by K. C. Finn
“Perhaps that’s what she wants,” Cae suggests. Kendra gives him a querying look. “Think about it,” he continues, “she let us shut down the whole of The Atomic Circus just for a crack at killing me. All those robots would have been useful to her; she let us destroy them with Howard’s bomb. She’s killed off ninety percent of her father’s most useful and powerful contacts in less than half a year. She’s just destroyed the lab that was producing drugs in quantities worth millions back home.”
“So it was never about becoming the new Face?” Kendra asks.
Cae nods, frowning. “She’s not interested in carrying on the family business; she’s just using all of its resources to get back at me, whatever the cost.”
“Lucky she doesn’t know that you and Julius are related then,” Howard interjects, “that’s one thing to be thankful for.”
Unseen by the bandaged man, Cae and Kendra exchange a look of horror at his words. Angelica had cameras and speakers in the lights at the cavern. Not only would she have seen Julius working to help them all, but she might have heard Redd’s comments about their family resemblance too. And they had abandoned him on the mountainside in the middle of the night.
“He hasn’t been in here to see you then?” Kendra asks the doctor.
Howard shakes his head, suddenly wincing in pain, his shoulders twitching.
“I assumed he’d be with you,” he replies.
“This chain reaction,” Cae says quickly, determined to shift the subject, “did Angelica tell you how I can stop it?”
“You’re not going to like it,” Howard croaks darkly. When Cae doesn’t answer, he gives a sigh, part of his bandage fluttering where his mouth should be. “She said you’d have to die. Both of you.”
33.
“I don’t want to play by her rules, Cae,” Kendra gripes as they sit in the buggy outside the hospital.
“I’m certainly not thinking of sitting around waiting for her to invite us to our own death party,” the detective confirms.
“Do you think she has Julius?”
The question hangs for a moment in the silent, smoggy air.
“Definitely,” Cae replies.
“Do you think she’s back inside the big mountain now?” Kendra asks.
“I should think so,” he says with a nod.
“Then what do we do?”
Cae’s bright mind sparks as he sits staring out at the smog. Even though he’s wearing his gasmask, Kendra can still tell he’s starting to grin. She shoves him in the arm to demand an answer to her question.
“I think we need a co-ordinated strike,” he answers.
The soldiers who were present at the explosion are being detained at their barracks, a location Kendra knows only too well from her time in the Special Brigade. The duo park their buggy by a chain link fence at the far perimeter of the base and Kendra leads Cae along it until the nearest building is obscured by the toxic atmosphere. A series of small knots tied with extra wire marks one panel in the fence as different from the others. Kendra takes one of the knots between her fingers, shaking her head.
“I made this system up,” she says in a heavy tone, “I used to sneak out for extra target practice and stuff with Julius.”
Cae resists the awkward squirm his muscles want to give in to. Visions of the little notes he’d found in her old army files return to him, his father’s writing inviting her out to spend more time together.
“You were…quite close to him, weren’t you?” he asks.
“I would have trusted him with my life,” Kendra answers simply. He doesn’t miss the past tense in her tone.
Without another word she leaps up onto the fence, fingers curled like a cat’s claws as she clambers up the chain link. At the top a row of seemingly impenetrable barbed wire coils comes apart as easily as opening a window. When Kendra leaps down on the other side of the fence, Cae struggles up the links and throws himself over to follow her. His descent is not graceful and Kendra catches him around the chest to keep him steady as he lands.
“Sorry,” he mumbles, straightening out, the skin on his back feeling suddenly raw.
“Don’t be,” Kendra says as she sets off across the yard, “You’re actually getting fitter.”
The detective doesn’t agree as his chest heaves trying to keep pace with her. The sight of a low, long building emerges from the smog ahead, a few figures collected in the air partition at its doorway. They are unmasked and watching through the plastic shutters as Kendra approaches. One of them waves at her until another man bats his hand down. Cae recognises the second figure by his shock of bleached hair.
