Ouroboros 2: Before (14 page)

Carson quickly realized how serious this situation was.

He needed to get into the city, and if Harya and Cara were his way in, then he had to be careful how he handled them. Still, he couldn’t afford to put Nida in any more danger.

Clamping down on his teeth and feeling a kick of nerves scoot quickly through his gut, he shook his head and took a menacing step forward. ‘We’re here to help,’ she said one last time, making each word as firm as he could.

He also stared directly into Cara’s stunning eyes.

The woman did not look away, and she did not blink. Instead, she held his gaze with such unwavering focus, Carson had to admit no one had ever looked at him like that before.

Carson was suddenly and rather inappropriately reminded of the fact he liked strong women.

Women with fire, with action in their hearts.

Cara pressed her teeth flat into her lips. ‘I don’t believe you,’ she said simply.

‘
Sister, please,’ Harya began, ‘they saved me.’

‘
You are a fool, Harya, and you are too trusting. We know nothing of this man and his whore.’

Carson bristled at that, but not nearly as much as Nida.

In fact, for the first time in the conversation, she stepped forward. With the strangest of gazes, she assessed Cara. ‘You have no option. Take us to the resistance. You cannot keep us in this pipe, and neither can you let us leave; while you disabled the defenses to allow us to enter, you will not be able to disable them again to let us out.’

Cara snarled. ‘You won’t be leaving
—’
she began, her tone thick with menace.

‘
Stop,’ Nida demanded.

While Cara’s tone rang with warning, Nida’s absolutely boomed with authority.

Age old, ancient authority in fact.

He could hear the entity’s force powering through her voice, and the effect of it sent a cold shiver down his back. It also made Cara and Harya freeze.

‘
You need us,’ Nida continued. ‘You over-estimate your abilities—you tried to dispatch us, but you cannot. You can, however, try to trust us,’ her tone lowered, evened out, and in an instant became calm and trusting.

It also became mesmerizing.

Or maybe she did.

As she stood there reasoning with Cara, Nida had such a presence to her. Carson couldn’t help but stare and be silently awed by it.

Cara shook her head, but immediately Nida put up a hand. Again it was a commanding move. As once again it seemed laced with the energy and force of the entity.

. . . .

Which was bad.

Though the entity might be able to get through to Cara and gain her trust, it would come at an incredible cost.

Every time the entity took control of Nida, it opened itself up to further corruption.

And Carson couldn’t stomach the thought of anymore objects being sucked towards Nida in a murderous, fatal vortex.

‘
I’ve got this,’ he suddenly spat, drawing alongside Nida and placing a hand on her shoulder.

He could feel her vibrating under his touch. This incredible, invisible energy moved through her, and it brought with it an unnerving heat that sank deep and fast into his hand, up his arm, and right into his chest.

Still, he didn’t pull his hand back.

He would keep it there until the entity stopped controlling her.

‘
Please,’ he now said, staring up sharply into Cara’s eyes.

‘
Help?’ Cara questioned.

‘
Stop it, Cara,’ Harya said suddenly. She also lunged forward, twisted Cara around, and stared into her sister’s eyes. ‘I might be too trusting, but you’re too suspicious. I trust these people,’ she said slowly. ‘Plus, he could have killed you,’ Harya’s tone dropped as she shot a confused look Carson’s way. ‘Trust me. I saw his power when he defeated the varg. But he didn’t kill you,’ she pointed out through a swallow.

‘
That doesn’t mean anything,’ Cara replied coldly, sending Carson a stony and calculating look.

Again, Carson couldn’t help but agree with Cara. If their roles were reversed, and he was in her position, he would not trust a word he said.

After all, he was a spy, just not from the government.

He was from the future, and his only intention was to use the resistance to get into the city.

Cara could not guess that though, but it was clear she knew something was up as she surveyed him through a narrowed gaze. ‘Tell me, spy, what would you do in my position?’ she perceptively asked.

Ask me tips about combat, he suddenly thought, but wasn’t dumb enough to say it. Though it was a neat one-liner, a woman like Cara would take it as an excuse to launch an attack.

‘
Look,’ he began, realizing he had to convince her soon or face the prospect of the entity intervening.

By now it was clear the entity trusted Cara and Harya and the resistance too probably—or at least enough to use them to enter the city.

It had stopped Carson outside when he had been ready to leave Harya.

And right now it seemed intent on convincing Cara to trust them.

Still, if that wouldn’t work, Carson knew what he had to do.

His plasma gun.

Even with Cara’s armor, he’d be able to get off a clear shot. And at a lower setting, he would be guaranteed it would knock her out and scramble her memories.

Then he could continue through these tunnels.

. . . .

As he considered that possibility, it was as if Nida read his mind. She quickly put a hand out and settled it neatly on his arm.

Her skin still vibrated.

It was such an incredible sensation. It felt human—felt warm and tangible—yet at the same time it was as if her flesh had been replaced by a viscous liquid that lapped against his flesh.

Shuddering, he tried to ignore it.

He also forced himself to think—desperately hard—of what he could say to convince Cara.

He could try threatening her with the fact they had seen her face and would know she was a traitor, but he knew that would likely only enrage her further.

