The God Mars Book Four: Live Blades (25 page)

I can’t see what’s happening.

“Hold position,” I order Wei. “Keep giving me
eyes.”

I scramble over the rise and down, after Dee.

Even in the dense growth, it’s easy to find my way
now. The fresh clearing is still intermittently blazing. And then
the green becomes brown, brittle. It snaps and crumbles as I push
through it.

I come up on a bizarre scene: two figures are having
a disagreement with swords. Both wear an odd assortment of armor
over what look like ETE sealsuits (except they’re red, which is the
color of the far western Station way back in Melas). Both are
young-looking males with long, slender features and pale skin. Both
have shoulder-length hair, one black, one white, making it easy to
keep track of who’s who as they circle. They alternate exchanging
blows—the source of the flashes each time their broad double-edged
blades clash together—with exchanging words.

“You
will
come back with me, little brother!”
The white-haired one sounds like he’s screaming at a child.

“This is not the time for this!” The black-haired
sounds only somewhat more mature. “People are dying!”

“Someone is using you to hack our network! You need
to come with me! Now!”

“You need to let me go, Elias! Please! I don’t want
to hurt you!”

“You can’t hurt me.”

The ETE network hacks… They’re coming from these two,
and they have no idea…

I jump when I feel a hand on my shoulder, solid as
metal. It’s Dee. He gives me a sign to stay put, stay out of sight.
Then he goes still, his face blank. I expect he’s doing whatever an
AI would call concentrating, trying to get control over what’s at
work here.

I play the contingency, aim my ICW’s targeting laser
at the pair, prepare to send a signal over my uplink. I figure when
I get confirmation that missiles are incoming, I can probably run
back and over the rise, grab Wei and grab cover before everything
goes boom. (This is assuming Rios got out, and a sky-strike is
waiting.) But Bly is here too, somewhere, and I owe him my life and
hundreds more.

The pair are fighting again. They move fast—immortal
fast. And I almost get run into as the black-hair tries to get past
his apparent brother. Fails.

I suddenly get the stab of a headache, deep behind my
eyes. Blinding. I realize Dee didn’t budge in response to us nearly
getting trampled. Dee isn’t budging at all. He’s completely
unresponsive.

I get my targeting laser back on the pair, but now my
link isn’t working. Then the gun isn’t. Everything is shut down,
frozen. I can’t even call Wei.

What the hell is going on? Is this interference, or
has my gear been hacked?

“There are bots going after innocent people!” the
black-hair is pleading as they keep fencing. “Right now!” He waves
his sword north and northwest, toward the sounds of gunfire.
(Toward me—I crouch lower. Dee still won’t move.) “You know what
they can do! People are
dying
, Elias! We can help them!
We need to help them!
”

“I
need
to get you back to the Station!!” The
white-hair—Elias, charges in and slams the other so hard I’m
blinded by the flash. The black-hair flies back into the brush,
gets up… but I see the brush dying around him. Where he landed.
Where he steps. Everywhere he touches—everywhere they both
touch—everything vital is being drained. I start backing away
reflexively, imagining what their touch could do to me. I feel a
vibration on my skin—it moves as the swords do, as if they’re
affecting the very air around them.

I should get out of here, get Wei, and find a way to
report.

Then Wei comes up behind me.

“Problem, Lieutenant…” he starts to spit out in
whisper, pausing when he sees me glaring at him for leaving his
position. But what he’s got to say is more urgent. “We’ve been
hacked. Something tried to get through the uplink, something smart.
They had to pull the plug, shut it all…
What the hell…?
”

He’s looking past me.

It’s Bly. He’s stepped into the deadfall clearing.
With his mask on (and it’s permanently on, since Chang fused his
regenerative armor to his flesh as a punishment for his defection)
I can’t see his expression, but his body language seems to say he’s
dazed, unbalanced. The duelists break when they realize they have
company. Now there’s a triangle of drawn swords.

“
What are you?
” Bly demands. “What are you
doing to me?” He sounds somewhere between rage and pain.

“Did
you
do this to my brother?!” the
white-hair spits back.

