Modified Horizon

by Ran Vant

  He staggered to the cross street which was filled with people heading home from work and turned around to see if anyone was following him. The street behind him was empty. He had made it.

  The Doctor merged into the flow of people. He began to feel some of his strength returning. Forget his “assignment,” he needed to get back underground. He needed to have a talk with... her.

  He was still a little unstable on his feet, and bystanders might have mistook him for being inebriated. Swaying side to side, he occasionally clipped another person walking by. But he was certain now: he was getting stronger. The biodefense-watch had worked its magic. He would survive. Half a block down, a woman suddenly stepped out of a doorway into his path, and he bumped into her hard. “My apologies,” he offered as she slid by him without a word. He stumbled on a few steps more before he felt a warm moistness on his shirt. He looked down and saw the growing spot of dark red on his shirt.

  “They’ve killed me after all,” the good Doctor Psycho thought as he fell dead in the middle of the crowded sidewalk.

  81.

  New Connections

  Damien's eyes opened. Suddenly, like a switch had been thrown, he was completely aware. He felt more aware than perhaps ever before. But something was different. He was leaning against a flat surface, almost vertical, but with his back taking some of the weight of his body.

  “Hello, Damien,” Niles said.

  “Did we get it?”

  “No, Damien, not yet. The Greendust is not yet ours. Something went wrong, but we do not want you to worry. Everything will be fixed. We can repair you quite easily.”

  “Repair me?” Damien looked down and instead of hands with skin he saw synthetic gray. He squeezed his hands into fists. They did not feel very different than the hands he knew before. The grip was firmer, the feeling more... remote. But still, hands.

  “The mechanical limbs are only temporary. You will get new flesh and bone soon. We've already started growing them.”

  Damien stood and flexed his arms and moved his elbows back. As he did so, he could feel the synthetic muscles ripple across his back. He could feel the power in them. Damien stepped forward and only then noticed his legs were not his own. He lifted one leg, bent the knee, and repeated with the other leg. They felt good. Natural. Like he was twenty years younger. No. Better than natural. Like they had always meant to be part of him.

  “How long until my new limbs are ready?”

  “A few weeks, perhaps,” Niles responded. Niles knew most of them didn’t go back once they saw what was possible. It was one thing to have your arms and have to take proactive action to give them up for something more; it was quite another to have them ripped away and then to experience the power of cybernetics at the moment when you feared you had lost something forever against your will. What was true for arms and legs was true for other things as well.

  Damien was surprised at how easily he accepted it. He would not have guessed that he would so readily adjust to the loss of his natural limbs, to becoming partly a... a machine. It did not seem to bother him in the least.

  “But before your limbs are ready, we have another task to complete. We need you to get the Greendust.”

  “I nearly died trying that,” Damien noted as he curled his arm and marveled at his new hand. “It's too late. Now the Greendust will certainly be moved. The NHA won't be stupid enough to leave it there in the vault. I am certain the Greendust is gone and I don't know where it is anymore.”

  “It is true that we don't know where it is now. But we know something even more valuable. We know where the Greendust is going to be and when it will be there. And that is when you'll grab it.”

  “Are you certain you know where it will be?” Of course Damien knew Niles was certain. He merely wanted to know how it was that Niles was so certain.

  “We have seen the very plans for moving it. We could draw the conclusion after piecing together logistical planning data from the Natural Human Alliance's systems. They tried to make the transport of the Greendust look innocuous, but thanks to you we know it is indeed Greendust and we know where it was initially located. Without that information, we would have missed it. But with it, we have enough to figure out the rest. They cannot just casually destroy it. We happen to know the one you call Red will be moving the material to a special incinerator. It's listed as industrial waste, but it can only be the Greendust. It is the only logical conclusion.”

  “I will get the Greendust.” Damien didn't know why he was so confident about it, but he knew he would. It almost seemed as if he already had it planned out. Just like his new legs, it seemed it was destiny. He would get it. Nothing could stop him. Still, Damien felt the need to know more. “Why me? The Network has many who could grab it.”

  “We thought you'd like to see your work completed.”

  Damien knew Niles was right. Niles knew Damien's mind better than Damien did.

  82.

  Remote

  The spiderlyn was back. Michael was tied down again. His escape attempt had failed, though he did not know why. One moment he was running down the hall, away from the guards, past Maren, and the next moment he awoke in a new cell, with the ropes again.

  The prospect of escape now seemed remote. And after days of captivity, Fortress Magritte's ever-watching scanners had not found him. Michael Lightbringer's confidence wobbled.

  He had seen many important things. What if Rex never had the chance to learn of them?

  Michael realized he had not had Magritte’s cerebral scan for weeks. All of the information he had seen was only in his head. If something should happen to him, it would be lost forever. As this dawned on him, he suddenly felt more cautious. His normal approach to conflict, that of dealing with the issue head on, was no longer optimal given this new constraint. Now, there was a new imperative. He must survive.

  83.

