Scavenger: A.I.: (Sand Divers, Book Two)

by Timothy C. Ward

  “I can only hope,” Avery lashed out, whipping to face the doctor. “I put her life at risk.”

  “You can’t know,” Nedzad said. “There’s no way to prove he hasn’t only been pretending to join our fight against The Gov.” He pointed a finger at Avery. “My eye’s on your every step between here and The Gov’s death.”

  “You’ll need both eyes if you hope to have a chance at taking him down, so good luck with that.” To Rush, “The Gov only has plasma and nanos because of dirty sentries selling that which they gave oaths to defend. Who’s to say he isn’t one of them?”

  “That’s ridiculous,” Nedzad said.

  “Oh?” Avery asked. “Your wife had a sunbolt and, not twenty minutes after we arrived, you showed up at the front entrance. Sounds to me like he was guarding his territory,” Avery offered to Rush, then turned back to Nedzad. “Thought you’d offer help long enough to know our story, then waste us and reseal your assets? Need us to take The Gov out for you before you run back, or maybe you’re the one working with him. I mean, who else could better pay for three tanks full of plasma?”

  Dr. Hannu and Rush shared a glance, the doctor not offering a quick rebuke to Avery’s claim.

  “Not that I believe this,” Rush assured Nedzad, watching the large man clench muscles in what could be the few seconds he gave before jumping on Avery. “But those are coincidences which could—”

  “Prove nothing,” Nedzad said. “I didn’t know she had a sunbolt, and I’ve never been inside Fort Pope before you let me in.” Something like sadness washed over his anger. “Jules hid many things from me, and could have sold plasma to fund her secret endeavors.” He firmed his jaw and looked Rush in the eye. “But nothing about this rodent’s claims about me are true. Sentryhood is tighter than family. I would rather gut myself than betray you.”

  Rush let his eye contact hold with Nedzad to respect the gesture and the man he didn’t want to betray either. “And I’d do the same for Avery.”

  Avery showed his appreciation with a short nod.

  Rush nodded back, then glanced at the doctor. “I get that the stakes are high, but unless anyone has firm evidence that anyone in here is colluding with The Gov, please make like Cool and get back to paddling.” Rush returned to his periscope, adjusted his vision, and spotted a building taller than the rest approaching on their horizon. On the other side of the building was a glowing green shaft rising from rooftop to the sun-baked surface above. The suit tunnel. “There she is.”

  He pressed the lever to lift the ship. “I’m giving you all a pass, but if evidence presents itself I will make you pay. I truly hope I’m speaking to no one.”

  60 - Rush (8:40 am)

  The Republic Plaza was a straight up rectangle that dwarfed every building in sight. Inside, particles blurred with movement, but lacked the green glow of nano activity, let alone the vital colors of the living.

  “There’s no one there,” Rush said.

  “What?” Dr. Hannu asked

  “Nor are there M-MANs,” Rush added.

  “How is that possible?” Avery asked. “You said this is where they’d be.”

  “I don’t know,” Dr. Hannu said. “This is The Gov’s beachhead. Could be his people went back up to the surface. As to the M-MANs, maybe your friends didn’t go here. I don’t know.”

  “But there is movement,” Rush said. The walls shifted as though both in water and or as bricks being reset. “It’s…too careful, too directional to be settling. Someone is moving and altering the inside of the building, but is also shielded from my dive view.

  “Nedzad, any clue as to how they could do that?”

  “No, not really. The Depository is shielded by a charge that prevents diving through, but you also can’t see inside when it’s on. I can see inside, but don’t see people or M-MANs either.”

  As they closed within fifty meters, just past one hundred meters above the sand floor, the blueprint details began to clear. The most active movement within the building was up and down the stairwell and in the floors near it. The bottom floor entrance and the top floor corner attached to the glowing tunnel rising to the surface were also harbors of activity. Rush thought another option could be taking the submarine to the surface.

  “We could sail to the surface, docking low enough to keep the sub safe while swimming up in secret,” Rush said, raising their altitude past one hundred fifty meters above-floor.

  “Might have more problems on the surface,” Nedzad said. “Let’s take `er to the roof on the other side from the tunnel. Something is going on there, and we may not want to waste any more time before confronting it.”

