The Syndicate already knows I don’t have the power to stop them. They know that they could just as easily fuck me over right now and take this cube away from me. I am no god, even though this thing makes me feel like one.
Yet that doesn’t matter.
They listen to my words and listen to my threats and take them at face value. They are scared. They are responding exactly how I wanted them to, but that’s how I know something is wrong.
Nothing makes sense anymore.
The Syndicate shouldn’t want me to take over China. The Syndicate should know that once they help me garner that kind of power, I can destroy them. The Syndicate must know that we aren’t friends, that we are enemies, but sometimes you are willing to team up with the people you hate to destroy an even greater asshole.
This world is full of assholes.
The Syndicate is no exception.
And if there is one universal truth, it’s that you can never trust an asshole. You never know when they are going to bite you in the back and shit all over you.
I know from experience that is not fun.
But I also have no choice.
These assholes are now my friends.
And I am waiting till the day that they decide that our friendship is done.
I am waiting till the day that they decide to kill me.
I just hope I have enough power to kill them first.
Chapter 17
“This must be some sick joke.” Ai walks towards the holograph at the center of the aircraft. The colors are rich in the holograph and the sounds blasting from the speakers at the corner of the room make the apocalyptic scene playing out on the video feel real.
Well, that’s because it is real.
“We know as much as you do.” Drew sighs, the stress visible in his posture. His back looks hyperextended from how straight he stands up, and his arms are crossed as he stares at the screen with wide eyes.
“Is this a dream?” Jake rubs circles around his eyes. He is still getting used to being alive after hanging on the brink of death for so long. In the moments that the robot nurses tried to save him, not much happened in the way of helping Jake. It isn’t their fault. All the knowledge of modern medicine contained inside those machines simply can’t compete with the power of the Chimera Cube. When I finished trying to intimidate the Syndicate from my position on the couch, I stood up and ran over to Jake. He still had a pulse, and as dead as he looked, his skin still felt warm and alive. Commanding the Chimera Cube to initiate internal-wound repair on him is all it took for him to be brought back to life, with the smoke being eliminated from his lungs and any tissue damage reversed in seconds.
The act was nothing short of a miracle, something that still makes the tips of my fingers tingle as I feel the rush of power and surge of happiness at saving someone I love overcome me. That feeling is a new one for me after watching so many people die. That feeling is heavenly.
But then it all turned to hell real fast.
The moment the aircraft we are in entered the air space of Hong Kong, one of the men in suits standing in the back corner of the aircraft let Drew know about the destruction. One of them had access to a live stream from a surveillance drone hovering above the city (and no, I have no idea how he acquired the feed to the stream, but given that they are all-in with the Syndicate, they can likely get whatever they want in this world). When Drew projected the live feed onto a massive holograph in the center of the room, there was nothing to do but stop and stare in disbelief.
After staring at it for five minutes, I still don’t believe it.
Devastation this widespread shouldn’t be possible. It should be against some law of nature. Part of me still struggles with the fact that this is real. I will likely struggle with this for the rest of my life. But when the screaming and cracking of buildings on their last breath of life finally collapsing to the ground blast over the speakers, I know that there is no computer that could come up with a fake video so terrible.
Humans are the only beings that can create a tragedy this horrific.
The amount of dust and smoke that is now in the place of where the city skyline used to be is sickening. Tons and tons of toxic fumes emit from the rubble, the entire city still suffering further destruction as the aftershocks of the quakes rage on below.
Every single building has been leveled into a burning heap of cement, metal, glass, and dead bodies. Not even one singular building in sight is left standing within the several-mile radius in the drone’s view. It looks like a bunch of nukes were dropped in the core of the city, and a series of chills jolt every one of my limbs as I realize that is exactly what happened. The earthquake was only a smoke screen for the rest of the world. An easy-to-blame culprit for the fall of the Chinese economy, death of millions, and crash of the global marketplace at large. But it’s nothing more than a distraction from the fact that hundreds of millions of people are either dead or about to die.
It’s nothing more than a distraction from the fact that President Li Wang engineered an earthquake and nuclear attack on his own people. And there is no help coming in the wake of the destruction. This is war, and he’s not going to stop until every Chinese person is dead.
From the looks of it, it won’t take him long to be successful in his mission.
“We can’t land in Hong Kong,” Drew speaks up, pacing back and forth in the same manner I have seen Jake do many times. I wonder if nervous habits are genetic or not.
“Where are we going, then?” Ai asks. I am still so focused on the holograph that I barely register what Drew says. The amount of dead bodies that are underneath the rubble is all I keep thinking about. The fact that there was a world-class city with millions of people living in it standing only a few minutes ago and now there is nothing but rubble and smoke brings tears to my eyes. I would cry—in fact, I have an overwhelming desire to break down and let the rage and madness inside me take over, but I can’t let myself get like that in front of the Syndicate.
Whether Li is watching or not, I can’t give him the satisfaction of knowing that not only is he breaking the Chinese people, but he’s getting close to breaking me too.
