Kade

by Christopher Woods

  “I’d like to say I haven’t either, but…”

  I looked down at the object I carried under my left arm. “How ‘bout you?”

  “Are you really talking to that?”

  I chuckled and grunted. “That hurts.”

  As she helped me step over the door, I heard a yell and saw someone running toward us with a large axe. Then an arrow was protruding from his chest. He tumbled and landed on his face.

  I chuckled again and almost fell.

  With my left eye I could see a group of people approaching. Teresa was in the lead, but the person beside her held the bow loaded with an arrow, ready to fly.

  “Lynx!?” I almost fell as Jynx was suddenly gone.

  She was running toward her sister. I staggered again and smiled a red-toothed grin. I could still taste the blood in my mouth. Then Teresa was there and caught me before I could fall.

  “What did they do to you?” she asked.

  “I’m okay,” I muttered. “They’re not.”

  I grinned again and swayed drunkenly.

  “Dammit, Kade.”

  She helped me step forward. “You know you’re not bringing that home, right?”

  “Really?”

  “Really,” she said. “Drop the head.”

  I sighed, and it hurt.

  Derris’ head thudded as it landed in the street.

  “I guess you just can’t get a head in this Fallen World.”

  Teresa snorted.

  * * * * *

  Chapter 10

  “I thought you were supposed to let me help,” Wilson Poe said from the door of the infirmary.

  “You were too slow, buddy.”

  “I hadn’t even been back from the Bastion for a day when someone at the gate said they saw you running toward Derris like a bat out of hell.”

  “Had things to do, people to kill,” I said. “If you can call that bunch people.”

  “We spent the day clearing out the stragglers. Can I ask you a question?”

  “Sure.”

  “Why did you pick who you did to be the Warlord of that Zone?”

  “She’ll do better than you think.”

  “How do you expect a fifteen-year-old girl to hold it?”

  “If anyone has a problem with her, they can deal with me.”

  “Okay.” He shrugged. “I was just curious.”

  “Did you guys gather all the cybernetics?”

  “Yeah,” he said. “What do you want us to do with them?”

  “I know a guy over in Dana who can put Jynx’s arm back together. He owes me a favor.”

  “That makes sense.”

  “I thought it did.”

  “Yeah. Your choices are just a bit suspect. Seems like you spend a lot of time in the infirmary.”

  “A lot of my decisions are suspect, but that one? Nope. That one is solid. Have you met the girl?”

  He laughed. “Yes, I did, and I know why you did it. I would have made the same choice in your shoes.”

  “Keep your big feet out of my shoes.”

  Poe laughed and walked back out the door.

  Teresa stepped in, and her smile lit up the room like the morning sun.

  Some things are worth fighting for in this Fallen World.

  # # # # #

  Kade: Origin

  Part One

  I awoke with a start.

  “Damn this decrepit old bladder,” I muttered as I dragged myself out of bed.

  “Be a little quieter,” Ringold said from the other bed. “Tryin’ to sleep here.”

  “Shut up, you old fart,” I grunted as I pushed the walker toward the bathroom.

  My whole body hurt these days, and I couldn’t seem to nail down which part hurt the most. The burning in my groin was almost unbearable, but I made it to the bathroom in time.

  “Heh, heh,” I laughed. “I beat you this time, you bastard.”

  “Victory!” Ringold yelled from the room.

  I pushed the walker back out of the bathroom. “Damn straight.”

  “Celebrate the victories, Kade.” He chuckled. “They’re a lot scarcer as you go. Maybe you’ll get lucky and kick the bucket before you have to call a nurse every time you need to go.”

  “Nope.” I shook my head. “They’ll have to wipe my ass and sponge bathe me for decades before I get to die.”

  “That’s no way to think, Kade.”

  “Probably won’t even send in that pretty redhead. It’ll be Carl.”

  Carl was the size of a Packer’s linebacker and wore the face of a serial killer. He was one of my orderlies.

