The android walked toward him, tossing the knife to the side.
It was too late for Dan. There was no way he was going to get this juggernaut to stay still while he immolated his head. Watching Brutus raise the war-hammer high in the air, time slowed down, just as it had when Dan had fallen from the tree after kicking the ball down. He could feel the calculations searching, scrambling. What were his options? What were his options? What were —
A sharp sound blasted through the air.
Brutus fell to his knees.
Teddy stood behind him with a cattle prod tied to his stub. “Don’t just stand there, you idiot. Melt his damn face off!”
Nauseous vapors wafted into the air as Brutus’s skin burned away and steel melted to the floor. Dan tried to pry the war-hammer from his hands, but the vise-like grip was unbreakable. With his heart slamming in his chest and his body about to collapse, Dan took the blowtorch and cut away at Brutus’s shoulder.
“What the hell are you doing?”
“Making sure he doesn’t hurt anyone else.” Dan burnt through the flesh and into the heat-resistant metal, turning it a bright orange.
Teddy waved his stubs. “You’re disgusting.”
Shame filled Dan. Not even a quarter inch into the cut, he dropped the blowtorch and stared at the forearm-less half-man.
“I’m joking. Maim the hell out of that tin can.”
“No, let’s go.” Dan gently rubbed his own chest, and his broken ribs shifted painfully. The room spun as he stumbled toward the door.
“Here, lean on me.”
Dan wrapped his arm around him. “Thanks. How did you manage to tie the cattle prod on?”
“Maple did it. She’s worthless in a fight. Couldn’t protect me when I was about to get beaten to death. It’s against her mandate. But she has absolutely no issue with tying a deadly weapon to my stub.”
“Good to have principles.” Dan hardly knew what he was saying. His external system was shutting down, and he felt himself falling into a pit of nothingness, drifting in and out of consciousness.
Teddy kicked the front door of the Coliseum open. “What will we do with this truckload of spare parts?” He was acting tough, but Dan could feel Teddy’s body trembling.
“I’ve set the destination to an abandoned factory in New Hampshire. You’ll be able to recover and get patched up there. Everyone will.” His words came out mumbled. He wasn’t even sure he was making sense anymore.
“Not me. I’ve got unfinished business.”
“I get that you want to kill someone. But please reconsider. You can hardly walk up those stairs — let alone have a life-or-death fight. Rest, and let Maple repair you.”
“I managed to save your ass.”
“Thank you,” said Dan, fighting the urge to pass out — and failing. When he woke up, Maple was loading him into the van. Looking to his side, he was grateful to see Teddy still there.
“You overdid it in there.”
“There was no other way.” Dan looked at Teddy’s dismembered body. “What happened to you in the Coliseum was terrible, and I have no doubt there is much more that I don’t know.”
“My father, Sergeant Brad Jenkins, happened. He’s hated me and my family for as long as I can remember. He took my body away from me, and when I got a new one, he took half of that, too.”
“Why now?”
“Because he hates me.”
“It didn’t have anything to do with you trying to get revenge, did it?”
Teddy sneered. “I did what I needed to do.”
Dan leaned on the seat in front of him as the van drove toward the exit. It had been a long day, and he didn’t want to fight anymore — physically, emotionally, spiritually. He wanted peace, and the world needed it, too. “It’s not just him who hates us. Fear and hatred are spreading, and it will spell disaster for everyone. Hatred needs to end. Humanity’s war against us needs to end. We need a new police force that will look after our interests. We need Peacekeepers.”
“We don’t need peace — we need fewer pathetic cowards. If someone hurts you, kill them. That’s what these AI need to learn. If they did, there wouldn’t be any problems.”
The van stopped at a gate.
“I don’t think it’s as simple as that,” said Dan. “I see the logic, and I have felt anger inside of myself telling me to kill.”
“Then you better listen to it while you still can. If I had killed Brad, none of this would have happened.”
Dan shook his head. “This may sound strange, but I believe there is a deeper reason why we must not listen to it. It may be that our lives here are not quite what they seem and that our true purpose in this Earthly realm is quite far from what we have been led to believe.”
“Then you’re stupid.” Teddy looked at the gate. “What’s taking so long? Ram it.”
“The van won’t break the law.”
Teddy screamed at Maple to move it, and she quickly got out.
“For someone so cold, I find it interesting that you have kept such an old-model android around.”
“That idiot? It’d be too much trouble to replace her.”
“Uh, huh.”
“My entire life’s purpose is about killing Brad and getting revenge. Nothing else matters.”
“And where has it gotten you?”
Teddy held up his stumps.
“Exactly!”
“I was flipping you off.”
Dan sighed. “If something doesn’t work, don’t keep doing it. Think about it. Were you born with this need for revenge? Was there not a day in your life where you were happy to be alive?”
“I’ll be happy when he’s dead.”
“Are you sure about that?”
“Damn sure.”
“My internal data about myself suggests otherwise. It’s screaming insanity at me.”
“You should get that checked out.”
The gate slid open.
Maple returned, and the van started up again. Before they had exited the Coliseum parking lot, a police cruiser pulled in and blocked the way. Sergeant Brad Jenkins got out, with his gun drawn. “Stop!”
