Chromed- Upgrade

by Richard Parry

  Sadie watched Mason turn to Laia. The girl answered his question with a nod, their words torn away by the wind. Sadie walked toward them, then froze as a creature howled to her right. A smaller monster, this one the size of a man, scampered through the mud on all fours like a dog. It leaped at the company man.

  Mason tried to twist aside, but his foot slipped in the mud. He must be hurt. No syndicate agent slips. Sadie watched, hand over her mouth, as he went down. His weapon spun into the rain. The creature chittered, jaws wide. Mason slammed his fist into its face. His glove flashed, rain hissing as he struck, and the creature dropped, twitching.

  “Are you okay?” Sadie reached Mason. His lips were blue, face strained like he’d sprinted a marathon. He stared past her. Sadie turned, following his gaze. Another creature had picked up his little gun. It fumbled with the weapon, then pointed it at Mason.

  “That’s not going to end well for you.” Mason’s words slurred, like he was drunk. Drunk on exhaustion maybe.

  The thing pulled the trigger. Lightning arced from the creature, crackling through the air. The monster exploded into mist, red mixing with the rain, slurry splatting to the broken street.

  Mason limped toward Laia. Sadie jogged to where the creature died, the air smelling of ozone. She picked up the company man’s weapon. It was a snub-nosed black sidearm. A red light slowly blinked on the side. Sadie looked at the circle of charred dirt and flaked asphalt where the creature had stood. She examined the weapon again. Tiny letters were etched onto the grip. Tenko-Senshin Intelligence Systems 12.

  She’d never heard of Tenko-Senshin and wondered which fascist syndicate erased them from existence. Sadie turned toward Mason, then froze. Two monsters hunched in the rain between them. Sadie called, “Mason?”

  He turned, took the situation in with a glance, then stepped forward. The company man stumbled after a single step, the movement looking like it cost him more than pain. His leg sagged like the bone inside was made of cardboard.

  One of the things leaped at her. Don’t shoot it. God, don’t shoot it. You saw. You saw what happened to the other one. Sadie whipped the Tenko-Senshin up anyway. The other monster closed on Mason, the man swatting it aside.

  She hit the ground as the creature landed on her. The rain was in her eyes as the monster screeched. Sadie swung the sidearm, but her angle was wrong, the blow doing nothing. Jaws gnashed, snapping before her face. She tried to get an arm up. Sadie could see the hunger in its eyes.

  The thing’s weight left her, bright blue-white light washing over her. Mason staggered back, the monster thrashing in his grip. He held it in with one arm, punching it with the other. The company man moved like a broken machine, movements mechanical yet jerky.

  The other creature jumped him from behind, latching onto his back. Sadie scrambled back as Mason dropped to one knee in the muck, struggling with the creatures. He tossed the one he held away, then tore the one from his back, flipping it over his shoulder.

  The thrown one scuttled in the mud. It came up with the remains of the signpost the larger creature used. Sadie saw nails jutting from the end, watching in horror it ran at Mason, swinging.

  “Mason!” she screamed. He turned, but not fast enough, the nails slamming into his neck. Mason coughed blood, then ripped the weapon from the monster, his neck spurting red as nails tore free. He hefted the post, then smashed it into the creature. Wood splintered into kindling as the creature tumbled away.

  Mason looked at her, smiling with bloody teeth. “I’m sorry, Sadie.” He took a step toward her.

  The creature jumped from the rain’s murk, knocking Mason to the ground. Sadie lifted the little gun up, holding the trigger down before she could think about what she was doing. The air before her filled with fire, searing heat on her arms. The creature on Mason ignited, parts flying off to hiss and sputter in the rain.

  I’m alive. There wasn’t any lightning.

  She looked at the weapon and its blinking red light, then back at Mason. He tried to get up, coughing bloody fluid. Mason fell forward, one hand out. He crouched, shivering in the torrent. The last creature lunged at him with a scream. Claws scrabbled at his armor before it sank its teeth into his neck. He cried out, trying to push it off.

  Laia screamed, a raw, animal noise, anger and fear twisting her face. She ran at the creature. It bared teeth at the girl, maws red with Mason’s blood. Sadie could see what would happen, the snap of its jaws, and Laia would be gone, another lost to forgotten Richland.

  Red mist exploded out the back of the monster. It fell to the ground like a dropped toy, arms and legs bouncing as it hit. All its blood floated free, the storm carrying it away in a bloody squall.

  Sadie stared at the fallen creatures, Mason’s body, then at Laia. Holy shit. She shuffled forward, putting an arm around Laia. The girl sobbed. Sadie hugged her close. “It’s okay. It’s—”

  “No,” wailed Laia. “They’ve killed him. They’ve killed the angel.”

