Pt. 089.d — Day 10 Katherine Challenge

Katherine stood on an upper floor of a downtown office building. Beyond the windows, the city was burning. They were high enough to see over the office blocks nearest the river. Smoke obscured several intersections. Farther south, blue defensive fire flickered around a retreating line of vehicles.

Van came to stand beside her.

“Where are we?”

She recognized the narrow copper roof across the street, then the building beyond it.

“Somewhere useful.”

He waited while she studied the view.

The nearest roads had emptied. Traffic stood abandoned against the curbs, doors open, while emergency vehicles moved in short, defended bursts along the wider streets. A team holding an intersection withdrew as a larger Alter came through the buildings to their left. Two smaller groups of creatures changed course toward the gunfire.

Katherine followed their movement until the smoke swallowed them. Then she shifted to the next visible street.

A wall clock ticked behind her. Van moved once, caught himself, and stayed beside the window.

At Cross Dynamics Tower, the lower plaza was crowded with people. Even at this distance she could distinguish the orderly gaps between shelter structures and the tight concentration around the western entrance. The defenders were admitting refugees. They would have difficulty closing that gate quickly.

She looked back toward the highway.

“Is there anything you can do?” Van asked.

The concern in his voice brought a warm laugh out of her.

“Yes. You're making a very common mistake.”

“Which one?”

“Assuming my usefulness depends on being powerful.”

“I wasn't trying to—”

“I know.” She touched his arm and pointed through the glass. “Watch the security vehicles beside that white building. They're falling back toward the river. Now look two streets beyond them.”

He leaned closer.

“Those things climbing over the cars?”

“Yes. Another group is coming up behind the warehouses. There's a third farther east. The defenders are withdrawing along the routes they can still hold, and the Alters are following them toward the same open roadway. Which takes them past Cross Dynamics.”

Van looked toward the plaza. “There’s so many people there. Can they fight that many?”

“If the packs converge there, the perimeter will break and they’ll have no place to retreat to.” Katherine turned from the window. “I'm useful because I'm observant, reasonably intelligent, and very well prepared. Let's see whether that's enough today.”

She tried the conference-room exit, checked the corridor beyond, and led him toward the service stairs. After a few flights, they found the roof door was locked. Katherine took a slim pouch from an inner pocket.

Van watched her select two pieces of metal. “They let you keep those?”

“When they changed my clothes to the uniform. These were in the same place as always. Maybe Verena was feeling generous?”

The lock resisted for a tense moment. She adjusted her wrist, felt the last pin settle, and turned the cylinder.

Van followed her up the stairs.

“I still don't understand how we're stopping a horde from a roof.”

“We absolutely aren't.”

He looked at her.

“But we need to start somewhere.”

Wind pressed the roof door back against her hand. Katherine caught it before it struck the wall and stepped into the smell of hot machinery and distant smoke.

Four large ventilation housings stood beyond the stairwell. She walked to the farthest, crouched, and began releasing the side panel.

Van checked the skyline, then her hands.

“Are you enjoying keeping me in the dark?”

“Yes.”

“Well, I appreciate the honesty.”

“How many air handlers did the owner have installed?”

He counted them.

“Four?”

“Three.”

He looked across the roof again.

“Above a certain pay grade, nobody knows what happens at the blue-collar level. The owner approved three units. The people who come up here assume somebody approved four.”

The panel came free.

Inside, foam-lined compartments held a compact collection of weapons, climbing equipment, sealed cartridges, and tools.

Van stared.

Katherine drew out a utility belt and checked its contents.

“You had a secret weapons cupboard on the roof?”

“An equipment cache.”

“How did you get us sent to this particular building?”

She laughed again, less quietly this time.

“I didn't. I have a dozen of these caches scattered around the city.” She fastened the belt, checked the cylinder of a revolver, and holstered it. “Preparation.”

A compact pistol went into a separate holster beneath her arm. She selected spare ammunition, a cable spool, and a harness assembly.

Van lifted a small canister from its fitted slot.

“What does this do?”

She went theatrically still. “Van,” she said. “Put it back gently.”

He complied with widened eyes and exaggerated care.

She carried the line launcher to the parapet. Across the gap, the neighboring building's lower roof offered a clear approach to a concrete service structure. She checked the angle, braced the launcher, and fired.

The report cracked across the roof. A line snapped outward, its anchor striking the service structure with a heavy metallic impact. She secured her end to the cache's concealed mounting and tested the tension.

“The really lucky part,” she said, “is being this close to Senator Mancin's office.”

Van rubbed a hand over his face.

