by Cam Daly
Sousa looked relieved. “Look, there’s something we didn’t tell you. We - Susan and I - weren’t sure who we could trust. But DeVries ran, and you stayed.”
Connor straightened up, reminded that DeVries was loose. This wasn’t over. “Go on.”
“A couple days ago, they had me figure out the same type of equipment configuration, but for a different accelerator. A more powerful one.”
“Do you know where?”
“There’s only one it could be. The LHC, in Switzerland.”
“If it's in Switzerland, there isn’t much we can do about it. But we need to do something about Taylor right now, before the police take us and her into custody and this all repeats again.”
“Okay. But how do we dispose of them - the bodies?”
At that exact moment, the missing winglet came slicing into view and hovered a few meters away. Connor sincerely wished that his hand was working so that he could try to punch the thing. “You have the shittiest timing in the history of bad timing. Where the fu-gggh-” He had stumbled as its gravitic field unbalanced him and jostled his hand. “Seriously, where were you thirty seconds ago?”
Kery’s voice replied. “Thirty seconds ago, this thing was in the basement trying to figure out the maze of telephone wiring. I told you to give it clear orders. But that’s not important right now.”
Connor was incredulous, and relieved. “You’re alive!”
“Of course I’m alive! What makes you think otherwise?”
“Vegas! I saw the explosion on TV. I thought Broaalg got you.” He realized Sousa was staring at him again with his now-familiar accusatory look.
“No. I got him. Forget about that.”
She needed to know about the LHC. “But Sousa just told me…”
“We only have a few seconds. Focus on this.”
“On what?”
“Stopgap. You now have command authorization at the same level as I do. It’s currently in terminal vigilance mode, which means you have to press a button every eight minutes or it will commit to re-entry. Get your phone out.”
He gingerly fished it out and held it in his good hand. The screen had changed to show a simple menu of options in English. If he didn’t know better, he would think it was a remote control app for a fancy TV. “Okay. I see it. Stopgap is currently holding at 30,000 kilometers out, awaiting terminal confirmation. Why eight minutes?” The display was ticking downwards. Seven minutes and forty seconds were left.
“Because we have four digits on each hand, not five. Also not important.”
Connor surveyed the menu options as she continued. “It’s still set for its default target catalog, but I don’t have anything better to use it on. I should be on Alcatraz in a few minutes, but wanted someone I trusted to have that in case things didn’t go…in case I was killed.”
His relief over her survival turned to confusion. He didn’t know how to feel.
“I have to meet Mez in a minute, and won’t be able to talk to you again once we hit Alcatraz. If things don’t go well for me, I'll still try to convince her to get to you and treat Park. Just keep resetting Stopgap or it will fall on you.”
Connor pressed a button and read the result. “There are other options here.” He stopped and stared at one for a few seconds. “You’re saying I have compete control over this thing, right?”
Sousa jostled Connor, trying to get a look at the phone screen. He winced and almost dropped the phone.
“Yes. There aren’t different authorization levels. It’s a simple system. Why?”
“And there’s no way for you to use Stopgap to your benefit right now?”
“No. It’s an all or nothing system. There’s no solution for me in just blowing things up. I have to personally go into Alcatraz.”
“Why not give control to Mezerello?”
“She’s coming with me. And I don’t know how much I can trust her. I know you’ll do the right thing.”
Connor stepped away from Sousa and pulled himself all the way upright. He pushed a button on the phone. “Kery, you know that I trust you completely, right?” He very clearly emphasized the second ‘you’.
“Yes. And I trust you. Good bye for now.”
She disconnected. He re-read the text on the screen and took a deep breath. “Sousa. I have a very important physics question for you.”
#
Mezerello was supposed to be waiting in a public tennis court on the southwest corner of the intersection of Hyde and Lombard streets, near the top of the area known as Russian Hill. A raggedy row of trees on the north and east sides of the courts provided cover for anyone who might want to get a good look at Alcatraz without revealing themselves. Kery was approaching from the south, racing up the tree-lined canyon of three and four story buildings which filled most of San Francisco.
