by T. C. Edge
“I guess they didn’t believe you,” suggested Matt, shaking his head. “I’ll bet there are hoaxes and false calls about her all the time. You heard the one about the boy who cried wolf, right?” He shrugged. “We only alerted them a few minutes ago. It takes time to get here, I guess.”
Derik shook his head. “You don’t seem too put out about it. What, do you want her to escape or something?”
Matt spat out an insulted breath of air through his lips. “What the hell do you think? We’re talking ten million bucks here, old man. I’d push my dear grandma down a flight of stairs for that sort of dough.”
“Five million,” corrected Derik. “We split the winnings, 50-50.”
“To hell we do! I’m the one who spotted her. If you think you’re getting even a tenth of that money, you’re high as a damn kite.”
The two men stared each other down. The momentary exchange was plenty enough for them to miss what was going on above.
On the main holographic feed, the central doors leading out into the smoggy LA night were opening up, and a small unit of WSA soldiers were pouring through. They rushed quickly towards the desk on the left of the lobby near the entrance, behind which a couple of night-guards cowered, ready to take cover should the tip about Chloe Phantom turn out to be real. They were ill-prepared to try to stop her should she leave the building, and no reward, no matter how substantial, merited risking their lives.
It was Derik who was first to notice the change, grabbing Matt by the arm and turning his attention to the feed.
“They’re here…” he said, breathless. “Finally…”
Up in the atrium, the unit commander was getting information from the front desk. They didn’t look overly troubled by the imminent risk, the half dozen soldiers standing around casually, their weapons held loose to their sides. Those guns were plenty to tell of their rank, hardly the best available to the WSA military. It was clear enough that these men were nothing more than a local peacekeeping force, and not the battle-hardened vets of the civil war from years back, or the new conflict raging still.
“What the hell are they doing?” queried Derik, shaking his chubby, reddening cheeks in dismay. “They should be creating a perimeter or something, shouldn’t they?”
It seemed obvious and common knowledge that when dealing with such a dangerous and sought after fugitive, all measures should be taken to box her in, prevent her escape and, eventually, take her down. It spoke volumes, really, that these men weren’t doing so. They were merely in the area, following up on the call, and were not taking it seriously.
After all, Chloe Phantom being here in LA? It was a fanciful thought.
As the soldiers lingered up above, and Derik began a short tirade of abuse below, Matt’s eyes had turned elsewhere. He tugged at his old, balding colleague’s sleeve.
“Er…Derik,” he said.
“What!”
Derik’s attention was drawn down to the other monitor. His eyes grew wide.
The door leading towards the atrium above was open.
And Chloe Phantom was gone.
Voices. She could hear them. Men in conversation at the back of the hall near the exit. Were they soldiers? Just night-guards? Had they come for her, or was this merely a routine check?
Chloe was through the door and up the stairs now, waiting behind another door that led directly into the central atrium. It was the final barrier to pass through. There was no way out from here but through those double doors at the exit, and into the open street.
She needed to get through somehow.
And for that she needed more information.
Looking to the bottom of the door, she quickly inspected the gap between its bottom edge and the floor. There looked to be a millimetre or two of space.
“Not enough,” she whispered to herself.
The other edges of the door were similarly well-fitted to the frame, too narrow for her trusty ally to squeeze through. He could shape-shift, sure, but couldn’t get that thin.
She drew her rucksack off her back once more, and opened up a pocket. From inside, she took out a little cylinder, about the size of a ping pong ball. It’s outer surface was a shining silver, though held a strange quality. It appeared to be somewhat unstable, as if the surface of the ball was undulating ever so slightly.
It looked as though it was alive.
To Chloe, it was. In fact, over the past few years, it had been the only proper friend she’d had, and even referring to it as, well, ‘it’, was something she considered incredibly rude.
To her, the pulsating silver orb was a lifesaver, and had a number of functions that had helped keep her safe through her many trials and tribulations. It was a remarkable piece of technology, unlike any she’d seen or heard of before. A parting gift from her father, slipping it into her hand the day he said goodbye.
“What is it?” Chloe had asked, holding the strange little sphere and gazing at its shimmering surface.
Her father smiled.
“A guardian,” he’d said. “It’ll help keep you safe.”
“I don’t understand, dad.”
He’d kissed her cheek for the last time.
“You will, darling. You will.”
It wasn’t until a little while later that the tiny orb showed its true purpose. It was another of Professor Phantom’s nanotech designs, a recon and sentry drone that could shape shift, taking various forms to suit its purpose and environment, and performing a range of duties to its master to further augment her abilities.
Interfacing directly with the nanites in Chloe’s blood, it was able to relay information to her nervous system and brain, operating purely on mental command. It was, really, an extension of her, giving her a set of eyes and ears and other senses beyond what her natural form could provide.
It had activated soon after her father’s death, and bit by bit, had helped teach her about the nanites in her blood, about the things she could do. It was her protector, the angel on her shoulder.
And thus Chloe had named it appropriately.
Remus, she called it. After her father.
