Convergence Read online

  It also meant that while he could join in the banter with Arthur, he needed to stay out of it, to allow his son and his wife to handle things. He’d engaged in slight banter as the situation demanded, but he primarily listened, waiting.

  And now it seemed he’d waited too long. From the sound of things in that room, Hope and Fil were in mortal danger.

  The army of Eden appeared before him, tugging his mind away from the fate of his family. For the moment.

  There were hundreds of men and women, armed with swords and knives, all with their Energy fully charged. Their faces were stern, grim, and made it clear they would not allow the Aliomenti to win the battle this day.

  Will watched as one of the men turned and looked around, surveying the suddenly large crowd standing on the Plaza. He spotted Will and jogged over. Will nodded at Ian as the man came to a stop. “Assignments handed out, sir. Permission to deploy?”

  They’d never really stripped Ian’s military formality from him, even though Will had mentioned on many occasions that he was no commanding officer, just a figurehead. This wasn’t the time to revisit that debate. “Granted.”

  Ian nodded and saluted. “Let’s move out!” he roared.

  They vanished, the teleportation Energy stirring up the wind outside the building, stirring the few pieces of debris and causing small bits of gravel to dance on the surface.

  Ian had worked with Hope to ensure that each floor of the Aliomenti Headquarters building had individuals assigned, with numbers of personnel on each floor based on the expected concentrations of Aliomenti operating on each. Their goal was immobilization: they’d work to render their opponents unconscious where possible, allowing for the administration of a new brain-level medicine—not nano-based—that would undo Arthur’s brain manipulations of enforced, blind loyalty. Once a floor-based team was certain their space had been secured, the team would move to designated follow-up floors to aid their colleagues, repeating the process until all eventually reached the subterranean levels where the Aliomenti spent most of their time and their numbers would be at their highest.

  Will pulled out his tablet to get one more status update from the other sites, fighting the urge to ignore that final required step before he’d teleport to aid his wife and son. His face clenched. The Cavern invaders had escaped the Energy-sealed prison they’d constructed, utilizing some technique to disable the nanos and render the prison walls useless. Will swallowed hard. The nanos were their trump card. If the Aliomenti had learned of the nanos and had figured out a means of disabling them…

  He flipped open the communicator to the private channel for his own invasion team. “Team, be aware: Nanos may not be effective in the battle. Opponent may have means to neutralize. Proceed with caution and adjust tactics as needed.”

  He glanced at the tablets and saw the good news. The medicine they’d developed, an injectable formula designed to undo Arthur’s programming, had been tested in the Cavern and had been shown to work well.

  Well, at least there was some good news.

  Two of the warriors remained behind, quietly and patiently waiting as he finished his administrative work. He looked at both of them now as he stowed the tablet away once more. “Ready?”

  There were two brief nods in response. It was a foolish question. They’d been ready for this day for years. He took a hand from each and teleported them to Arthur’s penthouse suite. As the sense of displacement settled, he took in the situation and tried to understand what had happened.

  Arthur leaned against a large, dark, wooden desk, arms folded, a look of triumph upon his face. The look faded as he noticed Will in the room. Porthos rested on his knees, his right hand tucked inside his left armpit, swaying, his face showing obvious pain. Will realized the nano-markers they’d gotten into the human residents of the Island hadn’t been wiped from Porthos after all, which meant that his hand…

  Will shivered, hoping the sight on Eden hadn’t traumatized anyone.

  As Will assessed Arthur and Porthos’ situations, the younger woman he’d brought with him moved, teleporting forward and swinging her sword with both hands. Will’s eyes caught the movement as she reappeared in time to knock Abaddon’s sword away from Fil as the weapon descended for a killing strike. Fil was lying on the ground next to Hope, apparently incapable of movement. He showed no sign that he’d tried to defend himself against the Assassin’s threat. Will wondered what could cause that, and his eyes fell upon the net.

  Could the Aliomenti possibly have a technology that could squash the Energy of even Fil?

