The Tabit Genesis (23 page)

Five Years Earlier

‘I feel so … weird in these,’ Jake said, looking himself over.

‘I think you look sexy,’ Danna said, wrapping her arms around his waist. The subtle smile on her lips could convince him to do anything.

Jake was dressed in his Navy dress whites, reserved for formal ceremonies. The last time he had worn them had been a year ago at the annual Policeman’s Ball, which was where he first set eyes on Danna Tyrell.

‘Thanks, babe … are you sure about this?’ Jake asked again. He’d only proposed to her a week before. The problem was, they had yet to tell her father, who also happen to be the highest ranking police officer in Orionis.

That made matters somewhat intimidating.

Danna squeezed his hands.

‘It’ll be fine,’ she reassured. ‘Besides, it’s not like you’re asking him for permission.’

Jake winced.

‘I really should have asked him,’ he said. ‘Just out of respect …’

Danna smirked.

‘Did you ask him if we could date?’ she said playfully. ‘This isn’t much different.’

Augustus Tyrell, the legendary law enforcement commander, was also a notorious hardass. Jake was just as terrified of him as every other freshman officer.

When he had first met Danna, he had no idea who she was. Not that it would have mattered. Nothing was going to stop him from introducing himself.

‘It’s … a
little
different,’ Jake said.

‘Mmhmm, a little,’ she said, planting a kiss on his cheek. ‘Not much.’

‘He’s my boss now!’ Jake said, clasping her hands. ‘He won’t even acknowledge we’re together.’

‘He will after tonight,’ she said, whispering in his ear. ‘Especially when I tell him I’m pregnant.’

Present Day – The Sixth Ward, Brotherhood Station

I woke from the most joyous moment of my life, believing that I had died, and that heaven was a place where you relived your best memories for eternity.

Instead I was shivering violently, soaked from the waist down in some frothing, foul-looking liquid. The Minotaur was nowhere in sight. I found the gun submerged in the muck, and, wondering why it hadn’t fired, discovered that it was biometrically locked.

I must have blacked out before realising.

Cradling the useless weapon in my hands, I started to whimper a little, and before long I was sobbing. It was grief, I think. Or remorse. Maybe both.

I just don’t know what I am any more.

My head felt like it had been cleaved with a hammer, and every fibre of my muscle was burning with fever. Using the wall to steady myself, I rose from the muck. My corelink was ruined; it had been submerged the entire time I was out.

That reminded me of what I was supposed to be doing: finding a three-week supply of meat for Dusty. Wandering through an alley of closed shops, I was wondering who was going to sell me anything at that hour when I heard a loud shriek.

A silhouette darted across the street in front of me. Before I could blink, two more followed, both much larger than the first. One of them halted, staring at me for a moment before resuming chase.

I don’t know why, but I decided to follow. When I rounded the bend, I saw a young kid, clearly a mutant, cornered by two men.

‘This is your final warning,’ the boy said. ‘Repent, or you will be judged.’

The man confronting him was large, overweight, and with hideous boils all over his face. The other looked the same age, and had a badly hunched back. Their dirty, loose overalls made me think they worked in the slush pits.

‘You’ve got that wrong, freak,’ boil-face said, shoving the boy so hard that he struck his head on the pavement.

I couldn’t help myself.

‘Hey!’ I shouted. ‘What the fuck!’

The two men turned. Suddenly, a rush of premonition staggered me. Hunchback and I were going to dance first.

‘Get out of here, junkie,’ boil-face warned.

‘Junkie?’ I said. ‘Do you know who I am?’

‘No,’ hunchback said, closing on me. ‘Do you know I am?’

I knew it was coming: a hard, accurate punch to my solar plexus that left me doubled over and breathless. The blow hurt far worse than I imagined it would, but the adrenaline burst made me forget my other ailments.

Part of me even felt I deserved a good beating.

‘Mind your own fucking business now?’ boil-face said.

‘Maybe,’ I stammered, ‘you should go fuck yourself.’

‘A tough guy, eh?’ hunchback said. ‘Hear that, mate?’

Right now, I hate the fact I was trained to let people hit me. Fortunately, these two had learned to fight on the streets, and most of their shots were ineffective. I let the hunchback land a combo, again to my stomach, and then a knee that caught my forehead instead of my nose. But it was still enough force to jolt my vision and send me to the ground.

‘
Run
, kid!’ I warned.

