“Just can’t believe we’re nearly there. Tomorrow, we’ll finally have McKinnon.”
Diesel shrugged and settled onto the porch beside me. “It’ll be good when it’s finally over.”
“What? No last heroic speech for your men before we go into battle?”
A small grin pulled on the side of his mouth. Black eyes looked at me. “It’s not that type of story.”
“Doesn’t mean you can’t be the hero of it.”
“It feels like I’m more the damsel in distress.”
I snickered. “How is that?”
“Well, I can’t be the hero when you’re constantly saving me.”
I couldn’t help but smile. “I’ll stop saving you when you stop saving me.” He chuckled and I inched a little closer to him, squeezing my hands in between my bent knees. “I’ve been meaning to ask you something. How did you know about Swoon? And that I would need Senator Able’s prints to reach him?”
“I didn’t.”
“So, what… just dumb luck?”
“Dumb luck.” He reached into his bag and pulled out his hunting knife. With it, he started to clean the dirt from underneath his nails. “Were you serious about before?”
“About what?”
He hesitated to speak. “That you’re going to let them go through my mind?”
I sat up in my surprise. “Diesel, if you—”
“It’s fine, whatever. I understand,” he quickly said. “Just… you can’t be there, okay?”
“Why?”
He glanced back down. His hands shook lightly, and despite wanting to, I didn’t reach out to comfort him. “There are things I don’t want you to see.”
I nodded. “Yes, of course.” My mind raced back to the recording of Krane and to Diesel’s brief description of his time at Alpha with Fitzgerald. I even thought of Charles, imagining the pain of finding Katie on the side of a road. Even if he didn’t ask me to, I couldn’t bear to watch that.
“So, what did you think?”
I blinked out of my daydreaming. “About what?”
“Being in the city.”
“Oh! Well, it was loud. Big. Chaotic. I don’t know if I would like to live there forever. I think I’m more of a country girl. Peace and quiet. Have you been in the city before?”
“Many times, before the whole…blacklisted thing. Did they still have that asshole’s face at the entrance?”
“Who?”
“You know, that moron Francis De Whittler who created the Whittler movement?” I shook my head and Diesel chuckled. “He was such a dickhead. He built these shrines to himself, you know. And everywhere you turned there was his face, plastered up on the billboards. For years, my friends and I used to paint shit all over them. He actually set up Enforcers to try to catch us. They nearly got Trent too. Man, they always played the same bullshit message. Every damn night. ‘Together, during judgment we stand to be proud, to be strong and to serve the better of mankind. To bring peace in our lives, we must have peace in mind. Blah blah blah. Hail Whittler, our true saviour. Blah blah blah’ and he would do this little salute with his fingers like this.” Diesel demonstrated the gesture by holding two fingers to his nose and then pointed forward. “Man, I used to hate his smug face. It was fucking everywhere. He believed himself a God. He would convince people to fight for him, to pay him taxes, to worship him. He actually had the balls to claim it was him who kept bringing us all back. That he created reincarnation.”
I shook my head again. “This is the first I’ve heard of him.”
“Humph! Like them all, he eventually broke. Lasted three cycles. Pfft! Some all mighty God. I found him once passed out in his own filth. After all the fucked up shit he did, he actually tried to go undercover and disappear. I gave him a kick to wake him up, and nearly pissed myself laughing when he still did his little salute. I tell ya, he wasn’t saluting anyone anymore without his fingers.”
Diesel burst out into laughter and I tried to chuckle along with him, but couldn’t find the humour in his story. I couldn’t even tell what lifetime this all happened in. He seemed fond of the memory though and it was nice to see him think kindly of a past life.
“Yeah… so… umm…” Awkward silence settled between us, highlighting the fact that Diesel and I really didn’t have that much in common. His experiences were scattered and extreme. He has had children, he has died and been to war and witnessed men fall to corruption, he has watched the world change and yet nothing really changed at all. Me? I never finished high school. “So… what happened to him in the end?”
