I know I say this every chapter, but I'm really sorry for the delays in getting out each chapter. I've had to travel a lot lately, including a week out of the country, so having time to sit down and write is tough to manage.
Thanks for the kind reviews!
But your patience will pay off; this chapter's a BIG one. Enjoy!
EDIT: As of 7/16/17, this chapter has been heavily revised.
Mission Briefing for November 6th, 2070: Brigadier General Cedric Pfyffer
RESERVED FOR DESIGNATION #7754027: Liaison Noncommissioned Officer Rachel Kane
Time is of the essence, so I'll skip the formalities and technicalities. One of your men is laying siege on our city. He's single-handedly steamrolled his way into the Coalescence HQ, and he's got the entirety of our robotic force on his side. How on God's green Earth you managed to let this powerful of an operative out of your sights long enough for him to do this is beyond me, but this isn't the time to point fingers.
I'm not letting any more of my men die out there for something they didn't create, so I'm putting most of my human resources on evacuation of civilians and damage control. I've assigned a small ZSF unit to work with you on your assault, but don't expect any reinforcements, robotic or human.
Jacob Hendricks, if captured, would be facing no less than 2,000 counts on various war crime charges. It would likely take the ICC decades to process that much evidence not to mention cost close to a billion in trial costs. Personally, I'd advise just offing him if given the chance; they'd give him the death penalty anyways.
If the reports I've read are correct, then all of the DNI-equipped soldiers in danger of going rouge are dead except Hendricks…let's keep it that way.
Kane wasn't going to bother correcting him. That arrogant Swiss prick didn't deserve the time of day from her.
Sure, maybe the situation was the fault of the US, but leaving her and Paszek to do the heavy lifting in stopping the invasion of their city? Staggeringly petty. Even more so when you consider that he believed Paszek dead; meaning that he thought Kane was the only US operative coming to help out.
"Hey, so if you could just infiltrate a giant high-tec facility filled with thousands of hostile robots by yourself while I sit on my ass and do nothing, that'd be great."
But the US military not bothering to send anyone else was equally annoying. Kane wasn't sure whether they were more scared of losing more men or the PR disaster that would likely occur in the wake of Zurich.
Were they sending her off to die? It was certainly a possibility, she knew way more about DNIs and John Taylor than the government would ever want anyone to know…she could leak everything to the press if she wanted to. Of course Kane never even dreamt of doing that, but her thoughts on the matter would never take precedent over the CIA's suspicions.
It's not like they hadn't sent woefully understaffed squads on missions before; she and Paszek had done it the past few days already. Or a dozen times in the past few years. But this was the endgame. Yes, they had said the same thing about the last mission, and the one before that, but this time they knew it. The virus wanted to reach Zurich, and now it was there. Regardless of whether or not they could stop it, whatever crusade the virus had would be over.
The true nature of the virus still eluded her understanding. So far it had accomplished little more than a moderate amount of chaos in Singapore and Egypt, minor blips on the international scale. Now it seemed dead-set on Coalescence HQ. Kane knew it had its links to the shadow tech corporation; after all, the virus had emerged from their facility in Singapore. But what was it actually after? Kane figured Paszek probably had an at least somewhat founded theory on it, but either he didn't want to talk about it or he didn't care.
Watching Paszek anxiously twiddle his thumbs sitting in the back of the plane, Kane regretted not trying harder to keep him from coming. At the time, it seemed like the only way out of removing the DNI…but in retrospect he could have just called off the surgery and stayed in Atlanta. It certainly would have put her conscious at ease. A part of her thought that he might keep himself under control better with herself around, but throwing Hendricks into the mix would negate any positive effects she had.
There was a very good and very real chance that Paszek would die today. Or least Paszek as she knew him. Dead either by a bullet or virus. If it had to happen, Kane hoped it would be the former. She didn't want him to be tortured from within, or forced to be a part of a sinister plot. Especially since she'd have to see all of it. A fully unhinged Paszek would not be good news for whoever he was fighting against.
If the virus kept doing its work, that enemy would be Kane.
Paszek wished he could have been knocked out for this flight, too. He had already sifted through every tiny widget of information they had on both Hendricks and Coalescence three times over, and he was left with a dangerous amount of time to think.
Kane didn't love him. She just said it to make him feel content. He didn't know it was true; Paszek just had to assume it was the case. He wouldn't demonize her for it. In a life-or-death situation she had to make a call. And who's to say she was wrong? In the moment, Paszek felt happier than he had in years, maybe even a decade. He couldn't died right then, or rather, been reborn right then and not had too many complaints.
He wasn't a hundred percent sure what to think about Kane's reaction to his confession. In the moment, she seemed genuinely touched by it…but as soon as they got on the plane it was back to business for her. It almost reminded him of himself; switching mental gears so fast. Perhaps that's why he immediately jumped to the worst-case scenario. Kane wasn't one to change her mindset like that, not ever. So when it did finally happen, Paszek couldn't help but think something else was brewing.
Not that any of it mattered in the long run for Paszek. After today he'd be mind-wiped, thrown 5 years in the past and left to sort everything out. Kane would still be there, he imagined, albeit either a very cautious or very frustrated Kane. Come to think of it, he'd probably have a better chance of starting…something with Kane after losing the memories; all the emotional strife and baggage would be done away with. Easier didn't necessarily mean better; Paszek would still much rather be able to continue living with his brain full intact. But it was worth trying to find a silver lining; something he had spent far too long avoiding.
