* * * *
I stumbled out of the building Ahriman had been holding us in and into sunlight cut by a thick coating of pollution haze that lingered mere feet above the ground. Armise’s left arm was slung around my neck and I had to use every cell in my body to prop him up and lead us forward as we followed Ahriman’s father. Armise’s left hand tightened in my shirt when his steps would falter. That damning left hand. It couldn’t have been that one that Ahriman had taken. The loss of his right arm would hinder Armise from ever doing his job again.
Armise was cold in a humid, sickly way. We had to move faster.
“Survive,” I said to him under my breath. Repeated again. With his head pressed to my shoulder for support he had to hear me.
Armise sighed. “I don’t die today, Merq. Not this way.”
We didn’t have to walk far before we started encountering people. They scurried away from us, held screams of horror in when they saw Armise. This was Opposition territory and all of them were too scared to help, too afraid of consequences to step into the fray, just as Ahriman had said to me. With each person who turned away from us, with each faltering step that told me Armise was losing strength, my anger grew.
“Maybe if you just left me here—” Armise gargled out. “I’m holding you back.”
I shook my head. “You’re the only reason I have to move forward.”
Dr. Blanc came to a door and I struggled to hold on to Armise as we came to a stop. When the door opened there was a woman standing inside who surveyed us and our disheveled states.
“What are you thinking, bringing something like this here?” she accused Dr. Blanc.
“Because my son is the one who did that to him.”
The woman’s shoulders sagged and she looked over Dr. Blanc at us. “Are you Opposition or Revolution?”
I gripped Armise tighter. “I don’t have a side in this war. Only him.”
Then she was pulling us inside, calling out to others and instructing Dr. Blanc where to find the supplies he needed. She pointed me to a bed to lay Armise down and barked out orders to other people who rushed around us. But all I could really see was Armise.
I leaned over him. “You’re a good man, Darcan.”
Then I kissed him. For what could be the last time.
It couldn’t be the last time, it never was. I clung to that thought because “this is the last time” was what I’d been saying for fifteen years, and it hadn’t yet come true.
The heat rolling off of Armise’s skin brought everything into stark clarity.
The touch of his lips to mine, of his skin against mine, hadn’t been the last no matter how many times I’d thought it would be. But this time, it actually could.
I refused to believe this would be our end.
Index
Timeline of the Borders War
2058 - Winchester rifle built that will be fired in the opening ceremony
2256 - Last Olympic Games held
2256 - Singapore takes over China after nuclear meltdown and the economy collapses
2258 - Borders War officially starts with Singapore’s attempt to take over Australia and Russia
2268 - Merq Grayson (Merq’s great-grandfather, six generations back) is born
2308 - Sonicbullet technology is invented by Merq Grayson and his name is officially classified
2348 - Last real bullet fired during the war
2352 - Paper records are purged and transferred to electronic format
2372 – Nationalist underground movement formed
2417 - Targeted electromagnetic pulses, unleashed by the Nationalists, destroy all records
2491 –Wensen Kersch born
2493 - Merq’s dad, Lucien Grayson, born
2498 - The existence of one remaining infochip begins as a rumor
2502 – Opposition rises
2503 - Merq’s mom, Tallitia Grayson, born
2511 – Ahriman Blanc born
2512 – Revolution formed
2518 – Neveed Niaz born
2519 - Armise Darcan born
2522 – Holly Jegs born
2523 - Merq Grayson born
2524 – Ricor Simion born
2528 - Merq’s parents “die” in the attack on the capital that places President Kersch in power, Merq becomes a ward of the Continental States
2538 – Merq joins the Youth Peacemaker training program
2539 - Merq and Neveed start sleeping together
2540 - Neveed becomes Merq’s handler
2541 - Merq meets Armise in Bogotá through the eye of the rifle scope
2542 - Merq learns from analysts who Armise is
2545 - Jegs is captured in Singapore, and during her rescue Armise kisses Merq for the first time
2546 – Armise slices Merq neck in the Outposts
2546 – Merq learns about his namesake’s house in the Northern Territories
2546 - Armise begins working for the States, and the DCR standoff occurs where Merq acquires the infochip and takes Armise’s finger in the process
2546 – Truce called in the Borders War, active combat doesn’t stop for another two years
2548 - The Consign Treaty officially ending the Borders War is signed in the United Union, Merq is recruited by Ahriman to be a part of the Opposition, Merq and Armise meet up in Bogotá
2549-2553 – Merq lives in Singapore with Ahriman Blanc as part of his protection detail
2553 - Planning and construction begins for holding the first Olympics in the capital city of the States
2558 - Merq reignites the Borders War when he assassinates the Premiere of Singapore, who is also the leader of the Opposition
2558 – Merq and Armise go on the hunt for members of the Olympic Committee
2559 – Nationalist attack on the president’s bunker in the capital
2560 – President Kersch assassinated by Armise
2560 – Merq and Armise held by Ahriman
Characters
Merq Grayson – Peacemaker, colonel, and sniper for the Continental States
