It also seemed like a brilliant one.
Back then Aesha formed another group and chose a place remote to the peoples of Europe and Asia. Somewhere well off the lines of the civilized world, where the Bok were centered and where was centered the rising strife of Earth at that time. The chaos. The troubles.
A place far away from all that.
Boise.
She, Aesha, took the Codes to another continent altogether. One that would later become known as North America. They are there. She saw it. Not far from the gate behind her house, in a global sense, if the Matok had done as instructed. Not far from where she’d been all along, waiting for a sign. Drawn there in the most convoluted way possible, riding impulse after impulse until now, after all this, she finally saw the truth.
She knew how to find them.
Eagerly she flipped back and forth between pages of the diaries, following threads of her own discussions, getting a clearer and clearer image, firming her vision of what must come next. Looked up.
Mind buzzing.
I can find the Matok.
And the Matok had the Codes.
CHAPTER 35: RELEASE THE BEAST
Cee was grinding her teeth but couldn’t make herself stop. It was the herald. It couldn’t be the herald, but it was, which meant the herald was real, the Prophecy was real, and no matter how much she denied it to others she’d always feared it privately and now, as more of these infernal elements fell into place—the demon Kang, the herald, the lost Codex that was no doubt squarely in the sights of this cursed Earth girl—the further into the future she went the more the walls were closing in.
It should be mine! The Amkradus was hers and she would have it. It will be mine!
She had to push back. Gain control.
For the moment she was aboard her personal corvette, on her way right back to the Bok archives—which had by now been thoroughly exhausted—little hope of finding anything new and now Lorenzo and the Bok were dead. Lorenzo, her one lead to learning more, and before she had a chance to squeeze …
Dead.
His lackey, Hansel, would yield nothing. Of that she was certain. Hansel knew nothing. The other Bok would be rounded up, of course, their hidden institutions sacked, thoroughly raped of any and all information and anything they hid, but she had the sinking feeling they would know nothing either. Anything worth knowing died with Lorenzo.
Damn!
Why did she wait? Playing her little game of strategy, thinking all was within her control.
Nothing was within her control. Not anymore.
“My queen,” the voice of her corvette commander deflected her from the spiraling rage. She found him at the command console, near the pilot and navigator. The corvette was crewed with three; her personal guard also aboard. Plus Kang, of course, brooding at the periphery.
“What is it?” She had no time for more interruptions. She would consult with her bishop in person, back at the Bok archives.
“Lord Voltan calling, my queen.”
Of anyone at that moment she least wanted to speak with her Praetor. Though he had no direct hand in what happened she blamed him fully for the fiasco with Lorenzo and the Bok.
But there were too many things in play to ignore his call. He must surely have more disturbing news on the humans. She was close to ordering the utter annihilation of these cursed Fetok. She’d had about enough. Wipe them out and start with a clean world. Move in and make it their own. Slaves, especially slaves such as these, were more trouble than they were worth.
“Put him on.”
Voltan appeared on the main screen.
“My queen,” he bowed.
“What is it?” She was in no mood.
“Your flagship has been raided.”
“My …” the words registered. “What?!” she was standing from her chair.
“It occurred simultaneously with the attack on the Bok,” Voltan kept speaking, the rest of what he was saying barely registering. “When you rushed off to follow up on that I monitored the raid.” This was too much. She couldn’t …
What was he saying?!
Her flagship …
“My ship was raided?!” She sat again, at the edge of the seat, but only because she was in danger of collapse. “What do you mean? Mutiny?”
“By a group of humans.”
Now she almost slid to the floor.
How was that even possible?
“How did humans raid my ship?! How did they raid any ship?! How did they raid my ship?!” Now she was standing again. “What are you saying?!”
It couldn’t be real. She didn’t know how much more of this she could take.
“They got away,” Voltan drove her disbelief ever harder. There was just no way this could be possible.
Then he laid a bombshell on her.
“The superhuman, Horus, was with them.”
Kang was immediately at the front of the bridge, at the screen, in a staredown with the image of Voltan, so ridiculous and yet so terrifying, and it looked as if the beast might actually reach through the screen and snatch Voltan and pull him through. For an instant, and as an alternative, Cee feared he would rip through the entire front of the ship and leap to ground. Right there. The elevated tension from the beast was palpable.
But even Kang was not that foolish.
“Where?!” he growled; a low, terrifying sound.
Cee had no more energy to contain him.
Voltan’s large image looked down at him. “Pursuit was engaged, but, the craft eluded us.”
Cee was certain Kang was about to go mad. She wondered if she would survive the rampage.
“You lost it?” The chill in his voice made her shudder. Her own outrage was being subsumed beneath his; she couldn’t wrap her mind around any of it. The conversation with Kang skipped madly ahead, forgetting entirely the real catastrophe.
“We reacquired their signal,” said Voltan. “But not before they vacated the craft.”
“Where?” Kang’s voice dropped to a dangerous whisper.
“It surfaced off the coast of what the humans call Siberia. In the Sea of Okhotsk. When we got to it the humans had managed to get clear and we have not, so far, located them.”
