Something crashed back out in the hallway, and the dark field scattered. I was back in the hallway with the bodies, and …
Penny. Penny was in trouble. She needed me.
Cold air rushed over me from the empty window. Snow blew against the back of my neck as I turned to see Penny and Flax fighting. Both of them were bleeding, and the floor around them was smeared with blood. Penny had one baton still clenched in her fist. Flax was missing one hand, but had a knife in the other one.
“Penny!”
“Go to the roof,” she grunted without looking back. “Get out of here.”
Flax lunged, but Penny ducked under the blade and darted in close, to strike again. Before she could land the blow, Flax grabbed her by the wrist and head-butted her in the face with a loud crack of bone. Blood gushed from Penny’s nostrils as she staggered back.
I started to run toward them, not sure what I’d do when I got there. All I knew what that this woman had killed the first real friend I’d ever had, and she was about to kill the only one I had left. Before Penny could do anything else, Flax swung back around. The edge of her knife slashed Penny’s arm open, and blood splashed onto the floor.
“Penny!”
I ran. One of the batons was on the floor, and I went to scoop it up and fell. I slid across the tiles, then managed to pick myself up and stumble toward them.
Penny turned and saw me at the last minute. I flew past her and brought the baton down on the tattooed woman’s neck, but it didn’t stop her. I lost my footing, and the knife whipped over my head as I fell onto my butt.
Penny stood, rearing back to deliver a strike, when Flax stabbed her in the chest.
It was the most horrible sound I’d ever heard. The blade went in right at the base of her throat, and the hilt struck so hard it forced the air out of her mouth in a spray of blood. She jerked once, and the baton clattered onto the floor.
“No!”
Flax wrenched the knife out, and Penny choked. Blood was pumping out of the gash. Her eyes rolled and she fell to the floor.
“No! Penny, no!”
I scrambled beside her. A pool of blood was growing around her head. I put my hands over the hole, but it kept coming. I couldn’t make it stop.
The room got bright around me as I stared down at her. I looked for her colors, to try to soothe them, to try to stop any pain she might have, but I couldn’t find them. They were already gone. Penny was dead.
Penny, no …this can’t be happening …
I let go of her and held my head. It felt like it was going to explode. I couldn’t hear anything or feel anything. I was still staring down at her when I felt Flax’s hand grab my arm.
“Zoe Ott?” she growled.
I jerked away and ran. My foot slipped in Penny’s blood and I went down on one knee, then bolted back toward the stairwell as the woman’s footsteps closed in behind me.
I made it to the stairwell door and pulled it open. When I was through, I turned and tried to slam it shut, but I was too late. A tattooed hand clamped down on the edge of the door and held it. I backpedaled as Flax shoved it open and stepped onto the landing.
“Get away from me!”
I ran for the stairs, but she cut me off and backed me into the corner, up against the concrete wall.
“You’re too late,” I gasped. I could barely breathe. I could feel hatred pour off her as she walked right up to me. She was going to kill me too, but I didn’t care. In less than a minute, the missiles would fall.
“You’re too late,” I whispered.
The red-haired bitch flinched when I grabbed a fistful of her shirt and pulled her up onto her toes. In the corner of my eye, I saw the launch countdown drop below three minutes.
“How are you doing it?” I asked. “How are you controlling the satellite?” She just smiled, blood running from one nostril.
“Goddamn it, make it stop!” I screamed in her face.
“You’re going to die,” she said. “You’re all going to die now.”
“You’ll die too.”
“I don’t care,” she said. She’d started to cry. “I don’t care anymore. You killed my friend …my best …”
“Your friend had me cut open and tried to kill me,” I said. “Fuck her. However you’re doing it, stop the launch.”
“You killed—”
I slammed her back against the wall, and that woke her up a little.
“You’re going to kill everyone in this fucking city?” I said. My breath was coming fast now. The blood felt hot in my veins, and I felt a string of drool start to run over my bottom lip. The JZI flashed warnings as whatever it was inside me twisted in the back of my head. The counter was getting too low.
“Yes …”
My fingers squeezed on her throat, and another fat drop of blood came out of her nostril.
“I don’t know how you’re doing it,” I said, “but I know you are.”
