by Sonya Clark
“Hayes,” she said. “How’s it going?”
No reply.
“Hayes, you there?”
A burst of static exploded in the chat room. “Shiiiit!”
Tuyet sighed. That couldn’t be good.
* * *
Hayes dove for the kid, caught him at a run and hit the ground rolling. The semi that almost hit them both blared its horn as it hurtled past. The kid shoved Hayes away and jumped to his feet.
“What the hell is wrong with you? Watch where the fuck you’re going, you little assmonkey.”
The kid shot him the finger and ran off to rejoin the protesters.
“You’re welcome!” Hayes shouted at his back. Wet warmth and pain let him know his face had eaten some gravel when he hit the ground.
Nate and Lizzie broke from the line and jogged to his side. Lizzie said, “You have a real gift for dealing with children.”
Hayes frowned at her as he stood.
“Your glamour’s messing up,” Nate said. “Half your face is uncovered and the other half is identifiable under the magic.”
Hayes continued to frown as he inspected the bracelet. The charm was cracked in half, barely holding on. “Screw it.” He took it off and shoved it in a pocket.
Nate handed him a length of gauze from a pack on his back. “We’re going to have to move to the surface streets. There’s way too much traffic here already.”
Hayes wiped the blood from his face and tossed the cloth. “That’s gonna make this harder.”
“Maybe we should split up,” said Lizzie. “Each of us take different routes and meet back up at City Hall.”
“No,” Hayes said.
“But—”
He raised one hand. “Look, I get that your natural instinct is to lead. I think it’s fair to say that goes for all three of us. But we have a different purpose than this protest. We need to stay together and remember that purpose.”
Nate made his opinion known with a discreet nod.
It took several beats longer but Lizzie agreed as well. “Then let’s not worry about staying with the crowd. It’ll be safer, less likely we’ll get caught, and we can take a direct route to City Hall.”
Hayes said, “How close do you need to be to pick up on all this energy?”
“The moon would probably be close enough.”
Nate put a hand to her shoulder briefly. “Is it bothering you?”
“That’s not the word I would use,” she said. “Let’s go.”
Hayes checked in with Tuyet, then the three of them headed for City Hall.
* * *
Tuyet skimmed across the top of a wave of police chatter. Dozens of 911 calls had already been made, with no indication they would slow down anytime soon. The first of the protesters had reached City Hall, or rather two blocks from it. Hundreds of police had been hastily called in to set up a cordon protecting the area.
She left the police net and surfed quickly back to TMG. The boundaries of the circle were set. The cone of power was building steadily. It was time for a test run. She fired off a terse message to the others and dove headlong deeper into TMG’s intranet, past where a low-level security guard would be allowed to venture.
The first layers of security fell easily. Vadim and Calla worked in the background to disable or at least delay any associated alarms. For the next level Tuyet launched a series of decryption spells. First, she made sure to try gaining access with Channing’s security code from his badge. It didn’t work, of course—he didn’t have that level of clearance. But it gave her grim satisfaction to leave a trail of breadcrumbs leading back to him.
One by one, the decryption spells produced results. Tuyet made her way through deeper layers of security, each one more complex than the last. Finally she reached what Silver Wheels had warned her about: a massive structure of code interwoven with spells, practically a literal firewall. It made her curious about the training of the witches who’d crafted this beast, but not enough to give it more than a second’s thought.
She tested the barrier. A backlash ten times stronger than the average warding spell nearly knocked her out of trance. She retreated to the chat room, for two reasons. One, in the hopes that any witches on the other side of that barrier were fooled into believing their spells were strong enough to deter this intrusion. Two, she wanted to talk to everyone one last time. They’d only get one shot at this run. It had to work the first time.
Tuyet waited until she’d sighted everyone’s avatar. “Okay, I don’t think there’s any way around it.”
“Brute force it is then,” Vadim said.
“As soon as we get the word from Hayes, we’ll start.” Tuyet checked the connection, finding it open but quiet.
Calla said, “Do you think it’s monitored? I mean, maybe they just set the spells and don’t keep watch.”
She had nothing to go on but instinct, but Tuyet said, “Yes, definitely monitored. So I may need some defensive help.”
Silver Wheels said, “I’ll start the spell to direct the energy. Tuyet, punch it and the virus through as soon as you can. Vadim and Calla, you be on standby in case she needs that defensive help. Jason, buddy, you just keep sending all the energy you can draw.”
Jason’s laughter lit the chat room in colorful sparks.
Tuyet checked the time, then glanced around the room in realspace. The door was still locked and it was early enough that no one had noticed yet. Even so, they didn’t have much time left. The regular workday would start soon. She needed to be out of TMG before that happened.
After one more check of the wards on the entrance, she returned to a deep trance state. A working trance gave her a watercolor view of cyberspace, all muted colors and soft sounds but still good enough to work with. Deep trance turned twilight to midnight, pastels to vivid neon, gave her the freedom to move from site to site with astonishing speed. It made cyberspace as three-dimensional as realspace, and every bit as dangerous. It was the closest to true freedom she’d ever experienced.
