He followed a narrow corridor, winding between big data banks until he found the one marked O9 in big yellow characters. He dipped into a partitioned area, checked below a maintenance computer workstation and sighed as immense relief washed over his entire self. The robust case he’d left there beforehand remained untouched. He grabbed it with both hands and lifted. A current of barbs rolled through the length of his spine and Burke had to stop. He panted and rested. When he started again, he found his right leg was shuffling, unable to rise properly from the ground.
Not yet, he begged his aching joints and struggled with his burden to a flight of stairs.
* 11 *
They finally reached the threshold of the vault and hunkered down by some panels to observe the blast door from a distance. Major Remorra was in a mean mood. Something wasn’t right, first she’d lost Nadie in a chase after the spurious Captain, and now the heavily reinforced entrance was standing wide open. Why would anyone leave it so? It was a trap.
“You still got my service pistol, Private?” Crouching to her side and looking cocky was the only sidekick she had left, Selnov. She’d give her left hand to have Una, or Nadie, or even Squirrel with her now. But he was here instead and had to do. Selnov flashed her the barrel of the fusion pistol. “Good. Stay alert and watch my back. We’re going in.”
She ran at full speed, the ill-fitted belt of explosives slapping against her thighs. Nadie was supposed to wear it, but she had passed on the load to her. Selnov followed behind in long strides. He ran faster than she thought he could and they reached the vault’s gate nearly in the same moment. She stopped only briefly to look over the area and, satisfied no fury caught up with them, signalled the Private to follow her with his gun ready, and entered.
The first room was a short, extensively illuminated vestibule furnished only with another door at its end. This next ingress was even stronger than the first and open wide. The vestibule was a security post for an absent guard. Things were looking stranger still. Remorra crept to the other threshold and looked through it into the vault proper, a strongbox with its walls filled by rows of locked safe doors, detachable by means of a robotic arm mounted to the ceiling. Like a bank deposit, or cold storage in a morgue. Safe doors were translucent, about half of them were holding a piece of something extraordinary within; black orbs of various circumference, from acorns to watermelons, seemed to float on air. They cast out rays of bizarre, beautiful, shifting light that reached into the room, stirred within it, showered the space in lines and flows of extraordinarily mixed shades, whites, greens, violets, and others without a name, breathtaking yet heavy to behold, like an aurora borealis of impending doom. How could a weapon of mass destruction project such charm?
Remorra had no time for romantic sentiment. This was the staging ground for a terrible threat. Her aim was to erase it from existence but her focus wandered. There was a man standing at a table in the centre of the vault. He was busy with something that lay on the top. Remorra recognised that short brooding posture and blood curdled within her. With her shotgun held high, the Major marched purposefully into the room, barely suppressing the urge to press the trigger there and then and be done with him once and for all. “I’ve been waiting for this moment two whole years. Hands where I can see them, Hellraiser.”
The man turned and it was Colonel John Duke himself, decked in his uniform, flashing the impressive array of award ribbons on his chest. He seemed cool, unperturbed, and didn’t care to do as she requested. Something was wrong.
“My, my, my. Augusta Remorra in the flesh. I thought rumours of your survival to be an exaggeration from your camp, and yet here you stand. I thought I killed you for good.”
“You thought wrong, you cowardly bastard,” she chewed the words like an unsavoury dish. “You dropped your bombs on a civilian settlement, killed hundreds of innocent people, refugees from other colonies you had burnt beforehand, and for what? Just to kill me?”
“They were traitors. And you’re worth every effort at eradication. You’ve been a costly nuisance.”
“A nuisance? Is that all? You’ve seen nothing yet. I’ll show you what your bombs achieved.” She undid the chin strap under her black helmet and shoved the mask to the floor so hard a crack appeared in the black plastic. Strands of yellow hair flowed down immediately from the left side of her head, the side which still held one half of a beautiful face. The whole right side was a different story altogether; a territory of vicious trench warfare, hideous red, brown and pink splotches of scarring meandered around the ruin of a nose, circled a half-closed and unseeing white eye, stretched down to the grotesque of a missing lip exposing black teeth with no enamel left, and pulled down the corner of her mouth. “Look at the monster you created. Does it fill you with pride?”
Colonel Duke twitched slightly but otherwise held his gaze firm. “That’s quite a look. You should thank me, monster. I have purged you of the false veneer of beauty and instead left a testament to the devil you are.”
“You’re not the one to preach of devils, ratbag.”
“Takes one to see one.”
“Stupid of you to come down alone.” Remorra pumped the shotgun and raised it to aim with her good eye. “I grow tired of this chat, Hellraiser. You’re going down now.”
“I don’t think so,” said the man at her back. Something thwacked her to the base of her skull and, unwillingly, Remorra went down on her knees. She squeezed the trigger but lost her aim and a shower of fusion pellets blasted one of the walls, peppering safe doors with frying holes. Her own pistol was put to her temple from behind.
“Private!” she bellyached. Selnov’s betrayal slashed deep into her soul with no forewarning. “What’s this?” She should have seen it coming. He had been a traitor all along, not to the enemy side but to her. To think she had lowered her guard and actually trusted him!
