Chapter Nineteen

Gabriela scrambled to get the mask out of its plastic packaging and over her face. The mask seal around her face with a hiss, just as dark billows of smoke began to pure out of the air vents around her.

“What the hell is going on?!” Gabriela screamed and she put her hands on her head. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing on the screen. The lobby filled with the same gas that the conference room was filling with. The Cy-Tech officers tried to cover their faces, or retreat out the door, only to stumble and fall. The receptionist screamed before she also stumbled and fell.

“Put the earpiece in.” Pearl demanded.

Gabriela looked down at the small earpiece on the table. She didn’t hesitate this time. She quickly looped the piece over her ear, pushing the small bud into her ear canal.

“We don’t have much time, Gabriela.” A man’s voice emanated from the ear piece. “Those containers they brought in are seeker mechs. They have been activated, and they are coming for you. I can get you out of here, but you will have to do exactly what I say.”

“Who is this?” She demanded.

“My name is Soma.” The name sounded familiar. Gabriela’s mind grouped for where she had heard the name before, or if they had ever met.

“Are you a net breaker?”

“I’m a mancer, and I am here to help you, Gabriela. We don’t have time for more questions.” Soma’s voice strained.

Gabriela backed away from the window display as she watched in horror as the cases the Cy-Tech officers had brought in began to transform. The cases separated slightly into three sections. Spider-like mechanical limbs unfolded from the two outer sections, each limb tipped with a gleaming scythe-like blade. The middle section of the container formed the body and head. A green light blinked next to the mechs’ optic sensors. The lights changed to a solid, menacing, red.

“Oh fuck.” Gabriela gasped. “Can you deactivate them?”

“No.”

“I thought you were a mancer.” Gabriela turned back to vid screen that still displayed Pearl, who was frozen with her pleasant grin.

“They operate independently on isolated networks that they ghost into. There are over three thousand independent networks. If I knew which network they were operating on, and I were to shut it down, they would only jump to another network. I tried to knock out all the networks I could, including transmission networks. We have a small window of time before they realize what’s happening, Gabriela. I can get you out of here, but we have to go, now.”

Gabriela took one more look at the window screens. The seeker mechs moved around the lobby, a sheet of horizontal light sweeping back and forth in the light haze of the gas. Two tentacle-like appendages slithered out from under the mechs’ undercarriages, just below their head. The appendages waved about like the antenna of some bizarre insect. One of the mechs startled the receptionist, its appendage moved her face so that it could scan it, before it moved on to the next unconscious person.

“What do I do?”

“Going out the front door is out of the question. One of the mechs is going to station itself at the foot of the stairs, while the other two sweep this building.”

“I go out a window then?”

“No. I triggered anti-corporation espionage measures. All the windows are hermetically sealed with mag-locks. The glass is shatter proof. I need you to open the door and head to your left, and try to keep quiet.” Soma warned.

Gabriela did as she was told. Slowly opening the door and slipping into the hallway in a half-crouch. The emergency lights flashed along the floor, illuminating the hallway in an eerie haze in the fog of the gas. Her own panting breathing and rhythmic beating of her heart was all Gabriela could hear as she edged her way down the hallway.

“Stop.” Soma commanded. “There is an office to your right. Go in there, and close the door behind you.”

The silence of the hallway was interrupted by the steady sound of clicking. Gabreila forced herself not to panic as she did what she was told. She opened the door and entered the office, pulling the door closed behind her, just as one of the mechs rounded a corner in the hallway.

She backed away from the door slowly. Panic welling up in the pit of her stomach as the rhythmic tapping of the mech came closer and closer.

“You need to hide. Behind the desk.” Soma warned her.

Gabriela turned away from the door, and fought down her choking fear as she quickly made her way around the desk in the room. A man was slumped on the floor behind the desk. Gabriela quickly stepped over him and ducked under the desk just as the doorknob began to turn.

The door unlatched with a click and slowly swung open. Gabriela could hear the machine move around the room, and see the sheet of light it cast sweeping over the desk.

There was a thud above her, followed by the sound of the contents of the desk clattering to the floor as the machine climbed up above her.

Slowly two of the scythed limbs reached under the desk, pressing into the wood above Gabriela. She bit into her hand, stifling the scream that lurked in her throat, threatening to erupt at any moment, as the seeker leaned over the desk. Its tentacles reached out for the man slumped on the floor. He groaned as the machine turned his face towards it.

It scanned the man’s face before it let go of him. His head hit the white marble floor with a loud thud. The limbs dislodged themselves from the desks underbelly, as it quickly retreated away, back out of the room.

Gabriela allowed a few seconds to collect herself before she crawled out from under the desk. She gave the man in the office a quick glance. His chest rose and fell slowly with each breath he took.

“They are all alive,” Soma whispered into her ear, answering her unspoken question. “The gas is part of the corporate espionage countermeasure.”

She moved away with a nod of understanding, quietly crept to the door, and peaked around its frame into the hallway. The mech scurried down the hall to the next office.

“There is an elevator at the end of this hall. Make your way to it.” Soma commanded.

