by Michael Todd
The tree rocked in place and rained a flurry of leaves from the top but it didn’t fall. She engaged a second rocket as Sal sprinted past the tree in question, having already circled the monsters. Distracted for a moment, she fired the second almost without meaning to and knew, even before it impacted, that he would be caught in the blast.
“Fuck!” he yelled. The shockwave knocked him slightly off balance and he stumbled awkwardly until he crashed head-first into one of the other trees.
“Sorry!” Kennedy called after him. The second blast gouged another chunk out of the tree but wasn’t quite enough to knock it down. With Sal still recovering from his quasi-high-speed crash, she needed to get the damned thing down before the monsters reached him and ground him into a paste.
She pushed herself into a sprint and used the HUD to time the powering up of the rockets on her back and legs exactly to the millisecond. Her energized vault launched her and maintained velocity as she careened forward to slam feet-first into the tree.
The impact of the two and a half tons of metal at roughly fifteen kilometers per hour was more than enough to send the teetering tree over the edge. It groaned and cracked violently before it toppled with a thunderous crash.
“Oh, shit!” was all she heard from Sal’s comms before they went dead. Kennedy pushed quickly to her feet and noticed smugly that the tree had done its job and fallen on two of the monsters to kill them instantly. Unfortunately, her violent impact had also managed to send a massive chunk of it to land on Sal.
The top half of his body was crushed.
“Shit,” she exclaimed a moment before she turned as a massive tail swung in her direction. She would blame the lag when she got out of there, she swore to herself as the tail struck her with unimaginable power.
The result was a quick moment of darkness as the simulation shut down, and in seconds, the real world crystallized around her. She blinked and her eyes found it difficult to adjust to the light as she disengaged herself from the various machines that made up the whole experience. Sal was already out and glared at her with a scowl on his face.
“I said I was sorry,” she said quickly and shrugged her shoulders defensively.
“No, you didn’t,” he corrected her with a smirk as they moved out to where the various technicians still evaluated the details of the run.
“Of course I did!” she protested. “Right after you crashed into the tree.”
“What about the apology for dropping a fucking tree on my head?”
“Oh…right,” Kennedy conceded. “What, do you want me to open a fucking tab?”
“A fucking tab?” He grinned at her. “I’m sure something like that could be arranged.”
“Shut up. You know what I mean.”
“Yeah, I know. But please, work on your damn timing. Maybe next time, we’ll walk away from this thing as the first team to actually reach the pick-up point.”
“I wouldn’t count on it,” one of the technicians said and handed them tablets. “We’ll make sure that the animals are a lot more difficult to deal with the next time around.”
“Yeah, they were pretty damn easy,” Sal conceded and proceeded to answer the various questions they’d set for the people who engaged in the simulations. “Right up until you guys found the biggest fucking monsters on record and hit zoom.”
The technician chuckled but didn’t respond and simply allowed them to finish the paperwork in peace. It was quick work, and they were soon on their way out. Sal’s phone buzzed.
“The pay for the run has already come through,” Kennedy said with a grin. “I love working for these people.”
“Yeah, getting paid to play video games,” he agreed. “What’s not to like?”
Chapter Two
Anderson looked up from his drink. He was keeping track—something he always seemed to do as a matter of habit now, even when he and his team were supposed to have time off for good work. A couple of weeks of off-time, but he still wasn’t allowed to leave the site as per his superiors in the Pentagon. They wanted someone to oversee the operation for the duration. That meant that while the mercenaries Pegasus had brought in were allowed leave, he had to stick around.
Which was why he was there and also why he was drinking. The colonel had begun to drink more and more over the past few months. He had never really liked alcohol, not even in scenarios where it was considered a social lubricant. So much so that he was always the designated driver for his wife whenever they went to parties. As a rule, he stuck to maybe a glass of wine with meals and a toast for birthdays, holidays, and other special occasions.
Today, however, he’d consumed two beers, a rum and Coke, and a couple of shots and now, he held a scotch on the rocks. He felt miserable and missed his wife and the rest of his family back home, but he was still there in this fucking desert. It infuriated him that he actually tried to get drunk to put some distance between himself and the worries that had plagued him all month.
“Need a refill?” someone asked and moved purposefully beside his table. He looked at a tall, lean man with the look of a lawyer who slid into the seat across from him and offered him a tall, frosty glass of beer. Anderson opened his mouth to say that he hadn’t ordered anything of the kind, but then he noticed a small piece of paper beneath the glass. He shut his mouth quickly and moved the scrap to reveal a crudely made drawing of a horse with wings in blue ballpoint.
A Pegasus.
Anderson studied the man once again and tilted his head noncommittally as he crumpled the missive. “How can I help you?”
“I’ve been told that you’re still looking for a party to help you out with your little campaign,” the stranger said with a small smile. “Some guns to lend your investigation some teeth. Is that right?”
“Something like that,” he responded without inflection. “What makes you ask?”
