“Stop it,” Jonathan screamed, standing up. Taking a step forward, he froze when she drew her sword and pointed it at his heart.
“These people have blasphemed against the one true god! Believers, look upon
them. Behold the power of Cain’s punishment. Behold their suffering.”
“I’m gonna feel this in the morning,” Jonathan groaned reluctantly, examining the cuffs around his wrists.
“Wait,” the Apostle said warily. “What are you doing?”
“Stopping you,” Jonathan said with a dark glint in his eyes. Holding up his hands, he very deliberately whipped them apart. Jerking and convulsing, his body was shocked with ten thousand volts of electricity. Dropping to his knees, he reached for the nearest computer console.
“No,” the Apostle shrieked. “Stop!”
Dashing forward, she pulled up short at the last second. If she touched him the shock would hit her as well, and she might not survive it.
Twitching with uncontrolled muscle spasms, Jonathan’s hand touched the
computer and he collapsed against it. The holographic display flickered to static and then went out as the console exploded in sparks and arcing electricity that looked like miniature bolts of lightning.
Jumping back to avoid being shocked by electrical discharges, the Apostle stared in horror at what it was doing to her precious Controller. Console after console exploded, filling the air with acrid smoke.
At last the charge in the stun cuffs depleted and Jonathan fell to the floor, still twitching and seizing. As smoke filled the room, a fire alarm began blaring. The Controller was completely destroyed.
Gaping at Jonathan, the Apostle slowly looked around at the devastation he’d
caused. Unable to fathom why he would cause such harm to himself just to save the same people responsible for his capture in the first place, the Apostle had never considered that he might use his restraints as a weapon. He’d likely killed himself to protect the resistance fighters from her influence. Why? What were they to him? It didn’t make any sense at all.
A sudden horrible thought came to the Apostle. There was an angry mob outside her Citadel, and she had no means of controlling them. She had guards, but not enough to deal with that many people. After what the Controller had just done to them, they were going to be even angrier than before. It was past time to think about leaving. A Subject was superhuman, but one Subject against thousands were not very good odds, even for her.
In the back of her mind, Cain was laughing himself hoarse.
Starting for the door, the Apostle tripped as Jonathan grabbed onto her ankle with an iron grip. She could feel his muscles still shaking from the shock, but she was unable to free herself.
“N-no you d-don’t,” he stuttered heavily. “Y-y-you’re n-not going a-anywhere, b-b-beautiful!”
Chapter 19: Taking the Citadel
Bone deep weariness washed through Kari as she leaned heavily against the
mirrored glass outer wall of the building across from the Citadel. Every muscle in her body seemed to be trembling, something that usually happened when she was extremely hungry. She felt almost as if there was a hole right through her that was trying to suck in the rest of her body. Having overdone things just a little, she thought she could probably eat more than both twins combined, which was really saying something.
Leaning against the glass beside her, Michael had his head tilted back and his eyes closed.
“I could eat a whole cow right about now, bones, fur and all,” he mumbled.
“I think I could eat two,” Kari replied.
“Totally worth it, though,” Michael flashed his mischievous grin. “That was the most fun I’ve ever had. To think someone actually gave us permission to wreck a city.
I’ve been dreaming of this my entire life!”
As much fun as the unrestrained violence had been, Kari’s moral authority would be somewhat compromised if she admitted to him that she’d enjoyed it as well. She’d never hear the end of it.
“When this is over I’m going to sleep for a week,” she said.
“Amen to that. Maybe two.”
As the rebels began lobbing firebombs into the Citadel, the Apostle of Cain had appeared on the sides buildings throughout the city to chastise them. As flames licked up the side of the Citadel, he’d appeared to stand on fire wreathed in smoke. Everyone had gone perfectly still and silent around Kari and Michael before falling to the ground, screaming and writing in pain, apparently at the Apostle’s command. None of them could be roused, and Kari had been far too exhausted to be of much help. Jonathan, on the other hand, seemed to be fighting the Apostle inside the Citadel, as his voice rang out across the city, the images of the dark cloaked figure faded to static and winked out.
All around them, fallen rebels began shuffling to their feet, and looking around in confusion, fear and anger.
Massaging his temples with a groan, Keir stumbled to his feet and fell against Michael. Shaking his head, he seemed to realize where he was and what he’d been doing. Pushing away from Michael’s support, he spun toward the Citadel, looking up to where the Apostle’s image had been.
“What happened,” he asked.
“The Apostle did something that made you all fall over writhing in pain,” Kari said.
“And then Jonathan stopped him,” Michael said proudly.
“He could be in danger,” Kari said. “I imagine the Apostle is pretty angry right about now. We’ve got to get inside.”
“Ah, he can take care of himself,” Michael laughed.
Glaring at him, Kari narrowed her eyes, and he clamped his big mouth shut,
nodding his agreement to whatever plan she came up with.
Beginning to turn unruly, some of the rebels were on their knees crying for
forgiveness, whilst others shouted angrily, working themselves up into a frenzy.
Dashing through the mob, Keir jumped up onto the edge of a fountain where he’d addressed them earlier, shouting for quiet until he got everyone’s attention.
“I did not come from this world,” he said to the people before him. “My home, my world, was destroyed by the Apostle’s dark powers and evil teachings, and I received a second chance here, my second home. I will not allow that same thing to happen here.
The Apostle must be stopped, and it’s going to happen tonight! We’ve worked long and hard for this, and we can’t turn our backs and run away with our tails between our legs just because our enemy knows a few flashy tricks. This should only offer more proof that he must be pulled down. Take up your weapons! Tonight we take back our city from this tyrant! Follow me!”
Pulling a pistol from the waistband of his trousers, Keir gave a mighty cry and ran toward the nearest stairwell down to the tunnelway beneath the street. At first no one followed him, but then a cheer rose up from someone in the crowd, and others echoed it.
Soon it began to spread to the rest. Men and women began thrusting guns of all sorts into the air as they followed.
Earlier, while conferencing with the leaders in his hidden storage area, Keir had divided them all into groups each with a lead and a second, giving them all a specific objective once they got inside the Citadel. He’d spent months planning and working everything out perfectly, and Kari had to admit that she was rather impressed by his thoroughness.
Several of the larger squads moved to surround the Citadel, blocking all exits in case someone made it through the fires that were slowly spreading upward.