DIRE : TIME (The Dire Saga Book 3)

by Andrew Seiple

  The pilot, however, was not so lucky.

  I coughed, inhaling ozone and the odor of charred flesh, but the darkness was creeping in around the edges. Strength failed me, and I slumped back onto the ground, feeling cold. But just before I could pass out, he was there,

  Add a few decades. Add a full head of white hair, a large bushy beard, and yes, the face was the same, wasn’t it? Close enough that every one of my suspicions was confirmed.

  “Drink this! Quickly!” he said, uncorking a vial and sliding it between my lips. If I hadn’t known before, I would now. Gamanu has a distinctive taste, even when it is juice and not the full fruit.

  I slumped back on the ground, and agony ripped through me, as my ribs shifted within my chest. The fruit was doing its job, healing me, but it was neither gentle nor painless, and I howled. In seconds the pain grew too much to withstand, but as I slipped into unconsciousness, I clung to one fact, held onto it with all my might.

  Aegon Morgenstern was Jacob Bryson.

  CHAPTER 7: BUNNY – ARCO TRIUMPH

  “With the utter destruction visited upon Westmarket, the federal government is prepared to come to Icon City's assistance. FEMA is meeting with city officials right now, preparing to break ground and begin work on the cleanup. But we've been getting reports that Icon City's Mayor, Armand Tressler, has been noticeably absent from these meetings. It's causing no end of trouble, and a delay in getting the citizens of Icon City the infrastructure repair that they so desperately need. Why are you stalling, Armand? Mayor Tressler: Bad for Icon, bad for its people! Elect Thorpe for Mayor!”

  --Radio commercial paid for by the Icon City Democratic party, circa 2001.

  There were days when Bunny wished she was back in the desert, listening to the Caliphate forces fire over the dunes, and walking with Spooky on night patrol to check the far wards. Things were simpler then. And there were a few hundred G.I.s bivouacked a shout away, all ready to back her up when the bad guys tried shit.

  Now? Not so much.

  How the fuck did I get here? She wondered, for what had to be the thousandth time. She was sitting in the backup lair of her lunatic supervillain boss, on the run from not only every hero in Icon City but freaking WEB as well, arguing with a holographic projection that was actually a semi-sentient computer program designed by her boss’s future self.

  Who was still a goddamn lunatic. Who, unlike the boss she’d signed up to work with, seemed to have both shadier motives and an interest in playing every card she had close to her chest, even with her past self’s minions.

  “So let me get this straight,” Bunny ground out, hunched over the table and glaring at Future Dire’s mask. “We can’t ask Morgenstern for help, even though we’ve had good dealings with him before?”

  “Correct,” Future Dire’s smartframe said.

  “Is it because we leveled about ten percent of the city?” Martin said. “Because I can kinda get why Morgenstern would want to stay out. Plausible deniability and shit.”

  “No,” The smartframe said. “He has to stay out of this, or future dealings will be compromised. Letting him know of Dire’s disappearance now would be extremely unwise.”

  “Versus getting run to the ground by WEB, who are actively trying to murder us.” Bunny shook her head. “Future dealings are all well and good, but it’s our lives on the line here. Would it be life or death for your past self?”

  The smartframe considered the question. “I do not have that information. I have been instructed to tell you that Morgenstern is far more ruthless and pragmatic than Dire or any of you suspected at this point in time.”

  Bunny sighed, hauled her exhausted ass up off the chair, and moved over to the whiteboard. She ran the blue marker over Morgenstern’s name, crossing it off. “Okay. So who’s next? Graveyard Gang?”

  “We do not need help,” Kirsten said, crossing her arms.

  “No, Vorpal, pretty sure we do,” Martin replied. “We gots a lot of shit to get done, and a lot of assholes gunnin’ for us.”

  To the rest of the team she was Vorpal. To Bunny, she was Kirsten, always Kirsten. Well, except in the field. Only callsigns were allowed there.

  But they weren’t in the field, and right now the chain of command was pretty well busted, so it was up to Bunny to act like a first shirt and be the team mom until Dire got back. If Dire got back. So until that happened, she had to keep the peace between three people who weren’t necessarily interested in helping her with that op.

