Division Zero: Thrall

by Matthew S. Cox

  When the door opened, she jumped through and ran toward a body. A young man in a tattered vest, dark pants, and mismatched boots lay dead on his face against the wall. The smell in the air said ‘death by laser.’ Nila came this way. Oh, please let her have found him. She ran past the corpse, headed for two pairs of doors at the end of the corridor. The one on the left was open already, and she went that way. The urge to yell for Nila or Evan came on strong, but she checked her emotion―she might need the element of surprise.

  A short stairway led into the dark; a heavyset man lay on the ground near the bottom on his chest. Despite having his arms trapped behind him in police binders, he seemed calm. At the sight of Kirsten, he did a double take. She ignored the confusion on his face and stepped over him. A few paces later, she grimaced at the stickiness of the floor, and threw desperate glances at four possible ways to go. Left, right, or two forward passages between rows of enormous machines.

  Gunshots.

  The muzzle flare was strongest to her right, but sounded distant. She went for the straight-ahead aisle on that side. Green light flashed; the hum of a laser firing overwhelmed the machinery for an instant. Kirsten sprinted hard down the narrow passageway and almost wiped out as she rounded the corner. She stopped short at the sight of Nila squatting on the far side of a dead man, with two relieved children clinging to her.

  “Evan…” Kirsten wanted to shout, but only made a whimper.

  “Mommy!” he cheered, and ran to her.

  Kirsten fell to her knees, wrapping her arms around the shivering boy. For a moment, Evan held her upright as she let her weight lean on him. All his terror and tears evaporated in an instant. He bounced, squeezed, and cuddled.

  Nila picked her daughter up and carried her over, glancing at the sound of more police flooding the basement. “The heavy guy at the steps surrendered.”

  “He didn’t wanna shoot us,” said Shani.

  Evan peeled away from Kirsten’s chest to make eye contact. “Yeah, he tried to change Zee’s mind.” He furrowed his brow. “Why are you dressed up like Xiana?”

  She went crimson. “Uhh, someone stole my clothes. This was all I could find.”

  Nila gave her an inquisitive glance. What the fuck happened?

  Kirsten found the floor rather interesting. Oh, not much. I almost had sex with a seventy-year-old man, wound up naked in a dungeon… you know, the usual bad shit that happens every time I wear high heels.

  With a grimace, Nila shivered. I’m sorry I asked.

  I feel like such an idiot, Nila. Kirsten sniffled; her impending sadness came to a screeching halt as her brain at last processed Evan knowing the dead man’s name.

  “Zee?” Kirsten blinked and twisted around to look at the corpse. “You know this son of a bitch?”

  She went the other way at the sound of clicking. Zee’s spirit stood a few feet away attempting to fire a spectral gun at Evan.

  “The drug guy from Sector D, you remember? The one Shani pantsed. In the cartoon underwear?”

  The ghost snarled.

  “Oh,” said Kirsten, eyes narrowing. “Him. Didn’t he go to jail?”

  “It was just drug charges and assault on a chem-user. He probably did a week and got out. Overcrowding.” Nila grumbled.

  Kirsten stood, keeping a hand on Evan’s shoulder. Shani shivered at a sudden chill in the air while Nila raised an eyebrow.

  “Is he still here?” asked Evan.

  Kirsten beckoned for them. “Not for much longer.”

  Clouds of mist washed over the hood of the black patrol craft as it came in for a landing in front of the Five Hundredth Street Sanctuary. A handful of people in line for free food waved at Kirsten as she got out and adjusted her utility belt. Never before had a hot shower felt so good, even a rushed one after a medical evaluation. Not content to wait for her to open the back door, Evan climbed into the front seat and joined her outside the car.

  Nila, now in her tactical armor, stretched and let Shani out of the rear passenger door on that side. Despite the current situation, Kirsten could not hold back the giggle at the kitten mewls coming from the girl’s sneakers as she ran to her mother. The dire look Nila gave Kirsten only made her laugh louder.

  “Thanks for that, by the way. She saw your Nomz and had to have them. I hear little electronic cats in my sleep now.”

  Shani, with a big grin, shifted her weight from leg to leg to keep them meowing.

