United as One (21 page)

THEY LEAVE JUST ENOUGH SLACK IN THE VORON
noose so that it doesn't immediately cut my head off. Instead of executing me, they make Mark hold the rope like a leash. As I crawl forward across the floorboards of Patience Creek, towards the hidden elevator that it took the Mogs all of two minutes to find, I can feel the razor-sharp collar scraping against my throat whenever I fall even a little bit behind.

Worse than those cuts is the pain from the three oily tentacles connecting me to Phiri Dun-Ra. My entire side sizzles like something boiling and caustic is leaking under my skin and spreading through my body. Phiri Dun-Ra walks alongside me as I'm dragged after Mark. She toys with a small ember of purplish fire that floats up from her palm. I can sense that she's draining me. It feels like stitches being ripped up and pulled loose from somewhere deep inside me. She's taking my Legacies.

The worst pain, though, is knowing what's coming.

Death. Destruction. Failure.

“Mark . . . ,” I manage to choke out with a pained breath. “Help me . . . stop them.”

He doesn't even turn his head. I can see veins of the black ooze pulsing in his neck, and I can sense the Thin Mog, the one who's got some kind of mind control working on Mark, standing nearby.

Phiri Dun-Ra laughs when she overhears my pleading.

“It is a great honor for Beloved Leader to visit one's dreams,” she says. She extinguishes the fire in her hand so that she can ruffle Mark's hair. “This little human, he proved to have a very open mind. He wanted something—something that you were unwilling to give him. He wanted Beloved Leader to restore his little friend. . . .”

Sarah.

Unwilling to give him. My God, I'd have brought Sarah back from the dead in a heartbeat if it was within my power. Did Mark think Setrákus Ra was capable of that? Did they convince him?

Did he bring them Sarah's body?

I manage to grasp the long part of the noose with one hand. I tug on it, trying to get Mark's attention.

“You didn't, Mark,” I growl. “Tell me . . . tell me you didn't.”

Phiri Dun-Ra titters again. “As if Beloved Leader would squander such a gift on a mere human. No, your friend had second thoughts. But by then, it was already too late. We knew where to find him. We were forced to interrupt his mourning.”

Paradise. They tracked Mark to Paradise. Setrákus Ra broke into his dreams and manipulated him, just like he tried to do to Marina and Five, then captured him when Mark came to his senses. I assumed that I had thought of everyone Setrákus Ra could've gotten to, but I'd completely forgotten about Mark. “It wasn't hard for us to get your location from him,” Phiri continues. “Our little human does whatever we ask.”

I watch Mark's hand shake on the noose. His knuckles are a vivid white. His muscles are rigid. He's struggling against their control, but to no avail.

“We'll make you like him soon,” Phiri tells me, and I notice the Thin Mog wet his lips in anticipation. “But first I want you all to myself.”

One of Phiri's tentacles twists inside me, pain shoots through my core and I collapse over onto my side. They let me lie there for a moment, gasping for breath.

With bleary eyes, I try to take in how many of them there are.

The front room of Patience Creek is packed with blaster-toting vatborn. In one corner, they've piled the bodies of the soldiers who were guarding the surface
level. From the looks of them, they died quickly and savagely.

Besides Phiri Dun-Ra, I make out three other augmented trueborn.

There's the Thin Mog. The one exerting control over Mark. He stands nearby, watching Mark closely, his spidery hands clasped behind his back. If I want to save Mark, I'm going to have to take him out.

Then there's the Shadow Mog. He's younger, maybe only a few years older than Adam. As I watch, he steps out of a shadow like it's a pool of water, rising straight up through the floor. He brings with him a couple more Mog warriors. He's how they teleported in without being seen.

“Join the team at their cave entrance. No one gets out alive,” Phiri orders, and the Shadow Mog disappears back into the floor. The fact that she's using English isn't lost on me. Phiri Dun-Ra wants me to know that there's another squadron positioned at Patience Creek's vehicle entrance. She wants me to know that everyone down below is trapped.

She wants me to know how hopeless this is.

