"That won't be necessary. I'm just a lonely man in this world, trying to make it a better place before my time's up. That's all. It has been an honor to serve."
They clasped hands and nodded, prepared for whatever would meet them on the rooftop on the other side of those doors. This was it. This was the moment they and all the people back at their temporary headquarters had prepared for. This would either bring an end to the Syndicate or to themselves. One way or another, it would be a night of finality.
When the doors slid open, Dean rushed out first onto the rooftop with a rifle at the ready. The HUD in his visor scanned the area for enemies, but no life was detected. Only the blinking red lights on the corners of the tower made any movement in the darkness. He walked slowly around the antenna and the back of the giant screen that lit the concrete with a pale haze. Still nothing. The reticle turned green and locked onto the side of the elevator where a maintenance door to the stairs leading down sat a few feet away on the same wall. It was the place.
"There's no one here. Dean, this feels like a trap."
"I know. Get over here and set the bomb up so we can make a mad dash down these stairs. I don't trust the elevator."
Niki slid over and dropped to his knees. He slung off the backpack then nestled it into the corner before flipping the switch. "Seven minutes. I think we're-"
The Time Knight's words were cut off when the door to the maintenance stairs swung open, crashing into his helmet and knocking him backwards. He swung at the first two agents who rushed through the doorway, slicing off their legs at the knee. "Dean!"
Dean fired into the mass of purple and flesh, mowing down another four before it was quiet once again. "Are you okay?"
Niki tore off his helmet and tossed it away, knocking the shattered visor loose. Blood seeped from the cuts on his nose and right cheek from the shards of tinted plastic. "Go, Dean. I've got this. I'll stay here and fight them off to make sure they don't defuse the bomb."
"We go together."
"I said go! Get back to the others before they block off the street. If Jack doesn't come back, Thyme will need a father. Live for him. I'll be right behind you once I get this set up. Go."
"You're a kid. I'm not going to leave you here."
Niki swiftly scrambled to his feet and held up his hands. Shamshir-e fell to the rooftop, clattering loudly at his boots. The boy's eyes focused on something behind Dean. "Mom . . ."
Dean spun around and lowered his weapon when the dark-haired woman his age emerged from the elevator with a white hijab and long-sleeve purple dress that had brass hourglass buttons down the front. "Is that your mother? Niki, we don't have time. They sent her up here as a distraction. We have to move."
Niki held up his hand to silence Dean. With the icy wind howling around him, Niki walked across the rooftop until he was only a foot away from the woman who gave him life and who abandoned him. "Mother. Dean, this is my mom, Shadi."
Shadi's sad eyes turned up at the corners, her crows feet glittering in the light from the screen. "Kaveh. My Kaveh. Oh, what have they done to you? Your poor face. Even with that, you're so handsome, like your father."
"I go by Niki."
"Niki." She winced as if the word left a bitter taste on her tongue. "That was the name your father gave you. I gave you the name Kaveh. You can't do this. You have to leave. No hurting people. The Syndicate wants to help you. Nassor needs your help."
"I can't, Mother. I'm sorry, but they're the ones who did this to me."
A messaged popped up on Dean's HUD in flashing orange letters.
5 minutes until detonation.
The detective started towards the stairs. "Niki, we have to go."
The Time Knight was too focused on his mother. "I have to know. Why did you leave me with Allen? You just walked out."
"I didn't love him, Kaveh." Shadi reached out and placed her bony hands on her son's shoulders. "I married him after divorcing Leonardo because he said he would protect you and train you to be a warrior. I left because he pushed me away. I had to go home to my family and I had to leave you behind. I couldn't take you overseas, away from school and your Chronomancer. You didn't belong to me anymore. You belonged to Jackson. You are his, Kaveh. He will listen to you and end this fighting by joining Xander."
"No. I'd rather die now on this tower than do that. You don't know what he did, do you? He told you some flowery story about how he only wants to help me and Jack, how we don't understand what's going on, how I'm just a rebellious teenager. Mom, if you get a chance to see Xander again, ask him to see the video. Ask him to show it to you so you can know what that bastard did to me."
