Cascading Error:Critical: A Lovecraftian Technothriller (The Dossiers of Asset 108 Book 4)

by JM Guillen

  Next to me, Sofia Delacruz wore a black sports bra.

  “Okay, so…?” I gestured at her, very careful to keep my eyes on hers.

  “I was beneath the Wraith at the time, and you were busy,” she answered, sharply. “My black tacticals got melted by amphibian acid-spit. You may remember someone hooting at me that I needed to take my clothes off?”

  “Delacruz, I—” Wyatt began.

  “Nope.” She held up one hand to his face. “You don’t get to talk about this. You don’t get to remember this. I will officially request the Designates modify your phaneric record.”

  “It’s fine!” He held two hands up. “You look real pretty.”

  “Oh no.” Rachel turned away, as if she didn’t want to watch a train wreck in progress.

  “Wyatt Guthrie.” Sofia stared at him and her dark eyes flashed. “I do not ‘look pretty.’ When I want to be pretty, I will tell you that I’m being pretty.”

  “Okay?” He held those hands a little higher.

  “In the meantime, if I catch you leering at me, I will offensively port your hillbilly ass—”

  “Listen lady.” He pointed at her, then gestured at his short-shorts. “I spent most of the day running all over frog-town dressed like some rich woman’s boytoy. If I can be respectable and decent, then you can too.”

  “Respectable? You were practically drooling when you told me to take my top off!”

  “That was the frogs!”

  “That…” She took a deep breath and clenched her fist. “Wyatt,” she said and forcibly calmed herself. “I don’t think the toads want to see me in my black sports bra.”

  “Well, I don’t know why not. You look real pretty.”

  “Okay.” I stepped between them. “I’m enjoying this. Truly. But we have business.” I turned to Anya. “What’s our current intel on the Variance?”

  Here is a token on the location of the Variance. A blue reticule appeared on my visual, shining atop the tallest tower within the Dirge.

  “Of course,” Wyatt muttered.

  “It would be the middle finger.” Delacruz crossed her arms.

  Current axiomatic statistics show the Variance to be super-Rational. It’s spiking between 193.6 and 229.7.

  “That’s absolutely unreal,” Rachel breathed.

  Precisely. Anya seemed confused over Rachel’s comment.

  “Hence, I’m tabling the debate on comparative sexiness of Delacruz and Guthrie.” I eyed the two of them. “This can wait, right?”

  “No arguments here!” Wyatt nodded.

  “It can wait,” Delacruz replied.

  “Good.” I peered over the edge of the building. “I don’t love our entrance options here. We can do it, but it’ll be loud.”

  “I’ve made some considerations, Alpha.” Sofia took a step closer to me. “If you would, toggle your optics for me.”

  “Okay.” An odd request, but I rolled with it.

  She cleared her throat. “Now, magnify your optics by 2.5 and focus on quadrant two, sector three. I’d like to show you something.”

  I toggled the settings and peered toward the Dirge. Specifically, at a balcony that clung to the side of the obelisk-like tower. It appeared to be a garden of algae and moss with several obsidian-black statues scattered about.

  Letters, probably a full meter tall, had been scrawled upon the dark stone in something that burned brilliant white in my optics. I could clearly make them out, even from here.

  I AM THE ANSWER TO QUESTIONS YOU

  AREN’T WISE ENOUGH TO ASK.

  The message had been left around a recessed structure that could only be a door.

  The moment I flicked the optics down, the letters vanished.

  “Fuck!” I swore.

  “That’s what I thought,” Delacruz said brightly.

  “Guy might as well write ‘Trap this way,’” Wyatt noted.

  “Agreed.” I gazed into the winding throughway below us. It buzzed with patrols and activity.

  Naturally.

  It isn’t wise to do as 3302 would intend, Michael.

  “Oh, I get that.” I gestured down. “But I don’t think we have a wise choice here.”

  “Return to the Corvus?” Rachel raised an eyebrow. “Movie marathon before the apocalypse?”

  You’ve forgotten the moratorium, Anya replied.