“But Keryapt - if that's really you - how can you be telling me this? Why isn’t the Admiralty stopping you? I’ve never…I mean…”
Mezerello was on the verge of understanding her situation. The Admiralty wouldn’t have ever allowed Kery to tell the story, but they weren’t in control of the communication system.
“Shhh. I know what you’re thinking. I know.” She kept talking, partially to make sure the young Active didn’t say anything stupid. “I lived a hundred years in that ship, drifting back to Fleet Four, slowly forgetting all the details of my own life. I had a million years worth of stored entertainment, and I watched all of the stories about me. To not forget. But over the course of that century, I forgot my real stories, and the feel of real emotion and affection. But I never forgot that the Admiralty was responsible for my situation. When I got back, I was just a hollow shell pretending to be Keryapt Zess.”
“But… at Dogpatch, I tried to kill-“
Damn. Mezerello had realized the truth, that this was real and not a simulation. Ormlan would probably use the bomb if he knew that. Kery slowed further, buying more time before she got to the point where she had to attack Mez.
“I spent ten years floating back, then the next ten years as an Outsider, pretending to be the old Keryapt. But really I was just avoiding contact with anyone who knew me, because they knew me better than I knew myself. It wasn’t until last night that I realized that I could be whoever I want to be. I’m not some impostor.”
On the lonely Planning Stage, she had a side display still showing Connor. He had finished his questions for Sousa and stood staring at the Sneaker phone.
She was 500 meters from Mezerello and couldn’t delay any longer. She prepared to trigger her attack on the young Active.
Connor couldn’t expect Kery to hear it, but he whispered a guilty apology to her as he went to push a button.
Hopefully some day she could express her gratitude, but she didn’t dare send it now.
There was a new star suddenly visible in the morning sky, almost directly overhead. A pinprick of white shining through the blue, from somewhere far above. In space. The pinprick grew rapidly, a shimmering circle of energy radiating all across the electromagnetic spectrum.
Then another. And another, and then dozens were visible across the sky. Massive, powerful detonations had occurred in orbit all around the Earth. Hundreds of them.
Connor had activated the self-destruct for the entire Stopgap system. It would take a second or so for the command to reach all the missiles positioned around Earth, but she was certain that they would all be destroyed. She hadn’t programmed any subtlety or decision making into the interface that she gave Connor.
She had, however, made sure that the terminal hold altitude was far enough out that the resulting electromagnetic pulse wouldn’t wipe out human civilization. The Stopgap detonation should “only” wipe out all long range communication and navigation systems in high earth orbit. The resulting system chaos should cause all terrestrial communications to overload, at least until automated routing could find local paths.
Mezerello didn’t explode instantly. There wasn’t a dead man switch on her cranial b
omb.
The cellular radio link between the Actives was dead, as she had anticipated. She didn’t want to break Ormlan’s rules until it was certain that he couldn’t eavesdrop, so she was forced to shout very loudly from 200 meters away. “Mez. Are you in contact with Ormlan still?”
“No! What - how did you-“
Kery only had a few seconds before Ormlan would re-establish his connection through local networks. “That was Stopgap. Now look straight up, turn off all physical feedback from your head, and hold very still.”
Mez hesitated for an instant, then complied. Kery dove towards her at full speed, cutting her gravitic drives at the last possible instant and skidding to a stop directly behind Mezerello. She put her hands to the young Active’s head and started a full spectrum scan.
She explained as she worked. “No radiation. No sign of magnetic containment. You have a bomb in your skull, but it must be conventional.”
“What? How do you know?”
Kery let her vocal speed match her mental processing rate. “Ormlan warned me about it. You’ve been working for the Molu, not us. Ever since they took your head at Dogpatch.”
