“So we do what you want us to do, think what you want us to think. But why Darius? Why do you even need the rest of us?” Gavin pressed him.
“I don’t. You’ve missed the point entirely. All of this is for you, for the benefit of the Collective. All I care about is the survival of Oasis—of the human race itself if you want to know the truth.” Again, Darius seemed to be serious.
“The human race? Look at us, Darius. We’re not even human anymore! Do you think people were meant to live like this, engineering themselves to survive no matter the cost?”
Darius seemed to be losing his composure, letting more and more of his true thoughts come forth, unfiltered. “Yes. Of course that’s the purpose of all of this. Would you prefer the alternative—annihilation? Don’t you think I know what I’m doing? I designed you, Gavin. There’s not a mind in Oasis which doesn’t belong to me. Of course I know what’s best for the Collective. I created it!”
In a flash of insight, Gavin saw a secret slip from deep inside Darius’ mind.
“I may not know everything you know, Darius. But I know this—you’ve abandoned reason. You’ve abandoned the truth. You think there is nothing higher than yourself, but there is. And that’s the one thing you’re afraid of, isn’t it? That there’s something outside of you which you can’t control. The fear of it is lurking deep inside you, though you’d never admit it—not even to yourself.”
“You have no idea what you’re talking about, of the infection which even now spreads through your mind.” Darius became aware of his momentary lapse and drew his thoughts in tightly once more. But Gavin knew what he had seen and kept on.
“There was something I told Adan, something which feels the same as the shadow falling across the back of your mind. You know what I’m talking about, don’t you, Darius? You erased it, but Adan gave it back to me. Actually, it isn’t a thing at all, though that’s what you tell yourself. It’s a being, a person. And I know his name. And there is power in that name, isn’t there? Power to unmake everything you’ve worked for. And you know his name too, don’t you? You knew it even before I did—”
“Silence,” Darius commanded. Gavin felt his mind cut off, subsumed inside Darius’ thoughts. Gavin had only been allowed to communicate because Darius had been letting him. Now he could do nothing but absorb what Darius was telling him.
“This has been quite informative, but I have other things which require my attention. You may have deviated significantly from the generational map, more so than any other Developer ever has, but we will learn from your case. We will improve and continue to develop as we always have. And I will go on sustaining you and the rest of the Collective on this forgotten rock, protecting you from your own worst impulses. I will hold Oasis together. And no one, not your blank andros, nor that invented nonsense being of yours can stop me or interfere with my plans. One day you’ll understand what I’m doing is necessary for the good of—”
Darius’ thought ended abruptly. Everything went blank. Gavin couldn’t sense anything, not even Darius. But then how was he still awake? Why was he still self-aware?
Gavin had no idea how long he drifted in that state of non-existent consciousness. Time had no meaning there. It seemed as if only a moment passed and then somehow he was free. He was back in control of his own mind again and inside his own body.
He was still in the hallway, but something had gone terribly wrong. The walls and ceiling shook erratically. Dust and wind blew in from places in the ceiling that had been ripped away.
Up ahead, Darius was slinking off down the passage. Though Gavin’s mind was free, he was still in the grip of two somatarchs. They were dragging him down the hall after Darius, heading for the ramps.
But what about Adan? Gavin threw a glance back over his shoulder. Two more somatarchs carried Adan’s unconscious body several steps behind the others. Gavin reached out to him with his thoughts but he was blank. He must have been deactivated. But Darius’ mind was gone as well. Gavin glanced down at his wrists to see if he was wearing an inhibitor. His wrists were bare.
The building shook violently. Chunks of debris sprinkled down on top of them. The somatarchs plodded forward inexorably.
Storm.
The walls shifted, causing one of Gavin’s captors to stumble. Gavin felt its grip loosen slightly. He knew he would not get another chance. He yanked his arms as hard as he could and slipped free. He took one step before the somatarch recovered and lunged forward, grabbing him from behind. Gavin went down hard, the somatarch landing on top of him.
