by E. R. Torre
Nox was gone.
The woman waved at the dusty air and crouched low. Another low growl erupted from deep within her throat. She stepped forward, momentarily stopping to pick up a metal pipe. She wiped the blood from her face. She smiled. The blood from her nose dripped onto her teeth.
“I know where you are,” Alexandra said.
She crept forward, slowly approaching the far end of the room. There, a crooked, shattered wall had collapsed like a large tree.
The one-time child soldier grabbed at that flimsy wall. She cautiously pulled it away, revealing the gaping hole behind it.
There was no one hiding there.
Surprise registered on the woman’s face. She turned quickly, but Nox was already there. The Mechanic tackled the woman and slammed her against the floor, knocking the air from her lungs. Alexandra, in turn, swung the metal tube and clipped Nox on the side of her head.
The blow was enough to send Nox back. She barely had time to look up before Alexandra was once again on top of her. One hand reached for the Mechanic’s flesh, touching her neck and linking her poisoned nano-probes to Nox’s. She then smashed the metal tube against Nox’s midsection and followed that with a second quick blow. Nox deflected it with her arm and slid away.
Nox’s vision consisted of faint blurs. Alexandra Despero was a black mass. She saw a glint of light reflect on the metal tube and watched as the woman raised it over her head. She wasn’t going to stop until Nox was dead.
That’s what makes them different from me, Nox thought. She had killed but it wasn’t her first instinct to do so. Yet Alexandra Despero wasn’t in control over what she was doing. Nox didn’t want to hurt her.
She had no choice.
Alexandra raised the metal bar over her head. Nox could crawl no more.
Kill or be killed.
Nox felt blood drip from the side of her head. Her jaw locked and she reached into her pant pocket. Her hand grasped the second and last flare handgun General Spradlin gave her in the armory.
The metal tube came down. Fast.
Before it reached her, Nox pulled the gun out. She didn’t know –or care– what setting it was on.
She fired.
A bright white electric burst sprang from the handgun and enveloped the one-time child soldier. The metal tube flew from Alexandra Despero’s grip and past Nox, slamming onto the dusty floor only inches from the Mechanic’s head. Alexandra stood frozen above Nox, her body in shock. Her skin blackened, charring as the electronic pulse roared through her. Parts of her smoldered and caught fire, the sizzling flesh giving off the smell of cooked meat.
In seconds, the charge was spent. What was left of Alexandra Despero dropped to her knees. Her flesh was charred black. Her ferocious brown eyes still looked forward.
Alexandra Despero died staring at Nox.
Nox threw the flare gun away and got to her feet.
She examined the corpse lying before her. This woman was a child soldier just like her at one time. If only for a quirk of fate, it could well have been her.
“You did what you had to do,” came a voice from behind Nox.
The Mechanic found General Spradlin standing behind her. His face showed signs of life. He held the two last flare handguns in each hand.
“Don’t tell me what I had to do,” Nox shot back. She walked to General Spradlin’s side. “Joshua Landon was here.”
“I felt his presence,” General Spradlin said. “He’s gone.”
“The signals from the passkey are even stronger now,” Nox said. “We’re getting closer to it.”
“I know,” General Spradlin said. He approached Alexandra Despero’s corpse.
“Your electronic toy worked well,” Nox said. “Now we’re down to the two guns you have.”
“I should have devoted more time researching ways of…of stopping the child soldiers,” General Spradlin said. He eyed Nox. “No offense.”
“None taken.”
“In the old days, all we had were black blades. At least with the handguns we have a bit more space.”
“It’s always easier to kill when you don’t have to stare down your victim,” Nox said. She sighed. “Killing is too damn easy as it is.”
Nox leaned against a wall. She massaged her temples.
“What about you, General? You still have a taste for this?”
“No,” he said. “I’m fucking exhausted.”
Nox nodded. She reached for the General’s shirt and pulled the collar to get a better look at his wound. It remained a bloody mess.
“You heal a lot slower than I do,” Nox said. “If I’d taken the shrapnel, the bleeding would have stopped by now.”
“Joshua Landon’s poisonous nano-probes prevent mine from healing me like they used to.”
“You never did tell me how you got them.”
“No I didn’t,” General Spradlin said.
He motioned for Nox to follow him out of the building and back to the barricade.
46
For their second approach to the barricade, they walked.
They did so with great caution, hiding behind anything they found along the way and making sure they weren’t letting themselves be easy targets. Yet they also knew that none of the one-time child soldiers remained behind. Joshua Landon left before Alexandra Despero died and he didn’t have any other soldiers with him.
The two moved past the barricade and stepped onto a field of brilliant white and coffee colored sand. They were in the Desertlands. At the other side of the barricade was a ramshackle diner, the first before the Big City and the last for many miles of desert. It was a popular trucking stop and literally the last chance to fuel up and resupply before heading into hostile territory. A trio of abandoned vehicles was parked in front of the structure. Two of them were modern, sporting considerable computer technology. The third was a very familiar looking military transport truck.
“Is that…?” Nox asked the General as they approached the vehicles.
