War in the City Chapter 13

IN THE FIFTH YEAR OF THE NEW ERA
“Mister President, these tunnels were designed by Superbus himself.” Superbus had been the last king of the city, who was overthrown by Bree. “He anticipated the threat of revolution, and had them designed. This network of tunnels is the only place in the city that the computers are blocked out from. If someone were to ask the Teacher, right now, where Ducas is, the Teacher would be unable to answer. Besides that, Superbus kept these tunnels a secret during his time, telling only those closest to him. Since then, their existence has been known only to a select few. Not even you yourself knew about it until I led you down here.”
Ducas looked skeptically at Grechal. “You mean, this place has successfully been kept a secret all these centuries.”
Grechal nodded. “Perhaps the best kept secret in all history.”
“Why is it still kept a secret?” Qual asked. “Surely its strategic use is long passed.”
Grechal laughed, much to the confusion of Qual and Ducas. “Oh, if you only knew Mister Vice President. If you only knew.”
“Who else knows about this?” asked Ducas. He gestured toward the hum of voices. “Do any of them know about this?”
“They do now of course. They didn’t before.”
“Grechal led me and some of my aides here,” Qual explained. “Then he ran through these tunnels to get to your building and led you down here.”
Ducas looked Grechal over carefully, examining him from head to toe. He had seen Grechal many times before, but now he examined him in a new light. “How did you come to know about this place?” he asked.
Grechal smiled. “Surely you know I can’t answer that.”
“Alright, then see if you can answer this one,” Ducass responded. “What if someone was watching my actions on the monitor? Wouldn’t they see me walking down into these tunnels, and therefore find out about these tunnels?”
“An event Superbus foresaw,” Grechal replied. “A half hour before I can enter these tunnels, I need to say a certain word to the Teacher. Once I have said this word, all of my actions become classified, effectively shielding me from anyone who wishes to keep tabs on me by monitoring my actions. Even if they did know about these tunnels, they would need to know the combination in order to access them. It was how Superbus kept this place a secret while he was building it.”
“Superbus must have been Bakes’ equal in his knowledge of the computers then,” Qual concluded.
“Not quite,” Grechal answered. “Not even close in fact. Superbus, as history will show, was far from bright. The safeguards he put on the tunnels proved to be his undoing. He had to wait a half hour after giving the password to the Teacher before he could enter the tunnels. That half hour saw him captured by Bree’s forces, and eventually executed.”
“So how was this place designed?” Ducas asked. “Did he play a Jistap to someone else’s Bakes?”
“Again, not quite. I’m afraid I’m not in a position to reveal everything I know to you, so what I have told you about this place will have to suffice.”
Now it was Qual’s turn to curiously examine Grechal. “What a strange man you are,” he remarked, fully amazed.
Grechal smiled. “Strange maybe, foolish no.”
“Strange maybe, foolish definitely.” Grechal looked around to see who had spoken those words. He peered down the direction of the tunnel from which they sounded like they came, and saw a man walking toward him. The man was still in the shadows, so Grechal squinted to try and make him out. The man stepped into the light.
“Judas?” Grechal’s voice conveyed nothing but surprise.
“Grechal.” Judas’ voice had a forceful, almost condescending tone.
It was obvious to Ducas and Qual that Grechal’s attitude changed instantly upon seeing Judas. Grecahl quickly became nervous, and visibly disturbed. “What are you doing here?” Grecahl asked, scratching his neck as a nervous gesture.
“I would do well to ask you the same question,” Judas responded in a confident tone. “In fact, I deserve to ask that question far better than you do.” Judas waited for Grechal to respond, but when he did not, Judas continued. “I see you’ve armed yourself Grechal. Is anyone else with you armed?”
With all the hurry to get into the tunnels, Grechal had never bothered to see if anyone else had a laser gun. He looked over those present, then responded, “I’m the only one.”
Judas turned around and gave a sharp shrill whistle, then turned around to face Grechal again. In the distance, the sound of running feet could be heard. “In that case Grechal, I advise you to drop your gun. Ten Marramiane soldiers with laser guns are on their way.”
Grechal looked at Judas astonished. “You’re working for Marram?”
“Things change Grechal, things change. Your gun, please. I strongly advise you to drop it.” Grechal looked all around him like a caged animal. “Drop the gun Grechal.” Grechal looked down the other end of the tunnel. He could hear Marramiane soldiers coming from both sides. He was horribly trapped. Grechal swallowed, and steeled himself.
“If this is how it has to end, I’m taking as many of you down with me as I can.” Grechal raised the laser gun so that it was pointed at Judas. “Starting with you, you traitor.”
There was no change in Judas’ expression or his manner. The threat of a laser gun didn’t seem to bother him at all. “Give it up Grechal. You can’t win, and the last thing you want here is a laser gun fight.” Grechal took his eyes off Judas for a second to look at the laser gun, then he looked back up at Judas. His arm remained rigidly pointed at Judas, but his fingers loosened their hold on the gun. The loud clang the gun made as it hit the floor reverberated throughout the tunnel, and was the only sound other than the rapidly approaching Marramianes. Grechal slowly lowered his arm down, and walked away from the laser gun.
