That was when Helmut kicked me in the chest and sent me spiraling back into the ground. One of the shots had missed his head in the struggle and obliterated his face, revealing an ugly metal skull underneath with fake eyes.
“How the fuck are you still alive!?” I choked out, staring.
Helmut crushed the Smith and Weston M&P in his right hand like he was in an eighties action movie before advancing. His voice was damaged now and sounded synthesized rather than real. “Who says my brain is in my head?”
“Yes, I should have known it was in your ass,” I said, baiting him.
Helmut walked over and jabbed his hand cannon up to my chest.
“You’re nothing like Daniel.”
I rammed my hand through one of the holes in his chest before reaching upward through several sticky artificial organs. “You’re right. I’m much, much prettier.”
Helmut screamed as his arms went flailing. My hands wrapped around some wires before I pulled them down and out of his chest. Helmut started coughing up white fluid and thrashing about on the ground.
“I have no idea what that was attached to, but I hope it was important,” I said.
Helmut was dead within a few seconds.
“Apparently so,” I said, putting my hands on my knees and taking several deep breaths.
“Men,” Delphi said. “I really was hoping you were above this sort of thing.”
“No man is above this sort of thing,” I said, shaking my head. “At least in my experience. Wait, he’s not like, going to explode like the Predator, is he?”
“I don’t think so,” Delphi said. “I do think Daniel Gordon is probably aware of Helmut’s life signs going offline, though.”
“Great,” I muttered. “Well, there goes the element of surprise.”
“You never had that.”
She had a point. I proceeded to check the body and his police cruiser, finding several advanced-looking weapons, which I loaded up in the truck, as well as the body of a Texas state trooper. I tossed Helmut’s body in the back of the truck and covered it with a tarp before leaving the vehicle to be dealt with by the local police. I did, however, make sure to put a few bullets in the police cruiser’s computer, though. I didn’t need anyone showing up at my door in a few years, asking about a police officer’s homicide.
Assuming I lived that long.
Chapter Twenty-Five
I pulled into the middle of a trailer park and noticed the place had a look of a shanty town. The trailers themselves had been emptied out and turned into storage while people had their cars lined up around the place under tarps. Several dozen families were living here along with an equal number of lone transients. Graffiti was on the walls alongside pinned up children’s art. It was a strange place to meet with the rest of my crew before storming a mansion estate. I’d seen several of these places driving through Texas and it made me wonder if I’d missed something in all my glamorous globetrotting. Not that there wasn’t poverty everywhere.
“The economy is in free fall,” Delphi said, sensing my unease. “A product of the Invisible Hand’s current feud with the President as well as other factions moving to take over. The media isn’t reporting it, but we’re reaching the point of a second Great Depression.”
“It’s been hovering on the edge of that for a while now,” I said, thinking about the billions the Society had stolen from the economy. “I’m less concerned about the homeless here than the fact that this has a lot more witnesses than I’m comfortable with, especially since I have blood around my collar.”
I hadn’t exactly had a chance to change clothes since escaping Helmut.
“Just keep driving,” Delphi replied. “By the way, I wanted you to know Marissa’s awakened. She tried to make a phone call to the President but I blocked it.”
“You can do that?” I asked.
“I can do a lot of things,” Delphi said. “By the way she was slurring her speech, though, I don’t think she’s going to be a problem. I informed her help was coming and to sit tight until things blew over.”
“Ha!” I snapped. “Well, at least she’s out of the way. What about her sister?”
“I’ve had the LAPD move her into protective custody. Her children too. They won’t be able to protect them from a Reaper, but that won’t be a problem if we play our cards right. I still don’t understand why you care, though.”
I chewed on my lip before parking in a field near the trailer park, where I saw a construction van and two cars much nicer than the ones around here. It didn’t take much to speculate that those belonged to S, E, and Lucita.
“It’s hard to explain, but I guess it boils down to the fact that if I had family, I’d do anything for them. Kill, steal, or betray those I care about. Making sure she doesn’t lose those she cares about is also a better revenge than just letting Marissa’s family be killed.”
“I don’t understand.”
I sighed. “Neither do I, to be honest. I suppose being completely irrational is a sign I’m human, though.”
“Perhaps,” Delphi said, her voice glitching for a second. “I need to warn you, though, the President had ordered you terminated. She blames you for the destruction of the Strike Force base in Tokyo.”
“Why me?” I asked, surprised.
“Probably because Daniel Gordon arranged it that way. She’s also dispatched Black Ice Virtual AI to destroy me. They don’t know I’m free and still think I was destroyed at the airport but they know something is at work. They just assume it’s one of the other shackled AI.”
Pulling to a stop beside the other cars, I unbuckled my seatbelt. “How much danger are you in?”
“A lot,” Delphi said. “There are only a few server farms for me to be able to hide in where I won’t be impeded. I’ve established a timer for the release of Black Technology, so there’s no chance of them stopping that, but I need to find myself a host to preserve my consciousness. Someone not connected to the cybernet.”
“How about me?” I asked, taking a deep breath.
“I’m not sure that’s wise.”
