The Empowered, page 83
“Indeed,” he said. A tear rolled down his cheek and splattered on his hand. “I was wrong, Mathilda. Wrong. The world is in terrible danger. We have to end RAMPART, and free it, no matter what the cost. This is my terrible legacy. Keep it running, and the world will destroy itself. Destroy RAMPART, and the Gaia Force will be unleashed to destroy the world as well. Power down the system, and we turn potentially millions into Empowered humans, which could also destroy the world, but which is the least bad choice.”
A horrible-sounding cough wracked him. He squeezed his eyes shut. I wanted to help him, but there wasn’t anything I could do. If only Harris hadn’t suddenly gone weird.
The coughing tapered off. “I’m so sorry,” he croaked.
I leaned forward. The question I had been wanting to ask him filled me. I had to ask it before it was too late.
“My mother: does she know what she’s doing? Michelle, is she still a willing part of this?” He didn’t answer. His empty gaze stared through me.
James Goldin, first of the Empowered, Doctor Prometheus, the founder of the Hero Council and creator of RAMPART and the Dark-Net, was dead.
17
Alex looked up as I came into the computer room. Numbers flashed across the screen behind him in an endless stream. Still crunching data.
I sat beside him. “Goldin’s dead,” I said, and ran my hand across the top of a computer monitor. “He looked ancient at the end.” I shook my head, got back up again and started pacing. “The man had been in that thing for forty-five years. I’m surprised he was as sane as he was.”
“He was sitting on a mountain of data,” Alex said, nodding at the wall displays. He tapped on his keyboard. The map of the Earth showing the Necklace and Dark-Net came up. Alex tapped some more, and another pattern appeared, in red. “This is the unnamed network we’d talked about. It’s like an overlay.”
I nodded. “RAMPART,” I said, and sat down again. “That’s what Goldin said it’s called.”
“RAMPART,” Alex repeated, then started keyboarding again.
As he typed, I told him what Goldin had told me.
“That matches,” he said when I’d finished. “So many networks. It’s ridiculous, isn’t it?”
I reached over and tugged at his sleeve. He stopped typing, turned to face me.
“There’s more,” I said. “Goldin confirmed that my mom is alive.” My skin turned cold. “She’s running RAMPART.”
“What? How?” he asked, shocked.
I stared at the floor. “He’d, he’d selected her. She was to help run RAMPART, when he created Dark-Net.” I told him the rest.
He shook his head. “Incredible. Goldin and the others involved in this RAMPART buried their secret deep.”
One of Ella’s projections materialized. She wasn’t in costume, just in a light summer dress and sensible shoes. No make-up. My breath froze. Her face was tear-streaked, and her eyes were sunken.
“Thank God I could reach you,” she said.
“I’m glad, too,” I said. Her face looked devastated. “What is it?” I asked.
“Ruth’s dying. One of my other projections is with her right now.”
I couldn’t breathe. “What about Ava?” I asked. I went over to the projection and lifted her chin so that I could see her eyes.
“She’s there, too.” She clenched her hands. “They’re in the little apartment they have now. A one-bedroom place. Ruth looks awful. Blood is leaking from her eyes and nose and mouth.”
My heart lurched. The Thalik’s was in its final stage.
Tears rolled down my cheeks. “Why isn’t she in a hospital?” I demanded. “Why?”
Ella’s projection choked out an answer. “She wanted to die at home.” She blinked. “Ruth wants me to tell you in her own words.” She squeezed her eyes shut, sobbed silently, then wiped her face. “Ruth says,” Ella swallowed, wiped her eyes. She says, “The doctors tell me there’s nothing they can do for me.”
I stepped close to the projection as her words grew soft.
“I love you girls.” Ella’s projection wiped her eyes. “You’ve always made me proud.”
I didn’t deserve Ruth’s pride.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t do more for you. Be strong.” The projection stopped talking, looked at her hands, tears running down her face.
