“Good. What a beautiful boy. What’s his name?”
“His name is Seth.”
Marianne has not been able to look away from the waking baby and doesn’t look like letting go. “Hi baby Seth. You’re just brand new aren’t you? Where’s your mother?”
Elias has had his fill of this conversation and is about to push past her when Camila’s voice rings in his head. “The baby.”
“I need supplements. Things his dead mother can’t give him.”
“The nanotech will defend him against all sickness and diseases, break down any food and remove impurities. But come this way and see if we have anything left to help fatten him up, maybe some diapers, am I right?” Her attempt to cheer him up is lame, and everything about her made him on edge. The fact she is oblivious to his discomfort made it even worse. “I don’t actually work here so I’m not sure where things are kept, let me find someone.” The alarm bells in his heads are ringing louder than they have before.
“Okay. Thank you.”
She leads down a corridor to a nurse’s station and hands him over to a woman in the know. Short, middle aged, beautiful face with scruffy hair as if she hadn’t slept in a week. The name Alma written on her id. “He’s received the mark, just needs some food and supplies for his newborn. Give him anything he wants.”
“For sure, just come this way.” Nurse Alma is overly friendly. Like a high function drug addict or cult member. She leads him inside a large store room cooching Seth’s cheeks the whole way. “I’m so glad to see a little baby. After what has happened I thought I may never see one again so soon.” The room is crowded with boxes and supplies, most labelled with manufacturing details and stock codes. In the centre of the room is a rectangular work station.
“This morning this place was on the brink of collapse. Thank god these people arrived. The Antarcticans, would you believe it?” He supposed it was them considering the direction of the hover planes he observed, but at this point in time no longer cares and just wishes to be free of this place.
“I’m in a hurry so if you wouldn’t mind…” She manages to pull herself away from the baby and pulls a number of boxes from the shelves. She reaches for a box on the top shelf but is nowhere near close to reaching it. Looks like she gets her wish. Elias begrudgingly hands Alma the baby to hold while he retrieves the high-shelfed box and drops it on the table. Needing both hands to cram his bag with the baby supplies he lets Alma hold Seth a little while longer. Pulling open the muslin wrap to check his little toes she notices his umbilical cord is tied off and open. Her smiles and baby faces turn sour very fast. As if she was betrayed.
“You don’t have the mark. You lied!” Elias stops packing his bag and reaches out over the table to get his son back. Alma leans out of reach and moves backwards towards the door and out of reach.
Last time I hand my son over to anyone. “Give him back to me.” She continues to back away towards the door. Elias moves around the table and edges towards her.
“Everyone gets the mark.” Elias quickly reaches into his jacket pocket and pulls out the gun he swiped off the ground when the cholo died. Alma screams, “In here! Help!” He bursts forward and knocks her out using the butt of the gun with one hand while grabbing Seth with the other. Marianne runs into the room to inspect the commotion and catches Elias by surprise. He points the gun at her but her demeanour is unchanged. She just stares at him, buying time.
“I don’t have the mark young lady. Don’t think I won’t shoot you.” Marianne finally feels the rush of fear and realisation, quickly raising her hands up and moves away from the door. Keeping a close eye on his hostage, he grabs his stuffed backpack and moves towards the exit. He knocks the handle off the inside of the door, turns to Marianne knowing she can’t be conscious when he leaves.
“What do you intend to do with those that refuse the mark?”
Marianne takes a moment before she replies, “Once our transition into this new age is complete, resistance will no longer be tolerated. Don’t hand your innocent son a death sentence. Take the mark, be free of pain and…”
Two women lie unconscious on the ground behind a locked door with no handle, while Elias is in the wind.
CHAPTER VI
Titus
Titus opens his eyes. He has been meditating for a while and lost the hours. Noah is staring out the window looking very bored. All of the explosives have been prepared and neatly stacked inside of duffle bags, his gun is polished; he is somewhat cabin feverish for a pilot. Maybe it’s just not being behind the stick that’s troubling him. Titus rolls his shoulders and tilts back his head, the movement catching Noah’s eye. Happy to have someone to talk with he says, “Welcome back, finally. Thought we might have lost you again.”
