Читать книгу The Puzzler’s War - Eyal Kless - Страница 19

It was not a long walk, distance-wise, but surrounded by the hostile Dwaine clan, it took us a long time to reach the Sky Bird. Like the other machines, it was gleaming and spotless. My guess was that taking care of Sky Birds together with shooting trespassers were the Dwaine clan’s favourite pastime.

This particular Sky Bird was huge—it dwarfed all the others by far—and I could not contain the awe it inspired as we stood next to its belly.

“Behold the holy Sky Bird,” said Dwaine, son of Dwaine, waving his arms dramatically as Nana Dwaine limped closer to the metal body. “This is the Leviathan. Your LoreMaster came here, and he and my da walked into the belly of the Leviathan, so he must have left whatever you are looking for right inside.”

Nana Dwaine wailed something unrecognisable as she uncovered a keypad at the lower side of the Sky Bird. “All you need to do is to know the password for the door,” Dwaine said as he ushered me forward. “If you type in the right numbers, the door shall be opened. If you type wrong …” Suddenly there was a handgun aiming at my head. Dwaine, son of Dwaine, looked at me from behind the muzzle. “I will give you one try.”

I glanced at Galinak, but there were too many weapons trained on us for him to be able to do anything that would not result in our certain death. I turned my head back, fighting the rising panic, and a bowel-loosening feeling in my stomach. The numbers on the keypad flashed green. There were eight empty slots sketched above them. I remembered reading somewhere, in my past life, that there were a hundred million possibilities for such a code, and now I had to guess the right code the first time, or die.

I closed my eyes and tried to block out the situation we were in. What would be a code that LoreMaster Harim would have chosen? The eight digits hinted it was a specific date, as was counted by humans in the pre-Catastrophe era. Two for month, two for days, four for a year. The counting of the years was forgotten by many after the Catastrophe, but the Guild of Historians kept the old tradition. The big question was which date my LoreMaster would choose as a code. A birthday? A death day? Or maybe it was just a random combination of numbers, in which case my brain would soon be decorating the shining metal side of the Sky Bird.

As if on cue, Dwaine, son of Dwaine, pushed the muzzle of his gun into the back of my skull. I opened my eyes and exhaled. With a trembling hand I reached the keypad. If LoreMaster Harim truly meant for this place to be visited only by other members of the Guild of Historians, then the code should be somehow known to them. I could think of only one such date. I entered two digits, 12, then the next two, 11, and committed to the decision I had made, punched 2247.

There was a loud buzzing sound and the belly of the Leviathan lowered its hatch down towards us. The demeanour of the Dwaine clan changed immediately. Nana Dwaine clapped her hands together and shrieked in approval and her son holstered the gun, although he did not look pleased about it. All around us weapons were lowered and even stowed back in their holsters, and Galinak was allowed to join me.

“I thought we were goners,” he muttered out of the corner of his mouth.

“Yeah, lucky I remembered the exact date of the Catastrophe.”

“A bad day for humanity, but as it turns out, a good day for us.”

I glanced at him as the door of the Sky Bird touched the ground next to our feet. He looked relieved, and I guess I was showing it as well.

Dwaine, son of Dwaine, stood next to me on my other side but to my surprise he did not step forward with us. I turned to him in question, but he shook his head in regret. “Da said not to go inside them Sky Birds until Grandpa Dwaine comes back from sky.”

Galinak and I walked forward and into the belly of the Leviathan. When we cleared the landing, I found a lever with a drawing which clearly indicated its purpose, and turned it. The door began moving up. Galinak turned back, waved his hand and shouted, “We’ll be back for dinner, hope you have stew.” A few heartbeats later, we found ourselves in complete darkness, sealed within the belly of the Leviathan.

If I were to believe legends, long ago the metal Sky Birds ruled the skies, moving people and goods across the globe. It was hard to believe that a huge machine such as the Leviathan could reach the heavens, but whatever its original purpose, my LoreMaster Harim changed it into his personal haven. There was a cushy-looking reclining chair and a whole sitting corner with several oil lamps, which I found and lit for Galinak’s sake, and a heavy wooden reading table. Books, scrolls, and pre-Catastrophe think pads were stored neatly in rows upon rows. I examined a few of the books briefly and found they were mostly copies made by scribes such as myself in the City of Towers. All my hours of copying manuscripts in the high towers suddenly made sense. LoreMaster Harim had taken measures to ensure that should the Guild of Historians’ extensive library be destroyed, at least some of the knowledge it contained would survive. Yet we soon found out that books were not the only thing my LoreMaster stored in the Leviathan.

“Would you look at that!” Galinak exclaimed, waving the black garment in front of my face.

“SmartLeather. Adjusts itself to your body, complete with a torso brace, too. A power knife, and this …” He bent down and straightened back up, beaming with joy, holding a massive silver-coloured power machine gun.

“Old Harim knew his weapons, and there are at least ten power clips, three of them renewable.” Galinak turned the weapon back and forth in front of his eyes, mesmerized.

“And look, SmartGlasses, what a classic.” Galinak put the dark glasses over his eyes and looked around. “Yeah!”

I walked past him to the reading table, where a wooden box lay. It was not locked. Inside was a heavy coin bag, a letter, a pipe case with several vacuum-sealed tobacco cases, and an old-fashioned golden revolver complete with a leather hip holster and a clip belt.

“That’s a nice peacemaker,” Galinak said. “A little old-fashioned for my taste.”

I waved the gun around, its heaviness and balance oddly reassuring. It was made to look antique, and it was certainly not the most efficient weapon, but it was actual Tarakan steel and gleamed in my hand with a power clip that fired power shots. I was never a weapons kind of guy—actually, I was the opposite—but the moment I saw it, I knew I was going to keep that gun.

