The Kota

by Sunshine Somerville

  Tigris nodded, remembering this much.

  “A password-lock device trumps your existing level of security and gives you access to whatever files the device is programmed to open. It’s like a key. It’s better than Rave’s tags – his account is only an operative level. These devices are very rare and only handed out to people Cruelthor trusts to deal with matters above their usual clearance. I have no idea how Erik got one.”

  “So we’ll be able to open any files we want?”

  “No, the devices are linked only with certain files. Apparently this one’s programmed to open plans for that factor base. It might open others too, but we’ll have to wait and see.”

  When they reached the pace bike, Tigris heard a roaring engine turn onto the road behind them. She looked back and saw a Dominion transport approaching.

  “Shit.”

  Bullseye threw on her helmet, and Tigris scrambled to do the same. They climbed astride the bike, and Bullseye hit the accelerator. Immediately, the transport vehicle surged after them.

  “Hold on!”

  Their bike sped into a side alley, and Bullseye pushed the bike to a greater speed while maneuvering around clutter. They sped onto a street and crossed to another road, gaining distance from the transport, but they drew attention as they did so. Patrols had been alerted to the situation, and two speeders drove onto the road in pursuit. To avoid these, Bullseye jumped the bike off a curb onto a large hovercraft, then onto yet another patrol speeder. They landed on an open street that ran along the port. Tigris had no idea where they were now, but she sensed in Bullseye’s mind that she knew the way.

  As they sped along the port, shots fired after them.

  “How many are there?” Bullseye reached to pull the gun from her back holster.

  Tigris didn’t loosen her grip but turned to count. “Four speeders! They’re gaining, and the middle one has a gun attached to the roof!”

  After a swift glance over her shoulder, Bullseye fired her weapon without looking. Tigris watched as Bullseye’s shot met its target and the middle speeder’s hood exploded in a burst of flame. The front end fell off, and the rest of the speeder flipped into the air, taking out another speeder that got too close.

  “Two left!”

  A boat was being hauled onshore just ahead, and Bullseye turned sharply to avoid it. Tigris lost her grip and was nearly thrown off, but Bullseye reached back and grabbed her, shoving her into place.

  One of the pursuing speeders wasn’t able to steer clear of the boat, and Tigris heard the crash but didn’t look back. A part of the boat flew over their heads as the pieces scattered across the port. Bullseye didn’t slow down, and Tigris held tight with another quick look behind.

  The remaining speeder swerved away from the debris and accelerated after them. Bullseye shot a crate as they sped by it, but the contents spilled out too soon to startle the driver. The speeder drifted over the mess and continued to gain on their smaller ride.

  “Who is this guy?” Bullseye yelled as she looked back.

  Tigris screamed. “Look out!”

  Bullseye’s helmet snapped around just in time to see a hover barge crossing in front of them to enter the bay. The space between the ground and the barge wasn’t enough to let them drive through, so Bullseye tried to slam on the brakes before they collided. The tires of the pace bike squealed, but there wasn’t enough traction on the wet street to slow them in time. Tigris found Bullseye reaching around to grab her. Before Tigris could cry out, Bullseye shoved the bike out from under them. The two women crashed to the ground and rolled so hard and fast that Tigris thought she’d black out. Their momentum threw them under the hover barge, and they slid to a stop on the far side. Bullseye hauled Tigris to her feet, and together they dove out of the way as the speeder skidded under the barge.

  The roof of the speeder shattered on impact, and the driver couldn’t control the resulting spin. Burned rubber streaked across the port until the speeder spun right off a dock and splashed into the bay.

  The hover barge, unscathed, continued its crawl toward the bay.

  Tigris sat up and grimaced in pain. Bullseye, also sitting up and taking off her helmet, looked equally sore.

  She only stayed materialized to protect me, thought Tigris.

  Pretty sure of the answer, she asked, “They knew we were the ones meeting the informant?”

  “Yep. That’s why we had to hurry.” Bullseye tore off one of her ripped gloves and rose to find the pace bike. “Thanks for being my eyes while I drove.”

