The Unfinished World (The Armor of God Book 2) (20 page)

“Is everything all right?”

“What do you mean?” Garros asked.

“You’ve been acting strange, that’s all,” Ezra said. The fact that the only thing he could hear was their own voices—and what felt to him like the Minotaur’s bellows echoing somewhere in the back of his mind—made the conversation seem more intimate. He didn’t like it.

“Really?” He heard Garros chuckle. “I thought I was acting like anyone would, considering the situation. It’s okay to be scared, you know? I’m just scared. I appreciate you asking.”

His candor left him without anything else to say.

“Something’s coming, man,” Garros said, and Ezra didn’t know if he meant in the tunnel, or if he was referring to the bigger—the biggest—threat. “I can hear the sound of something big moving near us.”

Before he could ask for an elaboration, Ezra noticed movement by the Minotaur’s feet. Erin and Akiva reappeared from the small crack in the wall, and climbed their way back up to their respective Creux’s Apse.

That was easy
, he thought.

Ares turned around to once more face the rest of the group, as if to make sure the other two climbed into the Creux safely. Ezra heard the sound of static when Phoenix’s Apse was closed and the lights on her armor came to life; Erin was back in the aural link. “There was no damage here,” she said. “Everything was running smoothly.”

“What does that mean?” Ezra asked.

“It means we’re not done,” Garros explained. “We need to go deeper, closer to the repeater.”

“That’s right,” said Erin, and she followed Akiva down the increasingly small tunnel. Should it become much narrower, neither Ares nor Nandi would be able to keep going; they would have to find another way through the labyrinth.

It has a way out.

“William said there are two points in the caves where it could have been damaged: the controls and the repeater. That entrance back there is where Eliza Mizrahi put the controls, and they seemed to work fine. He said it was more likely that the problem was in the repeater down the cave. It’s not far.”

“How did she build this? We can be here because we’re in a Creux. How could they make it down here?” Ezra asked, a question that had been lingering in his mind.

“Because this place used to be as safe as Clairvert, and for the same reasons. Until the Shift, the Laani never stepped foot inside here,” Garros said. Ezra could only infer the meaning of the word
Shift
in this context. “Lys is calling them back, and his call apparently is stronger than whatever pain or fear they have of this place.”

“Garros,” said Erin, taking a confident decision at one fork in the tunnel. “You hear that?”

“Yeah,” he replied. “Ezra, I know you can’t hear and that sucks, but the noise I told you about, the Flecks, it’s much louder here. I’m going to walk behind you now for safety.”

“All right,” replied Ezra and moved forward, between Phoenix and Ares; Akiva didn’t even notice the switch, and kept walking.

Until, suddenly, he stopped and signaled.

“There they are,” Erin said.

The tunnel opened to a huge hall about the same size of Clairvert. This could very well be the heart of the mountain; it was spacious, even for something of Quantum Ares’ size. Still, there was no sign of the Asili, or any of its energy—he could only feel it through Nandi’s core. Yet if it wasn’t the heart of the complex, it was an important node; there were at least eight different pathways converging here, some coming from ground level, others carved through the ceilings and walls.

It took him too long to notice their company, but it was very well hidden in the darkness: bundled like scared animals at the corner of the room, seeing only with the light shed by Phoenix, Ezra saw at least seven Trooper-type Flecks.

They did not seem aggressive as he had always known them; they seemed terrified, and in pain. They were shaking, hiding their faces in the spaces they found between their own and the others’ bodies. Could he listen, he was sure he’d hear the sounds of a scared, whimpering animal.

“Move slowly, we don’t know if there are any others,” Erin said. “Garros, eyes on back, all right? If they move, or launch an attack, we’ll have to fight them, and I agree we shouldn’t shake this place up too much.”

“Got it.”

Akiva moved his Creux with incredible grace; Ezra was sure he wasn’t making a sound as he almost
glided
towards another tunnel to their right. It had become a second skin to him and could wield it effortlessly. Of course it wasn’t only his talent and training; the alien engineering of the suit was much more impressive than any of the others.

Ezra didn’t remove his eye from the scared Flecks in the corner as the group moved closer to the new tunnel and one by one began entering—

It felt like losing the air in his lungs when the sudden bludgeon of something huge and strong hit his back, and Nandi toppled forward like an old tree. It was so sudden that the fight was, again, well on its way when he realized it was happening.

“Be careful with the walls! Don’t hit the—!” Garros screamed, fighting.

The energy began to flood the space between Nandi’s horns while the Minotaur rose to its feet to join the fight. Potent blasts of power shot from his hands when he ran, head down, to tackle a Trooper that looked confused and scared.

The creature was barely alive when Ezra crashed against it using his horns. The inertia of his savage charge was too strong. He crashed against the wall, splattering the remains of the Fleck in a gory explosion.

The strength he had felt building up in Nandi proved to be real; he felt twice as powerful, and it made it twice as dangerous. He couldn’t succumb to the bloodlust.

“Ezra
what did I just say
! Use your
core
!” came Garros’ furious command, his voice straining from the effort of tearing a Fleck apart.

Where’s Milos? Where’s Akiva?
he thought.

“Move into the tunnel, keep going!” Erin said when the first group of Flecks dispersed, ready to attack. “The energy is stronger here, they won’t—Oh my god.”

He could barely see the space, but suddenly there were of hundreds of Carrier types—small humps of transparent flesh with many legs that carried the contagious disease—swarming the chamber like ants. Ezra stomped Nandi’s feet to crush the things—

“
Use your goddamn energy
!”

Ezra felt something pulling him back and quickly discovered that a Fleck had grabbed Nandi’s horns in a surprisingly intelligent move from a normally feral creature. It was its mistake. Ezra drew energy from his core to the horns, and the creature’s gnarled hands all but melted off. The sudden disappearance of its hands angered it more, and it lunged forward to attack with its jaws alone.

