City of Twilight Part II: The Fallen (The Vanguard Chronicles Book 2)

by Donald Stephenson III

  ​“If you feel this way, why are you not with William? Why are you still with us, with Father?”

  ​“I’m not with Father, he lost me a long time ago. I’m with you, Medea, and Lucien. I’m here to take care of the two of you. If that means serving Father so I don’t lose both of you, then that’s that.”

  ​“I thought you enjoyed the game.”

  ​“It’s a thrill,” Dante said, “but it’s fleeting. What would I do when Father’s plan was complete? There’s always a fight out there, and I’d want to be there. Given of course that the odds are in my favor. I’d be bored in the world Father’s creating. A perfect world with no violence.” Medea was speechless for a moment, touched. There was a brief moment that her wall fell, and she actually felt something for her brother, something more than admiration. Dante had grown quiet for a moment, his face unreadable through the mind’s eye.

  ​“What of the Hunter then,” Medea said, “do you think he really has a chance against every Father will throw at him?”

  ​“The Hunter will fight a brave fight, but he will lose against Father’s forces. Between Wolfgang, Damaine, Ares and Civic Protection, the Hunter doesn’t stand a chance. We are on the winning side.” Medea felt something else. Something she’d never felt before. Confusion.

  ​“If what you said is true, and we’re no better than the humans, are we really on the winning side?” Dante didn’t have an answer for her. The both just stood there silently as they looked out to the city.

  70

  ​It was Wednesday morning. Capitol District was busy. More people had come back to work, even though it had been less than a week since James’s message had aired. Many people had apparently expected something big to happen, some sort of attack which would have broken out into riots that would have ended Civic Protection. Many joined the resistance in one way or another, but many more were still on the fence. There was a feeling of tension in the air. It could be seen on the street, in everyone’s faces.

  ​It was dry, for there had been no rain since the day the resistance attacked the Civic Protection supply shipment. Many who joined the resistance maintained their lives in the city, ready to act when they were notified. They would be prepared, but would also need to wait. Civic Protection could be seen on every street, every building. There was a strong presence of the military everywhere.

  ​Despite the tension, however, it was quiet. Nothing of importance was happening. It’s perfect, James thought as he stared over a street, watching the traffic. He was halfway up a building, latched into the side as the Hunter. He was also camouflaged into the wall, his entire body mimicking the steel behind him. He scanned the area with his mind’s eye, watching a Civic Protection patrol car maneuver through the slow traffic. The black and blue car was soon right below him on the street as its drivers watched the pedestrians pass. James nodded to himself. It’s time, he thought.

  ​His claws released the side of the building, and he reverted out of his camouflaged coloring midway through the air. Everything moved in slow motion for him, although that was partly due to the symbiotic xeno reinforcing all the neuron emitters throughout his body, making his reflexes hundreds of times faster than a normal human’s. His dark coat flapped through the air, reflecting light with a dull metallic gleam.

  ​He landed on the ground with such a sudden shock that the concrete cracked below his feet. His stance hadn’t changed; he remained on his two feet. He caused a sudden crack in the air, forcing everyone who heard it to jump. The crack was followed by the sound of squealing brakes and cars hitting each other from the distraction he caused by his presence. The Civic Protection patrol car squealed to a stop right in front of him. It took them a second to realize he was the Hunter, even though he was standing before them. Their shock passed quickly, however, and one of the soldiers was on the radio as the other one began to step out of the car with a rifle.

  ​James stared at them, as well as everyone else in the street. All the Civic Protection soldiers in the area were running towards him, and more from around the city were being radioed in.

  ​“That’s right,” James said, “call everyone. Tell them I’m waiting.” He crouched for a moment, and then released like a spring. He jumped twenty feet in the air, latching onto the side of a building with his claws. He scurried to the top of the building quickly, disappearing from all the eyes around him.

  ​From the top he watched with his mind’s eye, seeing the soldiers surround the building and waiting to see if he would leave. There were also several soldiers heading for the top from the inside. Some gunships were also on the way; he could feel their presence with his mind’s eye. But it didn’t matter. It was too late.

  71

  ​All the soldiers moving up the building were heavily armed, maneuvering the hallways and stairwells as quickly as they could. Although they had full body armor with equipment stored all over, they were trained to be able to move with speed with all that gear. The rifles were heavy, but they were trained to use the high velocity rounds. They were used to carrying them. They stopped at the top of the stairwell that led to the door to the roof. There was a young soldier already there, holding a pistol. He looked relieved when he saw the other men.

  ​“Sir, Private Stephens reporting,” he said as he looked at one of the officers. “I was patrolling outside the bottom level of this building when I heard the Hunter on top. I hurried up here as fast as I could, but I knew I couldn’t take him alone, so I waited for backup.”

  ​“Good work soldier,” one of the soldiers said, “we’ll take it from here. We have some fire power that the Hunter won’t be able to handle. Go down and help the others secure the lower levels of the building.” The young soldier moved downstairs past them. They waited for him to clear the area, and then listened to the radio to make sure the gunships were close by. In a few moments they received confirmation that the Hunter was still on top of the building, that the first gunship had him in its sites.

