by Steve Rzasa
“Beautiful.” Rome triggered the manual controls, and kept the Halcyon as steady with the other traffic as he could. There was a trick to maintaining the appearance of a car run by comp—drive cautious, but react with lightning reflexes. When he’d worked for his first interception company, they’d taught their trainees how to do it seamlessly, but after several years on the road, the skill was lost on most Drivers.
Rome’s hands sweat. He was in that majority, but he practiced now and then. He hoped Andrew was praying back in Cheyenne.
He guided the Halcyon into the mix of cars, now slowed to 40 miles per hour. Amber lights hovered above the lane, far ahead. Familiar amber lights… “Great.”
“What?” Aldo craned his neck. “Oh. More construction.”
“Yeah.”
The vehicles around them continued to slow in near unison. Rome followed their lead and mimicked their moves. He and Aldo wouldn’t have any warning of approaching construction zones. Should have seen that coming. Without their link to the surrounding cars, they were guiding themselves, receiving only basic proximity warnings from those vehicles.
The rear view showed Thad still stalled several cars back. He scooted into the left lane when a small gap presented itself, but then couldn’t get any further.
Rome grinned. Count on comps to keep their vehicles running as close together as possible, at speeds and reaction times that precluded lane switching in tight quarters.
“Ain’t gonna keep him stuck there forever,” Aldo said. “You want me to try to route some construction bots into his path? That’d overload him.”
“No. No sense drawing more attention to ourselves, and if you go out playing with navigation systems, Thad’s pal Enrique will probably catch you.”
“I’m insulted.” Aldo frowned at his reflection in the window. “Not as insulted by this hair color. Plain old brown?”
“Shut up.” Rome glanced left. The side of the road was thick with trees, but every so often, there was a road. He glimpsed identical homes, white and tan, plus parked cars. “Got a residential neighborhood, left.”
“Ah…” Aldo swiped through his holos. A square of mapped terrain sprang up three times its original size. “Check. No access though. This road runs parallel to the one on the side of the neighborhood, and there’s four side streets heading east off of—”
Rome cranked the steering controls. The Halcyon cut left, in front of a Famtrac. He saw the backs of two adult heads behind a smoky gray windshield. A little blond boy between them stared, eyes wide as the moon.
“Hey!” Aldo dropped a grain bar on the floor. He scrambled for it, cursing.
Rome was glad to see he had his incessant appetite back, but it’d serve him right if he got hair all over it. There were still scattered remnants.
Their car bounced across the narrow median, wheels lifting them up and tread adjusting to the off-road surface. In a second, they were on the parallel street at the edge of the neighborhood. Rome steered left, heading opposite the way they came.
They shot past Thad’s Panther. Its windows were dark enough that all Rome saw of his pursuer was the silhouette that turned toward them.
Aldo flashed them the finger.
Rome cut down one of the side streets. A red outline blinked into view.
“Got another one,” Aldo said. “Same model, different make. Color’s near enough you can’t tell the difference unless you’ve got top-shelf scanners and a tech better than me.”
“Good enough.” Rome drove past, braked, then backed up with one hand twisting the controls. He got the Halcyon within two feet of its counterpart.
“Umm…” Aldo looked over his shoulder. “So, we’re gonna wait here for him?”
“You are.” Rome grabbed the black bag from the back seat. He popped the door. “Stay put and play dumb.”
“Yeah, okay, or I could just run, too!”
“Can’t. I need you to distract Thad,” Rome smirked. “Pretend you’re panicked.”
“Pretend? Oh, sure! I’m not freaking out or anything.”
Too late. Rome was out, jogging across the yard. The ground squelched underfoot with each step. He made for the hedge that formed a barrier between it and the neighboring property. It was only 30 feet from the parked cars, but tall enough to provide cover.
Rome ducked behind it. He drew the J20 out of the bag and checked the magazine. Good, trackers.
The rumble of an engine alerted him. The Panther shot onto the street at the same speed and near same recklessness Rome exhibited when he’d cleared the median. It slowed to a crawl in the middle of the street.
