by Drew Cordell
“Caeldra. Grab those packs and give us the room please.”
“Yes sir,” she replied, but her expression revealed her surprise at being kicked out. She gave a respectful nod and exited the small study room, waiting outside the door.
“Look. I had every reason to believe that robot was your father, and it very well might have been. If it wasn’t a clone of your father’s memories and mind, then we’ve got a whole other issue on our hands. I’m chalking it up to design flaws in Mindshift for now and will push that stance to the other Council members to the best of my ability—as it is in everyone’s best interest. Nearly indestructible robots controlled by the Government would be a dangerous thing.”
“If it belongs to the Government, then they know where the Guild Hall is located,” I said.
“That’s very true, but if the Government knew where we were, I assume we’d all be dead by now, even though it would be difficult to deploy and control Enforcers down here. I have yet to see a human Government soldier in all of my years,” he said.
I considered the idea for the first time. “You’re probably right.”
“We’ve got a couple of people in the Mids, but we have no idea what’s in the Upper Level—if there’s even an Upper Level. Our leader or leaders are faceless, and no one would even know they exist if it wasn’t for the rumors, legends, and enforced laws. As far as we know, the entire society of New York is held together by computers that were abandoned or people who have lost interest in anything that concerns the rest of the city. After all these years, we still don’t know. You need to be very careful, regardless. Any more of those robots like the one you brought to us would mean trouble. Martinez is still trying to analyze the shielding system and maybe develop the tech for us to build weapons that can pierce it. Our HexTox weapons barely pinged it without heavy sustained fire. Anyway, be careful, and I want you to know your real father would have been very proud of you. I don’t care if you tell Caeldra what I told you; I just wanted to give you the option of privacy, Justicar Ashton. We can discuss the extent of my knowledge on your father’s work later. We’ve got a lot to talk about, and I don’t want you to think I’m being shady for refraining to educate the Council on some matters at this time. I hate politics, but it is very necessary right now until we figure out exactly what is going on.”
“I understand. Will I still be a Justicar after all this ends?” I asked.
“Most likely, yes. At least for a term. The rest of the Council will have to vote on the length of your suspension, but I doubt it will be long, especially given the circumstances of your actions. And with this mission I’m sending you on, I will take the heat if things go wrong, so you don’t need to worry,” he said with the best smile he could muster. “We lost two good men today, and I’m hoping we can prevent the loss of two more. Find James and Carlson, and bring them back to us,” he said as he patted me on the shoulder. Taking a pair of cutters, he motioned for me to give him my arm. He cut the wrist cast off, and my arm tingled as air flowed over the previously covered skin.
“I gave you a conservative estimate on when this could come off. It looks to be completely healed. Oh, and watch out for Caeldra. She’s still recovering from her injury.”
My wrist felt strange after being in the cast for weeks, but it was a good feeling. I nodded to Edgar and exited the door where Caeldra waited for me, my backpack ready beside her. I was surprised to see a C-15 Heavy Repeater on each of our backpacks as well as our CZR-7s.
“Edgar thinks they will fare better than a C-19 due to the rate of fire if we run into any more of those advanced bots,” she said, giving me a broad smile when she saw my cast had been removed. Edgar gave us a nod as he left the library and then Caeldra guided me to the back of the library and to an abandoned hallway. We continued toward a large metal door that was secured with a reinforced latch.
“This is a maintenance shaft, but we’ll need to be sure not to be seen by any workers who happen to be down there. I don’t think there will be any, but just in case, be quiet and follow my lead,” she said as she unbolted the door and opened it.
There was a sharp creak as the hinges protested the movement. The air was cold and damp, and a large elevator sat at the top of the shaft. Right before I walked onto the elevator, Caeldra motioned toward the side wall, where a long ladder shot down into the relative darkness of the pit below. We descended the ladder through a small vertical tunnel that was lined with small light bulbs every twenty feet or so. The concrete wall was slick with moisture, but the rungs of the ladder were coated with an anti-slip surface. We traveled a few hundred feet before finally reaching the bottom.
