that may not be too far off. Bron said it perfectly before: Sotercity was a trash heap. Even as a Keeper, if you were unlucky enough to be born there, you could kiss your chances of advancement goodbye. Yet another reason I became a Merc. I don’t take orders so well. A commander expecting a salute is just as likely to get a pair of brass knuckles in the face.
I hate to admit it, but I can almost sympathize with Prior Skuld’s frustration. He’d been locked on the lowest rung of the totem pole and now he was gonna burn to ashes the very apparatus that imprisoned him. The logic itself melded perfectly with those Grinders you sometimes read about, who kill their co-workers with a socket wrench because their supervisor passed them up for a promotion. Men like Oleg used fancy Duster terms like sociopathic, although I’m more partial to what the old timers used to call people willing to sacrifice the life of thousands: bat-shit crazy.
“ This’ll be my first time in the capital,” Klaus says. “Do you think we’ll get to meet the Patriarch?”
Oh, boy, this one’s worse than a newborn. “ We’re not on vacation, in case you haven’t noticed.” There’s a distinct note of disgust in my voice and Klaus looks almost wounded by the comment, but I don’t have time to bother with hurt feelings. It’s questions like that that are making me more certain he won’t be able to handle seeing the ocean of Zees I’m sure are surging before the capital’s walls.
We veer off the highway and onto a well worn footpath which leads to Attica’s main gates. The path that’s cut through the forest is wide enough for an entire battalion of Wardens to travel ten abreast with ease. Still, beyond that, the damp ground beneath the trees on either side has been trampled by what Sneak and I can only guess was a swarm of Zees. Hundreds of years ago, swaths similar to this were cut through the countryside by massive herds of what Dusters called Buffalo. The Keepers taught us how settlers moving west would peg them off from smoke belching trains and nearly drove the species to extinction. Now we’re the ones on the verge of extinction.
Sneak’s on point , up ahead, and raises her hand in the air, curling it into a fist. I stop and crouch and need to tug at Klaus’ Keeper robe before he does the same.
Sneak’s sig ning back. “You should see this.”
Except I don’t need to , ‘cause I know exactly what’s there. In spite of Skuld’s attempts to block my abilities to tap into Hive central and gain control of the horde he’s assembled, tiny bits of code are always bleeding through, like a slow leak on a sealed jar. Klaus and I inch ahead anyway, although I’m growing more and more certain of what I’m about to see. The terror on his face when he witnesses the shocking mass of Zee flesh in the valley below, rushing through the city gates like a single dark organism, makes one thing perfectly clear. We’re too late. They’re already inside.
Klaus’ whimpers draw my attention away from the trails of smoke rising from Attica and the unbelievable carnage surely taking place there, to the young Keeper. I might not be able to reach Klaus’ mind the way I can with a Zee, but I can sure as hell see he wishes he’d never left the bowels of that Keeper archive in the first place. Burying your head in the sand is what the Dusters used to say, and that’s just what Klaus wishes he could do. Although, somewhere in there, he must know it’s far too late for any of that. The fingers of his hand are cupped over his lips, holding in a scream. Even his eyes begin watering, like he’s about to cry, and I slap him across the face.
“Man up.”
The shock he’s in dulls the pain, but he looks over at me all the same and to a passerby, the sight would almost be comical. A Keeper being slapped in the face by a Zee.
A burst of Zee code hits me with sudden force. A group of them are nearby, feeding. Tearing flesh from a recent kill is
I hate to admit it, but I can almost sympathize with Prior Skuld’s frustration. He’d been locked on the lowest rung of the totem pole and now he was gonna burn to ashes the very apparatus that imprisoned him. The logic itself melded perfectly with those Grinders you sometimes read about, who kill their co-workers with a socket wrench because their supervisor passed them up for a promotion. Men like Oleg used fancy Duster terms like sociopathic, although I’m more partial to what the old timers used to call people willing to sacrifice the life of thousands: bat-shit crazy.
“ This’ll be my first time in the capital,” Klaus says. “Do you think we’ll get to meet the Patriarch?”
Oh, boy, this one’s worse than a newborn. “ We’re not on vacation, in case you haven’t noticed.” There’s a distinct note of disgust in my voice and Klaus looks almost wounded by the comment, but I don’t have time to bother with hurt feelings. It’s questions like that that are making me more certain he won’t be able to handle seeing the ocean of Zees I’m sure are surging before the capital’s walls.
We veer off the highway and onto a well worn footpath which leads to Attica’s main gates. The path that’s cut through the forest is wide enough for an entire battalion of Wardens to travel ten abreast with ease. Still, beyond that, the damp ground beneath the trees on either side has been trampled by what Sneak and I can only guess was a swarm of Zees. Hundreds of years ago, swaths similar to this were cut through the countryside by massive herds of what Dusters called Buffalo. The Keepers taught us how settlers moving west would peg them off from smoke belching trains and nearly drove the species to extinction. Now we’re the ones on the verge of extinction.
Sneak’s on point , up ahead, and raises her hand in the air, curling it into a fist. I stop and crouch and need to tug at Klaus’ Keeper robe before he does the same.
Sneak’s sig ning back. “You should see this.”
Except I don’t need to , ‘cause I know exactly what’s there. In spite of Skuld’s attempts to block my abilities to tap into Hive central and gain control of the horde he’s assembled, tiny bits of code are always bleeding through, like a slow leak on a sealed jar. Klaus and I inch ahead anyway, although I’m growing more and more certain of what I’m about to see. The terror on his face when he witnesses the shocking mass of Zee flesh in the valley below, rushing through the city gates like a single dark organism, makes one thing perfectly clear. We’re too late. They’re already inside.
Klaus’ whimpers draw my attention away from the trails of smoke rising from Attica and the unbelievable carnage surely taking place there, to the young Keeper. I might not be able to reach Klaus’ mind the way I can with a Zee, but I can sure as hell see he wishes he’d never left the bowels of that Keeper archive in the first place. Burying your head in the sand is what the Dusters used to say, and that’s just what Klaus wishes he could do. Although, somewhere in there, he must know it’s far too late for any of that. The fingers of his hand are cupped over his lips, holding in a scream. Even his eyes begin watering, like he’s about to cry, and I slap him across the face.
“Man up.”
The shock he’s in dulls the pain, but he looks over at me all the same and to a passerby, the sight would almost be comical. A Keeper being slapped in the face by a Zee.
A burst of Zee code hits me with sudden force. A group of them are nearby, feeding. Tearing flesh from a recent kill is
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