Incarnate- Essence

by Thomas Harper

  “We need to go in,” Laura said.

  When I looked over, I saw a fury in her eyes that took me aback. I was immediately reminded that the reason Laura was going through all this – the constant danger, the loss of her arm, putting up with years of sleeplessness – was because she wanted vengeance for what was done to her. I hadn’t forgotten, but with everything happening, it was easy not to think about it.

  Now we were so close to them. Darren could see it, too, appearing almost afraid of Laura, even though she was less than half his weight.

  “Do…you recognize any of them?” I asked, hoping she couldn’t see them at our distance without a bionic eye like mine.

  “Yes,” she said.

  “You do? Which ones?”

  “All of them,” she said, “all of them did this to me. The whole fucking company.”

  I exchanged a look with Darren before turning back to her. “We wouldn’t accomplish anything if we just waltzed in there and started killing people.”

  “We would accomplish killing them,” she said without looking away from the building.

  “This is why you wanted to come here, isn’t it?” I asked.

  Laura turned to look at me, “I came here because I wanted to be with you.”

  I sighed. “I’m not implying you didn’t. But I know how much you want revenge.”

  “We’re going to do nothing?” Laura asked, “we’re just going to let those people that fucked up my brain go?”

  “I want justice for you, too,” I said, “I really do. But we need to be more strategic. Now’s not the time to-”

  “You don’t want to help me, do you?”

  “I told you,” I said, “after we get Imelda, we’ll look into-”

  “We’ll look into it?” she said, “is it always going to be after the next thing?”

  “I promise you,” I said, “it will be the very next thing after we finish this. In fact, doing this will make it all the easier to do.”

  “Revenge?” Darren asked.

  “It’s a long story,” I said.

  “One that will be coming to an end very soon,” Laura said, finally sitting back in her seat, turning away from the mansion.

  Chapter 40

  It wasn’t until late afternoon that we were able to get in contact with Tory Goodwin after the debate. Darren, Laura, Christina, and I were all waiting in the hotel room when he came in, tie and jacket already removed, unbuttoning his shirt.

  “What’s up, fellas?” Goodwin asked, stepping into the room after the air jets were finished blowing.

  “We’re going in,” I said, “today.”

  Goodwin sighed, pulling a pint of bourbon out of his pants pocket, “Christ, I was hopin’ to relax the rest of the night. What’s the rush?”

  “They’re all there,” I said, “and we don’t know how long that’ll last.”

  “I was able to get the current security passwords,” Christina said, “but with all them important assholes there, they’ll change it up quick.”

  “Is that where you been runnin’ off’tuh?” Darren asked.

  She smiled, but said nothing.

  Goodwin sighed, removing the cap on the liquor bottle. He scanned across us before putting it to his lips, drinking deep. He winced as the cheap liquor went down his gullet. “The longer all of this goes on,” he said, wiping his lips with his shirt sleeve and burping, “the more I realize how much of a pawn I really am. But Kali wants the GPFTA stopped, and I owe her more’n that.” He stood quiet, as if this was his answer.

  “Then get your shit together,” Christina said, stepping forward and grabbing for the bottle of whiskey.

  Goodwin was able to dodge her hand, furrowing his brow at her. “If it’s really game time tonight, you might just want me a little intoxicated.”

  Christina glanced back at me before looking to him and shrugging.

  I cleared my throat. “I’m going to call the press. I want there to be a big scene there to distract people.”

  “Yeah, sure,” Goodwin said, his voice more melancholy than nervous, “give me a little bit to get ready.”

  “Then can you put the bottle away?” Christina asked.

  Goodwin gave her a weak smirk and started toward the nightstand, “sure thing,” he took another large swig of the liquor. Christina sighed as he screwed the cap back on and threw it clattering into a drawer.

  “Hey, if you want me to distract ‘em long enough,” Goodwin said, “I’m gonna need my liquid courage.”

  “What’re we doin’, anyway?” Darren asked.

  “We’ve been able to obtain plans for the entire mansion,” Christina said, “so we know they have-”

  “And by we you mean the Anonymous Knights?” Goodwin asked.

  “Yes,” Christina said, keeping eyes on Goodwin a moment before looking back toward us, “As I was saying, we know they have a server farm connected to their Global Prosperity Network. It’s in the basement. But one I put in the password, there’s only three minutes before an alarm goes off and it all goes into lockdown. That is,” she looked at Laura, “unless someone manually overrides it.”

  “You can get me through all the doors up to the server room?” I asked.

  “That part’s simple,” Christina said, “hacking RFID access is child’s play. Making sure the UGVs and guards don’t catch us is another problem. I’m going to have to guide you through.”

  “What is it you’re actually gonna do?” Goodwin asked, wiping at sweat on his brow.

  I exchanged glances with Christina.

  “I have this trigger,” I said, pulling a small piece of tech from my suit pocket, “as soon as I press this button,” I pointed at the single button, covered with a sliding piece of plastic, “it becomes active. Letting it go starts a thirty-second countdown to release the deep fakes of the Chinese officials to hundreds of journalist’s e-mails and social media from around the world.

