Blue Burn, page 11
“He just doesn’t know any better,” Quasar answered.
“Have you dealt with gangs like the Sludge before?”
“Every Royal Marine starts their career with a year-long tour on Atlas, serving different needs in different population centers. The Marines with potential are usually assigned to New Haydrun, primarily because of the gangs. Everything Avelus said about the tunnels and bribes is true. But he left out how dangerous these groups really are, especially to one another. They all have spies in each other’s ranks, and word will spread fast about our trip topside. If a single faction even thinks they know who we are, and by that I mean fugitives from Persephon, they’ll make a move to grab us for the bounty.”
“Why do I suddenly feel like a little possible just jumped to pretty damn likely?”
“Yeah, my sentiment exactly.”
“Does Keep know?”
“If he’s really a thousand-year-old former agent, there’s no way he doesn’t. Which tells me he’s trying to keep things calm because he knows this is our only choice to get up there undetected.”
“We’ll definitely be detected if we get into a scrape with the gangs down here.”
She shook her head. “Not really. The Royal Guard won’t get involved in anything that happens down here, no matter how violent. As long as you keep a lid on it, you’re good.”
“Is that an official slogan?”
“It might as well be.”
“So we should be packing the heat in that bag, not transporting it.”
“Probably, but we’d never get close to the tunnels that way.”
I looked down at my right hand, where two sigiltech rings rested on my fingers. Push and light. Not the most impressive sigils, but they’d have to do. And Keep was much better equipped.
“I’m sure Avelus already warned Alter,” Quasar continued. “ With Avelus' magic and yours, and Alter in the mix, it should give Emil and me time to open the packs and load up.”
“Let’s hope so.”
We continued down the street, my attentiveness taking on a new dimension as I scanned for potential threats. In a place like this, where everyone looked downtrodden and dangerous, those threats were everywhere. Passing dark alleys and shady groups of individuals loitering in front of dimly lit buildings, with lobbies open to the outside, my sense of dread increased. Every set of eyes that landed on us was another potential enemy, or at least a rat that might squeal to a much more dangerous predator. Sure, we were more than capable of defending ourselves, but I wanted all of us to make it to the surface in one piece.
The central pylon and the sludge growing up it came into clearer view ahead. An icky-green, primordial muck, the material oozed along the thick beam, off-gassing in bursts of dark brown farts that sent its putrid sulfurous smell across the underground. My eyes had already started watering by the time we made a right turn at the next intersection. We forged ahead, taking a street thick with all kinds of debris, from the rusted shells of vehicles to bent girders and an accumulation of other junk that had joined the original destruction over the many years since. An obvious path had been cleared through the trash heap, an invitation to an ambush if I had ever seen one.
We had just started down the avenue when a group of armed men and women dressed in homemade body armor stepped into our path from behind some of the rubble. Behind us, a second gang moved into position, aiming their weapons at Quasar, Shaq, and me.
“Relax, Ben,” she whispered beside me. “This isn’t it. These guys are part of Vango’s crew.”
“How do you know?”
“Because they haven’t started shooting yet.”
We came to a stop surrounded by debris and fighters. David and Gia looked most nervous, while Keep seemed totally relaxed. I decided as long as he remained unperturbed then there was probably nothing to worry about.
Nearly half a minute passed before anything else happened. A big brute of a man moved out from behind the first debris pile, just ahead of a young girl. They stopped in front of Keep.
“This your group?” the girl asked, looking us over as best she could from her vantage point. I realized she wasn’t a child but an adult dwarf woman, with a hard face, bright eyes, and short golden hair.
“It is,” Keep replied.
“They look weak.”
“Weak?” Druck whispered in front of me, offended.
“Precisely why they need to get back to New Haydrun.”
I noticed Keep was speaking to her with a more refined accent, coming across more like a British noble than a mafioso.
“Why did you say they came down here again?”
“Ahh, Vango. You should know better than to ask questions like that.”
