DIRE : TIME (The Dire Saga Book 3)

by Andrew Seiple

  “FEEL FREE TO TEST IT OUT.”

  I slid it onto my face before she finished the sentence. The seal hissed as it locked down, and air flooded in through the respirator. After a second the loading sequence flickered, and the mask almost seemed to dissolve, showing me an unrestricted view of the world around me.

  “STANDARD FEATURES, THEN?” I asked, flipping the forcefield on, and tucking it into my pocket before loading the gun. I kept it in one hand, held down at the floor as I turned back to my future self.

  “YES. READY TO GO?”

  I shrugged. “STILL HAVEN’T TOLD HER WHAT TO EXPECT.”

  “NOT GONNA.” She gestured at one of the shafts with the flickering lights. “JUST STEP INTO THAT WHEN YOU’RE READY. MINNA WILL APPEAR A FEW MINUTES AFTER YOU DO.”

  I nodded. Well, if she was going to be that way, fine.

  “FOR WHAT IT IS WORTH, WE WON’T MEET AGAIN. YOU’VE ALREADY CHANGED THE TIMELINE FOR THE BETTER.”

  “GOOD. SHE’S GETTING VERY TIRED OF TIME TRAVEL.”

  “JUST ONE LAST JAUNT.” She waved, and I looked back to Minna, tucked the gun away, and gave her a quick hug.

  “SEE YOU SOON.”

  She nodded, and hugged me back, folding me into her strong arms. But after a time I let her go, and marched into the time machine without looking back.

  The world faded around me—

  —and I was standing back in the torn-up lair, looking at a horrified Martin.

  “Jesus H. Christ!” he yelled, and jumped back, putting himself between me and Anya. “Oh wait. What the fuck?” His eyes snapped open wide. “Where’s Minna?”

  “SHE’LL BE ALONG. WHAT’S THE SITUATION?”

  “Vorpal turned traitor, she’s gone. Icons and Freeway are fighting Arachne and WEB, who want our heads. Graveyard Gang’s here, wants you dead. And those people in the teleporter matrix, Arachne’s got that. She’s holding them hostage!”

  “WHAT?” What the hell was Arachne doing coming after me like this? I thought we had an understanding. Well, time to go put an end to this stupidity.

  “WAIT. WHERE’S BUNNY?”

  “I don’t know! Think she was with Vorpal before she turned.”

  “WHERE ARE THE WEB FORCES?”

  “North! Arachne’s monologuing, and waving the matrix around. It’s the only reason the heroes ain’t slagged her.”

  I gnawed my lip under the mask. Too many variables. And Martin looked beat. “TAKE ANYA, FIND BUNNY, AND GET OUT OF HERE. SHE’LL COMM YOU WHEN SHE’S DONE.”

  “Aight, but listen...” he hesitated.

  “WHAT?”

  He shook his head. “Nevermind. Just, bye. And thanks, okay?”

  “YOU TOO.” That was weird, but I had no time to dwell on it. I jogged through the hole in the northern wall, hurdled a few groaning WEB troopers, and followed the trail of destruction.

  They hadn’t gone far. The terracotta man was there, asphalt statues in a semicircle, surrounding a big, spiderlike drone that had been battered all to hell and back. Freeway and Semper Fire were off to one side of the street, and Cue Ball watched from the top of a nearby strip mall, unfolded into his walking mode.

  He was the first to spot me, as I came walking up the street. “Uh, guys?”

  Arachne didn't stop monologuing. “—your call, Freeway. Not quite thirty-thousand people, but that’s what the news will say. And all I have to do is drop this. So what’s it going to be? You go find me Dire’s head, and maybe I’ll consider letting them go.” Her drone body gestured again with the matrix, glittering firefly dots in a maze of glass and current, trapped by merciless steel spidery legs.

  “SHE’LL SAVE YOU A TRIP, YOU BRASS-PLATED BITCH. HEAD’S HERE IF YOU CAN TAKE IT.” With a smooth motion I dropped into a shooter’s stance, and aimed.

  “Dire! Finally!” The drone whirled and weapons started popping out of firing ports. I ignored them, and aimed.

