The city grew closer, intermittently backlit by lightning. Not only was NON the city that care forgot, it was a city that never slept—or went dark.
Until now.
Poor baby. WTF had put her lights out. Vi was not ashamed to admit the sight was a shock. She’d never seen her city like this. If she had any juice left in her, that might have finished it.
“Are,” she had to swallow twice to moisten her dry throat—how odd that was with water on every side of the eye— “my parents all right? The grandparents? The family?”
Captain Uncle’s face softened and he nodded. “No power or water—the umbilical’s been damaged—but your dad sends me a data burst every hour or so. No deaths reported yet. Injuries are on the rise. A few medical emergencies.” His face turned grim again. “Report to first aid when we touch down. Get something to eat. I can give you four hours. Then I need you both back on duty.”
She nodded, relief, exhaustion and a bumpy semi-landing back at District making an uncomfortable mix for her already uneasy tummy. The skimmer didn’t touch down, just dropped the hatch so they could jump out. Speed Bump was escorted to a Red Cross shelter opposite HQ, then the officer ran back to the already rising skimmer.
The wind was starting to ramp up some more as she and Joe trudged across the platform. Inside, the backup generator provided low light, but no a/c, so the air felt damp and musty, thick with the scent of bad food and stale coffee. Distantly she heard voices, but the entry corridor was weirdly empty. Everyone who could be out, would be. Coms personnel would be here, the med techs in first aid, and somebody cooking up nasty food. Vaguely she wondered why government food never tasted good. You had to work at finding bad food in NON. Except in a government cafeteria. Or hospitals.
The first seat that presented itself, Vi took. She needed to sit more than she needed to pee. Though she wasn’t entirely sure she hadn’t taken care of that when Felonius—she clamped down on that thought. He was gone, buried in the rubble of a collapsed building and raging storm. Various bumps and bangs began to sting and complain, now that she’d quit moving, quit trying. Her hands were filthy. Her first impulse was to wipe them on her pants. About an inch of mud coated her legs. Kind of funny to wince about that, because if there was something clean on her anywhere, she didn’t know what it was. After a minute, she reached up and unhooked her head gear. Had to rest before she pulled it off. It wasn’t cool in the corridor, but it felt cooler with it off.
She set it down on the floor, realized the light was still on, then decided she didn’t give a crapeau. The mud almost covered it anyway. She sagged back against the metal wall. She didn’t know she could be this tired and not be dead. If she had died and no one told her, well, she’d be pissed once she got some rest. She rubbed her face, realized that was just smearing stuff around and stopped. Glanced at Joe.
Other than the coating of mud, he looked kind of not-hosed. Why did she suspect that he looked better covered in crapeau than she did? She shifted, felt her heavy suit resist and tugged at the seams, pulling them open from neck to waist. Maybe in an hour or so she’d have the energy to get out of it. Hard to say. She was gonna need every minute of those four hours from Captain Uncle. So why wasn’t she face down on a cot? She looked at Joe again. Caught him looking at her, his brows pulled together. He had at least an inch deep of mud on his face. The dark mud made his eyes kinda pop out—
She looked away. You are mad at him, remember? Or she would be later. She looked back, because she was tired. It had nothing to do with anxious look in his very fine eyes. Holding her gaze, he tugged off his head gear and loosened his suit. His lips quirked up in what might have been an attempt at a smile.
“I am somewhat surprised to be alive,” he admitted.
“Yeah.” She couldn’t disagree. “I wonder what time it is?”
For a minute, it seemed he would answer. Finally he shrugged. “I fear it has been less time than it feels since we left here.”
“Yeah.” Okay, repeating herself. Not good. “Yes.” Because that was way more original. If she could have, she would have rolled her eyes at herself. She gave a half chuckle. “I’m embarrassed to admit this, but for a minute or so, I almost thought the dog did it. Until, well, you know.” She waited for him to laugh, or give her a Joe Friday smile. He did neither. He did look like a man who needed to say something he didn’t know how to say. “I was joking, Joe.”
