Rune Zero: A Cyberpunk Thriller (Rune Universe)

by Hugo Huesca

It was the first real sunset David had seen in a long time. Now that the prison’s drugs had left his system, he couldn’t believe he was ever fooled by the VR graphics. They weren’t a match for the real thing, not by a long shot.

  “I’m married, you know,” Doctor Phillips told him after they sat down in the students’ chairs and David had properly introduced himself. “Two children, one of them is applying to Skyline this year.”

  “Congratulations,” said David. The doctor seemed to be waiting for more. Perhaps someone more socially attuned could know what the man is waiting to hear, but David could only think to say: “I have a daughter. Sarah. She’s at her grandparent’s.”

  Wade Phillips nodded and then his attention faded. His gaze was directed towards the window. “You know, he always swore he’d leave his wife. She made his life a living hell, he said, so he’d leave her and we could be… Doesn’t matter anymore, does it? I always knew it was a lie, anyway, even if he wanted to believe it himself. His career was too important. Even if he did… well, I can’t leave myself that easily, you know? I have a family. I love them very much… And even then. Even then. I couldn’t help myself from thinking how it’d be like…”

  David could think of only one thing to say. “I’m very sorry, Doctor Phillips.”

  “Do you love your wife, David?”

  Ex-wife, thought David, but instead, he simply said yes.

  “I love my wife, too,” Phillips’ eyes were grounded on the floor. “Funny how that goes, right?”

  David didn’t think it was funny at all. Wade Phillips added:

  “People can dedicate their lives to one person or one cause and in the end, they are the ones who hurt them the most. Who are you two working for? NSA? FBI? CIA? Corporate?”

  The question caught David unprepared. Should he tell him the truth?

  And why the hell not? That man knew something. He was eager to talk about it. David suspected grief was not the only thing making Wade Phillips’ body shake. Fear could do that to a man.

  “CIA,” he said, hoping that John Derry wasn’t listening to their conversation, somehow. Or that, if he did, he wouldn’t decide to bust him for a contract breach or whatever. “We’re with the CIA.”

  “The other guy called you a consultant, so you’re an outsider,” Wade pointed out. “What do you think of them? Do you trust them?”

  “Only as far as I can throw them,” David said. Then, he shrugged. “Things are pretty clear with them if you think about it. You play by their rules, you help them out. If they have no reason not to, they’ll stick by their end of their bargain at the end of it.”

  “It’s the ‘no reason not to’ that worries me,” said Wade Phillips.

  “What’s going on?” David went to the point. “I can see you want to tell us something. Is it about Morrow?”

  Wade’s eyes were wet and afraid. “I don’t know. Could be. You believe in coincidences? Because there’s one hell of a coincidence in my phone, right now…”

  The doctor sighed and pulled a thin, glass slab out of his pocket. He clicked once or twice in the digital screen and then showed it to David. It was the “received calls” menu.

  David instantly caught sight of what Wade wanted to show him. His eyes were already looking for it, in a way. Like he had seen this movie before. Here’s what he saw:

  Two missed calls, from Xavier Morrow’s contact ID. Dated yesterday, 2 am. Then, in the morning, more missed calls, this time from unknown numbers.

  David’s gaze met with Phillip’s. The man lowered the phone. “It has been going on all day. If I answer one of the unknown callers, it’s only static. Every time. I even began recording it. They won’t hang up, they won’t say anything. And still… I think I can feel them on the other side of the line. Trying to speak to me.”

  His hands were shaking. “I have done some bad things in my life, David. Some very bad things.”

  David may not have been a social mastermind, but he suddenly understood Wade’s fear.

  He thinks he’s being punished. The ghost of his lover, back from the dead, to remind him of his sins. The Doctor had a cross underneath his sweater, David could see the shape against the fabric. He’s not looking for someone to trust, he’s looking for absolution.

