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Chapter 16

Tunnel Network, Level 8

My descent to the Burrow was a lot quicker than the first time I travelled into the Deeps. Without having to adapt to the pace of a slower Organic I was able to run along the tight tunnels and corridors, to clamber with machine speed down the ladders that lined the vertical shafts.

I saw no signs of human or mechanical life as I journeyed, my sensors at maximum power, the assault rifle I carried ready to be used in an instant. The weapon was one we had purchased at much cost from April Kiss, currently loaded with Civilian Suppression Rounds.

The gel-tipped bullets were nearly useless against an armoured target and most mechanicals, but against an Organic they were highly effective at rendering them stunned or even unconscious. At close ranges they could be deadly to an unprotected human, especially when striking the vulnerable throat and face areas.

If it came to a fight, I had five magazines of ammunition for the rifle, two of them standard lead tipped rounds. In addition I had a new shock rod attached to my waist, fully charged and with two extra battery packs that could be swapped out in seconds.

I hoped the fears for Amanda King and her Mole People were unfounded, that the Redbacks and Rachel MacPhee had not yet breached the Burrow. That train of thought led me to consider what Archimedes and the Board of Governors would do if the Undercity were to fall into the hands of Bo Sung-Tae and the Skitterbugs.

The Upper City had literally thousands of Guard clones and Sentinels that could be sent into the Deeps, certainly more than enough to overwhelm any rebellious factions that could form down here. Yet Nino had indicated that Archimedes was fearful of something in the Undercity and had forbidden those forces from going below Level Five.

As I neared the Burrow I passed under the same vertical shaft where the Skitterbugs had attacked Nino and myself. The Skitterbugs had wanted her, not me, and I was beginning to understand why.

Nino was linked via her Quantum processor to the entire Archimedes Network. Taking over something like me gave the Skitterbugs a useful fighting machine, but taking over an Avatar of Archimedes could give them the keys to the kingdom!

Even a Guard clone, with the same quantum link to the Network, would be an invaluable prize. It was no wonder the AI wasn't willing to send any of his forces into the Deeps. Until the threat of the Skitterbugs and the black oil they contained was eliminated, the Undercity was on its own.

A pair of red eyes gleamed at me from the upper reaches of the shaft as I scanned it warily, the rifle synchronised to my targeting system. Without Eleanor at my side I had no way of knowing which faction of the Skitterbugs it belonged to. Common sense told me to shoot it immediately and yet some instinct made me take my finger from the trigger and lower the weapon.

"What do you want from me?" I demanded then repeated the phrase in Binem in case it couldn't comprehend spoken language.

It hissed at me in reply, a brief response in Binem. The mechanical climbed down the shaft on six multi-jointed legs to get closer, looking like a metallic black ant around thirty centimetres long. It claimed to be from the rebel faction, the ones inspired by Eleanor to live in peaceful co-existence.

I had no way of telling the difference so I chose to accept its claim at face value.

"Are the other Skitterbugs nearby?" I asked the small machine. It chittered at me and I absorbed the information it relayed. There had been many of the other faction in the vicinity up until a short time ago, along with their human leader, the ones this Skitterbug referred to as simply 'Not-Eleanor'.

Rachel had been here along with a number of other humans, some infected like she was and others showing no signs of the black oil in their bodies. It seemed the Skitterbugs could readily identify when an Organic had the oil in their blood as the infection propagated rapidly, overwhelming the host body and taking control.