Senescence (Jezebel's Ladder Book 5) (38 page)

“I don’t want you risking your
life,” Stu said.

“I’m good at circumventing
safeguards. They never stopped me when I was a spy.” Kaguya held his hand.

The moment she slumped, traveling Out-of-body,
Sif whispered to Stu in a point-to-point message. “Koku is defending herself.”

“We haven’t threatened her.”

“That’s just it,” Sif said, moving
her helmet so the others would not see her lips move. “We were all supposed to
strike simultaneously, but the Japanese team seized an opportunity hours ago.
Amanda Mori was slain the moment she stepped outside her fortress apartment to
negotiate with a representative from the Middle East. Iran sold her out to the
Chinese in exchange for controlling interest in a Turkish construction
company.”

Stu glanced at Kaguya to make sure
she wasn’t awake. “Nana? We wanted to restrict her access, not murder her.”

“The
Ministry of State Security had other plans,” Sif said with a worried glance at
Kaguya. “Maybe you shouldn’t tell her about the assassination until we’re back
home. She might want revenge.”

That would be lying to my family. On one hand, I have no operational
experience, and Kaguya is my most experienced asset. On the other, I’ve been
warned by her own daughter that she can be ten kilos of kill-trained crazy in a
five-kilo sack.

When
Kaguya’s eyes flashed open, Stu almost jumped.
“The other side of the
quarantine door is hard vacuum. We can’t open the door until the pressure on
the two sides has equalized.”

“How can you tell?” asked Eowyn.

Kaguya stood and dusted herself
off. “The flashing red error message on the airlock controls.”

“Is there another way around?”
asked Stu.

“Decompress this tunnel,” offered
Mo.

Stu shook his head. “The sneak
suits can’t take vacuum. Plus, we have to remove Kaguya’s helmet for almost
three hours to make the crown-of-thorns interface work.”

Eowyn tapped on her map and
grimaced. “There’s a junction box for solar panels on the inner crater slope.
One person might fit.”

“Bigger. Widen the search,” Stu
said. “This machine is huge. All of us have to fit, even if we need to walk for
a while. You said this was the outer landing pad. Where is the inner pad?”

“Moria?” Eowyn asked. “No good.
It’s a kilometer away, in the heart of the infected area.”

“Let me guess—a deep well?”

The UN investigator nodded. “Taken
over by the nanosubstrate. A few ships stored inside would hold air, but
getting there would be suicide.”

Oleander examined the airlock and
the map. “Blowing this hatch wouldn’t be wise because it could decompress this
entire section. Instead, we’ll take the dogleg from the tower to the inner
ring. We can seal off that branch, and I can set up shaped charges at the next
lock.”

The team about-faced, bounding for
the opposite end of the ring. When the ladder to the tower was in sight, Eowyn
cursed. “Torrents of encrypted traffic are pouring out of this place. Someone
just called in a strike team to deal with us.”

“Not a problem. We arranged for the
Chinese to be first responders,” Oleander replied.

Eowyn shook her head. “For some
reason a US shuttle was on maneuvers a few minutes closer and will arrive before
the Chinese. I’m worried. The Mori organization recently signed a major defense
contract with the US government.”

Onesemo looked away suddenly so Stu
couldn’t read his reaction.

Did Mo report to US military out
of loyalty to his old country? Crap. Could Koku have called for help herself?

“That gives us roughly thirty
minutes to reach somewhere we can attach the crown,” Oleander said. “Eowyn, try
diplomacy with your friends in the hangar.”

After several minutes, Eowyn had
the local head technician convinced that Stu’s team was nonviolent and posed no
threat. The scientists even promised to provide medical care to Smokey.

However, matters changed when Stu
added, “We believe Koku has infiltrated your systems and is the one issuing
those false orders.”

A red light blinked on inside his
helmet.

“
Someone shut off the shuttle’s long-range transmitter,” Sif announced.

The
techs no longer answered Stu’s calls.
Are the radios jammed, or are they
dead?
Either way, the scientists weren’t calling off the US space marines.

“We’re
in this alone,” Mo said. “Maybe we should scrap the mission. I can carry
Smokey.”

Stu refused to give up. First, he
asked his mother-in-law on a private link, “Why didn’t Z want you seeing the
location codes?”

Kaguya sighed. “I have trouble
holding information back. Before we left on this potentially fatal mission, I
tried to contact my mother on a private channel to say good-bye. I couldn’t
reach her, though. Conrad worries that I’ll let something slip.”

Stu nodded. “New plan: we send
scouts to take the tower while the rest of us run for Moria the long way. One
gauss gun for each team. Once we take the main transmitter, we can refuse to
let the US troops land and invite our NERO friends.” After a pause, he told
Yvette, “We need you to attach the crown to Kaguya. Could you help get Sif
changed into the sneak suit?”

