Airith- the Kentilan War Read online

  Four down, but he had to get out from under them or he was dead. He moved to escape, but a heavy stomp knocked him flat on this stomach.

  “Don’t let him grab you, break his fucking arms!” One screamed, giving Rapha an idea. He was brawler of course, and his best weapons were his fists, not to mention the mechanical boots. He swept low and knocked one off his feet, then rolled to the side, barely escaping two stomps. And he was in the clear. There were three standing and the one he knocked down was getting back up. He raised his fists and bared his fangs. This was a good time for a cheeky retort, but instead, a caution warning blinked to the side of his vision. His batteries where running low. His arms would be utterly useless in the rest of this fight.

  “Finish him! So later I can garnish him!” Mox jumped up and down, excited.

  “Not in this life!” Rapha eyed a familiar weapon that was floating directly above him in an electric haze. It was going to hurt, but it would be worth it. He lunged into the air just as one of the goons rushed him. The electricity lanced through him like a knife. His fingers grasped the hilt of the sword and froze there, as the rest of his body dropped like concrete. He barely felt the pain of the fall, but his body groaned as feeling returned to him.

  “Don’t fuck up or I’ll fuck each and every one of you!” Mox growled.

  That sent lightening back to Rapha’s limbs. He grabbed the sword just as a leg swung for his face. He caught it with one hand and rammed the pommel of the sword into the man’s crotch. His scream was short-lived as Rapha knocked him out with a back kick. Quick movement in the corner of his view made him react with a slash, and blood splattered over his face as another went down. The remaining two cowered a few feet from him, exchanging nervous glances and eyeing their batons. Rapha smirked, until one of the batons clattered to the ground and the man reached for what was visibly the butt of a gun. Rapha made quick work of the space between them before he could draw, the blade flew out, and blood spurted. The man went down, clutching at his neck, his blood seeping in between his fingers. The other baton clattered as Rapha turned to the last one, whose scrawny legs quivered. He had his hands up.

  “That’s enough!” Mox yelled. “I’m going to fuck you rough.” He pointed menacingly at the last goon standing. Simultaneously, two men from the crowd grabbed the last man. The poor guy was vibrating from the terror.

  Rapha tried not to imagine how the rest of his day would play out. Rapha turned his attention back to Mox.

  “Let them go! Now!” he growled. Mox grinned wide.

  “I love it when you’re all riled up and pesky; I’ll have you jellied up and perky.”

  “Shut the fuck up, let them go!” He cast a worried glance at Airith, who was almost pale now.

  Mox sighed and waved his staff like a wand. The electric haze disappeared, and Phara and Airith dropped with a thud. Rapha rushed to Airith’s side.

  “Babe, you okay?” He cradled her head.

  Airith’s eyes fluttered, her skin was almost gritty to the touch. For a moment, Rapha’s heart stopped. But then she shot her eyes wide open. They rolled around, confused, before focusing on Rapha. Instantly, something warm and sticky blinded Rapha’s left eye. Airith was up and out of his hands before he could react, slowly wiping off the mess from his face.

  “Why the fuck did you let him do that to us?” Her rage was directed at Rapha, but she was glaring heatedly at Mox, who basked in the attention.

  “So feisty! I see why you took interest in her, little duck. But nevertheless, you are mine to fuck!” Mox shook his head naughtily. “Make them follow me to my chambers.” Mox waved a hand as he turned and sashayed away, head tossed and shoulders raised, with his stout guard following closely.

  A fresh set of men loomed from the spectating crowd. This time, the sizzle from their tasers told Rapha they meant business. He recognized one of the guards—the fat bald one from the gates.

  “Come on, Rapha. This way.” Toddboy nodded toward the other end of the room, where a curtained door stood. He paced toward it with Luna and Sage closely following. Airith yanked her sword from Rapha as she walked past, her movements twisting his wrist, and he felt the strain in the circuitry of his prosthetic. It sent a sharp scream up the nerves in his elbow. The sword fell loose from his grip.

