Resistance (24 page)

“Not at all,” says Jai. “You’re just making the world better.”

“It’s a burden we must bear. And the board decided that the only clean way to achieve our goals would be war. Everywhere in the world. A carefully controlled war, that ends in lasting peace. A war fought without nuclear or biological weapons. A clean war, fought by supers. The thing is, Jai, these deaths are going to happen anyway. The world simply cannot continue the way it is now. Our only chance to ensure that our kind survives is to take charge of it. And with you as leader, we can build the utopia we’ve always dreamed of. You’re the perfect man for the job. Will you take it?”

“Yes,” says Jai.

N picks up his drink, finishes it in one gulp, and holds out his hand.

“I’ve been authorised to offer you a temporary place on the Utopic board,” he says. “Seven Immortals. You cannot believe how happy you’ve made me, Jai. How happy I am to just be a part of this.”

Jai smiles. “I started today thinking I’d meet some old colleagues and straighten things out,” he says. “And now it looks like I have to kill exactly half the world as well. How things pile up.”

“Think of it this way,” says N. “Today morning you didn’t know if you belonged in the world. And now you know you’re going to rule it.”

“And when can I meet the rest of the board?”

“Not yet,” says N.

“I suppose not,” says Jai. “All right then. When do I start?”

“In three days, we’ll announce the formation of the new Unit,” says N. “This would seem like an ideal day for your first assault.”

“Where?”

“New York seems logical,” says N. “Traditional, even.”

“Perfect,” says Jai.

“As prisons go, I suppose things could be worse,” says Norio. “I guess you set standards really high with that nuclear submarine.”

“Would you like some wine?” asks Tia.

“Yes, please.”

Tia pours out a glass. “Well, you can’t have any,” she says, and takes a sip.

They’re in a penthouse in Atlantis Apartments, a sprawling luxury complex in central Gurgaon. Sher’s troops occupied it two years ago, and converted it into a fortress, but like all high-end Indian concrete jungles it had sealed itself off from the harsh world outside from its very beginning. It is self-sufficient in every way. Norio sits on a massive sofa in the living room, his arms tied behind his back. At the other end of the sofa, a curled-up Tia cradles a rifle. A giant floating screen plays reruns of a marital-discord Bengali soap opera. To Norio’s right, bright Gurgaon sunlight does its best to break through the screen that covers the sliding glass doors leading to the balcony. Norio has been outside once, and has no desire to return to the balcony with its depressing view of other residential towers, flyovers and yet more concrete. The room is full of fake Italian marble, fake flowers, ugly statues and large gilt-framed pictures of colourful Indian gods. The previous residents’ tastes hadn’t been very Japanese. The sound of splashing water and another Tia singing loudly in the jacuzzi float out from a nearby bathroom.

A holo-screen pops up in front of Tia; it’s another Tia.

“They’re here,” she says.

Tia nods, and shuts off the soap opera with a wave.

“A few hours ago, your friends at Utopic tried to kill Uzma,” she says. “Like you, they failed.”

“Good,” says Norio. “I didn’t really have any interest in Uzma. I wanted Jai.”

“Well, he was there too,” says Tia. “Now what I need from you is a way to find the Utopic board.”

Norio shrugs. “They don’t keep me up to date, you know,” he says. “I stopped attending meetings a long time ago. If they’re after the Unit openly now, it’s a big move. But I don’t know what their game is.”

“That’s good to know,” says Tia. “And since you never tell lies, I might as well stop asking.”

“You’re not going to torture me,” says Norio. “If you want me to tell you everything I know, you know my price. Take me to Kalki.”

Tia chuckles. “Whatever else you are, you’re no quitter,” she says. “No. You’re not getting anywhere near Kalki. You’re not getting anything you want.”

“I know your last stint as my jailer didn’t go too well,” says Norio. “But let’s move past that. This time it’s important, Tia. This isn’t about revenge. It’s about saving the world.”

“I’m sure your master plan is a good one,” says Tia. “But you have to understand, it’s over. We know what you’re like, and we’re not taking any more chances.”

“I need to see Kalki,” says Norio. “Please, Tia. When this is done, you’ll see I was right.”

“Yeah, well, no,” says Tia. “Trust me, I’m doing you a favour. He’s crazy. He wouldn’t understand what you asked for, he’d just do any random thing he felt like.”

The doorbell rings and they both jump: it’s a screechy Hindu invocation. Tia swears and covers her ears.

