Gudsriki (10 page)

“Well done, Tully!”

“Thank you, Pytten! Now, sit back down. You'll want to be sitting for the news from command.”

Pytten was worried. Was there to be a hearing? Or a discharge?

“What's going on?”

“You impressed all the right people, of course. Saved your crew's lives and went back for the bastard Bax to boot. They called you a credit to the Valkohai. Wanted to make an example of you!”

“Vellamo no.”

“No, no, no, you got a good one. The best I can imagine. You still want to use all those strategy and games courses you took at the academy?”

Pytten looked up. “I do, can you—”

“Already did my good friend, already did. You've been promoted to lieutenant commander and given a new post.”

“Out with it, Tully! Where did they put me?”

“You'll be an administrative assistant!”

Pytten squinted with land eyes.

“They made me a secretary? Are you… are you kidding me? They made me a—”

“To Risto Turunen.”

Pytten stopped talking. Tull smiled broadly.

“You're kidding.”

“No joke, my friend. You'll be the right-hand of the Admiral of the Valkohai. My old captain from way back when.”

Tull watched as it set in on Pytten's face.

“So…. When do I—”

“You sober?”

“Yes, I've only had half a grog.”

“Then there's no time like the present. There's a limo waiting for you at the south docks.”

“Vellamo!”

Tull laughed. “But we have time to catch up on the walk. The ride to Itämeri leaves whenever you wish. Come, come, you haven't even told me your grand hero story! The tale of Sävel Pytten, savior of the Saukko, rescuer of Bax the asshole, who's still awaiting charges for your eye by the way. Just think of all the clever names they'll have for you!”

They walked to the docks.

“Your boat was far from the worst incident. The war topside has killed at least two hundred Cetaceans. Debris, poison, radiation. Luckily the topsiders seem to have forgotten we exist at all as they annihilate each other. All collateral damage. But damage nonetheless. One hundred boats lost. Two small shore colonies damaged beyond repair, hundreds of families displaced. If ever we're to be called into duty, it will be soon.”

“The Valkohai in action against humankind.”

“Or our own. Piracy has octupled. The police forces have their hands full. Some of the larger organizations have grown more daring. The food bank off Yallahs was raided yesterday. The surplus is intact but diminished. But the food bank! The DPR is responsible, no doubt about it. This is far too daring for them. They'd never have tried before this nuclear business. Anyhow, you'll find out all about it. You'll find out everything now. Nothing will be classified to you. You will learn directly from the grand master.”

“Did you have a hand in this?”

“None at all. It's by pure coincidence I was the one to inform you. I was starting my furlough in Pohjanlahti, so they gave me this last assignment.”

“Then you won't be joining me in Itämeri?”

“The big city isn't for me, friend. I will drink and sleep and try to meet a compatible female with whom to have sexual intercourse, if you get my meaning.”

“Yes, I get your meaning. You said it without the least bit of ambiguity.”

“Hmmm, I do that, don't I?”

They reached the dock.

“Enjoy your limo ride, Pytten. Just don't turn on the television. Nothing but news. And you'll be dealing with plenty of news in the coming days.”

“Thank you, Tully. It was good to see you again.”

“You too, Pytten, you too. I hope we can meet again soon. Though somehow I don't think it's in the cards.”

“I fear not as well. Unless you happen to have some top-level intel for my new boss.”

“I'll see what I can dredge up for you,” Tull laughed. They hugged again and butted heads. Then, with a pat on the back, Pytten was on the way.

 

 

V
IBEKE
DISARMED
the last missile, boiling the wave bomb and deactivating it completely. Even if it could still launch, they'd see in GAUNE that it was unarmed. It would read no differently from a conventional rocket launch.

“You did the wrong thing, Vibeke,” said Sal. The SSS robots shut down. Vibeke hopped down from the Ehren Plate and ran for Violet's position. Her link was still online, her Tikari still in the sky. She was still on the tarmac, but she must have outlasted the robots. Sal must have given up when he saw it was over.