Tuyet had no trouble understanding why Halif had chosen to remain in the net as Silver Wheels rather than return to a broken body and a half life in a cage. She would have made the same choice, had it been her.
Hayes must have had so many questions about their friend and what happened to him. There would be time for answers once this was over.
Power crackled along electric lines all across the city. It reverberated through Tuyet’s consciousness deep in cyberspace, as well as her body where it sat in the basement of Tennant Media Group. She drew the energy to her, fused it with her own magic. The virus hummed like a live thing as it waited for her command. TMG’s firewall glittered before her, a tightly woven construct of mundane computer code and some of the strongest magic she’d ever seen.
She composed a message to Hayes, curious whether the text-to-speech program was sensitive enough to relay the tension trembling through her nerve endings. “We’re ready on this end. Tell Lizzie she can start at any time.”
“Cops...chasing...three...City Hall.” The message cut off abruptly.
Three miles? Three blocks? Were they in danger? Tuyet ran a quick scan of the police frequency. It was such a jumble of voices and static that she just as quickly shut it out, dismayed at how useless it now was. Equally dismayed at the chaos on the streets. They needed the power the march was creating, but they also needed it manageable enough for Lizzie to have some measure of control over it.
“What’s happening, Hayes?”
No answer.
“Hayes?”
A rustle of static, then a series of increasingly loud pops. It took a moment for Tuyet to identify the pops as gunfire.
“Hayes!”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Hayes ducked another volley of rubber bullets, he and Nate coveri
ng Lizzie as the three huddled at a corner three blocks from City Hall. Rubber bullets could still do significant damage, even kill, but it was a small step in the right direction from the live ammo fired on the night of the last protest. Groups of people had splintered off at the highway and made their way through Midtown in small numbers, on side streets and back alleys. Hayes, Nate and Lizzie did their best to keep to a direct route, but as more and more police filled the streets and shut down the highway, they’d had no choice but to alter their plan.
Lizzie’s glamour was still intact, sunlight glinting off the mirrorball helmet to shine painfully in his eyes. She hadn’t spoken in a while and he’d chalked it up to the hard run through chaotic streets, but now that he had time to stop and think for a second, he was worried. What was all this energy in the streets doing to her?
“You holding up okay, Lizzie?”
She raised a hand then dropped it.
Hayes and Nate exchanged a worried glance. Nate said, “Let’s get under cover somewhere.”
“Lead the way.” Hayes didn’t know the city near as well.
A dozen or more people ran past their position, several moving backward so they could throw rocks at the police giving chase. A surveillance drone flew overhead, diving low between the canyons of the high rises of Central City.
Hayes tapped the screen of his watch. “Halif, they’re using drones. Can you do anything about the footage being sent back?”
“Investigating now,” came the terse reply.
Nate pointed to the left. “There’s a parking garage half a block that way. It’s as good a place as any.” He glanced at Lizzie. She was huddled into herself and rocking slightly. “She doesn’t need to see it, just feel it.”
Hayes pitched his voice low so she wouldn’t hear. “Pick her up and carry her if necessary.”
Nate nodded and helped Lizzie up. Hayes reached into his pack, debating what to use. He had a gun he hoped he wouldn’t need, a shock baton and a handful of witchlight charms. He grabbed the baton and a charm then closed the pack and replaced it on his back. “Let’s go.”
The two men flanked Lizzie, Nate slightly in the lead, Hayes trying to look everywhere at once as they ran up the street. Another drone maneuvered overhead, or perhaps the same one. Small, black and insectlike in appearance, it cruised at moderate speed, the lens of its camera a glossy dark eye.
“Halif, we’ve got a drone pacing us. Can you do anything?”
“I’m trying but I’m having to fight to hold the circle intact and do anything else.”
Damn. “Guess I’ll just have to do this the old-fashioned way.” He motioned to Nate. “Head up the block and circle back if this works.”
“What are you going to do?”
Hayes didn’t answer, instead switching the baton for the gun. Nate hesitated for a moment, then led Lizzie farther up the block.
Hayes stepped out into the middle of the street, gun held close to his side, and waved at the drone. It detected the motion and directed its camera at him. He gave it his best smile. In seconds, the drone’s facial recognition software identified him as a wanted fugitive, and it flew lower, until it hovered three feet from his head.
A loud, robotic voice issued from the drone. “Suspect. Remain in position until officers arrive. You are under arrest.”
Its programming was designed to follow an identified suspect, especially one with charges against him like Hayes. It had recorded footage of Nate and Lizzie, faces obscured by the mirrorball glamours, leaving the immediate area. Not a surefire solution, but hopefully with everything else going on the police would assume he’d left as well.
“Yeah, sure thing.” He waved again, lowering all but his middle finger as he grinned at the camera. Then he raised the gun and emptied the clip into the drone’s cyclops eye.
