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Walker

Page 19

by Michael Langlois


  The floor turned out to be more unpleasant than the ladder had been. He still had to worry about being riddled with bullets at any second, but now he also had to stare at the nightmare tangle of Ilahi briar that grew in bunches and knots all around him. The loops and tangles of thorny horror looked barely restrained, like the tense coils of a rattlesnake about to strike.

  Now that he was down in the patch itself, he noticed that the lights looked different. What had been a washed-out pale yellow from up on the landing now appeared to be a rich golden hue. He squinted and focused on the lights and the effect lessened a little. He felt light-headed. He wondered if the fumes coming off the plant might have something to do with it.

  Iyah put one finger to her lips, then began moving in a crouch around the outer perimeter of the room. She stalked around the huge plant, peering down each wide aisle as they passed. In each case, they were empty. As they passed each arch, Daniel noticed that even Sika, hardened by a lifetime of bloodshed, averted his eyes from the grotesque suffering displayed there.

  Daniel tried not to look, but only became successful when he noticed that the thin tendrils that were growing straight up out of the victim’s eyes were trembling slightly in the air currents, as if the eye were trying to move despite being pinned in place. He didn’t throw up, but he did take a lot of gulping breaths. If anyone noticed, they didn’t say anything.

  From across the room came a thunderous boom. Everyone froze. Another boom. Then a short rip of machine gun fire.

  “There must be a door on the other side that they’re trying to get through,” said Saul quietly. “This way.”

  Another booming noise echoed through the vast chamber. Daniel figured it for the sound of a Channeler’s boot hitting a metal door with stunning force.

  A man’s shout followed the booming sound. “Looks like there’s only one way out of here, and it’s the way we came in. I suggest you fuckers stay out of our way and forget about this here box, or we’re going to toss you into one of these garden plots to be plant food. You hear me?” His voice sounded thick, as if he were having trouble concentrating.

  Iyah looked at Daniel, Saul, and Sika and shook her head, again putting a finger to her lips. She began creeping down the nearest aisle towards the sound of the gunman’s voice. In deference to both common sense and fear, everyone stuck to the exact center of the wide path.

  As they rounded the corner, Daniel could see the far wall, complete with angry men and two huge metal doors with several foot-sized dents in it. Unfortunately, the men saw them at the exact same moment, and with a shout, filled the air with bullets.

  Everyone ducked back around the corner and got as low as possible, which was a good thing because not only did the Ilahi patch not impede bullets in any way, it added to the danger by spraying bits and pieces of poisoned plant in their wake. Daniel froze as fragments of wood and thorns rained down on his leather-clad back, the hair all over his body rising up in horror. He shook them off as gingerly as he could.

  Iyah led everyone back down the aisle in a running crouch and around the corner. Another ripping fusillade chewed through the plants behind them, then abruptly cut off with a curse. There was the unmistakable sound of a clip being ejected.

  “That’s it, GO! GO!” hissed Iyah, breaking into a sprint. Sika followed on her heels with Daniel and Saul close behind.

  Flying around the corner, Daniel saw one of the gunmen reaching into his jacket for a spare clip, empty gun pointing at the ceiling to expose the magazine receiver. The second man was pointing his still loaded gun halfway between the intersection where they were spotted, and where they had suddenly appeared.

  Iyah and Sika were both drawing their knives in an attempt to throw them at the active shooter before he could swing that last few degrees and squeeze off a killing burst. They weren’t going to make it, but neither were they going to stop. The man was going to die, even if it meant a sacrifice to do it.

  Daniel wasn’t much for sacrifices. He focused everything he had and parted the Veil currents around the gunman. The man’s attention turned inward, as years of training and conditioning failed him. He could no longer feel the Veil. The gun’s barrel dipped towards the ground for a split-second.

  That was plenty of time for Iyah’s hand to flash forward and deliver six inches of steel to his head. As he dropped to the ground, Sika slammed bodily into the other gunman, shattering his ribcage with a flying knee and crushing his heart in his chest.

