Opposition Shift

by Sarah Stone

  Hayden was positive that Sun ruled the datascape when Lunatic 8 wasn't online, and that was certainly a duel that would one day have to be finished for keeps.

  The latest tragedy didn’t change plans, and Cabal had brought them back here for a reason.

  Kapre, apparently, had something to say to his fireflies, as he called them, and when the old man had something to say, any number of Akiaten turned up to hear it.

  Cabal, being one of the urban Akiaten according to what Una had told him of the man, was more than a bit skeptical of the old man’s mystical qualities and strange ramblings, as many of the urban Akiaten seemed to be. However, this apparently didn’t affect the stance that his wisdom was real enough and valuable enough to be heard, and he played a big part in the instigation of their operations.

  Cabal wouldn’t say it, but it was clear that the old man was the heart of the rebellion, literally and metaphorically. A useful mascot, Hayden couldn't help but joke to himself.

  Hayden was curious to see the old man with a bit more context available in addition to getting a look at how far along they were on the latest plan to tap into the energy source. That was how he found himself trekking through the trees with Cabal and several other Akiaten warriors.

  It was a long walk to the beach from where they were, much further than the river. Hayden asked one of the Akiaten who’d been guarding the safe-house the first time he arrived if Una planned on coming.

  Hayden wasn’t sure where she was, thought maybe he had overlooked her in the crowded house, and he was worried that if they started out without her, she wouldn’t catch up in time. She and the old man had seemed on friendly terms when he’d first met them, and he didn’t think she’d want to miss a chance to meet again. Sure, Cole, he thought to himself, it couldn't possibly be because you want to see her again. To be close, smell her hair, feel the weight of her against you.

  The Akiaten gave him a knowing smile. His mouth was hidden beneath his mask, but Hayden could see the expression in his eyes and the easy line of his shoulders. “She’s waiting for us.”

  Nibiru was more observant than most techs and slingers when it came to things that happened in real time and in person, and though he wasn’t sure if it was the man’s tone or Hayden’s involuntary smile, she was pestering him about it not a minute later as they walked.

  “Who’s Una?”

  “The woman who saved me…after the marketplace,” he said somewhat haltingly.

  “The one you patched up? Since when does she have a name?”

  He gave a shrug, trying to appear nonchalant. “She always had a name. I just didn’t want to put it out there, I guess. In case someone was listening, or in case they decided to use more persuasive methods when they interrogated you.”

  Nibiru looked thoughtful at that, but thankfully, gave him a respite by turning her questioning briefly to Cabal, who walked far ahead of them, leading the way despite his dislike of terrain that wasn’t concrete and rusted street signs. That, at least, was something Cabal and the slinger could agree upon. “You know if he’s handsome under there?”

  He snorted. “Not exactly my territory.”

  “Neither are autopsies, but if I recall, you gave pretty good advice about those.”

  “Haven’t seen him with the armor off.” Hayden gave her an indulgent look. “Strong voice, though.”

  She rewarded him with a soft laugh, slowing to step over a branch, nodding in thanks to the Akiaten ahead of them when they waited for the slower members of their party to catch up.

  Despite the fact that it was growing dark, Hayden noted that they had no trouble navigating the, at times, treacherous footing, while he and Nibiru had to pause or slow down to do so.

  “Speaking of autopsies,” Nibiru began, “I should have realized from the physiology that there was something we were missing. Should have dug deeper, ordered more tests. I could have caught it. The feeding I mean, retractable fangs, but I'm an engineer, not a doctor, dammit.”

  “If you had, that’d just be one more piece of intel for Americana to use against them, and it doesn't appear that E-Bloc or Asia Prime have figured it out either. I think, crazy as it sounds, that maybe because they are shapeshifters, some things about them aren't really measurable with science,” mused Hayden. Then, when Nibiru gave him an incredulous look, he added quickly, "I'm not saying I believe in magic and faeries or anything, just that we're in uncharted territory here."

  She seemed to relax a bit at that. “True. Is this something else you decided not to disclose, or are you new to this, as well? If I hadn't just seen Thompson get dropped I might have lost it in there, strangeness overload you know, now I feel kinda numb to it.”

  “I saw it for the first time three days ago, I think. I’m sort of losing track of the days here, with all the changes and hustling about. They move slingers around a lot, and there was a big raid a few days ago, we lost a handful of slingers. A good man named Glitch died to keep me away from Hirohito.

  “I haven’t even seen Lunatic 8 since she talked to us in the datascape, but other than myself there really aren't any MassNet capable slingers with the resistance anymore. Honestly, I’m starting to think 8 is just a hologram,” he laughed.

  “Well, I thought the same about Bascilica, until he showed up to rattle your cage.”

  They grew quiet as they neared the beach where the boat was docked, knowing that the sound of their voices could travel across the water much easier than it might slink through the jungle.

  Though they were miles from the city, it wouldn’t have been out of the ordinary for a civilian, sympathizer or not, to look for a secluded bit of beach from which to watch the sunset. The dock was a rickety looking thing, probably built there illegally or else a relic of days gone by judging by the weak, scarcely held together appearance of the wood.

