Scavenger: A.I.: (Sand Divers, Book Two)

by Timothy C. Ward

  We’ll see about that. Star wakened nanos with the ease of stretching her mind, releasing a tingled rash inside her forehead. She switched to dive view. A green map illumined before her, blotched out in shades of red and yellow where nanos had yet to inhabit the walls. Portions of the walls cracked and crumbled near M-MAN veins she felt as her own and others that weren’t. Two floors down, the Twin Suns gave off a brilliant yellow glow.

  She turned around to see the western side of the base. Where are you, Rush? The comms ID she had for him had been removed from her visor. “Have you seen Rush?”

  “He went up to shut off the water I turned on under the kitchen.”

  “Why? What happened there?”

  Rivers of neon green nanos flowed around the floor of a room between LL1 and LL2. One tunneled out into the soil beyond the base. A person ran down a hall southeast of the room, a glowing white dive button at the chest. The body shape matched Rush’s. She pointed, smiling. “There!”

  Nedzad clasped her other arm and helped her off the bed. “No. Something’s happened to him. We don’t want to be here when he arrives. I think W has a hook in him. He cut me off and wiped four of my fake ID’s I’d used to communicate with Rush.”

  “W…” she thought back to her dreams of Fish and what he’d said. Then what W had offered. She resisted Nedzad’s pull, returning to the bed. “He says he can bring back my son.”

  Nedzad’s look bore a father’s warning. He shook his head. “No. You don’t want that. I’ve seen what he brings back.”

  Star couldn’t allow her hope to fall into the pit of the fear written on his face. She glanced at the black suit covering her hand. I’ll find a way, Fish.

  “W turned the dead Springstonites from the visitor entry into an army that chased me down to LL1, where I flooded a room to shut down their programming, then dove down here to get you.”

  “Water shut down their programming?” Star’s voice trailed off as she considered the weakness.

  “With the M-MANs inside human skin, water soaked inside and shorts them out.”

  “Yeah, I get that. I was just thinking.” It was a good thing she had a suit on. “And Rush turned them off to help W?”

  “That’s possible. Regardless, W knows I’ve taken you out. We need to go. We’ll talk about this when we’re in a safer place.”

  She looked him in the eye, wondering what safe would be in their state. “Where’s that?”

  He held out his hand for her to take. “Not here.”

  She accepted his hand and dropped her feet to a walk toward the door. He didn’t know where, but she didn’t need him to. She’d figure that out on her own. Then she’d find Fish and a way to get Rush back on their side. She walked out through the doorway feeling tiny pricks at random across isolated points in her skin. Tied to their pings were M-MANs reconnecting to the program The Gov had installed in her nanos.

  Nedzad turned left in the hallway. She followed, believing all she needed was time and space until she regained her strength.

  W would pay for invading her mind.

  Though what she’d learned had made her better off. W was vulnerable enough to attempt to put her under him through her son. Maybe she’d let Fish crush W himself.

  A new nano blossomed. “Mom!” The voice gasped. “Help. I’m fading.”

  The nanos spread with his voice, then broke apart into several weak heartbeats.

  I’m coming, Fish!

  Star stopped. Nedzad turned. “I’m going to the Twin Suns,” she said. “Fish needs me.”

  27 - Cool (3:35 am, Saturday)

  Cool poked one eye into the tunnel, waiting to see if the other diver would obey Dixon’s command or fire back. Dixon’s dive light glow did not reach far enough to see the end of the tunnel.

  Dixon asked his prisoner, “What’s your name?”

  “Quake.”

  “And is that Marco?”

  “Yeah.”

  A clack echoed from the other end of the tunnel.

  “Okay, Marco, good job. Now step out, turn your back to us and lace your fingers behind your head.”

  Cool saw the movement and vague form of Marco obeying Dixon to stand in the center of the tunnel, arms bent as he laced his hands.

  “Good, now my friend Viky is coming for your gun. Don’t move.” Dixon glanced at Viky and she set off.

  Dixon walked Quake far enough into the tunnel to take the red of his dive light and leave Cool in shadow. His mom looked back. He waved her on. “I’ll be fine,” he whispered.

