Heir Ascendant

by Matthew S. Cox

  “I don’t buy it,” said Moth. “Brigade don’t have the balls to pull this off.”

  “Brigade doesn’t wanna involve kids in a war,” rasped Icarus.

  Genna pursed her lips. Headcrash whipped around to glare at Icarus, worry in his eyes.

  Except for the twitching Asian, her kidnappers all shifted to look at her after the video feed cut to a local weather report warning of increased risk of bacteria parasailing on a southeasterly wind. A faint female voice reminded everyone to update vaccinations and ensure they had a ready supply of Xenodril on hand.

  Maya looked down at her painted toenails. After a moment of silent staring, she spoke without emotion. “The woman is lying. There will be drones. You should turn off the lights so they can’t see me from outside.”

  “Drones have night vision,” Moth said.

  “Yes.” Maya glanced up at him. “But a dark hole in the wall will attract less attention. If the whole building is dark except for one space, where would you search?”

  “What?” Icarus snapped out of his haze. “No way. You can’t turn off the lights! It’s dark!”

  “It’s always dark.” Genna walked past the bed, swiping her hand at the wall and killing the lights.

  Moonlight from the missing wall painted the room in blue-tinted shadows, enough to see people by shape provided one’s optic nerves hadn’t been scorched by Vesper.

  Icarus jumped from his chair and chased her, only to be once more caught in a one-handed chokehold by Moth. Maya crawled as far back on the bed as she could, covering her ears from the shouting match between the two men. The yelling fizzled out in a few seconds, their argument ending with the exclamation point of Moth throwing the smaller man back into his recliner.

  The ex-soldier stepped closer, pointing. “Sit your ass down. We’re too close to fuck it up now.”

  Genna crossed the room to stand again at the opening, inches from free fall. One stress crack or shift in balance would send her fifty stories down. Nothing about her demeanor suggested she cared one way or the other if that happened. Maya finished the candy bar and lay back on her side, watching the dancing, serpent shadows of the woman’s hair lofting in the breeze. Castoff light from the distant city glowed along her front while her back remained in silhouette.

  “Genna? What are you looking for?” Maya asked.

  The woman ignored the question, but a glistening tear formed at the corner of her eye.

  Headcrash almost fainted when the terminal emitted the loud bell-ringing noise of an ancient telephone.

  Icarus twitched, gazing into the back hallway as if looking at something… hungry. He pointed at nothingness and whispered, “They’re watching me,” in a continuous repeating stream.

  Vanessa Oman’s face appeared on the holographic monitor. Her skin gleamed; dark chocolate turned to milk where her angular cheekbones caught strong overhead lights. She sat at the head end of an onyx conference table. Maya remembered walking back and forth along that same table, modeling outfits for marketing people to decide on.

  “So, you’re the Frags that keep bothering me.” Vanessa held up an arm. Maya walked into the frame, and her mother’s embrace. “You don’t even look competent enough to be Brigade.”

  “We ain’t fuckin’ Brigade,” Moth barked.

  “Or Frags,” whispered Headcrash to one of his rats. “Frags are wild.”

  “Who are they, Mother?” the child on the screen asked. “Who’s that girl that looks like me?”

  “No one important.” Vanessa erupted in haughty laughter. “A bunch of simpletons looking to find money where there isn’t any to be had.”

  The call dropped.

  eadcrash stared aghast at dead air. Genna looked equally capable of killing someone or bursting into tears. Moth showed little reaction. Icarus continued pointed at nothing, whimpering and asking empty air not to take over the Earth.

  “Now what?” Headcrash tapped one finger on the glass-top desk.

  “It’s a trick,” Genna said, her voice icy. “It’s got to be a trick. Holographic kid, a fake.”

  “I checked it again.” Headcrash launched into a muttering explanation about the technical details of discerning digital manipulation.

  Moth swatted him across the back of the head and pulled a knife. “We need to convince that bitch we’re serious.”

  “Oh, man.” Headcrash cringed and gave Maya an apologetic look.

  “What?” Moth shrugged, blade glinting. “Citizen hospitals can reattach fingers.”

  “Wait.” Genna held up a hand. “That might bite us in the ass. Try something less bloody first.”

  Moth scowled. “You are going soft on us.”

  Genna stared at him without blinking, adding a slight aggressive lean forward.

