James Knapp - Element Zero

I should have let him kill me, I thought as I ran. In another second, it would have been done. Now—

As I came to a T in the corridor, I almost ran headlong into a soldier who stepped out in front of me. Its gun, held in one gray hand, hung by its side. It saw me, but took a second to react.

I rushed it, closing the distance in three strides. My forearms split apart and I triggered both the bayonets at once. As it raised its weapon, I knocked it back onto the floor then thrust both blades down, deep into its neck. They crossed just in front of its spinal column, and two spastic jets of black blood painted the walls to either side of us. I jerked and scissored the two blades together. Its head nearly severed, the soldier fell back and crashed down onto the floor.

Faye. It was Fawkes. I could sense him trying to reestablish the command spoke to retake control of me, trying to locate exactly where I was. I stepped through the oily pool growing across the tiles and picked up the soldier’s gun.

Faye, answer me, he said. And that’s when I saw a second flash out the window, much, much brighter than the first.

It came from somewhere far off, out between Heinlein and the city proper. The source was beyond the mouth of Palm Harbor, maybe ten miles or so from the coastline. The light was so intense, the window tinted and a large, dark spot danced in front of my eyes. A huge dome of flame had begun to expand over the water’s surface.

What was that?

The overhead lights flickered and then went out. I heard a collective gasp from back down the way I’d come; then, just as suddenly, the lights came back on. A chest-thumping boom followed, then a low, steady rumbling sound. The wind began to pick up, and snow streaked past the window.

Fawkes, what was that? The ball of light grew larger by the second. There had been a detonation of some kind. Whatever it was, it was huge….

I realized then what I was seeing. A dark cloud began to emerge from the blast and rise into the sky on a column. My heart hadn’t beat for years, but still, the cloud’s mushroom shape inspired dread.

What did you do? I asked. The words floated in front of the growing cloud, as a huge electrical arc flashed through it.

This is bigger than either one of us, Faye. Come back.

The rumble went on and on, even after the light was gone and the windows cleared. The mushroom cloud continued to grow high into the sky.

This is what we’ve worked toward, Faye. Your existence no longer matters. I know you believe—

I cut the connection and put a block on his ID. I saw him try to reestablish the link, but I didn’t pick up. I checked the pistol’s magazine; it was full. For a moment, I stood over the body, not sure what to do next.

Find Robert MacReady, Dulari had said. I wasn’t sure who he was, but I scanned the JZI nodes inside the building and found a match for his name. He was inside, then.

I put in a call request, then sprinted to the stairwell door and pushed it open. At the rail, I looked down and saw that it descended several stories. Until then I hadn’t realized how deep the structure really went.

I started down. If the revivor I’d just destroyed had a chance to report my location, then there were already more on their way. My best bet was to head down and try to disappear until I could decide what to do next.

I’d descended five flights when my call request was picked up. MacReady was alive.

Faye Dasalia, what do you want? He’d responded, but the circuit hadn’t come through the transmitter; Fawkes couldn’t monitor the conversation.

Dulari Shaddrah gave me your name, I told him.

Something pricked at my control nodes remotely, some kind of low-level scan. Before I could cut it off, a stream of data went out on the wire.

Your command spoke is locked, he said.

Yes.

That’s interesting. Why?

Fawkes meant to kill me. I am no longer part of his network. He paused for a minute, considering or perhaps verifying that, then:

I can help you. Come to the lab.

Help me do what?

Come to the lab, he said. If you’re on the run as you say, you need to get off of Fawkes’s radar.

I took a step down the stairs and then stopped there, uncertain. Fawkes hadn’t told me everything, but I’d worked for years to make sure these events could unfold. I still did believe in his ultimate goal. Everything was moving so fast, I hadn’t had time to think. Why had I even run from Fawkes? Was the human survival mechanism so ingrained? I had no life to lose. Why did I run? What did I want?

You were a slave for the last part of your life, Faye, I know that, MacReady said. But ask yourself if what Fawkes offered you was any better. The control that command spoke provided was more absolute than anything you experienced in life. But you’re free now. Come to the lab.

He’s luring me, I thought. Some old intuition was bubbling up. There was something too silky about his words.

Is Dulari alive? he asked.

The last time I saw her, she was alive.

And Mr. Chen?

Alive, but they’re killing the rest.

I know, he said. And I know what you are. I know better than you do. I know there are still residual ties to your old identity. Fawkes knows too. It’s why even though he needed a seventh-generation to gain access to our systems, he considers you a liability now.

What he said made sense, but I wasn’t sure if he was right about me or not. Some people would die; I’d always known that. But people died all the time.

I need you. Nico’s message still floated near the corner of my eye. He’d understood. Not letting anyone get hurt was my ideal in life, but it was unrealistic. He’d known that, believed it. Was he right? I stood on the stairs, not knowing what to do.

Where are you? I asked MacReady. A map of the underground levels appeared in the air in front of me.

I’ll direct you. What floor are you on now? I looked up at the placard tab on the wall next to the gray stairwell door.

Sublevel five, stairwell E3.

Continue down to level eight. I looked over the railing; the stairs wound down into shadows far below. I had no reason to trust this man MacReady, but I didn’t have too many options left.

I took another step down and then continued for three flights. Following the path traced on MacReady’s map, I opened the stairwell door and into a long, dimly lit corridor.

Follow it to the end, and then through the lab on the other side. Security is down; you’ll be able to walk right in.

The hall was strangely quiet, with only the hum from the overhead lights and another, more subtle source of white noise. My footsteps echoed quietly behind me as I approached the heavy metal lab door and gripped its cold steel handle. The scanner mounted there on the wall was dark and inactive.

I pushed, and the door opened with a low thud that turned my skin to gooseflesh. My dead skin never did that unless it was near an electrical field. I traced the thud and the hum that followed it to somewhere over my head, where I saw large coils of thin, shiny wire. Beyond that, the room was dark.

Noise suppressors.

I took a step, and lights snapped on overhead. I was standing on one side of a huge room where rows and rows of figures hung from above, each one covered in thick, clear plastic sheeting. Silhouetted by the light, their feet and toes dangled around head level, where bundles of wires hung down to the floor, then snaked across the tile. Dim light from overhead flickered eerily.