Chaos Cipher

by Den Harrington

  But Kyo couldn’t stay. His heart began to beat and his lips pealed back over his gnashing teeth. Kyo broke free of her grip and dashed from the bushes to help his father.

  ‘KYO!’ He heard his mother scream after him.

  The security staff heard it, too. Lyov turned to the camp and saw the youngster sprinting towards them, his head forth, his arms back, tail extended into streamline reach. Kyo darted up to the hulking security man, Lyov.

  ‘RUN KYO! GET OUT OF HERE!’ Dak was shouting.

  The man tossed Kyo aside but the boy was back on his feet and latched to Lyov’s waist.

  ‘LET HIM GO!’ He screamed. ‘LET HIM GO LET HIM GO!’

  ‘Little fucker!’ Lyov vented, striking Kyo with the back of his knuckles. Kyo fell hard on his side and Vadim straddled over him, putting his limbs into an effective hold he couldn’t reverse. Kyo growled and kicked hopelessly against the dirt, unable to speak and Vadim pulled his chin up, keeping his teeth together as he sat heavy across his spine.

  ‘We got him,’ Lyov genially reported into his communicator.

  ‘Good,’ said Krupin. ‘Kill the other two, the nigger and the bitch.’

  Kyo squirmed and Vadim held him tighter.

  ‘Stop fighting!’ He said into his ear. ‘You will make this more painful for you.’

  He slipped his hand into his pocket and felt for the tablet Laux had given him. His fingers pressed around the smooth surface, tightening into a fist around it. He had to get his hand free, if only for a second. Kyo wormed a little more now, grunting and groaning, breathing through his nose.

  ‘Wanna see daddy take a fly?’ Vadim offered, dragging Kyo into a position so he could view his father. And he suddenly got his arm free as Vadim attempted to move him. His fist was in the air, but Vadim quickly held his wrist and got it back down, and Kyo roared angrily and struggled, then bit Vadim’s hand. He punched Kyo hard in the head and repositioned the boy, and Kyo dropped the pill onto the floor. It landed under his nose in the detritus, and he quickly lurched forth, scooping a pile of leaves into his mouth and felt around with his tongue to locate the pill, wincing bitterly on the soggy dirty leaves as Raw Dog continued to twist him into submission. Vadim yanked Kyo’s arm back up behind his spine and he wailed with pain as his assailant’s knee pressed into his lower back. But he swallowed the pill and spat out the leaves, coughing.

  ‘You done?’ Vadim laughed after the struggle. ‘That it?’

  He wasn’t sure how long the bio-hack would take to react. Laux had never mentioned, he just said something about bullets. Kyo watched helplessly as Lyov dragged his father through the leaves, hitting him repeatedly over the head as Dak fought back desperately. The Perigrussia Skybus hovered above, looking for an appropriate clearing to set down, its thruster engines unsettling the surrounding vegetation.

  The other security man held a gun to Dak’s head, and Kyo saw the pleasure he was taking in his father’s suffering. Vadim grabbed a fist full of Kyo’s hair and pulled his head up and made sure he was watching. Then, Kyo felt something strange happening in his chest. His heart palpitations were surging. His muscles were tightening, growing fatter and each constricting into tough sinewy knots.

  He moved his head slightly and saw everything was blurred, an after chase of light following the motion of his eyes. He heard gunfire and thought his father had been killed. But it wasn’t his father. Sonja was running from the clearing. She was shouting with rage, wielding a semi-automatic pistol and firing at Lyov and the other guy. The security man pointed his weapon back at her while they ducked her bullets. Even Vadim now had to drop low on top of Kyo to avoid being shot.

  And suddenly, an explosion of fire erupted from Kyo’s stomach. He felt it spread like hot metal, solidifying his skin, making him feel impervious to bullets, making him feel indestructible. He sucked in a lung full of air and exhausting it from his throat like a lion. He saw his veins were glowing like rivers of light and wasn’t sure if it was an illusion or if it was really happening to him. And Kyo got to his feet, carrying a confused Vadim over his shoulder. He dropped Raw Dog hard on his back and Kyo swung him by his ankle sliding across the leaves like he was a curling stone. Lyov had been returning fire towards Sonja when he heard rapid footsteps beating towards him and Kyo appeared under his aim.

