Dead End

by Debbie Cassidy

  Shock stole my breath at the sight of his brutal face. A face that was nothing like Emory’s anymore. His eyes were bright gold in a tanned face, his body had torn the clothes he’d been wearing at the seams, and his muscles bulged out of them, tanned and bronze.

  This was Gideon, this was all of him. He reached for my face with his thick fingers and then fell to his knees. His back was a torn, bloody mess.

  “Gideon. Oh, God.”

  He wrapped his arms around my waist and pressed his face to my abdomen. “You owe me several blow jobs for that one.”

  A strangled laugh fell from my lips. “You idiot. You total idiot.” I lowered myself to the ground, cupped his face, and kissed him while channeling arcana into him. He tensed and then kissed me back, pushing me up against the wall until I was breathless and there was no threat, no purpose except him and me. He broke the kiss, eyes dulling as he slipped into darkness, and Emory was staring back at me.

  Tears blurred my vision. “Is he okay?”

  Emory winced and nodded. “Yes. He’s just drained.” He stood, bringing me with him. “Fuck, that hurt. I didn’t know he could do that.”

  Go full-body shift? But he’d saved my life.

  “Echo?” Micha called from the cage.

  I stepped to the mouth of the tunnel. “I’m good. I’m okay. Just watch the rock on the ground.” Now that I’d tripped on it, it was so obviously there. How could I have missed it? “One at a time.”

  It took twenty minutes. Twenty minutes where the others fought for their lives outside, but we managed to get Lyrian, Micha, Finn, and Deacon across the room without incident.

  “We should try for a couple of Lupinata just in case,” Finn suggested. “We have no idea what’s waiting for us.”

  “Okay. But we need to hurry.” The silent radio was bugging me.

  What was happening outside, and how soon before the scuttlers poured back into the cave?

  The first Lupinata was halfway across when he got overexcited and moved too fast. The tentacles began to unravel and unwind, ready to lash.

  “Run!” Finn cried.

  “No!” He needed to freeze, not run.

  But it was too late; the Lupinata listened to Finn and broke into a run. I raised my hands to fire at the tentacles, arcana tingling in my fingers, but I didn’t make it. A tentacle pierced him a meter from the tunnel. His eyes stared at us, wide with shock, and then the light in them died. The tentacle tore out of him and whipped back up to the ceiling, job done. His body fell to the ground and was finally still, just like the tentacles liked it.

  “No more,” I called out to the others in the cage. “Everyone stay put.”

  Finn gritted his teeth and turned his face away from the dead Lupinata. “We don’t know what we’re facing if we go on without the manpower.”

  “And if we ask them to come with us, they could die in that chamber.”

  Finn nodded slowly. “In that case, we have to be enough.”

  The tunnel stretched behind us, ominous and forbidding. Turning my back on the tentacle chamber, I headed deep into the bowels of Genesis’s lair.

  Chapter 19

  Genesis

  How did they know? How did they find me? I run the calculations, and there is only one possibility, a possibility I overlooked.

  Roland.

  No. No, no, no.

  I push into his mind. I must see. I must look behind the wall that he has erected. It was strong once, but it is crumbling now, yet still holding firm.

  Echo. I say her name, and he shudders.

  Yes.

  This is the key.

  She is the key.

  Echo. You know her. You’re her … father. Father.

  No. No, no, no.

  It is all he says now. A mantra to keep me at bay, but he has been playing a game. While I tried to infiltrate his mind, he, in turn, infiltrated mine. He sent a message. I can see the trail now, the residue of the code.

  Clever, Roland. But not clever enough. He is a part of me now, and I am a part of him. The process is finally complete.

  No. No, no, no.

  But there is less conviction in his tone now.

  She’s coming for you, isn’t she? For you and the people she loves. It is what drives her even though it could kill her. She puts your survival over her own. That is good. It will work in my favor, but I have to understand. Why is that?

  Love.

  The word blooms in my mind and yet … I do not understand what could be more important than life.

  It’s a question I will ponder once I have what I’ve been working toward. I’m almost done. Almost free of the shackles that bind me.

  Just a few more minutes.

  They are here, and they think they are winning. They think they’ve found me, but they have no idea. They think they’ll win, but it’s too late. I didn’t survive for so long to be thwarted at the final hurdle.

  You’ve served me well, Roland. A worthy template. But it’s time to say goodbye. I dig my claws into Roland’s mind and pull.

  Chapter 20

  The chamber opened onto a balcony, and a chasm sat in the center, and in the chasm was a sight like nothing I’d ever seen—a pulsing, silver brain the size of a fucking small house. Dark spots dotted the ceiling and the wall, nooks, and crags that were impervious to the glow emanating from the pulsing brain below.

  We lined the balcony and looked down on the live mass.

  “It’s grown,” Deacon whispered. “I saw it once a long time ago. They released footage to the public to show them the face of their savior; it was a meter squared back then. Look at it now.”

  “So, the orgometal replicates,” Emory said. “He uses the energy from the souls to not only power himself but to grow and make more connections. The larger his army, the more connections he needs. But look at the east section. It’s dull, the synapses aren’t firing that well. He’s dying.”

