Play 2 Wage: Linked

“We need to get Tevin out of the building.” I said, ignoring Jorn’s question about Katie in the shell.

The man didn’t pop his faceplate, and continued to address me through the cracked visor, so his voice was a little muffled as he spoke. “Answer my question, is that the CLE?” He insisted.

I stared back, but did not want to argue with him so I gave in and answered. “Yeah, we think it’s her, unless someone else has whatever the hell tech gadget she used to create an invisible shield bubble. She’s safe in there, are you going to help me with Tevin?”

“I saw him take a shot to the face.” Jorn replied. “His heart might still be pumping thanks to his armor, but no way the kid survived. We should go before anyone else catches up to us. ”

“No, we bring him with us.” I shot back, anger rising back into my voice. “Aren’t you supposed to be brothers in arms or something? I expected better of you, captain.”

“He made it clear, he is in the private sector. My job is to make sure the CLE makes it through, even keeping you alive is a secondary objective.”

We had another short staring match, and then I realized I was wasting time by arguing with him while the building burned down around my friend.

“Fine, then get everyone loaded into the van and pull it around front, I’ll go get him myself. I won’t be long.” I replied as I turned to walk back around the outside of the building.

“90 seconds!” Jorn called after me, before he started attempting to boss Rin and Ali around to get the van loaded up and moved. I resented the tone he took with them, but knew they could handle themselves. I had to trust them to handle the captain for now while I looked after our most injured companion.

Thankfully, the draft of the fire was flowing in through the open garage door at the front of the building. The billowing clouds of smoke rushed through the excavated and almost entirely missing rear wall, leaving me with a view clear of smoke and with the wind at my back as I hurried across the bullet casing strewn floor towards Tevin.

His armor was still locked up and he was in the same stiff position on his back, I faltered for a moment as I realized he must weigh over a thousand pounds and I still only had one good arm. I was starting to feel some tingles in the tips of my fingers, but my right arm still hung limply at my side while I was carrying Tevin’s rifle in my left.

I clipped his rifle back onto the bracket it normally rested on, connected to his chest plate, and dragged him slowly out of the burning building with a tenuous grip in the gap between the plates of his shoulder. I had to strain for each step, feeling the hard interior corner of his armor dig into my fingers. Thankfully, the armor was mostly made up of smooth or angled plates and slid along the concrete without digging in. It would have been almost easy if I had a rope and the use of both of my arms, but having to crouch down and grab his armored shoulder while shuffling backwards made the process more difficult than it had to be.

Still, I didn’t have the time to mess around looking for a rope or chain, and it was likely that if there were any in the building they were probably on fire by now. So I made due with what I had, which was one good arm and the driving will to drag my friend out of the building. It was good enough, and as I crossed under the half-open garage door I was surprised by Rin as he appeared at my side and attempted to help me drag Tevin the rest of the way to the parked van. His assistance did not do much to lighten the load, but the simple fact he was trying meant something.

I glanced back at the open side door and an impatient looking Captain Jorn that took up most of the free space, and realized a problem I hadn't yet considered.

“Damnit, where are we going to put him? The rig takes up most of the van.” I muttered.

Thankfully, Rin was already thinking ahead. “I saw a trailer parked on the north side of the building. We could load him up and tow him out.”

“Epic.” I replied. “Who’s driving? Can you work with them to get the trailer hitched and moved over here? Jorn better at least help me load Tevin up.”

“It is probably a bad idea, but Ali is driving. Jorn does not want to take Katie out of whatever she is hiding within until we are clear.”

I grunted, deciding we had dragged Tevin far enough away from the burning building to get on with the next step. I let go of my grip on his armor and stood back up, stretching my back a little before grabbing Tevin’s rifle again. “Great. There’s one last thing I want to do before we leave.”

I turned away, giving Ali a wave when I noticed her smiling and waving at me from the driver’s seat. I approached Jorn where he was crouched in the back of the van with the sliding door still open. I outlined my plan without giving him a chance to get the first word in.

“Captain Jorn, Katie should be safe for a few minutes. The spies that led us here have retreated into the house across the way.” I pointed to the far side of the van in the direction of the nicely painted and new looking house that lay across the paved lot.

I didn’t let up and tried to get him with a hard sell. “I’m going in there to ask them some questions, and could use your backup. I’m sure the CLE and whoever else you report to would be glad to know their plans, and how they got so close to pulling them off. Don’t you want the chance to drag one of them back for proper questioning?”

“I stay with the CLE. If you want to go play at being a soldier, we can’t wait. There’s no guarantee that scum went to ground there anyway. ” He said through his broken faceplate, the one eye I could see within looked hard and focused.

I stared back at him for a second. “Then you can drive yourself out of here in something else. I need this van, and I will be back for it. Good luck finding something you can fit into yourself, Katie is locked down in her little bubble and you’ll be on your own to drive out of here.”

