by Ramez Naam
When they were done, Ava left with Miranda Shepherd to return the woman to her car. The Nigerian went with her, in the backup vehicle. Breece and Hiroshi started the process of tearing down their gear and sanitizing the garage, leaving absolutely no trace of what had happened here.
Kade took stock of the mind he’d infiltrated. He’d give away nothing this time until he knew what was going on.
He was in a building of some sort. A warehouse or a garage. There were rolls of a fine metallic mesh, like a window screen, lying at his feet. He had tools in his gloved hands.
Kade turned, scanned his surroundings. Across the room there was another man, using similar tools to take down another panel. He was whistling as he worked.
Kade reached out for that other man’s mind, to take him as well, hold them both, until he could find out where they were and call the authorities.
But there was no mind there, no Nexus for him to hack into.
Kade could feel his pulse picking up, his breathing coming heavy.
Act normal, Kade told himself. Find out what’s going on.
He clamped down on this mind, told it to pull down another panel, started to sift through its recent memories.
Images, thoughts, words. They came thick and fast. He absorbed them at faster than real-time, straining the link between their minds, the Nexus in each of them.
PLF. Assassination attempt. Team of four. Miranda Shepherd. Daniel Chandler. Explosives. Thousands at risk.
Jesus.
This wasn’t the boss. The code had come from the other man, Breece, who had passed it on from the PLF’s leaders. This one, Hiroshi, had taken that code, fixed bugs, added features, improved on it.
I have to go deeper, Kade realized. I have to get to the bottom.
There was Nexus here. In Hiroshi’s kit. Syringes of Nexus. Yes.
Kade steered Hiroshi’s body to the kit still out by his terminal. He placed the body between Breece and the gear. Then he reached into the bag, opened the insulated case inside, and pulled out a syringe already loaded with silvery Nexus.
He turned. Breece was still happily taking down mesh panels. Faraday cage panels. He understood now.
It didn’t matter. They’d opened their cage and let him in. And now they were his.
Kade pulled the cap off the loaded syringe, held it behind Hiroshi’s body, then walked casually up to Breece’s turned back, the sense of power rising in him.
Yes, he was going to stop these bastards.
He was going to stop them once and for all.
Breece stepped up onto the stool to reach the connectors at the top of the next panel. Carl Orff was running through his head, the epic chants and drums of “O Fortuna”.
Snap. Snap. Snap. The panel was halfway off when something alerted him.
He half turned and out of the corner of his eye Hiroshi was there, something glinting in his hand, swinging towards him.
Breece blocked reflexively, threw up his hand to ward away the blow. Something sharp penetrated his forearm. He jerked away, spinning, and the needle of the syringe broke off, still embedded in his arm. Silvery liquid Nexus spurted from the broken syringe Hiroshi still held.
“What the fuck?” Breece yelled.
Then Hiroshi was on him, punching clumsily at his head with a wild roundhouse.
Had Zara bought him?
Breece stepped inside the swing of the blow, turned, grabbed, and spun, throwing Hiroshi over his hip and into the ground.
His friend scrambled clumsily to get up, nothing like the deadly grace of the real Hiroshi.
Then Breece understood. This wasn’t Hiroshi any more. This was someone else.
Breece let the hacker come at him with his friend’s body again. This time he stepped to the outside, trapped the arm, twisted it around behind his friend, pushed him against the wall, locking him there, the arm levered up near to breaking. With his other hand he pulled his gun, held it to his friend’s temple.
Would pain work? Would threats?
“Who are you?” Breece demanded.
Fuck.
Kade swore as Breece disabled him.
He had no choice now. He dropped control of the body entirely, shifted all of his attention to rummaging through Hiroshi’s mind. Names. Places. Passwords. Who were these people? When was the attempt going to happen? Where? How?
“Breece,” Hiroshi said softly.
“Hiroshi?”
“He’s reading my mind, man.”
“Fight him, Hiroshi. You can beat him.”
His friend shook his head slightly, his temple brushing the muzzle of Breece’s gun.
