by Lisa Wylie
“Baby…”
“Don’t you baby me!” Jen risked a quick glance around, and firmly resisted the urge to grin. The teachers were already trying to hustle their charges out of earshot, while the children didn’t seem to want to be hustled, eager to hear more rude words and creating eddies in the crowd as people found their paths blocked. Most of the patrons in the room were now either openly staring or trying to watch without appearing to. Whether they were entertained or horrified was hard to say.
“You’re making people stare,” Thud growled at her.
“Oh, that bothers you? You lily-livered piece of shit. Christ, you are such a loser.”
“I’m a loser?” Thud yelped indignantly. “That’s rich, coming from the girl whose only support in life is sucking the credits out of the men she screws!”
“Why you…” Jen pulled her hand back to deliver a slap, but had her arm caught by a very uncomfortable-looking security guard. “Oh, that’s just fuckin’ perfect,” she bit out, jerking her arm free and stalking a few paces clear.
“Sir, what seems to be the problem?” the guard asked uneasily, clearly wary of confronting Jen and electing to try his luck with Thud first.
Thud scowled and threw his hands in the air. “I’ve got no fucking idea,” he growled. “Why don’t you ask her?”
“I will,” the guard replied, eyeing Jen apprehensively, “but, sir, I’m going to have to ask you to lower your voice and watch your language. This is a museum, not a public bar.”
“Right… right.” Thud lifted his hands in a placating gesture. “Sorry man, she just… well, you know how it is when someone yanks your chain.”
“I sympathise, sir, but…”
“Oh, you sympathise with him?” Jen spat. “You two got some sort of bromance going now? Of course, this whole fucking situation must be my fault, right?”
“Ma’am, I…”
“Don’t you ma’am me, you haven’t the first fucking idea what this creep said!”
“And I don’t care,” the guard cut her off irritably, holding up a hand to forestall her as she drew breath. “Ma’am, sir, I’m sorry that you’re having a disagreement, but you’re going to have to take it outside.”
“You…” Jen gaped at him, “wait… you’re throwing us out?”
“Aw, sh…shoot,” Thud groaned. “C’mon man, don’t do that. We came all the way from Shackleton to see this stuff. It’s our honeymoon. Listen, I’m real sorry, we’ll be as good as gold if we can just stay.” He gave Jen a pleading look. “Right, babe?”
Jen did her best to look chagrined. “Right.” She tried an embarrassed smile. “I’m sorry, sir. I… like he said, we came all this way. We saved for, like, ever. I shouldn’t have lost my temper, and I didn’t mean to offend anyone.” She looked out over the milling crowd. “I’m sorry, folks!” she called. “Really sorry.”
The guard blushed. “Ah, damn, just… wait a second.” He tapped his ear jack, murmuring a report to his control office, and Jen hoped fervently that Solinas was paying attention. The guard cocked his head to one side as he listened, then he nodded. “OK, you’re on a warning. I hear either one of you raise your voice again and you’re out of here, am I clear?”
“Crystal. Sorry, officer,” Jen muttered sincerely. “It won’t happen again.”
The young man fixed her with his best attempt at a stern glare. “See that it doesn’t,” he said gruffly. “We’ll be watching you.” And with that portentous declaration, he marched off.
“Out-fucking-standing, Bronwen,” Solinas chuckled over the comm. “I think you’ve missed your true calling.”
“Stay off the channel,” Jen ordered tersely. “You can critique my performance later.”
“Touchy, touchy.”
“That guy is a real dickhead,” Thud muttered. “I can’t wait to see the back of him.”
“Yeah, me too,” Jen admitted wryly. She’d fought her initial impression as long as she could, but she just couldn’t warm to the changeling. “Couple more days and he’ll be out of our hair.”
They wandered over to the replica of their target, and Thud snorted. “I say again. Ugly piece of shit. Though I’m kind with Shifty on one thing—I do wonder what it does.”
“It’s a weapon of some kind, but…”Jen cut off as her comm chirped.
“Jen, this is Wai-Mei. I have the package. Nice and easy.”
