Second Life of Mr. Hunt: Book 3: Failover

by Gerrit Overeem

  “Impressive. I wish I had gone into the weapons business instead of antiquities,” said Vicki. “Where do you plan on hiding us?”

  Nora pointed to the screen. “This looks to be a used and damaged ship storage area. The ship should be able to remain hidden there, but with such a large facility, it may take a while to perform a thorough scan to locate Gideon and Commander Seymour.”

  “Oh, so that is your little secret mission,” said Vicki. “I always wondered what happened to the old fellow. It was like a juicy soap opera when I learned he was Katalina’s uncle and was found guilty of some wrongdoing.”

  “We were all…shocked, but that is in the past. Now we need to focus on finding them. If it is a trap, they will make something stand out for us to follow.”

  “You want something out of the ordinary? Look over there, on that upper walkway.” Vicki pointed to an area on the virtual screen.

  Nora zoomed in and saw two Bull Crosses guarding a door.

  “Nothing says out of the ordinary like two Minotaur-looking guards in bright colors,” said Vicki.

  “Agreed,” replied Nora, rapidly moving her hands around the virtual display and sending orders to the ship’s AI with the neural link.

  The stealth ship released the magnetic clamp and hovered near an opening as the hull slowly moved forward. Once a few AI hover workers moved by, Nora maneuvered the ship into the mess of damaged ships and magnetically clamped inside one that had a blast hole in its side.

  Nora opened the hatch and jumped out. Vicki did the same and stopped when Nora wobbled and grabbed the side of the ship.

  “Something wrong?” asked Vicki.

  “The lack of oxygen seems to have affected my organic interfaces.”

  Nora climbed back into the ship and returned with a medical bag that had items Gideon was going to use. She immediately pulled out an air injector and shot its contents into the organic skin covering her neck. The small oxygen-generating bots would provide oxygen through electrolysis utilizing the water reserves in her system’s organic areas.

  It took a few seconds, and Nora was standing up straight again.

  “An AI that needs oxygen,” said Vicki, eying her suspiciously. “You, my dear, are becoming a very unique individual.”

  “I will run a full diagnostic when we get out of here. Until then, we need to move fast. I was not planning to be on an oxygen time limit.”

  Nora pulled out two small jet packs and handed one to Vicki, along with a small box. Vicki immediately placed the pack behind her, and it connected to the back of the suit. She then opened the box, which contained two small disks, and she placed these on each temple. Unlike everyone else in this time period, Vicki never had embedded tech grafted in her. She always feared how the tech may react to her non-living body.

  “I’m glad you remembered I have no tech,” said Vicki.

  “It is something I will not forget. If you want, I can recite the conversation of you threatening us on the Tempus while you used an external communication device to call in Fredrick LaRue’s people.”

  “Yeah, let’s not. I believe that focusing on the present is in both of our best interests.”

  Nora put her jet pack on and then went to hand Vicki a las-rifle, but Vicki put up a hand.

  “No, my dear, I have other ways to fight.”

  Nora shrugged and placed the las-rifle back into the ship.

  “Remember, these are stealth packs and will not last long. They are made to be quick and silent,” said Nora.

  “Not my first rodeo,” Vicki said with a grin.

  Nora ignited her pack with a thought, and a low whisper of air escaped the pack before it went silent.

  

  The stun blast began to wear off, and Gideon shook his head to clear the cobwebs. He wasn’t sure where he was, but the oxygen mask covering his nose and mouth was the first clue that he was no longer on the cruise ship and might be in trouble.

  He counted the feet around him and started to formulate a plan, but that ended when a boot connected with his ribs, causing him to curl into a ball and provide him with confirmation that he was indeed in trouble. Looking up, the attackers from earlier were standing over him. They were wearing combat armor over cruise ship attire and carrying las-rifles. The guy who kicked him smiled at his pain.

  “Get up,” said the smiling guy, waving the las-rifle.

