Virtue of War

by L O Addison

  Kaylin stared at his chest, which was covered in a white t-shirt. “Can I see your wound?” she asked.

  Matteo frowned and kept his arms crossed. “The doctor already cleared me.”

  Kaylin held her hands up in an innocent gesture. “I’m just curious how the wound looks now. Please. We’re all still trying to wrap our heads around what the hell happened last night.”

  Matteo considered this for a long moment and then slowly nodded. He pulled up his t-shirt, exposing his chest.

  All traces of the injury had disappeared. Even the pale scar had vanished.

  Kaylin shook her head in disbelief. “Does it hurt anymore? Even a little?”

  “Not at all,” Matteo admitted. Then his expression darkened, and he said in a strained voice, “I don’t understand what the alien did to me. But whatever it was, it fixed me. All of me.”

  He lowered his t-shirt, but then used his palm to press firmly along his ribs, which had been shattered just hours ago. “It doesn’t hurt,” he said. “Not at all. And look at this.” He put his right arm forward, showing her the underside of his forearm. The pale skin was lightly dotted by a few freckles, but other than that, it was perfectly smooth.

  Matteo brushed his palm over the skin. “My arm got torn up by barbed wire years ago, but now all the scars are gone. And every single other scar on my body, too.”

  A suspicion struck Kaylin, and she looked down at the palm of her left hand. She’d had a scar running across it for as long as she could remember, from when she’d burned it on the stove as a little girl.

  It was gone. Her palm was perfectly smooth with not a single trace of any injury.

  “That’s…” Kaylin trailed off, unsure how to finish the sentence. It was incredible. Bizarre. Downright frightening. She was relieved Matteo had survived, of course. But she couldn’t help wondering about the trouble the ambassador would run into if word got out about his healing device.

  Beck cleared his throat. “Matteo, did you talk to the base doctor about the device that healed you?”

  Matteo drew closer to the wall, locking his gaze on Beck like a cornered animal. Then he shook his head.

  Beck raised an eyebrow. “You’re sure?”

  Matteo bit at his lip. “No, I didn’t tell them. I didn’t think I should. And I don’t think they would have believed me anyway.”

  Beck nodded. “Good,” he said simply. Then he lowered his voice and added, “I’m hoping you can help me keep it a secret. All I told the doctors was that Lio used some sort of medicine to stop the bleeding on your chest and bring down your fever. But I didn’t tell them how bad off you were before he used the pendant. As far as anyone on this base knows, Lio healed a few bruises and some scratches.”

  Kaylin nodded. “Good thinking.”

  Matteo stared between the two of them with wide eyes. “But what did that alien do to me?”

  Kaylin shook her head. “I’m really not sure.”

  “You have to give me more than that,” Matteo said, a panicked note rising in his voice. “Is the healing permanent? Are there side effects?”

  “Yes, it’s permanent, and no, there aren’t any side effects,” Kaylin said. “At least according to Lio. He says you should be perfectly fine now.”

  Matteo swallowed hard. “Why did he do it?”

  “He saw you dying,” Kaylin said. “He just wanted to stop that from happening.”

  “There has to be more to it than that,” Matteo insisted. “What does he want from me?”

  “I don’t think he wants anything from you,” Kaylin said. “He just wanted to help.”

  Matteo stared at her incredulously. “He’s an alien. There’s no way he just wants to ‘help’ a human. Not without expecting something in return.”

  Kaylin suddenly remembered exactly who she was talking to: a Warden recruit. The entire time Matteo had been living with the Wardens, he’d been conditioned to believe that all aliens were out to destroy humans.

  “I’m not sure what else to tell you,” Kaylin said softly. “I really believe he just wanted to help.”

  Matteo scowled and opened his mouth, as if to keep arguing. But then his eyes drifted over to the gun at Beck’s waist, and he shut his mouth, swallowing hard.

  “What are you going to do with me?” he asked, his tone quiet and stiff.

  “I’m not sure,” Beck said. “It depends on how much you’re willing to cooperate with us.”

