Chaos Cipher (69 page)

‘
What the
hell…?’ Anton Regallio exclaimed when he saw the view of
The Griffin’s Claw
on
the forward screen of his operations room. His team stared as they
realised
The Griffin’s Claw
had suddenly grown a giant hoop section of polar
saltus-carousels. And all at once focus fusion drives magnetised
the toroid into a frenzied spin, folding space at the front of the
vessel and expanding the area behind. And the engines fired up to
full throttle. In a flash,
The Griffin’s
Claw
tapered into a vanishing point,
leaving a wake of Cherenkov blue, a fading chevron stream pointing
into the dark, shimmering gradually out of existence.

-51-

T
he Perigrussia Skybus came down not
over a city, but in a huge industrial camp. Its buildings were
constructed of stone and timber and the misfit addition of
high-technology; of surveillance drones that circled the area, of
magnetic fences establishing a field around the perimeter and a
large elevated landing zone for V-TOL craft and helicopters. A mass
of wires slewed for miles through the muddy grounds like snakes,
huge six inch power cables running out of power generator sheds
that seemed to glow and pulse with an ethereal fire within. The
Perigrussia Skybus approached as alarms sounded from the camp’s
watchtowers and the electro-magnetic defences
deactivated.

Vadim snapped
a thick silver bracelet onto each of Kyo’s wrists and stared down
his nose at him.

‘
Now,’ he
told Kyo, holding up a device that was shaped similar to a wand.
‘They are called ferromag-cuffs. This is called stasis diviner.’ He
said waving the wand. ‘Go walk over there.’

‘
Screw you!’
Kyo defied.

Vadim
activated the stasis diviner and Kyo suddenly found his bracelets
were drawn down to the floor. He huffed out a long breath as they
slammed against the ground heavily. Kyo pulled against them as hard
as he could, doing his very best to stand, but the bracelets were
unyieldingly positioned.

‘
Try harder,
move!’ Vadim teased with caustic laughter.

Kyo ground
his teeth and pulled away as best he could as the Russianomai boxer
broke into hysterics and Hattle came scurrying in just in time to
see the hilarity. Hattle moved behind the gene-freak, putting his
foot on his tail.

‘
That hurt?’
he asked.

Kyo didn’t
answer. He found a place on the floor to look at and wondered how
much pressure he could take without showing that it did. Hattle
pressed the tip of his foot down harder and he groaned through his
teeth, eyes watering from the pain.

‘
Just say
stop and I will.’ Hattle offered.

‘
Okay! Stop
stop!’ Kyo quickly shouted.

Hattle walked
away laughing and shaking his head, enjoying himself
immensely.

‘
So, he’s
your dog now.’ Hattle said to Vadim. ‘Do you have a collar for him?
Could work better.’

‘
Collar would
kill him,’ Vadim replied with a trenchant glare. ‘There is big
magneto-field around camp. Want to train him not break his
neck.’

Krupin
stepped into the cargo bay with Pierce and held out his
hand.

‘
Not a toy!’
He told his student. Vadim handed Krupin the stasis diviner and the
large man released Kyo, allowing him to stand.

‘
Come,’ he
told him. ‘This thing is precaution. I won’t use unless you make
me.’

Rubbing his
aching wrists Kyo climbed to his feet and marched angrily over to
Krupin and down the cargo ramp. Pierce sauntered into the cargo
bay, leering lustfully as the cheerleaders arrived. Krupin started
down the cargo bay ramp and the others fell in line behind him, his
cheerleaders the last out of the ship.

As they
crossed the mud Kyo had almost slipped twice on his feet and his
lower skinny legs were caked in the stuff from the knees down. He
steadied his balance as Krupin marched him past various log cabins
in the late evening sky. A cold wind was blowing over the howling
flat landscape and it gently rocked the spot-lights angled down
from watch-towers. Kyo saw in the cabins’ many heads of people
undergoing some kind of education. He saw martial artists training.
He saw body builders lifting parts of machines in mechanic
workshops where the rattling of power generators whirled louder
than the men’s heave-ho’s. They were all uniformed in a single
jumpsuit and they all wore ferromag-cuffs like his.

