Luca (44 page)

74

CONTINGENCY PLAN

“Can’t hold them off much longer, sir.” The commander of the security unit walks into the command center from the hallway. "They broke into the armory and found the stash of pulse weapons. They’ll be blood soon.”

Mercer stares at the bluescreen. “Can’t you kill the video feed?”

“Yes, but it just comes back. Someone on the outside keeps bypassing our command center.”

“Why is Qaara doing this?” Mercer sinks into a chair, hand on his forehead. “What does she want?”

“She’s calling for you to make a personal appearance on the outside to stop the breach of more domes. She’s already opened up seven. Only twenty-three to go before she's opened them all.”

The robust perfection of his plans notwithstanding, Mercer can see it all disintegrating into a heap of rubble.

“If I can’t win, then nobody wins.”

“Sir?”

“It’s time to execute the final contingency plan. Grab a handful of your men and women. No more than ten. Tell the rest to wait here. Follow me. That should give us enough time.”

Mercer stumbles to the bluescreen. Picking up a metal floor lamp on the way, he swings it like a bat and smashes the screen, freeing sparks and shards of glass in a mini explosion. When the smoke clears, a dark tunnel opens behind it. Mercer enters. “Come on.” Ten combat soldiers follow him.

Twenty meters in, Mercer stops and faces the entrance. “Don’t want any more following us.” His hand comes down on a red square on the wall. The ceiling opens, and a mass of dirt and rocks flows down until it’s completely sealed off.

Mercer sprints through the tunnel, the others behind him. With each step, thin lines of green illuminate the floor to show the way. The tunnel curves to the right.

“Only a hundred meters more,” Mercer says.

They burst into an underground hanger. Concentric circles light up on the floor. A transport is parked at the center. Mercer points his jax at it. Its side doors slide open.

“Everyone inside.”

“Where are we going?” the commander asks.

“To my personal bunker, a hundred klicks away. But first, I need to say goodbye to Qaara.”

75

NO WINNERS

Rain gushes onto the crowd.

“Move back!” Jedd raises his arms to the crowd, biceps bulging.

“Let us in!” A man stands a couple of meters away, staring into his jax. “The wave of acid is almost here!”

Qaara walks to the side of the dome and raises her jax. Tapping it with her finger, the low-level scream plays out, opening a hole.

Masses of people rush in.

Thump, thump, thump.

Jedd looks up.

Out of the top of the dome they just opened, a small transport rises into the sky, a large Genesis logo painted on its side.

Qaara has an incoming message on her jax. Tapping it, Mercer’s face pops up.

“I’m not going to let you win, Qaara.” Mercer smiles. “You've destroyed the purpose for which I created the domes. I can’t use them anymore. Now they’re yours. Enjoy.”

A piercing scream emanates from the transport, causing all eyes to look up, hands over ears.

As if in slow motion, a circular wave ripples out from the center of each dome in the complex. As it moves, the dome walls collapse into fine black sand, raining to the ground in a mist, leaving the thousands of former inhabitants unprotected in the open air.

Not a single structure is left standing.

“I’ve finally given you what you want, Qaara.” Mercer lifts an eyebrow. “Everyone equal. No winners. All losers. Now die together. In peace.”

The holo goes black.

The transport executes a quick turn, right wing dipping low, and speeds off to the north.

Silence hangs over the open field. Jed’s mouth drops open. Alice shakes her head.

“Now what?” Ricky says.

Qaara drops to one knee and takes Luca by the hand. “I need your help.” She points up through the rain at the receding transport, growing smaller every second. “The man who just spoke to me is in that ship. Can you find his mind?”

Luca nods and narrows her eyes with concentration.

Easy. I have him. What do you want me to do?

“Can you—” Qaara stops short of saying the next two words, but they linger in her mind.
Kill him.

Luca looks up, utter surprise reflected in her eyes.

Please. Don’t make me do that
.

“No, I didn’t mean it.” Qaara touches her lips to Luca’s forehead. "You’re right. Forgive me.” She stares at the faint outline of the transport. “Where's he going?”

To another dome. A small one. Hidden. Just for him and a few other people. To wait for us to die.

