Berserker (Messenger Book 2) Page 42

  Tinubu turned to Pierson and Aksinya. He activated his acoustic comm system and asked, “Which way?”

  “Even we weren't permitted to wander freely in the Temple,” Pierson replied. “We didn't know it had been built in the Hollow Sphere, or even that it was underwater. We were always sedated for our trips to and from the Temple.”

  “So what you're saying is that you won't be much help navigating this maze,” Tinubu said.

  “Not entirely,” Pierson said. “I know part of the layout. And I know that Regina is likely to be in the shrine, in the core of the Temple. We need to go deeper.”

  “All right, then.” Tinubu gestured in front of him. “We'll follow your lead.”

  Pierson and Aksinya's directions cut down on the number of false turns and helped the infiltration team maintain their orientation within the flooded maze. After 30 minutes of exploration, deep within the structure, they found their way blocked by a sealed bulkhead.

  “This is the passage that leads to the core,” Pierson said.

  “Looks like they managed to save it from being flooded.” Tinubu tried a rotary switch next to the bulkhead, without result.

  “The manual override is jammed,” he reported. “Sikes, see if you can blow it open.”

  “Roger that.”

  The demolitionist came forward and set explosive charges around the bulkhead. Everyone withdrew to a safe distance, then he detonated the charges. After the turbulence cleared, they found the bulkhead still standing in their way.

  “Shit,” Tinubu said. “This door is built tough. Guess we're going to have to find another way around.”

  They backtracked and continued their exploration. After another ten minutes, they found an opening leading to an enormous hollow in the middle of the Sphere. They discovered that there was an entire separate inner sphere contained within the thick outer shell, connected to the shell by thick stone spokes.

  “We must have encountered that bulkhead inside one of these spokes,” Esther observed. “This core is a completely separate structure, protected from exterior attack by the outer sphere.”

  “That's where the shrine is located,” Pierson said. “Regina will be in there.”

  “Then it'll be a problem if we can't get inside,” Tinubu said. “Search for alternate entrances.”

  They commenced swimming around the core's exterior, looking for some way inside besides the inaccessible spokes. After a moment's searching, they found a large opening on the bottom of the core. The swam upward through the hole and suddenly found themselves above water. They had found a hyperbaric chamber.

  They emerged from the water and climbed out onto the deck, where they cast off their A.D.S.s and the quartermaster distributed armaments from the sealed canister he had been dragging along throughout the underwater trek, including Astral's MINDs. They got into assault formation, passed through the airlock, and emerged in a stone corridor with metal paneling. Unlike the outer shell, the core still had power, illuminating the path with harsh lights that cast everything in a disconcerting, unnatural brightness.

  “Be careful,” Astral whispered. “It's not as strong as it was in Halispont, but I sense Scathe's presence here.”

  “God,” Vic hissed. “That thing just won't give up.”

  They found a stairwell and ascended to a passage curving away in both directions. As they followed the tunnel, something heavy clanged toward them from around the curve. A moment later, another of the Xenolist monsters came into view, its glistening hide cast into stark relief by the unnatural brightness. The infiltrators opened fire, killing the monster just as it leapt upon Cena and knocked her to the ground. Then small groups of masked guards appeared both in front of and behind them, and an intense firefight broke out, shattering some of the lights on the ceiling and carving patches of dimness out of the bright light. When it was over, they had slain their attackers, two members of the infiltration team had been killed, and two wounded, including Pierson who had taken a bullet through his left hand.

  “Are you all right?” Aksinya cried, kneeling next to him.

  Pierson held up his bloody, trembling hand. “It's not too serious,” he grunted. “But it hurts like the dickens.”

  Esther rose from where she had hit the deck and moved to treat her wounded comrades. “Let's hope we don't have any more encounters like that,” she said.

  “We're not turning back,” Tinubu said.

  Once Esther was finished patching up the wounded, they pressed on. Farther down the tunnel, they found a pair of giant stone doors with the three-eyed emblem of the Xenolists carved into them.

  “This is it,” Pierson said. “The shrine is just beyond these doors.”

  Astral came forward, put her hand on the doors, and frowned. “So is Scathe,” she said. “Be careful. It can take endless forms. There's no telling what it's capable of.”

  Vic came forward and pushed open the doors, revealing a stairway leading down. They descended the stairs, passed through a set of open doors, and emerged in a chamber built with the aesthetics of an alien cathedral, the vaulted ceiling supported by helical columns. A familiar container hung in the center of the chamber, suspended by giant chains.

  “What the...” Vic approached the container, staring up at it in disbelief. “What is the Cage doing here?”

  “Welcome, heretics,” a deep woman's voice echoed through the shrine. “If you are defiling this sacred place with your unclean presences, then that must mean Project Ascension has failed and my fellow Regents have fallen.”

  “Regina,” Pierson shouted. “Come out, Regina. It's over. The Xenolists are finished.”

  The infiltration team started fanning out to search for her as she answered, “Pierson. So, you have added yet another betrayal to your sordid history. But perhaps you can be persuaded to come back to our side?”

  “Not likely,” Pierson said. “Not now that we have our own Syneger to prevent you from bending us to your will.”

