Chaos Cipher (95 page)

‘
Find it for
me,’ said Raven, ‘because Nitro is out of this mission.’

‘
If you
fail,’ said Claudia, ‘you should know, we will send the
Chronomancer into the Erebus. We’ll find him in the temporal
Doppler and kill him in the past.’

‘
It’s quite
likely that killing him there will have little effect on Serat
here,’ Raven said. ‘Since this moment is already being written. I
do not know the logics of time and matter, but like everything,
there is a pattern. And I feel the universe will not allow for
paradoxes.’

‘
Well,’
Claudia shrugged, ‘we’ll just have to see. We’re relying on you
Raven. The Chronomancer child believes you will bring us a
victory.’

‘
No,’ Raven
said justly. ‘She said I will complete my mission.’

The Nova
Storm’s engines blazed and the cadonavis fired out towards the
selected target in the crosshairs, a target over seven thousand
miles to the West-Coast and deeper into the Nevada
desert.

-77-

S
ince drifting off to sleep, Artex
had made very little motion. He simply lay in the captain’s chair,
torpidly cranking his eyes, whenever he heard a sound or sudden
movement. Kyo wondered if he was naturally on guard, always
subconsciously battle weary.

‘
You want one
of these?’ Gus asked the Olympian kid, breaking the seal of his
capsule holder and offering him a white pill.

‘
No,’ he
said, ‘last time somebody offered me something like this my, veins
were on fire.’

‘
It’s a
sedative,’ said Gus.

‘
I don’t need
it,’ said Kyo, turning again to a sleeping Artex. ‘I’m tired as it
is.’

Gus closed
the capsule and pocketed the tablets again. ‘Whatever.’ He
said.

The door to
the Perigrussia’s canopy once more opened and Pania walked inside
looking flustered.

‘
Just dragged
Mad Hat up to medical,’ she sighed, patting herself down in search
of something. ‘Awww, shit. Gus, you got any tobacco.’

‘
I got
sedatives,’ Gus offered.

‘
Not really,’
said Pania. ‘I’d prefer a smoke.’

‘
How did you
find us?’ Kyo asked Pania. ‘I thought we were seriously going to
end up dead.’

‘
You can
thank Artex when he wakes up,’ Pania nodded over to the sleeping
scout. ‘He’s the one who got you out of this mess.’

‘
I think I’ll
thank all of you,’ said Kyo, nodding to both Pania and Gus. ‘Thanks
for coming for me.’

‘
What the
hell did Laux give you, anyway?’ said Pania. ‘Last time we spoke,
you was…’

‘
My parents!’
Kyo suddenly realised. ‘Where’s my mama and papa?’

Pania looked
to Gus, expecting an answer for some reason and Gus momentarily
looked at Artex for his own and got nothing more than heavy
breathing.

‘
Look, kid,’
he started, ‘I don’t know about that shit. But what I heard, was
the Blue Lycans got them.’

Pania
suddenly kicked Gus in the shin and he cried out angrily and moved
away.

‘
What the
hell’s up?’ he yelled.

‘
Listen,’
Pania said, taking Kyo by the shoulders and ordering his attention.
‘We can’t be sure about that. Truth is we don’t know where Dak and
Sonja are.’

‘
Where did
they take them?’ Kyo asked, grabbing back desperately.

‘
Kyo we don’t
know,’ she responded assuredly. ‘Nobody knows. Artex wasn’t able to
track them. We came for you.’

‘
But, what
about their quantics? What about the signals?’

‘
We’ve got
some of our best in the syndicates trying to locate the chips in
their quantics, Kyo. I haven’t spoken to anyone back home yet. I
don’t know. All that mattered to me was you.’

And she held
Kyo and he embraced her for a moment, considering the worst before
knowing the facts, it was a curse, he thought at last. A curse the
mind bestowed upon itself.

‘
We’ll find
them,’ Pania reassured. ‘You bet your bones we’ll find them.’ Pania
told him to take some time out and explore. ‘I bet you’re hungry,’
she said.