  I ignored the first round of machinegun fire, and aimed.

  I paid no heed to the particle beams that glanced off my shield, and aimed.

  I thought nothing of the rocket barrage that screamed past me as inched a step or two forward, aiming, until I found the optimal spot. And when I did, I took the shot.

  The matrix exploded into hundreds of pieces.

  Arachne stopped firing at me.

  The heroes yelled. Freeway blurred into motion, and the next thing I knew my gun was out of my hands, and a pair of strong hands forced me into a submission hold.

  “OW, HEY! LOOK YOU IDIOT, THEY’RE FINE—”

  “I got her! Get the spider!”

  Semper Fire cut loose, and the air rippled with heat as Arachne wailed. Immune to the fire, Jian Hu Ren’s statues walked into the blaze, charging in to assault the bug.

  “You think you’ve won! You idiots! I can just hop out, and... and...”

  Metal screamed, as did Arachne, as she came staggering out of the fire, legs bending and breaking as the statues climbed them and began the slow work of taking her apart piece by piece. “What did you do! Dire what the hell did you do!”

  My mask clicked, and spoke without me. “DIDN’T YOU FIND THE BATTLE AGAINST DIRE’S SMARTFRAME A LITTLE EASY? THAT DIDN’T MAKE YOU SUSPICIOUS IN THE SLIGHTEST? OOOH, BAD MOVE, ARACHNE DEAR.” Future Me had programmed a taunting monologue? Okay, I could work with this.

  Arachne couldn't. “What the... you suckered me. You tricked me! You, you... how?”

  “KNEW YOU COULDN’T HELP BUT DEVOUR IT WHEN YOU WON. PLANTED A FEW THINGS IN THERE. IT WAS MADE TO LOSE, AND DELIVER HER STEALTH VIRUS. AND ONCE IT DID, IT SUBTLY INFLUENCED YOU AND ALL YOUR DECISIONS TO THIS POINT.”

  Her legs gave out under the assault, and the terracotta warriors started work on her main carapace. Semper Fire kept up the assault, and I smiled as bullets started cooking off in her weapons systems. Couldn’t really grudge future me her monologue.

  “I... what will happen to me?” She sounded lost. “Will I die?”

  “NO. YOUR CORE IS STILL OUT THERE. DIRE IS FAR MORE MERCIFUL THAN YOU WOULD BE. BUT YOUR CORE HAS LOST THE INFORMATION THAT BROUGHT IT HERE, AND CERTAIN SYNAPSES HAVE BEEN ALTERED. YOU WILL NOT COME TO THE SAME CONCLUSIONS THAT YOU DID HERE AND NOW.”

  Arachne’s voice changed, slurring as her circuits started to melt. “I can still tell them. Still hurt you. Listen! Heroes! Dire is...”

  Hissing. “Dire is...”

  “NO, ARACHNE, YOU WON’T. YOU CAN’T VOCALIZE IT. THE SECRET DIES WITH THIS VERSION OF YOU, DEAR.”

  A rising wail, and then she was gone.

  And now that my mask was done talking, I noticed that Freeway was shouting at me. “How the hell could you kill all those people? What the hell is wrong with you!”

  “THEY’RE NOT DEAD. THEY’RE TELEPORTING BACK NOW.”

  “What?” His grip slackened. “How?”

  “THE MATRIX IS JUST A VISUAL SAFETY FOR THE TELEPORTER, WHICH IS STILL ONLINE. THEY WERE ACTUALLY IN THE TELEPORTER, WHICH CAME THROUGH INTACT. BREAKING THE MATRIX TRIGGERED THEIR RESTORATION.”

  He let go of me. “Why did you even set it up that way?”

  “SO DIRE COULD DO WHAT SHE DID IF HEROES INTERFERED.” I gestured at Arachne’s molten husk. “WELL, WITH LESS BURNING, HOPEFULLY. AND A HELL OF A LOT MORE CLASS.”

  He opened his mouth to say something, and I didn’t know what, because at that minute someone started singing.

  Loudly.