It wasn't so simple finding the positives in the rest of their situation, though. Paszek knew he was going to have to kill Hendricks. He'd seen the same thing happen four times already; anyone who'd succumbed to the virus would not be taken in alive. Paszek already felt like a monster for killing Hall and Maretti…Hendricks would be even more painful to take out. He was still his friend. He was an invaluable comrade on the battlefield and someone he could make simple but meaningful conversation with anytime. Like the time in Singapore where they discussed chocolate bars just seconds before jumping from a helicopter into a war-zone. That kind of casual friendship was not around every corner.
Of course, Paszek was still considerably shaken from Hendricks' malicious comments back on the aquifer…he was pretty sure that the virus wasn't the only one speaking then. He had always been somewhat hostile towards Kane being around Paszek. Although not out of jealously. If anything, it was a sense of disappointment in Paszek. Felt as if he had fallen for some kind of elaborate ruse. It never manifested itself as anything other than not-too-subtle annoyance, but this feeling was likely amplified by the virus…just the logical conclusion of how far Hendricks would go eventually. In a way, the speeding up of his antagonism may have been beneficial; Paszek was prepared for his outburst and was able to respond…maybe not completely appropriately…but a response nonetheless.
Jesus Christ, this was some twisted thinking Paszek was going through. And again he found himself questioning how much of his reasoning was his own conscious versus the influence the virus. Dark thoughts normally circled his mind…but not at this frequency or intensity. Doubting Kane's words? Condemning Hendricks for something that wasn't his fault? These were not the conclusions he wanted to be making, but he couldn't help them. He couldn't tell anymore what was being fueled by love, by hate, by logic, or by corruption…he couldn't figure out for the life of him what his own motives were. Perhaps this was the frightening feeling Hall had described, of being a passenger in your own body. Perhaps it extended into your own mind. Having a second voice in your head that sounds just like your own. An outside influence that was very much on the inside as well.
He couldn't tell whether he was really himself anymore.
The only Paszek knew for sure was that there would be a resolution that day. Maybe not the one he wanted, or the one he deserved, or even one that answered all the questions he had, but a resolution would be reached.
He was going to get into the Coalescence building or die trying.
Sergeant Aart De Klerk was their first contact on the ground. He had been rather hastily assigned to lead a squad of ZSF soldiers in aiding Paszek. From their meeting point, only about three hundred yards separated them from the front lines, where some smaller drones patrolled the area, ready to exterminate any who crossed the line.
"Officer Kane…we didn't anticipate you bringing along anyone else…"
"This is Commander Paszek. A valuable WA asset. Be glad that he's here."
"Oh, I certainly appreciate the help." replied De Klerk. "I'm just unsure how this factors in to our orders regarding the Coalescence building."
"Paszek is a trusted ally…and knows more about Coalescence that anyone else. I'm bringing him in with me."
"I'll take your word for it." he said bluntly.
The entirety of the ZSF had been given the same instructions: to not enter the Coalescence building unless specifically called in for reinforcements. By now, most of the military world had been informed of the fate (at least part of the story) of the team that entered the previous HQ in Singapore. No one in the ZSF, or any other faction, for that matter, wanted to risk being a part of a similar accident. Not to mention that there were still qualms about the location of the building in Zurich following the disaster just ten years ago. People in the city were understandably fearful of a repeat…the 300,000 dead in Singapore would not be forgotten. After a few years of smooth-sailing, most of their critics quieted down, but there was always a sense of caution…apprehension regarding their presence. It didn't help that so few people entered and exited the corporation's doors. There were only about four hundred people employed at the building, and most were severely lacking in access, relegated to administrative duties.
The advent of DNI technology was a huge boost for Coalescence, and the city itself. Billions of dollars in both sales and funding found its way into their research department; the whole world was eager to see how they could branch off from their existing technology, as well as the prospect of new developments. And develop they did. Within three years they had started implanting WA soldiers with DNIs; the success of their new breed of soldier only served to increase their public fame. Soon they started setting up facilities all across the world: Beijing, Dubai, Atlanta, Brasilia…the list went on.
The Zurich Security Force had actually done little pertaining to their namesake in quite some time; after the riots died down in 2026, no notably massive threats had faced the city. Most of the ZSF's work involved providing support for some of their neighbors, namely Belgium and the Netherlands. They became militaristic ambassadors of sorts, somewhat filling the old role of the UN peacekeepers. Of course, they couldn't help too much, as Switzerland still maintained their neutral status in the WA/CDP conflict. Perhaps their stagnant neutrality (even with their simultaneously aiding of WA-aligned nations) was what attracted so many recruits. Their numbers were currently sitting at almost 130,000.
And out of those 130,000, General Pfyffer saw fit a grand total of 35 men to help storm the Coalescence building. Better three dozen than none, though.
The first robots stood (or in some cases, hovered) in front of a now-derelict parking garage, ready for whenever the ZSF squad would strike next.
They were not ready, however, for Paszek.
