Children of Enochia

by Luke R. Mitchell

  “Why do you suddenly care?”

  He didn’t answer, just looked at the antechamber door, where the sounds of activity were picking back up, and a few curling tendrils of black smoke announced the arrival of a phase torch.

  “I think it’s more prudent you worry about our imminent exit.”

  “Fine.” I reached out and focused in on the first minor fault I found in the permacrete, trying not to pay attention to the burning smell of the phase torch or the sharp thud of the combat boot testing the door. “Then shut up and get those claws out, Parker.”

  12

  Breakout

  If telekinetically deflecting rifle slugs was on roughly equal ground with physically swatting aside punches, catching a Raknoth Special sniper round with telekinesis was more or less like taking a groin shot. From a raknoth.

  Then again, maybe I was just tired from tearing my way through multiple layers of permacrete ceiling. Not that I had done all the work. Maybe not even most of the work. As soon as I’d gotten the cracks started, Parker had sprung up with his inhuman strength, latched on with his creepy little claws, and started tearing off hunks of permacrete like he was shelling one enormous, dusty egg.

  Still, whatever credit he deserved for his excavation work, I think I more than made up the balance when I caught the first three sniper rounds that came cruising for our heads the moment we leapt up to the brig rooftop. I staggered forward, half collapsing behind the nearest permacrete lip to at least provide cover from one direction. I didn’t like what I saw before I dipped down.

  To say there was an angry mob waiting for us outside the brig entrance would’ve been… well, completely accurate. Except for the fact that this mob wasn’t sporting torches, impromptu clubs, and the odd firearm. They were all trained killers, all armed, and all catching on with military efficiency to the fact that we’d just emerged on the rooftop.

  Parker, to his credit, didn’t hesitate. He scooped me up like a helpless damsel and jumped.

  Like, really jumped.

  The only thing that kept me from screaming was that I’d seen raknoth leap before. Not quite this far though, I realized, as we continued ascending for longer than I would’ve thought possible. Too long. I twisted to look down at the ground as we reached our apex, and that scream nearly got me again as we started what must’ve been a seventy yard plunge, sailing through the bright noon air like our own version of a Raknoth Special.

  “You may wish to slow our descent,” came Parker’s voice through the rush of wind and the cracks of gunfire below.

  “You think?!” I shouted.

  The reckless bastard. Then again, maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised. We had both taken turns trying to kill one another, after all. Worst case scenario here was that he accidentally succeeded.

  I fixed onto our combined mass and channeled off some of our downward acceleration, using the energy to adjust our horizontal trajectory leftward, toward a gap between two buildings.

  “What are you—”

  “Cover,” I telepathically shot back.

  He didn’t argue.

  I took another strong pull off of our descent velocity in the last couple seconds, but we still hit the permacrete with all the tenderness of a mid-speed skimmer wreck.

  “Alpha’s wrinklies,” I growled, shoving out of his grip and back to my own feet. “Would it kill you to lose a few pounds?”

  “And here I thought you were powerful.”

  “You know what? I’m letting the next sniper round hit you.”

  He gave one of those too-suave-to-care Alton Parker eye rolls. “Which way is the research building?”

  I double-checked my bearings, then set off running north between our two blocks of cover, too irritated to answer.

  Parker was at my side in an instant, keeping easy pace. “Let me carry you.”

  “I can run.”

  “So can a sloth, technically.”

  I was considering whether to telekinetically trip him or simply tell him to grop himself to oblivion when the legionnaires caught up with us. They poured into the mouth of the alleyway where the two buildings ended ahead—what looked to be at least a full company. I could only imagine how many more were on the way up there, and the first gunshots from behind told me they weren’t the only ones.

  We ducked left into the cover of a shipping bay. I glanced at the doors that led inside, debating whether we’d be better or worse off cutting through the building. When I glanced back to see what Parker might think, the raknoth only turned to offer his back to me and lowered into a crouch, arms held wide.

