The words shattered her, in ways she couldn’t explain. She’d tried of late, tried to be a better person. But she wouldn’t know if she’d succeeded until one person noticed and told her.
He had.
And that was all she needed. All she’d ever needed.
She saw the strain growing on his face. Felt her father’s grip tightening on her arm.
And she knew what she had to do.
She looked up into his eyes, and with more certainty than she’d ever felt, she pronounced the words. “Let me go, Roddy.”
He blinked. “What?” He’d clearly thought he’d misheard, her meaning drowned out in the buffeting winds.
“Let me go, Roddy.”
“Not a chance!” He shouted. “I can’t!”
“You have to, Roddy. If you don’t, all three of us will die. You’re the one who has to go on.”
“No, Deirdre!”
“I told them I couldn’t kill my father, Roddy.” She smiled at him, tears streaming down her wind streaked face. “But I was wrong. I’d kill him to save you.” She looked at him once more, pleading with him with her eyes. “It’s okay, Roddy. It’s the right thing to do.”
Roddy’s eyes filled with tears. He swallowed. “I’m proud of you, D.”
And he let go.
He watched her fall, watched the immediate surprise that he’d done it morph into something serene and peaceful, a face more beautiful than he’d ever seen. She’d found her purpose, her way to serve the world, and she’d faced her calling with a courage few could ever manage.
He waited there, wrapped around the cable, until she was gone beneath the clouds below.
His mind turned back to the problem of his own survival, calling upon the power still new to him, using it to press his body against the ramp in a manner that allowed him to climb back up. It took time, but he made it, and slammed the level that raised the ramp.
Then he sat on the floor, weeping uncontrollably, without shame, for several minutes. The two guards he’d knocked out earlier had regained consciousness, and they eyed Roddy with confusion. He wondered why they didn’t charge him now. Perhaps, in realizing that Oswald Silver was gone, for good, they’d decided they didn’t want to risk a fight with the massive pilot any longer.
They didn’t know Roddy wouldn’t fight back this time.
Roddy finally staggered to his feet and moved to the pilot’s cabin, keeping his mind focused on his work of flying the craft toward its new destination, one he dreaded reaching.
He remembered the others, then, Mary—a woman far too good for him—and Micah, and Wesley and Miriam and all the others. They needed to know.
Metal man is down. Repeat. Metal man is down. Daughter of metal man sacrificed herself to make it happen. Remember her for that.
He didn’t listen to the joyous responses that filled his head. He didn’t much feel like celebrating at the moment. The only thing that he got from the messages was that Oswald Silver had been the last of the Thirty left.
They’d won.
Chapter 24
The Space Station
“…and I projected that I’d be jumping ahead of Marco, farther from the wall, so naturally Cherise thinks to jump behind where Marco is supposed to be to cut me down.” Shelly, one of Miriam’s cohorts, was telling the group about one of the battles as they all recuperated.
“What happened?” Micah asked.
“She teleported behind Marco. Marco was pressed against the wall.”
“You’re saying she…”
“She teleported outside the space station. Poof. Gone. Dead before she realized her mistake and could get back in.”
“That’s beautiful,” Miriam said, grinning.
Mary raised her hand. “Hate to be the one to ask the dumb question, but… I’m not able to follow the stories well.”
Miriam glanced at her. “What do you mean?”
“What do you mean by projecting? And what’s teleporting?”
Miriam turned to Micah. “You can probably explain that better than me.”
Micah nodded, thought for a moment, then nodded again. “The power awakened here aboard the space station—at least until we changed our orbit—used an internal power source, if you will. Think of it as a battery inside the battery. People like Miriam could tap the energy in that battery and do amazing things.”
Mary shrugged. “Okay.”
“It’s the same thing the twins do. They just… use a different voltage, if I understand correctly.”
“Good analogy,” Miriam replied.
“So they have a battery…?”
“Essentially, yes. They can fill the battery up, and then pull from it as needed.”
“I’m still not sure that explains Shelly’s story.”
“Getting there. The longer you worked with your battery, the greater the capacity. Each year, you might expand your battery’s capacity by ten percent. That means you can pull more energy from the battery to do the same thing. You do the same tasks with greater ease or to greater effect. As that power level grows, you add a few new powers, and expand what you can do with others.”
“Explain, please?”
Micah thought for a moment. “The first power most developed was called empathy. It’s an ability to read the emotional state and feelings others are experiencing. You might trick most people into thinking you’re happy, but someone with empathy skills knows you’re hiding something painful.”
“Interesting,” Mary said. “As the battery fills, you can… feel those emotions better?”
“More nuance to it, able to dig through more deeply buried emotion, that sort of thing,” Miriam said. “But after a certain point, empathy evolves from a purely defensive skill to one of offense.”
“Now I’m lost.”
“In the early stages, you can only read the feelings of others. As your power expands, you can push feelings to them, changing how they actually feel.”
“That sounds… dangerous.”
