by Zack Archer
“Why would I tell you anything?” Dez asked.
“Because you know I’m never going to leave this place so why not tell me and rub it in. It’s a sign of power.”
A zippered grin tugged at the corner of Dez’s mouth. “We call the fifteenth floor the nursery. That’s where the man keeps his little treasures.”
Something about the words “little” and “treasures” sent chills up and down my spine, but I didn’t respond as we trekked on through the building.
Higher we climbed, sliding under a forest of massive struts that appeared to be the primary support for the rotunda.
We slipped between the umbrella-like ribs of the structure and I asked Dez why we didn’t just take a loop. He said in his experience, climbing manually disoriented those who were being taken to see the Harbinger.
We moved across the fifteenth floor and I spotted a solitary child, a young girl who looked very much like Kree, trundling down toward a security guard who ushered her through a massive black door that was next to a loop. I made a mental note of the area, surmising this was indeed more than likely where they kept the children hostage.
The sixteenth floor followed and it was here that I saw what appeared to be a zoo of some kind, a menagerie behind a wall of thick glass that contained a myriad of creatures from other planets.
“The Harbinger’s a collector of sorts,” Dez muttered. “He likes to take trophies from other worlds.”
I locked eyes with a colossus on the other side of the glass, a creature that resembled the bastard spawn of an octopus and a bear. The thing pressed its mouth to the glass and made a terrible sound as it dragged its hooked beak back and forth.
“That’s one of his favorites,” Dez said.
“I think it wants to come out and play,” I said.
Dez smirked. “Gods help you if those things ever get loose.”
We stopped for a moment on the seventeenth floor and Dez pointed to a section of black cages built into the side of the building. There were several dozen figures on the inside, standing erect, slotted inside translucent tubes.
Dez allowed me enough space to step forward and I was shocked to see Big Dread, Dolly Dagger, The Showstopper and a number of other figures. What I assumed was the entirety of the Morningstars, the whole gang. Big Dread’s face was bloody and bruised. It looked like she’d been worked over pretty good. She noticed me and mouthed something and then looked away.
I turned back to Dez. “I thought they were working for the Harbinger.”
A crazed gleam filled his eyes. “That’s what they thought too.”
“He double-crossed them didn’t he?”
Dez shrugged. “He changed the terms of the bargain. They served their purpose. They helped bring you to us.”
“What are you going to do with them?”
“That ain’t none of your concern.”
I looked back and cast a final glance at Big Dread who held my gaze, mouthing something again I couldn’t make out.
Dez pulled me back and ten minutes later, we were standing before a biometric scanner pinned to a metal door. Dez waved his palm before the scanner and the door opened to an industrial corridor where men and women in smocks and biohazard garb were rushing around.
At the end of the industrial corridor was an elevator, a loop that opened as we entered.
The doors shut and we rocketed up and I could see through the translucent walls, the entirety of Fiasco Heights spooling out under us.
The loop came to a stop and the door opened.
I was carried inside and roughly deposited on a long slab of stone that was covered in a white material that had the consistency of memory foam.
Dez crouched on his haunches. He used the end of his baton to prop my chin up. “You best show the man some fucking respect.”
“You’re two seconds away from me spitting your eyes again, asshole,” I hissed.
Dez smacked me in the mouth, busting my lip, and then stood and reentered the loop with the serpent-creatures at his side.
I tasted my own coppery blood as I rubbed my split lip.
I stood and studied my surroundings: walls that were two stories high, the top portions made of translucent material, the bottoms paneled in a dark, wood-like material, set above a single course of rough-cut blocks of stone or bone (I couldn’t tell which).
Beyond this were human and alien statues made of white stone, along with the ivory-colored ribs of some mammoth, long-dead beast that had been repurposed into a series of strangely-shaped chairs. The floor was hard and composed of an elaborate parquet design made from glowing, alien-alloyed tiles.
It was an expansive room fit for a one-percenter, a king, or in this case, a wannabe dictator.
“What do you think?” a man’s voice asked.
I turned and looked to the far side of the room that was draped in shadows and there he was.
There was the villain himself.
The Harbinger.
67
The Harbinger stood and walked toward me with menacing purpose. He seemed to cover the distance between us in four or five paces and when he strode out of the shadows I saw him fully for the first time.
He carried himself with the casual assurance of someone accustomed to giving orders and having them obeyed.
Physically, he was in the middle of his years, well over six and a half feet tall and built like a linebacker.
His eyes were hooded but his face was smooth, giving him the appearance of a man who was aged and yet somehow ageless.
His silver hair was perfectly coifed and when he spoke, it was in cultured, measured tones. Certainly not what I was expecting, and not the voice of a despot.
“I like your uniform,” the Harbinger said of the Snout garb I was still wearing.
“One of your goons said I could borrow it,” I replied.
He smiled. “I hope you weren’t mistreated down below.”
“Not unless you count being chained up and slapped around mistreatment.”
