“I’m with you. I know what our business is.”
“You just said—”
“We make energy. We can fire that energy from space canons, or light cities, or even charge up this power pack on my back. I don’t give two shits about whether it’s fission or fusion or black sorcery.”
“Fair enough,” she said. “You’re a neanderthal.”
“I want to sleep at night,” said Mason. “I don’t want to read science journals.”
“Your loss,” said Carter. “I read stuff other than science journals.”
“Like what?”
“Like—”
“Forget I asked,” said Mason. “Where you going with the Metatech thing?”
“They launched their giant, city killing space lasers with tech they got after acquiring a majority portion of NASA.”
“No shit?”
“No shit.”
“NASA made space lasers?”
“No. NASA made space stuff. Rockets. Space ships. Space suits. Freeze dried gourmet meals. Metatech bolted a laser on the outside of a satellite, tied it to a rocket, and fired it into the sky.”
“Oh,” said Mason. “I… That’s less cool.”
“It’s still pretty cool,” she said. “Seriously. City-killing space lasers? Who doesn’t want one of those?”
“How’d we get our… Our… Christ. Fusion or fission?”
“Fusion.”
“How’d we get our fusion thing into the sky?”
“We stole the space tech from them, and bolted our fusion cannon on the outside.”
“Same thing?”
“You’re asking the wrong questions,” said Carter. “Seriously. You should be asking me different questions.”
Mason scratched his head. “I give up.”
“Ok, Mason Floyd,” said Carter. “You still wanna be an astronaut?”
He blinked at the radio. “What?”
“It’s a yes or no question.”
“It’s not really,” he said. “It’s—”
“Yes. Or no.”
“No,” said Mason. “Yes.”
“That’s what I thought,” she said. She paused, and Mason could hear her quick indrawn breath. “I can’t go with you.”
“No,” he said. “Not like this.”
Her voice sounded brittle, bright and artificial. “It’ll be ok. We can still write.”
“I can’t ask you to… I can’t ask you to make the call to them.”
“Sure you can,” she said. “You’re a big boy. All you need to do is say, ‘Carter, can you call Metatech and see if they’ll accept my job application?’”
“We could go together,” said Mason.
“No,” said Carter. “No we can’t.”
“It’s just that…” He stopped, swallowed. “I…”
The radio hissed. “We’re a team. I get it.”
“No,” he said. “We’re—”
“Don’t say it,” she said. “We’re a team.”
Mason stood up. He almost didn’t notice the twinge in his leg as he looked out the window. He turned back to the radio. “I want us to keep being a team.”
“Mason?”
“Yes, Carter?”
“We can’t keep being a team.” Her voice turned hard. “They want to kill you, Mason. They will never let you come back. Not this time. You tried to sell company IP. At least, that’s what they think. Someone needs to fall, and that’s gonna be you. There will never be an inquest. No corporate memo can dig you out this time.”
He reached out a hand, and put it on top of the radio. He bowed his head. “Can we—”
“No,” she said. “Whatever you’re about to ask, the answer’s no.”
“I been doing this job for a long time, Carter,” said Mason. “Long time.”
“I’ve read your file.”
He felt the sardonic smile pull at his face. I’m sure you have. Instead, he said, “I’ve never had a…” He swallowed. “I don’t know—”
“It’s ok,” she said. “Like I said, we can still write.”
“No,” he said. “No, we can’t. If we do this—”
“If you do it.”
“If we do this, we can’t talk again. After it’s done? Not ever.”
The radio hissed again. “I know,” she said, her voice soft. “I know.”
Mason looked up and out the window. “Ok.”
“Ok,” she said.
“Carter?”
“Yes, Mason.”
“Carter? I need you to get a message to Harry for me.”
“Ok. Different message to last time.”
“That’s right. Different message.”
“What do you want me to tell him?”
“Can you ask him… Can you ask him to meet me at the Great Wheel. Tell him I want to come in.”
