The Great Game

by O. J. Lowe

  Down below on the battlefield, Claudia continued speaking, apparently the most relaxed person in the stadium. Like she was talking in the mirror on her own. It was a little unnerving, Nick had to admit.

  “Of course, I can’t claim that my intentions were all truly benevolent. Anyone who claims themselves for sainthood is a liar, a charlatan and often should not be trusted on general principle. People lie, they see themselves as better than they truly are. Trust your fellow man for they shall lead you down a dark path if left unchecked. Everyone takes their own path to self-destruction. It is best if you evade following them. Rely on yourself and not others. Are these not the teachings of the book of Gilgarus? You know who else that you shouldn’t trust? Divines.”

  Nick rolled his eyes. Paused mid-way. He’d seen too much to discount her as a complete fanatic. She was too in control for the clutches of lunacy. If she walked a fine line, she was going to fall off it sooner or later. In a way, that was infinitely more worrying, perhaps. A frothing at the mouth psycho would blow up under their own machinations, start ranting and raving. There was nothing like that about her. He’d heard the gist of it before and he wasn’t really interested in what she had to say.

  “You know, recently I engaged in an endeavour. I wanted the answers to the questions the same as everyone else. This island is a fantastic nexus, an absolute veritable fountain of mystic rivers all flowing into one same source. The natives knew that. That was why they refused to leave. And that was why we needed to have it here.”

  Her smile grew at that. “Well one of the reasons anyway.”

  Silence had fallen in the makeshift Unisco headquarters. A dozen pairs of eyes stood glued to the viewing screen, not quite able to take it in. Any thought of decisive action had been momentarily kicked out of them by the appearance of the woman. She shouldn’t be here. She hadn’t had the nerve, surely. Ultimately, it took Okocha to rouse them into action, banging his fist on his desk several times to grab their attention.

  “Guess we know who killed them now then,” he said. “I mean, that’s pretty much a confession, right?”

  “Assemble,” Derenko said. If he’d been shocked into inaction before, he’d snapped out of it. He rubbed his eyes and stood up. “Let’s gear up. Get everyone we have together… Okocha, Noorland, you stay here. I want you back, I want the two of you monitoring the situation. Everyone else with me. We might have to put her down. Scratch that, we need to put her down.”

  “No arguments from me,” Leclerc said, already moving over to the weapons cabinet. In a matter of moments, he had it open and was starting to hand out blaster rifles.

  “Clearly not,” Tod Brumley said. “You know; I think this is one time we should ask questions later.”

  “He’s right,” Derenko said. “Fuck questions. Meet at the speeders in five minutes. We can’t afford to waste any time. We got in heavy, we go in fast. Priority is protecting the people there. There are too many innocents there for there not to be any sort of casualty but we need to minimise them. The odds are high, but that’s okay. I’ve got the best here. We have people in there. Second priority is supporting them. Arm them if they need it, take a second weapon. Or a third if you like that.”

  He sighed dejectedly. Always he’d known he might have to give an order like this but he’d privately wished it might be in better circumstances. “Third priority. Show these fucks that you don’t mess with Unisco or you go out in a body bag.” He glanced around the room then banged his fist abruptly on the wall with a sharp slap. “Now what the hells you waiting for?! We’ve lost enough time! Go!”

  “Now I like the nexus theory. I like to think of it as one big boiling pot simmering along on the fire. All that pent-up energy flowing through it, through the soil and the stone and the ocean, I wanted to poke it. I wanted to see what would happen. And what better way than having all you people here. Human beings are the most naturally destructive creatures in any world, not just this one. If there’s something to be done, you’ll do it. Introducing a couple hundred callers to this environment, well I thought something would give.”

  Her face lit up and she rubbed her hands together. “And boy oh boy, wasn’t I right? See, like everyone, I sought answers about the great mysteries of the world. I didn’t want to know who or what the Gods were. I knew all that from the stories, the legends and the tales. We all know that from the stories. I wanted to know why. I wanted to know how. Maybe I even wanted to know a little of the where. Because to see the natural habitat of something, you can learn so much, you can be on the inside. Sort of anyway. A little. I wanted that knowledge, just a little bit more than anyone else. But that’s not entirely true. It wasn’t the only thing I wanted. I wanted to see the wonders of the world from a different perspective.”