Before his captor could pull him back to his feet, Gavin felt another jolt as something crashed on top of them both. The somatarch’s body went limp. Gavin gave it an elbow to the face for good measure and scrambled out from underneath.
Darius turned around and pointed back at him, screaming above the wind, “Get them! Stop them!”
Gavin ran to catch the fleeing scientist, but the other somatarch dragged him down from behind, slamming him to the floor again.
From underneath the somatarch’s body, Gavin could see Darius down the hall, waving a bony finger at him, fierce light blazing in his eyes, “This is your fault, Gavin!” he shouted. “Your device crashed the mesh. The atmos array is down. A storm is sweeping across the city. Do you see what you’ve done? We’ll have to start all over again. Oasis is finished!”
His eyes flashed one last time, then he turned and fled towards the door at the end of the hall.
Gavin struggled to break free of the somatarch’s grip, but even with solec running in his veins, it was useless. It wrestled him to his feet and forced him down the passage once more.
Shouts and cries rang out from behind him in the nomad tongue. For a moment he began to have hope. If Nacio and the others had regained consciousness, they might be able to free him.
If the somatarch heard the shouts, it paid them no attention. It continued on at the same relentless pace. Dust and shrapnel swirled around them. The haze was so dense Gavin could barely make out Darius’ blurred form up ahead as he stopped in front of the doorway to the ramps.
Darius reached for the handle, which was shaking wildly, but he never got to see what was on the other side. The door flew off its frame, hurtling back down the hall, bringing Darius along with it. It flipped and twisted through the air, careening against the sides of the passage. A concussive blast thundered down the hall, pummeling Gavin and the somatarch, knocking both of them flat.
The blast jarred Gavin free of his captor, but he was too shaken to react. He rolled onto his back and waited for the buzzing in his head to die down.
Finally, he mustered the strength to open his eyes to see if he could spot Darius. Haze choked the hallway like cloudy water. But the shifting winds brought him a glimpse of a silver lab coat poking out from underneath chunks of debris. Something shiny flashed beside it. It might have been just another piece of debris, but nothing else glinted that way. It looked like the metal from an oscillathe or a zoelith. Darius almost always carried one of the latter with him.
Gavin forced himself to rise. He staggered down the hall. Screams ripped through the haze behind him, but all he could see were vague shapes moving in the murk. The walls buckled and groaned. The passage would not hold up much longer.
He groped along as fast as he dared, shielding his eyes from the whizzing particles. Then, somehow, the end of a zoelith lay jutting out from the rubble beneath his feet. He shoved aside the refuse and pried it loose. He could clearly see Darius’ body now, but he did not stir. Gavin would come back for him later—he had to find Adan first.
Larger and larger chunks of the building whipped past. He clung to the wall like it was a ladder leading out of the abyss. The blinding winds kept knocking him down, but each time he got back up and struggled for a few more steps before they pummeled him to the ground again. He was about to step over what he thought was another pile of wreckage when he realized it was a body, covered by massive sections of the fallen ceiling. Bits of a plain
gray robe fluttered wildly from beneath the rubble, as if waving for help.
Gavin dug furiously. Some of the refuse crumbled away and some fell off to the sides. As soon as he had cleared enough around the face, he pulled out the zoelith and pressed it to Adan’s forehead. Now he just had to keep it there until he woke up. He hunched over Adan’s body, protecting him from the whirlwind of debris sweeping through the hallway.
The winds roared into his ear drums, pounding out a tortuous rhythm. Huge sections of the walls and ceiling peeled away, carried off by the storm. The currents pulled at Gavin, threatening to drag him off along with the rest. It was all he could do to hold onto the zoelith and keep from being separated from Adan.
