Cyber Witch

by Eddie R. Hicks

  “Theo, get us to the Yoshida towers now!”

  Theo sped away, making their van become part of the LA traffic, plowing through the maze of ramps and freeway lanes. After six minutes, the downtown core of Los Angeles dominated the forward windshield, and another sixteen minutes after that, things grew dark when the shadows of the skyscrapers darkened the streets below.

  Piper called out to Estrella, she faced her briskly. In Piper’s hand were spare nanotubes pulled from the inside of Piper’s arm. “If I give you these, promise me you won’t try to kill me, love?”

  Estrella was with three weaponized IWs, and one of them was augmented with tech that amplified her powers.

  Attack Piper and her gang? No, she wouldn’t do that. That was just asking for trouble.

  Forty

  Ray

  “What’s that noise?”

  Ashford grimaced, standing up from his chair. He moved to the exit of the waiting room, opening the door slowly. Beyond stood the three armed men who escorted Ray from the rooftops. Ray heard Ashford whisper something to them, something about checking it out. Three thumping boots dispersed when the order was given.

  Rumbling shook the foundation of the building. It had everyone on edge, Ray too. He had serious doubts the LAPD was storming in to save him, not while he was on corporate property. Another rumble and surge of worrying thoughts hit. Whoever was causing it had hostile intentions to Yoshida and Ray.

  The third shake of the building nearly threw Ray off the couch.

  Fire alarms blared and panicking feet left offices and cubicles. Portia helped Ashford to his feet, using her hands that sprung to life with white light. Her telepathic powers were at work.

  “We have to go,” she said to him. “Right now!”

  She dragged him by the arm to the exit. He opted to reach for Ray like he wanted to grab him and put him in his pocket. “We can’t leave, Mr. Partington!”

  “Call for a team to secure him.” She had him near the exit in two seconds flat. “The two of us can’t be here now, trust me on this!”

  They vanished beyond the door, joining with the fleeing office staff. Ray stood up to do the same. Two armed security personnel had other plans. Their combat-gloved hands pushed Ray back. The unit to secure him was quick.

  They weren’t quick to escape from their death.

  The walls crumbled. Explosions and their violent blasts flung Ray to the floor. The body of the first guard spun around. It was his last act in life before his body turned to bits of bones, arms, legs, and flesh plastering the floor, ceiling, and the debris of the walls. A white line of light hit his partner. Blood and gore sprayed everywhere. It looked like a monster ate the two men and then vomited up their remains.

  Screaming erupted. Ray wasn’t sure from where at that point as he hid behind the couch. He felt the building shake again, smelled smoke, and then heard another explosion. Half the ceiling above him came down and around him. When the dust had cleared, and the deceased remained idle, Ray peeked from his cover.

  Something totaled the waiting room and most of the offices on the floor. Ray left the room and tracked across the debris into the hall. Ahead was a gaping hole in the wall, it looked like a bomb went off. Wind rustled the hair of the dead office staff that didn’t make it to the emergency exit fast enough.

  Ray stood at the massive hole. He tried not to look down. He was about a hundred and fifty stories up, give or take five stories. Heatwaves blurred his view of the Los Angeles skyline, as the winds picked up in speed. No, they weren’t winds. Something was generating whatever it was that made his hair, shirt, and pants wave.

  A gunship with the logo of the LAPD lowered into view. It hovered outside next to the gap. Its targeting scans shined dotted laser light across Ray’s face, its smoking hot Gatling guns, and primed missile launcher were ready for action. It was a ship used by SWAT.

  This was the cause of the blasts. Why would the LAPD do this, he wondered?

  LAPD, it wasn’t them. It had to be the Federation. They hijacked this SWAT vehicle. It was the only logical explanation. Whatever it was Arianna put in his head, they wanted it bad, Yoshida wanted it bad. Everyone that wanted it was ready and willing to kill to get it, and it seemed they were getting desperate. They might’ve reached a breaking point if they stole a SWAT gunship. Or maybe the Federation really doesn’t want Yoshida to know what’s in Ray’s head.

