Strangers and Shadows (47 page)

“You sure you want to take her?” Jack asked, indicating Ava.  “No telling what she might do.”

Ava inhaled sharply, preparing to defend her own honor when Desmond beat her to it.  “I personally don’t think she would do anything to jeopardize our mission.  And besides, she may have knowledge of the prime minister and the Embassy that I don’t.  It’s a risk I’m willing to take.”

Celia huffed, but said nothing.  She didn’t agree with her father in this and let him know privately. 
“You can’t trust her, Dad.  And even if you could, you can’t trust the nanites that are still working inside of her.”

“I’m counting on it, actually,”
Desmond replied. 
“Also, you and Jack will be targeting the water supply, not the transport system.”

Celia understood.  Her father was using Ava for disinformation.  

“What would you have us do?” Drum asked.

“I trust you three to work out the details of the attack, but basically, you’re going to land strike teams in the dead zone and then seek out and destroy the EMF generators from the inside.  Even if we do succeed with the nano-virus, the EM field will still be operational if we don’t shut down those generators.”

Drum nodded grimly.

“Excellent, I’ll leave you to plan, and when you’re ready, we’ll begin.”

Might As Well... Jump

“Great—more rain!” Jack said, as he followed Celia down the alley in the slums of the capital city of the Seventh.  “Don’t they have weather control here?”

It was a little odd, Celia allowed.  “You’re right… They don’t usually make it rain over the cities.”  She wondered if it had anything to do with the plan her father had allowed Ava to overhear.  Probably not—besides, Ava wouldn’t even jump into the Seventh for at least several more hours.

Celia had taken Jack aside in the Sixth and explained what her father had shared with her in private.  Lucky for them, the slums didn’t warrant the expense of an EMF generator.

In contrast to the shining spires of the capitol above them, the underground of Capitol City was dark and dirty.  It wasn’t filthy, but it wasn’t well-maintained either.  The maintenance bots only swept through here occasionally.  Most of their time was occupied keeping the wealthier sectors of the city sparkling.  

“This way.”  Celia led Jack to a large grate on the sidewalk.  It was bolted shut.  Jack watched in amazement as Celia stretched out a hand.  The bolts came spinning up simultaneously and fell onto the sidewalk.

“That never gets old.”

Celia flashed him a smile.  “Come on, pretty boy, I got plenty more tricks to show you.”  She held the the grate open for him.

“I bet you do…” Jack said as he climbed down the access ladder that the grate had been protecting.

Celia came down after him.  “Eyes on the prize, Jack.”

“Where do you think they are?”

“On my ass.”

“Exactly,” Jack chuckled.  “…On the prize!”

“You know what I mean,” Celia chided.  “Focus.  We have no idea what to expect down here.”

“Alright, fine.”

“Still though,” Celia teased, “how’d it look?”

“Perky as ever, my dear.”

They reached the bottom of the shaft and found themselves in one of the various maintenance tunnels that spider-webbed underneath the city.

“Which way?” Jack asked.

“The treatment plant is several more levels down and that way.”  Celia pointed.

“How the hell do we get several more levels down?”

Celia shrugged.  “We’ll find a way… We just need to get close enough to the plant that we can burn through with the thermex we brought along.”

“Oh, I do love our plans…”

“
What
plans?” Celia played back.

“
Exactly…
”

Thirty minutes later they were still no closer to finding a way down to the treatment plant levels when Celia brought her hand up sharply, motioning for Jack to stop.

“What is it?” 

Celia cocked her head to the side.  “I thought I heard something.”

“Well, I didn’t hear an—”

“
Sshhh
… There it is again.”

Jack strained his ears trying to hear.  “I still don’t hear anything.”

“It was probably nothing.”  Celia began to walk again.  “We should be just about there.”  They rounded a corner and stopped abruptly.  It was a dead end.  Small pipes and wiring conduits continued through the wall.  

“I don’t get it… The access ladder to the next level down should be right here.”  Celia indicated a spot on the smoothly paved tunnel floor.

“Why do you want access to the lower levels?” 

