Zero echo shadow prime, p.15
Zero Echo Shadow Prime, page 15
As she made her way along the edge of the river, her bare feet crumpled the icy grass. Her thin hospital gown provided little defense against the cold night wind. If she’d had any hairs on her arms, they would have been standing at earnest attention.
Charlie cleared the forest and cut across the roof’s perimeter footpath. With great trepidation, she peered over the edge of the building. The vista came with a kick in the stomach. It was a long way to the bottom. She still felt the gut-wrenching fear of absurd heights—even without a proper gut.
{Charlie: A nine-hundred-foot drop. Can I even survive it?
Alan: Depends on how you land. If you manage to land on your feet, you’d risk a sixteen point five percent chance of serious injury.
Charlie: And if I land on my head?
Alan: I wouldn’t recommend landing on your head.
Charlie: Obviously.
Alan: If you hit your head? Seventy-eight percent chance of irreparable brain damage and functional death.
Charlie: What other options do I have?}
A squad of Rivir guards spilled onto the roof.
She could hear their footsteps but couldn’t yet see them through the trees. Climbing onto the raised ledge, her feet could feel every nick and divot in the cold concrete. The frigid wind blasted her face. She was so high up the roads appeared as thin streaks of light. Yet when she focused, everything resolved to crystal clarity, as if her eyes were hovering only two feet above the pavement.
I am a superhero. I am a superhero. Charlie spent what felt like an eternity willing herself over the edge. But her legs remained locked, and with each uneasy breath, her courage shrank inward. At a certain point, she had to realize the sobering truth—she was not going to jump.
The guards emerged from the trees. “I know what you are thinking,” Jude announced. “Trust me, you cannot survive that fall. Step off the ledge and let’s talk.”
Charlie turned her back against the drop and faced the firing squad. “There’s an eighty-three point five percent chance that you are wrong.”
“Did Alan tell you that? I know you have a Shadow. There’s no way you could have done all that on your own.”
“Well, then you must know I’ve heard the news. You’re trying to bury me. According to you, I don’t exist.”
“Nothing could be further from the truth. You only know what Alan told you. But what you don’t know is who sent Alan and why.”
“My father sent him.”
“That’s what they want you to believe.”
Charlie paused to process that statement. “They?”
“Come down from the ledge,” Jude said, “and I’ll answer all of your questions.”
“Explain yourself first.”
“Trust me, this news is better delivered in private.”
“But I don’t trust you.”
Jude gave a hand signal to the guards, and they lowered their rifles. “Nobody’s going to hurt you,” she told Charlie.
Charlie folded her arms in protest. She had no intention of moving from the ledge.
Jude sighed. “It’s about Charlie. The other Charlie. She was en route to Control-Z when her truck was hijacked by a group of terrorists. We have reason to believe they are targeting you as well. You see, Alan is not trying to help you escape. He’s trying to remove you from the safety of this building.”
Charlie’s thoughts snapped back to another point in time, those long nights in the hospital, fretting over Bridge’s dying body. She recalled the crippling, existential terror she felt then. It was rising in her now, erasing any concerns for her own well-being. The guards with their automatic weapons? Jude with her lies and tests? All irrelevant now. The other Charlie, Charlie ZERO. My sister. She’s in danger!
{Charlie: Why didn’t you tell me she got kidnapped by terrorists!?
Alan: I didn’t know. I was stuck underground for four days. I didn’t have an outside signal.
Charlie: So, now you do. Is Jude telling the truth?
Alan: A Control-Z truck was hijacked on the 101 earlier today. Details are sketchy, though. They don’t mention your name, they can’t confirm that any kidnapping took place, and the perps have no known affiliations.
Charlie: So what’s your verdict?
Alan: Jude could be right…about the kidnapping. She’s dead wrong about me.}
“Where is she now?” Charlie demanded of Jude.
“Come down and I’ll tell you all about it.”
{Charlie: I’m going to talk to her.
Alan: Why? Because she told you one true thing out of all the lies?
Charlie: Alleged lies.
Alan: You doubt me?
Charlie: All I’m saying is I can’t trust anyone right now.}
Charlie stepped off the ledge and onto the surface of the roof.
{Alan: Wait!}
“Shoot her,” Jude commanded. The guards raised their rifles. A dozen fingers pulled a dozen triggers.
Boom, boom, booooom, boooooooooom, boooooooooooooooooooom… The bullets rapidly decelerated as if the air had condensed around them. By the time the first one entered Charlie’s chest, it was moving impossibly slow. Nearby, the river stopped flowing. A rabbit never landed from its hop. And Charlie’s screams hung in the ether.
{Charlie: Owww! What the hell?
Alan: Now do you doubt me?
Charlie: …in…a lot of pain!
Alan: That’s impossible. This is a time freeze. Your pain receptors are firing at a much slower rate than your prefrontal cortex. Any pain you’re feeling has to be psychosomatic.
Charlie: Bullshit! Wait…hold on.}
Charlie relaxed a little.
{Charlie: I think you’re right. Shit. That’s embarrassing.
Alan: You don’t have to stand still, by the way. You are free to move around.
