Clockwork Asylum

by Jak Koke

  Ryan looked at her for a moment, and considered lying. Then he shook his head. "Sorry. But we will."

  She tried to speak again, but clenched up as pain from her back shot through her..

  Dhin shot her full of Syndorphin.

  Her body went slack and she passed out.

  "All right, Dhin. You go wheels up. Now."

  "What about you, Bossman?"

  "I'm staying to finish it with Burnout," he said.

  Grind made an effort to stand. "If you're staying, then I'm staying."

  From the corner of his eye, Ryan caught movement. So fast it was a blur, streaked by rain. He turned, pulling his Ingram, but even as he raised the weapon, he knew it was too late.

  A hulking form disappeared into the darkness. Burnout, but he was carrying something. The shaman. Burnout had stole the shaman's body out from under their noses.

  Grind was already down the ramp, running.

  "Dhin! Get Miranda and Axler to the clinic." Then Ryan was running as well.

  He and Grind came barreling around the grove of pines, and found themselves running along the second cliff face.

  A steep slope of loose shale. Utterly impossible to traverse because the rock was so slippery, and small land-slides of shale sheets continued to slip down the mountain.

  They careened around an outcropping of rock to find Burnout in front of them. The cyberzombie had jammed his now useless third arm around the dead man's waist, and was using him as a shield of sorts. He fired his Predators at Grind, catching the dwarf in the shoulder. Knocking Grind back.

  Lightning flashed, close. The thunderclap completely drowned out the barrage of fire from Ryan's Ingram as he opened up.

  The shaman's body absorbed the bulk of the burst, but Burnout took two rounds to the thigh and staggered backward.

  Then Burnout's Predator barked again, and Ryan dodged to the side. He hit the ground, and came to a rolling crouch, his Ingram spraying the space where Burnout had stood a moment before.

  The cyberzombie was gone. Disappeared again, and for a moment Ryan wondered if Lethe had hidden him. But after the crash of thunder faded from Ryan's ears, he heard the distinct sound of a rock slide. Burnout thrashing as he plummeted down the cliff face.

  Ryan jumped to his feet and ran the few meters to the cliff's edge. When he looked down, there was nothing but a steep shale cliff, reaching all the way down to a small dark lake, hundreds of meters below. A wash of stones fell all across the face of the mountain, but the thick rain made it hard to see Burnout, if he was even down there.

  Frag, he thought. Not again.

  22

  Inside Burnout's body, Lethe fell. The slippery flat shale was like a jagged slide beneath them as they plummeted. The rain-slick stones formed an avalanche wave in front of them, rippling out on either side to bring down tons of rock.

  Burnout used the Kodiak's body as a cushion of sorts, trying to maintain an edge of control as they fell. The cold brittle air was chilling and wet around them. The wind like a wall of ice needles. Lethe felt everything Burnout felt with absolute clarity. His spirit was ensconced now. Irretrievably tied to Burnout.

  For now, it is perhaps for the best, he thought.

  Burnout's mind was full of anger, hate toward Ryan Mercury for the death of the Kodiak. Lethe could taste the emotion like a palpable scent. He could feel Burnout's thoughts and emotions almost like they were his own. In fact, he found them harder and harder to ignore.

  The anger filled him, and brought with it an image. An elf with a painted face, lounging in a French garden.

  Walls of ancient masonry surrounded the courtyard. Salt air and the dull roar of the sea. Blue sky and water of cobalt.

  Anger and frustration boiled inside, overwhelming.

  The elf smiled, but his eyes glared. "This is an unexpected visit," he said.

  Angry, heated words were exchanged. A conversation that blended into an emotional collage.

  Then the scene faded from Lethe's mind, and he could not recall anymore.

  "What was that?" Burnout asked, digging his heels as he tried to slow their fall.

  "You saw that, too?"

  "Yes."

  "I don't know," Lethe said. "I think it was a memory."

  "A memory of what?"

  "I don't know. Maybe it's one of mine."

  Burnout said nothing.

  The lake came up like a black wall, like an impenetrable slab of the darkest asphalt. But Burnout had dug in with his heels and his claws in an effort to slow them down. The dark water slammed into them. Shaking their body to the metal core. Then the chill came as they drifted to the bottom, swallowed whole by the icy liquid.

