The Secret of Atlantis (Citadel World Book #2)

by Kir Lukovkin

  “All right then. The task set to your platoon is not to let anyone out of that block,” he waved at a tall building at the beginning of the neighboring quarter. “If they manage to get through, hit them with the shockers at maximum power. Let none of the lowlifes get away.”

  “It won't work,” Rick disagreed and took his shocker out of the holster. “This is a toy, not a weapon against the rabid.”

  “Did I say a single word about the rabid?” Lucio frowned angrily and Rick understood that he was talking about something else. “The lowlifes are local scum that have gone wild here without us, but haven't lost their minds yet, so they can help us find out how to get inside the tower and if our senior commanders so desire, the most loyal of them will get the right to join the Division.”

  Rick nodded. He liked this plan less and less — someone obviously wanted to test the recruits.

  “Commander Fritz's recon troops are working in that building right now, so look out and be careful when you surround it. Only shoot when you are certain! That's all.” Lucio slapped Rick on the shoulder. “If anything, we'll cover you.”

  The sergeant demonstratively brayed with laughter.

  Once Lucio left, Rick gathered the platoon around him and explained their task.

  “Surround the building,” he ordered.

  The soldiers slowly moved to take their positions.

  “Your troops are slow,” Lucio shouted from afar as he watched, surrounded by his subordinates. “They'd be jumping like fried fleas if it was up to me.”

  Rick made no reply as he was looking for Lee among the people in the Plaza but he had chosen exactly the wrong time to have disappeared somewhere.

  Around a quarter of an hour later, Rick's platoon had occupied their assigned positioned. Rick checked on every soldier. This was not because he strove to do his duty; he just did not want someone to suffer because of making mistakes. While he traveled he learned an important lesson — the locals often fight to the death for their territory. He did not know what to expect of the feral ones that had established themselves in the high-rise.

  The silence was pregnant. Rick was looking at the front of the buildings, with its faded glyphs above the wide doors of the entrance. A row of empty windows started at around the height of three men from the ground, with a white rag hanging out of one of them. It fluttered in the wind, as if it was the banner of a division, carried by a standard bearer that accompanied high-ranking officers.

  Rick carefully looked over his soldiers, who stood there alert and ready to use their shockers. Oddly enough, many of them liked being in the Division. Rick understood that there were certain positives in the army way of life — they were people who were always full and in good physical shape who were obliged to look after themselves and their clothes and equipment, banded together in grounds ready to stand up for each other, they had something to do and the main thing was that they had the chance for a long and well provisioned life. However, there are other sides to every picture, as old Kyoto said sometimes. The Division was gathered by force, their personalities were broken and those who did not obey were exterminated.

  “Deputy Commander Rick,” blond Marek called over in a whisper, as he silently appeared behind his back. “Gareth is planning something against you, but nothing too bad.”

  Rick turned his head slightly. It seemed that he had his own informers now. Everyone does what they want with their life.

  “It's the grief that's inside him,” Marek continued quietly. “They say that he had an older brother that was torn apart by the rabid.” Marek paused. “There are more and more of them, those filthy beasts. You never know who'll be next. Maybe me. Or maybe Diana.”

  Rick had long noticed that Marek liked her.

  “So that's why Gareth wanted to be a commander, so he could get a blaster and kill the rabid ones, but Lee suddenly made you his deputy.”

  Time passed. They stood there, maintaining the cordon and observing the windows and the entrances to the high-rise but nothing was happening. Rick looked back at the positions occupied by Lucio's people some way away — the experienced soldiers showed no emotion, while the new recruits were visibly nervous, with some of them chewing their nails, fidgeting and whispering to each other as they thought no one could hear them. Anyway, it did not matter. It was the uncertainty that was tired. It also started to snow, just to add to the misery.

  Rick was about to shout at the ones who were chattering when they heard noise coming from the high-rise. A loud popping sound, followed by a staccato tapping noise and human cries, which then changed to rustling and scrabbling.

  “Platoon!” Rick shouted. “Attention!”

  Gareth grumbled something over to the right, but Rick could not hear him.

  The window above the entrance suddenly exploded in a spray of shards and a glass rain fell upon the ground. A ragged wretch stuck his head out of the window, squealed loudly but then quickly went quiet and disappeared.

  Right at that moment, two tall figures in gray jumpsuits came out of the high-rise. Two more were dragging another who was wounded.

  “What's happening there?” Rick asked, stepping forward to meet them, but received no reply.

  One more recon scout appeared in the doors, followed by seven of the wretches, one of which was a really young snub-nosed boy with a shaven head. The rest of the scouts followed out of the high-rise.

  “That's it,” Lucio said behind Rick's back as he quietly approached. “The clean-up is complete. Lift the cordon.”

  Rick commanded the platoon to leave their positions and oversaw his subordinates lining themselves up in a column, but did not make a move himself. He stared at the open doors of the building — something called him there, something that others could not hear.