Come on, Thad. Roll on by. Rome sighted on the Panther’s tires. He felt a twinge of remorse about doing the same thing to the same, very nice vehicle within the past couple of days. Only for the car’s sake, though.
The Panther jumped forward, then skidded, its back end turning out. Thad stopped it so it crossed a T to the parked Halcyon.
Smart.
“Vamos!” Thad and Enrique were both out of the car, leaning over the doors. They aimed spazzers. “Get out of the car, Roman! You and your tech!”
“Hey, hey!” Aldo exited, hands reaching for sky. “He bolted! I don’t know where he is.”
“Get down on your knees. On your knees!” Thad snapped.
Aldo complied. Even from this distance Rome could see the tremor in his hands.
Enrique reached him first. He patted Aldo down, one hand along each side. “Unarmed.” The man’s voice was a gargled whisper.
“Where is Roman?” Thad tucked the end of the spazzer under Aldo’s chin.
“Dunno. I told you!” Aldo pointed right, across the street—in the opposite direction of Rome’s hiding place. “He took off that way. Jumped right across the hood! He left me sitting here with nothing to do but wait for your sunny faces to show up.”
“You expect me to believe you did not take the opportunity to escape?”
“I’m not certified,” Aldo said. “Can’t drive. Not legally or even illegally.”
“Small wonder you two lose contracts to Del Norte.”
Rome fired.
The gunshot cracked like thunder. The Panther’s front left tire exploded, heaving the front end up.
Thad pivoted, spazzer up, and shot back. The pulse rippled through the air, causing only a tremor in the leaves where it breezed through the hedges.
Aldo hopped up, bringing his shoulder into Enrique’s gut. The man’s breath expelled loudly, as if he dry-heaved. He staggered back, clutching his abdomen. The instant his spazzer hit the pavement, Aldo scooped it up.
Rome moved in a duck walk. Thad bounced around in the J20’s sights, but green indicators flashed on the target as soon as the tracking software got a positive lock. Rome fired again with a three-round burst.
The first two bullets went high. The third struck Thad’s spazzer dead on. It shattered, leaving Thad with a spray of sparks and a broken handgrip. He swore and dropped it. His hand dipped behind his jacket.
“Don’t.” Rome stopped 10 feet away. He adjusted his aim so Thad’s head was bracketed. “I won’t miss, Thad. Bring out your hand. Slowly.”
Thad stayed motionless. Behind him, Enrique was on his knees, glaring at Aldo. The spazzer hummed. “Yeah, I’d do what he says, boys,” Aldo grinned.
“You have lost your mind. Gone completely loco.” Thad drew his hand out. The blade it held was at least four inches long, serrated, flat black with an orange handle.
“Drop it.”
Thad squeezed the hilt. The blade retracted to a quarter its length, narrowed, and folded into a compact orange container. He let it fall.
“Aldo?”
“Check.” Aldo stepped in with his spazzer still trained on Enrique. He snatched up the knife. “What do we do with them?”
“Make it difficult to follow.”
“You already shot out my tire. Again.” Thad scowled at him.
“Yeah, somehow that didn’t work as well as I thought, be
cause here you are. I’ll give you that much—you’re persistent.”
“You’re—”
Aldo’s spazzer discharged. Enrique grunted and slumped to the ground. His arms and legs slapped the pavement, splashing in a puddle.
“Aldo!” Rome snapped.
“What? That’s what you meant, right?”
“I meant I wanted you to disable his comp!”
“Oh.” Aldo scratched the back of his head with the spazzer. “Well, yeah, okay. I’ll go do that.”
“Do you think it will be so easy?” Thad snarled. “Touch my car and a spazzer strike will feel like a woman’s kiss by comparison.”
Aldo froze, hand hovering over the frame.
“Anti-personnel measures,” Rome said. “You’re prepared, too.”
“And you’re a fugitive. You shouldn’t have run, Roman. Why did you bother? You know you’ll be caught.”
“Funny. I don’t hear any air support.”
“You put down my air support. She was your friend, remember?”
Remorse turned Rome’s gut. “Gabriela. Is she okay?”
Thad tilted his head aside. “She is unhurt. Physically. Her heart, though, is not so well, amigo.”
