Luca

by Jacob Whaler

  The door lights up, turning green. The panels bulge inward. Bits of plastic and metal blow into the cell. Smoke covers the open entrance.

  As the smoke clears, Qaara walks in with a Japanese girl. They both hold pulse rifles.

  Jedd grins. “How’d you find us?”

  “You’re not going to believe me.”

  “Try me.”

  Qaara turns to the girl. “I don’t have much time to explain, so listen carefully. This is my friend, Luca. She rescued me.”

  “Luca?” Jedd says.

  “That’s right.” Qaara puts an arm around Luca and pulls her close. “She doesn’t know English, but she understands it.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Qaara’s eyes narrow. “No more questions. Just listen. Luca can read your thoughts. If you talk to her, she might not understand the words you’re speaking, but she understands what you’re thinking. She can speak directly to your mind and put words in your head. And that’s not all. She can make people fall asleep. Don’t ask me how. I don't know. She has some kind of a telepathic gift.” Qaara takes a couple of steps forward, staring at the goo on Jedd’s wrist. “I recognize the C-TAC. Jerk your hands and make it go hard.” She drops one pulse rifle to the floor and levels the other at Jedd. “Trust me.”

  With his hands in front, Jedd pulls them apart quickly. The goo turns to glass.

  “Now hold still.” Qaara sights down the barrel and shoots at Jedd.

  Luca flinches as the glass shatters into small grains, freeing Jedd’s hands.

  “Now your feet.” Qaara takes aim, shoots and turns to Ricky. “You’re next.”

  “Hold on!” Ricky brings his hands up. “Be careful.” He jerks his wrists apart and squeezes his eyes shut.

  With a couple of quick shots, his bonds shatter into fine powder.

  Jedd and Ricky stand together, out of breath, shaking.

  “Come on,” Qaara says. “No time. I’ll explain on the way. Bring these." She tosses each of them a pulse rifle and takes off out the door through the smoke. “I hope you know how to shoot.”

  The hallway is deserted except for the two guards lying on the floor outside the cell door.

  Qaara runs ahead of Jedd, holding Luca’s hand and pulling her along.

  “Where we going?” Jedd says, a few paces behind.

  “To Mercer’s quarters.”

  Jedd lunges forward and grabs Qaara, pulling her to a stop. “Why? Isn’t that the last place we want to go if we’re trying to escape."

  “I’m not escaping.” Qaara glances up at Jedd. “We have to get the word out, to the world.” She pulls a memory cube from her pocket. “It’s all in here. Mercer’s quarters is the only place with an open Mesh-node. I’m going to upload this. Everyone deserves an equal chance.”

  “Equal chance to do what? Die?” Jedd shakes his head. “No, Qaara. Mercer will kill you. Let’s get away from here. Find a place to hide.”

  “Not before I get the word out.” Qaara pulls away. “That might be the last thing I do, but I’m going to do it. People need to know.”

  “And I need to keep you alive.”

  Qaara stops, turns. “Jedd. Listen to me.” She pulls his head close so she can whisper in his ear. “You’ve been a great friend. I like you a lot.”

  “Like?” Jedd feels the words pouring out of his mouth. He can’t stop them. “Is that all?”

  “Isn’t that enough? For now?”

  “No, it’s not enough. Qaara, I—”

  Qaara puts her fingers on Jedd’s lips. “Don’t say it. Please don’t make it any harder. For both of us.” She points back in the opposite direction. “If you want to escape, go that way. Take Ricky. Now I’ve got to go. I'm going to tell the world.” She grabs Luca’s hand, and they sprint away.

  Jedd and Ricky watch them disappear around a corner.

  “Well?” Ricky says.

  Jedd swings the strap of the pulse rifle over his shoulder. “Come on. Maybe we can keep her alive.”

  66

  CRUNCH

  They have no idea what’s coming.

  In the darkness of his personal quarters, Mercer sits on the same black leather sofa he had in his office suite at Genesis Corporation. He stares at a video feed from a camera high on the Genesis building, pointing down one of the avenues that runs the length of the City in a straight line north.

