Convergence (20 page)

He glanced down at her. If everything worked out and he could spend the rest of his life with her, it would have all been worth it. “I couldn’t. Not without… jeopardizing far too much.”

“I think you underestimate all of them, Adam.” Her voice was quiet.

He considered that as he moved his hand to her side, the entry point of the wound, to focus his Energy there for accelerated healing.
Had
he underestimated them all?

“I don’t know if that’s true,” he admitted, watching as the wound began to stitch itself closed. “Will’s hidden many things from people as well, and whether he thought it best because he didn’t want them burdened, or didn’t want to take the risk of exposing things best left hidden… he did what he thought was right. Perhaps if he’d been more open, we’d have no war today. Or perhaps it would have come too soon, before we were prepared. I don’t know if we’ll ever know what might have happened if I’d spoken up sooner. But I don’t get to do it all over again.” He paused. “But when this ends… because you think they’ll take it better than I’ve always thought… I’ll tell them everything as well. But not now. Not while there’s fighting going on.”

She didn’t respond for a long time.

Finally, she spoke. “I can never ask anything of you other than to act as you think best.”

He nodded, a gesture she could feel more than she could see. “I’m glad I came to you rather than fighting. I think I would have taken far too many lives, especially after seeing what he did to you.”

“You’ve made my life worth living, Adam,” she whispered. “And if it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have had a life. Literally.”

She stilled, and her breathing slowed.

He bent down to her, the tears flowing freely. “You make my life worth living as well.”

He brushed his lips across hers as sleep claimed her.

Will heard the chime from
the tablet computer in his pocket. The sound brought a temporary sense of relief. The humans were safely on Eden, moved there by the mammoth remote teleportation device they’d embedded in the soil of Headquarters Island earlier, linking this Island with the other island.

He checked the settings on the application and made an adjustment.

Source: Eden. Target: Headquarters Island.

The reversal would link a tent on Eden with Headquarters Plaza, just inside the perimeter they’d built, and send the Alliance fighting squad here en masse without the use of detectable Energy. They’d sent the scout team earlier to prep everything, smaller numbers minimizing the chance of premature exposure. But now?

The only risk now was slow execution on his part.

He triple-checked the settings once more, ensured the required thirty seconds had passed to allow the devices here to recharge, and slapped the Transport button on his tablet. With no further purpose to invisibility, he and the others waiting outside the Plaza dropped their nano shields.

He pocketed the device and tried once more, without success, to forget what he’d heard over the speaker stationed inside Arthur Lowell’s office, wishing he’d not drawn this role.

Fil, the most powerful, was the obvious choice to make the first public landfall. They wanted as much disruption and distraction as possible, and his son was the man for the job. A member of the scout team would be standing by to teleport to Arthur’s office if, by some chance, Fil encountered trouble. Hope, who’d wanted to face her father again for centuries, had won that role without much of a fight. Will, because of his age and experience, then became the obvious choice to monitor the situation and activate the transporter to whisk the humans to safety once Arthur seized upon the inevitable hostage plan. With the humans safely on Eden, he’d bring the fighting force here and coordinate with Ian, the leader of the assault.

It also meant that while he could join in the banter with Arthur, he needed to stay out of it, to allow his son and his wife to handle things. He’d engaged in slight banter as the situation demanded, but he primarily listened, waiting.

And now it seemed he’d waited too long. From the sound of things in that room, Hope and Fil were in mortal danger.

The army of Eden appeared before him, tugging his mind away from the fate of his family. For the moment.

There were hundreds of men and women, armed with swords and knives, all with their Energy fully charged. Their faces were stern, grim, and made it clear they would not allow the Aliomenti to win the battle this day.

Will watched as one of the men turned and looked around, surveying the suddenly large crowd standing on the Plaza. He spotted Will and jogged over. Will nodded at Ian as the man came to a stop. “Assignments handed out, sir. Permission to deploy?”

They’d never really stripped Ian’s military formality from him, even though Will had mentioned on many occasions that he was no commanding officer, just a figurehead. This wasn’t the time to revisit that debate. “Granted.”

Ian nodded and saluted. “Let’s move out!” he roared.

