Code Breakers Complete Series: Books 1-4 (69 page)

They were Gerry’s eyes... or at least a fragment of him. She felt him inside her mind still, only much stronger. Gone were the vague connections. Gerry beamed like a radio broadcast directly into her brain. But she couldn’t understand the words.
 

Enna stood from the desk, turned, and grabbed Petal, pulling her away from the body. She wasn’t quick enough. The thing grabbed Petal by the throat and tossed her across the theatre as though she were an insignificant piece of trash. A hideous high-pitched keening noise came from it as it continued to smash up the place, tearing wires and cables, turning over the table, and throwing the holoscreen to the floor.
 

Petal tried to stand, but her limbs refused to obey her; the tranquillising drug in her system fought with her adrenaline and fear.
 

“Oh God,” Enna said. “Get away... get away!”
 

The thing had leant down, grabbed Enna, and lifted her up clear from the floor, squeezing her head with its considerably powerful hands. Muscles bunched in its forearms and biceps. Its mouth contorted into a weird twisted mockery of a smile. It uttered something unintelligible as Enna continued to thrash uselessly against its body.
 

One of Gerry’s memories broke through the screaming inside Petal’s head, making it appear as though she were looking through his eyes. She was taken back to the first day she had met Gerry at their hideout within the city. In the back room they had his boss, Mike. He was infected with a particularly nasty demon AI that turned him into a raving, zombielike monster.
 

The crazed transcendent body was just like Mike. Only this time, Petal was of no help. And Gerry was not there with Gabe’s old revolver, ready to blow it away. She tried to move, but the signals from her brain seemed to have no effect on her limbs as the drugs continued to battle within her body.
 

Blood dripped from Enna’s nose under the pressure of the assault. Tears ran down her face, and her kicks and punches had weakened to pathetic slaps. As if knowing it was close to killing her, the transcendent flung her to the floor like a rag doll and turned its attention to Petal as she squirmed like an injured kitten among the debris of his rampage.

She tried to form words, but Gerry’s panic inside her head messed with her communications, so that only a choking came out.

The crazed transcendent learned quickly. However much of a personality it had gained from the download, it seemed to be enough for it to control its motor functions. It reached down to the floor just in front of Petal and, keeping eye contact with her, fished around the floor until it found what it was looking for: a scalpel.
 

It thrust out a meaty hand and grabbed a fistful of her hair. It lifted her off the ground with ease. Only this time, it slammed her face down hard onto the edge of the overturned operating table, creating blinding flashes of colour and shapes in her vision.
 

Due to the drugs and fear, she didn’t feel the pain. Just saw the reflection in the chrome of her face smashing against it again and again, her features becoming distorted and blood smearing the details.
 

As the assault continued and the maelstrom increased inside her head, a shadow appeared in the doorway. The creature lifted her head, ready to slam it down once more when she suddenly realised it had let go. Its heavy body toppled over the table and crumpled into a heap of meat in front of her.
 

There, standing over its prone body, Gabe stood, his duster jacket flailing in the breeze. He wielded a stun-sickle in his right hand. The electricity crackled, lighting up the room with flickering blue light.

With one last burst of energy she managed to lift her head up to look at him.
 

“Fuck, girl. I go away for five goddamned minutes and ya get yourself in trouble again.”

She tried to smile. A number of teeth fell out, clattering onto the table’s surface. Blood dripped from her mouth. “Urghagh,” she said before collapsing to her knees and passing out.
 

***

“Hey. How ya doin’, girl?” Gabe looked down at Petal. His head blocked the light.
 

“You’re not wearing your hat,” she said uneasily, knowing it was a ridiculous thing to say, but it was the first thing that came to mind; she’d rarely seen him without it. She’d got so used to his face being in shadow and partially hidden by his dreads. Now that he wasn’t wearing the hat and had tied his dreads back, she noticed just how old and tired he looked.
 

“You took one helluva beating.” Gabe reached down and helped her sit up.

“I didn’t feel most of it.” Realising she was no longer at Enna’s place, Petal asked, “Where am I?” Then it dawned on her. “You didn’t bring me to the freakin’ whore rooms in the Spider’s Byte, did you?”

Gabe smiled. “It was the nearest place with an available bed. Besides, I had some credit to use.”

“Too much information.” Petal groaned and winced as she pushed up on to her elbows.
 

While Gabe busied himself around her, fetching water, plumping her pillows, she realised her mind no longer roiled with Gerry’s anguish. Although she could definitely tell he still lurked inside. “Where’s Enna? What happened to the transcendent’s body? You didn’t kill it, did you?”

“Nah, girl. It’s safe. Enna’s got it over in her lab. Analysing it, trying to work out what went wrong. Enna’s okay. A bit of a headache, but nothing a shot of ’Stem won’t fix.” He reached into his jacket and pulled out a shot for her. He reached for her arm, but Petal snatched it away.

“No, Gabe, I don’t want that. Not anymore.”

“Ya sure? What about the pain? Ya broke ya nose and lost two teeth.”

It didn’t really matter to her. Somehow, despite her injuries, she did not suffer excessive pain. She had a sneaking suspicion Gerry was behind it. If there was anyone who could work out the human system and manipulate it, it was he. She thought of him then as a kind of internal guardian angel. Not that she ever believed in religion. Even Gabe didn’t, despite his religious style and penchant for overly dramatic coding.

She’d always thought Gabe took on that persona so he could somehow forgive himself for his actions. Or perhaps it was nothing more than a costume. He always liked to keep everyone at a distance, but Natalya’s revelation earlier forced him to come out of hiding and face reality.
 

“Why did you come back?” she asked.

Gabe rubbed his face and sighed. “I couldn’t just leave ya behind. Not after all these years. I feel responsible for ya, and let’s face it, ya’re a hot mess without me looking after ya.”