  Either way, standing at the massive hole in the wall, while a gunship acquired Ray as a target, was a fucking terrible idea.

  “Oh, shit!” was Ray’s parting words before he ran.

  He nearly tripped over a body missing its lower half and gushing blood. Ray wanted to vomit when he saw their intestines dangle in the draft caused by the gunship.

  The gunship followed him from outside. They fired no bullets. They still needed Ray’s head in one piece, and the rounds the gunship had already fired showed it had the power to rip a human to pieces with multiple shots.

  An elevator door came into view amidst the smoke and flames. Massive bullets fired from the gunship shot ahead of Ray’s path, destroying everything it touched. By the time the barrage was over, the floor ahead of Ray was gone. A three-story drop and a lot of mangled rubble awaited him below. And that was the good news. The bad news was that there wasn’t much of an elevator left when he looked at it.

  Ray had to find another way out, and it had to be deep within the floor he was on, behind as many walls as he could put between him and the ship. As long as it could scan his presence via the windows or gaping holes, it would taunt him, forcing him to stay put until they took him.

  He heard crying from the maze of cubicles he ran past. Not everyone was killed. He wanted to stick around and help, but the office workers were in danger because of his existence. The sooner he left, the sooner the Federation would leave. He pushed deeper into the floor. The gunship tracked him until there were too many walls, blocking all scans.

  Ray was inside some executive office, safe for now. Fear made him shut and lock the door. On the desk was a computer, its screen was still active. The user that fled didn’t log out and said user had high admin privileges. Ray typed frantically on the keyboard, forcing the screen to display surveillance footage from the cameras that were still operational.

  He found the medivac ship he rode in on, idling on the rooftop. The crew didn’t leave, but judging by their panicking movements, they were preparing to take off soon. Typical corporate medical personnel. People were dying and could have used a ride out to the hospital, and the medivac crew was making plans to take off because it wasn’t in the contract to stick around. And sticking around was exactly what Ray needed them to do, at least for another five minutes as he made his way back up. That medivac brought him here, and he was going to make them bring him out.

  He found an intact elevator linking with the rooftops. It wasn’t far from the office he hid in too. Ray moved out, slowly unlocking the door, and slipping out into the cubicle-filled workplace. He was glad he did it slowly. To his left were the Federation black op operatives with assault rifles in their glowing hands. They were primed and ready to use their powers.

  Ray saw a glimpse of the gunship when he peeked around the corner, keeping low from the patrolling IWs. It hovered beside one of the many holes in the walls and shattered windows, its side door flipped opened, releasing hordes of operatives inside, onto the floor. Ray’s journey to the elevator had to be quick and silent.

  A turn to the left nearly put him in the sights of two IW black ops members with their heads moving from left to right. Ray made a right, then a left, and then a left, the cubicle maze was longer than he thought. A holographic plant-covered him from behind, he hoped the power keeping it flickering didn’t cut.

  The elevator doors came into view, then slid open. His finger mashed the rooftop’s button eight times in two seconds. It seemed like an eternity for the doors to slide shut. It felt even longer for the ride up. It made Ray’s breathing erratic.
/>   He saw the medivac parked on the rooftop when the elevator doors opened. It didn’t leave, though its thrusters were blazing with blue light and heatwaves. Its door was still open. He ran to it, screaming and pleading for them to take him.

  “The fuck?” one paramedic yelled.

  Ray ran aboard. Freedom. They could take off now. They didn’t. He found out why the painful way with a wrench to the back of his head. Ray went down to the cold floor.

  “Get him out of here! We won’t get paid if he’s still with us.”

  Two men grabbed him, one for each arm. Ray saw the rooftop from the opened door. The paramedic stood ready to toss him out. Animal fear wasn’t having that. A newfound surge of strength empowered Ray’s arms. He fought off the grip of one man, using his newly freed hand to punch the one still holding him. He felt his knuckles crack from the blow. The pain didn’t register. Every sense in his body told him going back inside the tower would be the end.

