Second Life of Mr. Hunt: Book 3: Failover

by Gerrit Overeem

  “Eldred’s son, does he have crystals on his arm?” asked Ryan.

  “Yes, and his friends did not,” replied Syl.

  Ryan and Kat looked at each other, pondering this new information. Their thoughts were interrupted when a squeaking sound from another room caught their attention. A man in a makeshift wheelchair rolled up to one of the patients to check on them.

  “What happened to him?” asked Kat.

  “He took a bad fall repairing a roof and has not walked since.”

  “Probably spine and nerve damage. Easy fix if I had a working medical lab. Why not send him off-planet?”

  “We do not leave the planet. The ancestors found this place, and we will stay,” said Syl.

  Kat sighed. “Fine, when we find the people we’re looking for, we can bring this guy over to the facility a few miles from here.”

  Syl took a step back and her eyes narrowed. “I was not aware that is from where you came.”

  “Is that an issue?” asked Ryan.

  “The building only appears during the darkness and demons guard it.”

  “It’s just a building, and those are guardian AIs,” said Ryan.

  “I cannot make that decision. It would be up to the leaders to determine due to the blasphemy that is the AIs.”

  Kat threw her arms in the air. “Oh, for crying out loud. This is getting ridiculous now.”

  “I am sorry you feel that way about our beliefs. Ridiculous is only wearing one glove when you have two hands to keep warm.”

  Kat made a fist with her red gloved hand, which matched the stripe in her hair. “I don’t think you want to go there.”

  The slight tension that was building was interrupted by a voice from the entranceway behind them. “Syl, is my mother here?” asked a young girl.

  “No, she is performing some routine checks on water resources.”

  “OK. Let her know I am heading down by the lake area with my friends.”

  “I will let her know. Be safe,” Syl said with a wave to the girl, who bolted back outside.

  “How old is she?” asked Ryan.

  “She moved into her fifteenth year last week.”

  “Very young,” said Kat.

  “Yes, but she is at the age where she could get taken.”

  “What do you mean?” asked Ryan.

  “Those who have been taken are young adults and adults in their prime years. Babes, children, the elderly, and the sick are never taken.”

  “Does she have the crystals on her arm like you do?” asked Kat.

  “She does. Her father did as well, but he died from an infection.”

  “Sorry to hear that,” said Ryan.

  “I do not question the gods. They have their reasons for taking him from his family.”

  There was a pause as everyone looked glum.

  “Hopefully, on a happier note, what is this festival we keep hearing about?” said Ryan.

  “Yes, the celebration,” said Syl. “It is called the Festival of the Ancestors. It is when the doors to the dead are opened, and spirits are allowed to return. Tonight is the Night of Light, when the two moons will be full at the same time. We gather and prepare foods and sit in meditation to commune with our ancestors. The next evening is the Night of Darkness. This is the night of the festival. It is a night when the moons begin their journey back into darkness, and no one is protected from the evil spirits that may have escaped when the doors to the dead were opened.”

  Ryan went to say something, but stopped and looked at Kat, puzzled.

  “Yeah, I’m just as confused,” said Kat. “Syl, why would you feast on the night that darkness would be the strongest and most likely to kill you?”

  “If evil spirits are coming anyway, it is thought that if they see the laughter and merriment, it might make them head toward the light, shunning the darkness.”

  “You don’t believe in any of this?” asked Kat.

  Syl laughed. “We actually don’t believe any of it, but it is a good excuse to enjoy the company of others, remember our loved ones, and have a party.”

  Ryan noticed tears welling in Syl’s eyes, but she spoke before he could say anything.

  “You are both welcome to join in on the ceremonies.”

  Ryan smiled. “I appreciate the invite, but with two full moons, I think the first night might be a good night for Kat and me to go out to that ruined city. If we live, we’ll join the feast the second night.”

  “You will be our honored guests.”

  “Now that our event calendar is full,” said Kat, “what about those doors in the back? If I had to guess, they would lead to the bio-lab attached to the med-lab. I see they are sealed, and a lot of symbols are written around the door.”

  “That is our worshiping area and where the sleepers of battle reside.”

  “OK, that sounds like an interesting worship area,” said Ryan. “Can we see it?”

  “Yes, please follow me.”

  Syl opened the door, and it made a whoosh sound as the seal released. They walked down a small hallway that still had old decontamination pipes sticking out of the walls and ceilings. They entered a T-intersection, and Syl led Ryan to the room on the right, while Kat wandered to the room on the left.

  Ryan walked to the side of a makeshift altar sitting on an old lab table. The altar was covered with holy symbols, as was the wall behind him. He smiled when he saw some he recognized. Offerings were set on the floor in front of the altar.

  “Interesting collection of symbols. Some I recognize and some I don’t,” said Ryan. “You worship all of them?”

  “We do,” said Syl. “It is better to worship all of them. This way you will eventually find the right god.”

  “Shotgun approach to religion. Never thought of—”

  “Ryan, you may want to come down here,” Kat said from the other room.

