Noir, City Shrouded By Darkness

by Kristie Lynn Higgins

  "To terminate an Un-Man you have to..."

  "Hit the automaton brain between their eyes," Peters interrupted her. "Yes, I know. It was me and Maxwell that decided the Un-Men’s vulnerability. They're still hard to kill, but not indestructible in case something like this happened."

  The three men hastened their steps.

  Kat watched till they were out of sight, turned to rush down the hall, and almost ran into the scowling Kim.

  "You didn’t give that man your only gun, did you?"

  "Maybe...” Kat answered like a child who wasn't sure if they were in trouble or not. “They might run into a T-3. They’ll need it."

  "And you don’t think you will?"

  Kat shrugged. "I plan on avoiding the T-3s. You destroyed my tracking beacon, so they don’t know I’m here. Hopefully, I won’t run into any."

  Kim blinked twice, feeling a bit guilty, and thought, "Except the Rogue, who can’t wait to kill you." She frowned at her own thoughts. "I’m not feeling bad, am I? She’s the idiot that gave the gun away. If she dies, it’s her own fault."

  Kim said, "Come on. Let’s get this over with."

  They hurried through the corridor.

  Kim questioned, "So, was that blond guy a friend of yours? I mean the two of you acted..."

  "No," Kat interrupted, not sure how she felt about him. "He's my shadow. He's my constant phantom in the darkness."

  "O-kay..." Kim uttered.

  She then thought, "Even her friends are freaks."

  They ran down several more halls, and Kim stopped. "Here’s your room." She slid the green keycard down a reader, unlocked the door, and handed the card to her. "Be careful. The T-3s might not know you're here, but that doesn’t mean you're safe."

  "I know." Kat took the card, started in, and paused. “Good luck. I hope one of us finds the disk.”

  "Thanks. Ah... See you later."

  Kim rushed down the hall and thought, "Hades! What's this I’m feeling? It can’t be guilt. Closers don’t feel guilty." She paused as she thought, "The Rogue does want a fight. It’s only fair that I give it what it wants." She hurried back to the Research Lab.

  "Katharine!" Kim yelled.

  She returned to the door. "Yes?" Hopeful, Kat asked, "Did you find something?"

  "No. I only wanted to..." She handed her a PPK and some clips. "Here, take my backup."

  "Oh. Thanks." Kat took the gun and started back in. "Stay safe."

  "Sure, you too." Kim continued down the hall.

  She then thought, "There. Can’t say I didn’t help Katharine."

  Chapter Thirty-nine

  The Two Rooms

  7:10 P.M...

  Kat entered Research Lab Five and found the room abandoned. Cobwebs and dust abounded, and a musty smell lingered. She set her backpack on a chair and stared at the gutted computer workstations. Kat moved on to three rectangular tables. They contained racks filled with test tubes labeled with numeric codes, beakers containing liquid in a rainbow of hues, and about a dozen binocular microscopes. A poster of the periodic table, containing 126 elements, hung on the wall.

  She counted the different colored squares. "I thought there were only 118 elements." Kat shrugged. She searched through drawers and cabinets, under tables and chairs, and every crack and crevasse that could possibly hide a disk. She searched twice, but found nothing.

  Kat saw a door in the back of the room, walked to it, and paused, wondering if she should enter. She glanced above the door to a name plate. "The Gallery." Kat wiggled the locked knob and noticed the door had no keycard access only a hand scanner. “So what do I do now? I could go back and drag one of the employees in here, but I don't think I want to touch any dead bodies.” She looked at her right palm. “I could try my hand. I am part of the Sphinx Corporation. It could work. Or I could set off some alarms then the T-3s will know we're here. Maybe I should ask Kimberly what she thinks. Or I could take the chance. Would the T-3s even know why an alarm is going off, if I set it off?” Kat shrugged, placed her hand on the device, and held her breath not knowing what would happen. She winced and leaned back slightly as if the scanner would explode.

  The reader buzzed as a horizontal bar of white light scanned her palm. "Hand print not on record," the device stated in a male robotic voice and scanned a second time with a vertical bar of blue light. "No cipher detected. Access denied."

