“What is it?”
“The beacons we activated . . . they brought something here, a leech of some kind. It just floats next to Jeff’s chamber. It doesn’t do anything, though. I’m not sure what it means.”
“It’s in there?” Carlee asked. They walked briskly into the small village, which had yet to fully recover from the raid.
“Yes, if you figure it out, I’d love to know what’s happening. It’s . . . and all of this is making some of the people . . . concerned.”
“Of course.” Carlee pushed into the yurt where Stefani was fawning over Jeff’s floating medical chamber. Her devotion made Carlee want to tear up, but she turned her attention to the small floating leech waiting near the bed. She immediately recognized it as the same type of leech that had interacted with Darwin that night at its temple. It sprang to life as Carlee entered.
It flew in front of her, and a series of bright lights burst from the center of it. For twenty seconds, she was locked in place as the leech played a short message in her mind. As soon as it was finished, the lights turned off, and the leech floated casually out of the yurt.
“What was that?” Stefani asked.
“Darwin’s will. There is something it wants me to see back at its temple.”
“Darwin’s dead?”
“Yes . . . I need to go.” Carlee wasn’t sure why—maybe the leech had done more to her than simply play a message directly into her brain and had somehow compelled her to follow the instructions. But it didn’t matter. She had already made her decision, and she didn’t care what resided on the other path.
“Right now?”
“Yes, I think this is important. I’ll be gone for a while. Roanoke if it’s too long.”
48 WAR
CARLEE LANDED OUTSIDE OF THE ancient Mayan temple that Darwin had called its home. Thousands of believers were in the middle of some large ritual to commemorate the passing of Darwin. They went wild when they saw her appear in the air above them and formed a wide circle for her to land. No one spoke until she deactivated her force-field armor.
“Carl-Lee!” someone shouted.
“Carl-Lee!” another answered.
“Carl-Lee! Carl-Lee!” all of the mourners chanted in unison now. She didn’t know what to do, but apparently, everyone here knew who she was. The crowd pushed forward, collapsing on her. She didn’t like to be touched without permission, but she didn’t resist as they led her to the steps of the temple.
“Up Carl-Lee! Up Carl-Lee!” They backed away from her, and Carlee slowly climbed the steps to Chichén Itzá. They were excited, and given the history of the structure, she was a little nervous that they were going to try to sacrifice her.
At the top of the steps, a leech identical to the one that had stayed by Jeff waited for her. She didn’t move as the leech shot light into her eyes, filling her brain with Darwin’s voice once again.
“You came, and for that, I am thankful. Forgive me for the journey you’ve endured, but I was unsure how events would transpire. This place is sacred to me, but it is not the only place dear to my heart. I have passed the way of all those on the earth, but I want you to fully understand who I was, Carlee, leader of vagrants.”
The message ended, and the leech opened in front of her, splitting in half to reveal a tray with a quarter of a metal disk. She picked the weighty piece up and looked it over. It had clearly been manufactured, but she didn’t find any clues as to its purpose until she saw a pair of coordinates on the back. She activated her armor and left the cheering mass of people below her behind.
Only a single spire of this temple still stood. Around the structure, mountains of bones were piled for an unknown purpose. It was eerie, and she was already on edge. The ruins of Salt Lake City were too close to the crater of the temurim mine for her to feel comfortable. She half expected an Apostle to ambush her at any minute.
She tried to avoid disturbing the bones as she looked for any sign as to why Darwin had sent her here. A wind brushed passed her, but for some reason, the air didn’t seem fresh. She stepped up to the marbled rock and ran her fingers over its weathered surface.
One of Darwin’s leeches floated down from the top of the destroyed temple and delivered its message: “These people believed in an active afterlife, one with much work to be done. I never decided what I wanted to believe in after death, but this concept touched me. If you are seeing this message, my life has ended, but know that my work isn’t complete.”
The message finished, and the leech offered another quarter of a metal disk, which held another pair of coordinates.
None of the major cities on the continent had been as completely devastated as Washington, DC. Nature had started to reclaim the city entirely from what once had been the capital of a great nation. Only the coordinates of the building confirmed that she was standing where the Washington National Cathedral had once been.
Darwin’s leech found her a few moments later, delivering another message: “The kingdoms of men have always fallen. But until the day that our creator ends the journey of fallible beings, the good must do what they can to better the world. You must continue the fight. Only the vagrants are the incalculable variable in the equation of this planet. Only you can change the balance of our world.”