“Who cares?” Diesel turned back to cleaning his nails. “Probably what is going to happen to us all.”
“Not if we can stop it.”
He stilled for a moment. It must have been something I said as his body language and tone suddenly shifted. “Do you still think of her?”
I knew immediately to whom he was referring and I gently nodded. “Every day.”
Diesel grunted and returned to his cleaning. I don’t know if it was something I said or didn’t say, but I could feel the tension between us grow.
“Diesel, will you be honest with me?” He didn’t look up, but his head tilted as though he was listening. I took a steady breath. “Was she really gone?” Dark eyes flicked up. I looked into his gaze, searching for signs of dishonesty. “Tell me, could I have saved her?”
His black eyes didn’t change. No shift in thought. No hesitation. “No. You couldn’t have saved her.”
I sighed, reached over and touched his roughened hands. “That’s why we must find McKinnon. We will find the XCELL and destroy it. We will also get the formula for the D400. Everything will be all right.”
He subtly turned his body away. “Let’s just say we succeed. We find the formula, I can replicate it, distribute it, destroy the XCELL. Then what?”
I stalled, unsure if I understood the question. “Then we live our lives to the end.”
“And for those that don’t have an end?” His anxiety tightened the muscles in his face, so when he bit down to harden his expression, the tendons in his neck jumped.
I gathered my thoughts, letting them spin into hopeful promises and grand gestures. I had so many things I wanted to say, felt like I needed to say, but in the end, I didn’t say anything at all.
Diesel eased away. “I don’t mean to sulk.”
“It’s okay. Just…talk to me.”
“There’s nothing to say.” As he has done before, I felt the moment Diesel decided his love for me wasn’t worth the risk. The moment to reach out to him, to help him, appeared and then suddenly passed. What could I say? What could I do? I felt so powerless. I felt so small in the scheme of all these terrible problems. Diesel stood and left for bed.
Chapter Twenty-Two:
“There it is.”
On the lip of old beaches stood the remains of starved forests, the trees’ long roots stretched deep into the sunken bay for water. Three enormous cargo ships remained stranded in the disappearing tide on the dried up coast. Red sand sunk beneath our shoes as we approached. Two of the couriers had been peeled apart by passing storms, their panels and walls buried beneath the sand. Only one remained intact.
We stepped behind the line of trees for cover, everyone huddling into the nook of the shade as we watched the couriers. Jacky and Logan didn’t speak, soaking in the bleeding sky as though it was their first sunrise.
“Diesel, what do you think we should do?” I turned to Diesel.
Diesel’s expression remained unchanged. He looked out across the bay as well. It made me think there was something there I didn’t see.
“No guards,” he noted.
“Seems too easy,” Jacky said. “Could be a setup.”
I glanced between them. “How? We got the address using Swoon’s eye print.”
“Maybe he wanted to trap Swoon,” Diesel pointed out.
“There’s no other civilizations for miles and the earth is too barren to grow crops, I don’t unders
tand how someone could survive out here so long with no resources,” Logan said.
“Plus, it’s extremely unlikely someone as paranoid as McKinnon would live out here without protection.” Jacky pushed away from the tree and crossed her arms. “Well, Nadia, you’re good at setting traps. What do you think?” Her tone was far from complimentary.
I pursed my lips. “I don’t know, but we can’t just chicken out. We have to check it first.”
“Hey, guys?” Hiro said, but he was ignored.
Logan approached Jacky. “This is a waste of time at best. At worst, it’s a suicide mission.”
“You knew the risks when joining us,” Diesel growled.
“This wasn’t part of the deal.”
“Well, if you want my memories then you better pull up your big boy pants and do it. Unless you’re scared, tin box.”
Logan puffed his chest out. “Tin box? You want to go another round, punk?”
“Do you feel like losing again?”
“Enough!” Jacky cut between them.
“Guys?” Hiro tried again.
“I don’t see you running out there to face McKinnon.” Jacky jabbed at Diesel.
“I’m also not the one covered in titanium armour!”
