After the patch. Part 2

In the contaminated building only one person survived. Professional gamer who claims to be stuck in the game. Is he telling the truth, or is this bloodthirsty monster hidden under this guise? The hunter following on his trail has little time left to answer this question.

IV

A few minutes later, the hunter and his partner were sitting in the apartment where the dead girl had just knocked. In the semi-dark entrance hall, where they are located, the light penetrates only from a slightly ajar front door. Bill still can’t come to his senses and stares around meaninglessly. Kain skillfully puts a harness on his arm. Hunter's wound is much more serious, but he still holds.

From the landing we hear shuffling steps. This walk is very familiar to Kayn. The door bangs open with a tall dark figure on the threshold. With a dull moo, she awkwardly tumbles into the hallway. A shot rattles, and the one who comes falls at the hunter's feet. The butcher cleaver thundered on the floor from the hands of the sinister guest. Bill looks dumbfounded from the hunter's smoking gun to the body spread on the floor.

“We have to barricade the door, now!” “Kayn helps his partner get on his feet,” Come on, help me.

The hunter slams the door and looks around the hallway in search of furniture. Well, that the castle was not injured - the master key Bill did not disappoint. But it will stop them for a while. Here is a small cheap wardrobe from IKEA. Together with Bill, they dump the contents on the floor: some old clothes, covered in dust and eaten by moths. Move the cabinet to the door and throw the trash back inside.

It became dark in the room. Kain fumbles along the wall for a switch. A click - a dim bulb lights up on the ceiling. It illuminates the cluttered hallway. There are no clever things around. In addition to the cabinet, there is an antediluvian, rickety chest of drawers and a crooked wooden chair. Old computer magazines are lying on the dirty floor. It smells of dust and desolation, as if no one lives here for a long time. But it was in this apartment that the scanner found the survivor.

At this moment, the infected person moaned on the floor and began to move weakly. He looks like he should - one to one zombies from old horror films. From his silently opening mouth finally a muffled roar comes.

“Billy, move on,” Kayn commands, “Do your thing and get out of here.”

The technician stares at the zombies. He still cannot believe what he sees:

- Why do they look like that?

Kain pushes him to the creature on the floor:

- So we see them - hunters. This is the true essence of the infected - brainless bloodthirsty creatures. Enough talking! Your task is to calculate the owner of the botnet.

Bill, grimacing in pain, pulls a weighty system unit with quantum modules out of its backpack. He closes his eyes and connects to it wirelessly. Implants provide high-speed brain-computer connections, so no additional I / O devices are needed for operation. The fingers of his healthy hand quickly flutter around the virtual control panel visible only to him.

“I begin to intercept and decrypt traffic,” he says, “I will need about fifteen minutes.”

Kayn at this time handcuffs zombies hand and foot. These creatures are amazingly tenacious. Infected wildly twitches, feeling the program-interceptor Bill. He rises on his elbow, opens his throat and howls like a wolf at the moon. Kayn swings him across the face. Zombie leans to the floor and loses consciousness. There is a sticky silence in the hallway.

Last forces leave the hunter. He weary leaning back against the wall. From dizziness before the eyes, everything floats, blood from the wound is seeping onto the leather sleeve of the coat. The corporate patch - the white inverted triangle in the black circle - turned red. In this alteration, he has not yet got.

Infected, who met him before were slow, unarmed and stupid. But this guy on the floor was smart enough to find a knife in the kitchen. And what a little beast he met at the entrance? She was frisky enough to get him himself. It seems that a new type of virus works better with the motility of a person’s muscles and, moreover, leaves its victims with minimal memories.

In the dark corridor leading from the hallway into the apartment, steps are heard. Kayn of his last strength raises a pistol and peers intensely through his front sight at the failure of the passage. Some obscure silhouette is walking on it. The unknown stumbles, barely catches balance and continues to drag on the hunter. Kain was ready to shoot when a faint face fell from the hallway, faint light. Long unwashed hair is disheveled, red eyes stare senselessly. Poured out by a zombie, but there is no main sign of infection - aura glowing around the head.

- What the hell is going on here? - asks the guy, passing by. He is wearing tattered jeans, a purple T-shirt and rubber slippers.

