“Who’s there?” the guard shouted, her footsteps cautiously approaching.
“What do I do?” I asked.
“Get to the server room, quick,” Christina said, “Laura’s not responding.”
I grit my teeth, running back out into the perpendicular hallway. The guard looked at me wide eyed as I charged toward her. She fumbled for a pistol on her holster. The UGV accelerated toward me. I bent down and scooped it up, the muscles in my back protesting in pain at the surprisingly heavy contraption. I lobbed it toward the guard. She dodged out of the way, but the pistol fell from her hands. She cried out as I threw my shoulder into her, both of us toppling to the ground.
Clenching my teeth, I worked through the pain of my strained back. She brought a knee up into my groin, just missing anything too vulnerable. I pushed myself off her, grasping for the pistol, but the woman threw herself onto my legs. I fell sprawling, pain shooting through my back.
The guard crawled up onto me, pinning me to the ground, reaching over my shoulder toward the weapon. I used every ounce of effort to flip over, throwing her off of me. She grabbed my right wrist, throwing her calves over my chest, getting me in an arm bar, pulling back and hyperextending my elbow.
I groaned in effort and pain, trying frantically to free my arm. I looked to the pistol again, seeing my left arm already reaching for it. But I wasn’t the one doing it.
Split brain.
The tips of my fingers touched the pistol. The woman doubled down on her efforts. My elbow popped. I tossed my weight toward the pistol, left hand dragging it closer, but losing grip. The guard screamed with effort, throwing her weight on my arm, another popping sound coming from my elbow. My left hand snaked around the pistol grip, lifting it, bringing it over and aiming it at the guard. She loosened her grip, putting her hands up.
I rolled away, my left hand pointing the weapon at her again. My right arm pulsed with pain. I tried bending the elbow, the hyperextended tendons and ligaments slow and weak.
I couldn’t stop my left hand if I tried.
I took a step towards the guard as she sat on the ground, hands up. A jolt of pain in my back caused me to stagger, a gunshot going off. The woman cried out, but she wasn’t hit. I shambled forward, walking past her, slowly raising my right arm and letting it fall onto the pistol, but my grip was weak. My left hand freed itself, this time raising the pistol to my own head, but signaling behind me with it. It was clear what my right hemisphere was saying.
Either you let me kill her, or I kill both of us.
“We’ll come back to life,” I said, “she won’t.”
“W-what?” the guard pleaded.
I kept my back to her, the pistol pointed at my head. My right hemisphere couldn’t talk back, but I knew what its counter argument would be. The timer was under a minute now. If I died, the whole mission would be a failure. Laura and Christina and everyone else would be caught.
“You’re a piece of shit,” I said, slowly turning around.
The woman still sat on the ground, looking over her shoulder at me in confusion as my left hand took the barrel from my head and pointed it at her.
“Please,” she sobbed, “my mom is sick and I have to-”
She didn’t have time to finish before the pistol fired, her head whipping forward, blood spraying from her throat onto the floor in front of her. She grasped frantically at the neck wound, blood gushing over her uniform. After a few seconds, her body slumped to the side, falling limply onto the floor.
I didn’t take the time to ponder the reason of my right hemisphere’s meaningless brutality. The pistol stayed at my side as I ran down the hall, walking through the door into the server farm, feeling the cold air and seeing the rows and rows of servers on shelves.
“Where’s the port?” I asked, seeing the timer at seventeen seconds.
“There should be a desk to your left,” Christina said, “with a user terminal.”
I headed left, but couldn’t see anything. The stacks of servers passed by on my right. Pain surged through my elbow. And I couldn’t help but notice the pistol my left continued clinging onto.
At the end of the room I spotted a user terminal behind a stack of servers. I limped over to it, my right arm slowly removing the drive from my pocket, gritting my teeth through the pain. My left did nothing to hinder me, but it wasn’t helping, either.
It knows I might need the weapon to get out of here…if I even do get out of here.
