Chaos Theory (23 page)

Accepting the crumbly treat, Kali twisted, and her eyes
snapped to Blue then returned to Caesar appraisingly. “You’re
telepathic too?” she asked devouring the cookie.

Caesar bobbed his head, feet swinging off the floor. “I hope I
am psychokinetic like Blue. Time will tell. More juice?”

She pushed her glass forward, but her attention turned to the
Hybrids.

Igor, Lara and Blue walked over to the surveillance ComUnis
and studied them. Above a soldier, dressed in taupe fatigues,
heavily armed, was systematically narrowing his search of the
junkyard to the bunker entrance.

“
He won’t leave until he finds us.” Blue sighed. “His mind is
set.”

“
He’ll run out of supplies and wander off,” Lara disagreed. “In
a few days he’ll get bored and move on.”

“
You’re wrong,” Blue asserted.

“
Humans are primitive,” Igor mused. “His stomach might
win.”

“
What’s going on,” Kali asked from the table.

Sparing her a glance, Blue grimaced as his insides knotted. He
couldn’t look at her without feeling grief over what they had lost.
“There is a soldier above us. He tracked us here and is searching
for the entrance to this bunker.”

To Kali’s credit fear was not her reaction, but curiosity.
Maybe she did trust the Hybrids to keep her safe. “He’s not
Host?”

“
No. His mind is open and in turmoil. Fixated on finding help
to save a friend.” Blue frowned. “I didn’t go deeper into his
thoughts once I knew he was no threat to us.”

“
He could become one,” Igor warned. “He will draw attention if
he stays much longer.”

Blue considered this. He agreed and was not willing to take
such a risk. “Arm yourselves.”

19.

The atmosphere changed, and Zeke was no longer alone. Finally,
they’d come out of hiding. He’d followed promising tracks into the
junkyard and had scouted the place out. It was clear there was a
hideaway here somewhere, he just couldn’t see where. He guessed it
was underground, a bunker of some kind.

He took a step into the open.

“
Stop.”

“
Easy,” he replied. “I just want to talk.” Zeke lifted one hand
and then the other, his gun held high. “My name is Starless
Operative Zeke Hutchinson. I am looking for food, shelter, and
anybody who is putting up any kind of resistance against these
alien fuxs. That’s all.”

“
Turn around,” Igor ordered. “Leave this place and do not come
back.”

“
I haven’t been infected. I’m well trained, and I can help
you.”

There was a pause.

“
I won’t ask again.”

Zeke cursed softly and nodded his head repeatedly as if to say
’this is what I get.’ Rubbing his prayer beads between his thumb
and forefinger for luck, he turned slowly as commanded.

Looking for a new safe place wasn’t an option. The few he had
come across were inhabited by survivors a Host attack shy of moon
mad. He needed to find like-minded people who were organized and
gutsy. Maybe they needed to see he was clean. He pulled the back of
his fatigues down to expose the pale skin at the nape of his neck.
“Look, happy now? No slug sucking on my cortex. Can I at least talk
to you for a while? I’m tired.”

Igor felt the muscles in his shoulders relax. His Omicron had
already verified the Human had not been compromised, but there was
nothing more reassuring than confirming something with your own
eyes.

Could he send this man away to die knowing he could have
offered aid?

Unlike Kenshin, Igor did not find all of Humanity worth
saving, but after spending some time in the company of Kali and
Christabella, he knew that some Humans could surprise you and offer
value to intellectual conversation.

The soldier was well armed, seemed to have all his faculties,
and possessed something unique to have survived this long alone
with so many Host crawling around. Special enough to find Blue’s
hidden bunker when Hybrids – his genetic superiors – had walked
right past it.

“
Throw away your weapon,” Igor said. “Put your hands behind
your head and get down on your knees face to the
ground.”

Surprise rippled through his mind from Lara, and acceptance
from his Omicron bathed him in warmth.

“
Whoa … we have our first problem.” Zeke spun, his hands up
high. “This rifle kept me alive. Giving it up isn’t on the
table.”