But he made no effort to escape. Instead, he rose to his knees, eyes closed, palms facing upwards.

‘Saviour of Sol, fiery art thou,’ the boy said. ‘Blessed is thy wrath.’

Whatever nonsense he had just said really pissed off boil-face.

‘Shut the fuck up!’ the brute said, unleashing a wicked backhand on the boy’s face.

It was time for the dance to resume.

‘Hit that kid again and I’ll kill you,’ I said.

‘You must love pain,’ hunchback growled.

As I pushed myself off the ground, he gambled on a knockout shot with another high, hard punch. I stayed low and lunged, latching onto his knee and twisting him down, establishing side control before his shoulder blades even struck the ground. My right arm slipped under his hamstring as my left knee swung onto his stomach. I grabbed his leg and pulled it back towards me, straightening and bracing it against my shoulder. Then I let myself fall backwards.

Hunchback’s knee hyper-extended and snapped. I yanked it back further to make sure all the ligaments popped, because fuck him.

Kicking myself away from the screaming invalid, I rose to confront boil-face.

The boy, meanwhile, had resumed praying.

‘The righteous shall inherit the Earth,’ he said. ‘We worship you who conquer it.’

I dodged a punch from boil-face and countered with a perfect hook to the man’s kidney. To my bitter surprise, he didn’t crumble like I’d hoped. My punches just weren’t as strong as they used to be. All the drugs and anxiety and everything else had caught up, and no amount of adrenaline would help. This was an even fight now, because his strength and stamina could compensate for inferior reflexes.

We traded punches like savages. As fists smashed into bone and tissue, I lost track of the praying boy and the howling hunchback. I just focused on staying alive.

Mercifully, I landed a solid uppercut straight on his chin. Boil-face collapsed, unconscious, his limbs twitching. Completely spent, I fell to my knees in exhaustion.

It was then I realised that a crowd had surrounded us.

They said nothing, even as hunchback’s cries filled the night. My vision was blurry, whether from drugs or concussion I couldn’t say. But it looked to me as if every single person in this crowd – which included men, women, and children – was a mutant.

Suddenly, the praying boy stood up. He was smiling.

‘You see? Rao-lord has answered,’ he said, approaching me. I hadn’t noticed before that his head was misshapen, and his hands had just three fingers each. ‘Thank you.’

I didn’t know how to answer.

‘Shouldn’t you … be home or something?’ I muttered.

‘This is my hive,’ he said, motioning to the crowd. ‘And they are my children.’

I considered asking where I could find some choice tenderloins.

‘Sure they are,’ I said. ‘Do you need any CROs or something? For food or a place to stay or whatever?’

His smile had a creepy paternalistic assurance to it.

‘I won’t forget this,’ he said. ‘I will see you again. Perhaps then we will talk some more.’

Some people in the crowd were nodding at me approvingly.

‘Farewell, Jack Tatum,’ he said, winking at me.

I didn’t know what that meant. All I could do was watch as they dragged the thugs away.

By the time I made it back to Dusty’s flat, Brotherhood’s mirrors were reflecting the first rays of daybreak. With any luck, he was asleep, or better yet on his way to the
Breakaway
. Even without a corelink, I had still managed to get all the items on his list, including the damn meat. The bounty was on its way to the ship right now.

All I wanted was a few hours of sleep before my last trip into space. As the lift ascended to Dusty’s floor, I cursed my impatience. I didn’t need to kill myself; a premature death was already coming for me. All I needed to do was relax and ‘go with the flow’, even if that flow was a river of sewage churning towards the maws of a treatment plant.

Naturally, I had scored some more smacker during my errands, and I decided to light up as I approached the flat. After a deep, bitter, satisfying puff, I opened the door …

… and saw Vladric Mors sitting at the kitchen table with Dusty.

I froze in the doorway as if I’d just been shot.

‘Good morning, Jack,’ Vladric said, smiling broadly. ‘Won’t you join us?’

Dusty was looking at me as if I had three heads.

‘Rough night?’ Vladric commiserated, motioning for the table upon which a breakfast feast was evident. ‘Have a seat and tell us about it.’

As if it would make a difference, I straightened out my jacket and ran a hand through my hair, still unsure if I was really seeing this.

‘Oh, this is real,’ the Minotaur said, walking out from the bedrooms. He stood right over both of them. ‘And right
here
for the taking!’

