The Aeternum Chronicles- The Complete Trilogy, page 90
part #1 of The Aeternum Chronicles Series
24
Compos Mentis
Ryland’s stomach dropped and he gripped the door’s arm rest with white knuckles. The world whipped by as the ground rushed up to meet them. He wondered briefly what a car full of people might look like after dropping five stories.
This is it, he thought. Tao has gone insane and is going to kill us all.
Ryland clenched his eyes shut. The impact came seconds later. His head snapped forward, and there was a loud scuff as the car impacted the track below.
Ryland braced for more, but it never came.
I’m still alive, he thought with surprise, opening one eye.
“How…” It was all he could get out.
“Supercharged electro-magnetic burst,” Seamus said from the seat beside him. “Same tech that keeps us floating on the track, only one-hundred-fifty times more powerful.”
Ryland stared blankly.
“Cushioned our fall,” Seamus said, raising an eyebrow.
“Ah,” said Ryland, his heart still pounding away in his chest. “Maybe next time we’re driving off the top of a building, you guys could uh, you know, give me some warning?”
“It wasn’t the top,” Tao’s voice spoke from up front.
These people are insane—
Ryland’s body was pulled hard against his restraints as Tao made a near-ninety-degree turn. They accelerated, and buildings began zipping by until they were blurred.
The car suddenly grew warm as they neared one of the buildings that had been converted into a towering inferno. They sped by it, and Ryland had to briefly shield his face from the heat. A troubling thought entered his mind.
“That’s…our work?” he asked, as they left the burning apartment building behind.
“Aye,” Seamus said with a grin. “Pretty, isn’t it?”
“But the people inside…” Ryland turned, watching the burning building shrink as they rushed away from it.
Tess turned and spoke from the front, “They’re abandoned. All buildings purchased by the Ko’jin, and kept empty for this very purpose.”
“D’ya really think we’d be killing the people we’re hopin’ to save?” Seamus asked.
“No…I guess not,” Ryland admitted.
Ryland turned to get one last look, and saw something dark speeding toward them from behind. Adrenaline spiked his blood, and he gripped the seat tightly. It was an Automated Track Attack Vehicle…otherwise known as a kill-car. They were specifically designed to detect, detain, or otherwise destroy unauthorized transports.
“Guys…we’ve got company,” Ryland said, trying to keep his voice steady.
Tao’s eyes glanced up to the rear-view mirror. He hit the brakes, slowing the vehicle.
“What are you doing?” Ryland asked in a near-panic.
“Easy, lad,” Seamus said, placing a hand on his arm. “We’re in a ministry transport. It should leave us be.”
The mechanic sounded confident, but he hadn’t taken his eyes off the attack vehicle closing in behind.
Ryland watched with dread as the sleek, cigar-shaped kill-car drew closer. Its entire surface was glossy black, save a single red light at the front.
“Tao’s slowing down so it can scan us,” said Tess, who had turned around to get a look.
“Get down,” Tao instructed, and they all ducked down.
Ryland looked up from where he sat doubled over. He could see the kill car in the rear-view mirror. There couldn’t have been more than a few inches between the two vehicles. More red lights appeared above, below, and to either side of the central light. They traveled toward the center, and back out again several times.
“Something’s wrong,” Tess whispered.
A small circle opened at the front of the kill-car.
“Get ready,” Tao said, drawing a shockdart gun from the holster at his waist.
Ready for what?
A tense moment passed, then another. Ryland watched the rear-view, his eyes occasionally darting over to Tao. The circle at the front of the kill-car closed, and all lights went out but the one at the center. The car dropped away, and turned off down a side street.
Ryland exhaled, and everyone relaxed as the tension dissipated.
They accelerated, and the others slowly sat up.
Seamus gave a small laugh. “That was a close thing,” he said.
They continued gliding down side streets at breakneck speed. Peering out the window, Ryland could see other vehicles on parallel tracks between buildings. They too were speeding, and looked to be Ministry vehicles, yet Ryland had never before seen so many off the main roads.
“Are those the strike teams?” he asked. According to the plan, they should be deploying to establish neighborhood bases of operations and false decontamination tents right about now.
There was a sudden explosion off to the right as something went flying up into the air, near the tracks the next block over. The ministry transport van carrying the strike team was still speeding along beside them. Ryland glimpsed something pulled back inside, as the back doors of the van closed.
“It has begun,” said Tao. “We are almost there.”
Where exactly is this nest? It occurred to Ryland that he’d never thought to ask.
They cut another sharp turn, which took them around a long curve. Ryland was pressed to the side of the vehicle as they rode along it.
“This is my old neighborhood,” Ryland realized aloud.
They turned again, and accelerated. A bundle of anxiety formed in Ryland’s stomach.
If we keep going in this direction…
The road again curved around, more gently this time, and Ryland’s stomach dropped as Tao turned right, and slowed to a stop. Several hundred feet ahead was a large iron gate, with imposing stone walls on either side. Worked into the metal was a large ‘W’ for Walcott.
“What are we doing here?” Ryland asked.
Tao didn’t answer. He simply looked to Tess, who nodded.
