Obsidian: Birth to Venus (The Obsidian Chronicles Book 1)

by Marisa Victus

  The door flew open and fell, unhinged at an angle. The three sentients rushed in. “Wait, don’t shoot!” one of the women, a redhead, screamed. Adric looked at her puzzled, unable to tell what their intentions were. She aimed her gun at the table where they were hiding. They didn’t mind shooting me before, why stop now?

  “Just hand Keith over!” she yelled. Adric peeked out from behind the table. The second woman, a brunette, was walking past the redhead, stalking closer to where he and Keith were hiding. Adric shot at both of the women, but they moved with extreme speed, from side to side. Against the right wall, the male sentient was trying to rush in. Adric swung his gun to the right and shot him straight in the head. The man’s black hair went flying. A large portion of his head spattered. A piece of his brain stuck to the wall.

  “Dan!” The brunette let out a guttural scream. She ran to the man, sobbing, holding his head in her hands. “Dan, stay with me! Don’t go!” The brunette held on to him tightly. She’d lost all sense of her surroundings, her back turned to Adric.

  “Get up, Bree!” The redhead shot at the table, on the side Adric was occupying. She flung an arm around the brunette, screaming “Get up! Let’s finish the mission and get out of here!” The brunette didn’t need more coaxing. Whoever Dan was, he was gone, and she was determined Adric would pay for it. She ran past the redhead, around the table, to where Keith was. Adric shot Bree twice, once in the gut, and another time, across her left breast, but Bree shot him too, in his right arm. She aimed her gun higher, at Adric’s head. Suddenly, the redhead was on top of them. She wrestled Bree back, making Bree miss her intended target. The bullet flew into Adric’s neck. “Stop, Bree! We’ve got Keith. Now, let’s go!”

  Adric lay on the floor, the room riddled with bullets. Blood oozing out of his neck, he looked up at the ceiling, wondering, Is this the last thing I’ll see? He struggled to picture his daughter, his wife and family back home, but his thoughts of them were fading, falling to black.

  Chapter 40

  2121

  Jai rang the doorbell. A petite woman, 5’4”, with glossy black hair opened the door. “Hello, I’m Janice,” she said. A ten-year-old girl bounced to the front. “And, this is Sara,” Janice said, resting her arms on the girl’s small shoulders. They looked exactly like Jai had envisioned, when she’d read Adric’s mind. Janice waved her hand, ushering them inside. “Please, come in. Thank you for coming.”

  “Of course, Janice. Thank you for having us.” Jai introduced Borda and Sean.

  “How’s Adric holding up?” Sean asked.

  “It’s been three days since he regained consciousness. He’s doing well.” Janice sighed. “As expected, it’s been a hard adjustment. But, you know, we’re fortunate. Not everyone can heal from a spinal cord injury.” She walked them through the living room and into the dining room. A large china cabinet was against the wall, but it had become Adric’s room. “It’s one of the few rooms that can accommodate his hospital bed and all of his medical equipment. It works. The doctors say it’s best to keep him in the middle of the action,” Janice said, hopeful. Adric lay like a statue, motionless in bed. He could only move his head. He gripped a tube in his mouth, moving the bed upward. It moved from a reclined to a sitting position.

  Adric smiled. “Thanks for coming,” he said. His voice was weak, but his spirit wasn’t broken. Janice guided Sara gently upstairs, out of earshot.

  Borda watched them climb the steps. He looked back at Adric, swallowing the lump in his throat. Years ago, when his parents were murdered, he could’ve wound up like Adric, paralyzed from the neck down. Borda felt his scalp warm with perspiration. “It’s good to see you,” he said.

  “So good,” echoed Jai.

  “It sure is,” Adric said. “I’ll be fine. Doctors say I’m healing rapidly. I should regain full functioning in about a month.” But, his eyes were watering. He looked up, ruefully. “I just wish I hadn’t killed him.”

  “Who?” Sean asked. Jai and Borda were clueless too. They didn’t know much about what had happened in that security room, and the news cameras didn’t show much. Just the two female sentients escaping with Keith, presumably leaving Adric and the male sentient behind. “We only saw the female sentients leave with Keith; then, the backup team rushed into the security room. Didn’t the backup team kill the male sentient?”

