The Scorpion Game

by Daniel Jeffries

He couldn’t leave her. He waved his hand over her and the scan showed no serious injuries, nothing broken, no internal bleeding. He shook her and she woke suddenly, her hands glowing fiercely.

  “It’s me,” he said.

  Her hands dropped as soon as she recognized him.

  “Come on. Get up,” he said.

  She stood awkwardly.

  “You all right? Can you keep going?”

  “Yeah,” she said. “I got lucky. I’ll heal. But I need a minute.”

  She dropped to one knee.

  “Not sure we got a minute,” said Hoskin.

  Bright yellow warnings blinked on his innervision, but he ignored them. The building was saturated with nano, but none of it had breached his firewall. Venadrik knew they were here. They might as well have come in with a goddamn bullhorn. Maybe time to fall back and get help? Not yet. Keep going.

  There’s no fucking backup tonight.

  Already Hoskin could see some of the shrapnel falling away and the wounds closing as her accelerated healing kicked in and the spiders went to work.

  Hoskin looked around. Everything was tattered or destroyed. Sculptures and shelves had collapsed in a jumble.

  “Where is he?” flashed Hoskin.

  “Towards the top of this place, in his control room, where he always is. He can get to the roof if things go bad. There’s a Tangleport up there,” she flashed. “And he knows right where we are. This is bad. I’m gonna get us killed. I’m having a lot of trouble keeping them out. Too many, too close. Leave me.”

  “I ain’t leaving you.”

  “Every time I open up, it’s two ways. He knows where I am too. You’ve got to leave me. It’s too dangerous.”

  Her arm shook crazily for a moment.

  She hit it repeatedly and it seemed to calm down.

  “No,” he flashed. “We go up to just a few floors below him and split up. Then you open up completely. Let him know right where you are. They come at you, I come from behind.”

  “That’s your big idea?”

  “Yup.”

  “The one you couldn’t tell me about?”

  “Yeah.”

  “So I’m bait then?”

  “Sounds about right.”

  She smiled and shrugged. “Wouldn’t be the first time. Let’s go. There’s some of me on the fortieth floor.”

  She stood up and almost fell. Hoskin caught her. He put his arm around her, keeping his gun arm aimed as they headed for the elevators. They got in and got down. Hoskin dropped another fireshield. It burst open, its translucent energy like a wall of holy fire.

  The elevator slowed and then stopped. Hoskin and Sakura got ready. He could see she was having trouble staying crouched, her knee wavering, her hands shaking. He aimed at the door. The elevator opened and a furious volley hit their shield. It went yellow almost instantly. Sakura and Hoskin fired back. The attackers were stealthed. Hoskin blinked commands at the smart rounds to target the muzzle flashes, the only thing that gave away the attackers’ positions.

  One attacker dropped. Another. Another. They flew back, turning visible suddenly, their thermoptics shorting out.

  At least five more were firing on them from the hall. The shield turned red. Hoskin thought quick.

  “Take these,” he flashed, handing her his mini go-bags. “Don’t want ‘em getting torn up.”

  “What are you doing?” she flashed.

  “Saving our ass. Stay behind me. Stay down.”

  He got out in front of the failing shield, hoping his gelskin would hold up. The blasts hit him hard, but he pressed forward, sighting fast, picking his shots. He dropped one and then another. The blasts pounded into him, knocking him back, but he stayed upright. It hurt everywhere, the energy of the shots rocking him, but he kept firing, the rounds feeding his arm, his muzzle flash brilliant, the gun booming in the tight space.

  He rushed a third attacker and blasted him up close. The Venadrik’s head burst in a brilliant red and black spray. The others fell back.

  Hoskin looked back and saw Sakura on her feet, coming forward.

  “Goddammit, girl. You listen about as well as I do.”

  “Got some pathological problems with authority, they tell me.”

  She carried the bags with one hand and her other hand glowed fiercely. She stumbled, catching the wall just in time, and managed to stay on her feet. He hustled back and grabbed the bags from her. They slithered up his arm and latched on.