  “Climb on.”

  “You’ve gotta be kidding me.”

  He shot me a condescending look over his shoulder, his eyes beginning to shimmer with crimson raknoth fire. “Grow up, Haldin.”

  “Said the raknoth asking to play piggyback in the middle of a manhunt,” I muttered. But I stepped forward and prepared to mount anyway, because the bastard was right. He was naturally far faster and stronger than I was, and I could devote a lot more energy and focus to playing defense if I wasn’t busy pounding permacrete.

  “Where is the lab?” he asked as I climbed on and scooted into a secure position, looping my legs over his hips and hooking my feet in the front.

  “Northeastern quadrant,” I said. “About a half mile in from the eastern wall and a quarter from the north. Three floor square building, right off an open shipping pad.” Reluctantly, I wrapped my arms around his chest. “You picked a pretty scuddy time to grow a conscience, you know that?”

  He only stood and snaked his arms around my legs. I could feel the strength in his body. There was no give, no strain. He handled my weight like I wasn’t even there, and I was uncomfortably aware of just how easily he could probably snap my femurs—by accident, even, once the going got rough. Which it was unquestionably about to do.

  “I trust you can protect yourself from gunfire?” asked my raknoth steed. Right before a pair of grenades sailed in through the bay doors and thunked down right next to us.

  I plucked them up with telekinesis and sent them back out, and harmlessly skyward. Or tried to, at least. They detonated a bare second after clearing the bay’s entryway. I grimaced at the debris that showered down outside, but that was hardly my fault.

  “Just go,” I growled at Parker.

  “Hold on tight,” he said. “I won’t restrain myself.”

  And as far as I could tell, he didn’t.

  We tore out of the loading bay with all the speed and momentum of a mag tram on scaly green legs, and Parker didn’t stop there. He launched us for the wall of the opposite building. I watched in shock, not sure whether to slow our impending collision or not. Parker had it under control. He hit the wall running and promptly launched us again, across the gap to the opposite building.

  Below, the legionnaires overcame their own shock and opened fire.

  I tightened my grip on Parker and pulled a barrier around us just in time for the raknoth to nearly throw me off with yet another bounce to the opposite rooftop. I tried to cry out that breaking the cover of the buildings was a bad idea, but there simply wasn’t time—or air in my lungs.

  I almost wanted to be impressed that the snipers actually managed to peg us with a few would-be kill shots a scant second after we broke the rooftop line, but mostly I was just pissed at the extra strain on my barrier and my turbo-jostled body.

  “Maybe don’t abandon our only cover next time,” I growled as Parker continued on, tearing across the rooftop with inhuman speed.

  “Only if you prefer I cut through our bipedal obstacles down there,” he sent back.

  Then he reached the end of the building and dove off, rocketing us straight for the cover of the next set of buildings. I leveled out our landing with telekinesis, and almost broke into manic laughter at the looks of pure disbelief I glimpsed from our stunned pursuers.

  Just that morning, I’d sat with Barbara Sanders, trying to humanize myself in the eyes of Enochia. And
now here I was riding an Alpha-damned raknoth through Haven like some kind of demonic red-eyed hosa.

  So much for showing Enochia my true colors.

  Once we broke cleanly away from the initial mob that’d been waiting for us at the brig, though, things at least got a bit smoother. As in, I only had to catch or deflect a handful of stray slugs here and there, and the snipers only got a few more shots in between buildings.

  But it couldn’t last. Any lack of firepower now simply meant they were scrambling to get ahead of us. Stopping and giving them an extra minute to do so was probably a terrible idea. But I couldn’t let go of the hope that Parker might actually be able to do what Therese Brown had been unable to. If he could save Johnny’s sister, if he could give Therese a way to save all the half-turned hybrids the raknoth had left behind, doomed to die slow, violent deaths…

  I couldn’t turn away from that chance, however slim. Plus, I was starting to worry my hips were going to dislocate from Parker’s mechanical, none-too-gentle sprinting if I didn’t take a break soon anyway.

