Convergence (22 page)

Will sighed. “I felt the same way,” he muttered. Then he raised his voice to its normal volume level. “In any event, Adam—the son—warned of the murders forthcoming. I made certain I was the only one who knew, though.” He glanced at his son. “I especially needed to be certain that Fil didn’t know what would happen.”

Fil shuddered beneath the weakening netting, and he stared at his father. “But why? Why would you prevent
me
from knowing?” Fil asked.

“Because you wouldn’t have married me,” Sarah replied, her voice gentle. “If you’d known that our marriage would eventually lead to my death, and Anna’s as well, there’s a chance you would have avoided marrying me altogether. But you had to go through with it.”

Fil turned to look at his wife, his eyes misting over. Even in his frustration at the news that his family had been saved without his knowledge, he couldn’t stop the joy seeping back into his eyes as he looked at Sarah or Anna. “So he made clones of both of you?”

Anna nodded. “Adam’s clue was more specific than I think he realized. His words, his inflection, suggested that the attack was very similar to the Assassin’s attack when you were a boy. Grandpa”—she winked at Will—“realized I’d be about six years old when it happened. When I was five, he came by and told us what would happen, and helped us block our thoughts about it when you were around. He wanted us to know why he was doing what he’d done. Mom knew Grandpa was familiar with the future, so it wasn’t a tough sell. Grandpa came by at least once a week while you were working and replaced us with our clones. Once I turned six, he did that every day. When the day of the attack came… he took us to Eden to keep us out of harm’s way.”

“I helped too, Daddy,” Hope said, and her scathing tone caused Arthur to jump. “Will and I made new clones every three days for almost six months. Will worked to swap Sarah and Anna and their clones in and out of the house, and I watched over the real versions. They’ve been an integral part of creating the sequence of events leading to what’s happening here today.”

Fil pulled the net off, finally free of the damaging effects. He felt the fire roar within as his Energy stores began rebuilding. Porthos’ eyes widened at the rapidity of the regeneration. “Wait. You were there?” he asked Hope. “You were near my home, helping with everything?”

She nodded hesitantly, hearing the accusatory tone. “It was brutally difficult, Fil. I wanted so badly to go into the house, to see you, to talk to you. But I knew I’d give up the story about why I was there, and—”

“And I’d do something to mess it all up,” Fil said. He pushed himself unsteadily to his feet. His face tightened. “With all that knowledge… with Sarah and Anna both alive all this time…why? Why did you let me suffer for so long? Why not tell me the truth so I didn’t spend decades of suicidal grief blaming myself for something that didn’t happen?”

The pain on Will’s face aged him so that he looked far nearer his true age than his usual mid-thirties. “We couldn’t,” Will said, his voice cracking.

“You
couldn’t
,” Fil said, shaking his head in disbelief. The air crackled as his anger rose. “And because
you
couldn’t,
I
unintentionally killed a few billion people.”

“Don’t you get it?” Will shouted, staring down his son. Fil, surprised, took a step back. “Don’t you understand?
This
is why I mocked your statement about how we’d been living in freedom a few weeks ago. We’ve all been living under this anvil, altering our lives and decisions to preserve future history for so long that we have no idea what it’s like to be free. If I were truly free, Fil, do you
really
think this is how I’d have it play out? Do you think I’d do anything other than stop the abduction… or at least clue you in that they were safe until we tracked Abaddon down and took him down? Do you
really
think that I, if I were truly free, would let you suffer?” He took a step toward his son, and Fil was stunned to see tears in his father’s eyes. “No, I wouldn’t. And that’s just
one
decision taken out my hands over the centuries. Do you think I wanted to let the scumbag Hunters—?”

“Hello, still in the room,” Porthos muttered. He’d gotten to his feet and was pacing slowly around.

