by G. R. Carter
“Get the kids up there, I’ve got to stay with the Premier.”
“Yes, ma’am, I’ll see to it.”
Nicole turned to Essie with a suspicious glare.
“Don’t look at me,” Essie said. “You really think Alex would go through all these motions to get me back safe just to attack now?”
Before she could answer, the lights went completely out. They were left with daylight streaming in from the windows, but the hallway outside was mostly dark. The subtle whir of the HVAC system disappeared, leaving only the sounds of shuffling boots outside the door. Gunfire erupted from somewhere down below.
“Is that inside or on the street?” Nicole asked.
“Definitely inside. Where are your weapons?” Essie asked.
Nicole stammered. “I…we…don’t carry any up here. They’re all in the armory downstairs, in the basement.”
“Idiot city people,” Essie murmured to herself. Out loud she shouted: “You’re sure there’s nothing here in the office?”
“I know Tony keeps a pistol in his desk.”
“That will have to do for now. Any way to get a message out to my brother? Let him know what’s going on?”
Nicole shook her head. “Not without electricity. If the generators are dead, so are communications.”
“Good Lord, you people are just as bad as the ones before the Reset. What about the airship?”
“That’s got a wireless, but it won’t reach Republic territory.”
“Yeah, well, you might be surprised what we can hear over there. Let’s get up to the roof and give it a try. Grab the pistol and follow me.”
“What about Tony?”
Essie hesitated. “Wake him up, tell him what’s going on. He might have a backup plan. But get me that pistol first.”
While Nicole searched through Tony’s desk, Essie made her way to door. There were two Peacekeepers standing guard outside, both on high alert, eyes searching the long hallway towards the elevators.
“Where are the stairs?” she asked them.
One of the men quick-glanced behind them, where a steel door sat closed.
Essie turned back into the office and waved for Nicole. As she approached, Essie looked back down the hallway.
“Is he awake?”
Nicole nodded. “But he won’t leave. He said the backup plan is in the basement. He never thought they’d make it this far.”
“Who’s ‘they?’” Essie asked.
Nicole paused. “I don’t know…I didn’t think to ask.”
“Too late for that now. Doesn’t matter. These two are going to look after him,” she said pointing to the Peacekeepers.
“We can’t leave him behind—” She was interrupted by an explosion from the building next to theirs. “What the…?”
“We’ve got to go,” Essie yelled. “There’s no time! Nicole, if you want to save your kids, we’ve got to go now!”
More gunfire came from down the hallway. Essie grabbed the nearest Peacekeeper and barked, “You get down to the end of that hallway and buy Mrs. Diamante the time she needs to get to the roof, understood?”
The man shook his head, only half-understanding that Essie was ordering him to near-certain death. Both took off running towards the gunfire.
Essie turned to grab Nicole, but she was back at Tony’s bedside, leaning over and holding his hands in hers. She could tell he was trying to comfort her in some way, but it wasn’t working.
“Nicole! We’ve got to go NOW!”
Nicole leaned over and kissed him one last time on the forehead, then ran in Essie’s direction. She didn’t look back, or at Essie, as she flung open the stairway door and headed up the stairs. Essie followed right behind, surprised that the older woman was outrunning her.
They reached the rooftop docking station. Essie gasped at the size of the structure above her, the skyship had to be several hundred feet long, hovering above the city. There was a long walkway attached to the passenger’s gondola slung underneath the belly of the metal skin. She recognized the craft, or at least the shape. She’d shot down several of them, hated the very sight of them. Now she recognized the grace and beauty, the sleek lines designed to cut through the air.
Essie was a pilot through and through, and she could appreciate the careful planning and man-hours responsible for the machine. And now she appreciated the irony of using something she had tried so hard to destroy as an escape from whoever was trying to kill her.
Nicole stopped and looked out the windows to the city below. Smoke was rising from multiple places and—she gasped. “The gates to City Center…they’re all open! Where did all those people come from?” More explosions echoed through the concrete canyons below.