Surveillance drones were designed to withstand rough weather and a moderate level of attack. The average person didn’t know enough about their vulnerabilities to know where to strike, but Hayes did. The camera was the key: everything important required to keep the drone functioning was housed in a small cube directly behind the lens. Bullets from several feet away fired by an expert marksman were more than enough to bring the drone crashing to the street.
Smoke curled up from a small fire blazing in the heart of the electronics. Pieces littered the asphalt. Hayes kicked at a broken, jagged bit of wing. He switched out the empty clip for a full one and tucked the gun into the built-in holster inside his jacket.
Nightshade dealers had all kinds of interesting toys. The jacket had been an especially nice item to pick up. He used another from them, a witchlight charm that would simulate an explosion and fire when triggered. Placed in the drone wreckage just so, it would hopefully slow down any police who tried to retrieve it.
Nate waved as he and Lizzie ducked into the parking garage. Hayes jogged to meet them.
The other man hurriedly removed his glamour, then Lizzie’s. He said, “We have a problem.”
Lizzie was ghostly pale, her eyes half-closed and unfocused. Her body slumped to the ground, held up only by Nate’s grip on her arm.
Hayes said, “She doesn’t look so good.”
“That’s not the half of it,” Nate said. “Get ready to catch her.”
“Don’t let her go if—”
Nate released his hold on Lizzie. Her feet left the ground, limbs floating around her as if she was underwater. As if she was flying. Hayes stared in shock, speechless. She rose quickly. Her foot was just above his head when his brain finally started working again and he grabbed her ankle.
Lizzie tore the air with a scream. “Vadya!” Magic fractured a line in a nearby concrete pillar and blew out the LED traffic signs at the entrance.
Hayes pulled her down carefully and wrapped his arms around her. Electric shocks bit into his flesh, the degree increasing with alarming rapidity. “You need to focus, Lizzie. Come on, you can do this.” He hoped. She didn’t have the training for this and they all knew it.
“It’s too much, too much.” She bent sideways and stomped her feet. Cracks broke open underneath them.
A vicious shock nearly sent Hayes to the ground. He lost his grip on her for a split second. The brief surcease of pain was such a blessed relief that he didn’t want to touch her again. Would have given just about anything to not have to touch her again. He gritted his teeth and grabbed her.
“You have to control it, Lizzie. Focus. Shape it, bend it to your will.”
She fought him, screaming and flailing. An elbow to his stomach sent a charge of energy into him that felt like a stun-gun blast. This time he did hit the ground, hard, his body jackknifing as the magic continued to tear through him.
Through slitted eyes he saw Lizzie in the air again.
* * *
Something was happening with the magical energy of New Corinth, something so strong every witch in the city must have felt it. Fluctuations in power buffeted Tuyet in cyberspace. Lines of neon light, stark against the deep black of the void, undulated in the uncertain currents of magic. Tuyet fought to stay in trance and to keep from being blown to some far corner of cyberspace. The ripples continued for long moments—she wasn’t sure how long. Finally during a lull, she was able to send a message back to the chat room.
“Does anybody know what’s going on?”
Jason answered. “Stuff’s going haywire all over the city, but it seems to be focused downtown.”
“Where the protesters are.” That had to mean things were getting out of control. “Has anybody been able to contact Hayes?”
“No,” snapped Vadim. “And I don’t like that one bit.”
Tuyet said, “Our patch to link him to the chat room may have been fried by the energy spikes. It doesn’t mean they’re in trouble.” She left out the obvious point that now they had no way of know
ing.
Calla said, “How long do we wait?”
The energy fluctuations were too intense. They wouldn’t be able to safely draw on the city’s magic if it continued. They needed Lizzie’s stabilizing empathy, but if the connection to Hayes was out, they had no way to find out if she’d be able to help, or when.
They had no good options.
Tuyet made the decision quickly, before she could think of a thousand reasons to change her mind. “We do it now. Let’s call the quarters.”
She went first, in the east position. “I call on the spark and the signals that travel through the air.” With every part of her magical being, she reached outward then pulled, drawing power to their circle. A yellow flame erupted in cyberspace. It smoothed into a clean, solid line of energy that followed the boundary of the circle.
It was easy for Tuyet to imagine the others in their arranged positions as one by one they invoked an element.
Calla, in the south. “Neon to light the night, I call on thee!” This time the flame was red, vibrant and strong as it settled into place.
Vadim, in the west, with the trickiest element. “Rhythm and passion and the never-ending flow of emotion, I call on you.” His voice was strained. A shade of electric blue that she knew to be his favorite color flared into being. It spun into fractals of thin lines and patterns before coalescing into a mostly stable part of the circle.
Jason in the north was last. “I call on concrete and steel and all that is foundational.” A dot of green grew quickly into a wide band that added palpable strength to the circle.
Silver Wheels lapped the fully charged circle. “Enchantress of Numbers, we call on you. Madman of the Wires, we call on you.”