Lady Grace & the War for a New World (Earth's End Book 2) (9 page)

“Yes! Yes! Take that, you motherfucker!” Sam smiled. Jeremy was Jer the Tek.

Jer the Tek and his mother were utterly different from what they said underground. They were people, and they were nice. Not so much greater than him, and yet much greater, too. He wanted them to like him. He wanted to be part of their family. He had a family, once. Vague memories of faces flitted through his mind. He had had a sister. He finally relaxed and drifted away.

“Don’t! Don’t!” The lady cried out in her sleep. “No!”

He woke up and pulled closer to her. “Lady, I’ll keep you safe,” he had said the same thing to his sister before they dragged her from his arms. He put his arm around the lady and held her close.

“Oh!” she said, eyes popping open. “Oh, Sam, it’s you. I was having a horrible dream. The general was chasing me.” She clutched his hand. “He would kill both of us if he found us like this.”

“Aye,” Sam said.

“Hold me, Sam.” He held her, almost paralyzed by what was happening inside him.

Veronica awakened when Jeremy touched her. Sam was sleeping. The sky was dark.

“I did it, Mom. It’s ready. What I did with the eye is going to blow their minds. If you’re going to broadcast to Ellie’s people, you should do it now. I don’t know how much time we’ve got before the eye hits the shelter. I sped it up.”

10

“I want to thank you with all my heart. Being with my son means more than I can say.” Veronica knew her words meant their lives and she let her feelings show.

“We have a third person with us now: Sam. My son rescued him when they threw him out of the underground shelter to die. They attached a tracking device to him, a vicious thing. Fortunately, we were able to remove it.”

As she spoke, Jeremy broadcast photos of the eye. He’d labeled them with what the parts did and a drawing of how the thing fit into a person.

“Because of the medical supplies in the container you delivered to us, our Sam will live. Conditions in the shelter are more heinous than we imagined, and there may be other good people like Sam there. We’d like to rescue them if we can.

“Of course, we can’t, because we are no match for them in numbers or in weaponry.

“I need to ask you for help. Jeremy was able to photograph the interior of the shelter. He will broadcast these images while I’m speaking so that you have a clear idea of what we’re up against.

“I haven’t seen the pictures yet. I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to speak if I did. There are a hundred of them, versus three of us, one of whom is gravely injured. They have two caches of missiles and hand-held armaments that I hope you’ll be able to see, in addition to biological and chemical weapons.

“We have garden tools.

“They’ll kill us, or take us for sexual slaves. That is what our future will be, without your help.

“You have no reason to help us, I realize. Your experience with my son and the others was problematic. I believe that we can work together, despite our past differences. I know that doing the right thing carries a satisfaction of its own.”

The images of the underground went out, unseen by either Jeremy or his mother. Jeremy was busy loading and sending.

“We need a safe place. We need land for growing crops and good water. We need a place where we can defend ourselves.

“I ask you with all the love in my heart, please help us. Move us somewhere safe. Give us the container of weapons. Send Eliana home to her husband, and send Henry and Lena and James and Mel home to Earth. They belong here. And as you deliberate this decision, I ask you to review the photos my son is sending. This is what we face.

“This is Veronica Edgarton on the planet Earth, speaking from Piermont Manor, my family’s home.”

She closed her eyes. If those words and the images didn’t work, they were dead. Jeremy was on a screen watching the input he’d captured in the burst of light.

“Did you hear what I said, Jeremy? Did it sound OK?”

“Should be OK. They’ll twist whatever you say to whatever they want. But what you said doesn’t sound too dangerous.”

“What about the latest photos?”

“I’m sending them continuous play.” Jeremy stared at the screen as room after room of the shelter was revealed. “Mom, don’t look.”

“I need to look, Jeremy. I need to know Sam’s world and we need him to identify these people and who might be saved.”

“They don’t look like people. They’re huge, and so ugly.” He turned away, then looked back. “Mom, don’t look! Really.”

She peered at the chaos of the underground. Misshapen bodies and bulging foreheads, massive muscles. A half-dozen fistfights dotted the hall. Two men held a screaming woman while a third stood between her legs. Howling figures were chained to the walls. A huge man raped a child.

“I want still shots of everything, and I want them printed out, here, now.” She studied the images. “I want to kill them, Jeremy. I want to kill every one of them. Son of a bitch! I never dreamed anything could be that bad.”

Jeremy had never heard his mother swear. He did as she asked.

“And they’re doing it on
my
property. Did you get shots of the munitions?”

“Yeah, right here.” There were computer monitors with cameras on them in the armament vaults. Jeremy had gotten a thorough inventory.

“It looks like they got into the first vault at some time, but long ago. Is that a skeleton?”

“Yeah.”

“I wonder what happened. The other vault is untouched.”

“Do you remember the security system, Jeremy?”

He thought for a moment. “Password protected. Face imprint and vocal password. My voice and my face.’

“That’s good. They can’t fake those. But I wonder how they got into the first vault? Oh, Jeremy, what are we going to do?”

