by Jack Heath
A concrete wall punched Six in the guts, then a dust cloud blanketed him.
TOTAL DESTRUCTION
Six lay back, sucking in a deep lungful of the gritty air. He didn’t feel seriously hurt, or even tired—his heart rate was still up from the fall. But the impact had shocked his whole body. Even as the dust cleared he was flexing his joints to see that none had been broken or dislocated.
Up above, he saw the crane disappear to one side. He could still hear the crashing and booming as it attacked the building from below. Soon a screeching sound reached him, followed by a huge thumping clatter that shook the ground beneath him.
Then there was silence.
Six savored the peace for a moment while he tested all his muscles for damage. The dust had cleared slightly above his head now, revealing a painfully white sky. He heard Kyntak coughing and spluttering beside him.
“Are you all right?” Six asked.
Kyntak sat up. His grimy face parted to show perfect white teeth as he grinned. “Never been better!” he declared. “That was fun!”
“I meant, are you injured.”
“Heck no! I feel great!”
Six was almost disappointed. Perhaps he had been hoping that the shock would quiet Kyntak down. Oh well, he thought. I’ll ditch him pretty soon. He stared numbly up into the sky, letting his heartbeat slow.
He could see the building on the horizon behind him, and rubbed his eyes with a dusty hand. Maybe my vision was affected by the impact, he thought. The building looked almost…curved.
“Six?” Kyntak said. “Can you see that?”
“What?” Six asked, still looking at the building. It seemed to be getting larger.
“The building.”
“Yes, does it look, er…misshapen to you?” The building was looming over his head now, blocking out the sun.
“Maybe the crane damaged it.”
They glanced at each other.
They looked up again.
And then they scrambled to their feet and ran, as the building began to collapse.
They both knew that on foot they’d never get clear of the impact in time.
“There’s got to be a car around here somewhere,” Kyntak panted.
“There!” Six pointed to a green ChaoSonic Earthride.
“Go!”
The building was tearing out of its supports. The hole caused by the crane was making it collapse into itself, like a dead man falling to his knees.
And we are going to be under him when he slumps, Six thought.
All around them there were chunks of concrete falling out of the sky. A huge slab of brick slammed into the dirt in front of Six, sending up a cloud of dust. He jumped over it and kept sprinting as the ground around him became steadily darker.
They had reached the car, and it wasn’t locked.
It was an old model, with a key ignition, but Six knew he’d never have time to hot-wire it. As he jumped into the driver’s seat, Kyntak threw him a multikey.
He jammed it into the ignition. The plastic expanded to fill the slot, and he twisted.
The car’s engine roared to life. Six smoothly clicked it into gear and slammed his foot down on the accelerator. He glanced out the window as the car blasted forward. The wall of the building was nearly horizontal now, just meters above the car roof and falling fast. Concrete and mortar rained down all around them like stones and ash from a volcano.
Six turned back to the wheel. He could see the shadow of the falling monolith in front of the car, creating an artificial night around them. He had to reach daylight in—he looked out the window again—about four seconds.
The car rocketed forward, wheels sliding in the dirt.
Three.
The monstrous grey slab was looming larger, eclipsing the light and bearing down on the car.
Two.
Six clenched the steering wheel, his knuckles white. The ground was zooming by below them.
One.
They were almost out of the shadow. Daylight was visible. The building was almost upon them.
Zero.
The building thundered down onto the ground. The construction site, the crane, the wreckage of the helicopter—everything vanished, crushed under the weight of the concrete. The ground shuddered and cracked. Dust flew everywhere and chunks of cement exploded outward.
The edge of the building’s wall slammed down onto the rear fender of the Earthride. The front of the vehicle flipped upward, and Six found himself staring at the sun as the car shot into the air.
The momentum slackened. The car stopped moving. The air carried it, letting it drift for a moment. Six and Kyntak braced themselves.
