Pivotal (Visceral Book 3)

by Adam Thielen

  Some of that aforementioned maintenance required some ethical flexibility and for that, Chantech had decided they needed men like Roland Somer. He recognized that such men could be difficult to manage, and decided at the outset that he would keep the psion close and meet with him regularly so that he could be assured of Somer’s loyalty.

  Roland arrived on time and groomed, setting Chairman Chan at ease. Insubordination would often manifest first as a lack of respect for punctuality and appearances. The seer waited for Chan to motion for him to sit.

  The psion considered what their very first meeting must have been like. What was I thinking? he wondered. Did I ponder killing him like I do now? Perhaps I did kill him the first time, or maybe the second or third. If I did, I cannot sense it now, the memory has grown too faint.

  “Mr. Somer,” addressed Zhuang Chan. “Thank you for coming to see me.”

  “Of course, Mr. Chairman.”

  “How are the bunnies?” Zhuang asked, honestly curious about how someone so ruthless would take care of such gentle creatures.

  “The rabbits are fine,” said Somer, annoyed that the Chairman insisted on making small talk concerning his personal life.

  “I am told you took care of business in Baoding,” said Chan, looking up from the screen built into the conference table.

  “Yes,” said Roland. “That place is no longer a concern.” He could sense already where the conversation was going, but he had practiced hiding his feelings to avoid any undue ripples.

  “Your sister has become difficult,” said the Chairman. “And is yet again on the loose.” Chan paused, but Roland had not been asked a question and knew it was not his turn to speak. “Do you know anything about this girl and the android seen fleeing with her?”

  “I am told I was followed there,” said Roland. “If I was, then it was likely after taking her from the Russians. Which means it’s probably more Russians.”

  “Perhaps,” said Chan. “That brings me to the main reason I wished to speak with you.”

  Following the path worn by previous iterations, Roland leaned back into his chair.

  “Your services are valuable,” started Zhuang. “You are one prong of a trident that is vital to the security of Chantech.”

  “A trident,” echoed Roland. “You got the third prong up and running?”

  “That’s right,” said Chan with pride. “May get a chance to test it out yet this evening.”

  “Congratulations,” said Roland. “But the corp controls everything important on the continent already. No one can touch us.”

  “If only that were true,” said the Chairman. “These are desperate times, and the only true law is might makes right. So we must strive to be right if we are to hold onto what we have. Part of that is avoiding aggravating others unnecessarily or inflaming anger toward us.”

  “You mean the Russians,” said Somer.

  “Yes,” said Chan. “It is our policy to terminate life when necessary, and not simply because we enjoy it.”

  “I felt they posed a risk if I let them live,” defended Roland.

  “Those on the roof?” asked Chan, standing and shrugging. “Maybe.” He walked around the table and sat on its edge next to Somer. “But the ones still in the building? That sort of decision is not yours to make, and I cannot suffer a usurpation of authority.”

  Roland looked up at the Chairman, then back to the table. Every molecule in his body wanted to rip Chan apart and leave his neat, clean conference room in ruins, but as much as he was a psychopath, he was also disciplined. Besides, Chan had been a generous patron of Roland’s hobbies, and such a deviation from his memory stream would cast him far from his path.

  “Very well,” he said with a slight nod.

  “Unfortunately,” said Chan, “in addition to the woman and the robot, we have a third player. The imagery is poor—”

  So we can’t ID her, thought Roland.

  “So we can’t ID her,” echoed Chan. “Take a look.” The Chairman put the video up on the wall next to them, an aerial shot of Tsenka quickly dispatching the five-man death squad.

  Not bad, thought Roland as he watched her in action. She killed all of them, he heard the Chairman say in his mind.

  “She killed one of them, and severely injured the neck of another,” stated Chan.

  “What?” asked Roland, now off-script.

  “Yes,” said Chan, nodding. “Your men were defeated by this woman, and the Russians inside live. As glad as I am for that, it seems someone has taken an interest in your sister, possibly you as well.”

  Roland shifted in his seat nervously. “May I watch the footage again?”

  “Impressive, isn’t it?” said Chan as he rewound to the beginning. “Maybe I should hire her.”

  The psion watched wide-eyed. He hadn’t been paying attention before, because when it feels like every experience is old, one tends to miss things. But when he watched it the second time, he searched for a similar memory. A woman, using a gun, mowing the men down. It was fleeting, but that was the memory. This melee fight was new. Something had changed in the world, something significant. It unnerved and excited him in equal measure.

  “I hope I get the chance to meet her,” Roland said after the video had finished a second time. He relaxed as he saw his memories begin to match with the Chairman’s next words.

  “As do I,” said Chan. “For now, I’m told we have some maintenance to do on your augments. Make sure you head there next.”

  “Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Is there anything else?”

  “That is all.” Chan waved him away with a smile.

  Episode 11: Fighting the Power

  Beijing had become a six-tiered engineering feat in the years since the Collapse. Each level took ten years to construct, and plans were underway for tier seven. Each platter stood one hundred meters higher than the previous. The plans were simple. Create a circular tower without walls, then scale it to a ridiculous size. As such, the pillars and columns were themselves massive with diameters of three meters and placed frequently so that if one began to fail, measures could be taken to repair it without compromising the rest of the structure.