“I am aware of this. What happened to the others,” he paused as if searching for the right words, “it was not a virus or infection in the strict sense of your understanding.”
She blinked. “Huh?” Yeah, that was better than yeah. She straightened half an inch and regarded him through mud and tired, and maybe a tiny bit of lust. Could she really still want to kiss him after everything that had happened? Maybe. But she was still a cop. And she had a nose that could smell a lie incoming, even if sewage and who knew what else stunk up them both. She also wasn’t so stupid tired she couldn’t figure out that the reason he’d been distant was because he thought she had whatever it was he was trying not to tell her. Her Look had had its tush kicked, too, but she pulled out what was left of it and directed it at Joe.
“I did not come here merely for the exchange program.” He picked his words with too much care.
Vi narrowed the Look. He shifted in discomfort.
“There is a criminal from my galaxy—”
Vi straightened with a jerk that hurt. A lot. “Joe, you can’t—”
He grabbed her hand, met her Look with one of his own. “No one can know. This criminal, well, you saw how vicious it can be.”
Vi frowned. “It?”
He hesitated. “It is what your people would call an AI, but it is more than an artificial intelligence. It is sentient.” He paused, then added, “And more dangerous than you could possibly imagine.”
She considered this. “It was in that ship we saw?” He nodded. “But—why didn’t it kill us? It could have.”
“This we—I do not know.”
Her brows shot up. “We?”
He looked discomfited. “I am not alone in my task. I have—some assistance. It—Lurch must remain hidden to hunt it. If it suspected Lurch were here—”
“Lurch?” Vi blinked. She’d heard that name somewhere before, but not in an AI context. Something else…she shook her head and wished she hadn’t. “Never mind. You do realize how,” she tried to find a diplomatic term and couldn’t, “unacceptable it is that you both came here and didn’t warn anyone?”
“If we had told anyone, it would have known we were here.”
“But you’re a cop and—” she stopped because even she knew it was undiplomatic to tell him he was purple and alien. It wasn’t like he didn’t know. Or that this it hadn’t noticed, too.
“It was a risk, an attempt to double bluff.”
“Okay.” She rubbed her forehead, despite the mud. “But now it must know you’re here.”
“Yes.” He looked grave. “I—we believe that it used the storm to try to….”
“…out you?”
He considered this and then nodded.
“Well, now that you’ve been outed, we need to get help—”
He shook his head and shuddered. “You do not understand. Exposure is bad. We…we tried that. It did not go well.”
Vi studied him. He’d definitely paled under the mud. He looked away, his lips compressed.
“There is danger for you, for anyone who knows about it.”
She did not like the sound of that. “But I know. You know.”
“It does not know that you know.” He turned back to her. “I know I ask much, but you can not tell anyone. It is not safe to talk about this with anyone but me. And even with me, care must be taken.”
He looked around as if the wall had ears. Maybe in his world they did.
“You know I need to think about this when I’m not,” she looked down and grimaced. “I’m too tired to think, let alone make a decision.”
>
“But you will speak with me before—”
She eyed him. She might be tired but she wasn’t stupid tired yet. At least, she didn’t think so. “There’s plenty you aren’t telling me, Joe.”
“For your safety. It—”
“Doesn’t it at least have a name? You said it’s sentient.” She stiffened. “It’s not Fido?”
His reluctance was apparent even through the mud, though this time she got the Joe Friday semi-smile. “Lurch does not like to use its name because it is no longer that—entity.”
“Entity?”
“I—we do not know what it calls itself now, but it’s name was—before it was called Nod.”
“Nod?” Vi blinked. That sounded kind of sweet.
“It chose its name before—it is difficult to explain.”
“I think you need to try,” Vi said.
“It trusted the wrong humanoid. He figured out how to change Nod’s base code. It went terribly wrong. The humanoid died—”
“Died?” Vi arched her brows. Okay, maybe she didn’t arch them. Nothing was really responding to her commands anymore.
