The Burn Zone (48 page)

“
Specialist Shao didn
’
t just bring back the boy, and a recording,
”
Hwong said.
“
He brought back something else.
A twistkey.
”

I looked from Hwong to Ligong.

“
Twistkey?
”
I asked.

“
Don
’
t play dumb,
”
Hwong said.
“
That key is the only
way to access the labs in
Shiliuyuán
Station, and you know it.
”

“
But
—
”

“
My men scanned you all, and no one seems to have it,
”
he said.
“
So where is it?
”

We were in trouble. I
’
d made a huge mistake, and we were all in big, big trouble. Hwong was in on this from the start, and now all three of us knew way too much for him to just let us go. I realized then that the only thing that might be keeping us alive was the fact that he wasn
’
t sure where the information he wanted was, and he thought one of us might know.

“
Look,
”
I said,
“
I just want my father back. That
’
s all. If I give you the key—
”

“
That
’
s not how things work,
”
he said.
“
Decide which one of you has what I want before we get where we
’
re going. Otherwise I will find out myself, one way or the other. Do you understand?
”

“
I got it,
”
I said. Nix groped with one hand, putting it on mine. He urged me with his eyes not to provoke them any further.

“
I understand,
”
I added.

“
Good. Just sit tight. We
’
ll be there soon.
”

A window popped up on the 3i, floating between me and Nix as he messaged me. The letters came slowly, and erratically, crawling across the chat window like the trail of a dying insect.

Don
’
t do it.

Nix...

Don
’
t let them into
Shiliuyuán
Station. If you do, and they see what she
’
s done, then one individual
’
s actions will be the end of all of us.

Nix, I don
’
t know if I can stop them.

You can. Bring the boy there, like you planned. Stop the burn. Sillith will be gone soon. Her cycle is at an end.
It will be over. No one has to know what she tried to do. Please.

He closed his eyes, and the little beating-heart icon next to his name went still and gray as he dropped offline. I looked back to Hwong, who was now gazing out the window, calm, and almost bored.

The weight of millions of impending deaths did not register in his eyes at all.

~ * ~

Chapter Eighteen

06:07:02 BC

The ride took us high over
Tùzi-wō
proper, and I was surprised to see the blue dome of the haan force field growing larger in the windshield.

“
Are we going to the ship?
”
I asked, peering out the window. We were getting so close that I could make out the hexagonal light formations through the blue haze. Behind them, the ship towered above all else, a
spired
behemoth that loomed over the surrounding skyline. Pinprick lights twinkled from within seams along the hull.

“
Not even I can get in there,
”
Hwong said.

The buildings beneath the aircar began to thin as we approached the dome, and the radio crackled up front as the wall surrounding the skirts appeared up ahead. I watched out the window as the shadow of our car passed over the spherical outer hull of one of the giant lenses, arcing down toward its jutting array of emitters. Turrets sat hunkered along the rim like huge mechanical gargoyles, aimed inward toward the ship and any criminals lurking in the wasteland between who might try and run the gantlet.

“
Approaching vehicle,
”
a voice crackled,
“
transmit your transponder code.
”

“
Stand by,
”
the driver said
,
reaching forward to fiddle
with something on the dash controls. A moment later the voice came back.

“
Thank you. You are cleared.
”

“
We
’
re coming in,
”
the driver said over his shoulder.

Nix stirred next to me as the wall passed beneath us and we began to descend down over the skirts. As bad as they looked from a distance, they looked a million times worse up close. Between the wall and the translucent electric blue of the dome force field was a fifty-year-old graveyard, a ring of toxic, unusable trash neither we nor the haan wanted. Stumps of buildings were still recognizable, sections of wall and steel framework poking up out of several stories of dust and ash that covered everything, but any trace of life was long gone. There were no lights, no fires, nothing.

In the rearview mirror I could see the dust cloud billowing behind us and blotting out the city skyline. When I looked down at the blanket of soot and sludge that streaked past below the aircar
’
s belly, it made me uneasy. If for any reason we crashed down there, we
’
d be buried with no way to get out.

