Pajak’s laughter bounced off the metal walls, making it sound louder than it actually was. “You think I’m the reason why your father left you? My dear niece, I’m the one who fought against the person who made him leave. I want freedom and the ability to do what I wish. To not live as a slave. You were abandoned by the ones that I fight against. In fact, you should be grateful for everything I’ve done.”
Flexing the muscles in her arms, Ypsilon pressed against the metallic wire that confined her, but nothing moved. “Grateful? For what? Being abandoned? Finding out I’m not human and my entire existence is some insane lie that has spanned who knows how long? Or should I be grateful that everything I thought I knew about myself is bullshit? Yeah, thanks for all of that.”
“You’re not understanding me, Ypsilon. We are speaking about a common enemy. Yes, you were orphaned. As was I. Look at you now. You would never have developed into this strong creature if you’d been raised by Cog and Webley. You would’ve become weak. Like all the Dwellers. They’re nothing. Cowards. It was not until my little Plague Doctor introduced them to a virus that they finally became something even remotely interesting.”
“Look, let’s just get to the point here. What do you want from me?” Ypsilon asked. “A partner? An evil apprentice? Don’t you already have one of those? On that note, where is the Doc?”
Pajak smiled. “She’s off finishing her part of our plan. You’ll hear all about that shortly,” he replied. “To answer your question, I’m not looking for a partner nor a pupil. I want nothing from you in the slightest. I just want what every uncle wants. For you to live up to your potential.”
“I’m all that and more. I don’t need you,” Ypsilon growled.
“Of course not. You’ve never needed anyone. You’re immortal. You have more power than you know, Ypsilon. You have never needed help from others. In fact, I venture you’re constantly helping everyone else out of their messes, only to have them leave you, never return the favor, or become your enemy. Why? What’s the point to all of it? You need no one. Neither of us do.”
Pajak raised one of his legs and dragged it across Ypsilon’s stomach. Like a blade ripping through paper, his leg tore apart the webbing. As Ypsilon dropped, she thrust her legs around just in time to land in a low crouch. Slowly, she rose to face her captor.
“What is the point of all this? If you don’t want me for anything, why am I here? Why did you release me? And more importantly, why am I not killing you?”
Pajak lowered himself onto his Dweller legs, retracting his arachnid appendages. He pulled at the base of his jacket. “The point is to tell you that there’s no ill will between us. To let you know there’s more to life than living in shackles. In fact, what I really wanted was to make a deal with you.”
Ypsilon narrowed her eyes. This guy was smooth talking, but she couldn’t help seeing some truth in what he said. He had never met her before she came to the World Machine and yet, somehow, he seemed to know her.
“Ok, I’ll bite. What’s the deal?”
“I’ll be direct. I want this world, and I want you out of it. My associate, on the other hand has ulterior motives. I believe she’s lost sight of our plan.” Pajak stopped as if realizing he was sharing too much information. “As a sign of good faith, if you help me rid myself of the Plague Doctor and execute my plan, I’ll let you and your friends leave the World Machine unharmed. You will never hear from me again. Unless you want to.” He walked towards Ypsilon.
She stood firm. She could hold her own but, the last time she got into it with this guy, he wasn’t as easily beaten as she hoped. This had to be handled intelligently.
“So. Let me get this straight. I whack the doctor—who frankly has already earned a beating—help you release this virus and we all just walk away?” Ypsilon paused before adding, “All of us? Kip included?”
Pajak smiled, nodding. “Yes. I have no need for you and once the plan succeeds, I can begin to rebuild and truly make this place my home,” Pajak replied. “I think that’s something we can both live with, is it not?”
Ypsilon mulled over her options. Really thinking about it, it wasn’t a bad deal. Pajak strolled over to Ypsilon and extended one cold hand.
Everything about this guy just oozed scumbag. But the deal sounded fair enough if he held up his end. If he didn’t, she and her friends would make sure he regretted it.
Ypsilon reached out, taking his hand. “Deal.”
