「Are you inbound to disarm?」
Risa’s heart fluttered. If he was the traitor, he would have told her to stay away to remain safe. 「Negative.」 He paled. 「Genevieve is. I have something to deal with.」
「What kind―」
「Kree’s been kidnapped.」
「Say no more. You can fill me in later.」 Garrison shot a hard stare at his desk. 「Who do you trust?」
「You.」 Risa wasn’t on speaking terms with smiles at that point, but she got close.
「Someone else. I can’t leave.」
「Osebi.」
Garrison nodded. 「Very good. Deal with your issue, then check in.」
Risa cringed during another violent swerve, shuddering as the little car bashed through a decorative hedge and bounced down a long staircase in the middle of a huge park. Garrison’s illusion disintegrated into pixels, leaving the cabin dim.
Raziel’s driving made the PubTran AI feel tame, but at that moment, Risa didn’t care.
The PubTran car slowed to a normal, unsuspicious speed a quarter-mile away from the Presidium Hotel. The hundred-and-thirty story building looked like a sleek wedge-shaped starship had landed nose down, with three prominent towers rising about twenty stories higher than the rest of the building resembling engine nacelles. Sixteen clear-capsule elevators glided up and down outside the walls.
Risa exited the car when it stopped by the delivery entrance in the back. She leapt up to the loading dock and strolled in an open garage-style door to an enormous room where a series of gargantuan delivery bots dropped off cargo pallets. A handful of workers paid her no mind, too busy unpacking caviar, snacks, and other overpriced luxuries.
Raziel’s assault on the hotel network provided her a virtual trail of pixie dust to follow. She hurried along the path, ignoring an interior door and hurrying down a corridor to an employee break room. The wispy light went straight past it and hooked a left at a four-way intersection. Soon after taking the corner, the thrum of industrial equipment grew loud. Security doors opened on their own as she jogged up to them, allowing her into a room full of server towers. The glimmering thread spiraled and plunged into the slats of a large air-intake grille between a pair of computers the size of industrial refrigerators.
Once she slipped inside and pulled the cover closed, she stared up at a long, arduous climb. Vents. Great. Nothing I haven’t done before.
Around the fourth floor, Genevieve called. Risa answered, though she shut off the virtual avatar. A tiny 2D image floated at the top-left of her view. The redhead had packed her voluminous hair into a visored cap, and had a dust mask over her mouth and nose.
「I’m in,」 said Genevieve. 「No one saw me. No contact in the tunnels.」
Risa suppressed a chuckle. 「I’m surprised you remembered the back way in.」
「Aww, come on. Who are you talking to?」
「Thanks.」
「I got fat in my old age. Some of these ducts are hard on the hips.」
「Gen, you are not fat. When you were twenty, you didn’t have a shape. And you’re not old. You’re what, thirty-one?」
「Meh, something like that.」
Risa hauled herself up the vertical shaft, bracing her boots on the quarter-inch ridges between sections of duct. 「Oh, this is… I’m going to kill that bastard slow.」
「You sound tired already. What’s up?」
She glanced at Raziel’s waypoint. 「Climbing forty-three stories straight up.」
「Oh, no thanks. I’ll take crawling sideways any day. Oh, hello.」
「Rat?」
Genevieve shook her head. 「Nope. Pop tart. Ooo. This one’s new. I don’t remember this model.」
Sweat got into Risa’s eyes and stung. Ow. Shit. She couldn’t wipe her eyes; letting go of the wall would send her plummeting. Metal eyes never had that problem. She blinked and tried to ignore it. The twisting square tunnel in night vision green overhead seemed endless. At least she had the ability to see in the dark again. An image of Kree, tied and struggling, fueled her. Risa’s fingers stopped aching. Her eyes ceased burning.
「Okay. You said they’re live-monitoring this shit, right?」 asked Genevieve.