  Regina's voice rose in pitch. “A heretic Messenger? You would dare to defile this place with such an abomination? This will not stand. The revival of the Xenolists and the renewal of Project Ascension will begin with your deaths!”

  Two great shapes fell out of the pools of darkness in the vaulted ceiling and landed with thundering impacts. They rose over the heads of the infiltration team, revealing themselves as stooped exosuits with long arms ending in wicked claws. As they moved to attack, a horrid keening issued forth from the Cage.

  “Execute them,” Regina ordered.

  The exosuit on the right lumbered forward, raised one of its hands for a strike, and froze in mid-swing as Astral exerted her effort into countering Regina's control. But as an Observer, Astral was not specialized in control like Regina. She could do nothing to freeze the second exosuit as it moved in for the kill. Pierson, Cena, and Aksinya flung themselves out of the path of a crushing slap as the rest of the infiltration team futilely showered the exosuit with small arms fire, then scattered to avoid an arcing laser that erupted from the suit's head and swept across the floor.

  Vic ran around the edge of the shrine and found Regina hiding in an alcove in the back of the chamber. He aimed his rifle at her and shouted, “Enough, Regina. You've lost. Call off your guardians.”

  Regina glared at him with seething hatred, but the exosuit ceased its rampage. Just as she seemed on the verge of surrendering, another keening emanated from the Cage, causing her to drop to her knees and clutch at her head in agony. As the keening faded, she staggered to her feet and pointed at Vic.

  “Kill him,” she cried.

  Astral's precognition flashed in Vic's mind. He flung himself to the side just as the exosuit spun around and fired its laser, which lanced through the chains holding up the Cage before cutting through the spot Vic had just occupied. The Cage fell with a clang, and Vic dropped to the floor as the laser arced over his head. He fired a wild burst from his rifle, striking Regina, who crumpled with a gurgled cry. Both of the exosuits toppl
ed over and fell silent.

  “Good work, Vic,” Tinubu called. “It's finally over.”

  “No, it isn't,” Astral said. “Scathe's presence is still here.”

  “Then it must be coming from this.” Esther walked to the Cage, which had fallen onto its side. She manipulated the control panel and reported, “The contents are labeled as 'The Original.'”

  “Can you get it open?” Tinubu asked.

  She continued manipulating the console. “It doesn't have the layers of security that it did when it was holding Astral. They've locked it down some, but their information security isn't nearly on the level of the Union's.”

  “So that's a yes?”

  The Cage lurched, its locks detached one by one, then the shell came open with a hiss and an expulsion of vapor.

  Esther backed away. “That's a yes.”

  The infiltration team gathered around as the Cage swung open. Then, as the vapor inside dispersed, revealing the contents, they recoiled.

  “Falsrain,” Vic exclaimed.

  Inside the Cage was the body of the Spacy officer who had been possessed by Scathe and tried to take over the colonial government. His eyes were closed, his face set in an expression of serenity that he had never exhibited in life. His flesh was partly decayed and full of bullet holes from where Vic had shot him many times. But one wound was conspicuously absent.

  “He still has his third eye,” Vic said, noting the eye in the middle of Falsrain's forehead. It was closed, like the others. “But I put a bullet right through it.”

  “The Xenolists must have found a way to regrow it,” Esther said, “turning his corpse into a conduit for the Xenowave. Nothing left of Falsrain—just the pure words of the Voice. An empty vessel in the truest sense.”

  Falsrain's body tumbled out of the Cage and sprawled in the middle of the infiltration team. Although his corpse remained lifeless, his third eye sprang open and turned up to stare at the intruders, trembling violently and glowing with malevolent light.

  “Death,” a raging voice echoed in the consciousness of everyone present, so forcefully that they could feel their minds cracking under the pressure of its will. “Death death death death death death death—”

  Vic trained his rifle on the body. Before he could fire, Astral walked to his side and placed her hand on the weapon.

  “Allow me.”

  She took the rifle and jammed the muzzle into Falsrain's third eye.

  “Since you're so obsessed with death,” she said, “try having a taste of it for yourself.”

  She pulled the trigger.

  *

  The infiltration team burned the bodies of Regina and Falsrain, destroyed the Cage, then donned their A.D.S.s and used explosive charges to blow up the airlock next to the hyperbaric chamber, flooding the inner core. They departed from the Hollow Sphere and vowed never to return.

  Deescalation

  while I still can

  When the evacuation phase of Reanimation reached its final stage, the entirety of Aqualung withdrew into a shelter designated Metempsychosis, taking Janice with them. Eight long months passed before they received a report from the Spacy reclamation fleet that their aerial observation indicated the Messenger pandemic had entirely burned itself out.

  During that time, Janice spent long periods seeking solitude in the dark, subterranean depths, reflecting on her brush with damnation. The Voice within her had fallen silent, and at first this filled her with enough gratitude to move her to tears. She didn't mind the isolation. Despite her chosen vocation, she was by nature an introvert. Putting on such a cheerful and energetic face in public had just been another facet of her first rate acting skills.

