“So he kept your secret.”
“Yeah.”
“Dad wouldn’t ever speak about you. And when he did, it was like you were dead to him.”
“He had to do that to cover the lie. He asked me every week if he could tell you he came, but I didn’t want you seeing me like this. I asked a lot of him, and he bore the burden of your resentment. It’s me you should be angry with, not him.”
The stinging sensation returned to Seb’s eyeballs and his bottom lip buckled. Although he drew a deep breath, it did little to subdue his grief. “I felt like I hated him a lot of the time.”
“And that killed him. I didn’t want to see you, not even when summoned today, but I thought it was important you knew it wasn’t his call.”
So much to catch up on, but in the next few days Buster’s phone would ring and Seb would be gone again. “I don’t know how long I’m going to be here,” Seb said. “I want to come and see you regularly like Dad did. We have a lot to talk about.”
But Davey shook his head. “Prison’s not fun. Especially for a cop killer. They hardly roll out the red carpet for you. If I ever do get out of here, it’ll be when I’m old and frail. It’ll probably be when I’ve lost my marbles and control of my bowels. They’ll free me because they won’t want to wipe my arse for me anymore. I’ll die in a gutter somewhere because I probably won’t even know my own name. They would have taken their pound of flesh and then some by that time, so why waste the resources on me?”
At that moment, the voice of his mother came to Seb. Be strong. He drew a breath to tell Davey what he’d learned about the prophecy, but Davey cut him off.
“I am glad you came.”
“You are?”
“Yeah, I know I just made a fuss about it, but I wanted to see my last remaining relative one final time. That’s what I’ve been waiting for. I didn’t know if you’d ever try to come here again, but I felt like I owed it to you to be here if you did. I owed it to Dad and your memory of him. I would have waited for however long it took to make sure you knew the truth.”
The lump in Seb’s throat burned and he laughed through it. “Even if that meant shitting yourself in a gutter as an OAP?”
Davey smiled.
“You’re my brother,” Seb then said, “of course I would try again.” Then the words caught up with him. “What do you mean, one last time?”
Instead of answering him, Davey replaced the phone on his side of the glass. A heavy click popped in Seb’s ear from where the line got cut off.
Seb kept his hand pressed against the cold and clear barrier between them, a gesture his brother hadn’t returned. He pressed the glass as if he could push through it.
“I love you, little brother,” Davey called back over his shoulder as he stood up and walked away. “Get the hell away from this place and find a better life. Danu’s the armpit of the galaxy. It has nothing to offer.”
“Davey …” Seb’s words died as he watched Davey run full tilt at the group of guards on his side of the glass. He pulled a shiv from out of the back of his trousers and he looked ready to use it. Before he’d made it to the first guard, three of them raised their blasters and let rip. The red laser fire hit Davey in several places, sending his arms kicking away from him. One shot ran through his face and dragged a spray of blood out the back of his head. Some of the spray hit the glass in front of Seb and he flinched away from it as if it might cover him.
Seb would have shouted if he’d had it in him. Instead, he remained frozen to the spot while the guards on the other side of the glass crowded around Davey’s dead body, their weapons pointing down at him just in case they’d misjudged his current state.
You need to get out of there, Seb. If you stay, they’ll question you, and Moses will see your name pop up on a system somewhere. Get out now.
Were he not in a room full of people, Seb might have replied to his mum’s voice. Instead, he pushed off the desk to help him stand up. He felt drunk as he walked out of the room, his legs weak, his vision blurred.
The only thing keeping Seb going as he stumbled out of there was the voice of his mother. I love you, Seb. You have a new family around you now. Be with them and fulfil your potential.
Chapter 31
“He said he let Dad visit, but he wouldn’t ever let me,” Seb said as Logan drove them back to his dad’s house. The car bounced with the undulations in Danu’s barren wasteland. The small cushion of air it rode on did little to make the ride any smoother than if they’d had wheels. In fact, it would have coped better with wheels. It seemed that whenever Logan’s old police car passed over a particularly nasty bump, it would bob for the next quarter of a mile.