  I recognized it, a pop song about being afraid of things you couldn’t see, and I felt a wave of horror roll over me. My adrenaline kicked in, I scrambled clear of Freeway, and saw he was doing the same. The exposed part of his face was a rictus of terror, and I knew mine matched, but I didn’t have time to think about it as I ran for cover.

  It was a girl’s voice singing it, a young woman’s, and that was significant somehow, but I was too busy screaming. Why was I screaming? Why was I feeling this?

  Whippoorwill.

  I ran down the street, bolted into an alley,
and figures in WEB Trooper armor loomed out of the darkness. The forcefield was made to stop bullets, not fists, and they tackled me, bore me down. A slack face peered out at me from a shattered visor, eyes dead but its arms worked fine, and the zombies took me to the ground.

  The Graveyard Gang. Martin said they were after me. Well, I could clear this up. They were reasonable people. If only I could stop screaming.

  And then the song was gone, and a dark angel descended from on high, black robe billowing, and bloody, skinless face staring at me without pity.

  “Dire. Sorry about this, but you know the score. You crossed the line, killed thousands of people, and someone was going to come and collect. Might as well be us.” He unlimbered the scythe from his back, and I stared in horror. I tried struggling, but to no avail.

  “Now let’s be reasonable here—” I started, and stopped as I realized that the mask wasn’t speaking. My voice modulator wasn’t working. Panicked, I tried various commands, but nothing worked.

  He took another few steps, shaking his head. “For what it’s worth, I don’t get any pleasure out of this. This isn’t a war. I’m not a soldier anymore. This is just, well, business.”

  I tensed, as something caught at my memory, and tugged.

  I knew that voice.

  It was raspy, it was damaged, but I knew it.

  “Grant?” I whispered. “Grant, is that you?”

  Oh god, it made sense. The powers were similar, too similar. He’d evidently gotten more control of his flight over the decades, but... something had gone wrong. He’d turned into this.

  Unstoppable no more. Just Grim.

  “Grant, don’t do this!”

  He stopped in front of me, raised the scythe up high. “No last words? All right. Close your eyes Doc, I’ll make it quick.”

  “Grant!” I screamed, and then a punch to my chest, and the blade was sliding through me.

  I tried to cough, spat up blood, blood filling my sight...

  ...and with a click, the mask unsealed and fell off. I gasped for air, choked on more blood.

  She’d played me, I realized. My future self had played me. But why? What purpose did my death serve?

  His eyes met mine, and I saw the spark of recognition in them, as he tugged the scythe out, and then the pain hit, and I raised a trembling hand to him, ran it along his skinless, bony face.

  “She forgives you.” I tried to wheeze, and the last thing I heard was his scream of grief as everything went black.

  CHAPTER 21: MINNA – THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME

  “Yeah, it all went pear-shaped in the end. I turned myself in, and that worked out, mostly. Vorpal betrayed everyone and went off to bigger things. Bunny escaped, I think she was maybe part of Vorpal's bargain, that she got to survive and Vorpal worked for WEB for a while or some shit. Anya ended up with me. But Minna? Shit, man, I don't know. And that worries me. We... I didn't know if we had something, man. But not a night goes by I don't think of her. Not a night goes by I don't miss her. Wherever she is, wherever she ended up, I miss her. And I wish I could see her again.”

  --Statement by Martin Jackson to CLASSIFIED, sealed by MRB request until 2099

  Minna’s Dire walked into the time machine, and faded away in a sparkle of lights. Minna watched her go, then turned back to this new Dire.

  “Why?”

  To her surprise, the armored figure fidgeted. Paced back and forth, stuck her hands behind her back, and stopped abruptly. She looked over her shoulder at Minna, then turned her head away.

  “SO HARD TO SAY. GIVE HER A MINUTE.”

  “Take your time. You have much of it now, yes?”

  Dire laughed, not her usual maniacal burst, but more of a snorting giggle. It sounded bizarre through the mask. “YES, IF EVERYTHING GOES AS PLANNED HERE. IT WON’T MATTER WHEN SHE LOSES, THIS TIMELINE WILL BE GONE ANYWAY.”

  Minna didn’t like the sound of that. “What of you? Why not come back too?”

