Birth of the Alliance (21 page)

He flew until he reached the Atlantic, and then reoriented himself on Gettysburg. It was now twilight, and the sounds of the battle were gone, replaced by the stink of decay and death. Cannon and rifle smoke still littered the air with a hazy veil, as if begging him not to look at what men had done to each other on the ground below. But he did look. The dead littered the ground and the blood of the injured soaked the landscape. Will listened carefully, not with his ears, but with his Energy senses, listening for the flute-like sound of Hope's Energy. He walked around, unafraid of any Aliomenti presence. Discovery by the Hunters was a moot point now; his focus was solely on ensuring her safety.

Ten minutes later, he finally detected the sound he so longed to hear, only two miles from the battlefield. He found Hope there, alone and pacing, an anxious look on her face. Her expression turned to joy when she saw him appear next to her. She raced to embrace him.

“I was worried that they’d gotten you,” she whispered.

“
I
was worried that they’d gotten
you
,” he replied. In a sense, the words from both were lies; the telepathic bond between the two was far too strong for death or an injury to go unnoticed. It was part of the game they chose to play, part of pretending to be human to make living among humans easier. “There were more threats here than what I faced. Stray bullet, stray cannon shot, crazed lunatic with a bayonet…”

She smacked his arm. It hadn’t hurt, nor had she meant it to cause pain. “Not much of a gentleman, are you? Leaving while a war rages around me to take off on a pleasure flight…”

“It’s not like the company was pleasant. Thankfully, we didn’t get the chance to talk much.”

She laughed. “Where are they?”

“Chasing a shadow, but thankfully not
the
shadow. I’d recommend keeping the Energy use low for a while. I’m staying Energy silent until I get back to the submarine. I’m hoping they’ll think I vanished into nothingness, or that they’ll keep looking five hundred miles to the west. In either case, we’re likely to be gone from this place before they get back.”

She nodded. She needed to leave as well, to return home to her home Outside. “Your many-times grandfather was honorably discharged. The fake explosion cracked a few ribs, rendering him unfit for duty. He can’t lift the cannon shot, can’t help haul the device, so he’s useless as a soldier. He’ll be leaving for Boston in a few days once the pain lessens a bit. I'll follow him to be certain he arrives in no worse condition than what he’s suffering through now.”

“That’s a relief. Boston should be a safe place until the war winds down.”

She nodded, embraced him in a tight grip. “Take care of yourself. Sounds like they’re still eager to capture you.”

“I'm always careful,” he replied. “But they do outnumber me. Extra caution would be wise.” He stepped back to get a better look at her. “Do you have any idea when you’ll be able to return home?”

She shook her head, looking wistful at the thought of a return to the Cavern, a return to her current family. “If what you say is true, I’ll probably be able to come back in a year or so, once he gets healed up and settled back on his farm. While the diary isn’t always detailed, it usually gives me several years’ warning of critical events so that I’m in position to act. There’s nothing coming up after this. Nothing yet reported, at least.”

“I look forward to seeing you again, soon,” Will replied. “At home.” After an embrace and a kiss, they separated, and she walked away.

Will watched her walk away, until the haze and darkness combined to hide her from even his enhanced eyesight. Then he turned to walk in the other direction.

Adam stood there, staring at him. “Who was she?”

“What are you doing here?” Will asked. They weren’t due to speak for another year.

“We didn’t agree on a place to meet. I decided to track you down so we could correct that oversight.” Adam’s voice was tinged with sarcasm. “Who was she, Will?”

“Why are you here, Adam?”

“The Hunters contacted Headquarters. They said Porthos had detected an Energy surge, that Porthos couldn’t identify who’d generated it. Porthos later said it had been you all along, and that they were chasing you in an attempt to capture. I don’t think so, Will. Porthos isn’t capable of making that type of mistake. He wouldn’t misidentify a neophyte, let alone you. Someone else was here. Someone powerful. Someone Porthos doesn’t know. That means it’s not someone who escaped from the Aliomenti. And it’s someone you acted to protect. I can speculate as to who it is, Will, or you can just tell me.”

Will met Adam’s level gaze. “Speculate, then.”

“It might be a special young woman. One so mistreated in her youth by her own community that her very life was at stake. A young woman whose life was so important that it needed saving by any means necessary, by someone who knew her
future
importance.” Adam looked away. “In other words, the woman you protected from capture and identification earlier today was someone I knew as Elizabeth Lowell, wasn’t she?” He returned his steely gaze to Will. “You’ve been protecting her since you arrived at the North Village all those centuries ago. You knew she was important because her present was your past. You arrived in our midst from the future, didn’t you?” His last question was spoken with little evidence of a questioning tone.

Will studied Adam’s face, searching for any sign of doubt. He found nothing. “So you figured it out.”

Adam nodded. Will noted a slight indication of relief in the gesture. “Nobody can predict future events with that degree of accuracy, Will. After listening to those predictions and hearing about the technology your group is developing, after noticing how the innovations you offered seemed to show up in human society a few centuries after you’d helped bring them to life… it was the only conclusion possible. And I still struggle to believe it, even now, even as you refuse to deny the truth of my statement.”

Will looked away. “It’s true, Adam. Now that you know, the assistance I must ask of you will make sense. Or, at least, it will make more sense than it would have before you accepted the truth about my origin.”

Adam nodded. “Of course. What do you need me to do?”

Will gave his answer some thought before responding.

“I need you to ensure that my children are born, and that I live long enough to make that trip to the past.”

Adam hid any confusion about that statement as only a man nine centuries in age could. His face took on a somber look, but one of deep resolution as well. And he nodded his assent.

