Ghost of the Argus (Corrosive Knights Book 5)

by E. R. Torre

She pointed up.

  “Look!”

  Beyond the tentacles and somewhere between the Earth and the Moon was an incredibly large object. Its side was illuminated by the sun and its shape, even from this distance, was familiar. Chills rose up and down Inquisitor Cer’s back.

  “It’s the Thanatos,” Inquisitor Cer said. “Desjardins brought her here! He didn’t wait for us at Jupiter!”

  Bright red energy flares flew out of the super-juggernaut. They slammed into the Locust Plague tentacles and burst into fireballs.

  “She’s firing on them!” Cer said.

  One of the missiles shot past the tentacles and roared into Earth’s atmosphere. A gigantic sonic boom was followed by the explosive sound of missiles smashing into the ground nearly a mile away. The resulting fireballs knocked most of the advancing metal creatures to the ground.

  “By the Gods!” Nox said.

  Even as the robots hit the ground, another series of missiles, these smaller and laser directed, sliced through their bodies and ripped them to pieces.

  More missiles rained down, this time creating a perimeter of fire around the Oscuro building. The still standing machines slowed. They could not fight this attacker.

  “What about the Xendos?”

  “Two minutes,” Inquisitor Cer said. Her gaze shifted from her remote control panel to the Oscuro building and its roof. Toward where B’taav was…

  Nox looked at Inquisitor Cer and followed her gaze. She saw the pain of loss in Cer’s face and very familiar feelings hit her.

  Hard.

  The Mechanic looked around and spotted a cement ramp at the rear of the Oscuro building. It wound up and around, floor by floor, before reaching the building’s roof. Her gaze returned to her companions.

  “Do you have something that can track my movements?”

  Becky Waters reached into the vehicle’s trunk and pulled out a microchip. She handed it to Nox.

  “This will do the trick,” she said.

  Nox pocketed the device. She ran to her motorcycle and pulled at the straps that held it to the back of the desert truck.

  “I spent months restoring this baby,” Nox said. “I’ll be damned if I’m not going to ride her.”

  “Where are you going?” Cer asked.

  “Where else?” Nox said. “To get your boyfriend.”

  Becky Waters lifted the heavy bike off the truck’s frame and gently laid it on the ground.

  “You’ve got a minute and a half.”

  “Way more time than I need,” Nox said.

  She mounted her bike and turned the key.

  “Start up,” she muttered.

  Nox kicked the ignition and the cycle roared to life with a vigor she didn’t expect.

  “Right on!” she yelled.

  Nox hit another button and the blare of music was heard.

  “What is that?”

  “Heavy fucking metal,” Nox yelled.

  Nox’s motorcycle roared past the entrance ramp and up the garage floors, its tires squealing with each sharp turn.

  Dust filled the ramp while the howls from the enormous storm and the roars of the Thanatos’ missile attack were nearly drowned out by music. In less than a minute’s time she was on the tenth level of the garage and, at its end, spotted the glass enclosure and within, the slumped figure of B’taav.

  This is a mistake. Go back.

  “Spradlin, why don’t you shut the fuck up,” Nox said.

  B’taav was covered in what appeared to be a layer of dust. Nox knew it was actually a layer of nano-probes. He was so very still. So—

  He’s dead already, Spradlin said. Go back!

  For a moment Nox hesitated. How was it possible for him to—

  B’taav’s body shook. He tried to lift himself up. He fell back down.

  “He’s still alive!” Nox yelled.

  He is! Spradlin’s voice said. He was as surprised as Nox. Well, what the fuck are you waiting for?

  Nox revved the motorcycle’s engine and the rear tire squealed. The cycle rushed toward the glass room.

  Be quick, the familiar voice inside her head said.

  “Got any more great advice?”

  Lemner’s passkey is in the room and within the wires. Might as well release the rest of them into the air.

  Nox pulled her handgun from its holster and aimed it at the room’s glass walls. The wind kicked up, almost wrecking her. She fired the gun and the glass panel shattered.

