by Isaac Hooke
"Their leader, meanwhile, was this scary looking fella who dressed in a dark robe, his face hidden in the shadows of his hood. He carried this long white staff, knobby like it was made of bone or some shit, and its ferrule clicked loudly on the cobblestone with each step. Little threads of lightning sparked all creepy-like from his exposed hands, like the kind you see coming from the fingers of Users and other uncollareds when you make 'em mad. Scary as hell."
Ari considered his words. "Did you see where the four went?"
Spalding shrugged. "I didn't watch them for too long. I got the impression they wouldn't take kindly to stares, so I quickly lowered my gaze. The robed man actually deposited a coin in my hat as he passed. Can you believe it? I didn't dare look up, but I said thanks right quick enough. And then he left without molesting me or nothing."
"Can we see the coin?" Ari asked him.
Spalding nodded. He reached into his pocket and produced the object.
Ari reached for it, but hesitated: she was worried there might be some sort of trap embedded therein. She took it and was relieved when it seemed a normal coin.
She parted the entrance curtain with one hand and held up the object to the light.
"It's definitely a Keeper's coin," Ari said. She handed it to Tanner. "Freshly minted."
Tanner examined it. "A robed man with a bone staff and electricity flowing from his hands gave you this?" He sounded doubtful.
"That's right," Spalding said. "On my word."
Tanner handed the coin back.
"Do you think we can track down whoever owned it?" Ari asked him.
Tanner shook his head. "We don't keep logs like that. If we did, the system would soon run out of storage space. Keeping track every time money changed hands would make for a very big log."
Ari nodded. "All right." She handed Spalding the sack of gold she'd injected on the Inside with her. "Here is your reward."
His face lit up and he greedily accepted the sack, quickly hiding it in his cloak.
"Aren't you going to count it?" Ari said.
"Don't need to," Spalding said. "I can tell when I'm rich."
"What if I gave you a pile of rocks?"
Spalding retrieved the sack and quickly looked inside. He grabbed a gold coin and bit into it. "Definitely rich."
Ari smiled, then got up. "Thank you, Renna. Let us know if you find any other witnesses."
"I will," Renna told her.
Ari and Tanner left the hut.
Spalding was shouting for joy behind them. "I'm a rich sonbitch! A rich sonbitch!"
"Not if you keep broadcasting it like that," Tanner said over his shoulder.
They left the alleyway behind for Forever Street proper.
"You know," Ari said. "One time, Hoodwink and I were walking down a street together in Luckdown District. We passed a busker. I gave the man three gold coins. Hoodwink told me I was better than him, because I'd given that money so generously, when he would have walked on by. But he doesn't understand I only gave the money because he was there. I wanted to show him how generous I was."
"So you're saying you wouldn't have given Spalding anything if I wasn't here?"
She laughed. "Maybe. But money means nothing to me, now. We can spawn an infinite number of gold coins for ourselves on the Inside if we want."
"You still miss him, don't you?" Tanner said. "Hoodwink."
She nodded.
"We never really talk about him," Tanner added.
She pressed her lips together. "He died for us. And yet I know his alien spirit lives on, past the final Forever Gate that all creatures in the universe, alien or human, must one day cross."
"We talked about this before," Tanner said. "We can't be sure he died. Maybe he got away before the explosion."
"Maybe." Hoodwink had somehow returned to the alien mothership in orbit and destroyed it, sparing the crashed colony vessel on Ganymede from the relentless energy bombardment. Whether or not Hoodwink had been able to save himself, Ari didn't know.
"So what now?" Tanner said.
"We visit Briar and talk to this Leon character the liaison officer told us about."
six
Ari approached the wall of mortared stone that enveloped the Black Den. Roughly three times the height of a man, that wall had been broken down in the gol attack almost a year ago, but the residents of the Den had rebuilt it with the help of the Keepers.
Sellblades and bowmen patrolled the upper walkways, their heads passing in and out of view as they strode between the merlons topping the wall. The severed heads of individuals from competing factions decorated spikes on the wall. The residents of the Den were real friendly sorts.
"Open up!" Ari said as she approached the portcullis that fronted the wall.
One of the bowmen on the walkway glanced down and then turned around and shouted: "Open up! It's Ari and Tanner."
In moments the portcullis raised.
Ari and Tanner ducked beneath the spiked bars. A pikeman stepped forward to introduce himself. He wore battered plate armor, with the long weapon of his namesake resting over one shoulder. His hair was cropped short, and dirt encrusted the wrinkles of his middle-aged face.
"Hello Ari and Tanner, I'm Barkley. I'll be your Den guide today."
"We don't need guides," Ari said.
"Just the same, all gol visitors must have guides, as per the rules."
Ari rolled her eyes. "Lead, then. Take us to Briar."
Barkley led them through the dirty streets. The rebuilt Den wasn't too different from a typical street in Luckdown District with its rather narrow way, and its shoddy, shack-like homes crammed too close together. It was hard to believe that less than a year ago most of the buildings had lain in ruin, the cobblestone streets pocked with blast craters. The Keepers had done a good job recreating the place.
