by Adam Thielen
But it now appeared daddy had gotten angry at something Ping Interests Group had done. Chantech had leveled one of their buildings, and PIGsec then leveled their weapons at Tsenka. They shouted gibberish at her that her HUD told her was profanity-laced instructions to lay flat on the ground. She tagged them with her optics and considered how difficult it would be to kill them all. Something inside of her ached to watch them die. Her hand slowly slid along her stomach toward her pistol. She caught herself and raised her arms, explaining a second time, to the savage part of herself, that she was not a murderer.
Tsenka dropped to her knees and then lay flat on the ground. Men approached, their hands groping her arms and legs, roughly frisking her. It made her seethe and begin to regret her decision. They took her sword and gun, zip-tied her hands behind her back, and carried her by the elbows to the back of an SUV. Two officers sat inside the rear compartment, riding along with her. Her com continued tracking her movement, as well as that of her prey as they moved further and further away from each other.
* * *
The only human ears on the surface of the compound were those of the soldiers stationed in the small bunkers on each side of the grounds. Kate used the camera feed to determine which one had fewer men inside. She and Drew then brazenly stood outside that bunker while the cameras all replayed the same blank footage to the screens inside. She sealed the bunker’s door and shut its windows electronically, then routed all remaining controls to her neural interface.
Men began to bang on the door trying to leave. Not that they needed to go anywhere, they just didn’t like the idea of being trapped. Kate opened the door, and as one man stumbled out, shut it tightly behind him. He was young and ethnically native. It was the first time Kate had gotten a look at an actual person working at the facility. The man was armed, but did not have his gun ready on the way out, and Kate and Drew both had their weapons trained on him. He raised his hands in fear and confusion.
They took the guard back to the trailer and stripped him down. Kate let out a whistle at the sight of his six-pack. Drew wondered if he could manage an eye-roll, but canceled the attempt. They tied him up and Kate dressed in the man’s uniform. It was loose, but after some tucking and shifting, it almost looked the right size.
“Should I come?” asked Drew.
Kate ignored the question. “Private—really? You guys are really into military stuff, aren’t you?” she said, reading the man’s ID badge. “Private Wang,” she said, stifling a giggle, “might give us problems if left alone. You can also message me if we get visitors.”
“The monocopter appears to be headed back to us,” said Drew. “But no word yet from our friend.”
“She’s fine,” said Kate. “I will be in and out.”
“Good luck,” said Drew.
Kate took a sheet of smart-film from her pack and folded it into a rectangle. It lit up, displaying her picture and an alias. She slipped it into the badge holder and clipped it onto her collar. She walked down the steel ramp that led to the facility, and cameras quickly scrutinized her ID and facial features, comparing it to their employee database. “Welcome, Private Wing,” a computerized voice greeted.
Once inside, two guards gave her looks. One of them eyed her badge and then checked his com. Kate gave them both a courtesy smile and continued down the hall passing both those dressed in civilian attire and those in pseudo-military garb. All of these people were at the mercy of what their coms told them, and it told them whatever Kate wanted it to.
The interior of the facility was lined with dark steel that gleamed in the light coming from thin strips of LEDs that marked paths to the compound’s various sections. Viewing a map of the facility downloaded from the server, Kate found her way to a research lab that connected to an area marked “Residences” consisting of rooms that appeared to be only a few meters square. It occurred to Kate that in more restricted areas, lab managers or security captains might know everyone that would have the proper clearances. She was also one of the few non-Asians walking around.
As she came to the narrow hallway that led to the residence, she saw a man in uniform with a camouflage cap speaking with a man in a suit and a woman in a lab coat. She skimmed through personnel files. Some of these people had been there for years. “Drat”, she muttered. She looked up their com ID numbers, but they weren’t tied to the facility’s servers. Have to get them cleared out somehow, she thought.
Past the entrance to the labs, Kate found a restroom and bent down before each stall to check for feet. “Okay, Drew, this place is very busy.”
“You are stuck, aren’t you?” he returned.
“H-hey! I’m not stuck. I just… am not sure how to proceed.”
Drew looked at the tied-up soldier next to him, sitting on the dirty floor with no pants. “What’s blocking your path?”
“People.”
“Fire drill?” proposed Drew.
“There we go,” she said. “Wait, they’ll probably grab her, too.”
“Perhaps not if they believe it is just a drill.”
“I have an idea. Keep our hostage quiet.”
“I’ll keep our Wang under control,” assured Drew.
“Did you—never mind,” said Kate. She accessed the facility drill protocols and activated the fire program, then closed the bathroom door and locked it. An alarm began to sound, and voices of militants followed, shouting for workers to evacuate. The bathroom door shook as one of the men tugged on the handle and yelled inside, but gave up after a few seconds.
Desre slid her fingers across the collar that blocked her powers. Had she played along, she could be gallivanting around and mass-murdering corporate opposition but instead, she was stuck in a cell being studied so that they could find ways to enhance her brother’s powers. She sighed.
