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The sanctum, as it turned out, was only a little bit harder to get into than the outer doors. That would have made sense, if I’d had time to think about it. But I didn’t.
I tapped in the opening combination that would have worked for all the doors in this part of the complex, and, when that didn’t work, I tapped in the over-ride combination. When that didn’t work, I ran back through the peripheral security network, figuring the two security systems would have to be able to talk to each other in order for the outer perimeter to tell the inner perimeter if something was going wrong.
Right? Which meant there was a path from the network I’d hacked into, that led to the network I needed to be in, now. Right?
Yeah, well there was, and I found it, which was quicker than stripping down the leads on my jack and using the mini-fuser to attach them to the chip under the keypad—the chip attached to the security system, so it could run anti-intrusion protocols if the numbers were wrong, or something else untoward happened.
And I’d have to fuse them, because there were no wires running from the touch-pad to the chip, just some sort of wireless communication going on between them, which, for the life of me, I couldn’t hack into. Damned closed systems. Linking directly would have been the only other way to get into it, but with no port I’d have had to hope direct contact with the chip would do the same trick.
Almost. By taking the pathway from the outer perimeter, I was able to avoid the security protocols that would have been triggered. Instead, I had to deal with the security protocols for information passing inwards. That took half a minute for the hacking package to work through—and, by then, the Ghoul-clones had made their way around the corridors.
“Hurry up,” Bendigo said.
“I can’t rush this,” I answered, letting the words come out in a sing-song fashion designed to irritate.
Don’t ask. I can’t help being annoying when I’m nervous. And I was sure as shit nervous, right now. Fortunately, Bendigo chose to focus on the Ghouls and not on me. He might not like being sassed, but he probably wouldn’t like to be torn apart even more—and those things were closing fast.
They were also making noise, unlike their predecessors, and the sounds weren’t pleasant. I wondered if they shared their intelligence across their subnet, because they sure sounded like they’d lost a bit—and the fact we’d blown the heads off close to a dozen might account for it.
I shoved that thought aside, and tickled the network’s firewall a little bit more. Honestly, it was worse than trying to talk to your cutie on your very a first date. The security program finally gave me permission to enter its network, and I set to work on getting the door open.
That took a lot less time than the outer doors, and I was glad I didn’t have to remember to leave a jack behind. Now I’d worked my way into the network, I straightened up and got ready to move into the next room.
“You coming?” I asked, sliding through into the chamber beyond, just as soon as there was enough of a gap to slide through.
Bendigo didn’t dignify that with an answer. He just followed me. I let him get half-way through, before I asked the door to close. I figured he was quick enough to avoid being sandwiched by it.
It was close, and earned me a glare. The fact one of the Ghouls tried to follow and was promptly squelched probably got me off the hook, though. If the door had been allowed to open all the way, we’d have been getting to know those guys really well, as in right up close and personal—and they just weren’t my type.
I didn’t bother apologizing to Bendigo. Firstly, because I wasn’t sorry. I’d estimated his ability to get through, and he’d lived up to the estimate. Secondly, because I’d been right. The Ghouls would have been on us in seconds, if I’d given them any more space. Bendigo could just cope with that.
“I could just kick your ass,” he muttered, and, as I tapped the network, and asked the door to the other side of the airlock to open, I wondered if he and Mack learned their lines from the same place.
At the same time, I sent a link into the new system to Bendigo. He was probably running as blind as I was, except he was outside the network, and I needed him on-line so he could keep me alive.
He snorted at that, and I briefly regretted not telling Rohan to bust him the hell out of my head. That earned me a spark of curiosity that Bendigo wasn’t quite quick enough to hide, and I regretted thinking of Rohan at all.
“You mean I shouldn’t space the little brat, when I find him?” Bendigo asked, and it was my turn to not dignify something with an answer.
Besides, I was busy. The inner lock had a couple of security tweaks I hadn’t counted on. Unlike the first airlock we’d passed through, however, I’d been expecting something, and nothing hissed out of the ceiling above us.
