by Isaac Hooke
She carried the helmet from the spacesuit in one hand as she followed Hoodwink through the corridors of cold metal. Around her, people burst from pods left and right. Half the pods in this section were already empty, or black inside. She wanted to stop and help people, but Hoodwink said there wasn't anything to be done, at least not out here. There was a war going on in the Inside, Hoodwink said. A war that had to end.
In her daze she let Hoodwink lead her on.
Everything passed in a blur. There were iron golems up ahead, scooping people up, and Hoodwink made short work of them with the hand-crossbow. He led her to a sealed door, and keyed a code into the pad beside it.
"Hoodwink!" Stanson's voice echoed from a speaker somewhere.
"Nice to see you too, Stanson," Hoodwink said. "Now open the door."
Only static came in response. Hoodwink glanced at Ari uncertainly. He pressed the transmit button again. "Is there a problem, Stanson?"
Finally the door slid open and Hoodwink and Ari stepped inside.
"Ari!" Caylin rushed forward and, giving Hoodwink a wide berth, hugged Ari's thigh. Still somewhat in a daze, Ari gingerly patted the little girl's head. The other children looked at her blankly from their terminals, their eyes as haunted as ever. Why weren't any of them running over to greet Hoodwink?
"I'm so happy to see you Ari, so happy!" Caylin said.
But you hardly know me. "It's nice to see you, too," Ari said.
"You look so... healthy now!" the girl exclaimed.
"I suppose I do."
The little girl squeezed harder. "Really really beautiful."
"Thank you, Caylin." Ari wasn't sure what else to say.
Hoodwink smiled proudly. He knelt and extended his arms toward Caylin as if he also expected a hug.
Caylin buried her face in Ari's spacesuit. "No hugs for Hoodwink. Not after what he did!"
Hoodwink frowned. "What did I do?"
One of the younger boys stepped forward. A frail, bald kid. "I told them about the Direwalkers. And we know about the Dwarf. How you gave it to Jeremy. To One."
"Ah." Hoodwink smiled sadly. "Thank you, Andes." He sat down at one of the empty terminals, and didn't look at anyone. "So now you all know. You must think I'm a monster. And I wouldn't blame you for that, I wouldn't. I am a monster."
Andes went to him. "You said making the Direwalkers would help humanity."
Hoodwink sighed. "I did say that. And it did help humanity, in a way. Because it bought me time to figure out what I was going to do. How I was going to stop them."
"Stop who?" the one named Stanson said. "When are you going to tell us what's going on, Hoodwink?" Ari would have thought Stanson a girl if it weren't for his gravely voice.
Hoodwink glanced at Ari. "My daughter knows. Why don't you ask her?"
Ari hesitated. She really didn't know how to put this. Finally she just spat it out. "We came from the ship in orbit."
Stanson's breath caught. "Hoodwink is one of the Enemy?"
Caylin pushed away from her, eyes wide. "Are you one of the Enemy too?"
"I—" Ari found herself at a loss for words. "I don't know."
"She's not." Hoodwink smiled wistfully. "She's human, through and through. But that doesn't make her any less my daughter. Adopted, of course, but still my daughter."
"It's true then, Hoodwink?" Stanson said. "You're the Enemy? One of those who've come to erase humanity?"
Hoodwink nodded sadly. "The Satori, we're called. The Enlightened Ones. We came to Earth because of our mission. It's, uh, hmm. How can I explain this? The Satori believe in a reincarnation of sorts after death."
Ari could believe that too, after what she'd seen.
"There are only a few races left in the galaxy that can hold a psyche," Hoodwink continued. "When a Satori dies and reincarnates, they believe their psyche can be reborn into any one of those races. Species 15-B. Species 98-J. Species 87-A. Human. The Satori hate that. They want to be able to control where they'll reincarnate. They want to return as Satori every time, because all the other races are inferior. Or so they believe.
