Page 16 of Semi-Human

By the time we leave my apartment the following morning, it seems everyone has learned about the Semi-Humans who are visiting the Hive. People stare at River, but no one seems hostile. Still, I’m wearing my black uniform, both because I missed it and because I want to make it clear that River isn’t just strolling around without an official escort.

He asks about everything we walk past, making our progress sluggish, but I enjoy explaining things I’ve always taken for granted. He acts like there’s magic all around us, and maybe there is, and I needed to see it through his eyes to appreciate it.

I take him to our library, and he strolls between the aisles, his eyes darting from title to title. He continues to the children’s section and freezes, his eyes growing wide. He pulls out one of the books and says in disbelief, “Another Moomins book.”

The title reads, Tales from Moominvalley. We must have gotten it in recent years because I haven’t seen it before, though it has been a while since I browsed through the children’s section.

River flips the book to read the back. “Nine stories!”

People nearby shush him.

“We can pick it up later,” I say.

“Later? But someone will take it.”

I doubt that, but I still ask the librarian to save it for us. She agrees, staring at River until we leave. Before we take the elevator up, I take him to see my old orphanage. It’s still operational, even though there are fewer orphans these days. The plague and later Skyfall led to a high number of orphans, but things have been quiet in recent years, at least inside the Hive.

“It used to seem bigger,”

I say as we stand in front of the plain, two-story building. I always feel a surge of memories when I see this place. Most of my childhood took place between these walls. Three children are playing in the small garden behind the iron gate.

“Did you like it here?”

River asks.

It takes me a moment to think it over. “When they sent me here after my mom and grandmother died, I hated it. It felt like everyone was living in grief, and being happy was something you should only do in secret.”

“But then you met Caden and Ruben.”

I nod, loving that he remembers what I told him. “Meeting them changed everything.”

“Are you a monster?”

a boy asks from behind the gate. He seems to be no more than five.

River walks over to him. The other two children come to watch. “I don’t know,”

he says. “Maybe I am. Are monsters supposed to look scary?”

“Yes,”

the boy says.

“And do I look scary?”

The three of them shake their heads. “Hmm. Then maybe I’m not a monster.”

“You’re pretty,”

the only girl out of the three says.

“Thank you. Then maybe I am a pretty monster.”

“A monster can’t be pretty!”

the boy shouts as if offended.

We leave them to argue and take the elevator to meet Finn for breakfast at a place near the park. River is quick to share his library discovery, sounding like has found a hidden treasure. “Maybe there are more Moomin books out there,”

he says. “It can become our quest to find them all!”

“I think we have bigger worries on our plate these days,”

Finn says somberly, “but the Moomins can be high on our to-do list.”

Midway through the meal, Ace and Dara show up. Dara hugs me. “We were so worried!”

“Mildly worried,”

Ace says and shakes my hand. “You okay, sniper?”

“Yes, captain.”

“You sure?”

He gives me his no-need-to-bullshit-me look that I’ve grown to appreciate.

“I’m sure.”

I introduce them to River as they join us at the table.

“They didn’t tell us why two Semis are visiting the Hive,”

Ace says quietly, “but I’m guessing it has something to do with what’s been happening out west.” He looks from River to me. “How bad is it?”

I don’t wish to discuss the New-Humans in a public place, so I say, “I’m sure you’ll know more soon.”

He watches me as if he knows I’m hiding things, but he lets it go.

“Ace has been my captain since I finished boot camp,”

I tell River.

“Oh, you’re very lucky to have Josh.”

I hold back a smile as Ace shifts in his seat. “Well, yes, I suppose I am.”

“Dino asked for you two to come to his office after breakfast,”

Finn says. He hasn’t stopped eating since we sat down, though he’s so skinny, I don’t know where he puts all that food.

We say our goodbyes to Ace and Dara, then walk to Dino’s office at the Foreign Relations building. I knock on the office door, and Dino calls us inside. He’s sitting on the couch to the side of the room, a map with red marks spread on the low table in front of him.

“How was your first night back?”

he asks me.

“Still getting used to it.”

I’ve been absent for longer periods before, yet my time on the road with River feels like it lasted a year. I sit next to Dino, and River and Finn take the chairs on the other side of the table.

“Thank you for letting Finn stay,”

River tells Dino. “I was worried about him.”

“As you should. That plan of yours…”

River looks down at his hands. “I know. It was dangerous.”

“But it was important,”

Finn says firmly. “I have no regrets.”