  Una was waiting on the boat itself, a fishing vessel that looked just as rustic as the dock it was moored at. Another of the Akiaten waited with her, but each seemed disinterested in the other’s company and she broke away from him as Hayden boarded the ship.

  “Everything go okay?" Una asked, "We haven't heard anything since Alejandro ordered a full comms stop when the raid started. Asia Prime came after us right when you were extracting the engineer.”

  “Cabal had to kill Thompson,” Hayden answered, and then added when Una looked concerned, “Not a friend, and he could have walked away. Chose to fight, so maybe he had it coming.”

  She looked unsurprised. “Don't we all?”

  Her dark eyes shifted to Nibiru, where she stood half a step behind Hayden. “So, this is her, eh?”

  “The one and only,” Nibiru answered for herself, taking a half step forward to make up the difference and greeting the other woman with her usual infectious smile. “It’s Nibiru,” she said. “Like the planet. You must be Una.”

  The introduction was quick, and then the boat's engine fired up. Una stole a glance over her shoulder to give Hayden a final, lingering look before she joined the man who seemed to be in charge of navigation.

  The ship jolted into movement rather than ease its way there, and Hayden and Nibiru both gripped the side rail tightly in response, before exchanging a nervous look as the engine sputtered, carrying them forward out along the coastline and then into deeper water.

  “You know how to swim?” he asked teasingly and was the slightest bit relieved when she rolled her eyes and nodded once.

  “Never anywhere but a pool, but yeah. You’d think they’d ask that on the application,” she answered. “Could be important at this point in the orientation.”

  Hayden thought about how much he’d missed their mutual appreciation for shitty jokes but wasn’t enough of a sap to say so.

  “So,” she said, staring at out the sun sinking below the horizon, the blur of orange-red against the water. “How long have you been sleeping with her?”

  He should have known it would take her one interaction to figure it out, or perhaps it was just the earnest
, impressed way Hayden often spoke of the woman, even without meaning to. Some spark in his eyes when he looked her way. He lowered his voice to answer but didn’t even try to stall. Nibiru would get it out of someone else if she didn’t get it out of him, and as amusing as the image of her interrogating Cabal about such a subject was, he would rather put it to rest himself.

  “Since the night I defected. There’s so much moving around that we haven't had a chance for anything more, um, profound. She's a fighter and I'm a slinger, so we're on different duty paths.”

  She lifted a brow just slightly. “You don’t have look so guilty about it.”

  He shook his head. “I don’t feel guilty…just a bit lost.” He scratched at the back of his head. “So far it’s just been sex, but sometimes it feels like it could be more, just no chance yet, you know?”

  Nibiru leaned far over the railing, reaching down as though she’d like to skim her fingers through the waves, but the dark water was too far below her to touch.

  “It’s okay if you like her, if you’re friends. Doesn’t mean you have to propose or anything. It can be just sex.”

  He nodded, albeit reluctantly. “There’s no time for something more anyway, especially with all that’s going on. Maybe I feel shitty for pulling Una away from her own deal.”

  “This isn’t exactly the most relaxing profession, even under the best of circumstances. We could get blown up by a smart rocket launched from space in the next twenty minutes for all we know. If you didn’t blow off steam somehow, you’d spontaneously combust.” She gave him a nudge with her elbow. “Speaking of.” She inclined her head in the direction of the front of the boat where Cabal stood by himself, and, as Hayden exhaled in disbelief, went to join him.

  When the boat docked some hours later on another island, after fighting through increasingly treacherous waters, Kapre waited on the beach. He looked much the same as when Hayden had seen him last, dressed in clothing that had seen better days, his long hair unkempt and a strangely mysterious look on his face, as though he was purposefully shielding them from some secret about to be revealed. The coat he wore was in just as ratty shape as the rest of his clothing, and as he waited for those of them on the boat to disembark, it billowed outward in the wind that blew off the sea.

  How in the world a mystical hobo had managed to travel several hours across open water was a mystery, but he gave up trying to make sense of it, as surely he'd taken some other boat earlier. This was all about creating some theatrics, yeah, that had to be it.

  Hayden was grateful for the feel of something solid beneath his boots as he stepped onto the wood of the dock. Squinted in the dark, he could just barely make out the dull glow of the Manila lights on the horizon. There was a grey haze that may have been the mainland, but could just as well have been ambient light reflecting off of the thin layers of pollution above the city's skyline.

  The dock was long and narrow enough that the occupants of the boat disembarked in single file. The two Akiaten in front of him were talking, passing words back and forth in Tagalong between curious glances at Kapre where he was awaiting them.

  Hayden looked with them. It was hard to think of Kapre anything aside from the ‘old man’, and how the others often referred to him as 'the Kapre' but he was making progress in accommodating his brain to the multi-faceted word.

  He’d at first thought it was simply an odd name, but Una had explained to him several days past that it was usually a word that drew to mind images of a sort of demi-god at one with the jungle, often drawn by folklore as a creature with the same qualities as a tree, or a big hairy ape, Hayden was sure that there was something lost in the translation from Tagalog to Union English.

