Lennox followed the plan with precision, bringing down the Scramjet ahead of the encroaching flames. The twenty immortal soldiers released themselves from still-seats and hurried out in their black and bronze body armor, weapons chest high.
James unbuckled and turned to his brother on bicomm.
“I have this,” James insisted. “I’ll restore the link when I find Emil.”
Valentin didn’t have time to object before James disconnected the bicomm and tossed it into a pouch in his armor. He pivoted to Lennox and Santos.
“Finish your job on the northern perimeter. No one escapes.”
The Hossaini factory was centuries old, using systems outdated almost everywhere in the Collectorate. It stretched half a kilometer, its old fueling stations located at the base of a mountain range that used to be heavily mined. Salvation’s agents said most of the northern facility was inactive, although trams were seen crossing into the mountains. The agents pinpointed where production was brisk and ran day/night. The immortal soldiers were rushing inside now. The sun set behind the mountains; the light cast a burnt red and violet glow.
James jumped from the Scramjet as it hovered several feet above the ground. A volley of weapons fire from his soldiers guided James’s path. Behind him, Gamma pulled away, surging toward the far end of the facility.
Rarely did James enter battle with his face hidden inside a full helmet. Tonight, he made an exception. The Salvation-1 Convex Tracking Gradient allowed him to see his troops no matter how far away, to pierce the walls of this facility, and to see the movement of every desperate Chancellor and indigo collaborator. If anyone dared to approach from his flanks or his rear, the gradient detected them, analyzed for weapons threats, and mapped defensive maneuvers in less than a second.
He studied the facility as if it were midday. The AI contained Emil Bouchet’s physical profile. His soldiers possessed it as well; he didn’t have to remind them to capture but not kill his father.
Like the other designs he stole from the Jewels’ Creators, James took special pride in knowing his tech surpassed the mighty Unification Guard. The DR29 he once thought so remarkable paled against this combat AI. If he had a few thousand more soldiers, he could defeat armies numbering in the millions.
For now, he settled on the conspirators inside this factory and the flesh of his father.
As instructed, the soldiers broke into four attack teams once they entered the facility’s offices and production bays. Soon after, James heard return fire. He knew the rhythmic beat of a Mark 10 blast rifle. The agents were right: Unification Guard security was present.
He trained the gradient on the zones of most intense fire. His young ones were advancing; the peacekeepers retreating. Few fell, a product of stubborn body armor on both sides. But the immortals were nimbler. Valentin taught them how to counteract Guard strategies but made sure their own offensive maneuvers belonged to a new playbook bound to confuse the enemy.
James wondered what these Chancellor fools might do if they realized the most valuable target in the universe – the one whose kill would guarantee instant promotion and fame – was entering the facility away from the shooting. Would they be smart enough to peel off and go after the man who broke up an empire?
No. The DR29 kept them focused on the immediate invaders.
New fireballs filled the evening sky far to the north as Scramjet Gamma created a wave of destruction to block any retreat.
James turned his attention to a cluster of retreating humans in a heavily fortified sector due east, two hundred meters. He counted thirty bodies, but only three with the physicality of peacekeepers. He studied them with intensity, trying to find the correct profile. They appeared bound to a single room, perhaps behind a barrier immune to the weapons fire. It was too small for so many.
Suddenly, the body total changed. The gradient counted twenty-nine. Seconds later, twenty-eight. These people were vanishing.
What have you done, Father?
James contacted Lennox. “You have new coordinates. Attack now. Precision strike.”
Lennox confirmed. James saw the Scramjet race above the northern firestorm, its running lights poised toward its new destination.
The body count fell again. Twenty-seven, twenty-six, twenty-five.
James ran. Perhaps it was his dramatic advance, but one of the defending packs of peacekeepers broke off from their retreat and advanced toward James’s position.
He ran the calculations through the gradient; James wasn’t going to be fast enough. The soldiers would intercept him thirty meters shy of his target. But the Scramjet would beat them all.
Be precise, Lennox. Don’t take out the entire damn building. Leave my father alive.
The yellow ovoid streak rocketed across the facility and ripped into a fortified structure at its northeast corner, blowing a massive hole through the facade. James watched as part of the ceiling fell and the people inside scrambled toward one corner.
James observed while he ran. They scurried like rodents, but the body total no longer diminished. Lennox contacted him, saying he was prepared to swing around and annihilate the soldiers approaching on James’s flank.
“No. I’m too close in. I’ll deal with them. Take out the remaining trams and prepare to evacuate our people.”
Five seconds later, a squadron of six peacekeepers opened fire. Their flash pegs bounced off his armor. At first, James enjoyed the appearance of invincibility. These creatures had no idea the technological advances they were facing. If only they knew that the Jewels’ Creators were military gods who never lost to a mortal enemy other than themselves.
He aimed his blast rifles, fired, and advanced. Their profiles made clear: These were active-duty Guard soldiers. The Admiralty never would have deployed them here unless the work was vital.
James bowed upon one knee and spread flash pegs. Two soldiers screamed as their body armor collapsed under the onslaught. Another gurgled and fell as his collar brace exploded. James didn’t have time to waste on the rest.
