Code Breakers: Delta

by Colin F. Barnes

  “Crap.”

  A buzzing noise filled the silence. It echoed down the corridor from behind them. Gerry spun round. Petal switched on her flashlight. Flying in formation were three small drones, each the size of a fist. Petal’s light reflected off a camera lens in the one in front.

  From behind them came the sound of an industrial door sliding open and rushing footsteps. The three drones crackled with electricity until between them a bolt of blue lightning formed and fired out toward Gerry and Petal.

  ***

  Jachz was aware of his body being dragged and then tossed down a shaft. It hit the floor with a thud. He’d since managed to turn off his pain receptors. Or maybe it was due to a lack of oil in his system to carry the appropriate neuronal messages.

  He managed to open one eye. He was in the corner of a bright room some ten metres square. The floor was carpeted with grey fabric, but there were worn patches and areas of mould colonisation.

  The room smelled musty and old. Disused for many years. A large oak, or at least imitation oak, desk took up a central position in the middle of the room. A mechanical keyboard sat on the surface, now yellow with age, having obviously been built with older, inferior polymers.

  An early OLED panel hung on the wall in front of the control desk.

  Jachz saw all this from a sideways position; his head slumped to the floor.

  He had no motor abilities beyond moving his eye.

  Shadows of legs and feet extended and shifted around him. He counted at least three distinct people and a shape that might have belonged to a fourth, but he couldn’t shift his neck in order to see.

  His aural receptors had shorted, so all he could hear was the hiss of internal amplifiers. Something touched his neck. Something metallic.

  A cable.

  He saw the back of the viroborg walk away from him, carrying the cable until it reached the wall with the OLED screen. Because of the angle of the desk, Jachz couldn’t see what it had plugged it into, only that it had, as the cable hung in a great loop between his neck port and whatever lay beyond his vision.

  Some other event beyond the doors to this control room must have occurred, because the viroborg reached for a pistol attached to a holster on its lower back. It crouched behind the desk, its dark figure looking no more solid than a shadow.

  Another figure dashed briefly into Jachz’s vision, heading for the door.

  Jachz recognised the uniform first and then the face.

  It was the security guard who had helped him escape the crashed spacecraft at Libertas. The one who followed Enna around like an eager puppy.

  Jachz tried to access his memory, but the connections were damaged, and he couldn’t recall his name. Not that it mattered. He carried a Libertas-issue rifle and a grim expression on his face.

  A third figure entered the frame. They stood by the desk, leaning over the keyboard and tapping out commands. A red light flashed from further in the room. This other figure turned to face Jachz and smiled at him.

  And he recognised that smile instantly.

  ***

  Gerry screamed at Petal and dodged the ball of lightning, turning his head to follow its trajectory. The bolt lit up Petal’s skin as it shot past by a few centimeters.

  The bolt struck. A scream filled the corridor, coming from a silhouette by the door.

  Gerry squinted against the glare of the blue explosion of energy. “Franklin?” Gerry shouted. The man rocked back on his feet, his eyes wide and mouth twisted. The electricity crawled all over him, his hair smoking. He fell to his knees, dropping the rifle to the ground.

  His charred body slumped forward with a thud.

  The door to the control room slid shut. Gerry just caught sight of someone standing by a large desk, but didn’t quite make out who they were. Certainly not the viroborg.

  Crackling, whirring noises soon caught his attention. He spun round, finger on the trigger, ready to blast the drones out of the air.

  They fired again, a smaller bolt this time. It struck his weapon, and he threw the rifle to the ground, his hands burning from the electrical charge.

  The three drones barrel-rolled into a wide formation.

  Gerry dashed back and picked up Franklin’s rifle, but the thing was dead.

  “They’re localised EMPs,” Gerry said.

  Petal nodded and wasted no time in firing in an arc on full-auto, emptying her magazine in a second and a half. She took out two of the drones, sending them spinning and crashing to the ground.

