Chapter Twenty-Nine #2
He wrapped her in his arms. “Of course. We make a pretty good team,” he said, squeezing her tight.
Before she could tell him she agreed wholeheartedly, subtle sounds from across the cavern that signaled they were not alone put Madelaine into immediate fight-or-flight mode.
She couldn’t flee so she readied herself to fight.
Clap. Clap. Clap. Slow applause echoed through the cavern from a single spectator.
Jack froze in her arms right before she released him. Madelaine turned toward the clapping.
A man stepped from the shadows. He wore dark Paladin robes and smiled at them with wild eyes.
“Congratulations. You found the Mechanism, despite your shortcomings.” His voice echoed in the chamber. “For you, it’s truly a magnificent discovery. But still not good enough.”
Madelaine’s blood went cold. “You must be Dirk Zandis.”
“You remember me?” He sounded surprised.
“No.” Madelaine frowned. “We’ve never met.” He had a distinct face, round and pale like the full moon in the night’s sky.
Jack stepped in front of her. “I do remember wanting to punch you the moment I knew you existed. Does that count? Do I get credit for it?”
Dirk’s smile faded. “You should never have been involved with her. You should never have inserted yourself into this business as her husband.” He practically spit the word “husband” out like a bitter pill he refused to swallow. “Now you’ll pay the price.”
“Me being her husband—which I still am, by the way—was not your call to make.” Jack straightened, making it obvious he was also in fight-or-flight mode.
Madelaine’s voice sharpened. “I chose Jack. He is here because I want him here. Not you. Never you.”
Dirk’s smile disappeared into a derisive stare. “No. That’s not true. You never had a choice.”
“I did and I made one. His name is Jack Grey. Write it down maybe.”
“No. The Cabal chose me!” Dirk’s unhinged-sounding voice exploded through the cavern. “They promised me! They said I was the best choice to lead the Paladin Courier.”
Madelaine stood beside Jack. “They promised you nothing. You were never guaranteed a part here. That’s why you’ve been trying to thwart us for weeks.”
“No! They promised order! And agreed that I would lead them afterward. Once all the known universes have been cleansed.” His eyes glittered with mania. “The old galaxies are diseased. Corrupt. Weak. The plume from Dravo is about to clean everything out to make way for a better world.”
Jack stared. “You’ve lost your space potato-chucking mind.”
“No, Mr. Grey. I’ve seen a vision of what the future can be instead of what it is now.” After that prophetic delivery, Dirk seemed to calm himself, lessening the mania.
Meanwhile, Madelaine had to work to keep from baring her teeth at him and growling, she was so angry. “You have been a detriment this whole journey when you should have been helping us.”
Dirk turned back to Madelaine, a fake frown on his stupid face. “Are you still mad that I stole your bauxite fuel cubes back on Keirios?” Dirk the Jerk asked.
“No. I’m furious with you because you’ve dogged my heels this whole journey for the singular reason that I didn’t select you as a mate before leaving Alienn.”
“Yeah, that was a big mistake on your part, Madelaine. Very short-sighted.”
“How do you figure that?” Madelaine was looking past him at the Mechanism.
If I run, will he catch me before I get the device inside the Mechanism?
She kept talking. “You are not on my side. You are not trying to aid me in keeping our universe safe from harm. You are useless to me and that’s another reason you were never under consideration. ”
Dirk’s eyes lifted. “You’re right. Because the known galaxies need to be destroyed. Once the existing power structures are eliminated by natural selection, a new and better world can rise out of the ashes.” Once more he sounded like a zealot spouting his plans for a brave new world.
“Are you planning to be the ruler of this better world?” she asked. “Typical.”
“What if I am? I’d certainly do a better job than the fools in charge right now.”
“Yawn. You sound like every spoiled rich kid I ever knew. You’ve had every advantage in life without having to work for it and it’s never enough power for you.”
Dirk didn’t seem to like that truth. “What do you know? You’re a poor little Earther nobody who got conscripted into the Paladin Courier program because your cousin Veida died without giving birth to a daughter to take over for her.”
Dirk turned to Jack. “Did she tell you the real reason she ditched you five years ago? Huh?”
Madelaine wanted to punch him in the throat so much, her fingers tingled with raw energy and the yearning to crush, kill and destroy him with her bare hands.
But she was better than that. She would not let him goad her.
She needed to get over to the Mechanism and load the device.
She took a small step in that direction, hoping she could slowly make her way there while he was distracted.