  “Damn, Kade.”

  “Expect the worst, and you’ll never be disappointed,” I said, then winced as my hip felt like a knife had been jammed into it.

  “Damn Dellik Unified and their damn booby traps,” I said.

  “Hip gettin’ you again, old man?”

  He’d pried that from me one day while we waited for the nurses to come change the beds, and we got to sit outside for a couple of hours. We were just running a normal Patrol in Atlanta when one of their IEDs had gotten my squad. I had been lucky enough to be on the other side of Corporal Jayden. He took the brunt of the shrapnel, but I still got a chunk right through my hip. More frag took me in the knee, effectively removing one Mathew Kade from service. I got shipped back up north to the Reach, which was part of Virginia.

  I remembered when we had been a country of states. Many people still called it such, but those of us who served knew better. A lot had changed in my ninety years. Now, we were a land of Corporate Territories. Oh, the states were still there, but the dividing lines within this country had become more fluid with the nature of the Corporations, and the Corporations never had enough. They were always participating in a hostile takeover somewhere. Obsidian had become a juggernaut in the Corporate World, and when they settled into any semblance of peace, another would make a play for Obsidian Territory. Then the war would begin again. Dellik Unified had been a rough one, better than six years long.

  I had been taken out of that conflict by that IED in the second year. Now, Dellik was just a memory, a bad memory for many vets, but a memory, nonetheless. Years ago, I had seen the news vids about JalCom making advances from the Midwest Territories into Obsidian. I had known it wouldn’t take long before someone else made a play for the east.

  That conflict still hadn’t reached a conclusion, but I figured Obsidian had a few tricks left.

  “Hey, Ring?”

  “What?”

  “Look out that window.”

  “Oh, that’s a thing of beauty.”

  We were looking at a pretty, yellow, convertible Corvette. Looked like it was from the twentieth century.

  “Let’s go steal it,” I said.

  “Alright.”

  He climbed out of bed, and we pushed our walkers out the door and down the hallway to the side exit. I ran a card across the scanner.

  “Whose card did you swipe?”

  “Carl’s.”

  “You lifted that big bastard’s card?”

  “What’s he gonna do? Beat up a ninety-year-old geezer?”

  “He might.” Ringold chuckled.

  “He’ll have to catch me first.”

  “Dammit, Kade,” he grumbled. “I’m outrunning you. It’s not going to be a hard job for Carl to catch you.”

  “Yeah, but when you passed me, I slipped the card in your pocket.” I laughed. “Run, you old fart!”

  “Dammit!”

  We rounded the corner beside the Corvette only to see a pretty blonde slip into the driver’s seat. The car started, and she pulled away from the curb in our direction. She smiled widely and waved as she passed.

  “I reckon that smile was worth the walk out here,” he said.

  “I’m gonna agree with you, there, Ring.”

  “Just what are you two doing out here?” a voice said behind us.

  We both turned and found Savannah Garvey standing behind us with her hands on her pretty
hips.

  “You were going to steal that car, weren’t you?”

  “Of course not,” I said. “What sort of fella do you take me for?”

  “We all remember the incident last May, Mister Kade.”

  “What?” I asked. “What happened in May?”

  “You can’t tell me you forgot what you two old reprobates did.”

  “I do well to remember my name if it ain’t used pretty regular,” I said.

  “Who are you?” Ringold asked.

  She laughed. “They said that if you stole another car, they’d put you in jail.”

  “Somehow, I don’t think they’ll jail a ninety-year-old man,” I said. “We were gonna bring it back. I just wanted to feel the wind in my hair.”

  “What hair?” Ringold asked.

  “I have a couple left.”

  “Maybe in your ears,” he said.

  “Wind still blows through them.”

  “You only made it ten miles,” Savannah said.

  “But it was a fast ten miles,” I said, with a grin.

  “We would have gotten farther, but he had to stop and pee.” Ringold laughed.

