Heir Ascendant

by Matthew S. Cox

  Moth’s electronic eyes widened with a whirr; yellow light glowed in the faint sheen of sweat upon grimy cheeks.

  “Do you always talk about yourself in third person, kid?” Headcrash asked.

  Maya gave him a blank stare before tilting her head back to peer up at Moth. His right hand twitched, sporadic rattling gestures that made him look ready to go for a gun any second. Yellow pupils had narrowed, staring at something existent only in his mind. “Your name is ironic, isn’t it?”

  He shook off the mental cloud and snarled at her. A drop of sweat fell from his nose.

  “I mean, moths are small and you are not. So, it’s ironic.” Maya glanced down at the mattress, idly brushing her fingers over the top of her right foot.

  “It’s short for Behemoth,” said Icarus. “Grunts can’t handle words more than one syllable.”

  Blood vessels swelled out of Moth’s face; he glared. “If you die, the money’s only gotta go three ways.”

  “Knock it off,” Genna said. “No one is killing anyone. Not until we get paid.”

  Moth whirled, pointing at her. “We’d be rich and on our way already if you didn’t demand so much Xeno.”

  “Yeah, what the hell do you want it for, anyway?” asked Headcrash. “You got the military vac shot. Fade can’t touch you.”

  “Ascendant sells Xenodril for two hundred bucks a dose even though it costs them under a dollar to make. I can sell it for fifty a shot and get six times what you’re asking for in cash. To them, it’s cheaper to ransom the brat in meds.”

  “It’s a bit late for Xenodril. Sam’s dead.” Moth stared a challenge at her.

  “Horseshit.” Icarus sat up, looking annoyed by the delay of sleep. “This is about your son. We all know you’re gonna give the shit away.”

  Genna flew from the sofa and advanced on Icarus, but Moth held her by the shoulders. She settled for punching him in the chest, not that he felt much. The big man whirled, throwing Genna like a rag doll over the couch

  “Hey, get off her!” Icarus sprang to his feet, leaping at Moth.

  Without looking, Moth caught Icarus by the throat and held him off the ground one handed. Sweat beads on the giant’s forehead slid down his face in rivulets. Amber metal irises narrowed to pinpoints. Icarus bumped the bed as Moth squeezed. Maya leapt backward, her flight cut short by the handcuff around her left ankle. She sat motionless, left leg pulled taut, while the men grappled, until a stripe of silver caught her eye.

  A panel of thin plastic stuck out of Icarus’s back pocket, covered with a pattern of thumbnail-sized black derms. Moth throttled the skinny Asian, banging him repeatedly against the bedframe. Maya struggled to crawl forward over the bucking mattress while the men wrestled. She seized the drug sheet with two fingers and tugged it away when Moth added a second hand to Icarus’s neck.

  “God damned dink, trying to sneak me from behind!” Moth roared. “I’ll fucking kill your entire kimchee-swilling family.”

  “Moth!” Genna screamed and jumped on his back, catching him in a headlock. “It’s Icarus. You’re not in Korea. You’re hallucinating again. He’s fucking Chinese!”

  Maya scooted as far back as she could and sat on the drugs.

  No amount of straining on the part of Genna and Icarus combined seemed capable of overpowering the monster with a body more metal than flesh. Headcrash peered over the pile of stacked crates and junk he’d used to build a ‘fort’ around his workstation. When it appeared murder would not happen, he looked at Maya, shivering at the sight of her placid calm.

  “You’re not in goddamned Korea!” Genna screamed, punching Moth in the back of the head. “This is Baltimore!”

  Moth’s rapid breathing slowed, his snarl faded, and he released his grip on Icarus’s throat, dropping him from eye level to a foot and a half shorter. Gagging, Icarus collapsed to all fours and wheezed while the giant stormed off into the back hallway. Genna returned to the sofa, sitting with her face in her hands.

  Making sure to keep the drugs out of sight beneath her, Maya lay back and closed her eyes.

  aya stirred at the sense of motion near the bed. Genna looked down at her with an expression at an unreadable point between pity and disgust. A plastic bowl with dry cereal nuggets rattled as she dropped it on the mattress.

  “You as bony as the Frags… for all that money you have, don’t you eat?”

