Interlude Fifty-Two: Anne Drake (Patreon)

Three weeks, thought Anne, and I’ll be in an English school.

The thought was comforting. Too many memories in this place, of Avra and Shyam.

Walking down to where their lockers had once stood still gave her flashbacks.

Andrew coming to school had helped, for a long time. More than she wanted to admit. She’d drawn some comfort from knowing that someone was there.

Clarisse had understood her for a while, and then she was gone too.

Her closest friend right now was probably Agni. And wasn’t that a hoot?

Three weeks more, and she could get out this friendless, dead zone and make a new start.

Meanwhile, she had things to do. The Mayor wasn’t going to spy on himself, after all….

Sitting in class, splitting her attention multiple ways, had become second nature now. Admittedly, there were times when she wished she could drop out and focus on the surveillance. It was difficult to focus on what Aldiss was doing while she was answering one of Mr. Fickle’s questions, after all.

Art class was easier. Ms. Burroughs tended to let students do their own thing. This suited Anne fine - today’s assignment, drawing a person at work, was a lot easier when she could copy what her bots saw.

Aldiss sitting at his desk, everything normal.

She’d not seen him open up his alien device for a few days. The last time was - Thursday? He’d started it for a few minutes, then locked it away and gone back to his routine. No more meetings with Jenny Tseng-Li.

So, she sat in class and sketched a generic man at work in a generic office.

Her teacher’s voice woke her from her reverie. “Is that meant to be anyone in particular?”

Anne blushed. “No - um - sort of. It’s what I imagine an office might look like.”

Ms. Burroughs smiled. “Good work. Keep it up.” She lowered her voice. “How do you feel about the move?”

“I’m looking forward to it,” Anne replied. “England’s where my family is, now. Besides, we need Dad around the house.”

“Do you have a guardian staying with you?”

“My brother and his girlfriend take turns. There’s always an adult around, no worries.”

“If you need any help, or if you feel overwhelmed, you can always reach out to the school, you know.”

“Thanks, Ms. Burroughs.”

The moment was interrupted by a bang! from outside.

The teacher’s face creased. “What now,” she muttered softly, too softly for anyone but Anne to hear.

Car backfiring? Anne wondered. Idly, she rerouted a few of the nearby nanobots to check it out.

The bots zipped through the hallways, invisible to human eyes. She’d learnt early on not to let them fly too low - there was the incident where Frankie Zucker got an unintended haircut - and since then, her bots in school stuck half an inch below the roof while moving.

A high-pitched whine sounded. One that was eerily familiar ….

She looked up at Ms. Burroughs.

The teacher was pale, almost shaking. “Children,” she said, “we’ll be practicing a little exercise now. I want you all to be seated at your desks and don’t move. All right?”

Nods from across the class.

“In a moment, the class will go into lockdown.” Ms. Burroughs pressed a button, and a heavy metal door slid into place. “You’re not in any danger, though. There is a small problem outside and Principal Johnston has asked us all to stay in class until it gets sorted out.”

The nanobots fanned out across the corridors, showing Anne the layout of the school.

She saw the first body then. A teenager in a grey hoodie, lying still and unmoving just inside the school gates.

The second body lay slumped against a locker, a girl with books fallen on the floor around her. Her red jacket was burnt black in the centre, charred by intense heat.

She saw the intruders then. Nine men, in white-and-grey masks. Black hats and baseball caps.

Armed.

They were fanning out across the corridors, brandishing bulky grey cylinders with a green glow.

She’d seen enough Lynxian plasma rifles to recognize them instantly.

The bathroom door swung open, and a student stepped out. She had barely an instant to react before a blast of plasma slammed into her.
Anne gripped her seat, watching as the girl fell lifeless to the floor.

“What’s going on, Miss Burroughs?” asked one of the students.

Burroughs bit her lip. “Children, I need you to stay calm. There are some bad men who’ve got into the school. The police are on their way, though, so you needn’t worry.”

The police would be out of their depth, Anne thought. This needed heroes.

Heroes like her...

She didn’t have any of the fullersteel bots around. Her current lot were wood and paper - easy to make, but not too effective in a fight.

Steel might work, though. She pulled out her geometry box. In seconds, the steel divider and compass had dematerialized to give off a cloud of nanobots.

Less than a hundred grams, but still visible, if anyone had been looking.

The steel bots quietly dispersed into the air, invisible to human eyes, and made their way out of the classroom window. She could sense them flow past the school walls, as their brethren tracked the intruders.

Who were now standing outside one of the classrooms….

Rapid-fire bursts smashed down the door to the chemistry lab. Two of the intruders barged in.

She could see Miss Ramirez stepping in front of the attackers. “Please let the children go,” she begged.

The men in front opened fire.

As plasma ripped through the classroom, students dived behind the desks.

Some desks held. Most didn’t.

Anne desperately willed her bots to go faster. She opened a Mindspeech channel.

<Nanocloud>: Andrew, there’s terrorists at the school. At Everard. They have Lynxian plasma rifles.

<Belessar>: Are you all right? Can you get to your suit?

