10 Falcon

Arthur wiped the sweat from his brow and looked to the sky. His gaze shifted from the Sphinx and over to the great pyramid of Giza. The ancient structures shone vibrantly as sun rays reflected off their bronze exteriors. He shuffled along the brick pathway and took shelter under the shadow of one of many enormous pine trees that were on either side of the path. A warm breeze brought the scent of wet bark, moss, and flora to his nostrils. He glanced over at the lake by his feet, and to his dismay he found a pair of teenagers swimming there. He frowned and was getting ready to leave when he realized that the unexpected guests hadn't even noticed him standing there. Drunk idiots, he thought with a grin. Enjoy it while it lasts, kids. You won't be young forever.

He looked past the lake, past the fields of green grass, and back again to the Sphinx. Green vines were beginning to wrap around the bronze feet of the mythological creature, and it looked as if the earth would eventually swallow the ancient statue back into the dirt. Above the head of the half-woman - half-lion, Arthur noticed what appeared to be a pocket of steaming air moving towards him. He grinned, and within an instant, a door opened from the air itself, not two feet from where he stood.

He climbed invisible stairs that led him into the oval control room of the Falcon. Inside, the room was pitch black, and the only shape he could make out was an ebony seat that seemed to sprout out of the ground like a flower in a field of darkness. He strolled over to the center of the vessel, directly behind the dark chair so that it was facing away from him. He took a step back and sat on the air. Another chair formed beneath him. This one, however, was formed to provide the optimum comfort for his body. A tailored chair, he thought. Fit for a Captain.

"Took you long enough," Arthur said. "One would think that with the fastest earthbound vessel known to humanity, you would at least be on time."

The ebony seat ahead of Arthur began to distort as millions of tiny blocks began to protrude across its length at irregular intervals, each cube going this way or that. When the distortion was complete, the chair was facing him, and on it sat Brandon, grinning. The balding man was clad in an impeccable black suit that read Alliance Armed Forces in golden thread on the left side of the blazer. "Arthur buddy!" Brandon said. "How long has it been? I've forgotten how impatient you can be."

"Far too long old friend," Arthur said as Brandon's chair distorted again, and appeared an arm's length away. He clasped his old partner's pale hand in his own. "Far too long indeed…"

The door that Arthur entered from closed, and the interior of the Falcon went from pitch black to transparent. The vessel began to ascend quickly, and in less than a second, the massive pyramids seemed like tiny bronze specks in a sea of greenery and lakes. "You know it used to be a desert?" Brandon said.

Arthur nodded. "Oh yes, I'm well aware. The Restoration certainly changed a lot of things around here… Coating the old things in bronze may be a little much for my taste, but other than that it's truly magnificent!"

"Tell me about it brother," Brandon said. "It's a good thing Mark Task's grandfather was in charge of the restoration… Had Mark been in charge, the place would've looked very different."

"The smug bastard. He would've coated the damn things in gold, not bronze,"

Brandon chuckled. "Without a doubt. Mark would've given ol' Sphinxy diamonds for eyes!"

"I could see that," Arthur said. The vessel had ascended so far into the sky that Arthur could now see the giant sea walls enclosing the island of Cairo. Waves crashed from all sides against the transparent, four-kilometer-high enclosure. "Brandon, what the hell are we doing here?"

"If I was seen with you, Hort would have me dishonorably discharged… You're not with the Alliance anymore Arty, and we needed to meet somewhere remote," Brandon said. "Plus, this way I get to explore my heritage. I took a private tour of the pyramids. That's why I was late."

"What are you talking about? You're not Egyptian!"

"I'm a human, aren't I? All ancient civilizations are my heritage,"

"So you're telling me that you brought me halfway across the world, just so you can have a historic tour of the pyramids?"

"You know how many people died when the ice caps melted? They could've saved them all. Saved Cairo, saved Shanghai, and even Rio de Janeiro. They let people die because of visa restrictions, can you believe that? Death by travel ban... They could've saved the cities too. Instead, they saved and restored the artifacts. Just so tourists can gawk at old, restored, and shinier monuments. It's disgusting really, people were truly wicked before the World Council came around "

"Spare me the history lesson," Arthur said. "We could've met at a million different places! You could've appeared at my apartment for Hermes' sake, and no one would've noticed… Do you know what fourteen minutes in a Gravpod does to your stomach? I lost my lunch AND my breakfast. I had a wonderful lunch man…"

"Serves you right… I had to jump through a million hoops to get you the information you wanted,"

"Oh, so this is revenge then? For me, asking my dear ol' partner for a little help on a case?"

