He sat up, taking in the baths of the keep. All of them were there, including Quintus, who let Cantelo’s box fall with a thud and a relieved sigh.
He was not as relieved as Cade though. Yet with that relief came a fresh wave of panic. For the darkness was suddenly lit with blue light, and Cade spotted the timer.
00:14:55
00:14:54
00:14:53
“Codex,” Cade croaked. “Is that the timer started for the next round?”
“Yes,” the Codex replied.
“What are the rules?” Cade asked.
“Survive for an hour while remaining within a thousand feet of the keep.”
“Come on,” Cade said, struggling to his feet. “We’ve got fifteen minutes before the next round starts.”
“What did we buy, Cade?” Amber asked. “What was all that for?”
Cade didn’t have the heart to reply to her, though he was also wondering where the plane was … and his remote controller.
“Cade!” Amber shouted as he stumbled up the stairs.
He ignored her once more, knowing they were running out of time, and reached the atrium above. It was empty.
He was starting to panic, worrying something had happened, until a young soldier stumbled from the barracks corridor, rubbing sleep from his eyes.
“Where’s Marius?” Cade demanded in broken Latin.
The boy pointed a finger in the direction of outside, and Cade hurried through the doors to the courtyard. Almost all the legionaries were milling about, their attention seemingly split between two things.
One was the plane that had apparently just appeared upon the cobblestones, resting awkwardly on one wing, the nuclear bomb still attached to its base.
The other was upon the walls. Or rather, beyond them.
Now he saw Marius on the ramparts, staring into the bone fields with his advisers close by. Cade wasted no time examining his prize, instead rushing for the stairs, ignoring the cry of outrage from Amber as she saw the plane.
He reached the man in a matter of seconds, waving aside the onrush of surprised voices and faces.
“Cade,” Marius said, a shocked look upon his face. “Our watchmen did not see your arrival. What—”
“We’ve got about ten minutes before we’re attacked,” Cade cut in. “We have to…”
He trailed off, staring into the bone fields, where a terrible sight awaited him.
The blue force field. Just like the one there had been when Cade had to fight the alpha. And beyond that … were insects.
Hundreds of them, identical in appearance, size, and shape. They seemed to be like ants, humanoid, and standing upright.
From this distance, it was hard to see much more, but Cade wasted no time in summoning the leaderboard to get a closer look.
He saw humanity’s own location on the board, now second from the top following their victory over the Grays.
But to his surprise, it did not appear that they were being attacked from below. Rather, they were being attacked by the very top. An ant-like carapace, complete with antennae and mandibles, was flashing, with a red arrow pointing down toward their own spot, represented by a human skull.
“What is this?” Cade demanded. “Why are we being attacked from the top?”
The little girl’s voice emerged from the Codex.
“Why, a little lesson,” Abaddon said. “You traded poorly, Cade. Your bomb is no use here.”
Cade cursed under his breath. “But why attack us?” he demanded. “They’ll stay in the same spot even if they win.”
“Your bomb, rather than protecting you, has precipitated this attack,” Abaddon replied with surprising viciousness. “Should you have attacked them, you would have easily destroyed their hive and moved to the top. But if they attack preemptively…”
“Then we can’t use our bomb,” Cade muttered, understanding dawning on him in a black wave of despair. “We’d blow ourselves up.”
Marius cursed.
Only now did Cade see the rest of the original contenders had joined him, except for Quintus, who was dragging Cantelo’s box out of the keep.
As they digested the Codex’s words, they stared at him in horror and disappointment. And as he looked at them, awash with his own shock at the revelation, their disappointment turned to outrage.
“Cade … you didn’t,” Amber whispered.
Her face was full of pain and betrayal, and as he looked her in the eye, she turned her face away.
He was suddenly intimately aware of his pack. And the Gray alien toy inside it. One press, and he could end this whole farce. Tell them why he had done what he’d done.
But he couldn’t. Not with an enormous army ready to invade. Not when it was the very technology he was about to disable that held them at bay.
“It’s your job to make the rounds fair,” Cade growled at Abaddon. “We’ve got fewer than a hundred men. There’s at least five times that number out there.”
The girl’s voice giggled. “I have agreed to open and close the force field once, in half an hour. Two waves, the second larger than the first. That sounds fair to me, Cade.”
Now Cade knew he could not trigger the EMP, even if he wanted to. They’d all attack at once.
“Hey, don’t look so glum,” Abaddon said. “If you win, you’ll switch places with them. You get to go home. All of you.”
Cade gritted his teeth and looked at the timer.
00:09:26
00:09:25
00:09:24
“Marius, we have to survive an hour. Is there somewhere we can survive that long without fighting them?”
Marius thumped the wall. “We’ll hold them at the wall,” he said. “They’ve no weapons that I can see, only their mandibles.”
Cade rubbed his eyes. “Ants can lift at least ten times their body weight, and they have a hardened carapace. Some have venomous stingers; some shoot acid. We don’t know how similar these aliens are to ants, but they’re at the top of the leaderboard for a reason.”