We were standing in a vast cavern which contained various light sources strewn across the floor and walls with long rubber cables connecting them to various power modules. Construction equipment lay across the ground and a large temporary office had been set up, probably for the foreman of the project.
“What is this supposed to be?” I asked as I continued to take in the sight.
“It’s going to be another storage area when it’s finished. They’ve been working on this for a few years, and we’ll be using the trash pit to make our way through to the rest of the Undercity, which hasn’t been done before.”
The name ‘trash pit’ didn’t convey a sense of structure or safety, let alone an ideal route of travel. “What do you mean trash pit?” I asked, hoping she would give some explanation that defied conventional logic.
“Exactly what I said. A giant pit. Filled with trash. It used to be a ventilation shaft made by the original Builders, but now it houses all the rubble and excess concrete from this project.”
We walked over to a huge hole in the ground marked off with plastic barricades dotted with flashing yellow lights. Warning messages were printed on the front of them in large red text. Sturdy metal poles extended from around the edges and had large loops of steel that were built as safety anchors.
‘DANGER: TETHER MUST BE SECURED BEFORE CROSSING BARRICADE’ one of the signs next to the pole read. As we approached the pit, I could see how truly massive it was. My main concern was I couldn’t tell exactly how deep it went. There were a few lights down for the first fifty feet or so, then an immeasurable depth of darkness. “We’re going down this?” I asked, disbelief creeping into my voice.
“Of course,” she said as she attached her cabling to one of the tether poles. “Until we find a usable tunnel, that is,” she replied with her trademark grin.
I shook my head before fastening my own cable to another one of the tethers. Despite the strength of the cable and the tether, I didn’t like descending without Artemis or the auto-grappling hooks that would save my life if I made a mistake or something broke.
“I know it’s not as comfortable as going out with Artemis, but we have to make do with what we’ve got,” Caeldra said, evidently seeing the worry on my face.
I nodded as we positioned ourselves on the edge of the pit with our cables tight. After a moment to get situated in our harnesses, we began the slow descent into the darkness below.
We moved slowly, the sides of the pit slick with a mud-like substance of moisture blended with powdered concrete, dust, and dirt. Our LED lights from our shoulders cast long beams of white light downward which were consumed by the darkness of the pit below. As we descended, the walls changed from slick to slimy and bracing my feet against the wall became increasingly difficult. After scraping up large mounds of dark green algae, I decided to take my feet off the wall and descend the pit in a sitting position, trusting the harness and cable would hold me.
“Keep an eye out for any tunnels we can use. We don’t have that much more cabling left,” Caeldra said.
“Are you sure there are any tunnels down here?” I asked.
“Nope, but I’ve never been down a ventilation shaft without them. These used to bring fresh air to all of the Undercity before it was sealed off from the surface.”
The air began to sour, so we put on our respirato
rs, and I continued to shine my light along the dark green walls. I turned and saw an opening, or what could have been considered at one point in its existence, a tunnel. The inside of it was coated with the dark algae, and it glistened against the light of my flashlight. Strange fungus-like masses grew on the corroded pipes and jutted out from the inside in sections where the metal had given into the erosive force of nature. It looked like something that belonged in a science lab.
“Uh, Caeldra? Any chance we can find another tunnel?” I asked with only the faintest sliver of hope.
“You found our way in! Nice job, Jake,” she replied, answering my question.
Getting inside the entrance of the tunnel was easy, but standing still in the deep slime-like algae coating the floor was near impossible. To avoid a tragic fall to our deaths, we attached another line to a pipe that Caeldra declared “safe enough.”
“It should hold, but just in case, don’t fall,” she said as she disconnected her line and braced herself before inching forward. After moving farther down the tunnel, she attached another cable to a sturdier pipe, then passed me a cable to connect to my harness which was attached to hers. “You’re clumsier than me,” she said with a wink as I disconnected my rappelling cable and entered the foul tunnel.