  “It also shuts down the Global Prosperity Network using our virus,” Christina added, giving me a small nod.

  “Yeah…that part’s new,” I said, looking to Goodwin, “but Kali knows about it.”

  “And you’ll use that trigger to blackmail the Chinese?” Goodwin asked.

  “Yes,” I said, “I can get Christina to deactivate the trigger.”

  “At least till we’re outta town,” Christina said, “but the virus can still be activated, and I’m definitely shuttin’ their network down.”

  “Ya’ll sure we can even do this?” Darren asked.

  “Cutting your quest for redemption short?” Laura asked.

  “Nah…just tryin’ ta be realistic.”

  “We’re doing this,” I said, looking to Goodwin, “I’ll get your people to alert the press that you’re on the way.”

  He sighed and nodded. “Alrighty, then. I’m gonna go change my suit.” He made his way to the bathroom, shutting and locking the door.

  He suddenly has modesty?

  I glanced again at Christina, biting her lip in anticipation. I couldn’t help but feel like the Anonymous Knights still weren’t our friends. She’s been dodgy about all of her sneaking off during the campaign. But allies would have to do.

  Goodwin was able to successfully don his candidate face once we left the hotel. I was actually quite impressed with how well he was able to fake it. He had gotten his entourage out of their rooms – guards, counselors, managers, publicists, and potential cabinet members, as well as other hangers-on that had accumulated once we entered the CSA – many of whom were on Kali’s payroll and knew the campaign was doomed to fail. A few of them also looked as if they’d stopped at the liquor store after the debate, but they were able to hold it together.

  The media followed closely, their vehicles joining our procession. Having them along was a double-edged sword. I wanted to make sure that the visit was as large as possible, ensuring that it would be easy to sneak away once inside and distract security away from our activities. But having that crowd consist of media –
many of whom suspected us of being forty-eights anyway – made it so there would be more people watching.

  In order to change the story somewhat, I had Goodwin direct the procession on a scenic tour, going past the quarantine zone. The cities evening glow was dead within the fenced off areas. Through my bionic eye I could see silhouettes shamble about the rundown neighborhoods. Everyone heard the occasional shouts from within breaking through the eerie quiet surrounding the dead zone. Many of the houses on the opposite side of the street from the quarantine stood empty, a few with for-sale signs asking for almost nothing.

  Nobody wants to see the zombie apocalypse outside their front window.

  I followed the news of our approaching visit online. The more mainstream newscasts and live vloggers seemed to avoid the grim spectacle, but it was hard to avoid. Christina used a VPN to transmit a live feed from of our procession from hacked security cameras. By the time we got past the fenced in area, we were already starting to trend.

  When we arrived at the Director’s mansion, there were already people waiting in the parking area beneath the building to greet us and give Goodwin an official tour.

  “You ready for this?” I asked him.

  “Wishin’ I had the rest of that whiskey with me,” he said with a wry grin, “let’s do this.”

  Darren quickly got out the front passenger door of the limousine and opened the door for Goodwin. The press corp welcome party greeted him as he climbed out, yet I couldn’t help but notice the trepidation in their expressions – none of them were donors to Goodwin’s campaign. I waited a few moments, allowing the bulk of Goodwin’s entourage to swarm the welcoming party before I crawled out.

  I spotted Christina a ways away, getting out along with Goodwin’s running mate. She pretended not to see me. I looked to another vehicle, finding Laura in a security firm suit standing next to another woman from LoC Security. Laura looked uncomfortable, yet determined to get in.

  I straightened my tie, making sure to walk behind the bulk of the media as they followed Goodwin, his entourage, and the CSA public relations team. The crowd was large, but the amount of media made me nervous. None of these people wanted Tory Goodwin to get elected, nor did they expect he would, which made his surprise visit even more of a nuisance. Social networking feeds seemed divided on Goodwin either wanting to make a scene here by going into his anti-GPFTA rhetoric during the negotiations, or attempt to gain foreign support. In both cases, most people attributed cynical motives to the visit.

  None of that mattered to me.

  The crowd got into the lobby, the CSA’s public relations team going into a spiel about the building’s architecture as Goodwin made an admirable attempt at acting interested. The atrium had a rather bland looking fountain in the middle with large doors to the right of the entrance leading into what looked like an exhibit room displaying religious and Confederate statues and other paraphernalia. The far wall had a smaller door leading into a hallway.

  I glanced to the doorway at the far wall, spotting Christina behind the crowd of entourage and media. She had planted a drive on the door’s RFID reader. I slowly made my way toward her, getting there about the same time as Laura. Goodwin was in the middle of an impassioned speech about corporate transparency, which had everyone’s attention.

  Christina smirked, glancing up at a camera. After a silent signal I wasn’t aware of, she held her arm up, the door reading her RFID chip and unlocking. The three of us quickly snuck through.

  “Now for the tricky part,” Christina said, my earpiece translating her silent speech.

  At her signal we split up, Christina going left down the hallway, Laura and I going through another door into the stairway. I started down as Laura trudged upwards. I kept a small display tracking the news about Goodwin’s visit open on my user interface. He was being led through the large glass doors into the display room.

