Cascading Error:Critical: A Lovecraftian Technothriller (The Dossiers of Asset 108 Book 4)

by JM Guillen

I blinked at it, then rushed to my Preceptor.

  The downed toady flickered, frozen in place. Crimson static sang around it.

  Delacruz? I pulled at Anya’s leg in an attempt to free her from the hardened resin. Is your gear miscuing? No avail. Anya remained stuck.

  Aberrant vectors, Sofia responded with a savage grin. Poor thing’s just stuck there, in between places.

  WHUF! Wyatt shot another frog-filth as it pulled itself from the pool.

  Even as it sank backward, another crawled forth on the other side. It hissed at us, those huge eyes empty, soulless.

  Anya’s caught, I frantically linked Wyatt. Do you still have the resonance frequency for this stuff?

  Roger that. He fired at the foulness on the far side of the pool, two WHUFS echoing in the passage. Each missed, however, as the creature sprang across the pool and sank its teeth into Wyatt’s leg.

  “MotherFUCKER!” he screamed with fury and pain. He aimed straight down and, with a WHUF! placed a spike squarely into toady’s skull. It wetly squished as it pierced the toad-strocity, and the croaking filth went down.

  The moment it fell, its back exploded into a wriggling swarm of pitch black tadpole-horrors. They pushed out of their mother’s flesh, a grisly flock of oily, writhing, maggots.

  “Bishop!” Delacruz fired the gatekeeper and then glanced over her shoulder at me. “There’s more! It’s—”

  Anya’s SIG cracked. She fired round after round into the darkness at the far end of the hallway.

  Dozens. There were dozens of the wriggling little things.

  WHUF! Wyatt fired a spike into the ground at my feet and spun wildly away from the eager, mutant pollywogs. He batted frantically with one arm and screamed obscenities.

  The parasites swerved and flocked around his swipes as they swam through the air. As if they shared one singular consciousness, the school arced high and swooped down upon Wyatt.

  “Little shits!” He swung faster, desperately trying to keep them from his mouth and eyes. In his fervor, Wyatt slipped on the wet stone. He waved his arms to catch himself—

  And fell into the furious, azure water at his feet.

  Wyatt Guthrie is tech adrift, Alpha. A system prompt I’d never heard before floated through my Crown. If this Asset does not reconnect to the Lattice, then Asset will be presumed lost.

  Wyatt! I relaxed the focus on my disruptor and shot wide holes in the swarm as I leapt toward the pool.

  Like a cloud of shadowed horror, the wriggling larvae poured into the water after him.

  3

  Wyatt! I dropped everything and ran. Hang on! I dashed toward the pool.

  The seconds ticked by, each heavy and filled with leaden panic. The tangler weighed sixty-five kilos, so I knew Guthrie was strong—the huge man had far more lean muscle than fat. Still, I didn’t imagine that swimming with his gear on would be easy.

  Alpha, more aberrations approach, Anya linked as she fired three, then five more times. Rationality is dropping.

  I have to go in after Wyatt, I responded. Hold them at—

  I stopped, mid-link, my eyes wide.

  Something like scalding oil burned in my veins, pain so sudden and vibrant that it took me a moment to register. Agony, like thorns of fire spread through my mind.

  In the gloom-filled space beyond the pool, a furious violet light shone in the darkness.

  “I told you once. You will not leave here alive.”

  As I sank to my knees, trembling in sharp and catastrophic agony, the dark-skinned Zealator stepped forward, one hand clenched into a cruel claw.

  “Your kind needs to be taught.”

  Bishop! Where’s Guthrie? Did the lunk actually fall in? Sofia’s link blossomed in my mind, but I couldn’t respond.

  All I could do was tremble and stare into the eyes of a madman.

  Upon his brow, a diadem of darkling horror burned, a dark song of emptiness, loss, and despair.

  He did. For a woman trapped in venomous resin, Anya seemed remarkably stoic.

  “[Damnit].” Sofia spoke softly from behind me. I heard her move, footsteps gathering speed, and—

  She sprinted past me, fired a quarrel into the ceiling above the pool, and tossed the gatekeeper on the ground. Then she dove into the center of the cerulean madness.