  He headed to the room Kat was investigating and froze when he stepped in. Four human-size containers were set on pedestals. A slight fog rolled from the top of them like a waterfall, and conduits ran from them to a hole in the floor. Kat was standing between two containers, moving her portable scanner over them.

  “Kat, are those what I think they are?”

  “Sort of, and before you ask, there is a person in each one.”

  Ryan peeked into each of the boxes through the clear tops Kat had already dusted off. There were two males and one female in matching battle armor. All three had a symbol like the American flag on their arms. The last container held a woman dressed in blue battle armor with green and red highlights. All four had some sort of damage on their armor, exposing scarred skin.

  “Are they alive?” asked Ryan.

  “Very much so. Somehow they’ve managed to stay alive.”

  “How? What are they being stored in?”

  “These are trauma pods. They must have been seriously injured in the battle and placed in these to recover,” said Kat. “I recognize three of them as being Earth Force soldiers, but not sure about the woman in the blue armor.”

  “Can we wake them?” asked Ryan.

  “Unfortunately, they have been in the pods too long. The systems have not been adjusted to account for the long storage time. We can wake them, but they would die from their injuries in a matter of hours.”

  “They will wake on their own when the gods deem so,” said Syl. “Until then, we make offerings that their spirits will protect us.”

  “If you say so,” said Kat.

  Syl clenched her jaw. “If you will excuse me, I must attend to other tasks. Find me should you need anything else,” she said, spinning around and rushing out.

  Kat waited for Syl to leave. “These people are a bunch of freaks. They don’t like AIs, they worship bodies, and they won’t seek help.”

  “Kat—”

&nbs
p; “Won’t seek help…unbelievable. And they don’t live long. I quickly scanned Syl while she was in here. She is about a hundred and fifty-five, and her genetic makeup is a mess. She would be lucky to live another fifty years. Meanwhile, we have humans living to almost one thousand and—”

  “Stop,” said Ryan, holding up his hand. “I know you’re upset, but they have strong beliefs and we need to give them the benefit of the doubt. At one time, this was probably a nice community and they were happy. Yes, they have some extreme devotions and, over time, maybe we can steer them to like AIs and modern tech, but right now, I think we need to focus on finding Tucket’s brother and figuring out what is harming these people.”

  Kat took a deep breath. “You’re right. One thing at a time. But once this is over, I may be the one kidnapping people in the night and healing them.”

  “OK. Just wear a mask to hide your identity, and avoid capes. Capes are bad.”

  “I’m not even going to comment,” said Kat, narrowing her eyes and pointing at him. “You’re setting me up for something from your past.”

  “You’re catching on,” said Ryan, laughing. “Back to the issue at hand. I guess we have to leave the soldiers in those pods.”

  “It’s best. Eventually they will die peacefully in their slumber.”

  “Shame. I wish we could give them the option to choose their fate.”

  “We could try to wake them, ask them, and put them back if they wanted, but it’s risky,” said Kat.

  “Fine. Still sad, though. I wish—” Ryan stopped himself and looked around the room and back at Kat. “Wait a second…The door opened on its own. Also, how is there power here to keep the pods running? And your scanner is working too.”

  “I was wondering when you were going to notice. It appears someone in the past drilled through the floor and hooked into something that is not being siphoned for power. Plus, scientific and research labs have layers of shielding, and the shielding in here hasn’t degraded. So it’s keeping my scanner safe.”

  “Well, this adds a level of complexity,” said Ryan.

  “Outsiders,” said a voice from behind them.

  Ryan and Kat turned to see the man in the wheelchair in the doorway.

  “The leaders are not telling you everything. Follow me if you want to know the real story.”

  “What’s your name?” asked Ryan.

  “Kren.”

  “I’m Ryan Hunt, and this—”

  “I know who you are. Word travels fast in town.”

  “OK, so much for small talk,” said Ryan.

  Kren brought them to the other side of the medical facility and felt around a wall until he heard a click. The wall opened to reveal a passageway. There were locked doors on each side, but one at the end of the hallway was open.

  “Kat, what were these used for?” asked Ryan.

  “They would have been surgical rooms. Not sure what’s going on with the locks.”

  Kren led them to the open room, and they followed him in. The lighting was dim, and it smelled of rot. The bed was flipped on its side and the word “uphir” was written repeatedly on every surface. The word was scrawled into the walls, written in blood or other awful substances.

  “Yikes,” said Ryan, covering his mouth and nose with the inside of his right arm. “What’s the story around this?”

  Kren looked down the hallway, then back at Ryan and Kat. “First off, my injury was not a work accident. It was late at night during the beginning of the dark season. I couldn’t sleep, so I went to a favorite location of mine on one of the rooftops where you can see the city ruins in the distance. Sometimes if you stare long enough, you can see lights or energy radiating from it. Before I could get comfortable, I heard a noise and saw a creature on a rooftop carrying someone. I went to investigate and recognized a friend of mine being carried away.”

  “What did it look like?” asked Kat.

  “It was taller than Mr. Hunt here and much bigger. It was black as night with the face of a bat, four arms, wings, and had a smoky crystal embedded in its chest. But its eyes…those eyes were as white as the moon. It was as if it was looking straight through me.”