Kery flexed her fingers into impossibly sharp blades and studied Mez’s head. It had been a desperate decision, to give Connor an obvious way to detonate Stopgap. But it let her avoid having to kill Mezerello, which seemed like the most effective usage of it at the moment. The Admiralty would never have approved of her plan.
She surgically slashed through Mezerello’s skin and began peeling it back.
“That was less than two hours ago, for me. Shadow said this was reconditioning testing…”
“Save the freak out for later. Ormlan needs to keep thinking that is what you believe. But part of his family has been converted to Tumorish and he needs one of us to take them out. But just one. He wants it to be you, but it has to be me.”
Kery had the scalp and nape all the way off, leaving only the more delicate facial elements attached. Mez was looking straight up, so her skin hung from her face without blocking her vision.
“No variance from the original Intruder schematics. Where is it?” Kery went deeper, probing physically and electromagnetically. “If it is that small, it has to be nuclear or AM.”
“Ormlan wouldn’t let antimatter anywhere near his base. The Deep Thinkers don’t contain any.”
“Then it has to be short throw nuclear. But I don’t see anything the right shape.”
“If you don’t find it, we are going to end up as a pair of radio-Actives.”
Kery stopped moving. “Damn.”
Mezerello tried to get a glimpse of Kery without moving her head, rolling her eyes so far back in her head that they were almost entirely white. “What? You found it?”
“No, I just realized that -Active jokes aren’t that funny.” She went back to work.
“Screw you. Don’t do that again.”
“Keryapt Zess does not make promises she can’t keep.”
“Does she always tell the truth?” Mez paused. “More seriously, how do I know with certainty that Ormlan is lying and not you?”
“How? How. Hmm.” Time for the family secret to be of use. “Our Shadow never told you her name, right? But I know it, because she’s my daughter. Her real name is Sienaly Zess. Use that. She would be livid if anyone on her team knew.”
Kery had checked everything outside the cranial pod itself. Still nothing.
Suddenly Ormlan came on the channel again. “Active Mezerello! What are you doing? Where is Zess?”
Mez was still facing straight up. Kery immediately began slapping the Intruder head back together. Armor plates, micro musculature and cranial pod cooling links to the hair were all crammed in together. Flaps of synthetic skin still hung free as Kery vaulted backwards.
Mez turned to bring Kery into her line of sight, one hand fumbling at the back of her own neck to correct things there.
Kery faked a landing, as if she had just arrived. “I’m here, Ormlan. I have a plan for how to break the Tumorish siege.”
“You have two minutes until my offer expires. Remember our terms. What is your plan?”
Mez cut in before Kery could start to explain. “Ormlan. I have a question for my Shadow. Ask her what her mother would do in a situation like this.”
A brief pause. “She says that isn’t important. The key is what you decide to do.”
Mez looked profoundly sad to have confirmed her situation. Shadow - Sienaly - would have been enraged to know that her mother had revealed her secret.
“How many innocent bystanders were…how many non-Tumorish did I kill, in the latest simulation?”
Ormlan clearly hadn’t paid enough attention to know. “We can review that later. Focus on the next phase of this mission!”
“Acknowledged. I’m ready to follow Keryapt’s lead.”
Mezerello looked up again at the glowing pattern of lights in the sky. The Stopgap detonations had smeared and spread, taking on rainbow hues around their edges.
She looked down from the heavens. “You do know how to make an entrance, Kery. And tell a story. It’s an honor to meet the real legend.” She hesitated for a moment. “Even though it is just a simulation.”
“Nice to meet you too. I hope you haven’t banged up my Interloper too much. We’re going to need it.”
CHAPTER 17
The two Actives studied each other. The Interloper’s bare arms were longer and bulkier than the originals, giving Mez a simian look. They were probably spare parts for a Molu familycraft. A black metallic choker hid where the Intruder head was attached to the Interloper body, but the shades of skin above and below were noticeably different.
