“The roof?”
“Air. That space has trapped enough air to keep a bunch of people alive for days. It’s a handy reserve in an emergency. We’ve sealed many of the leaks to make this system airtight, but in parts of the system the air leaks, and we mark them so everybody knows. People have to live in some of the larger caverns, and it’s a problem.”
“How to you deal with it?”
“With difficulty. We…” He stopped and cocked his head up to the roof. A shower of dust was falling into the beams of light, and a low rumble came from above. All conversation stopped, and more faces looked up. Ortiz joined them, with the explosive expert, Dana.
“Ray, you know what that is?”
“No.”
“Dana, tell him what you think.”
Where she was slight, Dana Willets was tall and well muscled, for a girl. A strong, confident face, and hair styled in a buzz cut. She reminded Cage of some of the female PEF troopers he’d seen on Mars. There’d been plenty of women in his battalion. Tough, competent, and so many years after women had stepped up to the plate to become the equal of any man, most felt they still had something to prove. Not this girl. She spoke without hesitation or doubt. Like most of the troglodyte rebels, her skin was pale.
“The Martians don’t waste resources, and they’re not detonating explosives on the surface for nothing. We know they can’t reach us down here with their monitoring equipment. We’re too deep. Well, we thought so, anyway.”
She held up a portable computer unit that showed part of the layout.
“An hour ago our sensors picked up seismic activity smashing down over a kilometer underground. Shortly after that they wiped out one of our hidden stockpiles, four dead, and all the extra food and supplies. I told you all weeks ago they were working on improved detection gear. You know RedCorp, always working on the next big thing.”
She shook her head and sighed.
“Last year we heard rumors from…well, that doesn’t matter. All you need to know is that we heard they were putting out the first quantum gravity scanners into the field. We managed to infiltrate the place and destroyed the prototypes.”
She then shook her head angrily.
“We lost good people on that mission. And now it looks like they’re back in use.
It’s a guess, but I think it’s a good one based on the data. They are dropping deep scans across the map, and it is not taking long.”
She licked her lips nervously.
“It’s a systematic scan of the entire area. I’m telling you, this time it’s serious. If they’ve got the technology working, they’ll be building up a detailed subterranean picture. A few more hours and they’ll know our tunnels better than we do.”
“What does it mean for us?” Jamison asked. The lines on his face appeared to have deepened. He’d already worked out what it could mean.
“Until now, their searches have been localized, so if we kept moving, we could avoid them. There’s always been a good chance they’d never find us at all. With this new system, they can cover a vast area of the planet. It means they’re gonna find us.”
Cage could see he was struggling to keep his voice calm.
“So, how do we counter this thing, Dana?”
“I’m sorry, Ray. That’s the thing. There may not be a way to counter it. No matter where we run, they’ll find us. We can’t hide. Not anywhere.”
“You’re saying we’re finished?”
Men and women had crowded around them, as the murmur of a fresh disaster rippled through the crowd. She stared at them, and something in her expression hardened. She’d come to a decision. These people had a right to know.
“It’s a matter of time, but yes. We’re finished if we think we can just stay down here, hiding in the rock.”
Cage felt like he’d been kicked in the guts, all this way to run down the truth of how his unit had been wiped out. And now it could all be for nothing. “How much time?”
She was shaking her head. “How long is a length of rope? I just don’t know. This is all theory and supposition.”
“Okay, we’ll check it out later.” He ignored her dubious glance. “Cage, as soon as we’re back, I’ll get one of our techs to look at you. We’ll fix you up in time, don’t worry about it.”
“Sure.”
Fix me up in time for what, in time to die? I can see it in their faces. If Dana Willets called it right, we’re screwed. One hundred percent, down the drain.
His nose twitched, and he looked back at the other rebels. He barely knew them, and their cause meant little to him personally. But RedCorp were far from his friends, and he could see they were suffering. He’d changed, and it started to happen after he found Rose.
I’ve been expecting to die for a long time. Yet now it’s come close, I want to live. I want to find out the truth about my unit. I want to protect Rose, and these people deserve more than an airless tomb beneath the surface of Mars. But how can I fight RedCorp? I’m just one guy. More like half a guy right now.
Chapter Seven
Tharsis, Mars
He was awake. Yet, it couldn’t be. He was dead. And yet, memories, he was in a white room, voices. Talking, yet not to him. Tried moving his arms and legs, yet there was nothing; no movement, no feeling. A light flashed into his left eye, and he closed the lids reflexively.
“He’s awake. Call the Director.”
Footsteps walking away, and when he opened his eyelids again, he could see the face staring over him, the same voice.
“How do you feel?”
Feel, what is feel?
“I reckon he’s not recovered yet. Who are you?”
Who am I?
He tried moving his lips, and a word emerged. Croaky, hoarse, but he managed it.
“Soldier.”
“Yeah, that’s good. You’re a soldier. Do you know your name?”
“Name?”
“Good, good. You’re on the way to recovery, my friend. It’s been a long time since they brought you in here. Let me make an adjustment. I’ll just…”
Everything faded, and yet there was something, the vibrations of their speech reached him, so he could listen in. Slowly, his vision restored, and he could see a man he remembered, but he couldn’t think how he knew. Two other men came into his field of view, two men from Earth, wearing a uniform.
