by J. S. Miller
When I turned back to the broken wall, Coppersworth and Elena were watching me, also waiting for orders. It surprised me, but I suppose it shouldn’t have. I possessed more raw power than anyone else in the city, and I’d taken charge in a dire situation. The realization filled me with all sorts of emotions that might have been pride or self-respect but would require closer examination later to be sure. For now, we had to keep moving.
“Follow me,” I said. “We still have work to do.”
Chapter 33
I stepped over the rubble, resolute in my purpose — and came to an immediate stop at a strange intersection of five alleyways. The paths converged into an angular maze, and the buildings stood so tall I’d lost sight of the temple peering up over them.
“When this is all over, I’m having a talk with Astor Sylvana,” I grumbled. “Astoria’s urban planners are a bunch of sadists.”
“Let me guess,” Elena said. “We’re lost. Already.”
“I’m new here, ya know. Any chance your buddies would be willing to share their GPS?”
“Is there an Arclight Security tracking beacon in this temple you’re looking for? If not, it wouldn’t help. I thought you had a plan.”
I threw my hands up and sighed.
“My plan was as follows: Step one, walk in that general direction. Step two, get there.”
“This is your first time in a city, then?”
“You two do seem quite close,” Coppersworth interjected. “I see now why you walked through fire and death to find her, Westley.”
“You did what?” Elena asked, glaring at me.
“You wouldn’t happen to have a mute button, would you, Coppersworth? Just for future reference.”
“I’m quite certain I have no idea,” he said.
“Answer the question,” Elena insisted.
“OK, fine, sure. What did you think I was doing in Astoria? I couldn’t just sit around and do nothing while you got dragged off by the literal boogeyman.”
“So you ran headlong into an alien world, without a plan or backup … to save me?”
“It sounds just plain dumb when you say it like that. Whereas I was going for more of a noble, starry-eyed dumbness.”
“And, instead, I ended up having to rescue you multiple times.”
“Hey, that’s debatable.”
“Well, let’s review. One, when the tower collapsed. Two, when I peeled you off Cobblestone Road and got you medical attention …”
“Don’t forget when you pummeled me and left me for dead.”
“I told you before. You were the only one who could help.”
“Why is that? Why couldn’t you have warned them? Or at least ditched the ninja getup and talked to me? There are a number of viable alternatives to a sternum kick.”
“Maybe I wanted to see what you would do.”
“And here I thought you Arclight agents were manipulative. But my question remains: why?”
Silence crept in around us as she eyed me. The gaze made me uncomfortable, as if she were waiting for me to sprout horns, don a red cape, and reveal a contract for her to sign. But I knew on instinct that if I didn’t regain her trust here and now, it could be gone for good. So I refused to look away.
“Before I answer,” she finally said. “You must prove you aren’t operating under orders from the Royal Academy.”
I guffawed. Couldn’t help it. First real laugh I’d had in days. Hell, maybe weeks, or even months. It wasn’t like my life had been a comedy goldmine before all this craziness.
“Me? Taking orders from those musty old gasbags?”
“What was I supposed to think?” Her face was turning red. “That you ‘accidentally’ fell into that portal, where an alchemical abomination was conveniently waiting to slaughter my entire team?”
“Hey, there wasn’t anything convenient about … hold on, alchemical abomination?”
“Why didn’t it kill you?”
“That I can explain if you’ll just let me—”
“I’m sure your explanation will be pitch perfect. Theirs always are. But tell me the truth. They want the book as badly as we do, don’t they?”
“Wait … what?”
“Arn Muller’s copy of The Ancestry of Alchemy. We know you have it. If you turn it over willingly, you may be able to persuade me to testify on your behalf.”
I gawked at her. She continued glaring at me but had evidently run out of accusations to hurl.
“OK, my turn to speak?” I asked. “Weird coincidences all around, I’ll admit. I was planning to ask you for clarification, considering you clearly created the hole that started all this.”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“Strange how your device creates markings just like those I found near that first hole. And how you alone were waiting for me in my basement. Did I surprise you by coming home early? Is that why you used the portal gun? Or was that your exit strategy all along?”
“Is this your defense?”
“No. Listen, Elena, we can fight about that later. For now, as you said, we have more pressing matters. Max Fen … he killed your team, and now he wants to kill everyone. Or at least turn us all into those things.”
“That makes no sense,” she said. “I know Max. He wouldn’t—”
“He’s not exactly himself anymore. But I’m guessing he knew about your plans to ransack my lab, correct? And about the book?”
“He … was privy to Arclight intelligence, yes.”
“There you go. Convenient monster.”
Her eyes grew anxious. “But why? What would he want with you …”
She trailed off. I snorted.
“Good to know Arclight considers me such a high-value target,” I said. “He took my ring, eventually. And he got his hands on this book everyone seems so worked up over.”
“He has the book?” she asked, her face going rigid.
“It’s a grade school alchemy text, Elena. Useless. I would’ve given it to you if you’d asked.”