It was. Nox recognized it as the very same transport truck General Spradlin and she used to travel from the military base to the Oscuro building.
General Spradlin pulled a set of keys from his pocket and inserted one of them into the transport’s door. It slid in smoothly.
“You planned this?”
General Spradlin nodded.
“Son of a bitch,” Nox said and laughed. She motioned to the diner.
“I’ll go check that place out, see if there’s any water or supplies.”
“No need,” General Spradlin said. He walked to the transport’s rear hatch and opened it. “We’ve got enough.”
Within the trunk was a cardboard box filled with rations and bottles of fresh water.
“I’ll be damned,” Nox said. “You really did plan everything.”
“It’s always good to have contingencies,” General Spradlin said.
Nox walked to the passenger seat of the transport while General Spradlin inspected the supplies. When he was done he closed the rear hatch and entered the vehicle through the driver’s side door. Nox was already in her seat, waiting to go.
“We have enough supplies to make it to Lemner’s base,” Nox said.
“Yeah.”
General Spradlin inserted the key into the ignition.
“Ready?” he asked.
“As much as I’ll ever be,” Nox replied.
In seconds, they were off.
The first hour of their trip passed in silence.
While Nox felt renewed after leaving Jennifer Alberts’ estate, those energies were rapidly depleting the closer they were to Lemner’s base. The signals coming from Lemner’s passkey were furious, and fighting them was taking what strength Nox had. Her skin was once again turning pale, her eyes were half open. She shook off a wave of nausea and rubbed her hair.
“You going to tell me what this is about?” Nox asked. Her words were slightly slurred.
“You mean other than saving the world.”
“S
alvation through complete destruction? That’s a funny way of saving the world, General.”
“There’s a lot you don’t know.”
“Tell me.”
“You wouldn’t understand…or believe.”
“Try me.”
General Spradlin shook his head. The midday sun blasted the interior of the military transport craft and the heat was overwhelming.
“Later,” General Spradlin said. “In another hour we should be there. Save your energies, Nox. You’ll need them.”
47
The vehicle slowed but Nox barely felt it.
To her, the drive into the Desertlands felt like a long fall into a deep, dark hole. Above, the harsh sun felt like it was being swallowed up by an oppressive darkness along with the rest of the world. All that remained was rage.
“We’re very close,” Nox said between gritted teeth.
General Spradlin stopped the transport truck and shut its engine off.
“We’ll walk the rest of the way,” he said.
They were a little over a hundred and fifty kilometers from the Big City. For most of their trip they followed the common roads used by suppliers and prospectors before leaving that path and traveling into the deep shifting sands. There were significant chunks of civilization buried under these sands, including their goal.
“How many of them are left?” General Spradlin asked.
“Not many,” Nox replied. “Including Landon, four…no, five. We only have two flare guns.”
“And our quick wits.”
“I’m all out of that.”
They walked for a half hour through the scorching, endless terrain. For Nox, the dark emotions swirling around her were growing unbearable, especially when one of the objects of the passkey’s rage walked right beside her.
“You should have left me,” she told General Spradlin. “Taking me along was a mistake. I don’t think…I don’t think I can help you.”
Nox’s face was now drained of all color and the dark circles under her eyes were deep.
“When the time comes, you will help me,” Spradlin said. “I have no doubt.”
After a while, General Spradlin stopped walking. He grabbed Nox’s hand and turned her until she faced him.
“I have to give you something,” he said.
General Spradlin reached into his shirt pocket and produced the small leather pouch. He opened it and showed Nox its contents. She stared at the sophisticated syringe and the glass vials.
“Wh…what is this?”
“Vaccines.”
“For?”
“The children.”
“Are they…were they…poisoned?”
“They were.”
“What’s the plan?”
“We find the facility, get to the infants, and you give each one of them a shot,” General Spradlin said.
Nox stared at the General.
“You know me, always with the complicated plans,” Spradlin said. “Whatever happens, you need to give them these injections.”
“Why?”
“Because if you don’t, they will be lost.”
“To what? Disease? Radiation?”
“Something far worse.”
“What’s worse than death?”
A sad smile appeared on General Spradlin’s face.
“Plenty,” General Spradlin said. The smile disappeared. He closed the pouch and handed it to Nox. “This vaccine ensures the children will be saved. Make sure they get it.”
“What about you?”
“I’ll be…I’ll be busy. It’s up to you to do this.”
“If it’s that important, you should keep it,” she said. “You can’t trust me.”
“I have faith in you, Nox,” General Spradlin said.
He placed the pouch in her hand and guided her hand down, until she placed the pouch into her pant pocket.
“You’re a survivor,” the General said. “You will do what needs to be done.”
“I can barely think. How do you—”
“The syringe is calibrated,” General Spradlin interrupted. “Just press the barrel against the children’s legs or arms and pull the trigger. There’s enough serum to vaccinate fifty children. Make sure you give it to every one of the twenty four.”
“What…what about getting them away from here? We can always give them the vaccine when we get them out.”
“If we don’t give them the vaccine, getting the children out won’t matter.”
