Element Zero

as the wind from the rotors kicked up snow, salt, and sand.

“Back away from the landing area!” the voice from the helicopter boomed. The helicopter hovered fifteen feet above the crowd and a door on the side slid open. Two soldiers with assault rifles were crouched on either side of it.

We pushed out into the open area in the middle of the circle, and I shielded my eyes with my gun hand as my hair whipped around my face. I was going to pass out; I was sure of it. Other people saw us break the barrier and started to follow. The helicopter wouldn’t be able to land.

“Back away from the landing area or we will open fire!” the voice echoed over the thump of the rotors.

Penny spun around and fired two shots over the heads of the crowd. Those in the path ducked down in a group, and there was a collective gasp before some of the tougher-looking customers recovered and began to focus on us. I could feel the minds changing around us as they began to realize the helicopter was not there to rescue them. It was there to pick us up, but not them.

I wanted to tell them the helicopter wouldn’t take them, that it wouldn’t matter what they did. Even if they killed us, it wouldn’t take them. I tried to focus on them, to calm them down and ease them back before someone got hurt, but I couldn’t. My head was spinning and I couldn’t concentrate on even one of them.

The helicopter managed to touch down, and as the bodies surged around us, the two soldiers jumped out and aimed their rifles out over the crowd. One fired a long burst over their heads and didn’t let up until they were all crouching. Penny dragged me along with her, out into the clearing and toward a third soldier, who signaled us from inside the helicopter.

“Get down on the ground now!” a voice boomed. The soldier fired another burst, and they started to get down on their knees.

“You can’t leave us here!” a man screamed, his voice hoarse. He had gotten back up and started toward us. “Fuck you. You can’t just—”

A single shot cracked and the man staggered back before falling to the ground. I saw blood begin to burble out of a hole in his chest. Penny and I marched between the two soldiers as I looked back and saw faces that were full of fear, anger, and hatred.

The man on the ground stared up at me, his breath coming in puffs that were carried off by the freezing wind. The light that swirled around his head was confused and scared in those last moments before his eyes went out of focus and it evaporated into the night air alongside his last breath.

Calliope Flax—FBI Home Office

Cal, are you there? It was Nico.

Nico, I said. Shit, it’s about time. Are you in one piece?

The whine from the incoming signal had cut out about a mile back. The transfer was done, and the jacks were on the move again. Police and soldiers were trying to keep them in check but there were too many streets not enough bodies to cover them.

I’m okay. Where are you? he asked.

Heading back to base.

Down a slope on the other side of the guardrail, I saw a pair of cops put three jacks against the wall behind a drugstore and shoot them. I cruised behind a strip mall and saw blues flash between the buildings where a group of soldiers were moving in. More gunfire cracked behind us as I squeezed back out into the parking lot, then back onto the sidewalk. People hugged the storefronts as they saw me coming.

“Out of the way!”

Vika bucked on the seat behind me as we hit a ridge of ice and caught air for a second. The bike fishtailed just as a man shoved a sheet of plastic out of the way and jumped out of the alley ahead of us. Vika squeezed my waist tighter as he grabbed for us and I steered out of his way. When I blew past him, I caught a flash of light in his eyes, and the static in my head crackled.

It’s nuts out here, Nico.

I know. I’m at the FBI building. Can you get here?

What for?

I want to run something past you. Off the wire. It’s important.

I looked down the street. The traffic was jammed as far as I could see. The Federal Building was a lot closer than the base, and I could drop the kid off there too.

I’ll be there.

Thanks. I cut the line, and called in to get a new route to the FBI. Dispatch pulled up the traffic reports and drew one out for me.

Stay off Stark Street; it’s gridlocked, the guy said. He fed me a new route.

Roger that. I changed direction and took us down a narrow ramp with chain-link on one side and pitted concrete on the other. We passed into the shadows under the monorail, and a couple pairs of eyes flashed in the dark. Something knocked over a shopping cart and stumbled behind a rusted pylon, but I didn’t see if it was human or not.

A shot boomed and more people scattered as I veered past a line of cars stuck behind a crash. Two more went off behind us as we approached a vehicle rolled over on its side, fire and smoke pouring out from the undercarriage. When we passed it, I saw a burned body through the back windshield.

This is fucked.

I took us through an alley to the main drag, where the Federal Building was. Something else scrambled across the street ahead and the static in my head picked up, a spike in the white noise. There was one nearby.

Vika tapped my back. Up ahead the space between the brick walls got narrow and there was a trash bin at the mouth of the alley.

Thrs 1. The message popped up on my JZI. The little shit had some kind of implant. She tapped my back again, and I saw her point from behind me.

Thr.

The crackle got louder. I saw something move from behind the trash bin. In the shadows, a pair of eyes flashed.

I cruised to a stop but kept the engine running. The thing trudged out from behind the box, and I drew my gun.

The static hissed as its feet scraped on the pavement. It was a street guy with a nasty beard and gaps in his teeth. I caught him in the headlight and saw that the whites of his eyes were stained black.

I put one in the guy’s forehead. The back of his head blew out, and he fell back against the metal bin. Steam rose off his sticky hair as he slumped over into the snow.

Nice shot.

I glanced back at her. When I scanned her, I found a JZI, or some half-assed version of one. It had a com link, but not much else.

Where’d you get the hardware? I asked.

Army. 2 yrs.

Two years in the army. The kid was sixteen, if that, so it wasn’t the UAC army. She had to be a refugee from somewhere in the Slav bloc. Who knew how she ended up here?

I drove past the body and back out onto the street. On the main road, a Stillwell truck used a winch to pull a wreck out of a snowbank. The FBI building was up ahead.

I parked on the sidewalk next to the entrance, and when I stood up my knee buckled for a second. The HUD on my JZI flickered, and a band of static squiggled past.

“You okay?” the kid asked.

“I’m fine. Come on.”

I tasted bile in the back of my throat as I headed up the stairs. Fawkes’s trigger didn’t kill me along with the