The Neo-Spartans: Altered World (38 page)

              But Julius could hardly hear her, charmed as he was by the lovely little Marisol.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

              Back in the plaza, it had gone utterly quiet, but gradually the rumble returned and somebody shouted it out, the ever so simple phrase that would ignite them all. “More life,” the voice said. And another voice, louder, more vehement, echoed the sentiment: “More life!” Suddenly the entire plaza was chanting and looking for some way to express their displeasure at discovering that their lives had been unnecessarily shortened by being Eugenic.

              Grisner climbed back in his car with a last glance at the screen where Quinn had moved Nico aside, and could be seen and heard asking the public for a peaceful reaction to the revelations. Grisner scoffed and drove off. His path swung him down a series of virtually empty streets toward the Sanctuary walls in the distance. A short distance before the walls he shot through a barricade and into a long, dark tunnel.

              Despite the dark and dicey road, Grisner tore along. What was about to take place had been coming for a long time, and Grisner was anything but shy in his willingness to lead the troops in the suppression of any disruption of the status quo. The fact that it seemed to be starting with Quinn only added spice to the already busy stew that defined the political climate they inhabited.

              Grisner knew the political terrain, knew that it would be quite the feather in his cap when he brought in the woman who’d invaded the surgical haven designed to rescue a man many loved, a man who represented their hope for lengthening their lives. Between his written deal with Grant Hughes and the public display of heroism he was about to flaunt, Grisner would rocket to the top of the heap—the world would be his.

              Grisner made his way through the SDF entrance deep within the Citadel and rode up the elevator. Several floors up, he disembarked into a central security area. A sea of lieutenants and Dr. Mallory observed on monitors what was taking place in the once-sacrosanct Grant Hughes environs. All cleared a path so that Grisner could design a plan to save the day.

              In the Grant Hughes’s deluxe ICU suite, Quinn made Grant Hughes comfortable as she helped him raise his head off the pillow so he could speak. Nico slid the camera close, right into Grant Hughes’s face. Nico shared the space with him momentarily, looking into the camera.

              “Mr. Hughes has something he wants to say to you all,” said Nico. He backed out of the shot. “It’s all yours.”

              Hughes’s boney digits pointed shakily at the oxygen mask covering his face. Nico reached in and undid his mask. A bagpipe sound rang through the room. He looked at the camera, gathered oxygen and spoke. “I’m sorry,” he croaked. “Please forgive me.”

              “Criminals,” said Dr. Mallory. “Forcing this great man to apologize… it’s revolting!” Mallory continued pacing circles on the floor, his nails chewed down to the cuticles.

              Inside the suite, Nico had been counting down the minutes in his head. He knew all too well that they couldn’t continue their revelations further without paying for it dearly.

              “Quinn, we have to leave,” he said.

              She looked at him blankly.

              “What, this is a new idea to you? Look, I don’t know what crazy kind of past you got. You and your brother, there’s a lotta weight being carried there, I can see that. But this is not the Alamo. No reason to make it your last stand.”

              “You don’t understand…” she muttered.

              “There’s nothing going to get better if you stay and die. You’ve shown the world the truth. Let people help you follow through.”

              Tension gathered at her throat. “It’s funny… it never occurred to me I could live through it.” She had understood what Declan’s sacrifice meant, but she hadn’t realized she didn’t need to repeat it. This was a different situation. This was her life. Her choice. She started to the door, but he reached for her hand.

              “We can’t go that way,” said Nico. “They’ll be gunning for bear out there by now.”

              He started in another direction but the claw-like hand of Grant Hughes shot out and wrapped its spiny fingers around Nico’s wrist with surprising force. All ninety pounds of him tugged Nico toward him.

              “Don’t leave me. Not like this,” he cawed.

              “You saying what I think?” asked Nico.

              Grant Hughes looked up at him, those saucer-like eyes brimming with feeling, begging for mercy.

              “You’re asking me to do what thousands would? That’s a heckuva responsibility.” He thought about another moment. “Quinn, do me a solid. The lights.” She flicked them off.

              In the monitor room, people squinted at the screen. “What are they doing in there?” somebody shouted.

              “Get that door open, now!” said Grisner.

              In the suite, the dim light grew even dimmer as Nico flipped a master switch killing the power to all of Grant Hughes’s life supports. “
Hasta la vista
,
hombre
.”

              Nico guided Quinn to a corner of the room where he leapt up on a table, punched a hole into the ceiling and climbed up into Gabriel’s world of corridors and beams. He reached back down for Quinn.

              As Quinn pulled herself up into the sea of beams a smile bloomed on her face. Yes, this is the kind of place Gabriel would have found. If only they’d known what kind of squirrel he was the powers that be wouldn’t have brought him here. Nico picked a direction and went that way.

              Blasters at full strength, Grisner and his people burst through the doors of Grant Hughes’s suite. Somebody flicked on the lights. A gasp went up from the remainder of Dr. Mallory’s staff at the discovery of the hunched over figure of the late Grant Hughes. Mallory ordered his team to apply every imaginable method to bringing him back to life.

              “For godssake,” shouted Grisner. “Give the man some peace. Look at him. He would have done it himself if he could have. Those kids did him a favor.” Grisner produced his phone.

              “Chief, put every man you’ve got on the streets. I want a SWAT presence like we’ve never seen before. Find these two rebels. We’ll make an example of them that people will never forget.” As he spoke, Grisner scanned the room and quickly found the loose ceiling tile out of which Nico and Quinn had escaped.

