Binary Cycle - (Part 1: Disruption) (12 page)

“We’re due,” her mom concluded.

“Which seat are we?” Reggie asked as they moved through the train.

“Just keep moving.” Magnus grunted.

Reggie would have to get used to Magnus’s gruff attitude and stern demeanor. Barring any major incidents, the shoot was set to last half a cycle, and Magnus and Stevens would be accompanying him the entire journey.

He glanced longingly at the plush, velvet seats which lined both aisles. His joints were starting to ache, and he desperately wanted to grab a seat, put his feet up for a couple hours.

A young woman, sitting down with a brown purse in her lap, looked up as Reggie walked past. A glimmer of recognition passed across her face. Reggie suspected she would be scratching her head for the next few minutes trying to figure out where she had seen him before.
What's wrong, you don’t recognize me with my gray hair and limp?

As he continued down the aisle, he heard her call out, "Reggie?"

He turned back to her, flourishing his hands. "That's me."

Stevens rolled his eyes and Magnus shot him an exasperated look.

"My mother
adores
you,” the woman gushed. “Could I please get your autograph for her? She would just
die
I surprised her with it.”

"Of course," he said as she handed him a notepad. Reggie appreciated his fans more than anyone and always went out of his way to appease them. 

"What's her name?" he asked, taking out his antique signing pen, which he always carried with him.

"Samantha," she blushed. "But you can sign it to Sammy. That's what my dad used to call her."

Reggie scrawled his loopy signature with a little note wishing the old woman well. He smiled and handed it back to her. She kissed his bristly cheek, thanking him profusely and then he continued after Magnus.

They reached an automatic door that whisked upward as they passed into the next car. Reggie looked down the aisle, trying to guess which grouping of seats would be theirs. A chime went and a female voice came over the intercom urging all passengers to please take their seats, the train would depart in five minutes.

Reggie kept walking, the swish of his footsteps on the carpet becoming a predictable rhythm, only disturbed when he had to side step a piece of luggage or once when he had to dodge a small girl who was coming from the opposite direction. Reggie smiled at her as she passed, her mom calling from somewhere behind him. The girl had a silver butterfly pendant pinned to her dress which sparkled against the lights from above.

“Hey could you please tell me which seat is ours?” Reggie asked the men. “How much longer ‘till we can sit down?” Reggie knew he sounded as impatient as a child, but his leg was really starting to ache. His pain medication was in his pack. If he could only slow down for a moment he could grab it.

“The next car,” was all Magnus said. Stevens remained silent, scanning the faces of passengers left and right as if looking for someone.

Another chime—louder and more impatient—rang throughout the car, announcing one minute to departure.

“Please take your seats,” an attendant urged.

A playful squeal rang out behind him. Reggie turned around just in time to see a woman scoop the girl with the butterfly pin up into her arms and then carry her to their seats. Behind the happy family, Reggie spotted the man with dark glasses who had pushed past them at the train’s entrance. He stood at the entrance to the previous car, a black briefcase at his feet.

Was he looking at them?

Reggie shook his head as he ducked through the arch leading to the next car. They must have walked the interior of most of the train by now. Why hadn’t they just entered into this car in the first place?

Reggie cast a glance behind him as the door between cars swished closed. The man with dark glasses sat down on the other side of the door. He settled into his seat, but kept glancing up at people as they jostled past. Reggie felt like he caught the man’s eye again, but it was hard to tell on account of the glasses. Probably just another fan, Reggie thought. Nothing to worry about. 

Arthritic, pain-ridden, and now paranoid, too? Reggie reminded himself to order a drink once they got seated.

“Dammit, did you see him?” Stevens whispered to Magnus.

Magnus nodded gravely. “We have to go.”

“Go where?” Reggie asked. “We’re nearly at the end of the train.”

The men ignored him and hurried into the next car. Reggie could see there was no sliding door on the other side, which signified this was the end of the train. He scanned the compartment for the empty seats that he knew would be theirs. The car was quite full, everyone else already seated. Reggie couldn’t see anywhere with three seats together. Not that it bothered him. He wasn’t exactly looking forward to a six hour ride sitting next to his hired guns.

