FAI (14 page)

Chapter Twenty

The screams filled the air and bounced off the walls. People moved in blurs as they ran desperately away from the sound of gunfire. Kari would have screamed, too, but she found that her lungs were already empty of air.

Christina’s eyes went wide with fear before she joined the masses, running away from the gunshots coming from the side of the station that she had entered just a few minutes ago. She knew she should be moving, or running, or doing anything to get away from the situation, but her body couldn’t move.
This is the research lab all over again.

She managed to look over her shoulder where she was able to catch a glimpse of rough-looking men in body armor firing old assault rifles into the ceiling. It was hard to get a good view of them as people rushed past her, several of whom knocked into her shoulders and nearly sent her to the floor.

Kari felt herself being lifted off the ground by an inhumanly strong arm just as gunshots erupted on the other side of the building.
That’s where people are running! We’re surrounded!
She wanted to faint as memories of the research lab filled her mind, drowning out the horror of what was currently happening.

“This doesn’t appear to be going as planned,” Fai said as she carried Kari through the masses of panicked people.

Fai’s voice brought her back to the situation. The gunfire had mostly stopped, and the screams were quieter, but no less panicked.

“They aren’t shooting anyone,” Kari said. “They are just firing at the ceiling.”

“Based on our previous analysis, I would suspect that they would not want to harm any human except for those who have worked directly on my creation,” Fai said.

Most people were ducking to the ground now, covering their heads, hoping to escape the wrath of the gunmen. Fai dodged between them, carrying Kari to the west end of the building that led down to the transports.

“You mean this is the real League of Humanity?” Kari asked.

“Their markings and symbols would match their profile exactly,” Fai said. “They also don’t appear to be using energy weapons.”

“Great,” Kari said.

Shouting from the gunmen reached her ears just before a new wave of gunshots and screams from frightened civilians. She couldn’t make out what had been shouted at them, but she was sure it was directed their way.
We’re the only ones running faster than a normal person could move. I guess that’s not exactly inconspicuous.

David was calling and Kari answered it with audio only.

“What’s happening?” David asked. His voice was every bit as horrified as Kari felt.

“The League of—” It was all Kari could get out before Fai leaped over the security barriers and landed on the other side with a crunch. Her metallic body cracked the tile floor. Bullets splattered around them, crashing into walls and smashing into the graphium dividers.

“I’m sending the drones in!” David said.

“Shooters at all entrances,” Kari said. “We’re going underground.”

“Stay on the line,” David said.

The underground was somehow even more chaotic than the lobby. People were desperately searching for any way out, pounding on doors, rushing about in groups. Kari saw a teenage girl huddled in the corner crying and two boys fighting each other for some reason as Fai carried her past them. It didn’t take them long to reach the bottom floor, where people were gathered around the glass that kept people from falling into the hyperloop tunnel, desperately waiting for the next train to arrive.

Gunshots sounded through the air again. They were louder down here in the more enclosed space. Kari checked the camera feeds from her microdrones and found the lobby in worse state than when they had left. More League of Humanity soldiers had shown up, and now they were firing bullets into the air, trying to shoot down the sudden attack of drones. People were trying to get away from the fighting, but there was nowhere for them to escape to.

A mass of them pushed their way toward one of the back exits, but Kari changed the camera feed before she could see what happened.

“David, stop attacking the League, it’s only making things worse,” Kari said.

“What do you want me to do?”

“Nothing. They are here for Fai, Christina, and me. I don’t want anyone else to get hurt.”

“I can’t just sit up here and let them shoot you!”

“Where are we going, Fai?” Kari asked.

“There are several potential exits,” Fai said. “Sewer and water systems as well as some escape hatches that take us back up to the street.”

“Where do they open up?”

“Northwest and southeast corners of this structure, far side of the street.”

“David, did you hear that?”

“Yes, I’m looking into it . . . not good. They have the streets blocked off and there are . . . other people from Vision, maybe? Showing up.”

“We need to take the water or sewer route,” Kari said.

“That will be more difficult,” Fai said. “I need to break through some lines to create a hole large enough for us to fit through.”

Tile shattered behind them as bullets dug into the ground a dozen feet away from them. Fai jerked them forward and raced into a bathroom. The door slammed opened to screams.

“I need to set you down,” Fai said.

Kari didn’t give her response before Fai set her abruptly and carefully on the ground. Fai, still wearing her obnoxious clothing, ripped a toilet from the ground with a single arm, which caused the huddled people in the room to scream again.

They are going to catch us.

“David, you have to get out of here,” Kari said.

“No! I’m not leaving without you! I’m coming down there!”

“David Pratt, don’t do you dare!”

The door to the bathroom burst open again and four bearish men rabidly stormed into the restroom with their guns leveled and their fingers on triggers. Kari closed her eyes and readied the message she had prepared weeks ago to send to David.

“No more moving!” a man shouted.

“Kari, please don’t—” David pleaded in her mind. She could hear sirens and chaos coming from his end as well.

