The Wall, page 19
Renatus wonders why he hadn’t thought of this.
“I’m sure they have already consummated the marriage, but just for good measure, send her to see Asher.”
“Sir? It is she that carries the gene, not Asher. It could be anybody.”
“Again, you don’t know my daughter Omar. She would not be with just anybody. Send her to SeaPen and give them some alone time.”
“Of course, my sultan.”
Renatus inhales a breath of new hope; perhaps one day soon he can have his wounded prince.
I scream as electric current surges through my body. The electrodes are connected to my forehead, arms, and legs. My tormentor takes great pleasure in my interrogation. He is a stout man in his forties with long flowing hair and scanty snake-like eyes. I wonder when he was a child if he always aspired to be a tormentor. Or was it Zion that perverted him? Renatus’s lies have a way of warping one’s soul. This man has been hearing them since his birth.
“Where is Cephas and the rest of The Defiance?” he asks again.
“I told you, I don’t know, I haven’t been in contact with them for months.”
He sighs and presses the button, sending high voltage roving through every fiber of my body. I clench my jaw until me teeth almost crack. My fingernails dig into my palms until blood drips from them, splatting onto the cold cement floor. It finally stops and I close my eyes and pray that I do not break. I cannot break. I must not fail The Defiance any more than I already have.
“Tell me exactly which reservations The Defiance operates out of?”
“I don’t know,” I moan finally catching my breath.
“I’m just warming up here mate.” He smiles at the puddle of urine underneath me. “Seems the prince of Zion has soiled himself.” He taps his fingers, teasing the button. “Are you sure you have nothing to say?”
“Guess I should have used the loo before we started,” I say sarcastically through bloody teeth.
His eyes narrow. “Just bloody tell me mate, everyone eventually breaks, save yourself the pain.”
“Then you’d be out of a job. Besides, it looks to me like you are enjoying yourself.”
He smiles. “Well, you are right about one thing, I do enjoy this. But as long as there are enemies of Zion, my job is secure.”
He zaps me again. Maybe I shouldn’t have provoked him, but at this point I don’t think it matters. My fate is decided. I have a feeling even if I do talk, Renatus will either end me or keep me in this underwater dungeon forever. When I begin to foam at the mouth he stops the agony.
I take a deep breath. “I have something to say.”
He grabs his pen and paper and leans in. It takes me a few minutes to gather the requisite amount of oxygen to speak.
“Tell Renatus that I am Asher, son of Silas, and I will never betray The Defiance. Tell him he was outwitted by a simple Dreck from Reservation 9 and that soon, along with his precious Wall, he will fall.”
“Very well, son of Silas,” he states nonchalantly as his plump finger holds down the button that is responsible for my misery.
I writhe in pain and see that he doesn’t plan on stopping this time. My agony is acute. I ask God to take this cup from me, or at the very least numb my pain. After what seems like eternity but is probably only a few seconds a wave of peace flows over me. I no longer feel the excruciating pain as I close my eyes and see a bright light. For a moment I am on the pond fishing with Sarai. Frogs croak in the midday sun as they jump from lily pad to lily pad. A light breeze fans my face. Then I hear her voice. It’s not her angelic timbre I expect, but one of fire.
The door swings open and Sarai marches in, flanked by two Lazurite guards.
“That’s enough!” she barks.
My tormentor pulls his hand from the button and stands. “My sultana, to what do we owe the pleasure of your company?”
I open my eyes and wonder if I’m dreaming or dead.
“I need to speak to the prisoner, alone,” Sarai demands.
“My sultana, you must appreciate that I have been given strict orders by Renatus himself that no one is to see or talk to the traitor of Zion.”
She hands him a small tablet. “I am here on direct orders from my father.”
My tormentor does a retina scan and the electronic tablet unlocks. He reads it then immediately bows.
“Of course, my sultana. Please forgive my insolence.”
“Bring him to conference room 14B,” she orders.
Five minutes later I’m escorted to where Sarai waits for me. It was smart on her part as surely everything said in the interrogation room was being recorded. After my escorts leave she rushes to me.
“Are you okay? What did they do to you?”
“I’m fine now that you’re here. Just a little voltage, that’s all. Not like touching The Wall or anything. What are you doing here Sarai? You shouldn’t be here.”
“I’m here to get you out.”
“Did Renatus suspect you? Does he know you knew who I really was?”
“It was Renatus who sent me here.”
“What?”
She shakes her head. “He said, he said to come see you and be certain I spend some alone time with you.”
“Alone time? I don’t get it. Why would he want—”
“I have no idea, maybe he was feeling generous? Doesn’t matter, we need to get out of here.”
“Perhaps we should heed his advice,” I say jokingly.
She punches my shoulder, “You have just been tortured, and our lives depend on finding a way out of here, and that’s where your brain goes?”
I can’t help myself. “With all that electricity they been pumping into me I’m a bit amped up and ready to go if you know what I mean.”
She can’t help but smile. “You’re shameless.”
“I know.”
