Spanners - The Fountain of Youth (10 page)

“Count it,“ said Adam.

The guard counted the money, and then nodded.

“A thousand dollars and change,” said the guard, looking at the man who lost. “Makes a compelling case. You cool?”

“I’m cool,” said the man.

Adam let the man go and he brushed himself off. The guard looked at Ed and laughed.

“Ed, you ain’t welcome here no more,” said the guard before shifting his focus to Adam. “But bro,
you’re
welcome here
anytime
.”

/***/

The cab driver smiled at Adam and then drove away, four times the fare in his hand, plus tip. Adam and Ed stepped into the diner, sat down and then Ed ordered three espressos and a large coffee. Adam didn’t know how the caffeine helped Ed calm down, but it did and soon he didn’t shake as much.
Every spanner knows about Ed,
thought Adam.
He’s a legend within our community. But I know he’s just a guy who doesn’t fit into this world and is making a living the only way he can. Judging from his two black eyes, the living is a harsh one.

Adam thought about giving Ed some
cash in exchange for the advice he was about to receive. Like Ed, Adam always had money on him, but Adam earned his living the safe way, by selling the occasional priceless bottle of cognac, saving compulsively and living frugally. He wanted to offer Ed money just to keep Ed out of the poker rooms, but thought against it. Ed had no other place than the poker rooms to go, and he always refused payment from those he considered friends. Ed never took favors and always gave his advice for free.

“You’ve been to visit D-Diego de León,” said Ed, his voice calmed by the espresso.

“How did you know?” asked Adam with a smile.

“I see everyth-thing,” said Ed
. “Hear everything too.”

Adam understood Ed’s power; he’d watch the angle of someone’s sweat drop over his brow, or listen for heartbeats to gauge someone’s emotion. But Ed always seemed to go beyond that; he’d listen to you and gauge the rest of the
story, or listen to someone who knew you and figure out the rest of the tale from that. Adam didn’t understand how Ed knew what Adam had done, but he always knew, even when Adam hadn’t told anyone.

Adam recapped the story just to be sure Ed had the details, and Ed nodded.

“It makes s-sense,” said Ed. “Juan’s a bad man. He tried to exterminate m-me.”             

“Why did he do that?” asked Adam. “It seems like he’d want your abilities.”

“No one wants m-my abilities,” said Ed. “I can’t help him unlock the Fountain’s power, so he tried to h-have me killed. I h-heard of it early and hid. He left me alone; I’m n-not his highest priority.”

Ed went into a small shaking fit, calmed down and ordered two more espressos.

“What’s Juan going to do?” asked Adam. “What’s his plan?”

“To bring to the world the thing that he t-tried to bring me,” said Ed. “Elimination.”

“Elimination?”

“He wants to use the Fountain’s power of life to m-make himself strong, and use the p-power of death to kill everyone else.”

“If that’s his plan, I believe it,” said Adam. “But how? How will he
kill everyone else
?”

Ed took his coffee and put it in the center of the table. He then poured both sugar and salt in it.

“Drink it,” said Ed.

Adam took a sip and shuddered at the taste.

“This coffee’s not quite sweet and not quite salty; they b-balance each other out. It’s a strong taste, but s-still not quite either one. Salty and sweet at once b-become their own thing.”

Ed put the coffee aside, flagged down the waitress and ordered another espresso, with grits on the side.

“The F-Fountain is like that. She has the p-power of life and death within her at the same time; two entities in one. So her b-blood gives immortality and her presence can k-kill a man. But what she sh-shows now is a fraction of either of her powers, about as strong as that coffee was sweet.”

The waitress brought over the coffee and the grits. Ed poured sugar into his new coffee, and then poured salt on the grits.

“Juan wants to separate the Fountain into her t-two forms,” said Ed. “Pure life and pure death. Once s-separated, their power will not be counteracted, and he
will
have both powers at his disposal, un-unadulterated.”

“And he’ll use this power to kill people?” asked Adam.

“Y-yeah,” said Ed. “Use the Fountain’s power of death to make a p-poison or something, maybe kidnap your brother Phage and make a plague. Use the power of life to make an invincible army, hunt people down one by one until they’re all gone. I don’t know how he’ll do it, but he’ll do it; he’s good at k-killing.”

“Why? Why does he want to kill?”

“Why did he kill all those Indians five hundred years ago?” asked Ed. “Why does anyone kill? To make space for themselves, that’s all. He wants to eliminate everyone on earth, make room for his empire—just
his
people, you know.”

