Spires of Infinity (41 page)

Sam stared upward, and the cat on her shoulders leaned forward as though doing so would get him a closer view of the sky.

“This really is the past,” Sam said in wonder. “Look at the wastelands. I’ve never seen so many plants in my life. Who would have ever thought there’d be such a thing as
green
plants! Hey, what’s that white fluffy thing in the sky?”

Despite his stabbing headache and aching body Gabriel chuckled at the sheer

wonder in Sam’s voice.

“You’ve never seen clouds before,” he asked.

“Why am I all wet,” Sam rubbed at her arms. “It’s really hot. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so warm.”

Allie cleared her throat loudly.

“As entertaining as this simpleton’s marveling is, we have to get moving or the security systems are going to pick us up. Two people will set off alarms for sure.”

“Look,” Sam cried, pointing to the sky. “There’s an extra moon, the one that

disappeared!”

An air raid siren sounded twice throughout the facility.

“Primary systems activation in ten. Nine. Eight. Seven,” Allie’s mechanical voice began counting down the activation timer over the loudspeaker.

Grabbing Sam’s hand, Gabriel looked to Allie. “Which way?”

“One,” the mechanized voice said.

Suddenly the laws of gravity no longer seemed to apply. Gabriel felt his feet leave the floor. Then gravity was pulling him in the wrong direction. He dropped toward the railing and open space beyond.

“Hold on,” he shouted to Sam as he gripped her hand tighter.

As they dropped past the railing he hooked his elbow around it, and their fall jerked to a halt. The Apostle slammed into the rail and it seemed to bring her back to her senses. She managed to grab on just in time. The metal screeched and the railing bent outward slowly under their combined weight.

Gravity righted and they dropped, the rail sawing at Gabriel’s elbow as he

strained to hold on. The Apostle hung only a few feet away by one hand, her sword in the other. She could run him through and there would be nothing he could do to stop her.

Sheathing her sword in a well-practiced motion, the Apostle showed no outward

sign that her current predicament bothered her in the slightest. Using both hands, she scrambled rather gracelessly back onto the catwalk. Standing, she stared back down at Gabriel and Sam without expression as she wiped blood away from a completely healed cheek. Without a word she turned and walked away, her cloak flaring out in the wind like a cape. She disappeared through one of the doors leading onto the catwalk.

Allie peeked over the edge at them as the railing screeched again and dropped

Gabriel and Sam down another foot. Sam screamed in fright as they jerked to a halt again.

“I do not mean to alarm you, but that railing was not made to hold so much

weight. I would suggest climbing up immediately.”

“Tell me something I don’t know,” Gabriel growled. “I’m working on it!”

Trying to lift Sam up one-handed proved futile. She was too heavy and he had no leverage. Plus, someone seemed to be using his skull as part of an extended drum solo.

“Cat,” Gabriel growled. “Climb up!”

Mister Mittens did as he was told, scrambling up Gabriel’s arm, his claws digging into the leather of his coat for purchase. He jumped onto the top of Gabriel’s head and from there leapt up onto the catwalk. Turning, he peered down at them next to Allie, amusingly matching her posture and expression.

“Sam,” Gabriel called down.

Hyperventilating, she stared around wild-eyed.

“
Sam
! Look at me!
Look at me
! Don’t look down, just look at me and listen!”

Panting rapidly, Sam looked up at him, tears streaming from her eyes.

“I’m really afraid of high places! I don’t wanna fall. I don’t wanna
die
!”

“You’re not going to fall. I’ll lift you up, but I need you to use your legs and push against the side of the tower. See how it slopes outward. Brace your foot against it and push while I pull you up. Got it?”

“I can’t! I’m scared! Don’t let me fall!”

“I’m not going to let you fall, but I can’t pull you up on my own. I need your help. Put your foot against the wall. Do it!”

Looking at the wall for a long second, Sam appeared too frozen with fear to

understand. Swearing under his breath, Gabriel strained to lift her again, but it was pointless. Then, nodding to herself, Sam reached toward the wall, bracing her foot against the black metal, pushing against it.

