Wrath of the Void Strider (4 page)

With a bittersweet sigh, Gavin tapped the elevator call button, opened the driver’s side door and climbed inside.  The truck started up with a reverberant growl.  A moment later, the elevator doors lumbered open, and he reversed into his spot.  It sealed shut, and the overhead blower switched on as the elevator began to move.

Not long after, the doors yawned open to reveal a dimly lit parking cell.  Gavin backed into it, prompting the doors to close and the elevator to rise.  It vanished into the overhead shaft, revealing a lengthy tunnel that led out to the street.  He pressed down on the accelerator.

As soon as he was outside, he parked against the curb, turned off the engine and stepped out into the frosty predawn air.  Patches of starlight peeked through scudding clouds.  Streaks of gray ran down the faces of nearby office towers, gathering in puddles on the sidewalks.

Gavin blew into his hands, rubbing them together as he glanced down the street.  “Ah, there you are,” he muttered to himself.  He watched his friend slip in and out of visibility as he rode his bicycle under hovering street lamps that gently bobbed in place.

Drawing close, his friend drifted to a stop and dismounted.

“Hey, Takeo.”  Gavin smiled teasingly.  “Decided to rock the bike, huh?  I like it.  Totally old school, but considering our plans, wouldn’t a cab have made more sense?”

He lifted a brow.  “It’s not any ordinary bike.”  Takeo Sato was a tower of a man.  Graceful despite his height, he was lean, had black hair, and his eyes were dark as coal.  He wore polished shoes, a black pinstripe suit and a long coat. 

Gavin pointed toward the bicycle.  “Anyway, you want to put that inside or in the back of the truck?”

“Neither,” answered Takeo, and his bicycle vanished in a puff of swirling, fading fog.

Gavin recoiled.  “What?”

Takeo hunched his shoulders as he looked sidelong at his friend.  “Fogg ate my bike,” he answered, and he laughed dryly.  “Completely by accident, of course, so he offered to
be
my bike until he can replace it.”

Wincing, Gavin squinted and said, “Hey, Fogg.  You can come too, if you like.  I’m sure Taryn would be happy to see you.”

The metallic mist coalesced into a small, spinning saucer-style craft with a bank of bright lights that flashed in sequence. A tiny orb dropped out and displayed the words, “YES PLEASE.”

“You ready?”

“Let’s go,” said Takeo, and they approached Gavin’s pickup.  Takeo’s long coat fluttered in the grip of a chilled breeze as the cabin doors disengaged, sliding forward on their moorings.  They climbed in, and the Rhino growled to life.  Gavin jammed the accelerator, and they sped away.  Charging through flooded intersections, they raced along the streets, out onto the main highway.

Opening his window a crack, Gavin felt the cold air ruffle his hair.  He turned on the heater, and Takeo pulled his coat tighter about him.  Fogg settled down on the rear bench and switched off.  Gavin hardly noticed the sea of holographic ads that brightened as he approached.

In time, city lights gave way to dark, indistinct expanses.  Bathed in the edges of his headlights, he took note of sparse evergreens as they zipped by, along with a mix of blue and yellow spore cluster trees.  Vibrantly colored mushroom caps peeked up through the soil, huddled at the bases of the largest spore trunks.

As they neared Van Alder’s city limits, streets again crossed under the curving highway, and business parks appeared in ever-greater numbers.  The wide road inclined as it straightened and cut through a mountain rise.  Gavin’s truck easily climbed the final pass that led to their destination.

As if crossing through an enchanted gate, Van Alder swept into view before them.  It was an artfully crafted puzzle cube of soaring structures, layered highways and flight lanes.  Colossal spherical trees soared high overhead, held aloft by numerous curved and papery trunks, each a jagged skyscraper unto itself.  Street lamps cast gentle illumination upon charcoal-smudged corners, upon seas of glass, steel, stone and plastic.  Sky cars raced along overhead, while commuter and delivery shuttles lumbered toward airdocks nestled in the vaulted labyrinth.

Takeo whistled quietly.  “Wow.  I will never get over just how big this place feels.”

“I wouldn’t mind living here.”  Gavin guided his truck along a gentle left curve, but the vehicle sent him lurching forward.  “The hell?” muttered Gavin, as his Rhino halved its speed.  The engine regulator cheerfully engaged against his will, and a bright orange traffic grid indicator lit up his dash near the speedometer.  “When did they lock down ground traffic?”

“Not sure,” answered Takeo.  “Last month, I think?  I remember reading somewhere that they were planning to lay the groundwork for another Velocity Pass service, like they did on Earth.  This is one of the many reasons I don’t drive.”