The altruistic part of me found common ground with the fatalist. Here was Vladric Mors, with no guards, alone with Dusty. It was a momentous opportunity; the man who had ruined my life and controlled the fate of thousands, possibly millions, was sitting just ten metres away. If only I had been carrying a gun, this would have been over by now.

Instead, I needed to improvise, or die trying. There was no downside.

‘Lots of options here, Jake,’ the Minotaur said. ‘Snap out of it and close the door.’

‘I don’t want to interrupt …’ I said.

‘Not at all,’ Vladric responded. ‘Dusty and I were just discussing the invasion.’

‘Yeah?’ I said, closing the door and taking a deep puff. ‘How’s that going?’

‘Would you mind putting that out?’ Vladric asked. ‘As long as that’s alright with you, Dusty. It’s your home.’

‘Yes, I mean sure,’ Dusty said tentatively. ‘I kind of would appreciate it if you didn’t smoke in here, Jack. Like, ever.’

‘Vladric has been talking up his ego,’ the Minotaur warned. ‘But he won’t be an issue when you make your move.’

‘Sorry,’ I muttered, extinguishing the joint. ‘Habit.’

‘We know,’ Vladric said, sniffing the air and frowning. ‘On second thought, maybe you should just stay right where you are.’

Dusty got a whiff of whatever Vladric had smelled and winced.

‘Did you …?’ he asked.

My ability to smell had been ruined by my addiction. Whatever was in the puddle I passed out in had dried up and stained my pants. Judging from the look on their faces, I just assumed I was caked in shit.

‘Your grocery list wasn’t easy to get,’ I said.

‘Idiot!’ the Minotaur snarled. ‘Now you have to wait for him to come to you. He’s no street punk, Jake. Watch it.’

‘Did you get it all?’ Dusty asked, covering his mouth and nose.

‘On its way to the
Breakaway
right now,’ I nodded.

‘Let me see the list,’ Vladric said. Dusty handed him his corelink. ‘Synthetic steaks?’

‘It’s a delicacy,’ Dusty said, sheepishly.

‘That’s funny,’ Vladric said. ‘I thought I was the only one who liked it.’

‘
Fucking cannibals
,’
the
Minotaur snarled.

‘Why didn’t you tell me, Jack?’ Vladric asked. ‘I could have had this taken care of. Where’d you get the meat?’

‘Sixth Ward,’ I answered.

‘Mutants don’t like strangers,’ Vladric said. ‘You ought to know that.’

‘Learned the hard way,’ I answered.

Dusty looked uncomfortable.

‘Well, gentlemen, I have to see to some final preparations,’ Vladric said, rising from the table. ‘Dusty can fill you in, but to summarise, I’ve asked the
Breakaway
to join the vanguard in our attack on Corinth.’

‘The
vanguard
?’ roared the Minotaur. In naval warfare terminology, it was the lead element of any attack group tasked with intercepting a point in space, which in this case was the defences surrounding Corinth Naval Yards and the
Archangel
, the most heavily defended fortress in Orionis.

Of course, long before reaching there, they would run into a barrage of tungsten slugs with relative speeds approaching 35,000 metres per second.

‘That’s quite an honour,’ I said.

‘I think so,’ Vladric said, setting his coffee mug down. ‘I’m sure you’ve heard about the fleet modifications. The
Breakaway
will fly in my lance, protected by the shield cover of my ship.’

‘You’re blocking the door,’ the Minotaur said excitedly. ‘He has to go through you.’

‘I want the best men beside me for this moment in history,’ Vladric said. ‘And my best pilots, of course.’

‘Thank you, sir!’ Dusty said.

Vladric smiled as he began walking towards me.

‘This is it,’ the Minotaur said. ‘Don’t tense up. Act a little stoned, he knows what a junkie you are. Take his neck if it’s there, but his nose and a follow-up work just as well.’

Time slowed down. I waited for the premonition.

Instead of relaxing my shoulders, I tensed and froze as Vladric stopped exactly an arm’s length from me.

‘
Now, Jake!
’ the Minotaur shouted. ‘You’ll never get another chance!’

Vladric waited. He stood there, smiling,
knowing
exactly what I was thinking.

But there was no dance. As much as I had fantasised about this moment, it wasn’t meant to be.

And that son of a bitch knew it.

‘Excuse me,’ Vladric said.

I stepped out of his way. The Minotaur howled.

Vladric walked on by, pausing as the door opened.

‘See you in space,’ he said.