by Vanessa Muir
The alarm was a klaxon wail, accompanied by a flashing of the lights above them, but the hallways hadn’t instantly filled with guards. The most they encountered were the thump of boot heels, but always running in the opposite direction.
“Quicker,” Charlie whispered, dragging Levi along.
He’d gained strength since they’d set off through the winding halls, but he still wasn’t ready to run on his own yet. The alarm wailed, and they passed door after door, these untagged, now, some of them open and empty.
There were screens in one, a table and food in another, a few of the chairs toppled as if those in the facility had fled recently. All throughout, Charlie got the distinct impression that something had happened moments before they’d arrived.
“What’s going on?” she muttered. “Where is everyone?”
“I don’t know, but it must be big if they’ve abandoned their posts like this. This facility is... it’s one of Mem Store’s. We’ve been watching it for a while, but we’ve never gotten a mole on the inside."
“Then, you know which way to go when we get out?”
“Yes. Get me out of the building, and I can take us to Black Mars.”
His voice was filled with so much confidence, that it strengthened Charlie’s resolve.
They moved through the hall faster, Levi taking steps now, until, finally, he stepped out of her grasp completely and they ran alongside each other. Running didn’t hurt at all—Charlie didn’t lose her breath, nor have lungs that burned. She felt as if she could push herself to the limit and still keep going, but she held back.
MemXor had changed her, and she didn’t trust any of her tolerances yet.
They reached a T-junction in the passage and paused.
“Which way?” Charlie asked, glancing left and right, the halls were nondescript, but an image shone against one of them.
“Here,” Levi said and ran up to it. It was a screen, displaying information about the facility, from the times the employees checked in, to which sectors were closed and open, to general announcements.
Levi tapped through it, and a map opened on the screen. “We’re here, and the exit is... here. This way, follow me.”
They chased down the hallways again, wound along, until, finally, they burst through a pair of doors and into a passage that led to a set of glass doors.
Charlie’s stomach dropped. She recognized this place. It was the Mem Store facility she’d visited after Droggo Boersma had died. That glass wall let into the lobby area, which was now, shockingly, empty. Sunlight beamed through the windows, but outside of them, in the street, people sprinted past.
“What the hell is going on?” Charlie asked.
Levi shook his head, and they approached the doors that separated them from the lobby, slowly. The alarm was ongoing but distant, now, sounding from the open door they’d exited. They reached the lobby and pushed their way into it.
Papers littered the floor. The screens on the wall were blank. No one around.
Another person jogged by in the street, pumping hands back and forth, shaking their head from side-to-side on repeat. The individual came to a jarring halt and let out a feral shriek that penetrated the glass front of the Mem Store Facility.
The person trembled on the spot, tossed his head, and then charged off again and out of sight.
“What the hell?” Charlie moved forward, Levi keeping pace, and they peered out into the street.
All up and down it, shuttles lay on their sides, shop windows had been broken, and there were corpses in the street. A few of the city residents fought in a great swell at an intersection, tugging at each other, punching and biting, screaming.
“It’s the drugs,” Levi said, sounding resigned. “It has to be.”
“But everyone? All at once? It doesn’t make any—”
“There you are.” A voice that was all too familiar rang out from the other side of the lobby. They turned and found Eli walking toward them. He wore his SSG uniform and watch, and a sickly smile.
Another wave of anger rose in Charlie, and she struggled to keep it in check. Her hands balled into fists and released again, tightened and released.
“So, you managed to get free in the commotion?”
“What’s going on?” Levi asked. “Where is everyone?”
“I don’t know,” Eli replied, the flicker of a frown passing over his features. “But what I do know is that Absalon Shamood will pay handsomely for your recapture.”
“You can’t possibly believe that,” Levi said, jerking a thumb over his shoulder. “Have you seen what’s going on out there?”
“Chaos.” Eli drew his standard issue weapon and pointed it at Charlie. “Now, get over here, both of you. You’re coming with me.”
“No,” Charlie replied.
“What did you say?”
“You heard me, you piece of shit.” She’d put up with his ineptitude; she’d tried connecting with him for the sake of their cases and for her own, and he’d wound up being exactly who she’d thought he’d be. Worse than Jones. Fuck, at least Jones had had a backbone, even if it had been a psychotic one.
“You want me to shoot you, Spade?” Eli asked, smirking.
It was that look that did it—the smugness on top of everything that had happened.
Charlie strode right up to him and pressed the gun to her forehead. “Go ahead, Eli,” she said. “Shoot me. End my life, right now. That’s what you want, isn’t it?”
His lower lip trembled, but he didn’t squeeze the trigger. “What I want is success, and I’ll never get that with you around. Now, I’m on top of the world, and you’re nothing."
“And that, out there, is the world you want to be on top of?” Charlie asked, gesturing.
“It’s better than the alternative. In life, either you do the stepping or you get stepped on, and I’m done being stepped on.” Eli grabbed her by the arm and pulled her against his chest. He looped one arm around her throat, then aimed the gun at Levi. “And your friend here is going to come with us.”
