The Armor of God

by Diego Valenzuela

  Tomorrow comes . . .

  “A little loopy . . .”

  “Thanks for listening, man,” said Akiva, and put his hand on Ezra’s shoulder. “Please don’t leave without saying good-bye.”

  Ezra only had a few hours of sleep. Kat and Barnes had suggested lying low as much as possible, so he decided to stay in his room again, entertaining himself with some reading. It was remarkable to him how much his understanding of Dr. Mizrahi’s and Alice’s books improved in just a few months; experience was indeed the wisest teacher.

  All classes, training, and operations were still on a forced hiatus, so all he had to do now was wait. Sometime soon, his mother would come and find him, he would regroup with Erin, Garros, and either Jena or Poole, and they would leave. Ezra still didn’t know what to feel about this unplanned exile; there was a journey ahead of him, one that could determine the perpetuation of human life on this world—something that he could have never imagined taking part in just a few months earlier.

  Something he was entirely unprepared for, and a quest that could be his final earthly affair.

  He was lucky it wasn’t a quest he would be taking alone.

  Ezra had prepared himself for leaving home, when that word referred to Roue. Being placed in Zenith separated him from the city and his family, but not with such finality. Taking that separation one step further, and leaving the territory altogether, maybe to die, was terrifying. The only assurance he had was that his mother believed in his chances of returning.

  It was a couple of hours after dawn that a desperate series of knocks on the dormitory door startled him awake. Ezra lumbered towards the door as if drunk and opened it. The door hissed, sliding into the wall. Jena was standing at the other side, her face a display of anxiety.

  “Ezra, did you talk with Kiv last night?”

  “Yes,” he said. “Why? What happened?”

  “I don’t know but . . . he’s gone!” she said, and tears welled in her eyes.

  Ezra ignored Kat’s instruction to remain in the dormitories. Jena appeared to be desperate, and couldn’t articulate what the problem really was. “He’s gone, Ezra—he disappeared.”

  They descended the dormitory stairs, and found most of the pilots in the lounge below. A wide state of unease had taken over Zenith, and it was then that Ezra knew that something terrible had happened—something that would further harm Zenith’s chances of survival.

  He ignored the sharp eyes of some of the older pilots, and was happy when he found Erin just outside the dormitories. “Ezra talked to him,” Jena told Erin.

  “What the hell happened?” Ezra asked, beginning to catch the contagious uneasiness.

  “Akiva disappeared. Milos Ravana is not in the docking bay. He took off!”

  “I talked to him just a few hours ago; he was fine! He said he had a meeting with Dr. Yuri—”

  Erin took Dr. Yuri’s mention as a cue to leave. Ezra and Jena kept up with her as she ran through the labyrinthine complex, into the Compatibility labs, and down the office hallways. Jena had begun to cry, and still it was her who tugged Ezra by the hand like he would stay behind otherwise.

  All three of them were short of breath when they reached Dr. Yuri’s office. Erin knocked. “Hello? Dr. Logan?” She took a couple deep breaths. “Hello, are you in there?”

  There was no answer. Ezra walked next to Erin as she opened the door.

  First, he thought Dr. Yuri was not in his office, as the desk was empty. But as the door came open, he saw his feet, then his legs. The stench.

  The doctor was lying on the floor. Erin reflexively screamed: “We need a medic!”

  Ezra was too shocked too follow her into the office, and froze completely when the image of an enormous puddle of blood underneath the man came into view.

  “Go get a medic!” Erin yelled again, at him.

  It was Jena who ran off. Ezra could only watch as Erin began to cry out after discovering the gunshot wound in the dead man’s chest, staining her hands with blood.

  After all, tomorrow wouldn’t come.

  Chapter 21

  Flight

  Erin’s knees were wet with Dr. Logan’s blood. As were her hands. She wanted to use them to wipe her tears, but she didn’t want his blood on her face as well. Erin had seen death before, but seeing this man’s face, frozen in horror, was more upsetting than any previous encounter. She knew this man. She had wept in front of this man. Taken orders from him. Learned from him.

  “Erin,” Ezra said from the doorway.

