by Weston Ochse
The minutes ticked by.
Finally, Mano came running. He skidded to a stop, out of breath. He didn’t look happy.
“What is it?” Kaja asked. “Where is Ivanov?”
“The sub is locked up tight.” He shook his head helplessly. “I don’t know where he is. No one answers. I knocked for ten minutes.”
Kaja and Kavika exchanged glances.
Kavika shook his head. “This can’t be good.”
“What do we do now?” Mano asked.
All eyes turned to Kaja. He looked worried for a moment, and then shrugged. “What else is there to do? We carry on. We have to.” He turned to Kavika. “You ready?”
Kavika nodded.
“Then let’s go,” Kaja said, stepping over the line and into Real People terrain.
They were all armed with the same weapons. Sheathed knifes adorned their calves, and Escrima sticks jutted across their backs.
Kaja, Kavika and Mano walked on the deck. The other Pali Boys jumped and leaped, sometimes beside them, sometimes behind them. Where they could, they swung from netting, guide ropes or cables. Bungee cords were wrapped around their arms and chest, quickly deployable when needed.
They crossed one boat without any contact. But a solitary man was waiting for them on the second boat.
“You all need to stop here,” he said. He stood as tall as Kavika, but was enormously fat. His arms, visible below the straps of a Harley-Davidson muscle shirt, had tattoos of motorcycles and naked women. Some of the tattoos were nothing but dark blotches, their shapes lost to time. A white beard hugged his cheeks, but like Abe Lincoln, he wore no mustache.
“We’re here to talk to Abe.”
“Abe don’t want to talk to you.” The man folded his arms.
“He doesn’t know that. He doesn’t even know what we want.”
“What’s your name?” Kavika asked.
“They call me Van Buren.”
“Well, Van Buren, my uncle used to say you either could be part of the solution or part of the problem.”
“What?”
“And I think you’re part of the problem.”
Kaja made a gesture to one of the Pali Boys, who tapped a companion on the shoulder. They dropped and wrapped bungees around the man’s legs; when they rebounded, he came with them.
Kaja laughed. “That’s one problem taken care of.”
“If only they were all that easy,” Kavika said, shaking his head.
They crossed the second ship, seeing movement in the wheel house. The Real People certainly knew they were there.
They finally reached a flat barge where even the wheel house had been removed, as long and as wide as the whole of what the Hawaiians owned. Beyond that stood the inverted ships, and beyond that was the great wide sea.
With nowhere to swing, the dozen Pali Boys came down to the decks. They spread out in a fan on either side of Kaja. Kavika stood on his right, and Mano on his left.
“What now?” Mano asked.
“We could go knock on the door,” Kavika suggested.
What had once been the deck of the ship was now the face. Gone was every aspect of a ship, only to be replaced by a flat wall with windows, much like the concrete towers Kavika had seen in vids or in magazines.
Kaja gestured with his chin. “Looks like we won’t have to. Look.”
Kavika saw Abe Lincoln step out of a door on the left, wearing khaki pants and a yellow plaid shirt. Behind him followed a string of men, all in plaid as well, except for a single man wearing strange black armor.
The last time they’d met, Abe had reached out and offered his hand, but not this time. As they approached, the men with him fanned out, matching the front presented by the Pali Boys. Abe stood in the middle, with the man in black behind him.
Now that the man in black was closer, Kavika could make out armor plates on his arms, torso and thighs. His blonde head was unadorned, except for dark sunglasses and a headset. He held a large machine gun.
The other Real People were weaponless, but they were all tall and wide at the shoulders. Their hands appeared capable of snapping a neck with little effort.
“I thought I sent someone to meet you,” Abe said.
“We left him hanging,” Kavika said, which drew a few snickers.
Abe pointed imperiously at Kavika. “This one is a known murderer.”
Kavika said. “You mean Song? If that’s who you mean, then yes, I guess I am.”
“He was a family man.”
“He was a cannibal.”
Abe stared hard at Kavika as if he’d heard that for the first time. Finally, he shook his head. “I don’t believe that for a second.”
“Believe it or don’t,” Kavika said. “It’s true. I found my friend, or part of her, in his freezer.”
Abe waved his hand. “That’s hardly a reason to kill someone.”
Kavika laughed at the astounding illogic of the conversation. “Eating someone is hardly a reason?”
“We all have to do what we have to do to survive.”
“Is that how you justify taking all that blood?” Kaja asked.
Abe shrugged. “You have enough. We only take what we need.”
“You don’t even ask,” Mano said.
“Would you have given it if we had?”
Mano shook his head. “Hell, no!”
“That’s why we take it.”
“You from the zeppelin?” Kaja asked, pointing to the man in black.
He got no response.
“Pretty big gun.”
Still no response.
Then in one swift move, Kaja grabbed Abe and spun him around, putting him in a neck lock and pressing a knife against the Real Person’s jugular.
“And this is a pretty big knife,” Kaja added.
The man in black raised his machine gun and pointed it directly at Kaja.
All the Pali Boys drew their sticks.
The Real People took a step forward.