  “More coming,” she flashed, leaning against the wall, breathing heavy.

  Her hand darted to her temple. She gritted her teeth. Hoskin figured she might be hurt worse then she let on.

  He waved a hand over her again and this time it spotted some internal bleeding, probably shrapnel. Her accelerated healing wasn’t working fast enough and his mites were only stemming the tide. He only had two more syringes. He wasn’t sure they’d be enough if the damage spread. He got close to her and she put a hand to his face.

  “You need another shot,” he flashed.

  “Don’t waste it,” she whispered.

  “I don’t listen too good either,” he flashed, digging one of the needles out of his bag.

  She managed a smirk. Her hands folded around his and he injected her in the stomach. She slid down the wall and sat down.

  “Good time as any to try me as bait,” she flashed.

  “How many coming?”

  “Another five.”

  “All right, stay here. When I signal you, open up completely. Let them know right where you’re at. Take this.”

  He handed her a fire shield. She put both hands over his, and he could feel her heat pulsing through them. He kissed her forehead. She held on for a second and then let go.

  He came out of the room carefully, checking his corners. The elevator was still closed. There were doors all along the hall. He picked one and it peeled open.

  Inside was a lightly furnished guest bedroom. The windows were one-way blacked out. He looked out and saw people in the streets below, lots of them. A cloud of microdrones surrounded the building, firing. It would take time for the crowd to break through the trees surrounding Venadrik’s compound, but out of the corner of his eye he spotted something that might change all that: a fire.

  “Our window just got shorter,” he flashed to her. “Get them down here.”

  “Already done. They’re about to come through the elevator door. What’s going on—never mind, I see. People in the yard already. Glad we took out the defenses downstairs. Make it easier on them to break in.”

  “Yeah. And more good news. There’s a fire. It’ll cut down the trees in no time—”

  “They’re here.”

  Hoskin turned his ears up. He heard the elevator open and thought he heard very soft footsteps. Even with his ears cranked up, the footsteps sounded muted. Must be using sonic dampeners. Hoskin controlled his breathing. He couldn’t lock in, the dampeners were making the sound dislocated. The door to his room opened. He didn’t move. Nobody fired. He kept focus. A second passed and then another.

  Firing down the hall. Time to move. He fired where he guessed the stealthed attacker would be hidden but hit nothing. Not good.

  Shots hit him from the side and threw him against the wall. More shots hit him, painful, concussive. Disoriented, he wheeled and fired wildly. A body flew back.

  He heard the sizzle of a fission knife and saw it light up off to his right. The blade swung towards him and he just managed to dodge as the fiery blade struck the biowall, spraying green liquid. He lashed out with a punch and hit something, his knuckles slipping as they connected. The knife waved madly and Hoskin got his gun arm up and fired. The knife skittered away and a body appeared as the camo shorted.

  More shots fired down the hall. Shouting. Hoskin stepped over the body. Bright yellow warnings clouded his vision. He saw muzzle flashes firing into the room at the hall’s end and he blasted the attackers. One down. Two
. He charged forward and another Venadrik stumbled out of the door backwards, holding his stomach. Hoskin fired, missing, the rounds erupting in the wall. He shot again and they hit home, biting into the guy’s neck and dropping him. Hoskin rounded the corner. Sakura was on her feet and coming toward him already, holding her side.

  “We have to go, now,” she flashed. “More on the three hundredth floor and then it’s just the control room. I’ll take three hundred, you get to the top.”

  “No way. You can barely—”

  “Listen, there’s no time. I don’t matter. People have already gotten into the building. Everyone’s gone crazy, just like we knew they would. They’re beating, raping and killing anything that moves. I saw it all. I’m wide open now.

  Her whole body was shivering.

  “No. It’s my choice. It’s my choice. I can. I can. You’re blind. I can see now.”

  Hoskin helped her up and held her close for a second. She put her arms around him, but was having trouble getting them up around his waist.

  “He’s already heading for the roof,” she flashed. “You’ve got to stop him. I can take care of myself but he is not getting away. Don’t let that happen.”