"It's why they feel they're doing humanity a favor by wiping them out. With no human bodies left, the dead human psyches have a greater chance to come back as 'enlightened' Satori. The final goal is to wipe out all the other races in the galaxy, so that when a Satori dies, his or her psyche can only return as a Satori in the grand simulation called life. They're doing a good job so far—humanity is one of the last non-Satori species left in the galaxy."
Ari had thought the Enemy came for Earth's resources. Apparently she'd been wrong.
They had come for their souls.
"After wiping out a conquered race," Hoodwink continued. "The Satori reshape their planet, and turn it into a colony. They go into a kind of mating frenzy. After all, more bodies are needed to hold the rush of new psyches that flood the afterlife when a whole race is snuffed out, otherwise the waiting list gets too long. The oceans of Earth are full of Satori now.
"When the last of humanity is gone the Satori will save the human genetic code for future use, and keep a few bodies around as playthings, empty shells for them to enter and control whenever they want. It's all one big existential game to them. They want humanity to become Satori, and yet they themselves want to play at being human."
Ari rubbed her forehead, and gently shoved Caylin away so that she could sit down. She was just too dazed for all this.
"Why are you telling us this?" Stanson said.
Hoodwink gave him an annoyed look. "Because you asked. And because you deserve to know. Ari. Caylin. All of you." He ran his eyes across the children. "I came back because I couldn't let them wipe out humanity. I'm more human now than Satori, I am. So tell me, has Tanner returned yet? Do we have a plan?"
Tanner. In her daze she'd forgotten about him entirely.
But he was the last person she should have forgotten. The one person more important to her than anyone else, including her father.
While Hoodwink talked to Stanson, she slid her eyes across the terminals. There, someone she'd missed on first glance, hunched with his head down on one of the desks. Someone wearing the same skin-tight blue uniform as Stanson.
She got up, and stumbled to his side.
It was Tanner, unconscious, tethered to a terminal.
She knelt beside him. It was so good to see his face again, even if he wasn't awake. His short, wavy, ruffled hair. His three-days-old stubble. His thick jawline and heavy brows. She held him in her arms and closed her eyes.
"Oh Tanner. Tanner." She had died to save him.
And she'd do it again without hesitation.
It was a funny thing, knowing that.
Is that what love was? She'd never been in love before. Not really. She'd been revised to love Jeremy, and she might've loved him for that one day when she had first married him, before she'd realized his personality didn't match the memories of the revision. So that didn't count.
And she'd never really let anyone get close to her when she was Leader of the New Users. Sure, she'd had her playthings, but sex wasn't love.
Yes, she'd never really been in love before.
Stanson was telling Hoodwink something about Tanner and his plan to stop One.
When Stanson finished, Hoodwink nodded. "That's as good a plan as any."
"And we've successfully tweaked the gol mind disease," Stanson said. "It now infects Direwalkers only. They fall dead the moment it hits them. We've let it loose in the system, and its spreading. Direwalkers across the world are slowly dropping. All that's left is to shut down the originator of the Direwalkers."
"One," Hoodwink said.
"One," Stanson agreed. "But we can't do that from here, obviously."
Hoodwink glanced at Tanner. "How long has he been under?"
"About an hour," Stanson said.
"A lot can happen on the Inside in an hour." Hoodwink clapped Stanson on the shoulder. "Send me in. I'll do what I can to reverse the damage my race ha
s done."
Stanson opened his mouth, and then promptly closed it again. He glanced at the children.
Hoodwink frowned. "What is it?"
"Well, it's just that..."
Hoodwink raised an eyebrow. "Out with it, Stanson."
"You're one of the Enemy." Stanson blurted. "How can we trust you?"
Hoodwink seemed to consider this. "You might have thought about that before you blabbed your mouth off about Tanner's plan and your little tweak to the gol mind disease. But I'm guessing you're too young and naive to know any better. How can you trust me, you ask?