  But as time went on, she began to have questions of the Voice. Had her fall into darkness been inevitable? If so, did her unique power—a potential shared by only a handful among millions of human beings—serve any purpose other than to bring pain and death? And if it had not been inevitable, what purpose had such a deadly power been meant to serve? If only she knew what it was, she might still have a chance to reclaim her original purpose, her raison d'être.

  The Voice remained silent.

  Janice considered petitioning her caretakers to have her MIND staff returned to her. Perhaps with this channeling tool, she could reestablish contact with the Xenowave and ask what it truly wanted of her. But every time she considered it, she remembered the evil presence pouring into her mind and suffered a panic attack, curling up in a corner and hyperventilating until the horrible remembrance passed. She could not risk giving that entity an opening into her mind again. In the end, she never reclaimed her MINDs, and her questions remained unanswered.

  After the report came from the fleet that the Messenger pandemic had passed, the security forces dispatched to secure territory and assert order while the civilian populations remained in the shelters. Janice stayed behind. Without her powers, she would only have been a hindrance. With them, she would have been a menace.

  Another month passed. Unrest began to stir within the shelters as the evacuees wondered whether they would ever be allowed out. Supplies began to run low, and some people were on the verge of panicking. With few security personnel around to maintain order, the situation threatened to turn ugly.

  Then the announcement came: the territory around Metempsychosis was secured. They could come out.

  The process of leaving the shelter took hours as long lines of citizens slowly streamed out under the careful supervision of SLIC-Spacy coalition forces. Janice took her place in the line, equipped with a holographic projector hidden under her collar that concealed her third eye. She had been instructed to wear the projector at all times while in public, lest her third eye draw unwanted attention.

  When at last her turn came to come out, she had to squint and shield her eyes as she stepped out into blinding light. Finally, after months trapped underground, she was surrounded by light, by fields, by sky, by open space. She looked up and beheld a sky partly concealed by clouds, the sun's brilliant orb shining in the distance and the face of Saris leering down at them.

  Saris. The origin of the Xenowave. Janice quickly cast her gaze back to the ground.

  As Janice followed the seemingly endless line of people across the field, a strong hand grabbed her wrist and pulled her aside. She looked up in surprise to find the grinning, freckled face of Cena.

  “Long time no see, Blondie,” she said. “C'mon over here.”

  Janice followed Cena to the crest of a nearby hill, where two more people awaited them. As they drew closer, Janice recognized Vic and Astral. A long metal case rested on the ground next to them.

  “What's going on?” she asked.

  “Oh, nothing much,” Cena replied with a conspiratorial air. “We just wanted to check up on you since we haven't seen each other much lately. Sorry Tinubu couldn't make it. With his new rank, and all the chaos of getting people out of the shelters, he's got too many responsibilities to get away easily.”

  Vic came forward and clapped a friendly hand on Janice's shoulder. “How are you feeling?”

  “I don't know.” Janice glanced down at the river of people snaking their way out of the shelter and across the field. “The Union and the Concord are gone, but I'm afraid whatever replaces them will be just as bad. Nothing has really changed. People are still as full of spite as they ever were.”

  “That's what we're here for,” Cena said. “Freedom, peace, prosperity. Those things ain't like a statue, where you can just carve it out all nice and pretty and then set it out for people to admire for all eternity. It's like a field. You've got to do the planting and harvest every year. If you let it lie fallow, the weeds will come in and take over in no time.”

  Janice gave a hollow laugh. “Well, the weeds sure took over this time, didn't they? Even now, I can almost understand how the Voice persuaded me to just burn the whole damn thing to the ground.”

  “Wasn't no need for that, hon,” Cena said. “The system got so dried up, it ended up bur
ning itself down.”

  “Time to plant a new crop, huh?” Janice said. “Guess I won't have any part in that. Got to keep a low profile with this.” She tapped her forehead. “If I went back into the entertainment business, one slip-up would reveal the existence of Synegers to the whole world. Not that I really feel up to making public appearances anyway. How could I look all those people in the face, knowing that I tried to kill them all?”

  “There is another option,” Cena said.

  Astral picked up the case that lay at her feet and held it out to Janice. Vic opened the case, revealing Janice's MIND staff. Janice recoiled. Her first reaction was to suppress another panic attack that threatened to flare up.

  “Light and dark are always present,” Astral said. “The darkness never stops trying to assert its power.”

  “For a long time,” Vic added, “too many people refused to resist it. That's what brought us to the brink. This latest conflict nearly destroyed us all.”

  “The struggle never ends,” Astral said. “That's why we need fighters. Yours is a violent power, Janice. There's no escaping that. But violence isn't always evil. It's because evil exists that sometimes violence is needed to resist it.”

  “But that means walking a sharp edge,” Vic said. “That kind of power can easily corrupt people. It's precisely because you've experienced that yourself—and overcome it—that you're qualified to take on that role.”

  Janice stared at her staff with mixed trepidation and longing. “What is it you're asking of me?”

  “There's still a lot of threats out there,” Cena said. “And our fighting strength is badly depleted. Our fledging society will be awfully vulnerable for a while. We'll need every good hand we can get to maintain peace and order.”

  “A cop.” Janice laughed. “You want me to be a cop.”