Legacy of a Mad Scientist (46 page)

In the National Guard medical ward, Von Kalt held the
Metachron. He became neuro-digital water; he flowed over the
facilities’ systems, effortlessly filling the cracks and hollow
spaces until he was the system.

When the two fully-loaded drones came online, the
operators were already locked out. The soldiers panicked and
alerted their superiors, who panicked even more, having less
control.

The hangar doors opened and the drones lifted off,
streaking away from the armory. Inquires as to the volume of
escaping warheads only fueled the chaos of rising pulses and
tempers.

Von Kalt was never suspected, as he, for all
appearances, was fast asleep. He was greatly pleased with this
solution, as he would no longer be required to deliver
significant amounts
of DNA to that snake Bergstrom.

Watching the chaos through various satellites and
traffic cameras, Von Kalt wondered if he’d be able to distinguish
between the pops caused by the warheads and those cause by the
children’s failsafe devices.

"We're not just going to leave all these guns?"
Ashley asked.

"We
are
leaving all these guns," Ross
said.

Geoff threw himself onto the couch. "They're here!
Get Down!"

Ashley and Ross looked at him as if he was crazy, but
then two devastating explosions rocked the facility.

The structure screamed as it cracked apart in several
places. Two more rockets hit, damaging the gravity drive and
throwing the motel's horizontal balance into seizures. The plate's
ability to stay balanced had been upset, and the facility was
losing altitude.

The furniture slid fore and aft, threatening anyone
trapped between it and a wall. They dodged the sliding mattresses,
the table and various electronics as Ross corralled them toward the
sedan.

Geoff made it in first, climbing into the back seat,
followed by Ashley, who held the door open for Ross. He climbed in
and got behind the driver's seat, starting the car.

Ashley pulled the door closed as the building took a
rather severe tilt, throwing her against the glass. Ross triggered
the remote to release the breakaway hatch, but the sedan refused to
separate from the falling building.

Ross threw the vehicle into drive, trying to pull
away by force, but the hatch wouldn't break free. He put the car
back in park and opened his door. He'd have to do it by hand.

Before he got out, Ross reached inside his jacket and
pulled out the diplomatic pouch, containing the false
identification and reservations that would get them across the
border. He handed it to Ashley without a word.

Ash and Geoff watched as Ross tried and failed to pop
the hinges by hitting the emergency release levers.

Finally he pulled out his pistol and shot them
off.

The first one gave easily, the second practically
exploded.

The third and fourth ripped free as the car returned
to its fixed elevation, rocketing away from the falling motel.

Ash and Geoff watched Ross fall away from them.

He stood at the hatch, shrinking as the distance
between them increased. They watched as he continued to shrink.

The facility turned, they could no longer see him.
The rockets and internal explosions had destroyed the motel's
structure.

A few seconds later, it smashed into an oceanfront
community. Any of the munitions that hadn’t been detonated went up
in a series of booms and ka-booms.

The explosions were so forceful that none of the
soldiers’ bodies were recovered from the wreckage. There were
plenty of weapon fragments and bodies belonging to innocent
civilians, but no evidence of what precipitated the attack.

Of course, neither Ross nor the children were found
among the debris, as once the unit was far enough away from Ashley
and Geoff; he’d activated his phase camouflage and flew away from
the falling motel.

Things had definitely taken a turn for the
surreal.

Croswell had just executed the White Hose Chief of
Staff, after framing him for conspiracy in the entire Bergstrom
mess.

Ross had been surprised; Croswell hadn’t filled him
in on his plan. Maybe he’d made it up on the spur of the moment.
My God, lunatics and mad men surround me.

It was little trouble for the experienced vet to keep
up with the cruiser’s autopilot. He followed Ashley and Geoff and
for now, as long as they were safe, he’d keep his word not to break
the fifth-wall.

What the hell was Fox thinking?

Thursday, July 30, 2308

Ross was gone. Now Ashley and Geoff were completely
on their own. Geoff tuned the scanner to the police band. The lack
of pursuit was unnerving.