Before it can turn into an argument, I ask Dino, “What are you looking at?”

“That’s an old map of Nevada with Las Vegas and the settlements we believe to have been overrun.”

I scan the red circles that represent different settlements; some have names written next to them. I look through each one until I find Prosperity. It’s one of the smaller circles, located on the border between Nevada and Utah.

“River, are you able to speak with Mother now?”

Dino asks.

“No, I can’t hear her when I’m so far from home. Father’s attacks on the satellites have made it harder.”

Dino shakes his head. “I can’t believe those things are still up there. There’s so much we don’t know about the world.”

“Once we beat the New-Humans, I’ll take you to see Mother,”

River says. “She knows many things. It will be my thank you for giving Finn a home.”

Dino smiles. “I’d love to meet her someday. Now, there will be more people joining our upcoming meeting. Some members of the assembly are concerned with how quickly we’ve accepted strangers into the Hive, but I’m sure they’ll be reassured once you and Rowan get a chance to speak with them.”

River nods and asks, “Can Josh join?”

“Not this time.”

I don’t like leaving River with people he doesn’t know, but I do prefer staying away from long discussions—it’s the bottom line I care about.

“Did you hear anything from Caden?”

I ask Dino.

“I know he got my message, but I don’t think he’s back yet. It might take him a few days. Oh, before I forget. I have something you might want to see, River. Josh has seen it already.”

I assume he means the old tablet with the photos of the lab. River comes to sit next to me on the couch, and Dino brings him the tablet.

“You need to tap twice on one of the squares to open it, and then you can swipe to switch between photos,”

I say as if I’m an expert.

“Can I watch too?”

Finn comes to sit on River’s other side, the three of us squeezing on the couch.

River opens a photo of the lab. After “visiting”

there recently with Mother, I recognize the gray corridor.

River gasps. “It’s where I’m from.”

“Do you remember anything from those days?”

Dino asks.

“I remember everything. I was two when my people took me and the rest of my wave away to our village. I didn’t want to leave.”

“Who took care of you until then?”

Dino asks.

“My friend, Nanny Spider.”

I shiver at the memory of the metallic spider with the human-like palms, though I remember River happily playing with that thing.

The next photo is of Helena and Ivan, one I haven’t seen before. They’re standing shoulder to shoulder and smiling at the camera. Helena is holding a pale, copper-haired baby.

“This is Father,”

I say, unsure if River has ever seen a photo of him before.

“I pictured him differently. He seems… normal.”

He smiles at Helena. “This is Mother.”

In the photo, she seems about a decade younger than how she was when we “met.”

River swipes to another photo, this time of all four scientists together. Helena, Ivan, Nathaniel, and Timothy. I only saw this photo once, weeks ago, and the faces have gotten lost in my mind. Seeing them again, my body immediately turns cold. I’m imagining things. It’s just a trick of my mind. But next to me, River becomes very still, clenching the tablet in a white-knuckled grip.

“What’s wrong?”

Dino asks.

River meets my eyes, looking shaken. “How can it be?”

“Maybe it’s a coincidence.”

I look at the photo again, focusing on the smiling scientist called Nathaniel. He has a beard in the photo, but his face is still familiar. The face of Rowan.

River raises his head, staring into space. I can tell he’s trying to communicate with Rowan, but we shouldn’t hurry to reveal what we found. I don’t get the chance to ask River to stop before his face contorts in pain. He lets out a chilling shriek, dropping the tablet to the floor.

I grab him when he begins to slip from the couch. His body seizes, spasming as his eyes roll back. Finn holds him from the other side, but we can barely keep him on the couch.

“What’s happening?”

Dino stands up. “Did this happen before?”

“Yes, when Mother was attacked.”

Is Rowan attacking him?

I fight my panic and sit on River’s lap, holding him in place while fearing he might accidentally hit me. “River, calm down!”

He slowly does, but his face is damp and pale, his heart beating so fast I can hear it. I move to sit next to him, and it takes him another minute to finally meet my gaze. In a faint voice, he says, “We’re in danger.”

Before I can ask what he’s talking about, roaring sirens erupt around us.

*

My mind is back at Skyfall, running with Caden and Ruben as everything around us slipped into chaos.

I shake off the memory and ask River, “Do you know where Rowan is?”

He rubs his damp face, still shaken. “He blocked me when I tried to talk to him, but he knows what we discovered. He's trying to reach your reactor.”

