When no one said anything else, I continued, “Sanctum Forces will be stationed along the Agora and Main Street in our outdated crafts. I want the Ark to see them first, so they’ll expect run-of-the-mill artillery. Let me stress again that we are not trying to win the battle, we are trying to keep them occupied. Our objective is to get the Cloak behind enemy lines and onto the Ark without any detection.
“The Cloak will be stationed here,” I said, pointing my laser at the port between Eroqam’s north and west spires. “We’ll look identical to the angel crafts, but I’ll be relaying a signal that tells your crafts our location until we clear dark water. For the love of Sanctum, do not shoot at us.” I paused. “Any more questions?”
Lakash raised his hand.
“Lt. Perma.”
“What happens when the Cloak reaches the Ark?”
“I was getting to that. The Cloak will hold twelve enforcers, including myself, charged with infiltrating the Archaean base ship and executing Commander Lucifer Raith and all of his generals.”
“Only twelve of us, sir?”
“If our plan goes accordingly, there won’t be many angels left to defend their ship. We need to hit them hard so they’ll send everything they’ve got. I have a feeling the whites are arrogant enough to leave their ship minimally guarded.”
Lakash nodded, settling back into his seat.
Siri raised his hand.
“Last question, Lt. Samay.”
“How are we getting the Ark to cross our aerospace borders?”
I smiled. “Just leave that to me. I’ve said my piece, and now your Commandant will give a detailed briefing of your positions around Sanctum. Ara, you’re up.” As he ascended the stage, I descended, giving him an encouraging squeeze on his shoulder. “Good luck.”
“Thank you, Regent.”
I walked up the center aisle of the conference room and exited through the back doors. I didn’t need to stay to listen to Ara’s briefing because we’d gone over it the night before. There were more important things to do.
Leid was in the communications room, surveying the angel’s military frequencies we planned to hijack tomorrow. Yahweh had given us a list that he’d memorized, and now Sanctum IS was confirming their authenticity.
“All of them look good,” she said when I walked in.
“What about Sanctum PB?”
“Public broadcast is a go. Our evacuation message will be up and running at noon tomorrow.”
“Have you heard about the final flight diagnostics from Yahweh?”
“No, not yet.”
“Are you done here?”
“Pretty much.”
“Then let’s go.”
***
When we reached the lab, Yahweh met us with an irritated frown.
“What is it?” I asked. I had to shout because the room was filled with the sound of drills as final touches were being put on a line of crafts.
“Nothing,” he grumbled. “One of the engines won’t start.”
“That’s not nothing,” I said. “We need every single one of those jets.”
“It’s fine,” he interjected, looking even more irritated. “Your engineers are working on it now. It wasn’t an error on my part, which means it’s fixable. Probably a wiring issue.”
The defective craft wasn’t hard to spot. It had over thirty engineers buzzing around it, making hand gestures and pointing to a cluster of exposed cables. And then I noticed Leid had left my side and was making her way over there, finger tapping her chin.
She spoke to the engineers, and they to her. Leid glanced at the cables and then got on her knees, crawling underneath the craft. She dug through the wires and then raised her thumb to the engineers, telling them to try again.
“Oh for goodness sake,” muttered Yahweh.
The engine started. Everyone clapped. Leid curtseyed, her pretty blue dress stained with oil.
“I don’t even know why I’m still here,” sighed the kid.
I patted him on the shoulder. “Don’t be too hard on yourself. No one expects you to compete with a scholar.”
Yahweh crossed his arms. “Scholar my left foot.”
All I did was scoff.
Leid returned, trying to wipe the oil off her dress to no avail. “Was that the only problem?”
“Yes,” he huffed.
Leid blinked. “Is there something wrong?”
“He’s upset that you’re smarter than him,” I teased.
“I am not!”
She tugged on my arm. “Let’s go. We need our rest, and so does Yahweh. We have a big day ahead of us.”
***
“You should talk to your sister,” murmured Leid, dipping her pen into the ink jar. “She seems frightened.”
I didn’t provide a response, wincing as the pen scraped across my arm. Rarely did I care about a fill, but tomorrow every soldier would be wearing their ink. I wasn’t one for superstition, yet I didn’t want to take any chances. Not tomorrow.
“Qaira, are you listening?”
“Yes, fine.”
I didn’t know what I’d say to Tae. She was frightened for a good reason.
“You seem awfully calm about everything,” she noted.
“Calm?”
No response. The ink pen dug deeper into my skin, and I hissed. After another minute I turned to look at her. She was frowning, eyes on her art.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. Hold still, I’m almost done.”
“You never wear a face like that for nothing.”
Leid didn’t answer me. I gave up and lay back down. I’d almost forgotten the conversation entirely when she said, “I don’t think you should go on the Cloak.”
“Why not?”
“You’re the Regent.”
“You sound like the Eye of Akul. I need to be there when Lucifer Raith is executed. I need to be the one who does it.”
“So you’d place your personal vendetta over the safety of your own people?”
“Hey,” I warned, “I’m doing this for Sanctum. I need to be there to make sure everything goes according to plan. I don’t trust my men to it. As a matter of fact, I’m placing the lives of my people before my own.”