Kyo knew damn
well he should be, he hadn’t eaten in a while, but the stress of
recent events had caused him to lose his appetite as of
late.

‘
Hey,’ she
said, ‘why don’t you take a look around and find some fresh
clothes. Take a wash, get yourself out of that
jumpsuit.’

‘
Yeah,’ Kyo
agreed. ‘Alright.’

He strolled
around the lower quarters where Raw-Dog’s cheer-leader group would
sleep and found only empty bunk-beds and various women’s clothes
piled around. There were empty flasks rolling across the floor as
the Perigrussia cruised through the sky and there were many
accessories lay about. But still, nothing he could wear. Kyo passed
a food storage area and refrigeration unit where selection of jars
filled with all kinds of unknown substances were stored. They
hadn’t been used in a long time from the looks of things and they
were overgrown with mould. He searched around with an indignant
grimace and paced back through the main body of the ship for
anything, even if it was chef overalls it would feel more
comfortable than what he wore now.

After
rummaging around Kyo ascended towards the bridge again when he
happened upon several medical facilities and thought about checking
them for medical overalls.

Two of the
three medical compartments were empty and opened, one was closed.
And he found Hattle reclined on a stretcher strapped to one corner
of the facility. Kyo approached carefully, listening to the wounded
boxer breathing steady through his nose.

‘
Hattle?’ he
said, stepping closer until he hung almost over him. ‘You sleep a
lot, don’t you?’

Hattle made
no moves, he didn’t budge an inch. But Kyo could see his eyes were
shifting behind his eyelids, like a rat beneath carpet the pupils
chased from corner to corner.

Kyo turned to
look at the medical compartments. He’d been here before with Hattle
and remembered suddenly. Remembered the one that was closed, he’d
seen it before when he first came aboard the ship.

‘
Holy shit!’
He cried as he realised at last that the medical capsule was still
occupied.

Approaching
the capsule activated the sensors and quickly a detailed diagnosis
was called up to display over the chrome rounded metal husk,
glowing symbols skittering over a warped and tall mirror. He
couldn’t read the Cyrillic, but he knew a progress bar when he saw
one. Lyov was still in there. He was alive and any second the door
was about to release him and bring him around.

‘
No fucking
way!’ He sibilated.

Kyo hurried
away and quickly bustled into the bridge pointing back.

‘
Artex!’ He
shouted, ‘Artex, wake up!’

Artex opened
his eyes and jolted his head, his impaired vision blurring to draw
focus on Kyo as the boy shook his shoulders.

‘
What’s up,
kid, what’s up?’ Gus reacted, pulling Kyo away from the sleeping
scout.

‘
Kyo, what
you doing?’ Pania also joined.

‘
There’s
someone on the ship.’

‘
What?’ Pania
asked.

‘
One of
Krupin’s people!’ Kyo claimed. ‘There’s someone in the medical bay,
they’re on the ship.’

Gus began
cracking his knuckles and with a devious smile and asked the
Olympian kid where the bastard was hiding.

*

Lyov had
opened his eyes to a mercurial light and the sound of dripping
water neighboured. A shifting, blurred figure shimmied past and the
heavy footsteps made it real. And he heard a whisper, something
said to another, before a small shape shifted by, and another not
too much bigger.

‘
Who’s
there?’ Lyov said. ‘Krupin. No games now. I can’t see well.
Krupin?’

‘
Krupin’s
dead, asshole,’ Pania announced.

‘
Who are
you?’ Lyov declared, attempting to sit up and Gus pushed him back
down.

‘
I would hold
out on trying to move, you fucking
pig
.’ Gus declared. Pania began
snorting into Lyov’s ear and the man twitched irritably, not
expecting the sudden nasal sound.

‘
Who are the
Blue Lycan’s?’ Kyo asked, and Lyov recognised the kid’s voice.
Hefting his head from the stretcher Lyov stared into the blurred
light and smiled all sinister.

‘
Well, if it
isn’t the gene-freak.’ He chortled. ‘You would know more than
anyone who the Blue Lycans are, boy.’

And Pania
drove her fist into Lyov’s ribs and he coughed in surprise and
began to laugh.