“You're going to keep doing this, aren't you? Being clever and making me catch up.”

“Yes.”

She patted his cheek, then passed the harness around his hips.

Van looked down between the buildings.

“No.”

Katherine tightened a strap and checked the buckle.

“Keep your hands on the harness and keep your feet forward when we reach the other end.”

She clipped herself to the assembly behind him and secured the second connection.

“You could at least—”

She pushed them off and his yell followed them across the gap.

The trolley hummed, then shrieked as their weight gathered speed. Katherine kept one hand on the brake and watched the approaching parapet. Wind flattened her hair against her cheek. Van held the straps exactly where she'd told him.

She braked hard and their boots struck the roof in quick succession. She caught his harness, steadied him, and unhooked the trolley.

He stood with his hands still raised.

“A warning,” he said. “That was the end of the sentence.”

“But you’re alright?”

“Yes.”

“Excellent. Come on.”

*************************

He followed her toward the stairs, muttering something about the quality of her bedside manner.

The upper corridor was deserted. Mancin's name appeared in discreet metal letters beside a door with an electronic lock. Katherine connected a small device beneath the reader and waited.

“Excelsior uses a program called Brainstorm,” she said. “It helps commanders manage Empowered assets in the field.”

Van watched the light on the reader change.

“Mancin has spent several years explaining that the program is expensive, ineffective, and badly managed. He would like to replace it with something he controls.”

Van’s look was incredulous. “During a war?”

She shook her head. “Sure. There’s always money to be made during a war. He intended to prove the system couldn't be trusted, then offer himself as the man capable of saving it.”

The lock clicked. She pushed the door open.

“To make certain the demonstration went well, he paid an anonymous hacker to build him a backdoor.”

Van stopped just inside. “He paid somebody to sabotage the people keeping everyone alive?”

“That was the general idea.”

“Who would do that? Did you catch them?”

Katherine gave him a level look.

She went past him to the senator's desk. “Me, Van. I would.”

His mouth worked but nothing came out.

“You—”

“Someone else would have taken the contract. This way, I would know exactly what he was up to.”

The office had survived the attack better than its occupants' confidence. A chair lay on its side beside an open cabinet. Papers covered the floor, and a cup had spilled across the senator's blotter. All left but fleeing civilians instead of rampaging monsters. Through the broad windows, Katherine could still see the southern approach.

She unplugged the desktop computer and removed its casing.

“The backdoor was designed to destroy his access hardware when he finally used it. He would lose the machine, the installation, and his lovely private credentials. I would acquire a record of what he'd tried to do.”

Van considered that while she inspected the components.

She checked the second console on the side desk. Its screen was off, but the indicator beneath it remained lit.

“The main network isn't answering. I may be able to bring up a local copy here. Some municipal systems have independent links.”

She laid both machines open and drew a tool from her pouch.

“The inconvenient part is that I now need to get around my own precautions.”

“You booby-trapped your own sabotage,” he smiled broadly. “There’s a joke in there somewhere. Give me a minute.”

“Keep it to yourself, junior,” she never even looked up. “This is delicate work.”

“And now you're sabotaging the booby trap.”

She let out a snort. “Just go keep an eye on the corridor.”

He went to the door, looked out, and returned within a few paces of her.

“Have you ever tried thinking in a straight line?”

“Once or twice, perhaps. For flavor.”

He laughed despite himself.

Katherine smiled, then bent over the open machine.

The work took longer than she wanted. Beyond the windows, defensive fire flickered farther north than it had a few minutes before. The first screen recovered, lost its image, and recovered again. She brought part of the second console across the desk, joined the surviving connections, and dismissed a warning that had been written specifically to discourage people from doing what she was attempting.

At last a street map appeared beneath a scatter of incomplete deployment markers. Brainstorm was running an older version. Most of the status fields were blank. Several units were shown in positions that no longer corresponded with the battle outside. Katherine marked those records unusable and tried the local channels.

Two returned nothing. A third gave her a fragment of somebody shouting before it died. She adjusted the connection and tried again. The signal finally locked and the ID was familiar to her.

“Dreamweaver? Dreamweaver, please tell me that's you.”

A hiss. Then Mara's voice.

“Katherine?”

“There you are. I've lost three channels trying to reach you. Are you both all right?”

“Very much so. Where are you?”

“An upper floor with a view of the southern approach. I've spliced together two damaged consoles. The connection may not hold.”

“Katherine, Excelsior's down.”

“The main command network is down. Some local systems still answer, and I've managed to bring up an unstable copy of Brainstorm on one of them. It isn't connected to Excelsior's central network.”

