Asterion Noir: The Complete Collection (Amaranthe Collections Book 4)

by G. S. Jennsen

  “Color me skeptical, but I’ll take it.” Lacese moved deliberately through the open door, and Dashiel followed.

  They were in a control room of some kind. Embedded hardware on both sides operated silently and without stewardship.

  “Monitoring and control systems for the prisoners?”

  “Probably.”

  Joaquim briefly studied a couple of displays. “We’ll leave it alone for now. Let’s keep moving.”

  At the far end of the room, another door waited, open.

  Beyond it was a much larger chamber than any they’d encountered thus far. On the left, a series of archways bounded a central path that led to five d-gates. On the right, five similar archways led to individual rooms. The geometry of the chamber suggested they were much larger than the interrogation cells.

  A long blade—longer than Nika’s—extended out from Lacese’s left wrist as he approached the first room.

  Dashiel raised the borrowed Glaser and kept one eye on the d-gates.

  “What the…?”

  He hurried over to where Lacese had halted beneath one of the archways on the right.

  As a first impression, the room resembled a sophisticated data vault. Servers stacked floor to ceiling lined two walls, except for an environmental control unit in one corner. In an alcove on the left side, an elaborate robe Dashiel had seen before hung beside a wig of long, straight black hair.

  Photal fibers snaked out from the servers to connect into a curving glass frame encasing an Asterion body. A shell. Inky, dead eyes stared out unseeing. Naked, pale, hairless flesh radiated a waxy sheen. Where torso met legs, there were no sex organs, only more featureless flesh.

  “What the bloody fuck am I looking at?”

  Dashiel studied the robe and wig to make certain, then reluctantly returned to the shell. “Guide Luciene of Synra.”

  Silence clogged the air for several seconds.

  “They’re mannequins?”

  Instinctively, Dashiel reached for an accommodating explanation. “Maybe his previous body failed, and the regen is still in progress. I imagine all bodies look creepily lifeless before we inhabit them.”

  “I’m pretty damn sure all my bodies came with a cock pre-installed.”

  “Yeah. If only to provide the necessary plumbing.”

  “Hey—”

  “It wasn’t an insult. I’m merely saying that sex is optional, but this body apparently isn’t equipped for eating or drinking, either.”

  Lacese shot him a suspicious glare. “True. Which means it’s not an Asterion body at all. It’s just a doll controlled by a machine.”

  “Maybe. But it doesn’t make him any less alive. I’m fairly certain we fought and lost a war over granting equal rights to sentient synthetic machines.”

  “Oh, I don’t doubt it’s alive. Nothing non-sentient could be so cruel and sadistic. But it’s not Asterion, and it has no authority to rule us.”

  “Valid point.” Dashiel felt nauseated. Luciene’s body could rot on its frame for all he cared, but he really didn’t want to see the contents of the other four rooms…though he was already visualizing what they held, so it hardly mattered now. “We should go.”

  “Not yet.” Lacese took a step back and slowly turned his head from side to side. “I’m going to record all this and share it with the world. Everyone deserves to learn the truth.”

  He opened his mouth to protest, but it died in his throat. The man was right. It was time for the world to change. As an Advisor, he worried about what might replace the Guide-led system of government, but that wasn’t a reason not to replace it. “You can record a vid and transmit it later, assuming we make it out alive. There’s a comms block here.”

  “I know.” Lacese nodded and backed out of the room, then gazed back the way they’d come. “I bet it’s being generated in the control room we passed through. Head in there and try to shut it down.”

  “How am I supposed to do that?”

  Lacese shrugged. “Shoot the hardware until everything short-circuits.”

  “And hope it’s not the hardware that keeps the Platform in orbit? Okay. What are you going to do?”

  “Take a quick look around.”

  He decided not to argue. Let the man stare at the dolls for a few minutes; Dashiel would just as soon be done with them.

  When he reached the control room, he took a few seconds to try to determine what the equipment did, then promptly gave up. He’d need to tap into multiple signal flows to begin to diagnose the nature of the operating code, and they didn’t have that kind of time.

