Kill Switch: Chapter 43

And The Clock Still Keeps Ticking

Headquarters is quiet as we step over the lip of the laser proof dome, which juts out of the ground a couple inches, separating the complex from The Without.

I keep expecting something awful to happen.

Footfalls shuffle, the gravelly sound echoing off the surrounding warehouses. Every once in a while we catch a glimpse of a guard, but our uniforms keep us hidden in plain sight as we dart around the stationary bots. Somebody shouts in the distance. It’s hard to make out the words. Another shout answers. Then all is quiet again, the air eerily bereft of electronic beeps and pneumatic hisses. We step over the train tracks.

Another shout.

I glance up at the mansion. No movement in sight.

We cross through the center of the complex. I glance down the elevator shaft. A trail of wires dissipates into darkness. I can only imagine what’s going on below, the panic and chaos. dNet down. No feed. No pharmas. No goo. It must be utter mayhem. And then I think about Bunnfield, and my stomach drops. Did he make it to the entry point that Elijah and I had dug? It was always a possibility that he wouldn’t make it, that he’d be shot dead after killing Switch, but it was a risk he was willing to take, he said. The last scenes on the monitor rush through my mind – the rapid montage of wall, floor, ceiling, as if he was falling down, the pew pew pew of the laser pulses, the yelling and screaming, all those button pusher running around, panicked – I can’t shake the sense that he didn’t make it, and the thought paralyzes me as I stare down the empty elevator shaft. We’ve made a huge mistake, I think. A massive mistake.

Yide grabs my arm. “Vonn, what the fuck are you doing? Let’s go. We’re wasting time.”

Her voice knocks me out of my trance.

I wipe my eyes. “Right,” I say. “Sorry.” I look around. The complex looks just like Elijah described it, which means that the mainframe is about a hundred yards away, on the opposite side of the complex as the launch pad, which, at the moment, is nothing more than a circular concrete slab with some wire framework.

“It’s this way,” I say, pointing toward a row of warehouses.

“Obviously,” Yide says, looking back.

She and X are already several steps ahead of me, walking in that direction.

Guards run around one of the warehouses, barrelling toward us.

X raises his gun.

I rush toward him and put my hand on the weapon.

“Not yet,” I say.

Several guards run past us, then the one pulling up the rear stops. He’s the only one wearing a hat.

“All hands at the elevator,” he says. “We’ve already secured the perimeter. Next step is to spelunk down to The Within. Go, go, go.” He’s pointing frantically over our shoulders.

“We were told to guard the mainframe,” I say. “So that’s where we’re heading.”

The guard raises an eyebrow. “Who told you to guard the mainframe? Wait…what’s that on your back?” He steps forward and glances at the name badge on my uniform. “You’re not Nebulus 99.” He glances at Yide’s name badge. “And you’re not Younder 47.” He reaches for his blaster, but before he can get his finger on the trigger, Yide fires off a shot, sending him spinning to the ground.

“Hey!” One of the guards at the elevator points in our direction. “It’s the Inbetweeners!”

I look at Yide, whose face is drained of all color, and then at X, who’s staring wide-eyed at the approaching horde of guards.

“Run!” I yell.

And we dart toward the mainframe, laser beams ricocheting off the steel warehouse siding, the click clack of combat boots pounding on the concrete, the fear and the panic coursing through every inch of me as I unholster my blaster, point it behind me, and return fire.

And the clock still keeps ticking.