  Wasn’t that how he felt, himself? He reached out to Phillip’s trembling hands and gently pulled the phone away from him. Wade made no attempt to stop him. Instead, he seemed relieved, like David had taken a heavy weight from his back. “Our demons tend to stay inside ourselves, Wade. Let me hold this thing for you.”

  Phillips said nothing. He’s hands clutched into claws, grasping at the fabric of his trousers. David thought of Jean, the K-Sec hacker.

  “You know, more than a year ago, my wife and I were trying to have our second child,” David started, not sure where he was going with this. “We had enough cash saved up from… well, our jobs… to give our little family a stable, happy life. We hadn’t much luck. We went to a doctor. Then another and another. They all said the same thing: Leonor could never again have children.”

  He could almost see her. Standing, back against the window’s sunlight, black hair covering her face. She was a strong woman. Stronger than him, by far. But her shoulders still shook against her will.

  There was an operation she could undergo, to fix whatever arcane medical issue her plumbing was having. It was expensive. Their savings account wouldn’t make the cut. Both of them had stopped stealing information a while ago. They were trying to make a family, after all.

  She had begged him not to do it. After all, she knew him better than anyone else. Don’t risk what we have right now. It’s not worth it.

  In those times, David Terrance was one of the best solo hackers in the whole damn world. His username had been whispered in all the forums like an urban myth. There was little security code that could withstand the might of his ten fingers.

  Those times were far away, and the world had moved. A lot can change in a year, and even fame can fade away. The new security systems were far more advanced than those he had known before. Now, if there was a ranking of hackers (there wasn’t. But let’s imagine one), he wouldn’t feature on any top spot. A new generation was here.

  He knew this, intimately, even in jail. Hell, before that. As the trial went on. He had seen famous usernames come and go, legends appear in a day and gone the next.

  And, even today, standing in front of Wade Phillips, David knew he’d have a decent chance of getting away with cracking into any Government server. Perhaps even military, if he was feeling suicidal.

  Of course he took the risk back then, when he was the very best.

  He took the risk and he got caught. He had been so close…

  Leonor turned against him during the trial. He didn’t hold it against her, not that. She had to keep their family together, at least the little fragments that were left.

  But before the trial, when the police cars could still be heard in the distance, coming towards their little apartment to arrest him, that’s when she had turned to him, crying, holding Sarah in her arms.

  Please, love, we can make it out of this. David had told her. You, Sarah, and me. You have to believe in me. I can get out of this. I can make a deal. I can work for them, they make deals with hackers all the time, you know it—

  I can’t do this anymore, tears were raining down Leonor’s cheeks the whole time. But her voice never cracked. You are living in a lie and I can’t help you anymore. I’m leaving, David. It’s over.

  Love, I—Our daughter…

  Please. That had been the point where her voice almost failed her. Please, David. If you love me. Please. Shut up.

  The next time he had seen her, it was in court. She did whatever she needed to do to get her name out of it. She told a lot of lies while refusing to meet his gaze.

  David Terrance told all this to Wade Phillips. The man listened, at first not sure how his story was tied into his dilemma, but then out of pity for the disgraced hacker.
>
  “—I stopped trying to defend myself in court, at the end,” David adds. “In the end, it was too grating. I could’ve fought them all day long. Make any deals. I just couldn’t fight her. So, I didn’t. I haven’t seen Sarah in a while, and probably never will again. They’re out of the country, you see.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that.”

  “I guess, what I’m saying is… I did some bad things, okay? No denying that. The CIA may not be the cleanest organization nowadays, but the info I leaked could’ve gotten people killed. And I paid for it. The price was my family and my freedom. In the end, Wade, we all have to live with our regrets. So, if you can do something, right now, to lessen those regrets… Well. If I were in your shoes, I’d do it.”

  “I have two choices,” said Wade Phillips with a sigh. “One of them is the easier one and may go against your and your employers’ interest. The other one is dangerous and may not even lead to anything. Imagine you’re in my shoes. What would you do?”

