Element Zero

“Promise me you’ll leave. Leave tonight. Right now.”

“I can’t.”

More attention was focusing my way. Any second now, Ai would snap out of it and realize what I’d done. When she did, she’d make me hang up.

“This is the last time we’ll talk,” I said.

“Zoe—”

“You tried to help me,” I whispered. “Please save yourself.”

“Why, Zoe?” he asked. “What are they going to do?”

“Nothing,” I told him. “But I think I am.”

He was still talking when I felt the presence worm its way into my head, gentle but firm. Some small shard of Ai’s consciousness had turned its attention to me. I wanted to keep talking to Nico. There were things I wanted to tell him but the presence wouldn’t let me.

That’s enough, Zoe.

My arm dropped and the phone slid away from my face. I watched his name on the LCD as the phone spun end over end and clattered to the floor.

Calliope Flax—Stillwell Corps Base

I woke up to the sound of static, louder than usual. I couldn’t move, and I couldn’t see.

“She’s prepped,” a voice said. “Are you ready to deploy?”

“Yes, sir.”

I tried to move, but I couldn’t. The last thing I remembered, they’d rushed me.

“What was that before?” the first voice asked.

“You mean why didn’t she respond to the push?”

“A ten-year-old could control her. Why didn’t she stay under?”

“I don’t know.”

The static in my head cracked. I tried to move again, but my muscles wouldn’t respond. I opened my eyes, but it stayed dark. I tried to call Nico, but my JZI’s comm link was down.

“It doesn’t matter. Let’s just do this. Stop her heart,” a voice said.

A needle pricked the back of my neck. I felt a cold metal ring push down on my bare back.

“What are you waiting for?”

“Maybe this isn’t a good idea,” another voice said.

“Fawkes eighty-sixed the test subjects, and every time we grab one off the street, he cuts it loose. It’s got to be during the sync-up. She’s our last shot at this.”

“He just dropped a nuke in the middle of the bay. When he sees what we’ve done —”

“If this works, he won’t be doing anything.”

“But if it doesn’t—”

“Osterhagen says, ‘Risk it.’ Now stop her fucking heart; that’s an order.”

“She can still hear us,” I heard Singh say under his breath.

“I don’t give a shit. Is the virus ready to go?”

Singh sighed. “Yes, sir.”

“Then do it. Now.”

A hand touched my face. I felt warm breath in my ear.

“Sorry, Cal.”

A circuit lit up on my JZI then. I still couldn’t call out, but someone on the outside was calling in. It was Singh.

Singh, get me the fuck out of here, or I swear I will—

Don’t be afraid, Cal, he said.

I’m not afraid, asshole.

You need to die just long enough for the Huma nodes to finish forming, but I’ll make sure you can be resuscitated.

Fuck you. Get me the hell out—

Pay attention. There’s no time to get into it, Cal, but we have to do this. If we can get you onto the carriers’ network, we can deploy a virus that will shut them all down. This is happening. It might be our only chance, and we have to stop those things. I know you understand that. Do you trust me?

I didn’t, but he was right about one thing: I did understand. I was fucked; they knew I was a carrier, and they had me. If there was a way out, Singh was it.

You’re a fucking asshole, Singh.

I know. Do you trust me?

What do I have to do?

You don’t have to do anything. You’re already part of the mesh; that’s why you can sense them, but you’re not fully synced up. We’re hoping Fawkes won’t interpret this as a new node joining, just an update of an existing one…. If we’re right, then you’ll be off his radar. When the nodes finish forming, the first thing they’ll do is transmit a sync request giving your stats, uptime, location, and so forth. The virus will be attached to the request and propagated. Understand?

No.

All you need to know is that your body will die for about a minute, but I’ll bring you back, Cal, I swear. As a human, not a revivor. Are you ready?

I wasn’t, but they had me. There was nothing I could do, and even though Singh was a prick, he was a smart prick. If he thought this could work, it might work.

If you fuck up, I told him, and I turn—

You won’t.

Don’t leave me like that.

I won’t.

I heard a thud, and pain slammed through my chest. It pulsed down my arms and up my neck, but I couldn’t move. The air died in my lungs and every muscle in my body went slack. I heard my vitals tone go flat, then fade out like I’d fallen down a deep tunnel. Everything got quiet. I couldn’t move or see or hear. There was just a big, black nothing.

Is this it? Am I dead? I never got to say bye to Nico. I didn’t even know where the fuck I was.

Node formation previously interrupted. Continuing…

The words popped up in the dark. They came from a JZ implant, so my brain still worked.

Is it alive, though? Was I alive or dead?

I got an itch at the back of my neck, like bugs under the skin. I could at least sense my body again. Just barely, I felt my fingers and toes prick with pins and needles.

Node formation successful. Reinitializing communications network.

In the back of my skull, the white noise streamed in like TV snow. The inhibitor usually stopped it, but not today.

All units clear zone H1B, a message said. As it faded, a shit-ton of them connected all at once and started blasting me with info. The node count kept climbing: a hundred, a thousand, two thousand …

Shit …

The count passed six thousand. I’d linked with revivors before, but never more than nine. Back in the field, I’d get a feed for each one on my JZI so I could keep an eye on them, but this time there were so many there was no