Ursza directed Clay through several false starts and turns, out of the metroplex, then finally east towards an agricultural zone two kilometers away. Clay saw conventional farms and more advanced layerfarms once vital in terraforming the planet by providing a stable ecological base for the introduction of off-world crops without disturbing Indigenous flora and wildlife.
Abruptly, the farms ended, giving way to a pitted and charred landscape where plants only seemed to grow in clumps of brown, unorganized weeds. He was taken aback when he realized what they were. “My god, they bombed their crops?!”
Ursza nodded. “Anti-government forces. Years ago. Hundreds of thousands starved. Lucky they didn’t collapse the ecosystem and waste the whole planet.”
Clay couldn’t believe that people would be so desperate to effect change that they would go to such dangerous lengths. He continued along the path Ursza had indicated until, in the distance, he spotted the remains of a bombed-out factory. Nothing grew within half a kilometer of the building, and he hoped he was imagining the orange haze that seemed to emanate from it.
“What is that?!”
“Terraform complex. All the toxins they removed, and all the chemicals to make the fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides they replaced them with.” She scoffed a laugh. “Everything the terrorists needed to make a death cloud.”
Clay’s jaw went slack. The more he thought he understood the planet, the worse it got.
He descended into the complex, steering at her guidance through several alleyways, over an abandoned construction yard, and finally, through the missing front wall of what remained standing of a disused warehouse. The space was easily 100 meters on a side, though one side was completely missing, and the others had large sections where the walls had long since crumbled away. The roof did not fare much better, having several collapsed sections that were now piles of debris scattered throughout the floor.
Clay found an open spot large enough to accommodate the aircar, set down, and checked the radar for pursuers. “I think we lost them,” he said at last and powered down the engines. “With luck, we can hide out here until they give up and go home.”
“They won’t,” Ursza said, visibly sweating.
“Yeah, they have a lot of resources they can throw at this, and we seem to be a priority. Any chance we can get your stealthy friend to fly in and give us a rescue?”
She stared straight ahead, expressionless. “No.”
“Still don’t trust me? Still convinced I’m going to kill both of you? Cerberus has Keraunos now, so we’re expendable unless you and your friend can help us get it away from them.”
“You have the cipher. They’ll want you alive. I’m the only one who’s expendable.” She winced in pain and wrapped her arms around her chest to steady herself.
Clay reached into the back, extracted the black bag from the storage compartment, and removed a vial of Shard and the hypogun. “Are you going to sober up and kill me if I give you this?”
She winced, then sighed in frustration. “I’ll probably kill you now if you don’t.”
He handed her the hypogun, and once again, she injected a half-doze in her leg.
“Why do you keep using only a half-dose? I told you, you can’t wean yourself off.”
“Need to look the part, otherwise they know you’re giving me Shard,” she said, her face instantly regaining color and life.
“Who will? Look, I’ve figured out Halferne tipped Prevo off about Keraunos, and he hired Hēi Gēzi to kill everyone Locke spoke to in order to get Keraunos here. Your middleman, Talbot, sold it to Jade Shield instead, presumably for more money, based on the way Klein complained. Who hired Hēi Gēzi to steal it back? Cerberus, based on how they knew to be in Harba City and how to find you? I’ll assume you betrayed both them and Hēi Gēzi to give Keraunos to me, judging by his concern at your capture and lack of interest in rescuing you?”
She was breathing freely now, and her voice was steady for the first time since the roof in Harba City. “The less you know, the safer you are.” She buried her face in her hands out of frustration. “Zāogāo,” she whispered.
Then, Clay noticed the triangular brand inside her forearm, and everything clicked into place.
“Oh, my god. You’re not just some recently converted Buddhist. You’re Gu’Senlin. A warrior monk? From the colony on Adad?!”
“Warrior monk?!” She gave him a glance that was more amusement than denial. “We’re inheritors of the Shaolin, but we’re not …” She grunted in frustration, then caught herself and stared at him for a moment, wondering whether she could trust him. “You’ve watched too many ancient holovids. Just …” she grunted in frustration as if she’d had this argument a thousand times. “Forget what you think you know about us.”