  The army from the Zone rules the streets, with occasional challenges by freaks from the Fringe. Limited Mesh connectivity has been restored, but the delicate electronics of the City’s fleet of heli-ships are fried beyond repair. The same goes for the pulse weapons of the City’s police force. Most of the structures have run out of reserve power, including the Genesis building, where only solar feeds keep the cameras running.

  The streets are patrolled by old army tanks, with men and women from the Zone riding on top, sporting machine guns.

  Glass skyscrapers and sidewalks are plastered with bulging nodules from the fallen ash, lined up in perfect rows like eggs laid by a spawning monster. In a matter of hours, the nodules will burst, releasing payloads of acid.

  It will be sweet revenge.

  All those who doubted Mercer’s talent and fitness to inherit his father’s empire will be silenced. Dead.

  He’ll keep the video feeds on as long as the cameras run, relishing the slow unraveling of humankind’s dominion. And the beginning of his own.

  His jax glows neon green in the dark. A call from his security services.

  “Why are you disturbing me?”

  A small holo face pops above his jax. “Sir, there’s been unusual activity in the domes.”

  “What activity?”

  “We discovered unconscious guards outside one of the guest’s rooms. And the guest is gone.”

  “Which guest?” Mercer holds his breath.

  “Qaara Kapoor.”

  The name pierces him, a hot blade into tender flesh. “Where is she?”

  “We’re not sure, sir. She manually removed her tracker and made it to one of the detention rooms, disabled the guards there and set a couple of prisoners free.”

  There’s a long pause.

  “Who?” Mercer finally says, though he already knows the answer.

  “The two men who came with you on the flight from the City.”

  The blade twists half a turn.

  “And where are they now?”

  “We’re still trying to determine that.”

  “Keep looking for them. Do a thorough scan of the surveillance feeds.”

  “Right away, sir.”

  “And send a full squadron to my quarters. Immediately.”

  “Will do, sir.”

  The holo image fades into the darkness.

  How did Qaara manage to escape? She’s a smart girl, but with no access to weapons, how did she overpower the guards outside her door? There’s only one answer.

  Someone is helping her.

  Outside his suite, Mercer hears muffled voices, then two thuds. The sound of metal and high-impact plastic crashing to the floor. He turns to face the door.

  It glows light green and bulges inward. He hits the floor near the sofa as the explosion rips through his apartment.

  A woman emerges from the smoke. Mercer can tell from her gait that it’s Qaara. Dressed in black. With a pulse rifle. A teenage girl and two men follow her.

  How did she do it?

  Other voices come from the hallway. That should be the security squadron, a bit late.

  One of the men with Qaara looks back at the hole where the door used to be. “We’ve got company!” he yells.

  Mercer is still on the floor, squinting through the smoke. Before he can react, the man grabs him by the collar and jerks him to his feet. The cold point of a pulse rifle jabs him under the chin.

  “Name’s Jedd, in case you forgot. From the Fringe. Former employee of Genesis Corporation. A good job while it lasted. And this is my best friend, Ricky. We hitched a ride with you, remember?”


  “My security forces will arrive any minute.” Mercer coughs. “You and your friends are going to die.”

  “Maybe. Maybe not. Either way, it’s a tough day for you, Mercer. A pulse bullet is waiting for permission from my trigger finger to shatter your jaw and make a mess of your frontal cortex, not to mention the top of your skull. Just stay nice and quiet, and nobody gets hurt."

  Qaara runs past them with the girl behind her. She pulls out her jax. A hologram of schematics pops up. She studies the holo. “Where’s the Mesh-node?”

  “Which one?” Mercer asks.

  “Outbound.”

  “Why do you need it?” Mercer hears approaching footsteps. Just a few more seconds and the security team will arrive. Keep them talking. "You don’t have the access code. Besides, Qaara, there’s nothing you can do to stop the process. You know that. There’s nothing any of us can do.”

  “He’s stalling.” Jedd jabs the tip of the pulse rifle under Mercer’s chin.