The bitch’s eyes started to roll as I kept up the pressure on her throat. Her pupils dilated, then relaxed.
“Last chance,” I said.
“Go to hell,” she gasped.
Bite …
I let go of her neck and put my palm over her mouth. Before I knew what I was doing, I leaned in and felt her scrawny neck under my lips. I could feel the big vein there throbbing, then the salt of her sweat on my tongue. My mouth opened, my lips peeling back like it was out of my control.
Do it…
I bit down, and she screamed. Greasy blood filled my mouth, and the warmth ran down my neck. Something inside me drove me, telling me to bite harder, deeper. It was all I could do to stop with that vein still pulsing under my tongue.
Do it …
I squeezed my eyes shut and shoved her away, down on her back onto the floor. Blood was running out of the bite mark on her neck, flowing down her chest and seeping into the dress she wore. She tried to say something but couldn’t, as she stared up at me in horror. She held out her hands, and they started to shake.
“N …no …” she gasped. I stomped her bony chest with the heel of my boot, knocking her back. I drew the knife again and took a step toward her. I swallowed blood, and even though it made me sick, my teeth still itched to bite again. Drool leaked out of the corners of my mouth.
“You ruined me,” I heaved. I closed the gap between us. “You motherfuckers ruined me…. ”
“I …lost him …” she whispered. “I lost …him …”
Kneeling down over her, I put the point of the blade under her chin. She didn’t react when it touched her. She didn’t look like she was seeing me anymore.
“You …will bring about …destruction …” she wheezed. Her head lolled, and she fell back onto the concrete. I spit on the floor next to me and wiped my mouth.
In the corner of my eye, I saw the launch countdown had frozen.
Blood began to pool around the little bitch’s head. Her eyes went out of focus.
“You …save …my …life …” she whispered. Then she let out a long breath and went still.
I moved the knife away and pushed myself back up onto my feet. My head spun and I leaned against the wall, leaving a smear of blood.
I turned and left the stairwell, letting the door slam shut behind me.
An alarm bell went off as I shoved open a fire door and came out into the cold night air where the transmitter dish towered above me. In the distance, over the howl of the wind, I could hear the scream of jets. Shielding my face against the snow, I scanned the tarmac. Fawkes’s signature was close.
Wachalowski, this is Alice. The launch has been aborted. Repeat: the launch has been aborted. What’s your status?
I checked the countdown and saw it had stopped.
How?
They never reached Vaggot. He manually disarmed the satellite from inside on his own.
What about Zoe?
Unknown. What is your status?
I’m at the transmitter.
I squinted through the storm and switched to night vision. Sweeping the area, I spotted a group of figures in the distance. Two of them were carrying some kind of crate between them.
I’ve got Fawkes, I told her.
Something hit me from my left, lifting my feet up off the ground. A large, meaty shoulder knocked the wind out of me, and I felt a big hand on my chest before I was shoved back. I landed on my side on the blacktop and slid a couple feet as a large figure moved toward me, its moonlit eyes glaring down.
I got my gun between us and fired a burst that tore across its chest. It staggered back a step, then recovered and reached down to grab me. I heard a loud snap over the sound of the wind and saw its hand split apart. The long blade thrust out from the gap, and it lunged.
I rolled as the tip of the blade thudded down onto the tarmac next to me, then stomped down on the side of the thing’s knee. Cartilage crunched as the joint bent at an odd angle and the revivor began to fall. It hit the ground, and I fired another burst into the back of its head, spraying black across the snow.
“Fawkes!” I shouted. One of the shapes in the distance turned.
Zooming in, I saw two of the remaining revivors with him quickly assembling some kind of tripod, while the third heaved a large, heavy cylinder from inside the crate, which was now open. I scanned the cylinder, and the computer isolated its shape through the snow. It was a surface-to-surface missile. He was going to try to blow the dish.
“Fawkes!”
I got to my feet and ran as the wind sheared over me, stinging my face and hands. I fired, and a bullet sparked off the launcher assembly.
One of the two at the launcher returned fire, while the second joined the third to help load the missile.
Faye, do you read me?
Yes.
I’m feeding you three revivor signatures; can you pull their IDs and connect to them from where you are?
