Millie the Gunsinger

I came to sitting in a chair with my head lolled forwards. It was a comfy chair in a nice room.

The only downside I could see at first was that I was strip tied to the chair and my mouth was gagged with duct tape. My neck and throat felt like all kinds of hell had been performed on it.

I lifted my head to get a better read on the situation. My head swam and I puked up into my mouth. With the gag in place I had to swallow it back again. Stale coffee and bile left a burning trail all the way down my tortured throat.

Once my eyes stopped watering I could see a Jill from the Guard standing watch over me with her back to the windows. The sunlight was fading out there so she was in a kind of red outline. My heart sank as I recognised her as Twenty. The Demons cap and black poncho were gone but there was no denying it was her. She still had the mud from the Hole on her boots. It did please me that her boots had left big prints all over the expensive looking carpet.

She was looking at me with no emotion whatsoever in her face. Her arms hung loosely at her sides. I moved my head and tried to speak to her, but the gag was too good.

I left my gaze drift around the room. Huge windows, heavily glazed, looked out over the beach, but it looked like we were at least one flight up from the ground. It was a big room, furnished like a lounge. There was a huge stone fireplace against one wall and a fancy looking private bar. Whoever owned this place had some serious Pandas.

Twenty turned to my right and said in an emotionless tone: “Tell Mr Jericho and Mr Carter that the subject has awoken”. Some guy in tactical black armour I glimpsed to that side acknowledged her and left.

She turned her head back to me. It was like looking at some beautiful statue made of unfeeling stone. Where had the Twenty I knew gone?

“The Guard Unit B-Twenty is under direct control of the Archimedes network. You have no allies here and you will not be rescued. Please cooperate and you will be not be harmed” it said. It resumed the motionless stance of before, watching me closely.

A few minutes later Carter came into the room. He was wearing a different suit than last time but it looked very expensive. He had soft leather shoes on and a fancy old watch on his left wrist. And his right arm ended at some bandages.That brought a little ray of sunshine into my dark thoughts.

He was an Awakened, so no state of the art cybernetic hand for him! I hope they gave him a metal hook and he accidentally scratched his own nuts off with it. I am not a vindictive person. Well, maybe I am. But only to a-holes that are really asking for it.

Beside him stood another guy, Mr Jericho I assumed. He was shorter than Carter, maybe my height. He was wearing a plain dark blue business suit and dark glasses even though we were inside. His skin was very pale, even paler than Carter, and his hair almost pure white. Was he an albino?

More guys in tactical armour and carrying guns filed in around the room. One stood directly behind me and I felt more than saw his gun point at the back of my head. Holy crap, I must have really scared Carter last time if he needed this many guys to feel safe.

I mean seriously, I was hog tied to a chair, gagged and all alone. How dangerous did I come across to them? Actually, this was making me feel a little better. All short girls dream of being able to terrify some lumbering males. You just need the right kind of attitude and a deadly monster living inside of you.

Carter came and stood next to my right side. He reached down with his left hand and stroked my right wrist, where it lay tied to the chair arm. I tried to pull away but he just laughed.

“I am so glad we are able to meet again, Miss Hargreaves” he gloated. “Once we are done here I am going to have some fun with you. Have you ever seen what a Telekinetic can do the insides of a human being?” I had all kinds of snappy rejoinders, but with a gag on it was rather redundant.

“Uk oo!” I managed to get out. Really hard to pronounce the “f” in my current situation.

“Mr Carter” said Mr Jericho, “I am afraid you will not be able to damage this woman in any way. The Yamaguchi Laboratories will have to be satisfied with the recovery of Mr Otaki and the subject identified as Emily”

“This little bitch has crippled me!” shouted Carter and he swiped his left arm towards me. His outflung Telekinesis picked up me and the chair and hurled us across the room. I braced myself for a hard landing and felt pain shoot up my left leg as it hit the floor.

“Unit B-Twenty, recover the captive and put the chair upright” said Mr Jericho. Twenty came over to me and without comment lifted me and the chair back onto its legs. My girl was strong! She resumed her position back against the windows, facing me once more.