“Can you make him fly the transport back here?” Qaara asks.

“I don’t know how to fly.”

Qaara smiles. “Mercer does. Just get him back here. Alive.”

76

CHILD’S VOICE

From the pilot’s chair, Mercer surveys the wreckage.

It’s a shame about the complex of domes. Years of work wasted on the design, building and construction of the perfect doomsday shelter.

His
new world.

But now, thanks to Qaara, it’s a total loss.

All he has now is a tight group of men and women that will survive through the years on the food stored in his smaller emergency shelter. The world they rebuild will be different from what Mercer had hoped for, but one thing will be the same.

It will still be
his
world.

The small shelter is a few miles away now, hidden behind a low rise of hills.

He taps the com unit and puts the transport on auto. The onboard AI will pilot it to the landing pad. Closing his eyes, he leans back in the pilot’s chair, ignoring the quiet chatter of the men and women from his security team in the cargo area, each of them selected for their genetic perfection.

Come back.

A child’s voice.

The sound prompts a gentle memory of a friend he knew when he was barely a teenager. A girl from the Fringe he met in a bookstore. They used to read together in a park in the City until his father discovered where he was going on summer afternoons.

Come back.

Strange. As he listens to the voice, it now reminds him of another girl. The one he saw with Qaara back in his apartment. The one who somehow knew the code to open up his personal Mesh access point.

Come back.

A sudden need for sleep descends on him, making his head heavy. Quietly, without protest, his hand reaches for the com and takes the ship off auto. Fingers slip comfortably onto the stick, and he turns it sharply to the left, banking and heading back to the domes. Where everything was destroyed.

“Where are we going, sir?”

One of the security guards approaches from behind.

“Going?” Mercer’s eyes flip open. “What do you mean?"

“We seem to be heading back to the dome complex.” More security personnel gather behind. “Did you forget something?”

Mercer glances outside the window. “Must be a problem with the AI. I’ll reset it.” He reaches out to the com and feels it respond as he engages the auto.

Come back.

The voice again. Eyelids heavy, he feels the presence of someone standing over his shoulder. He must be dreaming. It’s the girl, the one with Qaara. The one who
knew
.

Clouds close in on his vision. His hand moves, fingers finding and grasping. Pulling to the left. Everything comfortable. So restful.

Please don’t stop.

And then darkness as a child’s voice sings in the background.

77

CHRYSANTHEMUMS

Luca kneels in the mud, rain running down her back in trickles.

“It’s coming back!” Jedd points to the north. “Fast."

Qaara pats Luca on the head. “Good girl.”

I don’t know how to land it!
Luca screams, her voice exploding in all the minds close by.
I’m inside his head. What do I do?

Ricky places his hand on her shoulder. “Maybe I can help. I’ve flown a couple of simulators on the Mesh. Tell me what you see.”

Luca’s eyes move under closed lids.

I’m looking out a window. Thousands of people in the field below. I’m sitting in a chair.

“What about your hands?”

I’m holding a black stick with a handle. It’s pressed forward all the way. People are standing behind me. Screaming at me. Telling me to wake up.

“No problem. Ignore the people. You’re doing great.” Ricky squeezes her shoulder. “Pull the stick back, just a little.”

Luca looks down, sees the stick in Mercer’s hand and brings the stick toward her.”

Thump, thump, thump.

“Good job. The ship has built-in stabilizers that keep it from going crazy. You’re right on course. Let’s start to bring it down." He kneels behind Luca, a hand on her shoulder. “Just feel my hand and do what I’m doing.”

The people are trying to pull me out of the chair!

Luca wheezes for breath.

Ricky pushes down on her shoulders. “Let’s bring it to ground.”

Luca does the same, pushing down on the stick, gripping it tighter.

The ship is close now, the sound deafening, her chest vibrating in unison with the rotors.

Inside the ship, people reach around Mercer, grab his arm and pull his hands off the stick. She feels his fingers slowly lose their grip. The people drag Mercer’s body from the chair.

My hands came off the stick!