  Kat straightened her stance. “It didn't let me in, but at least it didn't sound an alarm.” She stepped back from the door. “It did mention a cipher. Doesn’t that mean zero or code?" Kat stared at the star on her left palm. "Or maybe a mark." She placed that hand on the reader.

  The device activated again, scanning first with the horizontal bar of white light. "Hand print not on record." It scanned a second time with the vertical bar of blue light. "Cipher detected. Activating micro-reader." A diagonal bar of white light scanned her palm. "Access granted." The door unlocked.

  She turned the knob and entered a larger room lit only by accent lights. She left the door open in case Kim came in looking for her. Kat paused just inside the entrance and scanned the area. The room smelled old, not musty like the other one, but old like a museum. No computers or lab equipment were inside only several life size white marble statues. They were all of the same bearded man in different poses. He was wearing a robe and holding various objects. All of the statues pointed to a wall in the back.

  "What are they pointing at?" She walked to the wall. It looked like the others in the room. It was tiled with light brown marble. Kat started to put her hand to the wall when she felt heat and something vibrating against her leg. She reached into her thigh pocket and pulled out the Music Box.

  A blue square on each end, she had never seen before, glowed through the metal. She touched them at the same time, and the hologram of Theresa Griffin appeared.

  "Katharine, so I see Kimberly gave you the box as instructed." The hologram glanced around the room and stated, "It is safe to talk."

  "You look just like her." Kat waved her hand through the 3D image. "Like Kimberly. She told me about you." She paused and asked, "Why did the Music Box vibrate?"

  "My sensors detected an object nearby that you need to retrieve."

  Excited, she asked, "The disk Kimberly is looking for?"

  "No." The hologram answered, not sure what Kat was talking about. "A Data Crystal."

  "A Data Crystal? Like on Star Trek?"

  "Star Trek? Is that a space program one of the corporations is working on?"

  "No."

  "Oh." The hologram shrugged. "Well, the device I am talking about is especially designed to transfer information to this data storage unit. The Data Crystal is behind you."

  Excited, Kat turned and noticed one of the statues held out his hand with a white crystal as if offering it to her. She took hold of the two inch obelisk and lifted it from his marble grasp.

  "Now–" the hologram started. "–place the flat part of it on the bottom of the Music Box."

  Kat did, and a glow emanated from the crystal. It threw out a spectrum of colors around the dimly lit room. The hologram closed her eyes as the storage unit downloaded the data.

  "It is complete." The hologram opened her eyes, looking to her.

  Kat placed the crystal in her pocket and glanced at the statues again. "Who is he?"

  "He is Ginn L. Irynkissgthie."

  "Why does the Factory have statues of him? And why so..." Kat turned to the entrance.

  lub-DUB... lub-DUB...

  "What is the matter?" the hologram asked.

  "We have company." Kat set the PPK’s safety off and took cover behind a statue.

  "The Alpha Phase," the hologram spoke then lowered her voice. "The ability to sense bio-mechas. I thought I would never see it fulfilled."

  The hologram's statement puzzled Kat, and Kat asked, "What do you mean by fulfilled?"

  "Never mind that now. What is it?" the hologram whispered. "An Un-Man?"

  Kat focused her ability an
d stretched out her senses past the next room and into the hall. In the hall, she detected it. The bane of her existence had found her.

  "Worse!" Kat forced out as she stared at the entrance. Fear seized her like a python. It wrapped itself around her and squeezed the courage from her. She could hardly breathe.

  The Rogue stepped through the door, searched the room, and noticed the pointing statues. "I think I like it better. Yes, it is better we cannot track you anymore. It is more sporting. As for your question, Pandora..." The Rogue glanced behind the first statue, searching for her. "Why does the Factory have statues of Ginn L. Irynkissgthie, some obscure composer from five hundred years ago, who’s only work was never finished?" It continued searching. "I wondered the same thing, but have yet to find the answer."

  Kat backed up, moving into the shadows. She dared not engage this Un-Man.

