by Max Carver
“Kind of,” Audrey said. “No. Sorry. But you're familiar.”
“Two words: Black Harbor. Beach. Black Harbor Beach. Okay, that's three words—”
“Zola?” Audrey couldn't believe it, but now it was hard not to see it. Especially with those rare gray eyes. “How? Zolaria Hallewell—”
“Yes!” Zola's voice dropped to a whisper.
“They said your father was transferred to the outer worlds,” Audrey said. “When you were thirteen. You never said good-bye.”
“I didn't get a chance. And 'transferred' is not exactly right. At all.”
“Wow. Zola.” Audrey was stunned, flashing back to forgotten pieces of her childhood, of exploring the soft black volcanic beach with Zola. The smell of sunscreen and ice cream. She shook her head.
Zola stepped forward and embraced her, which startled Audrey; Carthaginians, as a culture, liked to be seen but not touched, at least not by other humans, for the most part. Audrey was happy to see Zola, though, and embraced the girl back. It was strange how hot her skin was to the touch; Audrey had almost forgotten that about live human skin. Androids tended to be, not cold, but definitely a little more room temperature.
“I have two things to tell you,” Zola whispered in Audrey's ear. “First, your brother's in danger. Second, they're coming after you too.”
“Who?”
“They could try to kill you today.”
“I think you're late to the party on that,” Audrey said. “Does this have something to do with a crazed black-and-white clown?”
“We should talk somewhere else.”
“Okay, let me get Nin—”
“No bots,” Zola said.
“Okay.” Audrey drew Zola into her private apartment, shaking her head at Nin when she started to follow. The android seemed taken aback; Nin was not used to Audrey waving her away or ever choosing to be apart from Nin outside of rare situations like the security briefing.
“Is there any comm equipment in here?” Zola asked, looking around the apartment.
“It's all off right now. Why, do you need to call someone? And what did you say about my brother?”
Zola grabbed her arm and pulled her into the master bathroom, closing each door behind them. Audrey had no choice but to stumble along after her.
“Okay, this is getting kind of invasive,” Audrey said. The bathroom was pleasant enough, with a settee and crown molding and a vast marble tub, but it was a strange place to have a conversation.
“Do you have comm equipment in here?” Zola asked.
“No.”
“Your brother's been kidnapped,” Zola said.
“Which brother? Because if it's Marcello, it can wait.”
“Salvius,” Zola said, whispering even though they were in the bathroom.
“You know where Salvius is?” Audrey struggled to keep her voice down. “Are you kidding?”
“I don't know where he is. Not anymore. That's why I'm here.”
“We need to contact my father. I need Nin—”
“No. No machines. We have to keep this private. And among humans.”
“But Nin helps me with everything.”
“And watches everything you do,” Zola said. “The machines can't know what I'm here to tell you. Salvius is part of The Change.”
“The terrorist group?” Audrey felt a rush of anger. “He wouldn't be part of that.”
“No, The Change isn't any one group. It's an alliance of groups. It's a common vision, or at least a common cause—”
“Wait,” Audrey said. “You're serious? Are you mixed up with them too, Zola? Look, whatever you've done, I can help you.”
“Who said I've done anything?” she snapped. “I'm not here for your help—at least, not for me. Salvius was taken prisoner by a... it's hard to explain, but it's a splinter cell of The Change. They happen to believe that your family are the heart of the problem and should be removed.”
“They want to kill us all, huh?” Audrey said, a little flippantly, but a lifetime of tight security measures had accustomed her to the idea of her family being targeted. “Look, Zola, we deal with threats like this all the time. That's why there's Security Steves all over my floor. But I seriously need to know where to find my brother. Just tell me he's not dead in a ditch somewhere. I'm sure he's high, or crashing, or strung out, or whatever the term is—”
“They took him. And your brother is not who you think he is. His long disappearances aren't drug and booze benders. He just wants your family to believe that.”
