Core Punch (12 page)

Then they ran out of stairs. And ran into the wind again.

Almost, she turned and headed down. Vi had climbed with the vague belief that if help didn't arrive in time, if the building collapsed, she wanted to be on top of the pile of
crapeau
. That maybe they could ride it down and survive. Now she wondered what she'd been thinking. For the last twenty-eight years. It looked to her like this level sagged in the middle, as if it had just gotten tired, though that might have been an illusion caused by the water pouring down her face.

A clatter behind them probably meant there was no going back. It was too dark to see if the stairs had given way, but it was a reasonable assumption.

“Is there any shelter up here?” she screamed at Speed Bump.

She shook her head. Actually her whole body shook.

It felt as if the whole building shifted, then shuddered. Big chunks of the floor in the dead center began to fall away, the gap spreading slowly—but not slowly enough—in their direction.

Joe grabbed her, held her. “I am sorry,” he shouted in her ear.

Speed Bump stared at the widening gap as if transfixed.

It grew larger, the collapse accelerating as the structure became more compromised.

A loud sound drew her attention, then a light stabbed down, illuminating the crumbling concrete. Something—Vi saw the NONPD emblazoned on the side of the official skimmer—fought the wind until it was over them, its light all around them. The pilot shifted, brought it down as low as he could, the rear ramp opening. For a minute it seemed as if Speed Bump wouldn't move. Joe grabbed one side, Vi the other, and they half dragged her toward the shifting ramp, racing the crumbling deck. Hands reached out to pull Speed Bump aboard. Joe lifted Vi onto the ramp within reach of those hands as if she weighed nothing, then dove on as the last of the lot gave way beneath his feet. Hands drew them deeper into the hatch and the ramp closed.

Vi lay on her back on the floor, gasping for breath. She opened her eyes. Captain Uncle scowled down at her, like he wanted to bust her for something. Bust away. She didn't care. She inhaled. Exhaled. She closed her eyes again and smiled.

Laissez les bons temps rouler.
Let the good times roll, baby.

T
he city grew closer
, intermittently backlit by lightning. Not only was NON the city that care forgot, it was a city that never slept—or went dark.

Until now.

Poor baby. WTF had put her lights out. Vi was not ashamed to admit the sight was a shock. She'd never seen her city like this. If she had any juice left in her, that might have finished it.

“Are,” she had to swallow twice to moisten her dry throat—how odd that was with water on every side of the eye— “my parents all right? The grandparents? The family?”

Captain Uncle's face softened and he nodded. “No power or water—the umbilical's been damaged—but your dad sends me a data burst every hour or so. No deaths reported yet. Injuries are on the rise. A few medical emergencies.” His face turned grim again. “Report to first aid when we touch down. Get something to eat. I can give you four hours. Then I need you both back on duty.”

She nodded, relief, exhaustion and a bumpy semi-landing back at District making an uncomfortable mix for her already uneasy tummy. The skimmer didn't touch down, just dropped the hatch so they could jump out. Speed Bump was escorted to a Red Cross shelter opposite HQ, then the officer ran back to the already rising skimmer.

The wind was starting to ramp up some more as she and Joe trudged across the platform. Inside, the backup generator provided low light, but no a/c, so the air felt damp and musty, thick with the scent of bad food and stale coffee. Distantly she heard voices, but the entry corridor was weirdly empty. Everyone who could be out, would be. Coms personnel would be here, the med techs in first aid, and somebody cooking up nasty food. Vaguely she wondered why government food never tasted good. You had to work at finding bad food in NON. Except in a government cafeteria. Or hospitals.

The first seat that presented itself, Vi took. She needed to sit more than she needed to pee. Though she wasn't entirely sure she hadn't taken care of that when Felonius—she clamped down on that thought. He was gone, buried in the rubble of a collapsed building and raging storm. Various bumps and bangs began to sting and complain, now that she'd quit moving, quit trying. Her hands were filthy. Her first impulse was to wipe them on her pants. About an inch of mud coated her legs. Kind of funny to wince about that, because if there was something clean on her anywhere, she didn't know what it was. After a minute, she reached up and unhooked her head gear. Had to rest before she pulled it off. It wasn't cool in the corridor, but it felt cooler with it off.

