Genesis Rising

by Eliza Green

  Harvey lifted a brow. ‘More, you say?’

  His heart beat faster. ‘Plenty. You ask and I’ll do it.’

  ‘So if I asked you to go to the Elite and beg them for everlasting life? You’d do it?’

  Marcus opened and closed his mouth.

  ‘If I asked you to show them the entrance to one of the districts, you’d do it? If I then asked you to kick off a virus that threatened to wipe out the Indigene species, you’d do it?’

  Marcus looked away. ‘Well, I wouldn’t do it again, if that’s what you mean.’ He looked back. ‘They used me, threatened me. I didn’t have a choice.’

  ‘You did have a choice. Your choice was you didn’t have to go there in the first place.’

  Marcus needed him to see reason, to see it from his point of view. ‘Look, I wasn’t thinking straight. I was sure you were gonna kill me.’

  ‘I still might.’

  ‘So why haven’t you?’ His hands shook as he pushed his luck more.

  ‘Because I need you. Not for what you want, but that kid is afraid of you, and that makes you useful.’

  Marcus released a quiet sigh. At least Harvey had a good reason to keep him around. Even if that reason was bullshit.

  ‘And you think Bill’s coming here?’

  ‘I don’t know, but I expect he’ll try to rescue the kid.’

  ‘And then what?’

  Harvey stared at him. ‘You’ll give your life to stop him.’ He shoved him towards the hangar and walked in the opposite direction. ‘Enough questions. I’ve got places to be.’

  Marcus stopped at the double doors. ‘Harvey?’

  The man turned partially. ‘Yeah?’

  ‘Fuck you.’

  Harvey laughed. ‘You’re not the first person to say that to me. You won’t be the last.’

  His laughter faded as he exited through the main doors leading out. Marcus stomped back to his post. He gave serious consideration to killing the kid and ending this job right now. But if keeping the kid alive was keeping Marcus alive, he needed to play this smarter—like Gaetano would.

  ☼

  Four hours later, Harvey returned. He was back to his usual, cool self and back to ignoring Marcus. His visit coincided with the change of guards: Six finished their shift while six more replaced them. No replacement came for Marcus. Harvey left through the double doors. Marcus heard him muttering to someone outside.

  ‘Fuck this shit,’ he said under his breath.

  If Harvey wouldn’t tell him what was really going on, he’d find out for himself.

  ‘I’m going for a piss,’ he said to one guard.

  The man nodded and yawned, then climbed up the metal stairs to the upper tier.

  Marcus exited quietly through the double doors and headed for the area with the bathrooms. He heard Harvey up ahead nearer the exit, but couldn’t see him.

  ‘Any sign of him yet?’ Harvey asked someone.

  A low-voiced male answered him. ‘Nothing yet.’

  Marcus assumed he was talking about Bill.

  ‘How does a doctor with no survival skills just disappear?’

  Marcus’ ears perked up. He peeked at the pair and saw one was an Indigene. A sudden rage made his blood boil. Those freaks could not be trusted. When he’d heard that the entrances to the Indigene districts had been blocked, he’d assumed that ended Harvey’s association with them. But here they were, being treated like kings over Gaetano’s one-time confidante.

  ‘Where’s Taggart?’ Harvey asked.

  A third man answered, one of Harvey’s men. ‘We have men in New London tracking his movements there and eyes on the ITF. But he hasn’t reported in.’

  ‘Has he tried to leave the city?’

  The man answered, ‘The borders are locked up tight. He tried once, but he was turned back.’

  ‘And the hospital?’ said Harvey.

  ‘It’s cleared out. One of the doctors said he came looking for you straight after, but he left.’

  ‘We have to assume he’s on the move. He has ways of getting around.’

  ‘You want us to keep an eye on the districts, in case he tries to contact the Indigenes?’ asked the tall freak.

  Harvey shook his head. ‘I want him to come here. I want him to take the boy and deal with another problem I have. Then we let him go, and allow him lead us to the doctor.’