“Yeah, right. So who has him? Not drug dealers?” Audrey listened extra carefully, since she didn't have Nin here to help her remember things later. She felt uncomfortably adrift without her android's constant support and help.
“The Blood Clowns,” Zola said.
“The... ” Audrey looked at her for a moment and nearly burst into laughter. “That's what they call themselves? On purpose? It's not a typo or anything?”
“It's their logo. They're willing to use extreme violence to change the system. At least, that's what they claim.”
“Yeah, so what do they do? Paint themselves in clown makeup and send people scary videos?”
“You've heard of them?”
“Yeah, sounds like the people who tried to kill me earlier,” Audrey said. “I don't know what I can do if you don't want me to report this to anyone. I don't like the idea of Salvius being in trouble—”
“So come with me. Help me find him.”
“Me? What can I do?”
“You can care enough to do something about it,” Zola said. “That's more than most people can do.”
“Look, if my brother's gotten tangled up with drug dealers or terrorists, that's a job for the police, or Hamilcar Security, or special services. I'm just a student—”
“You're a human being,” Zola said. “We can't call anyone for help. It'll make things worse. If you care about your brother and you'd like him to stay alive, come with me. If not, I'll go it alone. It's what I'm used to, anyway. But don't call anyone else.”
“What are you going to do?” Audrey asked.
“If you're coming, I'll fill you in. Otherwise, the details are none of your business.”
Audrey seriously considered it for a long moment, then smiled and shook her head. “Look, is this a prank or what? Because there's no way—”
“This is real, Audrey!” Zola threw up her hands. “This was a waste of time. I even spent last night flirting with some guy from your building so I could get invited in. Grad student in interplanetary regulations. Boring as a beige brick. Audrey, I thought you might be different. Like Salvius. But you're just like the rest of them. I was stupid to come here. Sorry. Just don't tell anyone you saw me. Do me that much of a favor.”
She turned and walked out, all the way through Audrey's apartment, back to the crowded elevator lounge where the music thumped, the orange lights pulsed, and the robo-DJ implored everyone to “strip it down and shake it out!” The drunk, drugged, half-naked young crowd cheered as a cloud of orange hologram bubbles floated through the dance floor, popping in bright floral bursts whenever someone touched them.
“Everything all right?” Nin stepped into Audrey's apartment, somewhat timidly. Behind Nin followed a smiling android with a brushy beard, red toolbox, and bright yellow hard hat. The logo on his overalls read RepairPal. “The repair bot has arrived for my hand.”
“Ugh.” Audrey took a deep breath, her eyes on Zola's retreating back. “I can't believe I'm about to do this. Nin, stay here and get yourself repaired. I'll be right back. Maybe.”
“Where are you going?” Nin stepped inside the apartment's maintenance closet, followed by the RepairPal android.
“Nowhere. Probably nowhere.” Audrey ran out into the crowded elevator lounge to catch up with Zola, and she leaned in close to be heard through the loud music. “What happened to your family? You said your dad wasn't really transferred.”
“He was suspected of disloyalty and se
nt to a remote post,” Zola said. “Officially. In reality, he lived the rest of his life under house arrest on an icy planet called Brem. My mother and I lived there with him at first. They posted reapers in our house to watch us. Do you have any idea what it's like to have those things in your house, day and night, just watching? They're like monsters. Like ghosts, haunting the whole place.”
“Is he... did your father die?” Audrey asked, wincing at the clumsy bluntness of the question even as she asked it. This was why it was always easier to deal with machines than humans. Androids were never unhappy, always eager to please, while real humans were a minefield of hidden emotion.
“My dad arranged for me and my mother to escape,” Zola said. “He thought they might let our escape slide, as long as he stayed. He said they'd gone to a lot of inconvenience to keep him alive.”
“Your family was very influential,” Audrey said. “And very close to mine.”
