The Fourth Sage (The Circularity Saga) (46 page)

"Go right at the end," Aries yells to Seth, who is the first to reach the opening.

Once outside, they run past the tower and toward the edge of the slope.

"We should spread out," Ty says. "Not as easy to find a target when we're not together."

Seth and Mila arrive at the edge and disappear over it. Amber, Jeremiah, and C.J. are next. Kiire, Sam, Tevis, and Ty are right in front of Max and Aries. The slope isn't all that steep and consists mainly of small, loose rocks. Once in a while, larger pieces jut out of the ground, dangerous obstacles on their way down. About halfway between them and the bottom of the slope stands a large parabolic antenna.

"Try to make it there!" Ty shouts. He and Tevis hold hands as they navigate the rocky ground.

"You're gonna be okay?" Aries asks them.

"They'll be fine," Sam says. "I'll take care of them. Not to worry."

Aries tries to see where her feet are going and at the same time watch the air for the drone that has disappeared behind the tower.

Let me do that,
she hears Born-of-Night think.
You concentrate on where you're going. I'll watch out for the drone.

They reach the dish and find shelter under its massive reflector.

"I have a feeling that this was the easy part," Ty says, trying to catch his breath. "C.J., how are you holding up?"

"I'm fine," she says. The fact that she isn't wearing any shoes doesn't seem to bother her. If it does, she's not saying anything.

"We're halfway down," Seth says. "We shouldn’t all go at once. Leave some space between us."

"Good idea," Ty says. "Aries, you and Max go first. We'll follow right behind you with Sam."

"I'll go last," Seth says.

"I'll stay with you," C.J. says.

They look at each other. The safety of the parabolic reflector above them makes Aries hesitate.

Come on,
Max thinks.
No sense waiting here.

"Can I come with you?" Mila asks.

"Of course," Aries answers. "Let's go."

The three of them step out of the reflector's shadow and run down the hill. Max holds Mila's hand and when they get to a large rock outcropping in front of them, they move to its left while Aries goes to the right. For a second she looks back, sees Ty, Sam, and Tevis on their way down, and Jeremiah and Kiire beginning their descent.

The drone has circled back.

"It's coming!" Aries cries.

Then a blue fireball explodes next to her, sweeping her off her feet. She lands hard on the stones. Two more explosions rock the ground. Small pieces of rock fly through the air, hitting her head and back. She hears Ty scream in pain behind her, sees Max fall to the ground, and Mila sliding down the slope.

Go!
she hears Max think.
Get Mila. Get to safety.

Her rational mind shuts down at that moment. Her instinct takes over, lets her grab Mila's hand and run downward and toward the buildings at the bottom.

They could have hit us already,
part of her thinks.
They don't want to hit us.

They want you alive,
she hears Born-of-Night think.

She doesn't dare look behind her. With Mila by her side, she runs down the remainder of the slope and through the opening in the stone wall at the bottom of the hill. She can still hear the explosions behind them when she reaches a narrow alleyway and an opening in a house wall.

"Come," Aries says, while she leads Mila past a large hearth and through what must have once been a kitchen, into a dark corner of one of the rooms in back. There, they crouch down, holding each other. The quiet that follows is as impossible to bear as the explosions a minute ago.

They are taking them,
she hears Born-of-Night think. And when she closes her eyes, she sees the black forms of the androids as they make their way up the hill, circling around the others, grabbing them, pulling them up from the ground. Aries can't see anyone in particular, but one of the limp shapes must be Ty. She doesn't recognize him, but she recognizes Tevis's distant screams. Until one of the androids—judging by the red-and-black-striped uniforms he must be an E-9 unit—touches Tevis's neck with his hand and she falls to the ground.

"We have to get out of here," Aries says. Mila nods. Tears flow down her cheeks. She has seen the same image Aries saw. "Shhhh," she holds Mila, kisses her forehead. "We'll have to be brave now, you and me. You understand? Very brave."

"What should we do?" Mila asks.

"I don't know," Aries says. "But whatever it is, we need to reach that plate and we need to do that before they try to get Amber to tell them what it all means."

They leave the building and run down the narrow street. Blind windows stare at them from above.

Max, where are you?
Aries thinks. But there is no answer. Only an eerie stillness where his thoughts once were.

* * *

/begin upload 1-Tt7_54.15.220 ghost server //*1.00009__kiire_understaad

Forty-seven years ago, the Corporation found several large scrolls rolled up neatly inside a titanium-lead cylinder and buried a hundred and fifty feet below and two hundred meters northwest of the machine's center point. The scrolls contained what appear to be texts, written in Amber's language, together with drawings, geometrical patterns, and notes regarding the machine and the large plate in front of it. The Artificial Intelligence Software was developed for the sole purpose of accelerating the process of deciphering the language. After decades of extensive analysis,
SELKom
's head of engineering compiled a report. It was called the Alpha Study. All the material in it suggests that the engravings on the plate contain mathematical formulas describing a process in which a conduit, made within the specifications outlined in the formula and placed at the exact location of the plate, would activate the machine to go from the low revolutions it currently operates at to a much higher frequency. This would, according to the report, allow enough power to be generated to achieve one thing: create a wormhole and make it possible to travel instantly through space.