Logan kept his attention through the front windscreen. The sun had started to set on the horizon, a red glow slowly taking over the sky. “What would you have had him do?”
“I think he should have told me. It’s the right thing to do. He should have let me make the choice about what was good for me.”
“Like you’ve done with your Shadow Order friends?”
Seb looked at the older man and ground his jaw. Rage and despair ran through him in equal measure after what he’d just witnessed. His voice cracked when he said, “That’s different.”
“How? You think you know better than them? That you know what’s good for them, but others don’t know what’s good for you?”
Another look at his dad’s oldest friend, the tall frant still frowned as he stared ahead. He sat hunched over the steering wheel. Something about his demeanour didn’t ring true. “You knew,” Seb said. He pointed at the older being. “You knew about Dad’s visits.”
“Of course I did.”
“Then why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because he didn’t want me to.”
To stop the vicious torrent rushing from his mouth, Seb paused and looked out of the window next to him at the sandy landscape. His pulse raced while he watched the barren wasteland fly past. The sun might have hung much lower in the sky, but it still shone bright and he had to squint against its glare. But he couldn’t be angry with Logan. The old creature hadn’t done anything wrong. In a much quieter voice than before, he said, “I’ve not got anyone left, Logan.”
The old man reached across with his large left hand and squeezed Seb’s shoulder. He looked at him for the first time since they’d been in the car. “You’ve got your friends still. They sound like they love you.” A snort of a laugh, he added, “Although I don’t know why.”
Despite the gravity of what had happened, Seb smiled.
“Sometimes we make what we think are the best decisions,” Logan said. “From what I’ve seen, they rarely are. Maybe we’re trying to protect those we love, but maybe we’re trying to protect ourselves. Maybe Davey hurt too much to then see his sadness staring back at him through his brother’s eyes. Maybe you need to put yourself in his shoes and allow him that one freedom he had left, the freedom of making a choice about who came to visit him.”
Seb’s bottom lip buckled. “The first thing I said to him was that he looked old. Of all the things, I told him he looked like shit.”
Logan didn’t reply.
Before he could think twice about it, Seb said, “I think I hear Mum’s voice.”
The hum of the car filled the silence between them as Logan turned to look at Seb again.
“Since I’ve broken out of the Shadow Order’s base, I’ve started hearing the voice of a woman in my head. I think it’s Mum.”
Logan said nothing.
“You think I’m crazy?”
“No.”
“You don’t believe me?”
“I believe you hear a voice in your head.”
Another deep inhale, Seb then forced the words out. “I’ve been told I’m the chosen one, Logan. Many times. That I have the blood of someone great in me. I think it’s Mum’s blood. I think that’s why she’s talking to me now. I think she’s guiding me to wherever it is I need to go.”
The sound of a
ir rushed over the hover car. When Seb looked at Logan, he saw a frown on his long face and said, “You know something, don’t you?”
Before Logan could reply, something came crashing from the sky on Seb’s left. He looked through the window to watch a large blur slam down against the dusty plains beside them.
The car snaked from the shockwave and Logan fought to pull it under control.
The dust settled to reveal a mech. Easily ten metres tall, it stood in the low sun, the light bouncing off its chrome body. It had no markings to show where it had come from. It didn’t need any. “Stop the car,” Seb said.
Nothing.
“Please, Logan, stop the car now.”
“It’s from the Shadow Order?” the old man asked.
“Yep. I’ve felt something following me since I got away from the base. I can’t keep running from it. Besides, if we’re going to fight, it’s best we do it here, away from civilisation.”
Although he looked reluctant, Logan slowed the vehicle to a halt. They were in the shadow of the vast mech, which watched them the entire time.
Seb opened the door, the sandy Danu winds flying into the dusty car. One foot out, he turned to his dad’s best friend. “Wait here. I can handle this.”
