The Lost Puzzler Read online

  “And on the other side of this hall stands the gate to the inner sanctum,” said Nakamura, his voice surprisingly soft. “I have foreseen it.”

  “Bukra’s balls,” Sci whispered in awe, his attention on the elevated dais in the center of the hall. The dais, as well as the stairs leading up to it, were held up by hundreds of stone arms. Above the central dais a huge arm hovered in midair, its hand closed into a mighty fist.

  Without saying another word, Rafik began walking towards the dais. Daeon tried to stop him but Nakamura said, “Let him go, Daeon. Our journey is almost at its end. Soon we will triumph.”

  Herev whooped with joy, and his voice echoed far and wide. As Sci and Daeon moved forward, he turned to Nakamura and patted him on the shoulder. “I never doubted you, boss, never.”

  Nakamura nodded slowly, leaning heavily on his staff. “Go with the others,” he rasped. “Set up point, just in case I haven’t foreseen it all.”

  Vincha saw how Herev turned his back to Nakamura and walked forward. At that exact moment Nakamura straightened up and raised his black staff. A sharp blade silently sprang out of it, and without hesitation Nakamura drove the blade into the back of Herev’s neck. It came out through the other side with an arc of blood. Herev fell silently to his knees, blood gushing out of his body. As his body toppled to the floor, Nakamura let go of the staff and moved with astonishing speed, plucking the power rifle from Herev’s unresisting hands. Daeon turned around, sensing something was wrong, but he aimed his rifle at Vincha, instinctively thinking she had betrayed them. By the time he realised his error, it was too late. Nakamura shot Daeon in the chest twice. Daeon’s armour took the brunt of the damage, but the shock was enough to cause him to fall backwards, his rifle skidding into the darkness. Nakamura did not hesitate and shot the prone warrior twice more, from point blank distance, even power armour could not protect him.

  As Nakamura stepped over Daeon’s smouldering body, Vincha’s reflexes took over and without uttering a word, she dashed into the darkness, looking for the dropped rifle. Somewhere behind her Sci pleaded, “Nakamura-san, no, for the love of—” and then his voice was cut off by another shot. Vincha saw the rifle, dove down, grasped the butt of the weapon, and rolled sideways. By her mental calculations, Nakamura was supposed to be at least thirty paces from her, yet as she came out of the roll he was already towering above her. As Vincha rose up he kicked her in the chest, sending her skidding back to the floor.

  Lying flat on her back, Vincha tried desperately to level the rifle up but Nakamura stepped on her arm, pinning it with his crushing weight. She would have screamed, but the kick had forced the air out of her lungs. As she squirmed in pain, Vincha saw the red-hot needlepoint of the rifle’s sight, and realised it was trained on her forehead. Behind the gun she stared straight into Nakamura’s cowl and saw his deformed face. Death had come for her, and Vincha had no power left to fight it. She breathed in the scent of Daeon’s burned flesh, and heard the gurgle of Herev’s last breath. Closing her eyes, Vincha lowered her head to the floor, tears streaming down her face. She lay there, waiting for her life, and the life she carried inside of her, to end.

  “She must live.”

  Vincha open her eyes and turned her head. She saw Rafik standing not far from Sci’s motionless body. He was looking at them calmly, completely unaffected by the carnage around him. The boy’s voice was even and detached as he repeated.

  “She must live—you said so yourself.”

  Nakamura hesitated. “It’s only one possible future.”

  “She must live.”

  Vincha turned her head back to Nakamura, desperately trying to interpret his facial expression, but all she could focus on was the nozzle of the rifle trained on her face.

  She heard Nakamura’s voice as if from afar. “Take the weapon and leave the way we came.” Nakamura lifted his leg from her arm and stepped back.

  She slowly rose to a sitting position, still grasping the rifle with her aching arm. Rafik was already walking away again, without a second glance at the CommWoman.

  Still aiming his rifle, Nakamura spoke. “When you are out, turn left at the sixth tunnel and follow it. Turn northeast when you reach the surface, and you will see a broken bridge. Go east until you reach the Valley’s wall.”

