“Yeah.” Mason’s voice carried its own emptiness now. “Yeah, I can understand that. Okay, so we’ll stop grilling you, Vi. Redeye can tell us the rest when we get there. You sure she’ll talk to us when we do?”
Violet bobbed her head. “Thanks,” she said. “And yeah, I think she will. I mean, don’t get me wrong, she’s crazier than the rest of us in many ways, but at the same time she’s the sanest. It’s her particular combination of the two that makes her so great.”
The conversation faded after that, and Bobbi found herself just sitting in the back opposite Scalli who loomed over her. He had his visor up, finally, though his dark eyes were far away. He was grimmer than she’d ever seen him, though she figured she knew the reason why. None of this was easy for anyone, and though she was angry that she didn’t know nearly as much about him as she thought she had. She just couldn’t get mad enough to grill him over it.
Eventually, though, it was Scalli who spoke. “I used to work for Alliance Resources when I was younger,” he said, his voice just loud enough to be heard over the truck’s engine. “Company militia.”
Bobbi looked at him for a moment. Alliance was one of the largest mining and drilling concerns going in the last forty years, back during the end of the American Crusade when half the viable oil fields in the Middle East had gotten nuked into glass; it was Alliance that bought up half the failing oil companies, Alliance who established seafloor mining and hydrogen fuel as the mainstay of the world’s commuter energy concerns. They were also famous for having a very hardcore corporate security machine— paramilitary at the very least. Had Scalli been lying to her after all? “You told me that you hadn’t been military,” she replied, and though she tried she couldn’t entirely keep it from sounding like an accusation.
“I don’t consider it military,” he said. “Military suggests you’re doing something for a state, a cause; this was just corporate security, however you want to dress it up. I signed up with Alliance when I was a kid, mustered into the security forces, and was good at my job. Went all over the place— Ghana, Mozambique, Mongolia, China, Marianas Complex One. Most were pretty boring, but I saw a lot of action in some places. Corporate saboteurs, takeover forces, the kind of stuff they never talk about on the news.”
“I see.” Bobbi frowned at her lap. “All right, well, that explains the training. What about that suit of yours? You told me it was an augment job, not some kind of armor.”
“No,” he said, “you assumed that it was an augment job. I got this thing through my connections and a lot of cash. The way our conversation was, you came up to me, cocked your hips and said, ‘I never saw a dude wear his ego on the outside before. Where’d you get that surgery’?” He grinned at her now, remembering her as she was then— this skinny kid with the bright red hair, the new curves that she was just getting used to.
She couldn’t help but smile back, remembering that. “And you said, ‘Girl, you got no cause to be bagging on me about surgery.’ I think I might have wanted to punch you.”
“But you didn’t,” he said with a chuckle. “And we’ve been friends since.” It was nice, listening to him laugh. He never really did much, and lately least of all. “The truth is that I was good friends with a Japanese black arms dealer. Muscle suits like this are largely illegal tech out of Yakuza labs. When I left Alliance, I got a big payout for my service – and, I’m a little embarrassed to say, to keep me quiet about a lot of things I saw while working in Africa. Since I wanted to get into private security, it was a huge coup for me.”
“And because it looks like a muscle job, nobody questioned it?”
Scalli nodded. “That’s basically it. The density is analogous to human muscle, and it’s nonmetallic. You’d have to cut me open to see what it was.”
“Or shoot you,” she pointed out.
“Yes, but it’s self-healing.” Scalli shrugged, looking down at the wound in his “stomach.” “This will be sealed back up in a few days.”
Bobbi shook her head. “You’re one hell of a surprise, buddy. I guess I’ll have to start paying you more when all this is over with, now that I know what kind of talents you’re bringing to the table.”
He smiled again, but it didn’t last for long. A few moments later his expression settled back into a frown and Scalli took a deep breath. “I told Mason about the whole thing.”
Bobbi nodded a bit. “I know you did,” she said. “He told me. And that’s fine; I trust your judgment.”
Scalli let out a deep breath. “I’m glad to hear that. I figured you’d be pissed with me.”
