Clockwork Asylum

by Jak Koke

  Ryan looked at the dwarf. "You spooked by our cyberzombie?"

  "He's a killing machine, Ryan."

  "Yes, but I've got a plan."

  Axler spoke. "Spill it, Ryan. We're with you."

  Ryan smiled and turned back to the holo display. "Twice I've almost died because I underestimated Burnout. I'm not going to make that mistake a third time."

  The rest of the team gathered around him and the display.

  "All right," said Ryan "Here's how this goes down."

  He looked at the rest of them. "Axler, you and Miranda are Alpha team. Grind and I will be Beta." He turned back to the map. "Grind was right. The terrain works against us here. We have to assume that Burnout chose this spot to minimize the risk of being outflanked."

  Axler nodded. "Taking the only avenue to the tower is like walking down a dragon's throat. He'll chew us up and spit us right back out."

  Ryan smiled. "Yes, except we won't be taking that avenue."

  Axler looked at Ryan coldly. "How else?"

  Ryan pointed to the cliff face on the far side of the clearing. "Here."

  "Pretty fragging dangerous," Axler said.

  "Hear me out," Ryan said. "This plan has its drawbacks, but at least listen to it before you pick it apart. Burnout is smart, and he's tough. It's going to take all of us working together to make sure this comes off without any of us getting iced."

  Axler waited. "Go ahead."

  Ryan nodded and turned back to the map. "Burnout's got incredible hearing and will most likely notice the Phoenix before we clear a thousand meters. Even with the storm.

  Now, this craft has all the aerodynamics of a large rock when you cut the engines. She falls, and she falls fast. I'm going to have Dhin take her up to her max altitude—about two thousand meters, if I'm correct. Situate us above the cliff edge, here."

  He pointed again to the sheer rock face.

  "Dhin will then cut the engines. We'll freefall to just below the cliff's edge, and he'll hit the engines. Given the amount of thrust needed to bank our fall, it should sound just like a thunderclap rolling through the valley."

  Ryan looked around at them. Both Axler and Grind were nodding, smiling. Only Miranda looked apprehensive.

  "In the few seconds following, Alpha and Beta teams will debark on the cliff's edge. Then Dhin will take the Phoenix up and over, landing at the LZ here, in the clearing just where Burnout would expect us to be."

  Ryan pointed to the south edge of the ridge. "Alpha team will skirt the cliff here, while Beta team moves along this slope." He pointed to the north side, facing the lake.

  "During this, Dhin will land and send out the two drones; one air, one ground, to head toward the cabin.

  Making just enough noise so Burnout will think we're prime targets for the ambush."

  Grind's face pulled into a snarled grin. "Simple cut and sweep. Very nice."

  "Thanks. The first team to tag Burnout calls it. Hopefully, it will be the drones, but if not, whichever team tags him does nothing until the other team is in position. Got it?"

  Miranda's apprehension came to the surface. "What if Burnout makes contact first?"

  Ryan nodded. "Good question. If unavoidable contact happens, Dhin will use the drones to keep him occupied until reinforcements arrive. Any questions?"

  Axler brushed a stray strand of hair back from her face. "Yeah. What about the shaman? He could have some pretty nasty surprises in store for us."

  Miranda laughed. "Leave the old man to me. Ain't no backwoods piece of drek gonna spoil our play. I'll eat him for lunch."

  Ryan winced. Miranda was an excellent mage, especially in theory and experimental spell design, but could she slice and dice in the non-corporate world? He didn't know. "I sure hope you're right, Miranda. 'Cause if not, this whole mission is going to turn to drek."

  Miranda fingered the large ruby pendant that hung from her neck. "Trust me. The old man is going to find out the hard way just how well I know what I'm doing."

  Ryan stared at her, searching for clues to what lay under the arrogance. "You got something against shamans?"

  Miranda shook her head. "Undisciplined slots," she snarled, giving Ryan a sly smile. "No, got nothing against them. I'm just juiced up for a fight. It's been a long time since I felt the pleasure of raging mana."

  Ryan smiled. "Just don't burn it all too soon."

