Daemon

by Daniel Suarez

  Nothing but static came back.

  “Scheisse.” He turned to his men. “Fire at will!”

  Automatic gunfire erupted from a score of positions. The shots cracked flatly in the open air of the runway. Tracer rounds ripped across the tarmac, ricocheting off the concrete and whining into the sky.

  “Knock out the lead cars! The lead cars!”

  A light antitank rocket blasted from their lines in a pall of smoke and detonated against a mid-sized car at fifty yards, turning it into a tumbling ball of flame. A black domestic sedan swerved around the wreckage and came roaring onward. Half a dozen divots appeared in the black-tinted windshield at head level right in front of the driver’s seat, revealing a high degree of marksmanship. Then hundreds more bullets tore through its front grill. As its engine died another car surged past it, and as that one was riddled with bullets, yet another took its place. Already ten cars were smoking and rolling to a stop—but still more came on.

  The shooting died down as half the squad dropped clips and hurriedly reloaded.

  “Watch that left flank!”

  The lieutenant leaned around the guard shack just in time to see a car’s front grill—which was the last thing he ever saw.

  The car crashed into the fence line and concrete highway divider at 110 mph, disappearing into a cloud of concrete dust and debris as it tumbled end over end. It was immediately followed by three other sedans, crashing through the gate. Automatic weapons stitched them full of bullet holes from several directions. Shouting filled the gaps in the gunfire.

  But other cars had already blasted through the fence line elsewhere, dragging great serrated lengths of chain-link fencing behind them. These caught guards across the thighs, tearing their flesh and dragging them screaming, even as other guards blasted out windows and peppered car bodies with bullets from M249s with 200-round belts.

  Now they could plainly see the cars were unmanned.

  “Dit kan nie wees, nie!”

  “Fall back! Fall back!”

  A car crashed into the edge of the parking lot, while two others careened off each other and slammed into a scattering pack of guards with such force that the guards’ bodies hurtled twenty yards and landed in the bay, followed closely by the cars that hit them. The cars sent up geysers of water as they hit the surface.

  In the distance, more AutoM8s kept streaming through the gaps between warehouses.

  Merritt raced out into the gaming pit, Berretta drawn. Automatic gunfire crackled like popcorn somewhere outside. “Damnit…“

  Merritt slowed as he reached the still-smoking bodies of the strike teams sprawled between the workstations. He knelt to feel the pulse of the nearest one. Nothing.

  He scavenged an HK UMP .40-cal submachine gun with a web belt of extra clips and flash-bang grenades, then spoke into his headset microphone. “Merritt to Secom. What the hell’s going on out there? Over.”

  The Major talked into a radio headset. “Agent Merritt, we’re under attack. Stand by.”

  Inside the security control room, the sound of muffled automatic weapons fire was starting to be eclipsed by roaring engines and crashing. The Major watched the external monitors. One camera showed a head-on view of a driverless, bullet-riddled car nailing the camera pole, the screen filling with snow. “Why didn’t they sound the alarm?” He was having trouble comprehending it. “This isn’t a guerrilla raid—this is a frontal assault.”

  Ross examined the screens. “Computer-controlled vehicles. Dozens of them. The Factions call them AutoM8s.”

  The Major stared at the large central monitor on the control board—seemingly the only monitor not at present depicting mayhem.

  On-screen the intruder was busy moving his arms—manipulating invisible objects. He glanced up at the security camera. His voice came over the speaker. “I’ll let myself out.”

  Just then, some ten yards behind the intruder, the steel doors were staved in by a shredded mass of metal. The whole building shook with a dull thud, concrete dust sifting down through seams.

  The intruder barely flinched.

  The car that had smashed in the steel doors was now entirely blocking the exit. But then another unseen vehicle cut in from the side and ripped the first one out of the hole with a deafening crash.

  The opening was now clear.

  Merritt heard the first crash and saw sunlight streaming in from beyond the sealed ballistic doors. He loaded the UMP and by the second crash he was rushing toward the glass doors.

  Gragg emerged into the sunlight through the shattered opening of the main door.

