D. MacHale - The Merchant of Death

“Rellin wishes to see you,” he announced.

Uncle Press stood, but the miner held his hand up to stop him.

“Not you,” he said. “Pendragon.”

“Rellin wants to seeme? What for?”

“Go with him, Bobby,” said Uncle Press. “Listen to what he has to say. You know how important it is.”

Yeah, this was important all right. It was so important that I wished somebodyelse were going. But I got up to follow the miner out of the hut. Before I left, I looked at Uncle Press. “I messed up,” I said. “I’m sorry.”

Uncle Press smiled and said, “It’s okay, Bobby. Mistakes will be made.”

That actually made me feel better. We were still in deep trouble and it was still my fault, but at least I didn’t feel like a total nimrod for what I had done. One thing I could say for sure though: I wouldn’t do it again. I guess that’s what Uncle Press meant by telling us we would have to learn about being Travelers by experiencing it ourselves. You don’t truly learn something until it’s real, and the bomb that was about to blow us all into dust was very real. It’s a tough way to learn a lesson.

I followed the miner out of the hut. Night had fallen, though I had no idea what time it was. My watch was floating in the latrine, remember? The village was empty. I could see lights coming from the huts, but nobody was walking about. It felt like the calm before the storm. The miner walked quickly until we came to one of the larger huts. He motioned for me to enter. It wasn’t like I had a whole lot of choices, so I went in.

Rellin was waiting for me. He sat near the fire and offered me a cup of some kind of liquid. I wasn’t sure if I should take it or not. Maybe it was poison. Or maybe it was a peace offering and by not taking it I’d be insulting him. I decided to take the cup and only pretend to drink. Of course if it was poison and I didn’t clutch my throat in agony he’d pretty much know I faked taking a drink. Maybe I was overthinking this.

Once I had taken the cup and faked the drink (with no reaction from Rellin) he stood up and walked to a wooden table. Lying there was the battery from my flashlight. But something was attached to it. I looked closer and my stomach twisted when I saw that it was a small piece of tak. The wires and the switch had been pulled out of the flashlight and were used to connect the tak to the battery. These guys learned fast. They had made a little bomb. If they flipped the switch from the battery, it would complete the circuit and send a jolt of electricity through the tak. It may be a small jolt, but probably enough to detonate the unstable explosive. Rellin picked it up and examined it. I wanted to shout for him to be careful, but I could see that he appreciated the power and was handling it with caution.

“We have been trying to find a way to control tak,” he said. “But until now we have been unsuccessful.”

My mind flashed back to the moment down in the mines when there was an explosion and Rellin had to be rescued. He was probably experimenting with tak and something had gone wrong. Slowly the pieces of the puzzle were coming together.

“This is how we will ignite the tak,” he continued. “Tomorrow this small device will explode and that will set off the larger load. When my army hears the explosion it will be their signal to attack. They will then overrun what is left of the Bedoowan. It will all be so very simple, because of you.”

Gee, thanks. I’m thrilled that I could help us all move closer to Armageddon. Rellin put the small bomb down and sat back by the fire. He motioned for me to sit across from him.

“You have seen our lives,” he said sadly. “We are dying. The Bedoowan will never allow us to be free. Tak is our salvation. With tak the Milago can pull themselves up from the dirt and become the proud people we were destined to be.”

He was absolutely right. The Milago had it bad. They lived like tortured animals. Nobody deserved that. They had every right to fight back, but they didn’t understand that they were going about it the wrong way.

“You and your people want to help us,” he continued. “For that we are grateful. But there is one thing we need from you that will be more helpful than you can imagine.”

“What’s that?” I asked warily.

Rellin stood up and walked quickly back to his little homemade bomb. He picked it up and held it out as if it were the Holy Grail.

“Bring us more of these devices,” he said with passion. “If we had more we could become the most powerful army on Denduron. Once the Bedoowan are defeated, the Milago would never have to live in fear again. We could turn our miserable lives around to become the leaders of Denduron!”

Oh, man. Uncle Press was absolutely right. Now that the Milago had a little taste of power, they weren’t going to be satisfied with just beating up on the Bedoowan. They hadn’t even won yet and they already had visions of taking over the rest of Denduron. The good guys were going to become the bad guys, and the result would be chaos.

“Will you help us, Pendragon?” asked Rellin sincerely.

This was my chance. Maybe myonly chance to try and talk Rellin out of his plan. I couldn’t argue against centuries of hatred, so the best thing I could do was try and make him see the downside to his plan. I had to choose my words carefully.

“I’m not an expert on these things,” I said. “But if you blow up that big load of tak, there may not be much left of the Bedoowan to conquer. Heck, there may not be much left of the Milago, either. Where I come from, there are many weapons like this. But the biggest fear we have is that they will be used. You don’t understand what you’re doing, Rellin. Your lives may be horrible now, but you may be worse off after the explosion. There must be a better way.”

“No!” he shouted angrily.

I hadn’t chosen my words carefully enough.

“You do not understand!” he yelled at me. “You have not lived your life in fear, in pain, in hunger. This is the only way. This is how the Milago will defeat the Bedoowan. Now, will you help us?”

Key moment.

“I’ll help you,” I answered as firmly as I could. “We’ll all help you. But not if it means using tak.”

Rellin stiffened and said, “Then go back to your friends. You will not be harmed. When the battle is over you will be free to leave.”

My mind was racing. I wanted to come up with something to change his mind, but I was drawing a blank. The truth was I didn’t know how the Milago could possibly defeat the Bedoowan without the help of something like tak. I couldn’t offer a better solution. I had one chance and I blew it. But then a thought hit me.

“How will you explode the bomb?” I asked. “If someone pushes that switch, then they’ll go up with it.”

Rellin straightened up proudly. “It will be an honor to die in the name of freedom for the Milago.”

Oh, man. Rellin was going on a suicide mission. This wasn’t about personal glory or power. This was a good man who cared about the future of his people more than he cared about his own life. There was nothing more for me to say, so I left the hut feeling sorry for him, but also feeling incredible respect…and fear. If someone was ready to die for his cause, a dweeb like me had no chance of talking him out of it. That bomb was going to explode tomorrow and there wasn’t anything I could do about it.

The miner led me back to the hospital hut where I quickly told the others about my meeting.

“So then it is true,” said Loor. “The Milago will become a powerful, warring tribe and destroy all of Denduron.”

“That’s if they don’t blow themselves up with that humongous bomb first,” I added.

There was still a big question to be answered. Where were the Milago going to explode the bomb? They couldn’t very well do it around here or their own village would be vaporized. They may have been primitive but I’m sure they figured that little detail out. No, they must be planning on exploding it near the Bedoowan palace. But how could they pull that off? It’s not like they could drop it off on the palace doorstep, ring the doorbell and run away. As soon as they got within a hundred yards of the place the Bedoowan knights would stop them. They must have a plan, but what?