Aliomenti Saga 6: Stark Cataclysm (7 page)

He reached up and seized her wrists with both hands, just as the second assailant rounded the bend.

“Good,” the newcomer said. “You’ve got him.”

The woman who’d subdued him stood up, turned, and punched the newcomer in the face. The man cried out in pain before he fell back onto the concrete landing. His head hit the surface, and he fell still.

The woman tore the mask from her face and dropped it on the ground before holding out her hand. “Get up. We need to get you out of here.”

IV

Escape

2058 A.D.

He couldn’t sense her emotions.

Even after the woman in the mask leveled the second attacker, even after she offered a hand to help him up, his Energy couldn’t penetrate her mind. He could feel his breathing stutter as he tried to process this impossibility.

She reached down, seized his forearm, and hauled him to his feet, then bounded up the steps ahead of him. Her feet fell silent against the metal steps, a tremendous display of physical control he’d not witnessed before. He started after her, his footsteps a comparative jet engine to her silence.

“Who are you?” he asked.

She didn’t break stride. “We’re trying to escape from people who want you dead,” she hissed. “Save the questions for another time.”

“But, how do I know—?”

I know you can hear me, but I can’t hear you. You must trust me.

He stumbled, his leg slamming against a metal step. He pushed himself back to his feet and accelerated after her, blocking out the pain.

She knew he could read her thoughts?

What in the world was going on?

Distracted by the odd turn of events, he didn’t notice that she’d stopped until he ran into her. They tumbled to the concrete landing, both emitting grunts before climbing back to their feet.

“Sorry,” he mumbled.

Try to keep a bit more distance. Or use those Energy skills and anticipate when I’m going to stop.

He couldn’t fathom what was going on. How could she know he could her thoughts but not have the ability to do the same? And why could he hear her now, but not before?

She left him no chance to ask further questions. They raced up flight after flight of stairs, taking care to keep the sound of their footsteps silent.

Use your senses to track anyone entering the stairwell. Most people here use elevators. If they open the stairwell doors, they probably mean us ill will.

Five flights later, he sensed the next assassin as he entered the stairwell. But the man was five flights below them, and given the noise generated, not troubling to hide his presence.

They expected you to head to the garage, and we tried to encourage you to head down. The core of the security team is waiting for you there. Their radios are off; they didn’t want you to hear anything that might alert you to the plan. It will take time to get a message to them. The man chasing us is an idiot; worry more about those waiting in the garage who’ll be angry when they hear what happened. We don’t want to engage with them. We need to keep moving.

He didn’t argue.

Even with his conditioning, he began to feel winded. Perhaps it was the grueling pace she set. Perhaps he wasn’t used to running up thirty flights of stairs while being chased by men and women with guns.

I had to attack you to buy time. If I’d moved on my boss immediately, they’d be able to send Jenkins up ahead of us via elevator and cut off our only escape. Sorry about that.

She seemed sincere. He couldn’t know with his usual certainty. She knew enough about him that he judged going along as his best course of action. If she was Aliomenti, he’d be able to fight with Energy… and that was a fight he’d win. He felt the Energy stirring, burning his skin, and he stifled his thoughts of open Energy warfare. For now.

They reached the top of the staircase at last. The woman pulled a set of keys from a pouch attached to her waist. She flipped through them until she found the correct key and unlocked the door in front of them.

Fil sensed the elevator a half-flight below open, spilling members of the security team. The men and women sprinted for the stairwell, racing up the stairs toward their targets.

The woman shoved Fil through the door before locking it from the inside and breaking the key off inside the lock. She slammed the door just as the first of the security guards rounded the final landing and headed up the stairs.

Fil steadied himself. The fierce winds forty stories off the ground buffeted him, surrounding him with a volume of noise startling in its intensity after ten minutes of near silent sprints up metal stairs.

Once stabilized, he whirled on the woman.

“Enough with the secrecy. Who are you?”

She smiled. “Don’t recognize me, do you? It’s been a while.”

Fil shook his head. “Should I? Recognize you, that is.”

“Of course,” she said. She flipped her long hair forward, covering her face, and pulled the hair aside so he could see nothing but her eyes. “Does that help?”

Recognition hit him. “Sarah? Sarah Swann?”

His classmate and occasional date for dances flipped her hair back to its usual position and gave a slight bow. “In the flesh.”

“What in the world… what are you doing here?”

“I work here, of course. Security. But that’s just my public job.”

“Your… public job.” He shivered for a moment. “I take it, then, that you have a
non-public
job that has something to do with what just happened here?”

She nodded. “We should get someplace a bit more private before we go into more detail. Follow me, please.”

She marched away from the door toward the edge of the building before climbing atop the half wall around the perimeter. Fil, still intrigued, climbed up next to her, wondering what she could possibly have in mind. She wasn’t transmitting thoughts at him, and once more he could read nothing of her thoughts or emotions.

As he straightened to his full height, Sarah seized his arm and threw him over the side of the building.

Fil barely had time to shout in surprise before his descent halted. Sarah landed next to him an instant later.

He glanced around, and felt his jaw drop open.

They’d landed inside one of the Alliance’s invisible flying craft. Sarah had known where the craft hovered, and had thrown him to precisely the correct spot.

But how in the world did she know…?

He turned to face her. “I am completely confused.”

She smiled, her eyes full of sympathy. “I’ll bet that doesn’t happen often, does it?”

