Chapter 139 The Ghost of the Iron City
The sniper did not walk he moved.
Kaelen passed through the smoked mazes of the Industrial District like smog. He did not mess up the collections of scrap metal. He did not set off the pockets of pressurized steam which burst out with irregular frequency of the ground. He just got into where the danger was not.
and we moved behind him, a clattering, banging procession of the living dead.
The loudest were the warriors of Iron Flesh led by Ferrous. The scrape of their piston-arms and their heavy plate armor were knocking the red dust down the narrow walls of the alley.
A rat... a rat, Ferrous grumbled and his mechanical eye followed Kaelen with his grey cloak. "I do not... trust rats."
Ryker reminded him that he had saved Vane, and his pulse rifle was in low readiness. And he is more familiar with this city than you are, tin-man.
I know... the iron... Ferrous nudged his chest. "He knows... the shadows."
We came to a collapsed overpass. Below the distorted rebar and concrete a black hole appeared into the ground--a subway exit. The mark above it could not be read, the red moss having decayed it.
Kaelen stopped. His face was still largely covered by his hood and the rebreather mask which he was wearing, but he turned to us.
"Down here," Kaelen said. The mask had distorted his voice, making it muffled. "The air is cleaner."
"Cleaner?" Checking her scanner, Sato inquired. Higher concentrations of spores are normally found in the subterranean levels.
Not there we are going, said Kaelen.
He drew a flare out of his belt. But it wasn't red. It smouldered with ultraviolet vehemence.
He tossed it into the tunnel.
The darkness retreated. Still more, the red moss of the walls rejected. The ferro-fungus squeaked and receded into the UV light leaving the clean ceramic tiles in sight.
Kaelen gave a stroke in the blue spectrum. "Photophobic. It can only grow in the smog or in the dark.
UV light, I wrote, scribbled Sato to her datapad. "Of course. It's a subterranean mold. Direct radiation burns it."
"Come on," Ryker ordered. "Before the flare dies."
The Sanctuary
We descended into the dark.
The underground tunnel was a railway graveyard, yet not like on the surface, these had not been welded together. They were just derelict. After a half hour walking up the tracks, we came across bodies in business suits, with briefcases that had been reduced to leather rags.
At last Kaelen came to a maintenance door marked HIGH VOLTage and Authorized Personnel Only.
He didn't pick the lock. He touched a concealed scanner panel which was embedded on the concrete wall.
BEEP-CLICK.
The great massy door moaned and opened.
We were struck by a rush of fresh, fresh air. It was not stinking of blood or rust. It was smelling of ozone and coffee.
Kaelen opened the door and bade us come in.
We got into a decommissioned maintenance center. It was a colossal space with whining server farms, wrecked workstations, and stacks of UV grow-lights suspended overhead. The trays of green vegetables, which were real spinach and kale, were growing in the hydroponic tubes under the lights.
"You live here?" Vane inquired, and stared around in wonder. "This place is a fortress."
It is a lab, Kaelen corrected, and threw off his hood and mask.
He was older than I expected. His face was stippled with grit, a ragged scar ran down his temple, to his jaw, through an area of silver stubble. But his eyes were keen and intelligent and haunted.
He went over to a bench that was covered with microscope slides and Petri dishes.
I have been looking at you, Kaelen said, looking at Ryker. "The Valkyrie. The drop. The fight at the Foundry. You aren't local."
"We're the Exodus," Ryker said. "We came from the Spire."
The Spire fell," Kaelen said without emotion. "I saw the seismic readings."
"We survived," I said. "And we're looking for answers."
Kaelen passed a glance at Ferrous who was glaring at the hydroponic vegetables as a suspect.
And you took the metal-eaters with you, Kaelen sighed. It must be desperate times that require heavy allies.
"Who are you?" Sato asked, stepping forward. She was gazing on a worn out ID badge on the wall. It is a Coalition Science Division logo. Level 5 clearance."
A hot plate carried a mug of coffee which Kaelen picked up.
"Dr. Aris Kaelen," he said. Previously of the Department of Biological Defense. Project Iron Eater."
"Iron Eater?" Ferrous growled. "You... made the rust?"