  With both hands free, he strangled the closest man, digging his thumbs into their throat. He was grabbed from behind. A swift elbow from Ray got him loose from that. He found the wrench that clubbed him, picked it up, tossed it, and sent it spiraling into the face of a third paramedic that came for him. The third paramedic went flying back upon impact, knocking over a tray. Ray’s phones, glasses, and tablet littered the floor. He would need those. He went diving for them, quickly stuffing them into his pockets.

  Then he regretted it.

  The two men from behind jumped him, clobbered him senseless until his arms and legs went limp. He felt the pain this time. Ray came to, rolled his sore body to face the sky, and watched as the medivac took off, leaving him and everyone else stuck in the Yoshida tower behind. At least he got his stuff back.

  He beamed and leaped back to his feet while accessing his botnet. The medivac was a vulnerable object. And there was an app that would give him remote control of it, the same he used to remote control cars on the freeway not long ago.

  He stood waiting for the botnet to crack the medivac’s password.

  39%.

  68%

  98%

  He was almost there—

  Two missiles and an explosive blast turned the medivac into burning debris that tumbled and burned to the streets below. The hacking app on his phone beeped a connection lost error message to the medivac. Yeah, no shit.

  The gunship came into view and hovered eerily as it watched the remains of its target sprinkled down in flames. Its forward end turned to face Ray once again, aiming its red laser targeting equipment. Ray bolted for the elevator before it got any ideas.

  Now what?

  His hacking app connected with the internal network of the Yoshida towers. He used it to download various floor plans for the building. The main security room caught his attention. It was a perfect place to look before he leaped, something he needed to do with every step. As tempting as it was to ride the elevator to the ground floor, he had a feeling there’d be Federation IWs waiting to electrocute him with their powers. It was best to hack the surveillance systems first.

  Getting into the security center was easy, its doors unlocked with a push of a button on his phone. Inside was an octagonal room, empty except for screens covering every inch of wall space, and a central computer terminal. IWs occupied the lobby watching the primary entrance, and rows upon rows of unmoving elevators. Other floors, including the one he was on, had the black ops IWs searching for the lone hacker.

  Ray brute-forced his way into the main security computer. The screen ahead of him flashed a message informing users that a critical security threat had breached the building. When he clicked the ‘Okay’ button, a new prompt appeared on the screen. The vitals of all Yoshida security personnel in the building had flatlined. The computer asked Ray if he would like to activate the assault robots as a backup.

  Y/N?

  He typed Y.

  The assault robots sprung from their recharging alcoves. They looked like four-legged creatures sporting twin Gatling guns for hands. They were programmed to gun down anyone except those that were a registered employee of Yoshida, RW, or a family member. Luckily for Ray, Arianna listed his name as a significant other. He sighed, he missed her, IW or not. He had to find her, and he had to learn what her real motives were. Whatever it was she did, Yoshida forced it upon her, this he was certain.

  He hacked the assault robots programming, removing the ‘don’t kill RWs’ variable from its coding. According to Piper, Estrella couldn’t be trusted, and he was fairly certain Piper was dead by now. If she wasn’t, she’d be here to get him out of this mess by now—

  “Ray!”

  It was her voice, Arianna’s. Ray’s heart thumped rapidly. Arianna was here. Why? Does it even matter why? She won’t last long if the IWs get to her before the robots eliminate them. He went running to the door, unlocking it with his phone. Two assault robots accompanied him as protection.

  It gave him the confidence to call out her name. “Arianna!”

  It didn’t matter if the IWs heard him now, the assault robots would take care of them.

  “Ray!” she cried out. “Ray! Help me!”

  He let the sound of her voice guide him through the office halls. She glanced at him when he found her. Arianna’s flawless blue eyes were just the way he last saw them. His robot escort stood at his left and right. It made a frightened Arianna run away.

