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

by JM Guillen

  “What matters most is what I think.” Wyatt sat in his seat at the front. His tangler, again, had been partially disassembled, and he’d tied a confederate flag handkerchief around his head.

  “Yeah?” I winced as Rachel gave me an injection. It bit, a little more than usual.

  I’m loading you for bear on mecha, Alpha. Rachel smiled. You might feel a bit jittery.

  “That thing is fucking terrifying, Hoss.” Wyatt shook his head. “Nothin’ like standing next to an aberration that can rip a human’s head off and just have to hope it’s on your side.”

  “Guthrie isn’t afraid of a little puppy, is he?” Delacruz crooned.

  “None of this matters.” I cleared my throat. “We’ve wasted a chunk of time here. I don’t know that any of Isabella’s memories mattered in the end.”

  “That was some sickening shit.” Wyatt shuddered.

  The nature of the Darkened Road has always been a mystery to Facility Prime. Anya raked one hand along her hair as she linked. Perhaps it’s valuable data.

  “Not for us, I don’t believe.” I frowned.

  I’m accessing some of your internal mecha dialogues, Alpha. Rachel gave me a small smile. You might feel a little woozy for a moment.

  I noticed, now that I’d agreed with her, I had stopped being Michael Bishop and gone back to Alpha.

  I nodded.

  “Wasn’t a waste though.” Wyatt didn’t look up at me, instead focused upon the internal housing of the tangler. Something within pulsed verdant and whined lowly.

  “No?” I felt that wooziness like whiskey in my blood. “How’s that?”

  “Key.”

  “Key?”

  “Yeah.” Without raising his head from his work, he held up a key attached to a wrist bracelet. “Elevator key, I’m bettin’.”

  “Well.” I couldn’t help but chuckle. “At least that’s something.”

  “I left a quarrel in that hallway, Alpha.” Delacruz shifted gears seamlessly from her snark-off with Wyatt straight to business. “I’ve been peeking through it on occasion. The Zealators seem to have all cleared out.”

  “Empty hallway?” That seemed too good to be true.

  “I’m officially logging a request to be on the away team if you’re going back.” Rachel glanced up at me brightly. “I’m not wearing a red shirt, so it’s okay.”

  “What?” I shook my head. Rachel Gardner would never make sense.

  I agree with the Caduceus. Anya affixed me with an expression I’d almost categorize as stern. She will be required in order to modulate your mecha. I will also be required to track the axiomatic weave and how it shifts in proximity to the Variance.

  “Yes.” I held up one hand. “I get it. We’re all going. From this point forward, we’ll all be more attentive to Asset Gardener’s moratorium.” I pointed at her.

  “The one on biting?” She gave me a playful grin. “I didn’t expect we’d bite anyone.”

  “The one on splitting up the party.” I leveled my gaze at the rest of my cadre. “Honestly, every time we do, we just find horrific trouble.”

  2

  Ten minutes later, I and my crack team of professionals stood in the hallway, arguing over the best way to split up the party.

  “If the elevator is the only way in, then they’ll watch the elevator,” Wyatt reasoned. “Or rig the thing to explode. Or summon sexy aberrations to pour into it the moment the door closes.”

  “I really hate it when you have a point.” I scratched my patchy beard.

  “We’ve learned one thing for certain,” Delacruz mumbled, sotto voce.

  “What?” Rachel turned to her.

  “Not all of Mike’s Irrational girlfriends have tentacles.”

  “That one was a real winner too, Hoss.” Wyatt chuckled. “I have decided to bow out and let you have her. True love must prevail.”

  “I hate you people.” I sighed.

  “This isn’t a problem.” Delacruz raised one eyebrow and gave me a crooked smile. “It is standard Facility practice to have one Asset pull point. I am specifically geared for this purpose. In fact, I feel certain my mastery of the unseen gate is exactly why I am on this team.”

  “I hate it when she’s logical,” I stage whispered to Wyatt.

  “I leave the quarrel right here, in front of the elevator.” She pointed to ground. “I prequeue my next quarrel to automatically sync with it. I gear the Wraith; I hop in the elevator.”

  “And if it’s geared to explode?” Wyatt raised one eyebrow at her.

