Extensis Vitae: Empire of Dust

by Gregory Mattix

Bethany laughed. “I’ve missed you, old bastard. It’s boring not having anyone around with the balls to stand up to me. For what’s it’s worth, I used to admire you, even when the extermination order came down. It was never anything personal—just business.” She shrugged.

  Mason considered his chances of triggering the detonator. He figured they weren’t good. If I don’t get that railgun out of commission, it’s game over for this operation. Marcus, Keeva, and the rest of them would have sacrificed themselves for nothing. Bethany’s proximity to the nearest mine four feet from her head did make an awfully attractive target. His fingers curled in anticipation.

  “You’ve lost, Mason. Just face it. Why don’t you send your mutts away and spare their lives. I’ll be lenient and even grant them free passage back to the wasteland for your sake. All they need to do is throw down their arms and surrender immediately.”

  “Not gonna happen. I’ve got something you don’t.”

  “Oh yeah, what’s that?” Bethany raised an eyebrow. “It can’t be your son, since I’ve got him. In a prison cell, where I can torture him at my leisure.”

  Mason itched to wipe the smirk off her face. He thought she was bluffing, but he couldn’t tell for sure. She’s trying to make me lose my cool so they can disarm me of the detonator.

  “I’ve got heart. That’s what you don’t have—a reason to fight. You have nothing—just your empty life and cold directives. I don’t know why Thorne bothers keeping you around. A robot would do just as well… and with less attitude.”

  Bethany’s eyes narrowed, but she refused to take the bait. “Like all things that once had a useful life, you’ve reached the end of yours. What do you think Marcus would think of you?”

  “I hope he’d be proud that his father came through in the end and died protecting his comrades and fighting for a worthy cause. I’ve tried hard to balance the ledger these last months and make amends. Despite your best attempts to poison my son, he’s turned into a quality young man.”

  Lightning sparked in the sky, illuminating Bethany’s cold beauty. Water ran down her face, and her soaked uniform was plastered to her lithe body. She tilted her head slightly but didn’t respond, as if considering what to do with Mason.

  “Marcus told me recently that he still sees some good in you, Bethany. Why the blind loyalty to Thorne? Surely there’s a conscience in there somewhere? Prove Marcus right—do something noble for once in your life.”

  “What was that you once told me? Something about how I can change?” Something flashed in her eyes for a moment.

  Regret?

  “You just don’t get it, do you? I can’t change.” Bethany enunciated the last part, sounding frustrated and angry.

  Frustrated at my lack of understanding or her inability to change?

  “I tire of this old argument. Time’s up, Mason. Don’t do this the hard way—make it easy on yourself.”

  Mason just stared at her until she threw her head back in exasperation. That’s when he went for the detonator.

  Energy bolts slammed into his poly-ceramic vest, cybernetic arm, thighs, and neck as the two skins fired, trying to incapacitate him. He gasped in pain and reeled back. The detonator slipped out of his fingers as he tried to pull it from the bandolier pouch. It bounced off his thigh as the force of the blasts sent him backward over the railing. Vertigo seized him, and he realized the whole campaign was going to be for naught.

  But Bethany was there. Her hand latched onto his vest, and she hauled him back from the edge of the abyss. She pivoted and tossed him across the platform.

  Mason tumbled hard, barely feeling his wounds anymore. He rolled over and hit his head against the steel base of the turret. Everything blurred momentarily but then snapped back into focus.

  The detonator! It lay inches from his outstretched hand.

  His last sight was of Bethany’s mouth open in a silent scream before he thumbed the switch. He found peace in the fact that the ledger had finally been balanced in his favor. Purifying flames washed over James Mason and lit up the night sky.

  Chapter 28

  Everyone in the back of the limo craned their heads to watch a massive explosion light up the night sky. Reznik picked out the twisted hulk of the railgun battery breaking loose and falling to the earth as the upper section of the tower gave way.

  “That’s it!” Marcus shouted excitedly. “Someone took out the railgun. The assault should be back on track.”

