Текст книги "Influx"

Автор книги: Daniel Suarez

Соавторы: Daniel Suarez
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Текущая страница: 22 (всего у книги 27 страниц)

Grady nodded. He was actually starting to feel nervous.

“You’ll be fine. I’ll be right there.” She spoke into her microphone, and he heard her voice right in his ear. “I mean it. You’ll do fine.”

She moved about thirty feet away from him. “Now remember that if we get close to each other, our gravity fields will interact. You’re a physicist, so you can probably estimate the interactions better than I can, but just don’t forget it.”

“No. I’m ready. Let’s do this.”

Alexa held up her hand. “Equilibrium.”

Grady made adjustments. “Check.”

“Power up.”

He activated his gravis. “Powered up.” He was suddenly floating in microgravity.

“Push off the roof with your legs. We don’t want those rafters in your gravity well when you fall up.”

Grady bent his legs and pushed off into space. He laughed nervously as he rose ten, twenty, and thirty feet above the roof, seeing more and more of the surrounding city blocks as he did so. He gazed around. “This is beautiful!”

Alexa was quickly up to his height, putting a finger against her lips. “Not until we’re higher. Voices carry in open air.” She pointed upward. “One quarter gravity, twelve o’clock high, please. I’ll meet you at one thousand feet.”

With that Alexa began to fall upward.

Grady nodded to himself and activated his controls. Instantaneously he was falling upward as well. As he did, his view of the surrounding city streets increased. He felt an instinctive fear, but it was counterbalanced by his brain’s full belief that “down” was actually just above him—not below. So when he looked at the cityscape, he felt as though he were examining the sky overhead. He laughed nervously as the view kept expanding.

“Jon!”

Grady looked up to see that he was rising past Alexa. He brought himself back into equilibrium, and she rose to meet him. They were now at eleven hundred feet above the meatpacking district. The view of the Chicago skyline was breathtaking.

“This is really something.”

“Keep an eye out for helicopters. If you get seen, go fast—anywhere but the safe house until you lose them. A typical helicopter can do about a hundred and fifty miles an hour—which is faster than terminal velocity. So your best bet is evasive maneuvers. You’ll find that with the gravis you can change directions much faster than normal aircraft.”

Grady was still gazing all around, a grin on his face. “I can’t believe this. It’s like a dream.”

Alexa nodded. “It is pretty amazing. And I’ve seen some amazing things in my day. Back when I was a field operator in the ’80s . . .” Her voice trailed off. “Never mind. You ready?”

He nodded.

“Follow me. If we get separated, I’ll find you with my thermals.” She pointed ahead and to the left. “See that tall building over there? John Hancock Center. Let’s head toward it.” She tapped her ear. “Keep in touch by q-link.” She shot him a quick grin as she lowered her visor. “And try to keep up.”

With that she twisted around and fell forward, back first, twisting like a high diver as she disappeared into the night.

Grady felt a thrill unlike anything he’d ever known as he jammed the controller forward and suddenly felt the universe draw him toward the horizon. The wind buffeted him at a hundred and twenty miles per hour. He glanced below, and it was as if this was the BASE jump to end all BASE jumps—with the city of Chicago serving as a jagged cliff-face down which they were both falling. Grady moved his hands as airfoils and adjusted his position with increasing ease. He screamed in joy as he fell across the sky.

“Try to keep the screaming to a minimum. We don’t want to attract attention.”

“Right. Couldn’t help it. Sorry.”

Forty-story condo buildings were gliding by below him—or to the side of him in the current gravitational context. He was passing by a narrow river crisscrossed with bridges. Up ahead he could see Alexa falling with her arms tucked against her sides—aiming like a bird of prey toward her target.

Grady did likewise and instantly felt a speed increase. He could also see below more easily that way. The wind roared past his ears.

In under a minute they starting closing in on the hundred-story Hancock building. Grady eased up on the gravity along with Alexa, and they coasted to a near stop as the wind buffeted them.