「Yeah.」 Risa wished the vent was a little smaller. She could make better time if her arms were long enough to wedge her back against the far side. Climbing tiny ridges like a ladder sucked. 「There may be an inside person… or maybe it’s only cams.」
「Right. I’m going to bypass the detonator here then… that way, the charge will look like it’s still online. This is some intense hardware. Tamper sensors out the ass.」
「You’re way better at demo than I ever was.」 Risa smiled. 「Next time, just say you don’t wanna teach me anymore instead of faking your own death.」
Genevieve stifled a shout of alarm. 「Gah. Don’t make me laugh right now.」
Risa climbed for three minutes in silence. Ten more floors.
「Got it. One safe.」 Genevieve stashed her NetMini on her belt; her real-time view consisted of a black square rather than a portrait. 「Do you have any idea how many charges there are?」
「No. Probably enough to collapse the entire safe house.」
「Fifteen at least then. They’re not very big. Uhh… yeah probably fifteen. I can estimate where I’d put them. Sorry it took me so long on the first, was figuring it out. The rest should go quick.」
「Gen, don’t use the phrase ‘go quick’ when talking about bombs.」
A laugh hissed past clenched teeth. 「Sorry. Ugh. You know even if I survive this, Aura’s gonna kill you. And probably me too for agreeing to do this.」
「Yeah. I’m glad you two have each other.」
「Thanks.」 Genevieve smiled.
At the forty-third floor, the trail of pixie dust bent ninety degrees into a side duct. Two feet from the vertical, a fan grille blocked her.
Raziel, please tell me you’re there.
Faint tingly energy swarmed down her limbs, soothing rather than paralytic.
Thank you. Can you mask this fan from the building’s network? I need to cut it out to get past it and I don’t want anyone noticing.
It ground to a stop two seconds later.
His voice seemed to whisper from right behind her. Can you fit through?
An X-brace held the fan motor to the four corners of the tunnel. Each somewhat-triangular segment looked too tiny, even for someone as thin as her. Not without greasing my hips. There’s gotta be a release. I don’t see a manual switch. Probably on the other side.
You are correct, said Raziel. A heavy click echoed in the shaft.
The fan assembly swung open like a door. Risa pulled herself up and into the horizontal shaft, taking a ten-second breather. My arms are jelly. She pushed past the fatigue, thinking of the little girl 184 meters away… according to the dot on her mini-map.
「Ding,」 said Genevieve. 「Two down. Same make and model. I don’t think this was any of our people. This unit is way more high-tech than anything I’ve ever seen come from Denmark. I’m going to guess you’re right about it being C-Branch.」 She grunted with the effort of crawling. 「Sounds calm in there except for… who had kids?」
「I found them in a tunnel I was about to demo.」
「Shit. Why’d you bring kids to the safehouse? You know most crazy people collect cats, not children. Who in their right mind would bring children to the safehouse?」
「You mean other than Garrison?」 Risa laughed in her head.
「Ouch. Yeah, good point. We were both kinda young, weren’t we?」
Risa sighed. 「I didn’t want to blow them up. I couldn’t leave them on the street either.」
「You adopted Kree, but left the other ones? Like kittens I guess; you took the cutest.」
「That’s not fair. She’s the only one of them who isn’t afraid of me. The other kids think I’m Cat-6 too. Or at least terrifying」
「Wait, you’re not?」 Genevieve shushed her before she could reply.
Twenty seconds later. 「Three down. Go.」
「No, I’m not Cat-6. Raziel hacked my headware. He’s an amazing… entity, but he’s not a supernatural being.」 Risa suppressed a grunt while pulling herself past a narrow spot.
「So you gave up on that whole catholic mythology thing?」 Genevieve hummed. 「Oh, nasty, I didn’t need to see that.」
「Do I want to know?」 Risa squeezed around a ninety-degree turn left, crawling faster and faster the lower the distance counter got.
「Kali’s diddling herself with the handle of a combat knife. She’s kinda hot, but that thing is filthy.」
「The dagger or the other thing?」
「Dirty mind. The knife. Silence! Bomb.」 Eighteen seconds passed. 「Got it.」
As Risa neared the targeted vent grille, she even thought in a whisper, as if the people inside might hear that. 「Gen… I’m on target. I gotta go. I’ll call as soon as I’m secure.」
「Copy. Kill those bastards.」
The call dropped.