“Who do you think that might be?” she asks. “Your detective girlfriend? Why didn’t she come with you?”

Norio has nothing to say. A Tia blossoms out of the one on the couch and gets the door. It’s Jason and Anima.

Norio waves at them cheerily as they walk to the living room, looking around at the apartment. Tia speaks, but Norio cannot hear her above the sound of a large plane outside.

“This is pretty stylish,” says Jason. “Tia, I know we’re all about ethical treatment of prisoners, but this is a bit relaxed even for you.”

“I’d tied him up,” says Tia, glaring at Norio, whose wrists are noticeably rope-free. “What did you expect, a dungeon?”

“Hi Anima,” says Norio, yelling slightly. The plane outside is very large… “You know, a lot of Japanese girls grew anime powers in the Second Wave. They all hate you.”

Anima giggles. “Not to my face they don’t,” she says.

“You’re quite popular, strangely enough,” says Norio to Jason. “But I keep forgetting your name.”

“I’m shattered,” says Jason. He turns to Tia. “Want to come along?” he asks.

“There are about fifteen of me in New York,” says Tia. “Plus I’ve really had enough of dear Norio here. Enjoy him. You want to get some rest before you leave? How long is that bloody plane going to take to cross?”

Tia’s phone rings. Then above the sound of the jet outside, a shrill alarm rings out: a siren. Anima covers her eyes and sparks fly out of her fingers as she yells.

And then there’s a massive crash. The building shudders. Every glass surface in the room shatters. The walls crack. A dagger-sized piece of glass flies across the room from the balcony and Norio dives for the floor. It nicks him on the ear instead of slicing into his neck.

The electricity goes and, suddenly, the sunlight is cut off. The apartment falls into darkness. Anima flares up, green orbs appearing, sizzling on her hands, as Tia races through a cloud of dust to the balcony, and pulls the screen up.

Her eyes meet ARMOR’s. The giant mecha’s empty diamond gaze sweeps the apartment.

Behind Tia, Jason swings into action: small objects, glass and chunks of plaster gather in a swarm. ARMOR’s head snaps back, and the apartment is flooded with sunlight again.

They watch ARMOR’s right arm clench into a fist, and hurtle towards the balcony. Jason sends his glass-cloud smashing into the mecha’s face, but ARMOR shows no sign of noticing it. Anima’s light-spears spark and sizzle, leaving burnt streaks on ARMOR’s neck.

ARMOR’s fist smashes into the balcony. The walls crumple like paper as the metal battering-ram thunders into the room, and stops a few feet short of Norio. Tia falls in a haze of glass and concrete.

ARMOR withdraws its arm, and the floor caves.

Norio scrabbles desperately, but there’s nothing to hold on to, the world’s tilting and breaking around him. The sunlight blinds him as he falls, empty apartments flash by in a blur as he hurtles towards the ground far below. ARMOR’s roar has faded into the distance. The world is a solid wall of whistling wind.

Ignoring Anima, Jason, and three rifle-toting Tias, ignoring the slide of plaster and metal, ARMOR bends smoothly and catches Norio a few feet from the ground.

* * *

Anima leaps out of the gaping hole in the penthouse, a ball of green light exploding out of rubble.

ARMOR’s lower jaw slides down, it tosses Norio inside, and shuts its mouth. It squats. Plates on its back and legs slide lower, broadening and fanning out. The giant mecha shuffles, moving its legs further apart.

Anima lands on its shoulders. Green katanas grow out of her hands.

Jason leaps out of the building as well, on a metal skateboard torn from a pipe.

Holsters carrying rockets pop out of ARMOR’s calves. With a roll of thunder and a billowing cloud of orange smoke, the mecha jets off, straightening up and thrusting its right arm skywards as it streaks past Atlantis Apartments and into the sky.

Anima digs her katanas into ARMOR’s shoulders. There’s a sizzle and a shower of sparks, but the swords scrape and fizzle as Anima loses her balance, and falls.

Jason, all attention set on building a grappling hook out of concrete in mid-air, doesn’t even see the torrents of flame shooting at him. A second before he’s burnt to a crisp in ARMOR’s jet stream, a lasso of green light curls around his foot. Anima hangs on to ARMOR’s thigh with claws of power, and Jason roars in pain as she draws the noose tight, sending him flailing as he flies, higher and higher, columns of rocket-fire a few feet from his bobbing face.