  So he stepped back into the entryway, raised the Glaser, held his breath and started firing into the hardware.

  Sparks exploded into the air to the tune of overlapping crackles and pops. He shielded his eyes with his other arm and directed the energy stream across another section of the equipment—

  “Halt and desist!”

  Through the acrid smoke increasingly filling the room, the outline of a dyne appeared at the other entrance. It raised its own weapon—

  Dashiel steadied the Glaser due ahead and fired. First at the appendage holding the weapon, until it clattered to the floor. Next at the ‘head,’ at a weak juncture where parts met, until the casing broke apart, pieces fell off and the central processing hardware burned.

  The dyne joined its weapon on the floor, and Dashiel nearly joined them both as dizziness overtook him. It was the first time he’d shot something real. Not alive, granted, but at the moment the distinction seemed a minor one.

  And he’d done a good job of it. Nika’s training, instructions and custom routines had kicked in when he’d needed them, exactly how she’d said they would, and he’d gotten it done.

  The aftermath was a kick in the head, though. He breathed in and ordered his racing heartbeat to slow, then swept the Glaser’s energy stream over the equipment a few more times to complete his work.

  He returned to the large chamber just as Lacese arrived on a lift from below. The man eyed him curiously. “Trouble?”

  “Handled. What were you doing down there?”

  “Like I said—taking a look around. I think the equipment keeping the Platform in orbit is down below, so we should be good.” Lacese scowled. “The comms block is still up.”

  “Well, I can’t shoot the equipment back there any more than I already did. The block’s originating from somewhere else.”

  “Fine. I’ll record now and transmit it as soon as we’re clear.” Lacese strode back into Luciene’s space. “I am transmitting from a secret chamber within the Guides’ Platform. What you see in front of you….”

  Dashiel tuned out the spiel and pinched the bridge of his nose. He had a headache, presumably a gift left behind from being mind-probed for hours. He assumed they’d been searching for Nika’s location, for starters, and he hoped she’d long since departed their landing site. Who had been assisting them in their investigation would have been next on the list, so the Guides could expand their dragnet sweep for traitors.

  It was a short-sighted, doomed-to-fail approach to the problem. The Guides were running around stamping out brushfires while an inferno raged on every horizon. They should have consulted their Advisors eight years ago, but instead they imprisoned, psyche-wiped and sacrificed the people who most wanted to help.

  He glanced at the row of storage rooms…but perhaps now he understood why everything had gone off the rails. How could the Guides properly value Asterion lives when they’d lost touch with what it meant to be an Asterion? Possibly forgotten entirely—

  “Hey, one’s missing.”

  Dashiel forced himself to check each of the rooms on the way to where Lacese stood at the entrance to the last one, even as his stomach roiled and churned in protest. By the time he reached it, he didn’t need to peer inside. “Delacrai. She’s out wandering the world somewhere.”

  Lacese shuddered visibly and gestured behind them, toward the d-gates. “I’m done, then. Is that the way out?”
r />   “I believe they lead to the central chamber, which is close to out.”

  They mercifully left the dolls behind to approach the d-gates, and he stopped in front of the center one. “Here’s hoping they aren’t code-locked.” He held his breath and stepped forward.

  He emerged in the Guides’ chamber, behind the dais. The expansive room was empty, dark and eerily quiet.

  “So this is where you Advisors do your business?”

  “Very little of it, trust me.” He switched to infrared vision. “Those enormous doors on the other side are the way out, but something tells me they aren’t going to open when we walk up to them.”

  “Why not?” Lacese jogged up to them ahead of Dashiel; his shoulders sagged when they remained closed.

  “This is a public entrance. It’s likely controlled by a different network than the private sanctum or the interrogation wing.”

  “I bet there’s a control mechanism somewhere—”

  From the other side of the door, muffled sounds grew louder. Thuds, the pounding of feet, a crash. Voices.

  “One side of the fight has got to be friendly.”