“What I’m pissed about is that we got sidetracked and Diana tried to kill me,” she said with a shake of her head. “Look, Scalli, we’ve got to talk about that.”
“Well, sounds to me like you handled it just right.” Scalli reached out with a wide hand, rested it on her shoulder like Mason had, only he gently stroked a circle there rather than squeeze her. “You okay?”
“Not a bit,” Bobbi said. “I didn’t want to kill anyone.”
“You didn’t have a choice.”
“I know.” Bobbi shook her head. “But it’s not what you think, Scalli. It’s…” She took a deep breath and stole a look at the open cab hatch, then leaned closer to speak so that only he could hear her. “Diana wasn’t human, all right? She was one of them.”
That raised his eyebrows. “Are you sure?”
“Yes, I’m sure!” She took a moment to keep her tone down, swallowing the volume into her gut. “She fucking told me, man! Was just saying how she was going to drill me in the face, and had gotten Mason to ace you, too. That’s why I killed her, and that’s why you and I need to be really fucking careful as to where we’re going and who we’re taking with us.” Bobbi shook her head. “Fuck. Might as well just give me her pistol, if you’ve got it.”
“I thought you didn’t do the shooting thing,” Scalli said. Making it sound like she’d declared she was going to start shooting up Shard right away, not sure if she was serious, a warning edge in his tone without making it a lecture.
“I said I didn’t want to kill anyone,” Bobbi said. “And I ended up doing that with a nerve crusher, Scalli. Fuck it, you might as well give me the real thing since the crusher’s dead, so I can defend myself. Shit’s way crazier out here than I thought it was going to be.”
He looked at her for a long moment. “I don’t know,” he said.
“Come on, Scalli,” she said, “I know how to use one. I’m not going to blow a hole through my own head.” It was hard, the way he swung between older brother and wanna-be boyfriend. Bobbi held her hand out, waiting. Eventually he took her pistol out of his pocket and put it in her hand, the weapon large in her small palm and delicate fingers.
“There’s two mags with it,” he told her, and produced them. “Sixteen rounds, nine-millimeter caseless.”
“I appreciate it,” Bobbi said, and took the magazines in the other hand. She put them away in the belly pocket of jumpsuit. She looked at the pistol; bright and polished, death mate of mirrored steel. Strange weapon for a survivalist type like Diana to have carried. Bobbi read the letters printed along the side: “SIG-SAUER C107 Cal. 9mm.” It was burst-capable, making it military. Most service guns had a burp mode now. “Pretty,” she said, then checked the magazine to ensure it was full and made sure the safety was on before she slid it into the still-intact pouch on her right thigh. “Thanks, Scalli.”
“Yeah,” he said with a nod. “No problem. I just hope you don’t have to use it.”
“So I guess we’re getting close to the end of this,” Bobbi said just then. She looked at him sitting there, his expression having changed back to the same background frowning. Thinking about it too.
“Big fucking question mark,” Scalli said. “I don’t know, girl. It’s still something not terribly anchored in reality, is it? All that shit happened in the city, we find out it’s what, the Great Alien Satan, plugging itself into people and converting them. And then we’re out h
ere sending messages to the queen of the crazy ladies, only she’s supposed to be able to perform an exorcism.” He shook his head. “Should’ve stuck with private security. Even the kinkiest of those dudes were charming compared to all of this.”
Bobbi smirked a little. “Yeah,” she said, “you’re right, it’s completely fucked.” She’d had a long two years; she didn’t even try to make out like it sounded sane or even closely connected to reality. What was the point? She didn’t have a frame of reference to things that sat in your brain and drove you around because you didn’t have hope at some point in your life. “I don’t know, Scalli. It’s crazy. It’s got to end, though, and I think that’s really the only thing that’s truly important here. We’re the ones in this situation, though, so we have to do what we can with what we’ve got.”
“Yeah,” he said, and he looked at her. “My name’s Marcus, you know.”
“Your name’s Scalli, too,” she said, but leaned over and patted his knee. “I call you that because everyone else calls you by your first name. My way of showing affection.”
