Rewind 717: The Adventures of Time Traveler Anti-Terrorist Agent Cole Seeker

by Christian Kallias

  “Tanya, stop at once!” I say.

  “Are you insane, Cole? I’m almost there.”

  “Listen to me, Tanya. Give me back control of my body.”

  “I don’t want to die,” Tanya says. “And we definitely don’t want the entire population of New Geneva to burn in flames.”

  “They won’t. You might not know it but you have already disconnected the nuclear core. All we need to do now is insert the data chip we got from Ahmed. It contains a program that will turn this device into a massive EMP.”

  “What the hell are you talking about, Cole? How do you know this?”

  “She told me.”

  “She is just an illusion! A desperate attempt to make us fail in our mission. Can’t you see this?”

  “Give me back control of my body. That’s a direct order.”

  “I can’t, Cole. You are not thinking straight; your judgement has been compromised. I will finish this mission on my own if I have to.”

  “Tanya, give me back control, now!”

  “I’m sorry, Cole, I can’t comply. You’ll thank me later.”

  I still can’t move a muscle. I have to find a way to regain control of my own body. I need to stop this before it’s too late.

  “Vassiliki, help me.”

  Her face appears again in front of my eyes. “Here’s the override code for Tanya, Cole. Good luck.”

  I see an alpha numeric code and repeat it in my head. Something happens and the effect is immediate. I can move again.

  “No, Cole! What are you doing?” shouts Tanya.

  “What needs to be done; for all of us.”

  “Cole, you’re not thinking straight. You’re being manipulated. Please don’t do this.”

  I can feel how much Tanya believes what she’s saying. She doesn’t want anyone to die, but neither do I. Well, at least I don’t want innocents to die. As for the ones responsible for turning this wonderful planet into a massive mind prison, using me as their pawn; I look forward to ripping their hearts out of their rib cages. I’m going to take care of them in my next life, if there is such a thing for me. But from what I understand, whatever makes me who I am will still be recovered and my consciousness will be transferred to my other self. The one that sits home at this moment, oblivious to everything I have learned today.

  I grab the data chip and slide it into the data port of the device. The countdown turns blue, and “EMP” starts flashing on the screen next to the numbers. I’m still in bullet-time. In fact, only a few seconds have passed and in all this time, I’ve learned more about my life and the state of the world than during an entire lifetime. How ironic.

  “What is this? What did you do?” asks Tanya.

  “This will blow a massive EMP.”

  “And that’s a good thing how, exactly? Won’t it affect us? I might get erased in the process and you could lose all your augments. How will you defeat the people firing at us then?”

  “All good questions, but I have seventeen more seconds to figure it out. In bullet-time that’s nearly an eternity.”

  “Except you’re going to exit bullet-time in three seconds, Cole.”

  “No I’m not. I need to stay in bullet-time at least until the EMP blows.”

  “That would kill you, Cole, and in doing so, it would kill me as well.”

  “I’m dead anyway, so do as I say. We’re going to make this world a better place. I thought I could take the time to explain it all to you, but we don’t have time now. I promise you, though, we’ll get through this.”

  “I knew you were not up to this mission the moment you told me about this dream. I should never have let you time jump in that frame of mind.”

  “And yet you did. And I thank you for it.”

  “I don’t want your thanks, Cole; I want to continue to exist.”

  “These aren’t mutually exclusive, Tanya.”

  “Yes they are. The second that EMP blows, it will wipe my memory banks and you know it.”

  “Not if the drone’s shields are still protecting us when it detonates. It will take a fraction of a second for the EMP to affect the shields, and we might survive the blast in that fraction of time.”

  “Except we’re inside the blast radius in the shield. So how exactly does that help us?”

  “That’s why I need bullet-time prolonged. A moment before the EMP goes online, I’ll have the shield refocus on us instead.”

  “How do you expect to survive the constant firing being thrown at us? When the shields drop, we’ll get shot or incinerated or both.”

