The train did not sleep. The vibration of the Iron Artery was constant. It was a tremor that started in the steel wheels and ended in the marrow of Kael's bones. Kael sat in the small antechamber of Car 4. The walls were reinforced steel. The floor was cold.
Two hours had passed since Lyss Corvo boarded. The train was deep in the Western Veil now. They were approaching the Redcliff sector. The landscape outside the viewport had changed. The frozen tundra was gone. It was replaced by jagged red rock. The canyons rose up like open wounds in the earth. The air outside was thick with contamination.
Inside the car, the air was recycled. It smelled of sweat and fear. Kael looked at the sealed door to the cargo hold. The children had stopped crying. The automatic nutrient dispensers in the cages would have activated. They contained mild sedatives. It was standard transport protocol. Silence was easier to guard than sorrow.
"Cap," Tav said.
Kael looked up. Tav was sitting on the bench, his massive arms crossed. In the static of the hive mind, Kael felt Tav's anxiety. It was a heavy, dull pressure.
"The Fenricia asset," Tav said. "She's been in the forward cabin with the prisoner for an hour. You should check on them."
"She has it handled," Kael said.
"She's a Class-1 generator," Lin said from the floor. She was running a whetstone over her knife. Scritch. Scritch. "If she loses control of that plasma, she blows the hull. We all decompress."
"She won't lose control," Kael said.
"She's unstable," Morse added. He was still at the window, watching the canyon walls blur by. "I can feel her, Cap. She's... buzzing. Like a downed power line."
Kael felt it too. Lyss didn't have the hive mind, but her power was so loud it created interference. It was a sharp, electric taste in the air.
"I'll check," Kael said.
He stood up. The headache from his own power usage was receding, replaced by a sharp hunger. Using the futures burned energy. He walked past his squad. He unlocked the forward bulkhead door. He stepped into the narrow corridor that connected the cargo car to the crew cabins. The hallway was dimly lit. The red emergency lights cast long shadows.
He stopped at the door to Cabin 1. He didn't knock. He entered.
The cabin was small. A bunk, a bolted-down desk, a sink. Dr. Aris was tied to the chair. Lyss had used kinetic cuffs. The doctor's hands were bound behind his back. His broken wrist was swollen and purple. Kael had snapped it cleanly, but it needed setting.
Lyss sat on the bunk. She had removed her helmet. Her red braid hung over her shoulder. She looked tired. She was eating an energy bar. She ate mechanically, taking small bites, chewing thoroughly. She looked at Kael as he entered.
"You didn't knock," she said.
"It's my train," Kael said. "Technically."
"It's Northgate's train," Lyss corrected. "You're just the meat they put in the doorway."
The doctor looked up. His face was pale. He was sweating.
"Please," Aris whispered. "Water."
Lyss didn't move. She finished her bite.
"He's dehydrated," Kael said.
"He's a traitor," Lyss said. "He can wait."
Kael walked to the sink. He filled a cup. He held it to the doctor's lips. Aris drank greedily. Water spilled down his chin.
"Thank you," Aris gasped. "You... you aren't like her. You have mercy."
Kael pulled the cup away.
"I'm exactly like her," Kael said. "I'm just patient."
Kael set the cup down. He turned to Lyss. "My squad is nervous," he said. "Your energy signature is spiking."
"I'm recovering," Lyss said. "Using a containment sphere takes a toll." She rubbed her temples. "One sphere, one day of weakness. That's the price."
"You seem fine," Kael said.
"I'm good at hiding it." She gestured to the doctor. "He talked," Lyss said. "Before you came in. He told me about the Gen-13 serum."
"I told you the truth!" Aris cried. "It eliminates the deformities without the surgery! It keeps the Discordi DNA intact but stabilizes it! We don't have to cut them open anymore!"
Kael looked at the doctor. The surgery mortality rate was 40%. If the serum worked, it would save thousands of lives.
"That sounds like a good thing," Kael said.
Lyss laughed. It was a dry, humorless sound. "Tell him the rest, Doctor," she said.
Aris looked down.
"Tell him," Lyss ordered. The air around her hand shimmered. Heat radiated from her skin.
"It... it increases the Continuity Index," Aris whispered. "It masks the genetic markers. A Discordi treated with the serum would scan as Pure."
Kael went still.
"They could live in the cities," Kael said. "They wouldn't have to be Veiled. They could be citizens."
"Yes!" Aris said. "It's freedom!"
"It's infiltration," Lyss said. She stood up. She walked to the doctor. She leaned down until her face was inches from his. "I see your intent, Aris. I see the cruelty. You weren't going to give this to the Discordi. You were selling it to Redcliff."
"Redcliff has the manufacturing capacity!" Aris argued.
"Redcliff makes weapons," Lyss said. "They would use this to create spies. Infiltrators. Assassins who look like Pure citizens but have Discordi strength. They would sell them to the highest bidder."
She looked at Kael. "He wasn't selling a cure," she said. "He was selling a premium product. 'The Invisible Soldier.' Do you know how much a Sky-Lord would pay for a bodyguard that scans as Pure but kills like a monster?"
