Code Breakers: Beta (28 page)

Xian, Enna, and Elaine ran to the other end of the room where they came in and started disconnecting computers, too. Jess sat by Omega, her eyes flicking from one person to another. As Petal continued to rip cables from sockets, she heard Jess whisper something. She remained focussed on her task, listening to what Gerry had told her. If he was right, Elliot would have to chase down the remaining parts of Gerry’s fragmented mind, and with the servers offline, he’d have no option but to head for Omega.

Jess fidgeted, crossing and uncrossing her arms, opening her mouth as if to speak and then closing it again.

Eventually, it got to Petal. She stopped for a brief moment and regarded the girl. “What’s wrong, Jess?”

Jess’ face tightened as tears started to drop down her reddened cheeks. “Hajime! He’s... he’s...”

“He’s what?”

“Dying! His system can’t take it all.”

Petal felt for the girl, for her grief at losing Hajime, whose voice she’d listened to for months, but it was the only way. Petal felt the same for Gerry. But she didn’t have time to explain sacrifice or the greater good to the girl.

“Can you hear Elliot or Gerry?” Petal asked.

Jess closed her eyes for a second. “Yes... they’re there, fighting... make them stop!”

“I can’t do that, Jess. I’m sorry.”

The girl sobbed and seemed to become the physical manifestation of Hajime’s uploaded consciousness as it expressed a form of pain. Jess had evolved from just someone with an implant who could hear and interact with computer minds to a kind of digital empath.

Petal couldn’t stand it any longer. She turned her back and returned to disconnecting the servers. Jess screamed out at each computer taken offline, each one removing a potential route for Elliot—and Gerry’s—escape, each one narrowing the funnel, putting pressure on Omega to contain the warring minds.

At the current rate, they’d be done within a few minutes. There were just a few hundred servers left. She pulled yet another cable, readying to move to the next one, when the lights went out.

It shocked her into stillness. She called out to the others. “Who did that? What happened?”

“Wasn’t me,” James said.

“Us neither,” Enna added.

“Wait,” Elaine said. “I hear something. Someone’s... oh shit, no!”

A scream followed, probably from Enna. Xian’s rifle fired twice, lighting up the server room. From Petal’s position between the racks she saw a shadow dart across the room from Enna’s position by the entrance. “Speak up,” Petal said. “What’s happening?”

Jess’s sobbing was the only thing she heard.

A hand grabbed her by the shoulder. She spun, grabbing the wrist and throwing the body over her back. A heavy grunt sounded after the body hit the deck. Petal extended the spike from her forearm and was about to bring it down—

“Petal, it’s me, James!”

“Fuck’s sake, James, what the hell are you doing?”

She could barely recognise him in the dark, but she reached a hand down and lifted him.

Another scream came from the end of the room.

Petal stood still, tried to listen, but the banging in her head and the near-constant ringing in her ears made it impossible for to make anything out.

“Stay there, watch Jess,” she whispered close to James’ ear.

“Don’t,” James said. “Stay here...” His voice was barely audible.

Petal ignored him and stalked down between the server racks, the hundreds of fans blowing a stream of hot air. She heard metal tapping against the frame of the racks. It was coming from Enna’s position about ten metres down between the servers. She stalked forward, being careful to step quietly. She extended both her forearm spikes and slowly approached that incessant tapping noise.

As she got closer, the sound seemed to move to her left, and then it was behind her. Whoever was here was playing with her, leading her around. She was about to turn when she saw the shadow of three dark shapes on the floor, huddled together. She bent low and felt around. She found a pool of liquid. Warm liquid. Oh no, please no. Her explorations confirmed they were bodies. She found the OLED flashlight on Elaine’s body. She switched it on and looked away from the scene.

Xian and Enna had great welts on their head. At close inspection, she thought she saw Enna’s and Xian’s chests rising and falling. She kneeled over Xian and shook his shoulder.

