The Outlaw (Phantom Server: Book #2) (26 page)

The nearest mob turned into a ball of fire and dissolved in a cloud of gas.

“Kathryn, move it!” Vandal yelled, firing endless bursts of his heavy machine gun, its accelerator coils smoking.

“What do you want from me?” Kathryn shrieked.

“The neurotoxin! The other one! Use your head!”

His words barely registered. The three nanite colonies controlled by Liori had burned away in the plasma discharges. We stood amid a scorched space. Ash floated in the air.

Disintegration!

My breathing seized. The pressure on my entire system was such that my every nerve had literally turned into an incandescent nichrome wire.

“Foggs! I need some cargonite!”

It was a good job we'd thought about everything we might need to keep my abilities up and running. He lobbed me a diamond-shaped armor fragment with a micro nuclear battery unit bound to it with some wire. And another one! And again!

Replication!

The molecular cloud swelled, exploding, scorching the metamorphs who shrank back.

Replication!

Replication!

Surrender control of the nanites to the external neuronet!

I was exhausted. I had neither the stamina nor the experience needed for such tasks that demanded all of my concentration and dedication.

“I got it!” Kathryn shrieked. “Zander, I've found it!”

“Roakhmar, cover us with your field!” unthinkingly I forwarded him my intentions too. To my surprise, he recognized the mental image. The Dargians' ranks broke; fifteen of them ran toward us. Not all of them made it but eight did, their squat figures closing their ranks again.

“Give it to me!” I yelled at Kathryn, feeling I was about to collapse.

She handed me the vial with exo. I added it to my inventory.

My idea was to create a copy of a heavy pulse machine gun clip with hollow cartridges containing just a droplet of the toxin.

Object Replication!

The mobs were coming for us from everywhere. I had no idea how many of them Liori and I had incinerated, but I had the impression there were more of them now.

The monsters aggroed us like mad. The Dargians tried to contain them while Vandal was distributing the ammo I'd just made to the Disciples.

This was the end.

My Physical Energy indicator was deep in the red. My injectors kept clicking in and out, powerless to do anything. Clutching my head, I dropped to my knees, my fingernails scratching my helmet.

I hadn't been ready for this battle. I was yet to become a half-decent Mnemotech.

I collapsed to one side.

* * *

No idea how much time I'd spent unconscious. When I came round, the battle was already over.

Someone offered me a hand, helping me to my feet.

Roakhmar?

The Disciples' leader lowered his head in silent appreciation of my personal feats that had helped us to stand our ground.

Four more Disciples hovered behind him.

Was that all?

Accepting his aid, I struggled to my feet and cast a look around.

Foggs was climbing down from his ledge. Vandal grinned and slapped my shoulder. Kathryn stood aside without looking at anyone. I wanted to commend her, but I was too weak.

Liori?

I'm here. We need to talk. You can't go any further.

“We're taking a break,” I didn't recognize my own voice, hoarse and wheezy.

“
Nowr!
We only have five levels left!”

“Then you go without us,” I wasn't going to argue with him.

“Very well,” Roakhmar suddenly agreed. “An hour's break then. We can set up a dome shield.”

Vandal, Foggs and Kathryn crouched around me, exhausted.

We still couldn't understand how we'd survived at all. The fatigue dulled our sense of victory.

It wasn't the right moment to count our levels, distribute XP points and look at our abilities. It could all wait. My mind was numb with exhaustion.

I closed my eyes.

A weak, barely visible light was calling my name, taking me through the maze of my scorched thoughts toward the familiar airlock hatch where Liori awaited me.

These mind expanders were amazing. A paradoxical place that made everything possible. All your dreams, all your secret hopes.

* * *

This was a world of our own digitized souls.

Here the fine threads of our nerves rang with desire; our sensations were as sharp as razor blades; any wrong movement could draw blood. Here everything was possible.

That made even me — who'd long sacrificed his life to cyberspace — feel uneasy.

Our emotions were going off the scale, their hot gusts distorting Liori's features, enveloping her in a thin haze that reached out to me.

A moment of desperate, endless descent. Two minds eager to mix, to dissolve into each other. We both knew it wasn't good. Liori shrank back as if burned, leaving behind a fraction of her memories.

I could see a dark sloping alley squeezed between two towers of concrete and steel corroded by the emissions. Two girls were stealing along in the dark, both no more than seventeen.

I couldn't recognize this world. It was devoid of the game designers' touch. It was drab and grim. I couldn't see the sky. The yellow smog hung low, drizzling acid.

Liori and her friend kept stealing cautious looks around. They wore breathing masks, their eyes concealed by the tinted plastic of their second-hand 3D Optos. Their gear was absolute junk. It was probably pieced together from scrap, forming a semblance of composite armor and a most basic life support system.

Both girls wore gloves with crudely made clamps to clutch pieces of sharpened construction steel with.

Was this the real world? The realization sent shivers down my spine. Were these the bowels of our megalopolis?

Liori stopped. The sloping street spiraled down, transforming into a crumbling disused multi-level junction. Its powerful pillars shielded the entrances to numerous tunnels gaping in the concrete wall behind. Most of them were locked but one was only barred in order to allow drainage water to seep away. Its thick bars were dark and oxidized; some were bent just enough for someone to squeeze through.

Kimberly (that was Liori's friend's name) was the first to disappear into the fetid darkness.