Jorn glared back at me and made a sort of growly grunting noise. “I can press your servant into service if I have to. She might be your asset, but without Katie here to say otherwise I have the authority to go over your head, whelp.”

I glared right back at him. “You think she’d go for that? What happens when she says no and you have to press the issue? You shoot her? Then you’re stuck without a driver anyways.” I said, surprising myself with the coldness in my voice.

“If you’re going into the building, I’m going with you, sir.” Ali said and I realized she could hear our conversation from the front of the van. All of a sudden I felt a little bad for what I’d said and talking about her as if she was not right there.

“Sorry, Ali. You’re too injured to go with me. I’ll be fine, I need you to look after Tevin and Rin while I’m gone.” I answered.

“I’m going with you, it’s my job.” She insisted, turning around to look at me through the crack between the frame of the van and the bulky driver’s seat.

“Enough, damnit, fine.” Jorn said with a resigned tone as he scanned the southern sky. “I can’t listen to any more of that. You have ten minutes, consul. The CLE insists on getting you out of this anyways, but I won’t let you jeopardize her life any more than that.” He glanced over at where I could still see the ghostly image of Katie curled up in a little ball, still in her shell that had been crammed into the free space underneath the hanging Link rig. It looked like she was tapping away at the tablet she always carried.

I breathed a mixed sigh of relief, glad I was able to talk him into at least sticking around even if I couldn’t convince him to help me go after the traitors. Instead, I turned and pushed the driver’s door shut as Ali struggled to open it and follow me. I leaned close to the open window and looked her in the eyes.

“Please, Ali. Stay here and keep the engine running. I’ll be out as soon as I can, and you’ve already taken a bullet for me today. I got this. I need you to look after my friends, and to make sure Jorn doesn't take off with this van.” I hefted Tevin’s bulky rifle, and Max backed my decision by giving me some control of my arm back and allowing me to bring my other hand up to steady it. It still felt numb, tingly, and was slow to respond, but seemed to have regained a bit of function.

She gave me a pained look, holding eye contact as she asked. “Is that an order, sir?”

I nodded in reply. “It is, I need you out here with the engine running. After I’m done we’re going to have to hightail it out of here right quick.”

She turned away and looked out of the intact windshield, giving one of her curt nods in response as my words cut through her drug induced fog. “I will carry out your orders, sir.”

“Good, then work with Rin and get the trailer hitched so we can haul Tevin out of here.” I turned and glanced at Jorn through the open side door. “Can you help get him loaded onto that while you wait, at least?” I wanted to add more, to press on him harder to help me handle the spies in their bunker, but thought better of it and somehow kept my mouth from running out of control.

He grunted in response, which I took as begrudging acceptance. With that all settled, I skirted around the van and headed for the house.

The house looked brand new, or exceedingly well maintained. The paint was fresh, a deep saturated blue with crisp white trim, and it had a screened porch that wrapped around the front. It was two stories tall and the way it sat on a hill suggested that it had a walkout basement at the rear of the building. Working on Max’s intel from earlier, I decided to ignore the front door and hoisted Tevin’s heavy rifle up as I worked my way around the fancy gardening to see if I could get in through the back door.

“You know, that rifle wouldn’t normally work for anyone but the owner, but I got you covered. I even managed to take over the compensator servos so I can nudge your terrible aim in the right direction. I’m just glad you told your lapdog to stay back there. I agree with Jorn, listening to her fall all over herself to follow your inept commands is nauseating.”

I bit down on a harsh response, and barely whispered a reply back to Max as I came around the rear corner of the house and stepped under a huge deck that was built up on some stilts.

“She’s just a soldier, a loyal one. She's not ‘falling all over herself’, as you say, just doing her job.” Trying to distract Max from that line of questioning, I also asked, “What’s the situation with the forces chasing after us, how long do we have until they catch up to us?”

“Sure, that’s why she was all dolled up and waiting for you in your room that one night.” Max ignored my question and forced the memory back to the surface, bringing the image of Ali in her underwear to the forefront of my mind. I shook my head to get rid of it so I could focus on the moment as I approached a sliding glass door built into the concrete lower floor of the house.

“What the fuck, Max. I’m going into combat and you’re distracting me like that? You might be some hyper intelligent alien AI, but you’re also the least mature person I’ve ever met. That was her job, even if it was utter bullshit. She has a new job now that doesn't include… that.” I complained, leaning against the wall and peeking into the darkened and rather cluttered interior of the house.

I saw a number of boxes and messy tables in the small area near the door that I could make out in the sunlight, but the contrast made it impossible for me to see very far into the room.

He snickered a little, even as he lowered his voice to a whisper. “That was all you, meat man. You probably should have brought her along to this fight too, even just to talk you through it as she limped along behind. You have to admit, some part of you feels some type of way about her if you’re ordering her to stay safe and thinking about her like that.”