  The man and Indigene nodded and left. Harvey followed them out.

  Marcus was leaning against the wall when the double doors opened.

  One of the guards appeared and eyed him suspiciously. ‘What are you doing out here?’

  ‘I was just taking a leak,’ said Marcus.

  ‘What, out in the hall?’

  Marcus flashed a smile and entered the bathroom. He peeked out through the door to see the guard head to where Harvey had just been.

  He couldn’t do anything here while he was under surveillance. He also didn’t like that Harvey had more than one problem he wanted taken care of. Marcus assumed he was talking about him.

  He hoisted his foot up onto the sink and jerked the small window open. His reflection in the mirror caught his eye. Marcus stared at the face that was becoming more his and less that of his alias. With his old face, he could disappear. Only a handful of people knew it. As Marcus Murphy, he could start over.

  He shimmied through the gap in the window. It was a tight squeeze but he popped out the other side and landed on top of a crate. Marcus jumped down, hitting the pavement hard. A deep shudder ran through his legs. He muffled his cries with his hand.

  The sounds of shuffling feet nearby alerted him to danger. In the unlit area to the front of the station, Marcus saw Harvey get into his vehicle and drive off. The new guards were gathered in a loose group by the open-gated entrance. When one of them turned to look back in his direction, Marcus darted to the side entrance and hid in the enclosed corridor that ran parallel to the hangar.

  The voices of the guards inside the hangar rose. Marcus’ pulse almost drowned out one of his senses. He checked out the side door. Not seeing the men on patrol in the yard, he crept to the corner to get a visual on them. The guards had moved away from the gate. They had their backs turned to him and were chatting. With them distracted and the yard dark, Marcus sneaked past them and ventured into the even-darker city that reminded him too much of Earth.

  He ducked down a side street as soon as he could and caught his breath.

  ‘What’s your plan, Marcus?’ he muttered to himself. ‘Think.’

  The farther away from the kid he got, the better he felt. He’d left that world behind on Earth. He hadn’t come to Exilon 5 to interact with the ghosts of his past. This was supposed to be a fresh start, and part of that start included a better plan than kidnapping Ben Watson.

  Marcus spotted Harvey’s vehicle parked up ahead. He was standing on the street talking to another man. Both were caught under the illumination of the headlights. The man looked older and more senior than the dickheads he’d been stuck with in the hangar.

  He crept closer and listened.

  ‘Anything in Jameson’s data?’ Harvey asked him.

  The man said, ‘Nothing that details the exact mutations made to the DNA of the Conditioned.’

  Harvey banged his fist on the bonnet of the car. ‘We need Jameson. I need him alive.’

  ‘We’re looking for him. Anything else?’

  ‘No, Bill will be here. I’ve made certain of it.’

  Harvey climbed into his vehicle and drove off. Marcus breathed out his fear.

  If he could locate the doctor first, maybe Harvey would finally take him seriously. Or perhaps Marcus would bury Buchanan and command his own set of men to take over.

  This was his chance, his way out, his way to break free. To become the man he’d always known he was. But he needed someone on his side. He needed help to enact his plan.

  The Indigenes were out. The ITF—good and bad—was out. M
arcus seriously needed more allies on Exilon 5. There was one group who’d helped him before, even if it hadn’t worked out all that well for him.

  Marcus walked for a bit until he found a vehicle parked down a side street. He hotwired it and commandeered it to drive south, close to the exit out of New Tokyo. He sat back in his seat and thought through his next move.

  His way out? On foot. Less conspicuous than using a vehicle.

  His strategy? Using his knowledge of the shift changes and the habits of the men who followed Harvey.

  His weapon? That he was nobody and few paid him any attention.

  His destination? The Conditioned’s caves.

  To beat Harvey, he needed the help of those who were not loyal to Buchanan. All of the men controlling the cities were under Buchanan’s control.

  The car pulled up close to one of the exits out of New Tokyo. Half a dozen guards had been posted there. They all carried Buzz Guns and old-fashioned walkie talkies.

