Extensis Vitae: Empire of Dust Read online

  Rin threw back her hood and let her coat hang open. The warmth of the mall was a stark contrast to the blustery weather outside. She stepped on the escalator and rode down to the crowded atrium.

  People strolled through the mall—couples holding hands and young mothers chasing small children around. A handsome man chatting on his Datalink smiled at her as she stepped off the escalator. She looked away from the man’s lingering gaze and headed for a bar she knew well.

  These people live their comfortable lives having no idea of the things that go on beyond the borders of Pac-Rim. Good people fight and die for honorable causes while they can’t see past their triple lattes and designer handbags. I don’t belong among people like this.

  Holograms seemed to cascade downward like slick waterfalls as personalized advertisements appeared outside the storefronts. Facial recognition systems processed millions of calculations per second, and iris scanners flashed as they tried to identify the shoppers strolling by.

  “Welcome back, Ms. Takahashi. Would you be interested in checking out our new line of women’s spring business attire?” A pleasant-looking woman’s image appeared in front of her, smiling and showing off the clothing line. Rin ignored it and continued on. Other holos appeared, trying to sell her clothing, jewelry, and perfumes. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d bought any of those items, let alone gone shopping for them herself. Servants had always made the arrangements when she required clothes or personal effects.

  “Ms. Takahashi, wouldn’t you like to drive a new Lexus today?” A panoramic holovid wrapped around Rin, moving with her and giving the convincing illusion of sitting in the cockpit of a luxury sports car. The view panned out, and she saw the sleek red car carving through the twisting turns of a wide-open country highway.

  I wonder where the hell they found a road like that? Must be CGI.

  The elaborate holo suddenly flickered and pixelated. It stuttered and refreshed several times before freezing on the spokesmodel’s face, with the parked car in the background below the astonishing price tag. The holo suddenly started flickering rapidly again, the audio crackling loudly. Annoyed at the malfunction, Rin shook her head as she was jostled out of the momentary illusion.

  “BEHIND YOU!” Huge red letters suddenly appeared above the frozen image.

  What the hell is wrong with this thing?

  “TURN AROUND—NOW!!!” The video unfroze, and the spokesmodel shouted, “Drive a L-L-LOOK OUT!”

  Rin’s instincts kicked in while her mind was still trying to process what was happening. She spun around just as a woman screamed nearby.

  Two large military-looking men were approaching, dressed in dark trench coats. Rin noted the assault rifles aimed in her direction just as they opened fire. People screamed and began to scatter for cover, but their cries were drowned out by the deafening thunder of the AK-47s in the confines of the mall.

  Rin’s hand instinctively went to the hilt of the katana at her waist, but it found only air. The sword was collecting dust back on the mantel at her condo. A curse came to mind just as she was riddled with bullets.

  Her HUD blazed an angry orange from the damage as several rounds hit her in the chest and stomach. Rin pirouetted and fell through the plate-glass window of a men’s clothing store. Shards of glass rained down as bullets whizzed past her. She fell through the display, tangling up with a mannequin as she tumbled into the store.

  For a moment, she was back in another mall, after the cataclysm. Looters were rushing everywhere, but Rin ignored them, intent on avoiding some thugs chasing her. One of them snarled at her and grasped her arm, spinning her around and throwing her through another store window. She fell to the floor, glass shredding her hands and forearms. A shard of glass slipped through her ribs and pierced her lung. The exoskeleton was an anchor on her numb legs as she lay there in agony. Glass crunched as the thug slowly approached her. Realizing she was fighting for her life, she searched for something, anything, to use for a weapon.

  “Cease your hostilities immediately! The Sea-Tac Police have been summoned.” The automated voice blaring over the PA system snapped Rin back to the present.

  Things were different—she wasn’t nearly as helpless as she had once been. Her wits collected, Rin rolled under a rack of suits, which provided some concealment.

  The attackers ignored the warnings blaring over the PA system and approached the shattered window. “No blood. The woman’s unhurt,” one of the men remarked.

