Spires of Infinity (47 page)

explosive.”

Giving him a bright-eyed smile and a nod, Allie hopped down off the railing and made an after you gesture.

Dashing toward the ring, Gabriel winced at how loud his footfalls were. Trying to quiet them did little good at all. He couldn’t understand how Marius moved so quietly.

It seemed as though even the slightest vibration grew to a cacophonous roar as they traveled along the metal.

Trying to move as silently as possible, Gabriel kept his eyes constantly moving, watching for the Apostle, but he saw no sign. Though he knew the importance of searching for his enemy, he could not stop his gaze from returning to the black hole. It dominated the cavern, and it was hard to make himself ignore it. It dragged at him, pulling both physically and mentally. He could almost feel a consciousness beckoning to him, wanting him to throw himself through the silvery surface. It was
alive
and it knew he was there.

“Where is she,” Gabriel whispered as he reached the catwalk that branched in

toward the black hole.

A horrible thought occurred to him as he hurried toward the computer console.

What if the Apostle had some way of bringing down the facility without ever entering the containment area at all? He’d never see it coming, just like the last time he’d died. And he would never fight the Apostle to see whose side justice was on either. He realized that it was silly to think defeating her meant absolution, but he couldn’t get the idea out of his head.

The catwalk swung very close to the black hole. The spatial distortion around the silvery sphere made movement hard, as the catwalk and railing both seemed to be wavering and stretching toward it. Even his own body seemed to distort. Staring into the surface, Gabriel was tempted to reach out and touch it, but before he could, he realized something very strange.

“Wait. It’s reflecting you, but it’s not reflecting
me
. How can it reflect you?

You’re not even there. You’re just in my head.”

“Reality is very thin here,” Allie shrugged. “Do not trust your eyes too much. It can mess with your head, and has been known to drive some people insane. Most people say that they can almost see something inside, staring back at them.”

“Well that’s lovely,” Gabriel muttered as he examined the silvery surface that refused to reflect him.

Something dark and malevolent did seem to be staring back at him from just

below the surface. Unease hung heavy in the air as he continued on his way. He kept catching movement out of the corner of his eye, but when he looked not even his own reflection looked back.

Reaching the console, Gabriel holstered one of his pistols. The other he set above the keyboard for easy access. Draping the gunbelt Marius had handed him earlier over the railing of the catwalk, he hit the enter key and the screen flashed on. Text scrolled for a few seconds and then a completely undecipherable menu popped up.

“How do I even start to work this thing? Who would have ever thought I’d

actually
miss
Vista?”

“I need to borrow your hands again. What must be done is far too complicated to talk you through. I need to manually input a Gate Jump, as well as delete all of the security protocols that make it impossible to lower the containment field. In short, you are not smart enough, and way too slow.”

Gabriel snorted a laugh. “Go for it. Halo.”

He felt something flow into his hands and they flexed a few times before reaching toward the keyboard. It felt like his hands were gloves and someone had just put them on. His fingers began flying over the keys and the menus flashed across the screen.

*****

As the Apostle fastened an explosive to the support beam and armed it, she

glanced over her shoulder. The strange sphere in the center of the cavern was so much like the Eye of Perdition that just knowing it was there filled her with intense fear. She could feel Cain’s horrible, unseen eyes, or the eyes of something equally as dark, drilling into her from it as she worked. Though the Eye had been black, this sphere was silver.

However, she could still feel
something
watching her through it, and the pull upon her body and mind was identical.

The last time she’d stared into a sphere like that, she’d ended up a puppet on a string, spreading Cain’s slavery throughout the universe. If the Eye of Perdition had been a portal to wherever Cain was, then where would the silver sphere lead? Who was behind this one, and why did Cain want to destroy it so badly that he’d gone to the trouble of revealing how deeply he’d trapped her to ensure that she did it?

As she finished, Cain’s impatience threatened to smother her. That was when she noticed the big man prowling toward her along the inner ring of the catwalk with twin pistols in his hands. Dressed like the man that had broken her mask earlier, he was bigger, and obviously more skilled by the way he moved. He took aim and fired at her.

