by E. R. Torre
There’s no way you could have known Lemner’s passkey would do this, she thought.
It didn’t change things.
You opened Pandora’s box. Can you help close it?
Catherine’s room was not too far from Nox’s. Sergeant Delmont remained at the door and allowed Nox her privacy.
Nox still carried the General’s file on her. She was tempted to open it and uncover the mysteries of her past, but didn’t. Instead, she drew a chair and sat beside Catherine’s bed.
A series of IV tubes connected to bags of clear liquid snaked into Catherine’s arms. There were no electronic devices monitoring her condition. Indeed, it was only now Nox realized just how wiped clean of all major electronics this base was. The gas generators outside the facility provided power to the lights, the air conditioning, and the refrigeration. Communication was accomplished throughout the base by a rudimentary –and very antique– telephone system. As bad as things were, it was far better than whatever was happening at this moment in the Big City.
The Mechanic let those thoughts drift and for several seconds quietly stared at her friend. Catherine Holland’s face was pale. Her eyes were closed and she remained unconscious. The swelling and bruises on her face and arms were receding.
A few more seconds passed. A nurse walked into the room and measured Catherine’s pulse.
“How is she doing?” Nox asked.
“She’s stable,” the nurse said.
“Will she make it?”
“We’re doing the best we can.”
“You didn’t answer the question.”
The nurse laid her hand on Nox’s shoulder.
“I wish I could,” she said.
Nox lowered her head.
“Thank you.”
The nurse nodded. She silently stepped out of the room.
Nox’s head came back up. Her jaw clenched and her hands tightened into fists.
“I fucked up,” Nox said. “I fucked up bad.”
Nox rubbed her eyes. She leaned forward in the chair.
“Why the hell did I have to be so damn clever?” she said. “Why the hell did I have to use the damned passkey?”
It wasn’t like Nox to second guess her actions, and that angered her even more. She wanted to flee this room and sucker punch the Sergeant on her way out, strip him of his weapons, and hunt down the bastards responsible for her friend’s injuries and slowly –so very slowly– kill each and every one of them. She’d figure out a way to destroy the passkey and, after that was done, would go after General Spradlin and his group. She would make them pay. Every last one of…
That’s not you.
Nox exhaled. Her heart was thumping.
“That’s not you,” she said out loud.
Clever.
They’re rattling around inside your head. Hoping to set you off.
The commands from Lemner’s passkey were like whispers in the dark, invisible strings drawing her to the left or right, forward or backwards. Its voice was cold and urged violence. It wanted Nox to break free of this prison and kill as many of the General’s soldiers as she could on her way out.
On the way to joining her brothers and sisters.
Nox felt her energy bubble up. She could feel the program taunting her, telling her she was welcome to return to the group. To her family. Nox was an outsider here.
“You’re right about that,” Nox muttered.
It was also dead wrong. She always was an outsider. Nox lived in the busiest city in the world and was surrounded by people yet never felt a part of them. She had only one real friend and before that, none.
Still the voice insisted she belonged to their group.
“I don’t,” Nox said.
Pounding their message into her head didn’t work, so Lemner’s passkey shifted its strategy and used little jabs and subtle contacts, all leading to the same destination. Nox could feel its plan. It wanted to remake this world in its image, populated by weaponized human beings, ready for battle, ready to kill.
Who?
The Arabian war was long finished. Though small conflicts flared up here and there throughout the globe, it seemed pointless to have such a powerful army.
Who are you preparing to fight against?
Nox was curious to find out. She allowed her mind to wander, to flow with the electronic currents instead of against them. She brushed against Lemner’s passkey. It was like an animal hidden in a deep, dark forest. She felt its breath and heard its impatient rustling. She listened some more, until she could follow in its steps and see what it was after.
At the moment, it wanted General Spradlin. It also feared him.
Why?
Nox allowed the electronic waves to coalesce. Their voices were much more faint here than at the hospital. Something in the base could quiet, if not entirely silence, them. That terrified the passkey. General Spradlin did not tell Nox everything. He had ways of thwarting Lemner’s Passkey. At least here.
Nox changed her focus and searched for what stopped the signal’s call. In time, she found herself standing before a large, dark chasm. In her mind’s eye she looked down and then stepped inside. As she fell, the whispers from the passkey disappeared. It didn’t dare enter this dark place. Nox fell for what seemed like miles until she detected a faint light in the distance. It grew larger and larger, until it overwhelmed her.
The light came from a huge machine. It was the one Nox now knew was buried deep under the military base. Is this where the city’s refugees were being sent? To this machine? A machine that—
Just like that, her vision was gone.
Nox opened her eyes and found she was alone in Catherine’s room. The connection to Lemner’s passkey and whatever lay below was severed. It was pointless to try finding it again.
Nox reached for Catherine’s hand and gently took it in hers.
