How to Save the World

by Tam MacNeil

  “That,” Arts says quietly, “is nightmarish.” She sighs and drags a hand through her long hair. “But it would explain why Cameron just texted me and told me he wants to work with us.”

  “With us?” Sean asks.

  “That’s what I said.”

  For a moment nobody speaks, everybody stares. Then Mad says, “No.” Her voice is hard. She shakes her head. “No fucking way.”

  “He’s on his way now and we’re meeting in ten minutes.”

  Mad’s mouth goes white. She folds her arms across her chest and Art looks back at her but doesn’t say anything.

  “No,” Mad says again.

  “Mad,” Sean says quietly, “if Cameron’s asking for help, shit is going down.”

  “See this face?” she asks, turning to him, gesturing, “this is a face that doesn’t give a fuck, Sean. Not a single one.”

  “Mad,” Art whispers. She sounds disappointed.

  “No,” she snarls. She turns her glare on Art. “That was a condition of me coming to work for Annex, Art, and it’s a condition you agreed to. Stop asking me. Because unless the earth is hurtling into the centre of the sun and it’s the end of the fucking world and Cameron’s the only one who can save us, I am never doing anything for that man.”

  Sean sighs and rubs his face. He’s tired. He’d like to just go to bed and pull the covers over his head until all of this is over. But. “Art, if Marshal can direct the shinigami to attack, and they’ve attacked Annex, isn’t it likely that SysCorp is behind it? I mean, after what happened the other day, it’s not like it’s out of character for Cameron.”

  “Well you’d think that,” she says, “but he says they got hit this morning too.” Nobody speaks. Then Mad gets up and turns on the TV in the far corner of the office. She flips to a rolling news channel and sure enough, there on the screen, pictures of the partially demolished SysCorp building, the mech sheds nothing but rubble, interspersed with images of the Annex.

  “I’ve told him I’ll meet with him, and he’s on his way.”

  “Coming here?” Mad asks.

  “It’s not like we can meet at his building,” Art says gently. “We’re meeting in boardroom one. Anyone is welcome to attend, but if there’s trouble I’ll personally throw you out.” She looks at each of them and nobody says anything for a moment. Then Rak raises his head.

  “Are you safe if you’re alone with him?” he asks.

  “Probably not, but we don’t have a lot of options. It looks like Marshall’s trying to take out anything that can knock the shinigami down. I think we can all guess why.” She sighs. “I won’t compel anyone to do anything, but we’re going to need a team, and we’re probably going to need a mech pilot so I need to know who’s willing to run this mission.”

  “I will,” Rak says. “And I’ll come with you, to the meeting. I don’t want you to be alone with him. If that’s ok.”

  She nods. “Yes, Rak. That’d be fine.”

  “I’ll go too,” Alex says quietly. Sean looks at him. He looks small and afraid, but his head is up and he’s talking. “Not to the meeting. I don’t want to see Cameron, never again. But I owe the shinigami. And I might be able to help.”

  Sean looks over at Mad, standing there, arms folded, shaking her head just a little as if she can’t believe what’s happening in front of her. He doesn’t want to do this without her. He loves Alex, but he trusts Mad, and he wouldn’t want to do a mission without her. “I’m in too,” He says. He gives her his best shit-eating grin. “It’s the end of the fucking world, Mad, and Cameron might be the only one who can save us. You in or what?”

  Mad glares at him. “I’m in,” she says and shakes her head at him. “You assholes will end up dead without me.”

  She doesn’t change into the exo-suit. She spends too much time in it already, and the symbolism of needing to be able to stand, as if she wants to be able to tower over Cameron is not something she wants to project. She glances at Rak as they go. He’s still wearing that hangdog look. She wonders if he’s had a chance to talk to Simone, and figures that between the bombing and then the shinigami, the answer is probably no. Office romance.

  The boardroom is actually in surprisingly good shape. She supposes they probably should have all evacuated after the last attack. The structural engineers should give the all-clear before anybody sets foot in the place. But the fact is the world is ending, and she doesn’t care if the building is earthquake safe right now. If they don’t move, they’re going to die. All of them.