Titus looks out the window and sees nothing but white. “Are we there yet?”
Noah smiles at the comment in a way a person does when they have no idea. “I don’t know. He won’t respond to me. Still stuck in that trance you put him in.”
Titus doesn’t even wait a beat. “Another twelve minutes.” Noah just nods as if something else is on his mind.
Titus can hear him loud and clear, “What’s with all the meditating dude?”
“Every time I read a person’s mind I take on their memories, knowledge, languages and skills sets. To assimilate this knowledge requires me to grow new synaptic pathways. The meditation allows me to do so with better results.”
I don’t know how I know that.
“Un huh. How often are you reading my my mind?”
“Unintentionally, a lot. Maybe once or twice on purpose. It’s not my fault. It’s not as if I can unhear something. If you broadcast it, I’ll probably receive it.”
“Duly noted. What am I thinking now?” Noah visualises in graphic detail a video of interspecies coital he stumbled upon, knowing that Titus is getting the full show in his mind’s eye.
Titus changes the subject quickly to get Noah to stop. “I know the whereabouts of where it is, and exactly how we’re going to enter that sector.” He nods to Jason who automatically begins to tap away at his console. A second later a large three-dimensional hologram of the Antarctican mega city is projected in front of them. Just like an ant nest with descending pathways to large chambers, the place is huge. Noah’s jaw drops.
“The bastards.” Titus has no idea what Noah sees to warrant such a response. “They were holding back on us. Look at this shit. It’s amazing.” Noah is flying in a silent supersonic jet but a hologram is what really impresses him.
Using his hand to manipulate the hologram, he rotates the map to get a scope on the target. “This is so cool. Which sector?” Titus points to the place in question and Noah zooms in, detailing each and every path of the sector. A long thin elevator shaft leads down towards a small basement level. “Here. Any money that’s where it is.”
“Show me the surface.” Noah adjusts the hologram to display to the surface and highlight their entry points. “We will enter through here while our pilot returns this vessel.”
Noah isn’t a mind reader, but he is more astute than people give him credit for. “I know he’s not exactly innocent but he’s not totally guilty either. You really want to blow Jason up?” Even through it all he doesn’t want to see a friend that betrayed him die.
“If you didn’t know this man, keeping in mind he contributed to the destruction of the planet and the future oppression of its people, would we even be having this conversation?” Titus makes a good point.
“That’s right. You should’ve picked the co-pilot for this mission.”
“Sorry. Next time we go on a suicide mission I’ll be sure to bring people expendable to you.”
“Seriously, you going to make him fly this plane to his death?” The jokiness in his voice has gone and Noah is very serious about it. Failing to see the blow it would strike, the diversion it would create, the message it would send, Noah is concerned about Jason.
Jason speaks, for the first time during the
flight, making Noah jump in his seat. “Once we passed the Ronne Ice Shelf controls were overridden and autopilot has taken over to land the plane.”
“Sorry, you going to make him autopilot this plane to his death? Wait, if autopilot is on, how are we going to land at our drop point?”
Titus returns Noah’s previous smile, as if Noah knows what the answer is. “We won’t be landing.”
“What?”
❖
The side door of the plane is jimmied open and Noah, Titus, and Jason stand on the edge and ready to jump. Noah is wearing multiple layers of clothing, several balaclavas, socks over his hands--whatever he could scrounge together--and is shivering like crazy. Titus is still in his robes, Jason only in his flight jacket, neither of them are showing signs of being affected by the cold. A ring of explosives is secured to the inside of the cabin and set to detonate upon landing. Titus and Noah carry the remaining payload.
“Let’s get this over with.”
