Wasteland (Wasteland - Trilogy) (20 page)

But Caleb was already on the attack.

Sprinting forward, his adrenaline overriding his pain, he raised one elbow and rammed it into the throat of the second guard. Choking, the boy staggered backward against the wall and slid to the floor with a thud.

The other guard, bread falling from his open mouth, let out a roar and rushed at Caleb. Caleb bent forward, digging his injured shoulder into the boy’s gut. Grabbing his hood, Caleb flipped him over his head, slamming him on the floor. As he lay there, dazed, Caleb kicked at his holstered weapon, freeing it from his belt and sending it skittering across the floor and under a rusted radiator at the end of the hall.

Caleb had bought himself a few precious seconds, enough time to escape; but he forgot about the guard inside the security room, who now came barreling out, as hulking and enraged as a wild boar. Caleb scrabbled in his pack for anything that might stop him. The moment before the guard reached him, his fingers closed around something.

Perfect.

Caleb whirled his arm in a roundhouse punch and smashed a rock into the center of the guard’s hooded face. There was an audible crack, and with a scream, the boy reeled backward, clutching his nose. As his legs buckled beneath him, it was easy to grab one knee, yank it hard, and twist; this sent him crashing to the ground. Blood spurted from his nostrils, splattering his robes and the cement floor.

Caleb was halfway down the hall, heading for the stairs. There was only one thought on his mind.

Kai. Kai was alive and somewhere inside the Source.

But where? On the main floor, he ran through darkened aisles, surrounded on both sides by towering shelves stacked high with cardboard boxes. The pain in Caleb’s shoulder pulsed powerfully in time with his heart; but the sensation seemed far away, as if it belonged to someone else.

Ahead of him and high above, he saw something glinting, light reflecting off glass from some distant source he couldn’t yet place. Instinctively, he headed toward it.

Caleb reached the entrance to a wide ramp leading upward, with handrails on either side. It was a peculiar thing, unlike any he had ever seen before, almost like a mountain road inside a building. Caleb hesitated. Behind him, he could hear the heavy steps and distant shouts of Levi’s guards. They were searching for him through the aisles, spreading out across the vast floor. Making up his mind, he raced up the surface and into the darkness.

At the end, he paused to get his bearings. By the echoing void that surrounded him, Caleb sensed he was now in a large and empty space, devoid of shelved goods. As he moved forward, his eyes adjusted to the gloom. Soon he noticed a faint glow in the distance. He was in a cavernous room marked by giant rectangular columns, and he moved from one to the next until he reached the source of the light.

It came from a small, box-like space seemingly carved out of the back wall and exposed, doorless, to the larger room. Two guards stood on either side. The bottom half of its three walls seemed to be made of some battered metal; upward, they were thick chain link, the kind you would see on a fence or cage. Inside, Caleb could partly glimpse what seemed to be a desk; the light came from a lamp. Occasionally, a boy’s hands moved into view and then away.

Caleb removed his backpack and took out his weapon. Then he loaded it with all the ammunition he had left: three rocks.

Placing it on his shoulder, he aimed meticulously; there was no room for error. He fired once, hitting one guard in the temple with a loud crack. As the boy sank to the floor, Caleb shot again, but this time, his aim was off; he only grazed the shoulder of the second. The guard looked up: Caleb followed with a third shot that cleanly hit the space between the boy’s eyebrows, just above the bridge of his nose. With a grunt, he also dropped to the floor.

The room was now undefended as Caleb stood before its threshold.

Levi was behind his desk, papers strewn in front of him. Alone, the pale boy was paler still as he stared at his intruder. For an instant, fear and confusion flickered across his features. Then he acted as if nothing unusual was happening.

“Caleb,” Levi said. “What are you—”

Caleb gave the other no opportunity to speak. Like a hawk after a mouse, he lunged across the wooden surface that separated them. Using both hands, he grabbed Levi’s lapels and dragged him across the desk, scattering everything that lay in their path.

With newly found strength, Caleb lifted the other boy clear of the desk; he felt the black fabric strain and rip under his hands. Then he threw him down onto his back on the floor, straddling and pinning him to the cement.

“
Where is my son?
” he shouted.

Levi’s hand moved. He attempted to lift a meager weapon, a thin, decorative utensil with a blade too dull to cut but pointed enough to stab. Caleb seized the slender wrist and twisted it; with a cry, Levi dropped the weapon and it clattered to the ground.

The two remained locked, one under the other, both breathing hard. The pain in Caleb’s shoulder had spread down his arm, weakening his grip; still, he did his best to ignore it.

Even in the losing position, Levi maintained his composure. Caleb had to restrain himself from crushing Levi’s throat. Instead, he grabbed the small weapon on the ground beside him and placed the sharp tip against the side of the other boy’s neck. He took grim pleasure in noting that the pale blue vein there was pulsing wildly, betraying the boy’s show of cool.

Caleb pressed the tip of his knife in deeper. A bead of blood welled up, the bright red in shocking contrast to the white skin.

Through a fog of emotion, something clicked in his mind.

The fire. His house, burning to the ground, with Miri trapped inside. A freakish mutant attack, as senseless as it was deadly.

Kai, seized from his cradle. After so many months, most likely dead or gone forever.

What Esther saw at the mutant camp: goods from the Source.

And now, his baby, under this roof.

“You hired the mutants,” Caleb said. “To kill my partner, to kill me. You paid them off, to steal my boy. And now, you have my son. And you still want to kill me.”

Levi was watching him, saying nothing. It was like they were playing a game of dare.

“Why?” Caleb said. “Just tell me why.”

When there was no reply, Caleb forced the blade even deeper into Levi’s neck. Blood started to run, dripping down and pooling on the cement floor.

