The Restoration of Flaws (The Phantom of the Earth Book 5) (21 page)

Finally, they arrived.

They halted prior to full penetration and destroyed a lateral passage large enough to ensure an all-out assault with ten thousand Janzers in the first wave. The Janzer Blues shared hand signals, and after a wide flash of light the walls crumbled. The Janzers rumbled through, roaring as they went. They drew their shuriken and pulse rifles and readied for maximum carnage. When the smoke cleared, they found nothing.

No one.

Norrod was astonished.

He advanced to the center of the hollowed enclave with polished stone and limestone pillars. Colorful bioluminescence revealed a cavern full of stalactites, stalagmites, waterfalls, and passageways, but no BP.

He ordered the Janzers to conduct a search, and divisions scurried in all directions. Whether this was a ploy or an illusion, Norrod couldn’t tell. When the team leaders emerged and exchanged hand signals, Granville panels on the far side of Blackeye Cavern became illuminated. Faint at first, the letters soon focused, and stilled Norrod’s heart.

The message looped, like a Navitan ticker, and one of the Blues rushed out of a tunnel.

“General!” he said.

He gasped.

“
General!
”

He lifted his visor.

“Get them out! Get them—”

And the pillars exploded from top to the bottom, one by one. The cavernous hall collapsed upon the army, ending Antosha’s view of Blackeye Cavern.
Goodbye, Norrod
, he thought.

In Luxor, keeper bots helped Chancellor Masimovian and Gallegos down from their camels. Masimovian’s maidens surrounded him, and the entourage moved up the marble stairs to the Palace of Luxor. Masimovian threw his beret to the crowd below, who swarmed over it like bees to honey. They chanted his name.

Masimovian strode onward with Gallegos and the Janzers. Strike teams stood in position at the base of the palace. Millions of Beimenians waved and cheered. Auburn palm trees waved on either side in the gentle arid air. The Janzers formed a perimeter around the stage where the ministry sat waiting, clad in silk tunics and Beimeni berets and glistening jewels.

Masimovian climbed the marble steps to the precipice, where Prime Minister Decca awaited. Decca bowed to Masimovian and ambled with him across the platform. Then Decca raised his hands high and applauded. The crowd joined him in thunderous celebration.

Antosha could feel Gallegos’s relief as he took a chair. There were many steps, and he was far from top physical condition. He wiped his brow as the crowd cheered on.

Masimovian raised and lowered his hands.

The sounds of rustling palm trees spread over the promenade with the silent rain of red rose petals. The clouds parted above and allowed the Granville sunlight to pour over the glass-domed palace and the stage and the people.

“Serve Beimeni!” Masimovian said.

“
Live forever!
” the crowd returned.

“Serve Beimeni!”

“
Live forever!
”

“Serve Beimeni!”

“
Live forever!
”

Masimovian clapped, and the chants from the crowd’s chorus ceased.

“Thank you!” Masimovian said. “Thank you!” He smiled and waved. When the crowd was quiet, he continued. “I love speaking to Beimenians, especially when I have good news!”

“A change is coming, one that will have profound implications for our civilization.”

Behind and above Masimovian and Decca, a hologram formed, a rendering of carbyne spires and glass, columns and light blue domes—a city under construction.

“It is with great pleasure, my fellow Beimenians, that I give to you … Sky City, the first city within containment upon the Earth’s surface free of Reassortment!”

“I promised you we would return to the surface! And so it shall be!”

“Thank you! You’re too kind, Beimeni! I hope Beimenians throughout our Great Commonwealth will join us here in Luxor during the Autumn Gala in our celebration of this outstanding significant conversion!”

The ground shook, and the sky darkened. The chants gave way to gasps, screams, and two bursts from a pulse gun. Chaos ensued, and the ministers scattered. Gallegos took cover with them.

The Janzers ignited white phosphorescent flares and surrounded Chancellor Masimovian and Prime Minister Decca, who lay side by side in a pool of blood. In a single stroke, the chancellor and his first in the line of succession were dead.

Hydra Hollow

300 meters deep

Verena had learned the complex BP labyrinth around Hydra Hollow and, together with Jocelyn, ushered the weakest and neediest Polemon to safe houses in the West, South, Central, and, later on, the North.

Not long after Jeremiah sent his eldest son with a helper of the Leadership (disguised as a Courier of the Chancellor), the helper returned with a cryptor from Zorian. Its coded message indicated that Arrowhead City, Kiplorea City, Nurino City, Xerean City, and Boreas City could serve as hosts to BP escapees from the Hollow—for a price. Minister Mueriniti would keep Zorian as her hostage to the conclusion of the Evolutionary War. This didn’t please Jeremiah, but he had no choice but to send the helper back to Xerean, indicating he accepted the North’s terms of reversal with the Front. It didn’t take long for the BP to reconstruct their Polemon passageways in the North, along the rivers.

Verena learned over time that the intricacies of the passageways throughout the commonwealth explained why the government couldn’t solve them—or put down the Liberation Front. For as quickly as the Janzers scuttled a tunnel, the BP built twenty new ones. If they destroyed ten, the BP constructed a hundred more in many different directions, like a beehive.

Verena and Jocelyn moved through the darkened tunnels, guided by touch, dressed in government garb, maroon capes and black boots with golden chains and hoods. They smuggled BP in cartons and crates, barrels and boxes, any and every contraption that carried cargo over the Underground Passage.