“That was a bad idea,” Charlie muttered.
She rose up on her tiptoes, then snapped her head back. It connected with his nose—a sick-wet crunch of noise. Eli let out a low, shrill squeal. Charlie grabbed his wrist and twisted, the power of the MemXor emboldening her. The gun clattered to the floor.
“Do it,” Levi yelled. “And hurry, we have to go.”
Do it?
Charlie’s gaze fell to the gun. Do it. Could she?
“Bitch!” Eli shrieked. “I’ll make you pay for that.”
And Charlie found she could, after all. She swept a leg outward, connected it with the backs of his. He toppled onto the floor, groaning again.
“Quickly, Spade.” That from Levi, who was at the doors, now, and eyeing a spot up the street. The sounds of screaming drew closer. “We’re running out of time.”
Charlie lifted the gun from the floor, turned off the safety—Eli hadn’t even bothered—and directed it at her partner.
“No, don’t!” Eli raised his hands.
“Goodbye, Eli.”
A single pop of gunfire sounded, footsteps, and then silence but for the drip of Eli’s blood on the facility’s polished floor.
20
“It’s spread across all of Corden Prime.” The Black Mars operative, Cole, sat behind a desk at the headquarters, which was buried deep underground, accessible only by the network of sewer tunnels that the State had neglected for years.
“You’re sure about that?” Levi asked.
They were fully clothed, now, and had reached Black Mars late last night. Charlie had been afforded total privacy and comfort in a small room off the main sewer system. It stank to high hell, but she’d slept like a log, and while she did, they had monitored her.
Apparently, the effects of the MemXor had worn off. The mysterious injection remained, and the scientists of Black Mars were determined to get to the bottom of it.
Charlie pinched the bridge of her n
ose and leaned in, scanning the screen that Cole had brought up for them. It was a cycling shot of camera footage from across Corden Prime—everywhere, chaos reigned.
People attacked each other and fought until the bloody death of one or the other, sometimes both. In places where there were no people, loners stood staring off into the distance, unmoving, almost as if they’d reached a state of catatonia.
“Is it like this in the other regions?” Charlie asked, her throat dry though she’d been glugging water all morning.
“Not in Delta. They seem relatively untouched by it, but that’s likely because they’ve been cut off for years,” Cole replied and afforded them a view of the Delta Sector. It looked as dirty as it had been every other time Charlie had visited, but at least the streeters weren’t attacking each other there.
“So, it’s contained to Prime,” Levi said, quietly, and tapped his chin. “That indicates that it’s not an outbreak. It’s a release. Planned."
“What are you talking about?” Charlie asked.
“Think about it. The Delta sector residents took MemXor too, but they’re fine, and MemXor appears to be the only drug that can cause this type of behavior. Or... it’s a variant of MemXor. Something else that affects the Hippocampus.”
“Like an injection,” Charlie said, grinding it out.
“Clearly not the same injection they gave you. Or you’d be like the others.”
Charlie accepted a water from Cole, who’d rolled back in his seat and grabbed one from the fridge. She unscrewed the top and drank greedily, but it did nothing to quench her thirst, literally or metaphorically. It was past time she got into the cloud.
“I need access to that Memory Storage Cloud,” Charlie said. “You mentioned you’d be able to give me what I needed. Is that true?”
Levi and Cole exchanged a look, and Levi gave the barest of nods. “Yes,” he said. “That’s true. Cole here will help you get into the cloud, but... be careful, Spade. If there’s anyone still out there, watching...”
“I know.”
Charlie drew up a chair next to Cole’s and watched the operative work his magic. He was a young guy, wearing shabby clothes that looked to have been scavenged from somewhere. He was skinny and wan, but his eyes held the glow of fervor Charlie had only seen once before. In the mirror in her apartment, back when she’d started at SSG and truly believed in the State’s cause.
“Here,” Cole said and leaned back. “Put in the code.”
Charlie did as she was told, typing it out with one finger, her breath catching in her throat. This was it, what she’d been waiting for, all along. The answer that would bring them down.
The file opened up, and Charlie gasped. There were pictures, reports, and videos. She opened the first on a meeting between Jones and an associate, her eyes widening as they spoke.
“It’s everything,” she whispered. “It’s the truth.”
“What truth? I don’t understand,” Cole said.
“Two factions within the State, one run by Shamood, one by Nathaniel, both with a similar goal, albeit competing.”
“What goal?” Levi asked.
Charlie turned in her chair and met Levi’s gaze. “To control them all. To erase their memories and create a workforce of drones that will produce exactly what they want, when they want it. No humanity. No free will. No choice. Like robots with lungs and lymphatic systems.”
“Holy shit.” Cole clutched his arms to his body. “She’s right, boss, look at this. It’s all here, everything. Shamood’s plans and... What are we going to do about this?”
Charlie stood, fists formed at her sides. “Expose them. Let the rest of the world know the truth.”
“Simply put,” Levi said, taking his place next to her, one hand on her shoulder. “We’re going to bring them down. All of them.”
THE END
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