Critical Shift: Apocalypse
May. 23rd, 2011 04:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jl8eThis chapter of CS is the third-longest thing I've written for Shadowfist. (Fourth, if you count the OmniFAQ, but that's a very different beast.)
It contains the only scene I knew was going to be in the second half of CS before I started working on it again, and even then, I wasn't completely sure of the exact motivations. (It's the last one.)
Holz's security override opened the door. He put the lights on.
Geoffrey Smythe sat up in his bed. His Paradox Cube seemed to unfold from nowhere to hover by his head. A strange light played across its facets as it rapidly shifted form.
"What do you want?" he snarled.
Holz remained calm. "Boatman wants your ass in the command center now. They've started rolling up your network."
"Impossible." said Smythe.
"Tell him that."
Holz shut the door on Smythe's response and hurried back to the elevator.
He watched Smythe saunter into the command center about fifteen minutes later, acting completely unconcerned. Smythe walked over to where Boatman was talking to a couple of aides, and asked, "What's this about?"
Boatman glared at him. "About time you got here. Three of your active agents have gone missing in the last week. We started keeping watch on the sleepers as best we could, and at least another half-dozen have vanished."
"It must be coincidence. They don't have any means here to detect my arts, and there's no connection between my puppets."
"Except you," said Holz.
"They don't remember me at all."
"Cameras, Smythe," said Holz, "They're everywhere, recording everything. Once they have a couple of your agents, they can go digging until they find you in both their pasts, then start tracking your movements."
"Absurd," said Smythe, "There's no way to sort through that much data so far after the fact." Even he didn't really sound convinced.
"Be that as it may, Geoffrey," Boatman said, in a calm voice, "They are picking up your agents. It doesn't matter how. We must act on the assumption they can. Start pulling the pins. Go for maximum wreckage. Get down to the financial section and keep them up to date. We can short the stocks of their companies, then pick up the pieces later for next to nothing."
Smythe nodded meekly, and hurried out.
Once he was gone, Boatman turned to Holz. "Get your men ready."
The morning's sun was just rising, casting long shadows from the towers of glass and metal and plastic. This was the only time the city was quiet; the frenzy of the night-time having lost its battle with exhaustion while the machinery of the day was only just beginning to grind into motion.
A dozen men and women moved in the shadows, surrounding a small warehouse. The Harbinger watched them from a nearby rooftop. A dark-skinned man stood next to him, the early morning sunlight shining off his metal arms.
Devendra Chalal yawned. He was a night creature, here only because he did not trust the Harbinger. He surveyed the situation.
"Too many monsters inside," he said, "Weak perimeter. This won't go well."
The Harbinger smiled, and did not respond. Below, his disciples produced fire bombs. Acting as one, they hurled them at the building. A second wave followed immediately, crashing through the windows.
The building's fire-prevention systems were swiftly overwhelmed, and it became a blazing torch, briefly threatening to outshine the rising sun.
Heedless of the flames, they moved closer, taking positions by the exits. When the first men burst through those doors, they were cut down before they could take more than two steps.
They heard the inhuman howling first. A creature, half again as high as a man and engulfed in flame, burst through a wall. It roared and thrashed wildly. The Harbinger's students moved calmly to encircle it. They used their blades to corral it, pushing it back when it attempted to rush one side of the circle or another. They did not need to press the attack; the flame would do the work for them. The creature's movements became weaker, less directed, and soon it crashed to the ground. One man stepped out of the ring, and smoothly removed the monster's head with his blade.
They watched for half an hour, as the building collapsed inward and the fire began to die down. Nothing else attempted escape.
Chalal turned to the Harbinger. He made a small bow, almost, but not quite, mocking.
"Underestimated you," he said, "Again."
He walked away, leaving the Harbinger to watch the fire burn itself out.
"Won't do it three times," he muttered, almost too low for the Harbinger to hear.
Geoffrey Smythe stopped running, leaning against the wall to catch his breath. He could hear the men around the corner, yelling orders, looking for him.
He ignored the blood oozing down his arm. At his command, his Paradox Cube traced a pattern in the air. The next man to turn that corner would be turned inside-out. If he were lucky.
It wasn't much, but he didn't have the time for anything complex. He turned to run, but the Paradox Cube floated before him, blocking the way. It opened.
"Not now," he snarled, but he shoved his hand into the opening. He felt a brief tugging, then the Cube returned to its normal place at his shoulder.
He inspected the hand. A little blood trickled from the stump where his index finger had been, slowing and stopping even as he watched.
He heard voices getting closer around the corner. He tried to reach out, to cloud their minds, but he couldn't get any purchase.
He ran. Who were they, and where had Boatman got them? They'd been to the Netherworld, otherwise he could have grabbed their minds and worked them like puppets, but it was more than that. They'd trained for this; they knew too much about what he could do and how to avoid it. They'd gone for the Paradox Cube first in the initial ambush, and he'd been lucky it had survived.
He almost reached the next intersection before they turned the corner. A burst of gunfire tore into his arm, and he stumbled, losing his footing.
Then the screaming started. He scrambled around the corner as they were distracted. He had to keep moving. It was only pain; it didn't matter.
The screaming was cut off with a burst of gunfire. That should leave them a lot less eager to chase him, and he was almost there. Past this set of labs was his refuge.
He stumbled in, closing the door behind him. The room smelled faintly of rotten meat, but there was little else that set it apart from any of the other labs. General Gog was remarkably tidy for an abomination.
Gog itself was here, rising from the long table upon which it lay. It sniffed the air. "Smythe," it rumbled, "You are injured."
"Boatman's turned on me," he gasped, "Or maybe just Holz, but he hasn't got the spine to take a piss without Boatman's say-so." He heard the sounds of the soldiers again outside the door. "You have to protect me."
Gog moved toward the door, towering above him. "Why?"
"We had a deal," he said, "I destroyed the thing in your brain, and you'd help me against Boatman when the time came. It's come."
Gog's arm lashed out, impossibly fast. It snatched the Paradox Cube out of the air and started to squeeze.
Smythe's heart felt like it was being squeezed in that massive hand. Reflexively, he backed away. "No, please," he begged.
Gog moved closer, pressing Smythe into the corner. Its voice was a low rumble, barely audible. "And what is it I gain by aiding you?"
