Killswitch (16 page)

“You don't know as much as you think you do. Sniffing out explosives is not in your programming. Neither is surviving a laser gun, and there's nobody here to put you back together. The transhuman still bleeds. You're not invincible.”

“The exoself may have already sent a warning.”

“You'd better hope not. If anybody tries to come up out of that hole, the place explodes.”

Chase hesitated. Then he nodded to Switchblade. “Do what he says.”

“I am not going to the EU, Charlie.”

“You want him to blow up Blue Sky Field? You have to go, Switch. I'm sorry. There's nothing I can do.”

26

Switchblade backed up to the hatch and crawled into the plane. “What about the drones, huh? They're supposed to be on the plane. That's what the orders say.” He gave Chase a final glance, his eyebrows lifted, his head shaking.

Kirel hesitated, then answered, “Never mind the drones. Just go.”

Windsong pushed a button to lift the hatch. “I'm sorry, Chase. God be with you.” The door lifted and sealed shut, and Chase and Kirel were alone.

“Get it in the air,” Kirel said.

“Don't think so,” Chase said.

“Do it!”

“I have to get the drones back inside the warehouse first. They should've been on the plane. Now they're just in the way.”

“Then get on with it.” Kirel pulled Chase to the side of the building, out of the way of the drones.

The hovering machines moved back to their earlier positions. Windsong peeked through the one small window of her plane. Chase shook his head, and she turned away.

Kirel jerked and stumbled back. “Stand still and do what I told you!”

Chase connected to the auto-pilot, and the plane revved and nosed toward the runway. Then it took over and increased its speed. Soon it lifted and headed east. That part of whatever insidious demands were to be made of him was done.

“How long until it's over the Atlantic?” Kirel asked.

“Fourteen minutes.”

“In half an hour, crash it.”

Panic rushed through Chase. “I can't do that.”

“You said the report would show the plane crashed.” Kirel at last let go of Chase and pushed him against the wall. The laser gun remained pointed at his head.

Had the exoself acted on its own and sent a warning to the underground? Chase took a breath when he determined no such message had gone out. “I said it would show the plane went down. I didn't say I could crash it.”

“You programmed the take-off. So why can't you program a landing into the sea?”

Chase wiped icy sweat from his brow and smirked. “You're not a Christian, are you?”

“I consider myself a Christian. I don't consider
you
a Christian,” Kirel said. “What are you doing hanging out with the Underground Church anyway?”

“How can you kill your fellow believers?”

“They don't have any vision. God wants us to restore this country. And he doesn't want transhumans taking over the world. If the so-called Christians at Blue Sky Field were real believers, they would have killed you.” Kirel side-stepped to the open hangar door. “We're going back through the hole in the fence and we're walking to the highway. If you send out any kind of warning with that computer in your head, or if I don't reach the meeting point in ninety minutes, the museum blows. They
will
take you in, transhuman. You might as well get it over with.

“They?” Chase asked. “I get it. There's a bounty on my head. How much?”

“Plenty and it'll be used for the right cause. But I'd do it for nothing.” He motioned with the laser gun, grabbed Chase's arm, and headed out of the building.

Chase rolled his free arm, and the obedient Doberman who waited near the loading dock readied for command.

“
Attaque!
”

Nora raced toward them, teeth bared. A low growl gave warning. She jumped. Her lean body targeted at Kirel. Chase braced for the impact. Nora collided with Kirel and Chase squirmed free as the dog knocked Kirel to the ground.

But the man didn't lose the gun. He blasted the laser. The dog reeled backward. She dropped to the ground. Then Kirel aimed at Chase. He fired. Chase clutched his right shoulder.

The blast drove like a knife into his flesh. He sucked in his breath and swallowed a scream. Stumbling back, he fell against the metal wall. He gaped at the wound. Blood streamed down his arm.

“You're lucky I tuned it to low gauge. Next time I'll blow off the whole arm.”

