Swan Song (Book Three of the Icarus Trilogy) (44 page)

"That's not the situation anymore, Jasper," Darren shouted from the other side of his mentor's desk.  The young executive had seen the change in this city for some time and had tried to convince Montgomery to ease away from more extreme measures.  His comments had been enough to cause the puppet master to conduct his business in secret, away from Christiansen's detractions.  "There is an
entire
city out there calling for your head.  The transport's on the roof, Jasper.  All we have to do is take the elevator, fly away and accept our losses.  Try to find some little, secluded spot in the system where they can't find you."

"This is my world, Darren," Jasper shouted into the glass in front of him.  "They will bow down just as before," he said, considering his options.  He thought about how it might be prudent to destroy Gaia now and let them all know that he wasn't bluffing.

"Not anymore, Jasper," Darren said, which caused the tyrant to whip around and glare at him.

"What did you say to me, boy?!" he snarled, spit flying from his mouth with the statement.

"This isn't your fucking world anymore, Montgomery," Darren shouted back, using profanity in this office for the first time.  Jasper did not appreciate the use of such language, but Darren was finding it hard to respect the man at this point.  "And honestly, Jasper, it hasn't been since you gassed Eris.  What the hell were you thinking?"

"I was taking care of a violent uprising," Montgomery started, but Darren interrupted him.

"That you caused, Montgomery.  The systems in place, I never cared before, but they really were just as bad as the EFI was making them out to be.  And then you killed a planet full of innocent people just because, what, they stood up to you?  No, Jasper, you started the clock when you pushed that button three months ago."

"You insolent cur," Jasper said under his breath.  "Do you not realize who you're talking to?!  This is just a goddamned distraction here!  All those people out there?  They will back down when I start destroying planets.  One by fucking one!  I own EVERY!  SINGLE!  ONE! OF THEM!" he shouted before slamming the table for emphasis.

"Once upon a time," Darren said, his voice filled with disgust.  "But you made the worst decision of your life when you put that gun up to Eric Jones' head and pulled the trigger.  You might have made it to the end of your natural life before that, but absolutely NO ONE will let you lead them, let you
own
them, now," he said as he looked down and shoved his hand into his pockets.  He felt the cool surface of the metal but then looked back up at his former mentor.

"They don't have a choice, boy," Jasper said as he straightened up and walked towards his computer terminal.  This was how it had to be.  They wouldn't respect him without the destruction of another planet.  There was no more joking to be done behind his back, no more coddling the weak and pacifying them with entertainment.  Jasper Montgomery's empire would continue by fear, the best motivator of all. 

"We did everything we could to make sure they didn't, Jasper.  But the world changed on us.  God, Montgomery," Darren said, slipping into a more casual demeanor.  He had no reason to hold this old man in reverence anymore.  "I used to look up to you.  I used to want to
be
you after you were gone."

"That's not going to happen anymore, Christiansen.  Not after what you've said here today," Jasper said as he raised a wizened hand to the computer terminal, starting to work through menus on the screen.

"I don't want it to.  I'm more than willing to get out of here, run away and try to live outside the grasp of the EFI, but I'm not even sure I want to take you with me.  But I will, if you stop this madness.  If you surrender, finally, after all this time.  If you stop thinking of yourself as a living god, we might be able to move past this," Darren said, but he was interrupted by the puppeteer on the other side of the desk.

"I AM GOD, YOU IDIOT!" he shouted as he slammed the desk, hurting his clenched fists as he did.  He was breathing raggedly for a moment, consumed by his rage, but after a few heaving breaths he looked at his former student.  Jasper was confused at first, but then he realized that Darren Christiansen was pointing a handgun in his direction.

"No, old man.  You were, but that time is past."

"What is this?" Jasper asked, his voice painted with violence, but the young executive shook his head before sighing.

"I'm stopping you, Jasper.  And believe me, this hurts.  I don't have anything in common with those people down there, with those people storming your tower, except for one thing.  One little similarity that is enough for me to draw my pistol and point it at your chest."

"What is that?" Jasper asked, raising to his full height.  He wasn't afraid of this insignificant businessman across the desk, but he was curious how Christiansen could be so audacious.

"I'm not going to let you kill another world's worth of people," Darren said in a somber tone.  He walked towards the desk and looked Jasper Montgomery in his cold, grey eyes.  "What we're going to do is you're going to call security, tell them to stand down, and then we're going to wait for Ryan Jenkins to get here.  Then this will all be over."

"I'm not going to do any of that, you piece of shit!" Jasper shouted, spit flying out once more.  "I'm not going to tell my security to do a goddamned thing.  And they have explicit instructions not to obey anybody without my pass code, so even if you kill me you won't be able to stop them."

"Give me the code, Jasper.  Try to do something right in these last few hours," Darren said, his voice low and absent anger.  He didn't want this, but he had to make the best of this situation.

"Or what, boy?  You'll shoot me?  You don't have the balls to shoot me.  Now wait as I end this revolution," Jasper said, shaking his head in disgust.  He leaned down to tap more instructions into the display, but before his aged fingertips reached the screen an impossibly loud explosion ripped through his ears.  The pain was too much and Jasper fell backwards against the glass of his office.

Jasper Montgomery touched his hand to his chest and felt a wet spot on his shirt where the pain continued to tear away at him.  He withdrew his hand to see blood flowing between the creases and lines of his hands.  When Jasper realized what had happened he looked up at his protégé, seeing resignation drawn across Darren's face.

