Son of Sedonia

by Ben Chaney

  “Listen,” Corey said after another turn, “Liani, I’m sorry. I wanted to save the kid too, but...”

  “It’s okay!” Liani blurted, “I mean...it’s not ‘okay,’ but...I understand.”

  “You do?”

  “Yeah, I mean it’s like you said...this is bigger than us and him. We need to play our parts, and it wouldn’t have done any good for us to get killed on the train...I just—” She felt his thick, warm fingers wrap around her left hand. A split second told her to pull away, but she hesitated, lingering in the moment as it dawned on her.

  “Oh,” she said. Her heart raced, pumping her skin with tingling blood. Her mind left, taken over by the sensation. It rippled down her arm. As she squeezed his hand she felt a spot of rolling wetness creep down her cheek. His thumb caressed a soft patch on her index finger. Oh boy...

  “We do this last thing, and that’s it,” Corey said, “We go back up, head East, and wait this out.”

  “What if it works?” Liani asked. The question seemed to blow through him. He rubbed the sweat-laced stubble collecting on his cheeks.

  “No way to know how it’ll land,” Corey said. The billions of possibilities rushed through Liani’s head as she asked herself. Would everything just collapse? The City, stripped of its dysfunctional but staggeringly complex government...would everything just die? Or would people fight just as hard as the rebels to ignore it? Desperate to keep their lives the same.

  “But we’re journalists,” a smile crossed Corey’s face, “We report the truth as best we can. People make up their own minds.”

  The final truth of it snapped together inside her like a puzzle piece. She smiled and took a deep breath. Gave Corey’s hand another squeeze. I’m going to explode.

  Then both of them noticed it at the same time. The tunnel ahead turned left, but they could see the walls better than usual...and from farther off. A pale light shone on the networked piping and conduits on the wall, coming from an unseen source around the corner. The faint, echoing murmur of moving machinery bounced and clinked through the metal cavern.

  “Must be them,” Corey said, “Grid’s all run by Outer Ringers, nobody else comes down here.” He pushed up against his harness, arched his back, and reached behind him. Before she could ask, he pulled out a gun. A shiny pistol with a snub nose and a short handle. Corey couldn’t even fit four fingers around the grip. He popped the tiny magazine out and checked the bullets.

  “Uh, whoa, what the fuck are you doing? I thought you said it was them!” Liani said.

  “It is,” said Corey as he reloaded the mag and pulled back the slide, “Probably. But there is a war going on...I figure that makes us war correspondents. Morris Locke carried one the whole time during his coverage of the Mumbai Siege—”

  “Jesus, Corey, put it away! Have you ever even fired that thing?”

  Corey inspected it for the safety switch, clicked it, then put it back in his waistband.

  “I...No.”

  “Great.”

  Their railcar rounded the corner, immersing them in the shocking brightness of a battery of flood lights. Two massive, flat platforms sat side-by-side on the tunnel’s main center rails. Construction and maintenance platforms... Mechanical arms craned up thirty stories to the ceiling and walls, frozen in half-completed tasks. A Grid Station sat adjacent to the gargantuan equipment, recessed into the tunnel wall. A group of figures waited at the rail dock.

  Whoever they were, they soon noticed the approaching rail car. It seemed to make them nervous. Three of the figures ducked down while two other ones stood ahead. Liani squinted.

  “Corey,” she said, “they have real guns.”

  “This is a real gun!”

  “Shh!” she planted a jab in his hip. Corey composed himself and lifted his hands in the air. Liani did the same as their rail car jerked to a stop, docking at the station. Clamps snapped shut on the track, trapping them there.

  “Who the hell are you?! What are you doing here!” shouted one of the two gunmen. They looked to be wearing black at first, but Liani’s heart stopped as she recognized SCPD blue. Cops.

  “We—uh...we...” Corey stammered.

  “...missed the trains headed East!” Liani finished, “My...husband and I...we missed the trains and had no place else to run...”

  “It’s true!” Corey followed her lead, “I worked for GloboMetro News and we did a piece on Grid worker conditions a few months back...figured the tunnels would give us a shot at getting someplace safe.”

  The cops looked ragged. Terrified. They kept their guns trained on Liani and Corey.