“
You
pulled me here!” Bly hisses back. “How?!
Why?!
”

As if an answer, the brothers’ swords arc, forming a
bridge of white between them. The deadfall decays, disintegrates to
dust. The perimeter of death comes at me, at Wei, and I push him
back, leaving Dee. But the death stops before it reaches us. And it
isn’t obviously affecting Bly, at least not any more than it
already is, however it is. The arcs strike into the ground,
burning, but it looks like they’re pouring energy into the charred
dirt.

Then the dirt gives something back: It heaves, pushes
up, like I’m watching some plant growing, speeded up into seconds.
But it isn’t a plant. When the dirt and organic debris fall away, I
see gold and silver. Steel. It’s another sword, identical to the
brothers’, rising hilt-first out of the planet. Like it’s been
buried there all along.

No. Looking closer at the point it where it’s still
sunk into the ground, I see tendrils; roots, but liquid, moving.
It’s being
grown
.

The stabbing pain deep inside my head feels like it’s
trying to push my eyes and teeth out of my skull.

The two brothers are staggering away from what
they’ve just apparently helped make, dazed, weakened. But there’s
nothing left within easy reach to consume. Except maybe Bly.

“
How are you in my head?!!
” Bly roars,
clutching at his helmet, almost losing his grip on his own sword.
“I can see you… I can see your memories… I…” He stops, gathers
himself, looks like he’s going to crush the hilt of his sword in
his grip. His facemask turns to look at the black-hair. Then Bly
points his blade at him.

“It was
you
. The Silvers told me about you… I
went to parlay with them, negotiate safe passage for my people. But
when I came back… Dead! They were all
dead
. The Silvers say
they saw them attacked by raiders, strangers… Now I see it in your
head! It was
you
!!”

The black-hair doesn’t back down, points his own
sword back at the threat.

“Your ‘people’ were torturing a delegation of Katar,
killing them…”

“The Katar attacked
them
!” Bly insists,
advancing. Now white-hair’s sword comes up, comes to his brother’s
defense. Bly seems to ignore him.

“And the
Silvermen
killed your people!”
black-hair insists, circling. “Or did they not tell you that?”

“That’s not what I see… Your own eyes…
You
attacked…”

“
Then you should see why I attacked!
”
black-hair screams.

They lunge into each other, their blades clashing.
There’s more arcing, but the color is dimmer, bluer. Bly staggers,
but holds his own. They start hacking and slashing at each other,
fast and hard—I can hear their swords rip through the air. But then
Bly has to deal with the white-hair, coming at him from his left.
He circles, tries to get closer to one and farther from the other.
The brothers’ former argument appears to be forgotten—they move
together.

Bly tries to knock them off balance, taking the
offensive, but their blades appear to hit harder than his. He’s
faster, surer, quicker, but the brothers are obviously stronger.
And each time they clash, Bly seems to come away weaker.

The brothers pull back, hold for a moment. Their eyes
look like they’re processing something, calculating. Then they
explode into Bly, even faster now, and more coordinated.

Bly staggers—a blade makes contact with his left
thigh, leaving a deep cut through his plate. Another blade catches
him across the back. Then Black Hair smacks aside Bly’s sword while
White stabs him in the upper left chest. It doesn’t penetrate far,
but it does penetrate. And it sticks. White’s sword charges, arcs
into Bly, while Black keeps his weapon locked. Bly staggers back,
goes down on his knees. The brothers keep on him. I can’t tell if
they’re frying him or draining him. Black swats Bly’s sword out of
his hand. Moves in to stab…

I owe Bly my life…

I run into the clearing, empty my ICW into the
brothers. The shells just ping off their armor. Then their swords
come around, and my rounds seem to be drawn into them, bursting
into plasma as they hit, like the swords are eager, hungry for the
violence. I run dry—all I have left is grenades, but Bly is too
close, we’re all too close together.

Wei starts shooting. It does no more good than I did.
The brothers are headed for me. Bly looks out of play. I’m out of
options…

Almost.

I sling my gun, grab the blade that’s come out of the
ground. Maybe if I can…

My nervous system explodes. Every cell in my body is
on fire.

I can’t let go of the sword.
I can’t m…

SECONDARY TARGET ACCEPTED.

Voice in my head. The sword…

PLEASE WAIT WHILE I FINISH YOUR UPGRADES.

