James Knapp - Element Zero

Wachalowski, this is Alice. The first nuke is set to launch in six minutes. Where are you?

Inside Heinlein.

Stopping the launch from this end might not happen. If you stick to the lower levels over there, you stand a good chance of surviving any blast.

What about the control center at Stillwell?

They’re cutting their way in, but it’s going to take time.

You don’t think they’ll make it in before the launch?

I don’t know, Wachalowski.

What about Motoko? I asked. What did your team find at Alto Do Mundo?

The first team never made it. They got swarmed at the station, and we lost contact. No word back from teams two or three, either. Motoko isn’t responding, and neither is any of her personal guard.

If someone there is influencing Vaggot, I said, what happens if they die?

I can’t—

Alice, answer me. If I’m right and the one doing it is killed, will Vaggot stop the launch on his own?

I don’t know. Maybe.

Then you have to try to—

I know, Agent, believe me. Additional teams are moving in, and Chimeras are en route to the penthouse, but I can’t guarantee they’ll get there in time.

I checked Fawkes’s signature again. He was almost at the transmitter.

Stopping him was beginning to look like the only option left, and I was running out of time.

The entrance to the transmitter’s control room required security clearance, but Heinlein’s systems were still offline and the scanner was dark. I pulled it open, and lights flickered on overhead as I stepped inside. The room was situated off the northern face of the building, with a huge, wide window that looked out onto the base of the transmitter itself. The outer rim of the main dish formed an arc across the sky far above.

There were many sets of clothes strewn throughout the room. Empty shirts lay against the backs of several chairs, still situated inside suit coats, neckties still in place. Pants legs dangled over empty shoes. Fawkes had forced them to initiate the first code transfer, then he’d had them killed at their workstations.

I’ve accessed the control room, I told Nico.

I pulled up the instructions that Dulari had given me, along with the sample. The dish should still be aligned with the geosynchronous satellite in orbit above from the previous transmission, but I had to make sure. I tapped into the system and began the verification as I scanned the room. There were arrays of panels covered in minute controls and readouts, none of which I recognized or understood.

Using the included map of the consoles, my computer was able to identify both the main control station and also the image reader that would analyze and queue the sample for transmission. After that, I had no choice but to take Dulari’s instructions on faith.

Queuing up the current version requires two keys, the instructions indicated. They may still be in place. If not, use the provided override code.

I found the console and checked it. She was right; each panel was fitted with a large metal key with a thin hanging chain. Each was turned to the ON position.

Fixed beneath them was a thin metal door with a turn latch. With a twist, I pulled it open, and cold mist drifted out.

Satellite alignment verified.

Reaching through the mist, my fingers found the edge of the sample container, and I pulled it out of the bay. Carefully, I removed the sample Dulari had given me from its case and slid it into the slot. I shut the door and when I turned the latch, several lights on the console lit up. Messages began to scroll across one of the screens there.

Sample inserted.

Verifying version stamp …

Verifying authentication code …

Verifying certificate …

Green lights pulsed in response to each, and something thumped in the floor. The hum of electricity filled the room.

Validating sample …

Another screen blinked on and began cascading messages faster than I could read. A percentage appeared in one corner and began to creep up from 0 toward 100.

The door crashed open behind me and I turned in time to see a figure in a suit step through. The man leaned heavily on a crutch and held a pistol out in one hand. When he limped into the light, I recognized him immediately.

“Ang—”

He fired, and the bullet struck me in the left shoulder. Air from inside the suit began to leak through the hole as I staggered and fell back onto my side. Two more shots went off and struck the floor near my head as I kicked away, pushing myself behind one of the consoles.

Blood began to run down my arm as air blew through the hole in the suit. As soon as the pressure let up, air from the outside would make its way in.

As I heard Ang limp toward the console to shut down the sequence, I turned my gun on the window that overlooked the dish and fired. The glass stopped some, but not all, of the rounds.

I grabbed the nearest chair and gripped it by one metal leg. Pushing myself up off the floor, I spun it around and struck the broken glass.

Two more bullets struck me from behind as a spiderweb of cracks gave way in the observatory window and the chair sailed out into the dark in a shower of glass. Wind and snow shrieked through the jagged opening as I turned and aimed the gun at Ang.

He tried to dart away, but his injured leg gave out from underneath him. As he fell, the bullet punched through the wall behind him. I pulled the trigger again, but the hammer just clicked.

Something behind the row of consoles crashed, and I saw him get back to his feet, a vein bulging in his neck and his face red. He fired again as I began to barrel toward him. There was no way to know if the air was safe, but the seal on the suit was already broken.

I triggered the bayonet, and it sliced through the palm of the glove as I closed the gap between us.

As I focused on Ai, the halo appeared around her head like a thin laser and tried to push me back. She had turned all of her energy onto me, but I wasn’t afraid. Suddenly the air was as cold as ice and everything was crystal clear. Something warm ran from one of my nostrils and tickled my upper lip before dripping off the end of my chin.

“Zoe …” Ai gasped, and the halo warped. I pushed my way closer, and her eyes widened.

“Zoe, stop.”

Something slammed down the hall, and Penny turned. Behind her, I saw one of the smoked-glass doors open, and a woman in uniform stalked through. Her black hair was short, and there were tattoos on her neck. As her boots tromped down the hall, I could feel the anger radiate from her.

You. It was Flax, the one who’d killed Karen.

Penny flicked out both batons, extending them as she marched down the hall to meet her. She was strong, but she was in pain, and I could see her limp just a little as she walked. Behind her, she left a trail of dots on the tile.

I felt Ai worm her way into my brain and I turned back to her, struggling to push her back as I remembered the dead woman’s words in my last vision. The words she’d said when she showed me that woman marching toward Penny with death in her eyes.

“She will take away the last thing that is dear to you.”

“Penny, wait!” Ai was overwhelming me. I could feel her beginning to take control. Penny was going to die. She was going to die right in front of me.

“Stop!”

I turned on Ai, and everything, all the fear and the hate and the desperation, came out at once. I smashed through the barrier she’d thrown up, and emerged on the other side like a missile entering the atmosphere. The fragments of color below were like a work of art, an intricate field of stained glass that contained more knowledge than I would ever know in my lifetime. They floated above a storm of emotion that no one ever saw; the loss of everything she ever cared about, the knowledge that she would never reach old age, fear for the future that would unfold when she was gone …and throughout it all, guilt. Deep inside, buried under layers and layers of duty and discipline and justification, was a remorse so intense it was almost blinding.