by Drew Avera
"Look, Serus. I know that we had this planned out, but even the best laid plans can fall apart." His words were quick and low.
I could feel the anxiety building to the point that a bead of sweat grew upon my brow because of it. "White, please." I interrupted.
"One of us has to stay," he said. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the lottery ticket I had given to him when I killed Harling. The hard plastic reflected the light that was shining around us so that it almost appeared as a small red flame in his hand. I was mesmerized by the inherent beauty of it. White looked up at Sorell and then back to me. "You take this ticket and this gauntlet and you swear to me that you will kill that son of a bitch. I don't want to hear a maybe. You do it. Just promise me that you will do whatever you have to do to bring down the Syndicate. Bring their entire world crashing down on them. Do you understand?" The tone of his voice was fierce and without remorse.
I gasped as he handed me the ticket along with the gauntlet. I couldn't believe it. I flicked the hard plastic with my fingers and dragged it across my skin. It was real. The man I had thought was a puppet to the Syndicate was now sacrificing himself for the better good of others! For the better good of me. "How can I repay you for this?" I asked, emotion was welling up inside of me and I felt like I might lose my composure.
"By promising me that you will do as I have asked," he said. "I'm putting my faith in you. I'm laying my life down for you. You're the only person I know who has what it takes to set things right, to make a real difference for the future," White choked up a bit and wiped another tear from his eye. This was a side to him that I doubted that anyone had ever seen since his wife had been killed along with their unborn child.
"Thank you," I said. I couldn't think of anything else to say or anything else that I could do besides take his hand and shake it, this was the final show of respect for a man who had given his life for mine. He shook my hand with a firm grip and after he let go he turned away and walked off. Was he right? Could I set things right?
"Hey! Where are you going? What's going on?" Sorell screamed as White walked off. He looked down at me and could see the lottery ticket White had given to me. The expression on his face turned from a stoic dictator glaring down at his people into a cowardly expression that better represented who he was as a person. Without another word he darted off to who knows where. To my relief the policemen at the gate accepted the lottery ticket and allowed me access to the transporter that Kara had gone to. This was actually happening, Kara and I were leaving this planet and its inhabitants to die. My heart was troubled at the dire need for the people to be saved.
The only retribution for those people would come as I killed each member of the Syndicate. I had to kill men like Sorell who so easily disposed of other people. I would dispatch him easily enough. He and every single board member I came across from now until my dying breath. I walked through the complex with Thom's gauntlet in my hand. Its weight was a reminder that I was alone in this endeavor, but I would not have to suffer its burden alone. Kara would be by my side, and I would walk through the fires of hell to defend her.
Chapter 26
I walked into the cargo bay of the transport and was astonished to see all of the people scurrying around. The transport was enormous. The cargo bay alone could have held the apartment building that I had lived in. The steel structured walls were labeled with identifiers that told you where each passageway led. I imagined that it must be very easy to get lost in the maze that surrounded us. The entrance was wide open and despite all of the people around me I was able to find Kara standing in a line labeled 'Receiving'.
I ran up to Kara and could see that she had been crying. She was not paying attention to anything going on around her and she did not even see me approaching her.
"Kara," I said aloud hoping to get her attention. She looked up at me with teary eyes and I could see relief written on her face. She lit up at the sight of me.
"Serus! I can't believe it. I thought that they had refused to let you board without a ticket," she said as she hugged me in a tightly. I could feel her cheeks spread into a smile when she laughed. "What changed their minds?" She asked.
"It was White," I said. "He gave me the ticket I had given him when I killed Harling."
"Are you serious? He gave up his chance of surviving for you?" She asked. I could see her confusion. From what we had previously known, Pontiff White had never seemed like the kind of man to sacrifice for the benefit of someone else. "Surely there must be some kind of catch. He wouldn't just give up his seat without insisting on something in return, so what was it?" Kara was intelligent enough to know that some things are too good to be true. In this case though, it was true, and the answer was very simple.
"The only thing he asked of me was that I carry out the plan we had made and take down the Syndicate. He wants me to kill them all, every single last one of them. When I do that then my debt will be paid." I said it in a way that made it seem that his request did not match my own intentions. The reality of the situation was that we shared a very similar view towards the Syndicate. I wanted them brought down just as much as White did. We both had something in common in regards to the Syndicate. They had taken our families away from us, and now it was time for pay back. Now was the time for reckoning.
"How does he expect you to do that?" She asked. "You are only one man. It will be impossible to kill them all." Kara said. Her logic was sound, but I still held hope that I would be able to do what I had set out to do.
"That is something that we will have to discuss later," I said trying to change the topic of our conversation. "This line is pretty long. What are we supposed to be doing here?" I asked.
"This is where we get assigned which state room we will live in during the transport. Now that you are here then we can share one. I was reading a handout that said that some staterooms can hold up to four people so we will most likely be sharing with another person or two." She said.
