by James Knapp
“There is no door,” a voice said—a girl’s voice—right in my ear. I looked around, but no one was there.
Pain throbbed in the back of my head, and everything went blurry for a second. My mouth filled with sour spit. I squeezed my eyes shut and waited for it to pass. When it did, I got a flashback to my old apartment. It was so real, I could smell it.
I was standing in the hall across from the bathroom and I’d pushed aside the flag I took back from Juba. Behind it was a door, and I stood in the open doorway. The room on the other side had walls and floors covered in plastic. There was a gurney and a tray of surgical tools in the middle.
A little, spooky-looking woman stood in front of me, blocking my way. She stared up at me, the middle of her eyes black.
“There is no door,” she said.
“You okay?” Singh asked, and when he touched my arm, I jumped. I shook my head to clear it and pushed him away.
“I’m fine, dickhead.” I spat on the ground.
“I don’t think you are,” he said. He leaned a little closer and tapped behind his ear with one finger, right in the spot where I had the scar from the inhibitor implant. “They know.”
As the medic slammed the doors to the back of the truck and Ramirez got on the radio, I started to put in a call to Wachalowski, but before I could open the channel, something stopped me and I let it drop.
“Don’t call him,” Singh said, and for a second, I felt dizzy. “Just relax. Everything is fine.”
Ramirez glanced back over his shoulder at me as he stepped toward the jeep. I could just make out his voice over the wind.
“Yeah, she’s here,” he said, then paused. “We took him out by chopper. Van Offo is down, so we haven’t got anyone with him…. Yes, he’s en route to Palos Verdes.”
He was talking about Nico.
We haven’t got anyone with him….
“Who the fuck is he talking to?” I asked. “What do you mean, ‘they know’?”
Singh acted like he hadn’t heard. He looked down at the kid.
“Who’s this?”
“My name is Vika,” she said.
“Where’d you find her?”
“A fucking stork dropped her off. In Pyt-Yahk, dipshit. Who is Ramirez talking to?”
“No one. Don’t worry about it.”
Fuck that. I went to call Nico again, but again I fumbled the connection and it dropped.
“I said don’t,” Singh said. He looked down at the kid and shook his head.
“You shouldn’t have brought her here.”
“Where the hell was I supposed to bring her?”
Singh leaned in to talk in my ear. I felt dizzy again for a second, as I felt his breath on my neck.
“I can help you,” he said.
“Personal space, asshole,” I said, but I could see the others looking at me and flags were going up. Singh meant the Huma injection. They knew about the injection.
“However you avoided the kill switch, you’re still affected,” he said, squeezing my arm. “We need you.”
“Fuck off, Singh.” I tried to push him away, but he held on.
“Listen. In about two seconds, Ramirez is going to come over here,” he said. “He’s got orders to take you out of here.”
I checked on Ramirez. He was over by the truck, still on the radio, but he kept looking back at me.
“Take me where?”
“The test facility, back at base.”
“What test facility?”
“Keep your voice down. You know the one I mean.”
“How the hell—” He squeezed my arm.
“I’ve known for a while,” he said. “I didn’t say anything. Maybe I should have, but I didn’t. I did what I could to keep you out of that place, but they know now. They’re taking you. Don’t resist them.”
I looked at the kid. She wasn’t sure what was up, but she knew it was something. She looked at me, not sure what to do.
“What about her?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I can’t help her, but I can help—”
I grabbed a fistful of his shirt, and his eyes went weird. The pupils opened all at once. I swayed, and he steadied me. Then it passed.
“Cal, don’t resist,” he said. “If you do, they’ll—”
“Stop talking, Singh.” I looked at the kid.
“Cal, I—”
“Shut up.”
Vika, I sent. Green light flashed in her pupils.
Whts wrng?
When I say run, you run.
She didn’t ask why; she just nodded.
Singh put his face close enough to mine that I could smell his shitty cologne, and his eyes got that weird look again.
