As one, the other two warriors spun on their heels, crouching defensively until they could spot their attacker.
Turning, I broke into a run. In the back of my mind, I congratulated myself. I had accomplished my original mission to either capture or kill an enemy, though I didn’t know whether I would be able to take a trophy of my victory.
The two warriors spotted me. One of them threw his spear at me, but it went wide. The other warrior broke into a run, chasing after me through the forest.
I had to lead them as far away from the crevice as I could, but I could not let them catch me. If they did not kill me, they would bring me to Quiriguá to become a slave, or a sacrifice.
I scrambled as fast I could down the mountain. If I could reach the valley floor, I might be able to outrun them.
My foot caught on a root sticking out of the ground, and I lost my balance. I fell hard on my stomach, and pain lanced through my body as the breath rushed out of me.
Cursing, I fought to suck air back in and get to my feet.
The lead warrior was almost upon me, and he drew back his spear and aimed at me. I grabbed a handful of dirt and flung it in his face. He yelled as he turned his head away and threw his hand up to protect himself.
Taking the opportunity, I picked up my atlatl, which had fallen from my grip, and swung it like a club at the warrior’s head. The end connected with his temple, and he fell to the ground in a heap.
The second warrior was only a few paces behind his companion, and caught up during the fight. Still at a run, he jumped at me, swinging a long knife at my throat.
I batted at the knife with my atlatl and knocked it out of his hand. At the same time, I tried to duck under the warrior’s flying body, but he hit me with his entire weight. Both of us crashed backward into a tree trunk. I felt a snap, a surge of pain, and knew that one of my ribs was broken.
The agony made my head swim. My breath came in painful gasps.
Having bounced off me and landed a few steps away, the enemy warrior jumped back to his feet. He let out an animal roar and rushed at me.
I threw myself to my back and, in one motion, reached out to grab the first warrior’s spear and bring the point up.
The second warrior tried to turn away at the last moment, but he was running at me too quickly. The spear caught him in the chest and went straight through him.
He gave me a puzzled look, and then the life went out of his eyes as he toppled over onto his side.
I could not believe it. I’d defeated three of the Q’eqchi’ warriors by myself.
The pride I felt was short-lived. I could barely breathe, and I knew if I did not find help, I would not survive. With my rib broken, I would not be able to hunt for food. If more warriors came, I would not be able to outrun them.
With great effort, I drew myself to my feet. Picking up my atlatl, I slowly picked my way back to the crevice where I had left my pack.
Even if I managed to build a fire to burn Ekahua’s body and send his spirit to the sky, I did not have the strength to pull his body out of the cave. As it was, I didn’t know if I had the strength to make it back to my village outside Copán, which was a two-day march away.
As I hefted my pack, grimacing at the pain and holding one arm close to protect my broken rib, I vowed to return. If I had to, I would bring more warriors with me to complete the ritual and honor the sky traveler.
11
Qin Station :
Sol System :
Alex was taken deeper into the laboratory section of the station without being given the opportunity to say goodbye to his friends. His thoughts were clouded with outrage over Kenny’s murder, and he was barely aware of his surroundings when they arrived at the destination.
The lab was similar to the one Klaus had set up on the station orbiting Venus—Alex recognized it from the description Michael and Justine had given him. There were two sections: the main lab area, and the room where the subjects underwent Kinemetic process trials.
He took a hard look around, and it was only then that he saw there was another person in the lab besides his guards and himself.
An oriental woman, who looked to be in her mid-thirties, her long jet-black hair tied back in a ponytail, and wearing a white lab coat, glared at him as he entered.
Three of the guards, having completed their escort mission, stepped back out of the lab without a word and sealed the door behind him. One guard remained inside the lab, standing in a relaxed but attentive position, with his rifle cradled in his arms across his chest.
Alex, feeling decidedly uncomfortable, cleared his throat. “My name is—”
“I know who you are,” the woman said. “And I don’t need you here. I told him that. I can do this myself.”
“Do what?” Alex asked. “And who are you?”
She gave him an inscrutable look. “Do you know nothing? This is a waste of my time.” Storming to a communications console in the wall, she tapped something on the control, and a voice came through.
“Yes, Your Highness?”
“I told you, Dr. Yin will suffice. Get my father.”
Dr. Yin! Alex reeled from shock. This young woman was Chow Yin’s daughter?
He glanced at the guard in the room, as if he could give Alex some kind of confirmation. The guard did not so much as react.
The monitor lit up, and Chow Yin appeared on-screen. “What is the problem, Alice?”
“I told you I didn’t need this boy to help me. I am perfectly capable of discovering the process on my own.”
“You’ve had four years to do so,” the Emperor said.
Alice Yin’s face flushed visibly. She protested, “Now that we have the Mayan’s story recorded, it’s only a matter of time.”
“Time is a luxury we can no longer afford. After all, the Americans had the story for over a decade, and they never solved the problem. There is obviously a missing element. Alex Manez knows the secret; he has been in close contact with the involved parties all along. He has agreed to cooperate.”