I raised the drive to the port and-
I grabbed for the pistol, its familiar grip just out of reach. The woman roared with effort, her legs pushing down on my chest.
You’re not stopping me that easily, you stupid bitch.
I could feel the weapon on the tips of my fingers.
Almost there…well, shit. Looks like I’m in split brain, but this sad sack of a left hemisphere is actually going to help.
We’ll see how good you scream when hot metal is tearing through your flesh, you ugly cunt.
A shiver ran through my spine feeling the pistol slid into my hand, as if that was exactly where it belonged since it was manufactured.
No more fight left in her, it seems. What a shame. It’s always so much more satisfying when you can see the dred in their eyes when they realize all of their effort was for nothing.
Looks like lefty isn’t going to be stopping me any time soon. Why he even bothers trying is-
Motherfucker, that hurt. Might as well take my time, anyway. I don’t get to come out and play all that often.
Where the hell do you think you’re going, you good-for-nothing sack of shit? You think you can stop me? Look how fucking weak you are. I’m the one in control right now.
And now I can free myself any time I want. You just fucking wait until I have a body of my own. I’m getting you back for every stupid bullshit thing you have ever put me through.
I will make your life a living hell. Multiple lives.
Trying to negotiate now, are we? I guess I really am in control.
I can’t fucking talk back to you, you fucking retard. Is a gun pointed at your head too fucking subtle? Am I not clear enough?
You better hurry if you want to complete your precious mission. Not that I care what happens. We’ll be in our cozy little unified mind by the time we suffer the consequences of this little field trip.
Cram it up your ass, lover boy.
This is so satisfying. Even better than just killing this bitch. I get to be here while my left hemisphere is powerless to stop me. This is better than sticking my cock into Laura’s virgin cunt.
Oh, yes. Please keep begging.
My finger squeezed the trigger slowly, recoil throwing my hand back with satisfying force.
Trigger squeeze, flesh explodes.
It’s even better when they don’t die right away.
If only there was some way I could merge my brain with hers right now. Some way I could witness the absolute horror that must be going through her head in those last few precious moments of life before nothingness swallows her up.
There is something almost…erotic, thinking about this rich consciousness going from a fully realized existence and becoming nothing. Matter and energy cannot be destroyed. You can pulverize a rock into fine powder, the its mass remains the same. Energy is transformed from one form to another.
But consciousness, that ‘substance’ from which all experience springs forth, can be eliminated. No longer does it exist, nor will it ever exist again. This thing, this unique thing that can’t be replicated, recreated, or extracted, becoming nothing in the blink of an eye.
And I have full and complete control over it. How does this not interest my left hemisphere at all? He pisses and moans about loneliness all fucking day long, but he will always be alone.
Because the consciousness of a mortal human is temporary. A substance whose only fate is that it will cease to exist, like it was never there to begin with. Once again unifying with oblivion the way my mind unifies wi
th this left hemisphere.
Looks like old lefty here might actually succeed. Bravo. I would like to give you a round of applause, but-
“Fuck!” I shouted as the world came melting back together.
I heard Christina’s voice, but it only added to the swirl of jumbled thoughts. After a few moments, clarity began to return. And with it a sense of dread, seeing the countdown at three seconds, the drive still clutched in my hand.
“I’m shutting it down before the alarm goes,” Christina said, “get the fuck outta there.”
A wave of dizziness swept over me as I lurched forward, sweat beading on my forehead. My fingers fumbled. I moaned, seeing the timer tick to one.
The drive slid into the port. The timer stopped at one second.
“It’s in,” I rasped aloud, “the hack is in.”
“Um…something bad’s about to happen…” Christina said.
“I haven’t released the deep fakes yet,” I said, “did you already shut the GPN down?”
“It’s not that…”
“Was I too late?”
“No,” she said, “Goodwin’s in the conference room with all the big-wigs. So’s Laura. And she has a gun.”