Ed sipped his coffee and then looked at Adam
without shaking.

“He wanted to kill me, and he’ll kill others, but it’s not like he’s killing the handicapped, the weak, that kind of thing,” said Ed. “He wants to eliminate
everyone
, except for maybe a few thousand of his own. He wants to create a new world—a new, perfect world.”

“And he’ll grant the subjects in this world the power of life from the Fountain,” said Adam.

“The power of g-gods, yes,” said Ed, his voice beginning to quiver again. “I don’t know what those powers will b-be, all I know is th-that I won’t make the cut, and n-neither will you.”

“I know,” said Adam. “I’m one of his sworn enemies, along with his brothers.”

“Sp-speaking of that, Diego told you to see the Surgeon, Santos de León?”

“He told me to steal the Fountain and then see Santos,” said Adam, not bothering to wonder how Ed had heard
of Diego’s plan. “Can Santos be trusted?”

“Yes,” said Ed, “and you h-have no other choice.”

“I’ve heard that the Surgeon is dangerous, and I know he lives in a dangerous place.”

“You’re correct in both r-regards,” said Ed. “But you need n-not worry about him now, because you have to steal the F-
Fountain from Juan’s compound first. Are you bringing Mayfly?”

“No.”

“Then g-give up,” said Ed. “You can’t fight Juan with strength, or s-stealth, or sneaking a-around because that’s his g-game. Juan’s one w-weakness is technology, and his security systems are child’s play for Mayfly. Without your m-mayfly though, you’ll be caught and put in Juan’s rack in a matter of moments.”

Ed’s not lying,
thought Adam.
We can’t do this by ourselves.

“Understood,” said Adam.

“I’m serious when I tell you to give up and h-hide,” said Ed, “because Juan has something bad in store for you, worse than b-burial.”

“Worse than burial?”

“I don’t know what it is,” said Ed, “but I felt it, just by talking to other s-spanners. Juan’ll b-bury you if he gets the ch-chance, but he’ll eventually dig you up and do something w-worse. I don’t know what it is, but it’s w-worse. So give up now and t-take care of yourself; Juan has a plan j-just for you, and he’s been th-thinking about it for five h-hundred years.”

THE COMPOUND

Mayfly woke at 2 a
.m. feeling refreshed from his hour of sleep. He stood up and put his hands on the iron bars, looked outwards and decided to escape; he had escaped from prisons much worse than this before. Mayfly felt in his pocket for his hidden lock-pick and placed it in the jail cell lock, which unfortunately also needed a guard to hit a buzzer behind a far desk. Mayfly smiled and shook his head; he’d have to come up with a different solution, but still, he’d escaped from worse and just needed some time to think.

The police had captured twenty rioters
: Mayfly, Brogg and a small fraction of the populous. The imprisoned populous became violently sick as soon as they were locked in and had to be removed; isolation was death for their kind.
They’re the perfect foot soldiers,
thought Mayfly.
If they’re captured, they won’t reveal any secrets.

Mayfly noticed that the guard behind the desk was a female, and what was more
, she had a wedding ring on. Mayfly knew that married women who worked night shifts tended to be lonely.

Maybe I should convince her to let me out,
thought Mayfly.
It’ll take me a few hours to charm her, but then I could get the rest of my group out. If only I could—

“I like your jacket, boy,” said a deep voice behind him.

Mayfly turned around and saw a large, rough man with a cobweb tattoo on his face staring at back at him. The guy was hardened by at least a decade’s worth of incarceration and was over twice Mayfly’s size.

“Thanks,” said Mayfly with a smile. “It’s mine.”

“I don’t think so,” said the man, getting up. “I want it.”

“Let’s wait until morning,” said Mayfly. “We can talk then. I still won’t give you anything, but we can talk then.”

“We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” said the prisoner.

Mayfly got up and stretched his arms. He knew he didn’t have half this guy’s strength, but Mayfly had studied judo, m
ixed martial arts, karate and taekwondo over the course of two days and was now an expert in each discipline.
Be careful
, thought Mayfly.
Prison fighting is different; cheating is okay here. He might have a friend or he might be carrying a shank—

The prisoner charged
, but before he got to Mayfly, huge fingers fell on top of the prisoner’s head and yanked him backwards. The prisoner with the cobweb tattoo fell to the ground, and Brogg placed his big hand on the man’s chest. The prisoner struggled but had no leverage; Brogg was holding him down with his full weight.

