FAI

by Jake Lingwall

  Kari stuck her arms out and they strapped a pair of restrainers on her wrists. Fai did the same, even though she would easily be able to break through them.

  “No . . .no . . .” David whined over their call. She knew it was a risky, but she had to say something.

  “David, get out of here. You can’t help here. You can elsewhere.”

  “Who are you talking to?” the man demanded, but she didn’t answer him.

  Instead he just reached behind her ear and ripped the processing unit free from her head. He tossed it aside as they jogged up the steps back toward the lobby.

  “We have the abomination and Freelancer,” the man said out loud. He paused for a minute and then continued his side of the conversation. “Yes, they were here. No, I don’t know why. Wolfkin? That’s fine. We have the real prize.”

  As soon as they reached the lobby, the League of Humanity soldiers fired their weapons over their heads once again, subduing the crowd.

  “Get out! Everyone get out!” the man directing her shouted and everyone was more than happy to comply. People ran for the exits, packing together tightly to avoid getting too close to any of the gunmen.

  The people directing them didn’t slow down as they reached the south exit. Kari was able to catch a glimpse of some manual military hummers before they covered her head.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  She resisted every step, trying her hardest to slow the League of Humanity soldiers down. There are countless drones in this city. They’ll never be able to drive out of here unnoticed. The thought didn’t reassure her in the slightest. She dreaded being loaded in the back of a hummer.

  The dull drum of propellers filled the air above them and her captors yanked her forward.

  “What the—” the soldier dragging her arm shouted, but he was cut off as a loud pop happened in front of her. The unexpected sound made her jump. But then she realized no one was holding her arm anymore.

  “The League of Humanity soldiers appear to have been neutralized,” Fai said. Kari heard Fai break her shackles and a moment later, the bag over her head was removed.

  She blinked. It was bright outside and fallen League of Humanity soldiers stained the ground surrounding them. She blinked again and looked to the air where she saw several military heli-carriers. She watched as soldiers repelled from forty feet above her to the ground in their full electronic armor.

  “Should we continue to run?” Fai asked. Too late for that Fai.

  “Don’t move!” a female soldier shouted as more of her companions landed around them.

  “I said, don’t move!” the soldier shouted again, but this time Kari knew it was directed at Fai. “We will shoot to kill.”

  “Fai, it’s OK,” Kari shouted over the sound of the hovering aircraft.

  Two soldiers wearing full electronic armor picked Kari up and attached her to harness, which immediately pulled her into the air. As they hoisted her into the air Kari looked out over the chaotic scene below her. People were streaming out of the station in a panic, and the drones that had flowed like a river before had been evacuated from the airspace. Kari searched the rooftop for David. She couldn’t find any signs for him by the time a soldier pulled her inside the heli-carrier.

  Without a word, Kari was unhitched and pushed out of the way so the soldier could unload Fai. Her robotic friend was restrained now with arm and leg cuffs that looked fully capable of controlling Fai’s powerful body.

  “Can I ask what is going on?” Kari asked, but the soldier just pushed them forward toward a sliding door at the back of the heli-carrier. The door opened to reveal a small rectangular room that was well insolated from the noise of the turbines powering the aircraft.

  Sitting across from the entrance to the room, wearing a grin, was Marshal Henderson.

  I suspected that.

  “Hello, Kari,” SeptemberMist said.

  But I did not see that coming!

  Kari’s one-time friend sat a few feet away from Henderson wearing a formal business skirt and top. She looked a smidge less happy to see Kari than Henderson.

  “Thank you, captain,” Henderson said. “You can leave us.”

  “Yes, sir,” the soldiers responded as she ducked down the carrier’s hall.

  “You can’t imagine how happy I am to see you again,” Henderson said. “And of course that you are alive and in one piece.”

  Kari tried to convince herself that she was happy she was still alive, but it was quite the task.

  “And I’m pleased that you have apparently found someone who would rather spend time with you than break federal laws,” Kari said.

  “Tara has proven to be quite the asset,” Henderson said. “Truthfully, you owe her a great deal of thanks that you are still alive and not in the back of an extremists’ truck.”

  “Oh, did she fire kill them?”

  “I was the first to track the League of Humanity a few months ago,” SeptemberMist said. “At the time, it was purely out of personal interest, but it turned out to be fortuitous.”

  Kari kept herself from responding. She didn’t realize that she still held such strong feelings for SeptemberMist until now and she didn’t think it would be smart to antagonize her. She betrayed me, and she helped Joseth murder all those people. She would have been sitting next to him on top of the ashes of the country right now if she had her way.

  “Did you enjoy the submagnetic shell with programmable projectiles?” Henderson asked. “I confess I did not play a direct role in creating that particular piece of hardware, but I am a big fan. It allowed us to neutralize all the terrorists with a single bullet.”

  “Impressive technology,” Kari said. “Killing people is more your thing than mine, but it was impressive.”

  “Oh, you can program it to hit your targets quite precisely. But given the situation, there was less overhead associated with direct hits.”