  Someone at the opposite side of the stadium yelled something at her. She ignored it with a cool indifferent arrogance.

  “Of course, there always will be those willing to shout you down. I’ve gotten used to that. I heard it as a child, I heard it as an adult. I always thought that the official motto of humanity should have been, you can’t do that. And yet, if everyone had that attitude, where would we be? Some of our greatest inventions have been fashioned by people who were told that they couldn’t do it. And of course, they did it. Like anything, it’s perseverance, effort, determination. The qualities everyone believes that they have. Yet when push comes to shove, how many people do step up to shove for them? For the most part, people are happy to let themselves be corralled like cattle, keep shuffling towards an oblivion of our own making. Well a long time ago, I decided that I wouldn’t be one of them. I would bring change.”

  “You actually get what she’s going on about here?” Noorland asked, suppressing a yawn. He knew it made him look callous. He didn’t care. You needed a certain level of black humour to be able to survive in this game. They’d both being doing it for a while now. It was probably closer to the action than Okocha liked, but hey, live and learn. “I mean; I think she’s going to start ranting soon.”

  “Soon?” Okocha said. “I think she’s ranting now. I mean, I’m a genius and you’re not the dullest apple in the barrel…”

  “Oh, how you’ve summed my entire life up to this point up there nicely,” Noorland said sarcastically. “I was worried I’d wasted everything up to this point.”

  “But I don’t get where she’s going with this. Doomsday stuff… I wish that guy would shut up. He’s going to get himself killed.”

  The heckler had gone again, yelling abuse down at Claudia, unconcerned for his own safety, just determined to get his vehement point across. She shook her head, sadly, crossing her arms. Already two of the armoured men were moving towards him. Too late he saw them, realising only as they closed in on him what was going to happen. He tried to run, scramble away from them. Their weapons rose, a flurry of shots caught him in the back and he went down, toppling down the stairs across the centre aisles of seating until he came to rest in an untidy bloody heap at the bottom.

  “I detest rudeness. Now, where was I?” she asked. The silence had suddenly turned ugly. “Ah yes, our oblivion. I had no desire to trundle aimlessly towards the end of a pointless life. I sought the answers. I opened the doors that shouldn’t be opened. I found out why we were told that they shouldn’t be opened. I did what I could because I was able to. Because for once, I wanted to put one over all those people who always said that it couldn’t be done. And you know what?”

  Her smile was back, wider than ever. Truly it was a creepy expression, Roper decided as he watched her stood there like a statue, only the barest hint of animation except when it suited her.

  “I did it. I found the Divines. Well, most of them. I found my way into their home, I found their secrets and well, it made me realise one thing. There’s all that knowledge, all that power and the truly shocking lack of desire to use it. I concluded that being human might not be all it is cracked up to be. But divinity, well that surely has just as many drawbacks. I detest apa
thy and I saw it in spades up there.” She threw out both arms and her smile threatened to crack open her face.

  “Truly, I desired to be something more. Not one or the other. Something new. Something worthy. This little interruption, well I suppose you could say it is to announce my ascension. Worship, I don’t expect that. Not yet. One day, you might worship me as you might Gilgarus or Melarius or Griselle. But you know what you should do? You should fear me. Starting today, I’m the new boss.”

  “Is she serious with this?” Okocha asked. “Is it even possible what she’s on about here?” He sagged back in his seat, shaking his head. “I miss the simple life.”

  “You and me both,” Noorland agreed. “I don’t have a buggering clue anymore. This whole world isn’t what it used to be.”

  “Al.”

  “Yeah?”

  “What if it’s not rubbish? What if she’s telling the truth over all of this?”

  Noorland said nothing. Just stared at the screen, his eyes flickering back and forth. Finally, he sighed. “If she is, then we really are so screwed, I can’t even imagine it. Who’s already on site?”