  “All right.”

  They made it back to the elevators, Sakura moving slowly. The reports from the nano-spiders showed they were fighting a losing battle. She was hurt bad. Loads of burning internal shrapnel. The mites were burning fat and glucose at a tremendous rate. They might break down before she could heal.

  The floors ticked by in a blur.

  “We stop at 290,” he flashed. “Call them down, then move. Get the jump on them.”

  “Right.”

  The elevator stopped and opened. He wedged it open with his knife and stepped out with her.

  “Take the bags,” he flashed.

  “Fine. But get going.”

  She kissed him deeply and suddenly, her fire and passion streaming into him. He pulled her to him and kissed back furiously, feeling her energy surge through his body.

  “Now get out of here,” she said, pushing him back.

  He stepped into the elevator. He pulled his knife free. She smiled as the door closed. The car started moving again, the floors ticking by faster and faster as the light tube propelled the car to the top. 400. 600. 900. 1200. 1600. 2000. 2700. 4000. 7001. It came to a stop. There were five more floors above it, but he didn’t want to step out into an all-out firefight. He’d take the stairs. He’d cooled down during the ride and he could feel the sweat saturating his body. He was sore. Real sore. This would hurt tomorrow. Maybe it would still hurt next week. He rubbed his lower back. And the week after that.

  “He’s heading for the Tangleport. He knows where you got off and they’re coming your way,” she flashed.

  “You better close it down. Don’t stay open. Just let them know where you are and then move.”

  “Not happening. They can’t hide from me now and I can’t hide from them.”

  Hoskin shook his head. She listened about as well as he did.

  He stood in a large hall, painted dark red and hung with heavy gold paintings, all of the paint alive and moving slowly. Plants hovered near the ceiling, their long tendrils dripping down from hoverpots, under-illuminated by light beads embedded in the soil. The hall dead-ended.

  “Something not right,” he flashed.

  Then Hoskin noticed there were no doors or windows.

  “He’s using hollusions everywhere,” she flashed. “Watch out—”

  A door opened suddenly where a wall should have been, and someone rushed out. Hoskin opened up on the dark skinned man, dropping him.

  Hoskin whipped around and bounced sonar off the dead end. It pierced right through the fake wall. Hoskin rushed it, the hollusion breaking up around him as he reached the other side.

  The hallway kept going. Doors on all sides. He bounced sonar down the whole hall. Two false doors, three real. Five fake plants, ten real. Another false wall at the end. The hallway hooked beyond it.

  Hoskin barreled towards the first door and smashed it open with his shoulder, going in hot, firing off a few quick shots in each direction to be sure. He pinged the room with more sound waves. Nothing false.

  “The whole place is a maze,” flashed Sakura. “Don’t trust anything.”

  “You need to turn off. I’ll get him without you—”

  “No. You won’t. Now shut up and listen. Anything could be a fake. Test everything.”

  “All right, get off the fucking air.”

  He heard the soft click as the new ammo bar slotted. He touched the door open and peeked up the stairs. Nobody there. Hoskin scuttled right. Waited. Nothing. He moved up carefully, gun arm out.

  He made it to the next floor and listened. Stepping onto the floor, he saw it was a wide open space, with no furniture or windows. He didn’t believe it. He bounced sonar around it and saw the room was filled with things, big things. He let loose some mapping mites that spread out and started feeding back data about the room.

  “Someone else on that floor,” she flashed. “Be careful—”

  He heard firing through the connection. Shouting. Movement.

  “What’s going on?” he flashed.

  “I’m all right—”

  He heard more firing and the connection dropped.

  “Sakura?”

  Nothing.

  “Sakura? Goddammit. Sakura!”

  He turned to run back down the stairs, but two men appeared out of the empty air. Hoskin could see them moving in slow motion, the adrenaline thumping in his temples. He let loose a barrage. The smart bullets crashed into the first man’s chest, knocking him into the nothingness, the room swallowing him up as he boomed back through the illusion of open space.

