“Umm.” She halted in the center of the quad, turning in place. Late afternoon overcast sky added a supernatural bleakness to her surroundings that reawakened her fear of zombies. A memory of being chased by a swarm of Fade victims into a dead end alley got her shaking. “Maybe we should just go back to the street and wait.”
“Okay.” Sarah started to walk toward the gate but froze when a door squeaked open.
Maya whirled to face the office, the only non-tent structure in the place. A thirty-something woman with olive skin and black hair emerged, a pistol almost pointed at them. She hesitated, then lowered her arm and pulled the door open the rest of the way.
“What are you doing here? This ain’t no place for children. You should get out of here right away.”
Maya raised a hand in greeting. “We’re sorry. I was looking for Doctor Janus.”
The woman’s caution shifted to concern. “Why, child? Are you… sick?”
“No.” She walked a few steps closer. “I’m Maya. I kinda got lost and wondered if she could help.”
Sarah pressed close to her, staring fearfully at the spectral tents. “I don’t like it here. It feels like a dying place.”
“Oh, Maya!” The woman put the gun in the side pocket of her medical smock and hurried out into the courtyard. “It’s so nice to meet you. I’m Mindy Khan, a caretaker. Doctor Janus is not here. After your broadcast, we had no need to pretend anymore. All the people who were treated with the Xenodril you and your friends brought went back to their lives. We have not had any new cases. Ascendant distributed more Xenodril to all the Fade wards. As far as I know, they’re all empty now.”
“Wow.” Maya blinked. “It really worked?”
“For now.” Mindy sighed. “The Authority is keeping the Fade Wards open on the off chance your information turns out to be false, and the disease is not coming from Ascendant.”
“It’s true, but it doesn’t prove that only Ascendant could use it.”
“Why would anyone bother?” Mindy shrugged. “It’s not like World War Three had a winner.”
Maya pointed at the alley. “There’s another problem. There’s an old subway station down the street full of dead people. I think they had Fade. Rats are all over them. Fleas.”
Mindy blinked. “Oh, no!”
“Yeah…” Maya nodded. “That’s a serious problem. Is Doctor Janus okay?”
“She’s doing fine, working at the hospital.”
“How’s Ashley?” Maya smiled, hoping for good news.
“Last I heard, still weak on one side, but she’s improving, and Fade-free. She can walk again. Doctor Janus has decided to take her in.”
Maya grinned.
The quiet whine of protesting e-motors came from the alley. Headlight shine danced across the wall.
Sarah put her hands on her butt. “Please!”
Mindy raised an eyebrow.
“Tracker,” said Maya.
The grey van rolled to a stop outside the gate. Genna shoved the passenger door open and jumped out.
“Thank you.” Maya waved to Mindy. “Mom’s here. Gotta go.”
Mindy smiled. “You two take care of yourselves.”
“Mom!” yelled Maya. She ran across the quad and slipped between the gate and the fence before leaping into a hug.
Sarah walked over, smiling, but kept a little distance.
“What the hell happened down there?” Genna picked her up, cocked an eyebrow at Sarah, and held out her arm. “What you doin’? Get over here.”
“Sorry.” Sarah leaned into the embrace.
“The pipe had a huge hole in it,” said Maya “We tried to get past it, but it broke and we fell into a subway tunnel.”
Genna carried the girls to the door and lifted them in one by one. Maya scrambled over the passenger seat, pausing long enough to smile at Pope, and jumped on the middle bench. Sarah followed, Genna climbing in last.
“Butt-dar for the win,” said Sarah.
Pope laughed. “Yeah. Zero already had a tracker online once you two got cut off. As soon as he saw your blip appear, we knew something went wrong, but Genna didn’t panic too much since the blip meant you weren’t underground.”
Genna gave him a look. “I kept my cool, thank you very much.”
“That poor guy on the bike would have an alternate opinion of that exchange.” Pope winked.
“What happened?” asked Maya.
“Dude was riding a bicycle in the street,” said Genna. “Slower than we wanted to go.”