  ​They rushed outside in a line, their heavy rifles ready to fire. They moved in a formation, all as one. As the moved, two more gunships flew overhead, circling the rooftop. The sound the ships made was deafening when they passed overhead, the engines roaring through the air. There was a voice that came from a loudspeaker on one of the gunships. It was an officer.

  ​“Suspect known as the Hunter,” the officer said through the speaker, “you will put your hands on your head and get on the ground. You are under arrest. Any resistance will be met with heavy fire. Do you acknowledge?” As he spoke all the officers circled him. The Hunter stood watching them. He looked at the officers in front of him and held up his right hand. There was a small remote in it. The Hunter glared at the officers with his silver eyes. Some of them shivered.

  ​“In my hand is a remote. If I activate this remote, it will trigger the explosives I have placed in ten different locations around the city. Important places. Do you understand?” He stared at the soldiers with fury in his eyes. One of them spoke into the radio, explaining the situation to his superiors. “Oh,” the Hunter said, “and jamming this won’t work. This system never stays on the same frequency, and I have other people around the city who are monitoring my position. If you take me out, they’ll set off the explosives.” The soldier continued explaining, adding in what the Hunter had just said. There was a pause in the radio communications as the soldiers waited for their orders.

  ​After hearing directions on the radio, one of the offices lowered his rifle and stepped forward.

  ​“What are your demands?”

  ​“I want you to bring Mayor Callahan here. I would like to speak with him. Bring him here to me.” The Hunter spoke in a calm, authoritative voice. The soldier began speaking into the radio again. There were a few moments of silence before directions came to him in the radio. The man listened, and then relayed the message to the Hunter, “He'll be here in twenty minutes.” The Hunter stared at them with indifference as the man spoke.

  ​
The standoff lasted nearly eighteen minutes before the door to the stairwell opened. The first person to walk through was Callahan, who had a look of fear in his face. He was followed by Dante and Medea. Medea had a look of calm on her face, and was unarmed. Dante held a pistol in his right hand, and the other pistol in the holster waiting to be grabbed. He had the look of a predator watching his prey. He had a slight grin on his face.

  ​The Hunter stood there, staring at them quietly. The glare had never left his eyes, and he’d remained calm.

  ​“Well, what do we do now?” Dante said, “This was an unusual move.” The Hunter didn’t respond. There was no reaction whatsoever. Dante turned to Medea.

  ​“Medea, what do you see with your mind’s eye?” She stared at the Hunter for a moment before answering.

  ​“I see nothing. It feels like he’s masking his presence, but why would he do that when we all know where he is?” Dante stared at the Hunter for a moment more, and then raised his weapon at the figure. He began firing all his rounds, emptying the clip at him. The high impact rounds flew into the air, tearing holes into the wall of a nearby building behind the Hunter that stood at least two stories taller than the one they were on. The wall looked decimated, but the Hunter looked untouched. Dante ran towards him, and took a swing at the Hunter with his fist. His fist went right through the figure.

  ​All the soldiers stood there dumbfounded. Dante walked through the illusion of the Hunter, waving his hand through him again. He looked around the rooftop for a moment, and stopped when his eyes caught a glint of light on one of the rooftop corners. He walked towards what was a small device that had a lens pointed in the direction of the illusion of the Hunter. He bent down to examine it.

  ​A small electrical hum came from the small and nondescript device. He stood up and looked around the rooftop, spotting two others. They formed a triangle, in the middle of which stood the hologram projection of the Hunter. He ejected the empty clip from his pistol and loaded a new one, regular rounds this time. He fired the gun twice, each round hitting one of the devices. The image of the Hunter now wavered a little, as if its strength had been reduced by two-thirds. He then stomped on the third device that he’d just examined. With a static pop, the three dimensional image of the Hunter disappeared.

  ​“A hologram,” Medea said, “why the ruse?” Dante approached the officer standing with the other elite soldiers.

  ​“You there,” Dante said, “was there anyone else on the rooftop, or leaving it when you were coming up?”

  ​“There was a soldier waiting at the top of the staircase,” the officer said, “but he was a low ranker. He had the proper credentials, though. We sent him down to help guard the perimeter. His name was Stephens.” Dante approached him and took the radio off the officer’s vest.

  ​“This is a code red alert,” Dante said, “Civic Protection has been infiltrated and possibly compromised. The suspect may be going by a low ranking soldier with the name Stephens. Consider him armed and dangerous.”

  ​“If he were going to infiltrate Civic Protection,” Medea said, “why fake a bomb threat and hologram to get all of our attention?” Dante stood there for a moment, thinking about her question. He then stared up at her, a little annoyed. He looked at her with his arms crossed.

  ​“Medea,” Dante said, “where is Civic Protection focusing its attention right now?” She looked at him, suddenly realizing what he was saying. Her mouth dropped a little.

  ​“Civic Protection,” Dante shouted, “is right here.” He threw the radio to the ground with a look of annoyance mixed with anger; anger at himself. They both realized what the Hunter had done, and it was already too late. The Hunter knew that all of Civic Protection would be focused on searching for him within this area.

  ​“Everywhere else is now on minimal security,” Medea said under her breath.