  “Okay.” Rush took the Wayfinder in a wide birth up along the western side of the building. Whatever concealed the activity inside did so on all sides of the building.

  He slowed the Wayfinder with decreased EM around her shell, coasting to a halt with only a meter between her bottom and the roof edge. They congregated at the ladder leading to the sub’s hatch, Rush in the lead. “Cool, I need you to stay here.”

  “No. Come on.”

  “It’s not safe.”

  “What’ll I do?”

  “Wait. I’m sorry, but if you come with and M-MANs infect you, you’ll just be another person I have to save. Let us focus all of our efforts on your brother and our friends.” With that, Rush climbed, leaving Cool scowling below.

  Rush touched the hatch with a charge and pushed it up into the sand, issuing a field to keep it bubbled and away from leaking inside. He, Avery, Nedzad, and the doctor swam out into the sand, Nedzad forming a pocket large enough for the doctor who only had a visor, no suit. Nedzad carried him, hooked arm under arm. Avery shut the hatch and they made their way to the roof.

  Rush pushed EM into a wedge in the roof’s corner and spread it wide enough for them to dive through. He passed into the resistance of concrete and metal, kicking and concentrating his EM strength, and fell through to the purple of open air. He spun forward, tucking knees to chest, and unpacking to land his front flip with soft knees and feet pounding the floor. His momentum popped him forward, but he managed his footing without falling.

  The room had a desk with its back to the window and bookshelves lining the two far walls, an open door between them.

  “Watch out!” Nedzad shouted above him. He and Dr. Hannu dropped from the pink EM pool in the ceiling.

  Rush backtracked and stepped under Dr. Hannu’s path. “I got him.” He squatted and caught Dr. Hannu as they fell together.

  Avery dropped in with the grace of a cat, a hand out for balance he didn’t need.

  Rush released his EM from the ceiling, then let go of Dr. Hannu and helped him off his back. Movement caught his eye. He looked up. Nothing. Stillness. Dock view.

  Three divers with visors down and rifles aimed at Rush and his group stood between him and the door. Before he could think how he hadn’t seen them the leader said, “Don’t move.”

  Rush lacked an immediate plan to take all three down without risking one of his crew being shot. “Okay.” These M-MANs were different than the ones in Cool and the doctor. Another strain had evolved and had yet to communicate their change to their kin. “We’re from Fort Pope,” he said, allowing a plan to unfold on the fly. “I’m Rush. W sent me to stop The Gov. I’m guessing by the fact that W somehow camouflaged your vitals that he has taken this location. Nice work, by the way, W.”

  Rush rose slowly, hands raised, palms out. “Have you made contact with The Gov? Any word on when he’ll arrive?” Rush looked at his crew. “It’s okay, guys. We’re on the same team.”

  Pointing at the doctor, he said to the divers with the guns, “This is Dr. Hannu. He still has a cover as The Gov’s nanodoc. We can use him to lure The Gov down. He said there were others from the first team to Denver Health.” To the doctor, “What were their names?”

  “Marco and Quake,” Dr. Hannu said.

  “Right,” Rush said, back to the leader. “Have they arrived?”

&n
bsp; “I remember our deal,” Warren’s voice echoed in through Rush’s ear piece. W appeared on his visor dash with a faint horizontal line down the middle. Private channel. “We rebuild this country together, but I get minds in return. I want the doctor’s. Prove we’re on the same team. Let me have him and I’ll open up Plaza Company to your leadership.”

  “No,” Rush said. “You don’t touch mine. That includes Jeff, Viky, and Jen. You need the doctor. I’ll let you speak to him, but you don’t get his mind.”

  Dr. Hannu stepped back. “You sure won’t,” he said to their leader.

  This wasn’t going to end peacefully.

  Rush charged EM into the books on both book cases.

  The three divers shifted as one, firing a rapid burst of gunfire into the books. Papier Mâché erupted into the air as their gunshots deafened pain into Rush’s ears.

  They shot books before shooting him? They can’t hurt us.

  Rush leaned forward and ran for the lead diver, building EM in his fists. Something hit him in his ribs and threw him off his feet.

  Avery shot a fist of EM into Nedzad’s back, dropping the heavy sentry to his knees.

