Convergence (31 page)

Sarah groaned. “He tricked us. How did we let that happen?”

“But it won’t matter, will it?” Anna asked. “I injected him with the medicine. He’s free, but he shouldn’t be a risk much longer.”

“How long does it take before the medicine takes effect, though?” Will asked. “He can do plenty of damage in a short period of time.” He snapped his fingers. “Adam, you watched a transformation like Athos’ happen in the Cavern. How long…?”

He paused as he looked around.

“Where’s Adam?” Hope asked.

“Didn’t he come with us?”

But they knew he hadn’t. And though he hated to do it, Will couldn’t help but wonder if Adam had something to do with Porthos’ disappearance. His mother—that would take time to get used to—had provided information to the Aliomenti for some unknown length of time. Adam had brought a “transformed” Hunter back, and though Athos’ efforts to end his own life succeeded, it could well be that Athos had failed to break his fall in time.

Had Adam done something to undo Porthos’ reprogramming, and even now sought to set the last living Hunter free?

He turned to Ian. “Did the deprogramming medicine work fairly quickly?”

Ian nodded. “It seemed to, sir. Most everyone seemed to come around after maybe twenty or thirty minutes.”

“We can’t prove anything here worked,” Hope said. “Arthur’s death means there’s a chance his mental programming terminated at the same time.”

“But he should still be here, then,” Will protested. “Right? He’d been injected and certainly had enough time to see the medicine take effect. Even if he’d tried to escape up until the point he jumped, the medicine surely took effect before he had the chance to leave without us knowing.”

There were head nods.

“Which brings me back to Adam.” Will frowned. “He was acting rather strangely before we left Arthur’s quarters. There’s still something he’s hiding from us. But what? And does that relate to Porthos’ disappearance?”

“He knew about Eva, didn’t he?” Angel asked. “Was that it? He was worried that we’d be upset with him when realized he’d known about her communications for quite some time.” She paused. “Or did you ask him to keep it quiet?”

Will shrugged. “The fewer who knew, the better.”

“I refuse to believe that Adam would betray us.” Hope spoke with greater conviction than she had in some time. “And I don’t think Eva tried to betray us either.” Her eyes flicked at Will, who looked away. “Arthur explained why she did it; anything they got outside of knowing they had to avoid killing people they got by torture. You saw her, didn’t you? All of you. You don’t look like that if you’re providing every answer without hesitation.” She shook her head. “We’re overthinking this. Porthos tricked us. It’s that simple.”

Will frowned. “I agree on all points, Hope, but I can’t figure out how to explain the seeming lack of effect of the medicine. Why would he react differently than the others?”

“The effects do take time,” Ian reminded them. “The timing might well be such that he got away from this space before the full effects happened. Perhaps Hunters are more deeply programmed than others, and what takes twenty or thirty minutes for most might take an hour or longer for them. We may need to find him to know for sure.”

“There’s another scenario that’s not been mentioned yet,” Sarah said. All eyes turned to her. Fil smiled. “It aligns with Hope’s comments about non-betrayals as well, and solves the mystery of the medicine.” She glanced at Anna, who nodded thoughtfully.

“Which is?”

Anna looked around. “The medicine and the Leader’s death haven’t had an effect on Porthos… because Porthos never received the mental programming. He acted the way he did of his own free will. He recognized our beliefs, saw the compassion shown to Athos, and acted in a manner that gave him the greatest chance to escape. And he did. Which means…”

“Which means that he’s still out there and as much a Hunter as ever, and that he won’t rest until he defeats us all,” Will said.

Their faces fell.

It wasn’t over yet.

Not by a long shot.

They mixed the unpleasant task
with a practical one.

Ian listened to their concerns about razing the Island rather than dealing with the dead, and he came to agree with them. He spoke to the survivors below and found they were in agreement with the plan as well. Thus, while Ian’s groups would patrol the Island, looking for hidden pockets of Aliomenti resistance, the group who’d been in combat directly with Arthur Lowell would handle moving the dead to the Headquarters lobby.

