“He’s as skinny as the rest of them,” Luxarn said. “And you kept his mask on? You haven’t gone soft on me, have you, Graves?”
“I didn’t want to spoil him for you,” I said.
“Of course.” He lay his hand upon my shoulder as he turned to face me. We were close in age, but the way he regarded me made my heart sink. Like a proud father watching his son go off to medical university.
“I can never repay you for this,” he said. “I will bring this monster to Earth and show our people there is no need to be afraid. We will break the Ringers’ spirits when they see what’s become of their king. And with you taking charge of my and Madame Venta’s fleet, we will defeat his aunt and quell this riot once and for all. We’re one more step toward peace today thanks to you, my friend. For all of humanity.”
Luxarn turned his attention back to the pod and prepared to crack it open to face the only rival who’d ever stood against him without being squashed like a cockroach straightaway. I finally considered stopping him and ending this charade. Then I heard the voice of one of the Ringers holding Aria hostage in my ear.
“Is… he… out… yet?” The reception was poor, considering we were surrounded by rock but clear enough to discern the words through the static. Either Kale was walking off Undina after claiming his prize, or we were all going to die together.
“You don’t know how long I’ve been waiting to look into this bastard’s eyes and tell him he’s lost,” Luxarn said.
“He’s put me through a hell of a ride,” I said. “You don’t know how long I’ve been waiting to watch.”
Luxarn reached out to open the pod but stopped just before. “Zhaff should be here,” he said.
“He needs medical attention right away, sir,” I replied, speaking way too fast. He didn’t seem to notice my sudden onslaught of nerves. Zhaff knew what I had done now, and if he woke up before Kale, this entire plan would go up in flames.
“Then perhaps we should wait.”
“I’d rather not,” I said.
“Oh, Malcolm. There is no reason to rush. It’s moments like these you must learn to savor. You wouldn’t eat a steak cut fresh from one of our few cows in a single bite, now would you?”
“A steak doesn’t keep me in a cell for months and nearly get me spaced outside Jupiter.”
Luxarn chuckled. “Good point.” He regarded me again, earnestly contorting his features in a way I’d never seen before. “I know it was hard for you after what happened, but thank you for never giving up on him or this company. When the Ringers ruined our plans on Europa, I worried you died and would never get a chance to know that he pulled through.”
“Zhaff saved me,” I said. I knew Luxarn thought I meant that he’d rescued me from Kale’s prison, but I meant it in my own way. Somehow, the kid had taught me again what it meant to care about somebody other than myself. If it weren’t for him, I realized I wasn’t sure if I would have saved Aria over completing my job. I might have remained too bitter over her leaving me like Kale now was.
For months, I’d imagined how my life might have turned out if Sodervall never sent me to Earth for vacation and I never got caught up hunting the Children of Titan. Now I knew I didn’t want that. Trass gave his life to give Kale’s people the Ring, and Zhaff had given his to save mine. I didn’t deserve it, but Aria did, and Zhaff… he deserved to be free of what his father had turned him into, even before he was brought back to life.
“Then let’s end this for him,” Luxarn said.
He signaled the pod to unfasten. Steam coiled around the opening as the cool, gelatinous liquid hugging Kale’s body drained away. Luxarn leaned over the edge, steepling his fingers as he eagerly awaited Kale’s awakening. The intravenous tubes stopped feeding Kale’s body the pharma that kept it dormant, and then his eyelids snapped open.
Kale reached underneath his back, grabbed the pulse pistol hidden there, and pressed it against Luxarn’s temple. He screamed as he vaulted out of the pod and wrapped his arm around Luxarn’s throat. His Ringer muscles may have been naturally weak, but he’d picked the one Earther to attack who probably hadn’t done a second of manual labor in his entire life.
The two Cogents swept into the room in an instant, guns raised, but Kale made himself small behind their leader. The shot was too risky, even for them. I recalled the lesson I tried to teach Varus at their shooting range about being able to pull the trigger when it really counted. Only now he was dead. So many were dead.
“Graves, stop him!” Luxarn shrieked.
