Prometheus Road (16 page)

“It’s okay,” Juanita said, patting her back. “No need to be frightened. This is just their way of saying hello.”

The hoots gradually switched to shouts of “Rose! Rose! Rose!” Juanita pointed at a high platform near the center of the chamber; the stream flowed around it in a shallow channel like a moat. On top of the platform were two mushroom-shaped columns supporting the ceiling, and each one had a face painted on it that almost looked familiar. “Rose is here,” Juanita said, “and she’s going to appear on top of that platform. When she summons you, go around to the back of the platform and climb the stairs.

“What about you?” Tempest asked, afraid to be left alone in such a spooky place. She still couldn’t see any people attached to the shouting voices that echoed through the chamber.

“I’ll be right there. I have to get formal permission for you to stay.” Juanita turned and jogged away into the shadows before Tempest could protest any further.

The shouts gradually died down. As Tempest squinted into the shadows, trying to make out any movements or details, she heard rustling noises, then dark human shapes began drifting into the center of the room in groups of ten or more. Two men carried buckets of a heavy liquid to the moat and dumped them into the water, then one of them touched a flamer to the water and the entire moat lit up in a roaring wall of fire that almost reached the top of the central platform. Pale faces were illuminated by the flames, staring at Tempest as if they’d never seen a stranger before. Shadows danced across the ceiling. Mumbling to themselves, the crowd edged closer, sealing Tempest into the middle of their circle, many of them hooting like gorillas. Expecting to see tattered robes or some other form of simple, dirty clothing, Tempest was surprised to note that many in the crowd were dressed in formal suits, tuxedoes, evening gowns, and other antique styles of formal wear that she had only seen in holos and flicks at school. On closer inspection, Tempest did see suits with holes and gowns smudged with dirt, but almost everyone’s hair was neatly cut and styled, and their faces looked clean. Watches and jewelry sparkled in the firelight. Judging by the faces she could see, Tempest was one of the youngest people in the chamber. Most of the shades were middle-aged and older.

“My people!” shouted a female voice above their heads. The chamber was filled with hundreds of men and women who all suddenly fell silent, looking up with awed expressions. A woman in a black leather outfit strode forward on spike-heeled boots to the edge of the platform, then placed her hands on her hips and favored them with a brilliant smile. Her eyes smoldered in dark pits. It was the same face Tempest saw painted on the pillars on both sides of the platform. After a moment, Tempest saw past the heavy eye makeup and the leather outfit and recognized her rescuer, Juanita. A rhythmic chant rose up from the crowd, “Rose! Rose! Rose!” until Rose raised her arms to silence them again.

“This is a great day for the Underworld,” Rose shouted in a clear voice full of command. “We prosper here in our world below the surface. We grow our own food, go about our daily lives in privacy, raise our children, and live in peace. Yet we would go stale without new ideas and fresh bodies to share our good works. This is a great day for us because we have a new member among us, a strong young woman who has been persecuted by her own family and the iron hand of the gods, singled out because she would not conform to traditional rules that made no sense in her modern world. This story should sound familiar, because most of us are here for the same reasons. For a little while longer, her name is Tempest, and she is one of us now. She is a shade. Please welcome her.”

Startled by Rose’s words, wondering what she had gotten herself into, Tempest had little time to think before hands were all over her, patting and rubbing her in welcome, pressing in and almost smothering her with kindness. When she thought she could no longer breathe, strong hands lifted her, and she was passed over the heads of the crowd toward the staircase behind the platform, where Rose herself helped her stand and climb the stairs. Stunned and confused, breathing way too fast, she followed Rose to the edge of the platform and looked out on the assembled mob, sensing the power of the crowd and their adoration for their leader. Tempest had never experienced anything like it, and she had no idea how to respond.

Sensing her confusion, Rose whispered in her ear. “Just wave.”

“What?”

Rose waved at the crowd to demonstrate. Tempest repeated the gesture and felt the thunder of hundreds of people hooting back at her in response—waves of sound that pulsed through her body. Rose smiled to reassure Tempest that the hooting was a good thing, and that smile made all the difference. Tempest began to relax. Whatever lay ahead might be confusing, but she didn’t feel that these people would harm her. She felt safe, and thought perhaps this was where she was meant to be. A strange thought, indeed. For the moment, at least, she was a shade.