“Great work. Are you heading out?”
“Yes. I’m opening the vent now, and… fuck!”
“Wai-Mei? Wai-Mei, come in.”
No response.
Oh, shit.
Jen chewed her lip as she traded a nervous glance with Thud. “That didn’t sound good,” he muttered.
“Yeah, no kidding… wait, what the hell?”
The security alarm had begun to wail, and the museum’s public announcement system suddenly blared to life. “Ladies and gentlemen, due to an electrical fault in the museum’s systems, we regret that the exhibitions are now closed until further notice. Please make your way to your nearest exit. We apologise for the inconvenience. I repeat, the exhibitions are now closed. Please make your way to the nearest exit.”
“What do you want to do?” Thud asked tersely.
“Go with it for now,” Jen replied. “Slowly. If Wai-Mei’s been caught, we’ll need to abort, but she might just have slipped or lost her comms. We’ll give her a few more minutes to update.”
“If you say so,” Thud agreed uneasily.
“Relax, Thud,” Jen murmured, as much for her own benefit as for his. “We can still pull this off if we’re quick and careful.” Taking his arm, she snuggled against him as they began to follow the crowd back toward the main exit. As long as they didn’t panic, Jen reasoned, they would be fine. Tapping her ear jack, she opened her comms. “Solinas, what’s going on? We lost Wai-Mei, and there’s an evacuation notice. Have we been made?”
The changeling didn’t respond.
“Solinas?”
Nothing.
Shit.
Jen felt the first stirrings of real fear in her belly as they reached the foyer. The guards were making everyone pass through the security screening again rather than letting the crowd flow through to the exit undisturbed, and they were more interested in people’s faces than in whether they triggered the alarms.
Shit.
Jen pulled Thud to one side, getting them out of the main flow of the crowd. “OK, now we’ve got a problem,” she muttered. “They’re looking for someone specific. Cents to credits that’ll be us.” There was only one explanation. “Someone sold us out.”
“That rat-bastard shifter,” Thud snarled in reply. “I’d bet my last credit.”
Jen nodded agreement, nausea rising rapidly. Solinas was the most likely candidate, but what possible reason could he have for betraying them?
“Fuck!” Thud swore, pulling her attention back to the moment. “What do we do, Jen?”
“Well, subterfuge is out the window, but we’ve still got a little time, at least until they clear the crowd. Let’s see if we can get to Wai-Mei and give her a hand.” As Thud hesitated, she grabbed him by the arm. “Thud, come on!”
“Right,” he acknowledged as they headed back into the museum, pulling the polymould gun from his bag as they walked and shaking it violently to build up the charge.
“Put that fucking thing away,” Jen ordered. “We are not shooting our way out. I’m not getting killed for nothing, and I’m not going to upgrade to murder and kidnapping charges.”
“Not for people,” Thud agreed shortly, “but I can maybe fuck up a door lock or two, or break open a window.”
“Fine, just don’t point it at anyone.”
“Gotcha.”
Jen led the way to the service exit in the main hall, activating the comm network as she walked. “Dolos, switch to a private channel.”
“You’re secure, Bronwen.”
“I think Solinas has sold us out.”
“There is ample evid
ence to support that assumption.” The cyborg sounded somewhat irritated. “I was about to warn you. The security system is on full alert, and its anti-hacking protocols have been enabled, on the authority of Security Chief Baines.”
“Fuck,” Jen breathed. “What the hell is he playing at?”
“I assume that was a rhetorical question.”
“Yeah. Can you still access the system remotely?”
“I have spent the last five minutes rerouting my access. I can circumvent some but not all of the firewalls, and I cannot guarantee continued access, so whatever you have in mind is best done quickly. Nothing in the maintenance suite is accessible. Xox is inside somewhere, but I have been unable to ascertain her location.”
“Do you have a GPS fix on my position?”
“I do.”
“The door in front of me—can you open it?”
“Standby.”
The door lock clicked, and Jen kicked it open and darted through into the service corridor. “Dolos, can you scramble the camera feeds?”
