The Cyber Chronicles Book III - The Core (9 page)

"Get down,
Tassin!"

More and more
men emerged, forming a ring. Tassin crawled into the back of the
cart, pulling Dena, who was trying to aim one of the big lasers,
with her. Sabre pointed the sonlar at Jassine.

"Call them
off, or you'll be the first to die!"

The priestess
laughed and stepped behind a wall, beyond the sonlar's affective
range. Sabre cursed. There was nothing else for it. The men walked
closer, the black glass held before them. Jassine must be counting
on the fact that he would not be able to kill all the men before
some reached Tassin, but he had other ideas. There was more than
one way to use a sonlar, and he knew all of them.

Sabre aimed
the sonlar at the closing ring of men and activated it, then spun.
The weapon's blinding beam swept around him, obliterating the
mutants in a roar of blasted concrete. The swathe of destruction
hurled debris and dust into the air, and some of the shacks beyond
disintegrated in clouds of dust. As the last man was vaporised,
Sabre deactivated the sonlar and lowered it, gazing at the havoc he
had wrought and the circular crater in the road. All that remained
of the men was an odd red streak on the concrete. Revolted, he
jumped down and hauled on the donkeys' halters, starting the
terrified animals forward. They bumped through the crater, and
Sabre broke into a trot, the cart rattling. As they turned the
corner, he glimpsed the priestess standing in the street, watching
them go.

Sabre did not
slow down until they were back in the scrubland, where he let the
donkeys walk. Tassin emerged, pale and tight-lipped, and Dena
stared back at the receding city, her expression unreadable. Sabre
set a brisk pace, wanting to put as much distance between them and
the city as possible. By the afternoon, he relaxed a little, for
there seemed to be no pursuit. No one spoke, and he assumed the
girls were sunk deep in sombre reflection or retrospection.

Towards the
end of the day, Sabre located a rivulet that was free from
radiation. They stopped for the night, and after a frugal supper
Tassin offered to share her tent with Dena, but the child opted to
sleep under the cart. As Tassin headed for her tent, Sabre rose
from his seat beside the fire and stepped into her path. She
stopped and looked up at him, clearly startled.

"I just wanted
to say thank you," he said.

She lowered
her eyes, becoming interested in her hands. "How could I not try to
save you, after all that you've done for me?"

Sabre wondered
why she appeared to be holding her breath, and tension had sprung
up between them. That she had risked her life to save him caused
the strange warmth to invade his chest again, and his throat was
tight. People did not rescue cybers; it only worked the other way
around. Of course, she needed his help to return to Arlin, but
somehow that did not matter. Even if she had only saved him because
of his usefulness, it meant a lot to him.

“
It was clever of you to know that you needed a sonlar, and to
find one."

"Dena found
it, and I learn from my mistakes."

He inclined
his head. “Good.”

Tassin studied
him, her eyes lingering on the lacerations around his arm, where
blood was crusted to his elbow. "I'll clean that wound for
you."

He glanced at
it. "I can do it."

"It will be
easier for me."

Sabre shook
his head, turning away to contemplate the scrubland. "Everything
bad in this world comes from the Death Zone."

She blinked,
surprised by the change of subject. "I know."

"Your father
wanted me to destroy the Death Zone, and the more I see the damage
it's doing, the more I see that it must be destroyed."

"But how?" she
asked.

"I'm not sure
yet, but the man who brought me here must have thought a cyber
could do it. Something is creating it, and whatever it is, it's
growing stronger. More monsters are coming out of it, and
eventually they'll destroy this world. I don't know how it creates
those creatures, but there's no food for them in there, so they're
forced to cross the desert and attack the people and animals
outside." He looked down at her. "I can't leave something like that
on your doorstep." Raising a hand, he brushed a lock of hair from
her cheek. "I'll try to destroy it; fulfil my mission."

"But that will
be very dangerous. You could be killed."

He smiled, his
eyes sad. "Does it matter?"

