CHAPTER 21

Tamerica and Afu were running down the opposite hallway toward the place we’d split up. Intermingling, gory pieces of humans and dragons littered the hallway leading back to the elevator. The walls held blood splatter and burn marks. I avoided looking at all of it, but I couldn’t avoid the smell.

The ash kickers slowed to a chug when they saw me in the new suit.

Tamerica frowned so hard it squished her face. “What the flying fuck are you wearing?”

“Bro’s suit is hulked out,” Afu said.

I had a huge smile on my face. “Guys, I’m a smoke eater.”

They both patted me on the shoulder and walked around me, toward the big door with the red eye.

“We know you are,” Afu said.

I spun around. “I’m not joking. I was just locked in a room filled with scaly smoke and I could breathe it just fine. And I survived the fire, too. But I think the suit helped a lot with that. Still, I killed a Jersey right in the middle of a flaming room.”

Tamerica pulled out a key card. “Snagged this off a Nusie just before a Popper swallowed her.”

“That’s great to hear, bro,” Afu patted me on the shoulder.

That was it? That was all I got? “You don’t believe me.

“We believe you,” Tamerica said. She stepped up to the red digital eye. “Like Afu said, you’ve always been one of us. Didn’t matter if you could breathe smoke before. Why should it matter now? Old news, man. Now, if you don’t mind, you have some fellow smokies to release from behind this door.”

Looking closer, I realized it was a card lock device. It was older technology, but safer from hacks through the Feed.

Tamerica shoved the card into the red-eyed slot. The door began to rise, clanking on its joints. It sounded like someone was taking a hammer to it. A gap grew under the door, and pale light flooded in from the room on the other side.

Tamerica pulled me out of the doorway and shoved me against the wall. I didn’t appreciate that, even if she was trying to protect me. I was a smoke eater, too. Officially, damn it! I had a better suit but I could follow her orders. I was an adult. Maybe I’d been too nice before. Too submissive. I’d been trying too hard to get them to like me. I needed to take charge.

Slowly, Tamerica peeked around the corner. The big door finished raising, slamming to a halt. It jolted me into action and I ran around Tamerica, dodging her grasping hands. I had a hard time keeping my gun arm straight as I ran for the light behind the door.

“Contreras. Guillermo. Gilly!” Tamerica’s whisper felt like a razor-blade. “Get back here!”

I swung around the corner and crossed into the new room.

At least fifty men and women stood in front of me. Smoke eaters, I assumed. They wore clothes that were a cross between hospital gowns and pajamas. Lime green. These smoke eaters had gathered together like an army in ancient Rome, facing me, squatting low. A device with blinking lights had been strapped to each of their arms. Clear tubes connected from the device to individual IV stands they were now holding like spears. They’d pulled them from their wheeled base and had somehow found the time to whittle the ends of the metal into a fine point meant to stab Nusie necks.

Two or five of the spears launched at me. A woman’s voice broke out from the front of the pajama legion as a spear bounced off my chest, leaving a faint scratch.

Oh, thank Christ, I thought.

Another almost impaled my eye. I turned in time for the IV spear to strike my helmet.

I guess I hadn’t thanked Christ hard enough.

“I said stop throwing,” the woman shouted. She stepped out from the others, dragging her IV stand with her. She stood in front of me and held her hands out as she faced the other smoke eaters. “Can’t you tell a power suit when you see one?”

She turned to me and my mouth dropped open as recognition hit.

“Please, tell me you’re a smoke eater and not a Nusie,” she whispered.

I didn’t whisper. “You’re… you’re…”

“My what?” she said.

“No.” What the hell was my mouth and brain doing. Was I having a stroke? “You are Captain–”

“Naveena Jendal,” she said. “Who the hell are you?”

“A fucking dumbass,” Tamerica’s voice came up behind me.

Naveena ran around me, crying as she passed. Tamerica gasped as she stopped short to welcome Naveena’s embrace. They hugged like that, sobbing and mumbling things to each other.

Afu hugged Naveena next.

And there was Brannigan, coming down the hall outside, pushing Yolanda in a wheeled chair. The propellerhead was asleep. “I was getting bored upstairs so I–”

“You.” Naveena wheeled her IV forward, walking toward Brannigan on stiff legs.

