Chapter 27
Kynan must’ve been desperate because his safe room was a cockroach-infested apartment in a crumbling tenement building in the slums. I had to be careful where I walked because some of the floorboards were rotted through and through from termites and water damage.
The old chairs made me itch, and I tried not to think about what critters called those home.
But the safe room had a few things going for it.
The room had both a working toilet and a sink, something that most places in this building probably didn’t have.
There was food and water stored in a seven-foot-tall lockbox in the closet.
The food was basic ration bars, but there was enough for even my appetite.
The room might’ve had a lock on the door, but it was a flimsy lock, identical to the other archaic locks in the building.
If Kynan had put anything better on, it would’ve been like hanging a neon sign on the door that flashed, Good stuff inside, rob me.
Most importantly, the safe room was safe .
Aside from Kynan and very, very few members of his inner circle, no one knew about it.
That way, if someone was caught (other than his inner circle), enforcers couldn’t beat the location out of them.
Barring drones scanning every room of every building, we had a few hours to catch our breath…
Or wallow in misery.
My ribs hurt, but Byte confirmed they’d only been bruised, along with a kidney, right thigh, and upper back. My misery was spent thinking about Lyra and how she’d be alive if only I’d shot that girl. What really sucked was that—if I could go back in time—I wasn’t sure I could pull the trigger.
It was just a girl.
“Stupid damn amps,” I muttered.
“What’s that?” Kynan asked without looking up from the armlet I’d given him—which had technically belonged to him before me, anyway.
I hope you’re not talking about me.
“I’m talking about the girl.”
“What girl?” Kynan asked.
“The girl who shot Lyra. She was just a kid. Her stupid amp hijacked her body. Just like the others.”
“Impossible,” Kynan said. “Low-towners don’t have amps.”
Byte hadn’t thought to scan the refugees for that reason. It wasn’t until it came up with a theory that it checked to discover that, not only did the zombified refugees all have amps, but their amps were all running the same override program that gave them complete control over their host.
“They weren’t low-towners,” I said, then shrugged.
“Or, if they were, Softbiotics figured out how to implant amps into them, maybe like how Dr. Katz implanted Byte. But I’m thinking they’re high-towners since they looked like they had a better healthcare package up until the enforcers or someone sent a command code that turned them into homicidal refugees. ”
Kynan’s brow furrowed. “What’s to stop Softbiotics from sending that same code to your amp and have it take control of you? They could walk you right into their headquarters to get their amp back.”
“They can’t access it, but I bet they’ve tried.”
They can try; they won’t succeed. The Softbiotics amps have a physical control chip with the override programming.
The programming is rather simple since the amp is already wired directly to their host’s brain.
However, it would be far more difficult to take control of their host’s thoughts.
I would think being imprisoned in your own body would be a waking nightmare.
Kynan started tapping a message on his armlet. “I’ve been talking with one of my people—you’ve met her—Key. She’s the best when it comes to hacking things. I’ll ask her to look into a solution to fry the hijack program.”
“I can have Byte send her everything it picked up already,” I offered.
“You can do that?”
Done.
Kynan glanced at his screen, frowned, and then looked up. “How’d it do that? Amps can only access the amp-link.”
“Why do you think they want their hands on my amp so bad?” I asked.
Kynan eyed me. “I hope, when all this is done, that you’ll let me at least run some scans on your amp. I feel like I’m always the underdog in the fight against Softbiotics.”
“That’s because you are always the underdog. But we get my buddy back first, and we do it tonight. Then I’ll consider it,” I said.
“Your buddy first, Softbiotics second. Then we’ll talk about those scans.”
“Fair enough,” I said and leaned back in the ratty chair.
We were waiting for our ride, which would hopefully be there within the hour.
Even though people in the slums tended to keep to themselves, I couldn’t rely on that for long.
There was no way someone didn’t see the patrol vehicle park in the open building across the street.
I’d even left the car door open so the locals could tear it apart.
I figured they’d break into it anyway, so I might as well make it easy for them.