  “Found it.” Qaara drops the jax into her pocket and runs to an oak counter at the entrance to Mercer’s sleeping quarters. "Bring him here.”

  Jedd drags Mercer to where Qaara stands.

  Qaara lifts up the counter, revealing a silver number pad and a small bluescreen. She quickly enters a series of numbers.

  The words Access Denied appear on the bluescreen.

  “What’s the access code?” Qaara balances the memory cube in her palm.

  “I see.” Mercer laughs. “You expect me to tell you the code so that you can upload the contents of the cube to the entire Mesh. Or what's left of it.” He shakes his head. “Don’t you understand? That would spoil all the fun."

  Qaara bends down to the level of the girl. “Luca. Can you extract it?”

  The girl nods and closes her eyes.

  There’s a rush of heavy feet on the floor behind them. Men with black armor, helmets and pulse rifles plunge through the smoke at the entrance.

  The girl walks from the side of Qaara to the number pad and calmly presses a series of ten numbers. The metal covering pulls away, revealing a semitransparent oval. It’s glowing a light green.

  Mercer opens his eyes wide as his body stiffens. “How did you—” He glares at the girl.

  Qaara drops the memory cube into a slot next to the oval. “Done.” She nods to Jedd.

  The last thing Mercer remembers is the crunch of something hard coming down on his head.

  67

  REVOLUTION

  There’s so many of them. What should I do?

  Qaara hears Luca’s words in her mind and thinks a reply: make them fall asleep, one by one, just like the guards outside.

  Got it, Luca says.

  Eyes on the soldiers, Jedd pulls up Mercer’s limp body with one arm. Qaara presses the tip of her gun into the back of Mercer’s head. After Jedd gives him the sign, Ricky does the same. Luca moves behind Qaara.

  Ten men in battle armor stand in Mercer’s front room with fingers curled on the triggers of their pulse rifles.

  Jedd clears his throat. “I’d hate to see Mr. Mercer die. Nobody move until we get this figured out.”

  Stepping to the side of Jedd, Qaara ignores him and keeps the tip of her rifle pointing at Mercer’s head. She looks at the soldiers.

  “Gentlemen, I think we can all agree on one thing. Mr. Mercer isn’t going to like being dead. On the other hand,” Qaara nods to Jedd and Ricky on each side, "none of us really care. We’ve done what we came to do. I just released the details of this whole project onto the Mesh.”

  One of the soldiers steps forward from the line. “We have strict orders. Protect Mr. Mercer. Kill all intruders.”

  “Then you better decide which is more important.” Qaara presses the tip of her rifle deeper into Mercer’s temple. He twitches. "You can’t have both.”

  The soldier lets the point of his gun drift to the floor. “You’re outnumbered. And your pulse rifles can’t penetrate our armor."

  Words from Luca float in Qaara’s mind.

  They’re all scared.

  “Let me give you some food for thought.” Qaara turns to face the men. “You’re here to protect Mercer. And in case you haven’t noticed, he doesn’t put a high value on any human life other than his own. If he dies, you’ve failed. You know what a kill switch is, right? I’m guessing he implanted one in each of you. When he dies, so do you.”

  “You’re bluffing,” the soldier says.

  He thinks you might be right. All of them do.

  “Then shoot.”

  The soldier swallows. “We don’t want to hurt you. Just drop your weap—”

  He collapses into a heap, visor bouncing off the floor.

  Qaara smiles. “Who wants to be next?”

  The soldiers glance at their fallen comrade and each other.

  Another drops to the floor. His pulse rifle goes off, blowing a hole in the ceiling.

  “What’s going on?” a soldier asks.

  All the rest, Luca, if you can, Qaara thinks.

  “I warned you.” Qaara scans the row of standing soldiers. “Good night.”

  One by one, the soldiers go down. The last one runs for the door and crumples near the entrance.

  “Good work, Luca.” Qaara steps forward. “OK, everyone. Let’s go."

  “What about Mercer?” Jedd says.

  Qaara walks to the door, pulling Luca with her. “Leave him.”

  “You’re not going to kill him? Like the soldiers?”