  The heavy winds whipped the dust. The infected nano-probes were freed from their cage and dissipated. Over the sound of explosions and thunder alarms blared.

  Nox hit the accelerator and roared through the broken glass. She felt the sting of nano-probes around her. As with B’taav, they attacked her body.

  The nano-probes can’t hold on. They’re dropping away. Lemner’s passkey did its work.

  Nox’s motorcycle skidded to a stop beside the Independent.

  The Mechanic reached down and grabbed him. The dust covering his body fell away in clumps as she pulled him up and into place behind her.

  “You still alive, Independent?”

  B’taav groaned.

  “Alive enough,” she said. “Hang on.”

  Despite their weakness, the nano-probes continued their attack. Nox felt them in her eyes and throat. But with each passing second, their sting lessened. Nox checked her watch.

  Time’s up.

  She reached for her communicator and pressed it.

  “I have him!” she yelled.

  Nox bit her lip and revved the motorcycle’s engine. They were ten floors above ground and the hurricane storm and the metal militia were at the Building’s doorstep.

  There was no time to drive back down.

  “Fuck it,” Nox said. She clicked on her communicator. “I hope you see us because we’re coming out the west side. The hard way.”

  Nox raised her handgun and fired at what remained of the room’s outer glass walls. She looked out into the darkness beyond and the ten story drop.

  “Catch me,” she said.

  Nox released the motorcycle’s brakes and the vehicle sped toward the shattered glass.

  They passed it.

  Nox, B’taav, and the motorcycle were airborne.

  Gravity took hold and they dropped. The ground, so very far below, rushed up toward them.

  Nox released the cycle and grabbed B’taav. The cycle fell down and down, with Nox and B’taav just feet away.

  Then, a miracle.

  The cycle continued its fall yet Nox and B’taav slowed.

  They were two feet away from the cycle. Five.

  Ten.

  Twenty.

  Nox watched in wonder as her beloved motorcycle smashed into the ground beside the desert truck and shattered into pieces.

  By then, Nox and B’taav were no longer falling.

  Instead, they were lifted higher and higher, as if in the grasp of invisible hands.

  Nox caught the shadow of something very large camouflaged in the sky directly above them.

  A hatch opened in mid-air and the two fell into it. Their bodies slammed against a cold metal floor.

  The dim light from outside was extinguished. In the few moments of consciousness left to her, Nox realized they were inside Cer’s airship. Its outer hatch closed.

  She felt a blast of air. The mass of infected alien nano-probes fell from her body and were whisked away.

  Lemner’s passkey had done its work well.

  62

  Becky Waters was at the door leading into the Xendos’ decompression chamber.

  Next to her and on the floor was an overstuffed duffle bag, everything she and Nox packed to take with them from Earth. She pushed the bag aside and gripped the door’s handle. The veins remaining in her arms throbbed as she put all her strength into prying the door open.

  “How are they?” an anxious voice called out over the intercom.

  “I can’t open the door,” Becky yelled back.

 
; In the cockpit of the ship Inquisitor Cer sat at the controls.

  She arrived moments before and was still breathing hard. She checked the area around the ship. The Thanatos’ missile attack stopped as the storm closed in on them. It swirled faster and faster and threatened to rip everything around it to pieces.

  “Brace yourself, I have to fly through hell itself,” Inquisitor Cer said.

  She pulled at the craft’s controls and the Xendos rose straight up. As it did, they entered the storm’s outer edges. The ship lurched back and forth.

  A flash of lightning illuminated the sky and Inquisitor Cer gasped. A wave of metal approached at the speed of sound.

  “By the Gods,” she said.

  Just as the words left her mouth, a piece of metal the size of a transport truck slammed into the Xendos’ view screen, cracking the tempered glass before her and sending the craft deeper into the storm.

  Alarms blared and circuitry sparked.

  The ship’s camouflage was gone.