They started at the top of the building, teleporting to each floor and retrieving each body they found. The Aliomenti produced hundreds of body bags—they didn’t ask why they had so many on hand—and those collecting the dead took the time to carefully label each bag. Hope insisted upon moving Arthur’s body, Anna took care of Abaddon, and Will and Fil worked together on William the Assassin’s dismembered corpse. Adam spent a moment in quiet reflection near Eva’s body before carrying the bag to the elevator.

Angel’s tears finally ran dry as she zipped up the bag with Charlie inside. Will felt his heart break. He’d watched both children lose a spouse, but in Angel’s case, he had no happy surprise waiting for her.

Sarah volunteered to ride down in the elevator with the bodies, and Fil rode with her, unwilling to leave her out of his sight until they’d restrained Porthos and any remaining Aliomenti roaming the Island.

They repeated the process, floor after floor. They’d lucked out, because most of the fighting and most of the dead were located below ground. As they moved through each floor, they listened for any Energy signals that belonged to anyone but themselves. Nobody had noticed any teleportation-sized bursts of Energy. Fil’s arrival damaged the boats in port and Athos had taken all submarines with him. Adam jogged to the hangar and returned, noting that each aircraft had an identified parking spot, and that all spots were occupied. It didn’t rule out a departure; all evidence suggested that Porthos remained on Headquarters Island.

Ian sent out a communication requesting that in about thirty minutes time all survivors should meet on the Plaza where he would show all of them—including the converted Aliomenti who wished to help—ways to identify likely pockets of remaining Aliomenti. The converted, who’d gradually regained their memories with their free will, helped adjust the target areas away from those places where few Aliomenti worked or congregated. They checked their emails and found no warning communications or summons in their various inboxes. Those not working would be unaware as yet that their leadership, minus a single rogue Hunter, lay dead inside Headquarters, along with hundreds of Aliomenti and Alliance fighters. They’d not been aware of an invasion. Will wondered if Arthur had been bluffing when he made the claim about his people remaining scattered throughout the Island and prepared to take human hostages. He’d never suggest they not confirm the security of the Island, though.

They used the updated information to identify the most likely hiding places for Aliomenti and Porthos. They agreed that the most likely place for Aliomenti to travel to capture human hostages would be the human village. They’d send a group there aboard the monorail, which ran automatically. The arrival and departure of monorail trains wouldn’t suggest anything abnormal to Aliomenti in the village. It was thus the most likely locale for Aliomenti, and the one where they’d find the least initial resistance. But while those Aliomenti who’d made the trip to the human village wouldn’t be suspicious of running trains, they’d be the group most anticipating a fight. Ian would travel with this first group.

They reasoned that the majority of those Aliomenti not traveling to the human village for any reason—those who didn’t receive any transmissions from the Leader—would remain in the Aliomenti residential and social areas to the south of Headquarters. They reasoned that those Aliomenti still in the residential areas wouldn’t know about the invasion. The expectation here would be the mass distribution and injection of the medicine without drawing swords. Will and Adam would lead this group, taking with them the vast majority of surviving Aliomenti. The residents of the area would be best able to inject medications without drawing undue suspicion. Will, Adam, and the Alliance would hold back, prepared to fight, but generally act as if they were new recruits touring their new home neighborhood.

Sarah raised her hand. “What if we’re wrong? What if Arthur’s death, and not the medicine, reversed the programming?”

Adam shook his head. “Arthur remained alive until after the medicine took hold back in the Cavern. It’s possible his death would accelerate the process, but the medicine works as well.”

Ian nodded. “If Arthur’s death reverses every mental programming change made, the first two groups will have uneventful trips.”

Adam nodded, and Will watched him. His face showed little expectation that Arthur’s death would have an impact upon those programmed. Will agreed. His memory wasn’t perfect, but he did recall that someone other than Arthur once controlled the mind of Aramis, back when the late Hunter was a boy known as Tacitus. His controller died, but Aramis remained in the throes of the mental programming inflicted on him.

Adam’s eyes flicked at Hope, then back at Will. He shrugged. Adam had rejoined them not long after the transmission of Ian’s meeting request. When asked where he’d been, why he’d not joined them at the site of Athos’ impact on the Plaza, Adam had realized his error. He’d sensed in Ian’s mind during the call with Will that Porthos had faked his suicide, and felt compelled to search for the Hunter alone. He’d felt guilty about Porthos’ escape, since the approach had been supplied by Athos, the Hunter Adam brought back to Headquarters Island. Adam apologized for his aloofness, but not for his decision to chase the Hunter alone, despite the concerns raised by his choice. His eyes flicked toward Hope for just an instant, before he said he’d explain more later, when things truly ended. For now, he’d work with the others and focus on disabling those in the residential area to ease the injection of medication.

