CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
"The weak have one weapon: the errors of those who think they are strong." - Author Unknown
There was no rest for Harry, not even while he was unconscious. His bad dreams returned—a series of episodes. This time each episode was progressively more violent, painful, and fearful. All episodes had the same underlying theme: Bios destroying Cyber. As usual, he felt what appeared to be the cybert's agony until a strange thought interrupted and distracted him from his pain. Why would Cyber suffer? Why would they purposefully equip themselves with a negative?
With this thought-blink, the pain went away. Frustrated and confused, he was angry at himself for not thought-blinking sooner. However, he was even more confused as he heard an angry female voice thunder in his head.
"You can't keep her here! She gave them away. You heard her. We all heard her. She killed them! She can kill us, too!"
"No, she stays!" It was a firmer, more authoritative voice, a male voice. "We need to know more. She is human after all."
"How can we be sure? We all know Makr makes new cyberts every day. Why not ones that look exactly like humans?"
The man didn't appear to listening. He heard her, and he had wondered the same himself, but now he decided was not the time to debate the question.
The woman grabbed his arm. He tensed, sending her a warning signal through his Stealth.
"What if it's a trap, Carlos?" she asked. "What if she's a Bio-Cyber operative? Insiders have done it before."
"We've dealt with spies and traitors before, haven't we?" He had dealt with them as harshly as possible. They died slowly.
"Don't worry—we won't be looking over our shoulders for these two." He didn't enjoy treating the spies and traitors to painful deaths, but he had to maintain discipline in the Nest.
"We can't afford any more mistakes, Cap'n," said another man's rough gravelly voice.
Carlos bristled. "What?"
"The lieutenant's right," the rough voice continued. "We don't want no more mistakes. We know what you done in your last command."
"Tell me about it. How do you mean that, Sergeant Leach?" he said as he grabbed the smaller, wiry, younger man by the front of his garment and raised him several inches off the ground.
Quivering, the smaller man said, "Nuttin', Cap'n. Forget I said it. I didn't mean it." Carlos let him drop.
The little man retreated, scurrying out of reach, and said, "Don't think we don't know why you joined this sector, Captain. We had you checked out." He looked around him for support. The faces were blank, covered by darkness and black fabric.
"We don't need a repeat of what happened. Right, guys? Guys?"
He turned to see nods of agreement; they were black ice figures—Shadows frozen in Stealth.
"Say something, you cowards!" he shouted.
"Are you questioning my decisions now, Sergeant?"
"Well, no...Cap'n, it's just..."
"Then, shut up!"
The smaller man backed down. "I still don't like it, Cap'n."
"Noted, Sergeant!" Then he said loudly, "If you're thinkin' mutiny, be very careful to do the job right." Then quietly, moving close to his sergeant's ear, he whispered a growl. "Mother-General made me take you on as my top sergeant because of your combat experience, but cross me, undermine my authority, step out of line once more, and there won't be enough of you for the cleaner cyberts to dissolve and disintegrate. Do I make myself clear?"
"Yessir. Very clear."
"Don't think I won't do it, Leach."
Leach faded back into the shadows of the abandoned building they had discovered recently. Obviously plotting his next move, thought Carlos. Okay, so it wasn't such a good idea to bring the strangers here. What place is safe from Makr's Cyber goons anyway? We'll just have to keep a close eye on them.
As Harry tried to move, his entire body was racked with pain. He couldn't help but moan.
"Save them. I've got to save them," he mumbled weakly.
"Can't. Won't happen...they're all dead." There was that voice of authority again. "Don't try moving for a while. If there are other survivors, you can't do anything for them now."
Harry tried opening his eyes, but the glare was too bright. He closed them again. An awareness that people were around him. His friends? No, they're all dead...
"No! Not all!" Harry struggled to sit up so he might look around him.
"I'm afraid your Touchable friends are dead. All except one other besides yourself. A woman."
Dar must have made it. But everyone else? Desiree! He remembered, and felt intense sadness welling up inside him. His head reeling, he lay back down.
"Where am I?" he asked with his eyes closed.
"In Hell. A living Hell they tell me."
"I thought I was just there," he mumbled, not very coherent.
"Welcome to the real world. You're in an abandoned Cyber assembly factory. I apologize for the cold metal table, but it is the best we could do on such short notice."
He said it all with a bitter and cold sarcasm that was foreign to Harry, who had never experienced such a complex display of emotion.