* * *

Norio slides through the delivery tube down to ARMOR’s stomach. There are spare uniforms in the backup pod, but he doesn’t bother putting one on. Still unsteady on his feet, he clambers up to the central control chamber and gestures the passcode, wondering whom Azusa had brought along with her.

The door slides open, and Norio feels tears sting his eyes.

They’re all there. Standing on their control pods, display screens floating around them, combat-control holograms shadowing their every movement. Raiju, smiling grimly; Oni and Baku, shaking their heads and grinning. Norio looks at Azusa, but she’s too focused on the controls to meet his gaze. Her face is as serene and serious as it is in his guiltiest thoughts, and he can’t remember when he last felt this good. He steps up to his control pod, lets ARMOR’s scanners run over him, holds his arms out, watches the holograms cover his body, and breathes deeply. He’d thought he’d never get to do this again.

“Thank you,” says Norio.

“Save your thanks for Amabie,” says Baku. “She is our leader, just to be clear.”

“Of course,” says Norio. “What’s the mission?”

“We know what we’re here for, Norio,” says Raiju. “Amabie told us. And we’re only here because we think you’re doing the right thing.”

“And you should have just told us,” says Oni.

“Can he really make it happen?” asks Baku. “Can he make us all equal?”

“I believe he can,” says Norio.

“Then I’m glad I came,” says Raiju.

“How did you do that?”

“Flew.”

“And no one stopped you?”

“Phones were on silent.”

“Over China?”

“Told them we were going to make a lot of trouble in India.”

“And they just let you pass?”

“Yes. If I met a three-hundred-foot mecha and it wanted to go somewhere else, would I try and stop it?”

“Well,” says Norio, “thank you.”

“Look at us,” says Baku. “Team unity for humans and everything.”

“Should we do one of the group fist-pump things from the anime?” asks Oni. The others laugh.

“Do you know where Kalki is?” asks Azusa.

“No,” says Norio. “Do you have the coordinates of the mall where he was supposed to be?”

“Of course,” says Azusa. “So we go there and hunt him down?”

“One child. One three-hundred-foot mecha,” says Baku. “Shouldn’t be too difficult.”

“Unless he’s fighting against us,” says Norio. “He’s supposed to be a god. Amabie, is there any way of locating him as you did me?”

“No.”

“How many humans in the mall?”

“Unknown. The bulk of Sher’s army is there, but I don’t know if the surveillance footage I found is reliable. Aman might be tampering with it.”

“In that case, we need to smoke Kalki out,” says Norio. “How far away is this mall?”

“We’ll be there in ten minutes,” says Azusa.

“Let’s show them it would be a bad idea to stay indoors,” says Norio.

“Right,” says Azusa. “Time to turn around, then.”

* * *

ARMOR stands in the sky above the gaping ruin of Atlantis Apartments, shining in the sunlight, the vertical boosters on its lower back humming and pulsing blue as they keep the mecha-bot in mid-air. It raises its wrists and launch tunnels slide out of its arms. One by one, missiles slide into place.

Anima flies out from below ARMOR’s waist. A beam of light slices through the air, stopping a hundred feet in front of the giant mecha. Anima turns, crouched in warrior-stance on a disc of light. The anime princess and Tokyo’s defender face each other, Anima’s round cartoon eyes never leaving ARMOR’s blank, sparkling diamonds. If Anima feels any fear at the sight of the tower-sized death-engine floating in front of her, she does not show it.

Seven missiles fly towards Anima.

But another figure, rushing up from below ARMOR, flies faster. Jason sits astride a spinning board of metal he’s ripped off a rooftop water tank. He extends his arms and kneels on his board as he flies towards Anima. The missiles swerve and stand in mid-air, shaking and hissing. Jason crosses them and stands up, and the missiles turn again, their noses pointing straight back at the mecha-giant.

Anima hurls her spear. It streaks towards ARMOR’s head, and the missiles follow it, smoke streaming in their wake.

ARMOR crosses its arms across its chest. A panel opens on its forehead, and blue rings of light emerge, barely visible in the bright sunlight.

The missiles snap out of their trajectories and fall spinning to earth. Anima and Jason watch helplessly as they land on the buildings below them. Seven fireballs blossom across the complex.

ARMOR spins through a sequence of attack katas, and launches another barrage of missiles that scatter across the development. Jason diverts some of them, but at least twenty escape him, and Atlantis burns.