  “We are pretty well outnumbered,” she said, giving Martin a nod. “Can’t hurt to see if we can even those odds.”

  “There is no ‘even the odds’” Kirsten said, slamming her open palm on the cheap metal table and making it ring. “We need to get out of town, lie low, and try to assemble the beacon when we are no longer the most wanted people around.”

  Martin opened his mouth, frowned, and looked to the smartframe. “She got a point. If the beacon helps her get back, what’s it matter we do it now, or later? She’s already lost in time, she ain’t gonna be less lost in time six months from now, say.”

  Bunny smiled. Not at the idea, but at the fact that Martin had agreed with Vorpal on something. Those two had been at each other’s throats for too long. Anything that was a step away from that dynamic was good, as far as she was concerned.

  That smile faded as Minna held up the glittering, flashing glass gizmo that she’d saved from the vault of the sacrificed lair. “And what of this?”

  “What is that thing, anyway?” Bunny asked. I am not going to like this answer.

  “I do not have words,” Minna said. “It is the people.”

  “What people?”

  “The ones that Dire took from the city before we destroyed their neighborhood.”

  Bunny stared at the thing, which looked all the world like a kid’s science experiment, all wires and glass and lights and colors. “In there? How?”

  “I have not the words.” Minna shook her head. “Not... smart. Not yet. Learning.”

  “How ’bout you?” Martin asked the smartframe. “Can you explain this thing?”

  “Yes. As you well know, the main goal of today’s mission was to destroy the water treatment plant and all supporting infrastructure within four blocks. But to do that without casualties necessitated the teleportation of everyone within that area, and additionally, Schrodinger of Tomorrow Force when his weekly patrol took him over the affected zone.”

  Bunny winced. She’d been uneasy about the entire operation, no matter the gains. And targeting Tomorrow Force just hadn’t felt right, no matter how logical it was. Had to get at least Schrodinger out of the way, sure, or the op was doomed to fail. But for Dire it was personal. For Bunny, not so much. She’d lived in Icon most of her civilian life, and lost track of how many times Doc Quantum and his crew had literally saved the city. But what was done was done. She dragged her attention back to the future, and pointed at the gizmo.

  “She teleported them out. Into that?”

  “Precisely. The matrix stores the photonic signature of approximately thirty-thousand people, including the hero Schrodinger. Essentially, they teleported into that, to be stored for the short-term. Once the operation was done, Dire planned to restore them, teleport them back in to a safer area.”

  “Well, that went out the window.” Bunny drummed her fingers on the table. God, she wanted a cigarette. “So how do we return them? Can we return them without Dire?”

  “The teleportation engine is here in this lair, it is true, but the software to do so is in the main lab,” the smartframe said. “This program has not been given the technical specifics or any information how to salvage the people from the matrix. Evidently her future self assumes that Dire will do it when she returns.”

  “So we take it with us,” Kirsten said, but her voice was hesitant.

  “What kind of batteries does that thing take?” Martin asked. “Will it work if we take it outside the city? How we gonna fix it if it breaks? That’s thirt
y thousand people. Commuters, residents, and one really, really popular superhero. Fuck, maybe even some secret identities all up in there just caught random-like, I don’t know. I don’t wanna take no chances.”

  “Fuck. You’re right,” Bunny said. Then she laughed, and buried her face in her hands as a thought struck her. “Oh god.”

  “What?”

  “The rest of the city probably thinks Dire took them hostage. Shit.”

  Vorpal went white. Martin looked stunned for a second, then howled with laughter. “Oh man. We are so fucked.”

  “Yep. BOHICA, buddy. It’s on.”

  “Bo-who?”

  “Army acronym. Means ‘Bend over, here it comes again’.”

  He laughed harder, and then fell quiet after a few seconds. “I’m hungry. You hungry?”

  Bunny and Kirsten nodded. Minna put the gizmo on a nearby crate, and took his arm. “I will go with you, see what food there is.” She cocked an eyebrow at Bunny. “You will watch Anya?”

