Chapter 25
“Still nothing,” I muttered, glancing at my armlet for the hundredth time in the last ten minutes.
The taxi sat parked on a side street that provided a view of the warehouse I used for the past day.
And right now, that view showed two security patrols parked outside the storage building I’d hidden in, meaning I’d either triggered an alarm somewhere or wasn’t as good as I thought I was at erasing any signs that I’d been there.
The security AVs had been parked there three hours already with no signs of leaving any time soon.
I was getting hungry, tired, and even worse, anxious.
Perhaps Lyra lost her armlet.
“I think the only way that would happen is if the enforcers caught her and took it off her,” I said.
You’re worried.
“Of course I’m worried. Despite me still being upset with her, she could be in serious trouble, and that armlet was the only way to reach her. Wait, you hacked Kynan’s armlet. Can you reach him?”
One moment… I’ve sent him a message from your armlet’s address.
“So, now it’s wait and see, and Nolan doesn’t have time for me to wait.” I yawned and then frowned. “What are you doing in there, Byte?”
What are you talking about?
“I’m more tired than I should be. The last time I felt like this, you were prepping a big upgrade. Don’t tell me you’re prepping another whopper.”
Okay, then I won’t.
“But you are, aren’t you?”
Of course. After the hazards we encountered at the data center, I expect us to encounter as much—and likely more—danger in Nolan’s rescue. An upgrade is crucial.
“I disagree. Not having me incapacitated and on my back right now is what’s crucial.”
The data I’ve compiled has provided the knowledge of hundreds of human lifetimes. As the colloquialism goes, I wasn’t born yesterday. Please trust my calculations. I need to improve my technology skills, among other things.
“For the record, you were only born last week . And just because you have a lot of information in that brain of yours, er, mine, it doesn’t mean you’re smart.”
That is precisely what it means.
“Well, it doesn’t mean you’ve got common sense.” I grumbled and then sighed. Byte was smart, not that I’d ever admit it to the little amp. That meant I needed a place to lie low without risk of any drones or enforcers finding me.
Kynan Kade’s apartments were gone, permanently.
They had detonated in a rather underwhelming but thorough way.
No loud explosion, no flames, just smoke billowing out from several windows.
I assumed the building’s fire-retardant systems had something to do with preventing the building from burning down and collapsing in on itself.
Regardless, no one would be using those rooms any time soon.
And the warehouse was still off-limits. Any other place was at risk of drone exposure…
except underground… which had been crawling with enforcers.
“Can you access the taxi’s newsfeed?” I asked.
Of course.
The news came on the screen. It was a video replaying the raid on the Crawl. Enforcers were wrapping up, loading the detainees into AVs. I checked the timestamps displayed in the lower corner of the videos.
“These are over two hours old. I bet they’ve cleared out of there by now.”
Very likely. With how many people they arrested, a significant number of enforcers would be necessary to assist in processing. With that effort, coupled with energy spent on the raid itself, the enforcers will undoubtedly be at end of shift and want rest as soon as they are able.
“My thoughts exactly.” I gestured to security AVs. “The Crawl’s got to be safer than here, with us out in the open like this, and safer than pretty much anywhere topside.”
If they haven’t already, enforcers will likely search the tunnels for resistance paraphernalia.
“I’m sure they will, but can you think of a safer place? Lyra and Kynan aren’t responding, so I think we have to assume they’re out of the picture.” I winced at the thought of Lyra in one of those labs.
The taxi began moving.
Once cleared, the Crawl is our safest option.
I leaned back. “On the bright side, it should be easy enough to find a room.”
The videos had made the raid look bad. Reality showed that it’d been worse.
I’d entered through the hidden street-level entrance, and when I reached the main hallway, chaos still reigned.
Blood splattered the walls. Dead and injured lay scattered.
Two young, tear-streaked boys sat, their backs against a wall, holding hands—they looked like siblings.
About half the doors hung open. Some were broken completely from their hinges.
I assumed the closed doors concealed survivors.
Debris was everywhere—it looked like enforcers had tossed every room, dumping the occupants’ entirety of possessions callously in the corridor…
that survivors were now scavenging like rats in a dumpster.
It appears the enforcers have already conducted their search—there’s no reason for them to return.
“You picking up any drones?” I asked quietly.
Nothing. It appears the enforcement agency has just eliminated the Crawl from their list of threats.
“It looks like it,” I agreed.
As I walked, I noticed that nearly all the young and middle-aged adults were gone. The ones who remained bore obvious signs of disabilities or looked like timid mice… and then there was me. An adult, fit male stood out like a sore thumb.
“I need to find somewhere out of sight and soon,” I said.
It looks like the enforcers were quite thorough, but I’d still take a place off the beaten path, so to speak. Try the approaching tunnel to the right.
I did, and it was more of the same. There were fewer survivors in the narrow corridor, and I continued until I reached one of the dead-end tunnels.
The walls were covered in graffiti and gang symbols…
and blood. Three male bodies were crumpled off to the side.
They’d clearly put up a fight—their bodies were riddled with blackened holes from laser shots.
Not far beyond them, two opposing doors stood open.
Clothes and boxes littered the space between them.
I tried not to look at the bodies as I stepped around them and most likely their possessions. I slowly pushed open the door to my right. “Hello? Anyone here?”
When there was no answer, I took a cautious step inside to find an apartment even smaller than mine.
It bore a threadbare sofa and a bunkbed.
The sofa had slices cut through the fabric, likely from an enforcer’s blade.
The bed had been stripped, with the sheets left in a pile on the floor.
