by RJ Johnson
“I should tell you, I take no pleasure in this,” Corcoran apologized, “I see it as if a dog owner would when their prized pup comes down with rabies.” She pointed the weapon at Hugh and fired, a hole exploding in his chest.
Hugh’s eyes went wide, and he stumbled backwards, falling to the ground. He looked down, at the perfect circle that was burned into his chest. The gauss round burned clean through and severed his aortic valve, with the round exiting out his back and lodging in the wall behind him. The heart that had been pumping life into him for the last fifty six years was now failing.
Meade kept quiet, he wasn’t sure yet if he wanted Corcoran know he was a witness to her shooting her chief of security. She approached the groaning man, clucking her tongue and shaking her head.
“Poor beautiful William. Always believing that your duty was to your oath above all other concerns. Why couldn’t you just remember that your only duty was to me?”
Hugh was gasping, foamy blood bubbling out of his lips as he struggled to speak, “Cassandra is too… much power… for one… person…” he wheezed and coughed and the blood flew up and over Corcoran’s outfit. She drew back sharply shaking her head.
“I’m afraid that decision is no longer up to you my friend,” she cooed. She leaned back down and closed the man’s eyes with her open palm, “Sleep well Mr. Hugh, you deserve it. When you weren’t plotting your betrayal and my death, you were a decent security chief.”
Hugh tried to protest, but the sound died in his throat. He sat there struggling to breathe while Corcoran opened her ArmBar and pushed a button.
Meade was stuck, what should he do? If he were caught up on the roof with Hugh’s dead body, it’d be a hard case to convince anyone else that he didn’t have anything to do with his death. Her limousine appeared in the sky below and it approached her on the roof, but the myriad of cables and Aerocycles from fleeing citizens was making it difficult for her driver to land.
He knew that if there was going to be a chance to clear his name, now would be the time. The second Corcoran got back to her lair, she’d be able to alter the footage of what happened on the roof to show whatever she wanted.
He checked the action on his gauss pistol and stood, and aimed it at Corcoran,
“Corcoran!” he shouted, “You’re gonna answer for Hugh’s death! The Madera’s crash and Cassandra!”
“Mr. Meade!” she shouted back over the din of her approaching limo. “I can’t say that I’m surprised to see you.”
“Bad penny and all that,” Meade said, keeping his aim on her, “I think you’d better come with me.”
“For what?” Corcoran asked, spreading her arms wide open. She dropped her pistol over the side of the roof down below. “Far as anyone knows if they stumbled on this scene right now, you’d be the one holding me hostage. It’s a felony to point a gun at the Ambassador to the Coalition you know.”
Meade grimaced, he needed backup and a way to get them both out of here without being shot by some well-meaning Coalition MP. He ignored her and opened up his ArmBar, “Kansas, I need your help up on the roof, can you do anything?”
Kansas’s face winked on the display, “I’m caught in the crowd below, Em, what about you?”
“No dice,” Emeline said, her face also appearing on the screen, “Once they locked down the arena, every internal lock turned and I’m still in the media center. I’m still watching you though.”
Meade was suddenly struck with the implication of that and he grinned. He looked to the Ambassador whose face had turned a deathly white and he knew that she understood as well, “That mean what I think it means?”
“The sheer amount of cameras and microphones built to pick up every word in this city is incredible,” Emeline said. “Thanks to that copy of the Ambassador’s ArmBar Sarah sent me, I was able to gain access to all those cameras she installed for Cassandra. Handy bonus that it gave us all the proof we needed to discredit her too.”
Corcoran’s face went from the peaceful serenity of someone who thought she was in control and twisted into Madusa’s fury. He grinned watching the Ambassador realize how everything she worked for was falling apart.
“You should see the kind of things people are saying about her on the wireless right now,” Emeline said, barely able to contain her glee. Meade turned up the volume so the Ambassador could hear, “It’s quite the scandal in fact. An Ambassador shooting her security chief in cold blood? Plus, let’s not forget all the implications of Cassandra…”
“We still live on TV?” Meade asked her.