  …and then…

  In one forceful shove a powerful explosion threw them apart. Dak was hurtled to the floor as thunder broke with such ferocity it impaired his hearing with tinnitus, and Lyov had vanished completely over the basin edge. Dak had slid through the leaves and seen one of the security men fall to the ground for cover. And in the shock of it all Kyo stood panting for breath, his hands shaking, and the very hands that had just shoved a hundred and ten kilogram man flying through the air over the edge of the drained lake and into the swamp and marsh below. Kyo looked around his slow motion world and knew he had not the capacity to communicate with it. He just had to move!

  Kyo saw the other security man start to sit up and aim his pistol at him, but he ducked way below the first shot and darted through the air, standing on the body guard’s chest as he ran over him. The shots fired after Kyo but they all missed, a confused rattle of ballistics finding the leaves and branches and dust. Sonja wasted no time to take advantage of the situation. She knelt down beside Dak and aimed steady, unloading the rest of her cartridge into the security man’s head.

  Kyo slid to her side, quick breaths of air venting in and out, eyes wild.

  ‘I took the capsule!’ He said quickly, hands dithering. ‘I took Laux’s capsule. Too much energy! Gottagogottagogottago!’

  With all his strength Kyo helped Dak to his feet and started jogging into the forests, and Sonja reloaded her pistol and followed close, helping Kyo with Dak’s other arm. Overhead, they heard the Perigrussia Skybus giving chase, the indiscernible orders vocally echoing from the megaphone through the valley.

  ‘There’s nowhere to run!’ Sonja heard Krupin calling.

  *

  The body guard, Lyov, was nowhere to be seen. Vadim had been stunned by the explosion, where the hell it came from he had no idea. He’d heard legends about Olympian warriors but he was starting to understand at last what was so special about them, and why they were globally a threat. Vadim jumped to his feet and tapped the receiver in his earpiece.

  ‘Lyov?’ he said, tapping again. ‘Lyov...where the fuck are you?’

  Vadim darted over to the basin of the lake and glared into the deep chasm to see a plume of smoke rising from the bottom and a body spread out on the rocks below. His armour had been shattered and the man was rolling around and groaning and bawling with pain.

  ‘LYOV!’ Vadim shouted. ‘SHIT! LYOV, ARE YOU ALIVE?’

  ‘Fuck him!’ Said Horace on the earpiece. ‘We’ve got a tail on them. Get after them! They’re on the move.’

  Vadim snapped around in time to catch sight of their prey now heading deeper into the trees. He could hear Krupin’s voice echo from the Perigrussia Skybus which droned in the sky above.

  ‘Lyov took the plunge,’ Vadim said to his earpiece, ‘he’s in the basin, repeat, he’s in the basin, wounded badly, I think.’

  The silver cadonavis lowered into the huge empty basin of what was once Onyx Water’s beautiful reservoir. And two more crew members abseiled down the lines to pick up the injured man who lay squirming in the swamp and rocks below.

  ‘Krupin,’ Vadim transmitted, ‘I need to track their movements. Send me aerial view. You have to deactivate magnetic field scrambler.’

  ‘Okay, is already done.’ Said Krupin.

  *

  As they shifted down the stone steps to the Yenisei River, Sonja was supporting Dak beside her son. Dak lifted his bleeding head almost drunkenly and tried to work his legs, which mostly seemed to dangle and scrape behind him.

  ‘Kyo, the SkyLark’ Sonja directed. ‘Where did we leave it?’

  ‘Over here!’ Kyo urged. His memory was now open and accessible, working like l
ightning even in the confusion. ‘C’mon c’mon!’

  As Dak’s arm lay heavily around Kyo’s shoulder, he suddenly noticed a strange colour blinking across Dak’s Quantic-W. Kyo looked at his own device coiled around his forearm and he activated the signal and received the message.

  ‘Kyo! What the hell happened to you?’ said Pania.

  Kyo responded with a frustrated long yell, as though he’d just fallen over a cliff, trying to express everything with the expletive cries of help. His long exasperated scream conveyed everything that needed to be said and managed to vent some of the excess energy the capsule was producing.

