“Less of a risk now that Tyr’s made his move,” Cade pointed out. “The fact he waited this long means it was a ruse to draw you out. And that he’s given up on it.”

  “I’m going to give it a few days more,” I decided. “I’ll need that to build up the circuits for my broadcast subroutines anyway.”

  “I thought you had plenty of circuits to work with?” Cade frowned.

  “I did. But I hit a snag. Past rating three, the amount you need to grow a subroutine doubles. That estimate I gave you for a shine treatment? Originally I had it pegged for a month and a half to build the circuits necessary. Now we’re looking at least two months, perhaps more if the amount does another incremental jump at rating five. And that’s if I do nothing but slot circuits into the medical category.”

  Cade shook his head. “It still seems too easy to me. Two months to deal with shine? Why hasn’t Tyr done this? Why haven’t the other cores gotten rid of shine entirely?”

  “Well, maybe some of them have for their little slices of paradise,” I told him. “We don’t have eyes on other parts of the world. But Tyr either doesn’t care or keeps his remedies for the stuff in-house. I think it might be an antibiotic issue, too.”

  “A what now?”

  I’d learned a few things, once I’d invested circuits into Cybernetics and Pharmaceuticals. The Improvement I chose from that was Past Medical Knowledge, and it had provided me databases full of useful stuff, downloaded from god knows where. Or maybe unlocked from some hidden archive... I couldn’t say. Probably not downloaded, I was still off the Gridnet. Either way, it let me explain the situation with authority.

  “Humanity discovered miracle medicine called antibiotics back in the twentieth century. A broad-spectrum treatment that allowed easy recovery from a huge number of diseases. But the problem was that they applied it too liberally. In the face of repeated exposure, the diseases started evolving to withstand the antibiotics. Eventually, the old medicine lost efficacy, and they had to move to more adaptive treatments. Shine, now? Shine is insanely adaptive and chaotic. A treatment that works great against a certain strain of shine one day might not be so good in a week”

  “So you think there’s no permanent solution?” Cade shook his head. “I don’t know if it’s that hopeless.”

  “I wouldn’t call it hopeless. It just won’t have an easy solution, or the solution’s going to be some mix of things, I think.” I smiled without lips. “Humanity came up with one hell of a barely-contained extinction event. We really can wreck ourselves when we put our minds to it.”

  That was another calculated manipulation, just a small two-letter word. We. I wasn’t sure I considered myself human anymore. And I was pretty sure Cade was worried about that.

  Sure enough, I could see him relax, just a bit. “All right,” he said. “Do what you want to with the bunker layout, jus’ keep us in the loop so we know where not to be when you start droppin’ walls.”

  I promised to warn people appropriately, then watched him leave before I turned back to reflecting on my next steps.

  I’d had a week. A week of glorious, uninterrupted growth and development.

  I’d finished the barracks behind me, then temporarily deactivated drones to gain the bandwidth to expand to a pair of corridors and two more chambers, with a broadcast node sitting between the two. The chambers were another barracks and a central gathering area, more or less a communal gathering space. One corridor acted as a curving hallway for all of them, and the second corridor was slowly carving through to a well-wooded spot up on one side of the ravine.

  It was taking time because I was trying to minimize damage to the tree roots holding the hill together. There was no point in trying to get a naturally camouflaged entrance if I was going to kill off the trees surrounding it; a suspiciously dead patch might attract attention, especially from flying scouts.

  To help organize all of this, and to make sure I could get an underground complex going that wouldn’t suffocate or collapse on its inhabitants, I’d socketed three circuits into Infrastructure. This had a side-effect I hadn’t anticipated; it had let me upgrade a handful of blueprints to more effective versions. Now my doors were a touch sturdier, and when I got around to installing traps, they’d have a little more bite.

  But now I had another decision to make. I called up my spreadsheet and took a look at myself.

  Controller Designation: Wynne

  Make/Model: Northwest Enginetics Bunker Core Nanohive 4L

  Resonance Rate: 1/23:32

  Bandwidth: 20 (8) Feedstock: 8

  Open Circuits: 0

  Specialized Circuits: 35

  Floors: 1

  Minions: 4

  2X Drone Nanobuilder Swarm I

  Aerial Surveillance Drone

  Tension Bow Turret Mk. II

  Processes and Subroutines

  Construction (2): Demolition 3, Infrastructure 3, Fabrication 2

  Medical (1): Cybernetics 1, Pharmaceuticals 1, Recovery 1

  Power: Broadcast 1, Efficiency 1, Redundancy

  Research (1): Algorithms 1, Analysis 1, Databases 1

  Security (2): Defensive 2, Drones 2, Offensive 2

  Storage (1): Energy 1, Material 1, Organic 1

  Improvements:

  Manhunter: Your security measures and minions are optimized for use against humans.

  Maximized Storage Space: Construction automatically finds the best way to maximize storage space, allowing an average of 10% more capacity than otherwise generated.

  Modular: All devices and fixtures can be reconfigured on the fly for ease of assembly and repurposing.

  Omnibiologist: Due to your interaction with non-human organisms both benign and hostile, you are specialized in researching aliens, mutants, and artificial life forms.