The images kept scrolling over. He got every face and room of the shelter, a flash freeze of hell.

“I think I should give them my I’m-the-Great-Tek-and-I’m-mad speech.”

“YOU FUCKING ASSHOLES! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING?” Jeremy screamed into the mike. His image was broadcast as a hologram in the middle of the shelter’s main hall. “YOU THOUGHT I WOULDN’T
KNOW
, DIDN’T YOU? YOU THOUGHT I WOULDN’T
SEE
, DIDN’T YOU?”

His mother had made up his face to look as scary as possible, emphasizing shadows and lights. She used gels to make his dreads stand up straight. She arranged their two spotlights so that one hit him from the back, and the other underneath his chin. He stood before the computer’s camera, dancing in anger.

“I LEFT YOU A GOOD PLACE AND WHAT DO YOU DO?
FUCK IT UP.

“I SEE YOU, YOU FAT SON OF A BITCH, BEATING THAT KID. I SEE ALL OF YOU!” Jeremy could see the images of what he was talking about as he spoke, which made him roar in rage.

“I GAVE YOU MY
COMMANDS
. I GAVE YOU THE
BOOK
. I GAVE YOU THE LIBRARY. AND WHAT DO YOU DO? WHAT YOU’RE DOING.” He described a few scenes. The participants stopped and looked around in wonder, then terror.

“YOU DON’T DESERVE TO RUN THE WORLD.

“SO YOU WON’T. I TAKE BACK WHAT I SAID TO SAM BAAHUHD. THE
REAL
SAM OF THE VILLAGE. YOU ARE WORMS COMPARED TO HIM. YOU ARE NOT OF THE VILLAGE.

“I AM JEREMY THE TEK. I AM COMING. CLEAN UP YOUR MESS OR I’LL KILL
ALL
OF YOU.”

His mother seamlessly took the stage. “This is Veronica Piermont Edgarton, owner of the estate and the property you currently occupy. I’ve just had a peek at your lifestyle. What I saw simply revolts me. I will not have it on my property or anywhere.

“I’d like to correct a misconception. My son Jeremy told my old friend Sam Baahuhd that his lineage could have the village when the lot of you came out from underground.

“You can’t. He didn’t own the village,
I
do. I wouldn’t sell it to you,” she unleashed a tirade of Russian swear words, “
vermin
if it were the end of the world. And I certainly won’t
give
it to you.

“We are coming very soon. Clean up your mess.

“This is Veronica Edgarton, broadcasting from Mount Kailash, in Tibet.”

The sound wasn’t great, but the visuals were. A commotion started in the main hall. A misshapen monster of a man came in, bearing the eye that had been attached to Sam with its cord hanging limp. It had made its way home and they had retrieved it. The man grunted something as an even bigger monster grabbed it from him. Close up images of the larger man filled the screens. He was raving, spewing saliva. He swung the device by its tail, swinging it as though he intended to smash it.

“Oh, no,” Jeremy cried. “Don’t break it.”

The creature tossed the eye on the floor. “We’ll use it on someone else,” was the gist of his garbled speech. A group milled around, huge brutes with heavy jaws and foreheads, eyes sunken into cheekbones that looked like they belonged on primitive men. They wore belts and bits of fur, but were otherwise naked.

“They’re mutants,” Jeremy said.

The monsters jumped as the tail of the eye began moving. It coiled like a snake, making a base that allowed the eye to rise and point upward. Murmurs of disbelief came through the speakers. Guttural sounds. The eye began to rock back and forth.

Golden mist rose from it, then sparkles. Eliana’s lovely form appeared in space, hovering like an angel. She spun and danced while the beasts exclaimed in awe. One put his hand through the hologram, and pulled it out, more mystified than before.

“Watch,” said Jeremy. They did, and the hologram of Ellie dancing began to spin faster and wilder, finally disappearing into the room at large.

The eye exploded. The monsters screamed and ran.

“I AM THE TEK. I AM WATCHING YOU.” Jeremy screamed into the mike. “KEEP THE COMMANDS OR YOU WILL DIE.”

“You didn’t tell me I could kill anyone, Mom, so the explosion was mostly just light.” Images of the shelter’s interior continued to play. The largest of the monsters mouthed words, but the sound wasn’t good.

“Lovely, Jeremy. Fantastic.” She grabbed his face with her hands and kissed him. “I must meet your Eliana. She’s exquisite.”

Sam crept closer, wild-eyed. Jeremy turned to him. Sam stood rigid and spoke fervently. “You must stop! You do not know what you do.”

Jeremy cut the power on the cameras.

“Sam Big has the Voice and he has the Power.” Sam trembled.

“Like Sam Baahuhd? Sam could make people do what he wanted with the Voice. And he healed people with the Power,” Jeremy said.

“Not like Sam Baahuhd. Much stronger. You cannot resist the Voice of Sam Big. If I heard him say, ‘Sam, come back,’ from that machine, I would go. I could not resist.”

“You’d go back?”