  Gideon slowly moved into a kneeling position and then stood. Two guards handed their las-rifles to their companions, grabbed Gideon, and forced him over to a wall with chains hanging from it.

  Gideon observed a body chained to the wall. It was on its knees and slumped forward. Only the taut chains kept it from falling forward into the pool of blood around it. The head was covered with a blood-stained bag. If it was Commander Seymour, he was most likely dead, and the mission was a failure.

  Gideon broke the grip of one of the guards and elbowed him in the face. He turned to hit the other guard, but a las-blast to his leg caused him to drop and scream out in pain.

  “I give you an ‘A’ for effort,” said a voice from the shadows.

  Gideon grabbed his wounded leg and twisted around to look for the person talking. The virtual image of a man stepped out from the darkness. His skin was an exotic tan color, which made his short speckled gray hair stand out, and he wore bright red pants, an orange top, and olive-green body armor. He smiled as he looked down at Gideon.

  “My apologies for having them shoot you, but we can’t have you going all hero on us. Lucky for you, the weapons are set to an exceptionally low setting. No need to kill you…yet.”

  Gideon looked at him, confused. “Who are you?”

  “Oh, my apologies. I thought Mr. Hunt would have spread word of my infamous deeds,” said the man, standing up straight and waving his hands toward himself. “I am Fredrick LaRue, leader of the Jesters Freak Show Mercenary Guild.”

  “So, you’re LaRue. Yeah, I’ve heard of you. The overdramatic freaky guy.”

  Fredrick looked back at his people. “Am I overdramatic? I don’t think I’m overdramatic.”

  “No, sir. You are not,” replied one of them, and the others nodded in agreement.

  Fredrick smiled and returned his gaze back to Gideon.

  “See, not overdramatic. Now let’s try to comply this time.” Fredrick waved at his people to continue.

  The two mercenaries picked up Gideon, who cringed from the pain in his leg, and chained him to the wall by his wrists and ankles. The chains had some give, and he had to put most of his weight on his good leg.

  “Really, chains? No one uses these types of restraints anymore,” said Gideon.

  “Well, I wasn’t really expecting you. It was supposed to be Victoria Van Buuren chained there, all beaten and begging for death. However, the entire plan was to get Mr. Hunt and his little friends to rescue poor Commander Seymour.” Fredrick looked over to the body hanging forward from the chains and then back to Gideon. “But once again, Mr. Hunt doesn’t follow the logical order of my thoughts. I must commend him on that.”

  Fredrick started to pace and shake his head, his virtual image cutting through one of his guild members. “Oh, my apologies.”

  Gideon looked around, trying to make sense of the guy. “OK, so what now?”

  Fredrick looked up. “Sorry, Mr. Hunt sometimes gets in my head. What now is that I’m going to adapt to unexpectedly getting you instead of Miss Van Buuren, which will get at least the AI creature—”

  “Hey, she’s not a creature.”

  “Oh, I’ve hit a nerve. An AI lover. This should be interesting,” said Fredrick rubbing his hands together. “I’m sure she is on her way right now, and when she arrives, my master plan will begin. Mr. Hunt and Dr. Kat may not get a chance to witness it, but they will feel my pain…all in due time. So, with that, I bid you adieu.” He bowed and started to
walk back to the darkness of the room.

  “That’s it?” asked Gideon.

  Fredrick turned to his people. “I have just been informed that a small ship has slipped into the facility. Give it ten minutes and then make him scream. That should bring the AI out of hiding. Feel free to rough her up, but don’t kill her or the lover. Leave when you are done.”

  The man nodded, struck Gideon with a shock stick before he could say anything, and the virtual image of Fredrick laughing faded away.

  

  Both women blasted upward to the darkness of the factory and sailed across in silence. Darting around in an odd dance for cover, they reached the area where the guards were without being detected. They hugged the wall and hovered six feet above them. Nora pulled a knife from her side as Vicki changed into her vampiric form—her hands changed to claws, her face into a demonic bony structure, and her teeth elongated to sharp points.