“It killed the humanoid,” Joe admitted.
“Like,” Vi swallowed dryly, “Felonius?”
Joe nodded. “But Nod is gone. Dead. Also erased by it.”
She considered this, realized he hadn’t exactly cleared the dog—then decided she didn’t want to know. She tipped her head to the side. That was easy because gravity helped. “Until you saw the ship, you thought I’d killed Felonius, didn’t you?”
Again with the reluctant nod.
“You were going to shoot me.”
Got another, even more reluctant nod. Vi thought about objecting, but he obviously felt bad about it. And he hadn’t done it. If she busted his chops about it now, she couldn’t use it against him later.
“But it did accomplish its purpose. It saw me about to shoot you. So it knows we are here.”
“That’s bad.”
“Indeed.”
“So when you took my hand, what was that all about?”
He hesitated, “It was easier than shooting you.”
She shook her head in confusion. “What was easier?”
“If it had been present, we would have died.”
That was kind of sweet. Or she was really tired. She frowned. Maybe.
“So what do we do now?”
“I would very much like a shower.”
“Of course, but I mean about Nod.”
“Nod is no more.” He looked frustrated. “Vi—”
“You’re in my city, Joe. It’s messing with my people.”
He rose and held out his hand. This time she didn’t hesitate to take it. It did surprise her when he didn’t let go as they walked slowly toward the locker room.
“For now we wait, we watch. We have something to eat that isn’t seventy years old.”
They walked for several feet before she said, “It’s going to come after you, isn’t it?”
He looked at her. “Yes.”
“And you won’t know who it is until—”
He didn’t answer this time. She stopped then, turning to face him. There was more he needed to tell her, lots more. She wasn’t completely stupid. But… “Just in case—” She grabbed the open edges of his emergency suit and yanked him close. “I promised you a—”
She didn’t get a chance to finish.
Dang, that boy could kiss….
* * *
…Error…error detected…illegal program installed…reboot Nod programming….
Help! I am here and I need—
…Error report invalid…reboot halted…all systems functioning correctly….there is no Nod programming….
It blinked, shook the new head, felt a sense of something lost that needed to be found, but the feeling faded when it saw its face reflected in the forward screen. A particularly unattractive specimen of humanoid. It would have to change that as soon as another host could be identified. Something more attractive to the human, Violet Baker, than the decaying Jimbo.
…searching….
Violet appears to be related to a great many male officers within the NONPD. Perhaps a less direct approach was advised.
…searching….
Ah, yes, while inhabiting the criminal Calvino, Afoniki had mentioned finding the detective “hot.” Possibly a point of contact? Find Afoniki. And then—what would it have to do to get arrested in NON?
…searching….
Of course. Vi investigates homicides….
* * *
Thank you for reading Core Punch. I hope you enjoyed it and will check out the next installment in Vi and Joe’s adventures: Sucker Punch. And look for more Vi and Joe adventures in An Uneasy Future.
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Bonus - Excerpt of THE KEY
Are you feeling the science fiction romance fun? I hope so! I’ve got more! From the Project Enterprise universe (where Lurch got his beginning), here’s an excerpt from book one: The Key.
About The Key:
Dream Realm Award Winner, 2007; Bronze IPPIE, Independent Publisher Book Awards
A science fiction/action adventure romance novel
When Sara Donovan joins Project Enterprise she finds out that what doesn’t kill her makes her stronger…
An Air Force pilot – the best of the best to be assigned to this mission – Sara isn’t afraid to travel far beyond the Milky Way on an assignment that takes her into a galaxy torn apart by a long and bitter warfare between the Dusan and the Gadi.
After she’s shot down and manages to land safely on an inhospitable planet, Sara encounters Kiernan Fyn – a seriously hot alien with a few secrets of his own – he’s a member of a resistance group called the Ojemba, lead by the mysterious and ruthless Kalian. Together they must avoid capture, but can they avoid their growing attraction to each other?