“Well, shit,” Brannigan sighed. His face had turned red. “All right, get it over with. Tamerica already gave me a good knuckle sandwich. I’d hate to make you jealous. And fuck I guess I deserve it. Go ahead and hit me.”

Naveena stopped in front of Brannigan, close enough for an uppercut. She didn’t strike. She just looked up into his eyes, like she was searching for something.

Brannigan groaned. It was short, but sounded painful. “Naveena…”

She fell forward, catching herself around Brannigan’s neck. When she pressed her lips into his, they both closed their eyes as if they were in the deepest of sleeps. The kiss lasted too long to excuse as an accident, and when they began moving their mouths together, it was probably better than any kiss I’d seen in any movie.

I thought of Reynolds.

Why the hell did I think of Reynolds?

I wish I’d kissed her that night in Waukesha. No, I wish she would have kissed me. Not that I was lazy; I’ve always been scared shitless I’d do something wrong or misread a signal. Everyone in the platoon would have told you I was horrible at reading signals. Hand signals, morse code, or knowing if someone liked me. I was shit at it. If Reynolds kissed me, it would have answered a lot of questions that liked to bounce around my head at night while the platoon slept. The kiss wouldn’t have had to be a big deal. Just a peck. Platonic. It would have shown that maybe she cared about something else besides the Army and I would have felt a whole lot less alone. I would have had a friend. A friendly kiss. A one-timer.

But I’d be bullshitting myself if I really thought I’d have left it at that.

I wouldn’t want to seem desperate or clingy or – again – misread everything. I would have gotten more upset than usual when she didn’t stick up for me when the other guys in the platoon started in on their bullshit. I’d wonder why she didn’t kiss me again, what I did wrong. I’d be even more stressed and ostracized. More questions would stuff my brain at night. More ideations. Then I would have regretted the whole damn thing and would wish instead to give back the simple, friendly kiss. Maybe Reynolds had had the right idea to begin with. Maybe I was just confused because of Brannigan and Naveena’s kiss on display right in front of me. It was one to envy.

“All right, you guys,” Tamerica said. “Goddamn.”

“Hey, T. I want to kiss like that again,” Afu said. “When this is all over.”

Tamerica blinked in confusion as she looked up to her husband.

“Who’s this guy in the extra large power suit?” Naveena pointed to me as she clung to Brannigan’s neck.

He didn’t seem to mind holding her. “This is Guillermo Contreras. He’s with us.”

“I’m officially a smoke eater,” I said.

“Yeah, that’s what I meant,” Brannigan said.

“No,” I said, “I mean–”

“Hey,” Tamerica shouted and clapped her armored gloves together. “There are other smokies here besides you two PDA-ing motherfuckers. Let’s get these folks upstairs. There’s only one small elevator and we have to wade through blood and guts to get to it.”

Naveena turned to Brannigan. “She’s a lot tougher now.”

“She’s always been tough,” Brannigan said.

“Wait.” Naveena looked around as the other smoke eaters made introductions. “Where’s Harribow and Renfro?”

The devices on the captives’ arms, Naveena explained to us, acted as both a tracker and a regulator. The only nutrition they’d been receiving was through the IV connected to the device. If they attempted to detach it, or if they tried to run, the IV would shut off for a few days. And even if they managed to escape, the Army could easily find them. None of them had been able to detach the device from their arm.

One of the more malnourished smoke eaters, a man named Craig, had tried to escape when they’d started moving the smoke eaters down to Sub Level 3. He didn’t get far, and he’d been starving for the last two days. I wish I’d had a snack to give him. His eyes were sunken and he looked like he’d pass out at any minute. Where his skin showed, I could see his skeleton moving, He leaned on my shoulder as I walked him to the elevator and waded over the gore. The hall had taken on the smell of dead fish.

“They want our blood,” Naveena said after we sent up another group of smokies. “They want to be able to breathe smoke and do what we do without going up in flames. No one’s forgotten the Phoenix.”

“And they think a direct transfusion will do that?” Brannigan said.

“They’re willing to try. They think it’s more stable than dragon blood. More accepted by the body.”

“Yeah, who knows?” Afu said. “There might be another Phoenix.”

“Don’t bring that evil down on us.” Tamerica took off her helmet and leaned against the wall. “We have enough shit to deal with besides another bird.”