  David had been telling the truth so far and lying right now would be too obvious. Hell, he didn’t want to. He was tired. And Leonor had been laughing at him all the while, sitting next to Wade Phillips. The PKD bottle in his pocket was almost calling to him. He only had to take a pill and his mind would start working again.

  “Hell, man, I don’t know,” he smiled. “I’d probably take my family and get the hell out of the country. Take a third option. But, I’d consider all my options carefully, first.”

  To his surprise, Phillips actually began to laugh. “David, you’re one of the worst motivational speakers I’ve ever heard. You’re supposed to convince me to collaborate with the CIA… But, I can tell you’re genuine. Thank you.”

  The sky outside was almost dark now. The faint cheering of the crowd was carried over by the strange acoustic of the campus, even if they were far away. It came along with a faint buzzing, engine-like.

  “Sure. I only work here.”

  Phillips thought it over while Leonor screamed obscenities next to his ear. It didn’t seem to bother him.

  “I have something to speak to the CIA about. It may be related to what happened to Xavier. It may not. But, I’ll definitely need someone to have my back afterward. There’s no coming back from this. I need your partner’s guarantee that my family will be safe.”

  “I can’t speak for the CIA. I’m not in the greatest spot with them right now…” after all, he had sold their Op-Manuals to the highest bidder and in return, they had canned him in a plastic coffin for over a year. On the other hand, they were working together. “But, I mean, they are Government. They have witness protection programs and all that. Make them happy and they’ll keep you happy, too.”

  “We’ll find out.”

  They stood up and David got ready to call John in. But, something was wrong in the room. The hair on his arms tingled with anxiety.

  Leonor’s screaming had stopped. She stared at David with a puzzled expression on her face and then at the ceiling. She was listening to something.

  The screaming is louder, David thought. Something was going on outside. Leonor turned towards the windows —like a hallucination could actually see whatever was going on, when he couldn’t— and then she walked towards David.

  “Love, you’re in for a rude awakening,” she told him. Hate burned in her eyes, as usual. But, for the first time, also concern. “Duck.”

  “David?” asked Wade Phillips. “Is something wrong?”

  David blinked. “What?” His brain caught up with Leonor’s actual meaning one second after.

  “Duck!”

  The wall by the Doctor’s desk exploded. The shower of bricks, dust, and concrete threw David Terrance to the floor like a ragdoll.

  Leonor’s warning saved his life when he had the presence of mind to roll away. The explosion was caused by a student-filled bus that hit the wall at max speed. Its front went all the way to the entrance of the classroom and smashed against the second wall before coming to a stop.

  A back wheel jerks to a stop half a foot away from David’s face, and exactly where his face had been before he rolled away.

  The screaming stopped briefly after the explosion, but afterward was louder than ever. A stream of terrified students started to get out of the bus as David crawled across the floor, covered in debris once more on the same day, gasping for air, ears ringing. His hearing wouldn’t ever be the same.

  He stumbled into Wade Phillips. That man’s hearing wouldn’t be the same, either. Because he was under the bus and his body was bloody and torn to shreds. He lay there, unmoving.

  David didn’t know this, but he was in shock.

  “Terrance!” A faint voice came from behind him. David turned on his back and stared at John Derry. Why was the agent so surprised? Buses didn’t go out of their way to murder people inside buildings in his day to day?

  Pfft. The angry, beefed-up agent —scared of a bus. The idea was the most hilarious image David had thought in the entire day.

  He felt like laughing and then not stopping. Ever again.

  The bus engine roared, then, and the wheels started moving again.

  “C’mon, sweetheart,” Leonor’s hallucination grabbed David by the shoulders and, together with John, dragged him out of the bus’ way. “Time to run. You can’t die yet. I’m not there to see it, remember?”

  Chapter 8

  John had been dragging David for several feet when the hacker’s legs caught up with what was expected of them.

