21

THE REPTILE KING

AURELA’S FACE IS tranquil, and there’s no blood on her clothing. My laser vision engages, checking for injury and recording her vitals. My mother is alive for now, but seems to be in some sort of coma.

“If you’ve hurt her, I will end you.”

“Save your empty threats, Riven,” Cale says with a careless toss of his hand. “She’s alive. You would have been so proud. She traded herself for thirty hostages when we breached Sector Six. Quite a martyr, your mother, but I guess it was inevitable. I was forced to execute four children before she begged me to stop. Offered herself in exchange for the rest.” A muscle ticks madly in my jaw, the berserker rage brewing in my stomach. “She’s always had such a soft heart for the young.”

I grind my teeth, trying to calm the anger that’s nearly choking me. Sector Six housed most of our medical research facilities—I don’t even want to think about what Cale would use it for. “She was good to you, you bastard. She always took your side, always saw the good in you, and this is how you repay her?”

“Casualty of war, my friend. And let’s not forget that Aurela led the rebels against me for years—back when, you know, I was weaker.”

“I am not your friend,” I growl at him. “You lost that privilege long ago.”

Anger flashes in his eyes before he recomposes himself. “As you say. We were discussing the terms of your surrender.” He arches a dark eyebrow, awaiting my answer.

I swallow hard, my eyes flicking to my mother’s inert form. The group shifts nervously behind me, but we have little choice. If we don’t capitulate, she dies. “State your terms.”

“Drop your weapons. Release your ship to me.”

“No,” Aenoh whispers sharply from behind me. “She’s one person. We are ten. You cannot negotiate our lives, I will not permit it.”

“Ah, yes, the stranger,” Cale murmurs. “Do you have something to add to the discussion?”

Aenoh regards him with baleful eyes. “I negotiate my own terms, not those of some half-breed, self-crowned prince.”

Cale’s eyebrow arches so high it nearly disappears into his hairline. “Where’ d you find this charming fellow?” he asks me before turning back to Aenoh. “You do realize that you’re technically surrounded by half-breeds, don’t you? And, for the record, the General isn’t a half-breed. She’s the future—everything we were meant to be, and more.”

But, of course, Cale doesn’t know that Aenoh has his own designs in mind for me. I’m not sure what game Aenoh is playing, but I know that he, too, is not to be underestimated. “Fine,” he says. “Take her and release us.”

“So you can raise an army against me? I think not.” Cale turns back to me. “Where were we? Oh right—drop your weapons and give me your ship.” His eyes wander over the craft greedily. “It’s quite a beauty, isn’t it? My father kept it hidden for years, wouldn’t let me near it. He told me it was dangerous. Who knew it could actually fly? Its weapons system is like nothing I’ve ever seen. Some of these guys”—he waves his arms over the Reptiles—“remember these ships in action. Their collective memory is amazing—so much knowledge retained over the decades. It’s like having infinite consciousness at your fingertips.”

Cale’s words trip over each other as if he has too many things to say at once, his internal system causing verbal overload. I frown, watching him carefully. He’s always been just a bit erratic and his transition to Reptile seems to have exacerbated that. Noticing my look, he blinks several times as if trying to recalibrate himself.

“So, Riven, what say you?”

“What happens to the rest of us if I agree? What happens to the Lord King?”

“You have my word that he will remain unharmed, as will the rest of your companions… as long as they obey.”

I narrow my eyes at him. He’s too silver-tongued, too glib. “How can I trust you after everything you’ve done? How do I know that you won’t kill Caden or any of the others the minute I agree?”

Cale offers me a smile that doesn’t quite work with his unsettling nonhuman features. “You don’t. But I want you to come home, Riven, where you belong. You and I have always been a team—the dynamic duo, remember? You were the only one who ever really understood me.”

“Everything you ever said was a lie.”

“Not everything.”

The seconds tick by and I know I have to make a decision. The only cover is the busted ship behind us. Data flashes through my brain—the ship’s back online. Auxiliary power seems to be working now that the hover’s on the ground, which means we might have a viable means of escape. I run a diagnostic scan for security configuration. All systems have been rebooted and returned to default settings. I check functions; the ship could probably operate at hover level if push comes to shove but, at the very least, I can make it secure. Working quickly via uplink, I reset the cryptographic algorithm, reducing permissions to zero, and add a supplemental buffer. Heart racing, I execute the script.

“You tried to kill me, remember?” I say, trying to buy extra time while the script launches.

“I wasn’t going to kill you,” Cale says. “You needed to be taught a lesson.”

“And what lesson was that?”

“Defying me has consequences. But I’m a forgiving man. I’m willing to forget your past transgressions if you behave now.” He smiles again, impatience glinting in his eye. “Come now, you and I both know I can execute every last one of you. I’m being generous allowing you to surrender and save your… friends.” He says the last word as if it’s something distasteful in his mouth.

I don’t trust Cale, no matter how much he professes to care about me. He kept me close because I was useful to him, just as I would be now in his conquest of Neospes. Cale only cares about himself. I swallow hard. Aurela would want me to fight—she wouldn’t want me to sacrifice Caden for her. But I can’t condemn her to death.

