Element Zero r-3

by James Knapp

  “What about Ai?” I asked.

  “She didn’t,” she said. “But Osterhagen was so sure she was going to end up causing the holocaust that even when Ai refused to authorize it, he came to me.”

  “And you—”

  “I was different then, Zoe,” she said. “Osterhagen convinced me it was the only way to stop things. He promised me the number-two slot if I did the right thing.”

  She shook her head.

  “And here I am, like he promised.”

  She got quiet. The longer she talked, the deeper I could see the pain inside her went. I couldn’t think of anything to say.

  “It was quick,” she said. “I watched her bleed out. But I stuck around too long, and someone saw me. I could have wiped his memory, but I gave him the knife and made him believe he’d done it. He copped to the murder and went down for it.”

  “You just made some random guy do life in prison?”

  “He didn’t do life. He got killed in jail before his first year was up. He ended up at Heinlein.”

  She smiled a bitter smile.

  “The guy heard our last conversation before I wiped his memory. We didn’t know about Zhang’s Syndrome at the time …in Fawkes’s lab, his revivor remembers everything. With what he must have heard, Fawkes finds out who tried to kill him and why. He learns Ai’s identity. For all I know, that’s what sent him down the path he chose. How’s that for irony?”

  I focused on her …not too hard, not enough to get her attention. Just enough to let her colors fade into view so I could see them. Under her calm exterior, her thoughts buzzed like bees in a hive. There was almost more going on in there than I could make sense of. I saw fear, like a cold, white cloth that rippled in the wind…. You’d never know it to look at her face, but she was afraid. I saw concern, confusion, and uncertainty, but underneath it all, shifting slowly like a gray mist, was guilt. When I concentrated on it, I could see how deep it ran.

  “I’m not a good person, Zoe,” she said.

  “That’s not true.”

  “You don’t have any idea.”

  “Yes, I do.” I looked deeper …there were a lot of things she carried around, but one thing in particular was tucked away. Something she’d barely admit even to herself.

  What is that? I couldn’t read her mind. I couldn’t know what caused it, just that it was there, but it was something I’d never known about her. She’d never let me look that far. I looked deeper and still didn’t find an end to it.

  She put one arm around me and held me to her. I kind of tensed up at first, but she was gentler than she usually was. I rested my forehead on her bony chest, and she stroked my hair. It reminded me of how my father used to be, back when I was little. I let out a big sigh into her shirt.

  “You’ll get through this,” she whispered.

  She put her cheek against the top of my head and squeezed me a little tighter. It was the longest we’d ever touched. It was the longest I’d ever touched anyone in years and years.

  “Do you remember when we first met?” she asked. She smoothed my hair with one hand.

  I didn’t. I didn’t want to admit it, but it was lost along with so many other things over the years.

  “It was in the subway,” she said. “Raphael sent me to make contact with you. I caught you near one of the sake stands. You looked like you really wanted one.”

  I still didn’t remember, but it sounded like me. She laughed just a little.

  “You thought you dreamed me.”

  “I used to get confused about that.”

  “I know. Back then, I approached you because they told me to,” she said. “I didn’t want to. I didn’t want anything to do with you, Zoe, but …”

  “It doesn’t matter,” I said. I pulled away so I could see her face, and for the first time ever, I saw she was crying. She didn’t make any noise. Her face didn’t even really change except her eyes. Tears just came out, and the colors swirled around her head like a tiny storm, with something dark just under the surface. I saw a glimpse of it just before the halo brightened and pushed me away.

  There was something else; something she wanted to say. There was something she needed to say but it wouldn’t come out.

  “I threw Karen out the first time she showed up at my door,” I said. “It doesn’t matter how it started.”

  She said something then, that, unlike most things, I always remembered.

  “When this is over,” she said, “I’m going to save you, Zoe. If we’re both still alive, I’m going to save you.”

  “What—”

  “He’s going to destroy us all,” a voice whispered in the dark. I thought it was in my head, but Penny perked up too. We both turned and saw that Ai had lifted her head. Her eyes were still closed and sweat ran down her face as her mouth hung partway open.

  The others at the table snapped awake as her eyes opened. Her eyes wandered for a second before they found Penny and me.

  “We need to evacuate,” she told her.

  Penny nodded.

  “But they have the outside completely surrounded,” I said.

  “Have the soldiers secure the roof, whatever it takes,” Ai said. “We’ll take the chopper.”

  “But the chopper will only hold—” Before I could finish, I felt a numbness seep through me. My head spun a little, and the words fizzled out.

  “We’re too late,” Ai said calmly. “This city will be gone within the hour. We’re leaving. Now.”

  Calliope Flax—Stillwell Corps Base

  I felt a rumble through the floor, and the map that floated in the dark warped. A band of static flicked in front of me, and the light came back. I could see.

  “Shit, we lost it!”

  Everything was a blur. I blinked, and saw the floor down below me. I was facedown, with my forehead pressed into a rubber pad. My body hurt, and there was pressure in the back of my skull. The floor shook again.

