James Knapp - The Silent Army

Before we could reach the door on the other side of the room, it opened and three guys stepped through. That made Buckster stop short, and I almost bumped into him. Two of the guys had guns, and one had a metal case in his hand. They made right for us and stopped in front of the old man.

“This the one?” one of them asked.

“Yes. What is this?”

The one with the case opened it and took out a big needle. It was full of black shit.

“What the fuck is that?” I asked.

“Hold her,” he said.

The jacks grabbed me from behind. One held my arms and another one held my head. I tried to move, but they had me pinned. It felt like my neck was going to break.

“What are you doing?” Buckster snapped.

“Don’t struggle,” a voice said in my ear.

“She’s not one of them!” the old man said. “She doesn’t want to be—”

One of the men bashed Buckster behind the ear with the grip of his gun, and he went down onto his knees. He leaned over, and dots of blood started to cover the floor in front of him.

“We don’t need him anymore,” someone said, and the guy that hit him aimed the gun at the back of his head.

“Wait!” I yelled, but never even got the word out before the shot went off. The old man jerked once and went facedown. Blood started to pool around his head.

“Hold her still,” one of the other men said.

The guy jabbed the needle into my neck, and I saw him push the plunger.

“I said hold her still!”

I had only one shot. I brute-forced my way through one of the M8s behind me and dropped in a virus that shunted the command hooks over to me. One, two, and three, they all came up in my HUD. I pulled up their specs, vitals, and visual feeds, then took control of them.

The gun went off behind me, and the guy with the syringe jerked as the back of his head blew out. The case fell out of his hand, and the needle spun across the floor as his body fell in a heap. The other two raised their guns, but they were too late; the jacks shot them to pieces.

With the command spokes in place, I had full control of all three. In the feeds they streamed over, I could see what they saw and hear what they heard. It was like being back in the grind.

Orders?

“Get me off this b—” I started to say, when a sharp pain stabbed me in the gut. It hurt like hell, and my link to the revivors almost cut when the JZI’s power dropped.

What the hell was that?

I pulled inventory from the jacks; they each had a sidearm, extra ammo, and three grenades. They were all strapped with enough C4 to sink the ship. I used another virus to turn off their inhibitors.

Orders?

“Get me the fuck off this boat now—”

The room spun, and I felt like I’d been drugged again. I set off a stim to cut through it as warnings flew past. My heart rate had dropped, but as the chemicals spread through my bloodstream, it spiked back up.

The pain hit again, worse this time. It felt like a hot coal in my gut.

“What the fuck did they stick me with?”

I ran a check on my systems and saw that something in there was drawing power. Whatever it was, it wasn’t tied into the JZI’s control system. There was something inside me that didn’t belong there.

Orders?

Give me a layout of this place.

A map blinked on in front of me. There was a helicopter I couldn’t fly up top, and a small ship-to-shore craft down below. I set a route to it.

There, I told them. We’re getting off this boat.

The Alto Do Mundo was the second-largest skyscraper in the city, and its base covered almost an entire block. It had its own underground rail station beneath it, and contained shops and restaurants the likes of me could never afford. I had to flash my badge twice just to get through the gate and into the parking area, where a well-dressed valet quickly moved my car out of sight. I had to present it again to the automated security system at the main entrance, and wait for my identity to be verified before I was allowed in.

The foyer was like the inside of a palace, with enough wealth on display to spark a revolt. Just inside, two uniformed doormen stood at attention. They had a military stance, and each one had a gun under his coat. I flashed my badge at them as I passed, and I saw the orange flicker in their eyes as each one scanned it. One blew air through his nose, and followed me out of the corner of his eye, but neither one moved to stop me.

I headed through the huge foyer and up to the security desk, where another clean-cut, military type sat. Time in the grind had a way of bridging class gaps, but he still kept a close eye on me as I approached.

“Good evening, Agent Wachalowski. How can I help you?”

“I’m here to visit one of your residents, Zoe Ott.”

“Are you here in an official capacity?”

“No.”

“Sign here, please.”

He swiveled an electronic tablet around, and I penned my signature. The tablet disappeared back behind the desk.

“Go on up.”

The elevator was decked out in bronze, glass, and marble. I’d never actually been inside Alto Do Mundo before, and it was hard not to be impressed. Like Suehiro 9, it was the kind of place people associated with first tiers, but I was first tier and it was way out of my pay scale. Zoe may have had an ace in the hole, but her citizenship was third tier. Ai and her people were giving her the royal treatment. A deal that good was usually a devil’s deal.

At her door, I rang the bell, but no one answered. I turned the knob and stuck my head in.

“Zoe?”

“Back here!” she called from down the hall.

I stepped inside and closed the door behind me. The place was a complete mess, but even so, it was incredible. The living area was huge, and full of top-of-the-line furniture and electronics. Hardwood flooring gave way to stone tile in a vast kitchen area. Looking around, I saw a gas fireplace, a huge flat-screen television, a half bar, and even a balcony. Next to the door, pizza boxes and other trash sat in a pile—Zoe’s signature. Her clothes were lying on the furniture and the floor. It smelled like fast food and body odor.

Heading down the hallway, I heard a low, bubbling sound. Steam was drifting through an open door, and I heard a splash, then two women laughing.

“Zoe?” I moved into the doorway.

Zoe and Penny were sitting on opposite sides of a big hot tub, the surface bubbling around them. Penny wore a black bathing suit and Zoe wore a white one. Bottles were racked up along the edge of the tub, and they were both blind drunk. A huge flat-screen television was mounted on the wall across from them, and on it men in military gear were scrambling across a helipad toward a waiting chopper.

“Hey, look who decided to show up,” Penny said, pointing. Zoe smiled.

“This thing is awesome,” she said. It was the first time I’d seen her look that happy in a long time.

“Hop in. Join the party,” Penny said, making Zoe blush.

“Cut the bullshit,” I said. “We found the ship. Now where’s Calliope?”

“No, we found the ship,” she said, using the remote to shut off the TV. “The situation is under control. You can call off the MSST.”

“That’s not going to happen.”

“You don’t get to just decide that. It’s not part of the deal.”

“There is no deal.”

“Sure there is. Ai still wants to see you, by the way.”

“I know.”

“You shouldn’t keep her waiting.”

“Did she hit the Healing Hands Clinic?”

“Hit it? Hey, they blew those clinics themselves.”