“I can figure it out myself,” Alice said, though her words were not as vehement as before.
“Of course you could,” Emperor Yin said, giving her a patient smile. “I have every confidence in your abilities. We are on a timetable, however, and so I ask you to set aside your pride and work with the Westerner. Make me proud.” He cut the communications link before his daughter could say anything more.
Alice Yin stared at the blank monitor for several seconds before turning around. Alex got the impression she was trying to compose herself.
Her efforts, apparently, were not enough. She gave Alex a hateful glare and stormed out of the lab through a door on the opposite wall.
When Alex glanced at the solitary guard, the only reaction the man made was a very slight relaxing of his shoulders. It seemed high drama ran in the Yin family.
∞
Much had happened in so short a time, and Alex felt more than a little disoriented. Kenny’s death hadn’t fully hit home yet; his initial outrage at the killing had settled into a strange, disconnected numbness. When he’d first met the young physicist, he and Kenny had done nothing but butt heads. Their friction had turned to friendship. Alex didn’t want to think about it, didn’t want to process the finality of the other’s death.
Alone with the uncommunicative guard, Alex felt helpless. As a distraction, he took it upon himself to take a tour of the lab.
On a hunch, he tried to initialize one of the computers, and it prompted him for a password. He tried a few others but could not get access. The lab had a Kinemetic damper, so Alex could not use his electropathy to circumvent the computer’s security protocols.
From his quick investigation, he concluded that they had all the necessary equipment to perform the Kinemetic process. All they were missing was Kinemet and a subject.
He gravitated toward the experimentation room, and his thoughts drifted back to Klaus, who had killed several American soldiers in his attempt to refine t
he process before succeeding with Justine.
The last time Alex had seen Klaus was at his uncle’s base several hundred kilometers from Luna Station. He’d spent a few years in the company of the young man. Though they’dd never indulged in conversation, and had been barely polite to each other during Alex’s stay, he always felt Klaus could have matured past his abusive childhood.
Initially angry and bitter, Klaus had become quiet and introspective over the first few years, and had spent his time focusing his studies on physics and chemistry, rather than on computer technology. At one point, Alex thought he might take Klaus into his confidence, and see if either of them could understand Alex’s condition.
That was never to be. Word reached Klaus through his uncle that his estranged father had died from liver failure, a legacy from his alcoholism. His mother, who had left them years before, refused to acknowledge Klaus and rebuffed all attempts at communication. Klaus became increasingly agitated and violent. He went on several raids with his uncle, and Alex came to understand the young man had taken someone’s life unnecessarily.
It was then that Alex realized he could no longer depend on Klaus or his uncle to harbor him. With his deteriorating health, Alex knew the clock on his life was ticking, and made the plan to hijack the Quanta. Though he’d tricked Captain Gruber into helping him, Alex had not thought about what his deception would have done to Klaus. It was only years later that the repercussions became evident, when Klaus enlisted the Cruzados to aid him in his experiments.
Now, Klaus was dead, but his mad pursuit had been picked up by Emperor Yin and his daughter.
Alex was, once again, right in the thick of it. He had promised his cooperation to save his friends, and couldn’t think of any way to back out. Even if they told him Michael and the others had been returned to safety, there was no way for Alex to know whether it was the truth or a lie.
If he refused to cooperate now, it would only be a matter of time before they rediscovered the formula for the Kinemetic process. Alex had to do his best to delay their progress by any means necessary.
The Kulsat were on the hunt for Sol System. They would eventually find it. Humanity needed Kinemats to defend themselves against the threat; but someone like Emperor Yin would never use the technology to save Sol System. He would use the knowledge for his own gain, and sacrifice the masses.
Alex started and let out a gasp when he realized someone had come back into the lab. Alice Yin studied him with cold, dark eyes.
“I didn’t see you there,” Alex said, struggling to even out his breathing.
“It seems we must work together,” Alice said. Her voice was even, but Alex could sense the hostile undertones. She was struggling to keep her anger in check.
“That was the arrangement.” If she was going to play it cold, so would Alex.
“Then tell me the big secret. Tell me what I’ve been missing all this time.”
Alex shook his head. “Not until I am satisfied my friends have arrived on Earth alive.”
“You doubt my father’s word? He is the Emperor of Sol System. Argh,” she said, throwing up her hands in frustration. “Do you not understand? Once your ‘friends’ are in the custody of your government, they will tell them the secret. We must succeed before they do.”
“That would be too bad,” Alex said, unable to keep the sarcasm from his voice.
She pointed a finger at him. “You gave your word you would cooperate. If you do not, then we have no reason to ensure their safety. So long as you are helping me, your friends will safely continue their journey to Earth. Once we have developed the Kinemetic process, it won’t matter that they also know it,” she said. “We have amassed more Kinemet than they have. We can create hundreds of Kinemats before they have their first one.”
“You’re mad,” Alex said, the accusation coming out before he could stop himself.
Alice’s face turned a bright shade of red, and for a moment, Alex thought she would attack him.
