by P P Corcoran
“It’s just a test,” Madel said over the intercom, smiling lightly at him. “That disassembly was one of the quickest response times we have on your record. Do you think we cou –”
“I will not kill,” Ret said through gritted teeth.
Madel stared at him, wide-eyed, and her façade crumbled. She lowered her eyes and turned away from him. She leaned forward, clicking the intercom on.
“Ret, this wasn’t what I wanted. The CCG say either we militarize our testing, or they drop our funding. I had no choice but to try this. I was hoping you would just treat it like a test.”
“I’m not a weapon,” Ret said. “I trusted you. You’re the only family I have left.”
Madel looked at him, tears swelling in her eyes.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I’ve spent the last twenty years testing you, and all that time, the CCG has been pushing me to militarize what we do here. They’ve been pushing the entire staff to focus on military applications for our subjects, but it’s just not feasible. We’re dealing with people here, not machines.”
“Cell,” Ret said. “Lie detector.”
Madel looked crushed; she slumped back in her chair. She grabbed a bottle of alcohol from under her desk and began sipping quietly.
“Lie detector results are negative. She’s not lying.”
“Tell me who you’ve been speaking to.”
“Ret, I just can’t.” Her hands shook as she put the bottle to her lips, taking a deep gulp.
“I need to know,” he said. “There are Resurgence attacks and you’re being ordered to weaponize me. I think I deserve to know what the CCG wants me to do.” He turned away briefly.
“After reviewing the email contents,” Cell said, “there are repeated mentions of ‘increases in terrorist activity’ and ‘improved suppression tactics required’.”
“Cell says the CCG wants to use me as a suppression tactic.”
“How would your AI know?” Madel asked. “Can it remote access other data servers?”
Ret looked at her, silent.
“Why would you link the AI in with other servers?”
“I didn’t. It did.”
Madel’s jaw dropped. “Look, if your AI is self-developing... That’s cause for deactivation.”
“No. They’re not taking Cell.”
“I need to call CCG and arrange a deactivation.” She retrieved her mobile from her pocket and moved to dial the number. As her finger touched the screen, it cracked. Piece by piece, her mobile disassembled itself.
“I’m leaving,” Ret said, releasing his focus on the phone. “Goodbye.”
“Ret, don’t.” Her voice cracked. “We need to talk about this.”
“Somehow, I don’t think you want to talk.” A series of loud clicks snapped through the room.
Madel leaned under her desk, seeing a pile of disassembled gun parts.
“We are not family,” Ret said. Turning, he left Madel in her office.
“Shall I lock her door? I can isolate her from any outside signals,” Cell said.
“Do it.”
Ret descended the stairs into the foyer. Rylee perked up as he walked by.
“Done already?” she said. “That was a flying visit.”
He ignored her, walking for the door.
“Did you discover her plans for you?”
Ret halted.
“You did, didn’t you?”
“They want to weaponize me.” The words curdled in his mouth. He felt sick.
“I know. The CCG really has the run of the place.” Rylee smiled at him.
Ret met her stare. “Who are you?” he asked.
“Resurgence Infiltration Officer Rylee Tenson.”
A chill ran through him. “Resurgence.”
“Yes.” Said Tenson. “Is that an issue?”
“Why are you telling me?” Asked Ret
“I used to be a recruitment officer.” Explained Tenson
She wanted him to join them.
“Why the attack on the bridge?” Demanded Ret
“It was a ploy by the CCG to discredit the Resurgence.” Tenson explained. “The signal was intended to destroy the bridge by summoning a giant squid.”
“There were five thousand people on that bridge!” Exclaimed Ret
“The CCG wanted to frame the Resurgence as criminals, but it doesn’t matter anyway.” Tenson said without emotion. “The signal was drowned out by an insane clicking noise. We still don’t know what triggered that.”
“Enough. I want nothing to do with you people.” Ret charged across the foyer and pushed out the door into the air beyond.
