Code Breakers: Beta (19 page)

Chapter 27

Malik tried to beat away his captors, but there were too many of them. A group of ronin dragged him away from Sasha’s body. He screamed, tears streaming down his face, murderous intent rising within him like a bonfire. He would see the entire place burn if he had the chance.

He bit the hand of one of the guards who tried to hold his head in place. The guard yelped. Malik received a crack on the back of the head with a baton for his troubles. He choked and struggled, but they continued to drag him away.

Eventually, they brought him to the room from whence he had escaped. Inside was the body of the ronin who had wandered by with the box of chips. That brought a terrible vengeance from his compatriots.

They flung him to the floor and surrounded him. He tried to regain his balance, but their constant attacks sent him sprawling. His whole body grew numb to the attacks until he remembered Sasha’s still, pale face. He refused to give up; he roared like a pained animal, caught a leg as yet another kick flashed out. Malik dragged the ronin to his level, blocking the attacks from the others.

The ronin he’d downed was an older male, in his fifties, carrying a bit too much weight. He hit the ground hard, winding himself in the fall. Malik hurled himself onto the man’s chest and rained down vicious punches, breaking the man’s nose and jaw, knocking him out instantly.

Malik pulled back a fist, ready to deliver another strike, when one of the others grabbed his wrist and yanked him off the older ronin. He heard the sound of metal blades being unsheathed.

The remaining four slashed at Malik’s arms with their daggers. He yelled with each cut. They continued their attacks until he wished to join Sasha, wherever she may be.

“Please...” he said, “kill me... just kill me.”

The cutting stopped.

A ronin with optical implants kneeled over his bloodied body. “Death’s too good for you. You’re the great hero, anyway. Silverman the Undying they call you, isn’t that right? Strongest will to live in all of Libertas? Our first true hero. No, you won’t die. You’ll suffer. And then you’ll answer to Elliot. You’ll answer to all of us.”

Implant-man spat at Malik before ordering the others to prepare him for the chip installation.

“Make it quick,” he said to them. “No need for anaesthetic for this one; he has a high tolerance for pain, it seems.”

The group lifted him, dumped him in the chair, and reinstalled the restraints on his wrists and ankles. He didn’t have the strength or desire to resist. His entire body had begun to shut down in response to the pain. It was only their voices and movement that stopped him from falling unconscious... and that curious banging noise coming from somewhere outside of the compound.

It grew louder so that the ronin stopped what they were doing. Implant-man ordered one of them to check it out while the others helped the elder one, whom Malik had beaten down, to his feet.

“Shit, we’ve got company,” the one by the door said, looking panicked.

Before the ronin could react, the one by the door flew back in a spray of bullets, his body jerking violently with each shot. The four other ronin grabbed their pistols and aimed at the door, but it was futile. A smoke grenade rolled through, obscuring all vision.

Within the grey smoke, Malik saw a number of shadows enter the room, followed by a series of muzzle flashes and accompanying screams, which he assumed were from the ronin. A further blast of coordinated shots fired out, making Malik wince with the pain in his ears.

A hand grabbed his shoulder and shook him. A voice was saying something, but the ringing in his ears made it impossible to make out. He coughed from the smoke, and his eyes streamed, making his vision even blurrier.

The hand withdrew from his shoulder and untied his restraints. Someone lifted him out of the chair in a fireman’s carry and took him out of the room. The pain and discomfort eventually got to him, and he passed out just after he got a glimpse of a group of approximately ten men and women wearing old-school City Earth security uniforms and one of them injecting something into his arm.

***

“He’s coming around,” a familiar female voice said.

Malik coughed and cleared his throat. His head pounded. Everything sounded as though it were underwater. Thankfully, the searing agony of the cuts had dulled. He checked himself over; his uniform was in shreds, but his cuts had clotted.

He was in a room with comfortable decor: sofas, floor lamps, and armchairs. It was like something out of an old movie. Sitting in the various chairs and sofas were nine security officers. He recognised some of them from his old division before City Earth became Libertas. The one standing over him, scrutinising his eyes with a small OLED pen-torch, smiled at him. “Welcome back,” his old colleague said. It was Elaine.

