<b>Roo'd</b>

# Roo'd

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# Chapter #27

“Motherfuckers” swore Tonx. “Slapping me with a fucking contract in the middle of a fucking deal.”

“Trouble?” asked Esco.

“Friends” said Tonx. “Don’t do business with friends.”

“Noted” said Esco.

“You got any chem boxes I can mix with around here?” Tonx asked.

“Doubt it. We could check with the owner. You ought to meet him in any case, before we try to move the package.”

“Right” said Tonx. “Good idea. Let me pull this shit out of my face first.”

Tonx’s bag had been abandoned in his escape from Austin, so he just pushed the studs out with his tongue and unscrewed them, tossing the hair-thin posts on the table after them. He could get another set anywhere.

“These not your style?” asked Esco, lighting another cigarette off the butt of the previous. Poulpe had quieted some after his small speech, for which they were both grateful, and now he just mumbled softly.

“I mod for a living. You wear what the locals expect, sometimes. I’ve got other mods I keep permanent.” Tonx glanced up at Esco, nodded briefly at him while bending over to pick up a dropped white stud. “Nice face work, by the way. Good job on the nose.”

Esco nodded briefly. “Thank you. I’m Puerto Rican, had a lot of mongoloid features when I started.”

“Your primary model an Escobar or a Ricardo?”

“Ricardo, though to be honest I did a lot of the composites myself. This kind of work you can’t be too similar or it ruins the effect, you know?”

“Totally” agreed Tonx. “Okay, I think I’m ready. Hopefully my ride hasn’t fucked the place over yet.”

The room shook briefly and the two men threw out their arms to balance themselves, shared a quick glance before scrambling for the door.

“This PSYCHO bitch yours?” asked Fox in its finest Kraftwerk mechanoid voice. Red beams were streaming from its eyeholes to balance on Nancy’s pert button nose in the junction of the hall.

“Hey flyboy, you want to turn off your puppy there?” she called. “There’s some bad news downstairs I’d love to tell ya’ll about.”

“Cut it” said Esco, tapping Fox on the head. He muttered something else in deep Florida spanglish slang as Tonx pushed past him, then followed.

“What up?” Tonx asked.

“CAF” said Nancy. “Corporate Armed Forces, all done up in red and black. Got Mickey Mouse on their uniforms, funniest shit I ever seen.”

Tonx swore loudly and pushed past her towards the door at the top of the stair. Below was madness. CAFs were pushing through the door sewing beanbag guns and audio-scramblers into the crowd in front of them. Behind the front line the mob was throwing beer bottles, taking pot shots with pistols and throwing knives. The music was still pulsing, wild street beats thrashing along with the mob.

“How do we get out of here?” he yelled at Esco. The taller man pointed at the stage on the far end of the hall, cigarette trembling between two fingers.

“There’s our host. You want to get out of here alive that’s the only way I can think of. Baby scanned the joint when we first got here; there’s an underground garage but the rest is surroundable as fuck. It’s faradayed so they won’t scan in, but we only got a little time.”

Tonx turned to Nancy.

“Nancy, can you do me a favor?”

Nancy smiled big as a house.

“What I can do you for?” she asked, her words a drawl.

“Don’t let anyone down this hall unless it’s us. Sound good?”

“Sounds boring. Promise you won’t be long, now.”

“Promise. Esco, let’s go.”

Tonx turned and led the way through the door and into the fury beyond, taking the steps two at a time. As they hit the landing he grabbed Esco and held his head close to his ear.

“Your guy can keep an eye on her too, can’t he?” he shouted. Esco nodded. He’d already comm’d Baby as they started down the steps. They were well behind the mob’s edge as they stepped out onto the floor but the crowd was getting wilder, no exits available. Tonx started forward, sticking as close to the wall opposite the entrance as possible.

About ten meters into the crowd Esco saw someone big fall back, jostle into Tonx and turn. It was a street kid, jacked up huge with cheap bodshop steroids, and he grabbed Tonx’s wrist with one hand while shoving a long thin blade at his head with the other. Tonx was pulled forward like a drunk date at the prom, nowhere to go but dead. Esco leapt forward too late, saw the blade slide past Tonx’s ear, ruffling his hair as the smaller man drove his forehead into the street kid’s nose. The punk’s head bounced like a beach ball and he staggered back on his heels. He’d dropped the knife, and one arm flew out for balance as he fell. Esco stopped a step away as Tonx gently laid a hand on the guy’s knuckles where they gripped his wrist and pressed slightly. The kid reversed direction and dove for the floor face first, taking a detour to smash his bloody nose into Tonx’s waiting knee.