A red light in the ceiling of her cell began to pulse, followed by the sound of an alarm. Men and women walked briskly from one place to another, not sure at first where to go but certainly not concerned with Desre’s well-being. Then one of the security captains, known to Desre simply as Jin, approached the clear glass of her door. He waved his hand but the door stayed shut. He eyed Desre with suspicion and continued waving his hands. Jin grabbed a nearby woman in a lab coat and pointed at the door. She waved her hand and shrugged. “It’s just a drill anyway,” Desre heard the woman say.
Behind him, frail-looking men and women were guided out by security officers. Some of them had their hands cuffed behind their backs. One had a collar much like Desre’s. One had medieval-style chain links connecting large anklets to wrist shackles, clanking about as he shuffled. When Jin realized he had been abandoned by the rest of the staff, he left Desre and marched out of the building to join them.
Desre felt her collar chill. Her mind naturally tried to listen for thoughts and signs in the confusing situation. Then the panel next to her door turned green and the door slid open. In its place appeared a wiry woman, pretty, if a little tomboyish, wearing a uniform clearly several sizes too large. She carried a lab coat in her hands. There was a kind of comedy to it that made Desre smile.
“You might be the second-craziest person on Earth,” she declared.
“I’m here to r-rescue you,” said Kate, holding the coat by the collar and letting it unfurl.
“Who says I need rescuing?” Desre leaned back on her wall-mounted cot as if getting comfortable.
Kate cocked her head. “I really don’t think we have time for games.”
“I like games,” said Desre.
“Kate,” Drew’s voice came through her com. “Some of the soldiers seem concerned about the noise coming from one of the bunkers. This could escalate quickly.”
“Fuck,” said Kate.
“Things not going according to plan?” mocked Desre.
“What plan?” Kate half-jested. “Desre, I know who you are. I know you don’t want to be here. We followed you here from Ulaanbaatar to get you out.”
Desre sat up. “That is intriguing. Wh
o is we?”
“We don’t have time for this,” said Kate. “Are you coming or not?”
“What about the others?” asked Desre, referring to the other test subjects, psionic and otherwise.
“It will be difficult enough just getting you out,” said Kate. “We have to move.”
“Sure,” Desre answered, standing. She sauntered to Kate. Her movement was graceful if not seductive. “There’s just one condition. I need this collar removed.”
“What? I can’t,” claimed Kate.
“Sure you can,” said Desre, placing her hand gently on Kate’s shoulder where it joined the neck. “You made this door open.”
“I don’t trust you,” said Kate, remembering Taq’s warning.
“Well, there we go. I don’t trust you either.”
“Are you really w-willing to s-stay here over this?”
Desre removed her hand. “We aren’t getting out of here. And even if we do, I will be returning. You will die for this transgression. But for the next five minutes, I want to be free. Give me my freedom… and I will use my abilities to help.”
“The soldiers are now banging on the outside and inside of the locked bunker,” said Drew. “A few have their guns out. I wonder if they will—”
Shots rang out over the com.
“Affirmative, they are now trying to shoot the bunker open,” reported Drew. “Everyone else is watching the spectacle and conversing. Some of them seem… amused.”
“Stay out of sight, Drew,” ordered Kate, staring into Desre’s mesmeric eyes. Kate shut her own and searched for the controls to the collar. The device clicked open, and Desre quickly pulled it from her neck.
Desre took the coat and put it on. “I think we look more suspect with these disguises than without. What now?”
“Now we make for the door, casually.”
“Oh, sure,” scoffed Desre. “You are a bold one. Don’t blast off if someone gives us a look. I will handle it.”
Kate nodded and they started down the hallway and then entered the main corridor that led to the main entrance. A few people had started slowly coming back inside, bored of the scene outside. They began to look at the curious pair who were going the other way. Kate expected the psion to do something about them, but she continued walking.
Two of the staff members stared at them but continued moving inside. Then a man walked toward Desre with a purposeful step. As he got close, she closed her eyes and the man’s expression softened. He slowed, then stopped, seeming to forget where he was going. He turned and stared at the blank steel wall of the corridor. Kate could hear Desre’s breathing pick up, and when she glanced over, she saw droplets of water on her forehead and in her hair.
They continued moving, and a second man approached. Again Desre entered his mind. She imagined the world through his eyes, syncing up with his identity. She presented him with a new set of thoughts. Everything is fine. These two must need to get some fresh air. I don’t recognize them. I need to use the restroom.
The man walked past them and Desre’s breathing became rapid as she struggled to stay fully upright. They made it outside where staff members had broken into groups, chatting and enjoying the evening air, making a party out of a strange circumstance. For the soldiers, it was no party. They were on their coms, alerting headquarters. That was no good. While they didn’t pay any mind to two female staffers walking together toward the trailer, they would surely become alarmed if anyone, staffers or not, attempted to leave the facility grounds.
“Get ready to move,” directed Kate.
“Where are we going?” asked Desre.
“We’ll hop the fence, using the trailer to mask us.”
“Based on my calculations, several parties will still have line of sight on us before the landscape can provide cover,” warned Drew.
