by E. R. Jess
“There,” she said.
Kagan pointed in the same direction and said, “After you.”
Jenna stood still. She looked down the long slope to Preed and took a breath.
“You're wondering if you can still get what you want,” Kagan said to her.
“Yes.”
Kagan nudged her forward, remaining silent.
Omo tagged along, his eyes widening with every step. Preed was still and clean, a sterile disaster. Jenna limped carefully, keeping a sidelong look in the alleys and windows. Kagan walked forward and kept his eyes glued to the road. A shuffling of feet came towards them. Jenna crouched in a stairwell, Omo went to a shadow to hide. Kagan stopped in the street and stood fast.
Mar's warders began filing into Kagan's view. Rows of the automatons lined up and leveled rifles in his direction.
Jenna, with her back to a wall, gave Kagan a spiteful look. Kagan kept his gaze ahead.Omo hid as best he could, and his powers started spinning up.
A crackling loudspeaker announced, “You are in Preed, the city controlled by Mar. You are now his subjects. Come with us with no resistance to be processed in an orderly fashion.”
“Kagan, you've killed us,” Jenna said and spat.
Kagan ignored her and walked toward the warders. He said, “I'm here for the pacifists. Let them free.”
The warders marched forward, with the lines on the left and right approaching first, to encompass Kagan. They encircled him and began to spiral around him. The warders on the outsides of the spiral did not see Omo or Jenna.
“Is there anyone in there?” Kagan asked of the gasmasked people, looking into their goggles. “No, you were taken away. You were real people once. I can feel it. You were brothers and sons.”
The warders closed to within three meters and aimed their guns. The loudspeaker sparked to life again, echoing its commands through the city streets, “Surrender and submit. You are a subject of Mar.”
Kagan looked into the night. He bent his head back and took in the morning sky. “Gone a long time,” he said to himself. His first move was blindingly fast, he lunged forward and took one of the warder's rifles and cracked it in half over another's gasmask. He then took the two halves of the taser rifle and began beating his way through the warders. The other warders began firing at him with disastrous results, he was simply too fast, taser bolts ended up taking out warders all around. Kagan bashed in the chestplate of one warder, bounced off of him, then spun around and snapped the neck of the next. He swept the legs of two, toppled three more. Kagan took the throat of one and squeezed. He squeezed until he heard an inhuman squeal fall out of the warder.
Omo, trembling in fear, stood up and ran screaming at the crowd. He released the full force of his power, sending a line of warders into mid air and then exploding them out into the city. The sheer power shook the ground.
Jenna was overrun by warders who had found her hiding place. She screamed as they grabbed her by her bad arm. She fought back as they dragged her into the open.
Kagan took down dozens of warders. They began changing their strategy, spreading out so he would have to move in closer to attack. They were able to get several taser bolts close to him.
Kagan danced around them, his reflexes sending him left and right. He began a running leap and charged into a line of warders and took them to the ground.
A warder flanked Omo and put a rifle butt to his temple and carried him to the center of the street where Jenna was set. The remaining warders spread out to the sides of the street.
Kagan stood between them in a defensive stance. He saw tall a man coming and narrowed his eyes.
Mar stood several meters away from Kagan as said, “You've come all this way for nothing. The pacifists are broken. Another sour memory. Let me help you out of this desert, Kagan.”
Kagan replied, “All that you built here will be destroyed for very little. Let them go and we'll take our burdens elsewhere.”
Mar nodded, “I know you would do these things, that you would destroy us, I've seen your past, seen your potential. You are someone to fear,” Mar motioned to the warders behind Kagan, the guards holding Omo and Jenna. “Do you want more lives taken?”
Kagan looked to them, then back to Mar. Kagan's eyes shot to his hands, which were awash in blood. He was standing in the fringes, having just finished a skirmish with UPC friendly militias. His wedding ring shone on his finger. Kagan shook his head and banished the memory that Mar had brought to the surface.
“A massive catalogue of suffering. Your memories are amazing,” Mar said as he delved Kagan's mind.
Kagan shouted. He slammed down walls on those painful memories so fast that Mar stumbled. Kagan shut off his entire mind in a moment, leaving no access. Kagan began stalking toward Mar.