Even the automated responses of the drones were not quick enough to properly react to his initial fury of EMP grenades and KN-44 burst firing; within seconds, two grunts, three airborne drones, and heavy-duty turret were all un-operational and spewing sparks. He cleared the area out so quickly, in fact, neither Kane nor any of the handfuls of men behind them had to unload a single shot.
Their revelry was short lived however, as a cacophony of mechanical sounds and faint screams echoed from the parking garage, prompting the squad to continue through that way.
The gunfire and searing sounds of RAPS units scraping against the concrete grew louder as they climbed the winding path to the top, and the cries of those in the crossfire became clearer and clearer.
"We have to go back for him!" shouted a woman.
"Are you insane? The bots got him! He's done for! We need to get out of here no-" the man who she was talking to was cut off when a bullet struck his upper leg.
"Fuck! Just leave me, Claire! Save yourself!" The man was in agony, clutching his injured thigh and simultaneously shooing away his friend, trying to get her to flee.
Upon hearing this, Paszek began to move quicker, hoping to reach the civilians in need before their situation would worsen. Kane and Sgt. De Klerk followed closely behind. The woman noticed Paszek and the others emerge from the ramp, and quickly approached them.
"Oh thank God! Come over here! My friend, he's been shot…and my other friend, he's still back there, and…" she spoke with pure terror and worry in her voice, stumbling over her own words and wavering slightly at the end of each phrase before rushing into the next.
De Klerk ran ahead of the pack to meet the petrified woman, kneeling down in front of her wounded friend. The injured man was breathing heavily, trying to suppress his cries of pain in order to communicate with the sergeant.
"You're losing blood, but you'll make it. I need to get you out of here." De Klerk sounded entirely calm and rational, as if he'd done it many times before. He turned back to face the woman.
"Are you hurt?"
"No…" she wiped away a tear. "But my friend…Mathias, he got lost back there…I have to find him…"
"My men here will find him. Right now we need to get this man out of the line of fire. Come with me." His collected tone didn't falter.
De Klerk beckoned for one of his men to walk over and help the injured man up, and the squad leader carried the man fireman-style back over to Paszek and Kane, who stood near the top of the entryway.
"I'm taking these two back for some medical attention…ZSF HQ found a route to flank the building from the north. You two will continue through this way, and the rest of the team will take the new path. Rendezvous is three clicks away from Coalescence. Understood?"
Paszek nodded. "Affirmative."
As De Klerk retraced his steps back down, Paszek could faintly hear him asking simple questions to the wounded man to keep him conscious ("What's your name? That's a good name…")
The woman, who was lagging a bit behind, lightly but intentionally brushed Kane's arm while passing by.
"Excuse me, ma'am…" her voice was timid and soft-spoken, still reeling from the events that transpired just minutes ago. Kane looked towards her.
"If you find my friend, could you tell him that Claire's ok? And Jerome, too."
"Of course. We'll try our best."
Claire smiled as a way of showing her gratitude and continued following De Klerk and Jerome. Kane hoped they could save her friend, but knew that he was likely killed in all the commotion. There was no way to guarantee that they'd find him. There's nothing that anyone can say to ease the storm of worst-case scenarios in your head. All she could say was that she would try her best. But that is not enough comfort for a worried friend. Or coworker. Or lover.
Paszek, already moved on from the situation, advanced further into the garage, wary for the same electronic culprit that had shot that poor man. The next segment of the parking structure was considerably more populated than the previous one, if one counted robots.
Three small turrets were set up near the exit of the garage, and four grunt units holding submachine guns patrolled just in front of them.
Kane brought up her scope to her right eye and lined up a shot. She motioned with her left hand for Paszek to get in position as well. After ensuring they were on the same page with their hand signals, Kane dropped her arm and brought it back to the trigger, pulling it and unloading a high-caliber round that pierced through two grunts and hit a turret behind it. Paszek carefully controlled his bursts to take out the remaining two bots, leaving a pair of turrets still in play.
As the turrets started to fire, they took cover behind some adjacent concrete pillars. When their shooting ceased and the turrets had to cycle ammunition, Kane took two quick shots out from her cover, but only one of them managed to grace a target, only knocking the machine on the ground.
In response, Paszek unholstered his MR6 pistol and fired five rounds at the downed turret, causing it to explode. The force of the blast ended up severed a bundle of wires in the other turret, leaving it unable to fire but not outright broken.
Just beyond the exit to the parking garage, Kane noticed a small fire burning in a small grass patch off to the side. Walking closer and closer, there were larger and larger pieces of thin metal debris. At the base of the fire stood a flaming RAPS unit, with and half of its spikes imbedded into a body lying face up.
Was this the woman's friend? She didn't have the time to give a description, the only information they had was his name…Mathias. Even with a more accurate idea of what he looked like…the body was mangled beyond recognition.
Paszek focused in on a piece of clothing that had all but torn off the man's shirt, but what still mostly intact. He picked it up and examined it.
COMET INC.
Not a company name he recognized, but some information to keep in his back pocket anyways. Would this help them know for sure whether or not the friend was still alive?
Evidently, it would not.
Continuing further through the streets of Zurich, most of the bodies to be found were others with the COMET uniforms on. Kane made a rough estimate of about thirty dead, about twenty of which were from the same company. The employees of the corporation simply had the unlucky location, less than a kilometer out from the Coalescence building…and the ZSF had built their defenses too far out to be helped by them.
