Apex Cypher (Prequel to The Techxorcist series)

by Barnes, Colin F.

  “She’s just dealing with the post defibrillation. It ain’t an exact science.”

  “You done this before?”

  “Of a sorts. Not necessarily to bring people back, but to—”

  “I know exactly what ya’ve done,” Gabe said, letting out the fear and anger. “Those bodies, that jacket, ya’re a freakin’ monster.”

  “No darling, I’m the doctor, I just create the monsters. You need to read up on your literature. Here.” The grinning woman handed him the syringe. Petal grabbed it from his hands, jabbed it straight into her heart and plunged the liquid into her. She immediately collapsed forward into Gabe’s arms.

  “She’ll be out for a few hours while the ‘Stems do their work. I dare say she has a bit of brain damage to fix, given the time she was out.” Her tone and demeanour changed at that point. She reached out her hands, taking Petal gently by the waist, and helped her to the ground. Throwing Petal’s arm of her shoulders, the Tinker led her past the bench and into the darkness.

  Gabe followed her through a curtain, thankfully made of fabric and not skin, and noticed she had a bed made up in the first class passenger part of the cabin.

  “While she’s sleeping it off, I think you should have a beverage and we’ll discuss my payment terms—you kind of owe big time for bringing your friend back. Also, that was the last shot of ‘Stem I had. That shit ain’t cheap. I’m sure you realise that, eh?”

  “Yeah, I get it, and I appreciate it, but considering it was your fence that nearly killed her in the first place, I’d say we’re even.” He slumped into a seat next to Petal’s bed. His guts churned with worry, and relief, and a million other mixed emotions. He knew better than anyone that life in the post-Cataclysmic world was tough and often more than a little crazy, but this woman was something off the chart. He’d heard of cannibalism amongst some of the gangs in Hong Kong—some quickly reverted to their most basic survival instinct as they soon discovered that looters and nature had reclaimed most of the food outside of the shelters. But to be as blatant as her, that was a new level of crazy that would alter his scale considerably. She made Xian look like a picture of calm and sanity.

  “You’re staying in my home, breathing my air, and taking up my space. There ain’t no even here, young man. And you’re here for the job, are you not? I suggest you show a little gratitude and realise your position in this world. You need me more than I need you, although it’s been many years since I had someone with dark skin like yours. You from the Jamaican quarter, eh?” She loomed over Petal’s sleeping form, her head turned to look at him. Her eyes seem to shine brighter, and her canines looked sharper.

  He refused to answer her question. That time of his life was too difficult to talk about; the memories, as they were, covered in so much blood, conflict, and ultimately grief and guilt.

  “Tell me about the job. And a name would be good, also.”

  “You can call me Shelley. So, about this job. Sit tight and let me tell you a story about a man who double-crossed me...”

  Part 3 - The Job

  Shelley the Tinker sat next to Gabe, on the end of Petal’s bed. She stared at him for a while as if planning on how to tell her story and then she started.

  “I was in Baicheng, just a short trek west of here. You can get there by following the dead railway track, if the scavenging bastards haven’t already stolen the wood and iron. The city used to be a main transport hub to the various northern part of the China Empire. After The Family had dropped the bombs, it was hit hardest by looters: all the cars, trains, planes, and basically anything that moved was taken, either to get the hell out, or to barter for food.

  “Like those poor bastards in the Hong Kong shelters, the supplies eventually ran out, forcing everyone else to the surface. By then the gangs were in control, and not a little crazy.”

  Gabe thought it ironic she was the one calling them crazy, but he let her continue on with her story.

  “The Family’s drones thinned their ranks over time, and the people from the shelters, called the Risen, took the opportunity to try and secure themselves shelter and resources. The fighting led to a blood bath. It literally ran in the streets one night after a particularly brutal clash.

  “I had always remained independent. Earning enough favour with the various gangs to not get killed, but not enough so that I gained any loyalty or obligation to any one group. Back then, being in a gang was as quick a route to death as not being in one and opposing them.”

  Despite himself, Gabe found himself admiring her courage and sense. He made the mistake of joining a gang soon after he rose out of the shelters, mainly because he thought that it would be the quickest way to get food and water for his family who remained behind, but things didn’t work quite as he planned. Trying to predict the future of a gang was like trying to tame chaos.

  “Anyway, around that time I started hearing about a guy who was somehow repairing electronics from the EMP damage. There were rumours that he’d found himself a penthouse room in one of the still-standing apartment buildings in what used to the posh part of town. He’d secured it after managing to get power back into the security grid and made quite the fortress for himself.

  “The other rumour at the time was that he’d found a working server. Apparently it wasn’t on at the time of the attacks, and had remained in its protective packaging.”

  Gabe interrupted, “What use would a server be when there’s no network anymore to take advantage? It’s not like we need spreadsheets or word processors anymore.”

  “I’m coming to that.”

  “Go on.”

  “So this guy calls himself Jericho, finds this server and apparently makes contact with other survivors. Much like how Xian and I discovered each other, this Jericho used the server’s technology to locate and join some networks that had either survived the attack, or had been built afterwards.