Immediately, Gabriel felt the lessening of pressure on his elbow and lifted Sam with all of his strength. She rose slowly past him until she was high enough to get her leg over the railing and climb the rest of the way up.

Lying flat on her belly, Sam reached out for him with her hand. Taking it, he began to climb upward, very aware of the sound of twisting metal coming from the railing as he moved. Just as his hand caught the edge of the catwalk there was a pop and the support posts snapped. The railing fell, clanging against the side of the tower all the way down.

Scrambling the rest of the way onto the catwalk, Gabriel drew a heavy, relieved breath. Sam threw her arms around him and he hugged her back.

“It’s officially Miller time,” Gabriel groaned, falling flat on his back. Allie leaned over into his line of sight and peered curiously down at him. “What the hell was that?”

“Activation of the facility’s primary systems caused a momentary hitch in the

flow of gravity in this area of space,” Allie explained. “It never was solidly stable to begin with.”

“Who are you talking to,” Sam asked, following his line of sight.

“Allie,” Gabriel replied.

“Where did the Apostle go,” Sam asked.

“That way,” Gabriel pointed to one of the doors.

“It is a good thing that we came after her,” Mister Mittens said. “She was about to kill you when we knocked her out.”

It was just like a cat to act like he’d done all the work himself!

“We have to hurry,” Sam said. “If the Spires of Infinity were activated that

means they’re drawing power from the sun!”

“She is right,” Allie nodded. “Follow me. We need to disable the computers at the moment the black hole is created. The longer we delay, the more irreparable damage will be done to the sun.”

Thankfully Allie walked toward the door opposite of where the Apostle had gone.

Struggling to his feet, Gabriel offered a hand to Sam and pulled her up.

Pulling her along behind him, he started to follow Allie, but before he could take more than three steps, the door opened and disgorged several black-uniformed soldiers, all with rifles pointed at them. The door on the opposite side of the catwalk also opened and more soldiers moved to block off escape from that direction.

Raising his hands, Gabriel did his best to keep them away from his weapons.

Obviously considering whether she should draw her own pistol and fight, Sam gratefully followed his example. Gabriel didn’t see Mister Mittens anywhere. The little black cat seemed to have disappeared.

“Who are you,” one of the soldiers yelled in Gabriel’s face with the most horrific case of bad breath that he’d ever had the displeasure of inhaling. “What are you doing here! This is a restricted area.”

“Do something,” Gabriel mumbled to Allie who stood watching with that “I told

you so” look that women did so well.

“You’ll have to find a way to escape on your own,” she replied. “I can’t uplink with the computer without alerting her to my presence.”

“Answer me,” bad breath shouted, driving the butt of his rifle into Gabriel’s

stomach, knocking the wind from him again.

Wheezing, Gabriel tried to speak, but all he could do was choke for breath.

“These must be the ones that the Purple Haven terrorists threatened would blow up the facility today,” one of the others suggested.

Bad breath nodded. “Cuff these tree huggers and take their weapons. I want

them in separate cells for questioning. Meanwhile, have Allison run a search on the control tower for explosive devices that may have been planted before we caught them.”

Chapter 36: Questioning

Leaning back in the chair he’d been handcuffed to, Gabriel yawned excessively

loudly, just to be annoying. The chain of the handcuffs ran through slits in the plastic back of the chair so he couldn’t go anywhere without taking it with him.

“What is your name,” the tall, black-uniformed questioner asked, pacing in front of him. He had the fuzziest black eyebrows that Gabriel had ever seen, almost completely obscuring his hard, dark eyes when they drew together. “Who do you work for? Why are you here? They’re simple questions.”

“Pancakes,” Gabriel said.

“What is your name. Who do you work for? Why are you here?”

“Waffles!”

“You’re only making things worse for yourself. Answer the damn questions.

What is your name? Who do you work for? Why are you here?”

“You know what goes well with waffles? I mean, you really wouldn’t think they would go together, but fried chicken—”

Cutting Gabriel off, the questioner backhanded him across the face hard enough that his vision blanked for a second. With his headache still going at full force, pain seemed to ring through his skull like a gong.

