One Dark Future

by Michael Anderle

  “You willing to bet all these lives? You willing to bet yours?”

  “It’s not a bet when you know you’re going to win.”

  Erik moved a finger toward the trigger. He’d rather kill the bastard than let him get away. At least it would be one less person involved in the conspiracy.

  But that would be wrong. The people linked to the conspiracy were the two dead men. Could Konig be an assassin from a faction less concerned with vicious control?

  No. If he were on their side, he wouldn’t be threatening to destroy an entire resort or resisting people who identified themselves as Parliamentary Security Detail agents.

  “The sub is almost here,” Emma announced.

  “This is your last chance, Konig,” Erik shouted. “You can leave with us breathing, or you can leave in a body bag. I don’t care either way.”

  The water in the docking pool stirred and a dark shape emerged—the body of a submarine. With a whir, a turret rotated into firing position from a previously hidden panel and sprayed bullets through the docking bay. A security guard screamed as a round tore through his shoulder. A man behind him grabbed him by his collar and pulled him toward the tunnel.

  “Get the hell back!” Erik bellowed. “You’re not going to be able to do crap with stun rifles. Go get something heavier!”

  The security guards rushed toward the tunnel, keeping low. The turret swept the area again, and its heavy bullets ripped through walls and benches but bounced off support pillars in a shower of sparks.

  Konig tried to emerge from his temporary shield, but Erik sent two rounds that forced him back. They might be pinned down, but as long as they held him in check or stalled for reinforcements, they could win.

  “Next time, we figure out a way to smuggle our exos in with us,” Erik grumbled.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Without heavier weapons, Jia wasn’t sure how to advance. Their tac suits could take punishment, but she doubted they could survive many direct hits from a heavy vehicle-mounted weapon.

  “Emma, anything you can do?” he asked.

  “I’m going to smash some drones against the turret,” Emma announced. “It’s unlikely they’ll do much damage, but it should provide a momentary period where you can advance. The longer you can stall them, the longer I can attempt to see if I can hack into any of the sub’s systems that respond to external signals. I’m not guaranteeing anything, but my general integration with the resort, including the security system, gives me options we don’t normally have.”

  It might not be the best plan, but it was a plan.

  Jia’s gaze darted to the nearest support pillar, one of the only structures in the room that gave decent cover from the turret.

  She nodded to Erik and prepared to run.

  Konig made a break for the sub while the turret did its best to suppress Erik and Jia, but that didn’t stop him from taking a round to the shoulder. The man stumbled with his briefcase toward another support pillar, a trail of blood marking his path.

  A swarm of maintenance drones swirled together, a sight both eerie and beautiful. They dove as a staggered formation toward the turret, smashing into it and shattering on contact. Erik and Jia took their chance and ran forward. The turret came to life, but its deadly barrages shredded the drones flying in front of it, creating an even larger cloud of smoke and debris.

  Clanking and skittering resounded from the tunnel. The noise was the prelude to a small army of security bots emerging and opening fire, most offering stun bolts, but bullets ripping from them as well.

  They dinged against the thick hull of the sub, but the exposed turret sparked under the onslaught.

  “Local security was still figuring out what to do,” Emma explained. “I thought I’d facilitate things with the tools I can directly control.”

  Konig leapt into the water, narrowly escaping Erik, Jia, and the security bots. He swam under the surface, careful to keep the briefcase with him. Jia became more interested in his luggage than the man.

  Jia tucked her pistol into her holster and pushed herself hard for the water, unsure of how long Emma’s machinations would save them from the turret. She joined Konig in the water. Erik added his own presence with a massive splash.

  Konig’s legs disappeared into an open but flooded starboard airlock and the outer door slid closed behind him. Jia didn’t try to bother firing since her weapon wouldn’t be effective at this range underwater, and she wasn’t going to blow a sub open with a pistol.