Without stopping, he goes to the toilet. From there comes the sound of merging water. Kayn aims at the door behind which the stranger has disappeared. He comes out, notices a body on the floor and a number of Bill leaning over the equipment.

- Mr. Smith? - he calls uncertainly, - What are you doing with my neighbor?

“I ask the questions here,” Kayn begins, “Who are you and what are you doing here?”

- I'm Dave. And this is my apartment, - the guy answers. He finally notices the trunk aimed at him and, holding up his arms, steps back a step.

“Why didn't you leave the building when you announced the evacuation?”

“What other evacuation?” Listen, I'm a simple gamer. I play twenty-four hours a day. Major league, you know. What is happening here, I have little interest. Could you finish your affairs here and, leaving, close the door? We will start the match now.

Dave backslide back into the corridor to his room. It seems like a magnet pulls him to continue the game. At this moment from the entrance comes a howl. Kain involuntarily shudders. Dave’s already pale face becomes whiter than the canvas. It seems that he finally realized that there is a serious danger lurking in what is happening. Bill opens his eyes and looks around in a strained way.

Kayn feels that he is about to faint. In the eyes darkens, weakened hand drops under the weight of the gun. From under the slightly parted eyelids, he looks at the confused and very frightened young guys. Kainu is clear one thing - if he turns off now, they both end. No, he will fight to the last! Strong determination is reflected on his face.

“Bill,” he whispers, “give me a stimulant.”

A technician with a willingness to rush to the backpack, fumbles in it with his good hand and pulls out a syringe that stretches Kaynu. A thick greenish mixture of a stimulant and medical nanorobots is used in a glass container - the latest development of the corporation. It is still at the prototype stage and not properly tested in humans.

Kain looks at a glass flask. There is no choice - if you do not make the injection, he is about to faint. The hunter decisively drives the needle into the shoulder and presses the trigger. The pain slowly recedes and the head clears. After a few seconds, a strong itch begins around the wound - automation began to work. Bleeding seems to be reduced.

Somewhere nearby, new and new muted sounds are heard. But now Cain is ready to face the danger. He listens cautiously, trying to understand what is going on in the stairwell. Cold sweat appears on his forehead - it is the creaks of opening doors and the tramp of many feet climbing the stairs. He has never met such a harmonious behavior of the infected. Immersed in darkness, the house in a flash came to life and began to move. It seems that all the tenants simultaneously left their apartments and rushed here.

“So guys, it's getting hot here,” he says with mock cheerfulness. “It's time to get out of here.” Bill, what have you got there?

“I could not break the encryption,” the technician replies, “I can’t believe that a single person could write such a thing.”

Kayn grabs a backpack, turns it upside down and dumps a bulky iron object to the floor with a crash. It turns on the device and sets a timer on the touch screen - three minutes.

- What's that? - asks Dave.

“Magnetic bomb,” Kayne answers.

- God! - a gamer recoils with horror, - After all, these weapons are prohibited by an international convention.

Outside on the landing we hear the tramp of many feet. The next moment, the door shudders from a powerful blow. Bill jumps on the spot in surprise.

“We're leaving here,” the hunter pushes both guys into the corridor.

Infected thresh at the door. Judging by the sounds, they wield axes. The crash of a broken tree is heard. Overlapping the entrance closet went shake.

- Dave, where are the windows? - asks the hunter.

- In my room.

They run down the corridor to a small, dark room. Kain nervously squeezes the gun, waiting for an ambush. He definitely doesn't like this Dave. But he is alive, and now this is the most important thing. We'll deal with him when we get out of here.

A dusty old mirror hangs on the wall - that’s what we need. Kayn calls Captain Clark, and instead of reflecting, the policeman’s worried face appears.

“We are going out the window,” the hunter says. “The tenth floor, I am sending the outline of the building. Let the firemen prepare the pillows. Magnetic bomb launched. Two minutes left. Silence mode!

- What kind of silence? - Dave speaks.

Bill hastily turns off his implant and immediately turns gray - he has left reality.

“Turn off all the electronics in yourself,” the technician replies, “When it jerks, it will not find it enough.”