Ryland was once again pressed to the back of his seat as the vehicle accelerated toward the gate. In a short matter of seconds, the sound of crashing glass and squeal of metal filled the car. The impact had forced the car sideways, causing it to lose magnetic polarity with the track. Sparks flew as it slid down the long, curving drive leading to Walcott Manor.
All Ryland could do was hold on for dear life, and hope the vehicle didn’t decide to start flipping end over end. The gate must have slowed their speed significantly, as the transport eventually slid to a stop, teetering over to one side and resting awkwardly on the track.
Before Ryland had regained his bearings, Tao was outside the transport with his gun drawn. Tess stepped out after him. Seamus flashed a grin, and followed suit.
Ryland swallowed, his mind racing. He’d already made peace with the fact that he’d never see this place again. Now, here he was.
“You coming?” Tess was leaning down, peering in where his window used to be.
“Y—yeah,” he answered, opening the door.
Seamus whistled, peering back at the busted gate. “Now that’s an entrance.”
They weren’t far from the stairs leading up to the massive double doors of the mansion, when one of them opened suddenly. There stood Ryland’s father, his eyes wide with shock.
Tao didn’t hesitate. A small cloud of dust exploded at his feet as he launched forward through the air. The door slammed shut a split second before he landed.
Did he see me? Ryland couldn’t help but wonder.
“Come on!” Tess shouted, and the three of them ran after him.
Tao glanced back, and switched his shock-dart gun to his left hand. He drew his arm back, and the lights on his forearm pulsed as he slammed his palm forward into the door. Ryland winced. The towering door was four inches of hardwood. To his surprise, it shuddered on impact, then slowly tipped inward, onto the marble floor with a deafening slam.
They caught a glimpse of Ryland’s father climbing the left side of the curving dual staircases rising from the intricate vestibule. Tao was after him in a heartbeat, launching forward with impossible leaps and bounds. Ryland, Tess, and Seamus rushed up the stairs after them.
A door slammed just as Tao reached the top. The sound of shattering wood followed. Ryland reached the top stair and quickly scanned the hall. Broken splinters of door lay on the floor to the left. Something glass smashed inside the room, and Ryland prepared himself for the possibility that Tao had just killed his father.
Tess arrived by his side, and Seamus after her, panting heavily. Ryland shared a quick look with Tess, then walked toward the room with the shattered door.
He breathed a sigh of relief at finding his father bound and gagged, seated on the floor. Ryland still hated the man, but he also understood why he was the way he was. Ryland’s grandfather had been a pitiless human being. It was clear now that the only thing Austere D. Walcott feared more than his own father, was the Ministry.
The room was a study—one Ryland recalled spending time in as a child, preparing for his vocational exams.
He walked over to his father, who was looking up at him with cold contempt. Ryland crouched down and reached forward to remove his gag.
“You might want to consider not doing that,” Tao warned.
Still annoyed that no one had bothered to tell him they were busting into his father’s mansion, Ryland decided he was within his rights to ignore Tao’s advice.
He lifted the thick black gag from his father’s mouth. Rather than say anything, Austere simply continued staring at him. Ryland would have expected him to be furious. Maker knew he’d seen his father angry enough times. His eyes however, were cold, calculating, and contemptuous. Ryland suspected that his father’s rage wasn’t apparent because he was actually worried, which made him far more dangerous.
Ryland was assaulted by a wave of emotion as the pain of his father’s betrayal asserted itself. He was angry…furious even, but even more than that, he was heartbroken.
My own father, he thought.
“Did I mean so little to you?” Ryland asked. “That you would give me, your own son, over to the Ministry for interrogation?”
Austere’s eyes narrowed. “You always have been a selfish little rat. Your insolence nearly cost me everything! Centuries of Walcott tradition, torn down because you’re too much of a coward to do your duty and toe the line. You’re no son of mine,” he spat.
Ryland felt his emotions harden. Should have known better to expect anything different.
Austere continued, “Now you break in here with these…vermin.”
“We don’t have time for this,” Tao interrupted.
“I should have wiped the stain of your existence from the Walcott name when I had the chance. Instead I made the mistake of showing mercy.”
“Mercy,” Ryland muttered under his breath. “You call locking me up in a protectorate van with a breaker mercy?”
“It was more than you deserved,” he sneered.
Ryland stood, looking down at his father.
What must it be like to be holding on to such hatred? he wondered. It struck Ryland that his father had quite possibly never been free of it.
“Get on with it then,” his father said. “Kill me and be done with it. Or if you’re too much of a coward, have that brute do it for you,” he said, nodding toward Tao.
Ryland sensed the others shifting uncomfortably in his peripheral, but ignored them.
He shook his head. “No. I’m not going to kill you, father…none of us are,” Ryland said, looking pointedly at the others.
“And that is why you will never survive,” Austere snapped. “You’re weak, just like your mother.”
Ryland frowned. “Where is she?”
“Gone, and good riddance,” he answered. “Couldn’t stomach the thought of her baby boy facing his well-earned punishment. It’s clear now where you get your insufferable fragility.”
She actually did care about me.