  “Goddamit!” said Saul when he arrived a moment later, waving his pistol in the air. “Did it ever occur to you suicidal geniuses that I could have just shot the bastards?”

  Iyah retrieved her knife, using one foot for leverage, before she turned and answered. “After I die, you’re welcome to step in front of any machine gun toting, body armored goons that you like, but not a minute before then.”

  Sika flashed Iyah a hunter’s grin. “That sounds good, but I know that it’s the moment of commitment you love, not some lofty ideal of self sacrifice. It’s proving that when everything is at stake, your will is supreme. That’s why people like you and I are feared. Not because we are willing to risk our lives, but because we want to.”

  Iyah shook her head angrily. “Speak for yourself and your overfed ego. I don’t need to risk my life to prove my worth.”

  “Glorious Iyah,” said Sika, “you’ve done nothing else since you rejected your home and fled your family. At least be honest about it.”

  “That’s enough,” said Saul with some heat, cutting off Iyah’s reply. “Find the Scinte, then you can fight.”

  A quick scan of the area turned up the box next to the battered metal doors. It lay on the floor wide open. Inside was a scrap of paper with a single word printed neatly on it. Amateurs.

  “Goddammit!” Saul threw the box against the wall as hard as he could. It clattered to the floor and spun to a stop as the paper fluttered down to the ground several feet away. “Let’s get out of here.”

  Everyone began linking hands for the crossing until they noticed that Daniel wasn’t with them. He was standing twenty feet away in front of one of the victim’s arches.

  His hands were slack at his sides and his face was quiet. He was looking at the body of an older woman, stripped naked and violated by the Ilahi like the others, alive but lost to the world of the living.

  He noticed how peaceful she looked, and wondered how long it had been since he had seen her free of the constant pain and anxiety her illness had forced upon her. He gazed at her serene countenance and said his farewell.

  Daniel turned and picked up a gun near one of the fallen guards. Sika stepped in front of him and shook his head. He pulled the weapon out of Daniel’s numb fingers and turned him around so that he faced the wall. A single short, sharp report echoed around the concrete room, followed by the clatter of the gun hitting the ground.

  Daniel knew that his cheeks were wet, but he felt nothing inside. He watched his hands wrap around the conduit that ran up the wall and fed power to the huge sodium lights overhead. He pulled.

  Steel brackets ripped free of the wall and ceiling, pinging and clattering as they fell to the ground. Sections of the aluminum tubing came apart, exposing the heavy gauge wiring inside.

  He pulled again. The lighting harness overhead buckled. Two of the lights shattered, raining down sparks and broken glass. The power line ripped free and fell, dropping into the tangled thicket below.

  The cable instantly became too hot to hold as the exposed ends shorted against each other. Seconds later the entire length burst into flames. There was the thump of a heavy breaker opening nearby, and the lights went out, leaving only the flickering glow from the burning cable to light the room.

  Within moments the fire had spread to the dry, resinous vines underneath the cable. It quickly built into a roaring column of flame, releasing gouts of poisonous black smoke. Daniel stared into the dancing light, seeing nothing.

  Saul took his arm, and his mother’s pyre disa
ppeared into the Veil.

  23

  They appeared in a white-painted circle in the transit hangar in Walker Hall. The Wayguide on duty handed Saul several messages and logged their arrival. Saul nodded his thanks and led everyone down the hall to his office, where he sat on the corner of his desk and began to go through them.

  Sika and Iyah took the couch and avoided looking at Daniel to give him what space they could. Daniel just stood by the desk, numb.

  Saul read through his messages. “Council meeting tonight. We knew that.” He wadded up the message and dropped it in the trashcan next to his desk. “The Doc wants to see us before the meeting, big surprise.” Another one in the trash. “And Keldon wants to see me right fucking now.” He looked at his watch. “Too late for that, he’s already gearing up in chambers, which is a good thing for us.” That one went into the trash with the others, and he mimed dusting his hands and stood up. “Okay then, let’s go see the Doc.”

