Ghosts

FOURTEEN

Michael stood in the shadows of the hallway as a crowd filed toward the trading post. At the head, Sergeant Jenkins led Janga toward the stockade. There was no telling what Captain Jordan had planned for her, but whatever it was, it couldn’t be good.

Michael looked at the piece of paper Janga had given him. He hoped the log-in and passcode would answer all his questions.

“We need to find a terminal that can’t easily be traced,” he said.

Layla grabbed his arm. “I know just the place.”

A frantic shout echoed down the hallway. “They’ve got Janga!”

The throng of passengers shifted away from the trading post and trailed after Jenkins and Janga.

“There’s going to be trouble,” Michael said. He jogged with Layla toward the corner and watched as Norma, grubby hands pressed against her bent back, shuffled after Janga.

“Where are you taking my friend?” she yelled.

Jenkins turned and swatted at Norma. “Get back to work.”

“Commander Everhart, is that you?” a voice called. “What’s going on?”

Michael looked back toward the trading post and saw Rodger’s father. Cole Mintel had a clock in one hand and a rag in the other.

“The militia just arrested Janga,” Michael said.

Cole wiped off the clock and shrugged. “Been a long time comin’, if you ask me.” His expression turned grim. “Have you heard anything about my boy? The divers have been down there for a couple hours now.”

“I’m sorry, sir, but Layla and I haven’t heard anything yet.”

Cole nodded solemnly and walked backed to the trading post. By the time Michael looked back down the passage, Jenkins and Janga were gone. Norma hobbled toward them, tears running down her wrinkled face.

“They’re going to kill her,” Norma muttered as she passed Michael.

Layla frowned and turned to him. “You don’t think they’d actually hurt her, do you?”

Michael shook his head. “The captain isn’t a barbarian. Besides, too many people saw her being arrested. I’m sure she’ll be fine.”

Layla didn’t seem convinced, but she led the way into the trading post and down a passage, past the entrance to the farm and the water treatment plant. Michael’s heart was beating fast, and not from childhood memories of this place. He and Layla were close to finding out the truth at last.

They continued through the living quarters for upper-deckers and past several small shops, including the Wingman. Back in the day, if X went missing, the bar was where Michael would look first. Layla turned into the hallway where she had grown up. Michael could see the drawing of the sun on the hatch. At first, he thought she was heading there, but she stopped two hatches down and knocked.

“Don’t worry,” she said while they waited for a response. “Deborah’s working right now, but she was a friend of my mom’s. I’m sure she won’t mind if we use her old terminal.”

When no one answered, Layla opened the hatch and stepped inside.

“Over here,” she said, crossing the cramped living space to a monitor on a small desk against a bulkhead.

Michael shut the hatch behind them with a click. “I don’t like this. I know Jordan has someone monitoring log-ins. If this one’s flagged, it won’t take long for the militia to show up, which puts Deborah at risk.”

Layla smirked. “You asked me if I trust you, Tin. Now I have to ask you the same thing. Do you?”

She sat down at the desk and held out her hand for the paper.

“You know I do.”

He handed her the credentials, and she sat down at the monitor and placed the paper beside the keyboard on the desk.

“Good,” she said as she typed, “because I’ll make sure this shit ain’t traced. Deborah taught me a few things over the years.”

Michael pulled up a chair beside Layla as a list of files popped onto the screen.

“Some of these are Captain Ash’s personal logs,” Layla said, glancing up.

“They all look like they were saved at the end of her life.”

“Yeah… and these aren’t all her recordings. Looks like a few of these videos were retrieved from the restricted archives.”

Layla played with the bottom of her braid—a nervous habit that made her look more like the girl he remembered from their youth. “This is some heavy stuff. Treasonous stuff, Tin. We could get in a lot of—”

Michael put a hand on her knee and leaned over to her. “We’ve reached the bottom of the rabbit hole. You can leave if you want, but I’m finishing this.”

Layla cracked a half smile and turned back to the monitor. “Well, okay then. I always wanted to get shot out of a launch tube without a chute.”

She typed in several commands, and a moment later, a familiar voice came from the speakers—a voice that flooded Michael with memories both warm and painful. He had spent over five years living with Maria and her husband, Mark. Losing them both within two months of each other had been tough. Captain Ash had finally succumbed to cancer, and although it wasn’t logged as Mark’s cause of death, Michael believed he had died of a broken heart.