  The lack of technology reminded Marcus of Earth, and how they’d had to get creative to keep in touch with the other factions. He’d been a decent recruit for Gaetano, even if Enzo and others had constantly tried to undermine him. Marcus knew how to work with less. Could he say that for the men and women Harvey had recruited? Those used to plenty and not scraps? Knowing how to survive in a scaled-back world gave Marcus an advantage.

  With his patience stretched thin, Marcus waited. He needed to play it smart and side with those most likely to play nice. It was how Gaetano would handle it.

  But he saw no easy way to get past the guards at the gate. At least he’d seen Harvey’s car pass through the gates moments ago. Marcus wished he knew where he was headed.

  He waited for a sign, for some divine intervention to help him.

  Then something did.

  The guards received a call on their walkie talkies and the numbers at the gate halved to three. The men called away climbed into a vehicle that had been parked to the left of the walled entrance. The car took them back inside the city. Without a similar comms device, Marcus could only guess at what that had been about. But it didn’t matter. Whatever Harvey’s plans were, they no longer involved him.

  Another vehicle approached the gate and parked where the last vehicle had been. The three remaining guards wandered over to the car and spoke to the occupants for a moment. The car’s lights, shining brightly, were trained on the wall, not the gate, and none of the men had eyes on the barricade.

  A nervous Marcus got out of the car and ran for the gate. Before the others could turn, he slipped past the barricades there. Then he ran, hard.

  The blue light of the double moons, obscured by clouds, hindered his progress. The rocky terrain, blacker than his clothes, caused him to stumble a few times. The farther he got from the city, the more the tightness in his chest abated. In the distance, he saw flashes of light; he assumed it to be a vehicle because of its speed.

  Marcus headed west to the location of the Conditioned’s caves.

  He had information to give to the only species who wasn’t working with Harvey.

  21

  Gunnar led the way through a city Bill wasn’t familiar with. The exit from the Maglev station had brought them a third of the distance inside the city. The tall buildings swamped the skyline and smothered the streets below them. Shops with darkened interiors lined their route. Holographic signs using dwindling supplies of stored power flickered weakly, like ghostly apparitions. The weak light made it easier to navigate, but made it harder to blend into the shadows.

  ‘Where are we going?’ he asked Gunnar.

  ‘I have several contact points in this city, but with the way things are I don’t know how many of the operatives will have stuck around.’

  Gunnar headed for the middle of the city with a park at its core. A sign with New Yoyogi Park hung above two entrances. Beneath the sign was a second one with a description of the park. Bill read it as they passed. The one on the left was for people only, the other for people and their pets. Bill had seen the green space from Gunnar’s 3D image, and the large buildings that surrounded it. One was the library. And that seemed to be where Gunnar was headed.

  Gunnar darted down a laneway to the side of the library and stopped at an old, rusted door in a small courtyard at the back. He waited by a chain-link fence and checked the pin on his sleeve. The pin remained black.

  After a few minutes, he said, ‘There’s nobody here.’

  ‘Now what?’

  He held up his sleeve with the stone on it. ‘Now, we try the next location until this thing glows.’

  They backtracked to the main streets, which were quiet, but not entirely deserted this late in the evening. Groups of residents strolled together, but Bill hesitated, not sure that they weren’t some of Harvey’s men out on patrol. Before the residents saw them, he blended into the shadows of the laneway they were just in. Gunnar tugged on Bill’s sleeve before running and disappearing down a second laneway one street over. Bill followed into what appeared to be a collection point for rubbish. He waded through the bags belonging to the nearby businesses. There was way more consumption here than there was in New London.

  He slowed.

  ‘What?’ said Gunnar, turning.

  ‘This city—it’s not what I expected.’

  Gunnar smiled. ‘The rubbish?’

  ‘Yeah.’

  ‘Different cultures live in this city. They all have different needs. Nothing is a one size fits all.’ He waved at him to move. ‘Come on, it’s not far.’