  “Then all of us didn’t die.” She quirked her mouth into a bit of a frown. “But maybe you stand away from the quarrel a bit, in case I have to vent an explosion through it.”

  “Maybe you leave the quarrel down there.” Wyatt nodded down the hallway.

  “Either way.” She raised an eyebrow. “It’s a logical move, Guthrie. You know it.”

  “If something happens in the elevator, you could always shoot the floor,” I reasoned. “You’d fall right back here.”

  I detect no variations in ambient Rationality within the shaft of this elevator. Anya gave a small shrug. Although my telemetry can only reach so far.

  “Fine.” I ground my teeth. “I don’t like it. I feel like we’re setting up for trouble.” I also felt like it was the best choice.

  “Don’t worry so much, Mike.” Delacruz flashed that grin again and glanced over her shoulder as she stepped toward the elevator. She held up one hand, and Wyatt dropped the key into her palm.

  “It’s part of the job.” I nodded at her. “Please be careful.” Then I reconsidered. “Please pretend to be careful.”

  “I promise to pretend to pretend.” She gave me a wink, and then she engaged the Wraith. Delacruz vanished from sight, and the elevator door opened.

  “See?” Her voice came out of the empty elevator even as the door started to close. “No explosions. Not even any of Mike’s girlfriends to make things difficult on me.”

  The door slid closed and she was gone.

  “Maybe lay a couple of trigger spikes?” I raised one eyebrow at Wyatt. “In case our Gatekeeper comes back and she’s got Zealators hot on her trail?”

  “Copy that, Alpha.” The tangler began to keen, a high-pitched whine, as he turned and began to tap at the keys.

  The elevator is very fast. Delacruz’s link felt just a touch nervous. There wasn’t a button marked ‘basement,’ but the moment I put that key in, the thing dropped like a rock.

  But you’re okay? I raised an eyebrow, knowing she would feel it over the link. It’s not actually falling.

  No. Just incredibly fast.

  I show your Crown as approximately fifty meters below sea level. Rachel gave me a nervous glance.

  My readings on the Variance show it emanating from somewhere between two hundred and two hundred and twenty-five meters below sea level. Anya stared off into the distance, her fingers twitching slowly.

  That’s near the edge of your operational telemetry, right? I scratched my scruffy beard and tried to pretend as if I wasn’t simply distracting myself from the thought of Delacruz speeding away from us.

  It is. The Variance remains well outside this range. She shook her head. I’m calibrating, Alpha. I admit I have grown accustomed to the far greater range of the telemetric coils we use with deep telemetry. She paused. Yet in this instance, I have the range I require. I will update once we descend.

  Fair enough. I nodded.

  I’m slowing, Delacruz reported. I’ve fired a quarrel into the floor of the elevator. As soon as it stops, I can activate the aperture, if you wish.

  There might be a half-dozen batshit cultists standing outside that door, Wyatt noted dryly. Behind me in the hallway, I heard a WHUF!

  You got a point there, Uncle Jesse? I felt Delacruz wrinkle her nose.

  Wait. Rachel shook her head. You don’t mean ‘Full House’ Uncle Jesse. You mean ‘The Dukes of Hazzard’ Uncle Jesse.

  Um, Obviously. I felt Delacruz’s crook
ed grin. Although the other was [very hot.]

  Okay. Rachel nodded. That makes sense then.

  I got that one! I smiled. And it makes sense. If anyone is Uncle Jesse from ‘Full House,’ it’s me.

  Weirdly, neither of the ladies responded.

  Point is, Wyatt continued, that the moment the elevator door opens, you might find yourself in a hail of gunfire. Been thinking about it. I can always lay down a spike in the elevator, something that would make a stasis field when the bullets hit.

  Not enough room. I shook my head. Last thing we need is for the entire cadre to get stuck in a stasis field.

  Right. I’ve been over here puttin’ my genius brain to work on the topic. He paused. Don’t got nothing yet though.

  I’m about to stop, Sofia linked. What’s our play, Alpha?

  I had to admit I just wasn’t certain. If I’d geared the Spectre, it would have been simple to step through that door. Perhaps I should remember that in the future; the Spectre might be a far better match for Delacruz than the Wraith.

