The Empowered, page 81
I hugged the projection back with my free arm. She pulled away after a moment, glanced at the man Alex and I carried.
“We didn’t find Mom,” I blurted, clenching my jaw. “We found him instead.”
We walked to the end of the tunnel, and into the base.
“But your vision?” Ella’s projection asked, striding alongside me. “It sounded so real.”
“Felt real,” I replied, shifting Goldin’s arm on my shoulders. “What about you and the others. What’s your situation?”
“We’re still in the Outback,” the projection said, looking down at the floor as she trudged alongside me.
“Why? The plan was to move every three months,” I said, then stopped. Alex jerked to a stop as well to avoid tripping, looking at me with his eyebrow raised. “Sorry, I’m an idiot. The Dark-Net was why, wasn’t it?”
“We couldn’t use it. The node there stopped working.”
Her chest heaved and she sucked in air. An instant later a sob ripped from her throat. “It was all up to me. Me.” She sobbed louder. “I kept looking for you, but I couldn’t feel you for a year. I kept tabs on Ruth.” She paused. Sucked in more air.
“How are Ruth and Ava?” I blurted, feeling like a selfish asshole for not asking right away.
“Ruth’s not good,” she said, her head still down. Tears splattered on the cracked concrete floor.
Keisha came up and lifted Goldin’s arm from my shoulders. “Let me carry him, while you catch up.”
“Thanks,” I said and hugged Ella’s projection. She put her arms around me and cried into my shoulder.
“Keep going,” I whispered to Keisha and Alex. They did as I asked. Harris walked by and continued on. Good. I didn’t want to deal with all the freaking mystery around the dude right now.
“Where are they?” I asked Ella’s projection.
“They were in protective custody.”
My chest tightened. Anger surged in me. I pulled away. “Those assholes at Support.”
“They said,” her voice became small, “they told Ruth and Ava it was because of you.”
I clenched my fists. Suddenly the tunnel walls closed in on me. The air was hot, and it was hard to breath. Fuckers.
“Ruth and Ava had nothing to do with this. Any of it.” I snapped. The projection stepped back in the face of my angry glare.
I lowered my arms. Took my own shuddering breath. Fought to not sob. I lost.
“Everything I did was for Ruth, and the family.”
She put a hand on my shoulder. “I know,” she said, eyes steadily looking at me. “I know. Ruth and Ava do, too.” She wiped her face. “Support doesn’t have them anymore. They released them.”
“Where are they now?” I began pacing.
Eva closed her eyes. “In a crappy apartment back over in Rockwood. Ava’s graduated and working two jobs. Ruth…” Her voice trailed off. She opened her eyes, looked away from me, didn’t continue.
My stomach twisted. “How’s Ruth?”
She finally looked back at me. “Dying, Mat. Her Thalik’s in its terminal stage. The doctors say that they stopped the experimental treatment because it had lost its effectiveness.”
“Was she getting any drugs while Support held them?” I demanded.
She nodded. “The doctors took her off it about four months ago, after Support released them. You hadn’t come back, so Support told Ruth and Ava there wasn’t a threat anymore and released them.”
I balled my fists—I wanted to hit someone so bad, but what good would that do? I unclenched my fists. I needed to help Ruth, but how? I was trapped here and Support would be watching her apartment.
It was like Ella could read my mind. “Her apartment is watched,” the project said, and threw up her arms. “I have to project in at night, or when the curtains are drawn. She sobbed again. “Ava won’t even speak to me. My own twin. Told me to fuck off, said if you and I couldn’t help her and Ruth, then stay the hell away.”
Ava sounded just like I’d been. Royally pissed. I couldn’t blame her. I hung my head. “What about the Imbued community?” I asked after a moment. We started walking again, reached the hatch. I opened it.
“They want to stay hidden.”
“But the Dark-Net is working again. At least for a little while.” I explained what I had done.
The projection’s eyes widened. “Wow,” she said, amazed. She stopped. “I’ll tell someone to check out the node right away.”
