| |
We descended the stairwell. Maxillo led the way with a flashlight, illuminating dusty corners and grimy walls. Violent paintings coated the faded, sickly yellow of walls: fires, guns, blood, stick figures, and falling buildings. And scythes. It was art for a new age.
We rounded the stairs three times before exiting into the airport lobby. I had never been inside anything so large besides Bunker One. The ceiling stretched high above, lost to darkness. The architecture was curved and jarring; it was hard to believe what we had once been capable of building. Soot stained the once glossy white floor, the sites of previous fires. Red light filtered thinly through the entrance, doing little to illuminate the cavernous space.
I briefly thought of breaking free and running. It might be easy to lose myself in the dark labyrinth of terminals and tunnels. Ashton and Anna could run with me.
That could never happen, though. We were far outnumbered, and would be shot long before we could escape. We had to face whatever was coming.
We reached the sliding glass doors that had been busted open long ago. Broken glass littered the floor, crunching under our boots. Jagged edges still clung to the doorframes, sharp as the day of their breaking.
We stepped past the doors and into the faint crimson light, where the train of six black Recons idled on the drive. Four Reapers stood in front of the lead vehicle, facing us. Two held rifles in both hands, while another had his strapped to his back.
A squat man, shaved bald, stepped forward from the group. His face was all hard lines, his body chiseled angles. A long, black beard grew from his chin and stopped at his chest.
His beady eyes glanced over the three of us before settling on Augustus. He pointed at us with his chin.
“This is them?”
Maxillo stepped forward. “You dare address the Emperor directly, barbarian?”
Several other Praetorians flanked Maxillo, hands on their holsters. Behind him, his lackeys stiffened.
The Reaper smiled. “Warlord Black told me to bring the prisoners to the Citadel. He didn’t tell me who I was supposed to deal with.”
“He will discuss this with Black,” Maxillo said. “Not you, worm.”
“I have my orders to bring them to the Citadel,” the man said, with his yellow smile. “The Warlord wants to question them personally.”
“We are meeting between here and my camp, on the runways,” Augustus said. “As previously agreed.”
The Reapers standing behind the stocky man glowered. The other Reapers, still in their Recons, stared at Maxillo with malice. The Praetorians and the Reapers were evenly matched in numbers. If it came to blows, I had no idea what would happen, or who would win.
One of the other Reapers addressed Maxillo. “Be careful who you insult, guard boy. Onyx is Carin Black’s own son.”
Maxillo’s face reddened while Augustus held up a hand.
“Peace, Maxillo,” the Emperor said. “If Carin wishes to question the prisoners, I will allow it at the meeting – which is still set to take place outside my camp in about an hour’s time.” Augustus looked at Onyx. “You can let your father know. I see no reason for this audience to continue.”
Onyx’s face reddened – it was obvious he had expected his father’s words to carry more weight.
Before turning to go, Onyx’s dark eyes settled on Anna. My hand reached for my holster, only to find it empty.
“I know you,” Onyx said. “You are Char’s famous samurai bodyguard.”
“What of it?”
“You killed several of our assassins months back.”
“Glad to see my work hasn’t gone unnoticed,” Anna said.
“Several of those men were my friends.”
Anna laughed. “Friends? I can see how you’d think that. I see that you don’t just look like a toad; you have the intelligence of one, too.”
The toad’s face reddened, but before he could give his own retort, Augustus raised his hand.
“Enough. We leave now.”
As one, the Praetorians filed up, forming a box around us. Still, Anna and Onyx stared one another down.
All the while on the spaceship, I had imagined that Emperor Augustus and Carin Black would be good buddies. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Tensions were high between the two supposed allies.
Augustus turned to one of his Praetorians, a blond man who might have been second-in-command, after Maxillo. The Emperor said something to him in Spanish.
The man nodded before gathering a few men and leading them back into the terminal. I supposed they were going to stand guard over the spaceship. I noticed then that Jonas wasn’t with us. He must have stayed on board, in case he needed to make a quick getaway.
As the Reapers pulled away in a whirl of dust and an angry blaring of engines, Augustus nodded to Maxillo. “Lead on.”
