Dark Crypto (Thorne Inc. Book 1)

by Neil Mosspark

  Olivia paused and crossed her arms, grinding her teeth while staring at him. She dared him with her eyes to toy with her anger.

  “The gangs there have dug under the wall. It’s how they are making money. Cockroach and his guys have that place locked down tight. I’ve bought gear from them.”

  “Seriously? Don’t mess with me.”

  “There’s a tunnel to the inside. Most of the cameras on that section of the wall are shot out. The government can’t get in there safely to fix them.”

  “You know where the tunnel is for sure?”

  “Yeah, it's in the bottom of a car parkade.”

  Olivia pulled out her phone.

  “Who are you calling?” Chuck asked. He had crept closer and likely heard most of the conversation.

  “Someone who can actually help.”

  Chuck gave her a hurt look, and she ignored it. Turning away from him, she paced through the lab to get some distance. She didn’t want Chuck to know exactly what was going on.

  “What’s up, Olivia.” Jay’s voice came over the phone.

  “Jay, I need a ride.”

  “I’m not a cab service, Olivia.”

  “I need a pickup on the roof of XCR and a drop-off on the north side of the zone.”

  “I can’t get you inside the wall without getting us shot down.”

  “Just on the outside in the northwest slums; a completely legit job as far as you're concerned.”

  “That’s a rough neighborhood. It would be a big risk to drop in there.”

  "I'll be fine."

  Jay laughed. "I'm not worried about you. I'm worried about locals taking pot shots at the Black Hawk." Somewhere in the background, there was laughter from others who were listening in.

  “I’ll double the payment for our last little trip if you can get here in the next half hour.”

  There was a pause. Olivia could hear muffled talking and suspected Jay had covered the receiver.

  Olivia looked around the room while she waited and spied the remaining biped drone sitting in its charging station. An empty charging station next to it made her think of how effective the machine had been at killing Takeo Kimura at the hotel.

  She looked at Chuck. He had wandered to the door, checking on the newly arrived team clearing bodies from the adjacent room. Olivia pulled the phone away from her mouth and whispered to Jack, “Can you operate that thing?” She pointed to the biped drone.

  Jack looked at it and the chair, then smiled, tapping his neural link. "I can try."

  The phone in her hand chattered back to life. “We’re on our way. Twenty minutes work?”

  “Jay?”

  “Yeah?” She could hear the excitement in his voice.

  “You mind throwing me in some party favors? Enough for two.”

  “Sure thing. See you in a bit.” Jay hung up. She knew the man. He was likely in the middle of beers with the rest of the guys. She missed the days of working with a steady crew. Somehow she felt like an outsider for a moment.

  “Who was that?” Chuck asked.

  She smiled at him. “I need you to babysit Jack for a while.”

  “What?” Chuck turned to look as Jack stepped into the chamber, locking the door behind him. He smiled and waved like a child getting onto an amusement park ride.

  Chuck looked back at her. “What are you up to, Olivia?”

  “I’m paid to recover people. I’m going to recover Dr. Sanders. She needs our help, and you’re moving too slow. Neotech has been kind enough to lend us some of their equipment.”

  She watched Jack as he slipped into the chair and hoisted the cable to the back of his head. Leaning back, he closed his eyes. His entire body relaxed almost immediately.

  Dumfounded, Chuck could only watch.

  It took long enough for something to happen that they began to wonder if the chair was connected at all to the mechanized bot.

  A hum built, and the machine lifted an arm, looking at it. The inhuman movement made her gut tighten as she remembered sparring with its twin in the bathroom of the hotel. Only the absence of a kitchen knife settled her nerves.

  Olivia looked at Chuck. “I need you to do this. I need you to stay here and make sure he keeps running that machine. I can’t ask you to go where I am going, but I need your help.”

  Chuck looked at Jack, the bot, and then back to her. “I can’t help you.”

  “I just need you to stay out of the way. Please.” Her voice softened. “Let me save Dr. Sanders. Let me at least try. I’m only risking my own life. Jack’s here safe and sound.”

