A Dragon at the Gate (The New Aeneid Cycle Book 3) (46 page)

Only when halfway down the twenty story plunge, moments before his body smashed into the silver-covered street below him, did Adrian Fagles overcome his disbelief enough to scream.

THE LAST FEW HOURS
had been a whirlwind of revelation, preparation, and disquiet. Despite the knowledge that he should feel drained from stress, Michael felt life moving within him, and around him. He felt its energy in the Thuur and humans on
Paragon
, in the black material within
Paragon
, and flowing through his own veins. And, along with all they had so recently discovered, that energy built into the excitement of a desperate chance that the disasters the AoA had unleashed might be overcome.

At least there was hope.

Soon after Holes had integrated himself into
Paragon
, he discovered that Suuthrien had done them one favor: with resources garnered from RavenTech, it had repaired—at least partially—some of the ship’s flight and navigational systems, as well as mitigated structural and power damage. In short, with some minor additional effort from Holes and the Thuur,
Paragon
was spaceworthy.

Or, at least, worthy enough to make the short flight to Earth. And for now, that was enough. Mindful of how
Paragon
launching itself out of the lunar soil might damage the Omicron Complex built against it, all Omicron personnel had evacuated into
Paragon
before launch. The Complex now sat empty and broken, buried beneath the dust from
Paragon
prying itself free of the crater and leaping into space once again.

Among the humans aboard were also half a dozen RavenTech-affiliated personnel stranded on
Paragon
when the gate shut off. With Holes now in control of the craft’s remaining security drones, and some forceful diplomacy by Marette, they had surrendered peacefully and awaited Knapp’s decision on what to do with them.

Now, after a Moon-to-Earth flight lasting barely half an hour, Michael stood holding Marc’s tablet inside the exterior door where humans had first entered
Paragon
. He watched as that door slid open. Moonlight, filtered through the trees outside, bloomed in around him. It joined with the exterior lights of the floater that had brought Jade, Caitlin, and Gideon to meet them. Jade’s hair glowed even brighter than he’d remembered, and her eyes flashed purple as they caught his, though a smirk spread wide across her face. Around her—around all of them—flowed the energy of the plant life and the soil beneath. It poured over and through Michael in a way he’d never felt before his augmentation. He actually had to steady himself. Jade’s smirk grew wider, and he wondered if he’d blushed.

It was Gideon who spoke first. In what struck Michael as a highly uncharacteristic grin, he raised his hand and intoned, “Klaatu . . . Barada . . . Nikto!”

Except that wasn’t Gideon’s voice. Michael’s jaw dropped. He glanced for confirmation at Jade and Caitlin, the latter of whom nodded with a bittersweet smile. Michael looked back to Gideon and stammered, “Felix?”

Felix, Caitlin, and Jade spent the next ten minutes catching Michael up as they sat together on the midnight floor. Overwhelmed by Felix’s effective resurrection and his own newly-found senses, Michael nevertheless remembered, after the first few minutes of storytelling, to ask for the Quicksilver device Caitlin carried. After another Agent took it away for study, Michael heard it all: what Gideon had done, how Felix was managing, and how Caitlin and Jade had come into possession of Easy Jack’s device. Though overjoyed at Felix’s return, and eager to glean all he could from their own Quicksilver experience, Michael found himself watching Jade for much of the tale—stealing glances when another was speaking, and glad for the moments when she gave details herself.

“I’m glad you made it out,” Michael told them all, finally. “Suuthrien’s spread the nanophage into the Corporate District, just a bit ago. It was only a hit and run with a single stream of the stuff, but the damage is already done. And spreading. I don’t—” He grit his teeth and had to take a breath. “I don’t think much of Northgate is going to survive it, even if we can manage something.”

The news settled over the others. Caitlin let her head fall back, eyes closed on a whispered curse. Gideon—
Felix
—looked to the floor and squeezed her hand. Jade hugged one elbow to her chest and hid her eyes behind her other hand. Her fingers pressed to her forehead, as if trying to soothe a migraine. “I guess I’m not taking Lucian’s floater back any time soon,” Jade said. “
Fuck
.”

“But you do have a plan,” Felix made it a statement.

“Whatever it is,” Caitlin added, “we deserve to know it.”