"Yes! It does!
I..." She hesitated, adrift in a quagmire of conflicting emotions.
The only thing she wanted more than an end to the monsters that
ravaged Arlin was for him to stay with her, and she could not bear
the thought of him dying. "You mustn't throw your life away."

"My life is
worth nothing. It doesn’t belong to me. I'll be turned back into a
zombie when that man comes back for me. I'm not looking forward to
it. Freedom is sweet, and, having tasted it, I have no wish to
return to a half-life."

She made a
helpless gesture. "But surely there must be a way out of that? We
could hide you; tell him you're dead."

Sabre shook
his head even as she spoke. "It won't work. He'll find me no matter
where I hide. Even if I was somehow able to leave this planet, I
wouldn't last long."

"Perhaps he'll
let you stay?"

"He'll never
do that."

"Why not?"

He sighed.
"We've been through this. For one thing, I'm too valuable, and for
another, a damaged cyber would be considered dangerous. If there
was the slightest hope of remaining free, believe me, I'd grab it.
As it is, there's little difference between the half-life I'll have
as a cyber and death; except perhaps death will be less
painful."

Tears stung
her eyes. "I don't want you to die!"

"Nor do I, but
it's inevitable, one way or the other."

"We'll find a
way. I won’t let him take you away."

"You can't
stop him," he said.

"There must be
a way! You can fight, kill him!"

"No, I can't.
You don't understand the power he has. There's nothing either of us
can do."

She hesitated,
refusing to abandon her stubborn hope. "We will find a way."

"There's no
way; forget it."

Tassin glared
at him, angry that he had already given up on any possibility of
avoiding the horrible fate he seemed to think was so inevitable.
There was always something that could be done, even if it was only
to try. She would never give up so easily; it was not in her
nature, and she could not bear the thought of losing him; it filled
her with intense desolation. She swung away and marched to her
tent, flung back the flap and jerked it into place behind her.

Sabre sat down
and stared across the scrubby vista. She had no idea how much he
wished he was not a cyber, and could change the course of his life.
His fate had been mapped out the day he had been conceived in the
cold, artificial world of technology.

Tassin would
never understand his world, or why he would be forced to return to
it. He threw a stone into the gathering darkness. He was not even a
real man, just a clone created from someone else's DNA, grown in a
machine and modified for use as a weapon. He ran his fingers along
the control unit, hating it. The crystals' red glow lighted his
hand, indicating its malfunction. It was part of him. He was a
malfunctioning cyborg, and there was not a damn thing he could do
about it.

Chapter Six

A week later,
the trio reached the scrubland bordering the desert, where the heat
became almost unbearable. The donkeys were turned out to graze
while Tassin sewed more water bags from the skins of the animals
Sabre killed for food. He hunted more often, and, using a laser,
brought back far more than they could eat. He cut excess into
strips and dried it, using salt Dena had brought in her bundle of
belongings. The mutant child proved to be an eager and able helper,
collected fodder and even cleaned the animal carcasses, something
Tassin still could not bring herself to do.

Dena
constantly reminded Sabre of Tassin's queenly status, much to
Tassin's amusement and his chagrin. Whenever he asked Tassin to do
something, Dena would leap to her defence. The girl also developed
a huge crush on him, which he seemed to find amusing, and
embarrassing at times. He removed Tassin's stitches with brisk
efficiency, avoiding her eyes. The fate that awaited him at the end
of the journey did not affect his good nature, yet his calm
acceptance of it irritated her. When she suggested ways in which it
could be avoided, he merely gazed at her with sad eyes until she
looked away.

Anticipation
mounted as supplies filled the cart. Tassin wished they could dump
the weapons, but without them there was no point in returning to
Arlin. Then the day arrived when Sabre decided the cart could carry
no more. Dena danced with glee when he announced that they would
start the journey that evening. Tassin remembered the last, almost
disastrous trip across the burning sands and through the Death Zone
with a shiver. Sabre smiled at her, and she returned it weakly,
then laughed when Dena grabbed him and forced him to join her wild
dance. Tassin marvelled at how strange it was for a warrior like
him to allow a crippled girl to bully him. Yet it only served to
remind her of his gentle nature, so at odds with his lethal
skills.

