The Human Edge VII

Here is the very last installment of Antonio's story.  I hope everyone's enjoyed it thus far!  Look forward to my next story (and lots of other awesome writing) in the Infinity online community's short story competition.

VII

Athena’s gun let out a soft whine, but there was no searing pain, no bright flash of light.  Antonio wondered if death could really be this painless.

He didn’t wonder long.  Athena let out a loud curse and kicked him in the stomach.  The missing lights hit him so hard that he thought he would go blind.

“Goddamn bullshit weapons-on-site rules.” She kicked him again, perhaps for good measure, perhaps just because she was pissed off.  Whatever the case, Antonio felt the cool floor come up to meet him, and it hit him squarely in the cheek.  His ribs felt like a butcher had tenderized them for dinner.  He suddenly felt hungry.

“I’ll have to kill you with my bare hands, then.  I haven’t done that in a while.  But don’t think it makes you special, traitor.  The best way to kill a dog is to take it by the throat and...”

She stopped abruptly, which was just as well because Antonio had started seeing more lights behind his eyelids.  That, and strange noises.  A low hissing in the background, like snakes had gotten into his ears.  Maybe they had.

“Who followed you?” Athena’s voice hit him in the chest, or maybe it was her foot.  “How many collaborators did you bring with you?  I killed this pig – you don’t think I’ll kill the rest?”

“Klaus...” Antonio groaned out, but it was a mistake.  More boot, more lights.  One of them was so bright that he wished he would fall asleep, or die, if only to avoid more of the same.

“What kind of scum are you, consorting with that little shit?  Bastards like that could bring everything down.  And I had to fuck him, night after night, pretending to be a good little fangirl so that I could get this close to you and your goddamn data.  Now someone else follows us in here.  Don’t they know it’s rude to interrupt a private meeting?  Answer me, damn you.  I’m not talking to myself, here.  I’m talking to you.”

“Petyn...please...”

“No, you dumb waste of a cube.  I paid the first mate enough for her to spend the rest of the trip on the hull, if I wanted.  Who do you think let me in here?”

More pain.  More lights.  This time, Antonio swore that he saw Francesca silhouetted against the explosions behind his eyelids. She was standing there, waiting for him.  She opened her mouth to say something, but the voice that came out was a man’s.

“Ms. Giges.  Mr. Botella.  I’m so very sorry to keep you both waiting.  I hope that the electromagnetics kept everything clean?”  A pause. “Ah, how unfortunate.  Not soon enough for the poor biotechnician.”

“Huang?” Athena’s voice was indignant.  “What’s a merchant doing here?”

“Now, now, Ms. Giges.  Surely you’re not as stupid as that.  What is it you think I sell?”

Footsteps echoed in Antonio’s head.  Voices were clear, but the only thing he could see was alternating light and darkness. Francesca smiled at him from the light.

“I don’t know.”

“You’re good to admit it.  But sadly, I don’t think that’s good enough for anything else.  You see, I’ve been watching you and your interactions with the other people on this voyage.  You wear your mask very well, but you wear it so well that it seems like you don’t have a very firm foundation to begin with.”

“What are you saying?”

“I’m saying you’re unhinged, Ms. Giges.  Mad is actually a more appropriate word, even though doctors do not use it anymore. Pity.”

“You bastard.  I’ll kill you.”

“With a disabled weapon?  I hardly think so.  Now, do they teach you anything useful at your little academy of murderers?”

Antonio heard a few steps, then the sounds of a scuffle almost directly overhead.  Something hard hit the wall above him – once, twice – and then landed on the floor between him and the double-locked doors.

Merciful silence.

It was already getting very hard to breathe, but he held it in a moment, trying to hear.   One second broke into eternity, and his chest ached.

“Mr. Botella.  I trust that you are not seriously injured.”

It was Huang.  Antonio groaned in reply, the little lights flaring up just beyond his eyeballs.  He looked for Francesca, looked as hard as he could, but she was gone.

“Unfortunate.  I believe there is a medic onboard that may be of some use, then.  Raise an arm, if you can.”

Antonio complied, even though it was hard and painful and brought on more lights.  He felt a strong frame lift him gingerly to his feet, resting his arm over its shoulder, bearing most of his weight.

“Mind your step, now.  I’m afraid Ms. Giges was not obliging enough to land out of our way.  That’s good, just shuffle along, I will lead.  You may wonder who I am and what I am doing here, saving you from the predations of a rather insane PanOceanian operative.  I can’t give you the details, of course, but rest assured that my employer will provide the reward for your data.”

“What...is...” Antonio slurred out, finding himself not able to say much more than that before pain erupted in his lungs.  He nearly doubled over, but Huang held on.

“Hold on, Mr. Botella.  It is quite a ways to the infirmary, and a collapse may indicate that you are beyond hope.  Although it is not my duty to make sure you survive this ordeal, I have taken a liking to you, and it would sadden me if you failed to pull through.  As for the information, all I can tell you is that it is one of many keys to the survival of humanity.  I myself do not know much more than that.  What I do know is that this key has been held from the Sphere by PanOceanian interests, protected by almost invisible members of an organization known as the Hexas.”

Antonio wondered how Huang knew about this group, but the thought was hard to form amidst the pain.

