A few seconds later, everything rained back down into the street, sending gravel skittering around me. I heard a loud crash ahead as the car crunched down onto the blacktop, and the chat picked back up.
Sorry, I sent. Interference. The way ahead looks clear, I’m going to—
The ground underneath me crumbled away, and I fell, dropping the flashlight. I flailed in midair, and then came down hard on my back with a wet splash. The flashlight landed next to me, the beam pointing down a tunnel, ahead.
what’s wrong? she asked. I stood, dripping cold, gray sludge, and picked up the light. I aimed the beam up above me and saw the hole, too high to reach.
Nothing.
I pointed the light back down the tunnel and saw it actually opened up into another collapsed section of road ahead. I started towards it, as heavy chunks of asphalt thudded and splashed down behind me.
According to the marker, the tunnel came out close to the landing pad.
You know, you’re pretty brave, I told her.
i just dont want 2 die
Well, you’re holding it together better than most would, and you’re not going to die.
promise?
I—
A dark patch appeared in the flashlight beam ahead, a gap in the side of the tunnel to my right.
Hang on, I told her.
I approached the rupture in the tunnel wall, and aimed the light through. A cavern had formed on the other side of the hole, a dome of packed earth and concrete over a black pit.
Tracing it with the light, I saw that the edge formed a circle too perfect to be natural. When I peered over the side and shone the beam down the well dropped down into darkness, with no visible bottom. Some kind of bristles, or spines stuck out along the interior of the well, whose walls displayed a honeycomb pattern.
That’s some kind of haan structure, I thought. What was it doing out here in the middle of the impact zone?
what happened? She asked.
Nothing. I backed away from the hole. Whatever made it, there wasn’t time to worry about it now. I’m on my way.
I slipped back through the crack and continued down the old sewer tunnel until I reached the point where the street had collapsed completely and I could see a rusted vehicle jutting out over the edge of a rocky slope. I scaled it, and climbed up onto the blacktop where a gap in the ruined structures looked out into a clearing. A red light flashed there from somewhere out of view, casting shadows across the wall.
Ok, I see the way in. Stand by.
I slipped through the gap and sidestepped my way between the two walls until I reached the other side, then stopped to look through. The landing pad looked like it might have once been a factory parking lot. The chain-link fence surrounding most of it had been torn down by falling debris, and the area now sat in a deep pocket of compacted rubble. One building face still stood intact—at least the first two floors did. An electric red light glowed next to a rusted metal door there, flashing. Three airbikes sat in a row on the cracked blacktop near it, but I didn’t see any guards.
I drew my weapon and stepped out into the open, moving quickly to the door. I tried the handle, but it didn’t budge.
They knew I was there, so there wouldn’t be much time. I holstered my gun and unclipped the toolkit from my belt. With the pry, I cracked open the lock’s casing and then began sorting through the electronics inside.
dragan?
Yeah?
someone’s coming
I tried to pull up the schematic on the brain band but like everything in the ruins the lock was fifty years old and I couldn’t find anything. The same company made newer models, but that probably wouldn’t help me. It looked like I might have to force the door, which would ruin any element of surprise I might still have going for me.
Who?
2 guys
What are they doing?
She didn’t answer. A second later, her connection dropped.
Xiao-Xing? Her connection flapped, then came back. I tried to bypass the lock using the universal shunt, but it threw sparks, and smoke curled from the housing. Hey, you there?
Another burst of sparks popped out of the lock casing, and before I could even remove the shunt the door opened and a man dressed in a long-sleeved shirt and a heavy rubber apron stepped through. He had a bandana tied over his mouth and nose.
The guy knew I was there. The second he stepped out onto the landing pad he swung the knife and struck me hard in the side with it. The body armor blocked it, but the tip slipped through the seam and between my ribs maybe an inch before it stopped. I cried out and dropped the kit, scattering tools across the blacktop in front of me.
The guy pushed his palm down on the blade’s handle but it had stuck. I twisted away as he jerked it loose, and I drew my pistol.
He’d started his swing, the blade headed straight for my face, when I fired the shot and he stopped and then staggered back. The knife fell to the ground as he clutched his throat, blood gushing between his fingers. I shot him in the chest, and he fell to his knees before pitching forward into the dust.
A burning stitch dug into my side, jabbing in deeper with each breath I took. I couldn’t tell how bad the wound was, but blood leaked from the seam in my armor and drops were flicked away in the wind at a regular pace. I had to move fast, while I still could.
The metal door still hung open and I stepped through into the corridor on the other side, pulling my mask off and hanging it around my neck. I took one step, when I felt a faint pressure against my shin and froze as something clicked to my right.
A gust of wind whipped the door open and threw it against the outside wall so hard that rubble shook loose and trickled down from above me. Stone chips sprinkled down onto the floor at my feet where a tripwire caught a glint of light. It had been pulled taut by my step, but not quite triggered. I let out my breath, and eased my leg back. Turning to my right, I found myself looking down the barrel of a shotgun that had been rigged to go off.
