The New Humans

Chapter 37

"You're taking me to the vase with the ouroboros," said Adam.

He grabbed Ash's hand which was holding the ball. "Tell it to take us there."

The words Go straight ahead appeared on the ball. Adam read it and quickened his step, dragging Ash behind him.

"Now I'm watching you," he said. "You won't fool me again."

"Let's go home, Adam. We'll never make it," Ash tried to say.

"I haven't waited fifteen years for this moment to return empty-handed."

"And Crane?" said Ash.

"Who cares about Crane? Let him die! That coward traitor joined the Shadows during the civil war for fear they would kill him. I only used it to get here."

"Well, you've allied with him, so you're not that different."

"No, don't compare me to him," Adam said, waving his finger. "I don't know why he wants Luther's powers—not for anything good, that's for sure. But I'll do what Luther didn't have the courage to do."

"What do you mean?"

"I'll give Luther's powers to all Numas. With them, we will eliminate all non-Numas!"

This man is crazy, Ash thought, shaking his head. Adam must have noticed because he said, "Why that face? You too hate non-Numas. You too know how they're made."

"Yes, and I know there are kindhearted non-Numas too. Do you intend to kill billions of people?"

"The Shadows had no mercy for my family," Adam said almost softly.

"Then you're no different from them," Ash yelled. "And now I understand why Luther didn't want to reveal the secret of his powers—to avoid them falling into the hands of people like you!"

Adam punched him, splitting his lip.

As he concentrated to repair his wound, Ash wondered if Adam was what he might have become if he had followed the path he'd been on. After all, after Rike had beaten him at school, he too had imagined using his powers to smash his head and, when he'd met Owen, he had been wary, had shown that he too had prejudices against those different from him. Perhaps if he'd had Luther's powers, he would have allowed himself to do terrible things.

They arrived at a crossroad from where three stairways departed, arranged in the shape of a 'V' with a central axis.

"Ask the ball where to go," said Adam without removing his hand from Ash's wrist.

Through the middle, appeared on the ball. Adam touched the first step with his foot and in that instant, the two staircases on either side collapsed. Together they started up the middle staircase.

After a few minutes, Adam said, "I want you to know something. I really like you. In some way I see myself in you. You have my enthusiasm, my curiosity. And you have uncommon abilities for a Numa your age. If we had met under other circumstances, we could have been friends. It's a pity it has to end like this."

"So, when did you decide to use me?" asked Ash. The stairway was long, and he was starting to get tired.

"The evening you came to my house to ask about Crane. Initially I suspected you'd heard the name from your father. I had to find out how much you knew, whether you were a threat or not. And you went beyond any expectation I had; when you found Crane's hiding place, the first thing I thought was to kill you. But when you told me that, thanks to the ball, you had reached the city of savants—well, it was the answer to my prayers."

With that ball Ash had been able to see things no one had ever seen. Perhaps now it would lead him to a premature death. Had it been good or bad luck to find it? That depended on what life is, what it even means. Is it better to risk everything to explore the new and the unknown or to settle for comfort and safety? Better a brazier that goes out after one burst of flame or a timid candle that burns away little by little?

"What were you talking about before, with Crane? I heard you saying you can't want to leave him alive. Were you talking about me?"

Adam sneered. "Shut your mouth and keep walking."

Ash was certain Adam intended to kill him as soon as they reached the memory room. He needed to find a way to get rid of him before that.

They continued to climb the staircase. Ash couldn't see where it ended; it didn't lead to a platform or to a floating sphere, and there were no possible detours along the route. There was no choice but to keep going.

They had already climbed hundreds of stairs. Ash was out of breath. He had the strange impression the air wasn't right somehow. Adam, too, was breathing with difficulty. They continued to climb step after step as if they were carrying sacks of cement on their shoulders. The stairs merged into a platform six feet square, in the middle of nowhere, from which they could not go forward, or to the right, or to the left.

Adam was panting. "And where do we go now?"

He held Ash by one arm and kept an eye on the ball while Ash asked it what to do. But it gave no response.

"Let's go back," said Adam.

He turned back toward the stairs, but before he reached them all the steps disappeared. He began pacing. "What the devil are we doing here, cut off from everything?"

Ash was tempted to push him off the platform. In that moment, the ball lit up. Jump off. Ash hid it to prevent Adam seeing it. He leaned over the edge; below him there was a fall of thousands of miles with hundreds of marble staircases in between.

Adam was still pacing and babbling as if he were about to explode. "Now what do I do? Hey! Don't just stand there; check the ball. Give it here."

Did he really have to jump? He couldn't. What if the ball was wrong? But when Adam darted toward Ash with his arms out, Ash found his courage and dove. As soon as he lost contact with the ground, he panicked. His stomach felt like he was on the roller coaster. As he fell, the air beat against him as if he was going a hundred miles per hour on a motorbike out of control. He fell for hundreds of feet, then saw a square platform beneath him. At that speed he would smash into it in less than five seconds. He moved his arms around to try to slow the fall. The platform approached, but when he was on the point of crashing against it, it moved. He breathed a sigh of relief.

Then he sensed something coming from above him. Adam had followed him. Because of the weight of his armor, he was falling faster and was about to grab hold of him.

"Get away!" said Ash. A marble staircase came toward him at high speed. Adam grabbed him by the feet. Ash used the strength of his legs and pushed him into the path of the staircase which crashed into him. The impact was so hard, it rolled him over out of control and knocked him dozens of feet away.

Ash was getting closer to the ground; three hundred yards away there was one platform, hundreds of yards wide, which he could not avoid. He stretched his body out to slow down and closed his eyes. He felt himself become rigid like a glass ready to smash to pieces but realized he was losing speed.

Closer to the ground, he felt the air coming at him from below. The flow became more and more powerful, like the propellers of an airplane, so that at six feet from the ground Ash floated as if he was in a wind tunnel. He opened his eyes again: the air was passing through some metal grids on the ground. The ball had not betrayed him. He swam breaststroke through the wind until he arrived at the edges of the grate and let himself drop to the ground. How wonderful to stand on two feet again.

He looked at his watch: there was less than an hour left before they killed Rachel, Owen, and Herbert. He ran, following the ball's instructions.

Two hundred yards farther on he found Adam's lifeless body lying face down in a pool of blood. He had fallen with so much force that the ground had cracked open. His helmet was off, and the enhancing suit was ruined.

"You were right, Adam," he said. "It's a pity it ended like this."