Esco was surprised, but the guy’s scream was clear as day over the music, and he didn’t get up. He stepped over him as he followed Tonx forward, not sure what he’d just seen. Weird motherfucking ghost indeed, thought Esco.

They continued forward at a rapid jog, fighting off a few stragglers as they went. There wasn’t much heart in it, though; the real fighting was up front and those who wanted to run had already looked for exits in the back. The smell of smoke wafted over the stench of sweat and fear, gunfire punctuating the music. The crowd surged toward the entrance again and Esco and Tonx ran forward as fast they could in the dim light, trying to make time while there was space. Esco noticed that the tubes overhead were drained, empty and dim. He wondered where the jellyfish were.

They had almost reached the stage when they saw the first CAF. Dressed in full-body riot gear the man was covered in black and red piping, the light flashing off the chromed knuckles of his gloves. The Mickey Mouse logo glared skull-white on the back of his helmet. Tonx skidded to a halt, Esco plowing into him as the man stepped onto the stage and turned back towards them. His helmet fit his face perfectly, reflective lenses set over his eyes printed with the flat white-and-black gaze of the mouse. He stiffened, suddenly, seeing Tonx, and raised his slim black rifle before a beer bottle careened off his head, snapping his head back.

Tonx didn’t wait. He jumped forward, rolled onto the stage and to his feet behind him. The soldier grabbed his helmet in his hands, one eye shattered as Esco shoved him off the stage and into the crowd.

Esco leapt for the stage on the surge of the crowd, thrown almost into the pit by the sudden momentum. Tonx grabbed his arm and pulled him to his feet, yelling something he couldn’t hear over the pandemonium. There was a loud whoosh, and the wall facing the parking lot peeled upwards in hot flame, yellowed light splashing onto the crowd. The fire leapt higher as a staggered row of mice appeared silhouetted against the burning wall, stubby backpacks pouring fire up it and out into the crowd. The mob pulled back.

“Where is he?” screamed Tonx in Esco’s ear. Esco looked around. The couch where he had sat not long ago was where he’d left it, but the stage was deserted. He nodded towards the rear of the stage and pulled Tonx after him, keeping his head bent low against the thin led spots vibrating overhead.

They found Fuentes right away. His throat was slit, his head bent sideway where he had slumped to the stage. One of the hyena owners had gone for him, and now his back opened in a meaty pulp where Fuentes had shot him with some sort of high-caliber handgun. His body was draped elegantly over Fuentes’s hip. An angry chattering scream filtered up from the pit and Tonx stared down below.

Esco pulled Fuentes out from under his killer and started going through the body’s pockets. As he did so Tonx produced a long, pale-white ceramic blade from one pocket and started hacking the black man’s arm off.

“What are you doing?” screamed Esco, rolling Fuentes’s body over to get at his wallet. He found what he was after, a pale yellow card key appearing between his fingers. He smiled. “Come on!”

“...pheromones” he heard Tonx say, blood-sticky fingers peeling dark skin down the arm like casing off a sausage. The fingers inverted, raw meat covering bones, the skin sticking at the fingernails. Esco’s stomach pressed against his throat. But Tonx had found what he was after, apparently, taking the skin and slicing it against the wood of the stage to produce a perforated plastic strip. It looked like half a wiffle-ball, and a thick musky stench hit Esco as Tonx held it up. The stage shuddered as the crowd hit it again, surging back from the CAFs as the wave of chemical flames rolled towards them.

“Help me” yelled Tonx, kicking the mutilated body out of the way and pulling on the couch. He pulled one end towards the pit, got behind it. Esco leaned in, pushed until the couch slid in end-first. For a moment he thought it would topple, but it stuck, fell back against the edge. The first hyena was up and out before Esco’d had a chance to stand, a high-pitched scream like a baby girl peeling out of its lips. It leapt straight for Tonx, and fell, its eyes wheeling back wide and white in its head. Esco thought at first it had been shot, but then it rolled, belly up, nose waving in the air towards the flat sheet of plastic in Tonx’s hand. Tonx tossed it to Esco, mimed rubbing his hands with it, and the second hyena bounced up the couch. It caught a hold of Esco’s pants before the smell hit it, nervously backing away and tearing a long rent in his left pant-leg as it went.

