Anne Winchell - The Last War

As Kaela entered the high-security area, she noticed a dark shadow at a nearby intersection. The shadow vanished. She strode forward. If it had been a scientist, he or she probably would have said hello or otherwise acknowledged Kaela’s presence. She reached the intersection and saw a man dressed in black, a stark contrast to the white walls. It looked like he was waiting for her. She opened her mouth to ask for credentials but before she could speak, the door in front of him opened and he vanished inside. Her heart thudded. The main server facility for díamont research was behind that door. She lunged with a gasp but the door slid shut and she swore as she quickly typed in the override codes. Whoever he was, he shouldn’t have been able to get inside. How did he get the code? Her finger slipped against the slick pad and Kaela took a deep breath and carefully reentered the numbers.

The door slid open and she leapt in without thinking, expecting to see the man in front of her. The chill of a gun against the back of her neck shocked her. This was not a member of the press. He was a real intruder. Stungun or real, she wondered. It felt real, but weapons with bullets were banned after the Last War. The only people who carried such weapons were hired killers who wouldn’t hesitate to take a life if it meant their own gain. Kaela had a similar gun in her waistband if she could just get to it.

“Drop your weapon on the floor,” he said. His voice was gentle, almost reassuring. He didn’t sound like a killer. But stunguns usually weren’t this icy cold.

“I’m unarmed.”

The lie came to her lips without hesitation. Already she was trying to rationalize his death. Clearly he was a threat; clearly he meant to harm her. Her job was to kill anyone who found out about the díamont research. She would worry about morality later.

The weapon against her neck shifted, but not enough to let her avoid a bullet. His hand rested on her hip and slid forward. For a moment she thought he was going to attack and rob her like the other man had eight years ago, on Earth, threatening her friends and foster family if she resisted. She would not let another man turn her into a victim like that but she was too frightened by the memory to stop him. She gasped in dismay when his hand slid over her waist to her carefully concealed gun. He took it from the holster and seemed to examine it behind her back before tossing it on the ground a good distance away.

“I’m not here to kill you,” he said. “But if you lie again, I won’t hesitate.”

He pushed her forward against the wall and she leaned against it, grateful for the support it offered her shaking body. Despite the adrenaline surging through her veins, she felt weak and frightened like a child confronted with the reality of death for the first time. She took a deep breath and tried to gather her courage while the man moved away and started entering codes into the access panel of the server. She could just see him from the corner of her eye but she didn’t want to move and attract his attention until she had a plan.

He was close to her height and weight and she thought they would be evenly matched if it weren’t for the gun. His gun was loose in his hand while he typed but she doubted she could wrestle it away from him. The only way to even the odds was to get her gun. It would take several seconds to duck, slide across the room, and get the weapon cocked and ready to fire. Kaela took a deep breath and mentally envisioned the movements, counting against the rapid heartbeat pounding in her chest and ears. Four seconds if she did everything right.

Kaela inhaled again and rested her forehead against the wall, allowing her to block his view of her face as she watched him. He was keeping a close eye on her; there was no chance of a stealth attack. She needed speed and luck. His left hand tapped against the keys while his right held the gun—a real gun, she silently confirmed. Her fingers trembled and she tensed to prevent a shiver of fear from running over her. Every few seconds he paused, seemed to think for a minute, then returned to typing. Must be bypassing the security, she thought. No alarms were sounding so he must be doing an excellent job. Security codes were time-sensitive so if she went for the gun just as he tried entering a code, he might be too distracted to react immediately. It was the only chance she had of getting the advantage and she steeled herself in preparation.

He paused and his eyelids flickered as though he were deep in thought, probably calculating the time since the previous code in order to enter it correctly. Just as his left hand made the first downward strokes on the keyboard, she lunged. Down to floor, grab gun, lift, aim, release safety and fire—nothing. She squeezed again and heard the empty cartridge click, then she stared at the figure in front of her, a target moments ago and now a deadly threat she couldn’t fight. He lowered his gun sideways, opening his right hand to show her the bullets in his palm.

“You won’t get far without these. Now get up and come here.”

Kaela felt her arm sink into the ground of its own will and she lay on the floor for a moment, the rush of her successful lunge freezing her in place until the man snapped his hand shut, bullets clinking against the gun handle, and she got to her feet. She realized that he now stood between her and the exit. Had he dropped the gun there on purpose, knowing she would dive for it and become trapped? Her teeth clashed angrily and she imagined slamming the gun into his head and wiping what had to be a smirk from his face. The asshole was watching her, smiling, as if he knew exactly what she was thinking.

“Come here,” he repeated.

Kaela took two small steps forward and flinched as he grabbed her wrist, tightening until she dropped the gun. Instead of releasing her, he pressed her palm against the keypad. She blinked in shock as the pad turned green and the security system turned off. She didn’t have that kind of clearance. He let her go and she stared, watching him start erasing the entire server. He must have manipulated the system to give her complete clearance. She was already in the base records but it should have been impossible for an imposter to alter data like that.

“Don’t try anything,” he said. He didn’t look at her; his gaze was fixed on the computer screen. “I don’t want to have to kill you.”

His voice was soft against the hum of the computer and the click of keys as he hacked into the central data server. He was good. She had never seen anyone use a computer the way he did. Data flashed across the screen as updates from various scientists appeared and disappeared. He seemed to be reading some, ignoring some, but deleting all and she lifted her hand in a vain attempt to stop him. He ignored her.

Kaela’s eyes grew warm and she blinked to keep back tears. Trapped and helpless, again, forced to watch a man destroy the things she was supposed to protect. For nearly ten years she had trained in martial arts and learned how to use every type of legal and illegal weapon she could find, she had forced herself into a life of hard exercise and solitary meditation, she had sacrificed everything to be strong and brave enough to stand up to men and now this man had lured her into the room, tricked her into moving away from the door, used her identity to unlock the computer system, and all without any effort on his part that she could see.

She thought about killing him with bare hands. He would be able to stop her, she was pretty sure, but at least she would die fighting. The man to attack her in the darkness of a decaying suburb of Old Portland had leaned in close to threaten her. He knew her foster parents’ names, her best friend’s name, and unless she gave him what he wanted he was going to kill them. Then he grabbed her. Her nails had dug into his throat as she dragged him down and her other hand tore across his face, into the softness above his eyelids and he screamed as she broke his neck with a sharp twist like she had seen in movies. Only in the movies the heroine escaped. She was trapped and caught by the police, and would have been sentenced to death under Kaonite laws if Atheus hadn’t stepped in and smuggled her to the new moon colony.