Cops?
“Director Laszlo, Sir, we think we could have something.”
“He looks a bit beat up. Can you tidy him up?”
“Sure, we’re still making last minute modifications. Soon as we’re sure, he’ll look as Human as you or I, Sir.”
“He’d better. When will he be ready to go?”
“About a month, Sir. We need to make…”
“Tomorrow. I want him ready to go in tomorrow.”
“That’s not possible, Sir. You know I just got back here a few weeks ago, on the same flight as General Hartmann. I need a lot more time. If I could have another two weeks, maybe…”
“Work through the night. I want a one hundred percent, all singing, all dancing rebel. What about his past memories?”
“Only the sensory motor skills, the acquired military stuff; strategy, tactics, weapons, and an extensive knowledge of technology. We’ve reinforced those elements, nothing else, no personal memories, no unit loyalties, nothing. Sir, I’m proud to say this is the pinnacle of our scientific achievement. Nothing comes close. When this is fully developed, we’ll be unstoppable.”
Laszlo smiled. “Awesome is right. Okay, Colonel, you’ve done good work.”
“It wouldn’t have been possible without the communications facility you built between Earth and Mars. Remote control from such an enormous distance is all but impossible, yet somehow you’ve managed to make it work.”
“That’s what we do on Mars.” He looked proud, “We make the impossible happen.”
“You sure do.”
“Just make it work, it cost us enough. Ah, Sheriff, you and your buddy need t
o take a look at this.”
“A man?”
The figure looked like a normal man, though he was clearly a Lifer. Parts of his limbs were gone and replaced with upgraded components. Little effort had been made to make him look completely normal, with an exoskeletal framework partially growing out from the flesh along the chest, ribs, and the bones of the limbs. It was almost impossible to tell where the flesh stopped and the machine began. Naked, he was obviously a Frankenstein monster of hideous proportions, yet he retained the physique and face of a normal, if bulky man.
A chuckle. “And then some. He’s a composite, based on the old New Life program, but this is more advanced. What you see is a composite of Human parts and cybernetic components made into one, seamless whole. We took what the New Life program did and then mixed in some of our Martian magic.”
The Sheriff looked disinterested. “I thought New Life had covered that ground before. What’s so special about this?”
“What’s so special? One helluva lot, to begin with, we used more than one donor body to make this trooper. This isn’t a broken man that has been fixed. This is a soldier built from a box of parts, a lot more development into the internals, so he doesn’t need air to breathe, not in a conventional sense. His internal system is supplied by an oxygen reservoir that can easily be recharged by us, along with charging his main system. Everything about him is new. Tougher skin, internal organs built to withstand a lot of punishment, and an external combat frame that augments his cybernetic muscle system.”
The man grinned.
“This is New Life 2.0. Instead of making heavy assault soldiers from reclamation projects and mortally wounded soldiers, we have this.”
He regarded his creation with pride.
“A factory-made New Life warrior with the strength of a tank and the skills of a thirty-year veteran. With fresh supplies of donors, we can manufacture entire battalions of them, each preprogrammed, trained, and indoctrinated from the factory. The ultimate soldiers and totally loyal to RedCorp.”
He tapped the head of the soldier.
“We wiped his memory clean as well, all except the important stuff. He’s the perfect soldier. Give him an objective, and he’ll go after it and keep on going. Right until the end, until the enemy is dead. Even if they kill him, we can recycle him. He can do everything a Lifer can do, and more.”
“You’re sending him after the rebels?”
“His first assignment. He’ll find them, and show them what we did to him. They’ll be stunned, appalled, but not once will it occur to them that he’s with us.”
He then winked.
“And once we have their location, we’ll send him after them all. Our security people and Hartmann’s MPs will take out most of them, but some are bound to slip away. This feller will mingle with them, and hit them when they’re not expecting it. You know what he is, the perfect killer. He’s a world-beater, Sheriff. Look at him, almost indistinguishable from a normal Human when he’s covered up. Hartmann will be a happy man when we produce Cage’s body.”
The Colonel gave him a sharp look. “Cage? But, he’s on Earth.”
A snort. “Not any more he isn’t, he’s here. You know Noah Cage?”
He started to mumble a lie but decided it would be best to tell the truth, just not all of it. “I know all of the Lifers. Well, most of them. You forget I developed the systems that make them tick.”
“That’s right. This loser, Noah Cage, Hartmann wants him dead. Our friend will guarantee it happens. By the way, did you give him a name, Colonel Travers?”
“A name? Uh, I guess. Yeah, we call him Rob.”
“R.O.B? I assume that’s an acronym.”
He smiled, but didn’t reply.
“Okay. A word in private, Colonel, if we could use your office.”
They went away, and the two cops swapped glances.
“Uh, yeah. What do you think, Bowen?”
“I dunno, Sheriff.”
“I dunno. Is that it?”
They took no notice of the creature with the name of Rob as he watched them talking. Rob didn’t understand the discussion, but he didn’t need to. They hadn’t ordered him to kill them, so they were of no interest.
