by Eric Warren
Sy nodded. “Someone to keep me company then.” She walked over to the control panel for the Gate. “I’ll see you two very shortly. I just want to thank you again for helping us. This will mean a better future for everyone.”
Arista approached the Gate and stood beside Frees. “Nervous?”
He wasn’t about to ruin her good mood. “Not really.”
“Better than last time.”
“Definitely.” He powered up the felp. There was no telling what was on the other side of that gate. And if he had to take down Peacekeepers he needed to mentally prepare himself. Prepare himself for something he’d already agreed he’d never do again. But if she was in danger he wouldn’t hesitate. He hated that he’d make that concession for her. But he would, again and again, if necessary.
“Also, I should mention. Because the distance is further it may take you longer to pass through the quantum realm. Something this far away you can’t see from this side; it will look like a fog until you arrive. Don’t be frightened.”
“How much longer?” Frees asked. He didn’t like the idea of being in that thing longer than necessary.
“A few seconds at most.”
“Great,” he said under his breath.
“Ready?” Sy asked. Frees took one last look at Max, who nodded to him.
“Good luck to you both,” Jill said inside his head. He caught a glimpse of Arista’s face. It was set and determined.
“Ready,” Frees called.
The wall in front of them shimmered, becoming a gray, undulating mass.
They stepped through.
Twelve
Sy had been wrong. The passage through lasted much longer. Arista felt as if she were suspended in some type of gaseous/liquid hybrid but she kept moving forward. Frees’ shadow moved beside her though she couldn’t make out the details of him. She tried speaking but the words had no weight and slipped away soundlessly.
The possibility she might not find a way out of this murk occurred to her, then everything cleared, and she found herself on the other side with the sun beating down on her face. She had to raise her arm to shield her eyes from the brightness.
“Look out!” Frees grabbed and yanked her along before she realized quite what was happening. A maglev whooshed by right where she’d been standing, missing her by inches. She glanced down and realized they were standing on the maglev lines themselves. Another train could come along any moment.
“Where are we?” she asked.
“It doesn’t matter, we need to get off these tracks before we’re killed,” Frees yelled.
This didn’t make any sense. They were supposed to arrive at Hogo-sha’s HQ, not the middle of a maglev line. Had they come through the wrong gate? Did Sy make a mistake?
She could see clearly now that they were no longer in North America, and the GLS confirmed as much. This was Osaka alright, but something had gone wrong. Behind her stood the Gate they’d exited, but she couldn’t understand it. Why was it planted in the middle of maglev lines? The space inside the gate shimmered where it had been open before and a maglev train came roaring out of it, going at least a hundred miles per hour. Frees pulled her back again as the train narrowly missed them.
“Get off the tracks!” he yelled.
“Okay!” There were four sets of tracks stacked beside each other and she had to jump each of them to reach the other side. All were suspended above the roads below them similarly to the El, but these were much higher than the ones she was used to. They made it to the far side which had an accessible catwalk running the length of the lines.
“I still don’t understand it,” Arista said as soon as they planted their feet on the cross-hatched metal catwalk. “What is a Gate doing in the middle of a maglev line?”
Frees looked up and down the cluster of tracks. “I think they’re using it for transportation.”
“What?”
“Look.” He pointed to the Gate again as it went from open-air to shimmering. A maglev train approached and disappeared through the opening. “They must have built a network of them here, to move the trains around faster.”
“That’s…innovative,” Arista said. “So the Gate doesn’t have to be attached to a solid wall?”
“It appears not.”
“And it can be accessed from both sides.”
“Either it’s an improved design or Charlie didn’t understand how to use them properly,” Frees said. “Which doesn’t make sense considering he said helped create them. Regardless we have to figure out where we are and where we need to be.”
Arista tapped above her ear using her new fingers. It was so strange and yet so familiar at the same time to have her hand back. It would take getting used to again, but she had already found herself falling back into an easy routine with it. She tried getting through to Sy but the call wouldn’t connect.
“I can’t reach her. You try.”
Frees tapped his own head. “Nothing. Did she give you the location of the HQ?”
“She said we’d appear beside it.” Not wanting to give Frees the satisfaction of saying “I told you so”, Arista reached out to the net with the Device. “I’m sure I can find it. Give me a moment.” She searched for any Cadre references in Osaka. “It’s in Umeda. That’s a few miles from here.” She glanced toward where she thought the building should be only to realize she hadn’t really looked around yet. Buildings a hundred stories or more towered all around them, all shapes and sizes. And each one seemed to advertise a different product in various holographic displays, traditional 2-D or even a few old still billboard-style advertisements. And the colors were all over the spectrum. Even in the daylight they shone bright enough to make out what was being sold; Arista recognized none of it. They were mostly Japanese products she hadn’t heard of, though occasionally she did recognize a stray product placement.
Like Chicago or any other large city she’d visited, the skies were packed with transport ships. But these were smaller than the PTD’s she’d become used to. It seemed like only one or two people could fit in each vehicle, and they made their ways across the skies in crisscross patterns. But the sheer number of them far outstripped anything she’d ever seen before.
