Following the tire marks up the highway lead Ray and Bashiir to discover a body covered in a blanket of snow in the middle of the road. The snow near the body’s head was red. Ray drew the katana, and they made their approach.
“A dead body on the road,” Ray looked away from the corpse. “And no vehicle in sight.”
Bashiir pointed at the tire tracks in the snow. “Someone killed him and took his truck.”
He looked down. Multiple footprints scattered around the body, and near the truck’s tire tracks. And if he were to guess, the owner of those footprints came from one of the mountain paths to the left.
“That must by our Specter team,” Ray said.
Bashiir lowered himself to the road, his orange glowing hands touched the footprints, as his nose twitched ever so slightly. Bashiir was altering his DNA again, giving his body the hunter’s senses of the king of the jungle. He stood, turned around, and pointed down the road. “They boarded a truck and went down in this direction.”
Ray was impressed. “TEK suit too?”
“Most likely.”
Ray sighed. “Ah fuck.” He wasn’t going to like what they had to do next.
The two sat at the edge of the highway and waited. And waited. A lone car came drifting into view, its headlights shining on the falling white flakes, beaming onto their bodies racing ahead of it. The car slowed and its driver’s side window opened. The driver peered out at Ray and Bashiir.
Ray flicked on the katana, it glowed with superheated energy from the nanites within it. He waved the katana fiercely at the driver. “Get out!”
The driver’s jaw dropped, and his finger pointed at Ray’s face. “Holy fuck! You’re that guy!”
The glowing edge of the katana was at the driver’s face now. Ray hated himself. “Just get out and never speak of this!”
He got out. Ray and Bashiir dove in. Before leaving, Ray shredded the coat, gloves, and boots from his body, tossing them out the window to the driver. He reached into his backpack and threw one of his MRE packages too.
“Keep warm, and uh, call for help,” Ray said to him. “Just don’t tell them about this, okay?”
It was the least they could do.
They sped off, racing down the dark highway, following the truck’s tire tracks in the snow. Ray wasn’t unable to shake the feeling Theo was probably dead, as the mountains on the car’s computer screen dashboard shrank in size. And if he wasn’t, then he would be when the PMCs found him. Ray and Bashiir left Theo behind.
“What was his father’s name?” Ray asked Bashiir, keeping his eyes on the road, his numb hands on the wheel.
“Who?” Bashiir sounded confused.
“Theo’s, father,” Ray said. “He had a dad, still alive. What was his name?”
“I do not know.”
“He should know, his father. Know that we’re alive because of his son’s sacrifice.” There was silence. Bashiir probably not letting the loss get to him. Ray should do the same. “So, a truck you say, right?”
“Yes.”
Additional tire tracks in the dusting of snow marked up the highway after connecting roads feeding traffic to the highway became more common. After an hour it was impossible to tell which tracks belonged to the truck.
“Uh, any idea what kind of truck?” Ray asked.
Bashiir grimaced. “I wish I could say…”
They were lost and searching for a truck, and they had no idea what it looked like.
Forty-Three
Estrella
Everyone cleared the dance floor when the next shots were fired in the air. Hawk really wanted his answers. It left Estrella and Malcolm standing, alone and exposed. Not like they had a choice, there were too many people fleeing, and Piper was on the floor back in the private room. Estrella wasn’t going to leave her.
She stood defiantly, facing up at Hawk on the stage. There was no point in hiding when he realized Malcolm was with her, free of the chains. So, she ditched the shades, let her hair down, and went for her NC gauntlet stored in her handbag.
Hawk pointed at her. “You!” And recognized her face. “Que te folle un pez!”
Estrella retorted. “Hijo de puta!”
Estrella grabbed her pistol in sync with the massive drop from the luststep music left playing. She liked the song. Its upbeat tempo gave her an extra bit of motivation to fight her away out of the mess entering the dance floor while the lights and strobes were still on.
Hawk shot curving bullets. The two guards near the steel door shot some as well. The Skulls came in hard and fast. Estrella hit Defense Matrix, four swarms of nanites hardened her body.