  “Of course she is, you fool. You think the pay would be this good if that bitch wasn’t a class-one target?” the other man snapped, scanning the store cautiously. He hopped into the display case. “Where did she go?” The question was addressed at a frightened store clerk peering over a counter.

  “I… I have no idea who you—”

  Bang. Smoke trailed from the barrel of the AK.

  “Too slow, dickhead. Get in there and start searching. I’ll cover you.”

  The second man entered the store cautiously, gun barrel moving slowly side to side as he looked high and then low, trying to get a view around racks of clothes.

  “Target cornered in a clothing store. Converge on my position,” the first man called into his Datalink.

  Who the hell are these people? Hit men sent by Thorne’s people in retaliation for the Skin City incident, most likely. Wonder if they’re behind the bombing campaigns also? Rin crouched lower and waited for her chance.

  As the first hit man approached her position, the lights in the store suddenly cut out. The man cursed and jerked back in surprise. She assumed he would have low-light augs, but the momentary distraction allowed her to make her move. She reached out from under the long rack of clothes and seized the man’s ankle.

  “Wha—” the man cried out as Rin pulled his feet out from under him, yanking the man under the rack. Before he hit the ground, her forearm blade was out and stabbing her attacker through the ribs repeatedly. The man gurgled and tried to grapple with her, but she was too fast. With a strike under the chin, the blade pierced the man’s brain.

  Not skins, then. Just some augmented mercenaries. Immediately, the clothes above her were shredded by bullets as the second merc cut loose. A couple rounds grazed Rin before she pulled the dead man over herself as a shield. She dislodged the AK-47 from his grip and fired a wild burst in the direction of the other shooter.

  Hoping he had dropped for cover, Rin rolled out from her position and sprinted toward the rear of the store. Gunfire resumed behind her. Bullets tore past her, and not seeing an immediate door, Rin lowered her head and dove through the rear wall. The polymer burst apart around her, and she found herself in the rear of the shop, stumbling over crates on the floor. Boxes and racks of plastic-covered garments filled the space. She fired another burst from the AK over her shoulder to cover her retreat and shouldered the rear exit door open.

  Rin found herself in a long corridor with blank white walls. She sprinted down the hallway to put some distance between herself and her pursuers. She briefly considered calling her brother for an enforcer team but knew it would be all over before they would arrive.

  I can handle a few mercs. I hope.

  About fifty meters ahead, another door burst open. Two more figures in black tactical gear darted through, a man and a woman. They turned in her direction and opened fire immediately. She realized they knew her exact position.

  This lot are a bunch of pros.

  Rin crouched and returned fire, seeking to present as small a target as possible. Bullets tore into the floor and walls around her. One slammed into her kneecap, and another hit her shoulder. One of her attackers staggered and fell as a few rounds hit the man in the chest. Rin’s AK clicked abruptly as it ran dry of ammo.

  She sprang across the corridor and kicked the wall hard, hoping to break through again. The polymer shell cracked, but the core was solid brick. Rin staggered back awkwardly. Shit, I’m in trouble here. The other one will shoot me in the back any instant now.

>   The woman reloaded while the man got back to his feet, obviously wearing body armor or having dermal plating. The woman gave Rin a nasty smile as she leisurely aimed at her.

  “Police—freeze!” a voice barked from somewhere behind the two assassins. They whirled in surprise and blasted the empty corridor.

  [First door on the right. Move!] The words appeared on Rin’s HUD without warning at the same instant the voice blared through the PA speakers behind the assassins.

  Rin didn’t know what was going on yet, but she wasn’t planning on waiting around to find out. She sprinted the twenty meters to the door. She was about to stop short, realizing there was no handle on that side, when it clicked and popped open a few centimeters. Rin just had time to see the confused looks on the assassins’ faces as they turned back around, and then she was through the breach, slamming the door shut behind her.

