by James Knapp
I opened the door, and when I stuck my head in, a bunch of suits looked over. A shit-ton of photos were up on the wall in front of the table; I saw a train yard, some burned bodies, and a bunch of wire cages that were ripped open. One was a close-up of wet fur and a shaved patch of gray skin. There was a big bite mark that was puffed and scabby.
“All of the animals we recovered exhibited these wounds,” a woman said. “We were able to match at least some to the recovered canines.”
“They bit each other?” That was that prick, Van Offo.
“So it would seem. That behavior isn’t completely unusual in revivors, but the number of wounds suggests the urge to attack and bite was amped up in these specimens and that would fit with what we’re seeing on the streets right now. The shaving of the fur seems to suggest the sites were either being treated or monitored.”
“Why reanimate dogs at all?”
“We don’t know yet, but those animals appear to have been the main focus of whatever they were doing there.”
I saw Nico across the room and snapped my fingers in the air.
Hey, asshole.
He looked over, and when he saw me, he smiled. His face had taken a beating. He had a cut through one eyebrow, and there was a bad bruise around his neck. When he stood up, I saw him wince, but all in all he looked okay.
“The basement caller has been identified as Harold Deatherage,” Nico’s boss, Hsieh, said. “Agent Wachalowski has provided two other names as well: Ang Chen and Dulari Shaddrah. All three were involved with the M10-series project. And as I’m sure you all know by now, Ang Chen has been assisting directly with the development of the countervirus.”
“Where is Chen now?” someone asked.
“Not at his residence or at the Stillwell base. We believe he is most likely somewhere inside Heinlein Industries.”
“So Fawkes has him?”
“We now believe he’s been working with Fawkes all along. The program responsible for issuing the activation sequence was embedded in the computer systems at the Stillwell compound. They were able to trace it back to his ID.”
“He was vetted,” Van Offo said. “How was he able to lie to us?”
“We don’t know,” Alice said. “But it looks like that’s what he did.”
“What about the other two?”
“Shaddrah is most likely also on the Heinlein campus, but we think Deatherage might be on the run. The statements he made during his call suggested that whatever they were planning he might have gotten cold feet at the last minute and tried to back out. A team hit his residence an hour ago and found the body of a woman identified as his wife, but no one else. We know he bought a plane ticket out of the country, and we’re covering the airports, but so far there’s no sign of him.”
“I might have a lead there,” Nico said. “It looks like he had a woman, probably a mistress, set up in an apartment in Palos Verdes. I doubt the wife had that information to give up. Agent Van Offo and I will head over there.”
“So we’re unable to verify the purpose of either the Mother of Mercy or Black Rock facilities at this point?” a guy asked.
“Not yet,” Hsieh answered. “Scans have detected traces of nanostructures inside all of the recovered brain tissue, but nothing resembling revivor nodes in any of the human victims.”
“What about the transmission from earlier in the day?” Van Offo asked. “The one that froze them temporarily?”
“I know what that was,” I said. Everyone turned around to look at me. Nico grinned just a little.
“Who the hell are you?” some guy in the back asked.
“I’ve seen it before,” I said. “A field upgrade will make them freeze up for a minute.”
“What makes you think—” the guy started, but Hsieh cut him off.
“Quiet, Vesco,” she said. “Miss Flax is correct. As of twenty minutes ago, our techs were been able to decipher at least a portion of the transmission, and it looks like it was some kind of field upgrade that caused them to reinitialize afterward. Right now, our best theory is that Fawkes somehow enlisted the help of the individuals from Heinlein, Ang Chen in particular, to develop a Huma variant that would not be vulnerable to our countervirus. As of oh-eight-hundred hours this morning, his entire army may or may not be completely protected against that contingency.”
That got some fur up. Voices rumbled through the room, until Hsieh shut them up.
“We don’t know that for sure!” she snapped. “The current plan is still to attempt to use the virus. We could be wrong. We could be right, but Fawkes’s attempt to guard against the virus could have failed. We don’t know yet. After the transmission there have been more behavioral changes. So for all we know, that might have been the whole point of the alteration.”
“What kind of changes?”
“Heightened aggression, mainly. An increased impulse to attack and bite even without specific direction over the command spoke. Some have begun eating from victims—the ghrelin inhibitor has definitely been switched off since they first went active. For all we know, that was the only purpose behind this. The good news, if you want to call it that, is that this upgrade appears to have affected all M10 nanoblood in the field, including the payloads found in prosthetics. Agent Wachalowski has provided a viable nanoblood sample. Once it’s analyzed, we’ll know more.”
A lot of eyes looked over at Nico.
“Should he be in the field?” someone asked.
“He’s fine,” Alice said. At least one guy didn’t look sure, though.
“That stunt he pulled this morning was a long reach from ‘fine,’” he said. “I think we should …” He spaced, then, drifting off midrant like he was stoned or something. Hsieh’s pupils opened as she stared them down, and the rest shut up.
