Singular

by Larry Buenafe

  The tall man with the EMP gun was making his way toward another of the soldiers, but he was so focused that he didn’t realize that one of the soldiers was coming up behind him, and there was so much action going on that no one was able to warn him. The soldier grabbed him from behind, pulling him to the ground; before the tall man had the chance to fire, the soldier kicked the EMP gun out of his hands and stomped on it, smashing it into pieces.

  Suddenly, there was a low chanting that could be heard above the noise of the battle; people were pouring out of buildings and running up the road toward the pier, lots of them. They all appeared to be aboriginals like Benji; they were mostly dark of complexion, with great bushes of black hair and stark, ebony eyes. “Ava, how many of them are there?” I whispered.

  “Unclear. There are roughly a thousand people approaching, but there appear to be more joining them.”

  Hmmm… in this time of high stress, Ava seems to have stopped with the confusing speech… wonder if that’s for self-preservation…

  “Quick, we have to move… toward the land end of the pier, now!” Mike shouted, and we moved as swiftly as we could through the teeming mass of people where a column had once been. There were now about thirty Bright Handers between us and the soldiers coming up out of the boats, and although they were fighting desperately, they were no match for the highly powered exosuits. The eight remaining soldiers in front of us stopped and turned back toward land just in time to see the aboriginal horde overrun the helicopters; the pilots came flying out the open doors, and the helicopters began rocking, then tipping, then were on their sides, their rotors smashed and useless. The eight soldiers on the land side of the pier turned to try to fight the mob, but there were too many; they were overwhelmed and went down, the aboriginals smacking them with sticks and pelting them with rocks; there were even a few boomerangs flying through the air.

  “Oi, I don’t reckon they expected that,” Benji roared.

  “We’re lucky they were on orders not to kill, otherwise there would be loads of casualties,” dad replied. As we continued picking our way through the piles of people on the pier, Mike, Chi Kim, and Sydney Alamo turned back toward the ten soldiers coming toward us from behind, and each of them took a small item out of their pants pockets and threw them in the direction of the soldiers. Four soldiers in the back of their group of ten were not engaged in fighting with the Bright Handers, and they saw the three items being thrown their way; they quickly backed up in time to see three small detonations over the heads of the other six soldiers; wide, fibrous nets flared out of the mini-explosions, falling on the soldiers and the few Bright Handers they were engaged with at the moment. It was clear that the nets were not enough to stop the highly powered soldiers, but they did slow them down, as they seemed to be made of a sticky substance that tangled the soldiers’ legs and arms. The four soldiers who had backed up and avoided having the nets land on them attempted to climb over and past the netted mass, but they also became stuck and struggled to break free.

  “Ok, that gave us a minute or two, now let’s move!” Mike shouted again; we were literally climbing over the bodies of Bright Handers toward the land, and now were only a few meters away from escape. Finally, we managed to make our way off the pier and onto land, and the two promised vehicles were waiting just to our left on the side of the big warehouse. They were massive trucks with camper shells, with the backs open for us and our six Bright Hand guides to pile into. To our right were hundreds and hundreds of aboriginals, shouting and raising their hands in victory as they held down the eight soldiers on the land side. Behind us, the ten soldiers from the inflatable boats were still struggling to break free of the sticky nets; two had managed to wriggle loose completely and were sprinting after us.

  As we ran, Benji hooked his thumb to the left; another vehicle had just skidded up on the other side of the two waiting trucks, and it appeared to be an old, boxy, faded black American vehicle from years ago called a ‘Humvee’, although I’m not sure why. The only reason I knew it was called that was because Benji cried, “There’s the Humvee!”

  Ms. Perez, Salgado, and Wilson Johannsen dove into the back of the truck in front, and we ran toward the back of the other truck, but instead of jumping in we kept running, right into the open doors of the Humvee. We tumbled in, falling all over one another, and Benji shouted something in his aboriginal language; the driver, who looked exactly like Benji, peeled out and turned to the left.

