Specter Protocol

by Eddie R. Hicks

  A truck beamed its headlights on the gathering of Specters standing in the road, turning their presence white in the dark. They waved their hands at the driver, grabbing his attention. The truck slowed down, then stopped. Its driver’s side window lowered and out popped the head of the driver, a bearded man with thinning hair wearing a red flannel coat.

  Yanmei approached him.

  “You guys lost?” asked the truck driver.

  “Yes,” Yanmei said to him. “We are from overseas. Never been here.”

  “Where you folks headin’?”

  “Don’t worry about it.” Yanmei drew a pistol. She shot him three times in the head. A mist of crimson soaked his chair with gore. “It’s none of your concern now.”

  The truck driver’s body face planted the road when Yanmei climbed aboard and tossed the corpse out. She fiddled with its controls, and the back trailer swung open.

  Peeking her head out the window, Yanmei ordered, “Get the prototype inside.”

  The three Specters nodded, and dragged the prototype TEK suit behind the truck, heaving it up inside, then climbed aboard. Miyuki didn’t assist, and she stood looking at yet another dead innocent person and the three holes drilled through his face that was the source of an expanding pool of red changing the color of the snow on the road—

  “Matsuoka!” Yanmei calling her snapped Miyuki’s head into the present.

  “Yes?”

  “Let’s go!”

  Miyuki was the only one not in the truck. She’d been gazing at the dead driver the whole time. She climbed aboard, sitting beside Serge who took the wheel, and Yanmei. The truck’s front cabin was a lot roomier than she thought, three chairs up front, and a lounging area in the back. It was a mini living space for long hauls, complete with a small bed, dining table and fridge. Beyond that were doors leading into the trailer where the rest of the team idled in.

  Serge powered the truck on, spun the wheel about, and accelerated forward.

  “The Alliance will be busy looking for survivors and no doubt asking Yoshida why their private military attacked the train,” he said.

  “So, we have a limited window of opportunity,” Yanmei said. “That hack was handy.”

  “Oy, we were lucky they were flying low,” Serge said, eyes forward on the dark snowy highway ahead. “Any higher and I wouldn’t have been able to maintain a stable connection for the hack.”

  “So…” Miyuki spoke up. “Where to?”

  “The nearest port. Leaving by sea is our best bet right now.” Yanmei moved to the rear lounge. “Serge, can you use this truck’s equipment to monitor Alliance signals?”

  “Shouldn’t be hard once my tablet recovers.”

  Yanmei sat alone in the lounge. Miyuki stood and entered the lounge, their bodies shaking about as the drive continued. She sat with Yanmei, resting her forehead against the table. Miyuki exhaled. Her body and mind had been through too much.

  “You are distracted,” Yanmei said.

  “My brother’s murderer better not have survived,” Miyuki grumbled, her head still resting on the table.

  “That’s not all that’s bothering you,” Yanmei spat. “I can sense it.”

  Miyuki sat up and reached into her pocket, searching for the pack of cigarettes she left in there. She could have gone for one now that the ride was over.

  “Cleanse your body and mind of all needs,” Yanmei said. “A clear head makes your form become clear to our enemies.”

  Like the man that killed her big brother. And that werelion. Miyuki had to ask about that. “There was an IW on the train, a shifter. He saw me when I was ghostwalking.”

  “Biokinesis that’s why,” Yanmei said. “If they alter their form into that of an animal, it is hard for any form of telepathy to manipulate them since their brains change when they shift. It becomes a brain different from that of humans and IWs.”

  “So ghostwalking in front of biokinetic IWs is pointless?”

  “Yes, mind control too, not that we could use it.”

  She put the cigarette to her lips but couldn’t find the lighter. Dropped it during the fighting she figured. Yanmei didn’t have a lighter, and neither did Serge. Miyuki moved to the rear trailer, asking the Specters sitting inside if they could help her. Arakawa did, he used his lighter to bring red glowing light to the end of her cigarette. She puffed and blew the smoke through curved o-shaped lips. Brown and Arakawa did the same, five Specters died tonight, they needed the stress relief.

