The Empowered, page 89
His satisfied smile was smug. Didn’t seem like he was even trying to hide who he really was, anymore.
Keisha coughed, opened her eyes, took in Titan standing there, looking so very pleased with himself. “You get the name of that thing?” she croaked.
“Thank God you’re still with us,” I told her.
Keisha sat up with a groan. “You don’t look like Harris,” she said to Titan.
He shrugged. “My power has changed again.”
A weak-ass lie for sure, but we didn’t have time to play the game. I did a little headshake at Keisha behind Titan’s back.
“Thanks,” she told Titan, an edge to her voice, but he didn’t seem to notice.
“You are welcome,” he replied.
He went over to Naoko and healed her. He checked out Kwame and Gregory, then satisfied, looked at me.
“How about you?” he asked, looking me over.
“I’m fine.” I didn’t quite keep the anger out of my voice.
He nodded. “Glad to hear it.” He turned, looked over the carnage. “The system tried to stop us. Now we go to the system.”
That system included my mother. My mother may have tried to stop us, but did she really know who or what we were? Goldin said she was subsumed into the system. A muscle in my neck throbbed. Was she really aware of anything beyond RAMPART, and if she was, could she recognize it?
“No one has to die, right?” I asked him, my voice urgent. Tried to sound like I believed he wouldn’t kill everyone in the control center. The bodies on the deck here screamed otherwise, but I had to keep him believing I didn’t think he was full-on psycho.
He walked over to the minions. Two had survived but looked shaken. “Not if they don’t need to.” He gestured at the two survivors. “Pallet jack,” he said. They rushed to comply and began pulling it after them.
The other five of us Empowered followed behind him into the room beyond the cavern.
Whatever I had expected, this sure as hell wasn’t it.
The room was an enormous chamber, with a ceiling a hundred feet high, and light flooding in from high windows, showing ice-capped mountain peaks. An enormous fountain bubbled water in the center of a huge pool. Ancient painted statues surrounded the pool, just like the lake in Sanctuary, back in Great Persia. Columns painted earth-red, with green vines painted on them. Bronze doors, straight out of Sanctuary, lined the walls.
Living quarters? There was no sign of the dark cavern from the vision of my mother. Had that been a lie? I’d originally thought the vision led to her being in the cave beneath the Irish mound. I was wrong there, too.
The air thrummed with power. Everyone, even the minions, stopped dead. Power washed over me.
In my mind the world expanded until a huge root network glowed before me. Gaia. The Dark-Net’s tunnels twined around the roots, and came to stop just behind the fountain, where a set of double doors were located.
“The cavern must be behind those doors,” I said.
I started running. I had to reach it before he did.
“Wait!” Titan boomed.
I ignored him. Keisha ran to keep up with me.
My vision went split into two realities.
My eyes saw the sunlit-washed marble room, like an ancient Greek temple brought back to life, the clear pool of blue water that went deep into the earth, yet had steam rising from it. Hot springs?
My mind saw the colossal roots, and the smell of green growing things and freshly turned, moist earth. Power.
Power.
I reached the doors.
“Mat, stop!” Titan roared.
I grabbed the massive bronze handles, pulled the doors open.
The cavern of my vision spread out before me, glowing with soft green-blue light from moss-covered walls. Stalactites covered in crystals glowed with golden light.
The air smelled like it had been washed with rain after a thundershower.
Cylinders marked “Hero Council” with power cables attached sat up against the stone walls. Two pods hung in the center of the room, glowing gold. My heart pounded. My mother was inside of one of those pods.
I was so close, finally.
“Mat, wait,” Titan called from behind me. “Please!”
I ignored him and took a step forward.
Shouts erupted behind me, followed by a metallic boom and more shouts. At almost the same time steam flashed in front of me, sending a wave of heat at me.
I threw up an arm and turned my head.
A spiked iron wall suddenly blocked my way. I whirled around. What had Keisha done?
Steam billowed behind me. Keisha crouched down, a cloud of metal disks spinning around her.
Kwame gestured. Thunder boomed around Keisha. Two of the disks shattered.
“Enough!” Titan boomed. He gestured and the disks flashed into steam. He pointed past me, snapped his fingers. More heat washed over me. I turned. The wall was taller now, with a door in the center.
Titan had copied Keisha’s power.
“Fucker!” Keisha gasped as she ran up to join me. “He copied me.”
“Give up!” Kwame shouted at us.
Naoko gestured and her force slammed into me. I tumbled backwards and hit the ground. “Or don’t,” she said, grinning. Gregory lurked behind her.
“Listen, it doesn’t have to be like this,” Titan said, back to trying to sound like Alex.
Asshole. He expected me to believe him? Of course, he thought that. He didn’t realize I knew who he really was.
“Keep him busy, Mat,” I’ll get us inside,” Keisha said.
“Listen? What’s to listen to? You said yourself we need to get into the pods.”
“I did,” He agreed. He motioned at the others. Kwame nodded. Naoko looked even more pissed, but she lowered her arms.