  ‘Wow! What is it?’ she uttered. ‘Jesus, chill! CHILL!’

  Suddenly, Laux took Pania’s arm and he gazed at Kyo, his big brown eyes glaring from the screen.

  ‘Eureka Supreme!’ He yelled. ‘You took the capsule! Be frugal with that energy. I expressly said not to do so unless you’re in trouble!’

  ‘Big trouble!’ Kyo shouted. ‘Big big big big trouble! Krupin’s here! They’re shooting at us!’

  ‘Kyo!’ Laux bawled, ‘listen! The capsule is catalysing your geobacter, they’re bionetic nanomes produced by your body.’

  ‘What?’ he cried with frustrated bewilderment.

  ‘It’s designed to activate your dormant Olympian genetics,’ he said. ‘It works like an adrenaline shot. You’ll have increased power, reduced pain receptors, maximum strength. But it will burn out fast so keep moving!’

  ‘Krupin has been jamming our signal!’ Sonja shouted.

  ‘What happened to your friend, is he alive?’

  ‘He’s concussed,’ Sonja reported, checking behind them and gasping as she struggled to support Dak. ‘He has a closed head injury with swelling and scalp wounds. I need to get him to an infirmary to check for cranial fractures!’

  Suddenly, the ground ahead spat up unfurling clouds of dust. Artillery punched into the path ahead of them as Vadim fired from the high point of the steps, herding them away from the SkyLark they left parked by the river. Kyo dragged them away from the fire, leading them into the cover of the herbage and coppice.

  Vadim aimed along his sight, a perfectly aligned nozzle spitting out rounds into the ground, forcing them into the fields. Vadim descended the stone steps with the assault rifle hard into his shoulder and the nozzle under his chin, both hands aiming at his victims. He fired a burst of warning shots at their toes, guiding them further into to where the Perigrussia Skybus could intercept them. Vadim tracked their position and discharged more shots towards his prey, forcing them into a new direction.

  ‘We have to get away from that maniac!’ Kyo cried, gaining better control of his father’s weight.

  Overhead they heard the stirring engines again and the Perigrussia Skybus soared above, and a dramatic wake of hot air parted the conifers and highest trees as it raced overhead. Vadim’s relentless gunshots forced them to run into a glade and they stopped when they saw the Perigrussia Skybus settling down in the open space. Other than the forests they’d just left there was no more cover here, they were exposed and surrounded.

  The Perigrussia Skybus settled on its landing feet, and the cabin’s main door opened, unfolding a stairway from the mechanisms of the volt door that reached down to the bottom. And Vilen Krupin was already marching eagerly from the head of the ship.

  Horace jumped out of the Perigrussia Skybus cargo platform with Nikkolai. They were aiming rifles steadily towards them, walking quickly in military fashion to meet them in the glade.

  Still weakened by the head wound, Dak fell on his knees panting and Sonja sat beside him, holding his bleeding head into her bosom.

  ‘That’s far enough,’ said Vadim, levelling an assault rifle onto them. He had a big smile of relief on his face, which still poured with blood from his lip. Maliciously, he kicked Dak rolling onto his back and Sonja held up her hands both fearful and enraged. She was still holding the pistol.

  ‘You stay very still bitch,’ said Vadim, the rifle aimed steadily at her cheek. Sonja did just that, her face stone and weeping eyes alight with vengeance. Vadim reached forth and removed her weapon. With his thumb, he triggered the switch to unload the cartridge and it fell to the floor with a dull thump, and he kicked it away. Vadim aimed into the sky and fired the pistol’s last loaded bullet, then hurled it in the other direction, far into the field. He reassigned the nozzle of his rifle under Sonja’s chin.

  ‘Nice and still!’ He reminded her.

  Waves of trepidation anchored Kyo dithering on the spot, the hood of his garments flagging in the hot air of the Perigrussia engines. He felt gravity upon him now, the short burst of energy suddenly affecting his muscles, calling upon the debt they owed. The pain of his tightened and over worked body gradually caught him up. His breathing eased down, and he suddenly became aware of wounds he did not know he’d acquired. His wrists ached from pushing Lyov over the edge of the drained lake. His arms were splintered with micro fractures that pulsed and throbbed. He limped on his sore feet and fell backward with pain. Kyo cried out mercifully to the sky, tears flowing as the physical consequences of his actions overwhelmed him. His veins had now lost their luminous lustre and his power was gone. With it, he was beginning to realise, he’d been too naïve and conservative.