  He put out his hand. “Wait, stop moving!” he cried out and went chasing. “The robots are with me!” And wouldn’t attack you … why is she running?

  An uneasy feeling hit midway into his chase for her.

  “Ray, over here!”

  Ray ordered his robot bodyguards to remain as he followed Arianna through a collapsed wall, hoping they wouldn’t scare her off. He stepped into a chamber full of computers, and massive cables littering the ground. It was a trip hazard, and he had doubts Yoshida staff regularly worked here. And the more he glanced at the chamber, its eerie red lights, the more he didn’t recognize it from the floor map. According to the map he downloaded to his phone, the area they stood in should be empty space, reserved for future expansions. Yoshida made an expansion to the floor, and if he were to guess, didn’t bother telling their employees about it.

  He hacked one computer. The first images that appeared were biographies of telepathic IWs. It listed some as acquired, others listed as searching for, while a smaller list listed the names as found but not acquired. Avatar 33 was listed as acquired, though, it displayed her real name and profile, Portia Blanchard. Her sister, Vina Blanchard, was on the found but not acquired list.

  Ray took a step back from the screen. “Why the fuck would Yoshida have this?”

  Arianna laughed at him. He spun around facing her, shocked she was behind when he clearly didn’t see her in the room. He discovered why seconds later. Arianna’s form changed.

  She became an Asian man, with a long ponytail, laughing at Ray. Mental manipulation, Ray saw what the telepathic man wanted him to see, and it was the same strange man he witnessed during the attack at JFK. The man’s hand glowed white, then rolled into a fist. Ray felt his body forced to his knees. He couldn’t move. Someone else was controlling his mind.

  The man brandished a katana from its rest at his side. The blade shined with indigo light, a nanite katana.

  “Raise your chin, Ray,” the man said. “I just need your head, and nothing else. So, let’s make this nice and clean, eh?”

  Ray lifted his chin for the man. He had to because the man said so.

  Forty-One

  Estrella

  Theo parked the van in front of a no-parking sign. Nobody cared. Estrella and Piper sprung from the van’s rear door first. Theo and Bashiir followed behind. The four of them wielded assault rifles that were hidden under tarps in the van, and that was only half of their arsenal. Twin pistols were holstered to Estrella’s body, still wearing the red bike suit. She wasn’t sure of the extra heat Bashiir and Theo were packing but imagined it t
o be similar to Piper, like the twin SMGs dangling behind her lace robe coat as it fluttered in her wake.

  The four marched across the street. The Yoshida Corporation’s central lobby was ahead, and above that, the chaos that ripped apart a bunch of floors on one of the three towers, a hovering gunship, now deploying quadcopter drones.

  Estrella grimaced while looking up. “That explains why the SWAT armory was attacked,” she said. “And why the ship disappeared; the Federation IWs hijacked it.”

  The remains of walls and glass ruined the garden below the tower. It was a shame too since it was a real garden, not some fake holographic one.

  Estrella didn’t see or hear any emergency vehicles. Between LAX, the freeway and now this, the LAPD, fire department, and paramedics had their hands full. They’ll be there soon, but not soon enough. That’s where Estrella and her new associates came in.

  Up the concrete steps and into the lobby the four went. It was a mess. Before the destructive makeover, the lobby had polished black tiles and wide pillars keeping the high ceiling up in place. A glossy reception counter was ahead, and behind that were halls that took you to three distinct chambers, and in those were the elevators servicing the three other towers. Today? It was full of broken glass from the windows and doors up front, bullet holes put mean cracks in the black pillars. Estrella didn’t see anyone at the welcome desk asking what the four were doing there.

  Five dead Yoshida security personnel had to be stepped over when the four moved forward with caution. Four assault rifles had their safeties taken off when they came out. Bullets busted back and forth further up. Then came electrokinesis balls. Then came searing jets of flames. IWs were fighting someone. The four kept moving, crunching the glass and debris below their feet.