  “Suddenly, we realised there were pockets of survivors outside of The Family’s dome, and they had technology—software too. AIs! Military AIs. That’s ultimately how I found, and later won this place.”

  “What do you mean, won?” Gabe asked.

  “You don’t think anyone would give up a place like this? There’s every piece of tech you could ever want here—if you could fix it up that is. But also look at the resources here: oil, water, tools, glass, metal, fabrics, and wire. If one had the appropriate blueprints and schematics, not to mention the maintenance manuals, hell, one could, if they had the skills, get one of these birds back in the sky.”

  Gabe felt like he understood what the job was. “This Jericho has the information you want?”

  “Look at you! Clever boy, aren’t we?”

  He shrugged, not letting the insult hit him. He was smart enough when he needed to be, and it didn’t exactly take a genius. She was just being too slow to get to the damned point.

  “So tell me about this Jericho. Is he still in his penthouse? I assume that’s where the information is that ya want us to recover.”

  “Got it in one, Skippy.”

  “So what’s the payment for this job?”

  “Come, I’ll show you.”

  Shelley rose to her feet, her knee joints clicking and cracking as she stood. She passed him and exited to the fuselage. She led him across the scrapyard. All about him were trillions of dollars worth of military equipment, now rendered utterly useless. Even if you could get one back up and running, what would be the point? Where was there to go? And as Shelley hobbled through the labyrinth of junk metal and nearly new vehicles, a thought nagged at him.

  She mentioned that she could get one of the birds back in the sky. Where the hell was she intending to go? And where was she getting the fuel? Most of the planes used H-core engines that required hydrogen gas. Even if she could distill it from water, there wouldn’t be enough around. There was b
arely enough now for people to get by. Mostly it was rainwater or contaminated rivers. Purification tablets were available, but in such scarce numbers that no one developed a surplus of water.

  “Here, come look.” The old tinker stood over the open trunk of a rusted Ford Ranger EX.

  He stepped forward, still wary of the woman and her intentions. Inside the truck was a steel lock box. They were usually used for storing expensive tools. She flipped the lid, and inside were five two-litre bottles of water and a full box of protein packs: enough for at least two weeks for two people. Already he felt his stomach growl. He and Petal’s rations were running low. There was a chance they could find more food in Baicheng, but given how most cities and towns they had passed through were barren empty graveyards, he didn’t hold out much hope of separating resources from the few survivors who had fought to attain them.

  “Stand back,” she said.

  At first Gabe thought about overpowering her and taking the food and water, but he thought back to his time in Hong Kong. He’d be no better than the animals there. So he stepped back, realised that Shelley was holding a taser inside her jacket and pointing at him.

  “What’ya playin’ at?”

  “Just protecting myself. That’s only part of what I’m offering for the job. Just so you know I’m serious about getting that information. If you can get it for me, this is yours.”

  “A part? There’s more?”

  She slapped her hand on the back of the Ranger. “You also get this. It’s got half a tank of H. Will get you two hundred miles if you take it easy.”

  Gabe couldn’t believe it. His feet were calloused and blistered from so much walking, and he had at least a few more weeks ahead of him. No one had a working vehicle this side of the Dome. He’d heard rumours of a desert-gang who had made their own buggies out of non-electrical mechanical parts, but to have a real vehicle, that’d cut down a huge amount of time. They’d planned to travel to the rumoured outpost beyond the Dome called GeoCity-1. Home to the people who had made their own vehicles.

  At first Gabe and Petal didn’t believe it existed. A settlement that close to the Dome? Why would The Family allow it? But then back at Xian’s they had proof: a network signal. There were computers over there, and a job request. An unnamed individual requested someone with AI knowledge. They only knew about it because Gabe managed to decrypt the information. Xian just thought it was junk data left over from some random computer. Nothing was random these days. With so few computers still working, and fewer people still to actually make any use of them, any piece of data was important, valuable.

  The Ranger would take weeks off their journey.

  Shelley knew he was in. She just smiled and pointed back the way they came, making Gabe walk ahead of her. At every step he wondered if she’d change her mind, kill him, and wear his skin as a robe. He arrived back at the fuselage as Petal poked her head out.

  “What the hell just happened?” Petal said, rubbing her head, squinting her eyes.

  “Nothing much,” Gabe said. “You just died for a bit.”

  “That all? Hah. For a headache like this I was hoping it was for a night of drinking and screwing. No such luck, eh?”

  “Not these days, girl. But we got the job, and it’s a good’un. You up for some covert ops?”

  “If it puts food in my belly, I’m in for anything. When do we get started?”

  Shelley hobbled past Gabe, regarded the both of them. “If you set off now, you’ll reach Baicheng before nightfall.”

  Petal stretched her limbs, climbed down the stairs slowly, and breathed in deeply. “I feel like crap, but I guess it won’t hurt to walk it off. You shot with me ‘Stems, didn’t you?”

  Shelley nodded. “You took quite the shock. A little bit of advice: don’t go touching things that aren’t yours. Quick way to get yourself killed, and maybe permanently one day.”

