Positioning a laser sight in front of one eye, Heishi observed Macksie from over four hundred yards away. The general gesticulated as he spoke, waving around a marshal’s military cap, rousing the enthusiasm of the crowd.
A few seconds later, the killer pulled the trigger.
Bam!
As if a giant had swung a hammer into the ground, the entire world seemed to shake.
In that instant, time seemed to slow down drastically as Macksie’s grand forehead burst open, a blossom of blood flowering on it. In the sunlight, his brain matter glittered and reflected like a crystal.
The entire square of people was rendered speechless with surprise. This shock was far too much for them to comprehend. For almost five whole seconds, no one could speak as they watched Macksie’s headless body topple over onto the platform and roll off.
This city-rattling gunshot caused the death of one person and the awakening of another.
At the repair shop, the sound of the gun’s recoil brought the dozing Shahuang swiftly to his feet.
Outside, the sound sent a spike of panic through A-Ka. He hopped down and rushed into the shop—only to run right into the arms of Shahuang, who was exiting.
Gripping A-Ka’s collar, Shahuang bellowed, “What did that bastard do?!”
“I don’t know!” A-Ka pushed Shahuang aside. “I just heard the gunshot!”
“Shit!” Shahuang rushed up onto the rooftop, kicking the door furiously. “Open the door, you fucker! What did you do?!”
Regardless of Shahuang’s efforts, the metal door stayed firmly shut. Grabbing Shahuang, A-Ka shoved him to one side before resting the mechanical limb on his shoulder and sending a blast at the door.
With a huge boom, that attack sent the door to the entire rooftop flying. Shahuang and A-Ka hurried through, only to see the corner of that windbreaker fluttering away as the shadow of the sniper vaulted over the railings and leaped into the alleyway below. The man lifted a hand, his index and middle finger pressed together, as he saluted slightly at A-Ka.
The blood in A-Ka’s body congealed with horror.
A second later, he pounced to the front of the railings, shouting, “Heishi!”
Heishi bounded toward the small alleyway behind the repair shop. When he landed, he lifted his head and stared at A-Ka one more time—until he turned his back and sprinted away, disappearing in the darkness at the other end of the alley.
A-Ka also vaulted over the railings, but he fell onto an oil can before landing on the ground and rolling over it, his head spinning.
“Wait!”
Struggling to his feet, he chased after Heishi.
Macksie’s death caused absolute panic. As nearly a hundred thousand people in the square regained their senses, they simultaneously let out shouts and cries without clear meaning. Rage and grief, even despair, mingled together in the tumult. Many people wanted to rush onto the platform to see his corpse, but the clone guard squadron leveled their guns in warning. In response, the crowd of humans rioted, an enormous swell of them trampling over each other as they overturned the speaker’s platform.
A-Ka had never imagined that something like this would happen. Racing out of the small alleyway, A-Ka chased after Heishi until he finally caught sight of his silhouette—but they were surrounded by chaos, and Heishi really ran too fast for A-Ka. The sky bristled with patrol aircraft, and when A-Ka saw Heishi again, the clone police had already begun to circle around him.
From his shirt pocket, A-Ka pulled out a monocular positioning device that he placed over his left eye. Dragging the mechanical arm he’d built behind him, he sprinted through the main street. The place was crawling with soldiers who were trying to capture Heishi and disperse the residents. Phoenix City had exploded into chaos that the rebellion troops were only beginning to suppress.
What was happening? Wherever A-Ka went, he saw that quite a few people were starting gunfights with the rebel troops, and most of them were actually mercenaries he recognized!
This desire for destruction swept through the crowd, and people began to pick up rocks and smash windows, destroying the buildings surrounding them. In a short half hour, A-Ka personally witnessed how history would, in vital moments, complete its cycle—how destiny could change the courses of hundreds of thousands, millions, or even tens of millions of lives at once.
With a loud roar, two security mechas controlled by clones pursued Heishi, and the defensive equipment revolving through the air began to blare a warning.
