Chapter 37
NOBODY MOVES OR SAYS ANYTHING for a long, confused second. I realise at least a part of what’s just happened at roughly the same time as Smug Exec, who’s starting to look decidedly less smug. “Sonder apricity defenestration.” He begins backing away from me. “Sonder apricity defenestration!”
I take a cautious step forward. And then another. Then smile slowly at him.
“I’m afraid Azure’s just consciously processed the stand-up code,” Jasa explains apologetically through the q-vid screen to the increasingly terrified man. “You’re just saying nonsense words now.”
“It does sound a bit weird when you keep repeating it like that,” I agree to Smug Exec, cracking my knuckles.
“Callipygian peregrinate psithurism.” It comes out as a little gasp from the man. Immediately to his sides, the Argoses stir.
Ah. “Limerance petrichor… clinomania?” I say quickly.
The Argii clomp menacingly toward me.
“Um…” I glance at the q-vid screen.
Jasa shrugs back at me. “Sorry, dear. These ones need a modulator. They’re all yours.”
“Great.” I activate all my damned revs. Two Argosi. One hand. No weapon. I’m not caught off guard or badly injured like the last time, but this is still asking a lot. Behind the monsters, I realise Smug Exec is scrambling up the stairs, toward the terminal.
It doesn’t take a genius to figure out what he’s doing; I slingshot into motion, darting around the left Argos’s flashing claws and flying after him, an ominous thumping behind me suggesting that the bios have not been content to just let me run off.
I’m quick, but Smug Exec still manages to get a few taps in before I can grab him.
The lights across the entire massive room fade to an ugly, pulsing red.
“Oh, I think he might have hit a panic button, Azure,” says Jasa helpfully as I spin, wrenching Smug Exec around so that he’s between me and the charging Argii, facing them.
I thrust him out toward them. “Better say it quick.”
The man gives the faintest gasp of fear. “Limerance petrichor cl—”
The first of the Argoses arrives and swipes hard at me. I dodge.
Smug Exec doesn’t.
Worse, he doesn’t finish his stupid sentence.
“Really, Azure?” says Jasa disapprovingly as the man’s corpse collapses to the floor, half his torso pretty much gone.
“Thought he’d be faster,” I mutter, diving away and putting one of the massive marble columns in between me and the Argos. “And why the hell aren’t you dead? I saw you die.”
“No, you saw Other de Alwes die. That’s who you were escorting around, this past week.
” Her voice seems to travel with me, despite some distance to the screen now; apparently the room’s set up so that these remote conversations can be comfortably had from anywhere in here.
“Honestly, you kept her alive a lot longer than I expected. I was starting to get worried.”
I fling myself to the left as an Argos thunders a claws-out strike into the column I’m hiding behind. The stone shatters, red-lit dust exploding in a cloud away from it; I barely have time to recover before I’m diving again, this time away from the other one. “She was a damned Dupe?”
“ ‘Dupe’ is such a derogatory term,” tuts Jasa. “I prefer ‘scion.’ ”
“That’s a bit grand.” I dash to my left and leap the balustrade, my revs taking care of the landing on the lower floor.
“It’s a grand achievement.”
The Argos are coming down the stairs through the pulsing red light, but the extra few seconds helps. I position myself, digesting Jasa’s revelation. Damn. “Did she know?”
She shakes her head. “All thanks to the Keres, really. They tried killing me using a hacked Automaid—and when I woke up a few hours later, I realised that the AID had taken a brain scan while I was unconscious. That’s when I had the idea.
” She shrugs. “I had access to the Keres’ internal exec comms, so I was already planning to hire you once they decided to send a scion after me.
Let you discover the truth for yourself, then try and work with you.
But it was a bit of a dangerous play, all things considered, and I realised that might be an advantage, if I just got a scion of my own to do it instead… ”
“Ah.” The Argii are on the lower level and bounding toward me, claws out.
So much of my unpleasant past week does, unfortunately, make a lot of sense now.
“So all of this was just to get you to this point, then. To fake your death?” I wait until the last second, then dodge the first Argos—I’m beyond fortunate they’re not like Jasa’s bios, and have no idea how to work together—and sling myself up onto its back, before punching down with rev-enhanced strength into its shoulder, through the disgusting eyeball pastiche.
Just squelchy red goo in there, unfortunately, but being embedded to my elbow does give me something of an anchor as it tries to buck me off.
“It was a lot of things, Azure. Still is.” On the screen, Jasa’s craning her neck as if it will help her see over whatever obstruction is between my fight and the cam she’s watching through.
“But, yes—partly. Bodies can be printed, people can be bought. The Keres needed the chase, and they needed it to finish with an eyewitness who literally couldn’t lie to them.