She grabs my hands, “One of your insiders asked me to send you a message. I have no idea what it means, but he said it is of the utmost importance. ‘Dallas may be hot, but Fort Worth is hotter.’”
I can’t believe they found it and that it is real. I wonder how many weapons were there. I would have loved to have been there to have seen Cephas and Jude’s face. A part of me thought Boaz had given me a fake.
“What does that mean?” she asks.
“It means we have a chance . . . if we can get a portion of The Wall open.”
“Your third army awaits you near the western end of The Wall,” she informs me.
“How does that matter now that they know who I really am?”
“Your true identity isn’t public yet, Renatus doesn’t want to be embarrassed. If your army hears it from you and not someone else, I believe you can still convince them to follow you. Fight for you. After all, you convinced me to fall in love with you didn’t you?”
I grab her face. “That was my greatest miracle.”
We kiss like it was the first time; it’s always as if it’s the first time . . . or the last.
“How do we get outta here?”
“I’ll tell them I’m escorting you back to father for further questioning.”
“And if that doesn’t work?”
She pulls from her coat pocket my ricochet and hands it to me. Attached behind her back is her scourge. It was a huge risk to smuggle those weapons in, but why would they scan the sultana? Even at SeaPen. I’m awed by her bravery.
I smile. “What else you got hidden in there?”
“Just the courage of a Dreck.”
“Or their recklessness.”
“Let’s go find out.”
As soon as we leave the room an alarm blares. We are found out.
“Why the alarm?” I ask.
“I was allowed to see you, but specifically told not to leave the interrogation room.”
“I guess our decision is made for us,” I say activating my ricochet.
“I guess it’s time to be reckless with a pinch of courage,” she responds activating her scourge.
We exit the room into the hall to be immediately confronted by two Lazurite guards aiming their plasma guns. I flick my wrist, sending my ricochet flying as we both hit the ground avoiding the initial blasts from their weapons. The ricochet swats one of them in the neck, sending an electrical pulse through him as he folds to the ground. Sarai whips her scourge at the other guard wrapping it around his leg and pulls him to the ground. We drag them into a utility closet around the corner.
“Get undressed and put on their exoarmor,” Sarai whispers.
“Why? The armor is synced to their DNA, it won’t protect us,” I respond.
“I know, but with their helmets we can pass as guards.”
Good thinking, as long as we don’t get shot at. We undress and slide into their exoarmor. Mine is a little tight, hers is a bit loose. A minute later we exit the closet disguised as Lazurite guards, and lock it. We stroll down the hall feigning to look for ourselves as other guards pass us. One of them stares awkwardly at our ill-fitting suits but continues on.
“What’s the plan?” I whisper.
“We make our way to the docking station and steal a transport sub.”
“You know how to operate one of those things?”
“Father used to take me and my brother for some underwater sightseeing. Every now and then he would let us take the wheel.”
I stop. “We need to do something first.”
“What?”
“Release the hounds.”
“We don’t have time for that,” she pleads.
“You know as well as I do no one here deserves to be here. Besides, chaos will behoove us.” I think of Legion. And surely this place is loaded with Defiance spies or Lazurites who are Defiance sympathizers.
She thinks for a moment. “Control room is to the left.”
We approach the control room and tap on the window. They see our outfits and our black and red guard helmets and we are buzzed in. We make quick work of the two unsuspecting guards and force the operators into a corner.
“How do I open the cells?” I ask one of the operators holding up my ricochet.
“It’s biometric,” he stutters.
I lead him to the control panel where his retinas and handprints are scanned, giving us access to the system.
“Open all the cell doors,” I order.
The operator hesitates. “You won’t get away with this you Dreck vermin.”
“Is that supposed to offend me? You really need to work on your insults,” I laugh, before placing my ricochet near his neck where he can feel the sizzle of the blade. “Open them, now!”
Gritting his teeth, he does.
Sarai holds up her scourge. “And a transport keycard.”
The operator opens a locked cabinet and hands her a keycard to operate one of the transport submarines. We exit the control room and are engulfed by chaos. Inmates fighting guards. Multiple fires have been started and we are immediately drenched by the sprinkler system. From the corner of my eye I spot Legion. He is going in another direction; his gait is as if he is taking a leisurely stroll through the park; no one dares approach him. I yell to him, but either from his want or the pandemonium he doesn’t respond. I wonder if he even knows what is happening.
“We have to go . . . now!” Sarai yells over the blaring alarms.
We sprint through two sets of doors and make our way to the underwater loading dock, taking out two more guards in the process. As we turn the corner I hear a familiar voice.
“Stop!”
Behind us is Dagger, aiming a plasma rifle he must have pilfered from one of the guards.
“Gimme the sub key,” he demands.
“Your rifle is useless against our armor,” I lie.
“Not if it’s stolen,” he replies.
I look to Sarai.
“The indicator light on the back of your helmet is red, it never synced to your DNA,” he answers as if reading my thoughts.
I take off my helmet and he instantly recognizes me.
“My lucky day. I get to take out a prince of Zion as well as escape this hell hole.”
“Listen, I was sculpted. I am Asher, son of Silas. I am here to take down Zion.”