"Oh don't be so angry. I know exactly how to make it up to you. You have one minute," Brandon said with a mischievous smile.

Both transparent seats began to distort as their position switched. Arthur now faced the 'front' of the Falcon, and the anger he felt towards Brandon evaporated in an instant. He had one minute, and he was not going to let it go to waste. He used his Eye to gain manual command of the Falcon.

Arthur and the ship became one. In less than a second, the island of Cairo was nothing but a tiny dot in the rearview display, which hovered across the top third of his vision. A second later he was gliding above the Atlantic ocean, not one foot from the water, and in another, he smashed through a two thousand foot high tsunami, all without slowing one bit. Unlike the Gravpods, Falcons felt remarkably smooth. It felt as if the vessel did not move at all, but the world itself moved around it at dizzying speeds.

Within ten seconds Arthur was zipping through the air above San Francisco. Weaving in between the hundreds of skyscrapers, turning this way and that. One moment he was over the Pacific Ocean and the next he was over Moscow. Oh how I've missed this, he thought, grinning widely. He nearly crashed into two skyscrapers that were a mere three meters apart. He narrowly avoided the collision by commanding the Falcon to change its shape. The entire Falcon distorted until it morphed from an oval egg shape into a flat disk, passing the building with barely an inch to spare. Arthur could not contain his joy. He laughed uncontrollably as he flew over Melbourne, nearly avoiding a thousand daenirum spires on his way. He felt exhilarated, it had truly been ages since he'd felt this alive. And Brandon's constant gasps of horror every time they almost died brought back the fondest of memories.

Grand Canyon. Niagara Falls. Taj Mahal. Great Wall. All passing by the Falcon in mere moments as Arthur pushed the Falcon to its limits.

He slowed the engines as his minute ran out, and the transparent seats shifted back into place, giving Brandon back command of the vessel. They were back above Cairo Island, the waves seemingly calmer now against the enclosure.

Hermes's soul Arthur! You almost killed us thousand times over," Brandon said, breathing heavily. "I missed having you as my partner, truly. But this I did not miss…"

"You may have lost all the weight, but you're still a big wuss," Arthur said, laughing. "Now tell me, what do you have for me?"

Brandon frowned and shook his head. "I don't get you, man. You live to insult me. Even now, when I risk my career to help you?"

"It's all in good humor friend,"

"I never got your humor. Don't think I ever will," Brandon said, then sighed. "I looked into this Liam Vanderbilt for you. It seems the Alliance has been keeping an eye on him for quite a while, although I'm not sure why. He doesn't have as much as a pod fine registered to his name. Another rich prick that thinks he owns the world. I mean don't get me wrong, the man is into some weird shit… But nothing illegal. It seems the Alliance keeps close watch over whomever they want these days…"

Arthur nodded. "What of his assistant? And could you get me anything on Mark Tasks?"

"Strangely, there was not a damn word to be found on Mark Tasks. No school records, no birth certificate, not a trace. Anything about him is heavily guarded,"

"It makes sense, he has the Hermes' favor,"

"You're still going to investigate him aren't you?"

"If the clergy are behind him, then so am I. The man's grandfather walked with Hermes… He's not a real suspect. He did, however, have an argument with my missing man, and I wouldn't be a good detective if I didn't find out what that was about,"

Brandon shrugged. "Good luck with that."

"And the assistant, what of him?"

"Seems Alliance Intelligence had their eyes on him too. Been hanging around some shady smugglers…"

"Smugglers? What are they smuggling? And, where?"

"Not a clue. But listen, Arthur, there's something you should know,"

"What? Spit it out man!"

"The smugglers… erm... They're with Exitur,"

Arthur was stunned. Exitur was the terrorist network that was responsible for turning the city of Chicago into dust, along with four billion and a half innocent civilians. They were also directly responsible for his twin brother Damien's death.

And as he thought about confronting Exitur again, his mind whirled, and he was back in the war once more. Laying in a pile of corpses, consisting of his fellow Alliance soldiers. The stench of death all around him, as he climbed over the disembodied remains of his friends, one bloody piece at a time…

He fell from the ebony chair, and down to his knees, gasping for breath. He put a hand on his seat, struggling to get a grasp of reality. The image of his twin's cold lifeless body laying in his arms made him sick. He vomited clear liquid on the transparent floor of the Falcon, which became porous on contact with the sick and it seeped right through the floor. Arthur shook himself and shivered. It was over. He was back in reality. Just another reminder of why he had quit the Alliance Armed Forces in the first place. As if he'd ever forget…