  I looked to my left and saw Ramirez and Singh humped over a terminal. There was a window behind them, and I saw a big flash of light there. The two looked up.

  “Goddamn it!” Ramirez shouted, slamming his fist on the desk. Something out there blew up. Something big.

  “I told you!” a voice said. “I warned you he’d—”

  “Shut your mouth, soldier!”

  Everything went black again. The map blinked a few times, then came back. The points of light began to pop back up.

  Synchronizing …

  “It’s the shockwave,” Singh said. They were quiet for a minute. “We’ve got it back.”

  “Shit! What was the target?”

  “The CMC building.”

  “How much dam—”

  “It was completely destroyed, sir.”

  The room got quiet after that. The CMC …that was one of the big three. Did he just say Fawkes had destroyed it?

  The radio squawked, and I heard Ramirez pick up. A voice babbled on the other side.

  “Understood.” I heard the handset click back into its cradle. “Vaggot’s team hasn’t been able to get control of the satellite back. Will the virus work or not?”

  “It should have stopped them. They—”

  “We are running out of options, damn it! Did it work or not?”

  The shape on the map bled closer to us. A shot went off somewhere outside, then a bunch more on top of it. Another voice piped up.

  “Sir, the hostiles are continuing to move. They’re definitely heading for this location.”

  “It’s her,” Singh said. “She pulled something over the command spoke just before it dropped. Fawkes traced her when the link was active.”

  “Then unplug her!” Ramirez snapped.

  “It’s too late! He already got the location!” The arm that broke off from the main shape got closer.

  “Then shoot her!”

  “It won’t matter! He used her to jump into our systems! He knows about Vaggot, he knows everything!”

  “Is this base secure or not?” a
voice shouted. “Stop them at the perimeter, goddamn it!”

  “They were overwhelmed, sir. There’s too many of them!”

  “They’re in. Perimeter has been breached in sections three and four …”

  “Sir, if they take this base before Vaggot’s team succeeds, that will be the end of it. Never mind her. We have to concentrate on holding them back.”

  There was a loud snap, and the map cut out. The static stopped. Light flashed in the dark, and I could see again. I heard machines wind down, and pain throbbed down my arms.

  “They cut the power,” someone said.

  My JZI picked back up and threw up a bunch of warning messages.

  Heart function ceased.

  Blood-oxygen levels below threshold.

  Body temperature below threshold.

  It kicked off the emergency resus. I seized as the wire to my heart lit up. Oxygen and adrenaline pumped into my bloodstream.

  “Where are they now?” Ramirez asked.

  “I don’t know. We lost the uplink. Security’s down.”

  My body seized again, and this time the vitals picked back up. My heart thumped. I clenched my fists and heard the knuckles crack.

  Heart function resumed.

  I grabbed the edges of the gurney and pushed myself up. Wires around my body stretched tight, and I felt pressure at my neck.

  The lights were out and the room was full of guys, some in uniform, some in suits. There was equipment set up, but all the screens were blank.

  Cn u rd me?

  The message popped up just as the emergency lights kicked in and the computers turned over. I could make out Singh and Ramirez. Some of the rest were guys from my squad. Some I’d never seen before. They were packing shit up, getting ready to move out.

  That you, kid?

  Ys. I ct pwr. I c u. U c me?

  I brought up the GPS and found her signal. She was in the building, to the south.

  How the hell did you get on the base?

  Ur dfnses r trshd. U gys r fckd.

  She followed us. The little shit actually staged a rescue.

  You armed?

  Y.

  You got a vehicle?

  Y.

  Then get in it and be ready. I’ll come to you.

  “She’s up!” someone barked. I turned and saw Ramirez point at me.

  “Singh, take care of it!”

  Singh drew his gun, but he didn’t aim it.

  “Singh!” Ramirez yelled.

  “I took something Fawkes doesn’t want getting out,” I told Singh. “The ones in the building are here for me. I’ll draw them off.”

  Ramirez stepped in and pointed his gun. I grabbed his wrist and twisted as the shot went off and metal sparked next to my face. The pressure behind my neck built as I got up, then the wires came loose and snapped away.

  I twisted his wrist and he hollered. When his fingers went limp, I took the gun.

  “Cal, wait!”

  I bit him on the hand. I bit him so hard that for a second I felt the bones between my teeth. He screamed as salty blood filled my mouth.

  I pulled back. He stood there, one hand bent the wrong way and the other one bloody. I could see the teeth marks in the meat of his palm. They were deep.

  I looked at the rest. There were two grunts left; the remainder were suits. I sucked the salt off my teeth and spit a red gob onto the floor.

  “Shoot her!” one of the suits ordered, but no one else would do it. The grunts ignored them and filed out. The last one to go turned back to them.

  “If you’re coming, then fall in.”

  He left, and they followed. I spit on the floor again, trying to get the taste out of my mouth. I’d never bitten anyone in my life, no matter how dirty the fight got. The mark on Ramirez’s hand was brutal. I don’t know why the hell I did it.

  Singh was still standing there staring at me as I wiped blood off my chin.

