Element Zero

I felt Fawkes connect, and he began to scan my systems. He poked around, looking for a way in. His owl’s eyes didn’t change expression.

“Who is controlling you?” he asked.

“She’s running some kind of virtual command connections,” Ang said. “I tried to shut her down when someone blocked me, someone from inside. Someone besides MacReady is helping her.”

“Virtual command connections to where?”

“I wasn’t able to trace them before I got kicked off.”

In the feed, I saw a pair of hands place the tank on the concrete floor as the revivor scanned the room. A huge turbine of some kind took up most of the space there, surrounded by smaller blocks of machinery and rows of metal ductwork. The main pipe stood higher than a man. According to the building’s schematic, that was the main outflow pipe.

All nodes, report in. Fawkes’s eyes looked distant as the responses began to pour in. It would take time to process them all, but not much.

On the feed, the revivor grabbed the tank and approached the pipe. Using a cutter, it opened a hole large enough to squeeze through, leaving one corner attached. It peeled back the lid, and I could see its uniform begin to ripple madly as the air escaped. From far off, I heard a low whistle moan through the halls.

Fawkes looked back through the doorway.

“What is that?”

The revivor passed the tank through the hole, then climbed in after it. Inside the pipe it was dark, but its night vision allowed me to see the interior as it reached back through, grabbed the metal lid, and pulled it back. The whistle went up in pitch as the revivor held the metal in place, its fingers stuck through the seam.

Fawkes began issuing orders over the command spokes. In minutes, a squad of revivors would be down there, and he’d know.

Faye, I’m shutting down the circulation to T5. The message came not from Nico, but from Dulari. She’d been monitoring us. I tried to respond, to tell her that Fawkes was here with me, but the circuit was one-way, so it couldn’t be traced back.

A low thud came from somewhere in the building. The airflow to the room we were in stopped. Fawkes continued to watch me impassively as he ran a trace on the override circuit.

The revivor in the pipe gripped the tank between its legs, still holding the pipe lid shut with one hand. It used its free hand to open the tank, and icy mist began to drift from the mouth. It pushed the tank over with one foot and liquid gushed out, down the pipe. When it hit the air, it exploded in a cloud of gas. I caught a glimpse of the revivor’s arm and hand as they bubbled and dissolved away. I saw the mechanism that held the blade inside the forearm as the muscle and flesh melted; then the feed warped and went black.

It’s away, Dulari said. Critical saturation should occur within minutes.

Fawkes looked down at MacReady’s body, then back to me. “What did he tell you, Faye?”

“He said you’re going to destroy the city.”

“That’s bullshit,” Chen said. “She—”

“Take Mr. Chen to be treated, please.”

The revivor that was holding him up steered him toward the doorway and began half dragging him out. Over his shoulder, Chen glared at me, red-faced.

“What else did he say?” he asked.

“Just do it,” I said. “Kill me.” He stepped closer, and his soldiers crowded in behind him.

“Not until I’ve had a chance to look through your memory core,” he said. “Something’s going on here. What else did Mr. MacReady tell you?”

“He said you’d destroy the city no matter what anyone did.”

“If I wanted to destroy the city, then I’d do it. I have the capability to do it right now. I could issue one order and it would be done. I have no intention of destroying the entire city.”

Fawkes stopped short. Orange light glowed in the darks of his eyes.

“One of the gen-eight nodes just dropped off,” one of the soldiers said.

A message came in over the command network, instructing all revivors inside the missing unit’s patrol perimeter to report the location of the missing node. One by one the responses would be coming back.

“Faye, what did you do?”

Faye, Nico sent, get him out of there. He needs to be inside the dispersion area.

There wasn’t any other option. I opened a channel to Dulari and tried to warn her, even as Fawkes began tracing it.

Dulari, open the blowers to this room, I said, but she didn’t respond.

Fawkes came farther into the room. Through the open doorway I could see down the corridor to the other end, where two guards stood in the main corridor. He stepped past the body on the floor and stopped in front of me.

“You still belong to me.”

He finally broke through, then, and released the locks on my systems. He reestablished the command spoke and tapped into my nodes.

“Now tell me: what did you do?” Data spilled by in front of me as he accessed everything. He found the packages Nico had installed. He found the virtual command network hidden inside his own. He identified the end nodes, and his eyes widened just a fraction.

Something clattered in the hall outside the room, and he turned suddenly. Through the doorway, I saw the guards sway on their feet as white smoke began to stream from their flesh. A crackling sound filled the air, and both figures collapsed inside their uniforms. Their remains splashed to the floor, dissolving away to nothing.

The guard closest to the door slammed it shut. Fawkes turned back to me and stared. It was one of the few times I saw anything resembling emotion in his eyes. He tried to shut down the virtual links and found that they wouldn’t respond.

“Kill her!” he barked. One of his guards took a step, then all at once they seized and fell to the floor. The Leichenesser hadn’t made its way into the room; someone had hijacked them and shut them down remotely.

“Dulari,” Fawkes hissed.

Faye, Nico sent. Get him out into that corridor. It’s the last chance you’ll have.

Orange light flickered in Fawkes’s eyes, and a moment later a thud drummed through the floor as the air circulators shut down. The others must have reached the control center.

Fawkes issued a broadcast and pulled a node count. Already it had dropped to a third of his original forces. He slammed one fist down on the table.

Faye, take him now. Fawkes stepped closer and looked into my eyes, like he was staring through a window at something, or someone else.

Wachalowski, he sent.

He grabbed my throat with one hand and squeezed.

Nico Wachalowski—Stillwell Corps Base

I was almost out of time. In the confusion I couldn’t see what happened to MacReady, but his link had dropped. I still had a connection to Faye, but she’d lost her weapon. On her feed I could see Fawkes. He had leaned close and was staring into her eyes, at me.

You’re too late, Agent.

“He’s not waiting for a full charge,” I heard Vaggot say. “He’s preparing to fire.”

Fawkes, don’t do this.

Orange light began to flicker behind the soft glow of his eyes. There was only one way left to stop him from