  Her smile faded. "You handle the tactics, I'll deal with the arcana."

  Her attitude bothered him, but he really didn't have much choice but to give her the benefit of the doubt. "Okay," he said, looking around at the others. "Any further questions?"

  They all shook their heads.

  "Dhin?"

  "Yes?"

  "You ready for action?"

  There was laughter over Ryan's earpiece. "I'm already into position for the power dive. The storm is really starting to kick things around down there. Better strap yourselves in. This is going to be a hell of a ride."

  Ryan shut off the topographical display. "Jane?"

  "Ready to coordinate tacticom and vid from here, Quicksilver."

  "All right, everybody strap in."

  In the next few seconds, the team strapped themselves in to their crash harnesses and made one last check of their weapons and ammunition. When they were all ready, Ryan said, "Dhin. Take us down."

  The steady rocket roar, a constant background noise until now, went silent. Ryan's stomach shot into his throat as the Phoenix II began to fall, picking up speed as it dropped from the sky.

  18

  On the far edge of the Matrix, in a deep pocket of pure ultraviolet information, the world of Wonderland stretched tendrils out into cyberspace. Alice rarely traveled through the Matrix to find what she wanted. Instead, Wonderland pulled that information into itself.

  Alice and Wonderland were one and the same. Two facets of the same gem. Two manifestations of the same code.

  In this case, she was checking out Rox's story about Dunkelzahn's role in the Crash of '29.

  The shining city stretched up into a glossy black sky around her as she walked. Moody and smoking more cigarettes than she should. Virtual smokes didn't have the drawbacks of the real thing, but the narcotic effects were programmed in. The city street felt like a canyon of mirrored blue glass, a trench of glistening mist over an empty urban landscape. No people, only buildings. This was her city and she rarely shared it.

  Guess I'll have to deal with Rox sooner or later. Wonderland had checked out his story, but had turned up a few inconsistencies. Anomalies. Alice didn't like anomalies.

  She opened a window and peered through into the land programmed to run like Lewis Carroll's Wonderland. She faded herself into that reality as the Cheshire cat, noticing that Rox had survived to reach a carefully sculptured garden of white roses, some of which seemed to have been painted red.

  On the far side of the garden, a game of croquet was in progress. Man-sized playing cards, each with swords at their flat sides, leaned on each other to form crude bridges.

  A huge woman, dressed in an ornate red frock and wearing a crystal tiara in her high-piled hair, was screaming at the top of her lungs. " 'Off with his head!' I said, 'Off with his head!' "

  The guards, who had tumbled to the ground when she began screaming, rushed about in a frenzy, trying to find the offending party. Unfortunately, the Queen of Hearts seemed to be pointing in all directions, one right after the other.

  She even pointed to a rose bush that an over-zealous guard had lopped to the ground.

  The Queen looked at the bush and wailed, "Now, off with his head." This time she had finally settled on the guard who had chopped down the roses.

  The other two grabbed the third and hauled him away.

  Alice looked around for Roxborough, finally spotting him near the garden entrance. Tucked under his arm, a great pink flamingo struggled to get free while Roxborough tried to get the small hedgehog at his feet to stay still long enough for him to use the flamingo to hit the po
or creature.

  Roxborough looked years older than he had the last time, and he had covered his fat body with a table cloth, wrapped around like a towel and tucked to stay up under his arms. He winced in pain as he moved, bending down slowly.

  Alice knew the lupus was extremely painful, and would continue to worsen if her program was allowed to run its course.

  Roxborough grimaced and dropped the flamingo, which jumped away from him in an explosion of pink feathers. He screamed suddenly and collapsed to the ground in a heap. The small hedgehog unrolled from its protective ball and scampered after the flamingo.

  Roxborough spotted Alice's Cheshire cat icon and glared at her. "Damn it, Alice! I've told you everything I know."

  "Oh, I hardly believe that, Rox. In fact, you've been very naughty."

  "Naughty? Get bent, Alice."

  Alice settled in the tree above him. "You seemed to have left out a pulse or two of data regarding the story of your alleged attempt to purchase Gossamer Threads."