Jack and Celia whirled around to find a man about Jack’s height standing there.  He was skinny and his clothes were dirty, but otherwise in good condition.  “You’re very quiet, to be able to sneak up on this one,” Jack said, sticking a thumb out at Celia.

“I
didn’t
sneak up on her, did I?  She heard me coming and knew I was here.”  The man shifted nervously back and forth on his feet.  “You’re one of
them
, aren’t you?”

Celia nodded.  “Do you know how to get down to the lower levels?”

“Might be I do, and may be I don’t.  I suppose it depends on what you want with them lower levels, don’t it?”

“We need access to the main water treatment plant beneath the city,” Celia said.

“What are you doing?” Jack asked, stunned.  “You can’t tell him that!”

“It’s okay, Jack.  He doesn’t have any nanites.”

The disheveled man appeared to be surprised, but quickly regained his composure.  “I guess it’s true what they say about you sixers.”

“That we’re made of sugar and spice and all things nice?” Celia smiled.

The man laughed.  “Something like that I suppose.”  He stepped closer and held out his hand.  “Name’s Orville, but you can call me Orville.”

Celia shook his hand and Jack found himself amused by the man’s introduction, despite the corniness of it.

“I’m Celia, and this is Jack.”

“So, you never really answered my question,” Orville said, the smile on his face faded.

Celia looked to Jack, who shook his head.  “I still don’t think it’s a good idea to tell him what we’re up to.”

“I don’t know,” Celia said.  “I have a feeling about this one.”

“Oh, well, if you have a
feeling
, then why didn’t you say so?”

“Hilarious, Jack.”  Celia heard the sound of a blaster charging up and turned to find that blaster pointed in her face.

Jack reached for his weapon.

“Stay right there, or she gets shot, cowboy!”

Jack frowned and slowly moved his hand away from his holster.  “What’s the big idea, chief?  I thought we were all friends here.”

“I’m going to ask you one last time, and then, if I don’t like your answer, we’ll see how true those sixer stories really are.  Now, what do you want with the lower levels?”  Orville was all business now.

“Alright, take it easy, friend.”  Celia raised her hands.  “We need access to the lower levels so we can cut our way through to the main water supply and deliver a nano-virus that will spread throughout the Seventh and render everyone’s nanites useless.”

Orville pulled back the blaster and holstered it.  “Well, why didn’t you say so.”

Jack raised an eyebrow.  “You’re okay with that?”

“There are quite a few of us who are
okay
with that,” Orville responded. 

“Who is
us
?”

“We are those, who choose to live down here, unconnected to the tech, but connected to each other.  Not everyone in this verse is pleased with where the Prime Minister has been leading us for the last several decades.  Years ago, many of us chose to remove the tech.”

“Why are you living down here?”

“The prime minister and her lackeys haven’t outlawed the absence of tech, they’re too smart for that.  But they pushed for everything to be run through it—the banks and commerce, information, food allocation, and living quarters—all of it is accessible only through the nanites.  We live down here through necessity.  We take what we need to live from the various shipment bots above, always being careful not to knock over too many bots in any one area.  Living without tech isn’t a crime, but theft of private and public property still is.”

“I see…”  Jack found his opinions of the man changing.

“We’ve been looking for a way to reset the system for years, and if you’ve got a way, then I’ll do everything in my power to help you.”

Jack looked at Celia.  “Well, you’re the mind reader, what do you think?”

“I think we’d be more than happy to have your assistance, Orville.”

“This is the place,” Orville said.  Behind him, Jack and Celia came to a halt.

The journey down had been largely uneventful.  Orville guided them back to the entrance to the lower levels.  They’d walked right by it without seeing it.  They passed several more of Orville’s people, each of them just as dirty and scrawny as Orville.

“You’re sure?” Jack asked.  The place didn’t look like much.  In fact, it looked like the rest of the access tunnels they had been walking through for the last two hours.

Orville nodded.  “This is the place you’re looking for.  On the other side of this wall is the main water treatment plant for the city.”

“Alright, lady pants, pull out your fancy eat-through-the-wall stuff and let’s end this thing.  I’d like to be home by dinner.” 