The tapping grew louder now, taunting her. It was coming from the other end of the room. Petal thought of Jess then. She turned her back and dashed between the racks until she came to the end of the room and to the open area where Jess was sitting by Omega. She looked even smaller beneath the frantic beam of the flashlight.

The shadows shifted, and Petal swung the beam in an arc to her right. The tapping stopped.

“Who the fuck are you?” Petal said, sweeping the beam to the left. She saw James slink behind the rack. Petal indicated to him to keep pulling the cables.

A familiar-sounding laugh came from Petal’s right. She moved to Jess, who was shaking. She looked so pale now. The girl pointed to the right side of the data-centre. “Who is it?” Petal whispered. Jess shrugged and shook her head. “Can you hide for me?”

The girl shuffled away to hide next to the glass cabinet where it met the rear wall.

The tapping continued, working back down towards the entrance again. Petal dashed to the right and shined the light down between the wall and the corridor of servers. A dark shape darted out of sight. Then came the laugh again. Petal knew it was female. Perhaps Fuentes?

James was frantically pulling cables on the left side of the room. She could hear the cables clang against the metal frame of the server racks. Jess sobbed in the corner as Hajime took more and more of the two entwined digital minds into his memory and storage.

The laughing stopped.

Petal heard a rush of footsteps. She turned back and sprinted past the glass server cabinet until she was on the left side of the room. She lifted the flashlight to see a bald-headed woman, blood staining her ribs, rush towards James with chromed blades raised, ready to strike.

“James!” Petal screamed as he was in the process of pulling the last of the cables. The woman chopped down with both blades, cutting deeply into his chest. He didn’t even scream, the shock too complete. He turned to look at her, recognition written all over his face, before he fell face-first to the floor, leaving the last cable connected.

The woman looked up and stared right at Petal. She began to walk slowly towards her, a sick expression of glee on her blood-soaked face. Petal knew her then. She recognised her own face.

A light sensation buzzed in Petal’s mind as she backed off, keeping herself between the clone and Jess. The fragment of Gerry’s mind inside her seemed to be trying to communicate something, but it wasn’t fully formed, the fragment just an impression of Gerry’s will.

The clone increased its speed until it was sprinting at Petal, its blades high. The sudden change of pace and the weird buzzing in her head meant Petal was caught off guard and tripped backwards. Petal looked behind her as she fell, thinking she’d hit Jess, but she’d shuffled off somewhere else.

When Petal hit the ground, she dropped the flashlight, but saw, just in time, the clone leap at her, bringing those deadly blades down. Petal raised and crossed her spikes, blocking the attack. The clone wailed like an animal and thrashed down at her, blade striking against spike. Each hit forcing Petal’s arms closer to her body, beating her down.

Petal couldn’t hold her off. The clone had her pinned against the glass cabinet and the wall. She kicked out, catching the clone’s knee. The clone stumbled for a moment, giving Petal time to strike back, but the clone was too fast and avoided her thrust. A blade came flashing back in riposte, catching Petal’s arm, cutting into her flesh.

She fell back with the force, and the clone was on her again, raising both blades up, ready to finish her off for good. Petal raised her good arm, tensing her muscles in anticipation.

Simultaneously a white flash erupted within her mind as Jess screamed out. The lights came back on in the room. The clone, stunned by the sound, looked behind her. Petal followed her gaze. Jess had done it! She’d pulled the last cable, but she was on her back, not moving.

Before the clone could turn her attentions back, Petal drove her spikes up into its ribs and guts, drawing a terrible, high-pitched cry.

The clone tried to back off, but Petal pressed the advantage, all the while Gerry’s mind blinded her from within. A white noise of pain and anguish blasted out as his various fragments fought for space within Omega now that it was completely severed from the wider network.

The clone fell to the floor under Petal’s assault. James’ creation bled out just a few metres from his own body. Petal extracted her spikes and finished the job with a final strike to the head. She collapsed next to the dead clone, exhausted physically and mentally.