  The limo barreled down the deserted street at eighty miles per hour. Reznik watched as they passed sleek corporate housing buildings, which were dark and silent as residents hunkered down during the violence.

  “Shiru and rebel forces confirm the railgun is out of commission. They are moving to reengage CorpSec units ringing the headquarters complex,” Rin reported, having dialed into the Shiru channel to track the battle. She made a query in Japanese and looked satisfied with the response. “I let our units know we are approaching in an armored limousine so they hold their fire.”

  “Sir, do you want us to take you to the underground garage?” The bodyguard whom Marcus had introduced as Beefy spoke through the intercom from the front.

  Marcus looked questioningly at Reznik. The plan so far was to leave Ayane behind in the limo with Taciturn as driver and two Yakuza enforcers as guards.

  Reznik thought a moment. “I think we’d be better off trying to get inside through a service entrance at ground level. I don’t like the possibility that the limo could be trapped in the parking garage. What do you guys think?”

  “Maybe if Taciturn dropped us off and drove out by the harbor?” Marcus asked. “There’s a clear view of the complex from there. A main road runs north and south along the coast, where they can escape in case of trouble. If it looks like all hope is lost, I’ll have him get Ayane off the compound and into the Sprawl. Rin’s people can take care of her from there.”

  “Sounds good,” Rin agreed.

  Reznik nodded. Their impromptu plan was the best they could come up with on the spot.

  ***

  The Shiru troops waved them through their lines, and Taciturn sped the limo straight toward the main complex. He braked hard and, with screeching tires, made a sharp turn down the narrow road to the headquarters’ service entrance at basement level one.

  Marcus hadn’t received any word from Ram yet, so either his friend was still waiting for the update to go through, or he had been caught. He sent him a quick message asking for an update.

  Since Beefy had given him the stim shot, he’d been feeling much better. Stims were normally used for wounded grunts, but it served its purpose for him—he was wired and alert, although a little shaky, but the pain and nausea were a memory for the time being.

  A half dozen CorpSec skins were manning a checkpoint near the complex. A barred gate had been pulled across the service road. One of the guards raised a hand while the others leveled pulse rifles at the limo.

  “Don’t stop,” Reznik said.

  When the limo made no signs of stopping, the guards opened fire. Marcus and the others ducked as energy bolts slammed against the windshield, hood, and grill of the limo. The thick ballistic glass with its ceramic nanofiliments and the vehicle’s ablative armor absorbed the rounds.

  Beefy rolled down his window and squeezed his head and shoulders outside, holding a grenade launcher to his shoulder. Energy bolts slammed into him, but he didn’t flinch. He quickly fired several grenades at the group of guards as the limo sped toward them.

  Explosions tore through the checkpoint, sending the skins diving out of the way. The limo roared into the smoke, visibility severely limited. The twisted gate screeched as it was blasted aside. Taciturn spun the wheel, skillfully correcting the limo’s path, and clipped one of the guards in the thigh, sending him sailing off to the side and impacting with bone-jarring force against a dumpster. A hundred yards further on, the limo screeched to a halt in front of a large roll-down service door.

  Beefy leaped out of the vehicle
before it had even stopped. Marcus noticed welts and blackened burn marks covering his face and neck as he raced back toward the burning checkpoint. He fired a pulse rifle on full auto as he covered the others so they could pile out of the limo.

  Energy bolts slammed into Beefy’s body armor, but he calmly shrugged them off. Two of the guards fell.

  Reznik lay down cover fire from the opposite side of the limo, and the Yakuza enforcers spilled out after him. Marcus was last out, more than happy to let the fighters handle the CorpSec grunts. He barely had time to wish Ayane goodbye before the tires squealed and Taciturn sped off toward safety.

  Across the alley, the guard who had been launched by the limo was pushing himself up from the caved-in side of the dumpster.

  Kerang! Reznik fired his newly acquired railgun, sending the skin reeling back against the dumpster with a fist-sized hole in his chest.

  Rin, Yamashita, and several remaining enforcers rushed the doors to the building. They fell back after realizing the reinforced door was locked tight.

