I Am Not Junco Omnibus: Books Four - Six (93 page)

Chapter Thirty-Eight—JUNCO

The Stag

“He just…” I’m fucking speechless so all I can do is stare at the empty space with an open mouth. Ashur jumps into the disturbance left behind from Tier’s port and then he’s gone too. “What the fuck just happened?”

Gid shrugs. “Who the fuck knows what those assholes are doing.”

“Tier just stole Selia, Gideon! You don’t even care?”

“Juncs, this is his day, all right? Today is Tier’s day. So whatever he’s doing, just go along.”

“Since fucking when are you Mr. Go-Along?”

He grabs my arm and drags me back out in the big room and stops in front of the screen. “Look,” he says. “The fucking Angels are here, Junco. They’re destroying entire cities. No one has a body count because no one can get close enough to tally shit up without getting killed. We’ve got millions of refugee avians huddled in the center of the United Republics sucking up resources that no one really has, we’ve got all those fucking countries wiped out from Tier’s Halo initiation, the Amazon is still burning from Irin’s Pillar, Madagascar is gone, Junco. Gone. Along with Kodiak Island and the entire nation of Japan. The Angels are in New Peaks as we speak and your friend…”

I stop hearing him because I see what he’s gonna say next.

It’s Lucan on the screen now. Walking up the center mall at New Peaks that leads to the fountain. “He’s back.”

“He’s back, which means it’s begun.”

I look out at my friends. Tessen is still in her bloody uniform, my mother’s shirt still slashed. “I’m sorry, you guys.” They just stare at me, then the screen. John Hando comes up and gives me a squeeze. “What are you doing here, John? Your family needs you.”

“I’m here for you, Junco. I’m here for you. We’re all here for you.”

I look around at all their faces. My Siblings are huddled on a couch on the far side of the room, unwilling to separate from each other. Ryse is with them. I catch Annun porting away with my clone/Deb, but the Fledge team are still here, in their own huddle over near the kitchen entrance. My mom and dad are inside the nursery, paying attention to the baby.

The baby.

“Later, Junco. If we win you can make that decision, but right now we have to get to the hotel.”

“I’m never gonna see you guys again and I’m sorry.” I say it to the entire room. All of them. “I’m sorry.”

“Just do your job, Junco,” Ryse calls out from across the room. “That’s all ya gotta do. Follow orders.” He gets up and leaves Esta with a desperate look on her face, and walks over to me. “Don’t fight us this time, Juncs. We need you to do what you’re told.”

“But what is the order, Ryse? And if it’s the right thing to do, then why does everyone doubt that I’ll do it?”

“I dunno. Only two people know what that final order is, and that’s Tier and Lucan.”

“I’m gonna have to kill Lucan, aren’t I? I’m gonna have to choose Earth. I won’t do it. I’m not gonna end him, Gideon.” I look out at Ryse, then the Fledge team, and finally Arel. “I’m not gonna kill Lucan. I won’t.”

“Even if it’ll save everyone else, Junco?” I pivot at my father’s voice. “Even if that single act of annihilation will save billions of avians and humans alike? You’d take the side of this one man and kill everyone?”

“It makes no sense!” I protest. “None of this makes sense. Why does this High Order think they can just come here and cause all this death?”

“Because, Junco”—it’s Esta’s turn to talk now—“we do not own this planet. Lucan doesn’t own this planet. This planet, as hard as it is to believe, belongs to someone. And we’re trespassing.”

I look to Ryse and he’s nodding. “It’s true, Junco. As far as he’s concerned, he’s got every legal right to kill everyone here. Lucan and Gib made the human race. Cloned the native people here on this planet thousands of years ago. Built this entire civilization using illegal genetics, then created a virus that would corrupt the genome of the High Order beings, the Angels, the Archers, and the Avians. Lucan and Gib drove them from Earth—making them return home to find a cure. Lucan and Gib cast themselves out from avian society and they’ve spent the last several thousand years trying to fix the genetic defects and build an army so that when the High Order came back, they could fight.”

“But no one’s fighting!” Moju protests as he comes towards us. “We’re just sitting the fuck around doing nothing!”

“There’s only one warrior in this fight, Moju.” Ryse looks at my brother with total sadness. “Just one warrior required to make it end.”

“Tier,” I say softly.

“No, Junco,” Arel says as he puts a hand on my shoulder. “
You
.” I shake my head but Arel persists. He points to my father. “He trained you.” Arel points to himself. “And we took you and changed you. Lucan should not have had any of the Seven in his possession, but it was sort of a fluke. Isten wanted you, we all thought you’d make a good nine, it started out so innocent. We thought Iliana was the Seven for a long time. And she’s still part of this, right? Annun just took her to New Peaks because she’s got a part to play. But things got… complicated. Lucan likes you.” He says it like it’s not possible. “I mean, he’s like… obsessed with you. He gifted you, he rescued you. And I—” He looks over to Ryse who nods. “We have no idea why. Not that we don’t love ya, Juncs. We do. But something is so fucking off with this plan. And none of us have enough information to figure out what it is.”

He stares hard at me and then takes my hand.

“But Junco, Tier does know. Lucan does know. And both of these men have given you orders over the past few weeks. You need to do what they say otherwise they—” He points to the carnage on the screen. “They will win. So no matter what that order is, if it’s to kill Lucan with that monster of a gun you got there, then just do it. He’s eternal, Junco. He’ll survive. Somehow, some way. He’ll be back. So just fucking do it.”

“Snowbird,” Gid says next to me. “We gotta go.”

