Cloak and Shield

by Mark Ayre

  “—But I see enough. Pandora—”

  “Who’s Pandora?”

  “—Plans to use the red room—”

  “What’s the red room?”

  “—To create millions of doorways in a hellish dimension, all of which will lead to the red room. This can only happen so long as the red room’s children are alive and in one place. There are nine of us—”

  “Us?”

  “—and we are all here, all now. Adam, to save humanity, you must kill one of your siblings.”

  “I only have one sibling.”

  “You have eight, two full, six half, no, don’t interrupt. To stop the ritual, one must die. In a perfect world, that would be Pandora—”

  “Who’s Pandora?”

  “But I don’t think you’ll reach her. Adam, I’ve nothing but time and about this I’ve obsessed. I sent Karim—”

  “Who’s Karim?”

  “—to stop the latest experiment before it could take place, to postpone Pandora’s arrival, no don’t ask me who she is again, there isn’t time. It didn't work, and now the only solution is to kill a sibling, and that sibling should be me.”

  She stopped. It was the first time she seemed to be welcoming interruption, and Adam didn’t know what to say. He could only stare until she picked it up again.

  “I’ll be lying in this bed,” she said, pointing behind her. “I ask only two things. Two things, are you listening?”

  Adam was shaking his head. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Two things,” she repeated. “First, I want you to save my mother.”

  “Your mother?”

  “Yes, Tameka; get her out alive, I’m begging you. That’s the first thing. The second is much simpler.”

  “Saskia…”

  “I want you to make it quick.”

  Stunned again, Adam took two steps back, his hands falling from Saskia’s. His mind was reeling, whirring with everything she had said. The names he didn’t know—Pandora, Cassandra, Karim, Tameka.”

  “Why is your mother here?” he asked. Then something else came to him. “And what are you talking about with red room children and siblings?”

  “You were conceived when your mother stepped into the red room,” she said. “You have six paternal siblings, of which I am one.”

  “No, you have to be joking. You’re not my half-sister.”

  “Not quite,” she said, “now please try to pay attention. We’re running out of time. When you wake, you must come to this bed and kill me. You cannot hesitate. You must not. Do you understand me?”

  She had come to him again. In his confusion, he did not argue as she took his hands, but nor did he squeeze back. When she planted her lips on his, it was a one-way kiss.

  “It’ll be easier than you think.”

  “Kill you?” he said, shaking his head. “Are you mad? I’ve just found you again, and you want me to kill you? And you won’t explain why. Saskia, I don’t know what you think is going on here, but I can assure you…” something occurred. “What do you mean when I wake?”

  He felt something tingle up his spine. Saskia pushed close to him as the world began to blur, pressing her lips to his cheek, then his ear.

  “I loved you more than I have ever loved anyone, or could have ever loved anyone,” she whispered. “Now it’s time to do what you were born to do. It’s time to be a hero.”

  Adam opened his mouth to speak, but the world was fading, and he was falling. Distantly, he felt his legs give way. The hard floor felt like a cushion as he landed. He saw the only girl he had ever loved above him.

  Then came the darkness.

  Joel’s all-access pass got him and his two men through the colossal bulkhead doors and into Steadman’s inner sanctum. In here, the doctor considered himself king. If that were true, Joel guessed that made he and his sister Gods.

  A short corridor led to a smaller, though still reinforced, door. Via another card reader and thumbprint scanner, Joel arranged access for the three of them.

  The door opened onto the large circular main room of Steadman’s quarters. From here could be accessed Steadman and Abbot’s offices, the red room, the control room and numerous other labs. Much work went on in this central location. More often than not, it buzzed with workers passing through or attending to various tasks at one of the sixteen available stations. Joel entered to see the expected number of workers, but no activity.

  “Oh my…”

  Joel’s driver could not keep the horror from his face. As ever, his bodyguard showed no emotion and moved straight to the practical business of keeping Joel safe.