“Please, Mr. Botella, try to keep awake.  It is of the utmost importance that you –”

And then, only merciful silence.  The world faded into light, and there was no more pain.

^^^

Antonio awoke to the sterile white light of a hospital room.  Monitors kept watch over him, beeping out at regular rhythms, and tubes angled out in every which direction.  Some of those tubes, he registered vaguely, were angling out of him.

“Ah, finally awake.” There was a man seated nearby, young and wearing the eyepiece display that gave him away as a doctor. “Mr. Ferres, I think you should know that you’ve sustained a fair amount of internal injury, and that recovery will take a while. Your convalescence is progressing nicely, though, so as long as you don’t try to hard to make any sudden movements, you’ll be fine in a week’s time.”

The doctor had a reassuring smile.  Antonio wondered how often he’d practiced it in front of a mirror, just to make sure that it had the right blend of honesty and assurance.

“Where am I...?” Antonio choked out, and found that talking was still a challenge.  The doctor stood and moved to his side, sliding a little projector under his hand.  A holographic keyboard sprouted from it.

“In case talking gets too difficult.” The man said, sympathetically.  “You sustained several broken ribs and a deflated lung, so try to take it easy, alright?”

Antonio nodded, slowly, and let his fingers move across the keyboard.  <Where am I?  How long have I been unconscious?>

The doctor smiled that same smile, his eyes flickering subtly to the eyepiece he wore.  “You’re on Yugi, Mr. Ferres, and you’ve been here some time.  A week and two days, to be exact.  You’ve been convalescing ever since your Chinese friend brought you in.  He must like you a lot - he paid for your whole stay, up front and without batting an eye.  He also told me to relay you a message.”

Antonio raised an eyebrow.

“He said you’ll know what it means.  You’ll find it on your private display, password rntryfor.  We value privacy here at the Dremof Clinic.  In fact, Yugi itself has a tradition of privacy that...”

Antonio tuned out as the doctor went over the various badges of honour (official and unofficial) they’d received for privacy and sound operating practices.  Huang had paid for his recovery, but why?  Assuming he worked for the people who would bring Francesca back, he’d already discharged his duty by stopping Athena.  Why did he feel that saving Antonio had been worth it?

The doctor left with another smile, seeing that his prepared speech was falling on deaf ears.  Antonio barely noticed him go.  He was still thinking about Huang, and why he would go out of his way to help even after he’d gotten what he wanted.  The Sichuan man had mentioned his employer, but unless Antonio had imagined it, Huang’s tone held a note of respect or maybe even reverence that wasn’t common to most employer/employee relationships.  What would engender such respect?  Mob work?  The overwhelming patriotism of the Yu Jing government?  He would find out, and at the very least – and allegiances be damned -  he would repay the man for his generosity.

This train of thought reminded him of Klaus.  Another man who had helped him for reasons unknown, and one who had died in the process.  Even if he had the Nomad’s cube, a resurrection was out of the question – all his resources, all his time had gone into securing a resurrection for Francesca, and there was nothing left.

That didn’t mean that he couldn’t track down his family, though.  Let them know what had happened, how courageous Klaus had been.  In the Human Edge, where a lonely death on a passenger ship could mean disappearing without a trace, Antonio knew that he owed Klaus that much.  The man had given his life in exchange for Francesca’s, and Antonio knew that he could never pay him back properly.  But he could start, as soon as he got out of this hospital.

That, of course, meant surviving in the Human Edge, alone and with hostile agents chasing after him.  He hadn’t been trained for this kind of thing, and he certainly knew that he couldn’t sweet-talk a bullet before it killed him.  He sighed, and that brought on new pain.

After the pain had settled, Antonio activated his private display with a flick of his fingers over the holographic keyboard the doctor had left behind.  A mono-directional holograph spat up into the air in front of him – it was Huang, sitting at a desk in some sort of sleek ship interior.  Huang spoke.

“My name is not Xu Huang, but I trust that this simple fact will neither surprise nor disturb you by now.  While it is true that I am an operative of a sort, I wish that you not think of me in the same light as the late Ms. Giges, who was clearly mad.  What I do, I do for the good of my employer and for the good of humankind.  As I have said, I find myself having taken a liking to you, and although I am sure that we will not cross paths again, I hope that you find your new path, whatever it may be, with ease and grace. To that end, I have deposited a small amount of money into an account held by one Antonio Ferres, to be accessed at your whim. I’m afraid that it is not much, but it should be enough to start you on your journey.”

Antonio felt his eyes burn, and blinked back the tears.  Huang was giving him even more money, even after his bosses were going to pay out for Francesca’s resurrection.  Did this mean he could actually find her?  Actually see her again?

“Remember,” Huang went on, “that solitude is not a curse, but neither is companionship.” He paused for a moment. “Your reunion with your daughter may take some time, but rest assured that it will happen.  I wish you the very best in your new life.  Huang out.”

The graphic flickered off, and the tears came freely now.  Francesca would live again.  They could catch the Mayanet broadcasts again after her classes, they could enjoy thunderstorms and sunsets and all the other natural phenomena that had fascinated her since she was a little girl.  Now there was a reason to live.  Even if he had to scratch and kick and burrow out his own place in the depths of the Human Edge, he would live.  His daughter – Francesca - was all the reason he needed.