Matthew Costello - Rage

“Got anything? To give me a boost.”

Elizabeth got up and went over to a shelf, grabbing a metal case.

“I can give you a shot-a mix of primobolan and testosterone. Some pills for a quick boost later. Your nanotrites still working okay?”

“Doing fine.”

She nodded. “As I said-don’t get used to them. When you come back, we’ll get them out. But you’re okay for now.”

“Good. Now-you say you have a plan?”

She looked back at Lassard, still tapping furiously at his keyboard. “Yeah. And it involves what Lassard is doing as well.” Elizabeth smiled and lifted the layout map of the Capital, to reveal a bird’s-eye view of the area from a distance… and what looked like…

… an aircraft carrier.

What the…?

“Ready?”

Raine let her finish, the plan well thought out even if it sounded like it was lifted from a suspense novel: impossible, mad, no margin for error.

He shook his head.

“Lot of unknowns there.”

“We did the best we could.”

He looked over at Lassard. “And what if he doesn’t finish in time?”

“You go without it. Get Marshall. Come back.”

Abruptly, Lassard pushed his chair away from his monitors.

“Christ. I was close.” He turned back to them. The digital clock above his head kept clicking off the milliseconds. “So damn close!”

“Keep trying, Mark,” Elizabeth said.

He nodded and went back to his keyboard.

Raine said, “How did you know you could trust me?”

“Kvasir.” She smiled. “He may not like to think he’s with us. But he is.”

Raine realized then that she didn’t know.

About Kvasir. About what happened.

“Elizabeth-Kvasir is dead.”

Her eyes went wide. She kept them locked on Raine.

Then he explained how he had been rescued by the old scientist, and how he found him when he came back, slaughtered by the Authority.

She didn’t say anything as he spoke, but he saw her eyes glisten.

Hard to think of the crazy old scientist as a soldier of the Resistance. But it was clear that’s what he had been.

“Fuckers…”

The curse took Raine by surprise, coming from Elizabeth. Actually made him smile. “Right.”

She took a breath, the room so quiet now. “When he sent us word of you, he sent something else. Portman-”

Portman nodded, grabbed a crate pack and brought it to the table.

“Take a look,” Elizabeth said. “Kvasir’s last gift to us. And they may just keep you alive.”

Raine took one of the things out of the pack, a long, narrow needle with a small sharp clip attached to one end.

“A dart?”

“He sent them along with word of you. Called them mind darts. Only got to make five of them, and we haven’t had the chance to test them.”

Raine fingered it, felt the pointy end with a fingertip.

“Easy there,” Portman said. “Get that stuck in you and it floods you with nanotrites.”

“That would be good, no?”

“No. That would be lethal. According to Kvasir, the dosage far exceeds what a human can handle. Renders your system under their control. And see that clip?”

Raine undid the clip from the back of the dart.

“You can use that to move the person stuck with the dart, put them-apparently-anywhere you want them.”

Raine laughed. “Kvasir. Crazy guy.”

“And brilliant,” Elizabeth added.

“I don’t doubt it.” Raine looked in the bag. “These could be useful. Wish we had more than five.”

“We will work on making them-but for now, that’s all we have.”

He turned to Portman. “And what happens later? You said… they’re lethal.”

“You get a bit of time to move whoever you control around. But then the nanotrites’ buildup will make them explode. Literally.”

“Nasty.”

He looked up from the dart to the two of them. It was indeed a nasty weapon. They had been at this for a while and, as in most any movement, had reached the point where they would do anything to win.

Raine put the clip back on the dart.

“Okay.” He looked up at the clock. “What else?”

“Don’t want you weighed down too much,” Portman said, “but I put together a good array of ordnance for you. Wait here.”

When Portman came back, he put down four guns and a half-dozen roughly made incendiaries.

“These handguns fire hollow points. Better than what you had. Your M16 was okay, but this one features an expanded clip and autotargeting. More rounds, faster shooting, better aim.”

Raine picked up the fourth weapon, a full-sized shotgun. A monster of a weapon.

“And this?”

Portman nodded. “In some situations, having something that can kick a door in or knock someone’s head off is always welcome.”

Then Raine pointed to one of the explosives.

“Homemade?”

“Yeah. Like grenades from your day. But no adjustable timer. Got about fifteen… twenty seconds-”

Raine laughed. “About?”

Portman didn’t grin back. “Just pull the pin and throw it. Gave you a half dozen. Any more and you’ll have too much damn weight. Especially with the ammo.”

Elizabeth reached up to her head. “You’d be amazed how surprisingly rare these are.” She handed him her headlamp. “If you get stuck in the dark.”

He took the lamp, then looked over to the table with the drawings of the Capital. “I think I have to do another review of the Capital and the plan.”

“You could do a quick sketch,” Elizabeth said.

Raine stood up. “No-I best get it locked in my head. Doubt I’ll have much time to stop and look at any notes.”

He walked back to the table.

After what seemed too short a time, he felt Elizabeth behind him. A hand on his shoulder. “Raine, time you got going. I can lead you to where we got you a car. Will get you to your point of-what did you call it?”

“Infil.”

“Yeah. Think you’re set?”

Another glance down at the large drawing.

“Okay, let’s-”

They heard a loud near-shriek from behind them, Lassard at the computers.

Then words.

“I got it! I fucking got it!”

They moved to stand behind him.

“You see, the Authority, they can communicate with all the Arks. Was built into every Ark computer. That was no problem for them.”

He turned around, eyes wide with excitement. “But what they couldn’t do, what they wanted it to do… was control when the Arks emerged. To override the Arks’ internal controls and get them all up. The resources in the Arks, the people… all that stuff the Authority wanted. So even though they could check in on a buried Ark, they had no way to command it to come up.”

“The Arks have operational autonomy?” Raine said.

“Precisely.”

“What we have been trying to do,” Elizabeth added, “was crash the Arks’ systems.”

Lassard pointed at a screen. “This is from one of the Arks-damaged, but with enough systems intact that it gave us a clue. But what you brought, in that hard drive-last piece of the puzzle.”

“What do you mean?”

Lassard turned, looking annoyed.

As if it’s obvious.

“The Authority was able to use their I.T. people, all survivors, all prisoners, to establish communication with the buried Arks. That program’s built into all their computer systems, including the one in the Dead City that you brought us. But they still couldn’t override each Ark’s integrity.”

“You’re losing me, Lassard.”

He rolled his eyes and looked at Elzabeth. He was beside himself.

“Don’t you get it? The Authority couldn’t crack each Ark’s program, which made them totally autonomous. They tried, did they ever. But see”-Lassard gestured at his own machine, to all the screens surrounding him-“I did. We can override the Arks. That’s what!”