After reaching a point where it was safe to walk without the cables, we began to travel through the increasingly disgusting tunnel. I was glad for the respirator which filtered out the stagnant and pungent smell which must have proliferated through the tight space. Whatever electronics had once existed were destroyed by the powerful forces of moisture and time. The algae made it very hard to move at a pace faster than a crawl. I braced my hands on Caeldra’s firm shoulders as I followed behind her to avoid falling. I had to admit her balance was much better than mine, and I wasn’t too proud to give her that victory. We proceeded for another thirty feet or so until we reached a slight incline, which had less algae than the section of tunnel we had already traveled through. Fortunately, I was then able to walk on my own without having to hold onto Caeldra to prevent an embarrassing fall.
We continued onward until the algae all but faded away. Caeldra kept checking the old positioning system Edgar had given us and we continued forward.
“We’re getting closer to the bunker,” she called from in front of me.
We passed a low hanging series of steel pipes and proceeded to a familiar-looking section of the tunnel. Caeldra raised her hand and pulled down her C-15 from her backpack with slow and deliberate motion. I did the same as we rounded one final corner and turned off our flashlights, my eyes taking a moment to adjust to the dimness of the yellow lighting of the tunnel. A distant shadow of a figure was standing right outside the door of the bunker. My Artemis overlay outlined the figure in green, but it couldn’t read any vitals. Caeldra raised her weapon, and I did the same as I shifted to her side and matched her pacing. The figure stood still, and the light in that section of the tunnel had been broken. Small fragments of broken glass littered the floor, but there was no way to tell if the light had been broken recently.
“Be ready for anything. I don’t like that we can’t read Carlson’s vitals,” Caeldra whispered, the unease in her voice causing my heart to speed up. In fact, anytime her Runner’s intuition—as she called it—would flare up, I would become very uneasy. If a situation could break through her focused and confident demeanor, it was serious.
Caeldra reached up to her shoulder and flicked on the bright LED light. The man was facing away from us and was wearing guild leather. Something was wrong, though. There was a thin line of blood streaming down the back of his jacket that glistened in the bright white light. The blood was falling off the bottom of the jacket in an irregular rhythm, splashing against the floor with an audible drip. A pool of blood had formed at his feet, congealing on the edges.
“Carlson!” Caeldra croaked, the sound barely audible. Drip drip. I could see her weapon shaking in her hands. Drip drip drip. The figure remained still and unwavering. Blood continued to stream down from an unseen wound. Drip. I forced myself forward alongside with Caeldra and suppressed a shiver as it felt like something was right behind me, watching us. As quietly as I could, I spun around and raised my weapon, ready to fire. There was nothing behind us, but the uneasy feeling of watching eyes persisted.
We were nearly on Carlson now, and we were both doing the best we could to suppress the panic that was attempting to creep into our minds. I created a quick layering and buried my fear behind a thin veil of mental willpower. I felt myself relax slightly and took point, feeling more confident in my abilities to act with certainty. Drip drip. We were only ten feet away. Drip drip drip. Five feet. Drip. Bracing the C-15 against the inside of my arm and chest, I reached forward and grabbed Carlson’s shoulder. The body went limp and collapsed to the floor. In the moments that followed, I saw a flash of silver as a wire snapped from the ceiling and felt a firm shove. I flew through the air and a wave of intense heat passed over my body. There was a high-pitched ring as I looked down and saw blood welling from my left leg, soaking through my pants.
“Caeldra!” I yelled, unable to hear my own voice. Fragments of concrete and wire were burning in front of me, and smoke started to seep into my mask through a crack on the glass frame. The goggles fogged up, and I lost vision. Panicking, I tore the mask off and held my breath as I punched out the goggle lenses. Acting on pure adrenaline, I tore at my undershirt and created a sliver of cloth about a foot long and a few inches wide. I reached into my backpack and pulled out a bottle of water. With shaking hands, I ripped the cap off and doused the section of cloth. After soaking the strip of cloth in water, I stuffed it into the respirator to attempt to filter out at least most of the water-soluble toxins from the air. I replaced the mask on my face as fast as possible.