“Well, you have your pick from all the soldiers stationed around here.” The man indicated the various military men and women who were in the bar. “Why haven’t you already gone ahead and made your pick? I know you don’t have the time to spare.”
The colonel could concede that much. “True, but I don’t want to make the wrong choice. Most of the men and women here are paid by the corporations that run this base—Pegasus, among others. I’ve heard how these corporations don’t mind bending the letter of the law and hiring soldiers who are here as mercenaries for other kinds of services out in the Zoo. I’d rather not trust someone who might already owe their loyalty to the people I’m trying to investigate.”
The man nodded. It was a good point. Pegasus was known to offer certain bounties under the table for those teams who ventured into the Zoo and didn’t much care for the missions currently on offer. Nobody was sure what it was that they got out of it, but the fact remained that trust was a hard thing to earn around there.
“There are a couple of people who still make regular runs into the Zoo,” the newcomer said with an eyebrow raised. “Freelancers, but those who still work regularly with the commandant around here. They also work with the various other bases, which means that they don’t receive too much money from a single source.”
Anderson nodded. “Yeah… I know. Which means they’re probably not good enough to be hired by Pegasus, so why should I?”
The self-appointed informant shrugged. “Firstly, you don’t really have much of a choice at this juncture, between me and you. Secondly, have you seen the latest run by Heavy Metal in the Zoo-VR?”
The colonel looked up with sudden interest. He’d heard that certain companies ran virtual reality simulations with experienced Zoo-running personnel, but he’d never seen them in person. In fact, he’d actually assumed that it was for the development of software to be used in the civilized world.
“You mean those stupid video games?” he asked and sipped the beer the man had handed him. “I don’t have time to waste with that bullshit.”
“They’re not video games.” The stranger smirked. “They’re not stupid
, either. Far from it. It’s state of the art research and development for armor suit designs that they’re working on back in the States but made to resemble a video game.”
“I’ll take your word for it.”
“Please do.” He pushed a memory stick across the table, the movement casual, and was careful to hide it from clear view behind the glass of scotch. “It’s not exactly classified. They’ve released some edited versions of these videos onto ZooTube. And they make a fucking mint from that too, from what I’ve been told. This is the unedited version. See these guys in action for yourself and make your own decision regarding their skills.”
Anderson nodded and palmed the memory stick quickly.
The other man pushed lazily to his feet. “Grab some popcorn and give it a watch. See if these guys have what it takes to be a part of your investigation.”
“Thanks for the beer.” The colonel raised it and took another sip.
“Oh,” the man said and paused, his expression sober. “From what I was able to tell, you’re not the only one who’s looked into Pegasus’ mining investments. They’re slippery bastards, but my gut tells me that they’re holed up somewhere near Wall Two, although there’s no real indication which enclave they’re close to. Food for thought—and entirely free. It’s your lucky day.”
Anderson smiled, nodded, and leaned back in his seat as the stranger took his leave.
Anja looked up from her work in the server room when she heard a knock on the door. Amanda stood outside and held a couple of mugs of coffee.
“You missed out on breakfast,” she said with a smile as she placed one of the still steaming mugs on a counter. “Is everything okay? Did you get any sleep last night?”
“Um…no,” the Russian woman replied and scanned her computer screens. “We had a little trouble that I needed to deal with. Something tried to track our location. With the kind of setup we have here, I didn’t think that was possible, but hey, there we are.”
“What do you mean?” The armorer sipped her coffee—black with a ton of sugar, the only way she liked it. “Do you need more equipment? Because I’m sure Sal wouldn’t mind signing off on anything if it means extra security.”
“It’s not that,” Anja muttered and shook her head. The truth was that Jacobs had been far more generous than she’d expected. He must have done exceptionally well for himself if he was willing and able to drop this much cash on someone as new to the team as she was. Of course, she was definitely worth it, but it wasn’t often that she didn’t need to prove that to people before they were willing to work with her. Then again, that might well be her fault. It wasn’t a comfortable truth, but that didn’t alter the reality she’d learned to accept. She wasn’t the most social of animals, but it was still refreshing to meet someone who needed her around for her skills and was willing to work with her various oddities.
“What is it?” Amanda asked, her expression both curious and encouraging.
The hacker sighed and leaned back in her seat. “Someone tracked our investigation into Pegasus’ dealings. The company has tried to get to us themselves, but this was different—a third party, I’m sure of it. From what I was able to see before they got a little too close for comfort, I’d say that they were looking into the same things we were. Not with anything resembling the same kind of skill, of course, but with a lot of determination and resources.”
“Did you stop them?” Amanda asked.
Anja looked up at her with a smirk. “Please. It takes a good deal more than a brute force DES attack to get past the stuff I set up. Either way, I added some extra precautions. It took most of the night, but I set up a couple of redirections that should have our friends hunting for our IP address somewhere in the Caymans.”
“You might want to set up there anyway,” her companion retorted. “I grew up in Florida, and spending this much time away from a beach has started to piss me the fuck off.”