Nanite swarm(s) remaining: 2
She ran for a table, kicked it on its side, and used it as cover. It shook a few times as sparks flashed when the bullets hit its steel surface. She returned fire with her pistol. The three targets kept shooting. She hit no one.
The doormen stormed in with hands glowing purple, charging electricity for an electrokinetic attack. She doubted they’d miss, and Defense Matrix did fuck all against IW powers.
She aimed for the first doorman and fired. Tungsten rounds entered his chest and exited his back. That’ll teach him for putting his hands on her. To the left was the other doorman, so she pulled the trigger twice. Two gory holes appeared on his chest. Not a single warlock got a lightning bolt off.
Malcolm sprinted to their bodies, keeping low from Hawk and the many bullets flying and curving to get behind Estrella’s cover. She heard Malcolm laugh. He now possessed the doormen’s pistols. Malcolm laughed more when he fired them, making the bullets bend and curve with his powers. She resumed shooting too.
Three skull tattooed gangsters spun and hit the floor. They made no sound as the loud music played. She wasn’t sure if it was her or Malcolm that killed them, and frankly didn’t give a fuck. Dead Bald Skulls made her smile.
A break came, it was just enough time to reload and inject utility nanites into her body. Her left arm split open to make that happen. There were six nanotubes and four clips left when she finished. Her HUD gave her an update.
Nanite swarm(s) remaining: 6
Piper called out to her, saying something about walls melting. Looking backward, she saw the pixie kiwi had escaped the safety of Hawk’s private room. A drugged pixie kiwi that’d be a free target to the remaining gangsters and their pistols clapping on the strobe lit dance floor. Estrella had to do something and fast, and the bullets flying back and forth weren’t helping.
She stood from her cover, trying her best to keep low, shots passing by her left and right as she raced to Piper. Seven bullets hit her from behind. Defense Matrix took those blows, she only swayed a bit and continued running. She swiped Piper up in her arms, Piper made a light chuckle. Estrella ran, keeping Piper’s head closer to her body amidst the gunfire exchange. She didn’t get far. There were too many bullets to dodge until she hit Overdrive.
The world slowed down, bullets and luststep music included. Running to the bar ahead became a game of sidestepping or ducking under slow-moving bullets.
The bar neared, and she vaulted it with one leap. Estrella lay Piper to the floor behind it, just in time for the world to speed up again, like normal.
Geoffrey, is there anything we can do for her?
Piper held her hands up to Estrella and waved them around. If her eyes had been real, they’d be dilated too. “My hands…” Piper said, eyeing them. “Are they like, melting too like the walls?”
Geoffrey replied. First Aid may help her recover faster.
With haste, Estrella browsed through her nanite abilities menu, selected First Aid, then let her NC gauntlet-covered right-hand hover above Piper. She gave her a quick spray of First Aid nanites.
Nanite swarm(s) remaining: 4.5
She used half a swarm, Estrella needed to conserve what she had for the chaos still erupting, chaos she left Malcolm to deal with alone. If he died, then this would have been for nothing, that and it’d reduce her chances of leavin
g alive. Piper in her state was useless, Malcolm, however, wasn’t.
She vaulted over the bar, one hand on the countertop, keeping her body steady during the cyber leap. She was on her feet again, tightening her grip on the pistol and firing relentlessly, the pistol’s muzzle flashed rapidly. Estrella didn’t let up on the advance, forcing those in range to scatter like terrified insects until her ammo counter screen read zero. Her race brought her to the DJ stage where Malcolm was hunkered down.
She joined him just in time to watch his white glowing hands force two beer bottles to levitate and spiral forward. One bottle crashed and shattered in the face of a Skulls member, another member shot the other while it was twirling in the air, fragments of glass hit the floor. The sharpest ends of the bottle remained in motion, obedient to Malcolm’s psychokinesis. And the Skulls member that broke it regretted doing so when the flesh on his face sliced open when the glass hit.
