by James Knapp
He tried to dart away, but his injured leg gave out from underneath him. As he fell, the bullet punched through the wall behind him. I pulled the trigger again, but the hammer just clicked.
Something behind the row of consoles crashed, and I saw him get back to his feet, a vein bulging in his neck and his face red. He fired again as I began to barrel toward him. There was no way to know if the air was safe, but the seal on the suit was already broken.
I triggered the bayonet, and it sliced through the palm of the glove as I closed the gap between us.
Zoe Ott—Alto Do Mundo
As I focused on Ai, the halo appeared around her head like a thin laser and tried to push me back. She had turned all of her energy onto me, but I wasn’t afraid. Suddenly the air was as cold as ice and everything was crystal clear. Something warm ran from one of my nostrils and tickled my upper lip before dripping off the end of my chin.
“Zoe …” Ai gasped, and the halo warped. I pushed my way closer, and her eyes widened.
“Zoe, stop.”
Something slammed down the hall, and Penny turned. Behind her, I saw one of the smoked-glass doors open, and a woman in uniform stalked through. Her black hair was short, and there were tattoos on her neck. As her boots tromped down the hall, I could feel the anger radiate from her.
You. It was Flax, the one who’d killed Karen.
Penny flicked out both batons, extending them as she marched down the hall to meet her. She was strong, but she was in pain, and I could see her limp just a little as she walked. Behind her, she left a trail of dots on the tile.
I felt Ai worm her way into my brain and I turned back to her, struggling to push her back as I remembered the dead woman’s words in my last vision. The words she’d said when she showed me that woman marching toward Penny with death in her eyes.
“She will take away the last thing that is dear to you.”
“Penny, wait!” Ai was overwhelming me. I could feel her beginning to take control. Penny was going to die. She was going to die right in front of me.
“Stop!”
I turned on Ai, and everything, all the fear and the hate and the desperation, came out at once. I smashed through the barrier she’d thrown up, and emerged on the other side like a missile entering the atmosphere. The fragments of color below were like a work of art, an intricate field of stained glass that contained more knowledge than I would ever know in my lifetime. They floated above a storm of emotion that no one ever saw; the loss of everything she ever cared about, the knowledge that she would never reach old age, fear for the future that would unfold when she was gone …and throughout it all, guilt. Deep inside, buried under layers and layers of duty and discipline and justification, was a remorse so intense it was almost blinding.
I saw remorse for everything she had done—every person she had killed or allowed to die, every life she’d destroyed or allowed to be destroyed. She carried it all deep within, even a truth that Penny had known all along: she’d let Karen be taken away, because she knew that without her I would find solace in them. She knew. She knew everything and she did it anyway.
The only thing I hadn’t expected was the remorse, made all the worse by the one, childlike fear that she kept as a secret in her heart of hearts.
I don’t think I can stop it.
“You don’t kill me,” I heard her whisper as I reached for the white band from which all the other light sprang. “I die from—”
Something in her brain burst. The halo disappeared and she twitched in shock. One hand desperately reached out at nothing, and the tiny fingers closed around a fistful of air.
“Don’t …”
Her colors didn’t disappear, but they shifted suddenly. The stained glass of her mind melted and skewed. All the beauty went out of it. In an instant, it turned to something jumbled and meaningless.
One of her eyelids drooped. Her eyes rolled back, and then the colors faded and scattered.
She fell, and her large head struck the tile with a heavy thud.
I swayed on my feet, smearing something wet from under my nose and across my cheek. Ai’s little body lay on the floor, her clothes fluttering in the wind as it blew down the hall. A little speck of hot blue that reminded me of a pilot light fluttered above her head. I stared at it, pawing at the inside of my jacket until I found the flask there. I took off the cap and dropped it on the floor as I took a long swallow. The last splash ran down the side of my mouth; then it was empty.
I looked at the big Z monogram etched in the smoked glass and felt my throat burn. Ai had given that to me. Tears blurred in my eyes as that little pilot light went out, and Ai was gone.
I tossed the flask and heard it smash on the floor. It didn’t matter. There wouldn’t be any tomorrow. Not for me, or any of us.
Reaching back out into the night, I found Vaggot again as my last vision began to seep into my mind. For a minute I was in the dark, and a rolling field began to form: dark hills covered in wet grass and fog. Wind rushed over me, moaning through trees somewhere far away, where there were no buildings and you could see the stars and the moon. The ground began to move, and I saw that the field in front of me was crowded with figures. A mob of misshapen heads bobbed and swayed against the moonlit sky like boiling, black water, and thousands of eyes stared back at me.
Mr. Vaggot, how soon?
Less than five minutes.
Five minutes. In five minutes, it would all be over.
I don’t want to die. That was the last thing I sensed from him.
I’ve seen your future, I assured him. Believe me, you don’t want it.
Calliope Flax—Alto Do Mundo Penthouse
At the penthouse, I’d followed the signal until I came to a glass door in a long hall where a bunch of bodies sprawled out on the floor. They were decked out in body armor, weapons scattered around them where they fell, along with big chunks of safety glass that had been blown out behind them. The glass panel was gone, and the hall opened right out into open air where shredded drapes flapped in the wind. Snow blew in on a rush of cold air.
