, automatic targeting sensors taking hold.
Black score marks marred the vault’s surface near the locking mechanism; they had tried to get the door open. Unless the Ultras had somehow managed to open the door and close it again—and I couldn’t imagine they had, judging from the scene in front of me now—the mortaline was still in there.
What Joseph held in his hand was not a cane but an umbrella, the handle toward the ground, the silver point near his face. I saw dried blood on the tip.
One of the Helks separated himself, closer to Joseph. It was one of the Chinkno copies. One of the other two was a Knox.
“Far enough,” Chinkno said through his breather mask, his eyes downturned as he frowned. He looked past me at Forno. “Where’s Plenko? Which one are you? Why’d you bring these two here?”
He was buying it so far. I lowered my head; perhaps they’d interpret it as submission, but I was partially relieved, and didn’t want to betray anything by the look on my face.
“Plenko’s dead,” Forno said, ignoring Chinkno’s other questions. He slapped the side of my head, the revealed weapon in that hand catching my temple. It stung, and it caused me to stumble a little. “This guy shot him.”
That was true.
Seven weapons raised a little higher. Joseph’s expression didn’t change.
“Aldast Ozsc,” Chinkno whispered, almost reverently. “But you have the key?”
“No,” Forno said. “These two claim to know, but won’t say anything.”
Joseph’s other hand, the one not holding the umbrella, wriggled a little on his lap. Then he looked at me, cocking his head slightly to one side. He moved his mouth as if to speak, but nothing came out, making the whole process spooky as hell. Or maybe he was trying to b
reathe, even though he didn’t seem to need to breathe. Whoever the Ultras were, they had not figured out all the complexities of the human body. They’d been able to control the copies somehow, but maybe not enough.
Sweat trickled down the side of my face.
Chinkno bared his teeth, looming over me like a wave ready to crash down. “He’ll talk,” he said. He glanced at Forno. “Or we’ll each take an arm and pull.”
I raised my head and looked at him a moment, then at Joseph, who still didn’t move.
A Memor on the right, a female, cleared her throat. I recognized her immediately.
It was Lorway, of the Science Consortium. A copy of her, anyway. I didn’t imagine the original members of the Consortium were still alive. Her long orange hair hung loose and not in the traditional ponytail; her full lips looked huge on her face, as Memors’ lips always did.
Lorway pointed at Dorie. “What about this one?”
“What about her?” Chinkno said. “That’s Plenko’s mate.”
“But how’d she get here?”
There was a pause as Chinkno considered this. Then he waved the Memor forward and said, “Search them both.”
A search could not happen.
Lorway glided toward Dorie and me, and I acted fast so Forno could react in time. I took a step forward and threw my fist hard into the Memor’s soft throat.
She tumbled back, dropping her weapon, hands coming up to her throat, surprise in her eyes.
I wasted a few precious seconds frantically getting my weapon out of my coat pocket as I heard Forno’s stunner go off and Dorie’s blaster discharge next to my ear. One of the humans went down even as I shot the other Memor in the gut, and I heard Forno yell, “Stay down, snothead!”
Dorie and I pegged the last human at the same time and he fell like a rag doll.
“Cover her,” I said to Dorie, turned, and saw Joseph had not moved a muscle.
To the left of him, two of the Helks were unmoving on the floor; Forno pointed his blaster at the one I didn’t know, who was sprawled in the corner, holding his entire arm to his chest in pain. He snarled at Forno, trying to get to his feet, but Forno kicked his arm hard, causing the Helk to cry out.
“Hell with this,” Forno said, and shot him at point blank range with the stunner.
Forno then aimed his stunner at Joseph and stood still.
I licked my lips and raised my eyebrows at Forno.
Jesus, we’d done it. Somehow, we’d pulled it off. I focused on Joseph, who looked at me impassively. He didn’t look angry. Didn’t look amused. Just looked at me with those dead gray eyes.
I wasn’t sure if Joseph would understand, but I pointed to the vault door behind him and said, “This is all going to go away. There’s nothing more you can do.”
Joseph moved his head in a little circle, still imitating mouth movements. He finally lifted the other hand. Forno stepped in closer, aiming his weapon at the Ultra.
“Just stay on him,” I said. “Watch his fingers for glow.”
The Ultra touched his own face with fingers that trembled slightly. He closed his eyes, shut his mouth tight, and I heard him.
What of Plenko’s other?
In my mind, the alien’s words found root, and I tried to blink away the odd sensation of hearing a strange voice invade my head. Plenko’s other. He meant Alan.
“Helk’s breath,” Forno said. “You hear that?”
“Yeah.”
Dorie said, “In my head.”
Even though we had our weapons trained on Joseph, I was frightened of him. Soon enough, though, the fear turned to anger. “His name’s Alan Brindos,” I said aloud. “You made him into a Thin Man, and now he’s dead. He was my friend, and now he’s dead.” I pointed a finger at him. “Your fault.”
The Ultra’s hand trailed down his face, to his neck, and fluttered there. A barely audible cry, almost like a kitten, squeaked from his mouth.
“Who are you, and where are you from?” I asked, even though I didn’t figure to get an answer I’d understand.
One of us has already gone beyond the mirror, came the voice in my head. We are damaged.
I guessed he meant Landry. Killed on Heron Station.
We cannot hold, came the voice in my head. We are done here,.