Except for the last item, they got it all wrong.

/end of upload 1-Tt7_54.15.221 ghost server //*1.00009__kiire_understaad

Chapter 21 — Battle

Battle Morning —

“After the battle has run its course

When mist in its mercy still covers the dead

When the valley weeps for its children

When the waters, the waters, run red.”

[Part of a poem by a soldier of the 4th War]

"We're about here," Mila says, pointing at a rectangular shape on the floor. They kneel in the center of a small room. A narrow beam of light enters through an opening in one of the walls, illuminating parts of an unfinished drawing. The whole floor is covered by it.

"How far from the machine do you think we are?" Aries asks.

"Half a mile," Mila answers. "Basically, there are seven main roads leading to the center," she continues, while pointing to the thick, mostly straight lines leading to the center. "Then we have the smaller roads connecting some of the main ones. The alleyways branch off from there. It seems as if whoever planned the city laid out the main access roads and maybe a few of the side roads but the alleyways seem to have just appeared, depending on where the houses were built."

For the last hour or so, Aries has had to actively block out her concern for Max and the others and try to concentrate on coming up with a plan. Born-of-Night has done two fly-overs to get an idea where the others have been taken. During the first one, she saw a group of androids carrying or pulling their prisoners behind them, making their way from the outskirts of the city toward the center. The second time, several of the androids shot at the hawk. They missed, but since they now knew what to look for, Aries had told Born-of-Night to stay hidden. The last image she saw was that of the androids taking the others toward several huts, staggered in a semicircle between the machine and the plate of stone.

There are four drones in the air that I can see.
Born-of-Night's thoughts reach Aries
. They hover in circles. Two constantly circle around the machine and two are further out, toward the edge of the city.

"It's only a matter of time before they find us," Aries says. "Once one of the drones spots us, it can lead the androids straight to us."

"If we stay close to the house walls and only use the alleyways, we should be able to come very close to the plate," Mila says.

"There's no way for us to get to it," Aries says. "They'll never let us through."

"I wouldn't be so sure," Mila answers.

"Why is that?"

"Because I think they need you."

"You mean they'll just let us walk in?"

"I think they know they have us. What are you going to do to them at this point? We're surrounded. There's no way out and even if there was, they know you would want to try to free the others, at least."

"You think they'll wait for us?"

"Yes. What would you do if you were them?"

"I don't know," Aries says. Part of her recognizes the logic in Mila's arguments. The other part can't fathom simply walking up to them and saying, "Here I am, do what you want."

It's not all black and white, you know,
she hears Born-of-Night think.
There are options between surrender and inaction.

And what would they be?
Aries replies.

You can make them think you're doing one thing when, in fact, you're doing another.

You know they have close to infinite server capacity to figure out every possible scenario. I'm sure they have calculated what we're going to do next.

Your weakness is your strength.
Born-of-Night's thought echoes inside Aries mind.
And their strength is their weakness.

I don't understand.

The anomaly questions the norm,
Born-of-Night replies.
But it not only questions it. It disturbs it; it challenges, confuses, and distracts it. The anomaly questions the very existence of the norm.

But if they have factored in every possible scenario, doesn't this mean that they have also accounted for the anomaly?
Aries asks.

Not necessarily. Remember when you were first in Kiire's room and you asked him about the fact that they didn't know he was in there?

I remember.

They don't know what they don't know, is what Kiire said. I think it's the same for them. They can't calculate you. They might know you're the anomaly but they can't calculate what you're about to do, simply because what's going on in that little head of yours is outside their scope of data. The anomaly is the unknown factor, Aries. They have calculated everything but they are blind to you, to what you can do, to what you're capable of.

Aries looks at Mila, who smiles slightly.

So what should I do?
Aries asks.

Do what only you can do,
Born-of-Night continues.
Take into account what brought you here and how you got here, consider the whole picture, not just a small fragment, and from that point, do what feels like a natural next step.

"But what if that step seems crazy."

"Crazy is good," Mila says.

While Aries's conscious mind thinks feverishly about the right solution to this, the right path to take, the right move to make, there is a small part of her, hidden below the surface, that knows with absolute certainty what she needs to do. It is the same part that knew that following Born-of-Night down into the Forgotten Floors was the right choice, however preposterous it seemed at the outset.

"Okay," she says.

"Okay, what?" Mila asks.

"If we were to get to the next main road that leads into the center, how would we get there?"

"Um... let me see," Mila says. "We would pass this road over here and through those two alleyways." She points at the connecting line between two main roadways. "I think from there we should be able to reach the main thoroughfare."

"Okay. Mila, listen—"

"The answer is no."

"You didn't even know—"

"I have no charcoal left," Mila says. "I used it all. I'm coming with you."

Aries becomes aware of Mila's dirt-smudged hands, black from the charcoal; her filthy hair hangs partially over her face, and her clothes are more than raggedy by any standard. But the sparkle in her eyes is undimmed.