Specter Protocol

by Eddie R. Hicks

  “Don’t trust everyone you meet on the dark web, boy,” Serge said, shifting his gaze to the Specters. At least the Specters that were visible. “Nexus here? They’s gonna be the future when they make the corporations and governments of the world do their bidding. And IWs like Yanmei Feng? They’ll remember humans like me, those that supported them with our unique set of skills. Humans and IWs living together in peaceful co-existence. Cool idea, eh?”

  Ray erupted. “What about all the people you’ve killed!?”

  “What about ‘em, mate?”

  “You used your hacking skill to kill people… come on man, you know the rules.”

  “Don’t give me that holier than thou bullshit chat,” Serge said to him. “Besides, you killed as well, ain’t that right, Partington? Yet every fuckwit in ETG praises you.”

  Yanmei laughed. “Probably because everyone Partington has killed has been an IW.”

  “Aye,” Serge said, nodding to her. “Bunch of fucking hypocrites I tell ya! But, hey, once this is all over, and people finish mourning the loss of lives recently, society will point fingers at the hacker that made it happen, and that’s gonna be you, my friend.” He held his phone in the air. “All that malware fuckin’ up the streets is your programming after all ain’t it?”

  The trailer’s barn door opened. Golden light from the setting sun beamed in. Outside, stood two Specters and behind them, Ray saw various shipping containers in the distance. They were at the Port of Los Angeles. They were going to take them overseas, and into the Federation.

  And there wasn’t a single military craft in the skies. Everyone feared the hacker and his tablet.

  The Specter duo outside nodded to Serge. “We’re ready here, and we control the seaport.”

  “Good,” Serge replied, “Was runnin’ out of stories to tell.”

  They pushed Ray out first, Bashiir and Piper came later. The three were escorted away from the truck and across the open space in the Port of Los Angeles. He caught a glimpse at a few of the dockworkers, forced to their knees by the Specters. They pointed rifles at their heads to remind them who had the power. The scaffolds above had similar sights, the Specters tied up what little staff was present.

  A dropship under escort by two smaller ships approached from the north. It was unlikely they were here to assist Serge and his Specter friends as taking the port was their exit plan; hijack a shuttle and try again to cross the Pacific. The ships ahead grabbed everyone’s attention, forcing them to stop and wince. There was another party crashing the escape. It gave Ray hope until he saw the orange shine from the setting sun bring to his attention the logo of the Yoshida Corporation on the dropship.

  Ray pointed out Yoshida’s logo. “I swear I didn’t call Yoshida for backup.”

  “Fuckin’ hell. How did they…” Serge reached for his tablet. “Don’t get excited about the ships.” Serge waved his tablet. “I can make their computers crash by swiping left.”

  Portia tugging on his shoulder stopped him. Serge faced Portia to find her grinning. “Leave them,” she said.

  Yanmei pushed her back, jamming a finger in her face. “You!” She pointed at the PMC team stepping out of the dropship. “Are you betraying us now?”

  A team of twelve PMCs sprinted forward and drew rifles. The corporate owned commandos blocked the path of Serge, Yanmei, Portia, and their captured targets, Ray, Piper, and Bashiir. The stare down with weapons drawn lasted six seconds. It felt like hours. Ray had a feeling it was because he, Piper, and Bashiir were in between the two feuding forces, hands and legs still bound. Both sides wanted the three and didn’t want to share.

  Portia moved toward the PMC, hands on her hips. “Stand down,” she said, and the PMCs lowered their guns. “For now.” They kept their hands on them. Portia spun and faced Yanmei and Serge standing side-by-side. “Let’s make a deal… consider it payment for what I’ve done for you so far.”

  Yanmei raged, her perfect white teeth visible from the scowl. “I knew I shouldn’t have trusted you!”

  “You wouldn’t have made it this far without me,” Portia countered, hands still holding her hips. “So, don’t give me that shit, give me Partington instead. You can keep the prototype, Taylor, the shapeshifter, and your escape out of the Alliance.”

  “I have a name you know,” Bashiir said.

  Ray snorted. “Guess you’re not cool like Piper and me, sorry bro.”

  “Heh, we shall see when the tables turn,” Bashiir said. “And they will turn. Mark my words. Karma will not forget this.”