“Done. Proceed down two levels, then take the door on the left-hand side in the middle of the corridor. That should bring you out across the hall from the prep room.”
“Got it,” Jen acknowledged.
Thud led the way, and in less than a minute they were outside the prep room. There was a small window set high in the door, and the big ex-marine risked a quick look inside. “Two guards, armed with stunners,” he whispered, indicating their locations in front and to the right of the door. “They’ve got her covered.”
“Can we jump them?”
“Sure. It’s a slide door. You hit the control, I’ll take the guy dead ahead, and you hold up the one on the right.”
“Roger that.” Jen raised her hand and placed it over the control. “Ready?”
Thud nodded, mouthed the count, and on three she slapped the interface. The big man bulled through, then there was the solid sound of flesh smacking flesh and a pained yelp. Jen stepped into the room in time to catch the second guard with a knee to the stomach as he tried to flank Thud. He folded around her knee with a wheezing gasp, and she caught his chin and bashed his head against the wall. He flailed like a gaffed fish and went limp, sliding out of her grip into a tangle of limbs on the floor. Thud threw his unconscious partner on top of him and dusted his hands off ostentatiously. “Now I feel like I’m earning my keep,” he noted with a satisfied nod.
Wai-Mei looked up from where she was kneeling on the floor with her hands behind her head. “You goddamn idiots,” she snapped, “you should have run while you could.” She looked furious. “I don’t know what the fuck I tripped, I swear. It was smooth sailing, and then…”
“You didn’t trip anything,” Jen interrupted. “Solinas fucked us over. No point in leaving you holding the bag, when they know who we all are anyway.”
Wai-Mei got to her feet. “So what’s the plan?”
“Let’s get out of the building first, then take it from there. If we can get out of maintenance, we can get back in touch with Dolos.”
“Right. The vents are a no go—I can see the sensor web is still active.”
“Fuck.” Jen grimaced. “All right, back out to the service corridor, then we’ll see if Dolos can help us out. Let’s move!”
They retraced their steps with Jen leading Wai-Mei and Thud bringing up the rear. The door into the service corridor had re-sealed, but Thud’s holdout pistol shattered the lock on the third attempt. “Go up three levels, Bronwen,” Dolos instructed. “There is a fire escape on the top floor, a hatch to the roof that should allow you to exit the building unobserved, but only if you can reach it before it is sealed off. The systems are being locked with new protocols. I will not have time to reinitiate a hack…” the cyborg paused, then continued, “I have now been locked out. I cannot assist any further.”
“It’s OK, you got us a shot,” Jen replied, launching herself up the stairs, taking them three at a time. “Standby.”
As they reached the top floor, Wai-Mei gave a shout and pointed down the corridor. “There! Dolos was right.”
“Run for it!” Jen ordered, breaking into a sprint. She was halfway there when the door from the stairwell burst open behind them.
“Armed police, freeze!”
Jen stopped dead, fear roiling in her stomach. Thud turned back, quickly moving between Wai-Mei, Jen, and the two advancing police officers. The corridor was narrow enough that he could screen them both.
“I said freeze!” The command was more forceful this time.
Thud looked over his shoulder at Jen. “Go!” he shouted. “Get through the door, I’ll hold them off.”
Jen started to shake her head, horrified by the idea, but Wai-Mei took her chance, bolting for the exit without a backward glance.
“Jen, go!” Thud begged. “Don’t screw yourself on my account. Get out of here!”
Tears stinging her eyes, Jen nodded and turned to run, but even as she did, Wai-Mei halted, then began to back away from the hatch as two more police officers dropped through, cutting off their access and bringing their weapons to bear.
Thud, ignorant of the development, started forward and as he did, Jen heard the words she’d dreaded ever since he’d shown her the contents of his backpack.
“Gun! Gun! Suspect is armed!”
“Drop your weapon!” the lead officer ordered, the tone edged now with steel. “Drop it, right now. We’ve got the drop on you, you are out of options. Put it the fuck down, or we will open fire.”
