Code Breakers: Beta (22 page)

Chapter 30

Petal sprinted across the wet sand. Xian’s boats were two hundred metres away. She could just see four figures under the glow of a lamp hanging from one of the boat’s masts. The small group huddled around the base of the hull where it met the jetty.

A few seconds later the figures dashed back down the jetty and weaved in and out of the various layers of debris littering the dead tents. Petal wondered what they were doing but then soon realised, just before her foot snagged in a net half-buried under the sand. She hit the beach hard, knocking the breath from her lungs. She dropped the shovel in front of her and banged her head against the metal spade cutting her across the forehead.

“Motherfucker!” she hissed through gritted teeth.

When she raised her head, she noticed smoke billowing into the night sky from the jetty, and a fizzing noise accompanied it. “Oh fuck, no, no. Xian!”

She screamed briefly before an explosion erupted, sending a massive billowing flame into the sky. The sound of rending and sheering metal mixed with the roar of the fire. The two boats fell all around in thousands of pieces like flaming meteorites.

Fragments of white-hot metal panelling showered her position. She reached down and freed her foot from the net and spun out of the way as a three-metre-wide piece of boat hull whistled down from out of the sky to bury its sharp edge into the sand less than a metre from her head.

Smaller pieces rained down. She jumped to her feet and ran in zigzags, trying to avoid the deadly precipitation. She arrived at the flaming remnants of the boats. They were black, charred hulks. Fires burned on whatever fuel or oil Xian might have had inside.

Under a piece of floating wood, she saw the half-melted and damaged case she’d carried Alpha in. Xian’s workbench was on fire. Many pieces were stuck into the wet sand. The whole thing was like a dark sore on the earth.

She searched through the burnt-out hulls and the piles of debris lying on the beach, but she couldn’t find Xian or Alpha, the parts no doubt scattered, burned, and ruined. For a brief moment she collapsed to her knees and placed her head in her hands. This was too much. First Gerry, then Gabe, now this. When would it end? And why Xian? He was nuts, but he hadn’t hurt anyone. And then she remembered: those ronin bastards.

Looking up from her position, her legs sodden with sea water, her face smeared with sand and ashes, she looked over to the fallen tents and saw the figures heading back to the scene of their crime. The one in front wore a familiar coat: Gabe’s leather duster jacket. He smiled and laughed with the others as they approached the wreckage. They were standing at the edge of the jetty where it met the bank. They hadn’t yet seen her down there in amongst the flames and destruction.

Using that to her advantage and trying not to let the rage overwhelm her, she crawled on her stomach, slowly inching her way closer, using the pieces of the boat and its contents for cover.

The leader held a shotgun in his hand casually, presumably to finish off Xian or whoever they might have thought was in the boat—probably her. The three goons behind him wielded knives. While they admired their handiwork, she got within two metres of the bank, hiding beneath the shadows of the remaining parts of the jetty.

“Fucking whore must be dead after that,” the leader said.

“We have to make sure. Recover the body,” one of his underlings said.

“Go on, then, go look. I’ve done my bit.”

One of the goons shrugged, sighed, and stepped out onto the jetty right above Petal’s head. She had to crouch to fit underneath, but as she stood and tilted her head back, she could see him walking out across the surface. The metal boards that made up the jetty were twisted, some further apart than the others. She tracked his movement until he reached a board that was more than an arm’s width apart from the next one.

She reached up, grabbed his ankle, and yanked back hard, sending him crashing face-first into the boards with a yelp. She felt the vibrations as his skull connected with the surface. Wasting no time, she extended her forearm spikes and thrust them both up, one in his chest, and one in his guts.

She retracted and stabbed two more times until he became still. His intestines and guts slipped out of his body and slopped to the sand beneath like a gutted fish. The others either hadn’t noticed or didn’t realise exactly what happened. They were laughing, presumably assuming he’d just slipped. From their position they could not see the damage beneath.

His knife lay on the edge. She reached up and took it before heading to the bank, always under the cover of the jetty.

“Hey, what the fuck you doing?” the leader called out to his henchman. When he didn’t get a reply, he walked toward his fallen colleague. The other two remained at the edge. Petal waited until the leader reached the body before leaping up onto the bank. She threw the knife into the throat of the nearest goon. His eyes snapped wide, and his hands grabbed at his throat. The ronin standing next to him looked on with startled, wide eyes.

Petal had already darted around, through the tents and debris, in a flanking manoeuvre, using the darkness as cover. Petal came up behind the last ronin and rammed her spikes into the back of his neck, cutting his spinal cord and killing him instantly. She retracted, and he fell to his knees before slumping forward.