  Tigris set down her helmet and stood to help Bullseye pull the bike from a garbage heap. Together, they got the bike free and dragged it to stand on solid ground. It didn’t look beyond repair, but there were several gashes in the metal body. Bullseye knelt beside it while Tigris stood tensely.

  She heard an engine farther up the port, but she saw it was only a boat.

  We’re in the middle of the capital, she thought. There are thousands of drones and patrol speeders around. We have to get out of here.

  “Should we teleport to the base?” She tried not to fidget with eagerness.

  Bullseye didn’t seem terribly worried. “Well, you’re sure you can’t teleport the bike?” She frowned at it. “Teleporting would be the quickest way home, but I’m not leaving the bike.”

  “Sorry. It’s like what you can dematerialize and what you can’t. My mind links give me some advantages with people I can teleport, but anything bigger than-”

  Shots fired.

  Tigris screamed and covered her head. Bullseye dove over the trash. Tigris did the same and narrowly avoided more shots, which slammed into the building behind them. Tigris landed on the far side of the garbage heap as Bullseye retrieve two guns from her holsters. More shots ricocheted over their heads, and Tigris fumbled with her own weapon. Bullseye ducked out sideways to see who was shooting at them. Then she looked at Tigris.

  “What?” Tigris checked her gun the way Rave had re-taught her before leaving the base.

  “It’s the driver.” Bullseye sounded more angry than concerned. “He must’ve climbed out when the speeder hit the water. Will you be okay on your own?”

  Tigris nodded, not knowing what other answer would be acceptable.

  Bullseye signaled her, and Tigris remembered just in time what the signals meant. (They’d gone over hand signals only a few days ago, but luckily Tigris had memorized the one for splitting up in opposite directions.) As Bullseye jumped out from behind the trash pile, Tigris did the same in the opposite direction.

  Firing with eyes closed, Tigris didn’t figure she hit anything. Returned shots splintered the building behind her, and she ducked for cover behind nearby crates lining the building. With a peek around the crates, she saw a muscular, dark-skinned man in a stealth suit. He carried a gun in each hand. His suit dripped water from his speeder’s fall into the bay. He looked furious as he kicked a piece of trash and stomped her way.

  “Come out, come out, little rebel,” he said with creepy playfulness.

  Tigris aimed around the crate and fired, missing by meters. But, she used the distraction to scurry from her cover and run toward another pile of crates.

  To her great horror, the man opened his mouth and spit flames to cut off her escape. She pulled up just in time, and once his fire dissipated she dove the rest of the way behind the crates. Then she found herself cornered against a wall. She gasped for breath and peeked out again. The man was closing in.

  “Bullseye, help!”

  The man froze.

  Oh, thought Tigris, he knows who she is!

  A week ago when discussing their Warrior code names, Loree and Zaak had gotten into a heated argument about what Loree’s code name should be. She’d argued that ‘Bullseye’ would mean something to the Dominion members who heard it. Zaak argued that it’d be too risky and expose her to more threats. Now, Tigris saw both their points.

  The man aimed his gun in every direction, but Bullseye was nowhere to be seen. He tur
ned back to his easier prey. “Guess I’d better-”

  Suddenly, the man lurched to the side. Bullseye, in her dematerialized state, must’ve used the space dimension like a force balloon to push against him. He fell to the pavement and lost one of his guns, but he quickly jumped to his feet again. With his remaining weapon, he turned in every direction, on alert.

  “Nice, Bulls! That how you greet an old flame?” He laughed at his wit. “Enough of this.”

  He opened his mouth wide, and a burst of flame shot out as he swung his head back and forth, filling the air with fire. He continued to spew a stream of fire into the surrounding area’s debris and garbage, creating a protective ring around himself. This done, he again turned to Tigris, and he sneered as he aimed his gun.

  Panicking, Tigris lifted her gun and fired. The shot startled her, but she looked back up and saw the man clutch his bleeding throat.

  He fell onto his back. A second later, the burning debris around him caught him in flames. He must’ve had some combustible element in his body, because he went up like a torch.