  “They’re asleep, thanks to Luca. I’m not killing anyone, and neither are you. Leave Mercer. Come on.”

  Jedd drops Mercer hard on the floor, making sure the back of his head makes contact with a satisfying thud. “Where are we going to hide?”

  “We’re not.”

  “Then what are we going to do?”

  “Start a revolution.” Qaara turns to Ricky. “Help me hack into the intercom system. I’m calling a meeting.”

  “With pleasure.”

  68

  STATE OF EMERGENCY

  “How did they all get away?” Mercer sits on the black leather sofa, stroking the back of his head, his hair matted with blood. “They were here. You were here. What happened?"

  One of the soldiers steps forward. “We all heard the same words in our head.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “It was a girl’s voice.” The soldier stares at the floor. “I know it sounds crazy, but she came into our minds. Said good night. And then we fell to the floor. Everything went black.”

  Mercer thinks of the girl at Qaara’s side. The same one who entered the code on the lock to his Mesh-node, even though he was the sole person in the world who knew it, had never written it down and had changed it only a few hours earlier.

  How was she able to extract it from his mind?

  Impossible.

  The soldiers shift their feet, hands at their sides.

  “Why didn’t you kill them on sight?” Mercer bites into a lemon and chews.

  “They were holding you hostage.” The soldier takes a step back into line. “One of them had a gun to your head. They said they'd kill you if we tried to get a shot off.”

  “That’s exactly the kind of situation I hired you to handle. You’re supposed to have training.”

  “That’s when we started dropping to the ground, one by one.” The soldier stutters. “We didn’t know what was happening.”

  In the hallway, a crowd of people shuffle by.

  “Where are they going?” Mercer says.

  “To the auditorium.” Another soldier steps forward. “For a meeting.”

  “A meeting?” Mercer stands, hand on the sofa for balance. “I didn’t call a meeting.”

  “You didn’t. She did.”

  “Qaara?”

  “Yes.” The soldier’s voice drops to a whisper. “She's been on the intercom. Said that you were incapacitated and she was taking over. Word has gotten out to most of the world about these domes and what’s going to
happen. People are on their way here.”

  Mercer feels the blood drain from his face. “No!”

  “She’s called a state of emergency. Thrown the domes open to anyone who can get here before the end comes. Hundreds of transport ships are on their way. Maybe more. Anything that wasn’t destroyed by the ion storms.”

  Mercer breathes deeply. “She’s destroying all that I’ve worked to build.”

  “People are taking refuge in deep mines, concrete enclosures, submarines, old fallout shelters, high-rise buildings, mountaintops. Anywhere they can get away from the spheres that make the killer molecule.”

  “Killer molecule?” Mercer shakes his head. “So everyone knows about that, too?”

  The soldier points at the bluescreen on the wall. “It’s on the Mesh, or what’s left of it.” Images from around the world are arranged in a grid.

  “So it’s a full-scale rebellion?”

  “Looks that way.”

  “Then we have no choice.” Mercer stands. “I’ve prepared for every contingency, including this one. How many of the security forces are loyal?”

  “About a quarter.”

  “That’s enough.”

  69

  RISING STEAM

  Qaara checks her jax. “Yes, I’m sure about this. No doubts. We have to let them in.”

  “All of them?” Jedd says.

  “All of them.”

  “But what about food? Water? Sanitation?” Jedd eyes the swelling crowd. “We’re going to run out of room and resources.”

  “I’ve seen the schematics of the domes. Mercer built them to comfortably house 3,000 people for months or years. Most of them have a room to themselves. If we fill in all the empty spaces, apartments, hallways, everything, we can fit 200,000. Maybe more." Qaara pushes through the chaotic sea of bodies in the auditorium to a stage set up against the wall, never letting go of Luca’s hand. “I’m not going to lock anyone out. The doors are open for anyone who can make it here.”

  A wave of confidence swells in Qaara. She’s never been more sure of anything.

  “Keep the bluescreens with the outside feeds going as long as you can.” Qaara looks in the direction of Ricky. “I want everyone here to see and understand what the world is facing. No more secrets.”