  Becky Water pressed harder against the door. It didn’t budge. The Xendos shook, throwing her to the floor. She looked up at the door’s handle. It bore her handprints.

  She placed her face against the door’s window to look in on Nox and B’taav. She frowned.

  “Inquisitor Cer,” Becky called out over the intercom. “The decompression chamber is filling up with a white gas. What the hell is it?”

  “No idea,” Inquisitor Cer said. “Could it be a fire?”

  “That’s all we need.”

  Inside the airlock, Nox stirred. The microscopic assault on her body was over. She felt her skin was cooling.

  Cautiously, she opened her eyes and expected to be blind. Instead, she could see, though her vision was blurry. Or was it?

  She waved her hand before her. Her vision wasn’t blurry. The chamber they were in was filled with gas.

  They.

  B’taav lay next to her. His pale skin was ruby red and raw, as if he suffered from extreme sunburn. His eyes were closed and a line of dried blood ran from his nose and mouth.

  “Aren’t you a mess,” Nox said.

  She reached over and felt for a pulse.

  He had one. Barely. He was also having trouble breathing.

  Nox pushed down on his chest.

  “Come on,” she said.

  B’taav gasped and Nox sat back. The Independent coughed. He coughed again, louder, before spitting out a bloody blob. Once exposed to the air, it turned white, dried, and became ash. The ash was whisked into the ventilation systems.

  The Independent opened his eyes. He looked around.

  “N…Nox?” he muttered.

  “Yeah,” Nox said.

  “How…?”

  “I never liked the idea of leaving anyone behind.”

  B’taav smiled.

  “That’s a good philosophy,” B’taav said. “I should follow it.”

  B’taav and Nox laughed. She got to her knees and offered B’taav her hand.

  “I shouldn’t have survived the chamber,” B’taav said. “How did I?”

  “I wish I knew—”

  As the words left Nox’s mouth and at the very moment B’taav took Nox’s hand, the decompression chamber disappeared.

  Nox was back in the Arabian village and, to her surprise, B’taav was there with her. They still held hands. B’taav rose to his feet and was about to release their grip.

  “Don’t let go,” Nox said.

  “What is this—?”

  “You’re inside my head,” Nox said.

  A lean, muscular figure appeared before them. B’taav recognized him from his picture.

  “Spradlin.”

  The figure nodded. There was a troubled look on his face.

  “How are you, B’taav?” he asked.

  “All things considered, pretty good.”

  “How about that, General?” Nox said. “B’taav survived your nano-probe room. You thought he couldn’t. You were wrong.”

  “I wasn’t wrong,” Spradlin said. “B’taav shouldn’t have survived. The only reason he did was because his immune system was much stronger than it should be.”

  “One of these days, you’re going to admit—”

  Nox stopped talking. The troubled look on Spradlin’s face was something she had never seen on him before. It was the look of fear.

  “To build up your immunity, generations of your bloodline were exposed to progressively stronger nano-probe viruses,” Spradlin said. “But they were artificial creations that didn’t –couldn’t– have the potency of the real thing. There’s only one way your immune system could have strengthened to the point where you survived that room. B’taav, you were exposed to something very close, if not identical, to the real Locust Plague nano-probes.”

  “When could that have happened?” Nox said. “He was in our sight his entire time on Earth.”

  “Back in the Empires, shortly before coming here, I was attacked,” B’taav said. “One of my attackers scratched my neck. I felt very sick but recovered before the flight here. Do you think it was…?”

  Spradlin nodded.

  “The Locust Plague nano-probes may already be in the Empires,” he said.

  Spradlin turned away from Nox and B’taav.

  “Our work is far from done.”

  As the words left his mouth, Spradlin and the village faded away. B’taav and Nox were back in the fog filled decompression chamber. B’taav stared at Nox and she stared at him. She released his hand and a sharp noise came from behind them.

  At the entry to the decompression chamber stood Becky Waters. She held a bent metal tube and was surprised the door automatically opened.

