Heavenfall: Genviants Book 1 (4 page)

And it worked. A quick look past him confirmed the mech cops were still cruis
ed the sidewalks, clearly looking for someone. What choice did she have? Mary retrieved her precious bundle and hurried to catch up with Dex. In stride with him, she pulled the jacket off his arm, bundled it around her shoulders, and pulled up the collar, more to hide her identity from mech security and anyone wandering the street who might recognize her than to ward off the cold.

As they approached the sedan, the driver moved from his stance at the fender and opened the door for them. Mary spotted the wallflower first, not surprised to see the woman in the car, but the sight of Niko relaxed in the comfort of the leather seat tore her tightly held composure from her.

"You son of a bitch!" She lunged at Niko, letting Dex's jacket fall to the pavement, and gouged her fingernails in Niko's face. "How could you?"

Dex grabbed her around the waist and pulled her away from Niko. "He didn't do anything." Still holding her, he grabbed his coat off the
road and bundled them into the seat. The door closed and the interior lights went out. "I've been watching you and Jonah for some time now."

She stopped struggling. "Stay away from my brother."

CHAPTER FOUR

A dingy bulb in a table lamp, the shade long gone, cast a yellow glow over the living room. Hadrian, through Palisade, had paid off the mortgage on the house after her parents' death, and had given her and Jonah a large settlement. But the money hadn't lasted long in a world preparing for an apocalypse. And the utilities? The groceries he sent around every few weeks?  Jonah preferred to think Hadrian's guilty conscience had prompted him to continue the so-called good will.

She didn't think Hadrian had a conscience.

It was Hadrian's fault her parents were dead. A lab accident? Instinct told her it was something more, but she had no way to prove it. And no bodies. According to Hadrian, her parents had been burned beyond recognition. No autopsy. No funeral. No justice.

But, unlike
some of the other houses in the fringes, they had light.

And light produced shadows.

She scanned the room, the shadows. Jonah's guitar leaned against the corner covered with dust. Like every other kid in a garage band, he'd dreamed of being a rock star, and if not for the wave, he might have made it. Her brother had magic fingers and played almost every instrument with rare genius, but after their parents died, he had abandoned his music and went mech. It had broken her heart, but she'd understood his choice. Music couldn't protect them, provide for them, but the unnatural biomechanics in his arms could. Over time, the mech devices had pretty much stripped most of the fine motor skills from his hands, as well as some feeling. He couldn't play anymore, but he wouldn't let her sell the guitar.

"I thought you were going to get your A and come straight back?" Jonah walked into the room from the kitchen, a bag of chips in hand. "You missed Ella's initiation run. She's a hell of a baton, almost as good as you and Corene." He popped a chip in his mouth and wiped his hand down the side of his jeans. "Still haven't heard from Corene, by the way. Stran's going nuts. Wants to go into the city and look for her. I had to promise him I'd go first thing in the morning to get him settled down."

Jonah cared. Unlike some of the gang leaders who got a perverted taste for the power, enjoyed the terror they caused, the cruelty, Jonah only wanted to care and provide for what he considered his family. There was nothing he wouldn't do to keep them safe, even at the risk of his own well being. "Sorry, couldn't be helped, and there's no need for you to risk going into the city."

The muscles in his arms tensed. "We're going to find her."

Better to just let him know without trying to explain. "Corene's with me."

Corene stepped up from behind Mary and gave a feeble wave. "Hi, Jonah."

"Where have you been?" The question was soft, laced more with relief than anger. "You've had everyone worried. We thought you might've had a brain blast, or got caught or something."

"Not yet." Corene stayed just inside the doorway. "I got my supply of A and was on my way back, but Hadrian's security forces are everywhere tonight, and they busted another deal not far from me a few minutes after I left. Wouldn't have been a problem, but a second security team showed up, checking everyone on the street, and I had to hide."

Brows furrowed, Jonah looked past Corene to the others behind her. "Who else is with you?"

Mary pulled Corene with her toward the sofa, tried to keep her tone casual. "Dex, he helped Corene get out, Niko, and a wallflower named Ursula."

"What the hell?"

Even if she'd wanted to explain, she couldn't. No one had spoken during the ride to the house. Exhausted and in pain, she slumped on the couch and pulled Corene down with her. "Ask them. I have no idea."