Tassin giggled
when he pretended to trip and rolled in the sand. Dena pounced on
him, laughing, and he joined in her game with wholehearted
enjoyment. Leaping to his feet, he swept up the girl and hurled her
high with consummate ease. Tassin gasped and Dena yelped, but he
caught her easily, cushioned her fall and hurled her high again.
Dena shrieked with delight and yelled for more when he stopped,
tugging at his arm.

When Sabre got
Dena to calm down, they tried to sleep, but he only succeeding in
dozing for the rest of the day. Late in the afternoon, he went in
search of the donkeys while Tassin and Dena struck camp. As the sun
sank in a welter of crimson and gold clouds, they headed into the
desert on foot, since Sabre was sure the cart would collapse if any
more weight was put on it. When Dena grew tired, her lame leg
troubling her, he put her on a donkey. This delighted her, keeping
her awake and happy for the rest of the night.

During the
day, the donkeys ate fodder while the trio took refuge in the
cart's shade, or the tents. There was no room in the cart for
firewood, so they ate the dried meat raw.

At night,
Tassin walked beside Sabre, able to keep up with him now. Her hair
hung down her back in a long plait and her skin had acquired a
healthy glow. She had changed a lot in the time he had known her,
he reflected. She pulled her weight now when there was work to do,
and she no longer tried to boss anyone around. His heart grew
heavier as the journey's end drew nearer. She would return to her
noble society, where her ego would, in all likelihood, bloat to
unbearable proportions again. It was better that he slipped quietly
from her life when the time came. Being near her only caused him
pain, yet he longed for her company.

On the tenth
night, they came to the Death Zone barrier. The eerie white wall
stretched away over the horizon, rising into the moonlit sky. Dena
bombarded them with questions, and, when she ran to poke at the
edge of the mist, Tassin turned to Sabre.

"Are you going
to destroy it?"

"Not with you
and Dena in tow."

"Then what
will you do? Are you going to leave it?"

The barrier's
eerie glow made his eyes gleam like quicksilver. "No. When you're
safely in your castle, I'll return and complete my mission.

"No! If you're
going in there to destroy that thing, I'm coming with you."

"No, you're
not." He shook his head. "It will be dangerous, and you'll only
hinder me."

"No I won’t.
This time I’ll be able to help you."

"How? All you
succeeded in doing last time was to almost get yourself killed. You
got stuck in a Flux-reality tree and bitten by something poisonous,
remember?"

She glared at
him. "You got stuck in a tree too. You were just lucky it was not
as solid as mine. I'm coming with you. This is my land, and I saved
your life back there. I'm not stupid and helpless like I was when
we set out."

His voice
softened. "Tassin, I have to do this alone. No ordinary person can
do it. Maybe even I can't, but I have a far better chance of
surviving, alone. If you come with me, you'll only endanger
us."

She folded her
arms. "I'm coming with you, whether you like it or not."

"Not if I
don't let you. I'm taking you back to Arlin, and that's that."

"No it's not.
If you take me back to Arlin, I'll follow you into the Zone."

"Why?" he
asked, incredulous. "Do you want to be killed?"

"I want to
come with you."

"You're being
a silly, childish, mule-headed, pea-brained idiot."

She shrugged.
"Maybe so, but you can't stop me."

"Then maybe
I'll leave it here to swallow your land."

"Fine. We can
fight the monsters. We're not savages like the Oroka, or fanatics
like that last bunch. We can deal with it."

"You'd really
do that? You'd condemn your people to a hopeless war with savage
unnatural beasts, in which ultimately they’ll all die, just to
satisfy a silly selfish whim?"

"It's you who
would condemn us to that if you don't destroy it. All I want is to
share the adventure."

"Adventure?”
He snorted. “It will be horrific. You had a taste of it already.
Did you enjoy it?"

"In a way. It
was certainly different.”