Resistance (29 page)

“I am human,” says Aman. “I was never your enemy.”

“Then step out of that armour and fight me like a human.” Norio can barely stand, but he manages to raise his arms, and take a slow step towards Aman.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” says Aman.

Aman’s eyes are still swimming from the ray-gun and pulse-blast in the closed room. The monochrome letters on the old computer screen are solid blobs, slowly shaping themselves into letters.

“I couldn’t do it,” says Norio. “All this time, all this planning, and I was too slow.”

Aman looks at the single line on the computer screen as the letters finally sharpen into place. He looks again, unable to believe it. He looks at Norio, at the screen again, at Kalki.

“Why?” he asks.

“I told you I was on the right side,” says Norio. “I told you I was trying to save the world.”

Aman looks at the screen again.

GIVE EVERYONE SUPERPOWERS, it says.

On the monochrome monitor the long cursor blinks beside the single line, mocking Aman. He blinks.

“You thought I was trying to take your powers away,” says Norio. “I just wanted to make everything fair. To change the world. To give everyone a chance.”

“Then why didn’t you hit ‘Enter’?” asks Aman.

“Because I was a fool. And I wanted to defeat you before my moment of victory,” says Norio. “I wanted to look you and Jai in the eyes as I took my revenge.”

“Revenge? Me?”

“I blame you for Azusa’s death, Aman. I could have saved her.” He takes another step towards Aman.

“Why didn’t you just tell me what you planned to do?” asks Aman. “Why didn’t you just tell everyone?”

“It’s obvious. Because you would have tried to stop me. As you have. My mistake was in not trusting my team, my humans, before it was too late. They’d given up on me. But they learned what I was trying to do, and they came back for me. Azusa did too, you know? She was a super. But she was different. She knew what was right.”

Aman looks at the screen again, and at Kalki behind it. The boy-god twitches.

“But you can do it for me, Aman,” says Norio. “You don’t want the world to turn into a comic book. You want everyone to do the best they can. You think supers can help the world get better. The machine works once. After you kill me, and take Kalki back, you’ll never get this chance again. Press the button.”

“No,” says Aman. “The world’s in enough trouble as it is.”

“You may be right,” says Norio. “Everyone you trust will tell you you’re right. I’m a criminal. I’m a murderer. What do I know? Press the button. Change the world.”

Aman finds the backspace key. He presses it.

“You know it’s the right thing to do,” says Norio. “But you’re too scared to do it. You’ve grown old. You’re like every other person with power in the end, aren’t you? Holding on to what you have. Your advantage. When you started out, you wanted to change the world, but you don’t really, do you? You’d be ordinary again.”

Aman presses “Backspace” again.

“You’re a superhero now,” says Norio. “You’ve protected the world from the villain. You’ve held on to your turf. You’ve won. I hoped you’d be different, you know. I’d really wanted to just come to you and tell you what I wanted for the world. But I knew I couldn’t get anything out of you without using the machine. Because whatever you say, I know what you’re all like. Supers and humans are enemies. They can’t help it. The powerful and powerless always are.”

He lunges at Aman.

But the armour is faster. It blocks Norio’s swing and pushes him away. He lands on the floor and groans.

“I didn’t want to be a super unless everyone else could be one too,” says Norio. “I guess that’s the difference between us.”

He tries to get up, and fails.

“Stay down,” says Aman. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

“But you do,” says Norio. “And I won’t.”

He moans in pain, and staggers to his feet.

“You know nothing about me,” says Aman. “All I’ve ever wanted is to use my powers to make the world better. To help the weak and the needy. To
stop
supers from controlling the world.”

“Then press the button.”

“It’s wrong. This mind control machine is wrong. I know how it feels.”

Norio manages a laugh.

“Look at your powers,” he says. “Look at Uzma’s. Your powers are terrible. Everything you do with them is wrong. You’re lying to me, Aman. Or maybe you don’t see it yourself. But you’re going to end up like Jai. You’re going to run the world exactly as you see fit. Stop anyone in your way. Do whatever you feel like. And the only thing that can stop you is that boy in front of you. And he won’t listen to you unless you make him. So ask yourself this: do you want to move forward, to the future, or just hold on to what you have? Press the button.”

Norio’s reached the computer now. He moves Aman’s hand away, almost gently. He types the letters in again.

