Roo'd (32 page)

"If we don't make it out of here, Feed, we need you to figure out a way to stop him."

Feed blinked, felt himself stranded, captured in the cold logic.

"You wrote it, little man" said Cessus, his eyes focused on his, through the data. "You wrote it. It's your responsibility."

Then they were gone, walking away towards the table.

"Come on, Feed" said Cass, lighting her cigarette with a flick of her bic. "There isn't much time."

Fede had allowed himself to be led away, back past the stairs and down the long hallway. Their car was gone when they went through the big underground room. Several of the Fuk Ching darted around, quick hands setting what looked like clay bricks around the entrance door. One of them glanced up at Fede as they passed through and their eyes met. Fede didn't recognize the look he saw there, shiny eyes like black marbles.

"You planned this" said Fed.

"No shit" said Cass. "Do you disagree? You're the only one who"

"I know" interrupted Fed. The smooth lift of his legs made him bounce lightly as he followed her, afloat. "I know."

They came to another staircase, a short one, metal plates welded into place over their exit. Next to the stairs the concrete pooled in a stone imitation of melted butter across the floor, revealing a crack leading to a small hollow space beyond.

"We put in a fake wall across the back of the warehouse overhead. It's metal, so it should resist their scans" said Cass. She slid sideways through the gap in the wall and he heard the rattle of aluminum beyond.

"We wielded a ladder in here. A few of them." Her voice grew faint. "They should hold, though."

He slid inside the gap, his goggles amplifying the dim light within. Someone had put strips of glow tape across every third rung of the cheap aluminum ladders that stretched upwards and out of sight in the thin high passageway.

"Why this?" asked Fed.

"We have to communicate with Cessus through IR. They'll trace anything else" she said from above him.

"So we have to be line of sight" he muttered.

"So we have to be line of sight" her voice echoed. "Hurry up."

It was slow going, and Fede was seized with panic every few steps as his new feet rocketed him forward, or slipped as the traction pads found new purchase. The passageway was only about as deep as he could reach, and he kept scraping the small of his back as he bounced upwards. After what seemed like an eternity Cessus' voice crackled into his ear;

"Five minutes and counting" he said. "They've taken the bait and are on their way in. T-bird and Funky Daddy in position. Big Mac in position. Slim kitty, you in position?"

"In position" said Cass, her voice a faint echo. "But Smart Boy isn't here yet."

"Feed, get your ass up there" Cessus's voice said.

"Cut the code name bullshit" Tonx said across the comm. "If they can decrypt our channels they'll be able to triangulate anyway. Switch to true private. See you on the other side, people."

The sounds in his ear went dark; no data at all. Fed's goggles showed his feeds trailing off and shrinking to single points, tiny blinking cursers an array around the edges of his vision. Cessus had cut them off.

He scrambled up and felt a hand reach out of the dark to grab his shoulder.

"Come here" Cass's voice whispered, pulling him away from the ladder. His stomach fell as he groped his way towards her, out onto a foot-wide platform jutting towards the ladder. His foot slipped from it as he went and he almost fell, his hand banging against the wall behind him as he steadied himself.

"Quiet" hissed Cass's voice in his ear. She moved sideways and pulled him farther from the ladder, and suddenly Fede was looking out a ping-pong ball-sized hole out at the warehouse below.

"Fiber-optic cable" Cass said. "Gives us a view out. Here. Plug in." She handed him a data cable and he fumbled it into his headset.

"..is what Xing said" said Cessus. "Okay, hold tight folks, here we go."

Through the tiny portal in front of him Fede could see the stage far below, Tonx sitting on the chair, the metal drive on the table in front of him. Cessus stood to his left, his hands folded behind him. Even from here Fede could see his head bobbing slightly in tune to some unheard music.

The giant door ahead of them slowly began to lift, and Fed realized his view was image-enhanced for light. The edges of his view curdled as headlights poured halogen brilliance through the widening crack. The Fuk Ching were nowhere to be seen. Slowly the door lifted to about waist-height, and stopped.

A huge figure crouched to fill the space beneath the gap, then stood up inside. Another figure appeared and slipped in, and another. Nearly a dozen of them filed in, and then a small one, a tiny man in a suit, his movements awkward as he shuffle-stepped under the door. The large figures surrounded him and they moved forward in a tight phalanx.

