James Knapp - Element Zero

It’s away, Dulari said. Critical saturation should occur within minutes.

Fawkes looked down at MacReady’s body, then back to me. “What did he tell you, Faye?”

“He said you’re going to destroy the city.”

“That’s bullshit,” Chen said. “She—”

“Take Mr. Chen to be treated, please.”

The revivor that was holding him up steered him toward the doorway and began half dragging him out. Over his shoulder, Chen glared at me, red-faced.

“What else did he say?” he asked.

“Just do it,” I said. “Kill me.” He stepped closer, and his soldiers crowded in behind him.

“Not until I’ve had a chance to look through your memory core,” he said. “Something’s going on here. What else did Mr. MacReady tell you?”

“He said you’d destroy the city no matter what anyone did.”

“If I wanted to destroy the city, then I’d do it. I have the capability to do it right now. I could issue one order and it would be done. I have no intention of destroying the entire city.”

Fawkes stopped short. Orange light glowed in the darks of his eyes.

“One of the gen-eight nodes just dropped off,” one of the soldiers said.

A message came in over the command network, instructing all revivors inside the missing unit’s patrol perimeter to report the location of the missing node. One by one the responses would be coming back.

“Faye, what did you do?”

Faye, Nico sent, get him out of there. He needs to be inside the dispersion area.

There wasn’t any other option. I opened a channel to Dulari and tried to warn her, even as Fawkes began tracing it.

Dulari, open the blowers to this room, I said, but she didn’t respond.

Fawkes came farther into the room. Through the open doorway I could see down the corridor to the other end, where two guards stood in the main corridor. He stepped past the body on the floor and stopped in front of me.

“You still belong to me.”

He finally broke through, then, and released the locks on my systems. He reestablished the command spoke and tapped into my nodes.

“Now tell me: what did you do?” Data spilled by in front of me as he accessed everything. He found the packages Nico had installed. He found the virtual command network hidden inside his own. He identified the end nodes, and his eyes widened just a fraction.

Something clattered in the hall outside the room, and he turned suddenly. Through the doorway, I saw the guards sway on their feet as white smoke began to stream from their flesh. A crackling sound filled the air, and both figures collapsed inside their uniforms. Their remains splashed to the floor, dissolving away to nothing.

The guard closest to the door slammed it shut. Fawkes turned back to me and stared. It was one of the few times I saw anything resembling emotion in his eyes. He tried to shut down the virtual links and found that they wouldn’t respond.

“Kill her!” he barked. One of his guards took a step, then all at once they seized and fell to the floor. The Leichenesser hadn’t made its way into the room; someone had hijacked them and shut them down remotely.

“Dulari,” Fawkes hissed.

Faye, Nico sent. Get him out into that corridor. It’s the last chance you’ll have.

Orange light flickered in Fawkes’s eyes, and a moment later a thud drummed through the floor as the air circulators shut down. The others must have reached the control center.

Fawkes issued a broadcast and pulled a node count. Already it had dropped to a third of his original forces. He slammed one fist down on the table.

Faye, take him now. Fawkes stepped closer and looked into my eyes, like he was staring through a window at something, or someone else.

Wachalowski, he sent.

He grabbed my throat with one hand and squeezed.

I was almost out of time. In the confusion I couldn’t see what happened to MacReady, but his link had dropped. I still had a connection to Faye, but she’d lost her weapon. On her feed I could see Fawkes. He had leaned close and was staring into her eyes, at me.

You’re too late, Agent.

“He’s not waiting for a full charge,” I heard Vaggot say. “He’s preparing to fire.”

Fawkes, don’t do this.

Orange light began to flicker behind the soft glow of his eyes. There was only one way left to stop him from issuing the command.

I sent Faye’s override code over the command spoke and her system tree appeared in front of me. In seconds, direct control of everything was switched over to me.

Nico, what—

Her message was cut short as the override completed. All she could do now was watch. Her targeting system called out the carotid arteries on either side of Fawkes’s neck and the nodes clustered at the base of his skull. I triggered the attack, and her POV feed lurched as she swung.

Fawkes was just fast enough; he got his own blade in the path of the strike, and the two crashed together an inch from his neck. The feed jerked again as he shoved her back.

An alert flashed in my own display. The Eye was almost ready. In minutes, we’d lose our window to sever the connection to it.

Fawkes, stop, goddamn it—

The screen in front of me flickered and Osterhagen’s face appeared.

“Agent Wachalowski, what is our status?” he asked.

Fawkes, they’re going to destroy the transmitter if you try to fire, I told him. Don’t do it—

Is that supposed to be a threat? Fawkes asked. If they don’t destroy it then, before this is over, I will.

“Agent Wachalowski,” Osterhagen said again, “what is our status?”

I threw Faye at Fawkes again. Her second blade deployed as she closed in on him again and thrust it toward the middle of his chest. He managed to deflect the strike, and instead it thudded into his shoulder. Black blood came out in a glut as she jerked out the blade.

Two guard revivors closed in, and in the chaos of movement I began to lose track of where they all were. Faye’s POV spun around as warnings began to spill past indicating trauma to her torso and right leg. Muzzle flashes lit up the room, and I saw sparks fly from a console in front of her.

“Wachalowski, answer me!”

One of the revivors appeared to Faye’s right, and I sent the bayonet flying. I caught a glimpse of a gray, waxy face tilting off at an unnatural angle as the edge of the blade chopped deep into the flesh of its neck. Several more figures scrambled past; then the computer isolated Fawkes ahead in the fray. I sent her after him again. Another body stepped in front of him. On the feed, I saw Fawkes duck back out the way he’d come in as the remaining guards mobbed Faye. I couldn’t get her past them.

“Damn it!”

Faye, did he move into the dispersion area?

The sublevels aren’t completely saturated. He’s still active. I can’t tell where he went.

I’m too late, I thought. Fawkes had escaped. Osterhagen was going to order the missile strike. We’d lost everything.

“General—” I started.

“Were you successful or not?” he asked.

On Faye’s feed, I saw a splash of black appear on the wall to her left. Through the struggling bodies in front of her, I saw someone appear in the doorway for just a second. A severe-looking, dark-skinned woman. It was Dulari Shaddrah. There was a gun in her hand.

I turned to answer the general, when the image on the screen warped. A second later, it went dark.

“Get him back on the line,” a voice said.

“There’s too much interference,” another voice answered. “Let me try—”