Division Zero (43 page)

“This is so weak.”

“Maybe you’re just too far away?” suggested Dorian.

“Can you drive?”

He fought the urge to laugh. “Depends on how allergic you are to going through the windows of the fortieth floor.”

“Right, forget it.”

Her fingers flew through a virtual console, programming the autopilot with a slalom pattern over the entire city. The route started at the south end and traveled back and forth at low altitude and a modest hundred miles per hour. It would take a few hours to go from the Baja peninsula up into former Canada―but she had no other options and nothing else to do that night. She turned on the bar lights to warn other drivers and set the vehicle in motion.

The cabin flashed with reflected azure light from passing buildings. She kept her consciousness filtered through the ash and worked up a sweat attempting to force the link to a state where she could see it.

Dorian whispered, “You don’t have all of the remains. The connection has a fraction of the strength.”

“Don’t distract me.”

He watched their surroundings, mindful of the continued threat from Intera assassins as well as errant ad-bots. His hand settled into her shoulder and he closed his eyes.

Kirsten gasped at the appearance of a diaphanous wisp of fog that exuded without warning from the little canister. It trailed off through Dorian, out into the sky. The pass-through system in the armor-plated windows could not see it, but its supernatural nature manifested as a wispy glimmer of video interference. With one hand on the ash, she disabled the autopilot and turned the car so the tendril passed through the forward windscreen and accelerated down the ectoplasmic thread.

“You multitask quite well.”

She stayed silent, not wanting to break her link. Several blocks over, it led down through the roof of a CyberBurger fast food place. The sight of people running out of the door screaming caused her to drop the amulet back onto its cord and grab the controls with both hands. The craft came to a halt just outside the restaurant, skidding sideways in a hasty landing by the door that set the building’s windows wobbling. A few people staggered past, trying to sprint and vomit at the same time.

What the hell is he doing in there?

A man’s voice yelled for help from inside, becoming much louder as soon as Kirsten entered. The lights sparked and flashed, and a faint haze of smoke clung to the ceiling by several destroyed bulbs. The scent of roasting meat filled the air, carrying a strange queasy quality that brought the essence of salmon sashimi into her mouth. The screaming emanated from the kitchen. She ducked a yellow CyberBurger logo and ran across the maroon tile floor. She slid around the counter behind her E90, and gasped.

A male serving doll tried to force a customer face-first into an industrial sized food assembler. His hands braced against the steel counter in a fight to keep his cheek above a glowing green energy field. The odor of burnt roasting meat saturated the room; a fragrance that became anything but appetizing at the sight of the manager slumped up to his shoulders in another unit; the majority of his head converted into cooked reassembled beef.

A class 1 attendant at the closest register turned to face Kirsten. “I apologize, percent, name variable, percent, the kitchen is off limits to customers. Please move in front of the counter. I will be happy to take your order.” It looked like a fifteen-year-old girl with lines tracing around her chin from the corners of her mouth. Actuators whirred as it made its face as endearing as possible.

“Help!” the man shouted, seeing Kirsten.

The male doll’s head snapped around on her, its face coated with fear. Not waiting for it to shove even harder, Kirsten fired. The scintillating laser light pierced its elbow, severing the arm. A rapid second shot put a hole through the wrist on the other side. Free of the tremendous force pushing him down, the man leapt up and hit his head on the opposite counter as he fell to the ground. He scrambled around in a puddle of slick fluid on the floor flowing from the dead manager.

“Albert! Listen to me, you don’t have to―”

Kirsten dove to the side, avoiding a hurled can of sauce that exploded on the wall behind her. She rolled to the other edge of the partition and angled over the top for a shot.

The customer got to his feet, running straight through Dorian on his way to the door. The burst of silver mist coalesced into his usual form as he staggered backwards, stunned by the impact.

The doll tore a heating lamp free from its moorings, oblivious to the three hundred degree object. As it went to throw it, Kirsten fired, hitting the seething element in its hands.

Sparks exploded from the heater’s power cell, showering the doll with flecks of burning gel. It had no more reaction than a glower as its uniform caught fire. The look of menace in its eyes flashed to confusion as it lost traction in the slippery liquid and fell. A roar mixed from the voices of a young man and an enraged Albert rattled hanging utensils as it crawled toward her.

Kirsten leapt back as it punched through the steel cabinet and reached for her leg. Dorian grabbed it from behind, his hands tangible only to the ghost within as he tried to hold it back. The doll pulled forward through his grip, tearing the sheet metal. The ever-pleasant face of the perfect teenaged employee smiled at her as it ripped its way through, eager to take her order.

Psychotic…

It dragged itself forward with its one remaining arm, sliding clear of the flapping metal as Dorian fell over backwards. The doll jittered to its feet.

“Fine, Albert. You can have it your way.” She smirked at her own joke.

Her eyes flared white as a tendril of brilliant energy formed out of her left hand. She grunted as she whipped it across the doll, trying to add extra power to offset the resistance of the artificial body. Light flickered where the ethereal streamer intersected the doll. Albert’s scream filled the room, eclipsing any trace of the machine’s voice processor.

The whip tore across the doll’s chest, a blade through gelatin, and she whirled it around in the air above and behind her. The next strike aimed for its head. Albert dove out of the doll and the tendril passed through the mechanical adolescent with no resistance.

