The Extinction Switch: Book three of the Kato's War series (5 page)

Kassandra sat between Annabelle and Antonio, scowling, her arms folded. The three friends, the arguing couple, and another couple with a small child to Annabelle’s left completed the circle. This family had been silent thus far, but for the child’s crying. Annabelle looked across at Pierre. “Where are you trying to get to?”

“My boys are in Perpignan,” he fumed. “My ex-wife has them. I want to make sure they’re okay, but now we’re being herded back to Lyon, like sheep!”

“Etienne, ssh,” the young mother on the other side of the circle implored, stroking the little girl’s hair. Her own eyes looked red from crying. Her partner, to her left, looked spaced out.

Kassandra looked over. “How old is she?”

“Two,” came her French accent. She looked up at Kassandra. “Yesterday, actually. Oh, God, I can’t believe she won’t even make it to three!”

“Ssssh!” came the admonition from her left, as her partner snapped out of his trance. “Save it for home!”

“You don’t understand! You can’t! Oh… I am sorry…”

“Yes, so you should be!” came his English accent. Looking chastened, she held the child tighter. He sighed. “I’m sorry, it’s just…” The man then turned to Annabelle. “You probably don’t want to overhear all this, do you?”

“Oh, it’s okay,” Kassandra said. “These are trying times for us all. Where were you trying to get to?”

“My mother’s in Kent, England,” the man said. “We thought it might be safer to head there than to stay in a big city.” Annabelle nodded. “How about yourselves?” he continued.

“We were… just passing through,” Annabelle said. “I’m trying to get to Paris, actually, to my mother and sister. So, we’re trying to get to a big city, while you’re trying to get away from one.”

“Oh. Are you going to stay somewhere in Lyon?”

“We have nowhere. We thought there might be somewhere to sleep in the enclosed part of the city…”

“Oh. Well, anyway, I’m David, and this is my wife Vivianne.” The pretty, olive-skinned woman, sitting between him and Annabelle, looked up at them through her tears. Her hair had loose curls and wispy ends that caressed her neck. She continued stroking Etienne’s head, which rested on her lap.

“Do you guys… uh… live in Lyon?” Kassandra said.

“Yes,” Vivianne said. “In the underground section.”

“Ah.”

“Are you three together?”

“Yes.” Kassandra introduced herself and the others.

“You could… stay with us tonight, if you wanted,” Vivianne said.

Kassandra’s eyes widened. “Really?”

“Yes.” Vivianne turned to her left. “That’s okay with you?”

“Sure,” came David’s grumpy response. He had short cropped brown hair, which was receding. His too-large forehead and nose looked slightly comical.

“Wow… thank you so much!” Annabelle said. “We won’t forget it. Really, we won’t.”

“It’s a small place,” David said.

“Doesn’t matter. It’s somewhere indoors, and safe,” Kassandra said. Angry, scared tones could be heard from other parts of the large bus’s upper deck. The vast work of art that was the outer shell of Lyon was now visible. It was a cylinder, many kilometers wide, glowing dull gold in the sunset. Its height was roughly a quarter of its width, and the roof sloped gently, as though it was a stick of rock that was cut cleanly at an angle. From this, two much narrower cylinders rose, one at each side. Their tops were also sliced off at the same angle, opposite to that of the main part. “Wow…” Kassandra said, as she squinted.

“Yeah, it’s pretty impressive,” David said.

“People live in the top part too?”

“Yes. It’s known as the sky level. One of the three levels of the city. The others are ground level, and lower, which is underground.”

The giant structure slowly drew closer, and then was suddenly out of their view as the bus entered a tunnel. Several minutes later, the vehicle entered an underground bus station. Its interior was of white ceramic tiles. Antonio, Kassandra and Annabelle took the escalator down and out of the bus, which was twice the size of those from previous centuries, and into a cacophony of noise and confusion. Vivianne clutched Etienne close, resting the sleeping child’s head on her shoulder, while David dragged their two duffel bags. “No luggage?” he said.