She pointed. “See that building there with the four small towers just to the left of Hancock Center?”

“Yeah, I see it.”

“Let’s see if you can land on top of a tower.”

Grady sucked in a breath. Falling in the open air was fantastic, but he remembered his close shaves in Cotton’s workshop.

Alexa came up within twenty feet of him and spoke directly, instead of over q-link. “You need to be able to do this without hesitation, even in wind.”

“Yes, of course you’re right. I’m on it.”

Grady eased his “down” in the direction of the tower, keeping it to barely any gravity at all. The roof of the building slowly approached him. At first glance he’d thought this was an older, art deco sixty-story building, but now that he was getting up close, he could see it was newer than that—paying homage perhaps. The art deco look here had an ’80s blockiness to it. The roof of the building was capped by four identical purely ornamental towers—square boxes of metal with small pyramids atop them. He focused on the nearest one, and as he glided closer, he modulated his pitch, adjusting the angle of his foot as necessary.

“Remember to reduce your gravity after you land. It will prevent damage to the structure.”

Grady gave her a thumbs-up sign and turned back toward the approaching tower. It was barely ten feet away now, capped by a large square point made of steel, about three feet wide. A lightning rod stood above that. He glanced down to see the roof of the building some forty feet below. The other towers nearby. And the Chicago streets hundreds of feet below them all.

A wind blew him slightly to the right, but he corrected, and in a moment he grabbed onto the cap of the metal pyramid with his gauntleted hand. Moments later he wrapped his arms around the spire, and lowered his gravity to almost nothing, but pointed in the direction of actual gravity—just enough to keep him in place. He clung to the top of the spire and looked back up at Alexa floating in space a hundred or so feet away.

“How was that?”

“Excellent. Did you feel how the structure started taking on your gravity field?”

“Yeah. I dialed down the intensity just as I got in close. Seems to work all right.” Grady looked out across the city, and then down. Whoa. He was up in a place where he’d normally be frightened out of his wits, but changing the direction of gravity seemed to chase off vertigo. Looking around he felt a little like King Kong atop the Empire State Building.

“Now remember, when you push off, don’t just hit full gravity upward, or you might rip the top off the tower.”

Grady nodded and pushed away from the building at nearly zero g before increasing it moments later to gain altitude. “How’s that?”

She came nearly alongside—just far enough away so their gravity fields weren’t tangled. “Good. Okay, how about a bit of high-speed maneuvering?”

“I don’t want to go through any skyscraper windows tonight.”

“No, we’ll head down there.” She pointed out toward the water, where long lines of stone outlined a harbor. A lighthouse blinked occasionally at its tip. “Along that quay, near Chicago Harbor. I’ll meet you down at the lighthouse. Go fast, now!”

She did a backward somersault and then kicked in full gravity—sending her soaring downward at an angle toward the lakeshore a mile away.

Grady felt the thrill of the chase and immediately fell downward after her. He was rapidly getting a feel for how to direct himself and how to increase or decrease his speed. It was a physical experience of the laws of motion he’d studied for so many years. He could almost see the mathematical arcs he was tracing through the air as he increased this variable or decreased that one. Living proof of his perceptions.

Grady hurtled through the night air, passing over the rooftops of shorter skyscrapers at a hundred miles an hour. Once clear of the last row of buildings, he angled down toward the lake, aiming for a spot about a half mile from shore. He descended to five hundred feet and sped silently across the dark water.

As he came up to a few hundred meters from the blinking stone lighthouse at the end of a lone stone quay, he eased up on the speed and brought himself to within yards of the water’s surface. When he reached the lighthouse, he rose to a full stop alongside the railing at its peak, where Alexa stood waiting for him patiently—apparently in normal gravity.

She smiled. “You’re taking to this quickly.”

He floated ten feet away from her like a child’s balloon on a string. “It’s like everything I imagined. It seems so natural.”

