Omega Point

by Guy Haley

  Richards put the apple down. "I am subject to the same limitations here as everyone, like Rolston, even like k52, I suspect. I have managed to break into the underlying code only once, and only then because someone had attempted to break in from the outside and made a hole in the world fabric."

  The badger fell silent. "Then we are doomed."

  Richards thought. "Maybe not. This Flower King, he's the key."

  "You think we are not aware of that? No one has seen him in a great long while, not since the Terror and k52 took upon the mantle of Lord Penumbra."

  "You don't know where he is?"

  "No."

  "You don't have a great deal of influence here, either."

  "I sense things, I can feel things, but the Flower King untangled me, to a degree. That part of me that helps maintain this world is buried deep, separate from what you see sitting here with you. But I know who you are, I gave you that form."

  "This? Could you not have made it a little, well, better?"

  "The perfect form is no disguise. Be glad I made you a human facsimile. When you came in I saw you for what you were. I have that advantage, a small but vital one. Your friend Rolston here advised me. If we allowed k52 to see you enter, he would have killed you."

  "Figures," said Richards. "He's tried already. Still, we need to find this Flower King." What a self-conscious name, thought Richards. "Wake him up and expel k52 for good. And for that I need to get out onto the Grid."

  "How?"

  "The Flower King built this place. He has to be people, has to be. Even k52 can't break the locks on the base coding; only a human being could have built this, and there are not very many out there who are smart enough to do that, or, more importantly, get into the Realm Servers in the first place."

  "You know who he might be?"

  "I have my suspicions. Even so, that's not much good. I'm next to helpless in here. Out there, easy!" He snapped his fingers. "Grid combs, scales, hunters, all the tricks, and I have them in great quantity. In here, I don't know where to start. I have nothing. I need to get out. Now, I'm pretty damn sure k52's way in will be crawling with security, if he can get out again, for that matter, because things don't look to be going so well for him. But the Flower King, he has to have a fixed portal; even if it's secret, it'll be here. If I can find it, I can contact him and get him back in here to sort this mess out, if he's amenable to it."

  "But where?"

  "Do you know the house with the dogman? I thought I'd try there."

  "No use." The badger shook his head. "That is the Flower King's lodge, yes, a way in, but only a way in. It is through there all who live here came. Once one comes through there, there is no way back into it, and even inside all the doors are barred."

  "Yeah, I saw that." Richards chewed his lip. "There has to be a way out too, has to be. Even if there's no door, someone has to have a key."

  The badger was silent for a space. Rolston came back in, placed a tea service on the desk and poured three cups.

  Spink shifted his weight and spoke reluctantly. "There is one who would know…"

  "Spink…" warned Rolston, and his borrowed body hissed steam.

  The badger continued, "There is a creature, one like me, one of my counterparts. He might be able to show you the way into the house of the Flower King."

  "This other… administrator. He can open those doors?" said Richards.

  "Oh, no, you will have to open them. He only reveals them. If you prove worthy, and can find his lair," said Spink.

  "This is beginning to sound like a quest from a third-rate virt-game."

  "I assure you, the stakes are far higher," said Rolston.

  "I'm not sure I like that, or the use of the word 'lair'," said Richards.

  "Where else would Lord Hog live but in a lair?" said Spink matter-of-factly.

  "Lord Hog. Right." Richards sat for a moment. "I've heard nothing but unpleasant things about him. Still, I'm a both-feetfirst kind of guy." He tried a winning smile.

  "Hog dwells far to the west, on the edge of this creation. Our first obstacle is to get you out of the city. You must travel with the army, to the battle against Penumbra, and make your way from there. It will provide cover proof against k52's prying."

  "Oh, a battle too!" said Richards. He grumbled under his breath, tapped his fingers on his chair arm. "Fine," he said presently. "I don't see any better option. I have to get out or we're all screwed."

  Spink's hands shook just a little less, and his twitching head stilled. He smiled and nodded to himself.

  "This Lord Hog, evil, is he?"

  "He is a cannibal, a sorceror, a torturer; the very lord of pain!" intoned Spink.

  The sun dimmed outside. The ground rumbled. Iron clanked on iron. Shouts sounded. Iron file boxes fell from the shelves of the office, paper fluttering to the iron floor. Richards gripped his chair. His tea spilled on the desk.

  Spink sniffed at the air as the earthquake subsided. "And a pervert."

  "In that case," said Richards, scratching at his head, "I have a request."

  "Anything," said Spink. "Name it, and it shall be yours."

  Richards spoke solemnly. "I'm afraid I'm going to need a new hat."

  CHAPTER 13

  Bratsk

  Otto took the unconscious Cossack technician into his arms gently and put him into his seat. There was not enough space in the operations cabin to lay him down, and no matter how he arranged the man's limbs he would not sit properly, so he left him there slumped like a drunk in his chair. Untidy, thought Otto. It offended his German sense of neatness. He checked the Cossack's pulse; unenhanced humans were so fragile. He felt a kick of relief at the sluggish throb his Ky-tech eyes showed him.

  "Valdaire's run it right, no alarm," said Lehmann.