  "On a different note, while I was searching, I did find something interesting buried deep in the archives of the Factory. Before they developed bio-mechas, the Sphinx Corporation explored a very interesting concept." The Rogue peered behind another statue. "They tried to develop organic-mechas. They were machines with flesh and bone that could pass as human. They can pass more than us. As you know, Un-Men only seem human on the outside. Certain things give us away like wires and circuitry when we are injured or black oil when we bleed, but I am straying from my purpose." The Rogue scraped its blade across a statue’s steel base and friction-flashes ignited. "Come out Pandora. Let us end our battle here."

  Kat pressed her body against a wall as perspiration speckled her face.

  "What are you afraid of?" the hologram whispered. "Disable it. You have the ability."

  "I can’t." Kat remembered the countless battles where it nearly killed her. She whispered, "It’s the Rogue, the only Un-Man I’m unable to destroy. It’s fast, so very fast."

  "Oh," the hologram sounded worried. "I will leave you to your work." Her image disappeared.

  "My work?" Kat thought. "Is my purpose to destroy bio-mechas? Is that why I exist?" The thought frightened her more than the thought of facing the Rogue. “Was I created to destroy?” She stared at the PPK for a long time. "There's no other way out of this room. I must face the Rogue if I'm to help Kimberly." She gripped the Music Box and gun, took a deep breath, rescued her courage from the fear python, and stepped from the shadows.

  "Who were you talking to?" the Rogue asked.

  She lifted her hands, motioning to the room. "Do you see anyone?"

  "No. Are you talking to yourself? Are you near your breaking point?"

  She said, "Let’s get this over with." Kat lifted the gun, firing three shots.

  The Rogue quickly moved and evaded the projectiles. It lunged for her, bringing the Bowie overhead and struck. She crossed her wrists and blocked its hand with hers. Her arms shook as the blade bore down millimeters from her face. The Rogue toyed with her. It could easily overpower her. It lifted its hand and struck again, hitting her block. This time, the blow knocked the Music Box from her hand. It slid across the floor, hit the corner of a statue, and opened. Unfinished Melody played.

  "Not now," she thought, struggling against the Rogue and fighting the hypnotic effects of the melody.

  The Music Box played several notes, and the Rogue leaped back. "The tune." It looked to the Music Box then back to Kat. "Why do you..."

  She put a free hand to her head, fighting the sleepiness.

  "It cannot be!" It pointed the blade at her. "ASCII!" Flabbergasted, the Rogue paced the room, running its hand through its hair. "It cannot be! It cannot be!" It paused. "Could this be the reason? Is this why I cannot stop hunting you?" The Rogue pointed the Bowie at her again, accusing, "You are one of them!" It calmed itself, and its face softened, yearning for the truth. The Rogue asked gently, hoping this was the answer it had been searching for, "Are you one of them?"

  Chapter Forty

  The Price

  7:37 P.M...

  A security desk marked the boundary between Green and Yellow Division as Kim hurried past a dead guard slumped in a chair. She ran through several more halls, following the Rogue’s directions on the blueprint for Yellow Division. It would take her about fifteen minutes to arrive at her destination.

  "There better be a disk," she thought. "And it better have something of value on it."

  Damaged lights flickered and popped in the last section before Computer Lab Two and darkened the hall. Oil, mingled with the smell of decaying bodies, hit her as she removed her night vision goggles from the knapsack and placed them on. She activated them, and the area lit up in a green hue. A disabled Un-Man and several dead S.C.Ms. lined the hall. Kim gripped the PPK as she continued, unaffected by the carnage.

  She used the yellow keycard to unlock Computer Lab Two, removed her goggles, turned on the lights, and shut the door. She locked it. The gray room was huge. Workstations formed a triangle in the center with one workstation at its tip, facing the front door. Ten ran down each side, running at a forty-five degree angle, and seventeen formed the triangle’s base. Each workstation had a white computer desk, a smoke-colored computer chair, and a light gray six foot partition wall behind it.

  She walked to the workstation at the tip. The desk had a name plate with the number one on it. Kim started at Workstation One, made her way to the right of it, past two through eleven, and around the corner to the base of the triangle to Workstation Thirteen. There on the desk, as the Rogue promised, lay a disk in a clear jewel case covered with dried blood-smeared fingerprints. Kim laid the knapsack in the chair for Workstation Fourteen, sat at thirteen, and laid the PPK on the desk. She opened the jewel case, inserted the disk in the computer, and entered the access word, Betrayal.