She laughed, so Keep smiled. Her face hardened instantly, a pistol appearing in her hand, pointed up at his face. “This is my city, Avelus. I ask whatever questions I want.”
Keep put up his hands. “Of course. But you know as well as I do, too much knowledge isn’t always a good thing.”
She lowered her gun. “I do know that. The crossing’s been arranged. This way.” She made it three steps before shots rang out. Hit in the back, her bodyguard fell on top of her, the other fighters in her group spinning away from us, three more of them going down before they could find cover.
“Get down!” Quasar shouted, pulling me close to a large chunk of stones bound with mortar. She unslung our space pack and unzipped it, grabbing one of the plasma rifles and thrusting it at me. “Told you,” she said as the rest of my crew scattered.
I held the weapon close to my chest as rounds zipped overhead, targeting Vango’s gang. Her bodyguard, who appeared unharmed from the round to his back, remained with her as they scrambled to cover, winding up right next to Keep.
“You set us up,” she growled, blaming us for the ambush.
“Hardly,” he answered. “There wasn’t enough time. They were waiting for you to come into the open. There are snipers all around us.”
I looked out at some of the taller wreckage, catching a muzzle flash that ended with another of Vango’s gang members falling and rolling down the garbage pile they had climbed up to return fire.
I activated my comms. “Keep, what do we do?”
“We already paid Vango,” he replied, softly enough she wouldn’t hear him over the gunfire. “Better to get on her good side.”
“How do we handle the snipers?”
Quasar popped up from cover, aiming quickly and firing a plasma bolt at one of the sniper positions down the street. I couldn’t tell if the round connected or not, but Quasar seemed to think she'd gotten him.
“Scratch one,” she said when that sniper didn't shoot again.
Not to be outdone, Alter rose to her feet, holding a rifle from Druck's pack. She scaled one of the rubble piles, ducking low as rounds blew up chunks of brick and mortar. Resuming her ascent, she fell prone next to a dead gang member, aimed and fired. This time, I saw the bolt hit the shooter, who fell from his perch nearly forty feet up.
“Scratch two,” Alter said. She slid back down the pile. “I think an entire gang is coming our way.”
The gunfire intensified, both sides exchanging shots as we hunkered down amidst the junk and debris. A few more of Vango’s fighters were killed, their bodies falling down the rubble piles and coming to rest nearby. Quasar and Druck hit two more snipers, but the tension on the Marine’s face told me things still weren’t going our way.
“This is bullshit,” Druck said, expressing the same thought. “We’re sitting ducks down here. Vango led us right into a damn kill box.”
Quasar and I looked at one another at the same time. My gaze shifted to the unharmed Vango and her bodyguard. “Keep, it’s a setup,” I decided. “We’ve been double-crossed.”
“Why am I not surprised?” he replied. Immediately, something launched Vango’s bodyguard away from her, slamming him into a garbage pile and impaling him on a piece of bent rebar.
“Namo!” Vango shouted, stunned by her man’s death. “What—” She was cut off as Alter grabbed her by the throat and pinned her to the ground.
“Call them off,” Keep said, looming over her. He had dropped his proper accent, reverting back to his usual speech pattern. “Now!”
“What?” she gagged. “I didn’t—”
“This street had trap written all over it,” he continued. “But I gave you the benefit of the doubt. I thought to myself, there’s no way she jumps us here. It’s too obvious. I’m not afraid to admit when I’m wrong. What about you?”
“It’s not me,” she hissed out, barely audible through Keep’s comms.
“They were waiting for us,” Keep repeated. "Your bull got shot in the back and didn’t flinch. You did a pretty good job making it look authentic. You even let them kill some of your own.”
“I didn’t,” she continued to insist.
“Bullshit,” Druck spat.
“Call them off,” Keep said again.
“I can’t.” She began to writhe, running out of oxygen.
“You said we were weak. That was your go phrase, wasn’t it? Weak enough to take on. You never considered what kind of people escape from a place like Persephon. You never thought about how dangerous those types of people might be.”