  Marcus swiped his palm over the sensor. “Access Denied,” the panel said. Two more attempts met with the same result.

  “What the hell? They disabled my access already?”

  “Let me try mine.” Reznik gestured, and everyone moved aside. A couple blasts from the railgun disintegrated the armor-plated locking mechanism. Yamashita heaved the door open, and his enforcers rushed ahead to secure the storeroom inside.

  Beefy and the Yakuza enforcers fell back to cover them as they entered the building. As the smoke cleared, Marcus saw the corpses littering the ground around the checkpoint.

  “I see you didn’t have any problem taking out those CorpSec guards,” Marcus noted.

  Beefy shrugged. “CorpSec and Executive Protection don’t like each other much.”

  “Glad you’re on my side. The new directives seem to work well… now if I can just get an update from Ram.”

  Marcus followed the group through the storeroom and into a silent, dimly lit hallway. “Thorne will be in either the command center or his private chambers. The command center is on this level at the heart of the building. To get to the residential wing, we’ll have to go up to the main floor and make our way to the opposite end of the building.”

  Beefy was a comforting mass beside Marcus as the group made their way through the deserted hallway, past vast storerooms. According to the schematics, there were plenty of places for ambushes down there.

  The main cafeteria was on their left. Marcus had eaten a number of meals there, usually when he had to attend board meetings in the building. The lights were off, and the room was silent inside. A pair of enforcers peeled off from the head of the group to clear the room. After a minute, they fell in again at the rear as the group continued on.

  Up ahead, the corridor turned to the right. A pair of Rin’s men approached the bend cautiously. A barrage of energy bolts greeted them, sending them ducking back around the corner. One of the men held up four fingers and gestured toward the enemy. He spoke briefly in Japanese.

  “Four skins are holding the corridor behind a portable barrier,” Rin translated. “This might be tricky.”

  Marcus looked around, but there was nowhere else to go. The command center was at the end of the hall behind the CorpSec position. The group bunched up at the corner, discussing their tactics in hushed tones as they figured out how to get enough firepower to overwhelm the defenders. Marcus noted a service elevator behind them. That will probably be locked down like the door was. He checked his HUD but couldn’t locate a stairwell on their side of the guards’ position. Shit, they picked a good place to stop us.

  Gunfire erupted as a group of Yakuza stepped around the corner and unleashed on the guards. They appeared to take the worse of it, quickly staggering back to cover. Their clothes were singed with blackened holes; a couple of them looked pretty chewed up.

  Reznik gestured to the ceiling overhead. Rin nodded, and he lifted her up by the waist. She knocked a ceiling panel aside and disappeared above into whatever crawlspace was up there. Yamashita followed her up.

  Marcus was about to ask what the plan was when he heard a quiet ding from down the hallway. “Service elevator!” he yelled in alarm. “We’re gonna be trapped.”

  A group of dark-clad CorpSec troops surged out of the elevator like a tsunami. Marcus froze, knowing it would be the end. The skins would shoot him dead before he could move.

  Everything happened in a blur. Marcus was thrown backward to the ground, and someone knelt between him and the CorpSec troops. A huge shape charged the group of skins in a blur. More booted feet surrounded Marcus.

  His senses caught up with the action around him. Kerang! Reznik fired the railgun from one knee in front of Marcus. A skin’s head exploded, and he fell into the group behind him. Beefy charged like a madman through a barrage of gunfire into the group of skins, sending them flying like bowling pins. The big man stumbled forward and hit the ground hard.

  Reznik and the Yakuza men around Marcus picked off the guards as they tried to regain their feet. Behind them at the hallway juncture, gunfire raged once again.

  Beefy lay unmoving on the ground. Although he could be a pain in the ass, Marcus felt guilty. The big man had been with him for over six months—he had always faithfully done his job protecting Marcus.

  Reznik grunted as he caught a couple energy bolts in the chest. A pair of the enforcers staggered back around Marcus as the CorpSec troops returned fire, several of them making it back in the elevator for cover. Unfortunately, Marcus’s group didn’t have the advantage of cover. They were trapped.