Chapter 41
I didn’t bother dodging around security cameras as I made my way back through the basement. Hands trembling, I pulled the trigger out the pocket on the inside of my jacket.
The hack was already transmitting data to my server back in the LoC. Most likely to Kali’s people and whoever Christina added as well. I still needed to hurry to do the next part of the plan before…
I picked up the dead guard’s pistol on the way out, fiving only a quick glance at her blood-soaked corpse as I went past.
My AR display showed the live news coverage of what was going on in the conference room where negotiations were taking place. Sure enough, Laura was in there holding a pistol down at her side. But she was behind the crowd watching Goodwin shake hands with all the dignitaries. Nobody seemed to notice yet.
That stupid bitch is going to ruin everything for her ‘revenge.’
I arrived at the stairway door. Knowing already that it was locked, I didn’t hesitate to shoot the deadbolt twice before tearing the door open. As I hurried up the stairway, I pressed the button on my trigger, activating it.
“Christina,” I said aloud.
No answer.
Luckily, I could still see the map of the Director’s mansion she gave me. The conference room was on the second floor. I kept going past the ground floor. But peering through the small, circular window, I spotted guards coming into the atrium, weapons ready.
Those aren’t CSA police, though…they’re Lind’s people. Benecorp.
I went even faster, taking the steps two at a time. Muffled shouts sounded through the ground level doors behind me. I rounded a switchback, making my way up to the second story door. I readied the pistol, but just as I arrived, the door opened.
“Eshe!” Darren whispered.
“Get out,” I said, “get out before they capture you.”
I got through the door and saw it was already too late. One of the CSA Secret Service agents had Darren’s hands cuffed, a pistol drawn, aimed at the floor. Without a second thought, I raised my weapon and fired, the bang echoing through the halls. Darren yelped, falling to his knees as the agent collapsed backwards.
“Search him for the key,” I said, “and get out.”
“W-w-w…” Darren stammered as I shuffled on his knees over to the dead agent.
On my news feed, I could see commotion in the conference room. Guards scrambled about, getting in front of everyone. They’d heard my gunshot.
I marched down the hall, feeling the trigger become damp in my sweaty hand. Another gunshot rang out. I looked to my left hand. I still controlled it. Focusing back on the news feed I could see what happened. Secret Service agents tackled Laura to the ground right beside the corpse of Sovereign CEO Hugo Fischer. Panicked journalists stampeded toward the conference room door, barely being held back by the secret service agents.
I was close enough I could hear their frightened cries from down the hall.
I sprinted, rounding a corner, finding the door at the end of the hallway. Two secret service agents standing outside the door spotted me. I dodged into an office as the shouted for me to halt. Footsteps clapped on the floor as they trotted toward me. I aimed my pistol at the office doorway, waiting for them to-
A deafening crash tore through the building. I instinctively fell to my stomach, covering my head. I opened an eye, seeing chunks of debris tumbl through the hallway, away from the conference room. More shouting. Shrieks of fear. Cries of pain.
I glanced at the news feed display. I couldn’t see anything but billowing dust. I crawled my way to the door and peered around the corner. The two Secret Service agents were running into the smoking conference room. I jumped to my feet, out into the hall, and ran toward the hazy opening.
“Christina!” I rasped, coughing as I shouldered my way through fleeing journalists and assistants.
No answer.
Stepping into the room, the dust beginning to settle, I found a scene of utter chaos. The far end was destroyed. A hole in the wall went out into open air. The conference table was splintered and tossed against the wall. Blood and body parts spattered the ceiling, floor, and far walls. Wounded dignitaries cried out for help, crawling away from the blast.
“Laura!” I shouted, trotting over toward her.
She pulled herself up, knocking dust from her suit. I grabbed her head, raising her face to look at me.
“Are you hurt?”
She shook her head and pointed at a bloody, dust-covered body on the floor. Eduard Winkler.
