War Games (27 page)

Authors: Karl Hansen

BOOK: War Games

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I pressed the firing stud.

A silver trajectory arced across the sky, just as it had earlier. Light flashed from the middle of a glacier. A puff of vapor rose into a mushroom-shaped cloud. Huge cracks rent the glacier. Ice gave up its grip on rock. The glacier broke into pieces that began slipping down the mountain, until they were funneled into a chute where a bug crawled. Millions of tons of ice poured down the mountain, filling in the canyon below. Huge clouds of snow billowed high, then began slowly settling back to ground. When the snow swirls cleared, a glacier no longer rested in a basin high on the slopes of Mt. Themis. Instead, a jigsaw puzzle of ice dammed the canyon. The upper chute and tunnel mouth were buried beneath several hundred meters of ice. The bug was gone.

“Did you have to do that?” Grychn asked softly.

I said nothing.

“I suppose you did,” she answered herself.

* * *

Grychn folIowed me back to Atlas in Kramr’s skimmer. We abandoned it in the mountains near town, where it would be found eventually, but nowhere near the place Kramr lay entombed in ice. His body would never be discovered, I was sure of that. Nor would the timestone now. Its tunnel was safely buried.

In our room, I lay in bed. I was tired.

Before sleep came, I let a few images rise so I could begin to be done with them.

WHEN I WOKE,
the
sun was setting behind the Ice Mountains.

Grychn had her lips on my penis, stirring it to life with her tongue. She looked up and smiled as I opened my eyes, then rose to kiss my lips.

“I thought you might sleep around the clock,” she said. “I think we should leave this place soon.” She straddled me, letting me enter her. “But not
right
now,” she laughed. “In a little while.”

She moved her ass up and down. I slid in and out. She placed a nipple close to my lips. I took it in my mouth and stroked it with my tongue, feeling the skin pull taut. Delicious friction tingled.

A long time later we separated. She lay beside me, with her hand close to my face. A ruby glittered in the dying light of day.

“You better leave that ring here,” I said.

She snatched her hand away and peered at the gem. “Why?” Her voice told me she really didn’t know why.

“It contains a microbeacon. Kramr used it to follow us.”

“The cyrines? The patrol craft?”

“Paper tigers, to let us think we’d escaped.”

“You know the rest of my story?”

“I think so.”

“From the timestone?”

“Partly. But there were other inconsistencies. You couldn’t have known I was the combrid who had captured you unless Kramr had told you, because I had not. And he wouldn’t have told you for no reason.”

“I didn’t want to help them, but Kramr turned me into a peptide addict. If I didn’t cooperate, he withheld my medicine. I was just supposed to help him find Nels. But when I did, I couldn’t get her to tell me where the timestone was located. Kramr needed you for that. I was supposed to find out from you. But when we escaped, I thought we really were free.”

“Until the elf city was raided.”

“Until then,” she agreed.

“You could have told me then.”

“I was afraid you’d leave me.”

“I would have, then.”

Her voice faltered. “How about now?” Amber eyes looked away.

“I’m a different person now.”

“A better person?”

“Maybe.”

“Do you still love me?”

“Yes.” I kissed her to prove it. “Is that important?”

“I think so.” She paused. “Just what was the timestone? Why did you leave it behind?”

“Nels was right. It’s an entropic crystal. Time manipulations use up lots of entropy—that’s how the stone works. Death also conserves entropy.”

“What else did the timestone show you?”

“A little bit of everything.” I had learned how to keep the images away. I’d had lots of practice doing that. Some I didn’t want to see. Clairvoyance had a way of hurting inside.

“I’m not sure I understand.”

“This timestone is infinitely more powerful than the little one I had. There’s no controlling it. As soon as I picked it up, it flooded my mind with knowledge I didn’t want. But there was no way I could stop it. When you tried to destroy it, the pulsar flash temporarily blinded me, allowing me to look away. To save itself from permanent psychosis, my mind made me run away from it.” I laughed hollowly. “If I’d stayed another minute, I’d have been driven insane. But I would have become an emperor. And a vile despot. And a slave to the timestone. Kramr would have become the same, had he reached the stone. So would anyone else. That’s what Nels was so afraid of. But there is some good out of it all.” I laughed more cheerfully. “Ironically, the vision of death I’ve had so long was not mine at all.”

“Then whose? I thought you’d seen your face.”

“A face that resembled mine. A family resemblance. When a chameleon dies, his face finally reverts to its true form. Under all that ice, Kramr finally became himself: his face became his own face.”

“A family resemblance?”

“Henri. My long-lost brother.”

“Did he know that he was your brother?”

“I doubt it.”

She was quiet for a bit. She figured out the truth, guessing the burden I was to bear. “Then you also know when you’ll really die.”

“Yes.” I could push the image away and hold it there.

“How soon?” Her voice sounded funny.

“Not for quite a long time. It seems to be tied up with something very important. Quite glorious, in fact. A soldier couldn’t ask for a better death. But the details aren’t too clear yet.” I wanted to keep it that way. I had learned how to keep away the hurting.

The next question took even longer. She had figured out the truth. “Did you see me dead?”

“Do you really want to know?”

“I suppose not.” She kissed me. “But what does it all mean? The timestone. Kramr being your brother. Your quest. My finding you again. There must be some meaning to it all.”

“Yes, I guess there is. All moves in a game. An entropic game; a death game. There are moves yet to be made.”

“A grim sentiment.”

“I’m in an introspective mood.”

“What do we do now?”

“We play the game. We get dressed. We go someplace else. We’re going to have a few adventures, you and me. And lots of fun. We’re going to live in interesting times. No boredom for us. How would you like to be a robber baroness? Or maybe a pirate queen? And later a high priestess?”

“Sounds like fun.”

“Then let’s get dressed and go.”

* * *

We stepped out of a liftube exit. The spaceport was before us. Harsh sodium lights blazed overhead, casting yellow glare over fused glass pods. Grychn’s gravship stood at its berth.

Snow had begun falling, forming a thick mist. Ghost-faces rose—my parents, pale as alabaster statues; Henri/Kramr; Vichsn, eyes wired with lust; Trinks; Sergeant Pepper, mourning her dead baby; Jain Maure, seeking hurt; Nels; her sailor lover, Mikal Gy. All players in the death game. Grychn would join them too soon, I knew. But I would cherish her while I had her, before she disappeared into the cold empty. We could have a few good times together before her move came. My turn would come still later. I’d join her then. Mist particles connected us all, like fragile webbing. The time matrix, though convoluted, possessed a terrible symmetry.

Sometime I would let the images surface so I could take a better look. Not now. They hurt too much now.

I put my arm around Grychn. I would love her for a long time.

“Ready?” She nodded.

Mist-faces rose, smiling. We stepped through them and were gone.