Yes! I’d count that as a win. Before I could celebrate, though, I’d have to try not to get eaten, and that meant seeing what was outside the airlock. For all I knew the Ghoul hadn’t stopped at monster look-alikes guarding the outer perimeter. He probably had even worse monsters guarding the sanctum.
Fortunately, Bendigo was way ahead of me. He was firing as the corridor came into view, taking out something vaguely doglike as it leapt toward the door. What it was about Ghoul and packs, I didn’t understand. I was reversing the door mechanism as the second critter closed.
“Crazy sonuvabitch did it,” Bendigo said, and there was admiration in his tone.
“Did what?”
To be honest, I wasn’t sure I wanted to know; I just figured I needed to.
“Little side project I asked for,” Bendigo told me, and then added. “Those things will have implants, as well. You’re going to need to hack their heads, and tell them we’re friends.”
“Or what?”
“Or they’ll keep coming, and then they’ll call for back up.”
“Back up?” I asked, but I was already doing what he wanted... kinda.
First thing I did was look for the critters in the security database. When I found them, I froze.
“You are shitting me.”
“Nope,” Bendigo replied. “Please hurry.”
Hurry? And with a please?
At first I wondered what he was fussing about, and then I found the contingencies. Oh, for Pete’s sake! Shoving those aside, I went back to the... I’ll call them dogs, for want of anything better. Guard dogs. We’ll stick with that.
Anyway, I went back to their programming, and hooked into it.
Pack, right? And we wanted them to recognize us as such. I wondered what they’d do, when they did. Would they just leave us alone, or would they insist on keeping us company, and protect us from whatever else existed inside these corridors?
“You wish,” Bendigo muttered, and, this time, I ignored him, finding the link to the implant of the head of the pack.
Was he outside? Which reminded me, I had to hook us into the security feeds.
“Do it later!”
Like I needed Bendigo to tell me what to priorities.
I’d seen the contingencies; I knew what was coming if I didn’t get my butt into gear.
There! I wormed my way through the interface, and tried to work out how to get the program to recognize us as friendly. Turned out I did need to hook up to one of the dogs outside, after all... and I needed it to sniff my hand without taking off my arm. At least, I hoped that was all it needed to do, because I wasn’t about to let it bite me.
Trouble was, I’d have to let it get within killing range to do what it needed in order to be friends with me, and I wasn’t even sure the system would work. I shunted the information to Bendigo and let him digest it while I opened the door. The dogs were still there, their claws ticking on the tiles as they paced back and forth outside. That clicking sound ceased as the air-lock opened.
I’d found the introduction protocols, but had to jimmy in an extra bit of code so they could be enacted without Bastien the Ghoul—the real Bastien the Ghoul—being present. Bendigo kept the Blazer focused on the nearest one, and I wanted to tell him to put his weapon away, except I couldn’t bring myself to do so. It was all I could do to stop myself from reaching for mine. I triggered the code, and stretched my hand toward the nearest hound, instead.
At first, it approached, and then it stopped, and stared at me expectantly. I tried to think of what Bastien would want someone new to his complex to do, and then figured the guy had a real thing for humiliating folk. He’d want them on their knees and vulnerable. He’d want them wondering if he was going to have his creatures accept, or eat, them.
Oh. Hell. No.
I took a deep breath, and let it out slowly, all too aware of when the second dog came to stand alongside the first. Very carefully, I crouched before them, and then settled onto my knees. Again, I held out my hand, and again, the dog sat there and watched me. There was still something else I had to do.
Oh, for fuck’s sake. Did every one of these guys have to be this big an asshole?
I placed my hands on my knees, and dug my fingers into the fabric of my trousers, and then I lifted my chin, exposing my throat and angling my head so I could judge the dogs’ reaction. Beside me, Bendigo stood very, very still.
“Girl, you are some special kind of crazy,” was so not what I needed to hear whispering through my head.