"What! Where are we? Who are you?"
Harry started up when he heard the "cold, metal table" of his nightmares, but the room spun and he couldn't gain his equilibrium. A firm hand caught him and forcefully shoved him back down.
"Turn the lights down," his captor ordered another.
Harry opened his eyes now to see a man dressed in rags with a hood covering his head and closed around his face so that a shadow hid his features. Harry noticed the awful smell first...then the uncommon itchiness of the fabric before realizing he himself was covered in similar rags to those covering his captor from head to toe. The putrid odor given off by the coarse material covering his face nearly gagged him. He pulled some of the nasty fabric from his mouth so he could talk.
"I said, 'who are you?'" Harry insisted.
"I heard you the first time," was the reply. "Who we are doesn't matter. Who you are does. I've never seen anyone survive a cybert-attack like that without shields or major weapons. So the fact that two of you survived interests me greatly."
"Lucky, I guess. Dar? Where's Dar?"
"Here," another worried and weary voice said. "I'm okay."
"Where are you?"
"Over here..."
"Are you all right?"
"I will be, I think."
Harry raised up enough to see the man surrounded by others dressed alike in what appeared to be black burlap rags with hoods. No faces. Shadow People! Oh, Makr! He moved to get up quickly, but a rough hand grabbed him by the throat, forced him back down, and held him there.
"How do we know you and the woman aren't responsible for what happened there?" demanded Leach. He had apparently, not ventured far, and held him down by the throat. "Why didn't the cyberts destroy you like all the rest?"
"I don't know." Harry wheezed the words out. "I really don't know."
"Release him, Sergeant," Carlos ordered.
The sergeant let Harry drop back on the table, but didn't take his eyes off him. "It didn't look like you were trying very hard to save the others," he interjected.
"How? What could I have done?"
"Anything," Carlos said. "You should have tried to do something—or died trying."
"I know. I wanted to. I just couldn't move."
"Typical Touchable trash. Cowards all of 'em!" This was the sergeant again. "How does it feel to turn on your own kind? Your lady friend there said she was responsible, but I'd still like to know why the cyberts didn't kill you both. They just froze like maybe you were working with them."
"Stay out of this, Leach," Carlos commanded. "Do something constructive. Take Piggot with you and go get the scanner ready. Take it some place relatively safe, okay? Deep and dark."
Leach turned and signaled Piggot to follow.
The two Shadows left without ceremony, save for Leach's disgusted shake of his head. His hatred was not aimed at the newcomers, but at
Carlos.
Not like last time, Leach thought. Last time you nearly got us all killed. Damn working cybert factory next door and you didn't know it! So much for military intelligence.
Harry tried to get up again, but it was Carlos who shoved him back down this time. "But..."
"Stay down and keep your hands where I can see them. If you don't answer my questions to my satisfaction, I just might throw you back to the Cyber buzzards. Let a cleaner cybert dissolve you alive like it does any other garbage it finds on the streets. After all, we have to keep the place clean for the factory cyberts. Wouldn't want to clog up a Cyber factory's efficiency."
When his top sergeant was out of earshot, Carlos looked around to see that except for his lieutenant, the rest of his people had faded back into the shadows far enough from earshot as well. No point stirring them up until we know more.
His voice was almost kind. "Look, I don't really mean that. There's no need to be afraid. We're all human here. If you did betray them, you couldn't help yourselves. Makr affects people that way. We just like to know where we stand."
Harry just stared. They didn't look human. Well except for the basic form. The shadowy forms reminded him of the Grim Reaper, a character that appeared in some of his ancient vids in his secret collection. It was a symbol of Death. If these dark creatures were indeed Shadow People, he knew he should fear for his life. A part of him wanted to deny the fearful images for the moment. Whoever these people were, they had saved his and Dar's lives today.
"I'm Harry. This is Dar...er, Marlene."
Dar/Marlene lay propped up so she could see and hear what was going on with Harry and the dark, mysterious Outsider.
"What's an Insider like you doing Outside without protection?"
"Not insiders anymore. We're Touchables. At least I am—was," Harry volunteered.
"Sure you are..." The man didn't seem to believe him. He turned on Marlene. "Which is it, Dar or Marlene?"
"Her real name is Marlene. Dar's her nickname," Harry lied quickly, but this was not the time to explain. Carlos' scowl seemed to indicate he didn't seem to believe him anyway.
