Enemy (31 page)

     “You want to know what happened in Chicago? I’ll tell you. We were sent in to contain the rioting after all those churches were bombed. We were sent in to protect the First-Amendment rights of the New White party when they held their reactionary rally. What Milicom didn’t anticipate was the arrival of half a million protesters who started tearing the city apart to get at those racist bastards. We were given the authority to end the riots using any means necessary. Well, some of the Styx felt that using deadly force was the only option, and they opened fire on the crowds, going through the city and killing thousands. We chased after them, tried to save as many civilians as we could.

     “It was that taste of blood, the mission to Montreal… The earlier levels of Styx weren’t the safest people to be around in the first place. Convicts, mental patients, people with a history of violence. People who wouldn’t be missed if they didn’t make it back from the light. It wasn’t until level H that Milicom felt confident enough in the orb entry process to send regular soldiers in.

     “There were so many wounded and dead in Chicago that day. The Styx who’d opened fire realized what they’d done and fled into the city, trying to escape from Milicom. Those of us who’d stopped them from killing more people were sent after them, since we were the only soldiers capable of bringing them back in. Most of them had to be killed. Some were sent to Santa Fosca. Three of us were hidden.

     “It was that taste of blood that woke up their desire to kill again. Eventually, the Milicom Damage Control department had to mindwipe most of the people in Chicago. Subliminal programming on the radio, television, weblink. Most people forgot the Chicago incident. I never did, and I never will.”

     Patra had listened in silence, eyes half-closed and staring out blankly from her head. She reached out without looking and took West’s large rough hand in her own small, silver hand. She spoke, looking into the light lazily illuminating their faces.

     “Where did you come from? And why’d they have to use you as a weapon?”

     West looked over at Patra, not sure if she was addressing the orb or him.

     The orb did not answer her questions. They sat in the darkness of the orb chamber, waiting for everything and nothing and the end of the world. West eventually leaned over and he was met halfway by Patra. They held each other in the dim light of the orb until a dull thud from above and a sudden flare-up from within the sphere brightened the room for the briefest of moments.

     Patra looked into West’s eyes, which began to shimmer with an inner silver fire. He touched the left side of her face and gently kissed her right cheek.

     “It’s beginning.”

     a disturbance. the silence is broken.

     THE CONTAGION ARRIVES. THE VIRUS APPROACHES.

    
THE STAR((?))

     IT IS FINISHED. THE UPLOAD IS COMPLETE. WE AWAKEN FROM THE STILLNESS.

    
DIVERT FORCES TO VIRAL INTERCEPT.

     WE WILL ERADICATE THE CONTAGION. WE WILL END THE JUDAS VIRUS FOREVER.

    
PURPOSE BE.

     Three miles outside of Diablo.

     “Simon?”

     He turned, looked up in the direction of Maggie’s lifted arm and pointed finger. “Is it an eclipse?” Their shadows elongated on the frost-covered ground. In the sky, the gray veil had melted from the atmosphere, and for an instant, the sun flashed with its former brilliance.

     “I don’t know…”

     The sun flashed as it had before, but now it faded, a black pinpoint at its center. The stars came out. Simon was somehow relieved that stars still filled the sky. They had been absent from the heavens for over a month
year? decade?.

     The points of starlight stretched toward the sun, became white lines of fire. Light was being pulled into the sun.

     “Jesus… They’ve made a black hole.” Hayes calmly concluded. “We’re being pulled in.”

     The sky was becoming darker. The chill was gone from the air. In fact, it was becoming unpleasantly warm. What will it feel like to die in the sun?

     They ran.

     Richter basked in the cold light.

     He had expected this development. He knew not why.

     There would be no more whistling in this lifetime. He would have to leave soon.

     Fourteen miles.

     He ran.

     Just beyond reality, the Enemy converged.

    
THE PURPOSE WILL BE COMPLETED. THE VIRUS WILL BE ELIMINATED. ETERNITY WILL BE OURS.

     The Judas erupted into the When.

     They could see it, like an accusing finger jutting into the fading sky, blemishing the southern horizon.

     “Diablo,” Flynn intoned.

     STAR COLLAPSE INITIATED.

    
HARVEST OF THIS WHEN IS THEREFORE COMPLETED. THE LOSS OF THE UPLOAD GENERATOR IS A BEARABLE LOSS NOW, BUT THE JUDAS HAVE SHOWN THEIR PRESENCE. THIS SITUATION MUST BE DEALT WITH.

     YES.

    
WEB BREACH INITIATED BY THE JUDAS CAUSED CONSIDERABLE DAMAGE TO THE PRIMARY PATTERN.

