The Suns of Liberty (Book 3): Republic

by Michael Ivan Lowell

  Motion caught the corner of his eye, and he spun to see Scarlett Rage standing in the doorway, hands up, working. She wore a glare of concentration that sent chills down his spine. If looks could kill, life on Earth would have been a quivering, shivering glob of goo.

  “Now!” she yelled to no one Ward could see. And suddenly, right behind the Photuris, Spectral emerged again, clearly in his near-transparent light-form as the android plunged its hand into the skull of the robot. Its black knees buckled as Spectral probed inside its computer mind. And in the split second before the black energy returned, the android ripped his hand back out—just in time. Any later and he would have lost it, burned off in the black energy.

  The Photuris stumbled, bent over at the waist, holding its head as if in agony. It then bolted up straight, glared around the room at everyone, and BLINK—

  It was gone.

  “No!” Scarlett shouted as the thing disappeared.

 

  “Took your time getting here, didn’t you, Lady?” Ward accused angrily.

  Scarlett clenched her jaw. “I was here the whole time, Dr. Ward, out of sight. Working through the machine’s firewalls.”

  Lantern came bounding into the room and made a beeline to the Revolution.

  “Can you check his vitals?” Ward shouted to him. Lantern nodded.

  So Ward attended to Fiona. She was lying crumpled into a little ball, surrounded by a pool of blood. Ward rolled her over, and her eyes rolled back in her head. Two large, bloody puncture wounds just below her breasts gushed more blood. Ward checked for a pulse. It was faint.

  “She’s still alive, but just barely.”

  “Same here,” said Lantern. “I think.”

  Ward glanced over and saw Spectral standing over Rev, the android’s eyes glowing white.

 

  “Like an electric shock,” Ward said.

  The android nodded.

  “We’ve got to find a way to release that energy or it will cause massive tissue damage,” Ward said.

 

  “Will that work?” asked Scarlett, bounding across the room to the android.

  “I have no idea,” Ward admitted. “Fiona’s mortal now. It might just affect her like the rest of us.”

  “Kill her?” Scarlett asked.

  “Yeah,” Ward said.

 

  “We need to cover the girl,” Scarlett said, removing her shawl. “And bring her into the medical room.”

  They did so. Positioning Revolution and Fiona across from one another. Fiona was placed in the room’s one empty lounge chair, while Revolution was placed in his medical seat just below the bevy of robotic arms he normally used to repair his suit.

  Two minutes remained before Spectral estimated Revolution’s suit would essentially electrocute him with Fiona’s energy.

  A team of Leslie’s assistants whose job it was to assist with Revolution’s armor also joined them as Spectral interfaced with Revolution’s armor.

  They were down to thirty seconds.

  “Spectral, are you ready?” Ward asked, his voice laced with urgency.

  “It’s now or never,” Scarlett agreed.

 

  “Be careful,” Scarlett pleaded as she removed her shawl from Fiona’s naked body.

  Spectral raised Revolution’s arm, aimed it at Fiona’s slumped figure, and remotely fired the suit’s absorption release mechanism.

  The energy pulsed across the room, electrifying Fiona’s slumped body. Every muscle stiffened, her eyes and mouth flew open. Instead of burning her into oblivion like it would have any of the rest of them, it lifted her into the air.

  Wave after wave of bioluminescent power pulsed over the girl’s body. Ward hoped it was absorbing back into her, but there was no way to know for certain. She wasn’t being disintegrated like a normal human, but then, she hadn’t been a normal human for a long time now. There was simply no way to scientifically predict how her body would react to this.

  As if to add weight to Ward’s thoughts, Fiona's body began to glow; her hair spread out around her in a shining radiance as her body rose higher off the chair. Revolution’s arm rose as well, following her. Her mouth and eyes snapped open wide as if she was trying to scream.

  Fiona remained suspended in the air, her body splayed out and glowing in such intense energy that none of them could look upon it with their bare eyes. Only Spectral was able to view it. Lantern shielded his eyes even with the dimmers activated in his helmet. Same for Ward. Scarlett had to look away. Ward noted she was focused exclusively on the android, in any case.

  Spectral’s hands began to smoke from the intense energetic release occurring just below them as he held onto Revolution’s arm.

  Scarlett panicked. “Let go!” she yelled at him.

  Spectral did as he was told and dropped Revolution’s arm, but it did not move. Locked in position from the massive release of power coursing out of it.

  Then everything went black.

  Across the facility the lights went out.

  Across the city the lights went out.

  Then, haltingly, blinking back to life, the lights in the medical room returned.

  Revolution’s arm fell to his side, and the momentum of the great release wrenched his body out of the medical chair, sending him clanging onto the hard concrete. His scarlet cape draped over his sapphire armor.

  Fiona lay naked, huddled on the floor across from him.

  Scarlett darted to Spectral’s side. He was holding his smoking arm, but he spoke calmly.

  Scarlett snorted in obvious relief.

  Lantern knelt to check Fiona. He peered up at them slowly. “The wounds are gone, but I can’t feel a pulse.”