I try to wrap my head around what it means. If he damages our reactor, we’ll lose all power—our air, our lights, everything.

“What’s going on?”

Dino raises his voice above the sirens.

“Rowan is one of the scientists,”

I say. “He’s Nathaniel—or someone who looks like him.”

Dino picks up the tablet from the ground, his eyes widening as he looks at the photo. “How did I miss that?”

“We can stop him, right?”

Finn asks, his fear making him look even younger.

River stands up. “Your people should stay back. He’s too dangerous. Josh, can you take me to the reactor?”

“Yes.”

“Hold on.”

Dino rushes to the wall and takes down a framed photo, revealing a row of weapons. “Take what you need.”

River and I pick up rifles, all already loaded. Before we leave, Dino grabs my arm. “Once they find out Rowan is behind this, they’ll assume River is working with him.”

My heart drops. He’s right. “Stay here,”

I tell River.

He shakes his head. “He’ll kill you—I have the best chance to stop him.”

I look at Dino for support. He says, “I’ll call whoever I can to make sure they know River is trying to help.”

I pray it will be enough, because if anyone tries to attack him, I won’t stand idly by.

“Be careful!”

Finn calls when we exit the office.

The announcement system instructs people to stay inside and lock their doors. The lights flash in red and white, and I’m sure that every Hiver who survived Skyfall is wondering if it is happening all over again.

Assuming that Rowan is truly trying to reach the reactor, he’ll be at the bottom of the Hive. The place is heavily guarded, but they were unprepared for an attack, so I don’t count on them stopping Rowan.

“Do you know if he’s already there?”

I ask River, raising my voice above the siren.

“I don’t know. I can’t feel him anymore.”

“The elevators will be packed, but there are stairs that will lead us close to where the reactor is.”

We reach the stairs and hurry down, but there are hundreds of them, and I almost lose my footing from climbing down too fast. By the time we reach the bottom floor, I’m heaving, my shirt stuck to my skin. There’s another flight of stairs we need to get to on the other side of the floor. We run across the Depths, the streets now empty of people, though I can see some watching through the windows.

“Josh!”

I turn around to see Ace, Dara, and some other armed Defenders. River and I stop and wait for them.

“An attack on the reactor?”

Ace asks once they reach us.

“Yes. It’s Rowan, the other Semi.”

All eyes shift to River, with some gripping their weapons tighter. “You don’t want to take him down on your own,”

I say firmly. “Let River take the lead—he knows what to expect.”

I’m relieved no one tries to protest. We run toward the stairs leading to the reactor, where the entrance is always guarded. Three guards are lying on the ground. I don’t see bullet wounds, but they’re not breathing. One had his face smashed into the wall, leaving blood and pieces of bone smeared on the concrete.

With our weapons raised, we walk past the bodies and reach the narrow flight of stairs. At the bottom, we step into a wide corridor. Bodies lie ahead, of both guards and technicians. Rowan had stormed his way through them like a raging storm. I allow myself a moment of relief when I find that half of them are unconscious rather than dead.

The red lights are weaker down here, and the siren is quieter, making me more aware of the drumming of my heart. I remember there being another back way to reach the reactor, but I don’t know how to access it, so we’ll have to use the main entrance like Rowan did.

“He’s there,”

River says, his rifle aimed toward the open metal door ahead. “He’s connected to your computers.”

I don’t know what that means, but it can’t be good.

“River!”

Rowan’s voice echoes through the corridor. “Tell the others to escape before this place becomes dust.”

Chills crawl down my spine. The order was for everyone to stay inside, but if we’re about to face a reactor explosion, the damage could be catastrophic. I turn to Ace and whisper, “We need to evacuate.”

Ace rubs his pale face. We both know what evacuating thousands of people means—chaos. But he still signals two of the Defenders to head back and spread the word.

“Why are you doing this?”

River calls. “We are their guests!” The betrayal and hurt in his voice are heartbreaking, and for that alone, I’m going to kill Rowan.

“You can come in if you want to talk,”

Rowan says. “Josh can come as well, but no one else.”

River meets my eyes and motions for me to follow him.

I tell the others, “You should evacuate as well.”

Ace shakes his head. “We’re not going anywhere. Try to make this right. We’ll be here if you need us.”

I follow River into the wide chamber. The reactor is covered with a transparent dome to our left. To our right, Rowan is standing by a wall of computers and screens. He seems unarmed, and I don’t understand his confidence in facing us without a weapon, but then I notice the cable running from the back of his head to one of the computers.