XIII

Control

1918 A.D.

Adam found the name of the Alliance headquarter city—the Cavern—to be ironic. He walked the streets, on his way to a meeting with Will and others. Sunlight brightened his path. A light breeze touched his youthful face, his appearance a mask for the centuries he’d lived. The sky overhead was a deep blue. Fluffy white clouds moved slowly toward the horizon. The air was fresh and clean, lacking the smoke and ash so common in the large human cities he frequented, and he found himself breathing more deeply than necessary for the sheer joy of air he could only describe as delicious.

He was walking outside on a beautiful spring day, yet he’d been told repeatedly that he was doing so miles underground.

Adam had willingly accepted the sleeping agents Will used for each of Adam’s visits to the Cavern. Adam’s restful trips to the Cavern every half-decade or so prevented him from revealing to Arthur and other Aliomenti the secret location. It was a secret Adam would never willingly share, yet in a world full of powerful telepaths, even a random stray thought could prove treacherous.

He glanced up at the “sky.” Will had explained that they’d created a special type of paint to cover the walls, a paint capable of trapping Energy inside the Cavern. Porthos himself could walk directly above the city and not sense their presence. Small devices capable of displaying mirrors gave the illusion of sky and moving clouds. Machines generated breezes. Other machines generated rainfall, roughly every other evening, when most residents were fast asleep; the water fed the abundant foliage and tree life underground. The sunlight wasn’t sunlight, but created by devices like the light bulb invented by Edison. All of these advances served to simulate a natural environment in a most unnatural locale.

Adam shook his head. The Aliomenti had advanced technology, relative to the general human population. But they had nothing that could compete with what Will and the Alliance had built here. He’d escaped death at the hands of the Aliomenti, and given birth to a city.

Adam reached the meeting room and stepped inside.

The Shadow sat at a table with Will, and both looked up as Adam entered. Adam gave a polite nod to both. Adam knew her true identity and name, but followed local custom and referred to her only as Shadow among the Alliance. He’d known since only weeks after Elizabeth Lowell’s alleged death that she’d survived; only her new name and location had been hidden. Adam knew those details now, and Will seemed unconcerned about betrayal of that secret. Adam had sworn that the Shadow’s identity was a secret he’d take to his grave. Will believed him. Adam and Hope bonded well; they shared stories of Eva, the few happy memories Hope had from her years in the North Village. Their efforts now, however, focused on preparing for the future.

“The Assassin—William—remains a variable we cannot control,” Hope said by way of introduction. She glanced at Will. “You’re certain I can’t simply teleport him out into the middle of the ocean?”

“As tempting as that would be, William has a role to play in the future,” Will replied.

Adam glanced at the stack of notes he’d made during their discussions. “It says here that he helps you escape Aliomenti Headquarters during your time in the distant future, during the time you’re away from me and the children.” He looked up. “No chance you can get free without his help?”

Will shook his head. “I don’t think so.” He paused, stretching his mind back to an event that had occurred nine centuries before, in his memory, but one that would happen three centuries into the future in the lives of those around him. “They meant to execute me, even though I’d willingly given myself up to prevent them from using me to trace the others. Something made me change my mind, though; I think I found out about the fact that I wasn’t in the
when
I thought I was, and I felt betrayed, lied to. I wanted to face all of you again, understand why. In any event, if William wasn’t there… Arthur had mentioned that he’d replaced William with another Assassin, and having William there just seemed more appropriate since he was the one who had, in Arthur’s mind, executed my wife. Someone in the Alliance had altered William, though; he was there to help me the whole time, without seeming to help me.”

Adam shook his head. “That makes no sense. If William’s still around, why would they get another Assassin? They wanted to kill that many humans? And how would one of our people influence William in any event?”

“When you and the children come back to get me, you somehow wind up with William as well. Maybe Hope knocks him out without killing him, or otherwise injures him.” Hope nodded, looking pleased. “When you return to 2219 from 2030, you have me and William both in tow. So…”

“So, he was our prisoner,” Adam said, a grim smile on his face. Then he frowned. “So… he escaped?”

Will shook his head. “He knew he’d been… altered somehow. I suspect that when that alteration happened, we turned him loose, probably with a false story about being put to sleep for two centuries.” He thought for a moment. “In fact, I think Arthur or one of the Hunters said exactly, that, how I’d been put into a deep sleep, just like the Assassin, so that must mean all of them mustn’t think much of me. So, yes, we likely turned him loose so that he was there when I arrived.”

Hope sighed. “This is frustrating. I’m struggling to keep track of all of this.”

Adam put a comforting hand on her shoulder. “You don’t have to, remember?” He pointed to his stack of notes. “We’re getting down the key events first. After we do that, we can start the planning effort to make sure it all happens.”

Will nodded. “Right. There are three eras of time to consider. The distant future time I’m taken to by Adam and the children, which is the year 2219. The near future when the Hunters attack me and the Assassin attempts to execute Hope and Josh, and sets our home on fire. And the time we have left to plan for those distant future eras.”

Hope’s face fell. “He can only attempt to kill Josh if our son is actually
born
.”

Adam’s face was full of sympathy. "There's a lot of time left. Be patient and be confident. The answers
will
come.”

“I’ve been patient for almost nine
centuries
,” Hope snapped, “while we’ve shown the ability to invent all of
this
but not crack the mysteries of the ambrosia.” Hope waved her hand to indicate the marvels of the Cavern. Her face started to show signs of emotional fatigue. “We've used ninety percent of our time and have no hint of a cure. If we don’t find it, this entire long life has been meaningless.”

“I disagree,” Adam replied. “There have been countless lives improved by your existence, your presence, and your actions. And countless more whose lives have been touched by those you’ve directly helped. No, your life has been anything
but
meaningless.” He fixed Hope with a piercing stare. “And the answers to those questions
will
come.”