Stand by.
Something struck the armor plate on my chest and knocked the breath out of me. I stumbled as I fired again, straining to spot Fawkes through the snow.
Nico, I’m in, Faye sent.
I hooked into the stealth command-spoke package still resident in Faye’s system, and used it to open command links to all three of the remaining revivors. For a second, they were all being controlled by both Fawkes and me, but a second was all I needed. Before he could react to lock them down, I triggered the Leichenesser capsules in all of them.
The one carrying the missile dropped it and it hit the tarmac with a metallic thud before rolling in a slow semicircle. White mist began to shoot from the back of its neck, and it stumbled to one side.
The other two revivors tried to keep their footing as the flesh and bone inside began to dissolve. One fell back against the launcher’s tripod before it lost integrity, and I saw one arm slide from its sleeve and fall onto the ground next to it. The other went down on its hands and knees, then collapsed.
Fawkes saw what had happened and bolted away from them to avoid getting caught in the smoke himself.
Nico, Faye sent, the transfer has been initialized. The dish is sending.
I fired another burst at Fawkes and caught him in the leg. He lost his balance and fell, crashing down onto his side as I approached.
The lights from the transmitter lit his otherworldly face as he stared up at me. I took aim and was about to put a bullet in the side of his head when he pulled his shirt aside to show the mechanism strapped to his chest.
“Stop the transmission,” he shouted. “Or I will.”
I scanned the device. The explosives rigged to it were extremely powerful. They wouldn’t destroy the entire dish, but they’d knock it down, out of alignment.
“It’s a dead man’s switch,” he said. “If my signature ceases, it will go off.”
“It’s over, Fawkes.”
He lifted one hand and I saw the detonator. I fired a burst into his forearm and the flesh erupted in a splash of black blood. Sparks sprayed as the hand snapped apart to reveal the bayonet tucked inside, and the trigger spun off into the dark.
He recovered quickly; he got to his feet to go after it, but I’d closed the distance. I struck him in the chest with one shoulder and he pitched back down onto the ground.
He’d deteriorated a lot over the years, but he still had the strength of a revivor. He didn’t know pain or fear. He recovered and sprang back up from the ground. His moonlit eyes locked on me as he lunged with the bayonet.
I fired, and the bullet punched through one side of his neck. Blood pumped from the hole, but he kept coming. His cold left hand grabbed my shoulder as he thrust the blade into my gut. The armored weave took the brunt of it, but I felt the point bite through and warmth seep into the fabric.
I knocked his leg out from under him and shoved him back down onto the blacktop, coming down on top of him. He tried to stab at me with the bayonet again, but I pinned his arm under one knee and shoved the gun in his face. He tried to say something, but nothing came out. His teeth were stained black.
Agent, wait.
I shot him in the shoulder twice, and the arm stopped moving.
Agent, this is the only chance we will ever have to stop them forever. You’ve seen what I’ve done.
I saw it.
No one else needs to be hurt. No one else needs to die. This will level the playing field—nothing more. No more control; no more lies. People will be free, free to walk their own path. Free to govern themselves. Free to wake up each day and know that the events of the previous day were real, that they were true, and that their will and their consciousness are their own.
Vibrations sparked from the shoulder of my dead arm to its fingertips, and messages began to stream past in front of me. The nanoblood inside was responding to the transmission. Fawkes’s alien eyes widened as he realized it too.
You’ve doomed them all, he said.
I took a sample of his signature and re-created the waveform on my JZI. When they synchronized, I used my field knife to slice through the straps of his vest. I pulled it off of him, and the LED began to flash an urgent red.
Before it could explode, I slipped it on and pulled it taut around my chest. The mechanism homed in on the signature I’d cloned, and the LED turned blue again.
You’ve doomed them all, he said again.
I knelt down in front of him and grabbed his tie. I twisted it under his throat and forced him back onto the tarmac. The blade of my field knife flashed as I aimed the point at an angle toward his neck.
I guess the little mutant was right, he said.
I jammed the blade in and twisted. The edge severed the connections between the revivor nodes and the brain stem.
His signature warbled, then snapped out of existence, and the moonlit glow faded from his eyes.