  [Shit!] The link came hard and fast in my mind. The doors are opening! I didn’t open them!

  Get back here now!

  I’d scarcely finished the link before Delacruz rolled through the aperture.

  “Automatic weapons,” she breathed. “The moment I came to a stop, the door opened and they began shooting.”

  “Fuck.” I pounded my fist into my open left palm. “They didn’t see you? You had the diaphanic emitter engaged?”

  “Of course,” she scoffed. “What’s use of gearing the packet if you’re not going to use it?”

  “Where’d you lay the aperture?” Wyatt drawled.

  “In the elevator, genius.”

  “Well, no fucking shit.” He shook his head. “If I shoot Rosie through your aperture, where is my spike gonna stick?”

  “Oh,” Delacruz shrugged. “In the ceiling. I had the quarrel in the floor so I could fall through.”

  “Sounds good.” Wyatt tapped a couple of keys before he glanced at me.

  “As your Alpha, I really should ask what you’re doing,” I prompted.

  “I thought it might be handy if all the oxygen around the elevator became desflurane gas, just for a minute or two.”

  “So that we would walk into a cloud of it?”

  “I said just for a minute or two.” Wyatt rolled his eyes at me. “I can set the spike to transmute it back after we know everyone else has been breathin’ it for a couple minutes.”

  “Oh.” I nodded at him. “Be my guest, Artisan.”

  WHUF!

  3

  Looks clear of assholes. Delacruz had gone through first, taking point. Also, I am not unconscious.

  Good to know, Gatekeeper. We’re coming through. I triggered the Wraith.

  Oh shit! Delacruz teased as Wyatt stepped through. Asshole spotted.

  So funny, he retorted.

  In the elevator, three bodies lay sprawled on the floor, one had even unintentionally propped the door open.

  Within the passageway beyond, I saw at least seven other bodies, all adorned in dark tactical clothing and armed with semi-automatic weapons. Their skin seemed pale, as if they hadn’t seen much sunlight. Most had dark circles under their eyes and dark tattoos swirled along their arms.

  I shall relieve them of their weaponry. Anya, ever pragmatic, began to loot the bodies.

  “Probably be out for a while at least.” Wyatt shrugged. “This stuff is nasty when you get too much of it in your bloodstream.”

  “Copy that.” I stepped over one and peered into the hallway beyond. A soft greenish-blue light flickered across the floor from an unseen source.

  Eerie quiet hung in the passage.

  “Anya, can you confirm that we have reached the same approximate depth as the Variance in Rationality?”

  Confirmed, Michael. The scarcest twinge of nerves came through that link. It’s quite odd. While my telemetric readings stretch out to a distance of two hundred and fifty meters, the Variance remains much further than that.

  “Yeah?” Wyatt adjusted one of the settings on his oculus. “How much further?”

  Almost a kilometer. Anya furrowed her brow. I am uncertain how it is possible for me to read the Variance at this distance.

  “It’s possible that your system ranks Variances above typical fluctuations in Rationality,” Delacruz offered. “Perhaps you’re using different relays for the Variance readings.”

  Regardless, Anya linked. As I take readings— she paused and her eyes suddenly went wide.

  Anya? I turned toward her.

  Rationality spiking! Fifteen meters into the passageway! Her fingers twitched madly, plucking at nothingness.

  Damnit. Delacruz stalked past me and fired the gatekeeper into the darkness. “I can’t take you guys anywhere.”

  The hallway beyond had a stone floor and ceiling. Both seemed to have been chiseled, but even so, they had been worked meticulously. The wall to our left seemed much the same, except several recesses held uncanny, inhuman statues. At a glance, those were made of obsidian or some other black, shiny stone.

  No wall lay to the right.

  Instead, a crystalline archway formed a massive window, one that took up the entire space. It also seemed to have been chiseled into shape, given thousands upon thousands of tiny, flat surfaces. Outside, light filtered through from the sea and cast scattered glimmers of turquoise and seaweed green all across the floor.

  Also, a repugnant monstrosity crouched in those shadows, breathing wetly as glints of sea light cast across it.

  It wore a ratty loin cloth and peered at us with eyes as empty and cold as moonlight. Sallow and greasy, I thought its waxy flesh must have never seen the sun.