The kitchenette’s cabinets stood open, and I was surprised to find enough canned food and bags of water on the shelves to last me at least a week.
The meal bars and cans on the floor would last another week.
“Looks like we have everything we need to get by for a while,” I began, “but this corridor is going to get awfully ripe awfully fast with those bodies out there.”
The door to this room is undamaged. It would prevent most odor from coming in.
“Still…” I walked back into the corridor. Once I checked the other room to find it empty, I dragged the bodies inside, each by his ankles, then closed the door and scanned the corridor before locking it behind me.
Leaving the bodies in the corridor to decompose would deter others from entering this area.
“Yeah, but we’re not sticking around here any longer than we have to, and I don’t want to have to step over them a day or two from now.”
Excellent point.
I heard the ping in my head.
I’ve prepared?—
“Give me ten minutes,” I interrupted.
I spent the next nine minutes washing up in the small bathroom, followed by eating from a badly dented can of some meat-flavored protein product.
Content, I took a seat on the lower mattress.
I checked my armlet one last time to find no new messages, so I fluffed a pillow and lay on my back.
“All right, Byte. I’m ready whenever you are. ”
I’m launching the update now.
Everything went dim inside me, and I closed my eyes and fell asleep. When I woke, it was to the sound of someone screaming.
“Byte?” I managed to get out, but my amp didn’t respond.
My body was a brick, and I struggled to open my eyes.
I didn’t know how long I’d been out, but the upgrade was still in progress.
I didn’t check my armlet for the time—I needed every ounce of energy to focus.
The door muffled the shouting and screaming, but there was something happening outside—a whole lot of something.
Someone pounded on the door. “Enforcement Services. Open up.”
I thought I was having a nightmare until I rolled off the bed and hit the floor hard. I pushed onto my hands and knees—it took all my strength to even hold that position. My lungs tickled, and I coughed without thinking.
“We can hear you in there.” The man outside jiggled the bar.
I tried to think straight. The room had no back exit, let alone a window.
I was trapped. I looked around. The shower would be the first place someone would look.
I might be able to cram into a kitchen cabinet, but that would take too long.
Fists pounded on the door again. “Last warning. If you don’t open, you’ll be arrested for obstruction. ”
I decided to drop to my stomach and roll under the bunk.
It was a lousy hiding spot, but better than being caught on all fours like a drunk dog.
My lungs tickled but they didn’t burn like they used to, and I could still breathe relatively easily.
I wondered how much of my lungs had been replaced by Byte’s biotechnological cells.
“C’mon, Byte. I need you back online five minutes ago.”
Blaster fire shot through the door, hitting the floor a bare foot or two from where I hid. I tried to make myself as small as I could as the door slammed open.
Several pairs of black boots rushed inside.
“Surrender!” the same voice said.
“There’s no one here,” a female’s voice said.
“I heard someone,” the first speaker said.
I could see the boots span out through the room, searching. When a pair stopped next to the bed, I knew I was screwed.
A female enforcer, in an all-black uniform and helmet, bent down and peeked under the bed.
It could’ve been a bad decision on her part—if I had any strength and an extra miracle or two, I could’ve hit her with the stun stick and run out before the others gunned me down.
But I was short on both strength and miracles, and instead she sneered. “Got one.”
Someone grabbed my ankle, and I was dragged out from under the bed. I lay there, surrounded by four enforcers, all holding blasters and stun sticks. I weakly tried to cover my face, only to have one kick my arm. “Hey, I recognize him.”
He held his armlet toward my face and scanned, then he grinned. “Got a level one here. Looks like we’re going to be getting bonuses this month.”
Another let out a whoop. “Drinks on Andy.”
I noticed one of them pull out wrist restraints.
When he knelt to put them on, I managed to kick out, knocking him on his butt.
They jeered and then someone else kicked me in the stomach.
All air shot out from me, and it would’ve been hard enough to inhale without all four enforcers thinking it’d be fun to beat a guy when he was down.
A stun stick zapped me, but it was set too low to knock me out.
So I felt them all join in on kicking me.
Pain erupted in my lower back, head, stomach (again), and legs.
All I could do was curl in on myself, trying to protect my head, throat, and stomach.
The pain and attack were so intense, I hadn’t even noticed Byte coming back online until it practically yelled in my head. I’ve completed the upgrade. May I show you?
My affirmative came out as a grunt—more of a whimper, really. Then Byte took over.
Well, it didn’t exactly take over. I was still in full control and in battered agony.
But I suddenly knew instinctively how to fight and exactly what to do.
With my energy back, I leapt to my feet, forcing myself to ignore the pain.
Before the enforcers even knew their victim had become a threat, I chopped one enforcer in the throat the instant before swinging my leg behind me and knocking another enforcer back.
I was moving so fast because my moves were purely instinctual.
The enforcers had initially been taken off guard, but the three remaining on their feet were now all attacking.
I punched and kicked, using maneuvers I’d never learned, but they were so effective, the enforcers didn’t get in another hit.
I managed to duck when one swung, only to take her out with some kind of swing-kick.
Within seconds, all four lay on the floor, unconscious.
I gingerly touched my ribs, which hurt enough that they had to be at least bruised badly if not broken. I stared blankly at the enforcers. “How did you do that?”
Our assailants will begin to wake within two minutes, unless you kill them.
“No,” I said. “Not killing anyone we don’t have to.”
Okay. The next best option is to evacuate, but there are undoubtedly more enforcers in the corridors.
I glanced down at the unconscious enforcers. “Okay. I’ve got a plan.”