I fumbled for a response, but Kale beat me to it. “Your collector can’t help you now,” he snarled. “None of your pets can. Tell them to drop their weapons!”
“There is a fifty-seven percent chance of lethal injury to your person if we fire at this range, Mr. Pervenio,” one of the Cogents stated.
“I concur,” said the other.
“Graves,” Luxarn said, fuming. “Put this animal down.”
I drew my pulse pistol just to keep up appearances, but I didn’t even bother aiming. There was no reason to twist the knife in him, no reason to provide false hope. His end had arrived the moment he placed more importance on vengeance than rebuilding his brand. This was a mercy killing.
“Tell them to lower their weapons, or you lose your head,” Kale said.
“Judging by his expression and acute facial cues, it is likely that he will kill you regardless,” one of the Cogents said. “Would you prefer us to take the risk?”
“Kill this madman!” Luxarn roared.
They didn’t get the chance. I finally raised my pistol and fired two shots. My fingers didn’t cramp on the trigger this time. No hesitation. From so close a range, even an old man like me couldn’t miss. The two Cogents’ chests exploded as they collapsed.
One got off a shot while he was falling back, but the bullet burrowed harmlessly into the wall above Kale’s shoulder. Another grasped for his gun as he clung to life, but I rushed over, kicked it out of the way, and put another bullet in his head. Then I sealed and locked the office before any more Cogents arrived.
Luxarn stumbled out of Kale’s arms and fell to his knees, his face so white with horror, he looked like the very Ringers he hated. Even Kale was speechless.
“Nobody on this rock is getting out alive anyway, right?” I said. “If you die, she dies. Get this the fuck over with, kid.”
“Graves,” Luxarn stammered. “What is the meaning of this?”
“Sorry, sir... I got a better offer.”
Life takes a strange twist on you when mowing down two young men is easier than looking one old one in the eye. I had to turn away from Luxarn just to keep my head straight. Feeling betrayal brings about a special kind of expression in a person. Equal parts revulsion and shock, with a dash of heartbreak for good measure.
“I was going to name you a director,” Luxarn said weakly. “I was going to give you the Ring!”
“I told you I didn’t want it,” I replied.
“This is too good,” Kale said, finally snapping out of it enough to breathe in the fact that he’d won. He circled around Luxarn, smiling, then grabbed him by the jaw. “Now you get to see what it’s like to have everything you believed in get stripped away. You get to see what it’s like to have your whole world crushed.”
“You drag this out, you’ll get us all killed,” I said to Kale. “You think that’s all of them? Just finish what you came for.”
“He’s not dying yet. Not until he admits what he did to us.”
“Admit what?” Luxarn asked.
“That every awful thing that’s happened to my people since our reunion with yours was by design.”
“You want a confession, you skelly piece of trash? How’s this. I should have killed you all. And you, Graves. All those years you fooled us all?” He spat at my feet. “Sodervall said you were a tired old wretch before I paired you with my son. He was right.”
Luxarn slowly got to his feet and faced Kale. He stepped forward until
the barrel of the boy king’s gun pressed against his forehead. “So do it,” he said. “Put me down, and I swear you will feel the wrath of Earther vengeance. Our fleet will rain nuclear fire down on Titan until it’s a smoldering husk.”
Kale shot him in the shoulder. Luxarn flew back into the wall, blood spattering across the metal panels. Kale strode by and knelt in front of him, lifting the man’s head. Luxarn grasped at the wound, eyes wide and whole body shaking. It was a surface shot, just clipping the top of his skin, but Luxarn appeared ready to go into shock, like he’d never felt any pain whatsoever before in his whole pampered life.
Kale reached up to his ear as he scooted toward him. “We have Luxarn,” he said to his men over the coms. “Send the package, then prepare the engine and have it ready for my return.” He kneeled in front of Luxarn. “Your fleet will run, or the rest of them will die too. Earth will pay.”
“Damn it, Kale,” I said. “End this.” I heard footsteps outside the door. Soon, Luxarn’s guards would bring out the fusion cutters or worse and bust their way in.
