The Rift Rider (22 page)

The Divide
embraced him, its energy flowing through him like an elixir. Charlie took a
healthy draft and then turned his eyes inwards, picturing his next stop,
Executive Ko.

Her twilight form painted itself onto the
whiteness. Like smoke, the image spread, showing next the laboratory floor,
then the cell and finally the trapped girl within it. Ko paced back and forth
in front of her, running her silver fingers against the bars. Playing with the
trapped girl the way a cat plays with a snared mouse.

Awani was no mouse though, and even in this
pale shadow reflection Charlie could see the defiance in her eyes. She appeared
bruised and bloody, but in one piece. Her keeper had yet to take her prizes.

Charlie followed the silver woman's steps,
waiting for the right moment. His glowing form pulsed. He cocked his arm. When
she turned her back against the bars, he rushed into the laboratory, his green
fist already swinging.

The punch connected with a stunning crack,
shattering Ko's cheekbone and flinging her clear of the cell. She skidded
across the floor, landing in a heap by the wall.

"Charlie," Awani called.

The room reverberated with the blazing of sirens.
In one corner a holographic face called for evacuation. The engine room had
blown and the ships energy fields were struggling to contain the blast. The
whole ship would explode at any moment.

Charlie looked at the crumpled form of Ko on
the floor and at Awani, her eyes shining bright. And that was when he made his
mistake. Instead of finishing the silver woman off while she was down, he met Awani's
stare and stopped. He reached a glowing hand through the bars and rested it
softly against her cheek. "I'll get you out of there."

It was barely five seconds, but it was
enough time for Ko. When Charlie turned, the woman had her rifle pointed at
him. From her position on the floor, she fired a volley of energy bursts. They
tore harmlessly through him, but she used the distraction to clamber to her
feet and dart to the opposite end of the laboratory.

She glared at Charlie from across the room.
Her rifle hung at her side.

"Give it up," Charlie said.
"You know you can't hurt me. Fire and it'll go straight through me."

Her jaw dropped open, revealing teeth like
pebbles. Her mouth closed and opened, closed and opened, closed and opened, the
movement growing faster. A guttural coughing forced its way out of her. The
woman's sides began shaking. Grimly, Charlie realised the woman was laughing.

She took her eyes of Charlie, and looked
behind him. Charlie followed her gaze. "You think you're so clever."
She raised her rifle. Its barrel now pointed at Charlie's flickering form.
"But tell me this, clever boy. If my shots pass through you, then what's
going to stop them from hitting your girlfriend?"

Her jaw shook
one last time and she fired.

The instant
Charlie saw the woman's trigger finger flex, he dived in front of Awani,
shifting back to his physical form.

The two shots
slammed him up against the cell bars. Awani screamed. He sat, his legs spread
out in a crooked V before him. Half of his chest had gone. The shots had carved
a bloody crater the size of a rugby ball. It sizzled and smoked. The smell of
frying bacon was everywhere.

Incredibly,
there was no pain.

Awani dropped to
her knees, whimpering. She pushed her fingers through the bars, touched his
neck, bringing her face up to the bars. Charlie could feel her breath on his
neck.

From the other
side of the room, came Ko's sick laughter.

Charlie raised
his head. Executive Ko stalked towards him. "I think," she said,
removing a surgical blade from her belt, "I'm going to let you live long
enough for you to see me make your beautiful girlfriend far less
beautiful."

Behind him, he
felt Awani pull away.

Ko stopped in
front of him. She leant down, and showed him the blade. It was no larger than a
butter knife, but its edge looked surgical sharp. The silver woman passed it
backwards and forwards in front of his nose. "What part of her would you
like me to cut off first? Her nose, her ear, her lip." She paused, looking
over Charlie's shoulder at the girl quivering in the cage, "Or how about
those lovely eyes of hers?"

Charlie closed
his eyes. His head dropped. He whispered his words into the hole in his chest.

"What was
that?" Executive Ko said, kneeling to better catch his mumbled words.
"Speak up, boy. I can't her you."

Charlie lifted his
head. His eyes flashed green fire. This time his voice came out loud and
strong. "I said I'm the one doing the cutting." And clenching his
fist, he freed the Robundee blade. With every last ounce of strength he drove
it into the woman's eye.