  Chuck hesitated for a moment. It was apparent that the police officer was torn between duty and morality. “I’ll buy you some time.”

  There was a crash from the machine as it stumbled forward, landing on the ground. Jack, still controlling it from the safety of the chair, raised one of its metal arms as though to tell them he was okay. The metal bot staggered to its feet.

  “Does he know what he’s doing?” Chuck asked.

  “I don’t think he's got a clue.” Olivia patted Chuck on the shoulder. “C’mon, Jack, we’ve got fifteen minutes to be on the roof. Hurry up, or I leave your metal ass behind.”

  Chapter 19

  Olivia stepped out onto the roof of Neotech for the second time that day, and the universe continued to disappoint her. A warm downpour began to sprinkle from the night sky. Low-hanging clouds crept in toward them, blown on a humid wind.

  She didn’t have much time to consider how the weather was affecting her mood; Jack’s metal persona bumped her clumsily from behind as he mistook how close he was to her. He raised a metal hand in apology.

  “I have a feeling that that thing takes more practice than either one of us anticipated,” she stated.

  Jack’s metal head nodded in agreement.

  “Can you make it speak?”

  “It’s difficult. Feels like talking underwater.” The voice was choppy and electronic. In no way did it resemble Jack’s own voice.

  “Great.”

  Her mind worried over the many points of failure of her poorly developed plan. She knew that they were closer to the wall than to the hotel. At least the range on the suit would be great enough that she wouldn’t lose Jack halfway there.

  “Excuse me, ma’am. You can’t be on the roof.” A young firefighter was walking toward them.

  Olivia cocked her weapon and glared at him. The firefighter hitched in his step, coming to a stop before deciding to return to the other men hosing off the smoldering half of the roof. She stepped away and toward the far side of the building, where Jay and his pilot had dropped her off earlier.

  As though on cue, a dark form descended out of the clouds. The blinking running lights gave away the position well before the rooftop lights illuminated it. The Black Hawk's upgraded body swooped down fast, hovering only a foot from the building’s edge.

  The side door slid open, and Jay beckoned them forward, hesitating for a moment when he saw the robotic drone. “What the hell, Olivia! Where did you get that?”

  “What?” She feigned a lack of concern as she stepped upward and inside.

  Jack’s heavy body listed slightly the helicopter before the pilot compensated.

  “Is that thing legal?” Jay asked. His usual smile was mixed with amusement and concern.

  “I doubt it. Neotech is loaning us their lab drone to help with some heavy lifting. Did you bring me some toys?”

  Jack slid the door closed, and the helicopter lifted quickly. The rapid change in direction and motion played with her stomach.

  “Sure, but I didn’t pull out all the stops. Just the basics. The old man doesn’t figure you're coming back from this one. Doesn’t want to lose kit.”

  “That’s really heart-warming. I’ll remember that.”

  Jay pulled out a duffle bag from under the seat, and withdrawing a set of ballistic vests he looked at Olivia’s police-issue and Jack’s armored frame and set them aside. Two ancient automatic rifles were pull
ed from the bag. Jay handed them to Olivia and Jack.

  Checking the weapon, she looked back at Jay. “These things are older than dirt.”

  “Like I said, the old man doesn’t think you're going to survive this one.”

  Jay handed her and Jack a couple of grenade belts, which Olivia slung over her shoulder. Jack's metal body mimicked the action.

  She grabbed all four magazines from the bag and held on to them. Jack held out a hand, and Olivia handed him one. “Don’t load this until we land. I don’t need you putting a hole in their ride before we get there.”

  The hand closed around the single mag. “That’s it?” Jack’s modulated voice asked.

  “Yeah,” she said, looking at Jay. “Doesn’t look like anyone can afford more ammo.” Olivia glared at Jay.

  “Like I said. He thinks you’re a bad investment,” Jay said, tucking the bag away. "Speaking of which, mind transferring the money before we drop you off?"