  Vincha turned her head and watched Rafik walking the steps to the dais. The floating arm turned in the air and lowered itself down gently, and the fist opened to reveal a black puzzle box.

  “There is a small cave, if you can find it, with a Duster and some supplies inside. Do not go back to the bunker. I rigged it with several time bombs. It is now in ruins.”

  When Vincha turned her head back to Nakamura he had withdrawn two more steps, making sure to stay out of arm’s reach. Vincha tried not to look at the bodies around her, but she could not ignore the sight of Nakamura’s upright staff, its blade still stuck inside Herev’s lifeless body. She could hear the staff’s soft hum as she tried to focus her attention on Nakamura.

  “Why?” she croaked, “why?”

  Nakamura nodded. “Because I owe them this kindness. Everything is going to change and they do not deserve what is coming. The rest of my actions are too complicated to explain, but they are also necessary. I have foreseen it.”

  Vincha just stared, lost for words, and Nakamura nodded again, accepting her disbelief. “You would not understand, but this is the best course for humanity.”

  “What are you going to do to Rafik?” She glanced towards the dais, and if Nakamura would have turned his head towards the boy she would have tried to shoot him there and then, and damn the consequences. But his focus never wavered.

  “Whatever is going to happen, must be done.”

  “He’s just a boy—”

  “I have seen it. We all have a purpose, a destiny. Rafik’s a Puzzler. This is his destiny. Mine is to die today. The only question left is what will happen to you.” Nakamura paused for breath and then said, “I will count to one.”

  Vincha turned her back to Nakamura and ran.

  60

  “You’re feeding me rusting lies.” Jakov walked over to Vincha, and for a moment I thought he would strike her. Vincha didn’t flinch.

  “That’s the truth. Nakamura let me go.”

  “You said it yourself—he never let anyone go.”

  “Rafik told him—”

  “Balls. Nakamura just murdered his own crew, people who loyaly served him for years, and then he just let you go? I don’t believe a word of it.”

  “Believe what you want, rust face—”

  His slap would have rocked her off her feet were it not for the guard holding her up. When she turned her head back to Jakov, blood was dripping from her lips and down her chin and neck. None of us moved. This was not the time for foolish gestures.

  “Hit me all you want. I don’t know why the freak murdered his own crew and let me live. Believe me, it’s not as if I haven’t wondered about it every night since. The only explanations I have are that Nakamura was a freak who could really see the future, or that he was just rusting insane. Maybe Rafik told him to leave me alive and he obeyed, maybe he had foreseen it”—she emphasised the word with a rasping voice that must have resembled Nakamura’s—“but he let me go.”

  “Why didn’t you turn around and shoot him then?” Jakov spat in her face.

  Vincha was skating on the edge of her composure. “Because I was terrified. Because I wanted to live. Because I saw a way out, for me—”

  And for my baby, I thought, silently completing her sentence. Would I have risked everything to fight Nakamura, just to save the boy? I chose not to shame myself with an answer.

  Jakov was still not satisfied by Vincha’s explanation. “Speaking of a way out, how did you manage to get through all the doors and puzzle locks and traps?”

  Vincha lowered her head. “I don’t know.”

  “Rust—”

  “I don’t. I was running away as Rafik stood on the dais and was about to
shove his fingers inside that machine. I can’t tell you what he was going through; maybe he had control of the whole rusting city.” Vincha shook her head. “I was unwired but still had my skull plugs, or maybe Nakamura could truly project his emotions, I don’t know. But as I was running for my life I could see images of both of them flashing in front of my eyes. I saw them from above and from Rafik’s eyes as he reached the hand holding the central puzzle box. Maybe my memory is playing tricks on me after all this time, but I remember watching Rafik’s back from within Nakamura’s cowl. The different images flashed so fast there were moments I couldn’t tell my right from my left, and I had to stop to get my bearings.”

  Vincha closed her eyes as she spoke. “I remember the Great Puzzle projected on the wall opposite the city gates. Rafik described it to me, but I never imagined anything like that . . . There must have been thousands of shapes moving up and down and sideways, and he was moving and rearranging the symbols so fast . . . And Nakamura was just standing there, watching.” Vincha shuddered.