‘
This way,’
Krupin said, dragging Kyo’s top and leading him a different
direction.

*

‘
Here is our
set-up,’ said Krupin opening the doors to a large cabin room. It
was no bigger than thirty metres, all completely made of wood and
occupied with old plastic desks and cheap metal and plastic chairs
and there was the distinct smell of damp and rot that tainted the
air with a grotty aspect. Most of the Western wall was fitted with
opticidyne fixtures, smart screens and real time responsive
projection mapping technology that sometimes worked well and
sometimes didn’t.

Kyo stood
obediently at the door and Krupin bound the bangles together,
mitigating his attempts at a struggle. Krupin approached the boy
with a serious expression.

‘
Make one
sound, utter one word,’ he threatened, ‘I will have you fed to
dogs.’

‘
Yes sir,’
Kyo nodded fearfully.

‘
Good.’
Krupin said, petting his head. ‘Stay right here.’

And Krupin
closed the door locking Kyo into a dark corridor while they
conducted business. As the doors shut Kyo’s arms dropped earth
wise, pulled down by some magnetic force beneath the mud stained
and rotting plywood wood. He pulled against the magnetic shackles
and grunted but they were like anchors, his wrists firmly inside.
Defiantly and tenaciously, he struggled against them, hefting his
feet by his wrists and tightening his teeth, pulling back on the
magnetic forces and with all his strength and a reddening face
managing only to budge their position slightly.

Pierce Lewis
looked around and nodded in agreement.

‘
You can
stand here while we discuss what happens now,’ said Krupin,
pointing to a clearing in the centre of the room. Pierce stood
where instructed and Hattle joined him. By the door, Vadim turned
down the lights and Krupin folded his arms, popping a tooth pick
into his mouth.

The
opticidyne screen on the longest wall fluctuated with colours, a
screen saver dancing within the confines of the display.

‘
So, you want
to be a ruler of a city?’ Krupin said, walking around
Pierce.

‘
I want my
city back, yes,’ he said. ‘It’s my inheritance and it was stolen
from me by the anarchists.’

Krupin was
smiling vaguely.

‘
Those Blue
Lycans killed my men,’ said Krupin. ‘And one day I’ll get them back
for that. One day, I will avenge them. And that boy in the other
room is going to help me become a Blue Lycan slayer.’

Kyo could
hear them. He peered through the gap in the poorly aligned doors,
its old frame warped over the years. He caught his breath, still
attempting to muster up whatever vestiges of Laux’s serum were
still in his blood, but he doubted there was nothing his body
hadn’t burned off in those first minutes of swallowing that
thing.

‘
Sure,’
Pierce nodded.

‘
You should
kill him,’ Hattle stated.

‘
Shut up!’
Pierce said to his side.

‘
You should
hand him over to the Atominii and have him incinerated…’

‘
I SAID SHUT
IT!’ Pierce barked, grabbing Hattle’s shirt. And Hattle pulled
free, breathing sternly through his nostrils and staring at Pierce
with eyes filled with hate.

‘
I’m
negotiating,’ he told his son, lowering his voice now. ‘Don’t fuck
this up for me.’

Krupin began
to laugh now as Vadim crossed the room, also mordantly smiling as
he moved to stand by the far wall.

‘
Such
spiteful relationship you two have,’ Krupin noted, beginning a
train of thought as he stood before the large screen. ‘Now me…I
have no children. This place is where the unwanted come to be put
to use. I give them purpose. I teach them to fight. Those who most
respect me, I give the best treatment. Those who understand my
vision, I give the most compassion.’ Krupin smiled wide, his golden
teeth scintillating insipidly in the dim light. ‘Vadim is closest
thing I’ve had to a son. But I am sorry to tell you, I would never
talk to him with such disrespect.’

