Chapter 36 #2
I looked around. The two other shapes near me were spread out in their search.
As for Talon, he must’ve been hiding because there were four shapes moving about, talking amongst themselves, and they were shooting each body they came across.
Talon didn’t have much time. I couldn’t see him in my HUD (that was a good thing), but I also couldn’t see Garris (that was a bad thing).
I approached another shape. I couldn’t see his eyes, so I was sneaking up to him from behind. I grabbed his helmet and slammed his head forward while simultaneously shoving my blade up the base of his skull.
For the fourth, I made my way toward him only to stumble over a body.
I hit the floor, keeping myself from faceplanting with my injured left arm, and I grunted in pain.
I heard the shape run at me before I saw it, and he tackled me.
My knee had been at an angle, and instant agony shot up my leg as my knee twisted and popped in an unnatural way.
For a moment, I could do nothing but get pummeled, and by the fists, I could tell it was Mallon again.
He couldn’t see me clearly, so he wasn’t getting in direct hits, but even indirect hits rattled my brain.
I brought my hands up to fend off the hits.
Then, something bonked his helmet. He tumbled off me.
Byte had dialed down my pain but not nearly enough, and I saw white as I rolled onto my good knee, scrambling for the knife I’d lost. Instead, I found a stun stick, and I tumbled onto Mallon, shoving the stick in the nearest place I could connect to.
As it turned out, there’s minimal body armor on the crotch. He howled, and I held the stun stick there for a good three-count before pulling back.
Byte appeared next to me, clear as day in the dark.
I discovered the delivery drones on this floor have no security firewalls.
They aren’t big enough to harm anyone, but they seem to be working well as annoyances.
I’m currently distracting the enforcers hunting Talon.
He is weak enough that I’m concerned he can no longer fight.
I looked in that general direction and saw all four shapes moving erratically. Someone fired into the air.
“Don’t hit the CC!” Garris yelled.
He was closer than I expected, and I scrambled to search Mallon’s pockets. I pulled out a blaster, a knife, and two small orbs.
Grenades are illegal. He shouldn’t be carrying them.
“Talon, give me a wave,” I called out.
An instant later, a tiny blob moved. He’d crawled halfway across the floor and was nowhere near the four enforcers.
In my mind, I saw how to activate the grenade.
I twisted the sphere at its center line, rotated it and twisted the other center line.
Then I threw it between the four enforcers and then tucked my head into my arms. They weren’t close to the control center, but then again, I had no idea how much explosive was packed into a single grenade.
Anywhere might be too close in this atrium, and I realized with a pang that I might’ve just killed us all.
The explosion was a volcanic eruption in the darkness, and I was glad I had my eyes closed and my head protected.
Heat and debris pelted me, and something burned my back.
I rolled to get it off me. My knee still hurt something fierce—it was the frontrunner in an opera of pain I was currently feeling.
When the darkness returned, I looked up and noticed only one blob where the four had stood a moment earlier. This blob was on the ground, moaning.
Then, I saw the last two shapes. One yanked the other up, and from where I was, the two could’ve been a single shape.
“Not bad. I was watching the entire show,” Garris said, tapping what sounded like his faceplate. “I’ll have to make sure my next team has night-enhanced vision. By the way, I have your friend, and I can see you, so drop the weapons, and get on your feet.”
“Don’t do it, Cal. He’ll just shoot you unarmed,” Talon said.
I heard the charge of a stun stick and saw the light, then one shape collapsed.
The other shape moved toward me. “You don’t stand a chance, so just give up and I’ll give you an easy death unlike what your friend will get.
One of his little charades caused me to get reprimanded, and I got stuck on this shithole rather than on TerraSoft Premier where I belong.
Trust me, you don’t want to die like he will. ”
I heard the whir of drones, then Garris fired six times. A second after each shot, a thud followed.
He has disabled all the service drones. There is nothing else in here for me to hack.
I gritted my teeth and tried to get to my feet, holding my weight on my right leg only. I dropped the blaster but didn’t drop anything else. I wouldn’t—couldn’t—give up for Nolan’s sake… or Grandmother’s… or Lyra’s… or for that kid I’d seen being walked out of the Crawl who I couldn’t help.
“Come and get me, asshole,” I said.
“You showed that you have skills, but you lack the experience for proper combat.”
Watch out. He threw?—
The light of a sun blinded me, sending sharp pain through my eyes. I dropped the knife and sphere, clutching at my eyes.