Acting on deeply ingrained instinct, the Apostle drew her sword and slashed at the bullet as it flew toward her. The man’s primitive weapon seemed to have a lot of power, but the projectiles dragged far too much in the air, slowing enough for her to follow them with her eyes. The more advanced, high-powered rifles that the soldiers carried were another story. Despite how weak humans were, the Apostle could tell by the way that he moved that this man was going to put up a real fight. She delighted in the idea of a worthy opponent. She’d not fought a worthy adversary since her duels in the bloody sands of the arena, on the World Closest to Perdition.

Leaping from the support beam back to the catwalk, the Apostle ran toward the

gunman, hunched low to the ground to present a smaller target. She dodged several more bullets, her cloak flapping like a banner in a strong wind. One bullet glanced off of her breastplate, leaving a leaden streak across it, but the armor held.

With a flying leap, the Apostle tackled the man. They rolled across the catwalk and she came up on her feet. Surprisingly, he did too. Rounding on her, the gunman unloaded both of his pistols into her breastplate. The force of so many close range impacts pushed her back against the railing and she toppled over the edge, barely able to catch herself with one hand. She swung hard and caught the edge of the catwalk with her foot, using it to propel her back over the rail.

“Figures you’d be wearing body armor,” the gunman grated emotionlessly.

“Should have aimed for my face,” the Apostle replied in kind as she readied

herself to kill.

With a flourish of her sword, she threw herself at the gunman. Tossing one pistol aside, he drew a heavy-bladed knife from his belt, reloading his other pistol with one hand as he parried her thrust.

The gunman was certainly skilled, but the Apostle felt no fear. Humans were so very frail. Their bones broke at the slightest blow. Their wounds took weeks to heal.

They were slow, and weak, and pathetic, like stars next to the sun. Still, this man was very skilled. He managed, if just barely, to fend her off. He even got in one good slice at her face, narrowly missing one of her eyes, drawing an angry hiss from Cain. Normally a gash like that would have chased him away, but he remained in her mind this time, though she could feel him straining against the instinct to flee from the pain.

Pressing the gunman back hard, she whipped her blade through the air so fast that it whistled. She scored hit after hit on his arms, his legs, and his chest. She could see into his heart and soul with the powers that Cain had bestowed upon her, and he did not have a shred of fear that she could use against him.

“Beaten by a girl,” the gunman muttered as he blocked a slash with his pistol

barrel, and danced aside. His wounds were not even slowing him down. He was

amazing. She wanted him. She wanted his memories and everything that he was to become a part of her as had those of the man she’d drained of blood. She began salivating at the very thought of it. It was a pity he likely wouldn’t survive it. She could use someone with his skills.

Despite his lack of fear, and his extreme skill, the Apostle slipped through his defenses and ran him through. He folded forward, crashing into her. Despite her superhuman strength, she was an extremely light individual, and his superior weight pressed her down to the catwalk. Her armor grated against it as she twisted her blade in him, to be sure of the kill. His blood poured over her hands and began seeping through the gaps in her armor. Just the smell of it made her shudder with the pleasure of what was to come. Something deep inside of her craved his blood more than she had ever craved anything before. She had never felt an emotion she could not control, except that last time she’d drank the blood of a human. She could not control her craving now.

Jerking the gunman’s head aside, the Apostle plunged her fangs into a bulging

vein. He drew in breath sharply as his blood began to flow into her. Again she seemed to fall into his very soul, immersing herself in ecstasy beyond reason. She felt the burning pain of her blade in his belly, and the feeling of his life leaking away. His memories began to flow into her, and she saw the man that Cain had ordered her to kill.

Go now
, Cain bellowed in her head, crushing the pleasure of drinking human blood.
Kill him
!

The Apostle felt Cain take control of her and toss the gunman away, over the

railing.