  “Frags are thin because they don’t have much food out here, and there is sickness.” Maya sat up, careful to keep her butt on top of the derms. “I’m thin because I was made that way. Vanessa thinks it looks better in the ads.” She stared at the bland pellet cereal. “I think Xenodril should be cheaper. Sam didn’t deserve to die.”

  Genna stormed away. Maya disregarded the offering, leaning forward to fuss with the metal tethering her to the bed. She looked up moments later when Moth loomed over her.

  “Why are you wasting food on a dead girl?” He swiped the bowl and wandered off while munching.

  “I…” Genna stood at the edge of the room by the swath of missing wall, staring off at the broken landscape while the trinkets in her hair clattered in the wind. “Look, when the time comes, I don’t want to watch.”

  Moth crunched another mouthful; crumbs sprayed when he said, “It was your idea. She’s a Citizen, remember? Represents everything you want to destroy. The heir to the Ascendant Empire killed on a live netcast. If that doesn’t wake society up, nothing will. Oh, you’re gonna watch. Them Brigade pussies don’t have the balls for an op like this. We’re going to change the world.”

  Maya looked down at a rat making off with a spilled nugget of cereal.

  “Is it really necessary?” asked Headcrash. “What if it backfires? The Authority would hunt us down if we kill her, maybe as bad as they go after the Brigade. They have eyes everywhere.”

  “If we let her go, she’ll be able to describe us,” said Icarus.

  “Do you think I care if you steal money from that woman’s company?” asked Maya. “I’ll tell them you kept me blindfolded and tied the whole time.”

  “You’re a Citizen.” Genna’s voice lost energy, sounding resigned. “You’ll do it just to spite us Nons. Just because you can. Just to feel better than us.”

  “What do you think, Genna?” asked Moth. “Shoot her, or throw her out the wall?”

  Genna flinched. Maya glared at the electronic restraint.

  Icarus burst out laughing.

  Even Moth gave him a surprised look. “Cold…”

  The Asian man muttered and babbled at someone who wasn’t there.

  “He ain’t laughing at how to kill the girl,” Headcrash said. “He’s seein’ shit. Been mumbling for the past two hours in his sleep. He thinks the aliens that sent the Fade are here, psychically manifesting to him.”

  “That’s a stack of shit,” barked Moth. “Ascendant made it so they could sell the cure.”

  Genna raised an eyebrow, almost smiling. “You sound as paranoid as Headcrash.”

  “I’ve heard all the rumors,” Head muttered. “Some alien microbe trapped in asteroid ore. Ascendant scheme, Authority, old US military or Korean weapon… God being done with humanity. Maybe it’s the Earth wanting to start over.” He cradled the rats. “My little friends don’t get Fade because they haven’t pissed off the planet.”

  Moth shook his head. “Shit, man, if you don’t do drugs, you need to start.”

  Icarus jumped up, pawing at his clothing. “I’m fuckin’ out of Vesper. I n-need to go.” He jogged for the door. “Be right back.”

  Moth caught him with a palm to the chest. “Oh, de ninguna manera, amigo. Your ass is stayin’ right here. No one leaves until this is done.”

  “Someone who leaves could be going to turn in a reward to the Authority,” Maya said. “Betraying everyone else for money.”

  Headcrash almost exploded. “Y-yeah… s-she’s right.” He shrank into his seat, shaking and whispering to himself. “W-why the hell is she helping us?”

  �
��That’s bullshit, man!” Icarus shuddered. “I’m fuckin’ rattling, bad. I need Vesp.”

  Moth shoved him off his feet with a casual thrust of his arm. Icarus caught air, hit the wall, and slid to a seat on the floor in a rain of crumbling plaster. His attempt to get back up stalled as Moth pulled his gun.

  “Sit your ass down. No one leaves.”

  Icarus cried, arms twitching out of control. “Come on, Moth. Y-you know what happens to me without it.”

  “Night blindness. I hear Vesper causes paranoid hallucinations, too.” Genna waved her hand in a spooky gesture. “The darkness comes alive, and you see stuff what ain’t there. This why I ain’t touchin’ the shit. Stop askin’. I didn’t take that shit when Uncle Sam asked me to, and I sure as hell ain’t gonna do it on yo’ say so.”