“And what if you die?” she asked, her voice almost a whisper.
“Ara and I have already discussed that. If anything happens to me, he’ll be Regent in my place.”
“Your brother is not ready to be Regent. He’s barely grasped being Commandant.”
“Leid, why are you doing this now? An hour ago you were all for my plan. What changed?”
And then I saw the look in her eyes, the frustration on my face receding. “You won’t lose me. I promise.”
“You can’t promise something like that,” she said, glancing away. “You can’t possibly know if—”
“I love you.”
Leid stared at me, abashed. I’d never said that to anyone—not even my own family—and was certain she’d never expected to hear it.
As the seconds ticked away, I rolled my eyes. “Don’t leave me hanging here.”
“I love you, too.”
“I won’t die, okay?”
Again, her eyes left mine.
“Okay?” I repeated.
“Okay.”
Then we shared an awkward moment of silence. Leid capped the pen and crossed her legs as I settled back onto the bed.
“Go and talk to your sister,” she nagged, twisting the lid on the ink jar.
“Fine,” I muttered, throwing on a shirt. My arms were sore, and they probably would be for several hours. “You better be here when I get back.”
Leid smiled. “I will.”
***
Long after everyone was asleep, I sat in the observation room of the vacant Drill arena. I wasn’t tired, as always, but tonight there was a good reason. Tomorrow brought the possibility of never seeing this place again—or my family, or Sanctum. My plan was a solid one, but the chances of a loss were still pretty
significant.
And even if we won, Leid would go home, and…
The door to the observation room opened. A second later, Ara joined me.
“Can’t sleep either?” he asked.
I didn’t respond.
“Are you going to be able to do it?”
Again, I didn’t respond. Not at first. Instead I sighed and rubbed my forehead. When I closed my eyes they stung—a telltale sign that I was exhausted, but what Ara was alluding to was that my conscience wasn’t letting me sleep. And it was true.
“I don’t have a choice,” I muttered. “We never had a back-up plan.”
“Leid knows?”
“No.”
“Qaira, if it’s too morally-taxing, then I can do it for you.”
“Raith has to watch me do it. I need him berserk enough to lose all focus.”
Ara didn’t say anything for a while, watching the empty arena with a troubled frown. Then he shook his head, laughing sadly. “I feel bad about doing this. Who knew the thought of killing a white would actually upset me one day?”
“Yeah,” I sighed.
“And what about Leid? What will she do?”
I didn’t want to think about that. There was no better way to make Raith charge us than killing his son. Taunts wouldn’t bait him. Perhaps genocide in Crylle might, but that seemed like too much effort and would leave too much room for the angels to prepare. The plan from day one had been to use Yahweh to upgrade our crafts and then execute him on the televised screen, in front of his father. I wasn’t that kind of man anymore, but we were in too deep. I couldn’t stop everything to spare the life of an angel. Sanctum would throw me from my throne.
As for Leid—well, I would just have to deal with the fall-out later. One war at a time.
“We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it,” was all I said.
Ara got to his feet, placing a hand on my shoulder. “I’m going to try to get some rest. So should you.”
“Maybe.”
Ara vacated the observation room, and I was left to stew in my guilt. But if I sat here long enough, another idea might present itself. So far I hadn’t thought of anything, though.
Exhaustion slowly crept in, smothering all the guilt and worry, dipping me in lucid dream. I imagined that I was watching Drill; shadows of men moved across the arena to the sound of faint gunfire. Red paint splattered across the walls, and I thought of how much it looked like blood—;
My eyes widened. Eureka shook me from that dream.
I had another plan.
XXVIII
THE EXECUTION
“THE EVACUATION NOTICE IS LIVE, SIR.”
“Good, wait for my call and then have your teams get into position. We need an evacuation team at the Agora in ten minutes. Assemble that one first.”
“Yes, Regent,” said my brother, severing the line.
Lowering the radio from my mouth, I leaned against the wall and closed my eyes. A long, steady exhale of anticipation and fear deflated my chest. I’d taken a moment to walk the halls and collect my wits, pacing between the empty research lab and communications room. My suit was gone, replaced by my old enforcer uniform, military tags jingling on my neck at each step.
“Regent,” announced my radio, “civilians have started making their way to the Agora.”
“Thank you, Lt. Samay.” I hung up and dialed my brother back. “Commandant, have you assembled that team?”
“Just finished, sir.”
“Dispatch them to the Agora and start leading the civilians to the Aeroway.”
“Sir.”
Somewhere in that crowd was my sister. I had sent her away before the notice went live, instructing a few of my men to guard her personally. I wasn’t sure if the angels knew about her, but Tae would be leverage if caught. Leverage we couldn’t afford.
The communications room was dark and nearly empty. All but two analysts had evacuated. They’d volunteered to keep the feed rolling.
Leid sat in the center row of empty computer terminals, watching the evacuation message flash across a dozen screens at the front of the room. It was on loop, and would be for half an hour. That was how long we had to evacuate Upper Sanctum.
“How long?” she asked, the screens’ luminescence casting an eerie blue glow across her face.