“Ok,” she said. “What do you want me to really tell him?”
“Tell him it’s a setup. Tell him to be careful.”
“Ok.”
“Carter?”
“Yes, Mason?”
“Carter, can you call Metatech and see if they’ll accept my job application?” Mason let the tension out of his shoulders. I’ve said it. It’s done.
“Yes, Mason.” The radio clicked as she dropped from the other end.
He touched the radio again. “Thanks, Carter.” The empty room swallowed his words as he turned to leave.
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
Harry stared at the wall of the hangar, the hum running through his chassis as the pipes connected to him swapped out liquids, replenished organic fuels. It’s not like he needed a battery uplift — the damn reactor would keep on powering the metal for a thousand years or more. The meat part, what was left of him still needed —
He cut the thought off. “He said what?”
“He said—”
“I know what he said, Carter. I heard you the first time.”
“Then why—”
“What I meant was, why did he say that?” Harry shifted one of his metal feet, listening to the hiss and purr of the link.
“You want me to guess? It’s Mason fucking Floyd, Harry. An enigma. A catalyst. The golden boy.” Carter sounded tired.
“Right,” said Harry. “But you and I know him better. If you had to … guess.”
Carter paused for a few moments. “You want me to extrapolate based on known data?”
“Is that the same thing as guessing?”
“It’s similar,” she said. “There’s more science involved my way.”
“Ok,” said Harry. “Why don’t you… What did you say?”
“Extrapolate.”
“Sure. Extrapolate away.”
Carter sighed, the link chattering between them. “I think he wants to die.”
“That’s what I thought, too,” said Harry. “Clear signs of a death wish.”
“Sure,” she said. “I don’t know—”
“Have you told anyone?” Harry looked down at the metal of his foot, seeing some of the chips in the painted surface. The P of NO STEP had worn down to NO STE. “I mean, escalated it. Through the channels.”
“The channels know, Harry. You know how this works.”
“I used to be how this works,” said Harry. “I get it.”
The silence pooled around them, broken only by the occasional static of the link. Carter spoke first. “So what are you going to do?”
“My job, Carter,” said Harry. “I’m going to do my job.”
“I thought you might,” said Carter. “I wanted to give you the choice, though.”
“What choice?” said Harry.
“You remember what he did for you, don’t you?” said Carter.
Harry looked at the metal of his foot again, seeing the NO STE stenciled there again. His optics zoomed in on it, going to ten times resolution, a hundred, a thousand. He could see the puffs and scars of the metallic structure, threw in false color over the top. “I remember—”
“You remember th
e fire,” she said.
Harry lifted a metal hand in front of his optics, then looked at the cables connecting him to the wall. “I remember the fire,” he said. “It’s not something you forget.”
“I remember it too,” she said. “He had a choice, then.”
“How can you remember it? You weren’t assigned.”
“That’s above your pay grade, Harry. It’s just that… I remember something else, other than the fire.”
Harry felt something hard and nasty get into his voice. “What’s that, Carter? You’re always so smart, aren’t you. You ever been burned alive? That what you remember?”
The link hissed between them. “I can show you,” she said.
“Show me what?”
“Do you want to know?” She paused. “You have to know it all, if you know a piece. So you can make the right choice.”
“What’s in this for you, Carter? Why do you care?”
“You ever had a friend, Harry?”
Harry paused the scraping of his foot along the ground, tipping the chassis with a soft whine of servos. “What the fuck kind of question is that?”
“You know, someone you trust. Who trusts you.”
“I… Sure. Of course.”
“Remember that, at the end of this,” she said.
“The end of what?” said Harry. “You hormonal today, Carter?”
“No,” said Carter. “Here. You should know. I can’t make the choice for you.”
An icon flashed in the corner of Harry’s vision, a packet of data small and old. He looked at it as it blinked, a video file of some kind. “What is it?”
“Just watch it,” she said.
“Has Lace seen this?”