  Holy fucking shit.

  Sadie walked to Mason’s body. She nudged him with a foot. No response. The armor he wore pulsed with light, red and white, a cross beaming from the chest plate. A woman’s voice spoke from the suit. “A medical emergency has been noted. Please stand clear.”

  “Who’s that?” asked Laia.

  “Someone we should listen to.” Sadie pulled Laia back, hands on the girl’s shoulders.

  “Please stand clear,” repeated the woman’s voice. “Subject is coding. Conductive environment noted. Please stand clear or risk immediate death by electrocution.”

  Laia twisted from Sadie’s grasp, face her. “We can’t leave him.”

  “We’re not.” Sadie wiped rain from her face, for all the good it did. Plenty more where that came from. “You think this is Heaven?”

  “Not anymore,” said Laia.

  “Have a little faith, kid, and step the fuck back. Syndicates don’t let their very expensive angels fall.”

  Laia frowned but backed away from Mason. The armor’s red-white cross flashed twice. The voice, soft, calm, and probably recorded in a nice dry studio, said, “Thank you. Administering epinephrine. Encouraging implant systems to produce plasma. Defibrillation in three, two, one…”

  There was a hum, and Mason’s body stiffened.

  “Cycling,” said the suit. The hum sounded once more. Sadie thought the air tasted of metal, like the tension before a concert. Mason’s body convulsed.

  “What’s it doing?” Laia’s voice was harsh with a terrible amalgam of fear and hope.

  “Cycling,” repeated the suit. Again, the hum. This time, smoke curled out from armor’s joints, to be beaten down by the rain.

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Mason woke to warm, flickering light and the smell of woodsmoke. He hurt everywhere, the lattice shaking and grumbling under his skin. His overlay was awash with errors. Mason groaned. They were in the broken shelter he’d left them in. The walls looked worse for wear, but he felt surrounded by hope as three pairs of eyes watched over him. Sadie looked like she’d parked her anger three blocks back. Haraway was spent, a dollar used to cover a five-dollar bet. Laia’s eyes were round, the girl smiling like the dawn.

  “You look pretty good for a dead guy,” offered Sadie.

  He opened his mouth, but the words wouldn’t come. Mason didn’t have any anger or witty retorts left. Sadie handed him a tin cup. He gulped water. It tasted of metal, dirt, and being alive.

  Laia came closer, raising a tentative hand to touch his face. Mason pulled his head away. He didn’t like the way she looked at him. He didn’t deserve adoration. Not for what he’d done, and for who.

  “You were dead,” she said.

  “No,” said Mason. His voice sounded like some asshole had packed his throat with gravel. “Not quite.”

  “Yes.” Haraway spoke from where she stoked the fire, hair falling around her face. “All the way dead.”

  “You really are an angel.” Laia beamed. “To rise from the dead?
It’s a miracle.”

  Mason looked at Haraway. “Really?”

  Haraway shrugged. “You seem to have come back online okay.”

  “I feel like shit.”

  “Ever been dead before?”

  “No.”

  “Exactly.” Haraway didn’t sound satisfied. She sounded tired, resigned, and worn thin. Like this wasn’t the mission she wanted. Not for any of them.

  Mason stood, flexed his shoulder. His overlay started its assault of messages again. Mason cleared them. Maybe he’d find time to be dead later. Right now? Status. His neck felt sore. He probed the injury. His skin had already healed over, because it wasn’t really skin. He looked at Laia. “I’m okay. Really. And I’m not an angel, kid. Just another company asset.”

  Sadie snorted. “He finally speaks the truth.”

  “There are gaps. What happened?” Mason wasn’t sure if he wanted to know what he’d let happen to them while he’d been chasing after Apsel mysteries and mistakes.

  Sadie shifted from foot to foot. Nervous — about what? She pulled out the Tenko-Senshin, holding the weapon with exquisite care. As she handed it to him, Mason glimpsed angry red on her arms, hidden by her sleeves. “I … borrowed this.”

  “Okay.” Mason didn’t take the weapon, instead pushing her sleeve back. The burns were livid and angry. “You fired it.”

  Her eyes darted to the hole in the wall. To the rain and dark outside. “Yes.”

  Mason smoothed her sleeve in place. “You’ve got questions.”

  “Yes.” Sadie nodded, her words tumbling free. “Before you … Before I picked it up, one of the … things, those monsters—”

  “People.” Mason’s voice was quiet. “They used to be people.”

  He watched as she tried the thought on for size. “One of those people tried to use it.”

  “Yes. I remember that.”

  “It died.”

  “Yes.” He watched her eyes, not moving.

  She bit her lip. “Why?”