  Saul led the group, grim-faced and silent, to Dr. Wolternel’s apartment. When they reached Bruce’s door, Saul turned around, stopping them.

  “Listen, Daniel. I know you’re going through a lot right now, but I want you to remember the conversation we had back on Buellere. It’s still not too late. Bruce is going to want us to help him get his band of escapees out of Dodge tonight. Sika has already revealed himself as one of the Doc’s escapees by openly opposing Gray, so he’s going to be officially demoted, and unofficially scheduled for an accident.

  “Iyah and I are pretty much in the same boat as Sika, like it or not. But before you decide to sign on with the tunnel and spoon set, you should understand something. People are always trying this shit. And most of the time, I’m leading the team of Trackers that brings them back.

  “I don’t even have to track them through the Veil. In most cases, the Guild gets tipped off to their location in a matter of hours. You have no idea how many informants they have out there. And it’s not just the Trackers you have to worry about. You’ll be wanted for crap you’ve never heard of in places you’ve never been. Every cop, palace guard, and government agent in creation is going to be looking for you, and as soon as you’re caught, somebody very much like me or Sika is going to show up and bring you to ‘justice.’ Think about that before you go in there and throw in with the rest of the starry-eyed malcontents for their daring escape tonight. As of right now, this mess is still barely manageable for you. You can still make up with Keldon and Gray and go on with your life. Be sure.”

  Saul stared at him in the ensuing silence. Daniel was beyond that now.

  “I’m going to get everyone out, and then I’m going to punish the people who killed my mother. I don’t care what happens after that. I’m not looking to escape.”

  The two men stared at each other in the hallway. They understood one another. Saul nodded and opened the door.

  The Doc’s apartment was spacious, as befit a senior member of Veil Research and the man responsible for most of the Arc program’s success. Tonight it was full of nervous people who were talking quietly in small groups, sitting alone with hands clenched in their laps, or the most popular option, staring warily at the newcomers.

  Bruce pushed his way to the door and greeted everyone with hugs and handshakes.

  “Come with me. We can talk privately in my bedroom,” he said.

  As he followed the group through the crowded living room, Daniel recognized and was recognized by several people from his advanced classes, including Ekani and Boro. From the increased whispering, he figured that pretty much everyone here knew what he was supposed to be doing for them tonight.

  In moments, they were inside Bruce’s bedroom.

  “Briefly,” Bruce began, “here are our problems. Keldon’s faction needs Daniel tonight for the council meeting. Gray knows each of you opposes that faction, which puts you on the hunted list. That means you have no choice but to leave with us. However, every single person here is wearing one of these.” He brandished the Arc on his left arm.

  “If we run now, we’ll just lead them right to us. No amount of distance through the Veil will shield thirty Arcs from discovery. I doubt it would hide even one. Worse, Daniel is still under a travel restriction, so he can’t take us to the new world anyway. The feedback would kill him before he could move himself to safety, much less the rest of us.”

  “I don’t imagine that you wanted to see us just to point out how screwed we are,” said Daniel. Bruce chuckled.

  Saul said, “You helped design these things, you must know how to get them off.”

  Bruce nodded. “I do. There’s a machine in the basement of this very building that can do it. It’s the size of a truck, bolted to the ground, and located in the center of the containment block in the guard station. They use it to remove a prisoner’s Arc, which is both a locator and an amplifier, and replace it with a version that does nothing but prevent access to the Veil. It’s basically just a feedback band, tuned for maximum sensitivity.”

  “So the plan is some kind of suicide attack on the Guild security forces?” asked Saul, goggling. “We’d never get halfway to the containment block, much less to the guard station.”

  “No need for that. We can get into the block without any fighting at all.”

  “And how do we do that?”

  “Simple,” said Iyah. “We get arrested.”

  Bruce beamed. “Very good! You see, they need you on their side or dead, and right now. Gray will have searched your rooms as soon as he arrived, so he’s sure to have seen my note. Guards should be here to take all of us into custody any minute.”

