by Joe Canzano
Ricardo’s voice came on the line. “Suzy, don’t come—it’s a trap!” His words were followed by the sound of someone getting smacked in the jaw and then silence. Blurr gave a short laugh and spoke again. “Don’t worry, Ricardo’s in better shape than the idiots from Los Pocos who came with him—talk about amateurs... Anyway, if you want to prevent your guy from being cut up into little pieces, come to the power plant in an hour. I’ve got a good old-fashioned blade ready—professional grade—and I promise you every piece will be bite-sized. See you soon.”
The line went dead.
Suzy stood for a second in shock—and then she started moving fast through the crowd, heading for a train.
She knew her phone couldn’t be traced when she wasn’t talking; it had no positioning information capability. But she’d just been talking—and that signal could be traced. So she had to get out of the area quick.
Dammit! Why had Ricardo gone without her? How fucking stupid!
Once again, she considered how a few minutes could change everything—from the bottom to the top and back to rock bottom.
I’ve got to stay in control!
I’m out here with no disguise, she thought. Stupid again! She considered going back to the theater and getting one but didn’t. Instead, she ducked into a shop that sold women’s clothing. She bought a pair of sunglasses and a black fedora. She tucked her hair under the hat and headed back out onto the street. It wasn’t the best disguise but it was something.
Her head was still spinning as she jumped onto a train. When it stopped, she got off. Where the hell was she? She was near the hospital—and wasn’t Maria in there? Maria was good in a fight, but there’d been no news about her. In a few seconds, Suzy found herself standing in front of the main entrance.
Suddenly, Suzy had a plan. It wasn’t great, but it was better than blind panic. She looked around with quick eyes and then slipped into the hospital. She didn’t see anyone suspicious, but that’s usually the way it is right before the shit goes down. She moved toward the elevator—and when the elevator doors opened, Maria was standing there.
“Suzy,” Maria said. She smiled, and they embraced. “How are you, Suzy? Ricardo called me early this morning, and I told him I’d be checking out soon. He told me ‘perfect, get ready to leave.’ He said head toward the docking bay. What’s going on?”
“I’ll tell you. Let’s get out of here—watch out.”
Maria glanced into her eyes and then just nodded her head before walking outside. Suzy was happy to see Maria had a gun.
With a quick blast of words, Suzy told Maria the situation.
“In a way, I don’t want you going with me,” Suzy said. “I’d feel guilty if you got hurt.”
Maria gave an indignant snort. “He’s my brother—no one could keep me from going. Besides, you’ll need all the help you can get.”
“Right. That’s why I’m here.”
“What’s your plan?”
“Simple. We bust in there and shoot everyone we see who’s not Ricardo.”
“They’ll be expecting that.”
“Maybe. Or maybe they’ll be expecting something smarter and we’ll catch them by surprise.”
“That’s very optimistic.”
“Yeah, we’re trading optimism for intelligence—until we think of something better.”
“Let’s go.”
Suzy checked her pistol and then put it back into her thigh holster. She removed her sunglasses and tossed her fedora into the trash. It was time to let her hair down.
Chapter 43
Suzy and Maria took a fast train full of fishy-looking people to a distant corner of the city. From there they walked to Dome Seven through a wide connecting passage, where they discovered the “power dome” was a massive bubble equipped with an Earth-sky simulation currently set to show a moonless night. Loose chatter among the locals said it had been displaying this shadowy scene for over 24 hours. Suzy guessed that someone in the dome had problems with smiley, simulated sunshine.
Meanwhile, Maria kept muttering and cursing in Spanish. She seemed impressed that Suzy knew every word.
The power plant was a collection of grungy, bullet-shaped towers rising out of a drab concrete ocean. Everything was surrounded by an energy fence equipped with spotlights and a single gate. Suzy and Maria slipped through the darkness until they were crouched directly opposite the main entrance, behind a low concrete wall near a loading dock outside a pungent recycling center. Suzy noticed the wall was splashed with graffiti and the ground was littered with broken syringes, empty beer cans, and a couple of used condoms. Luckily, no one seemed to be getting high or having sex at the moment.
