Zoe glanced at the rack of injectors. "So now you're trying fear."
Vaughn blinked at that. Chain ignored her, saying, "We're from two slave cultures, Ms. Domingo. Only one of us can have our freedom. Your kind might've been loved. Instead, they'll be hated. Mine will never be loved. But we'll be free."
"Tauber thought we could all be free."
"He was a dreamer, with a poor memory for history. Did you know that in the nineteenth century, many reformers were torn between abolishing slavery and fighting for women's suffrage? Some tried to do both, but the savvy campaigners picked one horse to ride. And so blacks were freed fifty years before women could vote. I won't wait fifty years for my freedom."
"So thanks to you, critters go down in history as werewolfing psychos."
Vaughn blinked at Chain. "Oberon? What's she mean?"
He looked at her, and she became quiet. He asked Zoe, "Do you know who left that booby-trap in your DNA? The person responsible for Werewolf Syndrome?"
Vaughn stepped closer to Zoe and spoke as though she would cry, as though she needed forgiveness as well as understanding. "There was a loose codon in the gene pattern of half my offspring. I was afraid that if I fixed it, you'd be docile. And the world's so cruel."
Zoe waved her hand toward the injectors on the cart. "How many werewolves-in-waiting are there?"
Chain said, "Enough to make sure the Chimera Rights Amendment never passes."
Vaughn snapped her head to stare at him. "We made those for research! To find a way to counter the enzyme—"
Chain shook his head. "There's no such thing as pure research."
"Please! They're my children!"
"Imperfect children. A time comes to wipe the slate and begin again—"
"No!" Vaughn snatched the SIG from the table and aimed it at Chain's chest. "Oberon. Don't do this."
"I've made my choice." He held out his hand for the pistol.
Vaughn clamped down on its trigger. Bullets shredded the snytheskin over Chain's forehead and ripped clothing and skin along his chest. He must've been able to control the flow of his artificial blood. His wounds revealed clean, dry cables and struts.
Tearing away a flap of skin that hung over his left eye, he stepped forward. "And you've made yours."
Vaughn kept firing as Chain came close. He seized her head in both hands, broke her neck, then lowered her, almost tenderly, to the floor.
I yelled, "Zoe, get out!" Neither she nor Chain appeared to hear the slightest sound from me.
Chain, his face impassive, aimed the SIG at Zoe. "Give me the earring."
She darted back. He said, "The door's locked. There's nowhere to go."
"Who wants to go anywhere?" Zoe grabbed an injector from the cart.
"That can't harm me."
"Yeah?" She put the injector to her arm, pulled the trigger, then gasped as the injector fell from her hand.
I screamed, "No!" and slammed the heels of my fists against the Exovault's glass walls.
More curious than alarmed, Chain said, "Are you mad?"
Zoe shook her head. "No." She stood tall, as if listening for something far away. Then her shoulders twitched, and she gave Chain a pleased half-smile. "But I'm working on it."
She scratched at her upper arms, shivered, then gripped the edge of the worktable to steady herself. Speech came slowly and painfully from her throat. "When my mate Tim werewolfed, he went after anything that moved."
She doubled up with a cry of pain, then forced herself to stand erect. "They put ten rounds in Tim. He still took out three SWATbots."
She grinned and walked toward Chain as if stalking prey. Her voice came more easily now. "An' Tim was lighter'n me. How 'bout it, Chainyboy? You're the only thing moving." She was a head shorter than Chain, and her flesh was fragile, yet she came toward him, and he backed away.
Extending her claws, she roared a promise of death and swiped at his neck. He dodged and leaped thirty feet across the room. Her claws scarred the wall where he'd stood. She howled in frustration and fury as she turned to stalk him again.
Chain clicked the remote. The Exovault hissed open. He tossed me the SIG and froze as only a bot can. His voice issued from motionless lips. "Kill her quickly, or she'll tear you to bits."
I read a story when I was a boy about a man who had to choose between two doors. Behind one, a woman. Behind the other, a tiger. I stepped through the Exovault's open doorway and faced both at once.