“What is your name,” Gabriel asked when his vision cleared. “Who do you work

for? Why are you here?”

“Listen up,” the questioner growled, putting his face right in front of Gabriel’s.

Wonder of wonders, his breath was even worse than that of the man that had taken him prisoner. “Start talking, or I’m going to get nasty with you.”

“Too late,” Gabriel replied.

“For now, this facility is under military jurisdiction, making you a military

prisoner. Torture is still
legal
on military prisoners.”

“Dude,” Gabriel gasped, trying not to gag. “Do the words ‘breath mint’ mean

anything
to you? You don’t
need
to torture me, just keep breathing on me.”

Growling in frustration, the questioner went back to pacing.

Looking past him through the window as the outer door opened, Gabriel

wondered if this room had ever actually been intended as a cell, or if they were just improvising. Divided into two sections separated by glass, or possibly plastic, were the small, rectangular outer room and the cube shaped inner room. The outer room held a bank of computer consoles that were operated by a tech in a blue uniform, and the inner room was completely white and empty save for a table and three chairs. Neon light panels lit the inner room brightly, but one of them had a faulty tube that kept flickering, not good for Gabriel’s headache.

The only way through the dividing glass was to punch a four-digit code into the computer in the outer room. Questioners in the inner room had to signal the tech if they wanted out.

Somewhat less futuristic than other doors Gabriel had seen in the Spires, the one leading out into the hall had a knob and a keypad below it. A man in a white lab coat entered the outer room, nodding to the tech. Neither of them noticed the small black cat that crept in behind him and scampered under the computer consoles as the tech opened the inner door.

Gabriel smiled inwardly. The cavalry had arrived.

“These two are, well, I don’t even know where to begin,” lab coat said, handing a clipboard over to the questioner. “What do you make of this, Henry?”

Flipping through pages, Henry scowled, his incredibly furry brows drawing

together. “What are these things?”

“The girl, we’re calling her Miss Werewolf for the moment because she refuses to give a name, claims they’re called nano-machines. They seem to be infesting every single cell of her body and free floating in her blood. They’re actually visibly rewriting her genetic code, continuously adapting her body to external conditions. I think she
used
to be human, but we don’t even begin to know where to start classifying her now. Look at her resting temperature.”

“Good god,” Henry said in wonder. “Her brain should be frying like cheese in a skillet.”

“That was an hour ago. Since then these machines have lowered her body heat to normal levels, which is simply amazing. On top of that, she also seems to be emitting low levels of radiation, consistent with someone that has suffered fatally high exposure, but she doesn’t show a single sign of poisoning. What should I do with her? I mean, if we dissected her, even the most liberal Sentinels would crucify us, but her body could prove to be the greatest scientific discovery of the century.”

“God bless the politicians,” Henry muttered under his breath. “Take as many

samples as you can without permanently damaging her and send them to Excel for analysis. I think our first step should be to breed her and see if her offspring bear the same alterations. It’ll give us more specimens to study.”

“Yes sir. I’ve got
his
scans too. These implants in his hands connect directly to the memory centers of his brain. The jewels we took from him seem to be some sort of data storage devices.”

“Who
are
these people,” Henry asked. “We need to know who sent them and why.”

“No luck questioning him,” lab coat eyed Gabriel.

Gabriel did his best to blow him a kiss without the use of his hands.

“It’s like talking to a brick wall with an awful sense of humor,” Henry growled.

“The girl isn’t saying anything either. She seems to be getting almost orgasmic pleasure in acting like a complete idiot. You should have seen the trouble she gave the nurse we sent in to take blood and urine samples. Care if I give this one a try?”

“Be my guest,” Henry gestured with the clipboard and moved to the corner of the room, eyes scanning page after page.

Leaning over Gabriel, lab coat looked him in the eyes.

“Hello, I’m Aaron, head lab tech at this facility. I’m very interested in some of your technology, and where it came from. It’s very advanced, yet your weapons and clothing are highly archaic, almost like those of the Emperor’s Elite Guards, but not quite. Were you trying to impersonate one of them?”