They vanished, the teleportation Energy stirring up the wind outside the building, stirring the few pieces of debris and causing small bits of gravel to dance on the surface.

Ian had worked with Hope to ensure that each floor of the Aliomenti Headquarters building had individuals assigned, with numbers of personnel on each floor based on the expected concentrations of Aliomenti operating on each. Their goal was immobilization: they’d work to render their opponents unconscious where possible, allowing for the administration of a new brain-level medicine—not nano-based—that would undo Arthur’s brain manipulations of enforced, blind loyalty. Once a floor-based team was certain their space had been secured, the team would move to designated follow-up floors to aid their colleagues, repeating the process until all eventually reached the subterranean levels where the Aliomenti spent most of their time and their numbers would be at their highest.

Will pulled out his tablet to get one more status update from the other sites, fighting the urge to ignore that final required step before he’d teleport to aid his wife and son. His face clenched. The Cavern invaders had escaped the Energy-sealed prison they’d constructed, utilizing some technique to disable the nanos and render the prison walls useless. Will swallowed hard. The nanos were their trump card. If the Aliomenti had learned of the nanos and had figured out a means of disabling them…

He flipped open the communicator to the private channel for his own invasion team. “Team, be aware: Nanos may not be effective in the battle. Opponent may have means to neutralize. Proceed with caution and adjust tactics as needed.”

He glanced at the tablets and saw the good news. The medicine they’d developed, an injectable formula designed to undo Arthur’s programming, had been tested in the Cavern and had been shown to work well.

Well, at least there was
some
good news.

Two of the warriors remained behind, quietly and patiently waiting as he finished his administrative work. He looked at both of them now as he stowed the tablet away once more. “Ready?”

There were two brief nods in response. It was a foolish question. They’d been ready for this day for years. He took a hand from each and teleported them to Arthur’s penthouse suite. As the sense of displacement settled, he took in the situation and tried to understand what had happened.

Arthur leaned against a large, dark, wooden desk, arms folded, a look of triumph upon his face. The look faded as he noticed Will in the room. Porthos rested on his knees, his right hand tucked inside his left armpit, swaying, his face showing obvious pain. Will realized the nano-markers they’d gotten into the human residents of the Island hadn’t been wiped from Porthos after all, which meant that his hand…

Will shivered, hoping the sight on Eden hadn’t traumatized anyone.

As Will assessed Arthur and Porthos’ situations, the younger woman he’d brought with him moved, teleporting forward and swinging her sword with both hands. Will’s eyes caught the movement as she reappeared in time to knock Abaddon’s sword away from Fil as the weapon descended for a killing strike. Fil was lying on the ground next to Hope, apparently incapable of movement. He showed no sign that he’d tried to defend himself against the Assassin’s threat. Will wondered what could cause that, and his eyes fell upon the net.

Could the Aliomenti possibly have a technology that could squash the Energy of even Fil?

His traveling companion spent no time contemplating such mysteries. She followed up the deflecting blow with an elbow to the man’s face, shattering his nose and spraying his blood across the carpet. The Assassin’s eyes widened, first in excitement at the challenge and then in amusement as he realized his opponent was a woman. Those same eyes filled with fear as Fil’s defender brought strike after strike against him, smashing the sword against him with precision and speed and power.

Abaddon had no chance against the dynamo systematically mauling him, pressing her advantage with a ferocity he’d never experienced in his long life. Within seconds his efforts at self-defense with the sword failed, as she swept the blade away from him. He tried to teleport away… and found he couldn’t move.

He looked at her, pleading. “Please. Please, don’t kill me.”

In answer, she lifted her boot and smashed it into his chest, sending the demon to the floor ten feet away. He slid, howling as the thick carpeting burned his skin, even as it slowed his motion. He looked up, watching as his attacker leaped through the air, landed with one boot on his chest, and plowed her sword through his forehead.

The woman turned to look at Arthur, who’d watched the battle with a detached sense of admiration at the fighting skill. The Leader had never made a move to assist the Assassin, letting him fall under the relentless onslaught of the woman who glared at him, the warning in her gaze a deterrent against a possible attack as she turned and moved back toward the Alliance grouping across the room. She winced briefly at the sight of the decapitated Assassin but continued moving toward Will, Hope, and Fil.