In front of me, the dog rose to its feet.
And I flinched. I saw its ears flick forward, and heard a low rumbling growl. I heard something else, too. From further down the corridor came a soft, susurration of sound, like water hissing over sand, or the scurry of a myriad of tiny, little feet. Bendigo rested his hand on my shoulder, and the dog approached, its claws tick, tick ticking across the floor.
As it loomed nearer, I closed my eyes, surprised to feel warmth in its breath, as it sniffed my skin. Was that all it needed? But Bendigo’s hand tightened, his fingers digging into muscle, as he pressed down on me. I wondered why he suddenly felt the need to hold me in place, and then I felt the dog’s jaws open.
That was nearly as bad as feeling them close over my jugular and wind-pipe, and I couldn’t suppress a whimper of sound, as I realized the creature was preparing to take a sample of my DNA—straight from the vein. It made me glad Bendigo was holding me in place. The dog’s teeth closed, firm enough to hold me, but not hard enough to break skin—until they elongated a fraction of an inch, piercing through flesh to the blood vessels below.
I shuddered, my legs trying to do the sanest thing they could think of, even as I tried to will myself to stillness. For once I was glad Bendigo had a hold of me, because he kept me on my knees for the time it took the creature to close and open its jaws, and then back away.
“Stay down,” he said. “I don’t think they’re done yet.”
I wanted to protest otherwise, but I had a horrible feeling he was right. He was like Mack: always right at the most inconvenient of times, because the dogs really weren’t quite done with me.
One by one, the three other dogs in this part of the pack, approached and dabbed my throat with their tongues. More DNA sampling, I realized, as each one took a taste, and then returned to sit across the corridor, its eyes expectantly on Bendigo.
When they were all seated, once more, I turned to him.
“Your turn,” I said, and he let go of the Blazer, leaving it to hang across in front of him as he knelt, and tilted his head back.
I stayed on my knees, watching as the first dog closed its jaws over Bendigo’s throat, and split the skin. It was a relief to hear the man’s indrawn hiss of breath as it gripped, and then let go. At least he knew how it felt. It was almost good to see his fingers curl against the fabric covering his knees, and to watch the shiver that ran through him, as the creature growled and then let go.
I sat and watched as the other dogs came up to him, each one licking a drop of blood from a specific point at his throat, and, all the while, I listened to the noise coming from further down the corridor. Even though the dogs were my first concern, I glanced toward it. The contingencies appeared in view, darkening the walls and ceiling as they came closer, and making me wish we were back in the airlock.
And then I realized it wouldn’t have mattered if we’d stayed in the airlock. If there were vents in the ceiling of that chamber, just as there had been in the ceiling of the entry chamber, there’d have been no escape. These thoughts ran through my head in the time it took for the last dog to take its lick, and then turn away. As it did, the sound of the oncoming wave of nanomites stopped.
I lifted my head, and got slowly to my feet, aware that, beside me, Bendigo was doing the same. Neither of us looked away from the shadow swarming the end of the corridor, and neither of us spoke, until that shadow had melted away, as though it had been a figment of our imagination.
“Your partner was a very sick man,” I said, and Bendigo clapped me on the shoulder, before heading toward where the shadow had been.
“That little trick was my idea. I paid him to make it happen.”
I had no comment for him, then. None. Nada. Nix. Nothing, but he didn’t seem to care, just trotted away ahead of me, with the expectation that I would follow. Which, of course, I did. Of course, I did. What else was there for me to do?
Oh, that’s right. There was plenty for me to do. I followed after Bendigo, but my mind was elsewhere, literally. I had just enough awareness to navigate the corridor and match the direction of his shadow, but that was it. If he was counting on me to guard his back, then he was shit out of luck.
I used my link to explore the security network, hooking us into the camera feeds from within the sanctum, making us a more integral part of the doggy sub-net, and locking the doors to every space around us. There was no way I wanted to be caught unawares by yet another pack I hadn’t known about. Once had been enough. Twice had been overkill.