Chapter 32
Twice the size of the mech he’d fought at the Shadow Order’s base, Seb’s heart raced to look up at the huge chrome beast. Two arms, two legs, a head with all the features of a human face crudely depicted on it, and not much else. Its shiny body didn’t give anything away, the lowering evening sun glistening off the mech’s chrome frame. It magnified the glare, dazzling Seb as he searched it for a weakness.
Then the robot charged forward, closing down the distance between them with its heavy steps.
Seb thrust his arms out to the sides just to keep his balance. The vibration of the mech’s movement threatened to throw him to the ground.
The world now in slow motion, Seb watched the large machine rush at him, the strong winds buffeting his ears. The mech raised a huge right fist, ready to strike.
The beast might have been big, but what it had in power, it lost in speed. The punch came from a mile away, the expressionless brute driving it down into the ground.
With plenty of time to get out of the way, Seb avoided the first blow. The impact sent a blast of rock shards towards him and he raised his arms in front of his face to protect against the stinging assault.
Several pieces of shrapnel cut into Seb’s forearms. Thankfully he avoided the worst of it, and at least he kept his face covered. The beast might have been slow, but he couldn’t fight it blind.
Seb tasted sand on the back of his dry throat. Despite the cold wind, sweat itched his armpits and around his collar.
The mech pulled its fist up again and spun on Seb, its upper body moving while its legs remained stationary. It then jumped to allow its bottom half to spin around to catch up with its top. It sent a series of jackhammer blows against the ground. It might not be able to hit Seb, but it could try to take away his ability to evade it.
Although Seb rode out the first few shocks, the third one robbed him of his footing. While he scrambled away from the follow-up impacts, he bounced around every time a metal fist connected. A pea on a drum, he just about managed to stay out of the gargantuan’s reach, every punch slamming down closer to him than the one before it.
The mech paused and Seb took his opportunity. He charged over the uneven and dusty ground at it. A gap large enough to drive a car between its legs, he ran through it and punched its calf like he had with the last one he’d come up against. Although this time, the brute’s chrome body threw his punch back at him as if he’d just whacked something made from rubber.
The mech jumped into the air, spun around, and landed with another earth-shaking boom. It charged at Seb again.
The vibrations of the mech’s stampede ran through Seb and blurred his vision, but he managed to remain upright.
When the mech drew close, it wound its right boot back. Seb dived out of the way, the boat of a foot sailing just over his head. It might have missed him, but the rush of air from the attack sent Seb rolling away from it.
Sweat ran into Seb’s eyes, but he didn’t stop to rub them as he got back to his feet. Instead, he jumped backwards, avoiding a heavy stamp from the mech just in front of him. It shook the planet as if it could crack it, and lifted him several feet in the air.
Despite having the wind driven from his body when he crashed down again, Seb jumped up and drove several punches against the top of the mech’s foot. It had gone down so hard, it had sunk into Danu’s dusty, rocky landscape. Again, the resilience of the mech’s chrome shell rejected his attack.
Exhausted, hot, and the taste of sand clogging his throat, Seb gulped and stared at the large robot. There had to be some way to beat it. Then he caught sight of something. Around the brute’s wrists, he saw the slightest of lines. A shimmering line. A weak spot!
This time Seb waited nearby to encourage the beast’s attack. He dodged the first punch, then the second. When the third landed, he jumped in time to stop the vibrations through the ground unsettling him, and he struck the mech’s right wrist.
What had been a line of potential weakness now opened as a slight crack, revealing the wires within the behemoth.
The mech—its expression as cold as ever—peered down at Seb, clasped its two large hands together and raised them above its head. It then brought them crashing down at him.
Again, the beast moved too slowly to make contact, but the vibration through the ground knocked Seb over again. He swung at the brute’s wrists as he fell, but came nowhere near hitting it.
Before Seb could recover, another punch crashed into the ground. It missed again.
