by M. R. Forbes
“Assuming I don’t die, what do you think Loki will do with me?”
“I don’t know. I don’t think that’s happened yet.”
“Well, I’m not going to die. And I can’t stay here. If I make it through the Game, can you help me? I have people back west. It’s a lot safer there than it is here.”
“Safer than here?”
“We stay outside at night. We have farms, manufacturing, and a government looking out for the needs of the people, not the needs of itself.”
“Sounds like a utopia.”
“No, but it’s better than this.”
“What are you doing so far from home then, Sheriff?”
“Long story. I came to help a friend with a problem.”
“Where’s your friend?”
“Dead.”
“What about the problem?”
He patted the pocket with the ring in it.
“Got it.” She paused a moment, glancing back at the door out of the workshop as if she were worried she would be overheard. “If you make it through the Game, I’ll do what I can to help you out. But you have to take Gus and me with you.”
“Deal.”
“Go hit the shower, Sheriff. You stink.”
Chapter 47
Hayden showered quickly, cleaning himself off before putting the bodysuit back on. The right sleeve was gone above the elbow, shredded in a rough line that made it look as if it had been bitten off by a trife. He was impressed to note that the wounds he had taken back in the Expansion Zone had nearly healed, the Centurion patch doing an incredible job of speeding up the process. He would have made sure to thank Bennett and Danethi if either of them had survived.
It was a horrible thought, but his current situation left him in a grim mood. The oversized arm he had been gifted didn’t help. It made him look lopsided, and its movements were nowhere near as fine as the Centurion hand. He would rather have subtle.
Pyro had given him a faded black t-shirt with a print of the moon on it, to go with a pair of blue jeans that looked relatively new. The fit was a little tight, but he could get used to it. He put his boots back on and then looked into a small mirror hanging over a stained white porcelain sink.
“Uglier than ever,” he said, picturing how Nat would react to his newest look. He rubbed at the stubble on his chin. Maybe he would let it keep growing.
He left the bathroom, returning to the workshop. Pyro and Gus were both there. She was sitting at her workbench, his Centurion arm on the table and wired to the computer. They both looked up when he entered.
“Sheriff,” she said, pointing at the cracked display. “Where did you get this?”
Hayden hesitated. He didn’t want to say too much about Proxima if he could avoid it. “Why?”
“It’s not completely compatible with my software,” she said. “I was only able to pull some pretty basic information off it.”
“Like date of manufacture,” Gus said.
It was Hayden’s turn to glance toward the workshop door. He realized now there was a window beside it, covered over by a thick drape. They were in one of the offices on the upper level of the terminal. He could hear a buzz of life coming from beyond it, the community getting into action for the day.
“You said you had manufacturing,” Pyro said. “You didn’t say you’re able to produce new replacements.”
“We aren’t,” Hayden said, walking over to them. “These hands came from Proxima.”
“Proxima?” Gus said. “Never heard of it. Is that west of here?”
“Not exactly.” He pointed up. “It’s another planet. A human settlement.”
“You’re from another planet?” Gus said, a little too loudly.
“Shh,” Hayden said. “No. Not me. But the friend I mentioned was.”
“So this other settlement is sending people to Earth? How come nobody told us?”
“The Centurions come in secret. They have what they call a No Contact Protocol. They don’t want to get involved with Earth. Except when it benefits them.”
“But they did come from Earth, right?”
“Yeah. Originally.”
“And if they’re coming back, they have starships and shit, but they’re leaving us down here with the trife?” Gus asked.
“My friend and I were working on that, but yeah. I have a feeling it’s not going to change much now that he’s dead. It might get worse again before it gets better.”
“That’s such bullshit.”
“I know. Everyone who finds out says the same thing. But they don’t see it that way. Anyway, we came out east chasing a fugitive who escaped from Proxima. Nathan Stacker. They said he killed his wife, but I talked to him and I don’t believe it. The ring is his. His wife found out something important, and a group on Proxima called the Trust killed her over it. Now they want to kill him, me, and anyone else who might know about the data chip and what’s on it. If that isn’t bad enough, the Trust is working with Tinker. They’re sending him supplies; I’m sure of that much. He couldn’t have made Isabelle without equipment from Proxima. The Liberators attacked us. They blew up our ship. And they’re looking for me.”
“That’s some story, Sheriff,” Pyro said. “If the Liberators are still looking for you, they’ll find you here eventually.”
“Another reason I can’t stay here. They’ll be happy enough if Loki kills me.”
“We should try to get out of here,” Gus said. “We should make a break for it.”
“We?” Hayden said.
“You’re one of us, Sheriff. A mongrel. We have to stick together.”
“You have one arm.”
Gus laughed. “P, just give me another one. I don’t care which. Between the three of us, we can get out of here.”
“And then what?” Pyro asked. “Where are we going?”
“I need to find out what’s on this chip,” Hayden said.
“There’s only one place around here you can do that.”
“Edenrise,” Gus said.
“Edenrise,” Pyro said. “If you’re right that Tinker is getting stuff from Proxima, then it’s the most likely place to get a reader for that data.”
“I figured as much. I was trying to get south when I got hung up here.”