  Bill climbed over the remaining obstacles containing God knew what. When his foot landed on something squishy, he shuddered. After scrambling over the last bag, Bill grappled for Gunnar’s hand. He pulled him free of the mess. Bill straightened up and saw they were in another small courtyard. At one end of the space was a locked, chain-link fence covered with black plastic. Nothing else.

  Gunnar lifted his sleeve with the stone on it. It was glowing orange.

  ‘We’re in the right spot.’

  A man’s face appeared over the top of the fence. Gunnar held his arm up.

  The man disappeared from sight. Bill heard a gate being unlocked.

  The man ushered them inside. ‘Hurry.’

  On the other side was a rundown property with a derelict sign on it. The man locked the gate and led them inside. Debris littered the floor of the hallway. The door barely fit the frame. Several windows had been broken.

  Gunnar looked around. ‘I like what you’ve done to the place.’

  The man smirked. ‘Some old lady’s house. She died a few years ago. Guess she didn’t like housework.’

  ‘And neither do you, apparently.’

  The man grunted and led them into a living room. Two women and a man were sitting on the sofa, checking the screens of their DPads.

  Bill strode over to one. ‘Are any of you getting a main signal from the Wave?’

  One woman, in her early forties, stood slowly. She wore a hoodie and a pair of combat trousers, coupled with thick, black boots. Her skin was pale, her black hair short and neat.

  She narrowed her blue eyes at him. ‘And you are?’

  Gunnar introduced Bill to the group. ‘Everyone, this is Henrietta, the leader of operations in New Tokyo.’

  ‘Hetty for short.’ She tipped her chin at him. ‘So you’re the man who pays our bills?’

  Bill nodded. ‘Thank you for your service.’

  The other pair looked up at Hetty. She nodded at the woman, who turned her DPad around. The screen was blank.

  ‘No main signal. This one’s out of power,’ the woman said to answer Bill’s earlier question.

  ‘How did you get past the guards at the entrance to the city?’ said Hetty.

  ‘We didn’t,’ said Gunnar. ‘We found an alternative route, through one of the Indigenes’ tunnels.’

  She smiled. ‘Clever.’

  The time for chit chat was over. Bil
l got straight to the point. ‘We’re looking for Harvey Buchanan. He kidnapped a boy, Ben Watson. We think he may have taken him here.’

  Hetty folded her arms. ‘There’s been activity everywhere, but my team has reported more trucks than usual rolling in and out of the docking station. Not the main one but a second one that was decommissioned several years ago.’

  That correlated Emile’s information earlier.

  Bill frowned. ‘How many are there?’

  ‘Strangely, not too many. Six, possibly seven. The team members come and go, but there are times when it’s just a skeleton crew.’

  ‘They’re probably stretched for numbers,’ said Gunnar.

  ‘Any idea if they have the teen there?’ asked Bill.

  Hetty shrugged. ‘Could have. We think they’re also storing weapons there. Hence why the teams are in and out.’

  ‘And Harvey?’

  She nodded. ‘He’s a regular. Are you planning to take him out? Because getting him won’t stop whatever wave of retaliation this is. He’s piqued the interest of many. It will take some work to undo the damage he’s caused.’

  That was what Bill feared too. ‘No, our priority is to get the teen out. We only brought a small crew with us. They’ll be our eyes and ears.’

  ‘And how are you going to communicate with them?’

  ‘With something similar to that.’ Bill pointed at the stone on Gunnar’s sleeve.

  Hetty smiled as though impressed. ‘The others said you were resourceful.’

  ‘It helps when you have friends in the right places.’

  This woman, who worked for him, was a stranger. In fact, all the people in this house were. Bill and Laura had only ever met with a select few, who then reported back to the rest. He hoped that when this was all over, the operatives could come out of hiding permanently.

  ‘How far is the abandoned station from here?’ Bill asked Hetty.

  ‘About two miles west of here. But less if we take a shortcut.’

  ‘Can your team get us there, undetected?’

  ‘As long as your additional team support can back them up. We watch your back; they watch ours. A double protection.’