  “How?” she said, looking at the hole in Dr. Logan’s chest. “Who carries a gun in Zenith? Was it one of the military—?”

  “Oh god.” She heard Garros’ voice, and it was immediately reassuring. She got up and went to him. He hugged her, and she finally took her eyes from the cadaver. His voice rumbled in his chest as he spoke. “What happened—who did this?”

  Ezra walked into the room, looking at the body like it was a dangerous animal, and made his way to Dr. Logan’s desk. “Ezra, don’t touch anything.”

  She saw Ezra open a drawer, and his eyes went wide. “It’s gone,” the kid said.

  “What’s gone?”

  “The gun, he—” Ezra stammered. “Dr. Yuri had a gun in this drawer. He showed it to me two days ago. He threatened to kill himself in front of me.”

  “What?” Garros said. “What are you talking about? Why didn’t you say something?”

  “He didn’t kill himself!” Erin said. “Look at the wound in his chest! Look at his face! And where is the gun?”

  Jena returned with two medics, and it was then that Erin had to push her way out of the room, plowing through the crowd that had begun to gather in the hallway, drawn by the chaos. Garros went after her, and helped wipe the blood from her hands with a tissue. “Where’s Ezra?”

  “I’m right here!” Ezra said, followed by Jena.

  “Jena, I need you to find Poole and stay in your dormitories; we’ll come find you later. Ezra, come with us,” she said and walked away, towards Administration.

  Erin opened the door to her office, the small private study in the administration wing that she had barely used. Despite her initial intentions, the place was still covered in Alice’s trinkets; she had found it too difficult to remove them. Garros closed the door behind him, sealing the trio inside. “Ezra, what kind of gun was it?”

  “Uh . . . a gray one.”

  Hands shaking, Erin cleaned away all the remains of Dr. Logan’s blood from her skin using a box of tissues and bottled water, knowing she’d need a change of clothes soon. “You said you talked to Akiva. What did he tell you?”

  “Nothing,” he said. “Just that he had a meeting with Dr. Yuri. There was something he wanted to tell Akiva, but I don’t know. Erin, I don’t think Akiva would—”

  “Don’t say what he would or wouldn’t do,” Garros interrupted. “You saw him after the accident. He’s off his damn rocker. He’s violent. And he’s missing. His Creux is gone! He’s ruined your mother’s whole plan for all of Zenith.”

  “No, he hasn’t done that yet,” Erin said, and looked at a picture Alice kept on her desk, one of the few ones that didn’t include a lion. The Creux Defense Squad one year before, when Juliana was leader, and she and Alice were still alive. “Garros, we’re going to have to go after him.”

  “He took his Creux,” Garros repeated, giving prompt emphasis to every single word, as if trying to explain a simple concept to a dull child. “He’s new to piloting, but if he’s inside Milos Ravana, and he doesn’t want to be caught, we both know that we won’t be able to do a damned thing.”

  Erin scratched the back of her head, wishing Alice was there to lead them.

  She knew Garros was right; Akiva was unstoppable inside Milos Ravana. “We don’t need to fight him; we need him back. Garros, we might need to leave sooner than we expected. Maybe as soon as right now. We can’t let Akiva get away.” Erin saw Ezra become visibly agitated.

  “What are your ord
ers?” Garros asked.

  “Get Barnes and Kat and tell them that there was a change of plans. Tell them to make sure Atlas, Ares, and Nandi are ready to go at any moment’s notice,” she said. “I’ll talk with Director Blanchard but I don’t think we’re going to stick around much longer.”

  “What about—I thought someone else was coming with us,” Ezra said.

  “I don’t know,” she said. “I haven’t decided between Poole and Jena; I was supposed to review their performances later today to make a decision.”

  “You don’t need to. Poole is a better pilot,” Garros said.

  “But Jena is closer to him,” Ezra argued.

  “I can’t do this!” Erin said, feeling time bleeding away, like every second wasted was something precious and not to be wasted. Akiva was moving farther and farther away from Zenith, and they didn’t know where he was headed. “Ezra, you know them better than I do. I’m delegating this duty to you. Make a choice, let whomever you choose know, and be ready in the docking chambers. If you’re not there when we’re ready to leave, we’re leaving you behind, and Nandi will probably be destroyed. For real this time. Garros?”

