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Oihana found the nearest bus, got on with a little help from Jormungandr, and tried to keep her senses on her escort. While technically distance didn't diminish the clarity of her sense much, a crowded place could make it more difficult to consciously perceive it amidst all the other impressions. Where her senses felt like wind when she was close to the uncomplicated desert, here felt like more syrup with iron shards around her the deeper she went into the city.
Still, the yautja weren't impossible to keep track of. Otter she was familiar with enough, and through him she could pinpoint the other two. They actually stood out fairly well with their murderous inclinations. They kept looking for suitable prey and were annoyed when they found none, she even caught some specific thoughts as they got some taunting messages from friends that got to hunt sewer monsters. They hadn't gotten either what they came to hunt, but it was better than playing escort of a prey species that somehow had made itself useful.
She drew her arms across her chest in a poor effort to block them out. A lady aside of her bent forward, kindly asking whether she was alright.
Oihana nodded stiffly and pulled up her knees. "Just a little nauseous," she muttered. The woman offered her a plastic bag in case of emergency and didn't have a clue about her impending death. Nobody on this bus deserved to die. Oihana took the bag and tried to smile and forget she was on the wrong side.
She stepped out near a cluster of skyscrapers, at the center of the richest district. Oihana had been here a few times, being the only one young enough to credibly want to play with Zhib. The plaza around it was bright and neat, full of colorful shops and cars that didn't fall apart, but even here was the telltale dust of the desert. When she stepped into the lobby, she was requested to dust off. By the time she was in the elevator, the yautja was already halfway up, scaling the building with nothing but clawed hands and feet.
A butler opened the door to her, smiling politely but not without that condescending look they sported whenever Zhib had a low class friend over. His parents allowed him Internet access to stimulate his intellect and just barely tolerated that meant he'd make friends not in line with their reclusive social standing.
Zhib was playing in his room, directing a structure on a hologram. Oihana recognized it as some sort of digital code turned three dimensional, but to unsuspecting parents and staff it would look like a game. When she stepped in, the boy turned around with a wide grin.
"Hey, Oihana!"
"Zhib, are you ready? We've got to go," she said, looking around for his luggage. She spotted a small suitcase clumsily stuffed with things and went to pick it up. She noticed Ohtremnek's sudden alarm, two seconds later he came crashing through the window. The door behind her burst open and he jumped between her and Zhib. Why did he suddenly feel like she needed protection?
"Oh ... that is a problem," she heard Zhib's mother say from down the hall, and all she felt from the woman was the same complacent serenity as ever. She had no panic, even though she should have seen the uncloaked Ohtremnek.
Zhib stared up at the yautja and didn't feel the slightest bit intimidated either. In fact, he felt just like moments before. Slowly, Oihana pieced together the detailed thoughts of Ohtremnek and he had seen that startled him so.
Zhib wasn't quite cold enough for a human, from outside he had scanned the boy. Ohtremnek had altered his helmet sufficiently, Jor hadn't been able to adapt quick enough to influence the scan, and that second was all Ohtremnek needed. The boy was a cyborg, fleshy skin and brain merged with a metal skeleton. Coupled with that, Ohtremnek knew it was a problem that a second later that view his helmet was cheated into seeing an organic creature.
The mother calmly walked down the hall, and further up in the house all servants, the father and an older sibling opened their door. They felt human, on the surface, but all intense emotions were missing. She had wondered in the past about this, but never had followed up on it. Even now she felt that suppressing urge from her mother — do not question it, child — but with Otter right aside of her fully aware of the events and quietly questioning her, it didn't hold up. In fact, Otter's scanners ceased working at all, and he extended his wristblades in preparation for a fight.
Zhib, or rather, one of Jormungandr's organic access points, was still smiling brightly.
"What are you?"
"Did mommy not tell you yet?"
Oihana shook her head.
"I'm an avatar. This body can feel fun things and sad things, but the real self isn't bothered by those organic things. There were lots like me, but my earlier helpers destroyed them," he said with a tinge of arbitrary but real sadness. "We were all in the storm drains, off course. My real self's idea, when the city was designed, to suggest they'd be totally necessary."
Ohtremnek knelt down aside of her and on her wristband there was the question what the heck that thing was.
"Oh, yes, the problem. I planned to go along with the Nirevéh ship, but now he noticed that will not work. Try looking surprised — yes, like that, excellent — because we're about to play a new game. The real Zhib died and was replaced, and I'm an evil robot planning to stop the yautja from leaving cause I want their technology. I struck a bargain with the enemy tribe if they would strike the Nireveh tribe down and we'd do an exchange."