He could appeal to her sense of curiosity, promising to reveal the secrets of his technology only if she took him to the rest of the resistance. Yet, once again, he knew that would not work.

She was simply too smart. Usually an admirable quality, right now it was tearing him apart.

‘
I am not going to trust you just because you beat me in a fight, boy,’ Cara spat, ‘and I’m not going to trust you just because you’ve proven you’re stronger. And there is no way—absolutely no way—that I am going to take you to the rest of the resistance.’

Nida twitched at his side, gasping with pain.

She clutched a hand to her chest.

She was still wearing the long black gloves she’d found in the farmhouse.

They were made of a thick fabric, yet he now swore he could see blue light peeking through the tight weave.

It was going to happen again.

The entity was going to lose control.

No.

No.

Not here, not now.

She stumbled forward, and he reached out to steady her.

‘
Nida,’ he screamed, falling to his knees beside her, not noticing that he’d just used her real name.

For a brief moment she looked up at him. Her eyes were wide with pain, and all the blood had drained from her cheeks leaving a sickly pale hue.

But it was the way her lips trembled that really affected him.

Then it happened.

He could feel it build up around him. This incredible energy that came lapping at his body and mind.

A warning, creaking noise filtered through the air.

He had just enough time to turn before Cara's helmet shot up from the floor and lanced towards Nida.

He plunged forward, caught it, and span on the spot as the momentum twisted him around like a spinning top.

He heard Cara gasp and Harya scream.

He didn't have time to register their shocked expressions though; suddenly there was a groan from the wall behind him.

When he'd punched off the door handle, it hadn't fallen to the floor—instead it hung off, still connected to the door by a thin lip of metal.

Well now it simply snapped, and in a blinding second came shooting towards Nida.

Again he lunged forward and caught it, but this time the metal grated against his skin as it flew by.

It cut his hand from his thumb to his forefinger.

Before he could check on the cut to garner its severity, he simply made a quick mental command to his armor, and saw it slam in place over his hands and arms.

Just as the plating came into place over his fingers, the sophisticated on-board computer would have registered his cut. It would have also sealed it and sent restorative nanoparticles into the injury. This armor was, after all, the good stuff. If Carson had still been wearing the terrible pre-fab armor he'd grabbed for the Barbarian fight aboard the Farsight, he would be faring a lot worse right now.

‘
What the hell is happening?’ he heard Cara roar.

He didn't have the time to explain, and neither did he have the vocabulary. To someone like Cara—who had never seen the wonderful technological marvels of the future—this scene would look like something out of a nightmare.

Nida still sat on the ground, her hands planted into the thick muck covering the bottom of the pipe as her shoulders heaved up and down with every labored breath.

Though he span on the spot again, grabbing another chunk of the door as it scooted towards her, he turned long enough to note the blue glow peeking out from her left glove.

Soon enough that light would cover her whole form. And there would be no neat way of explaining that to Cara and Harya.

. . . .

If he got the chance to explain anything to them, that was.

With an enormous, rattling boom, the whole door came free from its hinges.

He couldn't catch it.

So he used the device.

Again, the desire to thrust forward with the hand carrying the strange glowing red machine was instinctual. It felt as if some force separate to him momentarily took control of his body as he darted forward and slammed his right hand out.

Instantly a blast of energy rocketed out from the device and struck the door, shattering the metal into countless shards and sending them towards the wall of the pipe with such force they lodged deep into the wall.

He heard Harya scream something, but whatever it was, the sound of her voice was drowned out by a shuddering, thundering roar.

Carson looked up with a pale, ashen face to note that an enormous section of the ceiling was starting to peel off.

. . . .

He plunged to the side, rolled over the muck, not caring at all that it splashed over his helmet and chest.

He reached Nida.

He had no idea whether he could or should pick her up. He had no idea whether touching her would send the entity within corrupting further.

He just had to get her out of here.

So he reached her, crumpled his arms down, and lifted her off the ground.

If her body had vibrated under his touch before, now it felt as if it pulsed with all the raw power of a star.

His arms actually trembled with it.

But still he managed to push forward, aiming for the open door.

His heart beating so hard it felt as if he would shatter his ribs, he made it through the door just as the sound of the ceiling giving way reached a cracking crescendo.

Sailing through the open door, once he was through, his boots struck a solid and thankfully clean concrete floor.

With a brief, frantic glance around him, he noted he was in a corridor with a low ceiling. Grey and drab, it didn't have any lights to speak of.

It didn't matter though.

He could still see the shapes around him indicating the various junk that littered the floor and walls. There was some kind of device to his left, and underneath it was an axe behind a glass case, possibly in case of fire.

He didn't have time to contemplate that fact though, as with a crack, the glass holding the axe in place shattered and shot towards him.

His armor still did not cover his whole body – just his arms, hands, face, and chest. Yet right now he commanded it to form in full, and he twisted on the spot, fell to his knees, and tried to protect Nida with the bulk of his back.

Though his armor formed in the blink of an eye, it wasn't quick enough, and with a jolt of pain, Carson realized several shards of glass had scooted past it and lodged into his back.

Ignoring the biting, stabbing sensation, he stumbled to his knees.

Turning, he was just in time to see the axe spinning through the air towards him.