  “Don’t ever use my weapon again,” she murmured.

  “Chill, just borrowed it.” He grimaced, rubbing his wrist.

  “Move!” One of the guards poked the air, inches from Phara.

  Her eyes shot daggers. She looked like a different kind of rag doll, like a Chinese marionette, weathered and abused. Her hair was tangle in puffs and tufts like she had lost her mind.

  “Get back. Your taser doesn’t scare me!” Rapha raised his shoulders and satisfaction washed over him when he saw them flinch an inch away. “Come on, Phara.” He lent her a hand, but she scowled and stepped past him.

  “I’m not second choice, you know,” she grumbled.

  Rapha shook his head. Whatever that meant; sometimes she talked in riddles and puns and Rapha could only wonder if she had lost a few screws up in those mountains, locked away and reciting five hundred stanzas of the soul mantra. The women in his life were all complicated.

  *

  Mox’s lair was an underground dungeon that led further down to into a dense, red-lit atmosphere. Red beams scattered over the walls and the windows to small cubicles that contained nude women and men alike, skimpily clad in atrocious outfits that didn’t look comfortable, demonstrating vivid sexual activity.

  A trio caught Rapha’s eye as he lagged behind after the others. Wait, was that the triadtops position?

  “Move!” The ever-distracting guard behind him threatened with the live end of his glowing stick.

  “Huh, you ain’t shit,” Rapha retorted, and idly caught the hot glare of Airith. He tore from their contact to stare absentmindedly at the nearest wall, his face burning red. At the end of the explicit display was a steel door that rose high above their heads. Mox better not be taking them to his bedroom. Rapha squirmed on his feet. The leading guard stepped forward and a pressure plate pressed into the ground under his weight. The metallic clicking of manual mechanics ushered the opening of the doors, gradually revealing what looked like the grand hall of the brothel. Spiral poles ran from the grounds to the ceilings as nude women did pole dances, flashing generous, plastic perfection in all shapes and sizes. Rapha’s eyes bulged. The song playing in the background was lewd and slow, and in the center of it all sat a long-legged man with a glass of wine in one hand.

  “Come in, dears, and take off all your wears,” he said pointedly in Rapha’s direction. Rapha cringed and unconsciously stepped closer to Airith. She snapped a glare at him.

  “I’ve had just about enough of your singing bullshit, Mox,” Toddboy spat. “Talk normal. I know you’re curious as to why I brought him. I’ll save you the energy. We want in on your death races.” Toddboy idly found his way to a chair opposite from where Mox sat. Luna and Sage positioned themselves closely behind him, one on either side, both tense, hands hovering over their weapons, eyes alert and Toddboy basking in between. Rapha felt off about that. In a way, he and Toddboy both shared the same circumstance—two women on either side—and yet the focal point of this relationship was reversed in both situations. The envy tanged in his mouth like an off taste.

  “You’re that Mox right?” Airith suddenly asked out the blue. Rapha stared in her direction. “You know, the one that brought down the Glitch, made it accessible to all and uprooted Mother’s link in the older generations? It’s you, right?” Airith cocked her head slight, watching intently, and Rapha sensed that she was probing for information before the kill. It was a usual Airith thing: confirmation before elimination, like back in her prime days when she had worked under Mother.

  Mox cast a lecherous grin her way. His eyes travelled wildly all over, lingering far too long in areas he had no business eyeing. Rapha stepped forward, blocking his view and threatening him with
a vivid scowl.

  “Relax now, babe, you'll have your turn.” Mox winked. “And to answer your question!” He popped onto his feet and spun a full 360 in the spotlight that beamed suddenly from nowhere. “Yes, my love. It is I, the Mox. The mole in the foundations of this consolidated evil, slowly working like a worm in the dark, chipping away at the concrete that keeps this shithole standing. I’ve got not just brains, but something big with throbbing veins! You are welcome. Etch this memory to mind. You may have to tell your great grandchildren about this meeting.”

