The Indestructibles (Book 4): Like A Comet (37 page)

Chapter
69:

Do
androids dream of

electric
sheep?

Bedlam ran through the downtown area,
discovering the occasional alien straggler, hoping to take them out before the
Department guys did. Part of her wanted to do so because she knew she was
better equipped for the physical challenge of the task; part of her just wanted
to keep hitting stuff.

      Dark things flew in the cloud
cover created by Val. Things with wings. An uneasy feeling stewed in her Bedlam's
guts at the sight of them. Her skin crawled, even though she couldn't really
make out their actual forms. They destroyed enemy fighters, though, so she
shrugged it off and kept running.

      She found two more parasite-infected
creatures smashing open a shop window, trying to attack civilians hiding
inside.

      Beldam whistled. The pair,
identical insect-like monsters, turned their multi-faceted eyes at her. She
searched for where the parasites had taken hold, since knocking the spider-like
thing out of commission had been the most effective way of taking out the other
aliens. But both of these critters had parasites hanging on their undercarriage,
not an easy spot to reach.

      That just meant she was forced to
improvise. Bedlam scrambled towards one, full speed ahead, metal feet banging
against the pavement. At the last second, she dropped, slid under the waiting
pincers of the creature's mouth, and grabbed hold of the parasite. Her feet pressing
against the ant-like alien's underside for leverage, she pulled with all her
strength.     

      It shook violently, in pain or
frustration, and tried to knock her loose. Bedlam held on tenaciously, even as
her back and head banged again the pavement.

      The alien reared back giving its
companion a chance to bite Bedlam with its sickle-like teeth. She held on to
the first, but punched upward, catching the second creature on the jaw with an
uppercut. Not her strongest hit, but it knocked the second alien back slightly,
allowing Bedlam to continue her attempts to free the first of its parasite.     

      This is what my life's becoming
now, Bedlam thought. I just punched out a giant ant.

      She pulled the parasite free of
its host with a sickening crack. The giant ant creature flung Bedlam, the
disgusting parasitic husk still in her hands. The second alien, after seeing
its companion fall, charged at her, seeking revenge or something else, its
bug-like eyes incapable of human emotion.

      Bedlam threw the dying carcass of
the parasite away and readied herself for the next attacker.

      She never got a chance, though, as
a bright flash of light struck the giant ant from the side. Bedlam blinked,
readjusting to the brightness, and saw the alien trapped under some sort of
energy net, that kept it pinned to the ground.

      "I had that one," Bedlam
said.

      "Sure you did," a familiar
voice said. "But can't blame a guy for wanting to help, can you?"

      Agent Black walked out from an
alleyway, slinging a futuristic weapon over his shoulder casually. His usually
grim countenance lit up with a goofy smile.

      "Look at you, playing superhero,"
he said.

      Bedlam ran and threw her arms
around him in a bear hug.

      "Where have you been?"
she asked.

      Agent Black gestured to the weapon
he carried.

      "Would you believe me if I
said I've been running errands for the good guys?" he said.

      "No," Bedlam said.

      The first giant ant stopped moving,
dead or unconscious; the second strained against its net cage.

      "The good guys never asked
before," Black said. "Money's money."  

      "You always say that,"
Bedlam said, and approached the still-active alien, trying to figure out a way
to get its parasite off. She looked back at Black. "Turning over a new
leaf?"

      "You seem to be," Black
said. "Hanging out with superheroes."

      "Well," Bedlam said. "Like
you said, they asked."

      Black pulled a smaller weapon from
his belt, closer to a handgun than a cannon. He crouched down beside the
trapped giant insect and fired once. The parasite dropped to the ground, wisps
of smoke wafting from the wound where the weapon hit. The alien ant became
sluggish and settling down onto its belly.

      "You're really working for
the good guys," Bedlam said.

      "Funny thing," Black
said. "It's really a challenge to stay a cold-hearted mercenary when there
might not be a world left where you can spend your money." 

      "Good point," Bedlam
said.

      "Also when your sidekick
decides to go work with the white hats, you begin to feel a bit guilty about
being a black hat," he said. "I even recruited some of my boys to be
heroes too. They're on the far side of town, blasting aliens with outer-space
ray guns. I think we may have helped a few crooks turn over new leaves."

      "I'm not your sidekick,"
Bedlam said, punching Black in the arm.

      "Never were," he said,
laughing. "What do you say? Want some company putting down the rest of
these critters?"

      She grinned impishly.