"You hate Boatman." Smythe was babbling now. "He enslaved you. You want to kill him. Please stop. You owe me. Please stop. Don't...."
The Paradox Cube shattered with a surprisingly quiet snap. Smythe sank to his knees, weeping. Gog grabbed him by the throat and hauled him back to his feet.
"Yes, I hate him," it hissed. "I hate you all. And he gives me armies, and weapons, and everything I need to kill you by the thousands. His war will be years in the fighting, and through it all, you humans will be dying, at my command, if not by my own hands."
"What can you offer me to compare to that joy?"
The soldiers outside waited for the screaming to stop before returning to Holz to report.
Rei Okamoto sang along to the music she had playing as she set up her kit. The driver turned around and glared at her, unhappy with the noise, but she didn't care. She was back where she belonged.
How long had it been since she'd done something like this? Almost two years ago now, and even that had been a big, organized corporate job. It was almost like she was fourteen again, sitting in the back of a grimy van outside a corp HQ, with two crazy, beautiful, doomed boys up front, waiting on her word, trusting her to work the security systems and keep them alive as they busted in and out again.
The Rei of twelve years ago would barely believe all of this. The kit was the best that could be had, no longer whatever could be stolen and salvaged. The software was tuned and honed sharper than the finest blades they made in orbit, ready to slice through a microsecond of an opening. And the team... the team would have left teenaged Rei slack-jawed in awe.
She smiled. Everything else had changed, but the van still somehow managed to smell of old socks.
She double-checked the system diagnostics, and made a call.
"Ready when you are."
Curtis Boatman was having a good day. His scientists had just confirmed that the remains in Gog's chambers were the all that was left of his biggest problem.
Gog itself was here in the control center, quietly monitoring the military end of things. Holz was at its side. He was still clearly uncomfortable at being subservient to it, but Boatman didn't care how uncomfortable Holz was, as long as he did what he was told.
The financial end was going well, too. Several of the companies on the receiving end of Smythe's sabotage had completely cratered, and Dao Biotech was now buying up the remains. It was still expensive, but their cash reserves could mostly handle it.
An alert popped up in a window before him. A major bank was cutting off their credit and demanding repayment. A second one followed minutes later.
Gog turned to him. "Doctor Boatman. Several subsidiaries are under attack." A window appeared before it. "There are also systematic raids being made on our abomination caches."
Another window. "It would also appear that the financial markets have turned on us."
Boatman scowled, and settled back into his chair. "Well, this is the attack you've been expecting for so long. You have your contingency plans, so set them in motion."
"I already have," it rumbled, "But the attack is larger and more closely coordinated than expected. I believe we can hold at the physical level, but the financial one is more questionable, since we are deeply overextended on that front already."
It consulted several other windows. "I also expect an electronic assault to accompany these, but there is none as yet."
Boatman felt a sudden burning pain in the side of his neck. All the lights in the room flickered, and the holographic displays dissolved into multicolored static for a second.
"What was that?" he yelled, rubbing his neck.
Holz was already in motion, stationing guards on all the entrances, and sending runners to bring reinforcements. "Micro-EMP bomb," he said, as he pulled his Helix Ripper out of a locker. He paused.
"Just the one? That doesn't make sense." He returned to his station, where he started looking at the floating windows. "One won't do anything."
The doors opened, and another half-dozen soldiers and three abominations entered, taking positions near the entrances.
After several tense minutes, one of the staff spoke: "Doctor Boatman? We seem to have lost all the security and internal comm systems." She poked at her system some more. "I think they're still running, but we can't access them."
Holz's comm unit rang. He answered it, and had a brief conversation. "That's one of my men on the second floor. Smart kid. Couldn't raise me on normal channels, so thought to call. He hears gunfire from the main entrance area."
Holz settled down at his station, calling his unit commanders one by one. Boatman paced nervously. He walked over to a weapons locker and retrieved a pistol, then resumed his pacing.
Several minutes later, his own comm unit rang. He looked at it, then scrambled to answer.
"What a pleasant surprise, my dear." he said, "However, I'm afraid I can't talk right now. My company is under attack."
As he was talking, the main elevator doors slid open.
"I know," said Xu Mei as she stepped into the room.
Dimitri Lyapunov leaned back in the chair, his feet on the desk. He watched Yue pace back and forth restlessly. In that skintight black outfit, she reminded him of a panther.
They were waiting for the Triad's computer jockey to do his work. Getting into Dao Medical Electronics had been easy, but now they were stuck here waiting. Dimitri was getting bored.
Yue wasn't too happy, either. "What's taking so long?" she snapped.
The tech looked up. "I told you already. As soon as we busted in, they wiped all the file indices. I'm searching by hand, and that takes time. If you want to cut out with nothing to show for it, just say so."
"No," said Yue, "Keep looking." She kept pacing while checking in with her team for status reports.
Fifteen minutes passed. The tech looked up. "Just found the financial codes. Their funds are being transferred, and I think I've got a lead on their research projects now. Are we done, or should I keep digging?"
Yue gave Dimitri a glance. He shrugged. "Keep digging," she said.
Another ten minutes passed. Yue was checking on her team more often as the time went by.
"I've got something," The tech started typing faster, popping up more screens of data. "Let's see what they're playing with."
"Just copy it and we can go," said Yue.
"Not that easy," he replied, "If we don't check it, it could be a decoy, or stuff too old to care about. Let me just... Oh fuck."
He was pale. Yue and Dimitri were instantly alert. "What?"
The tech took a deep breath. "Nanotech. They're making nanotech. The stuff that's been breaking out on the streets," he popped up more displays, "and they've got worse ready to use. They could make everywhere as dead as North America." He looked at Yue for instructions, but she looked as stunned as he was.
"Shit," she said. She repeated the word like a mantra.
She took a deep breath. "We have to get the word out," she said, thinking out loud, "Now. Broadcast it to all the major corps. Hell, might as well tell the bigger governments, too."
The tech was white. "If I do that," he said, "They'll glaze over everywhere involved, including here."
"We have to take the risk," said Yue. "If they think we might have taken the data, they'll glaze the entire Triad. We go public, and we tell everybody. We show that our hands are clean."
"They won't nuke a major population center for anything short of an outbreak," said Dimitri. "We have time. Even quarantine will take a little bit to set up."
"Right," said Yue, "but we're still gone now. Is the data sent?"
