Element zero, p.23
Element Zero, page 23
part #3 of Revivors Series
“Zoe, snap out of it,” I heard Penny say.
I felt her hands grab my elbows as I looked around. No one else in the room was moving.
“What’s wrong with them?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” Penny said. The guards had left the room to secure the floor and try to get back communications with the others. Except for the distant rumble, it was completely quiet. It was almost like Penny and I were alone together.
Penny started to get up, but I stopped her by grabbing her sleeve. She looked back at me, confused.
“Wait,” I said.
“I need to check on Ai—”
“Wait. I . . . ”
“What?”
“Something happened,” I told her. “I saw something. Something important.”
“What did you see?”
“The Green Room,” I said. “I saw inside the void again. I think . . . Noelle tried to contact me there.”
Penny’s face changed when I said her name. I felt a distant spike of emotion that she stifled just as quickly, a red flare that arced up out of the aura surrounding her.
“Did she say anything to you?” she asked. I nodded.
“I think we’ve been wrong this whole time.”
“Wrong about what?”
I glanced past her at Ai. Her consciousness had taken the form of a dense, white sphere. The connections had all been withdrawn. She was experiencing an intense vision, and wasn’t watching either of us. Still, I leaned close to Penny and whispered in her ear.
“Penny, I think I’m Element Zero,” I whispered. She tried to pull away, but I held on to her sleeve.
“Fawkes is Element Zero,” she whispered back. “Fawkes drops the nukes. You stop him.”
“She’s been trying to tell me something. . . . I think we’re wrong.”
“We’re not.”
“What if we are? She said the blast doesn’t cause the event; it stops it. I think Noelle knew that. I think she knew Ai was wrong and that she’d have to be the one to kill all these people, to stop something worse from happening. She knew—”
“It was one vision,” Penny said, raising her voice. “That’s not enough to—”
“But it’s the only one that matters,” I said. “It came from the void after the event . . . isn’t that why Ai tracked us down? Maybe she is some ‘next step in evolution’ but even if it’s true she can’t see past that point—she doesn’t survive whatever happens, she knows that. We ran out of time, and even with everything she did, she wasn’t able to figure it out.”
“Zoe—”
“I’m telling you I saw something, something important. Noelle tried to reach me there. . . . I think she’s alive.”
“She’s not alive.”
“The database says she’s dead, but how can we really—”
“Because I killed her, Zoe.”
I felt the vibe again, like a spike. Her face didn’t change, but I felt it, and I remembered something she’d said to me a long time ago:
“This can be a good gig,” she’d said, and her voice had been serious. “It can also be a bad one . . . ”
“I thought they had her killed,” I said.
“They did.”
“Ai made you do it?”
She shook her head. “Osterhagen,” she said. “Things were different then. Noelle was . . . ”
“Was what?”
“She was amazing,” she said. “She was better than I ever was. Ai sent her to go get me and bring me in. She took me under her wing. She took care of me and protected me.”
One of the screens flickered, but didn’t make it back on. Ai’s consciousness pulsed, but she stayed withdrawn.
“Like you did with me,” I said.
“Yeah.”
“Then why did you do it?”
“She had a bad vision one day,” she said, looking down. “Like the ones you’ve been having . . . the deformities and all that. She started talking dangerous talk.”
“Like what?”
“You’re right about one thing,” she said. “Noelle was afraid. She did think we had it all wrong. One day, she saw something she wouldn’t talk about, and she changed after that . . . she lost her appetite, stopped smiling. Something was really wrong, but she wouldn’t tell me what she’d seen.”
“She knew. She knew what she’d have to do.”
“Maybe,” Penny said. “She decided at the time that the only way out of this was for us, everyone like us, to be destroyed. Maybe that was the alternative . . . maybe it was one or the other. Either way, she believed it. She got this idea that we were wrong about everything. She sounded a lot like you, but she just . . . wouldn’t let it go.”
“How did Ai react?”
“How do you think she reacted? We’re the greatest human breakthrough the world’s ever known. Even if it was as simple as flipping a switch and getting rid of us, no one’s going to listen to that.”
“So what did she do?”
“Even back then, the model was crystal clear,” she said. “Whatever other factors might or might not be in play, Fawkes triggers the event. When she realized no one would listen to her, she pushed to take out Fawkes early, to kill him. He was just an engineer at Heinlein back then. He had no idea any of this was going to happen, but she didn’t want to wait. She wanted to cut the line there.”
“But why not? Why not do that?”
“Ai can see how all the pieces fit together in a way no one else can. She knew killing Fawkes was a mistake even if Noelle couldn’t see it. She knew he’d be more dangerous dead than alive, and she was right, but Noelle was off on her own by then, and she tried to kill him anyway. She jumped him on the street and stabbed him. He lived, but they all knew she’d done it. By that point they’d begun to think she was some kind of ‘rogue element’, and that she had the potential to cause the very outcome she’d seen ... the one where the people with our abilities are wiped out. Osterhagen wanted her dead. . . . ”
“What about Ai?” I asked.