  “Shut your yapper,” Toddboy sighed. “About the races…”

  The rolling of drums and chorus of cymbals and trumpets broke the atmosphere. It was a loud rehearsal from one of the greatest on-air adverts of all time. Rapha knew every tune and word from the old song, and it came from the large holoscreen that hovered at the end of the room. It drew everyone’s attention in that moment, as a tall, dark-haired girl in a swimsuit tried on the latest technology of that time. They called it Mother’s eye, a neural implant at the nape of the neck. A device made to brainwash Homecity citizens and take them away from reality to where a modulated artificial personality impersonated Mother and whispered soothing coos to the citizens in their daily dilemma. In other words, a direct link to God.

  The tech had become obsolete when the Mother wars began. It was scrapped faster than Rapha could flip a pancake. However, the girl in that ad was still alive, only now she had pink in her hair, and carried around death in the form of a sword and a grudge so heavy it squelched her will to express her emotions. Well, except anger.

  “Aren’t you that TV child? The one that was absolutely everywhere? On TV, on the radio, in fucking ads on every viewable platform. What was your name again? Oh, don’t tell me. I’ve listened to a million songs about you and by you that nailed your name in the recesses of my mind, Airith,” Mox snarled, swaying his hips at every pause.

  Airith’s expression didn’t so much as flinch; she was used to people gushing over her once they realized who she was, but there was something off about the way Mox was looking at her. There was no reverence or adoration in his tone. It was mocking and disrespectful. Did he know? How much?

  “Nice to meet you, Mox.” Airith offered a taunting smile.

  “As well as you, mademoiselle.” Mox curtsied. “Now, you want in on my races, as Toddboy has already enlightened me.” Mox turned to Rapha with a hooded smile. “You forget you were banned?”

  “You know I won those races square!” Rapha puffed.

  “But not square,” Mox and Toddboy echoed.

  Rapha beat back a retort, took a deep calming breath, and made his proposal. “Okay. So, here’s how it’s going to go. I want to race your best racers again. I want to get Toddboy the shitload of money I owe him. You want to fuck me.” He tried to ignore the glint in Mox’s radiating glare but knew Mox would not resist. He just needed to make it convincing. “So, let’s have a deal to sort it all out. I race your best racers to the finish line. If I lose, you have me, if I’m not killed during the race. I’ll be your personal ding-dong boy, I’ll wear the chains, the strings, the straps, everything. Hell, you could get a piece of this, all day, every day!” Rapha bopped his ass and smacked a butt cheek, gritting his teeth at the vivid pictures of the consequence in his mind.

  The excitement made Mox rattle. The pervert loved it; he loved being offered to.

  “Toddboy’s 90 percent sure I’ll lose. So, he’s betting against me. Plus, he gets to take Skyfire if I die in the race.” Rapha sighed. Toddboy raised a glass.

  “Did you say Skyfire?” Mox ogled.

  “Yes, the weapon of the ancients, I said that.” Rapha sighed.

  “No, Skyfire. Did you say that?” Mox was trembling. His grin had carved a horseshoe into his face, his eyes popping from their sockets and the delirium dancing in his eyes.

  “You do know it’s the weapon of the ancients, right?” Phara sighed and plopped down onto a seat.

  Here we go, Rapha thought. The mad hysteria in people’s eyes when they heard that word.

  “I need you to hack my Skyfire, Mox,” Rapha included.

  “Where is it? I don’t see it!” His voice was a raging growl as he took two quick strides that cut the space between them.

  “Stay the fuck back,” Airith snapped.

  The tip of her sword pinched the bulb of Mox’s Adam’s apple. Mox’s stout guard rushed forward but Mox raised his free hand. His bulging eyes slowly turned to her and Rapha saw his fingers flex around his staff.