Kael looked at Aris. The doctor was trembling. Lyss was feeling his cruelty. Kael could see it in her eyes. It was hurting her.
"Is that true?" Kael asked.
Aris closed his eyes. "The research... it was expensive. I needed funding."
Kael felt a cold weight in his stomach. "You were going to turn them into better slaves," Kael said.
"I was going to save them from the knife!" Aris shouted. "Is that so wrong?"
Kael looked at the doctor's broken wrist. The moral math. Option A: The current system. 40% of children die in surgery. Survivors are brainwashed. Option B: The serum. 0% die in surgery. 100% are sold as high-end slaves to the rich. Which was worse? Death or invisible slavery?
"He goes to Fenricia," Kael said. "The Vial Masters will decide."
"The Vial Masters will bury it," Lyss said. "They make money from the surgeries. Rejection Insurance is their biggest profit margin. If the surgery is safe, they lose money." She looked at the doctor with disgust. "There are no good options, Vance," she said. "Only profitable ones."
Suddenly, the train lurched. Not a brake. A shift. Kael grabbed the doorframe to steady himself.
"Turbulence?" Lyss asked.
"No," Kael said. "The tracks are triple-reinforced. We don't feel turbulence."
The comms in Kael's ear crackled. "Lieutenant!" It was Morse. "Visual on the canyon rim. Sector 4. Movement."
Kael tapped his earpiece. "Identify."
"Scouts," Morse said. "Discordi. They're signaling."
Kael looked at Lyss. "Watch the prisoner."
He ran back to the antechamber. The view from the slit window was a blur of red rock. The train was moving at 400 km/h. The canyon walls were a kilometer away on either side, but the track ran along a high ridge in the center.
"Where?" Kael asked.
Morse pointed. "Rim. Eleven o'clock. They're using mirrors."
Kael squinted. His eyes adjusted. He filtered out the motion blur. He saw them. Three figures on the cliff edge. They were small against the massive red walls. They wore the rust-colored cloaks of the Sundered Spine clan. They were holding large polished metal sheets. They were flashing light at the track ahead.
"They aren't attacking," Tav said. "They're too far away."
"They're spotters," Kael said. "They're signaling a team further down the line."
"If they blow the supports..." Lin said. Her voice was tight.
The train was on elevated tracks. If the supports blew at this speed, the kinetic shields wouldn't save them. The train would derail. It would fall fifty meters into the ravine. The children in the cargo hold. Fifty of them. Dead.
"Range?" Kael asked.
"Twelve hundred meters," Morse said. "Wind is high. Tough shot."
Kael looked at Morse's rifle. It was a standard rail-driver. Effective range was 1500 meters, but hitting a moving target from a moving platform with crosswinds...
"I can't guarantee a hit," Morse said. "The vibration is too high."
Kael looked at the scouts. They were still flashing the mirrors. Flash. Flash-Flash. Flash. It was a code.
"Give me the rifle," Kael said.
Morse handed it to him. It was heavy. The stock was cold against Kael's cheek. Kael braced himself against the wall. He looked through the scope. The crosshairs danced. The train vibration made the target jump. He couldn't make the shot. Not with standard physics.
The headache was still there, lurking. He didn't want to use the power again. The cost was too high. But the math. 1 scout vs 50 children + 10 crew + Squad 7-2.
Kael closed his eyes for a second. Show me.
The pain hit him like a spike.
Future 1:
Kael fires. The bullet goes wide left. The scout finishes the signal. Two kilometers ahead, a hidden Sundered Spine team triggers an explosive. The track buckles. The engine hits the break. The train jackknifes. Car 4 is crushed. Everyone dies.
Future 2:
Kael waits. He fires on the down-beat of the vibration. The bullet hits the scout in the leg. The scout falls but keeps signaling. The explosion triggers. The train derails.
Future 3:
Kael aims high. He compensates for a wind gust that hasn't happened yet. He pulls the trigger in 1.2 seconds. The bullet travels. The wind gusts. It pushes the bullet down. Headshot. The scout drops the mirror. The signal is broken. The team ahead hesitates. They miss the timing window. The train rushes past the kill zone safely.
Time snapped back.
Kael opened his eyes. Blood leaked from his tear duct. It ran down his face, warm and wet. He waited. One second. The train rattled. 1.2 seconds.
Kael pulled the trigger.
CRACK.
The rifle kicked against his shoulder. Through the scope, Kael watched. The bullet flew across the gap. The wind gusted, just as he had seen. The bullet dipped. It struck the lead scout in the head. Red mist. The scout crumpled. The mirror fell from his hands and tumbled down the canyon wall. The other two scouts scrambled back, terrified. The signal stopped.
"Target down," Morse whispered. "How the hell did you do that, Cap?"
Kael handed the rifle back. His hands were shaking. He hid them behind his back.
"Luck," Kael said.