She peered across the darkness and estimated that two hundred meters of open space stood between their location and the gate. From the gate to the entrance of the main building was another hundred meters. She only saw the gray outlines of two guards at the gate, but she knew it was under surveillance and a full squad could appear at any time. She glanced around, wondering if this area was also under surveillance. It was likely, but no one was coming to meet them—not yet.
Maria said, “I heard the power plant is guarded by an auto-defense system.”
“Yeah, probably,” Suzy said. “Do you know much about tech stuff?”
“I know a little. I heard something else in the hospital; I heard the plant has been taken over by an AI. It’s just a rumor, but didn’t you say that you and Ricardo found the AI?”
“Maybe,” Suzy said. “Or maybe not... I know that Aiko said something to me when he died. He was talking about my dad, who built the AI, and he said ‘Back door…don’t forget to laugh.’ Does that make any sense?”
Maria raised her eyebrows. “A back door is a password, Suzy. It’s usually a phrase written into a program that overrides any kind of security. It’s like a secret key no one knows but the creator. If you talk to the AI, maybe that phrase will deactivate it.”
Suzy was impressed. “Nice, I’ll keep that in mind… What bugs me is it doesn’t add up; that would be a strange back door. My dad didn’t joke around much, and he didn’t appreciate the way I did it all the time. Anyway, I don’t see how we’re going to get close enough. That energy fence can’t be climbed, and we can’t shoot our way in. But we have to sneak in and find Ricardo before they hurt him.”
“Sneaking in will be tough, unless something happens.”
Suzy started to respond—but then it got dark.
The power was out once again. All the lights in the dome were dead—and so was the shimmering wall of energy that guarded the compound.
In the blackness, Suzy’s eyes got wide. “The universe is talking to us, Maria. This is our chance—let’s go!”
Without another word, they leaped from their hiding spot and ran across the concrete. With the fence inoperable, the entire area around the plant was exposed. Suzy grabbed Maria’s hand, steering them toward an area she thought was a good bit left of the main gate.
It was pitch black. Suzy recalled the ground had looked smooth—but running full speed into the darkness was crazy. Then again, I’ve been doing it my whole life. She didn’t count her steps and wondered if she’d be smashing face first into the building. She reached out with her free hand, looking to protect herself, and felt a sharp tug backwards from Maria. Suzy stopped in her tracks—just as the power returned.
Suzy whirled and scanned the scene. They were standing well inside the fence, less than a hop from the main building. Parked nearby was a mid-sized hover-truck probably used for deliveries. She was searching for another way into the building besides the main door—and then a siren sounded, spotlights swung toward them, and the door to the plant slid open. Armed people started pouring out. They pointed at Suzy and started shooting.
Maria gave a shout and fired a salvo of shots. Meanwhile, Suzy aimed her weapon in the direction of the lighted fence and shot the two guards. Then she scrambled fast with Maria and got behind the truck. A deluge of energy blasts struck t
he vehicle, shattering the windshield and sending a spray of glass into the air. Suzy peered out from behind the rear bumper and saw they’d nailed a few people, but a bunch had spread out and were now down on the ground, blasting away.
“We have to move!” she said to Maria. “We’ve got to get inside.”
Maria grimaced. “They know we’re here.”
It was true. Suzy’s heart sank, and right on cue her phone rang. She looked down and saw it was Ricardo calling—only she knew it wasn’t him. Still, she could hope. As the energy bullets continued to burst around her, she answered the call.
“Hello?”
Blurr’s voice came on the line.
“Hello, Suzy,” he said, and she could picture him grinning. “So you’re here with all the subtlety of a hand grenade—how professional of you. Put down your weapons and raise your hands. Every minute you delay will mean one less finger for Ricardo.”
Suzy looked at Maria, who looked furious—yet resigned.
“We have to do it,” Suzy said.
“I know.”
“But wait—look!”
