Extensis Vitae: Empire of Dust Page 25

  “Tell us, and she’ll put an end to your pain,” Reznik said.

  The security chief pointed to a door leading into the cabin. His mouth worked for a moment before he could get any words out. “Went below deck… to the escape pod.”

  “We’d better get down there. I don’t want to chase this bastard all over the Atlantic,” Reznik said.

  Rin gently turned the skin’s head with her foot. She delivered a quick stab into his brain stem, and the man went still.

  Reznik tore open the door to the ship’s cabins. A young man wearing a lab coat shrank against the wall in alarm. Reznik pointed a thumb over his shoulder. “Get out of here.” The lab tech fled out onto the deck.

  “This way.” Rin took off down the hallway, following a sign pointing to a stairwell. They raced down four floors to the level at the water line. Immediately, Reznik felt fresh air moving through the corridor. A dozen yards ahead, the corridor opened into a small dock area. A large door in the ship’s hull had swung open, and a sleek submersible bobbed in the water, ready for launch. Alistair Thorne was unhitching the mooring line.

  “Shit, if he dives in that thing, we’ll never find him. Thorne!” Reznik’s shout made the CEO pause. When he saw the two of them, he swiftly unhitched the line and scrambled for the hatch.

  Rin sprang into action. She ran and leaped from the landing, her flying kick slamming Thorne in the side. He was launched off the submersible, slamming hard against the dock and falling partially into the water before catching himself on the edge. Rin landed awkwardly on the topside of the submersible, swaying as she regained her balance.

  Reznik fired his pulse rifle. Energy bolts peppered Thorne before he dove under water. Reznik fired a few rounds into the water, but he couldn’t get a good angle. The bolts seemed to vaporize the water, creating steam. He doubted the weapon’s effectiveness even if he did hit Thorne.

  He and Rin waited for a couple minutes, but there was no sign of Thorne underwater. From his perspective, Reznik noticed the submersible was drifting out onto the open sea. Thorne must have latched onto the submersible and was propelling it forward, he realized.

  Reznik ran and jumped, landing on top of the submersible next to Rin. She grabbed his arm to steady him while the small craft bobbed wildly from his added weight.

  “We’re going to have to go under to get him.”

  “I’ve got an easier idea. Let me see your immobilizer.”

  Remembering the device at his waist, Reznik plucked it from his belt and handed it to Rin. She latched her feet inside the hatch and lowered herself upside-down into the water. Reznik saw a flash of silver underwater. She arched her back and pulled herself back up, freeing her legs once again. They hunkered down, balanced on the submersible, and waited.

  The craft drifted lazily for a moment before Thorne surfaced from the water, struggling against the graphene filaments entangling his legs. Reznik grabbed a handful of his wet shirt and forcibly dragged him onto the submersible. Thorne cursed and fought them. It took the two of them to restrain Thorne, even entangled as he was.

  “Whoever you two are, this isn’t the end. I’ll hunt you to the ends of the earth—”

  “And slaughter every one of us. Yeah, yeah, we’ve heard it before,” Reznik said. “Help me get him inside.”

  He and Rin each grabbed one of Thorne’s arms and hauled him up to the hatch. They dumped him into the submersible upside down, and Reznik took one of his remaining grenades, pulled the pin, and dropped it inside.

  Rin hit the switch on the immobilizer, and it snaked out and retracted right before Reznik slammed the hatch shut and spun the wheel to lock it.

  “Fire in the hole!” he called.

  The shockwave from the explosion rattled Reznik’s bones through the metal skin of the submersible. The small craft shuddered, and its thick windows exploded outward. The hatch buckled, and flame belched out around the edges.

  “Think he survived that?” Rin asked.

  “One way to find out.” Reznik ripped the buckled hatch open. When the smoke cleared, they saw seawater gushing inside the submersible from the shattered windows and cracked seams in the hull.

  Thorne was a bloody mess, riddled with shrapnel. Chunks of gore floated in the rising water. Incredibly, he was still alive. What was left of his face held a look of absolute terror, and he was whispering something. Reznik strained to hear.

