“It’s like magic, isn’t it?” he said. “In case you’re wondering, and I know you are, I’m taking advantage of the plethora, that’s right I said plethora, of virtualmode portals in the downtown area. I’m using them to project this wonderful image in front of you.” He spread his arms, again. “It’s a little trick you might learn one of these days, if you’re lucky.”
“Is this a game to you?”
“It’s all a game, wouldn’t you say?” He dropped his arms. “I mean, everything is useless, just a game for the gods. And where does it end, huh? Where does it all end, wonderboy? Because now you know the truth, don’t you. You know who we’re doing our little song and dance for.” He pointed up.
He’s known all along. He knew I wasn’t human. He knew Fetter was out there. Why hadn’t I seen it before?
“Look at you,” he said, clasping his hands over his heart, “all grown up and realized. You’re a big boy now, your master must be proud. Is he? Is Papa Pivot happy that his boy is all grown up and out there saving the world?” He swung a left and right hook through the air. “You’re out there fighting the good fight, looking for the bad people, eh?”
“He’s not my master.”
“Oh, but isn’t he divine and wonderful? All pure of heart, like an angel sent from heaven to save the human race, wouldn’t you say?”
“How did you know?”
“How did I know?” His piercing laughter bounced around the enclosed market. “How did I… oh, that’s rich, wonderboy. How did I know? I knew from the second I saw you.” The canvas walls fluttered. “I saw through you that very first day you came to the Garrison, wonderboy. All doe-eyed and goody, I smelled Pivot on you like a seven day corpse.”
“You’ve known all this time?”
“Who do you think I am? Seriously, for being wonderboy, you’re not that bright—”
“You need to exit the market.” A man stepped into view. “No one’s allowed… ”
Pike turned on the man, his anger impacting him like a wave of atomic heat. It was only the embrace of my mind around him that kept Pike’s wrath from stripping his mind clean, but it still knocked him backwards and out of sight.
“You can’t save them all,” Pike said. “Besides, what’s the point? They’re all heading for the great black planet in heaven anyway. You only delay the inevitable.”
“How could you know about all this? How could you elude the minders and the Paladins?”
“Everyone knows! Every one of these skinbags, these buckets of worm food, know their life is futile, a waste of effort! They all know, wonderboy, right here, they feel it.” He thumped his chest. “They know there’s something wrong with their existence, that their gods are just playing them. They just refuse to face the fact that they’re rats in the wheel.”
“That’s why you hate being human, is that it? You want to be absorbed by Fetter, just to get it over with.”
“You still don’t get it? You don’t see?” He yanked off his glasses and marched closer, white eyes blazing in the dim light. “Let me know when you do.”
I still couldn’t feel him. Couldn’t feel him. He had a presence, but no sensation of essence. But that could only mean… “You’ve already converted.”
“Oh, you’re getting warmer.”
“You’re a duplicate.”
“You’re red-hot!”
There has always been a mystery about Pike. They wouldn’t kill him. He endured torture beyond what was humanly possible. He was never meant to survive, but he did. He always survived. Because…
“You’ve always been a duplicate.”
“WE GOT A WINNER!” He whooped and hollered and leaped and danced, swinging his arms over his head in wild celebration.
Outside, the sirens rang out and voices crowded around the market. A few people peeked around the corner. A policeman walked inside with the father of the little girl. He nodded at Pike who was now doing something of a foxtrot.
“Can I speak to you a moment, sir?” the policeman asked.
Pike stopped mid-step. He put on his black glasses and wiggled his eyebrows. He pursed his lips as the policeman slowed his approach, putting his hand on his sidearm, sensing danger.
“Sir, I need you to put your hands where I can see them!”
Pike drew a whistling breath between his lips. The temperature in the market suddenly dropped.
“I need you to—”
His face paled. And Pike drew deeper. The policeman dropped to his knees. Pike was drawing out the man’s essence, absorbing it like a parasite. Then the crowd began shouting outside as he drew on them, too. People were falling, screaming. I felt them weaken and clutch their stomachs as they felt the essence of their lives siphoned away.