“An excellent choice,” Judas remarked.
“Why don’t you want a laser gun battle here?” Ducase asked. Grechal remained silent, so Ducas shouted his question to Judas. “Why don’t you want a laser gun battle here?”
Judas looked contemptuously at Ducas. “That is none of your concern,” he answered. By this time, the Marramiane soldiers had arrived, and were focusing their laser guns on the prisoners. Turning his attention to the whole group of prisoners, Judas announced, “Everyone, very slowly, put your hands behind your head and your knees on the ground.” At first, no one moved. “Now!” Judas shouted out. Everyone looked at Ducas for direction. Ducas focused his attention on what Grechal was going to do. Grechal looked over at Ducas, his face seeming to apologize for inadvertently leading everyone into this situation. Grechal followed Judas’ directions, Ducas followed Grechal’s example, and Qual and the others imitated Ducas. Once the last prisoner was in position, Judas turned around and whistled twice. The sound of footsteps was heard off in the tunnel. They were only one set of footsteps, but they were the loudest footsteps any of The Watchers had heard before. The footsteps were very slow and deliberate, and ran gout against the absolute silence now in the tunnel. The prisoners exchanged frightened glances, but said nothing.
What seemed like an eternity later, the figure stepped into the light. The figure was human in shape, but larger than any human the prisoners could recall. From head to toe the figure was covered in silver scales, and in its eye sockets lay not eyes as we normally think of them, but red spheres, which appeared to be constantly changing in size. Ducas recognized the creature immediately as Azom.
Azom stopped walking after he stepped into the light. Judas motioned toward the laser gun on the floor, and with the same deliberate steps, Azom walked over and picked it up. Azom stood right next to Judas, towering over him. He turned to judas and asked, “Which one iz the Prezident.”
Before Judas could respond, Ducas leaped to his feet. “I’m the President. What do you want?”
Grechal could sense what was about to happen, and looked away. Qual was totally unsuspecting, and kept his eyes on Ducas. Without pausing to think, Azom pointed his laser gun and fired. He had no more skill than the rest of Marram, but at the close range he was at it was nearly impossible to miss. Ducas’ lifeless body went flying backwards.
Instantly, the rest of the Marramiane soldiers began firing at the hapless prisoners, most of who were killed before they even had a chance to stand up. Above the sound of the lasers was Judas’ voice crying out loudly, “Spare these two, spare these two.” Judas practically put his body in front of Grechal and Qual to protect them.
The massacre was over as soon as it had began. Qual looked around at the dead bodies surrounding him, and shivered. The figure of Ducas, the most important man in the city, slain certainly symbolized the city’s defeat by Marram. Azom surveyed the destruction, obviously satisfied. Azom turned to Judas. “Why are these two zpared?”
Judas pointed to Qual. “That one is the vice president. We’ll need him.”
Azom walked over to Qual, who was still kneeling. Grabbing Qual by the head, Azom pushed the head back and looked at Qual’s face. “Zince the Prezident iz dead, I guezz that makez you in charge of the city, doezn’t it?”
After what had just happened to Ducas, this kind of talk frightened Qual. He could not turn his head to look at Grechal, be he looked at Grechal out of the corner of hi seyes, looking for some sort of help from Grechal. Grechal looked at Qual sympathetically, but was hardly in any position to help him.
“Doezn’t it?!” Azom repeated much louder, enraged at not being answered immediately.
Qual returned his eyes to look at Azom. “Yes sir,” he answered, his voice trembling.
“Then az acting Prezident of the city, do you officially zurrender to me?” Azom asked. As if the murder of Ducas and the others, along with the huge hand on Qual’s head, wasn’t enough motivation, Azom pointed his laser gun at Qual.
Qual struggled to think clearly through the panic. He wanted to surrender, but he couldn’t doom the whole city just to save his own life.
Judas stepped forward. “It’s over Qual. Marram has won. Don’t prolong the slaughter in the streets anymore than you have to. Surrender now. People are dying out there.”
Qual swallowed, looking from Judas to Azom. “I surrender,” he said at last.
Azom lowered the laser gun, and released his hand from Qual’s head. “Excellent. You will make the appropriate announcementz to end the fighting.”
“Of course,” Qual answered, tears in his eyes as he considered what the surrender meant.
Azom jerked Qual to his feet and practically threw him over to his soldiers. “Take him away,” he ordered. The soldiers obeyed immediately, and Qual was rushed down the hall. Azom turned to Grechal. “And thiz one?”
“He’s one of us,” Judas answered.
“One of WIN?” Azom had amusement in his voice.
“No, one of us,” Judas answered. Azom dismissed the issue, not caring enough about it to pursue an answer out of the reluctant Judas.
“I’ll catch up to the rest of you later,” Judas said. “Jonz can show you how ot work the computers. I’d like to speak to this one alone.”
Azom turned and walked away, this thunderous footsteps ringing out once again. Grechal and Judas remained silent until he had left the tunnels.