  “We’d have to get over there,” Wyatt observed. “If I know our Gatekeeper, she wouldn’t show us this if she didn’t have an idea.”

  “Well.” Sofia smiled at him. “A girl does what she can.”

  “You made that shot?” Wyatt gave a low whistle.

  A scarlet aperture unfurled upon the balcony, glinting in the shadows.

  Sofia smiled again.

  I turned to her, incredulity on my face.

  “I’m not saying I made the shot from here.” She gave me a crooked grin. “But if we want over there, it is an option.”

  “Damn it,” I chuckled. “This would be easier if we couldn’t possibly get there.”

  Wyatt glanced down. “Trap or no, it’s not as if there’s a smart choice here.”

  “Yeah.” I turned to my cadre. “It’s stupid, but that’s our incursion point. Better the stupid we can expect than the random horde of stupid below.”

  Anya nodded, as did Rachel.

  Wyatt’s tangler began to whine, a high pitched, hungry sound.

  “Do it, Gatekeeper.”

  Seconds later, we stood within the statuary.

  Up close, the garden of algae seemed far more complex as it ran riot with scarlet and yellow as well as the more traditional greens. Those glowing fronds sprouted around the balcony edges and gave off scatterings of greenish blue light.

  Statues of dark stone were scattered about the garden. Universally, these depicted scaled humanoids, although ones far more evolved than the statues we’d seen previously.

  Far more human.

  “Interesting tastes.” Rachel gazed at one of the larger pieces.

  Silver and onyx accents decorated the crown on its head, as well as the bracers on its wrists. The inhuman creation appeared decidedly noble, even regal as the figure gazed toward the west.

  “[Pretty.]” Sofia cocked her head. “But weird.”

  “They’re solid.” I pushed on one and noted that I could scarcely rock it back. “Heavy.”

  That gave me an idea.

  “That can’t be one of the Phothu-nacyi.” Wyatt stared at the malformed statue.

  It stood upright, just as a human might, but its skin appeared scaled. Yet its head seemed more serpentine, its eyes little more than slits.

  “I don’t want to think about it,” I replied. “We can come up with all manner of stories. Perhaps this is what they were… once, before the Unfathomable slumbered.”

  Perhaps this is why they seek humanity as hosts, Anya reasoned. These statues may represent the results of that union.

  “No. Eww.” Rachel shook her head. “New topic please.”

  “This seems like our door.” Wyatt stood several meters away from us and examined a crystalline structure set up on the wall. “Although I don’t see a handle.”

  For just a moment, I toggled my optics again. In front of me, Amir’s message burned.

  I took a breath and readied myself for a gigantic mistake.

  Anya linked, Ambient axiomatic strands do not seem affected by that item.

  “So it’s not going to blow up on us or turn us into frogs.” Rachel seemed relieved.

  It’s important to remember the nature of the amphorae. Anya met my gaze with her blue eyes. We have seen Irrational items that appear normal until they are triggered by Jimmy Anygoon.

  “Ha!” Wyatt shook his head. “Petrova, you’ve really come a long way.”

  “She’s correct though.” I took a couple of steps over to him, and peered at the structure. “We really didn’t pick up any readings on Amir’s little trinket either.”

  There were other factors at play there, ye
t that is true.

  Wyatt’s potential ‘doorway’ stood as tall as I did and had a border made of an unknown metal. The interior portion of the structure seemed to be entirely crystalline and shimmered with a turquoise blue.

  Through it, I could make out light moving on the other side.

  “Okay.” I nodded. “If I keep the fields tight, the kinetic disruptors can probably shatter this. You guys will have to step back—”

  “I have its resonance frequency, if shattering is what we’re goin’ for.” Wyatt watched numbers through his oculus. “Hell, I can probably turn the thing into one of the noble gases for a few minutes and then turn it back.” He paused. “Maybe Xenon?”

  “We are not breathing in Xenon!” Rachel exclaimed incredulously. “Xenon is a powerful NMDA-receptor antagonist, like nitrous oxide but more potent. Bad news.”

  “Like nitrous?” Wyatt lifted an eyebrow.