  With Marco facing the other way, Quake within Dixon’s grasp, and the stragglers, Carroll, his mom and Jeff providing cover, Cool stepped out into the tunnel and crept on the border of shadow and dive light.

  “Did Marco get The Gov on the phone yet?” Dixon asked.

  “No, I didn’t.” Marco said.

  “Viky, give me his phone,” Dixon said.

  She rifled through Marco’s pockets until she retrieved it from his left leg, then handed it to Dixon.

  “Thank you.” Dixon showed it to Quake. “How do I use this?”

  Cool stopped while they were stopped, hoping he hadn’t followed too soon now that he had nowhere to run if one of them turned around.

  Quake pointed at the phone’s screen, guiding Dixon on what to tap until Dixon said, “Thank you,” and put the phone in front of his face. “Greetings, Gov’na! This is one of the people you failed to kill in Fort Pope. I’m The Dix. Look forward to meeting you in person and—”

  “Feeling what it’s like to run for your life?” The Gov interrupted. “Where’s Marco?”

  Dixon turned the phone to show Marco, hands behind his back. “He met a real sand diver. Now we have their guns and his phone. Soon, we’ll own Denver. Well before you arrive.”

  The governor laughed. “Enjoy that confidence while you can.”

  Oh man. Cool’s nerves were in a firefight between terror and anticipation.

  Dixon turned the phone back on himself. “I am. Thinking I’ll keep it.”

  He was really being brave. Cool hoped it wasn’t foolish.

  “You won’t.” The governor’s face disappeared into a black screen, then a dark blue one with small icons Cool couldn’t make out.

  Dixon sniggered, thumb scrolled the phone’s screen and tapped something.

  Cool’s nervousness sat like an owl with its talons perched inches from his heart. Please just keep moving.

  “Look at this.” Dixon tipped the phone at Quake. “Might this be a list of people on the way?” Dixon lifted a hand to point backward. “Do you know what we just found in Fort Pope? You said The Gov is four days out, but a thousand others are close enough to, what, get here within a few hours? A day? If I called everyone with a number on this phone, how many would switch allegiance—for the benefit of survival—if I told them I had enough power to light up the world, and war suits called Poseidons enough for every one?”

  Quake and Marco said nothing.

  “Of course,” Dixon continued, “there aren’t enough Poseidons for everyone, but if all seven of us had one, with what I’ve seen, we’d have more than enough firepower to take on a thousand of The Gov’s worst. How would he react if he arrived to that kind of graveyard? Would you still be too scared to flip this country’s power base on its head?”

  Quake and Marco remained silent.

  “If you decline, I’m not going to kill you. I’m not The Gov. But the history books won’t speak kindly of Mudhole and Quit, not when I’m the one writing them. Help us and I might release you to the sands with all your clothes.”

  Carroll turned a questioning look on her husband, but he kept his gaze on their prisoners. He took his map out of his dive suit. “You can start with marking where he’ll come in.”

  Cool could speak up about the one in his pocket, but he wanted to see if they’d offer any info.

  “What do you expect to do?” Quake asked. “They’re on their way. If I join your side, I’m not getting caught witho
ut a fully stocked Poseidon, whatever Colo demon that is.”

  “Show me the suit shaft you made to get down here, and we can talk on the way about Poseidons and other treasures we’ve found.”

  “Unless you’ve got some with you, stories won’t do anything but waste our air.”

  Dixon retrieved something from his suit. Blue light shown brighter than the red of his dive light, illumining floor, walls and ceiling in shimmering blue.

  Cool shielded his eyes, squinting as he backtracked blindly.

  “What is that?” Quake asked.

  “One drop of what I left stored in Fort Pope.”

  The glow faded so Cool could ease back open his eyes.

  “Satisfied?” Dixon asked.

  Quake shrugged. “I can show you the way. But you’ve got a ways to go yet to prove you can take down The Gov.”

  “Just walk.”