The realization lessened Ryland’s pain somewhat. His father’s betrayal had hurt, but his mother’s complicity cut deeper by far.
Ryland took a deep breath, and looked down at the disheveled, overweight figure before him. It was quite the contrast to the bear of a man he remembered looming over him in his youth, and not just because he was restrained and sitting on the floor.
He’s terrified, Ryland realized.
For the first time, Ryland truly saw his father for what he was—a scared little boy who never stopped being afraid. First of his father; then, of the Ministry.
This could have been me.
Ryland crouched down, placing a hand on his father’s shoulder. He looked into his eyes without any fear, anger, or judgment.
“I’m sorry, father,” he said.
“Little late for apologies—”
“I’m sorry for what you’ve had to endure at the hands of your father—”
Austere scowled. “Your grandfather was a great man. Don’t you—”
“I’m sorry that you’ve had to live your entire life in the shadow of the Ministry.”
A flash of fear broke through the cold anger in his eyes, and fled just as quickly. “The Ministry has provided more for this family than you ever—”
“And most of all,” Ryland said, “I’m sorry I didn’t realize the truth sooner.”
The room fell silent, and the unasked question hung in the air.
“Our family has been enslaved for generations. It might not appear that way on the surface, but that doesn’t make it any less true. Everything you’ve ever done, every decision you’ve made, has been to keep the Ministry from turning on you...on us.”
“Of course it has!” Austere shouted. “I am a lot of things, Atticus, but stupid is not one of them. This is how we survive. It’s how we’ve always survived. What do you think I’ve been trying to drill into that thick skull of yours all these years?”
“We need to move,” Tao insisted.
Intently focused on his father, Ryland ignored the interruption. “I forgive you,” he said.
Austere scoffed, shrugging off Ryland’s hand. “Make a couple new friends and all of a sudden you’re the bigger man, is that it? Well I’ve got news for you, Atticus. Part of growing up is recognizing your betters; a lesson you never managed to grasp. Soon, it will be the death of you.”
“While I understand why you did what you did,” Ryland said, “it does not excuse the fact that the choices were yours to make. Therefore, you will have to answer for the death of Alazeja Cardona, and any other crimes perpetrated against your fellow citizens.”
Austere’s brows drew down a moment. “Alazeja…” he muttered.
“Ryland, lad,” Seamus said, “I’m not sure we’ve the time to—”
“You mean that dirty little street urchin you were thrumming back before you’d even taken your vocats?” Austere asked.
Ryland’s eyes narrowed.
“I did you a favor with that one,” he said. “Though she was quite the—”
Ryland pulled the gag back down over his father’s mouth, muffling the last few words.
Tao was over by the window, peeking around the drapes at the drive.
“We have to move,” he said, “Now.”
“I’m bringing him with us,” Ryland said as he moved to untie the rope around his father’s ankles.
“This is not part of the mission,” Tao insisted.
Tess approached and began helping him loosen the bonds. Together, they attempted to stand his father up. His body went lax, and he refused to stand.
Tao sighed in exasperation and walked over. He gave Ryland a look of annoyance, then drew his shock-dart gun and held it to his father’s chest.
Austere’s jaw tightened.
Ryland and Tess tried lifting him again. This time he stood.
“Right,” Ryland said, “Now which way?”
“We need to find a room with a marble statue of a woman holding a snake,” said Tao. “It should be somewhere on this level.”
“I know the room,” Ryland said. He’d spent many bored hours of his youth wandering the rooms of this mansion, and that statue had always been something of a fascination.
“Turn right out of this room; it’s the one at the very end of the hall,” said Ryland. His father was on his feet, but his arms were still tied behind his back. Ryland gripped one arm, and Seamus relieved Tess to take the other.
“Go on ahead,” he said. “We’re right behind you.”
Tao was the first into the hall, with Tess close behind. They ran ahead down the red-carpeted hallway. Ryland and Seamus followed, with Ryland’s father between them. He allowed them to lead him along, though his expression was rancorous. They reached the room and found Tess and Tao searching it. Books were on the floor, furniture pulled away from the wall, and the large area rug folded over. In the far right corner was the life-sized marble statue of a naked woman with a snake coiled around her body.
“What are you looking for?” asked Ryland.
“A switch, or lever,” said Tess.
Seamus raised his eyebrows at Ryland, who nodded. The mechanic joined the other two in the search while Ryland held his father. He scanned the room, looking for any indication of a secret switch. Tess had emptied the bookcases leaning against the back wall on either side of a fireplace, and Seamus was listening as he rapped his knuckles along the left wall. Tao looked at a large mirror as if he were considering smashing it.
Ryland turned subtly toward his father. He was staring straight ahead at nothing. For a split second, Austere glanced to the right corner of the room, and back again.
Ryland followed his glance to the marble statue. His father, having realized his error, scowled through his gag.
The statue was incredibly detailed, from the tiny creases and wrinkles where the snake constricted around her dress, to the uncountable strands of hair falling upon her shoulders. The snake—of which someone had taken the time to chisel every last scale—ended with its mouth just inches from her left ear. It looked out with hard, beady eyes.
