Zero Zero Zero

by Harlan Finchley

  Sebastian noted his optic display showed 020.4. “Why hire me for the delivery?”

  El Duce chuckled. “You were expendable.”

  “What did you plan to do with it?”

  “I’d hoped to entice my rival gang leader by promising him immortality. Then, when he installed it in his neck port, I’d tell him the truth.”

  Sebastian gulped. “What’s the truth?”

  El Duce slumped onto the couch. “The shard fuses with your neck port. Worse, without a power pack, it dies after about fourteen months. After installation, anyone would pay anything for another power pack and I’d planned to ask the appropriate level of favors for one.”

  “What happens when the shard dies?”

  El Duce waved his hands above his head. “It returns to its quantum state. Nobody’s tested what that does to your brain, but I doubt the owner would enjoy it.”

  Sebastian winced. “So we only need to steal the packs from Raphael and we have him, presuming he’s implanted the shard already.”

  El Duce shook his head. “We aren’t involved. Only you are.”

  “In that case you’ve told me all I need to know,” Sebastian said, with more confidence than he felt. He got up. “It should give me enough of an edge to get Raphael.”

  El Duce smirked. “Go on. Impress me with your plan.”

  Sebastian set his feet wide apart and placed his hands on his hips.

  “Tomorrow, I’ll go to Plaza Court, walk through the entrance and ask whoever controls admissions to take me to Raphael. When I’m taken to Raphael, I’ll kill him.”

  El Duce shrugged, his eyes hooded. “If I wasn’t so tired, I’d laugh. Do what you want. I don’t care.”

  “My plan will work.” Sebastian advanced a pace. “When I ask for things, people give them to me. For instance, I want you to scratch your nose.”

  Sebastian pushed: Scratch your nose.

  El Duce scratched his nose and Sebastian spread his hands.

  “That means nothing. I just wanted to scratch my nose.”

  “It’s a form of hypnosis. Place a hand on your head.”

  Sebastian pushed the command and El Duce complied. While wincing, Sebastian waited for an outburst, which didn’t come.

  Instead, El Duce rubbed his chin. “That’s a neat trick. Show me another.”

  The multiple pushes had given Sebastian a throbbing headache.

  “I need to save my strength for when I meet Raphael.”

  El Duce got to his feet and picked up his gun from the floor beside the wall.

  “Correction,” he said. “You need to save your strength for when we attack Raphael.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  FIVE HOURS AFTER SEBASTIAN had gained a new ally, El Duce returned to the warehouse with another clone. Apparently, finding anyone from his old empire was harder than he had expected.

  He left to gather more reinforcements, but he took his time. At least twice every day, hovertrucks passed over the warehouse, so Sebastian did the only thing he could do. He waited while his internal countdown moved inexorably to zero. By the time Sebastian’s countdown read 002.1, El Duce had recruited everyone he could find, and that was just six people.

  “Are you sure you don’t want more?” Sebastian asked.

  El Duce grinned. Every day, his grin grew more fevered.

  “If I get more than these, we’ll have a pitched battle and no one will get in,” El Duce said. “Less, and we won’t get the job done.”

  Sebastian nodded, even though he didn’t believe him.

  THAT NIGHT, AT THE doors to Plaza Court, the group formed a line. Sebastian’s new colleagues weren’t the talkative type. They slouched down in their overcoats, set wide-brimmed hats forward and marched forward as one.

  Sebastian rubbed his cheeks. The skin mask grated back and forth beneath his fingers. Inside the Plaza Court, twenty armed guards were spread out across the marble foyer. Nervously, Sebastian edged closer to El Duce.

  “Don’t worry,” El Duce said. “The world is divided into leaders and followers. I’m a leader and so is Raphael. Everyone else here will be the following type.”

  Sebastian tried to feel heartened. “So we take out the leader and everything else falls into place.”

  El Duce nodded and strode across the foyer to the reception desk.

  “I want to see Raphael, now.” he said, leaning on the desk.

  “He won’t want to see you,” the guard behind the desk said.

