“She was killed.” A strange weightless sensation settled into his stomach. That explained his mother’s sudden, unexplainable illness. Marcia’s hand rubbing his shoulder redoubled in intensity.
Tara nodded. “Core Technologies undoubtedly killed her.”
Her employer had forbidden access to her memory files, traditionally used as a memorial. The denial of such basic rights explained a lot. He remembered coming home to toppled bookshelves, overturned beds and disheveled furniture. The ransacking hadn’t ended there either. They searched every bit of code in the house, including his own personal system. Shame slid down his throat like bile. He should’ve fought more against that injustice.
“Your mother was quite clever,” Tara continued. “Not even I know where the data is, but I suspect that she managed to give it to you without even you knowing it or without any possibility of discovery.”
The necklace around his neck went cold. The diamond heart. Of course. Information could be contained in the diamond as easily as a computer chip. He chewed back a response. Don’t reveal too much. Now, the golden pyramid video and his sudden abilities all made perfect sense. His system must’ve learned a way to use the code from the Super AI, and somehow, the video acted as a catalyst.
He squeezed his hands into fist until they trembled. Balanced on a knife edge of hatred, his rage would tip him over at any moment. Marcia’s hand still rubbing his shoulder and Domo’s solid presence at his side steadied him and kept him from falling over that dark periphery.
“Why didn’t Alec’s mother entrust you with the code then,” Domo asked, watching Tara for any signs that the android was lying. Androids weren’t supposed to be able to lie, but then again androids weren’t supposed to be able to attack humans either. Agent Square didn’t have any qualms about doing that.
“I don’t know,” Tara admitted. The gun drooped lower. “I have been assigned the task to protect her son. I suspect he has been the one entrusted with the code.”
Alec’s skin crawled, but sensation had more or less returned. Tara was his guardian for a reason. Sure, the android was a bit German about rules, but she always looked after him. He just didn’t do rules very well. Of course, they butted heads. Now, for better or worse, they would have to trust each other.
“Domo,” Alec croaked. “Enough.”
His friend gave him a sidelong look. He opened his mouth as though to object, but nodded and leaned back in seat.
“I think I know where the data is,” Alec said at length. “But I won’t tell you until we can scan the data.”
The gun lowered further. “It’s probably encrypted anyway,” Tara said. “Can I put this away without you doing anything stupid?”
Alec jerked a nod, and the gun vanished inside the depths of her jacket.
“I know someone in Washington DC who can break any encryption,” Tara said. “A former colleague of your mother’s. He might be willing to help us.”
Washington DC? Why so far?
Marcia must’ve been thinking the same thing as himself. “Wouldn’t Toronto be a better choice?”
Tara shook her head. “Toronto is a stronghold of Core Technologies. Their biggest office on this side of the planet is there. We wouldn’t make it a city block in that city.”
Domo crossed his arms at the explanation. Marcia’s hand, still perched on his shoulder, became a claw.
Alec sensed that neither of them were ready to stop arguing. “No more explanations,” he said, regretting his own words. He still hadn’t found out what his guardian had been keeping from him. He suspected it was more than simply Project Five Squared. “What we need to do is plan out our next steps. Together. From the sounds of things, this Agent Square will be after us again. We have to—”
Everything seemed to happen in slow motion. A brilliant, red flash filled the windows, followed by a deafening boom right on top of them. The car shuddered and split like a cracked egg. The world toppled, and everything went black.
Chapter 9
Something sharp pressed against his right leg. Lights beat against his eyelids. Smoke stuck in the back of his throat. The headache he’d been recovering from resurfaced with a vengeance.
He stifled a groan. He unfastened his seatbelt. The point against his leg increased.
“Did you think you could lose me that easily?” a familiar voice boomed from outside the car. Agent Square.
“Stay calm,” the car informed them in serene tones. “You have been in an accident. You are in no imminent danger. Authorities will arrive in approximately thirty minutes.”
Outside, Alec thought he heard Agent Square laugh. Blinking through the billows of smoke, he twisted in his seat straps, sharp pain stabbing his leg. He turned his system on. The augmented screen popped up almost instantly. A quick scan told him the best way to extract himself from the tangled mess of metal. Agent Square’s voice boomed from outside the drone.
“Kid, I will give you ten seconds to come out, or I’ll kill one of your friends once I force you out.”
Alec toppled sideways. His leg crunched against shattered glass and torn plastic. Marcia was already lying on the ground. A nasty cut oozed red along her temple. He whispered her name, but she didn’t stir. He checked her pulse. A bit too strong, but there at least. He stifled a cough and straightened.