  “Up there,” I sent, pointing over his shoulder. “Just after we break cover. You should be able to make the door in one leap.”

  Throw that on the list of things I’d never expected to say to an ally.

  Alpha, an ally? The word felt dirty. But I didn’t have time to dwell on it. We broke cover to an emphatic welcoming wave of softsteel slugs. I sagged from my defensive efforts, then nearly lost my grip as Parker tensed and launched forward. Too far.

  It took every bit of conscious willpower I had to not leap from Parker’s back and throw my hands up in defense as we sailed straight toward the second floor of the engineering lab. Parker threw his legs and arms out wide, like he was planning to simply splat and stick onto the side of the building.

  Instead, we hit like the massive bundle of stubborn man parts we were, crashed straight through a duraglass window—and, unless I was mistaken, at least part of the wall—and sprawled across the floor inside in an undignified mess of limbs.

  “I said ‘make the door,’” I groaned, rolling over and trying to assess whether I’d broken anything. “Not ‘wrecking ball the gropping wall.’”

  “There was a window,” came Parker’s voice. Then something strong and unyielding yanked me back to my feet. “And I sensed that the afflicted were located on this floor. No sense whining over unimportant details.”

  I glared at the back of his salt-and-pepper head as he stalked off down the hallway, crunching over broken duraglass on his bare, scaly feet and clearly in no need of directions. The worst part was that he was right: the hybrids were up here. Not that that meant the thirty seconds or so he’d “saved” us had actually been worth what felt like a mild concussion and a few bruised bones.

  But what did a raknoth care?

  I hurried after him, just hoping he could deliver the goods quickly so we could get the scud out, swap creepy, world-shattering alien memories, and then… Scud, I didn’t even know what came after that. Couldn’t afford to think about it right now. Whoever had sent that kill squad to the brig and sparked this whole scudstorm, I’d just have to hope Glenbark would still be willing to hear me out after all of this. If I was still alive to be heard at all, that was.

  A scream from ahead broke through my whirling thoughts, and I realized with a curse that Parker had just found the hybrid cells.

  13

  The Other Side

  When I raced into the reinforced room after Parker, I found him standing with his hands held harmlessly—albeit still green and clawed—out to the sides. Therese Brown was backed into the furthest corner of the transparent cell in front of him, having apparently closed herself in for protection, and positively shaking despite the slug-proof wall between them.

  “Hal?” she half-cried, half-croaked. “What’s happening? What’s he doing here? What’s…”

  “It’s a long story,” I said, hurrying to place myself between her and Parker. It was Annabelle’s cell she was standing in, I registered. It looked like she’d been collecting samples. “A really gropping long story, but the short version is that he claims to have a cure for the hybrid victims, and we need to hand it over and get the scud out of here before they catch us.”

  Her wide eyes flicked rapidly back and forth between us, her tablet clutched to her chest like a shield. “You’re… but he’s…” I saw my words register in her eyes. “A cure? From him?”

  “I did engineer these mutations,” Parker said. “As you might recall.”

  “Shut up,” I snapped at him before turning back to her. “I don’t like it either, Therese, but unless you have a better idea, I can’t turn away from a chance to save them. But we have to do it now, and fast. Do you trust me?”

  “Haldin…” Parker said quietly behind me. I was holding up a hand to silence him when another low voice rumbled from the doorway.

  “You sure you know what you’re doing, kid?”

  I turned to find Phineas standing there with a heavy pulse rifle and a perfectly bear-like glare trained on Parker.

  “No,” I admitted. “I might not. But I don’t see any better options. I need what’s in his head, and someone just sent a squad to kill me in the brig. We’re working with what we’ve got here, which is probably less than two minutes before they storm this place.”

  Phineas considered that for a moment, then nodded and marginally lowered his weapon.