Mr Jericho addressed Carter once we were all comfy again. “The Archimedes Network wishes to examine Miss Hargreaves in detail at our own facility. Her abilities have proven to be much greater than the original assessment. Having her damaged in any way will give an inaccurate baseline for comparison”.

“Then what about her friend, that defective clone over there?” said Carter.

Jericho looked over at Twenty and seemed to be weighing up his options. “It is scheduled to be retired as soon as we return. If it keeps you obedient, we are happy to let you take out your frustrations on it”

Jericho addressed Twenty “Archimedes Network, please relinquish control of Unit B-20 to local avatar Jericho-Three.”

“Archimedes Network confirms control of Unit B-20 has been given to onsite avatar Jericho-Three” said the emotionless voice coming from Twenty.

“Well, there you go” said Jericho. He turned to Carter. “It is time for me to oversee the transportation of Mr Otaki back to Pan City. I trust you will clean up any mess you make here”

“The Hargreaves girl is not to be harmed. That is a clear directive from Archimedes” he warned Carter. “Perhaps if you really want to hurt her, why not have the clone unlock her speech centres”.

Carter grinned evilly at the thought. “Thanks Archie, that is a great idea!. I like it when they beg me to stop”

“I thought that would appeal to you” said Jericho. He paused and looked at me. Whatever the hell he was, I hoped he could feel the burning waves of hate coming out of me.

“I will see you later, Gunsinger” Jericho said to me and left the room. Bastard! I screamed inside.

I turned my eyes back to Twenty. She was still standing in the same spot. Carter sauntered over to her and stood beside her. He looked back at me with an evil gleam in his eye.

“Speak” he commanded her. Twenty’s expression turned from vacant to horror filled.

“Millie!” she cried “Are you alright? I am so sorry!”

Then Carter took a baton from one his flunkies and struck her across the knees. Her face contorted in agony but she stifled her scream. She was not going to give Carter the satisfaction of hearing her cry out. I was screaming too on the inside.

And then it dawned on me what Jericho had said to me as he left. He knew I was a Gunsinger. I was bound and gagged but my monster was only held back by me!

Twenty cried out in muffled pain once more as Carter hit her across the face. Oh my poor Twenty, please look at me and understand what I want you to do! I was pulling at my bonds and shaking the chair for all it was worth.

She met my eyes. We had only known each other for such a short time. But I realised this was someone I cared about. Someone who could hug me. Someone I loved. She understood me.

And then Twenty screamed.

All the hate she had stored up inside of her. All her needs for love and attention that had been denied to her. All the pain and suffering that she had been made to endure for all her years. And all the love she had to give to someone who cared about her.

Twenty can be very loud when she needs to be.

My Gunsinger took it all. It drew it in and grew enormous in its rage. It filled me with is white hot fury. And I let it go. No limits, no restrictions but for one. Save Twenty.

The room exploded with me as the epicentre. Shards and blades of solid air ripped the guards apart, hurling their broken bodies against the walls and through windows. Furniture was shredded, carpets were torn with ragged furrows.

Carter had one brief moment where he stemmed the tide, only able to use his left hand to fend off the storm. Then he was gone, his body pinwheeling off through the shattered windows and into the distance.

In the silence that followed, I looked across the wreckage of the room. Twenty stood there, spatters of blood and bits of clothing stuck to her. But she was alive.

With a sob she ran over to me and slumped against the chair. “It’s me again Millie” she said. “I felt my processor disconnect from the network”.

I jiggled in my chair and made noises behind the gag. Take a hint, woman!

She understood me at last and went to find a knife. She then cut the ties holding me down and gently removed the tape over my mouth.

We left the room full of carnage and checked out the rest of the house. Vehicles were heading off in the distance and the place was otherwise empty. Looked like Otaki and Emily were in the hands of Yamaguchi now.

I dropped myself into a luxurious chair in the downstairs foyer. Twenty came and sat near me on the floor. She had never looked so sad.

“I guess our partnership is over now” she said quietly, refusing to look at me. “You don’t know when the Archimedes Network will take control of me again”.