“Ah.” He smiled a bit again. “Well, I’m glad there’s that at least. You ready to face the queen of the nutjobs?”
“Not even a little.” Bobbi shrugged. “Again, no choice. As long as we get out of this alive, intact and sane I’ll be happy.”
“I hear you there, girl,” said Scalli, and he shook his head.
The coming night threw its violet stain across the sky, made all the more dark and muted through the gauzy clouds. They proceeded across an overpass overlooking an industrial park on the far southwestern side of Renton, out near the border where the interstate began and stretched out into the wet green of the forests.
Bobbi looked at the park that crumbled away nearby. Swallowed by a tall fence, the tangles of long-abandoned chemical tanks and pipes rotted slowly, chewed by the thoughtful teeth of entropy as the years passed on. The rusting skeletons of sheds and warehouses stood in silent rows. Plumes of thin smoke rose from somewhere among them, and visible amid the corroded structures were the glowing pinpoints of campfires.
“Jesus,” muttered Bobbi as she looked out through the shutter. “We’re really out in the boonies now.”
“I don’t see why they stay in the city,” said Mason. “I mean why not spread out into the countryside?”
“What about Cagliostro?” Scalli was shifting in the back, getting his web gear arranged. “Does the old beast have anything to say about it?”
Bobbi snorted. She had tried to connect to the network again while they were traveling over, while she could still run off a car’s electrical system and not worry about draining her terminal’s battery. “He’s not answering,” she said. “Well, not in the flesh. Has an auto-answer routine running saying that he’ll be here when the time is right.”
“Christ,” Mason said, and shook his head in disbelief. “And some folks wonder why people gave up on God. Even the digital ones don’t answer when you call to them.”
Violet gave Mason a sharp look, but she didn’t answer. Instead she parked the truck in the middle of the road and killed the engine. “We’re here,” she said. “Come on.”
Bobbi and Mason looked at each other. “We’re on top of an overpass,” Mason said.
“Yes.” Violet opened her door and got out.
Mason gave Bobbi a last look and shrugged before getting out also. “Well,” Bobbi said to Scalli, shaking her head. “Here goes nothing.”
“Here goes everything, you mean,” said Scalli. He reached up for his visor, but Bobbi put her hand on his.
“Don’t. They’ll probably want to look into your eyes.”
He blinked. “Why?”
“To see if you’ve got Yathi in you. They can tell, remember?”
Scalli stared at her a moment. “Yeah,” he said, and got up to undo the bar across the back doors.
The truck’s doors swung open, and the two of them stepped out onto the stained blacktop of the overpass. The air smelled wrong from the start. There was a certain smell, like a chemical fire, something Bobbi struggled to recognize.
“We’ve come on a good night,” said Violet. Her expression had changed into one of fervent reverence once again, like a goblin at a tent revival. “They’ve got themselves some of the Others.”
“Drones?” Bobbi blinked at her.
“Maybe,” Violet said, then she grinned. Mason frowned at the sight of her horrible teeth. “You can smell them burning them down in the pits. C’mon, let’s go down. She’ll be in a good mood tonight.”
Mason frowned a bit more. He could do grim like Scalli, hands down. “Who’ll be in a good mood?”
“The Eye, of course. Let’s go.”
Violet led the three of them down the overpass some twenty feet before coming to a gap which had been cut in the rusting safety rail. A chain ladder had been anchored with bolts and thrown over the edge. “It’s this way,” she told them, “Come on.” She turned and began to clamber down the ladder without ceremony, leaving the lot of them to look at each other. Finally Bobbi shrugged.
“Well,” she said, “there’s no point in fucking around with it. C’mon, let’s go meet Lady Crazyface, you guys.”
“You sure about this?” Mason frowned at the ladder, which chimed as the slip of a feral made her way down.
Bobbi had already crouched down at the edge. “Don’t worry, Harry,” she said in a deadpan tone, “I promise I’ll protect you.” She slipped over the edge and started to make her way down.