  They gave each other a nod and turned off the packs, allowing them to drop on the guards. As they hit, Nora plunged her knife through the top of the guard’s head and twisted. The bull creature snorted and went rigid. It fell to its knees and dropped.

  Vicki fell onto the back of the other guard, and her sharp claws reached around and gutted its throat. The guard dropped the las-rifle, grabbed at the remains of its throat, and tried to scream, but all it could manage was a gurgle of blood before collapsing.

  She licked her claws, but stopped when she noticed Nora staring at her.

  “What? I never said I was classy in this form.”

  “Not my place to judge,” said Nora.

  They removed the jet packs and leaned them against the wall.

  “I will open the door,” said Nora. She pulled a panel off the wall and easily spliced into the system, ordering the door to open. She brought her las-rifle to a ready position.

  Vicki wiggled her claws in anticipation.

  The doorway revealed a long dark-colored hallway. The lighting was dim, and Nora adjusted her sight for low light while Vicki waited for her innate ability to see in darkness to kick in. They crept down the hallway. Up ahead, a flickering orange light emanated from an open doorway. They moved to each side of the door and peered in.

  The room was large. Thousands of slim oval tubes about six feet tall, filled with a web of thin strands of various lengths, were lined up one behind each other. The tubes were held in an organized line by a thin metal clamp that descended from the ceiling. The conveyor of tubes moved along slowly. An orange light flashed on the tubes at specific points, while in other areas, a section of a tube would swing open, and a mist would be sprayed on the strands, causing small pulses of energy to race along them.

  “Organic cybernetic wiring for AI systems,” said Nora.

  “The process was described to me once, but it’s the first time I have seen the production,” said Vicki. “It must be interesting to see where some of your parts may have been created.”

  Nora narrowed her eyes.

  Vicki held up her hand. “I mean no offense, or that you are any less of a woman than I am. Hell, I’m not sure what I’m considered anymore.”

  “No offense taken. We know who we are and need no one to tell us. Now let us see what we are up against.”

  Vicki gave her a nod, since smiling in vampire form didn’t come off quite the same.

  Nora let her las-rifle hang down and removed a small device attached to the combat belt. The round object opened and changed into a small disk with a dome on the bottom. Nora tossed it into the air, and it flew up into the darkness.

  “I’m assuming you’re connected to it?” asked Vicki.

  “Yes, it is a small scanning AI and will provide feedback shortly.”

  Vicki crossed her arms and leaned against the wall.

  It took about thirty seconds for Nora to receive information from the scanning AI. “I have received feedback. Multiple targets spread out over the facility. There is a large doorway about a hundred and fifty feet to our left. The right side goes out of range for the scanner, but no targets are present that way.”

  “How many targets on the left?” asked Vicki, now stepping forward.

  “Twenty targets. Mostly in groups of twos with one large contingent of five.”

  “Well, I guess we go left then,” said Vicki.

  “Yes, it would be the obvious choice. We should move carefully along the conveyor of tubes—”

  The faint scream of a man emanated from the left. The women looked at each other.

  Vicki changed back to her human form. “Nora, don’t—”

  Nora’s eyes flared red as she said, “Gideon!” and bolted toward the scream.

  Vicki threw her hands in the air and took off after her.

  Chapter 22

  Rescue

  Ignoring the alerts her scanning AI showed about targets moving on her position, Nora charged into the left side of the room and gave a mental command to change the firing setting on her las-rifle. The AI interface set the rifle to fire three blasts at maximum energy output; it would drain her weapon quickly, but the blasts could now punch through most energy shields and armor.

  Nora moved rapidly and efficiently through the moving organic wiring factory, only to stop when logic processing overcame her immature emotional responses. She realized Gideon would expect her to rescue him, even though he would tell her not to, but he would want her to do it strategically.