  As soon as the project began, it became clear that cost and availability of the resources would outstrip Chantech’s financial prowess. They launched mining bots into the asteroid belt, and by the time the second platter was under construction a decade later, the corporation had a steady stream of raw materials to work with.

  Built into the underside of each platter were screens that emulated daylight and changed images to simulate the changing position of the sun. Due to elevation changes in the surrounding areas, those near the center of the first two levels never saw any natural sunlight. As such, the second disc became a de facto nocturnal refuge, with its own vampire council. However, in Chantech territory, no special powers were ceded to the council, though they were allowed small representation as collective shareholders of the corp.

  Many large towers doubled as support structures, starting on one layer, and transcending several others. Most of these had exits on each layer for convenient travel. While the platters had to be uniform without gaps that the citizens could fall through, several giant-size manhole covers were placed every few kilometers.

  With the growth in available space that vertical expansion provided came an explosion in population as citizens from all over the continent came to live and make their fortune in the great tower city. And all of it under the control of a single corporation, with a single board, with a single chairman. Each layer had at least one regional Chantech office, while their main compound and research facilities remained grounded, along with mining, power generation, and manufacturing industries. Board meetings and conferences were most often held on the fifth tier.

  Just inside the boundaries of the city sat Tsenka Cho in the back of a black SUV surrounded by several other trucks, a dozen longbikes, and two old Humvees with .50 caliber mounted guns manned by Ping security men. After an hour of
sitting uncomfortably with her hands bound behind her with plastic strips, Cho was becoming irritated. She stared out of the sunroof above her head at the simulated starry night.

  “I don’t see what this accomplishes,” she said to Sergeant Teo Gao, who was sitting in the front passenger seat. “Isn’t Chantech… massive? Can’t you try subtler methods of corp warfare?”

  “Please, you don’t know our world,” replied Gao. “If we do not damage them now, then they will strike again and again until we are nothing but bones piled on older bones.”

  “If you want my help,” said Cho, eyeing her sword, gun, and spare magazine resting on the dash of the car, “then you should get this tie off me.”

  “I’m sorry, Tsenka Cho,” apologized Teo. “But you must stay in the car. We’ll drop you off when we finish up.”

  “How can you think this is right?” she asked. “To use me like this? To get me killed?”

  Teo shook his head. “I will not get you killed. We just need their cameras to pick you up while the rest of us wear masks. No one knows about our militia. It will, at the least, confuse them and with some luck, we can cripple their forces.”

  “You’re crazy.”

  “You will see,” he said. “This will be glorious.”

  Tsenka questioned why she had let it go on this long. She was intrigued by the corporate conflict and felt rudderless in a land she knew little about. Any chance to learn was an opportunity not to be wasted. Something about the situation amused her and at the same time, she was itching for a fight.

  “Well, what are we waiting out here for?” she prodded.

  Gao sighed, turning around in his seat to face her. “We are still getting intel on the facility. We believe the compound six kilometers into the city is a weapons development lab. One of their off-book operations. Plus, we plan to cut main power, and that can take some work.”

  Cho decided to change gears. “You live in the city, Teo?”

  “Nah. Used to though. Everything is too expensive now. Crime is a problem. Too many foreigners.”

  “What floor were you on?”

  “Floor?”

  “Uh,” stumbled Cho. “The layers of the city. How high were you?”

  “Tier three,” he answered. “Cheapest layer then and now, but still ridiculous compared to the smaller towns. Chantech bleeds people dry, but someday those people will rise up against them.”

  “What are those circles in the sky?” asked Tsenka. “The black spots without stars, I mean.”

  “Oh, the manholes,” said Teo. “Big metal caps that can be removed or dropped, creating a hole on that layer. I don’t remember exactly what their intended purpose was. I think in case of weird floods or emergency evacuation. Each platter has them in the same locations, cordoned off topside so if one has to be released, no one gets hurt underneath. Can’t remember a time when they were used though.”

  Tsenka twisted her arms about, trying to reposition the zip tie that dug into her skin. She thought of another question, though she doubted she would get an honest answer. “So what was in the building that Roland burned?”

  Gao turned to face the windshield. “That would be corporate information.”

  “Must have been important for Chantech to destroy it.”

  “Or they are just assholes that like to kick everyone around.”

  “I guess that’s possible,” said Cho. “Think I’d find anything if I go back after it’s safe?”

  “Doubt it. I would stay off of our property, Ms. Cho,” Gao warned.

  And with that, they ceased conversing. Tsenka pulled up a locally stored video game through her HUD, using mental commands to control a reticle in front of her, aiming it at a series of hallucinated enemies as they appeared to come at her. It made for good practice of her reflexes and ability to control her neural implant effectively.

  After roughly another hour of boredom, the sergeant looked at the sunroof, his eyes darting about as information came in through his com. “Roger,” he said to the man on the other end, then turned to Cho. “It looks like the wait is over. We are go.”

