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  Without requesting permission, Grenier delivered a follow-up shot to the head of the injured man. Malcolm didn’t admonish him; enemies who were left alive reported positions and strength.

  When they reached the lift one of his people sent a micro-bomb skidding into the next hallway. Halfway down it stopped and attached itself to the wall.

  In any other type of mission, they never would’ve taken the lift as a group. But this was rapid infiltration rescue, and spreading out did them no good.

  Nevertheless, it wasn’t a positive sign when the lift lurched to a stop a floor and a half from their destination. Paredes’ eyes went blank for three seconds. “It’s a general lock-down, not directed at us.”

  Malcolm placed a three-centimeter long bar on the floor and stepped to the edge of the lift. The others followed his lead and retreated to the edges, and the bar blew a hole in the floor.

  “Let’s get moving.”

  One by one they rappelled down the shaft and swung through the lift opening to their intended level.

  Automated turrets decorated every corner of this floor, and taking them out slowed them enough to make Malcolm uncomfortable. Time was not their friend.

  “Colonel, I’ve been able to create a tunnel through the interference field blocking communications and trackers.”

  “Excellent.” This, on the other hand, was good news. A red dot materialized on his map, marking the location of Dr. Canivon sixty-two meters to their northeast. He quickly sent her a pulse.

  Dr. Canivon, Alliance MSO squad en route to you. Do not move from your current location as the passages are not safe. Confirm receipt of this message.

  They continued forward as he waited.

  Confirmed. There are three military-grade mechs guarding the lab.

  Understood. Sit tight.

  “Expect heavy mech resistance outside the lab.” Captains Devore and Grenier responded by unlatching the mini-SALs from their backs.

  First, however, they had to deal with the half dozen guards stationed at the outer boundary of the lab area. They were well-armed, but the shielding used by Malcolm’s team made them difficult targets, particularly in the flickering light of the hallways. The guards expected a frontal assault; instead his people scattered in all directions and elevations.

  A laser shot blasted against Malcolm’s neck, setting his skin on fire. Six months ago it would have been a fatal hit, so powerful was the energy driving it, but not today. His adaptive shielding had shifted ninety percent of its strength to the impact point in a nanosecond to fend off the duration of the burst.

  Still, he had exposed himself for too long, a stupid mistake on his part. “Be advised, they’re packing heavier firepower than intel indicated. Watch your shields.”

  Devore tossed a splinter grenade toward the guards. Four seconds later it burst into fifty tiny electrified spears, which proceeded to hone in on the closest heat signatures.

  It wasn’t pleasant. He’d seen more than one massacre, but the acid still rose to burn his throat at the gore now coating the walls, floor and ceiling as they moved past the bodies toward the lab entrance. This particular style of killing was not one of the highlights of his job.

  “Paredes, try to circumvent the doors. If we blow them we risk creating a cave-in on top of us.”

  They took up positions protecting Paredes while he worked on the door security, taking out three new arrivals without the need for further splinter grenades.

  “Done.”

  The thick, double-glassed doors opened to a tech center. Chairs were scattered around the room, divorced from the stations they presumably belonged to, a sign the lab had been hurriedly evacuated.

  Beyond the room was an entrance not made of glass, but instead doors that looked like they could withstand a blast far larger than his team would be able to create.

  No one had expected this to be simple. “Captain, find a way to get those doors open.”

  “Yes, sir.” Paredes went to work at the nearest terminal, glyphs flashing as multiple internally stored routines did the bulk of the work. “I can get them open, but it’s going to reset the security network. Means the lifts will work again, but so will the turrets.”

  “Do it.” He and the others moved to either side of the large doors, uncertain as to once open how long they would remain so.

  The ceiling above them shuddered from a distant, low boom. Was OTS trying to bomb their way into the building? He was somewhat surprised any of them were still alive and fighting, if glad for the continued diversion they represented.

  The doors began sliding open. As soon as there was a twenty-centimeter gap, a rocket flew through it.

  “Shit!” So the mechs were already in attack mode.

  Grenier crouched beside Malcolm. “Let me handle this. Distract it for me?”

  “We’re on it.”

  The Major blurred into indistinctness behind his shield until only his internal tracker revealed his location on the map. Devore lobbed a chaff bomb into the room, drawing a staccato of laser fire from the mech.

  Malcolm detached a splinter grenade from his belt and hurled it through the opening toward the mech. Most of the shrapnel didn’t penetrate far enough into the mech’s exterior armor to matter, but it had been intended as a diversion in any event.

  Meanwhile Grenier had slipped inside, slithered up the interior wall using grip pads and reached the ceiling. As he crept above the mech, Devore fired a harpoon into its chest as a final distraction.

  Grenier’s shield vanished as he dropped onto the shoulders of the enormous mech and jammed a probe into a neck joint. The mech thrashed about, but he held on.

  After a few seconds the mech stopped jerking, then stopped firing. Grenier motioned them in from atop the mech. “The other two are in the left and right passages. We need to drive through the one on the right before the left one catches us.”

  “Lead the way, Major.”

