Multiplayer (30 page)

Hector’s stomach went cold and his spine had turned to steel. He felt the blood rushing to his face as Sanjar’s word clicked into place. How could he have been so blind? It was so obvious. Al-Kindi. Algebra. Wizards. Spells. He had to have an
Omega Codex
and a digital table.
Alkindi the Tech was Sanjar Zahedi!

Ch. 27

Izaak was waiting at their base when his so-called friends arrived. Hector booted
Omega Wars
in the bonus room and slaved his computer there an hour earlier to get things ready. Mom was at a soccer game with Halie, so he should have plenty of time to fix this mess. Veyron appeared first and soon after Alkindi and Darxhan together. They had once been his comrades, but now they were the enemy. How could they have betrayed him like this?

“Everything’s ready,” said Alkindi excitedly. “Darxhan said it’s time to go. So let’s go!”

Sanjar’s voice, Hector realized, feeling sick. That’s why it had always been familiar. “Plan’s changed,” he said, and told them he’d already scouted the peninsula. They had moved the slipgate to the old Byzantine church and it was only lightly guarded. The hotel was no longer a target and he felt they could go in together and get it without too much problem.

“So the Reavers are gone?” said Darxhan.

“No,” Izaak answered, following his carefully choreographed script. “The Reavers are still there. But the slipgate is in a different spot, or at least it was an hour ago.”

“So, no one is guarding it?” Alkindi asked.

He sounded so much like Sanjar! How could he have missed it? Now he was angry at himself. “I didn’t say that. But they’re not Reavers and there’s only a few of them.”

“Well, why didn’t you get it?” asked Darxhan. “We could be on our way out of here, man.”

“Because there’s some kind of laser security system around it. I didn’t want to try to deactivate it, but I thought Alkindi could. Then we get the gate and use it to slip back out. It might be a little dicey by then, so set your passports for wherever you want to end up when you go through.”

“But how will we get there?” said Alkindi. “Darx won’t fit in the sub.”

“We don’t need him. He can stay here,” said Izaak. He didn’t want Darxhan to come anyway. “You too, Veyron”

“I’m not staying here!” exclaimed Darxhan. “If we’re getting the gate, I’m going to be there.”

“And I’m not staying here either,” said Veyron.

“Hook a cable to the sub and you can just drag me in,” said Darxhan.

Izaak protested but everyone else insisted so they hooked a line to the sub and shoved off. Izaak piloted the sub from the controls and said almost nothing but kept turning the periscope around underwater where he could see Darxhan trailing behind them at the end of a rope. Deion would never understand what he was about to do. Maybe Sabrah, too. But that didn’t matter. The calculating rage that had been building, demanded its due.

“This place is amazing!” exclaimed Alkindi, when he emerged from the submarine. He shone a light around the chamber, revealing the ‘ancient’ stone work.

“His grandfather discovered it in real life,” said Sabrah. “Is that cool or what?”

“Did you get to see it on your vacation last year?” asked Deion.

“It was never opened to the public,” Izaak replied coolly. “Pappous said it was just too dangerous.”

Alkindi stepped ashore and began exploring. “Pretty clever, you submitting that terrain change report. Nobody else knows this is here. Just us.”

“And pretty strange you never mentioned it,” said Darxhan, and Izaak thought he detected a note of suspicion in his voice.

“It all happened around the time Chaz died. I just didn’t think about it.” It was true. Mostly.

Once they’d climbed the stair and emerged from the passageway, Izaak pointed to a crumbling, domed structure a few hundred feet away against the eastern wall of the citadel. The place he’d hidden the night he figured out their plan. The place where they prayed his father would return safely. “The old Byzantine Church. The gate’s in there.”

“Where are the guards?” asked Alkindi. The entire compound was empty.

“Might be even easier than we thought,” said Izaak. “Now there’s two ways we can do this. We can all sneak over there and try to get the alarm down. Or we can cover you from here.”