“No.” Annabelle said. “All we have is what we’re wearing.”

“Oh. Well, follow me.” Three gendarmes and three soldiers in camouflage, with their weapons prominently displayed, patrolled the concourse, as other buses arrived and disgorged their angry, frightened masses. The six people walked straight ahead through soulless white hallway. The travelers joined a throng of people at a bank of elevator cars. The line moved quickly, as the living room-sized cars filled up and were replaced by empty ones. “There,” David said, nodding at one of the doors. They slid open. The glowing words above them said: RUE BORCHAL. “Let’s go.” They packed into the car with a tired, agitated crowd. The smell of body odor was strong as most people grabbed subway-style straps that hung from the ceiling. The doors closed. It began to move, down at first, then sideways.

“Lower level?” Annabelle said.

“Yes,” David said. The wall to their left displayed a map of the city, black on a white background, with their current position denoted. Annabelle craned her neck to see past the other occupants, but only the top half of the map was visible. “The city is basically a hub and spoke system,” David said. “It’s much like a snowflake. Where we live is around eight kilometers west of the center.”

“Ah.”

“It’s only about another two minutes to get there.”

“Good.”

“I’m very tired,” Antonio said. “We’ve been traveling for over a day, and getting nowhere fast.”

Annabelle studied Vivianne’s face. Vivianne closed her eyes, and held Etienne with both arms. She was only prevented from falling over by the mass of people jammed in around them. Conversation around them was muted. The car decelerated gradually, and pulled into a station. The doors opened, and the six travelers jostled their way out. Annabelle, Kassandra and Antonio looked around. The road was a wide tunnel, rectangular in cross section, cut straight from the rock. It stretched further than they could see in both directions. Its dark concrete roof was low. Harsh lights at the edge of the roof, every few meters, were the only illumination. This gave it a close, claustrophobic feel, despite the street having wide sidewalks and three lanes of traffic in both directions. The sidewalks were lined with lighted storefronts of various kinds. The food outlets were closed, and small groups of people gathered outside their doors. Vehicles whooshed by in both directions. “This is Rue Borchal,” David said, “such as it is. This way.” The small group shuffled off along Rue Borchal, left from the exit of the station, with David and Vivianne taking the lead.

“Can you walk, baby?” Vivianne said to Etienne, setting her down. The toddler took Vivianne’s right hand. They slowed down to accommodate her speed.

“This is going to take forever,” David huffed, after half a minute. He scooped the little girl up. Another two minutes’ walking brought them to a left turn. “This is our street.” Rue Delacort had all the charm of a highway underpass. It was narrower than Rue Borchal. The still too-close roof was black. Instead of being studded with lights every few meters, however, it bore recessed strip lighting in two lines, a few meters apart, parallel to the road, which angled in and crisscrossed each other every so often. There were no shops. Each of the regimented apartment fronts was gray concrete, with a sky blue front door. Annabelle, Kassandra and Antonio exchanged looks with raised eyebrows, behind the others’ backs. A few cars swooshed past. “Here we are,” David said brightly, after perhaps two minutes of walking. The clunk of an electronic lock was heard on their left, and the front door swung inwards. It bore the number 11789.

Vivianne entered first, and set Etienne down just inside the door. David looked annoyed, as he tried to squeeze his way past without success. “We’re home, baby. Are you hungry?” Vivianne said. The sleepy child nodded. “Okay,” Vivianne said, taking her hand and leading her down a short hallway.

“Well, this is it,” David said. “Come in.” The other three entered, and stood in the hall, looking at each other awkwardly. “I’ll give you the grand tour,” David said. The hall extended straight back from the front door. There were two doors on the left and two on the right. “This is the living room,” David said, opening the first door on the right. The three travelers poked their heads in. The décor was a bland off-white color. The front of the room was deep black: it was their display, currently switched off. A light-colored, striped three-seater couch and an armchair completed the picture. “Bathroom is next,” David said, opening the next door on the right to reveal a basic light blue-tiled space. “Then there are ours and Etienne’s rooms here,” he said, indicating the doors on the left. A ginger and white-striped cat walked towards them from the far end of the hall, meowing and purring, tail held in the air. “Hi Vlad,” David said to it, pausing to tickle it behind the ears.

