It only took a moment before he impacted with whoever was climbing up. The collision jarred Adan’s body and slowed his descent momentarily, but then the resistance gave way and he continued on, hurtling down through the darkness, tumbling and reeling in a free fall into the unknown.
Twenty-Seven
In the Flesh
A horrendous rumbling shook Adan to his senses. The ground trembled. Debris pelted his back. Someone was dragging him by the legs face down along the ground so that he could not raise his head to see who it was. His chest exploded in agony as it scraped along the stone floor. Instinctively, he engaged his bioseine to shut off the pain.
Everything went still. The person dragging him dropped his legs, letting them bang against the floor. Adan rolled onto his side and his bioseine flashed a warning: several of his ribs were bruised, but he dismissed the information as a singular thought seized his mind: where was Sierra?
He sat up and scanned his surroundings. He was in the maintenance tunnel, but the hole in the ceiling was gone. The passage was filled top to bottom with boulders and rocks. A haze of dust hung in the air. Had there been another quake? If so, the rocks had settled. It looked like the danger had passed.
On Adan’s side of the fall-in, there was scattered debris, but the passage lay open behind him. Standing with his foot against one of the larger rocks and looking down at Adan with an unsightly sneer was a portly figure dressed in a dusty garrick and kaff.
Adan took in a sharp breath. “Nox?”
The Wayman acknowledged him with a nod and flashed his horrific grin, malicious and gleeful all at once, like always.
“In the flesh,” said the Wayman, patting his generous midsection and then choking on the dust clouds which issued forth from his coat. His garrick was torn in several places so that it resembled one of Will’s tarps after a storm. He wore a bandage wrapped around his left arm and had several nicks and cuts on his face, but whatever he might have been through since the sand duster crash, he had the same violent look in his eyes. And he’d managed to pick up the shiv on his belt and half a dozen pinions strapped to his back to follow through with whatever aggressive impulses which managed to seize him.
“What are you doing here?” Adan asked, staring at him in wide-eyed fear.
“Saving your life, apparently,” Nox said, still coughing.
“There was a quake?” Adan eased back towards the rubble. He knew he couldn’t escape that way, but it made him feel safer to put some distance between himself and Nox.
Nox nodded and pounded his chest in reply, his barking cough echoing down the tunnel. While Adan waited for his fit to die down he surveyed the rock pile behind him, hoping in vain to see some sign of Sierra. Seeing nothing, he rose rapidly and began heading towards the rubble. He had to find her.
“Ah-ah-ah.” Nox finally recovered his voice. He bounded over to Adan and grabbed him by the arm. “Where do you think you’re going?”
“To find my friend.” Adan pointed towards the cave-in. “She might be trapped in the rubble.” He felt a pit opening up in his throat, sick with the thought of what might have happened to Sierra.
“That female you were running with?” Nox let out a harrumph, shaking his head. “You'll have to hope she’s as lucky as you are, then. There’s no time to look for her. You’re coming with me.”
Adan pulled against the Wayman’s fleshy grip, but failed to free himself. “You don’t understand, she might be—”
“Oh, I understand, all right,” Nox said, yanking him back down the tunnel and spinning him around. “And I said, you’re coming with me.” He adjusted the shiv in his belt for emphasis.
A mantle of dread wrapped around his chest. He wanted to scream at Nox, I don’t care what you do to me, I have to find her, but the bitter liquid of fear gagged him and kept the words from coming out.
“Let’s get going,” Nox said, giving him a shove.
Adan glared at him. Never had he felt such anger towards another person in his life. But Nox’s hand was still on his shiv and Adan knew he would not hesitate to use it. He glanced back over his shoulder at the wall of debris between him and Sierra. Realistically, there was no way he would be able to get through it, even if Nox wasn’t there, but he couldn’t stand the thought of leaving without her.
“The girl wasn’t there when I pulled you out of the cave-in. Get over it and let’s get moving,” Nox said bluntly.