  “Roper, Montgomery, Wade, Sullivan, Caldwell, Khan… Oh and the director. Brendan as well. Hopelessly outnumbered.” He sagged back in his seat.

  “Shit, this is going to turn into a bloodbath,” Noorland said. “Hopefully she keeps talking until Derenko and his team can get there.”

  Neither of them voiced the fears they were both privately sharing. That even with Derenko’s team, the numbers might still be too great for them to counter effectively. Instead, Okocha studied a screen in front of him and hissed angrily.

  “Reinforcements have been delayed,” he said thickly. “We’re trying to get other Unisco teams on site but these fuckers are in the streets as well as the stadium. It’s turning into a bloodbath out there. This gets better and bloody better!”

  “You should fear me,” Claudia repeated. “Because you don’t know what I’m capable of yet. You should fear for your lives, for your families, for your homes and your livelihoods, everything that makes you who you are. Because there will be no respite. I am going to change the world. There will be a remaking. And you might just live through it. Remember, as far as you’re concerned, I’m the ultimate authority now. There is no other. I trump your kings and your presidents, I trump those unworthy for your worship and your love.”

  Some people did start to jeer again at that and she let out a laugh. “Of course, I understand that some of you might reject that notion. After all, the faith is strong. It wouldn’t have survived this long was it not. And I realised that even though I make the offer of the carrot to you, some of you will inevitably prefer the stick. That’s what you are. Stubborn, arrogant, unwilling to accept change. So, a warning, shall we?”

  All around the stadium, flashes of light were erupting out of nowhere, spirits forming into existence. Somehow Roper knew what was coming even before they were fully formed, made out into definition. Those slathering jaws, the three curved horns riding from the canine head, the onyx black fur and the muscular body, all cut across dozens upon dozens and dozens of the same identical spirits. Doom dogs, everyone knew about them, though some people called them devil hounds instead. They were supposed to only be a myth…

  Oh, we’re fucked…

  “But that is just the appetiser,” Claudia continued. The hounds hadn’t attacked yet, maybe they were awaiting her order. She looked ready to give it, her eyes now manic and her hair blown wild. Something had snapped in her, maybe it was the idea of an audience, maybe something hadn’t been right to start with. Either way, she was lapping all the attention up, the fear and the hatred, the pure nervous shock emanating all around the stadium. “For those who truly doubt my claim as the ruler of the new world order, I show you this. The main event. I will show you fear as for the first time in millennia, a god walks these kingdoms.” Beneath her feet, the ground had started to crack and splinter, smoke billowing up around her. Scott and Theo moved to bring back their spirits, they’d already started to edge away from the battlefield. Both looked understandably worried, being the closest to Claudia. A great head poked up out of the ground, lizard-like and coal black with a scarlet patterning across it.

  As it pulled its body up, it continued to grow and grow, from the size of a speeder, to the size of a house, to almost the size of one of the huge island hotels.

  “I give you Cacaxis!”

  She was out of the way in no time at all as the giant clawed hands ripped away at the earth, tearing away at it like it was paper, this time the panic was real and people in the lower rows of the stadium were starting to flee, the threat of the doom dogs and the men with the guns suddenly a very distant second place to the giant spirit in front of them. And that was when everything went to absolute madness, laser fire and flames suddenly spreading about everywhere, he was suddenly amidst a maelstrom of activity. There was the sound of spirits forming into existence, he should have guessed some people would run while some would fight and before he knew it, he had one of the armed men in his sights, close enough to reach. Nick moved, gave him a brutal left-handed punch to the throat putting him down on the ground, hard, a boot to the face and he found he had one of the weapons in his hands. BRO-60 assault rifle. Just what he’d always wanted. Good enough for despots, not good enough for Unisco. Irony, if nothing else.

  Beyond that, he didn’t think, just put two of the closest guards down with well-placed shots, neither of them saw them coming. Somewhere around the arena, he heard in a dozen different places the hiss and roar of something that sounded vaguely familiar and as he allowed himself a second to look up, he saw a dozen different blades of light and energy light up around the stadium.