  “Five seconds, Eshe,” Christina said.

  I went as fast as I could without making too much noise on the stairs, reaching the bottom, the door opening up as I neared it, almost closing on my arm as I slipped through. A UGV would now be moving past that area of the stairs.

  “I am on my floor,” Laura said silently.

  “Opening,” Christina said, “get to your next checkpoint and wait. I have to find the next access before a guard comes by.”

  The surprisingly detailed map of the Director’s mansion Christina had given us displayed the basement floor on my user interface. The basement was a series of seven parallel hallways connected by a single perpendicular one going across the center. I was at one end of the fourth parallel hallway. An indicator showed where my next checkpoint was – a blind spot for the cameras a few paces before the intersection. There were also indicators for where surveillance UGVs were patrolling in a set pattern, but it was based on where the AK’s recon said they should be, not where they actually were.

  I hurried down the hall, looking over my shoulder several times. I stopped in the blind spot just before the adjoining hallway, an indicator showing a UGV going into a room around the corner. I heard a door close and rushed around the corner to the left while the camera was pointed away. The windowless door stood closed. Three seconds until the UGV was to come back out. I sprinted to the next parallel hallway over and turned right.

  “Christina,” I said silently, “camera.”

  “Sorry,” she said, “had a slow guard to wait for. The video loop should be ready to start in just a couple seconds…okay, go.”

  I turned back into the adjoining hallway and ran a few steps before hearing a voice. I backtracked to the blind spot. The voices grew closer.

  “Eshe,” Christina urged, “twelve seconds!”

  “People are coming,” I said.

  “Shit,” Christina said, “hold on, I’ll unlock something.”

  “Where do I go?”

  The voices were almost on top of me, one of them laughing at something. I looked around in panic, seeing a camera several paces down the hall. Then the door behind me clicked. I pushed it inwards, scrambling into the storage room just as the three employees came into the intersection.

  Their conversation stopped. I ran further into the room, leaving the door ajar, and slid behind a stack of boxes. The door creaked as one of the employees poked his head in.

  “Floyd, that you?” he asked, “I thought you left for the day.”

  The room stood silent.

  “Is he there?” a woman’s voice said from the hallway.

  “Nobody in here,” he replied.

  “Then why’s the door open?” the third employee, a man, asked.

  “Because Floyd’s a scatterbrain,” the woman said, “probably went home to let his dog back in or something.”

  The door clattered shut, the three employees muffled voices moving further away. I exhaled, climbing to my feet and walked back to the door. Locked.

  “Christina…” I said.

  “Hold on,” she said, “I’m moving to a new access.”

  “I’m at my next checkpoint,” Laura said, “but a guard stopped. I don’t know what he’s doing.”

  “Working on it,” Christina said.

  My ARs showed that Goodwin was talking to CSA interim Director Jacob Kimball. I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but both had good natured smiles. I could also see that a UGV would be coming toward my door very soon. I grit my teeth, waiting, wondering what would happen if I were caught.

  The door clicked. I grabbed the handle and opened it, scrambling into the hallway. The voices of the three employees were gone.

  “Twelve seconds Eshe,” Christina said, “go.”

  I bolted down the perpendicular hallway, skidding to a halt when I heard the soft whir of a UGV in the next parallel. Christina said something to Laura, but I didn’t pay attention. I put my back up against the wall right near the corner, hearing a door open up around the turn, the UGV going into a room. I ran again, going past the hallway and getting to my next checkpoint.

/>   “I’m at the entrance,” Laura said, “I can see the manual override.”

  “Hold tight,” Christina said, “how’s it looking over there, Eshe?”

  “Those employees slowed me down,” I said, “I’m at the checkpoint before the entrance.”

  “We’re still fine,” Christina said, “I’m heading to my next access.”

  The waiting felt interminable. I could hear the soft whirring of the UGV from somewhere down the hall. My gaze darted around, looking at all the cameras, hoping the blind spots the AKs found held true. Goodwin’s procession had gone to the second floor of the building, talking to some interns.

  “Ok, I’m there,” Christina said, “I have to change over the video cycle.”

  I clenched my jaw, listening to my breath. The halls stood silent, even the whirring of the UGV no longer accompanying me. My legs tensed, ready to run at a moment’s notice. But the signal never came.

  “Is something wrong?” I asked silently.

  “Hold on,” Christina said.

  “What’s going on?” I asked.

  “Okay, go,” Christina said, “I put the code in. Just go right into the server farm. Laura, hit the override.”

  I took off down the perpendicular hallway, seeing the final parallel a few paces ahead.

  “Laura?” Christina said, “the counter’s going down…you gotta hit the override.”

  No answer.

  The three-minute countdown remained on my display. I got to the last parallel, turning right and seeing a guard facing the other way. I skidded to a stop, stumbling, the guard hearing me and turning around.

  “What the hell?” she said, looking to me in surprise.

  I turned and ran back into the adjoining hallway, hearing her footsteps behind me. From the next parallel a UGV skidded out around the corner, the squat little box on wheels trying to get in my way. I jumped over it, turning into the second parallel, putting my back up against the wall.