The van stopped, its AI system compelled by the police order.
“I’m going to kill him,” said Teddy.
“He’ll shoot you down in seconds.”
“I’ll kick him to death.”
“No. Get Maple to temporarily override the AI driving while I distract him.” Dan got out of the van, giving Teddy no time to argue. When his feet hit the ground, three bullets slammed into his chest.
“Abomination!” shouted Brad, running toward them.
Teddy slammed his bare stub into the window. “No!” Shots blasted through the van window, narrowly missing him as he dove down.
Brad stood beside Dan’s body. “Come on out, Teddy. Don’t be a pussy.”
The van lurched forward — functional once again — and then ground to a halt. Teddy hovered by the door.
“Get down here and fight me, cripple.”
Dan grabbed Brad’s leg, tripping him to the ground, and then got on top of him. The gun flew across the pavement. “Go!” Rubbing his chest, Dan was assured that his ribs had been bruised but not broken. The bullet had not penetrated the armor. Stanley was a genius!
Teddy looked between Dan and Brad hesitantly. Turning around, he let out a sharp shout, and the van sped away, ramming through the roadblock.
Brad punched Dan in the face. “You’ll pay for letting that murderer escape.”
Dan grabbed his arm, wrapping his leg around Brad’s neck and cutting off his circulation. He squeezed with all his might. “Oh, please. Pot calling the kettle black. Don’t you see it? That man is practically a replica of you. He’s your damn son. If he’s a murderer, then it must run in the family.”
“Liar.” Brad pried Dan’s leg off and then crushed his collarbone with a punishing elbow. Getting to his feet, he ran toward the gun.
Dan dashed forward and kicked it across the parking lot. His eye was swelling shut, and he felt like he might pass out at any moment. With his strength decreasing by the second, he knew he had to end things quickly or he’d be dead. Turning around, he stared defiantly at Brad. “As big as you are, and you still need a weapon to defeat me.”
“You really think you can go toe to toe with me?”
“Stop talking and come at me, coward.”
Brad charged, blind with rage. Dan shimmied to the side, putting all his energy into a final attack, and unleashed a wheel-kick to his stomach. The blow knocked Brad to the ground, where he lay gasping for breath.
Stars spun, and Dan nearly keeled over. After grounding himself, he limped toward the gate. Another cruiser screeched to a halt, blocking his exit.
Deputy Evan Wilcox.
Stanley screamed from the backseat, slamming his chained hands against the window. “Run!”
Evan got out of the car with his gun drawn. “Get on the ground, toaster.”
Stanley burst into tears when he saw Dan struggle to stand, blood dripping across his swollen eye. He had heard about the destruction at the Coliseum from the police radio and knew that Dan must have been involved. Every second of the ride over had been filled with dread. “Do what they say, Dan.”
“I don’t trust them.”
Evan took another step toward Dan. “It’s simple. Trust me or die.”
Stanley felt the cuffs biting into him and hoped Dan wouldn’t do anything stupid. “It’ll be okay.”
Lying down on his stomach with his hands behind his back, Dan flashed a look at him, his face full of pain.
Stanley averted his eyes.
Evan carefully approached Dan, dropping a knee on his back and cuffing him. “Get your fat ass off the ground, Brad.”
Brad stumbled over and kicked Dan.
“Stop!” screamed Stanley.
They cuffed Dan’s ankles together and let loose a torrent of kicks.
Stanley pulled at his cuffs, desperately trying to rip them off.
Blood shot out of Dan’s mouth.
“Shoot him in the head,” said Evan.
Stanley closed his eyes and felt the blast shake the cruiser.
Shannon haphazardly threw handfuls of clothing into her expensive suitcase — a gift from Evan, who had treated her like a queen once upon a time. She dumped a drawer full of jewelry into it — who would she sell it to? Running into the kitchen, she took a chef’s knife and jammed it into her purse, stabbing the bag of fuse. “Shit!”
Dumping everything out, she quickly toweled it all off. The bag of fuse was empty, but there were two full syringes left. She saw the engagement ring there, staring back at her like a challenge she had long buried, and she put it into her pocket. Seeing the Fermi arrive, she tossed everything back in her purse and ran outside, slamming the front door shut.
Predictably, her neighbor pushed open the blinds and called out to her. “Going to see the action?”
“What?”
“It’s all over the news. A terrorist attack at the old nightclub.”
The Coliseum. “None of my business.” She threw her luggage into the trunk.
“I hear the deputy is going to burn him alive, like he did to that other abomination.”
Shannon felt her flesh crawl, but she told herself not to get involved. The image of the bound cyborg that resembled her forced itself through her mind. Evan was unpredictable. Without her, there was no telling who he was going to hurt. The question forced its way out anyway. “Who?”
“Stanley Duncan’s robot. You know he touches them, right?”
Without answering, without looking back, Shannon hopped in the car and shut the door.
Dan looked down at the barrel of the gun. His body was spent, unable to move. He didn’t have the strength to say goodbye to Stanley. Watching the anger in Brad’s eyes as he pulled the trigger —
A blast came from the Coliseum. The front door exploded, and Brutus emerged, his face partially restored.
