Heir Ascendant (Faded Skies Book 1)

by Matthew S. Cox

  “I am sorry for making you sad. You were a good mother to him. It isn’t your fault. I understand why you tried to kidnap Maya. I don’t think she would blame you.”

  “She’s manipulating you,” Headcrash yelled. “It’s a damn machine; it wants you to feel sorry for it.”

  “What for?” Moth asked. “You know we’d be out of here and rich if she didn’t ask for Xenodril. Damn corporation doesn’t want to give up its golden egg.”

  “It would have been cheaper for them to give you the drug.” Maya looked at Moth. “It costs forty seven cents per dose to manufacture. It is wrong that woman’s company sells it for over two hundred dollars. You wanted forty million? Assuming you sell the Xenodril for fifty dollars a dose, a quarter of the price, an equivalent amount of medicine would have only cost Ascendant four hundred forty-one thousand and change. You should’ve asked for all drugs. That woman might’ve agreed to that just to be rid of the nuisance of having to deal with this situation.”

  “Stop staring at me!” Headcrash ducked behind the rat’s nest, shaking. “The Authority is watching and listening to us through her.”

  Moth pulled his gun.

  Genna jumped up and grabbed it. “Moron! Do you want to nuke us all?” Her voice wavered with a trace of sadness.

  Maya tilted her head back, gazing into the ceiling with her arms dangling limp at her sides. After a moment, she made eye contact with Moth. “I am unable to establish a wireless connection to the AuthNet. There is no signal here. We are too far away from the Sanctuary Zone.”

  “She’s lying!” Headcrash wailed.

  “You tapped a hardline, correct?” Maya gestured at the pile of junk. “We are two miles beyond the range of the signal dampers. You should know the AuthNet is unreachable far outside the walls to prevent hacking. Your connection is a splice on an old backbone line running from Baltimore to DC. The Authority is as blind as Icarus in the dark.”

  The shaking Asian man held up a middle finger―aimed the wrong way.

  Moth looked between the hacker and the girl. “Well, Crash? Is there wireless here?”

  “No,” he whimpered.

  “Paranoid fuck,” Genna muttered.

  Maya keyed in the next code, but it failed to open the cuff. “If the Authority is watching us, it would be with Moth’s electronic eyes. High-density PCM microwave transmission arrays were standard issue for augmented infantry in the Third World War, correct?”

  “Stop that,” Genna whispered, resting a hand on the girl’s shoulder. “Don’t make me break out the tape again.”

  Maya pouted and draped her hands in her lap. “She’s not going to give you anything. You should let me go and get out of here before the Authority drones find you.”

  “What if―” Headcrash peeked over his barrier, gun pointed at Moth.

  “I’m gonna break that off in your ass, fat man.” Moth reached for him. “Then I’m going to throw your stinking rats overboard one at a time and make you watch.”

  “No!” Head wailed and crawled under the desk. “Don’t hurt them.”

  A fluttering beep emanated from the terminal in time with a flashing orange light. Everyone froze in silence.

  Moth leaned toward Headcrash, arms wide, gun held out. “Well… answer it!”

  he hacker reached up, his hesitant gesture hovering long enough for a rat to scurry over his arm to the desk. Once his finger breached the hanging wall of light, piercing the button, the perturbed face of Vanessa Oman tinted the room with shades of gold and brown. Rustling and uncomfortable breathing surrounded her, perhaps a crisis team or one of her famous midnight board meetings.

  “I’m not going to say this again. You cretins will not get anything. In what world did you think abducting my daughter would allow you to extort even one dollar from Ascendant Pharmaceuticals?” The woman scowled. “Go ahead, kill her. I’ll make another one. I’ve got plenty of eggs in the freezer.”

  Little fingers dug into the mattress.

  “I can see her behind you. Go ahead, shoot. I’ll even watch if it will get you Frags to stop pestering me.” Talon-like fingernails, lilac streaked with arcs of silver, clicked on the table. The impatient drumming echoed off the walls.

  Maya stared at her lap, her voice lifeless. “She has dozens of androids just like me. She’s trying to make you set off the bomb. It will make her laugh to watch you kill yourselves.”