Chase slid out of his jacket and tore his shirt loose from the wound. He didn't know what might be coming out of the hole—wires or some kind of computer hardware. But it was just a small hole. Nothing but ripped tissue and blood.

The exoself seemed to fade away, or maybe Chase was about to faint. His vision fragmented into bits of light. Then the lights went out, replaced with nothing but black. He shook his head and internally screamed at the powers inside his mind not to do anything about this. No warning to Mel or anyone else. Please.

“Come on, you can walk with a hole in your shoulder. But I bet you're not as strong as you were with two good arms.” Kirel grabbed him and yanked him to his feet.

The pain was all human. The strength sensors in his right shoulder had indeed powered down. With no one to repair him, what Kirel had said was true. He wasn't as strong. But the bleeding slowed. He reached for his jacket and struggled to pull it on. And then he trudged beside the man in control. Kirel's strong grip and the laser gun pointed at his head kept Chase moving forward.

“Highway circles the plant,” Kirel said. “We're going down on the north side. If I'm not at the rendezvous point in an hour, the bomb goes off. So no more half-cocked attempts at escape. Now see what you can do about crashing the jet. I don't want any trouble from that pilot and the black Goliath.”

Chase's power ebbed—he could feel it leaving him. But he could handle one more manipulation in the cyber world. He had to in order to save Blue Sky Field.

“Done,” he said.

“You sure?”

“If you don't believe me, crash it yourself.”

Kirel huffed and jerked Chase forward. “Well…even if you're lying, you told the pilot you disabled her communication with the ground. No reason for you to lie to
her
. By the time those two get a message to the underground, I will have collected my fee. And you'll be back where you belong.” He didn't mention the plane again. He spoke little as they traipsed down the dark hillside. Even Chase's night vision was failing. Why? What did that have to do with a wound to his shoulder?

“Why did you frame those people in town? Why did they have to die?” Chase asked.

“Couldn't risk the kids trying to go back up. If their families were dead, they'd stay put.”

“I don't understand.”

“Look, I didn't plan on three teenagers getting caught. Didn't plan on Molly getting taken in by the Feds. It just worked out that way. I was supposed to end up at the detention center alone. They would have let me go, even without all your help in making me look like an informant. When they released me, I would have had to go under. Alone. It was a ruse.”

“Because you're an informant,” Chase said.

“Yeah. But not due to my great love and respect for the WR.
That
was the ruse. I set myself up to use my position in the Underground Church to take the heat off the dissenters.”

“Kind of a double agent?”

“Sure, if you say so.” Kirel huffed and quickened his pace. “Once we all came under, I couldn't let those kids go back up. They might have talked. I got myself into the inner circle at Blue Sky Field for a reason. Couldn't let them blow it. So I used that all-fired important untraceable communication system you set up down there to plant a lead to the WR. And
they
took care of things.”

“You make it sound like you're innocent.”

“I will do whatever needs to be done to restore this country.” Kirel stepped in a low spot and nearly stumbled. “And I will feel no guilt.”

“You sure were quick to give up that position in the underground that you killed for.”

“I told you,
I
didn't kill anyone. The Feds did. Anyway, I found something better than a place to plant misinformation.”

“You found me.”

“That's right, Chase Sterling. And
you
are a goldmine. Covert group within the WR is ready to pay.”

Chase had nothing else to say to the man. He trudged along in silence. Then a voice intruded the exoself, and a thin line of code in a flash of red appeared alongside Chase. “For the love of…Not now!”

“What are you yelling about?” Kirel demanded.

“Matters of tranhumansim. You wouldn't understand. Not that
I
understand.” Maybe this wasn't a bad thing. With a weakened spark of the exoself, he spoke to Kerstin from the depths of his mind.
I saved your life. You owe me. Help me.

Her answer permeated his senses as if she were standing next to him. Surely Kirel could hear her every word.