David then walked to the end of the hall. It opened out into a small light yellow open-plan kitchen. The back wall was a screen, also switched off. Etienne sat awkwardly atop a bar stool pulled up to the breakfast bar on the side of the counter farthest from the small sink. “We have the NBH system here,” Vivianne said, indicating a white unit the size of a large microwave, on the counter to the right as viewed from the door.

“NBH?” Antonio said.

“Nutritionally balanced homogenate,” Vivianne said. “It’s kind of a nutritional goo that’s piped straight into the machine, which can make almost any meal from it. We also have a small electric range, in case we have to cook something else.” This was a countertop unit, located next to the NBH. Next to that was a refrigerator, with a brushed metal finish.

“Very… nice,” Annabelle said, scanning the kitchen.

“You three look exhausted,” David said.

“We are,” Kassandra said.

“I’m afraid all we have are a few extra blankets.”

“That’s okay. It beats trying to sleep rough somewhere,” Annabelle said.

“Let me get them for you,” David said. He entered his and Vivianne’s room, returning a moment later. “The only space we have is the living room.”

“Okay.”

David set the large pile of blankets on the floor, and then headed back into the kitchen. “I’ll let you get some sleep.”

“Thanks.”

As soon as the door closed, Antonio said: “I had no idea people lived like this,” gesticulating wildly with his hands. “I know France has the Share system, but they live underground like rabbits! And this apartment…”

“I know, right!” Kassandra said.

Annabelle looked angry. “Shhh! They might be able to hear us! Besides, you should be grateful they opened their home to us. They didn’t have to do it. Who knows where we’d be now if they hadn’t?”

“Hmph,” Kassandra said. “I hope things get better soon.” Antonio’s brow furrowed as he laid out a yellow blanket on the floor. All three bedded down as best they could. Couch cushions were used as pillows. They were asleep before anyone thought to turn off the light.

----

“Some bandwidth to Earth just opened up!” Kato yelled excitedly, as he stood near the front of the bridge of
Revenant
.

“Woohoo!” Zara yelled, from her seat five meters away. “Call Kassandra.” She heard static. A few seconds later, ringing.

“Mom!”

“Oh my God, sweetie! Are you okay?”

“Yes!”

“Where are you?”

“Lyon. We got stuck...” The line went dead.

“Kassie? Are you there? Talk to me, baby! Dammit!” Zara turned quickly to her left. “Akio! She's okay!”

Kato wondered aloud: “Who to call first… hmm… right… call Jose Hernandez.”

“Kato!” came the voice of ISI’s Chief Operating Officer.

“Jose! Give me the five-minute digest. What the hell's going on down there?”

“It's total chaos, as you can imagine,” came the breathless voice. “I guess you must be near Earth, since there doesn't seem to be a lag. Anyway, the big news is the FSA is appropriating all our ships to get people off of Mars!”

“LIKE HELL THEY ARE! Do not let them!”

“Uhh... don't shoot the messeng...” The line went dead.

“Damn! Jose? Jose? Call me back… okay… calm down. What to do… call General Phillips.”

“What’s up, Kato?” Phillips answered from his cabin.

“Can you get messages through on military channels?”

“No civilian messages, I’m afraid.”

“General, they’re going to take all ISI’s ships to evacuate Mars!”

“
What
?”

“I need to get all our assets away from Earth. I gotta get orders through. Jose didn’t get a chance to acknowledge it when I told him to do it. Is there any way you can get a message through for me?”

The General sighed. “I’ll see what I can do. I’d be risking my neck, since I’d have to have the cooperation of someone at the Pentagon.”

“Thanks, General. Again, the fleet’s at America’s disposal. Not for caving to that sucker, but for fighting back.”

“I’ll get it done, Kato. How will ISI know the order’s really from you, though, and not the Pentagon?”