“I couldn’t resist. All the Bigs have the Voice and the Power. They use them to make people do what they want. They use them to hurt people. Sam Big is the worst.”

“They’re mutants. Did the powers Sam Baahuhd had mutate, too?”

“I don’t know what that means.” Sam looked like he wanted to run. “What you did will make them angry. No one can stop them. Even if the rest of us use our Voices together, we cannot stop them.”

“You have powers?”

“Everyone in the underground has powers. We are not allowed to use them.”

“But you have powers?”

“I have the Voice, and I have the Power, but not like the Bigs.”

“Well, maybe what we did wasn’t such a good idea,” Jeremy said.

“And maybe it was,” Veronica answered. “It’s still dark. I think we should go back to bed. They’ll either kill us as we sleep or something wonderful will happen.”

11

“Mom, where’s Mt. Kailash?” They’d eaten their K rations and were relaxing after dinner.

“It’s in Tibet, Jeremy,” Veronica said.

“Why did you tell them you were there?”

“I didn’t want to say, ‘We’re right around the corner, just look!’” She laughed.

“Have you been there?”

“Yes I have. Tibet is one of the highest altitude countries in the world, and Mt. Kailash is high even for there.”

“What were you doing there?”

“I went there with the general. We were there for two months.”

“Why did
he
go there?”

“He was searching for a site for our cryogenic bunker. He built several bunkers around the world to fool anyone who might want to break in after we were inside. The general probably figured that no one would look for him in the holiest spot on the planet. I went to Tibet for a different reason. I didn’t know what it was until I got there. Are you sure you want to know about this, Jeremy? It’s not a very nice story.”

Jeremy nodded at Sam. “Yeah, we’re interested.”

She smiled with a sadness he’d never seen in her eyes. “I got it into my head that I wanted to circumambulate Mount Kailash. Walk around it. That’s what everyone does there, if they are up to it. The general opposed it, so I wanted to do it. He wanted me to take a military escort, which I refused. I was gone a month. I decided to do the tour ‘the right way.’ The basic trip around the mountain takes about fifteen hours, if you’re in really good shape. Pilgrims try for 13 circuits. Those trying for enlightenment do 108. I thought I’d go for that. I didn’t make it. Mount Kailash is 22,000 feet high; no one sets foot on it, of course. It’s too sacred. We traveled the pilgrim’s path, between 15,000 and 18,000 feet. Even with the best yaks and guides, I couldn’t do it.

“But I did walk around Lake Manasarovar, a sacred lake near the mountain. I read the Buddhist and Hindu texts—in English, of course—and walked around the lake and mountain with the other pilgrims. I wanted to meet a real lama, a spiritual teacher. I wanted a teacher of my own.

“Mt. Kailash was the most intoxicating place I’ve ever been. The altitude intensified everything: the colors of the pilgrims’ clothing, the prayer flags, the piety of the people praying everywhere. The monasteries, candles. The incense and chanting. The monks calling us to prayer with conch shells. Statues of the Buddha, Shiva. When I was there, I actually believed that peace could prevail on earth. I believed in the power of love. I believed in God for a while.

“I could have stayed there forever. Because I didn’t have a military escort, the monks were gracious and open. I found one who captivated me. He was the head of one of the monasteries. I stayed for a week at his sanctuary, charmed by an ancient Asian man. They called him Shri Rinpoche. Rinpoche means ‘precious one,’ and ‘shri’ is a term of respect.” She smiled.

“I’ve loved two men in my life, Jeremy. Three, counting you. I loved your father until I thought my heart would break. And I loved Shri Rinpoche, and my heart did break. Meditating in the presence of a true master is heaven, nothing less. The love that flows …

“I fell into ecstasies at the monastery. I didn’t know that I could feel such joy. I swooned with it. I was in love with everything, especially with him—and he was an 80-year-old monk. Don’t get any ideas. He was the most perfect man I have ever met. I will never forget him, or his country. He initiated me into his school of meditation. That was the happiest time of my life. Only when your father was well and our family was together came close to it. But this was just bliss, with no strain or worries. I could have been a nun.”

“
You
, Mom?”

“Yes, Jeremy, me. The whore of Babylon.” Tears rimmed her eyes. Her lips trembled.

“What happened to the monk?”

“A few days later, when we were back in Russia, the general had my dear Rinpoche flogged to death outside my rooms. I don’t know how many of the monks he killed. A little payback for my disobedience. I was his prisoner from then on. That’s when I stopped believing in God.”

Her voice dropped to the faintest whisper. She repeated a phrase that he didn’t understand.

“What’s that, Mom?”

“It’s my mantra. It’s why I’m alive. It’s why I changed. I’m not the person I was, Jeremy. I want you to believe that so much. I’m different.”

He put his arms around her. “I’m trying to be different, too. I’m sorry about the monk.”

She wiped her face with a handkerchief Jeremy offered her. “He died without crying out. He repeated his mantra until they slit his throat. They didn’t break him. He died a perfect death.”