  “It’s way too dense. We’d all sound like sound like supervillains when we spoke, like the opposite of helium.”

  “That’s perfect!” I gestured at the Dirge. “I mean, look where we are.”

  “Just no.” She shook her head.

  “We could touch the little metal square?” Delacruz peered at something I hadn’t seen. “Maybe just open the door?” Without awaiting a response, she poked at a bronze surface.

  Immediately, something within the crystalline structure clicked, and a seam opened down the center.

  “That was going to be my suggestion.” I nodded at her. “The whole time.”

  “Sure it was, Mike.”

  “Ready to be Wraith buddies?”

  “I think I’d rather hold back, Alpha.” She gave me an apologetic smile. “I had the thing on for over an hour. My head’s killing me.”

  “You should have asked our Caduceus to fix you up.” I jerked my chin at Rachel. “I recommend her work.”

  “It’s dangerous if you do that too much,” Delacruz waved one hand.

  “He knows,” Rachel muttered.

  “If you’ll let me sit out on this one, I’ll let Rache fiddle with my basal ganglia so I’ll be Wraith-ready in a few minutes.”

  “Fair enough.” I stepped toward the door. “But if there’s any loot in there, I’m keeping it.”

  “Reasonable.” She grinned. “Probably just some cursed statue anyway.”

  “Okay.” I turned toward my cadre. “If Delacruz is staying here, then I’m giving you all some homework while I’m gone.”

  Homework? Anya blinked.

  “I have an idea that might help us later. I need you to work on the specifics while I’m gone.”

  “An idea?” Rachel asked.

  “How stupid is this idea?” Wyatt crossed his arms.

  “How stupid? I scratched my beard and pretended to think. “I’m going to say… twenty milli-Bishops.”

  3

  As I walked through the door, I toggled the packet. Cool ripples washed across my skin as I faded from sight.

  Inside, warmth buffeted me. Sumptuous extravagance greeted me wherever I turned.

  From the opposite side of the door, we’d seen light flicker through the crystalline door. As I peered around, I saw three brass braziers hung from the ceiling, each capped with a peculiar, scarlet flame. Those furiously hot flames gave off enough light to see by, though they were quite dim.

  The floor had been almost entirely covered with the pelt of a white animal, although this skin made the largest polar bear seem positively cuddly. The creature had a maw that could swallow three human heads at once, and its fangs reminded me of a saber-toothed tiger’s. But bigger.

  It looked like nothing I could imagine on this earth— at least not since the last ice age.

  Two of the walls had shelves inserted into them with dozens of clay tablets arranged in various displays. Nestled among them were two crystalline orbs of varied sizes. Both had been meticulously inscribed with glyphs I didn’t recognize.

  A desk crafted from deep-green stone took up most of the eastern wall. A leather packet lay on top, partially opened, next to a bowl filled with what looked like black sand.

  Upon the northern wall, a large archway led to the next chamber, silken, midnight-colored curtains covering the only doorway.

  I strode to the shelves, on the assumption that I could get into the most trouble there. Peering at one of the spheres, I squinted a bit, just in case reading the markings melted my brain.

  As if that would help.

  After a few moments, my brain remained unmelted. I leaned closer to the sphere to make certain I got a clear look at the cuneiform glyphs, so they would record on my phaneric record.

  They were like no letters I’d ever seen.

  Query Analysis: Language type. I sent the query along with a packet of the image to the Lattice to get the system’s opinion.

  Markings reflect no known human language, the system instantly replied. Closest similarity class: Sumero-Akkadian cuneiform.

  Sumero… as in Sumerian?

  A quick trip into the ‘For Dummies’ section of the Lattice confirmed this to be true. It also confirmed Sumero-Akkadian cuneiform to be over five millennia old.

  Query: Quantify percentage of similarity comparing enclosed packet with Sumero-Akkadian cuneiform.

  Language bears physical similarities to linguistics in use during the Third Dynasty of Ur. However, this sample bears forty-five additional pictograms which are unknown.

  Bishop, we clear? Wyatt linked.

