more.”
A lot of eyes looked over at Nico.
“Should he be in the field?” someone asked.
“He’s fine,” Alice said. At least one guy didn’t look sure, though.
“That stunt he pulled this morning was a long reach from ‘fine,’” he said. “I think we should …” He spaced, then, drifting off midrant like he was stoned or something. Hsieh’s pupils opened as she stared them down, and the rest shut up.
“Agent Wachalowski is not a revivor,” she said, clipped, “and he is vital to this case. Nanoblood from prosthetics doesn’t intermingle with a person’s organic systems, and he has experienced no symptoms of any kind. Right?” She shot that last bit at Nico.
“Right,” he said, but there was something off about the way he said it. Was he lying?
“How’d he manage the code push?” I asked. “Back in the grinder, command used a satellite for that.”
Hsieh turned to the wall and a photo popped up of a big cluster of satellite dishes mounted on a frame behind a wall of buildings.
“This is Heinlein Industries’ transmitter array,” she said. “It’s used to communicate with the UAC satellite network for defense, and also for the specific purpose of field upgrades. We’ve verified the transmission was sourced from this array and bounced back from Heinlein’s satellites. This transmitter is also how Fawkes is currently controlling the nuclear satellite, Heinlein’s Eye, and his Huma units in the field. It’s the lynchpin of his strategy and a high-priority target, but before we can move on it the Department of Defense needs to determine whether or not this might trigger a launch of the ICBMs.”
He waved at me to shut up.
“And what if it will?” he asked.
“Osterhagen has a team working on taking control of the grid back,” she said. “Stillwell is ready to move on the facility the second we do. They’re doing everything they can. For now just get over to Palos Verdes. I’ll keep you informed.”
Nico signaled to me, and I saw Van Offo watch as he took me back out the door and into the hall.
“What launch?” I asked. “What was she talking about?”
“ICBMs. Fawkes has twelve of them pointed at the city.”
ICBMs. That meant nukes.
“Why? What the hell does he want?”
“We don’t know for sure,” he said, “but the bottom line is, we have to get to him first. To do that I’m going to need your help.”
“You got it,” I said. He waved me into another conference room and shut the door. He turned on the noise screen and leaned in close.
“When you did your tour, you worked with the M8 series, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Did you ever hijack a revivor from an existing command network?”
“Sure.”
“Without using some kind of override code?”
“No.”
“Never?”
“There’s only one way to command a jack,” I said, “and that’s over a command spoke. You set up a new spoke, or you take over one that’s there already. You know that. What are you after?”
“I’m looking for a way to take control of one or more revivors from an existing command network, without tipping off the person controlling them.”
“Oh,” I said. I’d pulled that kind of thing off back in the grinder. “Sure. You can set that up, but you need to grab a revivor from the target network.”
“These revivors are behind Heinlein’s security perimeter, Cal. I won’t have physical access to them.”
“You need a live command spoke from a jack that can’t turn you in to the original commander—Fawkes.”
He rubbed his nose, and I saw his right hand. It was gray, like mine. There were black scabs fused over deep gouges in the knuckles. Those came from teeth. He’d bashed someone good.
“Shit, Nico.”
I grabbed his sleeve and pushed it up. The gray skin and black veins went up to his elbow.
“It’s fine.”
“Bullshit.”
I put my dead hand on his. The skin was the same color. Usually skin felt hot under it, but now his hand was as cold as mine. He gave my dead fingers a squeeze with his. Then he pulled away. He yanked the sleeve back down.
“I heard what you did down at the VA,” I said. “That doesn’t sound like you. You okay?”
“I’m fine.”
“You don’t look fine.”
“I’m fine,” he said again, looking at the back of his dead hand for a second. “I think I might have some bleed- through, that’s all.”
He meant nanoblood leaking through the filter that joined a new limb and infecting the real blood on the other side. It happened sometimes with a rush job, or if you stressed a new joint too much, too soon. He said it like it was no big deal, but it was. You could die from that.
“‘That’s all’?”
“I’ll get it looked at,” he said. “Never mind me. What about you? The inhibitor worked, then?”
“I’m still here, aren’t I?”
He smiled. “I’m just glad you’re okay.”
“Me too,” I said. “I mean, I’m glad you’re okay.” He looked like he was going to say something else, but before he could I punched him in the arm—his good arm.
“Yeah, yeah,” I said. “I know. Me, too. I got to get back to base. Tell me what you need.”
“For now, let’s say I’m able to get access to one of the revivors without Fawkes knowing,” he said. “How would I take control of the rest?”
“Easy. My CO showed me on week one. You keep the one you grab on the command spoke so you don’t tip anyone off, then drill into its control center to keep it quiet. Physically drill. After that, you can use a special package to set up your own command net, right on top of the first one.”
“That works?”
“Kind of. Any jacks you spoke to will take orders from either person controlling them, so you can still get caught. How many is he running total?”
“Inside Heinlein, probably hundreds.”
“Perfect. He can’t keep his eye on that many; it’s fucking impossible. Pick a few he doesn’t move, ones on autopilot, and use those.”
“Do you have the modules to do this?”
“I can get them.”
“Do it. Keep this quiet.”
“I’ll need to call in a favor.”
“Just keep it off the network. Fawkes had men inside Heinlein. He might have them here too. I’ll only have one shot at this.”
“Don’t worry about—”
I stopped short. A shiver ran down my spine. I heard it before I even knew I heard it.
“What is it?” Wachalowski asked.
The sound came from outside. I’d heard it enough times in the grinder to know you hit the deck when you did. It was the sound of rotors. A Chimera was coming in hot.
“Nico, get—”
The wall to my left blew into a thick cloud of powdered concrete and glass as a Gauss chain gun unloaded on the side of the building. The turret howled as it tore open the conference room around us. I caught a flash of the