  Portia shrugged his words off. “Whatever.”

  Yanmei was still gritting her teeth as she eyed Ray, and then the Pacific Ocean beyond the rows of idle ships and boats. She eyed Portia once more. “You’re good…”

  “Choose fast,” Portia said. “I can’t delay Yoshida forever.”

  “Fuck her,” Serge erupted, now facing Yanmei. “Have the Specters deal with them. We don’t need her help!”

  “I will decide what our path is, human!” Yanmei’s fierceness muted the brawny Australian. It was a conflict, internal disagreements. Ray liked it. It was an edge he could use if only he and his friends weren’t tied-up.

  “Your ability to hack our equipment only exists because the codes haven’t changed,” Portia said to Serge. “You’re welcome for that by the way.”

  “Son of a bitch…” Serge groaned.

  “Once I order them to do so, do you really think you’ll make it back to the Federation alive? Take my offer. Everyone’s happy in the end and nobody has to get hurt… or killed.”

  Yanmei nodded in agreement. “Very well—”

  “Yanmei!” Serge cut in again in disapproval. She ignored him.

  Portia gave a swift nod to the PMCs, they marched toward Ray. Firm grips from two PMCs yanked him from behind, forcing his body with them, and back to the waiting dropship. He looked at Piper and her emerald eyes full of sorrow and regret, and to Bashiir and his emotionless face. They had powers that could end their captivity and couldn’t use them thanks to the invisible assassins and armed PMCs standing and searching for an excuse to pull the trigger.

  “Thank you for choosing the Yoshida Corporation,” Portia said, “Let’s do business again in the future.”

  Portia joined Ray as the PMCs continued escorting him to the dropship. Partway into the escort, in the background, Yanmei spoke. Ray listened in as he had nothing else better to do now.

  “Miyuki’s still alive.” Yanmei sounded surprised.

  “Oh?” Serge said.

  “She just contacted me,” Yanmei said. “Let’s wait for her. She deserves to know the truth about us now. She’s proven herself worthy.”

  Ray heard him groan and protest more. Yanmei and Serge exchanged a few more words that came out like mumbles, flooded by the roaring engines of the dropship as he neared it. He didn’t board it.

  “Something wrong?” One of the PMCs asked, turning back to face Portia.

  Ray turned too, having noticed the escort had stopped. Portia was grinning and watching Yanmei and Serge bicker and argue about some girl named Miyuki Matsuoka, and it had Portia interested.

  “Don’t take them away yet,” Portia said. “We still have unfinished business here.”

  “Such as?” asked the PMCs.

  “Matsuoka went after Rodriguez,” Portia replied. “I want to know what happened.” She looked at the upper levels of the port. A small shuttle was being primed for takeoff by the dockworkers. Ray imagined there was an invisible Specter behind with a gun pointed at them. “Then there’s Feng and her people…”

  Something yanked and tugged at Ray. Something hard, and firm, and it threw him to the ground. It was something unseen. The hands of a Specter. Ray understood why Yanmei agreed to Portia’s offer with little thought. He couldn’t hold back the panic.

  “Secure Partington,” Portia said and walked to Serge and Yanmei. “I’ll be back.”

  Ray never got secured. As Portia turned and walked away,
blood gushed away from five deep cuts across the necks of the two PMCs that held him. Weapons clattered to the ground. Three others dropped to their knees with gloved hands holding their necks leaking a fountain of red everywhere. He was alone in front of the dropship, hands tied as twelve dead men circled him, squirming away the last seconds of life they had left in their bodies.

  And Portia didn’t see any of it.

  Ray was next. He hoped Yanmei still wanted him alive.

  Fifty-Five

  Miyuki

  Yanmei’s face brightened. “There she is.”

  Miyuki ran to Yanmei and Serge. They waited for her as requested. Even waited for her to take a minute and catch her breath, her chest huffing and puffing from the lengthy run. She held her chest when the minute was up and felt the speed of her heart. It was pounding.

  “What’s the plan?” Miyuki asked.

  Serge pointed to the dock’s second level. “Got a long-range shuttle waitin’ for us up there,” he said. “Just waitin’ on you and the rest of the team to board.”

