Driftmetal III

by J. C. Staudt

  I wondered whether Angus would ever tell her what had really happened to him. I thought of telling her myself, but who was I to spoil a relationship like that? Your Uncle didn’t get kidnapped; he left the ship and lied about why, just so he could help Maclin take over the world. I could see her reaction to that in my head already. All the hurt, the worry, and the turmoil he’d caused them—not just Sable, but the Galeskimmer’s whole crew. No, I decided. I can’t tell her. This was Angus’s secret to bear, and it was up to him to come clean.

  8

  “Good to see you again, Cap,” said Dennel, when the rest of us had gathered on the lawn.

  “Mr. McMurtry. Mr. Colburn. Ms. Kinally,” Angus said, shaking each of their hands warmly.

  “We’ve been so worried about you,” said Eliza. “Thank the heavens you’re alright.”

  “Worried about me? I hear you all had quite a bit to be worried about on your own.”

  “It was scary in there,” Eliza admitted. “But I’m sure it must’ve been much scarier for you, not knowing what Maclin might do to you. We were worried sick.”

  Angus gave her a reserved smile, but he didn’t reply.

  I swept in to save him. “There’ll be time to talk about this later. Let’s get ourselves inside first.”

  We entered the palace again, passing the two long rows of Civvy guardsmen on our way in. I wondered why those guardsmen still thought they served a purpose, letting an invasion party walk by like house guests for the second time. They certainly weren’t as adamant about protecting the Regent as the dead men inside the throne room had been.

  Speaking of the dead men, they seemed to be giving the Regent’s offspring quite a fright. The four Evelyns had rounded up the royal family and corralled them in the throne room, the Lady Regent and her four whelps, who ranged from an adolescent boy to a pig-tailed toddler. The youngest two children were in their pajamas, the others still in their eveningwear. The crown was right where it had been when we left, bent and mangled on the floor.

  “I apologize for all this,” I told the Lady Regent. “I know the kind of luxury you’re used to. It’s not every day someone comes in and steals your way of life right out from under you. Unfortunately, today is that day.”

  The Lady Regent’s face tightened in fear and defiance. “Who do you think you are to come against us like this? The Civil Corps will hear of this, and when they do they will mass against you and crush your little revolt before it has begun.”

  Sable was confused. “This is why you’re here? You didn’t come to spring us out of jail… you came to unseat the Regent?”

  I cleared my throat nervously. “I’m not going to put words in Angus’s mouth. I’m going to let him explain things for himself.”

  Angus shook his head. “I ought not to go into detail about it now. Not while the Regent and his family still live.”

  “You mean to murder us in cold blood. Is that it?” asked the Lady Regent. “I assure you, that would be your undoing. The Civil Corps will never rest until you and your accomplices are made to pay for this treason.”

  “The Civil Corps will serve the next Regency just as they served this one,” Angus said. “When the new power rises, the Corps will bow to the synod, the only true entity worthy to rule this world.”

  “Is that really what you think?” I asked. “We’ve been given the distinct honor of deciding the world’s fate, and you think it’s about who’s worthy? When has leadership ever been about worthiness? Leading is about willingness. It’s about sacrifice. Any ship’s captain ought to know that. But it doesn’t sound like you do. Maclin Automation may be worthy, but they’ve sacrificed very little, aside from a few million chips. Which, as you said, is chump change to them. You and I don’t have to do this their way.”

  Lord Maxwell Baloncrake now looked like a deflated version of the man who had once been the Regent. “It’s Maclin Automation, is it? Those lunatics are the ones behind this?”

  Angus struck him, driving him to the floor. “You stay out of this,” he flared. “You’re all going to die tonight. You and your whole family.”

  The Lady Regent gasped when her husband went down. She scooped up her youngest and shielded the toddler’s eyes.

  “We’ve been instructed to kill you all,” I admitted. I looked down at my bandaged arm, as if to ensure that the crackler had truly been disabled. “But I don’t think that’s necessary. I never have.”

  Angus gave me a wild-eyed stare, full of anger. “What are you saying?”