  Olivia unzipped the liner of her jacket and pulled out a wad of bills. She made a show of counting them off. When she got to the agreed-upon amount, she handed them to him and glared at him for a moment. "I don't like being bet against."

  Jay shrugged. "Don't hate me. It's the old man who thinks you’re being reckless."

  Olivia let go of the bills and tucked what little cash she had back into her jacket. Her attention switched to her weapon. She checked the rifle and pushed a mag into place but didn’t chamber a round. “He’s probably right.”

  “Doesn’t mean you have to like it,” Jay said. His usual perpetual smile had faded.

  They rode in silence for a few minutes, staring out at the streetlights below. The large, empty, unlit space of the Quarantine Zone lay like a lake of darkness beyond the ring of red lights spaced atop the wall.

  “Three minutes out. Need a landing zone.”

  “Look for the old mall parking lot.” Jack’s electronic voice buzzed.

  Olivia looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

  Jack’s metal head swiveled toward her. “We did out pickups there.”

  “Think they are going play nice and let us use their tunnel?”

  “I doubt it,” Jack said.

  “We will probably have to fight our way in. If you have any misgivings killing any of these guys, now’s the time to stay out of it.”

  “These are bad dudes, Olivia. I’ve seen what they do to the locals who snitch.” Jack’s metal frame straightened. She could read the body language. It was nervous energy that needed to be directed.

  “We’re switching dark,” the pilot yelled, and the lights were replaced by the dim red hue of his console. The aircraft lowered quickly, and Olivia could see rooftops zooming by. She wondered if the large craft made more than a whisper as it flew low and silent.

  “Thirty seconds!” the pilot called.

  Olivia took a deep break and tried to calm her own nerves.

  Jay put his hand on the door, preparing to slide it open. “It was nice knowing you, Olivia.” The honesty in his voice was not helping her dwindling confidence.

  “Thanks. I wish I could say the same,” she said, leaning forward in her seat. She held out a fist, and Jay raised his to bump hers back.

  The skinny man pulled hard, and the door slid open. The roar and spray of wet rain blasted at them, and everyone except Jack flinched. She envied how distant his physical body was from harm.

  Jay held on to a handle above the door and leaned out into the windy darkness to confirm a safe landing zone. Olivia could see the crumbling structure of a flattened mall. The building had seen better days. Fires and ten years of scavengers picking away at its bones had not been kind. It was a skeleton of its original body. No longer swollen with commerce and life, it looked more like the ribs of some giant whale that had found its way onto shore, only to die in an overgrown parking lot.

  The rubber of the wheels grazed the asphalt, and Olivia hopped to the ground and shuffled to a nearby row of rusting cars. She crouched and raised her weapon, covering Jack as he stumbled out and face-planted with a crash.

  “Good luck.” Jay laughed and slid the door closed. She didn’t even watch as the vehicle lifted off into the air, disappearing into the night. Lightless thunder crashed in the distance.

  What little rain cover the gravity disk had provided disappeared immediately. The pattering summer rain that had started on the roof of Neotech was now pouring down. The wet warmth flowed over her.

  Olivia shook her head and watched Jack’s metal body search for the dropped weapon in a growing puddle. His hands grasped it and raised it like a prize. “Found it!” he said.

  “Lead the way, tin man. We have a Dorothy to rescue."

  Jack took off at a brisk run. She could see he was enjoying the biped drone’s capability. It was obvious he was still getting used to its cumbersome movements, but it was to be expected.

  Racking a round into the chamber, she thumbed the fire selector of her rifle onto safe and jogged behind him through the dark. The machine’s rubberized soles thumped along ahead of her.

  Part of her wanted to ask if he was using night vision, but she remained silent, choosing to forgo the satisfaction of curiosity for what served as stealth.

  Jack stepped around a burned-out car and onto the adjoining street. He paused, looking down the open length. This area was populated by gangs and zone refugees. It was a tough neighborhood. Home fires burned away behind closed doors and cobbled glass windows.

