by Kai O'Connal
Since “up” wasn’t an option yet. Keandra dropped to her side and crawled to the corner, the one farthest away from where the bottle had shattered. The HVAC system roared, nearly drowning out the sounds of combat, but she didn’t want to take the chance of receiving a fresh dose.
When she got to the edge, she saw Lance still fighting Mel, both of them even more of a blur now that her mind wasn’t functioning normally. Both fighters bled from several wounds, and thin trails of red stretched down the aisle. Light droplets splattered the walls and tables on either side of them as well.
Mel stayed low while she fought, obviously trying to keep her head below the level of the fumes. Her short stature assisted her in this, but it also limited her reach on Lance. He was able to use his longer blade to return assaults, forcing her to back up a step to keep from being sliced to ribbons. He glanced back and saw Keandra, taking a moment to assess her condition.
That hesitation was the opening Mel needed. She drove forward, batting his blade aside with her free hand and sinking her spiked fist deep into his abdomen. Keandra saw the blade push the back of his jacket out as it pierced through his body. His sword slipped from his hand and clattered to the ground.
Mel moved to jerk her hand free, but Lance clamped onto her arm with one hand and wrapped his other arm around her shoulders, keeping her from moving. She tried to tear free, but he continued to hold tight, freezing her in place. Keandra recognized the opportunity and sacrifice for what it was—she opened fire and hit the dwarf twice in the head with the neurotoxin. Mel’s body went limp, so Lance let her go and she crumpled in a heap on the ground. He fell right next to her, no longer having the strength to stand.
Keandra scrambled over to him, grabbing his hand and clamping it over the front side of his wound, pushing through his arm and making him apply pressure. He complied as best could, but Keandra was surprised at how little strength he had. She dug in her pocket, yanking out some trauma patches. Her hands shook as she opened one. “Just hang in there. We’re not done yet.”
She slapped a patch onto the exit wound, and he winced and clenched his jaw. At least the wound was off to the side. If it had been in the center of his abdomen, there’d be nothing they could do. This way, he might live until they could get him out of the facility and to a hospital.
If they made it out.
E-jekt approached them, his footsteps slow and heavy. He squatted down, his arms resting on his knees. Keandra lifted Lance’s hand from the wound and the ork winced at the pool of blood underneath. She ignored him, putting another patch in place and hoping it would at least slow the bleeding enough to give him a chance.
“How bad is it?” the ork asked.
Keandra wasn’t sure how to respond to that. It was bad, and probably fatal if Lance didn’t receive medical attention fast. But if she said that in front of the elf, he might just give up and try to force them to go on without him.
Before she figured out how to respond, Lance answered, “Bad enough that I think we’re getting too old for this.”
He offered a pained smile, and E-jekt snorted, extending a hand to help the elf to his feet. Lance gripped it, grunting as he got his feet under him. At first his knees shook, but after a couple of deep breaths, he was able to stand without assistance. Keandra grabbed his fallen sword. She knew Lance was in no condition to fight, but that was no reason to leave his weapon behind. She wiped it on a clean section of Mel’s coat and handed it back to him. He tucked it away, the blade rattling as it slid home.
“We need to move. Security is going to be on its way if our escort attacked us.” E-jekt kept his voice low, but the desperation was clear in his tone.
“I know. Just let me check in with Paz.”
Keandra wouldn’t say it, but the pause would also give Lance a chance to catch a bit of breath. While she didn’t expect him to fight, it was entirely possible they’d need him to run. She didn’t think he was capable of that now, even with the patches and his adept healing ability. At least her mind was starting to clear.
Freyr broke in with a message:
Keandra stepped over to Mel’s unconscious body, bending to grab the unmarked ID card she’d used to open most of the doors on this floor. She also removed the dwarf’s ID badge. E-jekt crouched and pulled out one of the gadgets he’d been working on in the hotel room. First he placed Mel’s hand against it, and then peeled back her eyelid and held it up to her eye.
“This way we can use her biometrics with the ID card.”
“E-jekt, you’re a genius. Come on, security forces are going to be here any second, and we need to get to the elevator. How well do you remember the path? Can you find your way back to the elevator?”
“We’ll find out.”
Keandra stepped forward to offer her help to Lance, but he waved her off. “You need to have both hands free. If I can’t walk on my own, I’m not getting out.”
Keandra considered arguing with him, but couldn’t. Instead she nodded at E-jekt, letting him take the lead as she followed close behind. Lance’s feet scuffed across the floor as he walked behind her, the erratic sound making her wince.
32
The route E-jekt led them on was far from direct, but Keandra appreciated the circuitous path, as it lessened the chance of running into the incoming security forces. As it was, when they approached the second corner, E-jekt held up a hand to stop them. The sound of several troops in heavy armor jogging in formation came from down the hall. E-jekt waved them back, and led them down a detour. As they left the passage, Keandra got a glimpse of several soldiers, each wearing what looked like riot gear and holding an assault rifle. She didn’t stay behind to count how many there were.