“We’re all going to remain calm,” Kaja said in a loud, even voice.
“Let me go.” Abe brought a hand up, but lowered it when Kaja pressed his blade hard enough against his neck to draw blood.
“Not yet. Not until he puts down the gun.”
“I’m not putting down the gun,” said the man, his accent strange.
“Then I’m going to put an end to your leader.”
The man grinned. “He isn’t my leader. Go ahead. Kill him if you want.”
Abe’s eyes went wide. “He’s not kidding—he’ll kill me!”
Kaja tried not to show his uncertainty, but Kavika knew him too well. The Pali Boy leader hesitated a moment too long. And it seemed as if the strange man knew it too.
He stepped forward and placed the barrel of his machine gun in the center of Abe’s forehead.
“So what is it you would like to tell us?” he asked calmly.
“Please, Jacques...”
The stranger cut Abe’s plea off. “Please, nothing. These creatures should have been under your control. This confrontation is not what we’d planned.”
“Did he just call us creatures?” Mano asked incredulously.
“He called you a creature,” Kavika responded calmly, aware that any false move might start a gunfight. “I don’t know what he called me.”
“You are creature. You are merde! You are nothing.”
“I hate to differ with you, Jack, but I’m more than nothing. I’m a Pali Boy.”
“It’s Jacques, troudoc!”
Kaja shook his head ever so slightly. “Enough, Kavika. Let’s not antagonize the man with the gun, even if it is pressed against another asshole’s head.”
“Please, what is it you came to say?” Abe asked.
Kaja looked from one end of his men to the other, then into the gunman’s face. “I came to tell you that you have one chance to give up. We have the ability to sink every one of your ships and remove the zeppelin from the sky. Your time assaulting our people and stealing our blood
is over.”
After he spoke, silence fell over everyone for a few moments. Then one of the Real People laughed. Then another. Finally all of them were laughing, even Abe. It was such an unexpected response that Kaja let up on the knife, and Abe slipped free. The stranger removed the barrel of the machine gun from Abe’s forehead, and Abe scurried behind him.
When he’d finished laughing, Abe smiled wryly. “What are you going to do with us when we all surrender?”
“What?”
“We have over a hundred and fifty men. I was just wondering what you were going to do with all of us. Do you have a jail? Do you smack our wrists? Do you kill us? I mean, you’ve thought this through, right?”
“We’ll send you on your way.”
“How would you do that?”
“There’s an unaffiliated ship. We’ll untether it and set you adrift.”
“I hear a but in there somewhere,” Abe pressed.
“Well, we never expected you would actually surrender.”
“Well, you were right, because we won’t. In fact,” the older man said as he lifted a hand above his head, “we’d like you to surrender instead.”
“Us? I don’t think—” Kaja stopped mid-sentence as the day was shattered by the sounds of gears grinding.
Great squares of decking on the left and right of them began to rise, revealing a host of other armed men in black, standing on a platform. When they’d reached man height, the men poured out and onto the deck, taking positions all around Kaja and his men. Now they were hopelessly outnumbered—and they had committed the cardinal sin: They’d brought sticks and knives to a gunfight.
Finally a tall figure emerged from the platform. When they saw him, the Pali Boys groaned.
Ivanov.
Although he didn’t look happy, his stride was sure. He walked to join Jacques and Abe.
“Hello, Kaja.”
“What the fuck, Ivanov?” Kavika demanded.
“I tried to warn you.”
“The hell you did,” Kaja said. He scowled and shook his head. “What now?”
“Now I do this.” Jacques pressed the gun again at Abe’s head.
Abe smiled confidently, and Jacques pulled the trigger.
The back of Abe’s head exploded, showering Ivanov with blood and bone.
Everyone’s jaw dropped... except for the men in black.
Jacques was the first to speak. “I told you. He was incompetent. We don’t allow that sort of thing to go unpunished.”
“Who the hell are you?” Kavika asked.
“I am Major Jacques Chiroc. I am commander of Team Three, Special Operations Group of The Apostolic Church of the Rediscovered Dawn.”
Kavika barely heard the words. He was too stunned by the sudden turn and then re-turn of events. All he could do was stare at Ivanov and the blood he now wore like a mourner’s cowl.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
THEY WERE IN the shit. Fifteen of them were surrounded by about fifty Neo-Clergy, armed with machine guns. Their only hope was that Princess Kamala would come through.
The sun was setting beneath a cloudless sky. Spot lights speared the dusk above the barge, creating pools of light and shifting shadow. The Pali Boys’ weapons had been taken and they’d been made to kneel. Kavika, Kaja and Mano were in the middle of the line.
Kavika thought about running, but he couldn’t leave his brothers behind, or Lopez-Larou. He’d sworn that he wouldn’t let happen to her what had happened to Leilani.
“Check them for the marks,” Jacques commanded.
Two Neo-Clergy commandos stepped out of the ranks. One walked behind the first Pali Boy, while another shone a light on his chest. “No marks,” said the commando in front.
They moved to the second Pali Boy with the same result.
On the next, the man with the torch called, “Mark here.”