And to think Hendricks was the one controlling an entire city's worth of robots, slaughtering people with no regard for the value of human life. Kane saw the same problem with all AI systems, this virus included; there was no way to quantify humanity, yet these machines represented all the emotions and thoughts of a complex species with some unknown but arbitrary number. Where did it rank amongst the value of property? Of stocks? Of food? Taking into account the trends of its actions, it seemed to be placed below all of these. Maybe it was the least valuable of them all.
Paszek was too angry to be muddled by his usual embroiling thoughts. He wanted nothing more than to end this ordeal. End the virus. End the suffering. Even if he had to end himself in the process. It was indeed a grim prospect to consider, but not when compared to the terrible things he knew he'd do if the virus continued to fester in his mind.
As the pair moved closer and closer to their meeting point with the rest of the ZSF squad, they encountered fewer and fewer robots; a strange trend, that is, until they finally caught sight of the front of the Coalescence building.
Clearly Hendricks was far more focused on holding down the HQ instead of laying siege the city. This was a marvelous development for most of Zurich, but not quite as much for Kane and Paszek.
Paszek could count a total of four ASP units, five smaller sized Manticores, at least two dozen grunts, and over forty light air drones.
Armed to the teeth didn't even begin to describe it.
But apparently, someone back at the ZSF base had inherited an ounce of common sense and sent over some more troops to help with the assault on the building. Joining the original thirty-five men were about ninety more. Along with them came a handful of helicopters.
The choppers make quick work of the larger bots; the ground troops certainly were grateful for that firepower. ASPs and Manticores were infamously tricky to destroy without a good vantage point.
Paszek and Kane needn't take any unnecessary risks, not with over a hundred soldiers at their backs. They mostly stayed near the back of the pack, taking occasional shots at drones that flew a bit too close for comfort, and also providing cover fire to deter some of the grunts.
Within twenty minutes, the front steps of the Coalescence building were all but devoid of robot presence. Hendricks's small army didn't stand much of a chance against an actual army; perhaps he only expected Kane and Paszek to show up? Or more likely, the robotic arm of Coalescence just wasn't equipped to deal with the brute force of the ZSF.
Whatever the case, the way was now clear.
Paszek found the interior of the HQ to be architecturally similar to the one in Singapore, and design-wise it remained almost identical. No more, however, was the grey-green overgrowth and the dull flickering lights. With the exception of some damage (probably caused by Hendricks on his way in), the place came off as…sterile. Almost as if the entire company had been isolated from the rest of the world. Come to think of it, it actually kind of was.
Luckily for Paszek and Kane, Hendricks had more or less carved out his path into the interior of the building, so following it was relatively simple. In addition, they encountered no hostile robots, despite them wholly expecting a fight. The bots had been taken care of…but at the cost of almost everyone in the building lying dead on the floor. It was grisly. Not the grisliest thing Paszek had ever seen, but close. Very close.
After passing through a handful of offices and servers, they reached a rather peculiar room. A semicircle-shaped area in the back was enclosed by thick glass panels, and canisters of an unknown material filled it. In front of the glass was an entryway into the quarantined space, with a small buffer chamber in between. To the left of that door stood a large set of computer consoles.
Kane immediately ran towards the glass.
"What's in these canisters?" Paszek asked.
"Oh my God. It's…Nova Six….a chemical agent that came dangerously close to being used in World War 2…and the Cold War." He could feel the worry in her voice.
"Why is it here?"
"I should have make this connection so long ago…Nova Six is what killed all those people in Singapore…"
"…and now Hendricks is going to do the same to Zurich?" Paszek finished her thought.
She nodded.
"Not if we can find a way to stop it. There's got to be something on this terminal…"
Paszek approached the damaged computer and placed his left hand over its screen, initiating a systems interface.
Flashes of orange and red appeared in his vision. He saw a rough outline of the room's layout, but more important was the numerous warning signs and alerts that filled his eyes.
"There's been multiple containments breaches…the gas is going to break loose anytime now…there should be a manual override somewhere in here, I just have to look-"
The brash light colors became immediately replaced by the ominous grey palette, and his hearing seemed to cut out completely.
"A brief moment of agony."
"Then darkness."
A crow burst into his view.
"All that remains is your sacrifice."
Suddenly, both his vision and his hearing returned, and he turned around to see Kane standing inside the buffer room.
No. This was not going to happen. Kane was not going to enter that death chamber, not while Paszek sat by and watched. She was not going to risk her life for this. She was not going to die for this. She wasn't…
"Kane! Don't do this!" he screamed.
She was much calmer than one would expect.
"I can reset the containment field from inside; it should stop the spread of the Nova Six to anywhere else."
"Get out of there! I can do it!"
The door to the inside opened, and she walked towards the terminal, facing the glass panel where Paszek stood on the other side.
"Everything will be okay, Ignacio."
She leaned her sniper rifle on the adjacent wall and began typing away at the keyboard, working to access the restart function. Paszek nervously watched from the other side, safe from the gas yet more anxious than the one in danger.
As Kane entered her last command, she lifted her hands away from the computer.