  She smiled and shook her head. “Now, are you going to give me any trouble going back inside?”

  “No, ma’am,” Ringold said. “But only if you’ll walk in front of us. I’ll follow you anywhere you want to go.”

  She looked at him with one eyebrow raised. “Hmm.”

  She turned and walked toward the door we had exited. I swear she put a little more sway into her hips just for Ring.

  “I’d like to bite that butt, develop lock jaw, and be dragged to death,” he said.

  “Die happy, I reckon.”

  “Yes, sir. Very happy.”

  She turned to us as we neared the door and stretched out her hand.

  “The card?”

  “I don’t have a card,” I said. “Door was open.”

  “Here it is, darlin’.’”

  I shook my head as Ring held out the card I had slipped into his pocket.

  “Brave man,” she said, looking at the name on the card.

  “Wasn’t me,” he said. “It was that idiot.”

  “Not all that surprising.” She grinned. “I’ll try to slip it back to Carl without him knowing.”

  “He better not mess with Kade,” Ringold said. “War hero and all that. Liable to get kicked in the shins.”

  “I’m done with all that since I took the arrow to the knee.”

  “An arrow, Mister Kade?”

  “Well, an arrowhead. Those DU bastards put the damnedest things in their explosive devices. This one had an arrowhead in it with all the other crap. Hit me right in the knee.”

  * * *

  “You have a visitor, Mister Kade.” Carl’s deep voice came from behind me. “Don’t you step too close to me, either, you thieving old fart. I’d like to keep my access card today.”

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I said. “Who is the visitor? I ain’t had a visitor since Elena passed. Her family finally decide I was someone again? If it’s that cousin of hers, Tom, I don’t want to see him. He tried to say I’m unfit and take all the money I have left.”

  “None of her folks, Mister Kade.”

  “Well, now, I’m curious.”

  “Some fella from Corporate.”

  “They’re pissed about the car?”

  “No, I mean Corporate with all caps, Obsidian Corporation.”

  “Curiouser and curiouser.”

  “Do I send him in?”

  “I reckon so, since they’re the ones paying for my stay.”

  “He’ll meet you in Meeting Room Three, Mister Kade.”

  “That’s the one across the building?”

  “Yep.”

  “Asshole,” I said.

  “Don’t be pickin’ my pockets, Mister Kade.”

  I chuckled. “Guess I had that coming.”

  “You need the exercise, anyway, old man,” Ringold said from the other side of the room. “You’re gettin’ flabby.”

  “Look who’s talking, you fat bastard.”

  He laughed as I pushed my walker out into the hall behind Carl.

  It took some time, and I scowled at the big man’s back. But I probably deserved it. After crossing the whole facility, Carl opened the door to Meeting Room Three.

  I slapped his shoulder as I went by and said, “Sorry about the card.”

  He chuckled and walked away as I stepped into the room.

  A man stood across the room, staring out the window. I glanced past the guy, and my eyes opened in surprise. The car parked outside was spectacular. It was an old Camaro from way back in the sixties. The nineteen sixties. I hadn’t seen one of those aside from pictures. It was a deep, candy apple red.

  I pushed my walker over to stand beside the man and stare out at the car.

  “That’s a piece of art,” I said.

  “That it is,” he answered and turned to me. “I’m Nathaniel Bern, OAS.” His hand stretched out, and I grasped it. It was soft, and his grip seemed weak. But it could just be that he was being careful of an old geezer.

  “OAS, huh?” I commented. “You’re not a grunt. I’d have to say a spook or an egghead.”

  He laughed. “I’m more of the latter, Mister Kade. Although I’d have to claim both.”

  “Well,” I said, “I have to wonder what a spooky egghead wants with me. Been out for decades. And I’d make it good if I were you. It’s almost lunch time, and they have pudding. Obsidian Armed Services doesn’t make a habit of calling on old men.”

  “Not much for small talk, Mister Kade?”