“I hate the Traffic Ministry.  I’ll never pay fifteen credits a month for the ‘privilege’ of speeding.”

Takeo raised his brow.  “I have an idea.”  He twisted around to glance at the bench behind him.  “Fogg, wake up.  We need your skills.”

Fogg switched on and promptly hovered in place.  He printed, “HOW CAN I HELP?”

“Can you disable the engine regulator?”

“AFFIRMATIVE.”

Gavin looked nervous.  “Can’t I get arrested for that?”

Takeo shook his head.  “You won’t.  Trust me.”

“I’ll lose my scholarship if I go to jail,” Gavin insisted.

“You’re not going to lose your scholarship.” With a wink, Takeo said, “Fogg, if you please.”

The flying saucer dispersed and flowed into the truck’s dashboard vents.  A gentle haze formed around Gavin’s pickup.  As they drove at sensible speeds, Fogg got to work on the vehicle’s computer systems.  A moment later, a series of cheerfully descending notes chimed, and the traffic grid indicator light blinked off.  Fogg returned to the confines of the cabin and took the form of a robotic pup.  He hunkered down on the bench.

“Here we go,” Gavin exhaled, fighting the urge to grin.  Gripping the wheel with renewed focus, he raced along the roads, bobbing and weaving through light traffic.  Takeo smiled as he swayed with the tight turns and sudden changes in speed, the weightless moments when Gavin took the occasional hill just a bit too fast.

“With your connections at the Flight Center, you really should try for your pilot’s license,” he teased.

Gavin cast his friend a sidelong glance.  “I can’t afford it.”

“But you can afford this truck you hardly ever drive?”

“I’m driving it now,” Gavin countered, and he jammed a hard left, pressing Takeo firmly against his door.  “Besides, even if I got my license, I’ll never be able to afford anything that can fly.”

Takeo shrugged as soon as the turn was complete.  Up ahead, Supernova Express came into view.  “You could always pick up some extra work with my dad.  He pays well, once you’ve proven yourself.”

Gavin laughed.  “And spend my life getting shot at by psychotic xenos?  No thanks.”

“If you switch your major to biochem, it could be a lucrative move.”  He nodded toward Gavin.  “We could really use someone in forensics.”

Gavin slowed down and parked against the curb in the first open space he found, a few blocks away from the club.  Its thumping music was faintly audible as he let his truck idle.  “Takeo, let it go.  I’m probably not even going to graduate.  You and I both know that.”  He switched off his truck, and the doors slid open.  “Let’s go find Taryn.”

Fogg scampered along as Gavin and Takeo made their way closer.

Huddled near a payphone under a shadowy overhang, two hooded men took note of Gavin and Takeo.  They moved quickly away, deeper into the darkness of a shuttered restaurant.

“Such subtlety,” Takeo mocked, and he rested his hand near the small of his back.  He whispered to Gavin, “Whatever those guys have to say, don’t talk to them.”

Gavin glanced around.  “What guys?”

Rigidly, Takeo pointed toward the shadows.  “Those guys.”

One of the hooded men stepped back into view, his hands in his pockets.  “Got a smoke?” asked the stranger.  His companion moved close behind him.

Gavin answered, “Not on me,” and he felt a sharp jab to his arm as Takeo nudged him along.  “Sorry.  Good luck.”

“Slow down,” a deep voice rumbled, and a massive creature of stone skin stomped into view from further down the walk.  The others swept in behind Gavin and Takeo as they regarded the stone man.  “Really could’ve used that smoke.  What else you got?”

“One or two things,” Takeo growled.  In a flash, he produced a heavy revolver that had been tucked into the back of his pants.  He leveled it fearlessly at the stone man.  “You are all leaving,
now
!”

“I don’t think so,” snarled the stone man, and he charged.

Takeo squeezed the trigger.  Two shots struck their mark, near where the heart would be on a human, but only a shower of sparks rained down from the stone assailant’s chest.  Two more hooded figures bolted from the deeper shadows, as the first two lunged.  Takeo gripped and swung a hooded man around, sending him careening into the stone attacker.  A blur of kicks and punches followed, and two more opponents toppled with a crunch to the ground.

“Fogg, you could be more helpful!” urged Takeo, as the mechanical pup playfully dodged the swirling melee.

Gavin threw all his might into a punch aimed at a hooded man.  It failed to connect, and he found himself cast to the ground, his feet swept out from under him.  His head spun as his back struck the concrete, knocking the wind out of him.