Screaming in the agony of having her connection to the man broken so forcibly, the Apostle was jerked to her feet by Cain’s power. She felt it coursing through her, pulling every part of her tight. Having her mind ripped away from his so abruptly was like being torn in two. Her consciousness wavered, on the verge of shattering, as Cain pulled at her. Her back arched and her joints popped as he tried to pull her limb from limb.

You can indulge your sick pleasures after you’ve finished my work
!

“Yes,” she managed.

Then go. Kill him. Now
!

“I obey,” the Apostle gasped as she was abruptly dropped on the catwalk face

first. She could see the body of the gunman floating in a spreading cloud of blood in the water below.

It took several tries to work up the strength to get back to her feet. Retrieving her sword from where it had fallen, the Apostle started around the inner ring of the catwalk toward the place where the man Cain wanted dead would be waiting. Her body was sluggish from the violent way her connection to the gunman had been broken. Her muscles were weak and watery, and she felt as though she was going to be sick. Her joints would not bend properly, and she could only manage a slow shuffle.

Glancing toward the silvery sphere, the Apostle realized that it seemed to reflect everything but her. In her place, Cain watched her with unblinking eyes, shooing her on her way with his hands

The Apostle set her jaw, biting down hard to keep herself from grinding her teeth and forced her sluggish body to continue. A ghost of the pain she’d felt earlier shot through her body, and Cain began laughing maniacally in the recesses of her mind. She had to find some way to free herself of his influence.

Something shot down her spine like an electric shock, causing every muscle in her body to contract and freeze. Unable to breathe, the Apostle realized that she was trapped far deeper than she had first thought. Cain couldn’t just control her thoughts and actions.

If he wished it, she would drop dead on the spot.

You are mine. It is time that you learned who made you, and whom you were
meant to serve before you drew your first breath. You cannot plot against me. I know
your thoughts better than you do. You will learn who holds your leash my little wolf, and
you will never be free of it.

“I will be free one day,” the Apostle growled as the tension in her muscles loosed.

“And then you will feel this wolf’s bite.”

Cain only laughed.

Chapter 41: Sacrifice

Looking up at the sound of gunshots, Gabriel couldn’t quite tell where they’d

come from. The crackling of electricity above and below the black hole, as well as the acoustics of the cavern made it impossible to say which direction they originated.

“Look back at the screen,” Allie said. “I cannot see what I am doing.”

More shots sounded, and then there was as much silence as was possible in the

containment area.

“Marius seems to have found her,” Allie said. “Now look back at the screen. I need to finish.”

Looking back at the console, Gabriel winced as the distortion around the black hole bent his surroundings, making his stomach heave queasily. He was going to puke if he had to watch everything distorting much longer.

Once again his fingers began to fly over the keyboard with a life of their own.

Impatience weighed heavily as seconds ticked by. He could practically feel the Apostle sneaking up behind him as a sense of urgency began leaking through from Allie. Though she had once been human, she was a computer now, and Gabriel found the thought of a computer feeling emotion rather strange.

Tapping his foot nervously, he watched his hands fly over the keyboard with a

speed he never could have imagined. Despite that, it felt far too slow for comfort with the Apostle prowling around, and him unable to look away from the screen while Allie worked.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw a black-cloaked figure coming around into

view from behind the sphere. Her image stretched and bent into it as she used the railing to shuffle along. There was blood all around her mouth.

Seeing her was like seeing the great judge of all man’s sins approaching the

pulpit. He’d killed so many people over the last few days, first to rescue Sam, then to put Allison out of her misery, and fight his way to the coolant duct that led him here. The need to be judged for those sins weighed heavily on him.

The Apostle slowly, doggedly continued her inexorable approach, one hand on

the railing to keep herself upright, and the other on the hilt of her sword, which dragged on the catwalk beside her, drawing sparks with every step. As she hobbled slowly along, her cloak fell away, showing gray streaks of lead on her breastplate where Marius had shot her. Her armor was a lot stronger than Gabriel had expected it to be. Blood dripped slowly down it. At least Marius appeared to have wounded her.