Marius growled but nodded his head. “We hold the first wave at the wall, test their strength. Then, if we struggle to hold them in the first wave, we fall back to the keep, try to blockade the windows and door. Lastly we retreat to the baths.”
Cade nodded. It was the same plan that he had followed when they had fought the vipers all that time ago.
“Men, defend the walls!” Marius bellowed to his legionaries, the Codex translating for the benefit of the others. “Prepare for attack!”
They had no other choice, Cade knew. They could not hide out in the jungles, nor did the fields of stumps within the area present a strategic advantage, nor did the waterfall, or the orchards above.
But the tunnel. That perfectly round, narrow tunnel, bored through the mountain like a straw … that did present one advantage.
“We’ve got less than ten minutes to get that gun to work,” Cade said.
His friends stared at him.
“Aren’t you going to address the fact that we’re being attacked because of a choice you made without us?” Grace demanded.
“We can discuss it later,” Cade said.
“No,” Amber said. “That’s what you said last time, and now look what’s happened. We’re going to discuss it now.”
Cade stopped dead, even as legionaries rushed around him, arms full of javelins and heavy rocks.
“I did what I had to,” he said.
“I heard you,” Amber said. “You sent us away, but I heard you negotiating with him.”
“That was to find out where the last trinket was,” Cade said. “And I sent you away because we didn’t all need to be out there risking our lives to find it.”
“You sent us away so we wouldn’t have a chance to stop you,” Scott snapped.
His friend’s face was a rictus of grief, and Cade had no words to defend himself.
“You’ve killed us, Cade,” Scott gasped, his face contorted as he tried to hold back his tears.
“Power went to your head,” Grace said. “Did it make you feel good, playing god with our lives? You’re no better than Abaddon. He’s rubbed off on you.”
Cade blinked back tears and straightened his back. He had to get through this. If they survived … he would let them know why. For now, he would endure their hatred.
Only Quintus looked at him without fury in his eyes. But then, the Codex had no lips for the young legionary to read—had he heard?
“They’re attacking because of me,” Cade said to his best friend. “I bought the bomb. They’re attacking us so we can’t use it against them.”
Quintus shook his head and clasped Cade’s shoulder.
“If we win this,” Quintus whispered, “it’s over. We all go home.”
“We didn’t ask for this,” Yoshi said. “You’ve jeopardized more than our lives. Our planet is at stake. Our friends, our families. Our species.”
Cade lifted his chin and turned away. “We have Cantelo’s gun,” he said. “Quintus, come with me. And anyone else who still believes in me.”
He pushed past his friends down the steps, where Quintus had brought the box. It was made of aged leather, and Cade knelt beside it to undo the straps that held it closed.
Only Quintus followed him.
Not even Amber left the ramparts, her back to him as she wiped tears from her eyes. He did not know if it was their rejection or the pain he had caused them that hurt him the most.
CHAPTER
57
Cade glanced at the timer, pushing his despair from his thoughts. He had a job to do.
00:06:12
00:06:11
00:06:10
The box lid eased open. Inside sat an ugly tube of black metal, alongside a large tripod and two metal boxes.
“Help me,” Cade said as he struggled to lift the heavy tripod, which unfolded creakily with a reluctant screech. There was a red dusting at the hinges, and Cade groaned at the sight.
He was about to pin the future of humanity on a rusted old prototype, one that had never been proven to work.
With the tripod set up, Cade and Quintus lifted out the gun. It was surprisingly basic, a cylinder with a barrel protruding from one end and a square block on the other. At the base of the cylinder were two openings, where Cade imagined the bullets were inserted and the casings were jettisoned out. The only other detail was a button at the back, likely the trigger.
It was a simple thing, and Cade was glad of it. Anything more complex and they would need far more than the five minutes they had remaining to figure out how it worked.
He borrowed Quintus’s gladius and levered open the top of one of the metal boxes, and was relieved to find bullets there, each connected in a long belt.
With quick calculation, he unspooled the belt, guessing there were two hundred rounds.
He’d learned from his mistake with the pistol, so he checked the other box and found an identical belt within. Four hundred bullets would wipe out most of the ant army.
“This could work,” Cade whispered.
“What could?” Quintus asked.
“This gun is like the pistol, but it will fire … well, I don’t know how fast, but a lot of bullets. Our only problem is accuracy. Pointless firing four hundred shots if you only hit forty.”
Quintus pondered Cade’s problem, but Cade already had an answer.
“The tunnel. They’ll be funneled right down the middle,” Cade said. “We might even hit two with each bullet.”
Quintus grinned and nodded, but his eyes widened as he looked at the timer.
00:04:37
00:04:36
00:04:35
“Marius!” Cade called.
The man came quickly, having watched their activities from the walls even as he was giving orders. He came down with hopeful eyes.
“A cannon?” he asked.
“A machine gun—remember when I told you about those?”
Marius’s eyes widened. “Place it on the walls,” he said. “We’ll thin their numbers.”
Cade shook his head. “We only have four hundred shots. Most will miss from the walls, or almost anywhere else for that matter.”
Marius spat. “What use is it, then?”