“You time-travelers and your ancient speech patterns.”  Celia shook her head as she primed the thermex charge.

“Who you calling ancient?”

“I’d find somewhere to hide if I were you,” Orville said.

Jack winked at him.  “It’s alright, she would never hurt me.  We’re just messing around.”

“I wasn’t referring to her.”

Jack turned over his shoulder to see the thermex charge glowing red hot as it burnt through the tunnel wall.  He let out a squeak and ran after Orville down the tunnel to where Celia was kneeling.  “You could have mentioned that, you know…”

From forty feet away, they could feel the heat coming off of the reaction as the thermex turned metal and stone into liquid and then black dust.

“You were in the middle of an important thought, babe.  I didn’t want to interrupt you.” 

Jack smirked.  “That’s my girl…  s
o considerate.
”

Orville cleared his throat.  “I believe the process is complete.  If you two are ready, that is.”

Celia stepped through into the treatment center and the alarm sounded.  Jack and Orville stepped through behind her and found themselves on an elevated walkway that ran next to an underground river.

“How long do you think we have?” Jack asked.

Celia reached up and grabbed his shirt.  “Get down!”  Blaster fire ripped through the air where Jack had been standing.  He was joined on the ground by Orville who had the good sense to try to make himself a small target.

“We can’t stay here!” Orville yelled over the sound of the shooting.

Celia took one look around and knew he was right.  “Back in the tunnel.”

Orville led the way back through the hole followed by Jack and then Celia.

“We can’t win a fight down here,” Jack said.  “We don’t have the firepower and besides, we didn’t come down here for that.”

Celia nodded.  “I know.  We came down here for
this
.”  She held up the vial of nano-virus and unscrewed the lid.

“How does it work?” Orville asked.

Celia shrugged and tossed it through the burn hole and into the underground river inside the treatment plant.  “That should do it.”

“You’re serious?  That’s it?”

“What were you expecting?  Flashes of light, smoke, explosions…?”

“Something like that, I suppose.”  Orville admitted.

Jack clapped him on the back.  “Not to worry, guy, she’s got you covered there too.”

They watched as Celia placed a charge on the tunnel wall and inserted a detonator.  “We should move…”  She ran past them down the hallway.

Orville followed her lead.  Jack turned to the detonator and saw the red numbers counting down.  Nineteen seconds to detonation.  Jack shook his head and sprinted after them.  “I don’t like this new habit you’re starting!” Jack yelled at Celia.

Celia slowed to let Orville take the lead and they ran until they heard the explosion and felt the walls around them shake.

“There.  That should buy us some time.”  Celia brushed the dust off of her clothes and hair.

Orville guided them back to the surface where he left them.

Jack waved as they watched him head back down.  “See ya later, buddy.  Thanks for your help.”

Orville paused.  “Thank you for yours.  When can I expect the changes to occur?”

“The virus should run its course completely in a day or two.  It moves fast,” Celia said.

“If what you say is correct, you have changed our world forever.  I can’t thank you enough.”

“Don’t mention it,” Jack said.  “Take care of yourself.”

Orville nodded and then climbed down the access ladder.

Jack and Celia turned and walked down the street.  “Well, that was easy,” Jack said.

Celia’s comm chirped.  It was her father.  She slapped Jack across the chest.  “You had to say something…”  She answered the comm still smiling.  “Mission’s complete on our end, Dad.”

Her smile faded as she listened to her father’s voice.  “We have a bigger problem than we thought.”

A Dash And A Twist

The light blue shock wave from the EMP spread out over the Embassy building and the rest of the block in the capitol city of the Seventh.  Desmond turned to his companions Ava and Asher.  “We have twenty minutes before the effects of the EMP are counteracted.  We need to move quickly.  Give me five minutes and then follow after me.  Keep your eyes peeled and your blasters ready.”

They watched as Desmond sprinted into the Embassy.  From outside they could hear the sound of weapons fire.  

“Guess the EMP doesn’t affect their blasters,” Asher said.

Ava shook her head.  “No, the blasters are shielded with their very own faraday cage.”