  “No, I killed him. And, don’t get me started on the damn backup team. Where the hell were they?” Adric said angrily. “Did the backup team really show up? I never saw them. It’s just what I was told, when I finally woke up.”

  “Yes, the team came. They did,” said Sean. It wasn't reassuring, though. Minutes had passed before the backup team had arrived; and, faced with sentient speed, mere seconds could mean the difference between life and death.

  “Well, it was definitely too late,” Adric said. “That place had no business opening that day. Understaffed, unfinished, and ill equipped, obviously. I mean, really? Three sentients were able to foil the first intake? A complete fiasco.” Tirade over, Adric looked at the ceiling, then lowered his voice to a whisper. “Anyway, I killed the male sentient, not the backup team.”

  “Why would you feel guilty? It’s self-defense.” Borda couldn’t understand how Adric could lay there paralyzed and feel wrong in any way.

  “The news has it wrong,” Adric said, matter-of-factly. “The news has one explanation and one explanation alone: sentients are opposed to the Observatory, a Guantanamo dedicated to sentients. So, everyone thinks these three sentients were helping Keith to escape. But, that’s false.” Sweat formed on Adric’s brow. “These three sentients weren’t acting alone. I’m telling you. Something wasn’t right about them. Sure, they were on a mission to get Keith out, but they weren’t trying to kill me.”

  “They weren’t?” Again, Borda was finding Adric hard to believe. “You must have a concussion still. They were shooting at you, non-stop.”

  “That’s not what I mean. They would have killed me, if they had to, to get to Keith. But, I don’t think they wanted to kill me. At least, not until I killed the male sentient. What was his name?” Adric’s mind was still healing. Words sometimes escaped him. “Dan! Dan was his name. And, the female sentient, the brunette. Her name was Bree. Dan meant something to her. She only tried to kill me after I killed him. The other woman, the redhead, I never got her name. But, right from the start, the redhead told Bree and Dan not to shoot at us. She even told me to, ‘Just hand Keith over,’ as if that would suffice.”

  Jai listened closely, seeing only a disjointed vision, bits and pieces of what had happened, a fraction of what was buried in Adric’s broken mind. “And, Keith. Did he know the three attackers?” Jai asked.

  “No,” Adric explained. “Keith was clear. He did not know who the three sentients were.” Sean and Borda looked at Jai, not sure what to make of this. Adric added, “The news got one thing right, though. The three sentients were news workers. They were not trained soldiers. They were sentient. They moved fast, faster than humans. That’s certain. But, they were not skilled shooters. And, they did not want to be there. It was ‘get Keith, and get out.’ They didn’t strike me as sentients fighting for a cause. Definitely not Bree. She was fighting for something else. When I killed Dan, it was like a switch flipped. Like she didn’t have any reason to continue the plan. Like she didn’t care if the plan succeeded. Like dying didn’t matter to her. The redhead had to drag Bree out.”

  “The three must be like Keith,” Jai said. She told Adric about the Reapers. “They’re on a mission, to save the human species and get rid of sentients entirely.”

  “What? That’d be impossible,” Adric said, incredulous.

  Borda nodded his head in agreement, but Jai reiterated, “Making sure we go extinct is their goal,” Jai said. “Keith overheard them.”

  “But, how do they hope to accomplish that?”

  Jai said, “The Reapers are forcing sentients to do their bidding. When we asked Keith about the incident at
Club O, he said he was forced to play a part for the video, to save his family. They kidnapped and assaulted his parents, and promised to kill them if Keith didn’t kill the human at the club. Really, it’s no surprise. Blackmail’s the oldest play in the book. Just look at human evolution. For thousands of years, Neanderthals roamed the earth at the same time as Homo sapiens. They had to compete for limited resources, like food and shelter. So, what brought about Neanderthal extinction? Many researchers say Homo sapiens had a competitive advantage; they displaced Neanderthals violently. Modern humans have followed the same pattern, invading territories occupied by purportedly less advanced societies. Perhaps history’s repeating itself. Humans are afraid sentients want to edge the human race out. And, these human Reapers have launched a presumptive attack.”

