When he reached the room, two Lambda soldiers flanked the door, both at attention with hands near their sidearms. This was nothing all that unusual, but Cade decided to take note of it anyways. “Just in case” was Lambda’s unofficial motto. One of soldiers opened the door and beckoned Cade into the room. Cade was surprised to see that the room was totally empty. The guard closed the door behind him. He noted the soft click of a lock being turned. Cade looked across a long conference table, at the seat that should have contained his section chief but instead a formless human shape flickered into existence.

“They send a hologram to do my debriefing?” Cade said, but before he had time to start wondering what that might mean, the hologram spoke.

“Please sit down, Agent Cade.”

Cade complied, trying to make out some facial features on the polygonally shaped head of the hologram. This had to be Lambda Prime and if it was that was a very bad thing. Lambda Prime was the highest-ranking member of Lambda. If Lambda Prime was involved, even by proxy, it could only mean Cade was looking at something much worse than a reprimand.

Despite not having any eyes, the figure seemed to look right into Cade as it spoke. “You have served Lambda loyally for many years, but your recent actions put into question your suitability for continued operations.”

Cade knew what was coming before Lambda Prime said it. “I am afraid the decision has been made to deactivate you.” This meant death, and Lambda Prime said it as easily as firing a secretary.

As the hologram flickered out of existence, the door opened and the two guards reentered the room. Now their sidearms were in their hands, and they were pointed right at Cade.

“You understand that there is nothing personal about this,” one of the guards said, stepping forward his gun trained on Cade’s chest.

Cade stepped forward, pressing against the gun. He met the eyes of the guard that spoke. “I appreciate that. That’s why I won’t kill you.”

The guard smirked, clearly not understanding his danger. By the time he did, Cade had slipped between the two men. The smirk dropped from the guard’s face as Cade revealed his bionic arm,and he watched in mute terror as it reconfigured itself, revealing a long thin blade. Cade pierced the first guard’s shoulder making The man drop his sidearm to the floor with a clatter. , Before the second guard had time to react, Cade’s blade had retracted back into his arm and had extended out through the elbow and into the second guard’s stomach. The second guard’s face went white as Cade removed the blade, moving his hands up to clutch at the wound, and dropped to the floor. Cade knelt down and scooped up both guards’ sidearms. He was sure both men would live, which was more than could be said for him if he didn’t get out of the building quickly. He slid the guns into the pockets of his coat and ran for the exit.

Cade moved as quickly as he could down the halls and stairways that made up the labyrinthine Lambda Building while not attracting any unusual attention.

If he could get out of the building before anyone discovered those guards, he could disappear into the Under City and escape.

Cade was heading for the lobby by a circuitous route that avoided any locations where his identity would be scanned. Cade was sure his walking through a scan point, unaccompanied by either of the two guards he had left bleeding in the conference room, would bring up red flags he wanted to avoid.

Things were going well as he reached the eighth floor, the lowest floor you could reach the lobby from directly. Cade was just about to head down the spiral staircase that lined the lobby when the alarms sounded. They must have found the guards, Cade thought as he ducked into a nearby supply closet.

Cade waited to hear the sounds of booted feet in the hall outside, but he heard nothing. He amplified his hearing to be sure. No, there was no one moving in the halls. He activated the thermal sensors in his optic implants. All the heat signatures on this floor were more or less stationary. The functionaries stationed on this floor were staying in their offices like they should, one or two huddling under their desks.

Cade stepped from the closet, sure for the time being at least, that he was safe in the open. He knew the building will be on lockdown now. Every internal door would be sealed. But the lobby doors would remain open. They couldn’t allow the outside to see something was wrong after all; this meant the lobby was still his best option for escape.

Cade walked down the hall to the glass windows that overlooked the lobby from this floor. As he looked down, he saw it wasn’t deserted. Guards were running up the large spiral staircases on either side of reception, trying to get to the nearest elevator to get to their emergency stations. Some would be reporting to security to start forming teams that would sweep the building looking for him.

Cade’s keen eyes swept the lobby for any pertinent information, anything that might play a role in his escape. The first thing he spotted was an elevator with the large “Out of Order” light above it. Cade made a note of it. The next thing he noticed was the receptionist shaking behind his desk. Good, Cade thought, He’s not a combatant.

The tinting of the windows along the entryway blocked off the view of the outside, showing anyone who passed a recorded image of the lobby with people going about their business.

There was a huge UPE flag hanging under him, it’s blood red pyramid and hexagonal pattern standing out starkly against the night black background. The flag hung from a pole protruding from the wall just above the window Cade was looking out of and hung down almost all the way to the floor; this was his way to the ground. He would have preferred using the elevator, but in the situation, they would all be locked down. Same with the vent access. Normally Cade could have easily bypassed these lockdowns as a matter of course, but with his termination order, his access codes would have been nulled, so this was it.

He checked the ammo in the two pistols he had grabbed from the guards, and seeing they were both full, he replaced them in his coat. He punched through the window in front of him. Reaching out with his bionic arm, Cade grabbed the flag. Cade leaped from the window, clutching the flag and riding it down. It tore as his hand sliced it on his way down.