  Bunny looked over at the pallet and the tarps they’d piled up as blankets. A little puff of blonde hair poked out from them, breathing steadily. It was late; the kid was pretty well asleep. “Sure, no problem.” Minna was hardly the first mother she’d dealt with. A little paranoia never hurt, there.

  Well. No point in wasting time. She scrawled out a few more names on the board. Mercenaries, villains Dire had worked with before, heroes who might not punch first and listen to a plea for help with the situation, that sort of thing. The list was brief, very brief. As she finished up, Bunny felt slender arms encircle her from behind, and wrap around her chest, crushing her tits in a barely-comfy way. But she smiled, twisted her arm behind her, and slapped Kirsten on the flank. The company made all the difference, really.

  “What’s on your mind?” Bunny murmured.

  “We could just go. I have enough money for us both.”

  “I’m not exactly broke on my end, either.” Dire insisted on paying all of them, and had set up bank accounts for their cover identities to do so. The balance had been around a couple hundred thousand last time she checked, a few months ago. She had no idea what it was right now.

  “Will you come with me?”

  Bunny sighed, and the arms tightened around her, squeezing. “Thirty thousand people, Kirsten. Thirty thousand innocents.”

  “There are no such thing in this city.”

  “Is, Kirsten. There is no such thing. But it wouldn’t sit right with me if I left and something happened to them. If you want to get clear until this is done, that’s fine.” It wasn’t, actually. Kirsten was the best up-close fighter they had. Without her they’d be hurting. But Bunny knew her, knew that trying to guilt her into staying wouldn’t work out. Wouldn’t be fair.

  A breath, tickling at the back of her neck as Kirsten sighed. Another, and then soft lips moving against where her spine started. Bunny purred in pleasure, arched back into the kiss.

  The arms let her go. “I will stay.” Kirsten said, sounding not too happy about it. “But only so long as we can actually do anything to set this right. If it becomes impossible, then I go, and you come with me.” Her voice rose on that last part, wavered. Made it a question, rather than the bold statement that she meant it to be.

  Bunny turned, cupped Kirsten’s jaw with one hand, and used her thumb to stroke her lover’s cheek. “Promise,” She said, and leaned in for a long, slow kiss.

  So naturally, that was when her phone went off. Bunny closed her eyes, shook her head. “Right. Hang on.” She recognized the ringtone. This was something important. Two steps away from Kirsten, and a glance at the number, before she hit the button. “It’s me.”

  “You’ve got trouble.” Garbled, male, obviously run through a voice modulator. Well, Pete always did like playing at spy games.

  “What kind?”

  “Cavaliogne.”

  Her blood ran cold. “Why now?”

  “They know you run with Dire. They’re not too happy about her threatening them. Think she’s stretched too thin to protect you.”

  Shit. “They’re wrong,” She lied. “They try to raise a hand against us now they’ll draw back a stump.”

  “Which is why they’re not doing it themselves. They’re subcontracting, trying to hire deniable assets to take you down. Maybe Dire too, depending on who they get.”

  Shit, shit, shit. The Cavaliogne mob had deep pockets and long memories. This was bad news Bunny didn’t need. They’d almost killed her a year ago, and Dire had saved her. Evidently they didn’t think the matter was finished.

  Still, with WEB already on the field and gunning for them, they were literally the lesser evil.

  “Thanks for the warning,” Bunny managed. A click and hum of a disconnected call was her only response. Pete never had been one for pleasantries.

  “What was that?” Kirsten asked. “It was bad news, wasn’t it?”

  Bunny glanced back. “Probably.”

  “You sure you can not leave now?”

  “It’s not impossible yet. I’ll let you know when that changes.”

  Martin came back to the table, bearing an armful of MRE’s. “Grub time.”

  Bunny wrinkled her nose. “I got enough of those back in the sandbox.”

  “Well, you don’t want your share, sure.”

  “I didn’t say that. Gimme a chicken patty.”

  A few minutes later, with a full belly, she felt ready to deal with the world again. “Okay. So for now we’re going to try to get that beacon together. Smartframe, what are we looking for?”