“Actually, I don’t think it wants to anymore” I replied. “I think it achieved what it needed from us and has cut you loose”.

“How can you be sure of that?” she asked. “My processor is still intact, just disconnected” She gingerly touched the right side of her skull where it lay under the skin.

“That Jericho guy knew I was a Gunsinger. He went out of his way to remind me of that. And then got Carter to unlock your speech centre” I said, wondering myself what all this meant.

Twenty turned to look at me. She had thought of something I could tell.

“The Jericho avatars are used by the Archimedes Network to run independently from the main core AI. They are part of it but also separate. Could that Jericho-Three be doing something it does not want the core Archimedes AI to know about?” she said excitedly.

“I think you may be onto something” I answered. “The Archimedes AI works for the Pan Oceanic board of governors. They tell it what to do. But the thing is meant to be super intelligent. What if it has plans of its own that it doesn’t want the governors to discover. Could it create these Jericho avatars then delete its own memory of their special mission?”

I was remembering a long ago conversation with Sister Venerae. We had been talking about how people seemed able to say and do one thing but believe it was something else. Self delusion I guess it was. But she gave me an interesting thought experiment. I turned to Twenty with excitement.

“This is a bit simplistic, but it may explain what is going on here with the Archimedes Network. We all have a nose don’t we? But when you are walking around doing stuff, you just don’t see it. Our eyes filter out that little blob in front of us, even though it is literally as plain as the nose on our faces. The only time we ever really see our nose is when we close one eye and focus on it. Then we can see our nose!”

Twenty gave me one of those looks. Then she closed one eye and then the other to test my theory. “So the Jericho avatar is the nose of Archimedes?” she said slowly.

“Yeah. It is a part of Archimedes and it does what it wants it to. Being all nosey and stuff. But when it does something that the main AI is not meant to see, it just has to make sure it does not get noticed. The Archimedes Network took you over to get Otaki back. Once it had him and Emily it was not concerned about you anymore. Giving control to the Jericho avatar meant that it no longer had direct input about what was going on after that point. It left it up to Jericho”. Millie Holmes was back on the case.

“So Jericho was the contact who helped Otaki escape with Emily in the first place?” said Twenty. She came closer to the chair and leaned forwards. Despite the wicked bruise from Carter on her left cheek, she looked so animated!

“I think so too! It would have had access to old city records and power grids to find a spot that Otaki could hide out. It was probably helping him every step of the way when it could, hiding its actions from the main AI”

“But now Jericho has Otaki and Emily. Won’t it just move them out of the Zone?’” Twenty wondered.

“I don’t think it can. Not by itself. It had all those Guards with it. They are connected to the Archimedes Network, so it could not be sure any action wouldn’t be spotted. I think our Mr Jericho was playing the odds that you and I would get out of this mess”.

“So what do we do now, Millie?” asked Twenty.

I gave her my best smile. I realised I was doing that a lot with Twenty.

“We find our gear. We get some transport and head back to the Spit. And we contact our new employer to arrange a jail break” I said.

“Is Mr Otaki no longer our employer then?” she asked back.

“He will be person we are going to break out. Our employer is going to be Mr Jericho”.

=====

Twenty and I found our gear strewn about the kitchen table of the house. Someone had been pawing though it but it all seemed to be there. I put all my stuff in the backpack and strapped my battered armour vest on once more. It felt really good to be protected again. Twenty scooped up her Demons cap with delight and placed it on her head. The poncho was folded up and joined mine in the backpack.

My phone appeared undamaged but I was not ready to make a call. I needed a bit more information first and I knew who would have it.

Twenty found the house garage and we both looked in awe at the five expensive vehicles that filled it. This place was owned by someone with serious cash. Despite the protests from Twenty I knew we could not take any of the fancy sportscars or upmarket SUVs. She had her heart set on a late model Hummer in bad guy black, but they would likely all be GPS tagged.

Then I saw it. Tucked away in a corner was a little electric scooter. A two seater model and it was cherry red. It was a few years old so I was damned sure it had no location tracker fitted. We looked about and found the locker with the smart keys.

