The Complete Karma Trilogy (20 page)

“This is pretty serious, isn’t it.”

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” John said, one of the other officers in their group.

“Can I leave my bag somewhere? I feel like it’s going to get in the way,” Will said, looking at the bulky thing he’d been carrying around everywhere with him.

“You can do whatever you want with it, but if you lose anything in it you’ll have to buy replacements yourself, and I promise you that you don’t want to do that.”

“But there’s nowhere on the subway, I mean?”

“No, not really.”

“Fine,” Will said. “I just feel like I’m going to die, and it will be because I’ll be too busy carrying this huge bag around while everyone is shooting at me.”

“Good luck with that,” Eric said.

When the subway pulled up to the subway station, already explosions could be heard from above. “I don’t want to go,” Steve said. “This is absurd.”

“Don’t be a pansy,” Eric said.

Will took the two sets of handcuffs he had out of his bag, the normal and the high-torsion. He also took his Karma Map, his stun gun, and his Grappling Chain, and put them all in his pockets, except for the stun gun that he kept in his hand. The rest he left in the bag. When the doors of the subway opened, he ran out, and as he passed the benches that filled the station, he threw his bag under one of them. Everyone else followed, slightly less enthusiastic than he was.

Above ground there was fire everywhere, and several officers were lying around on the ground, bleeding from various wounds. He looked around for someone that seemed coherent enough to tell him what was going on.

“Where are they?” he yelled, over another explosion in the background. The man was sitting on the ground, holding his knee and rocking back and forth. He simply pointed to a hole in the wall of a building that was twenty feet away from them, out of which smoke was pouring. “Over there? Thank you!” he yelled, as he was already running off.

As he entered the building through the hole, he was shot in the left shoulder by a bullet. By a gun, a real gun. He didn’t think that any existed. The man that had shot him was standing right next to him, and was preparing to shoot him again. With quick reflexes, Will paralyzed him with his stun gun, and watched him crumple to the ground. He could hear noises of movement ahead of him, so he ran on.

Twenty feet ahead of him, another man had turned around and began shooting at Will. The range of Will’s stun gun was far less than twenty feet, so he shot the man with his Grappling Chain, directly in the chest, and anchored himself on the ground. The man flew toward him, and, as soon as he was within arm’s length, Will punched him in the face and into the ground, where he then shot him with his stun gun.

A group of men had climbed a staircase, and were shooting at him from a platform above. Will shot the corner of the ledge below them with his Grappling Chain, which took him up as soon as it latched on. Right before he reached the end of its length, he pulled as hard as he could on the remaining chain with the arm that wasn’t holding the gun, so that it sent him flying high over the platform, where he started trying to stun them from above before he landed. One of them shot him in his hip, he stunned two others, and the third one he had to kick off of the platform, through the railing, to avoid being shot pointblank.

He looked around to his left and right, but couldn’t see any more people, so he took out his Karma Map and zoomed in on himself. There was one more man, further down the hallway he was in, that he could see if he scrolled over. He put the Map away and continued onward.

The man was standing in front of a large steel door. Loud machines could be heard on the other side, and the room felt full of their vibrations. The man was placing a large explosive against the wall, and pressing buttons on it. Will shot him in the back with his Grappling Chain, and whipped him into the wall to his side as he flew past, where he made a loud cracking noise.

He walked up to the explosive, to see what it said. It was flashing the number ten over and over again. He wasn’t sure, but he thought that he had stopped them from doing whatever it was they were doing.

Then he was shot again, a bullet cutting across the side of his neck. He sidestepped to avoid another shot, which embedded itself into the wall where he had been. He tried jumping behind a short wall to take cover, but ended up going twenty feet higher than he thought he would, and hitting his head on the ceiling. He was extremely disoriented as he fell back down, and landed on his back on the wall he had been trying to jump over. While he was prostrate, he could see the man taking aim at him again.

Right before he pulled the trigger, he was Evaporated. Eric stood in the place where he had been. “Will, what the hell. You ran off ahead.”

