Spanners - The Fountain of Youth (14 page)

“No sir.”

“You
should
fear him,” said Juan, “because so many have underestimated him in the past and paid the price for it; he always finds a way to accomplish his goals, especially when they’re antithetical to yours.”

Juan thought for a moment and took another sip of wine.

“Your dogs will follow him, will they not?” asked Juan.

“They are tracking him as we speak,” said Balthasar.

“Tell me about them again, Balthasar,” said Juan. “These are spanner animals, these spider-dogs?”

“Spider-wolves, sir,” said Balthasar.

“Of course,” said Juan. “Now tell me what they can do, and how they will help us.”

“They’re a breed indigenous to the Wild Zone,” said Balthasar. “They’re wolves with the lifespan of a spider. I’ve be
en able to train them, and they’re excellent at tracking and relaying messages back here. They’ll find Adam even if it takes them several generations to do so.”

“Splendid,” said Juan. “They’ll find him, but they won’t kill him because he’ll be able to find a way out. Adam has lived far too long to meet his end at the hands of a few dogs.
Would you be able to follow them as they pursue Adam north?”

“Of course
, sir.”

“Good. You’ll go with Cannon, Drayne and a few human
guards. I’ve already sent our blur south to find Adam’s sister Phoe,” said Juan. “Our blur will bring her to us, and if you haven’t found Adam by then, send the message that we have her and Adam will find you.”

“Of course
, sir.”

Juan took one final sip of the wine and placed the glass on the table. Balthasar noticed that the bottle had been emptied, and that there were three other empty bottles beside it.

“We’re approaching events, Balthasar, great events that will change the course of history,” said Juan. “The events may be as small as a conversation or as large as a war, but they’re coming, and it’s not a matter of
if
, but
when
and
what do we do
when we reach these moments.

“You will find Adam, and when you find him you must seize the opportunity to put him away, no matter how dark your action must be. When that option comes, can I trust you to do the right thing? Can you take the whip off your own back and point it outwards? Do you believe in what we’re doing so much that you would put Adam in the ground?”

“Burial, sir?”

“Yes, Balthasar
; could you bury Adam alive if it would serve to eliminate him?”

Balthasar thought for a moment and then nodded
.

“My goal is to find the Fountain and bring her back here,” said Balthasar. “But I
’ll also do whatever else needs to be done.”

“Then we are halfway to our destiny,” said Juan with a smile, “and it’s just a matter of time before the entire world is ours.”

PART II

THE WILD ZONE

PRECOCIOUS CHILDREN

Phoe rode the train north with Phage and Geryon, holding on for dear life at every turn. She was getting used to calling herself Phoe (
rhymes with “tree”
) and not Kalar, and had an even harder time pretending that she was a migrant. The others on top of the train looked at her pale skin with surprise, and though she had dyed her hair black, she still couldn’t pass as a Bolivian emigrant.
Soy una periodista,
she learned to say with a smile.
“I’m a reporter.”

The
Train of Death
funneled countless migrants north through Mexico each year, and now Phoe was one of them. So were Phage and Geryon, and they blended in surprisingly well. Phage, though he had the high cheekbones and the narrow, aquiline nose of a European, was so disheveled that he could have been any race. He simply looked like he was about to die, and the other migrants avoided him because they didn’t want to catch what he had.

They avoided Geryon because they were afraid of him. Some of the children called him
El Chupacabra
or
El Cucuy
under their breath, but the adults avoided him because they thought that this large man with a mask was a spy for the gangs who lurked at every stop.

For these reasons
, Phoe had begged Phage to take them north on a more traditional route, but he insisted that they take this
Train of Death
. It was part of his penance to travel with the dispossessed
,
he had said, but Phoe thought that his reparations would have been better paid elsewhere. Still, she followed Phage on this dangerous journey; even death on these trains would have been better than returning home to Master Chergon in Bolivia.

“
Rama!”
yelled one of the women up front, and soon the rest of the stowaways echoed the same thing: “
branch!”

Several tree limbs brushed over the top of the train, dislodging many of the migrants from their spots. Phoe ducked, but it hit a woman behind her squarely in the stomach, pushing her over. The tree branch eventually hit Geryon, breaking off against his big body, but the woman was gone. She had fallen off the train, perhaps landing on the ground with a few broken bones, perhaps sucked into the wheels and killed.

Phoe recovered and wept a few bitter tears at the notion that this lady’s life, and at the very least her journey, had ended. Phoe had bonded with this woman, a mother of two, and knew that one way or another, her children would never see her again.