The letter I found on the desk was written in LoreMaster Harim’s hand. Despite having been duped by him to go on a dangerous mission while unknowingly being used as a decoy, I felt a pang of loss in my heart. My old mentor gave up his life so we could escape to the Tarakan Valley and eventually venture deep into the City Within the Mountain. He would have loved every moment of it.

The letter simply said:

Dear guild brother,

Take what you need from here as you see fit, but do your best to keep the knowledge stored here away from harm. The future of mankind lies within its past.

LoreMaster Harim

It wasn’t much, but it was precise, just the way my LoreMaster liked it. I was momentarily flooded with memories of the man—how he took me from my family home, raised me in the towers to be a scribe, only to send me on a dangerous fool’s errand to find Vincha and discover Rafik’s fate. The last time we saw each other, LoreMaster Harim had elevated me to the rank of Associate LoreMaster of the Guild of Historians. The vivid memories stirred strong emotions, and by the time I came back to my senses, Galinak had finished looting the place.

There were other travelling garments hanging neatly in a corner, and I rummaged through them until I found the clothes which fit me best.

“Not bad.” Galinak nodded his approval as he zipped up the SmartLeather suit. “But you’d better learn how to shoot with your new toy. It gives a mighty kick.”

I tried to fast-draw from the hip and managed to tangle the gun in its holster. It dropped to the floor with a heavy clank and skidded towards Galinak, who bent over and retrieved it for me. I was hoping the darkness masked the redness on my face.

“Okay,” he said as I shoved the gun back in its holster a bit too forcefully. “What now?”

I turned and walked deeper into the belly of the Leviathan, found a ladder and a hatch, and climbed up. Galinak followed me silently, hefting his new weapon onto his back and shoving a bag of nourishment pills into his belt. It didn’t take us long to find the place where the drivers of the Sky Birds must have sat. There were two chairs that resembled Dwaine, son of Dwaine’s throne. On top of them lay two bulky helmets. From the front windows I could see several of the other Sky Birds and a few of the Dwaine clan milling about. We sat down and I took the helmet in my hands, testing its weight.

“Are you gonna fly this thing?” Galinak placed his helmet on the floor and flapped his hands, mimicking a bird.

I looked at the vast array of darkened screens surrounding us.

“Rust no,” I grunted. “I wouldn’t even know where to start.”

“So, what are we doing here then? We got weapons, pills, clothes, and some metal, I say we split before the Dwaines change their hospitality rules.”

I shook my head. “There’s one more thing I want to try. It is only logical that these machines have strong communication devices. Maybe we could reach out to the Tarkanians and get the briefing we missed.”

Galinak did not look pleased. “Why the rust would we do that?”

I had no simple answer, so I simply gave him a meaningful glare. Surprisingly, it worked. Galinak shrugged and leaned back in his seat. “Suit yourself, but I ain’t sure I want to follow orders no more. Last time I did they got me killed.”

I had no argument against his logic, so I simply turned my attention back to the screens. They were more than an arm’s reach away. I wondered how the driver could use them from so far back. I got up and walked towards the screens, eventually touching them. Nothing happened. There were no other levers or buttons to pull or push. I sat back down and tried the helmet on. It didn’t fit immediately, but there was a complicated set of pulls and slides to adjust it. As soon as I managed to fasten it on my head there was a soft click and a hundred things happened all at once. The Sky Bird hummed to life, my seat expanded and fitted itself snuggly around my body, the screens around us lit up and projected themselves into arm’s reach, and a semitransparent steering wheel materialised in front of me.

“Whoa.” Galinak straightened up in his seat. “What’s going on?”

“Put on the helmet,” I said, gingerly touching the steering wheel. It felt solid in my hands.

The helmet’s inner screen was disorienting as well. On the left side a constant stream of numbers and letters ran in front of my eyes, changing colours and speed as I moved my head around. On the right side I could see through the material of the Sky Bird. I knew it was not my own gift that allowed me to zoom in through the metal walls.

“Bukra’s balls.” Galinak somehow managed to deal with the helmet faster than I had. His hands moved around in the air, touching the screens hovering around him.

“Galinak, don’t—” I said.

“Armed,” a voice rang out in my head.

I turned my head sharply. On the left side of the screen a picture of the Leviathan’s wing tip blinked red while on the right side I zoomed in on another Sky Bird on the far side of the tarmac.

“Locked.” A red rectangle surrounded the Sky Bird I was looking at.

“—touch anything,” I finished, but it was too late.

There was a swooshing sound in my ear and a heartbeat later the other Sky Bird blew up in a mushroom of fire.

We sat in silence for a while, not daring to move our heads or even blink. I reached under my chin and slowly unfastened the helmet. My surroundings winked out of existence.

“Rust,” Galinak said, still wearing his. “The Dwaines ain’t looking happy.”

I closed my eyes and leaned back in my seat, which, surprisingly, reclined itself back so I was facing the ceiling.

“I have a feeling they won’t give us some of their stew when we try to leave.”

“You don’t say,” I murmured and shut my eyes, feeling suddenly overwhelmed and tired.

Galinak freed himself from his helmet. “What now?”

I kicked my new boots off my feet. “I need to rest a bit. I haven’t slept right since, well, since I was born. The Dwaines are not going to shoot at us and they can’t get in. I’m almost positive Dwaine is illiterate.”

“And if he’s not?”

I turned my head and looked meaningfully at Galinak’s new machine gun. Taking the hint, he smiled back at me, picked up the heavy gun and turned his seat to face the doors behind us. “I’ll take first watch, then?”

I didn’t answer. A little later I was fast asleep.