Layla had helped him get through the darkness back then, but the feeling of intense sadness returned at the sound of Captain Ash’s scratchy voice. She spoke of the ship and her dream for its people. She told the story of Captain Sean Rolo of the airship Victory, and his discovery in Africa. She listed possible locations to scavenge in red zones that the Hive had never explored: bunkers, silos, and cities underground.

As they listened to the logs, the cracking in her voice grew progressively worse—the cancer spreading from her throat to her lungs. By the final recordings, the once-commanding voice of Captain Ash was barely more than a hoarse whisper.

“What’s this?” Layla asked. She clicked on a video marked with the white ITC logo: a scraper with a star over the top.

A male narrator began telling them about the advent of the ITC airships, as well as of the underground cities Captain Ash had spoken of. This was new information to Michael, but it still didn’t explain why the captain had sent him to read about genetic engineering in some ancient library book.

“ITC thought of everything, didn’t they?” Layla said. “Shelters in the sky and underground? It was as if they knew what was coming.”

“Captain Ash did say these airships were the ones that dropped the bombs that started the war,” Michael said, motioning for her to go back to the previous screen. “What haven’t we seen yet?”

“There are a few more videos here, and one last recording from Captain Ash.”

“Play that first,” Michael said.

She clicked the file and took Michael’s hand. They sat there, hand in hand, listening to her final words. For several minutes, she spoke of the dream she’d had of a habitable place on the surface, a place to make a new home for humanity. Even though her voice was raspy, Michael picked up on the trace of sadness as she admitted that her dream would never come true. Her final words broke his already aching heart.

“Our future is no longer in the sky,” said Captain Ash. “Our future is underground.”

“Underground?” Layla said. “Like under the Hilltop Bastion?”

Michael massaged his temples. “I’m not sure.”

“I don’t understand. Why take us on this scavenger hunt just to tell us her dream changed from living on the surface to living underground in one of these communal shelters? Why not just tell you that from the beginning, in the note she gave you? And why wait until we got a radio transmission from the surface?”

“Maybe she feared that Captain Jordan wouldn’t tell anyone the truth, and this was her contingency plan. He never did share her dream of finding a place to put down.”

Layla paused to think. “But what about the stuff Janga found? I’m not seeing anything like that here.”

Michael continued massaging his forehead, trying to think. Nothing was making sense.

“Every ITC facility is located in a red zone, including the one in Hades,” Layla said.

“The same one that X helped blow up ten years ago?”

“That’s my guess.” Layla studied the screen and then pointed. “The Hilltop Bastion is on this list, along with twelve others. Looks like we’ve already searched the areas where communals eight, two, and ten are, right?”

Michael read over the locations. He never forgot a dive, especially one that resulted in a death. “We lost some good men and women on those missions.”

“Yes, but look at the pattern, Tin. All these dives had two things in common.”

He cocked an eyebrow. “What two things?”

“Sirens and ITC bunkers.”

“You think there’s a connection?”

“Maybe, but I think there’s a third part of this puzzle that we’re missing.”

She turned back to the screen and looked through the other files.

Michael tensed as he heard footsteps approaching. If someone came in now, how could he and Layla possibly explain what they were doing? They would end up in the stockade with Janga. The footsteps passed, continuing down the corridor without slowing.

“Don’t worry,” Layla said, “I told you, we’re safe… Wait. What’s this?”

She had highlighted a file labeled XR.

She clicked on it, and an error message popped up. “Says it’s corrupted.”

“Can you fix it?” Michael asked.

She shrugged one shoulder. “I can try.”

Michael stood and paced behind her as she worked. He felt trapped in this tiny room. Worse, the questions wouldn’t stop ping-ponging inside his skull. What hadn’t Janga told them? And why had Captain Ash sent him on this posthumous wild-goose chase?

The computer speakers began to play a recording in a smooth baritone voice.

“To protect the human race, ITC is at the forefront of genetic engineering and modification,” the man was saying.

“I think I got it,” Layla said.

Michael walked back to the desk and sat. A warehouse packed with gray capsules appeared on the screen.

“Are those coffins?” she asked.

“No, they’re cryogenic chambers.”

Long cords stretched across the floor, and icy mist drifted through the room. The camera panned up, but where he expected a ceiling, there were towers with hundreds of the capsules. The feed showed a pair of scientists in space suits, working around an open capsule at the bottom of one of the silos.

A new image came on-screen, and this time the scientists were gone. Two young women stepped out of the chambers. One by one, more tubes opened, and a crowd of naked young adult humans gathered in the middle of the room.