“Did you take any damage from the Tumorish in the city? Your body is a bit of a chimera and I could imagine it has some compatibility issues.”
“I’m fully functional. There is one weird blinking light that started appearing in the corner of my vision after the most recent body change, but it only appears when I ask questions. Like, should I do whatever Keryapt Zess tells me to do? It blinks ‘YES’.”
The advisor system that Ruut had written for her was still running. In its native form, on the Interloper’s system core. How did the Molu crack the core encryption and get it running again with different body parts? That should have been impossible. Unless…
Mez was already continuing. “The Tumorish managed to fill an entire ferry up and get to the island undetected. I only saw adult males in the city, but the group on Alcatraz contains females and children as well. Once there, they attacked ESWAT and started converting everyone on the island. The Craven flyers - Photuris - dropped some portable heavy weapons there, they set up defensive emplacements on the north and south tips then hunkered down.”
“Okay. So the two of us are up against four air defense units, fifty to a hundred Tumorish and a pair of missile batteries which will shoot down anything bird sized or above which approaches the island.” She was getting additional data from the winglets hiding in various parts of the surrounding area, but it all matched what Broaalg had told her.
“That pretty much covers it. Also factor in that we don’t know the state of the entrance to the sublevels. There was some intense combat there and fires are still burning in some spots.” Mez finished her scan of Kery’s body. “Horseplay is very impressive. Advanced Perfection?”
Keryapt nodded affirmation. She was impressed that the younger Active could recognize the designer that quickly.
She met Keryapt’s eyes and held them for a moment. “I like where their designs are headed.”
Kery kept her response casual. “I know what you mean.” She smiled, impressed that Mez had regained her composure. It isn’t every day the you find out that your own Admiralty will use you as a suicide bomb. “Now let me give you the plan.”
A cable car rumbled up Hyde St while she spoke. The targeting radar and lidar coming from Alcatraz had tracked east and away from their current location, towards where her winglets had gone, bu
t if the two women used gravitic means to even start towards the island then the defenders would know instantly.
Keryapt knelt down and began to etch the surface of the tennis court with her fingertip at superhuman speed. A few seconds later and her attack plan was laid out for any future visitor to see.
Mezerello studied it for a few seconds longer. “You think I can hit 125?”
“Downhill, with that surface? Probably. At least, I could if I was in the Interloper.”
“Ha. If you could do that…I’ll aim for 150.” The younger Active slung her rifle on her back. Keryapt kept her cannon out and Mez eyed it. “What about your rifle? Isn’t its range much greater?”
“It relied on using the winglets for payload acceleration. I’ve lost two thirds of them. I'll be firing at the missile batteries while you focus on their snipers.”
Keryapt knew that Mezerello would have a few subjective minutes to examine the plan while they got into position. She pushed through the row of trees towards the street. Normally there would be a crowd of tourists gathered to descend the twists of Lombard Street but Mezerello’s battle against the Tumorish seemed to have scared most people inside.
Mez issued one last protest as she followed Kery to the street. “You do realize that this is somewhat crazy, right? There must be an easier ways to get at least that close.”
“Without more prep, this is the fastest way.”
Keryapt walked across the intersection of Hyde and Lombard to the cable car rails. She quadruple checked the simulation on the Planning Stage. She had figured the basics days earlier, back when she was contemplating how to get to Alcatraz with the Interloper. Now the situation was greatly complicated by the fact that she was in a different body and there would be active defenders.
“What about once we reach the other side?”
“No plan survives contact with the enemy. You handle interiors, I’m on exteriors, we get to Ormlan.” She walked to the northern side of the intersection, which looked down Hyde Street as it sloped five hundred meters to San Francisco Bay. Keryapt stopped on the north bound pair of cable car rails. She pointed to the other pair for Mezerello. “One more thing. Repeat after me. Should I ever hurt Ormlan, or allow any Molu to come to harm?”