He dropped a rifle, removed a glove, and swept it across the ground, pushing streaks of lava toward them.
They tried to run for cover, but the molten pathways followed them and consumed their bodies in vibrant plumes.
James turned his attention to the building where he anticipated finding his father. Screams echoed through the chaos. Shots were fired inside the room. Two bodies fell. His gradient counted nineteen heartbeats. Did some of them die in the attack? Or did they disappear before it? Never mind. As long as …
There. I knew it.
He was ten meters out when James matched the profile. Emil Bouchet wasn’t going to escape this time. No sign of Mother. Yet.
The gradient showed inevitable victory in the other battles. Three immortals fell, their heartbeats no longer part of the convex readings. No worries. Recovery would take minutes, unlike the dozen peacekeepers who lay dead among James’s advancing force. His designs were correct: The new black-and-bronze armor held up longer against similar weaponry. This was proving to be a crucial field test.
And now, Father, for you.
38
Ericsson Research Station
Tamarind
F LASH PEGS TORE INTO THE CEILING before Michael, Kal Carver, or Rachel Broadman pressed their trigger button. Each stood braced for close-quarter combat, their Guard helmets locked and weapons aimed. Maya held a laser pistol in one hand and her knife in the other. The soldier behind them all yelled loud enough for the entire base to hear.
“Enough! We’re here to protect people, not kill each other!”
Lt. Percy Muldoon stepped out from behind Rachel and took an angular position to shoot down whomever he liked.
“Fucking hell, Broadman. Nilsson gives you command, and you do this? Carver, what are you thinking? Cooper risked his life for us how many times?”
“Back away, Muldoon,” Rachel said. “Go to your duty station.”
“Yeah, I was about to when I got a bad
feeling.” Percy directed his eyes at Kal. “Some of the shit you’ve said when you’re drunk! You’ve been looking for an excuse to take out Cooper from day one.”
“And you’re not going to stop me, Muldoon.”
“You sure?” Percy looked at everyone. “You kill Cooper, you’re gonna have to kill me, too.”
Maya chimed in. “You’ll need to leave my body on the deck as well.”
“Think about that,” Percy said. “Two soldiers and a civilian. Cooper here has permission from the Supreme Admiral, and Maya works beside the base commandant. And the real clincher is, you won’t be able to cover it up. You see, I already violated protocol once today by transmitting a private conversation. Need to hear more?”
Rachel lowered her rifle and retracted her helmet.
“Carver, stand down.”
“No, Colonel. This bastard …”
“Will get his due, just like the Major. Stand down.”
Carver followed the order, but he never took his eyes off Michael, who retracted his helmet.
Michael glanced at Maya, who remained poised to pounce. She was fast, but not fast enough to avoid a barrage of flash pegs.
“Maya,” he said as gently as he could. “Stand down. Please.”
She compromised by lowering the pistol but not the knife, which was positioned for a strong upward thrust.
“Let them go inside,” Percy said. “After they’re gone, we can tell the Admiralty anything. I’ll erase the recording. Look, it’s what Nilsson wanted, and he was in command when he made the call.”
“Cudfrucker,” Kal said. “Maybe we ought to let you go. You can die with your friends when the Guard wipes out your sorry lot.”
Michael didn’t bother to respond. He understood Kal’s anger more than the grief-stricken soldier would ever realize. Yet he also knew there was nothing he could say to mend relations. The decision, barring flash pegs, fell to Rachel. He pivoted and waited her judgment.
She didn’t take long.
“No. If the rest of us have to drive each other mad until after the invasion, you get no special pass, Cooper. You’ll be confined to quarters, stripped of weapons, uniform, and rank. Let’s be real, Cooper. She’s as good as dead. You too, before long.”
Michael now understood what it felt like when time stood still. He saw no option that didn’t end with multiple deaths. He had no intention of leaving with Rachel, but he didn’t want to risk Maya’s life. Percy seemed to freeze after Rachel arrived at a compromise of sorts. If Michael shot anyone first, it would have to be Kal. He stood almost at point-blank, his helmet retracted, weaving a sadistic smile of satisfaction. I’m not going back. I’m not …
He never did.
The mountain shook. All five stumbled as the floor buckled and the latticework of lighting flickered. Repeated explosions echoed above like rolling thunder.
No one needed to guess. Rachel shouted the obvious.
“It’s them!” She opened her holocube, and Michael, Percy, and Kal followed suit. “Cudfruckers … Go. Now. Up the lift. We have to hold them back.”
He order was nonspecific, as if she expected everyone in a uniform to rush into battle. Time restarted, and for an instant, everything that happened seconds ago appeared forgotten.
Percy followed Rachel’s lead, and Kal swerved past Michael without a word. The laboratory door was six feet away. Michael knew what he wanted more than anything in his lifetime. He also knew the right thing to do.
“Go,” he told Maya. “Stay with Aldo. I’ll be back soon. I’ll be …”
She nodded, as if she didn’t need to hear more.
What am I doing?
I promise I’ll find you, Sam.
As he turned, gathered his weapons, and prepared to fight a force more deadly than any Mongols, Michael saw a spark of terror in Maya’s eyes. She didn’t have a chance to say anything.
