Judgment (41 page)

Meyer hadn’t heard this particular bit of propaganda. He looked at Kindred but didn’t need to speak his question.

Do they really believe this? Even after all the destruction and fighting and wars?

They believe it because they need to.

“Ember Flats is the world’s shining example of what’s possible,” Jabari went on, solid enough, though even across the distance Meyer could feel nerves coming off her like heat. “We’ve shown the world how we can all move on together once we get past the walls of prejudice we’ve built in our arrogance. But demolishing those walls is not always easy. We’re stubborn and feel we know best. And that — as you all know, as you’ve duly been told — is why we’ve needed negative examples as well.”
 

The crowd murmured. Inside his mind, a smooth continuity began to fragment. It felt like a domed ceiling flaking, threatening to crack, surrendering to pressure from above.

“When Heaven’s Veil fell, I took to this stage and told you why. You all
know
why.”
 

No one spoke, but Meyer half expected shouted responses like the riling of a medieval mob. Inside, he felt the sense of continuity fragment further. He hadn’t heard any of this, either. He had no idea what Ember Flats or the rest of the world believed about Heaven’s Veil. He’d been too busy running for his life to know.

“Heaven’s Veil crumbled from the inside. It was rotten at its core. There was poisonous dissent. There was corruption. There was murder. The viceroy was crooked. Dempsey was
only human
, but in the worst possible way. Most of us, even if you’re originally from Giza, knew Meyer Dempsey. We knew how he was, how he did things his own way and damn what anyone else wanted. He was ruthless and ruled Heaven’s Veil the same way he ruled his businesses. He ignored and defied Astral leadership. He turned his nose at Astral help when things began falling apart. There was an insurrection. Rebels detonated a bomb, destroying their Apex.” She gestured to the left, toward Ember Flats’s own blue pyramid. “And that’s when Dempsey turned on the city. He commanded his people in, and they met with the peacemakers. You all know what happened next.”
 

Meyer felt Kindred flinch inside his mind before he moved in the flesh. Meyer shot his hand out and grabbed Kindred’s arm. Still he tensed; still he tried Meyer’s grip: to break free, to take the stage, and do to Jabari what Peers had always wanted to do.
 

It’s a double-cross!
Kindred’s thought-shout screamed into Meyer’s consciousness.
She brought us here as sacrifices!

And Meyer thought back:
Wait
.
 

Jabari’s eyes found Meyer’s and Kindred’s, then she resumed speaking to the crowd.
 

“For five years, we’ve lived in peace under the spotlight of those twin influences. On one side, we have the Ark: symbol of harmony, reassurance that the Astrals were here for us before and have now returned. And on the other, we have our memory of the failed experiment that was Heaven’s Veil: a reminder of the importance of trust and order. A reminder of humanity’s most base nature, and what happens when humans are given too much power — and hence why any arrangement like ours in Ember Flats, ruled in cooperation between my human government and Divinity in the mothership — deserves your absolute faith and obedience.”

Kindred had stopped struggling. Meyer met his eyes and slowly nodded, their shared mind collecting the undertones.

“For five years, we’ve lived in peace. And for five years, we’ve believed a lie.”
 

Jabari raised her hand, beckoning at Meyer. Feeling the uncertainty and latent, assumed hostility in the crowd, he came. The crowd must have recognized him before he spoke because murmurs multiplied, a slow gasp permeating the group.
 

“I’d like to introduce you all to Meyer Dempsey,” she said.

Noise increased. Heads turned, fear percolating to join the uncertainty, freshly stirred hatred for the past.
 

Jabari raised her hand, now summoning Kindred.
 

“And to the viceroy of Heaven’s Veil,” she said.
 

The people looked from one man to the other as they approached the stage’s front edge. Images from close up were rebroadcast on screens around the square, same as to the other capitals — still with communications curiously uncut.
 

One supposedly dead and deposed Meyer Dempsey.

And
another
supposedly dead and deposed Meyer Dempsey, standing right beside him.

Composure broke. The babble of a thousand simultaneous conversations was almost deafening, but it quieted in seconds as Meyer raised a hand and delivered the two sentences they’d rehearsed, exactly as written.
 

“All you’ve been told about the capital governments and your Ark is a lie. The truth is much simpler.” Meyer held his eyes to the crowd, waiting for curiosity to force their quiet. Then he said, “The Astrals destroyed Heaven’s Veil just to hear you scream.”

The screen mounted to Kamal’s office wall came on, showing a blue background and a seal that Peers hadn’t seen around but that obviously represented Ember Flats. One eye ticked to the kid, Ravi, but he hadn’t flinched. If there was hesitation, Peers had already decided he’d try for the gun.
 

“Sit,” Ravi said. “In those chairs there.”
 

Peers looked down, decided that righting the spilled chairs before attempting to sit would be allowed, and did so. Jeanine sat first, but she was watching Ravi same as Peers, waiting for her moment. But Ravi would offer none.
 

The kid came the rest of the way into the office, peeked out into the hallway, then closed the door. He watched the screen, gun still rock-steady leveled at his two prisoners. The room was plenty large enough for him to control them without restraints; if either came at him or threw something, he’d have more than enough time, from where he was standing, to pull the trigger. And if the boy was who he said, there would be no hesitation. The Mullah were usually peaceful, but when important matters were at stake, there was no latitude. And this little incident concerned the most important matter of all.
 

Ravi watched the screen. Jabari approached a lectern and spoke. The volume was low, barely high enough to hear. Ravi didn’t turn it up. Instead, he looked past Jeanine to the window. But Kamal’s office faced the wrong way; he’d need to be in another room to see the Ark, and what Cameron would do when Meyer’s and Kindred’s faces took Jabari’s place.
 

“Is she alive?”

