Should the Arrow Fly Further, part 7 (finale)

by natprance

Xiu Zhang had waited a week. It had been a long, slow week. She had tinkered endlessly with her prosthetics. She had drank countless cups of scalding black sludge. And every hour, like clockwork, she had brought up her map and checked the little dot marked G.E.’s position. And every hour, she found that it only moved between the garage where it worked and the apartment complex where it slept. There had been a few times she had gotten excited when the dot swerved down a side street or seemed to waver in front of a building, but it always quickly went back home or to work. Xiu Zhang had waited a long, slow week.

Xiu sat up in her bed and stretched her arms above her head. She swung her legs over the side of the mattress and cracked her neck forcefully. Lighting a half-finished smoke she pulled from the ashtray, she cleared the crust from her eyes and brought up the map on the pull-out monitor. Checking the past eight hours of footage, she saw the little dot break away from its usual route for a little over an hour. She blinked twice and wiped her bleary eyes. She replayed it. On its way home from work, the dot marked G.E. had taken the subway and made three stops. Xiu leapt out of her bed and pumped her fist.

“I’ve got you, fucker!” she yelled to herself.

Taking a few breaths and regaining her steely composure, she sat back down in front of the monitor. Cross-referencing the three stops that Ellison had made, she found that the first stop was just a convenience store. He had only stayed there a few minutes, so she concluded that he had been buying cigarettes or something. The next stop was a stationary shop. Strange, but not completely out of the ordinary. Again, he only stayed for a few minutes, and Xiu concluded that it was just to pick up supplies or to meet with a contact. She fast-forwarded the footage. The little dot wandered back and forth nervously in a small factory estate. Xiu checked the address on her database and found that it was listed as having been demolished in 2023. Bringing up the street view, she found a dilapidated building where an empty lot was supposed to be. Xiu grinned to herself and lit a cigarette.

As she waited for night to fall, she tightened the bolts in her legs. She oiled the joints in her arm. She ran tests and rundowns of all the implants and programs she had installed in her head. She was going to go in tonight, and she was going to take Prometheus out. She was going to get revenge for Wei, she was going to save her sister, and she was not going to be stopped. Xiu checked the compartment in her leg where the EMP grenade was stored. She felt the grooves of the numbers on each spot and memorized which number correlated with which colour. Red, yellow, blue, blue to arm. Four, two, six, six. Triple tap green to detonate. Lucky number three three times. Xiu smiled softly to herself. Wei had always been a sucked for the old superstitions. She swallowed a mouthful of sludge and blew out the door.

Xiu stood outside the abandoned factory estate. During the late twentieth century, this building had been used to house factory labourers who would work in the factories nearby. When the factories had closed and industrialization was outsourced to more rural parts of China, most of the buildings had been condemned and demolished. But this factory estate still stood defiant and beige, framed by sleek black skyscrapers in the distance. Xiu hopped the fence silently and snuck through a smashed window.

The inside of the building was pitch black and crumbling. Xiu stepped swiftly over fallen beams and shards of smashed glass. She perked up her ears and listened for any sound of movement. A small scurrying through a corridor on the lower floor. Not likely to be him; a man who calls himself Prometheus is likely to place himself on the highest floor, Xiu thought to herself.

Xiu made her way up a winding staircase. She lightly dragged her right hand along the wall. She was feeling for any rumbling, any footsteps, any indication that there was someone at the top of these stairs. She paused for a moment and just felt. A steady thumping, going from one side of a room to the other. Muffled by a thick carpet. Confident paces. He was two floors up. Xiu sprinted up the stairs as fast as she could on the tips of her toes.

She stopped outside the door and listened again. The footsteps were still present, rhythmically pacing back and forth. Mechanically pacing, in perfect tempo. A million thoughts flashed through her head. She would kick the door in and rip his head off. She would torture him and make him beg for mercy. She would tear his arms off and mangle his body like he had done to Wei. A powerful, deep, commanding voice rang out from the other side of the door.

“Come in, girl.”

Xiu froze. She had been perfectly quiet, she was positive of that. Had he heard her? Did he have sensors in the building she hadn’t noticed?