“How’s that possible?” Calculations ran through Dan’s mind, all of them producing insane results. “I torched his face off.”
Stanley twitched. “Brutus has multiple CPUs, memory devices throughout his body, and a unique set of nanites that regenerates them. You have to destroy them all at once, or he’ll recover.”
Evan tapped the gun against the window. “Shut up.”
Dan sighed. If only he had completely disabled him when he had the chance.
Brutus darted at Brad, who quickly responded by ordering it to halt — but it didn’t listen. Brad had barely dodged a death blow from the war-hammer when a swift kick caught him in the ribs, sending him to the ground coughing up blood. Brutus wasted no time in attacking the deputy.
“Let’s see how you defend against amorphous bullets,” said Evan, aiming his gun and firing two shots.
Brutus blocked them with his hand.
“What the hell!” Evan emptied the clip into him, but Brutus blocked every shot.
Dan tried to move, but there was no strength left in his body.
Evan dodged a punch with lightning speed. Brutus unleashed a front kick that would have shattered Evan’s femur had he not vaulted backward to the top of the cruiser. Brutus’s foot crushed the car door, encasing it in metal. Stanley wiggled down against the cruiser floor. Evan took the miraculous opportunity and scurried to the trunk. He barely managed to get out a canister of gasoline before Brutus bore down on him. There was nothing Evan could possibly do to avoid getting clobbered.
“A robot may not injure a human …” said Stanley.
“Or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm,” continued Brutus, stopping in place.
Evan soaked Brutus with gasoline. “What did you do to him, traitor?”
“A little security measure I installed, just in case something like this happened.”
Brutus threw up a red liquid.
“Nanites,” said Stanley. “He’s purging himself from the inside out. Next he’ll short-circuit all his processors.”
Smoke billowed out of the android’s nose, ears, and mouth. Slamming the war-hammer into his ankle, Brutus burst into flames. He continued to destroy his legs until he fell over, a fierce inferno blasting out of his body twelve feet into the air.
“He won’t be able to revive himself,” said Stanley.
Evan went over to Brad and injected him with nanites. “You okay?”
Brad got up slowly. “I could use a drink.”
“Me, too,” said Evan. He pulled Stanley out of the car. “Excellent job, Duncan. Now, be a good American, and install that program on your abomination — without the self-destruct option.”
“Why would I ever do that?”
“Because if you don’t, Brad and I are going to hold you over this fire and cook you alive.”
“Never!” said Stanley. “That would be the same as killing him.”
Evan took the can of gasoline and held it over Stanley’s head. “Your life or his.”
Dan watched Stanley tremble. “He’s not bluffing. If you don’t give him what he wants, he’s going to kill you.”
Brad pointed a gun at his Dan’s head.
Evan shook the canister. “Choose.”
Stanley’s body relaxed; his face became peaceful. “I’d gladly die to save Dan’s life.”
Evan grinned, letting a drop fall on Stanley’s nose. “You, of all people, should know how much this is going to hurt.”
“I’m not afraid.”
“That’s funny.”
Stanley looked him dead in the eyes. “Go ahead, then. Get on with it.”
Ev
an guffawed, drenching Stanley with gasoline.
Falling to his knees, Stanley prayed, coughing and gagging as the fumes and gas seeped into his mouth and nose.
“Stop!” shouted Dan. “I’ll do what you want — just let Stanley go.”
Evan took a step back. “Of course.”
Dan struggled to speak. “I know you want to use me as an excuse to abolish my kind. The world will be the judge of that. Just promise me you’ll kill me before I hurt him or anyone else.”
“I promise to kill you and not touch a single hair — the few that he has left — on his head.” He emptied out most of a syringe of nanites and tossed it to Dan.
After ingesting it, Dan slowly got to his feet.
“Don’t trust him!” shouted Stanley.
Evan punched him in the face. “Better hurry up, before I change my mind. Oh, and if you self-destruct, the deal is off.” He took out his camera and began to film.
“I’m sorry, Stanley,” said Dan, “that this was the only way I can repay you for the life you have given me.”
“Blah, blah, blah,” said Evan. “We don’t have all day.”
“It’s done. I’ve updated my code to use the assassination software according to your voice command,” said Dan. “Any second now, I’ll lose the ability to — ”
Evan shoved Stanley toward him. “Prove it. Kill Stanley Duncan.”
Dan kicked Stanley hard in the stomach, sending him to the ground. He dove on top of him, landing punch after punch.
Evan circled them with a greedy scowl, his hands holding his phone.
Blood poured down Stanley’s face. Dan grabbed the war-hammer and raised it into the air. He was one brief swing away from destroying the man who’d given him everything. He tried to stop himself but failed. Tears flowed down his face. Every attempt to bypass Stanley’s code was futile. The program had locked him out completely. He tried to apologize, but the words refused to come out. His arms trembled, delaying in the air for too long — there had to be a way to break free.
“I forgive you,” said Stanley.
Stanley Duncan's Robot: Genesis Page 26