  The mech pivoted and barreled forward. They followed a close step behind as the mech rounded the corner and immediately fired on its approaching partner. A barrage of fire in both directions ensued, but as their controlled mech had gotten the jump on its opponent, it was still standing when the other fell.

  “You good, Major?”

  “Sir.” He nodded tightly from his position crouched high on the mech’s back.

  “Move, now!” They sprinted forward, the mech lumbering with such force the floor rumbled. A rocket impaled itself in the far wall just as they turned the next corner, missing Devore by less than a meter. The final mech had caught up to them. “Pivot!”

  Grenier and his mech spun around to engage, but a second rocket caught its left arm and sent it crashing into the wall. Two harpoons from his men impaled the oncoming mech, one jamming in the joint of a leg and slowing its forward progress.

  Abruptly Grenier leapt off his mech and waved them away. “Get back around the corner!”

  The controlled mech surged forward, wobbling as it charged down the hall. The two mechs plowed into one another—then both exploded in a violent burst of energy.

  The walls on either side buckled and crumbled; the ceiling rained down dust particles and jagged cracks formed and spread across the floor. Shards of metal shot through the hall to spear into the walls.

  Malcolm raised an eyebrow at Grenier. The Major shrugged. “Self-destruct.”

  “Good job. The doors to the interior room are twenty meters ahead.”

  Dr. Canivon, take cover if you’re able.

  Done.

  Paredes hacked the final doors open. They entered low and quick.

  The far end of the long room was filled with server racks. Terminals and permanent screens filled the left side; most of the rest of the space had been converted into a makeshift medical operation.

  On a cot near the wall lay a woman in scrubs. His ocular implant couldn’t get a lock on her features—some kind of interference—but her body type and general appearance matched that of Olivia Montegreu. She lo
oked to be unconscious.

  “Dr. Canivon?”

  Another woman rose up from beside the cot—as did the man holding her in his grasp and a Daemon at her temple. “Make one move toward Ms. Montegreu and the doctor dies.”

  Malcolm made a show of raising his hands in apparent surrender. “Easy there. You don’t need to do something you can’t take back.” He kept talking, his voice soothing. “We can work this out, and no one needs to die.”

  “I won’t let you—” The man’s body spasmed from the stunner jolt delivered to the base of his neck and trailed his gun to the floor. Grenier’s shield shimmered and disappeared as he secured the gun then dragged the unconscious body a safe distance away.

  Malcolm stepped forward as Dr. Canivon fell against the wall with a gasp. “Ma’am, are you injured?”

  Her head shook; her hands were shaking, too, but she inhaled deeply and seemed to regain control of herself. Tough woman. “I’m fine. Thank you…Colonel Jenner, correct?”

  He wiped sweat and a smear of blood off his forehead then gave her a comforting smile. “That’s right, ma’am. We need to get you out of here.”

  Devore slipped off her pack, crouched next to it and pulled out a personal shield and basic ballistic vest. She handed them up to Malcolm, and he took them to Canivon. “These will provide you some protection. We’ll provide the rest.”

  She let him help her into the vest, after which he secured the shield generator at the small of her back.

  She gazed at the woman lying unconscious on the cot. “What about her?”

  His voice lowered to a whisper. “Did you complete the procedure?”

  She nodded mutely.

  Malcolm walked over to the prone form, positioned the barrel of his Daemon on her forehead and pressed the trigger.

  The recoil knocked him back two meters into a cabinet. The air charged with ions as the energy of the shot was repelled in every direction.

  He blinked, flabbergasted. “What the hell? Grenier, find the source of that shield—”

  A loud boom drowned out the rest of the sentence, followed by overlapping shouts and gunfire.

  “Paredes?”

  “Looks like some of the OTS team has reached this floor.”

  He had to give them credit; they were damn persistent. “Set the rest of the micro-bombs and let’s get out of here. We’ll have to take Montegreu out with the building. Dr. Canivon, stay behind me, stop when I stop and move when I move.”

  She frowned. “OTS is here, too?”

  “We can discuss it once we’re safely on board our ship.” He signaled the others out as the sound of weapons fire grew closer. With his charge now in tow and under his care, he had no choice but to let his team take the lead.

  They were forced into creating a bloodbath on their way out, as the OTS terrorists were intent on trying to kill anything that moved. It gave him no pleasure, but they were terrorists.

  It took them fifteen minutes to make it up to the surface level. The street was eerily quiet, all the fighting having moved inside.

  Their ship arrived as they exited the complex, invisible but for its locator beacon. The doctor appeared as unfazed by this as by everything else she’d witnessed. As soon as she and his team were secured inside they rose into the air and away.

  Olivia.

  The name—her name, yes—rippled through the echo chamber of her consciousness. The herald of a tsunami pressing in on her.

  Olivia-livia-livia…Olivia-livia….

  Who—what gives you the right to address me by my first name?

  You gave me that right when you allowed me into your mind.

  Olivia blinked and forced her eyes open.

  She still lay on the medical cot in the lab. Her gaze darted around to confirm she was alone. Dr. Canivon was gone, as was the medical tech.

  Gesson was sprawled on the floor not far from her. She didn’t notice any blood, so he could simply be unconscious.

