John Golden: Freelance Debugger (8 page)

Whoever had done this was either a debugger gone very, very bad, or a fairy purposefully putting its own kin through untold torment. Neither possibility was a pleasant one. I swallowed.

“Sarah,” I said. “Some kind of weapon. Now.”

“Got it.
Right hand.”

I opened my hand, and a sleek black pistol dropped into it. That surprised me for a moment, but it shouldn't have—the metaphor of this burrow was obviously more in a science-fiction mode, and my tools would be shaped according. I curled my fingers around the grip and crept forward,
toward the first of the cages.

Something on the ceiling moved with
a hydraulic whirr. I jumped backward. At the confluence of the cables, what I'd taken for a lighting fixture began to unfold itself into a pair of multiple-articulated arms tipped with thick, grasping pads.

The top of a cage across the way from me flipped open, and the arms shot out to grab the first pathetic creature that managed to struggle through the opening, jamming the rest of the prisoners back inside. They carried the thing, a blue-skinned pixie, over the central pit, and I heard a deep, sinister buzz.

I edged closer and saw my light reflected in row after row of rotating knives, like the world's most dangerous salad prep device. The arms dropped the fairy, and I managed to turn away just in time. Blood or no blood, some things are not pleasant to watch.

“Sarah,” I said. “I know how he's doing it.
The fairy code in SS AntiFae.”

“How?”

“He's feeding fairies into some kind of blender and using the bits that come out the other side.” Like any burrow, this one was a metaphor, and its direction was clear. “No wonder Jiiya couldn't figure out how it was put together. What kind of a nut job would think of—
[58]
”

—
[58]
The coming of the fairies has brought mankind a certain measure of humility. No matter how deranged and twisted our psychopaths, the worst of the fairies leave humanity in their dust.—

“
John?” It was Delphi's voice, coming through the earpiece I'd lent her. “Are you there?”

“
This is worse than we thought,” I said grimly.

“
John, someone's at the door.” She sounded worried, but under control. “I think it's Mr. Falmer.”

~

I popped myself out of the burrow, materializing amid the tangle of wires and buzzing machines. Delphi was on the other side of the room, out of sight from the hole I'd kicked in the wall. She caught my eye and tapped her ear urgently.

Right
—Sarah's earpiece. Delphi still had it, but fortunately I keep an emergency backup in my back pocket, a flimsy little thing with a crummy extendable mic
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. I dug it out and jammed it into my ear as the key clicked in the door lock.

—
[59]
It just goes to show even John knows he can't function without me.—

“
John,” Sarah said, her voice scratchy, “I'm getting a ton of wireless traffic from a new source. I think something in the burrow is talking to Falmer.”

“
I'm sure it is,” I muttered. A suspicion that had been lurking at the back of my mind for some time rapidly crystallized. “Tell me if it spikes.”

The door opened.
Falmer stood framed in the doorway, the fluorescent lights throwing a long shadow across the darkened office beyond. He was alone — no cops, no security guards. That would have surprised me if I hadn't just gotten a look inside the burrow. As it was, it confirmed my suspicions.

“
Mr. Golden,” he said with a sigh, running one hand through his hair. “I was under the impression we'd concluded our business.”

“
There were a few loose ends I wanted to clear up
[60]
.”

—
[60]
If John has a fault—and let's not kid ourselves, he has plenty of faults—it is a tendency, in tense situations, to think that he's James Bond. I think the exchange of pretend-casual banter is an alpha male cool-vs-cool sort of thing.—

He glanced at the corner and spotted Delphi. The corner of his lip twitched.

“And you seem to have convinced my head of IT to help you. Hello, Deli. You're fired, by the way.”

“
You're going to be worse than fired when everyone finds out about this,” Delphi said. “This is a crime.”

“
As opposed to breaking and entering? Though if you want to claim Mr. Golden coerced you, I'd be sympathetic. Anything that gets him a few more years behind bars.”

“
Nobody's going to prison,” I said. “And he can't fire you, Delphi. The thing is—”

I'd pulled the keys to the rental car out of my pocket, slowly and quietly
, underhanding them at Falmer.

His hand
automatically came up to catch them, but he offered no more resistance than a fogbank. The keys vanished into his chest, and a moment later I heard them clatter to the floor behind him.

“
—that's not Mr. Falmer. Walter Falmer is dead, isn't he?”

The Falmer-thing stood quietly, staring at me.
I smiled.

“
Network traffic spiking,” Sarah said. “I think you surprised him.”

“
I have to say I'm impressed,” I said. “It must have cost you a lot to gather enough corporeality for that handshake. A lot of fairies would have made some excuse and skipped it, but that might have raised suspicions. And a little bit more for the chair, the door, the keyboard, and all the rest. No wonder you were eager to fob me off on Delphi. You must have been exhausted.”

“
Y-y-you have no idea.” There was a strange hitch in his voice—not a human stutter, more like a glitching audio track. “I n-n-never wanted to get you involved, Mr. Gol-Gol-Golden.”

“
I imagine you didn't. But some of your inmates got loose, and Delphi figured it out before you could clean them up yourself. So you couldn't very well do nothing, could you?”

“
He's a fairy?” Delphi said. “Out here?”

“
He's got a lot of power behind him.” I gestured at the machines. “I don't know the whole story, but I can guess. Falmer—the real Falmer—found you somewhere on the Wildernet, and you offered him a deal.”

