Specter Protocol

by Eddie R. Hicks

  Alert, I cannot contain the spread of the nanite poison.

  What will happen?

  It is destroying life support nanites, and will eventually destroy us, or give her the advantage to do so. Neutralizing her, then seeking aid from TT is our best course of action.

  Her mini-map updated. TT’s shop wasn’t far away, just a few more stops, and she’d be able to walk to it—

  She fell to the floor.

  Estrella lost the power to stand, her cyberware bones shutting down. She slapped the floor and held her body up, it was all she could do now. Estrella tilted her head upward and watched Miyuki’s black boots march across the floor to her while her finger blades at her sides shone with the light of a holographic advertisement. She stopped, and Miyuki knelt next to Estrella, grinning. She lifted Estrella’s chin up with the blade from her left index finger. She felt the flesh split and bleed over the blade.

  The two were making eye contact now, the light from Estrella’s eyes shining across Miyuki’s porcelain face. A red ruby glow shone upon Estrella’s face.

  “Why?” Miyuki said and held Estrella by the neck with her left hand. Estrella was powerless to do anything more, breathing alone was a challenge and that was before the left hand started choking her. “Why did you kill him! Look at what I became… If you’d just let him live…”

  “Your brother tried to kill me,” Estrella said, the best she could given the strangulation. “I had no choice.”

  “Why didn’t you finish me then?”

  “What?”

  “You held back.” Miyuki held her right blades to Estrella’s neck. She didn’t cut it. “Yanmei’s nanites are destroying you. You should have known this was coming. You held back. You could have killed me back at the station before your body got to the stage it’s at.” She leaned forward. “Why?”

  “You remind me… of someone important to me,” Estrella gasped. “Her name was Yumi.”

  “You saw her in me.” Miyuki grimaced. “You couldn’t bring yourself to do it.”

  “I watch her die every time I close my eyes,” Estrella said. “That shit kinda fucks with your head after a while, you know?”

  Miyuki released Estrella and withdrew the blades pointed at her neck. Estrella collapsed and looked at the train’s ceiling, watching the tunnel’s lights flash past.

  “Was she an innocent person?” Miyuki asked.

  “She was in love with me,” Estrella said, eyes still facing the ceiling. “I was too stupid to realize it… Now she’s gone.” She heard Miyuki gasp. It took two minutes, thanks to the nausea, but Estrella sat up again. She looked at Miyuki, and she looked back. The hatred in her ruby eyes had vanished. “So yes, I understand the pain you feel. The pain of losing someone important.”

  “You won’t fight me.”

  “Don’t have much of a choice now. And it looks like you won’t do the same.” Estrella laughed. “You don’t wanna kill someone that can’t fight back.”

  Miyuki gasped again and held a fist to her heart as if she were trying to hold in emotions that wanted to bleed out.

  “You’re like me, you know,” Estrella said. “Wired with cyberware to get revenge. That’s why I did this to myself. I had to get back at the people that killed my parents.”

  Miyuki looked at her fingers no longer armed with the blades. She stared at the cyberware on them, looked at the slots where the blades had sprung from, then looked to her wrists and all the augmentation and cabling done there. She didn’t stop glancing at the wrists; it was like they had triggered a painful memory.

  “I did do that,” Miyuki whispered in reply. “I needed a reason to meet you. And… had to make lots of deals to get here.”

  Estrella raised an eyebrow. “Deals? With who?”

  “A telepathic witch,” Miyuki said, still whispering, and now facing the floor. “She called herself an avatar.”

  “Did she give you a name?”

  “Her name is Portia.”

  Portia. Estrella couldn’t believe it. She had become more of a threat than she thought. “An avatar. Why do I feel there’s more than just experimental guns in that truck?”

  Slowly, Estrella pushed herself up, and to her feet. The subway stop closest to TT’s workshop was approaching. When it did, and the subway stopped to let them off, Estrella limped to the door. Miyuki remained sitting on the floor and staring down at it with a face full of emotions Estrella couldn’t read.

