Page 27 of Jump or Fall

Mara

S ilva had been right to rush home.

Three new messages from Millon had been waiting, each one laying out the accelerated plan for deploying the synth-minds across the board.

Mara tried to sleep, but it was disjointed and restless. The regret of not running when they had the chance gnawed at her. But she needed to see this through.

The next day blurred into a haze of rushed procedures where everyone scrambled around like lunatics.

Originally, the rollout was meant to take weeks, staggered across groups to allow time for observation.

Now, the schedule had been compressed into mere hours.

Each group received twenty minutes of testing before the next wave began.

It was barely enough to identify issues, let alone correct them.

Mara hovered between two impossible desires—hoping something would go wrong so they couldn’t have the advantage, and praying they worked perfectly to avoid Dawson’s fury.

As soon as he’d learned about what her project could do, he’d been hounding her to complete it. The Silvers already ran everything, but this would make them unstoppable. How do you attack someone whose suit can fight back before they even know what’s happening ?

The plan to disable the synth-minds in certain suits was scrapped for now. There simply wasn’t time. The exploit Gordon had found was their best chance.

By 6:00 p.m., they’d deployed the last group. Every suit designated for the upgrade had received it and only a few minor issues had arisen. But it was only the first day.

Utterly spent, Mara dragged herself home. Her limbs were heavy and her mind foggy from lack of sleep.

She tore into a sandwich and downed a MealShake in four big gulps. Her stomach felt full to bursting from eating so much at once.

The couch looked like heaven. Just a minute—a short break to give her aching feet relief.

The moment her body hit the cushions, she crashed.

***

Daylight poured in through the windows.

She was on the couch.

Oh shit.

Mara bolted upright, heart pounding.

Both of her tablets were still on the table. That was stupid; she should have made sure the second was hidden.

She reached for them and quickly swiped for updates.

Millon

No issues noted with suit capabilities during night patrols. Division Five effectively subdued a threat with aid of suit acting ahead of wearer.

Her lips twitched into a tired smile, then dropped. She slammed the tablet face-down on the couch. It was working, but against the people they were trying to free .

The other tablet had no new messages.

Mara tucked her legs up and rested her chin on her knees, trying to smother the dull ache in her chest. She missed Gordon so much, and waking up alone only deepened the hollow.

She stared out at her empty apartment. How much longer would she have to play pretend? How many more times would she have to endure Dawson’s touch? Now it would be worse, like she was cheating on Gordon. Obviously, he knew what she had to do for this, but the guilt was impossible to quell.

She needed to keep busy, but there wasn’t much left to do. With the synth-minds fully deployed, her longest project had come to a close.

Reading would help. She retreated to her room and curled up with the secret tablet, losing herself in the archived articles Gordon had given her access to. One was about a country called "Mosylon"—a place across the sea, twice the size of the entire Western Domain.

Please message soon, Gordon.

***

The tablet finally lit up.

G

Crux puppets at 9.

Relief flooded her—quickly followed by anticipation.

Mara tried to stay occupied. She’d just learned the earth had warmed enough to melt these large sheets of ice at the poles. That, combined with increasingly volatile weather events, had led the people to remake parts of the land with terraforming machines.

She wanted to start a deep dive into those, but by 8:00, she was unable to keep herself distracted. If Dawson planned to visit tonight, he would’ve shown up already. After ten years, she knew his patterns—even if he tried to stay unpredictable.

She grabbed the new helmet she’d managed to snag from work in the chaos. Gordon’s current one was beyond repair without access to a joiner and showing up with it at Hyperion would raise too many questions.

She set her main tablet into auto-activity mode and checked outside—no Max. Using the override key must have made Dawson less suspicious.

Still, Mara carefully slipped out into the night with the bulky helmet protruding in her bag. The walk through the back alley behind her apartment was becoming second nature. Only one spider web got her this time.

Finally, the slate-grey door came into view. Odd how something so innocuous could mean so much—how a hidden tunnel could feel like freedom.

When she reached Crux, Gordon was already waiting. Her heart leapt. She rushed forward and buried her face in his chest, inhaling his familiar scent.

That wonderful, crooked smile spread across his face. “Good news, we can still puppet the suits. Oh, and thanks for the new helmet.”

They kissed, long and quiet. She would never tire of the feel of his mouth on hers, or the way his hands held her close.