“Just watch it, Harry Fuentes. Make the right choice.”
He opened the packet, and the video flooded into life.
⚔ ⚛ ⚔
A man ran along the street, rain pounding down around him. He had a weapon in his hand, something big and violent, a marker above his head stenciling the name FUENTES, H. The image blurred for a moment, static coming down like the rain as the EMP kicked off nearby.
The man — Harry — stopped, looking around the street. “Floyd! That’s a cheap shot.”
Another man dropped to the ground in the street behind him. He must have been hidden in the catwalk structure of the fire escapes hugging the buildings like old lace. The image of the other man was overlaid in green for a moment before FLOYD, M flickered into life above his head. He had a weapon in his hand, pointed at Harry’s back. The rain streamed and coursed around him, making clothes stick. Lightning flashed across the sky. “Don’t move, Fuentes.”
Harry froze, his body going rigid. He’d been wearing company issue armor, black and slick in the rain, as he turned slow and even towards Mason. “There’s no way out, Floyd. If you come in now—”
“If I come in now, you won’t kill the right guy,” said Mason. “You’re reading this all wrong.”
“There’s evidence,” said Harry. He blinked in the rain, rubbing his free hand over his face, before looking down at the gun still in his hand. “You know, fuck it. I could just—”
“Die where you stand? Yeah, you could do that.” Mason’s hand hadn’t moved a millimeter, the water running down the barrel and off his hand. “I don’t really want to shoot you.”
“That’s real nice of you,” said Harry. “I don’t feel the same way.”
“Let me ask you one simple question,” said Mason.
“Ok,” said Harry. “Take as long as you need. Support’s on the way.”
“No,” said Mason, something sad in his face. “That’s the thing. It’s not, Harry. No one’s coming. No one’s ever coming again if you don’t let me do my job.”
“I just talked to Lace. They’re airlifting in support right now. So take all the time you want.”
Mason shook his head. “Do you like her, Harry?”
“Who?”
“Lace. Do you like her?”
“What kind of question is that?”
“Just answer the question,” said Mason. His gun hadn’t moved, still pointed clear as an arrow at Harry’s face.
“Sure, it’s your dime,” said Harry. “I like her. She’s a friend. A partner. Wouldn’t sell me out down the river for a percentage like some people I know.”
“She’ll be dead in the next ten minutes. It’s why I’m going this way.”
Harry shifted, the movement subtle against the rain, but caught on the camera all the same. “You’re going back to the Federate to kill my partner?”
“No,” said Mason. “I’m going back to the Federate to kill my partner. So he doesn’t kill yours.”
“Come again?” Harry shook his head. He took a step towards Mason, lightning flashing across the sky.
“You heard me,” said Mason. He took a step towards Harry, then another. The recording showed them walking closer, closing the distance, the gun still between them. “It’s not the safest place in the world for me, you know.”
Harry laughed, the sound flat in the recording. “No, I guess not. How you going to get inside?” Another step, closer again.
“I’ll work something out,” said Mason, his arm lowering slightly. “You know what your problem is?” Step. Step.
“No,” said Harry. Step, step. “What?”
They were almost close enough to touch now. The lightning crashed again, the image flickering in the storm, and Harry moved too fast to follow on the recording, his hand coming up. Mason caught the weapon as it rose, holding the barrel, Harry’s arm trembling with effort.
“Your problem,” said Mason, “is you rely on the lattice too much.”
“Really?” said Harry. “I’ve got a gun on you now.”
“Yeah,” said Mason. “You’d almost think it makes us even.”
Harry laughed again, short and sharp. “Mine really is bigger than yours, Floyd.”
Mason seemed to shrug, the recording showing him tossing his weapon to the street. “There. Now you’ve got no excuse.”
“No excuse?”
“Not to shoot me, Fuentes. You’ve got to make a call. Shoot me, your partner dies. Take me back with you, we can stop this. Together.” Mason was looking at Harry, looking for something. “Hell with it. I can’t do it by myself anyway. I need your help. So shoot me, or come with me.”