“I don’t recommend shooting me,”

Rowan says, his clothes covered in other people’s blood. “I’m the one keeping this thing from overheating.”

“Liar!”

River shouts. “You’re trying to make it explode.”

“Do you really want to take that chance? Lower your weapons.”

We do as he says. I try to make sense of what I’m seeing on the screen next to Rowan, but I don’t understand what those flickering numbers mean.

“Who are you?”

River asks. “You’re not Rowan.”

“I am Rowan, River, but I was Nathaniel Mordok long before that. When the ungrateful Defenders began attacking us, I could have made a digital version of myself like Ivan and Helena did, but I chose a different path. With the help of Father, I sent a sample of my DNA and memories back to Kansas, and I was later reborn as part of the second wave—further enhanced with slower aging, since we knew Father’s plan would take decades. I was to wait patiently and help when needed. All my travels have been to gather intel for him, but you and River granted me a chance to give him something bigger.”

I catch his meaning without needing him to spell it out. We’ve given him a chance to give Father a dead Hive. One less hurdle when taking over Colorado.

“I don’t understand how Mother never recognized you,”

River says. “She should have known.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I notice movement to my left, outside of Rowan’s line of sight. I don’t risk looking because he might follow my gaze.

“I tampered with Mother’s servers before Father sent my DNA to Kansas,”

Rowan says. “She trusted me enough to give me access. I removed her memories of me from her database, but she was always suspicious of me as Rowan, and that is why I never speak with her directly. The original Nathaniel Mordok died in Las Vegas about forty years ago as an old man and a hero.”

“What now, then?”

I ask, once more noticing movement in my peripheral vision.

“I will destroy this Hive and be reborn in Father’s lab, better than I ever was in this body. Mother has been selfish for asking you to fight a lost cause, River. Father has been cautious with her because of what she knows about the purifiers, but it won’t last. She’ll break soon.”

“We’ll never tell!”

Rowan frowns. “We? Did… did she tell you the rest of the code? River, do you know it?”

I glance at River, who seems in shock. Whatever it is they’re talking about, he clearly said too much.

“I don’t know anything,”

he says faintly. “Just take out the cable and stop this. You’ve killed people! They hate us now because of you!”

“If I agree to spare this Hive, you must promise to come with me to Vegas. They need to know what you know. This could change everything.”

“I…”

Rowan sneers and shakes his head. “You won’t come, and I can’t drag you all the way there. But now the death of those people will be on you.”

I catch a flash of movement at the back of the room, then someone hits Rowan from behind, disconnecting him from the cable. He yells and swiftly turns around, grabbing the Defender who’s wearing a helmet. With a level of ease that doesn’t seem possible, he tosses the Defender against the wall.

River charges. He crashes into Rowan from behind, the impact strong enough to send Rowan flying. I hurry to pick up my rifle, but before I can shoot, they’re grappling on the floor, fists flying at each other’s faces. Rowan withstands punches that would have killed any normal man. He slams his fist into River’s ribs, causing him to yell in pain.

“River, move! Let me shoot!”

He manages to stand, but before he can take a step, Rowan jumps to his feet and grabs River from behind, wrapping his arms around his neck and chest. They’re two shapes moving through the blinking red lights.

At the sound of River struggling to breathe, I move aside to find a better angle, but Rowan steers River to face me, using him as a shield.

“Take your shot!”

Rowan yells at me. “Go on!”

I know how fast Semis can react, and I’ve no doubt that Rowan will move River in time to meet my bullet. I watch helplessly as River tries to breathe, his face as red as the blinking lights.

“Hey!”

Rowan turns his face to the Defender behind him—only for a bullet to tear through his skull.

River falls to his hands and knees as Rowan’s headless corpse slumps backward, landing with a loud thud. I crouch next to him. “You okay?”

He nods and coughs, blood trickling from his nose. The back of his head is smeared with Rowan’s remains. “I’m fine.”

I rise to my feet as the Defender takes off his helmet. Caden shifts his eyes from River to me. “Fuck, Joshy. You have a lot of explaining to do.”

“Is it safe?”

Ace calls from outside.

“Yes,”

Caden calls back.

The Defenders walk in, but they’re not alone. General McCoy is leading them, looking furious, his single eye aiming straight at me.

My stomach churns, knowing what this must look like. “Sir, I—”

“Quiet.”

He turns to the Defenders next to him. “Arrest the private and the Semi-Human. If they just blink the wrong way—shoot to kill.”