Chapter 11:
The Pontiff of Dragonmaw
INSTINCTIVELY, A-KA FLINCHED and shut his eyes. In that instant, Heishi pulled him into his arms.
The passage of time slowed to a crawl, and the sounds of the cacophonous world around them fell away. With a light click, like a delightful note of music, the safe sprang open, revealing an aged chip inside.
A-Ka opened his eyes. The door of the safe had activated.
Extending his hand, Heishi snatched the chip. With one arm still around A-Ka, he shielded his forehead with the other, then turned and charged toward the floor-to-ceiling windows. In just two quick steps, he reached the glass and slammed into it shoulder-first.
A-Ka screamed. “Heishi, you’re insane!”
Heishi’s blow shattered the bulletproof glass, sending the tiny shards flying. They looked like a shower of gems as they scattered under the first rays of the early dawn sunlight. Guards rushed into the office, but Heishi and A-Ka had already tossed themselves out of the building some hundreds of yards off the ground.
Time, which had slowed before, seemed to come to a halt. The only thing that A-Ka could hear within that complete silence was the slow beating of his and Heishi’s hearts.
In the next moment, the two of them plummeted downward like a kite with a broken string. A-Ka let out an involuntary cry, but then Heishi’s armband split into countless metallic shards and formed, layer upon layer, into a pair of metallic wings. With a whoosh, they spread open, acting like a hang glider, and he and A-Ka soared into the distance.
“This is insane!” A-Ka shouted, but in exhilaration this time.
“Shut up,” Heishi replied coldly. “You make too much noise.”
But when A-Ka looked up, he found that the corners of Heishi’s mouth were actually slightly upturned, leaving a faint trace of a smile on his face. The two of them flew into the light of the early dawn.
At noon that day, the battle finally concluded. The entire city resounded with the tune of “The Black Plains” as the defeated humans were escorted into the plaza like prisoners of war. From a nearby building, Heishi bent over and watched the scene.
“Did it work?” Heishi asked.
“Not yet.” A-Ka’s brow was furrowed deeply in thought. “This chip with the main program is very ancient, and if I’ve guessed correctly, it should have come directly from the ruins that the Creator left behind…”
He put the chip from Macksie’s head together with the main program chip, but he found that there was still a third port that needed a connection. What was this port for? A-Ka had a dim, ominous premonition: Was there another piece they were missing?
“This was technology from tens of thousands of years ago,” Heishi said. “All the computational techniques that you humans and clones are now using were stolen from within the Primeval Heart.”