When they reached the train door, Magnus grabbed Reggie’s arm and whispered gruffly, “We’re leaving.”

“What’s going on…?” Reggie protested, but Magnus’s voice had an urgent tone to it, so he complied.

“Follow us, keep your head low.”

Confused as hell, Reggie followed the two men down the steps to the platform and they exited the train. Because they’d walked through the entire length of the train, they were now standing on the far end of the tracks.

“Can one of you please tell me what the hell is going on?” Reggie asked, glaring at both men.

“Wait.” Magnus simply turned his head toward the doors, which were now closing.

A low hum emanated from deep within the train and it rose up a few meters, hovering. A final chime sounded throughout the station, and a voice warned other passengers to step away from the tracks. The train inched forward, slowly at first, but it quickly gained speed.

Through the passing window, Reggie imagined that he saw the man with the dark glasses stand up in his seat, waving his arms and shouting.

I’ll need to get more sleep, Reggie thought.

“Hey Reggie, sorry for the inconvenience,” Magnus said. “Due to… security reasons, we were unable to continue our intended route on that train.

“You realize we have a schedule to adhere to, right?” he asked.

Magnus frowned. “Trust me, you don’t want to be on that train right now.”

“Why not?” Reggie asked, looking longingly at the train as it peeled out of the station, thinking of those cushy velvet seats and the drink he would have ordered.

Magnus held up a hand to his ear.

“What are you—“

A tremendous boom erupted out of nowhere.

A shock wave toppled Reggie to the ground.

“What the hell was that!” he shouted.

Another flash and the train blossomed into a speeding fireball. Its electromagnetism failed and the massive vehicle thudded onto the tracks with a screeching roar. 

Reggie squinted his eyes against the blinding sparks.

The front car grinded along the tracks and then skipped off, peeling over the edge and down into the city streets below. The other cars followed, a fiery herd of lemmings tumbling after their leader, plunging over a cliff.

A second explosion rocked the falling cars to pieces. Twisted metal and molten ash flew through the air, shattering windows in the station. People screamed and ran for their lives. 

The last car dropped off the track and came to rest on the street. A sickening silence replaced the screaming as people gaped at the destroyed wreck of the train—a great metallic beast reduced to a pile of flaming rubble.

Reggie pushed himself to his feet, tempered rage overtaking utter shock.

He marched up to Magnus, fire in his eyes. “You knew,” he accused. “You knew the train would explode, that’s why we got off. Why the hell didn’t you say anything? We could have saved all those people.”

“No, we couldn’t have,” Magnus said calmly, brushing ashes off his black vest. “The train was leaving in less than a minute. If we had called out, the bomber would have detonated while we were still in the station, killing everyone, including us.”

Reggie narrowed his eyes. “What bomber?”

“That man you saw, with the dark glasses. Stevens recognized him from a list of known terrorists we received this morning.”

Reggie watched helplessly as flames engulfed the wreckage. He thought of that little girl, her butterfly pin melting in a pool of liquid silver and dripping through the carnage. All those other passengers…

“Who would do this?” Reggie asked through clenched teeth.

“The Children of Two Suns,” Magnus said. “After everything that happened with the Capitol Trust building yesterday, our bureau sent us a list of active agents working for their… organization. Thank god we looked over the dossier before picking you up.”

“What grudge could they possibly have with a train full of innocent people?” Reggie couldn’t fathom why anyone would commit such a heinous act.

Stevens answered him. “When the disruptions got more severe and frequent, the COTS started bombing the hell out of trains, government buildings, hospitals… mostly in the outer cities to start, so the Council was able to keep a lid on things, make sure nobody knew about it.” Stevens raised a hand to his face, adjusting his shades. “See, the Council doesn’t want to justify the attacks by broadcasting them to the world. That’s exactly what those crazy COTS bastards want—to send a message.”

Reggie’s eyes kept drifting back to the crash. Sirens wailed as the first emergency crews approached the grisly scene.