“Agent Wachalowski is not a revivor,” she said, clipped, “and he is vital to this case. Nanoblood from prosthetics doesn’t intermingle with a person’s organic systems, and he has experienced no symptoms of any kind. Right?” She shot that last bit at Nico.
“Right,” he said, but there was something off about the way he said it. Was he lying?
“How’d he manage the code push?” I asked. “Back in the grinder, command used a satellite for that.”
Hsieh turned to the wall and a photo popped up of a big cluster of satellite dishes mounted on a frame behind a wall of buildings.
“This is Heinlein Industries’ transmitter array,” she said. “It’s used to communicate with the UAC satellite network for defense, and also for the specific purpose of field upgrades. We’ve verified the transmission was sourced from this array and bounced back from Heinlein’s satellites. This transmitter is also how Fawkes is currently controlling the nuclear satellite, Heinlein’s Eye, and his Huma units in the field. It’s the lynchpin of his strategy and a high-priority target, but before we can move on it the Department of Defense needs to determine whether or not this might trigger a launch of the ICBMs.”
Woah, I said to Nico. What launch?
He waved at me to shut up.
“And what if it will?” he asked.
“Osterhagen has a team working on taking control of the grid back,” she said. “Stillwell is ready to move on the facility the second we do. They’re doing everything they can. For now just get over to Palos Verdes. I’ll keep you informed.”
Nico signaled to me, and I saw Van Offo watch as he took me back out the door and into the hall.
“What launch?” I asked. “What was she talking about?”
“ICBMs. Fawkes has twelve of them pointed at the city.”
ICBMs. That meant nukes.
“Why? What the hell does he want?”
“We don’t know for sure,” he said, “but the bottom line is, we have to get to him first. To do that I’m going to need your help.”
“You got it,” I said. He waved me into another conference room and shut the door. He turned on the noise screen and leaned in close.
“When you did your tour, y
ou worked with the M8 series, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Did you ever hijack a revivor from an existing command network?”
“Sure.”
“Without using some kind of override code?”
“No.”
“Never?”
“There’s only one way to command a jack,” I said, “and that’s over a command spoke. You set up a new spoke, or you take over one that’s there already. You know that. What are you after?”
“I’m looking for a way to take control of one or more revivors from an existing command network, without tipping off the person controlling them.”
“Oh,” I said. I’d pulled that kind of thing off back in the grinder. “Sure. You can set that up, but you need to grab a revivor from the target network.”
“These revivors are behind Heinlein’s security perimeter, Cal. I won’t have physical access to them.”
“You need a live command spoke from a jack that can’t turn you in to the original commander—Fawkes.”
He rubbed his nose, and I saw his right hand. It was gray, like mine. There were black scabs fused over deep gouges in the knuckles. Those came from teeth. He’d bashed someone good.
“Shit, Nico.”
I grabbed his sleeve and pushed it up. The gray skin and black veins went up to his elbow.
“It’s fine.”
“Bullshit.”
I put my dead hand on his. The skin was the same color. Usually skin felt hot under it, but now his hand was as cold as mine. He gave my dead fingers a squeeze with his. Then he pulled away. He yanked the sleeve back down.
“I heard what you did down at the VA,” I said. “That doesn’t sound like you. You okay?”
“I’m fine.”
“You don’t look fine.”
“I’m fine,” he said again, looking at the back of his dead hand for a second. “I think I might have some bleed-through, that’s all.”
He meant nanoblood leaking through the filter that joined a new limb and infecting the real blood on the other side. It happened sometimes with a rush job, or if you stressed a new joint too much, too soon. He said it like it was no big deal, but it was. You could die from that.
“‘That’s all’?”
“I’ll get it looked at,” he said. “Never mind me. What about you? The inhibitor worked, then?”
“I’m still here, aren’t I?”
He smiled. “I’m just glad you’re okay.”
“Me too,” I said. “I mean, I’m glad you’re okay.” He looked like he was going to say something else, but before he could I punched him in the arm—his good arm.
“Yeah, yeah,” I said. “I know. Me, too. I got to get back to base. Tell me what you need.”
“For now, let’s say I’m able to get access to one of the revivors without Fawkes knowing,” he said. “How would I take control of the rest?”
“Easy. My CO showed me on week one. You keep the one you grab on the command spoke so you don’t tip anyone off, then drill into its control center to keep it quiet. Physically drill. After that, you can use a special package to set up your own command net, right on top of the first one.”
“That works?”
“Kind of. Any jacks you spoke to will take orders from either person controlling them, so you can still get caught. How many is he running total?”
“Inside Heinlein, probably hundreds.”
“Perfect. He can’t keep his eye on that many; it’s fucking impossible. Pick a few he doesn’t move, ones on autopilot, and use those.”
“Do you have the modules to do this?”
“I can get them.”
“Do it. Keep this quiet.”
“I’ll need to call in a favor.”
“Just keep it off the network. Fawkes had men inside Heinlein. He might have them here too. I’ll only have one shot at this.”
“Don’t worry about—”
I stopped short. A shiver ran down my spine. I heard it before I even knew I heard it.
“What is it?” Wachalowski asked.