The second time E-jekt halted them, he paused for a few seconds and then waved, beckoning Keandra forward. He held a finger to his lips, then pointed around the corner. She leaned out, moving slowly to avoid any sudden motions that might catch anyone’s attention.
A single guard stood in front of the elevator, back out of the main hall so most of his body was framed by the elevator doorway. Only his hands, his gun, and the tips of his boots were readily visible from the team’s vantage point. Out of habit, Keandra took a quick glance at Lance before remembering he was in no condition to fight, not even a single soldier.
Instead, she drew the injector pistol and crept into the hallway. Keeping her back flattened against the wall, she slid down the entire length of the corridor, making as little noise as possible. As she moved, she kept her attention focused on the guard, looking for any twitch or sign of movement.
When she was only a meter away, she swung out into the hall and shot him with the injector. The shot hit his helmet, splattering against it and completely missing any bare skin. He brought his rifle around but she fired twice more. At least one of the shots splashed partially on his neck and he relaxed and slumped against the e
levator doors, sliding until he hit the floor. His gun rattled on the tiles next to him.
She fumbled in her pocket, groping for the key cards, and swiped the unmarked one in front of the scanner, glad to hear E-jekt running up behind her, wheeze and all. He used his biometric recorder to provide the necessary authorization checks. The elevator doors slid open and they hurried inside.
Keandra tried the button for the eighth floor, but nothing happened. Once again, she and E-jekt worked together to provide the necessary credentials and then pushed the button again. Only then did it light up and the elevator start climbing.
“What are we going to do if Paz isn’t there?” E-jekt asked.
“She’ll be there.”
The elevator doors slid open, just in time to reveal a soldier getting tossed to the side from the force of several bullets punching through his armor. Two other bloody corpses lay in the hall, which looked like someone had cut off a chicken’s head and let it run around. Keandra peeked out now that it was quiet, and saw Paz jogging toward them, her weapon pointed at the ceiling as she changed the magazine.
“As usual, I’m here to save your asses from the frying pan.”
“You mean the fire?”
“What’s that, Meat-sack? Can’t hear you. Try speaking up. Just ’cause you got stabbed a few times doesn’t mean you should mumble.”
“The expression is ‘out of the frying pan, and into the fire’.”
Paz waved in his general direction, dismissing the correction. She squared her shoulders and settled her rifle into position, ready to take down whatever came around the corner. “So what’s the plan?”
“Same as always. Get to the network, install Freyr, and then get the hell out of here.”
She raised an eyebrow, but Keandra shook her head. She wasn’t going to go into her concerns about Freyr at this point. They didn’t have time for it, and she didn’t want to risk him overhearing their conversation. E-jekt was crouched at the elevator controls, hacking them.
“What are you doing?”
“Locking the elevator so it can’t leave this floor unless someone does a manual override. Also disabling the network capabilities so they can’t fix the problem remotely.”
“Have I mentioned you’re a genius yet?”
“At least twice today.”
Keandra stood in the doorway, blocking the elevator and keeping it from closing. A guard poked around a corner and fired down the hall, forcing her to drop back into the cab.
Paz spun around, firing before she even finished her turn. She marched to the side, taking cover behind the edge of the elevator as she exchanged fire with the guard. Keandra tried to move into position around her, but Paz gave her a shoulder nudge to keep her out of the way.
After a few rounds, the gunfire quieted and Paz stepped back out into the hallway. She fired a single shot, which was met with the sound of breaking glass and the spark of an electric short. When Keandra raised an eyebrow, Paz smiled.
“Camera. They already know where we are—don’t need ’em seeing everything we do.”
“I got it. Elevator’s locked.”
When they headed off, Lance stayed behind in the elevator. The entire group stopped and turned back when they saw he wasn’t with them.
“If they get the elevator working again, we’re not getting out. We can’t possibly fight our way through everything they can throw at us.” He took a deep, shuddering breath before he continued. “I’ll stay here and keep them from fixing it. Out there I’d slow you down.”
At first, no one wanted to speak. Keandra realized E-jekt and Paz were looking to her for a cue. As it was, they were wasting time. She had no words, so instead she went back and gripped Lance’s shoulder, giving it a solid squeeze. He patted her hand and offered a smile in return. E-jekt stepped forward and shook Lance’s hand, before turning away to continue down the corridor, obviously not comfortable with the exchange.
Paz didn’t move, just looking at him for a while. Then she growled and turned on her heel, stalking away behind E-jekt. When Keandra caught up to her, she heard the dwarf muttering under her breath.
“Better not fucking die.”
