Investigating Deceit

by Michael Anderle

  A mocking laugh echoed around him. The source was not obvious, but it was obviously transmitted.

  “There’s no reason to surrender,” a man explained. “If we do, we’ll just be executed. Why should we bother making it easier for you? Screw you. You want to come and get us, you Militia dog?

  Erik didn’t bother to correct him. With everyone in RBC and tactical suits, they probably did look like a unified squad that just happened to have a few people packing specialty weapons.

  “Illegal genetic engineering is a nasty business, but it’s not going to get you executed unless...” Erik’s nostrils flared, and he backed away from the door. Bile rose in the back of his throat.

  No. It couldn’t be.

  Between transportation and off-world prisons, execution was considered by many a barbaric relic of the past. Even murderers would live out their lives, albeit in a tiny cell in metal floating in space. But there were a handful of crimes that might get one swiftly executed after conviction, including heavy genetic modification of humans.

  Erik wasn’t much of a Purist, and in other circumstances, he would have assumed they’d done something minor and not worthy of draconian punishment. A few extra inches, a permanent change of eye color. But after carving through the yaoguai mob, he knew just the kind of people cowering past the door.

  He growled and brought back his left shoulder, then charged and crashed into the damaged door. The entire assembly shook under the impact. He smashed into the door two more times before he slammed his left fist into it. The blows stung as he pounded the door, and if it were his other hand, he would have broken his bones. Roaring, he punched again, and the door ripped away from the frame and undamaged portion and flew forward. It crashed into the smooth gray floor and stopped.

  It felt like stepping through a door that took them directly to Uptown. The clean, modern facility inside was one massively long but narrow white room holding a biotech storage facility. Massive chemical tanks lined one wall. Dozens of large, transparent bags filled with different- colored fluids clustered near the center of the building—gestation tanks. At the far end, stacked cages, now all open, blocked further passage. Silver-colored containers lay on the other side of the gestation tanks. Their size and shape reminded Erik of coffins, but he didn’t find them foreboding. They could make things easier for the Kerrigan men standing near a table.

  There were few accommodations, other than some tables and a few desks. Given the light and the complexity of the equipment, there had to be integrated computer systems. It didn’t matter. Erik didn’t need to disable their computers. He only cared about the men.

  Neither of them wore RBC suits. Erik suspected the facility had integrated air handling. They must have not brought any of the yaoguai they released back into the facility. Both men did, however, hold pistols. One man’s hand hovered over a PNIU attached to his belt, but they weren’t pointing them at Erik.

  Erik brought up his TR-7 and pointed it at the men. “Drop it, or we drop you.”

  The men stared at Erik. There was no anger or resentment on their faces, only resignation. They didn’t even seem surprised that he’d just bashed open their door. Perhaps the kind of men who grew monsters for a living weren’t surprised by anything.

  Jia, Agent Koval, and the Militia hurried inside the building and fanned out around Erik.

  Agent Koval whistled. “I’m almost impressed. You built an entire yaoguai breeding facility literally underneath the noses of everyone in Neo SoCal. It’s too bad you did something like that in service to something so twisted.” She clucked her tongue. “I’m going to have a good time going through your systems. I’m sure there is all sorts of interesting information, and I doubt you all weren’t smart enough to prepare for rapid system deletion in case of a raid like this.”

  The resignation on the men’s face gave way to irritation, but they didn’t lift their weapons.

  “You don’t know anything,” one of the men muttered.

  “Did you really do all this just for the money?” Jia demanded. “A few would be bad enough, but what you did was depraved. You disgust me.”

  “All we were planning to do was fill a need. If there are no buyers, there can’t be any sellers. We’re just another part of the economy.”

  “That’s like saying it’s okay to shoot someone as long as someone buys your services.” Jia scoffed. “The UTC will do just fine without sociopathic antisocials who created monsters to kill people.”

  “You’re under arrest,” Erik declared. “All Article Seven rights apply. Do you need these explained to you?”