  Emma’s distorted voice filled her ears. “Keep going, Jia. I’ve managed to drop one of the inner doors in the docking bay, and they can’t simply ram through that. I think I can open the airlock. I hope you can hold your breath. Be the best fleshbag you can be.”

  Jia swam harder, closing on the flooded airlock, her lungs burning. Erik was behind her, looking grimly determined. She was starting to come around to his view of the threats of water.

  A muffled explosion above sent burning metal fragments into the water, and the submarine listed to the side before diving.

  “Security has brought heavier weapons,” Emma commented, sounding bored. “The turret was destroyed, but the sub still appears seaworthy.”

  Jia arrived at the door and grabbed an external handrail, her lungs crying out for oxygen. She lifted her head, unsure of how much longer she could hold her breath. Erik floated beside her with his thumb up before he grabbed a handrail.

  At least they would drown together.

  The sub slowly turned, lining up the bow with the thick transparent inner gate blocking their retreat. Jia fought her body’s natural urge to take a breath.

  The external door clanked and slid open. Jia and Erik swam inside.

  “Put me in the IO port,” Emma ordered, marking the relevant spot inside the flooded airlock in their smart lenses.

  Erik pulled out the crystalline core and shoved it into the IO port. The outer door closed, and the water level rapidly drained.

  Jia’s pulse pounded in her ears. She would give anything for a quick breath, so she swam toward the top of the airlock as precious centimeters became water-free and gasped. Erik joined her.

  Their hearts pounded.

  They took deep, slow breaths as the water continued to drain, and they slowly sank to the metal floor until they both knelt.

  “I suspect I will have control of this vehicle within ten to fifteen minutes,” Emma insisted in a tone of smug satisfaction. “There are certain aspects of system security that would benefit from improvement.”

  “I’m fine with them being lazy and arrogant.” Jia stood, her heart not yet slowed despite the fresh oxygen.

  She drew her stun pistol.

  “This is our chance to take these guys alive to get intel,” Jia offered, her voice low and threatening. “If they aren’t the conspiracy, they know something about it. Emma, can you manipulate the oxygen by room?”

  “I won’t know until I’ve taken control of the—”

  A loud boom shook the submarine.

  “What the hell was that?” Erik barked.

  “They just blew the gate with a torpedo,” Emma replied. “Unfortunately, I think it’s best if I lift the other gates to decrease the chance of serious damage to the resort.”

  “Do it.” Erik yanked out his pistol. “We’re aboard now. It’s not like they’re getting away.” He crouched on one side of the inner airlock door. “Let Jia get in position and open the door. Can you do that, or do you need total control?”

  “I should be able to open the door.”

  Jia got ready. “Give the count, Erik. Let me do the shooting, so we keep some alive.”

  “Better down them quickly. Three, two, one.”

  The door slid open and a flurry of stun bolts flew into the chamber, most concentrated over the center. They harmlessly struck the back wall, but the shots on the side passed over Erik’s and Jia’s heads.

  She suspected the four angry-looking men with stun pistols farther down the tight pass
age on the other side were more concerned about damage to the sub than taking living prisoners, but she didn’t have time to think about it.

  Jia’s hands moved of their own accord as she fired. The men collapsed with groans before they could get off a second set of shots. Erik never fired.

  “Good job.” Erik sounded impressed.

  The invading pair ran to the stunned men. Erik holstered his pistol and grabbed one of the fallen men’s weapons. They waited near the crew, crouching as heavy footfalls sounded from around a corner.

  “I haven’t gained control of the ship’s systems or the cameras, but I’ve been able to temporarily blind them,” Emma reported. “That should make things easier.”

  “Works for me,” Jia replied.

  The next group of men barely made it around the corner before Erik and Jia nailed them, sending them to hard, thumping collisions with the metal floor.

  Erik smiled. “If we don’t know where to shoot, hitting the guys with guns makes the most sense.”

  Emma sounded confused. “There’s a certain logic to that.”

  They stopped at the corner and peeked around. There was no one waiting for them at the end of the short passage, but there were several sealed compartments.