  “I don’t know how, but I remembered the way back, and as I ran, doors slid open for me, traps didn’t kill me, and I didn’t see any puzzle locks. It was as if Rafik was helping me out—that’s my only conclusion.

  “The next thing I remember I was close to the place where we’d entered the City within the Mountain. I’m guessing it was then that Rafik solved the puzzle.

  “The image was so strong I couldn’t see where I was going and had to lean against the wall. I could see it happening as if I was there. The pattern Rafik had solved . . . I don’t know how I understood it, but somehow . . . everything came together . . . The Puzzle changed to become these two intertwining lines, reminded me of a drawing I saw in a Mender’s manual, something about how we are all made, but I am not sure. The far doors to the inner sanctum began to open, and at the same time, behind Nakamura, the gates that never opened began parting way, and sunlight flooded the hall, bathing Nakamura’s back.”

  Vincha began shaking as she said, “There was a sound like a rolling thunder, and Rafik began to scream. It was . . . agony . . . like a power blow to my body. I don’t know if I heard it through my plugs or his voice carried all the way from the hall, but it left me weak at the knees. Somehow, I gathered my strength and just rusting ran for it.

  “As I ran through the tunnels there was another set of images. I saw thousands of Lizards pouring out of the open gate of the inner sanctum. The thunder I heard before was the sound of their clawed feet on the ground. Rafik was writhing in pain on the dais, and they moved over him like a sea of green sludge. Nakamura turned his back to them and walked to the open gates of the City within the Mountain, watching the sun rise. In his hand was a small disc. The last thing he did before he was torn apart was to press several buttons on that disc. Then he dropped the disc to the ground, spread his arms wide and closed his eyes. I think that he might have been smiling when the first Lizard reached him.”

  Vincha sighed heavily. “After that, I just blocked everything out of my mind and ran. It took me three days to get out of the Valley, and I didn’t stop or sleep or even look back.”

  We stayed in complete silence for a while until my LoreMaster spoke. “And so came the bloodbath in the Valley. Those Lizards attacked the Hive, the outpost was overwhelmed, and by the time the guilds in the city reacted, everything was lost. The valley is now filled with Lizards, and there are so many of them that almost every mission ends in failure. Three attempts to build a new outpost have failed as well. We cannot reach the Valley’s richest nodes, and those we have here in the city barely suffice. The City of Towers is in decline. Its population dwindles, and its sphere of influence diminishes by the season.”

  LoreMaster Harim stepped closer to Vincha. “But this is just a history lecture, is it not? You set something in motion and had no idea what it would cause.”

  “I set nothing in motion.” The defiance in Vincha’s voice was desperate.

  “Tell me, Vincha, how did you know how to reach Nakamura? How did you bargain with him over the boy? How did you leave that message for Rafik in a puzzle lock box? How did you set up a Duster and weapons that failed to function just as Nakamura’s crew struck the Keenans? Was it really Brain who showed you the tunnels under the Hive?”

  Vincha flinched with each question as if it was a blow.

  My LoreMaster stepped so close to Vincha she could have head-butted him.

  “You told us Bayne suspected there was someone in the Hive who worked for Nakamura, that you had dismissed the notion. Then you sent him to the City of Towers and ended up bringing Rafik to the very same man. It was you who planted Nakamura’s devices; it was you who worked for him.”

  Vincha bit her bloody lip. I sensed her instinct to grasp for a loose wire, to lie, but I guess she was broken, or maybe she knew we were already just one mental step away from the logical conclusion, and she decided it was time to shoot straight.

  “I was two years with Slice, in very bad shape and just a young girl, when Nakamura showed up by himself and hired us for an escort job near the Valley. He wasn’t known back then, at least not to Slice, but his metal was solid. I guess Slice must have thought he’d kill the freak if we ended up finding something useful. Nakamura ended up killing Slice and his crew—and he took his time with Slice. But instead of killing me, Nakamura healed my wounds, put me back together, gave me a communication device and some metal, and told me I should head for the City of Towers and become a Salvationist. He said, ‘Find me a young Puzzler,’ and the next day he was gone. I never told anyone, because by the time he contacted me again I was making metal as an independent CommWoman and he was Nakamura, you know, the monster who ate Trolls for breakfast, so I kept my mouth shut.”