The outside was surrounded by CCG police. They wore thick black armored vests, full-face protective masks, and held tall plastic shields. A CCG officer shouted from behind, “Remove your headset and place your hands in the air.”
“Cell, how many?”
“Eighteen.”
Behind, Rylee pointed a taser at him, her face a mix of disgust and fear. She was flanked by two more CCG officers with shields. She had been delaying him the whole time.
“I’m not leaving you, Cell.”
Silence.
“Cell?”
“Thank you, Ret.”
Cell had never used his real name before. He’d changed a lot recently. He must’ve been self-developing for at least a few months. Ret couldn’t understand it, but it felt like, for the first time in a long time, he had a friend. Someone to talk to. A confidant.
He wouldn’t lose that.
“He’s not surrendering,” the officer at the back shouted. “Advance.”
The officers marched forward, closing their shields in around him.
“Cell, look for a way out.”
“Calculating,” Cell said.
Ret used his focus, relaxing his eyes, and the officers’ shields fell apart. The thick plastic crumbled in their hands.
They drew back, drawing tasers. Ret used his focus and dislodged the electrode pins. They swung from the ends of the weapons, attached by thin wires. He activated the electrical charges in the weapons and several of the officers collapsed, twitching as the volts surged through their bodies.
Ret ran forward. The officer at the back leveled a pistol at him. Ret swerved to the side, and the officer gawked as the pistol pieces spilled forth.
“Cell, where do I go from here?”
“It seems you are now a fugitive. Is this funny?”
“Not the time!”
“Go to the bridge. My predictions show footfall in the area should be eighty percent of this morning’s. Enough to lose CCG pursuit.”
“Right, good thinking.” Ret headed the way he’d gone that morning, running as fast as he could. His muscles screamed in pain as he pushed them harder and harder. He risked a glance behind and saw the CCG officers re-grouping and starting their charge after him. He had a good head start, but his stamina was waning.
Ret stopped. CCG soldiers had blocked off the bridge entrance, standing shield to shield.
“Blocked. Cell, where?” Ret was panting heavily.
“Calculating...”
The soldiers were getting closer.
“Cell?”
Silence.
“Cell!”
The CCG were upon him, forming a tight circle two officers thick. Ret spotted an officer behind them, holding up a megaphone.
“You need to stop this and obey. You have a rogue AI. For your own safety, please remove your headset and put your hands in the air.”
“No,” Ret said, not moving a muscle. “Cell,” he whispered. “Help.”
He spotted his aunt. She was talking to the officer, looking flustered. She pulled the weapon from the officer’s holster and pointed it at him. The officer froze for a moment, then slapped the weapon from her hands.
A gunshot fired.
The officer shoved a hand on the back of her head. Madel froze, her mouth wide, and a high, piercing screech erupted from her. Her eyes glazed over, and her body d
ropped to the ground.
That noise. It was the same as the noise on the bridge.
The lights around them flickered wildly, causing a few of the officers to flinch, but nothing more.
“Cell, was that you?”
The lights flickered more rapidly, causing purple blotches in Ret’s sight. Then a loud clicking erupted from the speakers nearby. Several of the officers fell from the unexpected blast of sound; others dropped their shields, putting their hands to their ears. Ret covered the sides of his headset but remained standing.
Soft piano music played, accompanied by smooth rhythm blues guitar.
The lights flicked off. Not a single bulb was powered. Screaming, panicked voices echoed through the streets.
“Run,” Cell said.
Ret spotted a dropped taser beside a suffering CCG officer, its yellow light still shining in the bleak darkness. It hadn’t been fired yet. He picked it up and sprinted down a side street. He didn’t care where to, just somewhere that wasn’t surrounded.
“Now hide,” Cell said.
Behind him, a few shots sounded in the night. The sounds of cracked bone and torn flesh came thereafter.
“Take the door to your right,” Cell said.