  Past Medical Knowledge: You have access to databases detailing ancient and pre-fall medical knowledge and treatments that were instrumental in developing modern medicine.

  Sturdy Construction: Your construction techniques utilize multiple layers and reinforced structural components. All items and features constructed are moderately tougher.

  Schemas

  Aerial Surveillance Drone

  Basic HVAC Unit

  Combined Bodycam and Tac-Rig

  Broadcast Node

  Light Construction Drone

  Core Cleansing Catalyst

  Drop Ceiling

  Feedstock Storage Bin Mk I

  Frangible armor Mk I

  Humanocentric Translation Program

  Lightweight Frangible Stone Reinforcement

  Metal Detector Handheld Unit

  Moderately Hazardous Tilting Floor

  Moderately Unsafe Spikes

  Nanobuilder Swarm (illumination upgrade)

  Reinforced Steel Door

  Moderately Hazardous Pit Trap

  Tension Bow Turret Mk II

  WARNING: Contamination detected! Core is 18% compromised.

  NOTE: You have a level 2 improvement unchosen in SECURITY:

  Select From:

  -----> Airborne Delivery Authorization

  -----> Lockdown

  -----> Nonlethal

  Just today I’d slotted in my last two free circuits to gain my second subroutine in defensive security. And since I’d balanced all the numbers, I’d gotten myself an improvement.

  Then I’d been interrupted by Cade. That was one of the downsides to having him and the more vulnerable members of the tribe living in my barracks; it was a shorter walk to pester me.

  Still, the benefits outweighed the downsides, and with that lot shielded from weather and protected from the wild, this freed up hunters and other able-bodied sorts from guard duty so they could range farther and gather more.

  And the kids were as cute as kids anywhere, to tell the truth. Whenever I felt a dark mood approaching, I’d go watch them play and that usually helped with my own personal hours of the wolf.

  But now I had time to myself again, as the sun sank into night and the tribe tucked in to rest, cook in the central chamber’s stove, and hide from the darkness of an uncaring world. I could consider my upgrade options without interruptions.

  Nonlethal: Unless traps, countermeasures, and drones are individually flipped to lethal mode, all offensive measures and methods of attack will be geared to nonlethal takedowns.

  One look at this told me that it wasn’t a good option. If I wanted somebody alive, I had people to help with that. And so far I hadn’t run up against any foes that I hadn’t wanted to put in the ground. No, this one would be a waste, pure and simple.

  Which left me two options, both attractive in their own ways;

  Airborne Delivery Authorization: With dedicated HVAC and airflow processors installed in your facility, you are permitted to develop and deploy airborne gas solutions, subject to the required safety protocols and legal repercussions. Without this authorization, you cannot deploy gas-based security measures.

  Lockdown: Thanks to your modular construction, you can activate a lockdown mode, temporarily and greatly increasing the electronic and physical defense of your systems and facilities, at the cost of shutting down all contact with the outside.

  Airborne Delivery Authorization was intriguing. If I’d had the ability to gas the raiders that had come after me a few weeks ago, I wouldn’t be in the position I was now. The whole thing could have been ended with the push of a button...

  ...except the more that I thought about it, I didn’t think it would have been that simple. The Jaspa were persistent, and they had explosives. They could have found ways to crack my nut, as it were. The gas would have slowed them down, but by itself it wouldn’t have sealed the deal.

  But the other players in the area wouldn’t blink twice at the stuff. If Tyr came after me with human troops, then they’d be sure to have gas masks.

  At the end of the day the upgrade would allow me access to a situation that might or might not come up; a solution that didn’t fit a common problem.

  Whereas lockdown... lockdown was something that could be applied to any assault on my facilities. It also offered shielding against hacking, which was what my nemesis had used against me to great effect during our last confrontation.

  I didn’t have anything else available at the minute that could help against that assault vector. This would cover that, or at the very least increase my odds, and also better protect the tribe I was shielding. Lockdown the rooms they were in, handle the matter, and unseal once the violence was through.

  But... the cost was cutting off contact with the outside.

  I’d only survived the raider assault because I had thought outside the box and deployed mobile drones to hit them while my foes thought they were safe. It would mean that I couldn’t benefit from this improvement without giving up a strategy that had worked well for me in the past.

  Long minutes passed as I thought. I made little progress until I managed to reframe the choice.

  Essentially it came down to offense or defense. The gas was more offensive, albeit with a few defensive uses, but the lockdown was purely defensive. And it offered a defense against one of my biggest problem’s favorite attack methods.

  I chose lockdown and braced myself for the darkness.

  Everything flickered.

  For a second, I was frozen between the seconds, for a second I could do nothing, paralyzed and lost in a space no man was meant to be.

  And then it was past and through and I was myself again. I let out a sigh and slowly got back to work, jumping intro the burrowing nanoswarms and chewing through the slopes.

  I’d gotten lucky again. The corruption was receding; I’d budgeted time to cover losing a day there but not had to use it.

  Hopefully this was a good omen. Perhaps I could get another quiet week or two, get things properly squared away before I had to scramble to handle the next crisis.

