Denn couldn't believe it. All of Dani's efforts to take her brother to Earth had been in vain thanks to him. Guilt inundated his mind.
“I’m so sorry, Dani,” he said, sadly.
“Don’t worry, it’s not your fault, Denn... The truth is that I was beginning to have my doubts. I didn't want to leave him alone; it would have been very sad for me."
"And why didn't you enrol him in a school on Toralo?"
"I was taking him to a special school, unique in the galaxy. Earth was the only option."
"What kind of school?"
Dani remained silent for a moment whilst she decided whether to tell the whole truth to Denn. There were many schools throughout the whole galaxy, but Dani was taking Qein to Earth for a very important reason; it was the only school for convergences in all The Union.
“Promise me you won’t say anything. There are people who could think ill.”
“I promise you!” said Denn, firmly, “I won’t say anything.”
“Qein is a convergence.”
Denn was surprised to hear what Dani was telling him. After a second, he laughed a little.
“Convergences attract,” he said in a low voice.
“What’s that?” asked Dani, who had not managed to hear what Denn had murmured.
“Nothing. Don’t worry. I won’t tell anyone, but you’ve no reason to worry. Qein looks very normal. Convergences are not as bad as people think. If you want, I can take him to train with us in the mornings. Although you might not think it, it can help him. I’m going to speak about it with Senlar. Qein can benefit a lot from it.”
“Thank you!" replied Dani, very much uplifted at Denn's attitude. "That's why I put so much effort into taking him to Earth; I wanted him to be able to turn his condition into something useful."
"You'll see, at the moment people can be afraid, but in the near future it won't be like that. The convergences will help ensure the peace and security of The Union; somebody very important told me on Earth."
"In any case, that's no longer so important. Now we're here."
"I know it seems like we're trapped here, but we’ll think of something. We're going to be all right, you'll see there's nothing to worry about."
"Thanks, Denn... Now go away, I have work to do, and you do as well."
Denn left for his cabin to prepare himself for his day of work. After the chat, many doubts and concerns had inundated his head. The guilt returned to haunt him. They were prisoners on an unknown planet, far away from their families and confined to their fort. He was the cause.
After getting ready, he made his way to where they kept the excavation team, to meet with Senlar and the rest of the soldiers with whom they usually went out to gather food.
It was a very small building that had been constructed to put away weapons, protective vests, and other things they used on their forays from the fort. Only a few had access to the place; it's content was jealously looked after.
When he had barely arrived, Senlar greeted him:
"I was just beginning to get worried, friend," he joked.
Denn asked the soldiers very nicely for a moment to talk in private with Senlar, and they agreed without protest.
"Of course, friend. Will be waiting outside," said one of the soldiers before they left, leaving the two of them alone in there.
"What is it, Denn?"
Denn's crestfallen demeanour worried Senlar; he always looked so optimistic and happy, but now it was clear that something was bothering him. Before answering, Denn walked to a bench and sat down.
"A moment ago, I spoke with Dani. She said some things that worried me."
"What are you talking about? What did she tell you?" asked Senlar, sitting down beside him.
"A lot of things... Did you know that little Qein is a convergence?"
"Are you sure?" asked Senlar, surprised.
"Yes, it was Dani who told me."
"Incredible...! Do you remember what I told you? Convergences attract!" said Senlar with a smile.
"I realise... We ought to train with the boy: look at the good it's done me. It could be good for him."
"Of course!" he affirmed, smiling. "Besides, this is your little brother in law we’re talking about, you should look after him," he said to him in an amused tone. Denn barely smiled. Senlar guessed that there was something else that was bothering him. There was a pause before Senlar continued: “What's the matter, Denn?"
"Dani told me she's afraid we'll become prisoners in this fort... I hadn't thought about it, but she's right. The fear is keeping people captive in this place... We ourselves, the ones in charge, prohibit them from leaving here. That can't be good."
"I know, Denn, but... What do you want us to do? It's dangerous for people to leave the fort. It's for their own good."
"And how long is that going to last, Senlar? How long are they going to be prisoners in here?"
"As long as necessary, friend," he said, with certain annoyance, "we're doing what we can to protect these people. I thought you felt the same way as me."
Denn was looking increasingly more anguished. It was as if reality was only just hitting him. He was beginning to despair.
"I can't stay here, Senlar, I have things to do. Important things. This place is a prison."
"You have things to do? Have you gone mad?" he said, and got up from the bench, somewhat annoyed. "What are you suggesting, Denn? Do you want to get on a ship and go home?"
"I know!" exclaimed Denn, distressed. "... I know we can’t get out of here. It's just that... I feel so guilty."
"What are you talking about, Denn? We've done everything we can for these people. We look after them as if they were our family, and virtually every day we risk our lives out there just to bring them a bit of food. Some would say we are doing more than our share. Why would you be starting to feel guilty? You've done nothing more than take care of these people."
"You don't know anything, Senlar... You don't know."
The silence came whilst Senlar tried to understand what Denn was saying. He looked at him with an expression of puzzlement; nothing of what he was talking about was making sense.