“Those people are going to be here any second,” a voice said. It was Russell, standing next to the prone body of another Peacekeeper. Nicole looked at him, then at the body below. “Sooner we get out of here, sooner we can get back to Independence. Back to the folks we can trust,” he said. “Skyship crew is all waitin’ for ya, Mrs. Diamante. Loyal to you, I made sure.”
It was decision time again, and Nicole bet on who she knew. She followed Russell down the walkway with Essie close behind. More gunfire and screams, this time close behind them. As the two women made their way inside the skyship’s entryway, Russell stepped back onto the walkway. He looked at Essie and pointed. “You take care of her,” he said, then slammed the door from the outside.
“No! No! Russell, don’t!” Nicole cried. But the engines were already at maximum rpm. The craft shuddered as the docking clamps released, launching the skyship up in the air fast enough to send both women crashing to the floor. Nicole lay there for a moment, sobbing.
The sound of her children calling for her changed her demeanor immediately. Without another word she was on her feet and heading for the crew compartment where they were safely hidden away.
Essie got to her feet, trying to get a good look at what was going on below. The skyship trembled as the autocannon mounted underneath barked, sending shells ripping into the covered walkway below. Glass windows shattered and pieces of metal spun off the building into the air then tumbled towards the chaotic streets several hundred feet below.
Two men were firing at them from an opening on the walkway. Essie watched the muzzle blast, wondering just how armored the airship’s gondola was. Her answer came in shattered glass from a few yards down. She didn’t flinch or take cover. She had to see this for herself.
The skyship’s gunner focused on the threat – she began to rake the entire walkway with shells. No letting up this time, the small explosions tore out pieces, then chunks, then sections of the structure. Essie watched in guilty captivation as the entire skywalk finally gave way. She thought she could even hear the screech as the metal surrendered and detached from the building, gouging as it slid down the sloped roof.
A rifle fell out of one of the jagged openings, followed closely by one of the men firing at her just moments before. Essie couldn’t tell if he was still alive as he plummeted down. But she could see the other gunman, dangling from the side of the building. Both of his hands gripped a metal tube that had been part of the skywalk’s support structure. The tube skewed at an odd angle, giving gravity the advantage against his waning strength.
She was part horrified, part fascinated. She wondered for a moment if she should cheer for the man to pull himself up…no, I don’t think so she decided.
She’d dreamed of just this sight: to see the White City’s gleaming skyscrapers blackened with soot and fire. To see ARK on its knees and the Diamantes in their graves. She wanted revenge for what they had done to Mt. Horab, to her John. Now her dream was coming true, but not at her own hands. The victory felt hollow—she wondered if it would have felt the same if it had been her bombs, her planes that caused the devastation.
But it hadn’t been her actions; it hadn’t even been her brother’s. As with most empires, ARK had fallen from within. A civil war accomplished what no one else
could. Still, something didn’t seem right. Most of the buildings below were burning, not exactly the actions of anyone wanting to keep their prize.
As the skyship ascended out of the range of danger, Essie watched the remaining gunmen finally lose his grip on the building and slide down the roof. As he disappeared over the edge, she wondered what had motivated him to fight here. Just following orders? Had ARK done something to damage him or someone he loved? She knew what her motivations were, but this level of violence looked different.
She recognized this kind of destruction from her nightmares. This looked like pure hatred.
*****
Timothy Maxwell sat in a high-backed leather office chair, running his hand over the top of the massive desk that dominated Tony Diamante’s office. He leaned back, staring at the giant maps painted on the wall. He’d been here numerous times, called on the carpet like some common clerk to fix this computer or send a cable. Tony and Nicole had always hated him; they merely tolerated him so he could help administer RenOne, ARK’s supercomputer. “But they never trusted me, not completely,” he mused to himself.
