by Eric Warren
Sy frowned. “You want to come back? But the mission isn’t done yet.”
“Yes, I know. I just don’t see how I can do it all by myself—”
Sy cut her off. “What happened to Frees? And that other man who was helping you?”
Arista bit her tongue to keep from saying something about him she’d regret later. “Frees decided it wasn’t for him. And Shin…” She checked behind her to make sure no one had snuck up on her. The room behind her was still empty. “Shin died while we fought our way in.”
“That’s unfortunate. At least you survived. But I’m sorry, Arista, I can’t come get you. We still haven’t heard from your friend at Cadre HQ about the patrols. I can’t access the Gate until we do. You need to find a way to remove Hogo-sha. Once you do that, it may disrupt the worldwide Peacekeeper patrols. They are all connected to the same network.”
Arista hung her head. Should she tell her Hogo-sha didn’t even have Peacekeepers? Taking him down would likely have no effect on the machines back home. Sy needed to find a way to reach the gate on her side. “I can’t get anywhere close to him. He’s got too much protection.” She thought about mentioning the fact Hogo-sha tricked her and Frees using Shin but dismissed it. Sy didn’t want to listen to her whine.
Sy’s chipper mood had disappeared. “Then you need to find a way. Listen, while you’re over there you need to do everything you can to stop him. Because I don’t know how long it will be before we can get you back and every day you go without food is only going to make this worse. That weapon in your hand should give you everything you need to destroy him. And you need to do it sooner rather than later. Understand?”
Arista nodded, not looking at the holo. Instantly, she was transported back to when she was a little girl, Dad chiding her after she made a fuss about going out to play with some of the other kids. They had been in Gallup, New Mexico at the time. And the kids were just out there playing soccer, kicking it around. She had wanted to do nothing more than join them for a few minutes. Kick it back and forth. But Dad asked what happened if she fell? Skinned her elbow or otherwise injured herself? It wasn’t worth the risk of exposure. But in the moment, Arista had thought it was.
This time she was being chided over not doing something. Life was funny like that sometimes. But she had made a promise to Sy. After all they were already looking for her parents; it was up to Arista to hold up her part of the bargain. Even if she had to do it all alone.
“Why don’t you get some help over there?” Sy asked.
“How?”
“Use some of the machines. Try to make your own Peacekeepers. Loyal, yet autonomous.”
“How would I do that?” She’d never considered making her own Peacekeepers before. As best she could tell they were made when a semi-conscious human had access to them, instead of a fully conscious one. The process didn’t quite complete itself in some way. At least that’s how Charlie had done it. But the machines here were different. They were immune.
“I thought you knew. We’re still unsure how they’re made. We assumed the Cadre had begun to crack the failsafe codes humans built in all those years ago.”
Good. So she didn’t know. Better to keep it that way.
Trying to veer the direction of the conversation away from the approaching cliff, Arista launched on a tangent. “I tried changing one of Hogo-sha’s ‘Peacekeepers’ when we first arrived. They aren’t Peacekeepers. I don’t know what they are, but I had no effect on them. They don’t respond like the machines there, I can’t change anyone.”
“Really? That’s fascinating.” Sy corrected herself. “I mean it’s terrible for you, but I’ve never heard of that before. He’s clever. You have to find a way to outthink him. That’s the only way you can beat him, he’s much more prepared than I’d given him credit for.”
“I don’t think they’re anything special,” Arista said as if she hadn’t heard Sy, as if she couldn’t help relay the information. “I think they’re just normal husks whose eyes are red.” Damn. Right back over the cliff. Great job, Arista.
“What makes you say that?” Sy asked.
Because he isn’t making Peacekeepers using humans as guinea pigs. You know, like Charlie did. And oh yeah, I killed all of those humans, so he couldn’t make anymore. Forgot to mention that.
“Arista?”
“Shin told us. Before he died.” That would work, though the pit in her stomach protested to the lie. Was it really lying, though? Shin had told her and, in a way, he had died. She wasn’t about to admit to being tricked so easily. A scratching sound reached her ears and Arista whipped her head around, double checking the room again. Still empty.
“What’s wrong?” Sy asked.
“I don’t know. I need to go. I might be compromised here.”
“Stay strong. You can do this. Don’t forget we’re all counting on you.”
As if she needed the reminder. She took one last look at Sy before cutting the comm link. As soon as it ended she dropped down to the floor to minimize the possibility someone might take a shot at her from somewhere. Was she ever going to get a break? Sy had seemed resistant to bringing her back; could it really be that hard to get to the gate on her side? She could turn herself invisible!
Arista took another breath. Blaming Sy wouldn’t do any good. She needed to complete the mission. Maybe by then the Peacekeepers would’ve moved on. Should she go back out the way she came? Or the other way; the one they had left through to reach Hogo-sha? It was more likely someone would come through the main entrance. Back door it was then.
The Device still wasn’t picking up anything. It had probably been nothing, maybe just the building settling. But she wasn’t about to put herself at unnecessary risk. Hogo-sha might have undetectable operatives.