He couldn’t help himself. He asked, “Don’t you care that you’re killing innocent people in your experiments? If you do succeed, you surely know the Emperor will use the power to kill thousands—perhaps millions—of others. How can you be a part of that?”
“Why should I care?” Alice said in a hiss. “Humanity turned its back on me a long time ago. Anyone who opposes us will get what they deserve.”
She glanced at the guard, and then back at Alex.
“You will cooperate now, or I will give the guard the order to shoot you on the spot.”
12
Department of Defense HQ :
Ottawa, Canada :
Michael had never felt so despondent in his life.
After three days in a holding cell in the military detention center, he thought he would never see a friendly face again. They had not even let him contact his family to let them know he was still alive. Until they could assess the national security risk he posed, he was kept incommunicado.
They gave him access to a computer for the purposes of filing a statement, but he’d been supervised for the duration. Though he’d submitted the report a day ago, no one had come back to let him know what his status was, or whether they would simply leave him in his cell indefinitely.
From the moment Michael and the others had re-entered Sol System, he’d been imprisoned in one form or another, and he’d had his fill of the experience. All he wanted was to speak to someone in authority and plead his case. Even if they decided to lock him away forever, he wanted someone to take his warning of the Kulsat threat seriously, at the very least.
When one of the two guards outside his cell unlocked the door, Michael first thought it was to bring him a meal, but the man who entered the cell was not a soldier.
“Calbert!” Michael said. “You have no idea how happy I am to see you.” He stood up and took a step forward, but Calbert Loche put up a hand, motioning for Michael to sit down on his cot again.
“You may not be so happy once you hear what I have to say,” he said.
“Oh?”
Calbert glanced around the holding cell quickly. There was a small, plain desk with a chair on one wall. He pulled the chair out by the backrest and turned it around. Slowly, he eased himself down on it.
“I’ll cut to the chase: they’re not going to drop the charges against you,” he said, “…yet.”
“Yet?” Michael asked. “Then there’s a possibility.”
“Maybe. Your report made a lot of people unhappy.” Calbert took a deep breath. “Billions of dollars were spent on Quantum Resources and Alex Manez. Now, from your statement, we find out he was lying to us from the moment he returned from Centauri—some even doubt he made the initial trip.
“Half the senators on the oversight committee think you were operating in collusion with Chow Yin—after all, how did he manage to figure out how to weaponize Kinemet?”
“That’s ridiculous,” Michael said. “Why would he ship us back here if we were working with him?”
“I don’t know.” Calbert shrugged. “Maybe he needs more information, and thinks you can get it for him.”
Grimacing, Michael said, “Ludicrous.”
Calbert continued. “The rest believe you’re not a traitor, but simply guilty of gross incompetence.”
“What?” He couldn’t keep the shock from his face.
“From the beginning, Quantum Resources faced failure after failure; it was only after your retirement that the company turned itself around. Once you were brought back into the fold, things went sour in a hurry.”
“They want a scapegoat? Pin everything that went wrong on me?”
“It wouldn’t be the first time something like this happened.”
“So either I’m a traitor or an idiot,” Michael said.
“Don’t forget ‘a liar’,” Calbert said. “All of them think your report of some super alien species massing an invasion is pure fiction, a legerdemain designed to distract us from your other activities.”
“Are you serious? I wouldn’t make something like that up.” Michael felt the figurative noose tightening around his neck. He looked Calbert in the eye. “What does Alliras think?”
“Alliras is no longer the Minister of Energy, Mines and Resources. He recommended me for the minister’s ballot before he left the position. I’ve been in the seat for a year now.”
“You got political?” Michael gaped. “What about Quantum Resources?”
“Dissolved. Since Chow Yin has put an embargo on space operations for all earthbound nations, we lost our mandate. Space Mining Division has been gutted. The country has more important needs, such as fighting the war.”
“The war?” He gasped, feeling completely out of touch.
“I have to say, it was a brilliant move on Chow Yin’s part. He corrupted a good portion of the PRC government, got them to start trouble in Asia. Within months, everyone was picking sides, and I mean everyone. The rub of it is that World War III is nothing more than a distraction. While we’re all busy fighting each other, Chow Yin’s been taking advantage and securing control of the rest of Sol System.”
“Murderous bastard,” Michael said, grinding his teeth.
“Yes, I’m sorry about Kenny Harriman.” Calbert bowed his head a moment before continuing. “A month ago, the PRC government regained control of China. They’re in the process of rooting out the imperialist sympathizers, and they’ve initiated a ceasefire. Everyone is in a holding pattern at the moment.”
“That’s good news,” Michael said. “We can turn our attention back to Chow Yin and the Kulsat.”
Calbert clicked his tongue. “That might take a bit of time, and might be more problematic than realistic. There were a lot of shots fired by both sides. It’ll take years to smooth out ruffled feathers. Worldwide resources are already taxed. We need those space-based production stations controlled by Chow Yin. There’s been talk that it would be easier to negotiate a deal rather than commit resources to another fight, especially when the Solan Empire has the high ground.”
Worlds Away (The Interstellar Age Book 3) Page 8