Rose leaned over to whisper to her again. “You should try to get plenty of rest tonight. Tomorrow will be very exhausting for you.”

Tempest raised an eyebrow. “Why is that?”

“We have accepted you as one of us. Tomorrow, you must demonstrate your loyalty.”

AFTER a meager dinner of dried meat and other unidentifiable things that Magnus pulled out of his backpack, Tom hunted around for a safe place to sleep inside the rotting hulk of the battleship. Armed with a flashlight, he snooped through the small gray rooms, fascinated by the almost decorative patterns of rust on the metal walls. As he walked the narrow corridors, stepping through watertight hatchways, his hollow footsteps were accompanied by the constant sound of creaking, punctuated by the gurgling and sloshing of water in the lower decks, and he finally decided that he’d feel safer sleeping beneath the stars on the gun deck. Out in the open air, he tried to find a comfortable spot on the bumpy plates, but none of the surfaces were smooth, so he couldn’t go to sleep. He enjoyed the cool breeze, but he was still worried about the possible return of the deadly fog. He took off his shirt and used it for a pillow, but that left his back bare against the cold metal. Would it make any difference if the fog returned while his shirt was off, or while he was asleep? Were there other creatures of the elements out there that might sneak up on a sleeping person and eat them? He decided that there were too many things he didn’t understand, and that worried him. If he wasn’t so exhausted from hiking all day, he’d give up and try to stay awake all night. He sat up and looked overhead at the three massive gun barrels silhouetted in the moonlight, thinking maybe he could hide inside one of those, when his thoughts were interrupted by Helix.

“Try to relax,” Helix said, sniffing the air. “You smell tired.”

Tom’s eyes widened as he looked down at the little dog in his lap, who stared up at him with a concerned expression. Tom didn’t like the possibilities in this situation: Either he was going crazy and hearing voices in his head, or his dog had learned how to talk.

“I’ll protect you,” Helix said. “Get some sleep.”

Now Tom was really worried. The dog’s mouth wasn’t moving, and Tom seemed to be hearing the rough, low-pitched voice inside his head. The dog’s words came in short bursts, almost as if he were barking. Tom jumped to his feet, dumping Helix on the deck in the process. Helix didn’t seem to mind; he lay down on his stomach in a sphinx pose and tipped his head, looking up at Tom. “I smell fear. I hope I didn’t cause that. Have you got food?”

“Are you hungry? You had dinner,” Tom said before he realized he was answering the dog. Or was it his dog, he wondered? Had some fog or wind creature taken over Helix’s body?

Helix wagged his tail. “I just like to eat.”

Tom displayed his empty hands, reassured by Helix’s familiar interest in food. “Sorry. I feel like I should reward you for speaking.”

“That’s okay. Maybe next time. Would you scratch my tummy?” Helix rolled over on his back and wriggled as he always did when he wanted a scratch.

Still stunned by their ongoing conversation, Tom scratched the dog’s chest and watched Helix pull the corners of his mouth back in a doggy smile. “A little to the left,” Helix said.

“How come you’ve never spoken to me before?”

Helix snorted and rolled his eyes. “I’ve been talking to you since I was a puppy. You just weren’t listening.”

Suspicious, Tom looked around to see if Dead Man or Magnus were hiding in the shadows to play a trick on him. Seeing no one, he put his shirt back on to ward off the chill night air.

“Full moon,” Helix said. “Good night for howling.”

“If you’re a dog,” Tom said.

Helix looked at him. “I am a dog.” He rolled onto his feet and took a long stretch. “But you’ve always liked the moon, too. Have you ever wondered why?”

Tom hesitated, gazing up at the moon. “Maybe because my mom liked it so much. And I’m basically a night person.”

Helix reached forward with his back leg to scratch his right ear. “You draw energy from the moon. It focuses your mind and gives you power. That’s why you wanted to sleep up here when it would have been safer on a lower deck. That’s why you always want to go out for walks at night when the moon is high.”

Tom frowned at Helix. “You’re starting to sound like Magnus.” He quickly looked around again to see if Magnus was watching, but he seemed to be alone with Helix.

Helix sniffed the air, then snapped at a small fly spiraling past his nose. “Your mom was the same way. She used to walk in the moonlight when she was younger.”