The sound came from outside. I’d heard it enough times in the grinder to know you hit the deck when you did. It was the sound of rotors. A Chimera was coming in hot.
“Nico, get—”
The wall to my left blew into a thick cloud of powdered concrete and glass as a Gauss chain gun unloaded on the side of the building. The turret howled as it tore open the conference room around us. I caught a flash of the building across the street through the hole behind me, then hit the floor with my hands over my head.
Dust and grit fell over me as back across the hall, the wall into the war room got carved out. The conference table inside was blown to sawdust, and the people around it popped into clouds of guts. Some guy’s arm spun in the air as the wall behind him disappeared.
“Nico!”
I couldn’t hear shit. The turret ripped open the floor, and bodies fell through. I saw a bank of screens go down after them, spitting sparks, before a wall of smoke blew over me and the lights went out.
Cal, where are you?
I’m here.
I couldn’t see shit either. I could just make out shapes of people as they got back up on either side of the missing floor. The Chimera peeled off, but I heard it bank back to make another pass.
Cold wind blew through from outside and cleared the air at least a little. Wachalowski got up and jumped the gap between us. The tile broke away under his heel, and I grabbed his wrist, then hauled him over.
Street level, he sent, and pointed behind me at the door back out to the hall.
I ran to it and turned the handle, but the wall had shifted and it was stuck. I put my shoulder to it twice and it banged open as the chain gun went off again and the wall across the room exploded.
Wht the fk?
The kid.
Nico slammed into me and shoved me through the doorway and into the hall. He’d made for the stairs when he saw me stop short.
Cal, what are you doing?
The kid.
She was back in the conference room. There was still a clear path to it. I ran for it, Nico on my heels. I cut across the hall and heard him yell, right before the sound of the turret drowned him out. Hot air hit my back, and the floor dropped out from under me. I grabbed the door handle as tiles fell away, hanging on while my boots dangled in the open air. On what was left of the hall in front of the door, I got my footing and climbed back up.
When I pushed open the door I saw her there, up against the far wall. I turned back toward Nico and saw that the hall behind me was gone. He stood on the other side of the gap, ready to jump.
Don’t. I’m coming back.
“Kid, come on!” I yelled. I dragged her to the door while she screamed something from behind me. I looked down through the hole and saw a two-story drop to the offices below.
“Hold still!”
“Don’t. We’ll fall!”
I cinched her around the waist and she screamed as I hoisted her up on my shoulder, then took two steps and jumped.
I cleared it, but when my foot hit the other edge, the floor buckled, and for a second I thought I’d go right through. I didn’t. I fell forward on one knee and Nico caught me. He grabbed Vika as she flipped off my shoulder, and dragged her back from the edge.
Back this way, he said. Hurry.
Vika stumbled after him, and I kept to the rear to make sure she didn’t fall behind. He took us down another hall to a stairwell. He opened it with his badge and signaled for us to go through.
The stairs shook as we went down. Behind us the wall blew out and sparks sprayed as the metal rails were shredded. Cold air blew in from outside, and as rubble came down, I saw a body fall end over end through the snow.
I hit the floor on the landing and Vika came down on top of me. Nico slammed off one wall and reached for me. A chunk of concrete banged off the wall next to his head. I put my boot on the kid’s bony ass and shoved her down the next flight of stairs as the turret t
urned its fire back the other way.
For the next eight flights we ran, the sounds of the attack slamming through the stairwell from above. Then it stopped. I could barely hear through the ringing in my ears.
Nico cracked open the door and looked through. He signaled it was clear, and we followed. Outside it was a mess. Glass and concrete covered the street where cars were stuck end to end. A desk had come down through the roof of one of them, and I could see bodies in the road. My bike was totaled, crushed under an avalanche of shit. Blood and oil ran down the blacktop.
Everything sounded like I was underwater, but through the ringing, I could make out the sound of rotors. They were pulling up and away. Nico had his gun out as we followed him to the sidewalk. Up in the air I could see the shadow of the Chimera as it banked around the side of a building down the street.
I looked back at the FBI building. Ten floors’ worth of the face was gone. Junk had spilled out of the hole, down onto the street. A million papers fell through the snow. Vika watched one of them come down like she was in a trance.
Wind sheared down the street and stirred up a cloud of dust. Orange light sparked in Nico’s eyes as he checked for survivors.
“Wachalowski!” The voice came from the gate to the garage. It was Van Offo.
“Come on,” he called. “They could be back.”
“Come on where?” I asked.
“There’s still people in there,” Nico said.
“Rescue’s on their way,” Van Offo said. “We need to go now. We’ll take a vehicle from the lot.”
“Go where?” I asked.
“Stillwell’s got a foothold a few blocks up,” he said. “Your squad will meet us there. Come on, we’ve got to move.”
“They’re here,” Vika said. A burst of static popped in my head.
I turned, and across the street, I caught a flash of moonlight white from a pair of eyes. A jack had been watching us. Behind it, I saw there were more.
Off to the left, another one moved out of an alleyway, then another. The static turned loud and steady.
“Let’s go,” Nico said.