  Roxborough looked at her, then shook his head. He was in obvious pain, though he was trying to pretend other-wise. "It's a pity you had to show up just now. I'd finally gotten the hang of this game. I think I could have actually beaten the Queen this round. That damn flamingo was a dud, though. Wouldn't even keep his neck stiff.

  Every time his head hit the hedgehog, the little bugger rolled less than a meter."

  Alice's tone was soft. "Rox, stick to the subject, or you'll be the next one to lose your head here."

  "Did I hear someone say lose your head?"

  The Queen waddled up to the tree, breathing hard. "Hello, Cat. You want me to take this little bastard's head?"

  Alice grinned at Roxborough.

  "It would be my pleasure, you understand. We haven't had a good beheading in quite a while."

  Roxborough snorted. "You just took the guardsman's head a few moments ago."

  The Queen looked baffled. "Isn't that what I said? We haven't had a beheading in quite a while."

  Roxborough gave Alice a pleading look. "All right, Cat. As you said, back to the subject. Just what are you accusing me of?"

  "Lying for one. You told me you were trying to buy Gossamer Threads. What you left out was how that was being done. And last, if not the most damning, is that you kind of changed the order of how things went down."

  Roxborough raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

  Rage filled Alice. "You told me that you had your hacker hit the place after you had already decided to buy it out. I just double checked that. Eva Thorinson was working for Acquisition Technologies, doing routine runs against a number of small companies. It wasn't until after Thorinson's equipment got fried that you attempted to acquire Gossamer Threads. And you didn't try to buy it. There was no bargaining table for you to go to. You tried a hostile take-over."

  "Whatever protection they had was good enough to keep Eva out, and I wanted it," Rox said with a nervous glance at the Queen of Hearts, who was watching the conversation with detached fascination.

  Alice grinned. "However, you forgot that most important rule. Don't deal with a dragon, and better yet, never try to frag one over. Dunkelzahn burned you good on that deal."

  Roxborough looked up at her, wincing. "Look, Alice. Let's take this step by step. All right, I wasn't completely honest, but that doesn't matter. Dunkelzahn was the one with the code. Not me."

  "I don't believe you. I think it's just as likely that you created the Crash entity and used it to try to get a hold on a number of companies. Maybe it just backfired on you."

  "You don't believe me? Why don't you check with your old friend Damien Knight. He was so sure the Big D was behind that whole mess that he's been working on a way to kill the old lizard for years." Roxborough let out a harsh laugh. "And he might just have been the one to succeed."

  Alice felt as if she had just been punched in the gut. "Knight?"

  "Why not? Look at their entire relationship. Deadly moves on a chessboard that uses human pawns. Damien profited a good deal from the dragon's death. His lackey, Kyle Haeffner, is now in the White House."

  Alice was stunned. Damien was a close friend of hers, he'd kept her alive after the Crash virus had flatlined her.

  Damien had saved her, kept her sane for a while. And the mention of Kyle's name brought memories crashing in.

  Memories of her young, human body. Of love and marriage, of a life so far removed from the here and now that it felt alien to her. Twenty-eight years ago she had been married to Kyle Haeffner.

  The queen spoke, "This one!" She pointed to Roxborough. "Off with his head!"

  "No! Alice, think about it. Damien had the money, the time, the access, and more than enough motive. Like I said, Knight always thought Dunkelzahn was responsible for the Crash. Knight lost a lot more than money."

  Alice stood stunned for a moment. She didn't believe

  Roxborough, but without checking, things seemed to fit together too well for her to disregard his information.

  Guards surrounded Roxborough and carried him off with great effort. The queen was smiling, her flushed face aglow with delight. "Finally, a beheading to remember."

  "Alice!" Roxborough yelled. "Alice, at least give me a chance here."

  But Alice had faded out again. She stood in the hissing rain, the glossy street lamps reflecting off the looking-glass surfaces all around. The black ice streets, the mirror buildings that spiked into the sky.

  She walked, letting the rain soak her through. Until she was chilled and miserable. Wonderland would search the Matrix for confirmation of Roxborough's claims, and in the meantime, she walked. Alone except for the empty city and the static of rain.