"What do you mean, Denn? What is it that I don't know?"
"It's just that... I have to get out of here. I have to avoid some things."
"What things? What are you talking about, Denn, what's going on?"
"The Colonisers... They’re going to destroy the Earth, they're going to kill everyone in the Solar System and the Primary Systems."
"What?" it was clear from his expression that he wasn't understanding anything. “How do you know that, Denn? Did it say something in the diary?"
"That isn't it... I know because of my convergence..."
Senlar was seized by sadness in the moment those words left his friend’s mouth. Weeks earlier, when Denn had confessed to being a convergence, he had assured him that he was all right and level-headed. Now he was doubtful of that. It was very likely that his head had not been able to deal with it; that he had gone mad.
"I think I've already told you, Denn, convergences... The memories you obtained were from someone living in another universe... None of that is real here."
"It's going to happen, Senlar, I know. The diary we found confirmed my suspicions. Their plans for making more like them... They're creating an army."
"Listen to me, Denn, none of that is true. Your mind is playing a bad trick on you."
"No, Senlar! It isn't like that; the memories I received... I had told you that they were nothing; that the memories were insignificant... but I lied. I don't know how to explain it. But they were regarding the memories of someone who experienced the Coloniser’s attack on The Union. Their universe, it was the same as this one, I know."
"I'm telling you, Denn, you're worrying over nothing. I couldn't even say with certainty that what you saw was real in another universe. Let alone this one.”
“That person, the one from my convergence... He was a convergence as well. He knew abo
ut it before it was going to happen in his universe, the same as I know it now."
"This... This is absurd..."
Senlar was bewildered, it now seemed him that Denn had lost his mind. None of what he was saying made sense. After mulling it over, a horrible thought came to him.
"Hold on a moment, Denn... A minute ago you said you felt guilty. Why?"
Denn looked resigned, there was no going back now. There was no reason to lie any more. He got up, and took a few steps in order to give himself some time to answer.
"In the parallel universe, everything started with C0-UN1. He was on Earth, the same as in this universe; he was activated, and became their infiltrator within The Union. He was the one that initiated everything..."
"C0? And you warned someone in The Union? So that’s why you were taking him to be checked over? Was that what happened?"
"Nobody would have believed me. The person in the parallel universe tried to warn them, but it wasn't enough. In his universe, they performed tests on C0 and ignored the warnings. If I had tried to warn anybody, the same thing would have happened. I knew where C0 would be, so I went to fetch him ... But that isn't enough to hold off the attack, I have a lot to do; if I don't do it, I will have only achieved delaying the whole thing."
“You went to fetch him? Speak clearly, for once!”
“I stole him! All right? I stole him from the Earth! I had no other choice.”
“You stole him?” he asked, taking his head with both hands. “And what happened next?”
“They followed me, I had to escape, or it would have been for nothing. As I said, I have other things to do. It’s still not over.”
“The station?” he asked him, and he rushed at Denn, taking him forcefully by his shirt. “Were you the one responsible for the hijacking? Were you the one who got us into all this?”
Denn could not look him head on, he felt terrible. Senlar was holding him tightly by his shirt, waiting for a response. He shook him hard after a few seconds.
“Answer me!” he said to him. Denn no longer had any choice; he had begun to tell the truth, and he needed to finish it.
“Yes,” he said. “It was me. I had to escape, so I stole the station in order to do it. I wasn’t expecting all of this to happen. I only wanted to escape. We had bad luck.”
Senlar let go of the shirt, and walked backwards, terrified, until sitting back down on the bench. He was astonished; he could not believe what he had just been told. Everything that they had been through was because of Denn, a man who up until a few moments ago he had trusted completely. His friend was the one responsible for everything.
Silence filled the room; there was nothing more to say. Denn was standing, looking at the wall, riddled with guilt. Senlar, on the bench, was fighting to understand what was happening. And at the back of the room, hidden behind some pigeonhole cabinets, and covering his mouth with both hands trying not to let out even one sound, was Neil Gobi. He had been listening to the entire discussion, and he was even more surprised than Senlar.
Chapter X
Cora
Dasslak contemplated in a state of bewilderment the unfathomable decision of the girl he had been looking for. She had launched herself from the Puppet Master’s balcony, to a fall of fifty floors. There was no doubt about it; she had gone to her death. Nevertheless, he wanted to verify it. He ran to the edge, in the midst of the badly timed rain, and looked downwards, expecting to see the girl, dead, at the bottom of the abyss; however, he only saw an empty street.
He searched the entire place with his gaze until he noticed a thick cable going from the tower he was in, towards a building diagonally across. He then rapidly followed with his gaze the route this drew out, and he could see her; it was the girl. She was making her getaway at full speed, running along the cable, with incredible balance.
Without wasting any time, he took out one of his revolvers and aimed at Cora's legs, who appeared to be running faster with every step she took. The assassin was not going to pull the trigger immediately: if he did that, the girl would fall and die. He was going to wait until she arrived on the flat roof of the other building; only then would he shoot to immobilise and then capture her.