The leech was practically waiting for her when she arrived at the mosque in Dearborn, Michigan. Of all the places Darwin had sent her to visit so far, the mosque was the most intact. Somehow, the destruction of Detroit hadn’t made it here. It was in good enough condition that she suspected there might be people inside. But she didn’t plan on staying long enough to find out.
She deactivated her armor to allow the leech to play Darwin’s next message: “I spent my life pondering the divine and learning what I could of human belief systems. To me, they are all sacred, all worth preserving. I wish that I could go back in time, to visit these places while they were strong and filled with worshippers, but I have passed. When your fight is finished, I beg you to ensure freedom for all. Learn from the past even though it has led us here. Create a destination that honors the journey.”
Carlee looked over the fourth piece in her hand, but this one didn’t hold any coordinates. She pulled the other pieces from the pockets near her side. It took her a minute to arrange them together, lining up the small indents on the side. They snapped together, and the completed disk glowed with streams of orange light. Carlee almost dropped it instinctively, thinking it might be some sort of bomb, but the streaking orange lights met in the middle and glowed like a small fire.
She watched it for a minute until the light receded. The orange energy had left behind another set of coordinates in the center of the disk.
The summit of Mount Denali was frigid, but the leech was once again waiting for her. The journey had taken her almost a week, and she was growing weary of being away from her vagrants, but she pushed herself onward. Each stop on Darwin’s trail had taught her a little more about what it had believed in, what it had hoped for, and why it had given its life to the fight.
She had adopted the faith of her husband even though her parents had raised her to find peace only through inward reflection. She had never developed the faith of Bobby or Yachi, but she still held on to the parts she believed in, and those beliefs made her feel close to the fallen Apostle. Heather had referred to Darwin as a he rather than an it, and Carlee was starting to believe that was more appropriate. The Apostle had proven as mortal as anyone—in its brief existence, it had plenty to live for and plenty it believed in. Darwin seemed more human than many of the people she had encountered over the years.
The leech didn’t play a message for her; instead, it led her down the snowcapped mountain. After fifteen minutes of flying, they came to a stop in front of a solid wall of ice. The leech shined its light on the frozen water, and the illusion dissipated away, revealing a huge metal door with a circular opening in the center. She inserted the metal disk and stood back as the massive door opened.
Carlee follow
ed after the leech, and the door slid shut behind her without a sound. They passed dozens of strange leeches and gigantic machines capable of producing more. She couldn’t help but notice that a pile of the force-field generator spikes that Darwin had used to trap them rested in one corner. But the factory, by and large, was shut down.
The leech led her deeper into the mountain and then stopped in front of something she had not expected to see. Before she could react, the leech shined a message into her head once more: “If you have come this far, then you have honored me in a way in which I can never repay. We weren’t close in life, but I still considered us friends during our brief time together.
“Mountains are considered sacred in dozens of religions, housing their gods in great cities or burning bushes. Even those who did not believe in the divine found peace and respite here. And so, you have found where I rest. I met my end while trying to achieve a better world, and now my burden falls to you. The path in front of you is a perilous one. The Apostles earned the control of the earth that they now enjoy, and upsetting their power structure will be strenuous. I ask that you let me rest, to allow me to spend eternity with my true creator.
“I have set you on a path that I know you did not choose, and I won’t force you to go it alone, although I ask it. The body that rests before you is identical to the one I lost in the fight. I have copied the key aspects of my memories here, as well as my origination algorithms, all of which have been unlocked by the molecular key you reassembled to open the door.
“Forgive me for the trespass; the steps were to ensure that you, and you alone, would have the pieces required. All that is missing now is a temurim core. If the need is great, the power to resurrect me rests in your hands, Carlee, leader of the vagrants and fellow believer. Mungu awe nawe.”
Darwin’s voice went silent as the leech finished replaying his final message. Carlee looked down to where Darwin’s shining body rested. The head of the body was parted, revealing the location where a temurim core would reside.
The demolition of the temurim mine had changed the world far more than Horus’s attack on a fellow Apostle ever had. Humanity had been unmistakably involved, and she didn’t believe that was something the Apostles would excuse.
She had spent her life believing that the war was over and that fighting the Apostles was certain death. But the war wasn’t over; deep inside, she had always known the truth. The war was just beginning. And she wasn’t going to face it alone.
Carlee closed her eyes and found her husband in another time line. From there, she moved about in his reality until she found a temurim core.
The End
Vagrants (Vagrants Series Book 1) Page 31