  Unless I thin the herd. Since the nuclear core has been disconnected from the device, normally even direct explosions on its incasing shouldn’t set it off, which means I don’t have to be subtle about what I’m gonna do next. The thought of it makes me smile.

  “Watch and learn.”

  I re-acquire my starfighter that’s still hovering outside with my mental link. I close my eyes so I’m not distracted by the blasts and explosions all around and I target everyone on the floor firing at us. I lock my targets and start opening fire. It all happens very slowly but it has a beauty of its own, somehow. Plasma fire streaks through the air impaling Ahmed’s goons, spilling their guts and blood everywhere. Large chunks of concrete get torn off the walls, and glass walls explode into a million shards. It’s like a Fourth of July fireworks display but indoors, with red the predominant color of the festivities.

  When the countdown is down to six seconds, there isn’t a soul breathing on the floor. We still get hit from the holes in the ceiling so I target the men on the roof and send the ship in autopilot to get rid of them.

  I walk outside the range of the device the moment I hear my ship opening fire on the soldiers on the roof. I drag the drones mentally with me and program them so that they shield me, no matter my movement.

  “I sure hope you know what you’re doing, Cole.”

  “We’re about to find out.”

  C H A P T E R

  XIX

  Mission completion time: T minus 12 minutes.

  Primary objective completed

  “Cole, if this is our last talk . . .”

  “It’s not going to be our last talk, Tanya.”

  “Please, Cole, I’m trying to tell you something here.”

  I think I know what she’s going to say, and I’m not sure I’m ready to hear it. I don’t even know for sure that I can trust her anymore. I want to. I mean she’s a part of my life. This morning I would have jumped off a cliff had she told me my life depended on it; that’s how much I trusted her. But now I have to wonder if Rewind hasn’t programmed intimate subroutines in her in order to exploit me with them. Perhaps I’m seeing evil everywhere now; I should at least give her the benefit of the doubt.

  “I’m sorry, Tanya. Go ahead.”

  “I know you’re practically the only person I talk to every day, the only one I interact vocally with, so it’s probably weird, but . . .”

  Funny, even though I may have been manipulated by Tanya on some level, I don’t think her personality matrix is flawed or fake. If there has been a manipulation, I’m sure she isn’t aware of it. And as much as I doubt her now, I can’t help but feel she is too big a part of me. I think she genuinely likes me, just as I genuinely like her in return, no matter how much a pain in the ass I can be sometimes. There will be enough time later, once I’m transferred to my other body, to check on her code and see what’s what. She has been my right arm, my best friend and more. So I should show her the respect she deserves.

  “I love you too,” I say preemptively.

  “What? You . . . You’re shitting me, right? It’s one of your sick jokes?”

  “Nope, isn’t it what you wanted to say? Before you hesitated?”

  “I . . . well . . . yes but . . .” She seemed to struggle finding her words.

  “But what? You’re inside my head, you know all my secrets, you don’t judge me when I go haywire and do something morally questionable or plain insane eve
n when your very own existence is on the line. You try to give me advice whenever you can, you’re there for me when I need you to and you forgive me even when I treat you badly. You’re any guy’s dream, honey. You just need your own body and then we’re cooking.”

  “I don’t know what to say,” she says, her voice diminished.

  “Then don’t say anything, Tanya. Thank you for being there for me, always.”

  “It’s my pleasure to serve you, Cole.”

  “I need you to do something for me though.”

  “Anything. What can I do?”

  “That order I gave earlier; I would really like a shot at rescuing Eleanor if it’s at all an option. And when I gave you that order, I didn’t have all the cards in my hand. Now that I do, I’d really like it if we could undo that mistake.”

  “But, Cole, you made sure that priority one order isn’t cancellable. I’m bound to execute Ahmed even if it means killing Eleanor. You made me do this. I want to help you, but it’s locked into my matrix now.”

  “Any chance you could try to hack it out of your matrix?”