It was locked of course, but Twenty grabbed a screwdriver from a toolbox on the workbench. She forced it open with ease. Have I mentioned how strong this girl was? She could really Hulk out when she had to.

We headed out on our new ride, Twenty up front and me on the back, clutching her tightly.

It turned out this house was in a swanky but secluded beach front estate about ten kilometres from the town we had been at. It was fully dark by now. We raced down the well maintained roads with our little scooter light illuminating our way.

There was a lot of native bushland around here, hemming in the road. I aged about ten years when a big kangaroo hopped into the road ahead of us and stopped still in the light. Twenty swerved around the suicidally dumb animal and we continued on our way. As if I had not been through enough trauma today!

The way back to the Spit was clear. We passed some vehicles heading in both directions but nobody paid us any attention. As we went past the roadside café I wondered if Mr Cheap Suit had been found yet. I had a brief but entertaining fantasy about all my enemies being tied together in a toilet somewhere. A really smelly toilet like that one at the Last Hope.

Which was on my mind, as that was where Twenty and I were headed. I needed some information, and to pay back a little snitch.

=====

We rolled to a stop outside the Last Hope and Twenty killed the engine. We both dismounted and I stretched my aching body.

There were a couple of cheap bikes and scooters chained up outside. Repetitive thumping music came from inside, rattling the loose tin sheets in places. The sky was clear and the moon was just coming up over the horizon so there was a little light to see by.

A few locals wandered past in the dark street, giving us only cursory attention. They would have been very interested in the scooter if not for the large scowling woman standing beside it possessively.

“Be nice” I warned her and headed into the bar. She took up station near the scooter so she could watch me go in. I saw she had drawn her pistol but was keeping it close to her side, out of immediate view.

I pushed the door open with my boot and stepped into the noise and light. It was a lot more crowded than last time I was here. Only one day and a whole lifetime ago it felt like.

Shifty Sal spotted me as soon as I came in. He made to stand up but I gathered the music and shouted conversations with my Gunsinger and slammed him back down. The monster was really unhappy with Salamander, and so was I. I let it hold him there for a good ten seconds while I just glared at him from the doorway. He was looking suitably terrified so I pulled my Gunsinger back and held it ready.

“Millie!” he gasped once the pressure on his chest had eased. “Look, I can explain. I didn’t know they were so serious. I am so happy to see you are OK” he pleaded.

The whites of his eyes were showing. I am guessing the bloodbath at the old factory was common news around the Hole by now. But I reckoned only a few people like Sal here knew who had been involved.

I walked my heavy boots over to his chair and placed one delicately on his right knee. I leaned forward a bit and applied some pressure. He squirmed under my boot but I could see he was not game to move it away.

“I treasure our relationship, Salamander” I said to him. “You are a font of useless knowledge but sometimes you really do know what is going on. So I am going to forgive your little mistake this time. It will only cost you two things”.

I swear he looked down in terror at his groin. What kind of girl did he think I was?

“Not those you little creep” I said. “First off I need your phone”. I held my hand out to him. He looked at me and then at the other people in the bar. Everyone was looking at us by now, but nobody made any move to help him. With a shaking hand he pulled out his phone and handed it to me. “Better be unlocked” I warned him. He nodded meekly.

“Now for the second thing I want” I said and held my right hand dramatically in the air over his head. He cringed and then I lunged forward and snatched the Akubra hat off his head. I always wanted one of these but they were just too expensive.

“You are way too lame to wear this hat anymore” I explained and plonked it onto my head. It was too big and settled down to just over my eyes. Too bad, it was mine now.

I turned and clomped my way back outside. The sound of excited conversations started up behind me and I just had to grin.

I rejoined Twenty at the scooter and told her we should go someplace else before Sal got his nerve back. We were both starving by now so we headed to the central market. While she waited at the scooter I went inside and picked us up some coffees and hot rolls filled with some kind of processed meat. It was late in the evening but some of the stalls were open all the time. I generously used some of the Pandas I had liberated from Mr Cheap Suit.

As we munched on our tasty mystery meat and slurped coffee I scrolled through the data on Sal’s phone. There was a lot of interesting snippets in there, but what I was really looking for was his Contacts list.