I want to hug them all. I want to tell them what they mean to me. But I can’t. I just can’t make myself accept the fact that this is really the end. But Gideon can because he taps my shoulder and we exit the timeshift on top of the luxury hotel that HOUSE and I stayed in a few weeks ago.

How is it possible that only a few weeks have passed since I was rescued from Inanna’s clutches by Lucan?

I have no understanding of time right now. I’m so fucked up with the time, it’s not funny.

Gideon pushes me to my knees and we crawl over to the edge of the building and peer over the side. They stand in a semi-circle far down at the end of the mall. Lucan is off to the side. I dial in the scope sight and watch his lips move. His eyes dart around to the various men and then, as if he knows, they find me. It’s the briefest of seconds, almost undetectable as he sweeps his gaze from man to Angel to the various warriors.

But I feel him. No matter what he does, I can’t help myself, I know that he is good. I feel it.

“I don’t want to kill Lucan, Gideon.”

“Shhh. You’re not even sure that’s the order, so knock it off. And if it is—” He stops to look harshly at me. “You’ll do what you’re told.”

“I just want to go back to Amelia to my 039 room and stare out at the traffic from the window seat,” I say, ignoring him. I wonder if I can make my own virtual in my head? Why do I always get stuck on that stupid fucking dock?

“—listening?”

“What?”

“Junco, I swear to God—”

But I stop listening again because Lucan’s eyes sweep past me one more time. “He’s sorta beautiful, don’t you think? Even with his—”

“—I will kick your—”

“—bat wings and fangs.”

“—ass.”

I sigh and look over at my best friend. He’s pissed off. But I don’t care. “I’m not gonna shoot Lucan. There, that’s the end of it.” I roll over on my back so I can stare up at the sky. “That Halo thing is like directly overhead. Do you see that, Gideon?”

For some reason this jolts him out of his anger and he turns on his back too. We stare at it for a few seconds. “You think it’s gonna shoot us or something?” He’s back to normal Gid now. His anger at my refusal to shoot Lucan is forgotten, because above us is a giant silver ring around the planet that, according to every-fucking-one important, is the key to winning.

“Yeah, I imagine it will, don’t you?” I look over at him and he’s sad. I can feel it so acutely, it makes my chest swell with that broken-heart pain.

“It’s gotta do something. They said it’s a shield.”

“Yeah, but Sera said it can do much more than that. She said it’s a weapon.”

“But what is a weapon, really?”

“I dunno. Tier is supposed to be Lucan’s weapon. But if I’m the one doing the shooting, and I’m on Lucan’s side, then how can Tier be the weapon?”

A far-off roar pulls us back to reality, but before I can turn back onto my stomach Gid grabs my arm. “I love you, Juncs. I do,” he says, almost pleading. “You’re my best friend. I trust you, Junco, above all others. No matter what happens. I trust you. So please, Snowbird. When I give the order, please just do it.”

I stare at him as the roaring down below continues, like there’s a fight happening. But I cancel out all that noise for a moment and find something else to take its place.

Gid’s heartbeat.

It’s so strong for a second I think his heart might burst from his chest.

“I’ll try, Gideon, I swear I will. But I’m just not sure I can kill Lucan. Even if he’s not dead for real, I don’t know that I can do it.”

He swallows hard and nods. “Then it’s my job to make you do it, Juncs.”

The roar is even louder now, mixed in with demon screams. We both roll on our bellies to see.

“Annun’s here,” Gid says.

“And Iliana. And I’m guessing there’s no Deb in there to calm her down by the looks of it.”

“Yeah, and your real fucking Siblings are coming down the mountain, look!”

I dial up my scope sight and find a cloud of debris and dust above the largest red rock near the amphitheater.

“Those… they… I’m… one of them?” Holy shit. I am a fucking demon. That’s what I look like when I’m in my angry form and I am so much uglier than Lucan when he’s a demon, it’s not funny.

Gid grabs my arm again and shakes me until I look at him. “You’re not one of them, Junco. You’re not. I raised you from a baby and I know you’re not a demon. You’re human. I made you human.”

“Yeah, but for two years, Inanna—”

A new wave of roaring stops my words and I take my scope back to the fountain down the mall.

“Tier,” I breathe. “Tier’s here.”

“And this is the beginning of the end, Junco. So please, just do what I tell you, OK?”

I stare at Tier down there, he’s circling the one who looks like the Angel in the Book he had in his nightstand drawer back on the ship. Tier is already looking pretty fucking demonic, he’s definitely not the Tier I just saw like half an hour ago. But he surprises me and the two adversaries level up another demon morph at the same time. My eyes are glued to the standoff. There is no actual fight, but they continue to circle.

“Junco,” Annun says, suddenly lying down next to me. “You ready?”

I stare past him and find Gid’s apprehensive face. He nods to me.

“OK, I’m ready. Tell me what the target is.”

Annun’s blank look tells me he’s gone into his vision screen and then he snaps out of it. “I sent it to Gideon. He’ll tell you. I’m gonna go take Hand home and wait it out with his pretty sister Esma.”

And then he’s gone and I have what might be my last laugh ever. “Fucking Annun.” I chuckle and turn to look at Gideon.

He’s white. Just all color gone from his face.

“Who?” I demand. “Who is it?”

He shakes his head.

“Dammit, Gideon, tell me!”

He stares me straight in the eye. He’s got no choice, not really. This is it. I gotta know and we’re out of time. He opens his mouth, the words almost there. Then he takes a deep breath and spits it out. “It’s… Lucan.”

My shoulders drop and my heart sinks. I knew it. I told Lucan this way back in the Fledge Church, after I killed Isec. I told him they’d ask me to kill him. I knew it.