  “I dunno. It is kind of cute that the kid-sized ones sound like kittens.”

  I’m going to find the most obnoxious toy I can find and give it to Evan for his birthday.

  Kirsten laughed again and led the way into the building. “I hope this will only be for a few hours, maybe a day or so. Father Villera has agreed to let you stay.”

  “I never thought you’d drag people to church,” said Nila, with an eye roll. “You don’t seriously buy this crap do you?”

  “I don’t know anymore.” Kirsten smiled at a man who moved to create a gap in the line for them to get in. “I do know there is at least enough to it that abyssals won’t walk in here.”

  “I guess… if you think so.” Nila held tight to Shani’s hand. The girl seemed uncomfortable around so many vagrants.

  “The bad ghosts don’t like it here,” said Evan. “I pushed one in with the car and she ‘sploded.”

  Father Villera came around from behind the food-serving table and walked them into the back, indicating a room with two cots and a desk. Shani was all too happy to get out of public view and dove on the left-side bed. Nila folded her arms, remaining in the doorway where Evan clung to Kirsten.

  “I don’t know how I got to you before his men showed up.” She ran her hand over his hair. “Maybe those gang idiots scared them off. Stay here with Nila until its safe.”

  Evan looked up at her, eyes wide. “The bad ghosts can’t get in here, but what if he just sends people?”

  Kirsten patted Nila on the arm. “That’s why Nila’s here…” She thought for a moment and raised her forearm guard. Within a few seconds, Captain Eze’s hologram appeared. “Captain, can you request a Div Six security detail? I’ve found a place where they are safe from demons, but Konstantin might still send ordinary thugs. Most of the security men at his estate were normal.”

  Eze glanced left for a second. “You’re at the church on 500th street?”

  “Yes, sir, abyssals can’t get in here. They’re safe if he sends one of his pets, but he’s also got a lot of money and resources. He could send ordinary mercenaries, maybe even a borg.”

  “Alright, consider it done. The raid found no trace of Konstantin at the manor. Nine is getting ready to go after him at a property belonging to Koloss Venture Capital. They’ve got activity inside on the sensors and the senior-in-command has requested you on-site to handle anything… weird.”

  Kirsten crushed a gasp out of Evan. “Understood, sir. Do I have time to wait for Six to get here? I don’t…”

  “It’s okay, Mom. I don’t feel scared. Don’t let him get away.” He squirmed up and kissed her on the cheek.

  She held back the urge to cry. “Tell them I’m on the way.”

  Nila put a hand on Kirsten’s shoulder as the light from Eze’s hologram flickered out. “Go get that bastard.”

  Evan folded his arms and nodded. “I’ll keep them safe.”

  van’s last comment kept Kirsten on the verge of tears for the entire ride to the nav pin. She wrung her hands on the control sticks, alternating between shivering worry and seething anger. The image of Evan’s confident smile and bright hazel eyes would not leave her mind. All she wanted to do was go home, plant him in her lap and watch Monwyn vids until he was grown up.

  Kirsten glanced at the empty passenger seat, then at the center console.

  “Agent Wren?” an anonymous black helmet appeared floating in hologram.

  “Yes, who are―”

  “My designation for this operation is Whisper 3. I’m in position over the target locati
on. Please follow this waypoint.”

  Damn Div 9s, think they’re better than everyone. “Understood.”

  She clung to her anger at Konstantin as she guided the car along the neon yellow stripe that arced through the air to a point on the roof of a corporate tower. She throttled back, lifting the nose as the patrol craft settled in for a clean landing near four other black hovercars. The only visible difference was their lack of a light-bar. She glanced at the altimeter. Why do we call them all century towers? Some are taller than a hundred stories.

  Kirsten cut her emergency flashers and got out, approaching a black-haired woman in a light, sand-brown coat. The heavy side-buckled boots she wore looked quite similar to Kirsten’s. The woman turned at her approach. A spark of familiarity glinted in dark blue eyes set in the face of a black-haired porcelain doll about four inches taller than her. Don’t offer a handshake first. It’ll make you look like an eager rookie. Nina’s a lieutenant.

  Kirsten saluted.