I also removed the uniform before stepping out of the vehicle, though I did carry it with me since it came in handy once.
I didn’t need the bullseye on my back when we made our way to the safe room.
Still, I felt plenty of eyes on us as we hurried into the building.
I wondered if the car was already stripped bare.
It would’ve been nice to just have Byte keep driving us, but the AV was reported missing much sooner than expected—before we reached the slums—and drones were instructed to search for it.
And so we dumped the AV. Unfortunately, there weren’t many cars in the slums to steal.
“Interestingly, there’s no news on the second raid,” Kynan said. “But my people confirmed there’s a third phase and it’s already underway. They’ve bumped up the timetable and are sending a car here ASAP.”
“What’s phase three?” I asked.
“Enforcers are scouring Dreswick, building by building, room by room. They’re searching for anyone who’s been identified as a potential resistance member.
They want to make sure the resistance is gone for good.
” He grumbled something under his breath before he spoke up.
“Let’s hope they save the slums for last. Our odds aren’t good if we get caught on the Avway.
Then again, our odds are worse if we get caught off the Avway.
I’m a mediocre shot and worthless in hand-to-hand combat. ”
I cocked my head. “But you’re the leader of the resistance. And you had a military amp.”
“How’d you know—you know what? It doesn’t matter.
Yes, I had a military amp because my family has served in security for generations.
But if you know I have an amp, I bet you can see that it’s just a dead chunk of metal in my brain.
As for the ‘leader’ bit? Yes, I’m a leader…
I lead . My head is for strategy. Always has been. ”
I tapped my temple. “Well, lucky for us, my head has a few perks.” Not that the perks had helped anyone I cared about.
The opposite, in fact. Was a stolen amp the last straw in the enforcers’ willingness to put up with the resistance?
If so, the raids wouldn’t have happened—at least not yet—and Lyra would still be alive.
Grandmother would still be alive—that blame fell squarely on my shoulders.
Same with Nolan, except that there was still a chance to set things right.
Only that the entire damned world seemed to be conspiring against me getting to him.
Someone knocked on the door. Kynan jumped to his feet. “That’ll be Talon.”
“That was fast,” I said.
Kynan opened the door to two men, low-towners by the look of them, wearing well-worn ponchos.
Kynan frowned. “I thought Talon was coming.”
I noticed the skinny man standing behind them. I recognized him from when we first entered the building. When he met my eyes, I saw the guilt.
“Kynan, it’s a setup!” I yelled, reaching for my blaster.
But they were ready. One whipped out a stun stick, striking Kynan before he could even react. The other revealed a black rectangular device with what resembled a small black dish attached to the end of it… and it was aimed directly at me.
No!
I fired at the same time the undercover enforcer activated the device. There was no sound, but a bolt of lightning erupted in my brain, and I blacked out.
First thing I noticed was a killer migraine.
Second thing I noticed, I was flat on the floor.
The two enforcers were still in the room.
Kynan groaned, so at least he was still alive and nearby.
One enforcer was bragging about how they’d gotten lucky, catching the leader of the resistance and Roman Voss’s pet science project from the same tip.
The other seemed more interested in the bonus he was about to get from bringing us in.
Cal, we’re back online. They are currently restraining Kynan. We’re next. Hurry; take them out while they’re distracted and unarmed.
I cracked my eyes open to find them fitting plasticuffs around Kynan’s wrists and ankles.
We were on the third floor, but they clearly weren’t going to take any chances with Kynan running off.
And they’d do the same to me. I rolled onto my feet with my jaw clenched.
Every muscle felt like it’d been soaked in acid.
The guy at Kynan’s ankles noticed me first. Shocked, he said, “You’re not supposed to be up.
” He reached for his blaster, but his surprise had bought me nearly a second, which I took full advantage of.
I’d crossed the space in a single leap, slamming my left fist into one enforcer before tackling the other.
We landed hard, and his breath whooshed from his lungs.
In my mind, I saw the exact way to strike, and I slammed my palm into his nose with too much strength.
His eyes rolled up, and his body convulsed.