Tailspin, page 64
When I got back to my bunk, he asked if I needed him to stay but I said no, and he went off on his way. I almost fell asleep without thinking. I knocked for Justin.
“Is she okay?” I asked concern obvious in my voice.
“No, but I think you knew that.”
“Will she be okay?”
“She sobered up, and she snores…” he moaned. “But she’s damn cute.”
“She’s with you?” Jealousy spread through my veins, and I tried to fight it. Nope.
“Yeah,” he admitted. “She needed someone.”
Instead of what I wanted to say I swallowed the words and mumbled, “Thanks.”
“Rus—” he started. “Seriously, I’d never…”
“You don’t need to say anything else.” I didn’t want any other details. I had put trust in the both of them. I meant it. “Just promise me you’ll always be good to her.”
“I don’t want to be anything else but good to her. Ever.”
“I know.” Silence spread between us. I didn’t want to say it, but I had to. “We’ve got the full all clear for tomorrow,” I said and let out a deep sigh. “The engineer is dead.”
“Fuck, seriously,” came his reply. “Dead?”
“Get some rest. We will talk about this again, I’m sure. When I’m not still half drunk.”
“Thanks Rus, for trusting her choices and also trusting me. That means more than you know,” he said, and then he was gone.
I wanted sleep; I needed rest. I couldn’t do either. My dreams were plagued with nightmares and the death of my best friend.
75
The following week was a blur of inspections and paperwork while we still studied and before we could settle into our routine patrol again.
Paperwork and the general’s silence, which annoyed me. We all wanted answers for this personal attack on Malaki, especially Justin, who never shut up about it. It was early. My time jogging had stretched a lot. Over the months, my fitness increased, and that meant so did my time running in circles. Apex had given me a pleasant route that I breezed on through, and, using Aug-World, he altered the setting, so I never felt like it was actually in circles. I listened to any book or training manual until it was drilled into my skull. Literally, the X1 helped take all of it in quick. This morning’s book, though, was something for pleasure, a rare luxury that Silao had passed to me.
“Ruslan?” the general asked. The direct comms knock brought me out of the imaginary world fast, and I flicked Aug-World off to see I wasn’t too far from my bunk.
“Sir, yes, sir.”
Silence.
Holy crap, I didn’t need more silence.
“Sir?”
“Here. Double checking our line was secure.”
“You have news?”
“We do, but you will not pass this to Malaki, understood?”
My back was instantly up. “You want me to lie to her?”
“Not exactly, but until we can fully sort this out, take out those responsible, I don’t want her—”
“Understood, sir. This is off the record then, totally.”
“Good, keep jogging. I’ll fill you in.”
Was he watching me? Of course, he was.
“We tracked many threats, from the Armed Brigade to Takemoto and beyond, over the years. Like I said, M-Corp has a lot of enemies, and through them, my work, and my wife’s, so do we. Especially after her accident. However, Joel was working for someone outside of Artem.”
“Outside? How does that even work? What…”
“Rus, listen. The work we do goes in many directions. Some believe M-Corp shouldn’t have the power they do; they want to take it down and by any means possible. What work I do and my wife, without us in the background…”
“Malaki’s death would destroy you,” I said, feeling my heart twisted.
“Yes, it would, and I’ll admit enough to not do my job properly. M-Corp would put someone else in charge of it, of you.”
My jogging had almost stopped again. His words—of you… What did that mean? The X series…fuck. “I’m sorry,” I said. “I see why you do everything you can for her.”
“She’s as strong as my first wife was and as stubborn. I can’t keep her locked up. All I can do is provide the best I can for her, within reason.”
“So the X Series and I were a plant? For her?”
“It wasn’t meant to be like that. You were an opportunity, a lucky one for you and for me. I put that down to many things, including both your fathers.”
Every time he mentioned my real father…
“So you’re taking this faction down?” He’d still not admitted which one.
My guess would be Takemoto. They’d benefit much more from the X Series failing than anyone else. But…
“Not openly,” he admitted. “But we will work at shifting out some of their rogue players.”
“What do you want from me?” I knew that was coming.
“Just be aware. Carry on as you are doing. Malaki will have a couple of more guards shadowing her, as will you.”
“Guards?”
“At least on the ground. They’re there, believe me, in the background.”
I looked around. I couldn’t see anything, or… A shadow at the far end of a building moved. “That was for me to see, wasn’t it?”
“Yes. You’re never alone, Ruslan. You never have been.”
“Understood,” I said and sighed.
“Don’t put her in any unnecessary danger,” he said.
“Sir, we take up one of the most dangerous hunks of metal anyone could. If they wanted, they’d shoot us down, no?”
“That would be open war,” he said. “No, they’re trying to be subtle, and it’s not working. We expect them to up their game, though, so while shooting you out of the sky seems like it might never happen, Justin is aware. We need you out there, all of you.”
“Yes, sir,” I said. “Was there a reason Joel turned? All I saw was how exemplary his service was to M-Corp. Why would he go into work one day and suddenly decide he was going to—” I couldn’t say the words.