Charlie: Then time will start up again, and I’ll get riddled with bullets.
Alan: No. You can move during a time freeze.
Charlie: Okay, maybe you were right about the pain, but you are wrong about this.
Alan: I beg to differ.
Charlie: Alan, this isn’t some fantastical magic trick where I can freeze time and depants everyone. My brain is just overcranking at the moment. That doesn’t mean I can break the laws of physics.
Alan: Humor me.
Charlie: Fine.}
She took an anxious step forward, paranoid that the bullets would resume their journey into her torso. Nothing of the sort happened. She took another step. Then another. Alan was right; she could move freely. The rabbit did not complete its hop. The guards did not budge. And the bullets remained locked in place. Charlie turned around, and she saw herself standing by the ledge with a frozen grimace on her face. How was this possible? It seemed as if her body and soul had separated.
“Now you know what it’s like to experience the world as a Shadow,” Alan said, sitting on the ledge, arms folded, with a smug look on his face.
“Is that really me over there?” Charlie asked.
“No. The human brain naturally creates a mental map of every environment it enters, and yours is no different. You are currently inside that mental map, and you are looking at a projection of yourself. In other words, you are having an out-of-body experience.”
Charlie approached the guards, who looked less scary up close. Behind the row of rifles were creases of concern. Some of them were young, and many had probably never seen a firefight. “Why did Jude order them to shoot me? And shit, I thought I was bulletproof.”
“Actually, I should have warned you about that,” Alan said. “There are rumors that Bethea, shortly before the merger, was developing a new kind of ammunition called a spider bullet. A counter for nanotube body armor—the same material that makes up your skin.”
“So she wants to kill me?”
“I don’t think so. The bullets are liquid metal capsules. They penetrate the victim’s armor—or in your case, body—and solidify into roots. They won’t kill you, but they’ll reduce your mobility. The fact that none of the rifles are aimed toward your head suggests that they merely want to slow you down.”
Charlie focused on the swarm of bullets that hung in the air. “Still, it looks like I’m going to have five pounds of metal in me before I hit the ground.”
“You’ll have to fall in a very exact way, but I think I can help you minimize the damage.”
“Okay. And then, what?”
“I think you’ll still have to jump off the building. I don’t see any other way to escape.”
Charlie didn’t have to peer over the ledge to feel the gut punch of vertigo. She searched the area for another option—anything but jumping—and spotted a Polly overhead. “The city is watching us. Wouldn’t they arrest Jude for shooting me?”
“Unlikely,” Alan replied. “Bethea makes the Pollys, and Rivir owns Bethea. Besides, I’m not sure how the law would apply to someone like you.”
“Wonderful. Can we hack it, then? Use its stun beam?”
“I could probably install a copy of myself and control it from the inside, but it would take a while to hack, even with your processing speed.”
“How long?”
“Roughly three minutes.”
“So I need to avoid getting captured for three minutes?”
“Unless you want to jump off the building, which I still think is the better plan.”
Charlie shuddered. “Okay, you hack the Polly. I’ll handle the guards.” She jumped back into her frozen body.
Time resumed.
“Owwwww!” Having started the scream before time stopped, Charlie was obligated to finish it. In her skillful descent to the floor, she took a bullet in the gut and one in the lower left thigh, but managed to avoid the rest. She stayed on the ground and played dead.
Jude addressed her men: “How many of you see the robot lying on the ground by the ledge?”
They all replied in the affirmative.
Jude watched Charlie intently, waiting for signs of life. Five seconds passed, then ten, then fifteen. Two lab technicians emerged behind the CEO, carrying a gurney. Jude waved them closer. Then she warned her guards, “Proceed with extreme caution. Shoot at any sign of movement.”
The guards slowly approached the seemingly lifeless robot. One called out, “Cody! See if she’s dead.”
Cody unenthusiastically broke formation and nudged Charlie with the barrel of his rifle.
{Cody_Peeler:mindspace>
Cody wasn’t scared so much as freaked out. When he’d applied for guard duty, he never thought he’d have to face telepathic, murderous robots. The trigger on his rifle was already pulled back 20 percent. He half hoped the robot would move, so that he could be the one to give her a spider-bullet facial.
Without warning, the robot disappeared! Cody turned around to see if anyone could corroborate the crazy shit he just saw. The robot reappeared behind him. Cody reacted by forcing the butt of his rifle into her face. Upon contact, she somehow morphed into his friend, Neil.
Cody recoiled in horror. Neil was choking on blood and enamel.}
Charlie, still on the ground, snatched the rifle from the confused guard’s hands. Now it was her turn to weaponize the blunt end of the gun. She swung it into Cody’s jaw and sent him flying. The other guards just stood and watched—entranced by the incredible feat of strength—as their comrade sailed ten feet through the air.
Charlie capitalized on the distraction. She dashed through the guards’ formation toward the nearest tree.
{Alan: Hit the ground!}
Charlie dived five feet ahead of the cypress. A volley of bullets flew over her head and punched silver spiders into the side of the tree.