“Half an hour.”
“Is that enough time?”
“Probably not, but it’s all the time that we can afford.” I looked around. “Where’s the kid?”
“Yahweh is waiting in the lab.”
“I’ll send for him.”
As I radioed for one of our guards to bring him in, Leid’s eyes left the screens and settled on me. “What now?”
“Now we get the Ark to come on down.”
“You never told me how you plan to accomplish that.”
“You’ll see for yourself very soon. Lights.”
The analyst closest to the switchboard activated the lights. My eyes had grown accustomed to the darkness and the glare made me squint for a second or two. The door slid open and Yahweh emerged with a guard. He stepped in, and the guard retreated to the hall. He was carrying a notebook—the same notebook I’d seen him writing in numerous times. Whenever I’d caught a glimpse inside, none of it was legible. Just a bunch of calculations and molecular diagrams.
“What now?” he asked, looking at the screens.
“Now we wait,” I said, gesturing to an empty seat. He sat, hugging the notebook to his chest.
I glanced at my watch; another twelve minutes before the evacuation was complete. Another twelve minutes of playing it cool. A rifle was strapped to my back, but it was protocol for Enforcers to be armed at all times. Neither Leid nor Yahweh found my weapon suspicious.
“How do the angels determine their leaders?” I asked.
Yahweh tilted his head. “What do you mean?”
“If Commander Raith dies, how do they determine who’s next in line?”
“They go by militia rank. If Commander Raith… dies, then his First General would be Commander in his place.”
I took notice of the fear in Yahweh’s eyes. It was clear that his true father wouldn’t make a good leader. “What if his generals die, too?”
“Then… I don’t know.”
“You’re Raith’s adopted son, and also the biological son of his First General. Wouldn’t leadership fall to you?”
Yahweh blinked. “Me? I couldn’t lead us.”
“Why not?”
He didn’t respond and cast his gaze to the ground, seeming troubled. Perhaps he’d finally realized what I was planning to do.
“You should give yourself more credit,” I said. “I think you’d make a good leader.”
“Leaders are strong.”
“You are strong. Maybe not physically, but you’re strong in here.” I placed a hand over my heart. “And that’s more important than brute strength.”
The troubled look on Yahweh’s face intensified. “I don’t want to talk about this.”
Before I could respond, my radio said, “Evacuation is complete, Regent.”
Five minutes early. Impressive. “Good job, Commandant. Move Sanctum Forces into position along Main Street.”
“Sir.”
A tingle of dread shuddered down my spine. I didn’t want any part of what came next, but it had to happen. “CA Tren, send a televised transmission request to the Ark.”
Communication Analyst Tren returned to his computer and began to type, his fingers hitting the keys so hard that I could hear each stroke. “Calling now, sir.”
The dread spread from my spine, shooting cold sparks across my arms and legs. Getting to my feet was a difficult task. I had to force my hand to grab Yahweh and yank him from his seat. He lurched forward, nearly dropping his notebook. As I pulled him in front of the screen, he looked up at me, confused and frightened.
From across the room, Leid watched us with a measure of concern. “Qaira, what are you doing?”
She was
about to get up from her seat but Commander Raith appeared on screen, forcing her to stay out of sight.
Lucifer did not say hello, already sensing something was amiss. “Regent, has there been another attack?”
“No, you’ve kept your lackeys in check.”
Commander Raith’s eyes lowered to his son, mirroring his fear. “Then what is this about?”
“This is about how you never should have trusted me.” I forced a smile, removing the rifle from my back.
Leid was livid, having realized my plan. She leaned forward in her seat, eyes darting between me and Commander Raith, debating whether or not to expose herself. Yahweh trembled, looking back at me with a wince.
“I don’t understand,” he stammered. “What have I done?”
The smile on my face waned as I met his gaze. “I’m sorry,” I whispered.
“Don’t,” warned Lucifer. “Please, whatever it is that you want, I will give it to you. What do you want?”
“It’s too late for negotiations, Raith.”
“Do you want us to leave? We will leave. I give you my word that we will depart from The Atrium the moment Yahweh is returned.”
I didn’t answer, shoving the kid forward and taking a step back. I raised the rifle to his back. Yahweh burst into tears.
“I’m sorry!” he screamed at the screen. “Father, I’m sorry! Please forgive me for what I’ve done!”
“Qaira!” shouted Lucifer, his perfect face marred with desperation. “If you do this, Sanctum will be a smoking crater within the hour. That is a promise!”
Leid watched us, hands across her mouth. Blood tears brimmed her eyes, but she stayed loyal to me and didn’t move an inch. How I loved her for it.
“I’m counting on that,” I said, and fired.
Yahweh cried out as the bullet hit the center of his back, red smearing across his shirt. He looked back at me with wide eyes, that same fear and confusion ablaze. And then they rolled into his head and he collapsed.
Leid turned away, sobbing quietly.
Raith stared at his dead son, wordless. Then his eyes rose, burning on me. Blue fires raged behind glassy films. I was expecting a threat, but he said nothing. A second later the screen went black.
The Antithesis- The Complete Pentalogy Page 43