The Ghoul had understood that, right?
“Right.”
Bendigo’s voice brought me back to earth... or, rather, made me aware of the fact we’d reached the end of the corridor, and were standing outside what Bendigo’s map had designated the server room of the inner sanctum.
“Get us in.”
“Check out what’s on the other side of the door,” I told him; there was no way I wanted to be facing another set of teeth like the last lot... or another set of Ghouls.
“There’s a problem with that,” Bendigo said, and I saw what he meant.
While we had access to every camera, or almost every camera, now that I looked, the server room was dark to us. So was the room beside it, and, in fact, each of the three rooms adjoining it. The corridor we were standing in ran around them in a loop.
“You’d better hope it doesn’t need his DNA, or something equally ridiculous,” I said.
“Why? We can send it the records from the security pack that took our sample.”
“And if it wants a retinal scan or handprint?”
“Oh, please. I doubt the Ghoul was anywhere near that old school.”
“No?”
“You can count on it.”
And so I could. It appeared the Ghoul was even older school than DNA, handprints, or retinal scans. No, the Ghoul was so old-school, he’d chosen a password—one that changed randomly at thirty-second intervals.
“This could take a while.”
“We don’t have a while,” and Bendigo grabbed me by the back of the pack, and hoisted me out of the way.
“If you’re sure...” I said, facing away from him so I could keep an eye on the corridor stretching off to either side of us.
To be honest, I was curious. What did he think he was going to do that would get us through the door faster than me? This was why he’d brought me along, right? From behind me came the sound of the Blazer being used as a plasma cutter. Oh. Right.
And because I didn’t know what sort of security reaction that was going to set off, I pulled the gas mask up over my face, and sent my head into the system to monitor its reaction. Behind me, the door handle rattled to the floor. In my head, I watched as red lightning streamed away from the door, heading for four separate nodes. Those I could deal with.
I sent two hound-dog programs out after the furthest two strands of lightning, and went after the closest one. I was just going to have to deal with this one fast enough to deal with the next closest, because I hadn’t had that many hound-doggies prepared. Why? Because I rarely used them, let alone two in one mission. Four would have been quadruple what I’d thought I’d need in a worst-case scenario.
Next time, I’d take eight.
It’s hard to describe a code battle. You’re kind of there, and not there, and your implant tends to send you visuals that symbolize what you’re doing in pictures, so you might find yourself fighting a serpent with a human torso, and four arms, or a knight clad in heavy armor, depending on what sort of coding your up against.
This time, I was facing Bastien the Ghoul, but he was naked—which was off-putting enough—and armed with an extra set of arms, holding one shield, a Castor 91 laser pistol, a very long, serrated-edged dagger, and a wand.
A wand? That grabbed my attention. What sort of program was symbolized by a wand?
“Want to see?” Nude Bastien asked, and gave the wand the tiniest flourish.
Around him, electricity rose in a wave, and rolled toward me.
Oh, crap.
I conjured an umbrella, a rubber umbrella, and tucked myself in behind it. To be honest, I hadn’t faced a system that went directly to a straight power surge to blast out intruders, and I didn’t know if I’d be there when the wave passed. I also didn’t know if I’d drop to the deck with smoke wisping out of my ears, because my brain was fried. I snugged in tight behind that umbrella and I prayed... I also tried to work out a way to get that damn wand out of Bastien’s grip.
The wave passed, and I looked down at the whip coiled in my hand.
Cool. Furling the umbrella, at the same time as I flicked the whip past it to wrap around the hand Bastien was using to hold his wand, I tried to remove the code that would let him try another surge. From the corner of my eye, I saw the third line of red, getting closer to the node, and a fourth wink out as the hound-doggie grabbed it like a snake, and shook the life out of it.
Of course, that was the end of the hound’s life, as well. That program was a kind of one-shot wonder, and I was going to have to work out how to make it regenerate. And, speaking of which... I jerked the whip toward me, capturing the wand, and pulling Bastien closer, as well.
