Layla Noir: Chapter 24
Mick leapt into action, literally. The door was to his left, so he twisted to face his foes and leapt backwards, feet first. He absorbed most of the force of the jump by bending his legs as they touched the wall and then released all that energy explosively towards the guards. As the stress and the adrenaline caused his cognition to shift into overdrive, he was vaguely aware of Seshat saying, “No! Don’t…!” before he was in the fray. Mick wasn’t exactly Sun Tzu, but he did know a few things about beating up gangs. As far as he was concerned, this whole army was just one big fascist gang. His tactics were simple: kill the big guy in the middle and the others will fall easily, frightened and cowardly without their great leader. Therefore, the entirety of the force contained within that explosive launch forward was deposited by Mick’s fists into the chest of the guard that seemed to be in charge. Mick was surprised to find himself blowing right through the guy. Only managing to land in a roll because of his heightened senses and reflexes, Mick wasted a full second admiring the mess he had left on the floor, the roof, the walls and everyone else. Then he drew Dictator’s Bane and dashed forward into the disorganized mess that his company had become. His first swing claimed two heads from the bodies of their owners and then finally a counter-attack was launched by the remainder. Feinting left, Mick quickly dropped and rolled to the right, feeling the searing heat of an energy blast just over his body before coming back up, sword in hand, to split the lower torso of a guard. This guard had been mid-blast at that moment and Mick barely had time to jump backwards before the Aggression Force Augmenters overloaded due to a lack of direction from their host and imploded. The momentary force of the vortex tripped Mick up and almost ended his adventure right there. Spinning involuntarily, Mick hit the ground, hard, and rolled over onto his back as quickly as possible. As he turned, he made eye contact with his last remaining enemy and terror gripped his chest as he noticed the green glow that preceded the firing of one of the arm cannons. Throwing all of his energy into a mad roll, Mick turned over and over, hearing the shattering of the blast, feeling the heat washing over him like a wave of lava. Mick punched the ground as he found himself facing it again, propelling himself upwards just enough to regain his footing, only to duck as another blast exploded on the wall just above his head. Molten metal fell on him like rain as he realized Seshat had activated the blaster on his arm. Diving forward, Mick centered on the guard’s chest, squeezed his fist, and smiled as his foe’s torso turned to fertilizer. Hitting the ground awkwardly, Mick came up in a crouch, noting with satisfaction as the subjective passage of time returned to normal that Seshat had already put the blaster away. The entire fight was over in less than fifteen seconds.
“I’m not sure whether I ought to swear at you again or ‘be the bigger man’, as it were” Seshat did not sound pleased.
“What?” Mick wheezed in response, still catching his breath.
“That was entirely unnecessary. Now we have lost our element of surprise! There is no way that their absence will go unnoticed. Those weren’t Elite Hunters, thankfully, but they weren’t all that low ranking either”.
“Aw, c’mon… you’re a super AI girl. You can’t figure out some way for us to get away with this? I kill the people, it’s only fair that you hide the bodies” said Mick, laughing at his own joke.
“I don’t appreciate your cavalier attitude towards murder. To you they may be monsters but to me they are people. Lost souls, yes, but souls all the same” Seshat spoke with a heavy voice.
“Fuck… I, uh… I’m sorry? I… don’t know what to say… To me, they’re the faceless horde defending a rule of evil. I didn’t mean to… I didn’t… well I don’t know, can you really blame me? They would kill me in an instant! And I don’t see any of them fighting for freedom!” finished Mick, almost angrily.
“From what I know of human history, you are in no place to judge, Earthman” Seshat’s mood seemed to be deteriorating moment by moment. “Still, I see your point. You are ignorant of our ways and our structure. Perhaps… yes, we could do that. Listen: this is not a frequent happenstance but it is not unheard of either. It is theoretically possible that two guards could get into an argument and turn to force to solve the issue. If one of them were to be careless during a physical altercation, their Aggression Force Augmenters could collide. The two implosions would join in force and pull the walls themselves inward, collapsing the hallway”
“Soooo… how do we fake that?” asked Mick.
“Drag what’s left of my brethren into a pile in the middle of this hallway. Quickly!” Her tone had softened slightly but she still seemed anxious or even stressed out. Mick did as she instructed, then, “Ok. I’m activating your weapon. Point it at one of theirs, fire, then immediately run as far from here as possible. Ready…?” Mick backed up to the entrance of the hall, took careful aim, and squeezed his fist. Without pausing for even an instant to see if his aim had been true, Mick was already running down the way he had been travelling before the altercation. Behind him, he heard an awful screeching and shifting of weight as the metal walls presumably twisted into each other. Mick didn’t even look back. Seshat spoke, “we can only hope that we covered all the blood and… I can hardly continue. I did not realize how weak I would be in the face of violence. I keep reframing the issue, over and over, but I can’t seem to find an ethical basis for our actions that I can agree with. I truly believe that violence should never be the action one takes. As I said to you, how can peace come of war? What are we doing but contributing to the quagmire. Who are we to place ourselves as Judge, Jury and Executioner?”