  Moving more slowly now, she eased forward and froze when she picked up the slight sound of metal hitting a tube. Nora took a step, then turned to her right and fired, hitting one of Fredrick’s mercenaries in the chest.

  Sparks emanated from the mercenaries shielding from the first two blasts, but the third burned a hole through him. Before he hit the ground, Nora’s energy shield flared from two energy hits that came from the shadows behind the dead mercenary. Nora ignored the hits and fired again, dropping another mercenary.

  A red light from the scanning AI flashed in Nora’s view. She fell to a knee and spun around to engage two other mercenaries that moved up and fired at her.

  Not able to anticipate her quick reaction to duck out of the way, their shots went high. The las-blasts hit the slowly moving tubes, causing them to explode, sending fragments everywhere, while the organic wiring floated down like feathers, shriveling and turning to dust before hitting the floor.

  Nora gave a command to the las-rifle AI to set the rifle to fire full-auto, something the average person, even with modern enhancements to targeting, would be inaccurate firing, but she would have no issues keeping the shots on target.

  Sparks flew from the defense shielding on the two mercenaries before multiple las-blasts tore through body armor, killing them.

  Nora stood up to move, but she was thrown to her back when multiple las-blasts hit her defense shielding and penetrated, blasting away layers of organic matter on her torso.

  Multiple alarms flashed in her internal virtual heads-up display due to severe damage to her organic outer-shell and damage to her inner structure. Her systems compensated by rerouting power and activating repair nanobots.

  She looked up to see three mercenaries moving into positions behind a factory control station and assumed they were part of the group of five, so the other two must be flanking.

  Being in a supine position with not enough time to get up, Nora pulled her legs up slightly to get her feet out of her firing line, and using the strength of her arms to control the weapon, fired the las-rifle, hitting a mercenary in the shoulder and causing the others to drop for cover. This gave Nora time to shimmy backward under the hovering assembly line of tubes as the two flankers revealed themselves and opened fire. Organic wiring tubes shattered above her, and the crumpling wiring looked like gray snow falling in the facility.

  Blood flowed from multiple wounds on Nora’s face and arms from where the tube fragments
hit her. She looked around for a better position when a growl emanated in the shadows above the three targets in front of her. They fired in all directions and then screamed.

  The two flanking mercenaries opened fire on Nora, and las-blasts scorched the floor around her, forcing her to get up and sprint across to the factory control station the three other mercenaries had been using for cover. She peered over the station. The shredded bodies of three mercenaries surrounded Vicki, crouched in her vampire form.

  “Do you have the other two?” Vicki said in a demonic voice.

  “Yes, I will take care of them.”

  “Good,” said Vicki, before taking off in search of prey.

  Nora pulled a small cylinder from a pouch and tossed it to where the las-blasts from the two flanking mercenaries had come. The area was instantly filled with a white-gray smoke, and she adjusted her sight to pick up the heat signatures the smoke would enhance.

  Moving into the smoke cloud, Nora picked up the outline of one mercenary looking around confused, and fired, dropping him. She stepped forward with the rifle up and took down the other mercenary. With no other threats in sight, she exited the smoke, changed her vision back, and took a knee.

  Screams and las-fire to her left confirmed that Vicki was moving parallel with her and had taken out multiple targets.

  Using her connection to the scanning AI, she assessed the situation. It was now moving forward and picking up the remaining mercenaries and other readings that kept phasing in and out. She ordered the AI to go lower, but then the connection dropped. Either something was blocking the feed, or the AI had been disabled.

  Nora slowed her pace and swept right to left with her rifle. The tubes were now hanging a few inches above the ground in this area, and a hovering AI sprayed into them an organic material that would eventually grow into the organic wiring being harvested further down the assembly line. Except for the slight clang of a tube against another, all was quiet, then another scream echoed not too far ahead. It was Gideon, and they had hurt him again. Without hesitation, she moved forward, entering a storage area.