  As he did so, a silver BMW 740 with blacked-out windows rolled up to meet him. Its rear door opened, and he slid inside, pulling the door closed behind him. The BMW screeched off toward the wrecked fence line, followed close on by a pack of domestic sedans.

  Merritt emerged from the dark, smoking doorway screaming, “Loki!” He stopped, clutched his UMP’s fore grip, and opened up with three short bursts, expertly tagging the tinted rear windshield with a dozen closely grouped shots. The .40-cal bullets left small divots but not much else. The car was obviously a security model.

  “Goddamnit!” Merritt lowered his gun and watched a sizeable pack of unmanned vehicles converge like a single organism, surrounding the BMW to shield it. They accelerated toward the distant fence line, running over several bodies in the process. The pack of cars was heading for the distant hangars at high speed.

  Merritt glanced around at the carnage surrounding Building Twenty-Nine. There were bodies, streaks of blood, burning vehicles, and debris littering the tarmac. Columns of black smoke billowed skyward. There wasn’t a guard in sight—or any intact unmanned vehicles for that matter. They had all left with Loki.

  Merritt spotted a racing motorcycle parked along the wall in the staff parking lot. He rushed over to it and searched for keys—nothing. He slung his UMP over his back and pulled his Berretta pistol, aiming it at the ignition lock. He turned his head away.

  Boom.

  Pieces of plastic and metal parts clattered across the pavement. Merritt holstered the Berretta, then mounted the bike. He turned the shattered lock cylinder to Start and kicked the engine to life, revving its powerful engine. He grabbed the helmet hanging from the handlebars and pulled it on. He flipped down the mirrored visor, and a moment later he screeched out after the pack of automated cars receding in the distance. He accelerated madly through the debris field and rocketed out onto the runway in hot pursuit. He could barely make out the silver BMW in the middle of the car pack, but he targeted it with every ounce of horsepower he had at his disposal. The bike engine howled.

  After buckling himself in, Gragg looked back toward Building Twenty-Nine.

  Directly over the building a bright red glowing sign towered in D-Space sixty stories tall, rotating like a neon sign and visible for miles around to anyone on the Daemon’s darknet. It proclaimed in giant letters with an arrow pointing down: Top-Secret Anti-Daemon Task Force. Gragg laughed, then raised one black-gloved hand. He drew another glowing red box across D-Space to encompass the entire facility. With a click of his pinky he brought up a pop-up menu, then selected Kill Everyone.

  Merritt’s motorcycle howled across the decommissioned runway. He leaned into a swerve at a hundred mph to avoid a pothole, but as he came out of it, he noticed a second wave of unmanned vehicles streaming in toward Building Twenty-Nine. Thirty vehicles, including a couple of white Econoline panel vans. A detachment of mid-sized domestic sedans peeled off from the main group and vectored in on Merritt.

  “Oh shit…”

  The sedans were almost on him—and still accelerating.

  Merritt’s youthful passion for fast motorcycles finally paid off. He thrust his body up and over the left side of the gas tank—expertly pulling into the hardest turn he could manage at high speed. Friction coefficients instinctively ran through his head and muscle memory took over.

  The first blue sedan screamed past on the right rear flank with a margin so
close the wind pounded into Merritt’s thigh.

  Merritt leaned right.

  Half a second later, two more sedans clipped each other just feet behind him. Hollow crashing sounds—as of rolling vehicles—boomed, then quickly faded behind him.

  The fourth one came so close it tore Merritt’s left rear turning light off. This left Merritt wavering and off balance. The motorcycle yawed from side to side for a few moments until he got it back under control. He was now highly aware that he wasn’t wearing riding gear.

  He looked up to see Loki’s pack of cars racing through the decommissioned base’s front gate. Merritt shot a glance behind him. Two cars were pursuing and closing fast. He yanked on the throttle, and raw acceleration nearly ripped him off the saddle.

  Merritt raced down a lane between hangars and keyed his radio. “Merritt to Secom. In pursuit of Loki. He’s headed…east…in an armored, silver late-model BMW. It’s surrounded by a pack of unmanned vehicles. More are headed your way.”