  “I’m saying… I’m done following Maclin’s orders. The synod is not to be trusted. I find it hard to believe that there’s no override for the legion. I find it harder to believe they trust me any more than I trust them. And that leads us to the situation at hand. You want to hand the world over to a bunch of power-hungry lunatics, and you don’t even realize it.”

  “The synod is meant to rule. They’re destined for it. You can’t deviate from our instructions. We’ve come too far to give up now. If this coup fails, you’ll be back to the normal wanted nobody you were before.”

  I didn’t want things to go back to the way they were before. Not for me, and not for Sable. Not for Pyras, or for primies at large. Not even for the lower classes, to whom Thomas and Rindhi belonged, and whom the Regency would go on bullying forever. There was no doubt in my mind why things had to change. I just wasn’t sure which way was the right one. You don’t go throwing away an entire system of government without a plan for what comes next. What I knew for certain was that after the crackler incident, I was no longer on board with the Maclin plan. The medallion was just not worth being their pawn for anymore.

  “That sounds like a whole lot of crazy talk to me,” I told Angus.

  “But you… you wanted this so badly. You knew this was how it should be. You believed in the synod. Why won’t you finish this?”

  I looked at Sable, who gave me a worried smirk. “Because I have what I came for. You were right all along, Angus. This should’ve been your command. It was your revolution from the start.”

  “No. I won’t let you give up. We’ve worked so hard—”

  “You’ve worked hard,” I said. “I’ve worked smart. And I had the chance to take a good look at Maclin Automation while I was at it. You’d be right to call me a backstabber. Because I have come too far. Too far to go through with this.”

  “I knew this was a mistake,” he said, his eyes burning with rage. “The synod should have listened to me.”

  “Uncle Angus,” said Sable. “Muller is right—this is insanity.”

  Angus frowned. “Muller? Who’s Muller?”

  “Your Uncle doesn’t know,” I told her. “I’m not who you think I am, Angus. The synod knows, but I guess they never told you. I was using Maclin to hide out from the Regency until I could find a way to rescue Sable and the others.” I turned to Blaylocke. “Get the Regent and his family to the ship. I don’t see things going well from here.”

  Blaylocke nodded and began helping the Regent to his feet.

  “No one moves, or everyone dies,” said Angus. He lifted the flap of his jacket and drew out a remote that looked identical to mine.

  “So there’s the override,” I said. “Maclin doesn’t have it—you do.”

  Angus smiled. “The synod doesn’t know my unit can override yours. They think the reverse is true. I had to ensure the success of this invasion somehow. You’ve failed the synod, just like I predicted. What it is that makes you want to give up now, when we’re so close to victory, I won’t try to understand.”

  “I’m afraid I don’t understand you either, Mr. Jakes,” said Thomas. “I fear I never shall. What happened to all that talk about changing the world?”

  “You don’t have to take the world by force to change it,” I said. “You don’t have to shove guns in people’s faces, or kill hundreds of innocents. If I’d known that was going to happen, I would’ve found some other way to get everyone out of prison. I’m pretty sure I could’ve com
e up with a daring prison heist if I’d needed to.”

  Angus laughed. “Those rabble out on the streets don’t know what’s good for them. If they’d throw themselves in front of an unstoppable force, they deserve what they get.”

  “If you honestly believe that, you have no business being in charge of anything.”

  “What’s happened to you, Uncle?” Sable asked. “You’re not the same man I used to know. Something’s changed in you.”

  “I’m the same man I’ve always been, sweet girl. It’s the world that’s changing. I’m just going along with it. I hope you’ll come to your senses, too. We’re going to live a good life from now on, you and me. All of us, if you’ll have me… if my crew will follow me once more.” He looked at them, a hopeful glint in his eye.

  Mr. McMurtry removed his top-hat, running his fingers around the rim. Thorley rubbed beneath his eyepatch, muscles flexing. Eliza folded her arms.

  Angus’s expression went from hopeful to hurt. “Is there no one here who would take his Captain’s orders?”

  “Don’t do this, Uncle,” Sable pleaded. “We can figure out another way.” She made a move toward him, lifting her arms to embrace him.

  Alarmed, Angus backed up a step and struck her across the temple. She went down hard.