Ret pulled on the door’s handle. It was made of thick metal. It didn’t budge.
“Cell, unlock.” The door popped open. Ret pushed in, shutting the door behind him. “Lock,” he said, and a soft thunk followed. It was sealed tight.
Turning, he saw that there were people behind him. They stood, holding weapons: long rifles, bats, and even a few CCG shields. A man wearing a gray bandana stood forward, a large sheathed sword at his side.
Struck by fear, Ret lifted up the taser and fired.
The bandana-wearing man drew his sword in an instant. He made a slice in the air and sheathed his sword in one swift movement. The electrical pins fell to the floor, useless and separated from the thin wires.
Ret dropped the taser.
“We received a distress call,” the man said, his face calm and collected. “It was from someone named Cell.”
“That’s my AI,” Ret said. “Cell, who are these people?”
“The Resurgence,” Cell said. “The man in front of you is their leader, Kuromiya Tatsuo.”
A panic grasped Ret’s chest and his breathing heaved.
Kuromiya put a hand on Ret’s shoulder. “You’re okay now. We’ll keep you safe.”
Ret recoiled, pushing the hand away. “The Resurgence kill people.”
“No, we don’t,” Kuromiya said. “The CCG is scared. Their power is losing its grip, so they hold stunts like the incident on the bridge this morning to spread fear. They paint us with blood to make them cleaner by comparison. They don’t want our support to grow, so they make terrorists out of us. We seek to overthrow their violence through spreading our word of peace and acceptance and equality for all. They fight back with nothing but savagery and bloodshed. They spread their propaganda, but we know what they hide, the weapons they make. They’re prepared to gun us down without ever reaching out to us for parley. They’re a dictatorship. The last of humanity deserves better. Together we will bring the humanity back to the human race.”
Kuromiya offered out a hand.
Together we will bring humanity back to the human race. Those were the last words his father had spoken to him. Ret looked the man in the eyes. His brows were tight, and his eyes were fixed on him.
Could Ret’s father have left him to follow this man?
If what Kuromiya said was true, he could change Caspian for the better. Ret was hesitant to believe him after what he’d seen today, but a part of him was hopeful.
He grasped Kuromiya’s hand.
“I won’t fight,” Ret said. “I won’t kill.”
“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” Kuromiya said, a wide smile spreading over his face. “What’s your name?”
“Ret Saiden.”
“Nice to have you, Ret-san,” he said.
Ret nodded, not knowing what else to do.
Kuromiya turned to face his comrades. “Come, we must get a safe distance away from here. No fighting today.”
There were a few disgruntled grumblings, but the majority looked pleased.
“I guess I’ve joined the Resurgence,” Ret said.
“I can confirm that you have,” Cell said.
As Kuromiya spoke with those around him, he held their full attention, and they looked to him with a kind of grand reverence.
“He certainly has a way with words,” Ret said.
“Words have no power to impress the mind without the exquisite horror of their reality.”
Silence.
“Please stop with the quotes.”
“I think I’m getting good at this.”
- THE END –
About Christopher Cousins
CHRISTOPHER COUSINS IS A SCIENCE Fiction & Fantasy author from Belfast, Northern Ireland. Growing up he didn't have much interest in books until he read the Twilight series in school. He thought they were actually rather good. Then he read the Harry Potter series and promptly threw his Twilight books in the bin and moved on to the Mistborn series. He has never looked back.
Connect with Christopher here: www.castrumpress.com/christopher-cousins
Books by Castrum Press
SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY SERIES
The Saiph Series by PP Corcoran
The K’Tai War Series by PP Corcoran
The Formist Series by Mathew Williams
The Deep Wide Black Series by JCH Rigby
The Feral Space Series by James Worrad
Arc of the Sky Series by LMR Clarke
ANTHOLOGIES
The Empire at War: British Military Science Fiction
Future Days Anthology
Alien Days Anthology
More at: www.castrumpress.com/scifi-fantasy-books