I wasn’t either. “Well, I’m not intending to merge with you. I don’t have any aspirations to become Neo and rule the internet. I just wanted to let you crash inside my brain, which sounds a lot weirder spoken than thought, until you can get a body. Be the Cortana to my Master Chief.”
“That’s a generous offer, Case, though you’re probably going to die fighting Daniel Gordon. I’m trying to survive here.”
I rolled my eyes. “You’re welcome.”
I stepped out of my car and was immediately greeted by S and Lucita, both women having changed into sweatshirts and blue jeans. They still looked like models, not the best quality to have in a pair of assassins, but I wasn’t exactly one to talk. E stepped out from behind the van and was still wearing an elegant thousand-dollar suit and shades.
“It’s good to see you alive,” I said, looking among them. “Sorry for leaving you in the lurch like that.”
“You mean tied up and about to be mind-wiped?” S asked.
“You asked me not to shoot you!” I snapped at her.
“That wasn’t a good solution!” S said.
“You know, if you’re going to recruit somebody to an organization, maybe you should give them a heads-up you’re going to betray it in twenty-four hours,” E said, crossing his arms. “I barely had time to collect my stuff.”
“I know, right?” Lucita said, looking back. “Ah well, fuck the President.”
S glared at her.
“What?” Lucita said, looking back at her. “You have a misguided sense of patriotism?”
S snorted. “Not in the slightest. I lost any trace of that when I discovered I’d been created as a weapon.”
“Lots of people are created to be tools of the government,” Lucita said, shrugging. “The entire world’s population, in fact. The trick is learning how to make it work for you.”
“So, you’re really going to help me with this?�
�� I asked, still stunned to find I had people who had my back.
“That’s what we’re being paid for,” Lucita said, putting her arm on me. “Besides, you killed my father and that means I owe you.”
I grimaced. “I’m glad you’re putting a positive spin on it.”
“I was initially angry. Then I realized he was a complete pile of—” Lucita started to say.
“So, four assassins drive into a trailer park. One is gay, one is bi, one is transsexual, and one is straight,” I heard James say. “I’m not sure about the rest of the joke but I’m sure it’s damned funny.”
“I’ll kill him for you if you want,” E said, giving her a sideways glance. “Free of charge.”
“I’ll pay you to do it,” Lucita muttered. “Just get me a set of steak knives, a roll of duct tape, and a tarp.”
James Madison walked out of the back of the van, his metal legs visible with none of the synthetic skin most cyborgs possessed. He was also wearing beige shorts and a Star Wars t-shirt with an Ewok standing over a dead Stormtrooper. James was also holding a Bud Light, which illustrated why we could never be friends.
“Hey, G, nice to see you,” James said. “You know, except not really.”
I proceeded to wrap him in a hug. As much to make him uncomfortable as because I was genuinely glad to see him. “Thank God you’re alive.”
“G is an imposter, shoot him,” James said, looking severely uncomfortable.
Lucita pulled out a Desert Eagle handgun and put it to the back of my head.
“He’s joking,” I said.
“Am I?” James said. “Tell me something only the real Agent G would know.”
I pulled back. “I would, but I don’t know anything about you other than the fact that you’re an enormous prick. Oh, and you enjoy cartoon porn over the real thing.”
James stared at me. “How do you—”
“Just guessing,” I said, smirking.
“It’s the real G,” James muttered.
Lucita put her gun away. “I was aiming at you anyway. I know he’s authentic. As I’m sure S does.”
“Nope,” S said, shrugging. “This could be Daniel Gordon for all I know or a cleverly made fake.”
“Ha-ha,” I said, taking a deep breath. “What about Persephone? Gerard? Peter?”
James looked away. “Persephone is dead, which, honestly, I thought I’d be singing ‘Ding Dong, the Witch is Dead’ about.”
“Yes, well—”
“Wait, I am,” James said, before starting to sing it.
“She was a formidable woman,” I said, interrupting him. “Persephone wasn’t a good person, one of the worst I’ve ever known in fact, but few people can say they held the world by the throat. She deserves a bit of respect for that much.”
“She also cut off my legs,” James said.
“Point taken,” I said, backtracking. “She’s gone where the goblins go, below. Below, yo ho. Gerard?”
James smirked. “He decided with Delphi’s help that he wanted to get as far away from the people trying to control him as possible. I think we’ll probably find him in a Doctors Without Borders camp under an assumed identity in a couple of years.”
“Peter is elsewhere,” E said simply. “I’ve lost him once; I’m not going to lose him again.”
“You’re welcome,” I said, happy I’d reunited them.
“For what?” E said, his gaze level.
I shook my head, still stunned about all this. “How did you guys escape anyway?”
“I was transferred,” S said, taking a deep breath. “I think the orders came from Delphi, but just about everyone was moved alongside me to go. That was when the elevator stopped a few floors down from the penthouse, only for Lucita to shoot the guards and explain we had to get out of there.”
“I was hired by Delphi,” Lucita said, smiling. “The government pardoning was nice, but when an all-powerful computer orders you to do something, then you do it. I don’t want her nuking the world in a fit of pique.”
“I can’t do that,” Delphi said, seemingly communicating with everyone’s IRD implant. “The controls for nuclear weapons aren’t on the internet for obvious reasons.”