Yvette replied, “These suits aren’t
one size fits all. Sif hasn’t practiced with the equipment, and she weighs
seven kilos more than I do.”

Sif glared at the comment. “It’s
muscle mass. Can either of you two speak Chinese to our allies and tell them what
we need? As an ethics enforcer, can you snap a man’s neck to get to the tower
if needed?”

“No.”

“Yvette, you need to attach the
crown interface, unless you want to explain to my wife why something happened
to her mother without medical help?” On a person-to-person link to Oleander,
Stu added, “Sif’s asking me to withhold information about Amanda Mori’s murder
from Kaguya. I don’t trust her. I want her elsewhere.”

On the team broadcast band,
Oleander said, “Emotional outbursts aside, Stu is right. My primary objective
is to call that NERO ship from the tower, or none of us has a ride home.”

Eowyn shook her head. “Splitting
our forces is a bad plan. If the kill team catches us in the open—”

“That won’t happen if we move
now
,”
Stu insisted. “Oleander can set the charges to access the quarantined area
while Sif changes. The explosion and alarms will make a great diversion for
their assault.”

Mo picked up the fallen programmer
and followed. He left Smokey at the glossy door to the residential wing. Mo
scavenged tools and ten liters of spare water. Whoever survived could pick
Smokey up on the way out.

Kaguya crouched around a corner with the other four, waiting
for the dust to clear from the explosion. She watched Out-of-Body from the vacuum
side as air was sucked into the tunnel, blowing aside pink tumbleweeds to
reveal over a dozen empty spacesuits. Substrate dangled like weeds growing out
of cracks in the walls. The unlit tunnel sloped downward like the road to hell.
Back in her body, she reported, “A lot of people died between here and the
inner landing pad.”

“The Mori technicians and security
personnel were trying to evacuate.” Eowyn blanched, pointing at the closest
section of substrate. “Look. The web is repairing itself. We could rip a hole
through, but the passage will seal behind us. We should abort.”

Mo stared into the web-clogged maw.
“Gauss-gun needles won’t do much against hungry nano.”

Surprising everyone, Stu opened his
own evidence container and pulled out the Mori family sword. “Don’t worry. Risa
sprayed the blade with something to give this monster indigestion.”

“Wait for orders. We can’t win
against this,” Eowyn insisted, gazing in horror at the silicate tendrils.

Within a minute, Oleander came over
the radio. “We took the tower, but not before they disabled the satellite relay
to Earth. Sif managed to contact our Chinese delivery van. They’re going to
delay the US team’s landing as long as possible, engaging if necessary. They
told us to hurry. Dominoes are falling. Sif says that the Seven Seals have been
triggered.”

“What exactly are the Seven Seals?”
asked Mo.

Kaguya explained, “Koku doesn’t
bomb cities or attack anything directly. He sabotages key potash factories and
blocks the companies capable of replacing the expensive processing machinery.
Most of the remaining mechanical engineers would be needed by the war effort.
As before, wheat eaters will starve. Then he drops tailored oil-eating bacteria
into pipelines in the Middle East to disrupt fuel supplies—”

Stu interrupted. “Billions dead?”

“Yes.”

Stu stared into the mouth of hell.
“The Roman war elephant was considered unstoppable. In the Book of Maccabees,
they described the way to defeat it. One man with a spear would throw himself
under its body and stab the elephant through the heart. The elephant would
collapse, of course, crushing the rebel.”

“A freaking Masada suicide bomber?”
asked Mo. “We should scrub the mission.”

“The elephant of war has a
weakness, the man willing to die to stop it,” Stu concluded.

Kaguya established a private link
with Stu. “Why do they believe the Seals have opened?” When he entrusted her
with Sif’s story about the assassination, she replied, “Intelligence is only as
good as the source, and then only when confirmed. Sif said my mother walked.
That hasn’t happened since she saved my father from the poison gas. My mother
has been reported dead more times than I’ve earned gold records. Take this all
with a grain of salt. It’s awfully quiet for the end of the world.”

“We can’t hear anything in space,”
Stu replied. “We can’t see Earth now, not even with a telescope. Every nuke in
existence could be exploding or none at all. Without the satellite we’re blind.
Koku would know if she’s dead. Let’s go ask.”

She stood behind her son-in-law and
broadcast to everyone. “I go where the ambassador goes. He speaks for me.”

Stu grabbed Eowyn by the hand and
pulled her along. “You dragged us all here, lady. Lead the way.” People seemed
reluctant to follow him until the webbing parted before the sword of its own accord,
creating a clear path.