“She didn’t,” she said. “But Osterhagen was so sure she was going to end up causing the holocaust that even when Ai refused to authorize it, he came to me.”
“And you—”
“I was different then, Zoe,” she said. “Osterhagen convinced me it was the only way to stop things. He promised me the number-two slot if I did the right thing.”
She shook her head.
“And here I am, like he promised.”
She got quiet. The longer she talked, the deeper I could see the pain inside her went. I couldn’t think of anything to say.
“It was quick,” she said. “I watched her bleed out. But I stuck around too long, and someone saw me. I could have wiped his memory, but I gave him the knife and made him believe he’d done it. He copped to the murder and went down for it.”
“You just made some random guy do life in prison?”
“He didn’t do life. He got killed in jail before his first year was up. He ended up at Heinlein.”
She smiled a bitter smile.
“The guy heard our last conversation before I wiped his memory. We didn’t know about Zhang’s Syndrome at the time . . . in Fawkes’s lab, his revivor remembers everything. With what he must have heard, Fawkes finds out who tried to kill him and why. He learns Ai’s identity. For all I know, that’s what sent him down the path he chose. How’s that for irony?”
I focused on her . . . not too hard, not enough to get her attention. Just enough to let her colors fade into view so I could see them. Under her calm exterior, her thoughts buzzed like bees in a hive. There was almost more going on in there than I could make sense of. I saw fear, like a cold, white cloth that rippled in the wind. . . . You’d never know it to look at her face, but she was afraid. I saw concern, confusion, and uncertainty, but underneath it all, shifting slowly like a gray mist, was guilt. When I concentrated on it, I could see how deep it ran.
“I’m not a good person, Zoe,” she said.
“That’s not true.”
“You don’t have any idea.”
“Yes, I do.” I looked deeper . . . there were a lot of things she carried around, but one thing in particular was tucked away. Something she’d barely admit even to herself.
What is that? I couldn’t read her mind. I couldn’t know what caused it, just that it was there, but it was something I’d never known about her. She’d never let me look that far. I looked deeper and still didn’t find an end to it.
She put one arm around me and held me to her. I kind of tensed up at first, but she was gentler than she usually was. I rested my forehead on her bony chest, and she stroked my hair. It reminded me of how my father used to be, back when I was little. I let out a big sigh into her shirt.
“You’ll get through this,” she whispered.
She put her cheek against the top of my head and squeezed me a little tighter. It was the longest we’d ever touched. It was the longest I’d ever touched anyone in years and years.
“Do you remember when we first met?” she asked. She smoothed my hair with one hand.
I didn’t. I didn’t want to admit it, but it was lost along with so many other things over the years.
“It was in the subway,” she said. “Raphael sent me to make contact with you. I caught you near one of the sake stands. You looked like you really wanted one.”
I still didn’t remember, but it sounded like me. She laughed just a little.
“You thought you dreamed me.”
“I used to get confused about that.”
“I know. Back then, I approached you because they told me to,” she said. “I didn’t want to. I didn’t want anything to do with you, Zoe, but . . . ”
“It doesn’t matter,” I said. I pulled away so I could see her face, and for the first time ever, I saw she was crying. She didn’t make any noise. Her face didn’t even really change except her eyes. Tears just came out, and the colors swirled around her head like a tiny storm, with something dark just under the surface. I saw a glimpse of it just before the halo brightened and pushed me away.
There was something else; something she wanted to say. There was something she needed to say but it wouldn’t come out.
“I threw Karen out the first time she showed up at my door,” I said. “It doesn’t matter how it started.”
She said something then, that, unlike most things, I always remembered.
“When this is over,” she said, “I’m going to save you, Zoe. If we’re both still alive, I’m going to save you.”
“What—”
“He’s going to destroy us all,” a voice whispered in the dark. I thought it was in my head, but Penny perked up too. We both turned and saw that Ai had lifted her head. Her eyes were still closed and sweat ran down her face as her mouth hung partway open.
The others at the table snapped awake as her eyes opened. Her eyes wandered for a second before they found Penny and me.
“We need to evacuate,” she told her.
Penny nodded.
“But they have the outside completely surrounded,” I said.
“Have the soldiers secure the roof, whatever it takes,” Ai said. “We’ll take the chopper.”
“But the chopper will only hold—” Before I could finish, I felt a numbness seep through me. My head spun a little, and the words fizzled out.
“We’re too late,” Ai said calmly. “This city will be gone within the hour. We’re leaving. Now.”
Calliope Flax—Stillwell Corps Base
I felt a rumble through the floor, and the map that floated in the dark warped. A band of static flicked in front of me, and the light came back. I could see.
“Shit, we lost it!”
Everything was a blur. I blinked, and saw the floor down below me. I was facedown, with my forehead pressed into a rubber pad. My body hurt, and there was pressure in the back of my skull. The floor shook again.
I looked to my left and saw Ramirez and Singh humped over a terminal. There was a window behind them, and I saw a big flash of light there. The two looked up.
