Sword

by JC Andrijeski

  Still, the presence of four of them, all in one place, made me nervous.

  Scanning them again, I felt my paranoia ratchet up higher.

  I honestly couldn’t tell if that fear stemmed from something legitimate, or if my nerves were just fraying the longer we were down here.

  If even one of those people I felt set off the alarm, we would have to shoot our way out. We were too far in for any other option to be feasible, especially if SCARB military units descended on our location. Plus, given the stakes and how far we’d come already, I assumed we’d at at least try and complete the op, even if our cover got blown.

  Well, unless the response came down on us so fast that wasn’t an option.

  It occurred to me again that this operation would only be bloodless if it went off without a hitch. It also occurred to me how dumb I’d been, not to realize that at a deeper level before I got this far into it.

  Things could always go wrong, wasn’t that what Revik had said?

  Something inevitably would go wrong, he’d also said. It was a given, in any kind of field op. Nothing ever went exactly according to plan. The plan was a starting point, he’d said, but the truth was, running anything on the ground was all about making adjustments as things unfolded, from tiny course corrections to game-changers, depending on what played out.

  That all made sense to me at the time––in theory.

  I’d listened to them joke about the op they’d almost blown because a janitor wasn’t where he was supposed to be, but had been jerking off in the restroom to a portable vid. They’d told stories about ops blown by equipment failures of whatever kind, bad intelligence they’d gotten off an infiltrator who turned out to be working both sides, a crappy wire that kept a door from opening to a storage facility right as they’d been trying to break in to steal organic machines.

  Thinking about all this now and scanning ahead, my mind went into overdrive.

  What if they had guards who sent out light pulses to confuse their identities, make them look human, or harmless, or simply invisible?

  After all, wasn’t that what we were doing?

  All they had to do was hit the alarms.

  At the thought, I stopped dead in the aisle.

  I did a swift pass on the humans again. Threading my light through them, I changed my frequency, piercing the shield I felt like a few hundred silk threads––and hoping like hell it was subtle enough that they wouldn’t feel it.

  The shield around them lit up like a Christmas tree.

  The four humans were still there, but they were no longer alone.

  Six seers. Four of those were techs, too.

  Two of them carrying––so likely those two were security of some kind. I couldn’t get detail around the precise weapons or who they were in such a quick pass, but whatever they carried vibrated at a frequency I didn’t much like.

  The four seer techs had some kind of fluid on their clothes and aprons. That same something coated the thick rubber gloves they wore up to their shoulders. Being less tightly covered by their own light, I even glimpsed the thoughts of one of them.

  Something wrong in the mixture, I heard. Some of the new stuff rotting, not bonding with the semis… need a different shipment, maybe younger this time.

  Clicking out, I realized why the vats bothered me.

  A wave of nausea hit me as the thought sank in.

  As the thought continued to grow and connect with the tech’s words and with other things that occurred to me, I felt sick––sick enough that I nearly emptied my stomach right there on the floor. Fighting the realization away from my light, I forced myself to think, to concentrate on holding the shield, but that sick feeling worsened as I looked up at the vats.

  They were building organic machines in here. They were using seer bodies to do it.

  I gripped Wreg’s arm.

  Wreg met my gaze. Looking at his face, I could see and feel he’d picked up all of it, including the last part, through the construct and our close proximity. Gesturing another series of signals to the others, he pointed at Nikka and another seer, whose name was Torou, I think.

  I only picked out a few of the motions.

  “Stay with the Bridge,” I saw him gesture, his face hard.

  Turning, he jogged up ahead, moving soundlessly.

  I kept my light off the seers I’d felt, but continued to watch them with some part of my light, even as I wrapped the shield closer to Wreg and the seers who left with him.

  Nikka took my arm, pulling me with her between the vats, even as we continued to make our way down the aisle, moving in the same direction as before.

  I saw her looking at me, as if she could read something in my face.

  She looked worried.

  Not for the first time, I wished like hell I knew sign language better.

  The whole group felt tense now, jacked up. Noticing that the white shield I’d created was beginning to change frequency, I switched my focus.

  The distraction helped.

  I pulled hard from above, using my aleimi to bring down more of that white light. I washed it over the top of the shield to calm them down, get them thinking clearly.

  Within seconds, I felt the group begin to stabilize. When I glanced at Nikka next, she was staring at me, her eyes holding an open amazement.

  She clutched my arm tighter, and that time, I felt a surge of protectiveness behind her fingers. Motioning with her head, she indicated that she wanted to move us closer to the main doors that led into the room where they kept the mainframe.

  Nodding, I followed her, aware suddenly that the focus of the entire team now seemed to center on me, not Wreg.

  Up ahead, I felt him with Jax and Loki. My nerves rose when I realized he could see the group of seer techs and their bodyguards with his physical eyes. The two security guards were SCARB military, I picked up through the shield.

  One of the other seers had something different about them, too, as if––

  Black Arrow security, I got through the construct.

  Wreg didn’t see the humans anymore. He was hesitating on taking out the security detail before he located them, worried they might hear it if the seers went down.

  I looked at Nikka.