  Tigris shook as she lowered her gun and stared at what she’d done.

  Bullseye flickered into existence beside her, and Tigris shrieked in surprise. She then accepted Bullseye’s hand, rose to her feet, and followed to the flaming corpse. Bullseye stood and frowned down at him. Tigris tried to breathe.

  “I…I did it,” she stammered in shock. “I actually shot him.”

  Bullseye tore her stare from the man and snapped to life. “I’ll say. That was quite the shot. Even for me, that would’ve been a good shot.” She winked. “Let’s get out of here before more soldiers come.”

  Tigris followed her back to the pace bike. “Did you know him?”

  The look on Bullseye’s face was not unlike sadness. “Yeah, I remember him from the Youth. His name is Jib…or, was Jib, I should say. He was an engineered MOB. The Dominion put an implant in his throat that shot out a chemical to create those fire blasts. He had strange pits by his tonsils that he showed me once. It’s too bad…” Bullseye trailed off as they came to the pace bike, and she knelt to work on its mechanical organs.

  This has been a pretty depressing homecoming for her, thought Tigris. That guy was scary. This place is so… And she used to belong here.

  Bullseye, satisfied with the state of the bike, walked to retrieve their helmets. She had a limp. “Alright, let’s head home. I could use some beauty sleep.”

  Yeah, thought Tigris, me too. But we’re done waiting around now. The Underground knows we exist. The Hood knows we exist. And once they investigate what we did here today, the Dominion will know we exist. Are we… Yeah, I think we’re ready for this. We need to start our work as the Warriors. It’s like Rave keeps saying, ‘It’s time to give Cruelthor a run for his kronar.’

  Helmets in place, the two Warriors climbed back on the battle-scarred bike. Bullseye started the engine, which sounded in need of repair. Tigris held on, and they soon sped away from the coast, heading for the main highway to Havanahell.

  As soon as they got back to the base, Bullseye stripped off her facemask and led the way to the command center. Rave and Whitewolf, dressed in civilian clothes, met them. Bullseye watched as Whitewolf hugged his sister. Tigris retrieved the password-lock device from her belt compartment and handed it to Rave, who hurried to the appropriate equipment and plugged it in.

  Bullseye sank into a chair in front of the main computer screen. With a wince, she stretched her sore leg while her brother worked.

  Please, be worth it, she thought. Don’t let them have died in vain… And Beathabane trusted me with this. He trusted me to bring in Erik…

  Rave typed on a control pad to access the Dominion global network. “Okay, we’re in.”

  The Warrior team gathered in front of the screen. Bullseye sensed they were all excited, tense, and trying not to get their hopes up.

  Still, she thought, we know what this could mean…

  “Cross your fingers.” Rave hit a final keystroke.

  Bullseye watched as the program ran some kind of search. After a moment, window after window opened onscreen.

  “Jackpot.”

  They each leaned forward to see what the password-lock had accessed.

  Rave pointed to a window file. “There’s the factor base plans. Architectural layouts. Building shipments. Construction contracts. Operative reassignments.”

  Bullseye saw the same. “Looks like everything we’ll need to know.”

  Whitewolf pointed at another window. “Look here. These are from Free Labs.”

  Rave nodded. “Makes sense. Cruelthor would want scientists to implement quarantine protocols for the factors in the base.”

  Tigris sucked in breath and pointed to one of the files labeled with the Free Labs insignia. “This is something about the Magi.”

  Bullseye looked here now. Sure enough, the Free Labs file contained a detailed report of studies conducted on un-factored test subjects. Analysis of subject #3’s blood confirmed that the un-factored patient was virus-free. A long list of chemicals was toward the bottom, and then ‘DRK TREATMENT COMPONENT DETECTED’ was at the end of this list.

  Rave whistled. “So the Magi definitely use the same treatment as the Dominion.” He scrunched his face. “Too bad this doesn’t say what the treatment component is.”

  Whitewolf snorted. “I doubt any password-lock has access to that information.”