  Where's Damien?

  Felix showed up at the rendezvous point exactly on time. He had only half expected Damien, but nevertheless lied when it was Niles who emerged into the light. Lying was a necessary part of Red's life.

  “I thought Damien would be the one to show up,” Red said. Now that he saw it was Niles who greeted him, he knew how the blood tests would come back from the vault.

  “Damien is occupied testing some new equipment. Besides, we thought it would be good to talk one last time face to face,” the scarred one said.

  “Very well. The purpose of this meeting is quite simple,” Red said. “All I need to know is that everything is on schedule and that everything will be in place. Time is very short now.”

  “But Damien is sending you his Class O reports, isn't he?” Niles said, referring to what were the supposedly secret reports and technical plans that Damien covertly transmitted to the NHA when he had a chance.

  Red wasn't fazed in the least. “If it was just a matter of reports and plans, the Organization could have sent anyone.”

  “Yes, we understand. Damien is quite brilliant. Better than we expected, to be honest. Almost worthy of joining the Network. We were surprised you lent him to us.”

  “Only because I need someone I can trust and who knows what he is doing when it comes to evaluating weapons systems. Now, enough with the games. I need to know the status of the asset placement.”

  “Colonel Red, we will work toward the goal,” Niles responded.

  Felix continued as if the non-answer hadn't been uttered. “I need to know that everything is going to be in place. You know as well as I that we get one chance at this. So, I need a straight answer, a ‘yes’ or a ‘no.' Will it be in place by mission hour?”

  “Yes, all of it will be in place, at all of the stations, by the required time. However, we will not risk exposure of our manufacturing facilities unnecessarily or prematurely by pre-positioning everything when we are not even sure if your plan will succeed or if your source can truly be trusted.”

  “I intend to stop this Event.”

  “We know, Colonel Red.
Yet we don't agree with you entirely. If you don’t succeed, we will have one more chance. Then it will finally be our turn to stop it.”

  That’s what I’m afraid of, Felix thought.

  84.

  Achievement

  One truck, with one vehicle following as security: that was the plan. After all, they were only dropping off industrial waste. But Vijay didn't buy it for a moment. Regular old industrial waste didn't need six guards. A couple, maybe, but six? Come on. There was no way it was just a mission to move toxic junk from the warehouse to the incinerator.

  Vijay understood maintaining a low profile, but he didn't understand when the captain didn't level with his soldiers. They weren't stupid. What was so precious about the stuff in the back of that truck that they couldn't know what it was? When Vijay advanced through the ranks, he would remember that. His men and women would always know why they risked their lives.

  Vijay checked over his ballistic slinger. It was kind of pathetic: they weren't even issued a decent rail gun for the escort mission. An old bullet slinger still had its place. Bullets worked well enough against Fanatics or any other human. As long as they didn't run into guardians, robots, or machines, they'd be fine. And maybe that was why the captain issued slingers. The gargoyles would be less likely to pay attention if they knew the team was outfitted for trud on trud combat. The gargs would figure it was just some petty squabbling among the primitives and leave them alone, because what crazy trud would think ballistic slingers could protect jack squat from a gen?

  Vijay cracked a little smile. Maybe it was brilliant: ballistic slingers as a kind of camouflage against the gens. In a way, they'd be hiding in plain sight. They weren't trying to look innocent. They were just trying to look like a bad guy the gens didn't care about. Vijay thought it was a pretty clever approach.

  Then Vijay looked over at the captain. The captain was picking something out of his teeth, studying it, and then digging around his gums to go after another chunk of nastiness. The captain wasn't so much as glancing at any of the scanners, looking out the window, or otherwise paying attention to a single thing inside or outside the vehicle. The captain was in his mouth and, maybe, in his head, if Vijay was going to be charitable. The captain removed his fingers from his mouth, yawned, and threw his head back as if he were the most bored person on the planet.

  Yep, Vijay was giving the captain too much credit. The captain was an idiot. Slingers were not camouflage. It was a secret mission on the cheap or, more likely, though he hated to admit it, it was a mission with little forethought whatsoever.

  Vijay went back to studying his sector. At least nobody was going to sneak up on them from the rear left.

  **

  Fantima steadied the pulse cannon on her shoulder, staring down the sight at the vehicle.

  “Now,” ordered Zhe.

  She pressed the arming button with her left hand forward on the pulse tube and gently squeezed the trigger with her right index finger.

  **

  All of the monitor lights went out. Vijay's hair stood on end.

  “We've been hit with a pulse,” he said, pointing out the obvious for the benefit of the captain. Vijay flipped off the safety and prepared to exit the vehicle as it ground to a halt.

  **

  The transport truck pulled farther ahead of the trailing security vehicle.

  “That's enough distance,” Zhe commented. “Hit the truck, too.”

  Fantima steadily squeezed off another silent pulse, the lead truck's lights went black, and the engine sputtered to a halt.

  Damien rose behind Fantima, a heavy wooden spear in each hand.

