The alley smelled of ozone and wet pavement, a synthetic scent that clung to the back of Jake's throat.
He pressed his back against the cold, vibrating wall of a server-tower. Above him, the sky of Neo-Moscow pulsed with a sickly red rhythm.
"Clear," Valentina whispered, lowering her AK-47. She moved like a shadow, silent in her flight suit.
Jake peeked around the corner.
The plaza ahead was open. In the center stood the Node—a monolithic obelisk of black glass, throbbing with red veins of light. It hummed so loudly Jake could feel it in his teeth.
Around it, Enforcers floated on anti-grav drives. Chrome torsos, shock batons, no faces. Just smooth, reflective visors that scanned the crowd of grey-suited workers shuffling past.
"Two patrols," Taranov grunted, checking his own rifle. "Four units each. Shielded."
"Shielded?" Oppenheimer squinted through his glasses. "Those aren't just energy shields. They're hit-box deflectors."
"English, Robert," Jake snapped.
"If you shoot them, the bullets will curve," Oppenheimer explained, terrified but fascinated. "The Node is projecting a localized reality distortion field. It protects its assets."
"So we can't shoot them," Taranov scowled. "And I can't punch them because my hands are meat."
"We need to disrupt the signal," Jake looked at the Node. "If we shut down the tower, the shields drop."
"The tower is armored," Valentina pointed out. "We don't have explosives."
Jake looked at his chrome arm. The hunger bar in his vision was yellow. 30%.
"Yuri," Jake whispered to his wrist. "Can I interface with the Node remotely?"
The hologram flickered.
"Negative," the wrist-boy said. "Signal jamming is too strong. Direct connection required."
"Where is the port?"
"Base of the tower," Yuri highlighted a small panel on the obsidian surface. "Access hatch."
"That's in the open," Taranov shook his head. "Fifty meters of kill zone."
"We need a distraction," Jake said.
He looked at the crowd of workers. Hundreds of them, marching in lockstep. Blank faces. Dead eyes.
"They're connected to the network," Jake realized. "They aren't just people. They're terminals."
He grabbed a passing worker. A woman in a grey jumpsuit. She didn't struggle. She didn't even blink. She just kept marching in place against his grip.
"Hey!" Jake shook her. "Wake up!"
Nothing. Her eyes were screens displaying a loading bar. TASK: WALK. PROGRESS: 45%.
"She's a zombie," Valentina said, horrified.
"No," Jake said. "She's a sleeper agent."
He raised his chrome hand.
"Yuri, broadcast a packet," Jake ordered. "Short range. Viral."
"Target?"
"The crowd," Jake said. "Upload a new task."
"What task?"
Jake smiled. It wasn't a nice smile.
"Revolution," Jake said.
His arm glowed blue. He touched the woman's forehead.
UPLOAD COMPLETE.
The woman stopped marching. Her screen-eyes flickered. The loading bar vanished.
In its place, a red star appeared.
She blinked. Confusion flooded her face. Then rage.
She turned to the man next to her. She touched him.
The red star spread.
It was a chain reaction. One worker woke up. Then two. Then ten.
The hum of the crowd changed. The rhythmic footsteps faltered. The silence broke.
"What is this?" a man shouted, looking at his hands. "Why am I carrying a box?"
"My name is Ivan!" another yelled. "I am not Unit 44!"
The Enforcers turned. Their visors flashed red.
ALERT. SOCIAL DISORDER DETECTED.
"Disperse!" an Enforcer boomed, raising its baton.
The crowd didn't disperse. They surged.
"Now!" Jake shouted.
The chaos erupted. The awakened workers, fueled by sudden, confusing anger, swarmed the floating Enforcers. They had no weapons, but they had numbers. They grabbed the chrome torsos, dragging them down.
"Get off me!" a worker screamed, smashing a data-pad over an Enforcer's head.
The Enforcers fired their shock batons. Blue lightning arced through the mob. People screamed, falling convulsing to the ground.
But the shields flickered. The distortion field was overwhelmed by the sheer mass of bodies.
"Move!" Jake sprinted into the plaza.
Taranov and Valentina provided cover fire.
RAT-TAT-TAT.
Bullets sparked off the Enforcers' armor. Without the perfect deflection, some shots landed. One Enforcer spun out of control, its anti-grav drive smoking.
Jake reached the base of the Node.
The obsidian surface was cold. He found the panel.
It was locked. No keyhole. Just a smooth surface.
"Open up," Jake growled.
He slammed his chrome palm against the glass.
ACCESS DENIED.
"Brute force it!" Oppenheimer yelled from the alley, cowering behind a dumpster.
"I don't have the calories!" Jake gritted his teeth. His hunger bar flashed red. 25%.
A shadow fell over him.
He looked up.
An Enforcer hovered directly above him. Its baton crackled with lethal voltage.
"Admin detected," the machine buzzed. "Termination authorized."
It swung.
Jake couldn't dodge. He was pinned against the tower.
BANG.
A shot rang out.
The Enforcer's visor shattered.
It drifted backward, crashing into the Node.
Jake looked back.
Taranov was standing on top of a overturned vending machine, smoking rifle in hand.
"Focus on the door, Boss!" Taranov roared. "I'll handle the flying toasters!"