“I can see you through the door. X-ray vision. Open it up. No need to be afraid.”

Xiu was not afraid. She was angry. She gripped the doorknob and turned. She stood up straight and stepped through the door forcefully. Her mouth was open, ready to bark something at Prometheus before tearing him to pieces, but she found herself completely taken aback by what she found inside. In contrast to the bleak, desolate interior of the rest of the building, Prometheus’ room was stunning. There was an antique desk made of oak sitting in the middle of the room, the most current model of computer openly displayed with a retro-chic monitor. The carpeting was thick plush shag, and even through her boots, she could tell how soft and cushiony it was. On the rich wood pane walls hung a variety of trophies, paintings, even decorative plates. And in the middle of this surreal scene stood Prometheus swirling a glass of fine brandy.

He ran his hand over his matte black scalp and smiled at her with obsidian teeth and unblinking orange-red eyes. “Don’t let my looks frighten you, dear,” he said with a chuckle, “I’m more man than most.”

Xiu did a quick rundown of his augments with her ocular scanner. Advanced power outputs, several lethal weapons systems, and a built-in server running the fastest internet she had ever encountered. Prometheus laughed and gave her a quick twirl.

“Like what you see?” he said, “I’m the foremost model of humanity. I’m almost completely inorganic. I’m almost completely permanent.”

Though his face was permanently peeled back in a skeletal grimace, Xiu thought she detected a hint of resentment and longing in his voice. He bowed to her softly.

“You are Wei’s girl, right? Unfortunate what happened there. He was a good man.”

Prometheus held his brandy up to the light and swirled it pensively. “But he wouldn’t give me what I want. What I need. In a way, he still won’t.”

He swiveled his head toward Xiu with lightning speed. “But I’m sure you know about the thumb print scanner? Doesn’t work if he’s dead, unfortunately. But I’ll figure it out. And then I’ll give it back. I promise you, I will give it back. And you can save your sister.”

Xiu’s heart raced with rage at the mention of Qiu. “What the fuck do you know about my sister?” she shouted at him.

“Oho, it speaks!” Prometheus said in mock amusement, “Next to nothing, other than her name, her birthday, her blood-type, her grades in school, and exactly which hospital room and bed she is lying in right this second. She must have gotten banged up pretty badly to need this little beauty, hm?”

He pulled the tiny lockbox from his suit jacket pocket and twirled it playfully in his palm. “I promise you that she will get it if she needs it. But I need it first. I can make the world a better place. You smoke? I can smell it on you. Go ahead, light one up.”

Xiu stood motionless, glaring at him. He laughed again. So confident. Arrogant. Proud. “Polite to a fault my dear. When I was a boy, I thought I would live forever. As I got older, I realized how foolish it was to think that, but I at least believed that I would live to an old age. Get a job, get married, have kids, all that. And then cancer. Lung cancer, specifically. It had spread almost overnight, torn through my lungs. The doctors said that without a transplant, I would likely die. Even a transplant may have resulted in my body rejecting the new organs, and I would have still likely died. But a mysterious benefactor appeared. A scientist, a technologist, a man of vision and dreams. He said they had created a new technology; a set of mechanical lungs the size and shape of normal lungs. With my permission, they would implant the experimental creation inside of me. Well what did I have to lose? I said yes. And when I woke up, I took a breath. I took the first breath of my life. And I could taste the filth of mankind filling my lungs.”

Prometheus paused and took a deep, satisfied breath. He took a small sip of brandy and placed the glass on the desk. “The technologists declared the implant a rousing success. The technology had taken perfectly, with no risk of rejection. And I felt good. A month later, I returned to the doctor, and they found the cancer had spread to my liver. I demanded a new liver, and they said they could only hope to put me on a transplant list. The wait could be years; years that I didn’t have. So I returned to the technologists, and they gave me a new liver. But the cancer spread. When it spread to my legs, they provided new legs. When it spread to my jaw, they gave me a new jaw. And as they kept going, fewer and fewer scientists wanted to help me. Called me a freak of nature. Said I should just lie down and die like a man. If technology is not meant to serve mankind… to preserve mankind, then what is it meant for? When the last scientist turned his back on me, I turned to the underground. I had heard about secret augments, tinkerers and inventors who cared not for the laws of man. I sought them out, and they were more than happy to experiment on me. Every piece of flesh I could tear away was a piece of mortality I shed from my body. But the cancer still spreads. It spreads slowly, I have made sure to that, but it spreads. The only way for me to completely remove it is this.”

