It was her turn to snort, and she gave up what little veneer of respect she had been managing. “Are you bat shit crazy? You brutally enslave the people of South East Asia, you possibly crippled your son, and you've abused these people so much that they walk on eggshells because they're worried you'll fling them from the Spire."
“And what happens to them if they lose that fear Mairbear?”
She grit her teeth and ignored the insulting manipulation of her name. “Maybe they become more productive, maybe just maybe, they live good lives and become truly loyal to you."
A bellow erupted from him and he pointed at his family. “Those vipers?” He rolled his eyes. “No, here's what happens. I go soft and one of these Brutus wannabes will try to kill me, and then I'll have to skin them alive in front of everyone and believe it or don't, but I don't actually want to kill anyone.”
“Seem to do it a whole lot for someone who hates doing it.”
He nodded. “You know, I could kill them all right now. It honestly wouldn't affect me in the least. Actually, I take that back. I would have to listen to far less of their drama.”
“You need them all for labor and to fill the ranks of your armies.”
“Nope, I could just replace them all with automation and drones, ya know, just like how your old man cleansed the Americas and built an automated empire."
She stopped breathing and everything but Jeffery Chen became fuzzy. “Four hundred million in North America, ninety percent death rate from the plague, that's forty million survivors… what happened to them all chica?” She watched his mouth move, but his voice wasn't his own. It was David Williams.
She remained silent. He tilted his head slightly. “Huh, not the reaction I expected. Did you actually manage to have a realization about dear ol’ dad prior to coming here?"
“My father is nothing like you.”
“Thank god, I mean I'm a steaming pile of humanity, but your pops, now that guy, he’s an actual psychopath.” He chuckled. “Back when the Longevity vaccine was first going on the market, I was at a high school graduation as their guest speaker and the valedictorian gave her speech and decided to use the stage to denigrate the concept of immortality. She said”, he smiled and looked upwards at the stars through the clear ceiling, “that to be immortal meant that one would lose their motivation to do anything, since death was no longer lurking in the future.” He looked back at Maria, a grin on his face. “It just so happens that MNR owned the pharmaceutical company that was producing that particular golden goose, so I walked up to her after and let her know that her speech was horse shit. The vaccine was a tool and a tool only reflects the person wielding it and if she believed that she wouldn't have motivation to work and accomplish after taking it, then Multi National Robotics had no intention of wasting its full ride scholarship on her.” He began to laugh.
“Oh my, she broke down crying, and her father took a swing at me only to have my security detail break his arm.” He wiped a tear and looked at her. “What the hell was I talking about?”
She was about to call him an ass when he continued, “Oh that's right, see when I became immortal I didn't lose my drive. If anything, it increased exponentially. I now knew that there was no limit to what I could do… so I spent all my time focusing on amassing power and having as much sex as I could.”
He motioned to his line of wives. “Your dad though, he went a different route. He realized that he now had enough time to shape the world in his own image because he could see it through to the end and beyond."
“So, my dad just happened to go all movie super villain and share his “evil” master plan with you?”
Jeff shook his head. “He fed us a line of bullshit about being the unrestricted lords of this world, got us all starry eyed, but he had always planned on killing us off with the rest of the population as well. I guess he figured we were a part of the problem he was trying to eradicate.”
“I hope he is this man that you say he is, that means he’s going to kill you.”
One of his sons coughed and Jeffery chuckled. “What I said was funny?” she asked.
He shook his head and took a bite of his meal. “Nope,” he said around his mouthful of food, “the family is wondering why I'm letting you talk to me like this."
“Because your scared of what my dad will do to you if anything happens to me."
“Nope, I realize now that I've finally gotten the best of your old man. That's not why I’ve let you be so rude.”
“Of course you did, so what excuse do you have?”
“Oh, I don't have an excuse. I've not punished you because I already have a punishment planned for you.” He stood up and walked over to her, grabbing the top of Nathan's chair as he passed behind it, dragging it along as he ambled over to Maria. As he closed the short distance, his incredible height and bulk shook the confidence she had developed over the last minutes. He turned the chair toward her and sat in it, the wood creaking slightly under his mass. Only the utensils of her place setting separated them as he began to pick food off her plate and pop it into his mouth.
“I'm going to force you and your father to watch as I defile your mother… then I'll skin them both alive in front of you.”
Sweat sprung up upon her back and her stomach knotted up. “Oh, and my plans for you after that are progressively darker," he said, a wide smile showing off his perfect white teeth.
“Want to take a guess?”
She stared at him, faking confidence that had drained away much like the color of her face. “Come on sunshine, take a guess.”
She dipped her head slightly and he grinned. “I’ll give you a hint. Your daddy had that robo butler of yours teach you about the Aztecs and Greeks, right?” He didn’t wait for an answer. “Of course, he did. Well, do you remember how the Aztecs started? A nearby king arranged for his daughter to marry an Aztec boy. When the king came to see the happy wedding, he instead found an Aztec high priest wearing his daughter’s skin."