“Don’t resist,” he said, his voice low. “Just relax.”
“You relax,” I said, and shoved him. He stumbled back, but got his feet under him before he fell. The others looked over. Singh stared back at me, his eyes bugged.
“What the hell?” he said under his breath. Ramirez had put down the radio and was coming over.
“What’s the problem?” he asked.
“No problem, sir,” Singh said. Ramirez looked down at Vika, then back to me. He had that look on his face he always had when his cock was in a knot.
“Flax, we have orders to take you back to base,” he said.
“Why?”
“That’s need to know.” He held out one hand. “Hand over your weapon.”
Over his shoulder, I saw the rest of the squad step in like they were expecting trouble.
“Ramirez, what the hell?” He glared at me, and his eyes got that same weird look Singh’s had. I felt dizzy for a second, then it passed.
“I said, ‘Hand over your weapon,’ Flax,” he said. “Do it. Now.”
“Son of a bitch,” I said. He stared back with his fucked-up eyes.
“You’re with them,” I said. I looked to Singh, but his eyes were the same. “Both of you.”
They looked at each other, and I knew it was true. They were just like that red-haired bitch, and that other one that rigged me with a bomb and then mind-fucked me. Both of them were in on it. This whole time, they were all in on it.
“Just relax,” Ramirez said, and I felt the tension ease out of my body. “Just stand there. Don’t move. If you try to move, you will find you can’t.”
I tried to answer, but nothing came out. I tried to open my mouth, but I couldn’t. Ramirez spoke into his radio.
“We’ve got her,” he said. Then he nodded.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Vika. She stared straight ahead, still as a statue, like me.
“Everything is still set up and ready to go,” he said to Singh.
“Can they do it without killing her?” he asked.
“Maybe.”
Slowly, I reached down and took my weapon from its holster. Ramirez snapped his fingers.
“Hey! I told you not to move.”
All of a sudden, the wire lit up red and alerts started flashing on the HUD. From the reactions around me, everyone saw them.
“Sir?” someone asked, but Ramirez held up his hand, orange light flickering in his eyes. Something big had just gone down. Everyone was distracted. I handed the gun to the kid, and she took it.
“Holy shit,” Singh whispered. He was staring into space, reading something off his JZI, and he looked scared.
I skimmed the stream of alerts that were pouring in as I took a step back, away from the others. I saw a satellite map of the city that showed part of the coastline. Words jumped out at me: “point of impact” and “blast zone.” A red marker flashed on the map.
“Jesus, he launched,” Singh said. “The crazy son of a bitch launched…. ”
Something boomed overhead and everyone looked up. High above, against the gray blanket of clouds, a small, dark shape had appeared. A distant shriek swelled as it moved quickly across the sky, leaving a thin contrail behind it.
Run, I told Vika.
“Hey!”<
br />
A gun went off near my face and I heard glass explode behind me. I chanced a look back in time to see the kid scoot into an alley. The guy that fired had moved in next to Singh. I grabbed his wrist and twisted hard enough to bring him to his knees. He grunted as I peeled his fingers off the pistol and took it before kicking him down onto the pavement.
“She’s not under!” Singh yelled. Ramirez grabbed my collar, his eyes black. The dizzy feeling hit me again.
“Go to sleep,” he said. “Now.”
Before he could do anything else, I landed a punch right on his ear. He staggered off to one side, drawing his weapon.
“Goddamn it, grab her!”
“How long until impact?”
“Less than ninety seconds!”
“Where? Where?”
I stuck the gun in the face of the soldier closest to me.
“Next one that moves gets his fucking head blown off!” I barked, as two more took aim at me. “Get those guns off me or I will fucking shoot him!”
“Stand down!” Ramirez ordered. “We need her alive!”
They lowered their guns. The guy I had covered glared back at me as the whistle from overhead dropped lower and lower in pitch. It was one of the ICBMs. Fawkes had just dropped one of the twelve nukes.