I ducked underneath it and stepped over the tripwire. The corridor’s tiled floor was covered in some kind of black grime, and the walls looked like they’d buckled from the weight of the collapse. Cracks ran down through the drywall, and the ceiling bowed down low enough that I had to duck under the spot ahead just to get through. Electric carpenter lights dangled from hooks, their cables trailing down the length of the hall, and I followed them. As I crept down the corridor, the 2i connection came back up.
Xiao-Xing?
can’t
Stay with me. Do you remember which way they took you?
don’t know
I know you’re scared but I need you to focus. When they brought you in, do you remember which way they took you?
couldn’t see
I followed the trail of lights down the hall until I came to a junction. More lights had been hung there, heading away in either direction.
Do you remember anything? Sounds? Smells?
She paused.
r takng wmn 2
She was losing it. I stopped at the junction and listened. I could make out the distant hiss of steam, but with the echo it was hard to tell which direction it came from. I sniffed the air, and caught a faint whiff of cooking meat.
Scream, I sent.
?
Scream once, as loud as you can.
I listened and heard the shriek. It sounded far off, but it came from my left for sure.
I turned and started down the corridor, passing what might have been office doors on either side as I went. Most were jammed shut when the structure shifted, and some had fallen away completely to reveal compacted rubble on the other side. As I ran, the sounds of machinery and the occasional hiss of steam grew louder. The meat smell became so strong that, in spite of myself, I had to swallow saliva.
Up ahead, the hall opened into a large open space where big, inert machines stood in rows. I could see lengths of cable still on tracks where the machines had woven layers of wire around them, armored transatlantic fiber optics. The machine grease had been covered over the years in a thick layer of dust and ash.
A shadow moved ahead, and I stopped at the doorway with my back to the wall.
“So, what are you going to do with them?” a man asked. Someone, a child, sniffled and sobbed.
“Does it matter?” a woman responded. When she did, a faint light flashed against the far wall and I saw the shadows of at least two small children.
I ducked into the room and hunkered down behind one of the cable spooling machines, using the rumble of machinery to cover the sound. When no one reacted, I peered around the side.
A man stood there, dressed in a black rubber apron that covered his blood stained shirt. He had a machete in one hand, the blade propped back over one shoulder. In front of him, three scrawny, naked children, two boys and one girl, stood next to a haan.
For a second I thought I had to be seeing things, but there was no mistaking a haan for a human. Even in the low light I could make out the pair of big, glowing eyes, and it wasn’t just a haan but a haan female, something I’d never seen in person before. Unlike the males she wore only a sort of cloak that hung down over her back, with nothing underneath. Her eyes, smoldering red surrounded by a corona of gas-flame blue, lit the inside of her skull where the shadows of the two brains were visible. She stood as tall as the males I’d seen, but had a lither, more elegant body. Her heart pulsed between a pair of translucent breasts, and inside each of them I could see a network of veins and nodules. Her figure looked on the surface to be more delicate than even a male haan’s, but something about the way she held herself made me suspect that might not be true. She had no fear of the man in front of her, and seemed completely at ease as she held the little girl’s hand in hers.
“You going to eat them?” the man in the apron asked.
“Of course not,” she said, her voice box flashing in the dim light.
“Then why are they so valuable?”
“Why do you care?”
The guy in the apron got mad, then, his brow lowering.
“Because I want to know. So tell me, or the deal is off, maggot.”
“It is too late to cancel the transaction.”
The man moved closer, and pointed at her with the tip of the machete. She didn’t even tense.
“Maybe I’ll keep them, the ration tickets, the money, and use you in the next batch. How’s that sound?”
I took aim with the pistol, drawing a bead on the man’s head.
“They will be taken to child services,” she said, her voice calm. “If they have families, they will be reunited with them. They know only that they were abducted but have no idea where they are or how they got here. Nothing will be traced back to you.”
I kept my aim on the man, ready to shoot, but he lowered the machete a little and laughed.
“That’s it? You’re spending all that just so you can send them back home to starve?”
When the haan didn’t answer, the man shook his head.
“I’ll never get you guys. Not if I live to be a hundred.”
“I don’t doubt it. Are we free to go?”
“Sure, go. Have fun starving on the street, you little shits.”
The haan removed a device from inside the drapes of her suit jacket and pressed a button on it with her thumb. A point of white light appeared in the air behind her, which grew brighter until the group cast long shadows across the factory floor. Then it expanded, forming a perfect hexagon that filled the air. Through the gate, I could see dim light and concrete walls, but I couldn’t make out where it led to.
“It’s okay,” the haan told the children. “Go through. I will follow.”
They looked a little leery but weren’t about to stay in the factory. One by one they passed behind a row of machinery, then appeared on the other side and stepped through. The haan followed them, stopping out of sight behind one of the machines.
I risked leaning out a little further to try and see in. A sign was posted on a tiled wall behind the group of kids that I could just make out the tail end of.