“We’ve got more information, but we need to see what it is,” I said, and we headed through the complex to the med bay.
Alex, Harris, and Keisha were crammed into the little room with the still-unconscious Goldin. I could barely fit. Ella’s projection watched from the doorway.
They’d hooked Goldin up to medical equipment, which beeped softly.
“How is he?” I asked. Stupid thing to say, but what else could I do? The man was supposed to be dead.
“Stable,” Alex said, pushing past Keisha to hug me. “How are you?”
“Keeping it together,” I said, and hugged him closer. “Thanks,” I whispered. I didn’t deserve him. “Ruth is dying.” My eyes teared up. “The Thalik’s…” breathing hurt. “She’s dying.”
“I’m sorry,” he said. He hugged me.
I hugged him.
I finally let go and turned to Goldin’s unconscious body. “We have him to figure out.”
Harris spoke up. “Your grandmother is dying of Thalik’s? I’m sorry, Mathilda.”
I swung around, banging an elbow into Keisha. “Didn’t you know that?” I bared my teeth.
He should have turned tail and ran away from my sudden rage, but he didn’t.
“I suspected, but you didn’t say outright.” His gaze was steady.
I blinked, looked away. “Sorry.”
“I sure don’t blame you for being angry.”
“Can you help her?” I asked suddenly.
“I wish I could,” he said. “But there’s no way my power works on Normals that I’ve ever seen.”
“Why not?” I demanded.
“It just doesn’t,” he said, looking sad. “How long has she had it?”
“Seven or eight years.” It was hard to remember a time before Thalik’s and Ruth. She’d contracted it while I was in prison. “Support had her on an experimental drug, but they took her off it.” I stared at the ceiling.
“I’m sorry,” he said quietly.
I turned to Alex. “Can you extract the data from the Irish base and match it to what we have from Kerch?”
“I’ll get started right away.” He strode off.
“Harris, can you check Goldin’s health?” I asked.
He nodded.
Ten minutes later, Harris unhooked Goldin from the med scanner. “He is very sick. The scan says stress related.”
Goldin’s face now looked more lined, creased with age. “He looks older than when we took him out of that cocoon thing,” I said to Keisha and Harris.
“He does,” Keisha agreed.
I couldn’t imagine what he’d been through, inside that thing. My stomach roiled. If my vision had actually been true, then my mother was inside something like this.
“Can you wake him up?” I asked Harris. I had to talk with Goldin.
“I think so,” he replied. “I’ll try.” He bent over Goldin and began running his hands over the unconscious man’s chest and arms. Every so often he’d glance up at the medical monitors. I leaned against a wall next to Keisha and watched.
“Doctor Prometheus alive,” Keisha whispered to me, shaking her head. “Never thought that would have happened.”
“Just one damn surprise after another,” I whispered back. I hadn’t had a clue about any of this when Support recruited me. But then again, no one else outside the people responsible for putting him there knew.
Keisha yawned. “Go catch some zees,” I told her, nodding at the door.
“You sure?”
“I’m fine,” I said, and opened the door. “Now go get some rest.”
She nodded and left.
Harris was still working. “What’s the hold up?” I asked him.
“I’ve never done this sort of thing before,” he said, still working, his back to me. “I’m trying to understand his body. It’s been altered by being in that pod for decades.”
“He’s aging, rapidly,” Harris pointed out.
The lines in Goldin’s face had deepened and multiplied.
“What caused—” I began, but Goldin gasped and opened his eyes, looking at me.
“Where am I?” His voice was a bass rumble, just like the old interviews I’d seen of him. His eyes were hazel. His gaze flicked to Harris, then around the room and back to me.
“You’re in an underground base,” I said.
“Whose?” He asked, sitting up.
“Ours for the moment,” I replied. The Scourge didn’t exist when Goldin had gone into the amber pod. “It used to belong to a criminal group.”
“Who are you?” he asked me.
“Mathilda Brandt.”
Recognition flickered in those eyes. “You look like a taller version of your mother,” he said. “Michelle Brandt.”