  Headcrash hung up the call. Icarus screamed at the sudden dimming and dove for cover behind his recliner. Moth stomped around in the exit hallway, kicking the wall and swearing. Maya leaned forward, feet together, and rested her chin on the peak of her knees. After a moment of no one speaking, she looked up at Genna. The woman had been staring at her, statue still since the video feed. Twin lines of wet streaked over dark cheeks.

  “Sorry about Sam,” Maya whispered. “It’s Vanessa’s fault. Xenodril should be free.”

  Genna ran a hand over Maya’s hair, pity in her eyes. Giggles of children outside, up far past their bedtime, echoed on a momentary breeze. The woman exhaled and trudged to the couch, beads and trinkets in her hair clattering.

  Moth settled down ten minutes later and fell into his sentinel chair, chin braced against his fist in The Thinker’s pose. Genna held her head in both hands, rubbing her temples while studying the floor. Headcrash whispered soft, comforting things to his rats and fed them cereal beads. Maya eyed the tiny rubber buttons on the cuff, doubting the veracity of Genna’s threat to retie her. She slid a hand down her leg, fingertips inching closer to the restraint.

  Icarus screamed and ran up on Moth. “The shadows are coming! Dammit, Moth, I need a score. I’m out, man… I coulda sworn… Fuck the Authority, you paranoid bastard.”

  Genna bounded to her feet, grasping the pistol under her arm.

  Moth launched him across the apartment with a one-armed shove, landing him square in his recliner. “Head’s the paranoid one. I’m a realist.”

  “You’re getting good at that,” said Genna. “Hitting the chair.”

  Icarus roared, clawing stuffing from the armrests as he leapt upright, gun drawn. He started to charge at Moth, but Genna slide tackled him, lacing her legs with his before she torqued his wiry body to the floor with a hard twist of her hips. Two shots went out the gap in the wall. An explosion of pigeons filled the air outside. Genna rolled up on him, grabbing and pounding his arm into the floor until he lost his grip on the gun. He kicked at her head, broke away, and got to his feet. She caught his ankle as he ran, dragging him back to the ground. He raked at the carpet, but it peeled up in his hands as she pounced on him. Icarus gurgled as she applied a headlock with a knee in his back.

  “You!” Headcrash pointed at Genna. “That tattoo… you are Brigade! Y-you set us all up!” He swiped the pistol off his desk and aimed at her.

  Genna glanced at her torn shirt and exposed arm. With a grunt, she rolled to use Icarus as a body shield. “Head, you paranoid motherfucker, calm down.”

  Moth grabbed her in one hand, Icarus in the other, and lifted the pair off their feet.

  “Looks like a Brigade crest.” Moth squeezed the back of Genna’s neck. “Now why would anyone in an illegal, secret organization get a tattoo like that?”

  The pistol rattled in Headcrash’s trembling hand.

  Maya slid backward until the handcuff halted her, but kept trying to crawl farther, twisting her foot around.

  “Exactly,” Genna wheezed. “It’s just a unit insignia. Ain’t my fault it looks like a Brigade symbol. Got this shit in Korea years ago.”

  “Show of loyalty,” Headcrash muttered. “Proves her dedication. No turning back. Authority will execute you if they see it―and us for being with her.”

  Icarus’s flailing leg caught Moth in the groin, launching a trail of spittle from the giant’s lips, making his grip falter. The skinny man slipped loose and sprinted toward Maya, shrieking like a banshee.

  “You’re going to kill us all,” Headcrash shouted and fired at him, missin
g twice.

  Maya flattened herself on the mattress as Icarus dove at the wall, smashing a fist again and again until he found the switch, flooding the apartment with light. He writhed around to put his back against the cinder blocks, grinning at the ceiling.

  “The shadows are gone,” he whispered. “I can see…”

  Moth dropped Genna and lunged at Head before he could throw more bullets in the general direction of a nuclear device. The hacker backpedaled behind his barrier and held his arms up in a gesture of surrender.

  “Th-the d-drones will find us now. It’s dark outside.” Headcrash shivered.