She made her way down the hall slowly, moving past the unconscious workers that lay slumped against the walls, littering the hallway. She knew that the mechs would scan every person here, matching their facial ID to the ID in their database. Gabriela wondered briefly if it was really her face they were looking for, or if this was some sort of mistake.

Gabriela pushed the thought away and dismissed it as fanciful thinking. Her mother was the UN Chairwoman, and the thought of a political hit was not out of the question. Or maybe they meant to use her as ransom to extort her mother. But to use Cy-Tech? They were too established for kidnappings, too well known. She wouldn’t put it past them to do a kidnapping or a political hit, but surely they wouldn’t do it in the open?

The elevator at the end of the hall opened quietly as Gabriela approached it.

“I need you to get into the elevator,” Soma instructed. “Then remove the emergency hatch and climb up and grab the access ladder to your right as soon as possible. We only have one chance to get you out, and this is it.”

She followed his instructions and slid the hatch open and then she began to hoist herself up. She gasped when the elevator’s alarm sounded out. The unexpected sound caused her to lose her footing and fall back through the hatch. Gabriela let out a yelp when she landed on her bottom and hit the back of her head on the wall.

The sounds around her seemed muffled and distant. She clutched the back of her head and clenched her teeth, taking a long deep breath. The situation around her came rushing back as she breathed out.

“Gabriela, you need to get up the hatch!” Soma yelled over her comm.

Gabriela paused when she saw one of the seeker mechs around the corner, another one scrambled up from the stairs, and then the final one emerged from an office.

“Shit!” Gabriela screamed as she kicked her feet, trying desperately to pull herself to her feet.

The mechs all lunged forward at the same time, all of them were of one mind, all of them focused on her. Gabriela managed to get to her feet and jumped and grabbed the lip of the hatch before hoisting herself up and out of the elevator.

The first of the mechs followed her up the hatch, its bladed limbs scraping against the metal of the elevator, the single red eye on its head illuminated the dark shaft.

Gabriel kicked it several times. It lost its footing and fell back through the hatch.

“Get on the ladder.” Soma demanded.

Gabriela leapt to the ladder. She looked back to see another mech emerging from the hatch. She screamed frantically and began to climb as fast as she could.

There was a woosh and then the sound of metal on metal followed by a loud crash that Gabriela felt in the ladder. She stopped climbing and looked down; the elevator was gone. The emergency lighting in the shaft extended down in a uniform row, deep into the tunnel, before the light was swallowed by the maw of darkness that waited so far below her.

“Are you okay?” Soma’s voice whispered.

“Was that your plan all along?” She demanded.

“Yes.”

“You could have warned me.”

There was a long moment of silence before Soma replied. “I didn’t think you would do it if I told you what my plan was.”

Gabriela gritted her teeth and forced herself to start climbing again.

A hatch at the top of the ladder slid open, bright light poured through the opening causing Gabriela to blink hard. She peeked her head over the rim of the small opening. She was on the roof.

“There is a service ladder on the west side of the roof that you can use to get down to the alley.”

“Are there more Cy-Tech officers waiting for me?”

“No. I told you. I knocked out communications for the block. Cy-Tech has no idea that their officers are down, or that they have lost their mechs. But they won’t be in the dark long.”

Gabriela nodded her agreement. She quickly located the ladder and descended to the alley below. She paused only for a moment to glance around the corner of the building. Soma was telling the truth. Other than a Cy-Tech truck parked outside of the facility, nothing seemed amiss.

She walked as calmly as she could. She didn’t run, despite how much her brain told her to. She knew that if she ran, she would draw unwanted attention.

“Soma, can you monitor my apartment?”

“Yes.”

“Are they at my apartment yet?”

“Not yet.”

“I need to get there.” Gabriela put her hands in the pockets of her jacket and kept her head low, casting her gaze at the gray sidewalk.

“It’s too dangerous. That will be the next place they will go to apprehend you.”

“I know. That’s why I need to get there now. I have a cred chip and a passport there. I can use them to lay low.”

“You don’t need a passport. They are going to be looking for you at every airport, train station, and port.”

“I need the money though. It’s a jailbroken cred chip, with enough crypto to get me a fake passport, or smuggled out of here.”

“We will find another way to get money.”

“I’m going.” Gabriela cut him off. “It’s more than the cred chip, and I am not leaving the city without it. I’m not arguing. If you are here to help me then help me. If not, then get out of my way.”

Grabiela heard a sigh before Soma spoke again. “Fine, first I need you to ditch your terminal.”

Gabriela saw an old woman coming out of a boutique a few paces ahead of her, followed by an employee who was carrying several shopping bags for her. An auto cab pulled up to the curve, and the old woman climbed in while the man sat the bags down behind the cab.

Gabriela quickly tapped her terminal, setting it up to make an auto call as soon as it had signal. She then dropped the terminal into one of the bags as she walked by, in one smooth motion, not missing a step. The call would buy her time. Cy-Tech would be chasing the cab around the city, or raiding the old woman’s pricey loft.

“I need you to find me the fastest route to my apartment.”