His piston-arm whirred, and the cyborg warlord moved forward. Ferrous was held back by Ryker putting a hand upon his chest.
"Let him speak," Ryker ordered.
Kaelen didn't flinch. He took a sip of coffee.
I did not come to kill you, Kaelen, they both said. "I made it to stop the tanks."
There was a tap on a computer terminal. There is a holographic screen on the table. It presented a molecular diagram of the red moss.
Kaelen explained that ten years ago, the Coalition was losing the war against the Rot. "Our bullets didn't work. Our walls didn't hold. We wanted a weapon, which would cut the infrastructure of the Rot.
He indicated red spores on the screen.
"We engineered a bio-agent. A fungus to eat heavy metals--the iron of the blood of the Rot, the steel of their machinery. It was a demolition charge supposed to be a charge.
"But it mutated," Sato guessed.
The Rot adapts, I said, nodding my head. We sprayed it on top of the city to destroy an infestation of Rot. The Rot did not die, instead it imbibed the fungus. It hybridized. It learned to eat our metal. Our guns. Our buildings. Our blood."
He looked at Ferrous.
It made the Iron City into a smorgasbord. And it was just that you got on the menu so that you would live.
We... accustomed ourselves, Ferrous said, and his voice was choked with anger. "We became... the iron."
You were all carriers, Kaelen put in. Your armor spares your life, but it is also the carrier of the infection. In all your actions you drop spores.
And you are the cause of the rusting of the world, are you? I said to Ryker with a hard voice. "Why are you still here? Why not go over with the Purists?
Kaelen looked at the screen and said, Because I broke it, I said. "And I'm going to fix it."
He crossed over to a refrigeration unit that was sealed. He punched in a code.
The door hissed open. There was one canister of blue liquid in it.
This, the counter-agent, Kaelen said. "The fungicide. I have been synthesizing it in five years. It attacks the Ferro-fungus on the molecular basis. It reverses the mutation."
"You have a cure?" I questioned, optimism in my breast.
I do have one prototype, Kaelen said. "But I can't disperse it. The fungus is airborne now. In order to kill it I must put this into the atmospheric scrubbers.
"The scrubbers?" Vane asked.
It is the Central Air Processor, Kaelen said. "It's in the heart of the city. The tallest tower. Should this canister be inserted in the main inlet, the cure will blow out over the whole metropolis by the fans. It will eliminate moss on buildings. It will clear the smog."
"And us?" Ferrous asked quietly.
The Iron Flesh leader was looked at by everyone.
Ferrous said: "I am... the fungus. He held up his arm. The metal plates were attached to his flesh glued by the red moss. The rust, Kill you Kill, and what of the Flesh of Iron?
Kaelen stared at him with sincere pity.
The armor will come down, I shall say, Kaelen said. "The moss will die. You'll be human again."
Or... we will hemorrhage, Ferrous replied. "The metal... is deep."
"It's a risk," Kaelen admitted. But not doing it will bring down the city in the end. The rust does not fatigue of eating, Ferrous. In a year, there will be no city. Just a pile of red dust."
Ryker stepped between them.
We take the tower," said Ryker. Ferrous, you and your men... you may make choice. You may remain in the subway in the scatter. Or you will struggle to have an opportunity to be clean.
Ferrous looked at his mechanical hand. He stared at the green plants that were growing in the light.
I do not remember... clean," Ferrous said to himself.
He looked at Ryker.
"We will... fight. If we die... we die as men. Not machines."
"Good," Ryker said.
He turned to Kaelen.
"Pack your bag, Doctor. We're going to the tower."
Kaelen smiled--a sharp dangerous smile. He grabbed his rifle.
Just as Kaelen warned, the tower was protecting the scrubbers. there are not only Rot-Droids in there. The fungus... it gave us a Guardian...
We killed Guardians, said Baron, examining his claws.
Not like that one, Kaelen said, getting the canister into a protection case. It is composed of all tanks, all soldiers, and all my mistakes I made.
He handed the case to me.
"Keep it safe, girl," Kaelen said. "That's the future in a bottle."
I took the case. It was cold.
Let us go clean house, Ryker said.
We went out of the sanctuary, and made our way the same way once again into the red fog. The city was no longer being haunted by the Ghost. He was leading the exorcism.