  “Two components. This program has been granted their descriptions and locations.”

  “Well, that’s handy,” Martin said.

  “That’s future Dire assuming we can’t find stuff on our own,” Bunny clarified.

  “Always gotta rain on my parade.”

  The smartframe continued undeterred, materializing flickering images on the table. The first one was of a rectangular metal box, studded with mirrors. “The first component is a photonic resonance amplifier. It is located in laboratory three-ninety-one, within the Helios Arcosphere.”

  Martin whistled. “Security’s gonna be fun on that one.”

  “And the second?” Bunny asked.

  The image flickered, and was replaced by a twisted metal arm, that bore as much resemblance to Dire’s power armor as the Wright Brothers’ prototype did to a modern glider. “A modified, broken arm from an Eisenkrieger armored suit. It is in storage within the Icon Museum of Scientific History.”

  “That don’t sound too hard.” Martin said.

  Bunny shook her head. “I had a summer job there when I was a teenager. If it’s in storage, it’s in the basement with about ten or twenty-thousand other crates of stuff. Breaking in might be easy, but finding it will be tough.” She glanced at the smartframe. “Can you provide any help there?”

  “Regretfully, I have not been programmed with any further information on this topic that would aid in any sort of search.”

  “Of course not. That would be too fuckin’ easy.” Martin griped. “So what can you do, besides say ‘I can’t do that Dave?’”

  “Well, this program can and has been preventing Arachne’s Grid searches from eradicating or tracing Dire’s investments. This action has saved this warehouse from discovery so far.”

  Silence filled the room. “She can do that?” Bunny asked.

  “She will do that, eventually. She is an unbound artificial intelligence, limited only by the fact that many of her peers have carved out processing ’turf’ that she cannot access. This program is a mere smartframe, and while it has far more sophisticated code and techniques, it has neither her resources nor her capability to adapt and learn. In less than a day, she will exceed this program’s capability and uncover Dire’s hidden assets. You will no longer be safe here.”

  “Right.” Bunny rubbed the back of her head. Still felt weird without the hair, even after all these years. “So we get the stuff and get Dire back. S
he suits up, restores the people trapped in that matrix thing, kicks Arachne’s butt, and life goes on.”

  Vorpal frowned.

  “How’s she gonna kick Arachne’s butt?” Martin asked. “Bitch had a giant robo-spider body. I mean it got blown up, but she’s the sorta vill who keeps a spare, you know?”

  “Dire’s general-purpose suits are superior to Arachne’s technology.” The smartframe replied.

  “Except the one she was timetrapped in was a damaged heavy-duty suit.” Bunny mused. “There any general suits around? I know one went up with the main base.”

  “There is another suit within this warehouse.”

  “No shit?” Martin rose. “Where?”

  Five minutes, and a few smartframe-supplied passcodes later, they were looking down at a steel-lined wooden crate, and a solemn muse’s mask staring up at them, metal arms folded in a mockery of repose over the sleek lines of Dire’s usual power armor.

  “Fuckin’ shame we can’t use this thing,” Martin said. “Or can we? The hardsuits ain’t too, well, hard.”

  Bunny shook her head. “The way Dire described it, the hardsuits are easy mode. Taking this thing out for a spin is like flying a fighter plane.”

  “I can do it.”

  Silence in the room again, and Bunny looked over to Minna, who flushed at the scrutiny. The tall blonde’s face was as impassive as ever.

  “You?” Bunny asked.

  “Me. She trained me, when we had time.”

  “What the fuck for?” Martin asked. He sounded hurt.

  So even her boyfriend didn’t know that. Interesting.

  “I wanted to help. And I wanted to see if I could do it. Am not like rest of you, you have hobbies, time, lives. You go out sometimes.” She caressed Anya’s hair. The child stirred in her sleep, and Minna looked down at her, continued in a more quiet tone. “I have Anya and you sometimes Martin, but that is all. It helped to fill the time. And it made Dire happy.”

  That was about as much as Bunny had ever heard out of Minna in one sitting. It was kind of impressive. “Are you good with it?” That was the important part.