  28 – Star

  One of Star’s nanoreceptors on the northern edge of the floor was pulled into a heated, evolving form. Code transmitted into her nano, blocked intuitively, though she figured possibly by some kind of unspoken firewall. She traced code within the nano’s memory to the program commands.

  The form was set to become a canine. One of thirteen, commanded by Warren to close them in from all sides.

  “We have to go.” She sprinted past Nedzad. Her head still throbbed but she wouldn’t be captured.

  Nedzad broke after her. “Okay. I have something I need to get on LL4, too.”

  Her nanos weren’t waking quickly enough. Their plasma was spread too thin. She needed more. Some sections were cut off from her roots to the Suns.

  W. While I was out…he put holes in my network.

  Nedzad reached the stairwell first, slowed, and gently pushed the door’s handlebar open. He passed into shadow as he entered the doorway. “Crap.” He stopped. Star pushed on the door to see what he looked at, but he pulled it back.

  “Move.” He pushed her into the hall as he slammed the door shut.

  Smack! A violent force hit the door on the other side.

  “Of course,” she said. “He’ll have his dogs on every major access point. We have to use our suits.”

  Smack! The dog’s open maw indented an impression from the other side of the door.

  Star backed up, pointed at the wall right of the stairwell. “We dive.” Her suit responded to desire. A thousand tiny hands clutched suit to skin, melding into one as it prepared to perform its purpose.

  Nedzad backed up. His suit rippled in waves of green, spreading in circles from the white sphere centered on his chest.

  The blue in the door melded with rivers of green outlined in red as the M-MAN canine overtook the elements of the door.

  Star lowered, bent her knees, and charged for the rectangle of EM softening she projected on the wall. Nervousness tensed her limbs and breaths as she ran. She’d never dove full speed into such a hard surface. Even Rush avoided such a challenging test of focus. These suits are more powerful. Four steps away, she didn’t have time to doubt. It will work.

  Her EM pushed deeper into the wall, softening her entry point and spreading at a downward, wide angle for her to fall through. She lifted her hands and dove.

  29 - Nedzad / Star

  Nedzad dove into the wall after Star, projecting his own burst of EM to soften the wall’s depths.

  She hit something in the wall bordering the stairwell and spun feet over head backwards. “Agh!”

  A pulse of EM thrown from her feet hit him in the ribs, cutting off his air as it blinded him. He kicked as his front swung up to face the unseen sky.

  Star screamed in pain.

  He twisted to look over his shoulder, his sight still working to focus.

  She hung from her left hand two feet from the stairwell. Her wrist was bent at an angle only a broken bone could explain. “Help! I’m stuck.”

  An EM blast to free her could do worse damage to her wrist.

  As he swam closer, the canine propped up on its back legs and pushed its head into the wall below where Star was stuck. Green nanos passed from its snout into the red of the wall, changing its color as their infection slowly spread.

  Nedzad stretched EM into his fingertips, pushing them through the wall holding Star’s hand. She sank half a foot before he caught her at the forearm. Her hand remained at its awkward bent. He helped her move it to her side as he swam down next to her. “Keep that arm powered, but don’t rely on that hand to expel EM.” He pointed down and away from the stairwell, glanced back to see the dog’s head immersed into the wall, and then kicked forward.

  Star swam with her right hand and kicking legs after him. “Thanks for your help. Now I really need plasma.”

  “Why’s that?” Her suit wouldn’t have anything to do with helping a broken bone.

  “It’s a long story, but the short of it is the nanos that made me a slave to The Gov also somehow enable me to ingest plasma, which in turn helps me heal at an unreal rate.”

  Nedzad’s quick descent out raced the spread of their swimming EM field. Its progress required more of his energy because Star wasn’t providing any help. She wasn’t ready for this kind of diving pressure or required agility. “Quit focusing on your injury. Keep your EM projection on your left and straight ahead to keep from coffining again.”

  “Sorry.”