  “What the hell?” she muttered before running to Nox and B’taav’s side.

  The gas in the chamber was all but gone.

  “I thought there was a fire,” Becky Waters said. “That gas—”

  Becky thought hard. She noticed the traces of ash on B’taav’s clothing.

  “It was some kind of purification process,” she said. “It destroyed the remaining nano-probes on you. Are you two ok?”

  “I think so,” Nox said.

  63

  The redness on B’taav’s skin faded.

  “Did Lemner’s passkey work?” he asked.

  “I’m not sure,” Becky Waters said.

  Both she and Nox held B’taav between them and hurried through the Xendos’ lower corridor and up the stairs to the top level. The ship rocked side to side, sending them against the walls and slowing their progress. Finally, they reached the cockpit and found Inquisitor Cer there, fighting the controls.

  The storm continued swirling around them. More lighting flashed and another wave of metallic fragments slammed against the craft.

  “Thanatos, this is the Xendos,” Inquisitor Cer said. “We’re nearing orbit.”

  There was no response.

  “Thanatos, do you read me?”

  “Hello, Cer,” B’taav said.

  For a moment, Inquisitor Cer’s face lit up. She struggled to remain in her chair and not jump up and hug the Independent. Instead, she said:

  “Take a seat.”

  B’taav slipped into the co-pilot’s chair.

  Another flash of lightning illuminated the storm. It was followed by a burst of wind that pushed the Xendos sideways.

  In the distance and held up by the winds flew one of the largest of the metallic creatures. It swirled in the air as if a marionette on a string, moving closer and closer to the craft. Behind it was another robot. And another. They closed in…

  “Hang on!” Inquisitor Cer yelled.

  Just as they neared the Xendos, the winds caused the robots to slam into each other with incredible force. The colossal beings were ripped to pieces by the impact and their remains rained down on the Xendos like confetti.

  The passengers of the Xendos couldn’t understand what they just witnessed. They saw other metallic figures, both large and small, swirling around in the storm. They too
were ripped apart by the winds.

  “We were wrong about the storm,” Inquisitor Cer said. “It’s not working with those creatures. It’s destroying them.”

  Cer checked the sensor readings.

  The metal storm released another intense flash of lightning. Through it Cer saw their way out.

  “Here we go!” she yelled.

  The Xendos picked up speed, rising while a mountain of metallic fragments rained down on the remains of the Big City.

  Directly below them, the Oscuro Building was pelted with this debris. The nano-probe filled room was smashed and the wires that extended from the room into the sky were severed. The building lasted only seconds more under the metallic assault before crumbling.

  “Goodbye… and good riddance,” Nox said.

  “Approaching upper atmosphere,” Inquisitor Cer said after a while. “Shouldn’t be long now.”

  Inquisitor Cer trained the ship’s cameras on Earth as they rose. The passengers were dead silent, witness to a sight they would never forget.

  The might storm enveloped all of Earth.

  “By the Gods,” Nox said. “What is happening?”

  “Maybe Lemner’s passkey didn’t work,” B’taav said.

  Becky Waters pointed to the tentacles around Earth. They had slowed to a near stop and their lights were rapidly dying out.

  “It worked all right,” she said.

  “But this storm?”

  “I don’t know,” Becky said. “I just don’t know.”

  Within the clouds they spotted oddly shaped forms. Some were angular and others were straight. With a start, they realized they were witnessing titanic structures being created at a furious pace.

  “Xendos, this is the Thanatos,” came a voice over the communication system. “Do you read me?”

  Inquisitor Cer hit the communication system switch. A monitor lit up and on it was David Desjardins.

  “Thank the Gods!” she yelled. “We read you, David.”

  “You did your job well,” Desjardins said. “The Locust Plague’s mother ship was almost at full power until a few seconds ago.”

  “What’s the status of the Thanatos?” Inquisitor Cer asked.

  “I’ve had to swat away a bunch of drones,” Desjardins said. “Otherwise, we’re ready for detonation.”