With the lights now on, she surveyed the carnage. James, the clone, Elaine: all dead. She dragged herself to her feet and checked on Jess. Thankfully she was still breathing. She was doing that weird flittering behind her eyelids thing.

“Jess, can you hear me? Are you all right?” She shook the girl by the shoulders.

Jess’s eyes snapped open. Her pupils were pinpricks. They just stared at each other for a moment, as if Jess could read into Petal’s soul.

“What happened?” Petal asked. “Did you do it? I mean... are they in there, inside Omega?”

“He’s dead,” Jess whispered. “They killed him.”

“Who?”

“Hajime—he sacrificed himself to them, to Elliot and Gerry.”

“And they’re safe and secure in his place?”

“Yes.” She sat up and turned away from Petal.

Petal felt like she was being held to blame. Maybe she was, but dammit, Hajime wasn’t the only one to sacrifice himself. Gerry had, too. Leaving the girl behind, Petal walked to the other end of the room. Xian and Enna were moving, rubbing the backs of their heads. Petal told them what happened and helped them to their feet.

“Is over?” Xian said.

“You destroyed Elliot?” Enna asked.

“No. Not destroyed. Just contained. Elaine and James didn’t make it.” It felt like an afterthought and she hated herself for it, not wanting to trivialise their deaths, or anyone’s deaths, but when there was so much so soon, it was hard to focus the grief on any one individual.

They’d become a single entity. A cause.

And they’d won.

Some win, Petal thought as she returned to retrieve Omega. And this is the prize for all the blood. She looked down on the black server with disdain. She knew that somewhere inside was a version of Gerry, entwined with a version of Elliot, safely sandboxed away from trouble.

Xian approached her and put his arm around her waist.

Enna joined the pair, putting her arm around Petal’s shoulders.

“I’m sorry,” Enna said.

It was the only thing that could be said now it was over. She’d leave everyone else to decide whether it was worth it. She had just one more thing to do.

Chapter 42

The next morning

Petal drained the coffee cup full of painkillers. It wasn’t just the physical pain she wished to kill. She looked out of the twenty-first-storey hotel room window down to the street below. The hotel was opposite the Cemprom building. Now that Fuentes and Elliot’s threat was neutralised, a group of administrators had overseen the clean-up.

Thousands of citizens had gathered in the dawn light around Cemprom’s famous arch. Bodies were taken out on anti-grav gurneys. Enna was still there, helping the administrators identify various people.

The crowd murmured when they brought Fuentes’ body out.

On it went for an hour. ’Droid parts were collected and taken away for recycling. The rest of them were deactivated and slated for destruction, the parts to be reused throughout the city.

Among the bodies, Petal identified Malik and felt a stab of regret; he was one of the true good guys. She said a silent prayer for him, thanking him for his efforts.

Sasha and the other two clones were dead. James was dead. She was the only one left from that family line, if it could be called a family. Dysfunctional didn’t quite cut it.

Still, there was a kind of relief to it, not being a part of it all anymore, being the lone survivor. She was just Petal again: the girl who appeared out of the desert one day, the girl who stumbled across a mad-looking preacher. Gabe’s death hurt the most. Despite their often-fractious relationship, she had come to know him as her father, or as close to a father as was possible.

The body removal continued below. A combination of insurgents and security officers once on opposing sides were carried from the building, united in their deaths.

She was numb to it now. The bodies no longer represented people but an event.

A pulsing in her head made her turn away and close her eyes. She wished for a shot of ’Stem, but the medical supplies were already assigned for those that survived the fight and her later mission. There were still survivors from the warehouse district. The plan was to surgically remove the chips and rehabilitate them back into society.

In truth she didn’t care anymore. This damned city had taken too much from her.

The stale smell of coolant gas dragged her from her thoughts. In the corner of the sparse, cream decor of the hotel room, the glossy black server, Omega, sat like an idol, reminding her of what she needed to do.

