Chromed- Rogue

by Richard Parry

  Lace laughed, then coughed. “Gently, please.”

  “Sorry.” Harry eased his grip. “I don’t normally handle precious cargo.”

  “He used to do work. Long time ago. Company work.” Lace nodded at his arm. “Night work.”

  Harry swiveled around, optics turning night to day. “Which way?”

  “Down there.” Lace pointed. “Is that what you really think I am? Precious cargo?” She deserves more. Lace needs someone who’s not a machine. Harry stayed quiet against the night. He tried not to hear as she cried. “They’ve taken everything from us, Harry.”

  “Not everything. We’ve still got…” He trailed off.

  “We’ve still got each other. Not that it’s a lot of good.”

  Harry felt his heart lift then drop. “What do you mean?”

  “Look at you,” she said. “You’re…”

  “I know.”

  “That’s not what I mean.” Lace gestured at herself. “What I meant was, look at me. Look at my legs. They’re just pieces of meat, sticks hanging off the ass-end. They’re useless. We’re useless. They take and take and take, and there’s nothing left for us.”

  Harry swung her in front of him. “There’s a little bit left. But not for us.”

  Tears left silver trails down a face turned bitter. “What do I care? If it’s not for us, who gives a shit?”

  “I give a shit. I’ve been marking time for years now. I’ve got a debt I need to pay. I got to stop being such a pussy.”

  “You?” Lace laughed, the sound more bitter than cyanide. “You don’t owe anyone anything.”

  “Yeah, I do. Which way?”

  She sniffed. “That way.”

  “Okay.” Harry clanked through the night, street lamps marking progress. There were no cars. No people, either. Just the rain. A syndicate hit team could clear an area of normals, but they couldn’t stop the weather.

  Lace put her elbows on his hand, leaning her chin on her palms. “Who’s it for?”

  “You. Mason. Carter. Every one of us that’s been chewed up and spat out by that fucking company.” He kicked on the flood lamps, the night banished with burning white. “Gotta do what we can.”

  “Okay.” Lace rubbed her cheeks, scrubbing away the memory of tears. “But not for them.”

  “Then for who?”

  “I’ll do it for you, Harry. Only for you.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  “Mason.” It was a familiar female voice. His eyes snapped open, and he saw…

  Tarmac under his face, stretching out in a gray-black sheet. Someone’s boot, attached to a leg. Someone’s hand, stretched in front of him, the arm draped down below his vision.

  Mason tried to get up. The overlay blinked once, then spat a fuzz of static as he slipped back down.

  “Mason, it’s me.” He knew her. Her words tickled the back of his mind. They were in his skull with him. “They used a hallucinogenic breach gas along with electrical discharge. You probably don’t remember me.” She sounded wistful.

  Mason moved his mouth, feeling against his teeth with his tongue. He tasted dirt and ash. He tried to speak, the hand flexing in front of his eyes. The overlay came back on hard and bright, the edges sharp and green against the tarmac. That’s my hand. “Carter?” Mason pushed himself up onto one elbow. “I feel…” What? Dead? Alive? Yourself?

  “Thank God. I didn’t know if…” Carter trailed to silence, the link humming.

  “It’s okay.” Mason looked up to where she’d torn Reed’s satellites from the sky. “I’m okay.”

  “It’s not that. I didn’t know if I’d get to say goodbye.”

  Mason took in the road. Gray. Hard. I shouldn’t be lying on a road. A woman lay beside him, her name hazy. Black lipstick. She uses black lipstick. It was her boot in front of him, dropped like a forgotten toy.

  “What’s your name?” Carter’s voice dropped into his head again, through the… Through the…

  The link. It’s called an uplink.

  Mason held a hand in front of his face, then let his eyes wander across the tarmac. There were bodies, some fallen like they’d dropped off asleep, some torn and twisted, just blood and meat. Canisters, metal things with their ends popped open, were scattered through it all.

  “Tell me your name.” There was something urgent in her words.

  Mason thought for a moment. “Did you just call me Mason?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then I guess my name is Mason.”

