James Knapp - The Silent Army

“It was all you. Nothing was planned.”

“What did happen?”

“You shut him off.”

“Like a machine?”

“Kind of.”

She took another drink and looked me in the eye through the steam.

“You’ve got a particular little talent there,” she said.

“I killed him.”

“Are you sorry you did?”

“No.” In the back of my mind, I had this feeling that Karen would have been upset if she was alive to know what I’d done. But she wasn’t, thanks to him. “I should have done it sooner.”

Penny nodded and smiled. She took a swig off of her long-necked bottle.

“I’m really sorry it happened,” she said, “but at least you get it. Not everyone does, but you get it.”

“Get what?”

“That there are people like Karen and people like Ted. People like your friend; they want to make things better. It’s good that they do, but the problem is that people like Ted won’t ever change on their own. You saw it when you looked inside him. People like him get in the way. Someone’s got to make the hard decisions. You get that.”

“If I’d done it sooner …”

“You can’t change it now. Next time you won’t wait. You can honor her that way. I’m sorry, but it’s the best you can do.”

I was starting to like Penny a lot. I worried at first about hanging out with someone like me, but it turned out to be really great. I could actually talk about the things I did and saw, and she understood. She’d been through it too.

More than that, though, she made me feel included. I’d been on the outside my whole life. It was nice to be on the inside, for once.

“Nicely done with that revivor in the alley, by the way.”

“Thanks.” I was so drunk that the thing in the alley felt like a dream. Had I told her about that?

“Gun work out okay for you?”

“Yeah.” I thought it would have a big kick, but it didn’t. It was light and easy to use.

“I picked it myself. Top-of-the-line.”

I thought it might be too small to do much good, but it stopped the dead woman cold. It made me think back to that time the revivor got into my apartment and grabbed me. It was so strong, I couldn’t do anything to stop it. It killed my neighbor, almost killed Karen, and took me away. I was totally helpless. There was nothing I could do. It was different in the alley. It didn’t matter that I couldn’t control the revivor. The gun changed everything.

“Is it really okay to just kill that woman?”

“Who, Calliope?”

“Yeah.”

“Let me tell you something about her,” Penny said. “We looked into her background, and you know what we found? She was raised in a state-run orphanage, but her mother didn’t drop her off there; she sold the fetus off to one of those church-run facilities, where they grew her to term in a jar. That name of hers was randomly generated by a computer. How do you like that?”

“Really?”

“Those places don’t have the room for all the ones that come in. The computer runs a lotto to weed them out when space gets tight. It’s all based on genetic profiles and all automatic, so no one has to feel guilty. You know how many times she got passed over while she was there?”

“No.”

“Thirteen times. Thirteen! That’s beyond luck. She shouldn’t even be alive. She was born to do this.”

I nodded, but I wasn’t sure.

“Look, if it bothers you, think of it this way—she’s going to save a lot of people. Doesn’t that make it worth it?”

“Is she really going to stop it from happening?”

“That’s the plan.”

“Will it work?”

“There’s a chance that it will.”

“So it might not.”

“It beats doing nothing,” she said. “Anyway, it’s not even just about this one incident. Even if the city survives, look around it. It’s rotting from the inside. The people who live in it are sheep who sell themselves to their government, literally. Their votes haven’t meant anything for years. We didn’t make it that way; they were living under the illusion they had any say in what went on for as far back as anyone can remember. Things were never going to change, not until we came along, not until we got organized. All Fawkes and his people can think about is their precious freedom. It’s ridiculous. They’re not free. They never were.”

“I guess.”

“People like Fawkes, they need to be removed. With them out of the way, things will start to get better. We won’t get credit for it and we’ll never get thanked, but things will get better.”

The bubbles and the heat had me sleepy and kind of giddy.

“Anyway, you’d be crazy not to love the perks,” Penny said. “The living arrangements, the clothes, the cars, the food, booze—everything. It beats scraping by.”

“…and you really think I might be this person?” I asked. “You really think I might be the one Ai is looking for?”

“I really think so.”

She grinned, nudging me with her foot under the water.

“You’re like me,” she said. “We’re not just one of them. We’ve got something even a lot of our own kind doesn’t have.”

“We do?”

“It’s like anything else; some people are better at things than others. Not everyone can do what you did to Ted. We’re a cut above, you and me. We’re elite.”

Elite.

It sank in for the first time then. I wasn’t sure if it was the heat or the booze, or if I was just finally coming to terms with it, but right then at that moment, I felt it. I could see it. That woman I saw in the green room all those years ago, the one that looked rich and strong and together …that woman was me. I could see it. It could be my life. I didn’t have to be a pathetic shut-in, and I didn’t have to be a lackey either, getting used while I waited and hoped for a scrap of approval. I could be something bigger.

…but what about the first one? A nagging voice said. What about Noelle? What made her betray them? If Penny’s right about everything, what made her leave?

She messed up. Maybe she wasn’t in her right mind. She was a junkie. I didn’t have to end up like her.

Don’t cross Ai. That was what Penny said. It was one simple rule. Even I could handle that.

Footsteps came from the right up ahead. As soon as we hit the bend, something grabbed my number one. A shot went off and it got pulled around the corner, while my second took the lead. Shots boomed down the hall.

They kept them busy to the right. I went left. In the feed, I saw number one facing off with four jacks. The view pitched as it took a few hits, but one of its targets went down.

Two, stay with me; cover the rear. One, keep them under fire. If they get past you, detonate.

I slipped past and kept my head low. A shot clipped my boot and another hit the wall next to me as I banked left and covered the ground to the hatch up ahead. I spun the wheel and opened it, then ducked through. As the jack followed me in, I watched over the feed while the one I left behind took a volley that put it down. One arm ripped free at the elbow and spun to the floor. When it hit, it snapped open and the blade shot out.

I shoved the hatch shut as I looked back and saw its head get blown open, painting the deck behind it black. The feed went out. I locked the door and made for the next one, across the room.

Through here.

I was already down to my last jack. There were more out there, but they were on to me. I was locked out of their network. It was going to have to be enough.

The hatch opened into a big room full of bunks. No one was in them.