Halfskin (16 page)

And when a beefy hand landed on his shoulder and spun him around… when the security guard clenched his neck, cut off his air, began to drag him back… blades slide out between his knuckles and plunged into the fatneck’s belly. He tasted salty blood, licked the man’s intestines with the blades like razor-sharp tongues.

Felt the cold chill as he pulled them out.

Felt the wind on his cheeks as he ran away. Ran faster than a man should run, the biomites fueling his muscles with adrenaline, the biomite-blades retracting into his arms, stinging in their slots.

He was a superhero.

29

Cali folded the last of Avery’s shirts and squeezed it into her bag.

Her daughter was curled up on the chair. They needed to get out of the hospital for a lot of reasons. And they would. In three days, they would be somewhere else where there was fresh air and freedom.

That was the plan.

She packed her belongings. Three days was longer than she wanted to wait. She was prepared to dash now, that morning, but Nix wasn’t ready. He could barely walk.

He was asleep.
And not in the lagoon.
She made damn sure he wasn’t expending energy on his inner world. They needed every bit to restore his health. The new breeds couldn’t conduct a secret siege on his body, taking the place of the older biomites that compromised nearly 49% of his body. She was certain the new breeds could flush the old ones out, but since the hospital readers couldn’t see the new breeds, they would think his biomite population was declining.

And that would lead to suspicion. That would not help.

Everything needed to look normal. Nothing going on here. Everything was the same. Any close examination could bring her best-laid plans to a halt. There was no hope if that happened, so it was business as usual.

Nix slept.

Cali monitored him.

Yes, she read him like a computer. Even she was surprised by the recent developments. Not only could she telecommunicate with Nix, but she was using them to wirelessly communicate with every wireless device in the vicinity. She was a wireless router that heard everything around her.

Phone calls.

Emails.

Network servers.

I’m a computer.

It was all data, streaming through the atmosphere, vibrating against her new breeds that downloaded and interpreted it all into words and sounds. But it was too much to understand. It was white noise, chatter of a thousand voices, at first. That’s what she’d been hearing for the past few days thought it might be a malfunction. The new breeds were breaking down, they were learning. Evolving.

She thought-commanded the new breeds to tune it all out. Perhaps, at some point, she could filter out what she wanted to hear. For now, she focused on her little brother, listening to his new breeds report his health and stats.

Bones mended.

Organs stable.

No fever. Blood vessels healed.

He could walk, but she needed more than that. It was going to take a lot to get out undetected. They needed time for him to heal. Stay too long, he goes halfskin. Leave too soon, there’s biomite failure.

Sleep. Heal, my brother. Heal, quickly.

In the meantime, Cali discovered that she could access her computer through thought-commands. The new breeds made a connection through her secure portal. If she closed her eyes, she could see the interface as if it was a monitor in her mind. She arranged a hotel reservation at the Red Roof Inn. It was close to the hospital—too close—but Nix would need to recover. She arranged Hertz to deliver a car to the parking garage and drop off the keys to an alias.

After those arrangements were complete, she explored the hospital’s network. The new breeds slipped easily past passwords, speaking the language of computers. She spied through a multitude of cameras like a thousand eyes inside her head. She knew who was on-duty, where they were, what operations were scheduled and even what the cafeteria was serving.

None of that did much good. Not now.

She decided to stretch out. She jumped into the Internet, found Marcus Anderson’s home computer. He’d upgraded since she hacked his personal information a week ago, but she flew past it like a ghost. She opened his email, searched his voicemails, office memos, etc. She decided to download everything to her cloud storage.

He’s the real threat.

That man wouldn’t stop. She and Nix could leave the hospital and very few people would care. They might even elude M0ther. But this man, he would dog them to the end of the world just so he could watch them die.

He needed to be addressed. Permanently.

The door swung open.

Cali jumped back from the bed. She blinked a few times, bringing her vision back online. The images inside her head faded slowly. There were two men stepping inside. Twins, at first.

But now there was one.

She focused on Marcus Anderson.

He was smiling.

30

Marcus left the doctor’s office, cursing beneath his tongue. He never uttered such language, never made it a word, but he let the cursed thoughts settle, melting like dirty mints.

Because he hated this place.

He hated the smell of hospitals. The peculiar scent clung to his sinuses, coated the back of his throat, swabbed his nostrils. It would take days to purge it. Even candy couldn’t mask its odor.

He stopped outside Doctor Erickson’s office, placed a few calls. He had approval to conduct the shutdown in the hospital. There wasn’t an option, but it was nice to have others in the administration on board. The sooner he was out of Chicago, the better.

He hit the door harder than he anticipated, his thoughts elsewhere. Cali was caught by surprise, kneeling next to her brother’s bed, hands folded against her forehead.

She’s praying.

It warmed his heart, to see this godless scientist succumbing to prayer when times were dark and hopeless. All scientists come to the Lord when times became desperate. And if their heart is open, if they’re prepared to admit their sinful ways, He may accept them into the gates of heaven. That was how good the Father was. He held no grudges, only love.

She stood.

“No, no. Don’t let me interrupt. Please.” He gestured to the bedside. “Continue.”

“What do you want?”

Marcus noticed the bag. None of her stuff was scattered around the room. “Going somewhere?”

“My brother is healing. He’ll be transferred soon. I want to follow him… back to wherever you’re taking him.”

“I see.”