  “I don’t know. I never tried it before. Would you want me to try?”

  “Yeah, please try. Oh, and good luck. We’re about to find out if my plan is going to work.”

  “Cole . . . I’m going to miss you if it doesn’t.”

  “Me too, dear, me too. But it’s going to work. We’re not done here. Ahmed still needs to die.”

  I’m about twenty yards from the device when the counter hits zero. The five drones’ shields are still superimposed on my position, each casting a smaller shield volume around me. The idea, and I hope this works, is that it will only take a fraction of a second for the EMP wave to pass through me and the shields. I’m hoping the cascading failure of each of the five shields lasts longer than that amount of time. In bullet-time I might actually be able to see it with my own eyes, even though I’m not sure what I’d rather do: look at it in slow motion or let it hit in real-time and hope for the best.

  I’ve already pushed bullet-time past safe limits, and I must admit I feel a mental strain accompanied by a severe headache. But I don’t give a shit anymore. I’m dead anyway. At least this body is dead. So why bother about little things like brain damage at this point? I just hope my brain doesn’t unravel before I can send Ahmed to the next world.

  I don’t really know my enemy anymore; that much I know. But if Vassiliki says he has lost his way, that’s enough for me to get rid of him. If he is willing to help the megacorporations with their dirty work, killing innocents by the millions, he and his men need to stop breathing.

  I decide to let the blast hit me in bullet-time. And so the device hums and the EMP is released. If my five-layer shield bubble holds, I’ll be the only one here with working weaponry. That should make the end of this mission a lot easier. On the other hand, if I can’t rely on my tech, if it’s disabled, well, it may be a lot harder. It’s a coin toss really.

  There’s also the fact that there are thousands of vehicles flying outside; their occupants will all plunge to their deaths and the thought bugs me. I know they’re collateral damage of the bigger picture, but it won’t soothe my conscience. I will have to live with their deaths.

  “They would have died anyway in either this nuke or the next, Cole,” says Vassiliki. “Plus many new generation of vehicles have been equipped with chutes should they lose power.”

  “Right . . .”

  It’s not much of a comfort, but it helps a little.

  The approaching blueish EMP wave will be upon me shortly. I can see sparks and systems around the device already turning off. The lights in the room are blinking, some equipment is flat-out shorting out upon the wave traversing their circuitry.

  I hold my breath even though I know it won’t make the slightest difference, but that’s good old human nature, I guess. The wave hits and the first drone is taken offline almost instantly, its shield blinking quickly before dying. The wave has barely advanced ten percent, which doesn’t bode well with my plan. The second drone’s shield gives in as the first drone falls towards the floor, soon joined by the next.

  I swallow hard. I might have been overly optimistic. The wave is nearly upon me when the third drone falls down and the fourth level of the shield blinks out of existence.

  “Jump!” Tanya says.

  “What?”

  “Jump or run now! You must be on the other side of the wave before the last shield collapses in less than zero point two seconds, so hurry!”

  Of course, zero point two seconds in bullet-time is long enough for me to start running. And if I don’t make it I should know immediately. If my augments become compromised by the EMP I will exit bullet-time the hard way, and it may not be pretty.

  I take a step forward and jump using super speed and super strength. Not sure the drone can follow me at that speed, but the idea is to get outside of the shield before it fails. On this side of things, the wave has already passed through anyway, so it doesn’t matter if I outrun the drone. I can see the blinking of the last layer of shield from the last drone left flying fade out of existence. I retract my legs towards the rest of my body.

  It’s the moment of truth as the shields give in. I think I’m away from the range of the wave, but I can’t really be sure. It might be effective beyond its visible part. When I start to feel like my head is being microwaved, I realize I already have the answer to my question. I feel dizzy and disoriented. I’m getting kicked out of bullet-time and I crash on the ground below unceremoniously. I try to get Tanya.

  “Please tell me you’re still here? Tanya! Please respond?”