Dave hastily follows his advice and is also gray. In the hallway the wardrobe crashing to the floor rattles. They are already inside. The gamer jerks apart the thick, light-proof curtains and flings the window wide open. Fresh air rushes into the musty room, along with the lights and the noise of the night city. Below under the windows one can see a big bright yellow fire-bag.

“You're the first,” Kayne pushes Dave to the window.

- Good.

The guy climbs on the windowsill and, without hesitating for a second, jumps down. His dying cry and resilient blow of the body against the pillow are heard. Kayn approvingly notes to himself that Dave is not a timid one.

From the dark corridor coming approaching steps. Barely distinguishable silhouettes rush here. Weak light from the window is reflected on the blades of knives and axes. Between the hunter and the crowd infected less than ten meters. Bang bang bang Rattling shots. The bodies, like knocked out, fall on the floor. Click The first store is empty. He crashes and rattles on the old parquet. The second store in the belt is inserted, the shutter is distorted. In the corridor a shapeless mass sways. Something stumbles, falls, crawls, rises again. Bah!

- Go! - Kayn shouts to his partner.

Bill lags in front of the window and cannot decide. Kayn with all his strength pushes him in the back. Technician flies out the window forward head. It would not have turned his neck. But it's still better than staying here and going crazy. “Click!”, The second store is empty. Kain quickly climbs onto the windowsill and jumps into the night. At the place where he had just been, a monstrous blow of the ax falls. The window sill shatters into pieces.

In flight, Kayne walks out of reality and turns off her implant. The world around loses its saturated colors, becomes colorless and boring. But how cute this dullness is for the hunter. There are no annoying ads, no virtual assistants who are always met, no horrible monsters from nightmares. Everything is simple and minimalist, like in the good old days.

Before the explosion remains two seconds. Past rushes, all accelerating, gray canvas concrete wall. Somewhere above, a bomb rumbles, burning out the brains of all those infected in this damned building.

V

“Everything was exactly as I told you,” Dave finishes his story.

The interrogation room where he sits sparkles with sterile whiteness. Unpleasant associations with the operating room do not leave the guy from the first moment, as he turned out to be here. A large, shiny, chromed metal table only enhances this similarity. Dave involuntarily shivered - everything that is connected with the doctors causes him an unaccountable horror. But why? He can not remember.

On the contrary, leaning on the table with his fist, stands Kayn and, frowning, looks at the guy. The hunter failed the task. Such failures are extremely rare. They can be counted on the fingers. The result of the operation: no one survived from the infected, and the sample of the virus is hopelessly lost. Only if ... this strange guy.

- Good. You are being escorted back to the cell now, ”Kayn sighs.

- Will you hold me for a long time? - Dave grumbles discontentedly, - The tournament is already in full swing. Give at least a team to send a message.

“No, this is out of the question,” the hunter replies.

Facilities for detainees are Faraday cells. No signal will pass through these walls to the outside world. It is seen that this isolation strongly oppresses Dave. He looked like a frightened cornered mouse. A frowning guard enters and, taking Dave by the elbow, leads him out of the room. In the long corridor, the long roar of their retreating footsteps.

Cain thoughtfully sits at the table. Thinking about what he heard, he absently touches the site of a recent injury. Quickly, the surgeons of the corporation patched it up. But the scar is still mercilessly itchy. The door opens silently and the boss enters. His soft, catlike gait always puzzled Kayna. It does not correspond to the powerful build of an amateur wrestler. The boss watched the interrogation from the next room. Now he has taken at the table the place of the just-gone Dave.

- What do you say, Nil? Kayne asks him.

- The guy is not lying.

The light in the room dims a bit, and one of the walls turns into a screen. It plays videos of scenes from the life of Dave. Here is a smiling freckled boy going to school. And now the matured young man, stammering and blushing, protects the diploma.

“Colleagues from the NSA provided materials on the detainee,” Neil explains. “Now we know everything about this guy.”

The video on the wall is accelerating, the frames merge into an unintelligible jumble. Kain with the help of his virtual assistant processes the video stream.

- But the full story of his actions on the Internet and the correspondence he has ever led in his life.

Now on the screen rush lines of narrow text. Kainu feels uneasy. He imagines that exactly the same file is with the chief and against him. But what to do? We live in a world stuffed with clever things that simply can not follow their owners.