  There was visible damage done to Miyuki, a mess of mangled wires stuck out her neck and arms. Estrella got her good back at the station. She pointed it out. “I know I guy that can fix that,” Estrella said to her. “And you might wanna have it looked at before your batteries lose the power to distribute power.”

  Miyuki eyed the damage to her cyberware, and then faced up at Estrella.

  Estrella extended her right hand out, signalling to her with a come-with-me gesture. Miyuki came with her.

  Estrella and Miyuki. They were two broken cyborgs who limped into TT’s workshop and pulled his attention away from a car his hands were deep inside. Estrella crashed to the floor, her HUD blinked on and off. She looked up to see TT as he wiped his hands clean of grease.

  “Holy fucking shit,” he said.

  The ceiling got closer and then moved. Either TT picked her up, or her malfunctioning HUD was sending her strange images. She was glad Miyuki came along since Estrella wouldn’t have made it that far without Miyuki holding her body upright to walk.

  I am sorry, Estrella. I am shutting down to conserve power.

  Estrella’s vision went black, like a computer turning off for the night.

  “Let’s try this again…”

  Life came back to Estrella’s vision, first in the form of computer code and a flashing cursor at the end, and then the rebooting of her HUD, followed by the sight of TT’s basement workshop ceiling. The time on her HUD updated, two hours had passed. She could sit up and not feel sick or pain. Sitting up also made her aware she lay on one of his operating tables and was stripped down to a bra and panties. Her left leg looked a lot different too. She gave the limb a tap. It didn’t feel like real flesh.

  “Figured I’d install that upgrade while you were out,” TT said as he came over to her smiling. She tried sitting up more, but cables attached to her right arm kept her leashed to the table. “And because I’m such a nice guy, I left a gift for you inside the leg storage slot.”

  “And that is?”

  “A spiderbot, already constructed and awaiting new orders,” he said. “You looked like shit when you arrived, and I really don’t want my best consumer dying on me.”

  “Fuck, how bad was it?”

  “You lost a lot of life support nanites. Lucky for you I had a bunch gathering dust in the back.”

  She faced TT grimacing. “And the bad ones?”

  “Flushed out of your system.”

  After a sigh of relief, Estrella lay back down. “You’re a lifesaver, TT.” To her left was Miyuki lying idle on another operating table. Estrella gestured to her with her face. “What about her?”

  “Looks like she took a nasty hit to her battery unit,” TT said. “Had to replace the whole thing, the battery too. Shit almost exploded when I pulled it out. She’s a weird piece of work, Rodriguez. Where did you find her?”

  “She’s from the Federation.”

  “She’s got some new age shit in her. I took a few deep scans. I wanna copy that tech, might fetch me some good coin.”

  “Do me a favor and don’t.” She sat up again, folding her hands over her belly free of recent combat damage. “Her parts are from Zhang Industries from what she told me on the way here. They don’t take kindly to people running off with copies of their tech.”

  “I’m gonna.”

  “Just keep it a secret then. Her too.”

  “Fuckin’ right I am. I wanna learn what makes her tick. If the Feds take her away, well, I won’t be able to do that.”

  She tried to rub her head, then remem
bered the right arm was wired to the table. She used her left instead. “I gotta get back.”

  “Take the cleanse then.”

  She looked at him while grimacing. “The what?”

  “Remember the Nanite Cleanse program?” TT said while reaching for his tablet pad. “It removes malicious nanites from your system. If you had that ability, you’d have been fine.”

  He offered the pad to her. Estrella took it, jacked in, and purchased Nanite Cleanse. She’d take the time to load up on more programs, as it was clear she was facing an enemy she wasn’t prepared to fight, but her account balance said otherwise. She had enough to pay for the repairs, eleven nanotubes, and bullets.

  Buyer’s remorse had hit hard.

  With her life support nanites replenished, Estrella unplugged the cables from her right arm and sat up, looking down at her bare feet. She remembered she was still in her underwear, and TT was still in the room. Her face flushed first, then she put her NC gauntlet back on, opened her synthetic arm, and let the goo inside that used to be her street clothes cover her body. She now stood, wearing a black skirt, tank top, and boots, then moved to stand near Miyuki’s deactivated body powered by life support equipment plugged into her.