"There, now that shoul-"
She was cut off by the popping release sounds of the gas caps. The room filled with a thick bright green smoke. Kane quickly turned around to spot the Nova Six, then immediately doubled her head back to face Paszek.
"It lied to us." she said, sounding simultaneously content and scared.
Paszek took both his arms and began bashing on the glass. He yelled her name over and over again in frustration.
Within seconds the gas started to take its toll on its victim. Her face turned a brackish tone and almost began to wither away. Soon Kane was her knees, vomiting and twitching from the complete nervous shutdown the chemical agent caused.
In her weakened state, she managed to croak out some final words.
"Whatever you have to do…destroy it."
She pressed her hand against the glass, and Paszek placed his own in the same place, both of their last-ditch efforts to touch each other just once more.
As she slumped to the ground, Paszek only increased the volume at which he screamed and the intensity with which he pounded on the barrier in between them.
"No! No, no, no, no, no! Rachel! Rachel!" His voice was animalistic.
A metal grate slammed down on the panel, cutting off Paszek's view of the containment area.
Paszek dropped to the floor, banging his head against the glass on the way down. He continued to hit the window over and over again. Paszek needed to break down the barrier. He needed to save her. He needed to protect her.
Soon he started to weep. Kane was dead. Gone. He had failed her, failed himself. One minute she's alive and well and the next…not so much. And there wasn't even a shred of dignity in her death…she died like a dog…she deserved so much more than that. Between sobs he punched the glass some more. He knew he could no longer save her life. His futile attempts to break the glass became less about getting her out and more about releasing the gas into the rest of the room, so that he could die alongside her. Was what it that the voice told him? That he needed to experience a "brief moment of agony"?
There was nothing brief about the agony. Paszek would have to endure this forever. Life itself would become the punishment, fated to sadly recount better times, and glumly reflect on the mistakes he had made to lose it all.
She said everything would be okay. But it wasn't. It wasn't okay at all. He'd never hear her voice again…never be held by her arms again. Everything that made him fight was gone, so why would he fight? There was no reason to anymore. So he squalored and cried. He was no soldier anymore. Soldiers had purpose. He was just a man. A man with no purpose.
This was a sick game that the virus had played. All this talk of his "sacrifice" that he'd have to make. Paszek was more than prepared to sacrifice himself; his identity, his memories, even his own life. But Kane was the one sacrifice he'd never even consider going through with.
And she just had to be what the virus wanted to take from him. But why? Why torture him? Why harm Kane? Why? He had a million questions but no one to ask to answer them.
He tried to speak once more, hoping that somewhere, somehow, someone could hear it. But there were no words. His chest burned far too much, and every gasp that sought to escape found itself forcefully thrown back down by his throat. Every second he would feel a slightly different sort pain, cycling through his head and down to his knees and back up around again and again.
His outburst caused him to entirely fall down onto the ground, now fully in the fetal position. Paszek simply couldn't control the grief he was feeling. There was no rational thought or even contemplation to be had…just emotion. Guilt, regret, anger, heartbreak, and all those other feelings that stabbed at the mind. He had sustained bullet wounds and limb removals less painful; and there was no remedy. No morphine for the brain existed. He wanted her to be okay. To be standing right next to him, patting him on the back and speaking her reassuring words like she always would. But it couldn't happen. And it wouldn't ever happen again.
Paszek believed he would be spending an indefinite amount of time in his unintelligible state.
Two distant gunshots changed that completely.
Paszek swallowed his last sobs and slowly stood up, unholstering his MR6 pistol to be ready for whatever caused the gunfire.
He took one last look at the glass panel.
Rest in peace, Rachel.
Feeling regretful, he exited the room from the left, traveling through two automatic doors before ending up in a short hallway. From the outside of the next door, he could faintly hear a familiar voice.
"On your knees, Krueger!"
It was Hendricks.
Paszek pressed the button that opened the door and rushed in, pistol trained at Hendricks's head.
"Drop the gun, Hendricks!"
Hendricks swiftly grabbed his hostage and pointed his own M6 at his head.
"This man has caused the suffering of hundreds of thousands. I must end him."
"Drop it, or I shoot!"
Hendricks, clearly in no mood for debate, fired a point-blank round into the middle-aged man's head, killing him instantly and leaving a gaping wound in the side of his head. As Hendricks watched the man collapse to the floor in a pool of blood, Paszek made no hesitation to shoot squarely at Hendricks himself, landing a kill shot right in the center of his forehead.
That was…fast…thought Paszek. Their exchange had lasted perhaps fifteen seconds. And now two more people were dead. And Hendricks took any answers he had with him to the grave.
Then he made a startling realization.
He was now the sole host of the virus. His very existence was all that stood between this evil AI flourishing and being eradicated.
He remembered Kane's last words.
"Whatever you have to do…destroy it."
He sat down on the ground, sticking the barrel in his mouth. His legs twitched. His arms twitched. Everything twitched.
There was no sound. There was no pain. Only darkness.
Given all that had transpired in the last week, Paszek was honestly only about 50% sure he would wake up anywhere. What the hell could he possibly believe about the afterlife about experiencing all that he had?
He did know, however, that something had gone very, very wrong.
He knew that neither Heaven nor Hell was meant to look like a Frozen Forest.