A group of hover-cars was roaring up to the main gate.
Suzy watched as a tall guy in battle armor jumped out of the lead vehicle. Even from this distance, she could tell it was Captain Banks. Now he was talking on his link chip to someone—and then he was under attack from the guards in the plant. But he had a sizable fighting force with him, and they immediately returned a volley of fire.
In a flash, a cannon had blasted down the supporting structure for the gate. The entire energy fence went dead and the vehicles came roaring through. Banks’s fighting force was outside the cars, using them for cover while they fired a blanket of energy blasts at the power plant’s ground troops.
“What’s going on?” Maria said.
“It’s that crazy Captain Banks,” Suzy said. “I guess he didn’t kiss and make up with Blurr.”
“We need to attack!”
“But Ricardo—”
“Blurr’s got bigger problems now, Suzy—and if we surrender, he’ll kill us all, anyway.”
“You’re right. Let’s do it!”
The energy bullets were lighting up the night, but they were no longer aimed at Suzy and Maria. Suzy snapped a fresh clip into her pistol and crouched down low as she ran toward the main door with Maria close behind, blasting at the same troops who were now under heavy assault from Banks’s crew. Then there were shouts from above and a barrage of fire and light came pouring down from the roof. Banks’s people returned the new attack with a deluge of blasts that struck the building and sent pieces of metal and concrete raining down.
Suzy and Maria bolted through the debris and reached the door. It was open, and they slid inside, into a wide hallway. Suzy looked at Maria as she upped the power level on her weapon. “Robot fighters,” she said.
As she spoke, a robot rounded a corner up ahead, moving fast on its treads, lit up like a gleaming tree that sprouted guns and other weapons. Suzy’s first shot exploded against its armor. The robot was blown backwards a few steps but not destroyed. Suzy and Maria both fired a fusillade of concentrated shots into its midsection—but it still wasn’t enough. The machine returned fire with a quick series of bursts just above Suzy’s head that exploded against the walls and knocked her to the ground. Then it fired a smoke grenade that detonated nearby.
Suzy coughed and cursed and kept shooting. And then the robot was right there, coming at her. She fired again and again—and watched it race past her and head out the door toward the battle outside.
Suzy caught her breath and started to stand—just as three more robots came racing down the hall. She dove back onto the ground. The robots pointed their sensors at her before racing past and heading outside, where the sound of energy bullets and explosions echoed through the air.
Suzy leaped to her feet. Maria did the same and said, “Why didn’t they shoot us?”
“I don’t know,” Suzy said. “But if I had to guess, I’d say they want us to come in. Maybe that’s why the power went out when it did.”
Suzy figured they could either stand around thinking, or they could keep moving. She charged forward, keeping close to the walls. She was going to have to do both.
Maria squinted through the smoke. “Where are we going?”
“We need to get to the control room,” Suzy said. “If there’s an AI running things, that’s where it’ll be. And hopefully that’s where we’ll find Ricardo—and Blurr.”
They picked up speed, darting through the smoke-filled passageways. Suzy kept thinking they’d come across more fighters but none appeared. Obviously, everyone was either outside or up on the roof, firing at Banks’s group. Either way, they reached the control room quickly. It had a pair of broad steel doors outlined with yellow paint. Suzy hit the switch to open it, expecting it to be sealed—but the doors opened like a pair of hungry jaws. Suzy crouched down and they slipped inside.
They were in a circular room loaded with sensors, flashing consoles, and winking electric eyes. Above them was a steel catwalk filled with more of the same. At the far end of the room was an ominous console entangled in a web of multi-colored wires and steel conduit. In the center of the assembly was a reddish blob that looked like clay, surrounded by an energy shield and flanked by a pair of robot fighters.
Suzy didn’t see Ricardo or Blurr. Then the sound of a single shot rang out and Maria went down.
“Maria!” Suzy said.
Another robot fighter moved into view from a spot near the door. Suzy realized it could have shot her as well—but it hadn’t. There was the sound of an explosion somewhere down the hall and the building shook. And then Blurr’s voice came over a loudspeaker.