  Saul nodded and smiled. “You are one crafty old man, Doc.”

  “Are you kidding me?” asked Daniel. “And if we don’t want to get handed over to Gray’s men?”

  “I’m sorry, but none of us has a choice now.”

  The crashing sounds and screaming coming from the living room seemed almost anti-climatic at that point.

  24

  “Here,” said Bruce, as he slipped a shimmery cascade of pearls around Iyah’s neck, just moments before the bedroom door was kicked open.

  Two men in the familiar faceless riot helmets burst into the room with rifles raised and fingers on triggers. They motioned for Daniel and the others to exit. As the group approached the door, the shooters moved backwards keeping their distance constant, showing their experience in dealing with inhumanly fast and strong prisoners.

  Out in the living room, the chaos was fading. Most of the shocked and terrified prisoners were already on their knees facing the walls. Daniel watched a woman stiffen up as one of the security troops tried to push her into a submissive position.

  Rather than struggle with her, the man simply slammed one gauntleted fist into her midsection with enough force to raise her off the ground. She fell to the floor and vomited, curling up soundlessly around her stomach, trying to get enough air to cry out.

  Ekani glared at the guard and helped the woman sit up, never taking her eyes off of the polished faceplate. Boro put one massive hand on her shoulder until she turned and faced the wall with the others. The rest of the round-up went smoothly after that.

  Daniel and his friends were herded into the center of the room where large caliber rifles were aimed at them from multiple directions at once, wielded by men and women who could put a round through a teacup at five hundred yards with little effort.

  Two troopers worked the room methodically, cuffing people’s wrists behind their backs and yanking them to their feet. They kept a nervous eye on Sika and Iyah, and stayed well out of arm’s reach while remaining out of the lines of fire of the covering rifles.

  Every trooper wore an identical uniform, save one, who wore three black pips edged in silver on his collar. He removed his helmet to reveal an unsmiling face, lined but handsome, and a graying blond crew cut. He motioned to his troops and they instantly began moving the captives out of the room. After a few moments, everyone was out but the riflemen, the commander, and the pri
ze captives in the center.

  “My name is Commander Keiler and I’m in charge of the Guild security forces here on Olympus. The council has authorized me to detain this subversive cell and its leaders using whatever means I see fit.” He put his helmet casually under one arm and relaxed his stance. His voice was oiled leather, confident and raspy.

  “I’ll tell you straight out. I’m familiar with the capabilities of each one of you, and I respect your abilities,” he said, nodding towards Sika, “and I have no intention whatsoever of allowing any of you the slightest chance to attack me or my men. I have no illusions about our ability to restrain you once you’re given an opening.

  “I will have you killed, at a distance, the instant I feel you may be a threat. This rifle squad will take you down, shooting through our own men if necessary to put a high velocity thirty caliber steel-jacketed round through your skull at the first sign of trouble.

  “You will be escorted down to Containment, and given a restraint band that will remove your ability to access the Veil. After that, you’ll be held until the council is ready for you. What happens to you after that is entirely based on the quality of your cooperation. Do you understand what I’ve said to you?”

  “Crystal clear, Commander,” said Saul. “We’ll come quiet as mice.”

  “I’m glad to hear that, Mr. Erinbaum. You can each make good on that promise by very, very slowly dropping your weapons to the ground. Touch them only with your fingertips and drop them as soon as they clear your clothes. I assure you that any sudden movements will be responded to with the eradication of your entire group.”

  Bruce had no weapons and merely shrugged at the Commander. Saul dropped his pistol and a slender knife he had in one boot. Sika and Iyah both dropped a variety of small blades from collars, sleeves, and boots, and Daniel dropped his wrist knife, carefully trying to miss his feet. The last weapon to hit the floor was Iyah’s Urum blade, which she dropped point first into the floor where it stuck with an ominous chunk while she stared into Commander Keiler’s eyes. Daniel smiled at her bravado.

 

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