“You got into Brainstorm?”

“Only a local copy. The deployment records are incomplete, and I don't trust its map beyond the streets I can see. But I can still reach some municipal controls.”

She listened as Mara asked whether she needed help.

“I need a decoy who can move fast. There's a gap in the city's defenses I can't close from here.”

Mara agreed, then hesitated over whether cooperation might affect the scoring.

“Verena can go to hell.”

Van looked up from the equipment.

“Nothing in her rules prohibits cooperation,” Katherine continued. “There are civilians in the path of those Alters, and I have no intention of letting her scoring system decide whether I help them.”

“That sounds rather more like you.”

Katherine glanced at Van. An unhelpful impulse offered itself, and for once she accepted it.

“Before I explain anything else, though, indulge me. Hand Van the microphone.”

“What?”

“Indulge me. He's standing right here.”

Her Van stared at her. She held out the microphone. A slightly distorted voice emerged from the speaker.

“Hi, Katherine?”

Van leaned toward the receiver.

“Hello, other me.”

He listened to his own startled silence, then looked at Katherine with an expression that nearly defeated her composure.

“I'm with Katherine. She's using something that looks like three computers losing an argument. How's your day?”

“I was almost eaten by a stuffed animal.”

Van paused. “Right. So it's going about as well as mine.”

Katherine laughed. Mara was laughing too.

“I hate this,” the distant Van said. “I really, really hate this.”

“Please remember to tell me what happened when we're put back together,” hers replied. “If I have to inherit these memories, I want context.”

Katherine reclaimed the microphone.

“Thank you. I needed that.”

“You two are impossible.”

“Frequently. Now listen carefully.”

She described the converging packs and the road leading toward the populated districts. On the map, the river bridge's maintenance connection still showed a response.

“A central-opening drawbridge,” she explained. “Its controls tie into a municipal network Brainstorm can still reach through a maintenance connection. I think I can raise the middle sections and sever the route back into the city.”

Mara understood immediately.

Katherine traced the route from the city-side approach across the bridge to the defended far bank. There were dozens of Alters, possibly more. Mara would have to lead them away from Cross Dynamics, draw them over the center joint with illusions, and keep them moving toward the defenders until the span opened behind them.

“How long until you're ready?”

“Don't wait for me. Go now. I'll be ready when you reach it.”

“And if the controls don't work?”

“I'll find another way.”

She explained that she could not maintain the conversation while working with the damaged equipment.

“You too, Mara. And please keep your Van in one piece. I'm becoming attached to mine.”

The channel went dead before Mara could answer. Her Van stood quietly beside the desk. Katherine selected the bridge command and requested control.

The display changed.

LOCAL INTERLOCK ACTIVE.

REMOTE OPERATION UNAVAILABLE.

She tried the maintenance override but the same message returned. Van read it over her shoulder.

“Other way?”

Katherine looked through the window toward the far end of the bridge.

“Other way.”

**********************************************

The emergency stairs brought them down to a service exit near the river. Katherine checked the street before opening the door fully. They took the downstream service crossing to the far bank, then followed an approach beneath the elevated roadway toward the bridge controls. It kept them away from the city-side avenue where Mara would gather the pack. She couldn’t see the whole battle any more. The nearest noises had acquired direction and weight: claws on concrete, a heavy impact behind a shutter, the sharp bursts of defenders firing somewhere beyond the warehouses.

She handed Van an expandable baton.

“Keep this. Use it if you're cornered. Otherwise stay behind me, within a few meters.”

He extended it, checked its balance, and nodded.

They ran together towards the bridge. The control tower rose beside the far-bank end of the bridge, a narrow structure with an external stair above the river wall. Beyond the tower, blue flashes marked the defenders Katherine had seen from Mancin's office.

Three Alters prowled among the vehicles near the tower's approach. She drew the revolver and slowed behind a concrete barrier.

Van crouched beside her. “Can we get around?”

“Not quickly enough.”

She checked the approach, then the nearest creature's head and shoulders.

“Cover your eyes. Turn away.”

He obeyed.

Katherine threw a small black canister and started moving before it struck the ground. The device spun across the concrete under the feet of the surprised Alters. Katherine closed her eyes briefly as the device exploded with a flat, punishing crack and a blinding flash of light. The creatures recoiled. One opened its mouth in a furious bellow.

She fired twice back to back with barely enough time to reset the trigger. The second creature wheeled toward the noise, jaws spread. Two more shots followed. Both fell before the third had recovered its footing.