Without Remus, her little buddy, she’d never have gotten this far. He would watch over her while she slept, scanning for threats as her physical form rested and recuperated. He would signal danger before her regular eyes and ears could spot it, passing the information straight to her nanites, giving her a preternatural sense of incoming danger before it arrived. He would scout, perform reconnaissance missions, and even let her hack into security systems and electronic devices, always making sure she was a step ahead of her pursuers.
He was, truly, her most prized friend, the last guiding light of her father after his physical form had moved on. And now, once again, little Remus was being called into action.
She held the orb in her hand, and informed him of his instruction. She didn’t have to speak, or consciously imagine the command, delivering in via some sort of telepathic link.
No. Remus was her, just as the nanites were in her system. Using him was no different from the subconscious process of walking, or brushing your hair, or scratching your nose. With all such actions, you don’t actively tell yourself you’re going to do this, or do that. You don’t say, “Chloe, I’m going to walk forward now, stepping first with my left leg and then with my right leg, over and over again…”
No, you don’t do any of that. It all happens behind the veil, without the requirement of conscious direction. You decide something in a more abstract, general way, without having to issue specific commands for each and every physical movement.
Such it was with Remus, Chloe’s little nanotech partner. He was a part of her now, linked to her core. And so when she needed it, he acted without hesitation.
Holding the little sphere, Chloe looked at the door once more. She reached forward and took the handle. As quietly as she could manage, she twisted, pulling the door open just a fraction to allow Remus through. She knew the layout beyond, having done her research before arriv
ing, and then scanning it with her own eyes when she first ventured here. She knew the door she was behind right now was down a short corridor at the rear of the atrium, and thus hidden from sight to the guards at the main desk.
As she opened the door up, Remus began to transform in her palm. Chloe had grown to know the various forms he could adopt, and the manner in which he could behave. He could be a spherical ball, as he was now, and roll swiftly across the floor. He could form a more biological shape, perhaps that of an insect, to better fit in, scuttling out into the hall on three pairs of legs. But best of all, Chloe’s little buddy could outfox the pull of gravity.
The little devil could fly.
Altering his make up, Remus reformed into a tiny airborne machine that mimicked a hovering drone. The many thousands of separate orbs that made up his structure swiftly transformed and realigned, and by the time Chloe had opened the door, he was ready to go.
She dropped a wink, and off he went, lifting silently from her palm and moving straight into the hall. Chloe left the door open a crack, and shut her eyes, never quite getting used to the remarkable sensation that was now coursing through her head.
It was, in essence, as if she could see and hear what Remus could. All the imagery and sound his sensors picked up were instantaneously transmitted to Chloe’s brain. She saw the hall come into view as Remus rose high to the ceiling. She controlled and directed his path around the corner, taking in the view from above of the soldiers by the desk, and the two guards behind it.
She scanned quickly, counting a half dozen armed men. They had M402’s, standard issue peacekeeping rifles, mostly designed for immobilising but with the capacity to change to live ammunition if the situation called for it. Chloe commanded Remus to zoom in for a closer look. It appeared the settings hadn’t been changed, and remained in non-lethal mode. They were fully intending on taking her alive, as all of the wanted posters were so keen to emphasise.
The soldiers, however, were all gathered at the desk near the entrance. They hadn’t spread into a perimeter, and weren’t in cover. Chloe swiftly concluded that they didn’t yet fully believe whatever they’d been told. Given her notoriety, and the reward that came with her capture, the various governments of the Disunited States no doubt got phoney reports of her whereabouts all the time.
It was her chance. If she could get out there quickly, and take them by surprise, she might just be able to disable them all before they had a chance to return fire.
She began calling Remus back in, but stopped him before he could get too far. The holo-phone at the main desk started buzzing and flashing red, interrupting the conversation between the night-guards and the unit commander.
One of the night-guards lifted his hand in apology, then tapped a button. A face appeared in holographic form from the holo-phone, that of a balding man with red cheeks and a shade of panic in his eyes.
“Yes, what is it, Derik,” asked the night-guard.
The hologram’s voice spread out into the room. It was panicked and rushed, but Remus, and therefore Chloe, heard every single word.
“She’s right outside!,” Derik’s hologram hissed. “Chloe Phantom is at the other end of the hall!
The soldiers immediately shaped themselves up. Rifles lifted to shoulders. Eyes took on a new intensity. They all looked to the rear of the hall, where Chloe hid, just around a corner and behind a door, hanging just an inch ajar.
And around that corner, Chloe shook her head in disappointment.
“Sorry, buddy,” she whispered to her hovering friend, still out in the atrium. “I guess we might be killing tonight after all…”
6
From the security room on sub-level 25, two men with no particular talents or gifts, whether naturally of technologically given, sat and watched in stunned awe as events unfolded a couple of dozen floors above.
After that day passed, neither would ever doubt any rumour they ever heard about Chloe Phantom. Nor, in fact, would they be able to refrain from adding to her legend. What they witnessed went beyond science. It was magic. They were watching a sorceress of unimaginable power, and it frightened them to their core.