  “Thanks for coming, agent.” Nina returned the salute. “Are you okay? Heard you had a rough night.”

  “I’m fine, Lieutenant. I just kinda feel a bit out of my league. Oh, did that info I sent you a week or so ago help? That body looked like the work of the sick freak you’ve been looking for.”

  “Lieutenant Duchenne, we’re in position,” shouted a man by the roof access.

  Nina showed no outward emotion. “The scene was cold. Too much time passed. Bertrand is a slippery bastard. I think he’s hiding in The Beneath. Look, if you run into another one of his victims, can you ask them to stick around and help us find him?”

  Kirsten blinked. Someone in Division 9 believes in ghosts? “Uhh, sure… but I can’t force them to.”

  “All I ask is that you ask. I still owe him.” Nina glanced at the door, waving her arm around in a circle. “Okay, people, in we go. We have a Zero along for the ride in case we run into something we can’t explain.” She lowered her voice. “Just stick to me, we’ll do the heavy lifting.”

  “Seriously? You expecting a psionic?”

  Nina leaned on the wall by the stair access. The security code flashed from red to green without her touching it. “If we run into anything fucked up, Agent Wren gets to give orders until the scene is unfucked. Everyone understand?”

  A series of affirmatives filtered over the comm. channel.

  With that, Nina went through the door and descended four floors. At the bottom, another access panel opened on its own. Kirsten eyed a cam bubble in the ceiling, wondering if someone back at Div 9 Net Ops was with them virtually.

  “We’re in position.”

  Kirsten suppressed the urge to shiver at hearing Nina’s voice without seeing her lips move. Knowing it was the result of metal inside her brain unnerved her the way most people felt about telepathic messages.

  “Copy that, Lieutenant,” said a man. “We’re going in three… two…”

  At the one count, Nina shoved the door open and shot three men before any of them even reacted. To Kirsten’s perspective, the woman had waved her arm from left to right and fired a three round burst. Somehow, each man had a bullet hole center mass.

  “No warning?” Kirsten blinked, offering an apologetic look at three confused ghosts.

  Nina moved up to a corner, firing two shots into an armored man thirty meters further ahead. As his body slumped against the wall, she glanced at Kirsten. “They abducted a law officer with intent to kill. They are, according to your statements, responsible for manipulating government and corporate officials via paranormal means, and he is a foreign national.” Another man rushed the corner, blades sprouting out of his forearms. Nina swung her arm into a clothesline move, crushing his body from shoulder to rib. The corpse convulsed on the ground, most of the bones in his chest shattered. “So, no. No warning.”

  “How can you assume their entire security team is culpable?” Kirsten grimaced at the sight of the most recent ghost; the upper half of his body flopped forward as if on a hinge. He gave her the most confused look. “You just tried to attack a Division Nine doll with claws, jackass. What did you expect would happen?”

  Nina squinted. “That thermal anomaly behind you… is that―”

  “Yes, ma’am. No, ma’am, you don’t have a line of them following you. Most don’t linger around much past an hour or so.”

  A section of wall exploded just past Nina’s face. She bent away as more gunfire came down the hall. After a pointed stare at solid drywall, she mumbled.

  “Wait here. I’m gonna scrub the hallway.”

  Kirsten crouched against the frosted glass wall of an executive office as Nina edged to the corner. After the bullets stopped hitting the floor, Nina leapt into a blur of tan coat and black bodysuit. In the span of three seconds, she came to a halt at the far end of the hallway. Six men with rifles fell to the ground. The closest (and first to die) had not yet hit the floor by the time her fist launched the sixth corpse into a vendomat.

  Nina waved at her to come over, but the screech of vibroclaws sent shivers down Kirsten’s spine. A man came through a doorway, his hands surrounded in heat blur. Kirsten shuddered, thinking of the Intera assassin who chased her through a parking garage. She clung to the wall, trembling.

  Arms to the side, he sprang at Nina. The doll body moved as though she did not exist in the same flow of time, blinking out of existence for nanoseconds and appearing feet away from where she had been. Claws raked through empty air.

