CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
DEATH IN THE AFTERNOON
ACK-ACK MACAQUE LOOKED up at the blue sky.
“What the fucking, fucking fuck was that?” He’d been skirmishing his way through the big tank’s walkways and chambers when the world turned white and hot, and everything tipped sideways. Now he lay with his back against what, until a moment ago, had been a wall, with his nose full of the stink of burning plastic and singed monkey fur.
Climbing gingerly to his feet, he poked his head above the cooling edges of the room and looked out. The other half of the tank rested on its side a few metres away. Smoke rose from a dozen points, and he could see flames leaping where fuel lines had been cut.
“Holy crap in a hand basket.” He had no idea what had happened, only that he’d been lucky to survive the experience. The cyborg he’d been fighting at the time hadn’t fared nearly as well. It had been standing directly in the path of whatever had split the tank, and now its body lay on the grass between the two halves of the wreck, cleft into asymmetric and half-melted segments. Its metal body had probably shielded him from the worst of the mysterious attack, but all he felt towards it was the fierce satisfaction of seeing an enemy brought low.
He had to get out of here and find the Duchess. The edges of the cut walls were rapidly cooling. He leapt up onto one, trusting his boots to shield his feet from the residual heat. The tank lay with its innards bared to the sky, its rooms and walkways like the indentations in an empty chocolate box. As long as he kept moving, followed the walls and kept his balance, he’d be okay.
He started running, using his tail as a counterbalance to steady himself. He guessed Célestine would be somewhere towards what had been the top of the vehicle, so he made his way in that direction, and found her lying in the ruins of the Leviathan’s control room. She had two cyborgs with her, but both were damaged and disorientated. Crouching on top of the wall, he decapitated them both with his chainsaw, sending their metal heads rolling into the echoing depths of the damaged tank like ball bearings rattling into a sewer.
The Duchess looked up at him.
“Oh,” she said. “It’s you. What do you want?”
Ack-Ack Macaque curled his lip. “I’ve got a message for you.”
Célestine rose to her feet and brushed herself down with her palms. Her black uniform was rumpled and dusty, and one of the sleeves had been badly scorched.
“You know, I told Nguyen you were going to be trouble.”
Ack-Ack Macaque killed the chainsaw’s engine, and laid it aside.
“Well.” He drew his revolver. “That’s one thing you got right.”
“You said you had a message?”
“Yeah, from a lady called Apynja.”
Célestine blinked and her face tightened.
“Oh, so you’re working for her now?”
Ack-Ack Macaque was surprised. “You know her?”
“Of course I know her. She’s my sister.”
He opened and shut his mouth a few times.
“Your sister? But she’s a—”
“I wouldn’t expect you to understand.” Célestine drew herself up. “Now, what is it she has to say?”
Ack-Ack Macaque glowered at her and raised his gun.
“Just that you shouldn’t have killed so many people.”
“Me?” Célestine pushed her tongue into her cheek. “That’s a good one.”
Ack-Ack Macaque snarled. “You killed eight billion people. I don’t see anything funny about that.”
The Duchess waved a hand. “It’s all just numbers.” She looked up at the sky. Her breath came in small, almost imperceptible wisps. “You have no idea who she is, do you?”
Ack-Ack Macaque rubbed his leather eye patch. The socket beneath itched.
“She’s an ape.”
Célestine laughed and shook her head.
“Oh no, no. She may be many things, but she’s not remotely an ape. She’s not even human.”
“Then what is she?”
“I told you.” The woman smiled with all the warmth of a shark. “She’s my sister. Or rather, she was, before she grew a conscience.”
Ack-Ack Macaque growled. “You’re not making any sense.” He waved the gun at her in annoyance. “Make sense!”
Célestine stuck her chin at him.
“I’m making perfect sense, you vile creature. You’re just too stupid to grasp what I’m talking about.” She put her hands on her hips. “Aren’t you?”
Ack-Ack Macaque took a deep, shuddering breath. “I’m the one holding the fucking gun,” he reminded her.
“So you are.” Up ahead, one of the other Leviathans sparked and fell to pieces, diced into chunks by a blinding white beam from the heavens. Moments later, the one next to it suffered an identical fate. Ack-Ack Macaque blinked away purple and green afterimages.
“Your invasion’s cancelled,” he said. “You’re fucked.”
“Really?”
Célestine brought her hands together and smiled. She seemed to shimmer and her body grew translucent. She was fading, exactly as Apynja had faded from the clearing in the wood.
“Oh no you fucking don’t!” Ack-Ack Macaque stood up and fired his Colt into her almost transparent torso. His first two shots seemed to pass through without hurting her, but the third made contact. Célestine screamed with pain and rage, and suddenly she was solid again. She fell back into a sitting position, hands dabbing madly at a bloody wound in her stomach.
“You imbecile. What have you done?”
Ack-Ack Macaque raised the pistol’s barrel to his lips and huffed away the smoke.
“I told you, I’m delivering a message.” He holstered his weapon and jumped down beside her. “To you and all the other megalomaniacal ball-sacks out there.”
“And what message is that?” She was panting, and her skin was pale with shock. He crouched, bringing his snout to within inches of her face.
“That we’ve had enough of your shit.”
He watched her struggle and curse. She tried to pull herself up on the edge of a chair but his bullet had damaged her spine, and her legs wouldn’t work.
“Do you even know how many people you’ve killed?” he asked contemptuously. She gave a snort.
“Do you?” Another bolt sizzled from above, bisecting a Leviathan to their left. With a squeal of brakes and a crunch of abused gears, the remaining tanks cranked into reverse and began backing towards the portal. “After all, you’re hardly blameless, are you?”
Ack-Ack Macaque bridled. “I only kill people that need killing.”
“And who are you to decide?”
“Who are you to say I can’t?”
Célestine coughed, and wiped her lips on the back of her sleeve.
“You can dress it up any way you like, but you’re as much of a murderer as I am.”
Ack-Ack shook his head. “Nobody’s as much of a murderer as you are, lady.”
She laughed bitterly.
“Your friend Apynja is. Or she was before she changed her ways, the hypocritical bitch.”
“What are talking about?” Ack-Ack shuffled back slightly, to avoid the blood spreading from her wound. “She’s just an escaped orangutan.”
Célestine shook her head sadly. “She’s so much more than that. Yes, I killed a world. I admit it, and I’m proud of it. But her.” She coughed again. This time, her sleeve came away red when she wiped her mouth. “She’s killed dozens. Hundreds maybe.”
“Who is she?”
Célestine’s eyes became glassy and her head began to sway. Ack-Ack Macaque took her by the shoulders and shook her.
“Who is she?”
He shook her again, but her head lolled back and her body went limp, and he knew she was dead.