The tech nodded. Yue started calling her team. Nobody responded.
The door exploded. Yue and Dimitri dived to the floor. The tech was not so quick. The first burst of fire cut him to shreds.
The security men outside were not eager to press the attack. "You don't have to die," one of them yelled, "Surrender and we can all get out of here alive."
Dimitri's and Yue's eyes met. She smiled and nodded.
Dimitri stood. As he did, a dozen remote units rose from various spots in the room, micromissiles firing through the doorway.
Yue vaulted over the desk, a knife in each hand, following in the wake of the missiles.
Dimitri was right behind her.
The two guards at the elevator were far too slow. Xu Mei's right arm was a silver blur, the long blade extending from it only visible after it had removed one guard's head.
The other one almost had his gun raised by the time she twisted it out of his grasp and smashed the butt into his mouth, dropping it as he crumpled.
She looked at Boatman and smiled, the left side of her mouth twitching upward slightly. He turned and ran.
Behind him, he could hear the guards firing, and the snarls and howls of the abominations. As he made it through the far door, some of the howls turned to shrieks of pain. He slammed the door behind him and looked frantically around for anything to block it.
Finding nothing, he kept running. He made it to the auxiliary elevator. Once inside, with the doors safely closed, he paused to catch his breath. He dropped his comm pad -- too much chance it could be tracked.
With his gun, he pushed the access hatch in the roof open. He shoved the gun back into his belt and leapt, managing to catch the edge and haul himself partially up. "Main floor," he said, then scrambled up onto the elevator's roof.
As it started its ascent, he kicked the hatch closed, and looked around desperately. A quick leap to the ladder, and he pressed himself as flat against it as he could as the elevator scraped past him, shredding the back of his suit jacket as it went.
Once the elevator was receding above him, he scrambled down the ladder. It was only three floors down to the upper lab level, but it felt like miles.
Once there, he forced the door open, and started sprinting through the halls.
Xu Mei's voice came from the PA system. "You can't get away that easily, Curtis. That trick with the elevator only bought you a few minutes."
He stopped at the door to one lab. The abominations inside were there for minor repairs. It was only a couple of minutes' work to wake them and order them to protect him.
With a bodyguard, he now had the time to plan. The lower labs were not on the main security systems, and were well-stocked with abominations and Arcanotech. There, he would have the advantage.
He opened the door and stepped out. Xu Mei's kick knocked him three meters down the hallway, then the abominations were on her.
He slowly pulled himself to his feet, watching the fight as he did. He had to admit, she was a beautiful sight to see, almost a perfect killing machine.
Such a waste. He carefully aimed his gun as one of the larger abominations pushed her back against the wall, limiting her movement. It was badly injured, but too tough to die quickly. All it had to do was keep her there a bit longer.
He carefully centered her head in the sights and fired.
She drove her right fist into the abomination's throat, impaling it upon the blade. Her left hand snatched at the air.
Had he missed? She opened her hand again. Something small and metal sparkled in the light as it fell to the floor.
Then her hand dropped to her belt and snapped toward him. The gun jerked, and Boatman looked dumbly at the throwing knife embedded in its body, the barrel cleanly cut in half along its length.
He scrambled away, dropping the useless gun. A second knife slashed across his thigh. He didn't think it had hit anything major, but there was certainly a lot of blood.
He had to make it to the lab. He could get a Helix Ripper there. She couldn't catch that.
He threw open the door to the access stairs, and half-ran, half-fell down them, leaving a trail of blood behind.
The van shook. Rei looked up, startled. The driver was crouched down, his gun out.
"Get down!" he yelled. Some kind of energy beam splashed against the window. A spray of bullets had no such trouble with the armored door, punching through both it and him.
As the driver choked and gurgled, drowning on his own blood, Rei threw herself flat on the floor. Another burst of bullets punched through the van where she had been, hitting nothing but computers.
She scrambled along the floor for her jump bag and a small computer. It wasn't much -- a backup to the backups, but it was enough to run the show from if she had to.
Once she was connected, she hooked into the van's camera feed to get a look around.
It didn't look good. A squad of Dao Biotech security had got the drop on them. Her security detail were pinned down behind cover; they were fighting back, but were slowly getting picked apart.
Rei double-checked on Xu Mei; everything was going fine inside.
She needed a weapon. She tapped into public traffic-monitoring, found a nearby bus. A half-minute of poking got her into its telemetry systems. Another minute and she'd fully escalated her privileges.
She spoke over the bus's PA: "I'm sorry. Hit the floor and hang on tight," then she took over, programmed a new course, and maxxed out the accelerator.
The first corner was a bit close; that parked car would never be the same again. After that, it was pretty much a straight route. She reflexively erased all the logs; no reason to make it easy for anybody to figure out what trick she'd used.
As the minutes ticked by, she watched as the fight outside kept getting worse. Half her people were down, and only three of the other side. The guy with the ray gun was tearing them apart; he couldn't shoot through cover, but flesh seemed to explode wherever it hit.
The bus was rounding the last curve now. She cut the engine and let it coast in neutral.
They still heard it coming, but not until too late. They scattered, and not all of them made it. She saw two crushed beneath its wheels, and another sent flying. A couple of others disappeared behind it and didn't appear again.
She returned control of the bus to its traumatized driver and watched as her people counterattacked. Things were much more even now, and the guy with the ray gun was gone. It quickly got down to hand-to-hand, where her side had the advantage.
She watched as the last one of her people dropped the last enemy with an elbow to the throat. It was time to move to a safer location. With the computer in her bag, she could still run things for Xu Mei, relaying through the van's systems.
She took a moment to check up, then a minute and a half to take over another, independent security network in the building. Whoever ran things there was a real paranoid.
She was still taking care of a few last things for Xu Mei when she opened the door and stepped out of the back of the van. She looked around for her escort, but couldn't see her.
Rei turned to move behind the van. The blow caught her in the back of the shoulder, sending her sprawling, but at least she kept her hold on her bag.
She rolled over and found herself looking up into the barrel of the ray gun. Up close, it looked like nothing from Earth, a weird hybrid device of plastic, chitin, and strange, alien flesh.
Its wielder didn't look too good, either. His face looked like it was breaking out in the same alien flesh as the gun. One eye was red and bloodshot, a black substance oozing out around it.
He looked down at her. "You're the one causing all this trouble? I expected better."