“Too strong,” Hiroshi half-spoke, half-groaned. “Pull the trigger.”
“Fuck that,” Breece replied.
Kade heard Hiroshi speak. He had to move faster, find out everything the man knew.
“I know more than you think,” Hiroshi said. “I know who you are, Breece.”
Breece caught his breath.
“He’s gonna get it out of me,” Hiroshi said. He sounded urgent now, frantic for Breece to end his life.
“No,” Breece whispered. “No, no.” He looked around. The Faraday cage shielding. If he could get it around Hiroshi… If he could bend it, somehow. There would have to be no gaps. It couldn’t just be a cylinder. He had to close the ends, or make it a sphere or a cube.
“The Nigerian!” Hiroshi half yelled. “I know his name, Breece!”
Breece closed his eyes, tried to concentrate, tried to find a way out of this that wasn’t putting a bullet into the brain of his friend, his friend who’d saved his life more than once.
“Ava!” Hiroshi was screaming now. “I know who Ava is, Breece! It’s her or me! You have to kill…”
Breece pulled the trigger. The boom echoed like a cannon in the small space. The muzzle flash singed his face, so close to Hiroshi’s. Blood splattered on his cheek, his brow, the lids of his closed eyes. Hiroshi went silent.
White noise.
[CONNECTION LOST]
Kade jolted in shock and frustration. Damn it!
Breece stepped back, let go of his grip, opened his eyes. The body of his friend slumped slowly to the ground, his head sliding down the garage wall as it fell, leaving a trail of blood and expelled brain behind it.
The gun fell from Breece’s limp fingers. He barely noticed. He stared numbly down at the body of his dead friend. And then Breece collapsed to his knees, brought his bloodstained hands up to cover his singed and splattered face.
One of the smartest men he’d ever known. One of the bravest. A man who’d fought to give others freedom. To give them the right to become more than human.
A man who’d died to protect his team. His family.
Hiroshi should have lived forever. He should have become immortal and posthuman. He’d earned it. He’d deserved it far more than most. He would have used his intelligence and courage to make the world a better place.
Breece dropped his hands to his sides, opened his eyes, forced himself to look at what he’d done to his friend, his brother. “I’m going to find you,” Breece said to the thing that had invaded Hiroshi’s mind. “I’m going to make you suffer. I’m going to make you wish for death.”
43
CAPTURE
Saturday October 27th
Feng’s world slowed as the vehicles appeared in the rear view display in the corner of his armored windshield. Black SUVs. Two of them. Men leaned out, soldiers in sleek black combat armor. They had automatic weapons in their hands. Feng’s combat senses painted g-force curves on the road ahead of him, projected paths he could take. The guns behind them opened fire, aiming low at the metal honeycomb tires. They couldn’t be popped, but enough gunfire could eat away at them. Stray shots pinged off the armored back.
Feng spun the wheel hard, turning them down a side street. The world spun outside his window as g-forces pushed him to the side. His wounds ached in protest. He ignored the pain, pushed the jeep harder into the turn, letting the g-
force press him against the door, feeling for the grip of the jeep to the road.
The soldiers fired again, from both vehicles, and he felt more shots bite into the honeycomb tires. Another indicator flared yellow. The first went red. He held onto the wheel as it jerked, kept the jeep straight.
An alley loomed to the left and he turned hard into it, daring the SUVs to come after him into the narrow lane where they could only follow in a single file.
Trash cans loomed in his view and he plowed into them, sending them flying. Rubbish flew into the alley in slow motion as a can he’d hit spun end over end into the air.
One SUV turned hard after him, then another. The soldier leaned out the window, firing, then ducked back into the vehicle as another trash can Feng had sent airborne tumbled at them, narrowly missing him.
Now, Feng thought.
He slammed the brakes hard. His bruises and bullet wound screamed in pain as deceleration pushed him into the safety belt.
Then there was a horrendous crash, another jerk of acceleration as the vehicle behind them careened into their rear end.