  He put his hand on the handle of the shocker and quickly walked up to the doors, looking inside. A gloomy, quiet, foul-smelling hall — there was probably a place used as a toilet nearby. Rick wanted to leave it and come back to his subordinates, when someone jumped out from behind the nearest pillar, making him draw back. Rick almost fell, hitting his shoulder on the corner of the door, but managed to catch the stranger by the elbow momentarily, but they burst out of his grasp. It was a teenager, a girl dressed in rags, her long hair clumped and eyes full of pain and despair.

  “Stop!”

  She froze, noticing the soldiers in front of the building, looked back at Rick and then dashed directly away from the plaza towards the neighboring quarter.

  Rick was about to run after her, but the girl was running as fast as she could and she turned into a small lane to disappear from sight. Rick stopped at the intersection as he did not want to go deeper into unfamiliar territory, but then swore at himself — what was happening to him? He had completely lost his mind, he was chasing children. He turned around to get away from there as soon as he could and nearly walked into Lucio.

  “What're you waiting for?” the sergeant growled. “She's about to escape! After her!”

  He was accompanied by two experienced scouts and Marek from the new recruits.

  Lucio snapped his fingers.

  “Help them,” he ordered the scouts.

  Rick sprinted forwards and heard the sound of running feet behind him. He remembered the place where the girl had disappeared and he was going there now. On the way, he pulled out his shocker and took the weapon off the safety. Once he reached his destination, he looked around — there was no one there, not a soul. Marek and the scouts caught up and stopped nearby. One of them crouched and pointed to some marks on the melting snow.

  “Tracks. She ran over there.”

  “Let's go,” another scout nodded in agreement.

  The chain of tracks led to a turn to the neighboring street and ended on a small square between two squat structures made of gray plastic.

  “Hear that?” the scout that noticed the track suddenly said.

  He was pointing at the corner of the building on the right.

  “Yes,” the o
ther scout nodded and raised his blaster. “Let's approach it from different sides.”

  Rick did not ask what it was that they heard and hurried forward, with Marek following him. After they ran around the building, they found themselves in another small square with a statue of a man with his hands upraised to the sky standing proud in the middle. The runaway was rummaging around under its pedestal with her back to them.

  The scouts went to the sides while Rick went directly towards the girl.

  She heard the sound of their steps and turned around. Once she realized who they were, she tried to dash one way and another and then she returned and put her back to the pedestal, eyeing Rick like a hunted animal as he stopped a pair of paces away from her.

  Marek breathed loudly behind his back. It was only now that Rick realized what the girl was doing — she was trying to repair a doll and attach its arm which was torn off, but she saw the men and dropped the doll in her fright.

  Rick picked up the toy, carefully attached its arm and gave it to the girl.

  “Who are you? What is your name?” he asked her.

  The girl was silent, looking at Rick with her deep eyes that looked like a pair of melting pieces of ice.

  “Take it, I don't bite,” Rick smiled.

  The girl hesitated, trembling a little like a scared mouse.

  “Come on,” Rick stepped towards her, but the girl moved away. “Don't be afraid.”

  She quickly shook her head. Then Rick threw the doll under her feet and told her, “Come with me, I don't let anyone harm you.”

  When she bent down to pick up the toy, he tried to take her by the hand. But the girl cried out, scratching his hand and jumped away.

  She crouched, gathering herself into a ball and started babbling something in an unknown language. The sounds mostly sounded like incoherent noises.

  “There's no point,” one of the scouts said suddenly. “Finish her.”

  “She could be useful,” Rick turned to him.

  “No,” the scout cut him off. “I am sure Lucio would find it very funny if he heard that.”

  He raised his blaster, preparing to pull the trigger.

  “Wait!” Rick stepped towards the scout, putting himself in front of the girl. “I will do it myself.”

  Rick turned around, gripping the shocker in his hand. The girl went quiet, looking at them fearfully. Rick suddenly realized how loudly his heart beat in his chest. The child was not guilty of anything, this girl could not cause anyone any harm... He desperately looked for a way out of the situation, but to no avail.

  “Deputy Platoon Commander Rick,” Marek suddenly said. “Allow me.”

  Rick glanced at him with surprise. Marek was not looking at him — he was looking at his victim with a determined gaze.

  “I'd advise you to hurry up,” one of the scouts spoke again. “We are in a dangerous zone. Other lowlifes or creatures we don't know about could be hiding here too.”

  He spat in the direction of the girl, whose eyes suddenly blazed with anger as she stood up straight and launched the doll at his head. The scout did not dodge in time, so the doll struck him on the forehead.

  “Oh, you little shit!” He added another pair of choice expressions and raised the blaster. “Recruits, out of the way! I'll sort her out with an interesting death.”

  “No!” Rick stood in the way, protecting the girl with his arms spread.

  The scout was taken aback. His team-mate said, “Hey, youngster, maybe you shouldn't open your mouth so much. Get out of the way, or you might swallow a stray bullet!”

  Rick gritted his teeth. He was furious, but he restrained himself and said, “I am the senior officer here. That means that you must obey me.”

  “Oh, really?” the scouts glanced at each other, grinning crookedly. “Perhaps you will assume command of the division?”

  They both laughed. Rick kept standing there, breathing heavily and covering the girl. Finally, he could not take their mockery anymore and shouted, “Enough!”