  “Praise Alpha,” Parker muttered as Phineas waved to Therese, who let herself out of Annabelle’s cell and went to him, giving Parker a wide berth.

  It might’ve warmed my heart a little more, seeing Phineas wrap her in a quick one-armed hug, if my heart hadn’t been so busy taking that quiet moment to try beating out of my chest cavity with the screaming reminder of how much time we didn’t have.

  “What do you need to do?” I asked Parker, turning.

  He was already striding for Annabelle’s cell. “A quick look, first,” he said, not looking back. “A receptacle for the serum I’ve prepared, as well,” he added, glancing over his shoulder at Therese, who gathered herself, swallowed her clear misgivings, and went to the well-organized shelves of equipment on the far wall.

  “Pulling them out of the chambers hasn’t stopped the transition,” she called as she picked a few glass containers. “It’s only—”

  “Destabilized it,” Parker called, reaching down to gingerly take Annabelle by the chin and turn her head this way and that. “I know.”

  It made my insides squirm, seeing him touch Johnny’s sweet, helpless sister. I tried to remind myself that she was already dead if someone didn’t find a way to cure her of the raknoth disease creeping through her sedated system with each passing day.

  Therese was saying something about their sequencing, and how they hadn’t been able to properly determine some mechanism of action, but seeing Annabelle had reminded me that getting myself out might not be my only concern right now. I stepped closer to Phineas, who eyed me warily.

  “I don’t know for sure who sent that squad,” I said quietly, “but it smells a lot like Auckus or one of his friends is pulling the strings out there.”

  Phineas scowled.

  “I think we should get Elise and the Seekers out,” I said. “Just in case things… in case this isn’t an isolated attempt.”

  Part of me wanted to go charging back across base to Central Command to grab Elise and the others myself, but even Brash Emotions Hal knew that that was a tremendously stupid idea. You didn’t send the man who was the acting slug magnet to rescue anyone. You got him the scud away.

  Luckily, Phineas agreed. He was already nodding and opening a call with James on his palmlight. He looked at Therese, checking she was safe, started to step out into the hallway, then turned and grabbed my shoulder with one giant hand.

  “Be careful, kid. I’ll buy you a minute if I—”

  “Hey!”

  We both spun at Therese’s cry, just in time to see Parker withdrawing his bloody fangs from
Annabelle’s wrist, which he held delicately in both hands, like a fine porcelain sculpture—or a delectable hand fruit.

  Had the bastard just fed on her?

  I was already pushing toward the cell, ready to do… I didn’t know what. Not when he had the critical information and we had hostiles no doubt surrounding us from every direction. But Parker ignored us all and calmly began licking Annabelle’s bloody wrist. I stopped at the cell’s threshold, unsure what to do. Then he held up her wrist to show me. It was licked clean of blood, and the bite marks themselves were… healing?

  I watched in shock as Annabelle’s skin knit itself closed faster than human tissue had any right to mend.

  “We don’t have time for you to be indignant,” he said, pressing past me and reaching to Therese for one of the glass beakers she was holding.

  I was honestly surprised Phineas didn’t shoot him then and there, but the big man seemed to recognize, like I did, that there was more happening here than we could readily understand.

  “She should be primed to recover,” Parker said, gesturing impatiently for the beaker. “Now, if you’d allow me to deposit the rest of my sample…”

  “It’s… it’s okay,” Therese said to Phineas, handing the beaker to Parker, who immediately closed his eyes and bowed his head over the receptacle.

  Phineas swept his gaze across the room, his eyes settling on me with a heavy I hope you know what you’re doing weight one last time. Then he was gone.

  I looked back to Parker and recoiled at the thin layer of green something lining the bottom of the beaker. More was oozing down to join it. He was salivating the stuff, as far as I could tell, holding the beaker tight to his mouth and just letting it flow.

  I’d known he’d said something about synthesizing the solution, but somehow I hadn’t expected this.