  “Good,” Wyatt sighed. “We haven’t seen any gross toad-people in a while.”

  It crouched on blobbish legs, and its feet seemed to grip the floor, as if they held suckers underneath. It hunched forward and showed a pallid face with no nose and no real forehead. In its blubbery hands, it held two long, wicked hooks.

  Even while hunched, the thing had to be three meters tall.

  It peered at us, and I saw intelligence in that gaze. It measured us, gauging our natures.

  Its rasping breath echoed in the chamber.

  “Hello, Assets.” The male voice rolled through the passageway, almost mad with cheer. It came from behind the creature and was accompanied by the sound of heavy, dragging footsteps.

  Delacruz, we remain beneath the Wraith, I directed. Keep the aperture in the hallway above linked up. Wyatt, watch the big guy. Stasis him down, if you have to.

  Copy, that, Hoss.

  Will comply.

  “It’s certainly exciting that you’ve chosen to join us.” The figure moved closer, clomping through the shadows. “I’ll admit, I never thought to see the dashing Asset 108 again.”

  That voice.

  I couldn’t track where I’d heard it before. It didn’t exactly stick out in my mind, but yes, I knew it. He sounded rather young, I thought. Upbeat.

  Bishop? Wyatt linked all of us. Care to enlighten?

  I have no idea!

  I’m going to ready a quarrel, Delacruz linked. I’ll fire it somewhere behind him. If we have to slip up that way, we can.

  Do it, Gatekeeper.

  “Last time we saw each other, things were pretty… complicated,” the voice continued. “Honestly, I understand why events went the way they did.” The speaker paused. “Still, I imagine you might wish it had been different, quite soon.”

  “I don’t know.” I found my voice and peered into the darkness. The figure had halted somewhere behind the large aberration, and I couldn’t make anything out, even with my optics. “I’m not usually one to spend much time on regrets.”

  “You aren’t, are you?” The speaker laughed, genuinely amused. “Never were. Neither regret nor forethought. Not built into your nature.”

  Delacruz aimed into those mottled shadows and fired her crossbow. I hear
d the soft song as the quarrel sliced through the air and sailed into the darkness.

  “I’m here to tell you that you misunderstand everything about what’s happening here.” I heard the smile drop away from the voice. “This is a mistake, Michael. You’re getting in the way of something much larger than you are.”

  “And what’s that?” I nodded toward Delacruz, who bobbed her head in return. The simple gesture, even without the link told me what I needed to know.

  The quarrel was solid. If we needed it, we had an aperture.

  “It’s the rising of the Unfathomable, Michael,” the voice quieted. “Throdlum’s Children, the Dwellers Within the Brine have come to reclaim the lands that once were theirs. It’s an inevitability, and you few Assets cannot stand in its way.”

  “You know, I’ve heard this kind of thing before,” I replied. “Doom is coming. The end is nigh, and the shadowed darkness has returned.” I rolled my wrist as if to hurry him along. “Bit boring, actually.” As I spoke, I watched the large creature warily. Why did it just stand there? What were they waiting for?

  “No.” The tone became flat. “The men and women that the Facility sets you to chase are children in comparison to what happens here.” I actually heard the smile that broke out upon the speaker’s face. “But then, you know that, don’t you?”

  “What do you mean?” I wanted to see what he thought I knew.

  “You have Anya Petrova there. Preceptor second Tier, Asset 171,” the man went on. “You know there is a Variance in Rationality.”

  I’m going to keep fuckface here ranting, I linked to Delacruz. Scout the other side of that aperture. Get our people through if it’s safe.

  Will comply, Alpha, she linked promptly.

  “I do know that,” I called into the mottled shadows. “Diego Juarez, Irrational 8010.” I paused.

  “That name means nothing now. He is the Scion. He bears the Sign of the one to come.”

  Alpha, Rachel linked, these hostiles might wake soon. The gas’ll only keep them out so long.

  Copy that. Keep them down for us?

  “I know a little about that, too.” I decided to push a bit. “I know that his mother, Isabella, got taken when she was just a girl. I know what was done to break her.” I paused. “Not pretty stuff, man.”