  “Can you get one of the others to knock out the humans?” I asked Wreg through the subvocals. “If I show you where they are?”

  I felt Wreg’s surprise. Then I felt his affirmative, just before Nikka looked at Garensche, who sent a signal down the line from Wreg.

  Garensche and Ike disappeared, running silently to the other side of the long corridor.

  I sent Wreg another faint pulse when they got within visual range, telling him to go ahead.

  “Have Gar keep one,” I told him silently. “Human.”

  I felt him understand.

  Inside the shield, I saw nine hits from the team, the first cluster occurring almost simultaneously, with three more in rapid succession. The guns made only a pale exhale with each shot, soundless inside the Barrier. In the room itself, any physical noise made by the weapons must have been swallowed under the hum of grinding gears and machinery.

  I flinched––then realized they weren’t bullets.

  Darts left the organic weapons on the team’s wrists, hitting seers and humans in the throat and chests. They focused the most firepower on the SCARB soldiers of course, followed by the seer techs, including the one from Black Arrow.

  Whatever they had loaded in those guns worked fast. It dropped seers and humans alike with barely an exhaled breath––again, making almost no sound.

  In the same instant, I felt a tremor in the Barrier from Ike and Garensche as they subdued one of the humans without knocking him out, wrestling his hands behind his back and feeling him over for organics and other communication devices.

  I modulated the shield to compensate, thickening it around the human in case he had something on him to communicate with the outside. I felt nothing.

  Between them, they got the human under con
trol, almost silently.

  I felt the group collectively let out another exhale.

  Nikka put her mouth to my ear. “Are there others, Esteemed Bridge?”

  Her voice was barely a whisper.

  I let my light filter just under the construct I felt above ours. Looking around the space, I took a snapshot, then returned.

  “Six more humans,” I told Wreg. “All dispersed. All working on machines, cleaning, or doing maintenance. None in this main room. I don’t think they’ll come near us, so we might want to leave them alone. Two are close to doorways, so I wouldn’t want to drop them there.” I paused. “I don’t feel any more seers. A shitload watching the place from the construct, but I didn’t see any leaks.”

  Getting a translation of this from Loki, who’d returned ahead of Wreg, Nikka blinked at me, then grinned. Saluting me, she turned to the others, relaying the message in hand-gestures.

  Then we all began moving rapidly towards Wreg, who stood near the lower door leading to the room where they kept the data storage computer.

  Ike and Garensche brought the human between them.

  I saw the glassy eyes, knew they were pushing him.

  He even looked like a lab tech. Curly brown hair, dark skin, black-rimmed glasses. His vague brown eyes appeared pleasantly happy, as though he were dozing in front of a fireplace after a heavy meal––or maybe just after he took a big toke off a hiri smoke.

  As I reached Wreg’s side, he clasped my arm again, his eyes warm, openly affectionate.

  “Bridge,” he subvocalized. “You are a goddess.” He motioned at the human. “Why did you want him?”

  I felt my jaw clench. Without answering Wreg, I walked to the human.

  “Ask him what’s in the vats,” I said to Wreg.

  Wreg hand-gestured to Ike, who held the human’s mind.

  The tech’s face lit up, presumably the instant he heard the question.

  “High-grade bio-mixture… top of the line, really…”

  “For who?” I asked Wreg.

  “Military grade.” The human smiled. “Can do anything with it, really! Top of the line… really top of the line…”

  “Where is the source material?”

  “Shipped in.” That contented smile. “Shipped in… underground. The main camp. Outside Manous… any kind we want… any age, sex, ethnicity… whatever we need…”

  I felt my jaw harden until it hurt. I looked at Wreg.

  “Can’t do anything about it now,” Wreg said neutrally.

  “Did you know about this?” I asked him.

  He gestured negative, looking up at the vats. I felt sickness on him, too. Enough that I realized he’d been shielding it from me until then.

  “No, princess,” he said. “Plans must have been wrong. Not unusual, in these kinds of facilities. They keep them quiet. Falsify the layouts. Wipe the humans after, you know? Keeps the seer’s rights groups off their backs.” He met my gaze, clasping my arm. “Hey, princess. You all right?”

  I shook my head, feeling tears coming to my eyes.

  Angrily, I wiped them away. I gestured at the human.

  “Knock this piece of shit out.” I bit my lip, fighting a part of me that wanted to do a lot more to him than that.

  At Wreg’s hand gesture, the seers did as I asked.

  I watched the human’s eyes go blank, right before they closed. He went limp in their arms, and Ike and Jax dragged him behind one of the machines, out of sight of the main floor.

  I watched them work, feeling Wreg’s eyes on me.

  I wanted to ask him about the labs, about what else they might have on site, but I shook it off, forcing myself to focus on why we were there.

  When I looked over, I saw compassion in Wreg’s eyes.

  “Call your mate,” he subvocalized. “One ping. Use the structure you share with him.” He highlighted it briefly over my head. “We need him to open the door, Esteemed Bridge.”

  I followed with my eyes to where his hand indicated, focusing on the old-looking, iron locking mechanism. It appeared to be made up of at least ten sets of locks, each of which required keys. Next to that stood a straight keypad with raised buttons.

