The Extinction Switch: Book three of the Kato's War series (18 page)

“We know,” the father said, crossly. “We’ve seen lots of them. But, what choice do we have?”

----

“I’m sorry you didn’t get to do your AVA or go through the graduation ceremony,” Asterope said.

“Yeah,” Kassandra said, wistfully.

“At least you’re partially trained,” Taygete said. “I just hope it’s enough. Your knife-throwing skills are great. I wouldn’t want to be your enemy.”

Kassandra smiled. “Thanks.” All around them, other Raiders, perhaps thirty in all, were suiting up in black pants and long-sleeved polo neck shirts made of a lightweight smart material. Kassandra pulled hers on. Both garments shrunk automatically to fit her body, without being overly tight. Taygete and Asterope then pulled on their black ski masks, which fit in the same way. Kassandra’s hair had been cut short so it didn’t protrude from the mask. Then came boots and gloves. After she was fully dressed, all three girls pulled on black backpacks, and then stuffed sheathed hunting knifes into each inside pants pocket.

Once everybody was ready, JC said, “You’ll be exiting from C and F tonight. It is precisely 2:05 AM. You’re due back by 3:50. If you’re not back, we’ll come looking for you. Everybody ready?”

“Ready,” Asterope said. Other pack leaders replied in the affirmative. JC raised both forearms in front of his face in an X salute. The Raiders did the same in reply. Then, one by one, the packs of three filed out along the catwalks towards platforms C and F, on opposite sides of the silo. Kassandra’s pack was the last to leave.

As they began to walk, JC put his hand on Kassandra’s shoulder. She turned to face his stony stare. “Don’t let me down, Nishimura.”

“Yes, sir.” She turned to follow the others.

JC’s grip on her shoulder tightened, and he spun her back around. “Did I say you were dismissed?”

“Um, no sir.”

“Those girls are some of my best.
Do not
screw up. I can’t afford to lose them. Am I clear?”

“As crystal, sir.”

“Get going.” Kassandra ran to catch up with the others.

“Verbal scorching?” Taygete asked Kassandra when she had re-joined them.

“Yeah.”

They walked across platform F, to the solid metal exit hatch, which stood open. Asterope exited first, then, Taygete, then Kassandra, into a long, featureless corridor that led directly away from the door.

“Ready to go ghost?” Asterope said.

“Ready.” They pinched a spot on the waistbands of their pants. The girls’ garments instantly turned into the static gray pattern of vertical lines which had made Josiah so hard to see.

“What’s so special about this pattern?” Kassandra asked.

“It confuses the cameras,” Taygete said. “And people.”

“Right.”

They headed down the corridor. It came to a T intersection. Another Raider pack had headed right, so Asterope indicated left. Another corridor, then a right turn. They were at an emergency exit, with its red EXIT sign lit. “This’ll be the first time I’ve been outside since we came here, nearly four weeks ago,” Kassandra said. Taygete nodded.

“Alright, the plan is this,” Asterope began. “We’ll exit onto Rue Louis Loucheur, which is an artery. Not much there. We’ll go left, then a hundred meters down is a right turn. That leads to a goods distribution network hub, maybe half a klick away. With luck, there’ll be nobody there. We’ll hit it for as much food as we can get and then head home. Got it?”

“Got it,” the others replied.

“Let’s go.” The exit led directly out onto the street, from a featureless gray concrete wall. It was empty, and resembled Rue Borchal in its depressing, utilitarian sameness——except for the smoke-blackened walls and roof. Small pieces of metal and glass littered the asphalt. Asterope pointed across the street, and then down it, to the left. The other girls silently followed. They snuck quietly along the wall, past several pairs of wide metal doors. All were closed. They were still twenty meters from the turnoff when headlights appeared in the distance, heading towards them. “Quick!” Asterope said. They sprinted, and made it around the corner while the vehicle was still far away.

“My God!” Kassandra said, surveying the street they were now on. “What the hell happened out here?” Wrecked vehicles covered the asphalt. The ground was burned around them, and pieces of exploded glass and parts lay strewn around. It was an industrial area, with loading docks, office doors and shutter doors lining the walls. Most were smashed in. There were no signs of life.

