Chains of Freedom (48 page)

"Are you God, RJ, that you can see the future? She knows no more than you or I. Who will come with me to save the work units of GA? Or is it only ex-military personnel that are worth saving? Is this our brave new world?"

The split was predictable. The ex-military wouldn't follow David to the toilet, but the former work units—nearly half the population of Alsterase—couldn't follow him fast enough. David herded his people into troop carriers and freight haulers.

Kirsty insisted on going.

"You know nothing about fighting, Kirsty. You'll be safer in Alsterase."

"I don't think so, David. You know how RJ feels about me. How they all do. They'll just look for a reason to kill me." She took his hand and started to cry. "Please, David. I'm afraid."

"OK, Kirsty, but we'll leave you up the road. Well away from the fighting."

Kirsty smiled broadly as he walked away to go check on supplies.

RJ approached David. "You won't listen to reason?"

"Will you?"

RJ's cool snapped, but her voice never rose. "I never thought this day would come. I never thought, in my wildest dreams, that you could betray me like this. Betray the New Alliance like this. How could I see that you would use the power that I helped you obtain to turn so many against me. No one could have convinced me that it would come to this. That you would jeopardize everything that we have worked for in an attempt to prove to the world that you are more righteous than I. I should have left you in the woods. You will bring defeat upon us all."

Her words stung. He didn't feel like he was betraying anyone, he was only doing what he thought was right. "If you really believe that, then why don't you try to stop me?" David asked.

"Toward what end? Open warfare in the streets of Alsterase? Don't you realize what you've done? We were a people united by a common cause. You have purposely divided us. You have taken one people and made us two. You have made us enemies of each other." She shook her head sadly. "Topaz is right. Power does corrupt." She walked away, shoulders slumped, head held low. She pulled a coin from her chain, and chucked it into the air to let it fall where it would.

David saw it fall and picked it up. "I'll bring this back to you when I've won, RJ," he called after her. When she didn't respond he put it in his pocket and continued to himself, "Then all will be right again. You'll see."

RJ couldn't sleep. Of course, she didn't really need to sleep every day, so it was no real problem. She stood at the window and looked out at the city. Her heart was broken, and she was worried. She hadn't counted on this. She hated not knowing. She hated it when things didn't go as calculated. It left her at a loss. How do you deal with something that you weren't prepared for?

How bad was it going to be? Should they leave Alsterase? Were they in danger here? If they were, leaving could be the worst thing to do. After all, at least they had cover here, and a plan for defense. On the open road they would be sitting ducks.

"Want me to help you worry?" Whitey asked from the bed.

RJ joined him on the bed, laying her head on his chest and wrapping her arms around him.

He held her tightly. "It's bad, isn't it?"

"I don't know. Could be. I'm thinking of evacuating to the Island, at least till things cool off."

"I still can't believe he did that," Whitey shook his head.

"I can't believe that I didn't see it coming. The way he's been acting . . ."

Whitey laughed. "Honey, no one, not even you, can figure out every angle. Not when human beings are involved."

"I'm scared, Whitey," she whispered.

Whitey was shocked. He couldn't imagine RJ being afraid of anything.

"Of what?"

"Everything. Life was so simple when no one was counting on me. When I didn't care about anyone and no one cared about me. Now . . . well . . . if I fail . . ." She swallowed hard. "I love you, Whitey."

"I love you, too. Everything will be fine; you'll see." He held her tightly.

The primary attack was silent, and consisted of one person, if you could call Zark a person. He kept to the shadows as he walked down the street, and no one saw him. He made straight for the hotel and entered it without a hitch.

Dex looked up from where he'd been almost asleep behind the desk. "What ya . . ."

The laser was silent, but no less effective. The fat man slumped in his chair, breaking his favorite rule.

The GSH made his way up the stairs heading purposefully towards the fourth floor. When he reached it, he moved along silently towards RJ's room. But even a GSH can't be held accountable for a squeaky floorboard or a human's over-sensitive hearing.

Sandra wasn't quite asleep. She had just left Levits, Mickey and Poley back at the Golden Arches not quite thirty minutes ago. She heard someone in the hall outside, and was willing to bet it wasn't 'the boys.' When they came in, they made enough noise to wake the dead. She got up quietly, slipped into her robe, and picked up her laser. She went to the door and opened it a crack. She saw the stranger, weapon in hand, poised outside RJ's door, and she didn't hesitate. She stepped quickly into the hall and fired. She scored a direct hit, but the stranger didn't even stagger. She knew instantly what she was up against. She hit the floor and rolled so that his first shot missed, then she jumped up and ran for her room. She knew it was a wasted effort, but if she could just keep it busy.

"Freak! RJ! It's a Freak!" The bolt ripped through her temple and flung her into a wall. Fate was kind to Sandra. She fought to the very end and died instantly.

RJ heard the blaster fire and Sandra's warning. She pushed Whitey onto the floor and jumped up, grabbing her chain in one hand and her laser in the other. She never got a chance to use either. The door exploded in splinters, and a titanium-steel projectile ripped through the doorway and across her face and forehead. She fell limp to the floor. Whitey fumbled for the rocket launcher they kept under their mattress. He got it and raised it to fire. The first bolt caught Whitey in the gut. Whitey continued to raise the launcher to a firing position, but before he could fire, a second bolt caught him in the chest. As he lost control of his body, and the weapon fell from his hands, he saw the GSH pull a laser knife.

"No!" Whitey mumbled through a mouth full of blood.