  Eight seconds later, the behemoth stomped over to the desk and slammed the knife down.

  “Fine.” Moth grabbed a rat that had crawled onto a small device, and hurled the furry creature out the missing wall.

  Headcrash leapt from his chair, shaking and screaming, “What did you do that for? Why did you kill him!?” Tears rolled down his face.

  Moth shoved the smaller man back into his seat. “It’s a damn rat, chiflado. If you don’t wanna join it, shut your hole.”

  Leaving the hacker to weep over a rodent, Moth swiped the holo-recorder, jammed it into Genna’s chest, and stomped over to the bed after she clutched it. Maya kept eye contact as he approached, until he grabbed a fistful of her hair and pressed his gun into the side of her head.

  “Beg your mother to save you,” he said in a near growl.

  “I usually have makeup on for filming.”

  Genna seemed unsettled by the blasé expression on Maya’s face, but started the recorder.

  Maya raised her hands in surrender as Moth lifted her butt an inch off the mattress by her hair.

  “Mother, please help,” she droned. “I’ve been kidnapped, and they are going to kill me if you don’t pay them. I am very scared. Please save me.”

  Everyone stood speechless for a moment.

  “Yo, this kid’s got some damage.” Icarus broke into a fit of nervous tittering, pointing at Maya.

  “Do it again.” Moth shoved the child sideways into the mattress with the tip of the pistol. “Cry this time, or I’ll cut off something you’ll miss.”

  Maya sat up, fixing her hair. “You’re wasting your time. I tried to tell you before, that woman will never pay a ransom. Crying and pleading won’t work. All that’ll do is make her happy she’s causing me to suffer. I have to act like she’s unimportant. The only way to get a reaction out of her is to make her feel insignificant. That makes her angry.”

  “Bullshit,” said Genna. “S-she’s your mother. She can’t value money more than her own child.”

  “Citizen, remember? You said we’re not real people.” Maya offered a blank stare during a long silence. “I’m not supposed to say this, but you seem like you’ve got a legitimate gripe. I’m not Maya Oman. I’m an android made to look like her.”

  “Nice try, kid,” Moth muttered. “We know all about the decoys. Head found you.”

  Maya shrugged. “Didn’t you think it was strange how little protection they had around my penthouse? You’re amateurs, barely holding together. Far from a professional military squad.” She pointed at Genna. “You’re angry and suicidal. You deserve some revenge, but you want it so badly you’ll take stupid chances.” She pointed at Moth. “He’s a head case, probably kicked out of the military for stress disorder, and that guy in the chair is drugged out of his mind. Your electronics guy’s afraid of his own shadow and isn’t even using modern gear. You think you could have just walked in and abducted the daughter of Ascendant Pharmaceuticals? Vanessa Oman has seventeen homes, only nine of which are unclassified, and all have fake Mayas.”

  Headcrash sputtered, looking back and forth between her and the terminal. “I’m sure. I spent days hunting for the kid. Everything I found pointed to that location being genuin
e. I’m sure… and I’m never sure about anything. They made the security light to look like a red herring on purpose, thinking we’d skip it.”

  “Not sure enough,” Moth grumbled.

  Icarus seemed to shake off the craving and wobbled to his feet. He staggered over, swimming around Moth’s huge arm, and grabbed Maya by her head, thumbing her eyes wide before forcing her mouth open and examining her teeth.

  “Looks real.” He glanced over his shoulder. “Yo, Head, you gotta PMRI over there?”

  “In this shithole?” Headcrash held three rats, petting them as if to comfort the oblivious creatures for their loss. “We’re lucky I got the splice up and running.”

  Moth clutched her hair and yanked it aside to expose the back of her neck. Maya kept a disinterested expression. “No interface jack. She’s lying.” He gestured at Genna. Once she started the holo-recorder running again, he jammed the pistol in the top of Maya’s head. “Look here, Miss Oman. We have your brat and we don’t care about emboldening shit. Fuck politics. Fuck the Xenodril. We want money. Forty million or we’ll start sending back pieces of your little drug princess.” He shoved her face first in the mattress and pointed at Genna. “Send that.”

  Maya didn’t move for a few minutes, waiting for Moth to walk away before pushing herself upright. Icarus paced in an expanding figure eight. Every so often, he’d flinch from an unseen shadow moving in his mind. Moth resumed guarding the hallway out, anticipating the doser would attempt a sprint for the door again.