  If there was anything in the entire world that could make me go from calm to enraged in the blink of an eye, it was what that no-good brute had just done to my girl. “Blaylocke, get the family out now. Go.” I started toward Sable, but Angus held up the remote.

  “Stay away,” he said. “This victory is mine, and no one is keeping it from me. Yield to the synod, or face your demise.”

  “I don’t know what’s gotten into you, Angus,” said Dennel, his eyes on the floor where Sable lay, “but you’re not my captain anymore.”

  Thorley took a step forward. “You just hit my captain, and that ain’t alright.”

  We all came at him at once. I burst into a run, triggering my solenoid and cursing when I heard the empty click where it had once been.

  Angus shouted a command into his remote. “Evelyn, kill them all!”

  I dove. My shoulder met Angus below the hips and whipped him backward. The remote spun from his hands. For an excruciating moment, it bobbled on his fingertips. We hit the floor together. A second later, the remote clattered down behind his head and bounced away across the marble, still in one piece.

  The Evelyns knew Angus wanted someone dead, but he hadn’t told them who, specifically. As Blaylocke and the royal family rushed toward the throne room doors, the Evelyns raised their guns and bolted after them. Meanwhile, the three remaining members of the Galeskimmer’s crew scattered, ducking and turning away from their chase to avoid the bursts of gunfire erupting all around the room.

  I was in no immediate danger, since I was still one of the robots’ designated masters. That meant I had time to roll over and pull out my own remote. Angus reached out and knocked it from my grasp. I lunged, but he clamped a hand around my shoulder and pushed me down. We clambered over each other as it bounced away, wrestling like two kids fighting over a toy. This was made more difficult by the fact that I had only one good arm to do it with.

  I shoved Angus aside, slid forward, and got a finger on the remote, but he was too fast. He was on top of me in an instant, slamming a fist down on my good hand to send the remote skittering away again. I watched it slide across the floor and into the waiting hands of Dennel McMurtry. The boatswain stood up, examining it. I breathed a sigh of relief, but it was short-lived, thanks to the bright subdermal spot I saw growing in Dennel’s belly.

  There was a soft squelching sound. The flesh above Dennel’s ribcage bubbled out and ruptured, releasing a spray of disintegrating viscera. His grunt turned into a moan. He sank to his knees in a gushing tide of blue, letting the remote fall to the floor, where it hit with a splash. When he doubled over on top of it, I saw the entry wound in his back, a hole no bigger than a chip.

  Exploding flecker rounds are perhaps the most twisted kind of weaponry you can use against a techsoul. When Angus had told the Evelyns to kill everyone, they’d followed his orders to the best of their ability. Which happened to be very good.

  I grabbed Angus by the ankle and tried to yank him down. Again, he was too fast for me. He drove a heel into my nose, snapping my head back and making my vision go blurry. By the time I’d wrestled my hand pulser free of its holster, Angus was kneeling beside Dennel. But he was not there to comfort his dying friend. Angus was rolling the heavy man aside and reaching for the remote beneath him.

  “I’m sorry, ol’ buddy,” I whispered, raising the hand pulser.

  I wasn’t talking to Angus, of course, but to Dennel, whom I thought might not have minded me putting a stop to all this, even if I had to catch him in the crossfire to do it. I fired twice. The pulses burst over Angus and snaked down through Dennel’s body. Angus went stiff, surging to his feet and taking a step to catch his balance.

  I shot him twice more. This time he couldn’t hold out against the currents arcing over his skin. By the time he hit the floor, I’d managed to push myself up and was scrambling toward him through the puddle of Dennel’s blood.

  I wrenched the remote free of Angus’s clenched fingers and pressed the call button. “Evelyn, stop!”

  Evelyn did. Guns died mid-barrage. Metallic footsteps on the marble ceased, bent arms and legs straightening to attention.

  It was then that I saw. While Dennel held his shaking hands over the hole where his abdomen had been, gasping and choking over his last breaths, something else caught my attention. Angus was lying beside him, blinking as the pulser rounds wore off. The flaps of his jacket were open. Below the fabric of his shirt, I could see the bulge in the center of his chest. Round and protrusive, there was no mistaking the ugly mess of metal and gemstones and wires that had won my heart so long ago.

