Branch smiled. In the crystal walls, his brothers wavered into being and smiled right along with him. Insects. Beasts. Ghosts. Monsters. All with the same huge, hungry smile. A salesman smile.
“Don’t you understand?” Branch asked. “We are the Lynches. We are Joel’s descendants. We are Tactics, just like you. We carry out Strategy’s plans for the company by making targeted investments in the past. We have expanded our holdings, embraced the true potential of our technologies, and travelled the stars. It was there that we began to prototype long-haul travel solutions. And that was how we developed the doorways into a viable infrastructure. And once we realized how far we could go, the influence we could have…” Branch held his arms wide. “We may not be human anymore, but we still have a family business to maintain.”
The laugh erupted from her throat before she could stop it. Her shoulders shook. Her body trembled. She laughed until it became tears. She couldn’t stop.
“What’s so funny?”
“You.” She fought to get control of her breathing. “You’re what’s funny. You fucking idiot.” She looked at Joel. “Joel chose to help me. He chose to, after you started killing my friends. He wanted to. Because he’s that good. He’s that kind. And the harder you tried to pull us apart, the closer he stuck to me.”
Hwa picked up the gun with both hands. She reached down into Daniel’s waistband and felt more ammo tucked into his belt. She held the gun steady between her knees, in the shelter of Daniel’s body. “You poor dumb sack of ones and zeroes.” She raised the gun, loaded now. “You watched the data so close, you forgot there was a fucking person underneath.”
She fired once at him, and ran for him. She aimed a kick squarely at his head. Suddenly she was in the air. Swinging in a circle like a child’s toy. He was so strong. Unbelievably so. His hand was around her ankle, and his hand felt like this room: made of diamond. Branch was just like this awful place, a hollow creature of silicon and hate, hard and brilliant and cold. Not sapient. Not necessarily. Not even conscious, maybe. Just running a program. Just living the brand identity to the fullest. The future Zachariah Lynch had longed for was here, and it was this monstrous inhuman thing, this venture capital pitch made flesh.
“Did you think that would work?”
“Worth a shot.”
“You—”
One side of his face ripped away. It bubbled and twisted and stretched, trying to repair itself. Suddenly he wore another face—Daniel’s. Then Joel’s. Then Zachariah’s. Then her mother’s. And Sabrina’s. And Layne’s. And Calliope’s. And Eileen’s. He stumbled back. He let Hwa go. She smelled rot. Cancer. It oozed out of him. Inside he was meat, the same as she. All his power was just appearance.
A muffled voice told her to leave.
It said to go now.
It said it had not lifted her out of perdition in that elevator shaft just to see her die here.
It said it would hold this monster, as long as it could.
It said it was sorry.
For her brother.
For the city.
It said to keep running.
So she did.
*
Hwa barely felt anything in her knee or her shoulder as she bounced along the waves to the reactor lab. The ice was soft and slushy out here, offering no real resistance to the boat she’d commandeered.
It was snowing again. It came down fast and hard and sideways, meaning she couldn’t drive as quickly as she wanted. She only noticed the other boat following her because of the tiny orange flag waving through the storm in her wake. Branch. Cold wind whistled along her teeth, her gums. It should have hurt. It didn’t.
She pulled up alongside the reactor and jumped from the boat to the dock without slipping on the thick coating of ice that sheeted it. Ice overhung all the lights, dispersing their violet glow in a weak and watery way. She wasn’t even conscious of the cold.
There was a padlock on the lab. Hwa shot it off. She yanked the door open. Left it yawning open behind her. Let him know where she was. Let him follow. The lab doors all opened for her. All she had to do was wave them open. And when she snapped her fingers, the emergency klaxon shut off.
It was like having the keys to the city. Like being a new person. A person with status. All the doors that should have remained closed now opened. Finally, the school doors would open for her, if she only tried.
She had no time to try.
It was also like being back on in the ring. A series of decisions, each calculated to inflict maximum damage in the shortest amount of time available. Everything else just faded into a dull noise. There was only this moment, this choice. It was so simple. So blessedly, mercifully simple. She had missed it.
“Prefect.”
“Ready.”