“Holy shit,” Michael said. “They grew humans?”

Layla couldn’t speak.

“Do you remember what the governor of Hilltop Bastion said in her transmission?”

“Something about not being able to keep them back much longer, and to send support.” His eyes flitted to meet Layla’s as she said what he was thinking.

“Maybe the survivors at the Hilltop Bastion unfroze the cryogenic chambers too early, and somehow it backfired.”

Michael considered the implications, shaking his head in awe. “If Jordan knows about all this, then why would he send Weaver, Rodger, and Andrew down there to check out one of the chambers? He has to know there are no survivors.”

“Maybe he doesn’t know everything.”

Michael snorted. “Trust me, he knows a hell of a lot more than we do. So that raises the question: Why send the divers on a probable suicide mission in a red zone?”

“He never did buy Captain Ash’s dream, did he?”

“No, they never did see eye to eye on that.”

“You don’t think he would do this on purpose, do you?” Layla asked. “To prove Captain Ash wrong. To prove that we have to live up here forever?”

“If that’s true, then the monsters aren’t just on the surface anymore. There’s one at the helm of the Hive.”

Michael got up, his mind racing.

“Where are we going?” Layla asked.

“To save our friends.”

Hot breath fogged Magnolia’s visor as she and Rodger entered a cavernous hallway leading to the cryogenics lab. The rust-coated doors loomed twenty feet high in the distance. They weren’t moving very fast, Magnolia stopping every few feet to check their six. Their flashlight beams hit the open door. The landing and stairwell appeared free of any contacts, and they hadn’t heard anything for the past half hour.

As they approached the doors, Rodger reached into his vest pocket and pulled out a small white card. This was the first room they had encountered that was completely sealed off. The personal quarters, cafeteria, and gymnasium they had passed on the way down had all been broken into. They had found evidence of another gun battle outside the gymnasium, but they didn’t have time to stop and examine it. On the bright—or at least less gloomy—side, Rodger hadn’t asked to search for wooden salvage, which meant he was spooked.

He stopped in front of the door and looked up. These rusted doors separated them from possible survivors suspended in deep sleep. It was hard for Magnolia to grasp that they could be so close to other humans. People she had never talked to, faces she had never seen. After spending her whole life on the airship with fewer than five hundred residents, she might finally meet a stranger.

But these people weren’t like the ones she knew on the Hive. They had been frozen in the distant past, in a world wholly unlike the one she lived in. Would she even be able to relate to them? Have a conversation with them?

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” Rodger whispered. “Maybe I should contact Weaver before we open this thing up.”

“No, we’re doing this now.” She eyed the control panel and walked over to the sensors. She wiped away a thick layer of dust with her glove, then reached back for the card. Rodger’s hand shook as he gave it to her.

“You okay?” she asked.

“I’m good. Just a bit on edge.” He took a step back and readied his rifle.

Magnolia bent down to the control panel. She was nervous, too, but curiosity won out. In the past, that side of her nature had gotten her into trouble. Maybe they should wait—but what if they never had another chance to search this place?

“Doesn’t look like this room’s been accessed in ages,” she said.

“Is that good or bad?”

Magnolia shrugged. “We’re going to find out. Are you ready?”

Rodger gave a thumbs-up.

She waved the card over the sensors once, then twice. On the third try, the glass blinked green. She unslung her rifle and moved over to Rodger.

A hollow thud like a distant gunshot rang out above them. She cringed at the noise. Then came three more bangs as the locking mechanisms opened. A distant, guttural groan answered the sounds.

Both divers turned from the entrance to look down the hallway. The noise had come from the stairwell at the end of the hallway.

They had woken something.

The angry groan evolved into a series of grunts. The sounds rumbled up from the lower floors as if the whole facility’s guts were rumbling. It was the same creature they had heard earlier, and Magnolia had just told it precisely where they were.

“Rodge, stay on point,” she said. “I got our six.”

They came together back-to-back, with Magnolia pointing her rifle at the landing and Rodger training his on the doors.

“Is that a Siren?” Rodger asked. “I’ve always wanted to see—”

The heavy doors opened, silencing him as the metal screeched across the concrete floor.

Magnolia took a step back as he moved. She didn’t even turn to look inside the room, just kept her muzzle on the landing.

The grunts had changed to a screech that sounded like a dozen Sirens at once. The high-pitched din was followed by clattering from the stairwell. Snapping metal and the shriek of claws over concrete grated on her ears.