Bowen looked away. “It’s just, well, I can’t stop thinking about those kids. Now they’re gonna let loose this monster killing machine to hunt them down. Jesus, we have troubles Earthside, I know that. We rough up a few scavs now and again, just to remind them who’s in control. But this, it’s different. I know you won’t agree, Sheriff, but Earthside, they’d call it murder.”
Vos didn’t reply. He’d no idea who could hear them, if this creature could, and pass on what he’d heard to Laszlo. He didn’t want the Director to be party to his thoughts.
I do agree with you, Bowen. They dragged us here on a manhunt, and sure, this guy Cage deserves to go down. But this is something different. Earthside, they wouldn’t call it murder. They’d call it by a different name altogether. Genocide. Problem is, there’s not a damn thing I can do about it. Not yet.
* * *
The cavern was enormous, hundreds of meters to a side and scattered around, the rebel dwellings. Tents, not canvas tents, these were made of a synthetic skin. Jamison explained it to them. “We use the same sealant they do to coat their service tunnel. It’s stronger than metal, but flexible like rubber. They use it all over the planet, which means we can get supplies without too much difficulty. The problem with this place is the rock has too many faults, and it shifts and moves. The coating breaks constantly, so the people live in these pressurized, lightly heated enclosures. It keeps them alive. Even so…”
He waved a hand to indicate a group of people strolling past, a few women shepherding their children. All were thin, almost to the point of emaciation. They wore suits, repaired many times in a variety of patchwork colors. But their heads were bare, faces exposed; white, like the bellies of fish.
“They spend their lives down here, and they’re used to the problems we have with air. Most of them manage to get on the surface, on scouting missions and raids, and it makes a difference. For the others, the tunnels are their home. Some even get anxious about the prospect of going outside. Agoraphobia is a serious problem. You noticed the air quality?”
It was foul, barely breathable. “I noticed.”
“I doubt they do. This is all they know, some of the younger kids, all they’ve ever known. One day, it’s going to change. One day, when the corporations stop hunting us down and killing us, we’ll be able to go outside.”
His expression had become somber, a man recalling the dream he lived with, the passion that kept him alive. His eyes blazed, and for a few seconds, he was a fanatic Messiah, a man who would lead his people to the Promised Land. The moment ended, and he relaxed. “First, we’ll look up this tech, get you fixed up.”
He lay on the rock shelf cut into the wall of the cave they’d made into a repair shop. The walls were lined with shelves covered with thousands of different components, most unidentifiable. Over the bench, a powerful lamp shone down on his body. He felt like he was lying on an operating table. A primitive version of the table Colonel Travers had used when he awoke from each of his New Lives. He watched the tech slice open the skin of his left leg and expose the internals. The damage was immediately apparent; burnt out components, and parts of the toughened links that acted as artificial muscle split apart.
The man muttered his disapproval and said, “Man, this is seriously old tech. The Martians stopped this kind of work a decade ago. You’re a soldier from another time, my friend.”
“Yeah, well, they don’t need it, do they? Home ground advantage.”
He grimaced as the man fiddled with actuators, spilling some of the artificial flesh on the ground.
This is not good, Cage, not good at all. If you’d been moving in normal Earth gravity, you’d be on your knees by now.”
“Can you fix it?”
He pursed his lips and sucked in his breath in a slow
hiss, “Some. Not all. The damage has destroyed some of the fine motor units. I can fix the visible damage and the primary motor drives, but it’ll be a lash up job at best.”
He licked his lips.
“You won’t be as fast, but you’ll get your strength back…until…”
“Until what?”
The man laughed.
“Until you break. Trust me, you won’t last long with this kind of trauma. I wouldn’t be surprise if one of the legs just split in the…”
Noah lifted a hand to stop him.
“Okay, okay. Enough with the good news.”
The man sighed.
“I’m sorry. Look, I’ll do my best, but it won’t be the same. You need an expert. The guy who designed this stuff, was it Travers?”
“Colonel Travers, yeah.”
“The New Life genius. There’s no chance of getting help from him. Earth is a long way from Mars.
“He’s here.”
“He’s what?”
“On Mars. Some research project.”
“For RedCorp?”
“I assume RedCorp. They seem to run most things on Mars.”
“Before long, they’ll have all of it. RedCorp is spreading. It's like a disease. The company won’t be satisfied until they own it all. And then they’ll want more.”
“What else could they take over if they own the planet?”
He snorted. “What else? How about the entire System?”
“But most planets aren’t viable, not in any economic sense. Sure, we’ve got colonies over Saturn and Venus, but they are nothing like what we have here. Not yet, they’re still developing the colonies, far from emulating Mars. There’s one planet worth taking, and that’s Earth. Which is impossible.”
He stopped. The tech frowned. “You sure about that? Who knows? Hey, I’ll look at the other leg, and I think the arms can be fixed fine, but don’t go fighting any wars. The repairs will last for a time, but you’re not invulnerable. You need to take more care in the future.”
“Sure. I’ll try that the second people stop shooting at me.”
Last Life (Lifers Book 1) Page 19