She checked her slate: her shuttle would be ready soon. While she waited for confirmation from the air control centre, she packed a bag with clothes, ration packs, a few shots of ’Stem, fresh water, and a plasma torch. She sat on the edge of the bed and looked at herself in the mirror above a vanity table.

I don’t look like me anymore, she thought. She was reminded of Gabe’s transformation. And those very words he had spoken to her. Who was anyone these days? she thought. The world had taken an indelible toll on everyone. Her pink hair was brushed flat and straight, collecting into a single ponytail. Without her goggles, her eyes seemed too small. Bruising and swelling softened her once-pretty features. I don’t feel like me anymore either.

An insistent throbbing in her head distracted her. Memories of Gerry and the first time she met him bubbled up along with her first memories of Gabe and their various adventures that followed. She smiled as the good times beat down the depression and malaise that had set in since the night before. The good feeling lasted a few seconds before being drowned by the tide of grief.

A notification bleeped from her slate; her shuttle was ready.

She took the pack, hefted Omega onto her back, and left the hotel room. She decided to walk to the shuttle platform, to take in the sights and sounds of the city that so many people had died for, one last time. She’d try to file them as good memories—the results of everyone’s struggle: the freedom of the populace.

Young children were playing in the parks and running around the streets, their parents trying, and failing, to make them behave. The city was in mourning, but beneath that, she could feel the hope of the people.

As she moved through the busy crowds, she felt a sense of relief. The citizens walked differently, more casually.

The city was just waking up for the day shift. People walked to work, some discussing the events of the night before. Some expressed sadness, while others wished to give their thanks to those who had liberated them for good.

Get to the shuttle. A thought came to her. Finish your task.

The thought didn’t ‘sound’ like her, but it helped to focus her.

She considered leaving a message for Enna before she left, but Enna was so busy with the aftermath that Petal didn’t want to interrupt her. And in truth, there wasn’t much she could say. Enna would likely gain a position within the interim government and help the city get over its latest tragedy. She didn’t need Petal sticking around making things difficult. Enna deserved the chance to get things going on her own terms. With Petal’s connections to James, Elliot, Sasha, and the clones, her involvement would only bring questions and baggage. Besides which, Petal didn’t feel at home in the city. It was a new place now. She’d learned recently she preferred to be on the fringe of things—out there in the abandoned lands.

Her shuttle waited on a landing pad, its door open and a security officer standing by, holding his hand out in greeting. The young, wiry man helped load the server and her pack into the rear storage compartment of the light grey, pill-shaped craft. Petal took the seat in front.

The officer leaned in. “If you look at the controls here, you’ll find—”

“I know how it all works, thank you,” Petal said. She observed the gesture-controlled navigation panel and somehow, despite never being in one before, she recognised the system, knew instinctually how it all worked.

“Oh, okay,” the officer said. “Is there anything I can help you with before your journey?”

“No, I’m good, thanks.”

The officer nodded his head curtly and stepped away from the shuttle. Petal closed the door and shut the world out. It was almost silent in the craft, the only sound being the low hum of the idling H-core engine.

“Shuttle five-three-nine, your window for take-off is open. You have two minutes. Are you ready?” The voice startled her as it came through a hidden speaker somewhere in the cockpit.

She pressed a communications icon on the control panel. “Control, I’m ready, over.”

A simple green circle on the glass control panel activated the shuttle’s lift-off. Petal had already downloaded her destination into its computer. The engines fired, the shuttle shook, and she was rising slowly, leaving the city behind.

The craft levelled out and aimed for the open exit panel of the Dome. The control tower operator said something to her, but she wasn’t listening. She was thinking about her next task. She left the Dome behind and watched it shrink in the distance as she headed east.

She looked into the storage compartment situated behind a second bench seat. Omega sat there like a dark reminder of her struggles. She knew then she hated it, despite what it contained.

Ensuring the shuttle’s autopilot system would navigate to the right destination, Petal relaxed in her seat and closed her eyes. It’d be a number of hours before she’d arrive, and she knew she’d need the sleep. The rest would hopefully ease the insistent headache.