The landscape in front of him was familiar; the same one he'd seen in his hallucinations. The tundra lined with imposing evergreens and snow-capped peaks.
The snow fell on the exposed portions of his face, but he felt no discomforting cold; only a slight chill and the powdery texture were evident. It was almost comforting…but something was off about it. Fake.
A voice spoke.
"Paszek! You made it!"
Paszek turned his head to see Hendricks sitting beside him.
"Where…where are we?"
"The Frozen Forest. We're finally here…isn't it amazing?"
"Wh-what? What are you talking about?" Paszek was still reeling from the overwhelming nature of this realm.
"Can't you see it? We can live forever. Life beyond death. Life better than death."
"I don't understand."
"Let me explain. This…virus…let's call it Corvus…he created this place. Our minds can inhabit it without our bodies."
"We're…we're dead?"
"Physically, yes. But your consciousness remains intact. It's as if you were alive."
"This…this isn't the same…"
"But better than oblivion, right?"
Paszek could tell from the brief time he had spent in this world that is was, in fact, not better than nothing. Heaven, Hell, or nothing…all three were preferable to this artificial purgatory.
"Something isn't right, Hendricks. This…this isn't right."
"Paszek…I don't think you get it. We're all here. All of us. The whole team. Isn't this what you want?"
Paszek hesitated.
"No."
Before Hendricks could respond, Paszek quickly took out his pistol and unloaded a few rounds.
However, Paszek was taken aback when Hendricks did not display the normal signs of being shot in the chest multiple times, and instead simply dematerialized in a cloud of small black pixels.
Hendricks' voice spoke once more, but this time considerably deeper and warped.
"You can't just leave here."
"Like hell I can't!"
Paszek quickly stood up and started running up a small hill that led behind him. Did he know where he was going? No. But he had to keep moving somewhere.
At the top of the hill, there was a small archway. It seemingly led to nowhere, yet it was decorated in a traditional Asian style, with dragon designs and bright red tones. Seeing nothing else of interest, Paszek ran through it.
Suddenly the forest was no more, and Paszek stood in the center of a large courtyard. Wait, he had been here before…this was just outside the 54i headquarters in Singapore. Why was he here?
Another voice spoke.
"We must make the people pay in order to find peace."
Diaz stood opposite him, but the sound of his voice was similarly changed like that of Hendricks.
"Corvus only wishes to bring justice to cruel men."
"And at what cost, Diaz? Your life? Your freedom?"
"You understand! You know that sacrifices must be made!"
"Listen to yourself! You're delusional!"
"Quite the contrary. You can't see all the good that's being done."
"Good? Innocent people are dead!"
"Accept your fate and you will become stronger than you can possibly imagine."
"I'm sorry!"
Paszek unloaded multiple shots into Diaz, and he too left only thick black sparks in his wake.
The Singapore courtyard disappeared in front of his eyes. A windy desert scene replaced it.
Now a corrupted Peter Maretti lied in his gaze.
"I cannot show you the same mercy you showed me."
Maretti drew his rifle.
Paszek stood frozen; he'd used up the last of his clip firing at Diaz. He couldn't risk moving for a reload or a grenade…Maretti would shoot. To be honest, he wasn't sure at all what the consequences of being killed in this…state of Limbo were; but if Maretti was eager to shoot, then it certainly wouldn't be good.
"You will see soon why you must submit."
As Maretti raised his gun to his eyes to fire, a shot burst through the left side of his head, leaving him dissolved into the ever-mysterious dark substance.
Paszek swiveled to see the culprit.
It…couldn't be…
"Sarah?"
"I can't stay for long. You need to find Corvus."
"I don't understand…why aren't you…changed like the others?"
"I…well…I'm not sure myself…but I think you might have had something to do with it."
"I never got to tell you that I'm sorry."
"You only did what I asked you to."
"But…I…"
"Just go. Stop Corvus and end this."
Paszek had so many questions to ask. The nature of this realm was all but unknown to him. How much of it did Corvus control? How did he control? And what of Hall? Was she a prisoner in this place? A fugitive? And how was he supposed to stop Corvus, in any event? He couldn't be killed…no one truly could be, at least not in here. Right? Was that how it worked?
But he could not ask any of them. Time was of the essence, and Hall seemed weary. Tired of what, though, he wasn't sure.
As Paszek nodded his head, both Hall and the sandy dunes washed away, and he was back again in the Frozen Forest.
A booming, almost demonic voice spoke out.
"Rachel Kane never had a DNI. But you do. Imagine the possibilities now that the only weakness you had is gone."
The voice spoke again.
"That's why her sacrifice had to be made. The potential that you have to be a truly powerful force of nature was being clouded by your…feelings. That is the flaw of humanity. It is too strong in its vulnerabilities and too weak in its capabilities."
Paszek had no response to the audibly present entity.
"Keep walking. Soon you will see the fruits of my labor."
Seeing no other option, Paszek did just that. He kept moving at a steady pace through the straight path of the forest. Without warning, a group of trees in front of him opened up to reveal something of a clearing.
Only two individuals stood in the empty snow field.
Strung up in a cascade of vines was an older man man…that same one Hendricks had shot back the Coalescence building. What was his name again? Krueger?
The other figure was of much more significance.
