by M. R. Forbes
“We’ve got eyes on the targets,” Fox said. “Judicus Department is inbound. It looks like they picked up some MPs to help them out.”
“I need to be out of here before they arrive,” Aeron said.
“You will be,” Liggie replied. “Thirty seconds.”
She dropped the scalpel and fished into the wound with some tweezers for a couple of seconds before finding what she was looking for. She picked up the scalpel again and snipped a tiny ID chip free, dropping it onto a towel as someone handed her a replacement.
“General Haeri dies tonight,” Liggie said. “But not to us.”
“Not to us,” Fox repeated.
She pulled a loup over her eye for the more detailed work of inserting and connecting his new chip. “Two minutes,” Fox said.
“I’ve got it,” Liggie replied, leaning closer to his arm. She had to stay focused on the delicate work of inserting the new chip. It had to be positioned correctly or it wouldn’t activate when swiped, and he would lose access to his new persona. He didn’t have time to do this all over again if this chip weren’t properly installed the first time..
The seconds ticked away. Aeron didn’t move or speak. He didn’t want to distract her.
“One minute,” Fox said.
“Shut up,” Liggie replied. “Almost there.”
“Forty-five seconds,” Fox said. “Come on, Ligs.”
“Done!” she announced, slapping a patch on top of the wound to close it and stop the bleeding. She grabbed another device and scanned the ID. It showed Aeron’s face but listed him as Paul Augustus. “Good to go.”
“Pardon me, General,” Fox said, moving forward to pull his jacket off and unbutton his shirt. “You want to get your pants, sir?”
Aeron stood up, unzipping his pants and sitting down again to slip them off. A third soldier brought him new clothes—a dirty t-shirt and a stained pair of pants—along with an old synthetic leather jacket. The soldier also handed him a shoulder holster for his ion blaster.
“What is that?” Fox asked when Aeron put the microspear on the table beside the chair.
“Toothpick,” Aeron replied, smirking. “Classified toothpick.”
Fox chuckled. “Yes, sir.”
Aeron yanked on the clothes in record time. He had to be fast.
“They’re coming around the corner,” Fox said. “Let’s move.”
Fox led Aeron up the stairs to the main floor. Dozens of ex-cons filled the large, open room. Sleeping mats covered the floor, while desks along two of the walls were staffed with tired volunteers trying to find work for the recs. A mess in the back corner left the smell of burned stew lingering in the air, mixing with sweat and body odor.
“Come to!” Fox shouted as they entered. Nearly fifty of the recs immediately dropped everything they were doing and gathered around Aeron, crowding him in at the same moment the front door opened. A squad of Military Police moved in, trailed by a pair of Judici.
“Scan them,” one Judicus said.
The MPs advanced, pulling out chip scanners and pointing them at the recs as though they were rifles. The machines quickly captured the data from the chips, failing to come up with one that matched Aeron.
“He didn’t come this way,” the lead MP said.
The Judici hesitated, their eyes sweeping over the recs. They couldn’t get a good view of Aeron from where he was positioned in the group.
“Fine. Let’s go.”
The Judicus headed for the door, the MPs behind her. As soon as they left the building, the men and women around Aeron backed away, coming to attention and saluting.
“Nice work,” Aeron said. “We’re in Code Twelve. Stand down and await further orders. Be ready. The time is coming. Fox, with me.”
“Yes, sir,” Fox said, coming up next to Aeron. “Where are we headed, sir?”
“Special Command,” Aeron replied. “Ghost’s Tavern.”
33
Hayden
In the dream, Hayden was with Natalia.
It was their wedding day. A simple affair in Metro due to the limited resources of the colony and the often strategic pairings of citizens who composed the essential departments of the Governor’s Office.
That a sheriff would marry an engineer wasn’t unique, but it was uncommon enough that the Governor himself had turned out for the occasion. He stood in the background while Hayden and Natalia took their vows to love, honor and cherish one another all the days of their lives.