Jack moved with her as if he read her mind. He sounded amused when he asked Dirk, “Do you mean my wife? The woman who selected me over you to be her husband in this long journey of glory?”
It might be a good idea to rile him, Madelaine thought. I need a distraction.
Dirk’s expression shifted to fury. “I was the better choice!”
“Why? Because you could have served your needs and desires so much easier if she’d gone along with your personal program?
“I suspect you would have chained her up in her own ship and kept her mouth taped shut, only trotting her out in public when required to fetch the parts of the device until you didn’t need her anymore.
” They’d moved a couple of steps in the right direction, inches at a time, as Dirk seemed caught up in defending his foolish beliefs.
“You don’t know that. Besides, she’s not without liability. She only agreed to become the Paladin Courier because she didn’t want her little sister to have all the glory! She’s a self-serving, glory-seeking publicity hound and not the virtuous soul you think she is.”
“Liar!” Madelaine screamed.
She’d wanted to save Natalie from the program from the very beginning.
She and her sister were the last female descendants of the family with the right DNA to collect, assemble and deploy the device.
That was how they’d kept Madelaine in Paladin training, by threatening her with the immediate conscription of her little sister if Madelaine didn’t cooperate. So she had.
“Don’t listen to him, Madelaine,” Jack said, putting an arm around her shoulders and moving her a few inches closer to the Mechanism.
“He’s a sniveling crybaby and not worth your justifiable anger.
” Pressing a silent signal into her arm, he told her he’d battle with Dirk while she ran over and loaded the device.
“I love you, Jack,” Madelaine said. She turned and kissed him. All they need to do was subdue Dirk and load the device into the Mechanism. Once the clock started, she just had to do a few twists with the silver bauxite nugget and done.
They were going to win.
“Oh, that’s so sweet,” Dirk said sarcastically. “Gag me. The two of you are not worthy of the glory you seek. But it doesn’t matter. I’m not going to let you have it anyway.”
Dirk lifted a large gun he’d pulled from his robe and pointed it at them. He took a strange device from a pocket and held it up. It looked like a large key fob or maybe a small garage door opener.
Jack moved half a step right in front of Madelaine, as if shielding her from the gun and whatever Dirk had in his other hand. Her gaze was focused on the problematic gun.
“What are you going to do, lock your car doors from here?” Jack asked. “Wow. You really are the man with all sorts of important power. Should we call you King of the Door Locks now?”
When she peered over Jack’s shoulder to get a clearer look at the item in Dirk’s hand, Madelaine gasped. It was a resonance disruptor.
She stepped to one side of Jack. “No! Don’t do it—”
Dirk sneered as he slammed his thumb on the switch. Energy screamed through the chamber. The Mechanism groaned. Crystal conduits crackled as if ready to work. Ancient gears moved slowly onward. The socket hollow lit up as if ready to receive the device.
And, most importantly, the space above the socket lit up with a countdown clock. It was set for only two minutes. Just like in the rendering.
Jack grabbed Madelaine’s arm. “What is happening?”
“He’s started the Mechanism! Do you see the countdown clock? Usually, it won’t start until the device is inside the socket.”
Dirk laughed. “When the countdown clock hits zero, the Mechanism locks up. Since the device won’t be inside, it will never launch.”
He raised his pistol higher and aimed it at Jack’s chest. “Now, the two of you will remain right there, well away from the Mechanism. Soon, the galaxies will begin again with me at the helm of a new and better society.”
Boom!
The loud sound came from behind Dirk, making him and his gun spin away from them. Something huge dropped from the ceiling, knocking Dirk to the floor.
Smoke exploded everywhere. Blue and black with sparks of blue writhing across the floor, the walls, the Mechanism.
Madelaine lost sight of the timer. Space potatoes!
The smoke thickened. Like in The Burnt Saint Exchange, when they’d made their escape with their bauxite fuel cubes from Crooked Halo Station. Clearly, Veyre was here to help them, but the smoke needed to go.
Madelaine shouted, “No smoking up the mine shaft, Veyre! I can’t see the countdown clock.”
“Fair point. Sorry about that.” Veyre somehow sucked all the smoke back into himself.
Dirk had scrambled to his feet. He lifted his gun and fired at Veyre. Energy bolts blasted past Veyre.
Veyre looked offended. “That was discourteous, Dirk. Gloves off, then. Good.”
The strange being then split into three copies. Dirk fired wildly at all of them.
“What did he just do?” Jack asked.