"They don't see us!" he said. "They must have been
tracking Ross. They didn't know we were there. The whole time you
were upstairs, they kept saying that they couldn't get a reading.
It must have been the Micronix!" Geoff sat bolt upright. "Where is
it?" He was panicked. "I left it on the table!"

Ash pulled the device from her pocket.

"It must be jamming their scanners.” Geoff said. He
looked at her. "Are you using it?"

"No. It freaks me out. I don't want it in my
head."

Geoff smiled. "I don't know how to say this, but I
think it thinks."

"What about?" she asked, holding out at harm’s
length.

"It's very angry." Geoff looked at his sister,
"That's why it likes you so much. You think about the same
things."

Ashley raised an eyebrow.

"It wants revenge."

Ash smiled. "What does it want revenge for?"

"Same as you and me, for what they did to dad. And
for being separated from its brother."

"Its brother? What are you talking about?"

"There were two of them," Geoff said.

"Who got the other one?" she asked.

"I guess whoever got Dad.”

Ashley smiled. She knew their names,
Stanwood and
Von Kalt
. "If we're not careful, they're going to get us
too."

"Then let's be careful," Geoff said.

Ashley pulled up the sedan's pre-programmed
destinations and selected the nearest transfer car. She
double-checked the black remote key Ross had given her and pulled
the lever to recline her seat. Ash and Geoff slept until the
autopilot gave its distinctive three rings, announcing that they
had arrived at their destination.

Ashley sat up and looked around. They were in another
parking structure, but much busier, more upscale. Ash looked over
to the car next to them, a black armored hatchback. She triggered
the key; the monster came alive, its lights winking, acknowledging
the
unlock
command.

"Geoff, we're here," Ashley woke her younger
brother.

Geoff looked around. "Here, where?"

"A mall I think."

"I'm so hungry," Geoff said.

"I know. I am too. We have to get some money," Ash
said.

"We could try using Mom's cash station codec," Geoff
suggested. "This is an emergency."

"This is definitely an emergency, but if we use it,
we'll have a whole new set of them. That’s always how they get
caught on the vid streams."

"They won’t catch us! We should go to a transit
port," Geoff said.

"What are you talking about? You’re asleep."

"No. One time, on Simon Timex, they had to get cash
and didn't want to be followed, so they waited till five minutes
before a shuttle for Vegas and then used a cash station."

"We're not going to Vegas."

"Neither did Simon," Geoff explained.

"Ha." Ashley laughed.

"But the bad guys spent twenty minutes trying to
figure out where he went. They split up, and he was already long
gone."

"We're not going to a transit hub, Geoff. Maybe that
works on vid streams and cartoons, but this is real life. Transit
hubs are full of cops, it’s a bad idea."

"Not to hide out, just to get cash. That way, if they
do pick up on us, they'll have to scan all the carriers to see if
we even got on a shuttle. If we just go to some regular old bank,
they're going to be all over us."

"Okay, okay. We'll try it. But the first sign of
anything and we're out."

"The first sign of anything and it'll be too late,"
Geoff answered.

Ashley smiled. "As long as we're clear."

Geoff smiled back.

Reid joined Major Ross on overwatch, silently keeping
an eye on the children from a few hundred meters above. Ross
worried that, much as Geoff had said, at the first sign of
anything, it may indeed be too late.

Two hours later, the siblings had parked, staked out
and approached a cash station set next to a transit hub. People
crowed the terminal. Each shuttle discharged a multitude of
passengers and then sucked up the new fares, leaving the platform
nearly empty.

Ash and Geoff spent fifteen minutes circling,
watching the terminal from different locations. There were a dozen
automated ticket stations, each doubling as a cash station. This
particular platform also happened to be empty of uniformed
policemen.

Geoff and Ashley both noticed other orphan children
who had begun stalking them, but considering recent events, they
weren't worried.