“We’re here,” I said. “I’m going to get my mother out and stop this thing.”
“But we can’t just stop it,” Titan said. “Your mother is dying. We need to get her out carefully, or she’ll be killed and the system damaged beyond repair. Her companion is already dead.”
“How do you know?” I demanded.
He smiled. “My power, one of them, tells me. My healing ability lets me sense their life forces.”
“What do you mean, one of your abilities?” Had to keep dragging this out. At the edge of my sight, Keisha stood with her eyes closed, muttering under her breath. Drawing on her power.
“I have several.”
“Alex only had the one,” I said.
He didn’t answer.
“You still haven’t told me why I shouldn’t get my mother out,” I said, hands on my hips.
“Because, as I said, we need to be careful and take time extracting her. And we need to preserve the system.”
I shook my head. “No, we’re here to save the Earth by destroying the fucking thing. Turning it off isn’t enough, we need to make sure it’s destroyed. We need to free Gaia and humanity.”
“That won’t free them,” he said. “It will doom them. Doom all life. The power will be too much.”
“How the hell do you know this? Where did you get that knowledge?”
He looked at me gravely. “Because I’m not Alex.” He began to shimmer. His skin rippled. He grew, and grew, and grew, his suit growing with him, until he towered eight feet tall. His hair turned silver. His muscles rippled.
About freaking time, I thought.
“I’ll bet it feels good to finally be yourself again, doesn’t it, Titan?”
His brow furrowed.
“Yeah, I knew it was you,” I said. “Sorry to ruin your little surprise.
Astonishment spread across his face, mingled with anger.
“What I want to now is, why me?” I asked.
“Your power connects you directly to Gaia, in a way few others can. That gives you options. That allows you to become part of RAMPART and save the world.”
My chest tightened. “You are freaking nuts! I’m not becoming part of RAMPART. I’m here to destroy it.”
He shook his head. “I really don’t want to argue. I’d rather have you at my side, helping to preserve the world.”
“Preserve it?” My shout echoed off the rock walls. “RAMPART is killing it!”
He folded his arms. “Certain adjustments will need to be made. If this hadn’t been kept secret from me for decades, I could have fixed it long ago and the world wouldn’t be threatened with destruction.” He made a face, looking like he wanted to spit. “But Goldin didn’t trust me.”
Titan started to pace and rant. “He thought I wasn’t worthy. That I couldn’t save the world. So, he conspired behind my back and kept the single most important creation in modern times hidden from me. Me, founding member of the Hero Council!” His pet Empowered stared at him, clearly wondering why their leader wasn’t getting on with it.
All that pent-up resentment exploded from him. His face contorted in anger.
“Did you kill Alex?” I asked, my heart suddenly heavy.
His angry gaze jabbed at me. A corner of his mouth curled up in a sneer. “Perhaps. I’m not sure. I shot him in the chest. That would kill a normal. But he’s now Empowered, so perhaps he survived.” He shrugged.
“Bastard!” I roared and reached out into the rock to summon my power.
Thunder boomed, and force slammed me to the earth like a giant swatting a fly.
My head exploded with agony. Pain shot through my limbs. I tasted my own blood.
I pushed myself up, ears ringing.
Titan walked toward me, flanked by Kwame and the others. Fuckers.
The surviving minions lay dead beside the pallet jack, covered in nails.
Keisha sprawled on the ground between me and them, ice pinning her.
I shook my head.
“I’m not giving up,” I muttered, and digging deep, summoned a tidal wave of writhing, barbed vines, bristling with poison-tipped thorns. Gregory screamed as they engulfed him. Thunder boomed again, and a force wall shoved them back.
Keisha was on her feet, bleeding as she summoned steel, but Titan smashed her with a massive fist and she fell, again.
“I’m going to have to become you,” he told me. “I can do that. It’s a shame, I would have much preferred to have you at my side.”
Ella popped into existence behind Titan and kicked him behind the knee. He staggered, turned, smashed her with his fist. Another Ella appeared, then another.
Naoko blasted force at them. Kwame threw thunder.
Titan hit them with his massive fists, packing huge amounts of strength.
I reached into my power, again, sent it into the roots.
Thunder boomed around me and I lost the thread.
“Don’t give up,” I thought I heard Alex’s voice say.
But Alex was dead.
I blinked, spat blood. I was kneeling. Keisha had managed to get up again, swaying. Naoko lay on the ground, knives protruding from each eye. Kwame breathed hard, but snapped his fingers, and Keisha went down. She rolled over, facing the metal wall, and gestured. It opened in the middle.
Titan shuddered as he raised his arms. Vines grew around him. “I take the power of plants for myself.”
Suddenly, Alex and the Imbued emerged from the cavern wall. Alex’s eyes met mine. He mouthed, I love you. Power flooded me and I surged to my feet and sent vines at Titan. We battled, plant against plant.
Our vines tangled. I lashed at Titan and he lashed back. A whip-like vine struck my face and I fell.
Titan turned toward Alex and the others and gestured.
A cloud of toxic gas spewed in their direction.