I’m considering lowering my weapons when a disturbance swells from the rear of the Reptile ranks. Interference flashes behind my eyes, and relief floods my body like a tidal wave as the encoded message comes across loud and clear.

On your orders, General.

A shadow crosses Cale’s face, his mouth spiking downward as he receives a similar message from the army behind him, confirming what I already know.

The Vectors are here.

Cale turns around, and I glance over my shoulder at Sauer, the decision clear in my eyes. We’re going to fight. He nods in silent agreement. Caden does, too. Bass taps his staff in the flat of his palm, his face grim and resolute. Cale’s fingers have left deep red welts at his throat. My gaze reaches Inka, who carefully notches an arrow to her bow.

Engage at will.

I release the order, my heart racing with anticipation as the sounds of warfare echo across the Outers. The wall of Reptiles melts toward the battle behind them, leaving Cale and me in a standoff with a handful of creatures protecting him. Rage ripples across his face as he swings back to face me.

“This changes nothing. We are greater in number and the Vectors will fall.”

“The Vectors are programmed to do one thing—destroy. You, of all people, know that. Every Vector will take down fifty Reptiles, and you’ll have nothing.”

“I can still kill your companions,” he says. His Reptiles push closer, guns raised. “Yield and I will spare them.”

I lower my ninjatas as if I’m about to submit to his wishes, dipping into a slow crouch to lay them down at the sides of my boots. “You were right, Cale.”

“About what?” He’s distracted now, worried about his advantage slipping away. I can see the tension in his shoulders and the angry set of his brow. His metal eye glints coldly.

“About me.”

“How so?”

“I am the future.” My grip tightens around the hilts of my ninjatas, but instead, I focus the nanobes in my brain to send out an intense frequency. The Reptiles closest to me fall to the ground screaming in agony. Cale clutches at his head, backing away. The Reptile holding my mother loosens his grip and falls to one knee. “Now, Bass!”

He dashes forward, grabbing my mother from the creature’s slack grasp and drags her to safety. Caden and Sauer form a wall around her. I nod to Inka. She releases the arrow notched in her bow and it hits the creature in the head, where it explodes on contact.

“Go! Take her and get back on the ship!” I shout. “The Vectors will buy us time.”

“But the ship is compromised,” Sauer says.

“The auxiliary power is back online. Get Aurela and the Lord King onboard and seal the door. I’ve reprogrammed the security algorithms. Cale won’t be able to open it this time, not without me.” I blink, sorting through the push of information. “My brain is linked to the operating system. I was able to access everything once the uplink went live. I can’t explain how I’m still connected to it.”

Bass’s face lights up. “It paired to you when you flew it before.”

“We can’t just leave you out here,” Caden argues.

Fighting to maintain the outbound frequency, I take a long breath. “You’re safer inside the ship. You’re a threat, Caden. You always will be, and Cale’s never going to let that go. Protect your future queen. Protect my mother. Go!”

“I’m staying out here,” Bass says.

“No, I need you in there. You’re the only one I trust to keep Aenoh and Matias in line. Please.”

Bass stares at me for a long time before agreeing. “Don’t die,” he says thickly over his shoulder.

“I’ll try not to. And, Bass—” But the words are knocked from my mouth as Cale’s metal hand catches me square across my face. The frequency stops abruptly, and I pull myself to my feet, dazed, but swords in hand. I clear my head to seal the door shut behind Bass. He’ll rush out like an idiot if Cale gets too close.

Thick, congealing blood oozes from Cale’s ear down his cheek as he lunges toward me. “You bitch!”

“I thought you liked to play rough?” I dart out of the way, wiping the blood from the corner of my split lip. “Or is that only when you have others to do your dirty work?” I throw a sympathetic look at the giant, headless Reptile lying a few feet away. “Sorry about that one. He must have been really important.”

Cale roars, detaching his crossbow from his shoulder. “Haven’t changed a bit, have you? Sarcastic to the bone. Well, that won’t be the case when I kill every last person on that ship, including your dear mother and your lover.”

“You really need to let it go, Cale,” I say, watching him as he circles me, the crossbow swinging from one hand like a club. “And, as you said before, Caden’s not bound to me. He belongs to someone else now.”

“That’s true. Doesn’t mean I won’t enjoy hearing the sounds of the flesh melting off their bones.”

I shake my head, smiling calmly. “Didn’t you hear? I control the ship. You couldn’t get past my encryption if you tried. Go ahead.” I see his brow furrow as he attempts to access the ship’s computer. Frustration flashes across his face, and his attention flicks to a Reptile with a giant cannon attached to its back. I offer an apologetic smile. “Oh, I disabled your graviton net, too. Sorry about that.”

Cale snarls at me. “You think you’re so smart, don’t you?”

“Not really, and I kind of have you to thank for that.” I watch his eyes narrow. “That’s the thing about remote systems—there’s always a chink in the armor, all these backdoor codes connecting them. When you were babbling about everything being connected, about all the sentient data from the androids, I tried to see if I could access them. How do you think I knew just what frequency to run? Or how to jam your weapons? You might want to up your security.” I give him a disgusted look. “So this is it—you wanted me and here I am, just the two of us. Any last words?”