Hellraiser moved to pull out the shotgun from her hold. “Hands up! Good job, Selnov. Keep your eyes on her, she’s a slick beast.”
“A very ugly one.”
“That she is. May that remind you that you’re on the side of the angels.”
“Daemons. Daemons of hell,” Remorra said with acid. Hellraiser shoved the shotgun stock into her worse cheek. The flesh was numb, but the shock went deeper to the roots of her teeth and she spluttered uncontrollably.
“Angels of hell,” said Hellraiser, satisfied with his corollary. “I’m the Archangel and you, Selnov, are my Cherub, the child basking in glory.” Remorra laughed and nearly choked, vexing him. “What’s so funny?”
“Cherubim are better than Archangels. They serve at the throne of God, while Archangels speak to men. Your message falls flat, Messenger.”
He hit her again, this time in the healthy cheekbone, and Remorra went back on her knees, coughing. She should have checked herself before saying those words, but it was so damn funny to see the famed Hellraiser in fumes.
“Yes. I am the Messenger. And I have led you to your doom like a dog tied to a leash.”
The Major dulled the pull of anger and assessed her situation with a cool head. Almost hopeless it was; she was disarmed, betrayed by her lousy backup, two guns trained at her from close range, with no view to succour unless her Corporal miraculously showed up right on time and put them to the ground. She still had some options though, including the explosives belt Nadie entrusted her; she only needed to press this button, turn that knob, and KA-BLAM! The impact would take out this whole room. Hope had always been that it would set off a chain reaction to fill the entire Marine base with life-extinguishing flame.
“Take that, you harridan,” Selnov shouted and spat on her forehead.
“Shut up, Selnov.” Hellraiser shifted to stand next to the traitorous ex-scientist, assessing her. “What do you have there hanging from your waist, Major? Christ almighty, Selnov, do I have to do everything myself? Why didn’t you tell me she’s wearing a bunch of bombs on her waist? Grab that thing right now. No stupid moves, little devil, or I’ll blas
t you to the moon of Rigel with the spit of this beautiful shotgun you gave me. You don’t want that to happen, do you? You’re the martyr type, but you want your death to have a purpose. You won’t die until you’ve completed your mission. Good luck with that. What’s taking you so long, Selnov?”
Selnov grabbed her under the arms and pushed her callously to a sit. Then he embraced her. There was no sexual innuendo in that. Her hideous disfigurement came as an advantage in this instance. Who would have thought it could be a good thing? He unclicked the buckle on her waist and pulled the ribbon of grenades away. All the while, Hellraiser was aiming her own weapon to her head. He could have picked her clean along with Selnov if he so wished. Her duplicitous former Private seemed unaware of the possibility. He tried to pass the belt to the Colonel.
“Not to me,” Hellraiser growled. “Put it on the table.”
“Why are you doing this, Private?” Remorra shouted out to Selnov. “You defected. You saw the light. You know Earth is wrong.”
“Earth maybe, but not Colonel Duke. The man’s a true American patriot.”
“That’s what it’s about? Rebirth of the US of A? That daydream’s long gone. Come on, Private, you’re not even American. You’re a Russian!”
“UKRAINIAN!” He yelled with a fire Remorra had never suspected him to be capable of raising. Then his voice calmed somewhat, but he was seething inside. “Second generation. But my homeland is the land and the brave and the land of the free. Colonel Duke is a great man. He’s going to make it that again, not some stupidly weak puppet of the Council.”
“That’s right, my disciple,” Hellraiser seemed to rise in size when he declared his solemn promise like a preacher speaking to his flock of believers. “Together, my friend, and with Ender in our grasp, we shall make our power and our truth known to all mankind. We shall crush this petty Colonial resistance with one swift motion of our new might, and when we demonstrate what our arsenal can do, no one will dare to oppose us. Not Earth Council, not the EEF, not that insipid Science Consortium with their money and invention, not even our own Space Marine Corps. We shall rise above the USSMC and become something greater, stronger, a rock upon which a new order will stand. We will take over the reins of humanity and with wisdom, we will reinstate order in the universe and then we will remake the world in our own fashion, the way it should always be. And if anyone stands in our way, we shall destroy them without mercy!”
When he finished, Remorra gave Duke a long and hard stare. She hated that man with a passion unsurpassed by anything she knew; yet now the mask of a diligent slaughterer slipped and she saw him for who he truly was - a madman hell-bent on absolute power, power to destroy anything which stood in his way, vacant of one single redeeming quality, lost far beyond the point of no return. Hellraiser had concocted some utopia of his, an unachievable dream, yet the belief in his wild scheme made him far more dangerous than if he’d been a simple warlord. He had to be put down before he wrought his havoc of misery and ruination upon the colonies and Earth alike.