  23

  Ryan stood in the pouring rain, looking down at the black-hole surface of the lake three hundred meters below. Burnout planned this escape, he thought. He left himself a way out.

  Ryan knew that spoke volumes about the cyber-zombie's psyche. It meant Burnout valued his own life, and that was unusual.

  Cyberzombies held a fragile and tenuous grip on life. Sometimes the cybermantic blood magic that tricked the spirit into staying with the body simply failed. Many early attempts had died spontaneously. For Burnout to have developed a sense of self-preservation meant he was thinking as an individual. It must be the influence of the Dragon Heart, Ryan thought. Or perhaps Lethe.

  Ryan spoke into the tacticom mike attached to his throat. "Dhin, you airborne yet?"

  "Firing up now."

  "Wait ten seconds. Grind and I are coming with you."

  Grind was standing three meters away, and he looked over. "You don't want to search for him?"

  "I want to see this thing through," Ryan said. "But everything in due time. Right now, we need to take care of Miranda and Axler." He turned and ran back to the clearing and climbed into the Phoenix II.

  Grind was just behind him. "I'm in," the dwarf said. "Go! Go!"

  The jets screamed, and the LAV lifted into the boiling black sky. "I've contacted DocWagon in Poison," came Jane's voice. "They'll rendezvous with you in five minutes."

  "Excellent," said Ryan, kneeling beside Miranda. He held the scarred flesh of her burned arm.

  She woke then, her eyes defocused from the drug-induced sleep. Her voice was a whisper. "I was .. . dreaming."

  Ryan's voice dried in the back of his throat.

  "I dreamed that you . .. that you got to me in time, Travis. I mean Quicksilver."

  Ryan squeezed her hand gently.

  Miranda smiled. "You get him?"

  Again, Ryan wanted to lie, wanted to tell her that Burnout was a twisted mass of charred chrome. He looked into her eyes, saw the agony and couldn't deceive her. He shook his head. "We lost him. He used the shale rock slide to escape."

  Miranda laid her head back into the folded tarp that Dhin had given her for a pillow.

  "But we'll get him," Ryan said. "You and me. We'll get him together, and we'll make him pay for this."

  Miranda smiled, making her cracked lips bleed. "No lies, Quicksilver, not ... for you and me. I'm not gonna make it."

  A wracking cough got hold of her then, and blood came out of her mouth in a fine mist.

  Ryan stroked her head gently, feeling the blistered skin under his hand. "You rest now. Save your strength. You've come this far, and we're going to patch you up better than new."

  "Even if I . . . stay alive. I'm not gonna be . . . in any condition to. .."—Miranda's breath came in hacking gasps—"fight Burnout," she finished.

  "Shh," Ryan said. "Burnout and I are tied together by the Dragon Heart; we'll meet again."

  Her eyes clouded. "Travis," she said. She was becoming delirious. "Travis, thanks for . . . helping me get out."

  "Ssh, Miranda."

  "It was because of you that I. . . left Fuchi. I have you to . . . thank."

  Miranda smiled again, and the blood from her mouth ran down her cheeks. "It's been quite a ride period." She laughed, a choking rattling sound that started another coughin
g fit.

  "Try not to talk." Ryan felt cold anger swelling inside him.

  She sighed, the sound bubbling in her chest. "Promise me . . . one . .. thing."

  Ryan's vision blurred from his anger. "Anything."

  She motioned him closer, and as he leaned in, she whispered, "Promise that it won't.. . have been for nothing."

  Miranda collapsed into unconsciousness.

  Ryan clenched his fists, gritted his teeth. "I promise," he said, his voice flat, cold. "Burnout will pay, and the Dragon Heart will reach its resting place. I promise you that, Miranda."

  Ryan wiped his eyes as Dhin landed the Phoenix II. As the DocWagon parameds swarmed in to take her. It was going to be close, they said. She was in a coma now; brain-death imminent.

  Ryan concentrated with his astral sight, looking for her aura as the parameds worked on her, but it was faint and growing weaker.