Kari lifted her hands into the air and opened her eyes, happy for the moment that she wasn’t full of bullets. A thick-bearded man reached out for her, but Fai was between them in an instant, tossing the man into a wall of stalls. Water was flooding across the floor from where Fai had been trying to dig them a way out of this mess.

“Stop or everyone dies!” the next League of Humanity man shouted. His gun wasn’t pointed at Fai, but at the huddled people in the corner of the bathroom who were not doing well.

“Fai! Stop!” Kari shouted.

“Kari . . .” David pleaded over their voice call.

“You’re coming with us,” the man said.

“So you can kill us? No, thanks,” Kari said.

“Would you rather die right here, right now?”

“Oh my God . . .” David said. He was falling apart on the other side of the call and he was not helping Kari get through this.

“We’ll go with you,” Kari said.

“Kari, no!” David shouted.

“I don’t think that is smart,” Fai said.

“No one dies if we come?”

“Yes,” the man said. “But we have to go now.”

He moved forward while his three colleagues redirected their weapons to Fai. They were obviously wary of her after the way she had tossed their companion aside like a rag doll. That man was rolling in pain in the broken shards of the bathroom stalls, but no one moved to help him.

Kari stuck her arms out and they strapped a pair of restrainers on her wrists. Fai did the same, even though she would easily be able to break through them.

“No . . .no . . .” David whined over their call. She knew it was a risky, but she had to say something.

“David, get out of here. You can’t help here. You can elsewhere.”

“Who are you talking to?” the man demanded, but she didn’t answer him.

Instead he just reached behind her ear and ripped the processing unit free from her head. He tossed it aside as they jogged up the steps back toward the lobby.

“We have the abomination and Freelancer,” the man said out loud. He paused for a minute and then continued his side of the conversation. “Yes, they were here. No, I don’t know why. Wolfkin? That’s fine. We have the real prize.”

As soon as they reached the lobby, the League of Humanity soldiers fired their weapons over their heads once again, subduing the crowd.

“Get out! Everyone get out!” the man directing her shouted and everyone was more than happy to comply. People ran for the exits, packing together tightly to avoid getting too close to any of the gunmen.

The people directing them didn’t slow down as they reached the south exit. Kari was able to catch a glimpse of some manual military hummers before they covered her head.

Chapter Twenty-One

She resisted every step, trying her hardest to slow the League of Humanity soldiers down.
There are countless drones in this city. They’ll never be able to drive out of here unnoticed.
The thought didn’t reassure her in the slightest. She dreaded being loaded in the back of a hummer.

The dull drum of propellers filled the air above them and her captors yanked her forward.

“What the—” the soldier dragging her arm shouted, but he was cut off as a loud pop happened in front of her. The unexpected sound made her jump. But then she realized no one was holding her arm anymore.

“The League of Humanity soldiers appear to have been neutralized,” Fai said. Kari heard Fai break her shackles and a moment later, the bag over her head was removed.

She blinked. It was bright outside and fallen League of Humanity soldiers stained the ground surrounding them. She blinked again and looked to the air where she saw several military heli-carriers. She watched as soldiers repelled from forty feet above her to the ground in their full electronic armor.

“Should we continue to run?” Fai asked.
Too late for that Fai.

“Don’t move!” a female soldier shouted as more of her companions landed around them.

“I said, don’t move!” the soldier shouted again, but this time Kari knew it was directed at Fai. “We will shoot to kill.”

“Fai, it’s OK,” Kari shouted over the sound of the hovering aircraft.

Two soldiers wearing full electronic armor picked Kari up and attached her to harness, which immediately pulled her into the air. As they hoisted her into the air Kari looked out over the chaotic scene below her. People were streaming out of the station in a panic, and the drones that had flowed like a river before had been evacuated from the airspace. Kari searched the rooftop for David. She couldn’t find any signs for him by the time a soldier pulled her inside the heli-carrier.

Without a word, Kari was unhitched and pushed out of the way so the soldier could unload Fai. Her robotic friend was restrained now with arm and leg cuffs that looked fully capable of controlling Fai’s powerful body.

“Can I ask what is going on?” Kari asked, but the soldier just pushed them forward toward a sliding door at the back of the heli-carrier. The door opened to reveal a small rectangular room that was well insolated from the noise of the turbines powering the aircraft.

Sitting across from the entrance to the room, wearing a grin, was Marshal Henderson.

I suspected that.

“Hello, Kari,” SeptemberMist said.

But I did not see that coming!

Kari’s one-time friend sat a few feet away from Henderson wearing a formal business skirt and top. She looked a smidge less happy to see Kari than Henderson.

“Thank you, captain,” Henderson said. “You can leave us.”

“Yes, sir,” the soldiers responded as she ducked down the carrier’s hall.

“You can’t imagine how happy I am to see you again,” Henderson said. “And of course that you are alive and in one piece.”