  19

  As the Phoenix II fell through the stormy black sky, Grind and Axler howled, grins of delight on their faces.

  Miranda's eyes were closed, and she looked relaxed for the first time since Ryan had outlined the assault plan.

  As they plummeted, the boom of thunder grew deafening until it seemed as if they were under attack. Ryan could see white flashes all around the LAV as they fell through the growing darkness.

  "Everybody brace yourselves! This is going to be a quick stop." Dhin sounded calm.

  There was an explosion, bigger than the rest, and serious gee forces slammed the runners deep into their cushioned seats. Ryan felt as though all the breath had been knocked out of him.

  "Cliffs edge!" shouted Dhin. "Go, go, go!"

  Ryan was the first out of his restraints. He jumped to the door and triggered it.

  Cold rain slashed at his face as the door swung out, and a devil's fork of lightning lit up the black sky outside. The LAV hovered just at the cliff's edge, and the world was a dim gray in the torrential rain.

  "Great job, Dhin," Ryan yelled into the tacticom. "We won't need to rappel." He jumped, landing on a wet out-cropping of rock. Miranda was next, then Axler and Grind leapt simultaneously, landing with weapons drawn.

  "Everyone's down," said Ryan.

  The Phoenix II's doors closed themselves as Dhin pulsed the jets and maneuvered the big machine upward. He shot over their heads, going east.

  As Axler and Miranda headed south and Ryan and Grind started north, they could hear the sound of the LAV burning brush in an attack landing. Hopefully, Burnout would believe that the runners were still aboard and react accordingly.

  "Deploying drones," said Dhin.

  Then there was nothing but the sound of thunder, the flash of electricity, and the chill of rain.

  Ryan and Grind moved quickly over the rocky terrain. Just to their right, far below, they could see the black mirror surface of Cat Lake, rippled with the pounding water of the storm.

  Miranda's voice came nervously through the comm. "I can't see drek in this rain," she said. "And I've lost the old man."

  Axler came on. "Stay chill," she said. "Focus on the objective. The shaman will show."

  Ryan nodded silently to her advice. Axler was right on. A good leader, and the one who would be in cha
rge if he weren't here. Grind and Ryan had made it a hundred meters, and were just getting into position to make their sweep at the tower.

  Suddenly, through the hissing rainstorm came a crash and a rumble that wasn't thunder.

  "Frag, Miranda! Watch it!"

  Axler's voice.

  There was a short scream, which was cut off mid-breath.

  "We have contact. Miranda's down!"

  "We're coming," Ryan said, breaking into a fast run. Grind came just behind him. As they ran, they could hear the sound of Dhin's drones opening fire.

  "Jane, did you get a feed from one of them? What happened?"

  Jane's voice sounded angry over the tacticom. "A log jam fell on Axler and Miranda," she said. "Axler dove out just in time, but Miranda is still down. Don't know how bad it is, but I don't think she's gone yet."

  "I hope she's all right," Ryan said. "We need her."

  Jane interrupted. "Axler's engaging some huge creature I can't quite make out. Looks like a bear or something. She might need help taking it down."

  Ryan concentrated on his magic and increased his speed. Like wind through the trees he moved. Barely touching the ground, weaving through the trunks of the pines.

  He pulled out in front of Grind and was ten meters ahead when the ground erupted at his feet.

  Like an explosion from the earth, a creature of roots and dirt and humus popped to the surface before him. Ryan threw himself to the left just before the thing's metal blades sliced the air where he had been.

  He tumbled and fired his Ingram. In front of him was something out a nightmare. Burnout, naked to the waist, his body covered in mud, like some undead creature crawling from the grave, leapt out of the hole in the earth.

  "Ambush!" yelled Grind, then he opened fire.

  But Burnout was no longer where he had been. With reflexes so swift Ryan could barely follow him, the cyber-zombie sprang almost three meters straight up. While Burnout was still in the air, and in a flash of lightning, Ryan could see the mechanical third arm sweep upward, its mounted weapon sighting in on Grind.

  Grind was on the move, the mounted weapon chewing up the ground where the dwarf had just been.