“
Y-Y-Y-Yes,” the fairy said. Perhaps because it was no longer bothering to maintain the illusion, it looked suddenly much less than human. Its facial expression twitched, from blank to smiling to rage and back again, like an animatronic robot on the fritz. Through it all, its eyes remained cold and dead.

“
You got him to build you a burrow, and in return you helped him with his programming. You were his genie in a bottle. Except you got out of the bottle in the end. Were you always planning to get rid of Falmer?”

“
Of c-c-course. He was an impediment.” The fairy cocked its head. “B-b-but he threatened to expose me.”

“
So you ate him.”

“
Ate him?” said Delphi.

For a moment, genuine emotion showed on the fairy's face.
It smiled the old Falmer smile.

“
We call this sort of thing a puppeteer,” I said. “If it gets strong enough, it can devour a person, body and soul, and gain access to their thoughts and memories. Enough to construct a pretty good simulacrum, if it doesn't need to touch too many things.”

“
The n-n-new version of SS AntiFae is nearly perfect,” the fairy said. “Once it is d-d-distributed, I will join every s-s-system that installs it to my burrow. I will be-be-be unstoppable.”

“
Except that the game is up.” I crossed my arms. “You're finished.”

Another almost human smile.
“Am I, Mr. Golden?”

“
John,” Sarah said. “I don't want to alarm you, but I'm under attack.”

“
What?” I put my hand to the earpiece, pressing it painfully into my ear. “Are you all right? Cut the link!”

“
I've got it—” There was a burst of static, like an old-fashioned radio. “—der control. Can't cut, but I think I can—” Another blast of noise, so loud it left my ear ringing. “—don't worry about it, just—”

Then nothing but static.
I ripped the earpiece off, and saw Delphi doing the same. I whirled on the Falmer-thing
[61]
.

—
[61]
Ordinarily I'm more than capable of defending myself against such attacks, but I have to admit this one caught me off guard. Falmer's burrow was a monster, with raw power to burn, and the puppeteer had obviously grown astute with human-style computer systems during its tenure as Falmer's programmer-in-residence.—

“
What the hell do you think you're doing?”

“
I've done my r-r-research, Mr. Golden. I know all about your sister's unique condition. Now she's my guest.”

“
If you hurt her...
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” I breathed, then stopped, unable to think of an appropriate threat.

—
[62]
He's sweet, sometimes.—

“
If you w-w-want her, come and get her.”

I roared, taking a long step forward and swinging my fist into the fairy's
face
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.

—
[63]
Not very bright, but sweet.—

It passed right through, of course, without even a flicker.
It laughed, a weird, stuttering staccato giggle, and disappeared like popped soap bubble. Back into the burrow, I knew. Back to where it was strongest, and I was vulnerable. Where it now had Sarah.

~

“Delphi,” I grated.

“
John?” She hurried across the room. “Are you all right?”

“
I need you to go get help. Go and get...” Who? The police? The first thing they would do would be shut down the burrow entirely, which would destroy any chance of getting Sarah back. “Listen. I'm going to give you a phone number. You're looking for Harry Muir
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. Tell him John Golden sent you, and that you want to meet. Once you get him in person, you can tell him what happened—”

—
[64]
Head of Microsoft's FSMG (Fae Safeguard and Mitigation Group), the archetypical corporate debugger. The corporate teams are often called in to clean up the aftermath of John's messes. This drives Harry crazy, but generates revenue, so he and John have a sort of love/hate relationship.—

“
Why?” Her eyes narrowed. “You're going back in, aren't you?”

“
I have to.”

“
I thought you needed someone on the outside to create your weapons and armor. Sarah told me that was her job.”

I hadn't realize
d the two of them had gotten so chatty while I was in the first burrow. I gritted my teeth. “I'll be fine
[65]
.”

—
[65]
Idiocy, thy name is macho.—

“No you won't,” Delphi snapped. “If you thought you were going to be fine, you wouldn't be sending me off to find a clean-up crew.”

“We don't have time for this,” I said. “He's got Sarah—”

“I know.” She crossed her arms. “You need someone on the outside. I'm on the outside, and I'm not leaving.”

“You don't know what you're doing.”

“It's
got to be better than nothing!”

I shook my head, but I was acutely aware of the seconds slipping away.
Falmer wanted to lure me into the burrow so he could kill me, presumably, and that meant he'd keep Sarah intact for at least a while. Maybe. I thought about the pit full of spinning, flashing blades, and wondered how long his patience would last.

Delphi wasn't moving.
I gave up.

“
Fine,” I snarled. “Grab a monitor and keyboard.”

She darted out the door and came back with the necessaries, trailing their cables. I hooked them in to Sarah's hardware, trying not to imagine that the very tenor of the fans in the little black unit had changed.

Something that had lived in there was gone
[66]
.

—
[66]
Superstitious nonsense, of course.—

Once we had the keyboard set up, I logged in using the administrator account I had promised Sarah I wouldn't ever use
except in the direst emergency
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, and turned it over to Delphi.

—
[67]
Having an administrator logged on to my system is a bit like having someone poke through my room, opening all the drawers, reading my diary, etc. Except that since I am on the system too, you have to picture me standing naked in the room, open to inspection. On second thought, please don't picture that, it's creepy.—