As they approached the table the large figures resolved into men in full-combat gear, semiautomatics on hydraulic struts mounted to mottled green exoskeletons, pistons whirring behind their ankles with each step. Giant backpacks full of ammo and fuel and intelligence gear straddled their backs, long broad featherlike antenna waving gently from behind where their ears would be, if they had ears under their full-face helmets.

"It was rude of you to not show up at the appointed place" said Chow as he stood in front of the table, his hands tucked carefully in his beige suit coat's pockets. He hadn't stepped onto the stage yet.

"We do what we can" said Tonx. Their voices sounded dull over the IR connection. "You seem to have adapted."

Chow nodded. "You have brought the drive?" he asked.

"Yes" said Tonx. He gestured at the seat across the table from him. "Feel free to inspect it. You had some very interesting encryption there."

Chow grinned. He glanced at one of the armored soldiers next to him.

"Yes, thank you" he said. "You enjoyed the contents?"

Tonx shrugged. "Did you bring our data?"

"That is an interesting thing" said Chow. His suit wrinkled tightly around his belly as he moved.

"You know I have been using your program" he said. He watched Tonx out of one eye as he said it, his round head cocked to one side. Tonx said nothing.

"I know you know this. I have made arrangements with your friends, the Otaku. They have told me about your exit strategy, about the cars hidden in the back of the building."

Chow began to slowly pace to one side. "Furthermore, I know you have not cracked that drive. There is nothing to crack. I filled it with garbage and encrypted it using three different systems to give an impression of regularity. You have been wasting time."

Fede could hear Cessus' breathing through the data line, a thin rasping in and out.

"Finally" Chow said, "I told you to bring the programmer. He has done some brilliant work and" Chow waved his hands in a flourish, "I was excited to meet him." He pointed at Cessus. "This is not the author of the virus."

"How do you know that?" said Tonx. "Otaku don't know that."

Chow positively beamed. "I know."

"How?" demanded Tonx. Fede could hear Cessus's breath quicken.

The soldier to Chow's right slowly let his arms drop from the tight ready position he had held, his legs slowly easing upwards and into an easy slouch. The long barrel of the automatic flipped upwards as he fumbled at the helmet, slowly pulling it away to reveal Poulpe's head ensconced in taped-on sensors and carefully placed pieces of rubber padding. Thickly gloved fingers clumsily peeled away the tape and pulled back his hair.

"Surprise, Tonx" he said. "It is so very good to see you again."

"Poulpe" said Tonx, his voice flat. "You betrayed us."

"'This is just business'" mocked Poulpe. "Isn't that right? We may say that I found a better partner. Mr. Chow has made a very generous offer in exchange for my help with your brother's software. We stand to make substantial profit."

"Doing what?" asked Tonx.

Poulpe grinned and pushed the tip of his tongue against his lower lip as he glanced at Chow. "That doesn't matter, does it Tonx?"

"Where is Feed?" asked Chow, all traces of courtesy suddenly gone.

"Plan B" said Cessus urgently over the comm. "Plan B Goddammnit Plan fucking B do it do it now."

Cessus and Tonx suddenly disappeared through a gaping hole in the platform beneath them, the entire stage collapsing upon itself and over them like an obscene plywood origami. Something heavy shook the wall in front of Fede and one of the soldiers flew backwards to skid across the floor. The others began to the fire, gouts of yellowed light flinging thousands of tiny bullets around the perimeter of the room. Garbage-can sized cylinders rolled under the edge of the giant door and sprang into two wheeled halves, their middle a solid armored block, gridded baskets on their tops casting green laser light in scanning patterns across the room.

"Plan B!" screamed Cessus across the line. He was panting now, running somewhere. "Get out of here!"

He was interrupted by a roaring scream as the cylinders began to fire as they fanned out from underneath the door, bright white tracer rounds flying away from them like stars from gyroscopically spinning turrets in their tops. The soldiers followed the brightest clusters, charging ahead through the bullets.