She set it down on the floor, realized the light was still on, then decided she didn't give a
crapeau
. The mud almost covered it anyway. She sagged back against the metal wall. She didn't know she could be this tired and not be dead. If she had died and no one told her, well, she'd be pissed once she got some rest. She rubbed her face, realized that was just smearing stuff around and stopped. Glanced at Joe.

Other than the coating of mud, he looked kind of not-hosed. Why did she suspect that he looked better covered in
crapeau
than she did? She shifted, felt her heavy suit resist and tugged at the seams, pulling them open from neck to waist. Maybe in an hour or so she'd have the energy to get out of it. Hard to say. She was gonna need every minute of those four hours from Captain Uncle. So why wasn't she face down on a cot? She looked at Joe again. Caught him looking at her, his brows pulled together. He had at least an inch deep of mud on his face. The dark mud made his eyes kinda pop out—

She looked away.
You are mad at him, remember?
Or she would be later. She looked back, because she was tired. It had nothing to do with anxious look in his very fine eyes. Holding her gaze, he tugged off his head gear and loosened his suit. His lips quirked up in what might have been an attempt at a smile.

“I am somewhat surprised to be alive,” he admitted.

“Yeah.” She couldn't disagree. “I wonder what time it is?”

For a minute, it seemed he would answer. Finally he shrugged. “I fear it has been less time than it feels since we left here.”

“Yeah.” Okay, repeating herself. Not good. “Yes.” Because that was way more original. If she could have, she would have rolled her eyes at herself. She gave a half chuckle. “I'm embarrassed to admit this, but for a minute or so, I almost thought the dog did it. Until, well, you know.” She waited for him to laugh, or give her a Joe Friday smile. He did neither. He did look like a man who needed to say something he didn't know how to say. “I was joking, Joe.”

“I am aware of this. What happened to the others,” he paused as if searching for the right words, “it was not a virus or infection in the strict sense of your understanding.”

She blinked. “Huh?” Yeah, that was better than yeah. She straightened half an inch and regarded him through mud and tired, and maybe a tiny bit of lust. Could she really still want to kiss him after everything that had happened? Maybe. But she was still a cop. And she had a nose that could smell a lie incoming, even if sewage and who knew what else stunk up them both. She also wasn't so stupid tired she couldn't figure out that the reason he'd been distant was because he thought she had whatever it was he was trying not to tell her. Her Look had had its tush kicked, too, but she pulled out what was left of it and directed it at Joe.

“I did not come here merely for the exchange program.” He picked his words with too much care.

Vi narrowed the Look. He shifted in discomfort.

“There is a criminal from my galaxy—”

Vi straightened with a jerk that hurt. A lot. “Joe, you can't—”

He grabbed her hand, met her Look with one of his own. “No one can know. This criminal, well, you saw how vicious it can be.”

Vi frowned. “It?”

He hesitated. “It is what your people would call an AI, but it is more than an artificial intelligence. It is sentient.” He paused, then added, “And more dangerous than you could possibly imagine.”

She considered this. “It was in that ship we saw?” He nodded. “But—why didn't it kill us? It could have.”

“This we—I do not know.”

Her brows shot up. “We?”

He looked discomfited. “I am not alone in my task. I have—some assistance. It—Lurch must remain hidden to hunt it. If it suspected Lurch were here—”

“Lurch?” Vi blinked. She'd heard that name somewhere before, but not in an AI context. Something else…she shook her head and wished she hadn't. “Never mind. You do realize how,” she tried to find a diplomatic term and couldn't, “unacceptable it is that you both came here and didn't warn anyone?”

“If we had told anyone, it would have known we were here.”

“But you're a cop and—” she stopped because even she knew it was undiplomatic to tell him he was purple and alien. It wasn't like he didn't know. Or that this it hadn't noticed, too.

“It was a risk, an attempt to double bluff.”

“Okay.” She rubbed her forehead, despite the mud. “But now it must know you're here.”

“Yes.” He looked grave. “I—we believe that it used the storm to try to….”

“…out you?”

He considered this and then nodded.

“Well, now that you've been outed, we need to get help—”

He shook his head and shuddered. “You do not understand. Exposure is bad. We…we tried that. It did not go well.”

Vi studied him. He'd definitely paled under the mud. He looked away, his lips compressed.