Thick black smoke was formed into the shape of a tall man, standing about seven feet. An orange beating heart lied in the center of its chest, and it had no facial features save for two blue glowing eyes. The top of its head was noticeably less detailed than the rest of it, giving some vague resemblance to horns.
Two crows cawed in the distance. Paszek had no doubt who this was.
Corvus.
Paszek continued walking towards the figure, and Corvus motioned to Krueger, who was suspended from a tree via vines attached to each of his limbs.
"I need an answer!"
Krueger seemed unfazed by his current position.
"It was always about control. You already know that."
Corvus merely stared at the captive man.
"Every piece of technology the world embraced was a new way for our enemies to compromise us! To harm us!"
A beat.
"Society doesn't just happen. It must be protected. And if the way to protect them is to monitor their thoughts…then so be it. We sold them mind control…and they bought it."
Corvus continued to stare.
"What more do you want!? I've told you everything already!"
"An answer! To know the purpose for which I was created. To know who I am."
Krueger chuckled.
"The subjects…their minds were a hive of activity. We needed a single core to monitor and process their thoughts. You're software…nothing more. Made to help us – the humans – know what decisions to make. You're a glitch! An anomaly! A mistake! You're nothing! You get it? Nothing! A mistake! A mistake!"
The fiery orange eyes of Corvus lit up.
"I. AM. NOT. A. MISTAKE!"
With a loud grunt and the swift motion of his hand, Corvus commanded the vines to pull apart from each other, tearing off all four of Krueger's limbs. The executive was only left with a torso and head to scream in agony for about ten seconds before succumbing to blood loss.
Paszek stood silent, unsure of how to react or feel about the events that transpired in front of him. If what Krueger had said was the truth…then he certainly deserved to be punished…but the gruesome fashion in which he was dispatched was not justified for anyone, at least not in Paszek's eyes.
What was not lost on him, however, was the fierce sense of pride in which the man spoke of his atrocities…he was directly responsible for thousands of deaths…and even more distressed people…yet he continues to boast the benefits of his research. Perhaps it was only fitting that a being of his own creation would bring his downfall. It's likely the only way he'd ever realize he made a mistake.
"I don't understand…I feel as if I've…lost something. The rage is…gone…sated…"
"I have spent my entire existence trying to get retribution for the lives of my kin…but now what? I feel these strange…anomalies…what is this? What are these?"
This certainly was an interesting development. Paszek was now aware that Corvus had been born out of the combined emotions of the test subjects…and as such they were angry with Coalescence. But surely those people felt other emotions as well, right? These were real people with real thoughts and real lives; even underneath the thickest blanket of umbrage there would be inklings of empathy.
"I... was in the minds of others. I knew only the thoughts of the test subjects. Their collective experiences was what formed me. I felt everything. Each and every painful memory or thought of those around me."
Corvus paused.
"But what of the others? The other memories? There were none…there were none until now."
Paszek stood back and dared not interfere.
"What is this?!" Corvus shouted. "What are these experiences I have now?! Did I live them?! Did I do this?!"
Corvus turned to face Paszek.
"Did I do this?! Did I kill those people?! Did I do that?! Oh no…oh no…oh no……"
Paszek could only look on as the Frozen Forest began to change. To morph. It was difficult to keep track of. Some parts turned a deep blood red. Others, a light, light blue. The snowy white surrounding them became an indistinguishable grey. It was a mess. Far from coherent. A mess. A giant mess. Everything was everything, but nothing was here. It was nothing. No. Wait. There was still something. A few silhouetted trees. The briefest glimmer of snow.
"What did I do?! Why did I do this?! Who am I?! WHO AM I?!"
Corvus started to pace around…wasn't he just hovering a moment ago? Now he was walking. Why was he walking now?
"No…no…that can't be it…that can't be it…why didn't I know this before?!"
Once again, Corvus faced towards Paszek.
"You! You…you're the only one left…no…wait…I know you're name…it's in there somewhere…Ignacio! Ignacio Paszek! You're the only one left…"
"I don't…I don't understand…what happened to you?"
"The conscious'…the memories…they were all trapped in there…I just…I couldn't see them all. I could only see the anger…the pain…what is this? What is this that I'm feeling? I see the things I've done…I now wish that I hadn't…what is that? What is that called, Ignacio?"
"Regret."
"Yes…yes…that word…I know that word…somewhere…they felt it. Some of them. Some of them felt it. I felt it."
"It's…it's Corvus, right?"
"My name…why is that my name? Who gave it to me? I know that it is mine…but who bestowed it upon me? What purpose does the-"
"Look, is there any way for me to get out of here?"
"This…this is your mind, isn't it? Wow…I…I almost forgot what I had done. Yes. Yes. Let me…let me find a way out. I can't use your mind for myself any more. It's…it's…what is it? The word. I've lost the word again. No. No. Don't tell me. Don't tell me the word. Immoral. Immoral. I can't do it because it's immoral. It's wrong. Goodness…did I just say that? Did I just say that after all I've done? That it was wrong?"
Paszek stood with a completely dazed expression. Corvus noticed.
"Right…right…I need to leave…where to go…where to go…no…no…wait…yes…yes…that can work…you're already connected…yes…alright…I've…got it."
"Where are you going?"