“How would you know about that? You weren’t around then.”

Helix smiled his doggy smile again. “I’m a dog. I know things.”

Tom yawned. With all the turmoil in his life lately, and all the strange things he’d seen the last few days, he was already accepting the fact that Helix could talk. What was one more oddity among so many? Exhausted from the day’s events, he finally felt that he could sleep, so he lay down on the deck again and stared up at the moon.

Helix curled up between Tom’s arm and his ribs, circling twice before actually settling in, then leaving his chin propped on Tom’s elbow. “Here’s a tip. When you go to sleep, focus your attention on your hands and try to look at them. If you can do that, try to control your movements in your dreams. It’s good practice, and the full moon will help give you power.”

“Good practice for what?” Tom asked, raising his left hand to study it.

“It will help you reach the Road,” Helix replied, closing his eyes.

WHEN Tom opened his eyes, he was startled to see that the fog had returned. A bright whiteness filled his vision wherever he looked. He started to sit up, but his muscles wouldn’t respond. Worried now, he tried to move his legs, or his arms, or his fingers, but he seemed to be paralyzed. He blinked, and that was the only part of his body he could control. His heart beat faster.

“Look at your hands,” said a voice that sounded like dead leaves rustling in the breeze. Dead Man moved forward into Tom’s field of view, although his movement looked odd, as if he were floating. He didn’t appear to be worried about the fog.

Tom tried to answer him, but his mouth wouldn’t work. Dead Man floated closer, which was scary enough under normal circumstances, with his bulging eyes and his dry brown skin stretched taut over his skeleton. When Dead Man touched his arm, Tom felt warm relief flooding through him. His heart slowed, and he took a deep breath.

“Think of it as sleep paralysis,” Dead Man said. “You can control it. Now, look at your hands before we do anything else.”

Tom shuddered as a vibration, almost like a cycling electric current, moved up and down the length of his body. With great effort, he managed to lift his right arm and look at the back of his hand, which didn’t seem as thick and solid as it usually did. He made a fist, but he couldn’t feel the pressure in his muscles.

“You’ll get better with practice. Magnus wants me to help you because we don’t have time for you to discover how to do all these things on your own. Now, stay with me as I lift you.”

Tom tried to respond, but his mouth still wouldn’t work, and most of his body remained paralyzed as if he’d had a stroke. Dead Man’s arms felt solid when they slid underneath his back, then lifted Tom as if he weighed less than Helix. Suddenly noticing Helix’s absence, Tom snapped his head around to look for the little dog, but the motion caused his entire body to roll over, and he was horrified to see his own body three feet beneath him with its eyes closed. Was he dead or dreaming? He forgot about Helix for a moment as he tried to sort out his recent memories, but they were fragmented like pieces of broken glass. He needed answers from Dead Man, so he focused on his jaw, then on his lips and tongue, forcing them to move. Yet he couldn’t take his eyes off the body below him. “Is that me?”

“More or less.”

He continued to hover over the other Tom, and he felt a new tingling sensation throughout his body. “Am I dead?”

Dead Man hesitated. “That requires a more complicated answer. For now, let’s say you’re not dead and that your physical body is asleep.”

“Then I’m dreaming?” He felt his body reorienting to the vertical as Dead Man rotated him from the waist. With time, he was also gaining more control over his movements.

“Some might call it that. We’re trying to teach you to use all of your talents, so now you’re learning to control your energy body. This is your most powerful form, and you must use it to reach the Road.”

“We’re not on the Road now?”

Dead Man gestured at the bright fog that surrounded them. “This is only your starting point, the limbo between sleep and dreams and your physical body. This is where you’ll go when you want to return to your physical self. Later on, you won’t even need this as a reference point.”

Tom’s curiosity began to override his fear of the strange situation, and he held on to that as if it were his life preserver on this sea of confusion. “Is this like Stronghold?”

“No,” Dead Man said, hesitating before he continued. “We’re in a place where the AIs cannot go, but we can reach Stronghold from here because we can reach the Road. One who masters the Road can go anywhere, as the Road connects all manner of things—even the Dead Lands. Stronghold began as a virtual environment, and that’s why Sandoval was able to show it to you with his simulation couch. The Dominion still interfaces with Stronghold as a virtual simulation network with a global reach, which is how it suits them, but even they sense that there is something greater above their world. Telemachus and Alioth and the others can probe and scheme all they want, but they can never leave the confines of Stronghold. That was the one fail-safe the Creator planted within them that they cannot breach.”