  The Major’s voice came in over the radio. “Agent Merritt, terminate this pursuit. Repeat: Terminate pursuit immediately.”

  Merritt emerged from between the hangars and saw Loki’s pack racing out into the city streets, smashing other traffic aside. “Negative. This guy’s a danger to the public.”

  “Repeat: Terminate this chase!”

  “I don’t report to you, Major! Until the bureau orders me otherwise, I’m going after this bastard. Out.”

  He accelerated out the abandoned front gates of Alameda Naval Air Station and hit the surface roads with a bounce.

  Gragg cinched the racing harness tighter around his body as the powerful BMW AutoM8 roared into the streets of Oakland.

  The unmanned steering wheel spun crazily as it went into a power slide around the corner. AutoM8s crowded Gragg’s car on either side, muscling other cars out of their way. His entourage was a pack of a dozen sedans. He saw their random, alphanumeric call-outs hovering in D-Space all around him.

  He concentrated further ahead—on the dozens more AutoM8s streaming in toward him from across the city. His strength was growing by the minute, now reaching upwards of a hundred vehicles.

  He waved his gloved hands and screeched cars across the mouths of distant intersections, sealing out cross-traffic and opening the way ahead.

  Gragg’s own pack invaded a busy intersection against the light—sparking several broadside crashes as his minions forced a path for him. Smashing glass followed screeching rubber. Wrecked cars spun out of control, and pedestrians ran for cover.

  Gragg’s BMW raced through the carnage and past a local patrolman ticketing a landscaper’s truck. Gragg’s eyes narrowed, and he brought video from dashboard cameras of a trailing AutoM8 up onto his HUD display. In the video window Gragg could see the local cop sprinting to his squad car, speaking urgently into his hand radio.

  With a subtle motion of his hand Gragg clicked on the license plate of the police car, locking the nearest AutoM8 onto it.

  The video image disappeared in a cloud of snow on impact, and Gragg chuckled to himself, imagining the consequences.

  On the tarmac surrounding Building Twenty-Nine, two white panel vans came to a stop as a dozen more AutoM8s circled around them, on guard. The rear doors to each van opened, and metal mesh ramps dropped onto the pavement with a clang.

  A deep, guttural roar rose over the other engines, and down each ramp rolled a riderless, black racing motorcycle with dozens of brushed steel blades running along their tops and sides like cooling fins. Neither bike had handlebars, but instead had forward-mounted hydraulic assemblies of brushed steel, folded tightly. A cowling of black laminate armor enclosed the front. In place of a rider’s saddle was a circular steel dome about a foot in diameter, its surface etched with mystical symbols. Nearly every inch of the bikes was covered in runes and glyphs and razor-sharp blades. They were as much fetish objects as machines.

  The motorcycles rolled to a stop and twin hydraulic jacks slammed down onto the pavement like oversized kickstands or half-formed legs. They thrust each bike nearly a foot off the ground, where they stood revving their 1800cc engines deafeningly. Then twin robotic arms with gleaming three-foot sword blades unfolded from the forward hydraulic assemblies, lashing forth on gimbals, arcing smoothly with blinding speed as they ran through diagnostics like insects cleaning their antennae.

  At some unseen signal, the bikes retracted their kickstand jacks and hit the pavement, rear wheels smoking. They streaked off toward the hulking silhouette of Building Twenty-Nine in the distance.

  Philips and The Major moved swiftly down a corridor, followed by Ross and four heavily armed Korr guards. Personnel raced past them in both directions, carrying computers and boxes of files. The Major was speaking on his L3 phone. “I understand.” A pause. “Yes. We’re working back channels to warn off civilian authorities. I will.” He snapped the phone shut.

  They reached the gaming pit and could see black smoke seeping from the seams of the sealed lab blast doors, hinting at the inferno burning within. Korr medics were doing CPR on two strike team members, while other guards were placing bodies in a row on the floor.