Titus begins the countdown, “Three, two, one…”
He grabs one man under each arm and jumps from the plane, disappearing into the clouds.
CHAPTER VI
Noah
Freefalling without a parachute. Blisteringly cold. Zero visibility. His life is in the hands of a stranger. A science experiment wielding powers he can’t truly understand. The clouds and fog dissipate and the ground begins to approach very quickly. Then as if tethered to a long elastic bungee, their descent begins to slow till eventually they come to a stop just as their feet touch snow.
What a rush. One not to be repeated too soon.
He experiences a complete loss of direction. Blinding shards of snow and iced wind attack his eyes forcing him to squint. The fierceness of the cold is limiting his movement--the fabric that is shielding him is beginning to freeze and harden like over-starching.
Noah does his best to speak through rattling teeth, “We gotta move. We’re not going to last much longer being this exposed.” He looks to the other two party members who have apparently acclimatised very quickly.
“Only a few hundred paces… get down!” Titus buries Noah and Jason into the snow with one forceful push. The snow in his ears deafened him, not that he could’ve heard the plane anyway when it flew overhead. Once the plane is out of range Titus grabs Noah’s shoulder and pulls him up and continues the march towards the hidden entrance unopposed.
Noah is having some actual difficulty with the conditions. “Let’s go. I’m dying. Actually dying.” Noah looks over at Jason to see no sign of distress. Noah reaches over and touches Jason’s face and to his shock and amazement finds him warm.
“How the hell is he still warm? I thought something would’ve frozen off by now.”
“The nanotech in his system is repairing his damaged cells and tissue.”
“Nanotech? You telling me like it’s common knowledge? I get that they were holding back technology from us but this is ridiculous. My idiot friend over here now has super powers and I’m freezing my ass off.”
Maybe we should’ve left him in the plane.
A shockwave hits Noah in the chest, followed by a bright light and the sound of a very successful detonation. Bigger than he expected. “Guess if they didn’t know we’re here, they sure do now.”
The first part of the plan worked. The shockwave also displaced so much snow their entrance became present. Noah starts to run, in a wobbling skip, towards the hatch: the finish line is in sight.
His victory is short lived when upon inspection of the hatch he finds no handles, hinges or seals. He considers just blowing a crater in the ground before Titus catches up and takes the lead. Using his telekinesis, the round steel hatch begins to rotate clockwise, unscrewing like a threaded cork. The seal falls to the side and the warm air rising from the shaft brings an instant relief to Noah’s struggling face. He jumps in the open hatch and wastes no time in making his descent.
The maintenance shaft is long and dark, the air is old but clean. As is the ladder and walls. Wasn’t what he expected. Jason is next to descend. A lot of snow dislodges from his boots as he climbs down, the snow falling onto Noah’s face and down the back of his neck. The will power mustered to refrain from yelling at him means he will not be able to resist Belgian chocolate or Japanese whiskey for some time. Titus floats down beside him, meeting his eye-line.
“Need a lift?”
“No, but for the love of god take Jason.”
Titus grabs Jason and the two float down the final few meters and wait for Noah on the landing.
Noah steps off the ladder rungs and shakes the snow out of his shirts, looking decisively cross with Jason. He pulls off layers of frozen balaclavas and says, “What fresh hell awaits us now?”
Titus rips open a large hatch revealing a spacious empty pipe. The smell is that of waste; when familiar odours break down and bond with each other to create something new, unique and distinctive. Things that live in here are not for human contact. His eyes begin to water and he does his best to breathe through his mouth and not his nose. Looking over at Jason he sees again there is no adverse reaction. This annoys Noah to no end. “I think this is far enough. Knock him out will ya? This seems as good a place as he deserves.”
“Okay.” As soon as Titus touches Jason on his chest, his eyes close, his body relaxes, and in a controlled fall Jason drops in a deep sleep. Noah looks over the vulnerable body of his former friend, “We should probably try to remember where we left him. Just in case we need him to fly us out.” He turns and is first to enter the waste pipe, Titus a close second.