Risa edged up to the slats. Fortunately, the angle of the light kept any from entering the vent… and she no longer had glowing eyes that could give her away.
Kree sat on the same bed she’d seen in the call, still bound and glaring as if her anger might kill. A slender Chinese woman in a slinky black dress, black tights, and soft shoes approached and sat near Kree, who tried to scoot away.
The woman spoke in Chinese. English text scrolled across Risa’s vision. “This is cruel. What are you afraid of? She is so small. We do not need to tie her.”
Another female voice answered, too far right in the room to see. “No mistakes. You are too gullible. Mister Liào will not tolerate any errors. The contractor is twelve minutes away from Elysium.”
The woman near Kree reached toward the child’s face. “I will give her water.”
Kree ducked away, making an angry grunt.
The woman pantomimed drinking and spoke English. “Water? Thirsty?”
When she reached again, the child remained still. The woman peeled the black tape away from Kree’s mouth.
The nicer woman rambled in Chinese, as another, taller woman strolled into view. She too wore all black. Text translation scrolled by as fast as she spoke. “If she runs away, I will bring you to Mister Liào myself. Give her water, then cover her mouth, and blindfold her. I am sick of her staring at me.”
Kree narrowed her eyes. “When my mommy gets here, you’re all gonna die.”
Risa’s heart swelled.
“Cute kid,” said a man, in English.
Risa drew her legs up, balancing her weight on the balls of her feet. Raziel, if you’re there… I need a favor.
Ask, my child, said a silken voice in her mind.
Ten Nano claws slid out from Risa’s fingertips. Seven small segments per digit locked together to form rigid curved blades with triangular cross sections, cutting edge on the underside.
Hit the lights.
27
Game Over
Dark.
“You’re gonna die now,” said Kree, sounding far too calm.
Risa activated her speedware, raked her claws down the sides of the vent grille, and leapt out into a slow-motion fall. The component on the side of her head provided night vision even sharper than her old metal eyes had, leaving the room bright as day despite being monochromatic green. She tagged three adults as well as her child, her combat processor providing a constant awareness of their relational position.
The cruel woman swiveled toward her, bright green spots shone from her eyes. Her motion appeared sluggish, but still fast enough to be a threat. To her right, the man who had contacted her over the vid stood frozen in time near a doorway. Nearer the bed, the woman holding a cup of water to Kree’s lips had also become a statue. She headed for the man out of pure contempt, the boosted woman following.
The tip of her right boot touched carpet. Risa let gravity pull her into a forward somersault, ducking a reverse spin kick and a ten-inch blade sticking out of the woman’s foot. Risa sprang out of the roll and thrust her right hand out, plunging four claws into the man’s back between his shoulder blades. A flick of the fingers severed his spine, causing instant paralysis.
The woman recovered from the missed kick, planted her foot on the rug, and charged. A trio of long, thin blades slipped out between the knuckles of both fists, followed soon by the screech of a hypersonic oscillator. Electronics in Risa’s ears filtered out the noise, reducing it to a weak sense of a presence in the air rather than a conscious realization of sound.
She twisted sideways. Two thrusting arms tipped with vibroblades passed in front of her stomach and behind her back. Risa smashed her elbow into the woman’s face, knocking her reeling backward, then raked her claws down in an effort to sever her opponent’s limbs, but the woman pulled away, suffering only shallow slices on each forearm.
Fear showed plain on the woman’s face. She backpedaled, but made the mistake of moving closer to Kree. Risa lunged. A telegraphed leaping swipe scored another shallow flesh wound on the woman’s gut. Her opponent faked with her right hand, going for Risa’s head with the vibro claws, and twisted the other way with a kick aimed for a thigh. A single vibroblade sprouted from the front of the woman’s shoe.
The inferior quality of the Míngtiān woman’s speedware made the fight seem more as if Risa sparred with someone demonstrating a move instead of trying to kill her for real. She caught the incoming ankle before the implanted blades could draw blood, then shoved the leg up to the side, stared into the woman’s artificial eyes, and swiped her other hand’s claws through the shin.