“There is danger for you, for anyone who knows about it.”

She did not like the sound of that. “But I know. You know.”

“It does not know that you
know.
” He turned back to her. “I know I ask much, but you can not tell anyone. It is not safe to talk about this with anyone but me. And even with me, care must be taken.”

He looked around as if the wall had ears. Maybe in his world they did.

“You know I need to think about this when I'm not,” she looked down and grimaced. “I'm too tired to think, let alone make a decision.”

“But you will speak with me before—”

She eyed him. She might be tired but she wasn't stupid tired yet. At least, she didn't think so. “There's plenty you aren't telling me, Joe.”

“For your safety. It—”

“Doesn't it at least have a name? You said it's sentient.” She stiffened. “It's not Fido?”

His reluctance was apparent even through the mud, though this time she got the Joe Friday semi-smile. “Lurch does not like to use its name because it is no longer that—entity.”

“Entity?”

“I—we do not know what it calls itself now, but it's name was—before it was called Nod.”

“Nod?” Vi blinked. That sounded kind of sweet.

“It chose its name before—it is difficult to explain.”

“I think you need to try,” Vi said.

“It trusted the wrong humanoid. He figured out how to change Nod's base code. It went terribly wrong. The humanoid died—”

“Died?” Vi arched her brows. Okay, maybe she didn't arch them. Nothing was really responding to her commands anymore.

“It killed the humanoid,” Joe admitted.

“Like,” Vi swallowed dryly, “Felonius?”

Joe nodded. “But Nod is gone. Dead. Also erased by it.”

She considered this, realized he hadn't exactly cleared the dog—then decided she didn't want to know. She tipped her head to the side. That was easy because gravity helped. “Until you saw the ship, you thought I'd killed Felonius, didn't you?”

Again with the reluctant nod.

“You were going to shoot me.”

Got another, even more reluctant nod. Vi thought about objecting, but he obviously felt bad about it. And he hadn't done it. If she busted his chops about it now, she couldn't use it against him later.

“But it did accomplish its purpose. It saw me about to shoot you. So it knows we are here.”

“That's bad.”

“Indeed.”

“So when you took my hand, what was that all about?”

He hesitated, “It was easier than shooting you.”

She shook her head in confusion. “What was easier?”

“If it had been present, we would have died.”

That was kind of sweet. Or she was really tired. She frowned. Maybe.

“So what do we do now?”

“I would very much like a shower.”

“Of course, but I mean about Nod.”

“Nod is no more.” He looked frustrated. “Vi—”

“You're in my city, Joe. It's messing with my people.”

He rose and held out his hand. This time she didn't hesitate to take it. It did surprise her when he didn't let go as they walked slowly toward the locker room.

“For now we wait, we watch. We have something to eat that isn't seventy years old.”

They walked for several feet before she said, “It's going to come after you, isn't it?”

He looked at her. “Yes.”

“And you won't know who it is until—”

He didn't answer this time. She stopped then, turning to face him. There was more he needed to tell her, lots more. She wasn't completely stupid. But… “Just in case—” She grabbed the open edges of his emergency suit and yanked him close. “I promised you a—”

She didn't get a chance to finish.

Dang, that boy could kiss….

…
E
rror
…error detected…illegal program installed…reboot Nod programming….

Help! I am here and I need—

…Error report invalid…reboot halted…all systems functioning correctly….there is no Nod programming….

It blinked, shook the new head, felt a sense of something lost that needed to be found, but the feeling faded when it saw its face reflected in the forward screen. A particularly unattractive specimen of humanoid. It would have to change that as soon as another host could be identified. Something more attractive to the human, Violet Baker, than the decaying Jimbo.

…searching….

Violet appears to be related to a great many male officers within the NONPD. Perhaps a less direct approach was advised.

…searching….

Ah, yes, while inhabiting the criminal Calvino, Afoniki had mentioned finding the detective “hot.” Possibly a point of contact? Find Afoniki. And then—what would it have to do to get arrested in NON?

…searching….

Of course. Vi investigates homicides….

T
hank
you for reading
Core Punch.
I hope you enjoyed it and will check out the next installment in Vi and Joe's adventures:
Sucker Punch
. And look for more Vi and Joe adventures in
An Uneasy Future
.

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