Eyes half closed, she watched the trio walk into the living room. Jonah stood still, but the biomechanics in his biceps caused the muscles to twitch, ready to fight.

Dex tugged on the cuffs of his sleeves, a subtle gesture that pulled the material tight over his arms and showed the same twitching effects. "It's good to see you again. May we sit?"

Manners—no one in the fringes is accustomed to them—rendered Jonah speechless. In answer, he nodded.

Ursula perched on the arm of the couch, Niko took a chair in the corner, and Jonah sat in their Dad's ratty, old recliner, the bag of chips perched on his lap. Despite his request, Dex remained standing.

"Corene and I grew up together. She knew she couldn't make it out with the A, so she called me."

Disappointment shown on Jonah's face. "You called him and not me."

"I called an old friend. Besides, you couldn't have helped, not in that situation."

He turned to Dex. "I'd offer my thanks, but the timing sucks. It's a little too convenient, you and the wallflower being in the city when Corene's in trouble and Mary's meeting with Niko. Are you even capable of being a friend anymore?"

Corene leaned forward. "If you think Dex set me up just to get to Mary, you're wrong. Dex wouldn't—"

"He's right," Dex interrupted. "Almost. I didn't set you up, Corene. The other dealer getting caught wasn't part of the plan. More like dumb luck on his part, but I did set up Mary."

Jonah crumbled the potato chip bag into a small ball. The pop of chips and the rustle of the bag echoed through the quiet room.

No throat clearing, no hesitation, Dex continued. "We wanted Mary to complete total brainwave transformation before approaching you. She should have blasted by now." He gave Jonah a knowing look. "But due to the proximity of the wave, the time line had to be adjusted."

Mary never saw Jonah move, only the blur of color as the makeshift ball sailed across the room toward the general vicinity of the kitchen.

"Well, I guess I owe you my thanks for bringing Corene back to us safely. I would ask you to stay, but it looks like it's time to take out the trash."

"Don't worry about the garbage," Dex answered. "I'll take it when I leave." He walked to stand directly in front of Jonah. "Mary promised me an hour."

"I didn't have a choice, Jonah. I told him we weren't interested in anything Hadrian had to offer, but he had my A and
—."

"Yeah," Dex interrupted. "We've pretty much established that I'm a real son of a bitch, and it doesn't change anything. I want my hour."

Jonah glanced around the room. "You're down to about forty-five minutes. Better talk fast, because in forty-six minutes, I'm kicking your ass out of my house."

Ursula let out a little laugh, and covered it with a cough at Dex's hard stare. Mary, and everyone else in the room, knew Jonah couldn't deliver on the threat. Apparently, though, Dex didn't want a show of force.

Brows furrowed, he frowned and took a step back. Mary imagined the microprocessors in his brain working furiously through an infinite number of if/then statements, searching for probabilities.

"Fair enough." Dex crossed the room and sat down next to Corene. "I'm afraid I miscalculated the situation. I assumed Stran or Corene had leaked information to Jonah."

Corene slumped into the cushion. "I didn't. You asked us not to, and Stran's totally committed to the cause."

"But not to me. He loves you, and he joined because I can help you with the brainwave transformation. I'm not complaining, here. He is committed to what we want to do, but his loyalty is to Jonah, and rightly so. I expected Stran to tell Jonah everything."

Corene and Stran working with Dex? Bile rose in Mary's throat, the acid burned in her chest. Still, it could only be a fraction of the betrayal Jonah felt, especially after Dex had abandoned the gang five years ago to work with Hadrian, though nothing showed on his face.

"Why?" Mary turned to Corene. "How could you?"

"Mary." Jonah's voice was soft, but it held a calm authority. "Listen with your head and not your heart. Dex said he could help Corene get through the brain blast, which means he can help you." He turned to Dex. "What's going on here? It's something you're doing alone, not as one of Hadrian's goons."

"Right on all counts," Dex answered. "I can help her, but it's got to be quid pro quo. You help me, and I'll help Mary."

"Help you do what?"

"Remove Hadrian from power before the wave hits."

Mary curled into the corner of the sofa and stared at Jonah. His face mirrored Dex's voice. Impassive.