Past the bodies, I saw her; I knew that beak nose and bony neck the second I saw them. Her long, red hair blew in the breeze as she stared at some other little twerp with her, some freaky-looking Asian chick with a big head. They didn’t even look like they heard me as I picked up the pace and started toward them.
Halfway there, I heard something behind me. I stopped and spun around in time to see a small figure lunge. It was a spooky-looking girl with black hair and blue eyes. She had a metal baton in each hand.
You …
The bitch was fast. The air chirped and one of the batons hit my gun hand hard. Black blood popped from the back of it as the skin split open. I fired two rounds, but they went wild.
Error.
The word flashed as warnings scrolled about the damage to the dead hand. A piece of yellow bone stuck through the skin where she hit it, but there was no pain. Pins and needles ticked down my arm as I squeezed the grip harder and tried to steady the gun. She moved in again.
“I know you,” I said. Her eyes were focused and intense, but there was pain there too. Her shirt was stained with blood, and when I scanned into the meat behind it, I saw a small, bright bullet lodged there. She was hurt.
“You should have done your job on the tanker,” she said. Her pupils opened up, and I felt a little dizzy. “This would all be over.”
It was her. That bitch who stopped me at the train station when I got back from my tour. The one who took my memories. She had me cut open right inside my own apartment and wired a bomb through my guts, then made sure I ended up on that boat so they could blow it up. She’d fixed it so I never knew. I remembered that dizziness now. It was the same as when Singh tried to tweak me back at the roadblock. It was the same every time one of them fucked with my head, but this time the feeling passed.
“What’s the matter?” I said. “Your little ace in the hole not working any—”
She moved
fast. At the last second, I leaned back as the baton whipped past my face and I aimed the gun. Something hissed in front of me and I saw a puff of white mist as I squeezed the trigger. The gun boomed, but she’d ducked down again and was gone.
Warning. Warning. Warning.
Messages flew past as white mist began to boil from the back of my dead hand. Before I knew what happened, the skin melted away and I was looking at the meat and bone underneath.
Leichenesser. The bitch had a little key-chain canister hidden on her somewhere. She tossed it aside and picked up the baton she’d dropped on the floor as she closed in again.
The bone melted like wax as muscle sprang free and began to dissolve. I tried to fire again, but what was left of the hand wouldn’t respond. The gun fell to the ground, trailing smoke, and she stomped on it with one foot before kicking it back down the hall behind her.
“You fucking—”
She spun around again as the last of the hand sizzled away, leaving a clean stump where the filter and nerve interface was. Pain blasted through my ribs as the baton hit home.
“I won’t let you near her,” she said.
“She’s going to launch the nukes, you stupid bitch,” I gasped.
My right hand wasn’t half as good, but in a straight-up brawl, it wouldn’t matter. I reached back and pulled my field knife out of its sheath. She saw it and came around for another attack, but I closed the distance between us before she could strike.
“You’re dead,” I told her, and swung the knife.
12
ATROPOS
Zoe Ott—Alto Do Mundo Penthouse
Something crashed back out in the hallway, and the dark field scattered. I was back in the hallway with the bodies, and …
Penny. Penny was in trouble. She needed me.
Cold air rushed over me from the empty window. Snow blew against the back of my neck as I turned to see Penny and Flax fighting. Both of them were bleeding, and the floor around them was smeared with blood. Penny had one baton still clenched in her fist. Flax was missing one hand, but had a knife in the other one.
“Penny!”
“Go to the roof,” she grunted without looking back. “Get out of here.”
Flax lunged, but Penny ducked under the blade and darted in close, to strike again. Before she could land the blow, Flax grabbed her by the wrist and head-butted her in the face with a loud crack of bone. Blood gushed from Penny’s nostrils as she staggered back.
I started to run toward them, not sure what I’d do when I got there. All I knew what that this woman had killed the first real friend I’d ever had, and she was about to kill the only one I had left. Before Penny could do anything else, Flax swung back around. The edge of her knife slashed Penny’s arm open, and blood splashed onto the floor.
“Penny!”
I ran. One of the batons was on the floor, and I went to scoop it up and fell. I slid across the tiles, then managed to pick myself up and stumble toward them.
Penny turned and saw me at the last minute. I flew past her and brought the baton down on the tattooed woman’s neck, but it didn’t stop her. I lost my footing, and the knife whipped over my head as I fell onto my butt.
Penny stood, rearing back to deliver a strike, when Flax stabbed her in the chest.
It was the most horrible sound I’d ever heard. The blade went in right at the base of her throat, and the hilt struck so hard it forced the air out of her mouth in a spray of blood. She jerked once, and the baton clattered onto the floor.
“No!”
Flax wrenched the knife out, and Penny choked. Blood was pumping out of the gash. Her eyes rolled and she fell to the floor.
“No! Penny, no!”
I scrambled beside her. A pool of blood was growing around her head. I put my hands over the hole, but it kept coming. I couldn’t make it stop.
