Element Zero (13 page)

“Here,” Penny said, grabbing my elbow. She pulled me over next to her, away from the window, as a loud boom went off and something left a big divot in the glass right in the middle of a big splash of blood. The homeless man convulsed and went face-first onto the pavement, the brick tumbling out of his hand. A second shot went off and the body twitched. More blood splattered against the outside of the window and began to roll down it.

“Idiots,” Penny snapped. She slammed her fist against the car horn and it blared. Through the bloody glass I saw two uniformed soldiers with assault rifles peer toward us. One signaled for the other to hold his fire.

Penny checked the video phone on the dash, but the screen was cracked and it wouldn’t come on. She dug her cell phone out of her pocket and made a call while the soldiers approached the car.

“It’s me,” she said after a second. “Yeah, we’re okay. We need a pickup.”

The two soldiers came up to the car door, and one of them shoved the homeless man’s body out of the way. The other one wiped blood from the window and looked in at us.

“Is there anyone else inside?” he shouted, trying to see into the back. I shook my head.

His partner fired a couple shots at something I couldn’t see down the street, as Penny snapped her phone shut. The soldier who had spoken to me tapped the other one on the shoulder and pointed at a woman, wearing a bloodstained nightshirt and nothing else, who was running barefoot down the rows of stopped traffic. One of them held up his hand as she closed the distance between them.

“They’re sending a helicopter to pick us up,” she said. “We just need to get to—”

A loud, low boom thumped through my chest as the woman in the nightshirt exploded just a few feet from the car. I caught a flash of pieces—an arm and a head—as they blew outward. Then the soldiers crashed back against the glass and everything was covered in blood. The car rocked as shrapnel slammed into it.

“Shit!”

Penny grabbed my arm and heaved the driver’s-side door open with a loud groan I could barely hear through the ringing in my ears. She dragged me out into the street and hauled me to my feet as a blast of cold wind blew black, stinking smoke over us.

The street was a mess. As far as I could see, traffic was stopped, and it looked like a lot of the cars had been abandoned. Lights from police cars and a fire truck flashed, and I could hear sirens wail in the distance. Groups of people ran every which way while others lay bleeding in the snow on the sidewalks. Gunshots echoed between the buildings, and I saw them going off down the street in the distance. A chopper banked overhead and shined a floodlight down over the mayhem.

I jumped as a shot went off behind me, and I spun around to see Penny fire a second shot into a shambling homeless man with black spots in his eyes. He staggered back, then turned and ducked behind a box truck that had one wheel up on the curb.

“Come on!” she yelled. She grabbed my hand in her free one and squeezed tight. “Stay close!”

She almost pulled my arm out of the socket as she ran for clear spot between the jammed vehicles and I stumbled after her, holding on. I reached inside my jacket and pulled out my own gun as we ducked down an alleyway and underneath a group of sharp, brown icicles that hung from the grate of a fire escape. We slipped past a row of rusted trash cans and out onto a side street where a stream of people ran down the sloping sidewalk.

We almost got knocked down as she shoved our way in. I hoped she knew where the hell she was going. We went with the flow, while the faster people pushed their way through on either side of us. When we got to a parking garage, she slammed a metal side door open with one shoulder.

“Up!”

She let go of my hand and fired a shot back behind us as I ran up the concrete stairs as fast as I could go. My heart was pounding and my throat was raw from the cold. I thought I might throw up, and I wasn’t sure how much farther I’d be able to run. I’d started to slow down when I felt her arm around my waist, pulling me up along with her.

“Faster. Move!”

I don’t know how many flights we took. By the time we reached the top and I staggered out onto the roof behind her, my legs were like jelly and I could barely breathe. Against the lights of the city, I saw bunches of figures standing near the rails at the roof’s edge. Some looked back at us, while others pointed at a helicopter as it approached and began to descend.

When they realized it was going to touch down on the roof, they began to crowd it, and a voice yelled over a bullhorn as a floodlight shone down on them. Penny grabbed my hand again and weaved through the ring of people as the wind from the rotors kicked up snow, salt, and sand.

“Back away from the landing area!” the voice from the helicopter boomed. The helicopter hovered fifteen feet above the crowd and a door on the side slid open. Two soldiers with assault rifles were crouched on either side of it.

We pushed out into the open area in the middle of the circle, and I shielded my eyes with my gun hand as my hair whipped around my face. I was going to pass out; I was sure of it. Other people saw us break the barrier and started to follow. The helicopter wouldn’t be able to land.