  Bullseye looked at everything onscreen. “But this one definitely opens more than most. I expected some files on the DRK since this device ties to the factor base. But I didn’t expect DRK lab locations… Treatment schedules… Factor transport routes… I didn’t dare hope it’d unlock this much.”

  Holy shit, she thought.

  Rave worked the controls. “I’ll download all of this in case the Dominion shuts down the password-lock once they discover it’s missing.”

  “Good idea.” Bullseye took a breath and turned to Whitewolf. “You’re sure Beathabane didn’t want us to bring this to him?”

  Whitewolf shook his shaved head. “He said you’d put it to good use.”

  Trying to hide a rising emotion, Bullseye rubbed her bruised arm and looked back at the screen.

  “Oh, I forgot,” said Rave. “Once Evant reported Erik’s rendezvous point, I tried sending a transmission back to him. But they must’ve abandoned that transmitter already and left for the Mainland. No way to contact them now. Sorry.” He ruffled his bangs and looked at the files onscreen. “But we’ll certainly have to thank the Poet Heroic someday.”

  Bullseye took a breath. Then she looked at her followers. Each of their faces showed they knew the significance of what they’d just discovered.

  Okay, she thought.

  “This is it,” she told them. “We now have the direction we’ve needed to start our Warrior mission. Combined with what I know of the Dominion, this device gives us the inside track. We can use this intel and stop the Dominion. Stop the DRK.”

  “Save the world,” added Rave. He rolled back and forth on the balls of his feet.

  She nodded. “It’s time to get to work.” She studied the screen in thought. “And, if Beathabane’s willing to share with us…”

  Rave made a face. “What do you mean?”

  “This password-lock from here can only access the global network. It might open even more files if used by someone on the inside. Even if the Dominion shuts the thing down, an undercover rebel who knew what they’re doing could probably turn it back on and access specific mainframes.”

  Now Rave understood. “You’re thinking of giving it to the Underground, aren’t you?” He didn’t look thrilled about this.

  Bullseye sighed but nodded. “They have double agents in the Dominion. If the right agent used the password-lock, they could open the floodgates from inside.” She pointed at the Free Labs files. “This stuff is what I’m most interested in. And I have a feeling the Underground still has rebels inside Free Labs. If they can use the
password-lock to access records on the treatment…”

  “Yeah,” said Whitewolf. “That’d be huge.”

  She nodded. “And besides, we’ll have to work with the Underground to stop this factor base. We can’t do all this alone.”

  Rave crossed his arms but nodded. “So you want me to take the device to Undertown?”

  Bullseye leaned back in her seat to consider her options. “I’ll contact Mat first and ask what he thinks. There might be someone specific we should give the device to. If we gave it to Undertown, who knows how many people would hear about it? We need to keep this device quiet so the Dominion doesn’t get wind of our plans.”

  “You want Matsuri’s advice?” Rave’s skeptical expression returned. “What if he screws everything up again?”

  “He won’t.”

  Tigris was fighting a yawn.

  Bullseye matched the yawn, then laughed. “Okay, team. Fulfilling the prophecies can wait until tomorrow. We need sleep, so you’re dismissed. And…well done, everybody.” This was the first kind of Leader-y thing she’d said, and she had to smile.

  Today kicked off everything, she thought, whether we’re ready or not. And they did do well.

  “Okay, guys. See you later.” Whitewolf put an arm around his sister’s shoulders and turned with her to go to their living compartments.

  Rave leaned on a chair and yawned. “Anything else you need, boss?”

  “Yep. One more thing. Could you hack into the Dominion’s satellite surveillance? We need to set up a new simulation for the techno-cage.”

  Rave worked the controls. “Okay. What satellite images do you want?”

  “Vancouver.”

  Now Rave understood, and he smiled as he worked.

  22

  “The drone farm”

  Rave lay on his stomach in the dirt beside Tigris and Whitewolf. The road leading to the drone farm rose before them on the hill, and a stone’s throw ahead stood the gate in the compound’s electric fence. If Bullseye was in position, she’d soon take out the guards in the security towers on either side of the gate.