“Just don’t forgot the old rules of physics when you take the belt off.” She looked up. “We still need to experiment with interlocking gravity fields. It’ll be safer if we go high up for this.”

“How high you want to go?” He craned his neck into the cloudy sky.

“How about just below the cloud deck? Meet you up there?”

He nodded, but even before she launched, he did—laughing like a maniac as he plummeted into the heavens.

He glanced back at the city as he kept rising. It was truly breathtaking—the best elevator ride in the world. It wasn’t until about four thousand feet that he started coming to the bottom of the cloud cover. He dialed to equilibrium and stopped slowly. The mist was clearly defined and dense above him. It was also much cooler up here, and he could feel the dew point was near, as moisture seemed to be coming out of the air.

He looked down to see Alexa rising up, and in a moment she was across from him at a distance of ten yards. The clouds formed a roof above them, but there were gaps here and there where he could see the stars. He could smell the moisture. Below them the city of Chicago glowed in the night.

“All right, Jon. Let’s fall toward each other slowly—one tenth gravity. I want you to try to grab my hands as we pass.”

“Like objects passing in space.”

“Right. Our gravity fields will make it seem like we’re objects of much greater mass, so we’ll behave like stars passing by each other—we’ll disturb each other’s trajectory.”

“Okay. Say when.”

She nodded. “Go.”

They started falling toward and past each other, but as they got close, their trajectories were disturbed to a degree Grady felt that he could anticipate. They were now proof of the physical laws he knew so well. They sailed past each other on altered courses.

Grady shouted back. “Let’s try it again. This time come in at a slightly steeper angle toward me. Just slightly.”

“Change your angle of descent.”

“Done. Here . . .” He looked ahead as they started to drift toward each other again. He felt it the moment their trajectories interacted. A tug as he fell in toward her, and she fell in toward him—then they passed, brushing outstretched hands.

And then they began to orbit each other, revolving without either one adjusting their controls. They were now a binary system.

She smiled lightly as they continued to go in circles, getting closer with every revolution and spinning faster. “We could get dizzy doing this.”

He nodded but watched her face in the semidarkness. “How many more until we meet, do you think?”

She shook her head. “I don’t know . . .”

“I say six.”

“Six, eh?”

He nodded.

“All right.” They went around again, gradually increasing speed. “That’s two.”

He kept his eyes upon her as the natural laws of the universe brought them closer together with each revolution.

“Four.”

At their sixth revolution they were face-to-face. They locked hands until their rotation began to slow. They turned to look at city lights far below.

“How did you do this, Jon?”

“Simple physics.”

“No. I mean this . . . the gravity mirror. Even the BTC doesn’t understand how it works. No one does.”

He thought for a moment. “It’s not me. It’s the universe. I was just the first person to see it.”

Her beautiful eyes studied him.

CHAPTER 28

Tipping Point

Graham Hedrick stood in the BTC command center as technicians scurried about in the control room below. He knew that beyond his sight AI bots were scouring consumer data, telecommunications signals, surveillance camera imagery, and satellite reconnaissance for any sign of Grady, Alexa, or Cotton. Every form of communication known to man was being sifted and resifted. With every passing hour they widened their search radius.

Hedrick turned to Morrison, who, as usual, stood nearby. “What happened to those underwater signatures—the ones in Lake Michigan?”

Morrison looked grim. “They disappeared. The teams up there have been looking, but nothing so far.”

Hedrick studied the screens. “An underwater escape. That must mean Alexa has cavitating gear. Check the inventory and see if anything is missing.”

“Let’s just assume she has it. What difference does—”

“Capabilities.” He turned back to Morrison. “If they have deepwater gear, I think Mr. Grady’s going to try for Hibernity. His compatriots there helped facilitate his escape. He’ll try to rescue them. That can’t happen.”