Before us is the biography of Dave. Milestones of life of an ordinary member of our society: work as an intern in an IT company after university, an unsuccessful affair with a young married secretary, mother's death from tuberculosis, an attempt to suicide, flight to computer games from depression.

Here is something interesting - the video taken at the reception of the doctor of the corporation Mindsoft. Dave says he wants to spend his first big win in a tournament (several million dollars) in order to upgrade a brain implant. His goal - to accelerate the reaction and achieve even better performance in the game. The doctor warns that the operation is very complicated and unsafe, but Dave does not want to listen to anything. He agrees to take any risk. What a strange guy? He spends millions and risks his life for self-improvement and some tiny superiority in the game, but at the same time he lives like a beggar.

The light and screen suddenly go out in the room. In the dark it is impossible to see anything.

- What the hell? - Neil exclaims. He mumbles something quietly to himself. Apparently, communicates with the duty technician.

In the dark and silence passes a few minutes of anxious waiting. Kaina does not leave a strange feeling that what is happening is terribly unnatural. How can there be a power outage at the head office of the largest corporation? What if exactly at this moment there is an attack on the Nabla server?

The light suddenly lights up again. The screen blinks and a picture appears on it. At first, Kain does not understand what exactly is happening on the record. On the operating table, someone's pale, thin body twitches and wriggles convulsively. Above it rises the surgeon in a white coat and mask. Slim figure suggests that this is a woman. From under the medical cap knocked out curls of fiery red hair. In her hands a scalpel and clamp. She bent over the patient's head, and wielded in his open skull. Screaming patches of blood are scattered with small loose spots on her snow-white clothes. The hunter recognizes Dave’s patient’s tortured face. The moment and the screen goes out. What was it? Scene of the new implant implantation? But why the operation took place without anesthesia?

Neal seemed not to notice this terrible scene on the screen. His face is thoughtful, and his gaze absentmindedly glides over the surface of the table.

“From all this it turns out that Dave is not the hacker we are looking for,” the boss concludes, breaking away from his thoughts, “But pay attention: when the attack on the house began, he played. We spotted almost all the players who had contact with him that day. Three of them are Chinese, another guy from the States. Total - five. The last one calls himself John. He is the only one whose location we did not manage to determine.

“You think he is a hacker?” - Kayn concentrated on the words of the chief, driving away the eerie image of a female surgeon.

- Yes. It is possible that we are dealing with Russian hackers, and they just recruited Dave. For some reason I do not trust this guy.

“By the way,” Kayn suddenly recalls, “there was someone else in that building.” On the tenth floor we were attacked by the infected. When we finished it, someone jumped out of the apartment and injured Bill. After that, an unknown person jumped out the window.

- Are you kidding?

- Not. But I did not have time to see the attacker.

Neal again speaks quietly to someone through reality. The picture reappears on the screen. Kain tensed, expecting to see the continuation of the sinister operation on Dave in the dungeons of Mindsoft. But now in front of him are footage shot from a satellite.

- When about this type of attack on you?

- About ten in the evening.

The recording on the screen-wall is rewound. Policemen scurry around the building, shots flare up a couple of times, reporters drive up. A black electric car stops near the building. Shot in an infected cop. Hunter and Bill enter the building.

“Stop,” says Kayn, “Zoom out the north wing.”

Recording stops, and the picture on the screen is scaled. High resolution video allows you to view all the details, down to the smallest pebble on the sidewalk.

- Lose slowly.

Kayne peers at the screen. Now he will see his enemy. Here the broken glass takes off, and behind it some kind of obscure black silhouette falls out.

- What is it? - Kaina eyebrows fly up in surprise.

In the next frame, the large wingspan of a large bird is perfectly visible.

“Crow,” Neal replies.

“Do you think he attacked Bill?”

- What if he is a cyborg animal?

- Quite possible. It could bring infection to the building. But somehow his hand was directed by a man. Let's start by asking Dave about his friend.

VI

Through the wall of the passenger compartment comes the measured rumble of engines. The only source of light is the small windows on the ceiling. In them you can see the azure blue of the sky, not disturbed by a cloud. Behind the boat, the waves of San Francisco Bay are barely audible.