It did not take long to find it. Mr Carter. No other details but it was all I needed.

Now I was not expecting to get hold of our Mr Carter. Last time I had seen him his sorry ass was spinning away out over the beach from the upstairs window. He might have survived my Gunsinger or the fall. It was possible. But I kind of hoped he hadn’t.

I dialled the number linked to the entry. The phone rang twice, beeped, and then Mr Jericho answered. “It’s me” I said.

=====

“Good evening Miss Hargreaves” said the voice of Mr Jericho. “I am inordinately pleased that you escaped the clutches of Mr Carter”.

“No thanks to you, a-hole” I snapped back. “Twenty and I could have died there tonight”.

“If you had then you were not the resourceful pair I had hoped you would be. Yet here you are talking to me. I assume Mr Carter is indisposed?” he said with a definitely smug air.

“Don’t know, don’t really care” I said. “If he shows up again I am going to take his head off for him”. My monster squirmed down below and agreed.

“The Sisters at the Little Angels would be very concerned about your cavalier attitude to the lives of others” countered Jericho. Yeah, I thought, I probably am a great disappointment to them. But if that is what my life required from me these days, maybe that was what I had to give.

“Look, I know you want to get Otaki and Emily away from Yamaguchi. You need someone from the outside to help you do that, without your mate Archie finding out. I think Twenty and I can pull that off for you” I offered to Jericho.

“At a reasonable price of course, Miss Hargreaves?” he replied. “It is tempting, but even a Gunsinger could not extract Mr Otaki and his sister from the Yamaguchi laboratories in Pan City. The only chance would be an assault on the convoy taking them to an offsite airfield. That will be happening in a few days, once Archimedes and the governing board are sure they are fit to travel”.

“An assault?” I said. “Like attacking some vehicles and killing the guards? Isn’t there some other way?” For all my bravado, I did not want to kill more people. It was weighing me down how many lives had already fallen to my monster and I.

“I could arrange it so that only a minimal team of Guards were used. Drone vehicles would provide support – I am sure you would be fine with destroying those” responded Jericho.

I looked at Twenty, watching my side of the conversation attentively.

“I can’t kill Guards” I said. “They don’t deserve to be treated that way. Nobody does”.

“There is no other alternative I can offer you, Miss Hargreaves” he answered. “This is a matter of great importance, both to humanity and beings like the Guard. Perhaps you should let me talk to your partner Twenty for a moment”.

I handed the phone to Twenty and told her Jericho wanted to speak with her directly. She took the phone and listened to what Jericho had to say. I moved away to give her privacy. I did not make any attempt to overhear what Jericho was telling her. If I needed to know, she would tell me herself.

She listened without comment for a good five minutes. I saw the tightness to her lips but at the end she nodded her head and said she agreed. Twenty walked over to me, handed me the phone and stood nearby, looking up at the night sky.

“So are we doing this?” I asked her. She did not look at me but nodded her head in agreement.

“OK, Jericho, let’s make a deal” I said into the phone.

=====

I negotiated with Jericho for another five, maybe ten minutes. We came to an agreement and I said I would call him once I had lined up what was needed. He reminded me there was not a lot of time. There never is. I put Sal’s phone in the pocket of my shorts.

That call had been the easy part. Now came the hard part. I took out my phone and dialled a number. It answered on the third ring.

“Daniel-san, I need to ask you a really big favour” I said.

“This would be about the Otaki case, am I right?” said my boss and mentor.

“Yeah, the case has kind of changed. I need some heavy hitters for an extraction” I replied.

I could hear the sigh quite clearly over the phone. I could imagine the look on his face right now.

“Meet me at the office” he said flatly and disconnected the call.

I turned to Twenty and said “No need to panic about Yamaguchi taking us down. My boss is going to kill me tonight”. I was kind of joking.

Twenty looked alarmed and then patted her holstered pistol.

“Do not be afraid, Millie” she said earnestly, “I will protect you”.

“No, you can’t shoot Daniel-san. That would just make him angry” I said back. And none of us wants an angry Daniel-san.