“Back away from the landing area or we will open fire!” the voice echoed over the thump of the rotors.

Penny spun around and fired two shots over the heads of the crowd. Those in the path ducked down in a group, and there was a collective gasp before some of the tougher-looking customers recovered and began to focus on us. I could feel the minds changing around us as they began to realize the helicopter was not there to rescue them. It was there to pick us up, but not them.

I wanted to tell them the helicopter wouldn’t take them, that it wouldn’t matter what they did. Even if they killed us, it wouldn’t take them. I tried to focus on them, to calm them down and ease them back before someone got hurt, but I couldn’t. My head was spinning and I couldn’t concentrate on even one of them.

The helicopter managed to touch down, and as the bodies surged around us, the two soldiers jumped out and aimed their rifles out over the crowd. One fired a long burst over their heads and didn’t let up until they were all crouching. Penny dragged me along with her, out into the clearing and toward a third soldier, who signaled us from inside the helicopter.

“Get down on the ground now!” a voice boomed. The soldier fired another burst, and they started to get down on their knees.

“You can’t leave us here!” a man screamed, his voice hoarse. He had gotten back up and started toward us. “Fuck you. You can’t just—”

A single shot cracked and the man staggered back before falling to the ground. I saw blood begin to burble out of a hole in his chest. Penny and I marched between the two soldiers as I looked back and saw faces that were full of fear, anger, and hatred.

The man on the ground stared up at me, his breath coming in puffs that were carried off by the freezing wind. The light that swirled around his head was confused and scared in those last moments before his eyes went out of focus and it evaporated into the night air alongside his last breath.

Calliope Flax—FBI Home Office

Cal, are you there?
It was Nico.

Nico,
I said.
Shit, it’s about time. Are you in one piece?

The whine from the incoming signal had cut out about a mile back. The transfer was done, and the jacks were on the move again. Police and soldiers were trying to keep them in check but there were too many streets not enough bodies to cover them.

I’m okay. Where are you?
he asked.

Heading back to base.

Down a slope on the other side of the guardrail, I saw a pair of cops put three jacks against the wall behind a drugstore and shoot them. I cruised behind a strip mall and saw blues flash between the buildings where a group of soldiers were moving in. More gunfire cracked behind us as I squeezed back out into the parking lot, then back onto the sidewalk. People hugged the storefronts as they saw me coming.

“Out of the way!”

Vika bucked on the seat behind me as we hit a ridge of ice and caught air for a second. The bike fishtailed just as a man shoved a sheet of plastic out of the way and jumped out of the alley ahead of us. Vika squeezed my waist tighter as he grabbed for us and I steered out of his way. When I blew past him, I caught a flash of light in his eyes, and the static in my head crackled.

It’s nuts out here, Nico.

I know. I’m at the FBI building. Can you get here?

What for?

I want to run something past you. Off the wire. It’s important.

I looked down the street. The traffic was jammed as far as I could see. The Federal Building was a lot closer than the base, and I could drop the kid off there too.

I’ll be there.

Thanks.
I cut the line, and called in to get a new route to the FBI. Dispatch pulled up the traffic reports and drew one out for me.

Stay off Stark Street; it’s gridlocked,
the guy said. He fed me a new route.

Roger that.
I changed direction and took us down a narrow ramp with chain-link on one side and pitted concrete on the other. We passed into the shadows under the monorail, and a couple pairs of eyes flashed in the dark. Something knocked over a shopping cart and stumbled behind a rusted pylon, but I didn’t see if it was human or not.

A shot boomed and more people scattered as I veered past a line of cars stuck behind a crash. Two more went off behind us as we approached a vehicle rolled over on its side, fire and smoke pouring out from the undercarriage. When we passed it, I saw a burned body through the back windshield.

This is fucked.

I took us through an alley to the main drag, where the Federal Building was. Something else scrambled across the street ahead and the static in my head picked up, a spike in the white noise. There was one nearby.

Vika tapped my back. Up ahead the space between the brick walls got narrow and there was a trash bin at the mouth of the alley.

Thrs 1.
The message popped up on my JZI. The little shit had some kind of implant. She tapped my back again, and I saw her point from behind me.

Thr.

The crackle got louder. I saw something move from behind the trash bin. In the shadows, a pair of eyes flashed.

I cruised to a stop but kept the engine running. The thing trudged out from behind the box, and I drew my gun.

The static hissed as its feet scraped on the pavement. It was a street guy with a nasty beard and gaps in his teeth. I caught him in the headlight and saw that the whites of his eyes were stained black.