“Bardot,” Kendra says with a nod when he is close enough to hear her, “Surprised you haven’t hopped the fence yet. Do you enjoy being caged up nowadays?”
There’s a mocking note in her tone that the other sergeant clearly doesn’t enjoy, but he steps aside to let both Kendra and Cae enter the partition. They are guided through the space into the main barracks, de-masking as they go.
“We have a couple of guys out on recon,” Bardot explains, folding his gargantuan arms over his chest. It strikes Cae that this man doesn’t need to have metal grafted to his bones to pack a wallop.
“What’re they looking for?” Kendra asks.
“You two,” Bardot answers, assessing them both, “I want to know the rest of your story, Nai. I’m not fixing to hunt until I know my quarry.”
The sergeant’s jaw is as wide as his gasmask had been, square and set in a furious grimace. He stands over them like a sniper waiting to strike, eyes shining.
“Perhaps I’d better explain a few things,” Cae says calmly, stepping just a little in front of Kendra to make his point.
“And what gives you the right to do that?” Bardot growls, “Who the hell are you anyway?”
The detective resists the urge to swallow his fear.
“I’m Professor Cadinsky’s son,” he replies.
Kendra leaps up and grabs Bardot before he can touch Cae, slamming the sergeant back against the window behind them.
“He’s not involved in what they did to us,” she says in a strained tone, “So hear him out.”
She lets him go and Bardot stays back, cracking his knuckles together as he waits. The other soldiers have slowly gathered in a clump around the three of them as Cae clears his throat in the most masculine way he can manage. He isn’t afraid of the pain Bardot could bring him - pain is something the detective is more than used to - but he is glad Kendra’s there to help him get his point across before it’s too late for any of them.
“The real outfit that made experiments out of you all is hiding right here at the base. She’s had her goons plant explosives all over the place. The hospital, the dock, probably even these barracks. I need a team that’s willing to risk everything to find the explosives before she has a chance to set them off.”
Bardot nods slowly, his brow heavy.
“How much time do we have?” he asks.
“You’ve got as long as I can distract her for,” Cae answers, “It’s me and Kendra that she wants dead or the whole place blows. I’d rather that neither of those things happens if we can manage it.”
The sergeant holds his hands out before him, shifting them as he speaks.
“Let me straighten this out,” he grunts, “Your father’s responsible for destroying the lives of fifty-something soldiers here and you, you’re going to be the reason that about a thousand people die just because you’ve upset this chick?”
“That’s right,” Cae replies solemnly, every particle of guilt clogging his arteries and making his blood itch.
“You’re one unlucky guy, Mr Cadinsky,” Bardot says.
“It’s Detective Rex,” Cae replies, “and I don’t intend to be unlucky much longer.”
34.
With the Special Brigade making a covert op out of disarming an entire base’s worth of explosives, the only option now is for Cae and Kendra to return to the depths of the other mountain. It’s a
silent trek for the first few feet of scrambling up the slope. Their plan is set and it is simple: hold out for as long as possible and try not to die. Achieving it is sure to be a more complicated task.
“What do you think she’s got planned for us?” Kendra asks as she paves the way up the slope.
“Something absurdly elaborate and psychologically torturous,” Cae replies.
“You choose funny moments to make jokes,” Kendra says, unleashing her manly chuckle.
“What makes you think I’m joking?” is Cae’s answer.
If there’s one thing Angelica’s plans have never been, it’s subtle. She is a mistress of ostentation, someone who enjoys seeing others suffer, who likes drawn-out games and outbursts of agony. And Caecilius Rex is counting on that in order to survive.
“Whatever happens in there, focus on getting yourself and Dad out,” Cae instructs, “You may have pissed her off right-royal, but it’s me she’d rather see suffer in the end. If I make any attempt to escape those bombs could go off whilst your brigade are still removing them. I can’t have their blood on my hands too.”
“You know I can’t promise not to try and save you,” Kendra replies, “I can’t help trying to protect you.”
