Division Zero: Thrall (63 page)

On an upwelling of sudden confidence, she jabbed her finger at the console. A few seconds later, Division 0 Chief Jane Carter appeared. Confusion settled into a face that conveyed amusement.

“Agent Wren. I trust you know it is quite irregular to call me directly.”

“Yes, ma’am. I’m sorry, ma’am. This can’t wait.” She glanced at her forearm. “Uplink, official log.” The armband system beeped and twittered. “Thirteen hundred hours, fourteen minutes to fourteen hundred hours, nine minutes. Transmit.”

The right side of Carter’s face changed color as the video of Kirsten’s time at the archives played.

“I destroyed an entity influencing the curator. I know the same damn thing is in Vernon, ma’am. I’ve got no idea where Konstantin is and only hours before Nine puts a bullet in that woman’s head. I’m going there now, ma’am. If it has any warning, it’ll hide again.”

Fingers tapped on something out of sight. “I get the feeling a direct order to stay away will only generate some paperwork later while we have a hearing about why you disobeyed it.”

“I’m sorry, ma’am. I don’t know how to get a demon on camera to admit it’s influencing a government official. All of Konstantin’s notes look like stick men doing aerobics. I… I can’t let him play with our government and I can’t let our government kill an innocent woman. So, yes, ma’am. I’m going there anyway. I had hoped to get your approval first.”

Carter leaned back in her seat, trying not to smile. “Please send me the same visual records when you are done there. I’ll need it to deal with General McDonnell. I assume you’re not going to be gentle with the security detachment.”

The elevator doors parted to reveal the expected horseshoe of Marines in assault armor. Sergeant Gerard moved in her path as soon as she emerged. Kirsten surveyed the men; her gaze lingered on the one that seemed most eager to shoot her.

“Hold it right there, girlie. We didn’t get any auth―”

“Sergeant Gerard, I’m shocked you’re still able to work with Corporal Fuentes after what he
did to your little sister.
” Kirsten’s eyes glimmered.

Gerard froze, jaw twitching. His face warped as his mind conjured up some horrible event. Four seconds later, Sergeant Gerard pulled a vibro-knife from his belt and pounced on Fuentes. The two troopers on either side of Fuentes tried to hold him back, while the three on the other arm of the horseshoe raised their weapons.

“
Freeze!
” She yelled, taking a step at them.

All three had clean eye contact, though her suggestion lacked the strength to affect more than one person at a time. Spreading it over three brains diluted it into a momentary confusion instead of a minute-long compulsion not to move. Kirsten avoided the brawling soldiers to her left and sprinted to the door at the far end of the lobby.

A chubby woman with dark hair and a plum dress dove for cover behind the reception desk as the lash trailed out of Kirsten’s hand and fluttered behind her. Shoulder first, Kirsten dove through the door into Commissioner Claire Vernon’s office. Three strides and she leapt into the air, bringing the lash about in a long overhead swing as her boots alighted upon the desk.

Thunder erupted behind her. Kirsten’s arm snagged as the glimmering thread found solidity within the commissioner. Fire lanced through her left thigh. A burst of Epoxil fragments flew. Another stab of heat caught her in the right shoulder. Kirsten pulled at the lash as she spun through the air. Green camouflage armor at the door glistened from strong overhead lights. The man on the far left shouted at the other two, shoving their rifles to the side. His voice blurred as time seemed to slow down.

“You’ll hit Vernon…”

Kirsten landed atop the desk and slid off it; the impact flooded her mouth with blood. Snarling, she pulled at the lash, dragging Vernon to the ground with her behind it. Black fluid burst out of the commissioner from both ends, spraying from her nostrils as well. Another distant pop came before a dull clank ricocheted somewhere above her.

The women landed almost nose to nose, neither with the energy to move. Dark liquid bubbled from Vernon’s mouth, blood from Kirsten’s. Their eyes met―brown to blue.

Demon… forcing you to approve trade deal. Division Nine… will to kill you to stop it.

Claire Vernon tried to gasp, making a bubbling throat noise instead.

They won’t kill you now.

Vernon slid a hand over the carpet, on top of Kirsten’s. Sapphire eyes flicked over to look at it. Kirsten felt nothing. She coughed up more blood.

Please tell Evan I’m sorry.

Commissioner Vernon slid out of her vision as the room shifted from a boot pressing on her shoulder. The ceiling rolled into view beyond the tip of a rifle in her face. The helmeted man above it was too blurry to recognize.

Too late, asshole. I got the demon. Vernon’s safe and Carter’s got the video. You’ve just murdered a police officer―enjoy the asteroid mine.

onsciousness returned with a great breath. Kirsten’s lungs filled with syrupy, warm, breathable gel. The unexpected sensation triggered a fit of the closest a person could get to coughing with lungs full of fluid. A white blur neared, flooding the tube with reflected light.

