Chapter 14 Root Access

Chapter 14 Root Access


The body of Kalu was stretched on the fabrication table, as a toy that was broken. Tactical vest caved in, arms and legs in the wrong position, totally motionless. The server room was so quiet that the hissing of the soldering iron in the hand of Alex was the only audible sound.

Efe leant forward against a rack opposite him, and gazed with as much curiosity as it was disgust to see.

You are not a Tamer, you are not, she said. You are tinkers. Soul binders Tamers.

Alex didn't look up. He had been working the shaved patch of skin on the back of the neck, a patch of skin a little over the C4 vertebrae, of Kalu.

Souls are software, I said to myself. Hardware is brains. Hardware that is not broken means that the software can be reloaded.

He picked a green microchip, that had been salvaged off a high-end server blade. A Neural Bridge Processor. It directed traffic of data in the old world. It would conduct nerve impulses to-night.

\[ADMIN CONSOLE ACTIVE\]
\[TARGET: ORGANIC CORPSE\]
\[ACTION: INSTALL PERIPHERAL\]

He added the iron to the leads of the chip. The solder was melting as the flesh was burned. Efe wrinkled her nose, and continued to watch.

Then why not simply use the Sentinel to kill his squad? she asked.

"Sentinel is tired, said Alex, but his hands were steady, even in the face of trembling in his legs. And in case I kill them all, the Iron Vanguard sends an army on the next occasion they bomb the building.

At the back of the head of Kalu he placed the chip.

I require a puppet. somebody to go out there and say to them leave.

He pressed it down.

Sizzle.

The body jolted. A jerk of the muscles jerked both legs.

\[ERROR: CONNECTION REJECTED.\]
\[SUBJECT IS DECEASED. NEURAL PATHWAYS DEGRADING.\]

Come on, come on, hissed Alex. "Stay with me."

He put his palm over the chip and forced Mana into the chip.

COMMAND: BYPASS_DEATH_PROTOCOL
OVERRIDE: MOTOR_FUNCTIONS

Sparks of green crept out of the chip into the spine like little forks of lightning. The body was thrown off the table. A damp, low rattle was in the throat of Kalu.

Efe stepped aside, and flashed his eyes gold a moment. "That's unnatural."

It is effective, Alex said.

Kalu's eyes opened.

No pupils. Simply glowing green lettering scrolling up and down both eyes, as a terminal booting up.

\[SYSTEM: ONLINE\]
\[UNIT: PROXY_03\]
\[CONTROL: MANUAL\]

The body sat up. Stiff and mechanical movements, chest no movement, no breath. It looked around towards Alex and waited.

"Can he talk?" Efe asked. She had fallen over the edge of the disgust she was feeling. Fascinated horror.

Vocal cords are smashed. He walks and he hearkens. That will do. Alex flicked his forehead with his handkerchief, and punched in the second command.

COMMAND: STAND.

The dead body fell off the table and stood up. Standing, chest depressed, and head on. It was all wrong as it should have been.

Wait here, Efe, said Alex. Guard the heart. I will not come back in ten minutes, burn it to ashes.

Efe gazed at Kalu, and at Alex. A slow smile. You a monster, little admin. I like it.

Four Iron Vanguard soldiers were hidden behind cover out of the blast doors with weapons raised watching the elevator shaft.

Commander has not reported in yet, one of them said. Twenty minutes. we must break through.

Hold, sergeant, hold, said the sergeant. Kalu said: Wait till the signal.

The lift screeched open.

All fingers clenched on all triggers.

Kalu walked out.

Stiff. Head up. The stealth cloak had disappeared, his armor was in plain view, but the light in the lobby was low and dim, and the troops were frightened to an extent that they were not examining it keenly.

He halted ten feet away the squad.

"Commander!" The sergeant stood, his voice bursting with relief. "Target neutralized?"

Kalu said nothing. With those green glowing eyes he stared at them and one hand raised slowly.

He indicated the way out.

Then made a line on his throat with his finger.

The troops stood motionless. Mission aborted. Leave now.

What about the loot, sir?--one of them asked.

Kalu came on and took his blades out, but kitchen knives, though in the dark they went down pretty well. He went into a fighting position towards his own squad.

It was a concise message. Go, or I lay you to rest.

The soldiers gazed at one other. They were terrorized on a good day by Kalu. Certainly it must have been worse than they had ever supposed that the Admin should have been calling a retreat. Rigged facility, maybe. Too rich to steal.

Copy that, sir, the sergeant replied, as he was already in motion. "Pulling out. You coming?"

No, no, Kalu shook his head. Facing downwards.

I stay.

Ok. Change of direction.

The team withdrew very quickly and silently. No one of them looked back.

There was a long, slow sighing on the part of Alex. He was holding it almost an hour, and looking through the Video Link behind the eyes of Kalu.

Put the knives down, he urged, the mental connection. Get back to the elevator.

The body turned. Made his way back into the shaft. The doors closed.

Then the legs quit. Kalu sat down and lay sprawled on the ground.

\[CONNECTION TERMINATED.\]
\[UNIT STATUS: OFFLINE.\]

Alone in the server room Alex was shaking. He had taken an army of dead people and a microchip out of a server blade and fled.

His hands he looked at. Solder. Blood. Both.

Necromancy, said he to no one, but to the humming racks which surrounded him. I have only just made necroancy a feature.

He inclined himself backwards, and shut his eyes.

"Tomorrow," he said. Tomorrow we will be putting up the factory.