Hard men with scarred faces, scarred arms and scarred knuckles walked those streets. Some had chunks missing from their noses and ears. There were eye-patched men, cleft-lipped men, arm-stumped men. It was no surprise that the Thief's Kitchen, the Murderer's Guild, and every shady operation in the city had at least one base of operations there, operating under the umbrella of the Black Faction. Ari had considered shutting down the Den and its affiliates throughout the world of the Inside, but Tanner convinced her the Black Faction would simply go underground. There was always a dark side to human nature, he told her, and an outlet was needed for the more nefarious sorts in society. It was better for her and her team that they operated in the open—they could watch and track the members all the easier. She had situated the User base there for that very reason.
Though the men were hard, they all gave way to Ari and Tanner. They knew who the duo were, and the powers they wielded. Even so, more than a few of them scowled at Ari and Tanner as they moved aside.
Barkley led them through the streets and eventually paused in front of a building where a flag with a skull and crossbones waved from the rooftop. Two sentries watched the entrance.
"The Warehouse," Barkley said.
Ari sighed.
"You ready for this?" Tanner said.
She took a deep breath. "Yup." Visiting Briar was always an exercise in exasperation. The man never failed to get under her skin. That he operated a crime syndicate under the auspices of the Children didn't help matters.
Ari and Tanner walked past the two guards and stepped inside. She took the first door to her right and found herself in a room of iron desks and paneled terminals that was almost a mirror image of the Control Room on the Outside, except in place of a window three displays dominated the front of the room.
As for the terminals, there were about twenty-five in total. Seven were manned by uncollared old men in simple gray tops and trousers--the men were Users, part of the day shift operation of the room. There were no aReal interfaces there, and the Users accessed the systems by means of touchscreens alone.
Briar stood at the front of the room, his back to them as he examined the center display
, which was covered in a top-down map of the city. Ari had considered banning him from the room, but he would have simply convinced one of the Users to act as his spy. He used the data for his own benefit, of course, but the Users kept him on his toes, passing on any illegal activity directly to the Keepers or the Children.
One of the Users met her eye and inclined his head respectfully. "Ari."
She ignored him and strode toward Briar, who had spun around upon hearing her name. The fat man's face brightened. He had a touch of crow's feet around his eyes, which deepened with his smile. On his forehead was the start of a widow's peak.
"By the whoremongers, it's Ari!" he said. "My favorite niece. What honor do I owe this visit?" The folds of fat around his neck jiggled with each word: the sagging flesh nearly engulfed the too-tight bronze bitch he wore.
"Why aren't you and your men in Dhenn helping out with the collaring?"
Briar shrugged. "You never asked. Besides, your User and Keeper friends can handle that uncouth business. This isn't a job for the Black Faction."
She turned toward the Users. "Why are all of you still here? I instructed every User to head to the city of Dhenn to assist the Keepers."
Briar answered for them. "I need a minimum number of men to keep the Control Room operational. Otherwise I won't be able to communicate with you. You know that. Tsk tsk."
"You only need one person to man the comm station," Ari said.
"True," Briar said. "But I also need the others to monitor the gol guards in different parts of Dhenn. They have to keep track of the best places to loot and steal from, you see."
Ari shook her head. "I don't know why I ever agreed to allow you in the Control Room."
He smiled. "Because I'm your uncle! And I'm a good businessman. When I took over, the faction was rotten to the core. Rotten! But I used my keen business skills to institute rules and regulations among all the various guilds, and introduced a measure of fairness into all the proceedings. You'll notice that robberies and murders across the cities have dropped since I took over. Especially in Severest. It's all part of my austerity measures."
"The robberies and murders have dropped because you concentrate only on the richest individuals these days," Ari said. "You don't target as many people to make your ill-gotten gains. So it's only an illusion that crime has actually dropped."
Briar pulled at the thick collar that dug into his throat, as if it were too tight. "The crime rate may have edged upward very slightly among the richest, true, but the poor and middle class are experiencing an incredible era of peace and prosperity. Why, there hasn't been a poor person robbed in months!"
"Could that be because the poor have nothing of value to rob?" Ari said.
Briar shrugged his shoulders. He continued to fidget with the collar.
Ari nodded toward the device. "How come you don't want to let me uncollar you?"
"And force me to join the Users again? I think not, missy. I like my bronze bitch quite well, thank you very much. Besides, when I need vitra, I simply use the Lightning Rings you've graciously donated to the Den."
"I didn't actually donate those to the Den," Ari said. "But to the Users who reside in the Den."
"Yes, but since these Users take shelter in my Den, and I control the Den, those rings are essentially mine."
Ari sighed. "Fine. When can I talk to this Leon individual?"
"You want to talk to Leon? He's resting."
"Then wake him up," Ari said.
Briar looked like he was about to say no, but then he relented. He strode to the front of the room and spoke to one of the guards on duty. The man ran off.