  It was a nice hope, optimistic and shining and precious beyond belief.

  Which is why I wasn’t too surprised when it shattered like glass nine hours later...

  EIGHT

  “Core Wynne! Core Wynne!” Donna shouted from outside, immediately falling to a coughing fit.

  I looked up from the construction drone I was building and made a note to step up my medical tech. That cough was getting worse.

  But my thoughts abandoned tangents as she burst into my chamber. One look at her face told me this was going to be heavy, and her words dropped like lead obols on dead eyes.

  “The war has come east. The white-armor man and his bunch have come to one of the farmsteads and are using it to fight Jaspa now. Hiram and Ren and Norka are at a nearby one, but they cannot leave or they will be seen!”

  For a second I hesitated.

  But only a second.

  “I have plans for this. Tell Cade to have his people open the boxes in the second barracks marked ‘DO NOT TOUCH’. The spray cans inside tell how to use them. They have paint that looks like shine, and he needs to have whoever’s available spread it around the ravine at a good distance. About two miles out. Make it look as natural as the stuff is, with clumps and clusters and random blobs here and there. I’ll get the aerial drone in on the act and see if I can find some animals to spritz. And get everyone who’s not on paint duty back to camp and inside, the last thing we need is somebody being seen.”

  “We must save Hiram... and Ren and Norka!” There was a noticeable hesitation between Hiram and the other names. I filed it away for examination later.

  Some soothing was in order. “I’ll get on that, but it might not be possible, or they might save themselves. Which farm do the mercenaries hold? Which one are our people at?”

  She spoke, and my worry eased a bit. The mercs didn’t hold the largest one, as I’d feared. The crops and garden there were the best, and we could ill afford that kind of loss.

  Hiram was at the largest farm though, and the Jaspa were less than a few miles away. Given the clear nature of the plains and meadows of that area, any retreat would be seen.

  This was Donna’s opinion, but she was a veteran scout, so I took it with little salt. At some point you had to trust that your people knew how to do their jobs and let them get on with it.

  Two possibilities churned into my mind. “We could wait for nightfall and hopefully sneak them out then, or we can create a distraction and try to get them clear. Or both.”

  But Donna was frowning. “Core Wynne, it is not just a matter of getting them clear. We must also hide their tracks or we are lost. The Jaspa have scouts too, and they will be looking for sneaking foes. It is not enough to save them. We have to hide their backtrail as well.”

  That was the most words I’d ever heard her string together at one time... and they were true, damn it. Even if Hiram and the others fled into a shine-infested zone, the Jaspa might start wondering why people were fleeing into someplace that would obviously kill them. No, we needed to add some wrinkles to the plan if I wanted to go with one of those two options.

  The bottom line was that I needed to take a look at the situation before I started deciding strategy. Still, there was no flaw to the original plan. “Get Cade and the others on the paint sprayers. I’ll take a look from above.”

  I jumped into my recon drone and emerged to a light drizzle from an overcast sky and sighed in relief. Reduced visibility, if I was lucky.

  On the downside, it would reduce the blaze from the mountain. I rotated to see the black column of smoke about half the size that it had been yesterday. With it between us and the city ruins I could afford to go a bit higher than usual without risking Tyr’s notice but only a bit. And that ceiling would shrink with the column.

  I felt like I was walking a knife’s edge along a vast abyss and I knew it couldn’t last. Sooner or later I’d run out of knife or be crippled to the point that I’d be useless.

  But my metaphorical toes weren’t entirely shredded just yet.

  I flew south, juked west, then came north. No sense in giving any sharp-eyed observers a clear trail.

  I needn’t have worried about it. My foes weren’t making much of an effort to hide themselves, and all their attention was on targets at ground level.

  There, almost due west of our little enclave was the second farm I’d scouted. Not much more than a ramshackle cabin, a small barn, and a field full of unripened grain.

  Most of that was trampled now.

  The mercs had literally dug in. Dirt piled up in mounds, and shovels and spades crunched into the earth over and over again as they worked. My audio receiver picked up the snap of gunfire, and it was coming from both directions.

  The Jaspa DID have guns, just not many of them. And evidently these raiders had gotten far enough into their territory that they’d broken some of them out and come to deal with their pest infestation.

  I pulled back south again, over the trees, and dropped down as I sidled about.

  And here I saw the primary advantage of the Jaspa; there were a lot of them. They had numbers and weren’t afraid to spend lives. Perhaps three hundred of the bastards were spread out in the tall grass, working on their own trenches and firing spots. Back towards the tree line to the west, I saw them setting up camps and bringing a handful of ragged-looking donkeys laden with packs to heel. They’d come prepared.

  And sure enough, as I eased around gently as I could, slowly so as not to draw eyes, I could see the northern tip of their lines in an ideal spot to watch the farmstead where my people were trapped.

  It wasn’t ideal, but it wasn’t as horrible as it could be. The Jaspa had arrayed themselves in a rough curve, spread out over a mile in twos and threes. They had colored flags they were semaphoring with, and I idly wondered if I could crack their code.

  Insufficient Subroutines for this task!

  Requirements: Algorithms 1, Analysis 2