“Eric, that man didn’t have a Chip. I looked at my Map, that man wasn’t here.” The other man, the one who had been setting the bomb, was still lying unconscious where Will had thrown him.

“Will, shut up!”

“But it’s true, Eric, they’re out there! I looked at my Map, right before I walked into this room. And they’re wearing uniforms. It’s Charles. It has to be.”

The other men showed up shortly after, Marcus, Steve, and John. They helped Will to his feet, since he could barely support himself. “I tried jumping,” he said, “and somehow I jumped to the ceiling. These damn steroids are throwing me off.”

“You mean the shoes, right?” Steve asked.

“What do you mean, the shoes?”

“Did Fred give you your stuff, back when you started? That asshole never tells people what the shoes do. Sure, it’s funny when you find out while your outside, but I swear to God someone’s going to die because of that dude, trying to jump inside a building.”

Will’s Karma Card began to ring. One of the other guys, John, pulled it out of his pocket for him. Eric’s was ringing as well. The message was the same—it said to go directly to the Karma Tower.

“Damn it, Will. I told you,” Eric said.

John read through the rest of the message. “They’re sending in a Helicar for you.”

Decay 10

Nice Lotus

The officers had
just left Charles’ mansion. When he was sure that they were gone, he went straight back to the bathroom. He said to his sink, “Send Brother Peril back in. They’re gone.”

While he was waiting, he shaved his head, put in contacts that changed the color of his eyes, and changed into some ragged, oversized clothes that he had in a closet next to the bathroom. Then Peril arrived, looking a lot like Charles had only moments before.

“Interesting look you have there, Brother Charles,” Peril said, after knocking and waiting to be let in to the bathroom.

“It’s time, Brother Peril. For everything we planned. It’s all happening.”

“Is it really?”

“It is. I need you to go to the Park, and put on the leather gloves, so that the ghosts know they should meet you there. I’ll be there right behind you, I just need to go talk to Brother Vincent.”

The ghosts were all the people that Charles had in the city without Karma Chips, recruiting new members and doing all the things that people being watched by Karma could never get away with. Jackson’s group was one of the many teams he had operating. The main difficulty with having ghosts was that they were nearly impossible to communicate with, so he had to develop strange systems that only ever worked half of the time.

“I’m wearing the gloves? Why am
I
doing it? And what do I tell them when they show up?”

“We don’t have that much time, they’re already suspicious. The Karma Chip factory will only keep them preoccupied for so long. I told you I’d be there right behind you, I’ll talk to them.”

“Is there anything special I have to do with the gloves?”

“Just look at them a lot.”

“Alright.”

“And Brother Peril,” Charles said, becoming really serious and quiet.

“Yes?”

“Be really careful. Now more than ever. But make it to the City Park.”

In the back of the temple building, Emerson was sitting in a rolling chair, watching the many screens that showed their people in the city. Behind him, a few men were busy soldering away on electrical devices. Charles burst into the building. “Brother Emerson. Where is Brother Vincent?”

“It’s not his shift,” he responded.

“I don’t really care right now.”

“He should be in the temple, meditating.”

“Thank you.”

“And Brother Charles, while I have you, they’re bringing in another recruit. What should we do with him?”

“Who’s bringing him in?”

“Jackson’s group. He just left a message at checkpoint delta, so he should be here within a few hours.”

Charles tripped momentarily over the triviality of dealing with a new member, but eventually said, “Send him to the farm, or something. It doesn’t really matter. But more importantly, when he shows up, tell Jackson to stay here with everyone else. He’s going to miss the meeting in City Park, but maybe he can be of some use to all of you.”

Charles didn’t wait for a response, he circled the building and went through the doors of the temple, and found Vincent in the rows of people sitting on the floor. He tapped him lightly on the shoulder. “Brother Vincent. Brother Vincent.”

The man’s trance was broken with a startle. He quickly got to his feet, before he even knew what was going on. “Yes? What is it?”