  He nodded. “I’ll get the suits ready.”

  “I’ll see you all when it’s time to go,” she said.

  Ю

  Someone had purposefully sabotaged the escape plan.

  Tara Blanchard damned herself for not thinking of a better contingency plan, but she never expected sabotage from the inside. She had been sure everyone inside Zenith was loyal.

  She had just hung up the phone when Erin Perry ran into her office, covered in blood. “So it’s true,” she said.

  “Ma’am, Dr. Logan is dead. I think Akiva shot him before escaping,” she said.

  Tara felt dizzy. She fell on her chair and looked at the picture of Ezra, so handsome in his Zenith uniform. She felt her armpits wet with sweat. “And Milos Ravana?”

  “It’s gone,” Erin confirmed. “Akiva left with it.”

  “Erin, someone in Zenith is behind this,” she said. “There’s a saboteur in here. He or she killed Dr. Logan and helped Davenport. He couldn’t have left by himself; he needed someone to help him activate his Creux—someone to open the gates of the docking bay for him. The same someone who just blew the whistle on everything.”

  “Ma’am?”

  “I just got a call from Governor Heath,” she said. “He’s been told about the escapee. About Dr. Logan’s murder. He’s coming to Zenith—he’ll be here soon, and it’s not beneath him to bring the press along.”

  “Ma’am, what do you want me to do?”

  Tara looked at the picture of Ezra, and felt her heart burn. “I’ll do what I can to buy you time, but I need you to go right now. I’ll say there was an emergency—that I had to send all of you, including Milos Ravana, in an operation.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Erin said, and saluted. “That’s the best course of action.”

  “Remember what’s at stake,” Tara said. “Find Davenport, find the other pieces of The Armor of God. There will be a lot of work here, but Dr. Mizrahi and I will do our parts. I trust in you just like I trusted in Alice. I’m sure you will return.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” she said. “Of course we will, ma’am.”

  “And please . . . please take care of Ezra,” she said.

  When Erin left, Tara did something she hadn’t done for many years: She cried until she could cry no more. Hope has to be the last thing to die, she tried to remind herself, knowing that she might never see her son again.

  Ю

  Ezra ran through the wooden hallways of the administration wing. The team was entirely disassembled, and it was probably time to go. This was not a way to begin the most delicate mission in Zenith’s history, and what might be its last.

  As he ran, the faces of Jena and Poole flashed before his eyes like visions. Why had Erin delegated the choice to him? He didn’t want to have the burden of someone’s life on his back. If he made the wrong choice, and whomever he chose didn’t make it back, her death would be an imprint on the back of his mind forever.

  There was chaos in Zenith. Even during times of crisis, the facility had always appeared to be unyielding, never losing the reassuring impression of always being in control. Now, people came and went through its hallways, very few among them keeping any semblance of calm.

  The noise of a hundred terrified voices echoed throughout the entire complex, never giving silence a moment. They spoke of fear.

  Passing by the dining hall, he caught sight of a covered gurney being extracted from the Compatibility labs, surrounded by the medical team. He should have known that Dr. Yuri had been in trouble, either from himself or someone else. There was no reason why a man like him would lose his mind thus unless he was terribly scared of something or someone.

  It hadn’t been Akiva—that much he knew. Akiva had personal problems, and some of them ran deep, but he was not a murderer. Though he couldn’t argue with Erin when she said that nothing in the scene suggested the man had actually gone ahead and killed himself, the alternative was terrifying.

  Someone else in Zenith had pulled the trigger, and it had triggered much more than a bullet.

  “Ezra!” he heard Erin’s voice behind him when he finally found himself in the pilots’ lounge. Ezra stopped to catch his breath. “Ezra, have you talked to Poole and Jena?”

  “No, I just got here.” He took a deep breath.

  “Erin!” Tessa suddenly appeared behind them. “Erin, what’s happening? I heard something happened to Dr. Yuri but I couldn’t find any of the other pilots. Are you leaving now?”