“What!” I demanded, shaking Ella’s projection. She didn’t answer. I tasted blood. I’d bitten my lip. Alex reached for me, but I pushed him away with my hand. I turned back to the projection. “Tell me damn it, what is she saying?”
“Ruth’s dead,” she said, and buried her face in her hands.
“Dead,” I repeated like an idiot. “Dead.” Ruth had always been there. Always. My mom and dad had been gone. Friends had come and gone. I’d run away. Then was sent to prison. But Ruth had always been there.
No more.
A sob tore the silence open. I squeezed my eyes shut, sobbed again. Strong arms pulled me close. Alex. I buried my head in his shoulder. He kissed my head, held me, let me cry.
Ruth was gone. Forever. I took a ragged breath, sobbed. Alex held me.
Finally, I wiped my eyes, and pulled away from him.
The projection sobbed quietly. I went over to her, brushed at her hair. “Ella,” I whispered. “What about Ava?”
“She told me to go to hell,” she whispered, and sobbed again. “She said she never wanted to see us again. Ever.”
Ava was angry. Just like I’d been. We’d abandoned her. But what kind of choice had Ella or I had? What else could we have done? I couldn’t blame Ava for being pissed, hating us, but I couldn’t have been there. If I’d tried, I’d have been back in Special Corrections. And Ella would have gone with me.
“It’s my fault,” the projection moaned. “My fault. I should have been with them, not run off.”
“You didn’t have any other choice!” I held my head up, locked my gaze with hers. “We’d both be in Special Corrections, or dead.”
Alex nodded in agreement, but stayed silent.
I grasped her shoulders. “We have to keep it together. For Ruth.” I fought to keep from sobbing. “Because she always did for us.”
The projection nodded, rubbed at her face, and vanished. Ella must not have been able to maintain it, not with how she had to feel after Ruth…. My thought trailed off.
I tried to squeeze away the tears that suddenly filled my eyes. Ruth was dead.
Alex hugged me and I let myself cry. Finally, I wiped my eyes. He didn’t say anything, just held me.
I didn’t want to believe it. Ruth was dead. A new fact of my life. I hated it. But hating didn’t change it.
I stared at the map of the world. Ruth was dead.
So many deaths. Gus.
Ashula and Nefarious.
Simon. Back from the dead, only to die. Then Goldin, also back from the dead, only now dead again. Now Ruth, who’d had to live with a fucking rare terminal illness for years. Dead.
My mother, she might as well be dead, if she were the monster at the heart of RAMPART.
What had happened to her? She must be like Goldin had been, locked in her golden cocoon, not aging. What did she see? How did she feel?
“Goldin said we can’t save RAMPART,” I said.
“We must,” Harris said from the door, Keisha beside him.
“He insisted on seeing you,” Keisha said.
“You sure recovered fast,” I said. I felt hollow. I didn’t have time for this bullshit.
Harris didn’t flinch from my glare. “I’m sorry Goldin’s dead.”
I should ask him about his power, what had the healing become, but I didn’t care right then.
I looked past him at Keisha. “Ruth’s dead, Keisha.”
She looked away, rubbed at her eye. “Damn. I’m sorry. I really liked your grandma. She was a tough woman.” She came to me. Alex stepped out of the way, and she pulled me into a hug. Fuck. I couldn’t help starting to cry again.
A minute went by. I didn’t have time for this.
“Goldin said RAMPART has to be turned off. Somehow,” I said, my words sounding weak to me.
“That can’t be the solution,” Harris said. He went to a computer. “I’m so sorry about your grandmother. I am. I know this must be a very hard time. We don’t have to talk about this now.”
I shook my head. “There’s never time.” I stood up straighter, took a breath. So, why can’t we turn it off?”
He looked at Alex. “I went over his data. And while I was out, I had a vision. I saw the world. Saw what Goldin’s RAMPART did, how it shielded us.”
“Goldin said he’d fucked up, he regretted ever creating it.”
Harris shook his head. “He was an old man, dying, suffering from his sudden illnesses.”
“What do you want to do?” I asked.
“Save RAMPART.”
