Upgrade (73 page)

“I just—”
 
Mason thought for a moment.
 
“Did you just call me Mason?”

“Yes,” she said.

“Then I guess my name is Mason.”

“You don’t know your name, but you know mine?”

“I…”
 
Mason levered himself up, one leg slipping out and making him tumble back down.
 
He landed on something small and hard, heard a beep.
 
He reached under himself and pulled out something metal.

Tenko was a master weapon smith.
 
He made smart weapons big as cities, small as pearls.
 
This one is yours, and there is no other like it
.

He gripped the stock of the little weapon, and it chirped, happy and bright as the hard link came online.
 
His overlay scudded to the left for just a second, and the weapon emitted a whine before quieting down.
 
It’s my Tenko-Senshin.

“I know you, Carter,” said Mason.
 
“I feel like I’ve always known you.
 
Is that right?
 
I…
 
There’s something wrong with my head.”

“I know,” said Carter.
 
“I didn’t get here in time.
 
Hey.
 
At least you’re not ash.”

“Ash?”
 
But he remembered the sky opening, a terrible dawn reaching down, before —
 
“You stopped… the fire.”

“Man, you’re really fucked, aren’t you?”
 
Carter
tsked
at him.
 
“We don’t have much time, so—”

“I know who you are,” said Mason, “but I can’t remember the shape of your face.
 
Are we…
 
We’re friends, aren’t we?
 
I feel like I should know your face.”

The link was silent for a time.
 
Mason didn’t know how long, he just worked on standing upright, looking around.
 
Flames burned low in a field to the left of the —
freeway
— road.
 
A vehicle stood close to him, turrets out on the top, the doors empty.

“Mason?”
 
Carter stepped into the tangled wool of his thoughts again.
 
“We are friends.
 
I’d even say…
 
Look, it doesn’t matter.
 
I just called to say goodbye.”

“Why?”

“What?”

“I said, why?”
 
Mason looked at the sky, held a hand up in front of his eyes, trying to find a spot in the sky where fire had reached across the heavens.
 
“Are you up there, watching me?”

“Yes.”

“Why do you need to say goodbye?”
 
Mason coughed, spat something green onto the ground.
 
“Why don’t I know the shape of your face?”

“I did…
 
I did something I didn’t want to do, Mason.
 
I had to do it, do you understand?”

A memory drifted up, a man’s face in front of him as he shot him dead, his family standing behind him.
 
Is that real?
 
“Yes.
 
Sometimes we don’t get to do what we want to do.”

“Sure,” said Carter.
 
“I guess you’ve done a lot of that.”

“I have?”

“Anyway.
 
I had to turn you in.
 
I had to tell them where you were.
 
They
made
me.
 
I couldn’t…
 
I couldn’t
not
do it.”

“Ok,” said Mason.
 
He turned in a lazy circle, then noticed the woman on the ground again.
 
“Do you know someone named Sadie?”

“What?” said Carter.

“Do you know someone named Sadie?”

“Jesus Christ, Mason.
 
I’m trying to have some kind of a deep and meaningful with you here, and you’re talking about, I don’t know, you’re talking about some kind of fucking
normal
?”

“I guess?”

She laughed.
 
“That’s why I love you, you see.
 
That’s why I chose you.”

“What?”

“It doesn’t matter.
 
In some future time I’ll be dead, and I can’t be there with you anymore.
 
So…
 
I wanted to say goodbye.”

“Why?”

“Because I’ll be dead.”

“No,” said Mason.
 
The fingers of his gloves found the edge of the Metatech logo on his chest plate.
 
You’ve got a new contract.
 
You work for Metatech.
 
She works for Apsel
.
 
“Why are they going to kill you?
 
Why, Carter?
 
You’re not coming with us.”

“I can’t come with you.”

“I think…
 
I want you to come with us.
 
Have I told you that?”

“I didn’t have a choice about telling them about you.
 
That was already in the code.
 
But I found a loophole.
 
I don’t have to
listen
.
 
So I stopped them talking to me.
 
Now they think I’m rogue, that I’m a traitor, and…
 
They’re going to kill me, Mason.
 
There’s no stopping that.”

Mason bent over, turning —
Sadie
— turning Sadie over.
 
Her face was grey, but his overlay said her body temperature was normal.
 
He started to lift her up.
 
“Did you go rogue?”

“What?”

“Did you go rogue?”
 
Mason got his hands under Sadie’s arms and started dragging her towards the vehicle.
 
It’s an APC
.

“You bet,” said Carter.

“You could leave,” said Mason.

“No,” said Carter.
 
“They’ve got me locked up in the basement.
 
There’s easily a hundred guys on their way down here.
 
Feels like more, they keep killing the cameras.
 
They’re going to pull me apart and throw the pieces in the trash.”

“I’m sorry,” said Mason.

“I’m not,” said Carter.
 
“They’re all cunts, and they were fucking with my friend.”

Mason popped the passenger door in the APC, pushing Sadie’s unconscious body up and into the seat.
 
He pulled the straps down from behind the seat, buckling her in, then slammed the door closed.
 
“It’s going to be ok.”

“It’s really not,” said Carter.

“I’m coming to get you,” said Mason.
 
“I’ll be there soon.”

She laughed.
 
“You still under?
 
You sound like you’re still under.”

“No,” he said.
 
Then, “Maybe a little.
 
But I remember: you’re in a big building, like a silver tower.
 
It goes up through the clouds.
 
They make energy with reactors.
 
You’re in the bottom.
 