Feeling her friend’s warm hand lifted Nox’s spirits. Despite the extreme guilt, anger, and fear she felt, it made the Mechanic smile. Touching her friend made the storm surrounding her dissipate, at least for the moment. She savored this small contact and held on. She willed the seconds to pass slowly, knowing they would move exactly as they had before. She felt tears forming in her eyes. She was so thankful her friend was still alive.
“I need you to take care of something for me,” Nox finally said. She put the unread file in Catherine’s cold hands.
“I’ll get them,” Nox continued. “And when I’m done, I’m coming back for you.”
Her time was up.
Nox reluctantly released Catherine’s hand. She headed to the door leading out of the room. There, she took one last look at Catherine.
“I’m coming back,” she repeated.
She stepped out of the room. Sergeant Delmont was there, waiting for her.
“Let’s go,” Nox said.
29
When she returned to the garage, Nox was dressed in army fatigues that were a little too tight for her frame. Sergeant Delmont remained at her side. At the other end of the garage, the masses of people were still streaming in and heading down the stairs to the garage’s lower levels.
“Where are they going?” Nox asked Sgt. Delmont.
“To shelter,” the Sergeant said.
“There’s enough room for everyone down there?”
“They’re comfortable.”
“How many people are there in the Big City?”
Sgt. Delmont considered the question.
“I don’t know…eighteen to twenty some million?”
“Sounds about right,” Nox said. “How many of those eighteen to twenty some million people you got down there?”
“I wouldn’t know.”
“How many can you have down there before they’re uncomfortable?”
Sergeant Delmont thought about it. He shrugged.
“Just how big is this basement of yours?” Nox continued.
“Tell you what,” Sergeant Delmont said. “I’ll have my real estate agent give you a call.
I’m sure he’ll have all the answers you need.”
Nox was silent for a few seconds. Her eyes took in every visible corner of the warehouse while her mind calculated.
Unless the General somehow anticipated a city-wide evacuation many, many years before and got crews to dig the equivalent of the Big City itself under these grounds, she couldn’t imagine even one twentieth of the city’s population fitting below. Comfortably or not.
Yet she witnessed with her own two eyes this enormous, seemingly unending stream of people doing just that.
The line did not falter and, assuming the pace remained the same during the days she was unconscious, there was a massive amount of people already down below.
“What about the other big cities of the world? The General says they’re going through the same thing we are. Do they have shelters like we do?”
“Probably.”
“All of them?”
Sgt. Delmont hesitated a moment before saying:
“Lady, I’m just another link in a large chain. Why don’t you save all this for the General?”
“I’ll do that,” Nox said. “Until then, can I ask you one last question, Sergeant?”
The Sergeant sighed.
“What?”
“Is the General a good man?”
“Yes,” Sgt. Delmont said. He did not hesitate in replying.
“You’ve heard about the child soldiers he had fighting in Arabia, right?”
“Yes.”
“You think someone who ordered children with nukes strapped to their backs into Arabian cities can be a good man?”
Sergeant Delmont stopped walking. Nox did the same. The two eyed each other.
“I’ve been in the military almost my entire adult life,” Sergeant Delmont said. “I’ve met all kinds of officers, from good to mediocre to fucking terrible. As far as General Spradlin is concerned, I would die for him.”
“As long as you had the choice,” Nox said. “Back in Arabia, we didn’t.”
“Then you have to pick your poison. As bad as you think General Spradlin is, Lemner’s passkey is far worse. I don’t know how the General plans to stop it, but I know he needs your help to do so. If you care about this city and its people, you’ll give him that help.”
“Why should I?”
“Because he’s betting that deep down inside you aren’t like Joshua Landon,” the Sergeant said. “You may be a tough, mean bitch, but even someone like me can see you’re no monster.”
“Why I’m flattered, Sergeant,” Nox said. “Haven’t heard such sweet talk since the prom.”
Sgt. Delmont let out a laugh.
“You going to help us save the world or what?”
A sly smile appeared on Nox’s face.
“Sewing club cancelled and the temperance meeting was called on account of the weather,” Nox said. “What do you know, looks like my schedule is free after all. Maybe I can spare a couple of minutes to save the world after all.”
Nox and Sgt. Delmont found General Spradlin standing before three medium sized military transport vehicles. The vehicles were identical and their bodies were heavily fortified with steel plating. Nothing short of a missile could penetrate their outer armor.
Swirling around General Spradlin were several groups of soldiers. Many carried equipment in backpacks and were loading up the vehicles. Others, dressed in lighter gear, packed.
Spradlin offered Nox a slight nod.
“Ready?”
“I suppose. What's the plan?”
“We find the source of the transmissions and destroy it.”
“That's it?”
“That's it.”
“That's what I always hated about you military types: Your plans are always so fucking complicated.”
Nox looked inside the nearest of the three military vehicles and examined the interior.
“Seats, a steering wheel, and almost nothing else,” Nox said.