"Oh well," he shrugged, "Goodbye anyway." He steadied his monstrous gun, aiming it at her head.
Rei hooked her foot behind his knee and pulled. He toppled, firing wildly as he hit the ground hard. The gun went flying, only to be brought up short by a cable that connected it to his arm.
He rolled away, reeling in the gun and scrambling into a kneeling position.
By this time, she had pulled out the small gun from her bag, the gun she'd wished she had when things went this bad ten years ago. She fired twice. His head snapped backwards, and the strange weapon dropped from nerveless fingers.
Curtis Boatman shoved the door closed behind him. He pushed the security bars into place, then grabbed the servo that allowed them to be remotely operated and pulled it off its wires. That should slow her down.
He slumped against the door. He was getting lightheaded, losing too much blood. He wasn't breathing right, either.
A man ran up to him. One of his scientists. Loyal, but unimaginative. Useless. He didn't even remember the man's name.
"Doctor Boatman?" he said, "What's going on?"
Boatman took a deep breath. His side felt like it was on fire every time he inhaled.
"We're being attacked. There are assassins in the building, and they're after me." He took another, shallower breath, wincing as he did. "Rouse the abominations, round up everybody who can use Arcanotech weapons. There's only two ways in here; we can hold them off."
The man nodded meekly and hurried off.
Stupid. He needed first aid. No time to wait. He shrugged out of the remains of his jacket, and quickly took off his shirt. Not the best bandage, but it would do for now. There was a control center three doors down. From there, he could at least get a sense of what was happening down here.
He'd limped his way halfway there when every door in the hallway slammed closed. He heard the bars locking into place. The doors and bars were designed to hold off a berserk abomination. He had no hope of getting one open.
Xu Mei spoke again through the PA. "You're out of places to run, Curtis. There's nowhere to hide anymore, either.
He ignored her, staggering down the hall as best as he could.
She continued, "It didn't have to end like this. We were considering asking you to join us."
Breathing heavily, Boatman leaned against a door. Far away down a side hall, toward the other entrance, he could hear yelling, the sounds of a fight, the death cries of an abomination. He could barely walk another step.
"But they decided that they didn't want to share, and sent you to kill me instead?" he muttered. Scraping up reserves of strength, he kept moving.
"Nobody sent me to kill you, Curtis," she said. He could hear the sounds of the fight over the PA when she spoke. It never seemed to interrupt her even briefly. "Nobody even asked me to."
He couldn't walk anymore, so he started crawling. Each breath took more effort than the last. He was losing all sensation in his leg except for pain.
She kept talking. "Growing up on the streets, I quickly learned that anybody who couldn't take 'no' for an answer was trouble. Life in business just reinforced that lesson."
He was there. He looked up at a large vault door, made of foot-thick steel, its frame reinforced in every way conceivable. It wasn't in the building plans, and nothing about it was electronic.
As he pulled himself to his feet again, Xu Mei just kept talking. "From everything I've seen, you're worse than that. I'm not sure you really understand the concept that somebody could refuse you." He threw all his weight against the bolt and it slid open, far too slowly.
"I've known a couple of people like that, and so I decided to kill you now, before you cause me even a tenth of the grief they did." There were no more sounds of fighting now. The door was swinging open, revealing a man-sized doorway, a weird light flickering around the edges. On the other side of the portal was a grey tunnel, its walls rough and cave-like.
He gritted his teeth and stepped through. The chill of the transition to the Netherworld seemed less than usual. He would have sealed the door behind him if he could, but there were no handles on this side even if he had had the strength.
No matter. She couldn't track him with his own security systems any more. He knew the Netherworld better than she. He could hole up somewhere, recover, and make his way back through a different portal.
He staggered along the tunnel a short distance. It opened out into an immense cavern, filled with piles of detritus, piles bigger than houses, from worlds long-gone. The Junkyard. Not his ideal refuge, but finding anybody here was damn near impossible.
He looked uncertainly at the slope before him, an unstable pile of debris and rusted metal leading him down to the cavern floor. He began to pick his way down it as quickly as he could manage. He needed to be out of sight before she followed him into the Netherworld.
He made it almost twenty feet before a wave of dizziness washed over him. He felt himself falling, sliding along a wave of junk, before blackness claimed him.
Holz moved among the carnage, seeing what he could do for the wounded and dying, and putting down the abominations that still lived.
It could have been worse. The woman had only paid attention to those who directly opposed her, departing in pursuit of Boatman as soon as she had the opportunity.
Unfortunately, that meant that her human victims had been entirely his men, They'd accounted well for themselves -- no, who was he kidding? They hadn't even touched her. The abominations had slowed her down a little more.
He... he hadn't even lifted a finger. He'd told himself while it was happening that he couldn't risk shooting into the fight when his men were potentially in the line of fire, but really, he just didn't feel like dying for Boatman.
Gog hadn't budged, either. It had continued to operate its computer displays, seemingly unconcerned with the battle raging around it.
Now, it had moved over to Boatman's console, where it continued to work, occasionally giving orders to the remaining staff. They would obey reflexively, uncertain what else to do.
Gog was speaking now, in the low rumble that set Holz's teeth on edge. He had nothing else to do, so moved closer so he could hear better. "Security systems still unavailable. I am getting some idea of the situation through environmental monitoring. It seems to just be the one intruder, or any others have already withdrawn."
It looked at him. "We must consider the possibility that she will return for us when she is finished with Boatman. If she does, she must fight me directly, or die. If she does fight me, she cannot evade your fire."
It returned its attention to the computers. "Financial damage is significant, but recoverable. I am selling off some of our newly-acquired assets to give us more of a cushion. We have lost a number of subsidiaries to hostile takeovers or direct action. All nanotech production is likely lost. A pity."
"Dao Biotech is salvageable," it continued, "Our enemies have revealed themselves and overextended, leaving themselves vulnerable to counterattacks which I am now setting in motion."
"I will need a human figurehead, of course. Holz, you will do nicely."
The Helix Ripper blast punched a hole through Gog's torso, spraying foul-smelling ichor all over the console.
It spun and charged Holz, crossing the distance faster than he believed possible. He barely had time to fire again before it reached him.
Even with its head now gone, Gog still managed to tear the Helix Ripper away from him, crushing the weapon in its death convulsions as it crashed to the ground at his feet.