“They were right to worry,” Bobby Diamante shouted as he was pushed into the office. His hands were bound behind him, and he lost his balance from the forward motion. As he hit the ground, a boot from one of Maxwell’s men came down on his head. Bobby groaned, semi-conscious.
Maxwell smiled. “Now they’re paying the ultimate price for underestimating me.”
He could relax for a moment. Even if Nicole had slipped his grasp this time around, ARK was ruined forever. The entire City Center was in shambles, thousands of their loyalists dead. All Maxwell had to do was give RenOne a simple command. With a few key strokes he’d opened every gate. The same commands had interrupted the city’s power supply by shutting down the generators at the same time. Within moments the greatest fortified city in the world was reduced to a helpless sheep in the face of a vicious wolf pack.
“Mr. Maxwell, he’s awake now.”
Maxwell nodded to a Peacekeeper in all black with a white circle armband, then stood up and stepped over Bobby as he made his way to the hospital bed where Tony Diamante lay. He was restrained, held to the bed by leather belts pieced together from his dressing room. There was little need for concern of his escape. Tony looked feeble, a shriveled shadow of the man he once was.
“Mr. Premier,” he said with drawn-out disgust. At the sight of Maxwell’s face Tony strained to get up, gripping the side rails of the hospital bed.
“Don’t bother,” Maxwell laughed. “Even if you could get out of that bed, you wouldn’t get past my Peacekeepers…oh right, you probably figured that out, they’re my Peacekeepers now. Started off loyal to Kathy, and since you let the Red Hawks arrest Kathy…let me just thank you for that. That was a stroke of genius.”
Maxwell watched the questions form on Tony’s face. “Oh, don’t think I didn’t like your cousin, for what she was able to do for me. But really, Tony, do you think I’d possibly want to spend any more time with that wretched woman than I had to?”
Tony said nothing. His throat was dry and he could only wheeze when he tried to speak. Meanwhile Maxwell was having the time of his life. Never had he been the man in charge, the real shot-caller. ARK was in his hands now, presented on a silver platter by the very people who treated him so poorly for years. He tried to withhold his elation; he just couldn’t help it, he wanted to savor every moment. “You wanna know how I did it?” he giggled. “It wasn’t easy, took years of planning. Did you know it was me who planned the Mt. Vernon attack? That’s right, I may not have killed your beloved Uncle with my bare hands, but I was responsible.
“I probably couldn’t have done it if you’d been smart, of course. But you weren’t, were you? You thought you were smarter than me, smarter than Continuity.”
Tony’s eyes went wide. Maxwell stopped, surprised, “Do you remember that name?” he asked, clasping his hands. “You know, don’t you? You know why the lights went out that night? Of course you do! You were clever to build your own supercomputer, to keep RenOne off the grid and away from Grapevine. But guess what, Tony? You let one of the architects of Grapevine here into your own home.” He leaned into Tony’s face. “I know you think you had it all figured out, but you know nothing. Nothing, Diamante!”
Maxwell leaned back up and straightened his shirt. Then he patted Tony on the shoulder. “Don’t worry. I’m going to take good care of ARK when you’re gone. Well, what’s left of it. Your White City will be covered with black banners. The Continuity Ring will be everywhere. Your Arch will be a symbol of my faith for eternity, our very own Mecca or Rome.
“RenOne will hook me right back into Grapevine. I’m bringing Continuity a loyal servant—she’s awake now, you saw that. But you didn’t know what it meant…I did! I figured out what she was saying when she woke up. I figured it all out just in time to let the mass migration in.”
He was laughing now, eyes tearing and snot dripping out of nostril. “I just opened the gates! Can you believe it? All your trained killers, fancy war machines…ARK fell because I just opened the doors!
“They’re almost all here, Tony. The workers we need to build our new world. They think they’re waging jihad, destroying the infidels. Well guess what? They’re right about that. The jihad is killing all the infidels—the ones who defied Continuity.”