The Executive
screeched. Her body jerked. Blood rushed out of her empty socket. Charlie pushed,
twisting the blade like a corkscrew. The scream heightened in pitch, a
horrible, evil, primordial sound. Her arms flopped against him like the
tentacles of a dying octopus. Charlie gritted his teeth and brought his fist
downwards across her face, ripping it apart. The death wail ended, replaced by
the gurgle of rushing blood.

Executive Ko,
the life gone from her, slumped over Charlie.

He pulled the
blade out of her cheek and wiped it against the gold of her uniform. A
flattening of his hand sent the blade sliding home.

He looked down
at his fallen enemy. Her face was the stuff of nightmares. Her one good eye lay
wide open, staring at him in accusation. He pushed her off him, and the eyelid
sealed shut, forever.

A pool of Ko's
blood had formed on his lap. It looked like tomato soup. It smelled bad. But he
was too tired to do anything about it. His eyelids felt as heavy as manhole
covers. He shut his eyes, and leant his head against the bars. Sleep had her
arm around him, ready to take him into blissful nothingness.

Soft finger
caressed his hair. "Don't sleep, Charlie. You mustn't sleep." It was
Awani. Her voice grew louder. "You can't. You hear me. You can't
sleep." She wrenched his hair back. "Stay awake."
 

"That
hurts," he said, coming around.

She stopped
pulling. "Charlie, you've got to find a medbot."

He turned to
face her. Ko's knife glinted in her hand. Her shackles lay cut apart at her
feet.

The sirens
blared, and the warning voice continued its call for evacuation.

"There's no
time," he said. "Got to get you out of there." He grabbed the
metal bars and using them for support pulled himself up onto his knees. He felt
a wet warmth cascade down his body, but no pain. He lay beyond pain.

The square
activation slab, operating the cell lock, shimmered darkly on one of the bars.
Charlie reached down and grabbed the silver woman's hand. He raised a leg and,
gripping a bar for support, lifted the dead woman's body onto his knee. She
hung there like some demonic doll. Charlie wrapped his fingers around her wrist
and lifted her palm up against the slab. The door slid open.

Charlie fell
backwards, exhausted.

Awani dropped to
the floor and cradled him in her arms. She had had two teeth pulled out and a
needle rammed up her hand. Yet her smile had lost none of its beauty.

Charlie coughed.
Bitter metal filled his mouth. He spat it out. "Steal a ship and get out
of here."

"I'm not
leaving you," she said.

Charlie shook
his head. He smiled and reached out to touch her face with glowing fingers.
"But I've already gone." His key form flickered on and off like a
dying light bulb. He pulled his hand away and took one last look of her. And
then with a roll of his fingers, he tore a rift.

He tumbled into
the whiteness, a shadow man falling through endless sky of white.

He fell and fell and fell, a dying flame
rushing through the wind. The pure light of the Divide sucked his colour away
from him. Weariness thicker and heavier than any he had ever felt before pulled
him down like an anchor. His physical death had come and gone. Now he would die
his second and final death.

As he plummeted, he thought of the rollers.
He knew so little about them. He wondered if they ever died or if lived forever,
immortal dancers on an infinite stage, soul surfers riding an endless summer.
That'd be nice, he thought. To live forever, riding a never-ending succession
of rifts into worlds as wild and fantastic as any dream.

Charlie jolted to stop. The Divide exploded
around him. A wrenching tore the whiteness apart. A giant fissure of red,
green, gold, and blue stretched beneath him. Through it surged a thousand
rollers. At their head weaved Rayn, his purple and golden form pulsing firework
bright. He blazed upwards, trailing a banner of colour.

The rollers surrounded Charlie, submerging
him in a tornado of throbbing light. Rayn gave the command and the rollers
began breaking rank and streaming into Charlie. They poured in and out of him,
each leaving behind a fragment of their power. Charlie's divide form rocked and
bucked and flashed. Each penetration left him stronger.

Rayn was the last to flow through him. As
the roller's energy coursed inside him, Charlie felt himself expand and
contract. Every part of his being burned with a new-born vitality.

Once Rayn passed through him, the whirling
pool of colour fell apart. Like a bomb blast, the rollers burst out in every
direction. Rayn alone remained.

Charlie, tingling from head to glowing toe,
said. "What just happened?"

Rayn, smiling his monstrous smile, said,
"You're truly one of us now, a child of the Divide." His voice
boomed. "By letting your physical self die, you took the final step. The
shackles of the physical world have fallen to your side."