I stiffened, throwing out my awareness like a protective bubble, penetrating every person within a square mile, coating their consciousness like a membrane. Pike smacked his lips.
“It’s like a cool, minty rush, isn’t it?” He flicked his tongue under his cheeks and lips. “Tingles the tongue. You need to get some of that, wonderboy. There’s only so much to go around.”
He knelt next to the policeman, struggling to breathe. “Would you be so kind as to leave us alone?” Pike asked. “We’re having a private conversation. Thank you.”
The policeman crawled away, pushing the canvas wall open and gasping for air.
“And tell your friends,” Pike called through his hands. “We’ll be done soon.”
It was all I could do to contain Pike’s influence. While I felt limitless in the desert, I felt more human since merging with Scott. Maybe since I wasn’t stealing life, I was running out of it.
“Look at you.” Pike walked near me, pretended to wipe a bead of sweat off my cheek. “You try so hard to save them. And for what?”
“They’re real.”
“Is that right?”
More sirens sang. Police were listening to the stories of what was going on. It wouldn’t be long before they stormed inside.
“It stung when you discovered the truth, didn’t it,” he said, sharply. “When you found out what you really are, it hurt. Am I right? One day, you’re walking around, doing good, helping people, saving the world, making a difference, paving a path to heaven then thhhhhhppt, you find out you’re just a pawn.” He pinched his fingers together. “Stings, just a bit.”
“No more than watching you murder.”
“They’re already dead. They just don’t know it.”
“They’re the reason I’m here.”
“You’re… you? You’re here because of… oh, I get it.” He wagged his finger over his head. “Yes, yes! Pivot created you to save them! Well, isn’t that just grand and holy of him. Isn’t that just divine, that he only thinks of them. Wouldn’t you say, because he certainly doesn’t care about you or any other pawn in his game.” He ground his teeth. “We’re all just pawns. The question is, do you want to keep playing?”
“You don’t have to do this.”
“Open your eyes, wonderboy! You’re doing exactly what he wants you to do. It’s all part of his plan, his great master plan to save the universe from the evil of humankind’s very own creation.”
“Fetter still exists.”
“I know, I know.” He waved me off. “You’re the savior that brought her back, blah, blah, blah… Why do you think I let you live, huh?”
“YOU, IN THE MARKET.” A policeman’s voice crackled over a speaker. “YOU NEED TO COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS BEHIND YOUR HEAD. I REPEAT, COME OUT—”
Pike threw his hands out to the sides. A sub-sonic wave thumped through the ground, shaking the walls. Despite my efforts, many people fell unconscious. The police abruptly reorganized to evacuate the area, calling for reinforcements.
“So fucking annoying!” Pike shook his head. “Anyway, where was I?”
He hurt them. How was he doing this? Even if he was here, in the flesh, the display of power was beyond me. But he was doing it through a projection! I felt my body shrin
k as I continued to protect the innocent.
“Did he tell you that you’re special, is that it?” Pike said. “Is that why you’re so dedicated to them, mmm? Is it because you met your original self, got to merge with your soul, is that why you’re so irrational? Let me guess.” He looked very serious, spoke in a gritty tone. “Socket, you’re the only one that can help them. You are the one. The One. Just like in The Matrix. That’s you.”
Pike tilted his head, like he was studying something genuinely curious.
“Do you know what happened to my original?” He put his finger in his mouth and cocked his thumb, jerked his head back. “Blew his goddamn head off his shoulders.”
“Original?”
“Oh, you didn’t know? Where are my manners?” He slapped his thigh, then extended his hands in consolation. “Pivot made me, too. Did I forget to tell you? Yeah, I was his first attempt to fool the Almighty Fetter.” He spoke into the back of his hand, like he was telling a secret. “So you see, you’re not that special after all.”
“Impossible.”