“The transport trucks were stripped of every major piece of electronic equipment. No computers, no GPS, no cells. Not even AM radio.”
“No AM? How will we survive without our daily fix of right wing hot air or repetitious sports talk?” Nox said.
“The end of the world might not be so bad after all,” General Spradlin said.
“What about communication? We have any radio gear at all?”
“No. We can’t risk it.”
Nox noted there was no thumbprint ID or DNA ignition switch.
“I’ll be damned. These things start with ordinary keys?”
“As I said, we had to strip ‘em down.”
“How many people are coming along for the ride?”
“Fifteen soldiers per truck. Forty five total.”
“Forty five of us versus twenty of them,” Nox mused. “We're outnumbered.”
“If I could spare more troops, I would,” General Spradlin said. “As you can see, we've got our hands full with the refugees as it is.” He approached Nox. “Do you hear the passkey?”
“Yeah,” Nox said. “Sometimes it whispers, other times it shouts. Bossy mother fucker.”
“You’re in control?”
“For now? Yeah. But to be safe, maybe you should cuff me.”
“That something you tell all your dates?” General Spradlin said and grinned.
“Only the ones willing to pick up the tab.”
“How about we take things one step at a time, see how it goes?” Spradlin said.
“It’s your dance, General.”
General Spradlin turned away from Nox and addressed his soldiers.
“OK, everyone. Time to wrap this up.”
The soldiers around Spradlin said their goodbyes to those who were to remain behind. Others shook hands with friends and wished their counterparts good luck.
“You're riding with me,” Spradlin told Nox and Sgt. Delmont.
“You don’t want me out of your sight?” Nox asked.
“Not even for a second.”
30
They drove out of the military base through the front entrance. The seemingly unending crowds gathered before it were pushed back. Despite their numbers, the refugees of the Big City behaved in an orderly fashion and allowed the exiting trucks their space.
Nox saw the fear and anxiety on the refugees’ faces. A few days before, they were living their ordinary lives and no doubt worried about work or school or their nosy neighbor or a doctor’s appointment. They thought of money, of their job, of friends and lovers or lack thereof. They looked forward to the evening’s television or a movie or a sporting event and lived in apartments large or small or were homeless and on the street.
That was then.
Today, the military base was their last refuge. In the crowds were mothers and fathers and brothers and sisters and children large and small. There were the elderly and infirm and those in wheelchairs or on stretchers. Everyone came.
Nox looked back as the trucks drove on and saw the base and the citizens who were already inside marching toward the enormous garage.
“What’s in the basement?” Nox asked General Spradlin.
He didn’t answer. Nox answered for him.
“There’s a machine down there. I felt it. Almost like I feel Lemner’s passkey.”
Nox leaned back in her chair.
“Why do I feel these things?”
“You always could,” General Spradlin said. “It was only a matter of letting your mind do so.”
“Lemner’s passkey can’t sense you at all, General,” Nox said. “The only way it sees you is through me…if I let it. This scares it. Is that why it wants you so badly?”
“Among other things,” Spradlin said.
Nox wearily eyed the General.
“You won’t tell me everything, will you?” Nox asked and shook her head. “Of course you won’t. It’s the wise thing to do, isn’t it? If I fall into the passkey’s control, it will know everything I do, right?”
“We’ll talk,” the General said. “L
ater.”
It was all the answer Nox would get.
Not that she liked it.
They drove through the abandoned streets.
The acrid smell of smoke and rot hung over the city like a thick fog. Sewage bubbled up from clogged drains. The Matte Building, once gleaming and new, burned. There were no fire trucks or rescue personnel to save the building. The buildings surrounding it also showed evidence of fire damage. Street level stores, their outer windows shattered, were looted of their wares and stood empty and abandoned. Nox looked hard for any citizens left in the remains of this once mighty city. She saw no one.
“There have to be some people left behind,” Nox said after a while.
“I’m sure there are,” General Spradlin said.
“Will they be rounded up?”
“Yes.”
Night in the Big City was usually as bright as day thanks to the many artificial lights. Not now.
This night, the roads were inky black. All illumination came from either distant fires or the three transport trucks’ headlights. Nox stared at the shadows and, for a moment, was lost.
She was no longer in the transport. Nox was in a dark room filled with beakers, glass tubes, and computers. The place looked like a huge laboratory. It looked…familiar. She walked up to the nearest glass case and bent down, to get a better—
“Nox?”
The voice came to her from what seemed like a million miles away. She felt her body shake, but it wasn’t from cold or fear. Her eyes focused and she found herself staring at Sgt. Delmont. There was a sour look on his face. He held his automatic level with the Mechanic’s stomach.
“It isn’t polite to point those things,” Nox said.
Delmont eased back in his chair, a relieved look on his face. To Nox’s right, General Spradlin watched.
“I'm okay,” Nox said.
“You sure?”
She thought about that. She slowly shook her head.
“You should restrain me,” she said.