  Something inside me snapped.

  I shot him again, feeling the pulses tingle through the soles of my boots. His collar was warm and wet in my hands, a ring of sweat dampening the fabric. Buttons popped away as I ripped his shirt open and found myself staring into the medallion’s sparkling green facets.

  My fingers closed around it. I pulled. Tendrils snaked from his skin and withdrew into their release ports, steaming. Angus shuddered and took a breath, his eyes glazed in fear and wonderment, as if he’d just woken from the most enjoyable nightmare of his life.

  “You bastard,” I said. “You incredible bastard.”

  I had no wrist spikes with which to tear Angus’s guts out; no solenoid with which to bash in his skull. What I did have was even better.

  “Evelyn One, Evelyn Two. Come here.”

  The robots came to a stop beside me, looking down over Angus while Mr. McMurtry died.

  “Evelyn One, Evelyn Two. Hold onto Angus Brunswick and make sure he doesn’t go anywhere.” I knelt in Dennel’s blood, taking his head gingerly into my lap. His top-hat was on the ground beside him. I picked it up, wiped the blood off on Angus’s shirt, and gave it to Dennel. It was the smallest comfort I could offer him. Thorley and Eliza had gone over to Sable, who was still lying on the floor several feet away, holding her head and groaning.

  “My friend,” I said, cradling him. I felt the words catch in my throat, the heavy pressure of sorrow building in my chest. “I don’t want to make one of those long, awkward speeches, so I’ll just say thank you. Thanks for telling me what I needed to hear, even when I didn’t want to hear it. And thanks for taking care of Sable. You’re a good man, and a true friend.”

  “One of… these days,” Dennel said, his lips wet with blood, “You’ll… get to know me. Better.” Dennel McMurtry’s smile was fond and wistful as he repeated the words I’d said to him in the forests of the Kalican Heights. His final breath left him.

  I laid Dennel’s head down gently, then rested his top-hat on his chest and got to my feet. I went over and retrieved Angus’s remote. “You don’t deserve a crew half as good as
this one,” I told him. “I’m glad Dennel finally realized that, in the end. Now tell me how to disable the override. I want command of the entire legion. For good. This ends now.”

  Angus laughed, squirming in the robots’ grip. “Sure. Hand over my remote and I’ll give you full control.”

  “You think I was born yesterday, don’t you? Alright, if that’s the way it’s going to be…” I dropped his remote on the floor and crushed it under my boot. Then, taking his throat in my hand, I began to squeeze. “I know one way to make sure you never steal what’s mine again.”

  Angus gave me a sneering smile, but his face went panic-stricken when he felt my grip tighten. He tried to pull away, his long orange beard scouring my wrist like a stiff brush, but I held fast. When he kicked at me, I had the robots take hold of his legs as well. The Evelyns never faltered, their grip on him too strong to allow any hope of escape.

  Angus’s eyes began to roll into his head, his breath escaping in short gasps. He was close to passing out, but I didn’t plan on stopping there.

  “Muller, stop. Don’t do this.” Sable was standing there, supported by Thorley and Eliza, rubbing her temple with the heel of her hand.

  I opened my mouth to spout off some defensive remark I couldn’t seem to find the words for. I could feel the medallion in one pocket, the Galvos remote in the other; emblems of the two things Angus had tried to take from me. Loath as I might’ve been to admit it back then, I was afraid he would take Sable from me, too, if I let him live. I was afraid our adventures across the skies would be over as soon as I’d returned him to her, and that was a reality I wasn’t prepared to face.

  “Muller, you stop it right this second,” said Sable, her voice growing high and thin.

  A sheen of sweat had broken out over Angus’s face. His cheeks had gone from red to blue to purple, his neck slippery in my grasp. I could feel his blood pulsing beneath my fingers, trying to throb past them. After a long time, and with great reservation, I let go.

  He craned his neck and drew in a loud, whistling breath. The colored splotches in his cheeks began to subside, his body hanging limply from the Evelyns’ grasp.