  Light flashed across the sky, illuminating the wall around the Quarantine Zone ahead of them. It was a kilometer away.

  Jack shifted forward again hesitantly.

  “You know where you’re going, right?” Olivia asked.

  “More or less. There's a multistory parking garage down at the end of this street and on the right.”

  “Let’s go then. Quit stalling.”

  “I thought we had to do this with some stealth,” Jack replied, turning to her.

  “The longer we sit in one place, the higher the probability that someone’s going to come outside into the storm and see us. We need to move fast, as well as quiet. Right now I choose fast. Get moving!” she hissed.

  The machine nodded at her and turned, continuing its unrelenting jog. The jog passed by adjacent streets and an open market that looked like it might house legitimate businesses in the daylight.

  All Olivia could do right now was be suspicious of each shadow and every noise from the darkness. The storm was helping for the moment.

  Lumbering footsteps led her across yet another street. Looking left and right, Olivia could see that ancient barricades of scrap and concrete had been piled high. The police would often try to infiltrate the area to bring order and safety, but each time the gangs would beat them back.

  Olivia licked at the rain covering her lips. Her mouth had gone dry thinking about how the gangs would react if they found them here. There was little hope of survival if they were caught.

  Jack slowed to a walking pace and stepped into a space between two crumbling buildings. The shadows enveloped them both. His metal hand came up to his face, holding a finger where his mouth should have been.

  A clanking noise was growing. Olivia was having a hard time detecting which direction it was coming from. Echoes played off the walls, reflecting and redirecting the calamity. As the noise grew, her heart rate increased, hammering in her chest.

  Rounding the nearby corner, a young man pulling a rickshaw full of goods. The mak shift metal wheels clamored against the wet ground. A metal hubcap was hanging off the side and had been strategically tied to tap against the spokes.

  Whatever item the man was vending, he was used to the noise and wanted others to know he was selling. The rickshaw turned toward them. In the shadows, Olivia slowly raised her weapon and tucked it into her shoulder.

  Only ten feet away, the man’s face was peeking out from a hoodie sewn from discarded plastic sheeting.

  Lightning flashed overhead, brightening the wall’s e
dge. The deafening boom of thunder that followed deafened her. The man stopped and looked in their direction, into the darkness. Another far-off lightning strike illuminated Jack and herself again. The man lowered his cart and pulled back his hood to stare at the dark, frozen in fear.

  Olivia raised the weapon and stepped into the light. Leveling the assault rifle with one hand, she pointed it at his chest and spoke in Fugee. With her free hand, she touched her bottom eyelid. After she was done speaking, she slunk back in the shadows, never lowering the weapon.

  The man swallowed hard and looked away quickly. He pulled hard on his rickshaw. The clatter quickened its pace.

  “Let's go,” she said to Jack, pushing on the metal body.

  The armored body shifted forward back into a jog. “What did you say to him?”

  “I told him that the Guilla would get him if he stopped moving.”

  “What the hell is a Guilla?”

  “The older fugees are almost all from the zone. They’re very superstitious. They think there are monsters that come out at night and eat people’s eyes. The noise-maker on his wheel is supposed to ward them off.”

  “Are there?”

  “What?”

  “Are there Guilla monsters?”

  “No. The only monsters out here are people. Keep moving.”

  Jack stomped along, splashing through puddles that seemed more like lakes than runoff. Storm drains and sewer lines long had become clogged and broken. There were no city workers clearing the streets of garbage, or fixing drains, or rebuilding infrastructure. The gangs that had long ago moved in to rule over the squatters had seen to that.

  “There it is.” Jack pointed.

  Ahead of them the multiple concrete floors of a car park stood, almost touching the wall. It would have looked like the day it was built except for the wall of cars stacked against the inside wall of the bottom floor. A heavy sheet of steel lay across the entranceway.

  “How are we going to get in?” Jack asked.

  “Think you can push a car?”

  “I don’t think I can move that much weight,” he said.

  “The second floor looks clear. If you can lift me up high enough, I can get inside and open the door and let you in.”