Upgrade (Augmented Duology Book 2)

by Heather Hayden

  Dan tumbled inside, wedged between the two front seats for a moment before he managed to wriggle free. He collapsed on the back seat at the same moment the car jerked forward. Agent Smith had hit the gas, and we were flying along at breakneck speed.

  “They’ll be pursuing us shortly, but I think I can lose them.” Agent Smith glanced into the rearview mirror, frowning. “Put a seatbelt on and don’t try anything, kid. Viki, it’s time for an explanation, now.”

  Dan drew a sharp breath. “There’s no need to point a gun at me!”

  I had been so focused on him that I hadn’t noticed the agent draw a gun. The black barrel didn’t have a white stripe on it—definitely not a stun gun. What was he doing? “Put that away!”

  Agent Smith didn’t lower the weapon. “He’s dangerous.”

  My voice rose in pitch. “The rogue AI doesn’t have any control over him. Put. The. Gun. Down.”

  “As far as the Government is concerned, he’s stolen property.” Agent Smith turned the wheel slightly when the car’s GPS beeped, though his eyes remained fixed on Dan.

  “I wasn’t stolen,” Dan snapped. “I’m not property.”

  “You’re also an unknown element. Viki, the rogue could have told him to fake being free of its control.”

  “No.” I shook my head. “He saved my life.” I sent the agent a pleading look. “Please, just put the gun down. I promise I’ll explain everything.”

  There was a long pause. Then a small click. The safety in place, Agent Smith rested the gun in his lap. “I hope you realize how big a risk I’m taking here.”

  I glared at him. “He came to help me despite how dangerous it was. They shot at him—he could have been hurt.”

  “For good reason! You know what Dr. Sandy said. They’re military-grade cyborgs. Lethal weapons! And in the hands of this rogue AI—”

  It took me a second to remember who Dr. Sandy was—Chris, the scientist from the lab. “I don’t care what he said!”

  “I’m not dangerous.” Dan’s voice held a low growl. “I don’t want to hurt anyone.”

  My fingers dug into the leather upholstery of my seat. A flicker in the rearview mirror caught my gaze. Black cars, flying in a formation. “They’re coming after us!”

  “Can’t you call them off?” Dan asked.

  “With you in the car now, they’ll consider me compromised.” Agent Smith jerked the wheel, sending us careening around the turn. “I can evade them, but I need some help. Phone!”

  A beep came from the car.

  “Call Walters,” Agent Smith ordered. As a second beep told him the system was doing as it was told, he glanced at the GPS and took a sharp turn in the opposite direction.

  “Where are we going?” I gasped, tugging at the seat belt that was now digging into my midsection.

  “Dr. Sandy lives nearby. He will be able to assist us. Although bringing the cyborg along might not be a good idea. Whatever it says—”

  “He is my friend,” I interrupted. “And if you let Dr. Sandy harm him, we won’t be able to help you stop Talbot.”

  He gave me a brief, searching look. “How do you propose to stop the rogue? Without Halle, we’re fighting in the dark.”

  The car’s system beeped again, and a flat voice stated that the call failed.

  “Stupid, useless… Phone. Call. Walters.”

  Dan released a hissed breath, and I glanced back. He was staring out the rear window. The cars behind us were catching up. I could almost read their license plate numbers.

  The phone system pinged, then an unfamiliar voice came over it. “Smith? That you? This connection is awful. What piece of junk did they stick you in—”

  “Any luck with the house, Walters?” Agent Smith interrupted.

  “Not yet. It’s tied up tightly with icewalls, and I can’t get a handle on this code. It’s…slippery is the best way I can describe it. Evolving to match whatever I can throw at it.” Walters sounded half-horrified and half-impressed. “It’s going to take me longer than I expected.”

  Agent Smith’s scowl deepened. “All right, keep me posted. Can you access the systems for the cars in Agent Newman’s fleet?”

  “…Yes? Why?”

  “I need you to disable them and the tracking device on my car. Now. I’ll explain later.”

  “That, at least, I can do.” Walters still sounded hesitant. “You better have a good explanation for this, though.”