Several loud pops filled the night air, flashes of light as bullets streaked through the darkness.  Gavin heard joints crack, saw guns and knives hit the ground as he tried to regain his senses.  He rolled away as the stone man’s fist crashed down on where his chest had been a moment earlier.  Another pop from Takeo’s gun resulted in a waterfall of embers.

Grimacing, his lungs on fire, Gavin forced himself to breathe in and struggled back to his feet.  He watched the stone man stomp toward his friend.  Takeo dove behind a steel trash bin, but the attacker smashed it flat with his massive fists, sending garbage in every direction.

Gavin opened his mouth to shout, but a raspy squeak came out.  Clearing his throat, he finally bellowed, “
Maugal
!”

The stone attacker paused, and it pivoted to regard him.

Glad for the reprieve, Takeo bolted to the space behind an unhitched semi-truck and set to reloading his pistol.

“You’re a maugal, right?”  Gavin took in the towering, pitted and cracked, blue stone skin of the thing that now lumbered inexorably toward him.  The other four attackers writhed slowly on the ground, moaning in pain.  To Gavin’s surprise, Takeo jumped protectively between him and the moving slab, with his gun leveled.  Fogg trotted to his feet and promptly sat.

“I’m impressed,” spat the maugal.  “You even got the pronunciation right.”

Gavin slipped past Takeo and pushed against the attacker’s chin with his loosely balled fist.  “Hey, beautiful,” he grinned, and he slowly shook his head as the monolithic thug focused on him.  His heart pounded in his ears.  “I’ve never actually seen a living maugal.  Word around the campfire is the Union’s done with you.”

“Choose your next words carefully, bludder,” seethed the glowering, blue cliff face.  “This doesn’t have to be painless.”  One of the human attackers hunched up to his knees, leaned over on his hands, and Takeo promptly kicked him out cold.  “Call off your guard dog.”

“He’s my friend, little crag.  Not my guard dog.  Look, you’re an ancient, noble thing, and the wonders you’ve seen would put any one of us humans to shame.  We’re beneath you.  Far beneath you, but here you are, relying on human trash just to get by.”  Gavin held the maugal’s baleful glare, though it demanded every scrap of courage he had to do so. His voice cracked slightly as he whispered, “How disgraceful.”

It snarled, “Disgraceful little crag?”  It drew back an earthen fist.  “Now it’s personal!” 

“And you’ve killed me,” announced Gavin.  “I’m dead on the ground.”

“
You’re about to be
!” it roared.

He shook his head.  “No, maugal, I’m dead!  We both are.  Takeo and I are two red stains on the drive.  Dead as dead.”

One of the hooded thugs weakly gripped his gun.   Trembling, he pointed it at Gavin, but the maugal backhanded the battered assailant into a nearby parcel truck hard enough to dent its side.  “I can handle these two pieces of worthless bludder drek without your help!”

“And you have,” said Gavin, his tone almost soothing.  “Now what happens?”

“I kill you!”

He shook his head.  “We’ve established that.  Now what?”

“I… kill.  I…”

“Right, we’re dead.  What a mess!”  Gavin held his opponent’s stone gaze.  He leaned in and asked, “Now what?”

“I… take your things?”

“Wrong.  Ever heard of Hohiro Sato?  Probably not, so I’ll tell you.  He works for the Yubitsume’s
oyabun
.  Pretty important guy.”  He glanced toward Takeo.  “That’s his dad.  There’s a gene key linked to his gun that sent out a distress signal the instant he squeezed off that first round.  A Yakuza fire team is already en route.”  He straightened.  “Sure, you might start sifting through whatever’s left of us, but it’s hard to find anything that’s even intact when one of us humans gets struck by a ton of stone.  Simple physics.  And then you’ll have his blood all over you, and trust me, they will not stop looking for you until you’ve been broken.  You’re an old stone, maugal.  Probably fresh off a prison rock, am I right?”

It regarded Gavin as if it had just suddenly become aware of his existence, and its shoulders avalanched down to slump.  “But…”

He rested his hand on the maugal’s neck.  “Go to ground.  Keep low and hop on a shuttle to someplace deep in the dark, maybe one of the new colonies.”  He regarded the remaining thugs as they stirred.  “Leave them.  You’re better than that, better than them.  Plus, I think you killed one.”  Gavin nodded toward the limp heap at the base of the dented parcel truck.

“Right,” rumbled the monolith.

“Go,” urged Gavin.  “I saved your life, and you spared me mine.  That’s square in my book.”