“If we help you, then you’ll take us back west with you?” Pyro asked.
“If I can get back west. The Liberators blew up my ship.”
“That shouldn’t be a problem,” Gus said.
“Why not?”
“People talk about Edenrise. They say all kinds of shit about it. I always thought most of it was bull. Exaggerated, you know. But now that you’re talking about spaceships and other planets, maybe it isn’t.”
“What do they say?”
“They say Edenrise is safe from the trife for one. That there’s an invisible wall protecting it. They also say Tinker has a starship. Some people even say he’s an alien from another planet, and he came to save us.”
“By taking all of your women? I’ve heard him on the radio. He sounds like a lunatic to me, talking about the cleansing and the will of the others.”
“People believe in him. They’ve been heading to Edenrise, even from here.”
“If we can get you out, we can go there with them,” Pyro said. “We can enter as pilgrims.”
“Pilgrims?” Hayden said. “I like that idea. But I can’t ask you to risk your lives for me. This is my problem.”
“I’m not here because I want to be, Sheriff,” Pyro said. “I’ve never had anywhere better to go. Or to try to go.”
“Me neither,” Gus said. “P, I need another arm.”
She nodded. “Sorry, Sheriff. I thought I could fix this one, but there’s no way. You’re stuck with that one for now.”
“Pozz,” Hayden said. “Understood.”
“It’s going to take a couple of hours to outfit Gus with a new replacement. I haven’t heard anything from Loki, so I think we have some-” She stopped talking at the sound of feet clanging
along the metal floor of the walkway, quickly coming closer to the workshop. “Shit.”
The feet stopped outside. A soft knock followed. Hayden retreated to the table, hopping onto it.
“It’s open,” Pyro said.
The door swung in. Loki entered the workshop with Isabelle on his arm. He was as finely dressed as before in an almost new pinstripe suit and polished black loafers. The robot was wearing a pale pink summer dress, a slight smirk on her face.
“Sheriff,” Loki said excitedly. “It’s good to see you up and alert. And your arm. Penelope, my dear, you have done amazing work as always.” He walked up to Hayden and put a hand on the arm. “This is why we keep her around.” He let go of the arm and took a step back. “Oh, Sheriff, I have quite the surprise for you. I’m almost ready to explode just thinking about it. Mmmm.” He shivered, clenching his fists. “But first, I have a gift for you.”
“A gift?” Hayden said.
“Mother explained to me what a Sheriff is,” he said. “I wasn’t familiar with the term. So I thought this would be appropriate.” He reached into a pocket and withdrew a small, gold sheriff’s badge, handing it out to him.
Hayden took it, looking down at it. He ran the fingers of his Centurion hand across the lettering. “Thank you.” He looked up at Loki, meeting his eyes and staring. It took a few seconds before the Crosston leader looked nervously away.
“Yes, well,” Loki said. “As I said, I’m so fucking excited. I can’t wait any longer. Lane, bring him down to the arena.”
“Father, wait,” Pyro said. “He isn’t ready.”
Loki looked at her. “He has two arms. That’s good enough.”
She opened her mouth to argue. Isabelle moved in front of her.
“Why don’t you be a good little girl and be quiet?” the robot said.
Lane and three other guards entered the small workshop, pointing their rifles at Hayden. There was no point to resisting. He put his hands up and walked over to them, and they led him out of the room. He glanced back at Pyro and Gus as he left, and they both nodded and flashed him a thumbs up for luck.
Hayden stayed silent while they paraded him across the walkway to the stairs leading down and then across the floor of the terminal toward the northern end. The residents of the community seemed to know what was about to happen because they stopped what they were doing as the group passed and followed along behind it.
By the time they reached the two carved totem poles that marked the entrance to the arena, there was a crowd of at least a thousand people trailing them, shouting and calling out in excitement. Hayden tried to stop to look back at them, but Lane held his shoulder and kept him going forward, into the arena proper.
Hayden had seen some of the platforms from a distance when he was brought into Crosston. Now he could see that there were around three dozen different stretches of metal flooring suspended from the ceiling by chains, positioned at various heights and each one a different length and width. A few of them had spikes welded to all or part of them, with bloodstains visible on them even from the ground. There was a clear path from one platform to the next, but looking up at the ceiling he could see the catwalks and pulleys used to modify the so-called Game while it was in progress. There were already people up there, looking down at him and waiting.
The arena itself was surrounded by a line of metal platforms arranged in a rough circle. Spectators were already finding their seats, remaining standing for now, staring out at him and talking to one another. There were no women in the crowd and only a small scattering of children.
Loki’s place of honor was easy to spot— a large sofa placed on a raised dais that was covered in rugs and overhung by a red velvet pavilion. A pair of armed guards were already on the dais, ready to stop him if he tried to rush their leader.
They brought Hayden to the center of the arena. Then Lane and the other guards backed away, keeping their weapons trained on him. They stayed like that for another ten minutes, until the spectators filled every seat circling the arena, leaving late-comers to stand beneath the platforms, trying to look through the metal bars and legs ahead of them.
A soft tone played through the loudspeakers positioned across the terminal. It repeated twice more before the entire building fell silent.