  I didn’t see anything on either that looked remotely organic.

  Kind of grossly ironic, given what simmered in the vats behind us.

  “He can get us in there?” I said, impressed in spite of myself.

  “Yes, princess.” He grinned then, clapping me on the shoulder. I felt an infusion of his light; I could feel him trying to cheer me up.

  “Call him,” he urged. “I just wish I could see the boss’s face when you do.”

  Hesitating at this, I studied Wreg’s expression, once more focused on the work we’d come here to do. We must be off-schedule, maybe more so because I’d wanted to question the human. Everything took too long––the sentient machine, the lab techs, the SCARB soldiers.

  On the other hand, nothing had resulted in a major catastrophe, at least not yet. I did feel like I was about to have a heart attack, but otherwise, I thought things had gone relatively well, all things considered. It certainly could have been worse.

  I glanced around at the others, and saw smiles on their faces, as well.

  Taking a breath, I focused on the structure that formed part of my bond with Revik.

  I pinged him the way they’d shown me in Santos––quietly.

  His presence rose at once. I felt his surprise, then a glimmer of alarm.

  What’s wrong?

  Nothing. Thinking about the vats, I amended, I’ll tell you later. We’re at the door. They said to call you.

  You’re there?

  Yes. I glanced at the others, who were still grinning at me. I forced a smile, using the white light to lift my own mood. You want to let us in? They have this crazy idea that you can break like sixteen locks just by looking at them.

  There was a pause. Then I felt a thick pulse of heat from him, enough to take my breath. I felt my cheeks warm.

  Honey, I sent. This is hardly the time––

  You have no idea what a hard-on I have right now, he sent back. Jesus, Alyson, you’re like forty minutes ahead of schedule. Did you know that?

  I looked around at the others, a little confused.

  They said it was okay.

  Did you do that?

  No, I sent. I mean… we all did.

  There was another silence. Are you all right? he sent.

  I’m okay. I’ll explain later, I promise. It doesn’t impact the op.

  His warmth pulsed at me again. Show me the door, love.

  Turning, I fought the blush off my face from his light, focusing on the outside of the metal door. I let my eyes and light run over each of the locks, moving to details as he directed me. I watched him work, moving from lock to lock, using my light along with his to break or slide open each one. He was meticulous, focused, and I felt his light doing things that I’d never seen aleimi do. A good chunk of it filled me with disbelief as I tried to figure out how he managed it.

  He’d never really let me see him do his thing before. Watching him in action now, I found myself biting my lip, fighting to hide my incredulity from him.

  No wonder the other seers worshipped him. By the end, I was so far in his light, I was turned on, and having trouble hiding it from him.

  Finally, he seemed satisfied.

  Okay, try it.

  I nodded at Jax, who stood closest to the door.

  Don’t open it yet. Not all the way.

  Wreg gestured to Jax.

  The seer reached out, yanking down on the L-shaped handle. There was a loud-sounding click, then the door opened with a faint creak. He didn’t pull it open any further, though, not even to take it off the doorframe.

  Instead, Jax looked at me, waiting.

  You’re a superhero, I told Revik. It’s open.

  Tell them I’m disengaging the cameras now, he sent. I’ll ping when you can enter. Wait for my signal.

  Got it, I ac
knowledged.

  I’m going to fuck your brains out when we get back, he sent, along with another pulse of heat. Gods, baby. You’re unbelievable…

  Before I could think of a response, he evaporated from my light.

  When I glanced at Wreg, he was grinning.

  “You’re blushing, princess,” he said through the sub-vocals. “I take it he was pleased?”

  Just then, I felt the ping in my light.

  “Cameras are down,” I told him, avoiding his eyes.

  He laughed a little, silently, as Jax opened the door, which gave out a longer creak.

  Cautiously, he peered his head around the opening. I watched as Jax grinned as well, then stepped over the raised threshold and into the room beyond. Past the opening, I could already hear the louder hum of machinery.

  “After you, princess,” Wreg said, still smiling at me.

  Shaking my head at him, half in embarrassment, I rolled my eyes, following after Nikka as the Chinese-looking infiltrator held out a hand indicating for me to go in ahead of him.

  I realized they’d managed to distract me from the vats, even as it occurred to me to be grateful to Wreg for keeping me focused.

  It also crossed my mind that they were a lot more likely to have friends and family in there than I was, so if they could set their feelings aside while we did this, I certainly could.

  As I stepped over the threshold of the steel door, something else occurred to me.

  I was now, officially, a real terrorist.

  36

  MAINFRAME

  ON THE OTHER side of that door stood the largest non-organic machine I’d ever seen in real life. It crouched inside a tall, square room that seemed to have been built around it, rather than the reverse. The machine filled all but a few walking and access corridors around a space that approximated the size of the small airplane hangar where we’d stayed in Santos.

  It also rose a full story above the cement floor.

  I just stared up at it for a moment, dumbfounded.

  “Why would any machine need to be that big?” I subvocalized to Wreg.

  He didn’t answer exactly, but raised an eyebrow in my direction.