A jagged section of wall huffed past on our right, fog streaming through the rows of empty window holes. The skewed slope of one of the floors sheared down from one side and into the soot below. People had lived there. They
’
d been sitting at tables eating, or lying in their beds sleeping, when it happened. Everyone knew the story, but it was spooky to see it up close like this. Black bits of ash streaked through the aircar
’
s headlamps as they blinked on, and off in the distance I spotted a faint electric red light that would be invisible from the outer rim through all the debris and dust.

“
What is that?
”

The driver throttled the emitters back and we dropped lower. Hard charred bits peppered the windshield as we passed through a cloud, then
down a powdery slope to where a deep, dark pocket had been dug out up ahead.

The red light flashed three times, went out, and then flashed three times again before coming back on. The driver closed in on the spot and hovered, making a lazy circle around the pit below. They
’
d blown out the dust and ash, then dug out the underlying layers of packed dirt, concrete powder, and soot to expose a big section of tiled floor about twenty feet down that they were using as a landing platform. An old twisted section of fire escape was half embedded in the wall of debris on one side to form a makeshift signal tower, the red electric lamp trailing cables down to a generator below.

There were four other airbikes lined up down there, and we landed in an open space near one wall that still had an exposed doorway on it, though the other side was packed solid with dirt and debris. Across the old tiled floor on the other side was another piece of wall that had buckled a little under pressure from above. A metal doorframe in the middle had held its ground, and the chipped blue door had a red LED shining over a magnetic lock. Through the car
’
s sunroof I saw smoke and dust moaning over the pit
’
s mouth in billowy gray streams, the bright point of Fangwenzhe bleeding through like a tiny second sun. The car settled down, and floating grit suddenly dropped back down to the ground as the emitters deactivated.

“
Now what?
”
Vamp asked from up front. Fear flashed in his eyes as he looked out the window.

“
Let
’
s go,
”
Ligong said.

The doors opened and we piled out, Vamp with his hands still pinned behind his back and Nix a little unsteady on his feet as we were escorted across the buckled floor. It was at least twenty degrees cooler there, and the air had a bittersweet chemical smell. When we reached the door at the far end, the LED turned from red to
green, and I heard the bolt pop over the rush of wind. The door opened, and a man stepped out. He was tall and sinewy, with waxy skin and an ugly pockmarked face. He was dressed in uniform, but had a black rubber butcher
’
s apron on over it, and a cigar butt glowed in the corner of his wide, thick lips.

“
You,
”
Hwong said to Vamp,
“
go with him.
”

Vamp bristled, glancing back over his shoulder toward the car.

“
There
’
s nothing back there,
”
Hwong said.
“
Go with him.
”

“
Wait,
”
I said.
“
Just hold on.
”

“
Alive or dead,
”
Hwong
said,
his voice hardening.
“
Your choice.
”

Vamp took an unsteady step toward the man in the apron, who just watched, not smiling. Ligong shoved him then, causing him to stumble forward.

“
You too,
”
Hwong said to Nix.
“
Go with them.
”

Nix didn
’
t argue. He approached the uniformed man in the apron, and waited with Vamp as the man took a scanner from his belt and aimed it at him. When he switched it on, a holoscreen appeared in the air above it, displaying a vague outline of interference where Nix would be.

“
He
’
s got an Escher Field,
”
the man said.
“
The destination
’
s scrambled and it won
’
t respond with an inventory.
”

“
Let
’
s have it,
”
Ligong said, holding out one hand.

I watched as Nix gave up the tablet and she held it up to the light. She angled it back and forth, but the screen appeared as nothing more than a seamless silver plate. She handed it to Hwong.

“
Take them in,
”
Hwong said to the man. The guy nodded, then put the scanner away and gestured for Nix and Vamp to follow. Vamp looked back over his shoulder as he went, making eye contact with me.

“
Where are you taking them?
”
I asked.

“
You
’
ll see,
”
he said.
“
Lieutenant, go with them.
”
She nodded, following along behind. They disappeared down the corridor branch ahead, and Hwong took us down the broken hallway in the other direction, to a heavy metal door. He held it open and signaled for me to go inside.

The hallway of whatever building had been buried all those years ago had a floor and walls that had shifted and cracked, but it was still mostly intact. They
’
d strung up a tangled length of holiday lights all the way down on both sides, held in place with carpenter staples. There were other doors on the walls along the way, but they looked like they were jammed shut and I saw rubble poking out of a gap in one of them. Up ahead the corridor opened into what might once have been an old office.