“—beat me nearly to death? No. Do you think I wanted to let all the people die that I knew would die? Do you think I didn’t want to stop all of the wars and all of the death and destruction accompanying them? I wanted to stop all of it, prevent all of it, but I couldn’t, Fil. Why? Because I was a slave to the future I knew, the one I had to preserve, because…” He swallowed. “For the longest time, it was the future I had to preserve because I had to let all of that happen to make sure you could be here today. But I guess if I’m honest with myself, at least some part of it was the fear that if I made those tweaks to history I might have made, I’d end up preventing my
own
birth. Cowardly? Perhaps.” He shook his head before turning to look at Arthur. “One thing I’ve come to realize over those centuries, Arthur, is this: There’s been one man at the heart of most of the suffering my family has endured over the centuries. And that’s why the instant my younger self vanished in that time machine, Hope and I were prepared to launch this assault. Because I’m tired of living as the slave of future history. And I have no interest in living in fear now that I don’t know what the future will bring.” He glanced back at Fil, who’d stood up and fell into an embrace he’d thought dead these past fifteen centuries. “If I could do it all over again, Fil, I’d change one thing, and that one change would make all the difference. I’d make certain that the Aliomenti never evolved into anything but what the Alliance is now. That’s all I want now, a combining, a convergence of the groups into one, living in
true
freedom and using our unique abilities and perspectives to make the world a better place.”

Fil looked at his father for several minutes, assessing his words, before finally looking at Arthur. “It’ll take me time to fully understand everything, Dad. But there’s one thing I know for certain.” He pointed at Arthur Lowell. “That man has threatened my family for the last time.” He cocked his head. “Shall we take him down together?”

Will offered a grim nod in reply, and father and son, fire burning in their eyes moved toward Arthur. Fil knew, as did his father, that for a man like Arthur, death by Energy was too kind.

He needed to die by the most human means possible.

They advanced on Arthur, who seemed to recognize that he was trapped. Will shared a truth with Fil: Arthur couldn’t escape them, for though he was capable of teleportation, he feared being lost in the displacement between locations so greatly that he refused to ever utilize that skill. He could run. But he’d never outrun the Stark men.

Arthur’s eyes suddenly widened. “No!” he screamed, his eyes focused on something behind the men approaching to finalize his execution.

Fil thought it might be a trick. But the news about Arthur and teleportation suggested the risk of looking was minimal. He turned around, hearing his father’s breath leave him as he recognized what he was seeing a fractional second before Fil.

Porthos had quietly slid himself to Abaddon’s fallen sword in the distraction of the meandering conversations. Fil realized that in the distraction of the moment, he’d let the nano cocoon lapse, a fact Porthos had seized upon. As Will and Fil advanced on Arthur, as Sarah and Anna moved forward to watch the death of the man who’d ordered their execution, they’d left one member of their party unprotected.

Porthos had Abaddon’s sword raised high above Hope’s head, held in his only remaining hand. As the blade descended, Fil realized he didn’t have enough time to move to deflect the blow.

And he knew no cavalry would arrive in time to save his mother’s life.

The artificial sunlight of the
Cavern vanished as they moved through the displacement void of teleportation. Seconds later, they appeared, blinking through the natural light of Headquarters. Off to the side, they heard the sound of a monorail train leaving the station. Adam realized the train would be empty. All of the humans were on Eden.

Adam marveled at the sight of the massive black marble Headquarters building, the polished surface glinting in the sunlight. The only indications of the chaos inside were the handful of smashed glass panels near the entry. He could hear faint sounds of explosions, and could feel the hundreds of bursts of Energy pulsing from the building.

He found Athos staring at him. “You just teleported two people eight thousand miles.”

Adam nodded. “Approximately.”

“But… how…?”

“Natural talent.” Adam nodded at the massive black marble building. “Based on the Energy coming from the building, the battle’s afoot, and a lot of people are dying. We need to get moving if we’re going to stop the fighting before they exterminate each other.”

Athos nodded. “Most of the Aliomenti spend time working in the lower levels, so—”

“We know,” Adam replied. “Most of our people started there. As those who started elsewhere finish a floor, they’re required to gradually make their way to those lower levels.”

Athos looked confused, and then a bit of nostalgic pride surfaced. “You do realize it’s not a given that the Aliomenti will fall and they’ll even be
able
to move on.” His jaw set, but his eyes reflected a realization that some of his biases ran deeper than Arthur’s programming.

