by Drew Cordell
I was impressed with my rifle’s mod augmentations, but without the neural link from a suit of Inquisitor armor, I wouldn’t be able to use a lot of the advanced features. I flipped the switch on my rifle’s LED and shone the beam across the streets. There were no cars like there had been in the Mids, but there were bodies buried in heaps of trash. I couldn’t have imagined a worse thing happening here.
Nick helped Emily down, and the two of them put on armored vests and geared up with weapons from the bag.
“Let’s make this quick. I’m going to lock up the ship in case it’s not destroyed. It might be a useful asset later. We need to get into the Undercity as fast as possible. We’re too exposed out here, even with our gear,” Marwin said.
“I don’t like this at all,” Mary said to me, obviously trying to keep her eyes off the gruesome piles of trash and decaying bodies lining the streets.
“I don’t either. It will be better once we’re in the Undercity,” I said, hoping it was true.
Marwin led our group forward at a pace I could keep up with. Mary stood by ready to support me if walking proved too difficult, but I was managing with only some discomfort.
Most of the buildings on the street level had their doors busted in, probably by desperate looters. Some of the buildings had burned down, and others were intact, possibly still occupied by their former owners. Tears tried to work their way through my eyes, but I fought them back. It wasn’t the time to grieve or break down; I had to stay strong for now. I exchanged a quick glance with Mary, and it looked like she was experiencing the same feelings. It seemed like a nightmare; something like this shouldn’t have happened.
I thought I saw something move to my right, and I shifted my torso to the side quickly, wincing in pain, but catching a wisp of a moving shadow.
“There’s something over there,” I called to the group. “I just saw a shadow.”
“Scan all directions while we walk. If it’s a single survivor they probably won’t be a problem, but if it’s Enforcers or Harvesters, then we have another situation entirely. My HUD displays we’re six blocks away from the nearest entry point to the Undercity.”
We continued walking, scanning the shadows from the ruins of the world I had once known. I caught more moving shadows—people carrying weapons. “Saw another. They look like they’ve got weapons,” I called out, trying to track the movement.
“Are you all right? No one else has seen anything. You did just die half an hour ago,” Marwin said without humor.
“Yes, I’m sure of it,” I responded.
“I just saw one!” Emily yelled, shining her beam around frantically.
“Did you see a person or a shadow?” Marwin asked. “I’m not seeing anything on my HUD.”
Emily shifted her weapon. “A shadow, there was a— ahh!”
A burst of blinding whiteness flooded my vision, and my ears popped painfully. When the flash faded, my vision was gone, and my ears were ringing. I fell to the ground, dropping my rifle and trying to overcome the disorientation. People were shouting. “Put your weapons down!”
“Drop them or we’ll shoot!”
“Drop em’.”
“Do what they say!” Marwin yelled. I couldn’t see what was happening, I only hoped someone didn’t start shooting. With automatic weapons at point blank range, it would be a massacre on both sides.
A few seconds later, my vision returned and focused on a glowing orb in the center of the people standing over us. The attackers had placed an electronic lantern on the ground, illuminating their silhouettes. I couldn’t make out their faces yet, but they were holding rifles of some sort and one of them, a woman by the looks of it, was holding a gun to Marwin’s head.
Her face came into focus. “Caeldra!” I yelled.
I tore my mask off, choking on the rancid air but controlling my nausea. She wore a mask, but there was no question it was her. She turned to look at me, recognition growing in her eyes, but she turned back toward Marwin, still holding the gun to his head.
“Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t blow your brains out, you bastard,” she seethed.
“Caeldra, he saved my life, he’s on our side. You can trust him,” I pleaded, trying not to vomit from the horrible stench.
“Trust him?” she asked, her voice taking on a crazed tone. “He’s with the Government.”
She struck him in the head with the hilt of her handgun. Marwin crumbled to the ground, raising his hands to protect himself, but not moving further. Blood pooled from the dent in his head where the weapon cut his skin.
