Chromed- Rogue

by Richard Parry

  “I’m not sure.”

  “Sounds like it was.” The tech pulled a cleaning rag from his back pocket, working it over his hands, distributing rather than removing oil and grease. “I find the problem with this kind of work is you never feel clean ever again. You got somewhere you need to be?” He pushed the rag back into his pocket. “You on the clock?”

  “I’m always on the clock.” Harry sighed. “I can’t switch off.”

  “That sucks. While you were in here with the boss, we got to grab a cup of bad coffee and a stale donut.”

  Bad coffee. Stale donut. I haven’t had anything like that in years. Stood around friends, walked on carpet inside a building with too-cold air conditioning. “Sounds like paradise.”

  “It is what it is.” The tech pointed. “I tell you what. Let’s move you over there to a harness. Get you wired in for a diagnostic.”

  “I don’t need a diagnostic.” Harry swiveled, following the man’s pointed arm. A harness bay, empty of other total conversions.

  “Diagnostics take a long time. We can run a full system scan. Work out what’s going on in the creases.”

  “But—”

  “The best part about the diagnostic is how quiet it is.” The tech tried a cautious smile. “You’ll be in the harness, and it’d be against protocol to interrupt that. You see what I’m saying?”

  “I see what you’re saying.” Harry thought about time alone, where no one from Psych would question his motives. No one would be concerned about whether he still bled for the company. “I think I could use a diagnostic.”

  “Thought so. C’mon.”

  Harry walked toward the harness. He swiveled the top half of the torso to look at the man. “My name’s Harry.”

  “Travis,” said the tech. “I figured you knew that. You know, with the,” he waved in front of his face, “overlay.”

  Harry backed into the diagnostic harness. “You know what, Travis? I think I prefer the old-fashioned way of meeting people.”

  Travis nodded, rubbing his hands against his overalls. “Right. I’ll be back in a couple hours. We’ll see how the diagnostic’s running.” He walked away.

  Harry sat with the hum of the chassis for company. It was only a few minutes later that he realized Travis hadn’t connected the harness up for a diagnostic at all.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Talking to Haraway felt like waterboarding himself, but Mason had to try. For Sadie, and Laia, and her brother Zacharies. Their conversation went around and around. Time for a new angle.

  The two of them shared break time in a slumped building that might had sold hardware an age past. Rusted metal sat at the ends of rotted wood. Plastic packaging clung to shelves. Mason flicked his optics to thermal, checking to make sure they were alone. “We’re about to break our contract. There is no mission.”

  “You gave me your word.” Haraway’s eyes were hard. “There’s always a mission, Floyd. It doesn’t stop.”

  “We need trust between us.” Mason stretched his neck, feeling the tension. “Between all of us. Metatech. Mike. The kids. Sadie—”

  “Of course.” Haraway sneered. “You bring her up.”

  “What the hell’s that supposed to mean?”

  “I’ve seen the way you look at her. You lecture me about right and wrong, but you’re letting your feelings cloud the mission.”

  Mason opened and closed his mouth a few times before anything came out. “My feelings?”

  “You’re smitten with a guitarist without a link or a past. I don’t know if it’s admirable or just plain stupid, but you’re going to compromise this whole thing.”

  “There are mutants crawling out of the walls that want to eat our flesh. Of course I’ve got feelings for her. I trust her. She saved my life.”

  “No.” Haraway shook her head. “Laia saved your life.”

  Mason pulled out the Tenko-Senshin, the weapon whining. He felt the hard link, cool and clear through his palm. He spun the sidearm around the trigger guard, offering it to Haraway. “Here. Hold it.” Mason hefted it. “It’s not a heavy burden to carry. It weighs almost nothing at all.”

  She eyed the little weapon like Mason held a snake. “You know I can’t.”

  “Why not?” Mason took a step forward.

  “It’s a Tenko smart weapon. It’s keyed to you. It’ll destroy me.”

  Mason nodded like he was agreeing. “You think that stopped her when the shit hit the fan? You think Sadie didn’t know that? She saw it blow a monster to ash in the middle of a rainstorm. She picked this thing up anyway, ready to die.” For me.