“Across all fifty territories and assorted colonies,” Emeline responded with a grin. ”I never stopped broadcasting.”
“Madam Ambassador,” Meade said softly. “Your audience awaits…”
A spotlight from the limousine turned on and illuminated the Ambassador. She turned and looked up at the approaching limo, her hair whipping in the wind.
“Not like a politician to be speechless,” Meade shouted over the approaching limo.
The limo floated down next to the Ambassador and the door opened, extending a ramp out to her. The Ambassador’s face hardened and she whirled defiantly around and entered the limo without saying a word.
Meade shielded his eyes against the light and the second the limo turned, when he was surprised to see Laszlo piloting it. He saluted Meade as the limo turned and sailed off into the night.
“Oh shit,” Meade swore out loud. In all the excitement, he hadn’t considered what Laszlo would do if they all failed in their attempt. Corcoran still had control over Cassandra and that was the whole reason Laszlo had started this thing, he was kidnapping her to take control of the system for himself.
Meade whipped out his pistol and began firing at the retreating limo. It looped up and around flying high above the city and well out of range within a few minutes.
He moved back towards the dying Hugh and shook him, hoping that the man was still with them so that he could get even the slightest hint of Laszlo’s plan.
Hugh was still breathing heavily, his jaw down on his chest. Meade kneeled down next to the man and shook him gently.
“Hugh, I need you to stay with me for a little longer, what was Laszlo going to do with Corcoran?”
“Msstipl shances…” Hugh muttered, “…gave her multiple changes.”
“Multiple chances at what Hugh?”
Hugh looked up and his eyes sharpened for a moment as he recognized Meade. “You,” he croaked.
“Me,” he nodded agreeing. He was no doctor, but it was plain to see that he didn’t have much time left with Hugh, “What was Laszlo going to do with Corcoran?”
“Back up…” Hugh slurred, “I miss my shot, he takes her back, we backed each other.” Hugh slumped over and Meade shook him again.
“Take her where Hugh?” Meade begged, “Come on buddy, where’s he taking her?”
Hugh brought his head back up again and looked straight at him, “To Cassandra of course.”
Hugh slumped back over and stopped breathing. Meade shook Hugh a few more times before giving up.
William Hugh, the man who thought he was doing the right thing, died there on the roof of the Zero-G fight arena and to make matters worse, Laszlo had his hands on Corcoran.
He ran through how he thought the scenario went in his head. Laszlo’s original plan had been to get elected to the post after assassinating the ambassador and take control of Cassandra that way. Now with his plans gone awry and Cassandra exposed, he needed to get to the machine and learn its secrets before the Coalition or citizens of New Plymouth destroyed it.
He opened the ArmBar and pinged Emeline and Kansas.
“Keep an eye on Sarah guys, I’m going after Corcoran and Laszlo.”
“By yourself?” Em exploded, “What sort of…”
“Em!” Kansas’s voice shot out over the comm, his tone clear. “What do you need from us Meade?”
Meade checked the action on the pistol again and pulled up the app for the
Aerocycles in his neighborhood. He summoned one to him and looked back down to their expectant faces, “Get over to Corcoran’s office as soon as you can. Laszlo’s got Corcoran and he’s gonna force her to give him control over Cassandra.”
“How?” Kansas asked, “I don’t think pain is going to motivate her to hand over control…”
Meade’s forehead crinkled as he considered this. He wasn’t the type to charge forward without a backup plan.
“I don’t know yet, but I’m heading over to find out. Keep your comms open and get there soon as you can.” Meade snapped his borrowed ArmBar shut and moved to meet the Aerocycle that had joined him on the roof.
He jumped on the Aerocycle and programmed in the site where Corcoran had shown him Cassandra. One way or another, this ended tonight.
He only hoped he wasn’t in a body bag by the end of it.