The one with the knife sticking out of his neck spun round only to receive both of Petal’s spikes in the chest—breaking through the bone and piercing his heart. She kicked him hard, sending him flying to his back.

Her attack had happened so quickly the leader hadn’t yet noticed, still bent over his fallen comrade. Letting the rage consume her, she grabbed the knife from the dead guy’s neck and sprinted to the leader.

He heard her first few steps and spun round, bringing the shotgun up to face her. He wasn’t quick enough; she kicked out at the shotgun, knocking it into the sand below. The kick unbalanced him, sending him sprawling over his colleague’s body. His back slammed against the broken jetty boards. One splintered through his shoulder, making him scream with pain.

Petal knelt over him, gripping his throat in her free hand.

“You bastard, where’d you get that coat?”

“Go... fuck... yourself... bitch—”

Petal pinned him by his throat, letting all the fury transfer to strength. She squeezed his throat so he couldn’t scream anymore.

“Tell me, or I’ll make you suffer. I’ll make it slow and more painful than you can ever imagine.”

“Okay, okay,” he choked out. “Your friend... I took it from him... he’s dead. We... put him... out of his... misery.” He smiled then, and his good eye grew wide. His body started to shake. White foam frothed from his mouth.

She stood up. His chest heaved, and smoke rose from his chip.

The truth of it hit her harder than any weapon. Gabe’s dead.

Those bastards killed him.

Gabe. Dead.

She drove the spike through his skull, slicing his brain in two, severing his connection to Elliot’s network and the ronin-chip. All tension eased from his body, and his chest deflated with his last breath.

She withdrew her spike and sat heavily on the jetty, cradling her knees, rocking back and forth as she felt a primal scream bubble up from within her. She let it out in a single ripping release.

She shook; tears streamed down her face.

This was it. After all they’d gone through, this was final. Gabe was no more. She was alone again, lost in the desert like the first time—until she’d stumbled upon Gabe’s shelter. It should have been her that died. She was just a pathetic clone, after all. Gabe had family, a history, something to tie him to the world. She was nothing but death and destruction.

She sat there, hugging her legs close to her chest, watching the world around her burn when she felt a wet, clammy hand touch the side of her neck.

“Xian sorry.”

She flinched at the touch and spun round.

“What the fuck, Xian! How the hell did you—?”

He stood there in his weird half-hunched way, his face blackened with smoke, his hair singed. He cradled a motherboard so melted and damaged that it was barely recognisable. “Xian couldn’t fix,” he said, holding it out as though it were an offering.

“Jesus, Xian, I thought you were dead. I thought—”

“Saw them coming. Had escape route.”

He looked on at the burning mess of what used to be his home. All around him destruction and devastation littered the surface. Despite her revulsion, she hugged him, glad at least someone had survived. But it didn’t help the pain she felt for Gabe.

“It’s fucked beyond repair, ain’t it?” Petal said, releasing him and pointing to what was left of Alpha.

Xian just nodded, his eyes full of regret.

“Ain’t your fault. It was a long shot anyway.”

Xian nodded, but it didn’t stop him from sobbing. She wasn’t sure what he was more upset about: the destruction of his shelter or his inability to have saved Alpha. She took the destroyed board away from him, letting it drop into the sand below. She took Gabe’s leather duster off the ronin and wrapped it around Xian, as his net robe had split and hung off one shoulder.

“What you do now?” Xian said.

She thought about it. What options were left? Gabe was dead. The transcendent process didn’t work, and Alpha was destroyed. Elliot probably had control of the entire city by now, despite her best efforts of thinning his ranks. But there was one other thing she’d not thought of for a while: Gerry.

Her rage and grief had suppressed that line of thinking, but she reminded herself that even after all this time he was still there in her mind, somehow. An entire person’s consciousness living in the recesses of her brain and the myriad connections that made up her neural network.

A small light appeared in the darkness of her thoughts. Calmness came over her, and she felt her fury and grief ease. Her heart dropped to a steady beat, and her breathing slowed, became more controlled. And then for the first time since before Gerry had gone into Petal’s mind she heard his voice, the words coming to her directly from her mind.

–
Get to Cemprom, the centre of Elliot’s operation. With Omega, and together, we can do this.

She was about to respond when the sound cut off. She saw images of diagrams, wiring circuits, network topographies, and code patterns. Flashing through her consciousness like a photo gallery, they became animated, driven by her memories. The images were from when she hacked into the Red Widow’s Jaguar and had to alter the system so she could change the language from Russian to English.

