The Tenth Legion (Book 6, Progeny of Evolution) (36 page)

“Come on,
Jimmie. Time to go.”

“Aw, Mom. Just
a few minutes. The program’s almost over.” In fact, the movie had
another half hour to run, but she didn’t have the will to argue.
Being Friday, Headquarters was nearly empty for the early weekend,
a popular practice since time had become so precious. Most of the
familiar faces had relocated to Mars. Their replacements, while
dedicated and competent, hadn’t bonded with her. After Cynthia’s
departure, Lorna, Ed, the kids, and Thomas became the last on
Earth. Before Ed left, they’d made a point of having dinner
together at least weekly. She promised herself to continue the
routine, and resume the effort to find and gather up Cassie’s
daughter, Sadie.

When the movie
ended, she coaxed the children to the car. They relented after a
quick tour of the new Space Museum.

“That’s my
Uncle Charlie,” Jimmie pointed out when they stood in front of the
model of the first Mars expedition. A group of tourists nodded
politely before moving to the next exhibit.

She’d arranged
to move with the children to her old apartment at the Headquarters
complex in Orlando, enrolling them in the local corporation school.
For security reasons, she told herself. The truth was that the
worst arguments over whether he should take the last shuttle for
Mars took place at the Rocket City home. Now that he was gone, she
saw no reason for returning to the house, now contaminated with
memories of their bickering.

On the ride
back, she sat with arms folded, in deep thought. The kids lost
themselves among the pull-down videos. “Pick one that teaches you
something,” she argued weakly. “To make up for the half-day of
school you missed.”

Of course they
didn’t listen. The driver smiled into the rear view mirror at the
little drama.

On the way,
the car stopped at their school. Both children’s reading and math
skills were two years above their grade level. Ed’s father had been
similarly precocious.

“Aw, Mom, do
we have to?” they both complained when the limousine pulled to a
smooth stop.

“You promised
not to fuss about going to school if I took you to see Dad off. I
let you finish the movie you wanted to watch, remember? Now, be
good children and go with Leanna to check in.”

With not too
much grumbling or stalling, they traded the gloomy green-tinted
interior for the bright, noontime sunlight. The driver led the
children away. She walked between them holding a small pink hand in
each of hers.

After the stop
at school, Lorna told the driver to bring her to work. At her
approach, Thomas glanced up from a computer monitor. “What’s
up?”

“Ed left.”

Returning to
the screen, he said quietly, “It’s for the best.”

Getting a grip
on herself, she said, “I know, but that doesn’t make the pain any
less.”

Thomas raised
tired, rheumy, blue eyes. “I appreciate the sacrifice you made. You
were very unselfish. I hope my brother will come to
understand.”

“How’s Mother
Sam doing?”

“She lives.
For that, everyone’s grateful. I told you that last week she
recognized Great-pop, didn’t I?”

“Yes, dear
brother, you did,” she answered gently, and retreated to her desk
in the next room. After settling in, Lorna stared out at him. Her
reply from before bore a twinge of sadness.

Poor,
forgetful old fellow.

The news
stream trickled from the monitor on the facing wall. Wars, riot,
and mayhem sprung up everywhere. The whole world seemed hell-bent
on tearing itself apart before any CME had a chance to.

Thomas joined
her, approaching silent as a kitten walking on a feather mattress.
Peering over her shoulder at the footage of the war in Asia, he
said, “The situation appears pretty bad.”

“Western China
and the East India provinces are on the brink again. They’re
threatening each other with nukes.”

“Sadly, I
think the threat hanging over all of us causes this irrational
behavior.” He sat.

Lorna offered
him coffee.

Displaying the
smirk little old men do so well, he refused. “Most of the world is
going mad in the belief we’ll all be dead in a few months. Since
there’s nothing to be done, they’re reckless.”

“Well, it’s
not like they have anything to lose.” Lorna reached across the
desk, taking Thomas’s small, cold hands. “I’m so grateful for your
company.” She cherished the time they spent together. Too soon, he
would join his sister. Hell, probably they all would.