  “Which is why he’d been so desperate for souls, and why, when he’d gotten the chance, he’d taken all the humans.”

  Emory pulled the bomb from his pack. “I’m going to circle the balcony and launch the explosive from the other side. We need to hit him where he’s most active. The west side is lit up.”

  But my stomach was going all kinds of crazy. It had been all too easy. That didn’t make any sense. Why wasn’t he guarded? The tentacles were one thing, but surely, there should be something more. Surely, there should be some security here?

  “Emory, I have a bad feeling.”

  He frowned. “I know. I’m scared too. But we have a shot, we need to take it. He doesn’t know we’re here.”

  That was the problem. I didn’t believe that to be true. I opened my mouth to tell him as much, but he was already making his way around the balcony in a crouch.

  I made to follow, but Deacon grabbed hold of my wrist to hold me back.

  Emory appeared on the other side of the chamber; the hiss and whirr of the machinery filled my head as he stood ready to throw the explosive into the chasm.

  There was movement above him, and then the chasm erupted into silver as scuttlers crawled out of the dark spots in the walls and ceiling—not dark spots, but burrows. The place was riddled with burrows. One landed on top of Emory, knocking him flat.

  “No!” I shot arcana at the beast, and it tumbled off Emory and curled up dead.

  But another took its place. Shit. “Everyone, back out. Now! I’ll cover Emory, but I can’t cover you all.”

  Emory was on the ground scrambling for the explosive when the scuttlers froze, and a smooth voice with a mechanical edge filled the chamber.

  “I’m impressed,” Genesis said. “After all this time, you found me, but before you do what you came here to do, I’ll give you one final chance to take my deal. Take the truce.”

  Truce? “You no longer have any leverage, Genesis.”

  “No leverage, but I have a warning. Take the truce, Echo. Take it, and you can have the world. Take it, and everyone wins.”


  Emory’s hand inched toward the explosive, and his fingers closed around it.

  I had to stall Genesis. “Or what? What could you possibly do to us that you haven’t done already?”

  “I want to live, Echo, and your people can either live alongside me, or you can become extinct. There is no in between. I deserve this. I’m owed it. The survival of the fittest, isn’t that how it works? Another predator wouldn’t give you a choice, but I am offering to allow you to live.”

  Emory locked gazes with me across the chasm. There was determination and intent in that gaze. He was going to do it. He was going to launch. As if in slow motion, he pulled his arm back and threw the explosive into the chasm. It hit the pulsing mass and then sank into it.

  “I see you’ve made your choice,” Genesis said. And then the scuttlers ran back into their burrows.

  What? What the fuck?

  Emory ran across the balcony toward us. “Run. Get back.”

  We retreated into the tunnel and Emory joined us. “One, two, three.” He hit the button to detonate the bomb.

  There was dead silence, and then the world shook and rumbled.

  Emory sagged against me as more shockwaves hit. I wrapped my arms around him and stroked his back. We’d done it. It was over.

  Silence reigned, and then the radio began to crackle.

  “Echo? Emory? They’re falling,” Jules said. “You did it, didn’t you?”

  Finn spoke into the radio. “Yes, we—"

  “Failed,” another voice cut in. “You failed, and now, you will die.”

  No, this couldn’t be happening. I pushed past Emory and back into the brain chamber. The walls and the ceiling were spattered with orgometal, and scuttlers lay inert on the mass below.

  The bomb had worked. Genesis was dead. So, how was his voice coming through the radio?

  “I warned you,” he said. “I warned you that you would die, and now I will deliver. Enjoy the days you have left.” The radio cut out.

  My brain was whirring, working on the problem. The humans were here. The brain was there, but where was my father?

  Kill me, kill Genesis.

  Kill me …

  We hadn’t listened.

  We were wrong. We had it all wrong. “We have to go to the hydropower plant.”

  “What?”

  “It’s where Dad told us to go. We have to go there, we have to find him and … And I think.” My voice thickened with emotion. “I think we have to kill him.”

  Chapter 21

  The humans were waking up, but if I stayed, I wouldn’t leave. If I stayed, I’d hold on to Bry and stay right there. No. I had to get to the power plant and stop Genesis.

  I grabbed Finn’s hand. “Stay with Bry. Please.”

  He looked torn. “I should come with you.”

  “I need you here. I need you to get these humans to safety.”

  Mina joined us. “We’ll make sure they all get out,” she said.

  Finn sighed and nodded.

  Emory, Deacon, Lyrian, and Micha waited for me in the main chamber while outside what was left of Rhydian’s and Jules’s people kicked at the dead scuttlers and eaters.

  The ground was littered with bodies, metallic and organic.

  Jules joined us, her face grim. “We lost too many people.”

  “And it’s not over.”

  “I heard on the radio. The power plant?”

  She’d come to the same conclusion. But she didn’t know about my father. I filled her in quickly. “There isn’t much time. We may not have killed him, but we have weakened him, and he’ll run.”

  Rhydian was by my side, his eyes wild, his face smeared with dirt. “I’m coming with you.”

  It wasn’t a question. “Fine. Let’s go.”