  Rak finds paper towel from somewhere and wipes the worst of the white plaster dust off the table top and then they wait. She glances at him and he stares out the spider web-cracks of the windows. “You ok?” she asks.

  He shakes himself, like he’s waking up. “Just tired,” he says.

  “You talk to Simone yet?”

  He turns his head to look at her, the ghost of a smile on his lips. “Not you too.”

  “Some things are worth fighting for, Rak.”

  They’re silent for a while, then she hears voices and footsteps and sees Cameron and a blond woman and a pair of men who have got to be bodyguards. She remembers going to SysCorp and a part of her wishes they’d let Sean land that punch. Maybe a couple.

  Cameron is sweating. His usually impeccable suit is dusty and smudged. He’s combed his hair, but there are still flakes of paint or pieces of plaster in it. He comes in, sits down at the head of the table and the bodyguards flank the door, and the blond woman stands behind him. He's a man accustomed to making every space his own, and he’s instructed the others to do the same.

  Doesn’t matter. Doesn’t matter where he sits. Doesn’t matter if she can’t stand without augmentation and the exo-suit. Doesn’t matter at all.

  “Welcome, Cameron,” she says. She does not share Mad’s compunction about lying. “What can we do for you?”

  He looks at her. Huffs out a breath. “None of this would have happened if you hadn’t taken him out of the fucking mech, Art, you know that right?”

  “I have no idea what you are talking about, Cameron,” she answers. “You said something about wanting some assistance against the shinigami and I said that we could probably provide it. What is the nature of the assistance you require?”

  “I need a goddamned pilot,” he says, sitting forward. Next to her Rak stiffens, but she knows a bluff when she sees one. He’s not going to come across the table at them. He wouldn’t be here if he had other options.

  “Annex has tech that renders the needs for the mechs obsolete. It’s portable and ready to go into production. We’d be happy to sell you a prototype.”

  “You think that stupid sonic gun is going to do it, do you? Well maybe it did when it was just one or two attacks in a month, maybe that’d be fine, but it’s not going to be like that. We need a goddamned army of pilots, and right now I only know where to get one and you have it.”

  “Him,” Rak snaps.

  She doesn’t look at him, but she wishes he hadn’t opened his mouth. Still. Cameron’s too frightened, too angry, he doesn’t pick up what’s been dropped for him, admission after so much denial.

  “What makes you think things are going to change, Cameron?”

  “Aside from the fact that we’ve both just been attacked?”

  “And how did you know the Annex had been hit?”

  He glares at her. Glares like he’d put another bullet in her spine, given the chance. Maybe a little higher up this time.

  “Why did Marshall Campbell leave SysCorp?”

  “He’s an ungrateful son of a bitch, that’s why. I gave him everything he needed.”

  “You sure did,” Rak says quietly. Now she looks over at him. He’s sitting forward at the table, mouth open in something like a smile. She tries not to look like she doesn’t know what’s going on. She tries to look calm and cool. Rak laughs faintly. “You sure did. You let him talk your wife into killing herself so he could bring in the shinigami. You needed an enemy that only yo
u could fight. So you made one. Look at the money you made.”

  Cameron goes white. It’s ugly. There’s no evidence, no court is going to accept something gleaned under magic, not yet. It’s all too new. But Cameron’s not thinking past what’s happening right now.

  And now Art’s got him. Now she understands. “And after all that, Marshall’s taken your ball and won’t let you play any more.” She sits back in her chair. “He’s with the shinigami, isn’t he? Riding them. And he’s going to come after you, isn’t he? And what do you have? Money?” She looks the hired muscle. “Human bodyguards?” She smiles. “I’ve got the Annex and the sonic gun. I can last a long goddamned time. But I figure you’ve got, what, two weeks?”

  “You fucking bitch,” he whispers.

  She smiles at him. She’s been waiting for this moment a long, long time. She knows exactly what she wants to say. “Scared, aren’t you? Isn’t it awful?”

  He doesn’t say anything, just mouths for a moment.

  “It’s a good thing I’m not like you,” Art says. She looks over at Rak, because she’s frankly lost. “What do you think, Rak? Can we solve our client’s problem?”