“Caeldra, he’s with us. Call it in and talk to Edgar.”
Had Edgar really not told Caeldra about what happened in Olympus?
Caeldra glared at me. “We don’t have comms. If you’re wrong about him, you’re killing him yourself.”
13 REPAIR
Caeldra holstered her weapon.
“Look, we need to get off the streets. It isn’t safe here,” I said, pulling my mask back on after I could no longer take the atrocious smell.
“Is that what you think? You think safety exists anymore? Look around. What do you see?”
I shrugged. It hurt to see her like this. I had gone through a lot, but so had she.
“There’s nothing. We’re alone in the Slums now, left to deal with the Harvesters. Almost everyone is dead, and there’s nothing we can do to fix it.”
“Listen. Let’s get to the Guild hall and the Justicars will back me up; I’m with you,” Marwin said, pushing himself up off the ground. I stood as well, leaving my weapon on the ground.
“Caeldra, this isn’t right. We need to get off the streets and talk this over. You aren’t thinking clearly. Let’s just get to the Guild Hall, sit down, and talk this out.”
She glared at me. “I thought you were dead. Do you have any idea how it feels to think you failed the one person you cared the most for?” she asked.
“You know I do,” I said softly, meeting her gaze. Caeldra looked down then looked to Mary who was holding my hand. Tears were streaming down Mary’s face through her mask.
“Oh,” Caeldra said quietly. “Mary?” she asked, her expression softening.
Mary managed a nod. “I’m sorry this happened to you, Caeldra. Please we need to go somewhere else—anywhere else.”
Caeldra nodded. I didn’t recognize the other Guild members, but they hadn’t said a word since Caeldra took charge.
“The Government got Mindshift,” I said. “The Mids are gone too.”
Caeldra looked confused. “We recovered the case we lost to the Scavenger Guild, but no one has been able to open it. Either the case wasn’t Mindshift, or the Government found the tech another way.”
I didn’t have an answer to that; I needed to think.
After twenty minutes of uncomfortable silence, we were in the Guild Hall. Marwin walked off to talk with the Council. Mary and I were escorted to Medbay by Caeldra while Nick and Emily went to talk with someone about joining the Guild.
My medical scans revealed minor cracks on four ribs, broken blood vessels in my chest, and severe bruising and nerve damage on my back where I’d been struck by the HK’s disruptor rifle. The nurse gave me a room to stay in and closed the door, leaving Caeldra, Mary, and me alone.
“You look like hell, Jake. I’m sorry. I’m not coping well with everything, and everyone is on edge.” Caeldra looked different, somehow changed by the events of the past months.
“I’m sorry, too. There was no way I could reach out, nothing I could do. I was in a coma for weeks, and we lost contact with the Guild after that. Did your parents make it?” I asked.
“No. We weren’t allowed to bring anyone off the streets for the first two weeks and they couldn’t get out,” she said, her voice distant.
“I’m sorry, Caeldra,” I said.
“It’s okay. We’ve all lost people. I don’t know what all you’ve been through, but it must have been bad.” Caeldra turned to Mary. “I’m sorry about everyt
hing as well. I was hoping I’d meet you, but I wished it would have been under better circumstances.”
“You don’t need to apologize. I’m just glad we’re all safe for now,” Mary said.
“Can you walk me through everything that happened? I have no idea what’s going on. We’ve been in the dark for months,” Caeldra said.
“Edgar didn’t tell you anything?” I asked.
“No. He just said you were alive, but the Council voted to keep the rest of the information private. Since we hadn’t been able to communicate with you in months, we assumed the worst. Edgar didn’t say anything about Marwin, otherwise I probably wouldn’t have hit him so hard,” Caeldra responded.
“That’s not your fault. I would have hit him too, if I was in your position.”
I explained everything from the beginning, starting from when Marwin took me to Olympus, filling in the details I’d been unable to tell Mary before. I got to the part about the Enforcer station and needed to come clean.