‘
That was a
woman’s punch,’ He said. ‘I can tell. Either the dainty wrist of a
woman or a fag.’

‘
Give her a
minute,’ said Gus, holding Lyov’s shoulders down to the stretcher’s
support. ‘She’s just getting started.’

‘
You should
answer, my friend,’ said Pania, stretching her arms and preparing
to break his ribs. ‘He’s the only one who can heal you. Apparently,
I don’t give two shits about you, whoever the fuck you are. So the
bargain is with your friend, the Gene-freak.’ And Pania drove
another fist hard into Lyov’s ribs, this time breaking something.
Nevertheless, Lyov burst out with laughter, a manic and horrific
laughter that demanded pain.

‘
Yes!’ He
cried. ‘Go again, bitch, pain is my relief. What do you think I’m
trained for, slap n’ tickle?’

‘
Who are the
Blue Lycans?’ Kyo asked again, himself this time grabbing the
confused security guard by the collar and pulling him nose to
nose.

‘
Fucking
gene-freaks!’ He respired with a hateful and pained wince, a breath
too foul for Kyo to inhale without turning away in disgust. ‘Like
you kid. Gene freak warriors. They do whatever they want. For now.
We’re working on getting control of them.’

‘
Who are
they?’ Kyo tried again, slamming Lyov’s head back against the head
rest and although padded, he did his best to make the impact
count.

‘
Warriors,’
Lyov replied, vaguely.

‘
I’m a
warrior,’ said Gus. ‘He means what is the origin of the Blue Lycan,
who do they work for?’

‘
Eat shit,’
Lyov chuckled. ‘I don’t have to tell you a damn thing and maybe I
don’t feel like talking.’

Gus suddenly
pulled his knife from a leg holster and descended tip first deep
into Lyov’s leg and further still into the bone. A great roaring
scream emanated from Lyov’s mouth, a scream so filled with awe, he
barely recognised it as his own. And Gus twisted the blade with
cruel intention, opening the wound further still.

Kyo paled and
backed away in shock, even Pania now moved away as Gus took full
merciless control of the interrogation.

‘
This could
go bad for you!’ Gus said, hanging over Lyov’s semi-blind face. ‘I
don’t mind killing your fat ass!’

‘
Fuck
off!’

‘
Tell him!’
Pania screamed, and Gus twisted the blade deeper, drawing out
Lyov’s vocalised pain.

‘
I don’t
know,’ Lyov tried with heaving respiration. ‘I don’t know. A lot of
people get kidnapped not only from Cerise Timbers, but from various
other hardland zones.’

‘
Do they work
alone?’

‘
Blue Lycans
are hired hands,’ he said. ‘They’re fucking Mercenaries! You know
that! Are you telling me you don’t know that? They work with
powerful groups to crush anarchist start-ups. They test new weapons
and work for whoever is willing to supply them. They take hostages
and feed them back to sensorium recording camps. They work for
whoever they feel like.’

‘
What are
these sensorium camps?’ Gus asked. ‘Be specific!’

‘
A place
called Encybleron,’ Lyov revealed. ‘It’s a goldmine for spare meat.
If the Blue Lycan’s ain’t already mashed them up for sport, then
they took your friends to Encybleron.’

*

Gus had just
finished with the last bit of polymer duct tape he’d found on the
ship. Lyov was strapped good and tight to a seat in the cockpit. He
patted the man’s stitched up knee and Lyov huffed
painfully.

‘
Stay right
there, sunshine,’ he told the body guard. ‘Or I’ll skewer your
other knee cap.’ Lyov scowled and followed Gus with his eyes until
he’d left the room.

‘
What are we
going to do with him?’ he asked the others in the main cabin of the
Perigrussia Skybus. Kyo was staring out of a window thoughtfully.
‘I mean, we’re going to be back in Cerise Timbers within the hour
and we don’t keep prisoners.’

‘
What do you
think, Kyo?’ Pania said.

‘
I don’t
care.’ He suddenly spoke, looking down at his grotty
overalls.