  The second attacker dropped back behind the illusion and fired, his muzzle flashes hidden now, the bullets hitting Hoskin in the shoulder and ribs. The rib shots hit hard, doubling Hoskin over for a second. He stumbled and then he was up and moving, firing at the spot where the guy had been a second ago. He heard a groan and something hit the ground.

  After a few seconds, Hoskin moved forward cautiously. The mites still hadn’t given him a complete map. He stared into the empty space, not knowing what the fuck was on the other side. He couldn’t wait, so he just took a step and found himself standing on the flip side of the illusion, looking down at a body. He double tapped the corpse, only to realize he was looking down at his own face again.

  He flashed Sakura. No answer. He flashed her again.

  He looked down at his dead face. He knew it wasn’t hard to get his DNA and work up a clone from it. It was on file at the Farm. But DNA wasn’t the whole story. DNA did not a person make. The darker possibility hit him again.

  What if I’m one them?

  No.

  No way. You know yourself too well. Can’t be.

  But it could.

  He looked around the room. A thousand med-cocoons stood in precise rows. Did I grow in one of these fucking things? He thought about his memories. Are they all fake? How old am I really? The questions spiraled away in his head and his heart sank.

  It could be. It really could.

  He tried to open himself up, feel where the rest of the Venadriks were. If he was connected he should be able to sense them. Then again, he didn’t know what it felt like.

  He’d just ask. No reason to duck the truth anymore.

  He flashed Sakura again. No answer.

  No. Forget this. No time for this now. You gotta move. Figure it out later. Pin him down. Make him tell you. Doesn’t matter. He’ll just lie anyway. Get into his archives. That’s the way.

  He shook off the fear and anger and started towards the stairs, then stopped.

  “Where are you, goddammit?” he flashed.

  Finally she came back. “All right. I’m all right.”

  “I’m coming back down there.”

  “No you’re not. Keep going.
I’ll—meet—you up there.”

  “I’m coming—”

  “No. We don’t—there’s no… He’s there. At the top. Portal. Keep going. I’m fine. I’m fine.”

  “All right. Don’t open yourself up again. Just let them go past you. Stay down, stay hidden. I’ll come back for you when I get him.”

  The connection dropped.

  There was one more flight up to the roof. He took it cautiously, listening closely.

  He opened the door and something unloaded on him, pounding the opening with a powerful barrage. Hoskin tumbled down the stairs and hit the wall. He went wavy for a second, but snapped out of it and trained his gun on the opening.

  The door closed. The firing stopped.

  Two Sentinels were all that stood between him and the Tangleport now. He’d just caught a glimpse of them before they’d started shooting.

  Thought those things were fucking unhackable. He wished he had Quinlin to help. Hoskin wasn’t sure what he’d do with him when he got back. Maybe not even tell him? But what if he’s dangerous? And then there there’s me too. What the fuck I am gonna do if I’m one of them? Forget it. Block it out. Do what has to be done first. Time for this shit later.

  Hoskin stared at the door. He’d have to open and jam it, then hope they stopped firing. With any luck he could sneak right past them, still stealthed. If the army didn’t have any special stealth detection that meant they had to look for visual anomalies just like everyone else. If he could move slow, the chance of causing a visual distortion would be close to zero.

  He turned up his ears to see if they were moving towards the door. Nothing outside, but he heard something below. After a second he realized it was voices. Not good. The rioters had punched through. He hoped Sakura was still stealthed somewhere, that they’d gone right past her.

  He had to get through that door. Hoskin grabbed his knife and approached it cautiously. He turned his ears down, took a deep breath and touched the door open. The firing started immediately, but Hoskin managed to get his knife in before dropping back into cover. The barrage hammered the wall and stairs, tiny bits of flesh and wall-gut spraying where the plasma blasts bit in. Hoskin stayed down, stayed low. After a few seconds the firing stopped.

  He waited. He couldn’t hear anyone nearby yet. He wanted to turn up his ears, so he could hear them coming, but if the Sentinels started shooting again, all he’d hear was ringing for the next hour.