When Ezra prepared to receive the monster, there was a massive flash of colorful light, and when it passed, only charred carcasses and ashes remained where the Flecks used to be.

Milos Ravana was standing by the entrance to the tunnel, knees bent, one hand on the floor.
Galaxy Cluster
, Ezra remembered—a massively powerful technomantic technique he had first seen outside of Roue. He made a gesture with both hands, and Ezra could understand its meaning: “All clear.”

“Go, go! Move!” Erin said, and the three other Creuxen moved into the tunnel from where they were attacked.

“I’m sorry,” said Ezra. “Garros, I apologize; it came out of nowhere, and I was confused for a second, I forgot that—”

“Yeah,” replied Garros. The four of them continued walking down the tunnel; the sudden battle only added a new degree of urgency to their mission. “I won’t give you any crap about it; you know what happens if you become a liability to us.”

“Yes,” he said. It was still so hard for him to perform in battle; even after learning how to control Nandi well, how to use its strength to his advantage, there were always things he forgot to consider, often thanks to becoming mentally clouded, lost in his need to fight. “I’m not. I’m sorry.”

“But good work on those two,” Garros said, almost begrudgingly.

“We’re close, but there are others in the tunnels ahead. They sound like more Carriers,” said Erin. Ezra almost wanted to say that there was no point in worrying; Milos Ravana was too powerful, and having it by their side rid them of any real threat. It almost made the rest of them irrelevant.

“How far is the repeater?" asked Ezra.

“Right there—oh. Oh boy,” Erin said. “Look at that.”

Phoenix took a step back, pressing herself against the wall so that the others could see. There was something very strange about the topography of the area. The massive tunnel where they stood grew very small very suddenly, leaving only a tiny opening about thirty feet above ground level.

There were rocks blocking the entrance to the tunnel. They were too carefully placed to be there from an accidental rockslide like William had hypothesized.

“What happened here?” Garros asked.

“I don’t know, but this is probably what William was talking about. It doesn’t look like a rockslide. This was deliberate.” Erin walked towards the small tunnel and pushed Phoenix’s hand inside. She began to remove the stones, which would be impossible to move by human muscle. “There is no damage to the walls. Where did these rocks come from?”

“Down there,” said Ezra, and pointed to a spot next to his foot. The wall had suffered damage, as though it had been kicked by something very strong—something as strong as a Creux.

“This doesn’t make any sense,” Erin said, removing the last stone, and opening the tunnel. Artificial red light crept the chamber from within. “Garros?”

“Huh? Oh.” Quantum Ares was looking back at the tunnel, waiting for another threat to present itself. “Maybe the Laani aren’t as stupid as we thought? I agree this looks deliberate. What’s next?”

“I’m going in. Ezra, you’re coming with me. Garros, you stay back here with Akiva.” Phoenix’s hands moved, conveying the clearest form of the same message to Milos Ravana. “The tunnel is too small for a Trooper, but not for a Carrier. Cover the entrance; it shouldn’t take us very long. Give us a boost when we’re down, will you?”

Ezra knew why he was being asked to go down instead of staying inside the Creux to fight if needed. He didn’t mind the minor humiliation; he wanted to see what was inside.

Besoe Nandi, I’m leaving.

You’ll return.

Of course.

Thank you.

Thank you.

ф

Vivian prepared herself for one of the first nights of peaceful sleep in months. For the first time, things seemed to be going well, or at least that was the sensation Director Blanchard and Rebecca were successfully conveying. Rebecca had begun to work closer with the director, and she’d often talk to Vivian about the progress in the grand plan, which was very far from over.

Of course not everything could be shared, even with Vivian, whom both of them trusted. All three of them now knew with complete certainty that there was a traitor in Zenith, someone other than Kat, and that he or she could be living in the Blanchard house right then.

Still, things seemed to be moving forward effectively. Director Blanchard had begun a new phase of her plan, and it involved returning to Zenith to take back control of the Creux.

The prospect of piloting Rose again filled her with hope. She had even asked the director to let Rebecca work with her as a crewmember, even if to a reduced capacity. Rebecca had agreed; Rose needed her more than Nebula.

She shifted her weight on the soft bed and turned back one page in her book; her mind had wandered away, and she had stopped paying attention, so she re-read.

Vivian was close to finishing Alice Nolan’s book for the second time. It wasn’t even an exercise in education anymore; it was something else—she wanted to remember Alice through her wisdom, and her book was the best possible time capsule of it. Learning more, and re-learning material, was a secondary satisfaction.

Her eyelids were beginning to grow heavy when the sound of the door creaking open snapped her awake. Tessa stepped into the room quietly. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t mean to wake you.”

“You didn’t,” Vivian replied and closed the book. She had been wondering where Tessa was. The room Director Blanchard had assigned them had two beds, and one of them was Tessa’s after she requested to stay with Vivian. Vivian herself wasn’t very happy with the pairing, but wouldn’t dare protest. “Where were you?”

“You remember Ezra’s crewmembers for Besoe Nandi?”

“Of course I do,” said Vivian. “How could I forget?”

“Well, Dr. Mustang is here. He just got here a few hours ago. I guess the director called him. Maybe she needs him for something—her plan’s moving forward, isn’t it? Has she told you anything about it?”

“No, not really,” said Vivian, setting the book aside and covering herself to the chest. She sounded angry and bitter towards Tessa—it was something she couldn’t avoid; even if she couldn’t think of an alternative, she still resented how Tessa had lied to Luke so easily. It almost felt like Tessa had changed since she was dubbed a Zenith hero. “I’ll turn down the lights, if you don’t mind.”