Adan could only hope the quake had not affected the tunnels Sierra had dug in the ceiling. And if they had…Oh, please Numinae, don’t let her die.
If only he could find a way to escape from Nox. The neutralizer! He glanced at his wrist. It wasn’t there.
“You disarm me, I disarm you. Only fair, don’t you think?” Nox’s smirk had never been uglier.
That was it. He knew he could never take Nox in a fight. He glanced back one last time at the rubble. I’ll find you somehow, Sierra, he promised.
Adan dusted off his garrick and gathered his emotions. Nox would slip up somehow, he told himself. He’d let down his guard and then Adan would seize his chance.
“How did you find me?” Adan asked.
“I followed you. And it wasn’t easy, I don’t mind telling you. I swear I rubbed off more than a little skin squirming through those tunnels you carved out. You could have made them a little wider. And the water! Whatever possessed you? That was the most unnatural thing I’ve been through in all my life. Almost died half a dozen times. If you hadn’t left me one of those floating scraps I’m sure I would have drowned.”
“You followed us down from the surface—from Oasis?”
Nox nodded. “Hard to believe isn’t it? I’m a tighter swedge than I look.” He tapped his head.
“But why, Nox? What could you possibly want down here?” Adan focused in on him, trying to unravel what he was thinking, but as usual it was a jumbled mess. His mind seemed to flit between something like wondering where his next meal was coming from and the most horrific images of blood and death. Adan shuddered and looked away, not wanting to see any more.
Nox rubbed the hilt of his shiv distractedly. He seemed to give his answer a moment’s thought, but no more than that. “I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to tell you, seeing as how I’m armed and you’re…well, not in the best of shape.” He let out a laugh, but then clapped his hand over his mouth and glanced down the tunnel. “Ay!” he muttered, “Got to keep quiet. Never know when one of those ghost warriors might be close.”
“Right, so you were telling me why you followed me down here,” Adan said.
“Ah, yes.” Nox nodded vigorously, “Well, I already told you, didn’t I? To save your life.” He let out another guffaw, immediately stifling it again with his hand.
“Thank you for that, by the way,” Adan said. He knew there had to be a sinister motive behind Nox’s actions, but from what little he could glean from his thoughts, at least the part about rescuing Adan was true.
“There’s nothing to thank me for, really,” Nox said, “I couldn’t keep following you if you were dead, now could I?”
“I suppose not.”
“Look at all the scrapes you’ve gotten yourself into without Nox to look out for you.”
“You’ve managed to come through relatively unscathed,” Adan observed.
“Yes, well, I did have a bit of help with that,” Nox admitted, then he pulled out the necklace he wore from beneath his garrick and dangled the metal gear on the end of it in front of Adan. “I don’t remember the name of this thing, but it keeps those gear heads from seeing me.”
“Where did you get that?” Adan asked.
“Nolan, of course,” Nox said, as if it should have been obvious. “He’s the only Wayman with any sense when it comes to machines.”
“He sent you down here? But what for?” Adan’s fears only deepened at the mention of Nolan’s name, but he tried not to let it show.
“To kill the leaders of this place, why else?”
“But—but what
about Bryce? Why did Nolan send you if he’d already sent him?”
“Well, if you were the Reeve, would you send in one assassin when you could send in two? Besides, when that hammer head left, Nolan didn’t know Oasis had already been destroyed. After he found out about the storm, he sent me in just to sweep the rest of the sand under the rug, to make sure the leaders got what was coming to them, that sort of thing.”
“So you didn’t know they would have this base underground?”
“Did you? I’d wager even Nolan himself didn’t know about it—and he’s got more gears in his head than the rest of us put together. All I know is that I was sent here to kill the leaders, specifically one named Malthus, and Nolan said you would lead me to him.”
Adan’s thoughts worked backwards, retracing everything that had happened to him since he left Hull. His mind drifted back to Nolan’s words: “You will serve me, whether you choose to or not.”