I am trying to improve your eyes as quickly as I can but they are badly burned.
Blind, I didn’t see Garris quickly close the distance and stab me in the stomach.
Grabbing my gut, I fell off-balance and hit the floor.
I struggled to get away, but he grabbed my left ankle and yanked me back.
It jolted my knee, and I cried out. I slapped and clutched at the floor, trying to keep from getting pulled, grabbing anything I could use for a weapon.
I’m attempting to stanch all blood flow in the impacted veins.
My vision was coming back as a narrow, blurry tunnel; and my body seemed to be shutting down. I fumbled, twisting the weapon in my hands. The light in front of me darkened, and I felt the warmth of Garris’s proximity. “See? You are worthless without an amp.”
I reached out and grabbed him, yanking him closer. He grabbed my wrist and pulled me to my feet. I tried to avoid putting any weight on my left leg, but the jostling alone was agony. I nearly bit off my tongue when I clamped my jaw tight.
Garris went to release me, and instead, I pulled him closer. With my free hand, I slipped the small grenade through the gap between his helmet and body armor and shoved it into his armor. Then I let go and fell to the floor.
He stood, surprise morphing his features, then he scrambled to get the object out of his suit. I rolled into a fetal position, grabbing a body near me, and pulling it over me like a blanket. It probably wouldn’t be enough.
Viktor growled and the grenade exploded. What seemed like a volcanic eruption before was a nuclear bomb this time. My entire body felt scorched in a brilliant onslaught of hell opening several feet away. Byte must’ve kept me from blacking out, because I sure figured I would’ve otherwise.
My ears hurt. They rang so loud, I was getting a migraine. I felt blood running from both of them. My vision was still crappy, and my eyes were a wide-open water faucet. Somehow, I managed to dump the perforated body atop me and drag myself away from where chunks of Viktor Garris still smoldered.
The disk Garris had thrown still emitted light, and it was enough to see the central computer. It was still white, but it bore scorch marks and blood streaks, and it might’ve been destroyed with the first grenade, let alone the second one.
Still, I dragged myself to it, using my one decent arm and one okay leg. My stomach was leaking pretty good yet, and I wondered how much blood someone could lose before they died.
I had no idea if Talon was still alive. Hell, I had no idea how much longer I was going to be alive. Inch by excruciating inch, I dragged my body to the Softbiotics Tower-11’s command center.
The small input panel stood open, and I managed to lean against the center in an almost-upright sitting position. “All right, Byte, the rest is up to you.” My voice was gravelly from the smoke.
Byte sat next to me. Cal, it’s time. When we deactivate all the amps on this system’s amp-link, it will kill all the low-towners implanted with control chips.
I gritted my teeth. “Yeah, I kinda figured that.”
Since I will be connected to the same network at the time, we will also die.
I swallowed and was oddly okay with it. I gave a small nod and then shoved my hand into the largest port.
In my mind, I could see Byte enter the system.
It was a strange world filled with mathematical symbols, some flying by at light speed while others were slowing enough to read.
Every now and then, she’d grab a symbol and twist it.
At an instinctual level, I knew these were the managing controls of the holding facilities.
White dots turned green as locks were deactivated and the systems pumping drugs through the air were powered down.
Small packets of data—there were so many of them—that had been still began to move.
Soon enough, they were exiting the areas, some moving faster than others, some moving in bundles with other packets.
Every packet was a person—everything the system tracked and knew about that person.
Byte deleted the packets next, making them invisible to the command center, and perhaps the greatest defense of all against enforcers.
After she freed all eight holding centers, she entered a different part of the system.
This one was bustling with activity. Against the dark backdrop of data transfers, amps glittered like stars.
She gathered some symbols and replaced them with others of her own that weren’t quite the same yellow.
A second passed, and the yellow darkened to orange.
The symbols expanded, then burst and began pouring away from Byte like the flooded river.
It swallowed and drowned amps as it washed through them, taking out hundreds and then thousands.
But the water had grown too big, and it started to run in all directions.
I would’ve run, but Byte remained there, a bright star in an ocean of drowning stars.
When the orange water touched her, I felt the burn deep in my mind.
When the orange enveloped her, I drowned from the inside out.
I tried to breathe, but I forgot how. Even my heart forgot how to pump.
I felt my consciousness fade, and I noticed that at least one good thing about dying is that it didn’t hurt.