Holz stood, breathing heavily, looking down at the corpse, its outstretched hands just centimeters away from him.
"Not just humans," he muttered, then turned and walked away.
It contains the only scene I knew was going to be in the second half of CS before I started working on it again, and even then, I wasn't completely sure of the exact motivations. (It's the last one.)
Holz's security override opened the door. He put the lights on.
Geoffrey Smythe sat up in his bed. His Paradox Cube seemed to unfold from nowhere to hover by his head. A strange light played across its facets as it rapidly shifted form.
"What do you want?" he snarled.
Holz remained calm. "Boatman wants your ass in the command center now. They've started rolling up your network."
"Impossible." said Smythe.
"Tell him that."
Holz shut the door on Smythe's response and hurried back to the elevator.
He watched Smythe saunter into the command center about fifteen minutes later, acting completely unconcerned. Smythe walked over to where Boatman was talking to a couple of aides, and asked, "What's this about?"
Boatman glared at him. "About time you got here. Three of your active agents have gone missing in the last week. We started keeping watch on the sleepers as best we could, and at least another half-dozen have vanished."
"It must be coincidence. They don't have any means here to detect my arts, and there's no connection between my puppets."
"Except you," said Holz.
"They don't remember me at all."
"Cameras, Smythe," said Holz, "They're everywhere, recording everything. Once they have a couple of your agents, they can go digging until they find you in both their pasts, then start tracking your movements."
"Absurd," said Smythe, "There's no way to sort through that much data so far after the fact." Even he didn't really sound convinced.
"Be that as it may, Geoffrey," Boatman said, in a calm voice, "They are picking up your agents. It doesn't matter how. We must act on the assumption they can. Start pulling the pins. Go for maximum wreckage. Get down to the financial section and keep them up to date. We can short the stocks of their companies, then pick up the pieces later for next to nothing."
Smythe nodded meekly, and hurried out.
Once he was gone, Boatman turned to Holz. "Get your men ready."
The morning's sun was just rising, casting long shadows from the towers of glass and metal and plastic. This was the only time the city was quiet; the frenzy of the night-time having lost its battle with exhaustion while the machinery of the day was only just beginning to grind into motion.A dozen men and women moved in the shadows, surrounding a small warehouse. The Harbinger watched them from a nearby rooftop. A dark-skinned man stood next to him, the early morning sunlight shining off his metal arms.
Devendra Chalal yawned. He was a night creature, here only because he did not trust the Harbinger. He surveyed the situation.
"Too many monsters inside," he said, "Weak perimeter. This won't go well."
The Harbinger smiled, and did not respond. Below, his disciples produced fire bombs. Acting as one, they hurled them at the building. A second wave followed immediately, crashing through the windows.
The building's fire-prevention systems were swiftly overwhelmed, and it became a blazing torch, briefly threatening to outshine the rising sun.
Heedless of the flames, they moved closer, taking positions by the exits. When the first men burst through those doors, they were cut down before they could take more than two steps.
They heard the inhuman howling first. A creature, half again as high as a man and engulfed in flame, burst through a wall. It roared and thrashed wildly. The Harbinger's students moved calmly to encircle it. They used their blades to corral it, pushing it back when it attempted to rush one side of the circle or another. They did not need to press the attack; the flame would do the work for them. The creature's movements became weaker, less directed, and soon it crashed to the ground. One man stepped out of the ring, and smoothly removed the monster's head with his blade.
They watched for half an hour, as the building collapsed inward and the fire began to die down. Nothing else attempted escape.
Chalal turned to the Harbinger. He made a small bow, almost, but not quite, mocking.
"Underestimated you," he said, "Again."
He walked away, leaving the Harbinger to watch the fire burn itself out.
"Won't do it three times," he muttered, almost too low for the Harbinger to hear.
Geoffrey Smythe stopped running, leaning against the wall to catch his breath. He could hear the men around the corner, yelling orders, looking for him.He ignored the blood oozing down his arm. At his command, his Paradox Cube traced a pattern in the air. The next man to turn that corner would be turned inside-out. If he were lucky.
It wasn't much, but he didn't have the time for anything complex. He turned to run, but the Paradox Cube floated before him, blocking the way. It opened.
"Not now," he snarled, but he shoved his hand into the opening. He felt a brief tugging, then the Cube returned to its normal place at his shoulder.
He inspected the hand. A little blood trickled from the stump where his index finger had been, slowing and stopping even as he watched.
He heard voices getting closer around the corner. He tried to reach out, to cloud their minds, but he couldn't get any purchase.
He ran. Who were they, and where had Boatman got them? They'd been to the Netherworld, otherwise he could have grabbed their minds and worked them like puppets, but it was more than that. They'd trained for this; they knew too much about what he could do and how to avoid it. They'd gone for the Paradox Cube first in the initial ambush, and he'd been lucky it had survived.
He almost reached the next intersection before they turned the corner. A burst of gunfire tore into his arm, and he stumbled, losing his footing.
Then the screaming started. He scrambled around the corner as they were distracted. He had to keep moving. It was only pain; it didn't matter.
The screaming was cut off with a burst of gunfire. That should leave them a lot less eager to chase him, and he was almost there. Past this set of labs was his refuge.
He stumbled in, closing the door behind him. The room smelled faintly of rotten meat, but there was little else that set it apart from any of the other labs. General Gog was remarkably tidy for an abomination.
Gog itself was here, rising from the long table upon which it lay. It sniffed the air. "Smythe," it rumbled, "You are injured.""Boatman's turned on me," he gasped, "Or maybe just Holz, but he hasn't got the spine to take a piss without Boatman's say-so." He heard the sounds of the soldiers again outside the door. "You have to protect me."
Gog moved toward the door, towering above him. "Why?"
"We had a deal," he said, "I destroyed the thing in your brain, and you'd help me against Boatman when the time came. It's come."
Gog's arm lashed out, impossibly fast. It snatched the Paradox Cube out of the air and started to squeeze.
Smythe's heart felt like it was being squeezed in that massive hand. Reflexively, he backed away. "No, please," he begged.
Gog moved closer, pressing Smythe into the corner. Its voice was a low rumble, barely audible. "And what is it I gain by aiding you?"
"You hate Boatman." Smythe was babbling now. "He enslaved you. You want to kill him. Please stop. You owe me. Please stop. Don't...."