  “Bullshit! That were true, you’d be headed away from the fighting, not toward it!” said one of the cops. His dark black skin poured sweat.

  “Toward the fighting?!” Liani shrieked at Corey without skipping a beat, “Babe, are you fucking kidding me?!”

  “I—must have misread the map controls, excuse the shit outta me! I am trying to save our asses, you know! It’s your fault we missed the goddamn train!” Corey fired back.

  “My fault?!”

  “SHUT UP! Both of you!” yelled the other cop. One of the other three behind the officers peeked out. A slightly chubby woman in her mid-forties, she trembled like a cornered mouse.

  “Excuse me?” she said, “I think they’re telling the truth.”

  “What?” the cop’s gruff question made the woman cringe.

  “I-I saw that young lady on the news last week...doing a story from our Central Hub. She was covering the ongoing negotiations between Governor Sato and Mr. Finley.” Slowly, the cops lowered their weapons. Everyone relaxed as the woman continued.

  “Sorry about that...Li...Liani is it? I’m Connie Dreivan, City Municipal Supervisor for this Grid sector. Governor Sato sent down everyone he could to investigate the blackout...the officers just wanted to keep us safe. I hope they didn’t scare you too badly.”

  “That’s alright,” Corey said, “We’ll turn around and leave you to—”

  The towering mechanical arms burst into animation on the main platforms behind them. Liani felt like she leaped out of her skin. The arms retracted with a hiss of hydraulics and buzzing of servos, folding neatly into their designated places on the platforms. Liani spotted the incoming headlights first. The Virton employees and SCPD officers had no time to react.

  Rapid shots echoed through the tunnel as the five citizens burst in sprays of neon blood. The flood lights underscored every detail, throwing highlights on Connie Dreivan’s beaded necklace as it flew apart. Corey and Liani scrambled to click out of their harnesses and drop behind cover in the rail car. Corey took out his gun. The shooting stopped, replaced by whooping laughter.

  “Hoho man! If I had a credit for all the times I wanted to plug one of those big city supervisor fucks!”

  Liani heard the sounds of heavy boots walking on a metal platform. She tried to make herself smaller behind the fore-console of the railcar.

  “Mr. Corey Burrows! Ms. Liani Ray! Come out. Come out. Wherever you are!” said one of the voices. Corey shifted to stand up, but Liani grabbed his wrist. Shook her head, ‘No.’

  “Let me rephrase,” said the voice, “Stand up from behind that fore-console, please. Nice and slow with hands where we can see ‘em.”

  Corey quietly put the pistol down on the floor panel of the railcar. Showed his hands. Liani did the same. Both stood gradually, careful to make no sudden moves. Facing them from the oncoming rail were three men in Virton jumpsuits and hard hats, brandishing assault rifles strapped around their shoulders. Their apparent leader was shorter and thinner than the other two. Faded tattoos curled and twisted out from the cuffs of his sleeves and the collar at his neck. He grinned as they sidled their car beside Liani and Corey’s. Got a full up-and-down look at Liani.

  “Ah, there you are...or there two of you are, at least. Where’s the kid?”

  “Got away from us,” said Corey, “Ran off at the evacuation checkpoint when he saw SCPD guarding the place.
”

  “SCPD...” the leader stepped out of their car and crouched beside one of the officer’s bodies, “Shame to have to kill ‘em. Got a brother applying to the police academy talkin’ about wantin’ to serve and protect. But that was before all...this.” He rolled the body over, unclipped the officer’s weapon from its strap, and picked it up. Handed it to one of the other workers.

  “I’ve got the mem-stick in my pocket,” Corey said, “I’m just gonna reach my hand in and take it out, okay?” The leader stood, pointed his weapon at Corey, then nodded. Corey held his opposite hand up as he carefully went into the pocket. Removed the memory stick. One of the workers leaned forward, took it from him, then stepped back. Used some kind of Neural interface to scan it.

  “We’re good,” said the worker.

  Loud clinking machinery broke the tension as the construction platforms undocked themselves and started moving along the main center rails. Their floodlights cut off as they crept away into the darkness of the tunnel where Liani and Corey had come from. Other lights appeared down the tunnel to the West, accompanied by the sounds of countless voices.