“How did they get aboard my ship?!” Cee needed to kill someone. “How did they get away?!” Then: “What did they want?” She wavered, fresh waves of shock assaulting her, worry over what the humans could possibly have been after.
All the secrets she held.
They can’t possibly …
“It appears they were after one of our prisoners,” said Voltan. “Satori. The girl from Kang’s world.”
Kang looked across the small bridge, directly to the corvette’s commander—not including Cee in his order at all:
“Go to the site where he lost them.”
**
The siege had begun. Galfar hoped their priestess would come in time.
“There,” Haz pointed toward the melee taking place on the fields below. “He rides again.” Elements of the Fist were ranged along the city edge, everything easily in view from Haz and Galfar’s vantage atop one of the derelict buildings near the perimeter of the Necrops. “He’s brave,” Haz shook his head in wonder, and Galfar looked to his son, so unusual was it for him to say anything truly complimentary of others. “Or a fool,” Haz added, and Galfar turned his attention back to the field.
That was more like it.
Down below Arclyss was charging into one of the Fist’s flanks, the gold of his armor glittering in the sun, him alone against however many Fist rose to meet him at that point. It did, indeed, seem a foolhardy move, but then Arclyss had been charging feints and making actual attacks all morning, roaring—loud enough to be heard even from that height and that distance—challenging the Fist from astride his tremendous mount in quick, violent skirmishes, pressing their position. It was war, at least as far as the Fist were concerned, their intent to overrun the city, and Arclyss was out front meeting them head-on like a true
Pharaoh. He’d set his defense, making them think twice about actually executing their intended incursion, and his random, berserker assaults were giving them pause. Behind him, lining the edges and entries to the Necrops were his forces, the Forgotten, known to the Fist as the Scourge—and to Galfar, for as long as he’d lived—set and ready to repel the marauding Brotherhood when they made their move.
Ready to die, if necessary, that they might protect the way back for their priestess.
“There,” Haz pointed again. “Look.” This time to the near edge, furthest from Arclysses’ current attack. Close in distance but still far down below, Galfar saw a company of Fist breaking away silently—quickly, making no yells, no sound—rushing the furthest point of defense. The mutant soldiers in their path formed up, rallying to the attack. As they did another, smaller group of Fist broke free, flanking the developing confrontation on the near side and ...
Got past.
Galfar crowded as close to the decayed railing as he dared, peering over the edge of their observation point, far down into the overgrown ruins of the city below. He caught glimpses of brightly colored hair, white skin; muscled warriors riding dark horses, racing ahead at a furious clip.
It was a feint, and the Forgotten had fallen for it.
The Fist made it in.
**
Cee stepped quickly to keep up. There was no way she could match pace with Kang, especially not in his current mood, where nothing could move fast enough for his rage, but she was determined not to sit by and watch while he did ... whatever it was he had in mind to do.
Out on the tundra where they’d arrived sat the stolen lander. The one that responded to the human distraction at the refinery. The one used to perpetrate the unthinkable violation. To board her ship, take the most key human prisoner, the red-headed girl from the other world, Kang’s world, Anitra, and escape. Now here it was, sitting out in the middle of this wasteland, abandoned, no sign or trail of the thieves. She watched Kang far up ahead striding around its dark mass, kicking up tails of dirt with each step, both he and the lander pitifully small against the flat expanse of that setting. The land here was featureless and formless, vast stretches of nothingness, dirt and grass, feeding down to the sea just over the horizon. She could smell the salt, the sea life, the stink of Earth. Gray skies covered it all, edge to edge, a dreary day not unlike those on Kel.
This, however, did not remind her of home.
Still far from her Kang reared back, “HORUS!!!” arms out at his sides, yelling to the sky. Cee stopped walking. The guard detail with her held alongside. Once she stopped moving her boots settled further into the muck. The fetid wind blew across the open plain in gusts, whipping her hair, flipping the fur wrap she wore against her cheek. The hair of her guards flew like heavy pennants at the backs of their heads.
She’d had enough.
Kang turned and was staring across the distance at her, childish anger consuming his expression. The power of his voice echoed still, reverberating somehow in the intermittent gale. He could no doubt yell much louder, in fact she knew he could, and it looked as if he would. He would probably stand there yelling all day, so desperate to have his fight. To find and destroy his perceived nemesis. The center of his world.
“Go!” she shouted at him. “Take your leave!”
He continued staring from far away, fists bunched. Little yellow monster in front of a little black spaceship; tiny, pathetic things on a tiny, pathetic planet. A strange look passed across his expression.
“Go!” she repeated. “He is here!” she fanned an arm over the impossible vastness, showing him the way into the infinite distance. “On this world!” she dropped her arm and prodded him. “Go! There will be no more escaping this world! Not for any human! He is here and here he will stay! Find him! That lander has not been here long!” she pointed to it, feeling a huge sense of relief at what she was doing. She would be rid of Kang, she was doing it under her control, as if commanding him though, in truth, she was merely leaving him, and Kang might, just might, actually get what he was after.