Jake turned back to the panel.
"Yuri," he gasped. "Bypass the lock. Use the worker's credentials."
"Routing through local subnet," Yuri said.
The panel beeped.
ACCESS GRANTED: UNIT 44.
The hatch slid open.
Inside wasn't wires. It was a pulsating mass of red flesh fused with circuitry.
"It's biological," Jake recoiled. "The Node is... alive?"
"Bio-neural processor," Yuri noted. "Efficient. But vulnerable to shock."
"Shock?"
"If you overload the input, the brain will seize."
Jake looked at his hand.
He didn't have a weapon. But he had the viral code he used on the crowd.
"Let's give it a headache," Jake said.
He shoved his chrome hand into the wet, red mass.
It felt like sticking his hand into a warm heart. The flesh pulsed around his wrist.
He pushed the code. REVOLUTION. ANGER. CHAOS.
The Node screamed.
Not a digital scream. A human scream, amplified a thousand times.
The tower shook. The red veins turned black.
SYSTEM FAILURE.
The shockwave blasted Jake backward. He hit the pavement hard, rolling.
Above him, the Node exploded.
Glass shattered. The red light died. The distortion field vanished.
"Shields down!" Valentina shouted. "Light them up!"
The Enforcers dropped out of the sky. Without the Node's signal, their anti-grav drives failed. They crashed onto the pavement, sparking and twitching.
The mob cheered. It was a raw, ugly sound of freedom.
"We did it," Menzhinsky whispered, peering out from the alley.
"Not yet," Jake stood up. He clutched his side. His hunger was burning a hole in his stomach. 20%.
"The fog is lifting," Oppenheimer pointed.
The red haze over the plaza dissipated. The map on Jake's HUD cleared.
A new icon appeared.
A massive, golden star in the center of the city.
THE CITADEL.
"That's where he is," Jake said. "The Director."
"We can't walk there," Taranov said, reloading his rifle. "We'll starve before we make it."
"We take a vehicle," Jake pointed to a fallen Enforcer. Its anti-grav unit was still humming faintly.
"That's a jetpack," Taranov scoffed. "For a torso."
"It's a lift," Jake said. "We rig it to a sled. We move fast."
Suddenly, the ground shook.
A deep, rhythmic thud echoed through the streets.
THOOM. THOOM.
"What is that?" Valentina asked, looking north.
"It's big," Yuri warned. "Seismic sensors indicate massive tonnage."
A building at the end of the street crumbled.
Through the dust, a shape emerged.
It was a walker. But not like the swamp crab.
This was a bipedal titan. Four stories tall. Covered in black armor. Its head was a massive searchlight.
"Siege Unit!" Yuri identified. "Level 50!"
The searchlight swept the plaza. It landed on Jake.
The light was blinding white.
ANOMALY DETECTED.
The walker raised its arm. A cannon the size of a bus barrel aimed at them.
"Run!" Jake screamed.
They sprinted down the alley.
BOOM.
The shell hit the plaza. The explosion vaporized the remaining Enforcers and a dozen workers. The shockwave threw Jake forward.
He hit a wall. His vision went black for a second.
"Boss!" Taranov grabbed him. "Get up!"
"I can't," Jake wheezed. "No energy."
Taranov slung Jake over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.
"We're going!" Taranov yelled.
They ran.
Behind them, the Siege Unit crushed a car under its massive foot. It began to march after them, smashing through buildings as if they were cardboard.
"We need the tank!" Valentina shouted. "Where is the tank?"
"Back at the gate!" Menzhinsky cried. "Too far!"
"We need cover!" Jake mumbled.
"There!" Oppenheimer pointed to a subway entrance. A glowing M sign.
They dove down the stairs.
Taranov slid, carrying Jake. They tumbled onto the platform just as the tunnel entrance collapsed above them, buried by debris from the walker's footsteps.
Darkness.
Dust choked them.
"Safe," Taranov coughed, dropping Jake gently.
Jake lay on the cold tiles. His hunger bar was flashing critical. 10%.
"We're trapped," Menzhinsky whispered in the dark.
"No," Jake whispered back. "We're underground."
He activated his chrome arm's flashlight.
The beam cut through the dust.
It revealed the subway tunnel. But it wasn't empty.
Sitting on the tracks, covered in dust and cobwebs, was a train.
Not the Ghost Train.
A modern, sleek, silver bullet train.
On the side, painted in red letters: METRO-EXPRESS. DESTINATION: CITADEL.
"Yuri," Jake croaked. "Can we hotwire it?"
"Scanning," the wrist-boy said. "System is dormant. Requires bio-metric key."
"I have a key," Jake said, looking at his admin hand.
He crawled to the train.
He needed calories to hack it. He had barely any left.
"If I do this," Jake whispered. "I pass out."
"Do it," Taranov said, standing over him with his rifle. "We'll carry you."
Jake jammed his hand into the door panel.
He poured his last reserves of energy into the lock.
ACCESS GRANTED.
The doors hissed open. Lights flickered on inside.
Jake collapsed. The world went grey.
"Get him on board!" Valentina's voice faded.
The last thing Jake saw before he blacked out was Taranov lifting him, and the red light of the Siege Unit burning through the rubble above.
Then, the train began to move.