He leaned back, smiling wistfully. “As for the Greeks, they had this play called Oedipus Rex.”
The full implication of what he was planning came crashing down upon her. She tried to respond, but her tongue wouldn't function. She took a moment as he smiled on her, a predator looking forward to his next meal. “Can I please be excused?”
“Manners, I appreciate that. I also like fast learners. You keep this up, and I might make your death relatively pleasant."
He smiled and looked at the family. “Do you see how fast she caught on? Definitely her father's daughter.” He looked back at her and nodded. “Yes, you are welcome to return to your room."
She stood up quickly mumbling thank you and made a direct line for the door when Chen's voice boomed out after her, stopping her in her tracks, “Oh and Princess, if Nathan doesn't survive his surgery, I'll be sending one of my other boys to consummate the marriage, and make sure you treat them better than my oldest. If you go through them all, I'll have to come by and finish the job myself."
She nodded vigorously and scurried for the elevator, waiting until it had lowered out of sight of the dinner guests before she allowed herself to completely melt down. Her head was pressed tightly against the corner of the elevator, her palms slippery as they pressed into the translucent wall, supporting her. Her breaths came shallow and fast. Why had she agreed to come here? Why had her parents permitted this to occur? Nothing good could come from this and at best they had known it was a temporary truce until Chen managed to maneuver his alliance into a greater strategic position. Why had her family gambled so? Was she not worth as much to them as their empire?
The elevator began to chime as her floor approached and she recomposed herself, slowing her panicked breathing and wiping the tears that had sprung up at the corner of her eyes. The doors opened and she was back to what she was willing to accept as a calm façade that hid her true emotions. Likely her eyes were a little red and there might still be some perspiration on her brow, but she could accept thos
e things. She stepped out of the elevator and was immediately flanked by the security members she had been assigned prior to leaving her suite. Jeffery Chen was well aware of her knowledge of Spire architecture as well as the internal workings and never wanted her left to her own devices.
There was also the chance that Nathan's mother might try to kill her before Jeffery's planned time and that simply would not do. So, she walked the remainder of the distance to her quarters with two large and intimidating soldiers, their berets and body armor as black as the vacuum of space. Each cradled a submachine gun in his arms and a side arm strapped to his thigh. She entertained the idea of taking the gun from one and staging a daring escape only to have her borderline hallucination dashed by her knowledge of the training and experience of Jeffery Chen's personal guard.
So, she walked wordlessly with them to her room where she left them in the hall as she entered. She slowly made her way to the bed, where her clothes lay perfectly clean and folded by the servants. She removed her dress and put on her own garments, taking comfort in their familiar feel. She sat at what was to be her personal work space. She had tried to access the local network from the screen that covered the entire surface but realized very quickly that it had absolutely no connectivity. So instead she sat there and stared at the wall above the desk, contemplating her future. After a few moments, she removed the locket from her neck and stared upon her parents. Confusing emotions of love and resentment flooded over her. She honestly had no idea how to feel about her father and mother, but there was one thing for certain, she wanted to be home.
She placed the locket on the screen, and the moment it touched the surface it converted to a liquid. Its chain pouring through her fingers like water droplets and joining with what had previously been a family keepsake. She stared in wonder as it flowed like mercury across the surface until it arrived at where the screen and its housing met. The line between the two was nearly imperceptible, but the fluid ran along it, stretching itself out almost the entire line until it had managed to seep through the very fine separation and into the delicate systems below. The screen blinked off for the briefest of moments and reappeared with the exact same imagery being displayed as earlier.
Maria slowly stood up and backed away from the console. Her mind processing what had just happened and the implications it held. The locket had been made of the exact same material that her fountain back at the Spire consisted of. Nanoparticles that could assume any shape, could mimic nearly any material, and could be programmed to do nearly anything. The suite lights flickered on and off as quickly as her display had. It was in the suite wiring. The nanoparticles were using the electrical system to spread throughout the building. She knew what was going to happen next. The necklace was clearly meant to infiltrate the electrical systems and by extension, the entire Spire computer network. With it dominated, the Chen family would be nearly defenseless.
Her father was coming.
13
He had used her. She took a breath and repressed the rage that was beginning to well up. If she was going to survive what was about to happen next, she would need to keep her wits about her. There would be time later to rage. Jeffery Chen was no fool. He would react once he knew he had lost control, and her father might not be able to anticipate all of his actions.
The lights went out. And not just those in her suite, she could see through the window large portions of the city below plunged into darkness. Certain buildings were still lit, those that had their own power sources; however, it was clear the infiltration device had already seized control of the Spire power systems as many parts of the city relied on its robust fusion reactor to power them. If they were out, that meant the Spire was out.
A red light over the entrance to her villa began to pulse indicating the exit as the twin pieces of the sliding door began to slowly and methodically retract into the wall. She could hear the two security guards outside her door straining with the emergency crank mechanism as they manually opened it.