Feng grunted in pain, then jammed on the accelerator. Half the rear view display was black now, the cameras in the rear destroyed. In the other half he could see that the SUV’s front end was wrecked, that it would be going nowhere, plugging up the alley, preventing the vehicle behind it from pursuing.
Yes! Feng thought.
Wha’? Kade’s mind jerked back to the here and now. Feng risked a glance to his side, saw Kade’s eyes wide, felt Kade’s mind bursting with failure and frustration.
Then the alley walls exploded in a burst of flame and brick ahead of them.
Shiva blinked as the feed from the avatar bot cut out abruptly.
Hayes saw it happen on screen, spoke up. “Teams C and D are inbound.”
Shiva brought his attention back to the displays before them. From a camera on one of the drones he watched the armored jeep rush into an alley, his men following, firing at the wheels, trying to disable the vehicle without harming Lane.
The jeep slammed to a halt and one of his chase cars crashed into its armored rear.
“Blow the alley’s far end,” Hayes said into his microphone. “Cut them off.”
Overhead two of their circling drones launched micromissiles at the building walls fifty meters forward of the once-again accelerating jeep. Shiva held his breath. They could not kill Lane!
Then the missiles struck home, and the walls of the buildings flanking the alley came down in a heap of fire and rubble.
Feng watched the walls coming down in slow motion and immediately knew they wouldn’t make it. He slammed hard on the brakes as the walls collapsed in front of them. The jeep slowed, skidded, skewed to one side, but they were too close, moving too fast.
The front right wheel of their vehicle hit the pile of rubble in a jarring crash that he felt through his bones and Kade’s, and then they were flipping over it, gravity shifting as the momentum of the jeep’s rear carried it up and over the front of the vehicle, somersaulting it crazily, end over end, spinning, rolling as it flipped.
Feng let his body go limp as they’d taught him. Relaxed every muscle and let his mind freeze time around him. He took in everything at once, the way he’d been built and trained to do in combat: the spin and trajectory of the jeep, over and to the side, destined to hit the building on the right; Kade’s gasp of shock and alarm, the belt around him; the weapons in easy reach, those he’d take when they left the vehicle.
Then their tumble through the air ended as they crashed into the side of the alley, still spinning, crashed through the brick wall, through support beams, opening a wide gash in the building, before coming to rest on the driver’s side of the jeep.
“Out!” Feng yelled. Kade was shaken from the crash, bruised by his safety belt, his mind still shocked and stunned from the hurtle they’d taken through the air. His side was up. Feng’s was down. They had to open Kade’s door, climb out, escape before those soldiers got here.
KADE. OUT! Feng sent his friend.
Kade jerked back to the present. He reached to his right, now above him, pushed to open the door. Feng felt the pain flare through his friend’s right hand, still too weak and sensitive for this.
Feng unclipped his safety belt, got his feet beneath him on the driver’s side door, now the floor of the sideways vehicle. He climbed up, over Kade, still belted into his seat, and threw the door open, climbing out onto the uppermost side of the toppled vehicle.
It was chaos outside the car, in the building. Dust and smoke filled the air. Water sprayed into the air from broken pipes. A torn-up power line was throwing sparks. The wheels on the jeep’s right side, the side he stood on now, were still spinning.
The building was groaning ominously. More dust was falling from the ceiling above. They had to get out of here.
He reached down, grabbed Kade by forearm and belt.
“Unclip!” he yelled.
Kade nodded, snapped off his safety belt, and Feng hauled him up onto the side of the armored jeep, then helped him down to the ground. Kade stood there, leaning against the vehicle, coughs racking him, his neck and midsection throbbing in pain from the whiplash of the crash, the constriction of the belt.
Feng dropped to his belly atop the jeep and reached back into the passenger compartment, pulled out weapons. A belt with grenades and knives he slung over one shoulder. A wicked sixty-centimeter blade over the other. A submachine gun and two spare clips of ammo.