“People are going to know about it now,” Reggie said darkly, lowering his head. “The heart of Alexendia bleeds today.”

“
And the colony bleeds with it
,” Stevens and Magnus said in unison.

Stevens keyed something into the communication band clasped around his wrist, fingers dancing over the small pad.

Squealing sirens announced the arrival of the Planetary Guard to the scene. They quickly made way for firefighters, who had arrived on their heels. Reggie watched them bravely quench fires and pick through the carnage, calling for survivors all the while.

After a moment Reggie spoke, burning with questions. “I can’t understand why they’re doing this. They’re a damned environmental group, aren’t they?”

“They’re dangerous extremists.” Magnus corrected him. “They believe the orbital disruptions are caused by humanity’s presence here.”

“Is that possible?” Reggie asked, raising his eyebrows. Humans had only lived on Taran for two centuries. What harm could they have elicited in such a short time?

“It’s a compelling case,” Magnus pointed out, “considering that as far as we can tell, the disruptions didn’t occur before humans arrived.”

Reggie shook his head, but said nothing. The three of them were the only ones left on the platform. Everyone else had turned their attention to the rescue operation.

Reggie couldn’t bear to look any longer. “We have to leave the city,” he said. “Find a way out of here.” It sounded callous given the circumstances, but they had a strict shooting schedule to adhere to.

“Our next train is almost here.” Stevens glanced up from his wrist band. He pointed in the distance. Through the smoke, Reggie made out the shape of a small bulletcar zooming around the bend of the tracks, quickly approaching their position.

“There’s one thing I still don't get,” Reggie said picking up his travel pack. “Why didn’t he blow the train while it was still in the station? I mean, what was he waiting for?” Reggie pictured the man pressing that button, knowing he was ending his own life, and all those innocent lives on the train.

Stevens clicked his tongue and gestured around them. “It would’ve been very expensive to rebuild this station. That would consume significant planetary resources. They’re an environmentalist group, remember?”

Reggie was aghast. “Oh, so they blow up
just
enough to make their point? Where the hell do they draw the line?”

“Where indeed?” Magnus asked, crossing his arms.

“Sadistic bastards,” Stevens added as the belletcar approached.

Their new ride hushed to a stop in front of them. No one seemed to notice the quiet sound of their private car arriving over the blaring sirens.

A door slid open out of the slick steel, revealing a spacious interior—larger than any compartment they would have had on the mag-lev.

“After you,” Magnus gestured toward Reggie.

Reggie grabbed his pack and entered the car. Stepping into the compartment, he couldn’t help but give a sad smile as he saw velvet seating and a mini-bar.

Why didn’t we order this car in the first place?
He was going to enjoy these luxuries while they lasted.

Finally on the move, Reggie contented himself with crossing his legs and looking out the window as the bulletcar tore down the tracks. It cleared the final wall of the station and zoomed out into open air.

Reggie leaned out and pressed his face against the window, looking downward. The adjacent tracks were ruined by the bomb, flames still dancing in the wreckage. The planetary guard stood around helplessly while firefighters continued their frantic search through the rubble.

He realized he still had the holo-cam clipped to his shirt. A shudder rippled through his body when he thought of all the compelling footage he had captured. The station, interactions with passengers on the train, their swift exit, the explosion...

Reggie bolted upright in his seat, nearly spilling his drink. “Shit. All my luggage was on that train, wasn’t it?”

Magnus nodded unconcernedly. “Sorry old man. Nothing we can do about it now. Don’t worry, we’ll get you sorted at the bio-dome. They’ll have everything we need.”

Such is life
.

Soon, they were out of the city, leaving the horrors behind them. Reggie was mesmerized by the quartz mountains zooming past the window, made dull only by a cloudy Evening sky. He took a great pull from his double whisky and popped a few painkillers. The alcohol, drugs, and the knowledge that he had six hours to rest did wonders for his gimped leg and aching joints.

Leaning back in his seat, he closed his eyes, trying to dream of peaceful things, of long lost loves, of children he wished he had. But all he could see were exploding trains and fireballs streaking across the sky.