Ghost Black

by Matthew S. Cox

  “Gen… you’re buried up to your waist. Can you feel your legs?”

  “Yeah. I’m fine. I can wiggle my toes and shit. I just can’t get this cage out of my way. I hate my luck. Fell in on me. Something heavy slammed into the floor real close to my head.”

  “Sounds like your luck isn’t as bad as you think.” Risa let off a nervous laugh. “Pull your hand back. I’m going to cut the bars out.”

  Genevieve raised her hand, pivoting her right arm at the elbow―the only way she could move.

  Risa popped one Nano claw from her right index finger and used it to slice the grille. Lacking the strength to pull the Nano blade through a square inch of plastisteel, she resorted to a sawing motion.

  When the first bar snapped free, the entire grille moaned and buckled, as if the frame no longer had enough strength to resist being crushed.

  “What was that noise?”

  “Uhh, nothing.” Risa set her claw on the second bar and sawed.

  “Ri.” Gen grumbled. “Sand hit me in the face. That wasn’t nothing. If that damn thing is gonna cave in, you get out of here.”

  “No. I’m not leaving you. You’re only here because of me.” Risa sniffled. “I’m not losing anyone else. I’m not having you die on me twice!”

  “Oh, no…” Genevieve choked up. “Kree… I’m so sorry.”

  “She’s fine. I mean Garrison and everyone else who was in there. I’m sorry I didn’t listen to Everett and just kill that Nur bitch.” She grasped her finger in her left hand, dragging the little blade back and forth, gaining a sixteenth of an inch on each motion. “I thought you said you disarmed them.”

  “Oh, I did. Maris and Garrison decided to demo the safehouse since it was compromised. I rigged the detonators onto one of our control frequencies… only something went wrong and they maybe detonated a wee bit early.”

  “Great job.” Risa smirked, not that Genevieve could see with all the dust… and utter lack of light.

  “It wasn’t my fault!” Genevieve yelled, sounding like a bratty teen. “C-Branch got back into them somehow and set them off early.”

  “Gen.” Risa stared at a quarter inch of bar remaining and set her boots against the sides of the grille against the wall. “Listen to me carefully. When I cut this bar, there’s a damn good chance there’s gonna be some more dirt coming down. Stick both of your hands as far forward as you can.”

  “D-don’t risk yourself.” Genevieve held her hands out anyway. “I don’t wanna die.”

  “Okay. On three.”

  Risa kicked on her speedware and cut the last sliver of metal. The blade retracted as she flicked her hand around, seized Genevieve by the wrists, and pulled with her entire body. Her ‘older sister’ slipped from the dirt mound, flying toward her. Cracks raced around the square frame of the grille; the weight of dirt and rock crushed it closed thirty-two hundredths of a second after Genevieve’s boots cleared it. She landed on top of Risa, face to face.

  Speedware off.

  Genevieve let out a yelp of surprise.

  Dirt continued to seep into the tunnel, covering them both up to the knees.

  “Aurelia’s going to be jealous.” Risa wrapped her arms around Genevieve and squeezed.

  “Eww. You’re like my kid sister. That’s wrong in every way imaginable.”

  Risa couldn’t tell if she comforted Gen or clung to her like a little girl in need of an older sibling. Genevieve, trembling, returned the enthusiastic embrace.

  “Ri, can I make a suggestion?”

  “Yeah.” Risa sniffled.

  “I just spent the past… oh, hour praying to six different major religious figures that I don’t die down here.”

  “But sane people don’t believe in that stuff…”

  “Beside the point. Anyone is ready to believe in something when there’s forty tons of dirt about to fall on their head. Look. My suggestion? We shouldn’t stay here. This whole place is about to come down.”

  Risa squirmed over onto all fours. “Crap.”

  “Already did.”

  “Ugh.”

  “Kidding,” Genevieve tried to laugh but wound up choking on dust. “Can you see?” A hand grasped Risa’s left butt cheek.

  “Hey,” said Risa. “What happened to sisters?”

  “I can’t see a damn thing.” She squeezed. “Leg?”

  “Ass.”

  “Oops.” Genevieve slid her hand up and grabbed Risa’s belt. “Sorry.”

  “Follow me.”