“How do we do it?” she asked, regretting that they couldn’t kiss all night.

He pulled out a few small tablets and handed one to her. “We can each puppet three at a time. Kimmie will have to be on the ground, so it’ll just be you, me, and Silva. The interface shows the available suits within range. When you pick one, the command options will appear.”

She couldn’t help but smile. “You are brilliant.”

“Not half as brilliant as the suit maker.”

Kimmie arrived first so Mara relayed the news from Millon about the suit’s effectiveness for someone in Division Five .

“Yeah,” Kimmie said, “everyone was a little skittish of the new feature at first, but now they just keep fucking around blocking each other’s hits. I told my guys to knock the shit off since they’re draining their lithpacks if the sun isn’t out.”

Kimmie was still in her suit which had the upgrade, so Gordon asked, “Can we test your suit to make sure the remotes work?”

She folded her arms and cocked an eyebrow. “Fuck it. Just don’t make me do anything weird.”

The moment he powered on the remote, her suit appeared on the display. He selected it and ordered the suit to walk in a circle.

The look on Kimmie’s face was priceless as she started to move. She tried to fight against it, but the suit completely overpowered her.

“Okay!” Her voice turned shrill. “Stop!”

Gordon laughed. “I could make you jump on the table, but I’ll be nice.”

He disconnected the suit from the remote, and she exhaled in relief. “You are a scary person, Gordon. How did you even figure this out?”

“The upgrade is designed to make the suit move without your input,” he replied. “There was nothing in the code to stop someone from taking control remotely and doing the same thing.”

Kimmie turned to Mara. “Did you design it that way?”

“No.” Mara was simultaneously impressed and annoyed that something so crucial had slipped by her.

She nodded skeptically, but moved on. “Where the hell is Si–”

The door burst open with a loud clang. Silva stumbled inside and took a seat to catch his breath. “There’s… a riot… outside.”

Kimmie’s mouth dropped open. “What are you talking about?”

He raised a hand, still heaving. “Fuck’s sake, I’m getting old.

There is a riot. Shit is burning and I wouldn’t be surprised if more Divisions get called in to deal with it.

I think people are getting bold since we got those other enforcers and took down the mech.

I heard a few gunshots, not sure from who. ”

Mara turned to Gordon. “Sounds like it’s time to help out.”

They suited up and parted ways with Kimmie. She needed to be in her Division in case they were called in to assist.

Gordon handed out the remotes, and they split up once they exited the tunnel.

Silva hadn’t been exaggerating. Fires raged and smoke hung in the damp air while people ran in all directions. Their suits made them look like enforcers, so she tried to keep a low profile.

Turning a corner, she spotted a group of enforcers trying to contain rioters hurling debris. She ducked away, climbed a fire escape, and perched on the edge of a lower roof. A bright neon sign was directly below her, so if they looked in her direction, she would be obscured by the light.

Mara powered on her remote and instantly saw three available suits moving around on the screen. One had its weapon aimed at a civilian’s face. She took control of the suit and ordered them to walk away.

The enforcer next to him flailed his arms, clearly shouting, though she couldn’t hear over the chaos. The controlled suit kept moving, narrowly avoiding obstacles the suit sensed were in the way.

She wanted to do more but didn’t know which ones were allies or enemies. Then, another suit moved strangely. Her remote had it labeled as “In Use”.

Taking over two more, she commanded them to walk away. The remaining enforcers were distracted, giving the rioters an opening. One of them swung a metal pole at them, but the suit reacted, grabbing it mid-air. Others hurled bottles of fire across the street, dodging attempts to subdue them.

Gordon’s voice came over the channel. “Andrew is a Silver. Don’t know any others. I don’t have a clear shot and I’m out of range for my remote. ”

Scanning the scene, she spotted a tagged suit chasing someone. She took control and directed him toward a burning car, but the suit overrode her command, diverting him away.

Gordon chuckled. “That’s devious. Send him to the street corner to the west.”

Mara did as he said.

A gunshot rang out. Andrew stumbled but remained standing. The shot hadn’t penetrated his helmet, so she commanded the suit to remove it.

His head thrashed around, trying to force the suit to move, but it barely budged.

Gordon fired again, sending a burst of dark matter across the sidewalk before Andrew’s head fell forward.

Mara sat there in amazement, not able to move.

The suit was still standing.