  Icarus slid up behind Maya, kneeling on the bed and holding her like a hostage taker. His breath ran hot down the back of her neck; she hung like a rag doll. He edged to the side as if to carry her to the door, but her bound leg stymied his escape.

  “Icarus,” Maya whispered.

  Genna, Moth, and Head argued in the background, their shouting blurred into a circular session of blame-throwing.

  He leaned forward, cheek warm against the side of her head. “They won’t shoot me with you in the way.”

  “You’re right.” Maya put her lips to his ear. “You did have more Vesper. I saw Head steal it.”

  “W-what?” He sniffled into her hair. “No…”

  “Silver plastic sheet with black hexagons?” She pointed at Head and kept her voice low. “He’s got it in his jacket. He said you’d compromise the mission if you got high again.”

  Icarus dropped her in a heap on the bed, stood on the mattress, and yelled, “Crash!”

  The argument screeched to a halt. All three looked at him.

  “You scavved my stash!” shouted Icarus.

  The hacker babbled; his jowls flapped in a head shake of vehement denial.

  “Jacket. Pocket.” Icarus stepped over Maya and jumped to the floor. “Now.”

  Headcrash patted himself down. “I don’t have”―he froze, glancing at where his hand touched his coat. “W-what the hell?” His face twitched; he laughed, cried, and kept saying no over and over as he pulled the silver plastic film out of his pocket and held it up.

  Icarus drew another pistol from his belt, howling with rage. “Fuckin’ traitor!”

  Maya sprang at the wall. Her fingertips passed close enough to set off the switch sensor before the chain cut her flight short; the lights went out. She fell on her chest, seconds before a blinded Icarus opened fire. She rolled on her back as rapid muzzle flashes illuminated the moonlit apartment and saturated the air with the reek of cordite.

  “You’re all working for them!” Headcrash ducked and snapped off a shot that caught Icarus in the thigh. “He’s the traitor and you’re Brigade.”

  Collapsed in a heap, Icarus grabbed his leg and wailed.

  Headcrash swiveled to aim at Genna, but she fired from the hip. The shot caught him in the shoulder and knocked him to the ground out of sight behind his junk pile. Icarus screamed as Moth stepped on his wrist, pinning his gun to the floor.

  The behemoth leveled off his hand cannon at Genna’s head. “Drop it, bitch.”

  Genna didn’t look at him, continuing to aim for where Headcrash went down. “Brigade ain’t your enemy. We’re trying to take down Ascendant. Besides, this ain’t a sanctioned op. I signed on hoping to score some Xeno.”

  Maya slipped over the railing at the end of the bed and landed tiptoe on one foot. Her chained leg dangled in the air behind her as she strained to hop closer to the terminal. She cupped her hands over her mouth, hissing in a loud whisper.

  “Persephone, access AuthNet educational archive. Password ‘quantum reach.’ Display 2081-May-18, Siege of Songnim, news drone footage. Max volume, loop repeat.”

  “Processing,” said an electronic voice.

  “Wha―?” Headcrash whimpered, looking up at her with horror in his eyes.

  Screams filled the room, shouting in Korean over machinegun fire and the thunder of aerial bombardment. Other voices yelled in English, commands to get down, fire, or run. Splats and shrieks interspersed with the roar of missiles and explosions that shook plaster off the ceiling. Holo-panels erupted with images of men running and dying while ground fire tore aircraft from the sky, sending them down in spiraling fireballs.

  Moth went pale and sweaty, glaring at Icarus. The big man hyperventilated. Interlocking steel ingots on his arms rippled like a mass of angry locusts, a wave that ran from wrist to shoulder. He leaned back and bellowed, “They’re inside the line!” at the ceiling before driving his right arm downward, impaling the prone man in the chest with five metal fingers.

  Icarus gurgled and wheezed, blood spraying between his teeth; with a twist of his arm, the augmented soldier crushed the doser’s heart.

  “We’re overrun!” Moth roared, slinging blood onto the wall as he swung Icarus around and threw him at Genna. She dove to the floor, avoiding the body that went sailing out the missing wall.

  At a deafening long burst of machine gun sound from the terminal, Moth ducked, shouting, “Foxtrot Alpha, three-nine. Request immediate drone support. We’re pinned down and cut off!” He yanked two massive handguns from his belt.