Phoe heard yelling and turned around to find that part of the train’s metal roof was now glowing with heat and was burning some of the passengers. She forced herself to stop crying
, and soon the others stopped yelling, and all was quiet again.

Five minutes later
, the train slowed and then came to a halt. She at first thought it was because the woman had fallen off, but soon realized that it was because the train had arrived at a loading station, and nothing more. As soon as the train stopped, the migrants fled off; there were gangs lying in wait to rob them, or worse. Phoe saw several children head towards brown pools on the ground, kneel down and then lap up the dirty water like dogs.

“You can drink it too,” said Phage. “Your class of spanner is highly mortal, but doesn’t get hurt by sickness, bacteria, that kind of thing.”

Phoe nodded, and then knelt down by the muddy water. It tasted of dirt, metal and gasoline, but it eventually slaked her thirst.

/***/

“I was born eight thousand years ago,” said Phage. “Maybe earlier; that’s all any of us can remember. I don’t remember a childhood, and neither does Adam. As far as our memories go, we were always grown-up like this.”

Geryon clicked twice and then put two more logs
on the campfire, throwing them in from far away. He retreated to the darkness, clicked several times more and then disappeared.

“He’s scared of the fire,” said Phage, “but he isn’t scared of anything else
.”

“What is he?” asked Phoe. “What’s Geryon’s spanner class?”

“No one knows for sure, but they call him a
golem-
class spanner,” said Phage. “I don’t know the full extent of his powers, which started to grow after he was burned at the stake. But he’s got powers, don’t you worry about that, and we’re lucky he’s on our side. There are gangs out here robbing and raping the poor and what have you, but Geryon will sense them coming from far away, and they’ll regret they ever approached us.”

Phoe nodded. She knew the gangs were dangerous, but felt safe with Geryon on the periphery.

“Was I with you?” she asked. “Eight thousand years ago?”

“Yeah,” said Phage. “We were all together, always. Five kids total, four straight-up immortal with different nuances and powers, and you, immortal in the reincarnative sense.”

Phage explained to Phoe about her class, how they’re destined to fall in love, get their hearts broken and then be reborn in flames.

“You ain’t fallin’ in love or dyin’ this lifetime, or at least not yet,” said Phage. “But whenever you get upset, shit catches on fire, so watch yourself. That’s why Geryon’s scared of you, because of fire.”

“You said he was burnt?” said Phoe.

“At the stake, for sorcery,” said Phage, nodding. “He was a monk during the Inquisition
, and he refused a few orders, so a fellow monk stabbed him in the heart. Geryon didn’t die, so they thought he was a sorcerer from Hell, or something like that. They burned him for three days straight, and then buried him in a potter’s field. Adam found him and dug him up, but Geryon wasn’t right after that and ran away.

“Geryon recovered, but not fully
. He ain’t like Adam, regenerating and what not. He’s strong, mind you, probably as strong as ten men, but he ain’t pretty under that mask, and he can’t see. His eyes didn’t survive those flames.

“So he wandered aimlessly, probably a century or so, and then I found him, took him under my wing. We were two outcasts, angry at a world that
didn’t want them, but couldn’t kill them either. He eventually got to working on a mask, one that amplifies sound waves. That clicking? It’s what we call
echolocation
, helps him get around, and he’s really good at getting around in the dark.”

Phoe nodded and smiled to herself. Her
old family on Chergon’s island seemed normal by comparison.

“Who
else?” she asked. “Who else is in our family?”

“There’s me, the sicko,” said Phage. “There’s Samantha; she’s an
allergic
-class spanner, an immortal like us, but everything can kill her: hazelnuts, soy, lettuce and a million other things. And then there’s Adam; he’s a tree-class immortal and real know-it-all prick too.”

“You don’t get along with him?” asked Phoe.

“I didn’t,” said Phage with a slight smile, “for a few millennia at least. I did bad things, and he did everything he could to stop me. Now I realize he was right, and he should have done more; he should have killed me when he had the chance.”

“Can immortals be killed?”

“If so, Adam could find a way,” said Phage with another smile. “He should have killed me eight thousand years ago and spared the world some trouble.”

“I don’t remember Adam, but from what you’ve told me
, he doesn’t sound like a guy who would kill his own brother,” said Phoe.

Phage laughed dryly for a moment, and then became somber. He rubbed his eyes, coughed a wet cough, lit a cigarette and then looked at her, trembling slightly.

“Maybe that’s the problem,” said Phage. “Because I’ve killed a lot of people.”