  His traveling companion spent no time contemplating such mysteries. She followed up the deflecting blow with an elbow to the man’s face, shattering his nose and spraying his blood across the carpet. The Assassin’s eyes widened, first in excitement at the challenge and then in amusement as he realized his opponent was a woman. Those same eyes filled with fear as Fil’s defender brought strike after strike against him, smashing the sword against him with precision and speed and power.

  Abaddon had no chance against the dynamo systematically mauling him, pressing her advantage with a ferocity he’d never experienced in his long life. Within seconds his efforts at self-defense with the sword failed, as she swept the blade away from him. He tried to teleport away… and found he couldn’t move.

  He looked at her, pleading. “Please. Please, don’t kill me.”

  In answer, she lifted her boot and smashed it into his chest, sending the demon to the floor ten feet away. He slid, howling as the thick carpeting burned his skin, even as it slowed his motion. He looked up, watching as his attacker leaped through the air, landed with one boot on his chest, and plowed her sword through his forehead.

  The woman turned to look at Arthur, who’d watched the battle with a detached sense of admiration at the fighting skill. The Leader had never made a move to assist the Assassin, letting him fall under the relentless onslaught of the woman who glared at him, the warning in her gaze a deterrent against a possible attack as she turned and moved back toward the Alliance grouping across the room. She winced briefly at the sight of the decapitated Assassin but continued moving toward Will, Hope, and Fil.

  Arthur spoke up. “I’ve not seen a woman fight like that in five centuries, Stark. This is the human woman who protected you when you announced your decision to ignore the Oaths, isn’t it?”

  The young woman turned to glare at Arthur over her shoulder. “It wasn’t me. I deeply appreciate the compliment, however.”

  Will shook his head. “No, Arthur. But the woman you’re thinking of is here, though.” He nodded at Hope.

  Arthur stared at her. “You?”

  Buried beneath the heavy net, Hope tried to smile. “Me.”

  “But then… how… who is she, then?”

  Will sighed. “Arthur, you are such a fool. This is where your philosophy proves so impractical. We don’t hoard knowledge and skill, trying to keep it to ourselves to enhance our own stature and power. Hope spent centuries studying with the greatest warriors the world has ever produced, and practiced with them diligently. But she didn’t stop there. She recorded her knowledge and practice techniques so that others might learn from her and enhance that knowledge with their personal experiences.” His face tightened as he glared at Arthur. “Those trained in this fashion would include the army now battling your people throughout this facility.”

  Arthur’s face paled. “But… who… who is she?” He nodded at the second visitor as well, who’d remained behind Fil and Hope and Will, silent. “And who is she?”

  The warrior bent down, kneeling before Fil, and pulled out a knife. Fil blinked as the lights of the room glinted off the polished blade. “Let’s get you out of here,” she said. Her voice, so harsh in her words to the deceased Assassin and Arthur Lowell, carried a tenderness inside it.

  And the words triggered such a powerful memory that Fil’s body trembled. “What… what did you say?”

  The warrior’s hands jerked back as she touche
d the net.

  “Don’t touch it,” Fil whispered. “It uses your Energy to drain your Energy. Stay strong so you’re able to fight. Don’t worry about me.”

  The second woman walked around Hope and knelt before Fil, taking the knife. “In that case, let me handle this.” She lifted her head at Fil and smiled.

  Fil lifted his head and saw her face, bursting into tears as recognition hit.

  XXV

  SHE FELT CONSCIOUSNESS RETURN, WAKING slowly from a dreamless sleep as her body healed. The pain in her side, so sharp and intense as Scott’s blade sliced through skin and muscle, was no more than a dull ache now. The healing nanos and Adam’s powerful Energy had reduced a mortal wound to nothing more intense than a stitch in her side.