  At the center of the group lay the prototype TEK suit, the reason for all the chaos. And the reason she suspected the Specters might work for someone else. Standing idle ahead of it, she exhaled another white cloud from her lips, glancing at the suit up and down, her eyes stopped on the chest plate. It had feminine curves. The suit was being built for a female operator.

  And come to think of it, all TEK suits were custom made to fit the body and height of the person who’d be wearing it, in this case, a woman.

  Miyuki sensed something radiating from the prototype, like an energy, a mind, a consciousness. It was touching her telepathic thoughts, beckoning her to come closer. So, she did with the cigarette in her mouth. Her hands brightened with white shining light, Miyuki had opened her telepathy, searching for the force that mentally reached for her.

  Nothing happened, so she touched the prototype with her glowing hands. Something happened. Something reached out and touched her thoughts. Then grabbed her brain. Miyuki dropped to her knees, screaming in terror as her cigarette tumbled to the floor.

  The suit was alive.

  Forty-One

  Estrella

  Estrella tugged the ends of the party skirt she wore. She had doubts it covered her ass, and she doubted Piper selected it for her by mistake. The top she wore was a see-through loose-fitting one made of plastic. The pentagram necklaces dangling over her chest helped take a few eyes off her black bra. It was the latest witch fashion trend in the city. Estrella never got the memo.

  Piper was wearing a black lace robe with a matching corset and garter set underneath. She kept the robe undone. They looked exactly what they needed the crowd to think they were, just a duo of party girl witches attending a seedy rundown club run by seedy rundown warlocks. The neon sign above the club’s entrance stated only IWs were allowed.

  Because of that, Estrella and Piper wore long black gloves, covering all visible RW cyberware on their hands and arms, a pair of shades for the eyes to hide the synthetic glow of their iris, and just for good measure, high stockings for the legs, though Piper’s garter set already covered that. Between that, the laser light show inside, and heavy drinking, nobody should realize who they were.

  Mind control from Piper was originally part of the plan, but these were IWs they were dealing with. Most telepaths could resist that, and everyone else would ask why her hands were glowing white before they started asking why they blanked out and did things they didn’t want to do.

  A five-minute lineup to get in halted the two, forcing them to stand among similarly dressed witches and chiseled tattooed warlocks that left their shirts at home. Muffled beats from the club pulsed through the outdoor air.

  “You sure this is the place?” Estrella asked.

  Piper nodded as the line shrank. They moved closer to the door. “Positive… unless.”

  “You were lied to.”

  “No way, my messenger wouldn’t do that.”

  “Or Obsidian.”

  “Now that’s a possibility. Still, don’t know who or what their endgame is.”

  “Or why they didn’t just contact one of us directly?”

  “Probably because we don’t dabble on the dark web as Ray does. I wouldn’t be surprised if Obsidian discovered Ray from his activities there.”

  They arrived at the door at last. A warlock worked as the doorman, brown mohawk, ten ear piercings on each ear, torn black shorts, and a tank top. He didn’t wave them through, so Estrella pushed forward anyway.

  “Whoa, whoa.” Th
e warlock pushed her back. “Hold on, the wait just got longer, like twenty minutes longer now.”

  Estrella groaned. The Bald Skulls could easily slip out, assuming they were there. Piper chimed in. “Can’t you just, you know? Turn away?”

  The warlock laughed. “Sorry girls, can’t let you in, as much as I’d love to.”

  “C’mon, why not?” Piper giggled. “What’s the worst that’ll happen?”

  “Only people I can sneak in are those on the list, and you two ain’t on it. And don’t give that, ‘but I’m on the list’ bullshit, ‘cause everyone that’s on it is already here.”

  Piper glanced at Estrella, made a Mona Lisa smile, and faced back at the warlock. If she had a plan, it was one she didn’t tell her about. Estrella stood, watched, and waited.

  “Well,” Piper said, giving her red bangs a twirl. “You know, we’re on the other list, right?”

  His eyebrow lifted. “What other list?”

  “We’re entertainment,” Piper answered, holding that smile. “We’re not guests.”