Today, the BP celebrated. The sounds of harps, violins, and guitars filled the Hollow’s great cavern. Colorful bioluminescence decorated every stream and column. Verena and Jocelyn awaited their turn at a limestone bar where a man with melon cheeks served grilled beef strips, boiled vegetables, water, alcoholic cider, and lemonade. Jocelyn placed her order, and the man smiled and handed the child stone cups filled with lemonade and cider. Verena thanked her and brushed her chin, a little unsteadily, for she wasn’t comfortable with Jocelyn’s assistance, or her presence, so close to the end.

The last of the Beimeni Polemon in the Hollow gathered in the center for song and dance. Verena pushed her fingers through Jocelyn’s sausage curls.

“Come along now,” she said, “they’re about to begin.” She knew Jocelyn loved the Polemon melodies. The BP danced in circles round the pillars, and across the footbridges that led over the streams, to their ballad, “Strike, Strike, Strike.”

May anarchy provide cover for our escape
, Verena thought,
and Nero’s
…

She found herself thinking about him more often, for no news of the BP held in Farino Prison leaked outside the city or territory, the one territory notably absent from Zorian’s cryptor. Verena didn’t even know if Nero still lived. But if he somehow survived the harsh conditions on the prison islands and the power outage disabled the Converse Collars the way Jeremiah assured her it would, he’d find a way out.

He must.

Now Jeremiah Selendia ascended the precipice on the main cavern’s south side. The BP applauded and raised their mugs. Jocelyn let go of Verena’s hand and covered her ears.

The crowd silenced.

“My people,” Jeremiah began, “I can’t assure you we will have this war settled in days,” he wagged his thumb rhythmically and nodded deliberately, “but I can assure you that no matter what happens, we won’t rest until the iron fist is broken. We won’t rest until we live under rule of law that doesn’t punish the weak and benefit the privileged. We won’t rest until the ministry hears our collective voice and gives us a seat at the table.”

The BP roared and raised their fists and mugs and pulse weapons and diamond swords high above their heads.

“We’ve experienced birth and death together,” Jeremiah added. “We’ve experienced sadness and joy together. We’ve experienced hope and fear together. Hope that our tomorrows will bring sustenance and clean air and peace, fear that our government will exterminate us—but we have something that our kin below cannot claim.

“We have our dignity and honor, our flaws, the wrinkles on our skin, the missing limbs, the gray hair, broken bones, tears and sweat and arched backs that strengthen us and bind us and guide us and allow us to live the way mankind was designed to: with family, and one with the Earth.

“Believe me when I tell you, I know life in the Hollow and along the Underground Passage hasn’t been perfect.” He waved his thumb up and down with each phrase. “But I appreciate your sacrifices, your pledges. You’ve pledged your immortality, you’ve pledged your children, you’ve pledged your souls to a cause beyond any one of us, and so I want to assure you this isn’t goodbye.” The BP applauded and cheered, waving their pulse guns and swords. “This isn’t the end.” More applause. “This is the new beginning.”

Jeremiah waited for silence. “Go forth now over the Underground Passage and be free!” He raised his arms and smiled.

The BP rumbled and dispersed.

Thanks the gods
, Verena thought,
we’re free. We’re free.
Verena had wanted to lead the rest of the BP out days ago. She darted up the steps to Jeremiah, Jocelyn at her side.

“Won’t you come with us?” she said.

“I’ll remain here with a group of commandos to ensure the assault arrives,” Jeremiah said, “draw them in to give the offensive and your escape the time required.” He paused and bobbed his head while his people filed though caves and crystals. “Thank you for your faith in me, and this cause.”

“I must do what feels right in my heart.”

For so long, what felt right to Verena was a return to the teams’ prominence in the commonwealth, a time when they were the true protectors of peace. Now, she wasn’t sure what to think, but she knew these people who she broke bread with daily didn’t deserve to die.

“As do I, my lady, now get out of here and rendezvous with the command in Portage Cit—”

The wall in the main cavern disappeared.

Reddish light intermingled with the gentle, colorful bioluminescent waterfalls.

Shrieks followed, shrieks that could break bones and stop the heart—from the commonwealth’s terror birds.

“To arms!” Verena said. “Take cover in the—”

“Not you, my lady, you’re too important, your captain will need you in Portage.” He pushed her back. She looked upon him with a furrowed brow, unsure if she heard him right.

Did he mean she should expect a reunion with Captain Broden Barão?

“Take the girl and go!”

Verena grabbed Jocelyn’s hand, but before they could descend into the caves, Janzers burst through the colorful waterfalls, and pulse blasts dispersed throughout the Hollow.

“Stay behind me!” Verena said.

She threw Jocelyn against a limestone nook and aimed her pulse gun.

The first line of birds stretched their necks and beaks, as dark as night, their wings outspread. They shrieked and Jocelyn fell into Verena, covering her ears. The BP scattered behind the limestone pillars and in hidden enclosures near the waterfalls and cliffs.

Jeremiah dashed to the precipice and hand-signaled to his commandos, who took positions along the walls, hidden, isolated.

Pulse blasts shattered the stone near him, and he waved to Verena. She heard his voice in her head.
Get out! Go to Portage Citadel!

Hundreds of terror birds burst through the opening, and the hall filled with crossfire.

The commandos took down bird after bird, Janzer after Janzer, though the Janzers returned fire, and the birds lunged and ripped apart the BP.

Verena and Jocelyn backed into a nook along the sill. Verena knelt and fired upon the birds until a Janzer division turned with their pulse rifles and fired at her. She drew back with Jocelyn, who huddled between stalagmites.