“
I do not compromise. Be on your way and we’ll be on ours.”
Igor gave Blue and Lara a brief mental nudge.

They backed away.

“
Wait.” Zeke swore and slowly lowered the pulse rifle to the
ground. “I better not regret this.”

He kicked the rifle towards the sound of Igor’s voice. His
hands went behind his head, and he kissed the ground.

Igor remained rooted, his weapon sighted.

Lara rushed forward to secure the Human. Shouldering her own
rifle, she picked up the confiscated weapon, and took a moment to
admire its design. Crouching, she slid the edge of a laser blade
under Zeke’s throat and applied pressure. “Up you come,” she
crowed, happy to have a military-grade firearm in her grasp.
“Slowly. Make no sudden movements. I’d love to show you how good I
am with my little knife, but I’d never hear the end of it from
Kenshin.”

Zeke did as he was told.

His stomach plummeted. He’d been certain this was a Human
stronghold, all the signs pointed to a group that didn’t want to be
found. Disappointment tasted bitter and his heart was heavy. The
Amazonian-like Hybrid holding the biggest laser blade he’d ever set
eyes on jerked her pointed chin at him, directing him to
walk.

Would they make him turn then attach one of those parasites on
his neck?

The colourless eyes fixed on him were cold, pitiless. They
said failure to cooperate meant death.

Unfortunately, Zeke wasn’t ready to become some evil-eyed
alien’s plaything.

“
Thank my stars Valiant isn’t here,” he muttered. “I’d never
hear the end of this.”

He moved as he was trained, lightening fast, and grabbed her
arm. He twisted so she dropped the knife and spun her into his
body, disarming her of his weapon as he did so.

Zeke couldn’t say what alerted him to the fact the Hybrids
weren’t responding to his attack. Was it the unnatural stillness
making the hairs on the back of his neck lift? Maybe it was because
the girl in his arms breathed steady instead of gasping with
panic.

She sighed her boredom. “Omicron?” she asked.
“
Please
?”

“
He’s good. It’s logical to keep him alive.”

“
Does he need all ten fingers?”

“
To be an effective fighter, yes.” A pause. “I’m ambivalent
about bruising.”

Zeke’s eyes narrowed at the strange byplay, even more so at
the tall white-haired youth who stepped out of the shadows,
strolling past as if the situation didn’t disturb him in the
least.

Shouldering his rifle, Igor stepped from his hiding place.
“Silly Human, giving Lara a reason to hurt you. She is not kind
like me.”

Zeke stumbled on the spot. “How did you get over there? Your
voice came from there.”

Igor shrugged. “The mind is easily fooled.” He looked
pointedly at Lara. “Host migrate this way. Be done with
this.”

Her hand flexed. “With pleasure.”

*

Zeke’s smile was bloody when he accepted the ice pack and
SkinAids from the hand of the solemn child with hair like starlight
and eyes Neptunian blue
. The boy stared at
him with candour and directness he’d not known one so young could
possess.

“
May I advise you avoid provoking Lara?” the boy said. “Her
thoughts regarding you are not pleasant. Yours may hold grudging
admiration for her, but she thinks of Human men as bugs to be
squashed.”

Zeke backed away in alarm at the self-possession and authority
in the child’s voice. No, not a child, an alien, he realised. The
youngest he’d seen, but still an extra terrestrial related to the
ones tearing his world apart.

Pissed, Lara stood, and Zeke was ashamed that he actually
flinched.

She spared him a smile, closer to a baring of teeth, before
focusing on the child giving him advice. “Trespass in my mind again
and I will wrap you in so much cerebral miasma it will take you a
day to unscramble.”

The boy smiled politely. “I am unconcerned.”

She snorted then looked at Blue. “Seriously.” She stabbed a
finger at the child. “Deal with that.”

“
Again?” Blue asked his son, tone a reprimand.

“
Sorry, Blue,” The boy shrugged at Zeke. “My name is Caesar. I
like your dog tags.”

Zeke looked down at his covered chest, wondering how the kid
knew where he’d inked his tags.