“I’d always assumed that was your programming,” Cae admits, “To save other people no matter what the cost.”
“If it was, then abandoning Julius up here means it’s not working anymore,” Kendra says quietly, her head bowed as she walks on, “so if I do something stupid to save your ass now, it’s all my own doing.”
Cae takes a few steps to catch her up, grabbing her shoulder.
“That’s good to know,” he says, smiling under his mask, “Let’s go and cheat death one last time, eh?”
Kendra swallows audibly, then nods.
“Sounds like a plan.”
At the entrance to the tunnel Cae spots something shining in the dirt. He crouches down to observe a small stone, clear like quartz, but glowing with a faint green tinge. As he picks it up in his gloved hand it makes a strange hissing sound and a second later he lets it drop again as the sight of a thin smoke strand emanates from the tip of his finger. He rises, showing the burnt end of his glove to Kendra.
“Superacid,” she concludes.
“A taste of things to come?” Cae ponders, the thought of the bubbling ooze making his stomach flip.
“Hey look,” Kendra says, pointing down into the tunnel. Another faintly glowing stone awaits them. “She’s left us a trail.”
Once they are deep inside the mountain, the little gems lead them down the staircase to the left this time instead of up the corridor that leads to the generators. The staircase is poorly lit and extremely narrow; it winds in a tight spiral barely wide enough for one person to traverse, making Cae feel more with every twist that he’s descending into a place he isn’t likely to escape from. Only Kendra’s incessant grumbling behind him serves to calm his nerves a little.
The stairs break out into a wide chamber carved into a perfect dome overhead. After the near-total blackness of the tunnel Cae’s eyes are strained as he tries to take in the brightly lit space. It is a room about fifteen feet across and nearly the same depth, with several chambers leading off behind him that look far nicer than the quarters that are closer to surface level. But the little acid-laced stones do not lead in the direction of the nice-looking rooms; they curve down the chamber and around a dark corner at the very end of it.
Once he reaches the corner Cae spares a moment to check that Kendra is by his side. Though she isn’t brandishing any of her usual weaponry, Cae can tell by the bulges at her hips, back and calves that she’s prepared for every situation they can imagine. When he turns the corner, however, a worrying thought strikes him as his eyes expand over the scene ahead. The situations they can imagine are very different to the ones Angelica can imagine.
Ahead of the detective is a massive lake, a space large enough to store an aircraft, or perhaps the whole of Buchanan Street. He stands on one shore of the lake, looking up at a huge floodlight encased in the rock ceiling a long way above him. With his eyes finally adjusted to the blinding light, Cae can make out two small figures on the other side of the lake. One is sitting as though it’s in chair, but the other stands, petite and proud. Her blonde bob is visible even at this distance.
“Do you know how long you’ve kept me waiting?” chides Angelica, her voice echoing across the black water.
35.
He can do nothing about the physical distance between them, standing helpless, a sitting duck on the shoreline so far away from Angelica and her mocking, echoing voice. She walks back and forth along her side of the deep lake, eventually settling behind the seated form to the left of Cae’s vision. Kendra steps up beside him and murmurs in his ear, her keen eyes fixed in the same direction.
“It’s Julius,” she says, “She’s got him tied down. And there’s something attached to his leg.”
At her words Cae starts to make out a shining line from the bottom of his father’s seat that coils and leads to some large metal panels on the wall of the cavern. Lights and changes of colour on the wall indicate some sort of computer system. Angelica makes an elaborate display, flailing her slender arms like a girl on the shopping channel.
“Your daddy did ever such a good job on this new leg of his,” she shouts, her voice brimming with malice and mockery, “So much metal in it though. It’d be a shame if someone hooked him up to anything electronic, what with that leg being fused to his bones and all.”
Cae understands, rather wishing that he didn’t. The silver line he can see must be a wire, linking Julius’s new leg to the computer on the wall.
“What do you want from me Angelica?” he calls across the water.