Three Skulls members joined the violence from the backroom, pointing at Estrella and Malcolm as the two slapped in fresh new ammo clips to their weapons. Estrella eyed the member standing at the mouth to the backdoor. She selected Induce Muscle Spasms and aimed her NC gauntlet-covered hand at the target. The spray of nanites entered his body and forced it to shake, twitch, and stand still, blocking the doorway he had stood in front of, and the aim of his two buddies behind and their ability to pass through the door.
Estrella browsed through her skills menu again, and selected Flash Freeze. A wide grin spread on her face. She held her NC gauntlet hand out again and sprayed three swarms at the twitching member, they went inside him. She snapped her gauntlet fingers.
He crystallized with frost as his twitching stopped, hard to twitch when you’re frozen solid. Now his body turned into an unmoving frozen sculpture, and his two companions from behind weren’t quick enough to take their hands off him as they were pushing him over. Estrella snapped her fingers again, not that it was necessary. Her link with Geoffrey as he communicated with the nanites was what caused the remaining nanites to spread to the two members behind. And now they became idle, skin covered in frost, bodies frozen solid.
It was just Hawk now, standing alone, shocked at the witch and telepathic shifter duo. Estrella shot at him, Malcolm too. Hawk was still running, and he flicked his white glowing hands at the incoming rounds the two fired, so they hit the walls rather than him. She kept firing and checked her swarm count.
Nanite swarm(s) remaining: 0.5
And that count limited her options to take him out until she pulled the remaining tubes out. Thankfully, Hawk had nowhere to go now that three frozen bodies blocked the door. She covered and split her left arm open as Malcolm continued shooting and grabbed five of the six tubes.
Nanite swarm(s) remaining: 5.5
She stood just in time to see Hawk rush to the door blocked by the frozen cluster fuck of three frozen Bald Skulls members. Hawk turned his pistol on the three frozen gangsters. He fired rounds at his own people, shattering their bodies to hulks of frozen body parts on the floor. He stepped over them and fled down the hall. She groaned. Hawk escaped because she ran low on nanites.
Estrella and Malcolm pursued with their guns pointed forward, hoping to get a clear shot at Hawk when they ran over the chilled body parts. Neither of them did when he turned the corner, waving goodbye with his middle finger. She kept pace, heels clicking, not giving a fuck about the skimpy party girl outfit she wore. Her nanites had better things to do than change her appearance. Malcolm followed behind Estrella as she pushed deeper into the halls.
She waved him off. “Go, you got your freedom.”
“Naw,” Malcolm ejected the spent clip it clattered on the floor, while he reached for a fresh one. He was reloaded. “Me gonna stay ‘n’ make ‘em pay fo’ dey crimes.”
She turned the corner. Hawk was in her sights again, running, and looking back periodically. He spun and shot at them during his retreat. Estrella fired back, she heard Malcolm’s weapon discharge to her side too. Nobody’s shots connected, not even the bullet curving ones. Estrella sprayed three swarms of Incineration nanites from her gauntlet, they flew for Hawk.
He saw the swarm gaining on him, but he waved his white glowing hands, pulled a door off the hinges with psychokinesis, and sent it spinning down the hall. The triple nanite swam crashed into the door. She and Malcolm dove to the sides for cover, one to the left the other to the right. The flying door missed them by inches. And they were back to the chase again with guns clapping back and forth. Her NC gauntlet recovered the disorientated nanite swarms.
Hawk was gone now, vanishing inside a two-story storage room. The room was a reminder of what the club used to be before the Skulls took it over, an old warehouse, and this place was what remained of it. It was dark and sparsely lit, most of the light coming from computers in the back, and pods connected to weird cables and wires.
Estrella grimaced. She recognized the tech, the pods, and the room itself. It was just like the photo Ray stole from Ellsworth’s phone. She wasn’t surprised to see the logo of Regal Genetics stamped on the side of the pods.
Malcolm and Estrella broke up, fanning out to keep up the search. Somewhere inside, hiding behind the pods or computers was Hawk and his psychic powers, and he probably knew where they were. Eyes and guns were forward, nanites were primed and ready, and her combat HUD and optical scanners took in every bit of data to give her the edge. She imagined Malcolm, with his telepathic abilities and biokinesis powers, was doing something similar.