22|O’ Brother
If things had been different, Arija might have been thrilled to see Al again. She hadn’t seen Webley’s younger brother since they’d left the world he created called Taraveil. She was thankful that he’d shown up when he did; but this wasn’t the time to sit around and catch up.
Arija eyed the Umar, waiting for the swarm of small spiders.
“Relax,” Al said, walking towards her and Adal. “They left when the Umar was beyond repair.”
Arija let her shoulders relax, but she kept her gaze on the large mechanical spider. “Yeah, well call me paranoid, but there always seems to be something unexpected randomly popping up.”
“No kidding,” Adal added, stepping up next to Arija. “It’s great to see you Al. Thanks for saving our asses and all but why are you here?”
Al didn’t respond. His eyebrows knitted together, and he looked back at Webley, who was still unconscious.
Arija ran over to Webley with Adal and Al in tow. He still hung from the one remaining restraint. His chest rose and fell slowly, but his body was covered in blood and grime. Al pulled his brother up as he guided Adal and Arija through disabling the controls.
“How do you know how this thing works?” Arija asked as she held down a button on a side panel on the wall.
“We’re brothers. I know everything about the World Machine and how all this stuff works, and he knows everything about Taraveil. It’s a connection our family has.”
When the light above the button Arija was holding turned green, there was a soft click and she let go, moving on to another button next to a row of levers. Adal mirrored her actions on the other side of Webley, their movements needing to be precisely coordinated. When the lights turned green, they both pulled the second lever, releasing a small click.
“Good,” Al said. “Now, get the big one.” He handed Arija a long tool that looked almost like a crowbar except the end of it was circular.
Adal walked around Al and Webley until he was next to Arija. He laced his fingers together and she placed her right foot into his hands. Accepting a boost up, Arija situated herself on Adal’s shoulders, her hands outstretched.
Arija watched Al as he held Webley against his chest. When they were side by side like this, she could really tell they were related. Had it not been for the fact that Al was bald and Webley had a full head of long, stringy hair, you could have mistaken them as twins. Even the worlds they created had many similarities.
“Hey, Arija, focus,” Adal groaned.
She turned her attention back to her task. Reaching up with one hand, she slid the end of the tool into a hole in the wall and rotated the tool three times. Each time she cycled through, there was a soft click. After the third rotation, Webley slumped out of the restraints and Al lowered him to the ground.
With Webley free, Adal ducked and helped Arija from his shoulders. “Is he going to be okay?” he asked.
“I think so. He’s weak and I don’t know how long they had him contained here.” Al reached into a satchel at his hip. “Let’s see...” He pulled out what looked sort of like a gun, except the body was wrapped around a vial of white liquid. Where a barrel should be there was a large needle. Crouching back down beside Webley, Al inserted the needle just behind Webley’s ear. “That should help.”
“What is that stuff?” Arija asked.
“An old recipe made by the Creators. It reverses the effects of Stagnation.”
Adal’s face scrunched up. “Stagnation?”
“Yes. We’re Creators. Our species thrives
off creating.” Al paused. “I’m certain Webley must have told you this.”
Adal and Arija nodded.
“Good. Well, when we are kept from creating, we die. Simple. Webley must have been locked in here for a long time to be this far gone. I’m glad we got to him before it was too late. He’ll recover, but it will take some time.”
Al pried the sleeping giant’s eyes open, examining his pupils. Webley’s chest had begun to rise and fall more profoundly. Nodding with approval, Al smiled and stood, pacing in a circle around the mouth of the Umar.
Arija and Adal watched him for a few minutes, waiting, before Adal asked, “So is Webley the reason you came here then? Or is there something else going on?”
Al stopped pacing, his face contorted with concern.
“Al, come on,” Arija probed. “You wouldn’t have come here for no reason.”
“I… Well… Things have changed since you left Taraveil. Ypsilon went missing. Then some of her close friends vanished. I reached out to Webley but got no response. I could tell something was wrong, so I came here to find out what happened.”
A soft groan came from Webley and everyone stopped to look at him. It seemed like he was recovering quickly.
“So, you really only came here as the concerned little brother?” Adal asked, pulling Arija’s attention away from Webley.