He turned away from the window. The train kept moving. It roared past a section of track that looked perfectly normal. Kael knew that under that track, explosives were wired. The Sundered Spine team was there, waiting for a signal that never came. They passed the kill zone in a blur of speed. They were safe.
Kael wiped the blood from his cheek. He thought about the scout he had just killed. A soldier of the Sundered Spine. Probably trying to stop the train to save the children. The scout didn't know the children were on this train. Or maybe he did, and he was trying to derail it to free them, accepting the risk.
It didn't matter. Kael had killed a Discordi to save Discordi children who were being taken to become Discordi killers. The circle was perfect. The math was zero.
"Cap?" Tav asked. "You alright?"
Kael looked at his squad. He felt their relief. They were alive. That was all they cared about.
"I'm fine," Kael said.
But he wasn't fine. He had learned mercy was weakness in the pit. Now he had learned that survival was murder. He looked at the cargo door. He had saved them. For Fenricia. For the knife. Or for the serum.
"We're entering the pollution zone," Lin said. "Seals tight."
The light outside changed. The sun disappeared. Thick, yellow smog choked the air. They were passing Redcliff. The Forge of Novaterra.
Kael went back to the viewport. He had to see it. The canyon widened into a massive industrial bowl. It was a vision of hell. Thousands of factories lined the canyon walls, built on top of each other like a metal fungus. Smokestacks belched black fire into the sky. Below the tracks, deep in the pit, Kael saw the Worker Warrens. Millions of lights flickering in the gloom. He saw the foundries. Rivers of molten iron flowed in channels cut into the rock. They were making weapons. Tanks, rifles, shells. Weapons to kill Discordi.
The train did not stop. The Northern Line bypassed the Redcliff station for high-priority cargo. It switched to a bypass rail that ran high above the city. Kael watched the city of Redcliff pass below. On the rim, far above the smoke, he saw the CEO Towers. Shining glass needles that pierced the smog layer. The rich lived in the sun. The poor lived in the smoke.
"Look at that," Morse said, standing beside him. "12 million people down there. And they all hate us."
"They don't hate us," Kael said. "They make our armor."
"They make it," Morse said. "But they don't wear it. They hate us because we remind them that the war is real."
Kael looked at the factories. He wondered how many of those workers were "Shadow-Symmetri." Pure citizens with Discordi genes, hiding their strength to meet quotas. A hidden population. If Dr. Aris's serum got out... if Redcliff started mass-producing it... Those workers wouldn't just be strong. They would be an army.
Kael turned away from the window. The scale of it was too much. The system was too big. Northgate commanded. Redcliff built. Fenricia modified. And the train connected them all. He was just a single blood cell in the artery.
The door to the forward cabin opened. Lyss came out. She had her helmet back on. She was dragging Dr. Aris. The doctor was gagged now. His eyes were dull. He had given up.
"We're clear of the canyon," Lyss said. Her voice was distorted by her helmet speakers.
"We passed the ambush," Kael said. "One casualty."
"Yours or theirs?"
"Theirs."
Lyss nodded. "Efficient."
She pushed the doctor toward the squad. "Watch him," she told Tav. "If he moves, break his other arm."
Tav nodded. He grabbed the doctor by the shoulder. Aris flinched.
Lyss walked over to Kael. She stood next to him at the viewport. The smog was thinning as they left Redcliff behind.
"You're bleeding again," she said.
Kael touched his face. The blood had dried, but fresh droplets were forming. He wiped them away quickly.
"Combat stress," he said.
"Don't lie to me, Vance," she said softly. "I felt the spike. When you took the shot. You didn't just aim. You looked."
Kael didn't look at her. "I did what I had to do."
"You saw a future where we died," Lyss said. "And you fixed it."
"Yes."
"What did it cost you?"
Kael looked at her then. Her green eyes were searching his face. She wasn't using her power now. She was just looking.
"It cost a life," Kael said. "A scout. He was trying to signal his team."
"And?"
"And I killed him to save the cargo."
Lyss looked at the sealed door. "You saved the cargo," she repeated. "For Fenricia."
"Stop saying that," Kael snapped.
"Why?" Lyss asked. "Does it hurt? Good. It should hurt." She leaned closer. Her voice dropped to a whisper. "We are monsters, Vance. We guard the cage. We kill the rescuers. That is our job. Don't try to make it noble. Just make it accurate."
She turned and walked back to the bench. She sat down and closed her eyes. She needed to recharge.
Kael stood alone. The train rushed north. Toward Fenricia. Toward the Lab.
Kael put his hand on his sword. It was just a piece of metal. It didn't care who it killed.
Future 4, the boy in his dream had said. Is there a Future 4?
Kael looked at the doctor, bound and gagged. The serum. The invisible soldiers. Maybe there was a Future 4. But it wasn't a future of peace. It was a future where the line between Pure and Discordi disappeared completely. And the war became everywhere, all at once.
Kael sat down on the floor. He closed his eyes. He let the rhythm of the wheels take him. Clack-clack. Clack-clack. It sounded like a clock counting down.