Prometheus held up the lockbox again. Xiu made an effort to control her breathing. The man was insane. He had to be insane. Who would want to live forever? Who could want to replace their warm, soft flesh with cold steel? She felt the nails on her left hand dig into her palm. On her right hand she felt nothing.

“This,” Prometheus continued, “Is an incredible piece of technology. The nanomachines self-replicate using organic tissue, slowly yet effectively replacing the brain and imitating the firing of neurons. Imagine it. A mechanical brain slowly taking the place of the organic brain. The philosophic questions are endless and unanswered. Would I still be the same person? Would my being die with my organic brain? But philosophy is left to philosophers, and I am no philosopher. I am a humanitarian. I want to be the first man to rise above our need for organic bodies. But I want to be far from the last. I promise you, I will save your sister. And I will make her so much more.”

Xiu dropped her jacket to the ground and walked towards him. She let out a roar and launched her fist at him with all her strength. Prometheus effortlessly side-stepped the blow. Xiu lashed out with a kick, followed by another. Prometheus blocked the first with his forearm and caught the second in the crook of his elbow. Twisting her leg, he flung her down on the plush carpet.

“Dear, I can do this all day and night and then a few days more,” he leaned down to eye level, “But I would rather not. I am an extremely busy man. So I ask you: will you continue to fight, or will you save your sister’s life?”

Xiu spat in his face. His orange-red LED eyes shone back at her without so much as a falter. “I’m going to kill you for what you did to Wei, and I’m going to save my sister’s life.”

She pressed her palm against his forehead and fired an organic bullet from her arm. Even through all of the electric and mechanical nerves, it was an extremely painful feeling. Xiu reeled in shock and looked back at Prometheus. He lay on the ground, his head smoldering. He let out a groan and sat up. “Ouch!” he said mockingly, “That kind of stung. Well, girl, you’ve made your choice. I’m sorry it came to this. For what it’s worth, I’ll still save your sister.”

He bent over Xiu and lifted her in a monstrous bear-hug. She shrieked in pain as he popped her ribs with crushing arms. She glared into his orange-red eyes and gritted her teeth as she dipped her hand into his suit pocked. She found what she was looking for and tossed the lockbox over to her coat near the doorway. Prometheus laughed. “That’s your final action? A minor inconvenience? You petty, petty shrew.”

Xiu bent her leg at an impossible angle and reached into the compartment in her calf. Feeling the numbers on the small orb, she pressed down four times. Four, two, six, six. Lucky number threes. Three small beeps came from the grenade, confirming detonation. Xiu looked at Prometheus with contempt.

“This is for Wei.”

A jolt coursed through her body and then she felt nothing. Prometheus’ eyes flickered and faded, the orange-red flame finally extinguished. His grip loosened, and they collapsed to the ground together. Xiu’s arm and legs were useless. She struggled to breathe, and she could feel her heart palpitating and flittering under the stress. She dug her left hand into the shag carpet and dragged. And she dragged. And she dragged herself with all of her strength until she finally reached the jacket.

From the pocket, she pulled a small tracking device and pressed a homing beacon. Several miles away at Lionel’s dingy pet shop, an alarm began to beep. A small monitor showed him Xiu’s location, and he would know to go find her. Xiu held the tiny lockbox in her hand. She swiped her thumb slowly over the scanner, and with a little confirmation ping, the lockbox clicked open. In the middle of the box sat a tiny micro-chip, no bigger than Xiu’s thumbnail. Xiu’s heart began to fail, the rhythm become slurred and erratic. Her lungs strained against her broken ribs. As her vision clouded and darkened, she looked into the lockbox again. Pressed against the top of the lid was a small photograph of Xiu, Qiu, and Wei, smiling and holding each other in the sun.

Xiu Zhang lit a cigarette, took a deep breath, and died.