"The energy web isn't as stable or as powerful as Hadrian claims," Dex continued. "Even with a thousand controllers hooked into the system, they can't make the adjustments fast enough. The web will probably destroy or break up the largest chunks of wave, but the predictions are that enough satellites will get hit to allow a substantial amount of the remaining space debris through. Not enough for an extinction level event, but the amount of damage could propel Earth into the twenty-first century equivalent of the Dark Ages. In addition, it's predicted to hit in a few days, not the months Hadrian's been telling everyone. He's known it for quite some time, and while he's been providing doctored reports to the Unified Defense System, he's been making contingency plans."

"What kind of contingency plans?" Jonah asked.

"He's recruiting controllers from other countries, mostly third world, with the promise of food and medicines for them and their families. People are signing up by the thousands, and Hadrian's got his so-called specialized teams performing hatchet job implants on the unsuspecting recruits. Not the standard controller type, but something more like a control chip, and setting them up in secret camps with dummy computer banks. They think they're training. In reality, Hadrian's using the comps to program his foot soldiers."

Mary saw Niko mouth "Told you so." to Ursula out of the corner of her eye, but didn't want to interrupt Dex to question what Niko meant.

Dex continued. "We're losing more controllers to brain blasts than we anticipated. Especially the stim junkies who are popping illegal A to stave off the headaches caused by the hangovers, but not enough to justify the numbers Hadrian is recruiting as replacements. We've concluded that the only reason Hadrian could want thousands of warm bodies is for an army. Possibly, to set himself as a leader. Or, he could split the numbers. Use part of them as a security force, the others for reconstruction after the wave. Either way, we're screwed."

The spark of anger in Jonah's eyes changed to understanding, then belief. He turned his attention to Corene and asked the question Mary had been wondering. "Corene, did Stran verify this?"

Stran had survived the brainwave transformation. About half of everyone who survives ends up with some sort of psychic power. Some get it right away, full power, and some, like Stran, have to wait to get the full effects. He gets impressions of people's thoughts. Their true thoughts and feelings. Thing is, it's not like mind reading, he has to touch the person to read them, and you just don't walk up to Dex and shake his hand or slap him on the back.

"Yes. I stood next to him when he touched Dex."

"Good enough." He turned to Dex. "How can you help Mary?"

"The aspirin she just received contains nanites which are programmed to repair the brain damage. Once we have an agreement, I'll activate them when she starts blasting."

"Is it safe?" Mary asked.

"Hadrian used them."

The thought of Hadrian with psychic powers frightened her more than anything else she'd heard tonight. "Did he go psychic? What's his power?"

"He did, and he won't say. But I believe it's some freaky powerful ability. He must have had some strong, latent ability, because he started suffering the effects early on, almost as soon as the energy web activated. It didn't take the scientists long to figure out that the abnormal light waves caused by the energy web triggered the changes in the brain."

"Bullshit," Jonah interrupted. "No way they developed nanites to combat brain blast that early."

"No, they didn't. As soon as Hadrian realized what was happening, he stayed in the bunkers as much as possible and used sun lamps to try to slow the effects." Dex leaned back, crossed his legs. "Apparently, it helped, because it gave them enough time to develop and program the nanites. The brain blast was still pretty wicked, though, and more than a few of us hoped the technology would fail."

Jonah tensed, and dug into the arms of the chair until his knuckles turned white. "Wait a minute, you said the nanites would stop the brain blast."

"No," Dex answered. "I said they would help. They can't prevent a brain blast, only repair the damage as it's happening. It ups the survival rate to approximately eighty-seven percent."

Better odds than she had by using aspirin alone, but Mary had the feeling that Dex wasn't telling them everything.

"Jonah, I think we should take the deal. If Dex is telling the truth, in a few days it won't matter. My chances of surviving the wave are greater if the nanites work."

"What I don't understand is why us," Jonah said.

"Why you? Because there are only three people Hadrian can't kill. You and Mary are two of them."

Mary curled into the cushion. "Back in the alley, you weren't lying? Hadrian really is after me?"

"Yes. The mech security in the city? They were looking for you. Hadrian sent a squad to the house, but neither of you were here, so he sent them looking for you. I've been monitoring their movements, and I can guarantee they will be back here. They don't think you two will be out after curfew. Do you have somewhere you can go?"