Ramez Naam - Crux

Breece watched, his anticipation rising, as the Reverend Josiah Shepherd finished his remarks and led the assembled crowd in prayer.

Eyes closed everywhere throughout the church. Shepherd clasped his hands together and bowed his head.

“Dear Lord,” he intoned, “we pray that you free us from bondage, and deliver us from evil…”

Oh, I’m going to free you alright, Breece thought.

Just moments now. Just moments until he did.

87

NECESSARY EVIL

Saturday November 3rd

Kade swayed in Feng’s grip.

You’re alive!Feng yelled into his mind, their heads touching now, close enough to cut through Shiva’s amplified signal.

Shiva, Kade mentally yelled back. Upstairs.

Feng shook his head. Escape! This way!he yelled back, gesturing towards the end of the hall. Soldiers coming! Lots!

Kade pulled back, tried to look into Feng’s eyes. There was just a blur there, a faint distortion where he knew his friend was. He pushed his head forward until his brow touched Feng’s again.

I have to end this, Feng.He yelled, I have to go up. Can you hold off his soldiers?

Feng went silent for a moment, then he laughed into Kade’s mind, a bellowing, absurd laugh.

Yeah, he yelled back, and Kade caught a mental glimpse of a feral grin. I’ll stop them. Go stop Shiva.

Kade hugged Feng tight, then pushed himself, staggered into the banister for the next flight. He dragged himself up another step, and another.

He looked over his shoulder on the third step, but if Feng was there, grinning at the army bearing down on him, Kade’s eyes couldn’t see him.

Sam scrambled on hands and knees until she found the pistol, on the body of one of the men she’d killed. Her whole body was trembling now, her senses going haywire as Nexus nodes in her brain received their purge commands, detached from their host neurons, split into their component molecules to be swept back out through her blood-brain barrier, filtered from her blood by her kidneys and eventually pissed out of her entirely.

She was shivering, flashes of color and sensation and sound and smells wafting over her as this thing that had been part of her brain for months detached from her. There were tears in her eyes. Tears and memories of Jake, of the children, of meditation with Ananda’s monks.

For Kevin, she told herself. For Kevin .

She checked the gun, ejected the clip with trembling hands. Fully loaded. More than sufficient for her needs.

Killing, she told herself. All I’m good for. All I’ve ever been good for .

She put her back against the wall of the home, stared out into the night sky, out over the surging ocean, waited for the shivers and sensations to pass, and brought the gun up before her eyes.

Shiva yelled into his bracelet again. The sounds of gunfire came back, curses, cries of pain. Something boomed down below in the building.

And still Lane came closer.

Very well, Shiva thought. I’ll do this myself .

Kade climbed. A second flight. A third.

He felt a vibration through the floor. An explosion somewhere. Feng was fighting for his life back there. For Kade’s life. For more than he knew.

Have to make this count .

One shot. Just one shot at this. Shiva was strong, physically augmented, faster than Kade. The man could kill him with his bare hands.

He paused at the fourth floor landing. Shiva’s mind buffeted him, commanding him to drop to his knees, to surrender. The pain was getting worse. The stabbing sensations inside him were growing sharper. Illusion, he told himself, illusion. But he had to finish this soon or he wouldn’t have anything left at all.

Kade went Inside, dove into Bruce Lee’s controls. He’d played the VR game Rangan had lifted this from, had played it enough times to know there was a library of special moves. He flipped through the controls. There. There. Yes. He queued up what he needed, the special move that had to happen at just the right time, and put the system on full auto. Then up the last flight he went.

Shiva turned, stared at the staircase from which Lane would emerge, clenching his augmented fists. He’d beat the boy into submission.

I won’t kill him unless I have to, he told himself.

Then Kade was there, limping up the stairs like a broken thing. Shiva shook his head. This would be no contest at all.

Breece readied himself as the Reverend Josiah Shepherd finished his prayer. The crowd was on their feet, swaying. The supporters – who’d each given five thousand dollars to Daniel Chandler’s gubernatorial campaign to be here – opened their eyes after Shepherd’s “Amen”.

“Now,” Reverend Shepherd was saying, “I want to introduce you to a friend of mine. The man who’s done so much already to help us put these demons, these unnatural, un godly abominations, these Frankensteins in their place. The next governor of the great state of Texas, my dear friend Daniel Chandler!”

The crowd roared into applause, surging to their feet.

Breece smiled, and moved his finger to the screen of his slate.

Kade pulled himself up and onto the roof. A cool breeze caressed his burning skin. Stars twinkled up above. Thirty feet ahead, Shiva stood in his white robe, staring at him, his white hair streaming in the wind. Behind him, fires burned across the island, smoke rising from them.

Too far. Too far. Can’t feel him yet.

Kade pushed himself out from the staircase. Sharp stabbing pains came from inside. Shiva’s amplified thoughts buffeted him. He had to get closer.

He stepped twice, three times.

Then Shiva was charging him, a look of rage on his face. Kade’s eyes widened in fear, and Shiva’s clenched fist drove itself into his abdomen, sending unimaginable pain lancing through his body.

[Bruce_Lee: Special Move Succeeded! You Locked One! +10 Points!]

Kade looked down, found his own hands clenched around Shiva’s arm, locking them together. And now he could feel the man’s mind over this amplified chaos. Kade’s gaze went up. His eyes locked with Shiva’s, and he saw the look of horror there.

Kade reached out, activated the second back door even as Shiva swung about and tried to throw Kade from his arm.

As Shiva swung him, Kade’s legs left the ground, but Bruce Lee kept his hands locked around the other man’s arm. Kade sent the passcode, felt Shiva’s mind open to him. He pushed in to grab mental control, to still him.

Shiva’s other fist lashed out, slamming into Kade’s face even as Kade clenched his mind around Shiva’s thoughts. Pain exploded through Kade’s head, the world spun and he felt his grip break, felt his body fall back across the roof, felt his head come down on the ground.

Everything was pain. Pain and confusion, pain and chaos. Nausea surged up through him. He turned onto his side and retched, puking up bile and blood. He retched again, wondering when he was going to die.

Then he felt it. The absence. Shiva’s amplified mental pressure on his mind was gone. He turned, pain stabbing inside him, and saw Shiva. The man was on his knees, staring vacantly at Kade. And Kade could feel Shiva’s mind now, stunned by Kade’s mental assault.

Kade reached into Shiva’s mind again, deeper, forced his will into the man’s thoughts, cemented his control.

He felt another vibration shudder through the building, heard a booming over the ringing in his ears. Another explosion somewhere. Kade sifted through Shiva’s mind, found his entry point to the Nexus repeaters, reached through them at full volume, sent the second back door activation command, sent the passcode, then sent the signal to turn off consciousness in all those minds like flipping off a row of so many light switches.