In the meanwhile, most of the small building had burned; the roof was gone and only one wall was still standing. I was about forty feet away but the machines I glimpsed inside seemed unaffected. They gleamed brightly as though polished by the fire. I recognized the egg-shaped form of one from the image I’d seen in the files. It was the wedge, and like the others, it sat there in seemingly pristine condition. I guessed they were made of sterner materials than the building. Whatever their composition, they didn’t burn.
That was disappointing but I’d known this wasn’t going to be easy.
I began to work my way towards the building. Through the melee, I saw Simon and Lowell fighting back-to-back. Something whizzed through the air striking Lowell and he fell. My heart caught but there was no time to get to him. Simon went into a killing frenzy, screaming and slashing with his sword. I caught a commotion out the corner of my eye and saw Madison. Nearly surrounded by Binqua, she was kicking and turning, seeming to almost dance. I was nearing what was left of the building and I needed to take the wedge device out, so I said a silent prayer for her and fought my way through.
I stumbled over the doorsill and up to the machine. I was pulling out the canceler when something collided with me from the side knocking me down. The canceler flew across the blackened cement floor. I rolled and my knife met the chest of the Binqua who’d bowled me over and was trying to bash my head against the floor. His breath rasped in his throat as he groped at me. I pushed him off me, got to my knees and stabbed again, burying my knife in his throat and he sprawled over backward, drowning in his stinking, bluish-red blood. I pulled the knife out and scrambled towards the canceler in time to see a tall, dark haired Binqua in a black suit reach down and pick it up.
I rose to my feet. There was an opening through which wisps of smoke were still issuing, and I could see a set of concrete stairs leading to the main building. Apparently, wherever in there he’d come from hadn’t burned much because he didn’t look singed.
I had a feeling I was looking at Julius Henderson. It was evident from the avid grin stretching his lips that he was pleased to get the canceler. He exclaimed something in his language, which of course was lost on me.
I took a step towards him and he pointed a .45 at me.
He glared at me with cold, black eyes. “Stop there, Tennessee Murray.” He gave a smile that looked more like a grimace. Or, perhaps it was. “Yes, I know who you are. Tedun – Martin Bedlow to you – made a copy of your driver’s license and I have since discovered your history. You think you will stop us but you won’t.”
I looked at him and the rage I’d kept down surged and I burned with fury.
“You could’ve warned us,” I said softly.
He gave a surprisingly cheerful laugh. “Oh, so you’ve made that discovery. No doubt, you’ve spoken with Dr. Bennett. He is quite a clever man and a little while ago, I uncovered the fact that my files were compromised. He would be the one to have made that accomplishment. That, however, will make no difference. And why would we have warned you of the anomaly? You are nothing to us. We have been quite successful at turning a profit here, and once Luminary Pah saw that, with a few adjustments, this world would be good for the spawning of his kind, we contracted to take it. We will have it the same as we’ve had all others we wanted and the Luminary will reward us well for our efforts.” He raised the gun and smiled. “Goodbye, Mr. Murray.” His finger tightened on the trigger.
With no time to aim, I threw the knife I still held. It hit him in the right shoulder and he giggled/screeched and the bullet from the gun went wild. He dropped the gun and it skittered toward the burned out front of the building but he held on to the canceler. I jumped and flew into him, slamming him into the side of one of the machines. He shoved me back but I grabbed his arm and took him with me. I was off balance and we crashed to the floor. I twisted to keep him from landing on me and he screeched again as the knife in his shoulder went in deeper. I jumped on his back and he thrashed around and managed to throw me off and flip over but I piled right back on him. We grappled and rolled toward the front and he clubbed me upside the head with the canceler. I barely felt it.
I smashed into his face with an elbow and grabbed for the device. He kept his grip on it and snarled at me then raised a hand and deliberately brought the canceler down hard on the cement floor. It smashed into pieces.
He bared his teeth in a ferocious grin. “Now you cannot use it and soon the **** will come.” He gave that sickening cheerful laugh again. “Then you will be gone and this world will belong to the Binqua.”
Whatever was coming didn’t translate into English but I imagined he’d already sent for more fighters, probably better ones.
Furious, I slugged him and his head slammed against the floor. I tried to pull my knife from his shoulder and slit his throat but somewhere in the scuffle, it had driven so far into him that I couldn’t get a grip on it. I glimpsed something lying outside of what used to be the door. Whoever had the sledgehammer had dropped it. I scrambled to it and turned back in time to see Henderson trying to get the gun near his left hand. In the fight, I hadn’t noticed it. I leaped and brought the sledgehammer down on his hand and he screamed. He looked up at me, his eyes knowing he was about to die as I raised the sledgehammer and unleashed seven and a half years of rage down on his head. It split open like a rotten, overripe melon.
Breathing hard, I looked at the pieces of the canceler. No way would it work. I reached for the pocket that held Dr. Bennett’s scrambler. It was gone. I remembered my jacket ripping while fighting with a Binqua in the lot. It must’ve fallen out then. I staggered out to search for it, but finding it was impossible in the lot littered with bodies and debris. I stumbled back into the burned out shell of a building and stared at the wedge sitting there calmly. Both devices that could’ve taken it out were gone. The Binqua still had access to our world. Everything had been for nothing.
Bitterness rose in my chest and anguish ripped through me. I screamed. My mind exploded, fueling the insane rage I’d kept in check since the day of the Event and I swung at the wedge with the sledgehammer.
Images sprang bright and real into my mind, engulfing me with pain, and I swung.
Zoni, her eyes staring into eternity, our children never to be conceived, and I swung.
My mother in unmoving pieces on the kitchen floor never to touch me again, and I swung.
My father swarming with flies on the hot deck, his smile forever stilled, and I swung.
Will, about to go off to college, his young life extinguished, and I swung.
My sister whom I never got to see again, and I swung.
Dave, staring into nothing, his body in pieces falling onto the lobby floor, and I swung.
The friendly clerk at the Quick Mart, the people in the parking lot of my building. Five billion human beings dead in an instant.
I swung.
And I screamed and I swung.
I don’t know how long I pounded with that sledgehammer but slowly, I became aware of a bright shaft of light hitting me, breaking through the agony of the images enveloping my mind and filling my soul with crackling fury, grief, and madness, and I paused.
I looked down. The wedge was a crumpled pile of twisted metal. I looked up.
The sky was clearing.