  “We need to leave sir. Now.”

  “Keep your guns raised,” said Joel. “We’re going nowhere.”

  “Well, aren’t you brave?”

  The voice, even more alluring than it had been down the phone, was chased into the room by its owner; a woman of around thirty, tall, smiling. Ursula, the mother of the monster Grendel, was well known amongst those in the organisation as being of almost Goddess-like beauty. This woman was not quite there but was not far off.

  “Pandora,” she said. “It’s lovely to meet you.”

  “I’m Joel, and you may have given yourself a name, but you are little more than an experiment.”

  “I know who you are, but I did not know you would be so rude. This is a power play, I suppose? Putting me down. It won’t work.”

  “I have no need for power plays,” said Joel. He gestured around the room. “I see you’ve been busy trimming my salary overheads. A considerate move, though ill-judged. Money is no issue.”

  Pandora smiled, looked at her handiwork. “For their fates, I feel most guilty.”

  “Because of the murder?”

  “Because they will miss the coming glory.”

  Joel nodded. He was trying to keep his eyes from the bodies, but it was difficult. They called to him. What exactly had Pandora done?

  “On the phone, you mentioned my destiny.”

  “Yes.”

  Pandora’s smile was delightful and inviting. Despite the mayhem she had caused, the lives she had ended, it made Joel want to go to her. To fight this impulse, he took a step back. Ever the professional, his bodyguard took one forward and moved to cover his boss.

  “Why don’t you tell me about this destiny?” Joel asked.

  “Join me in the control room. I’ll gladly fill you in.”

  She turned and gestured for him to follow. When he didn’t move, she pouted.

  “Explanations first,” said Joel. “Then I’ll decide how I want to proceed.”

  “No,” said Pandora. “You won't.”

  Joel felt his muscles tighten. People did not tell him what to do. Perhaps because he made no effort to hide it, Pandora quickly read his mood.

  “You called me no more than an experiment, but we are the same. Each of us was born for a single purpose; the only difference is that you had time to build yourself a life, to ignore your calling and do other things. I’m unsure whether I envy you the delusion you’ve had the time to build. On the one hand, I am blessed with knowledge of my purpose, and that feels good. On the other, I’ve never eaten ice cream and never will.

  Joel said. “I’ve had enough. Shoot her.”

  Joel’s bodyguard lifted his gun, got Pandora’s forehead in his sights, and died.

  No bullet or blade had hit him, no one had entered the room to attack on Pandora’s behalf, and she had not moved. Nor had he. Nothing seemed to have taken effect on him in any way. It was as though a heart attack had killed him so fast he had no time to register it was happening before he was gone.

  Pandora raised her arms in triumph. “I am glory, and any who intend to destroy me before I can complete my noble purpose shall be at once smote by…insert here your favourite deity.”

  Joel’s driver had stepped back. He had never been a cowardly man, but his courage was failing now. Joel tried not to be afraid. He sought something commanding to say but, havin
g watched his bodyguard die for raising a gun to Pandora, wasn’t sure what to do.

  All he had was, “I’m leaving.” He could not keep the tremble from his voice as he spoke.

  “Destiny won’t allow that,” said Pandora. “And neither will I. Echidna. Come.”

  Turning to his driver, Joel said, “Let’s go.”

  Trying not to rush, he went for the door. Only when he arrived did he realise his driver had followed. Turning back, he saw why.

  From the control room had come Echidna: a ten-foot-tall monster with twelve scorpion legs, three human arms and hands, a muscular torso and a head with no face, only a plain white mask where eyes, nose, and mouth should have been.

  “Kill it,” whispered Joel.

  The Driver only screamed.

  The monster raced across the metal floor, over the bodies it had already created. Gaining a grip of himself, the driver turned to flee.

  Before he could move a step, three powerful hands had him above the beast’s head, almost at the ceiling, facing towards the white mask which looked up at him.

