Ray Aldridge - The Emperor of Everything

He looked down at them for a moment, almost envying them their uncomplicated passions.

Ruiz went on a few steps, and then paused by the tanks that held Publius’s insurance clones. On an impulse, he slid up the screen that kept the tanks comfortably dark.

The three copies of the monster-maker stirred uneasily, flexing their soft bodies and pawing clumsily at their eyes. Ruiz felt an intensity of hatred that made it difficult for him to draw a breath. That the three clones were in the strictest sense innocent of Publius’s crimes seemed an insignificant and abstract fact.

He considered the possibility of taking one of the clones — but the clone would have no knowledge of Publius’s current arrangements, nor would it look like Publius. Almost certainly the false Yubere wouldn’t recognize the clone’s authority.

He bent and touched the control slate, and the nutrient fluid that kept them alive started to drain silently into the sump.

They began to writhe and then to pound at the thick glass that trapped them. The nearest one forced his puffy eyes open and glared at Ruiz, mouthing words that Ruiz could not hear.

He slid down the screen and left them to expire in the dark.

He heard the thud of Remint’s boots against the tiled floor just in time to dart behind a nearby lab bench.

From that doubtful concealment, he watched, heart pounding, as Remint appeared from an access corridor, towing a floater on which a man lay, bound with wide straps. Ruiz couldn’t identify the man at first, but then the man lifted his hands as high as the straps would permit, and made a theatrical gesture that belonged unmistakably to Publius. So the monster-maker still lived.

Ruiz was pleased to see that Remint appeared seriously battered. The slayer’s armor was shattered and bloody over his left thigh, and he walked with a perceptible limp. The armor had separated slightly over his left shoulder, and his left arm hung stiffly, as if the armor had locked at the elbow, though the hand still clutched a splinter gun. He carried a sonic knife in his right hand, and the floater’s tow line was hitched to a ring at his armored waist.

Even damaged as he was, Remint still possessed that unstoppable quality. Compared to the Genched slayer, Ruiz felt himself puny, a negligible opponent. What could he possibly do against such a dire creature?

An idea came to Ruiz, just as Remint passed between him and the sunken amphitheater. Ruiz had no time to carefully consider the idea’s merits and pitfalls. He had to act instantly, and almost before the idea had fully formed, he sprang from his hiding place and dashed toward the floater.

Remint began to react to his charge when he was still two meters from the head of the floater. The slayer twisted back toward Ruiz, his gun arm rising with only a bit less than his usual uncanny speed. Ruiz ignored the gun and concentrated on hitting the floater with all his power and weight, getting his forearm up to cushion some of the shock of the blow against his shoulder, driving through the floater with his legs even after the blinding pain of the impact.

The floater jolted forward, striking Remint first on his gun arm, throwing off his aim, so that the burst of splinters went wide. Then the floater’s chrome chassis smacked into Remint’s midsection, driving him back, and his calves caught the low wall around the sunken amphitheater.

Ruiz vaulted onto the floater, swinging the cudgel with all his strength. Remint was toppling backward, but brought the gun down as he fell.

The cudgel caught the back of Remint’s hand before he could fire. The gun flew away in a high arc and dropped into the pit.

Ruiz looked into his enemy’s face, just for an instant. Remint wore a look of disinterest, his eyes dead and cold and far away.

Ruiz flung himself farther onto the floater, sprawling across Publius, who waved his arms and squeaked. Ruiz squirmed forward.

Remint had finally surrendered to gravity, was falling into the pit. His reaching fingertips had just missed the floater’s chassis, or else the blow to his hand had weakened his grip.

When he hit the end of the tether, his great weight overpowered the floater’s equilibrium compensators for a moment, and it dipped violently, almost dumping Ruiz off. Ruiz slashed at the tether with his knife, as Remint swung up his good arm and sonic knife.

The tether parted.

Pain seared across Ruiz’s bicep, and he looked to see if his arm was still attached to his shoulder.

The floater bucked and leveled. Ruiz flexed his arm in grateful amazement, ignoring the blood that sheeted down.

Ruiz looked down, to see Remint land on his feet among the little warriors. One of them, with a quickness the eye could not follow, turned and drove his long knife through the gap in Remint’s left shoulder armor.

Remint flicked his own knife and the small head spun away. The slayer flexed his knees, then sprang upward, gripping the knife handle in his teeth. His good hand caught the rim of the pit.

Ruiz’s heart slammed. The man was a monster; nothing human could have made such a leap. He rolled off the floater, his heel aimed at Remint’s fingers.

It was almost a fatal mistake. The slayer gave a heave and his hand jumped up off the rim and grabbed for Ruiz’s ankle. Only by a great gut-wrenching effort was Ruiz able to divert his kick, so that Remint’s fingers only brushed his foot.

“Ah…” gasped Ruiz, horrified.

Remint fell back into the pit again, and this time the little warriors were ready for him. Two of them stabbed at the opening in his thigh armor, and the slayer’s leg buckled.

Ruiz didn’t wait to see what would happen. He scrambled away from the edge, pulling the floater with him, then he began to run toward the exit shaft, shoving the floater as fast as it would go.

“Wait,” said Publius in an unfamiliar voice, weak and plaintive. “Who is it?”

Ruiz really looked at the monster-maker for the first time, and saw that Remint had cut away his eyelids, and put some caustic substance in his eyes. He noticed blood puddled under the monster-maker’s thighs; perhaps Remint had hamstrung his captive.

“Me,” said Ruiz, saving his breath for running.

Astonishingly, a smile spread over Publius’s face. “Ruiz Aw? You’ve defeated Yubere’s vengeance? My. God.” He coughed and spit up a little blood, prompting Ruiz to wonder what other injuries he had — and if he would live long enough to be useful.

“Maybe,” Ruiz said. The dark jagged opening to the shaft was close, and Ruiz slammed the floater inside, scraping the sides. He set the controls to lift and climbed aboard as the floater began to rise up the shaft. He held on tight, his hands clutching the straps that held Publius down, and his heart didn’t slow until they were well above the height that Remint had leaped.

“You killed him?” Publius still sounded terribly uncertain.

“Maybe.”

“You must have killed him; he’d never have let us get away if he were alive. If he’s dead, he can’t hurt us. Can he?”

“I’m not so sure,” said Ruiz, and found that he was shivering, though the air in the shaft was hot and damp.

“Um,” said Publius. “Where are you taking me?”

Ruiz laughed. “Do you really care, as long as it’s away from here?” He no longer felt the consuming anger toward the monster-maker that had driven him since he had found Albany. The encounter with Remint had somehow exhausted most of his capacity for emotion, and a dangerous numbness was invading him. He examined the cut on his upper arm, and found it relatively shallow; the bleeding had slowed to a slow seepage. “We still have a deal, don’t we, Publius?”

“Oh, yes,” said Publius fervently.

“A problem has occurred to me, Publius. How can I be sure Tildoreamors will do as you ask, now that your power is destroyed, and the pirates are in such a froth about anyone leaving the city?”