“Poppy-cock!”
“Listen to me Dagger, why do you think I’m in this place? Renatus found me out. Why else would a prince of Zion be trying to escape SeaPen?”
“Well, Cephas is crazy enough to pull something like this.”
“I know our methods have been at odds on how to fight this war, but now is the time to work together, The Defiance and The Sons of Levi. Together we can win this war. We have never had more of a chance, now is the time. Our end goal is the same after all.”
“Considering your soft tactics, how do you plan on defeating Zion?”
“Fort Worth Armory.”
“A myth,” he scoffs.
“Cephas has the weapons in hand.”
“You know how to drive one of these things?”
Sarai removes her helmet, “I do.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
The three of us load into the transport sub. Sarai inserts the keycard and takes the controls. Dagger sits behind us still aiming his plasma rifle at me.
“You still don’t believe me?”
“I don’t trust you,” he responds.
Sarai seals the hatch. “We’re airtight.”
The sub then disembarks from SeaPen. From a viewing window we can see five or six other subs also departing. I wonder if Legion is in one of them.
“So, the armory is real . . . I’ll be damned. How many weapons?” Dagger asks me.
“I don’t know the details yet,” I reply.
“So, if you’re Asher, and we are fighting the same enemy, why did you arrest me and bring me to Zion?”
“You tried to kill me, remember?”
“Don’t forget me as well,” Sarai quips.
Dagger chuckles. “Oh yes. So you really want an alliance with The Sons of Levi?”
“That depends.”
“On what?”
“Tactics.”
“Zion has no rules of war, why should we?” Dagger snorts.
“Because we aren’t Lazurites, and if we act no different from them then what are we fighting for?” I say.
Dagger nods to Sarai. “She’s a Lazurite!”
“You think I would be here if I wasn’t against everything Zion stands for?” Sarai barks back.
“Do you know how many children I have seen those cell-pirates kill or kidnap? How many families torn apart?”
“Then why would we do the same?” Sarai says.
“You all think I’m a bad person, disagree with my methods. But you don’t know me, who I really am. Don’t judge my character during times of war.”
“What a man does during adversity is how character is defined.” Maybe I am my father’s son.
Dagger studies my eyes. “It was an accident ya know.”
“What?”
“Those children, at the market. The bomb you sold my people. It was an accident.”
“Just because you didn’t mean to do something doesn’t make it right,” I respond angrily.
“Maybe.”
I can no longer relive the nightmare of that day, instead I focus my attention on Sarai. I am in awe of her. Her eyes radiate a humble confidence as she steers the sub towards the surface. I hadn’t stopped to think how hard it must be for her to be the enemy of her own parents, fighting against them. Even worse, knowing what they stand for. She didn’t have the advantage of virtuous parents. Yet, she still manages to do what is righteous. She is a true leader.
Then I spot a missile heading straight for us.
“Bank right!” I scream.
“Where’d that come from?” Dagger yells.
“Must be a patrol sub, news of our escape is already out,” I say as Sarai turns the sub hard right.
The missile is quickly catching up to us.
“We’re not gonna make it!” Dagger hisses.
His assessment is correct.
“Get us as close to the surface as you can,” I tell Sarai, hoping we survive the blast and don’t drown.
We continue our turn as well as darting almost straight up. But we don’t make it. The missile clips the back of our sub and explodes. The rear third of the sub is blown off. For a second, I black out.
I’m cold. So cold.
I feel like I’m floating.
Again, I’m overwhelmed by a sense of peace.
Then I open my eyes. I am thirty feet below the surface of the Pacific Ocean. Below me, what remains of the sub sinks into the abyss.
Sarai.
Where is she?
I frantically look, but visibility is near zero. The saltwater stings my eyes. My lungs burn. I have no choice but to swim to the surface.
“Sarai!” I frantically shriek.
Her brother drowned in this same ocean, I will not let it take her also.
“Sarai!”
I bob up and down in the increasingly angry ocean searching in all directions. I am only about three hundred yards from shore. I yell her name as a wave punches a glass of salt water down my throat. I gag it back out. To my left I spot an arm floating towards me. I fervently pray it’s not Sarai’s. My arms slice through the water as I finally reach the floating limb. On the shoulder is a tattoo of the Liberty Bell. It’s not Sarai’s. It’s Dagger’s.
“Sarai!”
My muscles, already weak from Zion’s version of electric shock therapy, are scorching as I battle to stay afloat. I refuse to swim to shore without her. Then I hear a faint sound fight its way through the rolling waves.
“Asher!” Sarai yells.
She is fifty yards to my left.
“Here!” I wave my arms and begin to swim towards her.
“I’m fine! Save your energy, swim to shore.”
It takes us about ten minutes to finally reach land, we ride a giant wave that takes us the last fifty feet. Exhausted, we crawl to each other and embrace, our feet still partially in the freezing water.
“Thought I lost you,” I manage to stay.
“Not possible, we are eternity mates, remember?”
I smile until I see Dagger wash ashore, what’s left of him.