Mar balked. He could feel his access to Kagan's memories die instantly. He then balled his fists and ran headlong at Kagan's approach.
Omo let out a scream and power emanated from his body in a great wave. Shimmering air flew in Mar's direction. Mar was thrown to the right, into a stack of wrecked vehicles. The warders restrained Omo and hit him repeatedly in the head. Jenna was also beaten by the warders, for good measure.
Kagan walked over to Mar's limp form. He went to one of the vehicles and pulled out a length of loose metal, a part of the drivetrain. “We are not weak.”
Mar cried out and Kagan stopped. “Do you know who you're fighting for? Who Alessa really is?” Mar asked, his face spattered with blood.
Kagan shrugged and said, “Another lost soul? You can't tell me that her past is any worse than mine.”
Mar held out his palm to gesture that he was done fighting. “No worse than mine, at least. I saw your memories, I saw what happened to your wife, and Alessa was there. She was responsible for it all. The conformity camps, the purge. She knows it now, she remembers.”
“You have nothing of value. Order your men to stand down and I might leave this place intact. Take me to them. Where is Eight? Alessa?” Kagan demanded.
Mar's expression soured. He stood and said, “Alessa is alive. But Eight cannot be helped.”
Kagan grimaced and grabbed the huge man's arm and swung him around back to the road. He looked for Jenna and Omo, who were on the ground. “Tell your men to get away from them.”
Mar nodded and waved his hand. The warders dispersed. Mar said, “You won't be able to win this one. Kill me and Hell will fall upon you.” Mar looked at Omo and did a quick delving. He raised an eyebrow at the memories he was able to read.
“Why do you do this? We're just trying to find a home,” Kagan said simply. He helped Omo and Jenna to their feet. They were both damaged severely. Kagan gestured to buildings in the distance. “Take me there.”
Mar gave a short laugh and began walking. He said, “You can have your weak fools back. Take them to die in the desert,” Mar said, defeated. “Your mind, it's so ordered, structured perfectly. But you're dumb as rocks.”
The Gun that Won the West
A sea of warders greeted Kagan and Mar on the grand steps to Ortus. Omo and Jenna limped along behind. Meril and Dr. Epps had wheeled out Eight's broken frame on a gurney. At Mar's command, Meril went inside to gather the pacifists.
Kagan went to Eight's side and looked him over. Eight was pale. His blood nearly gone, his eyes in the back of his head. His body was failing. “What have you done?” he asked of Dr. Epps.
The doctor went wide-eyed and shook his head, “Got it all wrong, I'm a prisoner of this place.”
Kagan grabbed the doctor's face so fast that the man yelped in disbelief. “What was done to him?” Kagan asked with an ominous patience.
“He's heading to the other side,” Mar said in a mockingly rueful tone. “Gone too soon.”
Kagan dropped the doctor and faced Mar. “If he can't be healed, then you need to do something.”
Mar put out his hands. “I don't have an extra Antikythera device lying around,” Mar said, pointing to where Kagan's was instal
led behind his eye.
“Something else,” Kagan said as he grabbed Mar again, “You're an Auspex, like him? You can read memories?”
“Not like him. More.”
“Then you will do what he did for me. You will record his memories,” Kagan said, desperation clouding his voice.
Mar looked at Eight and smiled. “Not as dumb as I thought. But then what? You keep me around to reminisce about the old days?” Mar asked.
Kagan's face contorted with rage. “Do it, do it before his last breath or I'll send you with him.”
Mar inhaled deeply and tried to keep from trembling. “I fear you, Kagan. I fear that the only thing that Eight left in your mind was the worst of you,” Mar said. He then walked over to Eight and knelt by him. He held out his palms and breathed deep. He began to delve.
Kagan sighed in relief. He said quietly, “Then you will put those memories in me.”
Jenna yelled out, “Kagan, let me go. I did what you asked, I brought you here.”
Kagan said simply, “No.”
Omo stood and said, “I can help, I can watch her.”
Jenna spat.
Mar said, as he delved, “Oh, I think your strange friend has done enough.”