  “Aye, noted. Thanks for the ‘Stem though, I know they don’t come cheap.”

  “Well, considering I need a job doing, I like to think of it as investment. Just don’t screw up.”

  Gabe saw the look in her eyes and thought back to the pile of skins. There was a reason she still had protein packs left. She was getting her nutrition from somewhere else. And he guessed if they failed, they’d better not return, unless they wanted to be the woman’s dinner and desert.

  “You wanna set off now then?” Petal said. “You got all the details for the job?”

  Gabe looked to Shelley. “Do you have any more info on this Jericho character? Like the whereabouts of his place? Anything to look out for, defense wise?”

  “Just ask around in the town. It won’t take you long to find him—unless he finds you first. And as for defense, he isn’t a schoolgirl; so expect to work for this job. It won’t be a walk in the park, that’s for sure.”

  Part 4 - The Betrayer

  “This place is a shit hole,” Petal said as she and Gabe climbed over a three metre high pile of concrete and rubble at the entrance to Baicheng, the former transport hub for northern China. The sun was close to setting, and it bathed the dead city in a wash of crimson light.

  “Everywhere is, but this does seem to be particularly screwed. How ya feeling?” Gabe helped her over an outcrop of rock.

  “Like I died. My head’s killing me. I can feel the ‘Stems at work though.”

  She’d eventually got her balance back halfway through the journey. One thing Gabe had learned in the years spent travelling with her was that she was incredibly resilient. He often wondered if she weren’t some kind of cyborg or something, given her ability to hold AIs and malicious code, and her physical prowess. He had no doubt that the electrical blast from Shelley’s fence would have killed a lesser person.

  They continued on into the city of Baicheng. Among the scrub land, covered in dry hard-backed dirt, were small patches of soy plants. A larger field, no more than fifty metres long appeared to be subdivided into specific areas. He guessed these were one of the various gangs’ food sources. Around the soy plants were fences with various crudely made signs. Gang signs.

  Petal leaned over to grab a handful of plants—it was trivial to get the protein from them and the soy plant had proven to be quite resistant to nuclear radiation. There were compounds within it that actually provided the consumer with a degree of a protection from various heavy metals and radiation.

  “No, girl, I wouldn’t do that.” Gabe pulled her back by the collar of leather biker’s jacket.

  “What the hell, Gabe?”

  “Look.” He pointed past the fields to a flat-roofed building. Half of it was crumpled from a missile strike; the other half leaned away at an alarming angle. Rebar and steel reinforcement jutted out at awkward angles. The setting sun shone through the various empty windows from the other side, lighting it up inside like the building has some kind of force within it.

  “It’s a ramshackle building, what of it?”

  Grabbing her by the shoulders, Gabe pushed her to the ground and fell down with her, just as a gunshot split the air. The bullet crashed into the hard ground a metre beside them, sending up a cloud of dust.

  “Crap!” Petal said. “How the hell did you?”

  Gabe looked at her, flashed her a grin. “I may be old, but I got damned good vision. Stay low.”

  On their bellies they scrambled through the soy plantation, using it for cover, stopping every few metres to change direction. Luckily, amongst the field were various piles of rubble and steel and leftover farming machinery. Using those for cover, they dodged a further five shots.

  “They’ll give up shortly,” Gabe said. “They won’t want to waste ammo.”

  “I hate this place already.”

  “Well keep ya little grabby-hands to ya self, and we should be okay.” Gabe peered through a gap in a rusted shell of a
tractor. A bullet ricocheted over the roof, and made him jump. Before the sun dropped below the horizon, he just caught a shadow move in one of the open windows. It appeared the sniper had given up. Not surprising giving the impending darkness and their covered position.

  Petal coughed, brought up a splash of black liquid. It was the ‘Stem solution. He reached over, and pulled her goggles up. Her eyes were a deep red colour. That wasn’t a good sign. She’d need to get a suitable node soon and download the various AIs and viruses that she was carrying from their last few jobs. They didn’t know what would happen if she went over capacity, but they knew it wouldn’t be good.

  “Is it bad?” Petal said.

  Gabe shook his head. “Nah, ya okay for a while yet. Besides, if we complete the job, we’ll cut down our journey to GeoCity-1 by two weeks.”

  “Come on then, let’s get on and find Jericho.” Petal kept low and crawled out from behind the tractor shell. Gabe followed and they soon reached the end of the plantation. Beyond that was a wide road leading to the centre of the city. To either side and just in front of them rose two rusted hulks of buildings. Gabe could just make out the signs. On the left was a tram centre, the one on the right a train station. The latter seemed to be some kind of gathering place. He heard voices echo over the air, and through the gaps of the thin sheet-metal exterior he saw the first flickers of a fire. A few seconds later, he smelled smoke and roasting meat.

  Further past the transport hubs, among the various semi-destroyed buildings, was an obelisk-shaped monument in the middle of a square. The monument was broken in half, leaving jagged fragments of marble to poke out at all angles. The square was lit up by a series of solar-lights, giving the place an eerie yellow colouring. To add to the theme, a number of bodies hung from those jagged fragments.