Seb rolled away, the rocky plains digging into him all over his body. He ran around the right side of the brute, tempting it to swing for him.
As he’d hoped, the brute tried to hit him again. Maybe the pilot saw Seb’s plan. It tried a different approach. Instead of punching down, it swung for him, its fist running about a metre above the ground.
As slow as every other attack it aimed at him, Seb jumped aside. The fist passed him and he swung for the wrist. His hard blow made contact, detaching the hand from the arm, flinging the fist away from the large beast.
Both Seb and the mech paused to watch the huge metal body part fly through the air.
The relief Seb felt at finding the mech’s vulnerability lasted less than a second. His body sank as he followed the fist’s trajectory, his stomach turning over against itself.
One of the times where he hated his slow motion, Seb had to live every painful second of the metal object’s wide arc. It only had one destination.
Before Seb could shout “Logan”, the fist had landed on his car, crushing it like a bug beneath a boot heel.
The shock forced an involuntary gasp from Seb, and before he could say anything else, the crushed vehicle exploded into a ball of flames, the air lighting up with a loud whoosh! The force of the blast knocked him over with a wall of fierce heat.
Chapter 33
For a few seconds, Seb remained sitting down, unable to move as he stared at the burning wreck of Logan’s car. It felt like every muscle in his body had fallen limp. Logan wouldn’t have gotten dragged into this if it wasn’t for him.
The black mushroom cloud dissipated, driven skyward on the back of tall orange flames. Despite needing some form of hope, nothing could have survived the twisted wreck the car had become.
A whoosh of hydraulics caught Seb’s attention and he spun in the direction of the large mech. It remained in the same spot, but a vertical slit had opened up down the centre of it, running in a line from the top of its head all the way to its crotch. The join that looked so obvious now hadn’t been there just seconds ago. As the split spread wider, it reminded him of a huge metal sarcophagus.
Seb stared into the mech and noticed spinning cogs and firing pistons. But he didn’t watch their synchron
ised dance as they pushed the robot’s two halves wider. Instead, he stared at the helmeted pilot. When she removed her lid, he ground his jaw and clenched his steel fists. “Reyes.”
Even with his world in slow motion, Seb didn’t give himself a moment to think. Instead, he yelled so loudly it tore at his throat as he ran at the mech. “What have you done?”
Because Reyes’ cockpit sat in the centre of the mech at an elevated position of about three to four metres from the ground, metal stairs folded out of the large thing to let her down. Seb didn’t stop running when he got to them, his feet hammering a loud beat. So much chrome, the sun continued to dazzle him, but he squinted through it and focused all of his rage on Reyes at the top of them.
By the time Seb had climbed the staircase, Reyes had unstrapped from the cockpit. She pressed her hands together as if in prayer, her face wincing at his fury. “I’m so sorry, Seb, I didn’t mean for that to happen. Moses sent me here to bring you back, not to kill anyone.”
But Seb had no words for her. Instead, he grabbed the front of her shirt, pulled her the rest of the way from the cockpit, and threw her off the stairs to the sandy ground below.
Although Reyes screamed on the way down, something else took Seb’s attention. It started as a small pip. His jaw fell loose and he stepped away, glancing back at his path down the stairs so he didn’t fall. As the pulse grew louder, he looked into the cockpit at the glowing red light. It blinked in time with the noise and brightened with the increasing sound. Why hadn’t he thought about it? The failsafe if the pilot got forcibly removed. He leapt in the direction he’d recently hurled Reyes.
The impact of landing on the hard and sandy ground ran up through Seb’s body, balling as a stinging pain at the base of his back and throwing him forwards. He fell into a roll and turned over several times before he managed to get back to his feet, gritted his teeth through the pain, and sprinted away from the large chrome monster. The throbbing pulse chased him away. Reyes had already taken flight.
The Shadow Order - Books 1 - 8 + 120 Seconds (The complete series): A Space Opera Page 88