"I suppose it would be kinder to kill you so that you didn't have to watch this." Then he grinned and cut RJ so that her mechanical heart fell out of her chest, and her life's blood poured onto the floor. He left the heart hanging there. Then he grabbed RJ's chain from the floor. He waved at Whitey. "It belongs to my woman, now! Have a good time dying, you two."

Zark went in search of the robot, but it wasn't in its room, and he was running out of time. Soon the troops would come flooding in, and he still had one more thing to get before he could return to Capitol and Jessica.

Zark ran down the stairs. In the lobby, he discharged a fire grenade. That would take care of anything he might have missed.

Levits saw the fire first. "My God! The hotels on fire!"

In a matter of seconds, the entire clientele of the bar was in the street.

"I hear choppers," Poley informed Levits.

Levits didn't want to be in control. He didn't want to . . ."Poley, Mickey, go sound the alarm. You and you,"—he pointed at two slightly familiar faces—"come with me. The rest of you, go to your units." They all went in separate directions. By the time Levits and the two men with him hit the hotel, the lobby was completely in flames, and there was no way of getting through. "The back door!" Levits yelled, and the others followed. The back door had been nailed shut for security, so they broke in a window. Guns were drawn. "You two, evacuate the lower levels. I'll get the fourth floor."

"Hey, Levits!"

He turned to face the man. "What?" he asked, shortly.

"Good luck, man," he said, and saluted. It was the first time in a long time anyone had shown him that kind of respect.

"You, too." Levits took off at a dead run. He took the steps three at a time, fighting back the fear and uncertainty with every step. The last time he'd been in charge of anything, everything had gone so dreadfully wrong. He had done everything wrong.
Please, God, let it be different this time.

The first thing he saw when he reached the fourth floor was Sandra's lifeless body. He ran to her and rolled her over. She was obviously dead. He held her close. "Oh, Sandy!" He didn't even try to stop his tears. For a moment, he was just going to hold her and let the flames consume him. Then he saw RJ's door, or the space where the door used to be. He left Sandra and ran for the room. More horror greeted him there. Dead! They were both dead! He started to leave and return to die with Sandra.

"Levits . . ." The voice was so low, he almost didn't hear.

He ran back to Whitey's side. "Thank God, Whitey! I thought you were dead, too . . ."

". . . will be soon," Whitey choked and blood oozed from his mouth. "Save RJ."

Levits refused to even look at her mangled body. "I can't, Whitey . . . Maybe you . . ."

Whitey was sinking fast. "Listen to me, Levits. RJ is a GSH. You can save her! She's got Pronuses . . . in her jacket . . ." The light went out of his eyes, and Levits closed them.

"I understand, Whitey. I'll save her." Levits approached the mangled body and felt for a pulse. "Well, I'll be damned!" He looked at the metal heart that lay on her belly. Swallowing hard, he took it in hand and shoved it into the opening in her chest.

It only took him a second to find the jacket and a second more to find the pills in her kit. He put three directly into her mouth from the tube, hoisted her into his arms, and headed for the roof. He loaded her in the chopper, and got in himself. In the distance, he could hear the roar of aircraft coming in. In a few minutes, the air would be full of them. The city that had given shelter to their rebellion would be gone, like Sandy and Whitey. He started the chopper and took off.

"Don't die, RJ." He gritted his teeth. "We have to make them pay, RJ. You and me, we gotta make them pay for all they have taken from us."

He had barely cleared the building when there was a loud explosion, and suddenly the whole building was in flames. This time he had done everything right, and he had still failed. Maybe that was just the way life was. For Whitey and Sandra and all the others who would die tonight, the fighting would be over. But for the survivors, the fighting was just beginning. For him and RJ it could never end.

Not now.

Zark's luck was exceptional that night. He was about to give up his search for the metal man when he looked up and saw him running straight for him.

Poley stopped dead and grabbed Mickey, who would have kept going.

Mickey saw the GSH.

"Go sound the alarm; I'll keep him busy," Poley said. "Run!"

"We should both run," Mickey said, pulling on the robot's hand.

"We can't outrun it, Mickey. Now go! Run!"

Reluctantly, Mickey took off as fast as his short little legs would carry him. He glanced back over his shoulder just in time to see the monster cut Poley's head off with a laser knife, and put it into a bag. The sparks flew, but even the realization that Poley was a robot didn't ease Mickey's feeling of loss. He couldn't let Poley down. He ran faster than he ever had before. He finally reached and sounded the alarm, and Alsterase awoke.

Topaz met Levits at the pad. "I saw the choppers on the radar. I tried to sound the general alarm, it must be on the . . . Oh my God!"

"She's bad." Levits lifted her out of the chopper. "Well, come on, man, don't just stand there." Levits started for the medical unit. He laid her down on one of the surgical tables.

Topaz looked at the cut on her face and forehead and the gash in her chest. He saw the veins in her neck thumping and knew she was barely alive. "My God!" he said again.

"Whitey said she's a GSH, and she must be, because I gave her three Pronuses, and they didn't kill her. Her heart's mechanical, too. What the hell is she, Topaz?"

"She's everything that Stewart knew. Everything that he wanted to be." Topaz was far away, and he wasn't doing anything.

"Don't just stand there, man . . ."

"Quite right. What have you done besides the Pronuses?"

"Her heart was out of her chest. I shoved it back in. I . . ." Suddenly he turned white, ran into the hall, and threw up. Funny, doing it hadn't made him sick, but looking down at the dried blood on his hands did. Thinking about Sandra and Whitey didn't help. When he was done puking, he sat on the floor and started to cry.

Topaz scrubbed and put on gloves. In five-hundred-some years he had learned just about everything, and what he didn't know, Marge did. Together, they went to work on RJ.