Ohtremnek stiffened up, Jor was feeding him fake translations where the "evil robot" gloated about her having walking into the trap and he was going to kill her now for spoiling his plans.
"You have 12 seconds before we're starting a simulation where I try to stop you from telling this. The enemy tribe's fake bargain story will be launched soon anyway, I suppose this situation must be twisted to fit the scenario. Shame it had to involve this body, I really wanted to keep it."
The cyborg that masqueraded as mother appeared in the door opening, its hand raised. Out of the bleeding flesh the lining of a gun appeared. Ohtremnek whirled around and grabbed its leg, tossing it on its back. The shot bore into the ceiling.
Zhib suddenly jumped up and made a grab for her. Iron fingers closed around her arm and she yelped. Ohtremnek grabbed Zhib's arm and cut it loose with his wristblades, then fired a plasma shot at the cyborg in the hall as it struggled to its feet. He grabbed Oihana and dove behind the couch, dropping her there. Slipping his fingers under the massive piece of furniture, he forced it up vertically. Oihana noticed more semi-minds appeared in the hall and bullets riddled the couch straight through. A few bounced off on Otter's armor, one narrowly scraped his head. He kept close to the ground and braced against the couch, forced it ahead and after a few meters he pushed it forward. Stepping on the couch's bottom, he fired at the one that had gotten below it.
More were coming, but apparently that was work for the other two hunters; bluntly said they wanted the shiny trophies and Ohtremnek better get out with his plasma caster. He took heed, turned around and grabbed Oihana. With her under his arm, he jumped right out of the window. She couldn't help but scream at the speed, but not for long. Ohtremnek had a firm grip on the windowsill, feet braced against the wall and radiating an infectious sense of security. More than anything he was annoyed he wasn't going to get to investigate those things.
Yet another cyborg leaned out of the window and made a grab for Ohtremnek's hand, but was pulled back inside. The roars and firing indicated the other hunters were having the time of their life. Ohtremnek's helmet started working again and with that returned a clear sight of the surrounding. He swung aside and dropped to a lower window, then down to a ridge.
People down below saw them, and Ohtremnek cloaked and continued down the skyscraper. He jumped to a lower building once he was nearly down and continued running from there.
Being carried under an arm with her stomach resting on the metal gauntlet was incredibly uncomfortable. She transmitted this to Otter, who then opted to carry her sitting on one arm. Her mother had once carried her, when she was half this age, but now she was too tall for that ... for a human anyway. This new position allowed her to look back over his shoulder, and right then someone unmistakably noticed her. She extended her awareness and found they were being followed.
The city had only a small number of hovercrafts, which Jor had once tried to control and failed. All of them belonged to the police, and they were far quicker than a yautja could run. They'd locked in on the aerial distortion, so Jor couldn't use any magnetic blockers to shield them. Who ever was aboard that thing had really good eyes.
She told Ohtremnek not to head back into the desert, and he went into the nearest ruined area where he found a ruin that was relatively stable. It had a high chimney with a small space between it and the wall. Shadow hid them, but they would be able to see an enemy coming.
Oihana sank to the dusty ground, folding her arms around her legs. Ohtremnek tapped her wristband, expecting a clearer answer.
"I don't know who follows us." Jor had his own ideas and told him the men were likely associated with the evil robots. That alone told Oihana they weren't, or he'd have said so before.
Up in the sky, she sensed Jormungandr's plan come to fruition. The enemy clan's ship was descending as a big clutter of panic, and all the while the Nireveh tribe received fake messages from them of a threatening nature. The truth was the clan couldn't actually get out, or even send any messages. Jor had little intention to quietly wait out repairs over the next few weeks. It was in the Nireveh ship now and from there slowly infected the other ship with digital offspring. Nothing complicated, just viruses. It was a gamble that none of them would detonate, but it was willing to take that gamble. It would only be so long before certain people in the city became a problem to it, as the cops were doing now.
The other two hunters had left the skyscraper and gotten their own tail of hovercrafts, which they eagerly took as an invitation for more violence. Far away, she could spot bolts of blue plasma shooting about. Yautja did not run from fights, and Ohtremnek had a sore spot on not being out there and dealing with his own pursuer. When they called for back up — or maybe Jor just had him believe so — he couldn't resist. He told Oihana to wait here, and so he was off. Their plan was to lure out the people inside, somehow.
The police noticed the attacks too, and their pursuing vessel briefly stopped to let one person out, and this one person was looking in the direction where she now was. He didn't see her, but knew the specter that carried a child had disappeared around here.