  “You don’t know your name, but you know mine?”

  Mason levered himself up, one leg slipping, tumbling him down. He landed on something small and hard, hearing a beep. Mason retrieved it. Tenko was a master weaponsmith. He made smart weapons big as cities, small as pearls. This one is yours, and there is no other like it.

  He gripped the stock of the little weapon, and it chirped, happy and bright as the hard link came online. Mason’s overlay scudded to the left for just a second, and the weapon emitted a whine before quieting down. It’s my Tenko-Senshin.

  “I know you,” said Mason. “I feel like I’ve always known you. Is that right? There’s something wrong with my head.”

  “I know,” said Carter. “I didn’t get here in time. At least you’re not ash.”

  “Ash?” He remembered the sky opening, a terrible dawn reaching for him. “You stopped the fire.”

  “Man, you’re really fucked, aren’t you?” Carter tsked. “We don’t have much time.”

  “I know who you are, but I can’t remember the shape of your face. Are we … we’re friends, aren’t we? I feel like I should know your face.”

  The link was silent for a time. Mason didn’t know how long. He worked on standing, and once there, looking around. Flames burned low in a field to the left of the — freeway — road. A vehicle stood close to him, turrets on top, the doors yawning empty.

  Carter stepped into the tangled wool of his thoughts. “We are friends. I’d even say … look, it doesn’t matter. I called to say goodbye.”

  Mason looked at the sky, holding a hand in front of his eyes, trying to find the spot where fire had reached across the heavens. “Why do you need to say goodbye?” He coughed, spitting green onto the ground. “Why don’t I know the shape of your face?”

  “I did something I didn’t want to do, Mason. I had to do it, do you understand?”

  A memory drifted to the surface. A man in front of him as Mason shot him dead, his family standing behind him. Is that real? “Yes. Sometimes we don’t get to do what we want to do.”

  “Sure,” said Carter. “I guess you’ve done a lot of that. Anyway, I had to turn you in. I had to tell them where you were. They made me. I couldn’t not do it.”

  “Okay.” Mason turned a lazy circle, noticing the woman on the ground again. “Do you know someone named Sadie?”

  “Jesus Christ. I’m trying to have some kind of a deep and meaningful with you here, and you’re talking about, I don’t know, you’re talking about some kind of fucking normal?”

  “I guess.” Mason nudged Sadie with his boot. She didn’t move.

  Carter laughed. “That’s why I love you, you see. That’s why I chose you.”

  “What?”

  “It doesn’t matter. Very soon I’ll be dead. I can’t be there with you anymore. I wanted to say goodbye.”

  “Why are they going to kill you, Carter?” Mason’s fingers found the edge of the Metatech logo on his chest plate. You’ve got a new contract. You work for Metatech. She works for Apsel. “You’re not coming with us.”

  “I can’t come with you.”

  “I want you to come with us. Have I told you that?”

  “I didn’t have a choice about telling them about you. That was already in the code. But I found a loophole. I don’t have to listen. So I stopped them talking to me. Now they think I’m rogue, a traitor, and … they’re going to kill me, Mason. There’s no stopping that.”

  Mason bent, turning Sadie over. Her face w
as gray, but his overlay said her body temperature was normal. He lifted her. “Did you go rogue?”

  “What?”

  “Did you go rogue?” Mason walked toward the vehicle. It’s an APC.

  “You bet,” said Carter.

  “You could leave.”

  “No. They’ve got me locked up in the basement. There’s easily a hundred guys on their way down here. Feels like more, but they keep killing the cams, so I don’t know for sure. They’re going to pull me apart and throw the pieces in the trash.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “I’m not. They’re all cunts and they were fucking with my friend.”

  Mason pushed Sadie’s unconscious body up into a seat in the APC. He buckled her in, then slammed the door closed. “It’s going to be okay. I’m coming to get you. I’ll be there soon.”

  She laughed. “You sound like you’re still under.”

  “Maybe a little. But I remember. You’re in a big building, a silver tower that goes up through the clouds. They make energy with reactors. You’re in the bottom. It’s heavily defended. There’s a paramilitary force on site.”