The Praetorians marched in unison alongside the building. We moved along with them, locked in their protective box. As the last of the Reapers left the airport drive and zoomed into the city streets, the sky dimmed into dusk.
“Toad, huh?” I asked.
Anna shrugged. “Some people just infect your brain with what they say. I’m literally dumber for having listened to that idiot.”
I chuckled. “We can’t just start a war by offending people.”
“Something tells me there’s going to be a war, no matter what I say.”
I wondered why Augustus parked his spaceship on top of the airport terminal building, rather than in front of his camp, which seemed much safer to me. Maybe it was just a way for him to show Black that the airport was under his control, and that he wasn’t going to be confined to the small area around his camp.
Five minutes later, we arrived at the gates of Augustus’s camp. The wooden walls were at least ten feet high, with watchtowers along their length. The army must have carried a lot of its supplies with it, and it was hard to imagine how they could have built such fortifications in a short length of time.
The gates squealed open, revealing the bustling camp within. We walked inside and I took in my surroundings. Now, with dusk, many of the legionaries were cooking and eating around campfires. Horses were tied up in stables, and we even passed a pen filled with pigs. Merchants and shopkeepers had supplies displayed on tables in front of their tents – anything from food to boots to trinkets. I realized then that it wasn’t just an army here. An entire community had followed the soldiers in order to make a few batts.
Augustus’s eyes seemed content, even reminiscent, as he watched the camp.
“When I was a young man in Mexico,” he said, “Ragnarok had just fallen. My people were afraid. I knew we had to be the strongest if we were to survive. To the north was Old Mexico, the Federal District. They fought us in those days, even though the world had ended. That was my first campaign. I took my soldiers, went north across the mountains in the springtime. It seems so long ago. The Federalists fought to the last man. Now, Federal is one of our biggest provinces.”
Augustus told this story not in a proud way. To him, it was just a story, one of the many great things he had done in his life.
“I remember entering the Presidential Palace in victory, and how the President, old even then, dropped to his knees. A man who had chased and attacked me for so many years, before the Rock fell, was expecting my judgment.” Augustus smiled in memory. “He was a brave man and he met my eyes with such hatred. I told him not to kneel like some warlord or barbarian – many of whom I had crushed. This man was a rival worthy of respect. So, I told him to fight for me. He agreed. I let him keep his kingdom, his estates, his women and children. We conquered much together – Jalisco, Oaxaca. He died, twenty years ago. I spared no expense for his funeral, and gave games in his memory at the Coleseo, newly constructed then.”
Augustus sighed, as if he knew those glory days were now past and never to be reawakened. Our war was different from all his others, because the end goal was not wealth and power, but survival. The glory years were gone.
It looked as if Augustus was going to say more, but instead he remained thoughtful. We walked on.
I didn’t really know why Augustus told this story, but I think it was intended mainly for Ashton. Some things only made sense to old men. Old memories from an Old World didn’t mean much to me. Augustus was a drug lord in his youth, one who had fought the government so much that he had even formed his own country, and that before Ragnarok came down. Augustus was a warrior, much more than he was a builder. For centuries he would be remembered. Stories would be told of him, and children would be named after him.
That was, if we survived all this.
Even with Augustus’s power, it would be a while before he got his fight. If the Empire and the Reapers were still allies, then there was no force in the Wasteland that could oppose them – besides Askala and the Radaskim. The Wasteland resistance had failed, so the only two important powers left were the Empire and the Reapers, and having them share the same city with no one to fight was a disaster waiting to happen.
“Will there be war?” I asked. “I mean, between the Empire and the Reapers?”
Augustus shook his head. “I must do whatever I can to stop that. There cannot be war until the Great Blight is dealt with. Carin knows this as much as me. I don’t think Carin will attack, but he’s getting restless. He’s making more demands. I have more soldiers, but he has better weaponry, hoarded over the years from the nearby military bases. All the same, I fear he might be planning to use the Radaskim as the anvil, and himself as the hammer, while not realizing the foolishness of such a move.”