  Sofia Delacruz is tech adrift, Alpha, the system prompt repeated. If this Asset does not reconnect to the Lattice, then Asset will be presumed lost.

  Michael! Anya’s link wound through my mind, yet I couldn’t respond. I felt her panic as if she’d just come to the realization that I’d been trapped by Irrational depravity.

  My mind burned with hateful violet fire and shards of wickedness burrowed into my body.

  I trembled, helpless.

  “Do you know how they shall honor me?” the man whispered and sauntered closer to the pool. His smile stretched into an inhuman leer. “When I tell them how I made an Asset suffer, I shall be exalted. I shall be made one of them.”

  Gunfire sounded behind me, though it seemed as if the sound came from impossibly far away.

  A rose of crimson blossomed in the center of the Zealator’s forehead. For a moment, he gaped at me, as if he couldn’t quite grasp what’d happened.

  He fell to the ground unenlightened.

  A pane of glass shattered in my mind, and the agony vanished, like smoke on the wind. I shook my head and tried not to fall over.

  “Anya, Wyatt?” I turned to Anya and tried to piece together what had happened.

  Asset Delacruz pursued him.

  I turned to face her fully.

  She stood, both legs trapped in the amber sludge. Behind her, big enough to fill the entire hallway, a scarlet aperture burned and sang a soft, dangerous song.

  There were too many of the aberrations, she explained. Asset Delacruz filled the hallway with an aperture so they couldn’t reach us.

  Where does it open? I pushed myself to my feet.

  I have no idea.

  I turned back toward the pool and tried to peer into its depths. The angry sapphire of its surface burned and boiled with madness.

  They’ve been gone too long. I glanced back toward Anya and ground my teeth. I have to go in after them.

  Anya couldn’t even link before the aperture’s song. With a sudden little pop, it faded into nothingness.

  Behind the place where the aperture had burned, several of the monstrous amphibians squatted. Clawed hands held mangled limbs and chunks of flesh—their fallen. Blood drooled down their warty faces and gleaming teeth.

  They held choice portions of their fellows to their mouths and ate.

  When the aperture fell, they turned as one to stare at us.

  The creature closest to us opened its wide mouth to hiss, and its dead eyes stared through me.

  “That’s a problem.” I reached down and picked up my guns where I’d dropped them. My mind raced frantically. Why had Delacruz’s aperture failed? Had she drowned? Could the system not keep the aperture open because she was adrift?

  As if they didn’t concern themselves with my questions at all, the amphibious horrors slowly waddled toward us.

  Anya didn’t waste any time. A SIG in either hand, she fired down the hallway, shot after shot.

  I saw one fall and then another, but I noticed something that concerned me.

  Her movements seemed sluggish.

  One shot, which she should have made, went wide. It seemed as if she weren’t able to fully focus.

  I’m right behind you, Anya. I crept closer and toggled the focus on my weapons wide. I knew if I kept it tight I could kill the frog-kin with a single shot, but that created another problem.

  Every time one of them died, their young went mad to seek a host.

  The parasites were the true danger, I felt.

  Always beside… She shook her head. Always.

  I’ve got them. Don’t worry.

  Miiiiiichael, I am malfunctioning.

  My heart raced at the oddly slurred link.r />
  Anya turned her head to me, her blue eyes brilliant and confused.

  Take it easy, Anya. I stepped up next to her and held my weapons out. Just rest. I’ve got you.

  She closed her eyes.

  I began to fire.

  I couldn’t count how many of them there were. Anya and Delacruz had tried to tell me while I was in the grips of the Zealator’s violet flame, but I truly hadn’t been able to follow what they said.

  It didn’t matter. I struck the creatures with shot after shot. I’d thumbed the focus wide, and each blast hurled down the passageway like a runaway truck.

  Behind me, the violent ignition song of an aperture burst into crackling existence.

  Two huge impacts struck the water like a depth-charge.

  Immediately, cursing erupted.

  “—ucking damn it!” Wyatt groaned and coughed before he became violently ill.

  Just get out. Delacruz’s link seemed strong enough, but I felt her through it. Nausea roiled in her stomach. Get out of the water so we can close it.