She stayed put, but as the man approached she got a better sense of who he was. Bewildered, he ran about and was shouting, and ...
He knew about Jormungandr. He thought she was part of a geek squad. He thought Jormungandr was trying to assassinate her.
She stood up and walked to the edge of the roof. He was a few streets away, but this place had an echo.
"Hey, mister, I'm here!"
A few minutes later, a bewildered man in his thirties appeared, wearing a suit with bullet proof vest over it. He was panting heavily, but kept on running till he was below the building. Oihana climbed down the wall to the next floor, then through a hole in that floor. The man reached her level by then, and she intercepted him just as he was trying to figure out how to get up the broken stairway.
"Hello," she said shyly, staying in the opening of a door.
"Hi ... " He looked so official, up close. There even was the mark of a company on his suit. "I'm Andrew Edelburg. And you are?"
"Oihana Eir."
"Oihana Eir, please tell me there is a reason you're being hauled around by an elusive extraterrestrial species that isn't Jormungandr trying to get out of the city?"
She remained silent, and the man's head and mood sank. He almost sat down on the stairway, but reconsidered when he remembered he might have to run again. Apparently, he'd just barely avoided being chased by the yautja after his craft.
"You should tell your cops to lay down their weapons and retreat," she said. Not because they'd live, in the end, but she wouldn't like it much if Otter particularly got hurt.
"That'll work?"
"They're supposed to return as quickly as possible. They won't give chase."
"Okay, but if what you say is true and I do it, you'll tell me what's going on?"
She nodded, and he pulled up his sleeve to reveal a wrist band very similar to her own. The order was given to very confused people, but heeded. Far off in the distance, she noticed three very disappointed yautja looking after hovercrafts rising out of range. Apparently, Jormungandr gave them a message as well to return now; she hoped there wasn't an appendix with a good reason to kill the one human with her. For yautja, such a suggestion wouldn't give much emotional response so she couldn't clearly tell. She should send the man away, but he was an ally against Jormungandr. If a way existed to stop him still, he might know.
So, she told him with as much speed as she could muster. As she did so, she notices reading this man's mind was a lot easier than with ordinary humans, yautja or animals. He wasn't a psychic himself, but somehow more open. She took to sending him some images and thoughts to speed up the story, and he placed in what he already knew of Jormungandr. He wasn't entirely sure what Jormungandr had been breeding in this city, perhaps an army, he speculated. The project was abandoned though, there was too much humanity in them all.
"And now, you're helping it leave. You're setting it loose in the universe," he said incredulously. He took out a knife and set it to his arm. With just a slight flinch, he cut his arm in two and held out his mutilated flesh. Before her eyes, the blood stolled and only a few drops reached the ground.
"This is how I realized what's going on. Jormungandr doesn't just want out, it wants out without the confines of someone else's cyberspace. Don't be surprised if you find yourself cocooning in the future, and there is no guarantee that what comes out will be what it was before. You have no idea what it could do to humankind."
She was getting an idea though, thanks to him. He was the only one left because the others had died of accelerated aging or malformations of the earlier generations, or a bizarre madness had overtaken them, uncontrollable by neither Jormungandr nor the first geek squads.
All around them, the public city lights flickered out. Jormungandr no longer cared whether it was detected or not, it claimed all energy to power its transmission. Far above, a falling star appeared. Andrew looked up along with her through the broken floor, and he became desperate.
"Please, you can't let it leave!"
"I'm not in charge. Mom makes the decisions. Besides, they're going to blow up the city anyway. We're going along, and from there we can work on fighting Jormungandr." She wasn't convinced herself. "You don't have a plan?"
"Look at me, right now all I've got is control over a few factions of the police, and I just sent them away! And you just told me Jormungandr is already one step out of the door."
Her mother was very nearby, she sensed. She had met Ohtremnek, and was pleading for him to give her a lift. He obliged.
Andrew had taken out a phone and was anxiously talking with a woman on the other line, ordering an emergency evacuation, but in the middle of it the line was cut. He swore.
"Evacuation to where?" Oihana asked, taking a few steps closer.
"The desert. I reckon at least half of the Ash Generation will adapt to the harsh circumstances. It's better than everyone dying," he said with a tired sigh. "Why don't you come along as well? It's better than going with the hunters, I'm sure." She was sure as well, but others weren't.
"Shee will not," her mother said from above in the other room. Andrew startled, apparently his hearing was that good.
Ohtremnek had her mother on his back and let her step off on a ledge. He held out his hand to lower her down, while he himself kept the advantageous position and his plasma caster ready. The other two were out of sight, but kept an eye on the congregation.