He cracks a few glow sticks and hands one to Titus as they descend into the bowels of the facility in silence. Noah can’t get Jason out his mind. He thought maybe his good deed would resolve him, but it hadn’t. Noah decides to break the silence. He’s probably reading my mind anyway. “You know what sucks, is that he did basically warn me about the Fall. Repeatedly.”
“Every single prophecy about the apocalypse up until this point was wrong. You had every reason not to listen.” A quick response. Prepared. Titus must be reading his thoughts. He is also speaking the truth, but not enough to put it to rest.
“Yeah, but he was right. The Church of Light called it. Call it life imitating art, or religion in this case. Regardless, it happened.”
“You know what does suck? Two thousand years ago Dumachus and I stole the Resurrection Scrolls for the Elders of the Church. The scrolls I fear that made all this destruction possible.”
“What do you want, a medal? I’m trudging through what smells like death towards my own certain death knowing that I’ll never get my fiancé pregnant. Or even if she’s alive…” Noah stops mid-sentence, body frozen. After a few seconds he utters through grit teeth, “Stop it.”
Titus playing the innocent shrugs his shoulders, “What?”
“Very funny. Now let me go.”
Titus finally realises Noah is not playing and attempts to create a protective barrier and concealment around him, but it is too late. Noah’s body is lifted and thrown into the pipe ceiling, splayed out and pinned.
Help.
CHAPTER VI
Dumachus
Standing outdoors, faced with only the elements and away from the mental chatter and verbal discourse, he can think. So much in the world has obviously changed, along with parts of his personality and his idiosyncrasies. Whether being worshiped or being commanded, living in a new age, he is alone.
Most people don’t have to live with the consequences of dying. The only person who truly understands him is a foe. And he can sense his return on the horizon.
Covered in snow, he makes his way to the central control room. Two minutes later he exits looking rather heated. The door remains open long enough to hear Sacro say, “Defend the asset at all costs. Just promise me that his death is a final resort.”
Babysit a computer? He is not happy. Made to hold down the fort while the troubled child receives all the attention. Locked in a basement one kilometre benea
th the earth. A punishment masked as duty and responsibility.
Level five. A long corridor leads to a set of reinforced doors, behind of which sits that which is most precious. Two Guardians are posted at the entry, including another two at the elevator landing. The walls and floor is solid ice and the air is cold and crisp. Bioluminescent microorganisms living in the ice emit a soft blue glow, lighting the way towards his assignment. He notices that there’s a serenity found here similar to that of the surface, albeit different ends of the spectrum in air and space.
“KABOOM!”
His serenity is disrupted when powerful vibrations from serious firepower ripples through the ice and air.
Titus is here. He smiles for the first time in this life.
The large reinforced doors open and an elder short in stature stands waiting. “Come in. Close the door behind you.” Dumachus looks down the corridor one last time before he’s ushered in and doors close behind him.
The room is large and the prized quantum computer took up a lot of space. He doesn’t quite understand the dependency modern humans have with technology, energy, and running water. In his mind he has a powerful army at his feet with warriors ready to fight. But the sword is no longer the hardware of choice used to conquer empires. It is a tiny computer chip. Dumachus is aware that the success of their endeavour hinged on the operational status of this computer. For now, anyway.
The elder scuttles around from console to console, grumbling to himself the whole time. Dumachus stands facing the door; he has no interest in conversing with this doddering man and to his luck neither does Venark. Dumachus closes his eyes and focuses his thoughts, hunting down a clue to his old friend. His mind free to travel through ice and steel, wandering through the halls and cracks in the walls, painting a mental image of what and who is around. Down a long pipe he finds what he is looking for. A man, Noah. A soldier, Titus’s ally… Dumachus locks on to Noah and pulls. This will get his attention. A few seconds pass and still no sign of him, so Dumachus begins to squeeze.
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