He steps back.

“What gives you the right to take this big a decision?” asks Aman. “I tried to fix the world by myself once. It didn’t work. I ruined people’s lives. People died. I just stopped your Utopic board from trying to kill four billion people. I’ll probably have to spend the rest of my life fighting people like them.”

“Well, if you want people to talk you out of it, just give anyone you trust a call. Get Uzma to make you stop. Tell yourself people don’t deserve to have superpowers thrust upon them, and walk away. There isn’t a perfect way to do it,” says Norio. “Look at me. Look at the mess I made. But it’s the right thing to do. Are you going to do it?”

“Yes,” says Aman.

He takes a deep breath, and looks at the computer.

GIVE EVERYONE SUPERPOWERS, it says.

He hits Enter.

Kalki screams, and world turns white.

The car pulls up in a quiet Versova lane, and Uzma steps out. She looks around, remembering the first time she came to this house, trying to remember who she’d been then. The house is freshly painted. Tias have been living there from the very beginning. There’s a watchman at the gate, but he’s asleep in his chair, and doesn’t wake up as Uzma walks to the front door and rings the bell.

Tia opens the door and greets Uzma with a huge hug. Uzma steps in, takes in the living room, the kitchen. Every part of the room is crowded with old ghosts: Sher, Jai, Bob, little Anima, Sundar. She’s been all around the world since she first entered this house, but there’s no place she remembers more clearly.

“He’s in the loo,” says Tia. “Woke up a few minutes ago.”

“Right,” says Uzma. “But he’s fine, yes?”

“You’ll have to check,” says Tia, grinning.

Uzma looks at her sheepishly.

“How are things?” asks Tia.

Uzma collapses on a sofa, pulls off her shoes and wiggles her toes in delight as cold air from the mammoth air conditioner hits them.

“Messy,” she says. “I was actually looking forward to flying halfway across the world just to avoid taking decisions. But we’re holding the tower against all comers. Vir’s in charge. Some ex-Utopic fool declared independence this morning. Liberty Island is a new country now.”

“That sounds… not very smart,” says Tia.

“Yes. Somebody else declared war on all humans. Some more escaped supers have built an emerald city, or a city that looks like some other gem, in Eritrea. I guess that’s what happens when you set hundreds of repressed superhumans free.”

“I heard an interesting thing while I was leaving Japan,” says Tia. “The Harmony Warrior Squadron might have taken over the Chinese government. You’ll have to look into that as well. Okay, this is less important, but I can’t get it off my mind. Why do you have so much makeup on?”

“Was in a shoot. Wingman memorial. They’re turning his biopic into a tribute show. I really disliked him, you know? I miss him so much now. I need to ask you something.”

Tia makes an elegant gesture.

“Would you like to be part of the new Unit?” asks Uzma.

“I don’t know,” says Tia. “Who else is in?”

“Well, me. Vir. Jason, Anima. Aman.”

“Aman’s in the new Unit? Does he know?”

“Not yet. Wu. That Guy. Jai, if we find him. We might get some more from the new lot. Or poach from the other teams.”

“I’m not joining the Unit,” says Tia. “I’m quite happy here, and I need some rest. And I have an island to run. There’s a scientist on it that I’ve left unsupervised for too long, and he appears to be planning a dinosaur invasion.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

“I don’t speak for all of us, though. You should ask one of the New York Tias. Now sit. Eat.”

Another Tia arrives and sets down a tray in front of Uzma. Tia-from-the-door sits as well, curling up on the sofa, looking curiously at Uzma.

“You look great,” says Tia.

“So do you,” says Uzma. “Tell me what happened.”

So Tia tells her how she found Aman. How Aman had sent her a message the moment he’d arrived at Norio’s hideout. She’d been five minutes away. When she’d reached the building and broken her way in, she’d found Aman and Norio lying unconscious on the floor, with an old-fashioned computer burning between them.

“What did you do with Norio?” asks Uzma.

“I told him I would give him five minutes, and then I’d chase him. I told him to hide, and hide well, because I could really look everywhere. He ran.”

“And you chased him?”

“No. But he doesn’t know that.”

“And Kalki?”

“I don’t know,” says Tia. “I’m still looking for him all over Tokyo. But I don’t think I’ll find him.”

“So someone else might have him.”