She found a door used for trucks to deliver or pick up freight, back when that was a common thing for the warehouse. Optical scans showed signs of fresh fingerprints spread across the door and its handles. The door was open and shut recently to load stuff onto a truck for delivery, like the Port of Los Angeles.
Malcolm whistled. She saw him looking down at the pod’s contents via its glass viewing lid. She walked to the nearest pod and did the same. Inside the pod was a liquid and resting in that were sleeping members of the Bald Skulls, naked like they were bathing. Other pods were empty with mechanized joints inside, moving back and forth, swirling an opaque matter into the liquid. Estrella’s eyes narrowed at it. She ran a quick optical scan.
That substance appears to be organic. Geoffrey reported.
She glanced at the other pods, and there were dozens of them. They all bore the same Regal Genetics logo. This is cloning tech. The Skulls weren’t resurrecting themselves from the fucking dead. They were making clones and sending them out. Her teeth gritted. The ones I killed in Buenos Aires were fucking clones!
Estrella never avenged her parent’s death.
Cloning would explain how the Bald Skulls moved from Buenos Aires to Los Angeles. They only needed to move the cloning equipment and then release the newly born clones.
Her fist slammed on the pod’s glass casing. A white web of cracks formed on it in an instant. Computers beeped warnings sounds, so she punched a computer monitor mounted to a support beam. Sparks sprayed, wires turned to tiny flames, while the beam bent in half. The alarms stopped after she pulled her fist away.
Bullets popped like a barrage of fireworks had gone off indoors, missed rounds ricocheting off the metal and equipment around her. She and Malcolm ducked for cover, held their pistols tightly, and waited for the bullets to stop flying. They didn’t.
“You fucking cock sucking whore,” Hawk yelled amidst the assault. “You just couldn’t get enough of us, eh?”
The clapping noises stopped. Hawk had to reload. This was their chance, and the duo sprang from their cover. Estrella fired five times at a fleeing Hawk who was diving and rolling across the floor, sparks flaring from her missed bullets in his wake. Malcolm tried and got the same results, even with his curving bullets. Hawk ended up in cover behind a computer console. He reached for the console’s keyboard and did something, but she couldn’t see what. The sound of two pods opening suggested he released the clones.
She faced away from Hawk and looked to the pods
behind. Their lids lifted open, and bald naked warlocks with tattoos decorating their bodies climbed out from the liquid within the pods, not caring about it dripping off their form or their dangling cock and ball sacks as their feet hit the ground.
The two clones shook as their chests got ripped apart with Malcolm’s bullets. He wasn’t having it. Neither was Hawk, so he released three more clones. Now, three Skulls members with their dicks waving about came running for them, hands glowing purple or red with IW energy. Estrella approached the first clone, aimed her pistol and double tapped him. She switched to the second and put a hole between his eyes, and red juices squirted the pod behind. And then to the third and double tapped his ass too. Three bodies painted the floor with gore.
Two pods opened to the left, same deal. It was like a horror movie, the dead just kept leaping to life and with movies like that, eventually, the good guys always ran out of bullets.
Pods opened from behind, and another six naked Skull members joined the party, as three more ahead climbed out from their pods, stepping over the deceased with smiling grins. For every clone she and Malcolm shot dead, two spun up from their watery filled pods.
And behind was Hawk, snickering and running away with a loaded pistol.
Pyrokinetic warlocks surrounded Estrella. But not Malcolm. She pointed at Hawk. “We have to stop him!”
Malcolm nodded, looking at him beyond the army of naked clones. “Leave dat to me!”
Malcolm dropped his pistol. His hands glowed orange as he channeled his biokinetic powers, altering his DNA to a wolf. He howled, sniffed, and then raced off into the warehouse. He left Estrella alone with the clones, their bare forms bringing back awful memories of a time when being forced to a bed by naked members of the same gang was a daily ordeal in her life.
It left her paralyzed with fear and returning bad memories; bad memories she fought. She had to. No more. This was it. She would put the gang down tonight, this time for good.
Specter Protocol Page 36