  Risa crawled forward, retracing her route. She dropped into the fan chamber, balanced on the blades, and reached up. “Air pump room. Lower yourself slow.”

  Genevieve rotated to descend boots first. Risa started to guide her down, but Genevieve let out a startled cry and lost her grip. A butt to the face knocked Risa over backward. She fell backward, landing draped over two sections of fan. An instinctual activation of speedware allowed Risa the reaction time to get an arm up and prevent Genevieve’s skull from smashing into her teeth. Still, she crashed down on top of Risa, driving the edge of a fan blade into her upper back.

  For a moment, they both lay still, gasping for air.

  “You missed your calling. You should’ve become a ballerina.” Risa winced.

  “Ow.” Genevieve groaned in pain. “Nah, I’m too graceful for ballet.”

  “Can you move?”

  Genevieve squirmed. “Yeah, but I can’t see.”

  Risa guided her off the fan to the chamber floor and dropped down next to her. After crawling a few feet into the horizontal duct, she stopped. “How many died?”

  “I don’t know. We didn’t have a lot of time to move, but they’d already started evacuating when they thought I’d gotten control.”

  “Did the kids…” Risa choked up.

  “They’re okay. Garrison sent them out with Osebi before I even got there. He made a big deal of announcing that he wanted them going on a ‘camping trip,’ so it looked normal. He’d been hoping C-Branch didn’t care about missing them. Hell, the way he talked, even I almost believed we weren’t in any danger.”

  Risa chuckled. Yeah… Garrison’s a good liar. She sighed. “I hate spies.”

  “Me too.”

  Everything rumbled and shook.

  Genevieve screamed and lurched forward in a panic. Risa took the hint and crawled for a few seconds with a hand pushing on her butt. A tremendous onrush of dust and silt blasted over them from behind on a short but powerful wind.

  “Okay, okay.” Risa coughed and spat out dirt. “I’m going as fast as I can.”

  Risa decided to change course, heading for another common feeder duct that would take them all the way up to Tier 2, a faster path than the one she’d followed in. Oddly enough, she thought of the vagrant who tried begging from her. Poor guy, he’s gonna be waiting for a handout for a while.

  Nine minutes of crawling and climbing later, Genevieve gasped. “I see light ahead.”

  “That’s an intake. Maintenance workers go in there sometimes, so it’s got lights.”

  Risa switched the Wraith off, returning to night vision, and headed for the near-blinding orb. Dust still swirled in the air, but not enough to blot out her ability to see. After crawling for a little while longer, she pushed open a grille and peered into a giant vertical shaft large enough to house a cargo elevator: the primary air intake.

  Intense wind from above whipped her hair around and forced her to squint. A howling gale tore down the shaft, swallowing any effort to talk short of screaming. The opposite wall ranged at ten meters. She peered up at the shaft, lit every ten meters by a brilliant glow, LED bricks turned into small dying stars by her night vision. The way up looked clear, and even had a ladder for maintenance workers. Risa switched to standard vision, turned around, and backed in boots first, stretching one leg to the ladder. When Genevieve climbed after her, Risa eased herself lower.

  “No pressure, but there’s a thirty-meter fall if you lose your grip,” shouted Risa.

&nbs
p; “Thanks.” Genevieve wobbled onto the ladder, putting all her weight on her right foot. Char and smears of black grease covered her dull-red fatigues, as well as her breathing mask. Blood ran in trails down her face from a scalp cut. Four bloodstains decorated her left leg.

  “Shit, you’re hurt.” Risa patted her on the calf twice to get her attention, and yelled the same thing again.

  “I’ve had better days, but I’m good. Little banged up is all.” Genevieve heaved a grunt and climbed.

  The wind grew stronger the higher they went. Risa huddled close to the ladder, jumping whenever a piece of plasfilm or an empty take-out carton drifted by. Anything light enough for the ventilation system to inhale often wound up collecting in a fan chamber somewhere. Primus City’s ducts offered plenty of things for an orphan to make a nest out of. She didn’t like how Gen favored her left leg, but her heart ached for Garrison. If the tunnels had collapsed that high up, the whole safehouse had to be caved in. Without heavy equipment, she’d never get to anyone… and even if she had a digging machine, she’d be recovering bodies.