Bakarne calmly walked into the hall and picked up Oihana.
"Stay here," Andrew pleaded. "Normal humans can't survive the desert, but have you ever really tested that? You're not humans! We can make it to one of the abandoned bases and call for help there! Ask those to leave you behind. They've left humans live who saw them before."
Bakarne enveloped Oihana with all of her senses and Andrew didn't appear so convincingly heroic anymore in his motivations. He appeared stupid now, which ... wasn't right. Her mother was doing this. She was eerily reminded of how Karga'te's awareness of the effect repelled it a little.
"Mom, stop," she whispered.
Her mother gave her a shushing sound and held her closer. "~We will survive, all you need to worry about is staying close to me. ~"
When Bakarne wanted to walk back to Ohtremnek, Andrew stepped in the way. The moment she had called her mother, he had realized she was the psychic from her story.
"Answer me!"
Bakarne gave him a harsh look. "True, you are not a human. Your kind will benefit from Jormungandr's reign, so what does it matter to you if it gets out?"
Their kind? What else did her mother know that she wasn't sharing? Bakarne forced her to stop worrying again.
"I was raised a human, with all the ethics and morals of our kind," Andrew said. "I will not let that AI get out and threaten life!" Behind him, Ohtremnek snarled, which made him anxious, but he wouldn't get out of the way.
"If this is so dire, why didn't you tell anyone about it?" she said calmly.
"Mom, can't we please try listening to him?"
Bakarne hesitated just for a bit and Andrew quickly said, "Jormungandr starts a killing spree if too many find out. A few years ago it had control over the water supply and froze it. And those monsters down below? Not so harmless when they're truly woken up. Worst, there are artificial humans walking around here. Your daughter just encountered them. I had no proof, but right now I can save us and a few other people by taking us into the desert."
"I know they're here. That's how I was approached. It is too late to stop Jormungandr."
"It is not. Even aboard that ship, it will still need someone to help it! Don't give it that help! Please!"
A thick draft of wind almost knocked them over. The second yautja ship sheered across the city and collapsed into the nearby hills.
"There are hundreds of bombs inside that ship. The desert won't save you from the explosion. Any minute now, the cyborg will reveal themselves and then the last piece of the puzzle will be in place. The Nirevéh tribe will think they know exactly what goes on, and those bombs will explode. Now, my daughter tells me you are a good person. Why don't you come with us? See whether you can do anything from within?"
Andrew seemed to hesitate, then slowly asked, "I'm feeling too inclined to believe you."
It wasn't the first time he'd encountered psychics, then.
Thoughts happen quicker than they are spoken, and he thought about why Bakarne didn't leave. She was the key player for him, and Jormungandr had an indirect hold over her daughter, while she had a more direct hold over anyone with a mind. Jor had once expressed regret to have lost Andrew, and knew he had skills.
Impulsive decisions were difficult to respond to even as a psychic, because the person one read responds just as quickly.
The gun was out before their reflexes, Andrew had a clear shot at Bakarne's head and the eyes to make it count. She snapped out of life like a broken thread lost its tension, grew limp in Oihana's arms. Both fell to the ground, Oihana momentarily dazed by her head hitting the concrete and she rolled away. Scrambling up, she reached for her mother and her hand landed in a growing pool of blood. Wide open eyes were fixed ahead without saying anything.
"Mom?"
She grabbed her mother's hand, felt the life still in the cells, but there were no more thoughts or feelings.
Another click of the gun made her look up, but it wasn't aimed at her. If Andrew had meant to shoot her, he wouldn't now. Andrew was pinned on Ohtremnek's blades and suspended in the air.
No, this man didn't deserve to die either. When Ohtremnek tossed the man away, thinking he was dead when he wasn't, she said nothing.
He'd just hoped to save the world, and her mother had hoped to only save her child. Right? Her mother had come to get her, but why? Was she saving her? Or was she just afraid she might actually agree? Maybe she didn't want to go alone. She was human, the desert was no option for her no matter what. How would things look for this city if Jormungandr hadn't found a psychic, a mother with a child to manipulate, to give it the edge it needed?
Yautja understood grief, at least, and he knelt down at her side with one large hand on her shoulder.
But time to grief they didn't understand. He lifted her a few seconds later where she would have wanted to stay.
Her mother had never shamed her for crying, but always had offered a sense of stability and security, if not comfort. Perhaps it was time she learned to shut herself up, because the place Ohtremnek was carrying called sorrow a weakness.
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