  We only made it about half a kilometer before we discovered the only problem with the masses of aboriginals who had arrived to save us: they totally blocked the road and we couldn’t get away. The driver honked his horn furiously; I looked out the window and saw Mike, Chi Kim, and Sydney Alamo chasing after us, shouting angrily; further back, but moving rapidly, were the two exosuited soldiers that had managed to break away from the nets. The soldiers quickly caught up to the three Bright Handers and pushed them aside; they went flying, landing in a heap on the side of the road. The honking was getting the people to clear out of the street, so were making some progress, but it was clear that the soldiers would catch us before we were able to get away.

  Mr. Harutyunyan, who had ended up next to me in the back seat, leaned close and whispered, “Remember this day, my boy. You must get away, remain safe, do the great things you are destined to do.” Then he kissed me on the cheek and dove out the door. He turned and shouted something in Armenian, and sprinted directly at the approaching soldiers; He rotated his massive right arm and caught the soldier in front right across the neck, taking him off his feet; he swung with his left fist and hit the second soldier on the side of the helmet, knocking it askew; the first soldier had gotten back to his feet and dove at Mr. Harutyunyan, landing on his back; he turned and shouted, “Go! Go!” The soldier with the crooked helmet threw a punch, hitting Mr. Harutyunyan in the stomach, lifting him off his feet; he tried to sprint past, but Mr. Harutyunyan reached out, grabbed him by the ankle and took him to the ground; they continued to fight furiously and grew smaller and smaller as we pulled away.

  I couldn’t leave him there, I just couldn’t. I turned and looked at dad, and before he could stop me, I dove out the door, rolling to a stop in the street. I bolted to my feet and sprinted toward the soldiers, and it occurred to me that I was going at a high rate of speed, faster than any person could run.

  The soldiers were still occupied with Mr. Harutyunyan and didn’t see me coming. Mr. Harutyunyan was on his back and one of the soldiers had his arm raised, ready to punch him in the face; I grabbed his hand as I sprinted by and spun around, flinging him into the side of a building; his exosuit came apart and he crumbled to the ground. Down the street came two more of the soldiers who must have worked their way free of the nets, and they were running at a rate of speed that was almost as fast as me. It seemed to me that my best course of action was to get them to chase me, because I didn’t think they could catch me, and eventually their batteries would wear down. I waved at them and started jogging back up the street in the direction I had come from. As I went, I kicked the second soldier who was holding Mr. Harutyunyan down; he flipped over, landed on his head at an awkward angle, and stopped moving.

  The two soldiers chasing me increased their speed, and I ran fast enough to match their rate, staying about twenty meters in front of them. I knew I would catch up with the Humvee soon; I could see it up the street, and, although it was now moving at about forty kilometers per hour, I was gaining on it. I didn’t want the soldiers to get to the others, so as I ran, I whispered, “Ava, what should I do?”

  “Slow down, you move too fast. You’re about to flip over them.”

  Hey, I actually know what she means… I did as she said, and they got closer; suddenly I jumped, did two backflips over their heads, and ended up facing back in the direction of Mr. Harutyunyan. The soldiers came to a skidding halt, turned, and gave chase; again, I matched their speed to keep them near but not close enough to catch me. I ran back by the spot where Mr. Haru
tyunyan had been, but he was gone; I hoped that the Bright Hand had stopped and picked him up, at least then he would be safe.

  I could tell that the batteries in the exosuits of the two soldiers chasing me were running low; they seemed to realize that they couldn’t catch me and slowed to a jog.