“I
am
helping you, darling. I've found you at last. The DNA scanner at the drone plant was so deeply imbedded in the security system that it was undetectable. Even by you. Once I had your position, it was easy to trigger the killswitch. You're powering down, aren't you? You'll be harmless as a puppy when the authorities pick you up. I know you've left the plant. Don't bother trying to get away, Chase. The exoself has notified the Helgen of your location. It sent out its own cry for help. We can track you now. And we're coming, darling. Help is on the way.”

She laughed, and Chase knew from past experience the wicked sound of her claim to victory.

27

No other message surged from the exoself. Chase couldn't reach out to the underground. He wasn't able to access WR programs. He didn't even know what time it was. The simplest capabilities were gone. Kirel's laserlight spread its beam as he dragged Chase toward the highway. Good thing the man had a light—Chase's night vision was no more.

Kirel forced Chase over a fallen tree and then pulled him down to sit on the huge, rotting log parallel to the road. “Any Feds in the area?” Kirel asked.

“I have no idea,” Chase answered.

“Don't mess with me.”

“My systems are down, Kirel.”

“From a shot to the shoulder? Are you telling me that's all it took to shut you down?”

Why tell the man the truth? Except that Kirel handing Chase over to bounty hunters might take longer than WR deputies showing up with an armored car. Either way, he'd end up back at the Helgen plugged into machines. And Kerstin would be there to hold his hand. They'd make him functional again or they wouldn't. It didn't matter. He wouldn't escape a second time.

“I'm not going back,” he said.

“Back to the laboratory that birthed you?” Kirel asked. “Oh, I think you are.”

“You won't get a chance to turn me over for payment. WR Feds are on their way to get me.”

Kirel lifted the weapon and cuffed Chase across the head, knocking him to the ground. “You said you didn't know,” he yelled. “How long?”

Chase pulled himself up on his elbows. “I can't tell you that. Before the exoself shut down, I got a message. I'm being tracked. They're coming. That's all I know.”

“You're lying.”

“I wish I was. Even if you deliver me to your contact, they'll still be tracking me. Whoever gets caught with the goods won't make it out of this alive. The best thing for you to do is run. Leave me here and tell your people I got away.”

“Nice try. Get up.”

Chase eased to his feet without using his right arm. “I'm telling you the truth. The last thing the exoself did for me was reveal my location to the Helgen. The Feds are on their way.”

“So are the Dissenters of the Republic,” Kirel said. “The only Feds you'll see tonight are the ones we deliver you to.”

A truck like the one Chase had seen earlier rolled up the highway and pulled onto the mucky shoulder. Four men jumped out. Two carried old-school machine guns. The other two, laser guns like Kirel's. One of the men lifted the roll-up door at the back of the truck, while the other three moved toward Chase.

“He's injured,” Kirel said. “Says his powers are gone. I don't know if he's telling the truth, but he's not so strong anymore.”

Two of the men grabbed Chase's arms and hurried him to the rear of the truck. He climbed onto a metal step and dropped into the truck's cargo box. He backed away from the men with their guns and grunted out a breath.

“I told him the Feds are coming for me,” he said. “I'm being tracked and it won't take long for them to find me. You can't outrun them.”

“Don't listen to him,” Kirel said. “Let's go.”

“But he knows what the Feds are doing, right?” one of the men said. “What if he's not lying?”

Kirel pulled the door down, leaving Chase in darkness. “The man has a
gift
for lying. He'll say anything to get what he wants.”

“You tell him we got a bomb at the museum?”

The voice had a slight French accent. Chase wished for the powers he'd once thought ridiculous—night vision and super hearing. His human eyes adjusted to the darkness inside the truck. A dim glow from laserlights made lines where the rolling door's sections joined. But then the men walked from the rear of the truck to the cab, their voices fading, the light gone.

The engine hummed and the truck bounced from the roadside and bumped along until it picked up speed. The men's voices were muddled. Their indistinguishable words found a rhythm in the smooth roll of the truck's tires.

Leaning back in the hollow bay of what had become his prison transport, Chase pulled off his blood-soaked jacket and felt the small hole in his shoulder. His arm throbbed, but the wound didn't seem too bad.