  Fuck! This could be good or it could be bad. He’d seen those weapons before. Memories of his encounter with Wim Carson were still in his head. Either way he couldn’t worry about that right now. Cacaxis was roaring, swiping away at the structure of the stadium with front legs the size of mag-rail carriages, each clawed strike shattering stone and metal. It let out a uniblast up into the higher echelons of the stands, punching a ragged burnt hole straight through it. The thing stank like sweat and steel, smoke and smog and no matter how much he tried to ignore it, it was permeating into his head.

  Hmm… He continued to fire, trying to pick off any guards close by, trying to keep out an eye for any of the doom dogs. Get swamped by them and he would be in trouble, some of the crowd had stood to fight around him and their spirits were keeping them at bay, not until…

  He grabbed his summoner, slipped a crystal in, a very distinctive crystal and activated it. Unialiv appeared, springing into action immediately and grabbed one of the dogs out of the air by the scruff of the neck. Nick jerked his head towards Cacaxis and the spirit pitched it neat, hurled it straight towards the giant lizard. Perfect throw, it hit Cacaxis and bounced off its shoulder, sliding down into the abyss below its legs.

  “Unialiv,” Nick said. He might need to give it another name, amidst everything that had happened, it had been the furthest thing from his mind. This was the first time he had even unleashed it, not even thought of modifying it, but he had a feeling it might be immune to it. As it turned to him, he could see the hole in its chest that had failed to heal up where he’d stabbed it with Sharon’s weapon “See if you can do something about that big lizard. Anything. Just… Try and distract it for a few moments.”

  Two roars rang out, the first proud and loud but ultimately drowned by the second one as the great black dragon swept down and sprayed Cacaxis’ back with orange energy, leaving burns on the scales but doing little other signs of damage.

  Bakaru!

  Nick glanced up, saw Wade stood on the upper tier of the stands, pistol in one hand, other at his ear barking out orders. His spirit summoner hung loose around his neck. He fumbled his own earpiece out of his pocket, just as he saw Wade’s arm rise, his X7 bounce three times and one of the Coppinger soldiers went down. All the way acros
s the stands, small pockets of resistance had broken out, any Unisco agents among the crowd, any callers with the stomach for a scrap; all of them were doing what they could to survive.

  He shoved his earpiece in and caught the back end of a conversation.

  “… Down here, need a wider entrance,” Derenko was yelling. “Beresutzky, take that wall down. Everyone remain calm!” They heard a trumpet, followed by crashing and screaming, roars and bellows.

  “You here, Roper?” Wade asked. “You want to double team this big son of a bitch?” Even from a distance, he saw him jerk his head towards Cacaxis.

  “Think that’s blasphemy?” Sullivan. “Where’s Brendan and Arnholt?”

  “Last I heard, they were in the studio with Khan!” Somewhere in the stadium, Montgomery was panting heavily. Laser fire spotted the sound waves around her communication. “I’m going to try and get to them.”

  “Wade, it’d be my pleasure,” Nick said. “Anyone who can take out these damn dogs, get on it. They’re the real problem.” He ducked a shot, let out a flurry of return fire one handed over a cluster of melting seat. “Don’t let them swarm you or you’re done for!” Above him, Unialiv shot up into the air, both arms out in front of him and struck hard into Cacaxis’ throat, a blow which brought a hiss out from those huge jaws as it staggered backwards. If it fell, hit the stands, there’d be even more trouble. It was easily heavy and large enough to crush anyone beneath it.

  He had to hurl himself backwards, jump over some seating and come to a painful landing on the hard stone floor, a hot fire jarring up his ribs as he caught it against a sharp-edged step. Still the alternative had been getting shot so he couldn’t complain too much, he’d seen the fire coming from the corner of his vision and reacted accordingly. Fighting on two fronts was hard, very hard. Being honest, it was almost impossible, especially when it meant your life depended on it.