  ***

  Rin cautiously placed her feet on the narrow bars between ceiling tiles. Spiderwebs and strands of wiring brushed her face as she slowly advanced in the cramped crawlspace. She had to crouch uncomfortably and step from bar to bar as she moved forward, or else the tiles would break and collapse, sending her down to the corridor and into a hail of gunfire. Her HUD overlay indicated another twenty-five meters to go, to get behind the ambush point.

  The bar behind her creaked under Yamashita’s weight. She held her breath, expecting the thin ceiling beams to give way beneath them, but they held.

  Someone yelled about a service elevator back from where the main group was. A furious firefight erupted. After a moment, Rin saw shadows moving below through a gap around a light fixture as the CorpSec grunts advanced on her friends. More gunfire erupted, back at the intersection. Her group was trapped in the crossfire.

  Rin loosened her katana and stepped on the tile below her. In a burst of plaster, the ceiling tile gave way, and Rin dropped into the corridor below. She drew her blade and slashed at the nearest skin, knocking his helmet askew. His shots went wild, and he fought to adjust his helmet. A quick series of slashes against the skin’s back drew blood. She stabbed him through the kidney and kicked the guard forward.

  Yamashita dropped down beside her. He fired his assault rifle, catching another guard from behind. The grunt stumbled into the man Rin had wounded. Yamashita’s bullets spun the two of them around, and they quickly fell from the crossfire from the rest of the group.

  A third guard, unaware they were being attacked from behind, ducked back around the corner, bleeding from bullet wounds. Rin kicked him in the back of the knee. He fell awkwardly backward, and her sword sliced open his throat.

  Energy bolts crackled into her and Yamashita from behind. Rin’s HUD flared amber as several rounds struck her between the shoulder blades.

  “Cover me!” She spun and dashed at the lone guard remaining behind the portable barrier at the ambush point. Yamashita’s rounds forced the skin to duck enough to give Rin an opening.

  She leaped and kicked off the wall, sailing up over the barrier. The man tracked her with the barrel of his pulse rifle as she flew past. She cut a hard downward arc with the katana, taking the man square in the center of the face. The blade slid free as she landed.

  Rin spun to deliver another attack, but it w
as unnecessary. The man’s head had split open like a cleft melon. He slumped against the wall, leaving a bloody streak.

  The corridor was open ahead of them. Rin alerted the group on the Datalink channel.

  Four of her enforcers rounded the corner, two of them dragging a dazed-looking Marcus between them. An explosion rocked the corridor behind them. The kerang of a railgun sounded a couple times, and a moment later, it was still. Reznik walked out of the smoke, clothes pitted with scorch marks. He flicked a grenade pin aside.

  “Is that everyone?” Rin asked. Only five of her men remained, including Yamashita.

  “That’s everyone,” Reznik said somberly. He was about to say something else when Marcus interrupted him.

  “Ram! Hey, what’s the status?” He was obviously talking to someone on his Datalink. “We’ve got a green light? Okay, keep your head down until this is over, all right?”

  Marcus was grinning when he cut off the call. “We’ve won, guys! Thorne and them just don’t know it yet!”

  Rin and Reznik exchanged a look. If only it were that simple.

  Chapter 29

  Marcus was optimistic about their chances for success, even if nobody else appeared to feel the same. Ram had come through at the last minute—hopefully they wouldn’t have to fire another shot.

  Reznik blasted open the locked command center door with his railgun. The remaining Yakuza swarmed inside, but the room was empty. Video feeds on the screens showed sporadic firefights outside the building. Several huge troop carriers were disgorging hundreds of TI reinforcements. Marcus tried to swallow, but his throat was suddenly dry. If this doesn’t work, we’re all screwed. He wondered briefly how his father and the rebels were progressing outside. It would be nice to spend some more time getting to know his father again when the operation was all over.

  “Coffee is still warm,” Yamashita noted. He set a nearly full cup back down on the table. “They were here a short time ago.”