She no longer cared.
“Find him!” she said one last time, then laid in her final command; making sure the line was not completely severed: “When you’re done make it known! I will come for you!”
And she turned and, with a frustratingly awkward first step, pulled her foot from the muck and began walking, stomping back to her imposing corvette, boots squelching with very un-regal noises. Her guards too, Cee working hard to maintain what poise she could. She reached the ramp, the corvette larger than the lander, more impressive, stepped onto it and paused a moment to regain her bearing on the solid surface. She stared back across the waste. Kang had not moved. With one more glance she turned and started up.
She’d had enough.
CHAPTER 36: BOISE
Jess was home. Again. A place that kept coming up on her chaotic journey. Home in the sense one thought of such things; her house, her family, a place of refuge, comfort. Now this place was no longer just home. Now it was the nexus of All That Was. Home was home for a reason, it turned out, and the move to Boise and all that triggered, so seemingly beyond her control at the time, so part of her uneventful teen life had, in the end, been little more than a cog in the grand design. Boise was a crossroads.
She shifted where she squatted in the woods, at the end of a neighborhood cul-de-sac. She’d been crouched behind some bushes, waiting for what felt like forever, hiding in the trees and feeling like a complete outsider. Observing the peaceful, suburban development with a wistful sort of regard, a titanic purpose massed behind that, watching the world slowly waking, sun rising to start the morning, and with each familiar little thing she felt the pang of the loss of that quiet, simple life. The ache of no longer belonging. Along with several less romantic aches. Hunger, in particular, and as she patiently watched and waited she could swear she smelled pancakes coming from one of those friendly little houses.
In Hong Kong, after realizing what she had to do, she’d contacted the network to let them know she was about to shift locations. Dramatically and all at once. With the activation of the device harness she would be gone, halfway around the globe, and from that point would be on her own. No more contact.
Drake and Fang, in turn, informed her of the success of Zac’s mission, and that he and the team were enroute to the next checkpoint, somewhere in the Siberian outback. The resistance had achieved both phases of their operation, which meant Satori was safe—they rescued Satori! She’s alive!—a celebration that would have to wait—and they’d planted the Trojan. Now they had successfully eluded the Kel and were on their way back into the fold. Drake told Jess he would let Zac know of her own continuing operation.
According to him the Kel were reacting to all this, not surprisingly, and had begun locking things down. He expected the Kel to maintain at least some of their policy of permissive imprisonment of the world, for the immediate term, but it was still early after these shocking events, and after the refinery, the successful raid and rescue on the flagship, on top of Jessica’s murder of the Kel-appointed world leaders …
Things wouldn’t stay permissive for long.
Which leant even more urgency to what she had to do next.
And so she signed off with the hopeful promise that the next time they spoke it would be on the eve of their victory. After that and for a long moment she stood in that musty tome beneath the streets of Hong Kong, contemplating what she’d found. The Codes, she’d determined, were not far from the gate. At least, they hadn’t been, a thousand years ago. The original Icon, her move to Boise, the gate … the clues had been there all along. Boise was a modern city at an ancient crux, and she was heading back.
And so she braced herself, activated the harness and …
Stepped smoothly onto the soft grass in the woods behind her red barn. Another perfect placement by Nani. Hong Kong … gone. Boise beneath her. Once more she was home.
From her own records she now k
new the Codes had been left in this area, specifically with the Matok, a group she formed on Earth a thousand years before. They would’ve moved in the interim. Changed. Likely even morphed to something else.
And so the first thing she had to do was follow the clues. Which meant she needed help. There were things yet to be done, leads yet to be pieced together, she needed a way to get around, she needed cover. Basically she needed an ally. Someone on the ground, in Boise, that could help her get done what she needed to do in more or less plain sight, all while the Kel geared for a fresh lockdown, and she needed to do it fast—and she needed to do it right there in the Heartland of what had been the greatest nation on Earth. And so, after the transition from Hong Kong, as her thoughts gathered steam, a plan took form and she thought of one person in particular.
Mike.
This is so weird.
She was staring right at his house.
After everything, to be hiding in the woods across the street from her old boyfriend’s house …
So weird.
That night she’d made it across town, sneaking from cover to cover, total guerilla tactics, not wanting to be seen by anyone, vaguely recalling operating the same way long ago in the same suit of armor, her small group of rebels popping back and forth with their Icon harnesses during the Great Wars. Back then it had been into and out of sporadic battles. Now she was simply trying to stay hidden in the middle of town, businesses and neighborhoods, creeping down alleys and behind dumpsters or in the woods. A kid on the run.
Eventually she made the spot in the woods across the street from Mike’s house, slept for a bit, fitfully in the armor, then was up with the sun and ready to make her move. Mike’s car was home. He must surely be there. She realized she had no idea what day it was—was it a school day?—and, alarmingly, realized she didn’t even know what month it was. All she knew was that it was morning and Mike’s car was in the drive.
Star Angel: Prophecy Page 43