As soon as they stepped onto the platform, a tall,
lanky boy confronted them. "This is the Devils' station. You want
to use it, you have to pay the Devils' tax."

The Angel City Devils were a notorious street gang.
Everyone had heard of them, many who had no affiliation claimed to
be members. Ashley suspected the boy in front of her was of the
later group.

All true members of the Angel City Devils bear the
Devil's mark. At fist glance, she didn't see his mark. Ashley
stepped toward him. "Unless you want to bleed red blood, you'd
better step back."

Geoff noticed that Ashley's right hand was held
behind her back, as if keeping Geoff away from the bully, but then
he saw the black rectangle.

The tall boy laughed. His hair stuck up at odd
angles, and he looked as if he hadn't had a shower or a picked up a
brush in years. "You don't understand. We have to collect the tax.
You don't pay us, we get beat."

Despite his unclean appearance in all other respects,
the boy's teeth glowed a brilliant white. They were clean and
straight and perfectly out of place in his filthy mouth.

"We're not paying, so get lost," Ashley said, moving
back half-a-step, just enough to appear scared and push Geoff back
a couple more.

"Oh, you're paying all right. You're paying."

He mistook Ashley's retreat for cowardice and stepped
toward her, raising his hand to strike.

There were four other boys and Ash noticed that the
others didn't seem as into it. They were all leaning back, turning
away, hardly even watching. Ash was familiar with dangerous groups
of bullies, and these guys weren't participating.

There were also several adults nearby, ignoring the
incident entirely.

The boy with the pure white teeth swung at Ashley. He
caught her right across the cheek. The CRACK, the volume of the
slap, brought the entire room to a complete and sudden pause.

No one said anything, everyone looked over to Ashley
and her aggressor. Lots of the adults were now watching.

Ashley recognized the same older Chinese man across
the hall. He was the same man she'd seen in the park and the
library.

Dirty face giggled. "Five across the eyes bitch!"

Ashley had allowed herself to be distracted. Her face
burned, the skin raised where his hand had made such abrupt
trespass. She felt violated. She felt helpless.

She felt fury, and then she moved.

Stepping forward with a powerful front kick, she
caught him square in the groin. His sudden intake of air and
silent, pained look confirmed her accurate impact with the
target.

Ashley stepped back, letting him collapse to his
knees.

She tried to resist the urge, but couldn't, and
delivered several savage strikes to the boy's exposed face.

Over and over again, she brought her fist down into
his nose and mouth. Blood exploded from beneath her hand.

After the flurry of punches, the boy collapsed to the
station floor. His hands clutched at both his crotch and face.

Between the fingers, under the red ripped flesh, two
rows of perfectly white teeth. Ashley hoped she'd chipped at least
one but refrained from kicking him in the head.

Most people were watching, except for the Chinese
man, who appeared to be studying the schedule board.

Ashley scanned the faces of the boy's friends.

None of them seemed interested in taking revenge
against her, their eyes all found other things to look at.

The adults, who hadn't done anything when the boy hit
Ash, likewise didn't do anything now. They turned back to their
original conversations, and the busy air of the station picked up
once again.

The boy had gotten into a sitting position, his right
hand investigating the damage to his nose.

Ashley saw a nearby cash station and led Geoffrey
over to it. She punched in her parent's code and took out five
hundred republican talents.

No one noticed. No one came rushing over to arrest
them.

No one cared.

Ashley looked for the white haired Chinese man again,
but he wasn't in the terminal anymore.

Ashley and Geoff wheeled a cart through a massive
grocery store. Ash had gotten a backpack from the
Back to
School
aisle, and it sat in the center of the cart. Ashley had
gradually filled it with camp supplies and less-perishable foods; a
variety of fruit, nuts, and granola.

Geoff was frustrated because his sister kept nixing
his requests for candy, soda and chips. He wanted to get two
backpacks full of stuff, but Ash had objected to that as well; so
the single backpack remained open in the center of the cart,
gradually being filled with what Geoff referred to as birdseed and
other slowly rotting biomass.