  Sofia Delacruz is no longer tech adrift, Alpha.

  Wyatt Guthrie is no longer tech adrift, Alpha.

  We’re mostly clear here. I fired again, even as I linked, There’s a few frogfaces over here, but I can keep them back a while longer.

  Goddamn, Hoss. I felt the churning sickness in Wyatt’s link as he slogged toward dry land. This is awful. You’re gonna to have to give us a second.

  Understood.

  It took them longer to pull themselves out of the pool than I might’ve thought. Fortunately, our amphibious friends didn’t seem to have any more of their kind lurking in the waves.

  A few shots drove the froggy menace back considerably further, and as soon as Delacruz had her legs, she reignited the aperture in front of me.

  Once again, the passage was blocked against amphibious invasion. Only then could I give my full attention to my cadre.

  Delacruz had rescued Wyatt by igniting the quarrel she’d left in the ceiling, directly above the pool.

  I hadn’t truly given it much consideration, as when she’d fired it I’d been quite busy being brain-whammied.

  Okay. Wyatt struggled to his feet, resembling that time he’d been on a three-day bender at Mardi Gras. This is gonna take a few minutes. Rosie’s capacitors are probably flooded.

  I’ll pretend I know what that means. I nodded at him. Take your time, Mr. Guthrie. Do what you gotta do.

  Sofia glanced up at me from the side of the catacomb wall. She opened her mouth as if to say something but then doubled over.

  I thought she might vomit. With one hand on her shoulder, I asked, “You gonna be okay?”

  “If I hadn’t had line of sight, we would’ve drowned.” She leaned against the wall.

  “But you did.” I paused and didn’t quite know what to say. “Because you are amazing.”

  “Oh God, Mike.” Delacruz choked a laugh as she rested her head against the cool stone, one hand on her stomach. “Remind me to not make fun of you again for the time you threw up all over that Irrat.”

  “I have some injectors?” I opened my belt bag and pawed through them. “Not that I know which ones might help with nausea.”

  “It’s another topia in there.” She turned to gaze at me, and I practically saw a green tinge to her skin. “I didn’t think about it when I fired that quarrel.”

  “Right.” I hadn’t thought about it either. “And on top of the aberrant vectors…”

  “Yeah. The moment I realized what I had to do… Well, it was either that or drown.”

  “You made it home.” I gave her a weak smile. “That was pure Facility grade genius.”

  Sofia responded by vomiting on the floor.

  “I’ll…” I patted her on the back. “I’ll let you get back to it.”

  “This is gonna be tricky.” Wyatt unscrewed the bulb off the bottom of the tangler pack he wore, and water poured out of the device.

  “You think the tangler will still function?”

  “Hard to say.” He burped, obviously doing what he could to hold down his lunch. “I’ve used a waterlogged tangler before. Most of it’ll dry out easily enough. It’s the input function that don’t care much for water.”

  “The keyboard?”

  “Right.” He went back to loosening a panel on the device. “It becomes a bit more difficult to modulate the algorithms. It’s not a devastating drawback, but it can add a bit more randomness to the spikes.”

  “Jesus.” I shook my head. “The idea of you being more random during combat is terrifying.”

  “Here in a moment, I’ll try and free twitchy over there. After I do, you can give her some of my stims.”

  “I might have some type III’s as well.” I shook my head and realized talking probably just distracted him. “Just take your time. We’ll get Anya out of there, close this rift, and move onto the next one. Easy peasy.”

  “That’s it?” Wyatt bent down and scratched the reddened the area of his thigh where frog juice had almost cost him a leg. “Seriously? That’s all we have to do?” He chuckled. “I imagine there’ll be another big, fucking fight there, Hoss.”

  I smiled at him, chuckled, and shook my head. However in my heart, I knew the truth.

  Wyatt was absolutely right.

  That worried me. We still hadn’t heard anything regarding Rachel’s prognosis, much less had contact from the Designates. Other than bringing in Amir, we really didn’t have a specific purpose.

  Hell, even if we caught him, all we could do would be escort him back to the Citadel. Without Designate authorization and conduits, we couldn’t even get the man to Facility Prime.