  “Avery, no,” Rush gasped. A hard snake climbed over his neck, followed by twins over his arms and legs, squeezing him down into the melting floor. Breath coughed out and muscles pinched at the strength of the serpent’s grasp. It had a gray brick underside topped by the felt of the brown carpet, as unnatural as he could imagine, and just as lethal. As it flattened him on his back, he stretched his neck to see more serpents taking down Nedzad and Dr. Hannu.

  Into a private channel with the Wayfinder, he uploaded the message, Cool, go now.

  “Why, Av?” Rush coughed, straining to find the friend who never was.

  “Because you’re no longer useful,” W said into his ear piece.

  “Not for our new empire,” Avery said. “And not at my side.”

  A cold pool soaked his suit, passed inside, and seeped into his veins. The grip on his throat choked his ability to speak.

  What will you do with us? he thought-typed into his channel with W, hoping for a clue on what he could do to stop him.

  “Whatever The Gov wants,” W said. “It won’t be pretty. You embarrassed him. That’s one weakness in humans I’m glad to be rid of. I don’t care what you’ve done. I’ve learned from it, and now I’m going to the surface. The Gov is going to help me spread.”

  The weight of cold liquid in his veins immobilized him as much as the snake coil suit he’d been sewed into. His vision became a fog and his head and eyes grew too tired to ignore. Exhaustion buried him as the floor created a shell over his legs, stomach and chest. Why is he drugging me?

  Sleep washed over him without an answer.

  61 - Star (Monday)

  Star sweated and shivered inside her dive suit. Her water broke hours ago, though with Fish that had happened eight hours before he finally parted her legs. Still, he could come out again any moment. Her contractions were six minutes apart.

  Pain surged through her like a hot spear severing stomach to pelvis. She collapsed into the wall and then to the floor. Singer’s exoskeleton shielded her from the hardness of the tunnel concrete, planting its hand out to catch her fall.

  WE’RE ALMOST THERE. Singer referred to the stairwell entrance to the hospital. I DON’T WANT TO DELIVER THE BABY HERE.

  Star wasn’t sure how Singer intended to do that, nor did she know if she could climb and walk far enough to avoid it. Corded fingers squeezed her ovaries.

  Possibly worse, the plasma producing Twin Suns she’d left behind had fueled W’s M-MANs and living dead minions to steadily gain ground, first forcing her and a backpack of plasma capsules into the tunnels outside Fort Pope, and now chasing her as they dug and assimilated through the sections of tunnel Singer collapsed behind them.

  Thankfully, Singer’s supply of nutrients and water had abated her hunger and thirst for the last two days. Sleeping in a bed would have been nice, though. Her lower back was on fire.

  “I need more three.”

  NO. YOU WANT THIS BABY TO BE HEALTHY. I CAN’T HELP THAT IF YOU CONTINUE INGESTING N3. YOUR NANO LEVELS ARE ALREADY DANGEROUSLY HIGH.

  Star continued walking, slowly. “I hate you.” Singer was probably right, but she still hated her moment of weakness in giving him that power over her. The sudden growth in her stomach had evoked a fear unlike anything W could conjure in his dream machine. Fish was alive and growing inside her but silent as the dark.

  Her first morning sleeping in the tunnels, she’d woken with such a hangover and a sense of Fish’s pain enduring his mother’s pain, even if he remained silent in response to her calls. In that state she wondered if he was angry with her for the addiction to N3. You’re no better than Dad leaving you for drink and whores, she imagined him saying.

  She’d told Singer not to let her have any more N3 than was necessary not to die from withdrawal. He’d agreed and she’d only had seven pellets since. The last one was…probably less than an hour ago. The pit in her stomach and weakness stretching thin into her limbs made it feel like days since her last flare.

  YOU’LL HATE ME MORE IF I DON’T DO EVERYTHING IN MY POWER TO DELIVER A HEALTHY BABY AND MOTHER.

  In her loss of control of the living dead, and W’s sudden push into her nano territory, she’d tracked down Singer and plead for help. As W took over Fort Pope, he helped her out and then caught a whiff of Rush’s sweat. They’d followed that and the exhaust from the bike he must have found. She hadn’t had much strength to talk between throwing up and being tired enough to become forever rock, but one thing he had said was in his scan of the buildings above and their relation on the map, Rush somehow must have discovered the location of Denver Health.