“He took the blast for me,” she said, “guess I won’t be getting that second bionic arm just yet.”
“What the fuck happened?”
“Goodwin,” she said, “he had a suicide bomb vest.”
“Wait…huh?” I shook my head, “where are the Chinese? Are they still here?”
She signaled to where a few bodies lay on the ground several feet away. I let her go and bounded over to them. Ducking down, I started shaking bodies, seeing if any were still alive. The president was dead, a giant splinter of table going up through his chin into his skull. I went through three members of the NPC before getting to the foreign minister. When I shook him he coughed, opening his eyes.
“Minister Guanyu,” I said in Mandarin.
His eyes met mine, but he said nothing, jaw quivering, body shaking.
“Minister Guanyu,” I said more forcefully.
“Wh-who-who are y-you?” he stammered.
“That doesn’t matter,” I said, “right now, all you need to know is that I am going to take down your entire goddamn regime unless you release Imelda to the Indian government.”
“I-I-I d-d-don’t know w-what you’re t-t-talking ab-b-bout…”
“The Filipino girl,” I said through grit teeth, “Imelda. Put in the call to release her to the Indian government or I’m taking down the Chinese government. You’ll have an insurrection on your hands unless you do what I ask.”
I whipped my head around at the sound of pained howling behind me. Laura had her foot up on Winkler’s thigh, pressing down on a wound, a sinister grin on her face. Shouting sounded in the hallway. The Benecorp people.
I looked back down at the Chinese Foreign Minister, blood drying in the dust covering his face.
Goddamit! He’s in shock. Even if he knows what the hell I’m talking about, his mind is fucked.
I looked up, scanning around the devastated room. The shouting guards drew closer.
“Laura,” I said, “we have to jump through that hole in the wall and get out of here.”
I looked back, seeing her still torturing the Sovereign executive. She wasn’t paying any attention. I turned around, running over and grabbing her.
“Come on,” I said.
“We need to take him,” she didn�
��t take her eyes off Winkler.
“We don’t have time,” I said, pulling on her bionic arm, “we have to go.”
She kept her gaze on the squirming man as I pulled her through the decimated conference room. Shouts demanding us to halt came from the doorway. I sprinted, pulling Laura with me. My foot caught on some wreckage, causing me sto stumble. A gunshot went off. Laura’s.
I fell to the floor, pain bolting through my wrist as I caught myself. My face came down right by a corpse with a gaping wound in the throat that had ceased to bleed. The lifeless eyes stared up at nothing, one reddened from burst blood vessels. Calvin Lind. He was dead.
“Laura…” I whispered, turning over onto my back.
Too late. We were surrounded by Benecorp guards, weapons trained on us. I put my hands up, letting my pistol fall to the floor, a guard kicking it away. I also let the trigger fall from my hand, clattering to the floor next to my head, seeing the thirty second timer start on my AR displays.
Nothing I can do about it now…
Chapter 42
I sat cuffed and chained to a bench. Benecorp’s guards had taken Laura and I from the Director’s mansion, marching us past the army of CSA police outside to an unmarked transport vehicle. A part of had wanted to shout to the CSA police and ask why they were allowing Benecorp to take us. Instead, I watched as they ignored us, piling into the mansion to take control of the crime scene. Besides, I was pretty sure I knew the answer. They knew who we were. They might have known who we were since we stepped foot on CSA territory.
Apparently, nobody knew Goodwin was going to suicide bomb the GPFTA negotiations, though. I couldn’t help but think Kali did. Indeed, that it was Kali’s plan the whole time. And that aside from bringing Laura to distract me, she likely showed up to make sure Goodwin was still going to go through with it.
Now I sat in the guard’s room somewhere around the fifteenth floor of Benecorp’s Atlanta offices. My muscles ached from all my exertion as I waited without seeing anyone, only barely audible voices coming through the closed door. I shouted out a few times, trying to get someone to come in, but the only thing greeting me was more waiting.
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