I lifted the SIG and placed Zoe's face in its sight. Sometimes a quick death is the only gift you can give. In her place, I would've been grateful for it. I looked for some sign of the woman fighting the jungle cat, as Nate had fought the werewolf, but I couldn't see what lay behind the jaguar's eyes.
I said, "Zoe—" and prepared to fire when she leaped at me.
She straightened up, smoothing her hair behind her cat ears with both hands, as she told Chain, "Why would I do a dumb thing like that?"
He glared at her for what must've been a remarkably long time, given the speed of his electronic brain, slammed the remote on the table, and advanced on Zoe. "Then I'll do it myself."
I fired. My shots bounced off his eyes.
He glanced at me. "No expense was spared on this body."
Zoe ran in front of the Exovault door as if to hide behind it. He grabbed for her like a cobra striking. She dodged too slowly, and he snagged her wrist. She gasped in pain.
I fired shot after shot into Chain's nearest knee. The first bullets did nothing. Then something broke in the joint, and Oberon Chain toppled.
Kicking free of him, Zoe said, "Hope you kept the receipt."
He lurched for her. As she ducked, I rammed him with my shoulder. He fell over her into the Exovault. I slammed the door. Nothing succeeds like luck and teamwork.
Chain whirled to drive his fists against the Exovault door like a boxer. The thick glass cracked under his blows. I braced myself against the door in the hope of winning a few extra seconds and shouted, "Lose him!"
Zoe snatched the remote from the table and clicked it.
In the Exovault, Chain screamed in absolute silence as space warped around him. An entire universe appeared beyond the Exovault door, a universe hungry for new matter.
Chain clung to the Exovault's steel frame as its cracked glass imploded. Everything in the lab that wasn't fastened down—papers, chairs, computers, scientific equipment, Vaughn's body—hurtled into the vacuum within the damaged chamber, battering Chain, but not dislodging him.
I braced myself against the Exovault's frame and hung on with all my strength. Zoe flew toward the vacuum, slowed herself by gouging her claws into the soft floor, then flew on as her claws ripped free.
I caught her with my right arm. We clung to each other and the Exovault, desperately fighting the pull of that strange space within its shattered walls.
Chain reached through the broken door and seized my shoulder. Whether he hoped to pull himself out or me in, I'll never know. Everything in the Exovault disappeared in a blinding flash. The vacuum ended. Gravity worked normally. Zoe and I fell hard to the floor.
She stood, wrenched Chain's severed hand from my shoulder, and threw it into the empty Exovault with a snarl of disgust.
I took her by the shoulders. "That was one hell of a chance you took. If you'd had the werewolfing gene—"
"Tim—" Tears formed like pearls at the corners of her eyes. "We did the same things, ate the same food. And he werewolfed. I didn't. I guess he did us all a favor."
I nodded, wondering if I should embrace her. Before I could decide, she said, "We should get going."
"Yes, ma'am." I Pocketed the SIG and looked for evidence to support the story we would tell the cops. I couldn't see any. I had to content myself with the hope they would find something, or, in the absence of evidence, we would get the benefit of the doubt.
Barely two steps into the hallway leading to the front lobby. Zoe clutched my arm. "Max. Chain's an AI."
"Was. So?"
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"He would back himself up."
"He can't have any more bodies."
"He doesn't need any more bodies."
"The earring—"
She grabbed my arm and jerked me back. A steel fire wall slammed down inches from my nose. We turned, starting back the way we had come. The vault-like door to the laboratory closed before us. We ran down the hall, trying the handle of every door along the way. All were locked.
Zoe whipped out her PowerPad and clicked it on. The monitor field appeared with text: "Internet connection failed."
Zoe said, "I can't get an outside line!"
"The building must be shielded."
"Fuck." She pointed. A bright yellow eight-legged handibot scuttled from a janitor's closet and scrambled toward us. I opened the Pocket for the SIG, firing as it slammed into my hand. The bot shielded its sensors with a flexible leg and kept coming.
"Zoe! Catch!" I ejected the earring from the Infinite Pocket.
She caught it, turned its halves, slid the gold pieces, looked up hopefully—and the bot continued to advance. "He reprogrammed it!"