“So, wait, that means you’re Hēi Gēzi? You’re the ninja?!”
“Forget that as well,” she said sadly and gave him a dangerous stare. “For both our sakes.”
He thought for a moment, then turned to her. “Why are you doing this? You’re sworn to protect the greater good. How can you just let Cerberus have Keraunos now?”
Her eyes met his, cold and unapologetic. “You don’t know what they did to me.”
He’d seen the look before. No doubt a reasonably sadistic mind knew exactly how to use Shard addiction and any number of chemicals in combination with physical and psychological torture to get even a Gu’Senlin monk, with their supposed mastery of mind and body, to break. He’d seen Division Interrogation SIs tame even the most resilient and determined minds he’d ever met in a matter of a couple of days. “I’m sorry,” was all he could manage to say. “Okay, let’s backtrack. Why are you even on Notosia in the first place? Why did you leave the temple on Adad?”
She stared long and hard out the window, rubbing her arms for warmth. Finally, she spoke. “When I attained Master, I took a year’s sabbatical and wandered the systems. It’s not uncommon. We lend our talents to help or protect the needy, spread the word of the order, and keep people from fearing us or seeing us as warriors. That kind of thing.”
Clay wondered at the wisdom of that. There wasn’t a government on any world that wouldn’t give up a year’s gross planetary product to have a Gu’Senlin train their military or advise on strategy. It was said to be one of the reasons they left Earth and settled on a remote mining colony. Their temple was built so high on a mountainside that it was impossible for travelers to approach it without being seen. Wisdom suggested that if the Gu’Senlin would stay hidden, they’d be reduced to rumor and legend in a matter of generations.
Ursza continued. “When I heard about this place, it seemed ideal. There’s been war here for years. So many people caught in the middle, uprooted from their lives, unable to go forward. I expected to set up a temple, maybe help establish some schools or clinics.”
“The monks in Harba City? That was you?”
“No, they were already here, students of Yogananda Rimpoche. They took me in, though. They know who I am.”
“It should have ended there then. How do you end up working for organized crime.”
She slammed her head back into the seat. “Because I was naïve and foolish. I didn’t realize this planet was completely without honor. I’d never seen anything like it. I couldn’t even comprehend it. I guess I got a little overzealous one day, trying to teach some ruffians a lesson or something. In Harba City, Cerberus eventually notices that type of thing. They sent in one of their special recruiters. Next thing I know, I’m addicted to Shard and pretty much compelled to do whatever they want.” She clenched her jaw and was growling the words now. “When the addiction became too expensive and too much trouble for them, they cut me loose. Talbot found me and tried to help me. He and I created the Hēi Gēzi persona to protect me from retribution. Everyone just assumed he was another monk from the order in Harba City. Talbot liked it because it was good for business. For the most part, I didn’t mind because it made Cerberus afraid of the Buddhists, and they would leave them alone to finish their work.”
“So, if you were working for Talbot, why did you go to so much trouble to point him out to me?” Clay asked. “You had to know I would kill him.”
“Because he … conditioned me. I couldn’t stop him. I couldn’t even harm him,” Ursza said, again becoming agitated. “He was always fair with me, but he kept a tight hold on my supply to ensure loyalty, sometimes letting me go right to the edge before he’d give me the fix.” Something in her voice sounded off the more she talked about herself and her past. It was almost as if she were losing her grip on her sanity.
He felt for her – forcibly addicted to a drug with excruciating, even fatal withdrawal symptoms, tortured and conditioned by multiple groups, and no doubt kept awake in a government cell for the past couple of days as they tried to speed up the withdrawal process that would lead to her final, agonizing death. He clenched his fists out of helplessness. He believed he could help her; at the very least, he would do everything in his power to try. He knew many would say he was seeking some kind of redemption for his past failures, but ulterior motives aside, he was the only person on the planet who cared at all about her. It was understandable that she didn’t trust him, or anyone at this point, but he was determined to save her.
Clay frowned. “I’m truly sorry. Still, we have three and a half doses of Shard left. Once we get Keraunos back, we can leave here and get you well again.”
“You’re not getting Keraunos back,” she snapped, still angry. “It’s over. Cerberus is too big. Too powerful.”