  “You’re a cop?” the man shouted. “If we’re going down, you’re going down. See you in hell.” He tapped his PNIU before shoving his gun against the side of his head and pulling the trigger. The other man ate his gun right after.

  The squad stood there, unsure of what to do. They had cleared out the yaoguai. That was the most important goal of the raid, even if it’d ended up a little more involved than they had anticipated.

  Captain Phillips lifted her rifle. “Well, that saves us the trouble. They’ve paid for what they did.”

  Jia hissed in frustration.

  “What’s wrong?”

  Jia pointed the dead men. “All that pain and suffering, and they killed themselves? The cowards could have at least stood trial.”

  Erik shrugged. “It’s over. That’s what’s imp—"

  A loud buzz erupted from the silver coffins.

  “What’s going on?” Captain Phillips asked.

  “Don’t you get it?” Erik snarled. He’d wanted to kill the men anyway for the reason he was sure rested in the coffins. “The yaoguai were just a sideshow. If you’re going to do illegal genetic engineering, you might as well go all in.”

  Steam blasted from all but one of the coffins. With a hiss and a clank, the lids slid open. Humanoid forms pulled themselves out of tanks of blue fluid. The thick, deep-crimson scales covering their bodies provided the first hint they were something far from human. They stepped out of their tanks and stared at the squad with yellow eyes and vertical-slitted pupils. Small indentations passed for ears. Claws tipped the hands on their long arms. The mutants let out an odd staccato gurgling sound.

  Captain Phillips shuddered. “Please tell me those aren’t what I think.”

  “They’re exactly what you think,” Erik muttered. “Those bastards made human yaoguai.” He lifted his rifle. “And I doubt they’re willing to chat.”

  The mutants screeched and burst into a lope.

  The squad opened fire. Their bullets bounced off the mutants, leaving a few scratches, but not drawing blood. Agent Koval’s flechettes didn’t do any better, landing on the floor with soft clinks.

  Testing. That was what Karton had said. They must have experimented with all sorts of designs. The trail of blood and tissue that led Emma and ultimately the squad there might have been from the Kerrigan men testing different yaoguai against one another.

  “Jia, switch to AP,” Erik shouted. He ejected his magazine and jammed his hand into a pocket to grab one of the two armor-piercing magazines he’d brought. His partner did the same. Every enemy had a weakness.

  A mutant reached a soldier. It yanked her rifle out of her hand and backhanded her. She screamed and flew back several yards before slamming into the wall head-first. She fell to the ground, her neck bent at an unnatural angle, her eyes locked in a death stare.

  “Kellerson!” shouted Captain Phillips. “Damn you, monsters!” She flipped to full auto and sent a river of bullets toward the mutant killer. She managed to draw blood, but that didn’t slow it as he leapt on top of her.

  It ripped her rifle from her hand and threw it away before lifting her by her neck and hissing. The officer kicked and clawed at the hand squeezing her neck, letting out another gurgle. Was it enjoying it?

  “Just how strong are these things?” shouted a soldier. He charged the mutant, which threw the gasping Captain Phillips to the floor and spun to meet th
e new threat. The soldier held down his trigger, but it tore into him, ripping his suit and gouging his tactical suit. A few more swipes and the creature would make it through.

  Erik flipped his TR-7 to four-barrel mode and aimed it at the mutant’s head. He fired once. The four AP bullets ripped through the scales. The mutant’s head jerked, and it screeched, but it slashed again at the soldier. Another burst sent it to the floor.

  Shouts and screams overlapped as the mutants ripped into the soldiers or tossed them around like angry toddlers trying to destroy their dolls. Agent Koval ducked and dodged a mutant attacking her, her breathing heavy.

  Jia ran toward a mutant going after the kneeling Captain Phillips. Her three bursts into the creature’s chest had it on the ground in a pool of its own blood.

  The surviving mutants gurgled and screeched before bounding away from the soldiers. They ran in a zigzag that threw off Erik and Jia’s aim.

  “I don’t get it,” Jia commented. “They seemed mindless before, but they know good strategies to dodge firearms? It’s not like the yaoguai in the tunnel or apartment tried to avoid our shots.”