Levi stopped struggling. Ever practical, he knew there were to be no more secrets—not if he wished to live.

He looked away from Caleb and into the distance, into the past.

“I shouldn’t be surprised you managed to survive,” he said. “You were always the stronger one. You were always lucky. That’s what this was about.”

Caleb started, confused, and his hold on the knife wavered.

“What are you talking about?” he asked.

Levi turned his gaze back to him. “That’s why they gave me away. Because even though we were both so young, you were clearly the only one worth saving.”

Caleb sat back, stunned. Part of his mind fought what he was hearing even as the words started to make a terrible sense.

“You’re my brother,” he said at last.

“I was,” Levi said.

No longer pinned, the boy in black sat up and got to his feet. He managed to keep his poise and walk back to his desk.

“I don’t blame them, really. At least not anymore.” As he spoke, he took a handkerchief from a drawer and dabbed at the blood running down the side of his neck. “As you know, keeping one child fed is virtually impossible, let alone two. Why wouldn’t our parents keep the stronger, younger boy and cast out the sickly, older one? That is what animals do, isn’t it?”

Still on his knees, Caleb was finally able to answer.

“That’s not what they told me,” he said, his voice catching. Inwardly, he was reeling with disbelief; the idea that they were related was obscene, unthinkable. “They told me you were ill. They said you died years ago.”

Levi smiled; it wasn’t a pleasant sight.

“As far as our parents were concerned, I did die,” he replied. “Happily for me, some animals behave better than others. Strangers pitied me, and took me in. I was never strong. But even as a small child, I knew how to use people, how to make them do what I wanted. Soon, I started to build a new family, to make friends. Or at least collect acquaintances.”

As he spoke, Levi had begun to clear up the mess on his desk. He stacked papers, put his writing utensils back into their container, arranged files, restored order. Caleb, mesmerized by the boy’s actions and words, made no move to stop him.

“Of course, between us, what I was really doing was cobbling together an army. Or would you call it a gang . . . a posse? Well, a group of boys, anyway, strong and I’ll admit not very smart boys who nevertheless respect power almost as much as they like having their bellies filled on a regular basis. You’ve met some of them—or at least they’ve encountered you.”

He gestured at the door, outside of which the two guards still lay motionless in a heap.

“They followed me when I came to Prin, five or six years ago,” Levi said. “I always knew I was smart. But it wasn’t until I came here that I learned how to read and improve myself. Suddenly, I understood what potential there was . . . not just for scrabbling together an existence day to day, but for real power. I planned how to break into this building, and with my army’s help, I eventually succeeded.”

His workspace orderly, Levi once more assumed a position of authority. He sat behind his desk.

“And my boys have been good scouts, as well,” continued Levi. “They’ve brought me back things from not only Prin, but places far beyond. News, mostly. But also goods, trinkets, pretty little things they thought would amuse me. Like Michal.”

Caleb looked up sharply and Levi laughed.

“But most important, my guards managed to find out what I
really
wanted to know all these years . . . and that’s what became of you.”

Levi rubbed his temple. For a moment, his expression seemed haunted; traces of pain and longing appeared as deep lines etched around his mouth and eyes. Then they disappeared, like shadows.

“They knew where you were,” he continued. “They told me you had partnered and had a son. Again, you were lucky. I’ve tried to father an heir many times, with different females. And yet I can’t.”

Levi’s voice, normally so controlled, broke at this last statement. And as Caleb looked at his brother, he finally recognized the similarities in their faces, things he had sensed at their first meeting but couldn’t name.

“Once I knew where you were,” Levi was saying, “I decided to take from you everything, just as everything had been taken from me. Most important, I would have a son, a true heir, one linked to me by my own blood. One who will carry on what I’m about to achieve.”

At last, Caleb found the strength to stand. He leaned forward on the desk in front of him. Only the whiteness of his knuckles revealed the intense emotions roiling inside of him. He looked into his brother’s eyes.

“You can’t have him,” he said.

Levi nodded. Then he reached behind him to a panel embedded in the wall and pressed one of three buttons.

The room shook.

Caleb looked up, startled. Behind him, two large metal plates, the doors to the office that had been hidden in ceiling and floor, were sliding shut like jaws in a mouth; the two boys were quickly trapped in the small space.

Then, with a grinding of ancient gears, the entire room began to move. Through the wire mesh walls, it was clear that they were advancing down a dirty brick shaft.

“Use your head,” Levi said. “The boy’s much better off with me than he would be with you. What have you possibly got to offer him?”

“I’ll kill you first,” Caleb said.

“Go ahead,” Levi said. “When the doors open, and they will any second now, you will be greeted by all my guards. I know you can handle a few mutants waving rocks; I’m not so sure what your chances will be against eighteen of my guards carrying Tasers. Especially if I’m dead. And where will
that
leave the boy?”

With a sudden lurch, the room came to a halt and the huge doors behind Caleb began to grind open again.

“Forget the boy,” Levi said. He sounded so sensible, even wise. Like a big brother, in fact. “It’ll be easier for you—for everyone—if you’re far away.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” Caleb said.

Now the doors opened. Four hooded guards burst in and surrounded Caleb. Levi held them off with a raised hand.

“Very well,” he said. “I can’t force you to leave. But I have my own plans, bigger plans than you can ever understand. I asked you to join me in them before, but you refused. So now I will not tolerate your interfering in them. You can stay if you want. But if you do, you are not to lift one finger to defend the town or its people from the mutants again. Do you understand?”

Taken aback, Caleb hesitated. “What I do is my own business.”

Levi shrugged. “If you disobey me, no matter where you are, I will hear word of it from my boys. And the moment I do, I will kill your child. Do I make myself clear?”