Desperate Measures Chapter 22

Chapter Twenty

Many cultures told legends or myths of advanced beings who lived in the clouds.

When Jia was a little girl and looked out the windows of her residential tower, she couldn’t help but feel like one of those beings of legend. She lived in Neo Southern California, the greatest metroplex in the entire United Terran Confederation. It was a near-mythical land of massive towers that reached into the sky, where only the best and most honorable people lived.

Adulthood had disabused her of some of her fanciful childhood beliefs about what it meant to be an Uptowner in Neo SoCal, but it had not freed her from her dislike of subterranean tunnels.

As far as she was concerned, they were the realm of maintenance bots and

yaoguai

.

The narrow tunnel currently hosting the sub-squad didn’t allow them to march side by side, but there was at least enough space that Erik and Jia could both fire at one target if they were ambushed. She tried not to think about what new horrors might await them.

She’d gone from being an immortal living in the clouds to a heroine stepping into a dungeon filled with the most twisted demonic monsters created by man.

No one spoke as they headed down the tunnel at a quick but not too fast pace. They were all doing what Jia was, listening for

yaoguai

, drones, roars, growls, or odd scratching and skittering—anything that would give them precious seconds of warning.

They arrived at the bottom of the tunnel. A wide door blocked further passage. There was no obvious access panel.

“Emma, can you open it for us?” Erik asked.

There was no response. Jia wasn’t surprised. She’d been honest about having trouble, which meant it was probably harder than she’d let on.

“For all we know, they’ve got escape tunnels that stretch for kilometers,” Jia suggested. “Those first

yaoguai

came from a lot closer than the mansion.”

“True, but he might just be holed up in here, waiting for reinforcements,” Erik backed away from the door. “I don’t want to wait to find out. Alpha Six, it’s knocking time again.”

“Yes, sir,” the soldier shouted, moving his exo forward but keeping a healthy distance from the door. He waited for the other squad members to move to either side, leaving no one directly behind him. “Backblast area clear!”

A rocket screamed away from his launcher and exploded against the door. Flaming pieces bounced off the exos’ ballistic shields and clattered to the ground. Smoke swirled up, darkening the small area. The door was cracked but not down.

Two more rockets did the trick, leaving the burning wreckage of what had once been a doorway and choking smoke.

Rockets, the ultimate skeleton keys.

Erik advanced past Alpha Six through the smoke. Jia and the other two soldiers fell in behind him.

“Are the conspiracy secretly mole people?” Jia grumbled. “This place is starting to annoy me.”

“Only starting to?” Erik asked.

They entered a vast cavern that dwarfed the rooms above. Her initial impressions suggested it could have fit a good chunk of the entire mansion. Huge doors lay on the opposite end of the cavern, most likely hangars or garages for vehicles, but that was the least disturbing part of the room.

Row after row of open silver gestation tanks filled half the cavern. Tubing ran from the tanks through the grated floor into the darkness below. The other half of the chamber was a series of transparent sealed metal box pens separated into different sizes. Bones littered many of the pens. Jia hoped none were human, but she doubted it.

“Huh,” Alpha Six offered. “It’s empty. They must have emptied those to throw at us. Sent ‘em through those doors over there.” He looked around. “They must lead to the surface.”

“Vincke isn’t going to try to escape on foot.” Jia frowned, surveying the area using different modes. There were all sorts of fading but recent thermal traces that lent credence to Alpha Six’s theory.

The squad wandered deeper into the room, sweeping in all directions in case flying

yaoguai

dropped from above, or chameleon badger dragons ripped from the ceiling and tried to eat their faces. If Vincke had run, there was only one possible direction.

A massive explosion from behind shook the room. Smoke filled Jia’s rearview camera feed. She spun, assuming an ambush by enemy humans or Tin Men, but when the smoke cleared, there was nothing but a massive pile of rubble blocking the entrance.

A loud, mocking laugh sounded from all around them. Jia didn’t need to see the man to recognize Dr. Vincke.

“I’m disobeying orders,” he taunted. “But I couldn’t resist. It’s a special responsibility, but also a special opportunity?”

“What are you talking about?” Jia shouted.