I forced myself up onto my hands and knees. Vines closed around me. I reached into the toxic gas, found the spores, altered them.
My lungs felt like they would burst from my efforts.
Titan’s face was mask of rage. “You’ll die,” he said and stomped toward me, gesturing. More vines reared up around me.
Sprig, help me, I thought.
Sprig appeared. “You called?” she asked.
“Give me strength.”
Titan’s vines began strangling me.
Sprig blew me a kiss. Energy flooded into my body.
I waved a hand and the vines shriveled away to dust.
I gestured at Titan. A pod grew around him, encasing him in living green plant flesh. He battered at it. I commanded it to squeeze with the strength of ancient roots.
His screams cut off as the pod closed.
Alex rushed over to me. I collapsed in his arms.
“You’re alive,” I whispered.
He held me. “So are you.” I kissed him and power surged yet again through my body.
My wounds healed, my fatigue vanished. Reluctantly, I pulled away from his embrace.
Green ooze flecked with blood dripped through the cracks in Titan’s pod. My chest heaved.
My mom was unconscious inside one of the control pods.
The real Ella stood beside Alex and me, her face filled with wonder and questions.
Keisha staggered to her feet.
I looked at Alex and Keisha. “I have to break the chains.”
“Hell yeah,” Keisha said, her eyes bright.
Alex nodded. “To live is to risk,” he said.
“Then I’ll risk so we have a chance,” I said. I reached out with my power and opened the two Control pods. My mother and the corpse of a man gently slipped to the ground.
I sent a command into RAMPART. “Cease,” I told it. There was a pause.
Then, RAMPART shut down.
A golden light flooded the cavern. All of us swayed as power flooded through us.
I shook myself and walked with Alex over to where my mother lay. She looked so much like me. I bent down. My chest was tight.
“Mom.” I brushed my hand against her face. Her eyes opened, and she looked at me.
She gazed at me, wonder in her eyes. “Mat?” she asked.
I knelt beside her. “It’s me,” I said. “We’ve freed the world.”
The old world had ended. Now it was up to all of us to help build a new one.
Afterword
Thanks for reading Empowered: Rebel. I hope you enjoyed the book. The big question is, with RAMPART taken down, what happens with next?
You’ll be able to find out that out in Empowered: Hero, coming in the not-too-distant future. If you haven’t already, join my reader group to keep updated on Hero’s progress and release date, as well as my second series, Agents of Sorcery.
When I began writing the Empowered series, I decided to work with my dear friend and writing mentor, Mary Rosenblum. Mary was an award-winning science fiction and fantasy author, a very talented teacher of writing, as well as an excellent editor. She served as a sounding board for the series, making suggestions and giving me advice throughout. She went above and beyond with Empowered: Agent, putting me through two extensive rewrites of that novel. She also edited Empowered: Traitor and looked over the outline for Outlaw. While she didn’t work directly with me on Rebel, her influence continued during the writing of this novel. She understood Mat’s character, and her understanding stayed with me.
Mary was a renaissance person—not only in writing and editing, but in dog-training, search-and-rescue, farming, cheese-making, and her latest passion, piloting. She learned how to fly later in life, and became a mentor to younger female pilots. She was also very active at the state and national aviation policy level.
A few years ago, she flew me to the Oregon Coast for lunch. There’s nothing like flying in a tiny aircraft to make you appreciate someone’s piloting skill.
On March 11, 2018, Mary was piloting her latest aircraft, a Piper Super Cub, when she crashed in the tree line beside a grass airstrip in neighboring Washington State. She was killed instantly. Her death was a terrible loss to not only her family and friends, but the writing community, the aviation community and others. She was such a source of light and life in so many lives. Several of her pilot friends reminded me that she died doing one of the things she loved so passionately, and that is true. It is also true that she lives on all of us who had the privilege of knowing her.
Her death influenced Rebel as well. I was in the middle of writing the novel when she passed away and thought of her every day as I finished the book.
She’s with me in spirit as I write Empowered: Hero. Her life proved one person can make so many differences.
Best always,
Dale
Acknowledgments
As with the rest of the Empowered series, I couldn’t have written Empowered: Rebel without the support and help of so many folks: my writers group, the awesome Masked Hucksters, Jennifer Willis, Rebecca Stefoff, and Wendy Wagner; my wonderful beta readers Ann, Cindy, Greg, Jill, LeAnn, Mark, Tori, Vic; my editors, Mary Rosenblum and Phyllis Radford, who both made the book so much stronger; my fantastic cover designer Clarissa Yeo.
Most of all I couldn’t have done without the support and encouragement of my wonderful wife, LeAnn, who is my first reader.
Empowered: Hero
The Empowered #5
Copyright © 2020 by Dale Smith
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Cover design by Yocla Designs
Published by Dale Ivan Smith
Portland, Oregon
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or deceased, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
www.daleivansmith.com
Created with Vellum
In memory of Jessica Young
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The cavernous RAMPART control room at the South Pole glowed with golden light, and stank of burning flesh and drying blood, mixed with the powerful odor of moss.