“The hits just keep coming, don’t they?”
“He wouldn’t have let you live.”
“He can’t kill me, wonderboy. He created a monster, yes indeed. And in case you haven’t noticed, they can’t kill you, either. But nothing will get in the way of the Papa Pivot’s master plan, bring forth the devil,” – he took a short bow, then gestured to me – “or the savior.”
As long I live, so will he.
“Listen, there’s not much time left before these morons march in here with their weapons and begin shooting air, so let me make you an offer before I have to vaporize their asses into cockroach shit.” Pike bounced his fingertips together gleefully. “I feel sorry for you, wonderboy. Really, I do. You’re young and naïve. You still have emotions and feel for these lab rats. It’s all very confusing, I know. It’s tough to be a teenager these days, really it is. But it’s time to grow up.”
“Pike—”
“Just listen.” He held up a finger. “Pivot is a master, I’m not denying that. After all, he’s going after the greatest predator that has ever existed. He wants to take down Fetter, something that has survived for billions and billions of years, in measurable time. In order to take down a tiger that size, he’s had to sacrifice a few lambs along the way. So how do you capture a jewel thief? You dangle the shiniest diamond right in her face.” He gestured to me. “You, wonderboy, you are the jewel. Fetter couldn’t resist. So do you think he needs you any more? Pivot still believes he’s god, am I right?”
“Why didn’t you just tell me this earlier, huh? Why all the games and clues and deception?”
“Now what fun would that be? Besides, I needed you to bring Fetter back.” He jabbed at the ground like a lawyer making his final argument. “The game is about to change.”
“I already delivered Fetter to Pivot.”
Pike looked around, feeling the reinforcements arrive outside. Blue lights flashed beneath the canvas walls. Hundreds of boots scuffed the pavement. It would take everything I had to protect them.
“I’m going to relieve Pivot of his duty,” he said.
“I can’t help you. I won’t.”
“Loyal to Pivot?”
“I will destroy you.”
“I’m counting on it.” Pike sneered. “And in return, I’ll find a special place for you in the universe. You can be my first in command, once you stop all this nonsense. After all, we’re brothers, you and me. All part of Pivot’s big happy family.”
“You’re no better than Fetter.”
“I am what I am.”
“You’re nothing.”
“As are you.”
As I released my mind from protecting the people outside, I felt a thread of his presence slip through the veil that hid his true location. It was faint and delicate, but I could follow it, I just needed time. I couldn’t let him destroy them. Not the human race. He was right, I had no reason, but I loved them, even if it was just emotion for my mother, for Streeter. For Chute.
“IT’S NOT RIGHT!” I shouted.
“It’s the law! Evolution! Man was made in the image of God and I was made in the image of man, therefore, I will become god. I will become a god, an unforgiving one. I will strike these motherfuckers with reckless abandon and devour what is mine. I will become the black planet that absorbs the universe, all that is, until all is gone. The universe will beg for forgiveness. And I will remind them… some sins cannot be forgiven.”
“I won’t let you.”
“Then stop me.”
He smiled and opened his presence. I pressed forward, shooting my awareness through it, following his projection with my mind, slithering through space and time, across the world, into the mountains, into the ground, slamming into Pike’s skin. He stood unrelenting on a stone slab, knowing I was watching, I was seeing. Behind him, the grimmet tree.
The Garrison!
I returned to my body. “I’ll be right there.”
“Don’t dally.”
“YOU HAVE THIRTY SECONDS TO COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS BEHIND YOUR HEAD!”
“And one more thing,” Pike said.
“WE WILL FIRE. I REPEAT, WE WILL FIRE.”
Canisters of tear gas shot beneath the tarps and rattled over the floor, releasing noxious clouds.
“TEN SECONDS.”
Pike pursed his lips. Drew a deep breath.
“FIVE, FOUR…”
Before I could reach out to protect the thousands of innocent minds, darkness settled over downtown like a blanket. The canvas walls shredded. Cars flipped and bodies tumbled through the streets. Windows shattered. Screams.
