Recall

by M. Van

  “Ty, get those fingers tapping, I need to know which one of those magnetic lifts will get us closest to Maece and Saera.”

  Chapter twenty-five

  Maece

  I didn’t know whether it was the concrete or my body that I heard breaking. My back sat pinned against the wall while that enormous monstrosity of a man that we had seen lying on the floor inside that cell held an iron grip on my throat. My hands clawed at his, trying to pry his fingers from my neck to get some precious air inside my lungs. The tips of my boots barely touched the ground as I heard the gears and hydraulic hinges grinding underneath the man’s skin. He raised his arm, and I could already picture his fist plowing into my side again. I didn’t have to imagine the pain. I already felt it.

  An enforcer watched us from a distance, weapon raised. He waited patiently, and I wondered if he was supposed to drag my unconscious body or my corpse down this hallway. About half a dozen officers struggled to pick themselves off the floor where I had left them. I had taken down five and was about to challenge the enforcer when someone had released this thing from its cage.

  I had no idea what had gone wrong after we’d entered the room at the end of this hall. All seemed fine as we waited for Kyran to make his connection to the system through my heads-up. Without a warning from Kyran or any other of Harp’s people monitoring the operation, the officers swarmed the hallway as if they had known that we would be there.

  In a split second, I had tipped the heads-up from my head and had shoved it into Saera’s hand. All I had thought to do was to buy us some time to finish the upload. That’s why I had decided to confront our uninvited guests heads-on and stop them inside the hallway before they could reach Saera. Everything after that had been a blur of motions. My fists had connected, and I had fired my weapon with precision even without the heads-up. I should have been able to have taken them out without a hitch, even that enforcer—if someone hadn’t had the brilliant idea of setting this freak on the loose.

  As darkness invaded my vision, I registered a door opening somewhere inside the hall. It wasn’t hard to recognize Saera as she shouted her equivalent of a battle cry. I wanted to warn her, to tell her to get out, but I felt the strength fade from my body and my consciousness waver. The freak’s body jerked, and his hold on me lessened. He turned to face Saera, who’d fired her weapon, alternating her aim between the freak and the enforcer.

  The hand on my throat was pulled away, and I sank to the ground, gasping for air. I still felt the darkness pull at me as the com piece in my ear crackled.

  Tyrel’s voice kept me from falling over the edge of unconsciousness, and I tried to focus on what she was saying. This wasn’t an easy thing to do among weapons-fire and an oxygen-deprived brain.

  “Maece, we have eyes on you. Help is on the way,” she said. “The file on that thing reads it is still human—it can be killed.”

  Taking deep breaths, I lifted my head to get a grip on the scene unfolding around me. The freak and the enforcer were driving Saera into a corner near the door of the office we had used to upload the files. The freak bled from several penetration wounds but kept moving. The small-caliber rounds from Saera’s weapon weren’t a match for him. The enforcer merely held an arm up to shield the unprotected parts of his face from the projectiles exiting Saera’s weapon. The rounds just bounced off his suit. He hadn’t fired his weapon, so I figured they wanted us alive—at least for the moment.

  I looked for my weapon, but it had found its way across the hall and lay too far out of reach. Silently cursing, I got to my feet. My body ached, especially in the shoulder where the protectiveness of my suit had worn off.

  Soundlessly, I moved behind the enforcer. If I wanted any fighting chance against that freak, then I needed to take him out first. Saera caught sight of me as I slipped a blade from the sheath strapped to my belt. The moment she saw me, I knew I had to act fast because the enforcer’s heads-up would register the eye movement.

  Surely enough, the enforcer turned, lowering the hand he held up to shield his face. The other hand lifted to point his gun at me, but it was too late. In one swift motion, my blade had found its way between his defenses and slid along the length of his throat. Blood splattered the ground, and the shields embedded inside the wall fluctuated as the dark-red fluid hit the energy field. I reminded myself to not look inside the room beyond the shield. Another look at that torturous bioprinter wasn’t something I thought I could handle right now.

