Killswitch

by Victoria Buck

  32

  The next time Chase opened his eyes, an ashen cloud cover had overtaken the blue sky. Mel leaned against his shoulder, her breathing heavy, her computer pushed to the side on the seat. Switchblade drove on in silence. A few snowflakes touched down on the windshield and then melted away. Seemed too early in the season for snow.

  “Switchblade, you doing all right up there?”

  “Aside from your obnoxious snoring, I’m doing just fine. We’ll be home in ten minutes.”

  “Great.” He stretched and yawned. Mel nuzzled closer but didn’t wake. Chase studied the view out the window to his side. Along the bleak horizon where gray hills met the gray sky, a single drone flew in the same direction the car traveled. At the same speed, it seemed. It appeared to be about a mile away and it flew close to the ground. Chase stretched as far as he could with Mel resting on his shoulder and looked out the back windshield. Not a car in sight.

  “Hey, do you see that drone?” he whispered.

  “Been out there for the last hour. Figured it was headed back to the plant. Maybe somebody got more drones than they needed, considering they never ordered any drones to begin with.”

  “Slow to a stop. Let’s see what it does.”

  Switchblade checked the side mirrors. Then the car dropped its speed. In seconds they were sitting still in the middle of the country road.

  And the drone stopped too. It hovered for a moment before it repositioned and headed toward them.

  “Oh, crap. What do I do now?” Switchblade yelled.

  Mel sat up and grabbed Chase’s arm. “What’s going on?”

  “We’ve got company.” Chase pointed out the window.

  Mel grabbed her computer. “Switchblade, drive.”

  “Where to? It’s coming after us.” The car lurched forward and then sped up.

  The small computer in Mel’s lap surged to life, and she pulled up a map of the local terrain. “There’s a road just over the next hill. It turns off to the right and ends up at the entrance to some caverns. We’ll ditch the car and hide in a cave.”

  Switchblade increased his speed. “And get trapped? This thing is probably already calling for backup. We’ll never get away if we end up cornered.”

  Chase looked at the screen on the laptop. It still registered his location. “Can’t you get that thing to stop tracking me?”

  “No. I tried,” Mel said. “I can’t throw them off, Chase. You were the only who could pull stunts with the Feds.”

  Chase put his hands on the sides of his head and let out a groan. “I can’t believe this.” He slammed his fist into the backside of the driver’s seat.

  “You calm yourself down, Charlie. I know you’re missing Sparky. Right now we gotta do what we can to get out of this.” Switchblade veered to the right when he reached the hilltop. “You think we should wait it out in a cave?”

  “Why not?” Chase threw his hands up. Then he had an idea. A human thought and nothing more. “Yeah, take the road to the cave.”

  Switchblade made the turn too sharp and the car’s left wheels came off the ground and then dropped back with a thud. The drone was still a good half mile away, which meant they had about half a minute.

  The old boarded-up entrance to what used to be a roadside attraction for spelunkers fell into view.

  “Stop here,” Chase said. The red dot still flashed on the computer screen. “Melody, leave the laptop in the car.” Chase flung his door open. “Come on—get out! Run!”

  Mel and Switchblade followed his example and jumped from the car. They all ran for the cave. The entrance was overgrown with vines. Boards were nailed across to keep out trespassers. It took Switchblade’s strength, not Chase’s, to pry the wooden planks loose.

  Chase grabbed Mel’s hand and pulled her into the darkness. Switchblade followed. They ran maybe forty yards before they heard the explosion. Then silence. Waiting for the sound of more forces coming for them, their backs against a cold rock wall, they didn’t move. Light from what must have been the burning car crept into the cave and lit their faces.

  The fire died down at last and Chase eased to the front of the cave.

  “Where are you going?” Mel asked. “Don’t go out there.”

  “I’ll just take a look.”

  “Not without us, Charlie.” Switchblade ran after him. Mel caught up and took Chase’s hand. They stood together at the mouth of the cave. Nothing. No sounds of drones or vehicles on the ground. Chase perused the parking area. The car was still there. Undamaged. The drone, what was left of it, lay in a smoldering heap. He stumbled to the car and opened the door. From the back seat the computer flashed a number. A code.