Shadi took her hands away and wrung her fingers together in front of her. "Xander is a caring man. You should listen to him, Kaveh. He couldn't have harmed you."
"You want grandkids? Well, you're never going to have them! He took that from me, Mother. I can't have children because of him. How dare you believe a stranger over your own son?"
"Kaveh-"
He cut her off with biting words. "It's Niki!'
"Xander couldn't do that. Why are you lying? You always lie. You lie and you steal and put graffiti everywhere. That's why you were arrested."
"That was years ago."
"You haven't changed." Shadi crossed her arms and her voice took on a tone like dull brass. "You're a selfish boy, Kaveh. I thought you would be a man by now, but you're still a child."
"Then you don't know me. I am no longer who I was as a teenager. I'm not some deviant or delinquent anymore."
"You're trying to bomb this tower. That is criminal to me."
Niki lowered his head and his voice. "Don't."
"Are you a terrorist now, Kaveh? Are you mocking my family, your people? You've spent too long in this country."
"Mother, don't. I'm doing this because it needs to be done. Come with me and we'll talk through everything. I'll help you understand what's really going on. I don't want to leave you here."
Shadi turned away from him. "I'm staying with Xander."
"No. This entire building is going to come down. You'll die."
Dean's hands tightened into fists. "Niki, we have to go. I'm leaving."
"Go, Dean. I'll stay here and make sure this bomb goes off. I can't leave my mother."
He wasn't going to stand there and argue. "If you stay, you might both die. There's only like four minutes left before the one downstairs detonates. We have to get out of this tower."
"Then go alone. I'm not letting her die here."
"Niki-"
Niki shouted at him with desperate tears flooding his eyes. "Go! I'll catch up."
With a nod of understanding, Dean took off to the maintenance stairs leading down into the belly of the tower. He ran as quickly as he could while keeping his balance on the edges of the concrete stairs. His heart rammed against his rib cage with thunderous thudding and his palms were clammy and tingling with excitement. In his mind, the only thing Dean could see was the green LED timer on that first bomb ticking down to zero. He knew he was under three minutes at that point.
He shoved open the metal door and dashed out into the lobby where the floors had become smeared with crimson and littered with shell casings. The alarm continued to blare in deafening monotony, but no more agents emerged from side rooms. There were, however, panicked screams echoing up from stairs leading lower in the tower, to the Time Skippers below. Dean's stomach turned as he heard the trapped Chronomancers begging for help, but he knew there wasn't time.
The good side of his heart took over. Dean ran to the door and tried to pull it open, but it wouldn't budge. Through the bulletproof glass panel, he saw the emaciated faces of men, women, and children who had been enslaved to the Syndicate. They pounded on the glass and cried, but nothing Dean did would open the door. A message flashed across the HUD.
Two minutes until detonation.
With panic fluttering in his heart, he swung one of the rifles around and fired into the lock on the door. Spa
rks flew up and the metal dented, but the Syndicate knew what they were doing when they built doors. He grabbed onto the handle and pulled with all of his strength. It wasn't enough. With a hand to the glass, he mouthed the words 'I'm sorry' before he turned away from the trapped souls.
Dean had to think of himself. Pure, selfish survival kicked in and propelled him forward through the lobby doors and into the night where large fires blazed on the horizon and the rumbling of tanks shook the ground. Shouting echoed across the city, accented with the popping of gunfire. The screen on top of the tower continued to broadcast the impending execution, the new national anthem screeching in the darkness in all its synthesized violin glory. It sounded like a mix of 80s rock and a bad remix of the Star Spangled Banner with obnoxiously clashing cymbals.
60 seconds until detonation.
The detective shut it out, even though it made him nauseous. He found his bike where he had left it, so he mounted it and immediately took off into the night. Every second was precious. He throttled the engine to get him as far away from the quickly approaching explosions as he could get. There was no telling how far the blasts could carry debris and flames. With what he knew about Barry, the man did not do anything halfway.