      "Are we still allowed to hang
out, big guy?" she said. "I'm sitting at the school band kid's table,
you're still with the dudes who cut class."

      "I think we'll be all right,"
Black said.

Chapter
70:

If
it has a brain, I can kill it

Shocked at the destruction before them, Kate
and Titus surveyed the carnage above the planet in silence from their vantage
point on the flying Tower. They saw destroyed enemy ships everywhere, debris
from those ships Billy and Jane had obliterated, and miles of rubble and inert
biomechanical machinery scattered as far as the eye could see.

      In the center of it all, the brain
ship continued its slow and ruthless pathway to Earth, now flanked by countless
smaller starships. There was a malevolence to it, Titus thought, a
ruthlessness, an anger. The Nemesis fleet was a living thing, they knew—but did
that mean it could feel rage? Could it be angry at them for destroying its seed
ships?

      Worse—was it intending to take out
that anger on the planet? If it couldn't have the Earth for itself, would it
deny the world to anyone else?

      The fighters began an attack run,
headed planet-side like a swarm of locusts.

      "Who's out there?" Titus
said into his earpiece. He couldn't see anyone.

      "I'm here," Billy said,
sounding exhausted. "I think I'm the only one with a functioning radio.
Em, you there?"

      A long, distressing pause passed
before Emily spoke up.

      "Yes," she said softly,
her tone completely out of character. "Don't worry about me. I'm stuck but
okay."

      "Stuck?" Billy said.

      "Bigger fish, Billy, focus,"
she said.

      "Billy, what do Dude and Seng
think the fleet's next move will be?" Kate said. "I'm not seeing any
seed ships remaining."

      "We got 'em," Billy
said. "Three up three down. Dude thinks—"

      Seng interrupted him, his voice
calm.

      "The fleet's pattern right
now is aggressive," he said. "They're going to attack the planet. I
don't know how to predict what they'll do next though. We've never seen them
pushed this close to the brink."

      Even as Seng spoke, flights of
Nemesis ships were forming in alignment, heading for Earth.

      Titus kept looking back at the
brain ship. The mother ship. The center of this fleet's universe.

      "Billy? Seng? The little
fighters, do they think and act independently from the brain ship?" Titus
asked.

      A few quiet seconds went by before
Billy answered.

      "Dude says some of the bigger
ships can respond independently, but the little ones are controlled by the
brain ship," Billy said. "They're less like a queen bee and her hive
and more like tools or weapons. They have simple autonomy but can't really act
alone cohesively without the lead vessel."

      "So if we kill the brain
ship," Kate said, "We stop the fleet."

      Billy sighed. "I don't think
we have the firepower, guys. That ship…"

      Seng chimed in. "We've never
been able to crack its armor. Even with Straylight's new power levels, even
with all of you combined… it's a risk," Seng said. "And all the time
we spend fighting the brain ship, your planet will be under attack."

      Titus and Kate exchanged a look.
Not breaking eye contact, Titus spoke up.

      "When you call it the brain
ship, is that a euphemism for something? Or does it literally have the brain of
the entire fleet in there?" Titus said.

      "Dude says it's 'brains,' not
brain—there's a consciousness, something controlling the whole fleet,"
Billy said.

      "We know it thinks,"
Seng said. "And we know it communicates from there. This is the ship that
talks to the hosts on the ground, like the ones you defeated earlier, the
advanced agents who made ready."

      Titus smiled.

      Kate shook her head.

      "If it has a brain, I can
kill it," Titus said. "I just need to get inside."

      "That's the stupidest thing I've
ever heard," Billy said. "You're going to wolf-out inside its brain and
kill it?"     

      Titus shrugged. "Got a better
idea?

      "Yeah," Billy said. "Let
me do it."

      Kate gave Titus a harsh look, then
weighed in. "No, you're faster, more maneuverable. You've got to try to
keep those fighters from reaching the planet," she said. "Jane too,
if we can reach her."

      "Sure, we'll simply destroy
the twelve hundred enemy ships coming at us right now," Billy. "I've
got the six hundred on the left."

      Unexpectedly, Doc's voice, ragged
and drained, joined the conversation. "It's not a bad plan," he said.

      "Great to hear you're not
dead, Doc," Titus said.

      "Titus, in my study, there's
something I want you to take," Doc said, and then he described an amulet
he'd left on his desk. "Not much, but if the air isn't breathable, it
should help. It carries the same spell I used on myself today."

      "What if you can't kill the
brain?" Emily said softly.

      "I'll do it," Titus
said.