Nobody asked what they’d do if the medicine no longer worked. But Will noted that all of them checked the swords hanging at their sides or across their backs.

The third and final group would remain at Headquarters, working on identifying and transporting the dead in the lower levels. Hope, Angel, Fil, Sarah, and Anna would remain behind, along with the most grievously injured among the Alliance and Aliomenti. As those Aliomenti not cured with the medicine in this space tended to be among the dead, Headquarters remained the safest place on the Island.

Will stood near Fil, watching Anna and Sarah explain to a pair of men with broken arms the most efficient means of loading bodies into bags and their approach to labeling those bags. He glanced at his son. “Make certain that you—”

“Keep an eye on Sarah.” Fil nodded. “That’s why I volunteered to stay here. I knew that she’d demand to go to one of the other sites and fight. But if I’m here, it’s easier for her to make the same decision.” He seized Will’s arm. “But Dad, if things get rough out there…”

“I’ll contact you.” Will appreciated Fil’s act on Sarah’s behalf. He could feel Fil’s desire to join the more combat-ready units heading to the two residential areas of the Island, but knew his son would never forgive himself if he failed to protect Sarah again. Fil, understandably, worried less about Anna, whose Energy rivaled Angel’s. She could take care of herself in any circumstance. “Fil, just… watch out for Porthos. If he hasn’t left the Island, I doubt he’s gone far. This is the part of the Island that he knows best. And he’ll be looking for a chance to exact revenge on us.”

Fil nodded. “I know. This is the safest place from a numbers perspective. But in many ways, it’s the most dangerous because he’s the one we can’t change with the medicine.” He watched Sarah, his icy blue eyes filled with a steely resolve. “Don’t worry. I won’t let her out of my sight.”

The survivors split into their chosen teams. Fil headed back toward the Headquarters building, joined by Sarah, Anna, Hope, Angel, and the handful of wounded Aliomenti. Anna wouldn’t leave her mother—whom she rightly understood to be in danger—or her father after the long separation. Angel, still reeling from Charlie’s sudden death, wanted the comfort of Hope’s youthful presence. She didn’t trust herself to react quickly in one of the more likely open combat zones either.

Ian’s team moved to the monorail station. The Aliomenti, confused how to work the train, tried to use the palm reader and found themselves denied access through the gate. There were murmurings of confusion, grumbling that they ought to just teleport to the village and be done with it, and others openly wondering why the humans put up with such nonsense every day.

Ian rolled his eyes and blasted the palm reader and the gate structure to dust. “Permission to board the train is hereby granted. Let’s move, people.”

They filed into the empty monorail train car. Moments later, the automated vehicle accelerated out of the station toward the human settlements on the eastern side of the Island. Will wished them a dull, boring journey, and hoped they’d find the settlements empty of all who might do them harm.

He glanced at Adam. “Ready?”

Adam nodded. “I know you argued that the most dangerous portion of the Island was the village, but… you
do
realize that if the surviving Aliomenti want to spring a trap, they’d do so in their own village, right?”

Will nodded. “Most of them have never been to the human village. The traps would be here. Yes, they may find a few survivors there, but I suspect they’ll be wandering around confused at the empty village, not plotting an attack.” His face tightened. “In other words, it’s why I picked this group.”

Adam nodded. “Same here.”

They followed the Aliomenti on foot to the south, away from the Headquarters building and beyond the large concrete Plaza surrounding the building. There, they found communal ground vehicles that looked like the sidecars attached to the motorcycles of Will’s youth. The driver directed the ground car by shifting their weight inside the vehicle. Leaning forward accelerated the craft, leaning back slowed or stopped the vehicle. It took only a few seconds to master the transportation, which Will found oddly similar to riding a bicycle, but without the tiring effect on his legs. The Aliomenti with them noted that the vehicles were crash resistant, a feature Will wasn’t eager to test.