  Her mind recounted the events. She’d sensed Scott approaching, recognizing the familiar Energy song in her mind, and relaxed, prepared to fight with him to take down the invasion force. She’d heard him draw his sword and suspected nothing, thinking him preparing to join her as she parried sword thrusts and dodged Energy bolts. She’d never wondered why, after so much time and so many individual battles, he’d yet to draw his sword, why he’d seemed to dodge the fighting until he’d reached her.

  She also had little time to wonder why the Aliomenti fighting her at that instant had stepped back when Scott moved in. Perhaps she’d just assumed the man had recognized the odds were not in his favor now with two fighting against him.

  The searing pain struck seconds later, accompanied by a burst of emotion as Scott’s reprogramming unleashed in full fury.

  She didn’t know if the blade hit her spine, or what blood vessels or ligaments or organs were damaged by the piercing blade. She fell to the ground, the pain and damage taking control of her legs away. Scott’s thoughts whispered to her, gloating about the unique techniques he’d undergone to counteract the measures she and Adam had worked to ensure he’d give nothing away as he moved into contact and recruitment with the Aliomenti. She became aware that he’d seen the Aliomenti as the rightful rulers of the world even though the Alliance had first recruited him, and sought a subtle means to betray his earliest friends to their worst enemies. Adam’s plan worked to perfection, and he’d been able to follow it as described because he knew that bringing the Aliomenti into the Cavern with the new nano-erasing technology the Leader had provided the Hunter in secret would provide the greatest opportunity for Alliance carnage. The blocked memories surged forth as the Aliomenti neared the Cavern, and he’d been able to confide quietly in Athos. The Hunter played his role to perfection, getting the men inside and deploying the tonic to the nanos only after the Alliance had relaxed their defensive posture and assumed themselves safe.

  He’d wanted to take out Will, both as a symbolic execution of the Alliance and as a strategic benefit in eliminating the strongest Energy user. He’d identified her as the strongest remaining Energy user there and targeted her instead.

  In the end, all he’d done was awaken the one who was truly the most powerful Energy user in the Cavern.

  She felt the Energy around her, that safe cocoon she’d enjoyed as she’d battled through the most traumatic moments of her life. She’d not noticed the fighting as she’d lost consciousness, for the cocoon blocked out everything. No noise, no sight, no sound. No one would be able to get to her, lest they suffer the same vaporization fate Scott had suffered.

  Gena opened her eyes.

  She moved her hand to her side again, sliding her shirt up enough to test the wound. She found no scarring, and her skin felt whole. The sensation of pain had dropped ever since she’d regained consciousness.

  She found herself atop a temporary bed that gave the sensation she’d been floating inside a cloud. She had no idea where she was. Had she actually died? She looked around once more and saw nothing.

  “Adam?”

  The cloud around her evaporated.

  She found herself in the midst of the central hub of the Cavern, where the smaller rivers converged to flow toward the Beach and the exit. She wanted to cry as she took in the damage caused by the fighting. The devastation was heartbreaking. Buildings crumbled, nothing more than charred ruins. The overhead infrastructure was in shambles, and water poured forth in a dozen continuous waterfalls that drenched the ground below, generating small rivulets that flowed to the rivers. The lights used to control the appearance of day and night were shattered. The Cavern was shrouded in darkness for the first time since Will traveled here alone five centuries earlier.

  She saw the small bit of light just ahead of her, and felt her breath drain away at the sight.

  People sat huddled under blankets, drinking soothing beverages and sharing food, with Alliance and Aliomenti mingled together in purely random seating arrangements. They’d converged, not to fight, but to talk, to understand, to heal, to share the common experiences that bound them together more than tore them apart. Gena moved forward, hearing two men marred with scars, still bleeding slightly, sharing a laugh over the Alliance man’s first attempt at teleportation in which he’d ended with one arm reformed inside his living room wall.