“Of course it isn’t,” Adam replied. “We tried to overload the upper floors with people, hoping that overwhelming force would clear the upper floors quickly. That would bring extra fighters to the lower levels in waves that we hope will aid in our efforts to win.”

“What do you mean by win?” Athos looked nervous, and Adam sensed the reason. He had no more interest in seeing his old friends here dead than Adam did.

“The goal is not to kill. We never want to kill.” Adam sighed. “It’s just that you can’t know what rules your opponent will follow. But the goal, the definition of winning, is to render an opponent unconscious and then help the person undergo the same transformation you have. The goal is to use whatever means necessary to inject the medicine and undo their mental programming so they can think for themselves.”

Athos frowned. “What happens if they still want to fight the Alliance?”

Adam’s face turned stony. “Then there’s no choice but to try to knock them unconscious again and restrain them so they aren’t a danger to anyone. If that fails…” His voice trailed away. Athos’ face turned grim, but he nodded.

Athos nodded. “So we’re heading to the lower levels, then? Do you need an image, or would you prefer I teleport both of us?”

“You go on ahead. I have another responsibility I must attend to first.” Adam offered a faint smile. “I’m hopeful there’s little for me to do and I’ll join you quickly.”

Athos held up a hand. “Before you go, you need to know that the Leader found out about those little machines of yours. He has several methods of rendering them useless.”

Adam sighed. “I noticed. It’s basically the dust you used back in the Cavern, right?”

Athos nodded. “That’s one of them, but I think I’m the only one who had that besides him. There’s at least one more I’m aware of that has a similar effect. I’m just saying… don’t rely on them. They’re a great advantage against an Aliomenti without any reversal technology, but don’t get so overconfident that you stop thinking about what you’ll do without them.” He hesitated. “I only just found out. I knew the Leader had spies, but one of them… one of them knew a
lot
.”

Adam’s face tightened. “I know. And that’s why I have to go elsewhere first, to make sure that she’s not hurt too badly because of that decision.”

Athos grabbed his arm. “One more question.” He hesitated. “Did Will Stark… he really figured out how to reverse the ambrosia? He really has a son?”

“He really has a son
and
a daughter.” Adam paused. “But no, Will didn’t figure it out. Someone else did. But he was able to use that knowledge and become a father as a result.”

A look of quiet sadness filled Athos’ eyes. “Of course.” He held out his hand. “Good luck. Until we meet again, then.”

Adam accepted the Hunter’s handshake, and the former enemies teleported to their separate destinations. Adam teleported inside the main floor of Headquarters to listen to the Energy from below without falling victim to the savage fighting in the process. He cringed, unable to sense nearly the numbers of unique signals he’d expect. That meant that the Aliomenti had better Energy shielding technology than he knew… or the casualty count had already reached staggering levels.

It made no sense, though.

Those fighting were telepathic and empathic, able to sense murderous emotions and thoughts of attack quickly enough to move and teleport out of the way. How, then, could so many die when they ought to be able to defend themselves better, to move out of the way? He shook his head, able to reach only one conclusion. People weren’t teleporting away. They were staying where they sensed the attack coming in order to attack, swinging at spots where a teleporter would emerge from the void. They’d moved people here using the teleportation machines in part, to conserve Energy to provide that defensive capability for the longest possible period of time, giving the best chance to disable opponents for the insertion of the reversal medicine. If they used that excess Energy to attack, mirroring a likely Aliomenti technique…

He shuddered.

With the death toll clearly mounting, he began to doubt his decision to trust Athos. The former Hunter’s story came across as genuine, admitting his inadequacies as a military commander and the pain Porthos’ comments on his lack of skill had caused because Athos recognized them as truthful assessments. There was no reason for him to reveal his lack of military prowess in the presence of an enemy, for Adam wouldn’t know the truth. But the story of his forced conversion had been what sold Adam on the genuineness of the conversion. The story was related with far too much pain over the circumstances and what that conversion forced him to do to doubt Athos’ intentions.