Tonx snapped the chain into the carabineers on the hyena’s collars. They came to their feet, ears back, eyes averted as he led them.

“Relax” he yelled at Esco. “You’re an alpha now — try to act like it. Come on!”

There were stairs on the back of the stage and Tonx led the way, the two animals dwarfing him like wolves would a child. Esco noticed their ears twitching and darting, the way their noses led them, and figured that whatever the smell was it wasn’t affecting their fighting senses any. They were huge animals, and Tonx kept them in check with sweeping yanks on their chains. The ghost had balls, thought Esco.

The crowd had thickened substantially, almost flattening against the back wall as it tried to escape the flames and rubber bullets. The sound of a baby crying suddenly turned into a deafening wail as a sonic weapon rolled over them. Nausea followed and people nearer the CAFs fell to their feet in a wave, their balance destroyed. The hyenas sowed chaos, yanking Tonx forward and pulling back, going for people’s legs every time, pausing only to dart over arms and past knives to crush throats. They’d been trained to do this, Esco realized, raised from pups to gnaw through people like termites through wood. They didn’t once leap up, leaving themselves open to kicks or weapons held in spindly arms the way a dog would. They made good time.

It was insanity. Even sticking to Tonx he almost got swept to the ground again and again, hands grabbing and crap flying through the air all around them. He was surprised when the stairs loomed ahead of them, surprised again when he realized there were people clinging to it, defending their position with broken bottles and knives. Tonx hesitated and the crowd suddenly pulled away. The hyenas lunged forward, sensing Tonx’s direction.

The first guy almost gutted Esco, falling over the hyena and rolling down Tonx’s back, his kitchen blade flashed by Esco’s ribs as he took a header into the stair. The next two kept their bottle and knife in front of them, the longhaired freak on the wall side bracing his feet to stand on the railing. Esco grabbed Tonx’s shoulders and kicked out the railing on the outside, the old wood buckling away with a snap that shook the steps. Both of the freaks toppled and the hyenas were on them, flinging their bodies aside. The last guy threw his bottle and leapt into the crowd below, the ragged glass catching the lead hyena in the face. It screamed as blood gushed, shaking its head and pawing at the wound. A bright light fell on them, turned everything white. Wood splinters slapped Tonx’s face as a bullet shattered a board next to his head. He jumped for the top of the stairs, dropping the chain in his haste, Esco close behind.

They made it up and fell through the door, blood and musk and terror, a mad bundle of fur and limbs, the chain wrapped over Esco’s arm and around Tonx’s legs.

“The door!” Tonx screamed as Esco kicked it shut, sparks flying as bullets glanced off its metal plating and down the hall. Tonx struggled to his feet, kicking free of the chain. He still had the plastic sheet in his hand, and looking down he saw one hyena sitting placidly at his feet, head cocked, tongue lolling. The chain led from its neck down over Esco, who pulled free from it, and to the still-twitching carcass of the other.

“Caught plenty of bullets” Esco observed of the dead animal, dusting off his jacket and flicking it into place.

“Doggies!” said Nancy. She was seated on a neat stack of three dead men and was wearing a fancy black cowboy hat, silver studs lining its brim. Her curly red hair descending from it rear in a wave. She had her long legs crossed and a thin combat knife hung loosely in one hand. Her jacket was peeled down and tied around her waist, the sleeves of her flowered blouse torn away to reveal long thin patchwork arms. They were too long for her body, Tonx noticed, wondering how much of them, if any, were hers. “You boys get what you were after?”

“Maybe” said Tonx. The hyena’s ears were back, teeth bared at Nancy. It had turned towards her when Tonx did, and now slowly advanced. “Uh, here. Hold this, Nancy.”

He tossed the plastic sheet to her and she caught it deftly in one long hand, her eyes never leaving Tonx’s.

“Perfume?” she asked. “S’nasty.”

“No. Pheromones. The thing’s conditioned to them. Come on” he said, handing her the chain. She pulled hard and the hyena slid on the pool of blood on the floor towards her. Esco stepped delicately past, smiling politely as he did so.

Fox was still stationed by the door, eyes flashing through a red-green scanning sequence. Tonx jogged through to Poulpe, cutting the twine and rolling the filthy bed sheets over him.

“Help me get him up” he panted at Esco, grabbing his legs. “Where are we going?”

“Next room over” said Esco, shuffling his arms under Poulpe’s. The man’s eyes were open, staring at nothing, his cracked lips moving slowly.