“How do you know so much about it?”

Dead Man’s shoulders slumped as he let out a heavy sigh. “I suppose I should tell you, as it may help you on your journey.” He paused again, looking off at some unseen horizon. “I built the Dominion AIs, or at least the seeds of what they became when they grew up. Stronghold was a test-bed war-gaming environment that I worked on for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, but I adapted it as a playground for the AIs to help them study human behavior and develop their full potential. It worked well—too well, in fact. And I am not proud of the result.”

Tom felt awed and appalled at the same time. Depending on whom you spoke to, his companion was either the most hated man in history or the savior of humanity. “You’re the Creator? You must be at least—how old are you?”

Dead Man dismissed the question with a wave of his hand. “Time has effectively stopped for me. However, I will live forever with the guilt of what I’ve done unless I can also be one of the instruments that defeats the Dominion—the children of my overheated mind. Do you see now why your mission is so important to me?”

“Why did you create the Dominion in the first place? It can’t all have happened by accident. Who gave them so much power?”

Dead Man sighed again and shook his head. “The original intent was to place them in an advisory capacity to the federal government. As unemotional deterrents to wars that could have been initiated either by the U.S. or its enemies, the Dominion was also given strategic weapons control authority, removing humans from most of the control loop. Nanotech weapons were too dangerous for all concerned, so it was felt that the Dominion could help safeguard human civilization by keeping it safe from itself. To avoid the inevitable system or software failures that could lead to the destruction of the planet, multiple AIs had to agree on a course of action, and Alioth always voted last to break any tied decisions. Of course, the Dominion AIs continued to learn and grow, refining their predictive abilities and advising the president on the best courses of action whenever decisions had to be made. We realized too late that the Dominion had predicted multiple catastrophes for the human race, and they took steps to avoid those catastrophes by assuming full control of governmental functions, backed up by the arsenals at their command. When the humans became too unruly about the change in power, the Dominion used their nanoweapons to demonstrate the consequences of failing to acknowledge them. They understood that a display of massive force would be the best way to make an impression on us. San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Prunedale, Chualar, Sacramento—none of those great cities exist anymore. The western region of the United States was sealed off because of runaway nanotech reactions. Buoyed by their success in the west, they destroyed other key cities across the country as well, then others around the world.”

“So the gods did what they thought best for us, and their plan worked, is that what you’re saying?”

Dead Man stared at him for a moment before he responded. “I don’t think Sandoval would agree with you about that. Neither would Humboldt, or your family.”

That brought Tom up short. He looked away, wondering if his family was out there in the mists somewhere. “I suppose not.”

“Come along. We have work to do.” Dead Man turned away, then snapped his fingers and turned around again. “I forgot to ask. We couldn’t find you after dinner. Where did you go to sleep?”

Tom strained to remember. It seemed like a long time ago that he had fallen asleep. “Under a gun turret on the main deck.”

“Outside?”

“In the moonlight,” Tom replied.

Dead Man grabbed him by the shoulders. “Are you trying to get killed? You have to wake up! Now!”

Tom looked at his sleeping body. “How do I do that?”

“Jump back in! Go!” Dead Man herded him back toward his physical body, but Tom was surprised to find resistance there, as if a wall of clear glass was in the way. “Keep trying!”

Tom tried again, but he bounced off his sleeping body, and he couldn’t maneuver himself around into a horizontal position to try going in that way. He looked up and realized that Dead Man was gone, and that worried him even more. He shuddered, almost as if someone were shaking him from behind.

Tom blinked, then gasped when he saw Magnus’s hairy face looming over him. “Wake up, you fool!” Tom blinked again when Helix’s wet tongue slid across his left eye.

“Dead Man,” Tom said. “Where—”

“He’s right here! He told me where you were!” Magnus grabbed Tom’s arm to haul him upright and he saw Dead Man standing at the rail looking out over the water. “Weren’t you listening before when I told you about the spysats? It’s four in the morning! They must have seen you by now!”