"You..." he started, but four more bullets penetrated his chest cavity, pain seizing the old man as he was held up by the glass.  For an impossibly long moment, he could feel every burning bullet pass through him, his bones breaking and his blood spraying out from the exit wounds.  Montgomery fell against the glass, the blood allowing for the tyrant's body to slide downwards.

"No.... this won't be it.... this is my empire," Jasper said, coughing up blood between the words.

"I'm afraid it was, Jasper.  Now it belongs to the next generation," Darren said as he lowered his arm and the gun in his hand.  It was a shame that he wasn't able to get the code from the puppeteer, but Jenkins and his soldiers would just have to make the best of it.  Christiansen walked around the desk and started tapping at the display, preparing the documents that the messiah figure would need from him. 

As he exited out of the menus for Gaia's destruction, Darren took one last look at his still-living victim.  He was overcome by pity for the man, but Jasper had made his bed.  He had taken far too much power for one man and it had finally destroyed him.

Montgomery drew another painful breath and could feel the blood flowing into his lungs.  The pain was starting to subside, but deep down Jasper knew that was just shock.  Deep down, he knew he was dying, even if his ego couldn't take that harsh reality.  He turned and looked at his city one last time, seeing the roiling masses that hated him for his power and his position.

"This is my.... this is my...." Jasper said as he touched the glass with his hand wet with blood.  He refused to believe that it would end like this.  He refused to believe that his empire could fall.  As he drew one last breath he stared out on his city, his modern Babylon.  Then he breathed no more.

Jasper Montgomery's grey eyes viewed the world that he created, but the life had left them.

_______________________________________________________________________

Ryan Jenkins looked down the sight of his rifle, but what he noticed was the small amount of blood on the barrel.  He tried to push the thought from his mind, but some small part of him wondered which guard used to have that blood flowing in his body.  Ryan had tried not to keep count, knowing it would only hurt him, but he knew exactly how many people had died by his hand during this operation.

It was far too many souls for him to bear, but he couldn't focus on them while danger surrounded him.

The messiah figure walked forward with his finger on the trigger and looked around the waiting area.  It had been abandoned in a hurry, the receptionist had left a half-eaten sandwich on her desk, but there were no signs of violence; there was no more blood painting the walls.

"Seems that Montgomery thought there wasn't any chance we were making it all the way up here," Templeton said from his right.  His fellow Crows were still flanking him while Kaspar kept rear-guard.  Most of the teams had worked their way through the tower, more than a few revolutionaries falling along the way, but there was only one real access point to Jasper Montgomery's office.  Quayle from the Eagles had offered to clean out the area first and remove any possible danger, but Jenkins would not allow anyone to take this burden from him.

The leaders of this conflict were meant to meet each other here in that office beyond the imposing double doors.

"Lucky us," Carver said in his gravelly voice.  Although he was supposed to be leading the EFI, now, Ryan was grateful the old man was there.  It was nice to have such support after all of these months.

Jenkins breathed out as he neared the double doors leading to the puppet master's office.  After so long, after such improbable circumstances, Ryan was about to be face-to-face with the man who had killed an entire planet. He was about to confront the man responsible for the deaths of his friends, the death of Thomas Xavier and Eric Jones.  Just beyond those doors was the man who killed the woman who brought him back to life.

It was only natural that he would be nervous.

"Alright, gentleman.  Time to end this.  Darius and John with me," Ryan commanded as he stared at the beautiful doors.  "James."

"Yeah?" Kaspar asked as he aimed his own rifle down the hallway.

"You stay here, watch our backs," Ryan said without looking at his subordinate.

"I have .... no problem with that," Kaspar said as sweat formed on his brow.  It was going to wrack his nerves being alone in this room, but there was no way he was in the condition to confront Jasper Montgomery.

"Good," Jenkins said before breathing in deeply.  His chest was tight and it was hard to maintain his composure, but he reminded himself that this was how it had to be.  The EFI had risked it all fighting the Trade Union, and there was no possibility he would let all of those people down.  He reached out with his left hand and pulled open the door, keeping his right index finger tense on the trigger.

What he saw was enough to shock the messiah figure.  As the three Crows swept into the room they were greeted by a young businessman sitting down in a leather chair across the room.  He held his hands in his lap and gave them a cursory smile from behind that gorgeous desk.  The last thing that Jenkins expected was a young man to be sitting there across that huge room, the wall of televisions on their right flickering between news broadcasts on mute.

What was alarming was the streak of blood on the windows behind the young executive.

"So who will I be speaking to?" the disheveled man asked from the other side of the desk.  The man had undone the top button of his shirt and the tie was loose around his collar.  Jenkins and his two comrades walked slowly across the giant office, keeping the executive covered.

"Who are you?" Ryan asked as he held his rifle and pushed past the comfortable-looking furniture in his way.  The man in the leather chair sighed at that.

"That's not exactly fair, you know.  I did ask my question first," the businessman said before raising out of the chair and walking around the desk, sitting on the edge once he was in front of the thing.  "My name's Darren Christiansen.  Until about ten minutes ago I was .... let's say, the heir to Montgomery's empire.  Although I'm not the biggest fan of the term, I guess we could consider that I was being 'groomed.'"

"And now, except for Ryan there, I am at quite the disadvantage.  Who are your friends?" Darren asked as he slid back further on the desk and allowed his legs to hang freely.  His right hand was lazily supporting him while his left hid a small, dark object.