“Guys!” We turned at Hiro’s shout. “Look over here.”
Further down the incline, there were a set of large footprints pressed into the sand. Considering how deep they sunk, I would guess the thing that left them was heavy too. There was only one set of prints heading toward the courier ship. Based on the flat surface and constant draft shifting the sand, the prints must be fresh.
“Maybe not so alone?”
Jacky crept closer and knelt down beside the boot print. Hiro shifted over to give her room. “Not big enough to be an Enforcer.”
“A Sweeper then?” Logan asked.
“No, the gate is too wide.”
“Hang on.” Hiro pressed his face closer to the ground, and with the tip of his finger, dusted away part of the imprint. A small symbol emerged in the sand.
“Oh, it’s a…it’s…umm…” He snapped his fingers for an answer. “Oh, yes it’s an evacuation unit.”
“A what?”
Hiro swivelled toward Jacky. “We used to test them out at home. I mean, back at the lab. They can protect us against nearly anything. Fire. Bullets. Floods. Earthquakes. Electrocution. Anything.”
Jacky nodded in sudden understanding. “Of course, he’s inside the suit.”
“This makes it a little bit more difficult.”
“Can’t you disable their signals, Jacky? Like what you did at Fitzgerald’s apartment?” I asked.
“No. It’s a man’s mind controlling the suit, not a machine. The electronic pulses won’t do anything.”
“Doesn’t explain how he’s able to survive without water and food.”
“Actually, they are capable of carrying food and water in case of long-term isolation. A person can live up to five, maybe even eight years inside a suit before it needs to be replenished.”
“What are the suits capable of, Hiro? Do they have guns? Tasers? Any weak points?” Logan asked.
Hiro thought on it for a moment. “No weapons. It’s purely a survival kit. It has three massive and very complicated locks you need to break through and a big oxygen tank, so he can cage himself inside and we won’t be able to get him out.”
“I’m sure we’ll think of something.” Diesel grinned.
“Great work, Hiro.” Jacky clapped him on the back as she stood. Hiro bit his smile. “At least now we know what we’re up against.”
The spongey ground sank deeper beneath the weight of the ship, tipping the courier on a sharp, slippery angle. Its anchor coiled beneath the ship’s belly with crusty algae tangling up the enormous, rusted turbines. We climbed the heavy chains, Jacky and Logan speeding ahead thanks to their extendable hooks piercing through the ship’s side.
Up on the deck our shoes couldn’t grip the slick floor, risking us losing our grip and flinging ourselves overboard on the other side. We held onto the railing and pulled ourselves along the ship’s edge until reaching a compartment door leading inside. Jacky went first and caught onto the corner of the doorframe of the ship entrance. It was a five-meter slide down, enough distance to slip off course and fly off over the bars on the other side. She positioned herself against the panel, one arm hanging onto the door and the other ready to catch us.
She waved us over and one by one, we let go. Logan went first, and then Hiro. Diesel went before me but didn’t take Jacky’s offered hand. Instead, he urged her forward into the ship after the others. He took her spot and reached out to catch me as I let go of the railing. I crashed into his chest and he curled his arm around me, stopping me from slipping further down.
“Thanks. And you said you’re not a hero,” I joked and went to step past him. His grip tightened, holding me back.
“Just listen for a second,” he whispered in a sudden serious tone. “You are not to leave my side, got it? If it comes down to it, you are my number one priority. Not them.”
My smiled weakened. “Diesel, I don’t want you jeopardizing the others if you think it’ll save me. Especially Hiro. He probably needs your protection more than me anyway.”
Diesel cracked a smile as though I was joking. “You’re funny.”
“I’m not joking.”
His smile dropped. “Don’t make me throw you off this ship.”
“Psst! What are you doing? Come on!” Jacky waved us in.
I gave Diesel a playful nudge and stepped over him into the constricted hall. Thanks to the sharp tilt, all of the loose furniture collected in the far right of every room, bunching up into mounds for us to climb over. Stairs descended further into the belly of the ship, the short roof and narrow walls funnelling the drop into a long pipe.