“If you really care so little about … all of this … why did you risk everything coming here?” She met my eyes again, as if trying to stare the truth out of me. “What did you have to gain?”
“Is it so hard to believe I wanted to save a friend from certain death? I mean, at the very least we’re friends, right? As much as an Arclight field agent can be friends with a washed-up alchemy apprentice. In all fairness, I think my view of friendship might be a little fucked up. My roommates are talking gargoyles …”
Sure, I was rambling. She was watching me so closely I thought those brown eyes might bore through to my soul.
“You better not be lying,” she said when I finally stopped babbling. “Remember, I have access to polygraph machines.”
“I assure you, Miss,” Coppersworth chimed in. “The shameless sincerity of his plight was precisely what attracted me in the first place. I simply could not turn down a mission of love.”
“Coppersworth, buddy. Please, stop helping.”
“And you knew about this,” she asked, pulling out the portal gun. “You could’ve run again. But you stayed. Fought beside us.”
“I put two and two together when you used it, sure. But I never wanted to abandon anyone. It’s just … have you ever been knocked down so many times that getting back up starts to feel like wasted effort? When you get into the habit of thinking that way, it gets hard to stop. But I only wanted to help. I don’t know if you’ve noticed this, Elena, but I kinda like you. Loyalty to Arclight and all. For some reason.”
I was rambling again, unable to make the words come out in ways that sounded right. Elena started walking toward me, hands raised in some kind of judo grip. I girded myself for the inevitable choke hold and fade to black, but instead, she folded her arms around my neck and pressed her lips against mine.
I knew on some level I was supposed to close my eyes, but they flew open instead. Kissing, whoa. I’d almost forgotten what it felt like. It really is the best, isn’t it? OK, well, mayb
e not quite the best. But a close second.
“What … uh … what was that for?” I stammered as she pulled away.
“I can tell you what it wasn’t for,” she said, jabbing me in the chest with a finger. “Chasing after me like a lovesick puppy. I can take care of myself. Also, if you like someone, ask her to get coffee before any of this nonsense ever happens. She might like you back. Idiot.”
“Hey, so, if we’re still alive later, would you maybe wanna get some coff—”
“No. Not like that. I prefer sincerity on you. Ask me again later, if we’re still alive. If this whole crazy city hasn’t fallen from the sky.”
The sky. I glanced up and saw smoke still collecting against the gravity moat. A blanket of gray clouds now covered almost the entire city, or at least all of it I could see.
“I think I know how to keep that from happening,” I said. “Coppersworth, do you think you could — Coppersworth?”
I glanced around and saw that our huge metal friend had discreetly vacated the area. He was standing about twenty yards down one of the alleys, pretending to carefully examine a bag of trash. If nothing else, I admired his ability to be so stealthy.
“Hey, Coppersworth,” I shouted. “We need you. Oh, lower your eyebrows, not like that. Your monocle … it has a scanner of some sort, doesn’t it?”
“Oh, why yes,” he said, walking back over. “Although I can’t imagine what could need analysis in this filthy place.”
“The sky. I’m not sure exactly what to look for, but someone told me the temple here is a seat of great power. Can you search for energy signatures, radiation output, anything like that?”
“I can certainly try,” he said as he looked to the sky, monocle flashing. “Hmm. Why yes … there does appear to be something large and powerful in our general vicinity.”
“Does it seem dangerous?”
“Naturally … but also stable. As though it’s always been here and always will be. Like a celestial body, compressed and localized.”
“Can you lead us to it?”
“I do not know. It’s rather subtle for my sensors. Are you unable to detect it?”
“How do you expect me to do that?”
“You’re an alchemist,” he said as if that should explain everything.
I started to ask what he meant before remembering that, yes, I had in fact used my abilities to feel out patterns in the energies around me earlier that very evening. If I could redirect an alchemical explosion, finding an enormous artificial gravity well should be a piece of cake, right?
I shifted my gaze to the sky and shut out everything else. Centering my will. Reaching out with my senses. Trying to see what Coppersworth saw.
There. A great funnel in the sky, swirling, pushing out force like an inverted black hole. The gravity moat. It appeared to be coming from The Sacred Temple of the Guinness Pint.
“Got it,” I said. “And I think I can take us there. Follow me.”
Coppersworth and I started walking.
“Wait, West,” Elena said, not moving. “One thing still doesn’t make sense. If you weren’t working for the Academy … how did you get back here? After the hospital?”
“The second portal, in the elevator shaft.” She gazed back blankly. “You mean you didn’t make it?”
I could tell by her face that she hadn’t, and that she had no idea who had. Wordless comprehension passed between us: Another player was waiting in the wings, and apparently whoever it was had a portal gun of their own. Or the power to rip holes in the universe at will. Awesome.
“This plan of yours,” she went on. “Perhaps I should tell you everything else I know before we risk an entire city full of lives. Including our own.”
“I’m listening.”
“When I … created that tunnel in your lab,” she seemed to be having trouble finding words. “You have to understand, West. In an operation like this, Arclight leaves nothing to chance.”
“You were just following orders. I get it. I guess all that stuff about research teams disappearing was made up too?”