  Gerry rolled forward as the last remaining drone fired a regular slug. Given the size, he knew it unlikely to have many left, but still, it’d only take one. He reached behind his back for his pistol, but the backpack had got stuck around it.

  He kneeled up, and the drone flew around in a circle until it was behind Gerry.

  Damn things were too fast.

  It fired again, but Gerry was already throwing himself to the ground. The round missed. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Petal turn the rifle around, gripping it by the barrel and using it like a baseball bat and swinging high.

  The butt of the rifle clanked against the chrome exterior of the drone. The impact sent it crashing into the side of the corridor. Glass components inside shattered as it fell to the ground. Picking up his useless rifle, Gerry used the butt to smash it further into the ground, busting the mechanism wide open.

  “Home motherfucking run,” Petal said, patting her makeshift bat.

  “Great hitting,” Gerry said.

  They took turns smashing the crap out of the other two before returning their attentions to Franklin. As Gerry kneeled by his side and pressed two fingers to his neck, a siren sounded and the red light changed from a glow to a swirling flash.

  “Shit,” Petal said. “That can’t be good news.”

  “What the hell is Franklin doing here?” Gerry asked, trying to work it out. Why would he double-cross them? He’d actively helped them discover the viroborg… but then the more he thought about it, the more it made sense.

  “Gez, love, we ought to get into that control room, right now.”

  “Yeah, I know, one second, I’m just thinking for a moment…”

  When Franklin left the server room back in Cemprom to inform the others, that was when Jess got kidnapped. Perhaps he was causing the diversion? He probably didn’t bank on Enna mobilising the team so quickly and Jess having the smarts to set a trail for them to follow.

  But still, it didn’t quite all add up… there was something missing in this whole situation.

  “Gerry, we gotta move.” Petal grabbed him by the arm and lifted him away from Franklin. But Gerry resisted for a moment after spotting something in his pocket: an access card. Grabbing it, he looked up at Petal and smiled. “I think we finally got a lucky break. Let’s go end this bullshit once and for all.”

  The pair of them approached the door to the control room.

  The red light flashed beneath, staining the access tunnel’s surface. Gerry removed his backpack and freed the pistol from his holster.

  Petal followed and extended her forearm spikes.

  They stood at opposite sides of the door, preparing for what lay behind it.

  “Ready?” Gerry asked.

  “Do it,” Petal said, wearing her best battle-face and grabbing her pistol free of the belt holster.

  God, he loved her so much. He hesitated for a moment, the access card hovering above the mechanism. What if he lost now, after all this effort? All this fight and struggle?

  But this was bigger than his love for her now. It was always bigger.

  The world needed this.

  Gerry swiped the card. The mechanism bleeped and the door slid open, exposing the control room and all those who stood inside, waiting for them.

  Chapter 25

  Both Petal and Gerry ran in screaming as they held their pistols out in front of them, peppering bullets at the viroborg hiding behind the desk. Their assault sent it falling backward in a spray of pla
stic, wood, and metal.

  The room swirled with red light, and the siren continued to blare. The OLED screen was counting down, currently on sixty seconds. Gerry dived to his right into a combat roll as the viroborg threw a dagger at him.

  Gerry came up from his roll, raised the pistol and fired, catching the viroborg in the leg, sending it crashing to the ground. Gerry’s vision narrowed and time seemed to slow as he focused on taking out the immediate threat.

  Petal vaulted the command desk and emptied her pistol on the way down. She threw it away when she hit the ground. The viroborg took a shot to its side, but that didn’t slow it down. It reached to its thigh and unsheathed a short sword.

  Crouching, Petal brought her spikes in front of her before charging the ’borg. Steel clashed and sparked as she and her opponent dueled.

  Something grabbed Gerry’s ankle, making him spin round to face the far right side of the room. At first, Gerry didn’t register what it was, but then saw the charred, mutilated body of Jachz in the darkness, his arm outstretched, hand weakly surrounding Gerry’s ankle.