  Estrella’s left arm opened again, and this time she pulled out a spare battery, the last one she had. She found the repaired battery slot TT installed and opened it. The slot waited for the gift Estrella held. She slotted the battery in, removed the life support cables, and stood back.

  Miyuki’s eyes opened a minute later, went through the usual boot-up phase, then sat up, facing Estrella. “I’m…”

  “Alive,” Estrella finished for her. “That’s my last battery in you, so don’t waste it please.”

  Miyuki reached back and touched the battery slot at the back of her neck. She made a shy smile. “You would put your life expectancy at risk for me?”

  For Yumi? Yes, Estrella would in a heartbeat. And part of her head told her she’d brought Yumi back with that battery.

  Miyuki leaped off the table, eyeing the exit. TT ran forward extending his hands. “Whoa, whoa don’t take her away from me yet!”

  “I don’t know what to do,” Miyuki said. “I feel as if I do nothing, I’ll end up on the dark path Nobuo took.”

  “Then help me undo the damage he’s done,” Estrella said. Miyuki gasped in reply while looking up at her. “Are you still able to communicate with your Federation friends? Those Specters as you called them.”

  Miyuki nodded. “Yes.”

  “Tell me everything about them. Where they are, weakness, defenses… I need to know everything.”

  “Well…” Miyuki said. “Biokinetic IWs. They’re immune to our ghostwalk when they shift since we train to manipulate human or IW minds.”

  “What else?”

  “Your muscles spasm nanites, they are very debilitating. And, uh.”

  Miyuki became skittish, her face grew uneasy and glanced down.

  Estrella held her shoulder. “Calm down.”

  “I’m sorry, it’s just…” Still looking away. “What am I doing…”

  “The right thing, trust me.”

  Estrella found her phone and flipped through her contact numbers, stopping when Nelson’s name scrolled onto the screen. The bit about biokinetic IWs had her thinking. Nelson picked up the call.

  “Yo, Nelson. I’m calling in a favor.”

  Fifty-Four

  Ray

  Ray felt like an asshole. He was tied at the arms and legs, Bashiir, and Piper too, and he was the one that did it. Portia had used her mind control, forcing Ray to bind the two with plastic tie straps, then secure himself. They got stuffed in the truck’s trailer while the black-suited Specters gathered around, smoking, and laughing, and behind them was the prototype TEK suit.

  They had taken away his backpack and katana. But his phone? It was still in his pocket, Ray just needed to reach for it somehow, but his hands remained bound. He sat in the corner, trying his best to slip his tied-up hands into his pocket. The truck stopped moving. Serge entered the trailer with Ray’s backpack in hand, searching the contents within.

  He hoped Serge’s distraction and entrance drew enough eyes away from him.

  “Where’s his phone?” Serge said, throwing the backpack on the floor.

  Ray had to work faster. Serge knew what was up.

  A pistol pointed at Ray’s chest.

  Looking up, he saw Serge was the one holding it, and he didn’t look to be in a chatty mood. “Phone. Hand it over, mate,” Serge said.

  Slowly, Ray moved his hands from his pocket, gripping the phone which Serge forcibly yanked from him. Serge held Ray’s phone up, drawing all eyes to it. “You forgot to check ‘em for the most important tool he’s got.”

  Ray shrugged and leaned to Piper and Bashiir. “Sorry guys I tried,” he whispered. “It’s your turn.”

  “There’s no point,” Bashiir said.

  Ray grimaced. “Guess turning to a lion isn’t an option?”

  “It is but,” Bashiir gestured to the two Specters standing watch. “There were more Specters than this, two more. They might be around us right now with guns pointed, and ready to shoot the moment they suspect something.”

  “So, Piper,” Ray whispered to her. “No mind control then?”

  She shook her head no. “Sorry, can’t mind control those with telepathic powers, and Specters are an offshoot of telepaths.”

  “Aren’t they messing with your head right now?”

  “Those amps in their cyberware makes it strong enough to affect me.”