Chapter Thirty Four
Catching up to the limo was simple enough since Meade knew exactly where they were heading. He was doing his best to reach the cavern Cassandra was located in before the Ambassador and Laszlo arrived, but even with Meade pushing the throttle of the Aerocycle as fast as it could go and using all the shortcuts he knew, he would still be far behind Laszlo and the Ambassador.
Meade held the throttle to the Aerocycle open with one hand while flipping through borrowed ArmBar with the other. Thanks to Sarah’s Coalition issue computer, he had a variety of apps and features that weren’t generally available to the public.
One handy app available to him that was coming in handy was the ability to open up any available public video feed in New Plymouth. He zoomed in on the Ambassador’s palace to see if there was anything there for him to see. If Laszlo wanted control of Cassandra, that’s where he’d need to go.
The feed popped up for him just as Laszlo landed with the Ambassador in her limousine. Laszlo yanked the Ambassador out of the limousine holding his pistol on her and dragging her up the stairs to the ornate doors. He didn’t even hesitate as he shot the two MPs standing guard outside the palace who didn’t see him coming. Corcoran shrieked and wrenched her arm to try and get away, but was pistol whipped by the Warlord for her trouble.
He willed the Aerocycle to go faster. Once Laszlo and the Ambassador were inside the cavern where Cassandra was housed, Meade wasn’t sure he could gain access.
Drones began to spit out of the Canyon walls and Meade groaned.
“Not again,” he moaned.
The drones flew directly at him, not deviating their course one bit. Meade opened up his ArmBar and checked for an EMP app. He had one, but no attachment. He cursed and held his breath as the drones’ forward compartments slid open, the menacing looking barrels extending out.
He prepared to take evasive maneuvers when the drones flew past him heading in the direction of the riots. He ducked up and over the drones, keeping his head down. They were heading out towards the rioters. For once, it seemed he wasn’t going to be the target.
He reached the Ambassador’s quarters where he found the door to the entrance still open. Meade jumped off the Aerocycle before it even came to a halt and ran up the stairs and into her palace. He leaned down and grabbed one of the downed MP’s gauss rifles, checking it once to make sure it was loaded. It was.
He didn’t miss a beat and kept moving inside the house to find Cassandra and the Ambassador, aiming the rifle at anything that moved.
However, once he was inside he saw that Laszlo had left him nothing but death and destruction. Three more MPs were lying on the ground, with a fourth trying to hold back the blood that was gushing out of his throat. Meade moved quickly to the MP and took out the man’s medkit from his belt. He opened up the case and tore through the supplies.
“Hang on pal, we’ll get you through this,” Meade muttered quickly as he pawed through the supplies.
He found what he was looking for and took it out of the kit. He tore open the packet of white powder with his teeth and pulled the MP’s hand away from his throat, sprinkling the white powder on the wounds. The wound began to bubble and hiss as the nanites within the package activated and began to temporarily repair the tissue damage.
Meade pulled the canteen off the man’s belt and poured a little more water on top of the white powder, activating any nanites that missed the blood. It wouldn’t fix him permanently, but they would stop the bleeding and keep his airway clear until he could be seen to by a medical professional.
“Which way did they go?” Meade asked.
The MP pointed weakly towards the backroom, Meade glanced towards where he was pointing and saw it led towards the deep bedrock of the Martian canyon. That had to be where Cassandra was located.
“Cassandra?” Meade questioned the MP. He saw the MP’s eyes brighten at the name and nodded.
Meade patted the MP on the back and leaned him up against the wall, “Try and stay conscious, I got friends on the way and they’ll make sure you’re taken care of all right?”
The MP nodded and Meade stood and began moving towards the stairwell that led down to the cave. He checked the gauss rifle he had liberated from the guard outside one last time and moved into the stairwell.
Inside, he could hear distant screams of pain. From a distance, Meade couldn’t tell if it was a male or female screaming, but if he had to guess, it was probably Laszlo torturing Corcoran for the key to Cassandra.