  32-7.

  33

  “The exoself,” he whispered. “Hey, old friend.” He picked up the laptop and carried it back to Mel and Switchblade. “It’s here. It’s been right here the whole time.”

  “Chase, what are you talking about?” Mel asked.

  “Your computer sparked the protection code. It blew up the drone. Like I did in Atlanta.”

  “Sparked?” Switchblade asked. “You mean to tell me you think Sparky is holed up in Melody’s computer?”

  Chase flipped the screen around and showed them the number. “It left its signature. How else could you explain what just happened?”

  “How come it took so long for the Feds to track you? You’ve been close to that computer since we found you in the truck.” Switchblade circled him, staring at the small laptop.

  Mel took the device from Chase and hit a few keys. “I think it was my fault they found us.” She glanced up. “After we left Gagnon, I started trying codes to figure out how the killswitch got activated. I must have inadvertently disabled whatever the computer—the exoself—was doing to hide us. Well, to hide you, Chase.”

  Switchblade crossed his arms and then ran his hand across his face. “You’re buying this? You really think the exoself is in your computer?”

  “It makes sense,” Mel answered. “The whole time I was running code I was getting updates from different branches of the underground. Information I wasn’t requesting. It just kept coming. Whatever I did to open us up to being tracked must have corrected itself when the drone got near.”

  “I don’t know, Mel.” Chase took the laptop from her, pushed the screen shut, and held it to his chest. “Maybe you didn’t interrupt the code. People are still looking for me. Maybe they got into the system long enough to catch my location.”

  “It’s possible,” Mel said.

  “Then they know where we are,” Switchblade said. “And the drone probably sent an image of the car.”

  “You’re right about the car, but I’m willing to bet the exoself scrambled the coordinates and they’ve lost our location. That must be what happened when the truck crashed. The exoself put me somewhere else.”

  “No, man, that’s crazy. They knew you was in the truck,” Switchblade said. “Been nagging on me for two days. Why didn’t they pick you up when they had the chance?”

  “What if one of the men from the truck was chipped?” Mel eyes were wide with realization as she stared at the drone. “Either Kirel or the one of the other two that didn’t die in the crash. The exoself could have moved the tracker to him. They thought they had you when they got them. I mean, you could’ve altered your appearance. Or the guy could have been bloodied and unconscious and they only thought it was you. Until they delivered the wrong guy.”

  Chase could see the possibility. But it was all so bizarre. Not likely one of the men involved in his kidnapping had been chipped. They were dissenters. But there was a chance. “It makes sense, I guess,” he said. “In a way.”

  “No way this makes sense,” Switchblade yelled. “Only thing we know for sure is there are Feds on our trail. We have got to ditch the car and destroy that computer.” He pulled a gun from the backside of his waistband.

  “Where did you get that?” Mel asked.

  “Pilot lady gave it to me before she kicked me off he
r plane.”

  Chase pulled the laptop closer. “No, Switchblade. I have to get the exoself back. And right now it’s inside here.” He rapped his hand against the bottom of the computer. “You are not putting bullets in it.”

  “It’s the only way, Charlie.” He stretched out his arm and pointed the gun. “Chase,” he said, “I gotta do this. Or they’ll track us all the way to Blue Sky Field. That little computer is fighting hard to throw them off, but they’re gonna find us.”

  “Chase, baby, listen to him. He’s right.” Mel put her arm around him and took hold of her laptop.

  “You don’t understand, Mel. It’s a part of me.”

  “No, it’s not. It’s a bunch of code. It’s not alive, Chase. You can’t kill it. If it managed to find a hiding place then we can only hope it’ll do it again.”

  “If it’s not alive, then how did it hide itself?”

  “I don’t know.” She leaned close. “Please. Give it to me.”

  “Enough of this coddling,” Switchblade said. He shoved Chase against a slab of black rock. Then he jerked the laptop from Chase’s grip and threw it to the ground.