“I could have buried you here easily. That’s what I was supposed to do. My orders came from the highest people, those I never thought I’d get to talk to.” Reverence filled his voice. “That was when I knew this was an exceptional duty.”

“Okay,” Erik replied. He pointed his rifle upward at an angle. “You got us. Why don’t you explain a little more?”

All four exoskeletons formed a square formation with overlapping fields of fire. While it was impossible to surprise anyone because of the rearview cameras, that wouldn’t mean much if they couldn’t put rounds in an ambushing target.

“Oh, so now you fear me?” Vincke asked.

Jia knew Erik didn’t fear death, not in the way most people did. He also knew when to push his ego aside.

Emma was above, hacking into the local systems. She might not be able to control the

yaoguai

, but a complex facility like this was vulnerable to anyone who took control of their systems. The longer they could stall, the better the chance of having every camera and door on their side, let alone any hidden security bots.

The two soldiers remained silent, keeping their weapons at the ready. While Jia doubted they’d ever been on this exact kind of raid, they were highly trained people who knew how to stow fear.

“Why didn’t you just kill us when you had the chance?” Jia asked. Vincke wanted to rant, so she would feed that.

“Because I needed to prove to my masters that my work is

worthy

.” Vincke let out a defeated sigh. “I’ve made good use of their money and influence, but they don’t think my designs are useful. They think I don’t pay any attention to the politics and the games, but I know what’s going on.”

Erik nodded for Jia to continue.

“What’s going on?” Jia asked.

“They think they have better people,” Vincke shouted. “I’ve been loyal. I was to be elevated. I was giving them something more sustainable than ridiculous Tin Men. My designs are far more stable and directable than the other fools out there. They think I don’t know? I know!”

Jia smiled. She could work with this maniac’s insecurities.

“It sounds like they’ve screwed you over, Doctor,” she offered sweetly. “Are you telling me you’re the person responsible for the creation of all the

yaoguai

we’ve fought today?”

“Of course I am.” Vincke scoffed quietly. “Obviously, I’ve had assistants for minor pointless technical work, but I’ve done much to eliminate the need for them. I could give them armies they could use to swarm worlds. I just need more time to refine my designs.”

“That’s impressive,” Jia offered, injecting as much false interest she could into her voice. The disgusting man thought he was worthy of praise, not years in prison.

“But now I can provide them with the ultimate proof.”

“By killing us?” Jia jeered. “If they don’t respect you now, why would they respect you in the future? You might have a career with the government. They could use a mind like yours. All you would have to do is help us stop the people who have turned their backs on you.”

Vincke barked a laugh. “Is that what you think? That I want to join the dying embers of a failing, decadent civilization led by the spineless and weak?”

“We’ve kicked the conspiracy’s ass plenty,” Erik interrupted. “Including yours. All your fancy monsters and none of my people are hurt, and all your monsters are on the ground with a lot of new experimental breathing holes.” He moved his rifle back and forth, looking for a target. “We can make this easy, asshole. Surrender to us, or you might end up looking a lot like your pets. It doesn’t matter. Even if you do manage to escape, the conspiracy’s just going to see a piece of shit loser who couldn’t stop some exos from blowing away his mighty army.”

“You’re exactly what I imagined, Blackwell,” seethed Vincke.

“I thought you didn’t know who we were,” he answered, bored.

“I lied, fool,” Vincke responded. “I see now you’re nothing more than an arrogant meathead who has gotten lucky and coasted along with the help of various government tools. You think you can stop my masters? Stop people who have a vision beyond any you could possibly imagine?”

“Then why don’t you educate us?” Jia asked. “Why don’t you tell us about your plan? You’ve already disobeyed their orders. No going back.”

“You don’t understand.” Vincke sighed. “You understand nothing.”

A red holographic alarm light spun in the distance over one of the large doors. Shrill klaxons sounded.

“I disobeyed to do my final field tests,” Vincke crowed. “I’ll prove to them the power of the weapons I can give them by using them to defeat two of their greatest enemies. You’ll become sacrifices to a greater future for humanity.”

The door began to slide down, rumbling. Something let out a deep roar that rattled the grated floor.

“The bigger they are, the harder they fall?” Jia suggested.

“Nope.” Erik loaded a plasma grenade as the others readied their weapons. “The bigger they are, the harder they hit.”