"Great. Nothing beats sharing a living space with someone you don't know." I said sarcastically.
"Shut up," she sneered at me. "You know you're lucky to even be here. I wouldn't complain too much if I were you," she eyed me insinuating that I had made a joke at the expense of the thousands of people who would die by staying on Mars. I knew she was right so I kept silent.
The receiving line was moving at a fairly consistent pace. It took us about half an hour before we were seen by the woman at the counter.
"Tickets please," the woman said. She was a dark skinned woman dressed in a pink blouse. Her hair was cut to her shoulders and she had a cherry disposition despite many hours of dealing with people checking on board the transport.
Kara and I both handed her our tickets and she typed some information into her computer. "What are your names?" She asked.
"Kara and Serus Blackwell," I said. The woman gave me a once over, I could see her eye my gauntlet ominously. I placed my hands behind my back to remove it from her sight. She produced two identification cards and handed them to us.
"These cards will serve as room keys for your state room. They will also be used as a food voucher. You will be authorized three meals per day and you will need to present this card in order to eat. I have you sharing a small stateroom on level echo. It is state room number thirty three. Please enjoy your stay," she said to us and quickly looked up to the person behind Kara and I. I led Kara by the arm over to the passageway that was led to the echo level. We had to climb four ladder wells to get to our level and our state room was at the end of a long passageway.
Kara swiped her car and the door to the state room unlocked. She pushed the door open which revealed a small room with a two stacked bunk beds setup with two stand up lockers to hold our belongings. Fortunately the pamphlet Kara had read said that there was a store on board for us to buy new cloths and toiletries. Several months of walking around in dank clothing would have been awful.
Kara and I looked over the room and I decided to take the top bu
nk. She sat down in a chair that was in the corner behind the door and sighed.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"It's everything," she said. It seemed that the light was dimming behind her eyes. Reality was setting in and she was taking it hard. "I just can't get over the fact that our home will be no more, and instead of the Syndicate trying to save everyone they are just saving themselves. With the exception of the two of us I would be willing to bet that most people on this transport, and the others just like it, are in some way tied to the Syndicate. It's a shame, and I wish that there was something that I could do about it. Something that I could do to make a positive change. Do you understand where I'm coming from?"
"Yes I do," I said as I turned to face her. I pulled a stool off the top of one of the stand up lockers and sat in front of her. "That is the same thing that I am trying to do. I want to make that change, but the only way to do it is to erase the corruption by destroying those who caused it." I ran my hand through my hair and cleared my throat. I looked down at Thom's gauntlet that I was still carrying. I now realized why White had handed I to me. It wasn't that he was surrendering, but he was giving me an opportunity to find his replacement. I looked at Kara sitting in the chair with her head rested against her right hand. She returned the look with a curious expression.
"What is it?" She asked.
"Just an idea," I said.
"What's your idea?" She asked as she leaned closer to me, intent on hearing my master plan.
"Why don't you join me? You could be my partner in bringing down the syndicate," I said.
"Really?" She asked in a sarcastic tone. "How am I supposed to help you?"
"With this," I replied as I held the gauntlet out to her. I could see her reflection in the polished silver as she starred at it, questioning whether or not she wanted to touch it. "You can use this, and I can teach you how."
She looked up at me and her jaw was slack like she was dumbfounded by my suggestion. She glanced back at the gauntlet and ran her hand over the smooth surface of it. I could see that she was on the fence, somewhere between saying yes and running away. I needed to give her the push that would allow her to make the right decision for herself.
"This will be your chance to get back at the people who abducted you. The people who tried to kill you," I said. "Together we can go after the people responsible for killing our father." She gasped and looked up at me. She held my gaze for several moments and without looking away from me she grabbed the gauntlet out of my hand.
Chapter 27
Kara held the gauntlet and moved it in her hands and looked at it. She knew exactly what it was and precisely what it meant to wear one of these. She had been the one person who had beat that reality into my head when I had first been recruited by the Agency. To be perfectly honest, if it were not for Kara I most likely would have killed myself when I had gotten the news of my recruitment. Just the idea of giving up everything that I loved in order to be a murderer for hire was almost more than I could bear at the time.
I was engaged to marry Laurel. I was still recovering from the loss of my parents and trying to take care of Kara. Simply put, the love that Kara had shown to me during that time had kept me alive. Unfortunately that was the same love that drove us apart a few years ago. I guess it must have been too much for her to handle, with the way the training and the job had changed me. I was a different person than I had been when we were kids growing up. A part of me had died and it had been replaced by someone who lacked the emotions of someone who could care for someone else. When she saw me she only saw the brother who had died.
As I looked at her now it seemed that she was willing to embrace the kind of life I’ve been living for her own. I had seen her kill a man already, and I knew that she was able to rebound from it emotionally. It was a scary thought, but it was necessary to the success of the mission for her to stand by my side against the Syndicate.