  Miyuki nodded while Yanmei stepped forward with arms crossed. “Matsuoka, did you?”

  She nodded again. “Yes.”

  “Yes, what?” A voice called from behind.

  That voice was Portia, returning to them. Yanmei looked displeased to see Portia, almost like she wasn’t expecting her to show up again.

  Miyuki continued. “I’ve taken care of Rodriguez.”

  Her finger blades sprang free, thick crimson covered their ends. Portia held Miyuki’s left hand, smiling, and staring at it inquisitively. She ran a finger across one blade coating the fingertip red and brought it her face. Portia licked the finger clean like a vampire sampling a potential meal.

  “It’s warm,” Portia said, slipping her finger away from her lips. “You killed her?” she asked Miyuki.

  “I tricked her into thinking I would betray the Specters.” Miyuki tapped the back of her neck. “Got a free battery out of it too. You’ll find Rodriguez’s body and the mechanic that operated on her, in his shop.”

  “Excellent,” Portia said, grinning.

  “Indeed,” Yanmei concurred. “We still free?”

  “You have my word,” Portia said to her. “There will be nobody from Yoshida or the military pursuing you back to the Federation so long as Partington is with me.”

  “Then you better secure him before something happens,” Yanmei said.

  “I have it under control.” Portia spun, glancing at the dropship behind. Her jaw dropped instead. A dozen men lay on the ground in a massive pool of red. “What the fuck?!”

  “That’s what I was referring to…” Yanmei drily said, the tone of her voice changed to something more concerning.

  Portia’s fist clenched, the pale flesh on it turned red with rage, twitching ever so slightly. She faced away from the dead PMCs. “Specters hit them.”

  The dead had five slashes across their necks, and all Specters had five dagger blades per hand. “I agree,” Miyuki said, nodding.

  Portia’s index finger pointed at Yanmei. The volume of her voice hit the max level. “You betrayed me!”

  “I did no such thing!” Yanmei retorted. “My team is securing this platform. They were nowhere near your men!”

  “I was just there,” Portia said, shaking her head. “There’s no way someone did them in like that, only Specters!”

  Portia’s clenched fists began to glow white, her face still holding the angry glare at Yanmei. “Deal’s off!”

  “I fuckin’ told you!” Serge yelled and reached for his pistol. “Let’s kill this fucking cunt!”

  “Matsuoka!” Yanmei ordered. “Teach Portia a lesson.”

  She never got the chance. Portia’s hands glowed so bright you couldn’t tell she had long red fingernails. Serge was under her spell. Portia was like a puppet master, controlling their toy, that toy being Serge. Brown, Saito, and Arakawa joined the shining hand game, and then they vanished, one after another. Invisible rifles blazed. Portia held her radiating left hand out. The bullets meant to end her floated in the air and fell with a snap of her fingers.

  That didn’t stop the gunfire. Portia defended herself from the barrage and sent heavy objects like support beams and cargo boxes at where she guessed the Specters were. Sometimes she got lucky when those objects collided with something unseen in the distance. Miyuki wasn’t one of those however, she’d ghostwalked from the violence, keeping her head away from gunfire and flying objects tossed via the telepathic avatar.

  She found Piper and Bashiir, bound by their captors, but left alone because of the battle enveloping the port. Miyuki ended her ghostwalk, her sudden reappearance had Piper and Bashiir gasp. They looked at her strangely as Miyuki deployed a single blade from her index finger and used it to cut them free.

  Piper held the confused stare. “What are you doing?”

  Smiling at her, Miyuki activated her radio and spoke with the witch on the other end. “Estrella,” Miyuki said. “You’re up.”

  Estrella’s voice replied. “Understood.”

  A pack of wolves with dreadlocks charged into the port, many of them from behind the maze of idle cargo containers, wearing dangling gold chains or military dog tags. The wolves raced to what looked like the middle of empty space in the port. They leaped into the air with jaws wide open for a deadly bite. When their paws hit the tarmac again, they locked their jaws along the limbs of stunned Specters. The wolves knew where the invisible agents from the Federation were.

  Now the chaos evolved into an IW slugfest, Specters verses biokinetic wolves. Miyuki hoped Piper and Bashiir knew which side was an ally. She didn’t have time to explain. She had to ghostwalk again, the next leg of her plan needed to be completed.