“Leave alone,” said Brogg. “Friend.”

The prisoner struggled for a bit, but soon realized it was no use. He didn’t show weakness but nodded in defeat.

“All right,” he said. “I won’t bother your friend.”

Brogg looked at the prisoner and then looked at Mayfly for approval. Mayfly nodded and Brogg let the prisoner go. The prisoner dusted himself off and then looked at Mayfly.

“You’re lucky,” said the prisoner.

“That I am,” said Mayfly with a smile.

“You’re lucky to be this stupid dude’s bitch,” said the prisoner.

In a flash Mayfly pounced at the prisoner. The prisoner steeled himself for the confrontation, but Mayfly went low and tripped the man with his foot. As the prisoner fell forward, Mayfly pulled the man’s left arm behind his back and shoved it upwards. The man screamed; just a little push and his arm would be broken in two.

“We have only a little time left in this cell, you and I,” said Mayfly. “Do you understand?”

The prisoner yelled in agony and Mayfly took it as a
yes.

“And in our brief time together
, if you ever call my friend
stupid
again, I’ll rip your fucking head off, do you understand?”

“Yeah, just let me—”

Mayfly pushed the man’s arm up and he screamed.

“A word of advice that you’d better take,” said Mayfly. “I know you probably grew up hard and some bad shit led you to this point here, begging me for forgiveness. But you’ve got a gift of life, and of
time
, and it’s a gift that many would kill for. Life’s too short to be running around threatening kids for their jackets. Stop picking on the weak and
do something
. Work in the shop, write jailhouse poetry or find religion; just
do something
. Life’s too short to do anything else.”

The prisoner didn’t say anything; he just spat.

“What’s your name?” asked Mayfly.

“Spider,” said the man.

“Get yourself a real name, maybe take back the one your mom gave you,” said Mayfly, releasing the prisoner with a shove, “because I hate spiders.”

/***/

Mayfly decided against escaping and kept watch, just in case Spider tried to shank Brogg while the caveman snored. As soon as the day began, Cattaga came to bail them out, but she didn’t look like herself; her hair was darker and so was her skin. The guards opened the cell doors and escorted them out. Mayfly, Brogg and Cattaga walked to the bottom of the police building’s steps and looked at the sun rising above the city. Their RV was parked by the side of the street, and one of the Treys was sleeping in the back while the other one was at the wheel.

“Thanks Cattaga,” said Mayfly, with a smile. “I owe you one.”

“Trey’s about to owe me one too,” said Cattaga.

Cattaga went back into the police building and came out with the third Trey.

“Different cell,” said Trey. “I didn’t have Brogg to protect me, but I was able to stay awake the whole night.”

The sleeping Trey opened his eyes and looked at Mayfly, and then came out to put his arm around Cattaga.

“So here we are again, Mayfly,” she said. “Are you coming with us?”

Mayfly looked at the sunset, thought for a moment, and then shook his head.

“No,” he said. “I’ve wasted too much time already; I’ve got to go, do my own thing. Adam will just have to handle this by himself.”

“Where are you going to go?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” said Mayfly. “But I’m going to have fun.”

Cattaga laughed and Trey scowled.

“Two of me and Brogg will take a cab back with you, Cattaga,” said Trey. “There’s something I need to show Mayfly by myself.”

“I’m sorry,” said Mayfly. “I don’t have time.”

“Yes you do,” said Trey, getting into the RV. “You have time for this.”

/***/

Trey drove along the empty highway for an hour before he spoke.

“You like Cattaga, right?” asked Trey.

Mayfly thought for a moment and then decided to answer truthfully.

“Yes,” he said. “Yes I do. I can’t help it, and in the short time we have on this earth,
mayflies act on their desires, so I might give her one more shot. Nothing personal.”

Trey drove for a moment and then smiled.

“Fair enough,” he said. “I get it; it’s who you are, and quite frankly, Cattaga’s charmed by you. I’m the established leader of this group, you come in all brash and full of freedom, you win her over, maybe take her away, right?”

“It’s not like that,” said Mayfly.

“Damn right it’s not,” said Trey. “There’s too much at stake to worry about who likes who, or anything small like that. Even if Cattaga fell head over heels for you right now I’d still bring you on board, because what we’re trying to do is more important than my own happiness, or even my life.”

Mayfly thought for a moment; Trey was indeed telling the truth.