“Well, yeah. Webley was always the strong and responsible one. When I couldn’t reach him or find you, I got concerned. And Ypsilon is my responsibility. I needed to make sure she was all right too.”
Adal nodded. “Well, you hit the nail on the head there. This place is screwed.”
Arija shot him a look, but he was right. The World Machine was screwed if they didn’t find a way to fix everything. The plague, the Plague Doctor, Pajak, it was all going down fast.
“I’m aware, Adal. I could sense it when I first got here. It looks like there is a virus tearing this world apart. And it seems as though my nephew has escaped and found a new ally.”
Arija crossed her arms over her chest. “Good. Now that all that’s out of the way, what do we do?”
“Unfortunately, I cannot do much. I must tend to my brother, and I’m bound by law to not interfere with another Creator's world.”
Adal sighed. “Oh great. So now what?”
“I can’t interfere, but I can help you. Looking for my brother, I learned a few things,” Al began. “Firstly, it seems like there’s a plot to create mass mayhem and destruction. I’m unsure as to what the plot is exactly.”
“Yeah, we know something is going down, we just don’t know where.” Arija thought about how they barely survived the last fight. There was no way they could take on Pajak, the Plague Doctor and all of Pajak’s Kleinmasch without some help. “What else do you have for us?”
Al smiled. As if reading her thoughts, he walked over to the remnants of the mechanical suits they’d destroyed when fighting the Umar. “You guys like driving these things?”
“I mean, we didn’t hate it,” Adal replied.
“Could have been worse,” Arija agreed.
“Wonderful. I know just the place to take them for a ride.”
23|The Fight
Ypsilon sat on a beam overlooking the dock and examined Pajak’s whole operation. The operation she was now part of.
Pajak had given her the tools she needed to fix a few damaged areas of her kit and now, sitting high in the air, by herself, she finally started to relax. Ypsilon rolled her head from side to side, letting the tense muscles in her neck stretch and pop.
All things considered, Pajak and the Plague Doctor actually had a pretty good plan. Take out all the patrols, ransack the armories, hijack the ships, deliver the payload and fly off before anyone knew what was going on. The Plague Doctor had some good ideas. This is exactly how Ypsilon would have done it, if she’d made the plan herself. In fact, she was thinking of ripping off the idea to take back Teravail from the Senate when she got home. If anyone could figure out a way to wipe out the Senate while simultaneously not harming the Grinders, it was Ypsilon and her Engineers.
Pajak had left to meet his soon-to-be-ex partner after leading her to the docks. He hadn’t really told her why he decided to turn on the Doctor, only that he thought she was starting to lose her mind and he wasn’t sure he could trust her anymore.
“Okay. They’re loading the tanks into the airship now,” Ypsilon said. “The Doctor should be getting here any minute.”
She got the feeling the Plague Doctor didn’t like her. Although, she had no idea why. Maybe she felt Ypsilon was stepping on her turf. Either way, it didn’t matter. Pajak had decided he’d rather work with Ypsilon and the good doctor would just have to die so Ypsilon and her friends could live.
The armaments lining the ship set to carry the virus across the World Machine screamed gunship. Cannons and rail guns ran along a deck suspended by cables under a giant blimp. It was surrounded by gangways on both sides and dozens of Dwellers loaded crates onto the ship, with two cranes loading the tanks of the two viruses.
Her plan was simple. Pajak would convince the Plague Doctor that she should watch to make sure the ship safely left port. Once the ship was on its way, Ypsilon would drop down, surprise the Doctor and kill her before she had the chance to complain.
Ypsilon smiled. The excitement of adrenaline pumped through her veins as she thought about what she was going to do. A breeze tickled the back of her neck as her dreads danced across her shoulders.
Pajak hadn’t given her any weapons, so she was going to have to do this o’naturale. It had been a while since she’d been without a weapon and the prospect of beating the Plague Doctor to death sent an excited chill down her spine.
Scanning the crowd, a familiar shape finally appeared on the deck of the ship. She knew that cloaked asshole couldn’t resist checking to make sure everything went her way. “Game time.”