It was no simple task; the building that Cora was heading towards, some twenty floors less than The Alpha Tower, was around fifty metres away. The target was moving under the rain, and besides, he had to wait for her to take a few steps on the flat roof to ensure she would not fall into the void. Not just any marksman would have attempted that shot with a revolver; it was so difficult that it almost meant wasting bullets. But Dasslak was not just any marksman; he could make shots like that any day.
Whilst he waited for Cora to get to the other building, the Puppet Master ran up to the balcony, highly enthusiastic, to see what was happening. As the girl was advancing along the cable, the Puppet Master’s face contorted into an expression of delight. He had deduced that Dasslak would only shoot her once he was certain that she would not fall. He tasted the air, waiting for the moment.
Dasslak held the revolver with his right hand, aiming at Cora’s left leg, waiting for the moment. When the girl jumped from the cable onto the roof of the building and took a few steps, Dasslak fired.
The assassin was not expecting what would happen next. An instant later, after the bullet left the weapon, the girl, on the other side, jumped up, twisting herself around in mid-air in order to dodge the impact. To his own surprise, he had not managed to hit the target.
After the pirouette, the girl landed on the rooftop on all fours, unharmed. She rapidly got up, and continued her escape, across the flat roof of the building.
Before she could get very far, Dasslak aimed again at the girl and fired, but Cora repeated the manoeuvre, avoiding the second shot. She recovered once more, and ran, until jumping to another cable which would take her to another building.
The girl was a convergence. There was no way of hitting her from this distance; she was already dodging the bullet before it could even leave the barrel of the revolver.
Dasslak knew it very well. He had already contended with similar situations many times. A convergence was almost impossible to harm from far away. They felt the movement of everything around them, and the most experienced of them learnt to sense any object travelling towards them. Some, even, with a couple of seconds of prescience.
Dasslak was furious; the Puppet Master had complicated his task. However, there was no time to lose, Cora was continuing to escape, and he had to hurry if he did not want to lose her. He put away his revolver and went back to the Puppet Master.
“This is your fault! You threatened her life, and because of that she’s escaped!” Dasslak was pointing furiously at the Puppet Master.
“I sent her on a mission and look what happened. A person who opens their mouth, causing dangerous assassins to come to my door, must die,” he replied with his sadistic smile, whilst his men were aiming fearfully at Dasslak, after seeing his threatening figure.
“You've managed to have your little game! You're lucky I have to leave right now. Tell the pile of rubbish who has my ship in his hanger that I'm going to be taking it back right now. They’d better not cause me any more problems, or I'll burn this city to the ground, and not even this interminable rain will be able to put out the flames."
Dasslak did not wait for them to say anything; he took two steps towards the Puppet Master, who was now looking fairly nervous, until positioning himself just in front of him.
"What are you going to do?" asked the Puppet Master, frightened. The assassin did not respond; he was only getting himself some space for a running start. He ran towards the edge of the balcony, and jumped onto the cable that Cora had escaped onto seconds before, running as fast as he could so as not to lose the girl.
The Puppet Master and his thugs, now sure that they had been saved, burst out laughing. They had had their fun at the assassin’s expense, and it had almost cost them their lives. It had been exciting.
"Tel
l Golat that El Vaquero is going to take his ship. We've had enough fun now. If we keep giving him problems, he's going to kill us all."
Dasslak advanced along the cable at full speed. He ran as well-balanced as the girl, and although she already had a decent head start on him, the assassin was not going to give up. If he wanted to capture her, it would have to be now. Cora already knew that they were looking for her, and she would surely try to hide herself as best she could.
The assassin got to the flat roof of the first building, and continued his way towards the next cable. He could see Cora in the distance jumping onto another one, making her way to a third building, of some twenty floors.
Dasslak hurried his pace as much as he could. He was faster than Cora, but he was on the verge of losing her. When he arrived on the second building, Cora was already on the third, trying to get to the last building, which was even smaller, from which she would be able to jump to the ground, to become lost in the alleyways of Brass.
Dasslak was gaining ground with every step. In the moment when Cora reached the final building, he was already running half way along the last cable.
Cora made it to the other end of the roof of the fourth building, and jumped into the street, disappearing from Dasslak’s vision. When the assassin reached the edge, he jumped onto the street that ran parallel. It curved at both ends, preventing anyone from being able to see the beginning or end of the way.
He did not see the girl on either side; he had to make a decision, left or right. Cora could have gone in either direction, and there was no trace that could indicate which one. Dasslak closed his eyes for a second, before deciding, and immediately after, he began to run towards the left, until arriving at a curve to the right. When he turned around, he caught sight of Cora just before she turned to the left, following the direction of the alley.
Dasslak input a few commands into the device on his eyes as he ran, turned to the left, and saw the end of the alley some hundred metres away. It led to Brass’s under-ground transport. Cora was some thirty metres from the entrance. If she went into the under-ground, he would lose her.
Convergence: Genesis Page 15