  Two new platforms emerged from the darkness. Each carried a small army. Some of the figures wore the same kind of Virton jumpsuits or operated hulking Virton repair mechs. Others were clearly T99s to Liani’s eyes, but there was something different about them. They’re wearing EXO gear! Both platforms passed then turned around the bend in the track, disappearing. Corey and Liani looked at each other, wide-eyed.

  “Hmmm,” the leader said, scratching his pitted face, “I’d say that complicates things. See, we might have sent you on your way, but now...you’ve seen a little more than you should’ve. Can’t have you running back East telling stories about that, now can we? Kill the guy. Take the girl.”

  One of the men reached into their railcar for Liani and grabbed her under the arm.

  “Hey, fucking let go of me!” she shouted. Thick fingernails gouged her skin as she tried to pull away. Corey lunged to push him off, but caught a heavy elbow to the temple, knocking him to the floor of the rail car.

  “Easy, lover boy,” said the leader, “we’ll take real good care of your pretty little Inner Ring lady-friend here—”

  POP! POP! Corey got two shots off before the pistol jammed. One tore through the cheekbone of Liani’s attacker and the other pierced the leader’s tattooed throat. As they collapsed, the third gunman turned on Corey.

  “NO!” Liani grabbed her attacker’s sub-machine gun, turned it on the third man, and sprayed until he collapsed in a heap. The tunnel fell to hollow silence. She dropped the gun and rushed to Corey. He had slumped on the floor of the rail car. Three weeping holes crossed from his shoulder to his hip. Corey opened his mouth to speak. No sound came out. Liani pressed her hands and forearms down on the wounds.

  “We’ll get you some help...we’ll take the rail car and...and...”

  Corey raised his shaking hand and interlaced his fingers with hers. The look in his eyes told her a simple ‘no.’

  “You brat!” she said, laugh-crying, “You just had to play hero and save the girl, didn’t you?” That same goofy grin crossed his red lips.

  “Love y-you...Li-Li...” it barely came out a whisper, but she heard it. Corey’s grin faded. His muscles slackened.

  “No! Uh-uh!” Liani howled, echoing through the tunnel. She took him under the arms and pulled with everything she had. More than she had. Corey groaned at the pressure on his shoulder wound, but didn’t budge as she put him in the rail car seat and closed the harness. The docking clamps! She stepped over the bodies in the workers’ rail car, hopped up on the deck, and rushed to the console. Hit the big green button marked ‘Release.’ The clamps clinked loudly as they folded away. She hopped back in the workers’ rail car. Shrieked when a hand grabbed her foot.

  “P-p-leassse—” the man hissed. It was the one shot through the cheek. The bullet must have gone through his sinuses. Liani snatched up an SMG and aimed the barrel at his broken face. Started to squeeze the trigger.

  “Nguh—Ngd—Ndoctor,” he said, coughing blood. She lowered the weapon and scanned the floor. Beside the dead worker, she found the memory stick and snatched it up. Climbed back into her rail car beside Corey. He wasn’t moving. Wasn’t breathing. A trickle of blood dripped down the side of his seat. Liani pinched her eyes shut, letting the tears roll down her cheeks.

  “Hell yes, we’re gonna find a doctor,” she said, her heart gone from the words, “And you’re gonna tell me where to find one.”

  44

  Enemies

  “ABOUT FOUR DAYS,” said the chief engineer. Four days? Jogun could hardly believe it. The tanks in the fusion plant were over twenty stories high...and there were hundreds of them. The City must have been running week-to-week on shipments from Themis. How could they let things get this bad? All his life he’d watched the City glowing silently beyond the Border. The exact same brilliance each and every night. Powerful. Ever-lasting. It had looked as if it were made by God to light Heaven and Earth. ‘Like us and the suns, nothing lasts forever.’

  He had tried to look hard and calculating during his tour of the plant, but fear churned in his gut. The place was huge...huge and crazy complicated. The container-lined walls reached up forty stories to the domed ceiling, and groups of big, round ‘reactor chambers’ sat in the center of the floor. The engineer rattled on about deuter-something-reactions this and neutron-something-damage that. Jogun hated feeling so stupid. His Themis programming as a Crawler tech had been so specific, limiting him to geology, lunar physics, and basic maintenance. If only Matteo was here...he’d have all this stuff on lock.