Pierce seemed
confused. Was he being lectured? Hattle was equally confused, it
was the first time he’d heard anybody speak up to his father
outside the squalls and name callings from the anarchists, but who
gave a shit about them? This guy was like his father in so many
ways, where’d this disagreement come from?

‘
Respect is
big word, Mr Lewis,’ said Krupin with his hands behind his back. ‘I
do not show respect unwittingly. It must be earned. We all seek
respect. Thus we all should work to make it. But I do not mind
telling you I have none for you.’

‘
What?’
Pierce gasped. ‘How dare you-’

‘
Oh, I dare!’
Krupin glared, and Hattle saw the psychopathy in his eyes, the
menace of a look that many had seen moment before their death. And
Hattle realised then the shit they were in. ‘You are no longer
home, Mr Lewis. You are no longer in the anarchist safety. You are
in my world now.’

‘
But – I
thought we were partners? I helped you damnit! I HELPED
YOU!’

‘
Please keep
down your voice,’ Krupin hissed on the brink of a headache,
‘electromagnetism in here is painful enough.’

‘
You are
going back on our deal?’ he asked. ‘Why? Just why?’

‘
Because you
are drunken sot!’ He smiled slightly. ‘You disrespect your son who
is a fine fighter with much potential. You abuse your role in life
and have no compassion. I hate anarchists as much as you. However,
I at least respect their idealistic cause in Cerise Timbers. It
won’t last, unfortunately for them. It can’t last. But it will not
be you to destroy it. No, you have not the vision. You have not the
know how to manipulate. You cannot understand how power is
acquired. You think running to Atominii for help will garner
respect? No! They will laugh at you…pathetic slime.’

‘
I have
insiders!’ Pierce shouted. ‘I’m working the angles. You’ll ruin
everything!’

‘
You have
already done it yourself.’

Vadim moved
into the centre of the room now and aimed his rifle on Hattle and
Pierce, pushing the nozzle right up to Pierce’s face.

‘
NO!’ Kyo
suddenly screamed.

Krupin turned
his head to the door and decided the gene-freak should see this. It
would be an expression of his vengeance. Krupin opened the door and
deactivating the ferromag-cuffs to drag the gene-freak to his feet.
He threw him down before them, anchoring the shackles back to the
floor.

‘
Don’t do
it!’ Kyo pleaded. ‘Don’t do it, don’t shoot them.’

Hattle froze
with a stupid look on his face. Pierce dropped quickly to his
knees.

‘
What’s
happening Krupin?’ he yelled, pulling Hattle down to his knees
beside him. ‘Vadim? This is not how our negotiations should take
place.’

‘
Oh, yes,’
Krupin smiled picking at his teeth as he looked over to Kyo.
‘Gene-freak is to see how I can extend mercy and how I apply
discipline.’

And Vadim
pressed the nozzle of his rifle into Pierce’s forehead harder as
Krupin continued to talk. ‘But I don’t have room for a sot, drunk
fuck like you!’

‘
NO, DON’T!’
Kyo screamed again. ‘Don’t do it! DON’T! He can work! HE CAN
WORK!’

‘
I can work,’
Pierce nodded miserably, blubbering suddenly as he faced his
terminal moment.

‘
I don’t need
workers,’ Krupin shouted back with a shake of his fist, ‘I need
fighters. You are as baby. You are mess. You cry like
bitch.’

‘
He can
fight!’ Kyo shouted. ‘HE CAN FIGHT! HE CAN!’

‘
He couldn’t
fight, he’s only shit,’ Krupin said slapping Pierce across the face
and causing him to jump and gasp for air as though he was drowning.
Pierce held up his quivering hands and dared to look down the
barrel of Vadim’s rifle.

‘
I’ll do what
you need me to do.’ Pierce stammered.

‘
What I need
you to do?’ Krupin asked, bending over to breathe his terrible
breath down Pierce’s ear. ‘I need you to motivate your
son.’

‘
I
will.’

‘
Say it
now.’

‘
Alright...’

‘
Tell him to
be strong,’ he said.