  Horace approached, weapon securely on Kyo. He was kneeling in the open field, unable to do much else other than scowl and gasp for air, barely able to lift his arms in surrender. As Horace reached Kyo he had his rifle trained, then looked back at Nikkolai. The man with the opalescent tattoo on his face glared at the boy somewhat sympathetically.

  ‘Go easy,’ he told Horace, ‘he’s just a kid. He’s done here.’

  ‘Yeah, he’s done,’ Horace said back. ‘This little fucking mulatto is more than done. He’s ours now.’

  Kyo growled frustrated, wanting to will his legs to run. But his muscles could barely twitch.

  ‘Well well little man,’ Horace said, ‘you do live up to the legend.’

  Kyo watched helplessly as Krupin approached. He was twiddling a toothpick in his mouth, scooping out some rotten foot from between them. He stood over Kyo and flicked the toothpick at him and smiled. Kyo could only growl as the splint of wood bounced off his cheek.

  ‘What you did to my body guard,’ he said, ‘bravo! That is why I need you. You are a weapon.’

  ‘I’ve never seen anything like that,’ said Horace. ‘Never thought a kid could hurt a grown man like that.’

  ‘He’s on the ship,’ Krupin told Kyo, ‘broken ribs, damaged lung, we putting him on breathing machine. He wants to see you.’

  Kyo grimaced. ‘Will you let them go?’ he asked.

  ‘Your friends?’

  ‘My family!’

  ‘You don’t have family, gene-freak,’ Krupin sniggered. ‘You were born of deadly warriors. And I am not here to bargain.’

  Horace crept around the field and looked up at the papier-mâché clouds and his nose tipped skyward as he grew disturbed by some distant rattling in the woods.

  ‘Don’t hurt them.’ Kyo pleaded.

  Krupin enjoyed the solicitation. He smiled wide and proud.

  ‘I could help you not to care,’ Krupin offered his incremental kindness. ‘Look how weak they make you. So long as you care for them and their love, it always has a hold on you. Don’t you see boy? I have to hurt them.’

  ‘Don’t you do it!’ Kyo urged through tears. ‘Don’t you do it I’ll fucking kill you!’

  ‘Vadim!’ Krupin yelled.

  ‘Boss?’ replied Vadim Raw Dog, rifle angling up to his shoulder, oh-so eager to shoot someone.

  Kyo looked back at his mother solemnly. She sat on her ankles by Dak, arms still raised, hair strewn over her sweaty skin, still catching her breath. She shook her head to him. Don’t be stupid.

  ‘Please!’ Krupin heard the young Olympian whimper by his knees. ‘Don’t hurt them, please.’

  Horace had his eyes suspiciously out on the forests. He swore he could hear som
ething over there, far out in the mountains. His optics recalibrated aerial satellite visuals but there was nothing as far as output could detect.

  ‘Horace, what you looking for?’ Nikkolai inquired.

  ‘Not sure,’ he transmitted through his earpiece, ‘there’s something.’

  ‘We’d pick it up from the Perigrussia Skybus if there was anything out there,’ Nikkolai promised.

  ‘Let me say goodbye,’ Kyo wept below Krupin’s smug perspiring countenance. ‘Let me say it. At least give me that.’

  ‘Ah now,’ Krupin sighed, casting his glance back to Kyo. ‘What I just tell you about love? Don’t let it corrupt your warrior heart, little man. Love is not for men. And it is time for you to know what sort of man you are gene-freak.’

  Horace suddenly made a strange sound, somewhere between a laugh and a hiccup. Nikkolai tipped his head to see Horace glaring about, meandering drunkenly. What’s wrong with you, dick-head?

  Horace staggered, teetering forth for three or four steps and tried to balance, then dropped his rifle.

  ‘Horace?’ Nikkolai said.

  Krupin turned around, confused. He thought he’d felt rain, and he touched his face before looking up to the cloudless sky. But on his fingers he saw blood.