  “Just do it!” Agent Smith thumbed a button on his steering wheel, cutting off the call. “That solves one problem at least,” he muttered, more to himself than to Dan and me.

  The cars pursuing us were still closing the gap. My fingers dug into the soft cushion of my seat as I watched. “Are you sure about that?”

  “Yes.” Our car turned right, and as it did so, the three cars behind us suddenly plummeted to the ground. The last image I saw of them was a faint glow around their undercarriages as their emergency landing system kicked in.

  Agent Smith gave a sharp nod. “Good. Maybe next time they’ll think twice about opening fire on an unarmed civilian.”

  The ice creeping down my spine made me very, very glad I wasn’t one of those agents. I’d never heard someone so angry before.

  Dan’s fingers curled into fists. “I hope Halle’s all right, Viki.”

  My shoulders slumped, and I blinked back tears. “So do I.”

  “Halle is resourceful,” Agent Smith murmured. “I’m sure it’s safe.”

  I wanted to believe that, but part of me feared the worst.

  The agent’s voice became ice again. “Now how about you catch me up on everything that you and Halle have been keeping from me?”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Dr. Chris Sandy’s small house was not what I expected. I’d walked past houses that were almost identical before—light blue siding, solar-paneled roof, smooth green lawn surrounded by a white picket fence. It didn’t fit my image of the scientist, who I would have thought spent his free time working on his own science projects rather than landscaping. Then again, Dad kept our yard neat and raked. Maybe it was a scientist thing.

  Agent Smith parked the car behind a navy blue floater that was almost the same shade as the front door.

  “Dan, you should stay in the car. He might recognize you,” I said.

  Agent Smith shook his head. “No, he comes with us. I don’t need another rogue wandering about, especially one that’s being controlled by the first rogue.”

  “He broke free of Talbot’s control,” I protested. “If Dr. Sandy recognizes him, he’ll want to take him back to the lab.”

  Agent Smith got out of the car, holstering his gun. “Let’s go.”

  “It’s okay,” Dan said as he opened his door. “I can take care of myself.”

  I slammed my door and hurried after them.

  It took three rings of the doorbell before we heard footsteps. The door finally opened, and Dr. Sandy appeared in jeans and a t-shirt. He swept his gaze over us.

  “What’s this all about?” His eyes narrowed at Dan. “Is that—”

  “Let’s take this inside.” Agent Smith ushered everyone through the door.

  “Chris?” the feminine voice brought my attention to a woman standing in a doorway a few steps down the main hall. She was also casually dressed, with a touch of makeup.

  His wife, I guessed. We were probably interrupting their dinner.

  Chris sighed. “I’m sorry, Abigail, this is important. Could we reschedule?”

  Not his wife then. Girlfriend. I couldn’t feel much sympathy right now; we had bigger problems to worry about than interrupting a date.

  “Work again?” Disappointment laced her words, but she smiled. “I’ll see you later.” Giving me, Dan, and Agent Smith a curious look, she made her way past us and gathered a coat and purse from a hook rack mounted on the wall.

  “Thanks, Abigail, you’re the best.” He gave her a quick hug.

  “You better remember it.” She blew him a kiss and left
.

  The moment the door closed, Chris’s demeanor changed. He straightened and moved closer to Dan, studying my friend like he was an insect under a microscope. “Where did you find the cyborg?”

  “The rogue AI sent it after Viki,” Agent Smith said.

  Chris took a step back. “Is it still under the rogue’s control?”

  I moved between him and Dan. “Not anymore.”

  The scientist looked uneasy, but he gestured down the hall. “My house has an electromagnetic pulse generator installed,” he warned Dan. “One word from me, and you’ll flatline, so don’t try anything.”

  Dan tensed. I took his hand in mine and gave it a gentle squeeze for comfort. He squeezed back, and we followed Agent Smith together.

