Chapter 29: Chapter 29 – Escape (3)

"Number one is coming in," Fearless whispered. At least the muffled words sounded like a whisper. "The one who opened the door."

A man in a blue and yellow uniform rushed into the room and rolled off. Obviously to eventually come to a halt with his weapon raised in a crouch. Little did he know that he would have to perform this exercise on an oily slick. His leg slipped on the greasy surface and he fell on his back.

"Shit!" he cursed, then saw Hammer 1.0 looming grimly and motionless in the flickering light of the warehouse above him and widened his eyes in horror.

Wave grabbed his right arm, which held the weapon, pointing in their direction. "Hammer, I’ll take that one!" She jerked him over so that he skidded across the floor and let her fist whiz down on his chest. He gasped and she delivered a second blow to his upper arm. That’s when he loosened his grip and the weapon fell clattering to the floor.

"Wha..." he began, and Wave backhanded him in the face. Something cracked as the brass knuckles hit his jaw, and he slumped.

"Two pressed up against the wall to the right and left, following him," Fearless said. "Another two are further off, diagonally toward the door."

They must have been expecting someone from the storage room to shoot at them, and the others wanted to provide cover for their colleague, who now lay motionless on the ground. Most of all, they didn’t want to be in the line of fire themselves, Wave surmised.

She fumbled for the gun and held it in front of her face. "What does this do?"

"This is a Norintek Phase Cannon 83b," Fearless explained. "The NPC83b can be set to different levels of pain. If you want to really grill the security, you leave the setting exactly as it is."

"I have to turn the wheel here so it just stuns?"

"Yes, counterclockwise," Fearless mumbled. "Two or three times." Then she mumbled, even more quietly: "How boring."

Wave turned the wheel and it clicked three times.

"They’re coming!" Fearless shouted.

"Hammer, warning strike!" ordered Wave.

Hammer raised his weapon and it whizzed to the floor directly between the two security guards, who rushed in brandishing their weapons and enveloping the room in a flicker of green. A shot hit Hammer 1.0 and green lightning leaped across its metal body until it reached the floor.

"Get back!" yelled Finn from the other room as he realized the robot was immune. Too late for the man, who had stumbled in Wave’s direction, trying to avoid the hammer. She fired twice, and at that distance, it was impossible to miss. Unlike Hammer 1.0, he was not grounded and went down twitching.

Wave retreated into the cover of the corridor. Through a gap between two boxes, she saw the other escape through the door.

"Watch out, Hammer, their boss has a special gun. Can shoot bullets. Maybe as we..."

A metallic 'clonk' sounded from Hammer’s direction. Something had hit him, but from her cover Wave couldn’t make it out clearly. She darted past Hammer, crossed the center aisle, and disappeared between the shelves on the opposite side.

From here, she could catch a glimpse of the large robot. A fist-sized black ball was stuck to Hammer’s chest.

"Oh?" commented Fearless at the sight. "Oh! Run!"

Wave didn’t think twice but sprinted back down the hallway. Away from Hammer’s robot, toward the entrance from which he had come earlier. On the way, she tripped over her tired legs, bumped her shoulder against one of the shelves, and filling material rained down on her. Sent off the rails by the collision, she flopped lengthwise. She scrambled across the cool concrete floor and grabbed the shelf to pull herself back up. But she only caught a cardboard box, which tore under her weight. She finally found her footing on the other side and heaved herself back up into the air with a groan. Then there was a bang, something hit her in the back and she was forced back to the ground.

"Fucking brontoshit!" she roared. At least she wanted to yell, but only an unintelligible croak escaped her throat. She turned on her back and coughed. As she did so, she bumped into one of the robot heads and it rolled away. Had that one just hit her?

"What was that?"

"A limpet mine. Anti-robot weaponry," Mother croaked.

"There’s such a thing?"

"Secret prototype. Now get up, Wave! You’d better have listened to me in the first place. Now your friend’s gone and you’re still not with Aki."

If it was secret, how did she know about the prototype? Had they cracked the files at the Security Corps department after all? Wave tightened her legs, turned over her side onto her knees, and stood up. Her back throbbed. She was so grateful to Ember for the suit because she didn’t know how many bones she would have broken today without it.

Wave stretched her head and squinted her eyes, trying to make out something. White dust was in the air, and the light that flickered on and off lit it up like a blinding lightning storm. She didn’t know what the explosion had pulverized, in any case, she could barely see her hand in front of her eyes. Neither could she tell how badly Hammer 1.0 had been hit. She stretched out her arms and took a step in the direction where he must have been. The three-dimensional map of the room had disappeared from her lens, as had the position of the robot or anyone else.