“It was a cover story, yes, but elements were true. We had already mapped a not insignificant section of this world when the adversary chose to make himself known.
“I take it that’s when everything went terribly, terribly wrong?”
“Yes. But before that, it began with the holes, as I said. They truly have been appearing at random for years. When it started, the Royal Academy opened their doors to us. We pooled resources. Developed this crude means of creating them ourselves.” She held up the portal gun. “The alchemists went in first. We don’t know what they saw, but upon returning … they were scared. They shut the project down and severed ties with Arclight. My superiors couldn’t accept it. They continued experimenting, continued venturing in on their own, but then the disappearances began. They decided—”
“They wanted a pet alchemist on a leash, just in case.”
“It wasn’t like that,” she said. “We wanted your help. Only a few devices like this currently exist. Our efforts could not progress without someone with … your abilities.”
“You could’ve asked.”
“Would you have trusted us?”
“Your buddies? Not a chance. You … maybe.”
She lowered her eyes.
“Then I’m sorry, West.”
“Eh, don’t beat yourself up.” I grinned. “I did say maybe. Anyway, I’m a bit flattered, to be honest. But what are they hoping to accomplish now, in Astoria?”
“Arclight is thoroughly compartmentalized, so I don’t know everything. However, neither the Outrider nor the book was our primary objective.”
“I agree. They’re not.”
Her eyebrows lifted slightly.
“Then you are aware of the Alpha Target?
“Glowy guy, seemingly omnipotent?” I asked. She nodded. “I got a glimpse of him through Fen’s eyes. When he touched me.”
Elena visibly shivered.
“We had similar experiences, then,” she said. “But my superiors … they ordered me to get close to you. Find out whether you’re working with the Academy or the Alpha … and then stop you. Save Astoria. By any means necessary.”
I opened my mouth to respond, but decided to think first instead. I know, I know. I’m trying new things, all right?
Something about Arclight’s story didn’t add up. Fen’s army was already destroying the city, so what were they hoping to accomplish by stopping little old me? Astoria would fall with or without my interference, which meant they had more to gain from letting me go about my business.
When the truth hit me, it felt like a physical slap.
“No,” I said. “That’s not their plan at all.”
“What?” she asked.
“What does my file say again?”
“I don’t carry it with me,” she said with a smirk.
“I’m guessing there’s something about my penchant for running into danger, trying to do the right thing, but usually just blowing stuff up.”
“Something like that, yes.”
“And why would they send you? They must have known we have a history.”
“I do not let personal biases interfere with my—”
“I’m not attacking you, Elena. But I think your bosses want me to try to save Astoria and fail. And they sent you because they knew we’d end up on the same side. You’re the police escort for the wrecking ball.”
“No,” she said. “They would never willfully put civilian lives at risk.”
“Desperate times call for dangerous measures. If Astoria survives, so does this Alpha Target and his armies … at least in their minds. What they don’t realize is that he’s already in the wind. Gone. I saw it myself. He’s moved on to other worlds.”
“I can’t believe this.”
“Ask yourself, why did they send a fully armed team just to back you up in defense of an alien city?”
“I am a valuable agent,” she said, sounding less
than certain. “And I possess one of the few existing portal guns.”
“Sure, but did you notice what those soldiers were wearing? Struck me as odd at the time, but Hanks distracted me.” I rubbed my forehead. “Which I realize now is probably why they brought him along, too. Wow, your bosses are downright Machiavellian.”
I could see by her face that she was deep in thought now.
“They had explosive charges,” she said slowly.
“Right. The kind used for leveling buildings. They’re the contingency plan. If I don’t destroy the city, and Fen doesn’t destroy the city, they will. They’re going to make sure Astoria is destroyed, and the Alpha threat neutralized, one way or another.”
Elena’s brow furrowed. She was obviously struggling to come to terms with this new reality. After a moment, however, she nodded.
“My superiors did seem cagey over the radio. As if they were hiding something. They knew I wouldn’t comply with such a course of action.” Her eyes went hard as steel again. “We need to get to the temple. Right now.”
I gave her a quizzical look.
“I know Arclight. Snubbed by the Royal Academy, and now this hospital incident … if you succeed, and their mission fails, they’ll issue a Code Blue.”
“What’s that?”
“It means cover-up. If a threat vanishes out from under them, they pull out. Try to recoup their losses and conceal their involvement. It’s standard operating procedure.”
I stared at her, not quite grasping what she was saying.
“West, if you’re right … your plan is now the only hope for Astoria.”
I guided us as best I could toward the base of the energy funnel. We moved quickly but cautiously, knowing that attracting more attention could put a stop to our plans before they got started. Eventually we came to a broad, recently abandoned street.
The temple stood tall before us, its arches, columns and general ornamentation significantly less subtle than those of its forest counterpart. This was a big city cathedral with elaborate tracery and gothic statuaries — the kind of church demanded by the wealthy and the powerful before they would ever deign to get on their knees and worship. As if only deities who outdid their own opulence could rightfully reign over them.