  Matteo pressed closer against the wall, as if he wished he could simply disappear into it. “I deserted, I swear,” he said. “I don’t want anything to do with the Wardens any more. Just let me go, and I swear I’ll never bother any of your people ever again.”

  Beck shook his head. “I’m afraid it’s not that simple. The Wardens have just started a war, Matteo. Our people’s lives are in danger. If you have information that could help save them, we need to know it.”

  Matteo froze for a long moment, considering their request. His gaze flickered uncertainly between her and Beck, and Kaylin could sense fear rolling off him.

  “The Wardens didn’t start a war,” Matteo said quietly. “The Shepherd did. He controls everything in the Wardens. At least half of his soldiers are like me—we only joined out of desperation. We don’t actually want to fight anyone.”

  “I understand that,” Beck said, softening his tone slightly. “And that’s why we’re doing everything we can to minimize bloodshed. Giving us intel will help us with that.”

  Matteo went silent for a long moment as he considered this. Finally, he gave a slow nod. “All right. I’ll talk.”

  “Good,” Beck said. “Let’s start with the basics. Why are you deserting?”

  Matteo gave a small scoff. “There’s no ‘basic’ answer to that. It’s complicated.”

  Kaylin tilted her head as she looked him over. “Does it have to do with the fact that they’re starving you?”

  She’d noticed his thinness the night before, but now that she looked him over in full light, she realized just how bad it was. His scrawny, boyish look came mostly from the fact that he was obviously underweight.

  Matteo shook his head, and his tone grew defensive as he said, “They’re not starving me. The Wardens wouldn’t do anything that bad.”

  “Then why are you so thin?” Kaylin asked. “Are you sick?”

  He shook his head. “No, I’m fine. I’ve just been on half rations lately, so I’ve lost some weight.”

  So they were starving him. Just doing it gradually. She tilted her head, wondering just how much indoctrination Matteo had been through, to want to defend the Wardens even as he was running from them.

  “Half rations?” she repeated. “Is that part of the reason why the Wardens are attacking Resistance bases? Because you’re running out of food at your own base?”

  “No,” Matteo said. “They have plenty of food. More than plenty. They have more funding than ever.”

  “Then why do they have their soldiers on half-rations?”

  “Not all of us. Just me and a few others.” His voice lowered to a quiet, somber tone. “I questioned the funding. They told us not to, but I did. And then I started asking other questions.”

  “Like what?” Beck demanded, taking a step closer to him.

  Matteo flinched away from him. Kaylin reached out and nudged Beck’s leg, signaling for him to move back. She did it unconsciously, hardly even remembering that she was technically still his prisoner and in no position to be giving him orders. But Beck didn’t hesitate before moving back a few steps.

  Kaylin gave a small nod of approval. She had a feeling that intimidating Matteo wouldn’t help them. There was something about the way Matteo stared at Beck that made her stomach sink. He gave him quick, nervous glances, never daring to focus on Beck for longer than a couple seconds before looking away. It reminded her of a dog cowering in front of a violent master, and it confirmed her belief that the Wardens weren’t nearly as humane toward their recruits as the Resistance was.

/>   “Matteo, if you’ve truly deserted from the Wardens, then you shouldn’t hesitate to tell us about them,” Kaylin said softly.

  Matteo swallowed hard and nodded slightly. “They’ve never struggled much with funding. But lately the stuff they’ve been getting is… beyond anything money can buy. At least on this planet.”

  Kaylin tilted her head. “You think the Wardens have some sort of deal going on with aliens?”

  Matteo looked to the ground. “I don’t know. The Shepherd keeps telling us that the suppliers have been looting the tech from Syndicate wrecks. But... I’m not sure he’s right.”

  “Why?” Kaylin asked.

  Matteo paused for a moment, considering his response. Then he said, “The Shepherd says the supplies were recovered from Syndicate wrecks that were found in the Pyrenees Mountains. But I was living in Barcelona when the Syndicate invasion happened, so I had a front-row view of the fighting in that region. The Syndicate hardly lost any ships. And the ships they did lose didn’t seem to have the same sort of technology that the Wardens are being given.”