  Philips slowed for a moment. “My God…”

  The Major pulled her past and motioned for Ross to follow. “We’re evacuating this facility. Choppers are on the way. I’m taking the first one to go after Agent Merritt. I want you and Mr. Ross on chopper two.”

  “Where is Merritt?”

  “He went out after this ‘Loki’ person, but we can track him. His radio has GPS.”

  Ross noticed guards pass by, uncoiling detonator wire from a reel. “What’s going on?”

  “We’re about to have a serious industrial accident here. Prearranged cover story.”

  Philips snapped alert. “This facility still contains critical equipment and data, Major.”

  “This facility is in danger of being overrun by the enemy, Doctor.”

  Philips thought about this for a moment, then produced her own encrypted phone and started punching numbers. “I haven’t received orders to abandon this facility, and until I do, I’m not going anywhere.”

  “In that case…” The Major drew a Glock 9mm pistol from his coat and chambered a round. “I can’t risk you falling into enemy hands. Your knowledge of U.S. ciphers is too great.”

  Ross stepped in front of her. “Wait!”

  “Do you want to see my orders, Doctor?”

  She was speechless, staring at the business end of the pistol.

  Ross held his hands up. “She’ll go, Major.”

  The Major lowered his gun. “Puts it into perspective, doesn’t it? Now get ready to pull out.”

  “What about my people?”

  “They’re no longer your people. This task force has been dissolved. I’ve been ordered to send you back to Fort Meade and to remand Mr. Ross to the custody of the FBI.”

  “On what charges?”

  “Multiple counts of wire fraud and identity theft.”

  She stared at The Major. “That’s insane. He just made a breakthrough.”

  “This task force has been ineffective at curbing the rapid growth of the Daemon. Your narrow field of expertise is being folded into a larger effort. Mr. Ross’s services are no longer required. If they ever were.”

  Ross looked unsurprised. “But I have an amnesty agreement with the Justice Department.”

  “The terms of which you failed to meet.”

  “We failed because task force functions were compromised by private contractors.”

  The Major nodded to the nearby guards, who raised stun guns. “These men will see that you’re delivered safely. Resistance is optional.”

  Philips kept shaking her head. “Major, if Merritt captures Loki, we can find out how they compromised our systems.”

  “The Daemon won this round, Doctor. I have orders to break off contact with the infiltrator as soon as possible.”

  “You can’t just let Loki escape.”

  “The n
umber one goal right now is keeping the existence of the Daemon a secret until we mitigate the risks to the global economy. That goal is not compatible with open warfare on our perimeter or by Agent Merritt pursuing a pack of robotic vehicles through downtown Oakland. We’re lucky we don’t already have news choppers swarming overhead.”

  “If we can stop this thing now, it will be worth the hit to the economy.”

  “I’ll be sure to put that in my report, Comrade Philips.”

  The thumping of a chopper was now audible. The Major spoke to a nearby Korr guard. “Hold them here, and rush them to the roof when the second chopper arrives—but not before. Understood?”

  The lead guard saluted. “Yes, Major.”

  The radio on the guard’s belt crackled to life. “This is Perimeter-9…do you copy?”

  The Major motioned for the guard to hand it to him, and he started heading toward the stairwell doors as he keyed the mic. “This is Secom, Perimeter-9. What’s your status?”

  Out on the tarmac Perimeter-9 clutched a radio handset and winced in pain. “All units down. Repeat: all perimeter units are down. Request medevac and air support.” He limped painfully behind a wrecked and bullet-riddled AutoM8. His lower leg was stained with blood just below a makeshift tourniquet. The leg was badly mangled.

  The Major’s voice came over the radio through a haze of static. “Report on the unmanned vehicles.”

  “They left with the intruder. But more of them just arrived. They’re forming for another attack. I’m out of ammo, sir. Badly injured.” He craned his neck back toward a chopper angling in toward the roof of Building Twenty-Nine. “Requesting immediate airlift.”

  “Negative. Just stay put, Nine. Help’s on the way.”

  Just then Perimeter-9 heard the howl of high-performance engines. He turned to see twin racing motorcycles streaking across the tarmac in his direction. They were moving in close formation at 150 mph or more.