Kate activated a new alarm from within the facility, and the main door started to slide shut. As soon as one of the soldiers noticed, he began yelling at the others, and they ran over to the door to try to hold it open, but it was closing with too much force. One of the men slid under while the rest were left stranded outside. The party was over, and everyone gathered around the entrance and began banging and trying to pry it open. One of the soldiers pointed his rifle at the door, and Captain Jin slapped him, berated him, and then disarmed him.
“These guys are obsessed with doors,” remarked Kate. With everyone’s attention on the locked building, Drew deployed small metallic cutters from his forearms and quickly snapped through the links, creating a hole just large enough to move through. The noise attracted the attention of Captain Jin, who spotted the trio outside the fence. He began to yell and point. At forty meters out, they would make easy targets.
“Balls,” said Kate. “Run!” She closed her eyes and searched the building’s systems for one last trick. “Ha,” she said, shutting off all the exterior lights. “Stay low and follow Drew,” she whispered. They ducked down, zigged, zagged, and put large rock formations between themselves and the guns now firing at them. The yelling continued and Drew picked up the sound of a vehicle.
“The monocopter is just behind that ridge,” he said. “We must sprint if we are to board before their vehicles catch up to us.”
And sprint they did. The headlights of the off-road vehicle bobbed up and down and swept across them. A third beam from a mounted spotlight scanned the grounds, locking onto the fugitives just as they reached their aircraft. Drew brought up the rear to ensure that Desre, already moving slower than he or Kate, did not trip and fall.
In a desperate move to stop their escape, Jin opened fire on the copter from a hundred meters out with a long automatic barrage. The hull of the craft deflected the shots as it rose, then whisked the trio out of sight.
* * *
The SUV was in motion for the better part of ten minutes, and Tsenka Cho’s com told her that she had arrived at a PIG detention center. Stays at such jails were brief, as prison sentences were rare. Instead, corporations had implemented new forms of punishment to avoid the costs of captivity. Some of these involved bouts of torture, some involved brain implants, and the more crude sentences involved cutting off a body part. Each had their strengths and weaknesses.
Again they took Tsenka by the elbows, this time to pull her out of the rear hatch, through a plain metal door, and down a dimly lit hallway. They let her walk for most of the trip, guiding her into an interrogation room where one man and one woman, both in business attire, already stood. The man gestured at the metal chair. Tsenka moved in front of it, squatted down, then grabbed under the seat to lift it a few inches. She then slammed it on the floor with her weight. The sound penetrated the walls around her, and she grinned as a partial blueprint of the building was mapped onto her HUD.
Three more men crowded into the room. They and the woman took positions at four corners against the drab white walls. The fourth man took a seat across from a metal table bolted to the floor. He was handsome, with sharp features and a small goatee covering his chin. His black hair was parted and neat, and the markings on his uniform seemed to indicate he was a higher rank than the others. Tsenka noticed that one of his eyes was artificial as well.
“You see it,” he said in perfect English while pointing at his eye. “I haven’t had as much work done as you have. But I know what it’s like to adapt.”
Tsenka rolled her eyes. “What kind of shit were you guys up to at that facility?”
The man grinned. “I don’t know who you are,” he said. “But you aren’t from around here. This is Ping territory. You are in a Ping building surrounded by Ping security. You will answer my questions.”
“Ok, shoot.”
“Who are you?”
“Not telling,” said Cho.
“Well, what should I call you?” the man asked.
“You first.”
“My apologies, I am Sergeant Gao. But you may call me Teo.”
“Hi Teo, I’m Joe,” said Tsenka.
“Joe?”
Teo pursed his lips. “Fine… Joe. What were you doing at our building?”
“You know I didn’t do that, right?” asked Tsenka.
“We know what happened,” he answered. “But that doesn’t mean you weren’t a part of it.”
“I was just following my friend,” said Cho.
“Who’s your friend, Joe?”
“You wouldn’t know him. Goes by Roland Somer.”
The woman in one corner and the man in the other in front of Tsenka glanced at each other, and Teo stared into Tsenka’s electronic eye, wearing a poker face.
“You keep poor company if that man is your friend,” he said.
“Not for long,” said Cho, staring back. “He has decided he’s done with life, and so I must send him on his way.”
Teo’s grin returned. “I see. And what did Mr. Somer do to earn such loyalty?”
“Everything you see in front of you.” Tsenka looked away. She was growing impatient with her captors.
Teo leaned back. “We knew it was someone from Chantech, but we didn’t know it was him. Are you sure?”
“I can give you the locator code for a tracker placed on his copter if you let me loose so I can… reunite,” offered Cho.
“Tempting,” said Teo. “But I like you. I want to know who you really are, and that is going to take time. It doesn’t really matter who lit the fire. Chantech ordered it, and they are going to pay for it, very soon.”
“I’m trying to be nice, Mr. Gao, but you are making it difficult.”
“Take her to a cell,” the sergeant ordered.
In her mind, Tsenka imagined leaping across the table, tearing a hole in Teo’s tasty-looking jugular, and dispatching his four goons and anyone else who got in her way, but she told herself this was a perfect opportunity to prove that she could be patient. She stood and walked where directed. Two of the guards pushed her inside a small room with a metal door. It had a square window with wires running crisscross through it. Cho sat on a rusty bed short enough for a small child and began breathing exercises.