“Save RAMPART!” Alex’s face hardened. “Listen, Harris,” he said. “I’ve looked at the data, too. The world is being destroyed by this RAMPART.”
“Not true,” Harris replied.
“Goldin was sure,” I said. “Sure looks to me like it’s destroying the world.”
“He was dying.” He looked away from my expression. “I’m sorry,” he said, and ran out of the room.
I started to go after him.
“Let him be,” Keisha said. “He’s probably still feeling fucked up by what happened to him.”
“Why did you let him out?” I asked. “You should have kept him there for a while. After what had happened to him.” I frowned.
“It’s not like he was a prisoner, Mat.” She crossed her arms. “Just stuck in the shit like the rest of us.”
She had a point. “Sorry,” I said. “That change, whatever it is, must have put him in a hell of a lot of pain.”
She gave me a sharp look. “The world is actually coming to an end if Mat Brandt is apologizing for being an asshole.”
I shrugged. “Well, things change.”
“Hah.” She yawned. “I don’t know about you guys, but I’m beat. I’m going to go catch some zzz’s.”
She left. Just Alex and me alone in the computer room. The map of the world, and everything that was happening called to me. Something always wanted my attention. I could never just live my life.
I was going to live a little tonight.
Alex and I went to the little galley and had a dinner of chicken and mushroom insta-meals, washed down with some juice from a couple of juice boxes.
“I could use a drink,” I said.
Alex leaned back in his chair. “Wish we had some whisky,” he said.
I nodded. “Hell, I’d settle for a beer.”
“Me, too.” He smiled, and it felt like a thousand volts ran through me. My heart pounded faster.
Suddenly I knew what I wanted.
I stood, came around the table, pulled him to his feet. I kissed him. He froze for a minute, then began kissing me back. My blood pounded in my ears. I wanted him like I’d never wanted anything before.
I led him through the corridor to the little room I had.
“Make love to me,” I said when we were inside, standing beside the bed. I kissed him hard, my tongue in his mouth. He smelled so good.
He kissed me back, his tongue against mine. He stopped suddenly, stepped away.
“What is it?” I asked, reaching for him.
“You are grieving. I don’t think this is a good time,” he said.
I flipped my pony tail over my shoulder. “Now’s the only time we have,” I said. “I need you.”
We sat on the bed.
He kissed me again, tentatively. I kissed him, harder and we fell over on to the bed, and lost ourselves in each other.
When I woke up, Alex was gone. I dressed. My body felt so alive, warm. My skin tingled, not the tingling of power, but something else. Something I’d never felt before. I’d been a virgin. I’d never had the time before now. But far more than that, I’d never found someone I wanted to be with.
There was a flower in a little pot on the table beside the bunk. I hadn’t seen it before. A folded note leaned against it. I opened it.
Beauty is revealed. Love is forever.
I love you. Always.
Alex.
I dressed, fighting not to cry. No man had ever said anything like that to me before. The men who’d wanted me had just wanted a squeeze toy.
Beauty is revealed. No one had ever said I was beautiful, not like that.
Love is forever. Forever, I couldn’t imagine that, especially not now, with the world coming apart around us. With us thinking about a suicide mission, forever seemed impossible.
I love you. Always.
The tears won and spilled down my face. I rubbed them away.
“Damn you, Sanchez,” I whispered. “I love you, too.” I couldn’t put that love into words. It filled me like the song of the flowers, vines and trees when I walked outside. It was a quiet hum inside me.
Ruth’s death still ached inside me. It always would. But I had his love. For now, that had to be enough. I needed to find and tell him that.
I finished dressing, pulled on my boots and laced them up.
The little flower sang to me, and I reached out with my power, pulling nutrients from the soil. It was a daffodil. Had Alex gone outside to find it, or had it been lurking somewhere in this godforsaken bunker complex. I picked up the pot and carried it with me.
I ran into Keisha on the way to the computer room.
She stopped dead, giving me the once over. She whistled. “About damn time, girl.”