  Erik and Jia crept forward, listening for any sign of the enemy. They arrived at the first sealed door when it slid open to reveal a large man with a knife. He swung it at Jia’s chest with a crazed gleam in his eye.

  The blade glanced off her tactical suit, and she shoved her left palm into his nose. He stumbled backward. She followed up with two point-blank stun bolts to his face. He collapsed and bounced off a table, landing on a trail of blood that led farther into the room.

  Konig stood on the other side of the surprisingly long room filled with integrated tables and chairs, a mess hall. Jia didn’t understand why Erik hadn’t already taken him out until she noticed the primed grenade in the other man’s hand.

  “I see now,” Konig spat. He was pale and shaking, his breathing ragged, his hair matted from water and blood. “I actually thought you were Parliamentary Security. I should have known people still loyal to the old order would send backup.” He let out a strangled laugh. “But too late. You’re not getting anything from me.”

  “No one has to die,” Jia replied, her gaze locked on the man’s hand. “If those two men you killed are who we think they are, we might be able to help one another.”

  “Help one another?” Another loud laugh sent Konig stumbling backward. “Oh, I see who you are. I should have known.” He lowered the grenade next to the case. “You think you’ve won some great victory, but you have no idea what you’re up against and what’s coming for you.” He released his hold on the grenade.

  Erik and Jia jumped out of the room, but shrapnel from the explosion ricocheted, and pieces struck and embedded themselves in their tactical suits. Others grazed their exposed hands.

  Jia hissed as a chunk of shrapnel sliced her cheek, then groaned and pushed herself up, her cheek throbbing as she reached up to feel the cut. Erik noticed her flinch as she eyed the blood. “That went well, all things considered.”

  “We’re not dead.” Erik got to his feet and carefully brushed shrapnel off his tac suit.

  Jia pulled out a med patch and applied it to her face with a wince.

  Smoke and the acrid scent of burned flesh filled the room. Konig’s mangled body lay on the ground, barely recognizable. The briefcase had been blown apart, and a badly scorched data rod lay near it, cracks running through it.

  “Shit,” Erik growled, and he punched the edge of a nearby table. “I thought he was just trying to avoid getting interrogated.”

  Emma appeared, this time wearing a blue eighteen-century British Royal Navy uniform, complete with tricorn hat. “We still have this sub, and even if they’ve practiced excellent operational security, there is a chance of recovering data from the rod with Alina’s help.”

  “And we’ve got a ship full of prisoners.” Jia took deep breaths. “Which we should lock up before the stuns wear off.”

  “You okay?” Erik gave her a worried look.

  “We both know I’ve taken a lot worse than this.” Jia gestured to her cheek. “Let’s just take this sub out of here. It’s time to call Alina for backup and,” she looked around Konig’s last stand, “cleanup.”

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  “Are you sure?” Erik asked, pointing his gun at the unopened top hatch, but he took a second to look at Emma’s hologram.

  He would have preferred their new arrival to enter via the side airlock. That way, he and Jia could better contain them if they proved not to be who they were expecting.

  Being too trusting in the middle of the ocean on a stolen conspiracy submarine was stupid. All it took was one quick grenade toss to make sure they had an agonizing last few minutes of life.

  “The codes all match,” Emma replied, sounding annoyed. “It’s not impossible for someone to have intercepted the codes, but the other message elements are consistent with what I was expecting. I believe it is the visitor Alina told us to expect. The alterations were extreme compared to the original course, but unless you’re willing to interrogate the surviving crew, we won’t know where they intended to go. They’d already blanked the course data in the navigation system.”

  Erik and Jia had continued sailing away from the resort after sending a brief report to Alina. They weren’t cops anymore, and it wasn’t their job to stick around and investigate murders.

  The longer they lingered, the greater the risk their lies about their identity would come out, and the CID was going to get involved anyway.

  Alina had assured them that leaving was fine and instructed them to travel to a specific location and surface at a particular time, where they would be boarded by an ID agent who would take possession of both the sub and the data rod and drop them off in Japan.