Thomas
returned her hand squeeze. “My father and step-mother, Rebecca,
were Christians. They believed in a loving God who watched over all
of us. I didn’t embrace the faith, but I’ve seen enough to
understand there’s something more at work in our lives than random
occurrence. Great-pop, during his days as a professor of
mathematics, wrote a paper on the subject. I guess what I’m saying
is a loving god would be irrational to let things end like this for
all of us.”

* * * *

Ed had been
gone for six days. Lorna hoped that he might call. Even if he had
nothing to say to her, there were the children.

From the outer
balcony of her apartment, Lorna saw the crowds gathering on the
streets below. When at full strength, they moved, swaying across
the pavement. A single, brownish mass bore down on the headquarters
building. Dozens of hand-lettered signs peppered the crowd. The
common theme among them accused the corporation of conspiring to
save The Others at the expense of humanity. Five, even two, years
earlier, the corporation couldn’t pay people to be interested in
the threat. With regret, Lorna remembered Ed’s unsuccessful
attempts in 2104 to get government funding to develop safer ways to
transport humans to Mars. It had been an election year, and the
politicians feared the consequences of cutting entitlements and pay
raises for government workers more than earthly annihilation.

A hybrid
servant set up breakfast for three on the patio. “I see the
children are in,” she said. “Breakfast together will be
special.”

Lorna surveyed
the settings. “We’ll need four places, Tina. Thomas always joins us
on Thursdays.”

The brunette
recognized her mistake and curtsied quickly. “Right away,
ma’am.”

Tina may not
have been the brightest light on the tree, but her dependability
and trustworthiness more than compensated. The growing resentment
over the limited access to Mars, made keeping human employees
dangerous. At least six member families had been murdered by their
servants in two years.

Quickly, she
set a fourth place.

“Come to
breakfast, children,” Lorna cried across the apartment.

Sammi arrived
first. Jimmie always took the time to put his things away, while
his sister left her toys where they lay. “Mommy,” she asked. “Are
we going to school today?”

Lorna glanced
at the turgid heave of the crowd below. In the next block, at the
edge of an overgrown, abandoned park, news trucks lined the
curbside. “No. At least not until the demonstration breaks up.” On
the street, a knot of police, backed by corporation security,
formed a blue line between the crowd and the building entrance.

“The situation
appears grim.” Thomas entered the balcony, holding Jimmie’s hand.
“There’s more down there than the screamers and sign-wavers.”

“If my old
police crew helps us out, we can hold them.” Lorna spoke as head of
security. “But I hate the thought of bloodshed.”

Thomas served
each of the children a portion of scrambled eggs. Jimmie piled on
the ketchup, ready to use the whole bottle if Lorna didn’t stop
him. Sammi made a condescending face at what she considered her
brother’s childishness, seasoning her portion with a dainty
sprinkle of salt. Thomas served himself from the egg dish, offering
Lorna the beef rollups.

With everyone
served, Lorna resumed the conversation. “I hope they learned their
lesson after the attack on Rocket City.” A summer ago, a crowd of a
thousand had breached the first perimeter. The heavier defenses of
the second held them, but all the large homes outside had been
looted and burned before security regained control. “We must have
killed at least a hundred.”

“The damned
Tenth Legion’s still at it,” Thomas said bitterly. He took another
mouthful of egg, chewing with precise, almost mincing, jaw
movements. “Did you hear? They murdered a lycan family in western
Canada last week.”

Lorna rolled
her eyes in the direction of the children, a signal not to talk
about such things in front of them. Enough of that filled the news
streams. Sammi had nightmares.

Thomas covered
his mouth. “Sorry,” he had time to say before a howl from hundreds
of voices on the street below announced the crowd heaving
forward.

Behind a
convex crescent of plastic shields, the police-security coalition
absorbed the weight of two thousand bodies. Flanking them, other
officers fired tear gas and rubber bullets. When the first ranks
fell, the crowd hesitated. Individuals clutched themselves where
the bullets hit or wandered aimlessly, blinded by the tear gas.
Those farther back surged over the fallen ones, trampling a
few.