  Miyuki strode away and ran to the truck. Looking back, she saw Piper and Bashiir search the fallen PMCs Miyuki had slain earlier to free Ray. The duo plucked an assault rifle and pistol each from the dead bloody fingers, fired a few shots at the Specters made visible by the wolves, and ran behind cargo containers for cover. She lost sight of them afterward when she reached the truck.

  She leaped aboard, eyes running optical scans for Ray’s phone. She remembered how it looked as she had been watching the truck since it parked and offloaded everyone. It was in the corner, right where Serge dropped it before the fighting broke out. Ray’s phone was in her hands now, his bag lay on the ground too… and Nobuo’s katana. She grabbed them all.

  Miyuki leaped out, both feet landing together and moving to run the instant she hit the ground. Two deep breaths and she was on the move again, ducking from the bullets as she ran, dodging the pack of wolves mauling Specters. She had to find Ray, and she had to do it before her ghostwalk ended. Her MEP gauge had dropped to 56 percent.

  Her HUD was in scan mode, head moving up and down, left and right. Ray had to have been here, somewhere. She hoped he got free after she’d cut him loose. She hoped he didn’t get the wrong idea either, she didn’t have time to explain the plan to him either, or that she had been following him, and waiting for the distance between the escort PMCs and Yanmei and the others to grow.

  Ray was further away from the fighting, hunkered down behind a small cargo crate, and powerless to contribute to the battle. She joined him, knelt beside him, and put an end to the ghostwalk by dimming the glow of her hands.

  Ray screamed when his eyes were no longer fooling him about her presence.

  “Holy fuck!”

  “Quiet!” Miyuki silenced him while handing him the phone and backpack. She kept the katana.

  He took the phone back, glanced at it, flicked through the screen, and thumbed his apps. His lips twisted. “But.”

  “Estrella said you fight best with that,” Miyuki said.

  Loud running footsteps. The two turned their heads to the source of the steps. It was Serge, free of Portia’s hold. He was rushing up the stairs to the upper platform of the port. Ray pointed to the shuttle with its entrance doors open. Doors Serge was traveling to.
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  “Shit!” Ray yelled. “Hey, ghost, we can’t let them leave!”

  “Miyuki.”

  “Huh?”

  “My name is Miyuki.”

  They watched the battle of wolves and Specters. The two groups were too busy fighting each other to notice their escape. Ray led the pursuit, racing up the same stairs Serge did as Miyuki followed behind with Nobuo’s katana drawn in one hand and powered on, and a pistol in the other. She peeked back periodically, ensuring nobody followed them. Nobody did.

  They made it to the top level, feet clattering against the metallic platform, following Serge’s path to the shuttle he vanished inside of.

  Then came a flash of silvery light, and psychokinetic windows pushing against Miyuki’s chest. She saw the skies seconds later, her back crashed to the platform’s surface. Leaping to her feet in one vault, Portia stood in between her and Ray, floating half a meter away from the ground, white hair blowing, glowing white hands brighter than ever. Ray stopped running and turned his back to the shuttle’s entrance.

  “Go!” she said to Ray while he remained behind Portia, and then looked in her eyes. “I’ll handle her.”

  And that she did, drawing her pistol, and pressing the trigger rapidly. The bullets stopped in midair. Portia laughed. Ray reluctantly left Miyuki and continued to the shuttle. The platform’s guardrails shook and moved on their own as Portia pointed at them. They came off, floated in the air, and spun to face Miyuki, sharp side first. They lunged to her.

  Miyuki’s white glowing hand forced them to stop in midair, just like her bullets. It was draining her MEP gauge fast. Miyuki rolled to the right, and the metal that was once the guardrail missed her. She dropped the pistol, sprang ten deadly finger blades, clenched the katana, and ran for the floating woman. She swung and missed Portia as her levitation increased her height. Heckling laughter followed.

  Miyuki hit ghostwalk and took cover before Portia ripped apart the rest of the guardrail to turn their metal bits on her. She watched Portia sink closer to the platform’s surface with six rails with their tips formed into sharp spikes orbiting her clockwise, and her hair still blowing amidst brilliant glowing hands.