“How many?”

“Billions.”

Phage motioned
for Phoe to be quiet, looked into the darkness again and listened. There was a commotion coming from beyond the campfire, and after a few moments Phoe realized that it was the sounds of a fight, with punches thrown and landed. There were a few clicks and then a horrified shrieking; it sounded like a man was being torn in half.

“Billions with an
s
,” said Phage, throwing his cigarette on the ground and standing up, “but just give me a moment. Geryon must have caught a robber, and I gotta stop him before it becomes billions plus one.”

/***/

Five minutes later, Phage came back to the campfire with a dark smile on his face. The train ride had blown some of the dust off his clothes, and Phoe saw that he was wearing a leather jacket over tight jeans, and didn’t walk with the limping gait of a sick man, but rather with the indifferent swagger of someone with nothing to lose. She also noticed that Phage had specks of blood on his shirt, and the stains seemed fresh.

“The aforementioned trespasser will live,” said Phage, “but he won’t be trespassing again any time soon.”

Phage sat down, took the cigarette off the ground and swiped it across the campfire to light it. He took a few drags and continued his story. He started by explaining to Phoe about how his class of spanner was immortal but had no immune system, so viruses and bacteria flourished within them but didn’t kill them.

“And we become a repository for
every disease that’s ever existed, and not just the ones today. I still have infections from past millennia, and if I let ’em out, there’ll be trouble.”

“But
billions
?” asked Phoe.

“
Yep. There are other phage-class spanners around, but none have had the effect that I’ve had. Eight thousand years is a long time, and I started about twenty plagues before I even knew what was happening. I remember being a sick guy, walking into an area, and then everyone else would get sick. I’d stay alive and they’d die, time and time again. I don’t know for sure, but I guess those twenty plagues killed a few million when all was said and done.

“Millions was just the start. After I put two and two together
, I taught myself how to control the diseases within me, and things got real ugly, real fast.”

Phage looked down into the fire and clenched his jaw; it seemed to Phoe as if Phage had practiced this speech countless times in his head before and finally had someone with whom to share it.

“I’ve known you for a lot of your lifetimes,” said Phage. “Most of the time I wasn’t that nice to you, and if it weren’t for Adam protecting you, you’d have been in real trouble.”

“What did you do to me?” asked Phoe.

“Nothing weird, nothing like that, if that’s what you’re getting at,” said Phage with a grim look on his face.

Phoe didn’t understand what he thought she was
getting at
, but could tell that he was genuine.

“I was bad to your boyfriends
, mostly,” said Phage. “They broke your heart, and I made sure they died for it.”

“Sounds like you were trying to protect me,” said Phoe.

“Nah,” said Phage. “I told myself I was protecting you at first, but later on I had to admit I just liked killing them. There was a Babylonian fishmonger who was a prick to you and an Amorite who was a real sweetheart. Gave the first a variant of measles, the second a precursor to the Spanish Flu. They both got sick, and they both brought their sicknesses back to their home villages. Both times you still ended up heartbroken, and both times you ended up in flames.”

Phage took another drag of his cigarette.

“You hate me for it?” asked Phage.

“I can’t,” said Phoe. “I don’t remember any of it.”

“Just as well,” said Phage. “But I wasn’t looking out for you, not like Adam did. You might not remember him, but he was always real nice to you, so be nice when you see him.”

“I will,” said Phoe.
             

Phage smiled a bit. He reminded Phoe of a recovered alcoholic who had come to Chergon’s island. That man was deeply shamed by his past misdeeds, but maintained a perverse pride at their extent. Like him, Phage had done bad things, but they were
big
things.

“I spent the rest of my life in exile, up until a few years ago,” said Phage. “Disease after disease until the number reached into the billions.”

“Billions is a lot,” said Phoe.

“It wasn’t just disease
s, at least not directly,” said Phage. “Give the plague to a group of farmers and the nation falls into famine. Give a few prostitutes in an army camp a new form of syphilis, and it’ll spread to the general who’ll go crazy and start three wars. Believe me, you can reach billions real quick if you infect the right people.”

“So why the change of heart?” asked Phoe. “Why are you doing Adam a favor?”

Phage smiled a bit, took one last drag off his cigarette and threw it to the ground, crushing it under his boot.

“Change of heart happened fifty years ago
, and it’s too long a tale to tell now,” said Phage. “But needless to say, I wanted to stop killing people, and asked Adam for help. He and the mayfly found a substance that turns a spanner mortal. I took it; I’m gonna die at seventy, and that’ll be that.”