The Troll (16 page)

“
We
were talking,” Iris said. “We think we can get to the
state line within the next few days, and if we can, The Guide thinks
it will be much easier from there because we can use the river’s
current and fashion a raft. We can make progress without expending so
much energy, and probably stay away from the population in the
process.”

“
Or…”
The Troll started, but trailed off. He had everyone’s attention
before he could dismiss the thought. “If we have The
Moderator’s daughter, why can’t she ask him to call this
off?”

The
tension was thick, and The Troll regretted asking the moment the
words left his mouth. He already knew the answer, but couldn’t
resist the knee-jerk way his mind always searched for a way out.

“
Because
we don’t want this to be called off,” The Guide said,
enunciating his words.

“
You
guys are choosing a war over compromise.”

“
There
is no compromise with my father,” Iris said. “Haven’t
you been paying attention to anything?”

“
I
don’t see the harm in trying. I thought he was somewhat
reasonable.”

The
silence was long. The only sound was The Acrobat pulling himself to
his feet and approaching the bars, as if he was amused by the
spectacle.

“
I
think this is the point where you hand over Rainbow and let us handle
the rest,” The Guide said. “I appreciate you coming this
far
and helping Iris
reach me, but between us, we have everything we need.”

“
I’m
not handing over Rainbow,” The Troll said, though his mind was
spinning. What if he did?

“
I
don’t think you have a choice,” The Guide said. “I
can’t trust you and
I’m tired of listening to your resistance. Everyone here agrees
that you were the wrong choice for this, including you. All you would
need to do is hide until we get the job done. Then you’ll be
free from this. You’re safe now Troll—and you’ll be
safer when we get to our destination. I’m asking nicely that
you let us take it from here.”

“
I
can’t,” The Troll said, backing away and putting his hand
over his pocket to protect the flash drive.

The
Guide and Iris looked at each other worriedly, as if deciding how to
handle the next step.

“
I’m
sorry I brought you into this,” Iris said. “I just
thought you’d be more like your board persona in person. I was
clearly wrong.”

The
Troll felt very small—smaller than he’d probably ever
made anyone feel. Even asking to come along seemed useless now. He
weighed handing it over and knew his mind was spinning toward that
possibility.

“
You
will never be in the good graces of The Moderator,” The Guide
said and extended his hand, palm up.

“
Sure
he will,” The Acrobat said unexpectedly with a wide smile. “All
he has to do is transmit and destroy the thing. If he does that, he
joins us in Chicago.”

The
Troll closed his eyes in defeat but felt the eyes of his companions
burning through him.

“
What?”
Iris asked, in disbelief. “How?”

“
The
Moderator gave him a transmitter,” The Acrobat said. “He
can opt out at any time.”

And
suddenly, every action The Troll had made, made sense to them. He’d
always intended on saving himself. If not for that opportunity, he
would have gladly rid himself of Rainbow a long time ago. He wasn’t
just fearful. He was an outright traitor.

“
You
have a working transmitter?” The Guide asked.

“
Yeah…”
The Troll said, but his voice cracked and fell to a
whisper.

“
We
can use it to recruit,” The Guide said, his eyes wide. The
Troll was relieved he wasn’t angry. He was hopeful…eager
to use the transmitter for their cause. Except, The Troll had no
intention of allowing that to happen.

“
No,”
The Troll said, backing himself into a corner and guarding his
pockets protectively.

“
Excuse
me?” The Guide said.

“
I
said no.”

“
What
did they tell you in Prime?” The Guide asked. “They tell
you that you’re actually one of them? To turn on your mission?”

“
I
already told you,” The Troll said. “I never had a problem
with Psi. I still don’t.”

“
You
son of a bitch. You have no problem with the innocent lives lost…
You know where I was when Psi took over? I was in my cab, watching a
man choke to death on chewing gum lodged in his throat. If he had
control over his nerves, he simply would have moved it to the left or
the right, like people do every day. That was one guy and a stick of
gum. Everyone in the world who simply needed to react in that moment
was gone within two minutes and the aftershocks were worse. How can
you have a conscience and tell me that you want to opt out and save
yourself and support that man?”

The
Troll shook his head, searching for words. He saw Iris at The Guide’s
side, a tear falling from her eye.

“
I
don’t want to die,” were the only words he could offer.

“
And
you won’t, but you’re going to give me Rainbow and the
transmitter, or I’m going to take them from you.”

“
Then
you’ll have to, because this wasn’t your thing to
do.
It was mine. And you don’t make the rules. You feel one way. I
feel another. In my world, when you can’t win a debate, that’s
called agreeing to disagree.”

“
In
my world, when you can’t win a debate, we handle it with our
fists.”

“
Well,
I don’t have muscles,” The Troll said. “I have
fairly brittle bones and I’m not a fighter, so since we both
can use words, that’s the only logical course of action.”

He
couldn’t help but sound condescending, and he saw The Guide’s
eyes go dark as he spoke and knew he was making a mistake. He
realized he’d been shadow typing, which was never a good thing.
It usually meant his fingers were speaking for him and he was
translating their words. Usually, when his fingers spoke, they didn’t
play nice, and The Guide’s reaction was good proof of that. His
fingers began shadow-typing again and before he could find his
filter, The Guide lashed out, spinning and landing a roundhouse to
the side of The Troll’s face.