Either the RFID signature in the
handle of my father’s sword gives him authority with the AI, Koku respects Stu
as the brother of Snowflake, or she
wants
us to come down and visit.
Kaguya’s first step snapped through a ceramic layer thinner than marzipan
candy. The layer below was filled with clear liquid, veined with white and
silver. “Liquid circuitry.”

“Magi tech, like the robots on
Sanctuary
,”
Stu said, looking over her shoulder. “We haven’t even figured it out yet. How
did Earth?”

Yvette replied, “Sensei told us
that when we understand all the Pages, we could build our own starships.
Whenever you combine a couple old alien technologies, new ones crop up.”

Stu drew a deep breath. “Walk only
in my footsteps, people. I’ll use my density sense to find the sturdiest path.”

Mo asked, “Does anyone else feel
like we’re in a freaking slasher movie?”

Yvette marched up to Kaguya’s side.
“Yeah. Don’t be the one left behind. They get eaten first.”

****

The last obstacle to the inner landing bay’s airlock was a
pool four meters across. “It’s not the width I worry about. It’s the depth,”
Eowyn said. “The map says this area was a geothermal tap for emergency power.”

Kaguya took out a large, Xenon
flashlight and aimed into the puddle. There was no bottom in sight. “Those
usually go down two hundred meters.”

Stu said, “More. Koku chewed
through the floor and is storing something big down there. I can’t make out
details.”

“Damn.” Mo stood back-to-back with
Stu. “We can cut off the solar energy and extra memory, but Koku’s core could
be safe down here even if we dropped a nuke.”

Weary from the exertion so far,
Kaguya said, “I don’t think I can jump all the way across to the airlock.”

“Dude, toss me over to those doors.
In low g, it will be a snap,” Stu said to Mo, tying on a safety rope. “I’ll
attach a piton on the far side over that arch, and then you can belay. Easy
peasy.”

As a lighter body and more
experienced climber, Yvette volunteered to handle the ropes. “You can’t rely on
controlling gravity to save you here, Stu.”

Even with others taking the risks,
Kaguya imagined the hunger of the pit below her as they guided her across.

Eowyn pulled up a map on her wrist
computer. “The bay was tunneled into the inside base of the main crater by an
angled asteroid strike. After they mined all the metal out, the original owners
widened the base like a beaker and shored it up with support beams.” She tapped
a top-view schematic that resembled a clock dial with two slashes at midnight.
“They corked the top with the same style elevator the navy uses on aircraft
carriers. Once a transport landed, they could bring it inside, unload the
supplies, and pack it with metal bars. I’m warning you, though, this place is
big. And all the repair equipment, mining gear, and people were probably
converted for use by the nano. Unlike the rest of the complex, you won’t even
have a glow panel to see by.”

“I have my density senses,” Stu
said. “Stay close to me.”

They all waited at the blast doors
to the hangar as Eowyn opened the gate to the lowest ring of hell.

Stu clutched his stomach. “Gross.”

Kaguya aimed her flashlight into
the large cavern. The closest hexagonal wall crystals reminded her of the
Giant’s Causeway in Ireland or Death Star models in the movies. Then her light revealed
complex silicon stalactites dangling from the ceiling. Every forklift, crate,
and light bulb had been partially melted and tied together with glistening
string. The fractal patterns of information flow were hypnotic.

Is this real, or is this monster
a representation of my illness, waiting to consume me?

Stu nudged her out of her trance.
“I’ve got your back, Mom. The shuttle over there looks reasonably intact.” The
young man pointed to a cheap Lockwell Ranger, a crater jumper that lacked the
ability to enter Earth’s atmosphere. “Since it doesn’t have ceramic tiles for
reentry, it wasn’t bait like the others. The air inside and the hull alloys
should help keep us safe.” The silver and black tentacles parted for Stu like
the Red Sea before Moses.

It took all Kaguya’s reserve not to
scream as Koku’s lunar core flashflooded the path behind her. She had no choice
but to continue forward.

Suddenly, the floor shook and dust
felt around them in slow motion. Oleander radioed, “The US shuttle is much
bigger than we were expecting and armed for bear. They just shot down the
Chinese, but our allies managed to crash land on the plain. I’ve powered up the
laser on the tower.” Originally, the laser had been intended to melt enough of
Koku’s brain that she would accept the patch.

As Mo passed by the next support,
he slung the gun over his shoulder. “In case the shuttle lands on this pad,
I’ll sabotage the elevator controls and create a choke point. If they follow
our route instead, I’ll pin them from the high ground.”