The Paradox Cube shattered with a surprisingly quiet snap. Smythe sank to his knees, weeping. Gog grabbed him by the throat and hauled him back to his feet.
"Yes, I hate him," it hissed. "I hate you all. And he gives me armies, and weapons, and everything I need to kill you by the thousands. His war will be years in the fighting, and through it all, you humans will be dying, at my command, if not by my own hands."
"What can you offer me to compare to that joy?"
The soldiers outside waited for the screaming to stop before returning to Holz to report.
Rei Okamoto sang along to the music she had playing as she set up her kit. The driver turned around and glared at her, unhappy with the noise, but she didn't care. She was back where she belonged.How long had it been since she'd done something like this? Almost two years ago now, and even that had been a big, organized corporate job. It was almost like she was fourteen again, sitting in the back of a grimy van outside a corp HQ, with two crazy, beautiful, doomed boys up front, waiting on her word, trusting her to work the security systems and keep them alive as they busted in and out again.
The Rei of twelve years ago would barely believe all of this. The kit was the best that could be had, no longer whatever could be stolen and salvaged. The software was tuned and honed sharper than the finest blades they made in orbit, ready to slice through a microsecond of an opening. And the team... the team would have left teenaged Rei slack-jawed in awe.
She smiled. Everything else had changed, but the van still somehow managed to smell of old socks.
She double-checked the system diagnostics, and made a call.
"Ready when you are."
Curtis Boatman was having a good day. His scientists had just confirmed that the remains in Gog's chambers were the all that was left of his biggest problem.Gog itself was here in the control center, quietly monitoring the military end of things. Holz was at its side. He was still clearly uncomfortable at being subservient to it, but Boatman didn't care how uncomfortable Holz was, as long as he did what he was told.
The financial end was going well, too. Several of the companies on the receiving end of Smythe's sabotage had completely cratered, and Dao Biotech was now buying up the remains. It was still expensive, but their cash reserves could mostly handle it.
An alert popped up in a window before him. A major bank was cutting off their credit and demanding repayment. A second one followed minutes later.
Gog turned to him. "Doctor Boatman. Several subsidiaries are under attack." A window appeared before it. "There are also systematic raids being made on our abomination caches."
Another window. "It would also appear that the financial markets have turned on us."
Boatman scowled, and settled back into his chair. "Well, this is the attack you've been expecting for so long. You have your contingency plans, so set them in motion."
"I already have," it rumbled, "But the attack is larger and more closely coordinated than expected. I believe we can hold at the physical level, but the financial one is more questionable, since we are deeply overextended on that front already."
It consulted several other windows. "I also expect an electronic assault to accompany these, but there is none as yet."
Boatman felt a sudden burning pain in the side of his neck. All the lights in the room flickered, and the holographic displays dissolved into multicolored static for a second.
"What was that?" he yelled, rubbing his neck.
Holz was already in motion, stationing guards on all the entrances, and sending runners to bring reinforcements. "Micro-EMP bomb," he said, as he pulled his Helix Ripper out of a locker. He paused.
"Just the one? That doesn't make sense." He returned to his station, where he started looking at the floating windows. "One won't do anything."
The doors opened, and another half-dozen soldiers and three abominations entered, taking positions near the entrances.
After several tense minutes, one of the staff spoke: "Doctor Boatman? We seem to have lost all the security and internal comm systems." She poked at her system some more. "I think they're still running, but we can't access them."
Holz's comm unit rang. He answered it, and had a brief conversation. "That's one of my men on the second floor. Smart kid. Couldn't raise me on normal channels, so thought to call. He hears gunfire from the main entrance area."
Holz settled down at his station, calling his unit commanders one by one. Boatman paced nervously. He walked over to a weapons locker and retrieved a pistol, then resumed his pacing.
Several minutes later, his own comm unit rang. He looked at it, then scrambled to answer.
"What a pleasant surprise, my dear." he said, "However, I'm afraid I can't talk right now. My company is under attack."
As he was talking, the main elevator doors slid open.
"I know," said Xu Mei as she stepped into the room.
Dimitri Lyapunov leaned back in the chair, his feet on the desk. He watched Yue pace back and forth restlessly. In that skintight black outfit, she reminded him of a panther.They were waiting for the Triad's computer jockey to do his work. Getting into Dao Medical Electronics had been easy, but now they were stuck here waiting. Dimitri was getting bored.
Yue wasn't too happy, either. "What's taking so long?" she snapped.
The tech looked up. "I told you already. As soon as we busted in, they wiped all the file indices. I'm searching by hand, and that takes time. If you want to cut out with nothing to show for it, just say so."
"No," said Yue, "Keep looking." She kept pacing while checking in with her team for status reports.
Fifteen minutes passed. The tech looked up. "Just found the financial codes. Their funds are being transferred, and I think I've got a lead on their research projects now. Are we done, or should I keep digging?"
Yue gave Dimitri a glance. He shrugged. "Keep digging," she said.
Another ten minutes passed. Yue was checking on her team more often as the time went by.
"I've got something," The tech started typing faster, popping up more screens of data. "Let's see what they're playing with."
"Just copy it and we can go," said Yue.
"Not that easy," he replied, "If we don't check it, it could be a decoy, or stuff too old to care about. Let me just... Oh fuck."
He was pale. Yue and Dimitri were instantly alert. "What?"
The tech took a deep breath. "Nanotech. They're making nanotech. The stuff that's been breaking out on the streets," he popped up more displays, "and they've got worse ready to use. They could make everywhere as dead as North America." He looked at Yue for instructions, but she looked as stunned as he was.
"Shit," she said. She repeated the word like a mantra.
She took a deep breath. "We have to get the word out," she said, thinking out loud, "Now. Broadcast it to all the major corps. Hell, might as well tell the bigger governments, too."
The tech was white. "If I do that," he said, "They'll glaze over everywhere involved, including here."
"We have to take the risk," said Yue. "If they think we might have taken the data, they'll glaze the entire Triad. We go public, and we tell everybody. We show that our hands are clean."
"They won't nuke a major population center for anything short of an outbreak," said Dimitri. "We have time. Even quarantine will take a little bit to set up."
"Right," said Yue, "but we're still gone now. Is the data sent?"
The tech nodded. Yue started calling her team. Nobody responded.
The door exploded. Yue and Dimitri dived to the floor. The tech was not so quick. The first burst of fire cut him to shreds.