  “This is different. They start with genes for a human brain and tinker.” Erik fired another burst. “Eventually, you get the ultimate programmable beast, but being smarter than a wall centipede doesn’t make them smart. Let’s nail them with crossfire.”

  “Right.” Jia gave a firm nod and jogged away from him.

  They were the only ones who could stop the mutants. They had to protect the rest of the Militia.

  “If you’re smart enough to run,” Erik shouted, “that means you’re afraid. This is for Kellerson!”

  Jia and Erik opened fire, their rifles spewing out armor-piercing rounds. They ripped through the remaining mutants, which collapsed to the ground, gurgling for a few seconds before dying.

  An alarm klaxon sounded.

  “Now what?” Erik growled. “I’m starting to get a little pissed.”

  “They might have had some sort of failsafe system,” Agent Koval suggested. “In case this place got overrun. Those human yaoguai might have had embedded vitals sensors.”

  “Great. You’re saying it’s going to blow up now because we killed all their freaks?”

  “I don’t know. That’s my guess. It’s hard to use my PNIU with this suit, and I can’t do the kind of hacking I need with voice commands alone. You know what? Time to do a little lateral-Perseus-style thinking.”

  “I don’t think you can win against a self-destruct with a mirror,” Jia muttered.

  Erik didn’t know what they were talking about, but there wasn’t anything he could do about it. He’d leave it to the ID agent.

  She ripped off her RBC gloves. “They didn’t have suits. It’s safe in here.” Her fingers danced over her PNIU as she rapidly murmured commands.

  Captain Phillips groaned and stood. “My people can’t evacuate in this condition, and I’m not leaving Kellerson’s body in this damned hole. She deserves more.”

  “Okay, it does look like a self-destruct system linked to the fusion reactor has been activated,” Agent Koval announced. “I can disable it. I just need a minute or two.” She returned to her furious murmurs. “Just need to not be distracted.”

  Another coffin opened.

  Sometimes the Lady could be generous, and sometimes she could be a vindictive bitch.

  Erik and Jia opened fire as a new mutant emerged. This one was similar to the others, but it lacked fingers. Its arms ended in thin, bony blades. Tightly packed dull gray scales covered its body instead of crimson. There were no obvious eyes or mouth, but there were two dark pits near the top of its head.

  Their bullets pelted the new arrival but didn’t penetrate its hide. The detectives stopped firing when their guns went dry.

  The silent monster swayed as it stalked forward. Unlike every other yaoguai they had run into, it didn’t seem to be in a hurry. Did it know they couldn’t hurt it? No matter how twisted and altered the creature now was, it had something approaching a human brain.

  “I’ve never read about stable genetic modifications this advanced.” Jia reloaded her gun. “How do we stop a walking tank?”

  “With an antivehicle weapon.” Erik dropped his TR-7 and hoisted the laser rifle off his carryaid. He gritted his teeth and held it steady to aim at the mutant’s head. “How do you think that thing is even seeing us? It’s not like it’s got eyes.”

  “Probably it can sense heat, like some snakes,” Jia suggested, moving to her left. “Through those little pits.”

  “If it’s like that, you’ve got to figure the brain is still in the head, right?”

  Jia shrugged. “That would be my guess.”

  “I’ve only got one shot left.” He pulled the trigger, and the shot burned a large hole through the mutant’s head, stopping it in its tracks. Everyone in the room paused, holding their breath for a moment before its legs buckled and it collapsed to the floor.

  Everyone exhaled. “One problem down,” Jia declared. “If we don’t die in a horrible explosion in the next few minutes, things will be looking up.”

  Erik set the laser rifle down. “I’m really, really starting to like this thing,” he admitted, patting it fondly. His ability to ignore the other trouble awaiting them was a trait she wasn’t sure she admired.

  The alarm died.

  Agent Koval let out a breath. “I disabled the self-destruct.”

  Erik looked at the fallen soldier and nodded. “Let’s get Kellerson and get the hell out of here. Someone else can do the cleanup.”