  Silent tears of grief ran down her face; only the worry Gen might lose her strength and fall kept her from giving in and sobbing. She kept close, ready to catch her ‘big sister’ if she fell. Every rung seemed a great exertion, and after thirty feet, Genevieve started taking short breaks between each step. Long minutes passed in the deafening howl. She didn’t waste energy on talking until they drew close to Tier 2 and she spotted a door above them marked with yellow and black diagonal stripes and a small square window.

  “There,” yelled Risa.

  Genevieve clamped on to the ladder and peered down at the pointing finger, then up to the door. She shuddered and climbed five more rungs, pausing to catch her breath after the last one. Eventually, she reached up and slapped a red rubber-covered button on a wall panel. Flashing amber lights erupted, filling the tunnel with blinking. The overbearing downblast of wind died off. Genevieve pushed the door open and stumbled through, favoring her left leg, before collapsing on the floor of a hallway.

  Risa leapt in behind her. A man in a grey jumpsuit bearing a PCMA logo emerged from an office a short distance ahead. He pointed a pistol at them, looking more annoyed than afraid.

  “This is a restricted area. On the floor. Now!”

  “I already am, asshole,” said Genevieve.

  “There’s been a collapse,” said Risa, gesturing at the thick layer of dust on both of them. “We’re trying to survive, not break in.”

  The man hesitated for a moment, but put his weapon away. “Where was the collapse? I didn’t hear anything.”

  “Tier 11.” Risa pulled Genevieve to her feet. “Can you stand? Walk?”

  “Yeah, yeah. I’m exhausted. Lying down seemed like a great idea.”

  “Tier 11? What on Mars were you doing that far down? Those tunnels aren’t even finished.” His hand drifted closer to his sidearm.

  “That gun comes out of the holster again, I’m going to beat forty points of IQ out of you with it.” Risa put an arm around Genevieve and helped her forward. “I’m not at liberty to discuss what’s going on. All you need to know is this is a military operation.”

  “Oh, yeah, like I haven’t heard that before.”

  Speedware on.

  Risa closed the distance to the guard, yanked the pistol off the man’s belt, and aimed it at his forehead in about one real-time second. No trace of reaction to her motion showed in his expression until after she turned off the boost. His fingers grabbed at empty nylon.

  “Gah!” He jumped back.

  She pivoted the gun sideways and held it up. “Look familiar?”

  “Fuck.” He put a hand on his chest, gasping for air. “Okay, okay, fine. I believe you.”

  Risa tossed his weapon back to him. She helped Genevieve up, supporting her on the walk to the end of the corridor, and a door that led out onto the street. Above, a bland white holographic sign read: Primus City Municipal Authority.

  “How did a hand trick convince him you were military?” Genevieve snickered, then winced from pain.

  “Punks don’t have boosts like that.” Risa opened a vid call to Pavo, who answered in one ring. 「Hey.」

  「Shit. I’ve been trying to call you… no signal.」 Pavo wiped his forehead.

  Behind him in the image, Kree leapt between the two front seats of an MDF car. 「Mommy!」

  Warmth bloomed in Risa’s chest. 「Hi sweetie. I’m okay. I’m coming back now. I’m going to the Tier 2 Mall, medical pavilion. Genevieve got banged up a bit.」

  「Meet you there,」 said Pavo.

  「See you soon. I love you both.」 Risa forced herself to end the call. “Come on. Little walking.”

  Risa went to the right, guiding Genevieve among a thick crowd of people, none of whom seemed to notice or care that they looked like refugees from a war zone. Genevieve pulled the mask down from her face and spat dark grey. Her limp seemed to worsen as they went on.

  At the end of the next sector, they emerged on a huge subterranean passage. The corridor, as wide as a six-lane highway, carried a smattering of vehicle traffic as well as hundreds of people moving in and out of the various storefronts on either side. The scarcity of cars allowed people to saunter back and forth across the road at will.

  “Oh, that smells awesome.” Genevieve leaned towards a place named ‘Q-Gasm.’ A holographic pig in a cowboy hat held a plate of baby back ribs in one hand, and barbecue chicken in the other. She reached at it like an infant demanding a bottle. “Want. Food. Now.”