  “Go,” I shouted as I whipped the hand wielding the knife around and slammed the blade into the freak’s back. To my shock, it didn’t fully enter as it hit something hard. The freak flung out his arms with a loud growl. I ducked as his giant fist tried to find my face. Saera did the same, and the freak’s other fist rammed the wall just above her head.

  “You need the heads-up,” Tyrel shouted over the coms, “if you want any chance to make a dent in that thing. Also, the upload should be done by now.”

  “Got it,” Saera called out as our eyes met, and I nodded. She bolted in the direction of the door.

  Drawing the freak’s attention away from Saera, I drew a smaller knife from a sheath strapped to my upper arm, dropped down on one knee, and cut him. I had hoped to sever the muscles in his calf, but instead of slicing through the skin with ease, I felt the blade grind on metal. Tyrel was right, if I wanted to hurt this thing, I needed the heads-up to tell where to strike.

  The freak growled, spinning at high speed, and lashed out with his claw-like foot. He caught me by surprise and kicked me hard in the side. The force of the blow sent me skidding several feet across the ground. I groaned as I pulled my cheek from the sleek floor. I shook my head as the freak came barreling down at me. With a quick glance at the door, I rolled away from the advancing monstrosity—where was Saera?

  The freak’s foot stomped down where my head had been just a moment ago. The thing was fast, and I needed the heads-up to calculate and predict its moves.

  “Saera,” I shouted as I tried to get to my feet and ducked away from the raging figure. I moved too slowly, and he caught my arm. My knife clattered to the ground, and I screamed in pain. It felt as if my arm was about to be wrenched from my body. Instead, he flung me backward, and I hit the shielded wall. The displayed window wavered, and a rippled water effect ran up the energy barrier as my body sunk down to the ground.

  I gripped my arm; it felt as if it had been pulled from its socket, although I didn’t think that was possible as long as I wore the suit. The copper taste of blood filled my mouth, and I spit it out before I pushed myself into a sitting position.

  The freak had no intention of stopping his onslaught as I scrambled across the floor to create some distance. My boots lost their grip on the slick floor as I pushed off, and the soles squeaked.

  A quick glance down the hallway told me my knife was out of reach, but the freak’s effort had thrown me close enough to my weapon that I could almost reach it. Ignoring the pain in my arm and the rest of my body, I scrambled across the floor on hands and feet.

  “Saera,” I shouted again as I pushed off in a final effort to throw myself at the weapon. Something stopped me short of a few inches. That same something jerked my leg, and I felt my body leave the ground.

  The only things running through my mind were pretty much obscene curse words that I didn’t even remember knowing as my body was hurled through the air. This thing was obsessed with throwing stuff. Within a fraction of a second, I registered Saera appearing at the door before I slammed into her. We both crashed to the floor in a heap.

  “Jeez, Maece,” Saera said, sounding breathless, “I was on my way.”

  I looked up at her equally breathless and opened my mouth with the intention of asking what had taken her so long, but I froze at the animalistic scream that came from the hallway. Another scream followed the sound, but from someone with more human qualities, and this one was born out of fear.

  Perching ourselves up in the door opening, I watched the frea
k drag an officer by the leg. I hadn’t even thought about the half dozen men that I had managed to incapacitate before someone had released the freak. That’s what getting your ass kicked by an enhanced mutilated creature apparently did.

  One or two of the remaining five officers had crowded the magnetic lift and relentlessly hit the panel to summon the transport for a swift escape. The others were trying to make their way to the staircase. I guessed the freak had other ideas.

  He dragged one of the officers by the leg, kicking and screaming. At the door of the lift, one of the other men stood and watched restlessly, as if debating whether he should intervene, but then he turned to join his comrades.

  At my side, Saera’s eyes grew wide as the freak stopped and grabbed the screaming man by his uniform.

  “Get back,” I said. Having experienced it myself, I had a pretty good idea of what was about to happen.

  With no time to get to our feet, I grabbed Saera around the waist and pulled her back—dragging her inside the room.