“Caeldra!” I cried again, unable to see her through the thick smoke that had accumulated in the tunnel. I started to feel a sharp pain leech into my leg and remembered I hadn’t bandaged my wound. I tore my shirt off and tied it around my leg as tightly as I could, gritting my teeth against the pain and intense pulsing that surged through my body.
I did my best to stand and picked up my weapon which had been flung with me in the blast. I saw Caeldra lying on the floor several feet away. She had been behind me when the explosion went off—perhaps I had taken the worst of it. I limped over to her and flipped her on her back; she raised her weapon at me and almost fired before realizing who I was. She was panting and shifting backward with her legs, trying to push herself up.
“Jake, are you hurt?” she asked, gaining her composure.
“Yes, my leg,” I said as I leaned forward.
“They’ll pay for this; for Carlson, for your leg. Cover me,” she seethed as she pulled a first aid kit from her backpack. I turned my upper body with my weapon raised to guard us as she worked to patch my leg. After removing my makeshift bandage, she injected my leg with a strong painkiller which made my entire lower body go numb. The pain flowed out, and I sighed with a breath of relief as she pressed a large square piece of cloth against the wound. The fabric adhered to my leg and stopped the bleeding almost instantly.
“You’re still going to need surgery, but it will do for now.” Caeldra flicked on her headset. “This is Caeldra Thompson. Carlson is dead, James is still missing, and Jake is injured. Requesting backup. It was a trap!” Caeldra said quickly.
I turned on my headset and caught the end of a sentence, “—and that’s an order!” a voice called.
“Jake, it looks like we’re not getting backup. We need to get the hell out of here.”
“No,” I tried to say, but my voice was barely more than a whisper. The bunker was only thirty feet away, and I began to hobble forward through the chunks of burning debris and gristle from the explosion of the body. Caeldra grabbed my arm, and I flung her hand off.
“I need to do this,” I said louder than before. “We can’t leave it here.”
Something in my tone must have shifted
, and she gave me a simple nod, her face solemn and understanding. She took point and moved forward. The inside of the bunker was already burning, but I recognized the desk where the heavy-looking black case sat—the case which either contained a hell of a lot of explosives or Mindshift. Either way, it was our best bet.
“That box,” I said pointing to the black case.
It looked to be made of either light metal or a solid plastic polymer. Caeldra lifted it and eyed the weapons lockers. The heavy turret caught her eye, but we had no way of moving it, especially with the threat of an enemy lurking around the corner. Caeldra told me to stand guard while she loaded as many weapons as she could on her backpack and added a few to mine as well, despite my wounded leg. The painkillers were doing a decent job in suppressing the pain and a few extra pounds wouldn’t slow me down.
After getting all that we could carry and leaving the room, we hurried back in the direction we had come from. We walked back to back down the hall, keeping a keen eye out for unseen enemies and any signs of danger.
“What about James?” I asked with concern.
Caeldra ignored the question.
“We’re back in route and will be coming up the maintenance bay trash pit. Have a crew ready; we’re bringing what we believe to be Mindshift. James is still MIA. Please advise,” Caeldra said over the comms.
“MIA, that’s a poor description of my status,” a crackling static voice cooed over comms.
“James! James, please respond. This is Command. What’s your status?” another voice said.
“I’m fine,” the distorted voice answered.
Caeldra stiffened. “That’s not James,” she said, her voice weak. “We need to get the hell out of here,” she cried, panic seeping into her failing voice.
My heart jumped into my throat, and my fingers tingled with adrenaline. We were now being hunted by something that was on James’ frequency. Something that might have access to Artemis. What was even more concerning was James’ encrypted link to Artemis was bound to biotic sensors and numerous safeguards that would destroy the system if he were to die.