Only now her memories were amended with notes and thoughts from Gerry.

“We’ve got to get the Jaguar flying, Xian. I know how to fix it. I can get it working. We can still get to the city.”

She grabbed his hand and rushed off the edge of the jetty and onto the beach. Together they sprinted for the old aircraft. A new hope rose within her. A hope that with Gerry’s help she could avenge Gabe’s death, and damn anyone to hell who got in her way.

Chapter 31

James willed his mapping program to hurry. Bullets struck against the building, some penetrating through the boarded-up windows, making Jess scuttle behind his legs, with her hands around her head. Just one more minute to go... Come on, come on!

Elaine’s team of security officers returned fire from various rooms of the multi-storey building in controlled bursts. He heard the sound of bullets striking against metal.

“The ’droids are here,” he said. “Damn that bitch!” It was clear to him that Fuentes had no intention of imprisoning anyone now. She’d offer up their scapegoated corpses to a population hungry for justice.

In a lull, Enna peeked out through a crack in the window boarding.

“How many are out there?” James asked.

“I can see a squad of twenty-three. They’ve cordoned off the street at both ends and... Shit, there are UAV drones in the air, too. Your plan better work out, James. We can’t afford to go out on the surface now. We’ll be caught in no time.”

“I’m working on it,” James said, wanting to get out of that room as soon as possible. His program had nearly finished mapping an underground route when Jess tugged at his trousers.

“He’s here.”

“Who is?”

“Elliot.”

Fuck. Before he could launch a countermeasure, Elliot had crashed his connection and eliminated it with an attack program. It tried to trace its way back to James’ slate, but he disconnected it from Omega. “Turn Omega off, Jess, quick.”

Jess placed her hand on the obsidian black case of the server and closed her eyes. They flittered beneath her lids, and the server powered down. James switched off his slate, the map only half complete. He threw the ronin-chip to the floor and stamped on it, crushing it underfoot as if it were some sentient, dangerous bug.

“We’ve got to leave,” Enna said. “Reinforcements are coming.”

Pocketing the slate, James joined Enna at the window and spied through a bullet hole. The street was full of ’droids. Elaine’s team had taken out ten of them, but they were regrouping, erecting Polymar barriers for cover.

“Looks like they prepared for a siege,” James said.

On the other side of the street was a similar-looking building, designed to house some of the early workers who built the Dome. It stood apart from the rest of the city, having a much older architectural style than most other buildings. They weren’t derelict, but empty. Due to their older pre-Dome construction, they were made from regular concrete, wood, and glass.

It wouldn’t be long before the drones and ’droids would render it to nothing more than rubble.

Before he could turn away, a shifting in the shadows of an alley that bisected two buildings opposite caught his attention. He waited another second and saw the shape of someone with their back to the wall, waiting like a ghost. He’d recognise the shape and the smooth head anywhere: clone one, Samir.

Great, he thought. That’s all we need. With her on the case, it was only a matter of time before they were found and... He tried not to remember what happened to the boy she gutted, but it was too late; the image was now focussed in his mind.

“So be it,” he whispered.

“Pardon?” Enna said.

“Nothing. We need to move. Now.”

***

James and Enna carried Omega down the stairs and met with Elaine in the hall. Ten of her squad, including Malik, had taken up position on three floors of the safe house. The firefight was back underway. So far, the building was holding up, providing adequate cover.

“Elaine, we’ve got to go. We need to get to the data-centre. Enna says there’s a back way out of here, but it’s over ground. It’ll take us to an old metro line that we’ll use to get under the financial and business district. Can you spare a few people to provide us with cover—just in case?”

“I’m coming with you,” Liza-Marie said. “And so is Ghanus.”

James had thought they would; this was Omega they were transporting, after all: virtually their reason for living. But even so, it eased his worries, if only slightly, knowing he’d have them by his side.

“Malik won’t be able to join you,” Elaine said, speaking the obvious, but James waited as she thought about her squad and worked out whom she could spare. “Fuck it, I’ll go. Malik’s a better leader than I am. He’s better off staying here with the others and Jess. I’ll back you up, Doc.”

“Fine, we settled, then? We do this now?” James said.

Enna, Elaine, Ghanus, and Liza-Marie agreed.

“I’ll let Malik know the plan,” Elaine said, rushing up the stairs to his position.