<Nanocloud>: It’s in my locker. The school’s on lockdown.

<Belessar>: I’m coming. Wait there and stay hidden.

<Nanocloud>: Can you call Agni?

<Belessar>: Doing so now. Hold on, Anne. Help is on the way.

<Nanocloud>: Need to move fast. They just gunned down most of the eleventh grade chemistry class.

<Belessar>: Ten minutes. I need you to hold out for ten minutes.

Anne took a deep breath. Ten minutes was … a long time.

A movement through the corridor caught her nanobot’s eye.

Mr. Fickle was creeping up towards the attackers. Gun in hand.

Where did Fickle get a gun from?

The teacher cautiously pointed his weapon forward, moving with the grace of a professional.

She remembered, then, something Andrew had once said - Fickle was a veteran. Or something.

At least he was holding the gun professionally….

One man, alone, against nine attackers with Lynxian combat gear? Not good odds.

She willed her bots to guide him. They obeyed.

A map materialized in mid-air, in front of Fickle’s eyes. The corridor, the layout, and Fickle’s position in gold. She rendered the enemy as red dots.

Fickle’s eyes widened. The teacher nodded, and moved rapidly towards the foe.

Her bots were still some seconds away…

The teacher darted into the corridor, ducking behind a vending machine, and fired.

The bullet slammed into an intruder’s shoulder. The man staggered back.

There was no blood.

She could see the man’s face - expressionless. As if he hadn’t even noticed….

The shoulder rippled.

Flesh moved like jelly, wobbling around, and with an audible pop! the bullet fell out.

Anne could hardly contain her shock. Fickle fired again, and again.

The intruder blurred, dodging at a speed faster than she could follow. The bullets went wide.

Another intruder had made its way through the side corridor, flanking Mr. Fickle. The new enemy opened fire.

The plasma blast caught the teacher square in the chest, knocking him back.

The steel nanobots finally arrived. She formed them into a thin needle, targeting the intruder’s neck.

Her improvised knife plunged in.

She could feel… softness. As if she were pushing through jelly, instead of flesh….

The bots punched through, trailing a viscous liquid in their wake. She dispersed them rapidly, as the creature spun around, looking for its invisible attacker.

<Nanocloud>: Andrew… I tried knifing the attackers with a bot needle. They didn’t die.

<Belessar>: Did they bleed?

<Nanocloud>: All I got was some viscous goop on the needle.

<Belessar>: Goddamit. Spongiforms.

<Nanocloud>: Spongi-what?

<Belessar>: It’s a state where an ultra’s body is converted into a semisolid, malleable jelly. Shadow, Rubberman and the Human Jellyfish have it - their bodies aren’t really affected by bullets or knives.

<Nanocloud>: Nine ultras with the same power shooting up a school?

<Belessar>: That’s … unlikely.

<Nanocloud>: Unless they’re not ultras, they’re aliens. I think we found our shapeshifters.

<Belessar>: Do not draw their attention, Anne. Stay undercover.

<Nanocloud>: Hurry.

Anne took a deep breath. Aliens shooting up the school…

If direct combat didn’t work, the best alternative was deception.

She pushed her will into bots across the school.

Nanobots zipped into the boys’ locker room, making a beeline for the football uniforms. Wide, heavy, and with helmets attached.

In seconds, she had three sets of bots ‘fluffing’ out football uniforms. She could make them walk - after a fashion.

The empty football uniforms that stepped out of the locker room would not have fooled a human as being anything other than puppets. Even their gait was wrong.

She danced them through the halls anyway.

As soon as the first uniform floated into the corridor, the intruders reacted. Plasma blasts streaked towards it.

The uniform caught fire and half her bots were vapourized, but that didn’t stop her. She yanked it back, out of sight of the aliens, and sent in a second.

The intruders opened fire again. Hot plasma charred the walls of the school, narrowly avoiding the frantically weaving and dodging uniform.

Meanwhile, the steel nanobots clustered around one of the aliens. As he raised his rifle, they clustered into another thin needle.

This time, she punched through the Lynxian battle rifle.

The nanobot knife cut through something vital, even as the Hierarchy operative fired. The plasma erupted.

The ensuing blast took out half her bots, and charred the shapeshifter’s face. Screaming, he dropped the weapon, clutching his eye as liquid oozed from the wound. The other intruders hastily stepped back from their comrade.

Jackpot.

<Nanocloud>: Plasma can still hurt them.

<Belessar>: Don’t take risks, Anne.

<Nanocloud>: Don’t worry. They won’t see me coming.

She attacked.

Spears of steel formed in mid-air, slicing through the battle rifles. They punctured the triggers, the barrels, the grip, and a dozen other parts that she couldn’t name but that seemed important.

Some of the rifles started to whine in a peculiar manner. The shapeshifters glanced around. One of them made a chopping motion with his hand.

Four of the aliens started firing. The blasts slammed into lockers, windows and walls, leaving massive burn holes in place.

One of them led to a ninth-grade classroom. She could hear the screams of students as the hot plasma set fire to the desks and the walls.

And then, the flames bent and twisted away from the students, pulling back.

Agni had arrived.