The security men outside were not eager to press the attack. "You don't have to die," one of them yelled, "Surrender and we can all get out of here alive."
Dimitri's and Yue's eyes met. She smiled and nodded.
Dimitri stood. As he did, a dozen remote units rose from various spots in the room, micromissiles firing through the doorway.
Yue vaulted over the desk, a knife in each hand, following in the wake of the missiles.
Dimitri was right behind her.
The two guards at the elevator were far too slow. Xu Mei's right arm was a silver blur, the long blade extending from it only visible after it had removed one guard's head.The other one almost had his gun raised by the time she twisted it out of his grasp and smashed the butt into his mouth, dropping it as he crumpled.
She looked at Boatman and smiled, the left side of her mouth twitching upward slightly. He turned and ran.
Behind him, he could hear the guards firing, and the snarls and howls of the abominations. As he made it through the far door, some of the howls turned to shrieks of pain. He slammed the door behind him and looked frantically around for anything to block it.
Finding nothing, he kept running. He made it to the auxiliary elevator. Once inside, with the doors safely closed, he paused to catch his breath. He dropped his comm pad -- too much chance it could be tracked.
With his gun, he pushed the access hatch in the roof open. He shoved the gun back into his belt and leapt, managing to catch the edge and haul himself partially up. "Main floor," he said, then scrambled up onto the elevator's roof.
As it started its ascent, he kicked the hatch closed, and looked around desperately. A quick leap to the ladder, and he pressed himself as flat against it as he could as the elevator scraped past him, shredding the back of his suit jacket as it went.
Once the elevator was receding above him, he scrambled down the ladder. It was only three floors down to the upper lab level, but it felt like miles.
Once there, he forced the door open, and started sprinting through the halls.
Xu Mei's voice came from the PA system. "You can't get away that easily, Curtis. That trick with the elevator only bought you a few minutes."
He stopped at the door to one lab. The abominations inside were there for minor repairs. It was only a couple of minutes' work to wake them and order them to protect him.
With a bodyguard, he now had the time to plan. The lower labs were not on the main security systems, and were well-stocked with abominations and Arcanotech. There, he would have the advantage.
He opened the door and stepped out. Xu Mei's kick knocked him three meters down the hallway, then the abominations were on her.
He slowly pulled himself to his feet, watching the fight as he did. He had to admit, she was a beautiful sight to see, almost a perfect killing machine.
Such a waste. He carefully aimed his gun as one of the larger abominations pushed her back against the wall, limiting her movement. It was badly injured, but too tough to die quickly. All it had to do was keep her there a bit longer.
He carefully centered her head in the sights and fired.
She drove her right fist into the abomination's throat, impaling it upon the blade. Her left hand snatched at the air.
Had he missed? She opened her hand again. Something small and metal sparkled in the light as it fell to the floor.
Then her hand dropped to her belt and snapped toward him. The gun jerked, and Boatman looked dumbly at the throwing knife embedded in its body, the barrel cleanly cut in half along its length.
He scrambled away, dropping the useless gun. A second knife slashed across his thigh. He didn't think it had hit anything major, but there was certainly a lot of blood.
He had to make it to the lab. He could get a Helix Ripper there. She couldn't catch that.
He threw open the door to the access stairs, and half-ran, half-fell down them, leaving a trail of blood behind.
The van shook. Rei looked up, startled. The driver was crouched down, his gun out.
"Get down!" he yelled. Some kind of energy beam splashed against the window. A spray of bullets had no such trouble with the armored door, punching through both it and him.
As the driver choked and gurgled, drowning on his own blood, Rei threw herself flat on the floor. Another burst of bullets punched through the van where she had been, hitting nothing but computers.
She scrambled along the floor for her jump bag and a small computer. It wasn't much -- a backup to the backups, but it was enough to run the show from if she had to.
Once she was connected, she hooked into the van's camera feed to get a look around.
It didn't look good. A squad of Dao Biotech security had got the drop on them. Her security detail were pinned down behind cover; they were fighting back, but were slowly getting picked apart.
Rei double-checked on Xu Mei; everything was going fine inside.
She needed a weapon. She tapped into public traffic-monitoring, found a nearby bus. A half-minute of poking got her into its telemetry systems. Another minute and she'd fully escalated her privileges.
She spoke over the bus's PA: "I'm sorry. Hit the floor and hang on tight," then she took over, programmed a new course, and maxxed out the accelerator.
The first corner was a bit close; that parked car would never be the same again. After that, it was pretty much a straight route. She reflexively erased all the logs; no reason to make it easy for anybody to figure out what trick she'd used.
As the minutes ticked by, she watched as the fight outside kept getting worse. Half her people were down, and only three of the other side. The guy with the ray gun was tearing them apart; he couldn't shoot through cover, but flesh seemed to explode wherever it hit.
The bus was rounding the last curve now. She cut the engine and let it coast in neutral.
They still heard it coming, but not until too late. They scattered, and not all of them made it. She saw two crushed beneath its wheels, and another sent flying. A couple of others disappeared behind it and didn't appear again.
She returned control of the bus to its traumatized driver and watched as her people counterattacked. Things were much more even now, and the guy with the ray gun was gone. It quickly got down to hand-to-hand, where her side had the advantage.
She watched as the last one of her people dropped the last enemy with an elbow to the throat. It was time to move to a safer location. With the computer in her bag, she could still run things for Xu Mei, relaying through the van's systems.
She took a moment to check up, then a minute and a half to take over another, independent security network in the building. Whoever ran things there was a real paranoid.
She was still taking care of a few last things for Xu Mei when she opened the door and stepped out of the back of the van. She looked around for her escort, but couldn't see her.
Rei turned to move behind the van. The blow caught her in the back of the shoulder, sending her sprawling, but at least she kept her hold on her bag.
She rolled over and found herself looking up into the barrel of the ray gun. Up close, it looked like nothing from Earth, a weird hybrid device of plastic, chitin, and strange, alien flesh.
Its wielder didn't look too good, either. His face looked like it was breaking out in the same alien flesh as the gun. One eye was red and bloodshot, a black substance oozing out around it.
He looked down at her. "You're the one causing all this trouble? I expected better."
"Oh well," he shrugged, "Goodbye anyway." He steadied his monstrous gun, aiming it at her head.