  His single eye locked gazes with Gerry for a moment before rolling up, showing only white. Jachz uttered, “Stop… her…”

  A figure strode out of the shadows, grabbing his attention.

  The figure pointed a Libertas-issue pistol at Jachz’s head, firing once. Sparks exploded and Jachz’s body jerked once as smoke rose from the aperture. Before Gerry could act, a shot struck him in the arm, making him drop the pistol and stagger back to the rear wall next to the door.

  The swirling red light cast long shadows, but as the figure moved toward Gerry, pistol aimed at his chest, he saw her face, and it all made sense.

  He glanced over to Petal. She and the ’borg were fighting hard, the latter showing surprising speed despite its wounds, yet Petal kept swinging like a frenzied banshee. The number on the screen read fifty-one seconds…

  The pistol pressed into Gerry’s chest.

  “Nice of you to drop in, Gerry. But as you can see, you’re too late.”

  The words stung, the voice of betrayal and deceit.

  “Enna? Why? Why you?”

  “Why not?” She smiled at him… the smile of the mad.

  How she had managed to cover her true character for all this time, Gerry couldn’t fathom. His mind whirled with all the ramifications and situations. He was brought back to his conversations with his real father.

  This Enna must be a clone—but when did the swap happen? Who was the real Enna and who was the clone?

  “Where’s Jess?” Gerry asked. “What have you done with her?”

  Enna grabbed his chin and twisted his head to the left.

  Beyond Petal and the ’borg locked in combat, he saw Jess’s tiny, frail form lying on the floor in front of the mainframe beneath the screen. Her head was pressed against the filthy carpet, blood dripping from her nose and ear. He turned away, looking back at Enna.

  “She was… reluctant to help, but eventually provided what I needed,” Enna said, the barrel of the pistol still pressed against his chest and her breath falling on his face.

  He tried to turn his head, but Enna kept her grip on his chin. Over her shoulder he saw the countdown.

  Forty-two.

  “So what now?” Gerry said through gritted teeth. “You’re gonna launch the nukes and be the queen of nothing? After everything we’ve fought for. Why now?”

  “I don’t expect you to understand. You’re just a pawn, Gerry. A proof of concept. Though I am grateful for all your help in getting rid of those mad clones for me and leaving the dome and the world for me to populate as I see fit. I can start again.”

  “You’re just as mad as they are,” he said, shifting beneath the gun, moving to his left so that the gun pointed more centrally.

  Petal screamed. Enna twisted his face to watch.

  Twenty-three.

  The viroborg drove its knife into Petal’s gut. Her eyes went wide and her arms flopped by her side. She took a breath and coughed out blood as she fell back.

  Gerry screamed for her, but she couldn’t hear.

  Nineteen.

  She fell backwards, hitting the floor. Her head lay beyond the edge of the desk. She turned to look at him, fear and pleading in her eyes.

  The viroborg stalked over her, taunting her with his blade.

  Seventeen.

  “Say your goodbyes, Gerry. This is the end of the line, once and for all.”

  Sixteen.

  “Fuck you and all of your kind, bitch.”

  Gerry shuffled to his left and leaned forward sharply, pushing the slide of the pistol back, preventing the firing pin from striking. The delay gave him a chance to shift so that by the time Enna pulled the trigger, the round fired through his shoulder at an angle.

  The impact rocked him against the wall. He roared with pain and closed his eyes, but then used the momentum to launch forward.

  Fifteen.

  Using the surprise as an opportunity, he slammed his head forward into Enna’s face and grabbed the pistol, all the while letting the pain out in a scream that drowned out the sirens. Enna tried to grab his throat, but the blood in her eyes made her miss with her wild attack.

  Fourteen.

  The viroborg looked over and then turned back to Petal, raising his knife ready to finish her. Gerry kicked Enna back and used the distance to raise the pistol. He fired once, point-blank. The back of her head exploded and she slumped to the ground.

  Thirteen.