  Borda nodded his head. “That makes sense. They’re physically inferior, so they’re using psychological methods to force sentients into doing what they want…maybe they’re forcing humans too.”

  “If what you’re saying’s true,” Adric said, “then, Bree must have been fighting, following the plan, not only for her sake, but also for Dan’s. Once Dan died, she saw no point in continuing. He must’ve meant that much to her. Same goes for the redhead. She must have been fighting for someone, the same reason why Keith killed that human.”

  “Then, sentients are in trouble,” Sean said. "First, there’s Keith's incident; now, there’s his ‘escape,’ perpetrated by sentients no less.”

  “Yes. It's a highly-orchestrated smear campaign," Jai said. "First, the Reapers make the world think that sentients siphon by harming. Now, they give the world the impression that sentients believe they’re above the law.”

  “In both cases, we look like the bad guys,” Borda said, “and the Reapers stay hidden, tucked away in the dead of night. More has to be coming too. Keith said the Reapers kept him in a compound filled with rooms. He believes he was one of many abductees.”

  "I can't believe no one knows about this," Adric said. "I'm in high-level security, working for the CIA, and no one deigned to tell me?" The thought infuriated him.

  "It's unlikely the CIA knows," Sean said. "Even if they did, they wouldn't be equipped to handle something of this magnitude.” Sean paused. “These Reapers are the new terrorists. But, from the outside looking in, who's the real threat? The Reapers, the humans, who look like they haven't lifted a finger against anyone? Or, the sentients, who've been recorded on video: first, brutally siphoning and beating a human until he's dead; and, second, breaking out of the Conservatory, the place the President built to 'uphold' American ideals?"

  "We're fucked," Borda said.

  "Did Keith have any idea who the Reapers are?" Adric asked.

  "No," said Jai. "He said the Reapers always wore masks, and the one who had recorded him, the director of the video, wasn't the leader at the compound. The Reaper’s Leader is a female. He didn't hear her name, either."

  Sean added. "This isn't our only run-in with the Reapers. Jai's had another experience." Without going into Zin’s background, Sean alluded to the many Reapers Jai had killed. "I ran those Reapers' photos and prints through the databases. No hits. But, they're all human. That's for sure. Their blood proved it."

  "So, we're dealing with a well-organized group of human Reapers,” Adric said.

  “Humans…,” Borda said, the word lingering on his tongue. “They're physically inferior, but look at the harm they've done to sentients….” Borda's thoughts trailed off, to his own history. How's my life, my parents' death…how did I fit into the Reapers’ plan? Jai felt the hairs on her neck surge with energy as the fear in Borda's body welled up. My parents' murder was the worst thing that’s ever happened to me. It hurt him to think of it. If they hadn't died, would I be in Keith's position? Bree's? The redhead’s? Jai placed her hand against the foot of Adric's bed, struggling to maintain her composure; Borda's emotions were flooding her mind. Finally, Borda paused to ask, "And what of Keith? If the Reapers went through the trouble of getting him back, his escape's multi-purpose. It not only makes sentients look bad. Recapturing Keith’s given them another tool in their arsenal. Keith's proven himself. He's a weapon they can use. They'll use him again."

  “Then, we have to find the compound and rescue Keith’s family, save all of the abductees," Sean said.

  "Yes." Jai's eyes hardened. "Take away their leverage. Then, we can crush them."

  Chapter 41

  2121

  “Ugh!” Borda cried impatiently, drumming the rim of Kevin’s lab bench. They were back, at the Long Island beach house. He threw his spiky head back, nearly hitting Kevin, who was about to draw Sean's blood.

  “Watch it!” Sean yelled. “I may be sentient, but I’m no glutton for punishment.” Kevin steadied his hand as he plunged the syringe into Sean’s arm.

  “How many liters have you given?” Borda asked. “And why try so hard? I heard Zin's a prick.” Borda looked away, to the bed in the library where they’d moved Zin.

  “Lucky bastard’s more like it,” Jai said, as she walked into the room from the garage. She changed the subject. “I just met Caleb for a three hour meeting. Don’t tell me you’re still at it, stockpiling Sean's blood?”