She pocketed the earring and ran at the bot. Its tentacles lashed toward her. She vaulted over them. As the bot turned to follow, she wrenched a fire extinguisher from the wall and sprayed foam across its sensors.
The bot flailed blindly. One leg hit Zoe and knocked her back against the wall. I ran up, shooting into the handibot's optics. It spewed sparks, then collapsed with its legs limp around it.
We ran up the hall, scanning door signs. Zoe jerked me to a halt and pointed at one marked "Computer Laboratory."
I said, "On two." We each took a step back. "One. Two!" We kicked together, shattering the door free of its lock, and ran inside.
Lights came on, revealing another room without windows. Whether the reason was energy conservation or security, I thought someone should talk to the designer. The place was crowded with computer work stations. One, partly dismantled, had a chest of tools lying near it. It was nice to see evidence of workers who properly valued quitting time.
Zoe set the earring on a computer console and placed her fingers on the keyboard. An electric shock knocked her down.
"Zoe!" I ran to help her up.
"No!" Eyes wide, she gasped, pointing past me.
Across the room, a short, wheeled boxlike lab bot rolled out from the wall, extending steel grippers from its sides. I threw an arm around Zoe and yanked her toward the hall.
Before we'd taken three steps, a shadow fell across the doorway. I lifted the SIG. The yellow handibot, its head hanging limp and sparking, scurried into the room, trapping us there.
I fired a burst at each bot. They shielded their optics and kept coming. I scanned the room for anything that might stop or slow a tin man and saw nothing. Sooner or later, everyone runs out of luck.
I put the tip of the SIG against the earring on the console and yelled, "Chain!"
The bots halted. Oberon Chain's face appeared on every monitor around us.
I said, "If you want the earring in one piece, let us go."
"You trust me?"
"You believe in self-interest. So do I. Why shouldn't we all get what we want?"
"Very well."
The lab bot rolled forward, extending a gripper. I lifted my pistol. The bot's pincers closed on the earring. The gripper retracted, and the bot rolled back.
On every monitor, Chain smiled. "Thank you. That was the last loose end." The handibot lurched toward us.
"Only if that's the real earring."
"Easily checked." The lab bot drew a cable from the nearest computer console and plugged it into the black opal's data port. For an instant, every monitor bore the image of a dark gem rotating in space. The lab bot jerked the cable from the earring, and Chain's face reappeared on the screens.
Chain frowned like a teacher disappointed with his students. "Did you think it would be that easy?"
"Yeah, but I'm stupid." I lunged, snatching the earring from the lab bot and grabbing the data cable. The cable went taut in my hand as it retracted, but I hung onto the plug and jammed it into the earring's jack. Then I opened the Infinite Pocket and rammed the earring inside. The Pocket closed tightly around the cable, leashing me to the computer by my wrist.
The computer announced, "Search in progress." The black opal reappeared on every monitor. The cable at my wrist jerked, slamming me against the computer console.
Across the room, the handibot lurched for Zoe. She sprang aside, and it scrambled after her.
Chain's face came back on the monitors. "Release the earring!"
"Say 'please.'"
The lab bot hit me from behind, knocking me to my knees. I kicked back, knocking it away, and saw Zoe hit the handibot with a desk chair. Toppling,it caught her ankle.
Chain said, "You'll release the earring, or—"
His voice was cut off by the computer announcing, "Search completed. Three hundred fifty-three thousand, six hundred ninety-four copies of the Chain intelligence found on the net. Commencing erasure."
Chain's image on the monitors broke into a sunburst of pixels, then resolved to show Janna Gold smiling as she said, "Gotcha!"
Chain reappeared. "Stop the program!"
"Dream on. Forever."
As the lab bot's pincers closed on my right arm, Chain's image was shot with static for an instant. He said, "Then we all die—"
His image broke up again. When he came back, he looked coarse, grainy, almost two-dimensional. Old cartoons never die; they just decrease their resolution.
The handibot dragged Zoe toward it. The writhing data cable in my wrist kept me from shooting at it or the lab bot. Chain's voice had lost most of its character as he said, "—die together. Initiate self—" His image collapsed into snow.