"I could give you some cliched bullshit about how you have no choice. But the thing is, you do have a choice. You can choose not to trust me. You can out-ant-out refuse to send me Inside. But if you do that, I'll just take my daughter and we'll go on over to a different control station and get access anyway. Of course, you'll be costing us valuable time that could be better used helping Tanner. Time that might mean the difference between a win or a loss. So think good and hard before you decide to send me away, because I'm here to help you, I am, and if you can't see that then you've been living your life dipped headfirst in shit for far too long, unable to recognize a genuine offer of help when it comes your way. Even if that offer comes from one of the Enemy."
Stanson seemed taken aback, and he worked his jaw, but couldn't come up with anything to say.
"Dipped headfirst in shit," Caylin repeated quietly to herself, as if memorizing the insult for later use.
Andes stood. "I'm going with Hoodwink if he leaves."
"Me too." Another child rose. Another. Soon about half the children were on their feet.
Caylin got up and padded over to Ari. "I go where Ari goes."
Ari smiled at her, and held her hand.
Stanson hadn't said anything the whole time. Finally he nodded slowly. "All right, Hood. Get tethered. We'll accept your help dammit."
Hoodwink's face broke into a wide grin. "Thought you'd see it my way."
Ari kissed Tanner's forehead, and stood. "I'm coming with you, dad."
Hoodwink glanced at her, and there was tenderness in his eyes. "No Ari, I want you to stay here. You've been through a terrible ordeal and you need time to rest up."
Ari crossed her arms. "Dad, I'm going."
Hoodwink sighed. "Tanner was right about you. You've grown rash and stubborn. I forbid you from coming Inside with me, I do."
Ari felt her lips twitch in a half-smile. "Try and stop me. Once you're gone, I'll just send myself Inside after you. And if the children interfere, I'll do the very thing you just threatened, and leave this station behind for a new one. I'll eventually make it Inside no matter what you say or do."
Hoodwink glanced at Tanner. "You love him, don't you." It wasn't a question.
"I do." Oddly Ari wasn't ashamed to admit it. The words were easier to say with Tanner out cold, of course. She'd been used to hiding her feelings all her life. But after where she'd been, what she'd gone through, she knew how important life was, knew that hiding your feelings from people got you nowhere, and that doing so hurt them, actually hurt them. "I love Tanner. And I love you, dad. Which is why I'm coming with you."
Hoodwink smiled the strangest smile, and he looked away, blinking rapidly. "I'm so proud of you." His voice sounded choked. "This is why I love humanity. This is why, right here. My daughter. She's the one who's saving humanity, she is. Just by the sheer virtue of being here."
He came over and gave her the biggest bear hug she'd ever had.
Hoodwink sat at a nearby desk and tethered himself to a terminal. He glanced at Stanson. "Well you heard the girl. Send us in!'
Ari tethered herself in beside him.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Though Tanner and his group had lightning and flame, the enemy just kept coming. Surrounded and cut off from any support, only seven of Tanner's men were left standing.
It had been a mistake to charge into the reception hall after he took down the guard, but the temptation to make a rush for the main stairs had been too great. The guard sounded the alarm before falling, drawing the other Direwalkers, and as Tanner battled his way forward the bright red carpet transformed into a huge tentacled thing that picked up two of his men and squeezed their entrails out both ends. It then positioned its looming body squarely in front of the stairs, leaving just enough room for fresh Direwalkers to race past.
Tanner and his men were trapped. Direwalkers on one side, the Living Carpet on the other.
So they did what most trapped men do. They fought. None of them meant to barter their lives cheaply. Tanner least of all.
Tanner hacked down a Direwalker and spun in time to catch a tentacle making a grab for him. He scorched the thing with flame. The tentacle thrashed away, but another shot forward to replace it.
Cap chopped down on the new tentacle with his fiery blade. The severed end flailed about.
A Direwalker lunged at Cap from behind.
Tanner launched lightning from one of his rings and sent the Direwalker reeling across the room.
A Direwalker landed on Tanner's back, clawing. Another Direwalker came at him from the side, this one wielding a sword. Not a fire sword, but it would kill Tanner just the same.