"Are you sure that you want to do this?" I asked. My heart was fluttering at the thought of my sister becoming someone like me. I wasn’t evil, but I was damaged. How could I drag her into this kind of life?
"I told you, Serus, that I want to make a difference. I'm done with watching things happen around me, to me, and not being a force to stand up for what I think is right. If making a change requires a sacrifice then I'm fine with that."
I was shocked by her determination. In less than a week she had gone from a timid scientist who I felt that I needed to protect, and now she had grown into a force to be reckoned with. "I just want to make sure that you know what it will cost you."
"Everything and nothing," she said in a hushed voice.
"How do you figure that?" I asked.
"Look, Serus, I'm not part of the Agency. I don't have to follow their rules and restrictions on my life. I’m a free person and I plan on staying that way. I’m not afraid of them and I don’t have to bow before them anymore than you do now," she said.
I thought about that for a moment. It was true that I no longer worked for the Agency. My soul purpose in life now was to bring down the Syndicate, the governing power that forced me to be alone in this life, they were the ones who forced me to go without believing in my dreams and following my desires. I was now free to do what I wanted.
I had a moment of realization that had not occurred to me before. I had not felt any tendencies from the programming in two days. I had not experienced a single stuttering thought that tried to lead me away from my own endeavors in those two days. I really was free, both mentally and physically.
"You know, you're right. This is the perfect chance for us to start over. If we succeed in taking down the Syndicate then there will be no one to run our lives and force us to do what we know is wrong." That idea instilled a sense of hope in me. I hadn't known what freedom felt like during my adult life, at least not true freedom.
"See? We don't have a choice not to act. We have a responsibility to do so," Kara said. "Now I just need you to teach me how to use this thing." Kara lifted the gauntlet up and looked at it again.
"Do you remember what I had told White when he put it," I asked.
"Do you mean the part where you said that there would be a sudden sharp pain from the sensors entering your body?" She asked.
"Yes. Also you need to make sure that you keep the laser turned off until you want to use it. Most people have accidental firings occur when thy leave it on," I said.
"I do remember you telling him that," she said as she opened the gauntlet. She placed it over her right wrist and latched it closed. The gauntlet made a click sound when it was locked. Kara remained quiet, but I could see in her eyes her reaction to the pain caused by the sensors entering her skin, seeking the nerve endings in her arm. The sensation must not have lasted long because she soon eased up the tense look on her face.
"Are you alright," I asked.
"Yes. The pain has subsided," she said as she rubbed her arm above the gauntlet.
"That's good. Why don't we just have you wear that around for a little while and get used to wearing it until we can find a place suitable for you to practice using it?"
"That sounds alright," she said. Kara looked down at the silver gauntlet wrapped around her wrist. She now had the same power as I did against the Syndicate. She had both the weapon and the will to use it.
There was a sudden vibration of the transporter that caused both of us to look up in alarm. A mans voice came in over a speaker system in the room to tell us what was happening and there were some beeping sounds that followed. The man was apparently the one who was commanding the transport. He spoke very concisely and told us to remain calm and to stay in our state rooms until we were out of Mars' atmosphere. Once he stopped speaking the vibration started getting worse. I did no think we were off the ground until there was a sudden moment of feeling like we were falling. There was a lurch and another falling sensation. I grabbed hold of Kara's hand, but the sensation soon passed.
The launch sequence seemed like it lasted several
hours, but in reality we were out of the atmosphere within a half hour. The falling and lurching sensations happened about a dozen more times before the transport seemed to finally stabilize. We were confined to the state room and starred at each other. I could only imagine what Kara was thinking. I don’t imagine that it could be anything good based on what I was thinking. I was afraid that we were going to die. wouldn’t that be a sweet irony? Luckily everything settled down a bit and the launch was a little bit more enjoyable, despite my fear of crashing.
Once we were out of the atmosphere the buzzing noises and the vibrations quieted completely. The transport commander came in over the speaker system once again and welcomed us to outer space, our new home for the next several months. I wished at that moment that we had a window to look out into the vast darkness. I would love to be able to look down at our home from several miles away and watch it grow smaller and smaller. Maybe we would have a chance to view it later.
Kara and I sat in the state room for another half an hour before we decided to venture out and explore the transporter. It was enormous, and we needed to figure out where we needed to go for food and other daily errands. Kara pulled out the pamphlet she had gotten when boarding and unfolded it. There was a map drawn on the back that showed where the galley, restrooms, and stores were located. I stood up and reached out to Kara. She took my hand and stood up beside me, together we walked out of the state room to experience whatever may come our way. At that moment I was hoping for a hot meal and some fresh clothes.
Chapter 28
Kara and I walked down the passageways of the transport taking our own grand tour. Kara held the map and pointed out which direction we should go. Placards on the bulkheads aided in letting us know exactly where we were located at any given time. Without those we would surely have gotten lost several times.