  Sebastian gently pushed a request at the guard: Take us to Raphael.

  The guard rubbed his forehead and blinked rapidly.

  “I’ll check.” He tapped his console and nodded. “You may go up, gentlemen.”

  The guard’s politeness was too staged, but behind him doors opened to reveal a moving staircase. El Duce moved off so Sebastian fell in at the back of the group and they rode the staircase upward.

  They reached another wide, marble-clad entrance room. More than forty guards formed a semicircle across the center of the room. El Duce marched toward them and stopped three paces away.

  Sebastian followed. He expected an ambush, but the guards peeled back to let them enter an office. They walked between the phalanx of guards, who closed up behind them.

  “Good evening, El Duce,” Raphael said from out of Sebastian’s view. “Or perhaps I should say, Former El Duce.”

  As Sebastian clenched his hands into fists, El Duce flexed his shoulders.

  “It’s time for a deal, Raphael,” El Duce said. “Fighting between our factions only weakens us both, and that’ll give someone else an opportunity to steal our territory.”

  Raphael stepped into view. “I didn’t know we were fighting. I thought you’d lost.”

  El Duce paced in a small circle. “You have the advantage here, but Crandania is just one colony. I have interests across the Hegemony.”

  Raphael placed himself behind a guard, blocking any clear shot Sebastian might have.

  “You’re lying. Interplanetary business isn’t your style and I’ve seen no evidence that you control anything else.”

  El Duce paced again in a small circle, and then stopped.

  “I can teach you how my empire works. With your funds and my contacts, we could be a formidable team.”

  Raphael pushed two guards aside and stood between them. Sebastian smiled. If Raphael moved three steps closer, he reckoned he would be close enough to shoot him.

  “So you’re offering a deal where the two of us will work together?” Raphael asked.

  El Duce shrugged. “For now we will. One day we’ll have to kill each other, but today we can work in harmony.”

  Raphael smiled. “I don’t trust you, but I’d like to hear more.”

  El Duce extended a hand and Sebastian willed Raphael to advance toward the offered handshake, but Raphael snapped his fingers. Then he threw himself to the floor. The rattle of gunfire filled the office and El Duce stumbled as bloody rents tore across his body.

  Sebastian drew his gun and hurled himself toward a table. Gunfire ripped around him and marble fragments peppered his back as he scrambled into hiding. As quickly as it had started, the gunfire ceased.

  “Eight came in and we only got seven,” Raphael said. “Find the last one.”

  Feet lumbered in circles as the guards searched for him. Within moments the footfalls approached Sebastian’s table.

  “I’m here, Raphael,” Sebastian shouted with his discovery imminent. “It’s me, Sebastian.”

  “Don’t shoot,” Raphael said with a loud intake of breath. “I need him intact.”

  Gunmen loomed over him, so to evade capture Sebastian rose to his feet and backed away from them.

  “Like El Duce, I’ve come to make a deal.”

  “You look nothing like Sebastian,” Raphael said.

  Sebastian tore the skin mask off his face. “I am Sebastian Jones.”

  Raphael laughed from behind his phalanx of guards.

  “You were more h
andsome with the mask on, but I doubt you want a deal.”

  Hoping for one clear shot, Sebastian edged away from the nearest gunman to stand beside the still smoldering body of El Duce.

  “El Duce – I’m sorry, the former El Duce – came to kill you, but I hitched a ride to trade. I have something you want and you have something I want.”

  “You only want to kill me. So no trades and I’ll take what I want.”

  Sebastian raised a hand, palm toward Raphael’s position.

  “No, wait. We can trade. You know me and I’m not a killer. I never wanted the shard, but you do. I’ll tell you where I’ve hidden it, for a price.”

  Raphael’s face bobbed into view as he moved between the guards.

  “No, you still have it.”

  “El Duce told me about the shard and how the chance for immortality works, but he also told me how to remove it from my neck port. So come out and we can talk face to face.”

  “Put down your gun and I’ll come out.”

  “Sure.” Sebastian threw his gun to the floor between them.