  “Now, Damien,” Zhe said. “Remember the millions you will save by this action, and the sacrifice of the few.”

  Damien leapt from the building and ran smoothly on his mechanical legs towards the security vehicle. He was running faster than he had even run before; faster than any natural born unmodified human could in fact run.

  Fantima turned toward Zhe. “Aren't you going to order the rest of the assault team in?”

  “No, we are not,” Zhe replied. “Assuming Damien handles it, when it is finished, it will look like the Fanatics did it.”

  Why they wanted it to look like the work of Fanatics was beyond Fantima. If Zhe wasn't going to tell her why, she wouldn't know. It was as simple as that. Fantima wasn't part of the inner circle, not yet part of the One. She knew it. She accepted it. Fantima turned back to her scope to watch the unfolding events.

  **

  Vijay rolled out of the vehicle, slinger at the ready. He didn't take any fire immediately, though he knew the enemy was out there.

  **

  As Damien reached the vehicle, a security agent was emerging. Damien hurled one of his two heavy wooden spears, striking him in the chest. The agent collapsed to the ground.

  **

  Vijay heard what sounded like a 'thump.' A second later, he heard Lomonov's body fall to the pavement. In the quiet moment that followed, he strained his eyes to see in the darkness, weapon at the ready.

  Then he heard a brief scream, which he recognized. And he knew that the captain was also dead.

  Vijay turned and ran for the cover of a building. He turned his head behind to see what followed. When he turned back, he saw the wooden spear too late to stop, and impaled himself on it. He looked at the man who just ran him through: a middle-aged face stared back, unsmiling. Had he seen that face somewhere before? Holding on to the end of the wooden spear were two metallic arms. Vijay's eyes fell lower and he saw the mechanical legs. The cyborg pulled out the spear and as quickly as he had appeared, the cyborg was gone.

  Vijay lay on the ground. Why would an illegal cyborg attack a shipment of industrial waste and use a wooden spear, making it look like a Fanatic attack? Vijay half laughed. It was absurd. The world didn't make any sense. How had it come to pass that he would die like this?

  **

  Red studied the camera images. He hadn't expected that the escorts would be killed. Killing them wasn't necessary. Stun weapons would have been the obvious choice. They could have taken the Greendust another way, without the attention and complications involved with killing. Yet Felix's surprise was remote and intellectual. Perhaps viewing the images on the monitor allowed him the mental distance to remove himself from the blood, the screams, the humanity of it.

  He knew he was being cold, but soldiers died in wars. And in war there were many casualties, many of them accidental, many of them a mistake. These would not be the last to die for the cause. He wished it wasn't so, but that was the world he lived in. But Red was aware enough to recognize that he was being cold, like a machine, by using such logic and that there was something wrong in it. He was not innocent.

  He looked carefully at the grainy image again. It was possibly, maybe even probably, Damien. And that probability made him think of Niles stating that Damien would be testing some new equipment. If it wasn't Damien in that grainy image, Felix still knew who ultimately was responsible for taking the Greendust and where it would end up. Red shut off the screen, leaned back in his chair, and folded his hands behind his head, grimly satisfied.

  85.

  Critical

  “I’m sorry it’s been so long,” Eve said as she set her bag down on the couch.

  Every day now without him was like a day without a drug necessary for life. She could feel the energy draining from her each hour she was away. But the moment she walked in the door, when she saw that long gray lock of hair hanging over his forehead, after she had struggled through the hot subterranean tunnels, that moment felt like a jolt of electricity and energy. When she saw him, she felt newly alive. He understood her. She was not just some lowly soldier destined to take orders, but a real person, full of dreams, full of possibilities.

  “I am so glad you are finally back. I was getting worried. Why was it so hard to get away for a bit? Is it the project? The genbot? Is it still as you told me?” he asked. What else could keep her away?


  “They’ve had us locked up as a mission nears. I’m supposed to be a jail guard of sorts, but it’s seemed like I’m the one who is the prisoner.”

  “I, for one, am certainly glad you’re free again.”

  “At least for a little while. Just a couple of hours, really. That's all I can spare before it would be noticed that I'm missing this time. I have to report back tomorrow morning.”

  “So soon?”

  “The project is entering the critical stage. I was lucky to get the break that I did. Most aren’t even allowed to leave the secure unit. I twisted a few regulations, truth be told. Besides, nobody knows all the hidden ways out of the complex like I do.”

  “Oh, really?”

  “The truth is, I know lots of secrets,” she said, moving her finger slowly down his chest.

  “Oh do you?”

  “Yes, and I use those secrets to get my way.”

  **

  Eve placed her cheek on his broad chest, just above his heart. His heart was beating slowly, steadily. Hers was still racing. “Are you sure they’ll do it?”

  “Yes. None of the bad things have to happen anymore, I promise.”

  She wanted nothing more than to get away from it all, to leave it behind, to escape this life for a new one. Nobody had to hurt anymore.