Chapter 36
About thirty metres away, there’s a grand staircase that leads to an open upper level, where I can see the only obvious tech in the entire space: a massive screen set into the far wall, the words NO Q-VID CONNECTED in large bold letters across it.
That, I’ll admit, gives me a second’s pause. Q-coms are perfectly secure—not even Atti can tap in without a physical sister device—but it’s damned expensive just for the audio. I didn’t even know they made them for video.
“Crimson.” A man’s head appears over the railing, near the staircase. “Or should I call you Azure?”
“Hello,” I call back cheerfully, waving. “Who are you?”
“Will you even remember if I tell you? I must say, though, I am impressed that you made it this far.” The man, whoever he is, seems worryingly unperturbed by my presence. Almost smug. “But it does seem a little short-sighted to have taken the Suppression serum before making your way up here.”
At the base of the staircase, something stirs. Two somethings, actually. Two big somethings.
“Hm.” The Argoses—Argii? I really have to look that up—start clumping their way toward me. Their footsteps sound like they’re going to break the stone. “Arguably, it was probably more short-sighted to calculate the dosage using an on-net lab.”
I activate my somatics.
No weapons, still, of course. I don’t even have a Ceramic. Not an easy fight by any means, but we knew there would be biosecurity in here somewhere, and I’m almost all the way to healthy. The odds are good enough.
“Sonder apricity defenestration,” he calls loudly.
I pause, but the Argoses keep coming.
“Um. I don’t think you got the right stand-down codes,” I observe.
“No, I think I did.”
I want to laugh as I try to shift into a better defensive position, but decide not to when I find that I can’t move. The man’s cheerful statement becomes even less funny as the Argii stomp closer and I take in exactly what he means.
“This… is…cheating,” I huff between straining, but ultimately vain, efforts to get my body to respond. Damn. Oh, damn.
“No, this is using a tool as it is meant to be used.” A long pause as the monsters with far too many eyes approach, until they fill my vision.
I will my muscles to move, try to use their rev-enhanced strength to force them into position against the invisible bonds that seem to be holding them in place.
It’s useless. “Limerance petrichor clinomania.” With a soft wheeze that I could almost take as annoyance, the two Argos slow, then turn and creep to either side of me, standing not two metres away.
I watch Smug Exec with rev-enhanced vision—I can still do that much, at least—and assess my options as he saunters confidently down the stairs toward me.
They’re not great. They’re not really “options” in the traditional sense, actually, because I can do literally damned nothing at the moment.
And he’s just plainly announced the biosecurity stand-downs for these monsters, which means he sees no possible course to me leaving this place alive.
To be fair, neither can I right now.
Smug Exec comes to stand in front of me. About five metres between me and him. I could kill him in less than a second, if I could do anything at all. “Is Jasa de Alwes really dead?”
“Yes.” It’s out of my mouth without my permission, almost like it’s someone else doing the talking. I hate it very much.
“How?”
“Knife to the stomach, on the way out of Sanctum. She bled out before we could get her to an AID.”
“What about Crimson?”
“Decapitated by a Hed.”
Smug Exec frowns. “By… a head? What?”
“No, by a Hed. By… de Alwes’s biosecurity.” I really wanted to let him stay confused, there, because it would have annoyed him to no end, but the words spill out anyway.
“Ah. Crazy old bat.” He nods his understanding. All cheerful, calm self-assurance as he examines me. Like I’m some sort of project that’s been brought in for his approval. “I didn’t think you were good enough to beat Crimson. It do that to your hand?”
“No it was the other way around, actually. But then I did it to mine as well, just in case you knew.” Damn. Apparently they didn’t know. That’s unfortunate.
“Ah.” A little more uncertainty in the response this time. A slight backing away before he recovers. “Well. Come along then. I need you to verify all this to my betters before we finish up with disposal.”
“Any chance we can do the verifying, but skip the disposal?” I know I should be panicking at this point, and I think maybe something deep down inside is, because I’m not feeling great. Certainly worried. Maybe even a touch dismayed.
He smiles sadly at me. “No, Azure. I am afraid not.” We walk up the stairs, trailed by the two Argoses. Smug Exec taps a few times on the terminal; suddenly the massive screen flickers to life, and a bored-looking man in another, possibly even more expensive, suit appears.
“Jasa de Alwes is dead, sir.” Smug Exec motions to me. “Tell him, Azure.”
“Jasa de Alwes is dead,” I agree to the screen. “And can I just say, your ears are enormous. Like an elephant’s. A Reconstruct would go a long way toward—ow.”
The man—his ears are pretty big—scowls as Smug Exec slaps me hard in the back of the head. “Azure, you are only to speak to answer questions.”
I don’t say anything more, despite wanting to. I do, however, do my best to tell him with my eyes how displeased I am.
“De Alwes is dead. Confirmed,” Big Ears says, twisting and tapping away on another terminal next to him. “Crimson?”
“Dead too.”
“Hm. A shame to lose two assets. This one can’t be reset?”
There’s an odd pause, and then Smug Exec shakes his head. “De Alwes’s work indicates the malleability period was too long ago. She postulates—”
“Fine.” Big Ears waves a hand tiredly. “Disposal, then.”
The screen returns to NO Q-VID CONNECTED.
“Well. That was easy,” says Smug Exec, stretching. “Now, Azure. Please follow me to the incinerator. It’s not far.”
My feet are just beginning to aim me after him when in the corner of my vision, the screen flickers to life once again. Smug Exec, ahead of me, turns. His brow furrows. He stares for a long second at the image. Apparently very, very confused.
I roll my eyes to the side enough to see a craggy face, far too close to the camera, leering down at us.
“Hello, Azure dear,” says Jasa. “Lachrymose effulgent hippopotamus.”