  [You are outside their immediate perimeter now, but you can’t slow yet. There are two more gunmen approaching from the other end of the mall.]

  Bullet holes appeared in the door a moment later as Rin exited the back room of an electronics shop. A teenage clerk gawked at her as she stepped out from the back storeroom.

  “Get down!” she ordered. “There are gunmen coming through the back door.”

  The kid looked at her blankly then saw the assault rifle in her hand and dropped down behind the counter.

  “Who are you?” Rin demanded of her unseen helper, unsure if he or she would hear her since it didn’t appear she had an active link open. She dropped the empty AK to the floor.

  [A friend. On your right—stop.]

  A door popped open on an auto-serve electronics machine as soon as she stepped up beside it. Rin reached inside and pulled out a holographic imager still in its box. She pulled it out of the box and clasped it around her neck.

  “Uh, ma’am…” The kid was looking from the auto-serve machine to her in shock.

  “Pay you back.” She flashed the kid a smile and activated the imager. Her vision blurred for an instant, and she knew it had activated. Gunfire erupted again from the storeroom, and she heard the rear door forced open. She walked calmly out of the shop, catching her own image in the glass window. She looked like a teenage boy with long, unkempt brown hair.

  “Any sword vending machines around?” she asked her helper jokingly. She realized once the adrenaline had started flowing that she felt better—more revitalized—than she had for months. That’s because you were made for this life, a voice seemed to say in the back of her mind.

  [I’m afraid not. After these two pass, the exit should be clear ahead of you. I wouldn’t recommend returning to your home—there is a high probability they will attempt to reacquire you there.]

  Two more armed mercs came trotting up toward the electronics store, AK-47s held at the ready. Their eyes slid past her, and they ran into the store.

  Rin walked quickly away in the opposite direction. “Change of plans. I’ve been shirking my duty too long as it is. I’ve got an idea…”

  ***

  Arondsen stepped out of the electronics store to find the four remaining members of his team milling about in the empty mall. The place had rapidly cleared out after the PA announcement of active shooters on the premises. His Datalink told him the police were surrounding the place. Lights flashed outside the doors of the mall in the distance.

  “Okay, listen up. Murray’s down, and the target’s fled by now. Belker’s trying to get surveillance feed to see which way she fled, but the network seems to be all fucked up right now. You know the rally point, so split up, and we’ll try to reacquire the target at her home in twenty minutes.”

  “Boss!” Arondsen spun at the sound of Wilson’s excited voice. She pointed toward the far end of the mall. A wounded blond woman was limping toward the door. “There she is!”

  “Don’t let her make it through those doors!” Arondsen shouted in alarm. Their quarry was about fifteen feet from the exit, with the cops waiting outside.

  The five mercs all opened fire at the wounded Rin Takahashi at the same time.

  ***

  Rin watched the mercs open fire at the hologram of herself that her new friend had somehow injected into the advertisement system via a hack. She didn’t know how he or she did it, but her helper had skills. The image even stumbled and fell convincingly after a moment as Rin came up behind the shooters.

  Two of the mercs were dead, stabbed through the neck by Rin’s forearm blade, before the other three realized they were under attack. The woman merc spun around to find Rin’s fist slamming into her throat. She gurgled and fell, hands going to her neck. With a crushed trachea, she would suffocate to death in minutes. Rin snatched the AK-47 from her hands before it could fall and fired a burst point-blank into the next merc’s face. The top of the man’s head disappeared in a bloody pulp.

  The leader of the merc team reacted much more quickly, obviously having a boosted nervous system. He dodged away and fired a burst at Rin. She tumbled sideways while firing a wild spray of bullets in return.

  The lead merc held his ground and peppered Rin with bullets. Her side and back took rounds, and she could tell from the pain that they drew blood even as her HUD flashed red from damage alerts. She dove behind a large earthen planter in the middle of the mall. Dirt and shards of ceramic spattered around her from the merc’s rounds.

  “Got any more tricks up your sleeve?” she asked quietly.