“You’re scared aren’t you?” the Harbinger asked.
“No,” I replied after a few seconds of silence, looking away.
“There’s no need to lie. I can smell it on you,” the villain continued.
The Harbinger smirked and I noticed two things.
First, the air around us was chilly, as if we’d just pulled open the door of a refrigerator. When the Harbinger moved, I felt a jet of even more frigid air, as if some unseen force was propelling him around.
Two, the Harbinger’s fingernails were a sight to behold. They were manicured. They weren’t the nails of someone used to physical exertion, but rather the buffed and smoothed nails you’d see on someone who preferred to sit back and order his killings. “I was told you were a man with a salty tongue.”
“That’s what the ladies say,” I replied.
“Do you know why you’re here, Quincy?”
“Hopefully it’s to pick up my one-way ticket back to Earth.”
The Harbinger chuckled and turned to face the nearest wall. “We could sit here all day and talk, but in the parlance of your planet, I was hoping we could have a brief, mature conversation. Superhero to superhero.”
“More like Earthling to dictator.”
He turned to face me, his smile slipping away. “I’m not a dictator.”
“You mean you didn’t orchestrate a coup, have Greylock assassinated, and murder most of your enemies?”
“Sure, if you want to get technical about it...”
He smiled darkly. I didn’t.
“What do you want from me?” I asked.
“I want you.”
“I’m flattered, but I’m sort of spoken for. In fact, I’ve got dinner reservations with several lovely ladies if you’d be kind enough to let me go.”
He breathed through his nostrils. “I didn’t mean I want you in that sense, you lort. I’ve heard you possess unusual feats, including powers that I do not have, like the ability to handle that which wa
s contained inside the Light Breaker.”
“You mean…the antimatter? The trap bottle?”
He nodded. “I need you to assist me with it.”
“Why?”
“You’re going to learn that I’m not a big fan of ‘why,’ Quincy. And the reason I need you, is to help set my people free.”
“Who are you? Moses?”
He quirked an eyebrow. “What?”
“What I meant is, how is you possessing the antimatter going to set anyone free?”
“Freedom will come when I use the antimatter to destroy the Caul.”
I took this in and peered at the Harbinger, who was a spooky sonofabitch. The guy didn’t blink once during the entire conversation. Not once. “What happens if I say no?”
“Oh, things wouldn’t end well for her, Quincy.”
My mouth went dry. I instantly knew he was referring to Aurora and I was thankful that she might still be alive. “Where is she? Where’s Aurora?”
“In a safe place and she’ll continue to remain safe as long as you make wise choices.”
“I want to see her.”
“And I’d really like to see your friends,” the Harbinger replied. “My old friend Atlas Jackson and the rest of the Shadow Catchers. Do you happen to know where they are?”
“Hopefully, trying to find a way to come say hello.”
He smiled again, flashing teeth that were a brilliant white. “You’ll find it difficult to get in and out of this building.”
“Is that what you said to the kids you’ve got locked up in here?”
He answered this with silence. Then his eyes drifted heavenward and he nodded. “The offspring of the Honoria?” he said.
“The people you’re using as slaves down in the lower levels. From what I can tell, you’ve got their kids locked up in here.”
“I can neither confirm nor deny that, but I assure you any little ones that might be in this building are well cared for in our tender age shelter and will remain so.”
I sighed, realizing I wasn’t going to get anywhere with him. Instead, I thought it might be more appropriate to try the direct approach. “Look, Harbinger, may I call you that?”
He nodded.
“I’d really love it if you let me, Aurora, and the kids go. I promise not to tell anyone what you’ve got going on in here.”
“Well, I certainly appreciate that...”
“Because I can tell you’re a man who gets things done.”
The Harbinger smiled. “Flattery will get you everywhere, Quincy.”
He sat in silence for several seconds, deep in contemplation. Then he steepled his long fingers under his chin. “You may not believe it now, but I believe there’s a place for you here in Fiasco Heights. I really do. In point of fact, I see great things in your future so long as you do the right thing.”
The Harbinger pointed to a door at the side of the room. “Walk with me.”
Realizing I didn’t have any other options, I followed after him as he moved through the door and up a short flight of stairs that opened to reveal an impressive terrace.
The terrace was under the translucent dome and resembled a Garden of Eden five hundred feet up in the air.
By that I mean there was lush vegetation everywhere, immense fruit-bearing trees and vines that sprouted from the walls, the floor, giving everything the vibe of a primordial jungle. Exotic, birdlike alien creatures flew through the air, which was laced with a sickeningly-sweet odor that dizzied the senses. I watched the creatures soar over a pair of infinity pools that were bisected by a raised walkway.
We moved slowly over the walkway, the water peopled by a handful of long-limbed goddesses, some naked, others clad in barely-there clothing. The women larked in the water, but made sure to turn and wave at the Harbinger…and me.
“See anything you like?” the Harbinger asked.
“How long do I have to answer?”