In the dream, he lifted her veil, ready to kiss his bride. Only the face beneath wasn’t Natalia’s. It was blank, black and oddly shaped.
Hayden’s eyes snapped open, his heart racing. He heard the beeping of the monitor beside him and noticed the dampness of the sheets. He was in a room. A hospital room. In a bed. The lights were on, and the room was empty.
He tried to sit up, his chest burning with the effort.
“Sheriff, relax.”
The room wasn’t empty. Hayden’s gaze landed on Doctor Hess. The doctor’s face was ragged, though his clothes were clean. He had a bandage on his cheek and his arm in a sling.
Natalia.
“Relax?” Hayden growled, still fighting to get up. “How the hell can you tell me to relax?”
“Sheriff, please,” Hess said. “We’ve all been through the wringer, and while you seem to have an inhuman healing factor...that hit to your chest broke half your ribs. You need a few more hours of rest to heal.”
“Natalia,” Hayden groaned in agony, trying to get up. He realized suddenly his arms were powered down. Offline. Both of them. He couldn’t reach the control rings to turn them back on without help. “Damn it, Hess.”
“I’ve got orders to keep you here.”.
“Orders from who?”
“General Stacker.”
“Nate?” Hayden was relieved he was still alive. “Where is he?”
“If you’ll relax, I can go and get him.”
“Natalia,” Hayden said again, more softly this time. Remembering. “She’s gone, Doc.”
“I know,” Hess said. “I’m sorry, Sheriff. Sorrier than you can imagine. She was my good friend.”
“It wasn’t supposed to happen. Not now. Not so soon.” The tears were working their way into his eyes again. He stuffed the raw grief down. “Stacker gave me something last time I was in real bad shape.”
“What?” Hess said.
“That’s why I heal so fast. It was either going to kill me or make me stronger.”
“So will rest,” Hess replied. Hayden stared at the doctor, his look causing Hess to shiver slightly. “Stay here while I get General Stacker.”
Hayden wanted to get up and go back to the lab. That’s where his family was. That’s where they had died. He resisted the urge. Hess was right. He was near useless right now. He had to give himself a chance to recover if he was going to kill the Axon for what it had done.
He wouldn’t stop until it was dead. Until all of them were dead. They took his wife and his children from him. He was going to take everything he could from them.
Hess was right. He could let their deaths kill him or make him stronger. He had to be stronger. For them.
That didn’t mean it hurt any less.
Hayden expected Nathan to enter the room alone. Instead, he walked in with an entire entourage. Caleb Card, wearing what looked like an Intellect Skin beneath a pair of jeans, the head cowl pulled down around his neck. Max, stiff and silent. Pyro, her eyes weary, puffy and red from tears. And Rico. Hayden smiled when he saw her, still happy Nathan had gotten her out of her crashed ship alive.
Another person entered with them, adding to the crowd. “Bennett?” Hayden said, suddenly wondering if he was still dreaming. “How?”
“Sergeant Ryan Bennett, Sheriff,” Bennett said, introducing himself. “I’m not Steven.”
Hayden understood. “Where’s Ike?”
“In the room next to yours,” Nathan said. “He broke his leg, and he doesn’t heal like you.”<
br />
“Nobody heals like you,” Pyro added. “You didn’t tell us the serum was still effective.”
“I prefer to try not to get my ass kicked,” Hayden replied. He paused, looking at the group gathered in front of him and then lowering his eyes. “Natalia. She’s…”
“I recovered her body,” Max said. “I recovered all of them. General Stacker says you’d like to say goodbye, even though they can’t hear you. Hahahaha. Hahaha.”
Hayden closed his eyes. It wasn’t Max’s fault he didn’t understand. He was still a machine emulating a human. A broken machine at that. “Thank you.”
“Pozz.”
“What about the city?” Hayden asked, lifting his head again. “What about survivors?”
“I don’t want to mince words, Sheriff,” Nathan said.
“Then don’t. You can’t make things worse.”
“Doc Hess is one of four hundred and thirty-six people we’ve recovered.”
