Pandemonium (34 page)

“Hey!” Bear yelled. “What’s happening?”

“The lights are turning on,” Nastia answered, lowering her binoculars.

As they all watched through the window, a sudden dawn illuminated the city as the five-pointed star ignited across the sky 350 feet above. Its five radiating arms infused with golden light that filled the streets below even as streetlights spluttered and flared throughout the city.

The windows in the star-shaped tower lit for one blazing moment above all the buildings before the surge of power blew out thousands of antique bulbs. Clouds of wasps and drill-worms were revealed in the sunlike radiance as they swirled around the building, energized by the blazing rays of light.

The entire city gasped before them, breathing the oxygen that wafted from the instant greening of clover covering almost every surface. Pobedograd sighed, groaning with the ghastly sound of ten thousand radiators filling with steam for the first time and haunting its hundreds of buildings with a hellish chorus as Henders organisms joined in.

“Talk about chess,” Abrams said. “Kuzu just queened us.”

“He turned the power on!” Nell said.

Neon signs blinked to life across the city, streaking across the Star Tower itself. As they watched, they knew they were seeing a preview of every city on Earth as it was overrun by the explosively prolific hunters of Henders Island.

“Mautam,”
Nell breathed, staring hopelessly.

“What?” Nastia asked.

Nell shook her head. “Every forty-eight years, bamboo expands across northeastern India and explodes with fruit. The rat population doubles and ravages crops, causing mass starvation.
Mautam,
” she repeated.

“Never heard of it,” Bear said.

“You’re looking at it,” Nell said. “This is Moscow, Berlin, Paris, Mecca, and Mumbai, only a few decades from now, if we don’t seal that tunnel. And a few years after that, it will be Lima, Los Angeles, Vancouver, Taiwan, and Tokyo.”

As they watched, Hender slid over the lamppost to the sidewalk.

“Somebody has to open the door for him!” Nastia yelled.

Abrams jumped down the stairs. “Tell me when!”

“Now!”
they all shouted.

Abrams swung open the door as Hender leaped through and slammed it shut.

“Thank you, Abrams!” Hender breathed.

“Sure,” Abrams said.

Hender leaped upstairs and Abrams followed.

“OK, Nell,” Hender said. “I protect you.”

02:49:33

Maxim wavered at the top of the long stairway outside the steam well as he stood beside the six-limbed beast. The long, vaulted corridor outside the power plant lit up as long bars suspended from the ceiling ignited for the first time since they were installed. The steam pumping through the plant was finally powering the city’s grid.

Red and purple clover on the slope to each side of the stairs turned green in front of their eyes under the dawning light. Centralized heat and hot water began circulating like blood through the city’s veins. As he followed the creature down the stairs, Maxim knew only then the extent to which he had betrayed his species—his world—himself. And he knew there could never be redemption.

02:43:28

Hender gazed at Nell with both his trinocular eyes. “I’m going to put nants on you now,” he said with a smile.

“Wait,” Nell said. “How do you know you can do that?”

“Because Kuzu turned the lights on,” Hender said.

“I don’t understand,” Nell said.

“Maxim must have helped him,” Hender said.

“I don’t understand, either,” Nastia said.

“He must have done for Maxim what I will do for you,” Hender said. “He could not have reached the power plant any other way. Understand?”

“Yes,” Abrams said, for the record.

“But how can you pass your nants to me?” Nell asked.

“Because I’m pregnant, Nell. So is Kuzu.”

Nell looked at Hender in awe.

“Did I miss something?” Abrams said.

“Fuck!” Bear groaned.

“Sels are hermaphrodites,” Nell explained. “They mate once in youth but don’t get pregnant until they will it, which can be thousands of years later. Hender! Why now?”

“When I’m pregnant, I can make my nants cover you,” Hender said.

Abrams shook his head. “If I ever get out of here, this is gonna be a bestseller.”

“Nah,” Bear said. “They’ll never believe it.”

02:47:16

Kuzu followed Maxim down the long stairway, and when they got to the bottom, the sel pushed Maxim through the car door and got in the other side.

“Go back!”

Maxim stepped on the gas, obeying the infernal voice as though it were his own will speaking for him.