Evidence of life scattered around us in accumulated trash. Metal rattled beneath our feet, the groaning ship signalling our arrival. Damp air chilled the metal walls around us.
“This ship is huge. How are we going to find him?” Logan asked.
“We split up and cover more ground,” Diesel suggested from the back of the pack. “Tin heads and scarecrow, you go left. Nadia and I will go right.”
“Hilarious.” Jacky rolled her eyes. “And how do you suggest we meet back up again later? Or let the other group know if we found McKinnon?”
Diesel shrugged. “Send out the bat signal.”
I shared confused glances with Hiro.
“Logan and I have built in GPSs that we can use to find each other again. Logan and Hiro can go together, that leaves us three. Everyone fine with that?” Jacky asked without waiting for an answer. “Good, let’s go.”
Reluctantly, we all split up.
Diesel, Jacky and I went right into the long chambers where identical doors lined up along the walls and weaved through the ship in endless twists, and splitting into forked hallways. We must have walked for almost an hour when my head snapped around at a sharp bell. The echo tickled my ear, making me think I heard a voice. I grabbed Diesel’s jacket. “Did you hear that?”
“What?” Behind us, the sound picked up again.
Jacky turned toward it. “It’s music.”
Diesel stepped around her and took the lead, tracking the noise deeper into the vessel. As we closed in on it, he pressed his finger to his lips and motioned us down into a crouch. Slipping down onto our hands and knees, we nestled into a corner above some stairs, peering over the edge toward a hunched figure working at a desk on the ground below. A tape recorder played on the table beside him, but the noise crackled with heavy static. Among the music, there was a voice repeating the same message, but the density of the static made it nearly impossible to decipher what was spoken.
“Among the souls of man…born of inhuman blood…next step…will balance…cycle only the Soulless…back to ghosts. It will end, it will end.”
My ears warmed at the familiar phrases. The music started again an
d the man muttered underneath his breath, hitting the table with frustration.
I silently mouthed, “McKinnon?”
Diesel nodded.
McKinnon’s cluttered mess covered the entire laboratory, making Fitzgerald’s apartment look clean. Diesel crouched over me, his eyes darting about the large room. On the opposite side from us, there were three doors. Three possible escape routes.
Diesel eased back, tapped my shoulder and pointed for me to head down to one of the exits. I nodded and slipped out from beneath his arms. Jacky eased down the other corridor to block the other door. On tiptoe, I carefully crept around the hallways outside, following the bend around the room. I pulled my gun out from my waistband and pressed my ear against the steel panel.
Gentle music continued to flow from inside. I eased the hammer back on the gun. Big breath, Nadia. Big breath. Trash bulked up the majority of the hallway, making it difficult to walk through. I tried to climb over the bags only to have glass shatter underneath my foot. Oh shit! The loud cackle sounded down the hallway, giving away my position. Gunshots went off inside the room, followed by frantic voices. “Oh, fuck!”
I rammed my shoulder through the door just in time to watch McKinnon sprint from the room. Jacky was nowhere to be seen.
Diesel bolted down the stairs after him, his gun held out. “Catch him, catch him, catch him!”
“Yes! Yes, I’m on it!”
I spun back into the hallways and sprinted out after him.
Despite his age, McKinnon moved fast. Lurching himself down corridors, through holes in walls and springing up on shattered staircases that groaned and buckled when I tried to follow.
“Shit! Damn it!” I shoved off the wall and bolted around the corner, trying to catch up.
Diesel wasn’t that far behind me, his footsteps clanged loudly against the metal beams.
“Don’t let him get to the suit,” he shouted.
McKinnon became a blur as he fled around corners. He knew the layout well, taking sharp turns in his attempt to lose us. Around one turn there was a massive crater separating the walkway. With my speed, I managed to leap clear over the gap, but Diesel got himself caught. He hit the edge and dangled with his fingertips gripping through the grate.
Soul Finder (The Immortal Gene Book 2) Page 21