The girls giggled.
Pope backed the van out of the alley and pulled onto the road.
“Are we going home now?” asked Sarah.
“Almost. Gotta stop at The Hangar real quick. Figured we’d grab something to eat there too.”
“Uhh.” Maya held her gut with both hands. “Maybe I’ll be hungry if I smell food.”
Genna leaned around the seat, fixing her with a ‘you left something out’ stare.
“The subway station… it’s full of dead people who had Fade. Someone dumped a lot of bodies down there.”
“Rats and fleas,” said Sarah. “That’s bad for some reason.”
“Fleas can carry Fade to new victims, and the rats will spread the fleas all over the place,” said Maya.
“Nothing some fire won’t fix.” Pope clucked his tongue. “Or a lot of fire.”
Maya nodded as she worked her way out of the harness. “I told Mindy at the Ward. Maybe she’ll have them cremated.”
“Brigade’s gonna wanna look into it just ta make sure.” Genna pulled out a minicomputer and wrote herself a reminder.
The ride to The Hangar took about twenty minutes. Pope parked in a spot near the building, their van only the third vehicle in the lot at a touch past noon. Genna checked Maya over for contamination from her contact with the dead and, finding none, took her by the hand. They headed around the building to the street-facing entrance, Pope and Sarah behind them.
A sign above the door made to look like riveted steel letters read ‘The Hangar’ in a military font. Inside, a handful of people sat at tables, most of whom appeared to have popped in for lunch. Ancient weapons, bombs, missiles, machine gun ammunition, and such hung from the ceiling and walls. Large portraits of veterans, platoons, or warplanes covered almost every spot big enough for a frame. A waitress in a pre-war Air Force uniform walked by, smiling at them.
The bartender, a big dark-skinned man with a shiny bald head, waved as they went by.
“Hey Rodolfo,” said Genna. “They trust you behind the bar?”
He laughed. “Only in the afternoon. No one drinkin’ yet.”
“Heh. I might need one in a few minutes.” Genna winked and kept walking to the kitchen.
She crossed a wood-floored area full of small, round tables and pushed a flapping door out of her way. The smell of cooking food drew a growl from Maya’s stomach. The two cooks looked up at Genna in annoyance, but once recognition set in, they went back to their work without a word.
In the storeroom at the end of the kitchen, Genna pressed a hidden switch behind the shelves. Unseen electric motors groaned. The shelf rose an inch up and slid to the left, exposing a stairwell leading to the basement and a hallway lined with fat green pipes.
Maya darted down the steps to the corridor, rounded the corner, and skidded to a stop by a thick grey door with an eye slot. She knocked.
A metal strip at eye level to an adult slid open and a man peered out. A second later, he shut it.
Maya knocked again. “Hey!”
He opened it again, this time peering down at her.
Genna, Pope, and Sarah came around the corner.
“Oh. Heh,” said the man. “Didn’t see you.”
The eye slot closed, and after a few metallic clunks, the door opened.
Maya strolled into the Brigade HQ lounge. It hadn’t changed since last time: three sofas, a television, a pool table, bookshelves, and a number of chairs surrounded an octagonal table
littered with rifles, gun parts, hand grenades, and ammo.
Two women, one pale with snow-blonde hair down to her shoulders, the other Indian, sat next to each other at the giant table to the right of Harlowe. His silver brush cut glimmered like steel wool in the glare of a lone light bulb hanging above the table. At Maya’s approach, he smiled, nodded, and gave her a quick salute.
Maya returned it.
“Captain.” Genna walked up behind Maya and rested her hands on her shoulders.
Sarah scooted around to stand next to her, and Pope stopped at Genna’s right.
“Unorthodox, but it worked,” said Harlowe. “Zeroice obtained the package. He’s whining about data encryption, but he thinks he can crack it. Might be a little while though.”
“We found something on what you asked about.” The snow-blonde sat straighter. “It looks like there’s an internal faction within Ascendant that’s using the current unrest and distrust caused by the evidence we released to attempt a coup.”