“I could say likewise, old friend. What’s the real reason? You miss the elegant charm of Bachia and its whores?”

He shook his head, his face becoming serious. “Nothing like that. I analysed the data on the slate. Natalya was right; it was my parents and their people in that video. They’d crossed the border into China. They were probably heading for the Dome when the Widows found ’em.”

“So what did you find? Are they still alive, do you think? You mentioned that she was using them to bargain for her life—how would the Red Widows know if she died and take action on her behalf?”

“That’s the thing right there. They couldn’t. The bitch was bluffin’. Since Jess decoupled Alpha and Omega and we took ’em offline, there’s no Meshwork, no connection between here and the Widows. Natalya was here for nearly a month, locked up. She had no access to anything. The date-stamp on the video was from before she left to join the rest in Darkhan before the battle.”

“So that means they could still be alive!”

“I really don’t think so.”

“What is it?”

Gabe handed her the slate and played the video. “See that man there in the line-up? That’s my father. The rest of the people in front of him were killed.”

She couldn’t watch beyond the first few seconds of footage. Dread-faced men shuffled forwards; the sounds of screams coming after a gunshot, the results of which were mercifully out of frame; Gabe’s father reached the front of the line... no, she couldn’t contemplate it. She handed the slate back to Gabe, tried to offer him some form of condolence, but it seemed entirely trivial.

“What are you going to do?” she asked, expecting him to be riled up, wanting vengeance. But he just shrugged his shoulders. A single tear welled up in his right eye before he turned and wiped it away.
 

“I dunno. I could kill every single one of those bitches and dance on their corpses, but would that change anything? Would that achieve anything? I have family here now. You, Enna, Gerry. If I go after the Widows, I’ll be deserting you like I did my first family, and look what happened there. I couldn’t handle it if anything happened... and besides, I don’t know where they are. This video could have been taken anywhere.”

Petal reached out for him. “It’s okay; I understand.” She didn’t, though. She could never even begin to understand what he was going through. “If you want to go, I’ll come with you. I’ll have your back all the way. Maybe there’ll be some redemption there. Maybe...”
 

She broke off, unwilling to suggest some of his family were still alive. That would be a cruel hope to give. But, unable to resist, knowing hope might be the only thing she could offer, she added, “Look, the video file is only a few weeks old. They could still be alive, right? It makes sense, no? We’ve got to go for them at least. We have vehicles now, plenty of food and water. We could take some Bachians with us. Let me have some time with the video, to see if with Gerry’s skills and mine we can crack the encryption and find a lead on where this was taken. All video data streams have data in there somewhere—”

“Ya can’t come,” Gabe said, cutting her enthusiasm. “We need to deal with the Gerry situation.”

“I think it’s getting better,” Petal said. “I mean... our minds seem to be merging, or at least finding a way of existing together.”

“It ain’t that simple.”

“What do you mean?”

“Enna analysed the transcendent. The reason it went mad? The capacity wasn’t enough to take all of Gerry’s consciousness. Only a fragment downloaded. Which means ya don’t have the full thing inside ya; he’s split and breaking down. It’s only a matter of time before his code mutates like Elliot’s did. Only this time, it’s inside ya.”

Falling back into the pillows, Petal sighed. “Life’d be much easier if that lying bastard James made me a damned sexbot or something. Seriously, Gabe, this life sucks.”

“It does so far, yeah. But who knows what the future holds? Get some sleep; it’s getting late. Tomorrow we’ll sort something out.”

“How?”

“Enna and I spoke with James and Jess—”

“You did what?”

“Wait, hear me out.”

“I don’t want that bastard anywhere near me, you understand? If he comes within an arm’s distance, I’ll fuckin’ rip his balls off. This is all his fault.”
 

“That might be, but with his and Jess’ help, he could also be ya only chance. Swallow ya damned pride and fury and give the guy a chance. Hell, he isn’t the only one who’s fucked up in this life, is he? Here’s the thing; he and Jess are bringing the servers over to Enna’s place in the morning. With their help and added processing power, we should have a better shot at sorting out the fragments of Gerry in ya head and that transcendent. But ya need to get some rest, okay?”

“Don’t look like I got much choice, does it?”

“No choice at all.”

Gabe leant in, kissing her on the forehead before leaving the room.
 

At least one thing was certain: Gabe had her back. Before he could leave, she asked, “What are you going to do about the video? Your family.”

He didn’t respond before closing the door behind him. But she noticed he’d left the slate behind. She took it, hoping to find a lead.

Chapter 4

Sasha yawned at herself in the mirror. She looked washed out, pale, beat up.

She liked it. Made her feel tough, gave her a sense of actually doing something, being productive. She poked at the scabs on her cheek, created by the ’Stem solution. She hoped to have a scar like Malik. Maybe that’d get her a little more respect for what she was capable of. She still seethed from Fuentes’ bullshit.
 

Instead of congratulating her on stopping the sniper and recovering information, Sasha got a strip torn off for endangering the public and summoned to the Presidential Suite for a debriefing.
 

The cold lights of the medical pod flickered. The city’s power system, mostly from solar and fission reactors, was still being regulated now that Cemprom had started dismantling the pervasive, citywide network. It was one thing disconnecting the lottery from the citizens’ inbuilt AIAs, but it was another to ensure the consistent running of the Dome’s various systems.
 

They were currently having a series of controlled brownouts during the night in order to fix the system. She hoped they’d sort it soon; she didn’t like the idea of the ronin lurking about the city in the dark, hiding from the security force’s patrol cars and drones.
 

It was nearly 20:00. The city grew dark outside the window of the thirty-third floor of the medical centre: a floor taken over by Jimmy for his various theatres.