  CHAPTER 31

  Revolution opened his eyes to a room in crisis. Ward knelt over Fiona, performing CPR. Lantern darted in with an enormous syringe. Ward snatched it from him, stabbed it into Fiona’s chest, and jammed down the plunger.

  Nothing.

  Ward resumed the CPR.

  “Wait,” Revolution grunted, rising from his cot like a wounded man.

  The room’s occupants spun in his direction, even Ward, though he never skipped a beat.

  “I can’t wait,” Ward said. “This is Fiona!”

  Revolution saw fear in Ward’s eyes. “Give her a second,” he groaned.

  Ward reluctantly stopped.

  They waited what seemed like an agonizingly long period of time. No one spoke, no one breathed, it seemed. Ward gave up, grabbed a second syringe, and—

  Fiona opened her eyes.

  A collective gasp rose up from the room—just as she leaped to her feet, anger stamped across her face, and raised her hand at Ward’s head.

  But right before she blasted him to bits, she peered down at herself and realized that she was once again naked in a room full of people.

  “Son of a bitch!” she growled through clenched teeth. “How come I’m the only one who has to get naked to get my superpowers?” She was glaring at the Revolution.

  Ward let a giggle slip but quickly silenced it.

  Scarlett brought her shawl back and helped to drape it over the girl. She winced when the fabric made contact with her skin. “Thank you,” she said to Scarlett, and seemed to mean it. “Why am I back?” she ask
ed them all.

  Ward pointed to the Revolution. Lantern was kneeling beside the man in the metal, and he began to scan.

  “You do seem to be alive, sir,” Lantern said, smiling.

  “And fully clothed,” Ward quipped.

  But Revolution was looking at Fiona. “I absorbed your energy and took the chance that if they blasted it back at you it would revive you.”

  Fiona’s eyes popped. “And that worked?”

  They all nodded. Fiona’s eyes flashed green, and she seemed to remember the events.

  “You absorbed all of the energy!” she breathed to Revolution. “How? How did you—?”

  “Are you sure you’re okay?” Revolution asked, concerned.

  “Why don’t we let them talk,” Ward suggested, and the others slowly cleared the room, still worried, but following the advice of the only physician in the room.

  Neither Fiona nor Revolution spoke for a long moment. Finally, Fiona said, “You did this to me. And for a long time I hated you for it.”

  “I know.”

  “Not because you gave me all this power, but because you didn’t respect me enough to let me choose.”

  “I know you can’t forgive me...” Revolution said, and for some reason his voice broke.

  He knew why. First, he hurt like a motherfucker. That wasn’t helping. But second, he kept looking at Fiona and thinking of his own dead children.

  Taken from him the day the Council took everything.

  Fiona brushed a strand of hair out of her face. “It took me a long time to be rational about it all. But when I finally was, I put it all together, and I realized you didn’t think you had a choice yourself. Kept your decision from me, from Leslie even.”

  “She probably wouldn’t have stopped me.”

  Fiona turned from him, pulled the shawl tighter around her. “I know. She trusts you.”

  “Will you ever trust me?”

  Fiona ignored the question, but she turned to face him again, locking eyes with him. “You made me special, but all I really wanted was to be normal. What you gave me is a gift. But it’s also a curse.” She shook her head grimly at him. “You need to end this.”

  “End?” Revolution was not sure what she was talking about now.

  “The Council,” she said. “Obviously.” She rolled her eyes. “And then I can go back to just being me. I can be normal again.”

  “We need you, Fiona. The Fire Fly can end this fight.”

  “Were you not paying attention earlier? That thing, that Photuris thing...I can’t even hurt it. It’s already killed some of my friends...” A look of sheer terror rippled across her face. “I have to protect my people.”

  Revolution knew she was worried about where the Photuris had gone.

  Fiona rose, flung off Scarlett’s shawl, and in an instant was glowing in full Fire Fly form. The energy seemed to fill up the room. It was hard for Revolution to breathe for a moment.

  “Spectral erased its memory. I believe if he can hurt it, you can kill it. You just need to think about how. We can help you.”

  Fiona gazed at him a long moment but said nothing.

  “Thank you for bringing me back,” she said. For a moment Revolution saw the old Fiona. He saw the puppy-love gaze she always had for him. But just as quickly it faded to steely resolve.

  And she flashed away.

  Revolution wanted to scream at her not to go, but it was too late. By now she was on the other side of the country. He could feel the pulse in his throat, and his whole body felt like it was crushing him from the inside out. Was this what defeat truly felt like? Hot tears again welled in his eyes.

  He’d failed so badly with the girl. She was right, he’d not trusted her enough to give her the choice. The truth was she’d adored him so much back then she probably would have jumped at a chance to become invaluable to him. Why hadn’t he seen that back then?

  He knew the answer. Too many people had already died trying to become the Fire Fly. He couldn’t take the chance of her saying no when he’d already figured out she was his best—maybe only—chance. He’d known it for months and had sat on it as he’d tried to transform other older, less precious individuals.