He ran down the stairs holding the rail to keep himself from spilling end over end. He was already hurt enough from his second fight with Chau and one misstep could take him out of the game entirely. If he could get the Ambassador out and free to face a trial of her peers in New Plymouth, it might actually be the catalyst they needed to make real political reform on Mars. If she died however, Meade might still be on the hook for it and no way to prove his innocence.
He made it to the landing of the stairwell and heard the screaming again. This time, he was sure it was Corcoran, and it sounded like she was in an incredible amount of pain - pain no human should know. The screams alone were going to haunt Meade for years if he made it out of this alive.
He peered past the doorway and looked into the vast cavern where Cassandra was located.
Inside he could see Corcoran tied to a surgical table that was raised upright, a series of wires attached to her brain and body. Opposite her was Laszlo typing quickly on a terminal pad. On the large screen that had shown Meade the untimely death of the couple was a flashing message. It simply read:
Corcoran will die in three minutes.
It took a moment, but he realized that Cassandra was predicting the Ambassador’s death in real time.
“Please rest easy Ambassador, the more you resist, the more it will hurt,” Laszlo’s cool voice echoed through the cavern, “You could have had it much easier if you had just died at the fight like you were supposed to. Then I wouldn’t have to resort to such barbaric devices that hack into your brain.”
The machine that was attached to Corcoran began to emit a high pitched whine and she began screaming along with it.
“Come, come now Ambassador,” Laszlo gently scolded. “Where is that famous dignity? How many people did you send off to Enzeli for a fate worse than what you face now? How long and how loud did they scream for deliverance?”
Laszlo kept typing and shook his head muttering to himself, “The code should have been filtered out of her thoughts by now, the boy’s ArmBar configuration was useless…”
“Of course it was you moron!” Corcoran spat at him. Drool fell from the corner of her mouth as she lazily lifted her head looking at Laszlo. “That algorithm was just a setup to call out who was going to betray me. You and Hugh fell directly into my trap…” she shrieked as Laszlo screwed up his face in fury and activated the machine trying to filter the code to Cassandra out of her thoughts
“Tell me dear Ambassador,” Lazlo hissed at her, “Did your precious plans account for your imminent death? If I can’t have the code, no one will.”
Laszlo pushed a button on t
he console, increasing the power of his torture device. She screamed as the machine surged and a mixture of characters began to appear on the screen in front of him.
“Yes, there we are…” Laszlo said maliciously. He opened his ArmBar and began copying the code, “You see how simple this is? All I need is the algorithm and code for Cassandra and the rest mere engineering. You’ve done the citizens of Mars a great service and I promise you that I will shepherd them responsibly as their new leader and Ambassador to the Coalition.”
The Ambassador was crying, the sobs echoing through the hollow chamber. Laszlo caressed her forehead, “There, there Madam Ambassador, I’m sure we can find a nice spot in Enzeli for you.”
“I don’t think you’ll find it as easy as you think Laszlo,” Meade said stepping out of the shadows aiming the gauss rifle at the Warlord.
Laszlo didn’t looked up at him, his eyes remaining glued on the Ambassador, “Of all people I might have seen, I never expected the man this woman would’ve let rot in Enzeli because it was convenient.”
“I’m a man of contradictions, what can I say?” Meade said flippantly. “Back away from her Laszlo.”
Laszlo whirled around, and smiled, his jaw set and a crazed look in his eye, “Or you’ll do what exactly?”
Meade shrugged, “Whether you end up in court or body bag, it don’t make much difference to me.”
Laszlo smiled, “You’ll have to find me first.”
And with that, he touched a button on his ArmBar and disappeared.
Meade cursed and fired at where Laszlo was last standing, but his round struck nothing but the equipment behind where the Warlord was working on which exploded in an impressive display.
Suddenly he found himself on his back, with stars exploding in his vision. It took him a moment to realize that he’d been thrown back on his ass by an invisible Laszlo, who by the feeling of it, was still sitting on his chest, throwing punches at his face.