His words sent a jolt through me. “You do know my mom,” I said, and crossed my arms. “I knew it. Did you imprison her? We thought she would be where we found you.” My fingers pressed hard into the backs of my folded arms.
“She was…my protégé,” Goldin said. “You could say I recruited her, and then she surpassed me.”
“What do you mean?” I demanded, my face tightening.
“She is Empowered, like me. Like you, and your companion.” He looked at Harris.
“No one told me that when I was growing up. I had to find out the hard way.” I took a deep breath. “My mom was also a scientist, right?”
Goldin nodded.
I brushed a fallen lock of hair off my face. “We thought she’d been killed when I was four. Dead. And then I learned that she didn’t die. And finally, that she was Empowered.” I wasn’t about to tell him about my vision.
His gaze was steady. “She was a researcher in multiple disciplines and she became Empowered, before you were born.”
I swallowed hard, took a deep breath. Had to think straight. The room was stuffy and hot. My power’s way of reacting to stress. It had taken me long enough to realize that. I exhaled slowly.
Harris watched all this, but kept his mouth shut and just listened.
“What was her power?” I asked.
“It’s difficult to explain,” he said, “but I’ll try. She could interact with the fundamental source of our superpowers.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Fundamental source? You mean the power?”
“I mean where the power comes from.”
“The world, right?” I asked, bringing a chair over beside his bed and sitting. I was tired of looking down at him.
“That’s right, the world. I called it the Gaia Force. The world is alive.”
I burst out laughing. “Tell me about it. I control plants.”
He looked at me closely. “Fascinating.” He suddenly shuddered and cried out. His body contorted. His face became more lined, and his blonde hair went white while I watched. Shit.
“Harris, help him!” I ordered.
Harris waved his hands around. Goldin relaxed, took a deep breath. Harris did some more hand waving. Goldin opened his eyes. “I don’t have much time,” he said, “I’m sorry. Sorry for everything.”
“You said my mom, could interact with this Gaia Force.” I leaned forward, fighting not to be too eager, but I wanted to know everything.
“Yes. She was a natural for RAMPART.”
RAMPART. That word again. The word Loris had grilled me about.
“What is RAMPART?” I asked, sitting on the edge of my seat now.
“A secret people have killed to keep secret.” He closed his eyes. “But it’s failing at last.”
He lay there for a moment, breathing, while Harris and I waited. Finally, he opened his eyes and began talking again. “It’s a system to regulate and control the Gaia Force. Its global and cloaked, hidden. It overlays with the ancient’s network of sacred sites, the Necklace.”
“This RAMPART, who built it?” I asked.
“I did. The ancient network, the Necklace, had been erected in order to control the power of the Gaia Force, to keep humanity from destroying itself with superpowers.”
I clenched my jaw. “Typical,” I spat, and stood, shoving the chair back. “Somebody always knows best and decides that they should be in power. Let me guess, the Necklace couldn’t keep up with the latest outburst of power, back when you and the others became the first Empowered, and so you decided to build this RAMPART in order to stay in charge.”
Goldin shook his head sadly. “In order to keep the world in one piece. The Three Days War had wounded the Earth and set off a huge power flux. I forecast that we only had twenty years before a combination of environmental catastrophe and war caused by too many Empowered would destroy the Earth and render humanity extinct.”
“Too many Empowered? Who decides that? You?” My face was burning. Damn him and those like him. He was worse than Loris. At least she was trying to liberate people, although she wanted to call all the shots. “You just want to keep everyone in chains,” I said.
“It would have been millions of Empowered people, rather than the comparative handful of a few thousands. Millions upon millions.”
“So, you built the secret network, hid it, and stayed in charge. Oh, and got my mom involved, and apparently faked her death so she could help run your scheme.”
He’d didn’t answer me.
“How does it work?” Harris asked.
“It dampens the Gaia Force by essentially creating a sort of shield-trap.” He motioned to me. “Could you please help me sit up? It would be easier to speak with you. I don’t know how much time I have.”