He’d always remember her as the one who first stunned Gerry Cardle when his D-Lottery numbers came up. For months after that her colleagues would take great delight in reminding her of what she did. Gerry: the biggest hero of City Earth/Libertas that almost no one had heard of, and she had the unlikely honour of knocking him out and sending him on his adventure.

If it wasn’t for her, Gerry wouldn’t have found Gabe and Petal, and City Earth would have likely fallen to Jasper’s mad AI. In a way, she was the catalyst for the city’s safety. Still, it was kind of fun to rib her about that day.

“I guess they were right about your being Silverman the Undying.” She smirked at him.

“I hate that,” Malik said. “Makes people see it as a challenge.”

“But no one’s been equal to that challenge yet, old man.”

“Hey,” Malik said, sitting up and regretting it as his head spun. “Less of the old, you’re older than me.”

“By a few days. Besides, I’m prettier than you, so I look younger.”

Pretty was in the eye of the beholder, and to Malik’s eyes, he didn’t behold. There was just something about her face that always looked like it was sneering even when happy. Like now. And her blue, military-spec eye prosthetics were always unnerving. Like they could see way more than you’d want.

“You just relax,” Elaine said. “We’ll answer all the obvious and obligatory questions.” She sat in an empty armchair opposite his position. Between them lay a coffee table with a number of Red Widow shotguns and Criborg Rifles. The other eight security officers gave him nods of acknowledgement. He knew all of them apart from two teenage girls.

“Who are they?” Malik nodded to the girls, who were busy loading backpacks with grenades, ropes, grappling guns, and other essentials.

“My little sisters—twins,” Elaine said. “Mum wanted them to join the force to look out for me.”

“Aren’t they a bit young for all this?”

She shrugged. “They’re adults; it’s their choice. Now listen up. We don’t have much time, and things are about to escalate. You taking notes?”

“Wait... what about Sasha?”

Elaine’s face turned serious then. “We recovered her... body. She’s in the other room.” She pointed to a door.

Malik made to stand, but Elaine stood and put a hand on his shoulder. “Don’t. Don’t do this to yourself. She’s not... in a good way.”

His eyes welled up. “Are you sure she’s...” He knew it was a ridiculous question; he’d seen her condition before he was dragged away.

“I’m sorry, so sorry. But she’s... She’s not with us anymore. But you’ll get your revenge and justice; it’s why we are here. Why Enna organised us.” Elaine shuffled her feet and avoided eye contact. Malik could tell sympathy didn’t come easy to her. It never did. But it didn’t mean she didn’t care. She just wasn’t one to express it properly.

“What do you mean?” Malik slumped back into a sofa, willing himself to focus for Sasha’s sake.

“Shortly after you and the others defeated the Widows, Enna had the foresight that something like this... like Fuentes might happen. She approached me, knowing that I was loyal to you and your brother. She wanted to create a secure interior unit of security office and Cemprom engineers.”

“Why?”

“I guess being one of the Family had given her an insight into human behaviour and power structures. She could foresee something like this happening and wanted to have a secret, loyal unit within the system’s power centre. Unfortunately she was right. Not long after Fuentes got herself elected and set up the interim government, new orders came down from her.”

“What kind of orders?”

“They were subtle to begin with—the destruction of certain information, classification of things that she suggested terrorists could use against us. The ronin. At first it seemed sensible, and my team and I didn’t suspect anything, but when we saw the murders and the rise of the protestors and chip-users, we could see something else was going on.

“It was because one of our contacts saw you and Sasha poking around the warehouse district that got me interested. Your message when you escaped went directly to Fuentes’ people within the force. Javid over there—” She pointed to a rail-thin, dark-haired man with intense eyes. “—had ingratiated himself with that particular squad and alerted me. Unfortunately we couldn’t get to you in time as Fuentes put into place her next plans, and her squad reached you and Sasha first.”