“I’m not your friend, Thad.”
“No. But you are a Driver. All this—” Thad waved his hands in a rolling motion. “Is pointless. You cannot outdrive us.”
“I’m doing pretty well so far. Here’s the deal. Stay off my tail. I’ll explain it all later.”
“Is that a threat?”
“Yes.”
Thad frowned. “You run me off the road and shove a gun in my face, you accost me and my tech… for what? Why delay the inevitable?”
“I think you’re pompous and dangerous, Thad, but I never had you tagged as stupid. Come on—we both chased after those thieves. Why would I be in with them? Why would I stand by while FTZ boys got killed?”
“You are aiming a lethal weapon at me right now.”
Rome lowered the gun. “I won’t tell you again. Don’t come after me.”
“You want me to leave you be. So you can do… what?”
“So I can find out who’s really behind all this.”
“That is a lot to ignore when the bounty on your head is so deliciously sweet.”
“Aldo? Get me the other bag.”
Aldo was already back in the Halcyon with his nav and communications systems up and running. He rummaged in the back seat. “Got it.”
Rome took it from him and pulled out a container. It held a handful of gold coins.
Thad’s eyes widened. “Madre dios.”
“Don’t trust you a bit, but I know you’ll abide by a contract. Consider this ours.” Rome handed him the container. “Ten thousand. Untraceable. Let me slide, you get the rest.”
Thad glanced at Enrique. The tech was immobilized, staring skyward. He snatched up the container. “You are crafty, Roman Jasko.”
Rome shrugged. “I make do.”
“You realize this is not a full ten thousand dollars. I have to repair my tires.”
A low buzz grew louder. Drones? Thad hadn’t been entirely honest about the lack of aerial support. Shocking.
Rome got into the car. He started the engine. It was a tight spot between Thad’s Panther and the Halcyon behind them. “Best offer I can make. Keep my road clear.” He backed up, bumping the other vehicle. It skidded. Suddenly a warning appeared on Rome’s dash. Rear impact cushions burst.
Aldo just shook his head.
Rome put the car into drive and took off the down street. He made sure not to run over either rival. The last he saw of Thad, he was staring at the container in his hand.
~
They drove east. Staying on the Ninety allowed for higher speeds, but Aldo reprogrammed the route to occasionally include rural and less traveled state roads. Those weren’t monitored as often and with less vigilance than the main highways. It helped that most of their next leg was in the dark. Rome let Aldo’s comp do the driving so they wouldn’t need headlights active.
“Drone must have gotten off a signal with our image before you spazzed it,” Aldo said.
“I figured. If it was during the re-color, Thad and Enrique would have had a baseline to work off of—and if they had our rough direction of travel, that would have made tracking us easier.”
Aldo’s displays lit the interior of the Halcyon with a series of flat maps and 3-D terrain views. Coordinates streamed down the middle. “New York. The signal operating the android dummy came from there. I’m checking to see if there’s anything still coming out of there.”
“You think they wouldn’t have shut it down?”
“They’ll have shut down the link to that android, yeah. But my guess, whatever transmitter they’re using has to be for more than just one purpose. No sense in having a one-shot transmitter, right?”
“I’d have one. Break it when I was done.” Rome drummed his hand on the window. The ghostly glow from passing cars and charging sections illuminated the dark landscape. It was soothing—the lights, the sounds of the engine, the whisper of the tires on the road.
“Well… okay, so it’s a theory. I’m running with it.”
Rome eyed his implant. No contacts. Not surprising. It was off-line. If he were looking for a message from Andrew, or Kelsey…
Hours passed. It was late. Midnight. Rome’s body ached as he fought back the dizziness from the conflicts that swirled in his mind. He needed to clear his head. He wanted to stop, get out, and stretch, but Aldo snored beside him, his face lit green and blue by the holos. The program ran what he assumed was a search, judging by the endlessly spinning icons and the flicker of light. Rome couldn’t stay in the car another moment.
When the nav system highlighted the next exit, he reached for Aldo’s comp panel. He entered a new location that was 20 minutes out of their way. He didn’t intend to wake Aldo. Let him rest.