“Residents of Crosston.” Isabelle’s voice poured out of the speakers. “I present you your esteemed leader, Father Loki.”
The spectators began to cheer. “Fa-ther. Fa-ther. Fa-ther.”
Loki made his grand entrance, stepping up onto the dais, in front of the sofa. He raised his hands over his head in triumph, and the crowd got even louder.
He soaked in the adulation for nearly half a minute before signaling the people to be quiet. They settled down, and he took an offered microphone from Isabelle.
“My children,” Loki said. “As you know, I believe you all deserve thanks and praise for all that you do for our fine community. Which is why I have gathered you here today for a short rest between the hard work you do, to watch what I think will go down in our history as the greatest single instance of the Game that has ever taken place.”
The crowd erupted again, chanting “Fa-ther” over and over. Loki let it go on for another minute before quieting them again.
“What makes this specific game so special, you ask? Well, let me tell you. The man currently standing in the arena is Sheriff Hayden Duke. He’s a mongrel and a traveler who claims he has crossed the entire continent, from the west coast to east. He was captured outside our gates conspiring with the horse fuckers to steal from us, and when he was brought before me instead of honoring me as any weary traveler offered succor should, he attacked me.”
A loud chorus of boos rose up from the crowd. Hayden could hear other epithets and curses mixed in with them, but he wasn’t paying much attention to it. He wanted to get past Loki’s showmanship and get the whole thing over with. He knew the man would do anything he could to make sure he died here in front of all these people.
He was going to do everything he could to disappoint him.
“You may say, that’s bad, Father, but how does that make this game special? How does that make this game different? Good questions, my children. Very good questions. Let me tell you how. But first.” He turned to look at Hayden. “Put him on platform seven.”
Lane approached Hayden again. He pointed to one of the platforms halfway up. It had a ladder dangling from it that he would have to jump to reach.
Hayden glared at Loki for a moment before finding his path. He climbed the platforms up to the one Lane had indicated, jumping to the ladder and easily pulling himself up.
“That’s better,” Loki said. “Now, where were we?” He smiled. “Oh yes. What makes this match special? Well, I had lined up a dozen of our brothers who have had some problems following the rules lately. But, a new opportunity presented itself which I could absolutely not refuse. So those dozen wayward souls get a stay of execution. Instead, we have what I’m going to call the Arena’s first official grudge match!”
He shouted the last part, and the crowd went crazy. He let them go on for a minute, leaving Hayden trying to figure out what he meant. Grudge match? Who would have a grudge against him here? Rhonna? The nomad who had escaped? Isabelle? Loki himself? No, the Crosston’s leader would never put himself in harm’s way.
The crowd quieted down again.
“Children of Crosston,” Loki said. “It seems our Sheriff here is a thief. He took something from someone before we captured him. Something of great sentimental value. Being the benevolent leader I am, I agreed to give the victim one chance to regain what he lost by claiming it in the Arena. Are you ready?”
The crowd cheered. Hayden’s heart began to sink as he realized who Loki was talking about.
“I said, are you ready?” Loki repeated.
The crowd cheered louder. Hayden closed his eyes. Damn it, Nathan. He had never thought when he let the Spacer live he would be so bullheaded about what he was trying to accompli
sh. Didn’t Stacker realize the same damn people who murdered his wife were using him to do their dirty work?
“This match is winner-take-all. One man dies. One man leaves.” Loki paused dramatically. “I present to you the last man you’d ever expect to step into the Arena. A man I’m sure you know. A man you know to fear.”
Hayden froze, confused. Loki couldn’t be talking about Nathan. There’s no way the Spacer could have gained a reputation with these people that fast.
“The one, the only, the Iiiiirrroonnnnnn Geeeeennneeerrrallllllllll!”
Chapter 48
Nathan heard Loki’s announcement. His body shivered as he realized what the foppish son of a bitch had just done.
He glanced over at the soldiers keeping an eye on him. They were armed with rifles, and while they weren’t currently pointing at him, they would be if he even hinted that he might cause them trouble.
“That’s your call,” one of them said when he didn’t move right away.
Nathan lingered another half a second, and then started forward, between the twin totem poles and out toward the center of the arena.
The crowd didn’t cheer. It didn’t boo, either. A hush fell over the entire arena, a soft murmur of whispers following. Nathan glanced at the crowds, and then at Loki on his dais, and then at Sheriff Hayden Duke, standing on one the platforms over his head. Sheriff. Isabelle had told him what that meant. A lawman. It was fitting, he supposed. The sheriff against the outlaw.
He stayed in one place, overcoming its initial shock. They thought he was James because they didn’t know half of James was fake. The face was the same. That was good enough. If he won, well, he was supposed to win. If he lost? The people of Crosston would think the Liberator’s greatest weapon was dead. He wasn’t sure what that might mean for the greater population, but he was sure it wouldn’t be good.
“Well,” Loki said through the microphone. “What are you two waiting for? Kill one another already.”
Nathan looked up at Hayden again. Then he charged ahead, leaping onto the first platform. He spun around, gathered himself, and jumped to the next.