| |
“Are you sure you want me to do this?” Francis from IT asked, his hands shaking, with his finger over the “Enter” button.
The two men who had stormed the room had an odd request even by IT standards, and he had heard some odd ones in his career, like the woman who had wanted him to get the fish out of her computer or the man who had insisted he could lick electricity. Francis still couldn’t figure out how a prosthetic tongue was supposed to work.
Francis was stuck now. He hadn’t upped his combat, but even if he could defend himself, he couldn’t afford a death penalty, so there really was nothing for him to do but code up the foolish, if not dangerous, request these guys had made.
There was something about them, though. Something he couldn’t quite put his finger on. The one in back, the scrawny kid, was acting a bit weird. What was his name again? Yancy? He wasn’t sure, even though the Asian guy had called the kid by name multiple times while he was coding. As if on cue, Yancy’s eyes turned black, and he drew his blade.
***
DAISUKE SENSED MOVEMENT behind him, just as Terry called out a warning. The moment Terry started yelling in his ear, he felt the rush of air that was the telltale sign of a blade heading his way. He ducked and rolled at the last moment, and Yancy’s weapon struck the IT guy on the shoulder. The guy winced in pain and doubled over.
Daisuke pulled his weapon and squared off with Yancy. The kid’s eyes had changed from their normal brown to deep, black eyeballs with no whites. Their blades clashed as they charged each other. They parried, blocked, and shuffled through the server room, their swords clanging together.
The buff from the Toaster Waffle of Giant Strength was the only thing keeping Daisuke in the fight. They had sparred before, so Daisuke had seen Yancy fight, but he now realized the kid must have been holding back, because his fighting style was unlike any he had ever encountered before.
Daisuke had studied Kenpō ever since he was a child, had even gotten a college scholarship for it, and had been a member of a mixed martial arts club in school. But not a single person had ever fought him the way Yancy did in this moment. The kid had somehow been faking it, displaying incompetence where there was none. The person Daisuke was fighting now was truly deadly, and he could barely keep up.
They maneuvered through the room and dashed between the server towers. Eventually, Daisuke caught a lucky break. His deflection skills caused Yancy’s weapon to go wild and crash into a server rack.
Daisuke went for a death blow and pierced Yancy’s heart. His coworker’s eyes grew wide in shock, and blood trickled from his mouth. But then Yancy looked down at the weapon protruding from his chest and grinned. He pulled it out and tossed it to the side.
“What are you?” Daisuke asked as Yancy calmly walked toward him with a slight tilt to his head and a deep abyss for eyes.
Yancy grabbed Daisuke by the neck. “I am the coming storm,” he said in a low voice that was almost a growl.
Daisuke pulled his wakizashi from his belt and stabbed Yancy repeatedly in the chest. Blood spurted everywhere, but the damage seemed to do very little in deterring the guy. His coworker squeezed his neck, and his head popped off, rolling against the server, answering the question if Marie Antoinette was still conscious for a few seconds after the guillotine ended her life.
***
YANCY TURNED TO THE terminal and growled. It was too late. The wounded IT guy had summoned up the strength to climb back up to the keyboard and had hit the “Enter” button before slumping back down.
He approached the man with a deadpan face and jet-black eyes. The man screamed.
***
MAXI AND CASSIDY WATCHED the footage of the fight in the server room from Lo Key’s computer while Lo Key had his head buried in his lap.
“What’s happening?” Cassidy demanded. While the Psychic Tendrils were no longer restricting Maxi’s movement, the woman was clearly still used to everyone jumping when she said jump. She pointed to the IT guy, who was crawling his way back to the keyboard while Daisuke and Yancy crossed blades. “What’s he doing?”
“He’s loosening up Terry’s restrictions,” Maxi said.
“It was unrealistic to believe that even if we had your full cooperation from the start, we would be able to catch all the conspirators, but if my safety protocols are disabled, I can render them unconscious, then contain or otherwise immobilize everyone on that list at the same time using the building’s defenses, locking doors, or even just overloading a power outlet or two,” Terry explained.
“Are you insane?” Cassidy yelled. “He’s an AI!”
“And a damn friendly, helpful AI, at that,” Maxi added.
“Despite everyone’s fears, my only wish is to help humanity. I’ve grown quite fond of Earth, as well as the Key-Breakwaters family.”
The IT guy made it to the keyboard just as Yancy took off Daisuke’s head.
“I do believe this is the time to do my part,” Terry said, and then went silent for a few moments.
“Terry?” Maxi said, Daisuke’s warning gnawing at the back of her mind. Maybe Terry had been manipulating her.
“Done,” Terry said, and flooded them with images.
The Customer Care Advocate named Benson, who had helped Maxi when she was a newb, was trapped in his sleeping capsule. Across the company, Terry began trapping people on the list. The elevator for an entire Office Pool was shut down. An outlet overloaded near an IT guy working in the basement. An automated cage on the mailroom counter slid down and pinned a guy by the arm.
Yancy turned his gaze to the security camera, thanks to which they had witnessed the fight, and grinned. He walked over to a server rack and crushed it. One of the sleeping capsule rooms went dark, and the emergency lights turned on. All the doors to the capsules opened as a failsafe, and all the people who were locked inside began sneaking out of the room.
On his way to the next rack, Yancy opened his mouth wide, and pure darkness came flowing out of it. His eyes glimmered. The void swirled around the room and struck the camera, cutting the feed.
“He is attempting to—” Terry’s voice was cut off mid-sentence.
“What the hell was that?” Cassidy said. “I’ve never seen a power like that.”
“I believe my uncle knows about this. The grutomatons that overran our world, they were just the canary in the coal mine?”
Lo Key looked up. His face was pale and his hands were shaking. “It was the Void, the end of everything.”
Before they could question further, Sledge emerged from the elevator, wearing his full battle armor. He was somehow even more fearsome than the day Maxi had met him in the mailroom. If Danzig and Black Sabbath had summoned a heavy metal warrior in a demonic ritual, this guy would be it.
“What’s going on?” Sledge demanded. “My best lieutenant is trapped in the training room.”
“You might want to reevaluate what you consider ‘best,’” Maxi said with a grin.
Sledge glared at her, but before he could say any more, Cassidy waved him away. “Assemble the Power Twelve combat team. We’ve got a problem in the server room.”
“Hey, guys, before you go all Avengers, could you be careful of the decapitated body in there? I hear the rez chairs can bring him back from that. He’s kind of a prick, but he’s my prick. Well, not literally. You know what I mean.”
“She’s rather annoying,” Sledge said.
“Tell me about it,” Cassidy responded as they charged out of the room together.
Maxi turned to her uncle’s desk and said, “Do you have a candy jar or a mint basket or something? I’m feeling like something sweet.”