  “It renders the optic nerve hypersensitive.” Maya swished her feet side to side. “When the dose wears off, the dendrites remain excited and random neuro-electrical impulses cause optical illusions. What the brain does with the images varies on an individual basis, but it’s often unpleasant.”

  Genna gawked at her.

  Icarus gnawed on his hands.

  “That sounds like paranoia.” Moth chuckled. “Maybe you should give some to Crash.”

  “Oh, you’re funny.” Headcrash snorted, wiping his nose. He tried to check his terminal, but seemed unable to bear having his back to the room long enough to pay any attention to the screen.

  Moth dragged one of the battered kitchen chairs into the exit hall and took a seat near the only way out of the apartment that didn’t involve some fifty odd stories of free fall. Icarus collapsed in a heap next to the recliner he always wound up in.

  Maya curled forward, arms around her legs, chin resting on her knees, and stared at the distant flickering lights of the Sanctuary Zone, an island of silver far away upon on a black field of ruin.

  Her home seemed so far away, as if she’d never been there at all.

  eadcrash watched her without blinking for almost fifteen minutes before he left his nest and approached. Maya looked up at him, face blank. He covered his mouth with a splotchy hand that reminded her of a coloring book where a child didn’t fill in the outline. He seemed to sense her curiosity and concealed his fingers in his clothes, though the same effect patterned his face as well.

  He crept closer. Maya scooted toward the metal footboard, concealing the Vesper sheet while shifting sideways and tucking her tethered leg under herself. Her free foot dangled off the side. Headcrash sidled nearer, frowned at Moth, and paused as if to calculate the limit of her reach before taking a seat on edge of the mattress near the pillow.

  A long stare did nothing to change the curious look on Maya’s face. She showed no fear of the bedraggled, pudgy man. It took a while for him to find the nerve to extract his hand from his pocket and hold out a candy bar. Maya glanced at it, making no effort to reach for it. He started to lean it closer to her, then second-guessed himself and tossed the offering, terrified to cross some imagined dotted line delineating where she could not get him.

  Maya picked up and opened the treat, the crinkle of plastic making him flinch. She tapped a finger behind her ear. “Why don’t you have a plug? You’re a hacker, right?”

  “Don’t trust them. I use old tech. S’why they call me Headcrash.”

  “Thought it was ‘cause you’re fucked in the head,” muttered Genna from the sofa.

  He flashed a sarcastic, tongue-protruding face at her. “Sixty or seventy years ago, computers used long-term memory storage in the form of hard drives. Magnetic heads floated microns away from rotating physical platters. Sometimes when they failed, these heads would touch the spinning disk and scratch the substrate from the surface, ruining it―a head crash. Alfonse started calling me that because I like to use the old tech. A wire in the brain lets the Authority into my thoughts. All the new systems have backdoors they can use to watch you. Old stuff isn’t compatible with their sniffers.”

  “Alfonse called you that because you’re fucked in the head,” said Genna.

  He ignored her, kneading his fingers in his lap and mumbling. “Moth shouldn’t have taken your food.”

  “You’re nice,” Maya whispered, nibbling on the chocolate while aiming a smile at Head. A tickle upon her toes made her glance to the right at a two-inch roach crawling over her left foot. She flicked it casually toward the desk where it landed on its back, legs scrambling at the air. “You’re not like the others.”

  Four rats swarmed on the insect and devoured it.

  Headcrash edged a little closer, whispering, “I can’t hear you.”

  “Do you think it’s strange how little security was at my home?” she whispered, quieter than the last time. He slid closer. “For who I am, there were only two officers.”

  “I killed the four outside with the drone,” mumbled Headcrash while kneading his hands in his lap like a small boy confessing.

  “Two came by helicopter,” said Maya, even softer. “Only two were guarding me.”

  “What are you saying?” Headcrash hopped close enough to put an arm around her, but recoiled from physical contact. He looked up; Icarus muttered to himself, English and Chinese twining back and forth, equally incoherent in the throes of a comedown phase. Moth sat by the door, far enough away not to hear them. Genna snored. “What are they planning?”