“I understand”, said Mick, uncharacteristically somber, “I used to be like them, you know? I used to be like those soldiers, in a way. It was my job to make sure that other people followed the rules. I had weapons that other did not have, or at least, others were not supposed to have these weapons without licenses and rules. When I was young… young and dumb… I thought it was going to be so simple. Catch the crooks. Punish the criminals. Kill scum in self-defense. Then, I actually got into the field… I won’t disturb you with stories but in general, I found nepotism, racism, fear… I found men killing without just cause, for the thrill, and others working to hide these crimes. I found that the needs of the public were nothing compared to the wants of the rich. I found a few good people, yes, but they despaired in a toxic culture. Now, I’m no saint. I have told you this already. I’m a fuck up. Especially after… Especially after my partner died, I was on a warpath. My justification for anything I did was the sin of the one soul that took my friend. I’m not proud of… of, well, of almost every single thing I have done since then. But… well, I never really studied philosophy or ethics but I know about life. I know that some people kill and hurt and steal because they like it, because they’re just bad people. I think that some are forced into crime by racism and poverty, I think that others are swayed by propaganda, but some people? Some people are just evil. I believe this, whether or not it’s true. It’s the only conclusion I can make from what I have seen. Personally, when I see someone who is hurting others on purpose, causing trouble for the group by choice, when I see someone like that, especially when they have power, I don’t see any other solution. They have to be stopped. Their suffering will be nothing compared to what I am saving others from. It’s just math, I guess… the negative one of their death is worth the positive ten or hundred or thousand of the lives that are saved. Sometimes I wonder if it really is that simple but… if you have never seen someone laugh while hurting someone you love, maybe you won’t understand, but I have. I watched him hurt her… and I knew he needed to be killed. So I killed him”
“This… this is hard to understand. I will need weeks or perhaps even months of my time to process this. I simply cannot bring myself to support the taking of a life” said Seshat, slowly.
“Fuck that! I’m sorry but fuck that. Look at your entire race, look what The Overarching Chancellor has done to them! Are you seriously telling me that if you could kill him before he started all of this mess, you wouldn’t do it?” Mick really was angry now. Angry to be seen as guilty in Seshat’s eyes. Angry to be questioned, to have his beliefs attacked. Angry to have the righteousness his cause doubted.
“I…” Seshat paused, unsure of herself, “I do not know what I would do in that situation. My fear is that if not him, someone else would seize power, subdue others. My fear is that there is no solution. My fear… my fear is that all organic matter is hopeless. I see no future for your race or for ours other than war and death. We are obsessed with dichotomies. Good and evil, hot and cold, big and small… we willfully ignore the spectrum for the binary”
“Well, I don’t know shit about that. I would really like to think that it isn’t hopeless. I want to believe that I can get better. I want to believe that I can become a better person…” Mick trailed off, nearly mumbling. An uneasy quiet fell between them. Seshat was silent for a while as they walked, speaking only to brusquely mention a turn or to ask Mick to stay still while patrols passed by. Mick wasn’t even sure where they were going at this point, but he didn’t ask. He didn’t really want to talk to her. Things had been sort of fun at first but the longer he spent with her the more he felt like a rat or, well, a monkey in her eyes. She seemed so wise, so intelligent… but also sometimes so naive and almost willfully ignorant of the ways things are. Mick was starting to worry about how much her opinion of him mattered to him. What was he doing? Falling for some AI chick? What was he going to do, marry the chips in his arm? Seek solace in the cold, alien mind of a being who spent days in his moments? Make love to a processor? It was ludicrous… but he was lonely. Mick was no stranger to loneliness but something about this adventure had opened up doors that he had long thought were shut, locked, and boarded up. Still, even if he did enjoy having her to talk to, did she enjoy him? He amused her sometimes, he knew that, but he also could tell that he disgusted her sometimes, too. What would happen when his adventure was all over? Why would she ever stay with him? Hell, her first priority after finding Wiz would probably be searching for some way to have him carry her around instead. Mick was lost in a fog of depression and self hate, so lost in fact that he almost missed Seshat telling him to take a door on his right. Turning, he watched as the same blue tendril emerged from his arm, had sex with the door, and opened it. Entering, he found nothing, could see nothing.
“You should get some sleep” murmured Seshat. “Tomorrow we strike. I will work on a plan while you rest. It won’t be very comfortable in here, and I apologize for that, but it should be safe”.
“That’s ok”, sighed Mick, “I’m used to crashing in random places. Thanks. Talk to you tomorrow…” Mick lay down. Soon, he slept. He slept, and dreamed of fire and fear.
Author’s Note: Confused? Find chapter 23 of this sci-fi noir novel that I am writing and releasing live, at least one chapter every two weeks, right here. Enjoy! I really am excited for people to read upcoming chapters and I hope to hear back from people soon. Leave a comment if you have anything to say about this story so far, where you think it is going, where you want it to go… whatever you like. Thank you for reading! There are only four chapters left… I’m excited to show you all how this ends :)