Rei hooked her foot behind his knee and pulled. He toppled, firing wildly as he hit the ground hard. The gun went flying, only to be brought up short by a cable that connected it to his arm.
He rolled away, reeling in the gun and scrambling into a kneeling position.
By this time, she had pulled out the small gun from her bag, the gun she'd wished she had when things went this bad ten years ago. She fired twice. His head snapped backwards, and the strange weapon dropped from nerveless fingers.
Curtis Boatman shoved the door closed behind him. He pushed the security bars into place, then grabbed the servo that allowed them to be remotely operated and pulled it off its wires. That should slow her down.
He slumped against the door. He was getting lightheaded, losing too much blood. He wasn't breathing right, either.
A man ran up to him. One of his scientists. Loyal, but unimaginative. Useless. He didn't even remember the man's name.
"Doctor Boatman?" he said, "What's going on?"
Boatman took a deep breath. His side felt like it was on fire every time he inhaled.
"We're being attacked. There are assassins in the building, and they're after me." He took another, shallower breath, wincing as he did. "Rouse the abominations, round up everybody who can use Arcanotech weapons. There's only two ways in here; we can hold them off."
The man nodded meekly and hurried off.
Stupid. He needed first aid. No time to wait. He shrugged out of the remains of his jacket, and quickly took off his shirt. Not the best bandage, but it would do for now. There was a control center three doors down. From there, he could at least get a sense of what was happening down here.
He'd limped his way halfway there when every door in the hallway slammed closed. He heard the bars locking into place. The doors and bars were designed to hold off a berserk abomination. He had no hope of getting one open.
Xu Mei spoke again through the PA. "You're out of places to run, Curtis. There's nowhere to hide anymore, either.
He ignored her, staggering down the hall as best as he could.
She continued, "It didn't have to end like this. We were considering asking you to join us."
Breathing heavily, Boatman leaned against a door. Far away down a side hall, toward the other entrance, he could hear yelling, the sounds of a fight, the death cries of an abomination. He could barely walk another step.
"But they decided that they didn't want to share, and sent you to kill me instead?" he muttered. Scraping up reserves of strength, he kept moving.
"Nobody sent me to kill you, Curtis," she said. He could hear the sounds of the fight over the PA when she spoke. It never seemed to interrupt her even briefly. "Nobody even asked me to."
He couldn't walk anymore, so he started crawling. Each breath took more effort than the last. He was losing all sensation in his leg except for pain.
She kept talking. "Growing up on the streets, I quickly learned that anybody who couldn't take 'no' for an answer was trouble. Life in business just reinforced that lesson."
He was there. He looked up at a large vault door, made of foot-thick steel, its frame reinforced in every way conceivable. It wasn't in the building plans, and nothing about it was electronic.
As he pulled himself to his feet again, Xu Mei just kept talking. "From everything I've seen, you're worse than that. I'm not sure you really understand the concept that somebody could refuse you." He threw all his weight against the bolt and it slid open, far too slowly.
"I've known a couple of people like that, and so I decided to kill you now, before you cause me even a tenth of the grief they did." There were no more sounds of fighting now. The door was swinging open, revealing a man-sized doorway, a weird light flickering around the edges. On the other side of the portal was a grey tunnel, its walls rough and cave-like.
He gritted his teeth and stepped through. The chill of the transition to the Netherworld seemed less than usual. He would have sealed the door behind him if he could, but there were no handles on this side even if he had had the strength.
No matter. She couldn't track him with his own security systems any more. He knew the Netherworld better than she. He could hole up somewhere, recover, and make his way back through a different portal.
He staggered along the tunnel a short distance. It opened out into an immense cavern, filled with piles of detritus, piles bigger than houses, from worlds long-gone. The Junkyard. Not his ideal refuge, but finding anybody here was damn near impossible.He looked uncertainly at the slope before him, an unstable pile of debris and rusted metal leading him down to the cavern floor. He began to pick his way down it as quickly as he could manage. He needed to be out of sight before she followed him into the Netherworld.
He made it almost twenty feet before a wave of dizziness washed over him. He felt himself falling, sliding along a wave of junk, before blackness claimed him.
Holz moved among the carnage, seeing what he could do for the wounded and dying, and putting down the abominations that still lived.It could have been worse. The woman had only paid attention to those who directly opposed her, departing in pursuit of Boatman as soon as she had the opportunity.
Unfortunately, that meant that her human victims had been entirely his men, They'd accounted well for themselves -- no, who was he kidding? They hadn't even touched her. The abominations had slowed her down a little more.
He... he hadn't even lifted a finger. He'd told himself while it was happening that he couldn't risk shooting into the fight when his men were potentially in the line of fire, but really, he just didn't feel like dying for Boatman.
Gog hadn't budged, either. It had continued to operate its computer displays, seemingly unconcerned with the battle raging around it.
Now, it had moved over to Boatman's console, where it continued to work, occasionally giving orders to the remaining staff. They would obey reflexively, uncertain what else to do.
Gog was speaking now, in the low rumble that set Holz's teeth on edge. He had nothing else to do, so moved closer so he could hear better. "Security systems still unavailable. I am getting some idea of the situation through environmental monitoring. It seems to just be the one intruder, or any others have already withdrawn."
It looked at him. "We must consider the possibility that she will return for us when she is finished with Boatman. If she does, she must fight me directly, or die. If she does fight me, she cannot evade your fire."
It returned its attention to the computers. "Financial damage is significant, but recoverable. I am selling off some of our newly-acquired assets to give us more of a cushion. We have lost a number of subsidiaries to hostile takeovers or direct action. All nanotech production is likely lost. A pity."
"Dao Biotech is salvageable," it continued, "Our enemies have revealed themselves and overextended, leaving themselves vulnerable to counterattacks which I am now setting in motion."
"I will need a human figurehead, of course. Holz, you will do nicely."
The Helix Ripper blast punched a hole through Gog's torso, spraying foul-smelling ichor all over the console.
It spun and charged Holz, crossing the distance faster than he believed possible. He barely had time to fire again before it reached him.
Even with its head now gone, Gog still managed to tear the Helix Ripper away from him, crushing the weapon in its death convulsions as it crashed to the ground at his feet.
Holz stood, breathing heavily, looking down at the corpse, its outstretched hands just centimeters away from him.
"Not just humans," he muttered, then turned and walked away.