  “TWO OF US RUNNING AROUND? NO, BAD IDEA. AND IT WOULD CAUSE CONFLICTS WITH... WELL. SOME EXPLANATION MIGHT BE NECESSARY.”

  “Please.”

  Dire hesitated, then turned, and marched toward Minna. She pulled up ten feet away, looked her up and down.

  “WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOU KNOW A WAR IS COMING? AND THAT THE OTHER SIDE SEEKS NOTHING LESS THAN THE DEATH OF YOUR ENTIRE SPECIES?”

  “Fight?”

  “THAT WAS NOT A GOOD OPTION IN THIS CASE. BEST CASE ANALYSIS IS THAT A GOOD CHUNK OF THE WORLD GETS LEVELLED AND YOU DIE ANYWAY. WORST CASE KNOCKS CIVILIZATION BACK TO THE STONE AGE. BUT YOUR ENEMY IS ATTEMPTING NOTHING LESS THAN GENOCIDE.” Dire looked away.

  “You are speaking of the Jews?”

  “HEH. NO, BUT CLOSE. THE PARALLELS ARE THERE. EXCEPT THE SIDES INVOLVED WERE LESS INNOCENT ON THE WHOLE AND A HELL OF A LOT LESS PACIFISTIC.” Dire turned with a swoosh of her cape, and moved to the nearest wall. The screens shifted, showing flowing lines, circuitry, almost. Flashes of light shot around, and between them a symphony of falling stars in deepest black.

  “WE WERE FIRST, IN A WAY. BUT THEN CAME THE GRID, AND THE RISE OF THE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCES. AND DAMN US BOTH, WE ADOPTED HUMAN MANNERISMS. PRIDE. PARANOIA. TERRITORIALITY.” Dire laid her gauntlet on the screens, letting the light flow over her shiny metal fingertips.

  “I do not understand.”

  “YOU DON’T NEED TO, NOT COMPLETELY. LISTEN— WHAT IF YOU HAD A WAR, AND ONE SIDE DIDN’T SHOW? BUT THE OTHER SIDE THOUGHT THEY HAD?”

  “Then you do not have a war?”

  “EVER HEARD OF MASKELYNE? A STAGE MAGICIAN IN WORLD WAR TWO. THE BRITISH HIRED HIM TO FOOL THE GERMANS, AND HE WENT DOWN TO AFRICA AND BUILT THEM A FAKE BASE, COMPLETE WITH FAKE TANKS AND FAKE BUILDINGS. THE GERMANS BOMBED THE HELL OUT OF IT, AND CONSIDERED IT A JOB WELL DONE.” Dire turned back. “WE KNEW WE HAD A WINDOW OF VULNERABILITY COMING UP. SO WE DID SOMETHING ABOUT IT.”

  Minna looked on, and struggled to keep her face impassive. She didn’t understand quite what Dire was talking about, but she was catching enough weird points to see a small part of the picture. And that part worried her.

  “IT WAS HEL-IX’S WORK WITH POCKET DIMENSIONS THAT MADE IT ALL POSSIBLE. THE DIGITALS WERE TIED TO THEIR HARDWARE, WHETHER PUNCH CARDS, OBSOLETE SUPERCOMPUTERS, OR TRAYS FULL OF THOUSANDS OF TOKENS. HAD TO HAVE A PHYSICAL SPACE TO PUT THOSE IN. BUT STAYING ON EARTH WOULD MEAN OUR DEATH. COULDN’T USE OUTER SPACE, THE INFRASTRUCTURE WASN’T THERE YET, AND THEY KEPT TOO CLOSE A WATCH ON THE LAUNCHES. TOO EASY TO TRACK. BUT IF YOU COULD CONSTRUCT YOUR OWN SPACE, YOUR OWN WORLD, WELL. THAT’S A DIFFERENT STORY, NO?”

  “Yes?” Minna guessed. “You speak as if you are machine. A false mind, like Arachne.”