Together they staggered up and out the door, backing down the hallway. Behind them they heard Nancy chastising the oversized animal.

“Sit!” she said. “Goddammnit, dog, I said sit! Don’t you know English?”

Esco kicked the door open and Fox clanked to life, following as they filed into the next room. It wasn’t much better than the one Poulpe had been in, but it was clean, a long row of beer bottles along one wall by an ancient cathode-ray screen. A thin metal railing flanked a corrugated metal platform in one corner of the room, a post topped by a black metal box with two buttons on its far corner.

“The lift” huffed Esco, leading the way over to the platform. He dropped Poulpe onto it, ran over to the beds and kneeled to look under them.

“Always check you didn’t leave anything” he said, apologetically as he returned to the lift, bag in hand.

He stabbed the green button and the platform shuddered, began to descend. A loud boom shook the doorway and a rush of sulfur-stinking air pushed over them. Nancy appeared in the doorway, the hyena bounding after her like a puppy. Her face and most of her chest were covered in blood, little bits of pink skin sticking in her hair.

“Whoo-hee!” she hollered, jumping onto the lift after them, the huge animal following. The platform squealed loudly, canted to one side as they landed, but kept descending.

“Duck!” she yelled, bending below the rising lip of the floor. They followed suit just as another loud boom shook the room, bits of furniture and broken glass hitting the wall behind and falling over them. Nancy stood and hollered again, a loud rodeo call. She fumbled in her jacket and produced a little silver pistol, its tiny muzzle protruding just past her fist. She pointed it up the well above them and rummaged through a pocket with her other hand. The hyena sat on Tonx’s foot, knocking him into the wall. The lift shuddered again, fell a foot and caught, slowly descending. Nancy’s long arm pulled out a small round green ball, her thumb catching the metal ring stuck out of one side. She jacked her arm back just under Esco’s face, waiting. The sound of stamping feet came down from above just as light broke from below, the lift slowly sliding into the room beneath. Mouse-eyed faces appeared alongside rifles for one short second as Nancy’s pistol cracked, deafening them all and echoing through the well of the lift. The faces disappeared and her thumb flicked the pin out and down the front of Esco’s shirt, her arm jerking upwards. The grenade disappeared overhead and Tonx wiggled feet-first through the gap. Another loud boom shook the air overhead and a rifle fell on them, hitting the platform butt-first. The left sank to a halt a foot off the ground and they jumped off.

“Conjos” swore Baby, his face slick with sweat underneath his headset. He held a Russian military-issue semiautomatic, and behind him a tall black armored civilian SUV sat facing a big set of old wooden garage doors.

“’S’cool” said Esco, one hand out towards Baby while he fumbled with the control panel next to the lift. It shuddered into life again, going up, half of a Mickey Mouse logo fluttering past it and onto the floor.

“’S’cool my ass, Esco” said Baby, pointing his gun at the hyena. “What the fuck is that?”

“That’s my dog, boy” said Nancy, her chin up, chest out as she marched over to him. Her cheeks were flushed, gore slicking her shoulders and the curls of her hair. She radiated crazy like a tesla coil.

“Back off, puta” he said, leveling the rifle at her.

“Don’t nobody call me cunt, boy” she said, her glazed eyes narrowing slightly. Next to her the hyena’s teeth started chattering together, its ears back, oversized shoulders trembling.

“Chill, people” said Tonx. “We don’t have time for this shit. You” he pointed at Baby, “where are we and where are we going?”

“It’s an old water channel for the fields” said Baby, pointing at the wooden doors. All my flyers are outside so I couldn’t check it, but there’s a bunch of open channels like it about a mile south. I figure it connects somewhere, but I don’t got the range...”

“Good” said Tonx. “Get Poulpe into the car and let’s get out of here.”

“No can do. The car’s locked tight, no keyholes or nothing. Bulletproof glass, the works. Plus there’s no light down there, I don’t know how we’re going to...”

“Shut up, Baby” said Esco, pulling Poulpe towards the car by his feet. He fished in one pocket and tossed the card key over. “Open the fucking car.”

A moment later they were all piled in. Esco rode shotgun, the robot held awkwardly in his arms, head out the window so it could scan ahead. They pulled through the doors and Tonx jumped out to pull them shut behind him, crawling back into the drivers’ seat. The oversized vehicle was tricked out and armored tight, and it stank overwhelmingly of musk. He flicked the lights to maximum brightness and kicked the thing into gear. They surged forward, picking up speed.