“In the wrong hands, absolutely. The original Phoenix group had an assassin who projected terror into everyone he planned to kill. Most of them were curled up in a fetal position before he even started trying to kill them. No fight. No attempt to run.”
“That’s awful.”
“But others would project positive emotions: confidence, contentment, peace.”
“So, like most things, it’s dependent on the individual.”
“Right.” He paused. “So when Shelly says she’s projecting a thought and trying to interpret what her enemy is really going to do, she’s saying she’s trying to get them to make a predictable mistake based upon information she sends, which she can exploit if she understands the true meaning of the false information they send her.”
“Sounds complicated. Wait. Shelly bluffed that woman into teleporting outside the space station?”
Shelly grinned. “Yep.”
“Impressive.”
“Thanks.”
“You’re welcome. So basically it’s a test of intuition and ability to bluff?”
“Yep. That’s why it takes a while to win a battle. It’s hard to trick someone when you have to project honesty as an emotion while knowing you’re lying in the thought you’re projecting out.”
“Impressive… and confusing.”
Shelly laughed. “You get used to it after a while.”
Mary nodded. “So… teleporting?”
Micah nodded. “Think of the portal doors. Step through the door, move instantly to another location that’s far away. That’s teleportation. But there aren’t any doors.”
“We can just think ourselves from one place to another, and it happens.”
“Damn.” Mary shook her head. “No wonder all of you are so hard to kill.” She paused. “No offense.”
“None taken.”
“That’s why the nets were so helpful, no?” Sheila asked.
“Right,” Miriam said. “You have to bluff someone to a spot, get somewhere ver
y close a fraction of a second before them, and fire a bullet or swing a sword at the spot you expect them to appear. If you fire or swing too soon, they might appear, sense your emotion and vanish again. Swing too late, and they’re probably firing back at you. With the nets, you don’t have to be there. Set up a trap, they materialize, the net falls, they can’t leave.”
Sheila patted Micah’s arm. “Good suggestion.”
“I’m understanding now why you told us to hide,” Mary said. “Not that I didn’t believe you, but with this new understanding… I wouldn’t have had a chance.”
“No, you wouldn’t,” Miriam told her. “We didn’t want the four of you dying in a battle you couldn’t win. But you won it anyway by moving use inside the lattice.”
Sheila frowned. “The ability to project thoughts and emotions into others… couldn’t that be used to control people who don’t have those same abilities?”
“It could, and it was.” John spoke up. “That’s how the old Phoenix group operated. A single mastermind holding mental control over thousands of Miriams and Shellys. At that single person’s bidding, all of that power could be focused on a single objective.”
“That sounds scary,” Mary said, shivering.
“That’s why they put the lattice up,” Micah replied. They didn’t want an even more powerful person building up a network of more powerful people than what was in place before the Golden Ages.”
“Which sucked if you were one of the people with that power,” Miriam said, with no lack of venom in her tone.
“I can understand that,” John said. “To go from what you just did to… not being able to do that? I think I’d be pretty upset as well.”
Miriam nodded politely in his direction.
“I don’t like other people fighting battles for me, or being left behind when there’s fighting to do,” Sheila said. “But I’m grateful that you intervened, and kept me from wandering to my certain death. So… thank you.”
Miriam and her friends all murmured “You’re welcome” as Mary, John, and Micah added their thanks to Sheila’s.
“Speaking of other people fighting, I’ve got some updates,” John said. “We’ve confirmed that the four people Deirdre killed were the four she was assigned. With Roddy’s report of Oswald Silver’s death, we can confirm the New Phoenix mission a success.” Cheers rose. “And Cyrus has reached out. Wesley created quite a mess when he took out the five members of the Thirty at New Venice, and nearly died in the process. They put on a show trial, and Roddy’s parents, without telling Wesley, let him explain to the entire population of New Venice what’s really been happening. Some didn’t take it well, but he apparently did a hell of a job. They recorded it. We can use it to help bring the truth to all the other survivors.”
“So Wesley’s okay, then?” Sheila asked.
“Cyrus tells me that Wesley looks like he lost a fight against ten other people, but they’re dead and he’s alive. He’ll need a few weeks to recuperate, but should be moving about normally soon.” He looked down. “And he said he’s still mad that nobody told him there were miniature sharks in the lake.”
Mary and Micah laughed. “We’ll need to make sure Wesley doesn’t need to get into any more fights for a while,” Micah said.
“Speaking of people being kept out of a fight…” Mary glanced at Micah. “I’m thinking we need to track down a couple of children. Twins…look a bit like me? You know where I might find them?”
Micah smiled. “That sounds like a wonderful idea, and a great stop once we get out of here.” His face turned somber as he turned to Miriam. “We should gather your dead, make sure they are properly buried, their loss mourned, and see them honored as the heroes they are.”
“They wouldn’t like that.”
“Really? Why not?”
“Too much risk. We’ve eliminated our designated threats, but those deaths won’t go unnoticed. People living here will shoot first and ask questions later. We’d be exposing ourselves to fetch the dead. The last thing they’d want is someone dying trying to move their body from one place to another.”