Armise Darcan - Dark Ops, officer, and sniper for the People’s Republic of Singapore
Wensen Kersch - President of the States and commander of the Revolution
Neveed Niaz – Merq’s former handler, General for the States
Ahriman Blanc – Former General for the States, leader of the Opposition
Holly Jegs - Peacemaker for the States, major, member of the President’s team
Ricor Simion - Peacemaker for the States, capitan, member of the President’s team
Chen Ying - nicknamed “the key,” mathematical genius and child prodigy tasked with breaking the encryption on the infochip
Tallitia Grayson - Merq’s mother
Lucien Grayson - Merq’s father
Exley – member of the jacquerie, contractor for the Revolution
Feliu Casas – doctor for the President of the States and Revolution
Manny – Dark Ops officer for Singapore
Sarai Kersch – Wensen Kersch’s wife
Grimshaw Jegs – leader of the Nationalists and Holly Jegs’ brother
Priyessa Niaz – PsychHAg, Neveed’s mother
Dr. Calum Blanc – former doctor for the States, Ahriman’s father
Kariabba Tivy – President of the DCR
Franx Heseltine – Prime Minister for the UU
Isida Agri – President of the AmFed
Shio Pearce – Premiere of Singapore
Av Garratty – fake identity used by Merq Grayson
Athol – hybrid, affiliated with the Nationalists
Elina – hybrid, affiliated with the Nationalists
Dakra – hybrid that works solo
Nayan – Armise’s aunt
Sharlat – Armise’s cousin and Nayan’s daughter
Glossary
Analyst - soldiers tasked with the study and interpretation of intelligence
Blood tie lock – a lock that is preprogrammed to open only
for someone with a certain DNA profile
Borders War - a worldwide war that began in 2246 and continued until 2548 when the treaty was signed, over four hundred million people died in the three hundred years it was waged
Chemsense - chemical weapon designed by Singapore, widely used in the Borders War despite being condemned and outlawed
Comm chip - a communication and information transfer device that is either handheld or implanted in the body, often combined with a transport and tracker chip and implanted in a soldier’s wrist (see also “transport chip” and “tracker”)
D3 – Peacemaker shorthand for “detail, ditch and decimate”
Dark Ops - special forces for Singapore
Dronebots - unmanned aircraft used for surveillance and attack
Infochip - a microchip rumored to be the only remaining depository of humanity’s documented history
Nationalists - people who want the five remaining countries to maintain their superpower status to maintain order
Opposition - a movement started by wealthy individuals who wanted to keep the balance of power in their favor, regardless of the formalized power structure of countries
Peacemakers - soldiers for the States
PsychHAgs - shorthand for Psychological Health Agents, a sector of the military with the responsibility of preparing soldiers for surviving the brutality of war with all of their secrets intact
Revolution - a movement started with the ideal of bringing power back to the citizens and seeking to break up the five countries into districts that are representative of their citizenry
Sonicbullet - sound waves harnessed as ammunition that is able to explode internal organs on impact
Sonicrifle, sonicpistol - weapons created to deliver sonicbullets
Surge - medication that places targeted nanoparticles into the bloodstream to speed healing (also highly addictive)
Synth - synthetic limb
Tracker - a chip that tracks the location of the person carrying it, either on or in their person (see also “comm chip” and “transport chip”)
Transport chip - a device that allows a person to use one of the sanctioned molecular transfer hubs scattered across the globe, transport is a painful process as the technology is still in its infancy, transport of any person can be harmful or potentially fatal, so its use is limited (see also “comm chip” and “tracker”)
Countries of the world in 2558
Continental States (the States)
Leader: President
Color associated with the country: vermillion and yellow
People’s Republic of Singapore (Singapore)
Leader: Premiere
Color associated with the country: cobalt blue and silver
United Union (UU)
Leader: Prime Minister
Color associated with the country: royal purple and black
American Federation (AmFed)
Leader: President
Color associated with the country: emerald green and peacock blue
Dark Continental Republic (DCR)
Leader: President
Color associated with the country: gold amber, white, and earth brown
Coming Soon from Pride Publishing:
The Borders War: Strength of the Rising Sun
S.A. McAuley
Released 26th January 2016
Excerpt
Chapter One
September 2560
Merq Grayson’s 37th year
The People’s Republic of Singapore
Armise was dying and there was nothing I could do but wait.
I’d been in enough battlefield situations to know that the urgency with which the wounded were treated said more about their chances for survival than their outward injuries. In Armise’s case, both indicators were bad. I could understand enough of the Singaporean dialect the people around me spoke to glean answers to some of my questions about his status. Enough to know there was nothing I could do to help Armise live.
A knife, I told them when asked what had taken off his arm.
A man, I answered when someone asked who had done it. Even though Dr. Blanc had mentioned his son at the door and that was what had gotten us entrance, I didn’t think anyone else needed to know Armise was Ahriman’s victim.