There was a burst of flame as one of the robots exploded and Fede saw a Fuk Ching out on the floor for the first time. He was flying upwards and outwards like superman, driven through the air by the explosion, the metal plating of a robot's underbelly slowly falling away from his feet. He spread his arms as he rose, his legs slowly unfolding from the compressive shock, tiny globular pistols spitting dark clouds of some sort of grit towards the solider underneath him. The arc of his flight peaked and he fell, gently tucking his feet back beneath him and collapsing into a roll that threw him past Fed's line of view. He saw another of them, a giant soldier spinning nimbly on his hydraulic exoskeleton to avoid the thick black gloves the Fuk Ching wore on his hands. They danced, the soldier sewing strips of lead across the floor and through the air, tracking the Fuk Ching as he leapt and spun around him. He didn't seem to be trying to hit the big soldier, didn't have a gun or a knife or anything. He just leaned in past the bend of the soldier's arm and put his hand against the joint - there, then flung himself back and under the line of fire before kicking himself forward and slapping his hand against the joint of the soldier's knee.

"Feed!" shouted Cass from below him. "Feed!"

Fede saw the solider suddenly stumble and fall, his weapon sputtering inexplicably out. His arm flew out and Fede saw the man inside bend backward as he struggled to undo the armor. He was screaming. The Fuk Ching leapt forward towards him and as he did so a tracer round buried itself into the base of his skull, the force of the shot turning his leap into a dive, the burning metal shot expulsing his brains as steam behind him as he flew.

"Feed!" yelled Cass again. "Come
on
!"

Just below him on the warehouse floor by where the table had stood Fede saw Poulpe. The Frenchman was bent over and waving his hands over his head in a bizarre bid for protection from the bullets filing the air around him. Another boom shook the room and the rifle attached to his arm shattered, tiny bits of shrapnel tearing the air over Poulpe's head. He looked at his arm for a moment, bewildered, before Chow appeared at his feet, clambering up out of the hole.

Cass was next to him then, on the platform.

"Feed, we need to go now. Pull it together. Come on."

Her voice was steady and solid, a real thing. Fede reached out and felt her strong hands grip his. She pulled him over to the ladder and got him heading down besides her. His goggles adjusted and he saw she was holding herself in place with her arms and legs propped out against each wall, her feet spread wide beneath the overcoat.

"Go" she said "Go and don't stop. I'll meet you at the bottom."

She disappeared, falling. Fede started to descend as fast as he could, a series of explosions rocking the wall the ladder was wielded to.

His comm crackled to life, his vision suddenly blooming as his data feeds reconnected.

"… fucked" came Cessus's voice. "The passage collapsed, probably explosives. We can't get out. Xing! Xing!"

There was a suddenly hiss and a distant rattle from the comm line as Fede continued to descend.

"..dammit oh god" came Tonx's voice.

"What's going on?" asked Fed. Nothing. Fed repeated the question, panic biting into him, his hands slippery on the ladder as he tried to descend.

"Feed? You okay?" Tonx asked. He sounded strange, almost drunk.

"Yeah, I'm"

"This is going to hurt a little" interrupted Cessus's voice. Tonx screamed

"Where's Cass?" Cessus asked, then, "stop moving, I can't tie this thing off."

"She went down before me" said Fed. "What happened to Tonx?"

"Nothing" said Tonx, his voice suddenly firm. "Fed, listen. Xing's line was traced. He's cut off from communicating directly. We need to get Chow to the train. Can you hear me?"

"Yes, but"

"Just listen. Cessus is dumping the data to you now. You need to get Chow to follow you and then head out towards the northeast corner, the one the first Fuk Ching came from earlier, you remember? There's a secret exit there. Get to it and you'll find transport. Follow the map as fast as you can and get on that train!"

"How am I supposed to make Chow follow me?" asked Fed.

"You're the one that he wants, Feed. He needs you to alter the program. Poulpe's told him everything. It was a ruse. They only want you, Feed!"

"Stop moving!" said Cessus. "Tonx, this is a lot of blood, we need"

Their voices cut out. A tiny cursor in the corner of Fed's vision showed a successful download. Data expanded, a three dimensional map of the building, a thin dotted line curving out from his current location, down the ladder and the hallway and up the stairs and towards the northeast corner. The image rotated, went 2D, the line repeating itself before turning to half opacity. Fed's foot hit the ground, rocking him as his legs took up the shock.