“I can respect that,” John told her.
“And they would not want to be mourned. They—we—have all lived many lifetimes, full of adventure, parts pain and misery, part joy and elation. There is no need to mourn; instead, we should celebrate the completion of the mission.”
“We can toast them when we return to the surface, then?” Mary asked.
Miriam smiled. “They’d like that.”
Sheila gathered the list of names they’d compiled, with the names of the dead crossed out. “They will be remembered.”
Micah glanced at Sheila. “We can start preparing to leave, then. But first, I think you need to give a speech.”
Sheila tilted her head. “Me? Why?”
“You remind those who lived in the distant past of a prominent and respected figure from the era many of those still alive on this station remember as part of their childhood. A message from one who looks like Hope Stark will have an immense impact, and will help the healing process begin. They must know that the cause for the attacks has been eliminated, and they need not live in fear any longer. They need to know the truth of the project germinated here, and that they will be part of the process of reconciliation among all the survivors as we look toward a lasting peace.”
“I will do it,” Sheila replied. “But I have two conditions.”
“Name them.”
“First, I’d like to deliver it from here. No live audience. Just me—her—talking. I suspect we can get it broadcast to the entire station without much effort.” She looked at John.
John nodded. “I’m on it.”
Micah nodded as well. “What’s your second condition?”
“I have no talent with words. I’m asking that you write it, Micah, with input from the others here.”
Micah laughed. “Having read your written reports for years, I’d have to agree with your assessment.” He glanced around. “Let’s get to work.”
Chapter 25
New Phoenix
In happier times, Roddy would enjoy the natural splendor and beauty of the massive canyon. It had been simple luck finding it now; he’d gotten the ship off the ground once Oswald and Deirdre were aboard, and then set the ship’s autopilot to angle them on a north-facing path and a slight upward angle.
Today, the magnificence of this natural marvel faded in his mind, the steep walls becoming the sides of an unfilled grave, where he now sought the bodies of those he’d killed, directly or indirectly.
He let the computer figure out the math of it all, too mentally drained to even figure out what the ship’s velocity, inertia and wind drag, combined with the force of gravity, would do to a human body falling from such a height. He told it what his shattered mind could recall before beginning a controlled descent well to the north of where they’d been when the last of the dead fell. The computer gave him a range of where he’d find them, and Roddy flew as low as he dared and as slow as he could, eyes darting back and forth. The two remaining guards stood flanking him, watching as well.
He finally spotted them and set the ship down on the canyon floor as close as he could; turning around simply wasn’t an option.
And so he walked to them. He walked the path where, millions of years earlier, a river flowed, carving through the rocky terrain bit by bit, leaving behind this deep gorge before being rerouted, whether by natural or unnatural causes he didn’t know. He found rocks and pebbles of various sizes littering the ground, no doubt knocked off the walls by the quakes that shook the area every few decades.
He went to Deirdre first, knowing it wouldn’t be pretty, still traumatized at what happened to a human body that fell from such a great distance. And yet, somehow, by some miracle, her face seemed unscathed. In dying, in sacrificing herself for the greater good of killing her father, she had found a peace and purpose she’d never known in life.
Her death mask remained formed into th
at peaceful, perfect smile of pure contentment she’d adopted when he’d let her go.
Roddy knelt over her for several minutes. Then he reached up and closed her eyes.
He looked further down the path he’d walked to reach her, and spotted the lumpy remains of the man who’d sought the deaths of millions to claim control over this world and all its riches and natural beauty.
He turned and looked at the guards, who, with nothing better to do, had followed him. “I think they’re further along.”
“Beg pardon, sir?”
“Your colleagues. The ones who… fell first. They’ll be further to the south.” He paused. “We need tarps or rugs or even some towels. To carry them.”
The trio returned to the ship, and marched out moments later with the supplies they needed to retrieve the bodies. The guards moved past the Silvers and continued on in search of the men they’d fought with, leaving Roddy behind.
He talked to Deirdre as he figured out how to move her body onto the tarp, taking care to do no further damage despite the fact that she was already dead, despite the fact that he could do nothing worse than what had already been done. He shared memories of their times together, the hurt he’d felt when he’d learned of her affair, the realization that it was unlikely it was the first time she’d been unfaithful. And he told her that, though she’d always been one prone to selfishness and the satisfaction of whatever type of lust she might desire at the moment, she’d been transformed by life after the Ravagers into the type of person Roddy could respect.
He rolled the tarp up, hiding her from the world for all eternity.
He stood and grabbed the shoddy collection of towels and plastic, then rolled the remains of Oswald Silver into them and rolled that up as well.
He sighed, then accepted that his power probably couldn’t help him much. And so he grabbed the ends of the two bundles and dragged them across the canyon floor and inside the ship. Then he raised the ramp and lifted off, just a few feet above the ground, and flew slowly to the south. He spotted the two guards, who’d wrapped the remains of two of their colleagues and were approaching the third. Roddy set the ship down and went to help them haul the bodies into the ship, where they stacked them next to Oswald Silver.
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