The building was groaning louder now. He looked up. An exposed support beam they’d clipped on their way in was swaying, leaning, giving way. Time slowed as the beam canted, millimeter by millimeter, as the supports above it began to sag and buckle, as dust fell through the cracks as they shifted.
KADE! he sent. RUN!
He leapt down next to his friend even as he sent the thoughts. He fell in slow motion as the beam began to warp, cracks appearing on it as it tilted towards them. Kade was frozen in time, leaning over, trying to move, a massive cough shaking its way through him. Feng’s toes touched the ground and then the heels of his boots and then he shoved, pushing Kade violently out of the way, pushing himself backwards against the upturned jeep in recoil.
Kade flew forward, propelled by his push. Feng got one foot behind him on the jeep and used it to thrust himself towards safety. He dared not turn his head to look, but he could hear the building collapsing all around him, could hear each individual crack and heave and rumbling sigh as bricks and beams and boards gave way in an endlessly stretched-out moment that he must survive, that he had no choice but to survive. His foot came down on the floor again and his toes found purchase and gripped to haul him forward. Ahead Kade was stumbling out, off balance, out through the gap the armored jeep had ripped in the brick wall.
The first brick hit Feng in the back of the head. His left leg was surging forward now, forward to get a foothold that would send him out after Kade. Then something heavy struck him across the back and shoulder, and bore him to the ground.
Kade staggered as Feng nearly threw him away from the jeep. He stumbled over the chaotic debris and fell to his knees in the alley, just as a giant crashing sound came from behind him. Feng’s mind let out a groan of pain.
He turned, still on his knees. Behind him, where Feng had been, there was only a pile of rubble, sheathed in smoke and dust.
!!
He could feel Feng’s mind in there, still. He was still alive! Kade had to help him!
Then he felt the sting as something bit into his neck. His hand rose of its own accord, onto the telltale protrusion of a dart. He craned around, disoriented, woozy already, and saw the faint outlines. Men, in sleek black armor, rifles in their hands, pointed at him.
No. No. He closed his eyes, reached for an icon, reached for the script that would close his back door forever…
And toppled face first to the cobblestone surface of the alley, all thought gone from him.
44
> PHUKET
Saturday October 27th
Sam tended her wounds as best she could. The bullet had gone clean through her tricep, missing the bone and tendons. Her engineered clotting factors had cut off the bleeding almost immediately. Regen genes were already knitting the long fibers of her muscle back together.
If Jake had had those advantages… If the technology wasn’t locked up for soldiers and spies…
Sam swallowed the bitterness, washed out the wound, gritted her teeth at the pain, then filled it full of antibiotic cream and bandaged it shut. The other cuts had closed themselves but still needed disinfecting. More washing, more antibiotic cream, more bandages. In a few days she’d look as good as new.
She washed off the last of the dust and blood, pulled on fresh clothes, packed the gun, knives, clothes, cash, and fake ID. Then she was ready.
On the way out she stopped by Jake’s body, knelt down and brushed his face with her fingers. She wished she could do something for him, bury him, treat him with the tenderness he deserved. But the needs of the living trumped the needs of the dead.
She did the best she could with little time. She dragged his body to the greenhouse, cycled the simple airlock, pulled him inside and laid him flat. The plants and the rich earth and the warm, humid, CO2-laden air smelled of life to her. She’d leave him here, the most peaceful place she knew. The CO2 levels fed the plants and killed insects, and the airlock would keep scavengers out. He’d at least be spared some indignities.
A tear made its way down her face, a sob threatened to emerge, and she knew that it was now or never, that she’d be paralyzed if she stayed here even a moment longer. Go. She had to go.
A trucker stopped for her on the highway, gave her a ride as far north as Thung Song through agonizingly slow traffic. At a truck stop she tried for two hours to find a ride further on. When it became clear there was none, she found an old motorbike, far from the lights and cameras. Sam sat on the bike, used her hands to break off the panel that hid the ignition wiring, and hotwired it like the ERD had taught her to. Then she was off, into the night.