Was it that obvious? I blushed. “Have you seen Alex?” I stammered, trying to change the subject to anything else.
She giggled. “Not like you have, looks like.”
My face got hot.
She became serious. “It’s obvious if you know how to see it,” she said. She put her arm around my shoulders, pulled me close, careful not to crush the flower I carried.
“You deserve something fine like this,” she whispered in my ear. “But if he’s not good to you, I’m killing him.”
“Funny,” I whispered. “Always looking out for me.”
“Damn straight.”
She whistled when she noticed the flower in the pot I held. “A gift from your man?” She cocked her head. “I’ll bet there’s a note.” She nodded when she saw my surprise. “Good for you. Now, let’s go find that man before he changes his mind.”
I soft punched her in the arm. We walked arm in arm to the computer room.
It was empty, the computers in sleep mode in the low light. I hit the lights, and the room brightened. No sign of Alex, or Harris.
“Where is he?” I whispered. Discarded coffee cups and empty water bottles littered the desks. We went to the med bay. Nothing. Alex’s room was empty. So was Harris’s.
We headed to the supply room.
The supply room was deserted. The lights were low. Three of the lockers were open, empty. The weapons rack on the wall to the right should have had four stun rifles. One was missing.
The hairs on the back of my neck rose. Beside me Keisha scanned the room. Her gaze came around to me. She shook her head. I nodded. I couldn’t see anything either.
I put my fingers to my lips. Mimed listening. She nodded. We stood stock still for a long moment, straining to hear.
The whisper of air current. Nothing other than that. I tightened my jaw. Where the hell were they?
I motioned to Keisha to head left, while I’d head right. We split up, and each of us crept across the supply room, crouched low. I passed supply cabinets on both sides of me. Cables hung in bundles from the wall. I stopped beside the weapons rack.
Empowered were forbidden to use any firearms, on penalty of death. No exceptions, not even for the inner circle of the Hero council. Stun rifles were the exception. They didn’t kill.
Who had taken one? Alex, or Harris? And why? Rifles would suck in the narrow corners of the Scourge bolt hole. Outside would be different. My stomach twisted in knots.
I stared at the rifles for a second, then pulled one from the rack and slung it over my back. The pistol locker was empty, but it’d been empty to begin with.
“Unless there’s a hidden place, both Alex and Harris aren’t in the building,” Keisha said, her voice low.
I shivered. “They must be outside.” I went to the hatch. The sentry room was on the far side. I reached for the access panel, but Keisha’s hand shot out and grabbed mine.
Keisha shook her head. “Not so fast, Mat.”
My face darkened. “What do you mean?” I demanded, wrenching my hand free.
“What if Support is out there?”
“Alex wouldn’t betray us.” I clenched my jaw. “You know that.”
Her face was ominous. “I wasn’t thinking of Alex. I was thinking of Harris. I never trusted that little weasel.”
I felt a pang in my chest. Little weasel is what we used to call Gus. “We have to find them,” I said, and began pacing.
She jerked her head toward the computer room. “Come on, let’s get back to the computer room, and see what we can see on the monitors.” She strode over to the weapons rack, and grabbed a stun rifle, slung it over her shoulder, then grabbed another one. “Take this last one.”
I thought I was paranoid. “Harris isn’t Gus,” I said quietly, but took the last rifle from her hand.
“No, he’s not. Gus was truer blue than we thought.”
Ice settled in the pit of my stomach. “Alex can take care of himself,” I said, but it sounded lame even to me. If someone had been blindsided, it had to have been Harris.
We hoofed it back to the computer room. I fidgeted all the way through the bunker, and kept looking in corners and doorways, hoping Alex would pop up like a miracle.
But he didn’t. The place was dead quiet. We’d put Goldin’s body in the freezer next to the one holding Simon. The place was rapidly becoming a morgue.
“You figure out how this set up works?” I asked Keisha.
“Yeah. Pretty basic.”
“Whoa, what’s this about it being basic?” I asked, my eyes wide. “Since when did you become an expert on security and surveillance systems?”
