Daniel Suarez - Influx

From the way Morrison’s jaw muscles were working, he seemed to be grinding his teeth to powder as he made a holographic panel appear over his wrist and tapped several buttons.

With a beep the corticospinal collars around Alexa and Grady’s necks fell to the floor. They both nearly collapsed as control of their limbs returned to them. They panted under their own breathing for several moments.

Grady looked up at the holographic screen. “I never thought I’d be so happy to see you, Cotton.”

“And now their equipment, Graham.”

Morrison lowered his head in dread.

“I won’t ask twice.”

Alexa marched up to Hedrick and grabbed her positron pistol from his desk—glaring at him with intense hatred as he cowered.

“Alexa, you don’t understand the way the world works.”

“Oh, I think I’m catching on real fast.” She whirled with great speed and slugged him in the jaw, sending him hurtling over the desk, clearing what remained of his toppled curio collection off the desktop with him.

Cotton’s laughter echoed in the office. “Oh my God, I love it. I’m glad I recorded that. I’ll cherish this hologram forever. ”

Hedrick was thrashing around, trying to get back up, blood running from his nose and lips. “I only did what I thought was best!”

Grady retrieved his gravis and helmet from the nearby guards, who were looking up at Cotton’s screen image nervously.

“All right, all of you…” Cotton gestured to the soldiers. “Out! Get the hell out of this office. We’re going to have a high-level discussion.”

They looked to Morrison.

“Don’t look at him! He’s not in charge anymore. Get out!”

The soldiers backed away toward the doors. Now that Varuna was gone, they had to manually hit the door control, after which they filed out, closing it behind them.

Alexa walked up to Morrison and finished unbuckling his forearm braces and gauntlets—which housed his weapons. They exchanged malevolent stares as she did so. “Go ahead. I want you to make a move.”

He took a deep breath but did nothing except hold up his hands in acquiescence.

She pulled nonlethal weapons and equipment from his harness. “Everything—the armor, too.”

Morrison sighed in disgust and then tapped a sequence on his arm that made his armor come apart. It started to fall off his arms and legs as Alexa kicked it away from him. He stood in front of her in his military uniform. “Didn’t fit right, anyway.”

Hedrick was now holding a handkerchief against a bloody nose as he sat at his desk. “What do you want from us, Cotton? You know we had no choice!”

“We all have choices, Graham. Some of us just make lousy ones.”

Grady looked up at Cotton. “All right, Cotton. Call some help in here. Get in touch with the authorities, and let’s bring this all to an end. I need to find out where Hibernity is, and I need to rescue my friends.”

Hedrick nodded. “You win, Cotton. We are your prisoners.”

Morrison snapped an angry look at Hedrick. “Are you insane?”

“Mr. Morrison, you may not have noticed, but we’ve lost.”

“Maybe you’ve surrendered, but I’m not going so easily.”

Hedrick held up one free palm. “I believe I have had enough.” He looked at Grady. “Let your sorry excuse for a government figure all this out. Believe me, they will be back before long, asking for assistance.”

Grady stared at Hedrick while Alexa covered Morrison with her positron pistol. “Maybe. Maybe not. But either way, you’re going to face a human rights tribunal for Hibernity.”

Hedrick laughed in spite of himself. “Yes, I’m certain. Let’s just get on with it.”

Grady looked back up at Cotton on the screen. “C’mon, Cotton, bring the cavalry in here.”

Cotton grimaced. “Yeah, Jon, about that…”

Grady and Alexa exchanged concerned looks.

“Stop joking around. Get the military in here. Call the feds.”

“Ah, see here’s the thing: Hedrick’s right, Jon.”

Even Hedrick looked up in surprise at that. “Come again?”

“What the hell are you talking about, Cotton?” Grady stormed toward the screen. “Get the authorities!”

“You see, you can’t just put the whole BTC in jail. Morrison, Hedrick—all these guys have advanced technologies that only BTC staff know well. Remember what happened to Wernher von Braun after World War Two? The Allies grabbed him, and he was put to work on the Apollo program.”

Hedrick nodded. “Von Braun was a good man.”

“See, Jon? Hedrick and all these guys will get off. The government will make a deal with them. They’ll want that head start. You watch, this whole place will be back in business within months.”

Alexa stood by Grady and shouted at the screen. “What the hell are you saying, Cotton?”

On-screen he winced and held up his hands. “I’m saying, you really need to tear the problem out by the roots.”

Grady called up to him, “Stick to the plan, Cotton!”

“That’s just it; this really always was the plan. My plan at least. Nothing personal…”

“Cotton!”

Hedrick and Morrison glowered at the screen, exchanging worried glances. Morrison finally held up his hands. “Okay, Cotton! I give up! You win. Just bring in the military.”

Hedrick nodded. “Yes, we surrender.”

“Right, but as you’ve often said, Hedrick: It’s for the greater good.”

On-screen Cotton tapped a virtual button.

Suddenly the entire BTC headquarters lurched—and everyone and everything in it went into free fall.

Grady twisted around, struggling toright himself as he fell—then hit hard against the ceiling of Hedrick’s office. Curio cases, furniture, and other bodies landed around him, but they didn’t smash to pieces in the way he’d expect. The building seemed to be half a second behind them in falling, as soul-wrenching cracks and groans tore through the air—a sound like city-size icebergs colliding. But now the building, too, had begun to fall before the room’s contents impacted on the forty-foot-high ceiling.

With the wind knocked out of him, Grady struggled for breath as he attempted to stand—which he found easy since he was in free fall. He staggered around in a daze amid floating furniture and objets d’art, his feet barely touching the ceiling, which now could just as easily have been a wall.

He looked up to see a static view of Paris out the window, looking down the Champs-Élysées. It corresponded not at all with the free fall he was in, and his brain rebelled—and he began to feel nauseated.

The sound of mountains colliding rumbled through the walls. The room lurched again, and a sharp crack ripped the air, setting his ears to ringing. His body suddenly forgot to vomit as he twisted around and saw Morrison and Alexa struggling with each other in free fall. Her gun floated yards away. Grady guessed it had fallen from her hand when she hit the ceiling.

“Alexa!”

She didn’t answer. She was busy trying to find some leverage to use her superior strength against Morrison as they grappled in midair. She finally pushed off a floating sofa and slugged Morrison twice in the face.

But Morrison refused to let go.

Grady had strayed from the ceiling somewhat, and he tried to swim through the air to get back to it—to use it as a launching pad. “I’m coming!”

She shouted back at him. “Hedrick! Get Hedrick!”

Grady scanned the cavernous office with his eyes. It was difficult to remember which way had originally been up—he was lost as he looked across a debris field of floating furniture, art, and other objects, broken and whole. But then he saw Hedrick’s massive desk, upside down, and Hedrick pulling himself hand over hand along the walls to get to a side door. The man was forty feet away.