“If we recall the search teams, I’ll have enough manpower to go down to Hibernity and clean house.”

“No.”

“But if Grady and Alexa secure those prisoners, they could cut a deal with BTC splinter groups. Or they could trade them to the U.S. government—which would help them catch up to us technologically.”

“Yes. And if not the U.S. government or BTC splinter groups, then a hundred other enemies.” Hedrick gazed up at the world on the screens. “It’s all spinning out of control. It’s getting harder and harder to contain all this technology.” He turned back to Morrison. “How many people in Hibernity have invented fusion now—sixty? Seventy?”

“One hundred and twelve.”

“See? No, this can’t go on. That’s why it’s time to resolve this situation once and for all.”

“Meaning what, sir?”

“Meaning that the mission of the BTC must evolve. We’ve been trying to protect society from disruption since the Cold War, but it’s become increasingly obvious to me that we’re the only society that matters now. What’s important is preserving our store of knowledge—the hard-won advances of mankind—against the chaos that’s coming.”

“What chaos, sir?”

“The chaos you’re going to create. Perhaps our Winnower friends had the right idea; the outside world should not have so much knowledge.”

Morrison looked at Hedrick warily. “What are you proposing?”

“Undermine global financial markets—set our AIs loose on power grids, transportation and communications networks. In a few weeks the industrialized world will begin to come apart. We’ll just make sure there are no nuclear missile launches but otherwise let the chaos spread for as many years as is necessary.” Hedrick studied the satellite screens. “By the time it’s over, no one will be able to oppose us.”

“Our mission is to prevent social disruption, Mr. Director, not cause it.”

Hedrick turned calmly to Morrison.  “Yes, but disruption of which society? We’ve progressed so far beyond the outside world, they’re no longer us.”

“And the widespread casualties this will cause?”

“The price of progress. Next time we won’t share as much technology. That was our mistake. We need absolute domination in order to keep humanity on track.” Hedrick contemplated the screens again. “You are with me, I hope, Mr. Morrison?”

Morrison cleared his throat, then nodded. “Yes, Mr. Director. You know I am. What about Alexa and Grady?”

“Disrupting civilization will make it harder for them to harm us.”

“She’s a bigger danger to us than anyone.”

“You’re saying we need to eliminate her.”

“The only reason she’s still alive is because of your feelings for her, but aside from Grady and his knowledge of gravity, I can’t think of a single person on this planet who can do more damage to us. Even if you topple civilization, if she winds up in the hands of BTC Asia or Russia, they could extend their life spans indefinitely from what they learn from her miserable carcass. We could be facing the same lunatics for centuries. Not to mention the inside information she has on every inch of this facility and all the people in it. All our procedures and operations. Every weakness. Every—”

“Enough! Okay . . .” He took a deep breath. “Kill her on sight.” Hedrick looked deeply pained. “But not the way you killed Davis and McAllen. I want it painless. Instant.”

“Fine. A high-powered microwave from orbit—”

“I don’t want to know. Just let me know when it’s done.”

“There’s someone else you’re forgetting.”

Hedrick turned to him with a questioning look.

“Cotton.”

Hedrick dismissed it with a wave of his hand. “I’m counting on Cotton to help us.”

“How do you figure?”

“Because he’s a survivor. He can read the way the winds are blowing. Once society reaches the tipping point, he’ll reach out to us. And I’m willing to cut a deal with him in exchange for Grady and Alexa.”

“And after that?”

Hedrick shrugged. “We’ll honor our deal. What do I care if he retires in luxury? He’s been useful, and he might prove useful again.”

“He’s a thief and somehow able to lie even to our AIs.”

“Like I said: He’s useful.” Hedrick focused back on the big satellite screens. “Heightened security procedures are in place?”

Morrison nodded. “We’re on a wartime footing.”

“Good. See that we stay that way. How is the outside world dealing with recent events?”