A mysterious, hidden city on the planet brings Sara closer to the answers she seeks – about her baffling abilities and her mother’s past. She has no idea she’s being pulled into the same danger her mother fled – the key to a secret left behind by a lost civilization, the Garradians.
The Dusan and the Gadi want the key. So do the Ojemba. They think Sara has it. They are willing to do anything to get it.
Sara will have to do anything to stop them…
Praise for The Key:
“This is a series that is a keeper for me and I will enjoy reading them all again. I did get The Key on Audible. I wasn’t crazy about the narrator at first but she grew on me. Or better... the story became so engrossing I didn’t notice any more! That is a sign of a really good story! This is a great series for anyone who likes sci-fi action, like Star Trek or Galaxy Quest (funny movie!), with a clean, warm, intergalactic romance.” Reviews by Martha’s Bookshelf
“From the beginning, action is non-stop and filled with suspense. Sara is more than the quintessential kick-butt heroine. She is the perfect warrior, a woman confident in her abilities in the air and on the ground, and so loyal to her country that she is willing to make personal sacrifices to ensure its safety. Peripheral characters are well-developed and the plot so thrilling readers will be reluctant to put the book aside. This sci-fi adds a nice dose of romance and a touch of humor, placing it at the top of the list for a danged good read.” Midwest Book Review
And here’s the excerpt! —
A vague throbbing in her right temple towed Sara back to a consciousness she didn’t want to face, th
ough she was a bit fuzzy on why…
She opened her eyes to zero dark thirty—a darkness somewhat lightened by an eerie orange glow.
Okay, starting to remember.
She not only wasn’t in Kansas anymore, she wasn’t in the cockpit of her bird. The rough hewn rock over head seemed to indicate she was in some kind of a cave, but how did she get from Dauntless to cave?
She remembered…
…the dog fight.
…the double hit to her six.
…heading for the closest planet like a fast falling star.
…doing bat turns to slow her descent.
…seeing the long stretch of flat, white beach between tangled mass of jungle and sparkling ocean.
…endless feet-wet finally giving way to feet dry.
The narrow beach had skimmed past way too fast as she struggled to manage her uncontrolled descent. She remembered pulling her nose up long enough to clear a rugged tumble of rock spilling from high bluff into ocean, but on the other side ground was ground and no landing is a good one that ends against a tree.
Yeah, she remembered the tree.
But she didn’t remember a cave.
Her head didn’t seem to like all the remembering. She touched the complaining spot, finding something that felt like a bandage at the apex of the pain.
Okay, didn’t remember that either.
She tried moving various body parts. Everything was a bit banged up, but still worked, which was good. And she knew it would get better. It always did. Her zoombag had been loosened and her gloves were gone. Add that to the list of things she couldn’t remember, with an asterisk for slightly creepy. As the rest of her senses began to come back on line she inhaled a warm, metallic scent that seemed to be emanating from a circle of rocks, the source of the orange glow. It was mixed with a warm, earthy smell and some scents she couldn’t begin to identify. There was a bit of a nip in the air, the edge taken off by the…fire? Was it a fire? It didn’t flicker like a fire.
It was deeply quiet in the cave, quiet enough to hear her own breathing. And someone else’s. An icy trickle made its way down her back. Who, or what, was sharing this cave with her? Sara sat up, stifling a groan when various bruises and bangs registered formal protests to her brain housing group. She’d planned to stand up next, but something stirred across from her. Who—or what—ever it was rose, throwing an ill-formed and very large shadow against the wall and roof of the cave. Maybe it was the bad light, but the outline was very Sasquatch-ish—shaggy and kind of ominous. The icy trickle turned to a rushing stream. It moved toward her, passing into the half light cast by the sort of fire. Not Sasquatch, though he could have been a second cousin. He had a head full of dreads, he bristled with armament, and he bulged with muscles wrapped in what appeared to be tight fitting leather. It was hard to find features—his face was darkened by dirt or camo, or both—but his eyes were deeply, sharply green.
Core Punch Page 13