She got hold of a shelf. If it was still standing, the explosion couldn’t have been that bad. Well, she was standing on her feet again as well.

"Get in, get in, get in!" yelled Finn, herding his two remaining men into the storeroom. Now it was just her against three of them. Should she just sneak out? She really felt sorry for Hammer’s first robot, but at least he wasn’t here himself.

Wave tilted her head. The thought tasted stale. He had risked so much and she was just leaving his robot behind? Wouldn’t she be better off ambushing them and rescuing it instead?

"Fearless, can you show me their positions again?" she whispered.

"Sorry, but the door sensors are on the fritz. The others are too far away."

Wave cursed mentally. She might have had a chance, but only if she knew where these guys were. Right now, she wasn’t even able to hear their footsteps.

A dull thud shook the room and one of the men screamed. In shock or in pain? In any case, Hammer 1.0 had to have been the cause. The mine had not been enough to knock him out! The thought inspired her, only the pain kept her from just flying off.

She heard a voice, paused silently in place, and listened. How far away was she? She wondered if Fearless could estimate the men’s position through her lens microphone, replacing her ears in some way. But if she asked about it now and one of them was too close to her, she would give away her location. There was no way she could risk that. Instead, she cautiously and silently felt her way forward.

The light flickered and she saw a face in front of her.

The security chief with the superhero face, Finn. Wave jerked up the NPC83b she was still clutching tightly. She didn’t know if it still worked, after explosions and falls. But he didn’t know that either.

"Mrs. Nethuf," he said. The flickering light cast grotesque shadows on his grinning face. "There’s no point in that. You won’t get away with it. In a moment, this place will be swarming with my colleagues. The Security Corps will be delighted when we turn you over." Another flicker. The moment was enough to see triumph in his eyes. Maybe a hint of malice, too.

"No colleagues are coming," Fearless whispered.

Wave smiled weakly and tightened her grip on the gun. "Even if there were colleagues who could help you, I can’t imagine ending up in a Sec’s cell. The Secs don’t dare to come in here, and I doubt you’d invite them in. Not with what you’re hiding here. Not after you shot Sergeant Lambert in the middle of a street."

The light flashed and his grin was gone. Another scream, a pained one that was cut off at the end, and Finn’s eyes widened.

"Drop your weapon!" ordered Wave. "Now!"

A heartbeat passed, then another. She couldn’t see it, but there was a clatter on the ground beside him.

"What do you want?" he asked.

"I know Aki is here. But why? And why the hearing aid?"

He shook his head. "This whole thing has nothing to do with you, just leave." There was no more triumph in his voice, just something on the cusp of faint hope turning into resignation.

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Wave took a step toward him and pressed the gun to his chest. "You chased me, shot at me, and threw me in a scrap press!" she said sharply. "So this thing has nothing to do with me, huh?" She prodded, and he took a step back. "This is about a human being! Aki is a human being. One I care about. It is my business when his life is on the line!" Her lips became a line and she held back the tears that wanted to well up in her eyes.

"His life, is it?" he laughed dryly. "The only thing the professor cares about is his soul."

"Soul?"

"The bit which defines him. His inner strength, his essence, or something like that. I stopped listening after the professor’s first few sentences."

He smiled. Why? Was he hoping for her sympathy?

"You don’t have to understand," he continued. "I certainly didn’t understand it. There’s so much here that you can’t comprehend and shouldn’t comprehend. Not me, not you, not anyone who wants to stay sane." He shook his head. "Just go. Please."

"No, I’m certainly not leaving." What the hell was he thinking?

"Then ..."

Wave turned the strength control and pressed the trigger. He staggered, took a step back and clawed at the shelf next to them. His face contorted in pain, but he remained standing.

"Maybe," Fearless purred in her ear, "you should try increasing the strength instead of decreasing it even more."

No, she didn’t want him to fall over right away. She wanted him to suffer some more. That was pathetic and she instantly hated herself for that thought.

"His soul?" repeated Wave incredulously. "Are you telling me that his soul is trapped in my hearing aid?"

He laughed hoarsely. "That sounds insane, doesn’t it?"

"No," Wave said calmly. "I’ve seen things that were more insane. But it’s all starting to make sense this way."