  She could feel the Energy being shared as Alliance shared Energy with Aliomenti to heal a deep gash, and Aliomenti shared Energy with Alliance to set a broken bone. She noted with deep sadness just how few people were visible in the centralized light, reflecting the numbers who’d died before the fighting ceased. She realized that was one reason the scant remaining lighting focused on that spot. They’d left the dead in the dark of the Cavern as a means of avoidance, to try and forget temporarily the fighting that had them converging on a battlefield that so many now rested upon forever. The focus now was on the survivors, on healing wounds both physical and mental. The focus was on the Aliomenti, who needed time and space and support as they came to understand how they’d been mentally altered for a single purpose. It gave the Alliance the chance to know those Angel once called cousins, to feel the compassion for men who’d only an hour before sought the deaths of those living here. It gave each of them the opportunity to calm themselves and avoid hasty actions like trying to teleport eight thousand miles away in one hop to go after the man who’d stolen their lives.

  Gena nodded her approval. They’d hoped for just this outcome… but had expected the crowds to be larger, the combined volume of the voices to be louder. She craned her head around and looked for Adam, spotted him, and moved in his direction.

  She pulled up with a shock as she reached him, finding him in deep conversation with…

  “You must be Gena,” the Hunter said. “You probably know me as Athos, though I’m more properly known as Victor.” He stood slowly on a leg that showed a deep gash, wavered slightly, and held out his hand. She looked at him, perplexed. There was no hint of malice in his face. There was no weapon in his hand. But after two centuries…

  Athos sighed as she flinched. “It will take time for the deeper wounds to heal. I can respect that.” He let his hand drop.

  She studied his face. Something was different. “What happened to your scar?”

  Athos’s hand went to the skin below his right eye, touching it. The skin was smooth and whole, showing no sign of the scar he’d borne for over two centuries. He nodded at Adam. “He fixed it.”

  Adam shrugged. “The scar never healed because Will used nanos to keep the wound open, Gena. He programmed them so that they’d never leave that space on the upper layer of his skin. It meant the skin would never fuse back together. We used some of the”—he glanced at Athos—“nano reverser? Is that what you called it? Anyway, we rubbed that on his face and it killed the machines, and then it was a matter of using Energy to help the wound seal.”

  She looked at Adam. “You… trust him?”

  Adam sighed. “Five centuries ago, Victor here was an aspiring military leader, somewhere in southern Europe. He… wasn’t quite sure if that was his true calling.”

  Athos coughed, a wan smile forming on his unscarred face. “That’s a polite way of saying I was a lou
sy military leader.”

  Adam grinned. “The general in charge of the army was part of the Aliomenti. He recognized Victor’s innate and unusual talent in detecting the truth, and suggested he join them. Victor refused.”

  Gena blinked. “He did what?”

  “Turned the general down. Said he didn’t like the sound of how things worked in the organization.”

  “You’re kidding.”

  Adam shook his head. “Nope. I scanned him, Gena. It’s true. The Aliomenti general knocked him out cold and took him to the Leader, who programmed him for unwavering loyalty in all things. And thus was born the man we’ve always known as Athos.”

  Gena nodded slowly. “The deprogramming medicine worked then?”

  Athos nodded. Adam did as well. “The fighting gradually slowed as it took effect, and our people showed remarkable discipline in flipping from fighting to the death to helping the person who’d been trying to kill them. We didn’t stop quickly enough in all cases, though.” He grimaced, shooting an apologetic look at Athos.

  Athos nodded. “Let’s leave the past where it belongs, shall we?”

  Adam nodded. Gena had the sense they’d covered that topic in depth as she’d slept.

  Adam finished his drink and squeezed the cup, which dissolved. They’d enhanced the recycling efforts now; crumbling a cup or plate initiated the dissolution of the materials to the nanos and sent them flying invisibly back to the small “factory” where new material production occurred. Athos stood and gave the cup a tentative squeeze, jumping back as the container dissolved. He hadn’t quite finished, though, and the remaining water doused his hand.

  He grinned sheepishly. “Oops.”

  Adam moved to Gena and hugged her. “I see you’re all back in one piece.”