  So you didn’t have to kill them, but that was easier for you. Maybe one of these days you’ll surprise me Marshal. Not today, though.

  “You tracked them months ago and you didn’t do anything about them?” Kari asked. “You could have prevented all this.”

  “Good thing I didn’t!” Henderson laughed. “It turns out that these backward men were instrumental in reuniting us. You see, when we first found them, they hadn’t actually broken any laws. When the research lab attacks happened, we knew it wasn’t them as we had been following them for a while. I admit, I was worried when they left to track Miss Wolfkin, though, I wasn’t sure how that was going to play out, but here we are.”

  “Here we are.”

  “Would you like to introduce us to your new friend?” Henderson asked.

  “This is Fai,” Kari said. “I trust you know who she is already.”

  “And I already know who you are Marshal Henderson,” Fai said. “I have heard many things about you.”

  “Aren’t you delightful!” he said. The way he spoke to her made Kari think that he thought Fai was some sort of novelty for amusement.

  “And I am only vaguely familiar with SeptemberMist,” Fai said. “Mostly from my own research into Kari’s past.”

  “She doesn’t speak of me?” SeptemberMist said. Her voice was sarcastic and bitter. Henderson found it hilarious.

  “I usually refer to you by other words,” Kari said. She smiled pointedly back at her former friend. And so does Motorcad.

  The heli-carrier started moving, which Kari wasn’t sure was a good thing or a bad thing.

  “You know, we’ve never had the chance to fully discuss the way you broke our agreement.”

  “I’m not sure it counts as an agreement when you are holding someone’s parents hostage.”

  “The way you absolve yourself of responsibility is inspiring. You’d do wonderful in my line of work.”

  Kari wasn’t sure whether he was joking. It was hard to tell with the way he hadn’t stopped grinning. She had never seen him act like this before. I guess he’s been chasing me for yea
rs. I’d be happy, too, if I were a sad little man obsessed with tracking down innocent girls.

  “I’ll leave the lying to the masses and abusing power to you,” Kari said. “I’d prefer to just be left alone.”

  “Well, that’s perfect. I assume you have my graphium-hard proof that Christina Wolfkin set up the attack on the lab?” Henderson asked presumptuously.

  Kari looked to Fai.

  “We do not have that information yet,” Fai said with a notable amount of regret in her voice.

  “Oh, can you imagine that Tara?” Henderson said. “They didn’t come through with their promise.”

  “I’m shocked,” SeptemberMist said.

  Henderson laughed again and Kari hated him for it. SeptemberMist seemed pleased, but she wasn’t as overjoyed about the situation as her boss. She tried her best to act like she was, but Kari knew her well enough to know she was forcing things. Just like when she pretended to care about me as a person.

  “So what happens now?” Kari asked.

  “That is the question of the hour, isn’t it?” Henderson said. “I could return Fai to her owners and announce that I have arrested you. That seems like the most obvious course of action. Or I could turn you both over to Vision. They have proven to be very motivated to find you, outperforming even my own efforts in that regard. I can only imagine how powerful of a partner they would be on the path to getting me elected to a true position of power.”

  Don’t make me wish I had helped Joseth take over.

  “Maybe I’ll just have you and Fai work for me, while I wait for the right time and incentive to publically catch you.”

  “So what’s it going to be?” Kari asked. “The suspense is killing me.”

  “I’m not sure yet, to be honest with you. So many good options. You’ve been so difficult to track down over the years that I had nearly given up hope on finding you. And now that we are together again, I think I may take some time to think on it.”

  “Oh, I wouldn’t want you to make the wrong decision.”

  “Of course you wouldn’t,” Henderson sneered. “But don’t worry you won’t be within a mile of any compatible processing unit while I deliberate. And explosive drones will monitor your artificial friend at all times. One wrong move and she will be gone.”

  “Sounds like we’re stuck.”

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Well, it’s certainly nicer than the last Henderson prison. A little more color, nicer restrooms, and the guards don’t seem as inclined to hit people in the head.

  The entertainment is still a little lacking. There was a place on the wall in her room that still had connections for an old television. She wasn’t sure if it had been removed before she arrived, or if it had been missing from the room for years. Either way, she longed for it to be there. Even though it was such a crude and unimmersive way to be entertained, there was a certain amount nostalgia about it that reminded her of watching a movie in the back of the Pratts’ manual truck.

  Before I got it eaten by killer nanobots.

  There were a few other signs of removed amenities in the room, such as doors ripped off cabinets, and no bed sheets, but the hastily converted room was serviceable as a prison cell. Henderson had been careful not to reveal too much information, but she knew they were at an air force base. The symbols were plentiful, the drones abundant, and the sound of unmanned military jets taking off were frequent.

  The air was thin, which told her they were still at a high elevation and the glimpses of soldiers she saw showed obvious signs of resentment. That told her they were at an air force base that had not been on Henderson’s side during the Civil War. Unless they are just really good about knowing when a person is a dirtbag. Odds are, they were fighting against him just a few years ago, and those wounds don’t heal quickly.