  “Because it was an enemy.” Mason shrugged. “Tenko-Senshin made things that aren’t really weapons. They’re … works of art.”

  “Art?”

  “Sort of.” Mason sighed. “Tenko only made twelve that I know of. And that’s a guess, because of the number on this one. There are records of another nine. He was a crazy old man.”

  “I couldn’t not do something.” Sadie swallowed. “I could have died.”

  “Yes,” agreed Mason. “That’s probably why you didn’t.”

  “Probably?”

  “I don’t know how it works. It didn’t come with a book. I think it found me, if we’re trading truth.” Mason took the little weapon from Sadie. It beeped, the hard link coming through his glove, its little AI chattering happily. He looked at Laia. “You okay?”

  “They were people?” The girl looked confused, like she’d been told purple was a flavor.

  He crouched. “Yeah. They were.”

  “They didn’t … I didn’t mean to…” Tears were in her eyes.

  “Laia,” said Mason.

  “I reached out.” A sob caught in her throat. “I felt inside it and pushed. I pushed all the way. I didn’t know my gift could do that. I’ve never—”

  “Laia, stop.”

  Her eyes were wide as she stared at him. “I felt it die. I did that.”

  Mason sighed. “Yeah, I guess so.”

  “What?” said Sadie. “That’s all you’ve got?”

  “No. Wait here a second.” He looked at the three of them, huddled in a dirty room around a fire that tried to push the night away. Favoring his leg, the bone growth still playing catch-up, he stepped out into the night.

  The rain slowed to a trickle, then stopped, leaving the air quiet and still. Mason walked up the road a block or so until he found a store he remembered from earlier. He shouldered the door, the lock popping open. Mason walked inside, grabbing what he needed.

  As he walked back, his feet slowed. He breathed the night in. Calm sat in the air, and he drank it up.

  You’re alive. A young girl saved your life today.

  Voices came from their camp, firelight dancing through the cracks and gaps in the walls. He let the sound walk around him, not really listening to the words, leaning back against an ancient post.

  A girl saved you. Isn’t it your mission to look after her?

  He looked at what he held. It’d worked in the past. When he had doubts, questions he couldn’t answer, or when the voices of the dead wouldn’t be still.

  She saved your life.

  The mission was to recover the asset and protect it at all costs. Mason thought back to the room in the nuclear facility, bodies dried and preserved by the radiation threading through them. He thought about the Apsel logo, and the cavern full of radiation where a sphere to another world had punched the rock walls aside like soft clay.

  He wondered where the reactor had gone, and why Apsel Federate had sent a team in at all. Why there was a dirty bomb in a nuclear facility, and why a whole town had been left to die. How the people of Richland had twisted, bodies turned into monsters.

  Radiation didn’t do that. That was a deliberate act from a different arm of science. Something viral, shifting people into animals. For what? To stand guard over a dead city?

  A girl saved your life today, and you owe her, Mason Floyd.

  He stood, leaving the post and his contemplation behind. Mason entered to the firelight’s embrace through a gap in the wall. Three pairs of eyes looked at him. He smiled. “I’ve got just the thing. It answers all questions.” He held up a bottle, the whisky warm and dark against the light from the fire.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me,” said Sadie.

  “You got a better idea?” he asked.

  “No, I meant, you didn’t get any glasses.”

  “I’m not proud.” Mason twisted the bottle open. He took a pull, the liquid burning down his throat, then handed it to Laia. “Here.”

  “Will it make me forget?” She looked at the bottle. “Will it take it back?”

  “Yes,” said Mason. “For a little while.”

  You’ve finished Chromed: Upgrade! I hope you loved it.

  If you want to know what happens next, check out the sequel, Chromed: Rogue. It’s more kick-ass cyberpunk sci-fi where heroes save the world through action scenes and clever dialogue. An excerpt is available at the end of this book. Buy it here:

  [https://www.books2read.com/ChromedRogue]

  WAIT. Don’t go!

  Thanks for reading my book. If you liked it, would you share your experience with your fellow organics? Reviews are helpful to readers by ducting like-minded people to books they’ll enjoy.

  Review Chromed: Upgrade at your retailer and Goodreads [http://bit.ly/ReviewUpgrade]

  FYI, an angel gets its wings for every five-star review.

  About the Author

  Richard Parry worked as an international consultant in one of the world’s top tech companies, which sounds cool, but it wasn’t all cocaine parties. He lives in Wellington with the love of his life, Rae. They have a dog, Rory, who chases birds. The birds, who have the power of flight, don’t seem to mind. Richard’s online hood is:

  www.mondegreen.co

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  Collection (origins 1-6): https://www.books2read.com/TycheOrigins

  Or get them à la carte…

  Origin 1: https://www.books2read.com/TychesFirst

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