Cale laughs, a loud, chilling sound that makes the hairs rise on the back of my neck. “You can’t kill me, Riven. You don’t think I’ve taken precautions? You need me.”

“Seriously? Those are your last words? They’re a little predictable, even for you.” I swing my ninjatas in a lazy circle. “Here’s what’s going to happen. I am going to end you. Your army is going to be destroyed, and that will be the end of your little coup. You have no more cards to play, and when this is all over, no one will remember your name or that you even existed.”

“You think you can save your mother by hiding her in that ship?” Cale growls ferociously, a muscle ticking in his jaw. “I let you take her. Thanks to Sector Six, we’ve implanted a device over her heart. It will take over and replicate, making her one of us. It’s a prototype I designed—self-replicating micro-robots. Nothing like yours, of course, but they’re effective in their own way. They don’t care too much for their human hosts, unfortunately. Not really symbiotic creations.” He pauses with a dramatic flourish. “Once they finish with her, where do you think they’ll go next? They feed on life like a virus, and you’ve just given them nine able-bodied hosts.” I frown, searching his face to see if he’s telling the truth. Cale arches an eyebrow daring me to doubt him. “It appears that I have one more card to play, after all,” he murmurs.

I access the ship’s computer, running a medical diagnosis on my mother’s body. My stomach sinks as the final image becomes clear. Cale wasn’t lying. A metal spider-like creature clings to her heart like a parasite.

“If you hurt her—”

“I know, I know, you’ll kill me,” he mocks. “Just like you killed me after Shae. You really should try to follow through on those empty threats, Riven.”

My teeth are grinding together so hard it feels like my jaw is wired shut. My fingers curl around my weapons, my breath coming loud and fast as Cale continues. “I have to admit I enjoyed watching them gut and decontaminate your sister. It was oddly… pleasant. And seeing her dueling you was the ultimate prize.”

My blood boils, the nanobes rushing in a mad fury, but I don’t react to Cale’s taunts. My focus is clear. I flex, feeling the suit undulate like a second skin, and access the internal programming. There are layers of code now that weren’t there before—evolving, learning technology. I don’t have time to wonder why my father built into my suit the same self-aware technology that had destroyed Neospes in the first place, but right now, the suit is adjusting to me… calming me as I focus on what to do next.

Cale’s voice fades as I push outward, pinging the collective consciousness of the Reptiles, analyzing data, and searching until I find a vulnerable access point. I enter it with brute force, shutting down their security layer and mirroring the Reptiles’ operating system with a proxy script. The Reptiles are loyal to Cale—that much is clear. I scroll through the source files and frown. Something’s not right. Some of the commands are coming from Cale, but most are coming from a remote source—a central intelligence.

Obliterating Cale won’t do a damn thing.

I glance at the boy standing in front of me, and exit my host, covering my tracks and erasing the log files. I take a careful, even breath. “What is it you want?”

“Call off the Vectors. Join me.”

I blink, sending out a remote command to my Vector army, and obediently, they retreat. I sheathe my ninjatas. “Done. Take Aurela back to Sector Six, remove the bug, and you have my word.”

A tinny noise echoes through the communications device on my visor. “Riven, what are you doing?” Caden asks.

We have no choice, I reply wordlessly, transmitting my responses to the ship’s communications system. You heard him. You’re all at risk. I have to do as he says.

“It’s a trap.”

Possibly. But I’ve analyzed all outcomes, and this option has the best odds for your survival.

There’s a long pause. “Listen to yourself, Riven, who cares about odds? Trust your gut. You’ve always done that. Kill Cale. We’ll figure out what to do with Aurela.”

Negative. He dies, you all die, and I can’t risk that. I pause, turning off ship-wide transmission. Making sure the connection is secure I send to only Caden’s device: There’s something more here, something I can’t put my finger on. It’s the hive mentality that made me suspicious. Cale wouldn’t have put himself in danger that easily if Aurela was his only insurance. There’s more—a command center somewhere else that’s controlling everything. We have to find out where and what that is before it’s too late.

“What do you mean?” he says in a low voice.

The Cale we’re seeing now is only a piece of the whole. The bigger threat is elsewhere.

There’s silence on the other end of the comms. The soft exhale of Caden’s breath is the only indication he’s still there.

Stay put, and keep this to yourself. We can’t trust anyone.

“Do we have an agreement?” I say aloud to Cale. “Once she’s safe, I’ll do as you ask.”

Cale nods and signals to the remaining Reptiles. A black beast resembling a horse with metal limbs and rotting flanks canters forward. “Riven, this is for the best. Surely you can see that. Humans aren’t meant to rule. We’re smarter, more advanced. This world—and the Otherworld—are ours for the taking.”

He climbs onto the beast’s back and lowers a hand down to me. I hesitate for only a second before taking it, pulling myself up behind him. We take off at a mad gallop toward the city. At my command, the hover activates and follows. Two separate armies march in unison toward Neospes—Reptile and Vector. I can’t help thinking of the similarities between them, but I quickly shove the thought away.

Time to meet the real king of the Reptiles.