  "Interesting choice for a password. I wonder..." Kim glanced at the blood. "Whoever created this disk, who did they sell out? I only had to double-cross Katharine." She turned her attention back to the computer. "In the long run, what will it cost me?"

  A folder popped up on the screen with a beep and contained several files. Kim clicked on Security Memorandum Theresa Griffin dated October 5, 13 A.D.C.

  She paused. "That’s a week before my mom's death." Kim read the classified memo with the Sphinx Corporation letterhead.

  "Mr. President, I regret having to inform you that we have a traitor in our midst. Time after time she has meddled in affairs outside her department. I have spoken with her about this, but she denies any involvement. I see only one course that can be taken, her termination. This traitor is Theresa Griffin, Project Manager of Research and Development of the Third Branch Office."

  Kim thought, "Termination? Did this person mean more than her dismissal?"

  The memo ended with, "I can take care of this matter, if it is your wish. It will be quick and quiet, Mr. President.”

  It was signed Janus, Head of Security of the Third Branch Office.

  "Janus? I’ve never heard of this person. Who is he or she? Well... At least now, I have a direction to go in. I'll find out who Janus is and if this person had my mom killed. If he or she had anything to do with her murder, I'll terminate them."

  She ejected the disk, placed it back in the jewel case, and tucked the plastic container in the knapsack. Kim stood to leave. The computer flickered like a TV when the reception is interrupted. She faced the screen as words in bold letters scrolled across it.

  You have the disk as I promised. Hope you enjoy the show. Signed, the Rogue.

  The computer flickered again, and video from a security camera played. The feed was of Kat walking through a room filled with statues.

  "What’s this?" Kim wondered, peering at the screen. She turned the volume up.

  Kat held up the Music Box, and the hologram’s image appeared.

  Kim grumbled. "Why is the Rogue showing me this?" She watched on, and the hologram told Kat of the Data Crystal.

  "Hades!" Kim whacked her palm on the desk. "One of the Data Crystals. I have to retrieve it." She grabbed her stuff, hurried to the door,
reached out her hand to unlock it, and paused. "What am I doing? Am I thinking of rescuing Katharine? If I am, it would make me an idiot. It would be better if I waited. The Rogue will slay her, then I can have the Music Box and the crystal. I can continue the search for my mom's killer alone. In any case, I better not wait here." She tried to unlock the door, but it wouldn’t open.

  She heard the Rogue’s voice come over the computer. "Ms. Griffin, are you trying to leave before the show is over? I think not."

  "Hades!" Kim slammed her palm against the door. "That double-crossing Rogue!" She stepped back, fired at the knob, and tried to open it. "Let me out!"

  The door wouldn’t budge.

  She returned to Workstation Thirteen as computers fourteen through twenty-nine lit up and showed the same video of the room filled with statues. The Rogue was there, searching for Kat.

  "You!" Kim shot the screen, blowing it. Infuriated, she stared at the damaged computer. "What are you trying to pull?" She looked at the knapsack and remembered the blood on the jewel case. "I wondered what you would cost me." She snarled. "So, is this the price?"

  Chapter Forty-one

  Elsewhere

  7:41 P.M...

  The Factory...

  Blue Division...

  Bodies of former associates littered the halls along with S.C.Ms. and two disabled T-3s as Maxwell helped Argus toward the stair exit.

  "Wait, I’ve got to rest." Heaving from the effort, Maxwell paused at a corner and handed the battered Argus to his thin partner. "Give me the gun." He took the Beretta and placed a hand on his plump stomach. "I’ve got to lose some weight."

  "I’ve been telling you that for years," Peters said and asked, "How does it look?"

  Maxwell took a few more labored breaths and peeked around the corner. A red exit sign was at the end of another long corridor. "Like the other halls. Can you carry him for a while?"

  "Yeah. You ready?"

  Maxwell nodded. He was very tired, but was more afraid to stay in one place.

  Peters started down the hall and said to the blond man, "Let’s go, Joe."

  "Argus," he mumbled, holding his bruised side. "My name’s Argus."