  The anger clawed inside him like a trapped beast, and his whisper was a harsh, barren sound in his throat. "If she dies, Burnout will pay."

  24

  In blackness, deep below the surface of Cat Lake's still waters, Burnout clung to a huge rock, waiting patiently in the lake's icy womb. Several times during the afternoon, he'd resurfaced to fill his air tank, careful not to be seen.

  Ryan Mercury and his team seemed to have left, but Burnout didn't want to take any chances. Lethe didn't either, and he touched the Heart and used its power to mask Burnout's presence.

  Finally, after six hours had passed, Burnout decided the danger had passed. Ryan and his team weren't coming back right away. He released his hold on the rock, and pulled the limp form of the shaman from its resting place under two large rocks. Together, they drifted to the surface.

  Burnout broke the water's mirror like some technological nightmare leviathan, a robotic grim reaper. He looked nothing like a human anymore. Any remaining flesh had been ripped and soaked to gray, wrinkled patches that clung to small portions of his metal frame. To his banded synthetic muscles.

  As he reached out to grab the shaman's body, he caught sight of his forearm in the morning light. He'd had the name Burnout scarred into the flesh as a reminder to himself of everything he'd lost, but even that was mostly gone.

  Now the "out" had been scraped away, and all that remained of his name was the "Burn." It seemed fitting.

  The Kodiak's body bobbled up beside him, and he quietly pulled it ashore. He stopped on the rocky shale bank in the shadow of a large boulder, all senses alert. The evening air hung chill and gray over the surface of Cat Lake.

  The taint of cordite was fading, but still clung to the trees and rocks. A subtle reminder of death and destruction.

  There might still be danger, and Burnout was taking no chances. Ryan had come at him like the pro Burnout knew him to be. If the Kodiak hadn't stood by him, Ryan would have beaten Burnout, and this small lake would probably have been his grave.

  Burnout reached behind his back and grabbed hold of the dysfunctional cyberarm that hung, bent and twisted, just over his head. His estimation of Ryan's physical strength went up another few notches. Even accounting for the centrifugal force involved, no mere human would have been able to bend the titanium struts.

  With a grunt, Burnout finished Ryan's work, and ripped the arm off at the base, leaving a jagged stump.

  Without looking at it, he tossed it over his shoulder to land in the lake with a quiet splash.

  Without a word, Burnout hoisted the Kodiak's body onto his shoulder and fought his way back up the slope. Lethe was silent during the two-hour climb, and Burnout was glad for it. He was thinking about the Kodiak's sacrifice. He was no criminal like the old lady, and though Burnout hadn't actually pulled the trigger that had caused his death, he felt no less responsible.

  "The Kodiak chose his own fate," Lethe said.

  Reading my mind?

  No response.

  "I know," Burnout said. "But I drew Ryan here. He came for the Heart."

  "You did not ask for the Kodiak's help. He gave it willingly. You are not to blame."

  "I don't blame myself," Burnout said, his words acid with vehemence. "I blame Ryan Mercury." He reached the top and stood. "But I am not without responsibility in the matter."

  Standing on the rim of the cliff, the dead man's body at his feet, Burnout looked around. The trees were bent and broken, trunks chewed from heavy gunfire. The once peaceful place looked like a war zone.

  He walked to the tower and stepped inside the cabin resting under the tower's protection. With a minimum of excess movement, Burnout gathered all of the Kodiak's magical trinkets and supplies, the deerskin cloak the old man had worn, and took them all outside.

  He walked to the long, rickety ladder that led to the top of the tower and hauled everything up the hundred meters to the open platform at the top. A small perch, the tower top was a simple platform empty except for the swivel chair someone had bolted to the wooden planks centuries before.'

  The chair was rusted into a position facing eastward, and was covered by the skin of a cougar. Burnout remembered the Kodiak killing that cougar so many years before. This had been the Kodiak's favorite place in the world. He had told Burnout that there Bear often showed him mysteries that ground-bound followers could never hope to see.

  From this height, Burnout looked far into the next valley, seeing the sunset peeking its fiery eye just below the last tatters of the storm clouds. Brilliant streaks of blazing red burned the sky, like tongues of fire.

  Very fitting.