“I want you to stop thinking you’re so damned clever,” she spits, “You think I don’t know you’ve got those android freaks seeking out my bombs? The off switch is right here next to your father, detective, so whether or not they disarm the explosives, Julius will get fried if you don’t cross the water in time.”
“Cross the water?” Kendra whispers, “Is that really all she wants from us?”
Cae doesn’t suspect so, but he says nothing. He makes an overly emphatic shrug, his arms wide and clear.
“Piece of cake,” he replies loudly.
“Ha.”
Angelica’s singular laugh echoes up into the rafters of the cavern. She makes a swift motion that Cae can’t quite make out and a moment later his attention turns to the ceiling once again. To his great surprise, it begins to rain. Sprinklers splutter into life from the cavern roof, centered on the lake itself, leaving the shore on both sides perfectly dry. The familiar hiss and the smell of burning catches Cae’s nose as he watches the rain come down. Even though it’s little more than a thin drizzle, he can make out its colour clear as day.
Green rain. No. Acid rain.
“How far can you swim underwater?” Kendra asks.
Cae shakes his head. “Not that far.”
“I’d say you’ve got about two minutes to get across here,” Angelica shouts with a giggle, “Better get diving Rex!”
There isn’t time to consider other options. Dropping his mask and ripping off his long coat, Cae makes a run for the edge of the shore and leaps into the water holding in a deep gulp of oxygen. The surface of the water is slowly forming a layer of HCX that doesn’t seem to want to dissolve into the lake itself. Passing through it burns briefly before Cae sinks under the freezing black water, but the shock of its coldness steals the breath from his lungs. He splutters, taking in a mouthful of salt water that makes his stomach lurch, closing his eyes tight shut as he bursts back up onto the surface to regain his breath.
He has moved about three feet into the water, precious seconds dwindling as he flails, the acid layer on the surface burning the collar of his jumper, the thin strands of rain making his hair feel like it’s on fire. The detective sucks in another breath, prepared this time for the impact of the water
, and descends again into the blackness beneath the acid rain. As he swims against the burning on his skin and in his lungs, Cae wonders how far Kendra has made it without drawing breath. He knows without question that she will have followed him into the water, but the metal in her skeleton doesn’t mix well with hydration.
Cae pushes desperately against all his physical limits, his head growing light as his body instinctively tries to float up to the surface again. When he can stand it no longer he resurfaces, gasping and desperately trying not to the let the acid layer find any skin that isn’t already ruined from the events of his past. There is still no sign of Kendra on either surface or shore and Cae’s sense of direction has taken him way off track under the water. He is barely halfway across the lake, watching in agony as Angelica howls with laughter at him.
The tiny drops of acid sink into the pale skin of the detective’s face. The longer he is still, the harder they’ll burn, but going under again could result in him ending up farther from his target than he is now. He closes his eyes against the painful slosh of water all around, shaking the burning fluid from his head as he ploughs on above the surface, arm over arm. The motion is agony as his already-destroyed limbs pass through the acid layer again and again, but when Cae opens his eyes once more the sight of his father coming into focus ahead spurs him on. Julius is shaking his head, shouting something that Cae can’t hear as the hiss of his own skin melting away fills his ears.
A few feet ahead of him, almost at the shore, Kendra suddenly bursts from the water with an inhuman force of propulsion. Her strength lifts her body half out of the water as her arms crash down in a butterfly stroke. Cae swims on, blocking out his agony as he watches her reach the shoreline and wills himself to make it there too. He tries to call to her to grab Angelica but Kendra has other plans, racing to the shoreline nearest him and holding out her hands to pull him out of the burning water.
In seconds he in on solid ground again but his agony doesn’t stop; every sinew in his body is tense from the swim and the sudden temperature change. It’s almost impossible to know which muscles are burning from exertion and which are smouldering from the remnants of the acid rain; every moment is a cavalcade of agony parading around his body in a wild march of sadistic delight.