  His arms folded across his top, making his silver pentagram bracelets reflect the lights from above. “Oh yeah? Prove it.”

  Piper pulled Estrella to her and fondled her chest with her left gloved hand. Estrella’s face turned red. She wasn’t expecting that, or the wet and soft tip of Piper’s tongue licking up the side of her neck. The scent of Piper’s lavender hairspray entering her nose threw her brain into a blissful trance.

  “Oh… that kind of entertainment,” the warlock said.

  Piper released Estrella, smiling and grinning at him. “You know it, hun.”

  “Well go on in.” He stepped aside.

  Piper moved up as Estrella stood still. Her brain was still clearing the delirious state Piper threw her into. She shook it off and took one step forward and staggered. The heels on her shoes sent her down. Estrella had forgotten how to walk.

  On the way in the warlock grabbed Estrella’s elbow. It took a lot to not snap and push him thirty feet down the parking lot. But then, everyone would know of Estrella’s cyborg strength.

  “You don’t suppose, I could, you know?” He leaned closer, whispering into Estrella’s ear. “Get a piece too? When you’re done of course. Gonna be a long shift for me. Help me out, chiquita.”

  The way he grabbed her elbow, how he leaned forward, and the fact he was a warlock plunged Estrella back into that dark hole she crawled out of years ago. The teenaged human girl used by the Bald Skulls for their underage sex psytrip business. She couldn’t remember the warlock letting her go, let alone entering the club, and standing with Piper. One moment Estrella was getting propositioned, and the next she stood near the jolting dance floor, loud luststep music playing from the DJ on the stage.

  Slithering past the slam dancing IWs, she saw members of the Bald Skulls, drinking, flirting, and chatting. Estrella overhead from one clubber the Skulls were hosting the party, and inviting various warlock gangs in. It was the Bald Skulls way of saying hello to the scum of the city, she guessed.

  “Still not convinced?” Piper said, nudging Estrella. “There’s lots of Bald Skulls here, and everybody seems to love them.”

  “Kinda reminds me of their hangout back in Buenos Aires,” Estrella said. “Wonder why the Alphas wouldn’t tell us where this place is?”

  “Perhaps the same reason they didn’t attack it.” The pixie kiwi turned her head about, eyeing those not a member of the Bald Skulls. “There’s a lot of collateral damage if they did. The Alpha Pack didn’t want to accidentally start wars with the other warlock gangs that hung with the Skulls.”

  And aiding in a gang war was what they came here to do. Nelson’s son, Malcolm, was here if Piper’s contact was correct. Estrella realized they still had a lot of the club to search and then there were the backrooms.

  “Yo, let’s split up,” she said to Piper. “Malcolm should be here somewhere.”

  They were alone now, Piper going right, and Estrella searching to the left. She saw two members of the Skulls sit on a torn and dusty couch ahead of a table with spent lines of cocaine. Four witches sat down and indulged in the white substance with them. Two witches stripped out of their tops, bare pink nipples and pierced breasts flopped out for all to see. They grabbed each other, kissed, and stroked their breasts before slipping their hands down into each other’s booty shorts, massaging their pleasure centers within.

  Once done, both parted from each other, and their hands, glowing white, came together, then pulled apart, forging a memory sphere. They held the spheres up for interested people, three warlocks leaped up screaming for one, as did a member of the Skulls. The lucky Bald Skull member got selected. He sat with the topless telepathic witch and she gave him the psytrip experience he’d never forget, the make out and play session the witch just had.

  The gangster roared with ecstasy when it was done.

  Estrella had to stop this. Too many IW gangs were liking the Skulls. That meant more support for them. It’d also make it easier for the Bald Skulls to scout out the gangs that had unregistered telepaths in their ranks, and plot to kidnap them for Yoshida.

  “Found him,” Piper’s voice echoed over the communication channel. “Come to my location.”

  Geoffrey?

  Updating your mini-map now, Estrella.