“The government folks are trying to explain the inexplicable as best they can. Some cell phone video sneaked out. The missile explosions over Canada, the power outages in southern Illinois—it’s starting to build into public hysteria.”

“And just think—it’s been less than twelve hours. We’ve barely started, and already the outside world is on the tipping point. You know what to do, Mr. Morrison.”

“Yes, sir.”

CHAPTER 29

Storming the Temple

Richard Cotton sat combing his hair out. Literally. Jon Grady watched perplexed as Cotton held some sort of glowing stylus to his scalp, activating hair growth at an insane metabolic rate. It came out of his head like Play-Doh through a press. Cotton had already half-finished creating eight-inch-long brown locks.

“And that works . . . anywhere on the body?”

Cotton looked up. “What does?”

Grady pointed.

“Oh. No. Only where there are hair follicles. And even then only up to a certain length before it’ll fall out. Just accelerates a natural process. So . . . if you’re bald naturally, this isn’t going to solve any problems for you. This manly mane is all me.” He winced. “Makes the scalp hot as hell, though. All the accelerated cellular activity.”

Alexa walked past them carrying a black helmet, which she placed on a nearby workbench. “Why are you even messing around with hair, Cotton? You’re not planning on going anywhere, are you?”

“In the event I have to bolt in a hurry, I’d rather have a convincing disguise than a bad one. You’re not the public face of evil here in the States. I am. So forgive me while I transform into an annoying hipster.”

Grady watched as Cotton passed the stylus over his lip and started growing a long mustache. “I keep calling you Cotton, but that can’t be your real name.”

“All my names are real. I like to think of names as local variables. To you I’m Richard Louis Cotton, and so in this scope shall I always remain. To my online raid clan I’m Leeroy Jenkins, and there, too, shall I always remain.”

“Well, that’s a constant, not a variable.”

Cotton paused. “Quite right, Mr. Grady. I stand corrected.”

Alexa leaned against the workbench. “So you’re sure about your end? About this traitor of yours?”

“I am.”

“Who is it? How do we know we can trust them?”

“You have your traitor. I have mine.”

“How do we know they’re not the same individual?”

“Oh, I’m pretty sure they’re not. Mine is cool, and I’m certain yours is uptight and self-important.”

Alexa turned to Grady. “I don’t trust him. Cotton has no reason to help us.”

Grady placed a hand on her shoulder. “Hedrick tried to kill him. And Cotton’s distrusted them for years. He’s given us plans and preparations we can make use of, Alexa.” He looked around them. “In fact, we already have.”

“And what if this ‘mole’ of his is actually Hedrick or Morrison, and this is all a trap?”

“He could have called them here already. If he’s going to have any sort of life, post BTC, Cotton needs us as much as we need him.”

“Well, if he’s a master thief, why are we the ones breaking in?”

Cotton shrugged. “There was a time when I might have been crazy enough to try to breach their defenses on my own, but they’re on full alert. They’ve activated their perimeter security. No. This is a job for younger hands.”

“I’m twenty years older than you, Cotton.”

He patted her arm. “But you don’t look a day over twenty-five, my dear. And think how much more experience you have than me. Besides, you know their network, their control rooms, and all their procedures.” He raised his eyebrows. “But can you gain access to the network once you’re inside? That’s the question.”

“Don’t worry about that. I’m confident I can get credentials.”

Grady gave her a look. “I hope so. Because without the location of Hibernity, this will all be for nothing.”

Cotton started combing a longer beard into existence. “I’m not sure I agree with you there.”

They both looked at him.

“You were right earlier, Mr. Grady. The Kratos satellite is actually the key. If you have control of that, you’ll have power over the BTC. You’ll be able to dictate terms—it’ll be like a celestial gun to their head. And it’s their main defense against enemies right now. Without it, even the government might feel confident enough to press the attack.”

“Or to liberate the prisoners at Hibernity.”

“Yes, Mr. Grady. They just might.”