  Chris led us to the living room. It was small, with a wall-sized viewscreen at one end, windows across from the door, and a couch flanked by two armchairs against the other wall. A coffee table sat in front of the couch, topped with a metal tray of tea, mugs, and cookies. Chris dropped into an armchair in front of the television. The cat perched on its arm jumped down and curled up in his lap, just like Halle did on my computer screen. Swallowing hard, I sat on the couch beside Dan.

  Agent Smith took the other armchair and crossed his legs, his clipboard resting on his knee. He tapped his pen on it. “Have you had any luck in tracking the other stolen cyborgs?”

  “None. They could be anywhere at this point.” Stroking the cat, Chris nodded at Dan. “Mind explaining why the rogue targeted your intern specifically?”

  I held my breath, worried Agent Smith might mention Halle, but he simply shook his head.

  “We aren’t sure why she was targeted, though it might be because she is part of the investigation.”

  Chris frowned. “Why her, though, and not you?”

  Agent Smith tugged on the brim of his fedora. “I’m not sure.”

  “It might be better if we deactivated the cyborg, then.”

  Dan shrank back against the couch. I leaned forward with a glare. “He’s not dangerous! Ta—the rogue doesn’t control him anymore. You can’t just switch him off like he’s a machine.”

  “‘He’ is a machine.” The scientist studied my face for a moment, then nodded. “Very well. We might learn something useful from it.” Still petting his cat, he looked at Agent Smith. “I assume that’s why you brought it here.”

  “Yes. It is possible this cyborg has information related to the rogue AI’s plans. If that is the case, I want you to extract that information and help us put an end to this before something else happens.”

  “But—” I bit off the sentence. Halle had already looked into Dan’s mind and didn’t find any such information. Otherwise, it would have mentioned it to me.

  Or would it? What if it had kept something from me? Had it known that Dan might attack me? I wished Halle was with us.

  “I’ll give you any information I have,” Dan said. “But I don’t know anything about its overall plans. I was supposed to…” He glanced at me and winced.

  I edged closer to him on the couch and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. “The rogue AI ordered Dan to attack me, but he fought off its control. It wouldn’t have told him the full plan.”

  “You had no idea of its plan for her until the order was given?” Chris asked Dan.

  He shook his head.

  “Then there could be other orders buried inside your memory as well. Come with me.” Chris got to his feet.

  Agent Smith stood as well. “Where are we going?”

  “I sometimes bring my work home with me.” Chris walked out of the living room, Agent Smith right behind. “Not strictly legal, but there’s too much to do to get it all done during office hours, and a few days of sleeping on a cot in my office makes my back hurt.”

  I shared a look with Dan. “I’m not sure this is a good idea.”

  He nodded, biting his lip. “Not sure I have a choice.”

  I lowered my voice. “We could go back to my house, see if we can find Halle—”

  “Viki,” Dan cut me off, his voice gentle. “I’m sorry, but I couldn’t find it anywhere. If the rogue did trap Halle in your house…it’s gone.”

  I shook my head. “No. It can’t be. It survived Agent Smith’s attempts to capture and kill it before, it can escape another AI.”

  Dan rested a hand on my shoulder and opened his mouth to say something.

  “Viki! Dan!” Agent Smith barked at us. “Come here, we don’t have time to waste.”

  I pushed myself off the couch, marching toward the living room door. I refused to meet Dan’s eyes as we followed the men to a small room just down the hallway. Halle wasn’t dead. It couldn’t be.

  The room we entered looked like an electronics store had exploded. Parts, wires, and computer monitors were scattered across every flat surface. Agent Smith leaned against a wall, watching Chris shove things aside to make room on the table for a computer. The scientist turned the machine on, then pushed a few buttons, fetched a cable from a pile of identical cables lying nearby, and plugged it in.

  “Cyborg, come over here,” he said, gesturing impatiently.

  Dan folded his arms and held his ground. “My name is Dan. What exactly are you planning to do with that?”

  “It will let me access your processors and memory banks. Stop arguing and get over here. Authorization code: Alpha Alpha Charlie Echo.”

  Dan didn’t move. “No. Your stupid authorization code isn’t going to work. I’m not your pet cyborg, I’m Dan, and I’m not going anywhere near that thing unless you guarantee you won’t do something stupid like wipe my memory banks when you’re done with them.”