  Risa pushed her forward. “After you get patched up. I promise. I’ll even pay. Least I can do.”

  Genevieve overacted being upset, but surrendered to insistent pushing. They walked for another few minutes until the street widened into a great courtyard in the general shape of a plus sign. The Tier 2 Mall’s western end had a multi-leveled effect with several garden platforms. Benches and pseudo-plants sat on one side, a food court on the other, and a walk path threaded through the middle around obelisks containing electronics that put on a virtual tour of the building and history of Primus.

  Total tourist magnet.

  A few families meandered along the trail, shadowed by holographic AI tour guides in dark-violet tunics with a row of buttons down the middle, who narrated about life in the early days during the initial construction. Secundus City had a similar attraction. The people who dug these cities out sure were proud of themselves. As a child, Risa had thought the tour guides to be some kind of monks. One of the other street kids had convinced her they were magic, and would beat her up if she did something wrong. Of course, ‘magic’ had meant holographic, which also meant appearing out of thin air and scaring the hell out of nine-year-old Risa.

  Motion drew her glance to a well-dressed man in a soft cloth hat walking toward her. A thin face, silver goatee, and bushy eyebrows gave her the impression of a university professor or some other intellectual type. The way his body filled in under a blue satin Chinese-inspired shirt didn’t fit the way his face looked. Bodybuilder chest, intelligent face, impossible man. Damn guides.

  “Thanks, we’re not tourists.”

  When he placed a solid hand on her shoulder, she froze for a second, and glared at him.

  “Back off.”

  “Risa…” He lifted his grey caterpillar eyebrows a quarter-inch. “Don’t you remember me?”

  Genevieve pointed. “Bench… Good.”

  She stared at him. A haunting specter of familiarity danced around, but refused to land on her brain. “I… no, not really.”

  “I’m sorry I never got you that doll.”

  Scenery behind him seemed to drag itself away while the man drifted closer to her. The ambient sound of people milling about faded to a warbling rush like a waterfall. She gazed into his eyes; her mind peeled away the years from his face, and a cloud of fire engulfed him from behind. A man’s scream reverberated at the edge of memory. The scream she had dreamed every night for years.
r />   Dad? She blinked hard. No. Andriy.

  He smiled. “You remember.”

  “You’re dead.”

  “News to me.” He smiled.

  “Andriy.” Risa pushed Genevieve behind her, and took on a protective posture. “What the hell do you want? How… how are you even still alive?”

  He clasped his hands behind his back. “I know you’ve been lied to constantly for many years. What I’m about to tell you is going to sound unbelievable, but that is exactly what they want.” He looked down, pursed his lips, and fired a sharp exhale out his nostrils. “I am Colonel Darren Black. The man you know as Garrison is an ACC special operations soldier by the name of Andriy Voronin.”

  Risa’s eyes flared wide. “I don’t believe you. You’re Andriy… you somehow got out alive.”

  “I’m sorry, hon. I would’ve made contact sooner, but I wasn’t able to get through the Front’s damnable tight net. Voronin is part of the same operation as Lars Staanek. Why do you think ‘Garrison’ got the charge from Heitzenroeder? They’re all working together.”

  “But.” She pointed at him. “But…” She jabbed her finger in the air at him and huffed, unable to come up with anything to say.

  “Your mother may not be dead either.” Colonel Black stared at a square LED light overhead, pain clear in his eyes. “When you were two, she left you with me while undertaking an assignment to infiltrate Bliss. C-Branch had been grooming Andriy to be a defector for months. He had used his position in their intelligence community to gather valuable secrets. Her mission was to extract him from enemy territory. Something went wrong. He made it out, but she never did.”

  Risa shook in her boots. D-did I kill my mother when Bliss went up? No…

  “I’ll be over here.” Genevieve stumbled a few feet to the side off the shiny silver walkway, stepped over the curving light band at the edge, and flopped onto a cushioned bench.

  Colonel Black folded his arms. “It didn’t take Andriy very long to realize that the woman he believed to be Marissa Donnelly didn’t really love him. Once he knew he was a mere ‘assignment,’ he came after me. That little fire show you had a front row seat for was a simple case of petty jealousy.”