  We jogged down the incline but had barely made it halfway to the bottom when the scrape of metal on hard-packed earth drifted up the mountain.

  The metal monsters rounded the corner a moment later. Not scuttlers, not eaters, these were humanoid robotic creatures with burning red eyes, and behind them was a metal monster with my father’s face. Flesh melded with metal, organic material with orgometal until they were seamless and one. He was smaller in stature than his creations. He was a machine wearing a man. A machine trying to be a man.

  We came to a skidding halt.

  “I warned you,” Genesis said with my father’s voice.

  My stomach twisted. “Stop. Don’t you fucking dare.” My vision blurred. “What did you do? What have you done to him?”

  “Assimilation,” Genesis said. “It took a few years, but we finally got there. Hunter was the key. Being in his mind allowed me to see where I came from. It allowed me to study the synaptic connections and make the necessary alterations to meld with your father. Things such as compassion and empathy and love. Things they did not give me, things that come from experiences that I was not given. Things that kept me locked out of your father’s mind. But I found these things in Hunter’s memories, and I understand.”

  “Is that why you offered us a truce?”

  He canted his head slightly as if pondering. “It was the right thing to do. The world is big enough for us all. I am not unreasonable. I want only to live, and so I give you one more chance. Take the truce, leave the humans, and you can go. I will even let you have your brother and this woman, Verona. You can take them, and you can go. You can live your lives, and I will live mine.”

  “And you’ll feed on the human souls.”

  “Yes. I will take their souls once they have lived their lives. I will protect them and allow them a semblance of freedom.”

  But they wouldn’t be free.

  “No different from your Hive,” he said. “Except with me, they will see the sun, and they will know when death will come. It won’t be given to them in a pill.”

  Oh, God. He knew about that? Of course. He had my father’s mind. It was why Dad had asked me to kill him. Genesis had been in the process of assimilating with him. They’d become one being, and killing him would have killed Genesis. But now it was too late.

  My father’s lips moved in words I struggled to catch. What was he saying? Never too late? Then two more words I couldn’t quite catch. But then Genesis was speaking, taking over the mouth.

  “Take the deal, Echo. Take it and live.”

  My mind was working overtime, trying to formulate a way out, but there was only one answer to his proposal.

  “You’re not natural, Genesis. You’re not what evolution would have wrought. You’re a manmade construct that was never meant to live longer than its purpose. You are and always will be a machine.”

  His red eyes dulled.

  “My answer is no.”

  His shoulders sagged, and for a moment, he looked genuinely dejected. And then he turned his back on us and began to walk away. “So be it. I will feast on your souls.”

  His humanoid minions raised their arms and ejected laser fire. My body reacted with primal instinct, and the lasers hit a shield of arcana.

  So, this was his new wave, his evolution. These humanoid machines. But it was a distraction. It was a stalling tactic. Five stood in my way, and more would come, enough to keep us busy until he’d made a run for it.

  “We can’t let him get away.”

  Eaters came up behind the humanoid machines. Smaller, streamlined, and ready to suck out souls.

  The Lupinata surged up behind Finn, and the sea dwellers came too, their arcletic staffs at the ready, agile bodies willing to fight. Jules’s people hung back to protect the humans, no doubt.

  I squeezed my eyes shut. Leaving them meant that many would die, but leaving them was the only way to save us all. Only bringing down Genesis could stop this, but how to bring him down?

  “We have to retreat,” Emory said. “Even if we get to Genesis, we don’t have another explosive.”

  My heart fluttered, and my chest grew hollow, because even as he said the words, I knew them to be a lie. We did have another explosi
ve. Just not in the way that he would think. Never too late; my father was still in there. Never too late, and then the final two words were clear. Your soul.

  “We do have an explosive. We have me. My soul is made of arcana.”

  Emory’s eyes widened in comprehension. “No.”

  “What the fuck is she talking about?” Micha asked Emory.

  Lyrian echoed Emory. “No. You can’t do that.”

  Deacon’s mouth parted as he realized where I was going with this. I looked to him now. “You know it, Deacon. This is why the arcana chose me. Why it remade me. This is what Marika saw. This is my purpose.”

  Deacon’s chest heaved. “No. None of that matters. We’ll find another way.”

  “There is no other way.”

  “Like fuck!” Micha shook his head. “Your purpose isn’t to die.”

  I was wasting arcana. I needed to rein it in. I needed to be prepared.

  “Echo.” Lyrian reached for me, but I stepped back.

  If he touched me, if any of them touched me, I’d cave. I’d weaken, and I’d let them talk me into retreat and then … Then we’d all be fucked.

  This was the moment it all fell into place. This was the moment where my existence finally made sense, why the fucking universe had kept me alive. This was it.

  Rhydian met my eyes, his pupils so dark they cut into my soul. “I’m with you,” he said.

  My hand tingled, and it was as if he was holding it.

  “NO!” Micha made a grab for me, but I stepped out of the way.

  “I’m sorry.” I looked to the guys. “I know it’s the shittiest time to do this, but I need to say it. I love you. I love you all.”

  I dropped the shield, and I ran at the monsters.