“Don’t do this, Graves,” Luxarn sniveled. “Whatever he offered, I’ll double it. Shoot him now.”
“I wish I could, sir. I really do.”
“You can!”
“He can’t,” Kale interrupted. “You see, you’re not the only one who has a bastard child. Tell him, Malcolm. Tell him whose daughter my ambassador, Aria, really is.”
My gaze turned toward the floor, and in my peripherals, I saw all the hope drain from Luxarn’s eyes. Any smidge of faith that he could turn me, considering I was behind Kale with an open shot, died as soon as he saw my face and realized Kale was telling the truth. We collectors had a particular lifestyle, and siring kids outside the letter of the USF wasn’t abnormal, but most got caught. They took their slap on the wrist and let their child go away. I never had.
“You really didn’t know?” Kale laughed. “Isn’t it wonderful to learn the secrets of the people we thought we could trust most? I wonder how many others he has.”
“What do you want, Trass?” Luxarn growled.
“I want you to admit it.”
“Admit what!”
“Everything. Admit the Great Plague that killed so many of my people was not an accident. That you planned the whole Great Reunion to take the Ring for yourself.” Kale pushed the end of the gun into his fresh wound. Luxarn squirmed and kicked, but Kale managed to find the strength in his Ringer muscles to hold firm. “Admit you locked us up and watched us die just for the joy of it!”
“What do you expect him to say when you’re torturing him, Kale?” I said. “Forcing a lie to make you happy is worthless.”
“I want the truth.”
“You want the truth?” Luxarn slid forward, wincing. “My father and I didn’t even think about getting your people sick. All we cared about was the wealth of Saturn.”
“That’s a lie!” Kale cracked him across the face with the butt of his gun. Blood and two teeth spewed out as Luxarn toppled. Kale wrenched him back upright, and I was about to say something when I noticed my old employer cackling. Blood leaked through the new gaps in his mouth as he did.
“I wish it was. Though I can’t say we complained about what happened. Darien Trass and you people fled Earth-like cowards while the rest of us faced judgment. But it came for you through us, didn’t it? It always does.”
“Liar!” Kale punched him again.
“Was it our fault you Ringers’ pathetic attempt at a new civilization made you so weak? Children of Titan.” Luxarn scoffed, a glob of red dripping from his lips. “We all came from the same rock. Your people just seemed to forget it, body and mind.”
I heard more fidgeting at the door and glanced back. More Cogents were likely planting charges. “Kale, get on with it,” I said. “We don’t have long, and you are not dying here.”
“Listen to the traitor, Trass,” Luxarn said. “You’ve lost. You came here for an apology, but you’ll never get one. We took the trash your people made on Titan and polished it. Made it something humanity could be proud of. The moment your people see that they’ll toss you aside, I promise.”
I could see Kale simmering inside. I’m not sure what he expected to hear, but Luxarn was once the wealthiest man in Sol for a reason. Even if what he was now paled in comparison, he’d always believed that the people of Sol were below him. That was the thing Kale and his followers failed to realize. Luxarn Pervenio didn’t only step on the throats of Ringers to get what he wanted. He did it to everyone. He believed he was carrying out a grand vision for settling the solar system and beyond. For ushering humanity into the next age. Hell, after a while working for Pervenio Corp, I believed in that too, in making sure that humanity’s reach was so vast we could never risk being wiped out again.
“So go ahead, Trass,” Luxarn said. “Kill me and prove what we’ve said about your kind from the beginning. That you’re worthless. Because the only apology you’ll ever get from me is that I cared enough to help your people survive after the Ring was already mine.”
“Are you finished?” Kale questioned. “Good. You can lie all want, but I’m going to make sure you feel what we did. Malcolm, open the door.”
“Do you want to die?” I said.
He shifted his aim towards me. “Open it, or Aria will suffer!”
“Fine! I’ll let more of them in so you can get off on killing.” I moved to the side of the door so I wouldn’t be in the way of the guards outside, then extended my arm to open it. A Cogent strode in, and it only took me a step to realize it wasn’t really one. The man wearing their outfit and eye-lens moved with too much character. I then saw the bodies of a few security officers lying in the hall.