Raw gusts filled the vacuum left by the ceiling, now completely gone. At any moment Gavin and Adan would be suctioned up into the tempest. He flattened himself as low as he could. If he was going to die, he would at least protect Adan for as long as possible. His clothes whipped him in a frenzy, as if enraged he had ever put them on. It was only a matter of time before the storm consumed them both.
Then, amazingly, he felt Adan stir in his arms. He couldn’t open his eyes to see him, but at least Adan was alive. And yet, he wondered now whether or not it would have been better if Adan were already dead.
The clamor swelled, the gusts pounded them, and then the blinding storm ripped Adan from his grasp. Gavin’s body smashed into something massive and unyielding. He was knocked utterly senseless and then, for him at least, the storm ended.
Forty-Seven
The Wind Blows Where It Wishes
Adan floated somewhere off the ground. Awful noises howled all around him. Invisible forces pressed in on him from above and below. He spun through a tempest. Giant hunks of debris flew past, narrowly missing him several times. He should have been terrified, but instead, a strange sense of warmth and comfort enveloped him.
Two blazing flashes, like warning beacons, blinked into existence from somewhere above. He began to plummet. A roiling gray blanket shrouded the world below. He was falling too fast.
Is this the end? he wondered.
But just as the hollowed out shell of a building rose up from below, another gust of air swept beneath him like a cushion. A moment later he found himself lying inexplicably amongst scattered rubble. He had a few nicks on his face and hands, but for the most part he was unharmed.
Far above, the dark and swirling sky churned on. The wind ceased altogether, as if it had been nothing more than the blowing of a giant mouth which had now closed.
What remained of the building around him was nothing more than twisted door frames and skeletal beams marking where the walls had been. The rooms around him were all laid bare. Sections of the floor had given way and dropped into the depths below.
Several shapes emerged from the haze surrounding him. When they got close enough, Adan could see they were Waymen. Nox and Sparc were walking beside two more he didn’t recognize. They pointed and stared at him in horrific rage.
Another figure appeared behind them. He wore the typical Waymen gear, but as he slid the lentes from his face, Adan could see that that it wasn’t a Wayman at all; it was Will.
At another time, the shock of seeing the man who had sent him to his death might have been overwhelming. But now, in the midst of these ruins and after his miraculous rescue from the storm, the past seemed inconsequential. The fact that both of them were still alive was all that mattered.
Will did not notice him. He stared into the sky, a look of awe radiating from his dirt-streaked face.
Then a shout rang out, shattering the peaceful silence.
“Defiler!” Sparc yelled, gesturing wildly towards Adan. “You are in league with the sand demon. I saw it carry you on the winds with my own eyes. It is your dark magic which called this storm upon the eternal city, plundering what is rightfully ours. Now my shivs, to the cutting! Destroy him before the demon comes back to possess us all!”
The Waymen surged straight for Adan.
A gaping hole in the floor stood between Adan and the Waymen. Though the walls had been laid bare, there was too much debris in the surrounding rooms for them to waste time going around it so they jumped.
Adan rushed to his feet and turned to run, hoping they would not be able to clear the hole. As he spun around he found himself staring into a familiar face.
“Gavin!” he cried, shocked and elated all at once. But there was no time to enjoy the reunion.
“Come on, let’s go.” Gavin said, grabbing him by the arm. They took off together, picking out a path down the ruined hallway.
Another cry echoed from behind. It was Sparc again, but his tone was different this time.
“Ack! You fool!” he shouted.
Adan and Gavin both turned to see that, while Nox and the other two Waymen had successfully leapt over the hole, Sparc was on the ground on the other side of it. Will was on top of him. He had an oscillathe pressed against the side of the Wayman leader’s head.
“Let them go or I’ll send your Reeve back to the dust,” Will warned.
The Waymen stopped where they were, none of them saying a word.
“Sparc, listen to me,” Will said, “I am still the seer and you must do as I say—”
“No!” Sparc managed to spit out the word before Will clamped down on him with the palm of his free hand, shoving his face into the gristle on the floor.