  ​“Now,” Dante said, “we need to find out where he really is.”

  72

  ​James knew the xeno on his spine could mimic patterns and textures. It was only recently that he’d figured out how to use the creature to create disguises. It could mimic clothes, or body armor, even the appearance of a weapon in his hand. He could use it to change features of his face, as well as his coloring and complexion. He smiled as he walked down the building stairwell as Private Stephens of Civic Protection. Moments ago he’d encountered the soldiers on the roof’s stairwell, and they’d believed him. It helped that he had credentials and identification that he was able to forge based on some of the Civic Protection information he received from their anonymous mole. He smiled a little inside. It won’t always be this easy, he thought, but I’ll enjoy this one.

  ​He knew he had at most twenty minutes to get where he needed to be, which was the same amount of time it would take to bring Callahan here. That was more than enough. He’d picked out that building specifically because it was less time to his destination than that of the capital. Dante would probably see through the hologram deception, but that wouldn’t matter.

  ​James continued down the stairwell, finally reaching and exiting the bottom level of the building. The soldiers were expecting him, having been alerted to his coming through the radio. From there they assigned him a spot of crowd control, a little less than a block away. He waited until the soldiers’ attention had turned back towards the situation, and he moved into the nearby alley. His clothes shimmered into metallic textures as he willed the xeno to change. He then shifted into civilian clothes; a nondescript hooded sweatshirt and jeans. He walked out of the alley into the crowd blocked off by Civic Protection and then made his way to the power plant.

  ​It didn’t take too much time for him to reach his destination. All three of the power plants had the same design, at least on the outside. The three of them were in Capitol, East, and Lower District respectively.

  ​The crystal fusion plants were clean burning plants that had very little waste management. Crystal fusion reactors had the same waste that power cells had, a liquid gel. That gel had a chemical name, but on the streets it was known as dreg. Dreg was supposed to be incinerated, but the substance could be treated with other common chemicals which could turn it into a powerful narcotic with hallucinogenic properties. It was also highly addictive. People hooked on the drug were known as dreg heads. It was known to turn even the most docile personality violent under its spell. The plants incinerated the dreg, and there were depots all over the city where people had their cars drained of dreg from the power cells.

  ​Each plant was two buildings, one surrounding the other. The center structure was a tall rectangle that had a height that reached about three quarters the height of Dirge’s capital. This structure appeared almost as a monolith, flat black with no reflections.

  ​The outer structure was about half the height of the inner monolithic building. It essentially formed a wall around the inner, taller building. Despite the unusual shape of the outer structure, it was made of normal steel, concrete, and glass. Its outside walls had the appearance of any other office building, although it was connected at the top through hundreds of suspension cables and power lines that led to different levels of the taller inner building.

  ​Due to the secure nature of the plant, all the people who did work there actually lived in the outer building and worked in the inner one. They were forced to live there and never leave the plant. The only individuals who did come and go regularly were the Civic Protection soldiers assigned to guard, and members of the high council.

  ​People in Dirge didn’t really know a lot about what went on in the buildings. The knowledge that those buildings supplied the city with power was enough for most. People rarely questioned anything else about the buildings and what went on inside them; those who had ended up disappearing.

  ​James stood before one of those plants now, the one in Capitol District. It was an intimidating structure, both tall and wide. This was the location that he’d mapped out, the one that didn’t supply power to anywhere i
n the city. This was a building that did not have a purpose, at least one that was known to him. Before he reached the building, he changed back into his Civic Protection disguise. The creature morphed his clothes instantly.

  ​He approached the main doors on the bottom level. Normally there would be a large Civic Protection presence around the base of the building, but now there were just a few guards. He’d obtained several high security cards through thievery recently, keeping them handy. He pulled one of them from the vest pocket of his uniform, and scanned it on the panel next to the door. Within moments the panel beeped positively as a green light flashed from it. James showed no expression as the doors slid open and he walked through them without saying a word. The guards didn’t say anything to him, just nodded at him as he passed.

  ​James didn’t have to worry about the guards because he was familiar enough with their training to know what they were thinking. If I have high security clearance, he thought, then they do what I say unquestioningly. Civic Protection soldiers were taught to follow orders, no questions asked. It was the council’s greatest strength, having an army of unquestioning loyalty. It felt good to use that against them.

  ​He moved through the outer building, which appeared in many ways like an office complex. He scanned the area with his mind’s eye. He was surprised with what he saw. Nothing. There’s no one here. Not in the outer building anyway, he thought. He tried looking ahead at the inner building. There was some sort of wall blocking his vision into it. The only thing he could think of was that it could be that unique metal that is underground in the caverns everywhere. He prepared himself in case there was a fallen ahead of him.

  ​His footsteps echoed throughout the quiet hallways as he walked. There aren't even any cameras or surveillance equipment here, he thought as he scanned the walls, somewhat paranoid as to what could lie at the end of this road. He thought about it, and realized that the security for this section must be the fallen, with their mind’s eye ability. No humans other than he and his sister had the ability to block themselves from that vision, so it would make a great way to detect intruders. Especially if you don’t want anybody knowing what was going on, even your own security forces.