“You could have sent someone, surely?” Malik knew that sounded harsh, but he couldn’t help it. If they could have got to him and Sasha before Fuentes’ people, she’d still be alive.

“We tried,” Elaine said, trying to communicate her sympathy and sincerity. “It’s been crazy here. Trust me. If we could’ve got there sooner, we would have. We needed to ensure we had some way of taking that power-hungry bitch down without having our entire squad executed. We’d be no good locked up or dead. She’s got all the main offices monitored and locked down.”

“So she must know about you now?”

“Yes. As soon as we blew the factory, I think she knew. A mushroom cloud and massive explosion is a bit of a giveaway.”

“You destroyed the chips? The workers?”

“Everything that was in that warehouse is no more.” Now her face grew tense. It was the face he recognised. He’d never say she was a pleasant person, and she was no bundle of laughs to work with, but he had to give her credit: she was loyal and damned good at her job, clearly willing to make tough decisions, even if it meant that Sasha hadn’t survived. But then this was a bigger issue than any one person. He’d have time to grieve for her properly later.

“So what now?” Malik asked, trying to focus on something practical, something he could do to avenge Sasha.

“We go on the attack. We’ve no choice now. Fuentes has activated the ’droids. Here, look.”

She passed him a slate.

He took it and watched the live video feed. “Where’s this happening?”

“All around the city, even right outside of this place.”

“Where is this place?”

“Gabe and Petal’s second safe house, just beyond the financial district. It’s one of the poorer areas, if there is such a thing in this city. We’re currently under a disused worker’s terrace. One of the buildings created to house those that built the city in the early days.”

Malik watched the video. Heavily armed ’droids in groups of three stalked through the city. No citizens remained on the streets. On one of the huge public address screens, on the side of an apartment building, Fuentes was giving a speech.

“Citizens of Libertas, I’m afraid I have to announce that we’ve been forced by a faction of terrorists to enact a citywide curfew. A number of individuals are at large and extremely dangerous. You’re to remain inside your homes while we root out these men and women who seek to plunge this city back into a state of terror and mayhem.

“We’ve all worked hard to build a new, safe city since the Family abandoned us. We thwarted the threat of the Red Widows, and now I’m sad to say that we need to fight once more those who would oppress us and force their ideology on us, take away our hard-won liberty.

“This time, however, they’re attacking from within.

“We have discovered the identities of those responsible for the recent murders and the terrorist attack on the warehouse district just an hour ago. If you see any of these people, please inform your local security office or send a secure message to this address.”

An IP address came on screen followed by the photographs of James, Sasha, Petal, Gabe, Malik, Elaine, Enna, and even Jess. The photo slideshow flicked over and filled the screen with portraits of those in Elaine’s squad plus a blurry image of Ghanus and Liza-Marie.

“We’re doing all we can to neutralise this threat. You can do your duty for the freedom of the city by remaining inside and alerting us to any information that could lead to the arrest of these terrorists. We understand that some of these individuals are likely to be a surprise to you. I was as shocked as anyone when I discovered that someone I considered to be a close friend had manipulated me and was a part of this conspiracy from the start.

“But that’s not important right now. I’ve given you the facts of the situation, and we’re doing all we can to ensure the safety of this city and you, dear citizens. Help us by following our advice, and together we’ll stop this threat and once more bring safety to this great city.

“Thank you for your time. We’ll update you with information as we get it.”

“What I wouldn’t give to put a bullet in that bitch’s skull,” Malik said, disgusted at the lies. “She even dared call Jess a terrorist! Where is the girl, anyway?”

“Upstairs with Omega. We took her out of the situation as soon as we saw it getting out of hand. She’s safe and happy enough. Enna and the others are currently on their way here.” Elaine checked the time on the slate. “They’re due here any minute, actually. They had to spring James from the prison quarter.”

“Where is everyone right now?”

“Gabe and Petal are off the grid. We lost contact with them when they flew out to some hacker/engineer woman in order to fix Alpha—it’s a long story, but it fucked up during the process of downloading Gerry from Petal’s mind. Currently we don’t know their status.”