“Miss Patterson are you okay?” one of them asked through the slowly widening crack.
“Yes, do you know what's going on?” Her question clearly rhetorical, but anything she could do to buy herself time with the guards was worth it. She grabbed a pair of hair sticks from her makeup station and jammed them in her pants.
“No idea, do you?” he responded, also rhetorically.
“Bitch’s dad is on the way,” she heard the other guard mutter.
The door opened further and she could easily see the beams from their flashlights bouncing around. “No clue, uh, I'm fine in here. You can go and see what's wrong.”
“Standing orders in the event of any unexpected occurrence are to immediately take you to Master Chen."
She could clearly see the guards face and knew he would be inside in less than a minute. She began moving across the expansive suite toward the bathroom entry. “Don't move!” he hollered at her.
She ignored him and was half way to her goal when a string of explosions ripped apart the buildings along the shoreline. Even this far up, the windows shook. Déjà vu washed over her and the feeling of being a helpless child flooded back.
She looked back to see the guard putting his all into cranking the door open, and she restarted her walk. Her father was coming and she needed to give him time to get to her. The man began to squeeze through the gap, his armor slowing him down. “I told you to stay put,” he repeated.
She broke into a run even as she heard the other guard call out, “We’ve got a situation out here!”
She looked over her shoulder, and through the light created by their LED lanterns, she saw the man slip back into the hall as he yelled, “Stop where you are!”
The voice of a robotic service unit bled though the doorway and she stopped running when she heard it, “These units have been issued orders by Master Chen. We are to retrieve Maria Patterson."
Maria changed direction and crept toward the door. “We haven't received any such change in orders, we’ll be the ones transferring her, I told you to halt and I mean it, move closer and we turn both of you into scrap."
“Very well, however, due to the crippling of our network, you have not received a digital authorization for transfer of the prisoner. We have paper-based orders that you can review."
“Go get them,” the man who had nearly entered her suite said. She heard boots on tile as the other man approached the service units.
“Lemme see the orders,” he demanded.
“Of course,” the robot replied. Then a dull thump filled the air and a series of gunshots rang out. Light strobed through her cracked door. Bullets entered through her partially opened entrance, flattening into the wall inside her suite. She didn’t wait to see if they would get closer; instead, she threw herself to the ground and crawled quickly over to her desk. She knelt behind the thick wooden structure staring at the doorway, desperately grasping the hair sticks in her hands as if they would be enough to defend her.
Absolute silence was broken by heavy footfalls and the jingling of empty brass shell casings being inadvertently scattered. A glossy black face plate appeared in the doorway, illuminated by the glow from the fires in the city below.
“Miss Patterson, are you unharmed?”
She burst from her hiding space and quickly made her way to the door. “Yes, is my father here?”
“He will be momentarily. We must make our way to the hangar as that will allow your father to extricate you. Chen has already dispatched his personal guard to recover you before that can happen.” It extended its hand to her, holding a small case, “Your contact lenses.”
She grabbed it and deftly placed the two devices on her eyes with the speed of someone who was concerned for her safety but also aware of how important it was to place them correctly the first time. Despite all the technological growth the human race had experienced, the damn things could still float out of position. With them in, she blinked three times and the darkness was washed away in a wave of assis
ted lighting.
She stepped through the partially opened doorway, finding it easier than the guard who lay dead on the ground. She quickly took in both bots. One of them was missing an arm and a ragged hole existed in the shell over its left thigh. Its remaining hand and arm held one of the two rifles that the guards had. The other rifle was cradled in the arms of the bot she conversed with.
She looked both service units over. Cousins of the assault variant that Tobor was based upon, they were no stronger or faster than the average man, and they were designed to go where people couldn't easily operate, to act as essentially a mobile toolbox.
“How much time do we have?” Maria asked.
“Mere minutes, currently we have control of all doors and elevators, but security forces are utilizing stairwells and access shafts to arrive here. We must hurry.” The robot turned and began to walk down the hall. She looked back and saw the other unit drag its crippled leg the opposite direction.
“Where is your friend going?”
“That unit is too damaged to keep a proper pace. It is departing so that it can position itself near the closest stairwell access and delay Chen's personnel from entering this area.”
“Where are we going?”
“To the nearest elevator, they offer the safest and most direct access to the hangar."
She nodded and performed a light jog to keep up with the robot’s pace. As they neared the elevator, she could see the numbers at the top decreasing in size as it lowered from the family suites located at the top of the Spire. And then something odd happened, the rate the numbers decreased sped up dramatically. Before she could form words asking what happened, she watched though the outer glass wall as a fiery elevator unit plummeted down the side of the building.
“I assume that wasn't a part of the plan,” she remarked.
“It would appear that the security forces have destroyed the elevator cars to hamper hostile movement throughout the Spire.”
The Spire Page 30