  “I’m impressed. You got most of that right.”

  “I’ll come and pick you up.”

  “Mason?”

  Mason dragged himself up by the driver’s door handle, slipping into APC. There was no blood, or other indication of a struggle. Where did the driver go? “What is it?”

  “I can’t leave, Mason.” Her voice broke. “Don’t come.”

  “See you soon, Carter.” Mason pulled the APC’s yoke to him, the machine coming alive under his hands as the hard link clicked in. His overlay filled with systems information, the startup sequence spinning the drive up with a howl.

  “They’ll kill you. I’m trying to thin their numbers, but there are so many.”

  Mason smiled. It felt strange and right at the same time. “We make a pretty good team. I remember that.”

  “Yes.”

  “Then they’re not going to kill me. And they’re sure as shit not going to kill you.” He slammed the throttle forward, the APC leaping like a dog let loose from the leash.

  “Wussam,” croaked Sadie.

  “What?” Mason turned to face her. Her head lolled, eyes dull.

  “Wuss hap,” she said, after a moment.

  “Okay, it’s like this. You’ve been drugged, and electrocuted I think a couple times. We’re in an APC, making a run for Apsel Federate. We’re going in the front door, down to the basement, grabbing Carter, and getting out. You can stay in the car.”

  “Is A… Apac.”

  “APC? Sure.” He smiled, then turned back to the road. “Or it’s a car.”

  The road raced past, streaks of light drawing lines across the windscreen. They were deep in the city now, the wireframe of the APC’s overlay mapping the night traffic around them. The vehicle’s onboard computer had been warning about EXCESSIVE SPEED and suggesting Mason REDUCE THROTTLE IN URBAN AREAS for ten minutes before he’d switched it off.

  The APC nudged a car as they pulled between it and another. Light sparked as the vehicle bounced away. Mason gripped the yoke, pulling up a maneuvering solution on the overlay. The APC chattered over the link, laying out a path through the traffic with bright virtual lines.

  Sadie leaned forward, staring out the windscreen. She looked at the speed plastered in the corner of the HUD. “Is … two?”

  “Two hundred? Yeah, we’re doing two hundred klicks.”

  “City?”

  “In the city.” He nodded. “We’re on the clock.”

  “She’s worse than you are.” Carter’s voice came over the APC’s speakers. “Sadie, can you hear me?”

  “Gonna die,” slurred Sadie.

  “She can hear you. She’s just a little worried.”

  “Sadie,” said Carter. “Do you remember our deal?”

  Mason frowned. “What deal?”

  “Not one that you need to worry about. Sadie, do you remember the deal?”

  “Yes.” Sadie put a finger in her mouth, as if she was trying to count her teeth. Or work out what they were.

  “New deal,” said Carter. “Get Mason to stop, or the deal’s off.”

  Sadie coughed. Mason threw her another glance, seeing a frown bloom across her face in slow motion. “Company fucks. Always … changin’ the deal.”

  “It’s the way it is,” said Carter.

  “What deal?” Mason caught motion out of the corner of his eye as Sadie turned her head from the APC’s speakers.

  She looked at him, really looked at him. “Why … Carter?”

  “Why are we going to get Carter?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Because she’s going to die.” Mason clenched the yoke, tugging the APC to the left, then hard right around a truck. They blew past it like it was standing still, a bow wave of water pushed between them. “I’m pretty sure she gave the Federate the finger to save us.”

  “Save us?”

  “Yeah.”

  “You’re…” Sadie retched. When she spoke, her voice was clearer. “You’re going to get her out because of that?”

  “She risked it all. For us.” Mason thought for a second. “How the hell did you shake off the effects of that shit so quick?”

  “I do a lot of drugs. Practice.”

  “Fair enough.”

  Sadie spoke to the dashboard. To Carter. “I’m pretty sure I’ve already upheld my part of the deal. And you know what? He’s right. If you saved us, we’re coming for you. It’s what people do.”

  “People?” asked Carter.