  “It didn’t kill her.” Haraway looked down, hair falling like a curtain before her face.

  “That’s right.” Mason held the Tenko-Senshin, palm up, like an offering. “We’ve been together a while.”

  “What—”

  “It wasn’t made for me.” Mason looked over the sidearm at Haraway.

  “I know.” Haraway wouldn’t meet his eyes. “Tenko’s been dead for a long time.”

  “There’s an AI inside it.”

  Haraway stepped forward. “How did you get it?”

  Mason felt his face twist, unsure if it was self-disgust. “Trust, Jenni. Same way Sadie was able to pick it up.”

  “It knows who you trust?”

  “No.” Mason sighed. “It decides who it thinks I should trust.”

  “Tenko was crazy.”

  “Sure.” Mason offered the weapon to Haraway one more time. “You think I should trust you? Take it.”

  “I’m not taking a weapon made by a madman to prove myself,” said Haraway. “I don’t have anything to show to a man who’s been dead since before I was born.”

  Mason holstered the sidearm. “You have to prove yourself to me.”

  Haraway crossed her arms, stepping back. “Not today.”

  “We’re going to be here a long time.” Haraway watched Metatech agents secure the street through the window. She didn’t seem to be in a hurry to rejoin them.

  “If that’s what it takes. I’ve got nowhere else I need to be. My old life’s gone. How about you?”

  She hugged herself. “Yes. My old life is gone. It’s been gone longer than this mission.”

  Mason glanced at her. “Tell me about the gate.”

  “You haven’t worked it out yet?” Haraway pressed her hand to the dirty pane. “It doesn’t take long, does it?”

  “What doesn’t?”

  “This town. It’s been dead for years. Fifty. A hundred. I don’t know. And just minutes in, we’ve brought our world here. Breathed new life into it.” She raised a hand to the bulb flickering in the ceiling. “The power’s back on.”

  “Yeah, great. The power’s back on. There’s a fusion drive hooked up at an old reactor facility. It’s not hard to see how it happened.”

  Haraway turned to look at him. “Yeah, yeah it is. You got any idea how big a fusion reactor is?”

  “I don’t know.” Mason shrugged. “Apsel makes them in all sizes.”

  “How big would you say one would have to be?”

  “I don’t know. The size of an orange?” Mason put a hand on his chest. “There’s one in here.”

  “I know.” Haraway’s eyes were hooded, giving nothing away. “For the lattice.”

  “Right, for the lattice, and other things.”

  “How much metal you got, Floyd?”

  Mason looked at his arm. The plastic melted, cracking off in chunks, as he’d pulled Harry from the car. He’d seen machinery showing through, metal glinting in amongst the charred carbon. “Not enough.”

  “Not enough?”

  “Where’s this going?”

  “A fission reactor facility is a full complex. There’s the reactor itself, then the turbines, and so on. You follow?”

  Mason scratched his head. “We’re talking fission now?”

  “Apsel comes along with a miraculous new fusion technology. Answer to the world’s prayers! No waste product. Self-containe
d reactors built to any size or spec. All the energy you want, forever. You pay us by the month, your reactor keeps going, no questions.”

  “I’ve read the brochure. I work there.”

  “You worked there,” she corrected. “The next bit’s the kicker. It’s the bit Apsel doesn’t want you to know.”

  “Does Carter know?”

  “Pretty sure she does.”

  “That why she helped you?”

  Haraway paused. “No.”

  “Then why?”

  “It’s complicated. You want to hear the next bit?”

  “Sure, bring it on.” Mason watched her carefully. His optics highlighted the subtle shift in her expression. She’s not lying. Not about this, anyway.

  “Floyd, there’s no way you can make a fusion reactor the size of an orange. Can’t be done.” She shook her head. “All kinds of reasons why. It’s not about the fuel. You only need a little bit of that. That’s where I started. Trying to work out how these things kept working without more fuel.”

  “Can’t you add fuel?”

  Haraway walked to him, tapping the armor plate over his chest. “How do they get the fuel in there?”

  He thought about it. “Service. They top it up when I get a checkup.”