“Close to yours?” Zola snorted. “Who do you think he was suspected of being disloyal to? Your father and his faction. The ones who can't seem to stop centralizing power while weakening any sort of public control over the state—”
“Come on,” Audrey said. “We don't control the world. Nobody does. No matter how it may look from the outside.”
“The ones who can't stop conquering,” Zola said, her tone cutting. “No matter how large their empire grows. It's never enough.”
“All right. You know we can't change the past—”
“—we can only do our best in the present,” Zola said. “Yes, you and I went to the same day school and learned the same platitudes. But are we doing our best? Or do the machines just keep conquering worlds because that's what they're programmed to do? When will enough be enough? Why does nobody have the political willpower to call them back or make them stop? Why isn't anyone even trying?”
“Okay, I get it. You're with 'The Change,'” Audrey said, with the most derisive tone she could summon.
“Your family's people killed my father, Audrey. As punishment for him sending my mom and me back to civilization. They gutted him and left his body on the ice. They didn't kill Mom and me, though. They just sent us... pictures. Lots and lots of pictures. The reapers did it, of course. The machines who'd stayed in our house, watching us all those days and nights, just waiting for the kill order.”
Audrey stared at her for a long moment, shocked and speechless. Then she looked across the dance floor at the nearest Security Steve, posted stiffly in the corner by a potted plant.
“I want to help my brother,” Audrey said, barely believing the words as they came out of her mouth. She couldn't abandon Salvius, no matter what kind of trouble he'd found. Family first. That was what she'd always been taught, and it was a creed she'd lived every day of her life.
“You can't bring any machines, and you can't tell anyone where we're going,” Zola said.
“I don't see how much use I can be, then,” Audrey said. “But let's go. Before I do the smart thing and change my mind.”
They headed for the elevator.
“Audrey!” Nin screamed. She appeared in the doorway to Audrey's apartment. Her damaged hand had been removed, and for the moment her arm ended at the middle of the forearm, the connectors exposed.
The RepairPal android grabbed Nin by her remaining arm and hauled her back into the apartment. A round saw spun at high speed in his other hand.
“Let her go!” Audrey shouted.
“Come and get her,” the RepairPal said, his voice booming, and he grinned at Audrey before dragging Nin back into the apartment, out of sight.
“Nin!” Audrey started toward Nin, but Zola grabbed her.
“They're coming for you!” Zola said. “We have to run!”
“But the Security Steves—” Audrey pointed at the one next to the potted plant. That unit was already on the move, drawing a laser pistol from his shoulder holster and pointing it Audrey's way. “Steve, go stop that RepairPal from hurting Nin!”
“Get down!” Zola wrenched Audrey to the floor. The laser pistol's concentrated energy beam passed through where Audrey's head had been. The beam burned into the chest of a tall guy who'd been standing behind her—she thought she recognized him from her history of government class—and he swayed and toppled over, his trendy puzzle-piece shirt smoking.
More shots streaked across the room, seemingly from every direction. Most of them were electric-blue lasers, drilling through anyone they touched. One white microbolt of plasma struck Audrey's tall, gorgeous roommate Kelleyen, who so enjoyed massages from her handsome butler-bot, and burned the girl to the bone. Audrey actually glimpsed Kelleyen's rib cage before she toppled over in a burning heap.
People were falling dead all around her. The Security Steves were closing in from all sides.
Audrey screamed in horror; she'd never witnessed anything like this.
“They've been hacked. Run!” Zola shouted.
Audrey started toward the elevator, but Zola grabbed her arm and redirected her toward the stairs.
The crowd erupted in chaos, people running in every direction. The android assistants—roughly half the crowd—moved to protect their owners, valiantly taking most of the second wave of fire. Androids dropped to the floor, leaking sparks and lubricant.
“Keep moving! Get downstairs!” Audrey shouted at a confused knot of people blocking the transparent orange stairwell door, watching the shooting with blissful drugged smiles, as if everything around them was just a movie. Some were taking selfie videos, waving dreamily at themselves. “Go! Now!”