He spun to the right, and the incoming Direwalker accidentally sliced into the one that clung to his back. He flung the injured Direwalker away and brought his sword down on the other, taking its head.
There came a scream to his right, and he turned to see a Direwalker tear out a man's eyes. Tanner plunged his blade into the attacker's throat and was covered in a spray of blood. The eyeless man toppled beside the Direwalker.
Tanner had only six men standing with him, now.
He fought on, fending blows from the Living Carpet, hewing down Direwalkers. A rampart of dead bodies and severed tentacles was building in a half-circle around him. He didn't think his small group could hold out for much longer. He hoped Al's team had taken the initiative and used this diversion to make an attempt on One. Because it looked like nobody in Tanner's group would get the chance now.
He'd warned these men that this would lead to their doom.
This wasn't his fault. It wasn't.
Another man went down.
Five left.
***
The screams coming out of Jeremy's bedchamber were hideous.
Steeped in sweat, Briar was slumped against the wall of the alcove, where he hadn't moved since Al and the others had made their madcap dash. Briar had sat here the whole time, just listening. At least he'd stopped crying.
He peered past the rim of the alcove. No Direwalkers were coming out of the bedchamber anymore. They were busy killing Al and the others, undoubtedly. Briar was certain he could pick out the timbre of Al's voice in those screams.
"The whoremongers always win," Briar said to himself. "The whoremongers always win." The mantra was meant to calm him. It had always worked in the past—he often used it before his haggling sessions with the southern merchants.
It did nothing for him today.
He swallowed hard, and forced himself to stand. His limbs trembled under his own weight, and the weight of the pipe bombs. Not for the first time he regretted the life he'd chosen for himself, one devoid of most physical activity. The only muscles he'd ever worked were those of his belly. The only marathons he'd ever participated in had names such as all-you-can-eat and buffet.
He wasn't heroic. He wasn't anything even close to a hero. He'd already admitted to himself that he was a spineless coward who should've stayed in the sewers and barricaded himself in a slushy wall of shit.
Cora's ghost was watching him right now, seeing him for the coward he was, and that made everything oh so much worse. He could feel her scornful gaze on him, and he didn't like it.
Go away, Cora!
Damn it. He wished she were still alive.
She had to know that if he went into Jeremy's bedchamber swinging his fire sword that he'd be cut down by the Direwalkers. S
ure, he'd practiced a little bit with Al and Jacob. They taught him how to draw vitra through the sword, and how to throw flames. But that wasn't good enough. He wasn't a fighter. He didn't have it in him. His methods of attack were through subterfuge, and subversion.
He just couldn't make himself go into that room.
He glanced around the rim of the alcove and saw a fresh spray of blood issue from Jeremy's bedchamber, matched to another scream.
He ducked behind the alcove's edge.
Definitely couldn't go into that room.
Maybe he'd just cower here all night. Yes. That sounded good.
But if he did that, Cora would never let him live it down. Cora's dead, you fool. And even if she was watching, so what? It's not like she could do anything to him.
Briar closed his eyes.
If he didn't do something to help, he'd never be able to let himself live it down.
He could do this. He could go into that room.
For Cora.
For himself.
He took three deep breathes and drew the heavy blade. Vitra filled him, giving him courage. The sword brightened and the shadows fled before it. A fire-spitting raven etched the steel, and a bunch of tiny cinders trailed from its wings.
The whoremongers always win.
He slipped into the hallway and edged forward, step by hesitant step. He came closer to Jeremy's bedchamber with each moment. The doorway loomed like a great gaping pit into hell.
When he was almost at the entrance, a fresh gush of red fluid poured out, soaking into the carpet. It was quite literally a gush, as if someone had tipped over a barrel filled to the brim with blood just inside.
Briar immediately spun to the left and proceeded stiffly down the hallway leading directly away from the bedchamber, toward the reception hall. He didn't look back, and he rounded the first bend that presented itself. His legs gave out and he dropped to the floor, falling against the balcony that overlooked the reception hall.