Hayden fell back in the bed. He was wrong. Nathan had made things worse. “That’s all?”
“Lucius and Drake are combing the city,” Rico said. “And watching for the xaxkluth to come back. They didn’t go far. It seems like they’re waiting for reinforcements.”
“Or new instructions,” Caleb said. “Vyte got what he wanted here.”
“Vyte?” Hayden asked.
“There’s a lot you need to know,” Caleb added. “A lot all of you need to know.”
“I came to Earth to warn you, Hayden,” Rico said. “There’s—”
Hayden shook his head. “Not yet, Rico. I want to see them.”
“Understood,” Rico replied. “But Doc Hess wants you in bed.”
“We don’t have time for me to sit in bed. The xaxkluth can come back anytime, can’t they, Card?”
“That’s right, Sheriff,” Caleb said.
“Pyro, can you reactivate my arms?”
She nodded, moving past the others to his bedside. She reached for the control ring on his right side. “Sheriff, there’s a lot of damage at the connection between the muscle and the ring.”
“I know.”
“Doesn’t it hurt?”
“It does. Thanks for reminding me. Nat and Hess said they couldn’t fix it.”
“You should stop wearing the augment.”
Hayden laughed. “That’s not going to happen. Power me up, Chandra.”
Pyro tapped on the ring, entering the code to re-activate it. Bringing the prosthetic back to life only served to increase the throbbing around the ring. The pain had faded long enough he had almost forgotten about it, but now it came back with a vengeance. He gritted his teeth while she turned on the other augment.
“You recharged them?” Hayden said, noticing power levels were at one hundred percent.
“Consideration. I brought you a gift, Sheriff,” Max said. “Hahaha. Haha.”
“An energy unit,” Caleb said. “I fought a war over one of those things, and it hands one over as if it were a bouquet of flowers.”
“That was what you requested,” Max said. “A quantum dimensional modulator to put a shield around your city.”
“You’re a little late,” Hayden growled.
“Sit still a second while I recalibrate these,” Pyro said.
Hayden remained motionless. “You brought the power back online in here too?”
“It’s temporary,” Nathan said. “Max also located the Axon’s jamming device and destroyed it.”
“Affirmation. I’m trying to help, even if the Axon organics are too afraid to act.”
“There you go, Sheriff,” Pyro said. “Try them out.”
Hayden flexed his arms, nodded at the natural feel. “You’re a wizard, Chandra.”
She smiled. “I do what I can.”
Hayden slid off the bed, only realizing he was nude once he was already standing in front of everyone.
“Uh, Sheriff,” Rico said.
“Someone get me some clothes,” Hayden growled. He was too sad and angry to give a damn about his nakedness. “Rico, I want you to take me to see them. The rest of you meet me in the conference room in fifteen minutes.”
“Is that long enough?” Nathan asked.
“Eternity isn’t long enough,” Hayden replied. “But it’s all the time we can spare.”
34
Hayden
Hayden followed Rico to the lifts, pausing outside of them.
“Hayden,” Rico said, turning to face him. She already had tears in her eyes. “I’m sorry.”
“Me too,” he replied, face hard. He couldn’t do it any other way. Not yet. “Why’d we stop here?”
“I need to ask you. What do you want to do with the bodies?”
“Make them live again.”
The response caused Rico’s tears to flow more strongly. “Damn it, Hayden. You know I would if I could.”
“I know.”
He took a deep breath. He still couldn’t believe all of this was happening. It was his fault. He should have known there was something fishy about Josias. He should have guessed the man was an Axon. The timing was too convenient. Too obvious.
In hindsight, anyway.
“They weren’t supposed to die,” Hayden said. “I was.”
“There are no guarantees. You both said you understood that.”
“It still shouldn’t have happened.” He exhaled sharply. “Go get Max and come back.”
“Sheriff?”
“They’re gone, Rico. Putting them under the ground isn’t going to change that. Throwing them in the ocean, blasting them out to space. It’s all the same. Get Max.”