She swallowed and did her best to square her shoulders, preparing to fire at a split-second’s notice. Sweat dripped down her forehead as she backpedaled after Rodger into the chamber.

“Where’s the card?” he asked. “I need to close the doors!”

“Upper right vest pocket,” she replied.

The clatter from the stairwell grew louder. The thing was climbing, scraping against the walls as it came. Whatever this beast was, it would be far and away the biggest living thing she had ever seen.

Rodger grabbed the card from Magnolia’s pocket as she stepped into the room, keeping her muzzle trained on the landing, her finger on the trigger.

“Hurry up, Rodge!”

A faint orange light emerged in the stairwell. The bangs and thuds grew louder as the light brightened.

“Come on!” she shouted.

The doors groaned again. They were closing, but not fast enough. At the other end of the passage, the creature bounded up the last of the stairs and pounced on the landing so hard they felt the tremor. It rose to its full height: a staggering eight feet tall.

She zoomed in with her scope as the doors continued to shut in front of her. The magnification revealed a muscular humanoid figure with a disproportionately small head. Her crosshairs flitted across glowing orange flesh and up to the thing’s face. Two white irises with blue pupils stared back at her from a skinless skull.

“What the hell is that thing!” Rodger shouted. He was pushing the left door shut now, his boots slipping across the floor.

The creature bent down and let out a guttural growl from deep within its chest. It raised its muscular arms, revealing catlike paws that ended in three jagged claws.

Magnolia lined up her crosshairs and fired a burst into its chest. The bullets hit their target but only barely penetrated. She fired another shot at its small skull as it bent down to charge, revealing a back ridged with armored fins. The round chipped the bone and ricocheted off the walls.

“The fucker’s got armor!” Magnolia shouted. She slung the rifle over her back and rushed to the other door. Putting her shoulder against the door and planting her boots, she pushed with all her strength. Her injured ankle flared with pain as she pressed against the heavy steel.

The beast charged down the hallway at alarming speed. The doors were only three-quarters closed, and it was coming in fast.

Magnolia could see they weren’t going to get the doors shut in time.

She stepped back, unslung her rifle, and shouted, “Shoot it in the legs!”

He followed her lead, and together they open fired through the gap in the closing doors. Rounds lanced into the creature’s tree-trunk legs, spattering blood over the concrete. Magnolia almost whooped in relief. Maybe they could kill this thing after all.

Despite the trauma to its legs, the monster kept barreling toward them, hunched down, screaming in rage. She could see the muscles constrict across its chest and arms, as it ran full tilt at them.

Magnolia and Rodger stumbled backward as it lowered its small head and spiky shoulders to crash through the opening.

The doors groaned, and the beast screamed back at them. Rodger joined the chorus with his own shouts, but Magnolia gave only the barest squeak as the massive armored shoulders slammed into the three-foot opening. The impact sent a rumble echoing through the vast space.

Magnolia looked up at the creature’s face as it snapped at her with a maw full of yellow teeth. A crunch joined the din of the groaning doors trying to close. The beast was pinned in the middle. Another crunch sounded, and Magnolia realized it was the sound of bone breaking, not metal rending.

She took another step back, her rifle still leveled at the monster. It let out a terrible screech of pain, glared at her with piercing yellow eyes, and withdrew into the hallway. The doors shut with a loud boom, but Magnolia didn’t dare lower her weapon yet.

On the other side, the beast slammed into the steel with such force that grit sifted down from the ceiling.

“I think I just pissed myself,” Rodger said.

Magnolia flinched each time the beast hit the doors, roaring with every impact. Never in her life had she witnessed such towering rage from beast or human. It was as if the devil itself were trying to break in.

“Are you okay?” Rodger asked. He walked over and put a hand on her shoulder, making her flinch again.

Magnolia glanced at Rodger, intending to reassure him, but she gasped as she caught sight of the lab over his shoulder. They turned together to behold the immense space. She played her light over dozens of towers that stretched as far back as she could see, each of them covered with rows of capsules like kernels on giant ears of corn.

“This place has to be ten stories tall,” she said in awe. Her beam illuminated the tower directly in front of them. The glass surfaces of the first two chambers were shattered like hatched eggs. She walked over to them and saw that most of the other capsules nearby were also broken and the occupants missing.

The light from Rodger’s helmet danced over the walls. “There’s got to be thousands of humans and animals in here.”

She stepped up to the closest chamber. Reaching out, she carefully examined the glass. It wasn’t shattered from the inside out after all. Something on the outside had broken its way in.