It’s heavily defended, paramilitary force on station.”

“I’m impressed,” she said.
 
“You got most of that right.”

“Good,” he said, sliding the side door of the APC closed.
 
“I’ll come and pick you up.”

“Mason?”

“Yeah, Carter?”
 
He pulled himself up by the door handle, slipping into the driver’s chair of the APC.
 
There was no blood, no indication of a struggle.
 
Where did the driver go?
 
“What is it?”

“I can’t leave, Mason.”
 
Her voice broke for a second.
 
“Don’t come.”

“See you soon, Carter,” said Mason.
 
He pulled the yoke of the APC forward towards him, the machine coming alive under his hands as the hard link clicked in.
 
His overlay filled with systems information, the startup sequence spinning the drive behind him up with a howl.

“They’ll kill you, Mason,” she said.
 
“I’m trying to… thin their numbers, but there’s so many.”

Mason felt a smile on his face.
 
“We make a pretty good team, don’t we?
 
I remember that.”

“Yes.”

“Then they’re not going to kill me.
 
And they’re sure as shit not going to kill you.”
 
He slammed the throttle forward, the APC yearning forward, a dog let loose from the leash.

⚔ ⚛ ⚔

“Wussam,” said Sadie.

“What?” said Mason, turning his head to face her.

“Wuss hap,” she said, after a moment.

“Ok,” said Mason, “it’s like this.
 
You’ve been drugged and electrocuted.
 
I think a couple times, I’m not really sure.
 
We’re in an APC, making a run for Apsel Federate.
 
We’re going in the front door, down to the basement, grabbing Carter, and getting out.
 
You can stay in the car.”

“Is A…
 
Apac.”

“APC?
 
Sure,” he said, smiling at her.
 
He turned back to the road.
 
“Or it’s a car.”

The road pulled past them, streaks of light drawing lines across the windscreen.
 
They were deep in the city now, the wireframe of the APCs’ overlay mapping the night traffic around them.
 
The vehicle’s onboard computer had been warning about
Excessive speed, reduce throttle in urban areas
for ten or more minutes before he’d turned it off.

The APC nudged a car as they pulled between it and another, a spark of light as the other vehicle bounced away from them.
 
Mason gripped the yoke harder, then pulled up the overlay.
 
He asked for a maneuvering solution, and the APC laid out the road ahead of them, bright lines showing a path through the traffic.

Sadie leaned forward a little, looking out the windscreen.
 
She looked at the HUD, the speed plastered in the corner.
 
“Is…
 
Two?”

“Two hundred?
 
Yeah, we’re doing two hundred clicks.”

“City?”

“In the city,” he said.
 
“We’re on the clock.”

“She’s worse than you are,” said Carter.
 
Her voice came over the APC’s speakers.
 
“Sadie, can you hear me?”

“Gonna,” said Sadie.
 
“Gonna die.”

“She can hear you, Carter,” said Mason.
 
“She’s just a little worried.”

“Sadie,” said Carter.
 
“Do you remember our deal?”

Mason frowned.
 
“What deal?”

“Not one that you need to worry about,” said Carter.
 
“Sadie, do you remember the deal?”

“Yes,” said Sadie.
 
She reached a finger inside her mouth, as if she was trying to count her teeth.
 
Or work out what they were.

“New deal,” said Carter.
 
“Get Mason to stop, or the deal’s off.”

“I—”
 
Sadie coughed.
 
Mason threw her another glance, saw a frown blooming across her face in slow motion.
 
“Company fucks.
 
Always…
 
Changin’ the deal.”

“It’s the way it is,” said Carter.

“What deal?” said Mason.

Mason caught the motion out of the corner of his eye, Sadie turning her head away from the APC’s speakers to look at him.
 
“Why…
 
Carter?”

“Why are we going to get Carter?”

“Yeah.”

“Because she’s going to die.”

“Why?”

Mason clenched the yoke, tugging the APC to the left, then hard right around a truck.
 
They blew past it like it was standing still, a bow wave of water pushed up between them.
 
“She’s not been real clear on that.
 
I’m pretty sure she gave the Federate the finger to save us.”

“Save us?”

“Yeah.”

“You’re…”
 
Sadie coughed.
 
When she spoke again, her voice was clearer.
 
“You’re going to get her out because of that?”

“She risked it all.
 
For us.”
 
Mason thought for a second.
 
“How the hell did you shake off the effects of that shit so quick?”

“I do a lot of drugs,” said Sadie.
 
“Practice.”

“Fair enough.”

When Sadie spoke again, it was to the dashboard.
 
To Carter
.
 
“I’m pretty sure I’ve already upheld my part of the deal,” she said.
 
“And you know what?”

“I’m sure you’re going to tell me,” said Carter.

“He’s right.
 
If you saved us, we’re coming for you.
 
It’s what people do.”

“People?” said Carter.

“Deal’s still on,” said Sadie.

“What fucking deal?” said Mason.

“Shit,” said Carter.

The APC burrowed deeper into the city, and the onboard systems slowed the jerks and jitters in their path.
 
Mason tapped his fingers against the yoke, black gloves in stark contrast to the cream of the controls.
 
“Say.”

“Huh,” said Sadie.
 
She spat something into the passenger footwell.

“That’s…
 
That’s really nasty,” said Mason.

“Mouth tastes like assholes,” said Sadie.
 
She coughed.
 
“Goddamn porn company.
 
I’ve got a porn company’s slime in the back of my throat.”

“I…
 
I didn’t quite think of it like that,” said Mason.