Birth of the Alliance (40 page)

“You’re one to talk about sacrifice,” the speaker snapped. “Those dangerous roles you’re sitting there proposing, giving yourself up to the Aliomenti in the hope of being rescued later… I’m
sure
it will be one of the people there on the stage taking on those tasks, right? No, it won’t be you. You’ll be sitting here where it’s safe, while someone else risks their life to do what you won’t.”

Will sought the man’s name via telepathy. “Clint, I will tell you this right now. When the technology is ready…
I
will be the first person they capture.”

Hope snapped her head to look at him, but Will stared at no one but the speaker who’d challenged his willingness to sacrifice everything for others.

“And
I
will be part of the crew that goes in to help those whose Will’s efforts will spring from captivity,” Eva added.

Clint, his verbal bluster blunted, sat back down. “I… I didn’t mean… it just seems like…”

“Like I sit back calling the shots? Like Arthur, The Leader of the Aliomenti?” Will asked. He shrugged. “I sincerely hope that’s not the impression I’ve given of my operating approach in my life. I’m
nothing
like him. And I’m willing to take on any risk to make sure that my friends are able to live in freedom.”

The meeting ended shortly thereafter. Quite a few people remained behind, offering to be part of the escape team; others wanted to be the person sent in after Will, wanting to be the one to help Will escape.

Clint, though, did not remain behind. He left as soon as the meeting was finished.

Few noticed the smirk on his face as he left.

XXIV

Deception

1986 A.D.

The shuttle pod slowed as it neared the beach, and Will teleported to the sandy shore before the craft came to a stop. He took a deep breath of the purified air wafting through the underground city, felt the breeze on his skin, listened to the murmur of conversation and flowing rivers. The artificial light was fading, indicating that it was approaching dusk in Cavern time.

Will smiled. It was good to be home.

He’d been Outside for two months, following up on recruiting leads in India. The recruits seemed promising, and he expected he’d make direct contact and speak about the Alliance on his next trip. He moved through the sand and crossed the bridge heading “east” toward his home. They had, by convention, designated the beach as the northernmost tip of the Cavern; moving left from the beach would correspond to traveling east. He watched as a couple ordered dinner, and passed a green space where two ten-year members romped in the grass with their two year old daughter. As he watched, the little girl giggled and floated toward the “sky.” “Look, Mommy! I’m a birdie!”

Will rubbed his sleeve across his eyes where moisture had suddenly gathered.

He reached the southeastern bridge a few minutes later and headed for the house he shared with Hope. But she stepped outside before he reached the building.

Her face told him what had happened a moment before the emotion overwhelmed his empathy senses. “What happened?”

“They found Jordan, Will.”

Will sucked in his breath. Jordan had established a residence and school for homeless children, and she’d been using the platform to meld her students’ minds to be accepting of the truths the Alliance taught, to be open to the idea of some greater existence. Even on a human level, the impact had been felt, as children expected to have no futures started scoring well above average on standardized testing, and her earliest graduates were earning college scholarships.

But the Hunters had found her. “How… how bad?”

A tear fell down Hope’s cheek. “Jordan suffered rather severe injuries because she stayed to protect her students. She’ll live. The Assassin… before the Squad showed up and drove him off… he… we took the survivors to South Beach and will bring them here. It was awful, Will.”

Will fell to the ground and pounded the street in fury and frustration. He then stood and stormed back toward the center of the Cavern. “This
can't
keep happening, Hope. It just
can’t
.”

“Will! Will, slow down!” Hope increased her pace to keep up with him. “We can’t be everywhere at once.”

Will stopped, and Hope nearly ran into him. “I know that. It doesn’t make the reality any easier to accept.”

“We don’t have to accept that it will continue, Will,” Hope said. She wiped her eyes dry. “The Hunters and the Assassin are very good at their jobs. We can’t have every person Outside protected by a private Defense Squad, ready to swoop in and hide the humans and pull our people to safety. It would limit the number of people we can help if we have five people guarding each person working in the open. And that says nothing about operating the ports and keeping things operational here.”

“I know,” Will replied. He sighed. “And I know that over the past twenty years or so it’s taking far more attempts for the Hunters to complete their Hunts. The Assassin’s kill rate has dropped because we’ve interrupted him before he can finish. In terms of percentages, we’re thwarting them. But in the end… through sheer persistence they always find the people we save. And humans keep dying. Our people go Outside knowing the risks, but the humans? They’re innocent, they don’t know they’re in danger, and yet they’re the ones losing their lives.”

That’s what bothered him most of all. Each time he went Outside, looking to recruit, he knew he was at risk of capture or execution. The same applied for each person in the Cavern. This was their sanctuary, their Oasis, the only place in the world where true safety existed for them. Each day, Alliance members returned from the Outside after spending time influencing innovations in technology, encouraging advances in medicine, or simply helping those who’d lost all hope regain it. As some returned, others headed out to a chosen location to help create the change they wanted to see in the world, in whatever form they wanted that change to take. Some stayed Outside for a year or two; others stayed decades. All came back pleased with their impacts, small though those might be. All wanted to go back out. All had heard the stories of Hunts, stories that made them careful about using Energy, about keeping their Energy Shields up at all times.