“No need to put everyone in danger,” said Alkindi as Hector had known he would. Trying to be selfless while lying through his teeth, the simpering dork. “If you can just make sure no one surprises me, I should be back here in a few minutes.” He dropped a slipgate replicator just inside the passageway. “I’ll just punch these coordinates in and when I get through, slip right back to here. Then we can all punch out together!”

Alkindi wore refractive armor, but unlike Izaak’s, it offered little protection other than quasi-invisibility. So he stole around the edge of the citadel as Izaak had done before, and it wasn’t long until they saw him draw near to the church where he stopped just outside.

“What’s he doing?” asked Veyron.

“Like I said, there’s a security system. He’ll have to get it down first before he can get in.” But Izaak knew what was about to happen. White smoke came boiling out of the church followed by a muffled boom. Exactly as he’d planned.

“What happened?” cried Veyron.

“Must’ve tripped the alarm,” said Izaak smugly.

“We’ve got to do something,” said Veyron.

Guards rushed into the compound. “Let’s go, Izzy!” said Darxhan, and started across the compound, but Izaak didn’t move. “What’s your problem We’ve got to help him!”

Alkindi stumbled out of the smoke and ran toward them. Guards were hot on his heels. He turned and fired. They fired back.

“You can hit them from here, Izaak!” cried Veyron. “Shoot them. Do something!”

Darxhan set out across the compound as fast as his armor would carry him, lobbing auto cannon rounds at the attackers. They were only guards and one of them took a direct hit and blew apart.

“What’s the matter with you!” shrieked Veyron. “Why aren’t you helping?” She snorted and followed Darxhan.

“What are you going to do?” Izaak shouted.

“More than you are!” she yelled back at him.

The guards had surrounded Alkindi and had directed their full firepower on a bubble shield that had enveloped him. It glistened and sparked as the bullets bounced off. Inside, Alkindi seemed to be working up some new magic. “Save yourself now, wizard,” Izaak snarled. The shield began to fade. When it went down, Alkindi would be dead and Sanjar’s identity revealed.

But just as it flickered and went out, Darxhan waded into them like a bulldozer plowing through a pile of aluminum cans. His auto cannon spat shell after shell, and in his other hand he wielded a plasmace with deadly accuracy

Alkindi took hits and slumped over but Veyron flashed in and restored his health. She was holding a staff she swung back and forth but it did almost nothing. It wouldn’t be long before the Reavers showed up and killed all three of them. Something moved on the edge of Izaak’s vision and he looked to see several scarobs land on the wall. He had never seen them on the peninsula before. Perhaps they were attracted by the battle?

He looked back to see Darxhan and Veyron running toward him. The guards were all dead but Darxhan was carrying something. He didn’t see Alkindi anywhere. Izaak ducked back into the passageway and ran ahead of them back toward the submarine.

It was a long, dark descent into the bowels of the earth. He was ashamed at what he had done. He had sworn never to betray a fellow Spartan. But they had all broken that oath first, not him. They’d been lying to him for weeks. When he got back to the underwater cave he considered taking the sub and leaving them there. But he couldn’t do it. Not to Veyron. So he waited in the darkness, hating himself. Yet his father had always told him, sometimes doing the right thing isn’t always the easy thing. And this hadn’t been easy. But had it been right? At the moment it didn’t feel very right.

A light flickered on the stairs and a moment later, Darxhan emerged followed by Veyron. The giant merc stumbled down the steps with the body of Alkindi over his shoulder. He came straight to Izaak.

“Why didn’t you help, man?” Darxhan cried. “We could have saved him!” Izaak didn’t say anything. “We could have saved him and got the slipgate. Say something! What’s the matter with you, Hector?” The words were like swords through Hector’s gut. But swords were something a true soldier needed to be able to take.

“There was no slipgate,” Veyron said with damning calm. “Hector set him up.”