“Oh, my, what a mess.” The doll once more had the voice of a harmless young man.

As the false teen turned to get a fire extinguisher to put itself out, Albert backed away. He recoiled from her the way most people did to a ghost. Dorian pounced on him, dragging him to the floor with a jiu-jitsu takedown.

“Please, Albert, talk to me. I don’t want to destroy you.”

“What do you mean you don’t?” The incredulous voice of the manager came from a spectral form standing up out of the food assembler. Somewhere in an undulating mass of fused hamburger patties, two eyes peeked out. Two burgers moved like lips while he spoke.

I am never, ever, eating beef again.

She took a step forward, ignoring the doll as it struggled to pull a mop out of the ruined cabinet. Albert’s face contorted in a combination of anger and panic. His form blurred as front and back traded. No longer face down, he made a familiar clawing gesture. Dorian howled, rolling to the side cradling his gut. Albert leapt through the wall into the alley outside as a missed lash frosted the window.

“Shit.” Kirsten stared at the door, but went to Dorian’s side. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, it’s only pain. Go…”

The manager turned as she ran. “Who’s going to pay for this damage?”

“That’s not your problem anymore.”

A grating electronic alarm, halfway between a buzz and a siren, deafened her as she hit the one-way door out of the kitchen. The caustic aroma of days-old garbage in a massive dumpster watered her eyes and choked the air out of her lungs. Albert shimmered at the end of the alley at a full run; she sprinted after him.

Now the cat rather than the mouse, she had to end this before anyone else got hurt. Running like vibro claws chased her, she gasped a request for Division 1 to respond to the restaurant into her comm between strides.

He darted around a corner, passing through a throng of people, most oblivious to his presence save for a few that shivered. The crowd threatened to sweep her backwards as she tried to shove her way through the onrush of bodies. Her diminutive yell to make way drowned in the advert jingles and sounds of traffic overhead. She thought of firing a laser blast into the air to scare a hole in the crowd, but decided against generating paperwork.

It would be just my luck I’d shear the nuts off the driver of a passing hovercar.

Dorian ran through the crowd as well, tackling Albert a second time in a leap that rolled into a fistfight.

She continued to swim upstream through the river of bodies as Dorian grappled. Albert’s desperation let him keep up with Dorian’s training and they stalemated. A briefcase popped open with the passage of a flailing ghost leg, startling a woman in a charcoal grey business suit. Parked cars cried out in a frenetic symphony of car alarms as their fight rolled through. Just as Dorian got a hold of him, Albert reached up and leapt into a passing advert droid, riding it up into the sky. Embedded waist deep in it, Albert appeared to hold on to the hull with both hands while he sent a shit-eating grin at Dorian.

Dorian seethed.

She forced her way out of the crowd to the street. This part of town saw little ground traffic amid the affluent business district where hovercars represented the norm.

She chanted ‘please, no cars’ in her mind as she ran. Albert’s head poked out of the side of the bot and made eye contact for an instant until he saw the amulet.

“It’s over, Albert,” she shouted. “I’ll find you wherever you go. Please, let me help you.”

His face warped with impotent rage as he raked his fingers, claw-like, through the air. Kirsten held both hands up as if expecting to catch the energy he projected at her heart. Squinting, she pitted her power against his, feeling a sensation like one icy fingertip picking at her sternum. She snarled; white astral energy leaked from around her eyes as she gathered the sense of his attack and shoved it back the way it came, overwhelming him. Albert’s sinister grin fell flat an instant before the wave of psionic force sent his borrowed ad-bot sputtering about in an out of control circle. Hologram panels flickered on and off, and the droid veered in wild arcs as the hover unit faltered. After crashing through a citycam pole, reducing it to a sparking orchid of plastisteel and wire, the damaged ad-bot came to a halt half a block over.

“That’s a naughty ghost’s first trick, Albert. I’ve seen that too many times to count. You won’t scare me off that easily.”

Albert stared at her, wanting to rip her to pieces, but any confidence he had to that end appeared to have vanished. Albert and his droid turned and raced off. She chased, muttering the occasional swear word on breaths knocked from her lungs each time her boots hit the ground. A sudden glimmer of inspiration broke through his despair and he ducked the rest of his body out of sight into the bot before it zoomed in a severe upward arc, leaving the street―and Kirsten―behind.

Kirsten stumbled to a halt, gasping, bracing her hands on her knees.

“There’s gotta be a better way to chase a damn ghost.”

After a few breaths, she straightened and looked at the distancing point in the indigo sky.

Where are you going?

At first glance, the area held nothing of interest aside from the ominous presence of steel and glass; an army of office towers.

Holding the amulet, she leaned back with an exasperated sigh and saw a teal pyramid peek through the smog like the North Star. The color drained from her face as she realized what Albert intended to do.

Lucian.

lbert sensed his game drawing to a close, and Kirsten figured he wanted to do as much damage as possible before being cornered. Kirsten checked her armband display and exhaled thanks to nothing in particular that the patrol craft remained in range. She leaned against a lamppost to recover from the foot chase as she tapped at the holographic panel to summon the car to her location. The rapid strobe of her car’s lights lit the sides of nearby buildings a few seconds before it came into view. She watched it approach, shivering when it turned right at her.