“So Nolan let me escape. He knew I would hunt down Gavin and that Gavin had most likely been taken to Oasis.”
“He’s awfully good at guessing, isn’t he?” Nox chuckled under his breath. “I really don’t know how he does it. There’s not a Wayman in the Vast that would cross him now that Sparc’s dead, not even me, and I’ve got no more sense than those rocks over there.”
“But he tricked Sparc and the other thrals into attacking Oasis. Why would you take orders from someone who is just using you?” Adan asked.
Nox scratched his eyebrow in dismay, as if what Adan had just said had never occurred to him. Then a sly grin crept over his face.
“Well, you not being a Wayman I can see how you might be confused. But that’s the way things work in the thrals. It really doesn’t matter which Reeve you serve—your brother, or the one who betrayed him. ‘Honor is so much empty breath’, as the saying goes. Kill or be killed. That’s the only thing that matters. Speaking of which, it’s time we stopped jawing and set our hands to the cutting. Can you walk? Or will I have to drag you the rest of the way?”
Adan stared at Nox, so overcome by a mixture of disbelief, fear, and dismay that for a long time he was unable to reply.
Even if Adan and Sierra had still been together, it would have been impossible to free the Sentients without the cutter. He secretly hoped that if they did find Malthus, he would be able to get the Assessor Primary to free the prisoners somehow. It seemed unlikely, but Adan was desperate for anything to help keep his hopes alive. For now, though, he had to figure out how to get away from Nox, or at least get Nox to help him find Gavin. After some considerable explaining, he finally managed to convince the Wayman that finding Gavin would be their best hope of finding Malthus.
From the map of Manx Core, Adan knew that traveling down the other end of the tunnel would lead them to an exit shaft which ran up to a building near the Command Center: the Assessor Barracks. It was hardly an ideal route, but it would be better than trying to walk out across the main base in the open. And since the Command Center was where Adan had seen Gavin’s lab in the chronotrace, the nearby barracks seemed the best option.
Adan was surprised that Nox did not push them to move faster down the tunnel. At first, he thought Nox might be taking it easy on him, realizing he had hurt himself when he’d fallen down the shaft. But after a while, Adan came to realize that Nox simply didn’t like to move all that quickly. For a Wayman, he seemed strangely averse to exerting himself, calling for regular breaks along their journey. Adan found this odd, for he’d been on long treks with Nox before, sprinting across the desert. Perhaps without his masters driving him, Nox was reverting to his natural tendencies. Whatever the reason for their slow pace Adan was glad for it, even if it did make him a bit nervous they might be discovered.
After they passed the third intersection, Adan thought he heard movement coming in their direction. Nox heard it too and pulled Adan in close, claiming that the bauble around his neck would protect them both as long as they stayed next to each other. Whether the necklace really worked that way or the strangers in the hallway took another path, Adan couldn’t say, but they never saw anyone.
When at last they reached the shaft leading up to the barracks, there was a black disc floating at the base of it. In addition, steel rungs ran up along the side. A small lumin shone down from near the hatch the top of the shaft.
Nox asked Adan about the disc and he explained that it could be used to float up the shaft. Adan would have liked to have used it to avoid the climb, but decided against it.
“If I connect to it with my mind, they may detect me in their system,” Adan explained.
“Whatever you say. I was taking the ladder either way,” Nox said, careful to keep his distance from the platform. “You go first.”
Adan gripped the metal rungs. They felt sure enough, but Adan certainly was not. It wasn’t just the thought of having to make their way through the barracks. He could not believe he was being forced to work with Nox a second time. He had no interest in killing Malthus. Worse, he doubted the Developer would be the only casualty. He tried to imagine a way in which this would end well, but he couldn’t think of any. All he could do was pray an opportunity to part ways would present itself.
He started up the ladder. The climb was long, but not tiring; Adan’s bioseine kept him from feeling the effects of his efforts.