  They would then catch a flight back to Neo SoCal under false names and pretend they were never anywhere near the Mizuchi Undersea Resort during the unusual events that had transpired.

  They arrived at the coordinates without incident and detected a low-flying flitter nearby. The vehicle circled them before contacting Emma with the code, and a black-masked agent in a tactical suit jumped out of the flitter to the submarine.

  Their vehicle departed at high speed, leaving them on the sub. Whoever it was appeared confident they wouldn’t need a ride home. One way to accomplish that would be to kill the people currently in control of the submarine, but if Erik and Jia decided to descend, they would be bobbing in the Pacific and waiting for a pickup.

  Jia drew her stun pistol with a sigh.

  “Now you’re paranoid, Jia?” Emma asked. “Although they have weapons on them, they haven’t drawn them. I see no obvious explosives.”

  “It doesn’t hurt to be careful.” Jia pointed her weapon at the hatch. “Especially in the middle of the ocean. It’s a long way to dry land, and they probably have reinforcements closer than we do.”

  “Open the top hatch, Emma,” Erik ordered. “If it’s a friend of Alina’s, they won’t be offended by having a couple of guns pointed their way, and if not, we’ll be able to get a shot off before they try anything.”

  He backed up a couple of meters. No reason to eat a grenade if one was coming. He assumed they were rather metallic-tasting.

  The hatch whirred and spun, and the interior door slid apart before the main hatch popped up. Then a small ladder extended down. The masked agent jumped down, their pistols following as they landed in a crouch. A moment later, they reached up and pulled the mask off, revealing cyan hair and a familiar face.

  “Hail the conquering heroes,” Alina announced with a smile. She stood and dusted off her sleeves. “I knew it was a good idea to send you to the resort. I’ve got other agents who could have investigated, but not many who could have managed to board an already submerged and departing sub.”

  “If it was just going to be you, why didn’t you say so, Alina?
” Erik holstered his gun. “Sometimes I think you like to be mysterious for the sake of it.”

  The ladder retracted, and the hatch dropped with a thud. The interior door closed, and a light hum filled the vehicle as the engines came back online.

  Emma had already been sent course data.

  “I’m not saying I never have fun at your expense, but that wasn’t the case this time.” Alina looked at Erik and Jia with a gleam in her eye. “After everything that happened, I thought it was best I come to debrief you myself.” She patted a bulkhead. “I’m impressed. Very impressed. You’ve got an entire ship and multiple prisoners. That’s a big haul. I’m assuming the prisoners are still secure? I wouldn’t blame you if things got a little squirrely and you had to take them out.”

  “They’re fine,” Jia replied, gesturing down the passage. “We’ve got them locked in a cabin back there, and we made it clear that if they caused trouble, they might get to inspect the bottom of the ocean without diving gear. We did check them for hidden weapons. Emma’s keeping an eye on them in case they’ve got a bomb implanted in their spleen or whatever stupid trick the conspiracy thought up, but they mostly are sitting there in sullen silence.”

  “Excellent. It’s always better to have prisoners for interrogation, and I’m pleased to see you two can accomplish a mission without blowing up half the area.” She clapped. “Things are getting better.”

  “Hey.” Erik snickered. “It’s usually the other guys who blow shit up. We’re the ones stopping them.”

  “Fair enough.” Alina rubbed her hands together. “Unfortunately, I doubt we’ll get much from your prisoners, but I appreciate the effort.”

  Erik’s smile disappeared. “Why won’t we get much?”

  “Because we’ve already identified a couple based on the biometric data Emma sent us, and all evidence points to them being mercenaries.”

  Erik rolled his shoulders before sighing. “I don’t buy it.” He’d been tense for too long during the boarding procedure. “No mercenary is going to blow himself up to protect a client. If Konig was a gun for hire, why not just sell out his employers when we had him cornered? For that matter, why not toss that grenade at us rather than eating it?”