  “I don’t want you opening me up down here. I’ll make it to a bed.” Her dive view of the tunnel ahead showed a stairwell leading to the open level above.

  Singer had been the strength of her legs, helping her flee Fort Pope and the progress W made into the tunnels, but her pregnant body had become too cramped to move that fast, even if driven by Singer’s power. Anger and stubbornness overcame pain as she struggled to the stairwell, up to the door opening to a garage spotted by curtain enclosed, temporary dwellings, and beyond to the tunnel leading into the hospital.

  Halfway, another contraction brought her to her knees. Tears shed as the shot bullet of agony ricocheted inside her stomach.

  As they exited, Singer released an EMP scan that lit a floor marked by sections of waiting areas and offices with mostly non-working equipment. Straight ahead was the one room with a few small, powered machines. There were no humans though, and the machines, a couple small devices on a shelf, didn’t look like enough for a place to rest and have her baby.

  I NEED TO INVESTIGATE THAT ROOM. DO YOU NEED ME TO GO ALONE? I COULD CARRY YOU, TOO, IF YOU’RE AT THAT POINT.

  The ten more steps she’d have to take felt likely to tear her in half. Her pride had taken her this far, but self-preservation was about to win out. “I’m gonna lie on one that couch. Come back and carry me when you find the place for me to give birth, if I haven’t already.”

  Singer propped her back, opened at the chest, lifted its helmet over her head, and folded backwards. The legs split open from shin to thigh. Star rested back and let Singer carry her in a crab walk to set her on a couch in the nearest waiting room. Dust puffed up as her weight rested into the scratchy cushion. She gingerly rolled onto her back as Singer’s fingers eased out under her.

  CALL ME IF YOU—

  A contraction seized her. She kicked her legs out and growled.

  I’LL BE BACK SOON.

  Singer left her, taking her sweet N3 with and leaving her to scream, sweat, and shiver. The pressure down there was a fresh reminder of Fish’s birth. He was coming soon. “Hurry!”

  Minutes which could have been hours later, Singer returned with Star still shaking from the last contraction. He lifted her gently and carried her in the same
side position she’d had on the couch. They turned, traveled thirty strides and stopped.

  HE WAS HERE.

  Star’s body was about halfway to another contraction. “Get me to a bed. This baby’s coming.” Rush, where are you? I could use your support right now.

  Singer moved. Ten strides into a new area his feet scratched over the floor. Star glanced down to see sand and footprints, some covered in a wash of shallow debris and sand. She stretched her neck to follow the footprints to see a tunnel carved by black rock into the sand surrounding the building’s exit. The tunnel reminded her of what Rush and Avery had made to get into Fort Pope, but they hadn’t brought the same tarps, and she didn’t remember him having a bolter anymore. “You think Rush did that?”

  COULD BE. NOT SURE HOW. Singer continued away from the tunnel. LET’S DELIVER THIS BABY, THEN I’LL GO FIND OUT.

  Singer took her toward an archway with Maternity Ward written above the doors. Yes!

  He paused inside the doors, then moved to the first room and set her on a bed made of clouds. She almost didn’t mind the dust that puffed up and made her cough. WE NEED TO TAKE YOUR SUIT BOTTOM OFF.

  Star unzipped and bore all in front of the metal exoskeleton with the blue light shining from its faceplate. The contraction came like thrown fists pushing her baby into a hole too small. Tears let out in the ripping of flesh.

  Four deeply agonizing pushes later, she heard Fish’s gurgling cry… Not Fish. Deeper. Different. She’d failed. Murderous anger became sadness as though joy crossed an ocean in the speed of light, never to be found again. This baby was hers, though. She couldn’t reject it. Not in the farthest reaches of her lost temper.

  Singer produced a blade, cut the umbilical cord and clamped a small piece of metal to stop the spurt of blood.

  Pain muted to manageable agony in the holding of her new son. His mouth opened, his tiny fingers stretched. She placed her nipple into the open space of his mouth and moved him around until he latched. His cries ceased. Her anxiety eased.