“Goddamn it!” Ramirez shouted, slamming his fist on the desk. Something out there blew up. Something big.
“I told you!” a voice said. “I warned you he’d—”
“Shut your mouth, soldier!”
Everything went black again. The map blinked a few times, then came back. The points of light began to pop back up.
Synchronizing . . .
“It’s the shockwave,” Singh said. They were quiet for a minute. “We’ve got it back.”
“Shit! What was the target?”
“The CMC building.”
“How much dam—”
“It was completely destroyed, sir.”
The room got quiet after that. The CMC . . . that was one of the big three. Did he just say Fawkes had destroyed it?
The radio squawked, and I heard Ramirez pick up. A voice babbled on the other side.
“Understood.” I heard the handset click back into its cradle. “Vaggot’s team hasn’t been able to get control of the satellite back. Will the virus work or not?”
“It should have stopped them. They—”
“We are running out of options, damn it! Did it work or not?”
The shape on the map bled closer to us. A shot went off somewhere outside, then a bunch more on top of it. Another voice piped up.
“Sir, the hostiles are continuing to move. They’re definitely heading for this location.”
“It’s her,” Singh said. “She pulled something over the command spoke just before it dropped. Fawkes traced her when the link was active.”
“Then unplug her!” Ramirez snapped.
“It’s too late! He already got the location!” The arm that broke off from the main shape got closer.
“Then shoot her!”
“It won’t matter! He used her to jump into our systems! He knows about Vaggot, he knows everything!”
“Is this base secure or not?” a voice shouted. “Stop them at the perimeter, goddamn it!”
“They were overwhelmed, sir. There’s too many of them!”
“They’re in. Perimeter has been breached in sections three and four . . . ”
“Sir, if they take this base before Vaggot’s team succeeds, that will be the end of it. Never mind her. We have to concentrate on holding them back.”
There was a loud snap, and the map cut out. The static stopped. Light flashed in the dark, and I could see again. I heard machines wind down, and pain throbbed down my arms.
“They cut the power,” someone said.
My JZI picked back up and threw up a bunch of warning messages.
Heart function ceased.
Blood-oxygen levels below threshold.
Body temperature below threshold.
It kicked off the emergency resus. I seized as the wire to my heart lit up. Oxygen and adrenaline pumped into my bloodstream.
“Where are they now?” Ramirez asked.
“I don’t know. We lost the uplink. Security’s down.”
My body seized again, and this time the vitals picked back up. My heart thumped. I clenched my fists and heard the knuckles crack.
Heart function resumed.
I grabbed the edges of the gurney and pushed myself up. Wires around my body stretched tight, and I felt pressure at my neck.
The lights were out and the room was full of guys, some in uniform, some in suits. There was equipment set up, but all the screens were blank.
Cn u rd me?
The message popped up just as the emergency lights kicked in and the computers turned over. I could make out Singh and Ramirez. Some of the rest were guys from my squad. Some I’d never seen before. They were packing shit up, getting ready to move out.
That you, kid?
Ys. I ct pwr. I c u. U c me?
I brought up the GPS and found her signal. She was in the building, to the south.
How the hell did you get on the base?
Ur dfnses r trshd. U gys r fckd.
She followed us. The little shit actually staged a rescue.
You armed?
Y.
You got a vehicle?
Y.
Then get in it and be ready. I’ll come to you.
“She’s up!” someone barked. I turned and saw Ramirez point at me.
“Singh, take care of it!”
Singh drew his gun, but he didn’t aim it.
“Singh!” Ramirez yelled.
“I took something Fawkes doesn’t want getting out,” I told Singh. “The ones in the building are here for me. I’ll draw them off.”
Ramirez stepped in and pointed his gun. I grabbed his wrist and twisted as the shot went off and metal sparked next to my face. The pressure behind my neck built as I got up, then the wires came loose and snapped away.
I twisted his wrist and he hollered. When his fingers went limp, I took the gun.
“Cal, wait!”
I bit him on the hand. I bit him so hard that for a second I felt the bones between my teeth. He screamed as salty blood filled my mouth.
I pulled back. He stood there, one hand bent the wrong way and the other one bloody. I could see the teeth marks in the meat of his palm. They were deep.
I looked at the rest. There were two grunts left; the remainder were suits. I sucked the salt off my teeth and spit a red gob onto the floor.
“Shoot her!” one of the suits ordered, but no one else would do it. The grunts ignored them and filed out. The last one to go turned back to them.
“If you’re coming, then fall in.”
He left, and they followed. I spit on the floor again, trying to get the taste out of my mouth. I’d never bitten anyone in my life, no matter how dirty the fight got. The mark on Ramirez’s hand was brutal. I don’t know why the hell I did it.
Singh was still standing there staring at me as I wiped blood off my chin.
“I’ll draw them off,” I told him. He nodded.
Vika, which way?
Sth ext.
My shirt was folded next to the gurney. I slipped it back on and buttoned up as I ran after them. From the sound of it, they were headed for the main lot at the north side of the building. Before I lost the feed, it looked like the revivors were moving in from the south.