Alexa’s eyes lingered on Grady. He could feel it. “What?”

“The more I think about this, the more I realize you shouldn’t be going. I can do this more easily alone. I’m trained in operations.”

He shook his head. “They won’t harm me. I’m too valuable to them. That means I can provide a critical diversion for you. They’ll drop everything and try to grab me the moment they know I’m near. Cotton’s right. You need to use that opening to go for control of the Kratos satellite.”

“Assuming Cotton’s mole can get me near the building without getting me incinerated.”

Grady frowned. “And what about this EM-plasma field?”

“You might have invented the gravity mirror, but I’m well practiced with it. I’m more concerned about Cotton’s mole.”

Cotton was forming a long devil’s beard with the stylus. “Have faith. My mole should be able to get you up to the building. All you have to do is turn their world upside down.”

“I can’t believe I’m taking instructions from someone who’s been caught doing this once before.”

“Live and learn, my dear. Now . . .” Cotton rummaged around his workstation. “Here . . .” He tossed her what looked like a one-inch cubic diamond. “Once you get inside and enlist the aid of your ‘friend,’ and you somehow miraculously get past their deadly security measures to the Kratos control station in the heart of the BTC, and then somehow get your biometrics cleared for security access to their most precious asset—”

“This isn’t inspiring confidence.” She studied the crystal.

“After all that, plug that relay q-link into one paired with the satellite. It will transfer control here.” He gestured to the many holographic computer screens floating over his workstation. “Extra points if you can destroy their other q-links. Just keep that control room secure after you do, and I’ll be your overwatch.”

She looked at him doubtfully. “And how do you know how to operate the Kratos satellite?”

“My mole has gotten me access to many things . . .” Cotton brought up detailed blueprints for the Kratos satellite onto his screens as well.

“My God, we had a serious security problem. How did you get these? How did you fool the AIs?”

Cotton spread his hands. “I’m a thief. It’s what I do.”

Grady examined the drawings. “Then the BTC never had a monopoly on all of this technology. All of this insanity is for nothing?”

Alexa still didn’t look happy. “What other data have you stolen, Cotton? What other plans?”

He laughed. “Now is not the time or place, but I assure you I will share everything I have. I will hold back nothing.”

Alexa didn’t seem to know what else to do, given the situation. She turned to Grady, then grabbed the helmet from the nearby workbench and handed it to him. “I found this scout cover among Cotton’s stolen loot. It’ll give you some head protection if things go wrong. BTC aimbots always go for head shots.”

Grady accepted the helmet. It looked like a matte-black bicycle helmet except that its crystal visor seemed to be made of bulk diamond, which he was starting to become familiar with. It could probably withstand the impact of a .50-caliber bullet—though his brain would still be turned to Jell-O from the impact. He nodded grimly. “Thanks.”

Cotton finished his coiffure. “Well, what do you think?”

They turned to look at him. He now resembled Wyatt Earp. They stood silently.

“That good, eh? Well, to hell with you both. You have no taste.” He tossed the stylus onto the workbench. “Are we ready to do this thing?”

Alexa nodded. “Yes. The sooner we do, the sooner we can end this.” She turned to Grady. “Your destination is programmed into the helmet visor.”

Grady nodded.

“Cotton, how do you know they’ll be watching that geographic location?”

Cotton was busying himself at his workbench. “Because it’s the location my mole reported as Mr. Grady’s last-sighted position. They’ll have sensors on it.”

She turned back to Grady. “The site’s about two hundred miles from Chicago, and about two hundred and fifty miles from Detroit.”

“So even after the alert, it’ll take them hours to get to me.”

She shook her head. “No. Morrison’s assault teams use pressurized diamondoid armor. They don’t stay in the atmosphere. They ascend to about twenty miles into the atmosphere, and then free fall over the landscape from there.”

Grady considered this. “Much thinner atmosphere at that altitude. Makes sense.”