“Sometimes we never know what makes someone turn.” The general lowered his voice. “Debt, sickness, could be a vendetta that leads back to when you were kids, growing up together.”
“Malaki knew him from childhood? She’s never mentioned anyone really from that time.”
“Mostly blocked by the accident,” the general said. “Mostly. Some…well, she just probably wants to forget anyway. The kids around did not treat her well.”
“Because of you?”
Silence.
“I need to speak with Justin,” he said. “Trust me, we have your best interests at heart, and where you are in the air.”
I was very unsure of the air right now, and if someone would try to take us out of it…
Trust him, Apex said.
I don’t much trust anyone right now, I replied to him.
“I will keep you posted,” the general said, and then he cut the comms.
***
Now, back in the air, looking down over our patrol area—with Malaki at my side, grinning from ear to ear—damn, I could not be grounded, ever. Yet, every time we went up, I thought back to the blood splatter of the engineer, to the general’s words.
I pushed all thoughts away as the thrum of the helo’s engines brought me back to the real world. There was something comforting about the hum, like a heartbeat I’d missed all my life. Even when all we were doing was following the wall to keep them safe as they built.
Until I got that one message, I’d been silently waiting on from my hacker friend.
His name is Bowdoin, Apex said.
How did you find that out?
I was curious.
I focused back on Bowdoin. “What do you want? Have you got any idea how much trouble I got in last time?”
Bowdoin snorted. “I don’t know, but I can guess. Exactly what you deserve for inviting somebody in from the outside over an unsecured line and then granting them full system access?”
I tried not to fume over the incident, but Michaels had said they knew everything this guy was up to. “What do you want?” I asked again.
“I just want to throw a bunch of credits your way for a tiny favor. Unless you corpo types hate credits.”
Credits never went amiss, and these kinds of jobs were worth more than a day’s pay, if I could work it around our patrol. Even better. “What’s the favor?”
“Oh, nothing much. I’ll need you and your helo for a quick flight for four people. Two days from now. It’s just fifteen minutes work or so for you.”
He didn’t tell me much. Only that myself and a helo were needed in two days, and we were needed. So that I planned for, we’d be out on patrol and I’d need to ditch Malaki for Justin, but that was also possible.
The two days passed quick, and his call came in.
Coordinates? I asked Apex.
Apex brought up the map. This was out of my comfort zone in more ways than one: inner-city slums. Fuck.
And our helo was likely way too big for a job like this, and we had full cargo. Drones, weapons. We were supposed to pick our team up in less than forty minutes. There was way too much traffic around in the inner city. We’d be spotted miles away from his coordinates. Unless, of course, he had enough ways to stop people you know seeing or fucking hearing us…
I really didn’t want to do this.
This hole keeps getting deeper.
No fucking kidding.
I knocked on Justin’s HUD.
“Rus?” he asked, his annoyance drifting over. He’d still not talked to me much since that night. We’d all had our own issues to process; it was hard.
“That favor you owe me, I’m calling it in. We gotta ditch and swap pilots; I need you.”
Justin hesitated. “You’re serious. Right now, in the middle of patrol?”
“Yes,” I said sternly. “This is me and you, no one else.”
“Fuck, this better be good.”
“It is,” I replied. “Down, now.”
Overcautious, Apex said. You could just take Malaki.
No way. I need to keep her safe, father’s orders. This is on me.
“Red7 to Dizzy101,” Justin said. “Down and swap; you and Silao are ordered to RTB.”
“What?” Malaki asked and looked at me.
I shrugged. “No idea.”
She didn’t question me or him again, though. She trusted us both, and on the inside, I cringed; white lie or not, this was a lie. One I’d regret, I was more than sure.
We didn’t power off the helos. Malaki patted me on the leg once before she hopped out with a grin. “See you back at base.”
“Yeah,” I replied and cringed.
As Justin and her crossed in the wake of our dust storm, I saw them exchange words. She paused for that bit longer and glanced back. She knew something was off, really off.
In the next moment, she was inside Justin’s helo, and he was sitting beside me, powering back up.
“Where to?”
I sent him the coordinates and watched his face pale.
“Fuck me…” He trailed off. “What the actual hell?”
“I owe him,” I said. “And you owe me.”
“If we get out of this in one piece, I owe you nothing. We’re clear.”
“Deal.”
Justin was a very different pilot compared to Malaki. He did not hang about, and our engine screamed as he cranked the RPM right up there.
As we sped towards our destination, the skies erupted in smoke. Justin looked at me as the comms call came in directly to the helo’s private channel, which meant both Justin and me.
I answered it reluctantly. “Please tell me that smoke isn’t your fault.”
“Hi, Ruslan. Oh, I can see you. That is a primo helo you have there. And, of course, the smoke isn’t my fault. Entirely. Are you ready to move? We’re kind of in a rush!”
I groaned, watching the smoke plume higher and higher. That was going to reduce visibility to something wicked.
“Drones ready?” Justin asked.
I made sure my connections were solid and nodded at him, turning my attention back to Bowdoin. “Seriously. Give me one other reason why I shouldn’t leave you there.”
