“And you’re saying they won’t let me be?”
“That’s for sure.”
“So I go somewhere else?”
Kvasir turned and looked at him.
“Yes-and no. Okay, Ark man. Now I gotta just take a chance I can trust you. Can I trust you, Raine?”
“What do you think?”
“Anyone ever talk to you about the Resistance?”
“Resistance? Dan Hagar mentioned that some people were against the Authority. But he didn’t say anything about-”
“Good. Best people like him not know too much or tell too much. They might leave him alone, and his settlement. The Authority needs the settlements. For supplies, to keep people in check. But there is a resistance; there are people who fight back.”
Kvasir gestured at the open spaces of the Wasteland that lay before them.
“They have a ‘vision,’ too. Free people. Sharing the science, all the goods from the past. Sharing what was found after Apophis. Instead of it all going to Capital Prime.” He took a breath. “That’s where I think you belong, my friend. With the Resistance.”
For a few moments Raine didn’t say anything. “I was sent here on orders. You know. A mission.”
“Yeah. To protect people. The survivors. Right?”
“Yes.”
“Then that’s how the hell you’ll do it, friend.”
Another pause. Raine felt that this strange world just grew a bit stranger… and even more dangerous.
“I guess I could talk to them.”
Kvasir raised an arm.
“Look. See over on that hill there? Some muties. Just about dusk they gather. Always want to get here. But my little traps on the bridge stop them.” Another spit at the rock. The gesture belied the confidence of Kvasir’s words. He took a breath.
“Fuck you!” he yelled at them.
“How do I find them. This Resistance?”
Kvasir turned back to Raine. He reached out and gave his arm a squeeze exactly where the arm had been wounded. No pain.
Incredible.
But frightening now, too, since Raine knew the nanotrites were like time bombs ready to explode his humanity.
“Your arm’s good. You can travel. But not to Wellspring. No. You’re going to another city, my friend. Best you give the Resistance a reason to want to contact you. A reason to trust you. Time for the last secret.”
Kvasir stood up and headed for the door. The light and color was seeping from the sky.
“Let me show you something…”
Kvasir spread out a large roll of paper. Like an architect’s blueprint, it showed buildings, streets, a city plan.
“This is the Dead City. The Authority used their scientists to carry out experiments-on the nanotrites, on the mutants themselves-while also trying to understand this…” He put his hand on the piece of asteroid, the feltrite. “There are secrets in here, and they’re not even close to understanding them.”
“Who’s there now?” Raine said, pointing at the layout.
“No one. Dead, you know? Things started to go wrong. Things went so bad in the city.” Kvasir grinned. “The mutants escaped. They don’t know how that happened.” He snorted again. “I do, though.”
Raine looked at the old man’s grin.
“Wait-you did it, you worked for them?”
“Not in the end. I escaped. And I messed up things for them before I left. That’s another story. For another time, hm?” He paused. “I didn’t tell them what my suspicions were. Where they should be researching. Here, I’m just a crazy old man in the wilderness. They leave me alone. Occasional Enforcers will drop by once in a while to see if I have found anything. I give them crumbs. They leave me alone.”
“And this city is…”
“Deserted. Abandoned, save for the mutants. A half day’s journey from here. A city of mutants, my friend. And not just like the ones outside. The Authority carried out experiments. Those ‘experiments’ still walk around.”
“I’m guessing you’re showing this to me for a reason.”
“What were they trying to do? I never found that out. And what are they doing now? What was the Authority’s ultimate goal in experimenting with mutants? Whatever they were, they’ve taken those experiments into Capital Prime. But they started here, in this city. The clues are here.”
Raine looked at the layout, the streets, the buildings.
“Raine-what they were doing there, it got out of hand in a hurry. Bad enough for them to run without even packing up. Bad enough to not want to go back. They took their main hard drives and left, the city swarming with mutants. The experiments… out of control.”
Kvasir gestured at the city plan.
“Mutants… all over. So-some of the backup drives got left behind. It was just backup data. Not too important for them. But with that information, the Resistance might have something it could use to grow stronger. It could have-the truth.”
“So why don’t they go there, get the damn drives-”
“Not a chance they could get close. To expose themselves there-the Authority could find them. People speak. But you-” Kvasir jabbed a finger at Raine. “Who knows you? No one yet.”
Kvasir walked over to a tray, his pieces of the killer asteroid sitting harmlessly in it.
“You go there. Get the drives. Then, you go to Wellspring. I will let my contacts know you will be coming. There’s a woman. I used to work with her. If she’s interested, don’t worry-she’ll find you. It’s the only way it can work.”
Kvasir picked up his scalpels and scraped at the rock. “Something here,” he muttered, not really talking to Raine. “Some kind of force. Subatomic. Chemical. A new kind of force. If only I had better equipment.”
“And the mutants?” Raine prompted. “You said they are still in the Dead City.”
Kvasir didn’t look up. “Yeah. It won’t be easy.” A snort. “No. It will be hard. Deadly. But you are trained. Hell, after what I’ve seen you can do, it might actually be possible. Sometimes one man is better suited for a mission than a whole army.” He shook his head. “Either way, it’s safer than the stadium-”
“You mean the races.”
Another scrape. “Death traps, they are. A stranger trying to make his way in the Wellspring? Drive, kill, or be killed.”
Raine stood still, the repetitive scraping of Kvasir signaling the time passing.
Options.
What options?
He could just ignore him, this crazy old scientist. Could just go to Wellspring.
But then… if he were to do what he was sent here to do-if he were to carry out the mission, his duty- that wasn’t the answer.
After what seemed like long minutes of silence, Raine spoke. “Okay, Kvasir. I’ll go get the drive. Or try. I’ll bring it here, and then I’ll go to the city.”
Kvasir nodded. “Good. I will let them know. And Raine?” He looked up at the survivor. “I do have a few other weapons, things that might be useful. You can take what you want.”
Raine nodded but said nothing. Instead, he watched Kvasir take a flake of rock and slide it under the microscope.
“Yes… something… here…”
Raine went back to the schematics for the Dead City.
He spent the next hours looking at them, preparing… before he finally rolled them up, carried them to his cot, and lay down.
TWENTY-FIVE
The commander, his helmet off, took steps forward. With armored gloves covering his hands, he whipped the back of one across Dan Hagar’s face, sending him flying to the floor.
Two Enforcers-their protective face masks covering their faces, making them look more like robots than men-stood to the side, each one locked on an arm of Loosum, holding her tight.
Dan saw his daughter pull against the grip of the two Enforcers.
“Bastard,” she spat.
“Loosum!” Dan said.
“The Visionary cautions against such disrespect of his emissaries. The rules of the Authority, in fact, make it a crime.”
His daughter-always a quick temper.