by Eric Warren
“Thank you?” Blu said, staring at her.
“Trust me,” she said. “Is there power running to the gates?” she asked Frees.
He walked over to inspect the glass booths where the gate operators sat, monitoring who came and went. All were empty save one, which had a bullet hole in the glass and a corpse slumped over the controls inside. “Looks like this one stayed to make sure everyone got through.” Frees smashed the glass to the closest booth, tearing the large chunks away and cutting his skin on his hand to ribbons in the process. He stepped over the rest into the booth. “Yeah, looks like we’ve got full power, I just need to start one up.”
Blu leaned over to Arista, whispering, “You weren’t kidding, he really doesn’t like his skin, does he?”
“Now we’re back,” she said. “He doesn’t need it as a disguise anymore.” Then she raised her voice loud enough so he could hear. “But that doesn’t mean he needs to tear it off immediately. We still need some camouflage.”
Frees stared at her a minute over the console then returned to his work. Behind them, the center gate activated and began pulsing with energy, the aperture in the middle going from transparent to a light gray.
“I’ve set the coordinates for Trymian’s personal gate,” he said, returning to them. “It was in the information Hogo-sha shared with me, along with the destination of Charlie’s personal gate. Hopefully Charlie either never saw that information or this might be over quick.”
“We have to dare to hope,” Arista said, showing David how to turn the refractor on. He clipped it to his shirt and touched the button on the front. Hexagonal blocks all around him shimmered into place and then disappeared, leaving nothing behind.
“Still there?” she asked.
“This is amazing technology!” David replied, though his voice was slightly muffled.
“Just stay behind us all the way,” she replied. “We don’t know what we’re going into.” She took the other refractor and clipped it to Blu’s shirt. “You and I are going to have to stay right beside each other. If either of us breaks the plane of the refractor, it will fall for a second while it resets. And we don’t need that.”
“Definitely not,” she said. “So it’s like an umbrella. For your entire body.”
“Exactly.” She turned to Frees. “Ready? You got him?”
He smirked. “Yeah, I’ve got him.” His eyes flashed to Jonn. “As long as he doesn’t do anything stupid.”
Jonn only rolled his eye.
“We’ll be right behind you,” Arista said. “Lead the way.”
Frees pushed Jonn ahead of him toward the gate. Arista stood close behind Blu, indicating she should activate the refractor. A couple of seconds later the hexagonal grid appeared around them then ghosted to transparent.
“This is wild,” Blu said, looking all around.
“Here we go,” Frees said, pushing Jonn ahead of him. Arista noted Frees kept his hand on Jonn’s shoulder. They didn’t want to lose him in the fog of the gate. Jonn disappeared and Frees followed, as Blu and Arista shuffled forward, reaching the fog themselves. She hoped David was still back behind them when she felt something bump from behind.
“Sorry!” David said. “I can’t see you.”
“That’s okay, moving ahead now.” She nodded and Blu stepped into the fog, Arista hugged her as she attempted to stay as close as possible. It wasn’t as dense as the other gate had been, which made sense as they were only traveling a few thousand miles, not across the dimensional barrier.
Blu continued to push forward and the fog cleared, revealing to them wet pavement, rain falling from above and a streetlight a few feet away, streams of moisture falling in front of it. Frees and Jonn stood off to the side, allowing them enough room to exit. Arista glanced behind her at the gate. Frees must have made a mistake; this wasn’t Trymian’s headquarters. They were out in the middle of the street. She wasn’t even sure this was London.
When she turned to ask him what happened the sounds of gunfire permeated the air.
SIXTEEN
Arista automatically ducked, despite the fact she should have been invisible. It was involuntary; she couldn’t help it. Blu jerked forward but Arista held onto her, not wanting her to break the plane of the refractor. Frees and Jonn evaded the shots being fired at them, separating to find cover.
This is how he’ll do it. Arista thought. This is how he’ll get away from us.
Frees had pulled his gun and scrambled around a low wall on the other side of the street while Arista lost track of Jonn. He disappeared somewhere down the dark street as ammunition peppered the ground around them. If they didn’t move it was a good bet they’d get hit by pure chance. She only hoped David had concluded the same thing and was out of harm’s way.
“What do we do?” Blu whispered, though she was difficult to hear over all the ambient noise of weapons fire all around them.
“Stay calm, and move down the side of the street, we need to get out of the line of fire.”
Blu nodded and shuffled forward, Arista staying as close to her as possible. She led them away from Frees as most of the fire was concentrated on his cover position. As soon as Blu was out of range, Arista was going to get the jump on whoever had decided to attack them. She just needed to figure out how.
When they’d come out of the gate she’d barely had any time to examine her surroundings. Now she could see it had deposited them close to a roundabout surrounded by old stone and brick buildings; certainly not anywhere close to where Trymian should be. The exit gate was positioned on the side of one of the buildings behind them while the rest of the buildings were either restaurants or storefronts. People should be milling about, shopping and crowding the area, but it was completely empty with the exception of them and their would-be assassins. Where was everyone?