“Somewhere. Maybe Vietnam or Taiwan.” Drew waves his hands in the air as he furiously searches on his hologlasses for answers. Justin nods along with Drew’s assessment of the situation, and neither Kamala nor the rest of the members of the Syndicate seem too eager to combat him.
“Taiwan!” I exclaim. As much as going down onto the streets of Hong Kong scares the shit out of me, I know it is what I have to do. I have the one technology that may actually have a shot at saving this city. I can’t let it go to waste. “Why would we go there? How will that help us?”
“It will only take us about an hour to get there, and Taiwan hates China about as much as anyone.” Drew doesn’t smile wickedly after talking. Sweat drips out of the large pores on his face, his anxiety only making me angrier. “We should be able to regroup there for a while and figure out what we can do.”
“No, what the fuck?” I walk towards him with my hand placed on top of the Chimera Cube. I have kept the bag open, ready to deliver a command that will kill everyone in this room to remind them that I am the one with the power. They all seem to believe it, and their fear alone makes me a little more confident that this friendship may go in my favor—with them dead in the end. “You want to fly away from the disaster? Fly away from the millions of people that need help when I have something that could possibly save them?”
“Look, we didn’t prepare for this,” Justin says, butting in on the conversation. “We didn’t think it would be like this at all when deciding to dethrone Li’s regime, and we have to be smart about this. We have to take our time and think things through because we only have one shot at taking over, and we can’t let it go to waste.”
“Machine gun.” I say the command and tap the Chimera Cube. By the time it is formed and in the air, the other Syndicate members who have pistols on them pull theirs out. I c
aught them off guard, and by the time they point their pistols at me, I already double-tap the cube and point my machine gun right back at them.
Needless to say, they don’t fire at me. In a standoff, they know I can easily spray them all with bullets. And given that these people are used to hunting deer and shooting at rifle ranges while being a little drunk on the weekends, they aren’t the trained assassins that would scare me.
“Woah, woah, put the gun down,” Justin says, trying to talk me off the ledge, but I’m too far gone for anyone to break through to me. I narrow my eyes at Drew, my arms shaking with pure rage as I hold the machine gun right at him.
“I’m not here to play games,” I snarl, trying to be intimidating, but as soon as the words come out of my mouth, I realize I could not have said a more obvious thing. Everyone knows I don’t want to sit around and argue about what country we need to flee to. Every second we wait, thousands more will die. “We are landing this plane right in the middle of Hong Kong. And then we are going to go straight to Beijing to bomb the shit out of Li and his stupid computers. We don’t have time to relax and plan things out under the safety of a foreign regime. We will never be safe until Li is dead, and this can’t take weeks or even days. We need to make shit happen now.”
“L-Look,” Drew stutters and hurries over to the control center of the aircraft. I can’t help but smile at him in the same disgusting manner he always smiles at me. Finally, he gets to know the feeling of having your life on the line. In the moment, revenge feels really good.
“Look at what?” I step towards him. Jake and Ai are now standing up, both of them motioning for me to throw them the bag with the Chimera Cube inside it, likely so that they can make our threats even more dangerous. Only an hour ago I would have gladly tossed the bag in their direction, but now I know that I can’t take the risk. This cube is toxic. I can’t trust anyone with it if I can barely trust myself. “I said we don’t have time, remember? Land this thing right now or your body will be the next thing to hit the ground.”
Drew taps a few buttons on the screen, his frail, skinny body looking on the verge of bursting with tension. I didn’t know this man was capable of feeling nervous. I hope I can make him terrified for the rest of his life.
“Look at this.” He motions with his hand to have a section of the screen be projected into a small holograph visible to all in the aircraft. “See those red dots?” He points at the radar, his arm shaking in his nicely tailored suit that makes him look even frailer than I remember. “That’s all military aircraft. We are in the middle of the smoke now, so they can’t see us, and there’s a chance we can get out of here in time, but the moment you touch down in Hong Kong, you will die. The military has surrounded the city. They won’t stop until everyone inside is dead.”
“What do you not understand about me saying that I will kill you if you don’t land this freaking aircraft right now?” I step in closer to Drew and jab the barrel of the gun into his chest. Justin yells at me to cut it out, but I don’t listen. “I don’t care if we can get away with the stealth radar protection this thing has or whatever the hell the Syndicate has enough money to invest in. Land this thing now.”
“I’m not going to be responsible for getting us all killed.” The nervous tension disappears in his shoulders as he swipes his hand for the radar holograph to disappear. From the look he shoots at me from behind his hologlasses, I know the council must have shared with him something good—and good for him likely means bad for me. “Then what happens to your precious cube?”
“Sam, are you sure there’s not another way?” Jake speaks up.
“I’ll kill you too.” I turn around quickly and point the barrel of the gun right at him. “And nothing happens to this cube. This cube was made to save people. It was made to help this world be a better place, so don’t worry about you being responsible for killing us. I’ll take the blame. If I have to go down fighting, then that’s okay. I won’t just stand by on the sidelines and watch this.” I point to the holograph where the destruction continues to play out, my one arm having trouble holding the lopsided weight of the machine gun. “I can’t. And if that means losing this cube to Li, then I’m okay with that. Doing nothing will make sure he wins anyways.”