  Maya leaned against him, holding the candy bar in both hands while nibbling. “The Authority let you take me because one of your friends is either an undercover or an informant.” Headcrash covered his mouth to stall a shriek. “One of them is probably Brigade.” She bit off a hunk of candy and chewed it at an agonizing slow pace. When Headcrash seemed about to burst, she snuggled against him. “I think it’s Genna, since she wants so much Xenodril. It has to be for the revolutionaries.” Maya tapped herself on the right shoulder, whispering, “She’s got their tattoo.”

  He stared at the sleeping woman, his constant faint tremble growing into visible shakes.

  “It could be Moth, too, since he’s ex-military. I learned in class that most of the Brigade terrorists are disillusioned veterans. They want to overthrow the Authority because they feel they were lied to about the war. That’s why they just execute them on sight.” Maya looked him dead in the eye. “As well as anyone with them.”

  Sweat oozed from every pore on his face. “N-no… You don’t think? I-if they think w-we’re Brigade, they’ll kill us.”

  Maya wobbled her head in gesture of maybe. “It might even be Icarus since he’s good at breaking into places. Don’t you think he would have had to learn how to disarm security systems and electronic locks from either the Authority or the Brigade? He’s a doser. Dosers make mistakes. If he was a simple street criminal on his own, he’d be dead or in jail by now. Someone’s helping him, but who?”

  Headcrash looked his friends over, gaze stalling at each one in turn. He slid an arm across Maya’s back, pulling her tight like a teddy bear that would protect him from the enemies surrounding him. While he stared at Moth, paralyzed in fear, she reached under her backside and pulled the derm sheet out. Candy bar held in her teeth, she hugged him in defiance of the stink of a months-delayed bath and tucked the chems into a pocket inside his jacket.

  “Thank you for being nice,” she whispered after gripping the candy bar again. “I’m sorry you have to live out here.”

  He whimpered as he stood, wild glare shifting from one person to the next while ambling back into his nest, staring at Genna as if trying to see her arm through her shirt. As soon as he vanished behind the pile of trash separating his desk from the room, the terminal chirped a loud tone. Headcrash screamed and put a hand on his sidearm. He stared at Maya and babbled, spittle flying. She gave him an innocent face while gnawing on the candy, figuring he’d finally realized she’d been close enough to grab his gun but hadn’t. His lips twitched; he stood paralyzed by pure dread. Maya frowned at the handcuffs, twisting her foot to study the code panel.

  Five little
numbers stood between her and freedom.

  eadcrash seemed to summon up a great effort to break eye contact with her, and faced the terminal. “Sniffer soft found a hit on a keyword.”

  The rolling chair creaked as he let his weight drop; the deflating cushion launched a cloud of dirt and two rats into the air. He muttered to the terminal, which responded by creating a holo-screen, an amber pane of light filled with shimmering dust particles. Moth and Genna moved to the desk, both folding their arms. The image of Vanessa Oman filled in the center, standing behind a clear podium with little Maya at her side in a shimmery, metallic aqua dress and high heels. ‘AONN-Bulletin’ scrolled along the bottom of the screen.

  ‘Live’ blinked at the top corner of the Authority Official News Network feed.

  “…yet another attempt by unknown criminal elements to undermine the confidence of our Citizens. I assure you, rumors concerning the abduction of my daughter Maya, the face of Ascendant Pharmaceuticals, are just that―rumors. As you can see, she is right here, healthy and happy.”

  The little girl waved to the cameras, aqua lipstick stretched into a million-dollar smile.

  Headcrash typed with fury, bouncing several bits of trash―and one rat―off the desk.

  “Miss Oman,” asked an unseen woman, “can you comment on possible Brigade involvement?”

  “Shadow pattern checks,” Headcrash said. “The kid’s really in the shot; it’s not digital manip.”

  “Has to be one of the android fakes,” Genna muttered. “They’re putting on a show for the sheep.”

  “Mmm.” Moth grunted.

  “Ordinarily, as you know, we cannot divulge information of this nature. However, given that nothing actually happened… I can say that we do, at this time, believe the Brigade is attempting to initiate a propaganda campaign intended to embolden the desperate criminals who dwell outside the Sanctuary Zone. If they can convince people that my daughter was kidnapped, it makes the Authority seem weak, vulnerable.” Vanessa narrowed her eyes; ice formed on her next words. “I assure you, we are neither weak nor vulnerable.”