He
spun and his body slammed against the wall and he lost his balance
and hit the ground after. His world spun and everything turned into a
blur. He was trying to find his footing and focus when The Guide’s
hands were on his shirt, pulling him into the air and tossing him
across the floor with a roll. He was stopped when his body hit the
bars of a cell. He looked up to find The Guide coming at him again,
and quickly spun and kicked wildly at him, hoping something would
connect and send him away.

The
Guide grabbed one of his feet but only had it for a moment before his
other foot kicked his hand. The Guide’s hand let go, but easily
grabbed his other foot and pulled him to the center of the room. The
Troll grasped at the bars, but he missed, and found himself in the
center of the room, being circled as if by a shark.

“
Get
up!” The Guide shouted.

The
Troll brushed off his pants and pushed himself up to face The Guide.

“
You
don’t have a choice!” The Guide shouted.

The
Troll’s fingers started to move. Shit, he thought. “Iris
didn’t choose you. She chose me. Probably because you and The
Surfer and Wigeon ran your revolution like it was a lemonade stand.
Go back into hiding with the twelve of you left who can’t fight
Psi.”

The
Guide lunged and wrapped his hands around his neck and slammed him
against the bars again. The Troll winced as the pain shot up his back
and then focused on his neck. He tried to speak, to beg for mercy,
but he was losing his vision, losing the world around him. Iris
watched in horror and The Troll heard her shouting something to the
effect of letting him go. Luckily, The Guide understood and did, if
only because she was saying it.

The
moment The Troll was free from his grip, he twirled to the side and
stepped into the cell that was adjoining The Acrobat’s cell. He
slammed the door closed, which locked itself, and in one swift
motion, backed against the wall, far from The Guide’s grip.
Before The Guide fully understood the severity of his position, The
Troll also held up a ring of keys and shook them as if taunting him.

“
So
what?” The Guide said. “You locked yourself in. You’ve
got nowhere to go.”

“
All
I have to do is transmit and they’ll come for me,” The
Troll said and pulled the transmitter from his pocket.

“
All
I have to do is leave,” The Guide said and held up Rainbow. The
Troll’s eyes went wide and he reached for his pocket, but it
was empty. The Guide had only one goal in their fight and it was to
extract it from his pocket. He’d succeeded and devalued The
Troll completely. The Troll lunged through the bars, but The Guide
pulled back with a smile. Then, he grabbed a pair of handcuffs from
the desk,
approached the
bars, and locked one side to the door, and the other to the bars. A
second pair of handcuffs, he stuffed in his sock in case he'd need it
later.

“
Now
you really have nowhere to go,” he said. “Except through
The Acrobat. Feel free to kill him if you want,” The Guide said
to The Acrobat, and started toward the door.

“
Wait!”
The Troll said. “What are you doing?”

“
So
we can’t transmit,” he said with a shrug. “We’ll
still finish this thing, and you? Someday long after Psi is destroyed
and the world is free and the revolution is talked about, you’ll
look back on your role and you’ll know you did what you did.
That you had a chance to do something better and you were a coward
who locked himself behind bars to avoid having a purpose. So go ahead
and transmit, and pray that The Moderator doesn’t just walk in
here and kill you and let the world watch while he does. Or you can
use that door…” He pointed to a single door that
separated The Troll’s cell from The Acrobat’s. “You
can try your luck with him, but something tells me he doesn’t
see you as such a threat when you’re on your own. Either way,
you’re no longer my
problem.
I took down a helicopter you coward. What have you ever done that’s
even come close to that?”

With
that, The Guide and Iris walked toward the exit. The Guide never
looked back, but Iris did, and her eyes spoke volumes to The Troll.
She looked hurt, disappointed, pained, to see what had ultimately
become of the man she’d chosen—the man she’d
believed in.

The
Troll stepped forward and found her eyes and his own pleaded with her
to forgive him. “I’m sorry,” he said. She quickly
turned away and she couldn’t look at him any longer. In a
moment, she was gone.

The
Troll hurried to the cell door and unlocked it. He tried to open it,
but the handcuff held securely. He kicked at it, shouldered it,
slammed his whole body into it, but it didn’t budge. Finally,
The Troll stumbled back, breathless, and fell into a sitting
position, facing The Acrobat. The Acrobat approached the wall of bars
between them and stared through.

“
Only
way out is through me,” he said, taunting The Troll.

“
No…”
The Troll said, his eyes finding the transmitter sitting on the
bench. Neither decision looked good.

Doing
nothing and starving to death sounded worse.

He
slowly got to his feet and stood on the bench. Pangs of pain shot
through his body as he stood on his toes and looked through the
window. The Guide and Iris started their journey away from him, with
only their skills and Rainbow. He wished again that he had whatever
courage they had.

“
You
transmit now,” The Acrobat said, “And I will see to it
that The Moderator knows you tried to fight them. They’ll be
dead soon. The Rainbow will be destroyed. This is your last chance to
be with us.”

The
Troll silently sat again and stared through the bars. He closed his
eyes and weighed his options.

Part 3

Chapter 1

The
feel of Rainbow in the palm of his hand made The Guide feel powerful.
They’d walked for two days and were convinced no one could be
on their trail. The Moderator believed he could control The Troll and
track him easily, and he was right, but he hadn’t counted on
The Guide to find him and take control of the mission. In hindsight,
he realized it couldn’t have gone more perfectly. There had
even been perks: Like Iris.