Hector could almost see Deion’s face through the mask. Through the digital connection that brought them to this place. “But, why?” Darxhan said in a tone that broke Hector’s heart.

“Because,” Veyron said with a chill that was even more damning, “he figured out Alkindi was Sanjar when we gave our reports today. Isn’t that right, Hector?”

“But he was a Spartan!” Darxhan cried. “A Spartan for God’s sake! You took the oath. You wrote the oath! And you betrayed him.”

“You took the oath too!” Izaak raged back. “I don’t know whether to call you Judas, or Brutus. My God Deion, Deion, Persians murdered my dad! They killed him! And you invited one into the only world I have left. Why?!”

“You just don’t get it, do you?” said Deion sadly. “Sanjar didn’t do anything.”

“You still have a dad!” Hector cried. “You don’t know what it’s like! Can you even imagine what it’s like without a dad? Knowing he got blown to bits! I have nightmares!”

“My dad didn’t get blown up,” said Sabrah with bitterness deeper than the ocean. “And I still have nightmares too. Your dad was a hero. I wonder what he would say about this.”

“I’m out of here,” said Darxhan and walked toward the water.

“Guys,” said Izaak. “Don’t do this. Please, it doesn’t have to be this way!”

At the edge, Darxhan turned but all Hector could hear was Deion’s voice. “You’re right, Hector. It didn’t.” And he jumped in, taking Alkindi’s body with him.

Veyron walked up close and looked Izaak in the face. Somehow Hector could see her face right through the digital paint. What bothered him most, though, was he knew she could see
him
, too. Their masks were gone. “So the bad guys can figure out who you are when you die in here?” It was all too obvious what she was accusing.

“Only Mal-X can do that!” Hector defended, but she didn’t buy it.

“Are you sure? Weren’t you just hoping? Who’s the terrorist now, Hector?”

“Sabrah, it’s not like that,” Hector protested. “You know this is all Deion’s fault anyway. First, he brings Sanjar in when he knew I didn’t want him here. Then, he tells him about Vera. Only a matter of time before he told him about the President. That guy just can’t keep his mouth shut. I just couldn’t let Sanjar find out what was happening. He would warn the terrorists! We had to get him out.”

“Oh come on Hector! If you really believe that, you need to start taking that medicine. You said there were only four days until the Summit and then you go and do this? I think you’re making the whole thing up to get attention.”

“Please, Sabrah,” Hector pleaded, battling confusion. “This is real. And it’s not too late to stop it. We can do it without Alkindi. You and me.”

“Remember when you asked me, what was the worst thing that could happen to you? Well, you just did it. You’re as bad as my dad. You know, Chaz was right. I should never have trusted an army-rat.”

The reference to Chaz was like being sent to Hell. “Sabrah. Veyron. We can still make this work.” Hector’s heart was bursting. “I still need your help to get the VTT documents!”

“I should have never come back to this stupid game. Goodbye, Hector,” she said, and Veyron collapsed like a rag doll.

Hector jerked in surprise and the movement was transmitted to Izaak who did the same thing. Izaak knelt by Veryon’s side. “Sabrah!” he cried. “Sabrah!” But she didn’t move. Sabrah was gone.

Hector eyes brimmed and the illusion of the game faded. It became completely artificial at that moment, but at the same time more real than life itself. He clumsily used the controller to guide Izaak in picking up Veyron’s body. He tried to get her into the submarine but his hands were fumbling and the screen a wash of color. He dropped her on the stone steps. Her digital depiction had become the most precious thing in the world to him. The only link he still had with the real person. He lifted her again but this time dropped her into the water and she sank.

He dove in after her and finally wrestled her back to the surface and into the submarine. And somewhere out there, his best friend was walking across the sea floor alone. Hector had lost his father, killed Chaz, put Sanjar in danger, driven away his mother and his sisters, and now his friends. And there were only four days until the summit.
Four days!

Ch. 28