Marcus unbuttoned his coat, reached inside and let his hand rest for a moment. The woman looked so vulnerable, so afraid. She knew something was coming. He wasn’t there to pray, though.

“I’m afraid I have bad news.”

He walked softly to the bed, pulling his hand out of his jacket to reveal the biomite reader. He placed it gently on Nix’s exposed throat. A number appeared a moment later. Marcus knew what it would read. He was not disappointed.

He lifted it in her direction.

49.99%

“Wrong,” she said. “That’s wrong.”

“You’re lucky.” He turned the display, read it again like a man that lost his bifocals. “An upgrade now allows for an accurate reading to the hundredths. Your brother would be shutdown already.”

“It’s wrong.” Her fists clenched. “And you know it.”

She acted like she knew he was lying, but even if she did, she couldn’t prove it. M0ther was not one to argue.

“I won’t let you turn him off.”

“You think my finger is on the button?” He smiled like a victor. “I’m simply an ambassador, young lady. I only confirm when the Halfskin Laws are applied. That’s all. I have no part in the rest of this. I don’t enjoy it.”

“Lie.”

“I wasn’t talking about this.” He pointed at Nix. He enjoyed that. Wouldn’t say it out loud. “I mean, I don’t enjoy witnessing the erosion of the soul. I don’t enjoy watching Man play God. It’s sinful, at best.”

His left eye twitched.

“Evil, is what it is.”

“I believe you’re the one playing God, Marcus. You’re deciding who lives and dies. You’re responsible for the bill that brought all of this into play. You’re playing God.”

His lips thinned. “You, Cali, with your degrees and engineered biomites, are spreading the disease responsible for this, not me. It is a disease. It is consuming the human body. You tell me, what will you be when your body is 100% biomite, mmm? Where is your soul, then?”

“Biomites won’t consume 100%.”

She was lying. She didn’t know that.

“Man’s greed is insatiable. The laws I helped put in place are meant to stop humanity from self-destruction, whether they like it or not. All these years, we thought the nuclear bomb would bring about our extinction. Turns out our greatest threat is a microscopic entity that mimics our self-centered greed.”

Her hands quivered. She looked at Marcus with intense concentration, like she was trying to will him into death, like lasers would shoot from her eyes to carve him up. He shuffled a step, a bit nervous of what she was capable of doing. Desperation can crack the strongest. And she was cornered.

But then she appeared to wilt.

Shoulders slumped.

Whatever she wanted to do, she gave up.

Marcus waited at the end of the bed. Cali took a seat, pushing her hair back, cradling her face. Yes, she’d resigned to the end. Marcus was positive. He’d broken many spirits. He knew the sight of one that had crumbled, only needing swept up and disposed.

Still, he waited. He waited until the door opened and James stepped inside. He considered whether he needed security in the room. It was wise to play it safe. When James was next to him, only when his big body was between him and the wasted young woman, did Marcus pass the biomite reader to her.

“Take it.”

She held it, confused. Marcus gestured with a bent finger to her throat. She raised her head. Her eyes widened, slightly. He was sure that she knew what would happen before she hesitantly pressed it to her flesh.

Read the number.

She held the biomite reader without protest.

“We’ll be doing a double shutdown at approximately 15:00 today. I’d like to conduct this event with dignity, Dr. Richards. I would prefer you shutdown next to your brother. I’m sure you would prefer it that way, too.”

Marcus took the biomite reader. He went to the door, stopped; hardly turned his head.

“Check the news feed. The video of your brother’s assault has been released. The real one, Dr. Richards. Any other videos that may pop up will obviously be considered forgeries by talented engineers like yourself.”

She didn’t bother looking up. She’d been cornered. Knew her little stunt with the security video would only hold leverage for so long, knew he could get his people to make one do what he wanted. Whatever she was planning, she waited too long. And her shoulders slumped just a bit more.

Marcus would sweep up the pieces later on.

31

Oxygen came in short supply.

Cali took little gulps, twisting her fingers like origami. Staring. Staring at a dead boy.

Her eyes couldn’t get any wider. The shock rode her pulse like waves, scratching the walls of her circulatory system as her blood carried toxic emotions to her numb and wooden body. Bones turned to steel.

Skin, sun-dried paper, singed at the edges.

She looked around the room, looked for ghost killers. Looked for their executioner. Felt the ceiling fall, the floor cave. The walls collapse.

Her world blacken.

Dry and desolate.

And dead.

And dead, dead, dead, DEAD, DEAD, DEADDEADDEADDEAD—

[Stop.]

The tiny blip of light that was Cali—rational Cali, intelligent Cali—was going under, tossed beneath waves of thoughts and panic and rage…

That little bit called a halt to the madness.

And the new breeds released a tsunami of endorphins to deaden pain, to release the tension. To stop the thoughts.

Cali’s eyelids dropped like shutters. Her breath leaked from her nostrils. She pulled a draught of fresh oxygen, long and deep, and exhaled once again. When she opened her eyes, she saw her brother. He was alive.

And she could save him.

Okay.

All right.

Deep breath.

Cali slowly let her thoughts engage her awareness. She needed to piece together what happened, what needed to change. She had expected to lose the leverage of the security video. It got her into the room. She knew they’d make their own but they moved faster than she expected, but it was not a surprise. She began reaching for her phone to search the newsfeed, to see what the government was saying, when something twanged at the back of her neck.