What they didn’t know, however, was that they wouldn’t live long to spread the girl’s mythos.
The next day, in fact, both men would be dead.
Upon the main security hologram, they watched as the peacekeeping soldiers of the WSA spread out quickly from the main desk, taking positions of defence as they looked to secure the area. It had taken a panicked warning from Derik to get them to act, but when they did, they did so with a reasonable level of efficiency. With the unit commander shouting orders, they swiftly worked behind pillars and walls, training their rifles towards the back of the hall where Chloe Phantom was said to be waiting.
For a moment, nothing happened. The lobby went suddenly quiet and still, and Derik and Matt watched on with bated breath as they gazed upon the large holographic image ahead of them.
No one spoke or moved. The soldiers were in position, ready to fire. The night-guards had retreated further beneath their desk, praying for the entire episode to come to a swift conclusion.
Neither Derik nor Matt, watching below, nor the soldiers themselves, in position above, appeared to notice Chloe move. As yet, she hadn’t appeared from around the little corridor at the rear of the hall. No movement had been spotted. No sounds had been heard.
And yet, still, one of the soldiers fell.
With a sudden thud, the soldier right at the rear, out of the eye-line of all the others, dropped to the floor. The sound caused an immediate reaction. The remaining five, their commander included, turned to look upon their downed man in a state of confusion. He was lying upon the polished floor, seemingly unconscious. And yet Chloe Phantom was nowhere to be seen.
A wave of fear paced through them. Was she invisible? Was she as some of the rumours said? Could she move so fast they couldn’t even see? Or blind them with her mystical powers?
The mere mortals in that hall, and the two watching from the control room below, had no idea what to make of it. And with their attention briefly severed and sent to the unconscious man upon the floor, not one of them saw the movement at the rear.
And within seconds only, the rest would follow their colleague.
Chloe said a silent thank you to her nanobot buddy as she slipped out of cover and prepared to act. Remus had done his job once again, creating the perfect diversion and, at the same time, disabling one of the six enemies ahead.
Hovering silently overhead, he’d reached the far end of the hall and taken aim at one of the soldiers. Like Chloe herself, Remus could gather and emit an electrical discharge, capable of quite easily disabling an enemy at a low level and, if required, doing a lot worse. In this case, Chloe remained of the mind that getting out of here without taking life would be best. These men were peacekeepers, with families and loved ones. They didn’t need to die unless her life was under threat.
As Remus dropped right down behind the guard, and sent the spike of electricity through his body, the rest turned to witness him fall. Remus, already drifting high into the rafters once more and out of sight, now slipped off into his next position. He moved behind another guard, and just as Chloe stepped into the lobby, Remus struck again.
Another guard fell, causing panic. Two were down now, and the remaining four didn’t know where to look. Chloe took the opportunity, aiming at the nearest two soldiers with her bracelet stun-gun, and sending two little darts right into their necks. Both fell, one after another, leaving only two behind.
Both now spotted Chloe, though it was far too late. She slipped into the hall, hurrying at great pace as they attempted to fire at her. She lifted her wrist once again and tapped the trigger in her palm. Another dart was imbedded in flesh, feeding its powerful sedative into the man’s blood.
He was down before he knew it. Only one remained.
The final soldier shot, and missed. Chloe was gone, zipping across the hall and out of sight. T
he remaining soldier, the unit commander, attempted to follow her with his eyes. He lost her almost immediately, firing now without restraint through panic and fear.
Chloe moved around him, and came up behind. She lifted her stun-gun to fire once more. She tapped the trigger, but the rotator failed, jamming as a dart got lodged inside. The delay was just enough for the commander to spot her, swerving his roaring rifle in her direction and peppering her position with rapid fire.
She had two options now. Lift her right wrist, and fire a more potent dart, killing him immediately, or disable him in another way. Remus was done, his part played out. But Chloe had plenty more tricks up her sleeve.
With tingling fingers, so eager to join the fray, she lifted her hands and sent a pulse of electricity right at the man. The strike of lightning was controlled, enough to disable but not kill, depending on the condition of the man’s heart. Really, it was an ability Chloe didn’t like to use unless completely necessary, and one she’d had trouble reining in in the past.
Today, she managed it well. The white and blue tendrils of light reached out from the tips of her fingers and took him in their embrace. They spread through his body, causing his frame to convulse and his clothing to smoke. He stood for a moment only as the current swam through him, shutting down his systems, but not for good.
Then, he dropped to the floor, joining the five men under his charge, wriggling and shuddering as the final darts of energy filtered from his body.
Chloe looked at her work as Remus swept from above, settling back into her palm. She smiled down at him.
“Good job, buddy,” she said. “Now say goodbye to the pit. Yet another place we can never go again.”
She looked upon the space ahead of her, half mournful. And without even sparing a thought for the two night-guards, cowering beneath the main desk, she turned, walked towards the set of double doors marking the exit, and swept out into the smoggy LA night.