The Plague Doctor shouted at a group of Dwellers as they loaded the tanks, running tubes down the sides of the ship.
Ypsilon’s heart thundered in her chest. She loved the brief moment of solitude before a job. She slid her headphones up her head. Scrolling through the menu on the Arm Pilot wrapped around her wrist, she chose the perfect song.
Butterflies ran rampant in Ypsilon’s stomach when she saw that the Plague Doctor wasn’t alone. Somehow, she’d gotten herself some new muscle. Loud metallic steps echoed as some big son of a bitch marched across the gangway and on to the ship. Even at this distance, she could see it was Captain Silny. “Oh fuck.” How the hell was she supposed to kill the Plague Doctor and the head of the defense team with no weapons?
Ypsilon looked around for Pajak to see if it was going to be a full house, but the spider was nowhere to be seen. He was probably watching from the shadows like the creep he was. Glaring back at her new problem, she realized the captain was carrying something over his shoulder. Stepping next to the Doctor, he dropped it to the floor.
Curious, Ypsilon focused on what Captain Silny had dropped. Her mouth dropped open as Maza stood, his arms tied at the wrist in thick-gauged wire behind his back.
Her boyfriend tensed as he eyed the captain and the Plague Doctor. Maza jerked his head back, spitting on the large captain. The giant looked down at his boss. The Plague Doctor nodded and Captain Silny kicked Maza, sending him spiraling to the ground. The captain of the guard positioned himself over Maza and pointed an arm-mounted cannon at him.
“Oh, hell no,” Ypsilon growled.
She pressed play on her Arm Pilot, sending a wave of thunderous drums into her ears. Slamming her boot into the beam, Ypsilon launched herself into the air. She leapt from beam to beam, her kit working perfectly.
Time slowed to a crawl.
Her heart pounded in her chest along with the beat in her ears. Once she was over the warship, she jumped.
Swan diving to the top of the dirigible, she reached towards a cable that ran all the way down to the ship’s deck. An extension snapped from her wrist. She
grabbed the cable and rode it down. Pulling against the structure holding the ship into place, Ypsilon slid around the blimp and spun towards the deck.
Flying low, her boots scraped the metal surface of the ship’s deck as she soared towards Maza. She grabbed the wire holding his hands and pulled him out of the way.
The beat in her ears thundered.
Captain Silny fired his arm cannon.
The smell of smoke and oil filled the area.
Ypsilon and Maza slid across the deck and into the side of a steel cage. A metal bar smacked into Ypsilon’s back, making her wince. She used the jagged edge of the bar to cut away the wire binding Maza. Smoke rose from a smoldering hole where he’d been standing.
“How the hell did you just do that?” Maza asked. “How was that even possible?”
“I’ll let you know when I figure it out.”
Ypsilon walked towards the Plague doctor. Looks like it was time to move on to Plan F. “Listen, bitch. The only person that gets to blow Maza’s mind is me.”
Every single Dweller on the ship had stopped what they were doing to gawk at her. Captain Silny closed the distance between himself and the Plague Doctor.
Ypsilon shot a glance at the giant guard. This should be an interesting challenge. But it was like she always said: the journey to any good ass-whooping starts with a single foot.
The captain turned his attention to Ypsilon, his eyes a rusty orange and his face turned down in a scowl.
“You’re not welcome here.” The Plague Doctor’s robotic voice drew Ypsilon’s attention. “I suggest you take your leave before things get unnecessarily messy. No need to spill your blood for something you have no stake in.”
“You see, that’s the problem. Nobody wants me to have any fun.” Ypsilon rolled her eyes, turning her full attention to the cloaked mystery woman. “Hi, I don’t think we’ve formally met. My name’s Ypsilon, and it’s been like three whole hours since I killed a bitch.”
Maza stepped next to his girlfriend. Ypsilon let her gaze wander to him as he puffed out his chest and cracked his knuckles. She smiled. Maza was her favorite when he was pissed off. There wasn’t anything sexier in the whole world than watching him choke the life out of someone with his bare hands.
Ypsilon and the Plague Doctor Page 18