Finally, standing right in front of the elevator is the Piken-Mog. The other three Augments I've noticed at least still mostly look like Mogadorians. This one is freakish, with a normal-sized lower body attached to a torso that is completely disproportioned. He stands
about eight feet tall despite a hunched back, his skin is the leathery gray of a piken and he's got the steroidal muscles to match. His fingers are long, thick and tipped with razor-sharp claws. His head, buried as it is in a throbbing mass of neck muscles, is regular-sized except for his jaw, which has grown out from his face, creating a fanged under bite. Most disgusting of all is that it's possible to see the seams where his pale Mog skin stretched and ripped across this new body.

He looks like he's in pain, and he looks like he's furious about it. He grunts and shifts from foot to foot, waiting for an order.

I watch as Phiri makes note of one of the security cameras. She doesn't seem concerned. “Surely they know we're here by now,” she says, then turns to the Piken-Mog. “Go down there and say hello.”

The Piken-Mog replies with a moan, then pries open the elevator door and hops down the shaft.

Soon, through the floor, I hear gunfire and screaming.

With a smile, Phiri Dun-Ra looks at me.

“How many Garde are here, hmm?” she asks me. “How many of your friends do I get to eradicate today?”

“I'm not . . . I'm not telling you shit.”

Phiri rolls her eyes and pulls a blaster off her hip. She points it at the back of Mark's head.

“Want to tell me now?” she asks me, jabbing the base
of Mark's skull with her gun.

When he feels the muzzle against his head, Mark manages to jerk away. Something inside him, a survival instinct, lets him fight the Thin Mog's control. He drops the noose, fingers flexing like he's finally got feeling back in his hands, and turns on Phiri Dun-Ra. He takes a halting step towards the woman. That's all he can manage. Saliva flecks from his lips as he growls, the strain of battling against the Mogadorian mind control evident. Phiri doesn't even flinch.

She glances at the Thin Mog. “He's fighting you.”

“He will give his fragile brain an aneurysm before he overcomes my will,” the Thin Mog replies simply.

The Thin Mog's eyes narrow, and Mark's every muscle goes rigid, like he's been electrocuted. He stands up on his tiptoes, unnaturally taut, joints popping and teeth clenched. He lets out a strangled cry.

“See?” the Thin Mog says.

Phiri Dun-Ra holsters her blaster and crouches over me. “Truth is, it doesn't matter how many of your friends are down there. We're going to kill them regardless. I just enjoy watching you squirm.”

Up close, the mass of ooze that's replaced Phiri's arm smells like rotten meat. If she'd only move a little closer, get a little more in my face . . .

“You know, John, our paths intersected once before,” she continues. “I was in charge of operations
in West Virginia when you helped Number Nine escape. Did you know that? That . . . unfortunate incident got me sent down to Mexico as punishment. Forced to work on the impossible problem of the Sanctuary. Turns out, all I had to do was wait for you idiot Loric to show up.”

She stands back up and holds out her arms, the tentacles burrowed into me twisting and pulling. I'm glad for the pain; it makes it easy to hide my disappointment. I almost had a shot at her.

I've got one desperate play. One trick literally hidden up my sleeve. The Mogs were too confident in their control to check me for weapons. I've still got Five's blade sheathed against my forearm.

I just need an opportune time to strike.

“What is it the humans love to say? Everything happens for a reason.” Phiri chuckles, going on. “Look at how far I've come, John. In a way, it's all thanks to you.”

I grit my teeth and meet her eyes. “You won't . . . you won't win.”

“Mm-hmm, Mr. Big Hero. You're going to find a way to save them all, right?” Phiri glances over at Mark, still frozen in that awkward position, still shaking lightly as he fights against the Thin Mog's control. “Let's see.”

The tentacle buried in my armpit yanks loose. It's a momentary relief from the pain. I watch as Phiri's
writhing limb snaps through the air, its end sharpened like a dagger.

There's nothing I can do. It happens too fast.

Phiri drives the tentacle into the underside of Mark's jaw and through the top of his head. He spasms once, his eyes wide but unseeing. She holds him up there for a moment, pierced by her tentacle, so that I can get a look at him. Then she pulls free and lets Mark's body drop to the floor next to me.

I scream. In rage, in pain, in terror.

“Oh-for-one,” Phiri says to me.