  “Help.”

  Echidna lowered the driver. The terrified face met the white mask and… at first, Joel wasn’t sure what he was seeing. It was as though face and mask were merging, the former seeming to dip into the latter as one might dip their face into a pool of water.

  Afraid of what might come next, Joel turned to the door, pressed his thumb to the scanner and shoved his card into the reader. Behind, there were no screams or yells. Since the driver’s face had entered the monster’s, there had been silence.

  A loud buzz broke the quiet and made Joel jump. It only signified that the door’s complicated bolting system had disengaged.

  With a speed that suggested it did not understand the gravity of the situation, it began to open.

  Something crashed into the wall beside Joel’s head. The director of this mighty organisation screamed.

  Joel had entered the room to see deformed, broken skeletons. The inner structure of people who looked as though they had been dead a thousand years.

  In a matter of seconds, Joel’s driver had joined their ranks.

  The door had opened wide enough for Joel to slide through. As he proceeded to do so, three hands grabbed the back of his shirt and hurled him across the room.

  Screaming, he crashed into a solid work station.

  Before he could so much as try to sit, Pandora had crouched beside him, one hand resting on his chest.

  “We were talking about destiny,” she said, as though the monstrous Echnida had not interrupted their limited conversation. “The only one that matters goes like this: thirty years after the red room produces its first child, it will produce its last: Pandora, who will use the first child and final mother as keys to open the door promised by the red room, and bring about the fall of humanity. And a far more comprehensive fall it will be than that the bible speaks of, I can tell you.”

  Joel stared at her, waiting. When it became clear she was not going to speak until he had, he struggled for something to say. It was difficult when he could think of little else than what Echidna had moments ago done to his driver.

  “You want the oldest child of the red room?” he said, at last, thinking only of his survival. “Adam and Eve. Uh, Eve was born first. Not quite thirty years ago but close enough. I can get her. She’s in this building right now. Is that my destiny, to bring her to you? I can do that.”

  Joel had never been afraid before. He did not like it, but what could he do? He refused to let his pride get the better of him. Once he had escaped, he could brood on his potential revenge.

  Pandora said, “You’re not very bright, are you? What University did you attend?”

  Joel stared. “What?”

  “It’s not a difficult question. Or is it? Answer me, or I’ll call Echidna to kill you.”

  Trying not to whimper, Joel said, “I don’t know.”

  “Why not?”

  “When my sister and I reached the shack which contained the red room, we opened the door and a pulse of light hit us. Julia was lucky. As she stood to my rear, she did not take the full force of the blow. I, on the other hand, was thrown backwards and knocked unconscious. When I woke on the grass, I could remember nothing before that moment.”

  Pandora nodded, stroking her chin as though considering. “And you were naked?”

  Joel’s cheeks burned. Through gritted teeth, he said, “We’ve never told anyone that.”

  “I’ll take that as a yes.”

  Joel bit his lip. Pandora’s eyes danced with excitement. Across the room, Echidna paced back and forth, her twelve feet reminding Joel of her presence, further shredding his nerves with each step.

  “Right,” said Pandora at last. “Let’s do this.”

  He breathed a sigh of relief. Rose. “Good, I won’t be long, and I will not return without Eve. You have my word.”

  As soon as he left Steadman’s abode, he was going straight for the surface. He would leave this place and not return without an army he was confident could deal with the beautiful Pandora and her hideous monster.

  When he turned for the door, he found Echidna had stopped pacing, and now stood blocking his exit. When Pandora’s hand snaked around his elbow, he could not help but jump.

  “You are a fool,” Pandora said. “Easily led from reality by desire.”

  “I don’t know what you mean.”

  “Deep down,” said Pandora. “I think you do.”

  “Let me go,” Joel almost pleaded. “I can get Eve.”

  “I do not need her.”

  Echidna had not moved. Pandora still held Joel’s arm.