  An electronic whirring noise passed by the gap.

  Headcrash dove for cover under the desk. “Drones! They’ve found us.”

  “Calm your shit.” Genna walked up to the edge of the hole. “It’s a bioassay unit, probably testing the air for Fade.”

  “Need Vesper,” Icarus wheezed. “Come on, Moth. You can come with me. I only need to see Missy Hong. She’s at the treatment plant; it’ll take ten minutes.”

  Moth flung him across the room. “Sit down, shut up.”

  The drone came back around the other way. This one had two fans at the end of a thin wing-like strut, and a long, trailing tailfin. Maya thought it resembled a paralyzed dragonfly.

  Headcrash whined. When the noise passed, he leapt up, pointing at Genna. “You’re Brigade, aren’t you?”

  She looked away and gazed over the city for a quiet few seconds. “What the fuck are you talking about? Where do you come up with this shit?”

  Head’s entire body shuddered as he shook his finger at her. “The Xenodril. You wanted the drugs for the Brigade to distribute to the people. No wonder Alfonse said be careful!”

  She scowled. “You’re paranoid.”

  Moth glanced at her. “You don’t sound very convincing, Genna. For once, the chiflado makes a little sense.” He leaned in her direction. “Why else would you want all that Xeno?”

  Genna looked at him, eyes vibrating with rage. “Relax, Moth. This ain’t Songnim. No one’s gonna blindside you here. Trust me.”

  “Need… dose.” Icarus ran at the door. “I can’t… they’re biting at me!”

  Moth palmed the Chinese man’s chest, lifting him with little effort and tossing him into the recliner, which collapsed over backward in an explosion of dust and foam bits.

  The terminal chirped. Headcrash swiped at the keyboard. Letters faded in on the holographic panel: “Ransom request denied.”

  “Fuck!” roared Moth. “Dammit!” He seized a broken coffee table with one hand and hurled it out the hole, roaring incoherently.

  Seconds later, distant children’s screams of fright preceded a hollow, echoing crack. The innocent voices burst into a cavalcade of obscenities at whoever threw what almost hit them.

  Moth tore his hand cannon out from under his arm and pointed it at Maya. For a second, the metal around her ankle seemed to constrict. She raised her chin and stared defiantly at him.

  “Fuck it, this is over.” Moth growled. “Getting rid of this bitch now, and we go our separate ways like none of this happened.”

  “No!” Genna leapt to her feet; a cloud of dust swirled out of the couch behind her.

  “Shut it, bitch!” Moth rounded on her. “You fucked us all askin’ for Xenodril. That went and made ‘em think it’s political. This is still my operation, and I say it’s pooched.”

  “Since when is it your op?” Headcrash started loud, but ended on a whimper.

  Maya stared down the barrel when he aimed back at her. “You shouldn’t do that.”

  “Sorry, kid. I left my conscience in the streets of North Korea.”

  “Go ahead, shoot me,” she said in a near whisper. “But you should know that I am equipped with a one kiloton nuclear warhead that will go off if this body sustains injuries sufficient to cause the death of a human being.”

  Moth twitched; sweat exuded from his head like a gentle squeeze on a wet sponge. Headcrash gathered as many rats as he could grab in a hug, as if that would help. Icarus stared at the giant, sizing him up for an attempt to get past. Yellow cybernetic eyes whirred wider.

  “Remember the rad orphans?” Maya asked in an eerie, calm tone. “The little androids begging for help in the warzone? No one could tell them apart from real children. Soldiers would take them in because they felt sorry for them. Once they detected sufficient people around them, they’d detonate. If you saw their eyes glow, it was too late to escape.”

  Moth’s arm shook.

  “I see you remember them. I wonder how many innocents were shot, mistaken for walking bombs? Is that why you’re able to kill me? Did you mistake a real child for a walking bomb? I have the same explosive in me, but I can’t set it off on purpose. It will only go off if I”―she made air quotes―“die.” Maya looked at Genna. “There are a lot of squatters in this building. Many real children. They sound happy here, even in squalor. I think they are happier than Maya. They’re not Citizens like she is, and they get to stay up past bedtime. Do you want them to die too? I can hear them outside. They have no clue they’re about to die to a nuclear bomb.”