  Fortunately, she had the sense to cooperate. As we pulled our feet across the threshold, I reached up and slammed the controls to close the door.

  The door started to slide into its locked position as something, or rather someone, crashed against it and stopped it from closing completely. The officer’s broken body lay crumpled inside the door’s opening. His head had cracked open, exposing a gray, bloody mash. The freak had thrown the officer’s body to stop us from locking ourselves in. Apparently, that thing was smarter than it looked.

  “We’ve gotta move,” I said, staggering to my feet and pulling Saera up along with me.

  “Yeah, but where to?”

  I glanced around the room. It was a dead end. Feeling the unsteadiness in my legs, I grabbed hold of a table to keep myself from keeling over. My breathing was labored, and along with the tinge of panic that started to surface, it took some effort to stop myself from hyperventilating. As if sensing my discomfort, Saera wrapped an arm around my waist to help steady me. She had a worried look on her face as she studied me.

  “Are you okay?” she asked in a strained voice.

  I nodded, unsure if my voice could hide the emotions I felt. Unwilling to disclose my feelings and the fact that my throat hurt from where that freak had gripped me, I kept my mouth shut—it even hurt to breathe.

  Saera’s eyes were wide, and her breathing was heavy, but without my heads-up, I couldn’t be sure what she was feeling or how she was doing. The sight of her led me to believe she was scared as I recognized that feeling inside myself. That sensation of fear that once had felt so alien to me spiked as a hand gripped around the edge of the door.

  I glanced at Saera, who swallowed hard. Then she lifted her hand and handed me the heads-up she’d been holding.

  “Kyran’s finished with it,” she said. For a split second, I wondered if he had succeeded in getting the data out into the world, but that would have to wait. We had bigger problems.

  The officer’s body wedged between the door twitched. Quickly, I placed the heads-up over my eyes and took in the room. A second later, the body was yanked away from the door opening. A soft thud announced the landing of it somewhere inside the hallway.

  With a loud growl, the freak wrenched the door open and stepped inside.

  “Oh shit,” Saera muttered. I took a breath to gain my composure and forced myself to stand on my own as I shifted to maneuver in front of Saera.

  “Eh, Maecy…what’s the plan?” she whispered near my ear as if that thing hearing her would make a difference. A scan with my heads-up registered only the lowest of brain functions and indicated a device lodged at the back of the freak’s neck.

  The freak took another step forward. Its broad shoulders had barely fit through the opening of the door. Eyes that rolled inside oversized eye sockets homed in on us. The freak’s entire face looked as if it had been sculpted around a helmet.

  Cheekbones had doubled in size, and its forehead looked as if it had come from a prehistoric creature. My heads-up took it all in, and I felt the panic I had felt before had loosened its grip on me. The device strapped to my head had already depicted the weak spots that I would need to hit if I wanted to survive this next encounter, and although it didn’t make the fear go away, I did feel I could breathe again. My confidence slowly returned.

  “I’m gonna distract it,” I said in answer to Saera’s question, “then you’re gonna bolt.” Saera took hold of my arm, and I sensed she was about to speak. “Saera, don’t argue. I’m just gonna be long enough for you to get past the door. Then I’m right behind you.”

  “Sure,” she replied, drawing out the word.

  Instinctively we both took a couple of steps back as the freak moved forward.

  “God, that thing is ugly,” she said as she hung on to my shoulders. “And naked, very naked.”

  “Get ready,” I said, ignoring her.

  “Are you sure about this?” she asked, “I mean, look at that thing.”

  “Saera!” I said. Saera yelped, but it wasn’t from the sound of my harsh voice. The thing had grabbed a chair standing by the table and lifted it over his head. In a reflex gesture, I shoved Saera and then ducked down, heading in the opposite direction. The chair slammed into the wall and broke on impact. Pieces clattered to the ground as the freak screamed.

  From my peripheral vision, I could see Saera hunkered down against the wall, protecting her ears with the palms of her hands. I wondered if the bioprinter had altered this thing’s vocal cords. The sound it produced must have been one of the most awful things that I had ever heard.