“Come on, Lee, move it!” her voice called, distorted by the mask's speakers.

“I'm on my way.”

They entered the suffocating gloom. The light of their weak flashlights could barely reach more than a few feet. Built of glass concrete, the tunnel vaults exuded damp and stench.

Soon the tunnel began to fork off, turning into a maze of underground passages. The two girls continued confidently on their way.

A strange humming sound began to grow.

“Kim, run!” Liori cried out.

They turned a corner and flew up some rusty stairs toward a small platform of steel mesh, barely visible through the toxic smog. Droplets of condensation descended onto the girls' armor, hissing, trying to erode their way through the hardy composite.

The noise kept approaching. The concrete tunnel bed frothed with a torrent of murky water. Someone must have opened the emergency sluicegate.

The little platform creaked, groaning under the pressure.

Soon the torrent receded, leaving a thin trickle of waste behind.

Liori and Kimberly didn't linger on their unstable support but shinnied back down.

What were they up to? I just couldn't work it out. What did they need in the sewer? Honestly, I'd never been in the underground conduits of modern cities. My own childhood had been quite sheltered. My parent's cramped apartment had a built-in 3D projector. 200 square foot is a lot if all your furniture and partitions are remodifiable and if you use high-density holograms for decoration.

My parents' thin high tech shell used to protect me from the outer world. I'd been surrounded by its 3D environment, its forests rustling, its breezes touching my cheeks. I was safe in a world so real, so interesting and so boundless. Until I'd turned seven, I'd had no idea that the Earth's biosphere had long been dead.

A rat jumped out of a side tunnel — a hungry animal the size of a dog, covered in matted tufts of wet hair. It looked disgusting and deadly. The weak flashlights chanced on its bared yellow teeth that could easily snap through your arm or leg.

The girls weren't scared. I could tell it wasn't their first time. They bolted in opposite directions and began climbing the vaulting walls. The rat dashed around in confusion, trying to keep an eye on both of them.

Kimberly slowed down, about to fall off the wall, apparently not strong enough to keep up the pace. The rat sensed its prey's weakness and charged, its claws leaving deep scratches in the girl's composite armor.

Liori dashed to help her.

A thump. A scream. Silence.

The dead animal slid down the pipe, leaving a smear of blood behind it. Liori's sharpened piece of construction steel had entered its back sideways and broken its spine.

The girls wheezed, gasping for breath. Liori gave Kimberly an encouraging hug. Kimberly was shaking. She winced, checking the tunnel over Liori's shoulder for any more intruders.

I had to admit I was shaken. This was real life. Until now, I'd never paused to wonder how other teenagers had lived, those who hadn't been as lucky as myself.

Having caught their breaths, Liori and Kimberly continued on their way until they came to a vertical shaft. They began climbing it, clinging on to the rungs and ducking to avoid the numerous security sensors and laser grids. The megalopolis' service level bared their teeth at the intruders, its scanners showering them with radiation, unmoved by the girls' age and circumstance.

A gas spray, a primitive electronic jammer and some lethal acrobatics were all the girls could counter the security systems with.

Finally, their long ascent was over. A hatch whirred open overhead. Liori climbed out into a large hall dimly illuminated by rows of red lights. She dropped to her stomach and reached out a hand, helping her friend to scramble out. She then removed her 3D Optos, unbuckled her armor and pulled the breathing mask off.

Then she smiled — a warm, naïve, happy smile.

Only now did I notice the dark glimmer of water and the fragmented reflection of the red lights in it. A hazy layer of mist floated over an enormous pool. Warning signs read,

Emergency core cooling circuit pool

Radiation hazard!

A dark corridor led from the pool into the depths of the service level. An airlock hatch gaped open. Behind it lay an enormous hall lined with row after row of staunch pillars aglow with indicator lights. Dust and desolation ruled the place, its air dry and hot. I had the impression that people didn't come here often. The multiprocessor server stations looked obsolete. Many had holes in them where certain modules had been removed — such server units stood dead but some were still functioning.

Liori and Kim must have known the place well. They beelined for the center of the room where the server units parted, giving way to short pedestals. I peered at the massive reclined capsules that rested on top of them.

I couldn't believe my eyes. These were first-generation in-mode capsules. They'd been discontinued for the last ten years at least!

Liori's memories began to fade. I only had time to notice the capsules' massive doors open. Kim and Liori exchanged encouraging nods and stepped inside.

Access denied! Your external neuronet has restricted your access to its content.

Our minds became separated. Unable to merge, they couldn't kill us anymore.

“I'm sorry,” Liori said with a foxy smile. “I was afraid I might dissolve in you. A girl is entitled to her secrets, isn't she?”

“It's all right,” I picked up the Drow figurine. “What happened to Kimberly? This is her, isn't it? You two used to sneak into the old server capsules. Which world did you go to?”

“The Crystal Sphere. But security finally caught up with us. Logical, really. I thought they'd arrest us. Instead, they offered us work testing new game worlds for the corporation. Of course I said yes. I had nothing to lose. My life had hit a brick wall. I didn't even have a social security number when they hired me. The only alternative I had was to spend the remaining years of my life at the waste dump and die at thirty years of age with all the radiation, toxins and diseases. For me, it wasn't really a choice.”

I sat next to her and put my arms around her. Liori clung to me. She laid her hand on my shoulder and didn't move.