Michael felt it. Instinct. He raised his blast rifle and opened fire a beat slower than Kal Carver, who had turned about-face at the bend and leveled his weapon at Michael, blood in his eyes.
Flash pegs glistened in a rhythmic stream as they crashed into his chest armor. For an instant, he thought his pegs crumpled Kal, but the illusion didn’t last long enough to be confirmed.
Michael felt a burning incision above his left eye, followed by an electric charge sear his brain like lightning. He was lifted bodily and flung backward.
The lightning stopped, as did the explosions above.
Someone shouted his name, but the voice diminished as if trailing a poor soul into the deepest reaches of the abyss.
Midnight.
Black.
Home.
No thought.
No sensation.
End.
39
F.N. Hossaini Industrial Complex
Euphrates
J AMES HEARD THE PANIC as he closed in on his father’s location. Two more shots were fired as his inevitable victims argued: “We can’t let them have it. Detonate now.” James raised his weapons and prepared to unload on everyone who was not Emil Bouchet. He never had a chance.
“No.” “Please.” “You can’t do this.”
The shouts blended among each other in the seconds before an explosion tore the room apart and sent debris flying in James’s direction. Shrapnel smashed against his armor, much of it flaming.
He held his ground then advanced into the devastated structure, greeted by bodies, some of them crying out in agony.
“All this way,” James muttered, “and you killed him first?”
He couldn’t make sense of what remained, though some of the ravaged technology bore the hallmarks of lab equipment. The last time he saw a lab this devastated, he was the cause. SkyTower, Level 10, seconds after he incinerated hundreds of immortal fetuses at Valentin’s request. Long before either brother imagined they might one day consider replicating those experiments to grow Aeterna’s immortal population.
Wait. What’s this?
He discovered someone moving about in the wreckage. The body configuration seemed right, but the man he saw through the flames walked with a decided limp, and smoke rose from his charred skull.
James stepped over bodies and twisted metal to draw closer. He didn’t know for sure until he heard the man speak.
“Aren’t you a sight?”
Emil Bouchet seemed a diminished version of the overdressed, bombastic narcissist James met in SkyTower. Yet his father’s eyes were blue and piercing, the last embers of a once-mighty figure.
“Black is your color,” Emil said. “And no, your mother is not on Euphrates. I won’t be there to see your people burn, but she will.”
James retracted his helmet. His pistils turned fire orange.
“What kind of weapon did you create, Father?”
“The same kind I always build. A weapon to save Chancellors.”
“I could take you with me and force the information out.”
Emil frowned as he laughed, grabbing at his chest.
“You wouldn’t if you could.”
“Why not?”
“Because killing me now will bring you joy. And because you’re not leaving Euphrates. Son, you don’t see the bigger picture. They betrayed us both.” His eyes turned away from James to the southern horizon. “I wonder? Is it fitting or ironic that we go out together?”
James cursed. He hadn’t been paying attention to surroundings. His long-range tracker warned of an approach. The running lights of two ships chased toward the facility, ahead of the familiar hum of Scramjets. They broke apart. One veered toward the center of the facility. The other maintained a direct line toward James.
Col. Miguel Lennox signaled the alert as soon as James reacted.
“Evasive action, Lennox. Defend yourself. Soldiers, prepare for bombardment. Splinter.”
Valentin taught them well. James watched as the seventeen live soldiers left their groups and escaped on individual routes. The other three remained down, their bodies yet to reanima
te.
James pointed skyward to the nearest approaching Scramjet.
“Is this our death?”
“It is, James.”
“Think again, Father.”
He threw Emil to the ground and stormed out of the ruined structure, unshielded, and dropped his rifle. James balled his fist to his sides and awakened the monstrous child who called out to him when it wanted to play.
The dark washed over James in an instant of exultation. His blood turned black. He embraced limitless stars and unleashed the dark, that it might drown them all. A nuclear storm gathered upon his breath and morphed into a missile which enveloped and atomized the enemy craft. But it didn’t stop there. James shoved the nuclear spike far beyond the horizon, as if a god were hurling a fastball. James didn’t care where it landed, though he saw the distant glow of city lights.
Deep inside the facility, Scramjets blasted energy slews at each other while ground fire rose into the sky as tracers.
James stood over Emil, who was caught between awe and terror.
“Tell me about this betrayal, Father.”
“I won’t give a creature like you the satisfaction.”
James shrugged. He raced his tongue over his lips to wet them. James wanted this to be slow and agonizing. As he treated his father to a taste of his fiery breath, James heard an explosion from behind. A ship crashed into the facility.
“For the record, Father, this gives me satisfaction.”
Emil Bouchet died screaming before he dissolved into ash.
James expected joy, but the emerging reality blunted his celebration. Even before he learned the fate of his crew, James recognized he made the worst strategic mistake of his life.
40
Ericsson Research Station
Tamarind
E ND. SENSATION. A VOICE. A LIGHT. Someone needs me. My head, it hurts. What happened?
“Michael. Come on. We don’t have much time.”
The Impossible Future: Complete set Page 130