She made choking sounds, still convulsing on the ground beneath Alter’s steel grip on her throat. “Please.”
“They’re closing in,” Quasar said. “We need to resolve this now.”
I noticed how Vango’s eyes shifted to my rings as they started glowing. I’d already decided on my move if it came to that. There's a lot of debris all around us. Bad news for anyone caught in its path if it became dislodged.
“Call them off,” Keep said a third time.
“I…okay.”
“Yes, you’ll call them off?” Keep asked.
“Yes. Yes.”
Alter let her go. She sucked in air, heaving for the first few breaths.
“Okay, I set you up. Made a deal with the Jokers. You know what the bounty is on that one?” She pointed directly at me. “Duke Sedaya’s offering thirty million just for him, another thirty for the rest of you.”
“Sixty million?” Keep asked, as if the amount would lead him to reconsider our partnership. “That’s insane.”
“The deal’s done. I can’t cancel it. I can’t call them off. Now I’m going to die here with you.”
“You must have had leverage. Something to assure they wouldn’t shoot you.”
“Ivor turned over his daughter as collateral. The deal goes bad, she gets dead.”
“So call them off. He won’t risk that.”
She laughed. “He might.” She turned over her hand, revealing a small transmitter. “I already tried to stop him. They’re still coming.”
Quasar shifted and opened fire, sending plasma blasts up the nearest garbage pile as the first wave of Jokers crested it, taking them down before they could shoot. “Too late,” she said. “They’re here.”
CHAPTER 18
I didn’t get to push the rubble surrounding us. Keep beat me to it, raising his hand and spinning in a circle, the glow of his sleeve visible beneath the tattered cloak he wore over his more formal attire. He really did look like a wizard in the outfit, especially as he twirled around, the piles of rubble shifting and moving beneath the feet of the Joker gang members trying to gain the high ground over us. They immediately started losing their balance, throwing off the aim of those who tried to open fire and sending wayward rounds zipping past. We hunkered down again, all of us except for Keep and Alter. She stayed close to him to ensure nobody managed to cut him off while he worked his spell.
Large stone blocks, bent and twisted girders, old vehicles and more lifted from the ground and flew away from us, carrying our attackers with it as it smashed into the surrounding buildings. Other residents of Old Haydrun scattered from the maelstrom like rats fleeing a sinking ship, desperate to escape the descending debris. The entire city rumbled and shook, dislodging centuries of accumulated dirt and grime, the sludge on the pylons giving off more gas than usual. Despite what Quasar had said, I couldn’t believe this wouldn’t attract the attention of the Royal Guard in the city above.
It was over in less than a minute. Keep lowered his hand. His sleeve stopped glowing. The debris settled wherever it had moved to during the massive push. Staggering, he stumbled to his knees and would have face-planted on the street if Alter hadn't caught him. Beside him, Vango stared at the end result of the defense, mouth agape, shaking with fear from what she had done.
“Keep!” I shouted, running over to him.
He smiled as I approached, sweat running down his brow, face pale and tired. “I couldn’t let you have all the glory, now could I, kid? Though you would have handled the effort a lot more easily.”
“And probably ended up paralyzed and numb from the effort,” I replied. My attention shifted to Vango. “If someone had tried a little straight dealing, it wouldn’t have been necessary.”
“I should have known sixty million wouldn’t be as easy as it looked,” Vango said in her defense, still in awe of what Keep had done.
“That was so awesome!” David exclaimed, coming over to us. “The stuff the sigils can do, it's just…mind blowing. I can’t wait to get back to my research.”
Keep glared at him. “You make a single sigil that isn’t defensive, and I’ll kill you myself.”
David’s excitement fled. “Yeah, of course. I don’t want to hurt anyone.”
“People did just get hurt,” Gia said.
“Bad people,” Druck added. He glanced at Vango. “But we missed one.”