I clamp my mouth closed. I can't take my eyes off Mark's body, his dead eyes staring right at me. This is my fault.

Hell with this. If I'm going to die, it's going to be on my terms.

With a burst of motion, I pop Five's blade from its forearm sheath and slice it through the two tentacles still piercing me. She screams and recoils. The oozing appendages sizzle when they hit the floor. Already, barely seconds after I chop them off, the tentacles start to regenerate.

I had hoped that my Legacies would come flooding back to me. That's not the case. There's still remnants of Phiri Dun-Ra writhing inside me. I can feel my healing Legacy kick in, trying to fight them off. I scramble to my feet and attempt to generate a fireball or to turn on
my stone-vision. Those powers don't respond. They put too much physical strain on my body, which is still too drained from the attack.

A vatborn clocks me in the head with his blaster. I'm falling right back to the floor. Time seems to slow down.

My telepathy. I can at least use that. Even though my body is weakened, my mind is sound.

As soon as I open my mind, I shudder. There's so much fear and pain radiating from the sublevels of Patience Creek that seep in when I use my telepathy. I steel myself, focus and reach towards a mind that I'm relieved is still out there.

Sam!
I shout telepathically.

I can sense where he's at. Running down a hallway, Malcolm next to him, a handful of scientists and soldiers on either side. Sam's got a heavy weight on his back—a pack filled with random electronics, mostly cell phones.

His experiment with his tech Legacy. It must have worked. And now it could be doomed. . . .

John? Am I hallucinating this?
Sam thinks back.

No, I'm upstairs.

Oh, thank God—

They've got me
, I tell Sam.
Mark led them here. Not by choice. They've got Leg—augmentations.

Holy shit—Mark—they're trapping us down here.
Sam's thoughts come in a jumbled rush. I sense him
skid to a stop, Malcolm grabbing him by the arm.
I'm coming to help you, John. I'm coming!

No!
I think back, weighing Sam's chances against the Mogs versus the value of what he's carrying, the importance of preserving his Legacy. It could be humanity's best hope.
You have to escape! There's a mass of them at the underground exit, but I think most of the ones that have powers are with me. Find a way to get through and—

I don't get to finish that thought. A fresh jolt of pain stabs through me, Phiri's tentacles making three new holes in my back. Only seconds have passed. Once again, my Legacies feel out of reach. A group of vatborn pin me to the ground and rip away Five's blade.

“Nice try,” Phiri says with a gloating smile. She picks up the end of the noose dropped by Mark, and I brace myself for what comes next. Phiri seems to know exactly what I'm expecting because her smile only widens. “Oh no, John. You don't get to die yet.”

She drags me forward. I scramble along after her since the alternative is a slashed throat.

The elevator is waiting and open. There's a pool of fresh blood on the floor and dents in its walls. Whoever was defending the elevator downstairs must have fallen prey to the Piken-Mog.

“Come on; let's go say hello to your friends,” Phiri says.

Phiri, Thin Mog and a squadron of vatborn surround
me in the elevator. We descend a few floors. I try to get a look at where exactly we are but can't be sure. All the halls down here look alike. Where are Lawson and Walker? The human Garde? Sam and Malcolm?

I hope they're on a different floor. I hope they're finding a way out.

The vatborn take the lead, Phiri and the Thin Mog behind them, and me forced to crawl alongside Phiri. They don't meet any resistance outside the elevator. We pass by a few bodies—soldiers—that have been practically ripped limb from limb.

“I hope he left some for us,” the Thin Mog says dryly.

The first shots are fired as we round a corner. A handful of marines are hunkered down in a kitchenette and manage to gun down a few vatborn. The Mogs return fire, but the soldiers have dumped furniture across the hallway and take cover behind it.

“Get them,” Phiri Dun-Ra says.

The Thin Mog smiles. He cups his hands in front of his mouth and blows out. Tiny black spores rise up from his palms and float down the hallway. I try to yell out a warning, but Phiri twists her tentacles inside me. The soldiers are completely unprepared for this kind of fight. How could they be? I've never seen anything like it either. The spores head right for them, like they've got a mind of their own, slipping through gaps in the barricade. I can't see exactly what happens, but I can hear gagging noises. Then, silence.