  “Too old for it. Comes a time when you’re old enough that every minute is important. There’s not as many of them left. So, Bern, let’s get right to it. Today is banana, and I love banana pudding.”

  “Then I’ll get right to it,” he said and motioned to a seat at the table.

  I sat down with a sigh. My hip was throbbing.

  “You were a damn fine NCO sometime back, and I understand you pulled twenty years in the Service before injuries retired you.”

  “Yeah, that about sums it up.”

  “In all that time, I’m sure you heard about the Agent program.”

  “Yeah, I did. Crazy bastards. All sorts of mods to the body. I thought about going that route, but they told me I wasn’t quite the right sort of person they were looking for. I guess they wanted a bit more moral ambiguity.”

  “That is one of the prerequisites for the program.”

  “Sociopaths.”

  “It is true.”

  “I’m pretty sure you don’t want a ninety-year-old Agent, so I have to wonder what you do want.”

  “You’re right and wrong, Mister Kade. We do want a ninety-year-old to join the program, mostly.”

  “Mostly? If you’re going to take parts, try this blasted hip and knee.”

  He smiled. “Let me tell you a story.”

  I sighed and settled back into the chair. I had to admit, my curiosity was piqued.

  “Ten years ago, a project began to build what we call an imprinter. We can, literally, imprint memories into a living mind. Tests began with mice. We ran ten mice through a maze and used the imprinter to download the memories of all the mice. Then we imprinted these memories into an eleventh mouse who went straight through the maze without a single mistaken turn. The early tests were a great success, and we have now successfully imprinted people. We’ve transferred complete memories from one person to another. We’ve even begun to build skill packages. They aren’t quite as successful. It seems skill packages don’t take if the person has no skill at all in the area. We can’t give a fisherman unparalleled skill in martial arts. But we can take that fisherman and give him a Marine Biology imprint, and he’ll retain the majority of it.”

  “That’s impressive,”

  “It is, Mister Kade.”

  “You want a lab rat,” I said.

  “In a manner of spea
king.” He nodded. “We want to make Agents. We want to build imprints we can use in Agents.”

  “Unlimited skills for sociopaths,” I snorted. “I’m filled with anticipation when I think about something like that. Wait a minute, maybe that’s something else…anxiety, distress? Are you frigging crazy?”

  “This is why we need you, Mister Kade. We don’t want to build sociopaths. We want to build complete personalities to fit any situation. We want them to have the skill set to do whatever job needs to be done, and most of all, we need to be able to return the originals back to their bodies after the job is done.”

  “And what’s that got to do with me?”

  “Mister Kade, you have decades of experience. You’ve done things in those ninety years that would allow almost any personality to be built around it. Mister Kade, we want your mind.”

  “You gotta be kidding me. I’m going to get some pudding.”

  “Just hear me out.” He held out a placating hand.

  I eased back into the seat.

  “What I’m offering you is immortality. I’m not talking about removing your brain. Let me tell you about the next step we took in the program.”

  “Go ahead.”

  “We started building personalities, but none of them were anything more than surface constructs. The mind is much too complicated to build from nothing. We were almost to the point of shutting the endeavor down and proceeding with the Education Imprint Program. A couple of us developed a theory, and it has proven itself, up to a point. Several volunteers had their minds uploaded to the databanks. We used those minds as templates for the personalities. I say, up to a point…because they all went insane,” he admitted. “First the minds and then the templates.”

  “That fills me with all sorts of anticipation…nope, nope. Anxiety again.”

  “The problem, Mister Kade, is that all of the volunteers were young and healthy and couldn’t take the loss of their bodies. In theory.”

  “So, you want to copy the mind of some old goat who is tired of his body.”

  “Not just that, sir.” He frowned. “I have seen both your medical files and your psyche eval. I know what you’ve been told, and I know what you’ve let them see of your mental state. I’m pretty sure no one has seen what your mental state truly is, except you.”