Those precautions weren’t taken just to protect themselves. Each person whose life they impacted was, without realizing it, at risk of attack by the Assassin. Arthur would claim that the Assassin’s executions of humans were to protect the Aliomenti from possible exposure and potential attacks and murders, much like what had happened at the Watt outpost centuries earlier. So intense was the human attack that a good-natured young man named William had morphed into a red-eyed killer. But the reality was that the Aliomenti weren’t being noticed or targeted for attack. The members of the Alliance were the ones at risk. The Assassin’s executions weren’t performed to prevent Aliomenti exposure; they were performed to thwart human progress, eliminating those most likely to have grown under subtle Alliance tutelage. The Alliance was winning in the long term; for technology, medical care, literacy… all were slowly improving through the hidden influence this organization exerted on the human population.

The Hunters and Assassin won battles, but the Alliance was winning the war. Will had vowed he’d prevent others from suffering at the hands of the Hunters after being saved from their attack in the year 2030. He'd failed.

Clint’s words from several years ago echoed in his mind once more. Why
couldn’t
they launch a full-scale assault on the Aliomenti Headquarters? Outside his concerns of altering the future he knew must come to pass, he was gravely concerned about the potential for such an attack to cause harm to innocents. The Headquarters building and surrounding island were heavily populated with humans who handled the daily tasks involved in a major international banking enterprise. They were brainwashed to ensure they didn’t recognize the impossible acts often performed around them. The humans worked aboveground. The Aliomenti lived and worked primarily underground. Attacks would inevitably lead to heavy damage to the building and injury to the humans working there before they’d be able to get to the levels below.

Will scowled. Knowing Arthur, those risks were the reason humans were so prominently employed within the building. He knew Will would never condone or allow a physical assault if innocent human lives might be put at risk.

Guilty as charged.

“Where is Jordan now?” Will asked.

“She’s still at South Beach,” Hope replied. “She’s well enough to travel back here, but refuses to leave until all of the kids are judged healthy enough to travel. She feels horrible about having to evacuate them, but the reports are that the Assassin has been staying in the area of assigned kills when the Defense Squad drives him off before he finishes. He’ll wait as long as necessary to finish the job. Those kids would never have a moment’s peace if she’d left them behind.”

“I know,” Will said.

But even as he spoke, his mind began to spin. Could they use their technology, and the Assassin’s obsession, to their advantage?

Hope, still watching him, recognized the look. “What’s going in your head, Will Stark? I know that look. Should I take a look inside?” By mutual agreement, members of the Alliance never probed the thoughts of others as a sign of respect and as a means of preserving privacy. They could do so only in cases of consent or where it was reasonably determined that such an intrusion was a matter of life or death.

“We need to create an illusion.”

Hope’s face showed her confusion. “Come again?”

“For the humans. We need to create an illusion to confuse the Assassin.”

Eva walked toward them. “I recognize that face, Will. What are you imagining now?”

“Something about illusions and humans,” Hope volunteered.

“He is putting on a magic show? He will need very little sleight of hand to succeed.”

Hope snorted.

“Ha. Ha.” Will smiled. “We—the members of the Alliance—we choose to risk our freedom to the Hunters. Humans don’t. The challenge is that the punishment of the Assassin is irreversible, and he won’t stop until he finishes carrying out that punishment. That’s where the illusion comes into play. How can we make the Assassin
think
he’s killed someone—so that he stops his pursuit—when he actually
hasn’t
?”

“I can’t believe he’d be easily fooled, though,” Hope replied. “What can we do? Create blood bags that rupture when contacted by the Assassin’s sword, and instruct the humans to pretend to be dead?”

“Once that sword splitter is working?” Will cocked his head, thinking. “Possibly. But I’m thinking of something else in this case.” He turned his gaze to Eva. “Judith.”

Eva blinked. “What about Judith? She is Outside at the moment.”

“Remember what happened to her about a decade ago?”

“Of course. She lost her arm. And then…” Eva’s face grew thoughtful. “And then that arm was regrown.”

“I think I see where you’re going with this,” Hope said. “Didn’t you ask Aaron if he’d be able to clone an entire person, not just regrow limbs and organs?”

“I did, as I recall,” Will said. “I don’t remember what prompted me to ask him at the time; perhaps it was something like this. But now…” He took a deep breath. “What if we clone the humans under assault, hide the… originals, and then let the Assassin kill the copy?”

Hope winced. “That sounds… cold.”

Will nodded. “I know it does. I can’t say I like the idea. But I like the idea of the Assassin truly eliminating a human being forever even less.”

Eva turned. “We should talk to Aaron, then. Cloning was his project, was it not?”

The trio headed toward the research complex at the “southern” end of the Cavern. When they arrived, they entered the building through sliding doors that whisked open in near silence. The interior of the building was kept much cooler than the rest of the Cavern, as a means of protecting the extensive electrical equipment stored inside. Will could hear the hum of the machines around them, could smell the refrigerant in the air. He shivered involuntarily.

They asked the people inside for directions to Aaron’s research room. When they arrived, Will knocked on the door, and Aaron opened it just a crack, his face registering surprise. “Will? Eva? Shadow? What… what brings the three of you here?”

“Hello, Aaron. How goes the cloning experiment?” Will asked.

“Cloning?” Aaron’s face fell. “Oh. Well… we’ve repaired quite a few damaged body parts, and have regrown some limbs that have been lost in fights with the Hunters' swords, that sort of thing.”

Will shook his head. “Not that, Aaron. I’m curious about any ongoing efforts in more…
thorough
clonings.” Will arched an eyebrow. “Have you attempted to take the technology further?”

“Well…” Aaron’s eyes shifted around. “Yes, but… it doesn’t seem to work very well.”

“May we come in?” Hope asked. “We think cloning may help us in our efforts to protect humans against the Assassin. Whatever progress you’ve made can help in that effort and save lives.”