Augustus’s speaking about the Radaskim, using that word, made me realize he was up to speed. Ashton had probably updated him at some point while we were in the sky.
“Do you really think he’s going to pincer you between the two sides?” Anna asked.
“I hope not, Anna. I know Black is getting desperate. How could he not be? He has an army of twenty thousand men at his doorstep. The best-case scenario for him would be killing both us and the Radaskim in a single stroke.”
“But Askala will only attack again,” I said. “Even if he did win, it would only be a matter of time.”
“But does he know that? That’s what we need to convince him of, Alex. Remember, he doesn’t know what we know about the Great Blight. To him, this attack might just be a onetime occurrence. It’s our job to convince him otherwise.”
Augustus stopped before a large tent that was probably his own; it was larger than the rest, and two guards stood in front of the entrance. The Emperor turned to face us.
“Black needs to hear it from you,” Augustus said. “I need you at that meeting with me to convince him.”
“Why would we do that for you?” Anna asked. “Maybe we let the Radaskim attack and kill you all. Why would we help you when you locked us up for three days?”
“I wasn’t going to risk your escaping,” Augustus said. “I know how capable you are – not only did you escape the Coleseo back in Nova Roma, but you escaped my Praetorians. I wasn’t going to take any chances. And as for why you should help me, I think we both know the answer to that. Besides me, no one can help you stop the Great Blight. I’m the only one with an army. At the risk of sounding crass, you are alone. Your friends are dead, so if you still want to have a chance, then you must accept my offer of friendship – which I gave earlier. Give me your word of honor, and we can work together, for the good of the Wasteland.”
The Emperor gazed at us, an infectious energy in his brown eyes.
“Besides military aid,” Augustus said, “I have another plan for you three – contingent upon your acceptance of this alliance. Of course, I have Orion in my possession, but as a gift I would offer you Perseus.”
The three of us stared at Augustus in shock. Anna was the first to recover.
“You’d trust us with a spaceship?”
“Why not?” Augustus asked. “In exchange for helping me with Black and the Radaskim, you can keep it. I really don’t fear your attacking me with it. You have nothing to gain. We would be working together, something that is necessary if any of us are to survive this.”
We did need a spaceship. We could find Makara and the others. We could begin to evacuate Bunker 84, perhaps reinforce Augustus’s troops with our own, before Los Angeles was attacked.
Maybe an alliance with the Emperor wasn’t a bad idea. If he was serious about giving us Perseus, it could solve all our problems.
I looked at Ashton, wondering what he was thinking. Ashton was weighing Augustus with his sharp blue eyes, while Augustus did the same to Ashton. The two men had once been enemies. Could they ever be friends?
“So you want us to talk to Black?” Ashton asked.
Augustus nodded. “We need him to work with us. Do this, and lend your aid in the coming battle, and in exchange, you can have Perseus.”
“What if Carin Black attacks anyway?” I asked.
“That might be the case,” Augustus said, “but if that happens, at least I know I have you three at my side. None of us are going to survive the coming storm unless we unite.”
With those words, I remembered the Wanderer’s own warning: that we had to get everyone working together. Augustus was right. Maybe the Emperor was after power, but in the end, survival was more important than whoever got to rule at the end of the day.
“Where is Perseus?” Anna asked.
“It’s still in Bunker Six. We can rescue it once we are done speaking with Black. Getting Perseus out shouldn’t be too difficult.”
“He’s right about that,” Ashton said. “I’ve been in and out of Bunker Six several times over the years. It’s built into a mountain far above the Great Blight, so there aren’t too many monsters there. Still, it’s dangerous. With Orion, it will be easy to access the hangar.”
“Okay,” I said. “So if we help you by speaking to Carin Black, you’ll let us keep the spaceship?”
Augustus nodded. “The main thing is getting Black on our side for good. The longer I wait here, the more suspicious Black becomes.”
It looked as if Augustus had all his bases covered. That was to be expected, though. A man didn’t grow to rule an Empire unless he knew how to plan out every outcome.
“We’ll do it,” Ashton said.
“Good,” Augustus said.
A courier approached Augustus, bowing low.
“Speak,” the Emperor said.
“Black is here.”