  “Shut up, you little shit and get out of the way,” one of the scouts told him and then turned to Marek, “Get some sense into his head. We need to finish up here and leave.”

  “Yes, of course,” Marek replied readily and stepped towards Rick.

  Rick was about to put a charge into Marek's chest, but he suddenly drew his shocker turned around and pointed behind the backs of the scouts.

  “Look out!”

  The scouts turned around. Rick also involuntarily became alarmed, looking around for danger and discovered a scrawny teen standing by the stunted plastic building at the edge of the square. The scouts immediately pointed the barrels of their blasters at him.

  “Hey, you, keep your hands where we can see them! Don't do anything stupid!” one of them told the stranger as he moved in an arc to see what was going on behind the building.

  The other scout glanced at Marek and said, “Didn't I tell you what to do? Why're you standing around? Act!”

  He nodded at the girl.

  Marek raised his shocker. Rick understood that he would not be able to stop him but something entirely different to what he expected happened next. Marek pulled the trigger, discharging the shocker at the nearest scout and turning him into a pale blue candle for an instant.

  When the scout who was already dead started to fall down to the concrete, the other one shot at Marek. He shuddered once and then again when the second charge hit him. And then the scout shone with the same pale blue light and fell down dead.

  Rick did not look any further, as he threw away the empty shocker and caught Marek, carefully laying him on the ground.

  “Why?” he asked incredulously.

  “The soldiers took away my parents.” It was hard for Marek to talk as the charges had ruined his shoulder and his chest. It was amazing that he was still alive. “They came... came to our home. They... they took all the men and I hid. They don't touch you if you.... you obey. But... father... he refused. They killed him immediately and when mother...” Marek coughed and blood started to seep out of his mouth. “I have no regrets. Go, while you... you have time.”

  He smiled weakly as his face went as white as snow. His eyes went still.

  Rick nodded and closed Marek's glassy eyes. A shadow moved by his side. Rick turned his head. It was the scrawny teenager...

  “Mother Darkness!” Rick whispered as he made out his face. “Black Ant.”

  His old acquaintance nodded.

  “How did you end up here? How did you survive after the attack on your settlement?”

  Black Ant smiled victoriously and shook his head, showing Rick that they really had to get out of there with his whole demeanor

  Rick looked around. The girl was nowhere to be seen. They could hear voices coming from the street they used to come to the square with the gray buildings, one of which Rick knew very well.

  “Here! They went here! Hurry up!” Lucio loudly and clearly commanded.

  Rick grabbed Black Ant by the arm and started to run. Then he stopped, returned to pick up a dead scout's blaster and glanced at Marek, mentally thanking him for all that he did and returned to the teenager.

  When they started running again, they heard shouting and the pops of gunshots behind them.

  “I see them!”

  “Go!”

  “Take them alive! Shoot at their legs!”

  Black Ant took Rick into a building that had its doors wide open. They had turned right on time — carefully aimed blaster charges whizzed through the air behind them.

  Black Ant led him through the dark corridors on that floor and then jumped out onto the street through a broken window and immediately went sideways and turned the corner. Rick could barely keep up with him, but they could still hear running feet and the voices of their pursuers as they were close behind.

  Suddenly, the street ended, taking them into a dead end. There were only the smooth walls of extremely tall buildings around them. They had no time to return and hide in buildin
gs and their pursuers were about to appear from behind the corner of the nearest structure.

  Rick put the stock of his weapon against his shoulder and moved the power indicator to the maximum setting — he was sure to kill several of them and it would be great if Lucio was among their number.

  But it never got to that point as the boy did something that caused a creaking and jingling sound behind his back and forcefully pulled Rick by the sleeve.

  “What...” Rick did not finish as he suddenly found himself staring into the opening of a smooth walled well.

  Black Ant smiled with satisfaction, showed Rick a medallion key which he used to open a secret hatch in the floor and then put his hands to his sides and jumped down the well.

  Rick did not wait around as he hung the blaster over his chest, held it tight and followed the boy.

  As soon as he fell into the darkness he heard a whooshing sound above his head, as the charge from the blaster of one of their pursuers hit the wall of the dead end with a bang, showering sparks into the well.

  The shaft of the well bent smoothly. Rick was sliding down on his side and slowed down somewhat. Suddenly he was surrounded by light — they were swept out into an open space somewhere above the transportation highway. Far away they saw figures in gray jumpsuits on an open balcony walkway.

  “What...” Rick did not finish, as the opening of a well with smooth walls appeared before his eyes.

  Black Ant showed Rick the medallion key that he had used to open the secret hatch in the floor with a satisfied smile, put his hands along his sides and jumped into the well.

  Rick did not think twice and hung his blaster on his chest, hugging it tight and followed the boy.

  As soon as he fell into the darkness, there was a whizzing sound about his head. A blaster charge from one of his pursuers hit the wall of the dead end and emitted a loud bang, showering the well with sparks.

  The well shaft bent gently. Rick slid down it on his side, as his speed decreased and he was brought into the light. They were taken to an outside space with a view over the transportation highway. They saw figures in black jumpsuits far off on the open balcony walkway.