  The people moved quickly to grab the body and carry it to the flitters.

  No time like the present to get out of this hellhole.

  Chapter Fifty-Three

  March 10, 2229, Neo Southern California Metroplex, Apartment of Erik Blackwell

  Reclining on his couch, Erik took a sip of his third beer of the night as the screen on the wall played a recent hit music vid on mute.

  It was nice to have a little time to sit and relax after all the chaos in recent days. He wasn’t sure he would ever complain about things being slow at the 1-2-2 again.

  The 1-2-2’s raid of Kerrigan Systems netted all the major players, and CID investigations had already been launched to close down some of the black-market channels they had been planning to use to send their yaoguai off Earth.

  The effects of the dual raids would ripple across the entire UTC.

  All the top executives were pointing fingers at each other and trying to cut deals. Desperate to avoid life in prison or execution, they’d sold out several employees who were not present at Kerrigan Systems on the day of the raid.

  The CID was making additional arrests all over Earth, and even on the Moon and Mars. All of them claimed they had no idea that human yaoguai were being created, but the government wasn’t inclined to make many deals, which was fine by him.

  Sometimes there was a thin line between vengeance and justice.

  He lifted his head at the sound of a light knock from the door. He set his beer down on his coffee table, stood up, and then headed that way. He didn’t even check the camera before opening it.

  Fortunately, it wasn’t a polite yaoguai, Tin Man, or criminal assassin waiting for him. Agent Koval stood on the other side. She was back to wearing a flattering business suit and ankle boots rather than RBC gear laden with weapons.

  Erik frowned. He stuck his head out and looked up and down his hallway.

  Every time the woman showed up, major trouble followed. “Does this involve Tin Men or yaoguai?” he asked. “If so, I want a day to get drunk before I go back to kicking asses, and it’s going to take me a few weeks before I can replenish some of my supplies—unless you are offering replenishment?”

  She laughed. “It does involve them, but we don’t need you to do anything. At least, not yet. I’ve been authorized to share information with you, and I thought that after all that effort, you’d want a little closure” She gestured inside. “May I? If you
’re sick of me, I understand, but I think you’ll want to hear this.”

  Erik shrugged and stepped out of her way, allowing her to enter before closing the door and heading back to the couch.

  Part of him wanted to ask her about Molino, but he didn’t trust her. She did help with the case, but she could have had her own reasons for that. She might even be watching him for the conspiracy and trying to earn his trust by giving him a slice of the truth.

  Agent Koval looked around, her cyan ponytail swaying. “I’m going to secure the room. This means your pet AI won’t be able to hear this conversation. Is that going to be a problem?”

  Emma appeared in front of Koval with a smirk on her face. “He’s more my pet, and if this a prelude to attempting to take me, it won’t succeed. I’ll make you pay in blood, ghost girl, and I’m far more ruthless than any fleshbag.”

  “I don’t care.” Agent Koval shrugged. “You’re the DD’s problem, not ours, and I’ve got enough on my plate to not go looking for more trouble.” She turned to him. “I was asking if this is okay with you, Detective Blackwell? I pinky-swear I’m not about to assassinate you.”

  Erik snorted. “Go ahead and try if you want. For now, let’s talk.”

  She reached into her pocket and smiled when Erik didn’t twitch and Emma disappeared. “There we go. Because of your unique situation, my superior believes it’s useful for you to know some of what we’ve learned. A small amount of this is being shared with the CID’s investigators as well. The quick version is that after examining the finances and records of Kerrigan Systems, it is our belief that one of their main investors, via shell corporations, was Talos.”

  “Terrorist groups are running companies now. Nice.” Erik eyed her.

  “As far as we can tell, Kerrigan’s employees are not members of Talos. They were just useful idiots.”

  “So they’re only investors?” Erik scratched his chin, giving himself a moment to collect his thoughts. “You said before that Talos is interested in advanced technology. Why? Are they trying to build an army of Tin Men and yaoguai to conquer a frontier planet and set up the Democratic Republic of Talos?”