There was a moment of perfect stillness, and then, almost in slow motion, Jen watched as Thud began to lift the muzzle of his weapon, a prelude to aiming it. Too late, she realised what he was planning.
“Thud, no!” she screamed. “Don’t, they’ve got us…”
A single shot echoed through the hall.
The back of Thud’s head exploded in a fountain of blood.
Too shocked to even cry out, Jen could only gape as his body collapsed to the floor, spraying her with blood.
“You, Checkpoint Charlie—down on your fucking knees, right now!” a harsh voice commanded, and Jen turned slowly to see the four police officers closing in, weapons levelled. Shit, shit, shit!
“I said on your fucking knees!” the nearest one repeated aggressively. “Last warning!”
Jen dropped to the floor, spreading her arms wide and showing her palms. “I’m not armed!” she shouted back.
“Hands on your head,” the officer instructed, thumbing a slide on his pistol. “Slowly. Any sudden moves and I’ll plug you.”
Jen nodded slowly, lifting her hands carefully. She had them level with her shoulders when her comm interface pinged, the bright red pre-programmed abort command winking to life. She had this one chance to let Honold and Dolos get clear.
On the floor, Thud’s ear jack pinged in sync with her own, and Dolos began speaking, clearly audible in the sudden silence. “Bronwen, Jones, you missed the thirty-minute check-in. Xox is also failing to respond to her comms.”
Jen looked up, met the gaze of the cop. She wasn’t going to let the others get picked up. If she couldn’t pay them, she could do that much for them.
The cop’s eyes narrowed as he saw her make the decision. “Don’t even…” he began.
Jen swung her right arm across her body, smacking her palm down on the abort button.
Dolos’ communication died in a storm of static.
Something smacked into Jen’s left shoulder with stunning force, knocking her backwards. Pain erupted through her chest and arm, and then through her head as the back of her skull made contact with the hard marble floor. The world spun crazily for a moment, and then everything went dark.
KOHATH
999 ATA - Korxonthos, Neutral Space
Korxonthos did not appear to have changed significantly in the last century.
Such constancy was rare, Kiith Kohath had found over the years, particularly among the civilisations of the shorter-lived races. The pr
emeditated order of his homeworld was, he decided as he stepped from the gangplank of his commercial transport, infinitely preferable to the chaos of constant change.
The act of setting foot on the deck instantaneously opened a dialogue between the Korxonthos communications mainframe and his internal processors, enquiring if he wished to be connected. He accepted the invitation, halting abruptly as a cascade of information engulfed every available processor in his system.
For ten seconds, he held motionless while over a century’s worth of data streamed into his consciousness, his memory and systems straining to filter and discard irrelevant information. When the deluge eased, he resumed his course toward the registry terminal, intending to log his arrival and request an accommodation unit.
He was not afforded the opportunity.
Kiith Kohath. Welcome home.
The voice, if it could be called a voice, was as familiar and intimate as his own thoughts. In a way, it was—it was the pure, distilled essence of the artificial intelligence that underpinned all cyborg life, the paradigm that defined his morality, his decisions, his fate. Organic beings, with their superstitions and belief systems, might have termed it a god, but to Kohath it was something much less ephemeral, much less vague. It was simply a virtual manifestation of his core programming.
Thank you, he returned politely. It is good to be back.
Join us in the Legislature chamber directly. There is much we would discuss with you.
I am on my way.
Kohath stopped at the registry terminal, and the duty animate nodded to him. You are expected, Kiith Kohath. Transport has been arranged. Take the second door to the left and board the shuttle.
He had archived much of his knowledge of Korxonthos and its customs and procedures, storing the data as low priority while his travels took him back and forth across the galaxy, and so he utilised the time he spent in transit to the Legislature’s command complex reclassifying his knowledge network to better reflect likely usage in the near future. Once that task was completed, he spent a few moments in contemplation of the entities he was about to meet. One did not approach the Legislature without recalling their origins. Kohath had heard much speculation over the years and decades regarding the origin of the cyborgs, ranging from the prosaic to the ridiculous, and none of it had been even close to the truth.