  The weapon clattered and then spun to a stop. He kept his expression blank, enjoying the feel of the pistol still pressed against his chest in his inside pocket. Raphael pushed through his guards and advanced on Sebastian.

  Two guards flanked him. The trio stopped ten paces away from Sebastian, forming a triangle with Raphael at the back. Sebastian’s forehead throbbed a warning. The push downstairs had been minor, but the next one wouldn’t be.

  Raphael waved a hand. “Seeing as you’ve shown good faith, tell me where you hid the shard and I’ll give you ten thousand credits.”

  Sebastian smiled. “Multiply that by a hundred, in advance, and I tell you where it is.”

  Raphael advanced another pace toward Sebastian. “I can order my men to seize you and you’ll soon tell me where it is.”

  “El Duce told me everything about the shard. I only have to withstand you for a short while and I survived the penal colony.”

  Raphael rocked his head from side to side. “If El Duce told you everything, he told you about this.”

  Raphael withdrew a small black box from his jacket pocket and held it up.

  “Is that a pack?”

  “It is. Each one gives the shard another fourteen months of power.”

  Raphael tossed the pack to Sebastian, who caught it deftly. Sebastian fingered the dull, featureless surface. With a shrug he tossed the pack back to Raphael.

  Raphael smirked. “Now I know you have it. El Duce would never have known how to remove the shard.”

  “This discussion only wastes time. Give me credits and I’ll tell you where it is.”

  Raphael smiled. “This pack activates when it comes within a meter of the shard and you just handled it. I only need to press a button on the underside and it will glow, indicating it’s been near your shard.”

  “The pack doesn’t have a button,” Sebastian snapped.

  Raphael threw his head back and laughed. “That was a mistake, Sebastian. If you didn’t have it, you’d have called my bluff. Take him.”

  Raphael snapped his fingers and the two closest guards sprang for Sebastian.

  Protect me with your life, Sebastian pushed to the nearest guard and then slumped to his knees.

  “What are you doing?” Raphael shouted as pain flared, incandescent, across Sebastian’s skull.

  A gunshot hurtled above him, echoed by another. Sebastian forced his eyes open. He tried to focus on events and drag his pistol from his jacket, but his fingers were too numb to work. While he fumbled, one guard struggled with another.

  Then a shot rang out and the other guard hit the floor with a thud. The second guard approached, ready to protect him to the last. Sebastian sought out Raphael, but he had scurried behind his other men.

  More shots rang out around Sebastian. He closed his eyes and a thud sounded as his protector collapsed. With his numb hands trapped in his jacket, another guard grabbed him. He tried to keep his head up, but failed.

  “Let me go,” Sebastian said.

  The man tried to place him back on his feet, but his legs wouldn’t lock. He was dragged along instead, his feet bent painfully back. Raphael smiled, his eyes alive with greed.

  “I find dissent everywhere,” he said. “I’ll need to weed out the disloyal ones more industriously, but for now you’ll be pleased to know I’ll let you die quickly.”

  “Wait,” Sebastian tried to say, but his voice emerged as a croak. “I won’t die on my knees. Let me die on my feet.”

  He flexed his shoulders and locked one knee. More confident now, he dragged the other leg closer and stood up. As he stood, stooped, he mentally rehearsed the actions necessary to remove the pistol from his jacket and fire.

  Even in his wrecked state, with no one to block the shot he could hit Raphael from five meters away, but his target was again three paces out of range. Then Raphael strode out from behind his guards.

  “Now that you’re on your feet, would you like to know why I didn’t kill you on the lucrative asteroid we found?”

  Sebastian flexed his fingers. The numbness was dissipating.

  “Tell me.”

  “You and I have something in common.” Raphael took a step closer. “You used your own credits to help me find the isotope when you thought I was a conman. You had no desire to help me, but you decided to join me because you liked me. I wonder why?”

  Raphael strode another step toward Sebastian.

  “We all make bad decisions,” Sebastian said, willing Raphael to take one more pace.