“I don’t believe that. I was on Locke’s yacht and I was at Klein’s estate. I know what you can do, and I know you’re not afraid of Cerberus.” Clay studied her reaction. “I think you want them to have it. I just can’t figure out why, but I think giving me the cipher was part of it.”
“I gave you the cipher because I hoped your superiors would be happy enough simply to neutralize the threat of Keraunos and recall you.”
“It didn’t work, though. They know what Keraunos is. I assume you do as well.”
“Yes.”
“What is it?”
“Power. A fulcrum. A future.”
Clay threw up his hands and groaned in frustration. “More riddles!”
Ursza shook her head. Her voice softened. “If you know what it is, it may affect how you interpret your orders. I know you’re supposed to kill me.”
“I never wanted to kill you,” Clay insisted. “Now I know you’re just a victim caught up in all this. I’m going to help you. I swear. You have to trust me.”
Ursza fixed him with a gaze. “Why are you doing this, Clay?”
“You first. Halferne and I are offering you a way out. We both want to help you, but you seemed determined to stay.”
She thought for a moment. “You have heroes, don’t you?”
Clay frowned. “My heroes are all dead, kid.”
“So, by living, do you honor them and what they stood for?”
Clay was taken aback. “I don’t know. I want to think so, but I don’t know.”
“If you aren’t sure, it’s not your time to die. Their honor must still be preserved for the next generation of heroes to find. You must get off this planet before it’s too late.”
“There is no honor on this planet! You’ve said it yourself.”
“Honor is where you find it,” Ursza said. “On this planet, I’m still looking.”
Clay caught motion in front of the car. Four men dressed in tactical suits and carrying plasrifles were walking toward them. The weapons were pointed downward, and the men walked in the open, not expecting trouble.
“It’s okay.” Ursza exhaled slowly and said, “They’re with me.”
“Who are they?”
“Notosian Liberation Front,” she said. “Small players. I’m doing a side job for them in exchange for some place to hide out. That doesn’t include you. I need you to take the cipher and get off this planet as soon as you can. There isn’t much time left.” Her eyes were deadly serious.
Clay snorted and shrugged off her admonishment, then turned and opened the rear compartment of the aircar. He extracted the case and handed it to Ursza. She slowly opened it and regarded the planet’s last three vials of Shard. She lifted one out, regarded it with a strange, innocent look, and smashed it on the aircar’s dashboard, sending glass and liquid everywhere. Before Clay could protest and restrain her, she’d done the same to the other two.
“Are you insane? We could have used that to develop a cure!” Clay shouted.
Ursa exited the car arms outstretched so as not to alarm the approaching men, who nodded, but did not raise their guns until Clay bounded out the other side, visibly angry. “Get back in the car, Clay, don’t press them.”
“I’m pressing them, kid,” he said, then turned to the men. “She’s not going anywhere unless it’s of her own free will. You boys are going to need to convince me.”
The four stared at him with bemused expressions, guns aimed and ready to cut him down instantly. After a few seconds, the lead man smiled, powered down his plazrifle, and tossed it to Ursza. She powered it up, fired two shots into the ground in front of her, then powered it back down. “Get back in the car and get off this planet,” she said again, more forcefully this time.
“What about you, though?” Clay pleaded. “Tell me you’ve still got a stash of Shard here.”
She shook her head. “In twelve hours, the work will be done and the withdrawals will begin. It has to end.” She closed her eyes and smiled softly. Clay realized that Shard wasn’t the last thing on the planet keeping her alive. It was what allowed so many to control her and strip her of her dignity and free will. Even if he found a way to break the addiction and free her, the planet had done much more damage to her that might never heal properly. She knew this and wanted to be free of it. To her, this was honor. Against his better judgment, he understood.
“I’m sorry,” he said to no one in particular.
“You can’t save me now. We’re both free,” she said without the slightest bit of remorse. “Now, get off this planet while your head is still attached to your body. I won’t ask again.” She bowed slightly, and allowed the men to lead her through the shadows and into the complex. Clay stood dumbfounded, unable to move, until they were all out of sight.
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