  “No… Gerry, not yet. I won’t join you…”

  Reznik finished him off by firing a burst into his head. Whatever past demons he was confronting, Reznik hoped he’d face them in hell.

  “Let’s make sure he doesn’t have any more backup skins prepped.” Rin dove into the water and swam to the dock in the ship’s side, which was now twenty yards away.

  Reznik dove off the nearly submerged craft and joined her a moment later. She handed him the immobilizer, which he automatically slipped back into his belt. He looked over his shoulder just in time to see the submersible slip beneath the waves.

  They searched the ship and found Thorne’s backup lab. Six fluid-filled tubes lined the wall of the lab, hooked up to a rack of computer servers. Five of the tubes held clones of Alistair Thorne while the sixth was empty. The clones’ eyes were all closed and appeared to be peacefully sleeping in each tube.

  Just as they were trying to determine the best way to destroy the tubes, a computer beeped, and the next tube in sequence lit up inside. LEDs began flashing on the control panel, and a holographic projection appeared on the window over the clone’s chest. “Initializing Reskin Protocol” flashed on the display in amber block letters. Fluid began draining out of the tube.

  Reznik sighed. “Not again. This guy is like a broken record.” At Rin’s confused glance, Reznik shook his head. “Way before your time, I guess.”

  He fired a burst from the pulse rifle into what looked like a server rack at the center of the nest, where all the cables and pipes spreading to the tubes originated. Circuit boards sparked and crackled from the gunfire, but the display remained active on the tube.

  Reznik drew a frag grenade from his pocket. Rin shrugged when he looked at her.

  “Might as well blow the bastard’s equipment up. Once we make sure he’s down for good, I say we sink this freighter just to be sure.”

  “Agreed.” Reznik pulled the pin and tossed the grenade into the snarl of wiring. He and Rin ducked outside the lab and into the hallway, covering their ears. The grenade exploded, and fire belched from the door of the lab. The stench of burning electronics was overpowering. A quick peek through the door revealed the equipment was destroyed. The remaining tubes leaked fluid onto the floor as flames consumed the electronics.

  “Score one for humanity. How about we—”

  Reznik was cut off by an ear-splitting alarm that began blaring. He felt the deck pitch sharply beneath his feet as the ship suddenly began turning.

  “Automated contingency protocol engaged,” an automated voice announced over the freighter’s PA system.

  “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.” Rin’s voice was barely audible over the alarm and the announcement.

  “Yeah, we’d better get to the bridge.”

  The two of them raced back out onto the deck. A group of about a dozen frightened civilians were clustered around a lifeboat on deck. They tore off the cover, and a mechanical arm swung the boat over the side. It dropped to the ocean four stories below. The crew began scaling a rope ladder down to the boat.

  Reznik and Rin reached the deserted bridge. Alarms were flashing on holoscreens, and a siren was going off. Reznik needed a moment to take it all in and realize what was happening.

  “This thing is making a beeline back to the bay, it looks like.” A map showed the ship’s course as it turned and made for the District. The ship was moving very quickly for such a large vessel—it would reach the District in under twenty minutes. The two of them started fiddling with the manual controls, but they were deactivated.

  “Congratulations.�
�� A hologram of Alistair Thorne appeared in the center of the bridge. He regarded them with a smirk. “If you are viewing this message, then you have succeeded in destroying me. Don’t celebrate too soon, though—this is what we call a classic Catch-22 situation. This vessel now has an armed fifteen-megaton nuclear warhead secured in its cargo hold and, in a short time, is programmed to detonate in the District harbor. Do not waste your time trying to divert the ship. All controls are now automated. So in the end, you see that I win. Although not on the scale I’d prefer, I will get a reset of the wretched hive that is the District and bring my corporation down with me since I will not allow it to fall under the control of my enemies. Feel free to savor your short-lived victory and enjoy the chaos that is to follow… if you survive past the next seventeen minutes and fifty-two seconds of your lives.”

  Thorne’s smirking hologram suddenly winked out, snapping Reznik out of his dumbfounded stare. Rin was resheathing her katana as plastic pieces of the projector rained down on the bridge. She cursed in Japanese.