{Alan: Roll right!}
Charlie rolled as chunks of turf danced to her left.
{Alan: Okay, get to the tree.}
She scrambled to her feet. A bullet sank into her lower back as she ran behind the cypress, and she yelped in pain.
{Charlie: Every step feels like I’m getting stabbed all over.
Alan: I've already tweaked your endorphins. Or, at least, the software equivalent.
Charlie: Well, tweak them more.
Alan: I can’t trip you out too much. You need to stay sharp.
Charlie: How much longer till we have the Polly?
Alan: Only forty seconds have passed so far. I’ll need another two-twenty.}
The guards resumed fire, chopping splinters out of the cypress Charlie was hiding behind. Meanwhile, the Polly flew overhead. Its intense light shined through the branches, broadcasting Charlie’s position.
“CHARLIE NOBUNAGA, YOU HAVE BEEN MARKED,” the Polly announced in its authoritative voice. “RELEASE YOUR WEAPON AND LIE FACEDOWN ON THE FLOOR.”
{Charlie: Can the stun beam hurt me?
Alan: No, but it can temporarily overload your circuits. Don’t provoke it and you should be safe. I’d be more worried about the guards.
Charlie: I don’t want to hurt anyone else.
Alan: You don’t have to. Just fire off a few rounds so they don’t rush in.}
Charlie examined the weapon she’d stolen from Cody Peeler. It was far stockier than the hunting rifle she had used with her father during that one harrowing trip. Reaching around the tree, she sprayed a few rounds. In the process, she accidentally struck one of the guards. The slug radiated silver roots across his nanoweave vest. One of the roots must have passed completely through, because he clawed at his chest in agony. The remaining guards took evasive action, darting left and right.
“Shit!” Charlie whispered.
{Charlie: I aimed away from them! I swear to God!
Alan: Maybe it would be safer if you aimed directly at them.
Charlie: Har, har.}
Charlie continued firing until the chamber was empty. She threw the rifle on the ground. With a rigid left leg, she limped farther into the forest. She saw that the elevator doors were now heavily guarded. The message was clear: the only way off the roof was a leap of faith.
The guards slowly took back the forest. They were even more cautious now—jittery—and Charlie took full advantage. She invaded their minds and planted decoys of herself. Shots were fired in every direction. Three men went down by stray bullets. The rest had to employ every ounce of concentration to keep themselves from going mad. They no longer trusted anything they saw.
Charlie could only maintain the veil of chaos for so long, and soon she was pushed to the other end of the forest.
{Charlie: I’ve run out of territory. Do I need to jump?
Alan: …
Charlie: Alan?}
Twenty yards to the ledge. Charlie decided to make a run for it. She was ready to jump, but a bullet clipped her right ankle. She tripped and fell onto the perimeter footpath, only a few feet from the ledge.
She wobbled to her feet, feeling intense pain with the slightest movement, as if her muscles were ripping apart.
“Shoot her!” Jude yelled from a distance.
Charlie heard the sound of gunfire, but she was too disoriented to slow their speed. The bullets punctured her stomach, her shoulder, her leg. She received eight new wounds before she hit the ground.
{Charlie: Alan, where the hell are you!?
Alan: …}
Jude took one of the guard’s rifles and approached Charlie.
“Ms. Adler!” the guard beseeched.
“It’s okay,” Jude said. “She doesn’t pose a threat anymore.”
Charlie could barely move a muscle—the pain was too great. Still, she managed to lift her shoulders a few inches before Jude shot her again, one round in each of her arms and legs. Once again, Charlie sank to the ground, her body rendered inert by an internal cage. “Why are you doing this?” she sputtered through tortured breaths.
Jude kneeled beside Charlie and latched onto her cheeks. Her touch, so warm and tender at the Rivir gala, was now utterly dispassionate. She cocked Charlie’s head to the side and whispered into her ear, “I’m sorry, but the world simply isn't ready for you.”
“Then why am I still alive? What were the tests for?”
When Jude pulled back, Charlie expected to see a somber woman. A CEO mired in setbacks. A visionary mourning the loss of her dream. Her actual expression told an entirely different story. She winked at Charlie, and her mouth curled into a devilish grin. Was the woman crazy? Or did she know something no one else did?
Jude didn’t answer any of Charlie’s questions, spoken or unspoken. She simply stood up and called to her assistants, “Bring the gurney.”
{Alan: Get ready, Charlie.}
Charlie heard the surge of an energy beam. Jude’s face contorted in severe pain. Every muscle in her body seized, and she collapsed beside Charlie’s feet, revealing the Polly that had been hovering behind her.
The guards started shooting at the Polly. The Polly fired back, taking out one of the guards with its paralyzing beam. The rest scattered into the trees.
{Alan: Raise your hand.}
Charlie weakly complied. The Polly swooped in and caught Charlie’s metal wristband in a magnetic lock. The flying orb rocketed skyward, taking Charlie with it like a rag doll.
“Oh crap! Oh crap!” Charlie dangled fifty feet above the Rivir Tower rooftop. Bullets began flying in her direction. The Polly took off toward the bay and out of range of the firing squad.