  Seems so, I replied. I’m going to peek into the next room, then pull the rest of you.

  We figured out your homework, Sofia informed me. I think you’ll be pleased.

  Just get it done. I’ll poke my head into the next room and clear the area.

  Copy that, Michael.

  I turned from the sphere, prepared to step through those sable curtains, when I heard something behind them.

  Wisely, I took a step closer to the doorway I’d come through. I crouched there, disruptor in my right hand.

  I may have company. Standby.

  Will comply, Delacruz linked.

  I heard more shuffling, and then the curtains parted. For a moment, I had difficulty making out details of the hooded, shadowed shape. It stood about my height, and wore robes that whispered across the stone floor. When it stepped onto the bearskin rug, I could clearly see the outline of its bare foot there against the white fur.

  Scaled. Three elongated toes with curved claws.

  As the figure came closer to one of the burning braziers, its dull light flickered against its inhuman face.

  Incoming. I sent a patch, just a small one including a single image. It showed the robed figure as it glided over to the desk. In the shadowy profile, I saw the snakelike shape to its face.

  Michael, that’s not one of the Phothu-nacyi. I felt the concern in Anya’s link.

  I didn’t think so either. Look into it, won’t you?

  As I crouched, wondering what new repugnance had been mixed into an already complex situation, the robed being gazed directly at me. Its head turned away from the light and darkness shrouded the contents of the hood.

  I toggled my optics and the slender shape of the serpent-like head became crystal clear. I watched its eye slits as it stared back at me, calculating.

  “[Human.]” The figure turned its back to me and sauntered over to the desk. I heard something shuffle, and it pulled out a long slender stick. Then, the robed… serpent touched that stick to one of the burning braziers, which began to smoke and fill the room with a sweet scent. It placed the stick into the bowl of sand.

  “[I smell the heat of you,]” it said, its words clipped. “[I can see the shape of you even though you hide behind a veil.]”

  I did a quick system query to determine the language the creature spoke. I doubted seriously if it would be Sumerian, regardless of the contents of the shelves.

  Greek. Translative capabilities 98%.

  “[Were you sent here by that fool? Are yo
u the one he spoke of?]”

  I paused, uncertain of my answer. On one hand, no matter how dangerous snake-boy might be, I had a cadre of bad-Assets just a few steps away. I could link the word, and this guy would likely die in seconds.

  On the other hand, intel.

  “Do you speak English?” I asked softly. “I cannot tell you who sent me unless you can understand me.” I dropped the Wraith, certain the horror could, in fact, see me. He gazed squarely at me, after all.

  Perhaps it would see this as a sign of good faith.

  “I spoke English before you first mewled for your mother, manling.” The figure seemed amused. “You should know, as my assassin.”

  “Perhaps I wasn’t sent to kill you,” I reasoned. “Perhaps I am here to slaughter the fool instead.”

  The figure paused and its tongue flicked into the air. When it spoke again, I heard amusement. “You fear. I can smell it.” It paused. “You show wisdom in this.”

  Michael… Anya’s link nagged at me.

  Hold on, Anya.

  “Shall I teach you what becomes of those who trespass here?” The figure seemed to consider. “Whatever you have come for, the timing cannot be a coinci—”

  Wyatt Guthrie kicked the door open, tangler singing. Before I even had time to link, I heard his fingers scramble at the keys.

  WHUF! WHUF!

  Yet the serpent-man, quicker than I could track, dodged those spikes.

  They struck the stone wall and blossomed into silvery stasis fields.

  The figure rushed toward the curtains, moving like wind. It gestured toward Wyatt, as if it flung something as it ran.

  I heard Guthrie grunt in pain.

  Michael! Stop it!

  I sprang into action, the Adept toggled before I’d gained half a meter. Liquid grace bubbled through my veins.

  I’m with you, Mike. Delacruz’s token appeared next to me, as she already hid beneath the Wraith.

  What are we chasing? Why?

  Packet incoming, Michael. Anya wasted no time. The patch barreled into me, straight to memory. My head twitched a bit as the intel came in.

  My eyes grew wide.