“Lieutenant…?”

Fuzzy.

Everything feels electric.

The sky is so bright.

“Lieutenant?”

Wei.

“Don’t touch her, Specialist.”

Dee.

“What’s it done to her?”

“Fohat called it a Companion.” Familiar voice. Can’t
place it. “Some kind of nanotech symbiote. It helps us, makes us
stronger, faster. Enhances our senses. Even more than our ETE
implants.”

“A lot more.” Another voice I know.

“It’s AI. More advanced than I’ve ever encountered.”
That’s Dee. He’s unfrozen. “It’s been trying to hack your network.
And UNMAC’s.”

“They’ve had to shut down to block it,” the second
voice complains. “That leaves them all blind, deaf and mute.”

“Is she awake?” Wei. “Her eyes are open. Her
eyes
… Oh
shit
…” He sounds scared. Of me.

“Bly…?” First thing I say. “Where’s Bly?”

“Alive,” the first voice answers, sounding sorry
about something.

“Hurt,” Dee adds. “Weak. He needs to eat, drink. He
can’t absorb resources from the environment like… well… you.”

I’m in a hole. I’m lying in a hole. Like a grave. Did
they think I was dead?

“Who… who won?”

“I think you did,” Wei tries to be comforting. “When
you grabbed the sword, there was this big flash. It was like you
sucked the life out of the other two. Chilled them.”

“We’re sorry we drew you into this.” I can see enough
to put face to first voice: The black-haired ETE. Somehow I know
his name is Erickson Carter.

“Speak for yourself.” Second voice. That would be his
brother Elias. (I still don’t know how I know this, I just seem to.
Just like I know they are ETE. Third-Gen Red Team. A long way from
home.) “We don’t even know why it picked her.”

Elias seems to be the bigger asshole of the pair.

“It didn’t,” Dee corrects him. “Her sword was meant
for Bly. I could hear it calling him, accessing his nanotech
implants. Probably for similar reasons that yours contacted you.
You have technology they can use. That also made you easy to sync
with, overwrite.”

“The blades have reprogrammed our implants,” Erickson
concludes heavily, looking down at his body like it’s become creepy
and uncomfortable.

“The blades have
restructured
your implants,
modified them, added to them,” Dee informs him coolly. “I expect
your connection is irreversible, unless you have a means to
completely separate yourself from your nanotechnology. Maybe not
even then. It’s made itself part of you.”

“
Why?
” Elias demands. “It said it wanted to
help…”

“And they did,” Erickson admits. “But what are they
taking in return?”

“They don’t seem to function independently,” Dee
tells them. “They need some kind of partner, host. Their first
priority seems to be finding a suitable one.”

“They also seem to be able to control our minds,”
Elias grumbles, “at least our emotions.”

“I’m sorry, Elias,” Erickson tries. “I’m sorry I got
you into this.”

“I got myself into this, thank you. I came. I took
the sword.”

“You were attacked?” It’s not really a question.
Erickson seems to know. Elias nods.

“I don’t think this is their default form,” Dee
considers. “They may have chosen it to attract you.”

“I wanted to
hurt
Bly,” Erickson admits. “The
sword kept showing me how. Cripple him. Disarm him. Make him
suffer. Not kill…”

“Make him take the sword,” Elias figures. “Of his own
free will.”

“What about
her
?” Erickson says it like I’m
not here. Maybe asshole runs in the family.

“Is this… the idiot… you were talking about?” I ask
Dee from my grave. He flashes a convincing smile, nods. Then he
manages to make my day worse:

“I expect it would have killed her on contact,
consumed her, except she had something it could use.”

Now
he’s
talking like I’m not here. At least
he has an excuse: he’s a robot. Android. Whatever.

“It called me a ‘secondary target’…” I feel so
strange. “Why am I in a hole?”

“You kind of dug it, Lieutenant,” Wei tries to be
gentle. Then blows it: “Freakiest thing I’ve ever seen. Like you
sucked up the ground.”

“It needed raw materials, organic and mineral, to do
whatever it needed to do to interface with you,” Dee goes
robot-technical. “You lack the full-body nanotechnology
modifications that the ETE have.”