Caesar toddled across the room and hopped onto a seat beside a
coffee-skinned Delphi with a ponytail. She eyed him as if he was a
bomb set to go off. Truth was pretty much everyone in the room eyed
him as if he would detonate. He felt nothing against their
hesitation. It was sensible to reserve trust in situations such as
these.

His eyes wandered around the open space, and he was intrigued.
This was a home he could tell from the cluttered table and the
slouchy seating, but the far wall was covered in VidSees monitoring
the junkyard and a row of state of the art ComUnis hovered in
hibernation mode. Best of all, there were weapons, enough to start
some serious shit.

“
State your purpose for coming here.”

Zeke’s eyes flicked to the pale-skinned youth these young
people followed. He cleared his throat. “Food, shelter–”

“
We dislike liars,” interrupted Caesar. “It would go better for
you if you spoke the truth. I know it can be difficult, but you are
in a room with four mind readers. Lying is pointless.”

Zeke fought the urge to run hollering from the room.
Obviously, these aliens were in hiding, maybe even traitors to
their kind because they had Humans with them. Normal Humans, not
hysterical,
aliens have taken over my
planet
, Humans, but sane,
I’m safe because these Hybrids protect me from
the bad aliens
, Humans.

Zeke shook his head to get his mind to act right.

He needed sleep.

Seventy-two hours of non-stop fighting then a further
twenty-four of running for the hills when a full-scale retreat was
ordered had a way of zapping the strength from a man.

“
You sure know a lot for a small guy,” he managed. His lip was
swollen, so it came out garbled.

“
My body is small in stature, but my mind is boundless. Do you
understand?” The child regarded him with guileless eyes, waiting
patiently for an answer.

Nobody in the room told him to mind his own business, or
cuffed him around the ear for talking in the company of
adults.

“
As best I can kid. As best I can.” Zeke pressed the ice to his
jaw, wincing when the cold made his swelling flesh ache. “You want
it straight? I need help. My friend Valiant and I were one third of
a special task force deployed on a first strike attack against the
hostile invaders commonly known as the Novae.”

“
That went well,” Lara quipped, crossing her muscular legs at
the ankle.

Zeke would have sneered if he weren’t afraid she’d beat on him
some more. A soldier picked his battles. There would never come a
time when he willingly chose to go another round with the bitch
alien from hell.

“
Yeah, anyway,” he continued stanchly, eyes drifting. “The
chain of command completely broke down. Before wave silence, we got
reports not all the males have been paired with
parasites.”

“
Symbionts,” the Delphi supplied. “They’re called Symbionts. My
name is Kali, by the way.”

Zeke blinked. “Kali Loklear from Quadrant2?”

“
Do I know you?”

“
No. Your name alongside Rikard and Creighton Loklear were on a
set of evacuation orders assigned to my unit. Rikard was the
priority, but if able, we were to grab all of you alongside two
other high profile HiCaste family units and take you to a secret
rendezvous set up in the OutRim.”

Kali’s throat closed. She rubbed it. “You found them?” she
croaked. “My parents.”

“
No Ma’am. None of the families were retrieved. Things
spiralled out of control as soon as the offensive on the hostiles
began. The rendezvous camp was destroyed.”

Kali nodded miserably. Crushed hope had her blinking back
tears that would do her no good. Caesar patted her leg, and offered
her a cookie that she took with a grateful smile, and stuffed whole
into her mouth.

“
Continue.”

Zeke frowned. “Any chance I could get your name?”

“
Call him Omicron,” Lara said.

“
What does that mean?”

“
It’s his official rank in the Hive hierarchy,” Igor clarified.
“Myself and Kenshin are from Omega stock. Lara was spawned from
Upsilon stock.” He wrinkled his nose. “The confusion on your face
lets me know I explain badly. Hmm. There is an Omicron chosen from
a spawning of seventy. Below Omicron is the Sigma. There were two
hundred Sigmas spawned on Earth, four hundred Upsilon, and eight
hundred Omega.”