  Beck scowled at this news. “Exactly what sort of tech did the Wardens get their hands on?”

  “Guns, mostly,” Matteo said. “Some sort of laser weapon that looks different from anything the Syndicate used. Smaller and more powerful. And also some sort of forcefield device. I’ve only seen the tech from a distance, but it’s...” He shook his head. “There’s something wrong about it. Like it sucks all the heat out of the air, but leaves you sweating at the same time.”

  “Do you think the Shepherd knows where these weapons are actually coming from?” Beck asked, concern darkening his expression.

  Matteo bit his lip, thinking it over. Then he shook his head. “I think he’s in denial,” he said quietly. “He’s been told the weapons and money are coming from a Russian anti-alien group that want to help fund the Wardens’ mission. It’s too good to be true, but he doesn’t want to admit that. So he’s just silencing anyone like me who questions it.”

  “Are there a lot more like you?” Beck asked.

  Matteo gave a wry smile. “Not enough to make a difference. The Shepherd rules the Wardens with an iron fist. A couple of people who whisper dissent won’t change a thing.”

  Beck nodded grimly. Then he cleared his throat and said, “Matteo, I think you’re right about the Wardens having access to alien technology. We have intel that they’ve also recently acquired a weapon called a Virtue.”

  Matteo frowned. “What kind of weapon?”

  Beck lowered his voice. “You know the pendant our alien friend had? The one he used to heal you?”

  Matteo nodded, and fear edged into his expression at the mere mention of the device.

  “That’s a tiny Fragment of something called a Virtue of Healing,” Beck said. “It’s an ancient piece of alien technology.”

  Matteo frowned at this news. “You think the Wardens got their hands on one of those things?”

  Beck shook his head. “No. They don’t have a Fragment—they have an entire Virtue. They hired a thief to steal it from the Resistance. And we’re worried it has the power to hurt people instead of healing them.”

  The blood drained from Matteo’s face. He stared down at his chest, obviously thinking of the mysterious power that had saved his life. “It must be payment,” he finally said. “I’ve heard rumors that the Wardens are using some sort of rare object to pay back their suppliers for all the weapons and funding. This Virtue thing must be what they’re paying them with.”

  Kaylin couldn’t help wincing, even though the news hardly came as a surprise. If Lio was right, the Ascendancy were the ones supplying the Wardens with all this money and weaponry. And if the Wardens handed a Virtue over to the Ascendancy…

  Kaylin didn’t even know what the hell that would mean. But she had no doubt the Ascendancy would stop at nothing to invade Earth, and handing them an ancient weapon of destruction could be a killing blow for humanity.

  Matteo glanced between them uncertainly. “What are you planning on doing?”

  “We’re going to retrieve the Virtue from the Wardens,” Beck said. “We have good intel that tells us it’s located in your Paris base.”

  Matteo’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. “And then what?”

  Beck hesitated only a moment before saying, “We’re going to destroy it so no one else can use it.”

  It was a lie, but Kaylin couldn’t blame him for it. The absolute last thing Matteo needed to know was that they planned to hand the Virtue over to Lio. If Matteo found out they were giving a weapon of mass destruction to an alien, there was no way he’d help them, no matter how good-intentioned Lio and his people were.

  Matteo considered this for a long moment, his mouth pursing into a thin line. Then he nodded. “Tell me what I can do to help you.”

  Beck reached into his pocket, drawing out a collapsible tablet. He unfolded it and handed it over to Matteo. Kaylin peered down at the screen and caught sight of an incomplete map of the Wardens’ base.

  “We need you to fill in some gaps in our knowledge,” Beck said. “Tell us anything and everything you know about the base’s entrances and the tunnels leading up to them.”

  Matteo stared down incredulously at the tablet in his hands. Then he looked back up at Beck and said, “You’re joking, right? Those tunnels were held for seven weeks against the Syndicate. They’re nearly impenetrable.”