“Shouldn't you be concentrating?” Kagan asked coldly.
“Surprising that you've befriended this... man, considering how you usually treat enemies,” Mar taunted as he worked.
“Spit it out,” Kagan said.
Omo's mouth opened wide and he ran stumbling to Kagan's side. He said in a panic, “Nothing is true! He doesn't know!”
Kagan stopped Omo and calmed him down with his hand to the shoulder. “Don't listen to this person, he's made of lies,” Kagan reassured.
“I've never found it beneficial to deal in lies,” Mar said, “The truth is always much worse.”
Omo shook and said, “He doesn't know anything. Don't let him speak.”
Mar glanced at Omo and flashed a grin. “Then you tell him. Tell him about Port Brunswick.”
The memory hit Kagan so hard he thought it was real. He felt the bullets hit him just before the gunfire sounds. Kagan checked his memory blocking protection to make sure that Mar had not breached it, but he hadn't. The memory of the assassination attempt on his life was his own.
“Tell him about the last friends you had,” Mar said.
Kagan looked at Omo with a new concern. Kagan thought back to the incident, even though it pained him. Kagan's Antikythera program was all to happy to help him access his memories in a more efficient way. The fog of the evening he was almost killed, the trauma that kept it hidden, was parted. The Antikythera showed Kagan a view out of the corner of his eye, a deep underwater vision, an out-of-focus film shot of a man in a balcony.
Omo buried his face in his hands.
Kagan shook off the past. Tucked it away, buried it. He looked at Omo and squinted. “Was it you?” Kagan asked in a hoarse whisper.
Omo sobbed.
Mar went back to work.
Kagan rubbed his reconstructed shoulder.
People began coming out of the front doors of the building. The pacifists were led by warders. Sam carried Nanny, Dernen was not there. Meril was behind Vorn, who helped a limping and bandaged Alessa to the steps.
Kagan turned his attention from Omo and went to Alessa. He nodded to Vorn and took Alessa by the arm and helped her down to the top step. He asked her, “Is that everyone?”
Alessa looked at him and cried.
Kagan knew why. Mar was telling the truth. Alessa was the woman responsible for the purge, and for his wife. He took her shoulders in his hands. “I almost gave up, Alessa. When I left you, I almost walked back to UPC to stay. A voice told me something, something you used to say. 'We must try'. I don't know what you were, but I know that now, now you are everything. These people need you, and I need you.”
Alessa looked up and replied, “I want a home.”
Kagan locked his eyes with hers for the first time, the first time that mattered.
Sam brought Nanny to Kagan with a deeply grim look. He nodded and pointed at Doctor Epps. “You, get some medical supplies,” He ordered. Kagan looked at Meril, a woman who was obviously used to fighting. Her wasteland tattoos screamed violence. He said to her, “Take Vorn to where you're keeping the UA-X. I won't bother with threats. Just do it and we'll be gone.”
Meril looked at Mar for permission, but he was deep in meditation. She flashed some teeth at Kagan, then directed Vorn to the west of the building.
Doctor Epps took a diagnostic tool out of his pocket and hooked it up to his handheld. He walked over to Sam and held it out. She saw what it was and nodded her permission to use it. Epps typed on the handheld and showed Sam the results on the screen.
Sam said, “Get what she needs, I'll take care of the rest.”
Doctor Epps began digging through the medical kit attached to the gurney.
Kagan went around to the pacifists, doing a head count. Some missing, he couldn't find Dernen and no one knew what happened to him. He asked Alessa, but she said simply, “I don't know.”
A deep, thumping tempo beat at the air with a frightening fury. The sound was complimented by the high-pitched whine of servos. The breath taking hum of magnetic lift pads shook and vibrated the ground all around, sending the fetid water pooling in the streets rippling.
A remote driven drone screamed past the pacifists and warders crowded in front of Ortus. Painfully bright searchlights passed over the street.
A hoverjet lowered itself to the road. Morgan took off running as soon as he jumped out of the back bay of the craft. Morgan flung one arm behind and in front of him, behind then in front. His coat ripped the air as he pushed his body as fast as he could. Left and right, his legs exploded force onto the pavement and he was gritting his teeth and shaping his hands like blades to cut through the night.