While he rode, Dean bit his lip and thought to Niki. He had to get out. He had to have talked his mother into leaving the rooftop. Surely they would be on their way by then. Dean spoke into his helmet. "Call Niki."
The static-filled signal patched through to a panting Niki who was obviously struggling. "Dean! Dean, we're trapped up here. I've killed like forty more agents. They swarmed the roof. How much longer do we have?"
"Seconds. Niki, you have to run. Leave her. Get out of there."
The warning message returned. 30 seconds until detonation.
"I can't, Dean. I can't get out. They blocked the door after you made it out. The elevator is busted. They trapped me up here. Oh, God. Dean, I need you to tell Jack-"
When the signal cut off, Dean slammed his hand against the side of his helmet. "No, come back. Niki, tell him what? You have to get out of there. Can you hear me? Run. Hell, jump if you have to! Get away from there! You can't die up there. Do you hear me, kid? You can't."
The HUD on his visor flashed green and red with warning messages before he even felt the collision. His front tire hit the curb and sent him flying from his bike to slam into the sidewalk on his left side. Something cracked before the pain exploded through his abdomen and into his chest, trailing down his spine like tree branches. He rolled to a stop against the brick wall of a vacant bar on Beale Street, below burned-out neon lights and smoke-clouded glass windows. His bike slid down the road until it crashed into a row of parked cars and a fire hydrant that sent water spewing like a fountain into the road.
Dean held onto his side as he remained there on the asphalt with the explosion lighting up the night. While he bled, he watched in horror as the top floors of the tower came crumbling down, raining twisted beams and slabs of scorched concrete onto the streets below. People gathered on the sidewalks to gasp and point at the destruction. They took out their phones to record the scene as the explosion shook the city like an earthquake.
The crowds erupted into screams when they scattered with the crashing boom.
"Niki . . ." Dean repeated the boy's name a hundred times while he watched the remaining floors of the tower collapse and implode, destroying every bit of hope he held in his heart. A billowing cloud of black smoke and debris rumbled towards him, but the detective had lost all will to run, even if he wasn't in severe pain. Instead, he laid down with his face pressed against the icy sidewalk and closed hie eyes.
He would take whatever punishment fate had for him. Although he said it, he never believed that his plan would have ended in such a tragedy. Niki was dead because of him. Dean could have been the one to stay with the bomb, he could have dragged the boy down the tower, but he had been a coward. Instead, he left a nineteen-year-old to die a fiery death. And for what? An attempt at anger-fueled revenge?
When the rushing cloud blacked out the streetlights and choked out the neon signs, Dean took a deep breath and prayed, his begging for forgiveness being swept away in the smoke.
Chapter 32
The darkness twisted in front of Jack's eyes before he felt himself falling forward. Freshly cut grass, exhaust fumes, and dark soil filled his nose before something warm caught him. He took a deep breath after coming out of warp and glanced around to see the White House and an icy moon shining down over the lawn.
"It's all right. I have you."
Jack tore himself out of the dark-skinned man's arms and held up Durendal. "Don't touch me! Get back, or I'll kill you."
"Jackson Carter, I am a friend." The medium build man spoke with flowing words and flashed a bright smile. He wore a white cowboy hat, black and red flannel shirt, and dust-streaked blue jeans that were tucked into his boots. He looked to be in his late twenties, but his haunting white sage eyes showed wisdom beyond his years. "My name is Abejide. Kage sent me to help you."
He relaxed and lowered his sword. "Thank God. I need to get changed. You stand guard."
"I'm not here to take orders. I don't know what Kage told you about our relationship, but he is not the one who calls the shots. I came here because I wanted to."
"I'm sorry." Jack unzipped the bag then took out a black tank top, his old tattered jeans, and the baggy grey sweatshirt that Niki made him sew a red skull patch onto the chest. For a fleeting moment, he felt an odd nostalgia. These were the clothes he wore the night his life was changed forever. Clearing away the memories and emotions, Jack quickly dressed and secured Durendal as best as he could in his belt. "Ready."