“Right. It means they can reach speeds of eight hundred and forty miles an hour. It’s about a four-minute fall up to their cruising altitude; about seventeen minutes travel time, and then a four-minute fall back down to sea level. So expect them to arrive within thirty minutes of the time they leave BTC headquarters. Stay miles away from your destination until I give you the ready signal.” She examined him. “Are you sure about this, Jon?”

He took a deep breath. “It needs to be done.”

“We could try some other form of diversion.”

“Nothing that’s guaranteed to get them to come in enough force to be of use to you. If they definitely see me, they’ll think you’re not far away.”

“We could have Cotton’s mole make a false sighting in—”

Cotton shook his head. “He’s no longer in a position to help there, I’m afraid—seeing as he lost track of Mr. Grady once already.”

“What if we created a decoy that drew them?”

Grady answered the q-link, “Alexa—anything that fails will only tip them off that you’re coming.”

She pondered it a bit more. “The moment you appear, there’s the possibility that they just zap you dead.”

“I don’t think Hedrick would do that. In any event it’s worth the risk if it provides a distraction at a critical moment.” He gripped her shoulder. “No matter what happens to me, Alexa, promise me you’ll free Archie and the others. You need to get to them before the BTC does; even if you get control of the satellite, they’ll try to hide them somewhere. Don’t let them.”

“We won’t. Don’t worry, we’ll rescue them, and you’ll do it with us.”

“Hate to interrupt the touching moment.” Cotton approached with what appeared to be an autoinjector. He was loading an ampoule into it.

Alexa scowled at him. “What the hell is that?”

“You never asked how the BTC caught me when I tried to break in all those years ago. Kind of hurt you didn’t ask, actually.”

“I assumed you did something stupid.”

“Ah, funny. No, I might not have been caught had I known that they release a neurotoxin into the crawl spaces during high alarms. It makes you panic and run screaming for fresh air—even if that’s over a cliff. The stuff enters through all semipermeable membranes—lungs, skin, eyes.”

“I’ve never heard of this.”

“Have you spent much time crawling through your power conduits during security alarms?”

She just glared.

“This is what I was working on earlier.”

She kept glaring.

“Right. Here then . . .” He put all the ampoules on the workbench and rolled up his own sleeve. “Pick one, and I’ll inject it into myself. You’ll be coated with neurotoxin when you come back, so we all need to get inoculated, anyway. I don’t need a screaming panic attack, thank you very much—especially with a ten-story drop to the street close at hand.”

Alexa sighed in irritation.

Grady selected the center ampoule.

Alexa grabbed the autoinjector from Cotton, then the ampoule from Grady, and then loaded it.

“My dear, don’t inject angry.”

She jammed the device against his arm. There was a pop and hiss.

“Ow.” He paused for a moment, then grabbed his throat and started choking theatrically. Then he straightened. “Satisfied?” Cotton grabbed the autoinjector back from her. “Who’s next?”

Grady selected one of the two remaining ampoules and extended his arm. “Why didn’t you tell us about this before?”

He loaded the ampoule into the autoinjector. “Because I wasn’t sure she was going in alone until now, and if she had forced me to come along, I would have quietly injected myself and then saved my own skin.”

She made a disgusted sound. “You’re a disgrace, Cotton.”

“Ah, a wise coward is more valuable than a brave fool.” He injected Grady, and then, after another glare from her, he injected Alexa with the contents of the last ampoule. “I told you I would share everything. I just didn’t say when.”

They all exchanged looks.

Cotton broke the silence with a clap of his hands. “Well, good luck with the mission then. Off you go, and be in touch on the q-link.”

 • • •

Grady stood on the roof wearing his gravis harness and the helmet Alexa had given him. She was thirty feet away—possibly for the last time. It was past midnight again, and as he glanced over at the Chicago skyline, he couldn’t help but remember their flight the night before. He looked over to her and smiled wanly.