  Burnout went back down the ladder, pulled the shaman's body over his shoulder, and then returned to the top. He set the dead man in the chair, propping the soggy body upright so his faceless head looked into the heart of the setting sun. Then Burnout laid all of the shaman's possessions around him, and finally covered the old man with the deerskin.

  He climbed back down the ladder, went into the cabin, and began a fire in the old shack's potbelly stove. When he had a nice blaze going, he took some kindling and ignited the shaman's bedding. Then he stepped back out into the morning air just as the roof of the shack caught fire.

  He retreated to a safe distance and watched the tower burn.

  "My friend, you gave your life for me, and now I commend your soul to Bear. May he tend to you."

  It only took minutes for the ancient wood of the tower to catch, and suddenly, it seemed as if the structure was a pillar of pure flame. Smoke rocketed skyward, seeming to ignore the slight breeze that had begun to blow.

  After a half-hour, the huge structure collapsed to the ground with a rumbling crash like rolling thunder.

  Burning rubble flew up and gouts of flame shot into the sky.

  "A fitting pyre," Lethe said.

  Burnout nodded and continued to watch the remains of the tower burn. Because of the recent rain, the fire refused to spread to the surrounding vegetation. It confined itself to the tower, and as that structure was consumed, it slowly dwindled. It was almost as if the blaze knew its purpose.

  "I've been thinking," Lethe said.

  Burnout watched the trails of smoke strain for the sky, and thought about those last few hours before the attack.

  "Well, that makes one of us."

  "Perhaps all this death could have been averted. Perhaps if I had killed Ryan Mercury when I had the chance.

  When I first realized that he wanted the Heart for his selfish purposes."

  Burnout shook his head. "In this game, everybody makes their own choices. I chose to steal the Heart, Mercury chose to track me to take it back. Ryan Mercury and I are to blame for the death. No one else."

  Burnout turned away from the smoking wreckage and scrambled to the shallow hunting blind he'd made yesterday afternoon. The one he'd waited in to surprise Mercury. It had been a surprise, all right. For both of them.

  Mercury had run true to form . . . his tactical ability besting Burnout's fighting prowess by enough to keep them at a stalemate.

  Burnout had expected Mercury to come d
own the funnel and land in the clearing. Then he and the Kodiak would have crushed the enemy between them. Instead of catching their prey in a vice, they'd found themselves in a much wider pincer. Still, their positioning had caught Ryan by surprise.

  He gathered up the small amount of supplies he'd stashed in the hole, the spare ammo, and the extra Predator. Then he began his trek down the mountain side.

  Mercury would be back before long, his desire for the Heart fueled by the losses he'd suffered. Burnout intended to be long gone when Mercury showed up with reinforcements.

  "Ryan Mercury is the key," Lethe said. "He is the only obstacle to—"

  "What the frag are you going on about? Of course Mercury is the key."

  "Did I say that aloud?"

  "I heard it."

  Lethe was silent for minute. Then, "I'd like to help you kill Ryan Mercury."

  25

  Back at Assets, Inc. Ryan's fogged mind responded to the needle shower's stinging jets the way a blind beggar would respond to the scent of a hearty meal. He turned his body so the steaming water could hit every part of him, the force of the spray cleansing the blood and the scent of death from his body.

  Miranda had died before reaching the clinic. Her body had given out under the strain.

  Ryan had made the short flight back to Assets with Dhin and Grind in the Phoenix II. Axler remained at the clinic for an arm and a leg replacement. Transfusions of Syndorphin had taken away the physical pain, but she was just as slotted off about Miranda's death as Ryan.

  Ryan had stayed for a while, trying to cheer Axler up by distracting her with cyberware catalogs, trying to get her to pick out her favorite mods on her new 'ware. It was going to cost a lot of nuyen, but Ryan didn't care. Axler was worth whatever she wanted.

  Now, he rubbed soap around the wound Burnout had left in his ribs. Ryan knew that without medical attention the injury would have been fatal for any other man, but he had already felt the healing begin during the afternoon.

  By the time Dhin got a chance to take a look at his injuries, the wound had already sealed over. Dhin had looked at the amount of blood on his clothing and raised an inquisitive eyebrow, making his brutish face seem somehow refined.