"Awani," Charlie said, his body
pulsing with frustration. "She needs me."

"Then return."

"How? I died."

Rayn laughed, his five eyes catching ablaze.
"You'll return in one piece, I promise. A whole new realm of possibilities
now lies ahead of you. More even than Brother Yojim has taught you."

"You know Brother Yojim?"

Rayn glowed with humour. "It was me
that told him to rescue you."

"Then its twice I owe you my life."

"You owe me nothing brother. Now
go."

Charlie bowed his head, and vanished.

Awani twisted,
aiming her rifle at the flash of light beside her.

"Charlie,"
she screamed, her eyes wide in disbelief. "You died."

"I came
back," he said smiling.

The pink girl
grabbed his glowing form and squeezed. Charlie tingled all over. He could sense
her whole being pulsing against him, ready to be plucked and placed inside his
protection.

She pulled away
and looked into his firefly eyes. "How?"

Charlie looked
past her. The docking bay was in chaos. In their desperation to save
themselves, the Corporation employees had shed all respect for order and rank.
They fought like rabid cats to get a place on board a leaving ship. Lines of
spacecraft, lay backed up behind the exit tunnels.

"I'll tell
you later," Charlie said. "First, let's get the hell out of
here."

"How are we
going to get a ship through all that?"

Charlie smiled.
"Ships? Where we're going we don't need ships." With a simple mental
nudge he opened a rift. It shimmered white beside them.

He took her
hands in his and they stepped through it.

The moment they
crossed over, Charlie sucked the girl into his divide form, finding a secure
place for her inside his foot. The whole time they remained in the divide her
conscious energy would be safe and sound tucked between his heel and toes.

"Now,"
he thought. "Three more stops and then Poklawi

Doctor Sree
cried. The two fringes had dragged him into the corridor. But the moment the
sirens started they ditched him, fleeing in the direction of the docking bay.
The energy had escaped from the engine room, and the corridor glowed white from
the flicking bolts of electricity. They whipped at his body, burning, cutting.

But the pain
they gave was nothing compared to his arm. The metal had melted through so that
where his forearm should have been was now a soggy collection of bone, flesh and
molten alloy.

He wanted to
die, anything to bring an end to the pain.

But he did not
die. He had no weapon and those rushing past ignored his pleas for mercy in
their hurry to get off the ship.

The hand came
out of thin air, an impossible demon's hand, aglow in green. It was one of the
ancient gods coming to claim him. He felt its cool touch on his shoulders and
was sucked inside.

Charlie found
Bei, where he had left him in the tunnel system, alive but barely so. He
reached a glimmering hand down to him. The man's life force was weak. He had
little time left. Charlie pulled his friend into him.

Brother Yojim
was waiting for him on the beach. He had never left it.

"How did
you know I'd come back?"

The robundee
smiled. "I've been in meditation since you left. Your roller brothers and
sisters have been keeping me informed."

"Are you
ready to go home?"

The pathfinder
nodded. Charlie placed a palm on the bare red chest. "Show me the
way."

Charlie arched his back, pushed his belly
against the board and let the wave push him to shore. Behind him the last light
of the sun shone down on the Gower coastline. Sand brushed under his knees. He
stopped and climbed to his feet, picking the board up and holding it under his
arm. He took the final few steps to the waters edge where his friends were
waiting.

Awani, dressed in Uggs, jeans and hoody,
came forward. Her pink smile lay half hidden in the shadow of her hood.

He placed the board on the sand, and wrapped
his arms around her. Their kiss was long and hard. She pulled back. "Not
as big as Jajag, but still impressive."

"We'll be back soon. And once we take
down the Corporation I'll teach you turen how to surf."

Awani laughed. "Charlie's surf
school."

Bei clapped two gloved hands together. He
wore a thick parker, its furred rim hovering over his eyebrows.
 

"What are you clapping for?" Tim
said. "He bailed two out three waves."

Charlie laughed. "You wait till the
beach has emptied and I'll show you something."

 
Tim, smiling, shook his head. "Check
him out. Saves a planet and he thinks he's something special."

Charlie shrugged.

"So," Tim said. "Have you
thought of a name yet?"

Charlie raised an eyebrow in question.

"Come on mate. Every superhero needs a
name. What's yours?"

 
Charlie thought for a while. He looked
into Awani's sparkling eyes and then up at the purple fingers of dusk. He
smiled. "I'm the rift rider."