  Mel grabbed onto Chase and held him as Switchblade raised the pistol and put three bullets in the computer. It bounced off the ground with each assault until a gaping hole showed the cold ground under it. Like the hole blasted through Chase when the WR took his life. When they made him a transhuman.

  Now there was truly nothing left of him. Except for the artificial organs that would keep him alive much longer than he cared to live.

  He pulled free from Mel and shuffled back into the cave.

  “Let him go,” he heard her say. “Give him a minute. And power down your VPad.”

  Did she think the exoself would find refuge in a VPad? That was ridiculous. Chase dropped to the hard ground and rested his head on knees. They could just leave him here. He didn’t want to go on.

  But soon his minute alone was over. They both lowered themselves to the ground, Switchblade to his left, Mel to his right.

  “Man, I’m sorry,” Switchblade said. “I didn’t see no other way. Amos sort of appointed me your bodyguard, and I’m gonna do what I have to do to protect you. Like Sparky would.”

  “Don’t talk to me,” Chase said. “Either one of you.”

  Mel put her hand on his arm but he pushed her away.

  “Chase, we’ve got to get out of here,” she said. “That car out there, hopefully, is the only link they have to you right now. They’ll be looking for it and we have to get moving.”

  “This is my own personal branch of the underground now. Let them find me. But you two go on. It’ll be dark soon. Stay in the woods until you get close to town. Good luck.”

  What was left of daylight lit the cave well enough for Chase to see the tears streaming down Mel’s cheeks. Her shoulders shook. A sob rose from her throat. Then she wiped her face and took a breath.

  “Fine,” she said. “Stay here.” She stood and stepped a few feet away, then faced him. “You are the most self-centered man I’ve ever known. And you’re a coward. I don’t know why they picked you for their idiotic transhuman experiment. You can’t program bravery into a man. Or dedication. The exoself didn’t do anything to make you understand that you are not the center of the universe. You’re still the same old Chase Sterling. The most influential man in the Western Republic. Well, I don’t need that kind of influence in my life.”

  She rushed out of the cave.

  The two men sat in silence. “Girl has got a temper,” Switchblade said a last. “Kind of makes me glad I didn’t end up with her.”

  “You heard what she said. She’s through with me, so give it a shot. And I’m through with you. Get out of here.”

  He cocked the gun. “Don’t think so, Charlie. Gotta get you back home tonight. Remember?”

  “You’re not going to shoot me. Anyway, you already killed me.”

  “Man, I didn’t kill nobody. You heard what Melody said—the exoself is probably already hiding in some other computer. We got a whole command center of machines at Blue Sky Field. Sparky could be there waiting for you.”

  “And what if that’s true? The Feds will show up the next time there’s a glitch in the system. Go shut the whole blasted place down. This is over.”

  “No, it ain’t over. It’s just messed up. And you’re the only one who can fix it. You gotta come back and figure this thing out. You know the exoself. You’re the only one it’ll listen to.”

  “It’s too hard. I’m just a gameshow host and I don’t like this game. I’m afraid of what will happen if I fail.” He smirked. “I’ve already failed.”

  “Get. Over. Yourself. And don’t be afraid,” Switchblade told him. “Don’t be afraid.”

  34

  Switchblade’s words were a kick in the gut. Chase was afraid. Maybe more than he’d ever been before in his life.

  “I can’t go on like this,” he told the man who’d just destroyed his chance of getting back the only thing useful about being a transhuman. “I’m done.” His arms and legs were weights he couldn’t lift. His mind replayed the sight of the laptop coming apart as the bullets hit. And Mel’s expression as she left him there. What happened to all her talk of forgiveness? What was it she said? Seventy times seven. The Bible got a person just so far, he guessed. She’d had enough of him.

  Switchblade jumped up and grabbed Chase by the arm. “I will carry you if I have to. I’ll knock you over the head and drag you out of here.” He pulled Chase to his feet. “Or you can walk. Your choice.”