She slipped out through the back into the long familiar halls Shin had led them down. Co-opting more machines for her own needs wasn’t an option, not to mention it put a sour taste in her mouth; she thought the part of her life where she used the machines for her own purposes was over. But Sy had seemed disappointed, what if she tried an experiment? On someone innocuous, someone random, just to see if it worked? And if it did, she wouldn’t force them to do anything against their will, she’d make sure they had an option. That was, if they didn’t turn on her as soon as they became autonomous. Visions of the farmer and his shotgun danced across her memory. No, this needed to be better. It needed to be a sure thing.
Twenty-One
“We’ve been here forever, when are you going to order?” the man asked from the table closest to Arista’s hiding place in the restroom. She’d managed to stay off the streets and come in through the back as soon as the sun was up, sneaking in through the rear of the restaurant and past the staff without notice. It was better than trying to grab someone off the street again, Hogo-sha’s men could be anywhere.
“When you learn patience,” the woman responded, eyeing the menu.
Arista was barely aware they were speaking Japanese and the words were being morphed and translated into her brain. She was more concerned with finding a suitable target. It would be better to take someone alone rather than trying to deal with two or more. She gritted her teeth as her thoughts ran back to when she’d done this to Max, first luring her down a dark alley then incapacitating her with a steel pipe. Arista had been so nervous in the moment she’d accidentally changed Max, sending the paralyzed woman into a near-frenzy. It wasn’t supposed to happen like that. But it had. Max had never forgiven her for it. Arista had only meant to injure her, mug her, then the police would have found her body and sent her to for repairs and she’d have been as good as new. But once she changed and her eyes shone bright orange her life as she’d known it was over. Had she been found by anyone other than Frees she would have been wiped and recycled.
Damn. She did not want to be thinking about him. The traitor.
Regardless, this time was going to be different. She would just try to turn one and then ask for their help. Then it did
n’t feel so dirty. It didn’t feel like she was violating them in some way even though that wasn’t what she was doing at all. Not at all.
But the memory of the farmer shot back through her mind. What if the person she chose was staunchly anti-human? What if they tried to turn her in? She’d be forced to use her weapon on them and she didn’t want to do that unless necessary. They were still people after all. And Frees had been wrong, she did feel bad about all those Peacekeepers back there. But she had wanted to protect them more. To protect him.
Stop thinking about him.
She shook her head, willing the thoughts to fly from her mind so she could concentrate. She scratched her wrist absentmindedly. The connection itched. Eventually someone would have to come to the restroom.
As if on cue the woman at the table stood up. “I have to use the restroom.” The man groaned, his head tilting back in an exaggerated fashion. Arista couldn’t help but smile. The way they interacted with each other was so close to the real thing she almost couldn’t tell. She ducked back into the restroom and hid inside one of the private stalls.
The door to the restroom opened and the woman’s shoes clicked on the tile floor. This time Arista would use anger. Last time had been a fluke. Hogo-sha had done something special to those husks. This was just a random person. And she was angry enough at Frees for leaving to give her plenty of emotional fuel. She didn’t try to push the memory of him away this time. Instead, she focused on it, on how he could betray her like that, leave her in this strange country. How he almost killed her jumping out of that window. How he was so conscientious and concerned about his own people that he put everyone else around him in danger. And how he seemed to love an argument. That last one betrayed a smile on her face and she had to shut it down to maintain her concentration. Once all the thoughts had coalesced in her mind and she was literally seething with anger, she stepped out of the stall.
The woman was in the middle of applying lipstick when she caught Arista out of the corner of her eye, only to continue what she was doing as if Arista wasn’t even there. Arista came and stood directly behind her, willing the woman’s brown eyes to turn orange, and yet she finished with the lipstick and slipped it back into her purse.
“He might not complain so much now,” she said and Arista felt her anger seep away. Something was wrong. That should have changed this woman easily. Arista grabbed the woman by the arm, staring down at the comm buried beneath the skin; was it blinking under there? The woman didn’t yell or scream or make any movement to get away. She only stared at Arista’s hand clamped to her arm. “It doesn’t work like that here,” she finally said. “You are powerless.”
Arista let go immediately, scrambling away from the woman. All thoughts of her anger forgotten. “W-what?”
“You have to find a way to outthink him. That’s the only way you can beat him,” she said, her face betraying no emotion.
Arista backed up against the stall, horrified. How could she know? He was toying with her. The Peacekeepers hadn’t been a fluke. She truly was powerless in this place. And this was the price she paid for her recklessness. For her need to use a shortcut. Sy had been wrong.
Arista rushed at the woman and swung her new fist around, connecting with the woman’s jaw, sending her sprawling into the mirror above the vanity, shattering it and sending bits of glass all over the floor. But Arista was already out the door, running back through the kitchen and pushing everyone out of the way to get to the back alley. The woman would notify Hogo-sha once she recovered, if he didn’t know already, but Arista hadn’t been able to bring herself to shoot anyone else. Damn Frees. Damn him and his crusade.
She burst through the back door into the alley, running as fast as she could and knowing it wouldn’t make much difference. The machines were twice as fast as she was and the only non-lethal method she had to stop them had been neutralized. Had he done something to her when she came through that Gate? Everything worked fine the day before. Or maybe it was something about this place. Something she couldn’t see yet.