  “If four days is what we got, then that’s what we work with,” Jogun said, “Just gotta be careful where we use it. The teams’ll be in place by midday tomorrow, so we gotta get movin’ on prep for the main push.” He looked up at the tanks as though he were deep in thought. Really, he just meant to hide the fear. He had enough of his own to deal with, no sense in spreading it around.

  “And after, sir? How do you plan to occupy a modern MegaCity without power?” asked the engineer. Good question, asshole. The answer in his heart told him that they would just leave. With their enemy crippled, they would go back to Rasalla and live in peace. But the hunger in his soldiers’ eyes told him the truth. Same as Matteo, they had wanted the City and its treasures for their whole lives. They’d never leave willingly.

  “Oh, we got power. All that the Righteous need. The Power of God, my friend,” Jogun said, loud enough for his T99 escorts to hear. It didn’t feel right coming out of his mouth. Shouts from the entrance bounced through the warehouse, along with the sounds of rattling ammo belts and thumping footsteps. Jogun tensed as his men turned on the noise with their rifles ready. They stood in front of him.

  Just a group of T99 runners. They were smiling...laughing. Jogun’s men lowered their weapons as the runners trotted to a stop.

  “Oki...” Jogun said, “Man, you gotta stop haulin’ ass into places unannounced!”

  “Jo—!” Oki panted as he tried to talk, “Whe—We got ‘im!”

  Cold goosebumps rippled down Jogun’s neck, shoulders, arms, and back. Matteo?

  “Whoa, calm down man, got who?” Jogun asked, trying to keep calm himself.

  “K-Kabbard! Sergeant motherfuckin’ Kabbard, the Robo-Pig Himself! Got him trussed up in a bodega down the street!” said Oki. Jogun sank a little. Then, from a dark place deep inside, the rage eclipsed everything.

  “Show me.”

  Jogun had to use his Augs to keep up with the young Nine. The ape-like soldier bounded ahead through the technological maze of Outer Ring streets and alleys, calling out the news to anybody nearby. By the time they reached the ruined shopping center, they had gathered an army.

  The crowd parted in the ground-floor mall plaza to allow the Healer and his men to pass. Jogun ignored the whispers as he walked uncomfortably through ashen burns and dried blood on the concrete. His fingers tw
itched as he imagined wrapping them around Kabbard’s throat. But the man had to answer a question first.

  Armed T99 Black Hoods stood in front of a glass doorway with sign above it reading ‘Utopi-Mart.’ The guards stood aside as the door slid open for Oki and Jogun. A chirping electronic chime greeted them.

  Oki led him past the freshly emptied shelves to the back storeroom. They had turned its reinforced concrete walls and cold laminated floors into a cell. Bodies of EXOs and SCPD lined the edges of the room, facing Black Hoods in the center as they were tended by the Blue Ladies. All were wounded. Some had died. The EXOs’ legs were bare, tugging at Jogun’s memory. Outside, he’d seen, but not noticed, several Nines with shiny new Augs on their legs. He flexed his own, feeling the new familiarity of the servos’ soft hum.

  Then there he was. Sergeant Kabbard...or at least some withered shell of him. He sat flat-legged in the corner with two reddish black lumps of stained, twisted fabric at his knees. Arms tied behind his back. A wrinkled old Blue Lady knelt beside him, dabbing the wounds. Kabbard’s head drooped forward, his tightly groomed hair matted and stained. Something foul dripped from it to his soaked suit pants. They pissed on him. The urge to choke, let alone touch this broken creature dimmed a little. Still, the question burned. Jogun dismissed the Blue Ladies with a wave, then a bow. Spoke once they’d gone.

  “Douse him,” Jogun said. One of the Black Hoods picked up a metal bucket of water and flung the contents at Kabbard. The man jerked back and coughed. Shook his head. Jogun stood over him, clutching a pistol.

  “Where is he?” asked Jogun. Kabbard blinked in the cold, buzzing light of the storeroom and looked up at him. Started laughing. A deep chuckle at first that grew sharper and louder, empty of any real humor.

  “You again...” Kabbard said, stopping as he saw the Augmentors. Jogun didn’t move a muscle.