  “Deal’s still on.” Sadie pulled on a glare like an old pair of jeans.

  “What fucking deal?” Mason blinked.

  “Shit,” said Carter.

  The APC burrowed deeper into the city, the onboard systems smoothing their path. Mason tapped his fingers against the yoke, black gloves in stark contrast to the cream of the controls. “Say.”

  “Huh.” Sadie spat into the passenger footwell.

  “That’s really nasty.” Mason kept his eyes on the road.

  “Mouth tastes like assholes.” Sadie hacked a cough. “I’ve got a porn company’s slime in the back of my throat.”

  “I didn’t quite think of it like that,” admitted Mason.

  “Bet you didn’t.”

  “What is it? You said, ‘huh,’ just before.” Mason stretched his back. These damn machines aren’t built for comfort.

  Sadie looked out the windscreen. “Out there.” The traffic thinned, fewer other vehicles around them, most just automated transports.

  “Late night. No traffic.”

  Sadie leaned forward. “Just where the hell is everybody?”

  “I’m more worried about…” Mason thought of a teenage girl out there somewhere. “About the others.”

  “Mike can take care of himself,” said Carter.

  Sadie leaned back, slumping in her seat. “Didn’t think you were still there.”

  “I’m always here.”

  Mason caught the softening of Sadie’s face just before she turned to the night. “I’m not worried about Mike.”

  “Me neither,” said Mason.

  “I know where they are,” said Carter.

  “Why didn’t you say?” Mason glared at the dash’s center speaker.

  “Because you’re so intent on killing yourself,” Carter snapped. “I can tell you where they are. But you’ve got to know. You can only be in one place at a time.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Sadie looked between the speaker and Mason.

  “She wants me to choose. Carter or Laia.”

  “That’s right,” said Carter. “He’s been in this position before. Tried to save two people at once, didn’t you Mason? You’ll never choose me over her. She’s just a kid and all alone out there. She needs you.”

  Mason didn’t say anything, gripping the yoke like he was going to tear it in half.

  “Mason?” Sadie reached for him,
hand cautious as the flutter of a moth’s wings. “Where do we go?”

  You’ve got to trust someone. “I don’t know.”

  “They’re at Reed,” said Carter. “Huge building. You can’t miss it. Big eyeball painted on the outside. Looks like a five-dollar marketing company came up with it.”

  “Shut up, Carter.” Mason looked out the windscreen. He could see the Apsel building against the skyline, lights playing up the outside as it breached the clouds. And to the left, the hint of Reed’s building, dark against the night.

  “It’s okay, Mason. I’m dead either way. I’ve done the math. Go get the kid.” Carter sounded happy about it.

  Mason ran a gloved hand through his hair. He hit the link. There was a burst of static. Harry’s voice came out of the console and through the link at the same time. “Mason?”

  “Who the fuck’s that?” said Sadie.

  “No, who the fuck’s that?” said Harry.

  “Sadie, Harry. Harry, Sadie.”

  “Who’s Harry?”

  “Guy who tried to kill me.” Mason frowned. The line sounded better in his head.

  “I don’t understand you at all.” Sadie hunched into her chair.

  “Mason, I’m with her. Why are you calling me? Shit’ll get you killed.” Harry sounded tense.

  “I need a favor.”

  “I don’t work for the company anymore,” said Harry. “It’s complicated.”

  “S’okay,” said Mason. “Neither do I. Took up a contract with Metatech.”

  “Those Nazi gun-running war merchants?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Nice work. They got any positions open for a slightly-used total conversion?”

  “That’s what I’m calling about,” said Mason. “Got a situation here. And if I’m being honest, I don’t know why you’d help, but you’re the last number on my speed dial.”

  “Thanks,” said Harry. “What kind of situation?”

  “I need you to bust into Reed Interactive and extract two civilians, a Metatech operative, and Jenni Haraway.” Mason looked at the console. “Harry?”

  “I heard you. I’m thinking.” Harry sounded distracted. “I’m with Lace. We’ll get in, grab your people, and get out.”

  “Why?”

  “Because you asked me to. Got some ID?”