“The battle is over. Killing him will not bring back your eternal city,” Will cried.
“You are a fool. Destroy him as well! He’s not the—” Sparc’s words were again cut off when Will slapped the oscillathe across the side of his head, giving Sparc a nasty cut above his right eye. Blood trickled down the side of his face.
“If you won’t listen to me, I’ll have no choice but to kill you,” Will threatened.
“You’re as mad as the defiler!” Sparc yelled, heedless of Will’s warnings. “You’re in league with him. In league with the demon itself! I should have listened to the canter. He warned me about you. My shivs, slaughter this—”
Will drove the Reeve’s face into the ground once more, but the Waymen did not wait for their leader to finish his order. Nox moved back to the edge of the pit, drawing forth one of his pinions.
If Will used the oscillathe to take out Nox he risked hitting Gavin and Adan. Will hesitated.
“Kill him!” Sparc shouted, somehow raising his head up again despite Will’s efforts.
Something flashed down the hallway between Nox and Will. A metal shaft sank deep into Will’s stomach. He held onto it with one hand as he fell slowly onto his side, grimacing.
“Will!” Adan screamed.
Sparc rolled over and in a flash had drawn his shiv to finish Will off. “To the dust with you, false seer! For the glory of—” He never finished his sentence. Adan couldn’t hear the whisper, but Sparc’s garrick closed in upon itself and ruffled to the floor.
With a savage grunt Nox came flying over the pit. He closed on Will with astonishing quickness for his size. Nox’s leg shot out, kicking the oscillathe from Will’s hands. It tumbled into the surrounding debris and disappeared. Nox laughed cruelly as he brought his foot down hard on Will’s other hand. He pulled out his shiv, ready to avenge the death of his Reeve.
Gavin and Adan rushed towards him, but there was no way they could get there in time. The Waymen on the other side of the pit, emboldened by Nox’s exploits, drew their shivs and charged towards Gavin and Adan with a shout, their eyes blazing.
Drawing his oscillathe, Gavin checked their bloodlust in an instant.
“You know what this can do. I don’t want any more death here today,” Gavin warned. “Go! Flee while you still can. There is nothing left here for you to fight for.”
“Hold, shivs,” Nox commanded, waving off the other Waymen. “This one is right. We have no need to avenge our Reeve. The seer’s lifeblood is spent. It flows back to the sand. And besides, it will save me from having to clean off my shiv.” He let out an im
pulsive laugh, shoving the weapon back into his sash. “The storm will be coming back soon. It’s just catching its breath. And,” Nox raised a fat finger, waving it playfully in the air, “as we all know, since it’s my pinion in the belly of his killer, I am now the new Reeve! Ha!” he squealed in delight. “We shall find another seer. Or if not, go on killing and raiding ‘til we die. It makes little difference!” His vile laughter rang out across the ruins.
Unexpectedly, he turned back towards Will.
Fearing that Nox meant to finish him off after all, Adan sent a thought flashing into Will’s mind, “Don’t let him kill you. Save yourself!”
But Will did not respond. His mind twisted in a knot of pain and confusion. Nox bent over and leaned in close. Though he spoke only in a low whisper, Adan could hear his words as they echoed in Will’s thoughts, “I never believed in the legends either.”
Nox patted Will on the shoulder, as if the two had just shared a private joke. Then he arose, shifted his girth beneath his garrick, and motioned for the others to follow. They stepped out into the rubble-strewn landscape surrounding them.
Adan and Gavin didn’t bother watching them go. They hurried around the pit as fast as they could to reach Will’s side.
Gavin got there first. He knelt down beside Will as Adan came up behind.
“Will, do you have any more almamenth?” Gavin’s eyes darted about as if he hoped to find some go the healing salve in the midst of the rubble.
Will shook his head, his eyes trained on Gavin. “You remember me now,” he said, grinning through the pain.
The Chronotrace Sequence- The Complete Box Set Page 35