Then the car smashed into the asphalt, back wheels first. The front followed soon after, hitting the pavement roughly. And suddenly they were back on the road, driving in front of the massive dust cloud, tearing along the street.
The remainder of the glass tower splintered into tiny shards and tinkled musically to the ground all around the car.
Six put his foot back on the accelerator.
“Strong car,” Kyntak observed. “Pity about the rear fender.”
“Shut up!” Six said angrily. “Did you even see what you did back there?”
“Me?” Kyntak said incredulously.
The huge grey wall of smoke and dirt was gaining on them. It was impossible to see for more than a meter behind the car, and the dust stretched into the sky as far as the eye could see. The rain of broken glass intensified. It looked as if Judgment Day had come and civilization had been reduced to ash.
“Yes, you!” Six turned to glare at Kyntak. “You’re the one who said we should escape. You led me down the fire escape. You said we had to jump onto the crane.”
“Hey, we’re alive, aren’t we?” Kyntak frowned. “If—”
“We nearly died! Look behind you. Take a long look. What do you see?”
Kyntak looked, and shrugged.
“Nothing!” Six roared. “That’s what! Nothing! We destroyed the whole building, not to mention the entire construction site next to it! Now the Lab is gone, and the information you have means nothing! Everyone involved will go underground; we’ll never find any of them ever again. And the Lab will know where to look for us now, assuming that not everyone was killed in that catastrophe. Dozens of witnesses saw us do things that human beings can’t do, and someone’s bound to put two and two together. If the Lab doesn’t get us, the Deck will! We’ll be put down like rabid dogs! You honestly have no idea what you’ve—”
The door on the driver’s side was hit by a hail of bullets. Six ducked down into his seat. Looking in the rearview mirror, he saw that there were jeeps following the car, with guards standing up in the back. All were armed with Hawks or Vultures. More military vehicles were appearing from side streets.
“Oh, yeah, I was going to mention that when you’d stopped yelling,” Kyntak said. “They evacuated the building before they sent the helicopter. So no one was hurt when the building collapsed. Thought you’d be relieved.”
“How do you know that?”
Kyntak held up a cell phone. “They sent me an SMS, like all the other guards.”
“And the Project Falcon lab?” asked Six.
“Not here,” said Kyntak. “I was getting closer to discovering its location when you dropped in.”
“You shoot,” Six said flatly. “I’ll drive.”
Kyntak grinned and drew his Raptor. Leaning out the window, he fired eighteen shots, emptying the whole clip. As he sat back, five jeeps skidded to a halt, their tires burst. The smell of burning rubber filled the air as Kyntak reloaded.
Six swerved and went into a side street. The car slid around the corner, tires screeching. Six gripped the wheel tightly.
Two more jeeps rounded the corner.
Six and Kyntak were about ninety meters from the edge of the rig. The road curved and bent to go alongside the rim, but Six wasn’t planning to follow the road. He floored the accelerator, and the car roare
d. The wheels spun, and the ground flew past. Within a second or two, they were at the edge. The tin safety barrier crumpled under the wheels as the car sped into the open air.
The deep-blue sea lay far below, sparkling and calm. Behind them, the orange-brown cliff of painted metal rose up into the sky as they flew into the void. Before the car began to fall, they could see the smooth blue sky blend into the grey, foggy horizon and the indigo sea. The air was touched only by the sun and a single puffy white cloud.
This far away from the City, the fog was gone completely.
They both stared in silence for a moment.
The car began its sickening drop. The front nosed forward, and Six and Kyntak found themselves staring at the sea. The wind roared past the open windows as Six pushed the window button furiously to close it. The water approached quickly as the car rocketed straight down.
“Undo your seat belt!” Six yelled to Kyntak.
The car was almost vertical now and falling like a brick. The air rumbled in Six’s ears as the car pierced the wind.
“This is awesome!” Kyntak crowed when the sea surface was only meters away. Six braced himself, slamming his hands on the back windshield and his feet on the dashboard.