  The swimming field advanced in a wave, easing the weight he had to push as they passed LL3’s floor. His suit still had a good amount of power at an overall 77%. Only a few more strokes. One. Two. Three. He swept his hands out in a breaststroke and broke through the wall. He switched to dock view as bricks of concrete shattered into the bright light of the Twin Suns room. He ducked his shoulder. The ground broke his fall. He rolled over, smoothing tracers of EM into the floor to ease the hardness. His feet kicked through the rubble as he slid on his back. He came to a stop, propped up on an elbow, and looked backward.

  Star fell out of the hole he made in the wall. Her speed was too great to stop gracefully, and could end up taking her into the floor if her field was still projected. It was too late for him to save her. He cringed as inches separated her extended hand from the floor. Her pace didn’t slow. She didn’t curl or even look at him. Her arm went right through without a word.

  “Star?”

  She kicked. A thump of EM socked him in the nose and laid him on his back, tears dazing his view of the ceiling and the shimmer of blue light from the Twin Suns.

  Nedzad was back on his own and didn’t know which enemy to take care of first.

  30 - Rush (10:03 pm, Friday)

  “She and Nedzad dove into the wall south of the north stairwell,” W said. “The floor’s too unstable. If you dive, do it elsewhere.”

  A rash of yellow dots pressed into green on his visor map and its focus on LL4. The yellow rash spread toward the Twin Suns, then swam under. Another rash splitting off from their path into LL4 halted on the floor of LL4 after breaking through the wall.

  “Which one is which?” W asked.

  Rush knew, and so did W. He powered a pulse into his suit and dove into the hole Nedzad had used to escape. Rubble slowed him from a free fall as his path wasn’t identical to Nedzad’s preformed tunnel. He had three floors to go and didn’t care what he cut through to get there.

  “You’re wasting my nanos’ power tearing the walls up like that,” W said.

  “Help me catch Star and I’ll stop.” Rush stroked out of a ceiling into a small room with a cage stacked with shelves. He pushed a buffer into the shelf, deflecting him into the row of space between shelves. He rolled left, coiled his body, and stretched out as his top half pointed at the ground. His EM broke through before he crashed as the floor gulped him whole.

  Spots of green nanos were barely visible in the brightness of red he burned through, his suit roiling with power pulsed out like a heartbeat from his dive button. Unlike where W had caught him, this space lacked the M-MAN infusion where canines could build from anything or their sheer
abundance could stop him from diving to the floor below.

  Rush passed LL3 into LL4 by crashing into a fridge too close to the ceiling to avoid. His Poseidon skel exterior protected him by cutting through, but his speed slowed to a near halt. His momentum swayed his legs to the right, and he fell blind, upside down. This wasn’t the way to dive. He rescinded his EM, mostly, so that his jolted landing didn’t pass through the ground.

  He rolled onto his side to take in the room, with a sink to his right and a circular table with chairs in the corner. There were only two pockets of green, less than the size of his fist, growing in the walls, one above the doorway, connected to the floor above by a thick green arm rocking up and down like a rope under water. The other was in the wall behind the fridge he fell into. A hundred tiny green tendrils were latched on the fridge’s mechanics, more growing with each pump of its heart.

  Rush stood and jogged through the open door east. He didn’t know if he could live in a world where that kind of fungus grew invisibly inside the walls he’d try to build. Even if it means that’s the only way you can build those walls? Walls you could use to protect your next Fish?

  He forced his jog into a sprint through the corridors of LL4, frustration helping pump his strides. He needed to find a way, when he caught up to Star he needed to find a way to keep her. Not the crazy, ready-to-kill, queen of the nanos, but the one with the excited eyes and wide smile, eager to talk, laugh and increase their lives together. The one anxious to hug, to kiss and pull him into their tent.

  That self was quickly retreating inside the shell of the woman he chased.

  I will find you. We will leave this base together.

  Rush tracked Star’s trail of yellow interference in the living green vines under the bright white of the Twin Suns. As he neared the end of the cubicle room and the hallway intersection overlooking the collapsed hallway between elevator and Twin Suns, his view of Star’s form clarified. She floated under the glow of the spinning nuclear plasma generator. A hundred thick vines of green with pulsing white beads tapped into her body, feeding her from the base’s life source.