“Let me confirm that,” said Maya. “They tried to kill me.”
The room fell quiet. A few people in the rear of the basement working at computers stopped typing and leaned back in their chairs to look at her.
“Kill you?” asked Harlowe.
Kris, the white-haired woman, gasped.
“Vanessa’s got a will. If she dies, guess who winds up owning Ascendant. Only, I’m a little kid so it would go into trust, controlled by someone on my behalf. They don’t want that, since they don’t know if they can control whoever it is. So if they kill me, I guess they think they can kill Vanessa and have the company. Vanessa believes it too, which is why she kidnapped me from them.” Maya explained her encounter with Mr. Needle and re-abduction by Vanessa.
“How long is this investigation of the Authority going to take?” asked Ravi. “It’s already been two weeks and this woman is still on her throne.”
“Be right back,” muttered Pope. “Gonna grab some chow.”
Genna nodded at him.
“We haven’t been able to determine why it’s moving at such a monolithic pace.” Harlowe grumbled. “Best guess is that money changed hands, or she’s got friends in the government who’re blocking for her.”
Maya furrowed her eyebrows, thinking. Shen… “Captain?”
“Hmm?” He looked at her.
“Can you set up a video call that can’t be traced here? I want to try something.”
“All right. What’s on your mind?”
Maya raised her arms up and let them flap against her side. “Maybe more evidence against Vanessa. Maybe something we can use on her.”
“So you’re throwing poo at a wall and hoping it sticks?”
“Huh?” Maya tilted her head.
“Never mind. That’s just an expression.” He chuckled. “I suppose it’s worth a try. Brennan, set up a secure outbound.”
“On it,” yelled a blond man in his mid-twenties.
Maya walked around the table to the back corner of the room which held a group of five cubicles.
Brennan opened a software phone client, dragged it onto his third monitor, and maximized it before pointing at a spot on the floor. “Stand there.”
She did.
He tapped a few keys and she appeared on the screen. A few more clicks and taps changed the background of the Hangar, leaving her surrounded by a bright green field. He mumbled to himself while scrolling down a list of text. Eventually, he clicked on one and the scenery behind her shifted to a grungy-looking industrial building. The shadowy forms of huge machines appeared to lurk behind Maya.
“That’s a bit too scary. Can you make it look like I’m at my old apartment? Or a fancy home?” Crap. “Mom!”
Genna walked over. “What’s up?”
“Can you please go get that dress from the van? They’re not going to believe me if I look like this.”
“All right.” Genna trotted to the door, turning sideways to slip past Pope, who reentered with a tray. Maya’s mouth watered at the sight of chicken fingers and fries.
“One sec, kid.” Brennan opened two more windows and typed at a dizzying rate for a short while. The background shifted to a place similar to her former penthouse. “Okay. Go ahead.”
“Not ready yet.” She squatted, undid the Velcro on her sneakers, and stripped down to her underpants.
Brennan’s eyebrows went up. “Uhh?’
“Sorry for making you uncomfortable. I used to have to swap outfits twenty times in an hour with a whole crew around.” She looked down at herself. “I suppose I should have waited for Genna to come back with the dress, but I’m in a hurry.” She raked her fingers at her hair, trying to make it look neater.
“What’s the rush?” asked Pope, munching on fries.
“That smells awesome,” said Maya. “I wanna eat, but I don’t wanna burp on camera.”
Chuckling emanated from around the room.
Genna returned in a few minutes and handed over the purple dress. Maya wriggled into it; Genna zipped her up.
“Ugh. I think this is the first time in my life that I wanted to put one of these on.”
“What are you doin’, baby?” Genna brushed at the dress so it fell straighter.
“Improvising. Okay.” She nodded at Brennan. “You’re going to record this, right?”
Genna fussed over her hair for a few seconds before backing out of frame.
“Yep.” Brennan winked.