  They’ll probably forgive him before I do. Even if he technically saved my life two days ago, it doesn’t change anything. He could have stopped those madmen long before they had the chance to shoot up a hyperloop station.

  Kari lay down on the old, thin mattress and tried not to let any of her skin touch it. From a quick examination, she wasn’t sure if it was older than her parents or not. They had arrived at the air force base late last night and Kari had spent the entire day in solitary confinement in her room.

  She kept trying to check the Internet only to realize that, once again, she was without a functioning mind chip. She wanted to know what was being reported about the League of Humanity attack and if anyone had been killed. She also desperately wanted to know if David had made it out of the Bay Area without being captured by Vision. If he got himself captured or killed, I’ll kill him.

  Kari heard a small crackling noise coming from the barred window above her bed. She ignored it at first, but as the noise grew, she slowly rose from her bed and stood on top of her mattress to look out past the steel bars. The window was so stained and dirty that it was impossible to see more than a blur of the outside world.

  That’s a crack. The steel bars had gaps in them only wide enough to sneak a hand through, but Kari stared through as the crack slowly grew. Within a couple of minutes, it had spread around in a circle shape. She checked the door behind her to make sure no one had noticed she was standing on her bed staring out the window at night.

  She quietly jumped off the bed and walked over to the bathroom in the corner in the room. She sat on the toilet and tapped her feet on the ground over and over. How long is this going to take? She was convinced she was going to go crazy or that the armed guards standing just outside of her room would come in before the hole being cut into the window was finished.

  Finally, she heard a clink. She calmingly walked over to the window where a circular hole in the glass had fallen forward against the steel bars. She slid it out of the way to find that a small drone just outside the window was carrying a strange-looking device with a note attached. Kari carefully reached through the glass and pulled the device inside.

  “BLOCK THE DOOR WITH THIS. STAY IN THE CENTER OF YOUR ROOM UNTIL WE COME FOR YOU. —DP”

  Kari turned the device over in her hands a few times as she quickly walked to the door. If anyone was watching on the camera feeds to her room, they would know something was happening. But she didn’t want to run, in case they hadn’t noticed. She made it to the door and held it against the center of the wall. The device activated and, like a spider with elastic legs, it spread across the door. When its legs reached the wall, they dug into the stone and wood, bracing the device against the door.

  That should keep anyone out for a few minutes. But why would I want to secure the door if they were going to be coming for me?

  The siren started bellowing for a moment before she heard heavy thuds against her outside wall surrounding the window. Kari backed away into the center of the room as the guards outside started pounding on the door, demanding that she let them in. Sorry boys, no can do. She turned around to look at the outside wall. More heavy thuds came from the back wall. It sounded almost like someone was hitting it with a battering ram from the outside, trying to knock it down.

  That would explain why they would want me to stand in the middle of the room . . .

  The siren stopped for a second before it started screaming its high-pitched wail into the night air again. She heard energy blasts outside her room and she looked back to see the door shattering beneath the attack. The device they had used to brace the door stood strong, but as the door fell away behind it, she realized it wouldn’t be long until they could just shoot her directly.

  Better hurry with that battering ram, David . . .

  Bright flashes of light shone through the hole in the barred window and sounds of small explosions poured into the room. Kari winced.

  “Don’t move! Hands up!” The guards from outside the room had managed to obliterate enough of the door that they could see through the opening.

  “Which one?” Kari said, slowly turning around. “I can’t stay still and put my hands up. Those ar
e contradictory commands.”

  The two guards outside of her room had turned into three. One of them kept his gun focused on her while the others destroyed the device she had used to barricade the door. Great plan, David . . .

  With the door now free, the three heavily armed guards poured into the room, searching around for any intruders before circling around Kari. She held her hands up motionless in the air while the sirens continued to blare in the background. Occasional sounds of gunfire came in from outside, but there were no more thuds or explosions.

  “Tell us what is happening,” yelled a guard who didn’t look to be much older than Kari.

  “Beats me,” Kari said. “I had nothing to do with this.”

  “Knock her out,” the guard ordered his companion behind her.

  “Woo! No, thank you!” Kari dove toward the feet of the guard with surprisingly fresh breath that had shouted in her face a moment ago. “I’ve had enough of that already. Can’t I just go with you instead?”

  The young guard kicked to free himself of Kari’s grip and backed away.

  “Orders. Do it now,” the guard said.

  Kari closed her eyes and braced herself for another forced nap, but it never came. She heard some thuds and the start of several shouts, but no one managed to get out coherent words. The head guard collapsed on top of her, smashing her against the floor for a moment before his body was lifted off her.

  “We should probably evacuate the area,” Fai said. “I detect that there are numerous more soldiers heading our way.”

  “Fai!” Kari said. “What is going on? I thought you were in lockdown.”

  Fai pulled Kari off the ground and picked her up. They were out of the room and around the corner before Fai even had time to respond. The sudden movement was a bit jarring, but given the alternatives, Kari was happy to be tossed around a little.

  “The drones watching me flew away and the locks on the door opened. There appears to be some sort of chaos or break-in happening outside. That is all I know.”