He was forced to drop the last ten feet. As he rose from his landing crouch, he surveyed the lobby again. This all seemed to be too much for the receptionist, as his eyes had gone wide and blank in shock before he passed out. Cade ran past him and to the huge glass-paned double doors that made up the front wall of this building. Rather than stopping to see if the doors were locked, Cade whipped the pistols from his coat and shot at the window; they cracked. He used his running momentum to crash through. Leaping and rolling in air to shield himself from the shattering reinforced glass, Cade came up in a crouch, both pistols gripped in his hands and looked up. To his astonishment, he wasn’t alone.

“Stand up and drop the guns, Cade!” Shard’s voice rang out in the office square. He was standing about twenty feet from where Cade crouched and flanked by several soldiers bearing the Enigma crew patch. Four AEDs Their large mounted gatling guns aimed directly at Cade. stood behind him. Cade wondered how they got there so quickly. Lambda must have figured Cade wouldn’t go quietly and had set His former captain to stop him in the most visible way possible. , but as neither of these things bared on his current situation, Cade consigned them to the back of his mind.

Cade stood slowly, allowing his guns to drop from his hands. He hadn’t given up just yet, but he had to appear at least to comply or Shard would have him killed without a second thought. As strong and fast as Cade was, he was no match for a volley of bullets on the scale Shard’s force could bring to bear. “All right, Captain. I’ve dropped my weapons.”

Shard drew his sidearm and approached Cade with slow deliberation. “Cade, I always suspected you would be deactivated one day. You were always just a little too softhearted to be a good Lambda.”

Shard stood right in front of Cade, his gun was pressed against his temple. “You caused me a great deal of embarrassment. You almost cost me my command!” There was something manic in Shard’s voice, something of his inner madness and savagery. “And now I’m going to deactivate you, Cade. I have dreamed of doing this for weeks now.”

“You’re not going to kill me, Shard,” Cade said this with more confidence than he actually felt, but it had the desired effect. As Shard took a very small step back, trying to figure out what ace in the hole his former Lambda officer had, Cade sprung forward.

He seized Shard’s gun arm and wrenched it, pulling Shard in close. “You will never kill me, Captain. You don’t have the spine. You are more than ruthless enough to make a good UPE pawn—nice and brave when you are in a position of power, but when someone with real nerve and courage doesn’t blink, you flinch. And when you flinch, I win.”

Cade, gripping Shard by the throat and wrist, slowly backed into Lambda HQ. “Everyone stay where you are, or I will end this piece of slime right here in the plaza!”

The statement was a formality, as none of Shard’s men would dream of firing without his direct order. Sometimes the proprieties must be observed, and besides, Cade couldn’t resist driving Shard’s situation home just a little. The only problem was once he was back in the lobby, he still had no escape plan. It was only a matter of time before someone gave the kill order regardless of his hostage. Right now, Cade was on top; that, after all, was what Lambda had trained him to do.

As they moved through the lobby, still staring down Shard’s dumbstruck troops, Cade shifted his grip on Shard’s wrist just enough to snatch the gun he was still clutching and slipped it into his coat. “You made me drop mine, after all.”

“Keep it, Cade. You’re still dead.”

Cade wanted to say something, but then he had it—he knew how he was getting out of the building. He dragged Shard over and up the spiral staircase to the out-of-order elevator. The moment he let go of Shard, he knew the onslaught of bullets would begin. Carefully not letting go of Shard’s throat, Cade used his bionic arm blade to lever open the doors to the elevator shaft. The elevator was caught between floors several levels below him. That was good; this would make what he was planning a little easier.

Cade reached out and grabbed one of the lift cables for the elevator and pulled himself in, releasing Shard and shoving him down the stairs. As Shard fell, Cade heard him give the order to fire. And the area was drenched in bullets. Cade was already in the shaft though and and cutting the other lift cable. As the cable gave way, Cade shot up the shaft, gripping his with all the strength his real arm could muster. He needed his fully bionic one for the stop.

As Cade reached the top floor of the Lambda Building, he was dimly aware of a crash far below, the elevator car crashing to the bottom. Cade was focused on the millisecond timing he would need to hook his fingers into the shaft doors and stop his ascent or very quickly it would turn into a descent.

He almost missed his mark, his bionic fingers colliding with the almost imperceptible crack between the doors, but he got purchase and was able to pry the doors open.

The floor he was on now was the one that led to the landing pads. As he quickly moved down the hall to that door, he heard the sounds of people readying weapons and giving orders. All the guards would be rushing to the lobby right now. He approached the bend in the hall where his ambush was near. He once again extended his arm blade and drew Shard’s gun.

As Cade turned the corner, he dived forward, firing Shard’s pistol until the clip was empty. The answering fire was deafening, with bullets whizzing past his head and catching on his coat as he moved down the hall. When he hit the ground, he rolled, coming up in the middle of the group of waiting soldiers, his blade flashing, cutting into body armor and flesh with equal ease.

The sounds of gunfire died down. Cade had the leisure to look around at what he had done. There had been ten soldiers lying in waiting for him. Cade had gotten four of them with the gun in his mad dive, and the rest had fallen to his blade. Cade noticed one of the surviving soldiers, a man now missing a leg, pulling himself toward an assault rifle that had been dropped during the battle. Cade walked over and casually kicked him in the temple. The man went limp, and Cade stepped over him and out the door, thankful he didn’t have to kill him.

Cade ran out onto the pad, quickly spotting his Dagger class fighter. He wasted no time sending the command to power up...

Cade’s Dagger Fighter:

Next Chapter: Chapter 26: The Dark Nature of Capitalism