The room got bright around me as I stared down at her. I looked for her colors, to try to soothe them, to try to stop any pain she might have, but I couldn’t find them. They were already gone. Penny was dead.
Penny, no …this can’t be happening …
I let go of her and held my head. It felt like it was going to explode. I couldn’t hear anything or feel anything. I was still staring down at her when I felt Flax’s hand grab my arm.
“Zoe Ott?” she growled.
I jerked away and ran. My foot slipped in Penny’s blood and I went down on one knee, then bolted back toward the stairwell as the woman’s footsteps closed in behind me.
I made it to the stairwell door and pulled it open. When I was through, I turned and tried to slam it shut, but I was too late. A tattooed hand clamped down on the edge of the door and held it. I backpedaled as Flax shoved it open and stepped onto the landing.
“Get away from me!”
I ran for the stairs, but she cut me off and backed me into the corner, up against the concrete wall.
“You’re too late,” I gasped. I could barely breathe. I could feel hatred pour off her as she walked right up to me. She was going to kill me too, but I didn’t care. In less than a minute, the missiles would fall.
“You’re too late,” I whispered.
Calliope Flax—Alto Do Mundo Penthouse
The red-haired bitch flinched when I grabbed a fistful of her shirt and pulled her up onto her toes. In the corner of my eye, I saw the launch countdown drop below three minutes.
“How are you doing it?” I asked. “How are you controlling the satellite?” She just smiled, blood running from one nostril.
“Goddamn it, make it stop!” I screamed in her face.
“You’re going to die,” she said. “You’re all going to die now.”
“You’ll die too.”
“I don’t care,” she said. She’d started to cry. “I don’t care anymore. You killed my friend …my best …”
“Your friend had me cut open and tried to kill me,” I said. “Fuck her. However you’re doing it, stop the launch.”
“You killed—”
I slammed her back against the wall, and that woke her up a little.
“You’re going to kill everyone in this fucking city?” I said. My breath was coming fast now. The blood felt hot in my veins, and I felt a string of drool start to run over my bottom lip. The JZI flashed warnings as whatever it was inside me twisted in the back of my head. The counter was getting too low.
“Yes …”
My fingers squeezed on her throat, and another fat drop of blood came out of her nostril.
“I don’t know how you’re doing it,” I said, “but I know you are.”
The bitch’s eyes started to roll as I kept up the pressure on her throat. Her pupils dilated, then relaxed.
“Last chance,” I said.
“Go to hell,” she gasped.
Bite …
I let go of her neck and put my palm over her mouth. Before I knew what I was doing, I leaned in and felt her scrawny neck under my lips. I could feel the big vein there throbbing, then the salt of her sweat on my tongue. My mouth opened, my lips peeling back like it was out of my control.
Do it…
I bit down, and she screamed. Greasy blood filled my mouth, and the warmth ran down my neck. Something inside me drove me, telling me to bite harder, deeper. It was all I could do to stop with that vein still pulsing under my tongue.
Do it …
I squeezed my eyes shut and shoved her away, down on her back onto the floor. Blood was running out of the bite mark on her neck, flowing down her chest and seeping into the dress she wore. She tried to say something but couldn’t, as she stared up at me in horror. She held out her hands, and they started to shake.
“N …no …” she gasped. I stomped her bony chest with the heel of my boot, knocking her back. I drew the knife again and took a step toward her. I swallowed blood, and even though it made me sick, my teeth still itched to bite again. Drool leaked out of the corners of my mouth.
“You ruined me,” I heaved. I closed the gap between us.
“You motherfuckers ruined me…. ”
“I …lost him …” she whispered. “I lost …him …”
Kneeling down over her, I put the point of the blade under her chin. She didn’t react when it touched her. She didn’t look like she was seeing me anymore.
“You …will bring about …destruction …” she wheezed. Her head lolled, and she fell back onto the concrete. I spit on the floor next to me and wiped my mouth.
In the corner of my eye, I saw the launch countdown had frozen.
Blood began to pool around the little bitch’s head. Her eyes went out of focus.
“You …save …my …life …” she whispered. Then she let out a long breath and went still.
I moved the knife away and pushed myself back up onto my feet. My head spun and I leaned against the wall, leaving a smear of blood.
I turned and left the stairwell, letting the door slam shut behind me.
Nico Wachalowski—Heinlein Industries
An alarm bell went off as I shoved open a fire door and came out into the cold night air where the transmitter dish towered above me. In the distance, over the howl of the wind, I could hear the scream of jets. Shielding my face against the snow, I scanned the tarmac. Fawkes’s signature was close.
Wachalowski, this is Alice. The launch has been aborted. Repeat: the launch has been aborted. What’s your status?
I checked the countdown and saw it had stopped.
How?
They never reached Vaggot. He manually disarmed the satellite from inside on his own.
What about Zoe?
Unknown. What is your status?
I’m at the transmitter.
I squinted through the storm and switched to night vision. Sweeping the area, I spotted a group of figures in the distance. Two of them were carrying some kind of crate between them.