Kagan spun around and shouted, “Get away, now!”
Morgan flew up the steps and into Kagan's center of mass, sending both of them flying a dozen meters. Morgan began pummeling Kagan's face with armored fists.
The rest of Morgan's men landed and spread out, taking down warders with explosive rounds. The warders scattered and took cover, firing back sporadically.
The pacifists ran for the building, including Vorn, who was almost carrying Alessa.
Mar's eyes came into focus. He mashed his teeth. He ran down the steps to Sergeant Dien, who was just getting to the first set of steps. Mar delved him in a split second and implanted a mental flash bomb in his memory. The sergeant was caught off guard, but only for a second. Mar got in a good punch before Dien was able to get his gun up.
Dien fired his rifle next to Mar's ear and tried to get far enough back to dig for his pistol.
He was fast, too fast for Mar, but Mar was smarter. Mar popped the clip out of the gun and threw a fist at his neck.
Dien dodged the blow and spun around, a pistol in his hand.
Mar threw his hands up and smiled grimly. He delved Dien, and though the sergeant had built in defenses, Mar had learned enough from his encounter with Kagan how to keep those defenses busy. Mar decided to distract him with one of the memories he had just gotten from Eight. He implanted the vision and sensation of being shot in the stomach. Dien doubled over from the pain that Eight felt, the shot that effectively ended his life, and when his Antikythera program finally compensated, Mar was gone.
First Sergeant Cavel threw a black bag over Omo's head, who was terrified beyond belief. Cavel took him and Jenna, maneuvered up the steps and began rounding up the pacifists. Vorn put up a struggle, but was felled by a fast elbow to the temple. Alessa stood strong and looked up into the soldier's face.
Kagan saw this as he was being hit, he tried to get free of Morgan's grip and go to them, but was pulled back.
Morgan grabbed him by the back of the neck and pushed Kagan's face into the concrete until blood pooled.
Kagan let out a scream as the pressure the man exerted became
too much. He could still see Alessa from his view. She was being herded to the street. Kagan yelled out.
Morgan sent a flurry of blows into Kagan's right kidney.
Kagan twisted his left leg back and around Morgan's leg, and spun him in the air out of the way. Both men lay on the ground. They booth stood quickly and charged each other at the same time. They exchanged blows that each was able to parry and dodge expertly. Kagan saw one of the pacifists hit the ground out of the corner of his eye. He could tell the man was dead. Kagan felt a wave of grief, but instead of slowing him, it broke the rhythm of his fight with Morgan, and Kagan was able to land a fist under the Colonel's chest, throwing him up and out over the steps.
Meril broke out from the crowd and stabbed long blades up and through Major Kellen's ribs. He shouted and slumped to the ground, dead. She ran over his body and slid down to meet Doctor Epps, who was crouching by Eight's gurney. Without hesitation, she plunged one of her knives into the doctor's gut. She said, filled with fury, “You brought them here. Mar told me to kill you earlier, and I should have.” The terror froze on Doctor Epps' face as Meril slit his throat with her other knife.
The pacifists were loaded into a passenger hoverjet. Cavel and Dien went into the building to get the men they had come for.
Mar ran up to Morgan's limp form and began firing a taser rifle.
Kagan turned over and yelled to Mar, “No, don't! You can't handle him.”
Morgan stood instantly and closed the distance between himself and Mar in a leap. Morgan grabbed his rifle and broke it over Mar's head.
Kagan ran for the two of them. He called out to Morgan, “Don't kill that man.”
Mar hit the stone with a thud. He was out like a light.
Morgan unsheathed a combat knife and put it to the back of Mar's head. “No?” he asked of Kagan.
“Please, I'll do what you say. Don't kill him, I need him,” Kagan pleaded. He feared for Eight's memories, which were newly stored in Mar's mind.
Meril dove for Morgan, who was well distracted. Morgan managed to catch her in mid-charge, but got a knife slash to his arm.
Meril slid out of his grip and got to her feet, holding her blades out. “No one is taking him or killing Mar,” she shouted.