The false cogent removed his eye-lens and tossed it to the side. “He’s here, Lord Trass.” He disappeared around the corner, then threw another man in.
Zhaff rolled once before slamming against the wall. His artificial left arm had been torn from its socket, loose wires dangling from just below his shoulder. His artificial left leg was mangled and twisted, broken open to reveal sparking parts. His eye lens had been ripped off, revealing a metallic jaw through his sinewy cheek and an eye socket that appeared like a hand terminal port.
All they’d left him with was the respirator latched over his mouth, but even it rattled like it had when he struggled for life on Titan. His human handed groped through the darkness as he tried to figure out where he was.
“I’ll make sure nobody else gets in,” Kale’s guard said. “From ice to ashes.” The man resealed the door.
Kale released Luxarn to run toward his battered son. “By Earth. Zhaff, what did they do to you?” Luxarn asked as he helped Zhaff to his knees.
“Kale, you made a promise,” I whispered. Seeing Zhaff had me feeling like I was going to choke.
“And I’m keeping it,” Kale replied.
He stalked toward Luxarn and Zhaff, aiming at them. “You gave the order that got Cora killed,” Kale said. “I’ve listened to it a thousand times. You didn’t even pause.”
“Who the hell is Cora!” Luxarn snapped. The volume of his voice startled Zhaff, and his artificial knee gave out. Luxarn scampered to lift him again.
“She was everything to me! And you ordered her to be spaced just because she was a Ringer. So before I pull the trigger, I’m going to make you see what it’s like to lose everything. I know about Zhaff, Luxarn. I know how he was left to freeze on the surface of Titan. And I know who killed him.”
“He’s not dead,” Luxarn said.
“He might as well be!” Kale shouted.
“Kale, don’t,” I said, teeth clenched.
Zhaff’s head perked up upon now apparently recognizing my voice. He used Luxarn like a crutch to try and rise to his feet. His artificial leg wobbled, and his respirator hissed as he exerted himself. He turned his right ear toward me, and it was then that I realized his new eye-lens had also been hooked into an artificial right ear, which he also now lacked.
&
nbsp; “Malcolm Graves,” Zhaff said, his voice tinny and weak. “Why.” He took a hard step at me with his human half. I instinctually raised my gun, and it felt like we were back on Titan all over again. Me and him, with Aria’s life hanging in the balance. Then he took a second step on an artificial leg just like mine, and it gave out, causing him to collapse.
“It’s him, my son,” Luxarn said, grabbing his son, who dug into the floor with his only hand to try and pull himself toward me. “Tell him to help us. He’ll listen to you.”
“I wish it was me who’d done it,” Kale continued, ignoring my pleas. “Executing Sodervall felt good, but robbing you of your only son would have been so much better. Only I didn’t have the pleasure. None of my people did.”
“Kale, I’m warning you.” I aimed at the back of Kale’s head, even though I couldn’t look away from Zhaff while his father struggled to stop him from crawling at me and wheezing. Kale didn’t react to it at all.
“It was your own collector who put down the freak to save his daughter, my ambassador.”
Luxarn’s arresting grayish eyes spread wide, directed straight at me. I’d meant to shoot someone first to keep my secret, anyone, but I locked up again upon seeing his anguish. In that moment, my betrayal of Pervenio Corp was complete. I realized why Kale wanted me at his side for this more than anything else. He knew he couldn’t break Luxarn without showing him the truth. And my expression had the truth written all over it, enough for Luxarn to know with his final breaths that Kale wasn’t lying. That he’d won.
“Now he’s going to finish the job,” Kale said. “You’re going to watch as your son dies, just like so many of my people. Shoot him, Malcolm.”
I froze. Luxarn lost his grip of Zhaff, which allowed him to continue crawling toward me. Every breath he drew sounded like an air recycler failing. And the boy who could not show emotion for so long had rage inscribed upon his eyeless, half-missing face.
Titan's Fury: A Science Fiction Thriller (Children of Titan Book 4) Page 26