  “What else can we do?” Kevin asked. “There’s no telling what may happen. If what you guys say is true, the Reapers mean business; we may not have the luxury of this lab space forever. And, Zin needs it. This blood’s keeping him alive. He’s still weak. Weaker, even, than the first transfusion.”

  “Psst.” Sean nudged Kevin with his donating arm and winced.

  Jai rolled her eyes and gave Sean a kiss. “Still ever the knight in shining armor, I see.”

  Sean hadn’t forgotten their agreement. He reminded her again, "As long as Zin’s alive and well, there’s no need for you to siphon him, Jai.”

  “Ohhh! So that’s the weird arrangement you two have.” Borda leaned forward, like he’d just learned a juicy detail of their love life.

  Jai laughed and reminded Sean of the built-in exception. “Unless his condition’s dire.” She looked at Kevin. "If Zin needs to siphon, I’m here, ready when you are, Doc.” Kevin nodded cordially, and removed the syringe from Sean’s arm.

  “I wouldn’t mind watching you siphon, Jai,” said Borda. He said it with mock seduction. It drove Sean mad with jealousy. Jai tried to shut her sixth sense off, not wanting to know who Sean was jealous of more: Borda or Zin.

  “Anyway,” she said, letting the word linger a while.

  “What else can we do, to kill time?” Borda asked. Jai thought Borda had been impatient enough, when they’d waited to meet Keith on the boat. Now, Borda was unbearable.

  “Be patient,” Sean said, as he beat Borda playfully on the head. In the week since Keith’s “escape,” they’d tried to find a lead, any lead, to the Reapers’ compound and their abductees, but they were only able to confirm that Bree was a news anchor from Virginia, and Dan was her husband and long-time producer. The redhead, Rose, a producer from New Jersey, appeared to have no personal connection to Rose or Dan, even though the three of them were clearly working together, pursuing Keith that day. All three were sentient, but there were no further leads. Things were looking stark.

  The next day was a Saturday. They’d decided to go to Club 10 and enjoy brunch on the rooftop deck. Everyone but Zin was there. “Diana!” Jai called out. She waved Diana to the table where she and Avena were seated, sipping on peach bellinis.

  “Ladies,” Diana greeted them with a smile, and they helped ease Diana into a seat. Quaid stopped to give the chefs additional instructions, then brought Diana her usual, a sweet iced tea.

  “How are you feeling?” Jai adjusted the umbrella and pat Diana’s forehead with a napkin. Her lustrous blonde hair, normally full of bounce, was stuck to her temples.

  “Crabby. Famished. Then, nauseous. Nauseous then famished. My stomach’s got a mind of its own…usually at odds with mine.”

  The ladies laughed, as Jai rubbed her temples. She
wasn’t feeling well herself and was nursing a headache of her own. Worried it was the start of another migraine, she tried to relax and enjoy some girl time.

  Meanwhile, the boys were checking out the roast suckling pig. A long line had formed at the buffet, everyone wanting a piece of its red, crispy skin and juicy, tender meat.

  All at once the building shook violently. Everyone screamed and tumbled to their knees, falling against each other. Instinctively, Jai white-knuckled her chair, then reached out for Diana, just as she was about to fall out of hers. As the building continued to shake, the crowd threw themselves back, away from the edge of the rooftop.

  “Quickly, to the stairwell!” Sean screamed. Hysteria set on, as everyone realized that the stairwell was their only escape. Sean looked back at Jai and Avena; they each had Diana by the elbow. Mach rushed over to help them, as Sean funneled the crowd, as fast as possible down the stairs. Borda and Kevin helped a few people who’d been injured to make their way, when an explosion erupted on the street, sending a plume of smoke high into the sky. Jai heard the sound of glass shattering below and thought someone must’ve launched a bomb at the Club. Then she heard it. The civil defense system had kicked on. The siren wailed far into the distance, and gunshots appeared to fire from every direction. She knew. This wasn’t isolated to the Club.

  When Jai reached the first floor, she saw a group of sentients huddled as far away as possible from the front door. It was already barricaded with tables and chairs. Sean turned to Mach. “Go. Take Diana, Avena, and Kevin to our private room. Take the door to the underground tunnel. There’ll be a side door about half-way through. It will lead to a garage. Take one of the vans. Get to Jai’s beach house, as fast as possible.”