State of Decay

her?

No.

A struggle took place in there; that was clear. Some of the many empty liquor bottles had been toppled and smashed, and notebooks, papers, and pieces of glass were scattered across the floor.

Near the front door was a man’s body, lying in a wide pool of blood with what looked like his guts spilled out in front of him.

Who’s the victim?

Next-door neighbor.

The older man, the one she didn’t get along with. Maybe he tried to help her out and got more than he bargained for.

What about the survivor?

Downstairs neighbor.

Karen. Did she see anything?

According to her, she missed the whole thing. Zoe was gone when she got there.

She missed the whole thing?

That’s what she says.

Sean, how did she step over a dead man and get hit by the attacker if she missed the whole thing?

I’m just telling you what she said.

They’d dose her to be sure, but I had a feeling it wasn’t going to matter. I had a feeling she didn’t miss the whole thing, but Zoe had influenced her otherwise.

She doesn’t know anything, Sean said.

You don’t think she’s lying?

I think she believes what she’s saying.

A shot rang out off to my left up ahead, and I saw a muzzle flash light up the concrete wall of the building. I felt Calliope jump in the seat in front of me, but she kept us steady. As we passed, I looked between the buildings and saw a luxury vehicle idling there on the side street, one wheel up on the curb of the walk. The driver’s-side door hung open and two revivor soldiers stood there, one holding its rifle with the barrel still drifting smoke. It moved to one side to let the other one in as it pointed a short weapon with a large, tubelike barrel into the vehicle. A gas- powered thud came from the street behind us as we passed.

“Cal, stop the bike!” I yelled, but she kept going.

“Calliope, stop the bike!”

“Fuck you. I’m not going near those things!”

The bike veered, fishtailing for a second on a patch of ice as Calliope took us down a side street to avoid a patrol up ahead where flames were shooting out of a storefront. Garbage and debris littered the sidewalks and the intersection where the soldiers were standing.

Sean, what’s going on out here?

They authorized a troop increase to help keep order.

Because of the explosion at the arena?

Where have you been? After the garage bomb, two more went off, one in a mall and one in a nightclub.

Calliope took the bike into an alley, then scooted by a Dumpster through a narrow passageway. The vibrations from the engine were making my chest throb from the inside out and I was freezing, but I had to admit we would never have gotten as far as we even had if I’d tried to take the car. Whole blocks were closed to traffic and there were checkpoints everywhere. Every face we passed looked terrified; the presence of the revivors on the street had stirred up a primal fear in people. Bombs or no, it was a mistake to deploy them.

Sean, what’s the protocol on the PH soldiers? What are their orders?

Containment and suppression only. Why?

Nothing lethal? For any circumstances?

Sean paused for a moment.

No. Did you see something?

I’m not sure. I think so. Does any of the deployment include the use of Leichenesser canisters?

Why would a revivor be issued Leichenesser?

Sean, yes or no?

No.

The substance was used primarily for medical reasons and to destroy revivors, but it would consume any dead flesh. It was also handy for cleaning up messes. For making things disappear. Where had they gotten it?

Look, there’s something else you should know, Sean said.

What do you mean?

There’s another problem. Some of the revivors, the ones deployed with the troops, they stopped checking in.

What does that mean, “they stopped checking in”?

Isolated pockets of them broke off from their assigned groups. Some turned up not long after and acted like it was a malfunction in the command network. Some are still unaccounted for.

Another update came over the connection I was monitoring.

Database synchronization pending. Updating …Header mismatch: Mullvue, Horace. Murder. Header mismatch: Vesco, William. Murder. Header mismatch: Hibiki, Fran. Murder. Header mismatch: Phang, Shin. Murder. Removing …Removing …Removing …Removing …

The names continued to peel off. This was a much larger change than the ones I had witnessed before; at least fifteen names were removed.

What do you mean “some are still unaccounted for”? How many?

Seventy-two and counting.

Fawkes was behind this. He had to be. He knew revivor technology intimately; he would know how to infect the command matrix. Whatever he was up to, this was part of it.

That connection trace—

One step ahead of you. I followed it back to a site called Fioplex right here in the city. It’s an underground factory that used to produce optical cable, but it’s been shut down now for almost a decade.

You’re sure?

Yes. Once we pinpointed the site, we did a satellite scan and detected electrical activity down there, way too much to be noise. Someone’s using a lot of juice. You think whoever’s been bringing in the illegal revivors and tapping into Heinlein’s system is also directing the rogue PH soldiers?

He’s not doing it on his own.

The question remained, though: why? Samuel Fawkes might have the knowledge to take control of a large group of revivors—he’d already demonstrated he could take control of one—but he wouldn’t do it for nothing. If that was his intent all along and he just needed more revivors than he could bring in illegally, then the purpose of the attacks leading up to this point might have been to pressure the authorities into doing exactly what they did: deploy the National Guard with a compliment of PH soldiers. It would be one of the only set of circumstances under which anyone would ever see so many revivors out of stasis on American soil. Was this what he wanted all along?

There’s something else down there too, Sean said. Thermal signatures, a bunch of them.

Living people?

Quite a few of them.

Thanks, Sean. Keep me informed.

Will do.

I tapped Calliope’s helmet.

“What?” she yelled over the engine.