“I see your point,” said Mayfly. “But whatever we accomplish, you’ll be around to see it; I won’t.”

“You think you have nothing to live for?” asked Trey.

“Nothing here, anyway,” said Mayfly.

“I disagree,” said Trey.

“I like you, Trey, you’re good, noble and all that,” said Mayfly, “but you don’t know anything about me.”

“I know more about you than you think,” said Trey. “And you have a lot to live for.”

“Like what?” asked Mayfly.

“I’m about to show you,” said Trey with a smile.

/***/

They circumnavigated the compound building for half an hour, and then climbed over two fences that had
Keep Out
signs above them. Trey led Mayfly to a grassy knoll; they knelt down and then Trey took out a pair of binoculars. He looked through them and then gave them to Mayfly.

“This is Juan’s compound
—at least the part that’s visible to the public. Most of the experimentation and torture happens underground, out of our sight,” said Trey, “but you can see a glimpse here. This is where they let the well-behaved spanners out for maybe half an hour a week, if that.”

Mayfly looked through the binoculars and saw a fenced
-in area and within it, a little girl with her head in her hands, crying. When another went to comfort her, the little girl showed that her face was that of an older woman, perhaps seventy.

“It’s sad,” said Mayfly. “I don’t know what spanner class that girl
is, but—”

“Look over there,” said Trey. “The far corner.”

Mayfly saw a pack of cute, small, pixie-thin spanners just like him; he did some quick math and realized that they made up over half the population in the yard.

“Are they …?” asked Mayfly.

“Yes,” said Trey. “By and large, most of the subjects kept here are mayfly-class spanners. Juan’s trying to unlock the Fountain’s power, and he needs a group that breeds well and dies fast. Your class brings in a lot of data.”

Mayfly t
ook another look at his fellow mayflies. They were just like him but had a dull, vacant look in their eyes. A female was lying face down on the ground, seizing. After a few moments she stopped and laid still. Two mayflies went over to help, but there was nothing they could do; the girl was dead.

“Generations of m
ayflies live within these walls,” said Trey, “and
die
within these walls too. Most of them have never seen the sun, not once. Some of them spend their whole lives in an experimental container; they don’t even learn a language.”

Mayfly shuddered at the thought.

“This is bigger than you and bigger than me,” said Trey. “There are other hidden compounds just like this around the world. If you help us, we’ll take down Juan’s crew. And after we do that, we’ll send Brogg to every last one of these places and he’ll break
every
door,
every
cage and every
test tube
that contains a mayfly.”

Mayfly thought for a moment, and then nodded.

“Your time is short; ours isn’t much longer,” said Trey. “But stick with us and you’ll help free every last one of your class. I promise you that.”

/***/

Mayfly and Trey drove back in silence, entered a garage and immediately parked, then took a flight of stairs down until they had reached
P4.
Trey opened up a hidden door to reveal a large storage room that the group had made habitable. Trey closed the door shut and they were locked in completely; the room was probably even soundproof.
Juan’s crew might eventually find us
, thought Mayfly,
but this won’t be the first place they look.

“This is nice,” said Mayfly. “How do you afford the rent?”

“I work three jobs,” said Trey with a smile.

Two of the other Treys were studying a map with Cattaga and Brogg. Cattaga looked up and smiled; she hugged Trey and then gave Mayfly a slightly longer hug. After she lingered just a bit longer than she should have, he pushed her away gently.

“All right,” said Mayfly. “What’s the plan and how can I help?”

Cattaga smiled and showed him the map; they were stolen blueprints of Juan’s compound.

“Adam wants us to steal the Fountain, and she’s right
here
,” said Cattaga, pointing at the most protected location.

Mayfly took a look at his team. Cattaga had the powers of stealth and disguise, the Treys had vision and Brogg looked like he was ready to rip a hole through a wall.
Brogg’s dangerous but he’s eager to do the right thing
, thought Mayfly.
We just need to tell him what the right thing is.

“We need a sneak attack,” said Cattaga. “We need something smart, something that can get past their computerized security.”

“That I can do,” said Mayfly with a smile. “But for our overall plan we might need both stealth
and
a bit of force.”

“Juan has a lot of people,” said Trey. “We can’t take them with force.”

“We’re not fighting a war with them, not yet at least,” said Mayfly. “We just need to give them a little punch, and then run away with the Fountain while they’re stunned.”

“Who’s going to
punch
them?” asked Trey.