  They can’t do anything to me now… I’m going to give them a message to take back to their bosses… I turned and ran back toward them, and they stopped in the middle of the street. There were aboriginals lining both sides of the road; they began creeping out toward the soldiers, but I motioned for them to stay back, and they retreated to the sidewalks. One of the soldiers reached up, unlatched his helmet, and pulled it off; I was surprised by how young he appeared. His brown hair was buzzed short and he had a scraggly beard, or maybe he just hadn’t shaved in a week or two. He smiled, which I thought was strange, and said, “I heard you were a girl. We kept looking for a teen girl with long blond hair, but there wasn’t one. That was clever to keep yourself disguised like that. We thought we would catch you as you came off the boat, but obviously you knew we were coming. We anticipated the Bright Hand being there; we could have dealt with them, but we didn’t expect all these folks. That was another clever touch. Of course, we could have brought a bigger force, and I imagine next time we will. And, we were under strict orders not to kill anyone because they want you and your crew taken alive, so we didn’t even have any weapons. That’s another mistake we won’t make again. That body is really fast; you were just toying with us, weren’t you? Well, we couldn’t catch you, so now we have a bit of a problem. It would be great if you would just come with us, though. It would keep things much more civil. What do you say?”

  Now that I had stopped to confront them, I realized that I really didn’t know what I wanted to tell them. Once again, I covered my mouth with my hand and whispered, “Ava, what should I say?”

  “Repeat after me: we don’t have a price.”

  “We don’t have a price.”

  “You’re flogging a dead horse.”

  “You’re flogging a dead horse.”

  “When your people get your house in order then you can come and ask.”

  “When your people get your house in order then you can come and ask.”

  “Which at this point seems likely to be the twelfth of never.”

  “Which at this point seems likely to be the twelfth of never.”

  The young man looked at the helmet of the other soldier, then laughed with gusto.

  “You and your group have caused us a ton of trouble, buddy. I doubt that our people, as you put it, are just going to give up and go away. By the way, I bet you wonder why you couldn’t find us; we know you scanned us as we were communicating with one of our people on that junker you crossed the Pacific on. We were running silent, running deep.”

  “Ava…”

  “They were on a submarine. That’s why I couldn’t find them. Clever. Tell them to get back in their tube and slink on out of here, and don’t come back if they know what’s good for them.”

  “Get back in your tube and slink on out of here, and don’t come back if you know what’s good for you.”

  He laughed again, and said, “Whoa, big words. I imagine we’ll be seeing each other again. Name’s Bishop, by the way. What’s yours?”

  I just stood there. After a few seconds, we started walking, and as I went past them, he said, “Oh, by the way. We have your big friend; man, he’s tough. He’s on the tube already, and if you ever want to see him again, you might want to consider what I’ve said.”

  I turned and looked at all the aboriginals standing along the road. “What makes you think you’ll get out of here?” I asked, and then waved the aboriginals out into the street. The soldiers ran, but they would not get away. I jogged back up the street toward where I knew the Humvee was waiting for me.

  28

  I t took about an hour to get all the way out of Melbourne and onto the road west toward… well, I wasn’t sure where we were going at that point. Alarms sounded and emergency vehicles raced toward the docks as we sped in the opposite direction; we were listening to the radio to see if any of the soldiers had been captured, but there was no mention of them, just the downed helicopters and the rioting aboriginals, over a hundred people injured, and one dead from being crushed by one of the helicopters. It seemed amazing that more weren’t killed. Then there was a report that the US was already denying the attack or any knowledge of it, was accusing the Australian government of trying to blame them for an internal matter just to make the US look bad and was threatening sanctions or other consequences.

  As we drove, I explained the sequence of events following my jump out of the Humvee, and after I described what happened to Mr. Harutyunyan, there was no sound except the engine, the tires on the road, and Ms. Houng quietly crying. I knew what he did was logical, because it allowed the rest of the group to escape, and what I did was also logical, as I was pretty sure I could get away from them and I had the best chance of rescuing Mr. Harutyunyan, even though I failed.

  There was no talking for quite a while, aside from Benji chatting quietly with our driver. Eventually he turned to us and said, “By the way, this is my brother, Harry. Harry Walker, it’s a crazy name, eh? I always say he got the ugly end of the naming stick, and he always says it’s alright because he’s so much better lookin’ than me. I don’t know ‘bout that, mate. And one more thing: when are we gonna stop for a few coldies, eh?”