The Russian looked at her, about to ask a question, but thought better of it and turned to her screen as she took the offered cup of coffee. “I didn’t get any sleep last night, but I’ve dealt with crazy hours my whole adult life, so it’s not really too much of a problem. I will crash in a couple of hours, though, so get used to me missing a couple more breakfasts.”
“Right,” Amanda said and squeezed the woman’s shoulder gently. “We do appreciate the work that you do here. In all honesty, I have no idea why Sal is so obsessed with this metal, but then again, I tend to let the poor geek figure out his own way in life. He seems to have at least some of it figured out, anyway.”
“Speaking of Jacobs,” Anja said and turning her chair to face the armorer, “are he and Kennedy…”
“Oh, yes. Like rabbits.”
“Are you and him…” the hacker ventured cautiously.
“No way,” Amanda laughed. “He’s really not my type if you know what I mean.” She winked at the girl, who simply stared back in confusion. “Never mind. I’ll let you get back to work.”
“Thanks for the coffee,” Anja said vaguely, already distracted as the other woman made her way out of the dark server room.
Chapter Three
“So how was the trip into the Zoo?” Amanda asked as Sal stepped into the kitchen and looked around in evident surprise.
“You know, I think the designers have actually listened to the users in this case,” he replied with a grin.
“Are you looking for something?” she asked, moved closer, and jumped up to sit on the counter.
“Which is a lot less common than you’d think if I’m honest,” Sal said as he blinked and continued his vague scrutiny. “Where’s the coffee machine?”
“Oh, on the other side.” She pointed him toward where she’d put the pot.
“Why is it over there?” He grabbed his favorite mug and filled it.
“Well, we need it for breakfast and stuff,” she replied, “but I need it a lot more often when I work in the shop. That’s also closer to where Anja is, so it makes it more efficient for her too. Since the two of us are the ones who spend the most time around the compound, I thought that it might be best to help us work better.”
Sal nodded, poured a second cup, and offered it to her. “That’s some good thinking. Keep it up.”
“Will do, boss.” She took the mug and raised it in a mock-toast. “By the way, I poked around that design you gave me.”
“Have you made any progress?” He looked instantly a little more alert.
“Not really.” The armorer shrugged. “There are actual mechs that they’ve designed for the Zoo, but as it turns out, those things end up way too heavy to be any kind of use to anyone. They simply sink into the ground if they stick around for too long and use too much power to be any kind of practical use. So far, they’ve only been used on top of the walls with the perimeter guards, where they are literally plugged into their own generators. They work great on defense and keep all the big monsters out, but when it comes to offense, they’re essentially useless.”
“Have you made the calculations with the metal that we recovered from the leg?” Sal asked, took a sip from his coffee, and scowled at it. It was way too sweet.
“Not yet, but I can’t imagine that some new-fangled metal will make much of a difference,” Amanda responded and shrugged. “It’s not like it’ll change the weight of the weapons, the fuel, or anything like that. With regular physics—not the kind that we find in the Zoo—there’s a limit to how big our suits can get.”
“How about more efficient?” he asked. “Because I think you’ve missed the fact that a suit with this metal could reduce the weight of the armor by two-thirds.”
“Yeah, the math all adds up,” she admitted begrudgingly. “The problem is—and always has been—getting it to work in a practical fashion. I’ve put everything I have into it, and it’s still going…really slowly. It’s uncharted territory out here.”
“How about you simply try and get a feel for the metalwork first?” Sal suggested. “Maybe imp
lement it into the armor that we use now to make it lighter and with more protection.”
“And here I was afraid that your expectations would be too high on this project,” the armorer retorted although she grinned, her voice seeped sarcasm.
“No expectations.” He laughed disarmingly. “Like you said, we’re in uncharted territory out here, but there’s no harm in pressing into the unknown at this juncture, right? See what you can do and let me know about any results, good, bad, or…otherwise.”
Amanda chuckled and slid from her perch on the counter. “Will do, boss. I’ll try not to let you down.”
“That’s all I ask,” Sal replied as she made her way out of the kitchen.
Courtney looked up from her laptop and uttered a low curse for what might be the third time that day. Then again, it felt like it had been four or five times, although she couldn’t be sure considering that she had been at this for longer than she’d thought she would be. Days? Maybe, which meant that while the interruptions seemed nonstop, they might have actually simply checked in at whatever was considered to be an acceptable amount of time between calls.
Still, it was infuriating. She scowled at her phone for a long moment and sighed at the notification telling her that she had five missed calls, soon to be six. Determined to overcome the distraction, she turned to her laptop again and tried to focus on what she was working on for a moment, but it didn’t help much. They would definitely call again, she realized as the phone went dead and they left another voice message.
Taking full control of her father’s estate had proven to be a lot easier than she’d expected it to be. The people who were currently in charge seemed all too happy to hand the reins over to her. They didn’t particularly care for her negotiation tactics, but then again, she hadn’t cared for theirs either. At the end, the interaction had left them at the kind of impasse that had finally convinced them of the futility of further resistance.
