Broken Pixels (The Chronicles of Mara Lantern, Book 4) (16 page)

The head shivered in his hand. “Ouch! Sam, you’re killing me,” Cam cried out.

“Sorry, man. I needed to get them to look at me,” Sam said.

“I hope to return the favor one day,” Cam said, his face flushed as Sam again tucked him under his arm.

Back up on the vertical stones, Mara took advantage of her occasional flickering and pulled her arms
through
the hands of the big men holding her. As she turned to make a run for the ladder, the man on the left grabbed her shoulder and pulled her back. From the corner of her eye, she could see Ping’s dust cloud spinning tighter and taking on his familiar profile. He was reconstituting himself just behind the man on the right. At the back of the stone on which they stood, a leather-bound arm reached over the ledge and hoisted up a sizable bearded man off the ladder.
Must be one of the goons Sam sent
. Mara tried to wriggle away from the man with the vise-grip on her shoulder but couldn’t get loose.

“Excuse me, sir,” the newly assembled Ping said, tapping the back of the green-uniformed man now standing behind Mara as she jostled with his buddy. Surprised, the man spun around and, after recognizing Ping as the man who’d just disappeared into a cloud of dust, took a swing at his head. Ping ducked and dove into the man’s side as his arm flew overhead. The larger man staggered over the edge of the stone into the darkness, letting out a high-pitched squeal that was suddenly cut off after a second.

Behind them, the biker guy stalked toward Mara and the man still gripping her shoulder. Seeing two more leather-clad men make their way off the ladder, Mara’s captor released her and raised his hands into the air, surrendering her.

The first biker guy eyed Mara without any emotion and said, “Come with us.”

“Mara?” Ping called to her, concerned about a new threat.

Mara said, “Don’t worry about them. Sam sent them.”

“I thought I heard him call to me a few minutes ago. I think he was in the crowd.”

“Of course he’s in the crowd,” Mara said, walking toward the ladder. “Where else would he be?”

“Are you okay to descend the ladder without help?” Ping asked.

Mara nodded, and she stepped onto it. “A bit worn out but whatever caused the pain has stopped.”

Less than a minute later, Mara, Ping and their escorts rounded the base of the large vertical stone and walked up to Sam. He greeted them by pointing to the crowd and saying, “Look, sis. I can freeze people just like you.”

Mara pointed to an old lady with a cane navigating through the unmoving crowd toward them. “What about her?”

“She must have shown up after I prompted everyone. I doubt she’s much of a threat.”

The old lady scooted sideways between a couple at the front of the crowd and walked into the small clearing before the gathering. Exhaling loudly, she smiled at Sam and Mara, then turned to the others and raised her palm into the air. In it was a tiny purple crystal. She chanted loudly and clearly, “See the light. Shine the light.” A purple shimmer passed over the eyes of the people before her.

The angry mob snapped awake.

Sam did a double take and said, “Uh-oh. The tiny crystal unprompted them!”

The people yelled and surged forward. Sam, Mara and Ping backed up, but bumped into a wall of leather. The men from the motorcycle gang grabbed them as the rest of crowd closed in.

Mara reached out and touched Sam’s and Ping’s arms. Squinting her eyes closed, she gritted her teeth and groaned a quick prayer. “Please.”

They disappeared in a flash of light.

Following a burst of light, Mara, Ping and Sam, still carrying Cam’s head, reappeared at the corner across the street from the crowded park with the stone fountain. Mara took a deep breath and leaned against the wall of the parking garage. Swiping an errant wisp of hair from her face, she glared at her brother but said nothing.

Sam raised his hand defensively and said, “Hey, I didn’t cause the problem. I just ran over there to help out.” The book bag slipped off his shoulder and slid down his arm. He sat it on the ground and shifted Cam’s head into the crook of that arm so it faced outward. “Cam didn’t get zapped by the purple crystals, and I did keep you guys from getting mobbed. Temporarily at least.”

“Yes, but we probably would have figured something out if you hadn’t shown up,” she said.

“Don’t expect me to stand around and do nothing if I think you guys are in danger. You wouldn’t do it if you were in my place,” Sam said.