She tapped at the touchscreen holding the video call software and dialed the number for the Ascendant auto-attendant. A box popped up with options. She poked the button for the company directory, sorted by last name, and scrolled down to S. The listing held three people with the last name ‘Shen.’ One, a man, she disregarded. Of the remaining two, Tian Shen’s listing listed her as ‘Senior Vice President – R&D. The other, Baozhai Shen, appeared to be a ‘Marketing Analyst II.’
“Tian Shen,” said Maya to herself.
She backed out of the menu system and dialed a private internal number she’d had to memorize years ago, which connected to the executive coordinator at Ascendant. The same woman she always called during business hours whenever she tried to reach Vanessa—when that woman had still been Mom.
Mrs. Kerry answered in three beeps, pale, a little heavy on the makeup, and smiling. She appeared more exhausted than usual, but brightened within a second of the video feed starting. “Oh, Maya! Hello sweetie!” She gasped. “Are you okay? Are you hurt? There’s so many rumors going around. Did someone kidnap you? Are you being forced to make this call?”
Maya offered a pleasant smile. “I’m all right, Mrs. Kerry. Can you please connect me to Miss Tian Shen? Vanessa Oman wants me to give her a surprise call for her birthday on behalf of Ascendant.”
“Oh, that’s adorable. Your mother’s so thoughtful.”
You poor, confused woman. “Yes.” Maya flashed a big smile.
“I believe she’s here. Hold on a moment, I’ll put you through.”
The screen shifted to an Ascendant logo.
“Who is Tian Shen?” asked Genna.
“The woman who tried to have me killed,” muttered Maya. “Poison needle man was talking to her on the phone.”
A Chinese woman, later forties, long straight hair, black suit, appeared on the screen, her expression bewildered.
Maya’s over-saturated smile faded to a serious face. “Hello Miss Shen. As you can see, the men you hired to murder me have failed. Unfortunately for you, they’re also stupid. They forgot to take my minicomputer away when they abducted me. I have a recording of everything, including when Mr. Winnow called you to apologize for Ruiz being late.”
Miss Shen blinked, shaking her head. “Maya, I have no idea what you are talking about.”
“Oh, I think you do, and I also think you’re about to listen to the terms of my offer.”
“Why would I listen to your terms?” Miss Shen smiled. “Even if anything you say happens to be true, you would be like a mouse attempting to
negotiate with the cat.”
“Because my offer makes sense for you. It saves time, money, effort, and reduces risk. Also, we both get what we want.” Maya folded her arms. “I don’t want Ascendant. I know you’re the one who’s trying to take over. Mr. Winnow couldn’t even go to the bathroom without you on the phone telling him how to do it. I won’t take what you tried to do personally. I know you would’ve killed Vanessa and left me alone if I wasn’t in her will. But I don’t want the company. You can have it. I also don’t want to die.”
“I am not hearing any proposals, little girl.” Miss Shen quirked an eyebrow. “Only someone walking in circles.”
Maya smiled, as false as Vanessa’s ‘overjoyed mother’ act would’ve been. “Do whatever you have to do to. The company becomes mine due to the will. I sign documents transferring ownership to whomever you want. Then, I walk away, and no one ever learns of your involvement in my attempted murder or that you had anything at all to do with whatever unfortunate event happens to Vanessa Oman.”
“Hmm.” Miss Shen rubbed a finger back and forth across her lips.
“There’s one more thing I need.” Maya held her head up. “I want the formula for Xenodril. Detailed production specifications.”
Miss Shen gasped. “Are you mad, girl? That is a flagship product.”
“Ascendant produces at least thirty medical products that no one else does. Medical supplies vital for life that are not cheap. The only reason Xenodril is a flagship product is because Ascendant is releasing Fade all over the world. It’s not aliens; it never was. It’s a pay-us-or-die profit scheme on a global scale. In exchange for me giving you Ascendant, there is no more Fade. Xenodril becomes a common market drug that everyone makes, so there is no gain in killing people.”
“You don’t understand, child. Ascendant is cleansing this sick world. We are serving a vital purpose. We are the flies that clean the carcass this planet has become. That there is profit to be made when wind shifts is a pleasant side effect.”
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