“We’ve got to get out of here!” someone yelled, and Ramirez turned on them.
“Get it together, people!” he barked. “We’re fine where we are! We have our orders, and I expect you to follow them!”
“You’re not taking me,” I told him.
“You’re making a big mistake, Flax. Singh, get her under control. Now.”
“What the hell is this?” Singh whispered. He looked twitchy. “It’s not working…. Why isn’t she under?”
The rest of the squad stood there, guns out, not sure what to do. Ramirez looked pissed.
“You’re not getting out of here,” he said. He took a step toward me, and I went to hit him again, but when I moved the gun away, a pair of beefy arms grabbed me from behind. They pinned me and squeezed.
“Hold her!”
“You motherfuckers!” I yelled. I stomped Ramirez on the shin with one boot. His face went dark and he grunted.
“Hold her still, goddamn it!”
I got one foot behind the guy who’d grabbed me, then hooked his leg and flipped him. He let go when he started to fall, and I spun around. When he hit the blacktop, I put the heel of my boot down on his face.
Blood squirted from his squashed nose and he stayed down, but two more were right behind him and every time my heart beat, the pressure in my skull got worse. They were all around me and I should have turned on the next-closest one, but I didn’t. I dropped to my knees over the guy I just took out and bashed his head into the pavement. Before I knew what I was doing, I felt my mouth open wide and warm spit leaked out.
Do it …
His skin was hot under my hand. I could feel the blood pumping under my palm, and something in me wanted to feel that meat between my teeth, even when the gun pressed against the back of my head.
Do it …
What the fuck? What the fuck is happening to me?
“Don’t shoot! We need her!” Singh yelled. I turned around in time for something to cream me right in the forehead. I saw stars, and my legs went out from under me.
“Watch the head, goddamn it!”
My knees hit the blacktop. I tried to get back up, but my legs wouldn’t do it. Everything spun around me, and I felt blood run out of my nose.
Before I went down, someone caught me. Arms held me and lowered me onto my back.
“You’re okay,” I heard Singh say in my ear as the lights went out. “Don’t worry.”
“I’ll take care of you.”
The last thing I heard was the faint roar of the missile, turning from a shriek to a low rumble as it fell down toward the earth.
Faye Dasalia—Heinlein Industries, Pratsky Building
The sounds of gunfire and screams faded behind me. I spotted a stairwell door at the end of the hall and headed for it. To my left, windows looked over the tarmac, off to the distant skyline. As I moved down the corridor, I saw a door slam open outside and a group of men and women came running out. They made a break for the far-off perimeter, but before they made it a hundred yards, there was a bright flash from the sky. A beam of energy rippled down through the clouds and washed over them. In an instant, the tarmac melted underneath them and they were gone in a cloud of smoke. The thick glass buckled in the heat and cracked down the center with a thud as wet ash and tar rained against it. Wind whistled through as I turned the corner and headed away. I needed to get out of sight, and soon.
There was no way for me to know where Fawkes was. I could no longer locate any of them, and it surprised me how lost that made me feel. I’d come to rely on that command network, and without it I felt a little bit blind. I had to watch and listen more carefully. By now Fawkes was rallying them against me. My former allies were now my enemies, and that sense of connection I’d felt to them was gone, leaving a void behind it.
I should have let him kill me, I thought as I ran. In another second, it would have been done. Now—
As I came to a T in the corridor, I almost ran headlong into a soldier who stepped out in front of me. Its gun, held in one gray hand, hung by its side. It saw me, but took a second to react.
I rushed it, closing the distance in three strides. My forearms split apart and I triggered both the bayonets at once. As it raised its weapon, I knocked it back onto the floor then thrust both blades down, deep into its neck. They crossed just in front of its spinal column, and two spastic jets of black blood painted the walls to either side of us. I jerked and scissored the two blades together. Its head nearly severed, the soldier fell back and crashed down onto the floor.