  As if in response, a loud boom resounded, followed by the sound of shattering glass. Rin peeked around the planter and saw that a police assault bot had crashed through the doors of the mall. The human officers stood around, mouths agape at the robot’s sudden charge.

  “Police! Surrender immediately!” the bot commanded, its voice booming through the deserted mall. Its broad, squat body rode on massive treads, and it wielded a machine gun on one arm and a grenade launcher on the other. Rin hoped it was filled with tear-gas canisters instead of live grenades.

  The merc eyed the robot as if assessing his chances. He glanced over at Rin’s hiding spot for a moment then threw down his weapon. He put his hands in the air as the robot rolled forward. A bolt of electricity shot out of one of the bot’s arms, hitting the merc in the chest. With a groan, he fell to the ground, limbs twitching from the electrical charge. Heavily armored police officers hastily swarmed in behind the robot.

  [I took the liberty of alerting one of your enforcer squads. All you need to do is surrender to the police, and your men will pick you up outside, Lady Takahashi.]

  “Ichiro, is that you?” she asked in wonder. She turned off the holographic imager and got to her feet.

  [I’m honored to be able to repay a tiny part of my debt to you.]

  “That was a hell of a nice job. Your skills are even better than I remembered. But how?” Rin smiled as she approached the cops with her hands up. Police officers swarmed around her. One of them waved a scanner over her and, not detecting any weapons, they sent her toward the exit and waiting paramedics.

  [I no longer have the same physical limitations I once did. In fact, I would like to offer you my assistance once again.]

  “Welcome back to the business.” Rin was again struck by the realization of how much better she felt—the feeling of having a purpose when fighting was called for. Ichiro’s help could change everything. I think it’s time I ended this detour and set my feet back on the main path. It seems the end might finally be in sight.

  Chapter 5

  “Come on, get your asses moving!” Mason shouted at some of the awkward new recruits. “You’d be dead moving that slow in combat.”

  The squad of recruits crawled past a broken-out window to prevent an unseen sniper from targeting them. Once past the hazard, they scrambled back to their feet, stacked up behind Ciera—their squad leader—and moved to the edge of the wall. The young woman gave them a couple hand signals indicating they should follow her around the corner and spread out.

  “I don’t know about this l
atest batch,” Keeva said over Mason’s Datalink. “They’re incompetent—they won’t last five minutes in a firefight.”

  Mason could just make out her bright-blue hair from the sniper’s perch she occupied four hundred yards away, across a plaza filled with broken ruins of buildings. The rebels had set up a training course in the ruined city of Boise above their fallback base in the wasteland.

  “I agree. With the exception of that pair of newest arrivals, they aren’t worth two shits, but your father wants every man he can get.”

  Mason dubiously eyed the newest duo, who had shown up four days prior. Stanton and Reza they called themselves. Mason didn’t trust them. Their stories seemed a little thin on details. They had supposedly escaped from a Thorne prison transport a couple of months before and spent the interim hiding out in the wasteland before making their way to the Boise base after contacting one of the rebels’ field garrisons. Mason had raised his doubts with Royce, but the leader had decided to give them a chance to prove themselves.

  “Let’s move!” Ciera spun around the corner and raced across the open ground, smoothly ducking behind cover. The recruits weren’t so smooth. The first two stumbled over each other’s feet but managed to stay upright. Stanton and Reza moved much more competently behind the other two. Reza shouldered one of the first pair aside, causing him to get dropped by a shot from one of the snipers.

  “Ha! Got one!” Keeva called over the open link.

  Mason chuckled. As much as he wanted to get on with the mission and bring the fight to Thorne Industries, he had come to enjoy his time in the presence of the rebels, surprising even himself. Royce and Keeva, Mack and Junior, and many of the others were all good people. Mason missed the camaraderie of other soldier-types around him. Even after twenty years on the run, the training was like second nature to him, bringing back memories of his past career as a CorpSec enforcer.