  The Kapre, she had said, used it as more of a title, meaning he had a connection to the jungle and the land, but the old man using it was still an odd curiosity. Looking at him as he walked, Hayden thought how at home he looked against the backdrop of the jungle, like he might at any second melt back into the trees, invisible except for the oversized cigar that he was smoking, the large cherry flaring in the half-light of evening as he drew upon the rich tobacco and exhaled a thick cloud of smoke.

  The two Akiaten closest to him decided to take pity on him and included him in their conversation with a thick accent. “No boat,” one of them said. “So how did he get here?”

  Hayden scanned the beach. “I thought you guys would know. Maybe he hid it somewhere to mess with us.”

  The man shook his head with a laugh and Hayden looked at Kapre even more closely as they left the dock, stepping down onto the hard packed sand and spreading out along the beach.

  There was a bit of chatter between other Akiaten as well, though Hayden noted that Una didn’t look shocked in the slightest. In contrast, her eyes seemed to hold a bit of the same knowing mischief as Kapre himself.

  “Welcome everyone,” Kapre said. “I hope you made it here safely, despite the troubles today.” There was a quiet chorus of agreement, interspersed with nods.

  “I trust you all know why we’re here.”

  No, we just jumped on the boat when everyone else did, Hayden thought in answer. He shared a look with Nibiru who was still close by, though he noted she stood with Cabal.

  “After much slicing and much suffering, 8 has manufactured something resembling a plan for the building of the device we will use to harvest the pulse, to keep it from our enemies and to grow in strength ourselves. It has great promise,” Kapre continued. “And now we have someone to help us build it.”

  His finished off by informing everyone that everything was prepared, then turned and walked up the path into the trees without bothering to see if anyone followed. Certain they would.

  The other Akiaten, either already familiar with the island or more or less comfortable with navigating in the now complete darkness, did indeed follow, though Hayden was grateful when Una stayed close enough for him to follow her easily.

  The stars were brighter out here than they were in Manila and a million times clearer than the smog-dark sky in New LA. He thought, his feet pausing as his head tilted back, that they were the brightest he’d ever seen.

  The sound of the sea faded as they headed into the jungle. If there was a path, Hayden’s eyes couldn’t see it. He’d never thought it worth the trouble to have his sight upgraded with cybernetics. Once you got one upgrade of that sort, you always got more, and it had always made Hayden uneasy. Laine was his friend, or at least as much a friend as something like that could have, and that was kind of the point he'd always made to himself on avoiding upgrades, other than his dual jacks.

  Una looked at back him, hesitated, but ultimately grabbed his hand and lessened the stumbling he’d been doing over roots and branches, slick spots of ground, every few feet, and the rest of the walk was easy.

  The island was small, and the path to the center was not half as long as the trek from the city to the safe-house they’d left behind.

  The Kapre was waiting for them when they spilled out into a large clearing, a work site set up among the trees consisting of several small buildings and bits of equipment scattered about (some of it looked far too important to be laying out uncovered, but that was more Nibiru’s area than his). He looked over at Nibiru and confirmed her horror, though she seemed to be biting her tongue for the moment.

  “These are the materials that so many of you have bled for months to secure,” the Kapre said, “And is where we will build it.”

  Though it was plain that the old man was respected by the Akiaten around him, Hayden found himself liking the easy, conversational manner in which the man delivered the information. It was nothing like one of Bascilica’s speeches and when the Kapre smiled it never looked faked or strained.

  When he, finally, made his way over to where the new slinger and engineer stood, he felt no sense of discomfort at his presence.

  Nibiru met the man with her usual cheerfulness, immediately asking questions about the preliminary plan and spouting off her own. Kapre lo
oked slightly taken aback, but then seemed to welcome the enthusiasm, obvious intelligence, and experience with which Nibiru spoke, despite her relative youth.

  Nibiru all but dominated Kapre's attention with her questions, and as she layered in some admonishment about the way they'd stocked the raw materials, Hayden found himself wandering to the edge of the small compound.

  It wasn’t until they were speaking that Hayden noticed the fireflies.

  Bright as the stars he could see through the open hole in the canopy above them, darting this way and that, blinking so frequently that his eyes often lost sight of one and moved to the next. While he didn’t have any experience with wildlife, and even less with insects aside from roaches that he remembered from much of his childhood, he was sure it was unusual to see them in such magnitude, moving in such intricate patterns, as if they were conscious of how they appeared in the air.

  As addled as his brain had been by the drug he’d been given and the shock of his situation, Hayden could only remember bits and pieces of his first real conversation with the old man in the bicycle cab, on his way to the black site and then to HQ. But there was something there about energy and its importance and about bugs.

  He cut into the conversation, as Nibiru's barrage of technical details had become something like background noise to him.

  “Insects?” he said, "You mean the fireflies, specifically."

  The old man grinned. Nibiru looked confused. “People don’t listen to them. Not anymore. That’s why they don’t know about the nexus of power on this island, why they don’t understand it. Why your slingers and your drones are still grasping in the dark for something they barely conceive of beyond what they hope to gain from it.

  “The fireflies are the conductors. Without them, we wouldn’t be able to draw it out.”