  Gerry fell forward, dizziness and blurred vision from the pain unbalancing him. He raised the pistol again and fired toward the viroborg. The ’borg ducked, but staggered over Petal’s prone body.

  Twelve.

  The ’borg regained its balance.

  Gerry hit the deck hard, banging his head against the floor, making his vision swim. The pistol fell out of his hand and scattered away from him. He dragged himself forward, trying to push himself up, but the pain in his back kept him pinned.

  Eleven.

  Both lying on the ground, he and Petal locked eyes. A lifetime of pain and love flowed between them. At least if they were to die, they would have this connection. He wanted her to be the last thing he saw before he expired.

  At least they would be together in death.

  Ten.

  The ’borg brought the knife down towards Petal’s neck, the swirling red light making it look like slow-motion animation. Gerry held his breath and returned his attentions to Petal. She didn’t look scared or in pain, just… relief? Resignation?

  The ’borg jerked backward once, the knife missing Petal’s throat.

  Nine.

  A crash of gunfire belched out in a staccato beat of explosive death. Petal’s eyes reflected Gerry’s confusion. The ’borg continued to spasm. Chunks of flesh and sprays of oils shot out from its back, smearing against the screen until it eventually collapsed in a smouldering pile.

  Eight.

  Sounding as though she were shouting at him from underwater, Holly appeared in the room. She dropped the empty rifle to the ground and helped Petal up. She leaned her over the desk and came to lift Gerry to his feet.

  Seven.

  He clenched his jaw and closed his eyes as the pain in his chest and back conspired to cripple him. But Holly was screaming at him to keep going. She dragged him to the desk.

  Six.

  “You’ve got to stop it, Gerry!” Holly said with her underwater voice. “Do something, anything. Oh god, we’re all gonna die, come on!”

  She turned away from them. “Jess, you’re alive! Help, please.”

  Gerry couldn’t see her. He just reached over as best he could to touch Petal slumped over the desk. She turned her head and whispered, “The codes…” Her eyes dropped to her chest.

  Five.

  Gerry pulled the folded paper from her jacket and laid it flat against the desk, all the while gripping on with his other arm to stop himself from slipping to the ground.

  Four.
>
  Using the mechanical keyboard, he entered the code numbers with a trembling hand, every single movement making the pain in his shoulder flare, but he worked through it, ignoring the darkness that closed his vision like a tunnel as he fought against his body and mind trying to slip him into subconsciousness.

  Three.

  Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Jess drag herself to the mainframe beneath the screen and reach her hand to it.

  Two.

  Gerry punched in the last of the number sequence. Petal slid off the desk and hit the ground, unmoving. He moved his trembling hand to the enter key but couldn’t control his hand anymore.

  One.

  Holly appeared by Gerry’s side and gripped his hand to steady him. She pressed his finger against the enter key.

  Zero.

  The red lights stopped swirling. Gerry fell back to the floor.

  Over the top of the desk he could see the screen. A red circle around a line of text appeared and flashed. He didn’t understand what happened… he entered the code…

  The words Launch Initiation Complete, launching missiles burned into his vision.

  Launching missiles.

  He’d failed.

  He didn’t understand why the codes didn’t work. Had Nolan lied to him?

  No… of course… the viroborg’s virus! It had deleted the system files. It must have deleted the manual abort procedures…

  “Holly, help me,” Jess said. “Gerry, we can still stop this. The defence system… but you need to turn off the suppression. I can’t speak with the server to reverse the virus.”

  Gerry’s brain was slowing, and it took him a moment to comprehend what she was saying, but then it clicked, and he tried to reach out with his AIA to connect with the microwave transceivers, but his internal systems weren’t responding.

  “I… can’t,” Gerry said. “My… systems… not working.”

  “Holly, quick, connect Gerry to me with the cable, I’ll be his system. Now!”

  Holly dashed from the mainframe, pulling the cable from Jachz’s neck port. Jess connected her end, and Holly jacked Gerry in with the other end.