  He lunged with a wild, frustrated roar, reaching for Nina’s face with a handful of white-hot blades. To Kirsten, the fight from that point forward existed as a series of still images flashed in sequence. Nina leaning left. Her hand on his wrist, his broken arm twisted at an impossible angle. Nina’s left forearm slamming down onto his back. The body, now missing its right arm, embedded hip-deep through the wall.

  The doll’s movement smoothed out, returning to real time. She dropped the ripped-off limb with a squishy plop and made a ‘come here’ gesture with her unbloodied hand. Kirsten blinked. Lucian had no damn idea. She could not help but stare at Nina as if getting too close to her would be fatal. They thought I was Division Nine? Nina would have destroyed those idiots. She imagined the attack at Henry Motte’s house happening with Nina in her place, and laughed.

  Nina lifted an eyebrow. “Are you okay, Agent Wren?”

  “Yeah… just a funny thought.” Kirsten grimaced, losing her smile as she stepped over a severed leg. “Ma’am.”

  After a glance around at the carnage, Nina moved at a brisk stride. “Zeroes find strange things funny. Did one of the ghosts say something?”

  “No, they’re either confused or giving you the finger.” Kirsten jogged to keep up. “Intera tried to kill me awhile back.”

  Nina fired through the wall twice. A man wheezed and hit the ground on the other side. “That’s still not very humorous.”

  “I was just… they thought I was Division Nine because our uniform is black. One of their assassins taunted me for fighting like a little kid. I was laughing at what would have happened if those idiots attacked you.”

  Red laser beams streaked through the smoke and plaster dust behind them as a tracked security robot the size of a one-seat car rolled around the corner. At the same time, three men in front of them fired through shattering glass. Nina spun, gathering Kirsten into her chest as she leapt backwards through a solid wall. The sudden motion jerked her breath away. Stunned from the near-instant transition from standing to lying on top of Nina, Kirsten made a noise like a honking goose as they landed, clutching at the arm across her body. Her brain did not have a chance to consider said arm could crush her before Nina pushed her aside. Smoke trails whizzed by the hole as bot and men fired; too slow to realize their target had moved.

  “Think you can take out that rover?”

  Kirsten gawked. After going through the wall, she barely knew her own name.

  “Hey.” Nina patted her on the cheek. “You still there?”

 
E-90 out, on. “Yeah. Sorry, disoriented from the… How did we get in here?”

  “S tart firing at the bot in two seconds. I’ll deal with the three on the right.”

  After crawling behind a desk, Kirsten draped herself over the top and fired through frosted glass walls. Shimmering streaks of azure light sent flaring plumes of smoke and molten glass airborne. Nina dove through the drywall again, making a new hole. Kirsten ignored the sound of men screaming, continuing to fire pulse after pulse into the wall at the massive tracked security bot. A piece of assault rifle bounced past the hole in the wall, hand still attached to it. A wet, splintering crunch cut off a man’s scream. Something clicked off the front of the desk Kirsten hid behind; a bloody tooth rolled to a halt on the carpet.

  Holy shit.

  She ducked a hail of plaster dust and flying glass shards as the rotating security rover machine-gunned its way through the wall. Small patches of fire and sparks flared out of laser holes, though no serious damage was apparent. Scurrying to the left, she spun around the side of the desk. Without a wall blocking her view, she had a clear shot at the thing. As fast as the E-90’s core could cycle, she put six beams into it. Four in the central body and two through a boxy part in the back she hoped contained the ammunition for its guns.

  It sputtered, twisting side to side in erratic jerking motions, and the rear end exploded in a ball of green flames. Nina, bloody up to both elbows, came out of nowhere and landed on top of it with a heavy, crashing whump. A pair of Nano claws emerged from between the knuckles of her right hand, which she drove into the forward end of the main body. One twist rendered the bot silent and dark. It collapsed amid splayed legs.

  “Control box on these Sentinel-4’s is right here.” Nina pulled her claws out with an ear-bleeding squeal of synthetic diamond on plastisteel. The blades slid without a sound back into her forearm as she leapt to the ground. “Decent job of keeping it occupied though.”

  Kirsten got up, pushing herself to her feet with two handfuls of desk. “Are those things legal?”