Though she looked as bad as the other captives and could have used a rest, Naveena demanded to fight with us. She put on my previous power suit, the one I’d left in the room with the Jersey. When Brannigan and the others saw the dead dragon and the charred walls of the science lab, they all told me they believed me and that I was a real smoke eater, but I think they just did it to shut me up and get back to business.

“Never had a doubt,” Brannigan told me as he tapped his boot against the Jersey’s headless body.

“I did,” I said.

“So that suit,” said Brannigan. “Are you sure you want to wear it?”

“Hell yes,” I said. “This gun is awesome.”

I’d said it a little too loudly. We’d been wheeling Yolanda around in her chair, allowing her to sleep, but my voice woke her up.

“Huh?” She jolted to sit up straight. “Breakfast. Moonshine.”

“What the hell is she talking about?” Afu said.

“Yo-yo.” Naveena got onto her knees in front of the propellerhead. “You’re okay.”

“And you’re okay.” Yolanda smiled at Naveena. “Thank goodness. I knew the others would bust you out of here.”

“Couldn’t have done it without you,” Tamerica said. Her voice was strained and shaky. The nerves must have finally caught up to her. She’d been trying to get in touch with Lot with no result. She was worried about the smoke eaters we’d sent upstairs, even though Brannigan said the coast had been clear when he’d been up there. She paced, impatient. She was ready to get out of Big Base. I was, too. “We should really go. There are still dragon-riding Nusies above ground and I don’t know how we’re all going to get out of here.”

Yolanda opened her mouth to speak, then she looked at me and pointed, bouncing in her chair. “You found the suit. You found it.”

“Yeah,” I said. “I hope you don’t mind.”

Yolanda grabbed Naveena’s arm, the one with the device strapped to it. “And I could use this smoker for the short-range signal.”

Brannigan looked at us. “I don’t know, guys. When she hasn’t been asleep, she’s been spouting weird streams of sci-babble.”

Yolanda tensed her eyes. It was the first time I’d seen her look anything close to angry. “I’m in my right mind and I know exactly what I’m talking about. What Naveena is wearing, the Nusies called them smokers. They thought it was funny. You want to get us all out of here safely? You’ll listen to me.”

Naveena ejected her laser sword and slashed it through the air a few times. Phrum, phrum. “We’re listening. Go on Yolanda.”

“The Nusies riding the dragons control the scalies with the headsets they wear. Well Calhoun wanted the same thing but in his suit. The suit Guillermo is wearing. Oh, remind me to tell you something else about the suit. It’s important.”

“Okay,” I said. She was talking so fast I almost hadn’t caught that she’d been speaking to me.

“I can use the parts in Naveena’s smoker,” Yolanda said. “I can wire them to Guillermo’s suit, using the scaly signal, and he should be able to shut down any Nusie headset he gets close to.”

“That’s great,” said Afu.

“Hold on,” Brannigan said. “She said he has to get close to them. How close are we talking, Yolanda?”

“Given the time I have to do it?” Yolanda’s eyes fidgeted as she stared at the ceiling. “It would have to be within twenty feet.”

“Oh hell,” Tamerica said. “No way. I’ll wear the suit. I’ll do it.”

“Fuck that,” Brannigan and Naveena said as one.

“I’ll wear it,” the Chief said. “I’m old enough, it won’t matter.”

“Like I’m going to let you die again?” Naveena shook her head. “I’ll wear it.”

“You can barely stand up,” Brannigan said.

They all continued arguing as Afu and I watched. I was tired of everyone else making decisions for me. Thinking of me as only the kid, or rookie, or private.

“I’m wearing the goddamn suit.” My voice boomed.

They all turned to me.

“I found it,” I said. “I killed the Jersey with it, and I’ve been doing a pretty good job of not dying. I like the suit. You haven’t seen what this gun can do. I’ll be fine.”

“The discs are very formidable.” Yolanda nodded in her chair, but looked like she would fall asleep again. “Highly volatile, though.”

“Besides,” I said, “these Nusies have a vendetta against me. It won’t be hard to get close to them. They’ll want my ass.”

“You don’t have to get close to be killed by fire or lasers,” Tamerica said.

“No,” I said. “But if I was scared of dying I wouldn’t be here. I mean, I am scared. But I’m doing this anyway. I want to do it. And I won’t let you stop me.”

Tamerica looked to Brannigan as if the old man would talk some sense into me.

He grumbled and nodded his head. “This one is all on Contreras.”