  Otto glanced around at the screens in the car, two stations, full surveillance capability. The Cossacks could lock the whole train down from here. No signs of any disturbance. The operations cabin buzzed with electrical activity, all of it unaware of the Ky-techs' presence. "Five minutes before the next scheduled walk-through," said Otto. "These Cossacks do not take many chances."

  "Up and out," said Lehmann. "Can't we just kick our way in?"

  "Valdaire can't crack the locks to the barrack car without alerting the squad inside. We're not quite done with being quiet. We go in through the door, they get to pick us off one at a time. This way, we get the drop on them."

  "Otto, Lehmann, the guards have made their passes to the ends of the train and are coming back." Valdaire spoke through their earpieces, comms channel bonded to the train's in-service entertainment systems, hidden within it. "You've got less than five. I can keep the security offline and repeating for a while longer, but you need to move now. We'll be crossing the AI Pale soon; if I do not deactivate Chloe, she'll be noticed and destroyed by the Chinese."

  "That lady scares me," said Lehmann. "Give me a gun and an honest fight, not the sneak of InfoWar."

  "What did you do with yours?" asked Otto.

  "I locked him in the toilet," said Lehmann, jerking his thumb over his shoulder. "He'll live. Shall I boost you, sir?" Lehmann gave a lazy salute and raised his eyes up to the skylight.

  Lehmann laced his fingers together and Otto stepped into them. "On three," he said. "One, two, three!"

  Lehmman thrust Otto up. Otto slammed his palms flat into the skylight, popping it out of its housing. He emerged into the rush of wind to see the panel flipping over and over down the lazy curve of the train. It bounced, and disappeared into the trees.

  Otto turned his head into the wind, eyeballed the sentry gun in front of him. The machine's barrels swept past his face, panning round, looking for threats. It was operational; it just didn't see him. Lehmann was right about Valdaire.

  He hauled himself onto the swaying roof of the train. It had accelerated once it had passed the ruined town, and now it approached the centre of the demilitarised zone it was running close to 170kph. Otto moved carefully onto the roof, ke
eping an eye on the parapet on the barracks van behind the operations centre; less a carriage and more a fortress on wheels. There was always one man on duty up there, pacing round, no matter the weather. Otto had seconds before he returned.

  The roof was slick with moisture, the air cold, the wind snatching it from his lungs. He leant back into the skylight and hauled the bag containing Lehmann's long rifle, then Lehmann himself, up onto the roof. Together they worked their way along the top of the train to the front of the barracks van. That it was heavily armoured went in their favour; the windows were small and thick, and no one was looking out of them.

  "Two minutes," said Valdaire into their ears as the two cyborgs worked their way up the carriage. Lehmann pulled himself over the parapet. Otto watched through Lehmann's eyes as he stalked up behind the Cossack sentry and knocked him unconscious. Otto scanned the train roof for signs of detection. Seeing none, he followed onto the upper deck of the barracks van and went round the opposite side of the carriage to Lehmann.

  "One minute," said Valdaire. "Come on, guys, the patrol is due back in the operations cabin any second now."

  As one, Otto and Lehmann punched their augmented fists through the sides of the armoured wagon. Faint shouts could be heard from within. An alarm sounded as Otto and Lehmann tossed in a pair of grenades each. Wisps of gas rose up from the holes they'd made, followed by the crack of EMP. The lights in the cabin went out, the alarm in there cutting out also. The shouting became coughs.

  Otto ran to the door leading to the roof. A Cossack was coming through the hatch, carbine ready. Otto slammed him with his forearm, sending him back into two others following behind. He yanked the door shut, mangling its mechanism with his hands. They dripped blood onto the deck

  A couple of rounds came through the holes they'd made.

  "Just in time, Klein," said Valdaire. "Only two of the men in there got their breathing units on; they're trapped. You've taken out a total of seventeen so far. That leaves another eleven still on the train. Chures has collared two and disarmed them." As she spoke, information downloaded into his mind, showing him the locations of the remaining Cossacks.

  "Chures has two, two are trapped, seven are loose?" asked Otto, shouting over the rush of the wind.

  "Confirmed. No fatalities. I'm going to have to shut Chloe off soon. We're approaching the outlying bastions of the Great Firewall. I've deactivated the train's automated defence systems, but you're on your own now. We've about ten minutes before other Cossack border units get here. We'll meet you at the transport car."

  "Be careful!" shouted Otto. "We have no idea how many of Kaplinski's men are aboard the train. Lehmann, stay here, cover the train roof. I'm going back down. I'll signal you when I have the transport."

  Lehmann's icon flashed in his iHUD. Affirmative. He unzipped his bag and started to assemble his gun.

  Otto left his gear with Lehmann, pulled his pistol and ran, the need for stealth gone, toward the transport cars behind the barracks van. The first held horses for each of the Cossacks. It was not merely tradition; out in the wilds they were still the most efficient means of transport. He ran swiftly over the roof of the stable, enhanced senses picking up the movement of the animals within. He leapt from the top onto the flatbed behind, landing between two rows of four airbikes locked into stands. A tall autoturret stood in the middle. Past it, at the far end of the flatbed, was what he'd come for; a Szyminksi-Braun SSATV1123a "Stelsco", a six-wheeled, all-terrain stealth scouting vehicle, fast and armed, made by the same company as had altered Otto, clamped into a travel cradle.