              A series of turns, stalls, and guesses, and Nico stopped over a ceiling tile which was already loose. Nico pulled it aside to reveal the pantry below. He jumped down through and leapt out of the way as Quinn quickly followed. Nico slid aside the hanging metal panel discovered by Marisol and grinned at Quinn. They dived through.

              Wonder played in Quinn’s eyes as Nico led her through the erstwhile subway tunnel’s darkness. Nico read the question in her eyes and he offered a simple answer: “Marisol,” he said. “She was hungry.”

              Quinn laughed. The privileged elite brought down thanks to the appetite of a curious child. The irony had her grinning, and the smile remained as she and Nico stepped out into the sunlight outside the walls of the Citadel. They darted low under the security cameras and into the street, only to stop cold as they got there. The streets teemed with SWAT cops, ready to spring into action the instant Quinn and Nico were ID’d among the throngs of peacefully protesting Bangers chanting, “More life, more life.”

              Nico hustled Quinn to a nook where neither SWAT nor CCTV could see them. Nico took it all in and eyed Quinn fondly.

              “You did this,” he said.

              “No, eventually they would have–” she stammered.

              But Nico just shook his head. He pulled her to him and he kissed her. She returned it, heart-felt and deep. As they broke off the kiss, he looked into her bottomless eyes, but remained in the embrace.

              “Funny. I never thought my hero would be a girl,” he said, but the noise of shouting drew his attention. He looked out into the street. “It’s going to be brutal getting anywhere.”

“It’s Grisner. He’s released the hounds,” said Quinn grimly.

“Come on, I’ve got an idea.” With that they joined the throngs in the streets. They scurried through the back alleys in an attempt to minimize any potential contact with the SWAT cops that had infested the Sanctuary. They kept their heads low, and always walked behind somebody as they chose the most circuitous routes leading to Magda’s house.

              “There are hundreds of them here,” Quinn couldn’t hide her worry.

              “Don’t worry, we’ll think of something. We’ve come this far, we are gonna make it all the way.” Nico tried to sound reassuring, though Quinn could tell what was on his mind; it would be little short of a miracle if they didn’t get caught. But she just kept moving, opting not to think more than a few minutes ahead.

              They zigzagged through the pockets of people that gathered, and soon Quinn spotted the door, the same door that a few weeks ago she’d been yanked through and saved by Magda. She glued her eye on the door and quickened her step. She was so focused on her final destination that she missed the SWAT goon who trained his eye and gun on her. She was simply moving too fast. Nico recognized the danger in an instant, caught up with Quinn and resorted to the trick that had been tested through the ages: he grabbed Quinn, pressed her hard against the wall and engaged her in a passionate kiss. He ignored her protestations and kept his peripheral vision on the goon who marched next to them but somehow was deterred from further investigation by Nico’s public display. The goon moved off; Nico pushed away from Quinn, took her hand in his, and they sneaked safely into Magda’s house.

              “So what’s the plan?” said Quinn.

              “If you really want to hide, make yourself so visible that people look away from you instead of at you,” said a voice that startled them both. Quinn and Nico whipped their heads in its direction and found Magda standing in front of them.

              “Sorry for the break in. Don’t go loco on us,” Nico grinned apologetically.

              “No worries, kids, I love you both.”

              Nico noticed something was different about Magda. It was the unusual, beatific smile that almost made her look stupid. Suddenly he noticed that Marisol was not with her.
“Where’s Marisol?

              “With her dad,” Magda grinned.

              And then the plan came to Nico, like a complete symphony. It was beautiful. He should have seen it right away. His eyes burned with excitement as he turned to Quinn.

              “Listen, you get yourself ready. The minute the Sanctuary starts rioting, you leave the house and get outside the walls as quickly as possible.

              “Rioting?” Quinn and Magda asked simultaneously.

              “What are you going to do, Nico?” Quinn was worried.

              “I’m going to stick some dynamite in somebody’s paternal instinct.”

              Before the two women could say anything he was out the door and running the gauntlet of the odorous back alleys. Nico carved his way into Julius’s lair. It wasn’t easy. The broadcast had stirred the sleeping pots of even those members of Julius’s circle most numbed by apathy, and now there were questions and inquiries. When Nico finally got inside, he found Julius, Marisol on his knee, guffawing at the little girl’s antics. When the big man finally noticed Nico, his face turned serious, he lifted Marisol and put her in the adjacent armchair.

              “The man of the day finally shows his face.”

              “I need your help, Julius,” Nico’s plea sounded urgent.

              “I bet you do. There’s a mile long trail of big stinking piles you left behind, my friend. Now why would Julius wanna get his hands dirty and clean up after you?”

              “Because of her,” Nico nodded in Marisol’s direction. “She deserves a chance for a more hopeful future, heck, she deserves hope for life. You do too. We all do.”

              “Julius doesn’t do politics, you know that. I have prospered by not taking sides.”

“You’ve prospered by taking the right side at the right time,” said Nico.

              Julius’s eyes roamed the room, intentionally not stopping on Nico. It was a bizarre reaction and it made Nico wonder. He fixed the big man with a hard look, forcing him to respond. But when Julius looked at him, it wasn’t straight in the eye, it was somewhere in middle distance. And then Nico saw it, plain and clear.

              “You made a deal with that bastard. Your name is on that freakin’ list. Jesus, Julius,” said Nico.