Tiredness swept the irritation from Mara’s face. “All right, I get it. Just don’t get yourself killed. I’m the one who would have to face Mom.”

“And, if something happened to you, I would have to face her,” he responded.

She shook her head. “Not true. If something happens to me, you’d have no way to get home. You’d be stuck here in this crazy robot realm for the rest of your life.”

“This
robot realm
, as you insist on calling it, wasn’t so crazy until your friend showed up and began experimenting on people,” Cam said.

Mara reached out and touched Cam’s cheek. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean that the way it came out. Let’s get you to the repository and see if we can do something about all this.” Turning to Ping, she said, “I’m a little discombobulated. How much farther before we reach the railcar stop?”

Ping pointed east and said, “Three blocks ahead and one to the left, I believe. Can you walk? Are you continuing to experience those pains?”

Mara pushed herself off the parking garage wall and leaned down to pick up the book bag next to Sam’s foot. She swung it over a shoulder. “No, no pain. It disappeared as quickly as it came.”

“So you’re okay to walk a few blocks then?” Ping asked.

Mara nodded and held out a hand for her brother to lead the way. As he stepped off the curb, he said, “If she had popped us to the repository instead of to this street corner, we wouldn’t have to walk at all.”

She rolled her eyes as Ping fell in step next to her. “I didn’t exactly have time to plan an itinerary.” She paused and said, “Maybe I should—”

Ping shook his head. “Unless you are under some kind of duress, it might be best if we just get there using conventional means. You’ve already tapped into your abilities enough to suffer the flickering aftereffects. Twice. There’s no point in pushing it.”

After walking less than half a block, a high-pitched wail sliced through the night and echoed off the surrounding buildings. A low chorus of reverent voices followed. “Be the light. Be the light.”

The three of them stopped walking and turned toward the park, now blocked from view by a tall office building. However, they could still see the face of the parking garage across the street, and, on it, waves of amber light danced through the shadows of the trees around the park. Something was burning.
No, someone was burning
. They could smell it.

Mara looked at Ping aghast and grabbed his arm. He shook his head and said in a low voice, “We can’t be sure they did it, and, even if they did, there’s nothing we can do about it right now. We need to return Cam’s head and see if we can ascertain what’s happening here before we act. Assuming anything can be done.”

After a moment of listening to the chanting behind them, Ping put an arm over Mara’s shoulder, and they turned away to continue walking. The sounds of their steps on the pavement was not enough to drown out the sounds from the park, and Mara needed to hear something else, so she asked Ping, “What is she trying to accomplish by messing with these people? What does the Aphotis want?”

“We know what she wants—to mold this reality to her whims, to meet her own twisted ideal of how things should be. That’s what the battle for existence is about—who gets to determine the nature of reality when it’s all said and done. Whose concept is the most viable? Which one will win out?” Ping said, sliding into lecture mode.

Mara stared ahead but looked through the cityscape ahead. “
Viable. One viable realm
. That’s what my counterpart called it.”

“Excuse me? Have you heard that phrase before?” Ping asked.

Mara nodded. “I ran into another Mara inside the Chronicle. She took over Sam’s body—rearranged his pixels—and said that the Aphotis wanted to destroy the one viable realm in favor of what she wanted creation to be.”

“That makes sense. But why haven’t I heard about this interaction with your counterpart before?” he asked, then added, “The concept of one viable realm is an extremely important one, metaphysically.”

“You and your dragon alter ego were busy flying around Portland, setting everything on fire,” Mara said. “It was sort of tough to bring you up to speed when you were blowing fire at me.”

“I see. Not to put too fine a point on it, but the dragon did turn out to be your niece, even though she occupied my body,” Ping said.

“I suppose that’s true. Weird but true. So, if this concept is so profound, why haven’t you mentioned it before? Why did I have to hear it from my counterpart inside the big blue bubble?”

“Metaphysics is a vast and complex field. We have not had the opportunity to discuss many concepts. I have an advanced degree in the subject, and you’ve had the benefit of a couple discussions in a warehouse. The reality of the situation is that we’ve barely scratched the surface of metaphysics, though I must admit your practical experience probably gives you more insight than most would ever hope to attain.”