Peers turned his head and saw a challenging stare on Jeanine Coffey’s smooth features.
 

“The Lightborn?” Ravi asked, barely taking his eyes from the screen.
 

“Her name is Clara.”

Now Ravi turned. He couldn’t be much older than Peers just after his exile, and possibly younger.
 

“I imagine she’s fine.”
 

“Just tell us,” Peers said.
 

Ravi fixed his gaze on Peers, more curious than acrimonious. Perhaps he’d taken Peers for a potted plant, and was shocked he’d spoken.
 

“Why would they hurt her? Like I said, I’m sure she’s fine.”

“Why?”
Jeanine said. “You took her as ransom!”
 

“I
didn’t take her at all,” Ravi replied, speaking as precisely as an Oxford grad; the Mullah prided themselves on infiltration, and infiltration required education. “Maybe you should check your assumptions before casting accusations like dice.”
 

“You — !” Jeanine began, but Ravi cut her off.
 

“I,”
he said, emphasizing the word by putting his free hand on his chest, “am merely keeping you here until this is over.”
 

Peers looked at the screen then back at Ravi.
 

“Then what?”
 

“Then it will no longer matter
what
I do with you.”

“But Clara … ”
 

Ravi shifted, turning his affable (if gun-toting) manner on Jeanine. “The Mullah are very interested in the Lightborn. But there are none among us. All came from the sites of first encounters, though they’ve wandered since. Some among us say they are a kind of X factor: those who were affected from youth, with a new kind of mind. Past epochs created messiahs and seers, but this is different. With your girl in the house, wandering right into their midst, practically offering herself to the group without the need to so much as show our hand, it was too great an opportunity to deny. Believe me,
harming
her is the last thing they’d do.”

“But the note … ”
 

“I left the note.”

“Why?”

“As I said, it’s too great an opportunity to pass up.”

“You … you defied the others,” Peers said.

“‘Defied’ is so uncouth a word. I was
decisive.”
His big eyebrows rose then fell. He smiled like someone with a secret. “Come now, Peers. You of all people understand the impetuosness and arrogance of youth.”
 

Jeanine looked between the two. “What’s he talking about?”
 

Peers shook his head, brushing it away.

“It’s interesting,” Ravi said, watching Jabari speak to the crowd on the office screen. “We infiltrated Ember Flats to have our hands inside the human government. We took great pains. I was only ten when I came here with my father, and I remember the sense of it all: ‘We will hide in their underbelly. We will make them itch with things that need scratching.’ I’ve always considered the viceroy my enemy, or at least one to watch. But look at this.” He pointed at the screen. “Now her plan for subversion has meshed with ours. Sharing a side, in the end.”
 

“You want the Ark opened.”
 

“This epoch has run its course. It is time to rip off the bandage so we can try again from a new beginning. There are many among us who believe the Horsemen were called early. They say humanity might have had a chance if protocol had been observed, but it was not. Another hundred years, maybe three, perhaps a millennium … the species might have been worth saving then. But even among those who believe we might have been judged worthy if given more time,
all
agree that we are not worthy
yet
— and will be judged as such. For seven years we’ve been in limbo because those who can end it refuse to act. Half my life spent in waiting.” He shook his head, biting his cheek, watching the screen. “I’m tired of waiting. If my eternal reward is coming, I am prepared to meet it now.”
 

“And the rest of the Mullah?”
 

“You know how they are, Peers Basara,” Ravi said, his statement raising Jeanine’s eyebrows. “They’re like monks. They will fight terribly for what they feel is right or predestined, but it takes so long to decide on what those things are. They’d have taken the key from you, had you given them a chance, had the key not seemed so stubbornly determined to stay by Bannister’s side. But if they’d taken it, they’d have placed it on an altar. It’s all patience with them — seeing what will happen, and only forcing things so far. Eventually they decided to stop chasing you, to let Cameron decide for himself what to do with the key. That’s when I started to think I’d have to wait forever and that my own action might be required. Because without a nudge, he’d never have chosen to open the Ark and trigger the process of judgment.”

“Cameron kept his end of the deal,” Peers said. “Now take us to Clara.”
 

“He hasn’t done it yet,” Ravi shook his head, his eyes on the subtle unease crossing the faces on-screen.
 

“Please,” Jeanine said, and Peers realized he may never have heard the word on the woman’s lips. “If we get her now, maybe we can protect her.”
 

“Nothing can protect her. Nothing can protect any of us.”

“You have to let us try.”

“You aren’t listening,” Ravi said, his tone suddenly sharp. “We’re on the eve of the apocalypse. On the eve of extermination. You cannot simply
run
. They will not follow us one by one, pointing guns as I’m doing now. The Horsemen have done this many times before, and they know how to do it well. When judgment is over, only a handful will remain. Our history will be eradicated. After a few generations, the marvels of these times will be lost to history and remain only as legends. Like the mythical flying machines from the ancient past, so they will talk of our airplanes. Like the lost desert cities, so will they speak of our New York, Beijing, and Berlin.”
 

“We could be part of that handful!” Peers blurted. “Jesus, we were just trying to save a girl who’s been taken!”
 

“You know the legends, Mr. Basara,” Ravi said, again drawing a confused look from Jeanine. “You know how it always unfolds. The end days come. The Seven reveal themselves: The Warrior. The King. The Fool. The Innocent. The Villain. The Magician. And the Sage. The followers are chosen at random, as if by lottery. You will not increase your odds of survival by taking her to flee now. If Clara has any chance, it’s here with the Mullah, who at least have reason to understand her. And maybe her kind
is
an X factor; it is for the elders and not one like me or you to know. So tell me: How does handing her off to you assist anything? How could you possibly escape the city, surrounded as it is by tribes?”