“Have you ever seen so many?” Arista asked, her neck craned to the sky.
“No. Not like this.”
Another maglev blasted past them, nearly knocking them off their feet. Arista grabbed the railing with her new hand. “We need to get off this thing and down to the streets.”
“Agreed,” said Frees, pulling his hood up. Arista did the same. Better to be safe than sorry.
They didn’t have to walk far to make it to the maglev station, also suspended far above the streets below. The people here seemed no different to the people back home; they went about their business like anyone else, the whole group moving and working in concert with itself. Did Hogo-sha manage things here like Charlie had? If anyone was surprised after watching two people come through the Gate a few hundred meters down they didn’t show it.
“She must have made a mistake in the calculations, she wouldn’t have sent us to the wrong gate on purpose,” Arista said.
“Maybe she’s not as adept at gate technology as she professed.”
“Maybe she just made an error. We do that, you know.”
“Oh, I know,” Frees said, carving a path through the throng of people.
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“Nothing, just forget it. Let’s get out of this crowd before we get picked up by surveillance,” he called.
Pushing through the people wasn’t hard; they were all pliable, even if you shoved them. It reminded Arista of back when she didn’t consider them really alive. Before she met Frees they had just been tools for her to use when necessary. But now she knew they all had the same potential he did. The same potential her parents did. And all she needed to do was unleash it.
“Frees,” she called. He glanced back. “This is a lot of people. Should I…?” She wiggled he
r eyebrows at him.
“Not unless you want to give away our position. Surveillance will definitely pick that up.”
“You’re no fun. Who would have ever thought you’d be telling me not to change people over.” She grinned.
“Maybe if we were back home. But I don’t know what kind of auto drones they have here. If their gate usage is any indication we aren’t dealing with the same intelligence.”
“You think he’s already built up his defenses?”
“I don’t know what to think. I just want to be ready. For anything.”
They finished making their way through the crowd waiting for the next train. It turned out the station was fifteen stories above surface level. Which was due to the fact that seven floors below them there was a second set of maglev trains that wove their way underneath the high tracks.
“I have never seen anywhere so packed with not only people but infrastructure,” Arista said. “Even when I saw pictures of New York before it was destroyed in the war, it was nothing like this.”
“It is…impressive,” Frees eventually said.
Once they reached the street Arista noticed it had become significantly darker. She still saw blue skies above them, but the sun didn’t reach into all the little crevices of the streets. The advertisements on the buildings around them were much clearer down here. The streets were packed with people moving in all directions, most on foot but some on bikes and motorcycles. A few land vehicles moved among the crowds but these looked mostly like delivery vehicles. Arista had to take a few deep breaths.
“You okay?” Frees asked.
“Yeah. It’s just a little…cramped.”
“Then let’s get this over with as soon as possible. Which way do we need to go?”
Arista consulted the GLS. “This way.” She pointed.
They made it less than twenty steps before a large man in an exquisite suit appeared before them. “Excuse me,” he said. “Please come with me.”
Arista glanced up, seeing the glint of red in his eyes. It wasn’t as deep as the Peacekeepers back home, but he was definitely one of them. “PK,” she said, holding her arm out in front of Frees.
He stopped and sized the man up. “How?”
“I have no idea.” She looked around, there were tons of people trying to get to their destinations all around them. If she changed him here, she’d end up changing a lot of other people in the process.
“Don’t make me use this.” The Peacekeeper pulled back his coat to reveal a sidearm tucked into a holster. “Come quietly. There does not need to be any struggle.” Arista realized the man spoke Japanese and the Device translated for her as his words were not matching up with the movements of his mouth.
“Frees. Thoughts?”
“I don’t think you have a choice. Change him.”
Arista nodded. She focused on the fear, the fear of being stuck among all these people, unable to get out. Wedged in forever, unable to move, unable to speak, completely stuck for all of time. Like being crushed between a hundred rocks, all of them pressing in on her and no matter how much she struggled she couldn’t find her way out. Her heart raced and her adrenaline gave a spike which she focused, staring at the Peacekeeper. Hopefully she could contain the effects.
The Peacekeeper didn’t move, only remained stoically trained on them.
“What’s happening?” Arista asked.
“What are you waiting for? Change him!” Frees yelled.
“I…I can’t. It’s not working!”
“Please come with me,” the Peacekeeper repeated. He reached out for them.
“I’m sorry,” Frees said, raising his hand. The lens in the middle flashed silently and the Peacekeeper fell backward as if he were a great oak that had just been toppled. “Let’s go, now.” Frees grabbed her arm and pushed their way through the crowd of people past the Peacekeeper.
“I don’t understand. That should have worked. I didn’t do anything different,” Arista said as they ran along.
“Looks like Hogo-sha has more defenses than someone let on!” Frees still pulled her along. It hadn’t escaped Arista’s notice he’d grabbed her human hand, not the new one. Perhaps he feared damaging the connection or pulling too hard and ripping it off. But the longer she wore it the more it felt like a part of her.