“Ten!” Agent Square shouted.
“What are we going to do?” Domo whispered, the whites of his friend’s eyes materializing through the gloom.
“Nine!”
Agent Square’s own words came to him. I always like a good deal. This was a massive gamble, but what other choice did they have? He flipped through his settings and wrote a few quick lines of code.
“I’m going to go out and speak with him,” Alec said.
Tara emerged from a dark corner of the cabin. The gun was back in her hand. “You are not going anywhere,” she said. Her eyes glittered even in the dimness. “I will deal with Square.”
“Do you have a way out of here?” he asked her.
She shook her head.
“Six!”
“Then let me handle it,” he said, moving for the half-shattered window across from where Marcia lay.
“This is crazy,” Domo protested, stepping in his way. “Don’t do this.”
“Five!”
“Take care of Marcia,” Alec told his friend. Clearly, he still hadn’t recovered one-hundred percent. A headache split his skull. He forced a smile anyway. “I have an idea. Don’t worry. It’s one of my good ones.”
Tara grabbed his shoulder. “You can barely stand. Let me take care of Square.”
“Four!”
“Stop,” Alec said, breaking free from her. The effort made his head swim. “You had your chance. Let me try!”
“Three!” Agent Square boomed.
“I’m going out,” he said. “Shoot if you want.”
He turned his back to her and edged around Domo. Careful not to get glass in Marcia’s face, he kicked the splintered window. Smoke billowed from the jagged mouth. He kicked the remaining shards and crouched through.
“Two.”
Agent Square stood directly under a lamppost. Just outside the fluorescent sphere of orange, wreckage strewn the road. Blinking sensors traced the road as it winded a curve in the distance. Agent Square already wore new clothes, a slivery-blue suit with gold trimming that shimmered beneath the thumb of streetlight.
Alec stuffed his hands in his pockets and approached, stopping just short of the lamppost’s influence. The androids face offered no indication of damage from the several point-blank gunshots.
“Italian,” Agent Square said, thumbing his suit.
The night skies were dark and empty. Alec sighed. No chance for a drone to pass and notice them. Not that would make much of a difference.
“You said you liked making deals,” he said.
Agent Square raised both massive shoulders like twin mountains lifting simultaneously. “I’m listening.”
“I have some information you might find interesting.”
The android smirked and waited.
Not a good start. Heat poured into the winter chill from Tara’s ruined drone. He appreciated the warmth, but it drove home the urgency of their situation. The longer he took, the more likely Tara would do something stupid. If they hadn’t stopped Agent Square back at Domo’s, then it was unlikely they could now.
“First the terms,” Alec said, hoping he sounded confident and firm. “Give all of us twenty-four hours before you resume your hunt. In exchange I’ll give you information that may help you track down the missing AI.”
Alec knew he’d hit the right button when that hungry light rekindled in the android’s eyes. Agent Square glanced from him and the wrecked vehicle. “What’s stopping me from taking you now and getting the information later?”
He’d been afraid of that. “Do that and I’ll delete my system files. I have a logic bomb that will detonate on command. I probably won’t survive it. And you mentioned you want to be free, right? I have no reason not to help you with that. This is the first step in gaining your freedom.”
Agent Square’s jaw work. “Continue.”
“I was sent a video last night,” Alec said. He was giving too much for free. Just mention the video, not when he got it. “The contents of the video may interest you. It’s depicts a city from another dimension. I—”
“Auresse,” the android interrupted with a dismissive wave.
His stomach sank. That’s one chip off the board. “The video is from the AI,” he blurted out.
Now that got the android’s attention. “Can you prove it? Did you trace it back to the AI?”
Why did he say something so stupid? Alec drew a deep breath in an attempt to steady his frayed nerves. “No, but it couldn’t be anyone else but the AI. Only a handful—”
“I’m not interested in unknowns. If we’re making a deal, I want something concrete. If that’s the best you have, then—” The android stepped across the wreckage.
“Wait!” Alec raised his hands. “Wait! You saw my altered code. It’s true. I have some new abilities. But what if I told you, they were connected with the video file?”
The naked, hungry look returned. Agent Square halted his advance. “You’re saying that the video is the origin of your abilities?”
Alec forced a smile back on his face. His head throbbed and his neck was stiff as a steel beam. “If you attack me, I will delete my system files,” he added.
The android rubbed his hairless jaw. “It’s intriguing…twenty-four hours is too long though. Eight hours for access to your system files.”