  He jogged alongside the agent as a sea of terrified students ran, screaming, in all directions. Some of them towards the site of the accident, bravely —or stupidly— thinking it was just that, an accident, and perhaps there were people there who needed help.

  No human force was going to help Wade Phillips, sadly. Technology was simply not advanced enough to heal a hit from a bus at full speed. It probably wouldn’t be twenty years from now, either.

  Technology was advanced enough to let every student inside the bus survive with only some scratches and a broken bone or two. Kudos to the engineers.

  David was having the time of his life. Why was everyone running? Hell, why was he running?

  He began to laugh as he ran. He threw his fist in the air, feeling the breeze pass around his body.

  He blinked and the scene changed. He was lying horizontally in a grassy field. Police helicopters (human-manned. Fool me once, and all that) were flying in. Fire trucks were near, he could hear their screeching. Paramedics. Media. You name it, they were here.

  But, his field of vision was occupied mostly by John Derry, standing in front of him. A giant judge, deciding if he’d wield the sword or the olive branch.

  Here’s what John did. He reached down and slapped David’s face, hard enough to make him see stars. If he had slapped a TV screen, it would’ve blacked out for a second. David’s face did the same.

  “Jesus Christ, what the fuck is wrong with you—”

  “You were in shock.”

  “Oh.” David felt he was himself again. His face hurt. He was sure the agent’s hand was now imprinted in his cheek. It stung, too. “Thanks. I feel better.”

  Beat. Pause. His mind was placing all subroutines back online. Your system just went through a small safety protocol to minimize lasting psychological damage. Thanks for understanding. Do you want to send a bug report?

  David realized John just tried to take him out of shock by slapping him hard.

  “You think you can take a man out of shock by slapping him?”

  John had the gall to act unimpressed. “I’m not a psychologist. It seems like it worked, doesn’t it? You’re making sense again.”

  “I’m pretty sure shock doesn’t work that way.”

  John helped him stand up. Standing up made him dizzy, and being dizzy made him remember the sight of Wade Phillips crushed underneath the bus. David’s stomach began a popular uprising inside his body.

  “Technically, you weren’t in medical shock. You were having
an acute stress reaction —different from medical shock. So—”

  David doubled over the grass and emptied the contents of his stomach. That was a liquid stream of tube-fed nutrient mixture. His throat burned with pain and threatened to close up.

  When he had finished, John handed him a handkerchief the agent kept in his pocket. “Feeling better?”

  The hacker accepted the cloth and cleaned himself as best as he could, all the while feeling pitifully sorry for himself. “No.”

  “Tough luck, then. I need to know what happened back there—”

  “A fucking bus ran over Wade.”

  “I know that part. I’m talking beforehand.”

  The doctor had been scared. Scared for his life and for his family. David had promised he’d do his best to protect him, talk him up to the CIA. As it turned out, David could do even less than he thought.

  If his stomach wasn’t empty, he’d be puking again.

  “He wanted to talk to you about something. He wasn’t sure he could help Morrow’s investigation, but he wanted to take the risk anyway. He felt he’d need protecting afterward.”

  Then David remembered the ghostly calls. He took out the Doctor’s smartphone, which somehow had ended in his back pocket, along with his own phone. The crystal-like material was cracked all over, but the little thing was tougher than it looked. “He also thought the Senator called him sometime after he was found dead.”

  It would sound utterly ridiculous if it weren’t for the fact that Morrow’s own wife had reported the same thing. And, in her case, they had the conversation recorded.

  John Derry examined the phone for a bit and then cracked open a small compartment on its side. He took the phone’s memory card and pocketed it. “I’ll have the team check Phillips’ phone records.”

  There was an uncomfortable silence while both of them stood there as the constant coming-and-going of the paramedics, police, and media dabbled around them.

  “It was a drone, right? The bus,” said David. A team of firefighters was extracting the battered bus, engine first, so it couldn’t do any more damage.