Arista considered directing Blu to the roundabout, but it was too exposed. They needed to stay close to cover as best they could. She checked behind her to see Frees was still pinned down, though he was returning fire which meant he wasn’t dead yet. But she had no clue about David or Jonn.
As they grew closer to the buildings Blu pulled her along, but she was too anxious to get there. “Blu, slow down, I can’t—”
Arista tripped on the cobblestone, stumbling forward as her hand hit the side of the refractor, dissolving the disguise for a moment. “Shit!” she yelled, grabbing Blu and shoving her inside the nearest building alcove. The rest of the refractor dissolved around her as Arista broke the full plane then it began to reconstruct itself around Blu. Arista pulled her weapon from her jacket and spun, now free of the refractor’s protection and located the first source of gunfire she saw. It was a bright flash of light coming from the second floor of a building across the street; someone was standing on the balcony taking shots. They were exposed.
So much for no more killing.
She squeezed the trigger and the gunfire from the balcony stopped, a weapon clattering to the ground from a few stories up. Something bit the ground at her feet and she jumped to the side, rolling behind the pathetic cover of a trash can and a tree. Projectiles slammed into the trash can and she turned to see it dissolving before her eyes. Just like Hogo-sha.
“They’re using the humans’ weapons!” she yelled, hoping to warn anyone who could hear her. Frees was at least a hundred feet away, still pinned and she couldn’t tell how many were attacking them. She jumped forward, sprinting around the closest corner putting her at least a hundred feet from where she’d left Blu. Had they seen her? Or had Arista managed to distract them long enough? The image of Hogo-sha’s AI breaking apart into giant shards then turning to dust crossed her mind. Whoever was out there gunning for them, they had superior weapons.
All she could do was keep her back to the wall while she held her gun, the thundering of her heart against her ribs the only thing she could focus on. If she still had the Device, she would be able to calculate the angles of fire and determine where they were shooting from and how many there
were.
Maybe she should just run out into the street, drawing their fire. It might give the rest of them the chance to get away. But knowing her friends they’d just try to stay and help her. There was no sense in wasting her life on an effort she knew would end up making things worse. But she needed some way to get their attention. At least until she could figure out how many hostiles they were dealing with. It sounded like four different sets of weapons, but she couldn’t be certain. Though, something inside told her yes, it was only four.
A blur sped past her, catching her off guard and her hand tightened around the handle of her weapon. A moment later she realized it was Jonn, sprinting back into the firefight. His cloak fought against the wind behind him. What was he doing? She turned the corner to see him leap into the air and come down on one source of gunfire, abruptly ending the user’s ability to shoot.
“The traitor!” an all-too-familiar voice screamed. Charlie.
Another dark figure came running at Jonn but fell just as it was raising its weapon. Arista looked past it to see Frees peering over the edge of his cover, taking aim at anyone else foolish enough to enter the street. But something hit the stone block he was hiding behind, seemingly dissolving it from the outside.
She took a moment to examine the scene. Frees scrambled from his position and dove for another stone block a couple of feet away, barely making it before another blast hit that one, dissolving it as well. It was the necrotizer. The exact same weapon Sy had used. Charlie must have pilfered them from the colony then distributed them to his soldiers. But she’d finally seen where the shots were originating from; half a block down, nestled in an alley.
Jonn had disappeared from the street again while Frees jumped to a third stone block. He couldn’t keep this up for long; they’d hit him eventually and he was running out of blocks. Arista stuffed her pistol in her jacket and took off running in the opposite direction down the deserted street. When she’d covered a good distance, she cut across the road, through an alley, then made her way back down on the other side of the buildings. She kept a sharp eye for anyone else but there was no one.
Finally, she located the alley where the assassin was firing from, though his back was to her. He was concentrating on taking out Frees. Quiet as she could she crept up behind him, placing her thumb to her pinkie. Her hand seemed to become energized and she reached out, touching the tip of her fingers to the back of the machine’s head. He dropped his weapon, tipping forward and falling into a heap.
“We have been compromised!” came a scream from across the street. “Reinforc—” the voice was cut off by a crunch and a snap. Arista glanced out into the street. The gunfire had stopped.
“Are we clear?” she yelled.
“Clear here,” Frees replied.
“I’m hit,” Jonn said, limping toward her, dragging a body behind him. The air behind Arista shimmered and Blu appeared, having deactivated the refractor.
“I stayed with you the entire time,” she said, proudly.
Arista smiled at her then turned her attention to Jonn. “How bad?”
Jonn collapsed beside the building, throwing his cloak back. “It’s drilling in there now,” he said, pointing to his leg.
Drilling. The micro-drills designed to destroy a machine’s consciousness. Thoughts of Byron—the human they’d captured to find the location of the colony—came back to her. He’d accidentally shot himself with the same weapon and the drills had worked their way up his leg and into his chest before eventually killing him. Jonn didn’t have long.
“Jonn, I…” she trailed off. What would she even say to him?
Frees trotted over, scanning the upper floors of all the buildings. “I think that was Charlie in all of them,” he said. “It’s like you predicted, he’s using regular husks as soldiers. Now he knows we’re here.” He glanced at Jonn’s leg where the weapon had hit him. “What happened?”