ALTER DEFEATED

+1 VP

ALTER DEFEATED

+1 VP

Katherine backed toward Van, opened the cylinder, and reloaded.

He stared past her at the fallen bodies.

“I always thought they were bulletproof.”

“They are, mostly,” she was watching the last creature’s lumbering approach. “The roof of the mouth is considerably less—”

“Behind you!”

She turned into the movement and shoved Van sideways.

The Alter came out from beneath a delivery truck. Its claws caught her across the back as she stepped between it and him without thinking.

The claws dragged across her own back and fabric tore in a long ragged arc. The injury was substituted as it happened and sharp electric arousal spread across her back, dripping from the path of the creature’s talons. She stumbled against the barrier, caught herself, and brought the revolver up while the creature gathered for another lunge. The torn fabric pulled across her back when she raised her arm, sending a fresh jolt through her shoulders.

Her shots drove it backward without putting it down. It struck a loose wheel as it staggered, lost its footing, and fell into the path of the last Alter’s approach. They tangled together and fell. Katherine pulled a canister from her belt and threw it beneath the scrabbling arms of the pair.

Foam burst across the roadway, expanding around the creature's wrists and knees. They struggled before the material finished hardening. A pale ridge cracked.

Van caught her elbow.

“Your back—”

“Still attached. Come on.”

The foam cracked again.

“That won't hold them.”

They ran for the stairs. Her belt sagged against one hip. She caught it before it tangled around her legs and felt the severed webbing beneath her fingers. One damaged housing ticked against another.

Behind them, the creatures were rising to pursue. More movement stirred from nearby buildings.

Katherine tore the belt free. “Up the stairs,” she shouted.

Van took the first steps, stopped when she failed to follow, and turned.

She threw the belt into the path behind them. One loosened canister spilled clear. She fired her last round into it.

The belt vanished in a succession of reports. Smoke rolled across the approach. White foam struck the side of a car, and a bright electrical discharge snapped between the wet pavement and a fallen length of metal. The pursuing Alters recoiled, then began searching for a route around the spreading mess.

Katherine holstered the empty revolver and joined Van.

“Now you can go.”

They climbed. Each reach for the railing tugged at Katherine's back. She kept one hand free for the next landing and made herself take the steps without rushing.

From halfway up, the bridge came into view between the rails. Figures in burgundy and cream raced along the city-side approach. That was far too many Maras.

The first Alters followed them onto the span.

Van stopped to watch the figments racing onto the bridge. “She's here already! We need to run!”

“Yes.”

Katherine reached the control-room door, tried it and found it locked. She reversed her grip on the weapon and shattered the window with a heavy handed blow. The window broke and she thrust her arm past the thin broken shards left behind. With a quick turn, the door opened.

Van followed her inside and slammed it while she found the bolt. Below them, something struck the foot of the stairs.

**********************************************

Katherine crossed to the console, keeping her shoulders carefully level. The manual controls had power. An illuminated diagram showed the two central leaves, each represented by a green bar, with a guarded control beneath them. She lifted the cover, selected local operation, and watched the status change.

Van stood beside her, looking through the window.

The first decoys were already beyond the seam. Alters crowded after them, some gaining on the false women, others turning aside when a companion blocked their path.

“Your job,” Katherine said, placing his hand beside the command, “is to watch the center joint. We need the pack across it. When the last ones clear, raise the span.”

A heavy footfall rang on the stairs.

“Wait for me to call it. Keep watching that seam.”

Katherine drew the compact pistol from beneath her arm. She stepped back as claws reached through the broken window, grinding the razor sharp glass to power against its rocky skin.

A well placed shot struck the sensitive flesh and made the hand withdraw. She fired again when a face appeared behind the opening. The creature recoiled, furious and mobile. Another pushed it aside.

The shots bought small hesitations, but nothing more. Katherine changed her angle, keeping herself between Van and the door. The constant pulsing arousal swept across her back and traced her veins to parts of her that did not need attention right now. She exhaled, chose the next exposed movement, and fired.

Wood and metal shuddered under a blow.

“Where are they?” she asked.

“Still coming. There are more behind them.”

She checked the window. A crowd of creatures filled the bridge, driven forward by the retreating illusions. They needed another few seconds. The door shuddered from a powerful blow and the metal began to buckle where the bolt resisted.

“I hope you've got a bigger gun,” Van said.

“No,” she called out, firing the last of the pistol's magazine.

A broad head forced its way into the broken pane. Behind it, a much larger creature shoved through its companions. Its shoulders filled the landing, leaving the others pressed against the rail.