I put one in the guy’s forehead. The back of his head blew out, and he fell back against the metal bin. Steam rose off his sticky hair as he slumped over into the snow.

Nice shot.

I glanced back at her. When I scanned her, I found a JZI, or some half-assed version of one. It had a com link, but not much else.

Where’d you get the hardware?
I asked.

Army. 2 yrs.

Two years in the army. The kid was sixteen, if that, so it wasn’t the UAC army. She had to be a refugee from somewhere in the Slav bloc. Who knew how she ended up here?

I drove past the body and back out onto the street. On the main road, a Stillwell truck used a winch to pull a wreck out of a snowbank. The FBI building was up ahead.

I parked on the sidewalk next to the entrance, and when I stood up my knee buckled for a second. The HUD on my JZI flickered, and a band of static squiggled past.

“You okay?” the kid asked.

“I’m fine. Come on.”

I tasted bile in the back of my throat as I headed up the stairs. Fawkes’s trigger didn’t kill me along with the rest, but something was wrong. I didn’t feel right. I was wound up, like I wanted to break something, but I didn’t know why. I took a deep breath and blew it out my nose as I pushed open the main door.

Inside I flashed my badge at the guard. He gave a nod and buzzed us in.

“I shouldn’t be here,” Vika said in the lobby. It was a madhouse in there. Security was doubled and people were backed up coming and going. I shoved my way past them and dragged the kid after me.

“They got better things to care about,” I said. “No one cares if you’re illegal.”

“I’m not illegal.”

“Whatever you are, no one cares.”

“I’m not a criminal either.”

“Shut up.”

Nico, I’m here. Where are you?

Fifteenth floor, east wing.

I picked up a kid on the way. Where do you want her?

Put her in Conference Room B and someone will take care of her. Meet me outside the war room.

Got it.

At the fifteenth floor, I took her east and dumped her in the conference room like Nico said.

“Give me five minutes,” I told her.

“Wait—”

“Five minutes. Don’t wander off.”

Vika opened her mouth again, and I shut the door.

Bch.

I made my way down the hall and picked Nico’s node out of the mess. When I got close, I tuned in on their chatter.

“ . . . analysis of the canines recovered at the storage yard is more or less complete. There’s no doubt at this point—the nodes we recovered from the animals were created by a version of Heinlein Industries’ M10 series, code named Huma. However, after some study, it would appear that there are key differences in the underlying nanotech.”

“What differences?” That was Nico.

“We’re still trying to determine that,” a voice said. “We’re working to bring in experts in the field, but without access to Heinlein, there’s only so much we can do. All I can say right now is that it’s not the original prototype. It’s been altered.”

I opened the door, and when I stuck my head in, a bunch of suits looked over. A shit-ton of photos were up on the wall in front of the table; I saw a train yard, some burned bodies, and a bunch of wire cages that were ripped open. One was a close-up of wet fur and a shaved patch of gray skin. There was a big bite mark that was puffed and scabby.

“All of the animals we recovered exhibited these wounds,” a woman said. “We were able to match at least some to the recovered canines.”

“They bit each other?” That was that prick, Van Offo.

“So it would seem. That behavior isn’t completely unusual in revivors, but the number of wounds suggests the urge to attack and bite was amped up in these specimens and that would fit with what we’re seeing on the streets right now. The shaving of the fur seems to suggest the sites were either being treated or monitored.”

“Why reanimate dogs at all?”

“We don’t know yet, but those animals appear to have been the main focus of whatever they were doing there.”

I saw Nico across the room and snapped my fingers in the air.

Hey, asshole.

He looked over, and when he saw me, he smiled. His face had taken a beating. He had a cut through one eyebrow, and there was a bad bruise around his neck. When he stood up, I saw him wince, but all in all he looked okay.

“The basement caller has been identified as Harold Deatherage,” Nico’s boss, Hsieh, said. “Agent Wachalowski has provided two other names as well: Ang Chen and Dulari Shaddrah. All three were involved with the M10-series project. And as I’m sure you all know by now, Ang Chen has been assisting directly with the development of the countervirus.”

“Where is Chen now?” someone asked.

“Not at his residence or at the Stillwell base. We believe he is most likely somewhere inside Heinlein Industries.”

“So Fawkes has him?”

“We now believe he’s been working with Fawkes all along. The program responsible for issuing the activation sequence was embedded in the computer systems at the Stillwell compound. They were able to trace it back to his ID.”

“He was vetted,” Van Offo said. “How was he able to lie to us?”