  “Just like how Nobuo couldn’t control you. I guess he didn’t have that app.” Ray looked to Serge. She had him mind-controlled earlier. “Not buddy over there. Think you can pull it off when Portia isn’t aware?”

  “Yeah but again,” Piper said. “Like Bashiir pointed out, if my hands glow, they’ll pop us—”

  “Piper Taylor,” Serge said to her with opened arms as he walked to the tied-up group. “Gosh, girl you’re way chattier than I remember.”

  She snorted. “And I see you’re still that snitching arsehole.”

  Ray glanced at them. “You two know each other?”

  “Yeah, back from the resistance,” Piper said.

  “Whom you ran away from, being the little coward that you are,” Serge said. Piper looked away, wincing.

  “Resistance?” Ray asked.

  “Oh? She didn’t tell you?” Serge burst with Australian laughter. “Piper here was supporting the local Auckland resistance you see, tryin’ to overthrow the Federation’s hold over New Zealand. What a bunch of fuckwits they were. But rather than dying with her people, Piper ran into the arms of Nexus once she heard rumors of cyberware augmentations that work with IWs such as herself.” Facing Piper, Serge leaned forward with crossed arms. “How am I doin’ girly?”

  “You haven’t changed… always tell big stories,” she said drily.

  “I like stories,” Serge said. “So, I’m going to continue this one, eh? It has a wicked ending. So, as I was sayin’, Piper starts taking orders from Nexus messengers. They turn her into this big bad telepath with cyberware now, one of the first in fact. Now that she’s got that, she turns her back on the resistance movement, thinking that supporting Nexus will topple the Federation. She left the resistance, no notes, no goodbyes, just abandoned them, her wife, daughter, everyone. She then got the call from a messenger to go to her new assignment. Years later she’s in Los Angeles.”

  “I was quite disappointed,” said the Specter leader, Yanmei Feng, from what Ray recalled overhearing. “When our messenger briefed us about you, Taylor.”

  “Messengers?” Piper looked away, lost in thought. “You really are receiving orders from Nexus?” She shook her head.

  “Of course,” Yanmei said. “Didn’t Serge explain it to you already?”

  Ray felt confused and his face twisted. “Nexus… wait hold on, isn’t that?”

  “And… Nobuo?” Piper cut in. “W
as he too?”

  “Yes,” Yanmei sneered. “Nobuo was the leader of his cell. He got his marching orders from a messenger after the assault on Zhang’s facility. He went to the Alliance, then we lost contact with him along with everything he learned during his mission. It wasn’t until the news revealed his end that we learned he was defeated.”

  “No way, we killed you all!” Piper raged. “Nobuo and everyone, you’re all dead except your leaders. Nexus ordered us to fight you! Why would the same organization order Nobuo to do that, then turn around and ask us to stop him?”

  “Then ask the Specters to find out what progress he made and finish the job?” Yanmei finished. “I don’t know, you’ll have to ask Nexus. But as you know, we’ve seen no one in Nexus, nor have the telepathic messengers.”

  “Each cell operates independently,” Serge added. “They do what they’re told for a promise of a better world. But your cell, Piper, you work against us for reasons unknown.”

  “You seem to know a lot, Serge,” Ray said, his old journalistic mind coming back from its long rest. “What’s your story? Why’s a human running around with Specters loyal to Nexus?”

  “Hey, I just support whoever’s gonna be runnin’ the world,” Serge said. “That’s what my family did you see, back in the day when the Chinese took Australia. There were rebels all over hiding in the bushes. We found out where they were and sent a kind memo to the Chinese. It made us filthy rich.”

  “Yeah,” Piper scoffed at him. “Rich enough to buy all those fancy computers and become the hacker you are.”

  “You’re forgetting going to the expensive computer science schools too,” Serge said. “But hey, that’s how you get shit done. You gotta be smart, scratch the right backs, and then collect the rewards. Outback Snitches they’d call us, hence my screen name, OBS.”

  OBS. Ray remembered the ETG IRC chat room. OBS, he was one of the newest members. Serge leaned closer, grinning into Ray’s face. “Sound familiar, DigiSamurai?”

  “It does…” Ray nodded, then barred his teeth. “You fucking asshole!”