“They were trying to take us captive, and I wasn’t going to make it with Bernie. If the HKs captured him, we’d lose our shot of getting the data we needed, and he would have died a horrible death. I shot him in the back of the head.”
Mary covered her mouth. She took her hand away from mine.
“You didn’t have a choice. We’ve all had to make hard decisions, and there will be more to make. If we hesitate, we die,” Caeldra said.
“You killed him?” Mary asked, her voice quiet. I turned to face her, trying to reach out and grab her hand, but she pulled away.
“He was in so much pain, and his fate would have been worse if the HKs got him. I’m not proud of what I did, but there wasn’t a choice. I had to make sure we got out alive and the HKs didn’t torture him for information.”
“There’s always a choice,” Mary said.
“I made the only choice I could.” I met her gaze. “I’m not happy with myself, and I can only hope his death won’t be in vain. If I hadn’t killed him, he would have died anyway, and I’d be dead, too.”
She reached forward and grabbed my hand, nodding. “You did what you could. Just don’t tell Nick or Emily. I’m sorry.”
“I wasn’t planning on it. Things are bad enough as it is. They know Bernie died, and we’ll just leave it at that.”
“What’s in those files?” Caeldra asked, changing the subject.
“I have no idea. Configuration files, data backups, blueprints, who knows? It’s about thirty petabytes worth of data, though.”
“Damn. That’s huge. And you have a datapad that can store files that large?”
“It’s all stored in a compressed file, but yeah. Marwin’s going over everything with the Council right now. I didn’t ask, but I’m guessing I’m no longer a Justicar?”
“Not anymore. You’re out just because you were gone for so long.”
I shrugged. “I’d rather not have the responsibility, honestly.”
“I wouldn’t either right now. There are a lot of unpopular decisions to make. We tried to help people; we even took some teams down to the reactors to see why they were offline. It’s funny, the Harvesters had the same idea, and we ended up in a shootout in those cramped tunnels. The reactors aren’t off, they’re just not powering the Slums—or the Mids from what you told us.”
It didn’t make sense. There was no way Olympus needed all that power. “Where is it all going?”
“You know the Rail?” Caeldra asked.
Mary and I nodded. “I know of it. I’ve never actually seen it. The giant train that used to run food from the agriculture districts, right?” I asked.
“That’s the one. Well, it’s been active recently. They’re moving something, either to the warehouses in the industrial district, or away from it. They have thousands of Enforcers over there as well, and we haven’t been able to get anywhere close to it. Why the sudden interest when it’s been offline for months? What could they only move if most of the population was dead?”
I shrugged. “I have no idea. It doesn’t make any sense. It can’t be food. Does the Rail connect with anything else outside of New York?”
“Your guess is as good as mine. We don’t know anything about it, but if we could get on that train, maybe we could figure out what’s going on,” Caeldra said.
“Didn’t you just say that it was swarming with Enforcers?” Mary asked.
“Yeah. Well, that’s what the Guild was working on before you showed up with the plans. The Omniscience Engine is doing something with the Rail, and maybe now with the information you brought, we can figure out what.”
I shifted on the bed, flipping painfully onto my back. I propped up my pillow and pulled myself up on the bunk. “I know I need to rest, but there’s so much that needs to get done,” I said.
Mary brushed my arm. “Jake, you died. You can rest; we’ll be fine. Caeldra and I can talk while you sleep. We’ll catch up with you later.”
I nodded.
“Yeah, I’m interested in telling Mary everything you told me about her.” Caeldra winked at me. That was the Caeldra I knew. She wasn’t gone, at least not yet. “You wouldn’t believe what Jake said about you,” Caeldra said, pitching her voice dramatically and grinning.
“Now I’ll be able to sleep well,” I said, smiling at both of them. Just for a moment, it felt like everything was back to normal. It wasn’t much, but the comment from Caeldra was exactly what I needed to hear and it was enough to make me feel all right.