  He strode toward it, his near-I adjutant seeking entry to its systems. It found a keyhole and engaged, pouring out a parcel of hackware Valdaire had provided him with.

  Here they come! thought out Lehmann. Otto watched on his squad feed as four Cossacks came down the train on bounding overwatch.

  Try not to kill them, thought Otto.

  I'll do my best, said Lehmann, opening fire. He kept his bursts short and accurate, playing fire over the roof of the armoured train, driving the Cossacks back until they found sanctuary in a gap between the carriages.

  Where are the other three?

  No idea, thought Otto. I have no tactical overview now Chloe is offline. Keep an eye on the men below – the gas will be wearing off soon.

  From Lehmann's ears he heard the sound of hammering on the interior of the barracks van. Now you tell me, he thought.

  There were twelve elements to the Stelsco system's lock, a Chance Key. Twelve red dots in his mind that could be anything, images, snatches of song, complex equations. He felt his mentaug struggle as it applied the full force of Valdaire's 'ware to the task. Chloe would have been better suited to this operation, but AI were almost immediately detected in Sinocyberspace and were extirpated without mercy. Ever since the Five crisis the Chinese had had a genocidal ban on thinking machines, and Chloe was well over the line of the Chinese definition of such.

  Eight and a half minutes. They were running out of time.

  He approached the Stelsco, evaluating if he could rip the cradle's locking bars away by force. His earpiece crackled. Valdaire.

  "Otto, we've got a problem!"

  And then Sakaday stepped round the Stelsco and pointed a gun at Otto's head. "Been a long time, Klein."

  Fucking stupid plan, Otto, said Kaplinski over the MT. Now stand down and help me find Waldo, or I swear to God I will tear your little friend's arms off.

  Lehmann was taking fire from the Cossacks guarding the train, forcing him to duck in between his own bursts.

  Sakaday grinned wide.

  In Otto's head, a chime sounded; the Chance Key. One dot green. Eleven to go. He had to buy some time.

  "He got you, Valdaire?" asked Otto. Static replied, the radio jammed.

  I have her, Klein, thought Kaplinski. Stand down.

  Then let me speak to her.

  I have her, repeated Kaplinski.

  You're bluffing, thought out Otto. And maybe he's not, he added to himself.

  He launched himself at Sakaday anyway. What choice did he have?

  Chures bundled Valdaire into a compartment as bullets hissed down the corridor. A man in grey, one of Kaplinski's goons, held a gun out in front of him. Chures dropped to the floor and a scream sounded from behind him as a bullet meant for him caught another. A weapon discharged loudly, ricocheting off the bulletproof external window and shattering compartment glass. More screams. A door crashed open, wild firing. The man in grey shot over Chures, dropping someone else.

  "We're crossing the demarcation line. Chloe's going off!" shouted Valdaire. "Three… two… one…"

  The man drew a bead on Chures, a savage glee on his face.

  "Disengaging! We're over the line" shouted Valdaire.

  The train juddered as its AI driver shut down, to be replaced with a People's Dynasty approved human operator. The ride became correspondingly rougher.

  The man in grey's shot went wild as the train lurched. Chures recovered quickly, and put a bullet through his heart.

  Chures got up. Behind him a dead Cossack sprawled, blood pooling on the expensive carpet, its absorption facility overwhelmed by the amount. A passenger, a pumped-up Russian with a machine pistol, lay bleeding and whimpering by him, skin white. Chures walked to the man in grey. He lay with eyes open. Chures spat on him. "Puta," he said. He recognised the man. He squatted down, checked him over. Not full Ky-tech like Klein.

  Valdaire came out of the compartment, checking and rechecking Chloe. Happy she was asleep, she put the phone away and pulled out her own gun. "Is he dead?"

  "Yes. These ones are lightly augmented. They die easily enough."

  Valdaire looked uncomfortable.

  "Do not feel sorry for him, Señora. These pendejos almost trapped me in Colorado the day before I found you. One of them caught me in a goods yard, but a half metre of timber put him down. I have them to thank for this." He indicated the yellowing bruises on his face.

  "Does
n't mean he deserved to die, Chures."

  Chures looked at her hard. She was a soldier, she protested her dislike of violence, but she held her gun comfortably enough. "Come on."

  Otto closed the distance between him and Sakaday with a standing leap of four metres. Sakaday's eyes widened, and Otto's iHUD saw his pulse rate skyrocket. His adjutant predicted likely firing patterns from the mercenary and Otto moved accordingly, turning in the air as he came. Sakaday was fast, getting off four rounds. Pain streaked across Otto's bicep as one clipped him. Then Otto made contact, slapping the gun aside, grabbing the mercenary's wrist and pulling himself fast onto the Nigerian, dragging the other cyborg's arm out and exposing his chin to a blow from Otto's elbow.