“Selnov, your Colonel is insane.” She tried to reinstate her authority with the traitor. If he was a rational scientific mind then he had to see beyond the veneer of words and discern reality from fancy. “He’s lost his mind. This weapon can’t exist. It’s too powerful for anyone to use. If he fires it nothing good will happen. A strike will bring a back strike. A circle of retribution will complete. It will be a spiral of uncontrollable destruction of everything you know and care about. Your United States, instead of a rebirth, will burn. Prevent it! Help me destroy Ender!”
For the briefest of moments, Selnov appeared to waver, mesmerised by the power of her commanding voice; that was her talent, the ability to turn people into supporters with her resolve. She wasn’t the only source of raw charisma in the vault, however; Hellraiser had that faculty as well, and he reminded Selnov of his allegiance by giving him a heartless push. The man snapped out of slumber and left the bombs on the table, far away from her reach, next to a large open safe, sad in its emptiness. Remorra had to look for alternatives; if any remained.
“Exactly like that, Selnov. Don’t listen to the daemon. Stay quiet, I will do all the talking,” Hellraiser spoke to the double agent like a child, and then he addressed the Major. “I’d kill you with my bare hands right now, you ugly piece of crude if I didn’t have a puzzle to solve. Tell me how you managed to pull this off before you arrived here?“ He pointed to the empty safe on the table. There was more than a touch of tension in his posture and voice. “Do you have agents in my base?”
Remorra smiled nastily. “Why, have you lost one of your shiny trinkets?”
Hellraiser banged the safe door shut with a force that made Selnov jump. Remorra grinned deeper. She so enjoyed watching the beast sweat in anger. “Stop playing your tricks on me! The portable weapon and plans, where are they!?” Sound of boots approaching distracted him. “That must be Major Burke. Finally. You’re late, Burke! You almost missed the whole show. I wouldn’t hesitate to leave without you!”
“Sir?” asked a confused voice. Major Remorra managed to look around and saw a simple jarhead guard.
“Oh, nothing. Aim your weapon at this Colon insurgent, soldier. Kill her if need be.” Hellraiser sagged, disappointed. He rolled up his sleeves slowly but methodically, whistling a quiet tune as a prelude to what was going to happen next. Remorra sighed. Now she was going to get her beating.
* 12 *
Rhys
As they plunged into the utmost depths of the base, their hands still held together until they encountered a crossbeam that painfully divided them. That same crossbeam wasn’t an obstacle, but an opportunity. While Nadie’s hand slipped, Rhys’ fingers caught in a wire mesh and held. He swung his free arm and caught Nadie by her wrist before the busy joints stretched and nearly snapped with the effort of upholding his body weight - and Nadie’s too.
“Climb up,” he practically begged her through a crack in his clenched teeth. She scaled up over him like a monkey and straddled the beam before offering him a hand to pull up on. Once there, he rubbed the sore shoulder, and then his ankle. He hadn’t let it rest and now it was raw like a new star forming, but he knew that moving about would do it more good than lying down. “Can’t believe we survived.”
She was looking up, searching for signs of pursuit from the roof. “Stop counting the chickens. We’re not through yet.” He held out the blasters to her, grips first. “You’re quick to disarm yourself, Marine.”
“I figure you didn’t save me just to shoot me, insurgent.”
“I prefer freedom fighter.”
They chuckled both. It was a nervous laugh between people who find it difficult to break the ice. The blasters waited in his hands throughout. Nadie thought for a moment, then she took one and looked away with a sour face.
“Keep the other one. Don’t lose it. I want it back when we’re through.”
Rhys put the gun in his empty hip holster. “Are you always this cheerful?”
“Do I have a reason not to be?”
“I guess not. I’m Rhys.”
“Nadie.”
“So what happens next?”
“Depends. Are you willing to side with a Colon against your own people?”
“All my close friends are dead and both my CO’s I must assume are out to get me, so yeah. I am ready and willing.” He finally had time to think things through sitting on that quiet beam. Feeling of surprise was still in him when he said those words. Nadie was on the other side of enemy lines, but the trenches had been readdressed by Major Burke’s confession and Rhys was prepared to work with any person who gave him the chance to destroy Ender. He saw what a small sample could do at Colonel Duke’s science briefing. A full-scale weapon would decimate entire populations with no discrimination and that didn’t sit well with him; he was a soldier, a guard, not a genocide-prone war criminal. Ender had already been hijacked by a man of ulterior motives. Rhys dreaded to think what it could do in the hands of warlord
s.
“Then we’re gonna stop those guys.” Nadie pointed up to where they came from.
“Oh yeah. And kill Ender too.” He looked her in the eyes, testing her motives.
“Hell yeah. That’s the mission.” She stepped up from the beam in one fluent motion. She put a finger to her lips and gestured that he should look down.
The roof they had jumped off from was the ending of a tower. That tower had a door at its bottom and it was ajar. A glimpse of Major Burke went outside and disappeared around a corner without looking at them. He carried something heavy. Ender? Rhys rose to his feet. Nadie jumped. He observed as the Colonial soldier caught onto the wall of the tower and started going down deftly like a spider. He had to follow in her steps, clumsier and slower because of the pains in his ankle, shoulder and hand. She stopped a couple of times and looked up to check his progress. Each time she wasn’t happy about it but said nothing.
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