“He got hit with that weapon Byron had. He doesn’t have long.”
Jonn scoffed, removing leg connections. “Maybe longer than you think.” Within less than thirty seconds he had the entire assembly detached from his torso and he tossed the leg off to the side. “Didn’t think I’d give up that easily, did you?” He pulled the body he’d been dragging over to him and ripped away the clothes of the man. To Arista he looked like a businessman, except now his head had been crushed.
“You’re not—” She recoiled at the thought.
“Why not?” Jonn said, cutting through the man’s skin with his fingers. “He’s not using it anymore.”
“Fascinating.”
Arista turned to see David, the last bits of his refractor dissolving. She took a mental breath. Blu went to her dad, giving him a quick hug. Arista pulled herself away from watching Jonn detach the businessman’s leg to address Frees. “What happened? I thought we were supposed to end up at Trymian’s?”
“We were,” he replied. “The coordinates were correct when I left. I don’t understand.”
“And how did they find us?” she asked, glancing down the wet streets. The rain had begun to let up, turning into a drizzle.
“Maybe Charlie stationed guards at every gate, just in case.”
“Great,” she said. “There goes the element of surprise. Not only does he know we’re here, but he knows about Jonn as well.” She took a deep breath, scanning the streets. “We’re too exposed; he’ll have reinforcements here soon. We need to find somewhere to regroup.”
“Almost ready,” Jonn said. In addition to the pant leg, he’d removed all the skin from the appendage and was in the process of attaching all his connections. “Takes just a few minutes to pair with my systems. But I’ve gotten pretty good at it.”
She turned back to Frees. “Which way to Trymian?”
He frowned, no doubt consulting his internal maps. “His building is half a mile away, in that direction.” He pointed down the street Arista had originally run down. “But we should stay out of plain sight.”
“Agreed,” she said, tapping her finger and thumb back together. She didn’t want to accidentally touch Frees or Jonn with it on.
“It worked,” David said, apparently having caught her making the movement.
“Like a charm,” she said, tilting her head down. But it had been difficult getting to the husk. If she had any hope of touching Charlie with the key, she’d have to be right beside him.
“Good to go.” Jonn stood and tested out his new leg. He still had a bit of a limp, but not as pronounced.
“You two, put those back on,” Arista instructed, referring to the refractors. “He might know about all of us, but he doesn’t know you’re here yet. I want to keep it that way.”
“Can’t he track your life signs?” Blu asked, touching the button on her chest again.
As the shield rose around her, Arista stared in the direction Frees had pointed. “Yes, which is why we need to be fast.”
SEVENTEEN
“Do you think,” Arista said, breathing hard as they ran, “he can control as many as he wants?”
Frees kept pace beside her with Jonn out in front and Blu and David behind them. “I don’t know,” Frees replied, his “breathing” unaffected by the exertion of running. “But I think we have to assume so. And if that’s true, then he’ll be sending as many as he can after us.”
She was surprised they hadn’t encountered more already, though they’d only been running a few minutes. She watched Jonn with his long strides, thinking how he resembled some kind of mechanical gazelle more than he did a person. His cloak flapped behind him, revealing his skeletal structure as he ran, looking spindly in the dim light of the alleyways.
He had saved them. He’d come back and saved them when he hadn’t needed to. Jonn could have taken off and left them to their fates and yet for some reason he came back. Could it be he’d actually been telling the truth? That he did want to make amends for what he’d done? She couldn’t be sure and right now it didn’t matter. All that mattered was they got
to Trymian in one piece.
“We’re close,” Frees said, noting the street signs. “The location of Trymian’s gate should be right up ahead.” He slowed down, checking his surroundings. The streets here were narrow, with rows of brick houses on either side, each only two or three stories tall. It didn’t seem like the kind of place a giant AI would make its home.
Arista noted they were on Catherine Place, a name that tugged at her memory for some reason. But she couldn’t quite grasp it.
“This way,” Frees said, leading her and Jonn off the street itself into a small private parking area which led to an even smaller alleyway they had to squeeze through to get to the other side.
“You two okay back there?” she called, hoping they hadn’t been lost.
“Feeling like a sardine,” Blu’s muffled voice said.
“Still here,” David replied.
They emerged into a small courtyard with a white brick landing. “Over here,” Frees said, running through the opening to the courtyard back onto another street. Arista caught Jonn flash her a look as if to say he wondered if Frees knew where he was going but she couldn’t be sure. She was disturbed at how easy it was to have fallen back into a rapport with him.
Frees turned off the street into another alleyway. “It’s just ahead.”
This couldn’t be right, they were in the middle of a residential district. The Cadre had set themselves up in high-rises; huge glass towers meant to impress and impose. Not some little English flat on some side street no one had heard of.
When they burst out onto the main street from the alleyway Arista understood. “Oh, dammit.”
“What?” Frees asked, staring at the gate directly ahead. “It should be right through that gate!”
“That’s Buckingham Palace!” Arista yelled, pointing at the giant neo-classical complex. Now it all made sense. Leave it to a machine to take up residence in the seat of what used to be the head of the British Commonwealth.