They weren’t ever going to give up looking for me until they heard the news from you, like this. ”
“Or… from… Crimson,” I gasp as I hold on grimly, waiting until the trailing Argos has almost reached us before flinging myself aside as its claws flash out. Instead of dissecting me, they bury themselves very gratifyingly in the back of the monster I was just riding.
“True, but I knew you’d beat him. Crimson was always so angry, always took everything so seriously. It wasn’t healthy. I really did prefer to work with you, you know,” she adds earnestly.
“Lucky me.” I’ve rolled a short distance away, but thankfully earned a respite; as planned, the first Argos has taken the assault on its back personally, launching itself at its surprised and probably very displeased counterpart.
Jasa frowns down at me from her massive screen. “Now, now. Don’t forget I’ve entrusted you with the stand-up phrase,” she reminds me, as the sound of wheezing effort and clashing claws echoes around the vast, red-bathed room. “That has to count for something. ‘Sonder apricity defenestration.’ See?”
I glower at the screen, long enough that I hope indicates to her just how little I appreciate hearing those words aloud again. She’s right, though, at least. I’m not frozen in place like before. “So I get to be in charge of my own body? Yeah. Very generous, Jasa.”
“Jasa?” Her eyebrow raises. “And here I thought you didn’t remember names.”
I grunt, ignoring it. Every rev still primed, but the two Argoses have pretty much forgotten about me now, claws and blood and gross eyeball gel flying everywhere as they try to out-murder one another. I decide not to interfere. “How the hell did you know when to jump on the q-com?”
“I told you—I have access to the Keres’ exec comms; I was just waiting for confirmation to go out about my death.
That man you just got sliced in half? He lived there, was never allowed to leave.
He was the only other one who knew your stand-down code.
Even if they’d caught you on the lower floors, you were always going to end up in that room. ” She looks very pleased with herself.
“Of course I was.” The Argos that didn’t get skewered in the back is, perhaps unsurprisingly, starting to win.
One of the other’s four arms is swinging uselessly at the elbow, hanging by barely a tendon.
“And you clearly want me alive in here, otherwise you would have just let things run their course. Big risk, intervening like that, when everything was already set up so perfectly for you. Even if you were sure about the timing, anything else goes wrong, and you let the Keres know you’re alive all over again.
So… I’m guessing you want something from in here? ”
“When you’re done, dear. If it’s not too much trouble.”
The Argos with the dangling arm is basically a bloodied punching bag made of eyeballs now, barely moving beneath the frenzied barrage of the other one’s claws.
I sprint forward before “barely” becomes “not”; the relatively healthy Argos turns, but I’m not aiming for it, instead sliding past and using my one hand to wrench the dying monster’s pre-sliced limb with all my rev-enhanced strength.
Something snaps, and then I’m holding my very own Argos arm, replete with extended half-metre claws.
“It won’t be too much trouble if you tell me about Oceanus.” The healthy Argos seems torn between finishing the job it’s started, or coming at me. I put the other’s arm on the floor and, using a foot to steady it, snap off a claw. Hardly a replacement for a good Ceramic, but it will have to do.
“Naturally. Though, just a warning—I don’t know everything, yet. That’s actually another reason you’re there. You’re doing great, by the way, dear,” she adds encouragingly.
I don’t have time to respond because the winner of the Argii death match has made its choice, charging directly at me.
But it’s injured, sluggish, and has significantly fewer eyes to see out of than when it started.
With all my revs active, it’s not actually that hard to dodge and stab and dance away, leaving it heaving and confused.
Then I glance up at the screen as the realisation hits. Crystalises. Damn it. “There was never information in that file your Dupe hung over my head, was there. The real one was in here all along.”
She makes an apologetic face.
The first Argos, the one whose claw I’m now using, is lying still a short distance away.
The other one lumbers at me again. Labouring a bit, and from the unpleasant mess it’s leaving on the floor, losing a hell of a lot of blood.
I slash, weave, dive away from its tired swipes and clumsy charges.
Again. Again. Again. “But you… knew enough… to know I’d want it,” I pant eventually.
Not flagging, but definitely feeling like I’m having to work harder than usual at not dying, this morning.
“I hoped. Because I want it too.”
The Argos stumbles toward me again. Pauses, as if rethinking the strategy. Wheezes.
Slowly tumbles forward, and lies still.
“Two Argi, one-handed! Very impressive, Azure,” adds Jasa admiringly.
I watch the downed monster for a long few seconds, hand on my knees. The damned thing was persistent.
“Is… that how… you say it?” I eventually ask between deep breaths. “ ‘Argi’?”
“Argi. Yes, I think so.”
“Thank you.” I exhale. “Alright. So why do you want to know about Oceanus?” Keep my revs active, just in case, as I approach the fallen Argos. But a quick, cautious prod indicates that, yes, it’s very much dead.
“Because Landry was my son.”