  Rak’s staring, cold-eyed too. “If we kill Marshall, it’ll probably finish the sacrifice that brought the shinigami in the first place. But we need to know where he is before we can deploy.”

  “He’ll be going to the Tank,” Cameron says. He’s hoarse. “It’s a mobile deployment unit, for international attacks. It’s where the last functioning mech is.”

  Art nods. “I have a team, and a pilot, and a sharpshooter,” she says. “I believe I can take care of your problem.”

  “Good.” Cameron gets to his feet. “Caroline will inform you about the logistics. You’ll send accounting the bill.”

  “No,” Art answers. She knew he’d stand, try to reassert some kind of symbolic dominance over her. She’s quite content to sit. She’s the one with all the power. “No, we’ll have the details from you. And this is pro bono.”

  He smiles then, pleasantly surprised.

  “Really, Art.”

  “Oh yes. And afterward I’m going to the RCMP with everything I have on you. Not just the mech program, not just disappearing employees and corporate espionage, I’m also talking about kidnap, coercion, torture, murder, rape. We have witnesses, victims, doctors who take excellent notes. And even if we can’t pin the shinigami on you, I’ve got plenty. And the shinigami will be gone; nobody will want to protect you any more. Do you hear what I’m saying? You’re a war criminal. You shame the goddamned species. And I am going to ruin you.”

  Then she smiles. “Now that we’ve got that squared away, why don’t you tell me where my team is going?”

  Twenty Eight

  Nobody talks in the office, they all stare at the TV while the newscasters show the same footage of the shinigami attacks over and over again and talk endlessly about what these new, urban attacks might mean. They even have a guy who calls himself a shinigami expert sitting in with them. Alex grins when he sees the title on the screen.

  Then there’s lots of talk about the sinfulness of man and for a second it’s hard not to wonder if maybe humans did something so colossally stupid that the gods finally had to take notice. Then he thinks about it.

  “That guy is full of shit,” he snaps. “They’re not here to punish us, they’re stuck. That guy’s never talked to a fucking shinigami in his life.”

  Sean laughs and pulls him a little closer.

  They watch a bit more, till Rak and Art come back. Whatever happened in the boardroom, Rak doesn’t look so tired any more. Now he’s grinning like a dog, coiled, and a part of Alex wishes he could have been in the room for whatever went down, because from the look on their faces, Rak with a fierce grin and Art looking smug, it must have been good.

  Art goes over to her desk and smiles at them all. “All right. Rak is a very clever man, and I expect everyone to commend him at some point. After that you can come over and commend me, because I just got to cross something off my bucket list.”

  Alex grins. “What happened?” he asks.

  “Rak figured out that Marshall’s our problem. He summoned the shinigami with the suicide, and he figures that once the other half of the ritual is completed the shinigami will be able to leave. So. Marshall Campbell is our target.”

  “That is helpful,” Simone says quietly. “Very helpful.”

  Alex sees how Rak’s head turns just a little, sneaking a look at her. She nods at him and he looks down at his hands, smiling like she gave him something priceless. He would like to know them better. He would like to get up from the couch and go mash their faces together till they kiss. The cute is killing him.

  “It is helpful,” Art agrees. “And better still, Cameron thinks he knows where Marshall’s going to hit next,” she says. “He says they’ve got a field station off the north coast.”

  He knows it. He looks at Art. “You mean the Tank,” he says.

  She inclines her head.

  Rak sighs. “We’re not sure that’s where he’ll hit next, but it’s a best guess. If Marshall destroys the last mech then…” he shrugs. “I suppose we’d be looking at Campbell Defense Systems Inc and a fancy new anti-shinigami device or something.”

  Art sighs. “Which is, let's face it, a business model that we know works.” She rubs at her face and then looks at them. “Ok. We need a team. Sharpshooter, spotter, mech pilot, support. He’s evacuating his people, except essential staff, and we’re going to do as much of our own work as we can. The mech will keep the shinigami busy while our sharpshooter takes out Marshall.” Her eyes go to Alex. “I never thought I’d do this, but Alex, you’ve been a pilot before.”