  Less precious to him, that was.

  Fiona had gotten the radically wrong impression from his feelings for her. He had doted on her because she had become like a daughter to him. An emotional surrogate for the children who had been wrenched from his grip by the Council’s attack on Air Force One. Fiona had been yet another in a long line of sacrifices he knew he had to make in order to win, each one more painful than the prior.

  Yet, Fiona had told him he needed to win, to end this—she’d actually said the words! Whereas she used to say he was just as bad as the Council. Did she no longer think that was true?

  And if she didn’t, would she eventually come around to helping? He knew he couldn’t count on that, but even the remote possibility filled him with a sudden surge of hope. Maybe the Photuris was a good thing. Fiona couldn’t sit idly by while that monster was on the loose, threatening her. Wouldn’t she have to reengage?

  And wasn’t that always his strategy when it came to the Council? To provoke the Council into overplaying its hand? He couldn’t forget that. He had to keep his eyes on the prize.

  It was time to get Leslie working on the girl again. Fiona may have come to hate him, but he knew she still loved Leslie. He heard it in her voice when she’d mentioned Leslie.

  Meanwhile, he had to stick to his plan. The AI hubs still made the best next target—especially with the Photuris out there. Right now the robot seemed dumb, but with a hive mind controlling it the danger it would pose would rise exponentially. What would be a more dangerous threat than a super-intelligent Photuris?

  Lantern came bounding into the room. He seemed uncharacteristically panicked. “Sir, Sophia and Rachel are back with the H3.”

  “Good,” Revolution said, making it sound almost like a question. There had to be other, worse news.

  “We’ve also just heard back from the Hollow. We’ve got a big problem,” Lantern said.

  What could be worse than the Photuris? Something told Revolution he was about to find out.

  CHAPTER 32

  SITUATION ROOM

  BOSTON, MA

  On screen, Lantern was replaying the video the Hollow had downloaded and decoded from the Arizona Tech lab. On screen, the Aztech rose into the picture, followed quickly by Kendrick Ray, Clay Arbor, and finally, Kiernan Rage. All filmed from a stationary camera.

  The video had no sound.

  Somehow that added to the horror of it.

  “They’re using the Doctor to control the Aztech,” Revolution stammered, astonished.

  Sophia and he shared a stunned gaze. This was a move neither of them had ever considered possible.

  Ward and Rachel entered the Sit Room.

  “Fuck!” Rachel said.

  “Oh, that’s not good. Is that what I think it is?” Ward stammered at the giant robot on screen. Everyone knew what the Aztech looked like. It was the boogeyman made real.

  The five of them stood watching the video play out. The Aztech created new “stop signs,” launched its spinning celestials, murdered the Council Guards around it, all as the Doctor mostly just looked on laughing. For the first time Eric Von Cyprus entered the screen. He, Arbor, and Ray all fled for their lives against the onrushing celestials, barely dodging the fate of the Guards around them.

  Finally, the Doctor had gained control of the robot, and the video ended.

  “The Doctor controls the Aztech,” Sophia said. “But how is Von Cyprus controlling the Doctor?”

  “I can help with that,” a voice said.

  It was Scarlett.

  She and Spectral entered the room behind them.

  Ward took a step back, his face flashing fear. If she was a spy and had been sent to kill them when they were most vulnerable, now would be an excellent time, he realized.

  Quietly, he readied his darts
.

  Scarlett smirked at his reaction; the android stayed glued to her side.

  “It’s called an inhibitor chip. Von Cyprus has been working on it for a while,” she told them.

  “Could have told us about this before now, don’t you think?” Ward demanded, still suspicious, scrutinizing her every move.

  “The fact that they’ve used it to control my father confirms my reasons for believing that the two of us are in grave danger,” she said, putting her arm around the android’s waist.

  “That’s the real reason you want us to take out those AI hubs, isn’t it?” Sophia asked.

  “Partly,” Scarlett admitted. “They’re also a good target. Relatively unprotected because they never thought they’d be found.”

 

  “We wouldn’t be in a position to destroy them without you two,” Revolution pointed out. He noticed Lantern stiffen and cross his arms over his chest. He wondered if the Locator had bristled at his words.

  “All the more reason for you two to put on your big-girl panties and join up,” Rachel said.

 

  Scarlett snorted a laugh.

  “This fight just became one sided. If you want your freedom you’ll have to fight for it,” Revolution said.

  “Just like the rest of us,” Sophia added.

  Scarlett’s eyes blinked, and her cheeks blushed. “We’ll give you all the information we have on the device, but we’re not going to risk being captured,” she huffed, then turned and marched from the room. Spectral followed, a step behind.

  Revolution shook his head. He could feel his strength starting to return, but now he wondered to what end? The Aztech, Kiernan Rage, and the Photuris all aligned against them. Fiona, Spectral, and the Lady Rage were that deadly trio’s only matches, and none of them were willing to help.

  “We can still destroy the AI hubs. This doesn’t change our need to do that,” he said.

  “No, it makes it even more important,” Sophia said.