“Shh!” Asterope said. They ran along the right side of the road. Asterope suddenly pointed at a burned out vehicle. They scrambled to take cover behind it. “I thought I heard something.” All three girls listened intently, trying to control their breathing so they could hear properly.

Taygete peeked out, then looked at the others and shrugged. “Can’t see anything.”

“Let’s go then,” Asterope said. They resumed their run down the thoroughfare, and came upon an intersection. Taygete peeked around to the right, while Kassandra checked to the left.

“Soldiers to the left,” Kassandra whispered. “Down a ways.”

Asterope came to look. “They’re at least a hundred meters away. Just sprint.” They moved quickly across, out of sight of the squad. Another intersection, safe this time. Then more debris. Asterope indicated a doorway to their right, and they slipped into it. Once they were out of view from the road, Asterope pointed across the road, a little further up, and turned to Kassandra. “That’s the hub,” she said. “The GDN containers come up in there, and the contents are sorted. Trucks then take deliveries out to the apartments around here. Some of them are full of NBH, and those get emptied into a hopper, which sends it down the pipes to people’s homes.” Kassandra nodded. “We’ll rip the packages open, to try and find food,” Asterope continued. “If there aren’t any, we’ll try and get NBH. You can cook it.”

“It’s disgusting, but better than starving,” Taygete said.

“Right.”

“Let’s go.” A metal door faced onto the road. It was not recessed, so there was nowhere to hide. Taygete produced a device the size of a large penknife, and put the end against the lock. It emitted a soft hum and a clicking sound. Kassandra examined it. “Automatic lock pick,” Taygete said. “It hacks the electronic countermeasures as well as working the tumblers.” Asterope scanned their surroundings carefully, for signs of movement.

After an excruciatingly long time, the lock clicked open. “Sweet!” Taygete said. They entered a large, dirty warehouse, being careful to shut the door behind them. Hundreds of yellow, one meter-wide, cylinders stood on the left side. Some, towards the wall, were stacked three high. An automatic crane, with a three-pronged grapple, moved across a rail at the ceiling. It grabbed one. It was lifted and moved to the back of the space, out of their sight.

“Those are the inbound ones,” Asterope said, indicating the cluster of capsules. “And those are the empties.” She pointed to another large stack of cylinders on the right. It was almost a mirror image of the one on the left.

“Okay,” Kassandra said.

Asterope pointed forward. “That’s where the processing happens. That’s where we pilfer the contents.” They crept, half-crouching, between the two stacks of barrels. The crane whirred above. They were now in an area where shape-shifting robots were working. They looked much like blobs of mercury, into which some god had breathed life. Two of them unclasped the end of a cylinder and started to extract plastic containers. Some were the size of a small suitcase. Others resembled breadbaskets, squeezed in to use the space efficiently. Once extracted, these were placed onto various pallets that trundled past, each of which had a flashing orange light on a pole to warn of its presence. The moving platforms then headed deeper into the facility. The three girls hid in the shadows, behind a stationary forklift.

“We don’t know what’s in them,” Asterope whispered. “We just have to open them all, before they get put on trucks, and grab anything useful. Don’t forget to shut them again. There’s nothing we can do about being in the light. There isn’t time to drag the containers off into the dark. Take your backpacks off and get ready to stuff them. Taygete, you take that pallet”—she pointed directly ahead, beyond where the two slithering forms worked—“and we’ll take that one, Kassie.” She pointed to their half-right, at another two-by-two meter pallet on the other side of the work area.

“Right.”

Asterope and Taygete held up their two forefingers in the sign of an X to each other. Kassandra followed suit. They all moved off to their assigned spots.

Kassandra and Asterope squatted on the mobile platform next to each other, being careful to avoid the tentacle-like arm as it placed items beside them. Asterope wasted no time in whipping out a knife and prying the lid off a white container the size of a duffel bag. “Rubbish,” she said, on seeing that it contained only smaller parcels. She jammed the top back on. “Get some of those.” She pointed to some breadbasket-type ones, standing on their ends, on the corner nearest Kassandra. Kassandra took her knife, and tried to work the blade into the seal around the lid, while Asterope checked some other larger ones.