Arthur spoke up. “I’ve not seen a woman fight like that in five centuries, Stark. This is the human woman who protected you when you announced your decision to ignore the Oaths, isn’t it?”

The young woman turned to glare at Arthur over her shoulder. “It wasn’t me. I deeply appreciate the compliment, however.”

Will shook his head. “No, Arthur. But the woman you’re thinking of is here, though.” He nodded at Hope.

Arthur stared at her. “You?”

Buried beneath the heavy net, Hope tried to smile. “Me.”

“But then… how… who is
she
, then?”

Will sighed. “Arthur, you are such a fool. This is where your philosophy proves so impractical. We don’t hoard knowledge and skill, trying to keep it to ourselves to enhance our own stature and power. Hope spent centuries studying with the greatest warriors the world has ever produced, and practiced with them diligently. But she didn’t stop there. She recorded her knowledge and practice techniques so that others might learn from her and enhance that knowledge with their personal experiences.” His face tightened as he glared at Arthur. “Those trained in this fashion would include the army now battling your people throughout this facility.”

Arthur’s face paled. “But… who… who
is
she?” He nodded at the second visitor as well, who’d remained behind Fil and Hope and Will, silent. “And who is
she
?”

The warrior bent down, kneeling before Fil, and pulled out a knife. Fil blinked as the lights of the room glinted off the polished blade. “Let’s get you out of here,” she said. Her voice, so harsh in her words to the deceased Assassin and Arthur Lowell, carried a tenderness inside it.

And the words triggered such a powerful memory that Fil’s body trembled. “What… what did you say?”

The warrior’s hands jerked back as she touched the net.

“Don’t touch it,” Fil whispered. “It uses your Energy to drain your Energy. Stay strong so you’re able to fight. Don’t worry about me.”

The second woman walked around Hope and knelt before Fil, taking the knife. “In that case, let
me
handle this.” She lifted her head at Fil and smiled.

Fil lifted his head and saw her face, bursting into tears as recognition hit.

She felt consciousness return, waking
slowly from a dreamless sleep as her body healed. The pain in her side, so sharp and intense as Scott’s blade sliced through skin and muscle, was no more than a dull ache now. The healing nanos and Adam’s powerful Energy had reduced a mortal wound to nothing more intense than a stitch in her side.

Her mind recounted the events. She’d sensed Scott approaching, recognizing the familiar Energy song in her mind, and relaxed, prepared to fight with him to take down the invasion force. She’d heard him draw his sword and suspected nothing, thinking him preparing to join her as she parried sword thrusts and dodged Energy bolts. She’d never wondered why, after so much time and so many individual battles, he’d yet to draw his sword, why he’d seemed to dodge the fighting until he’d reached her.

She also had little time to wonder why the Aliomenti fighting her at that instant had stepped back when Scott moved in. Perhaps she’d just assumed the man had recognized the odds were not in his favor now with two fighting against him.

The searing pain struck seconds later, accompanied by a burst of emotion as Scott’s reprogramming unleashed in full fury.

She didn’t know if the blade hit her spine, or what blood vessels or ligaments or organs were damaged by the piercing blade. She fell to the ground, the pain and damage taking control of her legs away. Scott’s thoughts whispered to her, gloating about the unique techniques he’d undergone to counteract the measures she and Adam had worked to ensure he’d give nothing away as he moved into contact and recruitment with the Aliomenti. She became aware that he’d seen the Aliomenti as the rightful rulers of the world even though the Alliance had first recruited him, and sought a subtle means to betray his earliest friends to their worst enemies. Adam’s plan worked to perfection, and he’d been able to follow it as described because he knew that bringing the Aliomenti into the Cavern with the new nano-erasing technology the Leader had provided the Hunter in secret would provide the greatest opportunity for Alliance carnage. The blocked memories surged forth as the Aliomenti neared the Cavern, and he’d been able to confide quietly in Athos. The Hunter played his role to perfection, getting the men inside and deploying the tonic to the nanos only after the Alliance had relaxed their defensive posture and assumed themselves safe.