“Great. So I don’t know squat, but what does this
one viable realm
have to do with anything? Is this realm it? The viable realm is one where people have synthetic bodies?” she asked.

From up ahead, Sam said, “I vote no on viability for the robot realm.” Looking down, he said to Cam, “Sorry, I’m just not a fan of your reality.”

“No problem. Your realm smells like body odor,” Cam said.

“Technically you haven’t been to my realm. But, to be honest, mine smelled worse.”

Ping shook his head at the banter ahead and turned to Mara. “The Aphotis can shape events, can even affect the nature of this or some other realm, but I don’t think she can know the one viable realm. It hasn’t been decided yet.”

“The cosmic beta test is still being conducted,” Mara said.

“Exactly.”

“So what’s she up to? What’s she hoping to find by dismembering these people? What’s going on with that little purple crystal, and why is it making these people so crazy? How can any of that help her?”

Ping tapped Sam on the shoulder and pointed to the left ahead. They turned a corner. To Mara, he said, “I could be wrong, but I get the impression that, whatever it is that she’s attempting, she hasn’t accomplished it yet. She’s made some progress, but she’s not quite got a handle on it.”

“What makes you think that?” Mara asked.

“Clearly the atrocity at the church did not have the hallmarks of a scientific endeavor. It looked more like the work of a madman than a researcher seeking to understand the intricacies of artificial life. Still, when she talked to you through the old woman, she mentioned having completed her explorations. The impression I got was she had simply completed her data collection and still had to develop some kind of solution based on the information she had gleaned from dismembering those people. Again it’s just my glimpse from the interaction with her.”

“It sounds logical. So the purple crystals?”

“We’re assuming that’s her handiwork, but, considering the old woman the Aphotis spoke through was carrying one of them, it’s a safe assumption.” Ping shrugged. “Perhaps her first stab at whatever she wishes to accomplish?”

“You mean getting people to go berserk and immolate themselves isn’t what she’s shooting for?”

“If it is, I don’t see how it helps her accomplish her goals,” Ping said. Again he tapped Sam on the shoulder and pointed to the right. “This is the alley that leads to the railcar stop.”

“I know,” Sam said. “Remember, I’m holding the head with GPS built in.”

“Ah. I suppose my navigation skills weren’t necessary after all,” Ping said.

They turned into the alley and approached the garbage Dumpsters that sat below the building’s lights that flanked the alley. Sam suddenly slowed his pace, causing Ping and Mara to bump into him. Then he stopped.

“Someone’s up there, sitting on the ground,” Sam said. He stepped aside and pointed to the figure—a girl with long hair, her head hanging down to her chest, her back against the rolling garage door that led to the railcar stop’s elevator. She sat just beyond the cone of light pouring over the Dumpsters.

Mara swung the book bag off her shoulder and fished out the flashlight. With a click, she aimed the beam at the girl’s torso. A large hole had been ripped out of her chest. Metal ribs and translucent fibers gleamed from the opening. When Mara took a step forward toward the girl, Ping put a hand on her shoulder.

“No, stay here and hold the light. Let me take a look,” he said. He didn’t wait for a response and walked ahead. He slowly approached the girl and crouched next to her, the circle of the flashlight illuminating the girl’s upper body and head. He reached down, lifted her chin and gasped.

The face that stared back into the light was Mara’s.

Looking at the remains of her counterpart, Mara couldn’t breathe for what seemed like several minutes. She stood unmoving, shining the light toward the tiny building that sheltered the elevator shaft that would take them to the underground railcar. Ping and Sam looked at her, not saying anything, waiting for her to react so they would know what to say.

Mara broke the silence in a flat monotone that sounded more ominous than somber. “She said that I needed more persuasion. The Aphotis did this to her just to send a message to me, that she knows where we are and what we are doing. She’s letting me know she could do the same to me—or one of you—if we stay.”

Ping looked above them and then down the alley from the direction they had entered. “Do you think she is still here? Perhaps this is some sort of trap, and she intends to attack while we are distracted. We are in a vulnerable position here—with only one way out, other than taking the elevator to the railcar stop.”