  “All I need do is push and it’ll be horror scene in here,” Airith said, pushing slightly farther until the blade’s pointy end was slowly disappearing into skin.

  Mox never took his gaze off her. “Relax.” He stepped back suddenly. “I just wanted to run a diagnostic.” He shook his head while rubbing at his neck, smearing a small trickle of blood, then touched a panel on the staff. Its dome-shaped handle disintegrated into a master drive. “May I?”

  “It’s okay.” Rapha touched Airith’s arm lightly, making her lower her weapon. He stepped forward and turned his back to Mox, then lowered his head.

  “Yes, just like that,” Mox whispered as his tapering fingers searched the nape of Rapha’s neck. “But for future purposes, I like them bent over, okay?”

  Rapha cringed at Mox’s touch. The other man’s fingers found a concealed hatch that opened to a universal plug-in.

  “Here, we go.” Mox plugged his staff in. “You see? Harmless.” He eyed Airith with unspoken intentions. A holoscreen projected from his artificial iris in front of him. Strings of coding and circuit maps where all everyone could see. Mox was silent.

  “Well?” Rapha pried.

  “What am I hacking?” Mox’s tone was calm and distant, almost as if he was a different person.

  Rapha resisted the urge to turn and look. “I need its operational time to last more than fifteen minutes.”

  “Oh, honey. I only need five with you.” There he was, the pervert had returned.

  “I’m talking about the Skyfire!” Rapha shook.

  “Well, may I ask why you need this?”

  “To kill Mother,” Rapha seethed. Somewhere in the depths of his locked past, a memory stirred, a memory of groaning nerves and brittle bones. He almost sniffed.

  “Now, why would you go and do that, sugar tits?” Mox feigned a sigh, with the back of his hand over his forehead. “Oh, my sex stallion, it seems none of you know.” He grinned malevolently as he tossed his leer around, sweeping over everyone.

  “Know what?” Airith snarled.

  “According to this line of code…” Mox pointed as if they could understand. “All of you are connected to Mother. Meaning if she dies, you all die, my caramel fairies.” His grin widened.

  The silence that followed was as blank as the faces in that room besides Mox. He reveled in it.

  Rapha broke it. “The Creator.” His voice was hollow, and his words strained, like he choked on every word. “He never told us.” Airith palmed the hilt of her sword threateningly, glowering down at it.

  “Well that’s because the Creator didn’t add this patch. And might I add, his technique is amateurish. I spotted this part like a tree in plain day. He tried to mask it and I’m quite surprised the Creator didn’t see it, but I’ve traced the signature IP address back to the Kentilan Palace grounds, and this address is unique for Kentilan Intelligence. Only high-ranking officials would have had such access to these quantum computers.”

  “How do you know what a royal IP address looks like?” Airith snapped. She was starting to vibrate, and Rapha felt the urge to step closer and take her hand. Her quest for revenge was coming to a futile end.

  “Honey, I know because I know. I’m the mogul of the desolate lands. I have my sources.” He winked at her. “I need your further compliance.” Mox said, pulling his staff out. Rapha grimaced, rubbing at the spot of the plug-in; that was going to itch for days.

  “Here.” Mox stepped toward the la
rge screen that took up one wall of the room. He touched something on his staff and just as Rapha suspected, the wall began to shift, slowly being replaced by a workstation concealed within. Screens flicked and scrolled with streams of coding. A metal table rose from the ground, it was hooked to the massive work console.

  “Lay here.” Mox gestured. Rapha obeyed. Mox plugged in a few more cables. Rapha didn’t understand why it was necessary at that point, especially as he wasn’t going to hack the Skyfire yet.

  “Ah,” Mox gasped as the data mainstreamed.

  Rapha saw Toddboy’s photo, with a volume of text beside it, as well as Airith’s, then Isabel Rae’s. Below the screen, a meter slowly filled up, downloading.