  “They’re impenetrable for an army,” Kaylin said. “But the Syndicate invasion left them cracked and broken in a lot of places. It shouldn’t be too hard for a handful of people to sneak into the tunnels and get to the base.”

  Matteo shook his head. “You don’t understand what you’re getting yourself into.”

  “Then help us understand,” Beck said, nodding to the tablet. “Give us any information you can think of.”

  Matteo remained quiet, his brow furrowed uncertainly.

  Beck sighed and added, “Or you can just tell us where we can find someone who’d be willing to give us accurate intel.”

  Matteo looked up at that. “Like who?”

  “I’ve been told there are a lot of street kids in Paris who’ve memorized the tunnel routes in the city,” Beck said. “They sell the intel to scavengers, and I bet they’d be willing to sell it to the Resistance for the right price. Do you think you could put us in contact with one of them?”

  “Don’t go near any of those kids,” Matteo blurted. “Don’t even go on their territory. Keep them out of this. It’s too dangerous for them.”

  Kaylin raised her eyebrows. “How are we supposed to stay off their territory if we don’t even know where they live?”

  Matteo bit his lip and stared long and hard at the incomplete map on the tablet’s screen. Then he said, “I’ll give you all the info I can. But I’m warning you, you’re going to need a miracle to make it through those tunnels alive.”

  Kaylin smiled grimly. “You just focus on writing down as much intel as you can,” she said, tapping the edge of the tablet. “We’ll take care of the miracle-working.”

  21

  Beck

  Beck gazed around, keeping a firm grip on his pistol as he took in the ruins of Paris. Everywhere he looked, there were signs of humans—cars left abandoned in the roads, trash littering the sidewalks, shops with smashed windows and looted shelves. But Kaylin and he were the only people in sight.

  Kaylin walked beside him with a tranq pistol holstered at her waist and a digital tablet in her hands. Red trotted at her heels, scanning the streets for danger while Kaylin focused her attention on the map displayed on the tablet’s screen.

  Matteo had given them precise locations to three of the tunnel entrances that led to the Wardens’ base. Beck had decided a scouting mission was in order, to check that the intel Matteo had given them was accurate, and to gather some more details about how they might infiltrate the entrances.

  Wind whistled through the broken buildings, kicking up a thick haze of ash and
dust. In the corner of Beck’s eye, a flash of movement streaked past. Beck whirled toward it, his pistol raised, his heart thumping.

  But it was just a dog. The scrawny little thing paused in the entrance of an alleyway, baring its teeth at them. A dirty collar still clung to its emaciated neck, but the heart-shaped name tag was tarnished with rust.

  Red leaped forward with a snarl. The dog immediately turned tail and scampered away, yelping a cry of surrender.

  Red snorted, as if in disdain, and strode back to Kaylin’s side with his chest puffed up. Kaylin reached down to stroke his head, but her eyes stayed fixed on the alleyway the dog had run into.

  “Poor thing,” she murmured.

  Judging by the sadness in her expression, Beck got the feeling it wasn’t just the dog she felt sorry for. It was the whole damn city. Just three years ago, Paris had been one of the grandest places in the world. Packed with history, artwork, universities, libraries, and one of the biggest economies in Europe.

  Now it was a ghost town.

  The Syndicate siege of Paris had lasted nearly seven weeks, longer than any other city in Europe. During that time, the Battle of Paris was all anyone could talk about. Hundreds of battles were being waged all around the world, but the one in Paris was the focus of all the radio chatter. They didn’t have the best weapons, or the best military, or the best training. But they did have a stubborn population and a complex network of tunnels criss-crossing the city.

  Their extensive subway system ran to all ends of the city, and on top of that, they also had the catacombs. The catacombs had been built centuries ago as a giant, underground cemetery, and over 200 miles of the ancient tunnels still ran under the heart of Paris. Combined with the subway tunnels, they provided the perfect tactical defense. The deepest tunnels had provided shelter from the Syndicate’s bombs, and the French soldiers had been able to dart through the tunnels, popping up in unexpected places to take the Syndicate invaders by surprise.