She didn't see Violet in the darkness. She spotted a magnetic crane system and turned on her magnetic shield, then set her suit for full illumination. Still no sign of Violet, only glitter on the ground. SSS shells, she thought.

She linked out asking for Violet's position. There was no reply. She grew concerned. But the link was active. She was almost there.

There was more glitter on the ground, sparkling shards of metal and—flesh. Frozen flesh, shattered. Not necessarily Violet. She kept looking.

There were visible shards of organs. Definitely someone. If it was Violet, she wasn't lost yet.

The link lay severed on the ground. It was definitely Violet's. Frozen on. But there was minimal gray matter attached to it. Violet wouldn't be able to use her link again, but that didn't matter. Vibeke suddenly understood. Violet had missed the text warning and frozen in place with the SSS robots still on. She would have made it out if she could read.

Vibeke kept hunting. She just needed Violet's brain. She saw motion.

Nelson, Violet's Tikari, was fluttering around. It had gone ronin; that was okay. Vibs had lost her Tikari before. Violet wouldn't be able to link into hers once she was fixed. Not the end of the world.

The Tikari was fluttering about Violet's heart. Broken in three but only that, not shattered utterly. An organ had survived. Her brain could too.

She scoured the field of shattered Violet. Her brain would be around somewhere, frozen and ready for stasis. It would be problematic to regrow her, she'd be in serious trouble medically speaking, but if she could just find her brain, everything would sort itself out.

She found a shard of it. That was okay too, a few memories lost, a few personality traits altered. Another shard.

Vibeke began breathing harder. The Tikari fluttered behind her. It was hunting too. As if it knew they just needed a little more of her brain. Vibeke picked up a shard of it. The shard fell apart in her hands.

Violet had hit absolute zero. The SSS robots had stopped because she'd lost her shield and shattered completely. Vibeke didn't give up hope.

She scoured the field for another half hour, slowly realizing that Violet was completely, irreparably dead. It seemed impossible. Absolutely impossible. There was something missing, some piece of information, something she'd overlooked. She expanded her search perimeter. Violet would be there somewhere. She just had to look.

But she couldn't see. There were tears in her eyes. No, she told herself, she wasn't crying because Violet wasn't dead. She wiped away the tears and kept looking but found herself stumbling. Suddenly she was on her knees and bawling. Her fingers felt along the ground, finding frozen shards of her girlfriend. All that was left.

Not all that was left. In desperation she found the heart again. In three pieces but repairable. She ignored how useless that was. It wasn't useless. It was what she had to work with. She pulled her microwave and gently thawed the pieces before picking them up, making sure they weren't too brittle.

She put them on her arm clingers and stood up. She had what she could get. Violet was safe. It was time to kill Sal. She'd deal with the rest later.

On Orkney, Violet's heart grew pink and lively inside the stasis field. It was back to only 2 percent necrosis and in time, even that would fade as cells flourished and structures healed. The heart was fine, but as Dr. Niide pointed out, “It's a heart. Not a brain. Violet is dead. You've saved muscle tissue. Might as well have saved her gluteus maximus.”

“It was all that was left of her.”

“Sentimental, Vibeke. Since when have Valkyries been sentimental?”

“Since we fell in love.”

“Uch, dreadful, Vibeke, utterly dreadful.”

“I know,” she said, ashamed.

“So…. Hmmm…. Saved the muscle tissue and found me. Preserved it, your final mission is fulfilled. Next? UKI could use you. If we had you a week ago we'd have three more islands.”

“I suppose they can draft me if they like. But I don't think they like me.”

“Slaughter an island of Ulver, mmm, they'll warm up.”

“Maybe.”

Vibeke thought. She really didn't have any plans after she got the heart to Niide. She tried to think of what she intended to do with it. Keep it preserved in a jar? Make out with it? Plastinate it and hang it from her ceiling lamp?

It was clearly time to move on. It was time to forget about her pipe dreams about seeing her dead lover again. She had to move on, or she'd drive herself insane or far, far worse. She had to leave the island, to get away from Dr. Niide.