Blood sprayed. Horror spread over the woman’s face as she hopped backward on her one intact leg. Risa tossed the severed limb aside. In the monochromatic green of night vision, the two women stared at each other, existing on a level of time apart from the rest of the world. The other woman, on the bed, only now showed a hint of reaction to the lights going out by glancing up. Her cup pulled millimeters away from Kree’s lip.
The man’s knees bent forward at a slight angle, his fall starting.
Her opponent flailed her arms in an effort to retain balance. Blood gushed from her severed leg. She raised her hands in a gesture of surrender. Risa looked down for six-tenths of a second, and lunged in, thrusting both arms forward.
Ten Nano claws speared into the woman’s gut; Risa lifted her off the ground in a jerky motion that shredded a half-inch or so at a time upward. The woman convulsed and thrashed until her own weight pulled the insanely sharp edges high enough to reach her heart. Risa held eye contact as the Chinese woman gurgled and gasped away her last few seconds of life before falling limp.
She leaned forward and let the body slide off her hands, then disabled her speedware.
A thump sounded from behind as the man hit the floor.
Light please.
Raziel obliged, and they flickered on, shifting the room to full color. The shorter woman on the bed yelped at the blackout that had occurred four seconds ago. She looked back, presumably to ask her associates what happened, and screamed.
Kree narrowed her eyes, no longer fighting the cords. “I told you my mommy would find me.”
The remaining woman scooted over the bed, back to the wall, and screamed again, cowering away from Risa as though she were a demon brought to life. Chinese streamed out of her too fast for the translator to turn into text. A line of question marks flickered by in a marquee.
Risa strolled to the edge of the bed. “Hold still.”
Kree sat patiently while Risa flicked the tip of one claw at the binding between her ankles. When the cord sprang away, the child hopped off the bed and turned her back. Risa cut the knot between her wrists.
“Is there anyone else here?”
Kree shook her head. “No. Just these three.”
Risa stared at the whimpering woman. She held up a hand, watching blood drip from her claws. “You took my daughter.”
The woman shrieked, cr
ied, and whimpered, clutching her fists to her chin. A metallurgical scan, courtesy of the device stuck to her head, showed minimal cyberware: NIU, skill chip board, some other headware, but no body wiring or implanted blades. She’s helpless.
“Please…” The Chinese girl bowed her head. “I am not wanting to do this. I have no authority.”
Kree clutched the carpet with her toes, and looked down.
“Sweetie… go to the bathroom and close the door. Don’t look to the right.”
“Yes, Mom.” Kree walked off, careful not to step in blood with her bare feet.
The woman cringed, trembling. Twelve seconds later, the click of a door lock broke the silence.
“Get lost.” Risa turned away from the bed, and approached the moaning man.
She squatted next to his head, arms draped over her knees, claws dangling. Transparent blue Nano gleamed. The soft thump thump thump of the surviving woman sprinting for the door passed behind her.
“H-how…”
“You should’ve listened to me. I told you how things were going to happen, and you chose to be a hardass. It takes a weak, weak man to threaten the life of a child.” Risa held her right arm out and sank her claws into his back, around where she estimated his kidney to be. He didn’t react. “Oh, darn. You can’t feel a damn thing because I severed your spine.”
“You―”
Risa stood, hesitated a few seconds, and kicked him in the side of the head as hard as she could, launching a spray of blood from his mouth. When he attempted to murmur again, she repeated the kick. After a brief pause, a surge of anger came out of nowhere. She kicked him twice more, and again until he passed out. Kree’s already seen too much. Risa let her rage bubble up, and struck out with a surgical stab to the back that pierced the heart. In and out in under a second. The kind of strike a tí-zhèn could deliver to a target in a crowd, invisibly fast with speedware. Gone before anyone noticed the dead man falling.
A male voice emanated from a few feet to her left, speaking Chinese over the barely-audible thrum of a holo-projector.
“Zhū, what is the status of your―”
Ghost Black Page 33