My anger fell away in the face of his calm dignity. He didn’t seem like an evil overlord, just a man trying to keep things together. I did as he asked, piling up pillows behind him.
He smiled. “Thank you.”
“Shield-trap?” Harris asked, brows furrowed. “Where does the energy go?”
Goldin stared off into space. “That was my devil’s bargain. RAMPART uses the energy to render itself undetectable by the outside world.”
“That’s impossible!” Harris walked away from the bed, obviously thinking furiously. “Wouldn’t the energy itself make this RAMPART of yours visible?”
“RAMPART’s not entirely in this dimension,” Goldin said quietly. “It’s elsewhere.”
“Out of phase,” I replied, staring off into space. It hit me there, like a bolt of lightning. “RAMPART is like the Dark-Net, it’s elsewhere.” I slapped my hands together. “Of course, you created the Dark-Net.” My head hurt from thinking about it.
“Yes. They are too sides of the same coin, so to speak.” Goldin smiled faintly. “That’s my other devil’s bargain. A shunt to bleed off some of the Gaia Force by creating a hyper-spatial bridge.”
“The freaking Fairy road,” I whispered. “But it’s falling apart.”
“Entropy wins in the end,” he said.
“There has to be a way to correct it,” Harris said, rubbing his chin. “You must have a way.”
“Building RAMPART and creating the Dark-Net was a solution to an existing problem and the cause of a new one,” Goldin said. He coughed. His hair had thinned, giving him a higher hairline.
I gave him a hard look. “The world is in trouble.”
He didn’t flinch. “It’s worse. It’s been in trouble for a long time.”
“How do we fix it?”
“I don’t know,” he said. “We’re between the devil and the deep blue sea. The energy stored in RAMPART and embodied in the Dark-Net could wreak untold catastrophe if we shut down the system.” He coughed again. “I’d thought the Dark-Net could take up the difference, but it’s become unreliable, to the point where controlling it was killing me.”
I shivered. Killing him. “What about RAMPART?” I demanded. “Where is it being controlled from?”
“Antarctica. That is the focal point for the Gaia Force.”
I licked my lips. “Is my mother there, in Antarctica?”
Goldin nodded. “She’s at the heart of RAMPART control.”
“How can you be sure?”
“Because she took over from me, twenty years ago.” His voice became weary.
My eyes narrowed. “What’s it doing to her?” I wanted my answers.
“She’s stronger, and younger than I.” He sounded distracted.
“But the fucking system is breaking down. There’s all kinds of disasters.”
“I’m sorry,” he said, closing his eyes. “I only wanted to save the world. I sacrificed everything…” his voice trailed off. “Your mother has to stay at the heart of RAMPART. If the system fails, the Gaia Force will run unchecked. It has to be maintained. The thing is, the team there is limited, and only rotated every few years.”
Maintain it? “Seems to me like that thing is squeezing the world. Maybe we should turn it off.”
Goldin tried to raise his head but couldn’t. He managed to lift a hand, and gesture weakly. “RAMPART must be maintained. It’s the only way.” His eyes closed. He’d fallen back into unconsciousness.
“We’re in the shit,” I muttered, pushing back the chair and standing. I put my hands on my hips and gave Harris a hard look. “We’ve just been told the system is breaking down, and if it goes down, we’re totally screwed.”
“Can we help prevent that?” Harris asked. He twisted his hands, but for once, didn’t look away. “We’re just a band of rogue Empowered.” He rubbed his hands on his jacket. He must be sweating something fierce. “But we should, if we can, right? Otherwise everything is at risk.”
“That’s what he said.” I jerked my head at Goldin. “I’m starting to wonder.” I paced the room. “Either way, they’re not just going to let a bunch of rogue Empowered waltz into their control center and take over,” I said. “Besides, that’s only buying time.” I rubbed my arms.
“But what if that’s the only solution we have, unless we want the world to end?” Harris asked. He looked like heading to Antarctica was the last thing he wanted to do.