“Meat,” Kassandra said. She held aloft a vacuum-sealed pack of pork chops. Asterope gave a thumbs-up. Kassandra threw them in her backpack, and emptied the rest of the container in the same manner before replacing the top.

“Jackpot,” Asterope said, holding up a head of cauliflower. Kassandra smiled. Asterope grabbed more of the vegetables. “Don’t fully empty the containers,” she whispered. “Draws too much attention.”

“Too late.”

“Oh well. You know for next time.”

“Well, well, well, what do we have here?” an intimidating young male voice said from behind Asterope. The accent was slightly German. She whirled around, while Kassandra fell backwards from adrenaline-fueled shock. Two men, wearing the same kind of vision-scrambling apparel that the girls wore, stood there. Muscular in form, they held stun batons.

“Some cuties under those uniforms, I bet,” the other, slightly shorter, man said. He sounded French. “Score!”

“Sixers!” Asterope spat, still crouching on the pallet. Kassandra pushed herself back up off the ground to a squatting position on the floor near Asterope. Taygete watched from behind the stack of containers on her pallet, almost hidden from view.

“That’s right,” the German voice said. “And this stuff is ours.”

“Hell, no!” Asterope said. “This is X’s turf, and you know it. Get back to where you belong.”

“That’s where you’re wrong, my sweet.” The German Voice enunciated the words slowly and menacingly. “See, we own the west side of the city now. Survival of the fittest, I’m afraid. In case you didn’t already know it, this is your one chance to get out of here.”

“Although,” the Frenchman said, in a lurid singsong voice, “we could fit in a little unrequited love first. I haven’t scored in weeks.”

The first man turned to him. “Shut up. We have one job only.”

Asterope stood up, with her knife in a stabbing grip. “You needn’t bother,” the man with the German accent said, in an almost impatient tone, pointing the baton towards her. “Nobody will even come looking for you. The cops have a lot more to deal with.” Asterope lunged towards him as hard as she could, reaching for the baton. Crack! With a flash of light, Asterope went limp, even as she knocked the man backwards with her momentum. She was on top of him as his head hit the floor. The German pushed the unconscious girl off himself. At the same moment, the pallet that Taygete was on (and Kassandra was prone beside) emitted a beeping sound and began to move. Taygete lost her balance, knocked over the stack of containers, and fell backwards off the platform.

“Aha! More!” the Frenchman said on seeing her. He darted around the oblivious snaking silver robots, and reached Taygete before she had time to get up again. One punch to the face sent her sprawling onto her back. He then straddled her and pulled off her ski mask, revealing her pretty face and short brown hair. He was facing Kassandra, approximately five meters away. “Now, we’re going to have some fun here.” He made to start peeling back Taygete’s shirt. Out of his upper peripheral vision, he saw Kassandra slowly rise to her feet. In one move, he withdrew his stun baton from his belt and extended it towards her. There was a flash of light. Kassandra flew across the floor to her left. She had dodged the energy bolt just in time. “Damn!” the Frenchman said, as he re-aimed. As he was doing so, Kassandra pulled out her other knife, unsheathed it, and threw it in one fluid motion. The flash from the baton and the knife crossed in mid flight. Kassandra was knocked on her back, and the knife lodged itself deeply in the center of the man’s chest. He just looked down, as blood spurted from the wound in time with his heartbeat. Taygete’s face, neck and chest were soon soaked in it. His eyes began to glaze over, and he slumped to his right. His head gave a sickening thud as it hit the concrete floor. His right hand lost its grip on the baton, and it rolled away.

“Oh my God! Pierre!” the German man said, rushing over. He rolled Pierre onto his back, and pulled out the knife. Blood now squirted the better part of a meter in the air. He pressed the heel of his right hand against the wound to try to stem the bleeding, using his left to apply additional pressure. The flow of thick red fluid almost stopped. He used his left hand to yank off Pierre’s ski mask, revealing a handsome face and medium length brown hair. Pierre’s skin was already turning ashen gray. His friend looked over at the unresponsive Kassandra. “YOU DID THIS! YOU!” he snarled.