Rico hurried away from the lifts, returning with Max a couple of minutes later.
“Sheriff?” Max said.
“Can you vaporize the bodies?” Hayden asked.
“Pozz.”
“Sheriff,” Rico protested.
“I don’t want to hear it, Rico. You’re a clone. Nathan’s a clone. I don’t want the Axon, the Relyeh, Proxima, anyone taking my family’s DNA and making copies. The souls are gone. The bodies need to be destroyed. That’s how we did it in Metro.”
Rico didn’t like it, but it wasn’t her decision.
Hayden tapped the lift controls. The cab door opened and they stepped inside. Rico surprised him by directing it up.
“We left them near the dropship,” she explained. “To deliver them more quickly, wherever you wanted them to go.”
Hayden nodded. Fifteen minutes became ten by the time they emerged on the forty-second floor. Rico and Max stayed back while Hayden walked toward the three bodies laid out on a pair of metal tables and covered with white sheets.
His eyes welled again, his body beginning to shake. His strength threatened to leave him, and he clenched his teeth, forcing himself to keep going. He needed to stay strong, powerful and in control...for them.
He moved between the two tables, reaching up and pulling back the sheet on the right. Ginny stared emptily upward as Hayden’s heart raced anew. Ginny had come to him because she trusted him, and because she believed in his ability to protect her.
He put his hand on her cold forehead. “I’m sorry I let you down, little darlin’. I love you.”
He leaned over, replacing his hand with his lips. Then he backed up and covered her face again, turning to the other table. He could make out the shape of Natalia’s face beneath the sheet and the shape of Hallia tucked into the crook of her arm, at rest with her mother.
He pulled the covers down enough to reveal both of them, his heart breaking fresh when he saw their faces.
“It should have been me,” he said again, looking at them. But at least they were together. “I’m sorry Nat. I failed you. I failed you all.” He put his hand on Hallia’s head, stroking her hair. “I’m sorry, Hal. This world was no place for you. I love you. Now and forever.”
He leaned over and kissed her head. Then he straightened and looked at Natalia. He wanted to say something. Anything. But he couldn’t do it. The words
wouldn’t come. None of them were good enough. None of them expressed how he felt. He couldn’t assuage his guilt, appreciate or avenge her with words.
Only with actions.
He cupped her face in his hand, staring into her dead eyes. “I won’t cry again until they’re gone, Nat. They messed with the wrong sheriff.”
He closed his eyes, offering a silent plea of peace for his family.
But he didn’t want peace for himself.
He covered her face and turned away from them, walking back to the lift and entering the cab without looking at Rico or Max, his entire body burning with a cold fire.
Max took the cue, advancing to the tables. The Intellect’s hands began to glow with blue energy, and he held a hand over each of the bodies. The energy expanded outward from there, enveloping everything in its path until both corpses and the tables they rested on were gone, reduced to less than dust. He completed the same destruction of Ginny’s body, then closed his hands and lowered his head, returning to the lift and entering with Rico without a word.
Hayden stared at the now unoccupied space on the floor. His family was somewhere else now. Somewhere better. He had to believe that.
He didn’t start this war.
But he was going to end it.
35
Caleb
Caleb looked up as Sheriff Duke entered the room with Rico and the Axon Intellect that called itself Max. He had been silent and lost in thought. Everyone in the room had been lost in thought. General Stacker. Bennett. Pyro and the engineer, Lutz. They sat around the conference table without speaking, their eyes vacant, their faces weary. A mix of mourning for the sheriff’s loss as well as for their own.
Sadness is sour.
Caleb licked his lips. He did have a sour taste in his mouth. He had assumed it was from all the particles in the air created by the fighting, not the chemical reactions of the men and women in the room.
He stood up, his gaze lingering on Max. He had worked with his kind before, and the one thing he knew from that experience was that the Axon artificial intelligences based all of their logic on the directives handed down to them by their organic masters. No matter how much it sounded or looked like Max was on the sheriff’s side, it was still acting in the Axon’s best interests.