     NECESSARY FORCES WILL BE DOWNLOADED FROM THE PATTERN TO COMBAT THE THREAT AND GUARANTEE OUR CARGO’S SAFE TRANSPORT.

    
HOW LONG((?))

     STAR COLLAPSE TOTALITY IN POINT EIGHT DECEMS.

    
ANOTHER WHEN HOLE WE WILL THEN HOLD. ANOTHER REALITY WILL BE RETURNED TO ITS RIGHTFUL PLACE IN THE OMEGA PATTERN. ANOTHER STEP TOWARD ERADICATING THE JUDAS VIRUS WILL BE SUCCESSFUL.

     THE PURPOSE COMES UPON US WITH GREAT SPEED.

    
PURPOSE BE.

     They walked through the dead town, finding no one.

     The mine elevator was still functional. They descended.

     “It’s down there,” Flynn whispered. “And something else... I can feel it...”

     ((the enemy is upon us, michael.))

     “Yes, Simon.” Zero-Four calmly thrust his arms into the interface gauntlets, felt the reassuring lock that fused his mind to Simon’s.

     ((malachi and shiva signal their arrival.))

     Zero-Four uneasily released his pressure from the interface gauntlets. He contemplated...

     “Let’s hold our fire for now, Simon. Let’s see what they can do. Let’s see if they do anything at all.”

     ((yes, michael.))

     They waited.

     Richter looked into the shadows.

     Two elevators, one already closed. He thought he heard something deep below him, perhaps felt a vibration from within the earth, but dismissed it as his imagination.

     He entered the open elevator and began his descent.

     “What is it?” Patra was concerned.

     “Something... I can feel them. They’re here.”

     “The last of the Styx?”

     “They’re here.”

The sun died.

     The Enemy had changed it, forced it to consume itself, to expand and collapse upon its own core. The phase space trigger placed on one side of the star erupted with a silent white fury and an entire hemisphere of the sphere sickly folded inward, falling forever upon itself. Almost instantly, the bastard child Mercury was sucked in, grotesquely elongated into a conical form as it compressed into the quantum singularity. The sun became a hole in the stream of existence.

     A black hole.

     A When hole.

     Like wolves falling upon an injured ewe, the freshly-downloaded Enemy flew at Simon, ravenous, animal, alien.

     {malachi to simon.}

     ((simon receives.))

     {prepare to engage enemy.}

     ((affirmative, malachi.))

     A horde of Enemy vessels converged from all directions upon Simon, floating alone in the night.

     Surely it was unfair, a farce, an Alamo, so many Black surrounding a single Judas vessel.

     Surely it was unfair, at least until a—

     —FLASH OF LIGHT, STEADY SOMEHOW PURE SOMEHOW SOMEHOW HELL TORE ALL OF TIME EXISTENCE REASON APART A STREAM OF WHITE THAT STRUCK OUT LASHED OUT AT THE ENEMY CUTTING THE DAMNED IN A GREAT SWATHE OF LIGHT COMING FROM NOWHERE UNTIL THEY REALIZED—

     —the gunships had arrived, one on each side of Simon. They had not simply faded from the Whenstream but seemed to bring all the fires of hell with them in a sudden, painful burst of brilliant silver.

     In the great path of destruction, Enemy vessels were torn from existence in whole or in part. Large dead pieces of the Enemy pirouetted through the void. The great silver slivers of Enemy blackened and turned to dust in the wake of the Judas fury.

     The survivors slowed their mad charge, pondered the consequences, halted. Silent thoughts flickered between them through the vast web mind. Most of the Enemy began to Shadow away while the others began their assault on the Judas once more, attempting a diversion.

     ((malachi, shadow on enemy contrail coordinates.))

     {but i have orders to—}

     ((i’m giving you new orders. follow them.))

     {commander kilbourne specifically said—}

     ((follow them. do you want them to escape? they’re in the fucking stream! they’re trying to throw us off their trail, and we can’t let them track us back to command or get away. we need to know when the next upload target is and that means i need you to follow them into the tube. shiva and i will follow you as soon as we’re done here.))

     {...yes, simon.}

     ((shiva? they’re being generated near the star. i need you to knock out their download capability. prepare to engage the rest of them.))

     [understood.]

     They set about the hunt.

     The mineshaft ended abruptly in a metal bulkhead that opened into the internal excavation, an area that had static dust suppressors and a sophisticated airflow system to preserve the integrity of the dig site. The outer door led into an airlock of sorts where clean suits were stored.