When they reached the top of the shaft, he turned to Nox and whispered, “Now keep quiet and stick close to me.”
“Of course.” Nox gave him his corroded smile. “That’s all I’ve been doing ever since I came down here.”
Adan shook his head, wishing the Wayman would do the exact opposite of what he had just said and not stick close at all, but he said nothing and turned his attention to the small manual lever just beneath the top of the shaft. He pulled on it and the circular metal lid above them slid away, revealing a small room lit by a soft yellow glow. The glow came from a collection of bismine cores, stacked three high and almost completely filling the room. The only clear area was a little path that ran to the door.
Nox glanced warily at the array of cylinders, clinging to Adan’s garrick with his thick hands.
According to the schematic for the barracks, there was a long hall outside the room which ran into the training gallery. If they made it through that, they could reach the outside via an emergency exit. The other end of the hall led to the living quarters and the front exit via the main lobby. Both exits were supposed to be guarded according to protocol, but the main lobby would be more heavily trafficked. He decided the back exit would be the safest choice even though it would not put them as close to the Command Center as the front entrance.
He dared not use the quorum channel to see if he could sense the presence of any assessors with his bioseine for fear of being discovered, but he could use the limited range of his personal bioseine.
When he didn’t sense anyone, he listened at the door, just to be sure. After several moments, satisfied it was safe, he ventured through. As he’d hoped, the passage was unoccupied and they moved down its length as quickly and quietly as possible. They paused at the door to the training gallery, listening again for sounds of activity on the other side. Once again Adan was surprised that he neither sensed anything with his bioseine nor heard anything. He slowly pulled open the door.
The gallery was also empty, both the open floor before them, as well as the balcony which ran around the edge of the room. Relieved to have encountered no one thus far, Adan and Nox hurried to the door on the other side, their feet shuffling across the smooth black floor.
Again at the door he sensed and heard nothing. He was beginning to wonder if the entire building was deserted.
He slid open the door leading out of the gallery. Two assessors stood guarding the back exit.
Adan froze. Why hadn’t he sensed them with his bioseine? They were well within in range.
They had their backs to him, but turned when the door opened. The one on the left turned only in time to be speared by the pinion Nox l
aunched through the air. It embedded itself into his chest and he dropped in an instant. The second one rushed forward, extending his hand. Nox stepped in front of Adan and let another pinion fly. This one failed to reach its target, though. White light wrapped around the shaft and it clanked on the floor.
Adan ducked back around the door just in time to avoid the second burst of energy. Nox’s body thudded to the floor, his head falling backwards across the threshold and keeping the door from sliding shut.
Adan tensed, wondering if there would be another blast, but he heard nothing but the sound of the assessor moving cautiously down the hallway.
Why isn’t he hurrying? Maybe he thinks I’m armed. Or maybe he didn’t spot me.
The man’s footsteps drew closer. Adan realized he would have to jump him once he crossed the threshold. The element of surprise was the only advantage he had. But when the man reached Nox, he stumbled over the body of the Wayman.
He didn’t see him. The necklace must still be working.
While the man was recovering his balance, Adan reached around the corner and swept the assessor’s legs out from under him. His head slammed against the metal wall and he collapsed to the floor.
Adan stared down at the unconscious man. He’d managed to knock out his adversary by sheer accident, but this was no time to wonder at small mercies. This was his chance to finally be free of Nox. He stepped over the Wayman’s body and then stopped. More assessors would eventually come to investigate. The assessor Adan had knocked out would soon wake up. Nox would be captured and most likely killed. As much as he wanted to, Adan couldn’t leave him now, not like this.
He leaned down and dragged the Wayman down the hall away from the assessor so that their two bodies were no longer touching. Then he pulled the neutralizer off the assessor’s wrist and jolted Nox back to consciousness.
At the same moment, the assessor groaned and began to stir. Adan hit him with another blast from the neutralizer.
The Chronotrace Sequence- The Complete Box Set Page 59