“If we set up the gun at the tunnel, they’ll be like rats in a barrel.”
Marius furrowed his brows, confused by the idiom, but bit his lip. “You want me to abandon the walls?” he asked.
Cade closed his eyes, considering the question. “Survive the first wave,” he said. “Then retreat down the tunnel before the second wave hits. We’ll fight them there.”
Marius looked skeptically at the machine. “Does it work?” he asked.
Cade held up a finger and carefully fed the end of the bullet belt into the gun until he felt it stop.
He leaned the gun back until it pointed toward the mountainside, above the heads of the milling Romans.
Breathing a prayer, he gave the button at the back a hard tap.
Crack.
The gun jolted slightly but remained in its seat on the tripod. Halfway up the mountain, a puff of dust erupted outward. Cade gulped, noting that it was a fair way off from where he had pointed the gun.
Marius nodded grimly. “The second wave, then,” he growled. He patted a whistle upon a string around his neck. “Or whenever I sound the retreat.”
The timer ticked on, and Cade picked up the gun and dangling belt, leaving Quintus to take the tripod and box of remaining ammunition.
Together, they staggered into the tunnel.
“If we live,” Quintus said, stopping for a rest. “And we attack the … ants … we will go home?”
Cade groaned and set down the weapon.
“Yes, Quintus,” he said.
Quintus bit his lip and stared vacantly, and Cade saw tears on his cheeks in the ethereal light of the Codex’s timer.
“Will you…,” Quintus began, struggling to find the words. “I … I don’t belong in your world.”
Cade stepped close and embraced his friend, pulling him tight to his chest. Tears, hot and bittersweet, burned a trail down Quintus’s dust-streaked face.
“You don’t belong in this one either,” Cade said. “And you did pretty well here. You’ll just come stay with me, okay?”
Quintus pulled away, a smile upon his face.
“My mum would love you,” Cade said. “She’d pinch your cheek and say you need fattening up.”
Quintus laughed and embraced Cade once more.
Cade could imagine it now. Quintus, eating dal and pakoras with his family for dinner. Watching his first movie. Playing his first video game.
But it was all a lie. Should he survive the next hour, and there was time to set off the EMP, he would condemn his friends to this world forever. Even now, he was betraying his friend’s trust.
Quintus, who had stuck with him through it all. Who had saved his life more times than he could remember.
“Come on,” Cade whispered, releasing Quintus. “Let’s get this where it needs to go.”
CHAPTER
58
Cade made it to the ramparts just in time, the timer ticking ever closer to the first release of ants.
00:00:56
00:00:55
00:00:54
All along the walls Romans bristled, javelins, slings, and piled rocks at the ready. And in the heat of the moment, Cade realized he didn’t have a sword. He had left his own in the mouth of a dinosaur, miles away.
“Thought you could use this,” came a voice to his left.
Scott gave him a half smile, and passed Cade a blade. A Japanese sword. One of their spares.
“Thank you,” Cade whispered.
Scott shrugged.
“Not worth staying angry,” he said. “We’ve got a chance to go home now.”
“And the others?” Cade asked.
“They’ll come around.” Scott forced a smile. “Just … you know. Make sure we all live through this.”
00:00:
35
00:00:34
00:00:33
Cade looked down the rampart, where the contenders had gathered behind the Romans, their long blades poised above the legionaries’ helmets.
Amber caught his eye, then turned away. Cade set his teeth and faced the enemy, blade sweaty in his palm. Behind, Quintus rattled up the stairs, having sloped off to put on some spare armor.
This was the unknown. There had been no time to prepare for this enemy. There was no knowledge of what they faced, for humans had never been high enough on the leaderboard to face them.
What Cade did know was that this would be the greatest enemy they had ever faced. Certainly their numbers dwarfed those of the vipers, all that time ago. But these insectile beings were not flesh and blood, but carapace and ichor. Would a blade, stuck through a thorax, stop them as it would a man?
00:00:10
00:00:09
00:00:08
“Get ready, men!” Marius screamed, mounting the ramparts and pointing a gladius down the field. “One last battle. One more, and we’re free of this cursed place!”
The legion roared and rattled their blades upon their shields. Cade felt a surge of pride. This was for humanity. And he was honored to fight for it.
00:00:03
00:00:02
00:00:01
The force field disappeared, its blue glow washing away. Yet to Cade’s surprise, the ants did not move. They continued milling about as if they had not been waiting for battle at all.
“Why aren’t they attacking?” Scott whispered.
Cade leaned forward, taking a closer look at the creatures now that the opaque force field no longer blocked his view.
They were strange things. Like red-black upright ants, true, but there was more to them than that. Their upper arms were like those of a crustacean, with two claws, one larger than the other. The carapaces were not dissimilar from a crab’s either, with spines and jagged spikes covering their torsos.
As for their lower set of arms, these reminded him more of a mantis’s, with two fingerlike appendages at the ends, clearly what they used to manipulate the world around them. That and the giant mandibles upon their heads, which emitted a stream of clicks and whistles, drifting across the fields toward them.
The Champion Page 23
