by Brent Danley Jones
BRIDGES & BELFRIES
by
Brent Danley Jones
"It
was a roll of the dice from the start, wasn't it?" said Erina, exasperated
and sucking in the cold air that stings your lungs when it’s from so high in
the sky. Her black body suit kept her core temperature regulated, though at
times she liked to feel the brisk chill again.
"Observant
as ever," Leif commented calmly as he coiled rope. His huge hands made it
look like thread. “You knew it from the start. Pay that good comes with a
catch. But now this is taking way too long, and I’m getting a twinge fearful
we’re in over our heads here. The bridges may shift before we get this oxy-tech
prototype back down.” He took the length of silk hemp and stored in back in the
many folds of his green and brown robes hiding metallic storage bins beneath.
"
’Fraid’a heights?”
“Shut
your pretty mouth,” Leif snapped back in a low voice.
“So,
that’s a ‘yes’.” Erina figured out by now he wasn’t the kind of merc that
relieved stress by having a laugh. What a bore. "I know, suck at gambling,
but I'm a sucker for taking chances. Besides, worst that happens is they catch
us, ban our gen-sequence, and erase our existence from the Sphere. No
biggie," she said wearing a relentless grin.
She
disappeared below the bridge, slashed a bundled wirepack hidden beneath the
walkway connecting the next belfry, and rolled back on the stone.
Ducking
in the doorway, Leif praised her in his head but not out loud; such deft,
seamless movement was a deadly effective feature for a merc, though she still
had a lot of punch in her as well. Leif could tell Erina was much more serious
about the job than her exterior would lead on. He felt an itch crawl up the old
rash on his back. The plan he had in mind might be more of a gamble than
lifting the prototype proved to be.
After
a brief pause, they peered out and watched the glow from another storm sentinel
fade. The bluish tint in its crafted eye sockets grew grey and hollow as it
slumped, still standing upright.
"And
who even uses electric-based guard sentinels anymore? It’s outdated. And
tacky,” Erina teased the dead rock sentry. The duo huddled low and made their
way across. She could taste the precipitation in the clouds. Erina clawed open
the back of the sentinel, carefully cutting out scrap and pocketing it for
resale. Leif checked the dynamic prints. Still another 200 gridblocks to go.
Problem was, structures in the Netherlands developed a tendency for changing
shape on you. Organic architecture was received like the rapture among the
builders, but made breaking and entering even harder than before.
Leif
looked out from the terrace, scanning for the next tower in the spider web maze
of belfries and bridges. He focused on each peak, using the GUI in his eyes in
attempt to discern which had the televator they needed to descend. “No clear
sign, little lady. Gonna have to keep navigating and hope the bridges don’t
shift.” He signaled the all clear, and the two crouched, staying low, striding
across quietly so as not to be detected from below. He sighed when his eagle
eyes picked up the signature of another storm sentinel along the next causeway.
He
sighed, indicating his exhaustion outstripped his worry. "It just makes a
mess, it does. Has to be the twelfth one we're gonna knock out. Wires. I guess
no matter how secure the location, not everyone can afford the lodestones for
power. Even more so when they don't know what they really have."
"Maybe
we're in the wrong business, and we should be harvesting the sparker gadgets of
these lugs. Sell 'em back to whoever still makes them." Erina executed
what was now a practiced routine of hooking off the bridge with her claws and
slashing a wired core beneath.
Safely
through the doorway of the belfry, Leif guessed there would be another six
towers before arriving at the center spire, lost in the web of bridges
suspended by towering peaks in the sky. Leif kept one eye on the schematics and
another looking for any avi-bots making overhead scans and a third inner eye on
Erina. She seemed to be enjoying herself, taking micro-pics of the stonework
and the masonry as they ascended endless stairs. Nevermind that chance of
getting erased being one capture away.
"Oh,
Leify, look'it that one! It looks like a star made out of butts."
"Quit'cher
ass-hattery and keep your head in the game. We have to find which tower will
lead us closer to the Outgrounds before Stillion's other mechanical minions
hone in on our locale," Leif said in between light wheezes from non-stop
movement. "I still I can't see why we've gotten this far without better
resistance."
"You
may be underestimating what we can do now that we've... enhanced ourselves a
bit."
"Yeah,
but I ain’t takin’ no chances. I’m not like you.” "Whatever you say, big boy! Ooh, look at that! Stained glass
griffons, almost as good as the original even when replicated." It was
quiet enough to hear the faint click of the micro-pic cam as Erina stored the
images. “I can’t believe the one that made this structure and got all those
scholarly prizes was also the same asshole trying to steal the air from the
sky.”
“Doesn’t
matter, someone else will pay us more to steal his shit than he would to
protect it. I don’t really care what they do with this oxy-whatever tech,” Leif
patted his side pocket, even though he knew the prototype wasn’t in there.
Erina had a fair share of new tech on her, and in her. He had since discerned
lie detection wasn’t one of the new additions.
"Right,
you know, sometimes I still wonder if we’re the good guys or the basen--"
BOOM. A thud through the wall knocked the whole of the belfry two inches to the
left, and a bloodbank automaton came in from the open air. A wall crawler left
unchecked.
"I
knew this couldn't go well forever," Erina lost the playful charm in her
voice, sounding as old as Leif looked now.
"Hm.
Deal with it. You don’t have any blood in you now. It can’t do anything but
pierce your skin and suck out gel.”
"Ha,
guess you're right," she said, then jumped claws bared into the path of
the advancing bot, aiming for legs. "Now, get ready to knock out the
integrity board’s connection to the powercell, that should shut him up, and we
can strip it after. We really should’ve go into the scrap business!"
She
scratched one leg to open the machine at a weaker point, metal nails shredding
the gears of the bloodbank sentry, the sound echoing off the towers with a
sharp pitch, but not before a stony limb hit its mark right in her side,
leaving dozens of tiny needle cones piercing her armor and digging into her
flesh, sending her sprawling against the opposite wall of the belfry.
"Crap,
ahh… guh. This not having blood thing means this won't hurt as bad, huh
Leif?" She felt a bit faint, curious, since it could draw out the gel in
her skin, though that shouldn’t affect her.
She
turned to check if Leif was ready to move up and get inside the stone brute now
that his gearing was exposed. All she saw behind her was the end of a silk rope
dangling from an archway, blowing in the breeze.