  The thing glanced across the room as if it were assessing it. Its eyes fell on Saera. I stood, wanting to draw its attention, but then shots were fired inside the hallway. The freak only hesitated for a moment at the sound before it set its sights on Saera again. I had already seized the moment as I pushed off with all the strength my suit had to offer and slammed my shoulder into the creature. Catching it off balance, it staggered back into the hallway. Within seconds of entering the now less-than-sterile hallway, I used the heads-up to give me the lowdown of what those shots I had heard meant.

  The doors to the lift where I had last seen the remainder of officers trying to find a way out stood open. The bodies of those same men now lay on the floor in pools of blood. Riffy stood at the lift’s door, holding it open while, from the corner of my eye, I caught Reece standing over the body of the enforcer.

  “Saera!” I shouted as I pushed at the freak’s body. Its back collided with the energy field, and the window’s integrity fluctuated.

  It didn’t take the freak long to overpower my hold on him. My strength was no match for his, and he overturned our position, slamming me into the shield and made the barrier shimmer again. At least I had its attention.

  As if on cue, Saera stepped into the door opening as I shouted her name again, but it was Reece who claimed her immediate attention.

  “Lift…now!”

  At that point, the freak decided to lift me off my feet. For a moment, I wondered if he were about to throw me after Saera, but then Reece’s magnetic blast slamming into its side made the giant falter, and he released his grip on me. My legs buckled from underneath me, and I crashed to the floor. The freak threw his hands in the air and growled like an animal.

  The tiny bit of respite felt welcome and allowed me to catch my breath. My heads-up registered the sound of a gun sliding across the floor before I heard it myself. As if on autopilot, my hand reached out to receive the weapon tossed by Reece across the floor.

  “Now, don’t start spraying those,” he shouted, “or we’ll all get a tan.” I lifted my head in time to see his hand make a gesture that hinted at an explosion. The hint was enough to tell me he had loaded the enforcer’s weapon with the special ammo. I would have to create some distance between me and the freak if I wanted to survive the blast.

  Reece grimaced as the mechanically altered body turned to face him.

  “Wow, there,
” he said as he raised a hand to shield himself from laying eyes on the deformed giant, “ever heard of pants?”

  Reece fired another couple of rounds at the creature as he muttered, “That is just wrong.” Then he turned on his heels and bolted in the direction of the magnetic lift.

  “Whenever you’re ready, babe,” he yelled over his shoulder. Without wasting any time, I kicked out my leg and connected as hard as I could with the freak’s knee. Except for some metal grinding inside the leg and a reflective step forward by the freak, the kick hadn’t done much, but then I didn’t need much. Just enough to escape from the grasp of the freak who had found a renewed interest in me after he had stopped growling.

  On hands and feet, I scooted across the floor. My boots squeaked on the slick tiles as I managed to get to my feet. Ahead, Saera gave me an anxious look as she stood inside the box that would hopefully take us down to the Hymag while Riffy and Reece seemed to be fiddling with the doors.

  “Go,” I shouted, and as if he had read my mind, Reece slammed a fist into one of the buttons that set the lift in motion.

  As I got halfway down the hallway, I probably should have felt my nerves jump into overdrive as I watched the heads of Saera, Reece, and Riffy disappear while the box lowered itself. But somehow there wasn’t an inch of doubt in my mind that they’d never leave me behind.

  As the three of them disappeared, I raised the weapon in my hand and swung it to point behind me. The freak hadn’t wasted any time to make his pursuit and sat right on my heels—too close.

  At the lack of choices, I pulled the trigger, and as I felt the kickback of the weapon reverberate through my arm, I forced my legs to move faster. From the information fed to me by the heads-up, I immediately knew something was off. There had been too much of a time delay, and just as I glanced over my shoulder, I witnessed the explosion at the other end of the hall. I had missed the freak. The damned thing was too fast, and I had miscalculated my trajectory.