  “He’s a fucking madman. We have to disarm the nuke… or sink this thing.” Reznik tried to think. He was sure that Thorne’s final act was no bluff. The blue water of the Atlantic broke around the prow of the massive ship as it steamed toward land.

  “Seventeen minutes and counting,” Rin said. “You don’t know how to disarm a nuke by any chance, do you?”

  Reznik shook his head. “Let’s get to the engine room. With a warhead with that great a yield, this thing is already nearly in range to destroy a good portion of the District. We have to keep this thing as far from land as possible.” Rin raced off the bridge with Reznik on her heels.

  The engine room was at the very rear of the Triton. Reznik was surprised to find a nuclear reactor powering the ship. The reactor was in a radiation-shielded room behind thick glass and a double airlock. The mechanical propulsion system was sealed off behind a locked steel door.

  Rin hit a few buttons on the remote-access console for the engines, but it was clearly disabled as the bridge controls had been. Reznik tried to kick and blast through the door to the propulsion room, but the armored door was too thick.

  He shifted his gaze to the reactor room. What he assumed were the nuclear fuel rods retracted from the cooling chambers. The air shimmered from the intense heat they produced. Reznik rifled through the lockers, but there were no bio-rad suits.

  Rin looked at him somberly. “He rigged it so the reactor would go into meltdown and nobody could physically get to the engines.” She pointed to a small maintenance hatch inside the reactor chamber. “One of us has to get in there and physically disable the propulsion system. After that, we can sink this ship to the bottom of the ocean, where the explosion hopefully won’t harm anyone.”

  “We can’t allow the Triton to make landfall,” Reznik agreed. “Millions of innocent people will die. What about blowing it up from the air? Thorne’s ship has railguns and missiles.” Reznik stepped up beside her and studied the layout of the reactor room.

  “There isn’t time. We need to kill the engines first and then sink it so the blast takes place at the sea bottom. If it detonates on the surface, the winds could blow the radiation plume over land for hundreds of miles.”

  “How long can we survive inside there?” Reznik’s HUD showed his nanites were only at twenty-two percent capacity—not nearly fully recharged from his EMP blast earlier. He doubted Rin was a whole lot better off. Jesus, this is gonna be a one-way trip.

  “Hopefully long enough,” Rin said grimly, her expression resolute.

  “I’ve got this,” he said. “Get out of here—go see that your niece gets home, and make sure Marcus and Keeva have everything under control.” Reznik walked over and looked back down the hall. The vessel thrummed from its maximum acceleration, and emergency lights flickered, but other than that, it was silent. His HUD revealed just under fifteen minutes until landfall. He turned back around to find Rin right in front of him.

  She put her hand into his chest and firmly pushed him against the wall. Before Reznik could protest, she stood on her tiptoes and kissed him full on the mouth. He was so shocked that before he knew what was happening, Rin had slipped the immobilizer free of his belt and keyed the trigger. She stepped back as graphene filaments shot out of the handle like quicksilver, enveloping him and cinching tight.

  “What are you doing?” But he already knew exactly what she was doing—she was sacrificing herself just as he had been about to do. He struggled briefly but knew it was fruitless.

  Rin’s deep turquoise eyes glimmered with unshed tears. “I’m sorry… this is my chance to try to regain my honor for all my past failures. Maybe now my name won’t pale quite so much in comparison to yours when they tell stories of our heroics.” She smiled sadly, seeming at peace. “Make sure you hit the Triton hard and sink it without prematurely detonating the warhead.”

  “Rin, you don’t have to do this!” he protested. “There’s got to be another way.”

  She shook her head sadly. “We both know there isn’t. Besides, I don’t know how to fly the plane.” She took Reznik’s last frag grenade from his tactical vest and then unhooked her katana and set it down next to him. “It would make me happy if you kept this to remember me by. Farewell, my friend.”

  Rin dropped the immobilizer handle next to the katana. She approached the airlock door, steeled herself, and twisted the heavy wheel to unlock it. Stepping inside, she pulled it shut and moved to open the inner door.