  “Standard procedure—”

  “You can shove your standard procedure.” Dan took a step back. “I said no.”

  Chris frowned and looked to Agent Smith.

  “Let Viki do it,” Dan said. “I trust her.”

  “She doesn’t have the training.”

  “Then you can explain it step by step,” Agent Smith said. “Viki has a good grasp of computers. I’m sure she can handle it.”

  Blood drained from my face. I didn’t know much about computers. Halle did. I said nothing though, simply stepped up to the interface. Dan hovered by my elbow, looking ready to turn and run if he had to.

  Chris pressed a spot behind Dan’s ear, and a section of pseudoskin peeled back, revealing a metal plate with a port. I winced, but Dan didn’t seem to feel any pain. The cable’s end slid into place with a soft click, and Dan stiffened.

  “All right, the connection’s been established. The program will access his memory banks and display the information on the screen.” The scientist was still speaking when a stream of data began to flow over the computer’s display.

  “What next?” I asked, hands hovering over the keyboard, elbows cocked just enough to keep Chris from getting too close. If he made any moves toward the computer while Dan was connected, I was going to slam a sharp elbow into his ribs and then possibly an implant knee into some place more tender.

  “Next, we want to isolate any parts of his memory banks that are blocked. This would be a lot easier if I was doing it myself—”

  “I can do it.” And I did, following each of his orders carefully, always double-checking what the purpose of a command was. I wasn’t going to let him sneak an erase command in.

  After about fifteen nerve-wracking minutes, he announced the procedure was complete and disconnected Dan from the computer.

  Dan shook his head and stumbled a bit as he stepped forward. I moved to catch him if necessary, but he steadied himself. “Whoa.”

  “Are you okay?” I asked him, frowning at Chris.

  “I’m fine. Just a bit dizzy.” Dan cast a sidelong glance at the interface. “Not sure I’m a fan of people rifling through my brain.”

  “I wouldn’t be, either,” I muttered, moving as Chris gestured me aside impatiently. “Did you find what you needed?”

  “We’ll know in a moment,” he sai
d, fingers flying across the keyboard so quickly they were almost a blur. Definitely augmented or upgraded.

  His fingers stilled. “This is it.”

  I clenched my teeth and leaned forward to see. The data was incomprehensible. “What does it say?”

  “These are the instructions that were blocked off from the rest of his processors,” Chris replied. “There is nothing linking them to any other part of his memory, which is why he couldn’t access them—he literally couldn’t see them.”

  “What do they tell us?” Agent Smith demanded.

  “They are protected by an icewall meant to come down when it’s given the right trigger. I can break it, but it’s going to take a bit.”

  “We don’t have a bit.” My voice shook as I spoke. “We need to know what that AI’s plans are, now.” Halle could have broken the icewall, I was sure if it. Had my friend known what the plan was after all? I straightened, wavering on my feet. Was that why Talbot had come after Halle? Why hadn’t Halle told me the truth?

  “Viki. Viki!” Dan’s hands grabbed my shoulders. “Are you okay? You look like you’re about ready to faint.”

  Agent Smith’s brow furrowed with concern. Chris was still bent over the computer.

  I nodded. “I’m fine,” I tried to say, but the words caught in my throat.

  “Maybe I could get through the icewall,” Dan offered. “I mean, I should have the ability to do so, right?”

  “Given the right trigger, yes, but without knowing what that trigger is or what it would do to you, we aren’t going to risk that. There’s no way of knowing what might happen. Do you want to become a danger to those around you? I can still activate that EMP, you know.” Chris tapped away at the keyboard with a ferocity that came just short of pounding on the keys. “Please give me some space.”

  “Living room,” Agent Smith said, ushering us out.

  I sat on the couch with Dan, drumming my fingers on my thighs. “Halle would be able to break the code.”

  “Halle’s not here,” Agent Smith snapped. “I have no doubt your friend would have contacted us if it were able to. Mostly like it has been—”