  A navi-point appeared in her vision, guiding Estrella to Piper’s location in the club. She found the pixie kiwi leaning up against the bar, shooting fake smiles at drunken men who approached her, frowning when their backs turned. Estrella stood with her, and Piper pointed at a decorated chair in the corner. Hawk sat on it like he was a king. He held a dog chain, a chain attached to the collar of a wolf wearing gold chains, just like Nelson and the members of the Alpha Pack gang. They’d found Malcolm, and the Bald Skulls flaunted him as a pet wolf on a leash.

  “Wow, what a fucking dick,” Estrella said, her eyes filling with rage. “So how do you want to do this?”

  “I count too fucking many people with guns here,” Piper said. “And let’s not forget these are all IWs and know how to bend fired bullets.” Piper gave Estrella a lustful glare. A Mona Lisa smile grew. “Hmm, guess we ought to do what we arrived here for.”

  “We are,” Estrella grumbled. Then it hit her. We’re the entertainment. “Oh no…”

  “Oh yes!” Piper jubilantly yelled and moved away from the bar, and spread the edges of her robe apart further, exposing the corset underneath. Her garter set and corset flashed a variety of colors from the club’s light. “Let’s entertain!”

  Piper strode toward Hawk on the chair with fake smiles. Estrella stood still. These were the people that forced her to be a source of adult entertainment when she was younger. And if Piper’s plan were to work, Estrella had to do it again, this time willfully.

  Please kill me.

  We cannot self—

  Geoffrey…

  Dance… is what I was going to say. Yes, that’s it.

  She smiled and rolled her eyes, then went to catch up with Piper. You need to work on that more.

  You smiled, that would suggest I am improving.

  Piper began dancing and grooving to the music, making her way to Hawk, her fingers snapping about with her swaying arms. She stopped, spun, and lowered her face to his, resting her palms on his lap. She shook her chest, and his eyes moved with it.

  “Wanna party?” Piper asked him.

  Hawk sat back, grinning. “Aren’t we doing that?”

  “I mean,” her hand traveled down his pants forming a bulge and tapped it, “party, hard.”

  That got his attention. “Hey, yo, ese!” He called for a member of the gang as he stood while dragging wolf Malcolm on a leash. “Voy a estar ocupado.” I'm going to be busy.

  The gangster he called over nodded and grinned.

  Piper winked at Hawk. “You better not disappoint.”

  Hawk brought them to a private room in the back blocked off by only a large blanket used as a curtain over its doorway. Estrella fl
ashed back to her past again when she crossed into the room. Rooms like these were the source of her tears when she was human. The bed in the corner beside a box of memory spheres didn’t help.

  She shook off the looming fear, and readjusted her shades when they came loose, thankful nobody recognized her with them on, or was it the outfit?

  There was a single chair facing the bed, much like the one Hawk was sitting on in the club. That too brought back memories when Estrella was forced to perform. The leader of the gang at the time sat on a chair like it and watched her and sometimes jacked off with no shame.

  Piper kicked a small stool. It went gliding across the floor, stopping before Hawk. Out of her handbag, she pulled a clear Ziploc bag full of white power. She dangled it in front of his eyes, and he smiled. Piper sprinkled a handful of it on the stool.

  “Oh, you weren’t fuckin’ kidding,” Hawk said.

  Rolled up dollar bills helped them snort up the dusting. Piper’s face, full of happiness, tilted to the ceiling. He did as well, and the two took another hit. Estrella winced. Piper was full of shit. She lied. She was still on that stuff and wasting her battery life by using it, like now. But now wasn’t the time to chew her out.

  Hawk gestured to Estrella, then down at the coke spread out across the stool. Try some. She shook her head no. He looked at her strange and leaned closer, giving her a different expression.

  “You,” he said, pointing at Estrella. “Damn girl, why you look so familiar?”

  “Oh, listen to you!” Piper said, grabbing Estrella and pulling her to the bed. “You sound like a cop. ‘All you IWs look the same.’” Standing near the bed, she spun Estrella’s back to him. Piper held Estrella’s hips at first, she slithered up into the transparent top Estrella wore. The smooth fabric of Piper’s gloves inched their way up across the flesh of Estrella abs, to her chest, to her bra, and cupped her breasts. “Now, don’t close your eyes. You’ll want to watch this.”