  We needed a plan.

  It would be simple to get back to the Corvus to scheme things out, even go all the way back to the Citadel.

  But that would take time.

  I checked my interface, and sure enough, Amir remained marked. He wasn’t anywhere close to us, not just now, but the fact that he remained onsite troubled me.

  This simply wasn’t his nature. He knew Assets were on the ground, so he should have bugged out like he always did.

  The fact that he hadn’t meant something. I just couldn’t figure out what.

  “Okay, assuming the resonant frequency is the same, I can break out our Preceptor.” Wyatt cleared his throat and spat, as if trying to get the fishy taste out of his mouth.

  “Handle it.” I nodded at him. “I’m trying to brood over here.”

  “Got it.”

  As Wyatt set his spike and prepared to free Anya, I wandered over to the pool. For appearance’s sake, I did the intelligent thing: I watched the water. We needed a lookout, to make certain we wouldn’t be ambushed as we got back on our feet. But watching was only an excuse.

  Dark thoughts troubled me, and I needed to figure out the best way forward.

  If I didn’t, I was likely to get us killed.

  4

  Soon, Anya had regained her feet, though she teetered and listed.

  The crimson glow of Delacruz’s aperture reflected within the silvery shine of Wyatt’s field as it lit the passageway.

  The rift had been closed.

  If any aberrant toads or copper masked goons lurked about, they didn’t pop out of the shadows.

  I am somewhat surprised the aberration’s spawn did not infect you, Asset Guthrie. Anya leaned against the wall and tried to regain her bearings. Last I saw of you, a swarm of them pursued you into the pool.

  “That’s a hell of a story.” Wyatt sat cross-legged on the floor with the tangler housing opened, parts spread before him as he tinkered. The device had worked well enough to block the rift and free our Preceptor, but he wasn’t quite satisfied with its performance.

  “We might have to wait for a bit on awesome stories.” I held up one hand. “I have some concerns.”

  “We never have to wait for your stories,” Wyatt muttered.

  “If anyone gets to tell it, it’ll be Sofia.” I gave the Gatek
eeper a broad smile. “I’d say jumping after him like that was at least a hundred twenty five milli-Bishops.”

  “Thanks?” Delacruz wrinkled her nose. “I think?”

  What are your thoughts, Michael? Anya leaned back against the wall.

  “There’re a couple kinks we need to work out in the plan.”

  “I thought we had everything handled.” Sofia shrugged. Close one more rift, then go after the asshole before he gets away. She put one hand on her hip and cocked her head at me. Do the impossible, right?

  We are relatively safe for the moment, Anya linked. If we need to have a discussion, now might be the time.

  “Our safety is part of what concerns me. I really expected the Irrats to try some other fuckery by now.” I rubbed the back of my neck in thought.

  “I have the next aperture ready to link, Alpha.” Delacruz reached behind her head and tapped the Temporal Corona. “Just say the word.”

  “I know we can go at any time.” I ground my teeth. “I just feel like perhaps we should think about things for a second. So far, we’ve just reacted to things they’ve done.”

  “I am tired of being surprised.” Wyatt spat on to the floor.

  “I don’t like that Amir is still onsite.” I shook my head. “Every time that asshole has been in play, he removes himself from the board as quickly as possible.”

  “Maybe he can’t.” Wyatt sat up straight and rolled his head, stretching his thick neck. “Maybe there’s something he still has to do.”

  “Maybe he’s leading us where he wants us to go.” I met each pair of eyes, then stared at the ground. “This fucker is smart.”

  “We haven’t even seen him.” Delacruz shook her head as she tried to make sense of my words. “How could he have led us anywhere?”

  “The same way he led Gideon and I to Istanbul.” I held up my hand. “Let’s review how this all played out.”

  “Okay, Sun Tzu.” Wyatt popped the back panel off his tangler. “Tell us.”

  “When we arrived, our first encounter happened to be Froggy the Aberration. Horrid critter.”

  “That’s a fact.” Wyatt shuddered.

  “Shortly after that, our Preceptor informed us more portals had been opened. The simple conclusion was that we’d deal with more of those plague monsters, and they happened to be beneath Rome.”