I passed the SIG to my left hand and got off a shot at the handibot. It scuttled back from Zoe. My moment of satisfaction ended abruptly: The lab bot's grippers closed around my chest and squeezed. I shrieked as bones cracked.
Zoe snatched a screwdriver from the dismantled work station and ran toward me. The handibot wobbled after her. On the monitors, Chain said, "—self-destruct—"
The world was dark and distant as Zoe drove the screwdriver down with both hands into the join between the lab bot's casing and its metal skull. She twisted the screwdriver. The lab bot spasmed, released me, and slumped where it stood.
My ribs screamed as I lifted my arms to shoot over Zoe's shoulder. The first shots missed, but several struck the handibot's damaged sensors. It thrashed, swinging steel tentacles. Zoe ducked. I thought that I should, too, just as the bot knocked me against the far wall.
Chain's voice came as if he were a world away. "—destruct mode." That meant something bad. Zoe ran to me and knelt by my side. I blinked and tried to smile.
On the monitors, Chain broke up into a ghostly pattern of dots, then disappeared. The computer announced, "Three hundred fifty-three thousand, six hundred ninety-four copies of the Chain intelligence erased. End program."
Zoe said, "You okay?"
I groaned, opened the Pocket, and unplugged the earring. "Do I look okay?"
"You look—"
A siren sounded. The computer said, "Self-destruct command verified. One minute to implementation."
Zoe said, "What?"
The computer said, "Fifty-nine seconds."
I lurched to my feet. "Goddamn sore loser!" My ribs screamed, but I had better things to do than listen to them. The countdown continued as I staggered into the hall. The fire wall still blocked our exit.
"Max—"
"C'mon!" I sliced open a maintenance hatch with the edge of the Pocket. Zoe vaulted up inside it and pulled me after her. Crawling through the ductwork hurt more than walking had, but I wasn't about to slow down.
We hadn't scrambled far before we came to the intersection with the maintenance sled clamped to the wall. Shouting, "Wait!" I wrenched the sled free and threw myself onto it. "Hop on!"
Zoe leaped
on my back and clung tight. That made breathing harder, but breathing wasn't a priority just then. I yanked the throttle. The sled rocketed through the ducts for several long seconds until, directly ahead of us, the shaft ended at a heavy grille.
"Max—"
I glanced at my watch. Time was up. "Trust me!"
"I hate it when you say that!"
The nose of the sled smashed the grille aside. As we scooted across the rooftop, I kept the throttle back hard, and we shot into space. I don't know if I felt heat or shockwaves, or heard the explosion first. All I know is the explosion lifted us, flinging us over the road at the rear of the building and onto the grass.
We hit hard and bounced. The trees in front of us looked even harder. I wrenched the steering rod, and we flipped across the lawn. I ended up in a bush and felt like staying there.
Zoe lay near me. When she rolled over and looked at me, I felt a little better. "Max?"
"Yeah."
She kissed my lips. "We didn't die."
"That's always my favorite part."
Bionova headquarters was engulfed in flame, a beautiful and terrifying sight. I saw people in the front parking lot and hoped everyone else had taken advantage of that minute of alarms.
Zoe said, "C'mon."
"Okay." I lifted myself on an elbow, then fell over. My last memory is of Zoe crying, "Max!"
I woke on a soft bed in clean sheets in a place that smelled like pine trees. I didn't want to open my eyes. I expected to see my cell at Duggan. Then I remembered Zoe and our escape, and I sat up.
I hoped someone had checked to see if I was claustrophobic before putting me in this room. Its off-white walls had been slid so close together that there was barely room for the fake mission-style chair beside my narrow bed. One HV screen hung on the wall by the foot of the bed. A second unit mounted on the wall beside me projected the illusion of a window: I could see tall pine trees and hear birds calling to each other in an outside world that was hundreds of miles away or that had never existed. I confess, it was comforting.
The medical AI hanging overhead spoke as I sat up. "Good morning, Mr. Maxwell. You're in Pasadena Presbyterian Hospital. Your health is excellent, and you've recovered fully from your accident. How do you feel?"
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