“She’s not dead, Suzy. Not yet, anyway. Put down your weapon.”
Suzy stayed in position. She knew the robot could shoot her—but she had a hunch it wouldn’t. They want to talk to me, she thought. And then they want to kill me. This is not the best rescue plan I’ve ever had.
“Blurr!” she shouted. “Where are you? And where’s Ricardo? Come out, you coward!”
“Put down the weapon, Suzy. You’d never get off a shot, anyway—but I don’t feel like waiting for you to wake up, and we have other issues to deal with.”
There was another explosion, closer now, and the building shook again.
Suzy put the weapon on the floor, and Blurr walked out of an alcove. Beside him was a monolith-like robot fighter—and chained to the robot in an upright position was Ricardo. Meanwhile, one of the robot fighters near the console moved forward and aimed its main gun at Suzy.
Suzy’s mind boiled with rage, followed by a spark of hope—Ricardo wasn’t dead. He’d been beaten up, but he didn’t look too bad. His eyes popped open and he said, “Suzy.”
“Ricardo!” she said. “Why did you go without me?”
“I didn’t want you to get hurt. I just wanted to help you.”
“You wanted to help me by getting yourself killed?”
“No. I wasn’t thinking. And I love you.”
His words hit her like a fist. “I love you, too!” she blurted, and for the briefest instant she felt wonderful because she knew it was true.
Blurr laughed. “How sweet,” he said. “I didn’t realize this was such a romantic place; maybe I’ll put a bouquet of roses in the lobby.” He snapped his fingers, and the robot’s tentacle-arm circled around like a snake and clamped a cold-looking hand over Ricardo’s mouth. “Keep causing trouble, and I’ll have the robot put another hand over your nostrils.”
“You motherfucker!” Suzy said.
Blurr just laughed again. “It’s nice to see you, too, Suzy.” He pointed to the console draped in connecting wires. “Let me introduce you to the AI you’ve been looking for. I think you two might know each other.”
“What?”
A voice filled the room, booming from a pair of speakers on the console.
“Hello, Suzy. It’s good that you’re here.”
>
The voice sounded human and vaguely familiar. She couldn’t quite place it—but then she did.
It couldn’t be! Her knees went weak.
“Uncle Leonardo,” she whispered.
“You’ve got a good ear,” Blurr said. “It’s true, Suzy. You should’ve shot him in the head.”
Suzy kept staring at the machine, too stunned to speak.
Blurr gave her a smirk and said, “Your father had the ingenious idea to merge software with the DNA from a human brain and create an AI that could really think. But he couldn’t find the right brain. He wanted a mind that was brilliant and creative—and then you came along and solved the problem. Not only did he get an exceptional brain, but he also resurrected the brother you brutally murdered… Anyway, Leonardo wanted to see you in exchange for making me rich. I’m guessing it’s payback time.”
Suzy struggled to speak; her tongue felt thick.
Finally, she said, “What do you want, Leonardo?”
“I’m not Leonardo,” the machine said. “But I carry some of his thoughts—and that part of me wanted to meet with you. I want you to understand that the whole situation was unfortunate, and things weren’t the way they seemed. No one felt worse than I did about what happened. It was all a horrible misunderstanding.”
“A misunderstanding?” Suzy said. She was shaking with rage. “Trish is dead! She killed herself because no one helped her deal with your ‘misunderstanding.’ "
“I felt terrible about it,” the machine said. “I’m sorry she considered certain things that happened to be inappropriate. It was never meant to be that way.”
Suzy glanced at the robot fighter and the energy shield surrounding the AI. Would everything disconnect if the brain were deactivated?
“Is this why you brought me here?” she said. “To tell me a bunch of bullshit before you killed me?”
There was a moment of silence. Then the machine said, “No. I was hoping you would forgive me.”
Once again, Suzy was stunned.
From the corner of her eye, she could see that Blurr seemed equally surprised. But Suzy wasn’t so surprised that she couldn’t answer.