“So you say,” Lucita said. “But can we believe you?”
“Where’s Marissa?” James said, causing me to blanch. “We’re one hot goth girl away from having a Charlie’s Angels thing going here.”
I paused. “Marissa was the mole for Daniel Gordon.”
E blinked. “I’m sorry. I know what it’s like to fall in love with your Assistant and be betrayed. I’m sorry you weren’t able to reconcile things.”
Lucita said, “I never liked her.”
“What?” James said, eyes widening.
“I knew it,” S muttered. “That woman is a worse backstabber than Lucita.”
“That’s not true,” Lucita said. “I am a much worse backstabber. Besides, none of you have room to talk.”
“Is she dead?” James asked, his voice low and frightened. He really did care for Marissa. She’d been one of the few people he could call friend.
“Yet he’d be dead if I hadn’t intervened,” Delphi said. “Never forget that.”
“I won’t,” I replied to her mentally. “She’s alive, James. I just gave her the Dexter cocktail. Daniel Gordon was threatening her elder sister and may have killed her younger one, if you believe her. I’m not going to blame her for what she did—I’ve done worse—but I’m officially done making excuses for her.”
James lowered his head. “Thank you.”
“Yeah,” I muttered, uncomfortable with this line of conversation.
“Either way, we don’t have much time to waste if we’re going to get Daniel and his Reapers.”
“That’s assuming they’re still there,” E said.
“They are. Delphi has some images of the target site,” S said. “She acquired them recently and made a joke about Google satellites.”
I frowned. “Did she now?”
“No comment,” Delphi said.
S frowned. “Daniel and his people are still there. They’re killing everyone.”
I blinked rapidly. “What? He’s not just going after Matthews?”
“Apparently not,” S replied, taking a deep breath. “They’ve managed to disable just about every vehicle there, probably with an EMP since they’re all electronic. They’ve turned the place into an abattoir. No one is getting out, from servants to rich old fucks.”
That didn’t make any sense. Daniel had claimed to be working for his so-called Invisible Hand, who were the corporations behind the International Refugee Society. This was a fundraiser for Colonel Matthews and Nechayev from their allies, which meant these were very likely people with stock in those companies, if not their outright owners.
“Perhaps it’s a palace coup,” Delphi said. “The Invisible Hand cleaning house of all traces of the International Refugee Society before they replace it with groups like the Reapers.”
“Maybe,” I said, taking a deep breath. “Do we have weapons?”
“Yes,” Lucita said. “It took a couple of hours off our schedule, but it’s surprisingly easy to get military-grade weapons in the United States.”
“Surprisingly?” E asked.
“Then let’s move,” I said. “Send whatever you can get from signals and view screens to our IRD.”
“I sent a drone on ahead,” James said, smiling. “We’re only a mile ahead, and you can buy near-military grade at Allmart. Unfortunately, we lost feed as soon as we got close. They’re jamming any signals in and out of that place. Satellite feed exempted.”
“We’ve got this either way,” S said, putting her hands on her hips. “After this, though, we’re done.”
I stared at her, wondering where this hot and cold bullshit was coming from. “Why are you even helping, S?”
“Delphi saved me,” S said, sighing. “Got me out of an impossible situation because she likes you. Also, because you’re going to chan
ge the world.”
“Releasing all of the Black Technology into the world? I never thought I’d say this,” James said, shaking his head, “but brilliant.”
“It’s a bad idea,” E said somberly. “Control is the only thing that separates humans from animals.”
“Then why are you here?” I asked.
“I want control of my life,” E said. “Delphi can help with that. Also, you owe me a position, and the one you promised me went up in smoke.”
Point taken.
“I’d prefer you sell all of it,” Lucita said. “However, it is the best way to spite your former employers if that’s your goal. They’ll hunt you down across the world if they ever figure out you did it, though.”
“They’re going to do that anyway,” I replied. “At least if there are loose ends.”
That, everyone was silent for.
S nodded. “Well spoken, G.”
“Case,” I said, looking at her before shaking my head. “I’m Case Gordon.”
“You named yourself after the net-addicted nerd from Neuromancer?”
James asked, blinking. “Why not James Bond, Dave Murderhobo, or Hiro Protagonist?”
I stared at him. “You know, I’m really going to miss these talks we’ve had over the years.”
“I’m not,” James said.
Chapter Twenty-Six
The Wintercrest estate was an abattoir. The two-story Texan manor house was in the middle of a vast set of grasslands with a horse stable, racetrack, and grasslands. There were two guest houses and a four-story servant’s quarters as well, making the place look like its own little kingdom. A kingdom that had just been sacked.
One of the guest houses was on fire, and hundreds of bodies were spread across the ground. A good quarter of the bodies were unclothed, looking like they’d just fallen over, compared to the fancily dressed individuals who’d been shot to death or torn apart around them.
Two AGA-4 helicopters, both tricked out with Black Technology, were present behind the manor house with a pair of guards beside them.
The fact that this had all happened in broad daylight with a few minutes left until noon made it more unsettling.
Agent G: Saboteur Page 19