02:40:51

Hender rubbed his fingers in Nell’s hair and stroked her neck, shoulders, and back with four of his hands, which secreted a mellow scent like wax and vanilla. Nell tried to remain calm as she felt the migration of microscopic animals flowing over her body as Hender rubbed the scent over her skin.

“Whoa,” Abrams said softly.

Nell felt the nants mesh together on her ears and right up to the edge of her lips and eyelids, gasping as her heart quickened, squeezing one of Hender’s wrists. She knew that each microscopic organism was attaching itself to the others around it, all of which were equipped with a circle of eyes on their backs and transmitting relays to millions of others with identical signals like ripples on water. She focused on regulating her breaths and slowing down her heart to manage the sensation of panic that was overwhelming her.

“How do you feel, Nell?” Nastia asked.

“Warm.” She exhaled. “Like I just took a niacin tablet.”

“Are you OK, man?” Abrams asked.

“Yes,” Nell breathed.

“Good!” Nastia said, reaching out a hand to soothe her.

“Don’t touch!” Hender trumpeted, grabbing Nastia’s wrist. “Nell can’t control them. They will attack you, Nastia. Don’t touch!”

Nastia withdrew her hand.

The others watched with growing impatience and incredulity as, for twenty minutes, Hender laid his hands on Nell. They began to suspect Hender’s motive for taking so much time when they saw that Nell’s skin refracted purple pixels of color at shifting angles as it was coated with microscopic creatures.

“God, what are you doing to her?” Bear asked.

Hender removed his hand from her and stood back. “Nell will be safe,” he said.

“What about the rest of us?” Dima muttered.

“You have armor,” Hender answered. “Now Nell does.”

Nastia was suddenly terrified. “If we go out there, we’ll be slaughtered!” She looked at Nell. “It doesn’t matter if we have body armor! If one of those spigers comes along … Be honest with us, Hender! We can’t make it! You know there’s no way!”

Hender pointed to the gate on the map spread out on the coffee table. “That is where we are going?”

“Yes!” Nastia said.

“And it is safe inside the farm?” Hender asked.

“Yes.” Nell nodded.

“We can make it there, Nastia,” Hender said. “The mule—” He pointed. “—send it the other way.”

Abrams nodded. “Right. We’ll pack that big dead slug on top and light it up with some flares. We’ll send it down the street like a Fourth of July barbecue!”

Hender nodded. “Very good, Abrams.”

“Then what?” Nastia asked.

“We run like hell in the other direction,” Dima said.

“Yes, Dima,” said Hender.

“All right,” said Abrams. “A two-hundred-yard dash is all we’ve got.”

“Can we duck into buildings along the way?” Dima asked.

“Nooo!”
Hender’s woodwind voice intoned like a bassoon. “Moving is better!”

“Then, how should we do this?” Bear asked.

“We run in groups of two, looking forward and behind,” Nell said. “We change direction when the one behind tells us.”

“Yes,” Hender agreed.

“OK.” Abrams started clamping on his armor. “Suit up, fuckers!”

Nell felt a rush as her entire epidermis seemed to itch and be scratched simultaneously, producing an overwhelming euphoria.

“The farm should be lit now,” Galia said. “All the sectors should have power from independent turbines in the power plant.”

They all looked at Maxim’s thin gray-haired assistant for a moment.

“OK,” Abrams decided for all of them. “I guess we don’t have to worry about flashlights. But let’s take them anyway. Anything we need from the mule, I can carry on my back. Anything we don’t need, kiss it good-bye.”

Nastia covered her face. “Oh, no! This is crazy!”

“What’s crazy is a woman who hates rats studying sewers,” Dima said gently, putting his arm around her shoulders for a moment of reassurance.

“I know,” she agreed, laughing tragically.

“It’s OK,” Dima urged. “We can do this.”

Nastia hugged him.
“Spasiba.”

“We’ve all got to watch each other’s backs now,” Abrams said. “Hender, you look after Nastia and Nell at the rear.”

Hender nodded. “OK, Abrams!”

“All right, let’s get to work.”

01:49:48

The magnesium flare in front of the building finally burned out, and the feeding frenzy that had gathered moved on now with the stream in the direction they were heading.

Since they didn’t have helmets, Nell was given a walkie-talkie along with Hender so they could communicate with the others. She clipped hers to her vest as the others suited up. Abrams encased himself in his body armor and climbed into the buzzing exoskeleton.