There was a bright light. I didn’t hear the explosion, but I felt the ground lurch. I was spinning above the market. I felt the city cry. I felt their panic in my chest. And before I landed somewhere far away, I heard Pike’s final thought.
[God will be dead.]
Refuel
She was old. Maybe seventy. I didn’t know her name or her exact age. I could barely open my eyes. Her brown wrinkled face was soft. She smelled like roses.
“Just relax, honey,” she spoke, quietly. “Help is on the way.”
I was on the wide concrete steps leading up to the Customs House, almost two blocks from the market. My body was twisted at an odd angle. As my senses returned, the smell of smoke and crushed concrete overshadowed the woman’s scent. The streetlights were dead, but the dark sky flickered orange from fire somewhere in the market. I looked around but the woman put her hand on my forehead, shooshing me to relax.
“Nowhere to go, right now, honey.”
The perfume on her wrist was strong. She patted my cheek, making sure the only thing I could see was her face. Her eyes involuntarily flicked down to something she didn’t want me to see. Gravel and debris were scattered on the steps, along with charred boards and metal.
Sirens were interspersed with cries for help and military orders. Blue and red lights ran across the walls and the old woman patted my face, singing a hymnal song without the words, humming lovely tones in her throat. Pain began to vibrate along my back and I was finally able to take a physical inventory of my condition. My pelvis was shattered and there were deep contusions along my ribs and liver and kidney. If that wasn’t enough, my left lung was completely deflated. I tried to move but felt nailed to the steps. A rusty iron rod was driven through my back and poked out between my ribs.
My strength was returning quickly, but I wasn’t sure how. I brought my nervous system under control, quelling the sensations of pain. I was stronger, but still not enough to see with my mind, so I looked left and right, the streets filled with ambulances and fire trucks. EMTs ran with orange boxes. How long had I been on the steps?
“Help is coming,” she said, mistaking my eye movement as panic. “Don’t you worry.”
A surge of strength emanated from her, filling my body, quickly healing broken bones. I shifted my legs to reconnect my pelvis, moving just enou
gh to straighten out, even as she tried to keep me still. I reattached crucial arteries and repaired damaged organs. All that was left was the metal rod.
A pair of emergency workers in white shirts jogged past with keys jangling.
“Excuse me, excuse me!” the woman shouted. “This boy needs some help, please.”
“We’ll be right there, ma’am,” one shouted back.
“Okay, okay,” she said, putting her hands back on my face and starting her song again. “They’ll be right here, honey.”
“Please, no,” I said, spitting out the words with only one working lung. “Others… need help.”
“Shoo-shoo-shoooo.” She touched my lips. “No talking, help is coming.”
I could feel her mind, now. Her name was Anna. She was seventy-four years old. She’d lived downtown all her life. She had four children and twelve grandchildren. She went to church on Sundays and rarely uttered a bad word. And she called most people honey. And it was her strength that was filling. Not so much her strength, but her love and genuine caring for me, lying on the steps of the Custom’s House with a fatal wound bubbling from my chest. She stopped to help me die, if she was honest. She stopped so the last thing I would see was a caring face. So I would not die alone.
I wouldn’t have died without her, but I would’ve lain helpless unless I stole essence from those around me to recover. Right now, they needed all the strength they could get.
“Okay, ma’am.” An EMT took a knee next to me, opening his box near my head. “Let me take a—” He choked after spotting the metal rod, even jerked back. He looked at the other EMT on the other side, both knowing their only recourse was to make me comfortable in my last few minutes.
Anna sat near my head. She took my hand and patted it while her song trickled between our palms. My awareness began to expand outward, penetrating the EMTs and the pedestrians standing back. They all held the same thoughts: Terrorism. Somebody blew the downtown up, but for what? Religion? Politics? Or had the duplicates finally returned?
Socket 3 - The Legend of Socket Greeny Page 16