She rounded another corner and found herself in the middle of the morning throngs of downtown Osaka. There were people everywhere and she ducked into the crowd, pulling her hood back up to avoid any of the surveillance devices. Even if Hogo-sha’s Psuedokeepers were out here it was better than staying back with the one who had already identified her. One way or another someone would come for her. She couldn’t imagine she’d gotten much distance on that machine back in the bathroom, but no one seemed to be on her tail.
Great plan, Sy. Yeah, go ahead and recruit your own people, sure. That will work beautifully. Then just stroll up to Hogo-sha, blast him in the center of his giant sphere and come back home. Easy. Arista was just thankful she didn’t know how Peacekeepers were made. She planned on never letting her find out.
To be fair, this wasn’t Sy’s fault. Arista should be able to turn these people. At least one of them anyway, but it seemed she’d been rendered powerless. At least she still had her new hand. She glanced at it while pushing through the crowds. It packed one hell of a punch—literally. She never would have been able to do that with her regular hand. Though it did ache some, probably just a result of smashing that machine’s face in. Which she didn’t feel bad about because due to the fact the woman hadn’t changed she would get repairs and be good as new in a couple hours. Or Arista would feel a hand on her shoulder any second now.
She had to find another way in. One that didn’t involve interacting with anyone. She mentally instructed the Device to download all the architectural plans she could find for the structures surrounding the tower. She needed to see exactly how they got in the first time if she was going to make a second attempt. It seemed Hogo-sha had been one step ahead of her in every way. It was like that machine said: think of something he hadn’t thought of yet.
The plans finished downloading and she mentally overlaid them with the route they’d first taken into the building. It seemed Shin had led them through a fairly conventional path, it was only her unfamiliarity with the place that had made it seem more clandestine than it really was. She had to remember, he didn’t want to kill her, only capture her. Maybe she could find a way to use that to her advantage.
Twenty-Two
Frees finished the internal diagnostic. No anomalies detected. That was the third time he’d run through it. “Bullshit,” he said to no one in particular. There was no one to say anything to. He hadn’t moved from the spot he’d rooted himself to since he’d left Arista.
He scoffed. Left. More like she’d shoved him away. She’d practically begged him to leave and that had been fine with him. Because she’d been right. He was a danger to her.
He kept going over the jump again and again in his mind. He’d seen how far the building was from their location. His internal sensors were in the middle of making the calculations when she told him they couldn’t make it. But he had been sure they could. He had been so sure he was willing to bet both of their lives on it. Due to his incompetence, they’d gotten into a very bad situation up there and it had been his responsibility to get them back out, as fast as possible. But she’d been right. They couldn’t make the jump. Something his internal computer confirmed after they were already in mid-air.
But even if his computer hadn’t relayed the information, even if it told him they couldn’t make it when they were still on solid ground, he didn’t trust he still wouldn’t have taken the leap. And that bothered him. Self-preservation had always been his top priority, and his second priority had come to be Arista. To keep her from harm until they could finish the plan. Somewhere along the way he supposed they had become friends, but she was there to do a job: to give machines the freedom he could not. So she needed to be protected. At all costs.
He stood, surveying the scene below him. He’d taken refuge on one of the few low roofs in the area, making a few short jumps to get on top. This city bustled with activity all the time; there never seemed to be a lull. Especially now, during the m
orning rush. On the ground delivery trucks moved through the crowd, the bodies parting and coming back together around them. Above him maglevs hovered inches above their tracks, running between the buildings like they were metal caverns. And high above the hyper lanes were clogged with activity. It didn’t matter what level you were on, it was crowded everywhere. Everywhere but right here, on some non-descript roof in the middle of the city.
It wasn’t like him to make mistakes like that. What had happened up there? His first thought was he’d been corrupted somehow, but his diagnostics had confirmed that wasn’t the case. And still, something was wrong with him. Something that had caused him to make an irrational and stupid decision in the heat of the moment without considering all the consequences.
Frees slammed his fist on the concrete. He hated being in the dark, especially when it came to his own systems. Something was wrong with him, he just had to figure out what it was. And this hadn’t been an isolated incident. He’d almost faltered back on the farm when that idiot had branded the gun at Arista. It had been the first time he’d been tempted to hurt one of his own because he wanted to. He’d told himself it was because the man shouldn’t have a gun but if he was really honest it was because of the threat to her. Not that she wasn’t in danger all of the time but that particular situation placed her in a more immediate danger than usual. It placed her in a danger in which he could do something to rectify the situation immediately. And he’d been tempted to turn the gun on the old man, see how he liked it.
But he’d kept his cool. He’d run that scenario through a few outcome probabilities. He’d decided that any action toward the farmer would have resulted in a worse situation or even leading to Arista dying.
So why hadn’t he come to the same conclusion when jumping out that window? He hadn’t even considered her hand weapon could provide some additional thrust. He’d just…jumped. Frees tried running through the scenario again, focusing on what he would have done had she not saved them. Would he have let them fall to their deaths? What other choice would he have had?