  He said, “But you said…”

  “When Julia found the shack, she was alone,” said Pandora. “She opened the door, and because she had no idea of the power contained within, she entered.”

  “No,” said Joel. “She might have done, but she never got the chance. When we opened the door— ”

  Pandora’s hand snaked around Joel and clamped his mouth. He moaned into it then fell silent.

  “Did you not always wonder why Julia continued with her red room experiments before the Sandra success, when she had no evidence anything would come of her actions? You questioned her on multiple occasions, but she could always shake you off. You didn’t want to hear the truth: that she knew her experiments could bear fruit because she had seen first hand what could happen when a woman of childbearing age entered the red room.”

  “No,” said Joel. “She acted on a hunch. My sister has always trusted her gut.”

  “You don’t have a sister, Joel. Julie found the red room alone, entered alone, and within minutes found herself in labour in the middle of nowhere, alone. You were born outside the red room, and within minutes you appeared as old as Julia. Unlike me, you were born confused, not knowing your purpose or origin. Julia told you you were siblings who had discovered something amazing. You couldn’t process the truth, so adopted the lie, internalised it, believed it.”

  Pandora forced Joel to turn, to face her.

  “You are the first child of the red room; I am the ninth.”

  She shoved him.

  “Now, buck up and come and help me end the world.”

  A group of guards raised their guns in greeting as the lift doors opened. Before Eve could make them wish they hadn’t, Sandra stepped out with her arms outstretched and deployed her most commanding tone.

  “Point those elsewhere. Eve is out on my command. You may well have heard her brother has escaped and, as our trained fighters have had no luck recapturing him, I have enlisted Eve. Has anyone a problem with that?”

  Judging by their expressions, most did. None were brave enough to challenge Sandra, so each lowered their weapon and stepped back to allow Eve and Sandra from the lift unhindered. As the two women started to pass, they glared.

  “Not very popular, are you?” said Eve.

  Sandra waved away the comment and stopped, checking a fork in the road,
deciding.

  “Why would Adam have come down so far anyway?” asked Eve.

  “Why does Adam do anything? No doubt he was led by that ridiculous soft centre of his—that pathological need to save lives.

  “Some would not consider that a failing, mother.”

  Again, Sandra chose not to comment. She pointed at the left fork. They were about to take it when one of the guards’ radios blared. Seconds later, all the radios were blaring. Despite all this overlap, mother and daughter decoded the core message.

  “Guards, no,” said Sandra, as though she were talking with dogs, rather than humans.

  Despite the command, all six raised their weapons.

  Eve flicked her wrist. The guns span with enough force to snap the fingers held in the trigger casings, stopping with the barrels pointing at their owners’ chests. Distracted by the pain, none of the would-be-shooters attempted to move as an invisible force clamped the triggers, killing them with simultaneous short bursts of fire.

  Eve examined the walls.

  “You stupid, brainless little girl.”

  Ah yes, there was the mother Eve knew and loathed.

  “I’m sorry,” she said, still examining the walls, ceilings, floors, not looking at Sandra. “Were you attached to those arseholes?”

  Everything was normal. Everything as it should be. Which was not normal nor how it should be, given what had happened. Eve touched the wall, as though this might trigger her visions.

  Sandra grabbed her arm, dragged her, so they were face to face.

  “I don’t care for those people,” she spat. “I care that in your rash stupidity, you’ve once again ruined my carefully laid plans.”

  “Don’t touch me,” Eve said, whipping her arm away. “You know, I was starting to believe you’d changed?”

  “For twelve years I’ve worked my way up this organisation so I can free you and your brother from your miserable lives and in one day you’ve screwed it up. Well done.”

  “You’re a hag, mother. Shouting’s still on form, by the way, what about your backhand? You been out of practice or can you still—”

  Sandra slapped Eve then flew back and crashed into the wall, hitting her head and collapsing to the ground as had the dead guards.