  “I’ll draw them off,” I told him. He nodded.

  Vika, which way?

  Sth ext.

  My shirt was folded next to the gurney. I slipped it back on and buttoned up as I ran after them. From the sound of it, they were headed for the main lot at the north side of the building. Before I lost the feed, it looked like the revivors were moving in from the south.

  You’re about to get a shitload of company. Keep the engine running; this might be tight.

  Rgr.

  Down the hall, I saw the last of the suits peel off and head toward the main entrance. I got a fix on Vika and tracked her as she made a beeline for the back lot.

  Wachalowski, pick up. It took him a few seconds, but he answered.

  Cal, where are you?

  Long story. What the fuck is going on out there?

  Fawkes just took out the CMC building. Where are you?

  I’m on the base. Look, never mind how, but I was just on Fawkes’s command spoke. Not for long, but long enough to dump his buffers. I’m sending them to you now.

  I compressed everything I got and fired it over the JZI.

  Got it. I’m coming in by air now. I’ll meet you—

  Don’t come after me. Go to the command center. I’ll get back to you.

  I cut the line as something crashed through a window down the hall. Back behind me, a couple shots went off.

  As I passed an open door, I caught a flash of moonlit eyes and heard the crunch of feet as they shuffled through broken glass up ahead.

  Faye Dasalia—Heinlein Industries, Test Facility Five

  At the end of a remote corridor, I pushed open a heavy steel door and felt cold air pass over me. The other side was dark, but when I adjusted my optical filters I could make out a heavy sheet of plastic with a slit in the middle hanging from the ceiling ahead. The flaps rippled gently as fog swirled around my ankles, carrying a smell that seemed vaguely familiar. I slipped through as the door thumped shut behind me.

  As I moved through the dark, an encrypted call came in from somewhere inside the building. Someone who wasn’t MacReady was attempting to contact me in secret. I accepted the key and opened the link.

  Faye, you escaped. It was Dulari.

  Yes.

  Don’t tell me where you are. Fawkes got an approximate location on you during his last communication. He’s sent Ang to find you.

  I stood at one end of a room whose other side I couldn’t see. It was lit from above by some kind of very dim, pale green glow. The room was a maze of tubes, pipes and wires. Wires trailed from somewhere overhead to connections in steel trays that were assembled in stacks. Slick, creviced gray membrane covered each one, and I sensed electric current humming through it.

  I recognized the smell then. It was the greasy, bitter tar smell of heated revivor blood.

  Faye, Dulari said. Fawkes dropped one of the nukes. He used The Eye to destroy the CMC Tower. I didn’t realize. I didn’t know how far he’d go.

  The route that MacReady had laid out for me took me through the strange room, and as I began to make my way though, other details began to jump out at me: long needles and hairless flesh, miles of squiggling black veins pulsing under thin, wet sheets of gelatin. The low hum of air circulators and liquid coursing through pipes filled my ears, stirring memories from deep, deep inside.

  Faye, he’s not finished. He’s going to destroy everything. I don’t think we can stop him.

  We can’t, I told her. Be very careful around Fawkes.

  Believe me, I am.

  Thank you for the warning. Keep off this line, or he’ll catch you.

  Faye—

  I cut off the connection, and her words faded as I breathed in the smell of the room through my nose.

  It was one of the few times that a physical place had affected me since my reanimation. For some reason, standing there in that strange place was comforting. I’d never been there, but it reminded me somehow of my return back into this world. The sound and the smells were imprinted on my brain, like I’d felt them before during my long sleep after my lif
e was taken. In a way, I found difficult to explain that it felt safe and familiar, like being home.

  Something was being born, there. I caught myself wishing Lev was with me so that we could compare that strange perception. I wondered what he would have made of it.

  Follow the path, MacReady interrupted. Hurry.

  What is this?

  The future, he said. The next step. Revivors without human limitations, that don’t require second-tier benefits. No human can get through there without requisitioning a biohazard suit. It will buy you some extra time, but you have to move quickly.

  I continued on, picking out organic shapes in the dark. I saw fat squiggles of tissue I didn’t recognize, bones that seemed almost but not quite human, and then eventually muscles, joints, fingers and toes. At the opposite end of the chamber was a door, and I pushed it open, leaving the web of disconnected pieces behind me.

  It’s just up ahead, MacReady said. Ahead was a single, gray metal door.

  I see it.

  I turned the handle and pulled open the door. The room was in the shape of a large circle, the curves of its wall covered ceiling to floor with microthin display screens. The center of the circle was dominated by a large, round table, six workstations arranged around its circumference. Only one of the stations was occupied. A man in a suit sat there. He didn’t turn when I stepped into the room, and the door clicked shut behind me. He just stared at the screen closest to where he sat, while it displayed footage of a large explosion.

  “Mr. MacReady?” He nodded.

  The electronic screens that covered the wall displayed a dizzying amount of data. I scanned it, picking out code mixed with complex mathematical equations littered between more familiar items: media clips, handwritten notes, and photos. On the screen he was watching, a large structure was collapsing into flames.