Mary leaned in to kiss me on the forehead, and Caeldra squeezed my good hand, stealing a glance at my mangled cybernetic arm. “We’ll get your other arm fixed up, Jake. Martinez will take good care of you. Sorry again about earlier; it was hard to believe it was actually you. I still don’t like that Marwin guy,” she said.
“He’s nice when you get to know him. Like I told you, he saved our lives. It’s good to see you again, Caeldra. You two go gossip somewhere else; I’m going to get some sleep.”
Mary and Caeldra left, flipping off the lights and leaving me alone in the darkness.
After an unknown amount of time, I heard a voice that pulled me from my sleep.
“Jake?”
The voice sounded familiar, but I was disoriented and still half asleep. “Huh?”
“Can I turn on the light?” the man said. I still couldn’t make out who it was, and I wasn’t entirely sure I wasn’t imagining it.
“Yeah,” I said, covering my eyes as the LEDs in the room powered on. I squinted and waited for my eyes adjust. “Edgar?”
“Yeah, it’s me,” he said, coming over and sitting on the bed, grabbing my good hand and squeezing it firmly. “It’s good to see you again, buddy.”
“Why did you lie to me? You said you didn’t know anyone on the Upper Level,” I said. I needed answers, and I still felt drowsy.
“You know I couldn’t tell you everything. It was restricted knowledge and things we couldn’t afford to have fall into enemy hands if something went wrong. I didn’t suspect the Omniscience Engine would ever have a physical form—we didn’t think any of this could happen,” he said.
“But you knew there was no Government before I was taken to Olympus, that they were looking for Paragon Thoughts. You knew exactly what they were and didn’t tell me,” I shot.
“All of that was highly classified. The Omniscience Engine is our enemy, but it’s the Government we’ve sworn to fight, the faceless entity that ruled the Mids and Slums before it decided they weren’t worth the effort to sustain. Our objectives haven’t changed, and we haven’t deviated from them by not initially telling people what we’re actually fighting against. They know now since the information is confirmed. The truth is we were limited on information as well—we didn’t know what we could tell people, or even if we could fully trust Marwin. He had only been working with us for a couple of years by the time you arrived in Olympus, and we had spoken to him only a few times.”
“There’s so much you knew that you didn’t tel
l me that probably would have been useful going into Olympus,” I said, feeling deceived. “You think I would have signed on for any of this had I known the truth?” My words were sharp now.
Edgar’s voice became cold. “Jake, you need to be careful what you say. We had no idea you’d be going to Olympus—we thought the Omniscience Engine was after you for treason. You need to trust what we did was in your best interest and we made the best decisions we could with the information we had on hand at the time. You endangered yourself when you knowingly read a treasonous book. I didn’t make you choose this life. Do you really think you would be alive now if I hadn’t helped you? Sure you came up with a Paragon Thought, but the second they collected your thoughts again, they’d know you knew something you shouldn’t. If it weren’t for our protection—even while you were living in Olympus – Infinitum would have gotten to you, and you’d be dead or worse. Do you think Marwin would have shown up when Infinitum was trying to learn your ability and uncover more Paragon Thoughts?”
I gritted my teeth. “How am I supposed to trust a word you say if you never tell me the full truth? How can I make my own decisions and fight for a cause when what I’m fighting for may not be real?”
“Faith. Look, we can talk about this later. I’m not saying I haven’t made mistakes. I did my best to protect you, and I’m sorry it wasn’t enough.”
“You didn’t even tell Caeldra what happened; you only told her I was alive.”
“You understand the nature of the Council. It wasn’t information I was at liberty to share. I knew you’d be worried about her, so I told Marwin she was alive when we communicated. I trust he relayed that information to you. Look, Jake, I did the best I could.”
I didn’t have the energy to fight anymore; I could deal with it later. “Is the Council done meeting?”
“Not yet. We’re on break, but I wanted to come see you. I’m sorry for everything, and I’m proud of you. It’s good to have you and Mary back, and I’m glad you both made it.”
“I’m sorry. I’m having a hard time staying awake and processing things. Maybe we could talk after I’ve slept some more?”