Jacques turned to them. “He’s been tested and found wanting. He’s no good to us.”
Before anyone could ask what that meant, the commando standing behind the Pali Boy – Lukini was his name – withdrew a stiletto and shoved it into the back of his skull.
Kavika watched in shock as they murdered his friend. It had happened so fast, he didn’t know how to respond. For a long moment, no one did or said anything; then there was pandemonium.
Several Pali Boys leaped to their feet, only to be struck to the ground with the men’s rifle butts. Kaja’s eyes were wild; he struggled to stand, but Mano held him down, throwing his body over the Pali Boy leader.
“Can’t do nothing now. Wait, Kaja. Just wait.” It took a few moments, but Mano managed to keep Kaja from getting himself killed.
When everyone settled down, they began to look around at their own chests. They knew the score now. If they’d been tested and not monkey-backed, their blood wasn’t useful to The Rediscovered Dawn. If they hadn’t been tested, there was still a chance. At least they’d live a little longer. Several of those who’d been tested stared in horror at the blood rape holes in their chests, gingerly touching what was now a death mark.
The commandos came to Mano, Kaja and Kavika, but Jacques waved them off. “We’ll save them for last.”
They went past them to the end of the line and worked backward. Three more Pali Boys didn’t have the mark, but the fourth, who’d become more and more agitated as the men came closer, had been tested. He wept openly, but didn’t say a word as the commando standing behind him shoved his stiletto into his skull.
Before the commandos could move onto the next Pali Boy, the one on the other side of him, Liko, rolled to his feet and sprinted for the edge of the barge.
Jacques lazily raised his machine gun and put a three round burst into the Pali Boy’s back at the last possible moment. He fell to the water far below, the cloud of blood from the exit wounds drifting after him.
The remaining Pali Boy bared his chest and beat his fists against it, and in a fit of useless bravado, spit onto the shoes of the commando. The commando kicked him in the face for his effort.
“Now for you three.”
Kavika glanced to the side and saw the misery in Mano’s eyes; he knew what was coming next.
“You have not been tested,” said Jacques to Kaja. “You shall join the rest of the cattle.” Then he turned to Mano and Kavika. “But you two, on the other hand, have been tested and have been found wanting.”
The commandos moved towards Kavika.
“Wait, Kavika was tested—he has the right kind of blood!” Kaja yelled.
The commandos were in position.
“You don’t understand,” cried Kaja. “He was monkey-backed. He escaped it.”
Jacques shook his head. “There is no escape from it. Our scientists have perfected this filtering treatment. Once connected, there is no more hope for the human host.”
“I was monkey-backed,” Kavika said, speaking up. “Look at the holes where they had the tubes. See? Here, and here,” he said, pointing to the scabbing wounds.
Jacques leaned in close. “We need to study this.” He snapped his fingers and pointed at Kavika. “Take this one below.” Two of the commandos marched over and grabbed him from behind.
“Wait!” he protested, struggling.
But they weren’t listening. One placed his armor-plated forearm across Kavika’s throat, wrenching his chin out of the way, and they escorted him across the deck. He didn’t want to leave; his friends were there. Who was going to protect Mano?
He heard shouts from behind him. Then a shot. Then another shot.
He tried to get a look before he was dragged below. He managed to see Mano hitting the deck. He could also see Kaja, blood pouring from a wound in his shoulder. Then he was hustled so quickly down a set of metal stairs that he could barely keep his balance.
He passed several dozen Real People, none of them armed; they jumped out of the way of The Rediscovered Dawn commandos. Several of them averted their faces, as if they were afraid to be noticed.
They went down two
more flights of stairs until Kavika was certain they had to be below the water level, then they turned and crossed from the barge to one of the skyscraper boats. Cold radiated from the connecting metal hall.
The demarcation between the two ships was stark. Where the barge was darkness and shadows, the new ship was all light and chrome. Kavika felt the thrum of generators beneath his feet; they’d need a lot of power to keep all the lights going. They went down one more set of stairs before they came to a door. The commandos beat against it. After a moment, it was opened by a young Real Person.
“Commander Chiroc wants this one held for later.”
The Real Person made a face. “Just a Pali Boy.” He shook his head and turned away. “I guess the frog has never seen one before.”
Kavika was ushered into a room that opened into a long hallway with barred doors on either side—a jail.
“Never mind what he wants him for. Just make sure nothing happens to him.”
They threw him into the first room, and he fell to his knees. The overhead light revealed a thin mattress on the floor and a bucket. He heard the cell door slam and lock behind him. He turned and sat, drawing his knees up and wrapping his arms around them. He felt the cold of the ocean. He felt the cold of his friend’s deaths.
So much for his plan.
KAVIKA REALIZED THAT he’d been hearing an irregular tapping noise just below the threshold of hearing. He didn’t know how long it had been going on, but now that he concentrated on it, he heard it clearly.
He stood and searched his cell. There was a mattress and pail, and nothing else. The back wall felt colder than the others, though; the ocean had to be on the other side. The cold seeped into his bones. He figured he was down about fifty feet.