  Genna leapt on Moth’s arm and pulled his gun away from Maya. “Don’t.”

  “Bullshit.” Headcrash stopped smooching the heads of rats. “She’s not an android; she ate a candy bar!”

  Maya flicked her gaze to Headcrash, her movements precise, mechanical. “What good a decoy would I be if I couldn’t act like a real girl? I can eat. I can go to the bathroom. I can cry. I can make noises like I’m hurt. Nanobots break down any food I consume, reassembling it on a molecular level to use for internal repairs. Whatever I don’t need comes out in the form of fake waste.” She looked at Icarus. “That’s why I don’t have any dolls in my room. I am one.”

  Genna pushed at Moth until he walked away from the bed. “Put the gun away. We have to think of something else. These people”―she waved at the ceiling and floor―“don’t deserve to die.”

  Moth glared at Maya, who didn’t flinch.

  “I-it does explain how she’s s-so calm.” Headcrash shivered.

  Icarus fixed his chair upright. “We can sell it to this guy I know in the Spread. He buys old androids. High-tech model like her would sell big. What kind of power core you usin’?”

  Maya stared at the red glow on her ankle from the electronic handcuff’s screen. “Anders-Owen Model Six. Fifty thousand year plutonium-based fusion cell. Estimated useful life remaining: forty-nine thousand, nine hundred ninety-one years.”

  “That’s gotta be at least a half mil,” Icarus said. “My guy will pay NuCoin for that. Physical money. Untraceable.”

  “So, who is it?” Headcrash twitched. “Which one of you is the Authority spy?”

  “Probably you, motherfucker.” Genna growled. “You’re the only one to even suggest it. Tryin’ to get it out there before anyone wonders if it’s you.”

  “Maybe you’re fuckin’ Brigade.” Icarus pointed at Genna. “You ain’t military, or you’d be half toaster like Moth.”

  Genna squinted at Icarus. “I learned
how to duck.”

  The big man snarled.

  Maya ignored the building argument and name calling. Angry shouts and physical confrontations blurred into the background of her attention as she leaned forward. A little finger with silver-flecked raspberry nail polish poked at the rubber buttons on the cuff around her ankle.

  00001

  00002

  hile the argument raged on, Maya kept keying one number after the next as fast as she could work the tiny rubber buttons.

  “Enough!” Genna shouted. “We all need to calm the fuck down before we kill each other. The mission ain’t over; we just have to figure out something the bitch wants.”

  “She ain’t gonna ransom a damn decoy robot.” Headcrash whimpered as he flopped in his chair. “We’re well and truly fucked.”

  Beeping became noticeable over a short silence.

  00144

  “What the hell are you doing?” Genna walked over to the bed and grabbed Maya’s wrist.

  “Escaping while you argue. This is a five-digit code. One hundred thousand permutations. Factoring that you are not complete idiots, I’ve eliminated combinations where all five digits are the same or using patterns of ascending or descending sequential numbers. That leaves 99,970 possibilities. At the rate of attempting one combination per second, I will be free in at most 1,666 minutes or twenty-seven point six five hours. If everyone is going to sit around with no idea what to do, I’m leaving before someone gets stupid and murders a thousand people.”

  Genna stared, jaw open.

  “Ballsy,” Moth said.

  Icarus scoffed. “It’s a damn robot.”

  “Sit tight. Even if we can’t ransom you, you’re worth NuCoin to a ‘bot dealer.” Genna turned to leave, but stopped at a small hand on her arm.

  Maya tugged until Genna sat next to her.

  “I’m sorry you lost your son. It is wrong that you had a child you cared for and Fade took him, while Vanessa has Maya and does not even like her.”

  Genna’s eyes bulged. She sucked in a breath as an old emotional scar seemed to peel loose. “They did a fine job on you, whatever you are. I’ve seen humans with less convincing empathy. Ain’t that always the way.” She chuckled, wiping her tears. “Only machines seem to care. Guess it’s hard to program greed.” The woman sat there in silence for a while, gazing out the hole over the broken civilization. “He was only a little older than you when he died. I watched the Fade take him, and I couldn’t do a damn thing.” She turned away, one hand to her cheek, shuddering as rage weakened to sadness. “His fingers turned grey within hours. Day by day, it crept, sucking the life out of him. At night when it’s quiet, sometimes I think I still hear his hollow moaning.”