“We don’t know,” Alice said. “But it looks like that’s what he did.”

“What about the other two?”

“Shaddrah is most likely also on the Heinlein campus, but we think Deatherage might be on the run. The statements he made during his call suggested that whatever they were planning he might have gotten cold feet at the last minute and tried to back out. A team hit his residence an hour ago and found the body of a woman identified as his wife, but no one else. We know he bought a plane ticket out of the country, and we’re covering the airports, but so far there’s no sign of him.”

“I might have a lead there,” Nico said. “It looks like he had a woman, probably a mistress, set up in an apartment in Palos Verdes. I doubt the wife had that information to give up. Agent Van Offo and I will head over there.”

“So we’re unable to verify the purpose of either the Mother of Mercy or Black Rock facilities at this point?” a guy asked.

“Not yet,” Hsieh answered. “Scans have detected traces of nanostructures inside all of the recovered brain tissue, but nothing resembling revivor nodes in any of the human victims.”

“What about the transmission from earlier in the day?” Van Offo asked. “The one that froze them temporarily?”

“I know what that was,” I said. Everyone turned around to look at me. Nico grinned just a little.

“Who the hell are you?” some guy in the back asked.

“I’ve seen it before,” I said. “A field upgrade will make them freeze up for a minute.”

“What makes you think—” the guy started, but Hsieh cut him off.

“Quiet, Vesco,” she said. “Miss Flax is correct. As of twenty minutes ago, our techs were been able to decipher at least a portion of the transmission, and it looks like it was some kind of field upgrade that caused them to reinitialize afterward. Right now, our best theory is that Fawkes somehow enlisted the help of the individuals from Heinlein, Ang Chen in particular, to develop a Huma variant that would not be vulnerable to our countervirus. As of oh-eight-hundred hours this morning, his entire army may or may not be completely protected against that contingency.”

That got some fur up. Voices rumbled through the room, until Hsieh shut them up.

“We don’t know that for sure!” she snapped. “The current plan is still to attempt to use the virus. We could be wrong. We could be right, but Fawkes’s attempt to guard against the virus could have failed. We don’t know yet. After the transmission there have been more behavioral changes. So for all we know, that might have been the whole point of the alteration.”

“What kind of changes?”

“Heightened aggression, mainly. An increased impulse to attack and bite even without specific direction over the command spoke. Some have begun eating from victims—the ghrelin inhibitor has definitely been switched off since they first went active. For all we know, that was the only purpose behind this. The good news, if you want to call it that, is that this upgrade appears to have affected all M10 nanoblood in the field, including the payloads found in prosthetics. Agent Wachalowski has provided a viable nanoblood sample. Once it’s analyzed, we’ll know more.”

A lot of eyes looked over at Nico.

“Should he be in the field?” someone asked.

“He’s fine,” Alice said. At least one guy didn’t look sure, though.

“That stunt he pulled this morning was a long reach from ‘fine,’” he said. “I think we should . . . ” He spaced, then, drifting off midrant like he was stoned or something. Hsieh’s pupils opened as she stared them down, and the rest shut up.

“Agent Wachalowski is not a revivor,” she said, clipped, “and he is vital to this case. Nanoblood from prosthetics doesn’t intermingle with a person’s organic systems, and he has experienced no symptoms of any kind. Right?” She shot that last bit at Nico.

“Right,” he said, but there was something off about the way he said it. Was he lying?

“How’d he manage the code push?” I asked. “Back in the grinder, command used a satellite for that.”

Hsieh turned to the wall and a photo popped up of a big cluster of satellite dishes mounted on a frame behind a wall of buildings.

“This is Heinlein Industries’ transmitter array,” she said. “It’s used to communicate with the UAC satellite network for defense, and also for the specific purpose of field upgrades. We’ve verified the transmission was sourced from this array and bounced back from Heinlein’s satellites. This transmitter is also how Fawkes is currently controlling the nuclear satellite, Heinlein’s Eye, and his Huma units in the field. It’s the lynchpin of his strategy and a high-priority target, but before we can move on it the Department of Defense needs to determine whether or not this might trigger a launch of the ICBMs.”

Woah,
I said to Nico.
What launch?

He waved at me to shut up.

“And what if it will?” he asked.

“Osterhagen has a team working on taking control of the grid back,” she said. “Stillwell is ready to move on the facility the second we do. They’re doing everything they can. For now just get over to Palos Verdes. I’ll keep you informed.”

Nico signaled to me, and I saw Van Offo watch as he took me back out the door and into the hall.