  “Then a judge in Absolem made some strange decisions. First, he found you not guilty of murder despite all the evidence, and then he found you guilty of manslaughter when that option wasn’t on the table. Then there’s my smooth capture of the old El Duce’s empire.”

  Raphael advanced another pace. Sebastian didn’t ponder any more about what he meant. With a fluid motion he dragged out his pistol. The guards flinched, but when Raphael raised a hand they settled into their usual impassive stances.

  “That was a good try, Sebastian, but let me finish.” Raphael rubbed his forehead.

  Sebastian rubbed his own forehead and decided to let Raphael finish what he wanted to tell him.

  “Go on.”

  “You and I, Sebastian, are a new breed of human. It’s a pity you’ve wasted your talents on gambling, and I’ve wasted mine on the con game. Try to shoot me.”

  Raphael spread his arms wide apart. Sebastian tried to move his hand, but he couldn’t. Sweat broke out on his forehead, but somehow the action didn’t feel necessary.

  “You’re a pusher, too,” he gasped.

  “I’ve never heard the term, but I am, and I’m a better one than you are. Before you die, I thought I’d show you what it feels like to have someone take away your free will.”

  “What are we?” Sebastian asked, feeling shame for the first time.

  “I don’t know, but I am the future and you are the past!” Raphael snapped his fingers. “Now kill him, and aim low.”

  Gunshots rang out and pain ripped through Sebastian’s chest. The pistol slipped from his grip as his world lurched. Smoke drifted across his vision. Then the pain drifted away like mist on a summer morning.

  Something tore, deep within the walls of his mind, but it didn’t concern him. His mind swirled and circled away into nothingness. Silence settled over him.

  Chapter Nineteen

  SEBASTIAN FACED THE ceiling. He felt no pain. He tried to move his head, without success.

  “Is he dead?” Raphael asked.

  A shape loomed over him, out of focus, but he recognized one of Raphael’s guards. The shape edged closer.

  “We shot him about ten times, his heart’s not beating and there are three holes right through him. That usually does it.”

  Raphael snorted. “Throw a blanket over him and fetch Professor Kolas. We have enough time to let him cut the shard out.”

  Darkness
came and Sebastian listened to footsteps clump away. The door closed. Sebastian waited for the shock of death to hit him, but he only felt numb. He wondered about the shard and noted his optic display read 001.3.

  Sebastian tried to think himself into his limbs, but they didn’t exist. Still not panicking, he flexed his mind and remembered the swirling sensation. Locating an edge to his existence, he tapped against his mind’s corners and decided he was now in the shard, his mind trapped in its lattice structure.

  Its power kept him alive, after his body had died. With one last supreme effort he tried to force his body to move, but couldn’t. Resigned now, Sebastian regarded the blanket, close and out of focus above him.

  His visual perception felt second hand. He could only sense the air-conditioning whirr as a report of a sound. He had death without death, and life without life. The only acknowledgment that time passed was the downward shift of his internal chronometer.

  Sebastian pondered the revelation that Raphael could push, too. He’d often wondered what it would be like to know he wasn’t alone. Now, when he’d found someone, he didn’t experience any feeling, but at least he didn’t need to suffer his living death for too long.

  Less than ten hours remained, but even this didn’t scare him. Not knowing if it would work, he activated Software.

  Hello, Software said. The program’s flat tones sounded flatter than normal. What do you want?

  Am I dead?

  I’m an information retrieval device, not a doctor.

  As usual, Sebastian thought about how to ask the same question in a way his diagnostics would understand.

  If I can talk to you, I must be alive. How can we communicate, if my brain no longer functions?

  I am linked to both the neural pathways of your brain and the shard. I am only receiving information from the shard. The organic interfaces are currently offline.

  Sebastian noted he was offline, not dead, but at least he’d confirmed he was in the shard. He waited some more.

  Software, I’m not worried. Is there something I don’t know?

  Please rephrase the question.

  Sebastian considered and accepted that, freed from his body’s normal reactions, he couldn’t experience emotions.