Kayn sits, staring thoughtfully at a wall painted with gray paint. He mentally sorts through a tangle of confusing chain of events, which began with the usual alarm call, and ended on this ship. How did it happen that the interrogation of the detainee led him to the Stronghold? Hunter shuddered at the thought of this sinister place.

During the second interrogation, Dave said that he had known John for a year. They met once in a game and quickly became friends. There was a lot in common between them - both were lonely and crazy about video games. Soon, John has already participated in every match Dave. They played well and became an almost invincible team. The mystery friend turned out to be an attentive and wise mentor. Under his leadership, Dave is far advanced in his skill. But, oddly enough, they never met outside the game.

Dave, hearing that John was most likely guilty of the deaths of all the occupants of his house, was stunned and for a long time refused to believe it. The story of the virus was a serious blow to him. It is difficult to accept the fact that a person whose talent you admire turned out to be a ruthless killer. After some hesitation, Dave agreed to cooperate and told Kayn everything he knew about his friend. But this information was not enough even to unequivocally establish the identity of John.

Kayn, feeling that the detainee was hiding something, asked him directly:

- Tell me, wasn’t the day when the virus entered the building any special?

Dave’s face showed excitement and confusion. Finally, he decided to speak honestly:

- Yes. That evening, John and I agreed to meet for real, to discuss our strategy at the tournament. I gave him my address.

Now it is clear what exactly happened on that day. The guy himself left his coordinates to the attacker. We can say that he opened the door to his house wide open to the hacker. After all, for sure, for the year of his acquaintance, John managed to scan his friend, thoroughly study the version of his implant, and even buy a master key program on the black market. The player has become a breach in the home security system, through which the virus has penetrated.

The day after the interrogation, Dave was allowed to make one call. Of course, he auditioned. A female voice answered the bell. It turned out to be Dave's ex-girlfriend. Is a married girl the only closest person he has? Kayn watched this strange conversation closely. His record is still kept in the archives of the corporation.

“Listen, Novalin, I have serious problems,” Dave quickly begins. “I want you to know that I am now in San Francisco in the office of the Nabla corporation.” If anything happens to me ... I left a will.

- Dave? - a frightened voice on the other end, - I don't understand you. Are you okay?

- Yes, I'm talking about the will. Bank of America, my account is open there. All funds on it will remain for you.

There was a hiss of static in the line, some kind of interference ... a click.

- Hello, Dave.

- John? - the guy's voice shuddered with fear.

- I'll be brief - for your betrayal you will die.

- But I…

The connection is broken. Technicians of the corporation could not track where the hacker called from. But now there is no doubt about who the real criminal.

Kainu was assigned to personally accompany the witness to the island. He casts a displeased glance at Dave, who is sitting in the opposite chair. The face of the guy looks exhausted and exhausted. He is silent and deep in his thoughts. Looks like he got depressed. That shell, in which Dave was hiding from the cruel world, instantly shattered into smithereens. Missed tournament seriously hit the gaming career, but the only friend wants to kill him.

Kayn gets up from his chair and looks out the window. There in the distance seemed the bulk of the island, covered by the morning hazy mist. The outlines of the rocks gradually appear from the gray haze. On their tops scattered squat office buildings. Above them towers twenty-storey building. An impressive structure immediately attracts attention. Even without reality, it looks impressive - black marble lining merges with tinted glass. Rays of the rising sun reflected on the seamless glossy walls. Something this monolith resembles an ancient Egyptian obelisk. The same silent and reliably preserving the secrets of past generations.

Few people know what is inside the black tower. But Kayn is dedicated to this secret. Most of all in life, he is afraid to end his days on this damned island. How absurd it all turned out: the only truly safe place for a witness was the prison where the infected were kept.

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VII

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The last scene held by his memory is the tirade of the enraged Neal and the order to immediately go to the Stronghold. It seems there have been some problems with this witness Dave.

Bill glances at the screen of his universal master key.

“Five minutes ready to disembark,” he says.

Kayin, with automatism-learned movements, checks his weapons and equipment — everything is in place. He is ready for a big hunt.