Kari tried to convince herself that she was happy she was still alive, but it was quite the task.

“And I’m pleased that you have apparently found someone who would rather spend time with you than break federal laws,” Kari said.

“Tara has proven to be quite the asset,” Henderson said. “Truthfully, you owe her a great deal of thanks that you are still alive and not in the back of an extremists’ truck.”

“Oh, did she fire kill them?”

“I was the first to track the League of Humanity a few months ago,” SeptemberMist said. “At the time, it was purely out of personal interest, but it turned out to be fortuitous.”

Kari kept herself from responding. She didn’t realize that she still held such strong feelings for SeptemberMist until now and she didn’t think it would be smart to antagonize her.
She betrayed me, and she helped Joseth murder all those people. She would have been sitting next to him on top of the ashes of the country right now if she had her way.

“Did you enjoy the submagnetic shell with programmable projectiles?” Henderson asked. “I confess I did not play a direct role in creating that particular piece of hardware, but I am a big fan. It allowed us to neutralize all the terrorists with a single bullet.”

“Impressive technology,” Kari said. “Killing people is more your thing than mine, but it was impressive.”

“Oh, you can program it to hit your targets quite precisely. But given the situation, there was less overhead associated with direct hits.”

So you didn’t have to kill them, but that was easier for you. Maybe one of these days you’ll surprise me Marshal. Not today, though.

“You tracked them months ago and you didn’t do anything about them?” Kari asked. “You could have prevented all this.”

“Good thing I didn’t!” Henderson laughed. “It turns out that these backward men were instrumental in reuniting us. You see, when we first found them, they hadn’t actually broken any laws. When the research lab attacks happened, we knew it wasn’t them as we had been following them for a while. I admit, I was worried when they left to track Miss Wolfkin, though, I wasn’t sure how that was going to play out, but here we are.”

“Here we are.”

“Would you like to introduce us to your new friend?” Henderson asked.

“This is Fai,” Kari said. “I trust you know who she is already.”

“And I already know who you are Marshal Henderson,” Fai said. “I have heard many things about you.”

“Aren’t you delightful!” he said. The way he spoke to her made Kari think that he thought Fai was some sort of novelty for amusement.

“And I am only vaguely familiar with SeptemberMist,” Fai said. “Mostly from my own research into Kari’s past.”

“She doesn’t speak of me?” SeptemberMist said. Her voice was sarcastic and bitter. Henderson found it hilarious.

“I usually refer to you by other words,” Kari said. She smiled pointedly back at her former friend.
And so does Motorcad.

The heli-carrier started moving, which Kari wasn’t sure was a good thing or a bad thing.

“You know, we’ve never had the chance to fully discuss the way you broke our agreement.”

“I’m not sure it counts as an agreement when you are holding someone’s parents hostage.”

“The way you absolve yourself of responsibility is inspiring. You’d do wonderful in my line of work.”

Kari wasn’t sure whether he was joking. It was hard to tell with the way he hadn’t stopped grinning. She had never seen him act like this before.
I guess he’s been chasing me for years. I’d be happy, too, if I were a sad little man obsessed with tracking down innocent girls.

“I’ll leave the lying to the masses and abusing power to you,” Kari said. “I’d prefer to just be left alone.”

“Well, that’s perfect. I assume you have my graphium-hard proof that Christina Wolfkin set up the attack on the lab?” Henderson asked presumptuously.

Kari looked to Fai.

“We do not have that information yet,” Fai said with a notable amount of regret in her voice.

“Oh, can you imagine that Tara?” Henderson said. “They didn’t come through with their promise.”

“I’m shocked,” SeptemberMist said.

Henderson laughed again and Kari hated him for it. SeptemberMist seemed pleased, but she wasn’t as overjoyed about the situation as her boss. She tried her best to act like she was, but Kari knew her well enough to know she was forcing things.
Just like when she pretended to care about me as a person.

“So what happens now?” Kari asked.

“That is the question of the hour, isn’t it?” Henderson said. “I could return Fai to her owners and announce that I have arrested you. That seems like the most obvious course of action. Or I could turn you both over to Vision. They have proven to be very motivated to find you, outperforming even my own efforts in that regard. I can only imagine how powerful of a partner they would be on the path to getting me elected to a true position of power.”

Don’t make me wish I had helped Joseth take over.

“Maybe I’ll just have you and Fai work for me, while I wait for the right time and incentive to publically catch you.”

“So what’s it going to be?” Kari asked. “The suspense is killing me.”

“I’m not sure yet, to be honest with you. So many good options. You’ve been so difficult to track down over the years that I had nearly given up hope on finding you. And now that we are together again, I think I may take some time to think on it.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t want you to make the wrong decision.”

“Of course you wouldn’t,” Henderson sneered. “But don’t worry you won’t be within a mile of any compatible processing unit while I deliberate. And explosive drones will monitor your artificial friend at all times. One wrong move and she will be gone.”

“Sounds like we’re stuck.”