  “You think they came for us?”

  “I don’t know about ‘us’….” Lacese started banging on the door and shouting.

  After several seconds the voices neared, though he couldn’t make out what they were saying.

  Lacese took two steps back and extended his blade. “In case the wrong side won.”

  “Good point.” Dashiel retreated and aimed the Glaser at the center of the doors.

  52

  * * *

  THE PLATFORM

  SPENCER CONFISCATED THE GLASERS belonging to the disabled dynes that had assaulted them upon their arrival on the Platform. One of theirs had gone full-on melee with two of the attackers; it had ended in a pile of metal limbs, so they were now down to a single hunter dyne.

  “Do we know where they’re being held? This is a large facility.”

  “And it turns out I’ve never seen most of it.” Adlai wiped blood of unknown origin off his forehead. “The interrogation wing should be about a third of the way around this outer ring to the right. Nika?”

  She took in the expansive but dimly lit anteroom, wishing she could remember what must have been countless visits to it. “Delacrai gave me an access code for all the doors, so we should be able to reach it. Although, she also promised Platform security would be disabled, but the greeting from our welcoming party suggests otherwise.”

  “The other Guides might have discovered her countermeasures and are reversing them.”

  Nika adjusted her tactical belt and motioned for everyone to form up. “Then we need to hurry.”

  They had just passed two large, ornate doors on the left when the faint sound of movement and possibly voices echoed from the other side of the doors. “Hold up.” She leaned in close and focused her aural receptors. Definitely voices, but she couldn’t make out what was being said.

  Adlai came up beside her. “What is it?”

  She kept her own voice soft. “Someone’s on the other side of these doors. It may be more security forces.”

  The doors began to shudder, almost as if someone or thing was pounding on them.

  “If it was security, wouldn’t they simply open the doors and attack? It sounds to me like whoever it is, they’re trying to get out.”

  “Good point. Everyone, take up defensive positions ten meters back and be ready to shoot whatever comes through.” She retrieved the multitool from her belt and began scanning the walls on either side of the doors. “I don’t see anywhere to input an access code.”

  “There isn’t anywhere that I’m aware of. The doors have always opened from the inside—wait, over here. I found a seam in the wall where one shouldn’t be.”

  She joined Adlai on the left side of the doors, studied the area he indicated, then took several steps back and pointed her Glaser at it. “You might want to scoot to the side.”

  “Stars!” He jumped away as the laser met metal. “This is how you create the ‘NOIR’ graffiti, isn’t it?”

  “Yep.” Her brow furrowed in concentration. A millimeter off the seam, and she risked frying the circuitry they were going to need to open the door.

  A rectangular section of the wall fell away, revealing a small control panel. “See? There’s always a method of emergency access.” She went up to the panel and started to input the access code, then paused to motion Adlai back. “Weapon on the door.”

  He nodded and joined the others. She tapped in the code and quickly did the same.

  The doors slid open with agonizing slowness, centimeter by centimeter revealing only darkness beyond—

  “Would you please stop pointing a gun at me? It’s still just as distracting as the first time.”

  All the air fled her lungs. Her Glaser clattered to the floor. “Dashiel?”

  “Hey, I did find you again.”

  With a cackle she leapt forward into his embrace. A second Glaser joined hers on the floor as his arms wound around her and squeezed her close.

  “You were right. Going to that meeting was a profoundly terrible idea.”

  She laughed as her lips found his ear. “I love you.”

  He was holding her so tightly she could feel his breath hitch in his chest. “Nika—”

  “I’m fine, too. Thanks for asking.”

  “It’s okay, darling. We can say all the words later.” She reluctantly disentangled herself from Dashiel’s embrace and turned to Joaquim. “Are you sure you’re fine? You look like you took a detour through a crisper.”

  “You think you’re funny, but you’re not.”

  She reached out and hugged him. “I’m very, very glad you’re fine.”

  “Thank you.” Joaquim rolled his eyes, then started peering behind her—his gaze locked on Adlai and turned to stone. “You asshole, you set me up!”