The Halcyon drove over the river onto Goat Island. Even this late, they passed a handful of cars. Rome overrode the window lock and lowered it far enough to let the cool night’s breeze into the car. He smelled it—wet earth, damp grass. A steady rumble overwhelmed the car’s faint engine sounds.
Rome left the car in a lot away from the nearest light globe. The path to the river’s edge was deserted. He walked quickly, aware the time index on his implant glowed from his wrist. He should make it in time.
Niagara Falls spread out before him, a churning beast of frothing water. The roar from more than 3,000 tons of it cascading over the rock and plunging nearly 17 stories to the rest of the river below sat deep in his chest. The falls were aglow with blue and green lights from Ontario, projecting the illusion that it was a wall of ice or some hidden chasm of the Antarctic—or whatever might be left of that half-melted wasteland.
Rome leaned his elbows on the fence and let the mist wash over him.
This was his sanctuary. His chapel. Far better for him than any pew. Nothing against Andrew and his breed.
The moment was gone far too fast. One by one, the lights blinked out until the falls reflected only a hint of the city’s glow in the distance. The thunder stayed.
He removed Thad’s knife from his pocket. One gentle squeeze and the blade extended, growing its signature serrations. Rome considered its razor-sharp edge, its obsidian color blending perfectly with the night.
Footsteps. Rome glanced back.
“Hey.” Aldo stretched his arms wide and yawned loud, shattering any semblance of tranquility. “You freaked me out.”
“Didn’t think you needed a note.”
“Me? Nah. I enjoy waking up abandoned in the car in a dark, empty parking lot. Should do it more often.” Aldo tucked his hands in his pocket. He wiped his face. “Wet.”
“Yeah.”
“Once I saw on the nav where we were, I figured you’d be out here. Kelsey?”
Rome nodded. “Our first anniversary. Long time ago.”
“I take it that’s why we stop here every
spring, if we happen to be on FTZ East.”
“You’re not leaning as bad on the leg. Better?”
“Isn’t worse. They knit it up pretty good before we sped out of FTZ West headquarters. It ached the first day or so, but it’s fading. I’m gimping less, so, hooray.”
Rome watched the torrent before him. Relentless. Driven. He put the knife away. “You come out here because your beauty sleep was up?”
“Nice. Yeah, and plus, I got a hit on my search.” Aldo rolled his eyes. “Thing’s slower than a kitchen comp’s cleaning algorithm.”
“What’ve you got?”
“A transmission source. Like I figured.”
“Huh. So… you were right.”
“He said it!” Aldo bounced his fists off the rail and whooped. “Roman Jasko, you’ve admitted I’m right, which makes you… what’s that ‘w’ word?”
“Shut up.” Rome backhanded him in the chest. “Where’s it located?”
“Between Batavia and the Lake Ontario shore. Can’t be more precise now, but the closer we get, the more accurate the trace.”
Rome rubbed at his eyes. Images blurred. “Okay then. Let’s go find it.”
~
The drive ended at a turnout hidden in the trees on the north side of the Erie Canal.
Aldo peered out the window onto the glassy surface of the waterway. “This is it?”
“What was once the most efficient way of moving goods across rough terrain, now a piece of transportation history.”
“It’s a ditch.”
Rome scowled. “Ditch? That’s like calling the Ninety a long driveway. Aldo, the canal is the predecessor to our highways. Swift transportation.”
“Okay, sorry, preach on.”
Rome switched to manual and nudged the Halcyon through the undergrowth that poked up through crumbling asphalt. He drove only with running lights on, no headlights. The sky was full of stars, so he had enough illumination to prevent steering off the road.
It curved just a quarter mile back into the trees. Every foot was more overgrown than the last. For the final hundred yards, branches scratched at the car doors.
“Up ahead,” Aldo whispered. “You see it?”
He did. Even if the Halcyon’s proximity sensors hadn’t outlined it in red, Rome wouldn’t have missed the tall, slender tower of gray and green. It barely topped the trees. The clearing it sat in could accommodate a car or two, but that was it. It was well concealed. The camouflage netting that draped the clearing was a nice touch, too.