“It’s possible. Maybe Aman can tell us more.”

“So you got Aman out of there.”

“Submarine. Mumbai. Pretty straightforward. He was out almost all the way through. Talking in his sleep.”

“He hasn’t been in touch with me at all. Does he still have his powers?”

“He said he does, but going online hurts. He took a pretty big hit back there. Whatever it was that Kalki did…”

Uzma stretches. “I’ll take him back with me,” she says.

“That’s between the two of you. I’m staying right here until I leave.”

“Back to the island. More secret super-scientists?”

“A few. I picked up Rowena too, by the way. I’ve decided to inject everyone in the world with her blood over the next few years.”

Uzma struggles to process the scale of Tia’s project, and fails.

“You’re going to cure every disease,” she manages finally.

“That’s the plan,” says Tia, and smiles. “Also, there are lots of bits of the world I haven’t been to yet. I’m going to fix that.”

“Did you find Sundar?”

“Found his lab. Guards said he’d taken off in some kind of giant mole machine.”

“Good for him.”

Movement on the stairs. Aman descends, dressed in not-very-heroic pyjamas, most of his hair standing straight up. Uzma considers running at him theatrically, but restrains herself. She’s been forgetting, more and more frequently, that she was born and raised British.

“Get down here,” says Tia. “We’ve been discussing our relationship, and how you’ve been taking us both for a ride with your smooth-talking ways.”

Aman freezes on the steps, and remains frozen until Tia and Uzma both laugh. He walks nervously into the living room and finds a spot on the sofa as near the door as possible.

“So,” says Uzma. “What happened?”

“Well, the world appears to not have ended. It is the next day, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, then you tell me,” says Aman. “Does everyone in the world have superpowers or not?”

“That’s what Kalki did?” asks Uzma.

“Looks like,” says Tia. “The short answer is yes and no, Aman.”

“Try the long one.”

“A few minutes after you told me where you were, the sky turned red,” says Tia. “I saw a man fly out of a window. This kid on the street turned into a unicorn. I heard a lot of explosions. I didn’t stop to ask questions. I came and got you. By the time we left the building, everything seemed normal, or as normal as it gets. We spent a lot of time underwater, Uzma flew over, and here we are.”

“As far as we can tell, everyone got powers for a few minutes,” says Uzma. “You’d blocked most newsfeeds, so we still don’t really know. It’s been crazy. We thought it was a Third Wave, actually – not just in the air, but on the ground. Of course the first thing everyone did after getting powers was post on the internet. But whatever it was, it faded after a while. These global magic events always do.”

Aman sits and stares into space for a while.

“Everyone was a super for a few minutes,” he says finally. “Isn’t that something. I’m glad there are limits on Kalki’s power. But he’ll get stronger. Maybe he’ll do this again one day.”

“We answered your question,” says Uzma. “Now tell us what happened to you or I’ll Tell you to.”

* * *

Aman swiftly tells them what he’d been through in Tokyo, about commanding Kalki to give everyone superpowers, about the world turning white, about the feeling of falling endlessly through space and time somewhere far above the earth. Kalki had appeared before him then, full-grown, a massive man-horse holding weapons he didn’t have names for. Kalki had laughed, and told him many things he hadn’t understood or didn’t remember, drawn three lines of fire between them, turned, and vanished. Then Aman had seen things he couldn’t describe, swirling galaxies that turned into cells, strange worlds growing and decaying in seconds, until it had all turned into a blur of colour and he’d faded away into utter darkness.

Uzma and Tia watch him in absolute silence, and say nothing even after he’s stopped. Aman wonders if all this is still part of the dream, if he’s still on that first flight to Delhi all those years ago.

But then Uzma walks over and holds him, and he’s sure, though he’s shaking, that this is no dream.

“So,” says Tia. “What are you going to do now?”

“Eat,” says Aman, looking at the tray with Uzma’s lunch on it. “I’m starving.”

“We’re going to go back to New York and form another Unit,” says Uzma. “Then we’re going to fix the world, one problem at a time.”

“Norio said we’d end up becoming super-tyrants,” says Aman. “He said it was inevitable. Privileged few ruling the world, keeping everyone else down. Considering we’ve pretty much shut down the UN and are controlling world communications and we can be anywhere and make anyone do what Uzma wants, maybe we should worry a little.”