  “Did you fight it?” asked Ryan, trying to get Kren’s focus back.

  “I tried. I went to tackle it, but it moved so quickly and vanished into the darkness like a ghost with my friend. I lost my balance and fell.”

  “Your friend…did he have crystals on his arm?” asked Kat.

  “He did, but he was not like the rest. He treated me like an equal.”

  “Like the rest? I don’t understand,” said Ryan.

  “The elders all have crystals on their arms, as do most of the remaining townspeople.”

  Kren raised his arms to let his baggy sleeves fall back. “See, I don’t have any.”

  Ryan looked at Kat, and she shrugged.

  Kren threw his hands in the air. “The people with crystals look down on those without them. They say they have been chosen by the gods, while the rest of us are outcasts. The village got so divided that most of the citizens without crystals left to start their own town in the city ruins. Anyone remaining, who is not considered chosen, is tasked with going outside the town walls to look for the damn spirit guardians. That was until too many of them died, and they had to start sending out their chosen ones.” Kren began laughing. “Then the gods started taking them.”

  “This is a new revelation,” said Ryan.

  “I think we should keep this to ourselves for now,” said Kat.

  “Agreed.”

  “If you don’t mind me asking,” said Kren, “I overheard you saying you could heal me. Is that true?”

  “Yes,” said Kat. “When this entire ordeal is over, I can repair the damage to your spine over in the facility near here.”

  “The elders would never let me leave, and if I did, I would be banished—or worse.”

  “Don’t worry,” said Ryan. “We’ll make up some story about how the gods told you to bathe in some blessed water out in the swamp that miraculously healed you.”

  Kren smiled.

  “Now, what is with this word or letter combination ‘uphir’?” asked Ryan.

  “A few times, taken people came back. They were disfigured and flayed…and ju-ju-just butchered,” said Kren, rubbing his hands over his head. “The last individual kept repeating this phrase over and over again until he was found dead.”

  “Do you know anything about the people we are looking for?” asked Ryan.

  “Yeah, they actually came to town. The woman first, and then a few weeks later, the man. The leaders did not let them in. The woman headed for the city ruins, and he followed her path. Most likely, their spirits are in the hands of the gods by now.”

  “I think we need to get out to those ruins tonight,” said Kat.

  Ryan nodded. “Let’s go see if we can find some lost spirits. But first, I need to make a call.”

  Chapter 17

  Long Distance Call

  Kat thought Ryan’s logic was sound. The OTKE backup facility must be able to communicate with the main headquarters or LARS would have never known they were coming. So, somehow, it must have found a frequency that the dark cloud could not block.

  It took them about an hour to search the town for old communication equipment and set it up in the town’s chapel, the only place that had power they could jury-rig into.

  “I should have this old stuff online shortly. I’m better at splicing into systems than building them,” said Kat. “You still haven’t told me who we’re contacting.”

  “Just hook me up with the OTKE facility and we’ll go from there.”

  Kat gave him a side glance and jumped back as a few sparks popped from the system. She scanned some known OTKE frequencies until she found an active one. A staticky virtual screen shimmered to life in front of t
hem.

  “Proxy CEO…I mean, Mr. Hunt, this is an unauthorized frequency you are using,” said Lars.

  “Sorry about that, but I need to contact someone. I know there is another frequency you can route me through that will work with this cloud interference.”

  “Yes, there is one, but it is not used for what you are asking.”

  “Well, we need to use it to make a quick call,” said Ryan.

  “I’m sorry, sir, but I cannot authorize its use.”

  “Wow! Disobeying a proxy CEO on his first visit,” said Kat. “I would hate to see what that efficiency report is going to look like when it gets submitted back at headquarters. I have heard of AIs being powered down for less.”

  There was a few seconds’ pause, then Lars snapped a salute and crossed his arms behind him. “Very well, sir. I will link you to that frequency. Whom am I contacting?”

  “Please contact Victoria Van Buuren at the Little Lamb. Tell her Ryan Hunt needs to talk to her.”

  The punch was quick and caused Ryan to grab his arm and rub it. “Seriously?”

  Kat crossed her arms. “You’re lucky there’s a witness, or it would’ve been much worse.”

  “Kat, I just need to get som—”

  “Sir, I am patching Victoria Van Buuren in now. She is currently at a different location a great distance from here, and communication may be distorted.”

  Vicki’s smiling face filled the wavering virtual image. Her long red hair was pulled back in a ponytail, and she was wearing a decorative bodice that accentuated her assets.

  “Well…isn’t this a surprise, Mr. Hunt? First, I run into your pretty blonde AI friend and her handsome companion, and now you call me. That only leaves one female in our way. So, are you finally calling me to say you’re leaving that wench Katalina and meeting up with me for the time of your life?”

  “I can hear you,” said Kat. “I’m standing behind him, you despot of a demon.”

  Vicki’s face crinkled and she pursed her lips. “We’ll meet again, Katalina, and this time I will be ready for your little power trick.”

  “I can’t wait!”

  “OK, ladies. Now that we know we still hate each other, I have some questions for Vicki. The first one being, where the hell are you that you ran into Nora and Commander Tucket?”