  I see the lights in the distance going out as the EMP progresses all around. Soon, the entire city is in the dark. A moment later multiple explosions cause every flying vehicle to plummet towards the ground. A flying car crashes against the windows a few levels below. I see soaring flames and feel the heatwave of the explosion. I hear cries and people shouting in panic in the distance. As much as I want to devote time to think about what just happened and how it will affect so many lives, the truth of the matter is, I need to finish my mission. I try my best to not let any emotion take root in my heart in this moment.

  My body aches and I feel tingly all over. My HUD is still here, which is a good sign, but it’s somewhat jittery, which makes me think that some of my systems have been affected. The fact that Tanya doesn’t answer is not a good sign either.

  “Can you hear me?” I insist.

  Characters come on my HUD. “Yes. My vocal systems have been damaged. I’m trying to redirect power.”

  “That’s a shame. I’ll miss that sexy voice of yours.”

  A winking smiley appears in my HUD.

  I get back up and I can tell that not everything is alright with me. I feel heavier and slower. I test my repulsors and they come to life. At least this system seems to work. I then test stealth but I can tell by the noise and static it’s not working, which is okay as I don’t really need it anymore.

  I get back up and test my super strength, jumping to the upper floor through the hole my explosives had created earlier. I make the jump but barely, while I should have had plenty of margin if my augments were working at nominal efficiency. I must have fried a sizable amount of my nanites too. Still, I repeat the jump just in time, emerging on the roof; and see my own ship coming towards me.

  “Oops,” I say out loud before jumping out of the way at the last second. I had sent the ship on a mission to rid the roof of soldiers, which it seems to have done at least partially until the EMP took it out of the sky. The ship crashes on the roof, leaving a trail of fire. It is the only source of light in my vicinity now that the city’s power grid is down.

  I’m surprised there aren’t many people firing at me. But then I realize, their weapons are disabled and the thought makes me grin. I look around and scan the area.

  I guess I’ll have to do it the old-fashioned way, using mostly visual contact. That’s when a soldier ru
ns towards me with a machete in hand, shouting at the top of his lungs. He could have sneaked on me, but, well, I’m glad he decided to shout. That makes my job a lot easier. He’s atop of me at the end of his jump, about to slash my skull in two, when I decide to react.

  In a situation like this I have many options and decide to go for the standard response, assuming I can’t count on my tech. I jump towards him and grab his slashing hand mid-air, then plant my knee firmly in his stomach, with as much strength as I can muster, for good measure. His facial reaction tells me it must have hurt like a bitch. That’s good. That’s what I was going for: maximum pain. I end up with his machete in my hand as he falls to the ground.

  I flip the blade in the air as I hear him panting and wheezing nearby, trying to catch his breath.

  “I think this belongs to you,” I say as I throw the blade full force towards his torso. It passes through his upper body and nails him to the concrete floor. I guess some of my super strength still works at acceptable levels.

  He’s dead a few seconds later. I crack my neck bones. I’m pumped up and I have a lot of frustration and anger to dissipate, so it’s with great pleasure that I see another pair of soldiers run toward me, one with a knife and the other with a crowbar. They stay in close proximity to one another. Big mistake.

  I fire my repulsor blast but I need to blow some steam, so instead of hitting them with it, I shoot on their path. The shockwave of the blast sends them spinning in the air. I jump towards the nearest one and break his back with my knee. I can’t count how many bones break, but from the cascade-type noise, I can infer the tally is high. The second one crashes on the ground about the same time I land. My fist and knee hit the concrete that cracks upon my forceful landing.

  I get up and start a reverse round-house kick towards the soldier trying to get back up. I activate my shin blade and sever his head clean off.

  “Don’t lose your head,” I say just before the soldier’s cranium hits the floor to roll and fall through one of the large holes I made earlier with the explosives.

  A “LOL” displays on my HUD. It’s good Tanya is still here, even though I can’t hear her.