“What aren’t you telling me?”
General Spradlin looked away.
“All my adult life, I’ve held on to information,” he said. “It’s difficult to know what to reveal and what to keep secret. I’ve made my choices and some worked while others failed. I’ve come up on the winning side enough times to know I’ve been successful. This, Nox, is my greatest challenge.”
“S…saving twenty four infants?”
Nox’s speech was slurred. Her eyes could no longer focus and she could barely stand. Lemner’s passkey was a drill tearing though her head and forcing its way into her.
General Spradlin pulled Nox’s now empty hand from her pocket.
“When I was a child, the greatest entertainer in the world was a man named Harry Houdini. Are you familiar with that name?”
“Hou…Houdini?” Nox repeated. A distant memory flared in her mind. “He was a…a magician. So many years…so many…How…?”
“More like an escape artist,” General Spradlin said. “His specialty was being handcuffed and locked into trunks. These trucks were then hung in the air or submerged in water. He would escape these ‘death traps’ as he called them, to the delight of his audiences.”
“So…so long ago…”
“It wasn’t magic, of course,” Spradlin continued. “Often, the ‘death traps’ weren’t anywhere near as dangerous as they appeared. Much of his work was illusion.”
The smile on General Spradlin’s face broadened.
“Before this day is over, you’ll witness some real magic,” he said.
General Spradlin stopped. His grip on Nox’s hand tightened. He faced her.
“Do you still hear me?” he asked the Mechanic.
Nox’s eyes came up. She stared into his.
“Yes.”
“Whatever happens, I forgive you,” he said. “You understand?”
Though she could barely think, the words stunned her.
“You…forgive…me…?”
General Spradlin’s eyes didn’t waver.
“One day soon, I hope you can forgive me, too,” he added. “For all the things I’ve put you through.”
General Spradlin stopped talking. He released Nox and turned. His hands were in the air. He stood perfectly still for several long seconds. A trio of red laser sights appeared. They settled over his heart. A single light appeared on the Mechanic. It also hovered over her heart.
Before them and on top of a sandy dune, a shadowy figure rose. He sported a fearsome automatic weapon.
Cloudy though her thoughts were, Nox’s first instinct was to run. General Spradlin sensed this.
“Stay where you are,” he said. “You’ll never make it.”
Of the original twenty adult soldiers that were part of Joshua Landon’s group, only five remained. They surrounded General Spradlin and Nox. Joshua Landon broke from this group. He walked with a pronounced limp. Dried blood filled the charred clothing on the left side of his body. Blackened flesh peeled from his arms. Shrapnel pierced his body. He hadn’t cleaned himself up. He hadn’t taken any time for medical care.
Joshua Landon stopped in front of Nox and Spradlin. His face was lean and hard, his eyes remained a brilliant blue. He looked from General Spradlin to Nox, his face barely hiding both contempt and curiosity. Nox and General Spradlin had successfully run from his group for quite some time, yet here they were, giving themselves up without a fight. He –and Lemner’s passkey– sensed a trap.
Nox felt the program swirl around her like an inv
isible mist. It probed deep into her mind, searching for the reason for this abrupt surrender. It found none. Neither, however, did it detect a trap. Its focus shifted. It probed Nox, stronger now. In spite of everything, it still wanted control of her. A sinister smile appeared on Joshua Landon’s face. His thoughts appeared in Nox’s mind.
You’re pale.
“Haven’t had…had much of a chance to hit the beach,” Nox said aloud.
You remember me?
“Yes.”
Why do you still refuse us?
“Never much cared to be…to be part of the in-crowd.”
Joshua Landon pointed to General Spradlin.
You follow him.
“By my own free will.”
A deep frown appeared on Joshua Landon’s face. He opened his mouth and finally spoke aloud.
“That choice could cost you.”
Nox said nothing. Her eyes closed, tight. Lemner’s passkey continued to swirl around Nox. This time it grabbed a firm foothold deep in her mind. Nox cried out.
“I don’t…I don’t understand,” Nox yelled. She gripped General Spradlin’s shirt. Sweat dripped down her forehead and cheeks. She knew her battle against Lemner’s passkey was all but lost. “Why did you bring…why did you bring us here?”
General Spradlin lowered his hands and gently took Nox in them.
“Remember,” he said. “I forgive you.”
Nox slipped out of his grasp and fell to the sandy desert floor. She could barely keep her eyes open.
Through a misty haze, she saw Joshua Landon step up to General Spradlin. He aimed his weapon at the man’s legs and let loose a barrage of gunfire. The General’s legs erupted. Blood stained the desert floor and he collapsed. Nox felt the passkey’s bloodlust. The long dormant artificial intelligence screamed in joy. It was time for General Spradlin to die.
Slowly.
Nox tried one last time to shake the program from her mind. She fell into mental rapids and swirled against a merciless tide. She could no longer control herself. She could no longer control anything.
Joshua Landon appeared before her.
“You’re nearly there,” he whispered. “Give in.”
Nox tried to fight it. She reached deep within, grasping at the meager energies she still had left.