Before Michael could voice his agreement, Marc spoke from the tablet. “We’re pretty much over the whole secrecy thing at this point. Especially with you three.”

“Even with the great and paranoid Knapp here?” asked Felix. “Wow, things
are
desperate.”

“Desperate times, desperate measures,” said Marc.

Michael nodded. “We’re running out of time. And speaking of which, follow me.” He stood and led them further into the ship. Jade fell into step beside him, and Felix and Caitlin followed. “We’re going to see Marette, and Knapp, and a few others.”

“I hope Knapp’s got an apology ready for us,” said Caitlin.

Michael didn’t figure it would help to say that Knapp had just been doing what she’d thought was right at the time. “Just, please, don’t antagonize her with a lot of ‘I told you so,’” he said.

“Aww,” said Jade, and then slid an arm around his waist to tug his right side against her left. “Not even once?”

He couldn’t help but smile. “Sorry, but every moment counts.”

“You just have to take the fun out of everything, don’t you, ace?” Jade squeezed him closer for a moment and whispered, “You’re glad to see me again,” before letting go.

“You want us to do
what?
”

Councilor Knapp sighed. “We are asking you to do nothing but remain safe, Ms. Danae. What we ask, we ask only of Mister Hiatt.”

“You want
me
to do
what?
” Felix said immediately. Even on Gideon’s visage, Michael could spot a suppressed grin. Jade smirked. Even Caitlin’s lips quivered amid her repudiation.

Knapp was unamused. “I believe you heard me the first time. If the nanophage continues to infest the New Eden campus, you are uniquely equipped to penetrate it. You will not be alone, but we do not yet know how well our space suits may withstand it.”

“And you don’t yet know how well Felix’s body can withstand it either!” Caitlin shot.

“Correct,” Knapp admitted. “But we need every advantage.”

“I’ve already gotten some on me and gotten away, Caitlin,” said Felix.

“On your leg, Felix. On clothing. You may have synthetic skin but you’ve still got organics in you. If it somehow gets to that—”

“Then I’ll be careful.”

“Oh, so it’s that simple, then?
Don’t
answer that!” Caitlin poked two fingers against Felix’s chest as he began to speak. “Just let me be angry while you’re being careful.”

Felix nodded, grimly. He held Caitlin’s gaze and asked the others, “So go in there, pull data on the current Quicksilver version, and then modify the deactivation signal to shut it all off?”

“More or less,” said Marette. “We have already gotten most of what we need from the signal analysis and the device you brought. All we lack are the nanophage’s current biomarkers.”

“Or so our people think, anyway,” Marc added.

“Best shot we have,” said Michael. “And while you’re doing that, we’ll be making our move on Suuthrien.”

“And
that’s
a plan to be worried about.”

“Yeah, I’m going to assume you guys know what you’re doing on that one,” said Felix, “because I didn’t understand a damn thing about what you explained there.”

Before proposing the idea for Felix to accompany a team into New Eden, Marc had explained their plan for going against the elements of Suuthrien that had spread into the Internet. Honestly, Michael didn’t fully understand it himself, but Marc, Holes, and Sephora seemed confident. “We left out a few details.”

“Well,” said Felix with finality, “it’s not ‘crossing the streams,’ but it’ll do. Let’s get the party started before anyone else dies then, alright?”

“The agents accompanying you are prepping as we speak,” said Knapp. She then nodded to Michael. “And one of the Thuur will be joining you as well.”

At Knapp’s indication, Michael gave a mental signal to Uxil, who waited just outside the chamber. It was something they’d only recently discovered he could do: nothing as coherent as a word, or even an image, but a tiny “ping,” as Marc called it, that any nearby Thuur could sense. Uxil had been waiting for it to enter.

As she did, Felix straightened, eyes growing wide with interest and amazement, as he saw an alien being for the first time in his life. His face stretched with the widest smile Michael had ever seen as he greeted Uxil with a single word: “Incredible.”

“No,” she said, “Uxil.”

FELIX’S FEET
hit the roof of the New Eden facility. He landed near equidistant between a closed stairwell door and two ventilation outlets. After a few watchful moments, during which time nothing bubbled out to greet him, he waved an all-clear to the others in the hovering spacecraft above him.