Katherine dropped the empty pistol and pulled something from between her breasts.

“But I have a smaller one.”

Van turned to see her aiming a comically small firearm at the bulky monstrosities struggling to get through the door.

The brute lifted one enormous fist and she fired through the opening.

The report was much quieter than Van expected.

The creature stopped as a red silken cloud burst from the mark left by the magical round. The bullet, or whatever passed for ammunition for the enchanted weapon, didn’t penetrate the skin. Instead the tiny puff of colored smoke dissolved instantly as a matching coloration bloomed in the creature’s dull eyes.

Its fist remained raised for a moment. Then it turned, seized the Alter nearest it, and pulled the struggling body into a grotesquely misplaced kiss. Their grappling bodies struck the landing rail. The creatures behind them shoved forward, unable to get through.

Van stared.

“Oh.”

“Yes,” Katherine said. “That one.”

He looked at the tiny weapon in disbelief.

She caught the front of his armor with one hand and pulled him into a brief but scorching kiss. His surprise lasted only an instant before he answered. Their kiss only lasted a moment, but it seemed to satisfy the gun’s requirements as a distinct *click* sounded.

A gold panel appeared beside the console.

KATHERINE WREN GAINED 3 VP

Kissing the Master +3 VP

Katherine drew back, with a smug look at the younger man. Van blinked at her.

“Back to the bridge,” she said evenly, like they had been discussing the weather.

He turned at once, but his face didn’t lose the look of shock.

She crossed to the river-facing window and took the discarded gun from the floor. She struck the exterior window, cleared the frame, and looked down.

Behind her, the door screamed against its damaged hinges.

An Alter had climbed over the pair blocking the landing. A clawed arm came through the window, caught the frame, and tore away a strip of metal.

Katherine moved back toward Van.

“Last ones,” he said. “They're crossing now.”

The trailing creatures scrambled over the center joint. Beyond them, the last decoys fled toward the far-side roadway. One false Mara dissolved beneath a leaping Alter.

The door broke inward.

“Now, Van!”

He hit the central switch then turned back to Katherine as the tower's warning bell began to ring.

Katherine fired the derringer one last time at the creature forcing its way inside. It jerked sideways and caught the companion crowding behind it in a sudden and misplaced assault. Their sudden collision blocked the broken doorway.

She grabbed Van's hand and pulled him toward the window. “Feet first, Van!”

He barely had time to look down.

“Katherine—”

She tugged him out with her. His scream of surprise and fear was joined by her laughter, though neither rose above the warning bell.

Wind struck the torn back of her uniform. For a moment the bridge filled the edge of her vision: orange lamps, the separating joint, the first heavy movement of steel.

Then the river hit.

*********************************************

Cold water closed over her head. Katherine kicked towards the surface and came up coughing. Van surfaced beside her with a loud gasp. She caught his forearm. The cold water dragged at the torn fabric across her back, and the effort of staying afloat made the lingering sensation harder to ignore.

“Can you swim?”

“Now you ask?!”

She laughed. “I was busy.”

He stared at her, then laughed once, breathlessly, before a small wave interrupted him. Above them, the two central leaves were lifting.

Creatures scrambled down the tilting far section toward the bank. Others tried to turn and found the widening gap behind them. The city-side leaf rose higher, shutting away Katherine's view of Mara's approach. On the far bank, defensive fire flashed blue.

Katherine let herself watch for one more breath. Van followed her gaze. She squeezed his arm once, then released it to tread water.

A service ladder climbed the river wall a short distance downstream. She pointed it out and began swimming toward it, keeping her strokes measured. Her clothes dragged. Van's armor made him work harder, but he stayed beside her.

Halfway there, he lifted his head.

“For the record, I don’t think that kiss counts.”

Katherine missed a stroke. She had predicted he would have something to say, but that surprised her. Water splashed against her chin. She recovered and glanced across at him.

“I’m inclined to agree, but the Hotel has spoken.” She flashed a defiant grin over one shoulder. “Since I can't get points for it, I guess there’s no reason to ever repeat the kiss for effect.”

She tried to laugh and found herself smiling at him instead. For a few strokes neither spoke. The river made enough noise for both of them.

A gold screen appeared above the water.

CHALLENGE COMPLETE

ALTERS DEFEATED: 2

MASTER PROTECTION: 3/3 VP

CHALLENGE AWARD: 5 VP

Van slowed to read it.

“Just keep swimming,” Katherine told him.

She stayed alongside him. The ladder was only a few yards away when white light spread through the water.