The car hit. The front crumpled against the surface of the water.
Kyntak and Six were jolted as the car slammed into the ocean. For a short moment the Earthride floated vertically, bobbing and dipping like a cork, then it tipped over, landing upside down.
Crouching on the inside of the roof, Six watched the water flowing in around the door seals. “Kyntak, on the count of three, open the windows so it fills up with water. Then the pressure will be equalized and we can open the doors and swim to the surface. Got it?”
“Ready when you are.”
“One.”
Six watched the water, almost up to his knees now.
“Two.”
All daylight had disappeared—the windows were underwater.
“Three!”
Six pushed the button to wind down his window, and felt the car lurch as Kyntak did the same. He was hit in the face by a blast of freezing water, but he held his breath and kept pushing the button.
His electric window shorted out halfway down, so he leaned back and kicked it, snapping off the remaining square of shatterproof glass.
The car was full of water now. He pushed the door open and swam out into the ocean.
Darkness surrounded him as he felt the bubbles from his mouth wriggle past his cheek. The car sank down into the blackness. Within moments he was blinded by the seawater in which he was submerged. He forced his eyes open against the salt, and saw light coming from his left. Kicking his feet, he swam to the surface.
Fresh air touched his face. He spat out the seawater and pushed soggy hair out of his eyes. “Kyntak?” he called, as he rose and fell on the ripples from the car. He glanced around. “Kyntak?”
He felt something bump against his legs. A shark! He curled into a ball and floated with his head and knees above the water. Sharks were least likely to attack you when you were positioned that way.
“Kyntak,” he called. “Kyntak!” Then he saw Kyntak standing in the speedboat, peering down at all the equipment in it.
“Gee, anyone would think that you were worried about me,” Kyntak said. “Check out this cool speedboat!”
“Bring it over here,” Six called to Kyntak.
“I found it tethered to this strut,” Kyntak said. “If I had a great speedboat like this, I wouldn’t just leave it lying around like that.”
“It’s mine,” Six said. “Now bring it here.”
Something bumped his legs again, harder this time.
Kyntak peered down into the water. “Is that what I think it is?”
“Yes, it’s a shark,” Six howled. “Bring the boat over here right now!”
Kyntak grinned. He turned back to Six. “Not until you apologize.”
Six’s eyes bulged. “For what?”
“For being so mean to me in the car,” he replied. “It really wasn’t my fault, you know.”
“It was entirely your fault, and should the rest of this rig collapse around us, I will blame you for that, too. Bring the boat over here!”
“Think before you talk, Six.” Kyntak glanced meaningfully down into the water.
Six looked down and gasped. It wasn’t a breed he recognized—but it was a lot bigger than a mako shark.
He uncurled from his ball and freestyled furiously through the water. He thought he could sense movement below him, but he wasn’t sure. He looked down between strokes.
The shark was huge. It had to be at least seven meters long!
Six reached out and touched the side of the speedboat’s hull.
He scrabbled furiously at the side.
There was nothing to hang on to.
The shark bumped his kicking legs again. Hard.
“God, you look so pathetic.” Kyntak laughed, throwing down a rope ladder. “I hope none of my buddies from Lab security see me with you.”
Six scrambled up the ladder so fast that he was in the boat before the drips from his outfit had rejoined the sea.
“That was childish and dangerous,” he hissed, turning back to Kyntak. Then he froze. Kyntak was still laughing.
“That wasn’t funny,” Six said icily.
“Yes it was,” Kyntak gasped. He broke out into fresh bouts of laughter. “You got out of that water so fast!”
“My life was in danger!” Six roared.
“No it wasn’t!” Kyntak howled. He slapped his knee. “That was a basking shark! They’re huge, but they only eat plankton!”
“You’re lying!”
“No!” Kyntak struggled for breath through his hiccups of laughter. “It bumped you to scare you out of its territory, not to eat you!”