“Stop!” a voice yelled behind them. “Do not proceed further!”
Arista turned back to see another Peacekeeper following them, taking up the charge of his fallen comrade.
Frees could only run so fast pulling her along; she slowed him down. Two more Peacekeepers appeared behind the first one, all three running in unison. All three with red eyes bearing down on them.
How had the Peacekeepers even found them? It wasn’t like they were out there broadcasting who they were and why they were here. They’d never had trouble doing this in Chicago. It was as if the Peacekeepers had known where to look.
Arista’s heart raced. She knew she might have to use her new weapon on them, especially if they were captured. She didn’t want to make Frees use his weapon again, he’d already done enough. She was no longer powerless. She could do this herself.
She spun around, unaware the Peacekeepers were so close as the first one barreled into her, knocking her down. “Frees!” she yelled. She stared up into the red eyes of the Peacekeeper as he righted himself, pinning her down. “How did you find us?”
The Peacekeeper cocked his head a moment, no doubt translating her words. He narrowed his eyes. “I am honor bound to my duty. To serve the Cadre. To serve Hogo-sha. You have been determined enemies of Hogo-sha.”
Arista felt her eyes go wide. Uh oh.
She tried to wiggle out from under him as the two other Peacekeepers ran past in pursuit of Frees, knocking people out of the way as they went. The people around them just got back up like nothing had happened and continued on their way.
“Do not struggle,” the Peacekeeper said. There was a stoicism to his voice. Something she hadn’t heard before. He was serious about his loyalty despite the fact she was scared enough to have changed him three times by now. Maybe Peacekeepers here couldn’t be changed. Hogo-sha must have found a weakness to her ability.
Suddenly the Peacekeeper launched backward, flying through the air over the heads of the throng of people and landing somewhere beyond them. Arista looked up to see Frees with his palm outstretched. The other two Peacekeepers lay in piles on either side of him. “Let’s go. Before they send more.”
Arista didn’t have to be told twice. She scrambled up and ran past the fallen Peacekeepers, knowing they were dead. “I’m sorry you had to do that. But thank you,” she said.
“Yeah,” Frees replied. That edge was back in his voice. The one he’d had any time he’d needed to kill another machine. If it was just a husk that was bad enough. But killing autonomous machines? Machines that understood the concept of mortality and actively avoided it? She wouldn’t have thought him capable of it again until just now. After Charlie he’d been so adamant never to do it again. They could deal with the fallout later, for now they needed to get out of the public eye. Somehow Hogo-sha tracked them and they needed to figure it out before Frees was forced to kill anyone else.
Thirteen
They ducked into a side alley between the buildings. It was grimier than the main streets, but cleaner than any of the alleys in Chicago. Arista glanced up. Both were so tall they seemed to merge at the top, she couldn’t even see the sky between them.
“What the hell just happened?” Frees asked.
“He didn’t change,” Arista said.
“What?”
“I did everything I’ve always done and it didn’t matter. He didn’t change. No one did. What’s wrong with me?”
“Shit.” He pushed past her, further into the alley.
“Shit is right,” Arista said. “I guess it’s a good thing I’ve got another weapon to rely on.” She stared at her new hand. She should have punched the Peacekeeper with it, seen what kind of d
amage a hand like this could do.
Frees leaned back against the wall of one of the buildings and slid down so he was sitting on the ground.
“Frees, I think you just sat in a puddle.”
“I don’t care.”
Arista cast her eyes downward. If he didn’t care about sitting in a grimy, potentially infected puddle of water it had hit him harder than she’d expected. She knew how much it hurt him to kill his own. If there was one thing she could understand about him, it was that. She squatted down in front of him. “I’m sorry you had to do that for me.”
“Yeah.”
“I promise I’ll do everything I can to make sure you don’t have to do that again,” she said.
“It won’t matter,” he replied. “We’ll have to. I know we will. He had them ready and waiting for us. This AI is serious. I don’t see how…”
Arista nodded. He was right. Somehow Hogo-sha knew they were coming and had probably been tracking them ever since they emerged from the gate. “We have to keep going, we can’t let him find us,” Arista said.
“No, we need to get back to the gate. This was obviously a set-up from the beginning,” Frees said.
Arista cut her eyes at him. “A set-up? By who? Sy?”
“Who else? She sent us here, dropped us right in the middle of the city with no clear path to the Cadre and the Peacekeepers already know we were coming. How can you not see that?”
“But why? She wants to eliminate the Cadre, not help them.”
He shook his head. “I don’t know, but we need to get back. For Max and Jill’s sake if no other reason.” He tapped the area above his ear a few times. “I’ve lost her.”
“Lost who?”
Frees looked away. “Jill was monitoring us. We set up a direct internal line before we left. I lost it as soon as we got here.”
“Why? And why didn’t you tell me?” she asked, her voice rising in pitch.
“Because Jill doesn’t trust Sy. Neither do I. But you do and she didn’t want you to feel like we were going behind your back. She’s worried and wanted to make sure we were okay over here. And how about that? Her fears were founded.”