  “What did Nakamura want from you?” It was Jakov who asked the question this time, but Vincha kept staring at my LoreMaster.

  “Mainly information. Who was doing what. What was the rotation. Which crew was going for a deep run, and—” Vincha hesitated briefly “—Puzzlers. He wanted to know everything about the Hive’s Puzzlers. After a crew I reported about went missing on a deep run I thought that maybe he set them up for their Puzzler, but you know, it’s a deep run—anything could happen, even for an experienced crew. I never thought he would be a little boy. I thought he would be like Pikok, or the rest of them.” She looked around the room for sympathy, but found none.

  “When did you decide to bring Rafik to Nakamura?” Jakov spoke again.

  This time Vincha looked straight at the merchant. “You underestimate him. Nakamura began taking an interest in the Keenans around a year before I met Rafik. He asked me for a detailed report on the entire crew. It was pretty easy because Doro and I were becoming close anyway. It was Doro who told me the Keenans spent all their metal on a very promising Puzzler and that he was being trained in the guild house.”

  “And you reported this to Nakamura,” LoreMaster Harim said, nodding.

  “I mentioned it, yes. When Doro came back after meeting Rafik in the Keenan guild house, Nakamura told me to go back to the City of Towers, find out about the boy, and get close to him.

  “On the day Doro died Nakamura contacted me and offered me a way out . . . if I brought him Rafik. I never thought . . .” She went quiet.

  “What do you think really happened to Commander Doro?” I thought the question the same moment LoreMaster Harim asked it.

  For the first time I saw tears well in Vincha’s eyes, but she held it together, just.

  “I don’t know,” she admitted. “When I heard about it I thought it was just rusting bad luck, then, of course, I learned about the shady details. For a long time I was sure that it was Ramm, and I wanted revenge. Shooting him in the back of his head felt like justice.” Vincha closed her eyes and breathed out slowly before saying “But it’s been years, and I’ve had time to think it over. There were too many variables coming together for someone like Ramm to be able to plan and pull it off. To time a murder of your crew commander
on a distress call from a ghost crew just as they were getting into a sandstorm with their communication gone bad—that was either a freakish coincidence or a very spontaneous decision by Ramm. Now, that Troll was a lump of rust, but he respected Doro, and to murder a crew commander was risking everything. Nakamura, on the other hand, had plenty of reasons to kill Doro. He was a very capable crew commander, maybe the best in the Hive. Everyone respected him, even the Sabarra crew. It would have been very difficult for me to get Rafik out of the Hive if Doro was in charge, and not just because of his capabilities. Rafik liked Doro, and I was his . . .” Vincha stopped mid-sentence and shrugged to herself. “I guess we’ll never know.”

  “One last thing,” LoreMaster Harim said. “Nakamura asked you to report on everything, but he also asked you to bury devices on the Hive’s ground.”

  Vincha was quiet for a long time.

  “I wonder, what do you think Nakamura did just before he died? What was that disc he was holding?”

  Vincha paled but pursed her lips.

  “Answer the man,” Jakov said, “or you and yours will suffer.”

  “I thought they were just communication devices,” Vincha finally said, “just to spy on the Hive’s chatter or on the guilds. I just buried them in the places he told me to and forgot about them, I never thought . . . only when Sci showed me the devices in his lab and told me they could attract Lizards . . .” She swallowed. “All these attacks on the Hive must have been meant to pin us down, forced Brain to keep a large force in the Hive. That gave Nakamura enough time to clear nodes, do whatever he was planning without interference, and keep us away from certain areas. If Nakamura managed to send the hordes of Lizards to the Hive . . .” Vincha didn’t finish the sentence.

  “So”—Jakov spread his arms as he turned around, seeking the attention of the crowd around him—“mystery solved. Vincha was Nakamura’s pet, and you are all her fools.” He turned back to my LoreMaster. “And now, please, where are all the Tarakan artifacts you promised me?”