Page 69 of Xerxes Ascendant
But he didn’t look convinced. Kyle had once accused him of always thinking the worst of people, and Akira’s response had been short and scathing:Obviously. That way, I’m never disappointed.
“Kyle!” Miguel shouted. He held out one of the Diving packs to him and waggled it invitingly.
Kyle frowned. For a member of the despicable Carrion, Miguel seemed like a decent guy. But Akira had Kyle’s loyalty – and trust – every single fucking time. If he thought something was wrong, then it probably was.
“Why are there only two parachutes?” Akira asked, accusation thick in his voice.
“There are three,” Miguel responded easily and without hesitation, hefting the third from where it had been hidden behind a seat. “And six suits. We’re doing tandem Dives.”
Kyle and Akira glanced at each other, faltering. “Why?”
“Because I doubt you two have ever Dived before, and getting hold of these beauties wasn’t easy,” retorted Miguel, patting one of the parachute covers. “Now suit up.”
“But the other craft…”
“My orders don’t include answering questions, Kyle.” The Carrion looked rueful, and a little sad. “You wanna get me in trouble?”
Kyle relented. “Of course we don’t.” He eased the arm from his waist and tugged his reluctant boyfriend over to the row of bulky anti-radiation suits. Outside of the shields of the city or the aircraft, the levels of ultraviolet radiation in the Earth’s atmosphere were fatal.
And from what Kyle knew of Diving from Ben, his colleague at House Epsilon whose sister did it for a living – until she’d disappeared in the same mass kidnapping they weretrying to undo - there were a hundred different things that could kill Divers. The mistimed opening of the parachute or a complication with the ancient shuttles, the destroyed planet’s extreme weather that could see you and your chute punctured by hail the size of your fist, or buffeted by strong winds that blew you kilometres off course, and the dangerous, ubiquitous debris of everything left behind from the extinction event. Powerlines and buildings and bridges. Ground that gave way to tunnels underneath where eighty years of neglect had weakened the infrastructure. Toxin-filled air that fought with the radiation to put an unforgiving timer on your life.
And that was just on the downward journey. As many Divers perished on the return trip to Xerxes because of failures in the anti-grav container units, but Kyle and Akira wouldn’t have to worry about that.
They only had a one-way Dive. A short jump, Miguel assured with bright optimism as they hurriedly donned the cumbersome protective suits, and even if he wasn’t allowed to answer any more of their incessant questions than he had, he was quite happy to share that he’d been a professional Diver himself before he joined the Carrion. Kyle could see how a life of crime might seem tame in comparison, but the man’s friendly nature seemed at odds with the vicious claw lines proudly displayed across his cheek.
Then again, the sweet-faced, motherly Sinead Gallagher herself didn’t come across as a likely candidate for bloodthirsty gang membership, let alone holding position as its leader.
It wasn’t like Kyle was a stranger to acting. Whoring required significant pretence to become what the client wanted and would pay for, and Kyle was very familiar with the stark contrast between what Master Epsilon portrayed himself to be, and who Akira truly was at heart.
But the kindly woman he’d met as a beggar on the street turning out to be one of the most heartless cutthroats alive? Responsible for thousands of deaths, disappearances, slavery, mutilation, organ extraction... Kyle was still finding it hard to reconcile in his head.
And maybe all these musing, tangential thoughts were just to distract himself from the fear of what they were about to do.
Fuck.
Kyle wasn’t ready when Miguel clicked his helmet down into the collar bracket and gave him an encouraging thumbs up through the scratched plastic after checking his Diving suit over.
He wasn’t ready when Derek grabbed him from behind and fastened them together with carabiners, the harness across Kyle’s back affixed firmly to the larger man’s chest.
He wasn’t ready when the gang member at the rear of the aircraft slammed his fist onto the door mechanism and it began to lower into the ramp they’d boarded by. The rapid change in air pressure made him sway, forcing Derek to plant his feet to keep them both stable.
And Kyle really,reallywasn’t ready when Miguel gave a thumbs up and Derek leapt bodily from the craft, launching them both into nothingness.
Air buffeted at Kyle’s chest. His arms were forced apart and spread wide. Behind the helmet’s visor his mouth was open but he was unable to scream, denied any sound by the sensation of falling, falling, falling...
Something flashed over his visor, like a wave of water that left no residue on the plastic. Kyle jerked against Derek, before realising it must have been them passing through the city’s aetheric barrier. He’d known that it shielded from radiation while still letting weather elements through, but the barrier had felt sointangible.That was what was protecting the whole city?
Xerxes began to take form beneath them, growing larger by the second. Derek did something that angled them towards the Upper part of the city, but made no attempt to slow them down.
The pressure was high just to stay alive, and the heat was on. Kyle could feel himself trembling inside the Diving suit, so disconnected from reality as a result of the intensity of his experience that he worried he might rattle right out of its protective embrace, like a single grain of rice bouncing around an empty container.
Shouldn’t the parachute have been deployed by now? They werestillfalling! Surely at this speed they would be shattered into pieces, colliding with Xerxes’ unforgiving surfaces to paint its roads and spires a bright shade of crimson.
But holy fuck. This was...this was...
Kyle couldn’t help but feelalive.
Literally on top of the world, with a shitload of adrenaline coursing through him, Kyle’s unshed screams had turned to exclamations of joy.