"But it's true!" Harry insisted.
"If it's true, why did you lead the cyberts to the Watering Hole?"
"We didn't. At least, I don't think we did." Pause. "Hey, wait a minute! You know about the Watering Hole? You're the friends they talked about—the Others."
He nodded. "Well, not us exactly—not my sector until recently." He walked over to one of the black figures. "Kieran, get them some water, will you?
He touched his hood, "Perimeter? Any sign yet?"
"It was bound to happen anyway sooner or later," Lieutenant Kieran O'Shea offered. "Those Touchables don't have guts enough to fight a real war. Pacifists, the whole lot of them."
Kieran had struck a nerve.
Harry couldn't hold back. "Those 'pacifists,' as you call them, were my friends! They're all dead now—no thanks to you. Where were you when the attack started?"
Carlos gave Kieran a disapproving look and signaled her to go after the water.
"What makes you think we're under any obligation to save you?" he said. "We were on the other side of the quadrant—if it's any of your business—which it isn't." If they are spies, it is too late now anyway.
"Okay, so let's say you're who you say you are," he continued. "Maybe you are Touchables. That still doesn't excuse your friend here. Talks in her sleep. Said she is responsible. Traitors still."
Harry was determined that no one should take her away for any reason until he knew the truth. Her version of the truth anyway.
"We're all responsible for letting the Cyber get the better of the human race," said Harry.
"Profound, isn't he? That's certainly hard to argue with, but that still doesn't answer my question." Carlos' calm demeanor faded fast. "Who are you? What's your mission?" he demanded.
"Mission? We're just a couple of Bios trying to survive! We'd just come back from the underground market."
"A good answer. Except we don't like the term 'Bio' around here. Makr created it. Got any proof from the market?"
"We ate it."
"What'd you buy?
"I don't know."
"You don't know?"
"I'm new at this," Harry exclaimed exasperated. "It was food. Flat bread rolled up with meat, rice and beans in it."
Kieran arrived with a canteen full of water and offered it to both Harry and Marlene as Carlos continued his interrogation. "Makr may have created our society, but not us. Maybe you are a Cyber spy..."
Harry frowned and asserted himself. "Or, maybe we're a couple of Makr worshippers!"
That was it! Carlos had reached his limit.
"I've about had it with your evasiveness!" he exploded. "We don't have time for this shit!"
With unbelievable speed, his rough hands clutched and squeezed Harry's throat with a vice-like grip. It seemed Carlos was trying to force the life out of him. This time, Kieran put a hand on his shoulder, pulling him back until Carlos released his death grip. He pulled himself away from Harry.
"As you can see, I'm not exactly a patient man; I've too much on my mind lately."
Carlos' voice had taken on a quiet, serious tone—which made him seem most dangerous.
"I am responsible for a lot of people, and I can't have cowardly, retarded Touchables wasting my time, let alone rout out spies. There's too much to be done."
He let Harry fall back to his prone position.
"I'm beginning to feel like a jack-in-a-box," Harry said, trying to put on a happy face.
"Scanner's ready, Captain," reported Leach, sounding a bit more respectful.
"Okay, let's do it. Sergeant! Blindfold, gag them and tie their hands. Lieutenant, change the lookouts and meet us at the scanner's location!"
Lieutenant Kieran O'Shea faded into the shadows and disappeared.
Again, Carlos' voice was restrained, but serious. "You're hiding something," he asserted, mostly for Leach's benefit. As he looked at both of his prisoners, eerie red beads of light glowed beneath his Stealth cowl. "And I'm going to find out what it is."
His top sergeant stood next to Harry and hid a self-satisfied smile as he saw his captain taking charge of the situation with more zeal—all, of course, the result of his wiser sergeant's prodding and tougher brand of leadership.
"We really ought to question the girl alone, Cap'n," he said threateningly, so near the male prisoner's ear that his breath moved the tiny hairs inside it. Harry couldn't help but smell Leach's revolting breath.
"In time, Leach. When I'm ready. Get them out of here! Meet us at the scanner location. Now! That's an order."
Carlos and Kieran left the immediate area, opened a door in the back of the abandoned building and closed it tightly behind them.
"You heard the man! Move them out of here." We'll get them out of here for you, Carlos, thought Leach. But not before we have some fun! This captain needs a lesson in leadership. I'll show him how to get answers, and I'll have fun doing it, too.