This was not entirely what I had intended, but it would do. I conjured a sword and cut off the arm holding the shield, stepped aside to avoid the shot from the pistol, and then sliced off the arm that had held it. That just left the dagger...
...and the tentacles now sprouting from Nude Bastien’s stomach. Tentacles that looked like...
I swallowed down bile.
A hydra? Logical program. Good attack. Good defense. Good evasion. But what on earth had possessed him to give it that image, and why would the hooded toothy tentacles be pulling the innards out of the Bastien-construct? I watched him unravel, stumbling back a couple of steps as the defensive program I was running made some hasty adjustments.
So, not good.
Worse was the way the tentacles were dividing to become separate entities, not one attached to the other. So, not a hydra, after all. So, what...
I could only watch as one shot past me, making for the node I was trying to stop it reaching. A second one went for my throat, and a third latched onto my sword arm. But it was the fourth one that scared me shitless. That one went straight for my feet, wound its way around an ankle, chewed a hole in the trouser leg above it, and started to work its way up the inside of it.
I glitched. I dropped the sword, dropped the umbrella, and reached down to try and grab hold of the thing inside my trousers. It had made it to my construct’s knee, and I didn’t want to think what its end destination might be. The thing on my arm bit deep, and then vanished, having delivered a payload of destructive code right into my defensive veins. The other one missed my throat, flying past as I ducked.
I closed my fist around the one in my trousers, and tried to get the fingers on my empty sword-hand to work. They didn’t. Instead, they gave a single painful throb, and then fell right off. Well, damn, that was going to be painful when I got back to my body. I had no choice but to grow more, except the poison was moving, running up my arm toward my head—which symbolized the heart of my attack program.
I ditched the arm. Only way to stop it. I shed the arm, and took several quick steps away from it so it couldn’t latch onto my foot in a last-ditch attempt to find a target. If Ghoul was using anything close to what I knew, it had a limited reach and would dissipate without a host. I didn’t check to see if I was right; I had no time. The next thing I had to do was get rid of the intrusion program currently trying to break free of my hand.
Where it was intending to intrude didn’t bear thinking about, and I had no intention of letting it. This battle might only be happening in the existentiality of my mind, but I’d be feeling echoes of the simulation in the physical, just as soon as I came out of it. The first thing I had to do was get rid of my pants... without letting go of the tentacle inside them. That, at least, wouldn’t translate into the physical world.
It was trickier than it sounded, but not impossible. I managed it with one arm lying on the ground. Five feet away. Now, I just had to disarm it. It bared its fangs at me, flaring its hood, and giving me a good look at the inside of its mouth. I felt my insides turn over, again, and knew this thing would be featuring right alongside the airlocks of my very worst dreams, for months to come. That was trying to get inside me? Oh, hell to the hells, no!
I reached for something, anything, that would let me crush it without opening my fist. At the same time, I lifted the little monster away from my leg and held it away from me. My gaze flitted across the computer landscape and saw the flare of light that occurred when the second hound unraveled its target. This one, however, did not go quietly.
Maybe it had a wand like the one Nude Bastien had been holding, or maybe it was just designed to explode and take out everything around it. Either way, that flare of light was expanding and rolling right toward me. I needed my umbrella, and I needed it now.
I got my feet around the handle and pivoted so I could point it toward the oncoming wall of light, and then I scrunched my knees up close to my chest, wiggled my rump over the edge of the umbrella so it didn’t stick out, and then I hurled the intrusion program just as far away from me as I could get it, and wrapped my remaining arm around my knees, so I could tuck my chin against them.
It almost worked.
The energy wave smashed into the top of the umbrella and rolled around me, in exactly the same way as the power surge had, and then it dissipated. It was almost like it had been looking for a target, and had found it in the umbrella. I got to my feet as soon as it went out, and looked for the last strand of red.
Just in time to see it enter the node it had been trying to reach.