  Drivers of the various vehicles powered them on almost in sync, then pulled out of the empty lot they had used for their staging ground and funneled onto the G4 expressway. They barrelled down the road, taking up ten lanes with almost fifty vehicles. A short distance later they pulled into a dirt lot with what appeared to be a factory in the distance. Large exhaust tubes rose into the air before being diverted to a reclamation plant.

  Spotlights from the factory rooftop came to life with a loud clank and buzz, shining directly on the vehicles, blinding the drivers. Tsenka’s optics filtered it out and her orbital shield lowered to cover her natural eye. The vehicles hit the brakes, some bumping into each other. Sirens blared, ceasing momentarily so that a man could scream over horn speakers, “You are trespassing on Chantech property. Leave immediately or action will be taken!”

  “They know,” hissed Gao.

  “We should retreat,” said Tsenka.

  “Quiet! We aren’t going anywhere.”

  “At least shoot out those lights!” urged Cho.

  “Who do you think you are?” replied Gao. He held a finger to his ear. “Sharps, take out those lights!”

  One by one the spotlights went dark with a loud crack. But as they did, an opposing force consisting of newer-model armored trucks was revealed, blocking Teo’s forces from advancing to the factory.

  “That’s some heavy gear they have,” said Cho, recalling her knowledge of military prototypes. “The trucks look like they are based on Messle-45 schematics. You didn’t get this from me, but they are top-heavy and lack quality armor on the bottom. The front axle may be prone to jamming… or that could be a different vehicle.”

  “Why would you help me?” asked Teo in almost a whisper.

  “I don’t know,” said Cho with a shrug. “If this is going to be a fight, I want it to be a good one.”

  Teo stared at her, gauging the authenticity of her information, then relayed it to the rest of his men and ordered them to move forward. Before Gao could follow, Tsenka’s seismic alarm popped up on her HUD. A moment later, she felt it, a rhythmic vibration coming from the hard-packed earth below them.

  Then, she saw it. Coming from behind the defensive line was a robotic machine with a dull gray finish. It stood at least ten meters high with a pair of wide-set legs making up half of that height. At the top was a blocky weapons buffet that included launcher tubes and a clutch of rockets. In the center of the thing's torso was a convex glass cap that glowed a dull red. Two stubby arms held a Gatling cannon each. Every step it took with its thick, multi-jointed legs shook the ground.

  Before either Teo or Cho could react, the rest of the Ping forces started their charge. Thin lasers shot out from small emitters on the front of the walker, searching for and finding the eyes of the invaders. Gao’s men were prepared for that type of assault, each of them wearing reflective goggles.

  “We can’t fight that thing!” yelled Cho. “Tell your men to pull back.”

  “It’s too late,” he said grimly. “We must move in and try to salvage this.” Gao nudged his driver. “Let’s go. We’ve got to distract that thing while the rest of the men focus on their vehicles.” The driver nodded and stepped on the accelerator.

  As they approached the metal walker, Cho got a closer look at its armaments. “It’s amazing,” she said. “That thing in the center, I hope that’s not a particle cannon.”

  “Why’s that?” asked Teo.

  “That would make their tech much further advanced than ours. And we’d be fucked.”

  As soon as she had finished that sentence, the walker’s torso twisted independent of its legs, and the large emitter began to glow bright red, then flashed white, lighting up the battlefield and surrounding areas in a moment of daylight. The Humvee it had been aiming at crumpled at the hood, flattening toward the ground as if a wrecking ball had been dropped on it. The front half of the driver’s b
ody exploded into a red mist while the passenger and machine gun operator were flung forward and onto the ground.

  “Was that a particle cannon?” yelled Gao as the walker’s torso began to swivel toward his SUV. Cars from both sides had clashed in the middle, ramming into each other like a giant demolition derby. Men hung out of windows firing at each other with assault rifles. Longbikes, with their riders lying flat while connected to a neural interface, weaved in between the carnage while simultaneously aiming the small gun turrets mounted to the backs of their bikes.

  “Never seen one fired,” said Cho. “Doesn’t matter, 'cause that thing is going to wreck all of you.” She stood and leaned over Teo, nonchalantly picking up her sword and gun. He stared at her hands, unbound.

  “How—hold on, Cho,” he protested, the nearby gunfire and shouting nearly drowning him out.

  “You got hackers, right?” yelled Cho. “Tell them to flood this area with false identity signals so that thing can’t tell friend from foe.” He stared at her in response. “At some point, this is going to turn into a melee,” she continued. “You’ve got to tell your men not to use guns if Chantech’s men cease fire, because that’s what it will use as backup foe identification. Now patch me into your com, I’m sending my ID.”

  The sergeant nodded slowly, struggling to keep up with what she was saying since she was the only one with a real plan. “What about that thing?”

  “Leave it to me,” she said. “I will find a way to kill it.” Tsenka punched out the sunroof, then pointed at the back seat. “Get back here before that thing fires and strap in.” Gao climbed in between the seats and obeyed, barking support orders back to headquarters.