  “Yes, Tessa!” Erin said. “Ezra, make your choice and go to the docking bay immediately. Someone alerted Governor Heath of what happened and he’s on his way. We only have the few minutes it takes him to get here to go; if he gets here before we leave, we might not leave at all.”

  Ezra saw Tessa’s face; it changed with the news.

  “Jena and Poole should be waiting in their dormitories, Ezra,” Erin said. “I’m going to make sure everything is ready in the docking bay, and remember: if you’re not there when we are ready, you’re staying. I’ll leave alone with Garros if I have to, but remember Nandi is going with or without you. This is our one chance.”

  “Erin, what can I do?” Tessa asked.

  “Go with Director Blanchard. She’ll know what you’re good for.” Tessa nodded and Erin wrapped her in a hug. “Thank you for everything, Tessa. I hope to see you again, but if I don’t . . . please make sure Zenith is saved. Make sure that if Roue falls, some of us died protecting it.”

  Erin ran away towards the compatibility lab, and before Ezra could go on the opposite direction, Tessa took his hand and hugged him. “Are you really going?” she asked, and appeared to be crying.

  Ezra didn’t know when it was that this link between them had been created, but suddenly she felt closer to him than even Jena or Poole. “It’s not too late to come with us,” he told her, still believing Tessa’s experience would make her a more valuable asset in the days ahead. “You’re a much better pilot than Jena or Poole. Certainly better than me.”

  She shook her head. “I didn’t want to say this, Ezra, but now I feel like I have to. If you leave Zenith tonight, you’re not coming back. None of you. What you’re looking for—it doesn’t exist.”

  “Don’t say that,” he said, almost angry by her declaration. “You don’t know that.”

  “Please, don’t go,” she pressed, and tightened her grip on his hand.

  “I don’t have a choice,” he replied, and yanked his hand away. “Please take care of yourself, Tessa.”

  He had lost too much time already, and he still didn’t know whom he would choose; a part of him hoped they had made a choice by themselves, but knowing them, the chances of an agreement, affable or not, were slim.

  When Ezra ran up the stairs, he could feel Tessa’s eyes on him. It was his first good-bye of the night, and the suddenness of their fli
ght began to feel heavy on him. He stopped when he reached the first landing.

  He was going to leave Zenith in a matter of minutes, and he didn’t know when he would return, or if he would return at all. No, he told himself; he couldn’t leave without saying good-bye to his mother.

  Ю

  It was a bad time for Lucius Barnes’ phone to fail. It was a rare occurrence; it only happened when the network was overloaded back in Roue, and he could imagine that it was. Working through the stress, fighting away his most pessimistic thoughts, all he wanted to do was talk to his husband. Luke was trying to call him, but every attempt at making the connection failed.

  The chaos had caught him napping in the Besoe Nandi crewmembers’ dormitory, where he had only slept a handful of nights since being relocated to Zenith. Dr. Mustang was not there, and he wondered why. More importantly, he wondered if the man knew that Besoe Nandi had not been truly destroyed, as the images of its public death had already been seen by every pair of eyes in Roue.

  Nothing seemed to be working in their favor. As a military man, he agreed with Kat: he was not happy with the sloppy planning, but the sheer unpredictability of the entire situation gave little space for anything else.

  Lucius had heard Jena knocking on the door, had heard Ezra leave with her. It wasn’t until about ten minutes after that he realized that something grim had happened. When Erin found him and told him about Dr. Logan’s death. Lucius barely had time to process the situation; he was tasked with finding Kat and prepare for an immediate launch.

  Now he was walking down the hallway to the docking chambers. The commotion in Zenith had allowed him and Kat to go in almost undetected, and it was a blessing; they didn’t need more things in their way.

  It wasn’t until they finished preparing Phoenix Atlas and Quantum Ares for launch that his phone finally made the connection to Roue. Luke’s voice at the other end of the line had never sounded sweeter to him, even if it was distorted by very obvious anxiety. “Lucius, what’s happening over there? I’m worried.”