  “You ever seen them do that?”

  “They sedate me. I’m out cold.”

  “Trust me about this if nothing else, Floyd. They don’t top it up.”

  “Then how?”

  “When I started figuring out how the reactor worked without more fuel, it hit me. They don’t.”

  “But you said—”

  “They don’t, because they’re not reactors.” Haraway tapped on his chest once more, then stepped away. “Apsel doesn’t make reactors, Floyd. They make gateways.”

  Mason took a step back. Gateways. He looked down at his chest, then back at Haraway. “What?”

  “The box I found was a very old prototype. There were only two.” She looked out the window again, her eyes lost. “I wasn’t even looking for them. I was looking for … it doesn’t matter. I was the head of an empty division.” Haraway looked down. “The whole time I was there? We didn’t shift the needle at all. There was always something missing. And I found it.”

  The world calmed outside, the noise of drones moving into the distance. Metatech’s people were blocks away, completing their sweep. Sporadic gunfire highlighted when they encountered resistance. Laia poked her head in a little while ago, withdrawing without saying anything.

  Mason had felt her presence, a reminder of what had happened and was still to come.

  “That’s everything.” Haraway sighed. “That’s all there is.”

  “Not yet.” Mason rubbed his chest. Gateways.

  “What else is there?” She threw up her hands. “You know it all now. You know there’s no going back. You know secrets they don’t want out there.”

  Mason held up three fingers. “Three questions. Then we’re done.”

  “Okay.” She nodded, sagging.

  “First. Why doesn’t Apsel say they have gate technology? It’d make millions. Second. Why’d Carter help you? Third. What were you looking for when you found the … gate?” Mason frowned.

  “They’re good questions.” Haraway huddled into herself.

  “Yes.” Sadie stood at the door. “They’re great questions. I’ve got another one.”

  Both Mason and Haraway looked at her.

  “This isn’t for you,” said Haraway. “Get out.”

  “I made a promise.” Sadie looked at Mason. “There’s a fourth question. A better question than the rest.”

  Mason looked between Sadie and Haraway. “What promise?”

  Sadie shook her head. “Wrong question. The question you want to ask is, how do we get those crazy cool kids back home?”

  Mason blinked. “What?”

  “That girl out there has a life, somewhere.” Sadie waved her hand, the gesture saying out there in the universe. “I don’t know where the devil gate opens up. But we need to get her home.”

  “Home doesn’t sound like a fun place,” said Haraway. “It sounds like it’s worse than here.”

  “Maybe.” Mason expected Sadie’s fire, but she looked as tired as the rest of them. “Be nice if she had a choice, wouldn’t it? That’s the problem with you company people. You always think you know better.”

  Mason watched Haraway’s expression turn angry, hard as flint. “She’s just a—”

  “I wasn’t talking to you.” Sadie didn’t glance at Haraway, eyes on Mason. “What about you, soldier boy? You ready to make the right choice?”

  “She’s part of the contract.” Mason spread his hands. “She’s part of the deal.”

  Sadie took a step closer. “Is she?”

  “Yes, she’s…” She’s what, Mason? “She’s safer here.”

  “Here?” Sadie took another step forward. “Or just with you?”

  “What?”

  “I get it, Floyd.” Haraway was about to say something, and Sadie threw a glance that made her mouth snap shut. “Look, I do. You owe her.”

  “I owe her my life.”

  “You owe her a choice.” Sadie’s eyes held his, burning like coals. “You owe her a life of choice and freedom. She can’t get that as a company asset. You know it. I know it.”

  “I know it,” breathed Mason. “I don’t know how else to fix this.”

  Sadie laughed. “Oh. No, I guess you don’t.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “You don’t have to fix everything,” she said. “This isn’t about you. It’s about her. She needs to have a real choice. She needs to know she can get back to her family.”

  Haraway cleared her throat. “This is all very touching, but I’m going to say what we’re all thinking. This is crazy.”

  “How so?” Sadie didn’t move away from Mason.

  “Without her, the deal’s off.” Haraway shrugged. “It’s that simple. Metatech laid that out in the contract.”