Keandra glanced back as they reached the first corner and saw Lance leaning against the wall, his head tilted back so he stared at the ceiling. He drew a knife from under his jacket and held it loosely in his right hand so it dangled at his side. He closed his eyes, taking deep breaths, and then they were around the corner and he was out of sight.
As they continued down the hall, Paz shot another camera, using a burst of ammo even though she took it out with the first shot. When they reached the next intersection, she turned and did the same thing in every direction. Keandra didn’t say anything, recognizing the behavior for what it was. When they turned another corner and a turret activated, locking on their position, Paz launched three grenades at it before finally stopping and panting. Keandra put a hand on her shoulder. The dwarf took a deep breath and grunted before continuing.
After a few more twists and turns, E-jekt stopped them at a door. He ran his fingers over the maglock and took a knee in front of it. The door was sturdy and solid, with no windows providing a view into the room behind it.
“This is it.”
Paz and Keandra took up positions flanking him, one on either side. Both the cameras in the hall were destroyed, so it didn’t appear that anyone had eyes on them at the moment. But there was no doubt to anyone here which floor they were on. Keandra let her eyes lose focus as she concentrated on listening. Down here, the echoes carried well, so heavily armored troops couldn’t move quietly, at least not with any semblance of speed.
She heard tramping feet, steadily getting louder. They must have tracked them by where the cameras had stopped transmitting. Keandra ran to the corner in front of her, confirming the noise was coming from that direction, then went back to stand near E-jekt.
“They’re coming. Sounds like a whole squad.”
“Got the door.”
The door unlatched and E-jekt gave it a push, stepping into the room beyond. Keandra looked down at Paz, and the dwarf nodded for her to get into the room before moving past her to take up a sentry position. She loaded a grenade into the launcher and braced herself.
“Don’t do anything stupid,” Keandra told her.
“I won’t, but be quick. I can probably hold ’em off for a few minutes, but any longer than that and we’re screwed. There’s no other way outta that room.”
Keandra didn’t waste time arguing. She slipped through the doorway. By the time she entered, the lights had powered on, brightly illuminating the room. In the center was a supercomputer larger than any she had ever seen in real life. She didn’t believe computers this large still existed. E-jekt was walking around it, his fingers lightly tracing the outer frame and indicator lights while barely touching the surface.
The computer was the only thing in the room other than the two runners. Several vents lined the floor and the ceiling, blowing cool air into the chamber. Keandra’s skin prickled as she walked through the much colder room. She walked up to one of the few monitors, but couldn’t make any sense of the pseudocode it displayed. She pulled out her commlink.
Keandra located a place to connect her commlink. E-jekt stood off to the side, interacting with the computer and running his own sprites through the system.
Out in the hallway, she heard an explosion and lots of shouting followed by gunfire. The security forces had arrived. Hopefully they’d used the stairs rather than the elevator. Otherwise, they had no escape plan.
E-jekt jerked fully upright and turned to face her so quickly it startled h
er, almost making her drop her commlink.
“I know why Freyr brought us here.”
33
“Let me guess, no weapons?”
E-jekt shook his head. “No weapons. There’s another entity on this computer. Another AI. He’s trying to rescue it.”
“You’re sure?”
“Positive. Nothing about weapons, launch codes, or tracking software at all. I can’t get inside, but I can see what’s here, and its code is very similar to his.”
Keandra cursed and pulled out her jammer, enabling it and attaching it to the back of her commlink. That wouldn’t prevent Freyr from downloading back to her device, but he wouldn’t be able to go to the Matrix from it. He’d be restricted to local access.
When E-jekt raised his eyebrows, she smiled at him. “Backup plans, remember?”
As she pulled her commlink free, she noticed that her jammer lit up, indicating it was blocking a signal from getting through. So she was right, and Freyr was going to leave them to their fate. She didn’t bother reading the message he’d sent. Instead she pocketed her commlink, grabbed E-jekt by the wrist, and sprinted toward the door.
Paz stood in the center of the hallway, bleeding from a few wounds, her cyberlimbs noticeably chewed up. She was using the doorjamb for cover as best she could, but it provided very little shelter. Her skin was blackened in several places, and the hallway itself smelled of smoke and melted plastic.
“You got some ’splaining to do, boss.”
“I do, but right now we need to get out of here.”
With a wordless shout, Paz jumped out into the hallway, launching a smoke grenade in the direction of the security forces. While it was still flying, she let loose a rain of bullets, spraying widely and forcing the guards to take cover around the corners. Moments later, the grenade burst in a flash of white smoke, obscuring the corner from view. Keandra and E-jekt rushed into the hall, sprinting back the way they’d come while Paz backed up, continuing to fire wildly until her magazine emptied. She turned and ran, hurrying to catch up with her allies.