Stu bumped fists with him and held
the substrate at bay while Mo climbed the beam like a ladder. Then Stu and the
sword gained them access to the Lockwell Ranger’s airlock. At one point, Eowyn
tripped over a bolt sticking out of the ground and tumbled toward a cistern of
black liquid. Stu held the sword as if it were a cross in front of a vampire,
and the puddle oozed away from him.

Eowyn whimpered as she
hyperventilated.

The nurse spoke gently to her.
“Your turn, Eowyn. Get us inside and start the air cyclers.”

Stu watched his friend Mo spider up
the metal beam. The weak lights of his helmet were the only indication of his
progress. “Go around the left side and shimmy along the top and you’re almost
home. Stop!” Liquid aluminum dripped through a crack in the landing pad above,
narrowly missing the bodyguard. Oleander was making progress.

“Owe you one, Gravity Boy.”

“I’m thinking about changing my
name to Gravity Man if I’m going to be a dad.”

Kaguya grabbed Stu and pulled him
into the cramped airlock. By the red emergency lighting, she stared into his
eyes. “I need my daughter.”

“Shh. I’m your family, too. Focus
on the positive. What do you think we should name your grandchild?”

“If it’s a boy, Conrad,” Kaguya
said. The air pump vibrated like an eight-cylinder diesel with two bad plugs.
She knew that the air was going to smell like burned rubber.

Stu nodded. “With a strong middle
name. What do you think of Lincoln? My dad likes philosophers, but Mom prefers
Arthurian legends.”

“Merlin,” suggested Eowyn, warming
to the distraction.

A moment later, the pumps stopped
and the door light flicked green. No one wanted to be the first to push the
handle.

“The assault craft deflected my
beam,” Oleander said “How is that possible?”

Stu replied absently, “If their
Icarus fields are large enough, they can affect light. The original human
experiment blocked solar radiation.”

“It’s freaking nuke proof?” asked
Mo.

“Not completely. They usually have
a hole in the overlapping fields for refueling lines and escape pods.” Stu closed
his eyes. “They have a standard tetrahedral configuration with only two active
Icarus spheres facing us as they decelerate. I can probably talk you through
hitting the gaps in their defenses.”

“Incoming!” Oleander shouted.

There was no room to duck. Something
shook the airlock, and static overwhelmed the radio channel. Mo called down,
“The US ship leveled the tower with a missile strike. I can’t tell if anyone
made it out.”

“Shit. How big
is
the
assault craft?” asked Eowyn.

“It’s a freaking troop transport—holds
fifty plus an armored vehicle. The war elephant is circling for a landing. ETA
two minutes.”

Stu wrenched the shuttle’s interior
door open, plunging the sword through. By the light of Kaguya’s torch, the room
looked clean.

“No organics decomposed in here,”
Yvette advised. “The air is clean, but stay close. The control panel on the pilot’s
side has been compromised.” Where screen protectors and airtight covers for
weapon keys had limited oxygen, silver and black substrate had crept in like
insects into an old log.

Looking up through the windshield,
he said, “I have a visual on Mo.”

Onesemo crouched far above them on
a catwalk. He was faced out an open door toward the landing pad. “I can rip out
the wires on all the door controls.”

“Because they didn’t think to bring
explosives,” Eowyn said sarcastically. “Clear out of that area. If they’re
coming in with fields raised, you’re in danger standing that close.”

After a pause, Mo said, “Rafael. If
I have a boy, I want to name him Rafael.”

Stu cleared the pilot’s couch of
silicon vegetation. “Just to be clear for the record, we are now in a state of
war with the US shuttle. Lethal force may be employed under the charter.”

“Seconded,” Yvette responded.

Eowyn stared at the substrate and
back up at the frozen aluminum rain that broke off like icicles. The enemy was
landing. “Motion passes. Now, strap the Mori bitch in. Hurry.”

Stu removed his helmet to test the
air quality and held a thumb up. His breath turned to fog.

Kaguya focused on him as the only
good and solid thing in this nightmare. She and Eowyn removed their helmets to
prepare for the procedure.

Yvette plugged in the golden crown
of thorns into a nanoinfested computer port and promptly dropped it onto the
pilot seat’s headrest. Threads of gray corrupted the dendrites, aging it by
centuries in a few heartbeats.

Koku has accepted the interface.
Kaguya removed her left glove, exposing her diamond-studded wristwatch. In an
emergency, the device inside the watch might provide her with an edge. The air
was cold enough to cause frostbite. “Can you turn up the heat?”

“The batteries are almost dead, but
I’ll give you what I can. The landing lights and beacon have more of a charge.”
Stu fumbled with some connections under the control panel.

Eowyn turned her back to the group
to slide a lever on the control panel. Then she inserted a memory stick into
the computer console. “I’ll jack in this NCIF identity matrix, and we can
hijack Koku’s replicator function.”