Because of his association with me, Armise was now a victim. Guilt slashed inside me, responsibility cutting at me every time I glimpsed his marred body.
How the fuck had I allowed that to be done to him?
They tied him down with rope and long strips of cloth when he tried to roll off the bed and to his feet after they stuck a syringe of something into his veins. His blood had to have been heavy with the weight of intravenous nanos. Dr. Blanc pushed aside certain solutions in favor of others and I hoped that he knew enough about what Ahriman had been feeding us that he could avoid a toxic combination of competing nano-laced cocktails. Armise didn’t wake and yet his body reacted.
That gave me hope and it shouldn’t have.
I looked at the stump where his arm had been and my stomach rolled, threatened to purge what little was in there. His arm was gone and there was nothing I could do to fix him, to change this, to make a different decision and never leave that first camp in the steppe. We should have forced Ahriman to us and killed him on sight. I should have felled everyone in my path and emptied the land around us so no one would dare to come close.
I should have protected Armise.
There was so much I’d misjudged—so many incorrect decisions and outcomes I’d drawn—that I didn’t know where to start cataloging my errors and offenses. I had brought harm to the one person I didn’t want to live without. The only person I valued more than myself.
And there was a chance Armise wouldn’t live for me to tell him that.
The color was draining from Armise’s face and he was fever hot, sweat rolling off him. There was no part of him that was consciously aware. He was deep into the pain, lost to it. I couldn’t lose him like this.
I can’t lose him. I just can’t. That thought repeated in my head as I watched over him, crowding all other thought out and ramping up the anxiety building in my veins.
I couldn’t…
I—
‘Not everything is about you, Merq,’ I remembered Ahriman saying, the memory of his accusation slamming into me. I didn’t want to admit that anything Ahriman had ever said made sense, let alone that I believed it and took it to heart. But this critique was pointed at the correct target. What Armise was enduring right now wasn’t about me.
Armise didn’t deserve to die like this.
“He’s getting worse,” I barked at Dr. Calum Blanc, Ahriman’s father, who was at Armise’s side checking his vitals with a scanner.
Dr. Blanc finished what he was doing then turned to face me. “We know. Now get out.” He went back to work over Armise and I took a step away from the bed, stumbling as I lost my equilibrium.
“Don’t fucking touch that!” I heard Dr. Blanc yell at a man who stood by Armise’s head and my vision started to white out as I realized that someone had tried to touch the chip implanted at the base of Armise’s neck.
“Get out of here, Merq,” he chastised me again.
I staggered from the room, deeper into the house, into a glass-encased space where the ceiling soared high above. The sky outside was swaths of gray, undulating clouds. When I looked down again my neck cracked from the movement and I clenched my hands only to find that they were sticky, tacky from being drenched in Armise’s blood. I sucked in a breath and peered down at my clothes, realizing just how much blood I was covered in.
My stomach rolled again, surged, and I was swallowing down an acidic bite of bile. I had no way to reach out to the people I knew could help. Shit, I had no idea if any of them were still alive since it had been four months…
I didn’t know if I wanted to reach out to anyone in the States who was part of the Revolution. Armise didn’t deserve to lose his life to a cause that wasn’t hi
s own.
To a cause that wasn’t mine anymore.
When he woke up, and we could find our way out of Singapore, I was done. I’d given enough of myself to a movement that had never given me anything back. When I had a man at my side who’d willingly given me everything.
* * * *
It was hours before Dr. Blanc came to find me, and the only reason I knew that was because of the darkness settling in above the atrium ceiling.
“He may not live,” was the first thing he said to me.
I choked on a dark laugh. Hours later and Armise’s prognosis hadn’t changed, but my view of my world had irreparably shifted.
“He will or you won’t.”
Dr. Blanc turned on his heel and plopped down next to me, resting his head on the wall and closing his eyes. “You’re not the worst threat I face by treating him.”
Ahriman. The unknowns from Anubis. War. Strife. There were so many threats I couldn’t maintain a count or catalog of their severity anymore. Dr. Blanc was right though, I wasn’t on that list.
“Then why are you doing it?”
He pulled off a pair of gloves, chucking them into a waste bin, and swiped his bare hands on his pants. “I believe medicine can still do good.”
I huffed and took to my feet. I couldn’t sit. As I paced back and forth in front of the door leading to Armise’s room, I ached to get inside there and evaluate every inch of him. I needed to see some indication that Armise was fighting this, or that his genetmods were.
“Do you have the stitch mod? Did you try it?”
Dr. Blanc faced me. “Since he’s the son of a shaman, you may want to retrieve his beads.”
I stopped pacing in favor of staring at him slack-jawed. “What?”
He scrunched his brows together. “Which part?”
“All of it.”
“His mother was a shaman—a spiritual leader. The bracelets he wears are a northern nomadic tribal tradition. One set for the left and one for the right, for balance. He’s obviously missing the set for the right. I don’t know if they work or not but if he believes enough to wear them…” Dr. Blanc shrugged.
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