She would leave immediately, leave the heart behind, leave the man behind, leave her foolish dreams behind. She left Niide's tent and trudged through the pissweed that grew around it. She headed straight for the boat on which she arrived. She made it in time to see it destroyed by the incoming Wolf attack.

 

 

“S
IRE
,
WE
have news of a book burning in Birobidzhan.”

“A book burning?”

“Yes, sire, the libraries were raided and thousands of volumes were destroyed.”

“For the love of God send them some lamp oil. Next?”

“No, sire, it seems to have been an act of protest. A Buddhist sect destroyed canonical books to various other religions.”

“Religionists?”

“Yes, sire, it appears so.”

“Ulver will have none of this. Arrest the entire sect and make it known that vandalism will not be tolerated.”

“Yes, sire, and other sects?”

“What have they done?”

“Nothing, sire, but they are appearing across Eastern Europe and Russia.”

“If they've done nothing let them be.”

“Sire, religion—”

“Is inevitable after the apocalypse. Inform me if any sects show a predilection toward violence.”

“Yes, sire.” Gerät bowed his head and left to make room for Temujin.

Temujin had already spoken not an hour ago, informing Wulfgar of the failure to take Khökh Khot. Wulfgar was surprised to see him back so soon.

“Temujin?”

“Sire, permission to speak frankly?”

It was the first time anyone under his command had asked.

“Granted!”

“Sire, Khökh Khot was not lost by the 9th; it was lost because we lacked proper intel.”

“Granted. And if we had eighty-seven task forces, I assure you one would have been devoted to Khökh Khot. But we have eighty-six in operation and two in development. There aren't enough personnel to cover the entire globe, and Khökh Khot was eighty-seventh on the priority list. A priority list you composed, Temujin.”

“Yes, sire, but I was not allowed to determine the top five allocations.”

“Indeed you were not. You have an effective eighty-one forces to work with.”

“Sire, if just one of those forces—”

“They may not.”

“Sire…. May I ask—”

“You may not. They are on a mission far more important than Khökh Khot, more important than all of Mongol Uls.”

“Yes, sire.”

“Is there anything else?”

“No, sire.”

“Then you may leave.”

Temujin clicked his heels and marched out of the room.

Wulfgar was concerned that Temujin was correct about the allocations. He was using up five units, the most experienced, most clever units he had, in the search for Violet MacRae.

Unit Alpha had scoured the ravine and found only unstable ground and a biomechanical mass that could barely move. The mass luckily seemed to know Violet MacRae's last location. It belched out that she was likely dead, but seemed happy to explain her corpse would be in Dimmuborgir. If she survived, she'd likely be in Arcolochalsh.

Units Beta and Gamma headed to Dimmuborgir and found only a crater where the silo was to have been. Whatever was there, it was vaporized. Units Delta and Epsilon headed to Arcolochalsh and found it burned down.

All five teams continued the hunt, interviewed every witness, tracked every footstep. Given the uncertainty of her death, Wulfgar would not give up the search until they found her body, and if her body was vaporized, they would simply keep looking until the end of time. He had nothing to lose by continuing the search.

Except for Khökh Khot. He looked over the reports: 1,176 dead, 1,214 wounded, 113 missing in action, 81 tanks lost, 7 battlepogos, and numerous small arms. A bad day to be sure, but he felt only resolve. He simply didn't care about Khökh Khot.

He cared about Violet MacRae. He'd lost his duplicate action figure and grown all the more intent upon collecting the real thing. He had such plans for her, such torments and such pleasures. He threw the Mongolian log panel down on the table and walked to his bedroom antechamber.

The latest captives had been reviewed by Donatien. He'd thrown away the ugly ones, the diseased ones, those too close to nukes that got burned or broken. That left only twenty-eight, still too many to review personally. He had Donatien root out the platinum blondes, the dusty blondes, anything that wasn't just her tone.

That left seven in the antechamber. He surveyed them. Had them stripped and chained, and looked over those that reminded him of her most.