  Nika scrambled in front of him, grabbing him by the shoulders before he was able to take a swing at Adlai. “No, he didn’t. We think another Justice Advisor working for the Guides tracked him to the meeting and followed you when you left. The vaccine was legitimate. He’s on our side.”

  Joaquim glared at Adlai for another beat before relaxing slightly. “You had better be right.”

  She stepped away to give him some space. “I am. We wouldn’t have been able to rescue you without his help…though I guess the rescue is a bit abbreviated. How did you guys get free?”

  “Talent and skill, obviously.” Joaquim motioned a greeting at Ava and Dominic. “Where’s Perrin? She wasn’t in any of the cells—”

  “She’s safe. She badly wanted to come on this mission, but her talents were needed elsewhere.”

  “Hmm.” Joaquim studied his left hand, where the fingertips had nearly been burnt off.

  “We’ll get you to a repair bench soon.”

  “Whenever. Listen, I don’t know how much information they succeeded in stealing from my mind. Passcodes, locations—” He cut himself off when Nika looked away. “What happened?”

  She swallowed heavily and forced herself to meet his questioning stare. “They took out The Chalet. But almost everyone made it out safely.”

  “Motherfucking…” Joaquim sank against the wall and buried his face in his hands.

  “It’s not your fault.”

  “No shit.” Abruptly he straightened up and made a show of shaking off the despair. “Luckily, I get to punish the bastards right fucking now. Oh, look, the comms block doesn’t extend out to this anteroom. One second everyone. I’ve got a file to transmit.” A long blink later, he gestured behind her. “Is this finally the actual way out?”

  What had just happened? Nika studied him in concern for a few seconds before deciding now wasn’t the time or place to push. They all had to compartmentalize a little despair if they wanted to get through this night. “Yes. Is anyone else being held back there in the bowels of this place?”

  Joaquim smirked in Dashiel’s’ dire
ction, which she guessed was an improvement over their earlier interactions. “Not any people.”

  Adlai nodded sharply. “Then let’s vacate as well. Reinforcements will likely be moving in here or at Mirai Tower any minute now.”

  Dashiel sidled up beside her as they moved toward the d-gate. “You met resistance getting here?”

  “You could say that—”

  “Get down!” Dashiel knocked her to the floor as laser fire streaked centimeters above their heads. Suddenly everyone was shouting and firing.

  There was no cover beyond shadows to be found in the anteroom. She climbed to her knees to see a squad of hunter dynes advancing on them. She raised her Glaser as one fired on her—

  —Joaquim slid in in front of her and manifested a force-field shield with one arm. The fire splattered off the shield.

  Nika dove onto her stomach, stretched her Glaser out beneath the bottom of the shield and returned fire, if only to keep the dyne’s attention on them. They caught a small break when their sole dyne defender waded into the line of fire to engage in a battle of energy and defenses.

  This did nothing to address the other three attackers, however.

  She unlatched a stun grenade from her belt with her other hand. “Ava, get ready on the right!”

  “Roger that!”

  She lobbed the grenade over the top of Joaquim’s shield toward the right wall. Two seconds later it detonated, and in the periphery of her vision, Ava sprinted forward. She took a hit in the leg as she opened fire, but she held her aim. The powerful beam from her weaponized and upgraded arm slammed into the two dynes on the right, shredding them to pieces almost instantly.

  Two down, two to go.

  The dyne on the left continued to bear down on her and Joaquim. The other one shifted from Adlai and Spencer toward Ava, who was now semi-stranded in the middle of the room due to her leg wound. She trained her weaponized arm on it and fired, but without the benefit of the stun grenade distracting it, the dyne front-loaded its own defensive shield and rebuffed the considerable firepower, if temporarily.

  Nika glanced behind her and was startled to see Dashiel flat on his stomach, firing on both dynes. A fleeting grin crossed her lips as she motioned him up beside her, fully behind the shield. “Thanks for the save. Cover me?”