“You got it.” One of the guys raised his orange juice and vodka at her as if toasting and made no move to leave. A laser pistol blast tore through the chest of a guy beside him, who dropped to the floor, dead instantly. The drunk guy nodded and toasted his dead friend, sloshing half his drink onto the body.
Zola tore open the front of her dress, thick with layers of embroidered flowers. She brought out two components that screwed together to make a laser pistol—she'd smuggled the weapon past building security—and then returned fire, drilling one of the Security Steves through the skull.
That left seven more of the security androids, though, and Zola couldn't shoot them all, especially not with all the innocent people in the way.
“Come on!” Zola pulled Audrey into the stairwell. Laser fire from the Steves perforated the transparent orange wall. “Opaque!” Audrey shouted, hoping the building's AI would listen to her. Normally she would tell Nin her preferences, and Nin would communicate with other machines on Audrey's behalf. Other people, too. “Make everything opaque now!”
She wasn't sure about the rest of the building, but the walls around her turned solid orange, blocking the androids' view of Audrey and Zola.
As they ran down the stairs, Audrey told each floor to go opaque, to keep reducing their visibility. Sirens wailed around the building, advising residents to return to their apartments.
Residents and partygoers flooded the stairs, some in a blind panic, most in a drugged stupor, many of them wearing no clothes at all, especially the androids. The crowd was thick and confused, with everyone slowing everyone else down.
More lasers fired down the stairwell at Audrey and Zola.
“How do we make them stop?” Audrey asked.
“They won't stop until they kill us or we escape,” Zola said.
“Escape,” Audrey whispered.
A troop of gray-uniformed Guard Guy androids clomped up the stairs, arriving from the tower's nearest security station. Relief flooded Audrey at the sight of them.
“They're right behind us!” Audrey shouted at the Guard Guys. “They've been hacked. You have to stop them.”
“Understood, ma'am. We'll take care of everything.” The Guard Guy smiled with his red, rotund face. Guard Guys were much cheaper than Security Steves, but made by the same company.
The Guard Guys drew electrical stun guns, ready to zap any human suspects unconscious, but Audrey doubted they would be
effective against the Security Steve androids.
Audrey and Zola managed to squeeze past the first row of Guard Guys before the first Security Steves arrived. Lasers burned the air next to Audrey. One laser burrowed into the head of a Guard Guy beside her, partially melting his face and revealing the metal below. The android froze where it stood, becoming an obstacle on the stairs.
“Error,” said the lead Guard Guy. “Unable to damage Hamilcar Security property. A little error here.” He waved his stun gun uselessly, not even activating it.
“Oh, don't try to be a hero, Guy.” Zola turned and stood behind the indecisive Guard Guy. She grabbed his stunner, adjusted the settings, and fired a blinding bolt of electricity at one of the Steves.
The Steve shuddered and staggered across the stairs. It slammed its head into the wall, then turned and slammed its head into the handrail, denting its cranium.
Zola moved behind a second Guard Guy and repeated the procedure, discharging its entire battery in a single destructive bolt, damaging a second Steve.
“Let's go!” Zola pulled Audrey onward down the stairs. “You good with a gun?”
“No, not at all!” Audrey said, feeling frightened by the question.
“You'll learn.”
They rushed downward to the next car-loading level as fast as they could, trying to stay ahead of the wave of death and destruction chasing after them.
Chapter Seven
Galapagos
Reginald Ellison walked the corridor with the Galapagos spaceport's security chief, a low bulldog of a man who seemed born to be security chief of one place or another, Coalition Military Police Captain Henry “Looming” Loomis.
“Kartokov's quarters were completely destroyed,” Loomis said, coughing. “You may be down one minister of defense.”
“A terrible loss,” said Ogden, though the commerce minister's tone didn't convey much grief. “Still, it could have been worse. Do we know what happened? An accident?”
“We're looking into it,” Ellison said.