Ricky’s fingers slip from her shoulder. “OK, Luca. You’re good. Just let go and the ship will fall. Auto safety will kick in before it hits the ground.”

Her eyes flip open in time to see the ship plummet.

Screams rise from the crowd.

Thirty feet from the ground, a massive burst of air breaks from the ship’s underbelly, lifting people and pods off the ground and throwing them back.

The instant the ship makes contact with the field, it flattens out like a ball of soft rubber. A ripple runs up its sides to the roof and out the rotors. The outer shell explodes into fragments of dust that bloom and settle to the ground like white chrysanthemums.

All that remains is a box skeleton, fifty meters from Luca.

Ten soldiers in full combat gear emerge from the wreckage, eyes wide, scanning the field. They stare at the ship over their shoulders.

Mercer stands, one hand resting on a black metal strut.

Eyes on the ground, he staggers through the wreckage, past the soldiers, into the open field. Dropping to his hands and knees, his palms sink into the mud past his wrists. Great sobs rack his body. He turns his face up to the sky, arms outstretched, and wails.

And then he stands. Wipes his eyes.

Walking to the guard nearest him, Mercer strips the pulse rifle from his hands.

“Where’s the girl?” he yells.

He notices Luca in the crowd.

78

POP

Mercer looks behind him.

The first pods burst on the hillside above the field. Acid explodes in great arcs. As it eats and dissolves vegetation and rocks alike, a curtain of mist rises.

And begins to flow downhill, moving closer.

The masses panic and flee from the field below the hills.

As if in response, the low hanging mist flows in a great arc around the wheel of fallen domes until the crowd is encircled. Men and women stumble and fall over each other as they try to move away from the pods that litter the ground on the field.

Mercer raises his rifle. Pulse projectiles rip away from its tip. The sound of gunfire stills the screaming crowd.

“Don’t worry. You’re all going to die! And there’s nothing you can do about it.” Mercer walks away from the smoldering wreck of the ship, his eyes still focused on the girl. He pushes the masses back as he waves the rifle, scanning faces in the crowd.

Standing twenty meters away in the pouring rain, Qaara has the girl on one side and the man, Jedd, on the other.

The girl. The one who knew the code. The one who came into his mind. The one who brought him here. A freak of nature. A natural telepath. Fukushima. It all makes sense now.

The plan had been so simple.

A perfect plan the former inhabitants of Earth had devised without the time to execute. Mercer had the time. He had everything.

And then Qaara destroyed it all.

Mercer searches the field.

The fog of acid moves down the hill as the pods explode one after another. Only seconds or, at best, minutes remain. People run, cry, scream. Then, they press closer together, keeping their distance from Mercer.

Searching his memory, Mercer recalls that the decrypted materials from the chip had described another curious phenomenon.

There had been rudimentary telepaths among the civilization that the Cloud destroyed over three billion years ago. In desperation to save themselves, some of them had made mental contact with the Cloud.

They discovered it was an entity. Alive. Hungry. Searching.

The old text from the chip was clear. Find a way to speak to the Cloud. Establish communication. Maybe it would listen. Maybe it could be stopped.

Maybe there’s still time.

Keeping the tip of the pulse rifle pointing at Qaara, Mercer runs forward. A space opens in the crowd between him and Luca.

The telepathic girl. The one last hope.

He stops five meters away, staring directly at Qaara.

“Give her to me.”

“Why?” Qaara says. “We’re all going to die anyway."

Mercer stares, eyes open, unblinking. “You know, don’t you?”

“Know what?”

“The girl is special. She can get in people’s minds. Control them. She brought me here.”

“Yes.”

“Why are you so intent on destroying all that I’ve worked so hard to build?” Mercer drops the tip of the pulse rifle. "So I can die with the rest of you?”

Qaara shakes her head. “
You
were the one who destroyed the domes. I only wanted to let the world know what was happening and let as many survive as possible. You knew years ago that the Cloud was coming. You knew how it would play out. There was time to build more domes, maybe enough to save everyone. You made the choice to watch them die." She opens her arms wide, as if embracing the multitude around them. “There was room for all who gathered here. I tried to save them. You are their murderer.”