“Apart from the fact you owe me?” He laughed nervously, though. “The fact that you may be killing me and my crew if you leave?”
“Yes.”
“That’s harsh, man. Not cool! Total dickbag corpo move!”
I had heard enough of that shit lately. My voice strained. “I. Am. Corpo, you filthy scumbag. I thought this would be a normal move, not some firefight. You have no idea the trouble you can make for me.”
“Okay, okay, man. Just consider this. Will it be more trouble than if I send a message to your superiors telling them exactly what you’ve been up to? Because that’s exactly what I’ll do if you leave us hanging. I’m fucking petty like that.” He let me stew on that for a moment, then continued, less antagonistic. “Listen, man. We’re past the tough part. Now, we just need to get away. And please tell me you can fly away from an air cab in that thing?”
I snorted and really laughed. “I can fly circles around an air cab going at full speed with my eyes closed in this thing.”
I took two deep breaths and then continued. “Okay. We’re putting down now in two mics. But I’m charging double for this.”
“Fuck! You’re getting paid too?” Justin asked.
“That’s fair. See you there,” Bowdoin said, and comms were cut.
I groaned. “Not corp paid. They’re hackers. Believe me, it wouldn’t even cover your wages and the fuel, let alone mine.”
“That sucks,” Justin said, but his eyes glinted.
“What?” I asked.
“You want me to fly with my eyes closed? You know I will.”
“Fuck off.” I snorted, slipping into using the X16, my focus splitting. “Hangar doors open and ready if needed.”
Approaching the coordinates, Justin groaned. “It’s a fucking parking lot, a shit heap of one too.”
“Got enough space to dust?”
“On it, dropping now.”
My view of the slums, broken cars, and debris lay strewn everywhere.
“Careful,” I warned him. “There’s a fuck ton of shit—”
“Copy, I’m a pro, remember.”
“Drones out,” I said, and my view changed. There was no way that debris was getting anywhere near us.
It didn’t take thirty seconds for me to wiz over the area and shift that shit into another area.
Justin touched down lightly, and we waited.
“See anything?” he asked.
I zoomed in toward the direction…
Ping, ping.
“What the fuck?” Justin ducked automatically as I tried my best to see where the fuck that gunfire was coming from.
“Up there,” I said, and within a moment, I had my drones off, giving that building all hell. Those few men running, not being carried for their lives,had about enough time to get to us.
As Justin powered away, I benched my drones, closed the hangar doors, and turned to see the mess that had boarded us.
One young man was splayed out on the helo floor. Blood soaked through his trousers and spread out. A young lass was doing her best to help him. But I did not like the look of that damage. “Oh. Sure. Fine. Patch him up right there on the floor. That’s not an issue at all. Nobody’s going to take offense at a little blood. Not when they’re so goddamn busy staring at the holes in my helo!”
The young woman worked fast, slapping some god ugly medikit on his leg. I winced as I saw the pack’s reaction. There was no way that didn’t hurt like hell, but the man I presumed was Bowdoin stared at me.
Eventually, his focus returned. “Sorry, man. This day hasn’t really been easy for us either. Like I said, we’ll pay you, though.”
“You’d better. We’re putting down right now.”
“We’re already there?” Bowdoin sat up straighter and tried to get his bearings.
“Yes, we are. You wanted speed. That’s what you got.”
A moment later, Justin nodded my way as he touched down on the roof of a single-story building which at least looked like it was made for landing on.
I stared straight at Bowdoin, though, taking in all that he was. He was young. How young, I couldn’t quite tell. His hair, dirty and though my X16 was saying purple, in this light… it looked pink. His clothes were in pretty much tatters. His arm mods were also clearly visible to my X16; almost everything about him was. Mostly though, the X16 showed he had a fucking terrible injury, and that medikit was barely gonna cut it.
“You, get out of here, I’ll get your friends to where they need to go, and we’re done. But first, payment. It would have been three thousand credits. But then you had to go and get my helo damaged. So now it’s twelve thousand.”
One of the guys to his left looked over to where a hole now let in light through the door. “It’s just a tiny hole. No real damage.”
“A tiny hole that I’ll have to get fixed without my superiors noticing. That takes bribes. Twelve thousand. Or you’re all getting out here.”
I watched Bowdoin swallow and look at his friends. “Have we even got twelve thousand? The credit chips we emptied came up to eight.”
The woman who patched him up growled under her breath. Then she reached into her duffel bag and rummaged around. She extracted some kind of spiked weapon, still covered with blood and gore, and slammed it down. “This is tier three. At least worth fifteen.”
Apex whistled, and Justin’s face paled.
Torso Augmentation Mod
Tier: Three
Normal fighters improve their body’s ability to cause damage. Real fighters think smart. Why become a better weapon when you can have more weapons, weapons that act independently of the rest of your body?
Artem Offense Specialists think outside the box. Presenting the Mind-Spike 2000, we grant you the power to take the box and rip it into pieces! The Mind-Spike mod is installed through your torso and integrates with the spine. Through proper installation and melding with your mind, you will gain the ability to operate the three feet of nanite-fueled titanium chain with the durasteel-alloyed spike with the power of your mind.