Agent Square extended a hand. Alec stared at the oversized palm, the abrupt end of negotiations catching him off guard. Was this some sort of trick?
“Shake or no deal,” the android said with a grin made for Hollywood.
The damned bot was enjoying this too much. Alec inched forward and put his palm in the android’s hand. He tensed. Agent Square’s handshake crushed his hand.
“Then we have a deal,” Agent Square said, still gripping his hand. “You have eight hours.”
His breath caught in his throat. A chill ripped through him as though he was being electrocuted and thrown in the Arctic Ocean at the same time. He prepared to activate the logic bomb. Then, it was over.
He gasped and fell back. His palms stung against the freezing road.
“Very interesting,” Agent Square said. The android’s voice floated towards him as though from a great distance. “Thank you for your help. See you again very soon.”
“That’s it?” He pushed himself to his feet.
Agent Square was already walking away. “I’m a man of my word. See you, kid.”
An inky drone oozed out the black sky, sleek and noiseless as an owl in hunt. It unfurled its midnight wings and the android stepped inside. The drone hovered for an instant until, in a blast of hot air, it faded into the night.
Chapter 10
“Why did you not demand more time?” Tara waved the gun at the sky as though expecting it to raise its hands. “Eight hours is not enough!”
“How far to the nearest town?” Alec asked, too wired from his exchange with Agent Square to search himself.
“Two hours if we jog,” Marcia announced.
Domo kicked a piece of wreckage. “And the nearest Metro station is almost an hour away. By drone!”
“Already ordered a taxi,” Tara said.
“The police will be here before that,” Domo said, eyes narrowing on Tara. He probably would’ve kicked something else if there was anything nearby. “Probably a good idea to be gone by then.”
The pair stared at each other, hostility crackling in the air between them. Alec gulped down more frigid air. There had to be a something they could do.
“With our boards, we could cut the time in half,” Domo said.
Not with an extra body on the back. Alec kept that to himself though. Unless they lucked upon a passing drone, they might as well walk. Domo was right. Being here when the police arrived would be a complete disaster.
“Wait,” Alec said. “Domo, your parent’s drone is still at home?”
“Of course.”
Excitement lanced through him. “Let me access your system.”
His friend’s mouth set in a firm line. Domo didn’t respond, but he didn’t need to. The hairs on his neck stood on end as new energy surged into him. A swirl of images, conversations, dogma hit him like a fifty-foot wave of icy water. He saw the world as Domo saw it. The faked smiles. The real laughter, but not at what others thought. Crippling sense of inadequacy that dogged his every achievement.
Domo’s mouth fell open. What did the other boy see? Probably nothing good. He stifled a grimace and started talking to dispel the nasty thoughts. “Your system is linked with your house. See? Your house is connected to everything in it. And I change this bit of code here and set the destination. A red Tesla Skylord X will be here in minutes. Your father’s, I’m guessing?”
The link between them vanished, but a ghost of what it was like to be Domo remained.
His friend’s mouth dropped. “You’re an absolute wizard. We’re at least fifty kilometers from my house!”
Marcia pressed against him. “I wouldn’t mind the extra heat,” she whispered, her breath hot on his shoulder. Alec put his chin on her head and tried not to think about their kiss in the telephone booth.
An engine’s roar announced the Skylord. Two pillars of illumination pierced the night. Then, the vehicle banked. The purring of the engine rattled his chest. Any other time Alec would have admired the impressive drone. Now, they piled into the drone without comment. They shot across the tree line.
“Twenty-three minutes to the Metro station,” the car informed them in a sultry female voice that sounded vaguely familiar, like an actress or someone famous.
Marcia yawned and leaned against his shoulder. Domo sat across from him, giving him a strange look. We’ll need to get proxies for the Metro.
He stared at the message until it dissipated. Why not simply say it aloud? You got something on your mind?
Domo pretended to study the drone terminal. His message came while he was turned to Alec. When I will tell them the plan. Offer to go with me. I want to tell you something, but not sure if it’s safe to message it.
Before Alec could ask the boy to explain, Domo completed his pretend task at the computer and turned back to the rest of them. “We’ll need proxies to get on the Metro.”
Marcia’s head lifted from his shoulder only to return when Tara responded. “Proxies aren’t necessary. And time is more important than subterfuge. We don’t have time to waste looking for proxies.”
Domo held up a finger. “How do we know that only Agent Square is after us?”
Tara’s look could have leveled a mountain. Domo stared right back without so much as blinking. Finally, Tara said, “How do you propose we get proxies in the middle of the night?”
Total System Failure Page 6