  He recoils against Sean.

  “Jesus, Art,” Mad shouts before anyone else can even move. “You saw what happened to him. You really wanna put him back in that thing?”

  “I’m not going to do anything to him,” she answers, her eyes never leave Alex’s. “I asked. It’s up to him.”

  Alex shakes his head. He looks at Art and then at Sean. “I can’t,” he whispers. “No, I can’t, I’m sorry. I can’t.”

  Sean turns to him and looks him in the eye. It hurts, this feels like betrayal. It feels like it’s going to break him. “Hey,” he says. “It’s ok.”

  Oh god no. “Please don’t make me.”

  Sean leans in, kisses his mouth. “Never babe. Never gonna make you do anything,” he whispers and Alex isn’t sure if he believes it. He’s still got that secret fear that none of this is really true. Sean’s so close, he can smell his breath and his sweat and see the little scar he’s got just under his eye from when they were kids and life was hard. “Never gonna make you do anything, Alex, I promise you. But listen to me.” He doesn’t want to hear it, he doesn’t want to hear promises breaking, he looks away.

  “I can’t.” If he gets in that cage again he’ll die.

  “You’re the only one here who knows how to do it. So you tell me what to do.”

  Alex looks up. He doesn’t like that. Doesn’t like it more than anything he’s ever heard in his life. Sean is looking right at him, his eyes are narrow and serious and Alex knows that look. He’s going down, but he’s going to go down fighting.

  “You tell me what to do, what I need to know.”

  Sean’s asking him to be Cameron. Be Marshall. That’s worse. Worse than anything. Worse than anything he can imagine.

  “You tell me what to do,” Sean says again, “and it’ll be like how it used to be. We’ll be Fifty again.”

  “No Sean, no,” it’s coming out of his mouth like a waterfall. “No. You don’t. You don’t understand, you can’t.”

  “I’m just going to keep him busy while you finish him off.” Sean whispers. “Ten minutes tops. Mad’s a good spotter, you’ll like her.”

  “No.”

  “We do this together, like we used to.”

  Jesus. He doesn’t want this. He doesn’t want any of it. Never wanted any
of it. Only ever wanted to stop being so afraid, to have Sean, to be allowed to live.

  “I don’t wanna put you in that machine,” he whispers, his voice is breaking. “I don’t wanna do that to you. You don’t deserve it.”

  Sean pulls him in, so their foreheads rest against one another. “Neither do you,” he whispers. “Listen to me. You spent your whole life trying to protect me. Now you need to let me protect you.”

  “No.”

  “It’s ok. It’s fine. You’ll be on the comms. You’ll tell me what I need to know. It’ll all be ok.”

  Sean’s calm, his calm is bleeding into Alex, making him calm too. If Sean’s going down fighting, Alex is going down fighting too.

  “Are you sure about this? I mean really fucking sure.” His voice shakes when he asks.

  “Yeah.”

  He’s so calm. Alex doesn’t understand how it’s possible for him to be so calm. “Ok,” he says. “Ok. Let’s do it.”

  It takes them forty-five minutes in the Arrow. The weather’s close and grey and cool, the waves are big and steady. There’s no sign of the shinigami, not yet. But Alex can feel them coming. He can feel the subsonic rumbling in his bones and in his sinews. They have to hurry, he knows it.

  The place is empty. Cameron must have evacuated the staff, and for that he’s grateful. He didn’t want to have to look at the people who did this to him when it was imprisonment and torture. He doesn’t want to have to do this to Sean, even though it’s neither of those things now. “Here. This is the comms mask. Open your mouth,” he whispers.

  Sean does.

  “It’s uncomfortable,” Alex says, “but there’s a vitals relay on it, and it’s how you’re going to use your cannon. You bite for three seconds, bite hard, and it powers up and fires.” He buckles it behind Sean’s head, sees him grimace as he does it. “You’ll hear it powering up. And it won’t fire if you’re dead. The sensors are the failsafe. Don’t use it for anything close range.” He doesn’t want to look at it, doesn’t want to see how Sean’s face is half-covered so all that’s visible are his eyes. “Is it ok?”