While James waited on her return, he kneeled down so he could look Jess in the eye. “Malik and the others will take care of you. It’s too dangerous for you to come with us. You understand?”

“Yes, but watch out for Elliot.”

“Of course. We’ll be careful.”

Enna ruffled the girl’s hair before handing her a scrap of paper and saying, “If things... don’t go well here, or we don’t come back, follow these directions. It’s one of the maintenance tunnels leading out of here. It’ll take you to the edge of the Dome. From there you’ll find an old well. The Bachians used to use it to syphon water from the city. I’ll send word to Bachia to have someone scout the area. If you need to escape, it won’t be long before someone friendly finds you.”

Jess took the paper without speaking. Enna knew she’d be okay. The girl was a pure survivor. Ever since her parents had abandoned her, she managed to stay alive in the brutal environment of Darkhan. She’d probably outlast the lot of them.

“Thank you,” Jess finally said. “I will see you all again.”

I hope so, James thought, realising the odds weren’t in their favour. But then this was a city steeped in lotteries and gambles.

Elaine returned, and they assigned weapons. Enna and Elaine had an assault rifle each; Ghanus and Liza-Marie wielded their familiar sniper rifles and a pistol.

“Take this,” Elaine said, passing James a handgun.

It felt heavy in his hands. He was a scientist, not a weapons specialist. He left all that to Vickers and his men. He grimaced at the thought of having to use it. Elaine gave him a holster that clipped to his belt beneath his grey, tailored suit jacket. Despite the grime and dust encrusted on its surface, it still looked good. “If I’m going to have kill someone, I might as well be well-dressed,” he said as he placed the gun in the holster, grimacing as it pushed against the grazes and cuts on his hip.

“Just remember to switch off the safety before shooting,” Elaine said. “It’s semi-auto and fires in four-round bursts. The magazine holds sixteen rounds. Don’t go spraying randomly. Emergencies only. Let us handle the shooting wherever possible.”

He placed his palm on the handle of the stun-baton. “There’s no worry about that.” He’d rather use the baton if it came to it. He pictured Samir stalking him in the dark. He doubted he would get a chance, but if he did, he’d prefer to stun her rather than kill her outright. There was also a chance he could still...

No, that’s crazy thinking. He chided himself. Now was not the time to think about saving his creation. He had to kill or be killed. This situation was far bigger than his wishes now. He owed Sasha.

“Okay, here’s the route out,” Enna said as they huddled around her slate. She traced a line through the interconnecting basements of the building. “There’s a fire exit at the far end. It leads out into a small tunnel that opens up in the middle of a street. Across from there is an old metro line. We’ll have to risk being exposed for a minute or so while we locate an entrance and force our way in. That’s when we’ll need cover—so we can hack the security on the metro entry. Everyone clear?”

“Let’s do it,” Ghanus said. “I’ll take point.”

“We can’t use radios because of Elliot’s suppression,” Elaine said, “and the last time we shared a message direct to each other, the signal was intercepted. We’re going off-the-grid for this. Communicate with hand signals, and keep your voices down. Which means sticking close together as much as possible. Understand?”

“Got it,” James said. It was times like this he wished he had internal transceivers like Petal and Gabe. But even then, with Elliot controlling the networks in the city, any signal was likely to be intercepted. And given how quickly Fuentes had discovered their location, it was obvious their communications were being tracked. That ruled out direct messaging to slates.

With that, they headed back down the stairs into the basement, but instead of going back down the tunnel, where Ghanus had barred the grate and secured the door, they turned into an archway. The smell of mould permeated the dark space. Stone steps led down into a basement filled with water that came up to their calves.

Ghanus shined an OLED headlamp, lighting their way.

Enna and Liza-Marie carried Omega between them while Elaine took up the rear.

They passed through the dirty basements. James had to duck beneath the joists and beams. Water soaked their feet and ankles, and he was sure he felt something scuttle by him. Rats. He shivered at the thought, but focussed on sloshing forward to the exit. His shoulders tightened at each muffled shot coming from above ground. A persistent rumble echoed down from the street as the ’droids sought to make their way into the building. Small explosions told him that Malik and the rest of Elaine’s squad were doing a fine job of holding them at bay.

It wouldn’t be long before they swarmed the building and breached their way in. Perhaps they’d even find their way down here. At the same time James had that thought, Ghanus suddenly switched off his lamp and indicated that they stop. He fell to his knees and brought the rifle to his shoulder, scoping out movement ahead of them.

“What is it?” James whispered behind him.

“Someone’s here,” Ghanus said. “Up there with a flashlight.”