I shook my head and scowled, not bothering to form a real reply. While I did like Ali, and she was obviously attractive, I didn’t think of her like that. I didn’t have the time or desire to find a partner or even a lover, I had too much going on already. Plus, she was assigned to me and I had all of the power in whatever relationship we did have. I didn’t want that, I wanted an equal. It must just be the adrenaline and trauma we had been through today that was dredging up those thoughts.

Gritting my teeth, I forcibly pushed the confused thoughts to the side and dragged my focus back to the task at hand. “What about the guys chasing us?”

“They’re looking around in the area, and some of the faster ones have already moved past us. Without their air support from the drones, it seems they’ve lost your trail. From the confusion I’m picking up through the like 3 channels I’ve managed to detect and break into, this whole ambush was not part of the main group's plan.”

That was surprising, and interesting. Was BHG playing the other groups? It was good news regardless, and meant we had some more time to deal with this situation before we absolutely had to move. All I really needed to know was that it gave me the breathing room to dig up the rats that had shot Tevin.

“That’s great, Max. Can you get this thing unlocked?” I asked after trying to slide the door open and getting nowhere.

“Nope. The only smart tech in this place is what is legally required by the council. So the grid connections like power, gas, water, that sort of thing.”

“You said you knew they were in here though, how the hell do you know that if you can’t do anything?” I growled back under my breath.

“Oh, well they do have some security cameras. They think they removed the council’s bugs that are built into them and that they’re closed circuit, but they missed the redundant and almost cleverly, by human standards, hidden backups. This guy’s on a few lists because of it, but not very high up because they thought they had a good read on him. Which, hah, they were obviously wrong about. I’m pretty sure I saw him at some point back in the firefight, which means he’s likely burning away back in the building with the rest of his squad. I wonder if little Kaylee knows her uncle died because their plan almost worked.”

“Well, what do the cameras show then? And could you like, kill the power or something? Leave them in the dark?”

“That, I can help you with.” Max hummed a little tune that was surprisingly close to bland elevator music for a moment before continuing. “There, power’s cut, and I think I have an idea that will work better than just giving you the camera feeds.”

While I was trying to think of a way to break open the sliding glass door without being too loud, a series of green boxes appeared in my field of view. The boxes were mostly grouped up, three in one place with another two in another, and each of them contained a moving glowing green skeleton-like figure. One of the two that were on their own was waving their arms around and looked like they were pointing an accusatory finger at the other while they stood with their arms crossed.

“I got this idea after doing some research on some of the games you humans play off-link. They call it wallhax.”

“Those are the bastards? Like I can see them through the walls?”

“Yep, at least the ones on camera. I estimate I have about 70% coverage on the lower basement with cameras, but only a little of this first basement floor. Monitoring the situation over the last few minutes, I’ve counted 10 individuals inside of the building, so it’s not perfect.”

I chewed my lip for a moment, thinking to myself that it might be risky to rely too much on only partial information like that. After a second, I decided it was better to have something than nothing and asked for some clarification. “Do you know how many are on this floor? Is the entrance covered?”

“Oh, yeah, I’m pretty confident this floor is completely clear. The entrance to the lower basement is hidden behind a wall panel and isn't on the blueprints they submitted to the local district control, so they probably don’t expect anyone to find or know about it. Hah, cocky bastards.”

“So there won’t be anyone around to hear me break this door in?.” I said before stepping in front of the door and preparing to kick the frame in.

“Nope, not if you keep it fairly quiet, although you should probably keep an eye out for traps. I heard them talking about setting up at least one anti-personnel mine on the main floor.”

I hesitated. “Wait, like trip wires and lasers?”

“Yep. I’ll call ‘em out if I see ‘em for you. I really should modify your eyes some more so we can detect the lasers themselves, but I suspect your squishy meat brain and fragile psyche might not handle that much new information well. Hmm, maybe I can just grow you some new sensors built into your skin somewhere that you don't have access to…”

“Grow me new… don’t grow me new anything without my permission, Max. I don’t need you turning me into any more of a mutant than I already am. I’d probably already get locked up somewhere if they caught me in a good scanner with all the crap you’ve done to me.”

“Bah, you haven’t even… I mean, you wouldn't even notice. How about we focus on the fun part and go chase down these assholes?”

“Goddamnit Max…” I muttered under my breath. “Can you at least tell me if this door is safe to kick in?”

“Oh, yeah, totally. I don’t see any mines, and they skipped out on sensors other than the cameras because they were all paranoid about government infiltration. Kind of ironic considering they were the ones infiltrating the government and how well connected their vehicles were. They’re fine spying on their workers, but get their jocks all twisted up when it's their shoulder the cameras are looking over.”

“I don’t think that's how irony… you know what, maybe… no, forget it. Let’s get this done.” I said before raising up a booted foot and pressing it into the doorframe near the handle. I flexed hard and slowly caused the metal casing around the sheet of tough plexiglass to tear and bend inwards. Once I had it mostly ripped away from the door jam, I shouldered my way through and cautiously stepped into the darkened basement.

Most of the time Max’s meddling with my body bothered the hell out of me, but it did have its upsides.