  Chase shook off the big hands that held on to him and trudged toward the mouth of the cave. “The WR couldn’t keep me from running and neither can you.” He found Mel squatting beside the laptop, picking through the pieces. She glanced at him, but wasted no time looking away.

  Switchblade hurried behind him. “Come on, Miss Melody. Load that mess in the duffle bag if you want to. We gotta go now.” He reached into the driver’s side of the car and pulled the trunk release.

  Mel gathered the broken shards of her laptop and stuffed them in the bag. She had nothing to say before she started walking up the road.

  Switchblade lifted the bag over his shoulder and went after her. Chase tried to follow but his legs seemed heavy as lead. He stopped in front of the smoking drone. A flicker of fire still rose from the center. Grabbing a broken branch from the ground, he held it to the flame. Then he carried it to the car, pulled the lever that opened the hood, and lit fire to the electrical system. He went to the open car door and threw in the branch, starting a second fire. His legs found the strength to walk away before flames engulfed the vehicle.

  Switchblade and Mel turned around and watched the car burn as Chase caught up with them.

  “You got rid of the car but you lit up the sky,” Switchblade said. “That is not gonna keep the Feds away.”

  “Doesn’t matter. They know by now that the drone exploded. What difference does a little more smoke and flames make?”

  Switchblade shook his head and continued walking. “If it doesn’t make any difference, you didn’t need to do it.”

  “I’ve decided to make it my trademark. When I leave one of my screwed up messes behind, I start a fire.” Chase followed Switchblade.

  Mel still hadn’t said a word.

  “Oh yeah, you’ve done this before,” Switchblade said. “I heard about Underground Atlanta. What’d you set on fire down there?”

  “Six cyber-guards and two dead men.”

  “Sorry I asked,” Switchblade said.

  They walked in silence as the sun disappeared. Leaving the road, they headed into unfamiliar woods with no technology to lead the way. Mel and Switchblade each carried a sleeping VPad. They didn’t dare wake them up, even though they were undetectable. At least, they were the last time Chase ran a check. Things had changed.

  “I don’t guess you know where we are or where we’re going,” Chase said to anyone who cared to answer.

  No surpr
ise—it was Switchblade who responded. “In the daylight, I might be sure we were headed northeast. In the dark…”

  “How far were we from town the last time you checked your VPad?”

  “Little less than six miles to the museum.”

  “Six miles on the road,” Chase said. “It could be ten miles through the forest. That is, if we even knew we were going in the right direction.”

  The moon lit the night well enough for them to see where to take the next step. Chase and Switchblade agreed they should go back and stay within sight of the two-lane byway, but remain near the dark edge of the woods, hidden from view. Mel didn’t have anything to say about the plan. She just followed. Chase stayed clear of her.

  Three vehicles passed several minutes apart. Self-drives—small ones. Each time one of the hydro-powered cars neared, Chase and his traveling companions ducked into the trees. So far, if any monitors picked up on them, the people in the cars didn’t seem to care.

  Maybe they should try hitchhiking. Chase had relied on the kindness of strangers before. They were so far past their expected arrival time that the believers at Blue Sky Field must be worried. They might have already sent somebody out to look for them. An old pick-up truck might be coming down the road to bring them in.

  But there weren’t any supporters left up top in Herouxville. “Yeah, and whose fault is that?” Chase tipped his face to the sky. It’d take hours to summon a vehicle from farther away.

  “Who are you talking to back there, Charlie?”

  “He talks to himself,” Mel said. “Ignore him.”

  “For your information, I was talking to God,” Chase told her.

  “Oh, really?” Mel stopped at the edge of a drop-off—they’d followed the road but the terrain was higher now. “My mistake. Most people who talk to God have a little more faith than you do.”

  “What would I know about faith, huh?” He lunged at her. “I don’t know anything about this faith you all share. Because none of you bothered to tell me about it.”

  “Charlie…Chase, back off,” Switchblade said. “It’s been a little intense since you arrived, and none of us is too good at talking about this. The law sort of tied our tongues.”