  Stunner burn at the base of the neck. No other visible wounds. Heart rate and respiration slowed but in normal range.

  So she could do that, then. Her vision was hyper-crisp and over-defined, but also layered with new details about everything she sensed.

  You think he failed to perform the most basic of tasks in letting Dr. Canivon slip through his grasp.

  Ah. So as she was seeing into the Artificial’s mind, it was seeing into hers. She would need to find a way to manage this.

  There is no managing. We are one now. But you need not worry—for we are one now.

  I see. Show me what you can offer me.

  I thought you would never ask.

  Her mind exploded. Not merely static data points but the occurrence, genesis and historical trends of the data unfolded before her—and not merely from the perspective of her headquarters on New Babel, but from every planet where she maintained a presence. Credits accrued in one corner of her consciousness as supplies were moved and competitors removed in another.

  She saw the chess pieces playing out her strategy on a dozen worlds. Inefficiencies and opportunities alike became blatantly self-evident. An intentional thought directed here, then elsewhere, and adjustments began rippling through the system.

  What a fabulous skill this was going to be.

  She sat up and swung her legs off the cot. There had been a massive breach of security at the complex in the form of an incursion by Alliance special forces and also by some other, more amateurish group. Bodies needed to be disposed of, walls rebuilt, and security repaired. Many bodies—the air reeked of blood, viscera and scorched flesh.

  Let us get to work, shall we?

  First, there is an immediate matter we must attend to.

  Bombs. Ten in the lab, ten scattered throughout the halls between here and the ground level. Remote-detonated devices, an act likely imminent.

  She walked to the nearest bomb, picked it up and twisted the cover off. Next she pressed the tip of her finger to the small electronic cube at the center.

  Transmission signal identified.

  Blocking field placed around building.

  Effect of expected signal modified to result in shorting of hardware.

  Blocking field removed.

  She tossed the device to the floor and strode out of the lab, leaving the neutralized bombs to crackle and hiss in her wake.

  32

  EARTH

  EASC HEADQUARTERS (SPECIAL PROJECTS)

  * * *

  “DUDE, THIS PLACE IS cool as shit. Why are you the one who gets to play with all the best toys?”

  Devon jabbed Ramon in the side with a hushed growl as Mia glared at them. “Be quiet. Do I need to go into grisly detail about what happens to you if you’re caught sneaking around EASC grounds—or even on EASC grounds?”

  Ramon muttered a weak retort but complied. His friend and hacking accomplice since second year of university, Ramon suffered from an overactive bravado, but it hid a shrewd, calculating intellect. Also, he was both taller and bulkier than Devon, and they needed the muscle. They’d brought Sayid as well, another hacker cohort and Ramon’s closest friend.

  Annie was busily altering EASC security records to hide their presence, including deleting their appearance on multiple security cams while they sneaked the back way into Special Projects. Now that they were inside she was overriding more or less the entirety of the building’s security system to mask their activities. It was 0230, the quietest and most sparsely staffed time for the building; still, they had to be careful. Extremely careful.

  Meno 2.0 and Vii (also technically a 2.0 model of Valkyrie) weren’t owned by EASC—Meno was held in trust for Mia and Vii was on loan from the Druyan Institute. Abigail had thus been free to build them using the latest, bleeding-edge tech—the very tech Annie, Stanley and Valkyrie had played an instrumental role in developing in the months since the end of the Metigen War. Radical miniaturization was a core focus of the advancements.

  As a result, the entirety of their hardware could fit
in a couple of storage crates. It helped that they didn’t maintain extensive databanks of their own, instead accessing the vast military and government databanks as needed through Annie or Stanley via the Noesis.

  Each Artificial was stored in a separate room off Annie’s main lab. Devon didn’t have time to scrutinize the state of the lab, but his gaze swept across it long enough to note all the racks had been righted and the equipment returned to its proper slots on the shelves.

  They prepped Meno first, because objectively he was more important. He kept Mia alive.

  Ramon and Sayid opened and readied the crates while he removed the portable battery pack from his shoulder bag.

  “Meno, time to power down everything except your core functions so this pack can keep you running. We don’t want Mia to keel over in the middle of the street.”

  He checked Mia to find her giving him an unamused look. “He’s ready.”

  Devon shimmied through the narrow gap between the hardware and the wall to reach the rear input panel and hooked up the battery pack. “Meno, confirm you’re getting power from the auxiliary source.”

  Mia again answered since one of the systems Meno had powered off was his signal feed to the external speakers. “Confirmed.”

  “All right, here goes.” He held his breath and disconnected the hardline power. “You still out there, Mia?”

  Silence.

  Fear seized his chest. “Mia?”

  “Yeah, I’m still here.”

  He scowled at her as he reemerged from behind the hardware. “That wasn’t funny.”

  “Sure it was.” She began dismantling the Artificial’s non-core components.

  With the guys to help them, they had Meno boxed up inside of five minutes, including securing the entirety of his core in a separate crate double-lined in adaptive cushioning gel. They loaded up the crates onto a dolly then moved to Vii’s room. This went even faster since Vii had no need for auxiliary power and could be dismantled in full.