Shaq growled at her, shifting his weight on my shoulder. She looked up at him, biting her lower lip. “Is that a Jagger?”
“Yeah,” I replied. “And he’s not very happy with you right now.”
“The bounty didn’t say anything about a Jagger,” she said. “Damn Sedaya.”
“Now you’re getting it,” Gia agreed.
Druck whistled. “Sixty million. That’s a lot of electro. What’s the Royal Guard offering?”
“Ten million,” Vango said.
“Not bad either.”
“Yeah, but why’s Ben worth thirty?” Matt asked. “The same as the rest of us combined.”
“Because Sedaya hates me the most,” I replied. “I don’t really know why. I didn’t blow up his space dock.”
“You’re the one who keeps getting away,” Keep answered. “That’s a big deal to a man like him.” He turned to Vango. “Let’s go.”
“What do you mean?” she replied.
“We still have a deal. Your double-cross failed, so you might as well earn the million I already gave you.”
She seemed confused. “You still trust me to smuggle you through the tunnels?”
“Trust you? I never really did. But you didn’t plan for us to live this long, so you couldn’t have arranged another ambush there. And even if you did…” He pushed back his cloak and jacket, revealing the sleeve. It glowed as he activated the sigils.
“You need to tell me how you use that,” David said. “Oh, man, I have so much to learn.”
“Sure, Davie. Later.” Keep stared down at Vango. “Well? Do we still have a deal, or should we kill you straight away?”
She smiled. “We still have a deal. Come on.”
We resumed our trek through Old Haydrun, turning right again at the end of the formerly debris-filled street and moving closer to the stone perimeter surrounding the remains of the city. The wall appeared to be made from a dark brown clay. Over the years, aspiring artists had sculpted hundreds of incredibly detailed forms in the material, everything from a cartoonish dragon to a near-pornographic depiction of a man and woman entangled in each other's arms.
As we drew nearer, I could see how the older designs were more filled in by the brown clay, becoming fuzzy compared to the sharpness of the newer work. The clay seemed to be accumulating even now.
“What are the walls made from?” I finally asked.
“Sludge poop,” Vango replied, drawing an immature laugh from Druck.
“What are they really made from?” I questioned.
“I’m not joking,” she answered. “The off-gassing releases tiny spores, which are carried across the city by the air currents that sweep in from overhead, pushing them around the perimeter. Eventually, they stick to one another and add to the walls. From what I’ve heard, Old Haydrun has shrunk by nearly thirty percent since they shored up the outskirts and built the lid. And they expect that within a few thousand more years it’ll be gone completely.”
“That’s incredible,” David said. “And disgusting.”
“You’ll notice the smell is worse the closer we get to the wall. I hope you don’t have delicate stomachs.”
“I already feel sick,” Gia said.
As we walked, I noticed the other residents of the city had changed their attitudes toward us. Before, they had stared as we passed, sizing us up with no hint of fear. Now, they scattered at our approach, ducking down the dark alleys or into the buildings, doing their best to stay well away from us, innocuous and out of sight. Watching them flee made it hard not to feel superior and smug toward these people. Sigiltech made it so easy to become arrogant and drunk on the power it provided. That Keep had stayed relatively grounded after so many years said a lot about his true nature that lay beneath his sometimes harsh exterior.
Or maybe it spoke to the hurts he had endured and the horrors he had seen.
“In here,” Vango said two blocks later, leading us up three small steps to the front of a stone building that appeared a lot older than any of the other construction around it. A faded inscription over an open door frame read ARCHIVES.
“What was this place?” David asked as we entered. A steel cage surrounded the immediate entry, a pair of checkpoints set up to check entrants before allowing full access. The guard stations were occupied by a pair of men dressed similarly to Quasar, wearing the clothes of Vango’s now-deceased bodyguard.
“A public datastore,” Keep answered. “All the knowledge of Earth and the journey across the galaxy was kept here once, a history appended with each passing day.”