“How far does it go straight?” he asked.

“100 meters. Can’t see more than that unless you turn off those lights” said Baby. Esco reached over and flicked a switch, a HUD tracing the tunnel’s edges in light blue over the inside of the windshield. Tonx smiled, turned off the lights.

“How about now?” he asked.

“Better” said Baby. This thing looks clear at least a hundred meters.”

A loud roar filled the tunnel, a pale white light shining from behind them.

“Fuck! Turn him over, man! Turn him over!” shouted Baby, scrunching himself down as far as he could into his seat. Esco struggled to roll the clunky robot to face behind them.

“Undo the safety lock, motherfucker” yelled Nancy, stabbing her finger at the window button. Something loud smacked into the rear window and a spider web wound out in the glass from a small dot behind the hyena’s hump. It turned and cocked its head, ears raised. Tonx swerved as he reached for the right buttons, sparks exploding as the mirror on his side tore off against the cement wall.

“Stick him out!” yelled Baby gruffly, his viewset on and head buckled against his chest, hands clenching the black controller. Esco poked the robot’s head out the car window, holding it by the legs, his own head ducked low. Fox’s chest opened and a set of four tiny rockets slid out with a clank.

“Hold ’em steady, conjos” said Baby, and the rockets slipped out and flew away behind them. Another row of bullets sluiced across the back of the car, at least a couple hitting the window. It creaked but held.

Tonx’s eyes blanked as he saw something appear in the dim traces of the HUD. He flicked on the headlights and saw a corrugated plastic wall ahead of them, started stomping the brakes.

“Don’t” yelled Esco, seeing the wall ahead. “Punch it!”

Tonx took his foot off the brake, glanced at Esco. The top of the robot’s head bounced off the wall, almost tore from Esco’s hands. Baby howled behind him.

“Fucking punch it, white boy!”

Tonx did. The rear window blew out, glass shards flying everywhere before a yellow glow illuminated the cave from far behind as the rockets hit. Nancy stopped banging her door and turned around, kicking Tonx in the back as she scrambled to shoot down the corridor behind them. The wall resolved into pale green fiberglass, grew wide enough to fill the width of the hall in front of them. Tonx accelerated, the speedometer rising, the car shuddering and bouncing as hot air roared through and they hit

and went through the bright yellow light of streetlight fluorescence cutting into their vision from the big empty space ahead of them. They thundered into the open-air water channel and Tonx hit the brakes again, sliding up the far side before Tonx yanked the wheel, took his foot off the brake. They careened right, almost parallel with the ground before carioles force threw them out and down the channel.

“Where the fuck are we?” asked Tonx. Nancy hollered again, punching the roof of the SUV with one wild fist.

“South” said Baby. “Keep going.”

A moment later a big black hornet appeared over the edge of the channel.

“That’s us” said Esco, pointing.

“There’s a ramp about two hundred meters ahead on your left” said Baby, the wasp-shaped thing disappearing again. “Take it, slow, and then go right.”

The ramp appeared as promised, and Tonx slowed enough that they came up it and through the sun-bleached wooden fence with hardly a shudder. Tonx curved right onto the service road that followed it, saw a highway over the field ahead.

“Bingo” said Esco, the robot leaning headless against his thigh. A moment later they were on the eight-lane road, scooping handfuls of shattered safety glass out of their laps, laughing crazily in relief.

“Somebody check Poulpe” said Tonx suddenly, realizing they’d left him in the trunk. Baby shoved the hyena towards Nancy, elbowing his way to the narrow armrest and undoing the latch to fold the seat back. He disappeared into the trunk for a few moment, the stench of urine filling the car over the reek of musk.

“No problems, man” he said. “Not even a hole back there. This thing’s built like a tank.”

Tonx blew out a sigh. “We being followed?” he asked.

Baby drew his headset back on, stroked his controller.

“Don’t think so” he said. “I see a bunch of CAFs running around Senior’s, but looks like the mob’s finally broken out on ’em. They shouldn’t have burned the wall; the bikers got through to their shit. Three CAF cars burning so far.”

Nancy smiled, hugged the hyena close before reaching forward and punching Tonx in the arm.

“Those are my boys!” she said.

Esco fiddled with the control panel for a moments and the dulcet tones of traditional Puerto Rican work songs filled the car. Tonx noticed with relief that the fuel tank was full. They drove.

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