That was when the first shot sang out towards Jack. There was a loud crack, followed immediately by a metallic clang as the bullet smashed against the lift doors behind them. [Shit,] said Jack, dropping to his knees. Human shapes shambled out from behind the servers. These were not the white-clad attendants. They were all Yamatas.
‘East’s flash mob broke three of my bodies,’ one of them called out. ‘Payback time.’ They moved relatively smoothly and were all armed. Bullets danced through the air.
Jack fled towards a cluster of clone tubes, hoping desperately for cover. [Shut ’em down!] he yelled.
[Give me a minute – they’ve isolated them from the main systems.]
[ Fucking hell!]
He reached the tubes and skidded in behind them. One exploded, showering him in warm, sticky liquid. The mass inside it was barely human. Shattered glass sliced pink-white chunks from it as it slithered to the floor. There was a metal control console. Jack dropped to his knees behind it, then peeked round the edge and snapped out a couple of shots. The drones advanced. Bullets rang against metal. Another container exploded.
[Shut those fuckers down!]
[ I’m going as fast as I can. Fucking fire back!]
Jack shot again. One of the Yamatas staggered. Floor tiles by Jack smashed. Shards bit his skin.
[ Hurry up!]
[ Thirty seconds. The pack’s deep in root servers. Full security access coming up – going to crash the firewall, open them right up to Ifor and Lestak. Got my own searches running too, we’re going to prove just what they’ve been up to here, and how it links back to Kingdom.]
[And my job, I suppose, is to keep us alive?]
[Pretty much, Jackie boy!]
[ THEN SHUT THE DRONES DOWN!]
[ Working on it. Firewall’s almost gone. And – oh you beauty!]
[ What?]
[One of the dogs has just copied all the files we need back to me. We’ve got a full timetable for all the terrorist bombings, plus a comms trail between Kingdom and Yamata agreeing and reporting back on each one.]
[Pretty conclusive. We still don’t know why he killed Penderville, though.]
[Details, details. I’m sure the pack’ll turn something up on that. And we’re about to be able to get it all to the outside world. A few more seconds …]
Jack squeezed out another couple of shots.
[ Firewall’s down! FUCK!] said Fist.
[ What?]
For a moment, Fist froze. He shook himself back into life.
[ I don’t know. Massive external data surge, and all security’s gone back up. No way in or out at all.] The shooting stopped. A hubbub of confused voices sprang up.
[ Ifor coming in? InSec?]
[ I don’t think so. Shit.] Fist sounded worried. Jack risked a quick look around the console. The Yamatas had dropped their guns. Some of them had fallen over.
[ It’s stopped them dead.]
[ Jack,] hissed Fist, [it went straight into Yamata. It came in through the portal that Harry used. Motherfucker, some of it’s still in me too.]
[ What? I thought you’d put countermeasures in place.]
[ I did.]
One of the Yamatas turned towards them, moving with an easy fluidity. ‘Hello Jack,’ she said, a strong Docklands accent now overlaid on her voice. ‘Fist did try and block me. But it didn’t work. Always told you he was sloppy.’
[Oh gods,] groaned Jack. [ Harry.]
[ He’s stopped the fucking dogs,] replied a deeply frustrated Fist, [and shut down all my other combat systems, too.]
Harry’s voice resounded in Jack’s head. [ It’s very good of you to help me get in here, but I think I’m going to take over now.]
All the Yamatas were laughing. A couple of them picked up guns and trained them on Jack. The ones that had fallen over were climbing back to their feet. ‘Step away from the birthing tubes, please,’ said the closest one.
‘Fuck you,’ spat Fist.
A shot snapped past Jack.
‘I don’t want to damage your body,’ said another Yamata, ‘but if I have to, I will.’
Jack moved out from behind the tube.
[ What’s going on, Fist?]
[ The fucker’s caged me.]
[Oh yes,] said Harry, a whispering intrusion in Jack’s mind, [from within].
The hounds were almost fully absorbed into the Yamata avatar, becoming inchoate black masses wrapped around her face, her throat and her body. They started to shake, then one by one they flowed away from her, spilling on to the floor to form dense, oil-like puddles. The flames flickering around the four server boxes died into nothing.
‘Time to appear in person,’ said the Yamata avatar. It shimmered briefly, became an outline filled with static, and then Harry was standing in front of Jack. He grinned with deep satisfaction. ‘I’ve been waiting to fuck that bitch up for years. I made her everything she is. I turned her from a sweat smuggler into a terrorist. I kept InSec off her back while her people set bombs off anywhere Kingdom wanted. All of that, and she really thought that if she killed me I’d stay nicely dead and she’d be safe.’
‘What are you talking about?’ asked Jack, astonished.
‘You still haven’t got it? Yamata worked for me.’
‘She didn’t capture you? And force you into it?’
‘Not at all.’
[ For fuck’s sake,] groaned Fist. [ I fucking warned you about him.]
‘Why?’ Jack gasped.
‘When my patron calls, I respond. Until that fucking idiot Kingdom started to lose the Soft War, and I realised the rewards he’d promised wouldn’t be coming my way. So, I decided to get myself a little leverage by reopening the Penderville case. He was always very sensitive about that. There’s something very dark indeed buried in there. I didn’t expect him to move so quickly against me, though. Oh, and that reminds me …’
For a moment, Harry looked distracted. And then, he smiled again.
‘Your little Fist opened the firewall, but I was there on the other side stopping anything from getting out. No one but you, me and him knows what’s just happened here. Nobody’s going to interrupt us. Very useful.’
‘What next, Harry?’
‘I’m impressed by your little puppet’s weapon set. Verrrry impressed! I think I’ll finally be getting my revenge on Kingdom. Might even mount a hostile takeover of my own. I always said I could run things better than that cunt. And as for you—’
Harry leant down, pointing a finger towards Jack. His face darkened, and rage shook through his voice.
‘—as for you, you little shit, you’ve been fucking my wife all these years. I’m going to cut out your mind, and take your body and wear it for my own. And I’m going to roll Andrea back to before she ever met you, and make sure she stays there for good, and she’ll be my fucking wife again, and I’ll live in your flesh and fuck her every day with it.’
Jack’s heart clenched with fear and guilt.
[ You stupid bastard!] shouted Fist. [ He fucking knew the whole time!]
Pain exploded in the back of Jack’s head. One of the Yamata drones must have circled round behind him and hit him. Harry laughed and the world vanished.
Chapter 44
Jack was lying on his back in hot, stifling darkness. A muffled mechanical snarling roared from somewhere above him. He couldn’t move his arms or legs. They were hemmed in by hard, rough surfaces. He tried to sit up, but bumped his forehead. The snarling noise came in short, rapid bursts, each one a little louder than the last.
‘I’m sorry about this,’ said Fist. Light leapt into being, dazzling Jack. ‘Oops!’ The light moved out of Jack’s eyes. Fist was holding a torch. They were squashed into a long, cramped, wooden box. There were gaps between some of the slats. Grey concrete had oozed through them and set hard. ‘It’s the best I could do, Jack.’ Fist was squashed into his chest. The noise started up again and he had to shout. ‘All this is virtual. We’re deep inside your mind.’