Six hesitated. Now that he thought about it, he couldn’t think of any sharks bigger than white pointers that had been known to eat people. Kyntak was probably telling the truth.
“We have to get out of here,” he said, annoyed. “More soldiers will be coming after us any second.”
Kyntak was still laughing.
“Your razor-sharp wit caught me unguarded with its tact and subtlety,” Six said sarcastically.
Kyntak’s grin became even wider. “Hey…that was almost a joke!” He clapped Six on the back, and Six resisted the urge to hit him. “Congratulations!”
“Sit down, strap yourself in, and shut up,” Six growled. He stepped up to the prow of the boat and, without checking to see if Kyntak had heeded his advice, gunned the engine and drove the boat into the waves.
DOUBLE DEALING
“Is this line secure?”
“This is Crexe’s private terminal. This room, all the adjacent ones, and the terminal itself have been swept for transmitters. The line travels the whole way to your station at a minimum depth of two hundred meters of solid concrete, and I have a satellite searching the base for transmissions and receiving none. Unless you are being monitored at your station?”
“Unlikely.”
“Then this line is clean. But we will be brief, just the same.”
“Very well. Name your price.”
“Sixty million for a scrape of the subject’s cells, complete with a blood sample. Another seventy million on top of that will get you a sample of the fresh stem cells, and another ninety million will get you a digital copy of the subject’s DNA. The complete package comes to a total price of two hundred twenty million standard credits.”
“When were the scraping and blood sample taken from the subject?”
“Today. He had been knocked out and captured. As expected, his stay was brief, but he was out long enough for me to collect some physical evidence and plenty of data about his condition. I highly recommend buying the complete package—that way you can check that the blood sample taken from the subject matches the original genome, and that both of these correspond to the final product when Crexe delivers it to you. My price is
insignificant compared to your losses should he try to cheat you when you have no quality control method.”
“Indeed. Why did you use the rogue one for the samples? Why not the subject who works for the Lab?”
“Ah, the one who works in security. Have you ever met him?”
“Never. Why?”
“I’m rather proud of him—but this same pride inspires in me a terror of his abilities. That creature is violent, clever, unpredictable, and, ultimately, more dangerous than I think either of us could imagine.”
“Your paternal feelings for him are touching.”
“Very droll. One way or another, I couldn’t think of a way to get samples from him without putting myself at risk—and the agent practically fell into my lap.”
“I see. It makes no difference, anyway. The DNA should be the same from the two subjects, correct?”
“Correct.”
“Then I agree to your terms. As you know, I am meeting Crexe tomorrow. I will speak to you after this. But one more thing.”
“Yes?”
“How do I avoid the agent? The rogue subject? I would not, I think, enjoy a confrontation.”
“Do not trouble yourself with that, my friend. The one who works for us is watching him, and awaiting orders. I have Methryn Crexe’s word that Agent Six will not be a problem for much longer.”
Grysat was sitting at his desk. “Hi, Six,” he said cheerfully. “Mission go well, did it?”
“A message for King,” Six said, ignoring the question. Dried mud crunched on his clothes. “There’s someone I want him to meet.”
“Who’s that?” Grysat glanced at Kyntak.
“Just buzz King,” Six said. “And send him this disk.” He put Kyntak’s disk on the desk.
Grysat sighed. “Come on, Six. You know the rules. I have no idea who this guy is, so for all I know, you could be under duress. I can’t make exceptions for you just because—”
“Look! The mission didn’t go well!” Six exploded. “I was shot, beaten up, knocked unconscious, and left to rot in a cell with a chatty guard.” He glared at Kyntak before continuing. “Then I helped destroy the building I’d been working in, along with a nearby construction site and a perfectly good car. Countless jeeps and a Twin helicopter were smashed to pieces, and everything I own suffered water damage. Do you want my repair budget estimate, or will you buzz me in now?”