Mason stared at Scalli. “I don’t know how the hell you do it, man,” he said.
Scalli shrugged. “I guess I’m just a glutton for punishment. C’mon, let’s go save humanity.” His rock of a body made the ladder groan as he too joined the descending party.
“Fuck,” Mason muttered to himself before making toward the edge. “I’m going to get myself fucking killed.”
Violet was waiting for them as they made their way down to the street below. “We have to walk from here,” she explained. “Even someone tending a shrine will get shot down if we came in a truck. They saw me, though. Otherwise we’d have eaten a rocket by the time we parked.”
“Wonderful,” Mason muttered as they walked toward the ruined park. “Nuked off the road by a feral with a surplus RPG,” he muttered. “That’s a way to go.”
“Watch it, Mason,” Bobbi said shrewishly, looking over her shoulder at him. “You’re scaring the women.”
Mason opened his mouth to speak, but closed it without a word. Scalli snickered.
The four of them walked toward the park in silence after that, while the smoke coiled skyward and the peculiar burnt-metal smell of what Violet had told them were Yathi corpses. Questions turned over and over in Bobbi’s mind as they went. What was going on in there? Would they show up just to find a band of slavering crazies wanting to add them to the roast? She didn’t relish the idea of having herself gutted and strung up for the pleasure of the hooting fuckwits. Then again, knowing the way the world went it would be the craziest that would treat them like family. She really hoped so; there was no way they were shooting their way out of a place like this, not after they got the attention of Redeye and her little army. There wasn’t enough ammunition in the world.
They passed the border fence, the open gates, and entered the park. The bones of industry loomed around them, glowering like the silhouettes of ancient monsters long since left the world. Somewhere in the dark, eyes were watching them; Bobbi could feel them, and from the guarded expressions that Mason and Scalli wore. In any other situation they would have their guns out and ready for violence, but now they all walked carefully behind Violet who was quite at her ease. These were her people, after all. Again Bobbi’s thoughts went back to the possibility of their being led to the slaughter by the maimed woman. The pistol in her belly pocket felt heavier and heavier the closer they got to the light that they had seen from the overpass – it was there that Violet was leading them.
They wa
lked along endless weaveworks of pipe, between warehouses and among the great silent giants of containment tanks. Their feet crushed gravel and withered grass. All the while their backs were watched by silent eyes from shadowed corners, or from the high perches of maintenance catwalks. All the while the smoke grew nearer, the acrid smell ever stronger in their noses. It was a difficult road to walk, but they had no choice now. They could only discover what was at the end of it now.
“We’re almost there,” Violet said as they neared what Bobbi thought was the center of the industrial park. They stood before a small industrial building made of beams and sheet steel, the side of which had been cut away by a madman with a torch – or blasted away, perhaps. One really couldn’t tell. Inside, among the corpses of dead machinery, an elevator shaft lead down into parts unknown. The glow that had persisted from afar was rather bright now, flooding up from the wire walls of the shaft and from places elsewhere. The chemical smell here was thick, so much so that the lungs rebelled to breathe the same air which it befouled.
“Fucking shit,” said Mason, rubbing at his throat. “If it gets any worse I’m afraid we’ll puke our lungs up before we even get in, much less get killed by Redeye.”
Violet gave Mason another dirty look. “It isn’t toxic,” she said, “just unpleasant. It’s their blood; the white stuff burns away and leaves the smell behind. You want bad, wait until some of these implants they have go up. I hear one time they got a combat model and tossed it into a furnace when they were camping in a factory. Took out a whole floor.”
“Wonderful.” Mason shook his head, but he didn’t say anything else.
Bobbi looked quietly between the three of them and stepped up past Mason to stand shoulder to shoulder with Violet. “All right,” she said, “so, I get the feeling that we’re here. Is there anything we need to know, Violet?”
“Just that you need to keep quiet until you’re spoken to,” said Violet, who looked at Mason again. “That means everybody. You don’t want to irritate anyone once we’re down there.”
Redeye (The Wonderland Cycle Book 2) Page 27