Joseph’s hand began to shine white.
“Got glow!” Forno said.
“Wait,” I told him.
“Remember what happened to Landry!” he yelled.
“I remember. This is different.”
Joseph twisted his mouth around again in odd positions, so much so that his lips didn’t even look human. The first true emotion took over his face. Frustration. He couldn’t talk.
The glow from his hand spread to his arm.
“Let me shoot him,” Forno said.
“No. Wait.”
“Back up at least,” Forno said, and he grasped my arm and pulled me toward the glass door. “Dorie, back.”
The Ultra hadn’t given up. The mewling sound came again, modulating in different pitches, and other alien sounds uttered forth from his mouth. Nothing I could understand. The glow rose to his neck, down the other arm, filled in his torso.
Then, clear as a bell, Joseph said aloud, “Dave … Crowell.”
I stared. I couldn’t have been more shocked if I’d found him carrying luggage into the vault and asking for my room number.
The glow spread to his face. In my mind, one last time, I heard him say, Sleep now.
I hoped to hell the Ultra meant himself.
The alien was covered in white from head to foot. It was different than the softer glow that had enveloped Landry. Joseph’s glow became so bright that we had to look away.
The glow stopped abruptly, and the Ultra’s head lolled to his chest. There was that tiny kitten cry sound again, then his shoulders drooped, the umbrella fell from his hands, and he slipped sideways out of the chair to the floor.
He was really dead, I was sure.
I stared at Joseph’s face. In death, it didn’t look much different. Just an old man, the spirit of life extinguished.
“Now what?” Forno asked.
“What about her?” Dorie said, lifting her head to Lorway.
“Let her go,” I said. I stared hard at Lorway. She pulled on her orange hair, which had fallen forward over her shoulders. “If that’s your ship out there you better get going. Get as far away from here as you can.”
The Memor scrambled to her feet, glanced nervously at each of them, then ran through the glass door and disappeared down the passage.
“What’s that mean?” Forno asked. “Far away from here?”
“Use Plenko’s finger,” I said, reaching out to Forno. “Let’s hurry. We don’t have much time.”
“What’s going on?” Dorie said.
I pointed at Joseph as Forno unwrapped Plenko’s finger.
A white aura had started to surround the Ultra.
“Oh, my God,” Dorie said.
“We’ll get out of here if we can,” I said, “but this is our chance to destroy the mortaline. If I’m right, Joseph’s core contains the same antimatter that Landry had. The blast should vaporize the metal if we get that door open in time. Get the key out, Dorie. Now.”
I didn’t know if Landry and Joseph were the only two Ultras hiding in the Union. I figured not, but at least they wouldn’t be able to rebuild their Conduits. Not when the last known deposits of mortaline had been vaporized.
I held out my hand to Forno and he handed Plenko’s finger to me. I found the key interface on the vault door and touched the sensor plate with the finger. A depression the size of Plenko’s sculpture sunk in to the door. The indentation glistened with flash membranes and a pink nano-slurry.
Dorie didn’t hesitate, inserting the mortaline sculpture into the indentation.
The interface clicked and snapped. The depression locked onto the key, which twisted clockwise, then stopped, showing another sensor plate.
I pressed
Plenko’s finger against it.
The sphere now turned counter-clockwise, gaining speed, until it was all a blur. The interface morphed around the key, swallowing it, and before long the depression was gone, the interface smooth.
“C’mon, c’mon,” I whispered.
The vault door opened and we all backed away, but I nudged Forno toward the dead Ultra, now awash in glow. We didn’t have much time. “Get him in there!”
Without effort, Forno picked the body up with one arm and hurled it unceremoniously into the vault.
“Can we close the door?” Forno asked.
“No time to figure that out,” I said. “This is a good time to run like hell. Forno, go ahead of us to the shuttle!”
We fled from the vault chamber, Forno moving with his Helk super speed until he was lost from sight.
I didn’t think we were going to make it.
Dori and I weaved through the underground facility, seemingly forever, and it seemed like the passage had lengthened since our arrival. Then we saw the ladder, climbed it, and burst from the kiosk. Forno was already in the shuttle’s pilot seat, and the thrusters were powering up.
We piled through the door and it whisked shut behind us. The shuttle shot to the sky before we were secure, but I didn’t care one goddamn bit. I steadied Dorie with a firm hand and grabbed the bulkhead with my other.
Even inside the shuttle I heard the antimatter detonation clearly. I had a glimpse of the large clearing where we’d first landed and picked out the white of a motionless shuttle just before a massive wall of debris blew across and swept the shuttle away.
Our own shuttle shook from the concussive force of the blast, but we were clear.
We gained altitude and reached space on our way to Swan Station.
Epilogue
As it turned out, I didn’t get to kick Timothy James’s ass.
In death, he actually kicked the NIO hard, his own antimatter core detonating and destroying most of the building and killing a number of personnel. Nothing remained of the Ultra Tim Jim.
The Ultra Joseph also vaporized completely, as did all the mortaline in the vault underneath the ghost city of Venasaille. Any evidence to suggest clues about the Ultras and where they came from, if there was any, had been burned away. Theories came and went, but most experts had no way of knowing if they possesed physical bodies. They could be from just about anywhere in the universe, perhaps not laying claim to any actual world or planetary system.
The Ultra Thin Man Page 32