UYUÁN STATION
A metro station somewhere. I couldn’t quite make out the name.
The man stepped toward her, out of view so that I couldn’t see either of them. I crouched low and moved around toward the other side of my cover to try and target him again.
“Where does that lead?” he asked.
“That’s not your concern.”
“It is if I say it is.”
“Lower your blade,” she said, her voice even, “and step away from me.”
“Or what?”
I heard a thud and thought he’d struck her, something which would shatter her bones and possibly even kill her. A soft electric whine followed, rising in pitch until it went out of range.
Before I could get to my new position I heard a loud, wet snap followed by a heavy splash. Something splatted down onto the floor and I saw a slick of water spread across the concrete from that direction.
I looked around the side of the machinery in time to see the haan step through the gate. She took the little girl’s hand again, and then the portal collapsed behind them into the point of white light, which faded.
I stepped into the open, keeping my gun ready as I approached the spot where they’d been. Water splashed under my boots, but I saw no sign of the man at all. An empty shoe lay on its side in the puddle near the man’s machete, but nothing else. He hadn’t gone through the gate. It was as if he’d just vanished.
“No! Please no!” a voice shrieked, snapping me out of it. It wasn’t the little girl, but someone else, a woman. It came from through the door on the other side of the factory. I ran, ducking through it and down the corridor on the other side. Whatever the haan had been doing there would have to wait. Xiao-Xing had been wrong. The scrappers weren’t done for the night. They must have been off getting the cooker prepared for another batch, and were ready to butcher again.
dragan help please help please
A door up ahead swung open and two men stepped through. One carried a machete and the other had his arms wrapped around a big box. The one with the machete spotted me and jumped, alerting the other.
“Hey!”
The man fumbled for his pistol as I squeezed off the first round. It struck him in the shoulder, and he jerked back as the box he’d been carrying landed on its side and spilled a stack of empty vacuum-seal packages across the floor. He fired back as his partner ducked back into the room they’d come from.
The bullet slammed into my ribs and knocked the wind out of me, but the body armor stopped it from penetrating. I adjusted my aim and fired again, this time catching him right in the breastbone. He staggered to one side, then turned limp and went down.
I made it to the doorway just as the man with the machete pulled a shotgun from a row of lockers. I ducked back just as he turned and fired, tearing a hole through the mold-speckled drywall across from me.
The shotgun shell bounced across the floor as I ducked down low and leaned back through the doorway. He still had the shotgun pointed straight out in front of him and before he could react I’d fired twice, hitting him twice in the chest. He fell back against the wall behind him and slumped down onto the floor.
The room contained a row of lockers, a work table, a standing scale, and a smaller hanging scale with a bin caked in rust and dried blood. Next to a big industrial sink, three machetes hung on hooks. There were no other people inside.
“Don’t! Please, don’t!”
please hurry
I’m coming hang on
plz hur
Her co
nnection dropped. It dropped so suddenly it cut her off mid-thought. She’d lost consciousness again.
Or she’s dead.
I ran down the corridor, the air growing hotter and steamier as I went. Through the doorway at the far end I could see light, shining down on a slick concrete floor. Across the room a ramp sloped down into a circular pit in the floor that had once been used to store big spools of cable. There were people in it now, chained to the wall behind them by thick, padlocked collars.
As soon as I stepped through the door, a boom went off in my ear and something hit me in the side. I fell, the divot in my body armor still trailing smoke as a man to my right aimed his pistol toward my head to finish me off. I flicked the catch on my pistol to put it in burst mode, and fired a volley at him as I went down. One round hit him in the arm and his shot went wide. Shooting from the floor, I put the next group into the middle of his chest and he staggered back before collapsing onto his side.
Everyone began screaming then. There were more men in the room, shouting and moving through the steam while the captives all yelled to me at once, their voices cracking as they begged to be let free.
Another shot went off, a muzzle flash lighting up the mist ahead. I turned and fired, and a shadowy figure fell back.
“Hangfei Security!” I barked. “Drop your weapons and stand down!”
There were three men still at the top of the slope which led down to the holding pit. Two of them had machetes but none of them carried a firearm. When they saw me approach, the machetes clattered down onto the floor and they each raised their hands.
“Get over here!” I called. “Now!”
They stepped toward me, and I scanned them as they approached. One of them had a knife hidden in his belt, and I took it, slipping it into my pocket.
“Turn around and get down on the ground,” I told them. They did as they were told.
“This is bullshit,” one of them said.
“Shut up.”
“We’re protected.”
Standing over them, I got a good look at the room. At the top of the concrete ramp, in full view of the people who were chained below, a big butchering table had been set up. Blood still covered its surface where deep notches had been cut with the machetes. A smaller table supported a big vacuum sealer, and an industrial-sized laundry bin on wheels sat next to it heaped with plastic, vacuum-sealed bags containing body parts. Behind it all two bodies, a man and a woman, hung from their bound ankles over a blood filled trough, their throats cut. The woman’s body turned slowly at the end of the cable.
Ember Page 5