He shook his head. “No.” He was too easily aware of thoughts and feelings of others. Her ability to block him… it made him feel less alive. Was this what it was like to be human? He considered reviewing his opinion of Energy as a curse. The thought raised an interesting question. “You… you knew I could hear what you thought. How do you know that? And why is it that you can’t do the same?”

Sarah motioned for him to sit down. She sat in one of the seats—the navigator’s—and provided a course for the ship. Fil, who hadn’t moved, was hurled into one of the other seats as the craft accelerated. He shift around until he was properly seated and facing her. In the process, he could see that the vehicles had changed little since he’d last flown, save for the seats themselves. The material seemed gel-like, shifting slightly to conform to his body while promoting good posture. The large view screen showed a view outside. The controls looked unchanged as well.

After checking the navigation path, Sarah swiveled around to face him. He marveled at the fact that this powerful woman was the girl he’d known in high school. After the encounter with the bullies at the lunch table, they’d had a comfortable, if distant, relationship. Neither of them was willing to be truly open. Fil knew his own secrets. Sarah had been unwilling to share her own, and he’d not been willing to admit he already knew them. They’d gone on a few dates, attended a school dance, and gradually gone their separate ways, unable to close the friendly chasm that had formed.

Until now.

“I’m part of the Alliance, just as you are. They recruited me after high school. I had no inherent talent, as my parents are both quite human, not well-known, immortal Energy masters.” She laughed at the look of shock on his face, eyes twinkling mischievously. “I’ve been everywhere, Fil. I’ve been to the Cavern and the ports. I’ve ridden in the subs and flown… obviously. I’ve studied Aliomenti and Alliance history. That’s how I know who you are, who your parents are, and what you can do.”

He nodded. That part made sense. “But you can’t… do the same.”

She shook her head. “I chose not to take the morange and zirple.”

He blinked. That was unusual. He knew it was permissible in the Alliance to make such a choice, but had never heard of or met anyone who’d chosen that path. “I’m truly curious. Why not?” He hoped he hadn’t given offense.

She shrugged in nonchalance. “I like to be challenged to the highest possible degree. I hid myself in high school, trying to avoid notice, trying to fit in by not sticking out. You were always nice to me, even if you didn’t really know who I was or anything about me. Always said hello, held doors, offered me a spare pen if I couldn’t find mine. That helped me to realize something as we started our final year. I hadn’t challenged myself in high school in any way. I just hid from everyone and everything. I didn’t stick my neck out to be nice to someone, or stand up for them. I was too frightened of the possible backlash that might come if I sided with the wrong person. I’d decided
that
day that I was going to change, to challenge myself in every way possible to the greatest degree possible. I’d tried avoiding everything, and I didn’t like myself as a result. What better way to work on being the new me, that day, than to stand up for you when those bullies came after you?” She shook her head. “I didn’t really understand everything. You were as open with me as you could be, given the nature of your secret. Me? I could never figure out how to open up. And we grew apart.”

Her face turned serious. “After my recruitment, I learned about the power Energy users possess. I learned about
you
and your sister, learned that those boys only lived that day through a sheer test of will on your part. It made me realize that while power that great is its own challenge, obtaining power of that sort, even if to a much lesser degree, would feel like… I dunno, a cheat code. Do you know what those are?”

Fil shook his head. “Not really.”

She nodded. The view screen briefly distracted him; the scenery below them looked strangely familiar. He wasn’t certain where they were going. But he trusted her. “In video games, a cheat code basically lets you win without developing the deep skill required to do so. It would be a secret code to let you run much faster than everyone else, or gain ten times the strength you’d otherwise have, or be invincible to attacks by others. When I learned about the abilities I’d develop with Energy… it felt like a cheat code. And so I’ve chosen to play the game with my human limitations. It’s a challenge that I enjoy.”

Fil stared at her. He felt inspiration at her story… and he was incredibly jealous.

“I wish I could be you,” he said.

She cocked her head. “Seriously? Why would you be jealous of me?”

He nodded. “I wake to the sensation and smell of my skin burning from the inside each day. I can’t lose control, because if I do, if I’m angry… I knocked over a three hundred year old tree when I was six, Sarah, just by laughing at my dog.” He felt a lump in his throat; he’d never seen Smokey again, and missed her. “Nobody knows how much damage I would do now if I lost control while angry. And the buildup over time makes it worse. I have to find scutarium-shielded buildings and throw off as much Energy as I can as often as possible.” He shook his head. “I go to the Cavern and the people there, they think I’m special, that they want to be me. They think I’m lucky. I’m not lucky. I’m cursed.”

Sarah frowned. “I don’t think you’re cursed. I think you’re the perfect manifestation of your parents love for each other. What better way to memorialize a love that’s lasted over a thousand years than one with such power… and the strength of character to refrain from using it for improper purposes?”

He’d never thought of it that way. “I suppose that makes sense.” He paused. “So you elected not to develop Energy skills, then. What… if you don’t mind my asking… what does an Alliance member do if they make that choice? It seems everything we do, in the Cavern and Outside, requires Energy.”

“Or immortality,” she noted. “I
did
take the ambrosia, after giving them my blood sample for storage. My mom had surgery a few years after I joined up; one of the Alliance worked there and was able to scrape up a sample that I could use if needed. I doubt I’ll ever have children, but if the opportunity arises, I’m set. On the other hand, I now have the ability to do good for centuries. That has an appeal all its own.”

That explained a lot. “The ambrosia explains the speed and quickness and strength.” He shook his head. “It’s hard to believe we’re meeting again after all this time.”