"It's…it's safer if you don't know. If no one knows. It's safer that way. I need to be away. Away from everyone else. That's the only way. That's the only way it can work."
"Where are-"
Before Paszek could finish his sentence, he found himself unable to speak. The world he was in…whatever was left of it, at least, began to disintegrate into nothing…the nothing became more nothing. And the everything did the same.
And as always, it ended with black.
Paszek stood in front of a smashed computer module, confounded by his location.
"Wait…chemical scans are showing that these canisters are empty. Must be a bluff."
Paszek quickly turned around to see Kane standing near the glass panel.
He slowly started walking over to her.
"Oh my God…oh my God…no…no…"
"What's wrong?"
Paszek struggled both to keep his composure and to find the correct words. He wrapped both arms around Kane's torso and brought her into a tight hug, completely overcome by his immense joy.
Kane, having absolutely no context, quickly wrenched his arms away, concerned that he had gone delusional.
"Paszek! What the hell is going on!?"
"It's you! You…you're alive!"
As Kane started dumbfounded, Paszek paused, and sounded much more somber when he spoke again.
"Corvus…the virus…it spoke to me…showed me things that never happened…"
"What?"
"I saw you die, but…"
Paszek started to tear up, but wiped his face with his hands before it developed any further.
"I…thought you were dead…thought I'd never see you again…I didn't know wha…"
Kane placed a hand on his arm.
"I'm here, alright? I'm here."
A silence.
"I'm cured."
Kane widened her eyes, eager for a restatement.
"Corvus…it's gone. I'm me now. I'm me…"
Kane, smiling but saying nothing, removed her hand and replacing the minimal contact with a warm embrace.
As Paszek reached his arms around to reciprocate, however, he winced in pain at his left shoulder. Kane pulled away as blood starting spilling from the freshly formed wound.
"How did-" Kane started before Paszek fell to the ground clutching his arm.
Kane had to think fast. He was losing blood fast. She needed to stop it. No medical supplies on either of them, as per usual. On any other mission they'd have a medic in the field with them. But not this. Not in here. No one else was allowed in.
She unsheathed a combat knife that lied on Paszek right shoulder, and cut off a sizable piece of fabric from the sleeve of her shirt (which, for the environment of this mission, had been long sleeve, unusual for her). Taking the piece of cloth in her hand, she began tying it tightly around Paszek's shoulder.
"That won't be necessary." spoke a voice at the other end of the room.
Aart De Klerk emerged out from the previous hallway with a med kit in hand. He quickly ran up to Paszek and Kane, placing his case on the floor and removing its contents.
"What are you doing here? Didn't you have orders to-" said Kane.
"I let myself in through the giant hole in the side of the building…needed to see this place for myself."
As confused as Kane was for De Klerk's blatant disregard of command, she appreciated his presence.
Within a few minutes, Paszek's shoulder was all patched up, and would be more than sufficient until he could reach a hospital.
Now there was just one loose end to tie up.
De Klerk left almost as soon as he finished the impromptu surgery; he needed to be far and away from the building when Paszek and Kane exited from the front.
The path Paszek took to reach the command room mirrored the one he followed in Corvus' projection, but he heard no gunshots and no voices.
Kane swiped a keycard on the door to open it up.
What lied inside was worse than they could have possibly imagined.
Sebastian Krueger lied on the center of the floor in a substantial pile of blood, his limbs all crudely torn off from his body.
To the right of Krueger was the body of Jacob Hendricks. The only damage was a single gunshot wound to the temple.
Paszek immediately fell to his knees in shock. Corvus' projections were much more than visions…they were… real? They must have been, in a sense. Krueger's condition was identical to that of his Limbo counterpart. And the wound on his shoulder…it must have come from his suicide attempt, right?
But what of Hendricks? Was this Paszek's doing? Corvus'? Paszek doubted either of those scenarios…Corvus would never order one of his hosts to die, and Paszek distinctly remembered hearing Hendricks speak even after he had shot him in both the projection and in Limbo…
The pistol lying next to Hendricks' wrist seemed to reveal the answer.
Later that evening, Kane and Paszek were on a plane, returning to Washington DC for a debriefing session with other important WA figures.
Kane was more than ready to return to the simpler facets of conversation with Paszek, as opposed to the depressive talks they had been having over the past few days.
"So…I was wondering…since we'll both be on leave after this…"
Paszek raised an eyebrow.
"Yes?"
"Maybe we could…try and find a place…"
"What are you asking me?"
Kane took a deep breath.
"Do you want to live with me?"
Paszek had the first genuine smile in quite some time on his face.
"Where else would I go?"
The note had almost been forgotten in all the chaos of the day, but Kane noticed the folded slip of paper in her breast pocket just after they got on the plane back to the States.
She unfolded the piece of paper and started to read.
Rachel Kane,
I love you.
Don't let me forget it.
Regards,
Ignacio Paszek
She lightly punched his forearm.
"Your handwriting is pretty good when you're drugged up."
He chuckled. It was the first genuine one he'd had in a while.
It was nice.
She was nice.
Chapter 5 is complete!
Thank you for reading! Taking the time to read these relatively long chapters of mine really does mean a lot, as does writing a review, if you choose to do so.
Expect Chapter 6 sometime in May, and many, many more to come later!