Maxwell wiped his face on his shirt and walked to the map wall, gleaming with satisfaction. “The good news is I’m going to keep you alive for now, Diamante, just so you can watch what I do.” He glanced over his shoulder and smirked. “Or is that bad news for you?
“Either way, thanks for getting this started, Mr. Premier. You’ve put almost everything in one basket for us.” He stabbed a finger at a symbol on the eastern side of the map – a bright red hawk staring right back at him. His finger hit so hard it tore the paper. His satisfied smirk twisted into a sinister glare. “Now all we have to do is finish off what’s left.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Founder’s Hall
Red Hawk Republic Capitol Building
City of Shelbyville
Two Days after the Fall of ARK
Alex sat at the end of the Founder’s Table, watching as aides wrote updates on a chalkboard just to his right.
Boar King surrounding Beardstown
Cincinnati and Louisville under Caliphate control
Hopkins has burned Clarksville, taken Memphis
ARK falls
The Founder of the Republic felt as helpless as a frontier farmer surrounded by a thousand hungry lions. Sure he’d fight, and send a lot of his enemies to their grave. But in the end, simple arithmetic would win…and his people would lose.
“What’s the status of the northern border? Did the Caliphate leave it undefended to attack on our flanks?” Rebekah called to a group huddled near a map on the far end of the table.
“No, ma’am. Current intelligence tells us they’re still there, full strength,” a young officer replied, then turned back to compare notes with her colleagues.
“Where are they getting all these people?” she asked quietly to Alex.
He didn’t answer; he was trying to think like his enemies, to figure out who was calling these shots and what they might be aiming to accomplish. Unfortunately, he knew who the next target would be. He just didn’t know how the direct attack on the Republic would happen.
“We’re surrounded,” he finally said quietly. A couple of nearby aides stopped what they were doing and turned to their Founder, wondering if he was giving them instructions. Satisfied their leader was just thinking out loud, they returned to their tasks. He grabbed Rebekah’s hand. “Let’s take a walk.” She looked surprised, but then nodded. There were more ways to formulate a plan than just staring at a board.
As they were walking out, he asked her the question he didn’t want to know the answer to. “Have we heard anything about Essie?”
Rebekah shook her head. “We’re in the dark on
this one. Our spies were, um, silenced during ARK’s collapse. We don’t have a clue how it happened, but outposts on our side of the river can see black banners flying from the buildings. That circle symbol is on them all.”
“We’ve seen that keep popping up for years. That’s the key to everything…where does it come from?” he said absently.
“Remember that Jiji that Bob Culper interrogated. The one that warned about a storm…he called it a ‘haboob’ right? Then he asked about being as far inside the Republic as possible.”
Alex thought for a moment. “I assumed he meant the Caliphate would attack through Lafayette, that’s what we’ve been reinforcing against.”
Rebekah agreed. “We just never thought about the Jijis taking on ARK directly, at least not at first. We’ve got to be missing something here.
“Maybe he was just saying that further south would be safer…you think he meant that they’d just bypass us?” His mind raced back to the American province. “I’m wondering if sending Phax with Martin was a bad idea. If the Caliphate is still full strength north of the river…”
Bek stopped him. “We have to keep Phax and Alia separated. As much as I hate them being away, we can’t be a single target. Remember, the Diamantes thought they were safe in their capital city, and they weren’t even safe in their own building!”
The mention of ARK’s former rulers switched his mind back to Essie.
“The skyships…were they still docked on the top of the City Center buildings?” he asked.
Bek shook her head. “No. All of them were gone. We did have some eyewitnesses see the one docked at the top of Renaissance Place take off. It had a gun battle with someone on the roof but it flew away.”
Alex smiled for the first time in 24 hours. “Essie made it out, then.”
“How can you be so sure?”
Alex looked at Rebekah. “Don’t underestimate that girl. Sorry, don’t underestimate that woman. I’m guessing since she’s not here she got Nicole out, too. They’ll be heading for Independence, try to reorganize whoever is still loyal to Nicole and make their stand there.”