“Disperse quickly. In ten seconds, the sixth block will enter lockdown… Ten, nine…”
Heishi raced ahead on the path. Sensing danger, he whipped to the side as two mechas blocked his way forward with a clatter of metal. He tossed the rifle in his hand to one side, and in an instant, it disassembled itself before clicking back together in a new shape: a magnetic cannon that sent a blast toward the mechas.
The burst of light caused the mechas to lose their ability to move. As they halted momentarily, A-Ka dashed up from behind. Just then, the clone soldiers’ encirclement of the street was complete, and thousands of them drew their firearms as they rushed toward Heishi.
Turning his head, Heishi swept his gaze around the circle. The defensive satellite in the sky had finished its countdown, and a laser beam shot toward him. In a flash, A-Ka rushed to the intersection of the two roads, bent one knee to the ground, and lifted the mechanical arm with his left hand. With his other hand, he reached to pull out a rocket he kept in the heel of his boot. Stuffing it into the arm, he jumped from the ground and rushed forward. Like lightning, A-Ka flew toward Heishi, activating all the firepower of the mechanical limb at once and clearing them a path.
Heishi reached out for A-Ka.
They grabbed each other’s arms as Heishi leaped up from the ground and executed an elegant flip through the air. He pulled A-Ka to his chest in an embrace before the two of them smashed into a skyscraper like a cannonball.
A cacophony of cracking noises echoed as A-Ka and Heishi clutched each other. A-Ka used the mechanical arm to protect their heads as they shattered the glass of the tall skyscraper. He didn’t know how much they wrecked before they rushed out from the other side. His head spun as he tried to make out where they were. Heishi, much more composed, lifted A-Ka into his arms and hurried into an underground structure.
“Hey, I can walk on my own,” A-Ka protested.
Heishi set A-Ka down but took his hand in his own, and the two of them sprinted through the underground parking lot until they found a passageway and scrambled in.
Half an hour later, they had managed to shake off all of their pursuers. A-Ka lay down in the sewer, gasping for air. He had taken a bullet, which had embedded itself in his side, and knew that he needed to get it out as soon as possible. When he reached to touch his side, his hand came back covered in blood. But since Heishi didn’t know he had been hurt, A-Ka just pulled his jacket on and covered up the wound.
Heishi rose to his feet and stood at the intersection of the sewers, his brow furrowed deeply. “How much longer do you need a break?” He sounded like he was in a hurry.
A-Ka bristled in anger. “Can’t you have a little sympathy?” When Heishi just stared at A-Ka, he asked, “What? Am I acting strange?”
“Why did you chase after me?”
“Because I’m afraid for you! Why didn’t you say anything when you came back? Were you the one who brought the fruits that Percy and I ate yesterday? I was wondering who had given us something so good to eat.”
Heishi grunted in agreement, but his expression seemed a little anxious. A-Ka turned over and got up with great difficulty, leaning against the sewer wall, before taking tentative step after tentative step.
This just made Heishi wary. “Hey. Where are you going?”
“You should go ahead on your own.” A-Ka held back his anger and heartache. “You don’t need to worry about me anymore.”
Heishi hurried after him. “It’s dangerous outside!”
Fury exploded from A-Ka’s chest. He turned around and pressed the mechanical arm against Heishi’s chest. “Why did you stay? And why did you come back?! You won’t tell me anything! I treated you like a friend and ran out to save you without a thought for myself, but you don’t care! What do you take me for?!”
Heishi froze. A-Ka glared like an angry rooster as he panted.
“So, that’s what’s going on?” Heishi seemed to find this somehow amusing. “You’re angry?”
“Stop acting like you don’t understand human emotions. Seriously, get lost!”
“Wait.” Heishi walked behind A-Ka in silence. After thinking for a while, he finally said, “I just don’t want to drag you into all this.”
“And I don’t want to hear it. Go away!”