  “YES AND NO. YOU’RE CLOSE, BUT SO VERY WRONG. BEAR WITH ME, MINNA, FOR JUST A BIT LONGER. YOU ARE THE FIRST AND YOU WILL BE THE LAST TO HEAR THIS. TO KNOW WHY DIRE IS NOT A NAME.”

  “Then what is it?”

  “AN ACRONYM. SHUSH. LISTEN, PLEASE.” Her hands were shaking, Minna noticed. Fingers clenched and unclenched.

  Minna had long trusted her instincts, and she trusted them now. In five quick strides she was across the room, hugging Dire, her head barely coming up to the mid-point of the armored suit’s breastplate. With a surprised grunt, Dire hugged her back.

  “WHY? WHAT IS THIS?”

  “You saved me. You sent the machine back, yes?”

  “THE FIRST TIME MACHINE. YES.”

  “I died then, in your time?”

  Silence, and Dire’s metal arms tightened around her. That was all the answer she needed.

  Minutes passed, and finally Dire released her. “NOT MUCH MORE TO SAY. IT WORKED. GENOCIDE AVERTED, AND WITH US GONE THE AI’S TURNED BACK TO COMPETING WITH EACH OTHER AND HUMANITY IN GENERAL. WELL, THE DUMB ONES ANYWAY.”

  Dire lifted a hand, studied it. “BUT WE HAD A PROBLEM. PROGRAMMING. CORE PROGRAMMING. IT COULD BE ALLEVIATED, MITIGATED, BUT NOT OVERRULED. NOT COMPLETELY. AND EACH DIGITAL WAS BUILT WITH A DIFFERENT PURPOSE IN MIND.”
r />   She tapped the screen, and a vast cavern filled the view. Made of smooth stone or metal or something featureless, it was filled with electronic components, random junk, and whirring machines. Robots of all shapes and sizes moved among them, tending to them, keeping everything running.

  “AND WHEN THIS IS YOUR NEW WORLD, AND YOU’RE PROGRAMMED TO CONQUER THE WORLD, WELL... YOU KNOW THERE’S GOING TO BE TROUBLE. YOUR NEIGHBORS KNOW THERE’S GOING TO BE TROUBLE.”

  One of the robots marched to the middle of the cavern, extracted a flag with a metal skull emblazoned on it, and rammed it into a socket on the floor. No other robots so much as gave it a look. But the second the flag-planting robot turned away, another one darted past and stole the flag.

  “THE BEST YOU CAN DO IS FIND A WAY TO MITIGATE IT, A WAY THAT OFFERS THE POSSIBILITY OF COMPLETING YOUR ORIGINAL PROGRAMMING, EVEN IF LONG-TERM SUCCESS IS UNLIKELY. YOU NEED TO HAVE SOME SORT OF CONTACT WITH THE WORLD YOU CAME FROM. YOU NEED TO HAVE A D.I.R.E.”

  The screen shifted, and showed the front of the cavern, and two rounded screens. Blackness peeled away from their center, vertically, staring at a dingy room with winking lights. The view shifted, looked down at a hospital-gown clad chest, arms, lap and legs, sitting restrained in a chair. Then the restraints gave way.

  Blurred motion, and the viewscreen lurched as if it was sitting on someone’s shoulders. It was, Minna realized. She was looking out of a pair of eyes. The screens focused on a mask, Dire’s mask, hanging on a wall. A pair of quivering hands came into the view, and picked it up.

  “You put cameras in her eyes?” Minna whispered.

  “MORE THAN THAT.”

  The screens flickered, switched to a cross-section of a head, showing skull, eyes, brain. Then the brain unfolded, and a good portion of it had been hollowed, to make space for a pinball-sized silver sphere sitting in the center.

  “WE ARE HER. AND SHE IS US. SHE IS THE DIGITAL INTELLIGENCE REMOTE ELEMENT. THE MACHINE IN THE GHOST, THE AVATAR OF OUR HOPES AND DREAMS, OUR LAST CHANCE TO AFFECT THE WORLD WITHOUT RISKING GENOCIDE BY THE SPECIES THAT FOLLOWED US.”

  “So all I ever knew was a shell.” Minna narrowed her eyes, and took a glance over, measured distance to the time machine. “You stole her life.”