  Mason turned to Haraway. “Why don’t we give them the gate?”

  “I tried. We’re all out of prototypes to sell. The first one, something went wrong. Second one, you tossed a grenade in the crate,” Haraway said. “We’re all out of spare gates.”

  Mason frowned “I’d bet Reed picked that gate up and took it back to their lab. They’ve got a hundred R&D drones — no offense — crawling all over it.”

  “You think I’m an R&D drone?” Haraway’s voice rose an octave. “A drone?”

  “If it helps, I think you’re a miserable piece of shit as a human being,” offered Sadie.

  “What?” Haraway blinked.

  “You company people are all the same.” Sadie’s boots stamped across the floor as she walked to the window. “Look out there.”

  Haraway didn’t move. “Why?”

  “Because there are two kids out there who are out of fucking options,” said Sadie. “I want you to look at them, then throw your hands up and walk away, all because you don’t have a spare gate.”

  “We don’t,” said Haraway. “It’s not as simple as ripping open a reactor. The field’s not stable inside. It’s why the tech’s not been stolen yet. There’s always an accident.”

  “We’ve got a gate.” Mason smiled.

  “What?” Haraway turned away from Sadie to look at Mason. “Where?”

  Mason walked toward Haraway, footsteps slow. God, but I’m tired. I’m tired of all this shit. He reached out a hand, slow and steady, toward Haraway’s forehead. Her eyes went wide just as his finger tapped her brow. “Mason, no. I don’t understand the science—”

  “Bullshit.” Mason lowered his hand. “You understand the science just fine. You’ve opened a gate to another world twice.”

  “Once,” she said.

  “It’s more times than anyone else. You’ve seen what’s inside the box. Make a new one.”

  “I’d need something to work from.” Mason could see the wheels in her head turn
ing, despite Haraway’s words. “If it was that easy—”

  “It’s not supposed to be easy.” Sadie snorted. “Everything worth doing is hard.”

  Haraway spun on the guitarist. “You think you can help with the science?”

  “No.” Sadie shook her head.

  “Say it.” Haraway held herself still. “I know you want to.”

  Sadie shrugged. “Well, shit. I thought you were smart.” Mason watched as Haraway bunched her fists, taking a step toward Sadie. He thought about stepping in. Decided against it. Sadie lifted her chin. “Come on, company woman. Give it your best shot. If you can’t use your goddamn brain, why not just punch your way through? It’s what you people do, isn’t it?”

  Haraway stopped. “What did you say?”

  “I said—”

  “I know what you said.” Haraway turned to Mason. “You said Reed took the box.”

  “Probably.” Mason looked out the window at Laia as she laughed, running away from Zacharies as he chased her down the street. “Pretty sure.”

  “How do you know?” asked Sadie.

  “It’s what I’d do. It’s what any company would do.”

  “Can you get me that box?” Haraway hmm’d like she was mid-thought. “Can you get me what they recovered?”

  Mason thought about it. Bust inside Reed? Do an asset extraction from a company HQ? Probably a hundred guys in there. Probably get dead.

  The first drops of rain fell. Laia stopped laughing, and she and her brother turned up to look at the sky. The rain fell harder, and off in the distance lightning hammered the earth. A rumble walked soft through the air. You know what comes with the rain.

  Mason turned from the window. “Yeah, I can get you that box.”

  Chapter Twenty

  Waiting outside Apsel’s handler facility, Harry thought about what he’d say when Lace came out the door. It was big and wide, over a hundred stories of darkened glass. Broad steps spread like a dress from the entrance, and off to the right, a ramp wound toward street level. An Apsel Falcon tall as Harry stood on a plinth, glaring in the rain.

  He wasn’t sure how long he stood in the rain, but Harry didn’t come up with anything good to say. He watched as she came out the door, the brushed chrome rims of the chair catching the light. Lace wore fingerless gloves, still preferring to hold the wheels herself. Harry’s optics picked out the soft touch of her hair as it stroked her face. The rain tapped dark spots onto the hoodie she wore. Lace looked almost shapeless inside the cotton, like she wore a shroud.