Jimmie lunged
for the railing. “I want to see.” Without hesitation, Lorna pulled
him back.

“No, Jimmie.”
He struggled without success against her lycan strength. Sammi
buried her head in Thomas’s chest, crying.

“Go inside
with Uncle Tommy,” Lorna ordered.

The crowd took
great losses, but kept coming. Injured and tear gas-blinded people
covered the ground. Some didn’t move. The blue line retreated
toward the headquarters entrance. A single shot rang out above the
indistinguishable mob noises. A police officer fell out of the
rank. Two pairs of hands reached from behind, pulling him from
danger. The police drew weapons.

For a second,
everything stopped. During the pause, someone in charge of the
police detachment used a bull horn to ask everyone to stand down.
The crowd considered the proposal. Seconds later they surged
forward, propelled by a howl from thousands of throats.

“Get the
children to the panic room,” Lorna said to Thomas. “I’m going to
the operations center.”

With a sound
of air being squeezed off, the six-inch steel door sealed them in.
The police opened fire just as she headed down the hall. Four
employees manned the operations center. Two of them sat before
consoles, monitoring security cameras around the property. A third
was a communications technician. The watch captain completed the
group. The room, silent except for the buzz of electronic
equipment, gave Lorna the chills.

“What’s the
status?” Lorna asked upon entering. She stared beyond the watch
captain at a closed circuit picture of the entrance. The crowd had
withdrawn, leaving fifty or so dead or wounded on the brick
cobblestones. Their blood seemed almost black on the brick-red
pavers.

“Things are
quiet for now. They retreated to lick their wounds.” the watch
captain said.

Lorna scanned
the monitors. “Don’t get locked in on the main entrance. Make sure
our rovers check the other possible points of entry. This may have
been a diversion.” The CCTV monitors showed the first of the news
crew trucks taking advantage of the lull to push back into camera
view.

By afternoon,
the crowd had grown to over ten thousand. They gathered at the
abandoned park. Interspersed among the hundreds of signs appeared
emblems of the Tenth Legion. “I guess now we know who’s behind this
mess,” Lorna muttered bitterly.

An hour later,
the mayor called to tell Lorna he planned to withdraw the police
protection. “I can’t put my police department on regional
television shooting civilians in the streets.”

“What about
us?” Lorna shot back. “We didn’t do anything wrong.”

The mayor
sighed. “You should talk to them. Maybe you can work something out.
I’m sorry. We can be of no more help.” Then he hung up.

Lorna put the
receiver down. “We’re on our own.”

Everyone in
the room looked from one to the other. “If they breach security,
none of us will be safe,” the watch captain said.

“Set me up on
the general speaker. Anyone who wants to evacuate when the cops
leave is free to go.” Feeling panic lapping on the edges of her
consciousness, she thought of Thomas and the children in the Panic
Room, probably playing “Crazy Eights” about now.

Is this the
way it ends for us?

Lorna
remembered how, while Cithara’s predictions may have served to save
The Others along with humanity, nothing in them guaranteed her
personal survival.

From his
console, one of the technicians spoke. “There won’t be many left to
defend this place.”

In other
times, such input from a low level employee would’ve resulted in
unspoken disdain for the presumption, but considering the
circumstances not now. Lorna touched the young vampire’s shoulder.
“Everyone who stays knows there’s no surrender, and none of them
are going to turn on us.”

After making
the announcement, half of the staff accompanied the departing
police contingent. Outside, the crowd sensed weakness, and like a
predator smelling blood, began to close in. Security cameras showed
the dark mass pouring through and around the park like molasses.
They piled up at the edge of the trees in the late afternoon sun.
The weight of their numbers pressed the vanguard toward the
headquarters entrance.

Thinking about
Rocket City, she inventoried their assets in her mind. There were
two cargo helicopters down for maintenance. Earlier, she ordered
them made airworthy, no simple task. “Get an update on the status
of the copters.”

The watch
captain snatched up the phone. Lorna sensed his appreciation of her
penchant for ideas that, so far, kept them a moving target.
Silently, she berated herself for not thinking of restoring the
craft before all this began.