“I’m spending a lot of time on rooftops lately,” he mused to himself. “I have a very strange life.”

“
What was that, ducks?
” Caitlin’s voice sounded over the audio link. By now, she and Jade were stationed safely a quarter mile away in the floater, monitoring.

“Just yakking to myself,” said Felix as two AoA members in spacesuits descended on rappelling lines. “As is my wont.”

“
Your ‘wont’? It’s good to have you back, Felix.
”

“Thanks. I’m a real swell guy, aren’t I?”

His AoA escort touched down. A moment after, the alien named Uxil—the
alien
!—leaped down beside them. She landed unassisted on her bare, slender, six-toed feet with what seemed only a modicum of effort. Wearing a hooded sweatshirt borrowed from one of the AoA over her loose-fitting Thuur vestments, she would pass for human so long as no one got close enough to see beneath the hood in decent light.

“No sign of any goo up here. Hopefully that will last,” Felix said across the audio link, to which Flynn and Marette also listened. “We’re going in. Good luck on your end, Flynn. Caitlin, tell Jade to keep the engine warm.”

“
Aye, ducks. You need emergency pickup, just give the word.
”

“
Good luck to all of you,”
said Flynn.

Felix and Uxil caught up with the two Agents already at the stairwell door. Named Seung and Sheridan, if memory served, both were doctors in their respective fields, both carried small packs of equipment.

“Locked,” reported Sheridan.

“Figures.” Felix motioned for the others to stand back from the door. “Fortunately, I’m a walking suite of subtle, ninja-like infiltration.” He took hold of the door handle, braced his foot against the outside of its frame, and pulled with all the strength his body could give him. The door’s fastenings broke with a pop, and metal clanged to the floor inside as the door swung open. “Also, I seem to be really strong.”

The stairwell inside was bare, and Felix led them forward. The break-in probably tripped an alarm, but they’d hoped it wouldn’t make much difference. Felix didn’t know if Gideon’s body even could bypass an alarm system, and, in any case, the building’s cameras would pick them up soon enough. Yet the AoA claimed New Eden had no lethal automated defenses, and whatever human security remained inside would—hopefully—have scant motivation to hinder those coming to save the world.

Their main threat was the goo, which, while deadly, was not able to be directly controlled. Again, Felix reminded himself,
hopefully.
With Felix taking point, they descended toward the labs.

*  *  *

A short distance away,
Paragon
had landed amid a decaying deciduous greenbelt dotted with struggling evergreens. Wet leaves and mud squelched under Michael’s boots as he and Sephora walked through the darkness. In his hands Michael clutched Marc’s tablet. They moved in silence, though Michael was sure they could all hear his ragged, irregular breathing amid his anxiety over what he was about to attempt, and how much was riding on it.

They’d gotten no more than fifty yards from
Paragon
when Sephora touched Michael’s shoulder and bade him stop.
This will do.

Michael halted beside the base of an alder recently blown over in some storm. Its exposed roots poked sideways through the air like unruly hair. One broad root split into two, and he set Marc’s tablet upright on top of them to face him and Sephora. “Good view?” Michael asked.

“Just fine,” said Marc. He really didn’t need to be there; Michael would be back at
Paragon
for the next phase of the plan soon enough. But Marc had wanted to watch anyway, just in case. Plus, Marc had joked, he wanted to stretch his legs.

Michael, surprised to find himself out of breath, turned to Sephora and asked, “What now?”

She smiled with a slow blink.
First, you must relax, Michael Flynn.

“Sorry.” He took a deep breath. “I’m just really hoping we can pull this off.”

You should be in your favored element. Close your eyes. Feel the life of your world and the green around you. The syr augmentation should give you a greater sense of it than you have ever felt before. Do not fight it. Draw your strength from it.

Michael did as she asked. It was there, all around him. From his earliest days, he’d felt at peace in nature. It was his shelter on his uncle’s farm, in Northgate’s tiny, scattered parks, or even just in the few houseplants he kept wherever he lived. He realized that tonight, stepping off of
Paragon
for the first time since his enhancement, he felt it all so much more strongly that he didn’t know what to do with it. It was like a limb waking up, he realized—buzzing with so much sensitivity that his first instinct was to treat it gingerly.