“Nice lotus. And I want you with Brother Emerson, in the control station. I know it’s not your shift, but I want you watching over it. I just sent out the attack on the Karma Chip factory. You’re going to start the thing with the Rehabilitation clinic. And after you get that going, you’re going to get absolutely everyone armed, on the farm and in the temple, and you’re going to wait on my word. You might have to leave a few people behind at the farm—they just brought in a damn new recruit, and someone’s going to have to watch over him, make sure he doesn’t run away. I’m going to meet all the ghosts that are still in the city, it can’t wait. If any more ghosts bring any more recruits, tell them to stop, and to accompany all of you on the next phase. There will be no more recruiting for a while. And tell my engineers to just go somewhere safe and wait, they’re not fighting. But give them weapons anyway, just in case. Got it?”

“Yeah, I do. I’ll get right on it.”

“Good.”

Damon had been walking for nearly two days, his head a constant explosion. For a while they had hitched a ride on a subway, but that was only for part of the way, and apparently they weren’t supposed to. Jackson had threatened him with death if he ever told anyone.

He kept touching his ear, even though it sent waves of pain through his entire body every time that he did. They had taken off his ear, the whole thing, and then put it back. They tunneled into his brain. He could feel the sensation of the machine in his head still, tunneling from his ear, along the inside perimeter of his skull, a few centimeters back to his Karma Chip. It was still numb, but pulsing, and he couldn’t stop thinking about it.

“Why did you take my ear off?” he stammered.

“We told you that already,” Jackson said patiently, as they trudged along, nearly at the mansion.

It would have been almost tolerable, Damon thought, except that he had seen it, he had seen it happening. He had a mirror on the inside of his bathroom door, from which he could see himself standing in the shower. And he’d never loved the mirror there, but he never thought that it would ruin his life either. He was conscious when they did it, he could see the unnatural machine, suspended above his head, a drill in his mind, his ear off to the side, just suspended there. It was the image. And then they just attached it again like nothing ever happened, and there was his Chip, bloody and on the counter. And only then did his body grant him reprieve, only then did he pass out.

Damon was surprised when they simply went around the mansion, into the field behind it. They walked close under the building, as if they were avoiding being seen from the windows, if they could. He hoped they weren’t breaking in to it. He had been doubting for quite some time if he had made the right decision—he should have just went to one of the Rehabilitation clinics and prayed for the best. He didn’t know what he had signed up for. It was possible that the ear was just the beginning, that a sick, demented half-existence of being tortured lay ahead of him. It was possible that his new companions were part of the Government as well, punishing those who tried to escape their fate. The possibilities and the pain, they filled his head.

They walked through some trees, and suddenly they were in a hidden, little village, with tents and a small, wooden building. It didn’t really make sense. They brought him around the back of the building, to a guy that was sitting behind a bunch of screens.

“Brother Emerson. Here he is, that new recruit I told you about. His name is Damon. Should I put him in a tent?”

“Brother Charles said to put him on the farm.”

“He hasn’t exactly healed yet, why aren’t we putting him into a tent?”

“That was an order from Brother Charles, are you going to disobey it?”

“No, I’m not. If you say so, then. But is he around to talk to, Brother Charles?”

“He’s not, he went back into the city. To the Park. He’s having a meeting there with the ghosts, and he says it can’t wait. He said that you should wait here, and go with all of us.”

“Damn it,” Jackson said, thinking about how tired he was from the long trek. “I’m not just going to wait here, if things are happening already. I’m going to that meeting.”

“You couldn’t possible make it in time.”

“I can if I take a subway.”

“You know that’s dangerous, Brother Jackson,” Emerson said with a frown.

“Don’t even get me started. You think I don’t know what’s dangerous? I’m out there every day, avoiding Karma, while you sit behind these little computers, safe and sound. Don’t even start. Come on, Damon, I’m taking you to the farm, where you’re going to have a lot of fun, okay?”

He grabbed the disoriented man by the arm and led him out of the building. Before he had gotten very far, he told one of his group, “Go get us some of those Evaporation Pens they’re making. I’ve got a bad feeling about this meeting. If he says no, take them. You, go with him. I’ll take care of the recruit. I’ll meet you both out front.” The two left and he continued on to the farm.