Faye. It was Fawkes. I could sense him trying to reestablish the command spoke to retake control of me, trying to locate exactly where I was. I stepped through the oily pool growing across the tiles and picked up the soldier’s gun.
Faye, answer me, he said. And that’s when I saw a second flash out the window, much, much brighter than the first.
It came from somewhere far off, out between Heinlein and the city proper. The source was beyond the mouth of Palm Harbor, maybe ten miles or so from the coastline. The light was so intense, the window tinted and a large, dark spot danced in front of my eyes. A huge dome of flame had begun to expand over the water’s surface.
What was that?
The overhead lights flickered and then went out. I heard a collective gasp from back down the way I’d come; then, just as suddenly, the lights came back on. A chest-thumping boom followed, then a low, steady rumbling sound. The wind began to pick up, and snow streaked past the window.
Fawkes, what was that? The ball of light grew larger by the second. There had been a detonation of some kind. Whatever it was, it was huge….
I realized then what I was seeing. A dark cloud began to emerge from the blast and rise into the sky on a column. My heart hadn’t beat for years, but still, the cloud’s mushroom shape inspired dread.
What did you do? I asked. The words floated in front of the growing cloud, as a huge electrical arc flashed through it.
This is bigger than either one of us, Faye. Come back.
The rumble went on and on, even after the light was gone and the windows cleared. The mushroom cloud continued to grow high into the sky.
This is what we’ve worked toward, Faye. Your existence no longer matters. I know you believe—
I cut the connection and put a block on his ID. I saw him try to reestablish the link, but I didn’t pick up. I checked the pistol’s magazine; it was full. For a moment, I stood over the body, not sure what to do next.
Find Robert MacReady, Dulari had said. I wasn’t sure who he was, but I scanned the JZI nodes inside the building and found a match for his name. He was inside, then.
I put in a call request, then sprinted to the stairwell door and
pushed it open. At the rail, I looked down and saw that it descended several stories. Until then I hadn’t realized how deep the structure really went.
I started down. If the revivor I’d just destroyed had a chance to report my location, then there were already more on their way. My best bet was to head down and try to disappear until I could decide what to do next.
I’d descended five flights when my call request was picked up. MacReady was alive.
Faye Dasalia, what do you want? He’d responded, but the circuit hadn’t come through the transmitter; Fawkes couldn’t monitor the conversation.
Dulari Shaddrah gave me your name, I told him.
Something pricked at my control nodes remotely, some kind of low-level scan. Before I could cut it off, a stream of data went out on the wire.
Your command spoke is locked, he said.
Yes.
That’s interesting. Why?
Fawkes meant to kill me. I am no longer part of his network. He paused for a minute, considering or perhaps verifying that, then:
I can help you. Come to the lab.
Help me do what?
Come to the lab, he said. If you’re on the run as you say, you need to get off of Fawkes’s radar.
I took a step down the stairs and then stopped there, uncertain. Fawkes hadn’t told me everything, but I’d worked for years to make sure these events could unfold. I still did believe in his ultimate goal. Everything was moving so fast, I hadn’t had time to think. Why had I even run from Fawkes? Was the human survival mechanism so ingrained? I had no life to lose. Why did I run? What did I want?
You were a slave for the last part of your life, Faye, I know that, MacReady said. But ask yourself if what Fawkes offered you was any better. The control that command spoke provided was more absolute than anything you experienced in life. But you’re free now. Come to the lab.
He’s luring me, I thought. Some old intuition was bubbling up. There was something too silky about his words.
Is Dulari alive? he asked.
The last time I saw her, she was alive.
And Mr. Chen?
Alive, but they’re killing the rest.
I know, he said. And I know what you are. I know better than you do. I know there are still residual ties to your old identity. Fawkes knows too. It’s why even though he needed a seventh-generation to gain access to our systems, he considers you a liability now.