“What if I’m not okay with Li having the cube?” Drew asks flatly. As he asks the question, everyone in the room nods along. Even Jake and Ai seem to agree with him on this one. They don’t want to be in the middle of the battlefield. They would rather watch from ten thousand feet up instead.
“Then your body will hit the ground before this aircraft does.”
“Then what happens after that?” Drew smiles. His voice is back to its normal unsettling tone. He doesn’t have the smooth way of talking that Justin does; instead his words come out rough, almost like he is putting a knife behind each one of his words. “You land this and what happens? You magically put China back together and save the world just you and your cube? You sound like a wizard that is high on cocaine.”
“Yes.” I nod, the anger in my voice fleeing as I realize that he is right. I have no idea what I’m doing, and by me going against the Syndicate, I only increase my chances of dying. But in the heat of the moment, I don’t care that I’m putting my life on the line.
If I don’t do something to try and help the millions of people clawing on to life below me then I won’t be able to live with myself. Even if ninety percent of Hong Kong’s population is dead, that’s still more than enough people to save.
That’s still enough to justify risking my life for.
“You are stupid.” Drew shakes his head but he presses a button on the control board. The plane starts to gently slope downward as it makes it descent.
“It’s called having courage.” I hold my finger above the trigger, only a split second from pressing down the trigger and lighting him up. It takes all the willpower I have in me not to kill him. I know the second I do that, the Syndicate will unleash its force upon me. And as intimidating as I make myself look, I know that even the cube has its limits. “As important as it is to make sure this cube is used for good tomorrow, I can’t let that stop me from trying to do good with it today. My life doesn’t even matter at the end of the day. I’m nothing but a little blip in this world and galaxy. But one hundred thousand, one million people, however many are still alive down there and needing help—that’s a different story. And I’ll happily die knowing I tried to make that story have a good ending.”
“Okay.” Drew nods at me, not shying away from the barrel of the machine gun only inches away from him.
“No, Drew, don’t let him do this,” Justin says in a panicked tone. Every time that man looks at me, I actually feel like he cares about me, and that only drives me madder.
Drew holds up a hand to dismiss his concerns. “We will be down on the ground in two minutes. You have twenty-four hours to try and save this city. If you die, we will make sure to find your body and toss it to the bottom of a nice river—it’s better than being buried in the ash. If you aren’t at the exact location we land in twenty-four hours then we will find you and take that cube from your hands so that you never have anything to whine and bitch about again.”
“What if you don’t come twenty-fours from now? What should I do then?”
“Oh, don’t worry about that.” Drew grins, a tiny space remaining between his two lips where the hole in his mouth from his missing teeth is visible. “The Syndicate never fails to hold up our end of the deal. You know the covenant. Blood brothers for life. We wouldn’t ever leave you behind, my friend.”
I sigh as I finally put the machine gun down to my side. I should be happy, excited that I won this mini-battle with Drew and can continue on to fight the war against Li Wang. But deep down inside I know what happened. I didn’t win. The Syndicate is only playing me because they know I have no choice but to go along with it.
I need the Syndicate as much as they need me.
And that scares me more than anything.
/> “Sam, are you sure you want to do this?” Ai puts a hand on my shoulder as she approaches from behind me. I feel a rush of electricity through my skin at her touch.
“Someone has to try. And I don’t know if anyone else is going to, so I have to do this.”
“You know this is a death sentence,” Ai hisses. I have to admit I don’t expect to be treated like royalty around here, but the angry vibe emanating off her is not what I expected at all. “You know there is no way you are going to live. There’s no way!”
“Ai, calm down, it’s okay.” I grab her to stop from falling as the plane hits a bit of turbulence on the way down. “Okay fine, who am I kidding? It’s not okay, this sucks, but I have to do what I can. I have to try.”
“No, you don’t. Sam, this is suicide!”
“She’s right,” Justin chimes in for good measure, meanwhile Jake stares at both of us, his lips quivering as he tries to find words to say.
“You are gonna go out there and get yourself killed! Right now, just landing here we are risking our lives.” She pauses to take a deep breath, and in her break nothing but the sound of desperate screams echo in the aircraft from the holograph. “Why do you have to keep going? After everything, do you really have to keep doing this? You have almost died like five times in the last twenty-four hours. We all have. Why risk it again when it’s going to turn out just like before—all for nothing?”
“Because there’s no telling for certain if it will be like before. If I thought like that, I would have given up in this fight a long time ago. This game just got started, and the whole world is at stake. We can’t stop playing yet, not when we haven’t even lost.”
“Life isn’t a video game!” Ai screams so loud that my ears sting with her words. She is back to talking fast again, my brain rushing to keep up with her. “Life has real consequences and real shit that when it goes down can’t be reversed.”
“You don’t need to tell me that.” Tears well up in my eyes as I push back all the emotions that threaten to knock my determination off course. “Trust me, I know all too well what this world can do to people. And I wanna try and make sure I stop it hurting as many people as I can. I’ve already hurt enough. I’ve already killed enough people that I deserve whatever comes my way.”
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