“They’ll tell you what to do,” Jackson said, indicating people that were meandering about between the plants. Then he yelled, “New recruit!” before leaving Damon standing there.

It was the saddest farm that Damon had seen in his life. He’d seen pictures before, of the Government farms, vast tracks of land that had Solar Umbrellas to give them light, high-yield fertilizer, and large, intricate water sprinklers. Those plants had looked robust, healthy, fertile.

In contrast, everything on the field around him was tragically withered, bending unhealthily under the weight of the small amount of fruit that they did occasionally produce.

“This is the farm, our pride and joy,” a man said, approaching Damon with a smile. “I’ll show you the animals too, to give you a full tour.” The man led him down a short path, down to a small field that smelled strongly of manure.

Ranging out among the weeds were a bunch of anorexic farm animals, including the thinnest pig Damon had ever seen. The cows all looked sallow as well, an unnatural yellow color that he had never expected to see. Their coloration made them look like some other animal entirely, so that he almost didn’t recognize them for what they were.

“They probably haven’t told you much yet, but this is what you’re going to live off of, for the rest of the time you spend with the Order, so you better put everything you got into it. We only survive if we work together, and we’re only working together when everyone’s pulling their weight, okay? I’m going to take you back to the fields, and I’m going to get you a shovel. We’re moving some manure onto the plants. It might sound gross, but I promise you that eventually you’ll realize it’s the most satisfying thing you’ve ever done.”

Damon’s head began to radiate pain anew, and he couldn’t tell if it was because of the fresh tunnel in his brain, or the thought of working on that farm.

Charles was sitting on the same bench in the City Park that he always did, waiting. Peril, his doppelgänger, was nearby, standing immediately outside of the Privacy Room, where the Park ended. In order to guarantee the message was received, Peril was still just staring at his leather gloves, waiting for the ghosts to show up.

A lot of thoughts were going through Charles’ head. He hadn’t had enough time to cultivate a stronger image. He wasn’t quite sure that he had enough men for what he intended to do. The men that had attacked the Karma Chip factory, and the men that would attack the Rehabilitation clinic, were fortunately not his own. They were connections he had been lucky to make early on, people that he had hired using part of his fortune. It had always worried him that somehow that part of his plan wouldn’t work, even though a lot of precautions had been taken during the transactions. He had always felt that somehow it would be discovered and traced back to him before its implementation, or that the man he paid would have just taken the money and never delivered. But it worked, or at least the first part had.

The rest of the men would be his own, moving forward. He trusted no one else. But he had no idea how many of his ghosts would show up. It was entirely a function of how many of them were checking in regularly on his Card, like they were supposed to do. He imagined that a lot of them were consistent about it—the ones that he had seen since the escalation of events, he had told to follow the guidelines closer than they ever had before. They were prone to listen, he felt.

Jackson and his men were the first to show up. Charles was somewhat confused. “How did you get here so quickly?”

“You made it sound important,” Jackson said, “so we took a subway.”

“How on earth did you do that?”

“That’s a secret of the trade, Brother Charles.”

“If you say so. I just can’t have any police officers showing up to this meeting of ours.”

“They won’t. Not because of us, at least.”

Soon more began to trickle in, and Charles began to worry about how conspicuous they would be. They had only had one other similar meeting, and it had caused quite a few people to stare, which was attention that he never wanted. “Only group leaders,” he said. “The rest of you go take a walk around the Park, or something.”

Before long there was fifteen of them gathered there, almost more than he had hoped for. He signaled for Peril to come back and join them, which he did.

“The plan is in its last phase,” Charles said. “No more recruiting. Put your Chip removal machines somewhere where they won’t be a hindrance to you. Make a quick visit to checkpoint beta, and get yourselves armed. We’ll be moving in from the Monastery shortly. This will be the gathering point for you, just like we planned. Chances are, I might not be here to meet you, but you move on with or without me, tomorrow, noon, World Time. The station is down the road. Is that clear to everyone? You ghosts are one of my best assets, you know what it means to avoid Karma better than anyone. Can I count on you?”