  Almost every detail of each of them was the same, so I didn’t know how they could say one was better looking than the other, but then I realized it was meant as a joke of some kind because the rest of the group chuckled, even Ms. Houng.

  We were over a hundred and fifty kilometers outside of Melbourne, and the scenery had changed drastically. The area directly around the city seemed almost tropical, but now, aside from trees dotting the landscape, it had much more in common with a desert, including the temperature.

  Suddenly, Harry said, “Don’t look now, but we’ve got company, I reckon.”

  Coming up quickly behind us was one of the huge Bright Hand trucks, and due to my enhanced eyesight, I saw Ms. Perez sitting in the front passenger seat, her familiar scowl in place.

  “Whatcha think, John-o? Should we stop, hear these hoons out?”

  “Well, they put a lot of time and effort into getting us across the ocean safely, and we jilted them like a bride who ran out on the wedding, so they’re likely to be unhappy with us. Still, we never told them that we would go with them, so they can’t accuse us of breaking our word. And, it’s not as if we are enemies; in fact, our goals are rather similar as far as I can tell. I think we owe it to them to explain our desire for independence. And another thing: because they have numbers, and have infiltrated various governments including the US, they may be able to help us recover Mard. That alone is more than enough reason to swallow any ire they may throw our way.”

  Ms. Houng nodded vigorously, and Benji said, “Yeah, that’s right. If they help us get our mate back, we’ll never be able to do enough to repay ‘em, but we’ll try, and that’s a bloody oath.”

  We pulled to the side of the road, and the big truck pulled in behind us. Dad and Benji climbed out and walked to the back of the Humvee, where they met Ms. Perez, her left arm in a sling. “That was quite a stunt you pulled back there,” she said.

  Dad smiled and looked down at his shoes. “Look, if we hadn’t done what we did, we wouldn’t be here now to talk about it. Benji here called in his people, and they called in other nations, and they saved us. Those soldiers would have captured us otherwise.”

  “That’s what I mean, that was quite a stunt. We underestimated their desire to catch you; calling in the aboriginals saved us all. We thought a hundred trained Bright Handers was more than enough, but they were no match at all for twenty exosuited soldiers. Now that we know what we’re up against, we won’t make that mistake again.”

  “So, what you’re sayin’ is, you wan
t ta thank me for savin’ yer hide, and for my resourcefulness, cleverness, and rare insight, that’s what she said, wasn’t it, John-o?” said Benji, his hands gesticulating to emphasize his speech.

  “Yes, that’s what it sounded like to me,” dad replied.

  Ms. Perez tried her best to hold on to her hard expression, but she couldn’t do it. She started giggling, and that was all it took; all three of them cracked up for a good minute.

  Eventually, she said, “We told you right from the start that we wanted you to come with us, hoped you would, but wouldn’t force you to. We still hope you’ll reconsider. We have quite a lot to offer, you know. Labs, equipment, lots of smart people to collaborate with, that kind of stuff. And, your work is revolutionary, maybe even evolutionary. I mean, Lukey, he’s the next step, right? Maybe even the final step.”

  Dad’s expression was strange; it almost seemed like he was angry, although I’m not sure. He said, “That may be, but he’s not some kind of thing to be dissected and reverse-engineered. He’s my son, even if he is mostly synthetic now. Look, we are going to spend some time with Benji and his nation. I owe him that and much, much more. If you would like for us to come and be a part of your assemblage, we have one thing to ask: that you do whatever you can to recover our friend, Mardig Harutyunyan. You have told us of your infiltration of various levels of government; call in whatever help you need and get our friend out, and we will join with you.”

  Ms. Perez stared at dad for what seemed like a full minute before responding. “That’s a big ask, you know.”

  “Of course. But we aren’t a team without him, and without him, we have no deal.”

  There was another long pause. “Let me see what I can do.”

  “How shall we communicate?”

  She tilted her head, looking dad in the eyes. After a few moments, she reached into her pocket and handed him a diminutive phone. He smiled and said, “We will disable any locating capabilities this phone has before we get to our destination, I trust you understand.”