Briar came back. "All right, I admit it, he's actually at one of the whore houses. Hey, we all have our needs of the flesh, don't we?"
In a few minutes the guard returned, escorting Leon inside. Leon wore coveralls and had the arms of a blacksmith. He had no collar.
His eyes lit up with recognition the moment he looked at Ari and Tanner. She didn't recognize him, of course, but his behavior wasn't uncommon. She was famous on the Inside, at least in those cities where she had fought off the alien computer virus.
"Wish you would have given out pamphlets or something about what a pain it is to wield vitra," Leon told Ari. "I spent my charge in the first five minutes. And I've been sitting here, trying to get something, even a spark of that life-giving power back, but it won't come. I'm forced to go to carnal houses to distract my mind. I'm worried I've burned myself out."
"Tell me about the man who uncollared you," Ari said without preamble.
"He calls himself Amoch," Leon said. "He called people to the stage in Dhenn and had them fall on their swords. Never seen anything like it. He's some kind of cult leader. He kept talking about how all of this"—he waved a hand around him—"is an illusion."
"Did this man wear a black robe and carry a bone staff?" Ari asked him.
"Yes, that's him," Leon said. "How did you know? Is he one of your agents?"
Ari ignored the question and asked another of her own. "This man, did he say what he wanted? Why was he giving out keys to the collars?"
"He said he wanted everyone to live an unfettered life. A free life. He wants to start a new city of some kind, one that will be free of gols. And he asked for people to join him. He's building an army."
"An army?" Ari exchanged a worried glance with Tanner.
"Yes," Leon said. "An army of the uncollared."
Ari went to the map display at the front of the room.
"Show me all the cities," she told the nearest User.
The display zoomed out. Icons represented all the different cities in the world.
"Show me the guard activity."
Clusters of red dots appeared over each city. The biggest dots appeared in Dhenn, which wasn't entirely unexpected given the chaos the city was currently experiencing. The guard activity in all the other cities appeared relatively normal.
"Are you looking for the next potential bomb site?" Tanner asked from her side.
Ari pressed her lips together. "No, I'm checking for signs of disturbance. If he's building an army of lightning wielders, he won't need a bomb."
Tanner tapped the thick red dots over Dhenn on the display. "I don't think he's built his army yet."
She nodded. "I think it's time we made a visit to Dhenn." She turned toward the Users. "Gather Lightning Rings and meet us in Dhenn. Elect one of your number to remain behind and monitor the comm station. Go!"
seven
Ari emerged from the portal hop into the transit center. Most of the portals to the different cities remained active beside her, though one had been destroyed, the circular ring that held it reduced to a pile of rocks on the floor.
The terminal was empty save for the score of gols in platemail armor that carried swords near the entrance. All departures were denied by her order, and any arriving travelers were quarantined in the screening rooms. The walls and floor near the entrance bore the dark streaks of lightning attacks where the uncollareds had tried to force their way in. The bodies of several dead gols had been placed in a pile nearby.
The guards nodded to her as she passed.
"Nine," one of the gols said to her respectfully. "Ten." To Tanner.
Ari stepped from the scarred entrance of the transit center onto a height that overlooked the vast, snowless cavern of the Dhenn cave city. The main cavern extended three miles into the distance; giant stalagmites and stalactites thrust from the floor and ceiling at random places, giving the unsettling impression of a giant maw chomping down on the city. Several of the stalagmites were damaged, with some collapsed entirely, and a few of the giant stalactites had crashed down from the ceiling, their remnants strewn across the street. The sight was made all the more unsettling by the fact that most of those structures had been hollowed out to serve as homes for the residents.
Tiny lights dotted the surfaces of the stalagmites that remained standing, indicating that at least some of the houses and shops were still
occupied.
Keepers could overlay a top-down version of the city map over their vision, and Ari tried that now. The latest system patch was supposed to indicate Keepers and gols in purple, but it didn't always work. It looked like today wasn't her lucky day.
"Are you able to get any Keepers or gols on your map?" Ari asked him.
"None."
She walked down steps that were carved into the rock, past torches set in brackets at intervals along the cave wall. When she reached the main street that led through the giant stalagmites, only a few globes of light lit the way. Several more of those globes had existed the last time she was there. Apparently the residents had been busy destroying them in their lightning-induced destruction spree.
The streets were deserted, of course. Most of the citizens would have been ordered to stay at home by that point, for their own safety. The lightning wielders among them had likely exhausted their charge by then. Though that didn't stop those who had received the keys from unbitching others.
Ari and Tanner picked their way over the ruins of a stalagmite that had collapsed into the middle of the street. Strewn among the rock were all manners of personal belongings: clothes, paintings, books, furniture. There were also a few dead bodies. Ari was particularly touched by the sight of a crushed little girl. There was a good chance the little girl wasn't dead in the real world. Not like Ari and Tanner would be if they died in that place.
"It used to be such a beautiful city," Tanner said quietly. "In its own way."
"I remember," Ari said.
"You know," Tanner told her. "I grew up here."
Ari glanced at him. "You never told me that."