His face showed surprise, doubly so, as Wave pulled the trigger again. He squirmed. The hand he was holding on with tensed at first, then went limp. He slipped and staggered forward. Wave took a step to the side and let him fall. As he did, he kicked up white flakes.

"Things are making sense?" Fearless asked. "Now I’m curious."

"Don’t tell me you guys haven’t known about this for a long time?"

Wave regretted the question somewhat because the last thing she felt like doing was playing mind games with the hackers. That’s why she didn’t give Fearless a chance to answer anything.

"Hammer? It’s me. If your robot still works, don’t hit me, okay?"

She felt her way along the shelves until she reached the gap that led back to the center aisle, to where Hammer 1.0 should be. Two steps through the white void, then three steps, her arms stretched forward. The one with the gun and the one without. If she accidentally pulled the trigger, the robot wouldn’t care.

The gun bumped against a solid metal body and now she could make out its outline through the fog. She felt her way around him until she reached his front. Ran her fingers over his chest. Through the gloves, she felt the smooth metal give way to rough ground, where the explosion had blown a small crater in it. She lifted her gaze and saw his eyes, red streaks in the mist.

"You okay, Hammer?"

His eyes blinked once.

"Blinking once means yes?"

His eyes blinked once more.

"Good, I was getting worried about you." About his robot? Or about himself, far away in his office? Probably about both of them. "Then we’ll go rescue Aki now. I’ll lead the way." She walked around him and looked into the fog. "Fearless, how does it look? Is the way clear?"

"Well, at least there’s no one moving along the way who doesn’t belong to us."

"No one who doesn’t belong to us? Are there more on the way who want to help us? Ember, maybe?" Her heart skipped a beat. Hammer had already shown up, after all. Sort of. Was Ember coming to her rescue, too, perhaps?

"Who?" Fearless asked, bursting her hope.

Why had she even thought of that? She hadn’t even been able to ask Ember if she wanted to participate in this mission, after all.

"I don’t know who it is, but I can tell you it will be someone else. Let me surprise you."

"Uh, you’re annoying, Fearless. If you don’t want to spill who it is, just play my navigator."

Fearless chuckled and a green arrow appeared at Wave’s feet, hovering over where the ground was under the fog. "Follow the path about ten meters," she intoned the monotonous navigator voice of the pre-ice age.

Ten meters later the fog cleared and she was standing in the transition to a wide hall bathed in red emergency lights. Had they bypassed Fearless barriers and somehow turned the light on again?

A few feet further into the room, a motionless body lay on the floor, casting a dark shadow around it. The shadow seemed unnatural. It wasn’t supposed to fall that way.

"Somebody surely went to town with that one," Fearless commented on the image. Wave had to take two more steps closer so that she could see as well that the shadow wasn’t one at all.

"Hammer, what did you do?" Wave whispered.

"Don’t worry, little one," croaked Mother. "No one’s going to charge him with anything. There’s no way Kanter’s going to get the Security Corps involved."

"That’s not the point!" Wave didn’t understand how they could all care so little about each other’s lives. Kanter, who had driven Aki to suicide and didn’t shy away from violence and murder in their quest for the hearing aid. Likewise, the hackers who would love to cause a bloodbath here.

But if she was honest, Wave could no longer exclude herself from this group either. She now chose the path of violence herself. She justified this with the fact that she had to free Aki. She even admitted to herself that it had given her satisfaction to finish off the security men. But she knew Hammer, and she knew if these people didn’t survive, it would weigh on him.

"Were there any casualties?" she asked, then. "How many?"

"I don’t have access to accurate data on their biochips," Fearless explained. "That one is still alive, at least his chip is still sending signals. But these are our enemies, and we’re no merciful Sama.... hey cut it out Wave!"

Wave scrolled through her contact list and put out a message for the Meds. Then one to the Hypothermia department. She wouldn’t be able to help here, she realized as soon as she saw the pool of blood. But she didn’t want to just leave these people to their fate, even if they were clearly working for the wrong corporation.

Hammer 1.0 stepped up beside her. Was he also looking at the dying body? What was going on inside his head now? Wave sadly averted her gaze. They had probably won this battle, that was true. But at what cost? They would have to talk about it. But not until the mission was over.

Wave straightened up to show anyone who might still be watching that she was not to be defeated. Even though inside she didn’t feel like it and her body felt like it was about to explode. Determined, she looked to the other end of the hall, where the green arrow pointed.

"Now where are those reinforcements you promised?" she asked demandingly, walking in an arc around the body. She had done what she could do. Now it was time to free Aki.

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