“What?”
Mason shuffled a bit closer, pushing the barrel of Harry’s weapon into his shoulder. “Here. Take the shot.”
“Ok, Floyd. You know what your problem is?”
“Why don’t you tell me.”
“You’re too much of a damn arrogant son of a bitch,” said Harry. Something seemed to relax in him, and the gun in his hand barked, red and black blasting out from the back of Mason’s shoulder. Mason spun around in the rain from the force of the shot, his good hand slapping Harry’s gun aside. He continued to turn, a leg coming up and down, his foot breaking through Harry’s knee like it was kindling. Harry tried to stand again, something trying to pull him up on invisible strings, and Mason’s fist slammed into the side of his head with the force of a falling piano. Harry went down cold.
Mason bent over in the rain, picking up his sidearm, then almost as an afterthought he grabbed Harry’s weapon. His movements were slower, something sticking inside. He started to jog away up the street, his shoes splashing through the puddles in the street, red that was almost black running from the hole in his back, and tossed Harry’s sidearm into a storm drain.
The recording flicked forward a minute and ten seconds, Harry getting back up off the street. He looked around, the recording overlaid with audio from the link.
“Lace,” said Harry.
“Thank Christ,” she said. “You sleeping on the job again?”
“He’s coming to you, Lace,” said Harry. “He’s says going to kill you all.”
“Right,” she said. “You still believe in Santa Claus?”
“That’s what I thought too,” said
Harry. “Look, can you jack one of these cars for me?”
“Sec,” she said, and a vehicle on the side of the street beeped, a converted Chrysler, the running lights coming on. “You’re in.”
“Thanks,” said Harry, pulling the door open. His leg was dragging, and he had to hop and shimmy into the driver’s seat. “Lace?”
“Yeah, Harry?”
“Lock the door, ok?”
“On it,” she said. “Go get that motherfucker.”
The recording clicked forward again, another forty two seconds, picking up from a different vantage over an intersection. A man was running through the rain, favoring his side, and the overlay put FLOYD, M above him. A car drove up the street behind him, a Chrysler, moving at the speed limit. It didn’t have to rush, to draw attention to itself. A green wire frame dropped over the vehicle, the image zooming into the driver, before placing FUENTES, H over the vehicle.
It drew closer to the jogging man, the image showing Mason’s face, drawn with the pain of his shoulder. When the car was no more than ten meters back, it accelerated hard, kicking up water from the street. Something must have caught Mason’s attention, the lattice picking up the difference in the sound of the rain, because he managed to turn and bring his weapon up to bear before the car slammed into him. Mason’s weapon went off, tearing a chunk out of the front driver’s side tyre, before he was spun away to land at the side of the street.
The Chrysler struggled, the front rim carving through the asphalt of the road, and it slewed and plowed through the wet street before crashing into a parked car. It was hard to see on the recording what went wrong, where it all started, but light broke out from the inside of the Chrysler as the man behind the wheel tried to escape. His door was crumpled, jammed, and whatever was wrong with his leg was stopping him getting leverage. The light chattered and burst again, an arc of electricity fountaining from the rear of the Chrysler, sparking in the rain.
The recording zoomed in on the Chrysler for a moment, the wire frame dropping down again before POSSIBLE FUEL CELL BREACH flicked into life beside it. The man inside began to get frantic to escape the car as somewhere inside red and yellow flickered into life as the fire began.
At the side of the road, Mason moved. He was slow as he tried to roll over and push himself upright, but the crash had hurt something. The recording mapped the lines of his body, the wire frame marking possible fracture sites. He managed to get onto one knee as the lightning fired inside the Chrysler again, and again, the sound cutting out the audio on the recording as it peaked. Static flickered over the recording a moment before the fire really roared, something catching inside, and the lightning continued to coil and breach inside the vehicle.
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