      "No," she said. "You
need a backup plan. Just in case."

      Titus rubbed his eyes, looked
around the control room, and reflected.

      "Neal," Titus said. "The
flying machines we've been using. The bikes, the little jet. How combustible
are their engines?"

      "Don't you dare," Kate
said.

      "Designation: Whispering. I
can give you instructions to make the power source for any number of our
vehicles explosive. It would likely not be sufficient to destroy a ship of that
size, but it would be enough to cause a blast radius of approximately a hundred
meters in each direction."

      "Do it," Titus said.

      Kate and Titus locked eyes again,
his expression sheepish, hers furious.

      "You said it yourself, Kate,"
he said, smiling. "It's a one way trip anyhow."

      "I'm coming with you."

      "The hell you are,"
Titus said. "I'm not saying this to be protective. I'm going in there and
will let myself go as berserk as I've ever been and I'll gut that ship from the
inside. It'll be better if I'm alone."      Kate glared.

      "C'mon, Kate Miller," he
said. "You're just mad that I stole your line about being alone."

      Kate shook her head and looked away,
her mouth a hard straight line across her face.

      "Billy, get on those
fighters," Kate said. "We've got this. Doc?"

      "My strength's coming back,"
he said. "I'll attempt to repeat that spell closer to the atmosphere this
time and try to catch more of the fighters."

      "Emily," Kate said.

      "I'm stuck."

      "You find Jane," Kate
said. "Stop feeling bad for yourself. You're able to control gravity.
There's no such thing as you being stuck. Cut it out."

      Titus could almost envision Emily's
smile.

      "Find Jane," Emily said.
"You got it, coach."

      Titus and Kate watched their
friends scramble on the monitor: Billy and Seng twin streaks of blue-white
light headed on an intercept course toward the planet, Doc's magic sparking and
glowing in the distance.

      "I'm coming with you,"
Kate said.

      "Not like I've ever been able
to talk you out of—" Titus started to say, but then stopped as they both
saw something they hoped was an optical illusion appear on the monitor.

      "Uh, guys?" Emily said. "I'm
kinda far away, but is that…"

      Emerging from the back of the
brain ship, as if from a hidden cargo bay, another seed ship appeared, slowly
moving into position to point in the direction of Earth. Identical to the
others, its purpose became immediately clear.

      "Those bastards had a backup
plan," Titus said. "Get Billy. He can take care of that one."

      They saw on another screen,
however, that the two Luminae hosts were already engaged in a full on dog-fight
closer to the planet's surface. The two men, against untold numbers of enemies,
had to hold the line.

      "No," Kate said. "This
one's mine."

      Titus raised a questioning eyebrow.

      "I've got it," she said.

      "This boat has no weapons,
Kate," Titus said.

      Kate shot him a vicious smile.

      "I'm the master of improvised
weapons," she said. "Leave the last seed ship to me."

      Titus smiled. All these months
together, all these adventures, and barely a second to sit quietly and really
get to know each other. We tried, he thought. Even if we don't make it back. We
really tried.

      "I love you, Kate,"
Titus said. "I know you're not—"

      She moved so quickly he could
barely react, crossing the distance between them, pulling him in for a fierce,
almost violent kiss, her hands tangled in his hair so he couldn't move. He didn't
want to. Not now, and not ever. He wrapped his arms around her, the lean, powerful
muscles of her back danced beneath his hands, her heart beat just a little too
fast, the way it always had. He knew her heartbeat, with ears that could hear
everything. That quick drum of her heart had been his beacon since the first
time they spoke.

      When she let him go, her face was
twisted up with more emotion than he'd ever seen in her, somewhere between
sadness and anger and something else. Something unexpected.

      "I've always loved you,"
Kate said softly. "I never said it enough. I should have. I'm sorry I didn't
say it more."

      "You never had to,"
Titus said.

      He knew her heartbeat. She never
had to say anything at all. Maybe that's why they'd worked so well together. He
could hear her without ever asking her to say a word.

      Titus stepped away, wiping his
eyes, sniffing as he spoke to thin air.

      "Neal, is that engine ready?"

      "Waiting for you in the
landing bay, Designation: Whispering."

      Titus nodded.

      "One way trip," he said.

      She just nodded.

      "Good luck saving the world,
Kate," Titus said.

      "Good luck saving the world,
Titus. You better not die on me."

      Stealing a final look at the
monitor before heading for Doc's chambers to pick up that one last trick, Titus
wasn't sure of their odds. Not so sure at all.