  Maya scrambled back onto the bed and crawled over the side away from Moth. The chain went taut as her hands hit the floor, leaving her hanging upside down by one leg. He opened fire at anything that moved: shadows, rats, waving bits of sparking wires, and people.

  “Moth!” Genna’s shout was weak compared to the sounds of war from the terminal. “It’s not real.”

  Genna screamed; puffs of white foam blasted out of the couch with each shot at her. Maya clawed at the rug, trying without success to drag the bed against the wall as her nightie gathered at her armpits. Somewhere behind her, Headcrash wailed in rage amid the noise of bullets clanking against his equipment. The recording of a ten-year-old war ceased. A brief window of oppressive quiet afterward broke with the snap of a smaller gun firing twice. A dull clank of metal on metal preceded a splintered gouge bursting from the floor near Maya’s hand.

  Three shots from Moth’s cannon ended with a gooey gurgling in Head’s voice.

  Maya twisted like a caught fish on a line, locking upside down eyes with Headcrash for an instant. Blood welled out of his mouth and nose, the gun dropped from his fingers, and he fell backward off the ledge. A few stories down, he found the strength to let out a scream that cut off when he struck the ground. The squish echoed back over the silence.

  “Where are you? Come get it, you commie bastards!” Moth crept toward the terminal, swiveling left and right.

  Maya froze. The slightest rattle of chain would draw attention.

  Genna jumped up, aiming over the back of the couch, and let off a series of shots at Moth. Dull thuds slapped into his back; slugs stalled on implanted dermal armor. The attack knocked him to one knee, wheezing for breath.

  “57129,” yelled Genna, yanking a vibro knife off her belt.

  Maya gave the woman a confused look. Hypersonic noise filled the air with the flick of a switch. Genna let off a war cry and ran at Moth. Maya gritted her teeth, letting all her weight hang on one ankle for as long as it took to squirm around and grab the chain. She pulled herself up and keyed in 57129. The hasp popped open, dropping her on her butt.

  Genna roared. Moth cursed. The floor bucked from the heavy impact of a body. Without looking behind her, Maya scrambled on all fours to the nearest hallway, finding the bathroom rather than the way out. She ducked inside and slammed the door. When she tried to lock it, the metal slider broke off in her hand. A massive impact smashed into the wall; she jumped, swallowing a shriek while cringing from a shower of plaster dust falling from the ceiling and walls. The broken lock slipped from her hand, clattering to the floor at her feet as she edged away from the door, looking around for anywhere to hide. The cabinet under the sink was too small, even for her. A window fifty-stories high above the toilet, useless.

  Moth’s roar bellowed over the apartment.

  With a clipped shriek, M
aya leapt into the still-damp bathtub and curled in a ball.

  nother heavy crash rattled the building, followed by a series of dull thuds that could only have been Moth’s boots pounding the floor. He screamed, as if in pain. Genna let off another war cry; the hypersonic whine of a vibro-blade slicing the air ended with a surprised woman’s yelp.

  “Gotta do better than that, dink,” he growled.

  “Shit!” yelled Genna. The floor bucked with a series of rapid thumps and heavy impacts.

  The rattling of empty handcuffs against a metal bedframe accompanied a deep whoosh. Moth groaned with exertion before another whoosh. Metallic clattering and breaking glass preceded another loud thud and a second wave of dust falling off the bathroom ceiling. A few seconds passed in silence before a distant smash announced the bed’s arrival at the ground floor.

  Maya cringed in time with a series of screams, grunts, and howls of anger, both male and female. She held her breath at a long, loud wail in Genna’s voice. Moth’s deep laughter cut short to a gurgle after three breaths.

  Silence.

  Four seconds later, a distant whump echoed outside.

  Knees to her chin, Maya huddled tighter and shivered. Tub mold tainted the air, the taste of decades’ neglect mixed with the soapy scent of Genna’s hours-ago shower. Crunching in the living room approached. Footsteps. She swallowed. A creak emanated from the door. Wood scraped over ruined tiles. Someone walked in. Hard breathing hovered over her.