  Reznik rolled over and secured the immobilizer. He triggered the device, and the net retracted into the baton. He was on his feet in a flash and raced up to the window just in time to see the inner door slam shut. Rin staggered back against the door from the intense heat of the reactor. She looked over her shoulder and met Reznik’s eyes.

  “Good bye,” he said quietly.

  With a nod, she turned back and approached the reactor.

  He watched in horror as her hair and clothes caught fire. She fell to one knee momentarily but fought back to her feet and continued forward.

  “No! Rin…” Reznik couldn’t bear to watch anymore. He had to ensure that he sank the ship to the bottom of the ocean as soon as possible.

  ***

  Rin fought through the agony of the intense heat. Her hair and clothes ignited and began burning away. Alarms pulsed on her HUD from the heat and radiation. She was momentarily entranced at the sight of pieces of her skin blackening and falling off like ashes. Focusing her concentration, she was able to ignore the agony as she reached deep inside until she could focus on her ki energy. In her mind, the heat and radiation flowed around her like a swift current around a boulder. She used that thought to drive her forward, one foot at a time, knowing she had to be quick or she would be overcome.

  Maybe the seawater will cool the fuel rods and give me a little more time. She pulled the pin on the grenade and tossed it against the hull in the corner of the reactor chamber. The shockwave inside the enclosed space knocked her to the ground, and her hearing was dulled to a faint ringing sound. Seawater immediately roared into the reactor chamber through the gash in the hull and flooded over her.

  Rin coughed water from her lungs and regained her feet. She was having difficulty breathing and was severely weakening already from heat damage and radiation exposure.

  The water vaporized as it contacted the fuel rods, creating a thick fog. At least it’s cooling off a little, she thought in amusement. She slogged through the knee-deep water and followed the steam-filled pipes passing from the reactor to the turbines in the adjoining room. Rin pulled open the small, radiation-shielded maintenance hatch and climbed through into the propulsion room.

  Four huge turbines thrummed overhead, driven by the steam from the reactor. Driveshafts extended across the room to electric motors controlling the propellers. Arrays of batteries stored power to drive the ship’s auxiliary electrical systems.

  Rin located the manual override on each electric motor. She flipped the swi
tches one after the other, and the propellers went silent outside the hull. She could feel the ship slow and flounder beneath her feet. Soon, the only sound was the thrumming of the turbines and roaring seawater pouring through the breach in the reactor chamber. A loud, shuddering groan ran through the ship, likely from the weight of the seawater flooding it.

  She took a few moments to summon her strength before climbing back through the maintenance hatch. Her HUD was already showing critical damage, and she was rapidly weakening. The water was neck-high in the reactor chamber.

  It’s filling up fast. I hope Reznik made it off.

  A shockwave ran through the ship, and the shriek of distressed metal was deafening. Another blast hit, this one closer. The hull started to give way as more leaks broke out.

  That had to be a missile strike. We did it. This freighter will sink to the bottom of the sea now, and innocent lives will be spared.

  ***

  Reznik thumbed the trigger and fired the missiles. The pair tore into the bow and middle sections of the Triton, away from where he suspected the cargo hold with the warhead was. The explosions ripped huge holes in the hull, causing the ship to buckle and settle heavily in the water as it flooded.

  He let out a slow breath. Try as he might, he couldn’t rid his mind of the sight of Rin fighting her way into the reactor chamber. He couldn’t imagine the agony she’d fought through, but she did it. The ship had stopped moving, sitting idle as he brought the cruiser around to fire on it.

  The picture of her turquoise eyes brimming with tears and her sad smile burned into his mind.

  His HUD alerted him, breaking him away from his thoughts. Seven minutes remained until the warhead would detonate. Seeing that the ship was sinking quickly now, he hit the throttle, and the cruiser surged away to the west.

  The lifeboat with the Triton’s crew aboard was a growing dot on the water as he cut speed to his approach. The small craft would never get anywhere close to a safe distance from the blast radius. The civilians were probably just ordinary employees trying to earn a living and support their families. Reznik couldn’t abandon them to certain death.