"Good. Put this on." Abejide handed him an earpiece. "The others are in place and waiting around the yard. Cleopatra brought her group from the Mana Glen Police Department HQ. You can thank Barry for the headsets."
"You met everyone?" Jack asked.
"Everyone who was there."
"Where's Niki?"
"Who?" Abejide rubbed the back of his neck.
"My Time Knight. My best friend. My brother. Where is he?"
"I'm afraid I can't comment on that situation."
Jack glared at him. "Don't start this by becoming my enemy. Abejide, please. Where is Niki?"
"He left with Detective Dean Amethyst to plant explosives in Zurvan Tower."
Niki wouldn't have actually done something like that. "That was a lie that Allen told me."
"It's the truth. They . . . planted the explosives fifteen minutes ago, but neither of them has reported in. They've already gone off. I'm sorry, but we've labeled them as being MIA."
"Niki wouldn't do that. He would threaten it, but he wouldn't actually kill hundreds of people like that."
"Again, I'm sorry."
"How did you guys get here? I thought it was too late to do anything."
"Shay sent you with Allen because he knew he had the button to disable the base mark. We warped just in time. You took a long time in warp. Are you all right?"
"How long?" Jack asked, still feeling the weakness hanging over him.
"Thirty minutes, by the looks of it."
"I feel fine." Jack slid the earpiece into his right ear. "Let's get this over with."
After a few moments, a friendly female voice came over the speaker. "All rebels, this is Sasha. Can you hear me? I'm doing our final roll call to make sure we're all where we need to be. Abejide?"
"In the bushes with Jack. He just got here."
Sasha continued. "Cleo."
"With Kage and Police Chief Daniels on the roof. Kage took out the snipers and Daniels is now in position with a sniper rifle, ready to fire on command."
"Barry."
The artificer answered as he crunched on what sounded like chips. "I got the escape vehicles on the main road, gassed up and ready to go."
"Perfect. Bradley and Nathan?" Sasha asked.
Bradley answered. "We're watching from the other side of the la
wn, ma'am. We have a problem, though. Leonardo Valentino and Shay Terringer ran off about a minute ago. We can't find them anywhere. I think they may have warped to Memphis to find Nikolas."
A deep man's voice cut into the channel with a burst of static. "This is a private FBI frequency. You are using this illegally. If you do not end this call, we will be required to take action against you."
Sasha gave a soft laugh. "Agent Arcadia, is that you?"
"Who is this? Sasha?"
"Mmm hmm. We're just needing to borrow this for a bit. We have something like a mission going on."
"Is that you out there on the White House lawn trying to stop the executions?" Agent Arcadia asked, sounding snarky.
"You see us?"
"Only because I have Rein scouting the area. He saw you before you even set everything up. That detective and his weird friend aren't with you, are they? They locked us in a closet at gunpoint."
"I'll have a word with them about that. I may have forgotten to tell them that you two were working security detail to keep Niki safe during his time at the hospital."
Agent Arcadia sighed. "We apologize for not doing that, though. We failed. The Syndicate was too quick."
"We will discuss that more later. Tell your other agents to stand down. How many enemy soldiers are we looking at?" Sasha asked.
"Close to a hundred. Remember, me and Rein are undercover. They think we're Syndicate."
"I know. Don't do anything to compromise that. Just cover us if we need it."
"Yes, ma'am."
Sasha cleared her throat. "All right. I think that's everyone. Jack, I didn't want to bring this up and have you worried, but when Ellie was intercepted by Syndicate agents and brought here, one of them was lost. Shay Terringer made it out, but there haven't been any sightings of the sage boy. Everyone, lay low until we give the signal."
He couldn't think about Thyme right then.
Jack took a pair of binoculars from Abejide so he could peer out of the bushes to study Opal where she stood on the steps. She was stoic and silent, but the hem of her shirt revealed her uncontained shivering.
Chronomancer (Time Mage Saga Book 1) Page 53
