The Second Sphere
Chapter 45

Bryant didn’t blink. His eyes glimmered with hatred and disbelief. His lips pressed together as though he wanted to squeeze something out of the back of his head. The pistol trembled in his hand. He pointed it toward the ground for the moment. But I knew that any sudden movement could bring a shot. He inched toward us, the gun moving up and pointing at us with each successive step.

“Stop what you’re doing,” he said. “Drop those on the ground and move away from them. Now!” I worried about Malinda; what she might do.

“The rifle, too,” Bryant said, gesturing toward her. Malinda took the rifle from her shoulder and set it carefully on the ground.

“Hold on, Bryant. Hold on for just a second. Just think about what you’re doing right now,” I said. “Think about what’s going on out there.”

“How can you even think I’d listen to you right now, Orion?” His face quivered. Tears in his eyes reflected the bright lights surrounding us. “I know now that this whole time was a lie. That this whole time you were deceiving me. I should’ve known. I should’ve known!” he said.

“No, Bryant. I’m not deceiving you. I’ve never lied to you,” I lied.

“I can’t let you do this,” he said.

“You and I know that it’s a mistake to open those sector doors. If they’re opened, then everyone on this rock is in trouble. There’s no way that the JSF can handle this. I don’t care how many troops they have, we can’t let them open that door. We don’t have a choice, Bryant,” I said.

He was within ten feet of us now, frowning, his eyes bouncing back and forth between Malinda and me. He faced us squarely, the weapon pointed directly at my midsection. I glanced at Malinda out of the corner of my eye and realized, as she dug her nails into her legs, that she only needed a moment to grab the rifle off the ground and take a shot.

“There’s no way you can know what’s going to happen,” he said.

“Yeah? What’s happening out there now?” I asked.

“And what do we do? We just let everyone in this sector die? No, Orion. He’s got to try,” he said.

“We can’t let them do that, Bryant,” I said. “Just think about all the information that Newberry left for us. All of our work on that will be in vain. If we don’t stop this virus, then we’ve really done nothing.”

“We didn’t work this hard to destroy everything,” he said. “We didn’t put in all these hours just so that we could blow ourselves up like some goddamned martyrs.”

“If you don’t put your gun down,” I said, “that door is going to be opened, and everyone you care about on this rock, every single person, is going to die.”

Bryant dropped the barrel of his gun back toward the ground. But the despair, utter brokenness, plastered his face. And I didn’t want to panic him. I shot my arms out to my side just to let him know that I meant him no physical harm.

“Let us go, Bryant. Let us go.”

“How do I know you weren’t the one who implanted this virus, that this whole thing isn’t about bringing down the Laslow Corporation?”

“Bryant,” I said. “You know me. I’ve done a lot of stupid, fucked up things in my time. But I’m not evil. I’m not up here because I want to destroy the Laslow Corporation; I’m doing this because I don’t want this virus to spread.”

“You fucking hypocrite,” he said. “You fucking hypocrite. You want me to just let you blow up this building because you say it’s the right thing to do? No. No, Orion. I’m not going to let you do that.” He pulled the weapon back up. I thought about all the ways that I’d truly deceived him over the past few days, all of the secrets that I kept. He had a right to be angry. But he should’ve known I wasn’t behind the virus.

All movement slowed. I saw my pathetic existence about to be extinguished; that wretched life. I saw everything that I’d ever done, every effort that I’d put forward against the Green Revolution, every dose of Love, every throwaway. I was just as guilty as anyone. I deserved to die.

“Don’t do it, Bryant,” a sharp voice called from behind him. I gazed over Bryant’s shoulder and saw Quincy Laslow. He had his bot guards with him. Their thin weaponized arms were raised, pointed at Bryant’s head.

Bryant turned slowly, lowering his gun as he did. I couldn’t see his face, but his shoulders trembled.

“Drop your weapon Bryant, and no one will get hurt.”

“Do you know what they’re doing, Mr. Laslow?” His voice trembled.

“I only know that you’re about to kill your fellow officers, Bryant.”

“They’re about to destroy all of us, Mr. Laslow,” he said.

Quincy slowly moved forward and stood in front of Bryant. The gun remained in Bryant’s hands. Bryant couldn’t stop shaking. Quincy’s face was pacific. It was like he wanted nothing more than to sit down with Bryant and let him cry on his shoulder. Quincy stood with his arms spread apart. “Put it down, Bryant. Put it down and we’ll take them into custody together. Here,” Quincy said, extending his hand, “give me the pistol.”

Bryant hesitated for a moment. He gasped. After several moments, Bryant handed the gun to Quincy.

Quincy stared at the weapon as though he’d never held one before. He adjusted something, then pointed the gun at Bryant and pulled the trigger. There was a flash and the smell of melting flesh, and the sour, putrid smell of synthetic blood. Bryant keeled over backwards. His body fell in a pile, shuddering as the last electric impulses went through him. Suddenly he was still. Quincy dropped the gun.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I wish it could have been another way, but I couldn’t keep him from coming up here. I wasn’t going to let him hurt you. I hope you know that,” Quincy said.

He came toward us, concern on his face.

Malinda sighed. “It took you long enough,” she said. She snatched up the explosives on the ground in front of us and swung back to the oxygenator. Quincy sauntered over and patted me on the shoulder.

I stuttered when Quincy was next to me. He grimaced and nodded as though he completely understood what I was going through. Bryant’s dead body smoldered.

I thought about this man who gave everything only to be shot like an animal.

“We can talk about it when you’re done setting the explosives,” he said, nodding.

I turned. Malinda waited for me, gripping the explosives. I got the fuses out, inserting each of the remaining into the devices. Malinda took the explosives, set three inside the massive oxygenator, the final two into the gravity machine, and linked them to the trigger.

“We’re ready,” Malinda said as she strode toward Quincy. When she reached him, she turned to face me. I stood there, watching the two of them, trying to figure out what the hell was going on. Behind them, Bryant lay dead. And there we were about to destroy the Laslow building.

“We’re going, Orion,” Quincy said. He gestured upward. Hovering just above the building was the ship.

“Just tell me--”

“Orion, there will be plenty of time for that. The choice is yours.”

Malinda went to talk to the bot guards that stood behind Quincy. She pointed at the ship. A swath of light descended from the open door at the base of the ship. Malinda stepped into the gravitational pull. She rose in the air as though she was flying, rocketing toward the massive vessel.

“We don’t have a lot of time, Orion,” Quincy Laslow said. “You see, at any moment now, those sectors doors are going to open.” In my heart, I felt the presence of my daughter whispering, asking me to leave.

Quincy turned. When he reached the orange glow, just before he stepped into the strong pull of the ship’s gravity, he said, “Don’t be a fool, Orion.”

I’d thought I was a leader. But I wasn’t. Malinda had pulled along me along with everything she said. I followed her to that moment.

Quincy Laslow disappeared into the sky. There didn’t seem to be any choice for me. I walked to the bright orange light and looked up at the ship.

A sorrow filled me as I stepped into the gravitational pull. All I hoped was that the future was better than what I’d known on the moon. I looked down as I shot into the sky, at the building I’d spent so many hours in, at the company I’d devoted my entire life to. And as it moved farther away, my heart dropped. So much of my life was behind me.

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