He chuckled and led me to the end of the walkway and through a glass door that fronted a long ledge, a lip of solid-looking masonry, that looked down over the city. The view was staggering.
“Not many people get to see the city from this spot,” the Harbinger said.
“What about Big Dread? Did you take her up here?”
He slowly nodded. “When we were brokering our original agreement.”
“The one where she agreed to murder Greylock?”
“It’s all about plausible deniability, Quincy. I couldn’t get my hands dirty. She was looking for a reason to take out some of her frustrations. That girl was so sore of heart that she was willing to do almost anything to change her situation.”
“You took advantage of her and the others.”
A bemused smile played at the corners of his mouth. “I believe the expression back on your planet is, I have always been playing chess, and Enya and the others have always been playing checkers. Do you understand this?”
“Yeah, it’s a fancy way of saying you fucked them over.”
The Harbinger waved a hand dismissively. My gaze wandered up and I noticed a haze, a barely perceptible veil in the air, a cone of faint, bluish light that enveloped the top of the building.
Suddenly, the Harbinger grabbed me by the arm and led me down the ledge. I struggled, but couldn’t break his vicelike grip. We stopped eight or ten inches from the edge, my hair whipped by an updraft of air.
“Do you know what my primary feat is, Quincy?”
I shook my head.
“I have the ability to hasten phase changes. I can freeze things. I could freeze you if I wanted to. Just turn you into a block of ice and drop you off the building.”
“I’d really prefer if you didn’t do that.”
He released my hands and just stood there, peering down at the streets below. I turned to face him, expecting him to snarl and swat me off the building, but instead he smiled. “Go and do it. Try and destroy me. You’ve wanted to do it ever since you laid eyes on me.”
I didn’t respond and he reached out a finger and nudged me back. “Do it.”
“You’re insane.”
He pushed me again until I was tottering two or three inches away from the ledge’s lip. Anger swelled up inside me and the Harbinger’s face morphed, taking on the appearance of all the thick-necked brutes who’d bullied me when I was younger. The ones who mercilessly mocked me for being different, a freak who could channel electricity. I brought my hands up, ready to let the villain have it with a ball of plasma, but nothing happened.
Not a damn thing.
I was bone dry.
My current was shorting out for some reason.
I wasn’t firing.
Hell, I couldn’t even muster up enough energy to light a match.
The Harbinger smiled and pointed at the veil. “It’s a little something I came up with. A shield around this particular space.”
“Against what?”
“People like you. It blocks out all extraneous signals and energy, the source of power for the feats that certain people possess.”
“Like me?”
The Harbinger nodded and pulled me back from the ledge.
“Your abilities are of no moment here, Quincy.”
Great. I was stuck at the top of a skyscraper with a lunatic and I was powerless to do anything about it.
“What do you want?” I asked. “I mean, I heard your pitch back there, but what do you really want?”
“Isn’t it obvious?”
“Besides a good psychiatrist.”
The Harbinger smiled and swept his hands before the city that spread out below. “Violent change is the common thread that weaves itself through our shared histories. This world is no different than yours. There comes a time when you have to bring things low to build them back up. I have a dream that involves rebooting this place to develop a nation of believers marching forward in unity, everyone thinking the same thoughts and supporting the same agenda. What’s wrong with that?”
I shrugged. “It worked
for the Nazis…at least for a while.”
“The people down there are asleep, Quincy.”
“What happens if they wake up? What happens if they figure out what’s going on?” He was silent, so I added: “They’ll fight back, that’s what they’ll do.”
He chuckled. “Until they become conscious, they will never rebel. Until they have rebelled, they will never be conscious.”
“So basically everyone’s screwed unless they follow your orders.”
“Do you know who Voltaire was?”
I had a vague recollection that he was some kind of philosopher guy, so I nodded my head.
“He said there is no God, but don’t tell that to my servant, lest he murder me at night. Do you know what that means?”
“Voltaire was seriously paranoid.”
“It means there has to be a power that holds everything together. A figure that wields the carrot and the stick. A person who has the ability to bring about a desert and call it peace.”
“And you’re that figure?”
The Harbinger grew thin-lipped. He didn’t respond, but I already knew what the answer was. The guy was fucking nuts and thought he was some kind of god.
He motioned for me to follow him back in through the doors until we were standing on the raised platform, the beautiful women still canoodling in the water at our feet.
The Harbinger knelt and held out a hand. One of the women took it and he kissed her hand gently, then looked back up at me. “I know what’s right for my world and for you. Choose wisely and all that I have will be yours.”
“But only if I help you with the antimatter, right?”
He nodded and stepped to me. “Do we have a deal?”
I had seconds to process everything and I realized no matter what I did, no matter how much I helped the Harbinger and all of the other villains, there was no way in hell he was going to let me, Aurora, and any of the others live. It just wasn’t going to happen. I surmised that he was holding Aurora in another prison cell and that the only way I’d ever be able to see her again, is if I did something to deserve punishment.