After embedding flares in the flesh of the ghost octopus, which they had lashed to the back of the mule, they walked the robot downstairs, lit the flares, and sent it out the door.

Dima steered the robot with his dog whistle against the stream of traffic as it hit the street, and the headless machine trotted forward, drawing a vortex of attackers with it.

They opened the door.

“Remember,” Hender buzzed. “Keep moving! Change directions! Never stop!”

“OK!” Abrams said. He handed Nell a field shovel. “Not a bad weapon,” he said.

“Thanks.” She nodded, taking it.

Then he leaped out the door, carrying a terrific load of gear on his bionic back as he bounded down the steps and turned left, jogging up the street. Battered and scarred, Talon-1 charged down the stairs behind him, following.

01:48:08

“Wait!” Geoffrey exclaimed. “What’s that?”

Sasha had clicked on a camera view in front of their honeymoon condominium at the west end of the river. Just before she switched to another camera view, Geoffrey had noticed the front door of the apartment opening. She hit
BACK
.

“There they are, Geoffrey!” Sasha shouted.

“Oh, God,” Geoffrey said.

01:48:01

The sound of Henders Island came rushing back to Nell as the unforgettable howling drone filled her ears again. Only now was she grateful that Hender’s nants covered her flesh.

Dima waited until Abrams had gone fifteen yards before opening the door and jumping down the stairs. He zigzagged from the sidewalk to the middle of the street and back again in five-second intervals per Hender’s direction.

Fifteen paces behind him, Galia and Bear did exactly what Dima did. Bear even threw a chunk of ghost-flesh to each side as he zigged and zagged to throw off pursuers.

Nastia, Nell, and Hender ran behind them, Hender’s fur camouflaging them from behind as he smacked leaping rats away with four arms moving in a blur.

Nell felt like raw meat with her bare head exposed. She was sure the animals around her could smell her deep fear. With little else but a microscopic veneer defending her skin, it was inevitable that the first bug would strike her, a drill-worm that gashed her forehead. “Hender!” she shouted as blood trickled into her eyebrow.

“It’s OK, Nell!” Hender piped behind her. “Keep running.”

Nell smelled the cilantro-like scent of the warning pheromone, which the drill-worm had sprayed after encountering the nants on her forehead. She was struck again, on her back, then again on her arm. This was it, she thought—in another instant, she would be the main course of a feeding frenzy.

But the wasp and drill-worm that struck her both retreated, spraying her with repellent, and the feeding frenzy that she expected never came. The wounds on her arm and forehead seemed to heal even as the blood from the gashes disappeared.

A big Henders rat vaulted through the air past Hender, Nastia, and Nell, who batted it away with the field shovel Abrams had given her.

“Good,” Hender said. “Go left!”

Nastia and Nell veered left as the eight-legged “rat” hit the street, only to be tackled by smaller rats and disk-ants as it skidded and rolled across the road in a growing ball of carnage.

Meanwhile, Abrams charged up the sidewalk in a straight line, deliberately drawing the attention of their pursuers. Henders rats and bugs slammed into him, but they did not succeed in denting the shell of his armor or toppling the hydraulic exoskeleton. A pony-sized spiger catapulted off its hind legs and tail, landing behind Abrams and striking his leg with one of its spikes, which sent a shock wave of pain through his calf. With its low center of gravity, the suit absorbed the blow, however, and Abrams wasn’t toppled as he turned to fire a fusillade of lead into both brains of the predator. Then he doubled back and kicked the beast to the other side of the road.

Abrams was mauled by a storm of creatures.

“Shit,” Dima said.

“Let’s get in the game!” Bear said.

“No worries,” Abrams said through the radio calmly. “I got it. My leg’s a little dinged, though.” He turned and charged ahead, swarmed with bugs.

The headless mule, meanwhile, drew off half the traffic as it piled up behind them and turned back in the other direction and chased it against the flow. It sensed debris on the road and clambered over it, nimble as a mountain goat despite being bombarded by predators. Unable to knock the indomitable machine off course, the attacking creatures were further thwarted and provoked by the flares burning on its back. Henders rats leaped onto the slab of cooking meat and were wriggling wildly as they carved out mouthfuls of octopus flesh with razor-toothed jaws even as babies emerged from their sides to gorge themselves around the burning flares.