“Agent Wren, please calm down.”

Kirsten attempted to grab her neck with both hands, but only the left arm moved. She rubbed her throat.
I’m okay, wasn’t expecting gel. I’m just coughing.

The telepathic transmission caused a headache of near-migraine proportion. When she went fetal, the woman’s voice again reverberated through the fluid. Extensive mind blasting had left her brain raw and tender. Even sending a few words hurt.

“Please, Agent Wren. I need you to relax.”

Kirsten uncurled from the fetal pose. Before her eyes, her right arm floated, separate from the rest of her body through the bicep. Only a few strands of tissue connected it to the stump. The sight was the last straw her beleaguered mind could handle, and she fainted.

When she regained consciousness, she grabbed at her arm. It was whole again, tender but otherwise normal, and she could move and feel. Even her brain hurt a little less.

Palms on the glass, she cringed.
What happened?
Sore, but tolerable.

An Asian woman in a white doctor’s coat almost fell out of her chair at the sudden voice in her head. She looked around the room for a moment before realizing it came from Kirsten. This was not the same doctor who asked her to keep still. She waited for the woman to get closer, shivering at the effect of the loudspeaker through the gel.

“You were shot. Your right humerus bone was completely shattered. We had to detach it the rest of the way to allow the nanobots to clean bone fragments out of the muscle and reconnect the nerves and blood vessels. I would not advise you put a lot of stress on it for a few hours, but you should retain normal function.”

Kirsten sagged with relief.
This is still my arm. No cyberware.

“You’re almost done in there, Agent Wren. Should be another ten minutes or so. Would you like me to put on some music?”

Kirsten shook her head.
How long was I in here? I have to find my partner!

The doctor looked at the terminal before glancing at her. “You should be thrilled we saved the arm. If you didn’t get here so fast… You’ve been in there about two hours. Nanobots are currently regenerating your blood supply and performing some final repairs at the cellular level to grow you some new bone marrow. You may notice mild discomfort in your arm and left femur.”

Kirsten fidgeted, biting her lip while she hung weightless in fluid. “Mild discomfort” translated to the sensation of a series of needles jammed through the bones of her arm and leg, twisted back and forth, and lit on fire. The twinges were too brief to make her want to scream, not that she could with liquid-filled lungs. In a few minutes, the torture subsided to a dull overall sense of warmth.

She pressed herself against the tube as the doctor picked up a robe, a puppy eager to be let out of her crate. The doctor fiddled with the controls, and a patch of cyan light flashed on her face. Her voice saturated the gel yet again.

“Agent, there’s someone here asking to see you. Do you mind if they come in?”

Kirsten sighed.
Fuck it. Maybe he’ll be cute.
She gave the doc a thumbs up, thought for a second, and sent a message: A
s long as it’s not a reporter.

Laughing, the doc nodded at a terminal out of sight. Nina walked in as pumps kicked on and drew the gel through vents in the ground. As usual, Kirsten remained limp and let gravity take her down until she sat on the floor.
I’m winding up inside the tank way too often lately.
The wonderful warm robe draped over her as she assumed the pose and choked out the gel.

“Well,” she rasped, coughing again. “I guess I know how I got here so fast.”

“Carter was on the line with my boss while you landed, trying to call us off. I had a feeling things wouldn’t go smoothly with Gerard.”

Kirsten’s laugh devolved into more coughing. The doctor handed her honeyed tea, earning an adoring smile. “That’s a bad sign. They know me here well enough to have the tea waiting. Guess I should be happy they’re bad shots.”

“Thank Vernon. If she wasn’t in the line of fire, they wouldn’t have tried to leg you. Why didn’t you wait for approval?”

Hot tea ran down her throat; relaxation radiated from the node of heat forming in her stomach, spreading throughout her body. After a second healthy sip, Kirsten hocked up a wad of phlegm and B-gel and spat it into a waiting teal tray. “Whatever was inside Vernon had a way to hide from me once. I wanted to catch it off guard. I couldn’t take the chance one of her security people would tell her I was coming.” After another long, closed-eye sip of tea, she looked up. “How is Vernon?”

Nina dropped a bag on the comforgel pad next to her. “Your gear. Vernon’s as good as can be expected after projectile vomiting a few gallons of black gunk. She wanted to thank you for saving her life.”

“There’s at least two more. Someone at RedEx and Graeme McCullough at EnMesh Biomed are compromised. Probably whoever made the decision to accept the buyouts.”

“We’re in the process of freezing those transactions now. I do have some good news for you. We found Konstantin.”